He stopped when Naruto came into normal sight, carrying an unconscious Hinata bridal-style. Neji was hiding an incredible rage, that someone would insult the heir to the Hyuuga clan so. The only thing that stopped him hitting Naruto very hard was the fact that it would send Hinata flying as well.

"What... did... you... do... to her?" was all he could say.

"Nothing, I swear! She gave me her towel"- he indicated the cloth around his neck- "and I was drying myself, when she pointed out that we were going to get left behind. I grabbed her hand and started moving, and the next thing I knew she was unconscious! I checked for marks or some kind of attack, but there was none..." he stopped to breathe.

"Sounds like an attack of the emotions..." Ino muttered, catching up, just loud enough so that Naruto coulden't hear. Neji stepped forward to take Hinata, but Naruto stepped back.

"Leave her with him, Neji. He knocked her out, he can carry her." Sakura interjected, ignoring the fact that they would probably both catch a cold from the water Naruto was covered in. "besides, you know she'd enjoy waking up in his arms..." She continued, now too quiet to be heard by Naruto.

"She'd probably faint- again- so she can wake up in Naruto's arms- again." Ino was still muttering. The three awake girls giggled. At that moment, as if on cue, Hinata began to wake.

"Hinata!" Naruto cried happily.

"N-Naruto-K-kun?" She muttered groggily. Suddenly, her eyes shot open.

I'm- I'm in his arms! He's carrying me! He must think I'm so weak!... I'm in his arms! And once more, Hinata fainted. The remaining girls broke out into full laughter. Naruto just looked confused. Shikamaru shighed. Girls are so troublesome... and so is Naruto, for that matter.

"C'mon, we've gotta get moving." and the group began to move.

--

It was hours before the group finally stopped for the evening. Naruto's arms ached- every time Hinata had awoken, she had fainted again shortly after. This still had Naruto completely confused. All the boys had offered to carry her for a while, but Naruto had declined. She looked so peaceful, for some reason he kept looking at her. He just couldn't bring himself to put her down, or pass her on. People had stopped asking when, after one particularly stubborn refusal, Lee had suddenly started going on about how Naruto was using it as a chance to train, and spouting about the 'fire of youth' like a fountain until Neji had threatened that if Lee did not shut up Neji would use his 'fire of youth' to set fire to certain sections of Lee's spandex bodysuit. Lee, after recovering from falling off his tree in surprise at the outburst, had spent ten minuets loudly and continually challenging Neji to a fight, until Neji promised to fight when they stopped for camp. He had then convinced Shikamaru to keep going every time he had suggested they stop, until it was too dark to continue traveling. Lee, now practically bouncing, had barely been able to take his ready stance before Naruto had come between them.

"We should wait for Hinata to wake first. I think-"

"I want to fight, I have been waiting all day!" Lee interrupted him.

"For once, Naruto is right." Neji closed his eyes. "Hinata-sama won't like us fighting at all, but I think she would rather wake and be told we were going to fight than wake up to find us fighting. If she wakes up in the middle of the fight, she could misinterpret the situation..." Naruto placed Hinata gently on the ground. Neji fished a blanket out of his bag, and Hinata's head was rested on it. And so, the group began to wait. Much to Lee's disappointment, it was another hour before she awoke. And when she finally did, he gave no room for Neji to delay any further.

"What is... happening?" Hinata mumbled. Naruto, sat beside her, brightened up.

"Lee and Neji are sparring." he looked up to Shikamaru. "Who do you think will win?"

"Neji." Shikamaru's answer came quickly.

"What makes you say that? Has Lee not grown as much?" Shikamaru looked down at him.

"No- Lee has grown a lot. He may have even outgrown Neji. And Neji knows this."

"Then why will Neji win?"

"Simple. With his Byakugan, Neji can see, even in this darkness. Lee, however, cannot. Neji knows Lee might be strong enough to defeat him, so he postponed the fight until it was dark, giving himself the edge over Lee, who cannot see in this darkness. This makes it harder for Lee to attack as well as defend. Sadly, Lee was too busy trying to get his fight to notice. Lee may be strong, but his ninja thinking needs some work."

"Ah... wow, I should learn to think like you, Shikamaru... you're really smart..." Shikamaru looked at him.

"If you did, Tsunade would probably make you a Jonin, just by declaring it. She may even leap upon the chance to retire and give you the title of Hokage: you've already got so much power, sort your brains out and you'll be completely unstoppable!" he laughed, and so did Naruto.

"Yeah, I wish..." His attention turned to the fight. Shikamaru was proving to be right. Ino and Chouji stood, ready to step in at any moment if things got too rough. Sakura was pulling her gloves on.

Lee's attacks were visibly less accurate, as Shikamaru had predicted. They exchanged a few blows, before Neji decided it was time to finish the battle. Suddenly firing forward, he struck both of Lee's shoulders simultaneously, and Lee's arms went limp. But Lee could still fight with his legs, so ducking low, Neji aimed a kick at Lee's shins, which Lee jumped over. And as soon as he jumped, he realized his mistake. Neji stopped mid-sweep, laid his foot flat, and transferred his balance to it, slamming jyukken strikes into Lee's legs. Stuck in mid-air and unable to dodge, Lee crashed to the ground, his limbs useless. Neji straightened up.

"This is over." Shikamaru agreed, Ino and Chouji relaxed a little, and Sakura moved in to help Lee while Neji was congratulated by Naruto and Tenten.

"Nice one, Neji. Quite a plan. You also seem to have been taking a leaf outta Guy's book, I've seen him do that a few times..." Neji 'Humph'ed.

"That was really good, Neji! Well done!" something seemed to soften a little in Neji's eyes.

"...Thankyou, Tenten." something seemed different, as if he wasn't quite managing to suppress his emotions. Ino's eyes flashed, but she remained quiet. Meanwhile, Sakura's hands glowed with the green of medical chakra.

"There's not much I can do, except dull the pain and wait for the effect of the jyukken to wear off."

"It's okay, Sakura-san. Thankyou for what you have done." He smiled. "You had better set up your tent, I will be fine very soon." He had already begun to work motion back into his limbs. Sakura shook her head.

"I'm a medical ninja. I stay with the patient until they are fully healed." Lee's smile broadened.

"Thankyou, Sakura-san." Shikamaru stood.

"We should start to pitch tents. Let's go, people." And with that, he pulled out the poles of his and Chouji's tent. Everyone split into pairs, as they had arranged the tents, except Hinata, who had chosen to sleep alone, and Naruto, who had forgotten to turn up to that meeting. The girls where, Hinata noticed, all in one tent, exept for her, making the only group of three. Hinata's tent went up relativity quickly, for a solo job by a girl who had been unconscious for most of the day. Naruto, however, found that both his tent and his sleeping bag were completely waterlogged, and so he hung them to dry a little outside the campsite and began to gather wood for a fire. By the time all the tents were up, Naruto had a roaring fire going, and his sleeping bag hung over it to dry. Naruto, who was sat by the fire himself, felt his stomach rumble, and looked around to see everyone else unpacking food. His stomach increased the volume. A lot. Groaning, he stood, checked his sleeping bag, found it was dry, and rolled it up before heading over to his bag. He placed his sleeping bag on a dry patch beside it, and began to rummage through, first drawing a set of clothes to dry, then checked his food.

"Guys, my food's all waterlogged..."

"Well, you should look where you walk, then, shouldn't you..."

"You could at least of taken my bag off..."

"I feel bad now. I believe that someone should share their food with Naruto!"

"No, Lee! He'll eat it all!"

"I'll-"

"It was Sakura's idea, she should share her food."

"I'll-"

"If your so desperate for him to eat, why don't you share yours, Ino-pig?!"

"What was that, Forehead-girl?!"

"I'll-"

"Chouji's got plenty, maybe he should share?"

"I'LL SHARE WITH NARuto-k-k-kun..." When she finally made herself heard, her voice faded as all eyes turned to her.

"But that is unfair, she was against the prank!" Hinata blushed at the look Naruto gave her.

"Well, if she's willing to share with the bottomless ramen bucket, its fine with me..." Naruto got up and went back over to his bag, thoroughly checking for anything that might be serviceable. When he came back, he had a small bag of ramen in his hand, which had wedged itself inside his waterproof as he had hastily packed.

"There's not much of it, but if we put what you have together with it, maybe we can make a meal for two...?" Hinata smiled and nodded. Ino giggled.

"Sounds like a date to me..." Hinata froze and invented eight new shades of blush, all very dark, faster than Neji could say 'Hakke'(A/N for those who don't know, 'Hakke' means 'eight trigrams' which is a motif used in most main branch Jyukken techniques). Ino's eyes flashed, but before she could sat more, Neji threw her a silenceing look. He atmosphere returned to normal and after being worried about by Naruto and nearly fainting again when he placed his hand on her forehead to check if she had a temperature, Hinata started to cook for herself and Naruto. Once the food was cooked, Naruto wasted no time in devouring the rather large portion she had given him.

"Wow, Hinata, this is really good!" he exclaimed between mouthfuls. To his and everyone else's great surprise, once his bowl was empty, he sat back, satisfied. "That really was great, Hinata! I didn't know you were such a good cook!" He smiled.

"...never said that about me..." Sakura muttered, but no-one noticed.

The rest of the evening passed with little event. The members of the team shared stories that had been told by there senseis on similar occasions, and a few that they had made up themselves. As the world around them got slowly darker, Shikamaru sat up, finally unable to make out the clouds at all anymore, and spoke to the group.

"Better get undercover, guys. It's gonna rain soon." No-one questioned the wisdom of the team leader, but Naruto did have a question.

"Erm... where do I go? My tent is still soaked..." Shikamaru gave him an annoyed look.

"I don't know. I do know, however, that you can't go with me and Chouji- we've got a two-man tent, with our packs theres no room to move, let alone fit in anther person..."

"You're not sleeping with us, Naruto. God knows what you'd try to do to us in our sleep..." Naruto Blushed indignantly, and the other boys laughed.

"I am sorry, Naruto-kun, but we have no space either." Naruto sighed.

"Geh... If I'd known it was going to rain I could have built myself a shelter..." Shikamaru laughed.

"Looks like you are seeing the advantages of foresight after all..." Ino seemed to have a brainwave, and jumping up, she scuttled over to Hinata and began to whisper in her ear. Hinata went very red. Naruto began to worry about the looks he was beginning to get from Ino, Sakura and Tenten, who had all been whispering and looking at him strangely since the meal. Ino backed away from Hinata, and looked at her encouragingly. Hinata looked back at her, fearful. Ino, clearly deciding Hinata wasn't going to act, raised her voice.

"Hinata brought a two-man tent just in case, why don't you share with her?" Naruto looked at Ino, then at Hinata, questioningly. He found her gaze was just as questioning as his. Feeling something on his side, he turned to see Sakura and Tenten looking at him, pointedly.

"Ah...um... o... ok..." Ino jumped up and down and squealed, causing all the boys to clap their hands to their ears. Hinata shut her eyes, willing herself not to faint again. When she re-opened them, the fire was out, Naruto had taken down his tent, and wrapped it with his bag in his waterproof so he could leave it outside without it getting wet. Yawning, Hinata entered her tent, shoved her stuff over to make room for Naruto, and crawled into her sleeping bag.

--

A/N: At just over three pages, this is by far the longest chapter I've written. Go me!

Please R&R!