As we all do, I ship certain pairings. You may not agree with these pairings but I happen to like them. Enjoy this latest chapter!

Chichi - father

Hahaoya - mother

o.O.o

Chapter 2

Saturday night. Konohamaru was picking up Utako at seven for their seven-thirty restaurant reservation. The reunion started at seven-thirty.

Zaku shut the shop fifteen minutes early and skated home. When he stepped through the door, Dosu was fast asleep on the couch with Eko and Utako sat at the table quietly wearing her cream dress, cream slip-on shoes and her hair up in a ponytail. The only downside of living with men was that she had no one to teach her make-up or how to do her hair nicely.

"Hey sweetie, you okay?" Zaku sat beside her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

She bit her lip. "I'm just nervous…"

"It's just Konohamaru. He's your friend." Zaku pulled her into a hug and kissed her forehead. She relaxed in his arms and squeezed his hand.

"I love you, Zaku," she whispered, "and I just want you to be happy."

"I am happy," he murmured. She snuggled closer to his chest and sighed.

"You're not truly happy. I see it when you think no one's looking." She pressed her hand to his heart.

"Why are you suddenly obsessed with me getting a girlfriend?"

She didn't reply and he had no idea what she was thinking. Wait a minute… did she know? Did she know what happened between him and-

Someone knocked on the door and jerked him from his thoughts. Utako jumped up and smoothed down her dress, gentleness replaced with nerves. Zaku ran a hand through his hair and gave her thumbs-up, hiding his pain behind a smile like he always did.

She breathed deeply and opened the door.

Konohamaru stood there in black jeans and a short-sleeved blue button-up with palm trees dotted all over. He'd brushed back his unruly hair for once. The eighteen-year-old was so mature compared to the little boy Zaku once took for sushi.

"H-hey Konohamaru." Utako blushed furiously.

"Utako, it's just me." He laughed easily and waved to Zaku. "I'll have her back by eleven."

"Nice to see you too." Zaku nodded at the boy. Konohamaru smiled at Utako and the pair left the apartment. Zaku wandered over to Dosu's sleeping form and shook him. "Hey Dosu, wake up."

"Mmm…"

"Wake up!"

"Ah!" Dosu jerked awake and upset Eko. The dog wriggled around on the bed before flopping away from Dosu and looking at the pair mournfully. Dosu stared at Zaku without his bandages on. Once, seeing his deformities had made Zaku uncomfortable, but now he didn't even blink. It was just how Dosu was.

"We should be heading to the school," Zaku said. "The reunion starts in like, twenty minutes."

"Hai." Dosu's sleepy expression turned serious. "You're okay to go?"

"Hai, why wouldn't I be?"

"It's just… what if Kin's there?"

Zaku's heart ached at her name. In a one-off moment of weakness he'd told Dosu the truth and he regretted it. He shouldn't have told anyone. Keeping it to himself would make it easier to move on.

"Then she's there." Zaku looked away. "Let's just get ready."

Dosu seemed like he wanted to say something, but he kept his mouth shut and went to his dresser instead of starting a deep and meaningful conversation that would undoubtedly lead to Zaku getting angry.

If there was one thing that got him angry, it was when he addressed his feelings.

He and Dosu both dressed in sensible jeans and long-sleeved dress-shirts, Zaku's dark green and Dosu's dark red to match his maroon bandages. Zaku attempted to comb his hair back but it always ended up springing back over his eyes, so he had to tie it up with a black headband. Dosu's blonde hair was cut short, as usual, and the only thing he could possibly do with it was spike it up like he was a rock star. Which he refused to do.

They said goodbye to Eko, locked the apartment door behind them and headed for the school. Zaku cross his fingers for a second and hoped that Utako would have a great night, but not too great. He didn't know if he was ready for her to grow up yet. She was only fourteen and Konohamaru was eighteen and graduating school at the end of the year. That kind of pressure wouldn't be good for a relationship. Not to mention she was only fourteen and he was entrusting her safety to Konohamaru, even if they'd been best friends her whole life.

"They'll be fine," Dosu assured him. "You've seen how Konohamaru's looked at her. My guess is he's waited until she was older before asking her out."

"I know. He told me when he was ten that he liked her. I always assumed that he'd find some other girl at school but that didn't happen."

"At least it's Konohamaru and not some boy you don't know."

"That's true." He couldn't help but see the logic in Dosu's words. He'd known Konohamaru since he was four and he was friends with his grandpa. Any other boy would be cause for suspicion.

They arrived at Kohona High at seven-thirty. They took a moment to stare at the cluster of buildings before forging on towards the gym. Music emanated from the building and they knew that most people from their year would be in there, all ten years older than when they last saw them.

The gym was decorated old-style, with streamers, plastic tablecloths and coloured strobe lights. Dozens of tables cluttered one section of the gym, placed right near the food and drink, while the rest of the gym was devoted to a floor where people could mingle and dance.

As soon as he entered, his eyes were drawn to a head of bright pink hair standing with a giant of a man. Sakura and Lee saw him and Dosu and waved. They'd married, to everyone's surprise. They both studied at some fancy Tokyo university – Sakura to be a doctor and Lee to be a nutritionist – and suddenly they were an item. Naruto told Zaku all about them and how unexpectedly cute they were and it made him laugh. Sakura came back to work at Kohona's hospital and Lee opened his own sport practice in the city central and now they had two children and a load of money in the bank.

Standing next to them with her husband was Ino Yamanaka. She inherited the Yamanaka Flower Emporium after her chichi died of cancer and put her heart and soul into the business. Her creative spirit attracted the attention of – unbelievably – Sai Uchiha and now he co-worked the flower shop with her. No one saw that coming, not when she preferred going for bad-boys like Kiba. Zaku attended their wedding under Sai's invitation and freely expressed his surprise at the match. Sai stood beside her tonight, smiling and cheerful with an arm around his wife.

Not too far away from Ino were Shikamaru, Choji and Choji's wife. While Shikamaru became a teacher, Choji became the owner of an amazing yakitori restaurant in the city central. Choji's wife Karui, a foreign beauty with dark skin and red hair, came to Japan to learn their style of cooking but ended up falling in love with her loud, kind-hearted boss. No one was quite sure what country she'd come from, but Zaku had seen her at Choji's side many times and she was always smiling.

He saw Naruto and Sasuke sitting at a table with Gaara and Kankuro. Where their sister worked her own successful business, her brothers, in contrast, spent some time in prison. Kankuro and Gaara were caught robbing a department store and spent two years in prison. Gaara kept his nose clean and got a job in construction and was now the head of his department. Kankuro, unfortunately, went back to prison after almost beating a man to death while drunk. He'd been released the year before and Gaara gave him a job with the promise of no alcohol. The four men were talking loudly and laughing at old jokes.

At a table quite near them were Temari, Tenten and Neji. Tenten had gone to become a serious athlete who competed in marathons and sport events all over the world. She'd even gone to the Olympics for high jump once. Neji was a sports reporter for all these fancy events around the world and he and Tenten were married with children and had their own website with gym advice and dieting tips. He'd never looked at the website.

Someone moved past him and he stared at a petite black-haired beauty holding hands with a scruffy brunette male. He and Dosu stared at the newcomers and they stared at him.

"Zaku?" the man said. Zaku gaped, recognising the voice.

"Kiba? I didn't recognise you with the beard!" He shook hands with his old classmate and looked at the girl with him. "Who's this?"

Kiba grinned his familiar wolfish grin. "This beautiful woman, gentlemen, is Hinata Hyuga."

"How's it going Hinata?" Dosu asked, holding out a hand for her to shake. "You look so different, I couldn't tell it was you."

She smiled brightly and shook his hand. "I'm doing good Dosu. How are you?"

"I'm alright."

Zaku looked at Kiba. "So what have you guys gotten up to since school? I haven't heard anything about you in ages…"

"Well we've been backpacking around the world," Kiba explained.

"We stay in the poorest countries and try help them with anything they need, like farming and building, and we try to raise money for wells for villages in Africa." Hinata smiled proudly and Zaku found himself thinking that Kiba had found himself a gem.

"That sounds like a lot of fun," Dosu said mournfully.

"Well when your chichi's rich you can afford to do stuff like that." Hinata blushed.

They talked for a few more minutes before going further into the gym. Zaku spotted Shino heading towards his old groupmates. Shino had become a successful entomologist and his studies of bugs had made it into the news on occasion. Zaku once attended one of his open lectures on entomology at Kohona University, out of curiosity, but all the science talk confused him.

Zaku and Dosu did a lap of the gym before grabbing a drink and sitting at a free table. They weren't too sure what to do, given that they hadn't seen most of their classmates in years.

Gaara and Naruto eventually joined them. The four men exchanged greetings and looked out at the gym.

"It's hard to believe it's been ten years," Naruto said. "I used to play dodgeball in here at lunchtimes."

Zaku looked over at Gaara. The redhead looked a lot healthier than in his high school years but his tattoo was still ugly. "How's it going Gaara?"

"It's going alright." Gaara actually had pupils now.

"You got a girl waiting for you?" Zaku asked. "Or a guy? I'm not offended…" He took a sip of his drink before he said something stupid.

"Believe it or not, hai."

Zaku spat out his drink. "Wait, what?!"

"Her name's Naruko and she's blonde-"

"And no she's not related to me," Naruto cut in.

Gaara rolled his eyes. "No, she's not. She works at the boutique near where I live and she is gorgeous."

"Does she know about your criminal past?" Zaku joked.

"Of course! I'm not an idiot." Gaara grinned. "We know Naruto's got a man, but what about you two?"

"Asexual," Dosu said. "I'm just not interested."

"No girl yet," Zaku admitted, taking another sip of his drink. Dosu gave him a baleful glare.

"Look, if you're not going to say it I might as well." He motioned to Gaara and Naruto. "He likes Kin."

"No way!" Naruto laughed and slapped Zaku's back. "I always thought you two were cosy but this… Zaku you dog! And where is she?"

Zaku clenched his jaw. He knew something like this was bound to happen. Dosu probably thought he was helping, but he wasn't. "I don't know where she is. Somewhere in Tokyo most likely. I haven't seen her in years."

Naruto and Gaara stared. "What happened?" the redhead asked, obviously keen for some juicy gossip. When had the sullen emo developed an interest in gossip…?

"It was nothing."

Dosu clicked his tongue. "If you don't, I will."

"Fine." Zaku slammed his drink down. "I put all my attention towards Utako. I didn't notice that Kin had feelings for me. One day she got fed up with my ignorance and told me how she felt. I didn't know what to say. She thought I rejected her and she disappeared to Tokyo and I realised too late that I actually liked her. You happy?"

"Woah…" Naruto gaped. "You really messed up."

"Tell me about it."

Dosu snorted. "Hai, this man here has never brought a woman home or spent a night away from the apartment in the last ten years. I doubt he's even kissed-"

"Shut up you idiot." Zaku was glad for the uneven light because it hid his furious blushing. He couldn't look at the other men so he cast his gaze over the rest of the gym.

And froze.

Kin.

She stood there not looking a day over twenty. Her long black hair cascaded over her shoulders in carefully-planned waves, framing her pale face. She wore tight-fitting black jeans, a snug jacket, black boot-heels and a white scarf around her neck.

Dosu, Gaara and Naruto all turned to stare too and Dosu nudged him.

"So… what now?" the mummified male asked.

Zaku's heart beat at a thousand miles an hour but his mind went blank. All possibilities of moving on seemed impossible now that he'd seen her again. He stared and Kin completely ignored him and moved to chat with Neji and Tenten.

Naruto chuckled and raised his cup. "Let me tell you one thing Zaku, you don't want to let her go a second time." He finished his cup, glanced around to make sure no one was watching, and dropped it under the table. He then stood and went off to find his husband.

Zaku stared at Kin's back and swallowed. What should he do?