The next few days passed by without too much difficulty, as the shinobi and Sohma's (plus Tohru) had established a routine. After school they would always go to Shigure's house to do homework, sometimes staying for dinner, sometimes not. Of course, each peaceful day made the shinobi even more nervous for the attack to come.

The day of Hinata's ceremony was quickly approaching, making Naruto more and more excited. He babbled on and on, to the point where if any of the group heard Hyuuga one more time, they would hurl.

One day, Sakura was walking home from the supermarket alone. She had to run home, put the food away, then meet Sasuke and Naruto for dinner at the Sohma's. It didn't help that she was already running 15 minutes late.

"Hey you." A voice called. Sakura snapped out of her thoughts to see a boy leaning against a tree about ten steps ahead of her. He looked young, maybe in middle school, and had light brown hair with dark brown eyes.

"Can I help you?" Sakura asked, raising an eyebrow at the boy. His brown eyes were boring into her jade ones.

"Is that the first thing you say to a person? How can you help them? Why don't you help yourself? Don't follow everyone's orders all the time. Sheesh, I can't believe I wasted time to come out here and meet you." He scoffed.

"Who are you?" Sakura questioned, very confused.

"That's a very rude way to speak to someone. Didn't your parents ever teach you any manners?" The boy rolled his eyes. "If you must know, I'm Sohma Hiro." He began to walk towards her.

"What do you want?" Sakura asked, taking a step back.

"It's not what I want, it's what I'm entitled to. Making me, a mere child, come all the way out here to meet you. I deserve something." before the pink-haired girl could stop him, Hiro was rooting through her grocery bags. He found some ice cream bars and quickly took the box. "Hmm. These will have to do." Hiro began to run away.

"Weak woman!" He yelled before he left, knocking Sakura out of her stupor. Getting red in the face, the girl began to sprint after the boy angrily. She watched him take out one of the chocolate ice cream bars-her favorite kind- and stick it into his mouth.

'Oh, this kid is goin DOWN!'

Meanwhile at Shigure's house, Kisa, Momiji and Haru had come to have dinner with the three shinobi. Everyone was waiting on Sakura and Hiro, who were supposed to join them.

"Nee-chan, do you think she'll like me?" Kisa asked Tohru, who smiled warmly at the girl.

"Of course Kisa-chan! Sakura-chan will adore you. I'm sure of it."

"Yeah, and her hair is even weirder than yours." Kyo said, walking into the kitchen. Kisa looked at the floor, and Yuki hit Kyo hard on the side of the head.

"You're not one to talk, baka neko." the silver haired boy hissed, and Kyo growled at him. Shigure clucked like a hen.

"It's a sad, sad day when we're all labeled because of our hair color."

Kisa seemed to have not heard the author; she was too focused on a sound coming from outside. Her super sensitive ears had picked up footsteps and panting coming up the path.

"Nee-chan, someone's coming." She tugged on Tohru's skirt.

"Oh, it's probably Sakura-chan!" the brunette said happily before walking into the living room. Sasuke and Naruto had apparently heard the sound, because they were standing up as well. The two male shinobi, Tohru and Kisa rushed outside.

There stood Hiro, panting heavily, a chocolate ice cream bar sticking out the side of his mouth. Sasuke and Naruto, seeing the treat, looked at each other. This couldn't be good.

Behind Hiro stood Sakura, not even sweating, much less panting. She wore a pink tank top, blue jeans and an angry expression on her face. In her hands were two shopping bags.

"Jeez wheeze you old hag wheeze How'd you wheeze get so fast?" Hiro panted. Sakura's face went bright red.

"What. Did. You. Just. Call. Me?" She said through gritted teeth. Naruto rushed up to her.

"Now Sakura-chan, he didn't mean it. He's just a stupid kid." The blonde said quickly, trying to calm his friend down. Sadly, it wasn't working. Using her superhuman strength, Sakura grabbed Hiro's ankle and held him upside down. By now, the rest of the Sohmas had come out to see what all the racket was, and many of them laughed at the helpless boy.

Sakura was about to start spinning Hiro and toss his sorry ass all the way to mars when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Sakura." It was Sasuke. "Calm down. He doesn't know better." The redness in Sakura's face lessened a bit. "Put the boy down." Hiro was dropped to the ground. Sasuke could have a very calming affect on people when he wanted to. Soon Sakura's face returned to its normal color and Hiro glared at her. Sasuke took him by the collar.

"And no more wisecracks out of you." Hiro, for once fearful for his life, nodded. Sasuke dropped him and took Sakura inside. The ice cream was starting to melt.

--

After putting away the food, Sakura was introduced to Kisa. And Tohru was right.

"KAWAII!!" The pink-haired girl had squealed and hugged the little girl. Kisa, happy to have another big sister, hugged back. This only increased Hiro's dislike for the female shinobi.

After dinner, which consisted of many laughs, glares and overall chaos, Sakura sat down with Kisa alone in the living room. Most of the boys were fighting over something at the table, and Naruto was helping Tohru with the dishes.

"So Kisa, how do you like school?" Sakura asked. Kisa avoided the older girl's eyes.

"I get teased a lot."

"Why?" This confused Sakura. Kisa was gentle, kind, and not to mention adorable! She would be a gorgeous young woman one day. In fact, the pink-haired girl was surprised that boys weren't throwing themselves at her feet now.

"They say my hair and eyes are weird." Now Sakura was appalled. That was all?

"Kisa-chan, your hair and eyes are no weirder than mine." She smiled. "In fact, when I was a bit younger than you, I got teased a lot too."

"Why?" Kisa couldn't see the reason why anyone would want to tease her Nee-chan. Sakura was absolutely beautiful.

"When I was younger, my forehead was huge. Bigger than it is now." the older girl explained. "But you know what? I grew into it, and all those people who used to tease me now want to be my friend."

"But what if they never stop?" Kisa asked, lower lip trembling slightly. Sakura thought for a moment.

"You know what you need Kisa-chan?" The younger girl shook her head. "You need someone your age to look up to. I had someone, and they helped me make friends and raise my self-esteem."

"Who?"

"My best friend. Her name is Ino, and she's really pretty. When we were younger, she saw me getting picked on and took me under her wing. She told me I would be as pretty as she was one day, and I just had to wait for it. We've been best friends ever since." Sakura explained, leaving out the few years where they had hated each other's guts. "Do you have anyone like that?"

"Well…. I have Hiro-kun. He's always there for me." Kisa smiled happily.

"Hiro does seem to have a lot of confidence in him, doesn't he?" Sakura snorted, then smiled. "He would be a good person to look up to though. You should ask him if he could help you gain some self-esteem." The pink-haired shinobi knew that Hiro was standing right outside the door listening. Kisa jumped off the couch happily.

"Arrigatou, Onee-chan!" She said as she hugged Sakura, then headed towards the door to look for her cousin.

"Oh, and Kisa-chan?"

"Nani?" Sakura smirked.

"Be sure not to pick up any of Hiro's little…. habits."

--

When it was time to go, Yuki, Kyo, Haru, Momiji and Tohru agreed to meet the Shinobi at the Sohma dojo by nine o'clock on Sunday. Then they bid their farewells and went home. That night, lying in bed, Sakura thought about Kisa and Hiro.

'It's painfully obvious that he has a crush on her.'

'Yeah, and they look so cute together!'

'Yeah, even if Hiro is a pain in the ass sometimes…'

And with that, she drifted off to sleep.

Two days later, everyone met at the Sohma Dojo at 9 o'clock sharp. Kazuma was there to greet them, and told them they had the whole dojo to themselves.

The first fight was Kyo vs. Yuki. Their movements were quick, but nowhere near shinobi level. Yuki won, leaving Kyo grumbling on the sidelines. The next fight was Momiji vs. Haru. Amazingly enough, Momiji won. Probably because halfway through the fight, Kyo shouted out an insult at Haru that turned him black, and it took the combined efforts of Yuki and Kazuma to turn him white again.

The next fight was Momiji vs. Yuki, the Shinobi insisting to go last. Yuki won, and was proclaimed undefeated champion of the Sohmas.

"Yuki-kun, do you think you could fight me so I can practice?" Sakura asked innocently, completely fooling the boy. He nodded.

"You're still a beginner, right?" He asked as they took their stances.

"It depends on what you call a beginner." She said, cleverly avoiding answering the question.

"I'll go easy on you, because you're still new at this." Sakura shrugged, but was inwardly smirking.

"If you insist."

The fight began, Yuki making the first move by running towards the pink-haired girl. She jumped to the side, brought her foot around for a kick to the back of his head, landing him on his stomach. She put a foot down on his back, and held up his right arm to keep him down.

"Sakura wins!" Kazuma called, still slightly amazed at what he had just seen. Even Kyo, who had been teaching Tohru a few basic punches, started in wide-eyed amazement. Mumbling could be heard from the mat.

"We have very different definitions of beginner."

--

After helping Yuki up and apologizing, everyone asked Sakura how she did it.

"You said you only knew a little!" Kyo exclaimed and Sakura shrugged.

"Well, I know a bit more than you thought. It doesn't really matter. Both these guys are better than me." She pointed at Sasuke and Naruto. Everyone stared at them. Sasuke rolled his eyes while Naruto grinned sheepishly.

"Fight me." Kyo demanded. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Baka. If we're better than Sakura, and Sakura beat Yuki, who's better than you, what makes you think you stand a chance?" Kyo was about to object, but decided not to when he saw the look in Sasuke's eyes.

"So who's next?" Kazuma asked, trying to lighten the mood.

"I'll fight Naruto." Sasuke decreed. Naruto shrugged and hauled himself onto the mats. They got into their stances. Both knew the rules. No jutsus, no bloodline limits, and nothing that would give away their cover.

"Go!" Kazuma yelled, and both boys rushed forward, using pure taijutsu to fuel them. Sasuke threw the first set of attacks, a series of light punches and kicks. They couldn't do anything to dangerous, because Tohru would worry like their was no tomorrow. Everything in this fight had to be light and meaningless.

Naruto blocked all of Sasuke's punches, and even threw in a few of his own. Now Naruto was on the offense, kicking at Sasuke's legs and forcing the Uchiha to flip to avoid being tripped.

The battle went on for a few more minutes like this, each boy switching from offense to defense and defense to offense every minute or so. Finally, Naruto decided to end it. Sasuke had just landed a very spur of the moment flip, and his ankles were feeling wobbly. Naruto aimed all his strength into his right foot and flew into Sasuke's left leg, knocking him forward over the blonde. Naruto flipped backwards and landed on Sasuke's stomach, straddling him.

"Naruto wins!" Kazuma shouted as everyone came onto the mats to ask the two boys how they'd done it. Sasuke glared at his best friend.

"I let you win." he hissed, even though both boys knew he hadn't. Naruto smirked.

"I'm the Rokudaime for a reason, Sasuke. Maybe next time." the blonde stood and offered a hand to help Sasuke up. The blunette sighed and took the hand.

--

After avoiding as many questions as possible, the Shinobi said goodbye to the Sohmas and walked home. Monday was Hinata's clan ceremony, and Naruto only had a day to figure out what he was going to wear.

"That was fun!" Sakura said as she entered their apartment. Naruto nodded in agreement and raced to his bedroom. So much to do, so little time.

Sasuke just 'hn-ed' and began searching through the fridge. He found a bottle of tomato juice that he chugged down. Sakura just sat at the counter, staring into space. He noticed this.

"What are you thinking about?" He asked. Sakura was surprised. This was new.

"Naruto, You, the Sohmas."

"Me? What about me?" Sasuke asked, honestly curious.

"Similarities. The rivalry between Yuki and Kyo is a lot like the one you and Naruto used to-and still do-have. Except the one between Yuki and Kyo has and age old reason behind it." Sakura explained remembering reading the story about the cat and rat. "And Kazama-san reminds me a lot of Iruka-sensei. He just gives off this comforting aura that makes you want to like him, you know?" Sasuke nodded. He had rather liked their academy teacher.

Suddenly, a large shout of exaltation was heard from the room Sasuke and Naruto shared. Sakura laughed.

"So he finally found an outfit." she chuckled. Sasuke couldn't help but think about how cute she was when she laughed.

"So what do you think?" Naruto asked, bursting from the room. He was wearing black pants, a black t-shirt with the Uzumaki swirl on it, and black shinobi sandals. He wore a long white cloak with blue flames on the bottom over them. Sakura smiled warmly and hugged him, remembering a picture she had once seen of the Fourth Hokage. They looked so alike.

"You look great, Naruto. Hinata-chan will be thrilled to see you there."

--

That night the three shinobi went to sleep with high hopes for the next day.

--

… Hi guys. Yes, I know it's been ridiculously long since my last update, but I'm not gonna give this fic up. I'm just in kind of an emotional and writing rut right now, okay? Hear me out.

Two of my family members died in the course of one week- my uncle, on Monday, May 19th, 2008, and my grandmother, on Monday, May 26th 2008. Both were incredible people and I will miss them dearly.

Back to my writing side… I just realized there's a total yaoi moment in the fight scene. See if you can pick it up. :D And I know I don't deserve it, but… review, please?

Happy Summer!

Moxi