Hola! I'm finally back! AND I'M SO SORRY THIS WAS SO LATE! I tried to type up what I had as soon as i got back but then I got horribly ill, and I guess my punishment for not getting this to you sooner was puking my guts out! Anyway I hope you like this, There is a bit of NaruHina in here for those who've been waiting! It took longer than expected to get to this, but we're finally there!

Also I'd like to thank all of our reviewers so thanks!! you guys rock!!

-kitsungirl1

p.s. school is starting soon, so it might take longer to update! Sorry!

Chapter 8: Fears, Team 8, and Love At First Sight

The no-face was clutching my body as though to squeeze the life out of me, and so far it was doing pretty well. My lungs were screaming for air and my body felt like it'd just break from the pressure. I could hear the others screaming my name; feel their attacks landing on the no-face. I began wheezing trying to get air into my lungs; if the boys weren't giving up, neither was I.

Then I began to wiggle my body upward and when that didn't work I forced my lungs to expand with chakra and I gulped down air, ignoring the pain of feeling my organs press against my ribs. "I-iron... d-d-defen...se" I managed to choke out from my lungs. I forced a large amount of gathered chakra out of my body to form a shield and separate my body from the no-faces grip. I suppose this must have surprised it or something because it dropped me right away, and I landed right away but waited until I jumped back far enough to really start gulping down air.

"Sakura..." I turned my head to see it was a stunned Sasuke that had said my name. I took another deep breath to calm my self before jumping forward, "Earth animation jutsu!" I yelled - I was surprised by the strength in my voice, because I was still unbelievably scared. Then I shook my head to clear my thoughts - right now I had to concentrate on my jutsu; I sent waves of my chakra over the land, and then vines, trees, and even the grass grew, trying to hold the no-face in a death trap.

However this didn't work so well compared to the strength of the no-face's clawed hands - trees were sticks, vines were stings and grass was like sand that had pilled up. I couldn't help myself from letting my lips curl up in a triumphant smile; even though it didn't stop, or even slow the no-face down... it was a nice distraction. "Twin blizzard jutsu!" Naruto and Ryouichi yelled in unison. I whirled around and charged in the oppisite direction.

"Get down!" I yelled launching myself in their direction; I instinctively tucked my head in as chunks of snow and ice began flying everywhere. I couldn't see anything as I practically flew towards the others so I didn't know whether or not to feel sorry for whoever's body I collided into. We both shared a painful groan, but we both kept our heads down - neither one of us dared to lift our heads.

When I was sure the jutsu had worn off I pushed myself up into a sitting position shaking the artificial snow off my body. I carefully observed the surrounding area; the no-face had apparently escaped. I gave a heavy sigh and let my shoulders sag slightly but I refused to let my guard down again. "Haruno..." said a strained voice, I looked around for the owner of the voice. "Get off, Haruno..." the strained voice said again, this time growling slightly.

Then I realized that I had been sitting on the owner of the voice looked down and sprang off of my sitting place. A blush took over my face and I pretended to dust imaginary dirt from my cloths. I had been sitting on (and at one point laying on) Neji! I blushed more deeply at the thought.

'Ha. and you said you didn't love our Neji-kun! Shanarro!' 'Just shut up! Anyway. I don't love him... I just have a tiny insignificant crush!' 'Mm-hmm that's why you dream of doing such naughty things with him!' I could feel my cheeks flame up at the blunt truth in that statement... not that I enjoyed seeing I half naked Neji in my dreams...Damn that's HOT. I mean... 'Yeah you totally don't have a crush on him!' My inner snickered. My cheeks flushed deeper when I received a questioning look from everyone including a certain Hyuuga.

"So... were you scared Hyuuga?" I said taunting him, that way people wouldn't notice my insane blush so much... or at least get me back to my some what normal status... nevermind, I was never normal in the first place. "I'm a Hyuuga; I fear nothing," He stated, crossing his arms over his chest; I raised my eyebrows and gave him my 'I-don't-believe-you-for-a-second-so-you-might-as-well-fess-up' look. Then I said, "No living person has no fears."

"Is that what you tell yourself when you scream at your shadow?" he retorted in his 'I am soooo much smarter than you so just give up,' way. "Well if you really are fearless, than prove it!" I said forcing myself to stay calm - I wouldn't allow myself to give him the pleasure of letting him see me mad. He gave me a look that said 'watever-I-am-still-better-than-you-so-lets-get-this-over-with'.

"What do you want me to do to prove to you that I have no fears?" He asked, his expression was bored; I tilted my head to one side, and thought for a few seconds before an evil smile viciously attackedy face. "Kiss me," I said, that caught his and everyone else's too, "You can't be serious!" He said - he took a step towards me waiting to see me laugh, cringe, or something.

"What's the matter, scared?" I asked in a taunting tone, taking a step towards him as well. He kept assessing my face, waiting for me to slip up... his eyes almost looked desperate. "Sakura-san you must be joking! You... you can't kiss him!" Lee yelled, hurt written all over his face, "Er... relax Lee, I was... was just ... j-joking," I have no idea why it was so hard to get that sentence out or why - I felt my heart twitch when I said it - but it worked well enough that his face relaxed, and his shoulders sagged.

"Wow, that was a surprise..." Naruto said trailing off, something triggered in my brain right then. "Oh.Oh!" I said suddenly. Everyone turned to stare at me giving me a look like I was loosing my mind. I flashed Naruto a grin before saying, "You know I never really did get to give you a birthday gift, so close your eyes!" He winced at the word 'birthday' but closed his eyes with out questions, a frown working itself onto his face.

I got out a summoning scroll, opened it, then I bit my thumb and ran it over part of the scroll; there was a large poof of smoke, and in my hands I held an original Les Paul electric guitar. It was a sleek black color, and in bright crimson paint it had Kitsune written on the back. At the top of the neck it had a crimson bow tied tightly around it. "Ok look!" He opened his eyes and immediately went into shock. "Is that...that is..." he was sucking in air like he thought it would all just disappear, and then with shaky hands he took the guitar from me.

"T-thank you, Sakura...YOU'RE THE BESTEST BESTEST BEST FRIEND A GUY COULD HAVE!" he said, still staring at the guitar in shock. "But...that must have cost a fortune! Where did you get the money?" I avoided his look. "I... had some funds just sitting around, waiting to be used." He stared at me for a moment before something clicked. "Don't you dare tell me that it was the money that you had saved for your Imperial Academy training." A line of rage undermined his question.

When I didn't respond, he continued. "Sakura, no! That was your dream, you shouldn't have bought this-" I stopped him quickly, shaking my head. "No, that was my grandfather's dream. Not mine." He stumbled like he was ready to burst, his face completely red. "Naruto, you don't get it. I never really wanted to go the Imperial Academy, but my grandfather thinks that I'm going to make history in the academy, but I'm not! I'm just not cut out for that stuff."

He gave me a considering look before asking, "Then what was it for?" I paused before giving him the most innocent answer I could. "Oh, maybe just a four-karat diamond ring with emeralds set on the sides and a white gold band..." I gave a nervous laugh. He stared at me like I had just proclaimed my undying love for Lee and that I was going to conform to Gai-ism so we could raise our children in the most youthful ways of the green spandex jumpsuit.

He blinked a few times and then said, "You...you two...YOU TWO WERE SAVING UP FOR AN ENGAGEMENT RING?!" The shock was clear across his face, and I had to resist a snicker. It was actually rather obvious what the money was for if you knew Yuki and I well enough. "Well, it was going to start out as a promise ring, but then...well, we were closer than that." I shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant.

Although Naruto still seemed shocked, I could tell he was realizing my words were true.

"Hmm." he finally grunted, and I nearly sighed as he let the matter drop. This was not something I wanted to bring up in front of Neji, Lee, Tenten and Sasuke. But of course, what I wanted was just not going to happen, was it? Neji spoke up. "Explain." I gave him a glare. "I don't have to explain anything to you," I retorted, but then Lee picked up on it too. "Yes, Sakura-san, please explain! The rest of us don't understand what you're talking about."

I gave a sigh "Lee-" "Yukihiko was her boyfriend... He was the former leader of the Silver Dragons... but he died 2 years ago..." Naruto said, cutting off my words. I gave him a look and he shrugged. "Your boyfriend." Neji sounded uninterested.

"Yes," I snapped at him, "But he was more than that. Everyone respected Yuki, not only just for the fact that he was the leader of one of the most powerful gangs, but because he sorta...commanded it. Not on purpose, but the way he held himself, the way he treated others – it was hard not to respect him. He was also smart, or at least I thought he was..." I trailed off, suddenly choked by overwhelming grief. What was with me? He had died a long time ago; I had stopped grieving a year ago... Suddenly what I had to do was clear to me: I needed to leave, and I needed to leave now.

"I'll see you later," I said quickly to Naruto before turning and dashing away, feeling his confused look boring through my back. Running felt good – it helped to clear the grief and my mind. I finally stopped and looked where I was. More training grounds. That's all my life was doomed to, wasn't it? But I figured I should train anyway – the physical strain would clear my mind.

As I headed forward, I realized that the training ground I was in front of was already occupied. How had I not noticed this? I headed towards the trees, letting the shadows hide my existence. As I got closer to the group, I stopped, watching them carefully. There were two guys and a small girl.

One of the guys had dark hair and sunglasses, and had a huge oversized coat on that had a very high collar. The other had on a grey jacket with fur lining the hood, and – was that a dog? – hiding in the top. He had red streaks of paint under his eyes. The girl was small, slight, with dark purple hair. Her eyes appeared white from my distance, and I wondered if she was blind. Suddenly, the dog on the guy's head gave a sharp bark, and the girl turned my way. Veins appeared along the sides of her eyes...wait a minute, I recognized that bloodline! She was a Hyuuga?! Why would this surprise me?

I suddenly felt really stupid. Obviously Neji was not the only person in his clan. She said something to the others, gesturing with one of her hands towards where I was hiding. They all ran towards me, and I made no effort to move. There was no reason for them to attack me... was there? Each landed in front of me, forming an easy formation – it was pretty obvious that they were a team. I stepped out from the trees. "Hello," I said, not thinking of anything better to say. I received wary looks from the two guys – at least I think I did...the one with the sunglasses made it rather hard to see his emotions.

Only the girl smiled at me, and now that I was closer I could see that her eyes were not white, but instead a very, very light shade of lavender. The same as Neji's, I noted to myself. "Who are you? What are you doing here?" The one with the dog demanded; now the dog stood besides him, and I realized that it was actually quite large. I was about to say something when the dog growled viciously at me and then attacked. With a cry, I darted to the side just in time, caught off guard by its sudden attack. I hadn't done anything – why was it attacking?!

"Akamaru!" the guy cried, reaching out after the dog as I darted away, the dog following me. It growled at me as though I were a demon – and then it hit me. Demons. Lion demons. The scent of my lions was always mixed with mine, and that was probably what was setting him off. Since I didn't want to hurt it, I decided to go with the scare tactic. "Summoning Jutsu!" I cried, slamming my hand into the earth.

Yasue, Yori, and Yoko all poofed into existence next to me. They were triplet cubs and all worked well with each other. They spotted the dog immediately; and simultaneously roared. The effect was brilliant. The dog stopped in its tracks, its tail went up its legs, and he turned and bolted back towards his owner. Satisfied, I gave each lion a pat and a word of thanks before letting them disappear. I headed warily back towards the three, keeping an eye on the dog. Apparently it had no intentions of dealing with me and my lions again.

"Uh...sorry about that, I guess...Akamaru told me you smelled of demons, so I didn't try to stop him." He gave me a sheepish grin, and I accepted the apology with a nod. I turned slightly towards the Hyuuga girl. "You're a Hyuuga, aren't you?" I asked, and she seemed startled by my question. "Y-yes, I a-am; my n-name is H-hinata Hyuuga." she said in a small voice, stuttering over her words. This surprised me. Weren't Hyuuga's supposed to be calm, smart, confident? Although she displayed the first two qualities, the third was in major lacking.

"I'm Sakura Haruno." I gave her a smile, and she returned it tentatively. "I'm Kiba Inuzaka, and this is Shino Aburame," the one with the dog interjected loudly; with a flicker of annoyance I gave him and his other teammate a nod. I returned my attention to Hinata. "Do you know Neji? Well, I mean, you probably do, you're related, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you know him..." I stopped myself from rambling on too long.

She nodded. "Y-yes, he's m-my c-c-cousin," she stuttered. For some reason, I found this very odd and slightly amusing. Neji, the prick, the stick-up-his-ass, had such a timid, adorable little itty bitty thing of a girl for a cousin? I began laughing, and Kiba scowled. I guess he was used to being the one talked to and was put off by not being included in the conversation. "What's so funny?" He snapped at me, and I managed to stop laughing and sigh. "It's just that...well; Neji and Hinata couldn't be farther apart."

Hinata, for some reason, apparently didn't find this funny at all. She only made a small jerky movement with her head that I assumed to be a nod and had a hurt expression on her face. "H-how... how d-do you k-know Neji?" She asked, her small voice barley reaching my ears. "We met on a training ground...wow do you think I'll meet everyone on a training ground...?"

"Wait does that mean you're not from around here? I mean I've never seen you, and you must be around our ages, but I never saw you at the academy." I nodded with a heavy sigh. "Yeah, I used to live in this nice little tribe, 'bout a months travel from here, but then I was forcefully relocated." A confused look adorned his face as he took a few seconds to mull over my words, before he replied, "Oh... so if you're from a tribe... does that mean you're all like, living in the middle of nowhere, and wearing animal pelts, and living in the great outdoors?" he asked looking at me intently.

"K-kiba! T-that w-was rude... you s-shouldn't a-ask about stuff l-like that!" Hinata immediately said, but I merely laughed and shook my head. "No it's all right, and no we don't do anything like that, we have modern technology, and a pretty awesome cable system!" "Oh" was all he said in reply. "Sakura-san, my love, my beautiful cherry blossom!" I suppressed a groan, and turned towards a certain green clad figure. You know... he looks like a booger from here.

My team along with Team Gai, came speeding towards me, "Neko-chan!" Naruto cried throwing his arms around me, "Did I tell you that you're the Bestest most incredibly awesome, prettiest, and smartest Bestest best friend around?" "Huh... did you get over the shock that was caused by the sheer magnitude of awesomeness my gift causes?" "Uh-huh!" He said happily, wow... do you think some one shook him as a baby and dislocated a few wires?

Then he finally stopped, and let me go, grinning happily. I looked over the faces of the others. Neji was currently glaring at his poor, unguarded cousin and it ticked me off. "Quit it," I told him, and he obviously didn't realize I was speaking to him, so I grabbed a magical stick of wonderment and jabbed him in the sides a few times. "Hey, Hyuuga! I'm talking to you. Leave Hinata alone." He turned around and fixed the same glare at me. "Stay out of it, Haruno," He said cooly. I gave him a glare of my own and began, "Well, I will not stay out of it, because-"

I stopped when I noticed Naruto's expression. He was staring at Hinata as if she was the most wonderful thing on the earth – it sorta freaked me out because Naruto never paid any attention to girls – well, he did, but not like this look. "Um, Naruto? You all right there?" I asked, waving a hand in front of his face. He didn't even blink, but only continued to stare at Hinata. The poor girl's face turned even redder as she looked at the ground, twiddling her thumbs.

"Naaarrrruuuutttoooo." I made the word long and precise, snapping my fingers in front of his eyes, waving my hand around again. And once again he ignored me. I sighed and grabbed his arm. "Pay attention." I raised and lowered his arm, waving it about crazily and even curling his fingers back to poke him in the head. "Pay attention. Naruto. Respond to my voice." The kid had gone comatose with love.

I thought he'd gone into a coma or something...horrible! He'd have to leave me all his stuff, all his money... But then, my dream - I MEAN NIGHTMARE – ended as he gave me an irritated look. "Would you let go of my arm?" Sheepishly I let his arm drop from my grip. "You fall asleep or something there?" I asked teasingly. He frowned. "No...why?"

"Because if you keep staring at Hinata like that, all the blood will go to her face and she's gonna faint!" Hearing this only made her blush harder – if that was even possible. "Oh," he said stupidly, quickly averting his eyes...I could have sworn that I saw a tinge of pink on his cheeks. Kiba and Shino were giving him weird looks (well, at least Kiba was – I dunno about Shino...) when suddenly Akamaru started barking like mad, and there was a blur of movement as someone lunged at me. "Gotcha now, Sakura," an ominous voice said into my ear.

DAMN ETSU. Damn her to the depths of hell, damn her to the sun, damn her to a bakers oven – damn her to whatever was hot enough to cause her pain, hot, blistering pain, and lots of it! We were ambushed by two other figures – one lunged for Neji, the other for Hinata. He had a knife in hand, and I swore that it would do serious damage...if it hadn't been for Naruto, getting in the way. A low growl came from his throat and he glared at Okito.

In one hand he held Okito's wrist, while the other had stopped the knife from cutting Hinata. "If you ever touch a single hair on her head, I swear to Kami that I'm gonna break your fucking neck." His voice was so dark that I couldn't tell if it was a threat or a promise. Neji had (unsurprisingly) stopped Hideya, and I currently had Etsu pinned underneath me. Naruto then dropped Okito and said darkly, "Take your pathetic little friends and get the hell out of here." I studied his face for a moment.

Suddenly, my bubbly, crazy best friend was gone, replaced by a towering blonde stranger. Blue eyes darkened to crimson; his face was cold and uncaring. Neji and I simultaneously released our attackers and the three of them ran as if all hell had broken loose. Naruto's eyes then faded back to blue, and his face seemed to soften. He turned slightly to face Hinata. "Are you alright?" He asked softly, as if the last few minutes had never happened.

Hinata was barely able to nod. Her face had paled and her legs trembled slightly – she had most likely gone into shock, like the rest of us. But who would have thought that Naruto would go all demonic as a result of something as stupid as an attack by Etsu?

These Hyuugas were really screwing us over.