A/N: Hey there everyone! It feels like forever since I last updated! (I know, I know, I updated like last week!) Thanks so much for your great reviews and I know you all want Sakura/Lee, Sakura/Sasuke, Neji/TenTen, Shikamaru/Ino, Hinata/Naruto, Kiba/Hinata, Shino/Hinata, Naruto/Ino and a love triangle with Sasuke/Sakura/Neji. I still haven't made up my mind on the pairings yet. I'm so sorry!
Disclaimer: I never did own Naruto.
Chapter 4 - A dance in the moonlight
It was finally that day. The first night of summer and the night of the Paper Lantern Night festival. Sure, everyone in the village was still busy making last minute preparations, but the entire village was beautiful. It was to be mainly covered in paper lanterns and cherry blossoms.
Sakura woke up early that morning. If Ino hadn't given her that kimono, she wouldn't be this excited. Yay! Today's the first night of summer and the first night of the Paper Lantern Night festival! Sakura thought contentedly.
All of the young ninjas in the village were assigned errands to do from their instructor. All the teams' errands were to help out with the decorations.
"Sakura-chan, you finally made it!" Naruto called out happily.
Sasuke-kun just gave her a smirk that made girls faint. Sakura on the other hand, was resistant to it. She gave him a half-smile and walked over next to Naruto.
"When the hell is Kakashi-sensei gonna come?" Naruto asked Sakura with a hopeful smile.
"And what makes you think that I know that?" She replied.
"Let's see, Kakashi-sensei always praises you, he rescues you when Sasuke and I aren't there and...." Naruto said counting them off.
Sakura sighed loudly and Sasuke-kun looked over at her. He never realised it but he thought that Sakura actually looked pretty. With her cherry blossom coloured hair and her long slim white legs, she really attracted him to her. So he continued to stare at her back, until Kakashi-sensei came.
"WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU KAKASHI-SENSEI?! DON"T YOU DARE TELL US ONE OF YOUR EXCUSES!!!" Naruto and Sakura yelled together.
"Excuses? They really did happen to me! This time, if you're gonna ask me what happened, I was helping Gai-sensei with something," Kakashi said slowly.
"Liar!"
Sasuke-kun was still in his trance, until Kakashi-sensei snapped his fingers.
"What was that for Kakashi-sensei?" He asked furiously.
"You were in a daze and one question. Do you like like Sakura?" He asked curiously.
"Is that any of your business?" Sasuke-kun said turning light pink.
"Maybe not, but I'm your teacher and we notice things about you kids and your cheeks are turning pink, so I'll assume that you do," Kakashi said.
Oh crap. My teacher finds out that I have a thing for one of my teammates. This is bad, I mean last year I thought she was so annoying, but now I'm attracted to her? Oh boy, Sasuke-kun thought.
"Come on Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto already left to help out with the decorations," Kakashi pointed out.
"Fine sensei," Sasuke-kun replied.
Meanwhile....
"Look Lee, if you want to win a woman's heart, you must play the game hard to get!" Gai-sensei whispered to Lee.
"Sensei, I did that and she still thought that I was weird and a thick brows!" He whispered back.
"Idiot!" Gai-sensei said and punched Lee hard on his chin.
"Sensei!" Lee said sniffling and hugged his teacher.
"Lee youth is a hard time to go through, but if you take my advice, you can be just like me and you'll win your woman's heart!" Gai-sensei said and was doing his nice guy pose.
"Oh my god, I hope they don't humiliate us tonight, right Neji?" TenTen asked hopefully.
"Huh? What'd you say TenTen?" Neji asked.
TenTen picked up the lantern. "Never mind Neji," Where on earth is his mind today? I mean whenever I ask him a question he usually replies or scowls. Today, he didn't have a clue what I was saying! TenTen thought.
Not far from where Gai-sensei's team was working, Asuma and Kurenai's team were working together.
This is so troublesome; I mean working with Ino as my partner? Oh god, she's sending me death stares again, thought Shikamaru.
"Don't bump me; I'm trying to tie the lanterns up without you bumping me!" Ino snapped.
"I didn't!" Shikamaru pointed out.
"There, you did it again!" Ino snapped angrily.
"Ino, I didn't mean it...I'm sorry," Shikamaru said.
Ino looked into his eyes and ran off crying. She just couldn't face him again. Hinata who was one of her closest friends ran off to find her.
God, girls are so sensitive and emotional sometimes. Maybe that's why I like Ino...thought Shikamaru.
Hinata already knew what happened between her and Shikamaru, but she ran off to comfort her anyway.
Kiba, Shino and Choji all saw what had happened between Ino and Shikamaru and they were having a little discussion.
"Poor Ino!" Choji said worriedly.
"I'm beginning to think you like her, because ever since you heard about the argument you've been worrying non-stop about her! Wasn't Shikamaru your best friend?" Shino asked coolly.
Choji turned bright red. Shino was right. He did care about Ino, but also knew she liked Shikamaru and that he liked her back. He broke her heart and Choji was still mad at Shikamaru about that.
"I agree with Shino," Kiba said excitedly and Akamaru barked in agreement.
"Well, I might...have a crush on her..." Choji said nervously.
Kurenai and Asuma were doing some errands but were mainly spying on their students. They found out many things like Choji like Ino, Ino was furious at Shikamaru and Shikamaru was still hopelessly in love with Ino.
"Ahhhhhh!!!!! This lantern hurts!" Naruto cried.
"Naruto, if you knew how to put them up then you wouldn't be in this situation!" Sakura screeched.
Sasuke-kun looked at her admiringly. She could easily shut Naruto up.
"Sensei? How come you're not working with us?" Naruto asked curiously.
Kakashi looked up and saw Naruto's mischievous grinning face. Kakashi had a shocked look on his face. If Naruto saw the 'Come Come Paradise' book in his hands, Naruto would never stop teasing him about it!
"Sensei, is that a dirty book you have there in your hands?" Naruto asked playfully.
"This? Oh no Naruto. It's...a well book that all teachers must read on how to control students! Yes, that's it!" Kakashi said nervously.
"Oh yeah? Well, why is there a man chasing a woman on the cover and the letter 'R' on the back? You can't get yourself out of this one Sensei!" Naruto said happily.
"Naruto!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Kakashi yelled.
Later in the day....
"At last we finished all the decorations!" Sakura exclaimed.
"Hai!" TenTen, Ino and Hinata agreed.
They were all going over to Ino's house where they would all get changed into their kimonos and go to the festival with their masks on: a gift from their instructors. So after saying bye to the instructors, they made their way to Ino's house.
"Neji wasn't even yelling at me today!" TenTen told Hinata.
"Maybe he was thinking about tonight, that was all he could think about," Hinata replied.
"Really? Oh gosh..." Sakura said thinking about yesterday's incident.
Ino who was usually the loudmouth was unreasonably quiet today. All her friends knew about what happened between her and Shikamaru. So they didn't question her about her quietness.
"Welcome to my house guys," Ino said softly.
TenTen and Hinata had never been over to Ino's house so they were surprised to see a neat two storey house.
"Time for getting changed and then the masks!" TenTen cheered.
TenTen walked inside Ino's room to change. Sakura in the bathroom. Ino in her mum's room and Hinata in the guest room.
When they were done, they walked out at the same time to see the others kimono. They were all shocked.
TenTen was wearing a purple kimono with a yellow collar with a blue obi. This was the first time all the girls saw TenTen with her hair down. It was long and unbelievably shiny.
Hinata was wearing a dark yellow kimono with a big red flower on one of her sleeves. Her obi was a pretty light pastel pink colour.
Ino's kimono was red and made her creamy white skin look perfect. On her waist the obi (which was a lighter shade of red) hung perfectly on her.
Sakura was wearing a red kimono with white leaves on it. And her obi was orange and black. It suited really well on her.
"Oh my god TenTen, your kimono is so adorable!" Ino squealed apparently in high spirits again.
"Not as adorable as yours! It makes your skin glow a lot!" TenTen said.
"I love all your kimonos!" Said a content Hinata.
Now that all the fuss on the kimonos was over, they all went downstairs to get put on their masks.
"Tsunade-sama's idea for the masks was great!" Sakura said.
"I second that," said Hinata gleefully.
They all put on their masks and made their way to the village square where the festival was to be held.
"Damn it! This kimono won't get on me!" Naruto wailed.
"Idiot. Let me help you," Sasuke-kun said.
Kiba, Shino, Neji, Lee, Choji and Shikamaru were shocked. Sasuke-kun helping Naruto instead of mocking him? This was new.
"Thanks Sasuke," Naruto mumbled.
"Whatever Naruto," Sasuke replied.
All of them finally finished and they all put on their masks and made their way to the square.
"I want to dance with Sakura-san!" Lee said hopefully.
"No way, I'm dancing with her!" Naruto argued.
"Both of you won't know who you're dancing with. The masks. Remember now?" Neji said tensely. In his mind, he was hoping to dance with Sakura himself.
Kiba, Sasuke, Choji, Shikamaru and Shino didn't really care for who they danced with. They just wanted to see who their instructors would dance with. This was going to be a night to remember!
A/N: This was a real long chapter, so sorry if I stuffed it up. It took me 3 hours to write, but I hope you enjoy it! Til' the next chappie!