Chapter 6: Plan Cupid . . . Commence!

Author's Note: I just realized something . . . I don't own Naruto. :( But I still hope you enjoy this chapter! It's time for some NaruHina matchmaking!

It was pitch black outside, perfect for midnight. Gaara decided to put on his hood as the chilly air grew colder.

The alley had been decided as the rendezvous point. It was convenient for ambushes and close-combat fighting, and the thought gave Gaara a nauseated feeling in the pit of his stomach. The ones who had asked for this rendezvous give dangerous a whole new meaning.

"You sure they said midnight?" Neji broke the ominous silence.

Gaara nodded, biting his nails repeatedly. "What time is it now?"

Neji pulled out his phone and showed it to Gaara. It read '12:23 a.m.'

"Someone must teach them the importance of punctuality. This is not acceptable for the biggest gang in Japan." Lee said from his upside-down stance.

"But what does the Akatsuki want with us?" Kankuro leaned his head back against the wall. That was the question running on everyone's mind. If they wanted violence, then their petty little gang is done for. But if that was the purpose, then why this rendezvous? The Akatsuki could wipe them out in broad daylight and no one would raise a question.

Kankuro's question lingered unanswered, then disappeared into the eerie silence. The four lost track of time and merely waited, for whatever was to come.

"My deepest apologies to you four."

Everyone sprung to the voice. Following the voice, came two hooded figures emerging from the darkness.

Gaara, on instinct, dug into his pocket. Inside was his signature dagger. Small but very effective in the case of 'sudden violence'. "Are you from the Akatsuki?" He kept his voice as aggressive as possible.

"There's no reason to get all defensive now, is there?" The speaker slowly lowered his hood, to reveal long black hair, although male, and piercing yellow eyes. His snake-like features sent chills down Gaara's back. "The name's Orochimaru."

Lee finally decided to stand on his feet. "You're Orochimaru of the Akatsuki?" He lowered his head. "It truly is an honour to meet you!"

Kankuro scoffed. "As if! What do you want with us, Orochimaru?"

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes at the puppet-master. "A little too arrogant, aren't we?"

The second figure, still hooded stepped forward. "You will treat Orochimaru-sama with respect - if you wish to live." He pulled out two rusty rods.

Kankuro smirked. "You expect to beat me with those popsicles?"

The figure gripped them tighter and sent a strong electric current running through them. "Yes, I do."

Kankuro straightened his posture, desperately hiding his several sweatdrops.

"Kabuto." Orochimaru intervened on the potential brawl.

Kabuto retreated obeyingly.

"As to answer your question, I'm here to personally recruit you four."

"Recruit?" Lee's eyes grew wider. "You don't mean . . ."

"Yes, to the Akatsuki."

"No way!" Lee physically pinched himself. "Am I dreaming?"

Gaara cut the offer short. "But, why?" Was all he could say out loud, despite the millions of questions racing through his mind.

"Hmm?" Orochimaru scanned Gaara. "Why not?" He stretched his lips, and it took Gaara a few moments to compute it as a smile.

"He means the Akatsuki doesn't need allies, so why?" Neji, who had been silently assessing the whole situation, spoke. "What could you possibly gain?"

Orochimaru acknowledged the Hyuuga's intelligence with a broader, creepier stretch of his lips. "What is there not to gain? Through this, we combine our strengths and illuminate a potential confrontation in the 'battlefield'."

"The battlefield?" Gaara grew uneasy. "You mean, in the Death Match?"

Orochimaru was pleased he caught the drift. "Indeed. You have decided to be a part of it, starting this season, have you not?"

"How do you know about that?" Kankuro sprung forward. "Have you been keeping tabs on us?"

Orochimaru continued, completely ignoring the question. "Tell me, Gaara-kun. Would you rather be part of the Akatsuki, or fight against it?

Gaara tensed. Everyone was waiting for him to reply. He was the leader. Although no one had ever said it out loud up to this point. He is the leader.

"Gaara." Neji walked up to the nervous 'leader', and whispered into his ear.

Gaara, visibly reassured, slowly nodded. "Forget it, Orochimaru. The last thing we'd do is join up with you guys. We probably have more to lose than gain, anyway." He averted his eyes.

Tension lingered in the atmosphere. But as soon as Orochimaru turned his back to them, it subsided.

"Quite unfortunate. With proper training, you four would've proved as assets to the Akatsuki." Orochimaru abruptly stopped, startling everyone else. "Imagine what you could've done to your rivals, too." He narrowed his eyes. "Rivals such as Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto."

Gaara's ears ringed at the mention of their names. "Sasuke and Naruto?" The names ran through Gaara's mind. And with them, countless other possibilities.

"Imagine what you could've done to your rivals."

"Imagine . . . . . . . . . your rivals."

". . . . . rivals."

"Wait!" Gaara called after the retreating figures.

Neji sighed. "Idiot. He took the bait."

Orochimaru obeyed and waited, but if his face had been visible, they would've seen the most devious smile yet.

His bag hung clumsily over his shoulder, threatening to fall off with the constant swaying of his steps. He walked like he was dead. No enthusiasm towards the never-ending school day about to begin.

"Naru! Naruto! Where're you-"

He ignored Sai's voice, and headed to his lockers.

Sai crinkled his eyebrows in confusion, and turned to Shikamaru, who shook his head.

"When the idiot doesn't respond to you, leave him. Only Sasuke can deal with him at that point." Shikamaru remembered Sasuke's warnings about Naruto. He knew the fellow would be upset today, but as to why, Sasuke didn't specify. Sure, the four of them were best friends. But Sasuke and Naruto had this inner closeness that made them inseparable. It was best to leave it to Sasuke.

Naruto rested his head on his locker shelf. He didn't want to think about anything. Just fly through today, without any encounters with – her.

He slowly lifted himself from his locker, and slammed it close. Then jumped back, seeing Sasuke's face right behind it.

"Remember me?" Sasuke smiled comically at the jumpy Naruto.

Naruto quickly collected himself, and his eyes returned to their past gloom. He walked into the hallway, with no idea of which class he had.

Sasuke caught up easily. "Why are we trading roles today?" He slung his arm over Naruto's shoulder, squeezing his neck. "It's me who walks away from you."

"Sasuke." Naruto forced Sasuke's arm off of him. "Not in the mood."

Sasuke's face fell into a frown, and he watched as Naruto walked into the wrong classroom. He let out a tired sigh. "How do I cheer him up this time?"

Sakura hesitated briefly before sitting beside Hinata. "Hey, Hinata!"

Hinata smiled, but didn't reply. Her face was dull and it was obvious that she wanted to avoid all conversation today.

Sakura smiled back at Hinata as the girl fiddled with her fingers. Sasuke had briefed her about the 'situation', but that didn't make talking to Hinata easier. The plan was to slowly suck out information from both Naruto and Hinata, and bring out any misunderstandings. Easier said than done, of course.

"Take out your textbooks, class, and turn to page 221." Iruka finished erasing the blackboard, and took out his own textbook.

Sakura lazily flipped the pages, with no knowledge of the numbers on each one. Her wandering eyes couldn't help but notice something on Hinata's already opened textbook. As Hinata bent down into her bag, leaving her textbook unguarded, Sakura slowly inched closer for a better look.

"I knew it! It is a drawing of Naruto!" Sakura nearly jumped, startling Hinata, who also noticed the picture and hastily clutched the textbook. Sakura smiled innocently. "You sure have a thing for Naruto, don't you?" She leaned into her chair. "I can tell why and stuff though. He's pretty funny, isn't-"

Hinata abruptly got up.

"-he?" Sakura finished, stunned at Hinata.

"Iru, Iruka-sensei?" Hinata called to Iruka, even though his attention was already on her, along with the rest of the class. "M-May I use the r-restroom?"

Iruka nodded, surprised to hear the girl speak this loud.

Sakura watched her friend dash out of the classroom. "I'm such an idiot." She let a few minutes pass, then suddenly flopped onto the floor.

"S-Sakura-chan? Are you-?"

"Iruka-sensei! May I please use the restroom as well?"

Iruka frowned, "Can you wait until-"

Sakura started swaying.

"Ah, fine! But take some-" Iruka looked back at an empty desk. "Where'd she-, ah geez." He shook his head.

Sakura scanned the hallway for the third time. "Where'd she go?" She finally decided to wander into the empty hallway. "Hinata?" She called out. "I'm really sorry, Hinata. Please come out." She felt like she was calling out to a kitten. "Hina – aaah!" She bumped into something hard and fell back, but two hands reached out and gripped her tight.

"What the-"

"Finally! I've got you in my arms." Came a ridiculously low voice. Not that it fooled Sakura.

"Sasuke, let me go, now." Sakura rolled her eyes as he laughed and let her go.

"You're no fun, you know." Sasuke poked her forehead, then his expression changed serious. "Did you see Naruto by any chance? I think he came this way."

Sakura shook her head. "I'm looking for Hinata, did she pass by anywhere?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Wasn't paying attention." He slumped against the wall. "Idiot. Always running off without telling me. He's probably sulking under a tree somewhere." He muttered in frustration.

Sakura's eyes widened. She stepped back from the window she was just looking out of, and turned to Sasuke in disbelief. "Actually. That's exactly what he's doing." She pointed back out the window.

Sasuke only confirmed it by checking himself. Indeed, Naruto was crouched under a tree, his face inevitably glum. Sasuke face-palmed, then ran for the nearest door out the school.

"I'd ask how he could guess so correctly." She leaned both her elbows on the windowsill, and cupped her chin. "But it's probably a guy thing between those two." She smiled, as she saw Sasuke finally arriving in front of Naruto, with two fists.

He pretended to land a punch, but simply sat down beside the confused Uzumaki. The rest, Sakura couldn't follow, as they drifted into a serious conversation.

"Wait a sec!" Sakura jumped back, suddenly remembering Hinata. "Hinata! Could she be under a tree too?" Sakura thought hard. "Come on, come on, Saku. Think! Where would a girl like her hide?"

She grunted and aimlessly wandered back into the hallway, checking into empty classrooms. That's when she heard the quiet singing. "Wait a sec! That couldn't possibly be-?" She pushed open an unlocked door to find Hinata seated on a huge windowsill. "-Hinata! I found you!"

Hinata abruptly stopped her sad singing. "S-Sakura-san?" She quickly lifted herself off the bench-like windowsill, and lowered her gaze. "Y-you heard me?"

Sakura smiled. "You bet I did! Your voice is so beautiful, Hinata! I never knew you had it in you!" Sakura rethought her sentence. "But then again, I didn't really get to know you yet."

She casually walked upto the windowsill, and pressed her hands against it while taking in the warm sunlight. An awkward smile spread on her face, despite the warm atmosphere. "I really should start getting to know these guys. I mean, we're going to be spending 2 more years together. We're going to be friends for those two years." She gave a side glance at Hinata. "And I was thinking I could fly through highschool with just Sasuke." The thought seemed so stupid now that it made her chuckle.

Hinata felt a sudden calmness take over her as she saw Sakura smile. She unconsciously smiled back, and felt immediately better. "That's right. Sakura-san is my friend too. I should, I should stop running away all the time. Maybe, even just a little, I should open up more. At least, at least to my . . . friends." Her smile broadened. "They're always there for me!" Hinata visualized Tenten and Ino, and looked back at Sakura, then slowly let herself drown into the sunlight.

"You seem like you come here often." Both girls decided to sit down, since there weren't any other seats in the empty classroom.

Hinata nodded. "This classroom was abandoned a while ago. I always come here when I want to be alone. It's so calm and quiet." Her eyes glowed in the sunlight, as she scanned the walls. "And the sun always shines the brightest here."

Sakura noticed the lack of stammering in her voice. "This place must be really comfortable if she's talking so smoothly." Sakura chuckled. "I'm glad! I'm glad to know she can be relaxed like this! If only she'd be so calm and strong all the time, though." She crinkled her eyebrows. "But what's keeping her from being like that?"

"S-sorry for running off l-like that, S-Sakura-san." Hinata shifted uncomfortably.

Sakura panicked as her stammering returned. "No, no, no! That's totally fine! I'm sorry for bringing up Naruto! I wasn't trying to make you mad or anything, actually the plan was to solve any misunderstandings between you too, but now . . . I'm just so sorry! And um, please speak freely with me! Like, no need to stammer and stuff! Ha, ha!" Sakura finished idiotically.

Hinata smiled, almost laughing at Sakura's expression. Her words slowly started to make sense to the Hyuuga, and when it finally did – "Sakura-san!"

"Eh, yeah?"

"H-How do you know about th-the, the, the . . . "

Sakura gasped, cupping her mouth. "Ah, um, you see, actually, I, well, I technically, wait, um, err, oh yeah, wait no, okay, alright, I'm, um, I'm psychic!"

"Oh." Hinata comprehended. "But . . . what!?"

Sakura slammed her head against the windowsill. "Can someone do a cross stitch on my mouth, please?"

"You didn't tell anyone, did you?" Naruto confirmed.

Sasuke hesitated. He had told Sakura about the 'problem', but he can't tell Naruto that. He slowly shook his head, hating the fact that he has to lie to his best friend.

"Not even Shika or Sai?"

Another shake.

"Yeah right!"

"What do you mean 'yeah right'? Do you want me to tell people?" Sasuke snapped, feeling nervous inside. "Does he know? No, that's impossible."

The tension between them grew . . . then both boys settled down.

"Don't keep cutting class, or your GPA's going to sink past your current 1.3." Sasuke said, changing the subject.

Naruto shrugged. "Big deal."

"Hn."

" . . . Sasuke?"

"Hn?"

"Why do you always stick with me even though I annoy you to hell?"

" . . . "

"Sasuke?"

"Don't ask me stupid questions!"

"Then answer it, if you're so smart!"

" . . . . . . Shut up!" Sasuke turned his head away while Naruto reflected him.

30 seconds ticked by . . . .

" You planning on talking to Hinata?" Sasuke twiddled with a fallen branch.

"You think I should?"

"No duh!"

"What do I say?"

"Apologize or something!"

"I can't even look at her face now!"

"Will you tell me what the heck happened in there?"

Naruto's mad expression changed at the demand. He swallowed hard. He'd have to tell him eventually. There wasn't a single thing he could hide from Sasuke.

"Well, it all started with the doorbell . . . ."

". . . . I c-couldn't believe N-Naruto-kun came to visit! And I-I was just st-staring at him!"

"Then she invited me in, but the entire place was so huge and nerve-racking! The Hyuuga sure are high class!"

"I c-could tell he was un-uncomfortable."

"Then we started working on the script, well, actually Hinata was doing all the work and I was dozing off. She probably got mad at me, but she didn't show it, then I said-"

"Naruto." Sasuke interrupted.

"What?"

"Get to the main scene."

"Fine."

"When I c-came back, N-Neji-oni chan was b-b-b-bleeding!"

"He's such a good actor, I swear!"

"Poor Ni-chan! He w-was hurt really badly! B-but, I didn't believe Naruto-kun h-hit him, until-"

"-I threatened to beat him up for real! He was pissing me off! But Hinata thought-"

"-he a-actually did h-hit him after all!"

"She wouldn't even look at me properly, let alone believe me!"

"He k-kept saying h-he didn't do anything, b-but who do I b-believe?" Hinata's voice cracked as she tried to suck in the sudden tears.

"I didn't know what else to say, so I just . . . left." Naruto shoulders sulked lower. "But now I feel like someone punched a giant hole into me."

"Like Grimmjow from Bleach?" Sasuke asked in detail.

"No, higher like Ulquiorra."

"Oh."

"D-did I do the wrong thing, S-Sakura-san?"

Sakura, who had been listening intently, shook her head. "Any sister would've done that, Hinata. It's not wrong."

"Wrong? No, it's not wrong, it's stupid! You simply launched for Neji's bait! Idiot!" Sasuke smacked Naruto's head.

"I know it's stupid!" Naruto cried out ducking. "So how do I fix it?"

"We'll definitely fix it! Don't worry, Hinata!" Sakura furrowed her eyebrows, trying to think of a plan.

"I think I got it." Sasuke cupped his chin.

"A date!" Sakura threw her arms into the air with overflowing joy. "Perfect!"

"Wh-what!?" Hinata's cheeks burned red. "N-no way, Sakura-san! I, I can't -"

"-date her! I'd just be proving Neji right!"

"But he is." Sasuke stated bluntly.

"What?! No he isn't!"

"Oh, really?" Sasuke glared into Naruto. "Then why are you blushing?"

"Sh-shut up!" Naruto backed up, his eyes slowly lowering onto the grass. "Besides, Hinata would never like an idiot like me."

"Never like you?!"

Sasuke's left eye twitched repeatedly, his blood boiled to the point of evaporation, his heart was about to shatter his ribcage, his fingers squirmed restlessly, all with the urge to strangle the clueless dobe. But he swallowed those feelings with a single breath. "Calm, Sasuke, calm. No Ametarasu in public. Wait until the dobe's alone."

"Not alone, huh? Well if you really can't go alone, let's make it a double date!" Sakura offered enthusiastically. "That way I can come, and even arrange it so that Naruto doesn't know he's dating you-"

"-until she sees you on the date. This way, she can't refuse." Sasuke glanced at Naruto for a reaction.

"But, who are you bringing on the date?"

Sasuke smirked. "Someone."

"B-but, if you're inviting N-Naruto-kun, then it h-has to be one of his f-friends, right?"

Sakura nodded, smiling. "Don't worry about that, Hinata. Just be ready for the date! I'll tell you the details later today. Oh, and one more thing!" She raised her index finger and leaned closer, suddenly a dark aura floating around her. "No matter who shows up on the date with me, it will remain a secret for the rest of our lives, okay?"

Hinata shivered. "Y-yes!"

"A secret? Why? It's either going to be Ino or Tenten if you're inviting Hinata, why keep it a secret?" Naruto didn't find the need for such a request.

Sasuke simply activated his Sharingan.

"A secret! Got it! It'll be a secret! I swear on my life, so please spare it!" Naruto ran to the nearest tree and cowered behind it.

"Perfect." Sasuke returned his focus to the plan. "Now all I have to do is-"

"-talk it through with Sasuke, and we're set!" Sakura smiled victoriously. "Plan Cupid-"

"-commence!" Sasuke's smirk was interrupted by Naruto's whimpering. "What're you crying for?"

Naruto wiped a fake tear off. "Sasuke? Can the Byakugan kill you?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Don't tell me you're still scared about Neji."

Naruto shook his head. "I'm talking about Hinata when she sees me on the date! I'm telling you Sasuke! She doesn't like me!"

Sasuke was sure a vein just burst inside his body. "Forget it! Mangekyo Sharingan: Ametarasu!"

Poor Naruto! I hope he survives! But he kinda has to, doesn't he? :) Hmm, a double date, huh? Let's see how that goes . . . . To Be Continued! PLEEEASE REVIEW! I'll (sniff) really (sniff) appreciate it (sniff)! Thanks for reading!