A very loud thud echoed through the southern part of the academy. A few eyes turned in the direction of the southern training grounds, where the sound emanated, only to go wide as they saw the giant tree that once stood there crumbling. Even from a distance; this was a scary sight to witness. But no one dared even take a step towards the place.

They didn't really need to get close to know what was happening, since the flaring chakras assured every one of who exactly was fighting. And given that those two were considered as two of Konoha's best, no one really wanted to venture getting caught in the cross fire.

So, the academy life proceeded normally, as everyone did their best to ignore the echoing crashing noises and the ominous and rather dangerous flaring chakra's that filled the place.

"Bastard!" Naruto roared as he once again launched at his best friend. However, the Uchiha parried a second before he was hit and Naruto once again hit a tree.

"Why the hell would you f***en tell me what you did if you don't plan on facing me like a man."Naruto screamed in outrage. "Stop running you bastard!"

He was surprised, however, when Sasuke did just that and was promptly punched in the face and flew like a mile backwards and was slammed against yet another tree.

Naruto quickly flashed over to the raven and lifted him up by the collar of his shirt. He drew him up and punched him yet again, his other hand keeping him in place so as to punch him again.

A few seconds passed by, and Naruto didn't stop and Sasuke who was by now bruised and bleeding wasn't showing any signs of inclination towards stopping the blonde or even shielding his face.

Naruto delivered one vicious punch after the other. Thoroughly unable to forgive his friend for listening to Anko and doing something like that to Sakura.

"You bastard!" Naruto grumbled under his breath. "I thought we were trying to protect her. If your brother didn't show up, what would've happened?" He howled. "What would you have done to her?" he added delivering yet another blow.

Sasuke said nothing. He just stood there, held up only by Naruto and took blow after blow.

"Temee!" Naruto bellowed, pummeling his friend yet again, his rage refueled by Sasuke's silence.

However, this time Naruto's fist didn't connect with Sasuke's face. Naruto looked up, his normally smiling face scrunched up in rage, only to discover that he was stopped by none other than his own sensei.

"Kakashi-sensei." Naruto acknowledged, drawing back as Kakashi pushed his fist away. The two then watched as Sasuke, who was just released from Naruto's grip slid down the tree trunk and landed on the ground, bleeding and badly hurt yet thoroughly impassive.

"Answer his question, Sasuke." Kakashi commanded. Say what you want about the man, but he was commanding when needs be and he knew how to run his team.

Sasuke looked up at his sensei and Anbu exam coach.

"What would you have done if Itachi-san didn't come?" He reiterated Naruto's question, obviously having had listened in to their entire conversation.

"I don't know." Sasuke said in an impassive tone, yet he appeared thoroughly distraught.

"The hell do you mean, you don't know. Would you have done what this woman asked you? Would you have slept with Sakura-chan?" Naruto questioned.

Sasuke fell silent.

"Sasuke?" Kakashi said in a low tone, but the underlining rage in his voice was unmistakable.

"No." Sasuke answered. "I would never consider forcing her to do something like that." He elaborated in a strained voice. "However, this doesn't make what I did excusable."

"No it doesn't." Kakashi said without missing a beat.

For his part, Naruto seemed to have calmed down a bit. Now instead of looking like he was about to kill someone he looked flat out sad.

"You're an idiot, Teme." He said desolately.

"I know." Sasuke concurred.

.

Three people stood around a breakfast table in the Uchiha manor's garden.

"Unacceptable." Was the nonnegotiable words uttered one Fugaku Uchiha.

"Fugaku-dear." Mikoto said in a sweet tone. "At least hear him out."

Said man scoffed; "While I was away, you have declared their engagement, and now you expect me to just tell everyone that it is off, because my son changed his mind." He said forcefully.

Anyone else would've been taken aback by this, but Mikoto merely smiled at her beloved husband.

"Give him a chance dear, Itachi's always been trustworthy; he has never let us down not even when he was a mere child. He deserves to at least be heard." She said kindly, throwing a sideways look at her son who was standing calmly by, completely unperturbed. "Itachi, dear, why do you want to cancel your engagement? Have you and Anko had a fight?" She questioned, before smiling mischievously. "Or maybe just maybe there's someone else, yesterday was Valentine's Day after all." She added with a wink.

"Mikoto." Fugaku hissed. How could she be that calm; this was a disaster and to think that his right arm, his pride and joy, was the one who was throwing it at him was just unbelievable.

"I do not wish to marry her." Itachi finally spoke, his infamous monotone unblemished by anything that was going on.

Mikoto rolled her eyes, *Typical.* She thought as she eyed her son. *He doesn't answer my question and won't even provide a reason.* She pondered, before cracking a smile. "You already have your mind set on this don't you?" She questioned.

"I have made my decision, yes." Itachi replied calmly.

"Unacceptable." Fugaku replied.

Yup, another typical reply.

Mikoto sighed.

"Fugaku-dear…" She started.

"I expected that much;" Itachi said interrupting his mother. "This is why I plan on taking this up with the clan council during the next meeting."

"And I plan on preventing you from getting your way at all costs." Fugaku shot back.

The Uchiha matriarch heaved a sigh, as she watched her husband leave on that final statement.

She turned to look at her elder son, and gave a motherly smile.

"She's gonna have her task cut out for her." She said enigmatically.

Itachi inclined his head forwards, "Pardon?"

"Sakura," Mikoto said simply. "But, don't worry dear; I'll train her so that she becomes an expert in dealing with you guys." She declared.

Itachi smirked, "An expert not unlike yourself." He said apparently not surprised that his mother managed to figure out exactly what he was hiding.

"Don't try to sweet talk your way out of this." She said in fake firmness. "You should've told me." She said feigning hurt.

"Do you not approve?" He questioned.

"Of course I do, Sakura-chan is a sweetheart you'd be lucky to have her." She said quickly. "But that's not the point." She added her expression now serious. "You do know what you're up against here, dear, don't you?" She said eyeing him meaningfully. "If the council refuses this…."

"It's fine mother." Itachi said, causing her to abandon the rest of her statement. "I am prepared for the worst." He said assertively.

Mikoto sighed.

*God I hope it doesn't come down to the worst.* She thought.

"Did you talk to Anko?" She questioned.

"Yes," He replied without missing a beat. "I did this morning."

.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru muttered for the hundredth time and Ino was starting to see a pattern to those muttering. He only said that whenever he had to twirl her. But, it wasn't really her fault, it's not like she was the one who choreographed the dance or something.

"Just shut up and enjoy the dance."She told her teammate.

"But this is just…."

"Troublesome, I know." Ino said crossly. "Everything is troublesome."

"I just don't understand why I have to do this." He said desolately. "I am an instructor not a student."

Ino grinned, "You should be proud to be helping Jiraiya-sama with his class." She said teasingly.

Jiraiya was attempting to teach his unruly students about mission etiquette. This class was dedicated to instructing them on how to slow dance, so as not to make complete idiots out of themselves on the dance floor. Shikamaru's assistance was enlisted given that the class was missing two boys, courtesy of the fact that Naruto and Sasuke went AWOL.

Speaking of idiots, right by Ino and Shikamaru's side, Sakura was dancing. Well, she wasn't really dancing, more like trying her best to avoid getting hit in the face by her partner, on whom the concept of slow dancing was completely lost.

The merry mass of green was floundering around the dance floor like a gasping fish, his arms failing around him as he displayed one disco move after the other.

Gai's mini-me was twirling around and shaking his ass, as he pointed at the ceiling.

"I'm so happy we get to go through this youthful experience together Sakura-chan." He cooed. "This is amazing." He added happily.

*Well, at least he's happy.* Inner Sakura commented snarky-ly, as Sakura nodded awkwardly, before ducking down to avoid being hit by Lee's arms, as he spread them out on either side of him and started twirling around.

Sakura twitched, as she watched some people making fun of her and Lee, pointing and laughing and all.

"Lee," Sakura started.

"Yes, my beautiful cherry blossom of perpetual youth and ever flourishing beauty." He replied.

*Whatever happened to saying 'yes Sakura'.* She thought as she smiled sweetly back at the boy, not knowing how else to respond to that. Not that she really got what it meant.

"Maybe we should try and take it down a notch." She suggested. She loved the boy, but this was just a tad too much.

"Take it down?"He repeated in a confused voice. "Oh," He added, his eyes lightening up.

A second later, Sakura's eyes widened as Lee literally took it down; to the floor that is. The guy started to squat, rather sexily on the floor, before getting to his feet and looking around causing his bowl shaped locks to flutter quickly around his face. He kept on repeating that move, completely unaware of the fact that almost everyone on the dance floor was staring at him. Some almost too stunned to even point or laugh.

And unfortunately, Sakura was amongst the stunned ones.

"You are right my pink cherry, this is a very youthful move indeed." He commented happily, as he repeated the move. "I can feel the blood flowing around my youthful body."

"I…." Sakura stuttered, her eyes fixed on him in somewhat of a stupor of morbid fascination. She then shook her head to clear her mind. "That's really not what I meant."She clarified. "I mean, maybe we should try slow dancing, you know." She suggested. "To the music and all." She added hopefully.

"The music." He repeated, looking around him in confusion.

Sakura scoffed. "You can't even hear it can you?" She said in exasperation.

"Not really." He said stopping to listen to said music. "It's too soft and slow," he surmised scratching his head. "It's not youthful enough for me to pay attention to it."He concluded.

"So, do you want to try slow dancing?" Sakura asked expectantly.

He considered her statement for a second. "No!" He said, regaining his 'youthful' enthusiasm, as he once again spread his arms by his sides, but this time he made like an airplane and started circling Sakura, while saying 'VOOOM' out loud.

Sakura twitched with anger, then she looked at her feet as people once again started laughing and her so called best friend chanted "Cute couple" over Shikamaru's shoulder.

"Isn't this much better Sakura-chan?" He exclaimed happily, as he circled her once more. "Come on, join me." He offered optimistically.

For her part, Tenten wasn't doing very good, but watching Sakura suffer; she was starting to feel better about her current situation. She has been paired up with Kiba.

He was hands down a very nice guy and a capable Shinobi, but apparently dealing with human's wasn't his forte, as he was fumbling around and stepping on her foot over and over again.

He was actually thankful that he got paired with Tenten and not some girly girl otherwise, she would've been crying in a corner by now.

Things got a little better, when Tenten started taking charge of the dance and giving the boy some pointers.

"What do we have here?" Came Jiraiya's voice from behind Tenten.

The intrusion caused the boy to lose his timing and once again step on Tenten's foot.

"I'm sorry." He apologized awkwardly.

"It's fine." Tenten said with a reassuring smile.

"My, My Inuzuka-Kun," The smooth Sanin started. "Don't go and hurt the lady."

"He really isn't." Tenten stepped in. "We were actually doing pretty well just now."

"Yah I saw that," Jiraiya said with a roguish smile. "But that's no good my dove."

"Why not?"Kiba questioned, scratching his head, he finally managed to go 30 whole seconds without hurting her. That has got to be a new record; doesn't he get any props for that?

"Because my boy, you need to lead your partner." Jiraiya explained. "Lead." He added swaying around with his hands in front of him as if he was holding a lady. "Can you do that?"

"Umm," Akamaru's master said eyeing the girl meaningfully. "I guess so." He confirmed, as Tenten did her best not to roll her eyes, as she knew that this was never gonna end well.

Kiba took a step towards the girl, before stopping and looking at the Sanin in confusion.

"Lead you partner." Jiraiya confirmed reassuringly, taking his hesitation as a sign of trepidation.

"Right; lead my partner." He said, scanning the girl from head to toe, before looking into her eyes confusedly.

Tenten scowled as if to say 'what?'

Kiba then raised a hand and put it on the girl's neck, causing her to raise an eyebrow.

A second later he withdrew his hand and started looking around her. He was acting as if he was looking for something. He even moved behind her and kept looking all around her.

"What are you doing?" Jiraiya finally spoke.

"Looking for the leash." Kiba said absently, as he continued to scan the girl.

"Leash?" Tenten questioned.

"If you're my partner then I can't lead you anywhere without it." He explained with a sincere smile, and found it very bizarre that the girl started looking at him as if he was a madman.

For his part, Jiraiya was barely suppressing his laughter.

"There is no leash." Tenten said, snapping at the boy.

"Yah and you have no collar either." He said pointing a finger at her neck. "What's up with that?" He questioned accusingly.

As a response the girl face-palmed as the respected Sanin doubled over in laughter.

Tenten then promptly turned around and started walking towards the other end of the room, leaving Kiba to stare blankly between her retreating figure and Jiraiya's doubled over one.

Tenten, however, has had enough, so she went over to stand by Hinata's side. Hinata told the Sanin that she wasn't feeling very well and that she needed to sit this lesson out. Accordingly, she was standing by the window sill, looking out at the adjacent garden with a tormented look in her eyes.

"Hey Hina-chan." Tenten greeted, happy to get away from the train wreck she was just in.

When Hinata just nodded in response, without even tearing her eyes away from the window; Tenten sighed.

"Oh, come on…" She said in a big sister sorta tone. "I'm sure it wasn't that bad."

At that Hinata blushed, and her expression became even more forlorn.

"It was, Tenten-chan." She said in a devastated tone. "I don't know what came over me. I just couldn't stop myself from telling him all those things." She said solemnly, apparently about to cry.

Tenten put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Maybe it was for the best." She said hopefully. "Maybe it needed to be done this way for him to finally realize how you felt. He might actually appreciate the knowledge." She soothed.

Hinata shook her head, her eyes watering up. "He ran out at the end of the evening last night." She said miserably. "I said too much and he got scared. He'll never want to talk to me again. I don't know how I could've done something like that." She added, now barely restraining the tears.

"I'm sure he wants to see you." She said empathically.

"He didn't even come to class today." Hinata countered.

Tenten was silent for a second. Well, you can't argue with that, he really wasn't here. She was about to throw in the towel and ask if Hinata wanted to go out for ice-cream, when out of nowhere she detected a hint of orange behind a tree in the garden that Hinata has previously been peering over.

The orange mass then started trying to get her attention, once Tenten focused on it, it, or better yet 'he' pointed towards Hinata.

Tenten smirked.

"Hina-chan." She started. "Maybe you should continue looking out the window." She offered.

Confused, Hinata who has been looking at Tenten turned to look out and she promptly saw Naruto.

The girl gave a sharp squeal of surprise, and Tenten had to physically restrain herself from laughing as Hinata jumped backwards and almost hyper ventilated.

For his part Naruto started making a few hand gestures.

"I think he wants you to go to him." Tenten concluded and Hinata blushed.

"You, do?" She said dreamily.

"Yah, well he can't come to class, since he's apparently ditching, so he's waiting for you behind a tree and wants you to come join him."She explained. "How romantic is that." She said with a big smile.

"I…I…." The other girl stuttered, as her eyes fixated on Naruto's form in the distance, and her mind started wandering, "He's just a vision in orange isn't he?" She said absently, before slapping a hand across her lips, shocked that she actually said that out loud.

Mentally rolling her eyes, Tenten raised an eyebrow before smiling, "Just go." She told her friend.

"Hai." Hinata said excitedly, thrilled by the fact that he actually wanted to see her after all what happened. She didn't really know what she could say, or whether she could face him without fainting but she just wanted to see him and that was all that mattered to her at the moment.

The girl then promptly raced out the door, pausing only to say "clinic" when Jiraiya asked her where she was going.

Tenten smirked.

*To each his own.* Tenten thought as she watched Naruto look expectantly around him.

Her attention however, was quickly diverted as she saw a bunch of red flowers resting on the window sill.

*How on earth did those get here?* She pondered, completely sure that they weren't there just a second ago.

Picking the flowers up, she actually blushed as her eyes quickly scanned the attached card and her mind promptly identified the scripter of the calligraphy.

'You are amazing'

Were the words etched on the card.

Tenten sighed, before promptly jumping backwards, as a hand shot out in front of her.

"I would be honored if I can share this dance with you." Neji said extending his hand to her.

Tenten blushed once more, before taking his hand, as the entire class started murmuring about the fact that Tenten just blushed, not only that, but she was also dancing with someone on her own free will.

Sakura smiled, as she scratched her nose and reeled from Lee's last dance move where he decided to twirl her around and then promptly throw her all the way across the dance floor.

"That's so nice." She cooed, having ended up next to Ino and Shikamaru.

The blonde smiled and nodded, while Shikamaru reiterated that this was, "Troublesome."

However Ino's face fell a second later. "Must be nice to like someone who's not an asshole." She muttered sadly.

Sakura sighed, but didn't have a chance to say anything, as her partner came and dragged her back to the center of the stage, where his disco moves were best highlighted.

Sakura's mind however, was a million miles away. She really didn't want Ino to know anything that happened with Sasuke. She had every intention of hiding it too. But when the blonde arrived mumbling about Sasuke last night, Itachi was still there. He was sitting by Sakura on the couch and reading the humiliating magazine called 'Uchiha weekly' as the girl tried desperately to pry it away from him before he read the so called 'Itachi Uchiha facts'.

When Ino asked him about the whereabouts of his brother, Itachi took it upon himself to fill Ino in on everything that Sasuke did, after leaving her.

Ino, naturally was devastated, as she actually thought for a brief second there that the younger Uchiha was a decent human being who actually cared for her. That's why she promptly excused herself and walked over to her room.

When Sakura started blaming Itachi for what he did, he merely smirked and said that it served Sasuke right and then he enigmatically added that this girl might actually be able to teach his brother a valuable lesson.

Sakura sighed, as she was hit in the face one again by an overly enthusiastic Jazz hand… Or in Lee's case 'JAZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ hand'

*I hope she feels better.* She thought as she rubbed her nose yet again.

.

Naruto and Hinata stood behind the tree. The odd thing was they were both looking anywhere but at each other. Hinata was blushing profusely and Naruto was playing nervously with a strand of his hair.

For almost 10 minutes nothing was said.

But Naruto finally decided to break the silence.

"Hinata-chan…" He started and the girl almost jumped out of her skin. "What you said last night," He said in a hesitant tone.

"I'm really sorry." She said bowing her head down in mortification, as Naruto finally turned to look at her. "I'm really really sorry." She added desperately.

Naruto's eyes went wide, a look of concern making its way across his face.

"P—Please don't be."He stammered, waving a hand in front of his face.

Hinata hesitantly raised her head to look at him. However, once they established eye contact, they both almost instantaneously blushed and looked away.

Yet another 5 minutes passed like that, before Naruto's blunt tendencies got the better of him. "Would you like to go out with me!" He literally screamed at the girl.

"H—Hinata-chan?" He muttered as he watched the girl collapse to the ground.

.

Hehe poor Hina-chan :D

Next chapter Sakura and Itachi take center stage and Ino and Sasuke face off! Wohooo!

Please Review.