I don't own Naruto, or any of its characters. I do, however, own Shingetsu, Kakushin, Hari, Hiun, Kiseichu, Roba, and Menrui. Sorry, listing them out made me feel all important and crap.

SC: There's going to be a little bit of fluff this chappie, so be prepared.

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Chapter 10

Doesn't have a title…

"Hari?" Shingetsu asked, grabbing another branch and snapping it off the tree it had been attached to.

"Hmm?"
"If we make a fire, won't that produce smoke?"

The Hyuuga turned around. "Yeah, wh- oh." He dropped the twigs in his arms. "Well, I feel stupid now."

"You aren't the only one." She laughed, dropping her load as well. "Some prodigies we are, we can't even remember that fire makes smoke."

He sighed. "Might as well head back and have everyone laugh at us already."

"It was my idea, so I'll be getting laughed at more than you."

"I went along with it, though." He reminded her.

"Yeah, but I'm the one who dragged all of us into this mess in the first place, so not only will I get laughed at, I'll get blamed if we all get killed."

Hari laughed. "You're cute when you're frustrated."

Shingetsu stopped. "What did you just say?"

"Ano… that you're cute when you're frustrated?" 'Dammit, I was supposed to deny that.'

"Arigatou, Hari…kun."

"Did you just 'kun' me?"

"Would you have preferred bozu? Or chan?"

A pause. "No, kun is fine."

XXX

"Roba?" Menrui asked, nudging the almost-sleeping boy who was leaning against a tree.

"Hmm?" The Nara opened one eye and looked down at her. She was tracing circles in the sand with a stick.

"Do you… think I'm stupid?"

He sat up. "What in the world brought that up?"

She shrugged. "I just want to know, cuz you're the smartest Genin in Konoha, and I'm not even close."

"Menrui, you're a great Shinobi."

"No I'm not. We all know that I passed the finals by the skin of my teeth."

Roba put a hand on her shoulder. "You were just nervous. Even I was nervous."

She blinked and looked up at him. "Really?" He nodded and she grinned, hugging him tightly.

"Arigatou, Roba-kun! I feel a lot better now." Roba smiled down at her before going back to staring at the clouds. Actually, he hadn't been nervous in the least when they took the Genin exam. But there wasn't any need for Menrui to know that…

Hiun glared at Menrui from down near the water. She'd obviously lost, but that didn't mean she had to enjoy it. Taking care of Kiseichu could only distract her for so long, and his patience for being babied had run out pretty darn fast.

She felt someone sit down next to her. "Wow. If looks could kill…" Kakushin laughed.

Hiun turned around. "Don't you have anyone else to bother?"

"Hmm… let me think. My imouto-chan is off with your nii-san, Menrui and Roba are over there getting cuddly, and I'm absolutely terrified that if I try to bother your otouto-san, he'll kill me."

The female Hyuuga rolled her eyes. "You just saved his life."

"And Kiseichu would care about that if I start to annoy him why?" Hiun shrugged. He had a point; Kiseichu's fuse was not the longest in the world.

"I don't know, maybe he'd take it easy when he's killing you." She said, taking the contacts out of her eyes. She blinked a few times. "Much better."

Kakushin laughed. "I didn't even remember mine." He took his out as well, revealing the onyx color of his eyes. "Wow, you're right that is a lot better." (a/n:What, were you expecting Hiun and Kakushin to be all over each other? Uh, no, think again! Their relationship is love/hate. Mainly hate.)

XXX

"I can't believe that the kids would do this." Hinata muttered.

Sasuke scoffed. "I can."

"Even I've got to agree with Uchiha on this one." Neji sighed. "All seven of them are headstrong and stubborn."

"Yeah, can't imagine where they get THAT from." Tenten muttered. The women all glanced at their husbands, with the exception of Ino and Hinata, because Shikamaru was too lazy to be stubborn most of the time and Naruto, well, wasn't there.

Sakura sighed and relinquished her grip on Sasuke. Her arm hurt really badly, and if her eyes weren't fooling her, the skin around the puncture wound was starting to harden. "Can you really blame them? Wouldn't we all do the same thing if the positions were reversed?"

The answer was an unspoken but unanimous 'Yes.' Sasuke sighed. "But I can't believe they put the dobe on the retrieval team."

"Yeah, along with Iruka, Kakashi, and Chouji." Shikamaru said. "You'd think that Tsunade would've put someone who didn't have such strong emotional attachment to the kids on it."

Ino laughed. "That's probably WHY she did it. Think about it, genius. Our kids are gonna fight back, and Tsunade wants someone who can reason with them and bring them back without severely injuring them."

Sasuke frowned, his fists tightening. "I can't believe Shingetsu would actually take our mission specs."

Neji smirked. "The Uchiha rebel streak." Sasuke glared at him.

"Neji, don't start." Tenten warned. The Hyuuga's comment died in his throat. Sasuke didn't say anything. Instead, he chose to stand up and walk to the room assigned to Sakura and himself.

Needless to say, Sakura followed. "Sasuke?" She asked quietly, sitting next to him. "I'm sure they're fine, Sasuke."

Sasuke buried his head in his hands. "I know that Kakushin and Shingetsu are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves, Sakura, but…"

"But you still think of them as your little guy and baby girl?" He smirked and looked up at her.

"Yeah."

Sakura hugged him. "Get some sleep." She kissed his cheek and stood up.

"What, you aren't gonna join me?" He asked.

She chuckled. "Maybe later. I'm gonna go talk to the girls." Sakura walked out and shut the door. That was a lie, everyone had gone to bed already, but she needed time to think by herself.

She was really worried, not about herself or the kids, but her friends. If the poison was starting to influence her, then no doubt its affects were already working on Ino too. And Hinata and Tenten would be next, then the boys. But it was Sasuke she was most concerned for.

Her worry for him was increased not only by the fact that he was her husband, but that he had taken two shots of the poison, and he would be overtaken twice as fast. She didn't know how potent the poison was with one shot, but with two? The change might be sped up to much, much hastier, and Sasuke might…

Sakura shook her head. She couldn't allow herself to think that way.

Standing, she walked back into the bedroom and lay down next to Sasuke, who wrapped his arms and placed a kiss on her forehead. "Aishiteiru, Sakura-chan."

Sakura rested her head in the hollow of Sasuke's neck. "Aishiteiru, Sasuke-kun."

XXX

"Shikamaru?" Ino whispered.

"Hm?" He muttered, half asleep already.

"Do… do you think Roba's okay?"

Shikamaru opened his eyes and looked down at his wife. "I'm sure he's fine, Ino. He's not a little boy anymore."

"I know." Ino told him. "But every time I think about him, I picture that sweet little boy who used to sleep with your old deer plushie."

He smirked and kissed the top of Ino's head, burying his nose in his hair. "Don't worry, love. He's OUR son. And he's got all his friends with him… just don't worry about it, all right? It's just so-"

"Troublesome?" Ino cut him off, smiling.

"That's my line." He muttered, teasingly pinching her. She let out a little squeak of protest and pinched him back. Ah, the fun of marriage…

XXX

"Neji, you really shouldn't have said that to Sasuke." Tenten admonished, taking down her buns.

"I can't help it. Irking Uchiha always makes me feel better." He muttered, staring at his wife's back.

"Did it make you feel better about yourself this time?" She asked harshly.

Neji paused. "It… no. It made me feel worse."

Tenten turned and smirked at him. "That, Hyuuga Neji, would be called guilt. I know you aren't used to it, but it's a good start." She laid down, her back facing him. Neji stared at the ceiling, his hands behind his head.

"Tenten, I didn't really mean to say that to Sasuke. It just… slipped out."

She propped herself up on her elbows. "Is this an actual apology? Where is my tape recorder?"

Neji sighed and looked at her, his lavender-white eyes meeting her dark ones. "I'm worried about them."

Tenten lay back down, this time facing her husband. "I know. We all are." She touched Neji's cheek.

He put his hand over hers. "They aren't ready for this kind of difficulty."

Tenten laughed. "Neji, if you'd pull your head out of that hole you've buried it in, you'd have noticed that Hari isn't the only skilled Shinobi among our children. You've been so overprotective of Hiun since she's your only daughter, and Kiseichu because of the incident with the wolf, that you haven't noticed that they're good fighters. And you dump all of your expectations on Hari."

Neji sighed once again and closed his fingers around Tenten's hand. "I've been a blind idiot, haven't I?"

"And now, we're making progress."

XXX

Hinata sighed and looked out her window at the moon hanging leisurely in the sky. It was at its half-full stage. Naruto loved the moon when it was like this. The first time she asked him why, he'd said that it was because the moon was optimistic all the time. When she'd questioned this (she'd been feeling particularly brave that night), he had replied, "It's always half-full. Have you ever heard of a half-empty moon?" Then he'd said, "And I figure, since the moon can look on the bright side of things, so can I!"

She fingered the locket around her neck. Naruto had taken her on their first date on the half moon, on their one-year anniversary when he'd given her this necklace, and even proposed to her on the half moon!

Tears came to the Hyuuga heiress' eyes, and she wiped them away. "Naruto-kun… find Menrui soon, so you can both come home safely."

XXX

"Menrui? What's wrong?" Hari asked as they ate sandwiches. They would've had instant ramen again, but that required hot water, and to heat water, they needed a fire, which our two brilliant prodigies have already deduced creates smoke.

His cousin touched her face and realized she'd been crying. "Iie, it's nothing. Just thinking of something that my 'tou-san told me about half-full moons."

"What was it?" Kakushin asked. "I mean, it isn't like we have anything else to talk about, and the silence has long since passed awkward."

Menrui smiled. "They told me that the moon is always the most optimistic at this phase."

"It's a hunk of rock; how can it be optimistic?" Hiun asked.

Menrui giggled. "Well, have you ever heard of a half-empty moon?"

Everyone started laughing. Kiseichu shook his head. "That is so like Naruto."

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SC: Yep, there's your fluff filled chapter! I don't know why I added in the moon thing, it just seemed like thing Naruto would say, I guess. Well, whatever, R&R please!

Ja ne

SpontaneousCombustion