Chapter 24:

The rain had come to a stop and the birds had returned to their songs. The younger children slapped on their boots and ran outside to play in the large puddles outside their houses. But not everyone in the village was awake yet. It was a given that people like Shikamaru were still in bed, but then there were the unlikely people like Rock Lee who were still asleep at this hour. Naruto was sleeping in as well, but he normally did that when he had nothing better to do. Neji and Sasuke were still asleep as well, a blanket tossed carefully over them by Tenten at some point in the night to keep them warm. Now they were both tangled in it as well as in their own limbs. But they could care less as long as they were both comfortable.

Tenten finished setting the table and stood back to admire her work. She had gotten up bright and early to make the boys a delicious breakfast and was ready to hear how she did. She picked up a pan and a skillet and prepared to wake them.

"Breakfast!" she hollered and clashed the metal objects in her hands together. "Get up! Up, up, up! Breakfast, come on!"

The loud clanging sent Naruto diving under his pillow. He threw it over his head and tried to block out the racket. Tenten could never wake them up gently, could she?

"Come on, time to eat!" She banged them together again, making Naruto's ears ring.

"Ok! Ok, we're coming!" he shouted over the noise into the kitchen. He swung his legs out over the side of the bed and stepped on Lee's torso. "Gah! Lee, what are you doing down there? Are you trying to get crushed?"

Lee sat up in his sleeping bag with a horrible bed-head. His dark hair was sticking out in all directions and slightly curled in places. "Sorry, Naruto… Did I startle you?"

"Surprised me a little. Why are you so close to my bed? And in a sleeping bag? I have a couch, you know."

"Yes, I know." He yawned. "But Tenten had taken it and I did not want to be rude so I slept in here."

"So, she stayed here overnight? What for?"

"Just in case those two needed her help. She seems to know a lot about cats. Maybe she owns one."

Tenten's voice shouted again from the other room. "I'm not going to call you guys again! Breakfast! Get in here! It's time to eat!"

The promise of food was enough for them. Lee and Naruto got up in a hurry and rushed to the kitchen. On his way to his seat, Naruto noticed that the two ninja cats hadn't gotten up yet. They were still nestled together in a ball, covered by a thick blanket. That must have been why they weren't up yet. The blanket protected their ears from the pots clanging together.

Lee took his seat at the table and picked up his chopsticks, ready to dig in. Before Naruto took his, he grabbed a large pot from the counter and a wooden spoon and crept up to the bundle in the corner.

Neji and Sasuke were sleeping quite peacefully and deeply hidden under the soft blanket. It was nice and warm inside their quilted igloo, cocooned in the soft material. Neji was lying on his side, nose buried under Sasuke's arm. Sasuke's legs were tangled in Neji's and his face was mere inches from Neji's head. Neji stretched and yawned widely before resting his head back down on Sasuke's shoulder. His slow deep breaths blew Sasuke's hair a little, tickling his neck and making him chuckle softly. But neither one of them was planning on waking up anytime soon. It was nice just to sleep in, even if that was all they did as a couple of cats.

Naruto squatted down over the lumps under the blanket and held the pot over the round lumps he recognized as their heads and raised the spoon. Using the pot as a gong, he hammered away at it with the spoon, freaking both cats out. Sasuke leapt straight up with a yowl and clung to the ceiling upside-down. Neji got himself tangled up even further in the blanket, preventing his escape. So instead, he ran around the room with his face covered by the blanket until he tripped and slammed into a kitchen chair and got himself tangled up in that as well. Tenten and Lee rushed to help him while Naruto hung back and laughed. That was a riot in his opinion.

Sasuke jumped down from the ceiling and gave Naruto a swipe across the face. "Not funny, you jerk!"

"Ow!" Naruto held his face in pain. "That hurt!"

"It was meant to."

Naruto looked at his hand, checking for blood. There was none.

The two sat down at the table, Sasuke determined to get to his seat first. He did and got his food before Naruto. Tenten had made them eggs, toast and pancakes. Her eggs were great and her pancakes were even better; light, fluffy and buttery. Lee slathered his in even more butter and Naruto drowned his in syrup. Tenten sat down and ate hers with butter, light syrup and fresh strawberries. Sasuke and Neji ate theirs as they came. It wasn't fish, but they ate it just the same and liked it. Sasuke held his plate up to his face and licked off the extra butter. Neji drained his glass and asked for more milk. Sasuke raised his glass and asked the same.

After breakfast, things got a little interesting. And by interesting, that meant troublesome. Both teams had been called off on missions and they couldn't be turned down. Reluctantly, both groups parted ways and joined up with their sensei. Both teams departed from the village and went in different directions.

Kakashi's mission was simple enough. All they had to do was chase off a small group of bandits. They weren't very powerful so it should be easy enough to beat them. Gai's team had to go to a farm to put up a fence and find whoever kept tormenting the livestock. Both missions were simple enough, but they would have much rather been sitting at home doing their own thing.

Gai's team got to work right away, hammering up the fence. Tenten held the wooden boards while Lee and Neji hammered away. Neji was getting bored rather quickly, but he pushed himself onward knowing that the sooner they finished, the sooner they would get to go home.

"Next," Lee said and Tenten held up the next board. Neji held a nail in place while Lee picked up the hammer. "How are you holding up, Neji?"

"Bored out of my mind."

"Do not worry. We are almost done."

"We only just started."

"I know. I was just trying to make you feel better."

Neji turned away bitterly.

"Would a scratch under your chin make you feel better?"

"Get away from me."

Tenten sighed. This was only the beginning and she knew that all too well. "Neji, if you get restless, you could always chase chickens or something. We are on a farm, after all."

He snorted. "Dogs chase chickens. Cats are too dignified for that."

"Says the person who was chasing balls of yarn around."

His face turned pink. "Shut up."

"Naruto, on your right!"

"Got it!" Naruto jumped to the side to box in the small group of bandits. It didn't take very long to find them. They had basic weapons and none of them were ninja which meant that there was no danger of them using jutsu. But that didn't mean that Team Kakashi couldn't.

Sakura was already setting up a trap not too far ahead. But her trap could only contain about five people and they all had to be in the same place at the same time. Kakashi had instructed the boys to chase the bandits toward the trap.

Another knife came at Naruto's head from one of the bandits. Sasuke grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back out of the way. He dragged him behind bushes and broke into a dead run.

"Naruto, try to stay out of the way."

"Hey, I could have dodged it if I wanted to. It was all part of my plan, that's all." He really had no plan at all.

"A plan to get yourself killed maybe. But that's not what I was talking about."

Naruto tried to pull his arm back but Sasuke had a good solid grip on him. "Then what were you talking about?"

Sasuke ducked behind a tall tree, pulling Naruto down with him. "I meant that I was going to try to use catfist on him."

Naruto pulled his hand free. "What?! But I thought that something had to trigger it."

"Uh-huh." Sasuke cautiously peered around the tree trunk. "That's why I'm going in. Maybe if I'm in danger or in a fight like what happened with Lee, I'll start fighting."

"Great. Go kill yourself. Meanwhile, I'll be back here thinking of a way we could work together as a team and go with Sakura's plan with the trap that she just so happens to have set, ready and waiting for us over there!"

Sasuke glared at him. "As long as I have this power, I should use it. Now stay out of my way." He jumped out from behind the tree and charged in.

Naruto peered out from his hiding spot to watch. He's a dead man…

Sasuke dove right in swinging his fists. He nailed one man in the face and kicked another in the gut. Maybe he didn't need catfist after all. He was doing great like this. That was until a bandit with a club nailed him from behind. The blow sent Sasuke down but not out. But luckily it did seem to have triggered something in him to snap for he had gotten to his feet and hissed. He ran at them on all fours and jumped high above their heads. He landed on one man's chest and started to claw away at his face with his sharpened nails.

Another bandit came to his aid, but failed in hitting Sasuke. Instead, Sasuke did a back flip through the air and slapped the man across the face before scratching at his chest with his other hand. He kicked him away and went on to the next victim.

Naruto watched the whole thing, safely hidden behind the tree. "Glad that's not me…"

Sasuke was on a rampage. As soon as he slashed one across the face, he went straight to another one and did the same. He didn't give them a chance to recover. He wasn't going to stop until he was the last one left standing. The bandit with the club tried to clock him again, but this time Sasuke was ready for it. He turned around and split the club clean in two with his bare hands. Then he jumped up and kicked him in the chest with both legs. Another bandit pulled out a knife, but Sasuke bit his wrist and jerked the blade from his hand. Another one tried the same but got slashed across the face by Sasuke's sharp nails before he even had a chance.

The lead bandit reached for another weapon only to discover that he was all out. All the weapons he had carried were now either broken or knocked aside by Sasuke. He had nothing to fight with but his bare fists.

One of his comrades grabbed his arm and tried to pull him away. "Let's get out of here, boss. That kid's crazy!"

Sasuke crouched on all fours and hissed, hair standing straight up.

"That freak thinks he's a freaking cat!"

"I agree," said another. "Let's get out of here."

The lead bandit made a split-second decision. "Fine, you win." He whistled for the others to follow.

Those who could walk scrambled to their feet and ran after their boss while the others limped or crawled away before getting help from the less injured bandits.

Sasuke wasn't finished. If they could still move, that meant that they could still fight. With a yowl, he gave chase on all fours, running towards Sakura's trap. The bandits were heading right for it as planned but with Sasuke on their heels, that meant that he would fall into it, too.

Naruto jumped out of his hiding place and ran after him. "Sasuke, wait! Don't go that way! Get back here! Sasuke!"

He wasn't listening. Naruto wondered if Sasuke could even hear his voice anymore. He just kept running. And as long as the bandits were in earshot, Naruto couldn't warn Sasuke of the trap without alerting them as well. All he could do was chase after him and hope to catch up in time.

"Sasuke!"

Up ahead, Sakura was waiting up in a tree above the trap she had set moments before. They sure are taking their time. What's going on? At this rate… Sakura sighed, running low on patience. If they're still fighting them off, we won't need this trap at all. They would have already done the work and I did this for nothing.

Just then she heard screaming and saw rustling in the bushes and tall grass. The bandits were coming this way!

"Finally!" She hid herself in the thick branches and waited.

Naruto jumped over a large rock, keeping up with Sasuke the whole time. But he was always just out of his reach. If he could just get close enough…

"Sasuke!"

Just then a pink blur came right out of the corner of his eyes and flew towards Sasuke. Naruto skidded to a halt and watched.

The pink object soared right across Sasuke's field of vision and rolled to the left. Curious, Sasuke stopped and looked. It was just what he didn't expect to find all the way out here. It was a ball of yarn. Meowing happily, Sasuke skipped over to the yarn and started to play with it, forgetting all about the bandits.

Kakashi jumped down from a tall tree and landed next to Naruto. "You know," he said. "Now that he's like this, you might want to consider carrying a supply of those on hand just in case."

Naruto knew that Kakashi was aware of Sasuke's condition, but he still couldn't help but be mildly shocked.

Sasuke meowed and pawed at the yarn ball happily. He batted it back and forth from hand to hand, rolled over it and bit it. He was having fun.

A sudden crash sounded in the distance, telling them that the trap had worked. The loud noise snapped Sasuke out of his cat state and he stood up, dropping the yarn at his feet.

Kakashi nodded and started to walk in that direction. "Sounds like the trap was a success. Let's go see what happened."

All the bandits were trapped in a deep narrow hole in the ground with Sakura standing above them looking triumphant. "See? I told you it would work! What do you think?" She hopped up and down like a child, quite pleased with herself.

Kakashi nodded. "Good work. Are they all accounted for?"

"Yup!"

Sasuke kept his distance. It was unclear why he was, but Naruto had a feeling that it had to do with embarrassment in some way. Or maybe he was just upset that Kakashi not only knew about his condition but also knew how to deal with it. Either way, Sasuke didn't look happy.

Back at the farm, Team Gai was just about finished with their project. The fence was put and looking great. The livestock were still in the barn finishing their meal of hay and oats. All they had to do now was let them out to roam the fenced in area and find out what had been terrorizing them to begin with. It might just be a fox or something along those lines.

Tenten finished putting away all the nails and hammer and straightened up, looking around. "Hey, Lee, do you know where Neji went to? I can't seem to find him."

"He said that he was going off to stretch his legs or something like that, I think."

They heard screaming and looked up. Neji was running as fast as he could away from a black sheepdog.

"Oh, no…" Tenten moaned.

Neji was heading right for them, screaming his head off. "Help me! Help me! Get it away! Help!" He ran at them at top speed and jumped. No one had time to react. Neji slammed into Lee, knocking him backwards through the fence they had only just finished putting together. He landed on Lee in a pile of broken pieces of wood and nails, still shaking uncontrollably.

The black dog lost interest and trotted away.

Neji clung to Lee's chest, trembling from head to toe. It was going to take a little while to calm him down.

In the meantime, Tenten pulled out another stack of wood and the bucket of nails and a hammer. "Let's try this again. Maybe we'll finish by sunset."

Poor people…

Next one is the last chapter! It all comes down to this!

Please review! ^-^