Disclaimer: Not owning Naruto and never will.
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Part Two: Training--
Sakura's throat felt soar as she tried to open her mouth. Sasuke was arching his eyebrows, looking quizzically at her actions. Whatever she was thinking, it had better be worthwhile. Or else. She had disturbed his personal private training with the trees, and he did not like it.
"Sasuke-kun." The pink headed kunoichi started again, a little nervous.
Sasuke arched his eyebrows at her again. Another silence overwhelmed them, and finally Sasuke had had enough. "Listen, Sakura." He began, "I don't have all day."
"... Yes." She breathed feebly. "There's a dance next week... and I want to know..." She gulped once more and gazed into his dark eyes, "Are you..?"
Her question was never finished, because Sasuke had already taken over. A smile that you can barely call a smile appeared on his lips. "Will you go with me, Sakura?" He asked casually, as if he was saying, "Today is sunny."
Sakura was stunned. "With me?" She asked him, her eyes nearly bulging out of its sockets because of her shockness.
He nodded easily. After all, it was easier to go with her than to go with one of his fan girls. They were busy, noisy, and lousy. Sakura too was busy, noisy and lousy, but he had gotten used to her, after all this years. It had been practically seven years after their team was built. And yet asking her first was the easiest way to get rid of her quickly, quietly.
He raised his eyebrows to her silent reaction, "Is that a no?"
"No, no!" Sakura quickly said happily, "Of course I'll go with you, Sasuke-kun!"
The Uchiha prodigy shifted in his seat. "Fine, then. At five PM we will meet in front of the hall."
Sakura stared at the prodigy expectantly, half-wishing that he will offer to pick her up at her house, but seeing his now 'I-finished-talking' expression, she knew that it was almost impossible. She wiped off her expectant look, "Thanks." She said cheerfully, "Then I'll leave you training."
That's better, Sasuke thought. He nodded a little and concentrated on the trees more, Chidori appearing on his hand with enormous chakra.
--
"So, you succeeded." Ino pointed out, looking unhappy. She too had tried to bail Shikamaru out of his cage, but as usual the shadow user took no notice.
Sakura grinned triumphantly at the blonde. "Yes! I am soooo happy!" She claimed proudly, "I thought Sasuke-kun was the hardest, you know! But now I think that he is somewhat very easy! I just brought out the topic, and he asked me!"
Hinata smiled shyly. "I-I'm happy for you, Sakura-chan." She said.
Tenten grumbled as she leaned on her chair. "I wish Neji is like Sasuke." She muttered under her breath, knowing that her friends will hear her no matter what.
"You could try bringing the topic up too, Tenten." Sakura adviced, looking sympathetic. "Maybe he'll ask you too. It is easy for Sasuke-kun, so it'll probably be easy for Neji too."
"I wish!" Tenten rolled her eyes sarcastically. "He is not your Sasuke, for heaven's sake, Sakura. I have tried bringing that up, but he shot me down just with a look!" She gazed at Sakura, "You don't know Neji."
"I've said I don't." Sakura admitted easily, "But then, anything can happen. You may try that and may be lucky too. Just choose the best situation. A little romantically may help."
"I can't be romantic." The weapon kunoichi groaned, "He'll probably think I'm insane." She eyed her best friends, "Please, please, please remember that this is not Naruto we're talking about. It's Neji. Anyway, speaking about Naruto, how about you, Hinata? Anything new with your crush?"
The three turned their attention to the shy Hyuuga girl. She blushed feebly and gushed, "I have not meet Naruto-kun today..."
"He's in the Ichiraku ramen restaurant, if you want to know." Ino butted in and sighed, "I wish Shikamaru is as easy as Sasuke too! I thought of all people, you or Tenten would be the last to have this dare completed, Sakura. But it turns out that..."
"Yeah. I know." Sakura grinned in satisfaction. "You should try your best, Ino. Luckiness will come and get you."
"Maybe it's not partially luckiness." Tenten said, thinking out loud, "It may be that your Uchiha idol likes you too, Sakura."
The emerald-eyes kunoichi smiled, a little sadly, "I think not." She said, "I've showed so many signs, and he didn't even bulge." She sighed again, "Oh well. How's your day, Ino? We all had shared the results today. How about you?"
Ino waved her hand as she pouted. "I don't even want to speak about it." She said hoarsely.
Tenten's eyes widened. Could it be possible that someone had a worse day than her? "What happened?" She asked with little enthusiasm in her voice. She crawled over to Ino and sat next to her, drawing her ears closer.
"Should I really say this?" The blonde asked, still hoarsely. She didn't look excited at all, like she was when she was talking about the bet yesterday. Yeah, it was just yesterday, but it seems like... forever. When the other three nodded, she continued, "He didn't think he wants to come." She said faintly, "He says it is troublesome to come." She wailed, "You know Shikamaru."
"Indeed I do." Sakura agreed, "Well, better luck next time, girls." She gave an encouraging smile, but none of them were really encouraged.
Except... maybe, Hinata.
--
"Hinata-chan!" A certain blonde energetic boy happened to run in front of Hinata's house. It was none other than Uzumaki Naruto, of course. The Hyuuga girl gave a shy smile and a sly greeting, "He-hello, Naruto-kun... What are you doing here?"
Naruto grinned happily. "Shikamaru told me about the dance next week!" He informed.
Hinata felt her heart throbbed a little faster as she gave a little nod. She was trying to act calm with all her might, even when her heart was pumping like crazy. She couldn't stop herself giving hopeful looks to Naruto, which of course was too ignorant to notice it.
"Are you going, Hinata-chan?" The kyuubi boy asked.
Hinata smiled shyly. "I t-think I am, Naruto-kun..." She whispered as hope began perking in her heart.
"Good!" Naruto winked as he grabbed her hands and waved them enthusiastically, "Are you free? Or somehow has Kiba asked you out?"
"Ki-Kiba-kun?" Hinata asked, now feeling confused. What does Kiba have to do with all of this?
Naruto grinned, "Oh, nothing!" He said, "Then, I'll be going!" He swooshed off before Hinata can even return his over-quick words. Left alone in front of the Hyuuga gates, the pale-eyed girl felt confused, and a little taken aback.
Kiba-kun?
--
"Tenten, get up." Another certain Hyuuga said. "You have not been concentrating today. What has gotten into you?"
"Nothing." Tenten panted as she knelt. Ever since Ino brought the bet up, she had not been concentrating on her training hours, resulting a mad-but-still-cool-and-calm Hyuuga Neji. It was bugging her big-time. "Screw you, brain." She muttered under her breath as she stood up.
"What do you say?" He asked as he stared at her.
Tenten quickly shook her head. "Nothing." She mumbled, "Let's get it on, Neji."
He stepped backwards, still eyeing her suspiciously. He recognized that she was acting weird nowadays, and he was sure that she had something to tell him. Only he didn't want to bother about it. If she didn't want to tell him, that would be fine...
... If only he wasn't that curious.
Neji slapped himself mentally. Damn those thoughts for getting him while he was off-guard! He turned to Tenten, and quickly got himself into a defense stance - since he was helping her practice a certain jutsu she had developed some days ago.
She pranced elegantly at him, aiming and throwing weapons at him. He smirked and avoided the weapons cleverly. Tenten panted again as she steadied herself. This time, she shot him a determined look. "Neji," She stated.
Neji looked up and mustered a calm look as he eyed her quizzically.
And that's where she loses all of her determination. "Nothing." She covered up quickly and used a little effort in changing the topic. "By the way, you said that you have something to talk about yesterday... what is it?"
His gaze fixed on her as he tried to remember. And when the certain something had dawned to him, he said, "Let's go to the weapon store tomorrow."
"Weapon store?" Tenten repeated, to make sure that she was hearing the right thing. It was not often Neji asked her out for something, and when he did, it usually was not weapon stores, but... training somewhere else than their training grounds. "Tomorrow?"
He nodded casually.
"Why?" She asked.
"Stuffs." Neji replied, and Tenten knew that it was the closest she could get to an answer. She could get whatever answer it was tomorrow, if she complied, anyway.
So she nodded. "Okay."
--
Kiba groaned as he shifted uncomfortably in his chair. Shino eyed him, feeling a little annoyed of Kiba's actions. Now the Inuzuka boy was pacing in the living room happily, forgetting that it was Shino's living room he was practically making dirty.
"Kiba." Shino said.
And the shinobi groaned again as Akamaru leaped happily behind him, leaving puppy patches here and there.
"Kiba." Shino said again.
Kiba sighed heavily, Akamaru still following behind him. This time the boy proceeded to a desk, tumbling over it and crashing Shino's vase to the floor. Obliviously, Akamaru leaped to Kiba's side and stepped on the vase, crashing it into pieces.
That's when Shino couldn't take it anymore. "Kiba." He said, louder and the Inu shinobi gazed at his teammate, his look faraway as if he had just realized that Shino was there. "What, Shino? I'm thinking."
"... You broke my vase."
Kiba waved his hand and grinned, although his grin was not as happy as it usually was. "Don't worry about it, Shino!" He said, "I'll replace it later."
"It was worth a thousand millions yen, Kiba."
Kiba's grinned faded. "Maybe I'll just say sorry for it."
Shino waited.
Kiba also waited.
Shino waited again.
"What?" Kiba asked at last, breaking the silence.
"... You said you'd say sorry." Shino explained.
"Sorry." He said quickly as he paced around the room again, completely ignoring the fact that Shino was really, really annoyed by now. "Argh!"
"Why are you here?" Shino asked as he bent down and picked up the pieces of the vase carefully. He was not angry with Kiba - that vase looked ugly, anyway.
"I have to find a way to ask Hinata-chan." Kiba said, revealing his worries. Shino arched his eyebrows. "To what?"
"There's a dance some days after today." The Inu shinobi explained harshly, plunging himself to a chair hardly. Shino shook his head in disapproval as he did that, but Kiba continued anyway, "I want to ask Hinata-chan out for this date."
"..." Shino silenced. It was not often people went to Aburames for advices, and when they did, he just didn't know how to reply. "You should ask her." He said at last, barely advising Kiba.
"I know." Kiba replied.
"Then do it."
Kiba groaned, "But I don't want to do this!" He exclaimed unhappily, "I don't want to ask Hinata-chan, but... I do, too!"
Shino silenced again. "You don't want to, but you do." He repeated casually. "All the same, go ask her."
"I should not have go to the Ichiraku today." Kiba pouted sadly, "If I didn't, I won't meet Naruto and I won't get into this stupid situation."
The Aburame shook his head in disapproval.
"I need to ask Hinata-chan." Kiba said at last, mustering a determined expression on his face, "If not, Naruto will win the bet and I would have to treat him ten bowls of ramen of his choice! This is not good."
Shino shook his head again. "You're saying that you're just doing this for Naruto?"
"No. If I win, he will treat me ten bowls of ramen of my choice!" Kiba grinned with a dreamy look on his face, "That would be fun."
Shino sighed.
"Then, Shino, what should I do?"
"... Ask her."
"Hinata-chan likes Naruto, and she'll probably be very happy if he asks her out." Kiba explained the 'situation' that makes him somewhat 'depressed'. "I'm in between!"
Shino stayed silent for a while, and then he asked, "Guess what, Kiba?"
"What?"
"You're stupid."
Kiba groaned, "I know I am." He said miserably and turned to Shino. This time, he had an evil grin on his lips. "That's why I'm here, Shino."
Uh-oh.
--
Err… Short chapter? I'm sorry. I have not much time to write back here… well, there's so much happening around. I'm doing a lot of catching up in school… uh… that explains the shorties, right? Sorry!
Reviews, please.
Thank you.