Author's Opening Rant- n.n Thank you guys SO much! Your reviews are absolutely wonderful! I can't thank you enough, all of you! I am very happy with the way that this story has developed, and I am incredibly happy that you guys appreciate it as well!

As always, thanks for the input! The great thing about this fic is that I started typing without having a clear ending, so it's been able to change and adapt as I went along! The beautiful thing about Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto is the way it goes from light and hysterical to so serious you could choke—I hope I've captured some of that essence. I've tried to!

Also, I'll try to alter my phrasings. I realize it gets a little redundant after a while; I'll keep that in mind.

And yes, Gaara would make a lousy advice columnist! ::Snicker::

Chapter 13- Approaching Dead-line

"Tomorrow night, tomorrow night…I HAVE to ask her by tomorrow night!"

"Arf!"

"I know, I know! There isn't a lot of time left! What should I do?"

"Arf! Arf arf arf!"

Inuzuka Kiba lifted his head from his hands, smiling down at his little white dog, "You're right, Akamaru! I can't give up this easily! I'll just march up to Hinata and ask her! What's the worst that could happen?" Akamaru whimpered, meaning that there was a lot that could happen…and all of it was pretty bad. But Kiba didn't notice, or he was just trying to stay as optimistic as possible about everything, and just lifted himself out of his crouched position by one of the festival's many food booths, "Alright then! Let's get moving Akamaru!"

"Arf!" the puppy jumped up, taking his usual perch on Kiba's head as the little Gennin set off for the Hyuuga mansion.

Not two steps later, Kiba caught sight of Aburame Shino mingled in with the crowd of festivalgoers. Shino turned and stared right at his teammate, pushing his dark glasses up the bridge of his nose with a finger. Kiba froze, "Gahhh! Akamaru, it's Shino! That traitor's been trying to keep me away from Hinata for a little while now!" Kiba's face went green, recalling the whole 'my bug burrowed under your skin' episode earlier in the week, "We'd better find another way. We'll take the secret short-cut to Hinata's house."

"Arrrf…" Akamaru yipped an agreement.

The Inuzuka heir slowly backed away, making sure that the bug shinobi wasn't going to follow. When he thought Shino's gaze had left him—though, really, how could anyone tell?—Kiba whirled around and ducked down an alleyway. He smirked triumphantly to himself, already starting to mentally compile exactly what he would say to Hinata when he found her. It was turning out to be a brilliant speech in his mind, but again, Kiba stopped dead. Not halfway to the Hyuuga mansion, Kiba found himself face to face with the redheaded sand Shinobi Gaara. A cold jade gaze fell on Kiba as Gaara lifted a hand, slowly closing his fingers, a clear threat to unleash his Desert Coffin technique on the dog-trainer. Kiba instantly turned on his heels and walked rapidly back to the festival grounds, sweating bullets from the encounter. Once he was as far as he could be from the diminutive sand ninja, Kiba released the nervous breath he had been holding, "Geeeeez. It's like we're being watched, Akamaru!" The puppy had climbed down from his master's head, curling up just under Kiba's chin, tucked inside of his shirt. Yep, Gaara was a scary person to run into down a dark alley all right. Kiba reached a hand up and scratched his head through his hood, "Man…Why's everyone taking that moron's side?" He took a moment to think this over, and then answered himself, "…Because Hinata is obsessed with him and would die to go to the dance with him. Ahh, man…" Kiba lowered his hood, reaching up to scratch Akamaru behind the ears as he took a seat on a few crates of festival food. He lifted his eyes to stare up at the dark gray sky, wondering if maybe he shouldn't just let the short little bastard take Hinata. Not that Naruto deserved it, mind you, but it would certainly make the shy Hyuuga girl smile. And what a nice smile she had. Wait a minute—what was he thinking?! Let Naruto take her?! Kiba at once shook his head and jumped to his feet, fists balled up in conviction, "Grrrrr, NO WAY! I'm gonna go to the dance with Hinata no matter what!! And then I'll kill that little runt!"

There was a very dry "Ahem." behind him, and Kiba slowly turned to see Shino standing and staring dead at the dog-trainer.

Kiba couldn't decide which thought he hated worse: Being squished by sand or being eaten by bugs, "Uhhh….h-hey, Shino." The sky suddenly rumbled, and a light spray of rain came cascading down. Kiba tugged his hood back into place as he, Shino, and a majority of the festivalgoers went scattering for cover.

With just a day left to prepare for the big dance, many of Konoha's upper level ninjas were hurrying to finish the preparations. Torches had to be set up for light, room had to be made for a dance floor, and the bags of leaves had to be arranged for the bonfire. The whole thing was a pretty big production and already had the Hokage loosing her mind—though not her voice—but the onset of rain only made things harder.

Tsunade stood barking orders, a hand full of carefully drawn plans held over her head to offer some cover from the rain, "Damn it, Kouji! Line those up right! Izumi, Takeda, I want there to be a PILE of leaves, not a random mess! GAI, STOP DANCING AND GET TO WORK!" Many of the ninjas scurried to get their appointed tasks done, terrified of what the Hokage would do to them if they did it wrong.

Seeing that the Hokage was about to explode in a rage, Shizune skipped over to her to offer some calming advise, "Tsunade-sama, please calm down. Everything will get done on time and—"

"You're damn right it will!" Tsunade bit back, already way beyond help. Her angry glare went from her assistant upwards to the clouds, "And this rain had better STOP!"

Iruka, another one of the last minute helpers, joined Shizune in a feverish attempt to calm the crazed Sennin, "Please, Hokage-sama, there is no need to act so rashly. It will stop. It is supposed to be very nice tomorrow night."

Tsunade shook a fist full of damp paper up at the sky, "Do not trifle with me! I am the Hokage of Konohagakure village, Damnit, don't think I can't MAKE the rain stop!" Shizune and Iruka backed away as Tsunade spouted a few 'Don't make me come up there!'s at the rain.

"She…doesn't handle stress well." Shizune offered as an explination, and Iruka nodded furiously. The medical ninja quickly made herself scarce, knowing that she'd probably be the first to catch hell if Tsunade's mood got any worse.

Iruka stood there sighing, but smiling at the same time. The Hokage only wanted the dance to be perfect, he was sure of it, and that just meant she cared a lot about it. Even if she was threatening the clouds. He scratched nervously at the scar across his nose, wondering if he shouldn't disappear as well. A voice jarred him from his train of thought, "IRUKA-SENSEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!"

Iruka turned to see Naruto jogging over towards him, "Naruto? What are you doing out here?"

"I was at the festival, but then I saw you, so I came over here!" Naruto grinned up at his former teacher. As expected of the vessel of the Kyuubi, every last one of Naruto's injuries was completely healed. His shoulder felt perfectly fine, the ache in his ribs had subsided, and all of the cuts and gashes were healed over with no sign of ever being there. "Iruka-sensei, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto happily prattled on, "You guys are setting up for the dance, right, right?"

"That's right, Naruto. We're nearly done. Here." Iruka leaned over and handed Naruto a few of the wooden torches, "We can use all the help we can get right now."

Naruto gaped at the torches in his hands for a moment. He was…expected to do WORK?! He watched as Iruka set to work, plunging the lanterns into the soft ground one at a time and making sure they were lined up properly. The little blonde shinobi mimicked his old teacher, digging the torches into the ground, but with a considerably less amount of finesse. He glanced back over his crooked line of torches; sweat dropping slightly as he noticed how perfectly straight Iruka's row had turned out. A thought snuck into Naruto's mind as he went about thrusting the torches into the ground, speaking while trying to correct a horribly slanted one, "Uhhh…Iruka-sensei? Can I ask you something?"

"Of course." The Chuunin stared down at him, planting another lantern into place, "What's on your mind?"

Naruto's face twisted into a cranky little pout, "How come some people act like assholes when the dance comes around?"

The question at first took Iruka by surprise, but the look on Naruto's face caused the Chuunin to break out into laughter. He raised a hand to his head, wiping some of the raindrops from his face, "Sasuke, right?" The look on Naruto's face soured even more as he let out a light growl. Iruka rested a hand atop the Gennin's head and ruffled that blonde hair of his, "Don't let him get to you."

"But Iruka-sensei, he's such an asshole. Why won't he just go with Sakura-chan? He knows it'd make her happy, but he's…just…an asshole!" Soft blue eyes questioned, but only received more tussled hair in response.

"Go easy on him, Naruto. Sasuke has been a very difficult boy to deal with since…well, for a very long time now." A wide smile played across Iruka's face as he withdrew his hand.

"But, Sensei…" Naruto glanced at the ground, watching raindrops cause little ripples in the slowly forming puddles, "Sakura-chan…she was so sad…"

Iruka clasped a hand firmly on Naruto's shoulder, "Heh. Don't you worry about it. I am sure Sakura will find someone else to go with, and she'll be perfectly happy at the dance. So let's get these all set up so that she can see where she is dancing, right?" Iruka smirked, getting back to the task at hand. Naruto always had been a little more sensitive than he liked to let on, especially about his crush, Sakura. It was just his way of being a nice guy, Iruka thought as he finished up his row of lanterns. He turned back around to see Naruto still trying to straighten out one torch in particular, and still looking crest-fallen over his two teammates. Seeking to change the subject, Iruka rose his voice playfully and shouted over the increasing rainfall, "And what about you? Who are you going with, mmm?"

"Me?" Naruto's eyes fluttered a few times as he reached both hands up to fix his mussed hair, "Well…I couldn't think of anyone to ask, so I'll just go by myself, I guess."

Iruka's head tilted to the side, "Couldn't think of anyone? Naruto, why didn't you just ask Hinata?" Since day one at the academy, Hinata had shadowed Naruto like some lovesick puppy. It was clear to anyone with half a brain that the shy Hyuuga heiress was infatuated with the spastic blonde, and Iruka thought it would have been obvious for him to ask Hinata. But unfortunately, all the logic in the world would never pierce that thick skull of Naruto's.

Those bright eyes just widened, "Hinata? Really?" He thought about this a moment, eyes shutting as his face scrunched into a pout. "Ohhh, man…why didn't I think of that?" he thought back to all the times over the past week that Hinata had seemed to pop up out of nowhere. Weird coincidences, all of them. But thinking back, Naruto almost wished he had thought of it at first. Hinata was such a nice person, albeit a little shy, but he was pretty sure she would have been nice enough to agree to go, not strike him and shout like Sakura had. Such a wasted opportunity. Naruto just shrugged, smiling back up at his former teacher, "Oh well. Too late now, right?"

Iruka smirked, a finger wagging in the younger boy's face, "I wouldn't be so sure about that. Maybe if you hurried up and asked her, she'd—"

"Irukaaaaa!" a deadly voice called the Chuunin about a split-second before a ball of soaking wet paper belted him in the back of the head. Iruka turned, flinching at the sight of Tsunade glowering at him, "Get back to work!! Those lanterns don't look like they're going to line THEMSELVES up in the ground!!!"

"Ahh…yes, Hokage-sama!" he quickly scraped up another armload of wooden torches, giving Naruto a quick glance over his shoulder as he got back to work as commanded, "I'll be with you in just a second! If you want to hang around a little while longer, I'll treat you to ramen afterwards." Iruka knew the fastest way to Naruto's heart. Naruto beamed up at his former teacher, hurrying to correct his row of ridiculous looking torches. The sooner this got done, the sooner he'd get Ramen!

At one of Konoha's biggest and most lavish hotels, Temari of the sand was sitting on the windowsill, staring out at the rain. Since it seemed that today would be a drab and damp day, Temari had shed her formal yukata for her usual outfit. She was just going to lounge around the room anyway; there was no one to impress at the moment. She watched as the raindrops trailed down the glass in warped lines, sighing, and resting a hand into her palm. She hadn't come all this way to sit in her room and watch the rain, Damnit.

Behind her, Kankuro was harassing the front desk again with countless ridiculous requests, "Yeah, and send over a steak; well-done of course, and some spicy sauce to go with that. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. Oh, wait! Do you guys get fresh lobster here?" He was definitely going to take full advantage of this free ride.

Temari turned to scowl at him with aggravated cobalt eyes, "You're an idiot." Kankuro just brushed it off, continuing to squawk into the intercom. "You know…if Gaara was here, he'd kill you…for being an idiot, of course. Idiot." Temari was feeling a bit stir crazy at being cooped up all day, and since Kankuro was right there, he got to be her target.

Eventually, the puppet master turned off the intercom and turned to grimace at his sister, "Shut up. That pipsqueak went outside, so he can't do a damn thing." He lied back onto his bed, shoving his puppet, Crow, off for a little more elbow space, "…I hope the runt drowns…"

"And I hope your stomach explodes, fat ass." Temari's eyes narrowed. Ahh, the love of a sibling; nothing quite like it in the world.

But rather than the usual smart-ass retort, Kankuro just smirked and twisted his head to stare at her, "Someone's in a bad mood. Guess you heard already, huh?"

"Heard what?" She lifted her face from her hand in curiosity.

"About your boyfriend." Kankuro's smile widened wickedly. Her pain was his pleasure, as it went with most siblings, and at the moment, he was thoroughly enjoying himself.

Temari resisted the urge to snatch up her fan and tear the entire room inside out, "I don't have a boyfriend, moron!"

"Not anymore." A flash of perfectly white teeth as he poked a finger down at his puppet, "I got a little bored yesterday, so I took Crow out for a spin. I happened to overhear that Nara kid asking that psycho woman to this dance stupidity. What was her name?"

"Ino?" Temari quirked an eyebrow. She was struggling to keep her calm at the moment, a hand already reaching back for her weapon.

"Yeah! That's the one!" Kankuro chuckled, happy that the news had so obviously disturbed his sister. But his amusement over the whole thing quickly ended as his sister's heavy metal fan slammed down on the bed, only inches from cracking his skull, splitting the pillow wide open and spilling feathers all around.

Temari huffed. She quickly swung her weapon onto place on her back and headed for the door, her face twisted angrily, "..be right back."

Her brother gulped at the look in her eyes. It was one he had become very familiar with, and knew damn well to steer clear of, "Huh? Where're you going? It's raining out, stupid!"

"I'm going to have a talk with this pig-headed Ino girl." The door was swiftly slammed behind her, causing a few feathers to float around the room. Kankuro glowered at her retreat, plucking feathers from his shoulder. Wherever this Ino girl was, he hoped she was a fast runner. The puppet master slowly lowered himself on the bed again, figuring he'd leave the feathers for housekeeping, and anxiously awaited his latest splurge.

The rain only seemed to increase as the day went on, from a light drizzle, into a downpour. Ultimately, the rain decreased into a steady shower. The festivities were fairly skimpy due to the precipitation, so someone decided that it was a good opportunity to check the festival grounds out. Someone who hadn't seen the festival in five years: Uchiha Sasuke. He smirked wryly to himself as soon as he stepped outside, "Figures." Just his luck that the first time in all these years that he finally decided to go and take a look at the festival, it would be raining. Sasuke sighed to himself, and slowly set out to walk the festival grounds, slowly because his ankle was still incredibly sore from the fight with Naruto. Even the black eye lingered on his face, and he had to keep his headband in his pocket because of the bandage over that gash on his forehead.

After a night of careful contemplation, Sasuke had realized something. No matter how painful the memory may be, this was certainly no way to deal with it. His pride as an Uchiha demanded that he deal with this problem, and head on, so he had forced himself out of his still trashed house and onto the festival grounds. But every street corner stirred something up in his mind, and he often found himself staring down at his feet to avoid seeing the bright paper lanterns that were soaking in the rainfall.

His brain was whirling with thoughts. At first, he was mostly reminiscing about past festivals he had spent with his family. The one year he had won at every game booth he stopped at, another year when his father had actually spent the majority of his time with Sasuke, another year when Itachi had turned the younger Uchiha boy upside-down in the fish-catching booth, and so on, until he began wondering why that terrible incident had to have happened. But after a while of wandering aimlessly through the rain, his mind began to turn towards the possibilities that would arise from attending the festival with his teammates. Naruto always seemed to find some way of having fun, and Sasuke was sure that if he could talk the blonde out of sacking booths, they would probably be able to come up with something entertaining to do. It would probably wind up as a contest of some kind, which he, Uchiha Sasuke, would obviously win. Kakashi might be a little fun as well, though to a far lesser extent, but he seemed the type to casually win at every festival game he came across. And then there was…Sakura. Sakura who would probably giggle and squeal with every game someone won, and always have an idea of what to do next, and keep Naruto in check, and point out all the little differences that the festival brought to Konoha, and probably pester him to death with constant 'are you having a good time's. Sasuke allowed a faint smile to crack across his face at this thought—yep. That sounded exactly like something she would do. And on some level…spending the festival with his friends…almost sounded as fun as it had been spending it with his family.

He made his way around from one end of the festival to the other, glancing lazily over the patrons and the goods they had to offer.

One in particular caught his eye, and gave the young ninja a friendly shout, "Here there! Care for some fresh baked goods? Sweetest cookies in all of Konoha!"

The image of his mother flashed instantly in his mind, but this time, Sasuke wouldn't allow it to overtake him with sorrow. He just shook his head at the man, dark black bangs dripping in his eyes, as he spoke, "No. No thanks." The booth vendor shrugged happily and turned to proposition another villager.

Sasuke smirked over his little triumph, "Heh. That wasn't so bad." Healing was a very slow process apparently, and the Uchiha heir had decided to approach it one step at a time. This was just a minor victory for now. The real challenge would come tomorrow night, at the dance. He'd show Naruto just who was a 'Baby-Sasuke.'

And he'd show Sakura just who was in control of his heart.

Author's ending Rant- Bwaaaa…so awkward with that Iruka scene! e.e; I re-typed it three times, and I'm still not sure if it sounds quite right. Please tell me if it completely sucks! U.u;

My favorite scene this chapter was definitely the Temari/Kankuro one! Why? Because I just KNOW I have had a similar conversation with my brother. MANY times.

I'm very sorry for the delay in getting this posted, and exceptionally sorry if it seems a little…I'm not sure. Skimpy? Glossed over? Damn that scene with Iruka! I just had to focus on my other ficclet to finish it on time, so I haven't been as dedicated to this one as I usually am. It'll be back up to par next time, I promise!

As always, R&R! Thanks!