Well chapter three and second day of the trade! Hope you like it, next one will have all the adventures of the three teams on their missions. Very important missions, like catching cats and stuff, but oh well! I just loved how this chapter turned out, I always like to reminisce about what happens, you may see little and subtle changed on this little ninjas already.
Please if you see any grammatical error let me know. Its always good to know and… well here we go!
Review if you feel like it, smiles for everyone.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Pinky swear.
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Tsundae frowned as she played with her necklace and sighed over again, she was looking at Konoha through the huge window in the hokage tower, she had been reading a lot of paperwork coming from certain jounins today. Feeling a little bit tired she decided to look at the problem ahead and found herself once again sighing, she was lost at deciding what teams to do next. She had tried strategists; Haruno, Aburame and Nara had proved to her that that kind of team should be forever an option to be disregarded, according to Kakashi anyway, as he made several points that supported that. All of them were great thinkers and incredibly smart, the Nara boy only was the smartest of his generation and still it took them a whole day to finish painting a wall without killing each other.
She had tried "doers." Putting the blonds and the lover dog genin together resulted in a lot of handy work and actually a good team, but it also resulted in a lot of conflict with the three of them wanting to lead the group, all of them wanted to take the decisions resulting into a lot of fights before having a leader. They actually got into a fight for whole ten minutes before letting Ino get away with it, Kurenai had almost laughed when remembering; Naruto let her because he was nice guy, always letting the girls get away with whatever they wanted- ask Sakura about it- and Kiba because she found her hot. At least Ino was a good leader, she was used to it cause that role was given to her the second Shikamaru and Chouji were put on her team… not that Kurenai said this to the Hokage.
But it also ended on a injured Naruto, if Sakura, Shino or Shikamaru had been there, they would have asked to see how the ceiling was at the present moment before doing any repairs, but this three just focused on fixing it, not caring the state of it. Who cared about the actual state if fixing it was what it needed? That's what brought Naruto's broken arm, she was glad that it hadn't been Ino, given the boy's special abilities… but still that didn't mean she had to like it. She sighed worried about him, she knew that by now he would be eating ramen in his house with a perfect healed arm… the down side was that he was injured in front of Ino's and Kiba's eyes, she was going to talk to him tomorrow to convince him to at least stay with the faking for a week before going fully back to work. She sighed again, he was such a good ninja to go and waste on this important three days, but there was no other option.
She shrugged and turned some papers, signed others and tossed tons into the trash, being a Hokage was indeed a lot of job. She smirked remembering her favorite student, even if everybody knew and she never said it Naruto was her favorite ninja around, and she knew, remark her words, knew not hope, knew, he was going to be Hokage. Again she turned to the other teams paperwork and a smiley photo of Chouji started back at her.
She has casted all the "Glue" in another team; Sasuke, Chouji and Tenten. She knew that if it weren't for those three their teams would have dissolved since day one. Sasuke hadn't realized it yet but he was a main piece for team 7 to keep going. Why? Sakura loved him, to the moon and back, so she would do her best to never ever disappoint him, let alone leave the team. Naruto stuck cause he wanted to prove the world that he was better than him (Tsundae had decided that indeed, he was, she just kept that to herself, she didn't want the last Uchiha angry at her)…so Sasuke was the glue, even if Naruto was the spirit of the team. Then Chouji, she could never imagine how Shikamaru could still be alive without the chubby guy with Ino always getting into trouble, he knew both his teammates like the back of his hand… he knew how to put Shikamaru in action the same way he knew how to put the fire down on Ino when necessary. Tenten, on the other hand, had a soft spot in Tsundae-sama heart. She was a very good kunoichi, one of the greatest in years, but she had the two greatest difficult ninja to deal with too, if it weren't for her she just knew Neji would have already killed Lee along with his sensei because of their lack of secrecy or rather common sense. She owed her a few easy missions when she became a chunnin.
Then she had just put Lee, Neji and Hinata on a team. She knew Neji and Lee where on the same team, but decided that it was a good exercise either way; to put the two males and force them to work with a different girl in the group.
Why she had done this, put this three together? Easy. Because they were to her, as much as she cared about them, the weirder. With Lee there, she was sure Hinata would come out her shell, maybe just a bit under Asuma's teaching. Neji would try to control Lee a little in order to not feel embarrassed, one thing was feeling embarrassed on front of Tenten his teammate for over four years now, and a whole other in front of his cousin… (Neji and Hinata got a long well after Naruto defeated him, and now they were in perfect good terms from what she had been hearing around town and Kurenai) and maybe Hinata trying to be as fueled as Lee will do her good, as well as Hinata patience would work wonders on the green spandex guy, cause let's face it, Neji wasn't even close to that. Gai was just as fueled at him and Tenten was patient with him, yes, but Hinata gave her a run for her money, and maybe- at this she wasn't so sure, but she hoped against hope- maybe Neji, between trying to act cool and preserve his team reputation had learned something from the experience too. She would read Asuma's work later, right now she had other issues to attend.
She sighed for the ntemp time and looked at the clock in her wall…. Four am and she still had no idea how to put this day teams… and she had a few hours left… and she was really tired, she just needed to sleep.
"Yosh!"She suddenly screamed into the empty room and tossed all the papers to the floor. "I have the perfect idea just now"
She smirked at herself, proud of her judgment, why she had to be so clever, for kamis sake?
After a few minutes while she organized the teams she shrugged, this would work, she would just think about an excuse later and with the teams written down, she left to have a few hours sleep as she decided to leave Shizune the task to deliver the paper.
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Ino walked out of her house kind of nervous, it was just so weird… she wondered to herself, usually Shikamaru or Chouji would be waiting for her to pick her up before going either on a mission, trip or just training. She sighed before closing the door after saying goodbye to her mother who looked just like her just a little bit older.
Sin fingered her pockets in a hurry, yeap, kunais, shurikens, a few candies if she saw Chouji check… yep, she didn't need anything else really. They were going to do a bunch of D missions anyway… also she had brought a flower along with her, she smiled, Naruto maybe would find it embarrassing, but it was her way of doing things.
"Forgot anything?" A voice called, she turned on her heels as she gaped at the man in front of her with a little "o" forming on her mouth that made the guy chuckle, and then she smirked at him recovering quickly.
"Missing me already?"
Shikamaru Nara shrugged in her direction waiting a few meters away, at the very entrance of the house where the garden ended, leaning against the door with his hand on his pockets looking like he could do some sleep.
"Its been a habit for over two years… I just can't quit just now, besides Asuma would allow it." He said matter of fact, when she reached his level they just started walking to the same grounds as yesterday in common silence, after a while Ino gave her the candies she had brought, he started at her.
"Im not Chouji, you sure you slept well?" He asked with a shy smile, Ino nodded in his direction quite annoyed before hitting him on his arm, she decided to have a word or two whit Sakura remembering the past event.
"Yeah, I quite see the deference, genius." She spat the last work but Shikamaru knew she meant well. "Just wanted to treat you something, since you always say I never do anything nice for you"
Shikamaru just shrugged and started eating away the chocolate little pops, just the fact that it came from her made it okay to him to eat candies before even he had breakfast.
"So wanna bet?" He said after a while, Ino looked curious. "About today's team"
Ino had a fire in her eyes.
"You are on!"She said stopping in the middle of the path so suddenly Shikamaru just had to smirk at her. "What are we betting? What am I going to win?"
"Always so sure about yourself… woman…"
Ino waited a few seconds before sighing since Shikamaru wasn't going to talk first. "Alright! Me first, if I win –and that's gonna happen and you know that- you have to…." She struggled for a second before her eyes twinkled. Oh no. Shikamaru thought. This was a terribly idea. "You have to wear something I choose for a whole day… and you can't stay in your room, or hidden… or… use any justu… you… you have to stay with me. The whole day."
She said that as she knew Shikamaru would find a way to avoid the bet… but if he was with her… she would made sure non of it happened, no smartass way to escape it, if she went to the freaking supermarket he would tag along. She congratulated herself on such a plan.
Shikamaru froze for a minute, forcing his brain to work, to find a way… and nothing came, if he had to be with her the whole time there was no way to escape it… sighing he agreed, deciding more than ever to win this.
"Fine… but if I win you have to do something…"
"That being what?"
Shikamaru had already raised his hand to shake hers but she took hers away, glaring in his direction. "What, Shikamaru"
Shikamaru tried not to blush as he waved his hand again for her to take.
"I promise this, It won't be as bad as dressing me up and ridicule me… cause I know it will be" He said when Ino opened her mouth to retort… one second… two… she blinked four times. "See? I just knew that you would back down."
Ino took his hand and shook it before he had even time to put his hand down.
"You are on, Nara."
Shikamaru smirked to his insides, he just knew her so well he felt like he was cheating, but oh hell with it.
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Tenten made her way to the training grounds, all genins were there already along with the only chunnin, that being Shikamaru, all of them were scattered around the floor, they had been prohibited to talk to their teams till the three days wore off, she sighed and looked around uncomfortable, she had never been good at friends… Ino and Sakura were talking under a tree, Naruto and Kiba were playing with Akamaru a few meters away from her, Naruto had a flower on his hand-the one, she noticed, that wasn't broken, looks like he had an accident- and was using it to tease Akamaru, but just barely, she didn't know where he got that beautiful flower, but he was taking care of it like his life depended on it. Tenten wanted to be in a team with Naruto, she decided. She turned to the other side. Shikamaru was alone gazing at the clouds… so that's where Chouji got the habit…
After a few seconds she spotted Neji alone leaning against a tree with his eyes closed, the second she stared at him he opened them, startling her even from meters and meters apart, she wanted to walk to him and stopped herself. Neji nodded and gave her a shy smile, then he put his hand up and made a twirl with his index finger. Tenten chuckled. That meant Lee was doing laps… again. They had told them to not talk to his teammates, but they could pretty much do signs, right?
She was about to answer when someone chuckled beside her, startled she looked around, Chouji was munching with a bag of potato ships, somehow Tenten was not surprised anymore.
"Why are you chuckling Tenten-San?" He asked as he offered her some potato ships and Tenten, happy there was someone to talk to, accepted them.
Ino, who was looking for afar, let her jaw open wide. He never did that, not even for her, not even for Shikamaru's for god's sake! She was about to tell Shikamaru when she remembered she couldn't… what a drag.
"What's Sasuke telling her?" Sakura looked amused and Ino got off her reverie blinking around looking for Sasuke.
"I don't see him…"
"He's with Tenten…" Sakura didn't look angry, or sad, she looked amused, like somehow Sasuke had grown a second head. "I didn't know he… you know, talked to her… "
"Tenten's not blushing…"Ino pointed out as Sasuke told something that made Tenten roll her eyes "and she's actually looking to his face… should learn a thing or two forehead"
"Shut up, Ino Pig."
But non of them meant it, not even in the tone, cause they were too absorbed watching the scene before them… Ino didn't even react to the nickname. Sasuke, Chouji and Tenten were all calmly seating on the floor talking, Sasuke wasn't even scowling… and soon the rest of the genins were casting glances at them… what the hell was just happening?
Naruto really wanted to ask, like really, as he pretended to have a broken arm for the sake of Kiba and Ino beliefs on him being human. He looked at the flower on his hand, yellow, cause Ino said it was the color for injured people, she had even given him a kiss and a hug that Kiba had claimed too, and after a lot of cries she had done the same for him.
Shikamaru was beyond doumbfounded by her actions, she never hugged him… and still she was hugging those two boys… he couldn't get it.
"I thought Sasuke was an idiot" Suddenly Kiba said to him, Naruto nodded coming back to reality, the flower on his good hand.
"I don't know what's wrong with him… but I'll figure it out." Sasuke from afar caught his eye… and Naruto could have swear he had just barely, just barely smiled before glaring at him and returning his attention back to Tenten, who was explaining something with her hands. Naruto froze.
"Did you see that?!"He hissed. "He smiled at me!"
Kiba froze and looked at him, In other time maybe Kiba would have denied it, claim him crazy, or snort, but he just deadpan believe the blond guy as he caressed his arm thinking how much Naruto's would hurt. "Something's wrong with the bastard, hey, everything's fine with your arm?"
Naruto, unable to speak, just nodded and with made a sign with his good hand. This team trade was going bad… really bad, he just hoped he had just imagined Sasuke's smile… and was having a harder time coming to terms with the fact that yes, he was actually having a conversation with Kiba… and been at it ten minutes and none of them had actually said any mean things.
Tsundae was crazy. Really, really crazy.
At that moment, when Shino had just got on his back to watch the clouds with Shikamaru, at this Kiba gasped and actually wanted to run to his teammate with a bunch of questions. In that second the senseis arrived as Naruto, trying hard to look like he had a broken arm, took hold of Kiba. The teachers were surprised that the genins had actually followed some instructions for a change. Kakashi and Asuma rose their eyebrows at Shino and Shikamaru, an action Hinata was eager to questionate too, but she was remembered kindly that she couldn't by a thick eyebrows guy, she just nodded reluctantly and kept sparing with Lee.
Everything seemed like a dream for Naruto, a bizarre one alright, but still… and somehow he didn't want it to end as another part with him wanted to run to Kakashi and ask for forgiveness when the next group was decided.
"Tsundae is crazy, im telling you, crazy!" Naruto said in panic was he made his slow way out of the grounds, being the first team to be called. "She had lost it."
"You think?!" Shikamaru said out of disbelief. Naruto, for once, was right.
Neji, who was just simply looking ahead, nodded. "Outrageous"
Naruto and Shikamaru locked eyes before they chuckled under their breaths. 'outrageous' was, as least to them, a girl word and that word coming for the most amazing hyuuga just made all way too funny for them to process, but controlled themselves after the cold Hyuuga turned around.
"Gee, relax Neji." Naruto said patting his back with his good hand, almost forgetting he was injured, Neji sighed and kept walking along with the guys, Asuma had told them to go ahead to pick a mission as he waited to see the other teams results, saying he wanted to know which team Ino and Chouji would get, Shikamaru knew better but decided to shut up about it. "It's just a joke, now, why do you think she made a group made of three boys?"
The other two looked at the blond.
"Do you think I would know that?" The lavander eyes guy said annoyed at him. "I am not the hokage."
"Thanks Kami, but seriously. Why?"
"I don't know Naruto, maybe she wants to see what would happen? If three of us get together without a girl… troublesome…" Shikamaru didn't want to even imagine a team without Ino, as much as he hated to admitted they were what they were thanks to her. Not that he would ever say that.
"You are the smartest in here, Shikamaru."
"I swear…."
Neji and Shikamaru locked eyes and nodded in common agreement; they started walking to the hogake tower with a Naruto just a step behind, he was complaining non-stop and it was good they were in front, cause he was using a little bit way too much his broken arm. Shikamaru wondered if all the blonds were just the same… as Neji wanted more than anything to see Tenten again, she never complained, at least not as much as normal girls do, and still Naruto was complaining no stop.
"Three guys… let's see, we've got… Sasuke number two" He pointed at Neji. "a lazy bum slash genious, and me—
"So…"Shikamaru said ignoring Naruto Olympic-ly . (A/N: its that a word? Now it is, in Spanish at least it exist.) "Neji, how are things doing in the hyuuga compound?"
"—the most important ninja in Konoha, I really don't see where this is going—"
"Fine, thank you. By the way, Shikamaru how was yesterday's…."
"trade, we call It that." Shikamaru said to Neji who just nodded.
"How was the trade with a team with Shino, always wanted to know."
Shikamaru started explaining as Neji added a thing or two by thing on experience as both shared memories about yesterdays teams. Naruto had keep talking to himself and Neji and Shikamaru were too into their conversation to care about him anymore and his chatter.
"I have really no idea where he hides his bugs… and no plan on knowing any time soon." Shikamaru frowned remembering about yesterday and shuddered. Neji did too, at least to the untrained eye of Shikamaru; he didn't know the cold Hyuuga so he couldn't tell.
"Second that."
"I have always wondered that, you know?" Naruto's voice carried in the air. "Maybe they are in his body, in weird parts… hey! Maybe they are in his—"
"NARUTO!" Neji and Shikamaru turned in their heels all red in the face, like they couldn't believe he had just said that, Shikamaru had a clear image on his mind that he was just sure he wasn't going to be able to forget anytime soon, maybe Ino could enter his mind and erase it. Neji was outraged, Tenten or Lee would had never, ever, said that and he wondered how on earth a guy like him could be Tsundae's favorite, he had learned years ago to respect him, even now he did… but at times like this it was just too hard to. Naruto looked at them puzzled for a second before smirking.
"I wasn't going to say the word di—"
"I swear!" Neji said throwing his hands to the air annoyed before hissing. "How can Sasuke put up with you?"
Naruto just laughed at their reactions for a whole minute before finally, after being pushed into himself by Shikamaru and his jutsu he answered, with his good hand on a funny pose as he imited Shikamaru, and good for him, he respected his broken arm and leave it alone. There was nothing more that Naruto hated that being controlled. He wondered how on earth Ino could ever put with him, if Shikamaru and him where in the same team he was more than sure he would come to hate the shadow guy if he used that justu way too many times. Shikamaru, seeing he would stop acting like a weirdo and laugh, decided to let him go and finish his explanation.
"I was going to say that maybe he hides them in his jacket? You see it's all big and he never goes anywhere without it, even if its hot." Naruto said as he shuddered a little after being released. "I have bet on Sasuke of who can spot him without it first and we still have that bet on going… and it has huge sleeves too, so they could be just lying there, you know? So, yeah…"
Shikamaru and Neji both thought that that was kind of impressive coming from Naruto.
"But if you want to think otherwise, fine!" Naruto said as he walked past them and entered the Hokage tower all smiles, the chunning moved aside not even asking, it was Naruto, the Hokage's favorite anyway, the both stunned intelligent ninjas stared at his back.
"Ya' coming?"He said confused at the door waiting patiently for his teammates, Neji and Shikamaru looked at the blond guy and then locked eyes and then at Naruto again, one sighed and said some famous lines and the other just nodded and joined the blond genin at the door, making their way to see the hokage to retrieve their very interesting D-mission for the day, maybe even two.
"You know, blonds are not stupid…" Neji said in a quiet tone, like he was remembering something before entering the hokage's office.
Shikamaru sighed, remembering a blond girl that he had left behind a few minutes ago in the training ground, remembering a friend he had on Suna and of course, eyeing the Hokage who was talking to Naruto as he complained again about the team, he had always known... Nope, they were everything but stupid, he sighed as he muttered a silent "Welcome to the nightmare…" to Neji.
Neji looked at him amused with a funny smirk on his lips, Shikamaru thought it was his way for laughing when a scroll hit him In the head. Hard. Naruto might be the favorite ninja, alright, but Shikamaru was the favorite chunnin, and Shikamaru had decided that Tsundae tended to demonstrate it on making fun on her two favorites, he looked annoyed at her as she was smirking back.
"I heard that, Nara."
Shikamaru was beyond annoyed but couldn't do much about that she being the Hokage right? Naruto, besides Tsundae, laughed hard hugging his sides pointing at him, Tsundae had a flick on her eyes at seeing him laugh like that, Neji was still amused at the whole thing, he didn't know Tsundae very well it seemed, not like these two anyway knew her, cause he would never call Tsundae Obachan, or granny, or old lady, and sure enough she had never trown anything to his head.
Naruto was grabbing the deck with his good hand trying hard to breath.
"Oi, Shikamaru! You should have looked at your—"
A flying scroll, this time Neji snorted as Tsundae nodded approvingly at Shikamaru, he felt better.
"Yeah, you should have looked at yours too, Naruto."
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Well how was it? Hope you enjoyed it! Personally I loved Shikamaru's phrase. If you've got any ideas of what teams I should do next, let me know.
-Juliet'lovestory-
