A quick heads-up; This chapter will mainly feature Gai and Genma, Shizune and TenTen and Lee and Neji. It is a KakaSaku story, but this is needed for future chapters. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 3: The sweetest jerk ever

"Don't think that this is the end," Gai said to himself. "Oh no… I won't stop here."

"Give it a rest Gai," Genma said. "Look at how happy they are together."

"They just think that they're happy," Gai spat. "They're not happy. They seem happy, because they feel happy, but they're really not happy."

Genma frowned his brow. There was no getting through to this man. He wasn't making any sense at all. Still, he had managed to score three dates with three beautiful women… So… Who really cared about Gai and his misguided ideas of who Sakura should be with. She and Kakashi seemed pretty happy together. Nothing wrong there.

The auction had been a complete success. Every man had been sold and the funding for the new hospital wing was complete, they even had a little reserve funding. Now to give Shizune the good news too. In order to get what Tsunade wanted, Shizune had just have to sacrifice one evening of her life to go out with Genma. Tsunade was the Hokage after all, so she would simply order Shizune to go out with Genma.

"Shizune," Tsunade called when the room was nearly empty except for Genma and a few others. "In order to make this auction a huge success, I had to promise Genma a date with you."

"But Lady Tsunade…"

"No buts," Tsunade interrupted. "Think of it as a mission. You're doing your village a great service with this. Think off all the little children that we can help in the new hospital wing."

Shizune made a face that held only one question. 'Why me?' But an order was an order and Tsunade was mighty scary when she was pissed off. It would be better for Shizune's overall health not to piss the Hokage off. Life was cruel. This whole ordeal had just one bright side. Genma really had a nice ass.

Gai was fidgeting. While he was stuck entertaining this woman, Lee was crying his heart out somewhere. The poor boy had been rejected by his one true love. Oh the hardships he had to overcome at his delicate age. How could life be this hard on his youthful student. It wasn't fair. And then his teammate had abandoned him as well. How could TenTen do that to him. They had been such a good team, yet when push came to shove she wasn't around to help Lee out. He would have to have a serious talk with that girl when he saw her again.

One way or another, he had to protect his student. There just had to be a way to make Sakura realize that Lee was the one for her, not his eternal rival. Kakashi was spoiling her youthfulness. This match was just wrong. Lee was perfect for her and Gai would make sure that she knew this too.

On the other side of Konoha, Neji let out a relieved sigh. "For a moment there I thought was being sold to that woman," he said. "Thanks TenTen for sparing me."

"You're both welcome," she said, smiling at her two teammates.

"This is much better," Lee agreed. "Now we can do some team bonding."

"So where to?" TenTen asked.

"It's my treat," Neji said. "So how about we go to Korean BBQ?"

"Sounds excellent," Lee exclaimed.

"Korean BBQ it is," Neji said, holding his arm out so TenTen could hold on to it.

"Thank you," she chirped and they were on their way.

Back at the auction site Shizune groaned. She really didn't want to go on a date with Genma, but she also didn't want to put this off. The man was annoying and she'd just have to grid her teeth and bear it. Slowly, she walked over to Genma. This was an absolute nightmare.

"Genma," Shizune said.

"Yes," Genma responded, unable to keep his smirk from reaching his voice.

"Tsunade told me about the agreement," she said. "Ready to go?"

"I've already prepared something for this evening," Genma said, holding out his hand for Shizune to take. She looked at him through narrowed eyes, but took his hand eventually.

It felt a little awkward walking down the street holding hands with Genma. He was definitely not her usual type of man. Shizune liked to really be romanced. Genma was more someone to party with. A drinking buddy. He didn't know romance even if it hit him in the face.

Shizune was pretty familiar with this part of town. Her favorite restaurant slash teahouse lay in this district. They had the prettiest inner garden, decorated with countless, different kinds of flowers in all colors of the rainbow. The cherry tree in the middle of the garden looked so beautiful this time of year when it was in full bloom. Everyone of the chambers around the garden had screens that would let you see the garden, but people who were in the garden could not look into the chamber. Completely privacy. But Shizune knew Genma wouldn't take her there. Too expensive, not his style and too girly for a man to go to.

"Say where are you taking me?" Shizune asked, curiosity taking over.

"Uhm what's it called again," Genma asked himself as he dug around in his pocket. "I have their business card here somewhere…"

Shizune waited anxiously for a while and was considering searching Genma herself. The suspense was killing her, but ebbed away the moment she saw the pink and green business card. She could hardly believe it.

"It's called Kusabana," Genma said reading it off the card. "Supposed to be a real popular place. I had to make a reservation weeks ago."

"You knew I'd come with you?" Shizune said.

"Nah I didn't," Genma admitted. "I've just been hoping for the opportunity and it presented itself when Tsunade…"

"When Lady Tsunade what?"

"She promised me this date if I made sure that Hatake and Haruno were paired up at the auction," Genma said cautiously. "They're really cute together."

"Agreed, but you say Lady Tsunade was behind all this?" Shizune asked.

"I think a bet with Jiraiya may be involved," Genma said and he stopped to look Shizune in the eyes. "But I was the one who won the jackpot."

'Maybe he's not so bad after all', Shizune thought as she smiled at the complement and tugged on Genma's hand.

Korean BBQ wasn't exactly TenTen's idea of romance, but at least she got to spend some time with Neji. The stoic Hyuuga prodigy also had a soft side. Sitting there in that booth, with Lee sitting across, made romance far beyond TenTen's reach, but this was nice too. Lee seemed content with TenTen buying him instead of Sakura and Neji was happy not to be bought by some hormonal teenage girl. It was a win-win situation.

Lee kept on talking about his new training schedule that Gai had set up for him. Not the most interesting subject, but their teammate was just so passionate about his training. Still, TenTen had to swallow her yawns. Neji remained silent, but it almost seemed like he was listening. He hadn't moved a muscle since Lee began talking about training, till he moved his right hand to hold TenTen's. A blush flared to life in her cheeks, but she didn't dare to look at Neji.

"Are you alright TenTen?" Lee asked. "You look like you're getting a fever."

"I'm fine Lee," TenTen answered quickly, not wanting this moment to be over. "You were saying about that technique.."

"Gai-sensei wants to teach me something completely new," Lee continued. "He says it's an important lesson in life."

"Really?" TenTen asked, though she wasn't really interested.

"He says that he'll teach me how to woe a woman," Lee said. "Not sure how that will help me in battle, but Gai-sensei knows best."

Neji nearly choked on his own saliva when he heard Gai's plans for Lee. Seemed he had caught wind of the ongoing relationship between Kakashi and Sakura. Not that Neji really cared about such things, but this wasn't really any of their business. Shinobi had relative short lives. If being together made those two happy then they should be together. But that was Neji's point of view. Not everyone would agree with him though.

Lee seemed a little clueless in TenTen's eyes. She knew why Gai wanted Lee to learn how to deal with women. Gai obviously didn't like Kakashi being with Sakura. But Sakura had no interest in Lee. At least no romantic interest.

"Say Lee," TenTen said. "You know Sakura's seeing Kakashi right?"

Lee nodded, his expression serious.

"What do you think of them?" TenTen asked. "As a couple."

"As long as Sakura's happy," Lee said, making a fist. "I am happy."

Gai-sensei had been so wrong about Lee. The entire time all Lee truly desired was Sakura's happiness. Someday there'd be a girl for him, just not now. They finished their meal and made their way home. Lee was closest and they said their goodbyes. Neji insisted on walking TenTen home, though it wasn't really needed.

At TenTen's front door, she hesitated. They hadn't really been on a date, so she had no right to expect anything. She fidgeted with her keys a little, trying to draw the moment out a little. "I had a nice time," she said softly.

"Me too," Neji said. "We should do this again sometime."

"Yeah," TenTen said.

Neji said his goodbyes and left. No goodnight kiss. To say that TenTen was disappointed would be an understatement. But at least Neji had said that they'd go out again sometime. That was at least something. In the past he would've never agreed to this. She was making some progress. Slowly but surely, she'd win Neji's heart.

Elsewhere in Konoha Gai was getting increasingly annoyed with the woman that had purchased him. She was wasting his time. Wasting his precious time making him paint her toenails and making her tea. This was a nightmare. He could only picture Lee's tear stricken face after watching Sakura buy Kakashi instead of him. His poor student.

But no matter how Gai pleaded, this woman wanted to keep him till midnight. Apparently she was too busy prettying herself up. Or, having Gai making her pretty. Everything so she'd look good for Genma. That traitor, he had sold Kakashi while clearly Gai was the winner of the auction. He'd have to have a man-to-man conversation with Genma and explain to him the importance of keeping the youth, youthful.

First thing first. He had to survive this night. Now that was a real challenge. After this night he'd make Sakura see that only one boy was the right man for her. He'd teach her that Lee was that man.

Genma had proved to be quite the gentleman if he wanted to be. He had taken Shizune to her favorite restaurant, and paid for dinner. Afterwards they had taken a walk, which ended at Hokage mountain. All the way at the top, they could overlook the village. The light shone brightly in the night sky. "It's time," Genma said.

"For what?" Shizune asked.

"I called in a favor," Genma answered.

After a short moment, all the lights in Konoha went out, except for the hospital, since it had an emergency power generator. There was complete darkness till several tiny rockets shot into the sky. Shizune immediately realized that it was fireworks. 'He really is the sweetest jerk I know,' she thought as they watched the fireworks together.

That's it for now. Next chapter: The abduction of Sakura Haruno