The next morning all in the village found letters of warning posted to their doors:

Attention fellow villagers,

Later on this evening a crazy, blonde, idiot by the name of UZUMAKI NARUTO, That's UZUMAKI NARUTO, will be running across the village screaming like an idiot and wearing a wedding dress. Please, please, don't shoot him. He's claimed, don't worry. You may mock him and throw rocks at him - we don't really care. Just don't shoot him. That is all, thanks for reading! Repeat, that was UZUMAKI NARUTO.

-Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke (mostly Sakura though)

-A secret-

"Naruto!" Sakura gasped. She stood before the Uzumaki - blocking him out from view with her own astonished body. "You look great!" she slapped her palms to her fair-skinned cheeks. "Are you a transvestite?! You look great?!"

"Sakura-chaaaaaaaan!" the blonde yelled. The delighted Haruno stepped out of the way to allow him to see his reflection in the mirror.

He gasped too. Oddly enough, the dress was just his size. The hem line hovered centimeters above the ground - the webbing, hooped skirt fanning out like a princess dress. Even though the neckline was above the point of a generous, low-cut V, it revealed the defined muscles of his chest. Though the boy possessed no curves, it seemed to create some for him around the chest and waist. The pearly white color blended well with his fair-skin.

"Naruto-kun, you're a great cross-dresser," Sakura sighed wistfully.

Sasuke arched a brow. He was began to think that she enjoyed this a little TOO much...

"YOUR HAIR!" she suddenly wailed. "We need to do something with it! Um... I know! Do you have hair gel?"

Naruto - despite the fact he looked like a total chick right now - grinned. "No, but I'm sure I can borrow some of Sasuke's."

Sasuke sent him a glare. "I don't have any."

Silence.

"Seriously," the Uchiha growled.

An expectant silence.

"Fine!" he whipped a bottle of hair gel out of a pocket and handed it to the pinkette angrily.

She stared at it for a moment before blinking and looking back up at Sasuke. Her mouth opened to ask but she decided against it. The mane had to be tamed somehow, she supposed. She tightened her grip around it. "Right. Naruto, come with me." She grabbed her friend's hand and stormed off to the bathroom with him.

Sasuke followed - like a shadow or phantom. He was about to step through the thin bathroom door when it suddenly slammed in his face. He arched a brow again. Rather irritably, he rapped once.
"Busy!" Sakura hummed from inside.

It was only natural that Sasuke would feel odd about having his "best friend" in the bathroom with his soon-to-be-hopefully-girlfriend.

Chain saw noises came from the other side of the mysterious door.

By the time the door opened and steam flew out of the yellowly lit bathroom - Sasuke was a pool of muttering mess curled up in a corner. he looked up at the grinning Sakura and before he could even ask, she gave him a thumb's up. "Nurse, the patient has made a FULL recovery," she announced cheerfully.

Nurse? "Tch." The proud (not quite at this moment) Uchiha stood up and absently brushed himself off. He crossed his arms and tapped his foot while waiting for the blonde to emerge from the steam that oddly spewed from the lavatory.

To Sasuke's shock -not surprise, SHOCK - Naruto surfaced. His hair looked completely untouched. It was the same messy, bright blonde as when the dobe was carried into the bathroom. Sasuke scowled. What was the matter with people these days anymore?

"Right," the determination is Sakura's voice was thick. "Well, Naruto, there's quite a line waiting outside your apartment so we'd better get a move on if we're going to cover the whole village by nightfall. The neighboring village might even be attainable if you move quickly. Now remember, Sasuke-kun and I will be with you, just not with you. We'll be hiding in the bushes or something. Don't forget the singing! What was the line we rehearsed?"

As Naruto grudgingly recited a line from "I'm a little Tea Pot," Sasuke stared at the gleeful Sakura. What the hell was the matter with this girl? He couldn't figure out what it was he saw in her. Those huge green eyes? That ADOOOORABLE forehead? Her lack in height? Her tempting, smooth skin...

Eh, who knew?

When Naruto finished the line, they all headed out the door. Sakura wasn't kidding when she said there was a line outside. Over fifty people stood as if waiting for a concert. Sakura and Sasuke slipped out the back, emergency door while Naruto faced his fate. They could hear the volumous, chaotic cheers of the crowd when Naruto appeared.

A smile of pure bliss plastered itself to the Haruno's face. "Oh, Sasuke-kun!" a light bulb flashed in her head. "Here," she pulled something out of her purse and handed it to him.

It was his hair gel bottle. Or, so he could decipher. "Sakura... what did you DO to it?" he asked as he stared at the poor, limp thing.

She blinked. "What do you mean?"

"You killed it."

"Yea... but did you SEE Naruto's hair? It was a masterpiece if I do say so myself." She brushed off her shoulder as if congradulating herself...again.

Sasuke bit his lip before he said anything to throw off her good mood. The rounded the back of the building in silence. For some reason, the Uchiha couldn't shake this strange feeling of forboding welding up inside him. Was he forgetting something? Remembering something? Did he leave the water running?

He unconsciously gripped the Haruno's hand.

Her face flushed bright pink with the gesture. Her eyes flashed immediately to his face but he was staring forward intently. His thinking face. She swore on the life that claimed her to this earth that someone should come by and sculpt that face. It wasn't just the fact that it pleased her to see the normal stoicy off his face. It was more than that. Like... like he was too beautiful to look at for too long.

But that was just it. The pulling lure that glued her eyes to his face. Sakura knew what she loved about the Uchiha. What made her heart thump every time she was near him. His chicken-assed hair, so silky that she wanted to run her fingers through it to see if it felt like a thousand, slim pieces of the fabric itself - silk. The ebony of his marble-like skin, seeming to shine beneath the dimming light of the setting sun. Those piercing eyes that would gaze into hers...

The sigh escaped her lips before she could control it.

Luckily, Sasuke didn't hear it. His thoughts suddenly snapped to one thing all at once. The blur in his memory he couldn't place. He suddenly remembered it like someone had snapped their fingers.

A female screamed.

And he lost it.

"Damn," he muttered under his breath. He went back to thinking.

It took a moment or two for him to realize he lost all feeling in his hand. He looked down to see that Sakura was clutching it tightly. Her nails dug into the turning-blue flesh. He trailed up her anxious arm with his eyes until he found himself staring at her face.

She was frozen with wide eyes like a doe caught in the headlights of a speeding car.

"Uh?" he poked her shoulder.

She flinched. "Sasuke-kun," she breathed, looking at him. "What was that scream?"

Missing her question completely, Sasuke suddenly noticed it was dark. Really dark. The sun had dipped below the horizon and the moon bore high into the star-lit sky. Him and Sakura had wandered into a forest path somehow. The only thing that lit their path were distant lampposts and the half moon -(Sakura's favorite star - tee hee)

It didn't take a rocket scientist to see that Sasuke had just ignored Sakura completely. Even someone without anger issues would have been pretty ticked off at this. She growled and clenched her free hand's fists. "Sasuke-kun..."

"Hinata."

A pair of emerald eyes blinked in the dim light. "What?" she asked curiously.

"The scream. It was Hinata."

"How do you know that?"

"How do you not?" he retorted. "She screams like that every time she sees Naruto."

Sakura gasped. "She saw Naruto!"

With that, they both darted to where the scream came from. They arrived only minutes after the scream first came. It seemed as if the scene had frozen in place. Hyuuga Hinata stood with both hands clamped over her tomato-red face. She stood feet away from Naruto-ett with one leg raised behind her. It reminded Sakura of how someone would react if they just found a spider on their bed.

Naruto was dumbfounded.

"Hinata?" Sakura ran over to the trembling girl to snake a soothing arm around her shoulders. "What's the matter? It's only Naruto dressed up as a woman."

"B-but..." Hinata huffed, trying to calm herself. "He looked like a g-girl! I thought it was someone coming b-back from a wedding s-so I thought I'd congradulate them... But it was N-Naruto-kun!"

"Don't worry!" Sakura found the hidden words. The hidden question.

Hinata's hidden question - "Why is my beloved Naruto dressed like a woman?"

"It was a bet."

That didn't seem to make anything any better. "B-but...he looks so pretty!" she cried into the Haruno's shoulder.

Sakura simply patted her friend's back soothingly. "Sh... I know, it's alright."

Sasuke and Naruto were in a major sweat-drop moment.

"And his hair looks g-great!" Hinata added quickly.

It took effort to keep Sakura from splitting into a smug grin.

So that night went rather awkwardly. Hinata ended up calming down and managed a shy smile at Naruto. He grinned his usual grin back. Sasuke went home before the night was over. Naruto made it around the entire village -twice. Now... Sakura was walking home alone.

She wasn't quite sure how this had ended up to be. One minute everyone was around her the next she found herself tracing the familiar steps to her loathsome home.

Inner Sakura - They are ALL jerks! Leaving poor me out here in the cold...

"It's not even cold out," Sakura murmmered out loud.

"Hn."
No way. The Haruno froze. Her foot hovered in the air where she was about to step. It wasn't THE infamous grunt she knew so well. No, this was a new grunt. She knew it. If it wasn't Sasuke, it was obvious who else it could be.

"I-Itachi-san!" she shrieked, turning to face the impassive man. "H-Hello!"

"Just call me Itachi," he said flatly.

"Er..."

He waved it away dismissively. "Sakura, correct?" he asked. She nodded. "Right. I thought so. Anyway, I've come for a reason. You may have noticed that my little brother has feelings for you-"

"Huh?" the pinkette blinked.

He cocked a brow. "You didn't know?"

She simply stared at him blankly. "Know what?"

Itachi resisted the urge to smack his forehead and declare her naturally blonde. "That's not quite the point. What is the point is that there's something about Sasuke you should know."

Her emerald eyes sparkled eagerly. "Really? What?"
He held up a finger. "I'll only tell you of you promise to keep it a secret."

Haruno Sakura grinned. She made a gesture to her lips that made it look like she was locking a key. Then she supposedly threw the key over her shoulder.

Itachi sighed. Sometimes I wonder if this is even worth it.

But he told her anyway.

So that's it. Spicey, no? I told you Naruto would wear the dress. As always, sorry for taking so long to post it. I've just had a lot on my plate... alright, no, I'm just lazy. But make sure to read the next chapter! (Which will TRY not to take so long to be put up) What could the secret that the Uchiha told the Haruno be? What could Itachi REALLY be after? The weasel... And always, HOW WILL OUR HEROS END UP?! (the next chapter should be considerably longer so be patient with me)