Author's Note: Hello!!!! I was just taking a break from writing for a bit, and now I am back on track :)
I want to give another shout out to my star reader: CrushinSammygirl. Sammy I hope you keep on reading, and for anyone else, I want you all to give me as much feedback as possible!!! Even though it's summer, I have so much stuff to do. I have my internship at the NIH, SAT prep classes, having get togethers with friends, etc. Anyway, here is the next chapter!

Chapter 14: A Typical Summer Day

Ahhhhh.....summer...

It's my favorite season of the year, there's just so much to do!

School has ended for about a couple weeks now, so what have I been doing this whole time?

Swimming in the lake of course!

It has one of the purest water sources out of all the nations, and it's so clean that you can see your reflection clearly!

In Konoha, the temperatures rise pretty dramatically in the summer. To cool off, they all jump into the cool depths of the lake.

And today was no exception.

Why am I telling you about the lake on a hot day like this!? I should be going there already!

I quickly changed into my pink skirt-like polka-dotted bathing suit and ran out the door until my mother called me, "Sakura! I won't be able to take you today. I think Kimiko and her mom said something about going, so why don't you go with them? I'll join you later!"

"Ok!" I said.

I left the house and headed over to Kimiko's.

I knocked on their door and was greeted by the warm presence of her mother.

She was an older woman, but I can tell from her features she must have been gorgeous when she was younger.

Her name is Aiko-san. Although she was older, she was always very elegantly dressed. Aiko-san had red hair which was so long that it reached down to her lower back and her piercing blue eyes glistened in the afternoon sun as she greeted me.

"Welcome Sakura! Wait here for a bit, Kimiko is getting dressed" Informed Aiko-san.

I waited for about 5 minutes on their paisley living room sofa until I heard Kimiko excitedly run over and greet me. Her swimwear made me a bit jealous, it was just too cute!

Like mine, Kimiko also wore a tanktop with a matching skirt. The only difference was that it was a cerulean color, embroidered with the elegant curls of the waves. The ruffles on her skirt, gave it such a nice touch.

"Hey Sakura! Ready to go?" She said pulling me off of the couch.

I nodded, "You bet I am".

Aiko-san led us outside, walking past the market and various buildings, until we arrived at the lake.

It was a secluded area with large palm trees surrounding it. There were hammocks set up between the trees and several ice cream carts. What I noticed the most about the lake was the way the sun was hitting it.

It glistened and sparkled and the water looked like a second sky. The shine from the sunlight gave the water such a peaceful and serene feel to it.

We set up our things underneath one of the palm trees and I looked around. There were not that many people, although there were some I could recognize.

Kimiko and I put some sunscreen on and we hurried over to the lake and stopped to test the temperature of the water. It was pretty warm today! We wasted no time, and jumped right in.

"This feels so good! Doesn't it Sakura?" Kimiko asked.

"Yeah it does" I agreed with her.

I watched as people splashed each other, but I was in no mood for that. I just wanted to let myself float and relax......

Well my relaxation came to an end when I felt something hit my head, and boy did it hurt!

"Who in the world hit me!?" I inwardly fumed.

My question was answered when I heard laughter a couple centimeters away from me, "Hey Pinky! Throw the ball over here!"

That loud and irritating voice belonged to none other than Inuzuka Kiba.

I took the soft water ball and threw it, hoping I would hit Dog Breath's face.

Nope, no it didn't, the squishy object ended up hitting Shino......

Like me, Shino was also in the state of complete relaxation until the ball came in contact with his sunglasses.....

Why would he wear sunglasses in the water? He is such a weird guy!

"Hey! Who hit me!?" the insect king snarled.

Inuzuka pointed in my direction, which resulted in Shino taking another ball from a couple of other kids to hit me, "That's what you get for breaking my sun glasses!"

I guess I would have complained and cried in agony if the ball in came in contact with my face, but it didn't.

I felt pretty sorry for Kimiko at that point.

"Y-You jerk! Why did you hit me!? I didn't do anything to you!" She yelled.

I watched as she quickly dog-paddled to me and whispered into my ear, "Sakura, I'm going to go back to our spot to get some more ammo, so I can give this guy a piece of my mind!"

"This is not going to end well......" I thought.

Kimiko brought back the ENTIRE basket of water balls and threw a whole army of them. She tried to hit Shino but, as predicted, she missed and hit someone else.

It ended up becoming a full out brawl!

Of course I didn't want to get tangled into this mess so I trudged out of the water and back to Aiko-san. It looks like my mother finally caught up with us too.

"Oh Sakura! Having fun?" Asked mom.

"Well….besides the fight in the water, yes I am having tons of fun".

"Fight!?" Both mother's questioned.

I sighed, why must I always have to explain everything?

"Inuzuka Kiba actually started this whole thing. He ended up hitting me, so I wanted to hit him and ended up in hitting Shino. Then Shino tried attacking me, which resulted in the ball hitting Kimiko. Then after her, I couldn't remember who else hit who. It was like a whole chain".

"Is there something we should do about this water fight?" worried mother.

Aiko-san put her hand on mother's shoulder, "Rina, let them have their fun!"

Mom sighed, "I guess you're right….Saku, are you hungry? Aiko and I were just having a little picnic. There's still a lot of food left in the basket".

I opened the basket and found an entire banquet stuffed inside!

Mom made some cold pasta, cold-cut sandwiches, potato salad, fresh fruit, umeboshi-

Well the list stopped as soon as I said umeboshi.

I savored the salty and sour goodness of this dish, "It's delicious! Thank you!"

"Glad you like it" she beamed.

"Aiko-san, should I get Kimiko for you?" I asked.

We all looked toward the direction of her loud and enraged voice, "COME BACK HERE INSECT FREAK!!!!!"

"AHHHHHHH Stop it you Barbie!!!!!"

Shino was in for it now……..

Sure Kimiko is preppy, but she doesn't it like it when someone calls her a girly-girl or worse, "Barbie".

Shino was too much of a coward to face her, instead he hid behind Kiba.

Her mother nodded, "Yes, please before she gives that poor boy a fatal injury. I would be happy if the Aburame clan didn't sue my family for everything we have…."

I giggled, "Ok, I'll go and get her".

I ran as fast as I could before no one else got hurt, "Kimiko, your mom needs you!"

"Just have her wait 5 minutes, a lot can be done in 5 minutes….." she seethed.

I was pretty nervous at this point; wait there was PB&J! Kimiko could never turn that down!

"Kimiko, your mom made some delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwiches…" I taunted.

She immediately turned her attention towards me and ran up the hill to our spot and eat.

I bent down eye-level with Shino, "You were very lucky that I was here".

I went back to our shaded spot and sat next to Kimiko, "You could have almost killed him Kimiko! What were you thinking?"

She took a sip of her pink lemonade, "Well…..I don't like being called Barbie Sakura, and I'm sure that you would do the same thing if you were in that kind of a situation".

"That was not appropriate behavior at all young lady" her mother cut in.

I was relieved that she came to her senses and behaved like the person she usually is.

Time passed by pretty quickly, it was almost sunset!

My mom looked at her watch, "Oh my, where did the time go? Well Sakura we need to go. Good bye Kimiko, bye Aiko! We hope to see you soon!"

Mother held my hand as we left the lake, "Mom? Why do we have to leave so early?"

"That wasn't early sweetheart! I need to go back home and make some dinner for your father. Besides, you're Iruka Sensei and I are going out for coffee afterwards".

I eyed her suspiciously, "Does dad know that you two are going out?"

"Of course he does! He is my husband afterall, and he knows about what happened between the two of us. Your father said it's best that we piece back together our friendship, we trust each other Sakura".

We arrived back home and I took a shower and changed into my Pajamas while mother immediately started on dinner.

Suddenly the door bell rang.

I heard mother answer it, "Ah, hello Gin! Thank you so much for having Shin over, did you have lots of fun honey?"

"Yup!" Shin said.

"Was he being a bother?" inquired mother.

Gin-san chuckled, "No of course not! He was a good little angel-

Angel!? I beg to differ……

Who played with Ryo's action figures and watched movies. The boys had a lot of fun together, they should have playdates more often!"

Mom nodded, "I agree…..hello Ryo chan! How are you?"

I eyed the said child, He had his thumb stuck in his mouth. His long reddish-brunette hair covering his eyes, he was too cute!"

"Well Gin, thank you again for having Shin over and next time the boys can stay over here!"

"Alright, thanks again Rina".

Mother waved, "Bye!"

She closed the door and hurried back to cooking.

I was still watching TV, until Shin came over and sat next to me.

"Did you have fun Shin?"

Not that I was interested, but I figured, maybe it would give him some enjoyment to tell what he did over at his friend's.

"Oh! We played ninja games, Ryo showed me his mint condition action figures……………………."

I nodded at the appropriate places and just tuned him out saying the words "sure" and "cool" to keep him happy.

Father walked in the house, kissed my mother on the cheek, and began eating his dinner.

At that point, she got dressed and told dad she would be out for an hour or so.

She left and I went back upstairs to my room.

I looked around and came across my year book from this year. I opened it and saw everyone's pictures, including my own.

I was never the photogenic type, my smile always looked pretty cheesy and frozen in front of the camera. There was no solution for this "photo-phobic" syndrome.

I remembered all of the things that happened this year including, operation:dog catcher. That was a lot of fun, and I guess, I got to know Kiba a lot more. Then there were the parent-teacher conference…..

Well, we all know how that turned out.

The one thing which really surprised me was when Sensei said that I would bloom into one of Konoha's "most beautiful flowers".

That's hard to believe…….

I found my eyes drooping all of a sudden; I guess playing in the water really tires you out huh?

I dropped the yearbook on the floor, my head hit the pillow, and I drifted off to sleep………..

A couple of minutes later I felt lips come in contact with my skin.

My eyes snapped right open, and mom was home.

I rubbed my eyes and sat up, "How was the dinner?"

"Oh Saku! It was wonderful! I think your Sensei and I are going to get our friendship back on track. We caught up with each other on lots of things, and after talking with him after so long, I only see him as a friend now".

I yawned, "That's good…."

"You should probably get back to bed, sorry I woke you! I can tell you about the rest tomorrow, bye Saku".

The door closed and again sleep took over me………………..

Author's Note: Did you all like it!? I guess you could kind of call it a filler, I was running out of ideas. The next chapter will be coming soon, I would say most likely in a couple days.

Sweetness.