A/N - Hello there kids.

I had this written a couple weeks ago, but was too lazy to go back and declutter so...

It got sidelined.

But! I am back to give you this poorly edited chapter. I wanted to keep it loose.

Silly goose.

Have fun with the chapter

DISCLAIMER - I do not own Naruto

Song used for this chapter - olli - and my life turned around

After while, I ended up just giving Ino and Tayuya my spare keys to my place. They came over so often I saw no point of always inviting them in. The more the year went by, the more often they'd pop up. Eventually they would just walk in, catching me when I'm either doing homework or watching TV in the early afternoon. Ino would always plop on the couch with me, sometimes bringing Tenten along here and there while chattering about school and petty gossip. And Tayuya would just wander in quietly to sit down with her music already booming in her ears.

We didn't talk much when she was over, but we didn't have to. We did this shit as kids, in the woods, just sitting there.

Granted, back then I was swinging my fists into trees.

But as always, nothing has changed. We still spent time like we did back then.

Tenten though, she was starting to visit on her own as well. At first it was her and Ino, or even dragging Temari, Hiden, and sometimes Zaku, but after awhile it was just her. She'd sit on the couch with me and whine how she wanted to watch a movie. I had to feed the girl dinner almost every night she was there, saying she wanted a 'home cook meal'.

She was beyond a handful.

But I enjoyed her company. Ino and Tayuya always wandered off after a couple of hours, but Tenten stuck around until she'd either have to crash here or get my private escort service to take her home. She kept me busy as she acted like a child while playing Mario Kart, despite the fact she faithfully forced me to get her a victory ice cream after wards from the store across the street because I was trash at the game.

Such a brat.

Too bad she was entirely too grown up.

The low v-cut shirts that hung at the edges of her shoulders where starting to get me. I caught myself staring at her chest twice so far, which she in turned teased me mercilessly about. But my eyes would wander on their own while we were watching movies, and my fingers crept to her waist whenever she sat on my lap to cuddle subconsciously.

She was hard to handle, it was confusing.

One second I'm feeling like I'm baby sitting to keep her out of trouble while the gang is busy.

And the next I'm struggling to keep myself in line as she swears with her signature pout she's behaving.

It was especially difficult whenever we decided to get high. While smoking with the gang was by now an aged tradition, me and Tenten were the only ones that bothered with pills. And while breathing smoke was healthy enough, there was nothing wrong with giving the lungs a break with a couple of beers and her snatched pills.

Sometimes, closer to the weekend, we'd do just that. And each time we'd have these long elabrate conversations that we couldn't remember later on that night. We'd talk for hours honestly, and each time it was about nothing.

But once, I was curious enough to ask why her and Temari decided to take on such a shady business. Apparently, Temari's saying 'if it's for a good time, I'll sell it to you' wasn't just her catch phrase. Back home, her parents were away a lot. And while anti-depressants managed to bandage the loneliness, she eventually found out going green didn't bring the mood swings.

The pills brought fierce reactions, ones that Tenten mumbled Temari doesn't like to talk about.

But Tenten?

Could you believe she looked me dead in the eye and told me she simply sold pills for fun. I shook my head with a laugh, I couldn't help it she was so freaking predictable. But that only pushed my theory that Tenten had an honest to god loving childhood.

And it made me kind of happy to know everyone didn't have to grow up in the way I did... because even with their company, I still had episodes during the few times I found myself alone...

And it broke my heart to know any other pathetic kid like me could be out there, dealing with this unstable shit.

So as the year went on, I welcomed them constantly bugging me. We squeezed in homework between all the partying, drinking, and smoking, but it happened so rarely it hardly mattered. I guess it sounded immature, and I felt some sort of way about acting like the stereotypical rich kid, but at the same time I didn't give a shit.

I was happy.

I wasn't in that suffocating mansion anymore.

And for the first time in my life, I felt like I'd be okay.

xXx

I shivered as I took the shot, liquid fire pouring down my throat as I washed down the waiting pill to swallow. Tayuya gave a look of disapproval, but I only gave her a lazy pull of my middle finger.

Gonna shake her head, but roll her blunt in the very same breath. Fucking hypocrite.

But she seemed to find her antics amusing as she winked at me, and just as I moved to shove her, Tenten plopped next to me on the couch, "Ooo, you guys aren't getting along. Temari's going to have a fit."

I blanched at the threat, and even Tayuya's eyes snapped up in small panic. Attempting to dig ourselves out of the hole, I leaned towards her and muttered, "But don't you know what happens when little girls snitch?"

Her eyes sparked high, misbehaving excitement glinting as she bit her lip. Shrugging her shoulders, she looked away with a kick of her feet, "Well... maybe I won't tell."

Swear, Tayuya visibly relaxed. What a fucking punk.

But I wouldn't front Temari like that, loved her to death but she was beyond scary. I guess she had to be, because if she didn't keep us in line I think we would be the embodiment of chaos.

"So why exactly are we here again?" Ino asked as she came over with a frown and a drink in her hand.

Tayuya had cleared her throat as she took her hit, so I took the liberty of guessing, "Well supposedly Yahiko and Konan called us over."

"I think Yahiko was complaining about us not hanging out at someone's place other than mine or Sakura's. And I'm pretty sure Hiden and Zaku was there with him while he was whining and gassed him up enough to force us all over." Tenten answered with a small roll of her eyes, the laugh bubbling past her lips showed her amusement about the situation.

"Fine line idiots," Temari grumbled with a roll of her eyes as she ventured to Tayuya. She took the smoking bud with one nod of appreciation.

"But I had plans tonight," Ino huffed out in exasperation, "Believe it or not, I have other friends. And every time I plan something with them-"

"Suck it up, buttercup," Hiden cut off with a wink. Ino attempted to pinch him as he passed but snatched at only air as he laughed away.

"Listen fucking here, I'm tired of the bull shit. We party every weekend," Yahiko complained as he walked over. Under the pressure of hosting the party, he began drinking before we even got here. Needless to say, he was already beyond toasted as he had his arm slung around Konan. I swear she was blushing, but she was practically a professional make up artist, it was hard to tell. "We can party any other weekend. Today we party here."

"Yes, we party here. On a Thrusday," Zaku emphasized as he finally wandered from the kitchen. He skipped over to take a quick hit of the blunt as Yahiko began to rant on how he couldn't wait for the weekend to come for us to hang out over here.

Temari was on her last few weak strings of holding it together with the booze and bud, and you could tell because as I mentioned before; Without Temari keeping us in line, we were utter damn chaos.

But it was understandable why she was tired. The mid semester exams for classes had us slowly crippling away over the course of the week, and it was a relief that after today we were done for a solid two weeks. It was also why I kept checking my phone, refreshing over and over to see what my grades were in my known trouble areas. The entire reason I was taking a shot with some pills was to calm down the thoughts of failing.

"You did fine," Ino whispered to me as she caught me once again staring at my screen. I blinked in surprise, snapping my gaze to her.

She only smiled softly before turning her head to pay attention to the conversation.

I looked away myself, but for entire different reasons.

"Listen, we're playing Moose and that's final," Yahiko said firmly with the blunt perched between his lips.

My attention began to catch the conversation as well, and I watched as Tayuya rolled her eyes and Temari shook her head. Hiden was the one to openly complain, "Come on, there's so many better games."

"My place my rules."

"He's completely bombing his first impression at partying at his place," Tenten whispered to me, causing me to snicker.

"Alright, but at least lets spice it up," Zaku offered with thrown hands, "So normal Moose; we all pour 1 second worth amount of our drinks in the huge moose cup in the middle of the table. Doesn't matter if you have light, dark, mixed or beer. After that, we sit around the table and attempt to bounce the quarter into the moose cup. If someone makes it, the last person to put up their hands and shout moose losses and has to drink the entire cup. If they miss, next person."

He paused for effect, and I'm pretty sure he threw a wink at me before continuing. What a stand up guy. "But of just sitting around waiting for someone to make it is hella boring. So lets have the person who is about to toss the quarter say something that's either true or false. If the person makes it, normal rules. But if they miss, they have to tell us if it was the truth or if they were lying. Ehh? Sounds zesty for you?"

"Does it have to be about yourself?" I asked in curiosity.

"No," he answered me with a point, "It can be about anything. But lets not be boring, think of the dankest shit you can or make something up."

"So what happens to the people who guessed true, and it was false or vice versa?" Hiden asked with an raise of an eyebrow.

"Right, if someone gets it wrong after the shot, those people have to take a sip of their drink." Zaku answered with a grin, "That way we aren't just sitting around with a dick in our hands waiting to get drunk. This should quicken the process. The game is kinda boring with the regular rules if no one ever makes it in."

"Alright, sounds fair to me," Temari nodded, sanctioning such antics. But she paused before adding, "And no body bitches out. Don't lie about if it's true or not."

Temari had spoken.

The games had begun.

It was only after she nodded that everyone began to move, shuffling around to get their drinks ready. I'm sure the actual game was called something else, but the reason we called it Moose was because for some reason Hiden had this freaking huge Moose head cup that was actually a really expensive antique his like great Canadian grand parents gave him. And for reasons I couldn't fathom, he brought it to every smoking, drinking, and kick back event.

Something about it oozing good vibes. Honestly, half the things Tenten told me could be a pitting hell of lies, so truthfully it could also just be some novelty cup.

Along with Hiden's traditional moose-head cup, whenever a get together was planned we made a point to bring drinks over, unlike how we usually do whenever we went out- took a few shots and hoped for the best. But when it was a get together, we brought a healthy amount of alcohol, knowing if we wanted to get efficiently drunk we kinda had to. Usually settled for stacks of cheap beer any normal night, but seeing as tonight was like a house warming event, everyone brought at least two of their more classier versions of alcohol.

So it was tough to choose what to drink in the bar like spread in the kitchen.

Best part for Yahiko was that he got to keep the left overs, which I had to admit was nice. Honestly, the spread I had at my place took up an entire kitchen shelf. Unfortunate, because I couldn't use it much while cooking on the small occasions I do.

Tragic... Too much alcohol on my kitchen counter.

What first world type of rich shit was my life even?

After we grabbed our preference in drinks, we poured 1 second of our drink into the sacred moose cup. After doing so, we sat in a circle in the living room, pulling our seats close to the table so we could reach when it came to bouncing the quarter.

Tayuya sat next to me and of course Tenten was on my lap, fitting us on the snug love seat in the room while the other sat on the other couches and makeshift benches.

With everyone doing a quick rock paper scissors competition, we quickly decided who would go first.

"Uh alright," Yahiko started off with a drunk grin, blunt at his lips practically falling. Konan did us all a favor and took the opportunity to have a quick puff. "Today I took a shit at the Starbucks across from the science building."

I laugh slipped past me before I could help it as I watched him bounce the quarter. We all shouted what we thought, but I went with truth. You couldn't put it past the guy, I swear.

As he missed, he gave us a look before shrugging and saying, "Yeah. It's true. So what?"

Laughing, because I fucking knew it, I watched Tayuya, Zaku, and Hiden take a sip. The rest of us got it right. Hiden felt especially wronged as he said quietly, "You cruel son of a bitch."

"There's only one god damn bathroom for all of us in there," Zaku shook his head with a frown, "For guys and girls. And always, it never fails, someone has always taken a shit in there. And this time it's you?"

I mean. It was kinda fucked up.

"Alright alright, Konan's next," Temari refereed.

Konan thought for a moment before saying, "Once last year, I caught a guy fucking another guy in an ally."

I shouted false, along with everyone else as the quarter bounced. When she missed, she smiled slightly as she answered, "Actually, that was true."

My eyes grew wide in absolute surprise, even Tenten's mouth dropped a little. Everyone at once started to call her bluff just as they were all forced to drink, but eventually Temari called them off while pointing out that 'Konan has never lied to us before'.

Which I had to admit, even with me still fairly new with knowing everyone, I knew that Konan didn't need or have the energy to lie to us. There was literally no point, she hardly cared about the petty shit anyway. She was actually fairly harsh one time about my choice of shirt... I had to change before we left.

As we took turns going around the room, the night going on with so far two losing, we were beyond wasted. The amount of truths coming out was ridiculous, but the great part about it was that no one was phased by it. They didn't act a certain way, they just laughed cracked some jokes and kept going.

Let me emphasis, Yahiko and Zaku kissed once because of a lost bet, and no one blinked an eye.

Tenten admitted to having a crush on Temari years ago when they first met. Konan threw out she cheated on her last exam, and fucking Hiden. Canadian Hiden. He got arrested like twice growing up because he was in a gang or some shit.

I don't know. It was getting fuzzy the more drunk we got.

With the blunt between my fingers as I sat there waiting for Ino to go, I was lost how much time had passed. But as I spent it with them, I realized that even if I didn't have too much of a family growing up, and even though my only friend left too early for me to admit, I kinda felt happy that in the end I ended up here.

With them.

They were Tayuya's friends, but part of me hoped they'd adopt me in and we'd be close for years.

My eyes snapped towards the movemnt of Ino lifting the quarter. As she aimed, a deviant little smile at her lips, she said, "I fucked a girl once."

I froze as I watched the quarter bounce. With the look on her face, I had no clue if she was lying or not and with the amount of smoke in the room and drinks I've had so far, I was foggy on what to choose. I was so tangled on what to call out, I ended up fumbling the word to shout my guess.

It took me entirely too long, because I hadn't realized she made it until everyone's hand was up and they were yelling, "Moose!"

I blinked, and everyone looked at me with an evil grin.

They hadn't gotten a chance to get me plastered yet.

Fuck.

Tenten was generous enough to grab the cup for me with her still on my lap. She took the blunt and said with a small smile, "I hoped you planned on getting trashed tonight."

The answer was no. No I did not.

I glared at Ino, who was across the room giving me a small smile. And out the corner of my eyes I saw Tayuya shift, smaller frown at her lips.

No one else was paying attention, they only gassed me up loudly with shouts urging me to chug.

I shut my eyes tight and took my first gulp.

The gag afterwards had my body shivering.

X

"Bad idea to play moose," Tayuya said what we were all thinking as we trudged home with my arm around her neck.

My other was propped on Tenten's, who was smaller but still trying her hardest to drag me home.

"I don't think she'll make it all the way to your side of the campus," Tenten said while heaving me up straight, "She's hardly walking at this point."

"We'll take the escort, like I said before we-" Tayuya replied, but the rest of what she said was drowned by me swallowing down another gag.

"She's going to get extreme motion sickness," Ino argued with a wary look at me.

"And, oh god, even if they are here to work for us I do not want for the driver to deal with throw up in his car," Tenten went on with a shiver, "My place is like around the corner from here. She can stay the night and leave in the morning."

"Temari is not going to be happy," Tayuya grumbled as we changed course, "We should have left with her and the others when they did, but you guys just had to drink more."

"Temari can deal with me," Tenten brushed off with a confident tone.

My eyes shut as I tried to pass the swimming sensation in my head, but once my eyes opened again I was laying down. I stared at the ceiling for five long seconds until I realized that I wasn't floating and that wasn't the floor, I was laying on a couch.

If there was a god, I swore that if I got through this night I would never drink again.

As I rolled over in a small groan of sickness, I heard Tenten's voice from down the hall.

"She was too sick to make it to her place, she freaking fell asleep not even half way there! So loose the pissy attitude Temari, you would have done the same for anyone else."

"I don't give a shit about that, of course she can stay. But Ten, it's almost three in the morning, the least you could have done was answer my messages asking if you were alright. That's why I have an attitude."

"I told you. I gave it to Sakura so I wouldn't lose it, she had pockets. I didn't think about checking it the entire time..."

Their voices wandered as I began to focus on finding a bucket. Being an expert at partying and drinking too much, I knew the least I could do was throw up most of the liquid so my kidney was working overtime.

Christ, thank god for Tenten.

Just as I rolled over, I saw the small empty trash can placed next to the couch.

I snatched it, and without hesitation I stuck my finger straight to the back of my throat and threw up the ocean of alcohol drowning me.

Staring at the contents inside helped me realize this wasn't my proudest moment in life.

"Are you alright?"

I looked up at Tenten, who had wandered over with a worried look on her face. My hand waved her off as I placed the trashcan away from us. The other wiped my mouth as I muttered, "Yeah, I'm alright. I just had to get that out."

"I'm sure," she replied with a wary look at the trash.

She took a step closer when I moved to swing my legs off the couch, mid breath in telling me to lay back down, but I assured, "I'm fine. I promise. I just need to wash my mouth out before my entire set of teeth rot."

I'm glad I managed to get her to laugh, if only a little, as she helped me to stand up. I would admit, the walk to the kitchen was almost like the swaying of a boat, but I got there fine. The warm water running helped with the sickening taste in my mouth, but again Tenten was an angel for bringing me some mouth wash.

Afterwards I quickly plopped back onto the couch, groaning in regret as my head fell back on the head rest, "I will never play moose again."

"You're handling it well though," Tenten offered as she sat closely next to me. "You could be sleeping in the bathroom tonight, curling around the toilet while begging for crackers to soak up the alcohol."

My lips lifted as I stared at the ceiling with my head falling back, "Descriptive."

"I've had it happen before." (2)

"Then it can always be worse," I replied with a snort, mumbling, "A philosophy I try to live by."

"A reasonable one," she joked.

"Right?"

The smile that she slipped on my face lingered as my eyes drifted closed. I didn't understand it yet, why being around Ino, Tayuya, and now even Tenten felt so comfortable. Like in the midst of the hurricane of chaos, I was in the eye of the storm. But I couldn't find it within me to figure it out, scared that if I look too deeply I'd find a way to destroy it like I do everything else.

"It could always be worse..." Tenten whispered, her words trailing off in the silent room before she mumbled, "You must have told yourself that often."

My body tensed on it's own and I found my eyes shutting tighter as memories of me repeating it to myself while picking up the broken glass from shattered wine bottles. Straining, I replied as lightly as possible, "Made the bad shit seem not so shit. I knew for a fact, I had it a lot better then other kids."

"Is that what you think?" She asked softly, and the words almost shattered at her lips. "Tayuya doesn't talk about it, but I've heard what's she's been through. I heard her say once, while she was drunk, that her friend was still stuck back there. Don't you think I can imagine what you've been through branched off of that?"

I frowned as I opened my eyes and glanced at her now curling fingers on the couch. I couldn't comprehend why they cared so much, almost as if my outward pain was reaching them in crashing waves. It didn't make sense, they hardly knew me.

I grabbed her hand, catching her eyes with a smooth smile, "Don't let her fool you. When we were together, she had it worse than me. And I had it better, I knew it. The shit I went through wasn't so bad, no reason to talk about it."

Her hand curled tighter in mine, almost as if she wanted to argue. But I only leaned over and kissed her nose, muttering, "Come on Ten, seeing you like that physically hurts me."

Her eyes peaked up at mine with a spark, and the sight relieved me. She wasn't going to fall down that dying wonderland hole just like how I refused to. For tonight, we escaped that hell.

I leaned back onto the couch, my head falling back in exhaustion. Just that little bit of movement tuckered me out, and I knew it was the waves of alcohol that was finally starting to lull me to sleep.

As the minutes passed I felt Tenten shift, the warmth of her side slipping across my arm before she quietly climbed onto my lap. A sleepy smile pulled my lips as I opened my arms to accommodate her, curling them to pull her close as I let her warmth spread through me. Sleep was still weighing my eyes and mind, but Tenten's soft voice slipped through.

Her nose ran across my neck as she whispered, "Sakura, tell me a story. I want to listen to your voice."

And with a snort, along with a small sigh, I took a breath and began to mumble, "There was a girl once, named Alice. And before she fell down the rabbit hole, she saw a tunnel."

(1) Song is from a channel called Anime Vibe just in case you can't find it. I like it. The light kinda twinge of sadness vibe it gives off. I thought it fit the chapter.

(2) – If there are any that are real og fans of mine from years ago, they'll remember that I did venture up to Canada for half a year. It was right after high school, I wanted to study abroad. Moose was a real game I played with my friends up there, and one night on the weekend I made the mistake of losing.

When I tell you that I was curled around the toliet, crying to my ex to bring me crackers, and throwing up all the contents in my body. Bruh. It was entirely too real for me. I also made her make me some ramen noodles, desperate for it anything to help. It didn't. I died a little that night. A little piece of me just withered right there and died. And I never played that devil game again.

Anyway. So there you go. I wanted to keep the chapter loose and fun. Kinda give off the vibe that they really are just a random ass gang that hangs together.

GANG GANG GANG GANG

Sorry. I couldn't help myself. But besides that, I kinda want to build the connections more between Sakura the gang. I want you to FEEL their friendship. They are friends so hard that you fucking FEEL it. That's where I wanna go, so hopefully that comes through.

Other then that, I would like to say that personally I love the Tenten in this story. She's so fucking precious that I personally feel the need to protect her.

God knows if I'll actually manage not to fail at that.

Also why I've been away is because I'm still thinking VERY hard on this book idea. It's like assembling iron man with nothing but paperclips, but it's coming together nicely. I like it a lot so far. If I get far enough a long, I might post on that other ff site.

Anyway, I'm rambling nothing much to say. Read review, tell me what you think.

Oh! And Thank you so much for the reviews so far, I do read all of them. And I'm glad you guys are digging the story. I think this ones going to be one of my personal favorites. So let's see where this goes.

Shycadet loves. Out.