Author's Note: Okay, this is excluding Saskue's adventures with Orochimaru just so everyone is aware. Also, I may have inaccurately named Ino's team as 'Team 9' and if I did so please forgive me and just go with it as is. Happy reading and please review—I love those things.

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Sakura sat at the ramen shop on an off-training day, smiling quietly to herself. She was reflecting upon yesterday when Kakashi-sensei had told her how well she was doing. They had been learning one new jutsu a week for the past month, and she was getting so good at learning them that she had beat Naruto and even, on occasion, Sasuke. She couldn't forget how angry Saskue looked at being beat by a girl. That was more deliciously satisfying than all the ramen in the world. Sakura smiled to herself again, pleased by her accomplishments. True, she was pissed that Sasuke thought being a girl meant you were naturally inept, but she was also deeply overjoyed at the prospect of taking him out. She sighed in pleasure….taking Sasuke out, taking him in, whatever she did would be fine as long as Sasuke was involved. Sometimes even Sakura was amazed at how much she waited to hear his voice or to see him. Again she smiled to herself, a ridiculously happy and content smile, and then a clamorous voice broke through her cheerful mood.

"Ha-ha-ha! Look at this, Sakura! Look what I stole!"

Sakura closed her eyes and breathed deeply. So much for the peaceful morning. She steadied herself and then turned to the boy in question.

"Shut-up, Naruto," the young kuinoichi snapped. "I don't care about what you stole, just give it back."

"But look, but look," he shouted gleefully. "It's Sasuke's diary!"

"HIS WHAT?"

Sakura dropped the bowl of ramen she was holding. "D–did you say diary?"

"Yes! I can't wait to read it, I'll have so much dirt on him, he'll be doing me favors for a year!"

Sakura stared at the little blue book in his hands. Curiosity almost got the better of her and then she said, "Don't you open that, Naruto. It's none of our business."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Well that's okay. It doesn't have to be our business, it can be the soup's business. Look."

Naruto opened the book randomly and pointed it in the direction of the soup bowl on the counter. "Awww, look at the soup read."

"What are you doing, Naruto?" said a voice from behind them.

Naruto and Sakura turned and saw Neji, Hinata, and Lee.

"Watching the soup read," Naruto answered merrily.

"R—read what?" asked Hinata nervously.

"Sasuke's diary, of course."

"HIS WHAT?"

"Oh what is with you people? A diary is a diary after all. A juicy little book of secrets." Naruto had the complete look of an evil villain with his arch enemy's life in his hands. He threw back his head and laughed.

"Sasuke has a diary?" said Lee with utter surprise.

"You stole it?" added Neji, who had a very 'do you know how stupid you are' tone to his voice.

"Oh shut-up, all of you," snapped Naruto, annoyed.

"Don't tell me to shut-up!" yelled a voice to their right.

Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji were coming up to the ramen store.

"What are you reading, Naruto?" asked Ino curiously, spying the book in his hands.

"Sasuke's diary," answered Neji, snickering to himself.

"HIS WHAT?" yelled Ino and Shoji at the same time. Shikamaru glanced at it for a moment and then glanced away disinterested, and instead sat down to a bowl of soup.

"You stole his diary, Naruto! How could you do something like that!" shouted Ino.

"It was so easy! He hid it under his bed! His bed!"

Naruto went flying as Ino's fist made contact with his head.

"That's personal property, Naruto!" she yelled.

"You sound just like Sakura," said Naruto, rubbing his head.

Ino turned her attention to Sakura. She raised her eyebrows at the pink-haired kuinoichi and put her hands on her hips, a slight smirk on her features.

"What?" said Sakura. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

"I want to know when you're going to read it, because obviously you have to read it. Naruto already did the damage so there is no reason to not take advantage of that. You know what I mean? Think about it, he might have written about you…."

Sakura glared at Ino and snapped, "I am not reading that! It's personal property, remember?"

"Oh whatever. You still want to read it, I can tell."

Sakura rolled her eyes and looked over at the diary. No doubt, she could feel the attraction….

"Stop staring at the diary," said Shikamaru, not looking at her but the ramen instead.

Sakura blinked.

Ino laughed loudly and said, "That's okay, Sakura. We'll look the other way if you want—you know, to cut down on the number of witnesses."

Sakura turned on her and loudly said, "I DO NOT WANT TO READ HIS DIARY!"

"Liar," coughed Lee, clearing his throat.

With a growl of rage, Sakura turned on her heel, whilst glaring at them all, and took off down the street. Her pink head bobbed among the sea of people until she was out of sight.

"Well now, well now," said Naruto rubbing his hands together. "I suppose I should be taking off as well."

"Oh no you don't, noodle-head!" snapped Ino, grabbing his arm roughly.

"Yeah, she's right," said Hinata quietly. "You're not leaving until we get that diary away from you."

"What?" said Naruto, yanking his arm free of Ino and backing up slowly. Hinata took a step towards him and Naruto threw up his hands. "But Hinata, I don't intend any harm by it, honestly…."

"You are honestly a noodle-head," answered the well-mannered girl in her quiet, prudent voice.

"But this means so much to me! I mean, this is the emotionless, heartless Sasuke we're talking about! Why keep a diary if not to share your feelings? He wants to share his feelings with me, Hinata, and I really, really want to listen."

"I really, really don't think so," yelled Ino stridently.

"Ahhhhh!" moaned Shikamaru, holding his ears.

Ino ignored him and started the advance towards Naruto. Both girls were backing him into a corner, but he was unaware of this as he continued his rearward movements.

"Now girls," said Naruto frantically, "there is no need for violence. I think, actually, a really great idea is to have a cup of tea and go home. Or maybe, since nowhere around here serves tea, we could have a bowl of ramen instead? Ramen sounds good, right? What flavor would you like? Me and Neji will pay for it—"

"Leave me out of this, noodle-head," said Neji grinning despicably.

"Well, I'll pay for it," said Naruto desperately, clutching the wall behind him, fingers digging into the cement.

"You take out his mouth, Hinata, and I'll get the jugular."

Hinata nodded her head in the affirmative and they executed the strangulation upon the blonde haired boy, taking care to hit his sensitive spots.

Neji, Lee, Shikamaru, and Chouji watched mutely as Naruto was pummeled into the ground.

"Ino has a very nasty left hook," Lee commented as Naruto's neck twisted abnormally.

Chouji stuffed his face with chips. "I didn't know Hinata could stomp someone's head into the dirt without feeling bad about it."

Shikamaru observed Naruto's predicament and then said, "Stupid blonde."

As the dust was roused from the ground, the scene became increasingly more difficult to see, until the point where all that could be heard were shrieks of pain from Naruto, war cries from Ino, and brutal grunts from Hinata. The boys continued to watch the fight in mild amusement before a cool hand appeared in front of their faces, distracting their attention from the fight. Sasuke stood next to them, hands at his sides and wearing a facial expression of slight inquiry.

Some in the group started to panic and all started to rack their brain as to some explanation of what this fight was about, excluding the accusation involving Sasuke owning a diary and then writing in it. Some attempted to turn their attention smoothly back to the fight and others started mumbling half-wit explanations. As it became clearer that no one was planning to be coherent, Sasuke finally said, "Why are the girls pounding the loser in the ground?"

"Er…"

"Don't tell me," said Sasuke. "The loser finally found the diary."

"It's true?" exclaimed Lee in shock and then Chouji clapped a hand over his mouth.

Sasuke turned his attention to Lee and said, "I planted that fake a month ago, ever since that blonde freak has been planning to sneak into my house. Why else would I hide it under my bed?"

"You planned this?" said Neji with a hint of admiration.

"Ha, I thought I saw something when Naruto was talking to me about this a week ago," said Shikamaru. "I told him to shut-up but he didn't listen. I should have elaborated but I didn't feel like it."

Sasuke grinned. "I knew you had seen me. Good thing you didn't say anything though. Has he read it yet?"

"No, the girls won't give him the chance to," said Chouji.

"Pity. Well, I'm going to go before they see me. Make sure one of you gets it away from the girls and back to Naruto. He has to read it."

"Taken care of," said Neji as Sasuke disappeared in the direction of Team 7's training area, planning to train on their day off.

"How does he know Naruto won't win the diary?"

"Uh Lee, open your eyes, man."

Sure enough, the girls had beaten the diary away from him, Ino holding the blue book and Hinata holding Naruto's wrists as he was pushed against the wall. Their bodies were close, leaving hardly any room between them and Naruto was breathing in her scent with obvious arousal. Hinata was level with his neck and her nose brushed his open flesh. Her shivers excited him further still. Quite subconsciously, Hinata's pink tongue flicked out and licked around Naruto's neck, tantalizing his sensitive spots. Naruto let out a small moan and fought to release his arms from her hold. Escaping from her grip, Naruto slid his arms around her petite body, and her hands reached up, one going for his chest, the other for his neck. At the cough of Ino, Hinata stopped her ministrations and turned round. She was met with the stares of her friends.

Naruto, perceiving her absence, groaned from loss of contact. "Ignore them," he muttered. "Don't stop…"

Hinata flushed and then reached up to whisper in his ear, "Later okay?"

Naruto looked at her in slight annoyance and said, "You can't just walk away after that and expect me not to be pissed."

The tension between the lovers infected everyone in the area and they all turned to different things, carefully avoiding Hinata's vicious looks and Naruto's furious grabs at her skin. Ino grabbed Shikamaru's arm and pulled him away from his ramen. "C'mon, you lazy bum," she muttered annoyed.

"Get off," howled Shikamaru in a low tone of voice, stumbling as he was dragged away from his food. Ino grabbed Chouji's ear on the way out and he too came yelping along.

Neji watched the procession of Team 9 as they made their way out of the egress. "Alright," he muttered, "are you coming with me?"

Lee nodded his head and the two took off to the building tops following the progression of the girl and boys, plotting ways to steal that valuable blue book back again.

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Naruto woke up in his apartment the following day, sleepy eyed and tired like usual. With an aggressive blow, he took out his alarm clock in blind exhaustion. Groggily standing, Naruto staggered and stumbled through his morning procedures and out the door. Pale sunlight smacked him in the face as the door opened and his foot caught and tripped on an object on the doormat. On the ground, he twisted his body and swiped at the article responsible for his slip. Opening his eyes a little wider, Naruto jumped up for joy, now completely awake. Out of his mind, the blonde took off down the street in the direction of his best friend's house.

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"SAKURA, SAKURA, YOU'RE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE WHAT I FOUND!"

Sakura groaned loudly as shafts of bright sunlight hit her face and the blankets were ripped from her body. She took a huge breath and covered her eyes with her hands, trying to stay calm.

"How do you know I'm not naked under here, Naruto?"

Naruto had the decency to look apologetic. "Er…I don't know, good thing you're not right?" His huge grin came back full force and he said, "You have to read it with me, you have to read it with me!"

"Read wha—"

Comprehension dawned on her face and she snapped up in bed. "You found it?"

"Yes, yes, lying on my doorstep! It's destiny!"

Sakura and Naruto went to her kitchen and sat at the table next to each other, with Naruto clutching the book in his hands in adoration. Sakura breathed deeply, steadying herself as she often had to do. Uncertainty caught her for a moment, but it was quickly overwhelmed with curiosity.

"Okay. Naruto. Before we do this, we need to make a promise not to tell Saskue I read this thing. Now, did anyone see you come here?"

Naruto looked at her like she was the battiest creature to ever exist. "I don't know," he said waving the whole question off, "I didn't look. I was a little distracted cherishing the means of my biggest competition's downfall."

"Okay. Then we'll go with the story that you came here but I told you not to read it. However, you did not listen to me and read it anyway. Deal?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever I won't tell." Naruto quickly opened the diary, but Sakura grabbed his arm roughly and stared him down.

"Do you promise?"

"Yes."

Sakura held on a few seconds longer but then released him. "Good."

Naruto quickly reopened the diary and the pair bent their head over the book.

The first few pages were significantly boring details of jutsus and skills that Kakashi had been teaching them in training. Naruto skipped through these pages until he found a phrase that absolutely demanded his attention.

Naruto is so stupid.

Naruto's blood began to boil. "Who does he think he is! He's not that clever himself!"

Kakashi introduced a new justu today and that blonde-haired freak spent the whole day jumping up and down in a handstand trying to find the right chakra flow. He ended up slamming his head against a rock on mid-bounce and tumbling to the ground. You could hear him screaming all the way down the mountainside. His little girlfriend Hinata had to come and make it better. I have never seen anything more sickening in my life.

Have I mentioned that Hinata is even stupider than her boyfriend? Who in their right mind would date Naruto? You have to be really dim to do that. Honestly, their displays of affection are the grossest things I have ever seen. Its all tongues and bad moves. Talk about skills…they don't have any. I think the thing I find so strange is their haircuts. Where exactly do they get these styles from? Even Lee looks better. That's saying something.

By this point, Naruto was categorically enraged.

"I'M GOING TO KILL HIM!"

He stood up violently, the chair sailing out and smashing cabinets, and he flew out the door, face red and ears smoking. Sakura admitted a little surprise to Saskue's words and obviously saw Naruto's anger was for good reason. She turned her head back to the book and continued reading.

Training has been something else. Today Kakashi told Sakura that she was becoming one of the most valuable members of Team 7. He went so far as to call her special. I have never heard such ridiculous sentiments in my life. Sakura special? Please. If I had to describe her, silly and shortsighted would be the first words to come to my mind. Ever since she was little she was lowercase. The uppercase people, like Sarutobi, are the real people in this world. All Sakura does is flirt and occasionally raise her hand in class. Ridiculous. Kakashi was so off the mark that it's funny and slightly pathetic. Can't people see that Sakura is so far from special that it's like comparing pigs to burning meteor rockets?

Sakura gasped. She couldn't believe Sasuke was saying this. Sure he had been mean in the past, but never to this extent.

Apparently Lee saw something in Sakura that I never did. You know, just the other day he called her beautiful. Wow. How much farther from the truth can you get? Is he blind to her forehead or something? Can anyone say ugly?

Sakura didn't read any more. Sasuke had never said anything remotely like that before. The book fell from her grasp and she breathed in shallowly as a few tears fell from her face, her heart shredding into numerous pieces.

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Okay, please review and tell me what you think. I should be updating in the next week or so. Thanks!