Dreams are Dreams
Chapter Thirteen
By cocoa-latte
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Sakura pushed open the restaurant door and stepped outside. The air was icy cold, as usual. She didn't understand all this. She remembered Aniro as nice, sweet, and caring. Those pleasant thoughts have now gone down the drain. The last thing she would say about Aniro was nice. She could even say that Sasuke was nicer than him.
Sakura cringed as another breeze of the wind blew past. 'Damn it! How many more days do we have left on this mountain?' Sakura pondered for a while and finally remembered the days, 'Six days.'
Night had already fallen, and the cloud-covered stars shone brightly; where they couldn't be seen. Sakura threw her head up and watched as the dim streetlight flooded the area. She could hear footsteps behind her. Multiple heavy and loud footsteps. "Sakura-chan!" called Rock Lee loudly.
Sakura looked up, surprised to see four other chuunins. "Hi Lee, Chouji, Kiba, Shino," she greeted, "What brings you here?"
"Ahh, we just went out for dinner. Ino and Shikamaru were supposed to come along too. But then Ino practically dragged Shikamaru away, insisting that she wasn't hungry. You know how she gets when she doesn't get her way. So then Shikamaru agreed to go along with her." Kiba gave his beloved dog a pat on his head.
The pink haired teenager nodded, "Yah, I know how she gets."
"So why are here, all alone, Sakura-chan?" Lee asked with concern.
Sakura paused for a moment. What was she suppose to say? That she went out on a date, and ditched the guy there because he was being an ass? Plus, Lee had just gotten his crush over her, less than a year ago.
"Well, I was actually on the date—" she began, but glanced over at Lee's crestfallen face. "—but he was so rude, so I just ditched him there," she finished off quickly.
Rock Lee brightened at her last sentence. "Who was the guy?"
"Oh, um, the guy that was my date for the dance."
They looked at her obliviously.
"The dance we went to a couple nights ago," she clarified.
"Oh!" exclaimed Lee, "That one! I forgot all about it. Well, my date… she sort of ran away from me."
Sakura bit her lip and looked away from Lee. She couldn't exactly think of something positive to say to a person whose date ran away from them.
Kiba looked at Rock Lee with an obvious expression on his face. "You're date actually ran away from you?" He began laughing, "Man, that's one of the funniest thing that I've heard in a while." Kiba hooted.
Lee didn't say anything; his eyes were downcast. "Well, at least I didn't break any windows in the few days that we've been here."
Sakura gave a shaky laugh, "Um, well… we don't really see much of Hinata and Naruto anymore, do we?"
Chouji smiled, "Nah, they're too busy spending time with each other."
"They're so cute together!" Lee joined in.
Kiba's eyes lowered, and he clenched his fists. "Do you really think so?" he said evenly.
"Yeah."
"Do you approve of their relationship?" Kiba seethed, his voice was beginning to get bitter.
"I do. They're perfect together," Sakura answered calmly.
She half expected Kiba to shoot back an answer. He didn't though. The five continued walking, ignoring the presence of awkwardness that clung in the heavy air. Thankfully, the lodge was near.
Kiba's eyes were fixed straight ahead. Staring at the distant lodge. 'No, they shouldn't be together. They can't be together. I can't believe that she's with him instead of being with me. She should be with me. I've supported her all along. I've been a good friend. I—" Kiba's reverie was cut off. They were already at the doorstep.
Lee roughly took his keys and shoved it into the keyhole. The door swung open easily. They stepped into the front hall and began to take off their shoes, coats, and mittens.
Sakura took off her toque and clutched it in her hands. "I'm a bit hungry. I didn't get to eat dinner. I'll go see what's in the kitchen to eat," Sakura informed them as she began to walk down the hallway, and into the kitchen.
"Oh," Lee began, "I'm going to take a shower then." Lee started up the stairs, quickly sneaking a glance down at the agitated Kiba.
"T.V." Chouji said, muffled. There was a loud crinkling of the empty foil potato bag.
Shino just gave a curt nod and he too, went up the stairs.
Kiba stood there. Making sure that all their footsteps had faded away. He strained his ears. Nothing. A slight smile appeared on his face as he hushed Akamaru. Kiba tiptoed to the living room; Naruto and Hinata were obviously there. They always were, weren't they? He gently pressed his ears to the firmly closed door. He could hear Naruto say something. He couldn't distinguish what the words were though. Naruto's voice paused, and he could hear Hinata's delicate laughter.
Kiba leaned closer to the door, hoping for a chance to hear Naruto's words. He could faintly hear them now.
"I'm hungry," he could hear Naruto say, "Do you want ramen?"
"I-I'm not sure. Let's just see what's in the kitchen."
"Sure."
Kiba's eyes shot wide as they headed his way. He quietly dashed away from the door guiltily and peered into the room next door. The door was open, and Kiba dashed in. To his surprise, the room was empty. He gave a small sigh of relief and closed the door shut before he plopped down onto the couch.
Sakura took out a cup and filled it with cold water from the fridge. She perched her arms on the counter and took a sip of the cool water. She could hear the hushed voices of Hinata and Naruto. A smile crept onto her face. They were so adorable together. Cute was one word that described them. Perfect was another.
The voices got louder as the two entered the room. "Hi," the roseate kunoichi called.
"Hi Sakura-chan," Hinata said softly.
"Hi Sakura-chan!" Naruto greeted, "We were-well, I was hungry, so I wanted some ramen. Hinata told me that she was sick of ramen. I'm not sure about you; but I'm never sick of ramen. It's the best thing that was ever invented, you know?"
"You know that I get sick of ramen. I'm always sick of ramen."
Naruto looked down, "Sorry, I wasn't thinking."
"W-well, we can go get some pizza or something," Hinata suggested.
"I… well, I'm kinda short on money right now," Naruto scratched the back of his head, "So—"
"Oh, it's okay! I'll treat this time. Don't worry."
Naruto's face immensely brightened, "Really?"
"Yah."
"Thanks so much Hinata-chan!"
"You're welcome." Hinata began to take out a heap of untouched take-out menus that were stacked neatly on top of each other on the counter. She flipped through them, scanning for a nearby pizza place.
She easily found one and pulled it out. "Here's one. It's pretty close. They deliver, so easier for us!"
"Is there a ramen-flavoured pizza?" Naruto questioned, "Preferably shrimp flavoured, please."
Both Sakura and Hinata looked at him and blinked.
"Ramen shrimp-flavoured pizza? Where did you get that idea?"
"I had it once," he answered back blithely.
"Where did you find ramen shrimp-flavoured pizza?"
"Ahh, I think Iruka-sensei made it for me once. It was pretty good. He tried it as an experiment, but he didn't like it much, so he never made it again," Naruto paused, his face in resentment, "Actually, Iruka-sensei hated it."
"I don't think they have shrimp ramen-flavoured pizza though."
"Oh, it's okay. Just order something else than."
"How about Hawaiian? Or maybe deluxe? Hmm, here's one that sounds interesting," Sakura told them.
"Cool, what's in it?" Naruto asked joyfully.
Sakura passed him the menu. Naruto quickly scanned it. Fajita: grilled chicken, mozzarella, green and red peppers, salsa, and cheddar. "Okay, if you want it," he said happily, "It sounds yummy though."
"O-okay, I'll go order," Hinata said quietly.
"Thanks!" Sakura exclaimed as she drained the glass of water.
She could hear Hinata's soft voice in the next room, and Naruto's feet pacing back and forth on the kitchen floor. Sakura put down the now empty glass onto the large table with a hollow clank. She looked around the room, before her eyes landed onto the loud ticking clock. She watched it momentarily before turning her attention back on the spirited blonde.
"Naruto," she called.
As restless as he was, he stopped pacing. "Yeah?" he answered.
She motioned him to lean forward. "Did you spend all your money on the sleigh trip with Hinata?" she whispered.
"Well, kind of. I have some money leftover though. Not much though."
Sakura smiled sympathetically, "Well, I'm glad that you did spend the money on the sleigh trip, instead of ramen. Hinata was so happy."
"Yah, I kn—" he stopped short when he heard the doorbell ring. "I'll get it," Naruto said, as he began to walk cheerfully to the door.
He stood behind the locked door, his hand on the doorknob. "Who is it?" he called. It was one of the first things he learned from Iruka. Always ask who's there, before opening the door.
"Neji and Tenten," a deep voice called back.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes," Neji sighed at the annoying blond. The annoying blond that was going out with his cousin.
He swung open the door. The air escaped into the once warm enclosed room. Naruto peeked out the door and watched the snow fall for a few moments, "Wow, it really is coming down hard outside."
"Yah, it is," Tenten said with a sigh, "It's freezing as well. It's as if the temperature dropped 10 degrees."
Naruto cocked his head, "How cold is it outside anyways?"
"I don't know. Negative twenty degre—"
"—Tenten, you have snow in your hood," Neji pointed out.
"Oh, could you help me get it out, please?"
She stepped outside the door and watched as Neji flipped over her hood, and watched the snow fall delicately onto the ground. "Oh, and you have snow in your hair, Neji-kun."
He swatted some snow off his hair playfully.
Naruto stood there obliviously as he watched Neji pinch her lightly on her arm.
"Are you guys coming in?" Naruto asked. 'I thought she said that it was freezing outside.'
"Oh, um, yeah," Neji muttered, his face slightly tinged pink, "Sorry about that."
"We're ordering pizza! Well, Hinata's ordering. It should be arriving sometime soon."
Neji remained motionless at the mention of the name 'Hinata.'
"That's great!" Tenten said easily as she shrugged off her jacket.
Naruto turned around as he felt a familiar presence. "Hinata-chan!"
"Hi Naruto-kun, Neji-san, and Tenten-chan," she smiled and spoke softly, "I-i just finished ordering the pizza. W-well, I ordered two in case the others want some. "
"Great! Shame there wasn't the ramen flavoured pizza though," his voice broke off as he caught Neji and Tenten looking at his strangely. He had a maniacal love for ramen; surely they all knew that. Yet, they still, that weird look wore upon their faces.
"Oh, um, I never tried ramen pizza, so I shouldn't really be having an opinion about it; but it sounds a bit… odd." Tenten looked at Naruto apologetically.
"Don't worry about it, everyone today was like that. They all had that face that screamed, 'are you insane?' or something. Well, it actually wasn't that bad."
Kakashi sat down around the large kitchen table. His infamous orange paperback book was propped on the table. He gave a smile underneath his mask as he surveyed the chuunins that sat cheerfully/moodily around the table. His eyes rested on Naruto and the quiet girl who sat beside her. Who would have thought that Hinata and Naruto would be together, of all people? 'Well, if Naruto can get a girlfriend, I suppose there's still hope for Sasuke.' He heard what Ino had called Sasuke the other day to Sakura. She said it jokingly of course, just to make the pink-haired kunoichi feel better.
"Heartless bastard."
Another smirk appeared underneath his mask. His tummy grumbled. 'Damn it, I'm hungry. I haven't eaten since lunch. Where is the pizza?'
"The pizza's coming, Kakashi-sensei," Lee said happily, as if reading his thoughts.
The silver-haired man looked at him quizzically.
"Oh, I could hear your stomach growl," Lee said, "When's the last time you ate?"
"Lunch," he admitted.
"You shouldn't starve yourself Kakashi-sensei," Sakura sighed.
He looked up, "I wasn't starving myself. I have a very big appetite, you know what I mean?"
Sakura looked at him strangely, "No I didn't know, maybe because you never take off that damn mask of yours!"
"Are you trying to trick me into taking my mask off?"
"No," Sakura said flatly.
The doorbell rang and a happy smile appeared on the ex-ANBU's face. "Finally," he sighed happily as he watched as Hinata got up to retrieve the goods.
A few minutes later, Hinata came back, and the fumes of the pizza were wafting into the large kitchen. "Smells good!" Lee exclaimed merrily as he took a slice.
Naruto sat there for a moment staring at the pizzas. "I'd rather have ramen," he said blankly.
"Naruto, if someone treats you for food, you graciously eat."
The loud shinobi raised an eyebrow at Kakashi, "Yeah, and it would be polite to eat slowly instead of finishing the food in seconds Kakashi-sensei."
Naruto stared expectantly at Kakashi to take off his mask. 'Maybe he really does have fish lips,' he thought with a smirk.
"I don't take my mask off for anyone," he said firmly. Kakashi took a couple slices in a napkin. "I'm going to eat in my room."
The eyes of the chuunins followed Kakashi as he left. As soon as he was out of earshot, Naruto spoke, "Damn it! He does this all the time! We never get to find out what he's really hiding behind his mask." His voice dropped, "Do you think that he really has fish lips?"
"Nah, it's not very likely," Lee said.
"You never know," the loud ninja pointed out.
"I suppose," Lee trailed off as he wiped his hands on the paper towel.
"Maybe he has really horrible acne," Tenten whispered.
"I don't really want to think about horrible acne while we're eating, okay?" Kiba muttered irritably; still pissed off from the scene earlier on that day.
"Sure." Naruto shrugged as he got up and rinsed his hands. He gave Hinata and wide grin before heading out the room.
Hinata blushed a deep shade of read, oblivious to Kiba who continued to stare at his glass of soda with a blank look in his eyes. Hinata willed herself to take the dopey smile off her face. She glanced around the table and again blushed as she saw the many pairs of eyes on her, but excluding Kiba, of course.
"I-is there something on my face?" she questioned nervously. Instantly, half of them averted their gaze. It was almost funny to watch how they reacted to her simple questioned.
"No, of course not!" Tenten cooed.
"What is it then?" she asked, not believing what Tenten just said.
"Well," she began jovially, "it's just that you blush so much whenever Naruto's around. It's really cute actually!"
Kiba took the last bite of his food; completely ignoring the entire conversation around him. He stood up suddenly with his empty dishes in hand. Kiba gave them all one last glare before deposing his dishes in the sink, and stalking out the kitchen.
There was an awkward pause for a moment. "So," there was another pause from Tenten, "what was I saying again?"
"How cute it is when Hinata blushes whenever Naruto's around," the tall man with the sunglasses spoke suddenly. Shino pushed his sunglasses that were beginning to slide down his nose a bit.
Tenten glanced at Shino. It was seldom that he would speak outloud. "Oh, okay thanks. I just forgot," she said cordially.
They could hear the front door slam. Sakura's eyebrows furrowed in thought; it seemed like there was even more anger.
Ino entered the room. "Hi!" she exclaimed. Ino glanced at the unhealthy food for a moment, "You don't really eat that stuff, do you? It usually results you into getting fat—" Ino broke off as she glanced around sheepishly. "Sorry, I'm babbling again."
No, the loud slam wasn't a consequence of anger. It was just Ino, 'closing' the door.
Shikamaru walked in next, his hair slightly askew. "Finally, some food." Shikamaru reached for a slice, and took a large bite.
"You know that's going to make you fat, right?"
Shikamaru shrugged, his mouth still full of food. "Your point being?"
"It's going to make you fat," she repeated.
The lazy ninja swallowed. "It's not likely. I have fast metabolism," he said as he patted his stomach.
"Well it's still not good for you."
He shrugged again. "It tastes good."
Ino gave a jovial laugh, "So you just eat it if it tastes good? If shit tasted good, would you eat it?"
"Shit doesn't taste good, so this isn't really going anywhere."
"I'm saying if. If it tasted good, would you eat it?"
"It doesn't really matter if it tastes good. It doesn't, so end of story."
"Whatever," she said flatly, "What happened to Kiba anyways? I just saw him as we came in; you could practically see the steam coming out of his ears."
"Oh, well that's another story."
A/N: Finally, I finished writing this chapter! I'm so sorry about the long update! This chapter took me more than a month to write, and it's spring break, so I don't even have school at the moment. I'd like to thank everyone for reading, and a huge thanks to everyone who has been reviewing! I probably wouldn't be sitting here writing all this if it wasn't for all of you. So again, thank you!
Thanks so much for my beta, evil-mittens! Thanks for fixing up my sucky grammar and everything else that sucks.
I didn't really like bolding the entire penname, so I hope bolding just the first letter would be a little better…
AnimEvivvErz- Thanks so much for writing an essay of a review! I appreciate it so much! I kind of threw Kiba into this chapter, which makes him even more jealous about Hinata and Naruto then Sasuke was when Sakura was Aniro. Raining one day, and then sunny the next? I hate it when that happens. Haha, about weather… just the other day, it was raining, hailing, and sunny all in one day. That was the weirdest thing ever. (I hope you update your stories soon! I love them!)
Dragon man 180- Yes! Aniro got dumped! Thanks for the review!
Moonlightpath- There was some Neji and Tenten fluff in this chapter, not that much though. Sorry about that! I'll try to put more in the next chapter. I'm really sorry about the long update as well!
Direwold1427- I don't think I really understand, because I don't think I mentioned that I was a beta reader. I was thanking my beta reader who changed her penname. I hope this cleared things up. Thanks for the review!
Warprince2000, Destiny852, Epuneyujah, Kagome1015, Sephynarutocloud, Ryunanashi, Lon3ly-st4, Alpha no kaze, Sasusaku, PrincessChii, Waterfox96- Thanks for the reviews! Sorry about the long update!
Hinata-hime, Twilight, Kaumii, Serenity- Thanks for the review! The SasuSaku moments will be here a little later. I'm planning on them being the last pairing to really get together, so that'll be after Shikamaru and Ino get together.
BrokenAngel,ForgivenDevil- Haha, good! I kind of did neglect Sakura in the end though. Thanks for the review! I hope you enjoyed the Naruto and Hinata moments in this chapter!
Jai0r0ku- Yes! I updated! I'm so sorry about the long update. What has happened to Aniro? Well, he went… I don't really know why I put that in there. It just seemed to fit with the plot. I guess it's because she's a kunoichi.
Harukakanata- I love that song! Haruka Kanata. Haha, thanks for reviewing! I really like your Flowers Collection fic!