A/N - Hey, it's been awhile huh?

Summer brings wonderful things. Like enough free time to write all the stories i want.

Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER - I do not own Naruto.


"Excuse me miss." A guys voice said in monotoned gentleness. I opened an eye to see a tall boy standing in front of Ino's chair. He had jet black hair that was wispy and fluttered in the wind. His jacket fit snuggly against him and his gloves hung out of the right pocket of his south pole dark blue jeans. He was caring a book in his left hand, and a pencil was held on his right ear.

As he looked down at Ino, he was smiling softly, so softly that if someone didn't look closely you couldn't tell he was smiling at all. When Ino glanced up at him, he gave a slight bow of his head in some sort of respect, "Hello. Sorry to interrupt you, I can see that your enjoying yourself without anyone bugging you, but I couldn't help but notice you from across the beach."

What is this, some type of pick up line? I growled to myself, my eyes narrowing at him. He didn't seem to notice though.

"Oh." Ino said in surprise, and I saw her slight blush, which only caused me to get more annoyed.

"Sorry, I forgot my manners," He said quickly with a nervous smile, "My name is Sai, and I'm a bit of an artist. And I know how cliché this all sounds, but you look absolutely stunning. And I was wondering, with your permission of course, if I could draw you in my portrait book?" He held up his book that was in his left hand, smiling the same smile he did 5 minutes ago, looking down at her with nervousness.

"Well you were right." I said casually, still glaring at him, "We did seem to be enjoying ourselves without anyone bugging us."

He blinked at that, but opened his mouth to speak either stumbled words or a smooth combat. I never found out because just before Ino glared at me she smiled at him with an apologetic facial expression, "She doesn't mean that. And I'm flattered that you asked."

"But she will regretfully decline your offer." I said with a bitch smile.

But instead, Ino stood up from her long chair, still smiling at him, "She's only kidding. I will accept of course, but I doubt I could do your drawing book any justice. With this sun, and my frizzy hair, I have to look like an absolute monster."

"I beg to differ," He said with a smile, "You look like an angel. The way your hair glares back the sun, it's almost as if your wearing a halo."

Ino blushed a bit more, and stumbled with her next words, "I doubt it."

"But it's true." Sai pressed, "I couldn't possibly lie to someone so beautiful."

Who the fuck is this guy.

Whoever he is, he's going to have to take a fucking step back. He obviously doesn't know who he's messing with. I stood up also, coming between the two of them, "Yeah well, a portrait would sound lovely, but we were just about to leave to get something to eat."

"Is that so?" He said with a frown, "That's too bad."

I smiled, "Yes, it is. Now if you would excuse-"

"Stop it Sakura." Ino whispered. I glanced at her to see her glaring hard at me.

"Stop what?" I ask with a shrug, "We were going to get something to eat."

"Perhaps another time?" Sai asked, finally taking the hint.

"No," Ino replied, stepping around me with a flick of her hair, "We can push back eating, I would love for you to draw me."

I grabbed her wrist without thought, which only caused her to look at me with another hard glare, as if she couldn't believe I was even thinking of stopping her. But I was angry, and this guy seemed a bit too friendly, "I don't want you to." I growl low enough for only her to hear.

She blinked, and for a slight second there was no expression in her face. Then pure anger came in a flash. She snatched her wrist away in disgust before looking back at Sai with a pleasant smile.

Sai smiled back, holding out his arm with a slight bow of his head, "This way my lady."

And with that, they both walked off together.

What. The. Fuck.

I glared after them, my insides burning with so much deep anger. Soon enough, though, I turned around and walked towards the table with shade and a couple of kids sitting around it. With the sand beneath me, you couldn't tell that I was practically stomping, but my foot prints seemed deeper than most of the ones that were scattered all around.

I reached the shade and plopped on the chair nearest to me. I sat there, glaring at the volleyball game that was going around. This is fucking ridiculous. I think to myself, trying to burst something into flames with my eyes, That guy just coming up to Ino, taking her away as if that's ok. I'm going to fucking kill him I swear- "Hey sweet heart, want a beer?"

My nose scrunched at the nick name. I only liked when Sasuke called me sweet heart, anyone else who said it sounded just wrong. I glanced at the guy who was offering, which was a orange hair guy with a stupid grin on his face. He winked at me when I caught his eyes, which only made me scrunch my nose even more, "My names Sakura." I say with a snap.

But he only grinned even more, "My apologies Sakura, my name is Pain."

My eyebrows came together in confusion, "Pain? Your name is Pain?"

He nodded and winked again, "It sure is."

"He's called that because he's a pain in our ass," Said a soft spoken girl. I glanced at her, but she was looking ahead with a bored expression, as if she didn't care much about being here. She had a deep purple hair with a single bun at the side of her head.

"Hey!" Pain cried out with a glare, "Don't go ruining things for me."

"You kind of did that yourself," Another guy said, he was sitting next to the girl with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. His hair style made it hard to see his eyes, "Did you see the way she looked when you called her sweet heart and offered her a beer." I smiled slightly at that, "Nagato is my name," The guy with the smirk said, nodding towards me with respect, "And this here is Konan."

I looked at the girl again. This time she was looking at me with a slight smile, "Nice to meet you." She said with a soft smile.

"Nice to meet you too." I said with a smile also. I don't know why, but I liked her. She seemed like a cool down to earth person.

"Those are my friends." Said Pain with a slight smile, leaning back in defeat, "And they like to ruin things for me."

"Well," I say with a smile, "You did kind of do it yourself."

Nagato burst into laughter and Konan smiled slightly, shaking her head. Pain looked shocked, "Are you serious! Sweet heart always picks up the ladies."

I shake my head with an apologetic look, "Not exactly. I think it would have gone better if you just offered me a beer without the playboy grin."

Now even Konan was laughing. Pain rubbed the back of his neck with a sigh, "Is that right? I seriously need to work on my pick ups."

I laughed and shrugged, "Sorry."

"Nah it's cool." Pain said with a grin, "So hey, still want a beer?"

I looked at the beer in his hand that he was offering. I leaned over the table and took it, "I would welcome a beer right now."

"How come?" Nagato asked, opening his beer can with a hiss "Got a lot on your mind?"

I shook my head, taking a gulp out of my beer, "Just some anger issues."

"Hell yea!" Pain said with his beer in the air like a toast, "Shits about to go down? Cuz' I've been bored as hell just sitting here with these lames."

"He's only saying that because he's been turned down by all the other girls on the beach." Konan said in a soft voice, smirking as she took a sip of her beer.

I snorted with beer still in my mouth. I swallowed quickly and began to laugh, "No!" Pain denied, "They were all just busy, or had boyfriends, or…" I watched as it finally dawned on him. He slouched back in his chair with a grumble, "Whatever." He mumbled, which only caused me to laugh some more.

"Don't worry," Nagato said with a grin, "One day you'll snatch yourself a girl."

"Shut up, Nagato." Pain grumbled, taking a gulp out of his beer, "Only reason you got Konan is because she's a childhood friend."

"And he was sweeter than you." Konan said with the roll of her eyes, "If you would stop acting like an idiot, you would have been had a girl."

Out the corner of my eye I saw Pain looking at me, mocking Konan under his breath with a funny face. I smiled and shook my head, taking a sip of my beer.

"Ladies just can't handle me." Pain said with a sigh. I glanced at him only to catch him wink at me, I chuckled before rolling my eyes.

"Obviously not." Nagato agreed.

"Sakura!" My head turned at the sound of my name. I saw Naruto jogging over, his shirt in his hand and a grin on his face. Behind him was Sasuke, who was walking over shirtless also, but he was moving to put it on as he walked.

Naruto came to the table, sweat sliding down his forehead, "Hey what are you up to?"

I shrugged, "Just hanging out with these cool kids."

That's when a beer can wizzed past my face. Before I could register Naruto caught it with a grin on his face, "Thanks man." He said as he opened it.

"No prob' dude." Pain said. I looked over at Pain with a glare but he only smiled, "Nice match by the way. You murdered most of our athletes out there."

"They were tough though," Sasuke said as he finally reached us, "We hardly beat them." Pain passed him a beer also, and he opened it with a nod in thanks.

"However you look at it, our school sucks at sports. You guys are from KHS right?"

My eyebrows came together in surprise, "How'd you know?" I ask.

"You can tell by how you guys roll deep." Nagato said, nodding towards are cars in the parking lot, "It's like you guys travel in packs."

I laughed at that. "Nah, we don't usually go out like that." Naruto said, pulling over a chair, "We just all decided to skip at one time."

Nagato just laughed. "Schools over for us," Konan said, "So at the end of the day we all decided to go to the beach."

"What school are you guys from?" Sasuke asked, his chair next to Naruto's.

"SHS" Pain answered with a shake of his head, "The crappiest school in the area."

"Suna?" I say out loud in surprise, "I didn't know you guys were so close to our school."

"Don't get us wrong, it was a decent drive here." Pain said, correcting me "But it wasn't that long of one. We still live a good 20 minutes away."

I nodded in thought. Suna was know for their academics, not their sports. In order to say in there, you had to average a high GPA, like a 3.5. What surprised me was how Pain went there, that meant he had to be dirty rich or completely smart. Or, his family won the lottery. The lottery was for the people who wanted to take the couple of seats they had left in the school. They'd draw a ticket to see who else, that doesn't meet the requirements, made it in. But even when you won it one year, you'd still have to do the lottery again the next year.

"Well you beat us in grades." Naruto pointed out, sipping his beer, "I heard that school is straight ridiculous, with it's three stories and 500 choices of classes."

Pain waved him off, "But all in all it's boring. We hardly have drama or fights because too many people are trying to keep their GPA up. My three years in there has been boring as fuck."

"So you guys are going to be seniors too?" Sasuke asked.

Nagato nodded, placing his beer on the table, "Yeah. But it won't be that exciting. We hear about you guys' senior pranks all the time. No one in that school has yet to have the guts to pull one."

"That is, until we show up in senior year." Pain said with a sneaky smirk. He leaned against the table as his eyes looked around the table, "I plan on being the first. I don't know what we are going to do, but it has to be epic."

I laughed, taking a sip of my beer, "It already sounds epic."

"Please, don't flatter him." Konan said to me with a roll of her eyes, "The only thing he has thought about was mice."

"There's nothing wrong with a mice prank." Naruto said with a grin, "But she is right, you're going to have to think of something better than that if you want it to become a tradition."

"Your right!" Pain said as his fist slammed on the table, "I can't just think about next year, but all the years to come! It has to be so amazing that everyone will want to try it year after year."

"If only you could think of something that amazing." Nagato said with a snicker. Pain on waved him off.

Just then, TenTen and Neji came up, TenTen looking absolutely spent as if she just done running a mile, "Hey guys, are we leaving soon?"

"She just wants to get out of the sun." Neji said with as he shook his head, "Pathetic, right?"

I laughed as TenTen looked at me with a puppy face, "It's too hot, Sakura! Come on, lets go homeee."

But I shake my head, "We haven't even ate yet."

Just as I spoke Choji came up, a grin on his face and a huge plate of burgers and hotdogs in his hands, "Looks like we finished just in time then."

He placed it on the table next to us, where it held more drinks and bread and ketchup and mustard. No one spoke, just quickly shoved towards the table. I don't know how, but I ended up in the very back with Pain, who was whining how hungry he was. It makes no sense how he, of all people, ended up back here with me, he was closest to the table and even Nagato and Konan were at the very front.

"Jeez, a guy like me needs to be fed!" Pain complained behind me.

"Well think about me! I'm starving too!" I said, elbowing him gently with a smile. He looked down at me with a smile before sighing out in mock frustration, "But I worked harder. I mean, I threw all those beers."

I turned to look at him, an eyebrow up, "You aren't serious."

"Oh," He leaned down slightly, a small smile on his face, "You don't know how serious I am." I felt my cheeks burn and I quickly looked ahead, my stomach flipping, "Least I can still make a girl blush." He said, which only caused me to blush harder. God, this was embarrassing.

"So I'm guessing you're a playboy?" I asked, trying to take the spotlight off of me.

"Actually I'm really faithful to one girl all the time. Whether we are going out or not." I heard him say. It made me frown, "Too bad that one girl doesn't know your flirting with me." I mumble.

"Ah, right now that girl is you." My thoughts came to a stumbling halt, "I've been watching you for awhile, as stalkerish as that sounds. As soon as you got on the beach. The only reason I went around to all the other girls is to see if you would notice me, but I was obviously completely invisible."

I glanced at him in disbelief, "Seriously?"

He shrugged, "Yeah. And now that I've finally got your attention, it seems that your not interested in me at all. That really sucks."

I fidgeted with my fingers, biting the inside of my lip.

Nervous much? It's just some random guy.

Shut up.

It was different, having someone actually into me. So far for awhile I've made all the moves to get Ino. It seemed…nice, to have someone making moves to try to get me, "Well, now that I actually know. It changes everything." I manage to say.

"You mean after I've come forth and said it straight out you are interested now?" Pain asked with a laugh.

I only smiled, "Not interested, but I'm willing to be your friend."

"Ah. Better luck with the next girl, huh." He said with a sigh.

"Hopefully not." I said before stopping myself. I prayed he didn't hear me, but I knew he did. I glanced at him only to see him smiling, deciding not to comment on my random out burst. Mentally I was kicking myself in the face, on the outside I stayed cool and collected the rest of the time we stayed in the line.

When we finally managed to get to the very front of the line, I was starving, but I didn't want to look like a fat ass in front of Pain. So, feeling very self conscious, I grabbed one burger and a hotdog. When I moved to leave, I paused in mid step, and turned around, deciding to wait for him. I watched as he put a good 4 hamburgers on his plate and at least 3 hotdogs. When he met up with me he grinned, holding his plate without shame.

"Fat much?" I say with a smile.

"One of the hamburgers and hotdogs are for you, seeing as your trying to eat like a bird in front of me." My heart dropped at that, and I felt my cheeks burn again.

"Heh heh." I giggle nervously, "So you've noticed." I scratched my head to avoid his face.

"Yeah, thing is though," He said, walking past me to walk towards the table, "I love girls who eat." I watched him pass me with an inward groan.

Seems like your making all the wrong moves with him.

It's starting to seem that way. I thought in reply, dragging after him.

X

The sun was setting, an ice cold beer was in my hand, and I had this idiot Pain sitting next to me, telling me about Suna. We've been talking for about an hour and a half and it was amazing, it felt like we could never run out of anything to say. He was very comfortable, and funny, and very cute now that I saw him. Truly saw him. Beyond the boy who grinned and called me sweet heart, offering me a beer. He was actually pretty serious when he wanted to be, very sweet when he talked about me, kind when he spoke about his friends, and joked a lot.

All in all, he was a very down to earth guy.

"Sakura! We're heading out!" Called Lee.

I looked over at Lee with a frown, then looked back ahead with a sigh, not exactly wanting to leave. I stood up from the chair and gulped the last of my beer, "Sucks that you gotta leave." Pain said with smile, standing up also.

"I know right." I say with a sigh, "Can't be helped I guess. I'll see you around right?"

"Of course." He said with a wink. Then he grinned and waved before walking back over to his other friends.

I smiled after him before walking towards Naruto, who was standing there waiting for me. When I finally reached him he was smiling, "Hey, you hit it off with that guy over there, huh?"

"Pain? Yeah he's good company." I said with a nod.

"What about Ino? Seemed like you didn't hang out with her at all." Naruto asked as we walked over towards the cars slowly.

My whole mood soured at the thought. I pushed her away from my mind so I wouldn't feel so angry about it, but now that Naruto mentioned it, it brought back the deep anger again. "She went off with some guy. Not my problem."

"Another fight?" Naruto asked with sigh.

"No." I answer simply.

Thankfully he left it alone.

When we got up to the cars I stood there, waiting for everyone to get ready. Naruto was in charge of head count to make sure we had everyone, "Hey. Haven't seen much of you today." Sasuke said from behind me. I turned around with a smile, "Yeah, seems like I haven't talked to you for ages."

"Where's Ino?" Sasuke asked curiously. I only frowned and shook my head, "Don't ask."

"What's up with you two?" Sasuke said with a shake of his head, "It seems like everything goes from good to bad in two seconds all the freaking time."

"Her fault this time, not mine." I grumbled with a shrug, "Does it really matter? I'm sure she's having plenty fun with that artist anyway."

"What are you talking about?" Sasuke asked, a confused look on his face.

I opened my mouth but stopped dead when I saw Ino walk up to the parking lot with that guy. She was smiling, laughing about something he said. They faced each other, and Ino laughed again before hugging him and saying something else. He nodded with a smile and ripped off a page of his book, handing it to her before bowing his head and walking off with a wave.

"Sakura, ease up with that glare. Your going to burn something down." Sasuke mumbled as Ino walked towards us.

"She has a fucking nerve, Sasuke." Was all I said, continuing to glare, but I aimed it at Sasuke instead, "Like seriously."

"Just calm down." He whispered in a rush, "And if you aren't calm by the time she comes over here, don't say a word. You'll make it worse if you say something stupid and start another fight."

I was going to say something but that's when he decided to walk away. I guess he wanted to give us privacy. Irritated, I rubbed my eyes with a sigh.

"Hey." Ino said softly as she walked up to me. I looked at her, making sure my face was completely blank.

I'm not completely calm.

Then this is where you walk away.

"Are you going to say hey back?" Ino asked with a frown. I frowned also, opening my mouth to say no, that I wasn't planning on it. But I thought better of it. Instead I just mumbled hey, crossing my arms.

"What have you been up to?" Ino asked carefully, taking a step closer.

"Oh nothing much. Just drinking and eating." I say with a sigh, scratching my head and looking around, hoping everyone was ready to head out. But they were still standing around talking.

"Hopefully not beer." She said in disapproval, "You have to drive."

You did have a few…

"No I found some soda." I lied, turning my attention back to her.

"Um." Ino started uncertainly, "I'm sorry that I didn't get to tell everyone today."

My eyebrows came together and I felt the anger rising in me again, "Don't worry about it." I spat out before turning around and heading towards my car.

She's sorry she didn't get to tell everyone? Like that's what I'm aggravated about!

Maybe she figures-

The fuck dude. The fuck. I don't care what she figures. She should know.

"Sakura!" I heard Pain call from behind. I turned around, not knowing there was a smile already on my face. Even though I was angry, hear him made me feel a bit lighter, "Hey, I almost forgot." He said with a grin, pulling out his cell phone, "Gimme your number so we could hang out some."

"Oh, yeah sure." I said, taking it and dialing in my number before handing it to him, "Don't lose it."

"Course not. See ya' around Sakura. Maybe we can catch a movie one day." With another grin he jogged off.

I continued to smile slightly, watching him leave.

"Who was that?" Ino asked, walking towards me. My smile turned into a slight frown as I shrugged, "No one in particular, just a guy I met today."

"Oh…" She answered, "Look. I'm really sorry-"

"Don't worry about it." I cut her off, running my fingers through my hair in frustration, "Really it doesn't matter."

"Then why are you acting like that. I can tell when your angry." She pressed, getting annoyed herself.

Some fucking nerve…

I thought angrily as I watched her glaring at me. With a shake of my head in disbelief I turned around, "Are you going to be riding with Sasuke again?" I asked, walking towards my Charger.

"Yes!" She yelled after me, sounding pissed. But I only rolled my eyes, "Great. See you when we get back at the school then."


I read this story last night and I've decided that I really like it. I want to continue, no matter how many mistakes I made. Work with me alright, i'm trying to get back in the motion.

Tell me if you liked it. I'll update as soon as i can. or get a muse.

SHYCADET LOVES out.