•Sasunaru~Ghost Stories•

I dont think thats a cat!

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Naruto.

~

Third person p.o.v.
The genin and their senseis sat around the fire. The orangish glow lighting up there faces in the dark of the night. Stars were freckled across the sky forming shapes and pictures.
The day had been spectacularly boring and uneventful, save for Naruto spraining his ankle. The teams met at the village gate, they hiked for three hours (Kakashi said that the should walk instead of tree hop because even ninjas needed to stop and smell the roses once in awhile), they set up camp, ate a fabulous meal of cooked fish and by then it was night fall. Despite the slowness of the day, everyone was tired. Having nothing to do seemed to suck the energy out of almost everyone (some still had youthful energy burning bright in them).
The ninjas all sat on logs surrounding the fire. The jounin all shared a log, Choji, Shikamaru, and Shino sat together. Ino and Sakura had sat themselves down as close to Sasuke as possible and ended up on the long next to where him, Naruto, Kiba and Akumaru were sitting. Neji, Hinata, and Tenten were sitting on the log across from Ino and Sakura. Lee was running laps around the campsite because he had failed at his goal to pitch the tent in thirty seconds.
Everyone was talking quietly amongst themselves. Mostly about the day to come. Sasuke turned slightly from his spot on the edge to glance down at the blond sitting next to him. The smaller boys sullen mood had continued. It was now around ten o'clock at night and Naruto hadn't spoke unless spoken to directly, even then they were short mumbled answers.
He felt something softly thud on his shoulder. Naruto had fallen asleep and was now snuggling into Sasuke's left arm, making the raven blush. Luckily none of the others had noticed.
The raven studied the kyuubi container. If he looked closely enough, he could see the slight bags under the blond's eyes. 'No wonder he had been sleeping most of the day. I wonder why he hasn't been sleeping well?'
"Alright time to head in for the night. We have a big day of teamwork exercises tomorrow. Us adults are going to take the night shift watches during the trip. A ninjas work never ends." Kakashi hadn't even lifted his head from his perverted book.
The genin all grudgingly trudged to their tents. Sasuke had picked up Naruto, not wanting to disturb the other boys sleep. He shuffled into the unzipped two person tent and gentle set down Naruto. He elevated his ankle on one of the backpacks. Then the raven quickly changed into his night clothes and laid down next to the blond.

~

            Sasuke was warm. Way warmer than he should have been while camping in October. Something was also tickling his neck. He tried to bring a hand up to rub the sleep from his eyes but something was weighing it down. Slowly he opened his eyes only to get a face full of sunshine. And not the actual, blazing ball of gasses kind of sunshine. Naruto's hair stuck up in fluffy tuffs. Ohhh. So that's what was tickling his neck. It took a second for the ravens groggy brain to register that if Naruto's hair was in front of him, so was Naruto.
          Sasuke's eyes widened at that realization. He struggled to shift his arm from underneath the smaller boys torso so he could prop himself on his elbow. Naruto's cheeks were slightly flushed from sleep and there was a thin line of drool leaking from his parted mouth. His ankle was still elevated so that was good. Sasuke must have shifted of his bed and on to Naruto's in his sleep.
           He carefully untangled himself from the mess of blankets and quietly unzipped the tent. The sun was just peeking over the top of the mountains and the air still smelt like morning dew. Lee and Gai-sensei were doing pull-ups on a tree branch next to stream. They seemed to be the only other ones up, but they hadn't noticed him yet.
Sasuke stalked over to the campfire pit. Gracefully plopping down on a log. His mind was jumbled and had been since he carried Naruto on his back. Had he always had these feelings of...of... of whatever they were. What was he feeling? It seemed now, that whenever he and his blond team mate touched, his stomach was filled with swarms of little butterflies. He felt tingly and warm. Something he hadn't felt since before his clan was mercilessly slaughtered. His mother had always said that he would fall in love. Was this love?
              "AAAH, GAI-SENSEI THAT CAT JUST SPRAYED ME!!"
               Sasuke's head snapped to where the yell had resounded from. That was Lee. It seemed some others had heard the screech because several tents were slowly being unzipped.
                Kiba was the first to stick his head out of the tent. The Inuzukas hair was sticking up on one side and his eyes were squinted. Confused, he scanned the campsite. "What in the hell was that?"
Ino and Sakura emerged from their tent, both with serious case of bedhead. Sakura rubbed her eyes before spotting Sasuke. "AAAH!!! Sasuke don't look at me! I haven't done my hair!"
Ino's eyes widened. "CRAP!! Neither have I!" Both girls frantically rushed back into the tent, almost knocking it over in their stampede.
Neji and Tenten's tents unzipped and both Hyugga's and the weapons mistress shuffled up to Sasuke. The raven dimly noted the sleep mask still strapped around Neji forehead.
Tenten filled a cup with water and seated herself on one of the logs. "What in Kami was that yelling?" She asked, taking a sip of the water.
Neji stiffly took a seat next to Tenten. "It sounded like Lee." He huffed "That idiot. What has he gotten himself into now?"
Hinata timidly glanced over to were the shout had come from. "Maybe-e w-we should ch-check on h-him?" She shyly turned her gaze to the floor.
Suddenly Gai-sensei came running out of the bushes with a clothespin on his nose and a ball of black and white fur in his hands. Lee and a horrible stench followed closely behind his sensei. Gai smiled and gave the genin a victory sign with his free hand. "Good news young ninja! Me and my student have found a cat! He's a youthful little thing. He put up quite a bit of a fight! He even sprayed me and Lee!"
                       Sakura and Ino emerged from their tent with their hair done and their everyday outfits on. They walked up to where the group was huddled around the cat. "AAAHH! THAT'S A SKUNK!"  Ino pointed at the feline and ran back into her already trampled tent.
                         Looking back at it now, that was probably the point where all hell broke loose. Neji screamed and dive bombed into the shelter. Sakura followed him. Tenten first instinct seemed to be to pull a kunai knife from one of her buns and pounce on the poor skunk, who jumped from Gail's hand with a perfect dismount onto Hinata's head. Hinata then grabbed the poor creature and shielded it from Tenten and tried to calm it down. Akamaru heard the ruckus and tore through Kiba and Shino's tent door to chase Hinata. Kiba ran after Akumaru. Gai and Lee shouted word of encouragement at Hinata to keep their new pet safe. At some point Choji and Shikamaru sat down on one of the logs to watch the show with Shino, who no one noticed had even woke up.
                           "EVERYONE FREEZE!!" At the command everyone froze and turned to Kakashi. "What in the name of Kami is going on here?!"
                           Shikamaru blinked slowly before answering. "There was a skunk."
                           Kakashi exhaled slowly and rubbed his left temple. "Okay. Where are Kurenai and Asuma?"
At the mention of his name, Asuma jumped from his spot on a tree branch not to far away with Kurenai tailing behind. "We're right here. We were just watching the show. Oh man, it was hilarious!"

~

Hinata slowly let the skunk go while everyone was distracted. It turned and made a little mewling noise at her before running off into the forest. She sighed happily and quietly joined the group again. They were now discussing what to do with Gai and Lee. Neji, Ino and Sakura refused to let them anywhere near the campsight while they were smelling like that.