University of Konoha (Modern Naruto Various)

Chapter 20

After the near death experience yesterday, I decided to take it easy today. At the moment I was sitting in one of the fold up chairs snacking on some food and just staring at the ocean. I heard someone sit in the chair next to me and looked over to see that it was Shino. Normally, he kept completely covered up so it was interesting to see him in nothing but swim shorts. He was more muscular than I would've guessed. Shino didn't strike me as the sort who would work out. Maybe all that bug collecting paid off. He was still wearing those shades of his though. I didn't understand why he was always wearing those things. "Hey Shino." He looked over at me. "Why do you always wear those glasses? Nobody can ever see your eyes."

"That's because it's a family tradition." Eh? That's a weird tradition.

"Has anyone outside of your family ever seen your eyes?"

"No."

I pouted. "That's so sad." I leaned forward and reached my hand toward his face. "Can I see them?"

He leaned away from my hand and gave out a strangled, "No."

"Please?" I asked softly. He seemed to consider it for a minute before he let out a sigh.

"Fine. But don't take my shades completely off." You gave him a small nod before you reached again. This time, he stayed still and you very gently grabbed onto his glasses. You pulled them down his face and gasped at the sight. His eyes were a beautiful deep chocolate brown and I felt like I was seeing Shino for the first time.

"Shino, they're beautiful. You should let more people see them." I noticed the blush that overcame his face.

"Let people see what?" A voice asked. Faster than I could comprehend, Shino removed my hands and pushed his glasses back up and his eyes were hidden yet again.

"Nothing," he mumbled to the intruder. I looked up to see it was Kankuro.

"Hey Asami, there's a spot on the beach nearby that's well known for it's tidepools. Want to come see them?" I beamed at the thought.

"Absolutely." I stood up and turned back to Shino. "Thank you for trusting me enough Shino." I saw him smile for the first time, but just slightly.

"No problem. That's because-" I didn't hear the rest of his sentence for Kankuro started pulling me towards the tidepools.

It wasn't long before we reached the spot that Kankuro claimed had the tide pools. "Careful, the rocks are slippery." We scrambled over wet rocks to find the pools. It took a little bit of searching but we finally found one. I gasped at the sight. It was like a magical little world. I spotted several tiny fish, a small crab, and even a starfish. There were also some sea urchins and little anemones. I heard Kankuro chuckle. "You're like a little kid." I gave him a light shove.

"Hey, don't tease me. This is amazing."

He smiled. "Glad you like it."

We spent several minutes gazing at the pool before we decided to search for some more. It was quite slippery in places so we often held hands to help each other out. At one point, Kankuro slipped and started to fall. I yanked him back towards me but I apparently yanked too hard because he bumped into me. That in turn almost caused me to fall and I felt him wrap his arms around my waist to steady me. When we finally both had our balance I heard Kankuro ask, "Are you alright?" He had pressed me to his chest so I had to crane my neck to look at his face.

"Yeah. That almost was a disaster." I laughed and Kankuro started laughing with me. When the laughter ceased, we both realized the awkward position we were in. We quickly backed away from each other. I looked down at the ground and nervously twiddled my fingers.

"Are you ready to go back?" He asked. I nodded and saw his hand enter my field of vision. I felt awkward about taking it now but I grasped it anyways. We left the rocky outcropping and headed back towards the beach. We were just about to turn the corner around a huge boulder when I heard voices. I quickly pulled my hand from Kankuro's grasp. I wasn't even sure why I did it. It's not like we were dating or anything. We rounded the corner and spotted Sakura, Sasuke, Kiba, Gaara, Naruto, and Hinata. I was blushing slightly and was averting my eyes away from Kankuro again. Sakura seemed surprised to see us.

"Hey what were you guys up too?" She questioned.

"We just finished looking at the tide pools," I replied.

"You should of told us! We could've all gone as one big group," Naruto whined.

"Nah, it was better with just the two of us." Kankuro grinned when he stated this. Gaara gave his brother a glare.

"Kankuro, you better not have tried anything," he threatened. I was taken back by this new side of Gaara. He seemed almost... scary. Kankuro wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

"What's it to you? She's not yours." I pulled his arm off my shoulders and gave him a shove.

I glared at him and said, "I'm not yours either." I stalked off back towards where our stuff was set up.

I spent the rest of the day sunbathing and doing some light reading. Now the sun was starting to set and it was time to leave. I put my belongings in the van and looked back towards the ocean. I was a little sad to be leaving so soon. I had a lot of fun and I wasn't sure when we would be able to do something like this together again. When everybody's things were packed up, I got into a van. As promised, I went in the second van this time. I sat in the very back and Gaara sat next to me. I looked out the window and watched the beach disappear from view. I put in my earbuds and listened to my music, lost in my own thoughts. It was dark out now and the car was fairly quiet. I had started to drift off but couldn't seem to find a comfortable spot to rest my head. I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked over to see Gaara staring at me. I pulled my earbuds out. "You can rest your head on my shoulder," he offered. I was too tired to complain. I nodded sleepily and shifted so that I was comfortably resting my head on his shoulder. I soon drifted off into sleep.

Kankuro's POV

I looked back to see that Asami had fallen asleep on Gaara's shoulder. I looked at Gaara's face and noticed he was giving her a soft look as she slept. I felt a bolt of jealousy run through me. I knew Gaara really liked Asami. It was pretty obvious from the way he acted around her. How would he react I wonder, if he knew that I really liked her too?