Sakura had woken up early in the morning so that she and the rest of team 7 could give their report on how the mission went and so now she had nothing to do but walk around town and think about Sasuke and Naruto. She had noticed how through out the whole time that they were there both Naruto and Sasuke seemed really distracted. They had to be asked questions several times and when they finally did answer it was with only one or two words. This wouldn't have shocked her if it had been the old Sasuke, but now both of them made a point to answer the questions as well as they could except for this day. However, that isn't what shocked her the most. What shocked her the most was that neither of them even attempted to glance at the other as they usually did unconciously. She hoped they didn't get into another fight. That would ruin all the progress they had been making lately. Oh yea, she had seen how close they got to kissing during the mission, but then Kuyusuke had to go and mess it all up by calling out to Naruto.
She sighed. If only they would just confess to eachother then everything would be much better. She sighed once more.
"What's wrong Sakura?" asked Ino from beside her.
Sakura jumped. She hadn't even noticed the girl approach her. "It's nothing Ino," she said. Ino was still as beautiful as ever. That thought made Sakura realize that she didn't really talk to Ino much anymore. Now that they no longer had a guy to fight over, which Sakura was very happy about, they really only talked when they passed by eachother, which Sakura was unhappy about.
"Two sighs in a row usually doesn't mean that it's nothing," said Ino.
"It's just some problems with Sasuke and Naruto," Sakura conceded. She liked talking to Ino, but it was just so hard to be near her when they weren't together.
"Did they have another fight?" asked Ino remmebering one of the rather horrible fights that they had had when they were all still in school about Sasuke breaking a guy's leg in three different places for tripping Naruto. She couldn't even remember what they had said, but what she did remember was that after that Naruto had disappeared for a whole day and then for days they wouldn't even talk to eachother.
"I don't think so," answered Sakura, "There just acting weird."
"Ah so it's love troubles then," Ino smiled. "They should just confess to eachother and then maybe things won't be so weird between them."
"I know right!" Sakura exclaimed. Then she realized that those words didn't only apply to Sasuke and Naruto. They also applied to Ino and herself. All this time she had been waiting for Ino to confess to her like she did last time, but Ino didn't confess until years from now and she missed being with her. Maybe this time she should be the one to confess to Ino. If only she could just pluck up the courage to.
"You know," Ino said, breaking her train of thought, "We haven't hung out in a while. Maybe we should go do something now. It'll take your mind off of your teammates for a while."
"You know what?" said Sakura, "I think that's a great idea. God knows I've done nothing but worry about them lately. What should we do?"
"We could go shopping," said Ino. "Nothing's better to distract a girl than a whole bunch of random stuff with price tags on them."
"That sounds great," said Sakura. "I just have to go home and get my wallet."
"Me too," said Ino. "How about I'll meet you there in about an hour."
"Alright. I'll see you there." The two of them departed ways.
Sakura stared at her closet filled with pinks. She had been wearing her normal uniform up until this point, but she wanted to change into something that would look nice for Ino. She didn't want to look to nice, I mean they were just going to the shopping center, but she wanted to be able to catch the eye.
After about 10 minutes of staring at her closet she finally pulled out a cute little pink dress that had a beautiful black pattern swirling all over it and poofed out at the bottom just above her knees. She looked at herself in the mirror. The dress looked good on its own, but if she tried to add heels to it it would become to fancy. So instead she put on a pair of black combat boots that stopped just above her ankles. Then she put on a black jacket that covered the shoulders that her spaghetti-strap dress didn't.
'There,' she thought to herself as she looked into the mirror once more, 'now I have an outfit that I can wear. But now what should I do with my hair?' Her hair was to short for her to do anything that she thought of to do with it. As she was messing with her hair her favorite black hat caught her eye. "That's perfect!" she said out loud as she grabbed the berett and placed it on top of her head. For a moment she debated putting on make up, but then she decided that she only had enough time to get to the shopping center.
"I'm leaving now!" she yelled to her parents as she ran out the door with her wallet in hand.
She ran as quickly as she could, wanting to get there and see Ino as soon as possible, but when she neared the mall she began to doubt her idea to change. Ino was probably just going to remain in her normal clothes. The thought of going back and changing back into her old clothes then blaming her parents for delaying her crossed her mind, but as she got closer she saw Ino and realized that she had also changed. Ino was wear a sleeveless purple corset with a black crop top jacket and a black skirt that ended at her knees. She also wore a golden chain around her neck and black boots that reached to just below her knee.
"You look cute," said Ino when Sakura finally reached her.
"Thanks," said Sakura with a blush, "You also look very nice."
"Thank you," answered Ino. "You ready to go?"
"Yea."
They spent the whole rest of the day at the shopping center. Both of them got lovely clothes and both had been hit on by several of the guys. One guy was even bold enough to grope Ino's butt which got him two very strong hits to the head. Now they were eating dinner at one of the restaraunts nearby.
"So was our trip succesful?" asked Ino.
"What do you mean?" answered Sakura.
"Was our trip succesful in getting you mind off of your teammates?" said Ino.
"Oh yes!" gasped Sakura, "I totally forgot about that. I had so much fun hanging out with you."
"Oh no," laughed Ino. "I guess I shouldn't have brought it up then. Now you're going to be worrying about them again."
"Nah," said Sakura, "I think I'll wait to worry about them until tomorrow."
"You can't worry about them tomorrow," said Ino. "That's when the festival is."
"Festival?" asked Sakura.
"Oh yea. I forgot that you were on a mission when they made the announcement. They're going to be having a festival to welcome all the people that have come to watch or participate in the chunin exams."
"I never heard of that."
"I guess that means you don't have anyone to go with." Sakura shook her head. "Do you want to go with me?"
"Sure!" Sakura almost yelled in her excitement, but then she checked herself and said, "I would love to go with you."
"Cool," said Ino, "I'll come pick you up at 7 then."
"Alright," said Sakura. They waved to eachother and once more parted ways.
Sakura ran straight to Naruto's house from the shopping center. She was going to tell him everything about her not-date with Ino and about the festival. She always went to Naruto when something like this happened because she knew that, even though he would try to understand, Sasuke could never get as excited about things like this as Naruto could. Besides, Naruto could help her decide what she would wear tomorrow.
She knocked on the door as soon as she got there. When nobody came she knocked once more a little more quickly. Then, when still nobody came she just opened the door and walked right in. She was getting annoyed of waiting outside when she wanted to talk to Naruto right then. Naruto left his home unlocked for moments like this anyway. He had more than once told her that she could just walk in without knocking, but she always knocked anyway just to be polite.
As she walked into the house she saw Haku coming towards her. "Is there something wrong?" he asked her.
"No," she said confusedly, "Why would you think that?"
"You were knocking on the door so frantically we thought that something must be the matter."
"No. I just really want to talk to Naruto is all."
"Oh," said Haku, "Well he's up in his library at the moment if you'd like to go see him. Or I could go get him if you'd like."
"No," said Sakura, "I'll go to him." She waved at Haku and then quickly ascended the stairs to reach the second story of his 3 story mansion. When she reached the the library she threw open the door and yelled out Naruto's name.
Naruto, who was curled up in a large chair in the corner reading one of his scrolls that he had been collecting over the years, quickly looked up at her thinking that there was something wrong.
"I got to go to the mall with Ino today!" she said excitedly.
Naruto put the scroll down onto the small table next to his chair. "How did it go?" he asked.
"Oh, it was so much fun. Ino even got me a new necklace," she said as she took off the pink butterfly necklace that she was now wearing across her neck.
Naruto crossed the room and took it from her. "It is very pretty," smiled Naruto as he looked back at her, "but I'm assuming that you weren't with her when she got it."
"No," answered Sakura, "She told me that she was going to go to the bathroom and then when she returned she had this. How do you know?"
"Because these," he answered as he pointed to the shining jewels that were placed carefully within the butterfly, "are real jewels."
"What?" gasped Sakura.
Naruto laughed. "Let's go to one of the sitting rooms so that we can be more comfortable while you tell me about your amazing day with the lovely Ino."
They walked down the hallway together with Sakura talking animatedly about her day. She didn't even pause when they reached the room and Naruto held the door open for her. Naruto listened to her with a huge smile and a couple of words placed artfully here and there to encourage her to keep talking without rudely interupting her. It was only after they had been sitting for a while that she finally came to a close by saying, "and she invited me to go to the festival tomorrow."
"Festival?" asked Naruto.
"Yea," said Sakura. "Apparently they decided to have one to welcome all the visitors."
"I wonder what changed their mind," said Naruto curiously. They had never had a festival for the chunin exams before this one.
"I don't know," said Sakura quickly before changing the subject back to herself, "but I'm so excited!"
"Well that's good," said Naruto. Sakura very rarely only spoke of herself so when she did he made sure not to distract her with anything else. "What are you going to wear?"
Suddenly Sakura's turned into one of worry. "Oh know," she gasped, "I don't have anything to wear and I spent all my money today."
"You know what?" said Naruto. "I think I might have the perfect thing. Come with me and I'll show you." They left the room and this time it was Naruto talking while Sakura followed him curiously. "As you know I never got the chance to explore all of this house before so the other day, before we went on the mission, I decided to look around some more. I found out that I actually have an attic." While saying this he reached up and opened up a small wooden door hidden in plain sight and pulled a latch within it. A stair case hidden in the roof fell down before them and he ushered her into the attic. "I found some of my family's old things up here." He pointed to a beautiful pink satin kimono that had silver butterflies stitched neatly onto the cloth.
"It's beautiful," gasped Sakura, "Who's is it."
"I think it belonged to my grandmother on my father's side," said Naruto. "I think it would look beautiful on you, and you could even wear your new necklace with it."
"Oh thank you!" Sakura said excitedly giving him a large hug. "Now what am I going to do with my hair."
"If you don't mind," said Naruto, "I would love to do your hair for you."
"You are the bestest friend a girl could ever have," she said. "Who are you going to the festival with."
"Oh," answered Naruto, "I'll probably just hang out. Maybe Sasuke will be willing to hang out with me."
"I'm sure he will be happy to spend his time with you Naruto."
So i realized that i had only really been right about Naruto and Sasuke so I though i would put a chapter about Sakura in here and what better way then to have her with the woman she loves. i hope you like it