Dreams are Dreams
Chapter VI
By swt-angel-babi3

Disclaimer: I don't own it.

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At the dance...

The lights in the sitting area were dimmed but the dance floor was alive with obscure lights. Shikamaru was sitting on one of the many ugly, tortured green couches.

"Shikamaru! May we please just have one dance? I heard you were lazy, but one dance won't kill you, I promise!" cried out Shikamaru's frantic date.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and leisurely turned his head and opened his mouth, "No," Shikamaru sighed and glanced up at the bland ceiling. After a few moments of silence, well as silent as a dance can be. Shikamaru had a thought of maybe dancing with…Ino. 'But then… Ino would certainly not dance with me; she's too involved with that Sasuke,' A nasty voice in his head reminded him, 'I remember you saying that women were troublesome. If they were so troublesome, why would you want to dance with Ino? Do you like her? Huh? Do you?'

"Shut up baka, if I ever hear your voice again, I'll personally get someone to kill you," Shikamaru hissed to the voice in his head, not realizing that he had just spoken out loud. It wasn't until he observed the voice of his date.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!" Shikamaru's date screeched.

Shikamaru sighed, things were so troublesome, "I wasn't talking to you-"

But Shikamaru wasn't able to conclude his sentence before his dates fired back an answer.

"How can you not be talking to me? I'm the only one here," she hissed. His date stood up and strode angrily out of the room.

Shikamaru ruffled his black hair. 'She didn't take that very well, damn it, now I'm stuck by myself in this screwed up dance..

After his name was called along with his date's, Rock Lee glanced over to his date hopefully. His jaw dropped as his eyes landed ona pretty brunette with her hair put up gracefully. She wore a dark-avocado coloured dress. 'She's so pretty! Almost as beautiful as Sakura-chan. Not as beautiful, for no one is more beautiful than Sakura-chan. No one,' thought Lee proudly.

Rock Lee walked up to his date. He flashed her a bright smile. It was a nice smile, but not as nice as Gai-sensei in his opinion, but good enough. Although it was a dance, Rock Lee was still in his usual green and orange spandex outfit. 'Damn, I'm lucky. Such a pretty girl!'

Rock Lee blew a heart to his date. His date dodged it. The heart fluttered above his date's head before it stuck onto the white wall with a satisfying splooootch sound.

Lee's date's eye twitched, "What the hell are you doing! Fuzzy e-eyebrows, kowai. Out of all the people here, you've got to be the most hideous," spat his date.

Rock Lee's smile started to fade, slowly turning into a frown. 'I don't think she likes me very much…'

"Leave me alone, onegai!" pleaded his date.

A pause, "Hai," answered Rock Lee sadly.

"Arigatou," muttered his date quickly and left the room quickly, out the frayed wooden door.

Ten Ten smiled when her name was called along with Neji's. 'Neji and me are the only one's from everyone from Konoha who were paired with someone from Konoha! I guess I can consider myself as lucky. But even luckier that I'm paired up with… NEJI! He's so cute especially when he's angry…' she could feel her cheeks twinge rose.

After all the names were called, Ten Ten and Neji made their way to one of the squishy ugly green couches.

"Neji! Do you wanna dance?" asked Ten Ten happily.

Kuso, she wants us to dance? I've never danced with a girl yet, actually, I don't think I ever danced before. What happens if I screw up! What happens if I step on her toe? What happens if I break her toe? Kuso. I just won't say anything then… hopefully she'll take it as a 'no,' If I said no, wait I can't say 'no,"...not to Ten ten. Everyone knows what Ten ten is like when she gets mad, She might throw her kunais at me. She probably have a whole bunch hidden in that pretty dress of hers. She looks so pretty when she's mad though. She's always pretty… WAIT! WHAT AM I SAYING! Uh oh… she's looking at me… uhh…

"…"

'Damnit! Why won't he say anything! Should I pretend that he meant yes? Or no? Shit. Okay… Eennie meenie mi- The voice in her head scolded her, than you only get a fifty percent chance! You know you want to dance with him! So go!'

"Okay then, Neji! Let's dance!" exclaimed Ten Ten nervously, immediately realizing that her hand was shaking.

'Shit! She's suppose take it as a no!'

Neji and Ten Ten got of the squishy couches and slowly walked to the dance floor. Neji felt a warm hand take his as they were walking. He felt his cheeks go warm. He glanced down and realized that it was Ten Ten's hand.

Neji realized that the song playing was a slow song. When they found a nice spot on the dance floor, Neji realized something; he didn't know where to put his hands. He wasn't paying much to the throng of dancers before, and now he didn't know. Neji decided to go with his guts. Neji lifted his hands and put them around Ten Ten's Neck.

Ten Ten immediately backed away. Which forced Neji to let go.

"I guess you don't know how to dance Neji," sighed Ten Ten

He just looked at her stonily with his eyes wide open.

"Here, I'll teach you then." Said Ten Ten to slice the silence that was hanging heavily in the air between them. Ten Ten gently guided Neji's hand to around her waist. She realized the uncomfortable look on Neji's face.

"Why don't we dance another time?" asked Ten Ten.

Neji gave a nod, his cheeks still red, and they strode back to their spot on the couch.

Hinata was still with Naruto, sitting on top of the snow-plastered roof. It had been long ago since they gave up on counting the million sparkly stars that littered the dark sky. Hinata watched Naruto lie down on the snow, with a thoughtful look on his face. She saw a glimpse of sadness that was usually covered by his mask of happiness.

"It's unusual how things turn out in the end. I always thought, when I was young that I would never find friends, real friends. When I was ten, I found out what real friendship was like. Sakura, Sasuke, you, and Kakashi, all became my friends, my true friends. Well… the old man at the ramen stand too. Well, I talked a lot! Lets make snow angels!" said Naruto and took a deep breath to calm himself down.

Naruto laughed as he got off the snow angel and brushed the snow off his orange jacket. (It's not the one he usually wears, a nicer one . It is a dance after all)

"I screwed up on the wings!" said Naruto with laughter.

Hinata smiled and reached over to brush the powdery snow off his spiky hair.

"Thanks," he said and smiled as she turned tomato-red.

Sakura and her date Aniro walked back to one of the couches after a few exhausting and nice dances.

Sakura smiled at Aniro, "Thanks so much for the dances, Aniro-kun. I had a great time."

"Me too," answered Aniro. "Sakura-chan… I really like you. I would appreciate it if you want to go out another time. Just the two of us. Here, I'll give you my number."

Aniro took one of the slips of scrap paper on the coffee table and wrote his number on it.

"Here." Said Aniro, as he gracefully handed her the slip of white rumpled paper.

Sakura looked at the number, and repeated to herself 123-4567

Sakura smiled, again, "Thanks Aniro-kun." I'd love to go out with you another time."

Immediately after she said that, she felt her felt a weird feeling in her stomach.

Sakura couldn't forget about Sasuk, 'Sasuke… what's the point of chasing him? I've been chasing after him for nine years. Nine years wasted on one guy. And he has never acknowledged me. Not once. The only time he acknowledged me was at our first chuunin exam. Yet he didn't even really acknowledge me. He acknowledged tean seven… Why should I chase him now?'

Sakura pressed the thoughts of Sasuke out of her mind.

"Is something troubling you?"

Sakura looked startled. She soon realized that it was Aniro who was talking.

"No, nothing's troubling me," Sakura answered back innocently with a false smile.

Shikamaru was sitting grumpily on the couch with his eyes closed. He felt a sudden short jab in his ribs. His eyes quickly shot open.

"Ino…"

Ino looked at Shikamaru with her crystal-clear blue eyes.

"Shikamaru-kun!" exclaimed Ino, her eyes sparkling, "Well, you're probably wondering why I'm not with my date," There was a gleam in Ino's eyes. Ino dropped her voice to a whisper and said, "He's even uglier that Rock Lee! Unbelievable eh? I just had to get away from him! I hope he can't see me!"

"So why bother coming to me? Why not just run of to Sasuke-kun?" asked Shikamaru. He instantly regretted saying that. 'If, if I like Ino-chan, why I am being so mean to her? Constantly?'

Shikamaru's eyes twitched as he expected Ino to clobber him, as the many times he did before. But surprisingly enough, she didn't. He caught the look of hurt that was evident in her eyes.

"I'm sorry Ino," muttered Shikamaru. This was so troublesome.

Ino waved her hand away, "Doesn't matter anyways," she paused, "I've given up on Sasuke. I was only annoying him the other day when I wanted to be his partner. Don't want him to think that I'm giving up that easily."

Shikamaru realized thatshe ommited the 'kun' suffix. He felt the weightson his chest lift, and suddenly, the night didn't seem as bad as before.

Ino laughed happily, in an evil way, "Anyways, I'll leave it to Sakura-chan to get Sasuke. It's not like he's ever going to look her way. He never has before. Why should it change now?"

Thanks to:

wun-liddo-babi: Your're lying again! That is all that you own!s
oOoshortayoOo: Thanks for reviewing every chapter! .
Cookie6: Thanks! I hope it's ok that I used your suggestion…
Cutiekat: Thanks! I try to update soon! But I suppose I don't... . Well here's the next chapt!
Narlover: Thanks! I'll try to update faster! Here's the next chapt!
Blitz-kun: Thanks, yah the characters are slightly OOC, I'm gonna re-write some of the chapters.
Nyrgoalie: Thanks for the criticism; it helps me write the fic. I agree with you though… the quality of the fic isn't the best. It's probably because I'm lazy. .
Shimokawa-mika: Shika's partner wasn't in the last five chapters. But he's here now! Jealousy is a great thing D
Millie-chan: Yup! I think the 'ships are shaping up even more in this chapter!
Magicians of the yami: Thanks! Here's the next chapter!
Nightmares of death: I didn't update soon! XD sorry! Here's the next chapter though!
Deity of death1: Thanks! Yah, Sakura and Sasuke will be together in the end. Doesn't seem like it though!
Joekool: yep! There will be shika/ino! Lots of shika/ino in this chapter actually! Oh… were you really singing in the snow? LOL

Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing! The writing quality of the first few chapters are really bad, so I'm thinking of reposting it. I'm actuallyreally surprise I didn't get flamed a lot.

I know it sounds stupid/unbelievale that Neji didn't know where to put his hands, but I actually got inspired by my friend and the guy she was dancing with. It was really funny at the time. It's one of those stupid things that I can't forget. Haha.