Insomnia

>1<

Naruto lay awake one night, staring at the boring white ceiling while a breeze blew from the window into his room. He couldn't sleep and there was nothing that he could do make him fall asleep. He tried everything; counting sheep, keeping his eyes closed, controlling his breathing, and even visualizations to get things off of his mind. His mind was blank as he stared up at the ceiling.

Naruto sighed and sat up. At this rate, he might as well use his time for improvement rather than waste it trying to fall asleep. He hopped out his window and jumped across buildings to get to a training area. Under the moonlight Naruto trained his taijutsu for a few hours before getting tired. With just enough energy left, Naruto came back to his home and fell asleep.

Naruto got a few hours of sleep before his alarm clock went off; he got dressed and sleepily made his way to team 7's meet up spot. He grabbed himself a cup of tea to go and got there a few minutes late, not that it mattered; Kakashi was late as usual.

"Good morning Sakura-chan!" Naruto smiled at the pink haired girl in front of him.

"'Mornin' Naruto." She smiled, yawning. "I should've brought some tea too. Hey, Sasuke, if I brought tea in the mornings would you want some?"

Sasuke sighed and looked toward the sunrise. "No," He said, not even looking in their direction.

Naruto grew slightly irritated, probably from lack of sleep but he didn't care. He stepped towards the onyx eyed boy and said, "Sasuke, Sakura-chan is just trying to be nice. How about this, next time I'll bring some tea or coffee for everyone."

"Usuratonkachi nobody asked-"

"That sounds like a lovely idea Naruto, thanks in advance." Kakashi said, appearing out of thin air in between Naruto and Sasuke. Instantly and effectively squashing the brewing argument Kakashi added, "Are you ready for our mission?"

"Yes, Kakashi-sensei; we're guarding a Merchant and his merchandise right?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi nodded. "It's a B rank mission so make sure you all stay on your toes. Now, where's Sai? He's joining us as well."

"I'm here. Sorry I'm late, Tsunade-sama just told me that I was joining your team just a few minutes ago." Sai said, walking towards the group.

Kakashi nodded and started walking towards the main entrance. "Since we are all ready, let's go meet our merchant."

The group followed after Kakashi, saying good-bye to Izumo and Kotetsu at the gate, following the Merchant and his workers out of the gate. The caravan had three large carts for transporting the goods with two people each manning a cart.

The first day went by slow, no bandits attacked. The caravan moved at a snail's pace trying to transport the Merchants items. Naruto was grateful for the slow day, the lack of sleep wasn't the greatest for him. How he missed and cherished the nights he fell asleep so fast. Once he started sleeping like a regular person again, he vowed to never take it for granted ever again.

The group made camp once night fell, the merchant and his men pitched tents. Sai made dinner for their team as Kakashi ordered Naruto and Sakura to stand watch first, Sai and Sasuke for second watch, then Kakashi would watch the camp until morning. The team took their instructions and used dinner as their break.

Naruto found his spot and impatiently waited, keeping watch of the group while everyone except for him and Sakura slept. A part of him wished for something to happen, for there to be an attack, but his watch was uneventful. Naruto was only semi-shocked when Sasuke appeared for his turn. The raven haired boy yawned as he sat next to Naruto. "You can go to sleep now Naruto." Sasuke said.