Well, grab a coat cuz hell has officially frozen over, and if you're planning to go outside then watch out for the pigs flying gracefully as they celebrate the new day. That's but a fraction of how weird Shizune found this whole thing. The hockage's babysitter's grasp unconsciously tightened around little Tonton for fear that she too would join her fellow flying pigs for a tour around Konoha. Hell, if that happened she won't be surprised, not after arriving at 4 am in the morning to catch up on some delayed paperwork, only to find none other than Tsunade-sama waiting for her.

It's not that the fifth never really stayed in the office till this late, I mean quite a few times Shizune arrived to find the blonde hockage passed out on her desk from excess liquor. However, this was different. The hockage was awake. Not only that but she was also, and for the first time in years, sober. And to top it all off, she was WORKING!

Shizune had to take a few minutes to regulate her breathing patterns because she was running the risk of shock induced hyperventilation. Shizune then started pinching herself just to make sure that she wasn't seeing things. And finally, reconciling herself with the aforementioned fact of hell having had frozen over, she stepped into the office, only to once again come very close to jumping out of her skin when she realized that the hockage wasn't alone in the office.

"Oh, here you are," the hockage chirped. "Aren't you late today?" she said laughingly.

"Tsunade-sama….."

"Oh, cut her some slack Tsunade dear, not everyone's as punctual as you." The Hockage's best friend and the Uchiha's leading lady said playfully with a wink at Shizune.

"I-I…. I didn't know that I needed to be here early." Shizune said shyly. Now those were words that she never thought she'd ever have to say to her lazy superior.

At that the two elder women started laughing.

"Oh, no you weren't required to arrive early, dear." Mikoto said kindly.

"Actually, we weren't expecting you until much later on." Tsunade elaborated.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Shizune let herself relax a bit, before the confusion got the better of her. "I'm sorry but why are you two here?" She questioned before she could stop herself.

And at that, the two women looked up from the papers in their hands with sly smiles on their faces. The younger woman had to brace herself knowing full well that whenever those two got together trouble ensued.

"Well, today's a special day." The hockage said meaningfully.

"Huh?" was all Shizune managed.

"It's valentine's day, dear." Mikoto offered by way of explanation.

"And how awful would it be if we didn't make it memorable for all of Konoha's couples." Tsunade sang.

"I- I don't get it. What exactly are you two doing?" Shizune said dreading the answer.

"We, are putting together…." Mikoto started but stopped to exchanged a look with her blonde best friend, causing Shizune to shift her eyes back and forth between the two, before they both chanted in unison "A FESTIVAL"

"A-A F-Festival?"

"Yup." Mikoto said happily.

"I've already dispatched all available Jounin to start the preparations." Tsunade said pushing her giant breasts out proudly.

"You did what?" Shizune roared despite herself. "B-But why the Jounin? We need them for A-class missions and…" The poor medic started but trailed off as the two women once again flashed her two very unnerving Cheshire cat like smirks. "What?"

"Tsunade here has suspended all external missions for the day." Mikoto declared.

"SHE, WHAT?"

"Of course I did, it's Valentine's Day, and I want everyone to be here for the celebration. Plus, if I had sent the Jounin out on missions who would I have left to help put together the festival?" She questioned in a 'Dah' sort of manner.

Shizune's face went red with repressed rage. "Well, the Genin are…"

"Oh, come on Shizune." The esteemed hockage wined. "Do you really think Genin could handle such an intricate task?" She questioned, her eyes daring the younger woman to say yes.

"Ahem." Was all the medic managed. The hockage was lacking in many things, but temper wasn't one of them. And if poor Shizune were to question her right now, she knew for a fact that she would end up getting in a lot more trouble than she could possibly handle. Plus, the woman was actually working for a change. Granted, she just stopped all missions and grounded all Shinobi just to celebrate lovers' day, but at least she actually did something without being repeatedly prompted by her assistant and that in Shizune's book was enough of a consolidation prize in itself. So, for now, she was just going to grin and bear it and hope that the two smirking best friends don't turn the entire town into one giant kissing booth.

"Shizune, do you know a place where we could get kissing booths?"

"Oh God!"

.

Emerald eyes opened slowly and grudgingly. Their owner didn't really get enough sleep in lieu of the fact that she was up thinking all night and whenever her tyrannical mind allowed her body with a few moments of much desired sleep; it was only so that it could plague her with unfortunate dreams about the day to come.

Well, yes Sakura was happy about having been granted the opportunity to partake in the exams. And she was even more thrilled, and excited about the fact that the one and only Uchiha Itachi was the one to sign her up for it without even telling her. Hell, whenever she thought back to the events of last night where said Uchiha carried her out of the strip club only to inform her that he already signed her up for the exam she couldn't help but grin like the idiot she were.

He manipulated her into running around like a fool, in an attempt to get into the exam. He teased her and goaded her until her blood boiled and she vowed that she'd do anything to prove to him that she was worthy of being an Anbu. It was because of him that she ended up going along with Ino's crazy ass plan that almost got her majorly assassinated, or in her case majorly raped by a room full of women. The Kunoichi gulped at the thought of the strippers, before her mind once again drifted to the Uchiha.

The girl didn't know whether to be mad at him or to be extremely grateful and thoroughly infatuated. He saved her ass on this one. In fact he saved her ass many times before. And this time, he actually volunteered to be her tutor. And that was the reason behind her sleepless night.

*Hah, I should stop being a coward.* the medic told herself as she tossed her blanket aside and prepared to get out of bed. *I mean, I'm sure it won't be that bad.* She said in an attempt to ease her troubled mind.

*What the hell are you talking about, you moron?* her inner self shot back hysterically. *He's one of the most powerful Shinobi around. Did you see the way Sasuke used to look after training with him? He almost killed his own younger brother while simply training with him. Could you imagine what he'll do to you while he's training you! We're screwed! RUN!* Her other self pushed on, before running frantically all over Sakura's mind.

Sakura rolled her eyes. *It's no wonder I can't sleep with you running around like that all night.* She said with a sigh.

Inner Sakura stopped momentarily and looked somberly back at Sakura, *we're gonna die.* She said sadly.

*We-are-not-going-to-die.* Sakura said, spacing her words out as if talking to a child. Indeed this was like the hundredth time she has said those words to her inner self. However, said alter ego refused to believe this, which seemed to annoy Sakura even more.

Sakura twitched, *Calm down.* She said in an attempt to ration with her annoying self, *I'm the hockage's apprentice after all, even Itachi-san seems to acknowledge me, come on I should be more than able to keep as alive during this training session.* She said smugly. And for a second the two fell silent as they regarded each other, inner Sakura looking rather confused. *Don't you have any faith in my abilities.*

*Hell No!* Inner Sakura declared without missing a beat.

A second later, *WE'RE GONNA DIE!* She screamed once again, as she resumed her frantic trot.

"Just forget it." Sakura said as she lost all hope of getting her other self to believe in her. The girl shot out of bed and made her way towards the bathroom. Even though it was 4 in the morning and her appointment with Itachi wasn't for another 2 hours, she decided that it would be better to get up and busy herself rather than spend more time attempting to sleep only to be kept awake by inner Sakura's incessant ramblings and her brains traitorous portrayals of her getting her ass kicked by Itachi while Naruto and Sasuke declare that they knew this would happen all along.

After a quick shower the girl put on some pajamas and decided to go fix herself some breakfast. It was better to start getting ready for this session as early as possible, as Sakura really didn't want to run the risk of being late to a training session with Itachi. Plus, all the busy work that went into getting ready, seemed to provide Sakura with a distraction from inner Sakura's pleas for her to start writing her will.

Sakura stepped outside of her room, and into the small living room that was part of her and Ino's living quarters. Sakura's main aim was to make a beeline for the fridge that stood in the middle of said room and find herself a snack bar or a sandwich or something, that alongside a decent cup of tea was all the girl needed to start her day and put her worries to rest.

As always, Sakura received the same greeting she got every morning, "Your hair is despicable." Was Ino's daily declaration. However today something was different.

The second she stepped into the living room she had to stop and blink confusedly, "what are you guys doing?" she promptly questioned, as she was greeted by the sight of Ino, alongside Hinata and Tenten. The three of them appeared to be thoroughly disheveled. Well I guess a better term for their appearance would be that, *they look like hell.* Inner Sakura commented and Sakura couldn't help but agree.

Each of the three girls had a huge plate in front of her and they each appeared to be fumbling with a bunch of random objects. Sakura's curiosity peaked as she regarded the three girls.

"Good morning Sakura-chan." Hinata greeted shyly, or dare I say drunkenly. "We didn't mean to disturb you so early."

"Oh, you didn't Hinata. I woke up because I have a training session, you know." Sakura had already informed Hinata about the previous day's events when she arrived the day before. Ino and Tenten hadn't arrived from the strip club yet, so Sakura asked Hinata to inform them about what happened with Itachi, and tell them that Sakura had to go to sleep early because of the training session.

"Ahhh, the training session." Ino sang. "Now isn't he a true gentleman." She commented happily, before her face changed, "why couldn't his brother be more like him, the jerk!" she added, as she tore a piece of paper she had in her hand and threw it into the plate in front of her.

Sakura was even more confused than before. *Did she just tear up Sasuke's picture and throw it into a plate filled with water?* inner Sakura questioned. "What are you doing?" Sakura asked her obviously drunk friend.

"We're doing Voodoo." Tenten said happily. And from the tone of her voice Sakura could tell that she too was drunk.

"Umm, huh?" Sakura said, addressing Hinata, having figured that she'd be the one most likely to provide her with an understandable explanation, given that she appeared most sober.

"Oh, well Sakura-chan yesterday Ino-chan ran into Sa- I mean that guy, and he really annoyed her by making her leave the strip club by force." Hinata started.

"He what?" Sakura questioned. "That really doesn't sound like him."

And just like that the three girls started telling Sakura about how Ino snuck out of the club and changed only to come back and find an irate Sasuke ordering her to leave and how he brought her home against her will. They also told her how Tenten came by to kill Ino for leaving her in the club and how Hinata came by to fill Ino in on what happened with Sakura.

By the end of their little tale Sakura was even more confused than before. "And then you three ended up drinking the night away." She surmised, while the three girls nodded. "I'm sorry, but how does that explain the voodoo? And what are you doing anyway?" She questioned.

Tenten beamed, "well after Ino and I fought for a while we realized that we're all miserable."

Ino nodded her approval, and when Sakura seemed as if she didn't understand what they were talking about she elaborated, "it's Valentine's Day and none of us has a date." She said firmly. "And as a matter of fact, we're all failures when it comes to love."

"Failures?"

"Yup" Ino and Tenten said in eerie unison while Hinata nodded discreetly.

"Take for example Hinata here; she likes that idiotic orange mess, Naruto." Ino said bluntly.

Hinata blushed, "Ino-chan please don't call him idiotic….."

"Well, he is, the only thing that idiot knows how to love is ramen, other than that he won't know you liked him even if walked up to him and gave him the smooch of a lifetime, he'd probably think he had something on his face and you were trying to get it off." The blonde said sharply, causing Hinata to blush even more and then innocently pout.

Sakura couldn't help but feel sorry for the girl. Her best friend while very kind and caring was rather dimwitted for the most part.

"And Tenten here is mostly a man." Ino said simply.

"WHAT?" Tenten replied crossly.

"I said 'mostly'" Ino said innocently.

"I'm not a man, it's just that I'm not good at that flirting thing." She said honestly.

"And that's probably why you'd never ever manage to get that white eyed freak you like so much." Ino accused, and to Sakura's utter fascination Tenten actually blushed.

"Tenten, is it true that you like Neji?" Sakura questioned, she had her doubts of course but because Tenten acted serious almost all the time, and never really showed an ounce of interest in her longtime teammate Sakura had absolutely no way of telling.

"Of course she does, but she doesn't even have the nerve to wear a dress in front of guy, let alone talk sexy to him. As I said; practically a guy." Ino said with no small amount of rudeness. *It seems like the alcohol's highlighting her best attributes.* Inner Sakura weighed in and Sakura mentally conquered.

"Well, how about you?" Tenten said irritably, the liquor was getting to her as well. "You spent almost your entire life infatuated by a jerk who's now dating your best friend." She said victoriously.

Ino looked offended and for a lack of a better comeback she shifted her attention to Sakura, "well she's in love with an engaged man." She said bluntly. "Hell, she doesn't even know she loves him, idiot thinks she's just attracted to the guy." She added causing Sakura's eyes to go wide.

"Hey….. what do I have to do with this?"

"You're a loser too." Tenten said drunkenly.

"That is true Sakura-chan." Hinata said uncharacteristically, liquor really was a weird little contraption.

"And we're all probably going to spend our lives alone." Ino declared.

"We could get cats." Tenten suggested.

"I like cats." Hinata weighed in.

"Guys you don't need cats I'm sure everything will end up fine…" Sakura started.

"Oh, spare me and pull up a chair and join us." Ino ordered. "Bring a plate and fill it up with water too."

"What?"

"For the voodoo." Hinata offered.

"For the millionth time, what voodoo?" Sakura questioned.

"We have all the mementos we ever collected from the guys we like, right here." Tenten started.

"And we're drowning them in water to declare to the world that we're too pretty to be bound to them anymore." Ino explained, before pausing for a second, "Or at least I am too pretty, you guys are decent looking." She added as an afterthought.

Before Tenten could reply, or Hinata could pout, Sakura interjected, "aren't you guys supposed to burn this stuff not drown them?" She questioned confusedly. *That's what they do in movies anyway.*

"We have no stove." Ino said somberly, "I would've really liked to burn them, but we decided to drown them and freeze them, as an alternative."

"What do you mean no stove, couldn't you have just used a fire juts…" Sakura started but quickly backpedaled, *what the hell am I doing, I should just be thankful that their drunken minds didn't burn down our room.* "Oh, I mean it's very smart to just drown them and freeze them." She said nervously, throwing in a fake smile as a camouflage.

"Well, will you join us?" Tenten questioned hopefully.

"Pass."

.

Sakura breathed a sigh of relief once she was out of her dorm room. She decided to skip breakfast just to avoid having to join in on her friends' Valentine day's glum festivities. If she wanted someone to bring her down and make her feel like crap about her love life, all she had to do was turn to inner Sakura and the brat would be more than happy to oblige her. *Thank you very much.* Sakura said waving a hand in front of inner Sakura who was jumping excitedly at the prospect of sharing her thoughts with Sakura.

Still the girl felt sorry for her friends. The three of them were really good people in her book, and it was such a shame that they had to be so miserable on such a day. Not that she was a big believer in Valentine's or anything, but they were, and apparently to them it was a big enough thing, for the three of them to end up drinking themselves into doing voodoo. *I wish I could help.* Sakura thought grimly, as she stepped outside her dorm building.

*Oh, you can't even help yourself.* Inner Sakura said snidely. *Not to mention that you're even worse than any of them. You love an engaged man, who is moments away from beating your ass into the ground.*

*What? I don't love….ah…. and I won't be beaten….., haven't I told you that I didn't need to hear your thoughts on my life.* Sakura said crossly, having decided that a conversation with her inner self was the last thing she needed at the moment. Especially that she was seconds away from reaching the training area where she was supposed to meet Itachi.

*Well, that's not your choice now is it? My views are a bonus service that I offer, alongside a constant reminder that you have absolutely no sense of style.* Sakura's alter ego said with a smile.

*Please don't interrupt me while I'm trying to ignore you.* Sakura berated, yet her attention was drawn to something. The pink haired Kunoichi was caught off guard by all the red. Red balloons, red ribbons, red hearts, red teddy bears, red roses, red EVERYTHING.

*It's like the entire country got puked on by a giant angry strawberry.* Sakura thought humorously.

*What? You don't find the thought of a huge angry strawberry barfing, even the slightest bit amusing?* She asked inner Sakura, as said inner self was haughtily rolling her eyes at her.

*Alongside your nonexistent sense of style, and your supernatural gift for alienating men, you also have no class.* Inner Sakura declared snobby.

*At least I'm not a hallucination.* Sakura shot back.

*Why you ********#* Sakura ignored the rest of her inner's rant in favor of focusing on the red scene that currently surrounded her.

"Who could do such a thing?" Sakura asked no one in particular, before realization dawned on her as the image of a certain busty hockage came to mind.

.

A few seconds later, Sakura arrived at the training grounds. And in lieu of the fact that she had skipped breakfast and opted to run out of the house, the girl was 30 minutes early to her training. This gave Sakura a sense of relief given that she would have the opportunity to get a feel for the place before Itachi arrives.

Sakura walked in calmly and sat herself under a tree breathing in the scent of the early morning, untainted air.

Sakura allowed herself one drawled out sigh.

"It's too early to sound so tired, Sakura." Came a lilting tenor from above her.

If it wasn't for years upon years of experience with her crow like sensei and his insane ability to just magically appear on top of trees, Sakura would've jumped at the sound of Itachi's voice. Instead the girl looked up, still maintaining her relaxed posture. "It's never too early to attempt to relax Itachi-san." Sakura said earnestly.

At her words Itachi jumped off of the tee branch and landed in front of her, the girl absently noticed a giant sack like bag flung carelessly over his shoulder, which her brain instantly chalked down as a bag filled with weapons to be used to make her life even harder. "Are you nervous about training, Sakura?"

"Yup." She once again opted for the truth; after all it won't do her any good trying to lie to him, since somehow she was sure he always knows just what she's thinking. Call it paranoia but those all seeing eyes of his always gave her the feel that he could see right through her.

For his part Itachi raised an eyebrow. Her honesty came as a rather refreshing change to the Uchiha prince. In a second, said prince inclined his head forwards a challenging look in his eyes, "Would you like to quit, Sakura?" he questioned teasingly.

Sakura raised her head slightly, "Never." She said forcefully. "I'm gonna do this regardless of how nervous I am." She said with determination.

Itachi's eyes remained fixed on the girl, who's emerald orbs were twinkling in the early sun light.

"I see." He intoned. "But won't that nervousness hold you back, Sakura? It isn't my intention to go easy on you."

"I never asked for that." Sakura replied getting to her feet. "And I'll be just fine, thank you very much." She added folding her arms under her chest, vaguely aware of just how childish she looked at the moment. Anbu captain or not Sakura really didn't want to be cut any slack, as a matter of fact the only thing she wanted was, "Itachi-san." She started again, adopting a confident posture and looking the man dead in the eyes, "like you said before I need to be deserving of getting into Anbu. That's why I'll never ask you to go easy on me." She said sounding a lot more serious.

"Hn." Was Itachi's reply, before he turned away and started walking to the middle of the training grounds.

Sakura balled her fists the moment the Uchiha turned away. *Oh, how that 'Hn' of his annoys me.* She thought darkly as she followed him. *I make a five minute long speech, showing my courage and guts and all he has to offer is one word.* She added, her legendary quick temper mentally flaring.

*Try one sound, that was barely a word.* Inner Sakura offered helpfully.

Sakura was so busy with her mental tantrum that she completely missed the fact that Itachi decided to come to a stop once he reached the middle of the training ground. This caused the girl to walk right into Itachi's back, causing him to drop his giant sack.

Sakura backed away quickly, her hands shooting up to her face to touch her nose, "ouch" she said distractedly, while Itachi turned around to give her what could only be termed as the mother of all impassive looks. *Oh, he's gonna kill us.* Sakura concluded swiftly.

*What? Do you mean to tell me that he's not used to morons walking right into his back. Who has he been training?* Inner Sakura said sarcastically meriting herself a punch square in the face.

*Now your nose hurts too.* Sakura said victoriously, with a saccharine sweet smile.

"Sakura," Itachi started, more than ready to reprimand his newest student, however, he stopped once the look on her face changed from that of a deer stuck in the headlights, to a surprised look, and then to a look of someone barely able to contain her laughter, as her eyes fixated on something behind him.

The Uchiha heir turned around dangerously; ready to decapitate whoever was distracting her from his aptly worded put down. However, a second later he froze feeling Sakura's eyes on him.

When Sakura bumped into Itachi he dropped his giant bag. Sakura, who was expecting it to be a bag filled with dangerous and destructive weapons wasn't prepared at all for seeing a bunch of cute pink teddy bears, red flowers and boxes of chocolate roll out of the bag.

One glimpse at the teddy bears littering the floor and Itachi turned back around to face Sakura.

The Anbu captain's eyes narrowed dangerously, as he watched the girl valiantly struggle to restrain herself from breaking into a fit of laughter. Somehow the idea of Uchiha Itachi carrying around teddy bears was gut wrenchingly hilarious to the young medic.

Itachi's eyebrow twitched as a few stifled giggles escaped the girl's throat.

*Don't laugh.* Sakura pleaded mentally. However, this was proving to be very difficult, given that Itachi's narrowed eyes and unusually tense posture made the whole thing that much funnier.

The girl's survival instincts told her that it wouldn't be a good idea to laugh right now.

*The hell with it!* the medic thought as she threw caution to the wind and proceeded to double over in laughter.

Itachi tried to fix her under a venomous glare, but all he ended up doing was make her laugh even harder.

"I would have you know Sakura, that it is not a good idea to laugh at your instructor." Itachi said venomously. For the life of him the Uchiha prince wasn't used to being laughed at. As a matter of fact, as far as he knows; no one has ever laughed at him before, and most definitely not to his face, and what was more certain was that no one has ever proceeded to point at him while doing it as if he has just sprouted a new head.

Adored, coveted, envied, feared, respected, admired, but never ever, laughed at.

*Isn't he cute when he's all flustered and stuff.* Inner Sakura cooed.

For her part, Sakura who was still struggling to contain her laughter, couldn't help but agree.

"Sakura." The Uchiha heir hissed, however to no avail.

In a minute Itachi lost all hope and stood silently glaring at the girl who started drawing in deep breathes to try and calm herself down.

Posture square, eyes cold, and with arms crossed in front of him Itachi stood there regarding the girl. His eyebrow twitching every few seconds, was the only thing giving away just how annoyed he was at being laughed at and according to Sakura this made him that much more attractive than he normally is, which is just unfair given just how attractive he normally was.

For his part, Itachi was starting to wonder whether this girl was scared of him at all.

"Are you done?" Itachi asked coldly after a few minutes.

Sakura nodded her head, having finally regained her bearings.

For a second, Itachi just regarded Sakura, before he decided to elaborate.

"They are part of a mission." Itachi started, before glaring at Sakura once again because she was once again very close to breaking into a fit of laughter.

"It's fine Itachi-san." Sakura said waving a hand in front of her face. "If you like teddy bears then who am I to… hahahahaha…"

Once again Itachi twitched and masterfully tuning Sakura's last comment out, he pushed on, "all Jounin are supposed to assist with the festival preparations." He paused, "you will be assisting too after this training is over."

"Huh?"

"Those are hockage-sama's orders for tonight's festival."

"This day really is annoying." Sakura surmised addressing no one in particular.

"In fact it is overwhelming in its capacity to annoy." Itachi said darkly, eyeing Sakura meaningfully.

Sakura felt her blood run cold. *Way to go idiot, now he really is going to kill us.* Inner Sakura berated.

"Is there a reason why you despise this day, Sakura." Itachi questioned as an afterthought. Somehow, Sakura didn't seem like the kind of person who would be cynical enough to despise Valentine's Day.

"Oh, I don't." Sakura, said surprised that he would actually care enough to ask about what she felt, especially after she just pissed him off like that. "It's just that, this day has a way of making people feel miserable." Sakura said, thinking back to the state she left her friends in.

"Miserable?" Itachi questioned. "Are you….."

"No, no it's not me." Sakura elaborated rapidly, the last thing she wanted was for him to think she was desperate, not that she had any reason to care about what he thought or anything. "It's Ino Tenten and Hinata, my friends you know…. I was just thinking that I would really like to help them out." She said quickly but couldn't help but feel like she said a bit too much.

"I see." Itachi said apprehensively. "And how do you plan on helping them, Sakura?"

"Ummm, I don't know yet. But I guess there must be a way to get them together with those they like I mean…."She started but trailed off not knowing what to say next.

"Are you sure you want to do that, Sakura?" Itachi questioned impassively.

"W-what do you mean?" Sakura asked after a long moment. "Why would I not want to help my friends?" She added in confusion.

For a second, Itachi just regarded Sakura, before explaining, "I was under the impression that the one Yamanaka-san desires is my brother, Sakura." Itachi said in monotone.

Sakura looked as confused as ever.

"Umm, I don't see the problem, she's my friend and I want to help her be with the guy she likes." Sakura said earnestly, before realization dawned on her. *Oh, God, Sasuke is my boyfriend now, and I just said that I want to help Ino get together with him.* She finally caught up to Itachi's train of thought.

*And strangely enough, this isn't the weirdest thing you've ever said.* Inner Sakura teased.

Itachi raised an eyebrow. "I take it you don't care that much for my Ototo, Sakura." Itachi said, and for a second Sakura could swear that she saw his onyx orbs glisten in the early sunlight.

Sakura fell silent for a second, before opting to say the truth, "he's one of my best friends." She said earnestly.

"Is that all, Sakura?" Itachi questioned.

"I really don't want to hurt Sasuke-kun by saying something like this, I mean he said that….."

"I will help you." Itachi cut her off, his eyes darkening considerably.

Sakura was taken aback for a second, by his strange declaration, as well as by the sudden change in his demeanor, from light and slightly annoyed to serious and utterly dangerous.

"H-Help me?" The girl parroted confusedly.

"Yes, I shall assist you in making your friends happier, Sakura." Itachi said in a professional tone.

"You really don't have to. It's not like I have a plan or something…"

"Leave that to me." Itachi interrupted once again. "I assure you, Sakura, that by the end of tonight's festival Hinata Hyuuga and Uzumaki Naruto, Tenten-san And Neji Hyuuga…."

"Hey …. W-Waaait, I never said that those were the guys my friends liked, it's not that they don't like them I mean…."

"And most importantly my brother and Yamanaka Ino will be together." Itachi finished darkly, his eyes cast far into the future, as he completely ignored Sakura's little rant.

"Umm, h-how will you do that?" Sakura asked despite herself.

And as a response Sakura received a very unexpected answer, she got a sexy as hell flat out smirk from the master of stoicness himself.

"If you survive this training Sakura, you will have a chance to know." Itachi said darkly, before his eyes bled crimson.

*Oh, Shit.* Inner Sakura declared before making a run for it.

Well, I planned on having the entire training and the entire V-day festival in this chapter, but then I realized that this would make me a horrible author who's just rushing her story through. Accordingly, next chapter will have the training session, and hopefully part of the festival (I say hopefully)

I hope you guys liked this chapter. And many thanks go out to those who reviewed the last one.

Did you guys know that Tenten's last name was never revealed in Naruto o.O I sure didn't.

Anyway, please let me know what you think.

Until next time ;)