Hey guys! Sorry this is a bit late, things have been a tad hectic! Anywhoo here's the next chapter. Enjoy :)

Chapter 30

Naru POV

"I'm so excited!" I throw my overnight bag into the boot of Itachi's car. We were split into two groups; me, Gaara Deidara and Sasuke were going in Itachi's car and Hinata, Neji, Tenten and Chouji were in Kiba's car. Apparently they'd also invited Shikamaru but he refused, thinking it would be too awkward between us. The others had already set off and were going to meet us there. "Hey, can I drive?"

"No!" Deidara and Itachi nearly shout causing me to frown. I didn't think I was that bad; they've both taken me out a few times this past week and I thought I was improving.

"I mean it's probably better if I drive because I'm more experienced." Gaara and Sasuke are already sitting in the car and I'm sure I heard them snigger just now. Humph, wait til we get there…

"Okay then." Though I think that probably is for the best; we've got to go onto the motorway to get where we're going and I'm probably not quite ready for that amount of traffic yet. We all pile in and head off out of Konoha. I'm sitting in between Gaara and Sasuke in the back so that Dei can sit up front with his boyfriend. I reach through the gap between them and put a CD in. Pressing play, they all immediately moan except from Itachi, it is his CD after all, as a high pitched voice starts singing 'Wheels on the bus'. I join in soon after, smile plastered on my face as Gaara sticks his fingers in his ears, though he's smiling too. Sasuke tries to ignore me and Itachi and Dei talk between themselves as we join the motorway. This is going to be a fun night.

"I hate this!" I stomp my foot as my tent falls down for the third time. I look around, frowning as everybody else has got theirs up already and are either messing around or are splashing about in the water. I kick the fallen tent, huffing. We'd picked a spot as far as possible from the sea as we could though according to the others it's never come anyway near here when the tide comes in; though we settled as far back as we could, just in case. Gaara comes over and I watch how he effortlessly puts the tent up and steps back as it stays upright. Damn thing has something against me I'm sure. "Thanks Gaara." He says 'no problem' before heading towards the sea to steal the beach ball from Kiba. I smile as they mess on; thankful that everybody is getting on well with Gaara. I walk over to Itachi and Dei's tent, kicking whoever is sitting closest to me.

"Stop making out and get out here." Itachi pops his head out, a very slight blush on his face. He looks up at me squinting.

"But the sun! It burns!" Sasuke walks past to stare at his older brother. He shakes his head, calling him a loser before wandering off towards the rocks. I watch him with a smile; whenever we'd come here as kids he'd always go straight over to the rocks, he used to love climbing them.

"Come on; out." I look back at Itachi and he sighs before coming out, Deidara following. "So who's up for a game of volleyball?" The others cheers from further down the beach and Kiba draws a line in the sand.

"What about teams? We can't have girls against boys 'cause we've got odd numbers. And Sasuke doesn't look like he's playing." Kiba nods his head in the little Uchiha's direction; I look back over to where Sasuke went, surprised at how far he'd walked.

"I think I'll sit out and start the barbecue." Chouji heads over to Kiba's car to pull out the disposable BBQ's they bought on the way.

"So that's five guys and three girls?" I look over everyone, counting as I go. "How about the girls' team gets Neji? He looks like one anyway right?" Neji scowls at me as Gaara looks away slightly embarrassed. When the two first met Gaara thought Neji was a girl and commented on his hair causing Neji to huff for a while.

"Fine." We move to our respective sides and Kiba tosses me the ball to start.

"Oh, you guys are going down!" The others cheer behind me, even Neji has his competitive side, as I serve the ball.

Our team ended up winning three out of five, much to Kiba's distress and he kept asking for a rematch. As the day went on it got a lot hotter so I took my shirt off so that I was just wearing my bikini that the girls insisted I wear. I look over to them splashing their respective boyfriends; they'd stripped off their shirts as soon as we got here, no shame what so ever. Tenten soon followed and even the shy Hinata ran around in her bikini. Gaara changed into his shorts, complaining that it was even hotter than Suna right now, and that's saying something. It's hot there all year round. Deidara was trying to make a masterpiece out of the sand but Itachi kept getting in the way and 'accidently' walking all over it. I'm sure he was doing it on purpose because of the smirk on his face. Sasuke finally reappeared, shirt in hand and dripping wet. I scolded him for jumping of the rocks like his mother used to do before laughing at him and making him put some sun protection on. The kid's way too pale to be walking around topless without it.

"Food's ready!" Kiba cheers before running over to join us at our makeshift barbecue as Chouji starts handing out burgers and sausages. I lay my towel on the sand before sitting down on it to eat my burger and Gaara sits down behind me with his own. I can hear Sasuke complaining that there's only meat and no salad, in other words tomatoes, but Kiba just tells him to 'stop being a pussy and eat the damn meat' causing the others the laugh; dirty buggars that they are.

"Having fun?" Gaara leans forward, his breath tickling my ear. I turn slightly to give him a smile, nodding.

"Yup!" I finish my burger before grabbing the red head and dragging him into the water with me. We head further in until we can't touch the bottom no more and plash around for a bit. Soon after I dive under, grabbing his shorts and pulling them down. I resurface a bit away from him as he shouts at me. Lifting my arm up into the air I swing his shorts around, whooping. I dive back under and swim away from him though he eventually follows me. Unfortunately, the bikini the girls made me wear ties at the back so when he caught up to me all he had to do was pull and it came away. Which he did. This is the last time I let them force me into any kind of clothing. I swim back up, taking in a deep breath before shouting his name as he resurfaces a bit away, grin on his face as he mimics what I did earlier, swinging my bikini top around in the air.

"Get back here, Racoon!" He swims back to shore, not caring that he's running across the beach completely naked and passes my top to Kiba who holds it in the air as if it was a prize. Introducing those two was not the smartest idea I ever had. Gaara wraps a towel around his waist; luckily it's only our group at this part of the beach. I use an arm to cover myself before leaving the water and heading straight up to Kiba, grabbing the piece of clothing from him.

"Kibbles." He looks at me as if to say 'Oh no you didn't'; his sister's nickname for him making everyone laugh at him. I smirk before whacking Gaara over the head and climbing inside my tent, huffing as I zip it up. I lie down on my sleeping bag and can't help but smile. I'm so glad we came here.

After I'd changed into my shorts and a baggy top, I left my tent to find them setting up a fire even though it was nowhere near to getting dark any time soon. They were all sat around it so I squeezed myself in between Gaara and Sasuke, trying to ignore the fact that Sasuke was still shirtless and how nice his chest is. He's still skinny, though he doesn't look as thin as he did the night I caught him drinking. Kiba starts passing beer bottles around but stops when he comes to Sasuke and looks at me before looking at Itachi. Nobody notices and starts drinking while Itachi looks at Sasuke who squirms under his brother's gaze before sneaking a look at me. I look at Itachi and it kinda feels like we're having a silent conversation with each other.

"Ermm…" Kiba scratches the side of his face, waiting for an answer to his unspoken question from either of us. Itachi nods at me before turning to talk to Dei.

"Two's your limit, okay?" Sasuke nods slowly before taking the bottle from Kiba who goes to sit back down. I pass him the bottle opener before taking a swig of my own but he just continues looking at me, as if he needs permission. I actually feel quite proud that he's reluctant to drink it without being told to. I nod towards the bottle indicating for him to open and he does. He takes a swig, still looking at me. I lean in towards him so that nobody else can hear us. "It's just so you don't feel left out, okay? So promise me after this, you won't drink again until you're old enough."

"I promise." I smile at him before wrapping my arm around him and giving him the best, or worst whichever way you want to look at it, noogie of his life. He lets out a not so manly squeal causing the others to go on to take the mickey out of him.

It's getting late so everyone was starting to get ready to go to bed, some less sober than others. Even Itachi had a couple beers but that was it. I'm sitting a bit further down the beach away from the others, happily nursing what's left of the crate of beers we'd bought. I look up as Sasuke sits down next to me before returning my gaze to the sea, watching the waves. I open another beer before handing it to him; he didn't have his second one and I don't like drinking alone.

He takes it from me hesitantly, taking a swig of it. I dump my empty bottle with the others before grabbing another for myself. I turn back to look at him but he just looks out into the distance, as if lost in his own thoughts.

"Hey, Sasuke." He looks over as I inch closer to him, resting against him slightly. "Thank you." He gives me a funny look, as if I'd just grown another head.

"What for?" I smile as I take a drink before letting my head rest against his shoulder. I move my hand, indicating towards the beach.

"For this." I turn my head to look back up as he takes another drink, the slightest blush covering his cheeks. He's so cute when he's like this…

"I don't know what you're talking about." I laugh but leave it at that. When Itachi said we should all go on a beach trip he told me that it was actually Sasuke's idea but he wasn't supposed to tell me. He even said he thought Sasuke was worried about me and that's probably why he brought up the idea of doing something to take my mind off of everything. When Itachi told me that it made me happy; a lot happier than I know I should have been. We sit in silence as we drink our beers; I'm already on to my next one. I drink half of it before standing up, wobbling slightly as I try to get my balance right. I take Sasuke's bottle from him, placing next to mine, before grabbing his hands; pulling him up. I keep hold of one of his hands, leading him towards the rocks he went climbing earlier. He doesn't say anything, letting me lead the way, until we get to the top of the cliff, the water calm below us. "What are we doing up here?"

"Diving." I pull my top off, letting it drop, before working on my shorts.

"What happened to 'you shouldn't be jumping from there; it's dangerous', huh?" I turn to smile at him before walking away a bit. I start running towards the cliff and jump when I reach the edge. I bring my hands together, stretched on in front of me; whooping before I hit the water, the adrenaline rushing through me. Or maybe it's the alcohol. Who knows? I swim back to the surface, kicking my legs slightly to keep me afloat. It's not as deep as I remember it; though I was a lot shorter then I guess. I hold my hands to my mouth to shout up at him.

"Who do you think your diving partner used to be?" I swim backwards, using my hands to move me. I can't see him very well from here; the only light coming from the moon which is currently covered by the clouds. His figure disappears before reappearing as he runs back over and jumps. But instead of diving in like I did he brings his knees up to his chest, arms wrapped around them. He bombs into the water, splashing it all over me. He comes back up mere inches away from me, panting slightly. I laugh as he uses a hand to move his hair out of his eyes. I reach over push a stray it away, though my fingers linger.

"You look different when you're hair's wet." I smile at him as I let go, a bit reluctantly. "But in a good way." He looks at me silently as my hand moves on its own back to his face, fingers tracing his jaw. "I'm sorry." His mouth opens to speak but I press my fingers against his lips, stopping him. "I'm sorry if I worried you." I was happy when Itachi told me that Sasuke wanted us to do something to take my mind off it all but I was also angry at myself for making him worry about me in the first place. He's just a kid; he shouldn't be worrying about what's going on with me. I try smiling at him, though it wavers slightly.

"Naruko."

"Everything's going to be okay now, Sasuke. So don't worry about me…" I look into his eyes, waiting; but he doesn't say anything. Instead he wraps his arms around me, legs kicking slightly to keep us up. He holds me tight against him as I start to cry against him. I'm beginning to lose count the amount of times he's held me like this…

Itachi POV

I watch as Naruko drags my little brother off to the rocks; just like old times. Whenever we came here when we were younger Naruko would always be pulling Sasuke around and he just let her; you could see how happy he was when they were together.

"Aren't you coming?" Dei sits down beside me as I continue watching the two figures.

"In a minute." I can just hear Naruko's 'whoop' in the distance before something dives in the water. No guesses for who that was.

"What're you watching?" A few minutes later another figure jumps into the water. I point over to the cliff they'd just jumped from; Dei following my finger.

"Naruko and Sasuke." I can barely see them from here. "Something seems odd." Dei leans against me as he squints, trying to see the duo in the dark water.

"Odd?" I nod letting my gaze drift to the empty beer bottles Naruko had left further down the beach. I shouldn't have let her drink so much…

"It's… I don't know how to explain it." I run my hand through my hair, sighing. "It's as if something has changed between those two. And I don't know what it is."

"They've became close friends; that's probably what it is." Somehow I don't think so.

"But I'm worried that it's more than that. And that scares me slightly…"

Naru POV

"Do you really have to go?" As much as it annoyed me sometimes to have Gaara constantly with me I can't help but feel like I'm going to miss him. He made me feel safe about the whole Orochimaru thing, even though I've not heard anything since.

"Unfortunately. I can't leave the gallery for too long; those guys will have probably wrecked it by now…" I laugh as he pulls a funny face. He complains about his employees all the time but I know that he wouldn't give them up for anybody else.

"I'll miss you…" He turns around after putting his case into the boot of his rented car. He didn't fancy travelling on the bus all the way back to Suna. He steps in front of me, hand cupping my cheek as he leans in slightly. I stiffen slightly, though I don't know why. Since I broke up with Shika, Gaara's kissed me a few times, though he always looks sad after. I shouldn't have kept letting him do it, but I wanted to feel close to someone. It's selfish, I know, but I still didn't stop it.

"Me too…" He stares at me before smiling slightly and moving away to get in the car. Another car pulls up and Itachi waves at me; we're going to pick up our results for the year after Gaara's left. "Keep in touch, Kit." Stepping towards the car I reach in through the open window to hug him. We break apart after a while then he hands me an envelope. "Give that to the little Uchiha. And tell him to call me." I stare down at the envelope wandering what's in it. He finally drives away and I watch his car until he goes out of sight. I climb in the front passenger seat and just barely manage to put my seatbelt on before Itachi speeds away. And he thinks I'm a bad driver.

"What's that?" We pull into the Uni car park as he indicates towards the envelope I'm holding.

"No idea. Gaara said to give it to Sasuke… Any idea?" I climb out the car, leaving the envelope in Itachi's glove box.

"It could be something to do with his gallery. I heard them talking about it at the beach." We head onto campus, stopping at the main entrance. "Meet you back here?" I nod before walking towards the Sports building, heading for our office. I squeeze past the others hanging around in the hallways, chatting about their results. My hands shake slightly as I wait in line; I really don't want to see mine...

"Hey, Naruko!" I turn to the side just as Kiba and Neji walk towards me. With Shino and Shikamaru behind them. Ahh, crap. I haven't seen him since that night. "I passed! Can you believe it?" I take his results sheet from him to stop him waving it in my face. I glance over his marks, some better than others; but all passes. I look up and smile at him.

"Who'd have thought, eh? You've got something inside that head of yours after all." He grabs the paper back as he sticks his tongue out at me. I reach the woman at the desk and give her my name. Kiba bounces slightly next to me as if waiting for my results… at least someone's excited about them. I suppose somebody's got to be. The woman hands me an envelope with my name and student number on; I thank her before moving to the other side of the room, the guys trailing me. I stop in the corner but just stare at the white envelope, not wanting to open it…

"Come on, Naru…" I look back as Shika puts his hand on Kiba's shoulder.

"Give her some room, man." Shika looks over at me and I can't help but return the small smile he gives me as he leads Kiba away. Sighing, I rip open the end and pull the sheet of paper out, examining it. My eyes scan down the page looking at the overall results for each module rather than the individual assessments. No way…

"I passed…" I whisper as I re-read the sheet, looking at all the assessments this time. Some of my exam marks were terrible but I passed… I clutch the paper to my chest as I look over to the guys, Shika still looking at me. I feel a tear run down my face as I give him my best smile, laughing slightly. He walks back over, the others following, and I can't resist jumping him. I wrap my arms around his neck, laughing and crying. "I passed!" He swings me around before putting me back on the ground and pulling away as Kiba and Neji pat me on the back.

"I knew you could do it." Shika smiles at me before indicating for me to follow him out of the room. I thank the others and congratulate them on their own results before following Shika.

I send Itachi a quick text telling him not to wait for me and I'd see him later. I made sure to tell him I passed in case he started to worry I'd gone off upset or something. I catch up to Shika as we head off campus, expecting him to walk to the park but he doesn't and I'm kind of grateful. Instead he heads towards a little café opposite the Uni that we used to go sometimes when he'd pick me up. I follow him in as he orders for us before sitting down at a free table. A waitress brings his coffee and my orange juice over before heading back to serve other customers. I take a sip of my juice, looking anywhere but at him; not sure what to say.

"How've you been? You never returned my calls…" I finally look at him, though he's looking down into his mug. He tried to ring me a few times but I would always ignore him; I had no idea what to say to him.

"I've been okay. I, ermm…" He lifts his head to look at me.

"I just wanted to say… I'm sorry for how I broke up with you." I try to look away but my eyes won't leave him. "I should've thought about it more and I know it was a bad time to do it. I don't want you to hate me…" My hand reaches over to rest on top of his own and I smile at him. I know I should've spoken to him earlier but I was scared to face him.

"I don't hate you, Shika. I could never hate you." His eyes widen, I don't think he expected that. "And don't be sorry; you did what you had to do."

"Naru…" I shake my head at him as I bring my hand back to hold my glass, taking another drink.

"Let me say this." I put my glass back down, eyes never leaving his. "I'm sorry for pushing you away. I've let Orochimaru control me even from behind bars. I'm not going to let that happen anymore. I'm not gonna let him destroy all my relationships." He tries to speak but I hold my hand up to stop him. "I'm not expecting you to take me back or anything. I'll admit, I still like you. But I want you to be happy. And I want us to be friends." He rests his elbows on the table, his chin resting on his hands as he watches me. I give me a sly smile as I lean forward, putting what happened behind us. "So, did you tell Temari you like her?"