*Giant authors note at the bottom that will explain a few things, like why it's rated M…if you're just now reading this or have in the past it doesn't matter. It's for everyone.

Lauren's POV

"Jashin-sama why!" the blonde beside me cried. "Stop these accursed heathens from giving us freaking finals!"

The red head on the other side of me laughed as I cracked a smirk.

It was nearing the end of the school year and the three of us walked along the side walk as the early summer sun blasted down on us. Finals were always a pain, but there was no way to get around them if you hoped to pass with a good score.

The blonde beside me sighed for the millionth time and I gave her an encouraging pat on the shoulder.

"Don't worry, Tay," I assured her smiling. "If you need help with anything I and Tess'll help you."

She smiled back at me. "Thanks Lauren."

If you're wondering, I'm Lauren. I've got long, curly brown hair and rainbow eyes. They don't really have a specific color, but if you asked most people they'd say light green. I'm about 5 ft 8 inches which made me the tallest of the three of us. I wasn't really fit either, I had a little chub around the edges but I didn't really mind it. I also tended to be the most mature of the group taking the responsibly of the leader when something needed to get done, but otherwise I was mostly laid back and happy despite the dark moods I got into sometimes.

Taylor, or Tay as I referred to her as, was the blonde. She had somewhat wavy shoulder length, edgy blonde hair. It was pale in color and complemented her honey colored brown eyes. She was only 5 ft 5 which made her the shortest but she was also the skinniest, her body having almost no muscle at all. Taylor was more exuberant personality of our little group, rarely ever getting genuinely upset or mad.

Tess was the red head, and when I say red I don't mean soulless ginger, I mean like blood red, and the surprising part was that it was natural. She had radiant emerald eyes which helped draw attention to her face and away from her rather muscular build. She was about 5 ft 6 inches, putting her right in the middle of the height category. Tess was usually more mature than Taylor but tended to fool around with her as well unless I was too out of it to take on the leader role, then she was perfectly capable of filling it herself.

All three of us had met in middle school and had been best friends ever since. If you knew us than you'd know we really acted like sisters without all the fighting. We were in 10th grade as well and Taylor and Tess had already turned 17 while I was still 16.

Our converse scuffled along the ground as we continued down the side walk, the wind picking up slightly.

"I hate freaking finals…yeah," Taylor muttered to herself, staring down at the ground. Tess and I both blinked and shared a look before staring at her with giant grins. She must've felt our eyes on her because she quickly looked up.

"What?" she questioned innocently. "Why are you giving me creepy stares?"

By this point the three of us had stopped walking and Tess and I continued to stare at her with huge grins.

"STTOOOOPPPP~" Taylor whined, throwing her arms in the air in exasperation. "WHHHYYYYYYY?"

Tess and I finally gave up and started laughing. The red head placed her hand on the blondes head and gave her hair a slight ruffle.

"We were just fucking with you," Tess giggled. Taylor blinked at her.

"Why?"

I chuckled and poked her in the forehead.

"Because you said "yeah"," I explained. "You reminded us of Deidara and we got into fangirl mode for a minute."

Taylor continued to stare at me with her with her huge eyes, mulling over what I had just said in her head. A few seconds later she laughed.

"Oh yeah, I guess I did," she admitted sticking her tongue out.

I shook my head at her obliviousness and Tess laughed again while Taylor stood there slightly embarrassed.

I take full responsibility for getting them both obsessed with anime and manga. And I take it with pride.

We turned to continue walking when a sudden huge gust of wind almost knocked up off our feet.

"What the fuck?" Tess said looking around. "Is there a storm coming or something?"

I shrugged and shoved my hand in my shorts pockets. "I don't know, but seeing how strong that wind was I say we should get going."

Tess and Taylor didn't budge; their eyes were glued to the sky.

Confused I looked up to see what they were staring at.

"What are…," I trailed off. "What in the fuck is that?"

In the sky above us there was a single pitch black cloud. It twirled over our head ominously as the wind picked up again.

I opened my mouth to make the suggestion that we bolt when a vortex of wind slammed down on all sides of us.

The wind was knocked out of our lungs and we suddenly found ourselves being pulled off the ground. My head was spinning as we suddenly started getting pulled up faster and faster.

Taylor, being the lightest one, ascended faster and Tess cursed and reached for her hand, trying to keep us together. She missed her finger tips by inches and Taylor screamed Tess's and I's name. That was enough to knock me back into the reality that this really was happening.

"Taylor!" I cried, seeing tears spring into her eyes. Tess cursed again but there was nothing we could do. The vortex had distanced the three of us and we couldn't reach each other.

We were quickly pulled into the black cloud.

I felt my head get light as the winds started to get to unbearable pressures. My vision started to blur as my body began to shut down.

The darkness soon engulfed me and the last thing I had heard was Tess and Taylor screaming my name.

Normal POV

Elsewhere…

"Kiba-kun! Akamaru!" Hinata greeted kindly, waving at them as they entered the training grounds.

Kiba cracked a toothy grin and approached his team mate, his canine right at his side like always.

"Hey Hinata, sorry I'm late. I had to take care of business with my sisters," he said rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

Shino hopped down from where he had been resting in a tree and joined the two.

"That's a poor excuse for you tardiness," he said blandly looking over at his mutt-like team mate.

Kiba snarled at him. "I already said I was sorry, bastard. So let's just start training already."

Shino nodded and the three each turned and walked to adjacent edges of the field.

It was later in the day and the sun was illuminating the surface of the nearby lake as it sunk towards the horizon.

Hinata activated her Byakugan while Kiba readied Akamaru and Shino readied his bugs. When the three were finally set Kiba smirked deciding to make the first move.

"Ninja art: Fang over Fa-!"

"Stop!"

Kiba made a grunting noise as he fell face first into the ground after being forced to stop mid-spin.

"Hinata, what is it? What's wrong?" Shino questioned as Kiba brushed himself off.

The Byakugan wielder pointed a shaking hand towards the sky above the lake.

"There- there's a girl! A- and she falling!"

"What!" Kiba and Shino chorused in shock, whipping their heads to where Hinata was pointing.

Sure enough there was a girl falling towards the lake. She was limply falling which let them know she was unconscious.

"We're not going to be able to reach her in time," Shino said, his voice strained slightly. "She's falling to fast."

Kiba cursed loudly.

"Fang over fang!"

With incredible speed Kiba flew over the lake as the girl neared the surface of the water. He caught her just in the nick of time and skidded to a stop on the water's surface, looking over to the girl to make sure she was okay.

He took in her appearance and gently brushed the hair out of her face, relieved when he didn't find any type of apparent injury.

"Kiba!" Hinata shouted at him from the shore. "We need to get her to the hospital and notify the Hokage!"

"Right!" He shouted back and adjusted the girl in his arms as he sprinted back to the shore. The Inuzuka didn't halt as and kept running, knowing that his Hyuuga teammate was keeping pace right behind him.

Shino appeared beside him. "You take the girl to the hospital and get her care. Hinata and I will go and notify the Hokage."

Kiba nodded again and the two split off as he continued running towards the Leaf village hospital.

Sigh :) It was actually fun reverting back to this setting XD

To those of you who are new (if there are any new people lol): This was my first fanfic and really it still is. It was removed a while ago for some reason that had to do with the T rating. There really isn't anything M in this story. There's swearing and later on some very minor sexual content, so the M rating is basically for precautionary reasons. If you like it so far feel free to shoot me a review/comment to tell me what you think ;)

To those of you who previously have read the story: :D Hi! I hope you know that since I lost the first 8 chapters I am retyping them. If you actually read the chapter and noticed that it was slightly different that's because it is. I don't remember everything and have also improved my writing skills since 2010 when this was posted, so I changed it a bit. :P Hopefully that's not a problem though. And please, if you previously had this in your favorites or something; know that it won't be there so if you want to be do what you need to do!

I will be revising all the chapters that I still have before posting them as well, hopefully catching any mistakes that I missed back then. Though I will never promise you perfection :P

I won't be posting the entire story all at once either. I will most likely post a few chapters each week because I don't want to have people think that a 60-something chapter story is that bad that it has no reviews :P because in all honesty I was devastated at the removal of this story because I lost the 700-something mostly positive reviews that it had received :( I'm still actually kind of upset about it too…

So yes, now you know :P

Please feel free to review :) They are very much appreciated.

Hope you like it.

~Akatsuki's a Bang

Review!