Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Chapter 3: A Bit of Awkwardness
Naruto crouched in a tree right above were Sakura and Kotoko were, spying on them. "Heh heh heh, Sakura." Naruto said, chuckling to himself. Naruto made a hand sign and formed three shadow clones. Without warning all four Naruto's dived down into the water below them. Kotoko and Sakura screamed. As soon as they realized it was Naruto and his clones they starting beating them, until there was only one Naruto left.
The real Naruto had a missing tooth, two black eyes, and he was barely conscious. "Idiot." Both girls said in unison, crossing their arms over their chest. Naruto stood up, stumbling like a drunk man. Sakura walked over to him and punched him hard in the face, sending him flying about five miles away. 'Damn' Kotoko thought to herself.
"And on that note, I think I'm gonna leave now." She said, washing the shampoo out of her hair. "He's almost as bad as Jiraiya-Sama." Sakura mumbled. Kotoko got out of the water and began to dry herself off. "I'm going to leave this stuff here, just in case you need to use it." She said, drying her hair and putting on her clothes. " Alright. See ya." Sakura said, sliding deeper into the water to relax.
Sai was resting against a tree in the forest when he heard a loud thud close to were he was. He looked around, but couldn't see anything in the darkness. He heard a rustle coming from the bushes in the other direction. Feeling a familiar presence, Sai felt no need to draw his weapon. He just leaned back against the tree, closing his eyes. "You're still out here?" He heard a familiar voice ask. Sai opened his eyes to his black and silver haired teammate.
"Yes." Sai said. "I was gathering firewood." Kotoko smirked. "Looks like you were sitting on your ass to me." She said. Sai stood up. "You stupid girl, the firewood is laying right over there." He motioned over to the pile of firewood he had gathered. Kotoko looked and the pile of wood and laughed. "Not much." "It's not like we're staying out here for a week." Sai responded, walking over to pick up some of the wood. Kotoko followed him, picking up the rest.
"Why are you helping me?" Sai asked. "Even though you're an asshole, I'm not gonna be that much of an asshole back." She said, a smile forming on her face. "But you're still going to act like somewhat an asshole?" Sai questioned. "Yep. You're lucky to get off easily." Kotoko told him in a matter of fact manner. "Sure I am." Sai smirked.
"Oh, did you happen to hear a loud crash right before you found me?" He asked. Kotoko's thought's drifted back to Naruto and how Sakura punched him miles away. 'He's bound to have landed by now, though he's probably unconscious.' Kotoko thought. "No I didn't." She lied. 'Naruto will recover...eventually.' She thought. "Hm...I see." Was all Sai said in response.
Sai and Kotoko walked in an awkward silence all the way back to camp. Well, Kotoko thought it was awkward anyways. Hikari and Kakashi were still sitting around, but the other two team members had yet to show up. "I thought you were coming to take a bath." Kotoko said to her cousin after sitting the firewood down and sitting beside her.
"I was...but I kind of got caught up in a conversation." She said. "About what?" Kotoko asked, taking an apple out of her bag and biting into it. "Doggies." Hikari said casually. Kotoko stopped eating her apple and gave Hikari a really weird look.
"Not like that, you perv!" Hikari replied, a bit shocked. "Well, how else was I supposed to take it?" Kotoko wondered. "Any way other than that." Hikari narrowed her eyes at the kunoichi beside her.
Sai began to clear out an area for a fire, making sure it wasn't too dry and didn't have any leaves around it. He set a few pieces of firewood into the circle he made. "Hey, Captain Kakashi, could you give me a hand?" Sai asked, turning around to the silver haired jounin. "Sure." Kakashi said. Sai stepped away from the firewood as Kakashi effortlessly did a fireball jutsu to start the fire.
Kakashi got back reading his Icha Icha novel. Hikari ever so slightly leaned over to catch a glimpse of what he was reading. Kakashi quickly pulled the book up to his chest, protectively, not even giving Hikari a chance to look at it.
"What, can I not see?" Hikari asked, pouting. "This book is a bit..um...mature. Besides it's also unfitting for a woman to see." Kakashi said, trying to keep her away from his precious novel. "You said it's too mature, yet you just called me a woman."
Hikari sighed. "Whatever, Kakashi-senpai." Kakashi turned the page to read the last chapter in his novel, but discovered the whole last chapter was missing. It had apparently been ripped out. "No!" Kakashi said, getting really dramatic. "The last chapter, it's gone! It can't be! No..." An air of depression filled the area.
Kotoko and Hikari both felt the oddness of the situation and stared at the distraught man. "It'll be okay." Hikari said with a tone of awkwardness in her voice. "Maybe you can buy a new one when we get back?" Kotoko offered. "No..." Kakashi moaned, not listening to anything the girls were saying. The two girls both sighed and gave up.
"Pantywaist has sure been gone a while." Sai said referring to Naruto. The two girls turned to him, surprised he didn't call Naruto ''dickless." "I saw him earlier. He said he was going to go catch some fish." Hikari said. Kotoko popped the rest of her apple in her mouth. "Oh..well I haven't seem him." She said. At that moment Naruto came stumbling through the trees. The light from the fire making his black eyes and bruises obvious.
Sai was the first one to look up at him. "What happened to you?" He asked, with a smirk. "Did you catch you're fish?" Hikari asked, staring at the blonde curiously. Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "Well ya see, that didn't go as expected. I ran into two very huge and angry catfish." Naruto explained.
"I thought you got lost dickless. But I see even the catfish don't like you." Sai remarked. Naruto was about to say something back, but Kotoko spoke. "Oh, I'm sorry." She said feigning innocence. "Sure you are." Naruto mumbled under his breath. Kotoko smiled ay him innocently.
Kakashi, just now noticing Naruto was a bit surprised by his appearance. "Did you fall from another tree?" Kakashi asked, causing Hikari and Kotoko to burst out laughing.
"No! I ran into two deadly catfish! Now will everyone just leave me alone about it!" Naruto yelled, crossing his arms. "Someone's having menstrual symptoms?" Hikari whispered to Kotoko, causing her to laugh even more.
Naruto huffed and sat down beside the fire. He reached in his bag and brought out two packs of instant ramen which he quickly heated and ate. "That was delicious!" Naruto commented, patting his stomach. Sai was sitting near the fire eating a pack of pocky, surprisingly not saying a word to Naruto.
Seeing everyone eating food, Hikari's own stomach started to growl. She looked in her backpack and saw about a dozen apples, a few bottles of water, and strawberry pocky. Hikari sighed. 'Kotoko must've packed this.' She thought. Hikari wasn't too fond of apples nor did she really eat strawberry pocky.
'Now I guess I'm going to have to go searching for my food. In the darkness of night.' She thought. "No..." She said in a very dramatic voice. Her eyes began to water. "Kakashi's not the only one who can get dramatic." Kotoko said, frowning.
Hikari's stomach started to growl again and she wrapped her arms around it in pain. Kakashi held something round out to her in his hand. It was a very big orange. "Like Oranges?" He asked. Hikari blushed slightly. "Yes! I love them! Thank you Kakashi-senpai!" Hikari grabbed the orange, dancing happily as she peeled the orange and started to eat it.
After a few minutes of conversation about the mission and techniques, the pink haired kunoichi finally appeared. "You're finally back ugly. I thought you'd drowned." Sai said, smiling. "I see you didn't though."
"I'm sure you were wishing I had." Sakura whispered to herself. She glanced at Kotoko who was now pestering the asshole and the blonde. Her eyes stopped on Naruto. Naruto locked eyes with Sakura and they stared at each other for a moment. Naruto pouting and Sakura smiling at him.
Finally Naruto broke eye contact with her and started poking at the fire with a stick. "What are we talking about?" Sakura plopped herself down beside Kakashi and Hikari, happening to catch the words "Doggie." and "Style." Sakura's eyes widened and she looked away blushing. "Um...did I decide to join in at the wrong time?" She asked.
Hikari noticing why she asked that started to blush furiously. "Not like that! Not like that!" Hikari defended herself. 'Why is everyone acting like a pervert?' She cringed.
"We were talking about summoning creatures and their abilities." Kakashi said, not really affected by Sakura's reaction. Hikari sighed and looked down at the ground, still blushing. "You sick little pervert." She said to Sakura.
Kakashi looked at Hikari and smiled at her actions. "You blush easily." Kakashi teased her. Hikari managed a small smile. Just for the fun of it, Kakashi had to say it. "You should blush more often. You look cute when you do." He said, smiling. Hikari's face heated up again at the classic compliment. "Thanks." She said softly. Kakashi laughed to himself. A bit of playful flirting doesn't hurt every once in a while.
Sakura could feel a bit of jealously flare up in her. 'How come Kakashi-sensei never acts like this with me?' She thought, envy fueling her jealousy. Sakura decided to put it aside for now. It probably wouldn't happen again. She yawned. It was still fairly early, but she was already exhausted.
The pink haired kunoichi stood up to stretch. "I think I'm gonna go ahead and head to bed. If you guys need anything just wake me up." Sakura said, walking over to her pink colored sleeping bag. She got inside of it and took off her headband.
"Good night guys." She yawned. "Night Sakura." Everyone, but Sai chimed. Sai looked over his shoulder at her. "Good night Ugly. Don't wake up in the morning." He said. Sakura only concerned about sleep, just twitched and told him to shut up.
"So, can you teach me that summon jutsu?" Hikari asked the silver haired shinobi, eagerly. "I'll consider it tonight." Kakashi said. Hikari sighed then pouted. "Hey I said I'd think about it." Kakashi said, trying to cheer her up. "I just need to sleep on it." "What you're going to sleep already?" Hikari asked.
"I guess. I mean there isn't anything for me to do, now that I've finished what I could of my precious book." Kakashi sighed. "You are...a sad case." Hikari said, trying to find words that weren't too harsh, but to the point. "Heh heh, you think I'm bad? Wait till you meet Jiraiya-sama." The copy ninja said, smiling under his mask. "
I think I'm afraid to." Hikari said, giggling nervously. "You should be he's the one who created the series." Kakashi laughed. The black and red haired girl's face turned a bit pale. "What a dirty old man that Jiraiya-sama is."
Kakashi smiled and stood up, walking over to Hikari and ruffling her hair again. "Hey, Sai are you keeping watch?" The jounin asked looking over his shoulder. "Yes. You don't have to worry Captain Kakashi." Sai said, smiling his fake little smile.
"Alright, I'm going to rest because my body is tired out from reading so much today. I just started that novel and finished it—well, finished all except for the last chapter." Kakashi sat down against and tree and closed his eyes. He wasn't going to sleep just yet. He wanted to think first.
Hikari glanced over at Naruto, only to find him asleep and snoring right beside the fire. 'What the hell, is everyone just going to leave me up with Sai?!' The girl thought, sighing. "Hey Koto-Chan, you're not going to sleep yet are you?" She asked the girl, knowing that the girl was usually an early sleeper. That is, early by Hikari's standards.
The young kunoichi wasn't tired at all, but she could at least try to get some sleep. If not get any sleep then at least rest. Hikari stood up and brushed her bottom off. "You're leaving me with this?!" Kotoko questioned Hikari frantically. "Um...Yes." Hikari stated casually.
Kotoko groaned. "It's not like I'm going to bite your head off or something." Sai said. Kotoko narrowed her eyes at him. "I can never be too sure with you." She spoke uncertainly.
Hikari laughed. "I'm going to go sit in a tree somewhere." She said, giving off the suggestion that she had nothing better to do. She began walking around the camping area looking for a decent tree. "Don't wander off too far." Kotoko warned her younger cousin. "I won't." Hikari chimed, smiling back at her.
Hikari stopped when she ran upon a tree so tall that it meant definite death if she fell from it, unless she somehow got very lucky. Hikari leaped onto the nearest branch she could reach and then leaping from branch to branch, she soon made her way to the very top.
Hikari stood up on the branch, overlooking the scenery. The tree was even higher than she had expected. She could see a stream, a few caves, and lots of the other features in the forest. She could also look down at her teammates, but the best sight was the sight of the bright stars and fireflies hovering above her. Hikari smiled to herself taking in the majestic beauty. The kunoichi sat down, back against the tree and gazed up at the stars. There was a blur of white that streaked across the sky, disappearing just as fast as it appeared. 'A shooting star!' Hikari thought. 'Make a wish!