"This is so..."

"Troublesome," Sakura finished for her teammate, not without a hint of exasperation. Team three had been out in the rain for four hours now searching for the Daiyamo's cat. While it had been fun at first, they had danced through the rain and had a glorified mud fight, after the first hour it was no longer so fun to be sopping went and looking like primordial man.

"You know, Ino told me to hit you whenever you said that." Sakura glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, gaging his reaction. There was none other than a tired sigh as he plowed on through the sparse vegetation.

"Women are such a drag." Muttering under his breathe he scanned the ground for paw prints, a somewhat useless effort with the rain. When he landed face first in the nearest puddle he couldn't help but think that women truly were troublesome.

"I think I'll follow her advice and add 'drag' to the list." Arching her eyebrow while scowling she waited for her teammate to collect himself.

"Tch." Standing up Shikamaru was careful to keep the "bothersome" comment in his head. Now that he knew Sakura had the ears of a bat, he wasn't going to risk a second encounter the with muddy terrain.

"This is such a waste of time," she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest in a fit of frustration. Hayate had left them to their own devices after having made the excuse of needing to sign them up for something. That had been fine, of course it had still been sunny at that time. They had attacked the mission with vigor, using their headphones to stay in contact they had separated. After their first stumbling into one another, which had resulted in their mud fight, they had spread further out. Now, it seemed it was a wasted effort. Shikamaru and Sakura had run into one another again, besides a narrow escape from a kunai that Shikamaru had thrown, it had been fine. Now this tiff.

"We're going to have to expand our search area," Shikamaru sighed, hands pushed into his pockets as he leaned against the nearest tree.

"Yah, I think you're right." Pressing her finger to the com-link, Sakura spoke into the microphone, "Raman, come in ramen. Where are you."

"This is the third time we've had to catch that little demon of a cat, can't they assign another team?" He lazily asked, not directing it to his teammate but instead to the unfairness of the situation.

"Hey guys, guess what!" Wincing, Sakura pulled the ear piece out of its place.

"Idiot! Not so loud, you almost blew out my eardrum!" Sakura yelled into the microphone. Shikamaru wisely chose not to comment on the double standard.

"Sorry Sakura-chan." Naruto placated, voice noticeably softer.

"Code names! Now, Ramen, we're going to expand our search area..." She halted abruptly when she heard another voice in the background. "Naruto, who else is there?"

"Um... well, Sakura, you see... I ran into a friend of mine and his siblings and... We found the cat! Isn't that awesome? But, ah... do we still get payed if it's dea... not alive?" Naruto bumbled his way through explaining the bloody mess of fur and meat that lay at his feet.

"What did you do?" Her voice dropped to a threatening rumble. Shikamaru stuffed his hands into his pockets and allowed his shoulders to slump. There went a nice paycheck.

"I didn't do anything!" Naruto protested hotly while leveling his friends with a glare without any effect.

"Where are you?" Sakura queried, her voice clearly indicating that she didn't believe him and would, upon seeing him, proceed to beat the hell out of him.

Ten minutes later, Naruto attempt to edge behind his friends from Suna before his incredulous teammates tore their eyes away from the bloody splattering of cat and attempt to take their frustrations out on his hide.

"This is so troublesome." Shikamaru massaged his temples and closed his eyes, no longer wanting to see their first failed mission. Sakura could not tear her eyes away and had begun to develop a tick in her right eye, Naruto noted worriedly.

"So, this is Gaara, Temari, and Kankurou, their here for the chuunin exams." He babbled, desperately trying to ease the situation. The three Suna siblings stood together, in varying degrees of annoyance and boredom. Gaara looked downright bloodthirsty which set Naruto on edge, if Gaara went off, would they be able to subdue him?

"Who did this?" Sakura hissed, eyes narrowed and searching each face as if she might be able to ferret out the truth by staring hard enough.

"Listen Pinkie," the blond girl spoke, "it's not our fault that you weren't good enough to find a stupid animal."

Eyes widening sharply in disbelief and then narrowing quickly in fury Sakura advanced a step, a sneer contorting her normally pretty features into a mockery of that simple beauty.

"Temari," the read head intoned, "shut up or I will kill you." Instantly, she shrunk into herself, her fiery behavior smothered into whispy compliance.

Stepping in front of the three Naruto raised his hands in a placating manner and attempted to clear the air, "it doesn't really matter. What's done is done, ne? We should just go back and request another mission, we still have plenty of time to get another one done."

"I did." Gaara took a step forward, face impassive as he watched the girl draw herself up in her fury. It didn't escape anyone's notice when she nudged the hilt of her katana up to reveal an inch of metal.

"Sakura, don't be stupid," Shikamaru stepped forward. "We will escort you to Konohagakure." Holding back an immense sigh at the bloody result that had just been avoided by the narrowest of margins, Naruto vowed to run through the no-no's of dealing with Gaara as soon as they got home. Silently, Gaara began to walk off in the direction of the village, the rest followed. No attempt at conversation was made as they jumped from branch to branch while trying to keep their grip on the rain slick bark. Upon entering the gates, the groups went their separate ways.

Entering a small restaurant the soaked members of Team Three were ushered into a small booth tucked into the corner of the cramped little building.

"Listen guys I'm sorry." Sakura began awkwardly. "I overreacted." No one protested her decoration. Sighing dejectedly she began to peruse the menu without any real interest.

"You shouldn't mess with Gaara." Running a hand through his hair Naruto continued, "he had a demon sealed inside of him."

Giving a little gasp, Sakura whispered, "that's horrible." Wincing at the comment, Naruto tried to ignore the sentiment and the dangerous thoughts it led to. What if she found out about the Kyuubi? What if everyone found out about it? How could they still like him? Would they treat him with the hate that he had been forced to live through as a child? Halting the thoughts he pressed on, only Shikamaru noted the small pause and distant look to the normally happy boy.

"He's, well, he's not okay. It just messed with him, his own dad did it. His dad even hired assassins to try and get rid of him. He's crazy good, his demon, Shukaku, gives him control over sand. What ever you do, don't mess with him." The warning washed over his companions. Giving a start, Naruto flashed a smile at the waitress that looked like she had been standing and waiting longer than she would like.

"Chicken ramen, please." He crowed happily with a silly smile. Ramen made everything better.

An update! And there was much rejoicing! I am going back through and fixing up the story, I have already done chapter one. I'm surprised you guys haven't pointed the numerous mistakes out, I nearly had a heart attack when I saw how bad some were. I get so excited to update that I rush through the editing process. Still do. Hope you don't mind an error or two. Enjoy the chapter and don't forget to press that lovely green button and give me some feedback! -Cloey Marie-