Caged Birds Lullaby

chapter 24

His eyes where closing involuntary. It was the dead of night and he assumed about 5 hours had passed. It was close to 4 am. His back was leaning on the cold rocky wall of the cave.

Willing his eyelids to open, he stared ahead.

A puff of smoke was heard and an impatient groan followed soon after.

"It's wrong again! I need to think what am I doing wrong…", the blonde figure raged, messing up her hair. There was a slight note of hysteria in her voice.

"Do it again, Naruto..", he said, willing the tiredness and the ache in his eyes to go away.

She nodded and making a cross with her fingers, a Kage Bunshin appeared. It quickly lifted it's shirt to expose the stomach area.

The real Uzumaki had her eyes closed, concentrating on her chakra flow as she carefully formed each hand seals.

"Tori, Saru, Tori, Uma, Tatsu, Tora, Tatsu, Mi, Uma, Tatsu, Tori."

Her hand glowed with chakra and she thrust it into the stomach of the clone.

The three pronged seal started to form, but then it started changing shape, size, some elements mixed together and with a yelp of pain, the clone burst into smoke again.

"You are an idiot, Uzumaki," Neji stated with a blank look, rubbing his temples. His head was pounding and he couldn't even find the energy to summon his Byakugan. Not that needed it to point out the flaw, of course.

"What! What am I doing wrong?", she demanded, turning to him.

"That's your clone. And you are putting a new seal which is uneven numbered over the hidden even numbered one again. For a genius in fuuinjutsu, you sure make idiotic mistakes."

Her blood boiled and her fist shook.

"You are so gona get your ass kicked when we get to the tower, Hyuuga Neji, dattebayo!"

"Yes, yes, I can't wait myself," he rolled his eyes." We need another bunshin here,and not yours."

She nodded, frowning. Her right hand found her lower lip again. Neji quickly looked away and tiredly stood up.

"I will get Shino."

Naruto sent him a glare as he left. He was acting really strange lately. Her mind went back to what happened in the hot spring. Her cheeks flamed.

Well, Neji was a close friend..besides, he didn't see anything besides her neck, which was open now as well. So what difference did it make?

But it did, and quite a lot.

She had enjoyed the hug immensely. The number of times he had embraced her could be counted on fingers, but she cherished every single one of them, and what had happened a few hours ago..

She knew it was a bit different. She felt safe in his arms. And loved, and..important to him.. Its was so peaceful. He was her sanctuary.

She shook her head to get rid f the thoughts as Neji walked in, followed closely by a half asleep Shikamaru and a wide awake Shino. It had been his shift at guarding. Naruto raised an eyebrow at the yawning Nara.

Both newcomers nodded to Naruto. Shino quickly made a hand sign and the bugs poured out of him, forming into a perfect bunshin. Shikamaru, making the 'rat' hand sight, merged his shadow with the clone. It became more real.

Understanding dawned on her.

"Ok…lets try this, ttebayo!", said Naruto in a serious voice and started all over again, slowly making all the hand seals and guiding her chakra.