Chapter 22:

Sasuke finished off the last piece of fish and settled down in the grass to digest. The sun had nestled behind some grey clouds in the sky, shading the two genin in the clearing. It looked like it was going to rain at some point that day, but that was ages away in their minds. Right now, they each had their own thing to think about. Sasuke was thinking about how good the fish tasted and Naruto was thinking about Sasuke. He was curious about Sasuke's behavior and how much more it might deteriorate. There was no telling if Sasuke was going to improve or not and by the looks of things, it was clear that he was only becoming more and more cat-like. Tenten's training seemed to have sped up the process as well. Could that have been her plan all along?

That brought a question to his mind. "Hey, Sasuke…"

"Yeah?" Sasuke was licking the back of his fist, washing it.

"Why'd you try to share your fish head with me?"

He shrugged. "How should I know? I just felt like it. Why?"

"But a fish head? The head of all things?"

"Hey, don't cats bring dead things back to their owners as gifts or something?"

"That was a gift?!" Naruto snapped. "A fish head is your idea of a gift?!"

Sasuke turned away. "Shut up."

Naruto started pulling blades of grass out of the ground, bored. He wondered what Neji was up to now. Had he found Lee and tackled him the way Sasuke did him? It was anyone's guess.

Without noticing, Sasuke had scooted closer to Naruto until they were almost shoulder to shoulder. At last, he turned and spotted him. It looked like Sasuke wanted to say something to him.

"What?"

He looked away. "I was just… I was wondering… Could you...?" He shook his head wildly. "No! It's a stupid idea. Never mind. I shouldn't even be thinking that."

"Thinking what?"

Sasuke's face was burning. He swallowed hard. Keeping his eyes fixed on the ground, he asked or rather muttered, "Would you pet me?"

Not sure if he had heard him right Naruto asked him to speak up. "What was that?"

"Are you deaf?! I said pet me!" Sasuke shouted before turning to hide his red face.

What a day this was turning out to be. Naruto fought back giggles. "You're actually asking me to pet you?"

"Shut up. It's another damn impulse." Sasuke kept his back turned. "Just shut up and get it over with."

"You make it sound like I'm the one who asked for this." Naruto shifted around until he was facing Sasuke's back and put his hands on his back and started to give him a nice massage. Sasuke purred and leaned back into his touch. Naruto placed a hand behind his ear and gave it a scratch. Sasuke purred even louder. "This actually isn't so bad."

"Hm?"

"I mean, if you're really going to be a cat for the rest of your life, I wouldn't mind. You're a lot calmer like this, more tolerate, friendly even…"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing. It's nothing." Naruto flattened his palms on Sasuke's back and just rubbed him along the spine up and down. After that, Sasuke became very quiet. "Still awake?"

"Yeah."

"How come you don't want a nap today? Sleep too much or something?"

"I don't know… I'm feeling pretty tired now, though. Maybe I just needed a full stomach or something." Sasuke fell backwards into Naruto's lap.

Naruto stopped petting him and gave him a poke in the forehead. "Uh… Sasuke?"

"What now?"

"Could you get off me?"

Sasuke took a lazy look around before sinking deeper into his lap. "I don't know. Your lap is pretty comfortable. Maybe I should just take a nap right here."

"But do you have any idea how this looks?"

Sasuke glanced up at him from his laying position. "No, how?"

Naruto was embarrassed to even say it. "Well, the way you're lying on me and all… it kinda makes us look like lovers."

At the mention of that, Sasuke wanted nothing more than to get up. But his feline laziness kicked in and he fell back down on top of Naruto's folded legs. "I don't care anymore."

"But you always care!"

"We're alone out here in the middle of the woods with no one else around surrounded by trees and rocks and grass. If I don't say anything about this, you won't either. Right?"

"Huh?"

"What I'm saying is that I'm not in the mood to get up. I'm comfortable right here and if no one's around to see us like this, then I couldn't care less. If no one knows, there's no problem."

"I guess, but…"

"Not another word, ok?" Sasuke closed his eyes. "I'm taking that nap now. Be quiet."

"KAKASHI!"

The two genin quickly sprang up and away from each other in the grass as Gai came tearing through the trees. He skidded to a halt and stood in front of a tree not too far from where the boys had been just a few moments ago.

"Alright, Kakashi," he said. "I did my part of the challenge. Now where's that fish you promised me?"

"His fish?!" Sasuke's hair started to stand on end.

His sensei stepped out from behind the tree, cracking his neck with a bored expression. "Fancy meeting you two all the way out here." He was addressing Naruto and Sasuke.

"I get the feeling you followed us…" Naruto muttered.

Gai struck another pose. "Well, where's the fish?"

"What fish?" Naruto was a little confused.

Gai struck yet another pose. "Why, the fish for the challenge! Kakashi picked the challenge for today. He challenged me to a fishing contest. Whoever caught the most fish with the same net would win!" He turned back to his rival. "So come on, Kakashi. Show me the fish!"

"I would, Gai. You know I would, but the thing is…" He glanced over at Sasuke. "It seems that the fish I so carefully placed aside for the challenge were taken by a couple hungry cats."

"Cats?"

"I know. Strange seeing them all the way out here, huh?" Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck. "But you know cats. Very independent and always hungry for some easy fish." He was still glancing at Sasuke out of the corner of his eye.

Sasuke's blood was boiling now. I'll kill him!

"But what about the challenge?" Gai whined. He sounded very disappointed.

"Ah," Kakashi waved him off. "Rain check. We'll have to do it another time. Besides, don't we have some training of our own?"

"Hm?"

Kakashi gestured to the two in the grass. "Our teams?"

Gai rubbed his chin. "Teams...?" He snapped his fingers. "Oh! Yes, that's right! Ahh! I almost forgot about them! Poor Lee's probably suffering without me right now! I have to get back!" Gai broke into a dead run in some random direction. "Rain check, Kakashi! Rain check!"

Kakashi called the two over. "Come on. We'd better head back. Anyone know where Sakura is by chance?"

Sasuke was hissing he was so mad.

"What? Did I do something to upset you?"

"Don't act all innocent!" he snapped.

Kakashi pointed to himself. "Me? What do you mean?"

"I know you know, so stop teasing me!" Sasuke snapped.

Kakashi gave him an innocent stare. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Like hell you don't!"

"I can't believe you did that," Tenten muttered to Neji.

He had just finished off the last drop of milk and was busy grooming himself at the moment. "Tell me about it. I just wanted the milk so bad."

"So, you acted cute on purpose?"

He shrugged. "It worked, didn't it? Besides… it was kind of worth it."

"I can't believe you would stoop to that level! You of all people! I thought I knew you, but after seeing this…"

"Tenten, I'm sorry. I've done so many embarrassing things all week long, what's one more going to do?"

"And another thing!" She stood up. "I was right in the middle of training you guys!"

"You call that training? I call it exploiting! How does that help us at all?"

"The catfist thing," she told him. "I heard all about that, remember? Shino told you and you told Sasuke and then I heard about it from both of you. I was trying to help you guys control it better."

"How?"

"Look, we have missions coming up, no matter how cat-like you guys get. I thought it would be a good idea if you two figured out what triggers the catfist mode so that you could use it in battle rather than go running off like you did last time."

Neji flashed back to when he had gotten himself stuck in a tree. That was something he never wanted to have happen again. "So, all this stuff was just to help us get more in touch with our cat selves so that we could get better control over the technique?"

"Yup."

"Then why didn't you just say that in the first place? I would have cooperated if that were the case!"

"Oh! Hello, Gai-sensei! How wonderful it is to see you all the way out here in the woods coming close to that tree over there, where I have no idea if anyone, like our team for example, may be lurking about!"

Subtlety wasn't Lee's strong suit, that was for sure. His blatant remarks and the way he had stressed on a few choice words here and there told the two that Gai was coming their way; just in case they were doing something that they didn't want him to see.

Gai stepped out carrying a net with Lee at his side. The net was filled with fish, some of which were still flopping around. "Sorry about that everyone. Kakashi decided to take a rain check for our little battle."

"What's with the fish?" Tenten asked.

"Oh." Gai held them up for all to see. "The challenge called for us to out-fish each other using this net. Now I don't know what to do with them all. Maybe this could be our lunch, how about that?"

Neji immediately got down on his hands and knees and started to rub his body against Gai's legs affectionately at the promise of fish. He liked the idea of fish for lunch.

Gai looked down and watched him with an uneasy look on his face. "Hey, uh, Neji… What are you doing?"

Tenten and Lee held their breath. They couldn't come up with a way to explain this or do anything to help so quickly. Neji was on his own.

He stopped in the middle of a rub and thought fast. He faked looking for a coin he had dropped and tucked the imaginary money back into his pocket. "Oh, there it is! Ha ha… Lost a coin… Found it." He got up and went to hide his red face behind his teammates. How embarrassing!

Shaking off the strange ordeal, Gai went back to giving his team directions. "Ok, a quick lunch break and then the real fun begins."

Tenten tugged on Lee's jumpsuit. "Psst! Hey, Lee, can you do me a favor?"

"Like what?"

She whispered in his ear. "I'm not sure how much of Gai's training Neji can take before he's run into the ground. I need your help to make sure that Gai doesn't overdo it, ok?"

"But Neji has always-"

"He's part cat now! I've seen him struggle on the really intense stuff. So please?"

Lee nodded. "Sure thing. I will do my best. No problem!"

As always, their training was intense, but Neji did his best anyway. But along their ten-mile hike, he had finally had enough. Six miles was all that he could take at this point. He gave up and leaned against a tree to catch his breath. Tenten noticed this and motioned for Lee to distract Gai while she snuck him out of here.

"Gai-sensei!" Lee came running up to him before he had a chance to turn around and notice Neji. "I have been training really, really hard and I wish to show you how much I have learned!"

Gai's face lit up. "Is that so? Have you mastered any new techniques?"

Lee nodded, sealing his fate. Now he had to make something up on the spot.

Meanwhile Tenten grabbed Neji and pulled him back down the hill the way they had come. Halfway down, Neji had to stop again for another rest. Knowing that it would take forever at the rate they were going, Tenten took matters into her own hands. She squatted down in front of him and pulled him onto her back.

Once Neji found himself lying across her back, he realized that she was trying to give him a piggyback. There was no sense in complaining, but he had to anyway. "Tenten, what do you think you're doing? A girl giving a boy a piggyback… this is embarrassing!"

"And purring and rubbing your body against other people's legs isn't?"

"Point taken."

"This way is faster anyway. You're not that heavy. I can manage." She wrapped her arms under his legs and broke off at a surprisingly brisk pace. She could handle herself alright. She was tough.

Neji flattened his chest against her back and started to relax. "But once we get back to town, let me off, ok? I don't want to be seen like this."

"I understand." She kept walking, never stopping to look at him. "I'm taking you to Naruto's place, ok?"

"I figured as much." He curled his arms up between her back and his chest and buried his nose behind them. "Thanks."

"No problem."

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