Sakura's Guide to the Hatake Boys

Chapter. 9

"NO WAY!" They all said in unison. "Mom this isn't fair, why do we have to ride in that piece of crap?" Naruto whined, pointing at an old van his dad used to drive when he went to college.

"Hey! This is not a piece of crap, this is where Itachi and you were conceived!" Kakashi yelled, patting the hood of his old green and ugly-yellow 1964 Ford Econoline, he got it off a guy that was visiting from America, before he even married Anko. He also mentioned -when he explained it to the kids- something about it being their love. . . I rather not repeat the rest.

"Oh my god," Itachi muttered, horror written all over his face. He smacked his palm over his face and grumbled incoherent words.

"I think I just threw up a little," Naruto murmured, throwing his hand over his mouth, trying not to heave his breakfast. . . and last nights dinner.

"And besides sweetie, mommy wants to ride with her family. . . You're so mean Naru-chan, Ita-kun, you won't even ride with your mother, the one who spent nineteen/thirteen hours giving hard-natural labor." Anko said, crocodile tears flowing freely.

Poor Naruto was flipping out, he hated when his mom did the guilt trip thing on him, especially when she mentioned how hard it was giving birth to all of them. Itachi however was visibly twitching, he could hear his brothers and the girls laughing, he was twenty and still being humiliated!

The girls giggled as they watched the boys try to console their mother. Ino cooed as she saw Shikamaru hug his mom, who was still pretending to cry but had her arms wide open, they knew what she wanted.

"Mom, this is so embarrassing, isn't taking us to a spa torture enough, now you have to humiliate us in front of our girlfriends!" Neji whispered, desperately trying to pull away from the family hug his mom had wrapped them into. He could see the discomfort in all his brothers faces, Itachi looked more pale than usual.

Sasuke sighed, like Neji, he was also trying to get out of his mothers clutches. He used to laugh when she managed to get Gaara in one of her famous bear hugs, now that he was caught in one, he felt bad for what his red-haired brother had to go through. Until he realized Gaara was the only one not in the hug. . . he glared as he watched the red-head wave and smirk as he leaned against a tree. "He is so dead. . ." he whispered silently, cringing as Kiba's elbow hit him in the gut.

"Sorry man," Kiba mumbled.

"H-Hn," he stuttered, trying to regain the breath that he had lost, inhaling deeply eyebrows scrunched up.

Naruto laughed. "Haha, that's what you get teme."

"Shut up idiot!" Sasuke hissed. "If I could move my hands, I would so knock you upside your head right now."

After ten grueling minutes of having their mom shout "They don't love me anymore!" and "Why did I have such emotionally constipated kids!" and his favorite "Where did I go wrong?" she finally released them when they caved and said they would all ride in the van with her.

Anko smiled and grabbed Sakura and Hinata's hands, leading them to the backseat. She wanted the girls to be closer to the front and the boys to be in the far back. Ino and Tenten followed, giving sympathetic looks to their boyfriends as they sat next to Sakura and Hinata, who were listening to Anko talk super fast as everyone else piled into the van.

"This thing better have and A/C, or I swear I'm going to sue for neglect and heat stroke!" Naruto stated, taking the paper-back book Gaara was reading and fanning himself with it. Sakura and Ino giggled, as he yelled at his younger brother for taking his only chance of air away. Gaara scowled and hit the blonde over the head with the book. All that got him was louder shouts and a huge migraine.

"BOYS, SHUT UP!" Gaara and Naruto stopped annoying each other and looked in the direction of the voice. . . it was Hinata. Everyone stared wide eyed. She huffed and crossed her arms, for the past ten minutes it had been her ear that had to deal with the blond's screeching about dehydration, and the red-head's continuous curses for him to shut up. A girl can only take so much, especially if you're the quiet type.

"Would you two stop being retarded and get a grip? I swear if I have to hear ONE more word come out of either of you I will KNOCK you all the way to AMERICA! Do you UNDERSTAND me?" she asked, she put extra emphasis on the most important words, she clearly wanted to make a point.

Kiba whistled and leaned forward and draped his arms over the back of the girls' seat, making sure his head was a little closer to Hinata's, but not too close, he didn't want to disrupt her personal bubble. "Hey, that was kinda hot, I wouldn't mind you yelling at me any day," he said, grinning one of his famous play-boy grins.

Naruto scoffed and glared as he watched the shy girl blush and cover her face in her hands. He rolled his eyes as Kiba made a stupid joke and she giggled and placed her hand on his shoulder nudging him a little. Naruto growled, just as he was about to pounce on his -soon-to-be-dead- brother he felt two different pairs of arms wrap around his shoulders and tried to pull away but stopped as he heard a whisper.

"Your showing your jealousy more than usual Naruto, pretty soon your "secrets" not gonna be so "secret" anymore." He growled again but relaxed a little and fell back into his seat as they let him go.

Sasuke and Shikamaru sighed. "That idiot really needs to learn how to conceal his emotions," said one irritated and very stressed out Sasuke.

Shikamaru nodded. "If he wasn't still with Karin I would've just let things go, but you know how I am about faithfulness. . . it's a curse that I got from Ino just so you know, we should have just let things fall into place, now Kiba and Naruto are goin' to have a throw down." the genius sighed and rubbed his palm over his face exasperated.

"You know it would 'cause more drama than what there already is, we don't need that, the Dobe just needs to toughen up and dump that crazy psycho." Gaara muttered, flipping a page of his paper back.

Shikamaru and Sasuke nodded in agreement with Gaara.

"Man, I can't wait to get a massage, it's been so long, training to be a nurse sure does a number on ones muscles, messing up my back, shoulders, arms, legs, ankles. . . oh yeah, I'm gonna take full advantage of this trip." Ino said, crossing her arms around her head and smiling dreamily.

Sakura giggled. "I wonder if guys are gonna be the ones to massage us, I'd hate to have a girl touch me and try to relax at the same time," they both thought of this for a minute and then shivered as they came to grasp that concept. "Let's hope that doesn't happen. . . " Sakura trailed off.

"I wonder what my guy would look like?" Ino said, tapping her chin with her finger in a thinking pose. "I hope he's muscular, but not too muscular, I don't want him to break my back if he has giant hands, although. . . big hands are kinda hot. . ." she trailed off, scrunching her eyebrows still thinking of different possibilities.

Shikamaru who was getting fed up of listening to his girlfriend fantasize about her dream guy, cleared his throat rather loudly. Making both Sakura and Ino jump.

"Oops, sorry Shika, I didn't mean it. I still love you." the blonde said, turning around in her seat , reaching out to touch her loves face.

"I still don't see what the big deal is," Naruto said. Still glaring at Kiba who had been talking to Hinata non-stop for the past twenty minutes. Sasuke once again rolled his eyes. "Naruto. Shut up,"

"Teme. Always telling me what to do. . . AND I'M THE OLDEST!" he screeched.

"By ten months," Sasuke said with a grumble.

"WE'RE HERE!" Anko squealed, as they pulled into the parking lot. Kakashi rolled his eyes. The girls were all excited, a whole day full of pampering and nothing else.

"This is going to be torture," Kiba whispered to Gaara, who only nodded and closed his book softly.

He sighed languidly and waited as they all got out of the van. "Yeah, well, what can we do about it." he finally answered, standing next to his twin, bored out of his mind.

Kiba gave him a sideways glance. "You know, maybe you could like get acupuncture. . . that will help you probably get to sleep."

"Why do you care?" Gaara asked.

"Your my brother, why wouldn't I care?"

"I've always been your brother, my sleeping problems never bothered you before, whats so different about now?"

Kiba stared at his brother for a while. The way his brother was acting, he made it seem like he didn't care at all. Before he could say otherwise, Gaara was already walking away. "H-Hey! Gaara?"

"Hey, what's wrong with Gaara, he looked really upset?" Sakura asked, looking over to Kiba. His face was scrunched up and he seemed really confused.

"Sakura," he said. "Can you come here a sec'?" he asked.

She raised a brow, since when did Kiba want to talk to her? "Uh, yeah. I'll catch up with you guys in a minute." she said to the girls as they started walking with the others to the entrance. "What's up?" she asked the brunette.

He stared off into space for a while, thinking of how to word things out. "When you talk to Gaara, what does he say about us?"

Sakura stared and thought about his question before she answered. "What do you think he's said?" she asked.

"Don't answer a question with another question," he growled out irritatedly.

"Look Kiba," she started to say, rolling her eyes at is obvious agitation. "What he tells me is. . . really not my place to tell others, even if you are his brother. And -I hate to say it like this- if he wanted you to know, he would have told you. I'm nothing more than a therapist and a friend. . . somewhat. That's why it's easier for him to talk to me."

He nodded his head in understanding. He knew that. "I figured you'd say that."

She sighed and stared as a cat tried to catch a bird. "Just give it time. . . try to be a little more nicer to him I guess, you all get along better than I would have expected any other family with seven siblings."

Kiba snorted. "Blame that seven sibling thing on my dad, horny idiot." he laughed as Sakura choked out a laugh.

"Yeah. You have a point there, I've come to notice that little orange book he reads." she said.

"Oh those, heh, Naruto's god-father writes those and dad reads them before they go out on the shelves." he said, watching as Akamaru chased the cat as it chased the bird. "Did you know that his god-father is married to the principal?"

Sakura's eyes widened as she heard this. "No way! Really? I wonder how she feels about her husband writing novels like that?" she said more to herself.

Kiba shrugged, he wouldn't know, he tries to avoid those crazy loons as much as possible. "Hm, don't know." he said. Sakura glanced over at Kiba and stared. He looked at her as he noticed this. "What?" he asked.

She shook her head and said. "This is the first we talked and you haven't thrown some snotty comment."

He blushed and sputtered out words. "Y-Yeah, well don't get used to it, this is a one time only thing!" he stated, quickening his pace leaving her in the parking lot.

She stood there for a while not knowing whether or not if this was a good start for her and Kiba becoming friends.

"SAKURA! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? C'MON, THERES HOT GUY'S!" Ino shouted, waving her arms for the her to hurry up.

"Alright, hold your horses." she said running into the building. There was soft calming music playing as she walked in, and incense burning, lotions and oils all lined on shelves. Her eyes looked at every little detail until her eyes landed on Sasuke, who seemed to be sulking in the corner of the room. She rolled her eyes thinking about how bad his pride must be hurting to actually be doing that in public.

`Why is he sulking anyway?'

`He's probably upset because I went to talk to Kiba, and he doesn't know what it was that we were talking about.'

`That could be it, he has been jealous before, but over Kiba? If he was going to get jealous, it should be over Gaara!'

`Why do you say that, Gaara and I are just friends.'

`He doesn't know that.'

`That's true...'

`This is something to think about.'

`Yes, yes it is.'

`Hmm,'

`Hmm,'

"Jeez Sakura, what the heck were you doing? Watching clouds?" Ino asked.

"Hey, what's wrong with watching clouds?" Shikamaru shouted.

Ino turned her head to look at him. "Nothing sweetie." she said sarcastically, and swiftly drew her attention back to her pink-haired friend. "So, just a few minutes ago the lady came, we're gonna go into the hot springs first then get our massages, she said she wanted us to relax our muscles! Can you believe this? Kya! Shika, I love your mom, she's so nice!" She continued on and on about how great Anko was, but stopped as she saw five major H-O-T guys walk over to them.

Sakura and Hinata's eyes widened as they noticed how tense the atmosphere in the room became. And they had a feeling why. Shikamaru and Neji were on the edge of their seats, just waiting to pounce on the bulky -slightly better looking- guys that had walked up to their girlfriends, and mom. Kakashi wasn't paying any attention until he heard a familiar giggle. He looked up to see his wife laughing at something a really big guy had said. He slammed his book shut and got up to go say something, but something -better yet somebody- got in his way.

"Good day sir! I'm Sakuno, and I'll be your director for today, first I would like you and the boys to go into that room over there." She stated, pointing to a door, away from where the girls were talking to the guys. "And you can put on these robes, you may wear your boxers or you can go nude. . . whatever your comfortable with." She said, smiling brightly. She was pretty but not beautiful, she seemed to be in her mid thirties, tall, black hair up in a fancy Chinese style bun with chopsticks holding it up. She smiled again and turned to the girls.

"Hello ladies, as you probably heard, I'm Sakuno. If you will please go into this room over here," she said, walking over to a door. "There are robes ready for you, as I can see you brought bathing suits. That's fine, as long as your comfortable you can do whatever you want. Please as soon as your done getting ready, meet me over by the hallway." she said, opening the door for the girls to go in and change.

"Can you believe the nerve of that guy, did you see how close he was getting to Ino?" Shikamaru exclaimed, jealousy oozing out of him. The others rolled their eyes, of course they saw, the same thing was happening to the others as well.

"Shikamaru stop whining, you know Ino's devoted to you like a puppy, she wouldn't cheat on you, she probably thinks you'd be the one to cheat on her," Sasuke said, sitting down on one of the benches they had in the room.

Shikamaru stared at him confusedly. "What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, glaring at the smug look his brother gave him.

"Oh please, you know what I'm talking about. You and your lab partner seem to be getting rather close, what was her name again?. . . Temari?" Naruto and the others sputtered and looked at their brother who had a slightly guilty look.

Kakashi raised a brow, he never would have expected Shikamaru to cheat on the woman he claims to love. Naruto and Kiba maybe, but not Shikamaru. "Please tell me you didn't," their father begged.

Shikamaru looked shocked. "Of course I didn't cheat on her, shut up Sasuke, you don't know what the heck you're talking about!" He hissed, not liking that they actually thought so low of him as to cheat on Ino.

Naruto looked from one brother to the other, and thought about what had just transpired. "Oh my gawd, that was you, you were making out with Temari behind the bleachers last week!" He shouted pointing at the genius accusingly. "I knew when those freshmen described the guy had a pineapple head, that it was you! How could you do that to poor Ino? Man, when she finds out you are so dead." He laughed nervously, he knew how women were.

"It was a mistake, I've been with Ino for years, what happened between me and Temari was a mistake. It's never gonna happen again, so there's no point in telling her." He sighed and rubbed his hands together.

"Too late," said a soft voice that sounded on the verge of tears.

All their heads snapped to the voice that was by the door, and saw Ino and Sakura.

Shikamaru's insides twisted as he saw the devastated look she had on her face, she was breathing heavily and looked like she was about to burst. She quickly turned around and pushed Sakura out of the way and ran back to where the girls were.

He and the others watched as she ran into the room and slammed the door. Sakura turned to face them, no emotion showing, except for the hardcore glare she was giving Shikamaru. She opened her mouth and said. "Sorry, she was just excited to show you her new bikini." She turned around opening the door and slamming it as hard as she could without breaking it.

Kakashi sighed, this is one of the reasons probably why he wished he had all girls instead, he could just forbid them from dating till they turn fifty and everything would be fine. Boys on the other hand were another case, they thought more with their hormones than they did with their brain. "Shikamaru, I think now is the time where you suck up you pride and fight to win -probably the best thing that has ever happened to you- back. Unless..." he trailed off.

Shikamaru stared at him and waited for him to finish his sentence.

"Unless what?" He asked, tired of waiting. His father chuckled softly, anger and disappointment written all over his posture.

"Unless you don't want her back and prefer this Temari girl."

Shikamaru stared at his dad surprised at his words. What the heck did he mean by that?

Gaara, who was feeling a bit uncomfortable with all of this, swiftly walked to the door and stepped out, Itachi, Neji and Kiba following closely behind.

Sasuke sighed, maybe he should have kept his mouth shut. "Um, hey man. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything. . . I didn't know you and Subaku had something goin' on." he said.

Shikamaru scoffed. "There is nothing going on between me and Temari! It was one kiss -a lousy one might I add- and she initiated it, as soon as I got my barrings, I pushed her away, I didn't tell Ino because it didn't mean anything. Now I have to grovel for forgiveness and pray to whatever force is out there to let her take me back! Thanks a lot Sasuke. . . this is such a drag," he muttered the last part to himself and buried his face in his hands. "Troublesome...I hate drama!"

Kakashi sighed and placed and hand over his heart, he was worried for a second, but now that he knew the whole truth. He let go of the thought of beating his son to a bloody pulp, he taught them better than that, cheating was a major no, no. "Well, now that we got some things cleared up, lets go and finish this day, so your mother won't have to put me in the doghouse tonight." he said, walking over to the door and letting the two out before he did.

This was going to be such a long day.