"Ino?"

"No."

"But whyyyy?" Came the whining response from the hyperactive blond.

Kankuro sighed heavily as he sat bleary eyed in the restaurant. "I know you love ramen, but do we have to meet here every day?"

"Ramen's the best food in the world! It's great fuel to think with." Naruto asserted, his blue eyes sparkling with way too much energy for the puppeteer to face right now.

"If that's true." The Sand ninja paused for a jaw cracking yawn. "Then why are we sitting here alone, AGAIN when the Winter Festival is only three days away? As for Ino, I still say 'no'. She's dating my baby brother, they both already know how pathetic we are, why call attention to it by bringing it up?"

Naruto frowned. "You didn't sleep again? Why won't you tell me what you're working on, maybe I could help." He offered, just as two steaming bowls of barbeque ramen were placed before the two men. He thanked Ayame with a quick smile, ignoring how she lingered just a little longer than she should to straighten the area in front of them.

Kankuro ignored her as he picked at his food. "You can't help, idiot. Besides, it's …personal." He said, not wanting to talk about what he was working on into well past dawn each day. "I still say we hunt down Hinata and ask her, she's too nice to laugh at us."

Naruto pursed his lips, shaking his head. "She's no where to be found. She trains and then disappears for hours on end. I tried to catch up with her once, but she went to Chouji's house and stayed for almost forever."

Kankuro paused, his chopsticks half-way to his mouth. "But I thought Chouji was still out on that mission?"

The blond nodded and shrugged as if to say it was all a mystery to him. What he didn't mention was seeing Sasuke also following Hinata. "Trust me, she's too busy right now." Naruto sighed and slurped up the final bits of his ramen as he turned his head to eye Kankuro's half-full bowl. He did it on purpose, partly to get more ramen, and partly to turn the conversation. Naruto wasn't sure how he felt about Sasuke staking out Hinata like that. She was a friend. So was Chouji. Should he warn them? But what about his friendship with Sasuke? Sure, he'd been gone awhile, but still …Naruto sighed.

The puppeteer sighed in return and started to shove his remaining food over toward his companion. "Go ahead." But before Naruto could reach the bowl, a second steaming bowl was placed in front of him.

Both young men looked up just as Ayame made some stammering explanation about how she'd made too much and it shouldn't go to waste.

"Alright!" Naruto crowed, fist pumped in the air seconds before he grinned and gave a cackling laugh. He broke open fresh chopsticks eagerly. "How lucky is that?! Wow!"

Kankuro didn't answer, watching the way Ayame peeked back at them. No, not them, the blond beside him. As he absently finished his own meal, a thought began to form.

o.o.o.o.o

TenTen stood, breath heaving, as she cleaned up her full arsenal. Every piece of thrown or projected weaponry hung from every bulls-eye on the field.

Lee and Matsuri called out a cheerful farewell, which she returned. Neji just watched, giving a small wave, which she also returned though silently.

Kurenai watched alongside Gai, shaking her head. "She won't talk to him?"

Gai shrugged. "I've tried to talk to her, so has Neji. She'll talk just fine, but not about anything personal. Lee's the only one she's not mad at right now, but when I asked him to talk to TenTen about this, he refused."

Utterly shocked, Kurenai gave Gai a very wide gaze. "Lee would never refuse you anything."

Gai nodded, then shrugged. "Matsuri was with him when I asked, she said that for the third person in the team to interfere between the other two would cause even more friction and could cause the whole thing to break apart." The Mighty Green Beast of Konoha sighed. "I saw Lee was reluctant, and the lovely young desert bloom had a very good point, so I told him to let it be."

Kurenai nodded. "So you called me instead." She sighed as she watched TenTen gather up and clean her myriad of weapons. "I see why you called me, but I wish I hadn't been home. These things are always touchy."

o.o.o.o.o

Sasuke leaned against the storefront eating an apple. Despite the chilly weather, he wasn't heavily cloaked as he stared off into the distance. Hints of his chest peeked through his robes, it was an enticing picture. A small sound appeared to pull at his attention and he looked down the street, looking utterly casual. A blink and the hint of a smile. "Hello Hinata."

The purple-haired kunoichi blinked back at him, startled that he'd addressed her. "Oh, hello. Sasuke-sama."

The hint of a smile disappeared into what looked like a small hurt. "Sama? We graduated the Academy together, surely that's too formal between friends?"

"F…friends?" Hinata quirked her head slightly to the side, letting the long fall of her hair tease her shoulder. "I'm glad you're looking to make friends again. In Konoha I mean."

Sasuke casually stood up from where he'd been leaning. "Friendships are very important."

Hinata nodded quietly in agreement, then looked surprised as he fell in beside her. "May I escort you?"

She shook her head. "There's little need, I'm not going far."

Sasuke frowned. No, she wasn't going far. To the Akimichi household from what he'd been seeing. And as he knew her to be 'in love' and as he also knew Chouji to be an only son, that solved that riddle. He grinned inwardly. Chouji? No competition at all.

o.o.o.o.o

"I know!" Naruto suddenly sat up straight in his chair. "Matsuri! We can ask her, she and Lee have been almost inseparable lately! Bushy brows has never looked so happy. We'd get great advice from her!"

Kankuro sank down morosely in his own seat. "No. And before you ask, it's because I have to return to Suna with her. She's not an airhead like most of Gaara's fangirls, but I don't want my humiliation spread over TWO villages. Besides, she's only recently been with Lee, before that she was pining after my brother. Hardly the fountain of knowledge relationship-wise."

Naruto sighed as he reluctantly let go of his 'brilliant' idea. "Well, then why can't we just go ask granny Tsunade? Or Shizune?"

The puppeteer shrugged. "I told you, they're too old. Besides, neither one is in a long term relationship. We need to get advice from a girl in solid with a guy. Ask her what made her stick with him."

The blond shook his head. "I don't know any girls like that. Most of the girls I know dropped their boyfriends and are dating new people."

Kankuro looked over at where Ayame had glanced over at Naruto yet again. Deciding to follow his instincts, he raised his voice a bit. "What about the serving girl here, what's her name again?" He was pleased to see the pretty young lady stiffen slightly, oh she was listening alright.

But before Naruto could answer a third person slid in on the opposite side of the blond, effectively drawing his attention away from Kankuro's question. Judging from the angry look Ayame shot Sai, the puppeteer knew he'd been right in his guess.

"Ohayo!" Naruto called out loudly, even though Sai was right beside him.

"Help me." Came the hissed response from the artist.

Both the puppet user and the orange-clad blond blinked hard at those words. They'd almost sounded …emotional.

o.o.o.o.o

TenTen pointedly ignored Kurenai at first, then whipped an angry look at the older kunoichi. "Gai-sensai calling in back-up? He must be desperate."

Kurenai shrugged lightly and started picking senbon out of the tree, inspecting them for damage before packing them away with casual ease. "He doesn't want the team fractured."

"If it is it wouldn't be MY fault!" Huffed TenTen, then sighed. "Or at least not all of it." She allowed with a small shake of her head.

"Okay, I've seen the kunoichi BINGO book and I've got an inkling about why you called it off with the Hyuuga." Kurenai said slowly, studying the girl even as TenTen turned her head away. "Reading between the lines, he was taking you for granted and you got tired of it."

"Pretty much."

Kurenai nodded again and handed the pack of senbon to the weapons mistress. Next she started collecting the multitude of shuriken. "And so you and your girlfriends pulled names out of a tea cup." At TenTen's startled look, Kurenai just grinned. "Hard to keep something like that a secret, especially around ninja trained to find out secrets."

TenTen pursed her lips and nodded as she spread out her empty scrolls and began the process of handseals to re-embed them.

The older kunoichi waited until the girl was rolling up the first scroll before speaking again. "Kankuro isn't a bad choice, even if he is a foreigner. He looks decent too, now that he's lost the hood. I liked the facial paint though."

A shrug and a quick jerk of her head were the only indications that TenTen had heard her.

"Still, it's unreasonable to break up with a guy just because he got angry that someone else grabbed you in public."

TenTen growled and hung her head, finally looking up to meet Kurenai's gaze. She sighed deeply and whispered her confession. "That's not why I broke it off with him."

Surprised, Kurenai's eyebrows winged upwards. "But that's what you told him, no?"

TenTen blushed slightly and nodded.

"So. It was just an excuse." Kurenai waited until TenTen nodded. "Fine. What's the real reason? Because if you're just playing games with these guys, Gai isn't the only one who'll have your head on a platter. Ninja teams aren't to be toyed around with on some sort of emotional whim. Nor is it cool to start a war with another ninja village. So spill."

o.o.o.o.o

"I should kill her, that'll end it."

Ino sighed into her tea. "Temari, you can't just kill her."

"She's torn him to shreds! You should see him at breakfast, he's not sleeping!" The pony-tailed kunoichi kept her voice down, but only barely. "If she wants Neji back, she should have the decency to wait until the end of the three months! Those were the rules, or am I wrong?"

Sakura shook her head. "You're right, but we can't kill her. We don't even know her side of it yet."

Temari eyed the other girls, her own gaze snapping with anger. "Her side? She's been avoiding us for days. It's obvious she …"

"Nothing's obvious yet." Ino interrupted, then sighed, trying to turn the subject. "Except that I'm falling flat on my face with your other brother.

Huffing out a breath, Temari just stared at the other blond a moment. "Are you kidding? Garaa's head over heels for you."

Ino laid her head down on the table with a moan. "Liar."

Sakura peered over at Temari, seeing only sincerity in the Sand kunoichi's face. "Head over heels?"

"Hardly." Ino sat back up and looked at the others balefully. And Lee's with Matsuri and Sai put himself on the 'undateable' list. Am I supposed to wait around for … who? We're out of alternates."

Temari chuckled. "You don't need one, from what Kankuro and the Sand guards have told me, you are golden." She said that with a bit of a bite, grimacing. "Sorry, things are good with me and Shino. Still, he's not looking at me the way Gaara looks at you."

Now Sakura sat back shaking her head. "Are you kidding? Shino has been almost human lately. Do you know the last time we've seen his face? You're the only one who's gotten that hood off of him in years."

Temari gave a shy smile, looking hopefully at the other two girls. "Really?"

Ino nodded. "Bug-boy is a whole different guy around you. You've got him. For three months or forever, he's yours for as long as you want."

Sakura nodded solemnly. "We were talking about kidnapping you and keeping you in Konoha, because when you head back to Suna he's going to be down. Way down."

Temari blushed slightly, though she couldn't hide the pleasure that hit her with those words. "Uhm, I've been thinking about asking Gaara if I could stay on for a while. Teach at the Academy a bit."

Grinning, the pink-haired girl raised her tea cup. "Oooh! You've got it as bad as he does. I love it!"

Ino nodded her agreement. "After what happened with Shika-jerk I wasn't sure if we'd last as friends past the revenge stage. But I'm glad you're thinking about turning serious with Aburame. He's a good guy."

"Yes he is." Temari fought her blush and turned her own gaze back on the other blond. "Now, what makes you think Gaara isn't in to you?"

Ino shrugged, looking embarrassed. "He's a good kisser."

"Too much!" Temari moaned, hiding her face with her hands as Sakura grinned. "Baby brother and all that! Keep it clean!"

"But …well, he listens really well. Most guys get tired of me talking and tune me out or tell me to shut up."

Sakura nodded as she shared a look with Temari, they'd both been surprised that Gaara wasn't turned off by the constant chatter of the pretty blond. They'd talked it over before the Sand brothers had even arrived in Konoha, ready to step in and help Ino pick an alternate. It hadn't happened.

"When I stop talking, he looks up and asks a question about what I've been talking about, even when he's been doing his own paperwork. He really seems to like hearing me talk and he even pays attention to what I'm saying." Ino sounded as surprised as the other two girls looked.

"Go on." Temari asked, drinking in every word. "It doesn't sound bad yet."

"But a couple times now, he's fallen asleep on the couch." Ino admitted with a groan. "He's listening, but apparently I'm boring him to death."

Sakura pursed her lips. "Maybe you just need to steer the conversation to things he's interested in."

"Maybe she's perfect." Temari breathed out, then took in the startled looks on the other two girl's faces. "Sorry, what I mean is …do you have ANY clue what a miracle it is that Gaara feels comfortable enough in your presence to fall asleep?"

Ino blinked. "What?" She asked, not having thought along those lines.

Temari sighed. "You know about the Sand demon, right?" Both girls nodded. "He couldn't sleep back then because every time he did Shukaku would eat away at his controls, his personality. It was fucked up beyond anything you can think of."

"Shukaku's been gone for a while now though." Ino pointed out, wanting to trust Temari's words about Gaara being gone on her, but not wanting to be disappointed either.

The multi-pony-tailed kunoichi laughed ruefully. "He's spent his whole life not able to sleep well, that doesn't just go away. Gaara sleeps better now, but he has to drag himself to almost mind-numbing fatigue to be able to fall asleep sometimes. Dreadful insomnia. Sometimes bad nightmares too." She spilled Gaara's secrets without a qualm. "And he NEVER falls asleep with anyone else present in the room."

Ino sat back, taking it all in. "He's not like that with me."

Temari shook her head very, very slowly as Sakura caught her breath. "No. Not with you." The girl leaned forward earnestly. "Do you know how much the Suna guards love you right now? They'd walk across burning shards of glass for you."

"Really?" Came the breathless answer as Ino tried to absorb that information, feeling over her head and out of her depth. She was used to being chased or doing the chasing. This quiet kind of courtship was beyond her, deep and dangerous.

o.o.o.o.o

Sai groaned as the fangirls gathered outside the ramen shop, waving at him, eyes sparkling and lips glistening with various colored glosses.

Kankuro eyed them appreciatively, but none caught his attention. A certain slender weapons mistress seemed to have ruined him. Shit.

Naruto looked at the girls in awe. "Sai? We need to ask you a question." Kankuro nodded as he tried to count the number of fangirls, but they kept moving around and he had to keep starting over.

Sai groaned. "Sure, but first help me kill off a few of these and hide the bodies so no one will ever know."

Naruto grinned, shaking his head. "How did you get them? I mean, what's your secret?"

The former Root-nin sighed and shrugged. "Hell if I know. First there were just a few, but they were annoying so I put myself on the 'undateable' list and now there are more and more of them. They keep saying things like they'll help me learn about dating, or that they'll be the perfect one to make me 'ready'." He paused. "Kakashi laughed at me and said I couldn't kill them."

"You put YOURSELF on the 'undateable' list?" Naruto's voice rose in sheer incredulity. Then he paused, thinking about it.

Kankuro laughed openly at him. "Forget it, you're already on the stupid list. It didn't work for you like it is for Sai."

"Yeah." Came the disappointed response. "I guess so."

Suddenly, the fangirls started to scatter. Soon they were gone, only the most brave lingering several yards away. Another scowl from the newcomer had even those hardy souls fleeing.

Anko slid into the ramen stand and glared at the three young men. Kankuro and Naruto got up without speaking a word and let her take her choice of seats. Sai just stared at her.

The spiky-haired jounin ordered her food gruffly, then sat there. Finally even she couldn't take it and she turned to meet Sai's stare head-on.

Kankuro and Naruto watched, amused, as the two just kept staring at each other. Finally Naruto seemed to have a bright idea, he turned to the puppeteer and whispered, "Maybe we should ask Anko for advice."

In a normal tone of voice, the Suna shinobi shook his head grinning. "Only if we want to scare girls away, not get them."

Sai nodded, not taking his eyes off his savior. "How did you do that?"

Anko sneered at him, still not having blinked. "Do what?"

"Get rid of the fluff." Sai quirked his head toward where the crowd of fangirls used to be. "I tried that, they tried to get closer instead."

The kunoichi shrugged. "Hurt a few and they'll go away."

Sai seemed to consider that seriously as Naruto looked on nervously. "Uh, Sai? You can't really do that, you know. Especially to the ones that are civilians."

"Damn." Was all Sai said. Then he looked over at Anko. "Can I hire you to scare some of them away, without actually harming any of them?"

Anko shrugged and nodded toward Ayame. "Pay for my meal and we'll talk."

"KURENAI!"

Everyone turned to stare at a grinning Naruto. Anko looked around and not seeing her friend, narrowed her eyes on the young shinobi.

Naruto just grinned and nudged Kankuro. "We need to go ask Kurenai. She was in a long term relationship, a serious one. She'll know what we need to do."

The puppeteer tried to fit the name with a face and had a vague memory of red eyes and a curvy body. "Sure, whatever." He said, then stopped as he caught the dark haired ramen girl once more covertly watching Naruto. "Oy, but what about Ayame?"

The blond shinobi looked confused and scratched his head. "I just thought we decided to ask Kurenai for advice."

"I am going to find Kurenai. You're going to ask Ayame out on a date." Kankuro stated, pleased to see the girl blush.

"Oi, why would I do that?" Naruto asked, completely oblivious.

Kankuro nearly groaned as he saw the embarrassed look on Ayame's suddenly red and lowered face. Boy, he'd really blown that one. Crap.

But Naruto wasn't done. "Ayame is so cute and sweet she'd never look at me. She's probably got tons of guys coming around and asking her out all the time."

The girl in question whipped her head up with a stunned look on her rather pretty face. Kankuro grinned over at her. "You're going to have to ask him out, sorry, there's no hope for the idiot. You're going to have to save him from himself."

Ayame blushed again as her father laughed and Naruto just looked confused. As the blond looked over at the girl however, his confusion faded into hope. "You'd go out with me?" He asked, almost quietly.

The girl nodded and Naruto started to smile, as she blushed, he started to grin happily.

"Hey!" Anko waved her hand in front of Ayame's eyes. "Can I get my food before you guys leave on your date?"

Ayame's gaze never wavered from Naruto's and Anko sighed as Sai stood and reached over the counter to get the bowl of ramen for her.

o.o.o.o.o

Asami smiled as Hinata let herself into the kitchen. "Ready to try something a bit harder today? I have to admit, your knife skills are even better than mine and I can't wait to see how you …Hinata? Is something wrong?"

"No, oh no!" The girl smiled brightly and hurried over to the counter. "So, something harder than stews today?"

Chouji's mother grinned and handed the girl an apron. "Fish. Everything is depending on the way you cut, so I think this will be an easy lesson for you."

Hinata nodded even as she hid her discomfort. Sasuke was getting to be a problem. At first he'd just been following her, but now he was starting to try and insert his way into her path. Why?

"Now, let's start with sea bream before tackling a larger fish like tuna."

The purple-haired girl nodded, listening even as she wondered what the Uchiha could possibly be up to. Friends? They'd never been friends before, why now was he talking like that now?

"Hinata?"

The kunoichi blushed prettily. "Sorry, I'm just missing Chouji."

Asami sucked in a pleased breath. That was almost a confession. Her eyes sparkled as she turned back to the counter with the fish. She blinked back some moisture in her eyes as she explained the finer points of culinary blade work to the girl she hoped to one day call her daughter.

o.o.o.o.o

Kurenai opened her door with a scowl, her toddler on one hip and a dripping spoon in the other.

Who was more surprised, it was hard to say.

Kankuro eyed the kid warily, not being terribly fond of children.

Kurenai eyed the puppeteer warily, not sure what he wanted. "Yes?"

The Sand shinobi pursed his lips and nearly chickened out, but the thought of spending any more time like he'd been doing the last few days kept him from leaving. "I know we're not friends." He started.

She snorted as baby Shunin waved at the newcomer.

"But I need some advice. About girls."

Kurenai couldn't have been more shocked if she'd stuck her finger in Kakashi's chidori. "Girls?"

A slight turn of the eyes, a shifting of his feet, then he met her gaze. "Well, just one girl really."

The kunoichi sighed and stepped aside for the puppeteer to enter her apartment. She watched him as he walked in and sighed. What to do, what to say? Especially after what TenTen had told her. It was in her hands now. Separate the two, or put them back together?

She sighed again as she shut the door. Gai was going to kill her for this, but the longing in TenTen's eyes recalled her own mirrored image when she'd looked in the mirror and had been trying to decide what to do about her feelings for Asuma.

"First of all, you have nothing to worry about."

Kankuro looked up at her, puzzled. "I haven't even told you anything yet."

"You don't have to." Kurenai told him with a sly smile. "I know all and see all." She intoned with a mysterious voice.

The puppeteer's eyes widened, then he sneered. "Right."

"You don't care for sweets, but you do like red bean paste in your pancakes. You were born left-handed, but have worked hard to be ambidextrous. And …wait, there's an image of a stuffed rabbit. It was missing an ear and wearing a yellow hat …"

Kankuro's eyes went bowl-wide and he sucked in a breath before his eyes narrowed dangerously on her. "You've been talking to TenTen."

Kurenai nodded slowly. "Have a seat."

o.o.o.o.o

See? Another new chapter! Yeah! One more weekend to get through with the show I'm in, then ...freedom! And updates to more stories, including this one!

THANKS for sticking with me despite my schedule. Hope you enjoy.