Naruto's Wish

Chapter Four : Breath Take…

"Naruto…. The mid-summer festival… I had fun… Thank you…" - A voice echoed….

The day was drawing to a close, and the party was ending. Kakashi was giving the farewell speech. (Well more like 'See ya later, you sorry suckers' speech….) Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura were standing together, each were dressed differently than earlier in the day. In fact everyone had changed clothes, except for Kakashi, that cheap bastard….

You see, earlier was all about the students sending the school off in style, and this gathering was all about the parents being so proud of their kids, and the school having a chance to show off to their benefactors. And so everyone was far more formal then earlier. The gang of course, were sticking to their colors in there outfit choices. Naruto and Sasuke didn't really want to dress up for this, but Sakura made them, she wanted her parents to see her friends as the top of the class students that they were, and not for some street thugs.

The others who were here included Neji, Kiba, and a few of the other students. Oddly enough, a few students were missing from the scene, and it looked like Kiba wanted to be one of them. But his parents kept catching him on his escape attempts.

Naruto was looking around, for some reason he expected Gaara to be there, after all, Gaara was there earlier in the day. Clueless as always, Naruto never realized how hard this type of thing would be for Gaara. After all, Naruto and Sasuke's parents loved them, but Gaara's hated him before they died.

"Hey. Naruto." Sasuke leaned over and whispered to Naruto. "I heard that some of the others are at the beach throwing their own party, what do you think?" Naruto turned to look at Sasuke, only to be shot a dirty look from Sakura. "Why don't we check it out? Could be fun right Naruto?" Sasuke wasn't about to give up a real party because of Sakura's need to be a 'good girl'. "Alright Sasuke, anything but this snooze-fest." Naruto whispered back, trying not to get Sakura's attention. "Great! We sneak away in five minutes, as soon as Kiba tries to escape again, Sakura will be distracted then." Naruto nodded to Sasuke's plan.

Sure enough, an explosion was heard, and fireworks started to fire up into the sky. The school had planned for fireworks, but not during Kakashi's speech. Everyone was looking, gasping, and talking about it. Only Naruto and Sasuke noticed Kiba running off, coming from the direction of the fireworks. How no one else caught him is a mystery in and of itself.

"Let's go." Sasuke whispered as he grabbed Naruto's arm and pulled him along to the parking lot.

"Wait a minute Sasuke. Don't we need to change first?" Naruto stopped and looked at Sasuke. "I got that covered." Sasuke pulled a book bag from his car. Unzipping it; he revealed a pair of Naruto's swim trunks, and a pair of his own. Naruto looked shocked for a moment, and then glared at Sasuke. "Do I even want to ask how you got a hold of these?" Sasuke gave a half-forced laughed and answered. "The door was open?…." Naruto's glare turned meaner, and was firmly locked on Sasuke. "I lock my doors and windows when I leave home Sasuke." "Umm… Can't we just go to the beach, change, and enjoy the beach party?" Sasuke started to ready his car, throwing things in his car fairly fast. "Come to think of it… How do you know where the party is… How do you know it's a beach party….. and how do you know that we'd be needing swim trunks, and not say, I dunno, pants?" Sasuke looked like a bird caught in a cage. "Ummm…. NARUTO! Just think about all those babes! In their swim suits, cold, lonely on the last night of school, at a beach party!" It was an obvious ploy, but it worked. Naruto couldn't take his mind off of that thought.

The stars were shining brightly in the night sky, lighting up the ocean waters. The beach was barely lit by the bomb fire that Gaara and a few others started, and by the full moon in the sky. It was quiet, very quiet.

"I thought Kiba and the others were supposed to be here by now?" Tenten said out loud, breaking the silence. "It could take time, depending on how long that school party goes on for." Temari said back to Tenten. "Well Gaara, they all know about this don't they?" Temari looked over at Gaara, who nodded while adding some wood to the fire. "I blame Kakashi for this…" Shikamaru spoke up, and the others looked at him, waiting for the end of his sentence. Shikamaru sighs, "His speeches are always long winded…" Temari snickered at his comment, and Tenten looked out over the waters. "Shikamaru has a point… I bet their all trying to sneak off right now to find their way here." The others agreed with Tenten on that.

Gaara was wearing red swim trunks. Tenten and Temari were matching perfectly with black two piece swim suits. Shikamaru of course was wearing black shorts with a white t-shirt. The four together looked somewhat out of place on the beach.

Hinata came walking up to the fire, wearing what she was earlier. "Bout time you showed up Hinata! Where's that hot brother of yours?" Temari yelled over the fire towards Hinata. "H-h-he didn't want to miss the end of the school thing…." Hinata whispered almost too low for the others to hear. "But he IS coming here later RIGHT Hinata?" Tenten looked a little annoyed at Hinata, but really she was annoyed with Neji. Hinata just nodded slowly in response to Tenten.

At that moment in time, when everyone was silent, Naruto came running across the beach, jumping over the fire pit, and landing in a sitting position next to Hinata. "Hey guys, stop picking on the poor girl! It's not her fault that her brother has such a large ego." Naruto was wearing his orange swim trunks, and a black head band. Hinata's face turned red the moment she realized what happened, and true to her shy nature, ran off. Leaving Naruto as clueless as always. "Why'd she run off?" Naruto asked looking in the direction she ran off in.

Tenten looked pissed about the Neji comment, but then, slowly, she looked as if she realized something. "Where's Sasuke? I thought he was with Naruto at…." Sasuke was standing behind Tenten, and answered Naruto's question louder then need be. "Naruto, you're so clueless." Tenten, only half-expecting a stunt like this, jumped forward a few inches, almost landing face first in the fire because of Sasuke. "AHHH! SASUKE! I COULD HAVE BEEN HURT!" Tenten stood up and turned around to yell at Sasuke, who was gone. "Not my fault if you're not used to it by now Tenten." Sasuke was sitting between Gaara and Naruto, now clearly in the light of the fire; everyone could see his blue swim trunks, with the Uchiha family symbol displayed on the right leg of them.

"Could you stop messing around with Tenten Sasuke?" Naruto looked over at him. "It only shows how badly you want her after all." Naruto grinned at Sasuke, who looked annoyed and embarrassed. "It's not like that! I mean come on, look at her!" Sasuke said to defend himself against Naruto, who was laughing at this point. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN BY THAT!" Tenten said, smacking Sasuke across the face. "Finally! I'm not the one being hit!" Naruto said through his laughing fit. "Oh shut up." Sasuke glared at Naruto.

It didn't take long; an hour at most, and all of the school was there. Neji was fully dressed in a summer Kimono. Kiba was in a black speedo, and being followed around by his family dog. Sakura was dressed in a red two-piece swim suit with pink flower designs on it.

Tenten and Temari were trying to get Shikamaru to swim with them. Gaara was sitting at the fire, not saying a word, much like Hinata. Neji was standing not too far from them, just watching. Sakura was off towards the parking lot getting something out of a car. Naruto and Sasuke were playing with Kiba's dog, well; Sasuke was trying to get the dog to attack Kiba, while Naruto played fetch with him. Kiba jumped up into the air to catch the stick Naruto threw, in his mouth before his mutt could. Then he ran back on all fours to Naruto, dropped the stick in front of him, and barked at him. Naruto laughed and patted his head. "That's a good boy! Go fetch the stick!" He said as he threw the stick again. Everyone laughed at the sight.

Sakura finally came back to the beach. She was carrying a net and a volley ball. "Hey guys! Feel like playing a game?" "Of Course!" Naruto was the first one to jump up and help set it up. "Might as well get this over with…." Neji said as he joined in. Gaara looked over at Naruto, he wanted to be on his team for sure.

One by one everyone joined the game. They ended up playing Boys vs. Girls, with Neji somehow ending up on the Girls team to make it an even 5 vs. 5. The game went on for hours, with Naruto and Sasuke being the star players of their team, they somehow kept a small lead in points over the girls.

When game point finally came around for the third match, Naruto and Sasuke both jumped for the ball, only to mess each other up. Naruto tripped, landing face first in the sand, and Sasuke landed on top of Naruto. The girls won the game and were cheering, while the boys seemed indifferent to the match.

Why do I feel warm? … It feels kind of nice… I like it… These were Naruto's thoughts at the time. Sasuke's body was warm, and was laying on top of Naruto, It felt nice to Naruto, although he was too tired to realize that it was Sasuke on him, as he fell asleep. As Sasuke realized what happened, he blushed, and tried to get off in a hurry. Just before getting up, he noticed a smile on Naruto's face. Huh? He's happy? Why? We lost didn't we? "Hey guys! I think Naruto got knocked out!" Sasuke shouted as he tried to help Naruto to his feet.

Over an hour later, Sasuke and Naruto were the only two still on the beach, and Naruto was slowly coming too. "Naruto, are you okay? You took quite a hit to the head." Sasuke was leaning over Naruto as he opened his eyes. Naruto slowly sat up, holding his head. "Where is everyone else?" Naruto asked. "After the game was over, they packed up and left. They offered to help me with you. But I told them I had it covered. They thought I knocked you out when I landed on you." Sasuke looked concerned. "Naruto, you where pushing yourself too hard again weren't you?" Naruto looked away. "Naruto!" Naruto sighed and nodded slightly. "Final exams aren't easy you know Sasuke." Sasuke sighed. "You can't keep doing this to yourself, School isn't worth your health.…. So, how many days did you go without sleep this time?" Naruto got up to walk away. "It's getting cold, I want to go home." Sasuke stood up fast. "Naruto!" Naruto stopped dead in his tracks, hearing the concern in Sasuke's voice. "Seven days…."

Sasuke didn't seem shocked by this. "I'm not leaving you alone tonight. You're coming over to my place so I can make sure you sleep tonight." Naruto didn't argue with Sasuke on the matter, as he just went with him to Sasuke's car.