A/n: PLEASE READ ALL MY AUTHOR NOTES!
I need more questions… when you lot ask enough questions, no matter which chapter that will be, then I'll answer them. But for now, ASK QUESTIONS!
So, with that out of the way, I'm asking you if you guys have any other ideas you want me to put in the story. And, I've already come to think about the ending. HOW IN THE WORLD SHOULD IT END? Sure, I have a lot of ideas I'm going to use before the story stops, but just share your thoughts with the world.
How many chapters do you want me to make this? I was thinkin' – well, maybe 30 or so… I tink dats a lot!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and never will. –Sniff-
Chapter 14
The Sleepover
Sakura named her Midnight. The cat, of course. After setting her down with a bowl of milk in the kitchen, she set to work on making it a bed. She completed this simply by taking a cardboard box, cutting the top and most of the sides off, then folding an old towel and leaving it in there. Luckily, cats weren't picky.
Midnight was satisfied with it, and almost immediately curled up in her new bed.
Sakura, smiling happily, then took off upstairs to get ready for the sleepover. She grabbed a duffel bag and started to toss things in it: two outfits, one just in case something happened, a sleeping bag rolled up, a book for her entertainment, her toothbrush and all that. She dropped it all next to the front door, along with her heavy backpack.
Then, she snatched another pair of clothes (her PJs, lol) before taking a shower, relaxing under the heat of the water and washing her hair. Sakura stepped out, toweling herself dry.
She dressed in a black tank top (once again) with a large shirt over it and dark blue cargo shorts. Brushing her pink, silky hair, Sakura returned to her room and sat down on her bed, glancing at the clock on the table. 5:49.
Did it really take that long? she thought. Oh well. Not that it mattered. She strapped a watch to her wrist and stood up. Might as well get on with it and go to the sleepover early. Hopefully it wouldn't be too much of a bother.
Sakura skipped downstairs to check on Midnight. She was asleep. Sakura didn't want to wake her up from her peaceful slumber, but if she left the cat at her house unattended, chaos would ensue.
She scooped her up, towel and all. The cat meowed sleepily before closing her eyes once again. Sakura hoisted her bags over her shoulders, and with Midnight in her arms, stepped outside and managed to lock the door.
Sakura walked the entire way to Hinata's house, faintly drawing up the information Tenten had given her. Um, Bluck Avenue, it's close to where I live. She said to keep going until I see a crossroad… oh, there it is!
Then, I'm on that Refergard Road or whatever. Let me see – it's called Refguardteg. Close enough.
She followed along the road, her eyes washing over the area and taking even the tiniest details in. Hm, and there's that tree Tenten talked about. Indeed, in front of her was a pear-shaped tree, fat at the bottom, with barely any leaves left on its branches. Sakura gave a small smile as a mansion came up in her view. Well, at least she thought it was a mansion, having never seen a house that big.
Sakura slowly made her way through the gates after answering a camera-button-beeper thing. She reached forward, about to knock on the door, when suddenly, it flew open. Tenten stood there, beaming.
"Ahoy, mate! What's up?"
Sakura sweatdropped. Tenten gestured that she come in.
"Go on, make yourself at home!"
She gasped when seeing the tiny kitten in her arms. "How cute!" Tenten leaned down to pet it.
"I found her outside, and she might be someone else's cat. I'm going to ask around."
"But she's so sweet!" Tenten stood up, grinning broadly. She called Hinata over. Sakura hadn't even noticed her when she came in.
"Isn't she the most lovable little thing?" she cooed, causing Hinata to blush for her friend's childish actions. But, even the Hyuga had to nod.
"So, Sakura, do you have a name for her? Even if it's temporary?"
"Sure." She scratched her head nervously. "Midnight, even though she does have some white on her."
"That's the perfect name!" Tenten bounded around excitedly. "Come on, I'll show you to the room we'll be sleeping in." And with a last pat to the cat, she literally hopped away.
The two sweatdropped. Sakura handed Midnight to Hinata before finally setting her things down. "I'll be right with her. First, I have to stretch a little… And do you mind that I brought her?"
Hinata shook her head. "N-not at a-all. I will b-bring her to the k-kitchen, and the maids will s-see to her."
The stuttering girl swept off among the hallways and disappeared. There was a sudden pounding. Sakura, raising an eyebrow, opened the door to see Naruto.
"Eh? You? What are you doing here?" she asked. Naruto shrugged. He let himself in and collapsed on a nearby couch. Sakura was about to tell him off when the door was again harassed.
She turned the doorknob to reveal a bored Uchiha. A very confused-looking one, too.
"Sakura? W-what are you doing here?" he questioned, flabbergasted.
"Now you're starting to sound like Hinata," she teased, "no offense to her, of course."
"Y-you live at Neji's house?" He sounded disbelieving, and – what was that? Jealous? Sakura frowned at that comment. "I what-"
"Haruno, if you would please stop irritating my guests."
Neji Hyuga strutted in, his head held high (wow, four h's in a row!) Sakura stepped back a little. "Oh, I'm sorry, Neji," she said, her voice laced with sarcasm. "I would gladly do that, if only you could point the way to the room Tenten was talking about-"
He did so, immediately showing the way with a stoic expression on his face.
"Thanks." Sakura smiled at him, then picked up her bags and skipped away.
The three boys stared after her, clearly bamboozled.
In the room:
Tenten was stretched out on a small "bed" constructed of sleeping bags pieced together. When she spotted Sakura, she waved her over and told her to spread out her own sleeping bag, too.
She was delighted to see Ayame and Megumi chatting on the corner of the bed. Sakura bounced over and plopped to the floor.
"Hey guys!" she squealed. They each grinned at her. There was a little squeak. With a glance at Sakura's face, Ayame started to laugh. She extended her arm, and a small furry creature leaped onto it.
"It's a squirrel!"
"Sure!" Ayame chuckled as the animal blinked its innocent eyes at them all. "Name's Shuggo. He's my pet."
Sakura smirked. "Far out, dude!"
Giggles erupted.
Megumi was clutching a small stuffed elephant. Curious, Sakura leaned over to look at it. "Who's that?"
"Kiyla. She's nice." Sakura blinked. "Okay," she said slowly.
"Is there something wrong?" Megumi inquired. "Do you have a problem with her?"
Wow, she's just like what I'm like about my hair, except she's – disguising it –
"Nope!" Sakura said cheerfully, "No problem at all!"
With that, the girl seemed satisfied, as she left the matter at that.
Hinata came in. Sakura, remembering an earlier event, asked, "Why is Sasuke here? And Naruto, too? Neji also said something about them being his guest-"
Hinata smiled. "You didn't k-know, Sakura? Neji's h-having a sleepover t-too, though he p-prefers to call it "hanging out."
They all giggled. Hinata continued, "At 7:00 w-we will have dinner, and then t-the parties will join."
"What does that mean?" Ayame asked.
"W-well, Neji t-told me that after d-dinner we could do whatever we w-wanted, and then we'd sleep together, and no, n-not that way!" she half-shouted as Tenten and Ayame burst into laughter.
"H-he said we'd all sleep in another r-room, and r-really, Tenten, it's not funny!"
"Yes it is!" she choked. But if her words weren't amusing, then their antics were. Hinata started to chase Tenten around the room (no matter how OOC that may sound), throwing the occasional pillow at her.
The others cheered, and it was not long before Sakura shouted, "Pillow fight!" and smacked Ayame with a cushion.
The fight raged on, with Hinata chucking a pillow at Tenten, who would duck, and eventually, hit Megumi, who would seethe in pretended resentment. She'd fling several cushions at Tenten, who'd dodge, and they would hit Sakura instead. And she would take out her anger on Ayame.
Sigh.
Poor Ayame.
Feathers were floating in the air when Neji poked his head inside. He was about to say something, but shook his head and retreated. Sakura, catching sight of this, snickered. She motioned for her friends to stop and sat down.
"Hinata, who else is here?"
She shifted. "Well, this is it for the girls, and Neji invited Naruto, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Gaara, and Kiba…"
"Okay…" they all muttered simultaneously.
Ten minutes later:
Sakura trooped outside with the rest of the girls following her as if they were an army of soldiers ready for battle.
She spun around to glare at them, before whispering in a commanding tone, "Stomach in, back straight, shoulders loose, that's it! Okay, you all, the mission: to sneak in the room THEY are in without being noticed, and take something from one of them. Since there is five of us and six of them, I'll get two."
They nodded seriously and turned back to their "leader". "Hm, here's who you'll steal from…"
Twenty minutes later:
The door creaked open, and five figures snuck in. They huddled against the wall, eavesdropping on the six boys through the thin barricade. Sakura nodded to them, and they scattered.
Who do you want to here about first? Well, it doesn't matter. I'm going to tell you about them all anyway. So, starting off is…
Tenten.
She crept along the wall with a mischievous grin. Reaching her intended target, she took out the kunai Sakura had given her. (Sakura gave them all kunais and other supplies.) She had natural talent with it, the pink-haired girl had remarked.
Anyway, Tenten tiptoed to him, and in a swift movement, cut off a corner of his shirt. Smirking with her victory, she was about to sneak back to Hinata's room when a strong hand grabbed her wrist. Her eyes slowly revolved to him. It was –
Sasuke.
Her target.
She stared in disbelief at the fake as he disappeared with her to who knows where.
Well, actually, I do, but I'm not giving it away. Not yet, at least.
(Keep in mind that obviously, they aren't bad, but let's just say Sakura and her friends are playing a "game" of some sort, and it backfired!)
Hinata slowly stole towards a certain lazy genius. She reached forward with a shaky hand and seized his jacket. A hand stopped her from returning to their base.
Shikamaru was standing over her, a dull look on his face. "This is troublesome," he muttered, motioning to the scared-out-of-her-wits girl. "And I'd like my jacket back."
Ayame grinned. This would be a piece of cake! What kind of cake? Cheesecake! She drooled as she thought about the wonders of cheesecake. Cheesy cheesy cheesecake, the cheesiest of them all, cheesy cheesy cheesecake, the cheesy cheesecake of – here she thought a bit. Oh! I know! Kiba's dog! Yeah!
When she mentioned the dog-boy, that brought her back to reality. She needed to steal something of his, yes…
Ayame lunged forward, grabbed Akamaru off Kiba's lap, and made a run for it. However, she bumped into none other than –
Kiba Inuzuka.
How nice.
She gulped nervously. "Uh, hey, there's a – uh-"
"You're not fooling me with that one," he snapped, before tossing her over his shoulder and stomping off. "And, nice squirrel."
Megumi bit her lip. She was supposed to take something of that blonde guy, what was his name? Oh yeah, Naruto or whatever.
She slowly made her way towards him, wondering what to "borrow", when suddenly, she caught sight of a –
…cup of ramen.
Oh well, it was his, wasn't it? And she only needed to get something of his. That was it. Okay, you can do this, she thought determinedly. Megumi was about to reach out and take it, but was stopped by someone. She looked into sea-blue eyes.
Naruto glared at her. "No one takes my ramen," he hissed as he pushed her along the hall. Then there was no trace of them. Not one.
Sakura smiled. She knew what had happened. Every one of her soldiers had been taken captive, and it was all her fault. But that wasn't the reason of her smiling. She knew that Gaara had replaced each of them with a transformed clone. Gosh, he's gotten better, she thought. Makes me sort of think that I didn't improve at all. But, I did, and I've made up a lot of moves, too…
She took out several shuriken and threw them at the clones. And with six poofs, they disappeared.
Sakura stood up and calmly walked towards the door. "Gaara, Neji, quit hiding," she sighed.
Obviously aware if the fact that they'd been found out and that it wasn't just a random guess, Neji came into view. Gaara jumped down from his spot near the ceiling.
"Why did you come in?" he said monotonously. She shrugged innocently. "Tis all was a game, lord," she mocked.
His hands moved like lightning. (Since I have no idea what kind of stuff they do, I'm just going to make stuff up, so don't take it out on me! Geez.)
"Sand Imprisonment (duh, he doesn't mean to HURT or KILL her, just one of their spars for fun. And he knows that she's good)!"
Trickles of sand leaked in. Looking around, Sakura shook her head. "If you want a spar, might as well take it outside."
As if listening, the window flung open (courtesy of Gaara's sand) and the two jumped out from the three-story floor. Neji just stood there, slightly shocked.
He finally collected his wits and followed, after speaking with everyone else.
Down on the field, Gaara and Sakura were having fun showing off their new moves. Sakura blocked Gaara's sand attack with fire. (Uh, what beats sand?)
"Fire Element: Flame Arrows!" (Shrug)
Bursts of fire shot from her mouth, roughly in the shape of arrows. Gaara dodged most of them, to have one zip past him. His sleeve caught fire.
Sakura quickly counterattacked herself. "Water Element: Dragon Wave Technique!" Water from the lake nearby washed over, also effectively putting out the fire. There wasn't much damage either, considering the small size of the pond.
They were vaguely aware that Neji had brought the others out. The others were given a show, but the four girls were grumpy. Naruto, Shikamaru, Sasuke, Neji, and Kiba still watched over them in case they were to try anything funny.
Gaara and Sakura began hand-to-hand combat. They each delivered powerful kicks, punches, and hits, also dodging some or using them to their advantage. It ended when Gaara, with his fist in Sakura's strong grip, was kicked in the air. She leapt up with a jumping front kick and elbowed him in the side. Finally, she ax-kicked him back to the earth.
Ouch.
Sorry to those Gaara fans out there…
Especially one of my friends.
Oh, poor me, when she gets back from her vacation she's gonna –
Well, I'm not going that far.
Sakura's eyes widened and she squeaked an apology. Rushing over and pulling out a roll of bandages, she started ATTEMPTING to heal him.
But, the injury wasn't that bad.
He could take it.
"Hey, it's seven," Neji called. Sakura glanced at her own watch. It was seven, probably because the pillow fight lasted until six something, the mission was twenty minutes or so, and the spar took the rest of the time. Ah, what a nice way to start dinner.
The group made their way back to the house. They ate in the dining room, where there was only silence until Sakura spoke up. "What's this green thing?"
"Er, asparagus."
She blinked. "Excuse me?"
Hinata giggled. "You've never had asparagus before?"
"Uh, no. Say what. Can I just abandon this and eat ramen, if you have any?"
Naruto pumped his fist in the air. "OH YEAH! RAMEN IT IS!"
Everyone agreed that asparagus was not the best thing to serve at a sleepover.
So ramen it was.
No one complained, even though most had had ramen after school.
It was better than asparagus, at least.
At eight, the girls collected their stuff and flocked to the room where they were to sleep. Tenten, Hinata, Ayame, Megumi, and Sakura re-spread their sleeping bags as the boys came in. They shrugged and randomly lay down, making the wide space seem much smaller.
All eleven of them were BORED.
That was when Tenten came up with a suggestion.
"Let's play Truth or Dare."
Those five words made the boys cower. But they had no choice. It was either that or face Tenten's wrath.
So, they sat in a circle, Tenten deciding to go first.
"Kiba."
"Eh?"
He looked up.
"Truth or dare."
"Duh, I take dare! I'm not afraid of anything you shoot at me!
Little did he know about how wrong he was.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Tenten smirked. "If you don't do that, then…" she drew a finger across her throat in a rapid motion.
He gulped. "F-fine."
"Akamaru…" the dog barked to let him know that he was listening. "I… I… I…"
Tenten glared at him. "Hurry up and say it!"
"Okay! Akamaru, I hate you! I've always wanted a cat instead of a dog, since cats are much better. And forgive me!" he added hastily as the dog growled menacingly. "It was all her fault! She made me do it!"
Suddenly, Akamaru broke down in sobs. "Ruff arf! Bark, bark arf, ruff woof. Bark ruff woof arf."
…
Kiba understood him. "I'M SORRY! GOMEN! VERY VERY SORRY! SHE'LL NEVER MAKE ME DO THAT AGAIN! YES, I AGREE WITH YOU THAT SHE'S A SELFISH, SHORT-TEMPERED CAT-FAVORER!"
There was a dead silence. Sakura coughed a bit. "Um, Kiba, this is an English fic, how do you know Japanese?"
He shifted his eyes. "N-no reason." Then, he made a run for the door. "SPARE ME!"
Kiba, along with Akamaru, disappeared through the doorway, making everyone sweatdrop. A booming voice filled the room.
"KIBA. DO NOT RUN AWAY FROM YOUR FEARS. THOUGH, I COMPLETELY UNDERSTAND, AS I HATE CATS TOO."
Uh…
Kiba was thrown back into the room, bloodied up and beaten. "Help – me-"
He collapsed, unconscious. The rest of the group skulked over to where he was and poked at him. Naruto turned into a fox and started gnawing on his leg.
"Hungry…"
They stared at him. Naruto shuddered under the intense gaze and shrank back into his ramen-loving self.
"Eh? Why are you looking like that? What happened?"
Suddenly, he pointed behind Ayame. "EEK! THERE'S A MONSTER BEHIND YOU!"
"Monsters don't exist," she said matter-of-factly. "There's no such thing as a monster."
"Yes there is."
"No, there isn't."
"Uh-huh."
"Nuh-uh."
"Uh-huh."
"JUST SHUT UP, BAKA!"
That shut him up all right.
"Tenten, how come you also know Japanese?" Sakura wondered.
"Uh, I took Japanese classes before I came here?" She rubbed the back of her head, smiling nervously.
They shrugged. That was good enough for them.
"And about the monster."
"What about it?"
"Are monsters hairy, brown, and scary-looking? Do they have claws and huge tails?"
"In your imagination, then yes," Ayame sighed.
"THEN THERE'S A MONSTER BEHIND YOU!"
She slowly revolved on the spot as a flying fur ball catapulted towards her. Ayame made no move to dodge.
It landed just above her head. Was it really a mini-monster? Akamaru? Or just a smelly egg sandwich with wings?
It was Shuggo. He chattered endlessly as he hopped on Ayame's shoulder. Turning back to Naruto, she fumed.
"A monster, eh?"
He swallowed and furiously shook his head.
"N-no, not at all a monster! He's a furry, brown, uh, pie! Yes, that's it! Pie!"
Two seconds later he found himself flat against the wall with Kiba.
A/n: WOW! THIS IS LIKE THE LONGEST CHAPTER I'VE EVER WROTE. TO SOME OF YOU IT MIGHT NOT BE, BUT CONSIDERING IT'S ME, BE THANKFUL! READ & REVIEW PLZ! I'M UPDATING SO MUCH FASTER NOW THAT IT'S FALL BREAK. YAY!