SweetStealer: I'm so tired. And cold. And dead. I promise I'll update Summer Chaos. I'm almost done, don't worry.
Hidan: Wow. You're an irresponsible person.
Sweets: Whatever.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Notes:/ Whatever. Muses are bitches.
Chapter 2
Sasuke stared at his new teammates, trying to quel the strong feeling of hatred and disgust. Two pale, creamy eyed humans sat in front of him; one stiff, one trembling.
Hinata had her arms around her drawn up knees, shivering, even though it was clearly a bright sunny day. Her soft beige coat looked very warm and Sasuke eyed her curiously. He remembered her from the Academy and always wondered why on Earth she didn't fawn over him like every other girl in Konoha.
Neji was a different story. If looks could kill, then both boys would have been dead the day they had first met. The Hyuuga prodigy sat indian style, his arms folded across his chest, casting an annoyed, yet, soft look at his trembling cousin and a rather hateful glare at the younger Uchiha.
Coldly, Sasuke returned it, his Sharingan eyes filled with the slightest hint of murderous intent.
And Itachi wondered why Hinata was shaking. He was away from the glare-off so he didn't get the impact of it. Poor Hinata was smack dab in the middle.
Said Uchiha was sitting on a tree branch, high above them, looking down impassively and a little peeved that he was demoted back to Jounin. To put it bluntly, it sucked ass. He wasn't part of the family feud so why the hell should he have to teach brats how to fight?
Sighing, he decided to stop the glare-off before kunai got whipped out and blood was spilled. Not that Itachi would've minded; he would've liked to see a fight between Neji and Sasuke.
But there was the problem of Hinata...
"That's enough." he said a little sharply.
Sasuke, a little startled, looked up to see the black eyes of his brother glaring down at him. Neji blinked, and looked up as well, then raised an eyebrow. Hinata gave a tiny 'eep' and shrunk deeper into her baggy coat, making her look like a indigo haired turtle.
"Hokage-sama said that the team arrangements would be like this for a little while so just bear with me." he said dully, really wishing he was dead right now.
He looked at the tiny slip of paper in his hands. It was helpful hints from Kakashi as to how to re-introduce everyone to each other without having the two irrational boys send each other to the hospital and the timid girl go into a self-induced coma.
Clearing his throat, he said tonelessly,
"Okay. Let's just start with our names and what we like to do for fun." Itachi's eyebrow cocked upwards as he read, feeling very stupid while reading the slip of paper. "Sasuke, go first."
"But-"
"Just do it." Itachi hissed, rubbing his temples, already pissed.
"Fine." Sasuke grumbled. "Sasuke Uchiha. I like being alone."
Neji rolled his eyes and Hinata sighed, more then a little disheartened at Sasuke's short 'informational' speech. Itachi put a hand over his eyes and said in a monotone voice,
"That was depressingly short."
"Like I care." Sasuke snorted, turning his head away.
Itachi nodded to Neji who growled but went ahead and said his part.
"Neji Hyuuga. I like sleeping, training, and going on tough missions. I hate arrogant pricks and unfair people."
Sasuke's ears perked up at the mention of arrogant pricks.
"Why you-"
"And lastly..." Itachi cutting off Sasuke and nodding to Hinata, already bored.
The two haughty boys deflated and listened to Hinata's nervous speech. Mind you, Neji didn't really talk to her, and had no idea what she liked. Sasuke just sat there, a little annoyed, but was curious because she never spoke much at the Academy and still had yet to hear her say a full sentence.
"I'm H-Hinata Hyuuga. I like gardening, pressing flowers, and cooking." she whispered, talking to the air above the two boys' heads.
Itachi looked at her and blinked when she finished. He was a little curious about her, because it was rumored that she was a terrible Hyuuga when it came to Juuken, but that didn't necessarily mean that she couldn't excell at other things like Tai-jutsu or Gen-jutu.
"Itachi Uchiha. The rest is for me to know." he said, indifferently.
There was a bit of an awkward silence as the four of them sat there, wondering what to do next. Itachi looked at the slip of paper and saw Kakashi had written on word that he could finally agree with.
Bells.
Itachi knew Kakashi was talking about the bell trick, but hadn't Sasuke already gone through that? Itachi knew teamwork was essential to being good shinobi, but there was the other matter of Sasuke and Neji trying to kill each other. And at the moment, Hinata looked frightened and a little useless.
Well then. He would just have to twist the bell trick. Breaking out of his trance, he said in a compelling voice,
"Ok. Here's what we're going to do."
Hinata did not like this situation. At the moment, she was hiding in a tree, with a freaking huge caterpillar crawling up her arm and Sasuke's hand around her mouth.
"Don't move." he hissed.
She was pressed up against he body in an awkward way, but all she could think about was the creepy crawly bug making its way up her arm. She shivered in apprehension. She was a little frightened of bugs, which put her in a uncompromising position when she was with Shino. She squirmed against Sasuke, but he only held on tighter.
It was about dusk, and the two twelve year olds were panicking for different reasons. Sasuke wasn't concerned about Hinata, but rather, he was looking around their surroundings with apprehension.
Itachi had planned out a mini mission for them, one involving the terror of...teamwork.
The three had been told in a very uncaring way by Itachi to go retrieve three scrolls he had hidden the training grounds of the forest. Also, he had said, if they succeeded in finding all of them before sunset, they would have the opportunity of trying to steal the bells from him if they could survive sleeping together in a tent.
This went over like a lead balloon.
Sasuke and Neji had burst out at once at the mention of working together, causing Hinata to give a loud squeak of protest to the mention of spending a night together in a tent.
They had, however, gone off to the training grounds together, and looked for the scrolls for a little while...that was until Neji tripped Sasuke 'accidentally' causing the boy to go sprawling into the mud.
Sasuke.
Got.
Pissed.
It was then, Hinata had withdrawn to the safety of the trees and waited out the fight that lasted a full fifteen minutes. Finally, the two prodigies fled in different directions, completely forgetting about the mission, Hinata, and their wannabe teamwork.
So how had Hinata ended up with Sasuke you ask?
When the three of them had taken off in separate directions, Itachi (who was secretly spying on them from a far off tree), decided to go home and take a nap, forgetting about his duties as a teacher.
So they had been left to defend themselves in the creepy, darkening, training grounds. Hinata had a run in with Sasuke while being chased by a tiger on steriods.
Veeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrry scary.
Said Uchiha had pulled her out of sight and into the compromising position.
Poor girl.
Hinata could feel her cheeks getting brighter and the roughness of the wooden scroll in a pocket on the underside of her jacket. She breathed a sigh of relief when Sasuke relaxed his grip and slumped on the tree next to her.
Tigers were fricking scary!
"You have a scroll?" Sasuke wondered outloud, as he caught sight of the lump on her stomach.
She merely nodded. Hinata could see Sasuke had one too, having the Byakugan and all, and unwisely voiced a careless question.
"I-I wonder where Neji-nii san is?"
"I hope he got eaten." Sasuke muttered, standing up.
He offered her his hand, absentmindedly, while scouting for more ferocious predators like mutant bunnies of killer squirells...who knew what Konoha training grounds had in them?
The younger took his hand and he helped her up. The sun was almost down.
"Great. Now we need to find Neji and that stupid scroll."
"You mean this stupid scroll?"
The parchment dropped onto Sasuke's head and Hinata caught it before it went tumbing down onto the ground below them. She looked up and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Nii-san!" she cried, as Neji looked down on her with a passive stare.
"Are you hurt?" he asked, sliding down the tree bark, making sure to skid some Sasuke's way.
Hinata nodded fervently and stammered out,
"S-Shouldn't we get these to Itachi-sensei? It's almost sundown."
The two boys nodded curtly and the three of them flashed away from the terrifying claws of the forest of Training Ground 5.
...For the record, Konoha does have mutant bunnines, thanks for asking.
Itachi irritably blinked as Sasuke threw the scrolls at him. The elder was not pleased at being awoken and he was rather hoping his subordinates had been killed on the grounds.
'There goes that brilliant plan.' he grumbled inwardly.
Reaching over, the man pulled out a dark green tarp which he thew at Neji so it covered him completely and aimlessly chucked three sleeping bags and his brother and the Hyuuga girl. Hinata went flying from the force of impact and landed with an 'oof' on the opposite wall.
"Sleep. Now."
With that, Itachi rolled over and followed his own orders, leaving Sasuke to curse rather loudly, have Neji walk out with a snotty air and Hinata scurry behind.
When the two morons and the mouse left, Itachi looked up from his sea of blankets and pillows. There was a distant rumbling in the distance.
"It's going to rain..." he said to himself, almost thoughtfully.
The silence answered him and he shrugged and went to sleep.
Plink. Plink. Plink.
Sasuke scrunched up his nose irritably, as he looked up at the darkening sky. Neji, who was flattening the tarp/tent/piece of crap thing, called out to his younger cousin who was looking out into the distance with a blank, yet slightly skeptical expression on her pale features.
"Hinata-sama. The tent's done. You should start on dinner before the rain comes."
Hinata nodded, cast a look at the gray sky and hurried into the tent to get her things. Sasuke scoffed at the tent.
"It looks like a monkey made it."
Neji chose to ignore this comment and instead shoved past the Uchiha with a pissed off air to him and called back,
"At least I made something instead of standing by and posing."
"I did not pose!" Sasuke hissed, indignantly.
"Oh really? That's what it looked like to me-"
Suddenly, there was a great booming sound and a flash of light split the overcast sky. The two boys heard Hinata give a frightened squeak from inside the tent. Sasuke and Neji glared at the sky.
"I-I'm alright!" Hinata cried from inside the tent.
A great gust of wind came and shook the tent. There was a sudden, chilling downpour which caused Neji and Sasuke to turn towards the tent for safety. Sasuke suddenly spotted the rope tying the tent down was unraveling! He lunged at it, shouting to Neji,
"Catch it!"
Before they could grab it, the tent (and all of Neji's hard work) came crashing down, exposing a very naked Hinata holding up her old teeshirt. Her indigo locks were now thouroughly soaked, and Neji and Sasuke could only stare.
" #$#% !" Sasuke said.
"Hinata-SAMA!" Neji gave an unmanly shriek, thrusting the drenched tarp, managing to only make her more wet and cold.
It was then Hinata screamed.
Sweets: Phew. That's over with. Alright. Let's get this over with.
Itachi: REVIEW. Now.