• "Yeah," Lee said laughing.
    "So what do you need Lee?" I asked looking around for other teammates.
    "Oh nothing, I was just wondering if you'd want to spar?" I looked at him, seeing as he was only a tai jutsu user, I was kind of worried, that he'd brake a bone of mine or something.
    "Uh, yeah sure. Why not?" I said to my self seeing as I was getting nervous. "Is this all you do is train, Lee?" I asked as we began walking to one of the grounds that wasn't demolished by me, or was occupied.
    "Yep, I always want to get stronger, since you know I'm a tai jutsu user," He said smiling. "I want to get as strong as I can, and become the best tai jutsu user. That's my goal," He contiued.
    "That's great!" I said. "You want to know my goal," Lee nodded. "I want to become a successful ninja, and find the people who kidnapped my brother, plus my parents to come back from a mission they've been on for years," I said looking over to him.
    "Well that's also such a great goal. I hope you accomplish it!" He smiled while giving me a thumbs up, and the blinding smile.
    "You too. Now are you ready to spar?" I asked as I noticed we were at the training ground.
    "I'm always ready," Lee answered.



    After sketching Momoko, I fed him a small treat and picked him up, leaving the forest with my sketchbook held under my arm. I had just evaded a low branch and stepped into the park when suddenly my sketchbook slipped, and when it hit the ground, it sent papers flying everywhere. "Oh, great." I muttered, crouching and setting Momoko down.
    "Having fun?" came a voice. I looked up to see a smirking Kiba Inuzuka. "Gravity doesn't like you, Matsuo."
    I grinned and lunged, shoving his legs. With a yelp he crashed to the ground. "Yeah, it doesn't seem to like you, either." I laughed. He grinned and sat up.
    "So what'd you drop, clumsy?" He asked, reaching out to pick up some of the papers. He saw the one of Momoko and paused. "Hey, this is really good!"
    "Give it back."
    He pulled it away as I reached for it. "No, I mean, really good! You should be an artist."
    "Give it back, Inuzuka!"
    I lunged for it but he pulled it away, making me crash onto my stomach. He laughed and set it on my head. "There you go, spaz." he grinned. "Hey, wanna train?"
    "No thanks," I said, sitting up and taking the drawing. "I'm going to be training enough."
    "Huh?"
    "Training with you guys, whenever Kurenai gets back, and then...Iruka's going to be helping me." I lied.
    He stood and extended a hand. I took it, letting him haul me up. "Fine. How about going to get ramen?"
    Tucking my drawings into my sketchbook, I glanced down to see Momoko and Akamaru eyeing eachother warily. "Sure," I said. "Let's go."



    Lee was a really strong fighter. As we fought his punches, and kicks were actually more powerful than the normal ninja that I've encountered. I was making hand signs to try to get him stuck in the ground, but I wasn't fast enough. He kicked me, sending me towards the trees. As I hit it, my head snapped back, and whacked against it. My vision began to blur, like I was going to be knocked out by the hit, but, I calmed down, and composed myself. Opening my eyes I saw Lee coming at me. Making the hand signs once again, I got the earth beneath him to collapse, then harden causing half his body to be stuck in the ground.



    Kiba and I went to the ramen bar and began eating. Kiba offered to pay all of it but I paid half of it. We ate in awkward silence, with me wondering faintly if this counted as a date. No, I finally determined. It's just a friendly meal between friends. "So how are you?" I asked finally, spooning some noodles into my mouth.
    "Pretty good." He said, glancing away. His ears turned bright red.
    This was so awkward.
    "So you've been drawing for a while, huh?" He asked, scratching at his nose.
    "Yeah. Since I was a little kid." I prodded my ramen absently. "Do you draw?"
    "Nah. i don't have the patience."
    "Matsuo?"
    kiba and I turned at the voice to see Iruka walk up. My face flushed beet red and I waved half heartedly. "Uh...hi, Uncle Iruka..."
    He glanced at Kiba, looking confused. "Kiba? Aren't you two supposed to be training?"
    "Kurenai's still sick." Kiba said casually. Iruka nodded and took a seat on the other side of me. I buried my head in my hands, to hide the blush and my shame.
    "So, what are you kids up to?" Iruka asked, leaning against the counter. Oh, God, he wasn't even here to eat! now he was just going to be all...snoopish!! "Are you two...on a date, or something?" he continued, as if reading mind.
    "No-'" I began.
    "Yeah," Kiba chirped.
    I cast Kiba a horrified glance. He shrugged at me, blinking in confusion.
    Iruka nudged me with his elbow. "Hey, you didn't tell me you liked Kiba-"
    "KIBAWEHAVESOMEWHEREIMPORTANTTOBEREALLYFARAWAYFROMHERE!" I suddenly cried, leaping out of my chair and grabbing Kiba's wrist. "By Uncle Iruka!!" I took off running, Momoko and Akamaru struggling to keep up, with Kiba practically tripping over himself. i glanced backwards to see a confused Iruka turn around to order his meal as if nothing had happened.


    I watched as Lee tried pulling himself out of the ground by his pure strength. I sat there yawning, just waiting for him to get out on his own, or give up. After about ten minutes of trying the top half of his body flopped on the ground, giving up. He started wagging one arm from side to side, like he wanted help from me. "One moment," I said to him, while jogging over to him. "Okay, I'll get you out now," Making another couple of hand signs. The earth turned into sand, and I helped pull him up from it.
    "Wow I can see how you almost beat Neji now. Your Magma jutsu is amazing!" He exclaimed whipping off the excess sand from his jumpsuit.
    "Thanks," I said smiling. "So you ready to head home now, since we've sparred?" I asked him.
    "Sure thing!" I could hear the 'ding' sound that'd go with his smile whenever he or Guy sensei did. We began our walk back to our houses together till we had to split up.
    Turning around a corner we were laughing at myself that had tripped earlier. The next step I took, was painful, since someone ran into me, and fell with me to the ground. Looking over to see who it was, turned out to Matsuo, and Kiba.
    "Oh hi there. What a fancy to meet you two down here," I said to them, not making an attempt to get up, due to my laziness, and then supporting myself on my elbow.


    I rubbed my sore butt, having landed on the ground as well. Kiba moved to help me up, but I waved him away. "It was horrible," I said, grabbing Akane's forearms and shaking her. "Kiba and I went to the ramen bar, and my uncle showed up!"
    Akane looked at me blankly.
    "Iruka showed up!" I said, shaking her again. "And he was jumping to all sorts of conclusions, and I just barely escaped!"
    "Hey, in my defense, I actually DID think we were on a date," Kiba said, folding his arms.
    Akane snickered. I let go of her with a huff and turned to Kiba. "You kinda forgot to give me the memo on that," I said sourly.
    Kiba blushed lightly and scratched his nose, looking away. "Well...I assumed..."
    "Point is, it was embarressing," I said, turning back to Akane.
    "I can imagine," she said, folding her arms.
    we were quiet for a moment. "What are you doing here, anyways?" I asked.
    "I was just sparring Lee," she said, jabbing a thumb over her shoulder. "And kicked his butt. I was just going home to relax."
    I nodded. "Neat." I paused. "We should go hang out somewhere! I REALLY don't want to go home and have to deal with my uncle right now," I said, folding my arms. She nodded.
    "Where to?"
    "I know!" Kiba said. "We could go to the observation tower. You know, to look at the Hokages."
    "Good idea." I extended my hand towards Kiba and he helped me up, before helping up Akane. We then set off to the observation tower.


    We had made our way up to the observation tower to look at the four Hokage's faces that have been carve into the hillside. Why didn't we have these? I thought. "These are awesome!" I exclaimed. " Now I wonder why the Sand doesn’t have these." I continued.
    "What do you have for the Kazekage?" Kiba asked looking curious.
    "I believe statues of each of the Kazekage," I explained. "Probably the reason why we've never chosen to do these is the weather we have," I thought allowed.
    "What could be so different from the weather here, Akane?" Lee asked.
    "It's totally different trust me. All you guys have is sunny, rainy, storms, maybe the occasional tornado, and such. But we have all of that, well maybe not the storms, barely any rain, instead we have something called a sand storm," Matsuo's eyebrows lifted. "It's like a giant storm of sand you don't want to be caught in one. Well it erodes rock, and these faces of yours," I told them gesturing to the faces. "would most likely disappear." I finished.


    "Oh. That sounds like a fun place to live," I said sarcastically, leaning against the railing. Akane raised an eyebrow at me.
    "Are you insulting the Sand?" She asked threateningly.
    "Nope." I brushed some bangs out of my eyes. "But personally, I'd rather stay in the Leaf."
    "Me two." Kiba said, leaning against the rail next to me. "My whole family's here."
    "Does your whole family have dogs?" Akane asked.
    "Yeah. The Inuzuka Clan specializes in working with Dogs." Kiba ran a hand through his hair. "Like how the Aburames specialize in working with bugs." he turned to me. "Do the Aratas specialize in working with tanukis?"
    "No." I turned, leaning so that my back was against the rail. "I don't know much about the Aratas. But I'm sure they don't work with Tanukis. My uncle just got Momoko for a graduation present."
    kiba grinned. "If you got that just for becoming a Genin, imagine becoming a Chunin or Jonin."
    Akane looked at me. "How come you don't know much about the Aratas? You're one of them."
    I folded my arms, watching Momoko and Akamaru wrestle on the ground, barking and chittering as they smacked at eachother. "You should probably ask my uncle," I said, drumming my fingers on my arm. "I don't like explaining it."
    Kiba frowned at me. "That bad?"
    "How did this conversation get centered on me?" I asked, grinning. "Let's talk about something more cheerful."
    Kiba moved to copy my stance, leaning against the rail. He yawned and casually stretched an arm over my shoulders. "Like maybe you and I going on a real date?"
    "Gag." Akane said dryly.
    "I thought you were mad at me for knocking you out," I said wryly.
    "You knocked him out?" Akane grinned, and her ferrets moved to stand next to Akamaru and Momoko, as if debating on whether or not to join the tussle. 'that's priceless."
    "He was freaking out during a Genjutsu. I took out one of his pressure points. Nothing big." I said, laughing.
    "hey, hey hey hey no changing the subject," Kiba said, grinning. "So you going to go on this date with me or what?"
    "Hey, we went on a date today," i said. "At least in your mind. So give it a rest for now." I turned to Akane, who was watching the scenario with a raised eyebrow. "So, you sparred with Lee, huh? Do you liiiiiiiiiike him?" I asked, leaning towards her.
    she glared. "It was just training."


    "Yeah right, it was just training," I heard Kiba say. "Heeee likes you," Kiba said in a lovey dovey way. I looked away frowning. He is really nice? I thought thinking it over.
    "Wait did someone say my name?!" We all looked over to see a confused Lee.
    "'Yeah but it's nothing important," I told him before Kiba or Matsuo could say anything.


    "Oh, it's EXTREMELY important-" I objected. Suddenly Akane clamped a hand over my mouth, blushing lightly. Kiba snickered but didn't say anything. Lee looked extremely confused.
    I shoved Akane's hand away from my mouth. "I'm going to go home and relax," I said. "Bye, you guys."
    "Do you want me to walk you home?" Kiba asked. "Since we're still technically on a date."
    I shot him a sour look. Akane folded her arms and looked at him. "I'm thinking she doesn't consider it a date.'
    Laughing, I turned and went home, immedietly trying to go up to my room before Iruka could bring anything up. But he suddenly called, "Matsuo, come here a second, would you?"
    with a loud, overdramatic sigh I obliged. Trudging over to where he was leaning against the counter, I sat in a stool and raised an eyebrow. "Yes, Uncle Iruka?"
    his face was dead serious. "So, are you dating that Inuzuka guy?"
    "NO!" I cried, slamming my hands on the counter. "Everyone thinks that! But no! We just went to go get ramen! That's all!"
    Iruka smiled and set my sketchbook on the counter. "You left this when you tried to run away."
    I took the sketchbook, blushing. "So was that it?"
    "No. I'm just playing the part of the concerned father." Iruka caught himself then. "Uncle, I mean."
    'it's no big deal, you're kind of my dad anyway," i said. I smiled at him. "And you're not going to be one of those dads who pulls out a gun when the guy comes over, are you?"
    "Depends on who it is." Iruka drummed his fingers on the counter.
    Smiling, I shook my head. "Good night, Uncle Iruka."


    Now it was just me, standing where everybody had to leave. I turned back to my apartment, and started walking. "Well there's nobody to talk to now," I said aloud. There was angry squeaks coming from my head and shoulder. "Sorry, except you guys," I told both my ferrets smiling. Climbing the stairs to my floor, I started thinking what I should eat for dinner. I opened the door to only here a crash, and glass being broken. Flipping on the lights I followed from where the sound had came. When I got to my room, the window had been broken, but nothing look like it had been touched. I sighed, "Why do I have to be targeted for a robbery?" Starting to pick glass up, something caught my eye. It was a necklace, that held half of a yin yang symbol. Looking at it more closely, I had actually seen the yang symbol, on my brother. The other half I still wore. 'He's still alive,' I thought, as I sat on my bed.