Chapter Two

I can hear my alarm clock beeping, and I fling my arm around from my side sleeping position and hit it really hard, putting it on snooze. I soon found, it goes off yet again. I turn around to face it this time and see it is 3:30 am. Damn annoying machine.

I shut off the alarm and turn around on my bed so I am sitting up and facing my closet. Casper and Calvin, my cats, are sleeping on the end of the bed, like always. I am not much of a morning person. I run to the shower and it took fifteen minutes to be completed. I did my daily routine, only this time it was earlier. The only things I had left was my weapons, shoes, brushing my teeth, and to eat. I was about to grab an apple, but remembered Master Edo said no eating unless you wanted to vomit, so I placed it back down.

Today I was wearing the same black tank top I wore yesterday with my dark shaded Capri jeans on and my black ninja shoes. I decided to have my hair up today in a pony tail and I wrapped my headband around my head like always.

I finished everything else and it was only 4:40. I had twenty minutes to kill. I decided to wait for Matt, but when five minutes passed by I swore under my breath. Did he leave already? I knocked, not wanting to wake the whole family.

"Matt," I whispered, although I knew he most likely could not hear me.

I looked into the window and saw him sleeping on the couch! Damn it! I looked under the welcome rug to find a spare key, and with luck I open the door, feeling a bit guilty for intruding, but there is no way on God's Earth will I be late for our first official meeting.

"Puch, wake up!" I say in a loud whisper but he just turned over and mumbled. I sighed and decided this was the only way. I pinched him really hard and he woke with a start.

"Ow, what the heck!" He said and saw me standing over him with a somewhat amused/annoyed look.

"Will you be coming then?" I asked and I turned to walk out the door and he un-wishfully followed yawning.

"We have 12 minutes left thanks to you!" I said in a normal tone.

"Oh yeah, all my fault," he said annoyed back.

"We still have to pick up Rhianna," I stated as we headed for her house. We should get there in time, I hope.

Sasuke was just walking out of his house. Wait, his house? He lived over here? I was stunned to say the least. I turned to look at Matt and told him to keep walking normally. He grinned and I pointed a finger at him. We walked on casually, or so it seemed.

Sasuke sensed our presence and coolly turned to us, hands in his pockets. I looked at the Uchiha fan on his back, and then at the ground and continued walking, trying to avoid him as much as possible. He waited though. Why? I am not sure. We stopped walking and I looked up to see Sasuke standing a couple of feet away from me.
"Hey Sasuke," says Matt casually.

"Hn," is our reply.

"Uh, sure," Matt replies back. I quickly say hey and I walk forward, I want to get Rhianna as quickly as possible. Sasuke starts to walk with us, behind me and next to Matt.

"Hey Sasuke," Matt begins with a questioning face, "Could you teach me that fire technique you have sometime?"

"Sasuke gives him a cold stare as if something was bothering him about the statement of that jutsu. I feel some sort of tension and stop just in time in front of Rhianna's house.

Matt, not getting the point says, "Well, could you?"

"Hn," he replies. I smile. Hn could mean many things and in this case I am guessing it means 'I don't care.'

"Right…well I will get Rhianna," he says, wanting to get away from the hn-ing boy. My heart stopped. I was alone with Sasuke. I stood there staring at Matt at Rhianna's door and her opening it. I breathed a bit easier knowing they were coming soon.

I dared my self to look over at Sasuke, and he was looking at me and for a moment we looked at one another before we both turned away.

Rhianna ran to the silent couple on the sidewalk and gave me a hug, and a tight on at that.

"GOOD MORNING!" she said a little too excited for her own good, and we started to walk with only around 8 minutes left.

"Rhianna, umm…you didn't have coffee did you?" I asked.

"Well, it isn't food right?" I sighed and looked ahead.

"So where is your training area for the day at," Matt asked.

"Over there, in the woods," Sasuke said as we reached our destination coolly and collected, like always as he pointed.

"Us too," Matt says. He seems a lot more talkative around the same sex.

"Oh ho, we made it," Matt said as he sat down on the roof, being our meeting spot.

Just then Master Edo spoke. "Well done team, on time," he said as he jumped down from the top of the area where people walk in from, or the door way to the roof.

"Good morning!" Rhianna greeted him the same way she greeted us.

"What is so good about it might I ask?" He said with a smile and Rhianna looked deep in thought.

"Well young ones, let's begin shall we?" He said and with that, things started to heat up.

Well, Master Edo thought going to the forest was an even better idea than the roof; he said he just loves the top view.

He led us deep into the woods and I was half hoping to see Sasuke there, but I snapped myself out of it. When he told us our goal, we were a little shocked at the least.

"Alright, well your goal is to get a bell so you can eat and there are only two bells, and only one person can have one bell, which you will have to take from me. Good luck," he says with a smirk and takes his position. With that, the three of us split up.

Matt tries a sneak attack, only to be thrown to the side into a bush and Rhianna tries a different form of a sneak attack which Master Edo doges and Rhianna stumbles forwards.

"Nice efforts you two!" he says clearly amused.

Rhianna and Matt jump back into a tree and an idea pops into my head. I jump into the tree where Rhianna is and ask for her attention.

"Rhianna, we need to work together; he is trying our teamwork."

"Right," Rhianna nods and we go to where Pucher is.

"Matt, we need to work together on this one, okay," I state, making sure he is awake.

"Right, well who will eat and who won't?" he asks.

"Well, I don't have to," Rhianna pipes in, she had coffee obviously before she left, she is always awake and gets up way to early.

"Okay, but I could have," I pitch in, and it is true, I would have.

"What do we do?" Matt asks.

"Well, I was thinking, we need a distraction and…" I trail off in thought, "Rhianna, are you capable of a paralysis jutsu?" She jumps at the hint of her name out of nowhere.

Master Edo looks interested can sense we are planning something together, which is the point, and smirks, waiting for us to make a move.

"Yeah," she answers with a smile.

"Alright, Matt, you use my diversion to grab both bells when Master Edo is under paralysis, got it?" They nod their heads.

"What are you doing again?" Matt asks with interest.

"Well, lets see how heated up this can get," I say with a smirk jumping down to the ground out of Master Edo's sight. The other two follow. She looked at me, and drew out a long piece of paper with something scribbled on it. It was in kanji, I believe it read "Human stone". She bit her thumb. She made it bleed, and she did the sign of the hare, a red chakra came from her hands and engulfed the paper. She gave me the signal.

"On the count of three, we spread out and take action," I say preparing some hand seals, "One," I said starting to heat up, "Two," I say with a smile, "Three," and I let out a weak, but useful dragon flame jutsu that engulfs a bush nearby.

"What the heck," Master Edo says in total surprise. He expected something, a distraction, but a fire? "That's not going to work guys," He says with an amused smirk, but I smirked right back from my hiding spot. I let the fire run wild, that's the point.

Master Edo looked a bit worried, the fire was spreading. "Damn it," he said running over to the bush and tried to use a counter attack on it when just then, Matt jumped out of the tree and placed Rhianna's paralysis seal on his back with Master Edo's surprise as he tried to counter Matt's attack.

I let the fire die, which was hard once I let my chakra go, but I tried hard to get it back and stop it, since you can't tame fire. Matt gaily took the two bells from his hands and gave one to me, since Rhianna and I came out into full view.

Master Edo then let out a chuckle from his previous irritated look.

"Uh…" I start and I cancel off the seal on his back, "Sorry."

"For what, passing?" He says with a grin as he stands up and looks at the three of us, with Matt a little afraid of the sensei getting out of the little trap we laid. I think he let us win for some reason, but then again, we did do pretty good.

"Alright!" Rhianna yelled with glee.

"You know, what the heck, don't tell anyone, but, let's all go eat!" Sensei says a little too joyful, but it makes me smile.

We walk to a Ramen shop and Rhianna orders Beef Ramen, Matt orders Chicken, and I am not that hungry for some reason, but I just get a salad and Master Edo gives me a concerned look as he looks up from his Chicken Ramen.

"Don't worry Master Edo, I am not hungry and I am DO NOT have an eating disorder," I say with confidence.

"You guys can refer to me as Makoto if you wish," he says, "I was never good with formalities."

"Alright, Makoto," Rhianna says amused.

Just then, Naruto and his crew come into the shop and I try and not look, but of course, Rhianna waves them over.

"Hey! What are you guys doing here?" Rhianna asks.

"Oh, well we just did the bell test, and well, I lost, but Kakashi-sensei said I had suffered enough, for now anyways, and I was sure hungry for some Ramen!" Naruto says which makes me giggle because he is just too funny sometimes. Sakura wasn't a bad girl, just when she was all infatuated with Sasuke, or arguing with Ino could I not stand her.

"Hey Chels!" Sakura says sitting down by me.

"Hey Sakura, so you passed?" I asked placing down my fork.

"Mhm," she says with her big and warm smile, "Do you mind?" she says pointing at my water.

"Not at all," I say handing it to her.

"So Makoto how is the team old buddy?" Kakashi says.

"More than I could expect, they used a little paralysis jutsu on me," he says with a chuckle.

"Oh really?" Kakashi says with a smile, which you couldn't see with the mask on his lower face, but when he smiled his whole face showed it, "My team just tried to beat the shit out of me." They both laugh and Kakashi brings out a book.

"Oh God," I can hear Sakura say.

"What?" I ask.

"It's his book," she says trying not to look at it and I can see why. It's an adult book, literally!

"Oh…" I say with a slight hint of disturbance on my face.

"When can I see it?" Naruto asks. Master Kakashi gives him a stern look and replies, "When you are of age," and with that, he looked back down with a grin.

"Humph," Naruto says showing his disappointment.

"Naruto!" I say jokingly, "You pervert!"

"Hey, I am a guy!" He says and almost everyone laughs except for Sakura and Sasuke.

"Naruto, you want to take a walk with us?" Rhianna asks.

"Sure thing!" he says with a grin.

"Well I want to come, but I have to get back," Sakura says with a smile and she takes a longing look at Sasuke.

"What about you?" Matt asks turning his attention on Sasuke.

"I guess, I live over there anyway."

"Great…" Naruto adds with a sarcastic and bored tone.

"Well lets go pal," Makoto says as Kakashi put away his book, "We have to make up some plans back at the academy to see what hell we decide to put you through next," he says with a chuckle motioning it as a joke, but with the same scenario involved. With that, they left with Makoto already having paid for brunch.

Sakura looks at the store's clock. "Oh my gosh, I have to go! My mom is waiting for me, bye!" She says and she gives me a hug and waves to the rest and she leaves.

"Alright," I say standing up, "Let's go then," and I get out from behind the table.

We walk out and down the path that leads to our neighborhood. It was only like two in the afternoon, since our little training session took some time to strategize, organize, set out, and take action with all the other failed, individual attempts. We also had our eating session as well.

We all walk to the park and laugh. Naruto and Rhianna are at it again, always making one another laugh. I think Rhianna and Naruto should go out. I mean, I know Hinata likes him, but… they look so cute together. Also Neji is a bit protective of his cousin. Rhianna tells me though about a boy she liked back home, in Suna, and so I never say anything about going out with anyone else, not wanting to upset her. I also think if Sakura would come outside her little world of Sasuke that she and Pucher should go out. I think he likes her, just a little bit and she told me she thought he was cute, but her heart belonged to Sasuke. At that I sighed inwardly, I mean, that leaves me with no one, since I know one of his 'fan girls' have a way better chance than I do at snagging a date with him.

We walk a little scattered but together. Naruto is by Rhianna with me on her other side and Matt is by Sasuke which is a bit behind us. I am thinking a bit too deeply, yet again.

I see Rhianna deep in though too. I turn to her and ask what's wrong. She looks as if she is about to cry. My face contorts in concern.

"Rhi, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," she breathes out, choking back tears, "I…I have to go." She disappears in a puff of smoke. I sighed. Poor Rhianna. She and I have been close ever since she moved here. She lost her parents when she was nine to a mission they went on and never came back only three years after moving to Konoha. She lives in a big house alone on the end of my street. I offered for her to live with me, somewhere, but she refused to move, which I sighed in relief to. We didn't press the matter and she says she has no other living relatives. Her parents were rich so she got the money. We didn't tell services about it, so she lives alone. She is never alone though, because I am always here for her, and I visit her at LEAST four times a week and almost everyday anyway. I know that could never replace them though. She never told me about her past in Suna, but she will when she is ready. She only told me about a guy she misses, and that was all.

"Rhi…" I speak to the air.

"What's wrong with Rhianna?" asked Naruto. Matt looked concerned. Sasuke impassive.

"Memories," is all I reply, looking at the spot where she stood. I feel an arm around my shoulder and see it as Naruto. He grins, "We will find her."

"Yeah," I say with a small smile back, "I'm going to go look for her, she could be anywhere. God, that girl worries me sometimes."

I head off in the direction of the park, when I sense people behind me. I keep my pace even after hearing, "Hey, wait up!"

I reach the park and I see nothing. I curse under my breath. She usually comes here, or the fountain. Of course, the fountain! The others catch up just as I run to the fountain. No Rhianna. There is only one last place she could be, and she better be there. I turn around and begin to run in the direction of her house when someone grabs my wrist.

"Hey!" I shout turning around to yell profanities at the person holding me back. It was Sasuke.

"Would you slow down, the two idiots can't keep up." I blink in utter confusion. His hold is fastened on my wrist as if the moment he lets go I will take off again.

"Sasuke…I have to find her, she can't be left alone long," I say pulling my wrist away but his hold doesn't falter. Naruto and Matt catch up but Sasuke still hasn't let go. I pull my wrist again and this time he lets go. I then turn and take off in the direction of Rhianna's house.

I run up and knock on the door, breathing heavily. No one answers. I knock more urgently. If she is anywhere, it should be in here huge three story Victorian mansion. No answer still. Sasuke, Naruto, and Matt come up from behind. I am swearing at the door by now.

"Rhianna! Come on, open the door," I yell. I hear shuffling from in the house and finally I hear the locks unclick. I sigh in relief. She opens the door, her face tear stained. I constrict her in a bear hug and then scream at her that if she does that again that I was going to break down the door.

"You okay?" I ask a little nicer.

"I'm fine," she replies, looking down.

"Rhianna!" Naruto yells as he tackles her to the ground. Rhianna breaks out in giggles and I smile. Naruto always knows how to cheer someone up.

"You guys want to come inside?" she asks, getting up.

"Sure," we all reply except for Sasuke. We all walk into her house and make ourselves comfortable in her living room. I am surprised Sasuke came in. I thought he would have gone home by now. Maybe he really enjoys company. Rhianna asks what we want to drink and if we are hungry.

"I want a Mountain Dew," Matt adds in, obviously making himself at home.

"Coke please," Naruto says.

"Coke," Sasuke adds in looking around.

"I'll get them Rhi," I say knowing my way around the house.

"Okay, who wants something to eat?" Rhianna starts.

I walk into the kitchen and grab five drinks; three Cokes, one Mountain Dew, and one Sprite since I automatically know what she wants.

When I walk back out, Rhianna already has some chips out. I laugh because chips are just a snack, and I just find it amusing. I look so weird carrying five drinks, but I really don't mind and I am used to carrying at least nine; especially in can form. I place mine down on the table near my previous spot, I give Rhianna her Sprite, then Naruto, and I toss Matt's to him, and then I get to Sasuke and hand it to him before sitting down. He muttered a thanks and we got situated.

"Want to have a sleepover?" Rhianna asks, and I automatically think it is appointed to me, but Naruto chips in with a perky 'yes'.

"Err…" Matt begins and Sasuke just looks up.

"Naruto?" Rhianna asks.

"Well I figured it would be kind of fun you know?"

"Hmm," she says and looks at me.

"You know my answer," I say with a smile.

"Matt?" She asks.

"Well…" he begins obviously torn between the two choices ahead of him.

"Come on Matt!" Naruto provokes him, "We have no training tomorrow! Let's do it! Yeah!" he says.

"Well, Rhianna is a girl…" he states. I laugh.

"Since when has that stopped you? You have no problem passing out on my couch!" I say, "Plus, Naruto will be here to protect you."

"Err…alright I guess. This is new to me though," he says clearly weirded out a bit.

"Sasuke?" Rhianna says looking over at him. I can already predict his answer though.

"Ah, leave him out of it! He is a bore and he will only ruin it for us. Don't bother asking him," Naruto says, not wanting him to stay.

"Fine," he says to our shock, "Just for your little statement there dead last," he says looking at Naruto.

"Really?" I ask almost spitting out my soda, "Wait, what? Why?"

"Cool then!" Rhianna looks immediately better, but I am still concerned knowing she is trying to push down those feelings she recently had. I will talk to her about them later then.

"Rhi?" I start.

"Hmm?" she asks right back.

"Can I use your phone for a minute?" I ask, but I already knew I had permission.

"Yeah!"

"Okay. Matt?" I ask yet again.

"Yeah?" he says.

"Want me to call your mom too?" I ask.

"Sure, go ahead," he says laying back on the chair. I sigh and glare at him before going to the kitchen phone. I get permission from my parents and Matt's are a little confused, but trust me and agreed asking to speak with their son for a minute.

"Sure," I said putting the phone on the counter and sticking my head in the door hearing laughter. "Matthew! Your mom wants to make sure you are alive," I say with a laugh.

It's his turn to glare at me before passing me into the kitchen to talk to his mom.

"Sasuke, what are you going to do here anyway?" Naruto asks.

"I don't know," He responds as I sit down.

"Well obviously have some fun," Rhianna says clearly showing some high spirits.

"Hmm fun," Naruto chuckles and Rhianna gives him a playful punch since we all thought about that little perverted thing he had on his mind. Sasuke shot him a glare.

"Alright," Matt says coming back into the room.

"Well then, who is hungry?" Rhianna says getting up once again. No one has touched the chips except for Matt and Naruto.

We all give our nods and agreements before I follow her into the kitchen to help her prepare for dinner.

"Guys, do something useful and set up in the living room around the coffee table!" Rhianna says.

"Alright," You can hear Naruto plain and clear. Rhianna points out the utensils and supplies and the three boys get ready and set up for dinner.

"This I going to be fun huh?" Rhianna asks with a smile before she turns her attention back to the stove where she starts the rice.

"Yeah, fun," I say with only one worry on my mind. Sasuke.