Oh dear God please don't kill me. run's behind garbage can to avoid rotten food and other unknown substances being thrown at her I am sooooooooo incredibly sorry about the 3 month delay. The reason I haven't updated is that I've gotten sick of writing this story and thought about just deleting the whole thing. But then I thought that won't be fair to all you loyal readers out there who I hope can find it in your hearts to forgive my very long absence from the FF scene. I'll try and make this a long chapter to make up for the wait but don't get your hopes up. BTW, the story is coming to close soon-maybe 5 or 6 chapters more? I don't know it could be more or less.

I don't own Naruto

"Hey Sasuke." Sakura said brightly the next day at school, having gotten over her sulkiness and paranoia from the night before.

Sasuke didn't say anything and instead just continued on stuffing books into his messy locker. Sakura continued. "You didn't come last night-how come?"

And once again Sasuke ignored Sakura. Sakura just stood there waiting for a reply that would never come. The bell finally rang and Sasuke slammed his locker door shut and walked off to his first period class, without even saying a word to Sakura. Sakura knew something was up. "I wonder what's biting him." Sakura said to herself. Then she shrugged. "He'll be out of it by lunch time." And with reassuring note Sakura walked over to her class before the 2nd bell rang…

--00--

Lunch time came and went and still Sasuke ignored Sakura. "Something's definitely bothering him." Sakura said to Tenten and Naruto later that afternoon before they left school. "You want me to go talk to him?" Naruto asked, being totally considerate for once in his life.

"Could you?" Sakura asked.

"Sure thing!" Naruto said as he set off to find his friend….

--00--

"Hey man." Naruto said as he walked over to Sasuke, who was at his locker packing up. "What's up?"

Sasuke shrugged, not really in the mood for talking to his idiot of a friend.

"Sakura said you've been ignoring her all day."

"Yeah, and?" Sasuke said as he picked up his black backpack and slung one arm over his right shoulder.

Naruto shrugged but then said, "Not trying to get out of liking Sakura by ignoring her are we?"

Sasuke huffed. "As if I ever liked her in the first place. 'Sides, I'm just getting tired of her hanging around me all the time." He lied. In truth, Sasuke was most definitely not getting tired of his pink haired friend-not that he'd let Naruto know that. His reputation was at stake. If people saw Sasuke prancing around the school in boxers with little pink hearts all over it, he'd lose his cool, mysterious, stoic façade. He'd be dubbed a total loser even though he currently sat on top of the popularity chain, and be the laughing stock of the school. And that was something Sasuke could not have.

"I'm getting about ready to ask Ino out." Sasuke said as he began to walk to the entrance to catch the bus-he didn't feel like walking home today.

"Really!?" Naruto asked as a big grin formed on his face and he ran to Sasuke, trying to catch up with him.

"Uh-huh." Sasuke said with a slight wince as he dreaded the thought. "The next time I see her."

And all of a sudden, as if on cue, Ino pranced her way up to Sasuke, shoving Naruto away in the process. "Hey!" Naruto protested, but he didn't really mind that much. He gave Sasuke a quick thumbs up as he got on the bus. Can't wait to see what happens. Naruto thought. I know that Sasuke would NEVER fall for someone as vile and annoying as Ino. He surprised himself by even knowing what the word "vile" meant. "Oh yeah!" Naruto said to no one in particular. "I know what the word 'vile' means! I'm smart!"

"Good job smarty pants." Sakura said as she walked down the isle of the bus. "Scoot over."

Sakura sat down next to Naruto after he moved to the inside of the three-seater. "Where's Tenten?"

"Oh." Sakura answered. "She decided to walk home with Neji."

Naruto's eyes grew wide. "Hyuuga!? Hinata's cousin?"

Sakura nodded. "Is there any other?"

"Why?" Naruto asking. "She's always complaining about how annoying he is-what with his 'flowing mass of dark hair'" Naruto quoted what Tenten always said.

Sakura bit her lip. Naruto was unaware of Tenten's little crush on the Hyuuga prodigy and she wasn't so sure if she should tell hi –Naruto wasn't exactly the best person to tell secrets to. "I dunno." Sakura lied. In actuality Sakura did know…

Flashback- 7 minutes ago…

Sakura and Tenten were standing by Tenten's locker after Naruto had left to go find out what was wrong with Sasuke."So Sakura," Tenten started ,"you've yet to tell me what it is exactly that you do for the newspaper."

Sakura shrugged. Her friend was always pestering her with this question. Tenten whipped out today's issue of Webster Times. "I've scoured the whole thing but I never see your name in any of the articles. Are you sure that you're really in the newspaper club?"

"Yes Tenten. I give you my word-I, Sakura Haruno am a member of Konoha Webster's newspaper club."

Tenten still looked wary but before she could say more, 11th grader Neji Hyuuga (sorry to interrupt but I don't know if I've ever mentioned this but Tenten is in 11th grade and Sakura, Naruto, Neji, Ino and all those other people are in 10th) walked up to Tenten and Sakura. "Hey there Haruno, Tenten." He gave Sakura a quick curt nod but put on a cheesy smirk when he said 'Tenten'.

"Oh," Tenten said trying to feign utter boredom and not caring that the hottest guy in the school-besides Sasuke of course-was actually talking to her. Although the two actually did talk a lot-they were close friends but they usually fought and bickered a lot."It's you."

"Yes. It's me. I was just wondering if you maybe wanted to grab a pizza or something?"

"What, like now?" Tenten asked a little surprised.

Neji nodded. "Like a…date?" Tenten asked a little hopeful, but keeping it masked underneath her cool and not caring act.

Neji did his best to look appalled. "Oh God no! I'd rather chew my fingers off and feed them to my uncle than ask you out on a date."

Tenten could tell he was kidding and played along. "Phew! Good. Cause I'd rather see my mom dance around the school naked than go out on a date with you."

Neji nodded in earnest. "Glad we agree."

Tenten nodded. "Come on let's go on our not-date." Neji said as he dragged Tenten away. "Talk to you later then?" Sakura called out.

"Yeah! Bye!" Tenten called back, leaving Sakura all alone in the hallways before deciding to go take the bus with Naruto….

And that's what happened, as Sakura replayed the event in her mind. "So did you find out?"

"Find out what?" Naruto asked, looking confused.

"What was bugging Sasuke?" Sasuke reminded him. "Did I do something to him?"

"Oh…right. That…thing." Naruto said uneasily. Went he went to go talk to Sasuke he'd assumed he was ignoring Sakura because of the bet, so he hadn't really bothered to ask him. And it wasn't as if he could just go out and tell Sakura that "he and Sasuke were betting on whether or not Sasuke had a crush on you, but along the way he'd have to break your heart and stuff. We're really sorry for any pain that we might have caused you," and expect it to go over well.

But just before Naruto opened his mouth to say some excuse Ino came running up the isle of the bus, shrieking and jumping up and down while Sasuke slowly followed her with a grim look on his face that screamed "save me!"

"OMG!! GUESS WHAT EVERYONE!?" Ino shrieked.

When no one would guess, Ino came right out and said it. "SASUKE JUST ASKED ME TO BE HIS GIRLFRIEND!!" More screaming and jumping ensued. It seemed as though her diabolical plan to destroy Sakura had been forgotten.

But Sakura on the other hand was not at all giddy or happy or even amused. All she could manage was an open-mouthed "WHAT!?"…

Did I not say "don't get your hopes up?" Well it may not be long but at least it's something. For your information, I won't be updating for a while because my talent show thing is this Friday and all I'll be doing is practicing for it. And then finals will start and my S.S. (History) state test is the 1st week of June and then it'll be the week of 8th grade graduation. And I really can't wait for that. Plus my birthday is in 2 weeks. So I'll be really busy until after graduation- but hey, c'est la vie ("that's life" in French). So don't expect any more updates till the 3rd week in June. But once it's Jul 4th, I'm leaving for vacation and I won't get back until August. But I'll try and finish the story up before then. Read and review peeps. Ciao!