Dreams are Dreams
Chapter III
by swt-angel-babi3

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

.
.
.

It was a new day. The sun rose over the horizon, sparkling on the white fluffy snow. Sakura woke up sleepy-eyed. She was still in her bed, staring blankly at the low white ceiling. She opened her mouth widely and stifled a loud yawn. She felt a crank in her neck. She must have slept funny during the night.

Sakura's blue eyed roommate rolled over and rubbed her eyes. "Sheesh, Sakura, some people are trying to sleep. It's difficult when the first thing they hear when they wake up is a stupid-excuse-for-a-kunoichi yawning loudly enough for someone to fall in their mouth," muttered Ino, her eyes still closed.

Sakura rolled her eyes at Ino. She pulled off her blankets and covers,then sheheaded towards the bathroom door. "I wasn't even that loud," she grumbled.

Sakura closed the bathroom door behind her, making sure it was locked and quickly changed into a warm white sweater. She splashed cold water onto her face. She looked up into the frayed mirror. Her reflection looked peaky. Sakura brushed her teeth thoroughly. Plaque was never a good way to start a day. She gargled and rinsed quickly. She hated that sound. The gargling.

There was a loud knock on the door. "Ne! Are you done yet?" asked a loud rushed voice. Obviously it was Naruto.

"Nearly," answered Sakura as she brushed her pink locks straight.

"Hurry! I have to go!"

Sakura didn't answer as she quickly finished up. After a short amount of time, she opened the door. Not surprisingly Naruto quickly rushed in, roughly pushing Sakura out, and closed the door hurriedly.

Sakura headed down the stairs. The air seemed to get colder and colder by each step. She headed towards the cozy kitchen and pulled out the cereal from the cupboards before heading towards the fridge for milk. She found a glass bowl in the silver metal dish rack. She poured the milk into the bowl and ate her meal silently. The kitchen was oddly empty. She was to meet with her sensei at 6:05 sharp. Knowing Kakashi, he'd be there forty-five minutes late, or somewhere around there.

Sakura finished her breakfast quickly. She felt slightly isolated. No one seemed to be awake; if you didn't count Naruto of course. Well,if they were, they weren't here. She washed her dishes quickly and left them to dry on the dish rack. Sakura tied her hair in a high ponytail with a lime green hair band that she left on her wrist yesterday.

Sakura took her coat off the coat hanger and put the warm black over coat on. It was still 5:45. She had twenty minutes to waste before team seven's meeting. Sakura pulled open the large oak door and stepped out into the sun. The air was chilly and the snow was sparkling. Sakura walked for a few minutes and stopped by a large fir tree. She breathed in the fresh pine smell. It was one of her favourite scents ever. She wouldn't mind staying here forever.

It was precisely 6:05. Oddly enough, it seemed that all teams were meeting there at the same time. The twelve chuunins and three senseis waited in front of the large lodge for a certain ex-ANBU member.

Ino glanced around, infuriated with the cold. She too was here, to meet her sensei, along with everyone else. Ino rubbed her hands together before pulling old a pair of mittens from her coat pocket. "It's freezing," she breathed.

"Yeah, must be at least negative-something degreesout here," Ten Ten agreed. Ten Ten shuffled her feet around the snow. "Are we doing anything in particular today, Gai-sensei?" she asked her mentor.

Gai turned to face his young pupil. "Skiing I suppose, it was Kakashi who had plans, really," he replied.

"Oi Sakura-chan! Lets go skiing together!" Naruto suggested loudly as he formed a large snowball in the palms of his hand.

Shikamaru gave an annoyed sigh and glanced over at Naruto. "It's not like the whole world can't hear you already."

Naruto glared at Shikamaru, "Shut up Shikamaru. It's none of your business," Naruto said incoherently.

They waited impatiently for Kakashi to finally come. "Can't we just start without him!" asked Ten Ten, exasperated.

Kurenai sighed. "He said he had important plans that he refused to share with anyone.

"Ohmigod, why does this always happen?" groaned Kiba.

"I dunno, he's always like this," explained Naruto. He blinked a few times. "The snow's so bright that it's hurting my eyes.

About forty-five minutes later, Kakashi arrived. The usual shout of "Your late!" came from a frustrated Sakura and an angry Naruto.

"Well you see... I was taking a walk, and I saw a little boy building a snowman. He couldn't get the head on because it was too heavy, so I had to help him. I didn't know time was passing so quickly so I stayed with him to make a whole family of snow peop-" Kakashi started off but was interrupted by a loud shout of, "LIAR!"

"You cut me off. But still, that's got to be the longest on yet," said Kakashi, trying to sound upset, but they could hear a slight proud tone in his voice.

Kurenai sighed and asked Kakashi, "So what did you want them to do today?"

"Well, it's really simple actually. I was just planning on having them ski in partners or something today."

"Nani! We waited forty-five minutes for you to arrive and this is all we've been waiting to hear!" Naruto shouted.

"Hehe," Kakashi chuckled. His visible eye was crinkling.

The chuunins ignored him a found their way to the Ski rental lodge. Only to find an incredibly long line-up.

"How troublesome," grumbled Shikamaru. "This is as long as the great wall of china," he exaggerated.

"So we have to go in partners," asked Kiba with Akamaru taking a nap in his hood.

Chouji swallowed his potato chips and said, "I guess so." There was a loud rustle of a chip bag as Chouji reached his hands into the bag for another chip.

Hinata gulped. Its now or never. She nudged Naruto lightly, "N-naruto-kun. D-d-do you want to g-go skiing together?" she asked nervously, wanting to hear his answer, yet she knew she'd be regretting her words if he said no.

Naruto scratched his head and mumbled something that sounded like, "Ehh... I was thinking of going with Sakura-chan, but it doesn't really matter. Sakura-chan probably wouldn't want to be my partner anyways, so sure!"

Hinata's face brightened, "Good!" But her face fell slightly, "Umm... N-naruto-kun. Do you know h-how to ski...?"

"Nah. Never been skiing," Naruto said. "Never bothered, seems kind of difficult to ski on two thing metal sticks."

"Oh…"Hinata said softly. Hinata turned her headsideways and bit her lip. She had never been skiing either.

Meanwhile...

Sakura and Ino were looking at Sasuke, who still had their back towards them. They tried not to look too hopeful or eager. "Sasuke-kun," called Ino. "You wanna be partners?" she asked him suggestively. Her hands were tucked warmly into her coat pockets. She wasn't used to all this cold weather.

Sasuke didn't even bother to turn around as they heard him say monotonously, "No." It wasn't unsual, you could say that it was more expected then anything else. Ino looked slightlyalarmed.

"Well, if you don't wan to go with me, who will you go with?" she said pointingly.

Kiba, who was indeed litsening into their conversation, piped in, "I can go with Sasuke, since I don't have a partner anyways. Is that okay?"

"Kiba! You're going with Kiba!" shrieked Ino loudly, shattering Sakura's eardrum, yet again.

There was a flury of annoyance written over Kiba's face. "Is there something wrong with me?" he asked, annoyed.

"No, not really," muttered Ino, dissapointment was clearly in her voice. Ino scanned her eyes quickly, "Shikamaru!" she screeched. Seeing how annoyed he was, she lowered her voice, "You wannna be partners?"

"How troublesome-" he began. But was hit on the head by Ino, "Are you calling me troublesome, Shikamaru-kun" Shikamaru shivered at the way she addedthe 'kun' suffix. Heshook his head to clear the little stars circling his head, "I was going to say yes, but--"

"I really need a partner though," whined Ino. She looked at him eargerly. "Please?"

"Fine then," The last thing Shikamaru needed was another punch in the head. Although those little stars were kinda cool.

Sakura walked over to Naruto. Naruto grinned widely, "I'm going skiing with Hinata-chan," Naruto said happily. "But I don't know how to ski," his face fell slightly.

"Oh," Sakura said quietly.

She heard someone's footsteps running behind her. Then slowing down. She turned around and faced Rock Lee.

"Sakura-chan! Partners?" asked a boy with a abnormal shiny bowl-head bob.

Sakura hid her grimace. She really should have been nicer to Lee in the past. "Sure," she shrugged. She needed to find a partner at one point or the other.

"Sure," Sakura replied, smiling.

Rock Lee's eyes shone happily. Sakura looked over at him, bewildered. She always knew that Lee was a bit... odd.

It turned out that Neji was partners with Ten ten. He looked over at Ten ten apprehensively. She wouldn't be the best partner, but atleast he wouldn't be stuck with Naruto.

They impatietly waited in the incredibly long line. The air was still icy cold, there wasn't an improvement from the morning.

Chouji said, "I'm hungry."

"Lets go get hot chocolate for everyone then!" said Naruto in a bored tone as he fiddled with his fingers. "I'll go, anyone else want to come?"

"I'll come," muffled Chouji as he stuck the empty chip bag into his pocket.

Kiba glanced up, "Sure, I'll come as well."

"Here's your hot chocolate Hinata-chan!" said Naruto happily as he handed the hot chocolate to the lavender-eyed girl.

Hinata smiled. "T-t-thank you N-naruto-kun," she said apprehensively.

"No problem," Naruto said sincerely, smiling his foxy grin.

Everyone was sitting on the snow sipping their hot chocolate. A loud sigh was heard. "Almost there now. Should only take about five minutes," said Shikamaru. He finished off with his infamous quote "How troublesome."

Finally, they got their ski shoes, skis, and ski poles sorted out. This sure turned out to be a troublesome day. At least things would improve from now on.

"Um..." said Sakura, "How do the ski shoes connect to the skis?"

"Eh... I think you slip it on," said Kiba.

Shikamaru had that look on his face when he knew the answer, but wanted to give someone else a change to answer.

While everyone else was discussing how to attach the ski shoes to the skis itself, Shikamaru quickly attached the skis shoes to the skis.

Shikamaru skied over to Ino.

"Hurry up, will you?"

"I can't put on my skis!" Ino snapped.

Shikamaru sighed and helped her put on the skis. When they were set to go. The skied awkwardly away.

Leaving the rest of the chuunins dumbfounded.

A/N: Done! Done the chapter I mean, not the fic! I never updated so fast in my life! I'm so proud! Haha, and the chapter is fairly long too! Please leave a review if you have the time.(I tend to update faster, hint hint) I'd like to thank everyone who has been reading and a huge thanks to everyone who reviewed!

Thanks again to my beta, evil-muffins.