"What?" Sakura held up five phone numbers. She didn't quite get the gist of what the girl was saying, but she knew that one of these five men might be the one from the New Year's party.

XXX

Ino tried to unscramble her head from all the clues. What was she supposed to do now?

X-X-X

Chapter 3: Answers

Ino and Sakura entered the large hall. The two girls immediately gazed at each other then split up.

Ino strolled through the room that had held the party. She started to reminisce about that night with a small smile on her face.

Sakura was still at the front desk with a forceful smile on her face. "I just want to know about the guys at the business party on New Year's…"

The man scoffed. "You think I was born yesterday? I know all about money grabbing girls like you. I'm not telling you anything."

There was a light tick in her forehead that showed just how annoyed Sakura was, but she pushed it aside. "Ah, my friend was here for the party and she kissed this handsome guy at the countdown and we were just wondering his name."

"Go somewhere else home wrecker. There are good businessmen that use this hotel for private parties. I won't be giving any of their information out to the likes of you."

Alright, that did it. The pink haired girl grabbed the man by the front of his suit. "Listen here old man, if you aren't willing to push me in the right direction I will have a talk with your higher ups and it will NOT be pretty once they learn how you treat female customers."

He gulped by the sheer power of Sakura's fists. As she let him go she noticed just how far she pulled him to her. She didn't get the chance to be embarrassed by her own strength because the front desk man called up a few workers that had been there that night and soon she was off walking with them towards the party hall.

"So who do you want to contact?" One of the females asked. There were three of them huddling around Sakura. All of them excited for gossip.

"You guys worked the night of the party?"

"Yeah." One girl popped her gum. "It was fabulous, though I spent most of my time glued to the handsome Sasuke Uchiha."

"Ah! He is so yummy!"

"I know, I know."

Sakura felt that the name was familiar, but she couldn't place where she had heard it. She decided to discard the guy they were drooling over. "Anyway, there was a girl with long blond hair and blue eyes…"

"Oh! With the tight purple dress! I remember." The third girl squealed. "She looked like a model. The guys were following her with their eyes everywhere, though she was too snobby to talk to anyone."

You had to play hard to get didn't you Ino? Sakura scowled at her ridiculous friend. The three girls didn't notice. They were too busy talking amongst themselves.

"Well she kissed someone at midnight and she doesn't know his name. I'm wondering if any of you saw who it was or what he looked like."

A faint blush covered her cheeks as the girls looked her over. Sakura knew she sounded jealous or (worst case) in love with her best friend, but how else was she going to figure out what this guy's physical features were?

They started talking again.

"I didn't see that."

"But there were some guys looking at her the whole night."

"Some of them were glares." One girl laughed. "She did look really easy."

"I got it!" Another one declared. "There's a list of who was at the party along with pictures, I can get the names and numbers from the guys that were staring at her for you."

"Ah, that would make it easy to find her girlfriend's mystery tryst."

Sakura growled. "She is NOT my girlfriend."

The girl's laughed it off as they started walking. Sakura had no choice but to follow after silently vowing to beat the tar out of Ino for making her life nothing but trouble.

XXX

"Hello, miss." A polite man bowed to Ino. She bowed back.

"Hi."

"What brings you here today?"

"Oh…" Ino stalled before deciding to tell the truth, "I just wanted to daydream a little."

He smiled. "Not to be rude, but I remember a girl that looked just like you at a party the other day."

Ino beamed at him, "New Year's?"

"Yes."

"I was there. I kissed someone at midnight, but…"

"Ah, I see." The man started to dust here and there as he talked to her. "You didn't know him."

"Yes…" She agreed.

"Was it magical?" He laughed when she gave him a strange look. "I have three daughters."

"It was perfect. I know it's silly, but I want to see him again."

"Then maybe I should give you a clue."

"A clue?" She repeated. Man, this old guy is weird.

"There's been a man who's been asking about a long blond haired woman with blue eyes. Do you want me to describe him?"

Ino's eyes sparkled. "Yes, please!"

XXX

"Umm. Maybe it was that one."

"No, it was that one, the other one never stared at her openly."

"Hmm, maybe we should add a few more…"

"No! We said five. Just stick with five."

"Alright." The last girl sighed. She handed Sakura five separate scraps of paper. All of them had a name and a number. "Just don't come back crying if they aren't the one."

"What?" Sakura held up the five phone numbers. She didn't quite get the gist of what the girl was saying, but she knew that one of these five men might be the one from the New Year's party. "Why would I come back crying when one of these are my friend's mystery guy?"

"They might not be." The girl's answered cryptically, "There's no way of knowing who it was. No one paid THAT much attention to your friend."

Two of the three girls left. Sakura stared at the papers not sure which to pick first. The third girl hesitated by the door.

"Here," She pushed another paper in the pink haired girl's hands. "Try this one first."

Sakura stood there alone. She felt stunned. Would one of them really be the one? She started back to find Ino. The blond girl was waiting at the entrance.

"Yo, forehead! Let's get out of here!" Ino called loudly.

The pink haired girl stuck up her fist in frustration, "say that one more time and I'll clock you."

Ino waved off the empty threat. "Any luck?"

"Yeah," Sakura handed over the pieces of paper.

"Are you trying to get me to start my own harem?"

"No!" She protested. "These maids seemed to think it was one of these guys that kissed you."

"Oh," Ino pushed the papers into her messy purse. She decided to stay silent on her own conversation with the old man.

"I'm going with you; I already have a copy of all of those numbers so you can't leave me behind."

Ino's eye twitched. Yeah, it was definitely smart to leave Sakura out of the loop. She sighed, thinking about the seven people it could possibly be.

Where should she start?

Sakura picked out one of the numbers from the bag. "They said to start with this one."

Who do you think it is? Better yet, whose names do you think are on the pieces of paper? Not to mention the one the other guy was talking about…

7 choices…