In celebration of the success of yesterday's shopping trip Kakashi made pancakes and bacon for breakfast.
"I could hug you right now," Quinn muttered taking a big bite.
"This is really good! Who knew you could cook this well?" Naruto exclaimed spitting food everywhere.
"Gosh Naruto, you're so disgusting," Sakura said glaring at him out or the corner of her eye.
"I know! Would it kill you to use manners sometimes?" Ino added.
Naruto glared at them for a few seconds before stuffing his face again. Quinn noticed Hinata gave him a small smile, but he wasn't looking so only Quinn noticed.
"This is really good Kakashi-Sensei!" Choji said.
"It's a good thing he made a lot, otherwise there wouldn't be enough for the rest of us," Shikamaru said with a half-smile.
"No kidding," Kankuro whined.
"I've decided that it's time to get back on track with your ninja training, but in a more normal way," Kakashi started after everyone had settled down. Since the table wasn't big enough for everyone some people were parked in the living room or at the island in the kitchen. A few ninja whined, but Naruto and a few others looked excited at the prospect.
"Hey! What do you mean normal?" Naruto demanded after the last part sank in.
"I mean, today we'll be jogging." Kakashi said putting more bacon on the skillet.
"What?!" everyone yelled at the same time.
"That's not real ninja training! That's just some stupid excuse to get rid of us so you can read!" Naruto yelled across the table.
"Be quiet Naruto! How dare you speak back to your Sensei," Lee admonished Naruto, then turned to Kakashi. "I am ready to do whatever training you have in store for us, Kakashi-Sensei." Lee: the perfect teacher's pet...or sensei's pet...whichever.
Most of the ninja rolled their eyes, including Quinn, although a few nodded enthusiastically.
So that's how Quinn found herself running down the nearby jogging path with a bunch of ninja an hour later.
"How far...did...he say...we have...to...go?" Quinn asked Hinata as they climbed a hill struggling to talk and breath at the same time.
"Only nine miles," she answered cheerfully. Maybe she was trying to raise Quinn's spirits, too bad it didn't work.
"How far...have we...gone?" she asked, dreading the answer.
"A mile." It surprised Quinn that Hinata could seem upbeat when faced with statistics like that. Quinn felt like if she ran another mile she'd drop down dead. Naruto however was flipping around off of trees and doing all sorts of stupid ninja tricks.
What a show-off.
"You don't look very good, sort of like a wilted plant," Sakura commented after a countless amount of running.
"I...don't feel...very good...either," Quinn gasped between deep breathes. "But...I'll...be fine."
Some of the ninja around her were shooting her sidelong glances every once in a while like they were trying to make sure she was still alive. Quinn wasn't going to give up though, she was going to run as far as those ninja if it killed her!
"Here, I have something that might help you," Kiba offered holding out a small red pill.
"What's that?...Drugs?" Quinn asked suspiciously.
"It's a food pill, it'll give you energy. Akamaru and I take them all the time. By the looks of it, you need one."
Quinn looked down at Akamaru running next to Kiba, he didn't even look tired. He was panting a little, but the puppy could keep up better then she could!
"Well...okay." Quinn took the pill and popped it in her mouth, swallowing it. Almost instantly she felt a burst of energy, she felt like she could keep running for hours. "Thanks, whoever invented this did something right."
"Yeah, I think that all the time," Kiba said grinning. Without his face triangles and furry jacket he didn't look half bad. Quinn grinned back in spite of herself.
With the food pill Quinn had enough energy to keep running and keep up a conversation with Kiba and Akamaru without gasping like a fish.
"Since Akamaru is so good at all this agility stuff maybe we should sign him up for a dog show. He'd probably win. What breed is he?" Quinn asked looking down at the little puppy.
"Y'know what, I'm not sure. I'd have to ask my mom. She gave him to me so she'd know. I think he's just some runt one of her big dogs had in their litter though."
"He sort of looks like a beagle," Quinn said looking Akamaru over a few times. "He sort of has the right ears and stuff for it."
Akamaru yipped and jumped into Kiba's arms. For a small dog he could jump really high, not to mention run farther and faster then she could. Quinn suddenly began to feel a little light headed, but shook it off and kept running.
"Are you okay?" Kiba asked concern replacing his smile.
"Yeah, why?" Quinn asked. Her voice was thin and breathy and she didn't know why.
"You're white as a sheet and-OH GOSH!"
Quinn opened her eyes groggily. She couldn't remember deciding to ride a horse, in fact, she couldn't even remember getting out of bed. She raised her head and something yipped in her ear.
"Ouch, that hurt," she murmured rubbing her hand against her ear half-consciously. It felt like she was sitting in a fog that was making it hard to see or hear or concentrate. "Where am I?" she asked waving her hand in front of her face trying to clear the fog. She stopped moving and someone gently put her on the ground.
"Are you okay? What happened?" Concerned faces filled her vision blocking out the sky. Grass prickled against her arms and legs.
"Who are you?" Quinn asked fuzzily. "And go away, I want to sleep. I just wan't to sleep." She rolled onto her side clumsily putting her hands under her head and closed her eyes.
"No! Quinn, you can't fall asleep. Wake up! Get up!"
Someone was yelling at her and shaking her shoulder, but it all seemed so distant and far away. So unimportant. She felt like she was floating on a cloud, high above everything else. Voices that sounded like they were trying to talk to her through water kept trying to disturb her and wake her up.
"No, no, jus' go 'way," she said weakly, limply waving her hand to shoo them away. "I jus' wanna sleep. Go 'way, don' bother me. I jus' wan' sleep." She curled up in a ball and ignored them.
Quinn heard people talking in low voices when she woke up. She opened her eyes and saw Kankuro talking to some lady in nurse scrubs.
"What happened?" She asked drowsily. She was lying in a bed with crinkly sheets that was pushed against the wall.
The nurse lady turned around. "Oh, good you're awake! Here dear, drink this. It's just some water to make you feel better. You're a tad dehydrated, that's why you feel so terrible."Quinn took the water from the lady and drank it. She was thirstier then a camel. "Not too fast, dear, slowly now-that's the way."
Quinn finished off the glass and sat up. Only to fall back against the wall as a wave of dizziness overcame her. She say up more carefully and she didn't get so nauseous.
"You just worked yourself too hard dear, so I just go home and relax for the rest of the day, okay?" the nurse asked cheerfully.
"Sure, I won't be doing much. I feel like a sack of bricks," Quinn said thickly.
"Good. Now I'll just call those nice young men back and they can take you home."
"Wha?" Quinn asked, but the nurse was already gone. Soon Quinn was surrounded by the ninja.
"Are you okay?"
"What happened?"
"How come you fell over like that?"
"How do you feel?"
The questions came fast and furious. It was starting to make Quinn's head hurt.
"Oh gosh. Like a sack of bricks. I guess I can't run as fast as you guys." Quinn smiled weakly.
"Hey, Kakashi's going to wonder why we got back so soon. So maybe we should just see the sights and blow off our time for a while," Naruto suggested. "In a relaxing way, of course."
Quinn grinned, "Of course."
"Okay now. You can't bring dogs into these kinds of places-" Kiba made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat and Akamaru growled. "-so just make sure you hide him and he stays quiet."
"No problem, right Akamaru?" Akamaru answered in the form of a confident yip and burrowed into Kiba's hoodie. "No problem, he'll keep a low profile."
"Okay, good." Quinn spoke a little louder so everyone else could here, "Now, you have to behave. Take a cue from me and the people around you if you don't know what's considered normal. I promise we'll only go to the fun places, no art museums or anything like that so it shouldn't be a problem if you act out a little. Right now we're headed to the Science Center. Trust me it's funner then it sounds, there's this big animatronic dinosaur that roars and stuff and a giant marble machine with giant marbles." Quinn looked at the blank faces surrounding her. "None of you know what a marble machine is do you?" The ninja slowly shook their heads. "Well, you'll see soon enough." Quinn rubbed her hands together in anticipation.
As soon as the ninja were inside they could only stare at everything. It was all old news to Quinn, but she tried to match their excited expressions so they wouldn't feel awkward.
"I know you all want to see something different and you'll see more if we split up. So to avoid mass confusion just get in you groups from yesterday-oh snap!" Quinn realized what groups from yesterday would mean as soon as she said it, but it was too late to take it back without sounding like she was trying to manipulate something. She swore she was going to pick the next groups herself, leaving nothing to chance.
Soon she was alone with Gaara again.
"So what do you want to see?" she asked nervously, but trying not to show it. While she was scared stiff of Gaara she didn't want him to feel singled out or treated different because of it.
Gaara didn't say anything for what felt like minutes, finally he broke the tense silence. "Can we see the dinosaur?" He asked, almost cautiously like she would say it was a stupid thing to say or something.
"Yeah, sure. Why not? I love the dinosaur," Quinn said babbling with relief. Inside she was thinking, the dinosaur? Is that all he wants to see?
Gaara stood silently leaning against the railing staring at the dinosaur. Quinn wished she could do something about there awkward silences, but she couldn't seem to think of anything to say when he was around. He was a conversation killer.
Alright, challenge excepted.
"It's pretty cool isn't it. I used to pretend it was real when I was a kid. I called him Rexy like the dinosaur from Night in the Museum." Quinn smiled and leaned forward over the railing so she could see his face. He looked sideways at her and looked away. He wasn't smiling, but he wasn't pushing her over the railing either so Quinn took that as encouragement. "Your tattoo is a kanji symbol, right? What does it mean?"
Gaara stared into space and the silence stretched out so long Quinn thought he wasn't going to answer. Finally he did.
"Love," he said, staring into space, "it means love."
Warning, short author's note
So that's kind of a cliff hanger. Anyway, I don't own Naruto, or the ninja, or Kakashi, but I do own Quinn and the storyline. Again if you have any cool things for the ninja to do write it up in the review, no idea's a bad idea. And even if you don't have an idea, review and tell me what you think. Do it for Gaara.
end short author's note