“I slept like Mittens by the warmth of our fireplace!” I burst, stretching and groaning. Sakura gave me a smile, picking up her blanket and supplies.
“I’m glad to hear you got your rest,” she mused, sitting down on a rock and poking at our small fire, which was fading away as the sun began to beat down on us. We’d made it into the Land of Fire yesterday, and I have to say, I like it here.
But, you see, Sakura had it all wrong. “No, no, no!” I exclaimed, plopping down next to her. “Mittens doesn’t sleep when she’s near the fire. She tries to burn down the house with it. I was saying I got no sleep.”
Sakura raised her eyebrows, looking confused. “Oh. I see. Yup…”
Temari smiled, sitting opposite of us. “Some cat, huh? Sounds like a sweety.” Her tone was sarcastic, and she stabbed at the pulsing embers with a small twig. Something about her seemed deflated in a way, and I leaned forward, blinking in thought.
“Temari?” I asked, placing my hands on my knees. “What’s got you down?”
Lord Gaara’s older sister jerked upright, her eyes widening in surprise, not meeting mine. “I don’t know what you mean…” she rambled, her voice loud and rushed. Sakura laughed, joined by Hinata, who was watching from a few feet away.
Waving our shy friend over, where she joined us shortly, Sakura nudged me with her shoulder. “I bet it’s because a certain smarty from our village didn’t come, hmm, Temari?”
Hinata stifled a giggle, and Temari flushed. “Of course not! I haven’t even thought about Shikamaru.”
I leaned back onto the ground, the coldness of fresh dirt tickling the skin along my arms and legs. I blinked, glancing up at my blushing superior. “You know, Temari, Sakura never said anything about a Shikamaru guy. Am I right?”
Soon the entire squad was there, Leaf and Sand alike, all talking and conversing. Realizing something, I sat up again, poking Kakashi’s knee. He blinked, glancing down at me as I sat on the ground beneath him. “Yes?” he asked, his black eye curious.
I climbed up, sitting on the log next to him. “Why aren’t we heading out? I mean, shouldn’t we be getting closer to the scroll?” When I spoke, everyone else seemed to cast their attention toward us, listening in.
Kakashi sighed through his nose, surveying the group of shinobi, settling on Kokoko Sensei, who he must have assumed was the leader of our squad. “We have two more shinobi coming in from the Leaf that have information on our target. We’re currently waiting on him, then we’ll set out our plan. Is this okay with you?”
Sensei yelped, scooting back, her cheeks stained with pink. Tugging on the atrocious collar of her sweater, she began to stutter wildly. “I-I I’m a…absolutely f-f-f-fine with that, K-Kakashi.”
The Copy Cat Ninja acknowledged her statement with a nod, rolling his shoulders in a pleasant-looking stretch. I began rummaging around camp to pass time, finding several bugs that I’d scarcely seen before. Beetles and arachnids of new sorts that weren’t keen to the desert climate found their way into the lap of my skirt, scuttling around and picking at each other. I leaned closer, feeling my eyes widen. “Fascinating!”
“Aren’t they?” burst a random voice from right behind me.
“Eek!” I screeched, falling forward, where all of my newly found friends toppled to the ground, running back to their homes like their tiny lives depended on it. Whipping around, I found myself face to face with Shino, his beady sunglasses boring down on my now-glowing face. His hands were shoved back in those pockets, and part of me knew he was laughing at me in that head of his.
“Oh,” he nearly moaned, holding out a hand to help me up. “Did I startle you?”
I took his offer for assistance, making sure to squeeze his hand as hard as I could, anger belting through me. “Of course not. I like falling and screaming!” I looked to the side, crossing my arms across my chest. “Sheesh,” I muttered to myself. “Even for an Aburame this guy is creepy.”
“That would make sense,” he sighed, glancing at the others, who were listening to one of Riko’s stories intently. “Falling and screaming is all you’ve done this whole time. I can understand that you would enjoy such things.”
I swear to you I heard Riko pause in her storytelling to whisper, “Burn!”
Mittens has seemed thin lately. Perhaps Riko could aid in fixing that problem.
I clenched my hands into fists, feeling them begin to shake in fury at my sides. “Oh, so you think you’re cute, huh, Sunglasses? I thought you were cool at first, carrying me and being an Aburame, but it seems I was wrong.”
“Being from a certain clan does not define someone. Kiba’s clan is extremely noble and tend to be great shinobi, and just look how he turned out,” he added, staring into the distance. “Just because I have insects living within me doesn’t mean I’m going to be the Aburame member of your dreams. I’m just Shino. That is all.”
Riko must have finished her story, because about half of the others seemed to be intently listening in on us. Naruto burst into laughter at Shino’s words, nearly falling over. Clutching a stitch in his side, he jollily prodded Kiba and Akamaru both with his elbow. “Did’ja hear that guys?” he laughed, slapping his knee a few times. “You sure are some disappointment!”
“At least I’m not still a genin!”
“Are we gonna go there, buster?!”
“Cha!”
“Ow, Sakura! That hurt!”
“Would you shut up already! Sai and Yamato are here.”
“Who-ha?” I burst, ripping myself away from Sunglasses, finding myself face to face with two pale brunettes, one cute and about my age, the other around Kokoko Sensei or Kakashi’s age. I squeaked, taking a small step back. The older one lifted his hand in a small wave, a smile dancing on his face.
“Captain Yamato, at your service. Though you can leave out the Captain part,” he chuckled, turning swiftly to all of my comrades, giving them each a smile.
Why do these guys always sneak up on me? Why not Sora or Riko?! Even Temari would be nice!
The paler and younger of the two’s smile seemed creepily happy. He signed him off as a weirdo as soon as he introduced himself as Sai. Pushing past him grumpily, I irately plopped down next to Sora on a rock, crossing my arms swiftly.
“Could you stop being such an idiot,” my teammate muttered, his black eyes boring into me. “You’re slowing us down, not to mention upsetting ninja from other villages. You’re just a pain.”
I frowned, giving him a look of disbelief. Even Sora knew what not to say to a girl, especially a team member. When I met his eyes, they were cold and serious, standing out in the warm pleasantry of the golden morning atmosphere. They seemed like a small sting of frostbite, nipping at the perfection of the sun’s gleeful rays. “I…” I began, “I don’t mean to, I just-”
“This is an S-Rank mission. Could you at least try not to mess it up for everybody? You can scream, be hotheaded, and fangirl at some other time. On this mission is not the time. While we’ve been here, you’ve deliberately pushed yourself too far, so to slow us down. You’ve made distractions with your frustrating clumsiness. You’ve been so loud that any enemy in a ten mile radius could track us in seconds, and also managed to ruin everyone’s morning with your stupidity.”
“I-” I scooted away from him a bit, feeling steamy tears build up in my eyes. I couldn’t let them fall, though. They would make me look weak.
“Just shut up, would you?” Sora stood, anger twisting his face painfully. His hands we fists, and his face paint had begun to crack due to the clenching and unclenching of his jaw as he breathed irritably and heavily. Everyone was staring at him in shock, and I was shaking for some weenie reason. “You’re the reason we’re still so far away from where the scroll is and why we don’t have a plan yet. You’re holding back the mission, Hotaru. I don’t see how you ever became a chunin!”
“That is it!” Naruto burst, standing up just as Riko and Kokoko Sensei did. Both my friend and my mentor blinked at the rash blonde in surprise, shrinking back a little. Naruto stomped forward, coming to stand less than an inch away from Sora, reaching up to roughly grab him by his shirt collar. The rest of the Leaf ninja’s faces said they were perfectly used to this. The only one who didn’t seem impassive about it was Hinata, whose face had turned red and had a look of worry about her.
“Look, kid,” the famous Konoha member growled, a look of pure rage taking over his face, seeming almost animal-like. “You can insult the enemy, you can insult me, and, even if that would make me mad, there is nothing you could do that would make me angrier than I am now!”
Sora’s face was blank and aloof as he raised his blue-gray eyebrows at the guy, not seeming affected at all. “Shocker.”
Naruto’s face twisted even more, and I swear I saw something red start to bubble up around his back. Yamato lurched forward, but was stopped by Kakashi’s knowing hand. Curling his fingers into a tightly packed fist, the orange-clad boy brought his knuckle across my teammates face, knocking him swiftly to the ground.
Now I was sure that there was some sort of reddish-orange translucent-y bubble stuff surrounding him. Black rings were forming around his eyes and his lips, which were becoming slightly pointed, like a dog or a…
…a fox.
“It’s one thing to insult another guy,” he hissed, his pupils slits, his slightly-longer blonde hair floating around his face as though he were underwater. “But you never talk like that to a girl. Specifically a teammate, not to mention one as nice as Hotaru.”
He pulled his fist back once more, and, just as he began to bring it back down upon Sora, a hand reached out to stop him. Sunglasses, to the rescue, once a-freaking-gain. “Stop, Naruto,” he said, his cold and mysterious voice lapping at my ears. “Just because you’ve learned to control the Nine Tails’ chakra doesn’t mean you have to use it in idiotic situations like this.”
Just like that, the bubbles of doom disappeared, and Naruto stood there, looking defeated. I’d heard somewhere that the Nine Tails was inside of Naruto, but I’d forgotten about that. It was creepy but cool. As for Sora, he simply stood up straight, wriggled out of Naruto’s grip, and dusted himself off, barely concerned with the thin line of blood that sprouted from his mouth, nor the swelling and pinkness of his cheek. He started to walk back to where he’d been sitting, right next to me, when a swarm of small black bugs zipped forward and stopped him in his tracks.
I wanted to squeal in delight of seeing the power of an Aburame in real life, but I decided it wouldn’t help the situation very much.
Sora’s eyes drooped even more than normal, looking extremely annoyed. “What do you want, Bug Boy?”
“A word with you.”
For a second, it looked like Sora struggled at the pressure of the bugs, but they kept him in place. Shino nodded toward a separate and more secluded part of the woods, shuffling toward it with Sora reluctantly in step behind him. Once they were gone, everyone seemed to relax. Kiba leaned back, one arm behind his head and the other wrapped around Akamaru. An impish smile danced across his lips, his fangs making him look even more mischievous.
“That’s the most Shino’s said in a long time. But, who can blame him? The guy has the same attitude as that Sasuke, and we all know how he ended up.” Within seconds, a shadow cloaked both Naruto and Sakura’s faces. Kakashi looked solemn, and flashed the guy a glare that could kill a bear. On steroids.
Narrowing my eyes, I removed my black headband from around my waist, wrapping it around my forehead. Everyone, including the new guys, gave me a weird glace as I quickly stood. Pressing my index fingers against my lips in a silencing motion, I sped off in an eerily silent leap, landing on the first sturdy tree branch there was in the direction the two had gone. With stealth mode turned on, I crept through the trees, focusing intently. Finally I found them, about five minutes later, still walking, not talking. Following them, I stopped, veiled by shadows, and listened.
“This should do it,” Shino said, shoving his hands in his pockets once again. Even from this distance, I could clearly see that Sora was rolling his good-for-nothing eyes. It’s not that I don’t like Sora, I really do. I just wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns and happiness with him right now.
Flipping his blue-gray hair back dramatically, Sora leaned against the tree I lurked in, focused completely on Shino, no matter how much it appeared he didn’t want to be. “Are you going to tell me I was wrong? That I should be nicer? I don’t care.”
To my surprise, Shino socked the guy to hard he flew about six feet to the right, landing in a mess of loose branches, arms, and legs. Grunting loudly, Sora stood, coming at Shino so fast that he was a blur. Dropping to the ground just before he collided with Sunglasses, he whipped out his foot, surging it upward to thwap him right beneath his chin.
The sound of his teeth clacking together echoed loudly, and blood gushed out of his mouth in sickening spurts, thick and nauseating. Coughing a little, Shino stumbled backward, absentmindedly letting pints of blood soak his chin, neck, and shirt. It was a little unrealistic, but super unnerving all the same. Dramatically holding out his arms, Shino allowed two thick mobs of insects to fly forward, tightly wrapping around Sora’s body. My partner struggled, but the little suckers were too much for him. Shino took a shaky breath, stepping closer to the bug-bound boy. “Why are you acting this way?”
I’m about 99.9% sure I saw smoke come from Sora’s ears. “This is how I always act,” he hissed, still struggling.
Looking up, his hood falling off his crown to reveal a head full of spikey, dark-brown hair, Shino sighed. “I know that you don’t. I could tell by the look on Hotaru’s face. You’ve never spoken to her like that before.” He was right. Sora, no matter how sour he may be, had always been a respectful guy when it came to others. Even if he spat at them, it was all in good intentions. But what he’d said to me…it hurt. I don’t want to admit that it shook me up, but it did.
To be honest, the two of us went back.
There are tons of flashback scenes in this show, so why not?