A/N: Hi! I'm back! waves
I guess you hate me for letting you wait that long only for the last chapter and I'm really sorry about that but I've had a little problem with writer's block so I couldn't update earlier… well anyway I guess I just shut up and let you read the last chapter.
Chapter ten
Fifths day – in the morning
Sakura woke up quite late that day, sat up in her bed and yawning she noticed that something was lying beside her pillow. It was a little box but she couldn't remember that it already has been there when she went to sleep. Shrugging inwardly she opened it. A tiny object fell out of it onto her blanket and her eyes widened as she recognized it as the brooch she had wanted so much back then in the attraction park. She took it wondering who gave it to her. She knew one person who knew that she had wanted this brooch but it possibly couldn't be him… could it? When her eyes fell on the box again she saw a note lying inside it. 'For the ball'. The handwriting seemed familiar, too. But it wasn't helpful since she knew the handwriting of almost all of the ninjas in the camp. Now fully awake and about all curious she quickly changed her clothes and left the room with the brooch and the box in her hand.
When she entered the kitchen Naruto almost crashed into her but changed his direction in the last second and crashed into the wall instead. "Ouch…" the fox-boy muttered lying on the ground and holding his head. Sakura helped him up asking "Are you alright?" He nodded. Then seeing what was in her hand a sly smile appeared on his face.
"So he finally gave it to you?" he asked.
"You know who gave this to me?"
The sly smirk on the blonde's face widened as he said in a conspiratorial low voice "His name starts with an 'S' and ends with an 'asuke'."
Sakura felt as if little fireworks were exploding inside her. "And where is he now!" She asked in a way Gai would most likely call 'the top of youthful energy'.
Naruto shrugged "Anko-sensei told us that we can do whatever we want all over the day as long as we are ready for the ball when it's time." Speaking of time he looked at the clock behind Sakura, starting sweatdropping right away and rushing off shouting "Sorry Sakura-chan! I must hurry now, I'M going to meet Hinata at a ramen-diner and I'm already really late! Dammit!" Sakura smiled and shook her head slightly at her teammate's behavior before she turned back to look for her other teammate. First inside their house, then outside.
Meanwhile
Ino and Shikamaru were sitting at the river – or more exactly Ino was sitting while Shikamaru was lying. They didn't do much but mostly Ino talked while Shikamaru was lazily cloud-watching. But every now and then his eyes wandered to the blonde next to him and he often just realized that he was watching her instead of the clouds when she asked him why he was doing so. He hadn't count it but he supposed it was the sixth time this day that he found himself staring at Ino. He saw that she wore her hair down. Usually she would've tied it up in a ponytail but from what he knew one of her hair ties was lost (and too heavily damaged) during the mudslide and her other tie snapped the evening before and since all of her other hair ties were left in Konoha there weren't many options left for her. His right hand went into his pocket and feeling what was inside it seemed somehow fateful to him: He had bought a new hair tie when they were in town. He just wondered when he should give it to her. Right then a small leaf got caught in her hair.
Ino looked down at the river hen she noticed that Shikamaru was watching her (again). She wondered whether he was confusing her with a cloud. She had noticed that she was acting strange lately: to her it seemed like he wanted to tell her something but he just couldn't find the right moment. Also he seemingly found her more interesting than his beloved clouds but speaking of odd things – she was more or less aware of the fact that she liked the way Shikamaru looked at her. It felt somehow… she herself didn't know how to express but it felt in a strange way similar to how she felt around Sasuke yet it was still completely different. It was kind of deeper and not so – so fluttering, it was… she stopped herself from thinking more about it because it would surely end with a major headache.
However she was so occupied with her thoughts that she didn't notice that Shikamaru sat up and said something to her. So it took her brain some moments before understanding what he just had said. There was something in her hair and he would take it away. Again she watched the river. It was so clear and bright blue, sparkling in the sun, although she wasn't quite sure whether it could really be called a river and not a stream. Looking a bit to the side she wondered why he still had one hand in his pocket. "Ah, I got it!" Her attention snapped back to Shikamaru's other hand. He held up a tiny leaf, letting Ino see it before he loosened his grip and was blown away by the wind.
Ino watched it flying higher and higher and further and further away until it was gone. She smiled slightly although she didn't know exactly why she was smiling. It just felt right. Then suddenly she felt Shikamaru take her hair with his hands, then his one hand reached back into his pocket and from the corner of her eye she could see that he took out a… hair tie? He tied her hair back in a ponytail – it was definitely a hair tie. Up to this moment it where just plain thoughts but then realization crept into her mind: this wasn't one of her hair ties; it was a brand-new one that he must've bought just for her. She blushed just as fast as she had thought this in an interesting shade of red. Nevertheless she continued smiling, smiled without knowing wider than before, as Shikamaru spoke hesitantly "Since you've lost one of your hair ties I thought you could need a new one…" He let go of her hair also blushing and scratched his head a bit unsure. Ino whispered an 'arigatou' and then leant against him resting her head on his shoulder. They were so close she could smell him. She decided she liked his smell.
After a while Shikamaru found the courage to lay an arm around her. Ino seemed to feel quite comfortable, just like he did. There were only few moments when he really didn't wish to be a cloud and this was one of them. How soft, silky, Ino's hair was. It felt like he thought clouds must feel like. Somehow he relieved. Ever since he had bought this hair tie he had worried about how she would react when he gave it to her. Would she reject him? From all possibilities he had thought of this one never came to his mind. He never would have even hoped of dreaming of something like this. He felt like his heart had been transformed into a butterfly and was now looking for a way out of his chest. He never had thought that he could be so close to Ino even though they were in the same team. But in such things a brain - even if it's the brain of a genius like Shikamaru – becomes rather useless. So they just stayed there enjoying each other's presence. Lost in their thoughts.
Later that day
The girls were getting dressed for the ball. The boys were already finished but it was like an unwritten law that girls need much more time for preparations then one would think. But anyway Sakura herself was almost done (after one or two or three… hours). The only thing left were three ribbons: she only had to get those three ribbons of her dress fixed and she was done but the problem was she couldn't do it herself – not with only two hands. One big ribbon was one the back and two small were on the side of her dress. She had already tried various things but it was in vain. She would have to ask someone for help.
Just then a certain raven-haired boy came into the room – or more he had planned to but stopped in the doorframe and turned to leave again. But Sakura had seen him and so she called after him. "Sasuke-kun!" He stopped and turned back waiting for whatever was coming. Smiling sheepishly she held up one ribbon-tie. "Could you please help me with that?" The Uchiha raised an eyebrow but briefly nodded and walked up to her side while she explained what they had to do with those ribbons. He stepped behind her, took one band and started wrapping it around her waist several times while she held the other ties so that they wouldn't get into the way. Sakura tried her best to stand absolutely still while the Uchiha prodigy was helping but there was one big problem: she was ticklish and what he was doing tickled like hell; she couldn't help but giggle plus when she tried to suppress it she only had to laugh harder.
"Sakura stop laughing, I can't fix it like this!" Sasuke sounded a bit annoyed.
"I'm – sorry – Sasuke-kun I can't help it – I'm ticklish!" She managed to say between giggles.
He stopped fixing her dress saying "Then just stopped being ticklish."
Sakura turned around, facing him still slightly giggling "C'mon Sasuke-kun no one can stop being ticklish!"
He crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Then why don't you just pretend not to be ticklish?" He suggested smirking.
"This wouldn't work because there isn't anyone in the whole world who is not at least a bit ticklish." She gave back now also smirking.
He raised an eyebrow. "Well, I'm not ticklish."
"Is that so…" A rather evil – Anko-like – grin appeared on her face as she suddenly attacked (tickled) him trying to make him laugh.
"Stop it!"
"Not before you've laughed – or admitted that you're ticklish!"
"Fine…" He wasn't laughing but at least he had to smile when he fought (tickled) back so that Sakura laughed enough for both of them.
Out of nowhere there was a pillow or something in the way, one stumbled and they both fell down. Sakura closed her eyes when she fell but then when she opened them again she realized that she had landed on top of Sasuke and their faces were only a few centimeters apart. She blushed and he did too although his blush was so light that it was barely noticeable. Then Sakura remembered why she had been searching for him earlier. "Sasuke" she said increasing the distance between their faces. "This brooch… you gave it to me, didn't you?"
"Hn, yeah… but it was nothing." He said and seemingly found the lamp quite interesting.
"No it wasn't. It's such a beautiful brooch and I – I want to thank you for it. Arigatou." With that she bent down and kissed her raven-haired teammate on his cheek. At first he was surprised but only while the kiss lasted. Then when she moved back a small smile appeared on his face as he muttered "You think you can do something like that to an Uchiha and get away with it?" Just then he reached up, brushing with his right hand some strands of Sakura's pink hair out of her face and kissed her back on the lips. Sakura closed her eyes enjoying these seconds, which seemed like an eternity to her (she definitely liked this eternity)… until someone made a loud noise in the kitchen and both remembered where they were (in place called reality) and they almost immediately broke apart. Then they started fixing Sakura's dress again although they glanced at each other from time to time still slightly blushed.
Sakura however wasn't the only one with a problem: Tenten had had to put away all of her weapons in order to wear her dress. She liked this dress it was just not fitted to hide any weapons. But that wasn't her problem although her real problem had something to do with weapons as well. In a moment she hadn't been careful of where she moved some of her knives with barbs got caught in her dress and now she desperately tried to get them out, unfortunately she was running out of time. She heard a knock on the door and only a heartbeat later Neji's voice. "Tenten, it's almost time to leave. Are you ready?" He asked. She looked at her dress with these annoying knives sticking to it like glue. Feeling frustrated she called back to Neji "Ah Neji, I've got a little problem here and could you help me out?" The Hyuuga came in and seeing her problem he raised an eyebrow and said teasing "You really can't go anywhere without your weapons, can you?" She stuck her tongue out of her mouth before they both tried to remove this little annoying knives. The knives were, in battles, not mainly used to harm the enemy otherwise her dress would be sliced in two but that didn't make removing them without ripping the dress easier.
After a while Neji gave up on it. He possibly couldn't remove any of the knives without harming either Tenten or the dress so he suggested he suggested that she should try to remove it while she wasn't wearing it. She first looked at him but then gave him a sign to turn around. "And no peeping!" She warned. "And don't even think of using your Byakugan!" He sighed inwardly. If she thought he would do something like that she must be confusing him with Jiraiya. He crossed his arms and waited patiently. Suddenly he heard a high scream coming from Tenten. Without thinking the Hyuuga turned around and saw a fat spider hanging right in front of Tenten's face. Then he saw Tenten. Without her dress. And she saw him. Both blushed Hinata-style. Just then Tenten discovered that all off her weapons were still lying around her (A/N: poor Neji) and in a split second they all came flying towards Neji who jumped surprisingly fast out of the room slamming the door shut behind him. At least now Tenten had no problem to get the little knives out of her dress. (A/N: good for her and the dress, bad for Neji and the door lol)
Hinata was standing in her room right before the door. She knew that they would leave in only a few minutes and she knew that Naruto was waiting for on the other side of the door (impatiently). It was not like she didn't want to go to him it was more like her legs weren't moving. On top of that she was more than just a bit worried that she would faint or do anything else stupid during the ball. But then her worries were forgotten when a certain fox-boy opened and took her hand saying "Hinata-chan we don't have any time to waste so let's go!" A really deep blush appeared on her face – Naruto had just called her Hinata-chan. But somehow she managed not to faint and nodded feeling happy.
Outside the other couples were already waiting. Ino and Shikamaru and Sasuke and Sakura were even holding hands. (Not to mention that Naruto was still holding her hand.) Her cousin and Tenten however weren't even looking at each other. She guessed that something must have happened between them but with Naruto at her side she couldn't really think about it, especially because she tried not to blush even more. (A/N: wasted effort… eg) So after they all were there they went into the bus and with Asuma as he driver they soon arrived in town and after a short walk they stopped in front of a two storied house with a large balcony. The hall for their ball was on the upper floor.
Anko smirked seeing the youths look around in the huge hall in amusement. No wonder the hall was definitely larger than one would expect from the outside and it looked somewhat… expensive. Somewhere in the distance a bell rang and as if this was the signal the musicians started playing the first song. It was a rather slow one but well fitted for couples. Kakashi held one hand out to Anko, she took it and he led her towards the center of the hall. Now it was really helpful that Kakashi had copied Asuma's moves since Anko hadn't paid much attention to the lesson itself. She was more concentrated on teasing. It would be a great night for all of them. Only one tiny thing still annoyed her: Kakashi was even here wearing his mask. It wasn't surprising but it was nevertheless annoying. She wondered how one could look so handsome when one eye was the only thing of his face that wasn't hidden beneath fabric. So maybe his mask only annoyed her because she still wanted to see his face. Sure, it had been visible the day before when he had kissed her but she had been much too surprised to see it. But on the other hand for Kakashi it was good that she had been so dumbfounded otherwise she might have gotten the funny idea of killing him (well maybe not she wasn't really the type for that a slap on the head would've been enough). But so she just followed him secretly touching her lips with one finger.
Unsatisfied with the way things turned out Anko decided to make sure that she would see his real face and since she wasn't known to be very patient she started it right now the direct way.
"Hey Kakashi, what's under your mask?" She asked.
"Hmm, my nose, my mouth and the rest of my face, I guess. Oh and sometimes another mask."
"That's not what I've meant, I want to see your real face!"
"I thought you've seen it yesterday." He replied smirking.
"That's been to short to really see it. So are you going to pull your mask down?"
"No."
"C'mon!"
"Errr, no."
"Please!"
"Nope."
"Don't be so mean!" She looked at him with big puppy dog eyes.
He sighed knowing when he was defeated. "Okay, okay. But not here, I'm only going to show it to you."
"Alright!" At least the smile, which now appeared on Anko's face, was worth it.
On the other side of the hall Neji and Tenten were dancing. An uncomfortable silence had settled between the two since that incidence. After some time both started speaking the very same moment
"Neji, I…"
"Tenten, I…"
and they both stopped speaking the very same moment smiling nervously.
"Sorry."
"Sorry."
Then they were silent again before Neji started speaking. "Tenten, I'm sorry for… for earlier. I didn't want to peep or something, really. It was just… when you screamed so suddenly, I turned without thinking so…"
Tenten interrupted him. "You don't have to apologize, it's all my fault. Screaming like a little child only because there's a spider…" She looked down at the floor and mentally slapped herself for being so stupid back then. She had planned to continue staring at the floor but for some reason her eyes found the white, deep eyes of a certain someone more interesting as she continued speaking in a low almost inaudible voice. "And I'm really sorry about throwing the knives, daggers, kunais, shuriken and everything else at you; I've just overreacted… Did I hit you?" Now she had a little problem whether she should look at the floor or at Neji but when her eyes traveled to the floor he helped deciding it by lifting her chin with his hand a little so that she had to look at him.
He smiled and gently replied "No, I'm alright. I guess if you really would've wanted to hit me I couldn't say that right now so there's nothing to worry about." Tenten smiled relieved and rested her head against his chest on which Neji lightly hugged her.
The ball had lasted for quite a while now and the night had already fallen. A full moon was illuminating the balcony as well as the two figures on it. The smaller figure was leaning on the railing while the other was standing in front of her. Kurenai looked back into the hall where the other couples were still dancing. "The ball was a good idea, wasn't it?" she more stated than asked and her partner just nodded. His eyes still rested on Kurenai as he was waiting for the right moment. Knowing Kurenai it wouldn't be good if he missed it. Of course Kurenai wasn't the type who would do something drastic but he wanted their relationship to develop into the right direction and it could take years before he got such a chance again.
Kurenai looked once again at him asking "Asuma, you haven't been smoking that much lately…"
That was it. He smirked not letting her finish what she wanted to say. "Do you want to know why?" With that he pulled Kurenai towards him and finally kissed her. At first her body stiffened though she didn't pull away but then, deeply blushed, she allowed him to kiss her closing her eyes. When they eventually broke apart Asuma finished what he had started saying before. "Because a cigarette would only be in the way." Then smirking again he also pulled her towards him once more. (To bad that they had to breathe very now and then…)
The ball was over and all of the shinobi were back at the camp in their rooms. All except Anko and Kakashi who had decided to take a little walk together in the moonlight. They stopped under a tree. "So" Anko asked impatiently with her typical grin. "We're alone here so now why don't you take that mask off?" The copy-ninja scratched his head knowing that she wouldn't accept a 'no' as an answer and so he lifted his right hand to his mask and pulled it down slowly… slowly… just to tease Anko a bit since she would be one of the few people who were allowed to see his real face. Then the mask was down. (A/N: Don't you wish you were Anko in this moment?)
"So I've been right there isn't any reason why he should hide his face." Anko thought… or at least she thought that she had thought it.
"Is that so?" Kakashi asked looking and sounding amused.
Anko realized what she just had said out loud and immediately blushed. (A blush Hinata would be proud of.) The silver-haired jounin chuckled which made Anko's blush only deepen. She wondered why she only did stupid things like this when Kakashi was around. Then he was about to put on his mask again but Anko saw it and took his hand asking with a smile. "Since we are alone here you really could let it down, at least until we've finished our walk, could you?" He smiled back and granted her wish even if it was only for the short time their walk would last. While walking he laid an arm around her shoulder so that they walked a bit closer than they had to.
In the next morning they all packed and left for the ferry which would take them back to Konoha, back to their normal, daily life (if you can call a ninja's life 'normal') and although they now had to leave they surely would never forget this vacation.
The end
A/N: So this was the last chapter. I hope you liked it although I still wonder whether there was too much romance in it (I've only planned SasuSaku and AsuKure here but I'm bad at planning as you can see). At least with 4179 words it's surely long enough, usually I write only about 1500 for a chapter.
So thanks to Narutorules, meme, C.A.M.E.O.1 and Only, Shy-Princess, fire.elve, DancingPickle101, NoCareChakara and kImYuRI for reviewing.
And special thanks to fire.elve and greenleaf.elve for the idea for the NejiTenten-part.
And of course thanks to all of my readers:D
So after this is done I only wonder which ff I should write… I don't really feel like 'Two rivals-one mission' so should I write my sasusaku-ff or my ankashi-ff… oh well we'll see.
Bye:D
waves and disappears in a poof of smoke