A satisfied smile tugged at Sakura's lips when she kicked Tenten's mattress, prompting the sleeping girl to release a frustrated groan, followed by a few incomprehensible curses. Tenten's mother wasn't at home as she'd already gone to work, so Sakura, perfectly aware of where the spare key was located, deigned to let herself in.
It was a warm day in May when Sakura's current idea remained buzzing through her head. She'd just recently finished her exams and, more importantly, her second year of university. She'd spent the past night overloading on coffee and cramming a semester's worth of biology into her days. When she finally finished her exams exactly four days ago, she immediately went out for a few drinks with her favourite people in the world.
When Tenten and Ino moved back to their apartment in downtown Konoha last September and Hinata went to stay with her uncle and his family near Senju Hashirama University in northern Fire Country, Sakura felt very much like a part of her was missing.
Three-quarters of her, to be specific.
Grinning, Sakura kicked the mattress a second time. "Wake up, loser!"
"Go awaaaaay."
Tenten had only come back a week ago, although Sakura only saw her after her exams as she'd been so busy with school and boy did she miss Tenten.
Like a lot.
Sure, she and Ino tended to come home at least once a month and the girls often visited each other at their respective universities, but still…
"Seriously." Sakura sat down at the edge of Tenten's face and poked the girl over and over, ignoring Tenten's whimpers of protest. "Get up or I'll pour water on your face."
Tenten pulled her covers down just enough so that her eyes were visible. They were narrowed down to slits. "I'll cut you."
Sakura only laughed. "Stop being lazy! We have a whole summer to be taking advantage of!"
"Exactly," Tenten muttered into her pillow after she turned over. "I'm using mine to sleep. You can use your to shut the hell up."
Sakura snorted and pulled at the blanket so that she could join Tenten in bed. After pushing the older girl to the side and settling in, she shrugged, feeling a bit of sympathy. So this was why Tenten wouldn't get up. Damn, those were some fantastic sheets on that bed.
Right.
"Tenten?"
Tenten sighed loudly before opening her eyes fully and looking at Sakura expectantly. "What?"
"It's time to wake up—"
"It's time for you to go to hell."
"—because we're going on a road trip, baby!"
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Count Me In
by: ohwhatsherface
1. girls just wanna have fun
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Sakura adjusted the sunglasses she had picked up at the last gas station they had to stop at. They were a cute pair of aviators with a black tint and red rims.
"Go faster," Tenten urged, poking the driver of the cherry red convertible. Her hair was let down for the wind to blow through. Tenten glanced at the side mirror near her passenger's seat, and saw that Hinata, who was sitting behind her, also had her hair down.
"Hell no," Sakura practically shouted. She glanced down at the speed meter to see the needle brushing past 130 km/h. "Seriously. Hell. No." She had a tendency to speed and may have gotten a ticket or two in her past four years of being a licensed-driver but she wasn't about to test her luck when they were in the middle of a road trip.
Ino snorted. She sat behind Sakura and busied herself with reading a magazine despite everyone trying to convince her that doing so would make her nauseous.
"Seriously," Ino said. "We're already going for the killer expensive gas bills! There is no freaking way can we afford a ticket for speeding!"
"But…" Hinata gave her a confused stare. "We're already speeding."
"Exactly." Tenten lifted a hand and ran her fingers through her rapidly tangling hair. Man, it felt nice. She reached over to the radio and turned up the volume for Billy Jean in all its classicalness. "I mean, Sakura, we're in the middle of the freaking desert. Who cares if we're speeding?"
Sakura continued to look ahead behind her shades.
"Okay, fine, if we must listen to Michael Jackson I won't bitch, but change the song at least, uh, please?"
She rolled her eyes at Ino's request and took one hand off of the wheel to change the song to Thriller. Really, she thought, given their current speed, they could barely hear the music.
"Ugh!" Hinata whined and slapped Tenten's seat. "Change the artist. We've been listening to Michael Jackson for like, five hours. Doesn't your iPod have like, a million different songs?"
Sakura snorted. "Oi, we've only been driving for two!"
"Correction," Ino interrupted. "Aimlessly driving."
Gradually, Sakura began to slow down the car until she came to a complete stop at the side of the road. It was nearly noon and the desert skies were blue and sunny. There was nothing around them but empty roads and empty lands.
"We're not driving aimlessly," Tenten said. "We have an aim! Seriously! Now…" Her finger twirled circles around the front of Sakura's iPod. "Pick a number between one and sixty."
Ino raised a fine, blond eyebrow. "Why?"
"Because the iPod is on random and I will play whatever number you choose."
"Sakura's iPod only has sixty songs?"
"Of course not," Tenten muttered. "This is twenty gigs or something."
"Twenty four," corrected Sakura.
"Fifteen," Hinata replied, before they got into further pointless conversation.
Tenten pressed the fast forward button until she reached the fifteenth random song and a small smile played at her lips at the song.
"What'd you pick?" Ino asked, fixing her hair. Now that Sakura stopped driving, the wind was no longer blowing it nicely, leaving it tangled and messy.
The brunette smirked at Sakura and turned the volume up.
"Shut up and drive."
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Sakura lifted her sunglasses to rest on her head as she read the sign.
Valley of the End: NORTH
Otafuku City: NORTH
Crater City: EAST
Suna: EAST
Tanzaku City: WEST
"So I believe number one is going to be the first thing on this thing to be completed," Ino commented as she read over the list they had made many years ago. "Are we doing these in order? I really hope not, because if so, then that would mean that I have to learn an instrument next."
Sakura yawned but chuckled nonetheless. "Nah, you don't have to do them in order. I don't think it's possible."
"Well it's possible," Hinata contradicted. "Just not probable. "
Tenten snorted, reaching to the backseat to take the list from Ino's hands.
"Totally not probable," she muttered, reading over the list. "I mean, were we even thinking when we wrote this thing up?"
Hinata peered over Tenten's shoulder and giggled slight while reading things. "I can't believe I said I'd dye my hair…"
"That's nothing," Ino comforted, smirking evilly at Sakura. "Sakuface over here said she'd kiss Sasuke Uchiha."
Sakura rolled her eyes. "Well, that's not happening considering he's miles and miles away. He's still at his apartment. And besides, I still have a year!"
"Actually, according to Neji, the two of them are going to meet up with some fellow guy friends in Suna," Hinata murmured, looking away innocently.
At the news, the car came to an abrupt halt.
"Ow—"
"God damnit, Sakura—"
"Ugh, you loser—"
"Seriously?" Sakura asked, staring back at Hinata. Had there been cars behind the red convertible, they probably would have been honking furiously at the unexpected stop. "Seriously?"
Tenten rolled her eyes. "Sakura, now is not the time to convert back to Stalkerism."
"Actually…" Ino smiled slyly and put her chin on the shoulder of Sakura's seat, smiling at her and Sakura's reflections in the mirror. Blue met green and the pair managed to have a conversation simply through their eyes. "I think…"
Sakura smirked, matching Ino's expression.
"I think this trip isn't so aimless anymore."
With that said, Sakura made a u-turn back to the sign she had been reading previously.
"To Suna, we go!"
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tbc
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August 21, 2012: So I know I've left this story alone for a grand total of four years (plus some) and I apologize for that. I've opened it up many times over the years trying to write it but I feel like I don't know how to write chick-lit anymore. But what I do know how to do is go on road trips, so with that said, I most definitely plan on rewriting this so that they're a few years older. Enjoy and expect more updates this week.
