THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN UPDATED. PLEASE READ IT AGAIN. ALL OF IT. THIS MEANS YOU.
Ino called Sai when no one else would pick up.
"Hello?" She smirked at his monotone. Sai had two volumes: bored and asleep.
"What's up, Sai?" He didn't answer for a moment, extremely surprised at her call.
She heard a sigh on the other end. "Nothing, really. You?" Ino started tapping her foot self–consciously. Maybe it's too fast. After all, there was only ever that one time thing in high school...
"I'm just bored, since no one's paying any attention to me." There was an aggravated note to her voice, and she wished he was as pushy as other men. "I need something to do other than stare at the ceiling."
"Oh. And you're hoping that history will repeat itself?"
Yamanaka Ino was getting really annoyed now. She'd been in a bad mood ever since she'd heard about Shikamaru's engagement, and didn't feel like resorting to Choji. Finally, irate, she snapped. "Be over in ten minutes." She didn't leave any time for debate, she just slammed the phone down on the receiver.
She stood in her hallway, arms crossed and brow furrowed, until she heard the sound of Sai's Mercedes pulling up in her driveway.
When he knocked, she dragged him inside and locked the door behind him.
This is why I boy so much lingerie, she thought smugly as he pressed her up against a wall with a persistent kiss.
"Are you ready to go?" He had to shout to be heard above the DJ's blasting amps.
Kankuro was wearing black slacks and a dress shirt, the products of Temari's efforts to make her brother handsome. He had loosened his tie, and his jacket was folded over one arm.
Tenten was flushed and embarrassed.
The dress she had picked out was really not her style, and was only wearing it because Ino had said it was flattering. The pale pink fabric seemed to float, settling just above her knees. The red sash around her slim waist matched the ruby necklace she had inherited from her grandmother.
The gold hoop earrings matched the borrowed stilettos, and Tenten thought she would die of happiness when Kankuro suggested that they leave the club early.
Hand in hand, they made their way through the exit. Kankuro's car, a grey hummer sat across the street, and they gravitated towards it. When it was clear that Tenten couldn't walk anywhere else in those heels, he picked her up and carried her to the car, her face red from humiliation and alcohol.
And when they reach Tenten's house, she grinned and asked for his help getting inside. Of course, he complied, and she didn't ask him to leave.
She wanted him there for more than one reason.
Especially because he tore the dress to pieces and snapped the heels.
The beach was beautiful from Hinata's point of view. Especially since the only one sharing the view with her was Naruto. The grinning blonde in question was sitting next to her, shading his eyes against the glare of the sunset.
They had taken a day off and gotten on an early train to Iwa common. They were staying in a gorgeous hotel recommended by Sakura, and neither of them wanted to leave. The salt air and the spray from the crashing waves just added to the majesty of the fairytale. It was the little touches, like the fluffy blankets, that made it so special to Hinata.
The indigo haired Hyuuga felt like she could fly; the most wonderful person she had ever met loved her back, and he didn't think she was useless. Naruto loved every shy, blushing, quiet part of her. And since realizing this, she had become much more outspoken. Sometimes she was the one who would take his hand, or lean up for a kiss. She loved him more than she would have thought possible. His hair, his eyes, the rough scars that lined his face... they were all essential parts of who he was: the person that completed her.
And the brush of his palm across my shoulder blades...
All in all, Hinata felt like someone had snipped the strings and made her a real girl.
When the sun rose, Tenten rolled over and sighed. Kankuro looked right back at her, still half–asleep and hugging her red sheets.
They both grinned.
"Okay, you have to admit," Kankuro said with a yawn, "That was great sex."
Tenten winked at him. "You know it. Feel free to give my guy friends some tips." She turned over and stretched, almost falling out of her bed.
Kankuro managed to sit up. "I might be going out tonight. Text me tomorrow? This was fun." She nodded, stubbing her toes on the foot of her bed and cussing.
They both knew what was missing.
Neither minded.
Kankuro made leftovers for breakfast and they ate in comfortable silence. Afterwards, they said goodbye and Tenten set to work filing her reports.
At around ten o'clock, Neji called her cell phone. "Tenten?" To anyone else, her partner's voice would have been bland, but to her his voice sounded worried.
"What is it, Neji?" When things worried Neji, they were generally pretty bad. "What happened?"
There was silence at the other end for a moment. "I could ask you the same thing. Since when do you let your house phone ring at one in the morning?"
Tenten searched her memory. She and Kankuro hadn't been asleep yet, and the ringing had probably been lost in that whirl.
"Nothing's wrong, Neji. Kankuro was over, so I was distracted. Since when do you call at one in the morning?"
Again, there was silence, and Tenten wondered, not for the first time, what her partner was thinking. She was usually pretty good at guessing his moods, and right now the stiff pauses sounded like anger.
"Neji?"
"It's nothing, Tenten. Just next time, try to answer to the phone, alright?" Tenten grinned, twirling a gel pen between her fingers. "Fine."
"See you at work, Tenten."
"Bye, Neji."
Sai was cooking. "How do you want your omelet?" he called upstairs to Ino, who fumbled her way down, still tired.
He kissed her forehead and she said, "With cheese and bell peppers." She hugged him and smiled. "I want the bell peppers diced." He nodded, stroking her blonde locks as she tugged one of his ears.
Yamanaka Ino smiled, yawning, and got out the orange juice. She alone knew Sai's soft spots, and he had made it clear that he knew hers.
Her thoughts were full of scorn. So what if Shikamaru is getting married? I've got Sai...
She lost herself daydreaming about the previous night and didn't wake until he brought her fresh coffee and kissed the inside of her wrist.
"Happy Valentine's Day," he whispered and brushed her lips with his own.
Oh god, I've really got Sai...
The morning the Sabaku siblings got out of the hospital, Sakura had woken up with Sasuke in her bed.
It had taken her the entire day to convince him that she had to work, and by that time, she hadn't wanted to. A "sick day", he called it, and it wasn't until much later that she remembered her promise to Gaara.
"Temari? Hi, it's Sakura…"
The pink haired doctor had apologized profusely to her Suna friend, and arranged to go to a dinner party in compensation. She even cracked a smile when she heard what they were having.
"Spaghetti and meatballs," Temari said, "And no arguments; it's our kind of food."
When Sakura had agreed weakly with a promise to bring dessert, they said goodbye and hung up.
Temari then proceeded to invite the Uchiha brothers, the Hyuuga cousins, Ino, Naruto, Sai, Kiba, Shino, Choji, and of course, Shikamaru. She didn't need to go far to ask him, considering that she had practically been living at his house since the engagement.
She smiled as she asked her fiancé and he agreed almost instantaneously. She loved that about him, along with so much else: his ability to see the world, but to let the cumbersome things pass him by.
Temari decided to let her brother deal with Tenten. Kankuro was at the gym with her today, and a quick text was his confirmation.
Even though Tenten was going out with her brother, Temari couldn't help but wonder how it would end. Neither of them was good at commitment, and neither of them was really in love. Who would win? Because that's all their relationship was: a game, a competition.
Sabaku Temari got the feeling that her brother wouldn't come out on top once the Hyuuga claimed the brown haired police woman.
No matter how hard he could punch.
When Sasuke took Sakura out for the third time that week, Itachi began to get annoyed.
He didn't anger easily. Usually it was incompetence on someone else's part that provoked him, and it was certainly never women. He couldn't shake the feeling that he was being incompetent by not besting his little brother. It irked him that Sasuke would treat Sakura so kindly and tenderly.
He's taking her lightly, he thought one night as he paced in her living room. He doesn't understand what she really needs, how important she is.
A part of his mind had been quiet during his ranting, and it spoke only softly. Just like you did?
Itachi wanted to scream and hit something, but his superior self–control held him in check. I didn't take her lightly; I took her for all she was worth! I helped her!
But that small piece of himself would not quiet.You only used her because she was just like you; empty on the inside. You didn't love her, you didn't care about her!
"But I do now!"
Uchiha Itachi was extremely shocked to hear the exclamation come from his own mouth, and immediately quieted.
What am I doing? he wondered. Do I really care about her? I should leave…
He knew he should start packing, but he couldn't.
He stood in the hall until the early morning, remembering that photograph.
It was from high school.
It was of Sakura.