Chapter 9- Sakura's Lost Birthday

Sakura had been in pain ever since the 22nd of February. She thought Random Acts of Kindness Day had gone pretty well for her, but then Ino finally spilled the beans that she and Sasuke had had a romantic rendezvous before the day was over and he had systematically swept her off her feet, scooped her off to watch the sunset where they proceeded to declare their undying love to each other and promise their hearts to one another.

Normally, Sakura doesn't practice believing Ino. But whenever she'd bring it up to Sasuke, he would hastily change the subject. And even though she made it a point to not believe Shikamaru either, he had been there and he ALSO changed the subject quite often.

But the worst was yet to come.

Lee asked her to go on a date with her on the 24th, and it just so happened that Neji was standing right there with his GLARE, so Sakura was forced to accept. She lured Lee into the movie theater so people wouldn't see her with him and believe that they were actually dating. And when Lee asked for a second date, Sakura politely declined, stating that she could already tell they were moving in different directions!

Now it was the morning of Sakura's birthday and, as she looked out the window eagerly waiting for everyone to appear and surprise her with enthusiasm, she saw no one. NO ONE AT ALL!

"DAMN THAT SHINO!" she yelled as she angrily clenched her fist. "I knew he'd forget!"

She stomped down the stairs with just enough force to shake the house but not to destroy the stairs.

"Good morning, Sakura!" said Sakura's mother, Blakura, as Sakura descended in an enraged fashion. "Happy birthday!"

"What's happy about it?" Sakura said with a huff. "My teacher forced me not to plan a birthday party because I was assured that Shino was going to remember but sure enough, he DIDN'T!"

"Um…" said Blakura.

"Don't bother trying to comfort me, Mom!" said Sakura as she buried her face in her hands in the most dramatic fashion ever and then sprinted off as fast as she could, flinging the door open so hard that the doorknob got lodged in the wall.

The door slowly closed and Blakura turned around to face the mob-like crowd that was infesting her house.

"Maybe we should have jumped out and yelled 'Surprise' a little sooner." Said Asuma as he took off his party hat.

"I said I wouldn't forget." Said Shino.

"Yeah well, it's not much of a party anyway!" said Kiba. "All we were going to do was jump out, surprise her and then proceed to trash her house with all the stuff you brought from your party that we left at your house over a month ago."

"Including the cake." Said Naruto, holding up the moldy, gross half of a cake that clearly hadn't been touched since January 23rd.

"Can we still have the party if Sakura's not here?" Ino questioned.

"No!" said Gai as he pointed off in the distance. "I believe it is our duty as her youthful party to follow Sakura and attempt to surprise her in a DIFFERENT situation!"

"But Sakura's birthday fate is supposed to be entirely in Shino's hands." Said Kakashi. "So what do you say Shino?"

"Am I required to do more?" Shino responded.

"Technically no, but if you don't then I will disown you as my student." Kurenai said, putting the terms right out there on the table.

"Very well." Said Shino. "In that case, we will follow her and then jump out wherever she is and say it was entirely part of the plan that she would think I forgot."

Kurenai cleared her throat.

Shino rolled his eyes. "And someone get a new cake." He said.

"THAT'S the spirit, Shino!" said Kurenai.

Meanwhile, Sakura was wandering the streets of Laredo with her head hung low. What else could possibly go wrong? And it was her BIRTHDAY too! The nerve of everyone NOT doing anything just because Shino forgot!

Sakura got off the streets of Laredo and walked into a restaurant where she could drink her troubles away. With Sprite!

She got in a booth all alone as the entire party peeked out of the boy's bathroom like a totem pole and observed her.

"Now's the perfect time to do it." Neji whispered, since he actually just wanted to go home and occupy his time with something significant and important.

"All right." Said Shino. "On the count of three. One… two…"

Just when Shino was about to say, "Three!" a waiter strolled over to take Sakura's order. They all waited for the waiter to depart, but as it turned out, Sakura had to go to the bathroom so she got up and started walking towards the holy place. The humungous group occupying the boy's bathroom slammed the door shut as Sakura entered the girl's room.

"Let's all jump out and surprise her as she leaves the bathroom!" said Lee.

"That would be kind of awkward for her." Said Sasuke. "And for us."

"You know what's awkward?" said Tenten. "Being in the guy's bathroom!"

"I have to agree." Said Kurenai.

It was almost as if Hinata JUST noticed, because she turned bright red and immediately darted out.

This was, of course, just as Sakura exited the girl's room.

"Hinata!" said Sakura. "Did you accidentally go in the boy's room?"

"Uh…" Hinata began, looking back at the boy's room door to see it frantically close. "…Yes?"

"Oh." Said Sakura.

"And happy birthday, Sakura!" Hinata offered.

"Thanks Hinata." Said Sakura with a heavy sigh as she made her way to the door of the restaurant.

"Where are you going?" Hinata asked, looking back and forth from Sakura to the boy's room where everyone was shaking their heads in a way of telling Hinata to make sure Sakura didn't leave.

"I don't feel like eating right now." Sakura replied tragically.

Hinata awkwardly followed Sakura out of the restaurant.

"It's not fair!" Sakura vented. "I knew Shino would forget my birthday! Did Kurenai remind him the other day?"

"Of course she did." Hinata said.

"Everyone should have known better!" Sakura said. "They should have realized that Shino would have been unmotivated to throw me a birthday party and assigned my birthday to someone else! You're birthday is last in the year, isn't it? So you don't have to throw ANYONE a party! You could have thrown MY party!"

Sakura pointed her finger up in the air.

"That's it!" she said. "You and I will celebrate my birthday WITHOUT anyone else! What do you say?"

"Um…?" Hinata stuttered as Sakura grabbed her arm and dragged her off.

As soon as they left the restaurant the giant spying mob tumbled out of the boy's room and readjusted their clothing as random people walked by them with questioning expressions.

"Now what?" Asuma said, stroking his beard curiously.

"Shino?" Kakashi said.

Shino looked annoyed. "Did anybody get the cake?" he asked.

"I'll get the cake!" said Ino. "Come on, Tenten!"

She grabbed Tenten's arm and they both ran off.

"…Shino?" Kakashi led once again.

"Let's keep following her." Shino said. "Hopefully she and Hinata aren't going somewhere that would be inconvenient to throw a party."

No more than five minutes later, the group was sitting on the balcony, looking down at Sakura and Hinata who were currently watching a movie while munching on some popcorn.

"You just HAD to say that, didn't you, Shino?" said Kiba.

"We'll just wait until the movie is over and then we'll jump her as she leaves the theater." Shino said.

The movie that was currently showing happened to be a cheesy romance movie CHICK FLICK and, considering the strong imbalance of testosterone of the people stalking Sakura, it didn't take long for every one of them to fall asleep… with the exception of Kurenai whose eyes were welded with tears as she sat on the edge of her seat.

"That was a great movie!" Sakura said to Hinata as the two of them exited the theater.

"Yeah…" Hinata said, looking around and wondering when the rest of the party would jump out.

Sakura wasn't suspicious of Hinata looking around in a timid fashion because Hinata always seemed rather jumpy. After all, Neji could have been hiding in one of those bushes ready to jump her and kill her when she least expected it!

Meanwhile, Tenten and Ino were searching for the rest of the party as well. They had a cake, but they had sprinted off in such a rush that they had forgotten to organize a meeting time. And, since the group was currently snoozing in the movie theater as Kurenai tried to collect herself, they were rather unsuccessful.

That's when they spotted Hinata and Sakura coming their way.

"HIDE!" Ino shouted to Tenten as she pushed her into a bush.

"Careful of the cake!" Tenten whispered as she tried to balance the cake while crouching behind the bush. Hinata and Sakura strolled by, and the two hidden ones gave sighs of relief.

"Why did Shino have to make this so complicated?" Ino said as she pulled a leaf off the cake.

"He didn't ORIGINALLY." Tenten shrugged.

"Hey!" yelled Chouji. "Tenten! Ino!"

"THERE you two are!" said Gai, putting his hands on his hips. "Did you get the cake?"

Tenten stared at Gai as if he were stupid, and then made a gesture at the enormous cake she was holding.

"Ah, you have!" said Gai contently. "Splendid!"

"Which way did Sakura go?" Shikamaru asked. "I'd like it if we could hurry this up a bit."

"Guys!" said Naruto as he jumped up on a stump that just so happened to be there, but he didn't end up being the tallest even WITH the stump's help. "We're all being selfish! We're only thinking of our selves and not of Sakura. It's HER birthday and I say we concentrate on making this a great day for her instead of trying to get through the day so we can do whatever we want to do! What do you say? Are you with me!"

A few people cleared their throats, a few people gave some unenthusiastic claps, and then a voice rang out from the crowd. It was Lee! It started out low… then it started to grow!

"Sakura is a beautiful maiden!" Lee declared. "Let us celebrate her birth to the fullest!"

"Fine…" groaned most others.

So, using Akamaru's incredible nose, they easily located Sakura and Hinata at the local mall. They currently were in the section of the music store where you can listen to samples from the songs by putting on the headphones.

They were right above them, hanging in the rafters using their chakra.

"Could someone else carry the cake for a little while?" Tenten whispered.

"Okay… get ready…" Shino said. "On three. One… two…"

Just as Shino was about to say three, Sakura happened to put on a pair of the headphones and listened to a heavy metal band. So the group descended on her with their streamers and noise makers, scaring the bajeezers out of Hinata, but Sakura managed to not notice them, because she was currently reading the back of the CD she was listening to.

She happened to look over at Hinata who looked as though she had just been kidnapped by a gang of old yet frisky men, raped of her innocence and then thrown out of a moving car after they had their way with her.

"Are you all right, Hinata?" Sakura said as she took off her headphones and the rest of the party scattered.

"Yeah…" Hinata said, taking some deep breaths. "I just…uh…"

"Hey, how about we get something to eat?" Sakura suggested. "All I've had all day is popcorn!"

"…Oh---okay…" Hinata said nervously as she and Sakura made their way to the food court.

"Foiled again by dumb luck!" Gai said, clenching his fist dramatically as he crawled out from under a table.

"We'll get it next time for sure!" said Kiba ambitiously.

The mob headed for the food court and hid behind a potted plant just a few yards away from where Sakura and Hinata were eating. Yes, it was quite the large and intensely sized potted plant so they all could fit behind it.

"Just so you guys know, the cake isn't too happy about all this action." Said Tenten as she tried to balance the cake in one hand and fix a candle with the other.

"Shh…" said Asuma as he adjusted his party hat. "Now's our chance."

"Everybody ready?" Kurenai said. "Shino, begin the countdown."

Shino paused for a moment. "On the count of three." He said. "One… two… three."

There was another pause.

"Wait, did you say three?" said Naruto.

"Yes." Said Shino with a glare.

"Oh." Said Naruto. "That was just so anticlimactic that I didn't notice. Don't you think you could at least use an exclamation point or something?"

Shino was shocked. Exclamation point?

"Whatever." said Shikamaru. "Let's just go NOW."

With that, the mass jumped out from behind the giant potted plant and shouted as loudly as they could, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAKURA!"

Sakura just so happened to be taking a bite of her meal at the time and when she caught sight of everyone there to surprise her, her food got lodged in her throat. She began to turn blue as she coughed and choked, but everyone was so preoccupied with patting themselves on the back for finally pulling through with the surprise that they didn't even notice Sakura's suffering until she had collapsed on the floor in a heap.

Then medical ninjas were summoned and Sakura was promptly revived.

"Sorry about almost killing you, Sakura." Said Lee as he pushed some tables together so they could cut the cake while sharing a nice, large table so they somewhat resembled a party.

"It's okay!" said Sakura. "I should be the one apologizing to Shino! Shino, I'm sorry I thought you would forget my birthday! I should have known you were just pretending to forget to go for the dramatic effect!"

"Yeah." Said Shino.

"This is the best birthday ever!" Sakura declared. "Aside from the almost dying part."

Then everyone proceeded to chuckle warmly, with the exception of the people who obviously would never engage in such a lowly activity. And I believe such people are obvious.

Once the chuckling quieted, Kakashi stood up with his clipboard. "March is just around the corner." He said. "Sakura, it is your job to plan Tenten's birthday which is on the ninth."

"All right!" cheered Sakura.

"That's almost two weeksyou have to plan!" Tenten pointed out.

"I won't forget!" said Sakura.

"So that is the next holiday." Kakashi went on. "March is also Women's History Month."

Neji groaned. But then he hastily looked around to realize that no one else was joining him in the groaning, so once again he was left out in the cold so he retracted back into his Neji shell of ice.

"So, at some point in March we will celebrate women." Kakashi said. "We will have more details on that later."

"March is also the month of SPRING!" Gai said. "Which is the most youthful month of all! I get to plan a little activity for us to do on the 22nd!"

"Why you?" said Sasuke.

"Because each of us took a season." Gai said. "I'm Spring, Kurenai is Summer, Asuma is Autumn and Kakashi is Winter. I bet the anticipation is killing you!"

"Yes…killing me." Sasuke said sarcastically.

"And finally, there's always St. Patrick's Day." Kakashi said.

"But we'll jump off those bridges when we come to them!" Asuma declared.

"Yes." Said Kurenai. "For now, let us only worry about Tenten's birthday celebration! Sakura, get to work on that and tell us when you have the perfect idea in mind for a party!"

"Don't worry, I will!" said Sakura.

"That being said, let's cut the cake!" Gai announced, reaching behind his back and pulling out… yes, that SAME giant knife.