CHAPTER THREE

Karin's Friends

Dinner that night, according to Anko, would be 'casual'. By that she meant, which we found out when we arrived back at the grassy area in front of the mess hall, an all-camp BBQ. The boys and girls were mingling, and sometimes you couldn't tell the differences between campers and CIT's, because they all wore camp uniforms (counselors got to wear whatever they wanted).

I watched as the people from the two 15 cabins began to drift away (we hadn't heard from the 15 - C and D cabins yet).

"Hey, Emily, want to have dinner with my friends and me?" Matsuri asked quietly. She seemed to have tagged me as her potential new best friend, I think because we had something in common with the whole gun thing.

"Yeah, sure." I replied, and we waved goodbye to the others, and went looking for Matsuri's friends. I took the opportunity to ask about Garaa.

"Oh, he's the best." Matsuri gushed, and I began to wonder if maybe she didn't have a crush on this Garaa person. "He's so kind and considerate and thoughtful..."

"Uh huh..." I had just spotted my sister, and I waved to her.

She waved back, and then went back to chatting a mile a minute with the raven-haired, white-eyed girl beside her, whom I just assumed was Hinata's little sister, and I continued walking with Matsuri, glad that my sister didn't need me and also...a little bit sad?

The sad feelings went away when we found Matsuri's friends, all Suna cadets.

"Guys," Matsuri said, proudly introducing me. "This is Emily Powers. Emily, these are the Sabakus." They all looked up at me. "Temari, the oldest, at seventeen."

"Hello." I said to her.

"Hey." Temari said, by way of greeting, before placing the finishing touches on her veggie burger - a sprig of parsnip.

"Very nice." Matsuri giggled, and then went on with her introductions. "This is Kankurou. He is our senior by one year." I looked at the handsome boy with golden brown hair and matching eyes, and I'm sure my face pinkened.

"H-hi there!" I squeaked. What's wrong with me? He's just a guy...a...nice...looking...guy...

"Hi." It didn't help when he grinned at me and, if I'd been in a cartoon, then I would have turned into a puddle of water right then and there. As it was I just smiled back, and then let Matsuri introduce me to her beloved Garaa, who was the same age as us.

He looked kind of like a cross between hi two older siblings. He was small, like me, with spiky blood-red hair and jade green eyes rimmed in dark black...eyeliner? I hoped so. He also had a blood red tattoo on the left side of his forehead, the Kanji for 'love'. Hmm...

"Hn." He nodded to me when Matsuri introduced us.

Not a big talker, I guess... I thought, and sat down, before immediately springing up again. "Umm, I'll be back! Save me a hamburger!" I sprinted up the path towards the cabins, but I did hear Kankurou say: "She's cute and she's got good taste in food!" And Temari cried: "Kankurou!"

I rolled my eyes and kept on running, until I reached our cabin. I flung myself in, slammed the door shut, and only then did I groan. "I great, just great!" I walked around the cabin, cursing a little bit more, before I walked over to the mirror, pulled down my shorts and examined the mosquito bites on the back of my thighs and calves. "Do I look like a blood bank for hungry mosquitoes!?" I yelled, to nobody in particular.

There was no answer and, since I didn't have any calamine lotion, I had to just pull up my shorts and stalk out of the cabin. I've always heard mozzies were attracted to blue, and I guess it's true (hey, that rhymes!).

I was on my way down the forest path towards the grassy area, not looking where I was going, and suddenly I tripped over something. It yelped. I yelped, as I fell to the ground, and then I groaned. This was not going my way...

I sort of sighed, and then rolled over - and something jumped onto my chest. I gasped, thinking about cougars, and then suddenly something began licking my face. I gasped again, this time in surprise, and that was when I realised that I was dealing not with a ferocious wild cat-dog...thing...but a harmless (I think) little puppy dog.

"Well...hello little one," Why do animals always get attracted to me? "Where'd you come from? Can you...get off my chest?"

"Bark!"

"I hope that didn't mean no..."

"Akamaru!" A boy's voice suddenly yelled, and two boys my own age, Konoha cadets, came running up to me. The speaker had messy brown hair and dark eyes, and looked vaguely familiar. The other boy had dark hair and was wearing dark sunglasses. "Akamaru!" The familiar boy scooped the dog, Akamaru, off of my chest, and then reached a hand down to pull me up.

"Thanks." I said, dusting myself off and checking to make sure my necklace was still on (it was). "Is that, umm, your dog?"

"Yeah," The boy looked embarrassed. "I'm sorry if he bothered you, but he seems to really like you..." He was looking at me in admiration.

"What's he doing here?" I interrupted, scratching said dog's ears despite. "I didn't think dogs were allowed at camp..."

"You thought right," The sunglasses-wearing boy spoke up. "But Kiba never goes anywhere without Akamaru."

"Kiba?" I repeated, glancing at the dog-boy. Then, I realised why he looked so familiar! "Oh, you must be...Hana's brother! She's the CIT in my cabin. She said she likes animals too." I remembered, as Akamaru licked my hand.

"And you?" Kiba looked at me. "How do you feel about them?"

"They're pretty cool," I said, slightly missing Kiba's hidden question. "Horses, dogs, foxes, cats, they're all great, except..." I said, glancing down at my legs. "The mozzies are eating me alive..."

Glasses-boy suddenly smiled. "Ah, I think I can help you..."

"Yeah, typical," Kiba grinned. "Shino, like the rest of the Aburames, is a total bug freak! He's got some special insect repellant..."

"Really!?" I exclaimed, turning back to Shino. "Oh, can I use some, please?"

Shino nodded. "Okay." And he took a spray can out of his pocket and handed it to me.

"Aburame Bug-Off..." I read. "Oh, that Aburame! Yeah, we've heard of your products in Taki, this is great!" I sprayed some of the stuff on my arms and legs, and then on the backs of my hands to rub onto my face. "Thanks, you're a life-saver..." I said, and handed the spray can back to Shino but he said: "Keep it, I have others."

"I'm sure," I said, placing the small spray can in my own pocket, and patting Akamaru again. "Being Shibi's son, and the heir of the Aburame Corp." I glanced over my shoulder. "Someone's coming!"

Shino and Kiba exchanged a glance, Akamaru gave my hand one last affectionate lick, and then they disappeared into the trees, just as Karin came around the bend of the path.

"There you are." She said, taking my arm. "I've been looking all over for you. Come on, my friends wanna meet you, and dinner's almost over."

There goes my hamburger... I thought.

oOo

Karin's friends turned out to be Zaku Abumi, Dosu Kinuta, Kin Tsuchi (is she named for the lake or the lake named for her?) and...the infamous Sasuke Uchiha. Looking at him, I could sort of see why he has a fan club. He had onyx eyes and coal black hair, and a cool, assured look about him. He greeted me coolly, his eyes only lighting up slightly but the rest of his face remained stony almost.

Zaku, on the other hand, had a cocky grin. He wore his dark hair all spiked up and he had black eyes and an arrogant nature. We recognised each other from the Roll 'N' Rock straight away, and exchanged a few friendly words before he returned to an argument with Sasuke.

Dosu was wrapped up in bandages, and I didn't want to ask why. I didn't have to. Karin was only too happy to explain about the fire, and Dosu looked like he wanted to kill her. His one dark eye that was showing looked fierce. He had a low, cool voice, and I liked him, probably because, like Zaku, he said exactly what he felt, not like some weird people that aim to please. Wishy-washy, I think they're called...

And Kin, who treated Karin like her sister, had long raven-coloured hair tied up in a bow, cool steel grey eyes and a cool, steely but slightly friendly nature.

All of them, like Karin, were from Oto (Sasuke had a scratch through his Konoha cadet headband, you could tell from the way he was hanging out with Oto cadets that he had switched villages), and they were our seniors by one year. (Sempai!).

Karin, with her bright pink hair and dark eyes, sat down next to Kin, leaving me to sit down beside her.

"Okay, so Emily's the one who sang that duet with the Hyuga, right?" Kin asked, and Karin nodded.

"Yeah, isn't she great?" The pink-haired said, and something in her voice made me look up. Her eyes did not say what her mouth said.

"Oh, so that was you?" Dosu looked at me. "The one they dubbed..."

"Please don't say it." I blushed.

"What?" Zaku grinned. "The Angel of Taki."

My mouth fell open. "You said it!" He laughed. I sighed. "Okay, that's gonna follow me around as much as Neji Hyuga's reputation is..."

"Neji..." Sasuke suddenly spoke, and everything around us went quiet. The five of us looked at him. His eyes looked angry, but his voice remained cool as he said: "I wouldn't associate any good person with Neji..." He looked directly at me when he said this.

"Umm..." I tried to remember what Neji was like. A little bit arrogant, always speaking about fate and stuff, but a nice enough person, rather gallant and very protective of his family and friends...I had the feeling Neji and Sasuke didn't see eye-to-eye on something, they might even be enemies...I certainly didn't want to get involved in that. "Umm..."

"Emily," Sasuke looked at me. "What kind of a person is Neji Hyuga?"

"Umm..." I said, looking around, and my gaze landed on the BBQ tops and food available. "Oh my God, there's still some hamburgers and bacon left!" I hightailed it towards there, away from the Oto students. "Huuuuungryyyy!!!!" I yelled, and got myself away from the sticky situation, although I could still feel Sasuke's cool onyx eyes on me...