Reborn as Sakura and Hinata: Lost in the Wind (Part 2)

A Brand New Look

"You guys can't be serious!" I whined, "What am I going to do all day?"
"I don't know." Shikamaru replied bluntly, "Help Hinata or something?"

"I've already dropped off lunch for her today!" I huffed, "Choji, you can't be telling me you're both busy today!"

Choji sighed, "I'm sorry Ino, but I was placed on a mission heading out tonight, and I need to prepare."

"I really need to get home." Shikamaru stressed, "My mom will kill me if I'm late."

"Then go then." I pouted, glaring at their backs as they headed off. This sucked, I was never good at entertaining myself, and now my best friends were busy, Hinata was working, Yui was busy with Sasuke and the whole 'weed' incident with the Hokage, and I couldn't think of any one to hang out with.

Scuffing my feet on the dirt path, I began to walk the other direction from where my teammates had gone and scan the buildings for stores to maybe browse through. Today was going to be a boring suckfest for sure.

I guess that desperation was the reason that a familiarly bombastic voice drew my attention, my eyes finding a splash of green at the end of the road. Lee was waving goodbye to some vendor who seemed more than a little fazed by the boy's enthusiasm, an enthusiasm that only grew when we suddenly locked eyes.

"Ino," his grin was as friendly as ever as he jogged towards me, "How are you?"
I contemplated whether I'd regret what I was about to do, but I was already regretting having nobody to hang out with so whatever, "Bored." I shrugged.

"Oh..." his smile waned with confusion, "Why are you bored?"

"Cause Choji and Shikamaru suck." I scoffed, crossing my arms over my chest, "They're 'busy' today and all that."

"I'm not busy." he replied genuinely, no hint of a double meaning behind it.

With a sigh, I finally decided to just ask, "You wanna hang out?"

His bright grin returned, "Of course!"

We began to walk off in the direction of a park, Lee's impassioned steps made me need to speed up my stride, "So, you've got nothing to do today too?"

"Yep." he nodded, expression growing a bit sad, "Shino's on a mission..." he was silent for a moment, "Neji left y'know."

"Really?" I gasped, "Why?"

"Just for a little bit," he added, sensing the reason for my surprise, "Just to get away and 'find himself.'"

"Oh..." what a very un-Neji like thing to do.

He looked off into the trees as we sat down in the grass, "And Tenten's still gone... though she has a girlfriend now."

"Wow." So, she really was into girls then, huh, "Good for her. She's happy then?"

"Yeah," he smiled, "And Neji is too, he wrote to me. Says he's seen a lot of different areas around the Land of Fire and a bit of the Vine."

"Lucky," I huffed jealousy, "I'd love to see the village Hinata built."

"I would too," he looked wistfully off at the horizon, "I bet it's beautiful."

"Maybe we should go sometime." I joked, although maybe it wasn't as much of a joke as I'd have liked. He wasn't that bad to travel with to be honest, our last mission together was actually fairly pleasant.

"That'd be fun." he laughed, apparently he had the same sentiment, "I guess I've never gone on a 'road trip' before... at least nothing for fun."

"Yeah," my brow furrowed, "Until now it just wasn't a good idea to travel for fun, everything was for a mission, huh."