Hello all! I hope that you liked my prologue of the first chapter of "Firework." Here's the first real chapter! Sorry, it's kinda long, but I just had so much to say since this is kinda the beginning of the plot that unfolds throughout the whole story, but it really will mainly focus on the girls friendship with each other. I didn't feel bothered with the need to include some of the girls or guys last names, because I'm sure that all of you know Naruto and the characters by now. I also didn't bother with intense character descriptions for the guys and girls. The girls I did in the prologue, so hopefully you can develop a picture from that.

Hopefully the dialogue makes sense for everyone to understand who is and who is not speaking! I tried to make it as simple to read and discern who is speaking as possible, but if you want further clarification for character dialogue in the future, then let me know! I also hope that I got the girls characters right. I know that I got Sakura, Ino, and Hinata down (at least I think I did), but Tenten and Temari become difficult, but only because they're not as touched upon as the other three in the manga, unfortunately.

I have work tomorrow, so I won't be able to write another chapter so soon, but I've already got an idea on what I want to go down! I will be updating I'm Still Waiting before I write the next chapter for this fic though! I want to give my readers who are following ISW something to let them know that I haven't abandoned them completely, haha.

Enough blab from me! Onto the story! I do want to say that I hope everyone has successfully finished their finals and is now enjoying some much needed anime and sleep. My obligatory post of "OMG SASUKE AND SAKURA ARE CANNON NOW!" will go here.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto!

Everything Has Changed

"Good morning Forehead!"

A girl with cotton candy pink hair turned her head over her right shoulder, "Good morning to you Piggy."

Her green eyes spotted a platinum blond with her hair in a high ponytail swishing behind her running up to her.

"Well aren't you just a bundle of enthusiasm thrown together this morning!"

The blonde threw her arm over her friend's shoulder and they continued their walk towards school like all of the other students. The teens around them either sported black pleated skirts or long pants with the girls in white long-sleeved sailor styled shirts with dark green lining on the collar and forest green tie while the guys had long sleeved button up shirts with the forest green tie and a black coat for their winter uniform. In the summer, the uniform has short sleeves and the guys forgo their coat. The guys around them had their coats unbuttoned their tie loose or forgotten or the tops of their shirts opened jut a bit or all the way. Other students around them were either from different high schools or middle schools in the area, but nobody cares too much about them.

The pink-haired girl looked at her friend and smiled cheekily at her, "Sorry, Ino, but not everyone is as loud and enthusiastic in the morning as you are."

"Puh-lease Sakura! You should show some excitement, especially this particular morning. Seriously, how can you not be excited!"

Ino rolled her eyes at her level-headed friend. Just because Sakura can keep a calm façade on the most important day of their lives, doesn't mean that she can rain on her parade into adolescence.

"It's just high school Ino, calm down," Sakura mimicked her friend and also rolled her eyes back at the blonde.

Ino stopped in her tracks and retracted her arm away from Sakura's shoulders, "Just high school?"

'Oh boy…' Sakura thought.

"It's not JUST high school Sakura. It's the greatest day of our lives! Our passage into adulthood starts the minute we step through the gates of Konoha High School, and you're saying it's nothing, like it happens every single day! This is high school Sakura! High. School. Literally, it's the time of our lives! We're going to make the best memories ever in our three years here, and I will not stand for you to be so…so…normal on our first day of high school together!"

Ino faced Sakura with her hands on her hips and her head held high, because she's Ino and she's always right, even when she's wrong a majority of the time.

She squinted her eyes at Sakura with her best glare until her pretty pink-haired friend realized how important this day was going to be for them. Sakura sighed and conceded to Ino and continued her walk towards school with Ino following right at her side.

"All right, all right already. You're right."

"And what am I right about exactly? Hmmm?"

Sakura sighed again, "High school is going to be the best three years of our lives and I should have a bright, cheery smile on my face like every other first year does upon entering."

Another eye roll at Sakura's blunt, sarcastic voice, "A little more conviction would be better, but I suppose that works for now."

"How about a big smile?"

Sakura faced Ino with the largest, forced grin that she could muster.

"Ugh no, it's gotta be more genuine than that. And your eyes look way too wide and your eyebrows are too high."

"So critical!" Sakura smiled more genuinely at Ino with a slight chuckle.

"It's because I love babe!"

Ino threw her arms around Sakura while they continued their walk to school, and Sakura let out a light laugh.

"But…I won't admit that I'm not a tiny bit excited," a small smile crept up to Sakura's face.

Ino threw her a happy, grin of her own.

"Now that's what I wanna hear!"

The pair continued walking along the sidewalk until they reached the school gates a few meters away from them. The entrance had a nice banner on the side that read 'Welcome to Konoha High School' decorated with paper flowers around the border. Other students walked through the gates. First, second, and third years alike covered the campus grounds. Konoha High School was one of the top schools in the area with a general curriculum that helped prepare you for university throughout all of your three years. Depending on a student's grade in certain classes, they can get special permission to receive college credit or take classes for normal credits. They had renowned arts and sports programs that were funded by the city of Konoha with very generous donations from alumni of the school. Konoha High school is an escalator school, in which students from Konoha middle school could automatically move up to its high school level. The exam that the third year middle schoolers take has nothing to do with admission into Konoha High School, for it is only a way for students to be placed in their incoming first-year high school classes. Students who are looking to get in to Konoha High School have to take a exam that will also place them into their first-year classes, but will not push out other Konoha Middle School students who are moving up to the high school level.

As Ino and Sakura approached the gates, they saw three other girls waiting outside the entrance.

"Geez, can you guys walk any slower?"

They walked up to the three girls, one with brunette hair tied in twin buns, one with long, straight indigo blue hair, and one with sandy blonde hair tied into four short ponytails.

"Hey, it takes time to look as beautiful as I do in the morning. I need to take precious care of how I want to look for our first day of high school. Forehead here is just a slowpoke."

The other blonde smirked a bit, "I guess you don't care too much about how you look then, huh?"

The girl with twin buns grimaced at the prospect of taking more than five minutes to get ready in the morning, "Ugh, how can you stand that junk that you put on your face?"

"I am not slow!"

Ino rolled her eyes at each of the girls, and answered them respectively.

"I guess you don't care too much yourself, do you, Temari? Tenten, it's called make-up. You should try it some time, I am dying to try this color that would totally bring your eyes out. Yeah, sure, whatever you say Sakura. Good morning to you Hinata!"

The blue haired girl giggled at her friends banter, "G-good morning to you too Ino."

Hinata blushed a bit and shrugged her shoulders as she gave a small bow with her head.

"Well, now that we're all here, what are we waiting for? Let's get to it ladies!"

Ino walked forward through Konoha High's entrance with the rest of the girls following. Temari brought her hands behind her head as she walked, "We were waiting for you Miss Drama Queen. If you hadn't spent two fucking hours on your hair this morning, then we would've already been seated for the opening ceremony."

"Well sorry for wanting to look my absolute best for our first day of high school! And I only spent an hour and forty-five minutes on my hair this morning," Ino turned around to face us and walked backwards.

"It's not like an hour and forty-five fucking minutes makes any difference blondie, it's still close to two hours."

"It so makes a difference! Your just jealous because you can't look as beautiful as I do in the morning."

"Pssh, I've got nothing to be jealous of bitch. I've got a body like this, I'm good."

"Really, cause I totally see that burger you had the other day."

"And I can see the chocolate on the corner of your lips."

"You wanna take this outside?"

"Bring it bitch!"

Glaring at each other with fire in their eyes, both blondes had their faces as up close and personal to one another. A couple of claps and a pair of hands got in between the two blondes and pushed them away from each other, "Alright, that's enough for one day. Come on, break up you two, your making a scene."

Sakura intervened between the two girls before they started to compare breast sizes with each other in front of the whole school.

"Honestly, you can't even tell you two are friends with the way you tear at each others throats every minute of every day."

"At least it makes the first day of school exciting!" laughed Tenten at her friends' antics.

"Y-you s-shouldn't encourage t-them, Tenten," but Hinata was also giggling at her friends' behavior as well.

Sakura took the role of mediator and assessed each of her two friends, "Can we try to get along, for like, five minutes?"

Ino and Temari had their heads turned away from each other and their arms crossed. Both held defiant stances, but soon enough, they looked at each other and came to a truce.

"I love the color of your eye shadow today."

"Your hair really does look nice."

Sakura sighed, but smiled, "Now, let's hurry it up before all of the good seats are taken. I don't want to miss the opening ceremony."

During the blondes' friend fight, they had found their shoe lockers, changed into their indoor shoes, and placed their bags in their lockers until they would receive their classroom assignments after the ceremony. They made their way towards the teachers who were directing them to their school's gymnasium, where the opening ceremony would take place.

The girls found a group of five seats together, two in the front and three right behind them, in the sea of students from all grade levels alike. They sat down right as the principal of their high school walked to the center of the stage behind the podium to begin her opening announcement. The students quieted down upon seeing the principal and paid attention to her speech.

Senju Tsunade, not only was the principal of Konoha High School, but she is also a famous, world-renown doctor who also works as the head trauma surgeon and cardiac specialist at Konoha General Hospital. Before becoming the principal of Konoha High School, Tsunade was working as a full-time doctor. According to newspaper articles and interviews, her grandfather, Senju Hashirama, hoped for his granddaughter to one day inherit the legacy that he made Konoha High School into after his passing. While honoring her beloved grandfather's last wish, she became the principal of Konoha High School two years ago, but had not stopped practicing medicine. With her expertise in the field, it would be a shame for it to be shut away, so she made a deal that she would keep her clinical hours open after school hours and in any cases of emergency, she would be informed if her presence is needed at the hospital and attend to her doctor duties right away. Every other day, Tsunade works as the principal at Konoha High School with clinical hours at the hospital after, and the other days, she works as a full time doctor at the hospital. For disciplinary issues that need attending to, students are sent to her office on the days that she is at school, but when she is not, the Dean of Disciplinary Action takes care of troublemaker students.

Tsunade gave her speech welcoming the incoming first-years and the returning second and third years. She proceeded to tell the rules and regulations of the school and how everyone has high expectations for us and such. After her opening address, she introduced the student council president, who gave his speech. Once all was said and done, Tsunade went up to the podium once more.

"…and it is my greatest pleasure to introduce to you the student with the high score on the high school placement exam, Haruno Sakura."

Ino elbowed Sakura in the arm, "Nerd."

Sakura gave into a playful glare, and made her way up to the stage. As she reached the stage, she shook hands with Tsunade and stood behind the podium. As she looked out into the sea of faces, she saw her girls looking at her with crazy hand gestures, but also the biggest smiles plastered on their faces, pretty saying that 'that's-their-girl-right-there-and-you're-not-as-awesome-as-she-is.' Sakura took a quick swept across the room and noticed the rest of their friend group sitting within the same area of the girls. Kiba had drool coming out of his mouth and Shino with his sunglasses on indoors, Shikamaru blantantly asleep since the whole thing started and Chouji sneaking chips from inside his coat, and Neji paying special attention with his stiff shoulders and Lee looking at Sakura with hearts in his eyes. Sakura took a deep breath before starting her speech.

"Welcome all to the beginning of the best days of our lives. I am pleased to be able to share with you this journey that we call high school…"

Once the ceremony was over, students rushed out of the auditorium, with first-years remaining on the ground floor, while second-years went to the second floor, and third-years went to the third floor. First-year students scrambled the front bulletin board for their classes, seeing if they would be with friends or not.

"I-I can't see a thing from over here."

"Me neither. Everyone got to the board so fast, we didn't have enough time to get to the front."

Sakura and Hinata looked at the mad rush of students with conflicting faces on how to see which class they would be placed into. A pair of tanned hands slid between them, "Move aside shorties. Let the tall people through so that they can show of their mad skills."

"You're not that tall Tenten."

"No, but I'm taller than you two," which was true. Tenten was a good 5'5" at her age, which is a lot more than what Hinata and Sakura could say with their 5'0" physique.

Temari stood next to Tenten, and they worked together to maneuver their way through the crowd to find them and their friends' classes. Ino put her hands on both girls shoulders to lead them to the shoe lockers, "Let the pros handle this one girls. We'll just sit back and wait for them to return with the results."

"Marvelous speech by the way Sakura! Absolutely loved the lead-in."

Sakura smiled sardonically at Ino, "That's just because you told me it that part absolutely had to be in my speech, and if it wasn't, you would disown me."

"Hmph, no idea what you're talking about."

Ino evaded Sakura's gaze to inspect her perfectly manicured nails done personally by herself. Hinata giggled, but gave Sakura a shy, but genuine smile, "It really was a wonderful speech Sakura, probably one of the best yet."

Sakura gave a full-blown smile, "Thanks Hinata! Coming from you, that means a lot!"

"Oh and mine doesn't?"

"No, not really."

"Hey!"

Another round of giggles from Hinata erupted, and both girls looked at Hinata's direction. Feeling their gazes upon her, she looked up at them with a shy blush, "I-is there s-something wrong?"

"Hinata you're so cute! I love you!"

Both girls bear-hugged the shy girl and nuzzled their faces against hers.

"If you girls are done with your love fest, we found out our classes assignments."

Tenten and Temari stood before the three hugging girls with fond smiles on their faces.

Ino was the first to immediately break apart, "So, what are our class assignments? Don't just leave us in suspense like that!"

"Calm down Drama Queen. We'll tell you. Tenten, you, and me are in the same class, 1-3. Sakura and Hinata are in a different class, 1-1, but they're together."

"Why aren't we in the same class together?"

"How the fuck should I know?"

"Cause you were the one who checked our classes!"

"I-Ino, it's f-fine. I-It's not like it's t-the end of the world."

Ino looked at Hinata with a stern look, "It might as well be! It's high school, we should be together in the same class!"

"U-um, w-well, t-there's r-really nothing t-that they can d-do about i-it now…"

"Calm down Piggy, don't work yourself up into a squeal, you're making poor Hinata nervous. It's not the end of the world. Just because we don't have the same class, doesn't mean we aren't ever going to see each other. If anything, our P.E. classes are probably combined with another class, which could be ours, and we have free range on which extra curricular class we're allowed to take, so we can all sign up for the same one, like we always do. And we still have lunch together, so we'll see each other every day."

Ino huffed and pouted, but conceded to Sakura's rationalism.

"Yeah, cheer up Ino! We're in the same class together, and we're definitely gonna have the time of our lives! If anything, Sakura and Hinata are the ones who are gonna miss out!"

"That's right blondie, so don't get your thong in a bunch."

Tenten and Temari put their shoulders around their pretty blonde friend and both sported large smiles with the whites of their teeth showing.

Ino sighed, "Looks like I'm stuck with these two crazies."

We laughed and poked some more fun out of each other, before heading back to our respective classes. On the board was already a drawn out seating chart with everyone's names written on it desk assignments. Sakura found her name written on the second row third seat, and Hinata found herself seated on Sakura's left in the third row third seat.

Once they found their seats and settled into their desks, someone approached them and sat in the seat directly in front of Hinata's, third row second seat. Upon sitting down, the person in front of Hinata turned to face the two of us.

"Hinata-sama."

Hinata looked up in front of her to find her cousin, Hyuuga Neji, in the same class.

"N-Neji-nii-san, I-I d-didn't k-know that y-you were i-in the s-same c-class."

He nodded he head to her, "Yes, it appears that we will be classmates this year."

Hinata nodded her head and bowed it, so she could hide biting her bottom lip. Neji turned to Sakura, and gave her a similar head nod, which she returned, "Good speech Sakura. It would seem that you bested my exam score this time around."

"Thanks Neji, but we both know that if Shikamaru gave a little more effort in his exams, he would have topped both of our scores with no sweat at all."

"Sorry, but I don't like public speaking, it requires me to be awake for it."

The three turned their heads to a low voice with a slight drawl to it. Nara Shikamaru sat in a seat in the first row second seat from the front. His head was rested in his arms on his desk, but his head was turned toward us with his eyes still closed.

"What, too troublesome for you Shikamaru?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Shikamaru said as he let out a large yawn.

"Why not put a little more work behind your exams Shikamaru? The fact that you're in the class 1 means that you placed high in the rankings. If you put in a little more effort, you would have been today's speaker for the first year class."

Shikamaru let out another yawn.

"That requires energy, which I prefer not to use."

"Forget it Neji, Shikamaru will never change. His head will always be up in the clouds somewhere."

"Indeed, Shikamaru has never once tried to use up amount of energy he stores."

A new voice joined the conversation. Right behind Sakura sat Aburame Shino in the second row fourth seat with his sunglasses still neatly placed over his eyes.

"God, Shino, you gave me a heart attack," Sakura looked behind her and put her hand over her heart to slow its fast-paced beating.

"How long have you been there?"

"I just sat down."

Sakura sighed for relief. Hinata turned to Shino, "G-Good morning S-Shino. I-I hope t-that your b-break w-was well."

"It was thank you Hinata."

The door opened and revealed a man in his late 20s with gravity-defying silver gray hair, a surgical mask over the bottom half of his face and an eye-patch over his left eye.

"It's time to sit down now children."

The students scrambled to their seats, while the teacher made his way over to the desk at the front of the classroom. He wore dark blue jeans and a white button down shirt with a gray tie loosely done around his neck. He picked up a piece of chalk and wrote his name on the board beside the drawn out seating chart. Once he finished, he turned to the class and assessed each and every student, some with familiar faces and some not.

"Hello there! My name is Hatake Kakashi and I'll—"

Just then, the sliding door at the back of the classroom opened and an average height blonde male ran into the classroom. He sported the school uniform in a rebellious manner with his shirt untucked with no tie and his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Instead of wearing the black coat for males, he wore a long, black trench coat and had a black bandana tied around his head with the tails of the bandana very long. He had tanned skin and sun kissed blonde hair and a smile that could rival that of the sun.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Uzumaki Naruto has arrived!"

The class turned to look at the blonde haired boy who made the flashy entrance. Kakashi sighed, "You're late Naruto. Class started a few minutes ago."

Huffing, Naruto crossed his arms over his chest, "I'm not late, you're just early for once! What no black cat today?"

Kakashi sighed again and rubbed his temples.

"Just sit down Naruto. Your seat is right there," he pointed to the first row fourth seat from the back.

Naruto grumbled and walked to his seat, but before he could sit down, he noticed Sakura looking at him with wide eyes.

"Oy Sakura-chan!" Naruto lifted his arms in the air to wave at her. "This is great! We're in the same class together Sakura-chan!"

Too shocked to say anything, Sakura could only gape open mouthed at Naruto, as if she hadn't seen him in two years…which she hasn't.

"EHHHHH!"

Sakura stood from her seat and pointed at Naruto with a disbelieving look on her face. Naruto stared at Sakura in confusion, wondering why she was so surprised to see him. It's not like he left or anything.

"Why're you so surprised Sakura-chan? You look like you've seen a ghost!"

"Why—how—what—when—I'm sorry…what?"

Sakura's mind couldn't form coherent sentences anymore. Naruto's entrance back into her life threw her completely off balance.

"Is something the matter?"

Sakura turned to look at Kakashi, who also gave her a questioning look, but she tried to compose herself as best as she could. "No…it's nothing. Sorry."

She sat back in her seat with her head bent down looking at her lap. Hinata looked at her friend worried about what had just transpired. Naruto shrugged, and Kakashi continued with his introduction.

"Now, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, I'll be your homeroom teacher as well as your maths professor for this year. You can call me Kakashi-sensei during our year together, and I hope that we'll all get along great!"

One couldn't tell from the surgical mask covering the lower half of his face, but the crinkle of his left eye implied that he had a smile for his students.

"I'll call roll, so when you hear your name, please tell me if you're here or not."

He did roll call, and checked off all of his students who were in class. Satisfied, Kakashi-sensei started to explain the break down of his class and roughly introduced what we would be covering this year in math class. Once Kakashi-sensei finished going over the format of his class, the rules of homeroom, and the deadline for signing up for our extra curricular classes, he dismissed us saying that full classes will resume tomorrow.

The students started to gather their things and make plans for what to do for the rest of the day.

"Naruto!"

Sakura marched up to Naruto, and Naruto just gave her the cheesiest grin in the whole world.

"Hey Sakura-chan!"

"Don't you 'Hey Sakura-chan' me! What the hell are you doing here?"

Confused, Naruto tilted his head to the side, "What do you mean? I go to school here."

"No no, I mean when did you get back?"

"Two days ago."

"The question you should be asking is, how the hell did he get into the class 1."

Sakura turned to Shikamaru, who was now wide-awake.

"Hey! I studied my ass off to get into school here. I made sure that I would do whatever it takes to pass that placement test."

"What are you doing here Naruto?"

Naruto turned toward Sakura. She looked at him with straight eyes never once wavering. In her mind, she was going crazy. What was he doing here? When did he get back? Why didn't he tell me? Why didn't he keep in touch?

He smiled at Sakura, "Well Ero-sennin didn't have anywhere else to show me, so we came back here! He wanted me to stay in the same high school for all three years, and I told him I'd want to do that in Konoha, and here I am!"

Completely in disbelief, Sakura didn't know what to say. That's it? No letter? No warning? …What the hell man!

"W-Welcome b-back Naruto-kun."

Hinata came to stand by Sakura's side already packed and ready to go. She gave a small squeeze on Sakura's shoulder and smiled shyly at her. Sakura loosened up her tense muscles at Hinata's touch and calmed down a bit.

"Yeah…welcome back Naruto."

Her smile didn't exactly meet her eyes, but Naruto being as dense as he is, didn't notice.

He smiled bright, "So, where's my welcome back hug, huh Sakura-chan?"

"Not a chance," Sakura gave him a light smile and grabbed her school bag.

"W-We should get going. I'm sure Ino and t-the others are already waiting for us."

Sakura nodded her head toward Hinata, "Yeah, let's head out."

"Wait for me Sakura-chan!"

Naruto followed the two girls out the door, "So, ready to go?"

Sakura looked at Naruto with a little confusion, "Go where?"

"Duh, for ramen! We always go after class on the first day of school. It's tradition for us!"

Hinata looked at her pink-haired friend and noticed the small, but tight grip on the handle of her school bag.

"Sorry, Naruto, but I'm going with Hinata and the girls after school to eat somewhere today."

"What are you talking about Sakura-chan? We always go for ramen, we don't go anywhere else."

"I'm not going for ramen Naruto."

"But we always go."

"Well, I'm going with the girls today."

"But nobody else hangs out with us after class on the first day, it's always just us."

"Naruto," Sakura put her foot down, "I'm not going to eat ramen with you today. I already made plans with the girls to be with them after school today. Maybe we can go another time."

Naruto sported a smile on his face, "It's okay Sakura."

'Whew, he finally gets it.'

"I'll go give Ino a piece of my mind about not messing up our tradition. Then, we can head to Ichiraku's, okay?"

"No, Naruto, you're not understanding—"

"It's fine, I've got this Sakura-chan!"

"Naruto—"

"Sakura."

Hinata reached a gentled hand out to Sakura's to hold her back from going after Naruto. Sakura looked at Hinata, wondering why she held her back from clearing up Naruto's confusion.

"What wrong Hinata?"

Biting her lower lip and lowering her pearl orbs to the ground, Hinata look up at Sakura with all of her courage, "I-I…" she cleared her throat.

"I-I'm really happy."

"Huh?" This was confusing, what was Hinata happy about?

"I'm really happy that I get to be in the same class as you. We…we haven't shared classes together since we were in primary school, so I'm really happy that we are in the same class together after so long. And…and because we're in the same class, I-I want you to know that…you're one of my best friends Sakura."

"Hinata."

"You're one of my best friends, and I want you to know that I-I'm here for you if you ever, ever need anything. I'll always be here, so please, rely on me a bit more whenever you need someone by your side, okay?"

Sakura took in Hinata's shy smile and blush, but strong and determined eyes, and couldn't help but fall absolutely in love with the girl. This is Hinata, and she's shy, but as sweet as sugar if you didn't already know.

Sakura returned the smile and squeezed Hinata's hand back reassuringly, "Thank you Hinata, I needed that. I might take you up on that offer, if you don't mind."

The two girls smiled at each other and walked off to the shoe lockers to prevent a peeved Ino from killing the male blonde.

"What did you say?"

"I said that you shouldn't go butting into people's after school traditions! Sakura-chan and I always go for ramen after the first day of school, so she'll be hanging out with me and not you!"

A small twitch started to develop in Ino's right eye, "Sorry Naruto, but Sakura's already made plans with us, so she'll be coming with us today! You haven't gone on your after school ramen tradition that you claim for the past two years! She's coming with us! There's a cute tea shop that we like, so we're going there!"

"Sakura doesn't wanna go to any tea shop! They probably have nothing solid or filling to eat! Ramen is the better choice, especially since it's closer to lunch time!"

Naruto crossed his arms over his chest and lifted his head held high staring down at Ino, while she glared at Naruto menacingly with her hands on her hips.

"She's coming with us!"

"No, it's ramen with me!"

"Naruto, Sakura already made plans with us a couple of days ago, and she said that she was looking forward to going to the tea shop with us. Why not just ask her where she prefers to go?"

Tenten stood beside Ino with her hands behind her head. She was starting to get exasperated by the whole thing, but she really wanted her pink-haired friend to come with the girls, without her, it just wouldn't be the same girls day out.

"Tenten agrees with me Naruto. Sakura's coming with us, end of story! Right, Temari?"

Ino looked to her right to see Temari leaning against the lockers with her arms crossed over her chest. The sandy blonde sported a small glare at Naruto, "Yeah, she is. We made plans with her first Naruto, so back the fuck off."

"We'll just ask Sakura-chan about that when she gets here."

Right then, Hinata and Sakura appeared at the shoe lockers to see the intense stare down that was happening between the two blondes. Sakura could only sigh at the sight before her. Without even knowing or asking for any of the details about the contest between the two, Sakura spoke to Naruto.

"Naruto, I'm sorry, but the girls and I have been planning to get together after school today for a while now. I'm sorry, but I can't get ramen with you today, maybe we can go tomorrow or another day, okay?"

Sakura gave an apologetic smile to Naruto, hoping that he would understand, and that there's always another day to get ramen with the two of them. Naruto looked a little put off, but he sighed, "Alright fine! We can go to the tea shop instead."

"We? You mean us?" Ino looked scandalized.

"Nope, I mean we. I'll tag along with you girls!"

Naruto offered his sunny smile to everyone, "Hey, while we're at it, let's invite everyone else too! Chouji, Shikamaru! You guys wanna come eat with us! Yo Kiba, let's go out and eat!"

Chouji and Shikamaru walked up to the girls and Naruto, with Kiba following close behind with Shino. Neji and Lee came to see what all of Naruto's shouting was all about.

"Let's all grab a bite to eat together! I haven't seen everyone in a long time and I wanna catch up with everyone!"

The boys said their agreements with Lee's exuberance and Shikamaru's troublesome remarks.

"Excuse me! Since when did this turn into a whole group thing, huh? This is a girls only event!"

"So what? It's a lot more fun with everyone else! So, where is this place anyway? Do they have good food? Do they serve ramen?"

"Naruto, I sai—"

"Ino forget it," she turned towards Sakura's voice, "But Sakura—"

"Forget it, we'll just all go, it's fine. We can make others plans just for the five of us again another time."

"No, it's totally not alright! That idiot can't just—"

"Are you sure, Sakura?"

Both girls turned towards Temari. She stared at Sakura looking at her to give a more truthful response. Sakura looked at Temari with an even stare, "I'll be okay"

Her smile didn't reach her eyes, but Temari sighed, "Alright, then let's go."

"Temari, we can't just—"

"Come on Drama Queen, we've gotta lead the guys to the right place before Naruto 'accidentally' leads them to a ramen shop instead."

The sandy blonde herded the other to the front of the group to tell the boys where they were headed, and the other three girls followed behind with Hinata inquiring Tenten about her homeroom class and Sakura following taking deep breaths, but her grip never loosening from her bag.

The tea shop was designed like a modern café on the outside. The inside had wooden tables or booths lined along the wall with other square, rectangular, or circular tables spread around the floor of the café. They had a bar that had an array of tools to make coffee and teas, and an open window space where one could see through to the kitchen and where the chefs prepared small meals, but mostly pastries and other baked goods.

The tea shop was still relatively empty with very few customers seated throughout the shop. The girls headed to their normal booth next to a window of the shop, while the boys grabbed two tables right beside the booth.

Sakura slid onto one side of the booth, and just as Ino was going to follow her in, Naruto took the opportunity to slide himself right beside Sakura.

"Naruto…"

Ino crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot on the ground. The tick on the side of her head started to throb larger and larger, "What Ino?"

"I was going to sit there…"

"Well I got here first, so losers weepers," Naruto stuck his tongue out at Ino and pulled the skin underneath his right eye down at her.

"Argh! Hinata take the seat next to Naruto before I decide to smash his head into the table," she stomped off to the other side of the booth and slid in with Temari and Tenten sliding in behind her.

Hinata sat down beside Naruto with a bright blush on her face, but shared a look with all of the girls at the table. A waitress came by to all three tables with menus for the group and then went off until they were ready to order.

"Sakura-chan! Do they have ramen here?"

"I'm not sure Naruto. You'll have to take a look at the menu to find out."

Naruto scanned the menu thoroughly to see if the word ramen appeared at all on the menu.

Looking over the menu with a quick scan, Sakura decided on her choice of pastry, "I think I'm gonna have the Blueberry and White Chocolate Cheesecake, it was really good the last time I had it here."

"T-The K-Key Lim P-Pie looks g-good on the d-display. M-Maybe I'll get t-that one."

"A Strawberry Parfait for me! It was super sweet last time! Totally to die for!"

"And you wonder why Sakura's nickname for you is 'Pig' Ino."

At Temari's playful remark, Ino countered, "Then what are you gonna get Temari?"

"That Hot Fudge Chocolate Brownie Sundae sold me when I saw it as the special today!"

"Just so you know, chocolate isn't as great as it's cut out to be with all those calories."

"Says the one who's ordering the largest dessert on the menu."

"What a-are you thinking of T-Tenten?"

"Hmmmm…probably a Green Matcha Cake Roll. Does a white tea sound good for everyone?"

The girls nodded their heads in agreement, "AH!" they suddenly turned to Naruto's loud exclamation.

"What wrong Naruto?"

Sakura looked at him in curiosity wondering why he shouted out all of a sudden, "They do have ramen!"

The girls sweat dropped and a couple rolled their eyes at the blonde male's antics. The waitress came over then and the girls, and Naruto, gave their order, the guys are the other tables did the same.

The girls started to explain what their schedules for their classes were that day who their homeroom teacher was for the year.

"I can't believe Kakashi-sensei is—"

"Ne ne Sakura-chan!"

Sakura stopped her chattering with the girls and looked at Naruto, "What's up?"

"I've got to tell you about my time aboard! It was amazing! Ero-sennin took me all over the place! First, we visited a lot of places in Japan and I did home schooling, but then, we went overseas and I stayed at a school for each semester before I would transfer to another school for another semester! It was crazy cool! Then, I went—"

Naruto started to go on and on about his adventures for the past two years, with the guys and him shouting around certain remarks about the places he was at and the people that he met. The girls listened with interest, especially Hinata, but also started their own conversation a little quieter than Naruto's loudspeaker voice about his time studying aboard.

"—America is so different for here! You should definitely try to see the States one time Sakura-chan! Everything is just so cool over there!"

"Huh, oh yeah, I'll try to do that one day. I think for now, I'm happy here in Konoha, but maybe one day I'll see about going aboard."

"Oooo, let's do it! We should totally take a spontaneous trip one-day girls! It'll be so much fun! Think of all the cute boys who are just dying to meet me!"

"Sounds like a plan to me Ino! Let's do it over break maybe with the five of us!"

"Yeah Sakura-chan! You and I can go visit lots of places together! It can be like a romantic getaway for the two of us!" Naruto laughed and gave his sunny grin to Sakura.

"Yeah Naruto…sounds like fun, we'll do that sometime."

Soon enough, everyone's plate was brought out to them and they started to chow down on the delicious goodies in front of them. The girls talked amongst themselves, a few verbal fights happened between Ino and Temari and Ino and Sakura, but each ended in laughter, neither of the three really upset at the other. Naruto would interject at certain times to talk with Sakura about random topics and reminisce about their middle school year (not years) together, or he yelled across the booth to talk with the other guys.

Once everyone was finished with their meals, they each paid for their own, and left the restaurant as it started to get more full with the oncoming lunch hour rush.

"Their ramen isn't as good here as Ichiraku's, but we can always go there another time, right Sakura-chan?"

"You didn't have to come Naruto! Besides, it was supposed to be a girls only event!"

"Don't raise your voice too much Ino, you're gonna cause a scene that too troublesome to deal with."

Ino turned to face Shikamaru as he slouched in his posture, put his hands inside his pants pocket, and yawned out loud.

"Che, it's not that I don't want to include you guys, but it really was just supposed to be a get together with the girls…" Ino pouted and sulked for a bit until she felt a hand touch her shoulder.

She turned towards Sakura who gave her a reassuring smile, "There's always next time Piggy. We'll have plenty of more times together with just us girls. You said it yourself, high school is supposed to be the best times of our lives where we make everlasting memories, right?"

The blonde huffed, but smiled mischievously at her pretty pink-haired friends direction, "Damn straight it will be!"

Everyone said their good-byes and walked in their respective directions home. Neji and Hinata walked together with Tenten tagging along because her home is in the same direction as the cousins. Ino left with Shikamaru and Chouji trailing behind her, and Temari walked in a completely opposite direction from everyone else, as did Kiba and Shino. Naruto and Sakura started off in the same direction.

"Hah, that was good, but definitely not as good as Ichiraku's! Next time, we'll go there okay Sakura-chan? I haven't had it in forever and I plan on having three bowls of ramen from old man Teuchi. I'm sure he misses his best customer!"

Sakura laughed a bit, "That's only if you can remember to pay up before you leave."

"Sakura-chyaaaaan!"

The pair walked in silence for a bit with neither of the two talking.

"You know…you changed a bit, Sakura-chan."

"Huh?" confused at what Naruto said. "What are you talking about? I'm still the same Sakura I was before you went to study aboar."

Naruto shook his head, "Nah, you've…I don't know how to put it…but you're kinda different now. Don't get me wrong, I love you either way you are cause you're Sakura-chan, but you're just…I don't know."

"Well, you were gone for two years Naruto, anything can happen in that amount of time."

"I know, it's just," he sighed, "I thought that when I came back nothing would change. I figured we should have just gone back to the way we always were, you and me, but that didn't happen. Since when did you talk with the Hinata and the rest of them?"

"I've always talked to them Naruto, they're my girls. Even in elementary school and our first year of middle school, we've been hanging out together. We've always been there for each other."

"Really? I thought you and Ino hated each other because of some guy, and Hinata usually stutters through her words, I wanna ask her to speak up more. And Tenten and Temari definitely don't fit into the picture. Temari's not even from here!"

"So what? Just because Ino and I had a big fight doesn't mean we didn't make up, and Hinata is absolutely adorable, I wouldn't change for the whole world. Tenten is super cool with her prowess in sports, and who cares that Temari's not from Konoha, it's doesn't mean that we can still be friends and hang out together."

"See what's what I mean! That change where you rush to their defense if I say anything about them. What's with that?"

"There's nothing with that Naruto!" Sakura threw her hands up into the air exasperated. They were her girls, of course she would run to their defense. Not that it would ever really happen, but she would take a bullet for her girls.

"I don't know, I just don't see it. Well, whatever, I'm sure our friendship will go right back to the way it was two years ago, like nothing even changed! I'm sure the girls will understand when that happens!"

Naruto continued to walk, but Sakura paused.

"I'm not going to leave them behind."

"Hmm…what was that Sakura-chan?"

"Nothing, let's go. Why are you walking in my direction anyway?"

"That's because—"

Naruto started to speak and Sakura listened as attentively as she could.

She's not going to abandon her girls. They're the ones who make her whole every single time she's been torn apart.

So, do you think Sakura's defensive of her friendship with her girls? And why is Naruto butting into their girl time? You'll just have to read more to find out!

I would love a review, it would really make my day and give me motivation to work when I go into work tomorrow. Leave me a review and let me know what you think! 3