So, I had a review pretty much telling me to stop this story. If you guys don't like this chapter then I'll stop it, just let me know. Hope you enjoy it.

After the long school day had ended Temari, Ino and Hinata stayed the night at Sakura's. Sakura was relieved when she found out her mother had to stay back at work and her dad was at the local tavern getting drunk like he had every night since Sakura was a child. It wasn't new to her because she had always witnessed her dad become aggressive and abusive once he returned home. She was glad none of them were there because she didn't want her friends to witness them continually arguing and screaming at each other. For once, Sakura had the house to herself and was able to enjoy it.

"So," Ino smirked, twirling her long blonde hair around her delicate finger. "That walk to the nurse's office today, I'm guessing you got to spend some quality time with Kiba?" the blonde winked before listening intently to what Sakura had to say.

Sakura's stomach began to twine with nerves and reluctance. Although Ino was her best friend, she didn't like to talk to her about boys and who she liked. Ino was over pushy about the whole Kiba thing and Sakura had a bad feeling she could end up scaring the both of them away from each other.

"Uh, it was ok I guess..." Sakura mumbled as she lowered her glance. Her mind raced back to how she felt awkward and nervous in front of Kiba. She wished she knew what he was thinking or feeling at the time, because it would make her situation a whole lot easier. She wouldn't have to worry about saying the wrong thing, or worrying about what he thought of her, it would just be so simple.

But then she remembered the wink. That small, flirtatious wink of the eye that made Sakura's heart beat like a nervous drum. She had that feeling start to accumulate in her chest, the one where it thumps nervously but in a good way. She hated how she would get so worked up over something so small and something that probably didn't even mean anything.

"You know what Sakura, when are you finally going to work up the guts to tell him you like him?" Ino said as she ran a brush through her hair.

Sakura frowned and shrugged her shoulders. "Ino, I don't even know if I do like him."

Lie.

Of course Sakura liked him, if not fully then at least partially. But the problem that kept Sakura from admitting this was the fact that she still had feelings for Sasuke and she was still confused about the whole concept.

"As if Sakura. It's totally obvious that you do and if you don't do something about it sooner or later, I will."

Sakura's heart started to pound as Ino smirked an evil grin. The last thing she wanted Ino to do was interfere. It wasn't any of Ino's business but she still had to but in anyway. "What? You can't do that Ino!"

"Y-yeah Ino, D-don't you th-think Sakura should wait u-until she is ready to tell h-him?" Hinata said as she finished reading a text from Naruto. She looked up from her phone to face the blonde and sighed. "I-it is her choice after a-all…"

Ino started to get a tad frustrated. She was trying to help Sakura but everyone seemed to be working against her. All she wanted to do was help, she knows that Sakura has a hard time at home and if she had a boyfriend she thought it would help her best friend to become happier and less lonely.

A silence filled the room. It wasn't awkward but it was obvious that everyone was deep in thought. Hinata was worrying about speaking up to Ino, Sakura was worried about what Ino was going to do to 'help' her situation, Temari was trying to figure out what it was that Sakura saw in Kiba and Ino was trying to work out what she was going to do to help.

"… He's better than Sasuke you know."

Everyone focused their eyes on a smirking Ino. "Huh?" Sakura asked, confused.

"In bed. I would have to say Kiba is way better than Sasuke."

Sakura's face instantly turned pinker than her hair and her mouth felt like it dropped to the ground. "Oh my god! Ino!" she screamed as she buried her face into the palm of her hands in embarrassment.

Hinata and Temari hung their heads with disgrace. Trust Ino to say something like that.

Sakura couldn't believe it. That's how Ino was going to convince her to ask out Kiba? Sakura had always known that Ino had slept with both Kiba and Sasuke but it didn't madden her. Ino slept with Sasuke long before he and Sakura dated and before Sakura had feelings for him. Nothing came of it because it was apparently just for a 'bit of fun' and it never happened again. And as for Kiba, Ino had slept with him at a party one night when Sakura was dating Sasuke, and they were both extremely drunk. Again Sakura couldn't be mad at Ino for it because she didn't have feelings for Kiba at the time.

"What? I'm only telling the truth…" Ino said as she folded her arms.

Sakura shook her head. "If that was meant to be a good reason to convince me to ask out Kiba, it didn't work!"

Ino pouted at her best friend. She thought for sure that Sakura would have liked the fact that Kiba was great in bed but obviously not. "Fine then, but I'm not giving up that easily. I have another plan in mind,"

Sakura once again shook her head as she began to feel nervous. She didn't like where this was going and wanted to put a stop to the conversation immediately. She walked over to her bed and placed herself underneath the blankets before turning her back to her best friend and sighing. "Goodnight Ino." She said sternly, turning off the light.

Sakura's alarm clock sounded the next morning, and the four girls sluggishly dragged themselves out of bed and got ready for school. Suddenly staying up late and talking to all hours of the night wasn't such a good idea.
When they were ready, they walked quietly tip toed through the house and tried not to wake Sakura's passed out father, who was lying on the kitchen floor with a bottle of whisky still clutched in his hand. Sakura felt a wave of embarrassment and shame wash over her as she saw the state her father was in in front of her friends. Disgusted, she turned her head away slowly from her father. Temari, Ino and Hinata noticed the shame and sadness on Sakura's face but didn't say anything; they didn't want to make it worse for her. They knew about what she goes through at home and knew she didn't like to talk about it.

They reached the large school gates just before the bell sounded for their first class. Temari and Hinata parted off to go to English while Sakura and Ino's first class was PE. And guess who was also in Sakura's PE class? None other than Kiba Inuzuka.

When Sakura and Ino arrived at the Giant indoor sports hall they headed off to the girls change room to change into their gym clothes. Her gym uniform consisted of short, tight, green shorts (which in some cases, just covered the girls butts, especially Ino's) and a tight black t-shirt with the Konoha High leaf emblem printed on the left side of her chest. The boy's uniform was a tad different, and consisted of normal green sport shorts and a grey T shirt instead of blacks ones, and also had the Konoha High leaf emblem embedded on the left side of their chests.

After finally getting ready, the class of students gathered inside the gym. Their teacher Gai was already inside warming up and setting up stations of activities for the class to do.

'Good morning students!" Gai exclaimed from in front of the class. His overly cheerful and eager personality had already started to make the students groan with annoyance. "Today we will be doing a range of exercises, with each station having a different activity! The first group of youth will be assigned to running laps until the time is up, and then you will move on to the next activity!"

Sakura rolled her eyes at the way he spoke. She hated it when he referred to the class as 'A group of youth' instead of students. It was just annoying. She didn't mind the whole exercise part of it though; Sakura was one of the schools best soccer players so PE was definitely her thing. She just didn't like Gai as a teacher because he was over enthusiastic and annoying.

"The second station will be sit ups and abb crunches," Gai continued with twice as much enthusiasm, "the third will be push ups, the fourth station will be the rope climbing and the fifth will be chin ups!"

Again the class groaned with pre exhaustion. Sakura glanced around at the class and noticed everyone was already starting to look tired even though they hadn't even started. Gai started to divide the students into groups and assigned them all to their stations. Sakura was put at station one to begin with, which was doing laps around the gym for 3 minutes straight. She started to jog beside Ino, who was struggling to keep up with Sakura's fitness.

"Slow down!" she panted, almost stumbling as she almost caught up to the pinkette. As she finally caught up she placed a hand on her shoulder to slow her down to an almost a walking pace.

"Gee Ino, you have to get your fitness up," Sakura teased. "Even Choji has done more laps than you."

"Don't... go telling me… what I need… to be doing!" she puffed exhaustedly. "Don't forget Sakura… I haven't forgotten about my plan!"

"Ino, I swear if you say anything-" Sakura's words were cut off as she bumped into Shino who was walking slowly in front of her. "Oh, sorry Shino!" Sakura said as she forced a tiny laugh. Shino only nodded and proceeded to run. He was a nice boy but always came across a tad creepy. Sakura quickly looked up to see where Ino had scrambled off to, only to here Gai call out for the students to switch stations. A nervous and uncertain squirm filled her stomach as she imagined what evil and stupid things Ino could do. Sakura couldn't spot Ino anywhere amongst the large group of merging students, so she sighed and slowly walked to her next station.

To the side of the hall, Ino had managed to blend in with a group of students from the class to avoid being seen by Sakura. Although she wasn't the brightest in the class, when she had her mind set on something she would devise anything to make it work. She was very sneaky and cunning. Ino should've felt bad for what she was doing but she truly believed it was the right thing, and for Sakura's sake, she had to do it.

Kiba and Kankurou were stuffing around over at the chin up station. Kankurou wasn't exactly great at sport and physical exercise so he resulted in clowning around with Kiba in front of the girls watching them. Kiba on the other hand was good at sports, but wouldn't use any of the talent he had because he wanted to uphold his reputation. Sometimes Ino was confused by this; you'd think being a gifted sports person would increase your popularity? She shook her head and proceeded to walk slyly over to the two boys, making sure Sakura could not see her.

Kiba was on the bar, his strong arms lifting up his weight and successfully doing a chin-up. Almost every muscle in his body was working to do this and Ino couldn't help but to sneak in a peak of his abbs as his T-shirt slowly crept up his stomach. Unfortunately Ino wasn't the only one having a perve; three girls sat to the side of the hall looking on and giggling at the good looking Inuzuka. Kiba noticed this and smirked their way, lifting up his shirt to give them a better look. The girls all blushed fiercely, but when they caught Ino glaring at them they quickly turned around and acted as if nothing happened. They did not want to get on Ino's bad side.

"Oh Kiiiiiiba," Ino said cheerfully as she strutted over to the boys. She walked with one hand on her hip and her long blonde ponytail swinging from side to side.

Kiba looked up to see the blonde walking towards him. He smirked a self-satisfied grin as he eyed her outfit up and down. Ino always looked good in clothes that were 3 sizes too small for her. "Something wrong Ino?"

"Oh, not really, just wanted to come and see what you guys were up to." Ino joined in with the boys who were stretching their muscles up against the inside of the building.

"As if Ino, you want something. It's not every day you walk over to us just to see 'what we're up to'" retorted Kankurou.

Ino smiled. "Okay, you caught me. I've actually come over to offer you a proposition." A smirk drifted across her porcelain like face.

"Wow that's a big word for you Ino," Kankurou teased as Kiba rewarded him with a high five. The two boys laughed amongst one another as Ino stood with her hip cocked out to the side and her hands on her waist.

"Very funny Kankurou."

Kiba contained his laughs to look up at the unimpressed blonde. "Okay then Ino. What is this so called proposition of yours?"

Ino positioned herself closer to the two boys. "I'll tell you, but first you have to answer a few questions for me."

"Questions?" Kiba asked, raising an eyebrow. He was starting to become confused. It wasn't every day the dumbest girl in school came up to him with questions and a proposition. He actually started to wonder if she even knew what the word proposition meant.

Ino twisted her blonde hair around her index finger as she looked over in Sakura's direction. Kiba followed her gaze. "Kiba, what are your thoughts on Sakura?"

"Haruno?" he said as the confusion started to set in even more.

"Well she is the only Sakura in the school, dummy."

"What's this all about Ino?" he asked as he focussed his gaze back onto the blonde.

"Just tell me what you think of her, geez it's not that hard."

Kiba focussed his gaze back over on the unaware pinkette. She was over at the sit up station with her hands behind her head, doing sit-ups and completely oblivious to the conversation which was happening on the other side of the room. "Well," he said, scratching the back of his head. "She's Sasukes' ex?"

Ino rolled her eyes. "No, not like that. Tell me what you like about her,"

Kankurou had had enough of being left out of the conversation, so he stepped up and placed his hand on Ino's shoulder, causing her to raise her eyebrows. "Listen Ino, this is stupid. Go back to doing nothing and let us continue doing our chin ups."

"Excuse me Kankurou," Ino said as she slowly peeled his hand off her shoulder. "Feel free to go back to doing chin ups, but me and Kiba are discussing important business here."

"How is this important business?" he retorted before copping Ino's hand to his face.

"Shut up!" her hand covered his mouth so he couldn't speak. She smiled and looked at Kiba who seemed more confused than ever. "So Kiba, what do you like about Sakura?"

Kiba looked down at the blonde with one eyebrow raised and scratched the back of his head in confusion. This was too weird for him. He had never seen Sakura in that kind of way and thought Ino was behaving awfully weird. Attempting to put away the thoughts of misperception, Kiba replied "Well… she has a great arse?"

"See! There you go! What else?" Ino said as her plan was starting to work.

"Uh… Um… I guess she's pretty hot, and she's good at sports? What are you getting at Ino, what's this all about?"

Ino's mischievous grin crawled across her face again as she leant in closer to Kiba. "She likes you, Kiba."

Kiba walked along the old cracked footpath that led from the school to his house. The sun was slowly shading itself behind the clouds as the late afternoon air covered the town. Every now and again, Kiba would feel a small pellet of cold rain fall lightly upon the black hooded jacket he wore to school. But the rain was the least of his worries.

Kiba still hadn't wrapped his mind around what Ino had told him that morning in the gym. Was she just trying to pull some sort of prank to get back at him for the jokes he and Kankurou had pulled on her over the years? Or was she serious? Surly Sakura didn't like him; they had known each other ever since grade school! Sure, they weren't close enough for a possible relationship to be considered 'weird', and it wasn't that he thought she was ugly… as he told Ino earlier, she was hot. And had a great… you know. She was different. She had pink hair and no matter how many times people had put her down about it in the past, she didn't let it get to her. She has a nice, slim, elegant body, which was unusual since she was so into sports. She wasn't annoying and didn't complain about little things like most girls. She also had nice eyes; Kiba could remember having a conversation with her about Sasuke at one of his parties. Not that he was intentionally focussing on them… it was just something he had noticed during conversation.

When Kiba really thought about it, Sakura Haruno having a crush on him didn't seem like such a bad situation. The only thing that had Kiba worried was the whole concept of a relationship. Yeah, He wasn't a relationship kind of person. He liked his women, he liked his freedom, and he liked the fact he could go out at night and sleaze on any girl of his choice without worries or restriction. For Kiba, the single life was the high life.

Kiba continued to walk along the same familiar cracked foot path that led him home. He continued to walk until he came to his house, or what the students and people in the town liked to call the 'Inuzuka Mansion'. The house was two storeys high and gigantic. Out the front was a large garden which appeared a tad over grown from neglect,with flowers and tall vine like plants. Footpaths lead up the left hand side and past the massive garage that contained Kiba's car. A small white railing ran along the outside of the wooden porch which rested on the outside of the top story. He stood for a while before coming to a decision, one that probably wasn't such a big deal, but one that he had thought long and hard about.

The decision to ignore what Ino said.

After all, she couldn't be serious.

Sakura sighed as she made her way down the isle of her overly crowded bus. She didn't realise how many middle school children lived on her side of town, it seemed as if the bus was filled to its limit. She gritted her teeth and rolled her eyes as each child yelled at the top of their lungs to another child seated at the opposite end of the bus, whilst throwing food and paper airplanes at the same time. Damn middle schoolers were so annoying.

She managed to find a spare seat on the right hand side of the bus and sat down with an irritated sigh. She placed her schoolbag onto the seat next to her and reached into her front pocket, pulling out her iPod. She placed the earphones into her ears to drown out the noises of the bus and school kids whilst concentrating on the music that filled her ears. During each word, beat and rhythm, Sakura relaxed and thought about how much better her life would be after she leaves her house. She often did that in her free time. No more yelling. No more screaming. No more getting blamed for faults not her own. No more being abused.

She opened her eyes to watch the small droplets of rain which were slowly streaming down the bus window. She would focus her eyes on a single drop, watching it gracefully slide down the cold glass until it merged with another. Then she would pick another drop, focus her emerald orbs on it, and watch it until it became one with another. Between concentrating on beads of water and the music pounding away in her ears, Sakura's mind drifted back to the stunt Ino had pulled earlier on that day.

I can't believe her, going up to him and just coming straight out with it! He's going to think I'm weird, or think I'm some kind of stalker! Her heart pounded with nervousness from inside her chest. There goes whatever chance I had with him. He's never going to want to date the girl that secretly watched him from the lunch table. Hell, I bet he thinks I'm a creep now!

Sakura's thoughts were disrupted when a familiar figure lifted her school bag and placed it on the floor beneath the seat. He placed himself down next to her with a sigh and Sakura smiled. "Well if it isn't Shikamaru Nara," she said as she carefully took the earphones from her ear. Shikamaru was one of Sakura's longest known friends and probably one of her closest. Their parents had been best friends with one another ever since the two were toddlers, which meant they had practically grown up with each other and she viewed him as a brother. Their parents unfortunately had a falling out a few months ago after Sakura's father had accused Shikamaru's dad of stealing money from their house. Of course that wasn't the case, and Sakura's father failed to realise he took the money after getting drunk one night and gambling it away. A family feud occurred, and Sakura and Shikamaru didn't get to see much of each other after that. They still managed to hold that brother/sister bond though.

Shikamaru didn't hang out with Sakura's group of friends. He hated the whole concept of popularity and preferred to be part of the more laid back, worry free group with his friends Choji and Shino. But although they didn't socialise all that much at school he was still close enough to be considered family. He had even attended all Sakura's soccer games as a child because her mother and father never took an interest in it.

"Thought I'd come say hello." He replied before giving a lazy, bored like yawn. "And the fact that you look like you're about to punch someone struck my interest too."

Sakura forced a blunt laugh. "That obvious, huh?"

"Not that obvious, I guess I just know you too well." He smiled and placed his hands behind his head sluggishly. "So are you going to tell me what's up?"

Sakura took in a deep breath and sighed. "Nothing..." she said as she swallowed her lie.

"I've known you long enough to know when you're lying Sakura. Now come on, out with it."

Sakura couldn't think of a reason not tell him. After all, they told each other pretty much everything. "I think I like someone Shikamaru."

Shikamaru's eyes widened and he all of a sudden seemed interested. "Please tell me it's not that jerk Sasuke again."

Sakura shook her head sadly. "No… Well, I don't think so. Argh, it's so confusing, even I don't know what it is!"

"Um, sorry Sakura but I kind of have no idea what you're talking about." Shikamaru had his eyebrow raised as he looked at the pinkette with a puzzled expression. He didn't often like talking about relationships and all that stupid stuff because it was a drag. But when it came to Sakura, who he kind of viewed as a little sister, he had no choice but to take interest in her problems. He also knew about the type of things she had to endure at home and was willing to help out as much as he could.

"I like someone, but I'm not sure if I genuinely like him. I think… I think I only like him so I can get over Sasuke…" her voice trailed off and her glance drifted to the floor. "The thing is, I don't know if I should tell him."

"Who is it?" Shikamaru questioned.

Sakura hesitated for a moment then sighed. "Kiba."

"What!" Shikamaru yelled as he tried to stop his mouth from dropping to the floor. "Him? Sakura, he's a deadbeat! What the hell do you see in him?"

"I know I know… But I can't help it. The guy is hot."

"He's not good news Sakura, the guy is known for being one of the biggest sleazes in school. He will probably only want one thing from you and then kick you to the curb."

Sakura recognised the seriousness in Shikamaru's voice but ignored it. Even if she did only like Kiba as a rebound, it was working. Shikamaru noticed the sad look on Sakura's face and knew that telling her to steer clear of him was useless, as she would go and do what she wanted anyway. And if this chase was going to make her happy, and take her mind of things that happen within her family household, then he would help her.

Shikamaru sighed heavily. "Text him."

Sakura's eyes twinkled in confusion. "Huh?" she said as she raised her eyebrow. Wasn't he just trying to warn me off?

"If you want him, then there is no use waiting around for something to happen. Send him a text and ask him to hang out or something. "

"But... But what if he thinks I'm weird? What if he thinks I'm annoying him?" she asked, feeling completely indisposed to text him.

"Sakura, the guy has been hanging out with you for years. If he thought you were weird or annoying, he would've stopped hanging out with you by now, right? So there's no harm in asking to hang out." Shikamaru picked up he's school bag and stood as the bus was nearing his stop. "Plus, guys like it when girls make the first move." He waved good bye and gave her a reassuring smile.

"Thanks Shika," Sakura said as she smiled and waved goodbye. As he got off the bus, Sakura slumped back into her seat. "You've certainly given me a bit to think about."

So it was a tad long, but I was stuck . I just want to hurry up and get to the good parts so I guess it was a little rushed. What do you think? If you're not busy, feel free to leave a review. But it's completely up to you. Again, If you think I should stop, tell me.

Please no flames though!