A/N: Thank you for the lovely reviews! In particular, thank you to xXx.Murakami.xXx, Yami416 and ani-sand, who are responsible for the quick update!

As for your questions, I'm afraid you'll have to wait and see ;) One thing I can assure you, is that this story does go through the Shippuden period. Apologies on spelling, it may be different as I'm English, living in the UK. I know some US words are spelt differently. Any other typo's are my own mistakes and I'll try harder to avoid them.

Disclaimer: Naruto is Masashi Kishimoto's baby, not mine :(

Claimer: Extra characters, especially Kari and Kita, belong to me.

Enjoy.

Preparation

Better to be prepared.

Hesitation leads to disaster.

Sasuke's eyes slowly opened. He was met with the now familiar view of a sleeping Kari. As usual, she slept silently, her pale face unmoving apart from the soft breathing Sasuke had to strain his ears to hear. It was comforting to see her beside him, a constant reminder that regardless of whether he wanted her company or not, she would always be there beside him. He wasn't alone.

Just as the young Uchiha was relaxing into the peace, he became aware things were quite different to normal. First off, his bed was larger and more comfortable than this. Second, there was a loud snoring coming from somewhere behind Kari (she had never been known to snore as of yet). Thirdly, body parts were sprawled all over him.

Of course. Kari arranged a sleepover at Naruto's, which he couldn't refuse because she'd track him down and drag him otherwise. That means the people laying over him were Naruto and Sakura.

Sasuke tensed as he calculated the positions of the people around him. He was laying quite awkwardly. His head had been resting against Kari's chest, listening to the soft thud of her heartbeat. His arms were lazily round her sides, in the indent between her ribcage and hips which were due to her feminine body. One of her legs was between his, his right leg was over her legs (Sasuke cringed violently at this). One of her arms was under his neck, supporting his head while the other was lazily draped over his shoulder.

He could feel something against his stomach and looking carefully he figured out it was Naruto's arms which were wrapped tightly round Kari, slightly higher than his arms were. From the position of the blonde spiky hair that Sasuke could see, he guessed Naruto's head was nuzzled into either the back of Kari's neck or against her shoulder blades. Sasuke shuddered as his eyes shot down and saw Naruto's bare legs tangled with his and Kari's. Naruto was actually touching him. And touching her… the sick perv.

Sasuke's stomach clenched horribly as his mind tried to figure out Sakura. Arms were suffocating tight across his abdomen. (He had wondered what that was; he had thought he needed to pee.) He had one of her legs over his hip. Her head was pressed into his back (and felt slightly wet so she must be drooling on him). Sakura too was snoring, but suddenly grumbled and her hands started to loosen from round him. Sasuke was relieved, until he felt one hand slide near to an area she simply shouldn't touch. On reflex he jolted away, causing Sakura to fall out one end of the bed and Kari to jump out her skin, wake up, and for her head to collide with Sasuke's.

Luckily though for Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura remained asleep and Kari fell unconscious from the impact between hers and Sasuke's skull. Sasuke sighed and stayed still; relaxing and trying to settle back to sleep. If he moved, Naruto would be sure to wake up and accuse him of every crime under the sun.

In his (desperate) attempt to get away from Sakura he had rolled on top of Kari (which scared the shit out of her). Sasuke's arm was wedged (and stuck) between Naruto's chest and Kari's side (she had rolled over), and his legs had ended up even closer to Naruto's the three of their legs tangled into knots.

He sighed, relaxing his body. He ignored as best he could the position of his (and more importantly those around him's) body, in particular the fact his face was against Kari's chest (again). He couldn't do anything about it and it's not like they would ever know. So he settled back to sleep.

"Oh my…"

Sasuke woke immediately, Kari shot into a sitting position (smacking her head on Sasuke's again and falling once again into unconsciousness) and the other two stayed asleep. Sasuke, with his throbbing head, didn't have the energy to move, so just glared at Kakashi with his Sharingan ablaze. He shut it off almost immediately.

"I came to tell Kari-chan she could come pick up Kita. It's a good thing I didn't bring her with me" Kakashi said surprised. His visible eye took in the scene before him; Sakura on the floor with her legs in the air, snoring away, the other three a tangle of bodies, Naruto snoring even louder. "Mind explaining?"

Sasuke growled, knowing full well his sensei would believe nothing but the truth.

"I woke up and we were all tangled up, Sakura was trying to touch me up in her sleep, I jolted away, scared the hell out of Kari, knocked her out when she hit her head against mine like she did a minute ago and got one of my arms and one of my legs stuck" Sasuke mumbled angrily.

"Ah" Kakashi said simply. "You know, it can be painful for women if you lay on their breasts. You should lie between them" Sasuke's face heated as he looked enraged at his sensei and his accursed orange book. "It's a fact. As well as that, Naruto shouldn't be holding her so tightly. Her lungs and ribs were severely damaged in the wave country, pressure could cause the ribs to break again as they're bound to be more brittle, and the last thing we need is for her to have another punctured lung. Tsunami had trained to be a nurse before she had Inari, so managed to get a chest drain sorted out" Kakashi said.

"No Saku-rahh, you don't cook ramen like thaaat…" Naruto whined, burying his face more into Kari's neck and wrapping his legs around one of hers and Sasuke's legs.

"Oi Kari-chan." Kakashi began. "Time to wake up kiddo."

Like magic Kari awoke. A hand shot to her forehead and she groaned, one of her eyes closed. She grumbled something about concussion and Sasuke sat up to prevent another head butt. (Not at all straddling her. Of course...)

"Kashi?" Kari asked groggily. "Whadda you want?"

"Do I need a reason to visit my favourite student?" Kakashi asked innocently.

"Hokage said don't be biased… go awaaaaay" Kari moaned, sitting up and head butting Sasuke in the collarbone. He heard a muffled 'ow' and turned to his sensei in hopes of help.

"Enjoy it while it lasts Sasuke," Kakashi advised. "She'll go ballistic when she properly wakes—"

"SASUKE-TEME! HOW DARE YOU! TAKING ADVANTAGE OF POOR INNOCENT KARI-CHAN IN HER SLEEP! I SAW YOU LAYING ON HER TEME! YOU DISGUSTING—"

"Naruto" Kakashi said with his soothing voice, trying to ease the suddenly awake and extremely angry young shinobi. "Kari-chan has a headache, be quiet." Kari uttered about 'stupid Sasuke's' while Naruto turned his insults to a ferocious half whisper. "Come on Kari, I'm sure you missed Kita. She's been asking for you since she woke up this morning."

"Coming Kashi…" Kari said groggily. She managed to escape the two boys and walked over to him and he placed his arm round her petite shoulders, guiding her through the door and away from the door frame.

"Okaa-san do you feel alright?" Kita asked worriedly. Kari sighed mournfully. She was truly stupid to go join Team Gai's training (including Gai) when she had the worst splitting headache of the century. She was resisting the urge to just keel over and die on the spot. But that would make Kita upset and Kita's happiness meant practically everything.

"What have we here?" spoke an unfamiliar voice.

"Go away Iruka-sensei, you've tested the others but I don't feel too well ok? Go treat Naru-kun to a big bowl of Ichiraku ramen for me." Kari mumbled looking round at him. The rain nin (that she knew was Iruka) picked up Kita by the scruff. Kari's arm jolted by reflex into the weakest part of his elbow, making him drop Kita instantly. She smirked, owing it all to Neji's gentle fist, teaching her by experience the weakest parts of the body, and Lee improving her taijutsu a hundred fold. "C'mon Iruka, I can sense your energy and life force, I know it's you"

"Very well" Iruka sighed in defeat and poofed out of his transformation. He rubbed his arm which ached terribly, yet smiled impressed at his favourite student's best friend. "That was impressive Kari-chan, it seems like you're more than ready for the chunin exams after all." Iruka praised.

"More than ready for an aspirin to be honest" Kari said sadly. "Sorry bout that, but no one touches Kita-ko" Kari pointed to Kita who sat on her shoulder, her furry white chest puffed in pride that her Okaa-san loved her so much.

"Ah, I'll leave you be then" Iruka said smiling. "Get Naruto to bring you along to ramen sometime, I've been told all about you, but haven't really spoken to you. It's hard to understand Naruto waffling about how amazing you are when I barely know you."

"Naruto-kun's just sweet" Kari said modestly. "Go give him good luck ramen."

"Kari you need to get up" Sasuke said, nudging the poor exhausted wolf-girl.

"Okaa-san you've got to get up!" Kita cried, jumping on the bed.

"Go away the both of you… " Kari grumbled, swatting away the live alarm clocks. Her face was buried deep into her (not Sasuke's) pillow and her body was a lump of pure achiness. The last couple of days she had trained like she had never trained before. She started in the early hours and finished far into the night - paying visits to Gaara and returning to Sasuke's place at sunrise.

She'd visited Kurenai's and Gai's teams most as Kakashi was leaving them to train on their own. She trained with Naruto, which turned into a playful wrestle half way through as the both of them rolled around on the ground laughing. She had trained with Sakura, which turned into an exercise of vocal cords as they chatted away and then went to get some tea. For some reason, the Japanese liked their tea. It was a hell of a lot nicer than the tea she'd tried!

And then she trained with Sasuke. She had thought no one was as ruthless as Neji, boy... was she wrong. Sasuke didn't give her a break. Sasuke pelted her with fire and tons of shuriken. If it wasn't for her speed and Team Gai's training she'd probably be lying dead somewhere. Her Taijutsu had definitely improved but he could block really well (unlike her). Now she knew why he was such a prodigy, he was good at pretty much everything. She was tempted to pull out her katana, but that would hardly be fair against his kunai. She did manage to land a couple of hits, but she came off worse than him with nasty burns and shuriken sticking out of her.

He had yanked all of them out of her, and then put this stinging stuff on her burns. Then he was a complete and total prick telling her that she was terrible at defence and didn't take him seriously enough. She didn't do this right, she should have done this, she was too careless, and she should be more perfect like him (ok, she made the last one up but he was insinuating it).

So poor Kari was burned, bruised and battered. And here was Sasuke, one of the people who had burned, bruised and battered her most, telling her to get up and get ready before he dragged her to the chunin exams as she was.

"Ughh, Sasuke you aren't black and blue" Kari groaned, clutching her pillow. There was a rush of air as the cover was thrown off her. Her legs bent more towards her body, goose bumps sprouting over her limbs at the sudden lack of heat. She wore shorts and a tank top in bed, they weren't that warm! Then to make things worse, her tail was yanked (and nearly torn off) as she was thrown off the futon. She landed on the hard floor with a thud and she scowled at yet another bruise that would most definitely come up.

"Regardless of that, we have to go to the exam. Get up" Sasuke said, folding his arms and glaring down at her. He may be ready to go at the early time of five am but Kari herself was not. They didn't have to be there for another ten hours! She looked sadly at the multiple bruises littering her arms and legs. Most were small, from Neji's gentle fist. Quite a few were large, mainly from Sasuke, one or two from Naruto or Kiba. Of course, there were also a few burns courtesy of a nasty Uchiha boy. She would hate to see the condition of her torso and back… Still, at least they avoided her face. Her sprained left ankle, fractured right shoulder and dislocated wrist had luckily magically been healed overnight.

"Up" Sasuke repeated, as he pulled her roughly to her feet. She didn't bother to take any of her weight; she just let him support her. She was used to him dropping her, if he did she could feign unconsciousness and go back to sleep. Then she'd have a nice hot bath when he was out. "You're not a damn baby, I'm not washing you" Sasuke growled, glaring at her. With a sigh of defeat, she placed weight on her legs.

"I'm going training before we meet the others, are you coming or not?" Sasuke asked, standing next to the door, arms folded. Kari pulled her left glove on, flexing her fingers.

"Are you mad? I'm not training with you this early and just before an exam. Besides, the last thing I need is panda eyes and a split lip to match the rest of me." Kari said giving him a scolding look. She bent down and tied Kita's hitai-ate round her fluffy neck. She wouldn't let her sleep in it so she'd be more comfortable. She then pulled on her right glove, the knuckle guards reflecting light onto the wall.

"Its a few bruises, get over it" Sasuke said, rolling his eyes. Kari huffed, tying her hitai-ate in a similar way to Sakura's, over the thick white ribbon the Hokage gave her to cover her ears. She thought it'd be better to hide them from the other participants in the chunin exams. It was rather uncomfortable, like an itch you just couldn't reach.

"Few bruises my ass, I'm mummified to stop Naruto-kun seeing. He'd beat you to a pulp if he saw them." Kari said smirking at him. "All my friends would come beat you up" she started laughing happily as she checked her weapons pouches; Sasuke smirked and shook his head.

"You wish" She ignored him and fastened her katana straps over her chest. After tugging on them to make sure they wouldn't come undone, she tied one of Kiba's jumpers around her waist to hide her tail. After stealing it from him and saying it was hers and she wasn't giving it back, he agreed to let her keep it. It was a black zip up hooded jacket which was too big for her, but seeing as it was Kiba's she treasured it. Sasuke had just looked at her like she was an idiot when she had pranced in and shoved the item of clothing in his face, then with a gleeful expression declared Kiba had given it to her. He then ignored her for the following hour and a half.

"Right, I'm good to go!" Kari said with a salute to her room mate. Kita yipped and tried to salute too, but only managed to touch her ear with her paw. Kari cooed and picked her up telling her how clever she was as she rubbed her face against Kita's. The little wolfs tail wagged in delight as Sasuke rolled his eyes again.

"Girls…" he muttered, leaving them to it. Kari shot after him and scolded him for not waiting for her.

"Naruto-kun!" Kari cried, jumping up and waving wildly. Sasuke spotted Naruto in the distance, frantically waving back and hurrying towards them. With a sigh, Sasuke shoved his last rice ball into his mouth before it was stolen or knocked out his hand by his male blonde team mate.

"Kari-chan! I haven't seen you in ages!" Naruto cried, wrapping his arms around her tightly and spinning her round. Sasuke scoffed, two days wasn't ages. He'd love a two day break from her.

"Hey! I missed you too Naru-kun but watch the ice cream!" Kari cried laughing. Sasuke had been talked into buying lunch for the three of them (he had to buy lunch for Kita too). He had a normal lunch of rice balls and tomatoes. Kari declared it was too hot and decided she wanted ice cream. So he had to hand over his hard earned money (well actually it was both of theirs seeing as she allowed him to keep her payment from missions in payment for living with him. But she still used her share of money) and let Kari buy an ice cream for Kita and herself.

Sasuke was going to point out that wolves were carnivores and didn't eat ice cream, but Kita seemed to be enjoying it and Sasuke decided to just leave it to Kari's motherly instinct (and retardedness). Kita ate her ice-cream quickly (though got a lot on her nose and whiskers) but Kari still had hers. Sasuke decided to give Naruto the usual greeting of a glare. Naruto ignored him, Kari's offer of a bit of ice-cream far more interesting. Naruto got most of his bite round his mouth causing Kari to giggle, and then she went back to eating the remaining ice-cream. Sasuke cringed. She was pretty much licking Naruto's saliva.

"Ehhh! Cold!!" Naruto cried, clutching his head with a grimace as he was struck with brain freeze. Kari just smiled at him and continued licking her creamy dessert. Sasuke's eyes narrowed noticing how long her canines were. They were like you'd expect a vampire's to be, long and sharp. How she hadn't sliced her tongue in half was a mystery. Had she always been like that?

"I wonder where Sakura is" Kari mused, looking round for any sign of a flash of bubblegum pink. "She's going to be late if she doesn't hurry." Sasuke raised an eyebrow at her worried expression. He honestly couldn't understand how anyone could like Sakura; the pink haired kunoichi was even more of an annoyance than Naruto half the time. Then again, Naruto was Kari's best friend so it made sense...

During the next half hour, people passed them on their way to room 301. Sasuke was getting impatient at Sakura taking up their sensei's habit now of all times, while the other two looked worried. Kita was asleep in Kari's lap, sleeping off her ten minute sugar infused hyperactive dash around. Kari was sitting on the ground, resting on Naruto's leg. Seeing as he smelt perfectly fine (in fact he smelt of fresh ramen) she was pretty sure he was wearing clean underwear. She was paranoid and cautious of Naruto's hygiene now. Especially due to a sensitive nose and a young pup that could be influenced easily.

"Hey Sakura you're late!" Naruto cried as Sakura walked up. Kari noticed she seemed miserable and scowled. When she found out the cause for Sakura's misery she was so going to—

"Uh... right, sumimasen guys" Sakura said with a weak smile. "Ohayo Sasuke-kun" Sakura said with a slight glare. Kari almost had a heart attack as her eyes widened and her jaw dropped.

Holy mother of Kami! What the fudge?!

"Yeah" was Sasuke's response, he narrowed his eyes wondering what the hell was up with his other female team-mate. She had never been unhappy with him (apart from when he persistently ignored her or refused her advances) and had most definitely never been angry with him.

"Sakura-chan… Are you ok?" Kari asked with the same gobsmacked expression. Sakura nodded. "Ok… Well let's go guys!" the wolf-girl jumped to her feet, a sleepy looking Kita looking up at her.

"YOSH!" Naruto cried, pumping his fist in the air. He linked his am with Kari (almost causing her to drop Kita) and marched towards the academy. Kari grinned as Sasuke and Sakura followed. As long as her team and Kita were with her everything would be fine!

But why then, wouldn't this horrible feeling go away?