AN: Yay! Another chapter! I tried a different writing style, so I hope it's okay! Things start to get more interesting as more characters are introduced.

Please enjoy! And review! I'll remove it if no one really likes it, so please!

DISCLAIMER: Me no own Naruto. Do you really think that if I did Karin would be all over Sasuke! (don't know who she is, get caught up with the manga!)

It came without warning. The city was pretty posh. The people there were not rich but well-off; near the beach but not on it, thankfully.

Those kinds of storms always came near that area, but this wasn't the season. The weather had been warm, there were actually people playing on the beach when it first began to rain. No one knows who they were since their bodies weren't found again.

Like I said, there wasn't any warning. They weren't the only ones either.

Three days into the trip and they were all in a schedule now. The gang visited Temari during the day, went to a different restaurant during the late afternoon, and checked out the tourist sights during the evening. Then they'd go to the hotel. Not much variation, but just doing that was something.

First off, Temari hadn't been lying. She did have two brothers, both younger, much to her annoyance. There was Kankuro, one year their senior, and Gaara, same age as them.

Kankuro loved puppets. Not liked, loved. It was something that he blamed on the environment, what with all the voodoo stuff that happened around there. They all tried to not laugh as they thought over the fact that not one of them had even seen anything related to voodoo while they were there. He told them to consider themselves lucky.

Then there was Gaara. The quiet one, the sarcastic one, the one with no eyebrows. No, seriously, the guy had no eyebrows. Creepy. That was one guy they just didn't get, and not only that, but it seemed that the entire city was either scared of him, or respected him highly. They were warded off the reason for that by a dark look sent by both Temari and Kankuro.

At that moment, they had no idea their lives were just about to change, and there was a slight chance it was not for the better.

"Gaara!" yelled Naruto, trying to sneak up on the redheaded boy like he always did.

"Yes, Naruto?" asked Gaara simply as he read his book.

Naruto looked slightly put out. It never worked! He kept trying the first time he met him to get the redhead to show him some kind of expression, and it never worked. That might have to do with the fact that their house was considered haunted, but that didn't mean Naruto wouldn't try. He'd succeed where those wussy ghosts failed! For sure!

He hoped.

Behind him came Ino and Kiba, both talking about flowers. Naruto threw them an annoyed look. What was so interesting about flowers?

The rest were getting snacks in the very big kitchen. Who knew that Temari was so rich. Her family owned some sort of exports/imports company, except now it was being run by a good friend of the family's. Her father had died a few years ago, but they'd known that already, so no awkward moments!

Kankuro stood next to Temari while she was washing the dishes. It appeared as if both were listening were listening to the conversation, but in fact, they were having one of their own.

"Full moon's tonight." said Kankuro softly, lips barely moving. His sister could barely hear him over the sound of the rushing water.

"I know. How's he been?" she asked, taking her time with the dishes.

Kankuro glanced at the rest of the group. They were either sitting at the table or standing around it. None were paying any attention to them.

"Last month he had it a bit rough, but he's been calming down. Maybe it's all the company. He never really did have any friends."

Temari just nodded, but didn't say anymore. Neither did Kankuro. There wasn't anything else to say.

"So, what do you think, Gaara?" asked Naruto.

"Yeah!" chimed in Ino and Kiba.

Gaara was sitting down while the other three were around him, pleading. They wanted him to go with them to this concert they'd heard about. But, tonight was...

"Please?" asked Naruto, bunching his shoulders up. He was a bit old for the puppy eyes look, but that never stopped him before, and that wouldn't stop him now.

"Come on Gaara, all the rest of our friends are going. You'll be the only one. It'll be fun!"

Gaara turned to the blond, mouthing a single word before giving his answer. "Alright. I'll go."

"Yes!" yelled the three fools. They were giving each other high fives and shouting with joy.

"I knew we could do it!"

Gaara leaned back in his chair, a small smile on his usually expressionless face. 'Friends, huh?'

No one was going to the concert. Instead, around five in the afternoon they all retreated to their rooms. Temari, Gaara, and Kankuro decided that since nobody they knew had been there, they weren't the best people to comfort them.

Ino and Hinata were in their rooms, Hinata was crying.

"If I had insisted she come, then she would be fine! She didn't want to come because of me! What if she got seriously hurt or something! I'll never be able to forgive myself." she sobbed into Ino's shoulder while Ino tried to comfort her. She was crying too. There she'd been, there they'd all been, having fun while their families were in trouble. If anything happened to them, how could they ever forgive themselves?

Kiba and Chouji were mad. They were in their rooms as well, but they were mad. It was the kind of mad that came when you felt that nothing you could do could have helped. They were pissed.

Kiba could feel his heart constricting in his chest. What about his dog, and his sister? What about his parents? And his younger brother? Why was nobody telling them if they were safe?!

He could remember when they first received the news. It was early afternoon, around four, and they were coming back from Temari's when one of the other students came up to them, tears running from her eyes.

"Where have you been?!" she yelled. Her hair was in disarray, her mouth open and drawing in short, fast breaths.

"What's going on?" asked Sai, noticing how distraught the girl looked.

"It's- back home- they might have died." at this point the girl collapsed on her knees, and cried. The gang decided to run towards the hotel. There they met up with one of the teachers.

"You guys." said the teacher. It was the same one that had told them about the rooms. He was also crying.

"There's been some bad news. Back home, it- there was a hurricane. A big one. The whole town was nearly wiped off the face of the map. We don't know who's dead and who's alive yet. Since it came without warning, no one had the chance to run. They're sending emergency help right now, but they said we should be glad we weren't there."

Kiba felt like hitting the teacher right there and then. 'Glad we weren't there?!' he thought to himself, 'How is that such a good thing! Our families could be dead and he wants us to be glad we were having fun while they could be suffering?!' Kiba got his pillow and chucked it at the door right when somebody was entering.

"Waahh!" yelled Naruto while Sai stuck his hand in front of him and caught the pillow.

"Kiba! You want me to drop these or what? Oh, and thanks Sai." Naruto entered the room carrying a few drinks in his hands.

"You're welcome Naruto." Sai followed him in. He was carrying a bag from a fast food place. Kiba and Chouji gave the other two boys a look. Weren't they in their rooms as well?

"Don't give us that look!" yelled Naruto as he and Sai put the food and stuff on the table.

"Uh, thanks Naruto. I didn't know you had even left the hotel." said Chouji, looking amazingly grateful. Naruto just nodded.

"I thought you might be getting hungry, so I asked Sai to help me go get food for you all." he said, already taking the food out of the bag. Sai was putting straws in the drinks.

"What do you think you're doing, Naruto?" asked Kiba. His eyes were narrowed and he was staring at Naruto.

Naruto shrugged. "Feeding you guys. You guys didn't look as if you were leaving anytime soon, so I decided to do you a favor."

Naruto and Sai exited, leaving the door open. They went across the hall to the girl's room, carrying two drinks and another bag of hamburgers. Sai knocked.

Ino heard the knock and briefly wondered who it was. She swiped her sleeve over her nose and eyes and tried to stop the tears before opening the door. In the background of the quiet room, Hinata tried to do the same, although she wasn't able to stop crying.

Ino's eyes widened at the sight that greeted her. 'A bag of hamburgers was knocking on my door?' She looked behind and saw a smiling Naruto.

"Naruto? Sai? Uh, thanks."

Naruto and Sai only nodded.

Kiba growled as he left his room. His eyes were narrowed and staring at Naruto.

"What. The hell. Are you doing, Naruto?" Kiba walked up to Naruto, shoving Sai aside, and grabbed Naruto by his shirt collar. "Well?!"

Naruto didn't say anything. He expected something like this from somebody. Maybe not from Kiba, but from someone.

Kiba raised his fist and punched Naruto, sending the blond sprawling on the floor.

"Get up." Naruto didn't move. "I said, GET UP!"

By now the entire hallway was filled with open doors. Some of the students were muttering while others could only watch in morbid fascination. Still others looked at the poor boy with pity. Ino was holding Sai back before he got hurt as well.

Kiba felt rather than heard the whisperings of is fellow classmates. This only made him more mad. Why couldn't they just keep their noses out of other people's business?! Why wasn't Naruto getting up?! He had been hit even worse in their pretend fights! He got ready to hit Naruto again.

"Stop it, Kiba-kun!" Hinata pushed herself in front of him, holding on to Kiba's fist in fear that he might do something to hurt himself.

Kiba looked at Hinata, then again at Naruto. Naruto was getting up, his hair falling in front of his eyes. Naruto wiped his mouth against his fist, looking briefly at the blood.

"What is it, Kiba? Aren't you going to hit me?" Naruto took in a deep, steadying breath. "Well?!"

Kiba took in a deep breath too. He unclenched his fist and looked at Hinata, who had started crying even more so now.

Sai went to help Naruto up, as did Ino, Chouji, and Hinata, although she stayed closer to Kiba. Kiba looked at Naruto, feeling drawn to looking at him in the face. He didn't want to face Naruto after this, but his eyes moved upwards.

Naruto's eyes were dead. Cold. Unmoving, unfeeling. "I'm sorry. Naruto."

While all of that was happening, Gaara, Temari and Kankuro were not at home. They were all in the last place you'd expect them. A graveyard.

"It's not even a full moon yet." muttered the older brother as he sludged through the wet dirt.

"That's enough, Kankuro." said Temari, throwing a glance to her younger brother.

Gaara ignored his siblings. Instead, he took the lead and led them to a certain grave. Their father's grave. There was a woman waiting.

"So. You did come. I wondered. The spirits were saying quite a bit to make me worry." she said to Gaara, then gave the other two a small nod of acknowledgment.

Kankuro threw the old woman a skeptical look. He never did trust her, no matter how many years they'd been in business.

The woman cackled, throwing her head back as the wrinkles themselves jiggled too. She expected nothing less from him. He wasn't the one who interested her.

"Don't believe all you want, but I don't care. I'm glad you came, though. He seems a bit more active these past few nights. We'll have to work harder now than ever before."

The old woman passed her gaze over the three teens in front of her. In her ear she could hear them, the whispers of the dead. They weren't saying anything good.

They're back, and he doesn't like it.

He doesn't like it at all.

You won't be able to protect them, you know.

They're not the only ones.

She didn't like being underestimated. Whatever was going on now, she probably could not go against. But she had always been a stubborn woman.

Temari shivered. The woman's gaze. Kankuro and Gaara were shivering too. She couldn't tell if it was the cold, or that look.

"Let's begin."

Genma took in the boys in front of him. To tell the truth, he had never met them before in his life. He had no idea how to talk to them, but the government decided that it would be better if they were around others who, how did they put it, felt their pain.

'How did I get stuck with this? What the hell am I even supposed to say to them anyways?' Growling, he forced himself to look at the two boys.

One he had heard of. Shikamaru Nara. A genius, or so he heard. Had an IQ of over 200, though he supposed it was more likely around 150 than anything else.

The other was Sasuke Uchiha. Of course he had heard of the Uchihas. They owned a bodyguard company, that was thriving very well right around now. If anyone spoke about the sons, mostly it was about Itachi Uchiha. The elder brother was thought of as a prodigy. His accomplishments went from winning the Nobel Prize to helping a little girl do her homework. He doubted the younger brother was like that, and that he could see it might be the problem.

"The hotel doesn't have any more rooms, we booked it full, so you'll have to share rooms. There are only two beds per room, so I'll have to split you up as well. Any of the rooms strike out at you?" joked Genma while the two teenagers stared at the hall.

Shikamaru walked a few feet, then noticed the drop on the carpet. He stopped, bent down, and looked closer. 'So, I was right. It really is-'

"Shikamaru." Genma blinked. So the boy could talk, at least, that was the first word he had heard him speak.

Slowly the other two walked towards Shikamaru. They examined what Shikamaru was staring at.

'Tch. Those brats.'

Genma got up and walked towards the end of the hall. "Now, which side are the boy's? Oh, that's right. They got different rooms."

He knocked at the two end doors and stepped back as the doors were opened.

"What happened?" he asked, looking at the boys. Thankfully, he didn't have to ask for them. They opened the doors themselves.

"How did you-?" began Naruto, then stopped.

"Who are they?"

"These are Shikamaru Nara and Sasuke Uchiha. They were sent from home, or more like a few miles southward. After being stuck in the storm, their homes demolished, it was decided that it would be best if they were around others their age. One to each room. Figure the sleeping arrangements out yourselves. It's your punishment." With that, Genma turned his back to them and headed upstairs to his room.

"Oh, and no forcing them to sleep on the floor. Yeah?" He left.

Kiba and Naruto looked at the two boys. Slowly, they opened their doors fully, and called to their roommates. Sai and Chouji came to the doors. All six boys stood there awkwardly, Chouji and Sai having heard what was said.

'No one's going to say anything, are they.' thought Naruto with a sigh. He passed a hand through his hair, and Sasuke and Shikamaru noticed the bandage on the boy's chin.

"So, who's going where?"

Shikamaru began to walk towards Kiba and Chouji. "How troublesome. I'll take this room, I guess."

Sasuke saw his friend enter the room. He frowned at the ease Shikamaru could maintain an uncaring exterior.

"Huh. So, I wonder how sensei knew we were fighting." Sasuke's attention was drawn back to the other two. There was the blond, blue eyed boy with the bandage. There was also the other boy, black hair and a smile.

"Shikamaru noticed the blood on the floor. Other than that, I'm guessing your reputation."

Sasuke glared at the pair. Already he didn't like them. Naruto closed the door as all three entered the room.

The following day everyone was going about normally. Or at least tried to. Tensions were still a bit high, but they were definitely understood. There was only so much you could take from the press.

'We have heard reports that the students here all have family and homes in the disaster area. Unfortunately, the teachers are refusing to comment, saying that the students themselves need some spa-'

Ino turned off the machine. 'Stupid press.'

"Are you ready to go Ino?" asked Hinata. She looked at her best friend.

Ino nodded. "You reply yet?" Hinata nodded as well, and the girls headed out. Before the door closed, Ino said "I still don't know how you managed to find a pen-pal when I don't even have a boyfriend. So not fair."

Hinata giggled. "Shino-kun and I just found out we have some things in common is all."

"There you guys are!" yelled Naruto as he took the bread out of his mouth.

"Don't talk with your mouth full!" yelled Ino, hitting Naruto on the head.

"Ah! Hey, Ino, this is Sasuke Uchiha. That's Shikamaru Nara. Sasuke, my cousin Ino and friend Hinata, who is also Kiba's girlfriend. Shikamaru."

The boys nodded in greeting at the girls. They had all become acquainted last night, and had heard of the girls. They had also heard of Temari, but due to the heightened security, they thought it best if she stayed with her brothers. From her last phone call, though, it appeared like the media got to her too.

They were all on the highest floor, which had a coffee shop on it. They didn't want to go downstairs to eat, because the restaurant was on the ground floor where all the cameras were. So, they settled with speaking to their friends at the coffee shop and just didn't think about it.

"What's wrong?" asked the little girl to the man. The man was frowning.

"I didn't expect them to meet up." he said.

The little girl began to frown too. They seemed so happy, even though this bad thing happened to them. Why was he worried?

"They love each other. Why shouldn't they meet up?" The girl received no answer. Instead, both she and him began to pay attention to what was happening. She didn't understand, but it looks like them meeting was a bad thing.

Ch. 2 is done! Yeah! I'm thinking about making a love triangle between Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji. Plus, I'm leaning towards SasuNaru on this. I don't know if I'll write it, though, at least, not yet. I might not even add any more romance as it is. But review and tell me what you thought! Please!