Hello D

Thank you all for your wonderful reviews! New chapter


Let's just say Sakura is a smooth driver, but not the slowest one…

--

"Aww, I'm sad that you both didn't scream like Naruto did!" She giggled. The three of them had made it to the restaurant at record speeds.

Neji and Gaara said nothing, but Gaara suddenly got an evil smirk. He stepped closer to Sakura, ignoring Neji. "Sakura," he purred. She gave him a look that told him to back off. He didn't.

He bent down, having easily backed her into the wall outside the door to the restaurant, and started to nibble on her earrings again. She giggled, "That tickles, stop." Gaara had been doing that for a least a year, but Neji had never seen it. She didn't notice that his hands were clenched, but Gaara could see it from his position.

After less than few seconds of that Sakura pushed him away with a large blush on her face. "What if Tsunade were there. Or the paparazzi! You know I don't like it when you do that." She put a hand on the smirking boy's arm. "Plus, it feels weird when you do it." She stuck her tongue out like a child. "Neji," Sakura said, her voice surprised, "Please never start to act like him." She point to Gaara.

"I promise." He smiled softly at the attention he received from her.

"Good," her smile widened as she pushed Gaara out of the way and linked arms with Neji. Naruto's car pulled up and Ino, Hinata and Naruto himself jumped out.

Ino linked arms with Sakura and in they walked.

Upon seeing the array of models, the manger quickly seated them at the best table away from others. Sakura ordered the chicken, Ino and Hinata ordered the seafood, Gaara ordered the steak, Neji and Naruto ordered lobster.

"This is nice." Hinata stated, leaning on Naruto. The group was waiting for their food.

"Yeah, we never get out like this!" Ino exclaimed.

Sakura nodded, she sat in between Neji and Gaara. Their food came and everyone happily dove into their food.

"Neji, uhmm," Sakura blushed, not sure whether or not to ask, "can I have some of your food?" He smiled and took his fork and told her to open her mouth. She complied and he fed her some of his lobster.

"Gaara, can I have some of yours too?" He did the same as Neji, but soon after she had her bite, he asked for some of her food.

The others just watched, mildly amused, all but Neji.

She just laughed and told him no. He suddenly took his fork and grabbed a piece for himself. Sakura started yelling how unfair it was and that he was cheating.

The dinner ended soon and the group headed for the apartments.

"Sakura, don't forget, you have a fashion show this Saturday. We leave Friday, so get your work from you teachers." Hinata stated quietly.

Sakura smiled as Ino opened the door to their room, "Sure. That is if I can make it through the week." She pointed to her pink hair and sighed.

"Don't worry Sakura; it'll be fine, you'll see." Naruto said happily. He was always energetic and Sakura glared at him as she stuck out her tongue. He just laughed.

"I'll look out for you." Gaara said simply. He was always stoic around the group.

"I will too," Neji said from the other side of her. Gaara and Neji glared at each other from over Sakura's head. They're competition for her affection had been going on for only a month, but it was a heated battle.

When they arrived they said their goodbyes and went to their separate rooms.

The next morning Sakura looked horrible. She had barely slept from the worry of school. Yet after a quick shower, brushing her teeth, combing her hair she looked like she usually did. Since her secret identity was over she decided to actually look nice in school for once. From her closet she grabbed a pair of tight light blue jeans with Ino's jeweled design on them that formed the signature look of 'Aphrodite' which just happened to be a cherry blossom. She grabbed a tight long sleeved shirt that went just below her waist and a sleeveless hoodie. Her make up was pink eye shadow with black eyeliner.

She waited outside of Ino's room and slowly everyone gathered together to form a large group. Everyone wore their colors. Neji wore white, Naruto orange, Sasuke was blue, Gaara was black, Hinata was purple and white and Ino was purple and white. Sakura wore blue and pink to be different.

"Wow Sakura, trying to impress someone?" Ino teased as they walked to their cars. Ino drove a cute white VW Beetle convertible that she once said matched her own cute personality until it got a large black dent/skid in it and Sakura started to say the pure Ino had a dark streak.

"I don't have to try, pig." Sakura stated with a dangerous smirk. Ino glared at her, but soon replaced her glare with a smile as her boyfriend showed up. His name was Kankuro and just happened to be Gaara's older brother. Kankuro was nothing like Gaara, but he was in the modeling business, but as a make up artist instead. He and Ino had been going out for three years. She's 18 and he's 19. They met at Sakura's first photo shoot and quickly got into a heated argument over her makeup.

--

"She'll look better with pink eyeshadow and black eyeliner you idiot!" Ino yelled at the man. He couldn't have been much older than either her or Sakura.

"No, this black will brighten her eyes. Make them pop! Pop I Say!" He glared at the blonde before smirking. "You shouldn't be talking about make up or even fashion." He looked her over in her rather baggy jeans and loose shirt.

Ino glared at him and gave him a look over too. She suddenly laughed. "Like you're one to judge with your ugly black onesuit."

He suddenly threw down his eyeliner and took off his baggy suit to reveal loose fitting black jeans and no shirt. Sakura ignored it, but Ino turned bright red. This guy was sporting a very toned body.

He seemed to expect her to reveal another outfit but Ino just looked down in embarrassment. "You don't have a trick up your sleeves?" She nodded no. The guy rolled his eyes and dragged her off for a few minutes.

When she returned Ino was sport a tight cute white spaghetti strap shirt, a pair of tight bleached blue jeans and a tight jacket that went to her ribs. She looked her age for once and a smile radiated on her face.

She was so happy she didn't notice as Sakura walked to model with black eye shadow.

"I'm Kankuro," he took her hand and slowly kissed it.

She punched him with a wicked grin, "I'm Ino and that was for trying to trick me into not noticing her make up. It does look good though…"

--

Needless to say that Kankuro forgave Ino for giving him a black eye and made her go out with him as consolation.

"Kanky!" Ino ran and hugged him tightly. Sakura and Gaara rolled their eyes. Naruto was to busy talking to Hinata to even notice and Neji just didn't care about other people's relationships.

Neji rode in Sakura's car and Gaara rode with his brother and Ino. Naruto and Hinata naturally paired up.

Sakura loved riding with Neji as a passenger. He was easy to talk to and made her laugh pretty easily. So it's simple to think that the ride to school went fairly quickly.

Too bad she didn't want to get out of the car when they got there. As soon as Neji left the car people started to crowd him and people surrounded her side yelling Aphrodite. Neji made his way through the hoards of people and opened her door for her. Suddenly it was as if a bright light engulfed the area behind her and the people shied away.

Sakura sweat dropped slightly at the sight, but Neji took advantage of the situation and grabbed her hand as he started to run. She was laughing and out of breath by the time she reached the school. "That was interesting." He stated simply with a soft ghost of a smile.

"Sure was! But I still have an uneasy feeling about this." Sakura shuddered. "Who knows what other crazy thing might happen?" She looked up and saw the crazy thing. Gaara was making out with a girl in the hallway. Sakura remembered her as Tenten and not someone Gaara would go for.

"Ew." Sakura gagged at the sight. She had no doubt that Gaara was probably a great kisser, but poor Tenten obviously needed instruction. When Gaara saw Sakura, though, he left the brunette standing there shocked and disappointed as he ran to Sakura.

"Hello." He smirked at Sakura and frowned at Neji. He hated his rival and had for years wanted to fight him, but resisted the urge for Sakura's sake. Even now his hands clenched and unclenched. He stepped closer to Sakura, trying to grab her attention.

"What's up Gaara? Besides giving your diseases to poor Tenten?" Sakura nodded to Tenten who waved back. Sakura never had a problem with the brunette so she waved back.

"I'll have you know I was checked last week and I'm clean." Gaara flashed her a seductive smirk. His attempts at flirting with her failed, horribly. She glared at him. He asked why she looked so angry, refusing to look at the white-eyed boy next to her.

"You can't seduce random girls! Especially not ones as nice as Tenten!" She waved an arm in the direction that the other girl was in. She had left, of course. "It's not fair to me!" Neji looked down at her, a bit startled, Sakura didn't notice it. "It's not fair if I have to deal with all the lovesick girls. When they all want one guy it turns into a pack of wolves." She clasped her hands with a furious, too her, but comical to the boys, expression.

"Don't worry, Sakura, they won't all be lovesick." He whispered before the bell rang. He then made a quick exit.

"He's so infuriating!" Sakura huffed.

"I understand, let's go to class, now." Neji gave her a soft smile before gently touching the small of her back and pushing her towards her and his homeroom: English.

When they arrived in the large classroom it was not surprisingly empty. Neji and Sakura had this class with Sasuke and Shikamaru, a rather lazy photographer. It was a class where no one arrived on time and no one really cared. That and all the kids in the class were very intelligent.

"I see that we are on time yet again." Neji said, taking his seat and neatly pulling out his book, pens and paper.

"Of course, aren't we always?" Sakura replied with a smile. She dropped her black book bag with a loud thud and put her head down to watch the arriving students.

First was Hinata who waved shyly at them before taking a seat next to Sakura. "First as always." She whispered, tucking some loose hair behind her ears.

"How did we beat you?" Sakura asked, putting her head in her hands.

She blushed, "Naruto took the long way and we talked for a while."

"I don't see why we leave so early if we're all just going to be late anyways." Neji stated quietly. Sakura smiled at the similarities between him and his cousin.

"Fine." She stood and slammed her hands on the desk, shocking a kid who had come into the wrong room, "tomorrow we all leave five minutes into homeroom!" She posed victoriously, one leg on the desk and both hands in the air, one making a peace sign.

"Detention, Miss Haruno." Ah, the teacher, very early to his standards. His name was Hatake Kakashi and he was one of the hottest teachers in the school and also the laziest.

Sakura's eyes widened. "What?" She asked, leaving her mouth open.

"You heard me, don't stand on the desk." He leaned against his on desk. His handsome face was covered by a peculiar mask that Sakura was tempted to pull off if she hadn't sparred with him already. He beat her, obviously and he barely lifted a finger to do so. Of course that was four years ago.

"That ain't fair!" She walked up the row of desks, having sat in the back, naturally, and glared at the older man. He wasn't that old, actually, only around 32 and very handsome.

"Of course it is fair. I should punish you for your horrible grammar." He said smugly, an air of dominance about him. Neji wanted to protect her, but Hinata held him back with a glare that was rare for her.

"No," Sakura started slowly, "it ain't! Plus, you're never here this early. If it were any other day you wouldn't have seen me do it! Actually, I don't think you really did see it. Your just hallucinating!" She nodded as if to make him agree with her. He gave her a dirty look.

"I did see it, Sakura," he used her first name, "and you will be serving detention with me and that new redhead." Her eyes widened and she yelled Gaara's name. "Yes, that one. I caught him about to beat up another senior who apparently bumped into him and gave him a dirty look." Kakashi said thoughtfully.

After a few moments she sighed, "Fine, I'll serve your idiotic detention, but only to watch over that stupid boy." She rolled her eyes. "I swear he got in trouble to make me angry." She made a strangling motion with her hands, just wishing Gaara was there.

Kakashi shrugged and began to mark almost the entire class as late with what Sakura knew was a smile beneath that mask.

"You ok?" She asked Neji. He nodded stiffly. "Don't worry; I've known that old man for years. He does this just to piss me off." She whispered, pointing to the teacher. Neji smiled softly and Hinata giggled.

As the class came in, almost fainting when they say the rare teacher, Kakashi began to teach. While he taught, Sakura pondered over the predicament with Gaara. He's so bold, she thought. She bit the tip of her thumb gently, Something must have happened.


Just like her to jump to conclusions..


Longer than usual because I start Spring break soon D