Las Vegas
Kate: Thanks to it being summer I hope to be able to update more. Although I do tend to spend a lot of my free time with my friends…I'll have to work on managing my time better. Well, once again, thank you to all of the following people because you guys are the reason why I still bother to update!
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Kate: Alright, I DON'T own Naruto…even though I really wish I did…
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Chapter 6: A Night Out
The days continued on as if nothing had ever changed for most of the friends, but, for Sakura and Sasuke, it was awkward. He would attempt to hold her hand and she would move just out of his reach in such a slender move that to anyone else it would seem as if she never noticed his hand reaching for hers. He tried to cuddle with her in the hotel room but she would eventually just move into the next bed and when he tried to kiss her, she would look the other way.
"I just don't get her. I thought she told you that she was going to try?" The raven's voice seemed to ring out in frustration as he and his three guy friends sat around a table in a nearby bar discussing their current relationships. "Sasuke, this is new for my lil' sis; she hasn't been in a relationship since college and now she's suddenly married. You have to give her time to adjust."
"Naruto's right; Sakura won't warm up to you over just one week. It might even take a couple months before you even begin having a real relationship." Came the stoic reply of Neji as he took another swig of his beer.
"Then why do you three have real relationships?"
"Teme, we all had previous associations with our wives while you and Saki didn't even meet until this trip. You've known each other for four days while we've all known each other for years. Hinata and I met when Sakura and she were still in college and we both willingly chose to get married. It's been about nine years since I met her and I've loved her since that first day."
The blonde was met by a glare from a pair of glinting silver eyes. He gulped nervously as he gave a couple quick glances back at Neji and noticed that his eyes remained narrowed. Of course he knew that Neji would be overprotective of his younger cousin but he never thought that Neji would look so deadly and bloodcurdling.
"Eh, N-Neji, hehehe…why are you glaring at me like that?" Innocent blue eyes glanced up into the intimidating silver ones once more as he scratched his head nervously. "You married my naive little cousin with full knowledge of what you were doing without anyone of relative closeness there; is there a reason why I shouldn't be glaring at you?"
Naruto tried to shake the comment off and go back to his hyper-active self as he gave Neji a pat on the back and told the waiter to get Neji another beer and to put it on his tab.
"Getting me drunk won't help your case Naruto. If anything, it'll make it worse and I'll wind up killing you." Naruto immediately looked up at Neji again and apprehensively jumped behind Sasuke for protection. "Teme, protect me! You're married to my sister! If anything happens to me then you'll never be able to get close to her!"
Sasuke sighed as he gave Neji an apologetic look and began to stand up from his seat.
"The Dobe and I are leaving before Neji kills him. If it were under different circumstances then I'd had let him but for once the Dobe is right; that would ruin any chance I have of being close to Sakura if her brother turned up dead." He gave a momentary glace back at Naruto who was parading towards him. "Come on Dobe."
A giant goofy grin on his face and a little bit of pep in his step; the blonde came bounding toward him.
"Coming Sasuke-teme!"
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It was a girl's night out and they had all decided that they would go gambling. Sakura, unlike her mother, was known for being extremely lucky, except for the incident of her getting married, but maybe that would turn out to be lucky in the end. Ino was sitting at one of the poker tables with Tenten as their chips began to pile up. They were doing extremely well which made Sakura wonder if they hadn't found a way to cheat because she knew how bad Ino was at poker. Hinata and herself decided to play it safe and play the slot machines.
"Saki, do you suppose that Tenten is helping Ino cheat at poker?" Asked Hinata with a disapproving glance towards the table where the other two girls sat. Sakura brushed her pink locks out of her face as she looked over at the ravenette. "I was just wondering the same thing."
"They'll get in a lot of trouble if they get caught counting cards."
Hinata's worried eyes couldn't help but continue to stray towards the poker table in constantly anxious glances as Sakura skillfully watched them as well without catching any unwanted attention.
"I don't know whether they are or not but if you keep glancing over at them like that you'll raise suspicion. Just keep playing your machine and give them thirty more minutes; if they haven't lost by then, I'll go over and get them to refrain from winning any more."
Hinata's pearly orbs looked over at her friend's impassive and calm composure and felt herself relax as well. As long as Sakura had everything under her watchful gaze then everything would turn out alright; she was known for being the one that keeps the group out of trouble. She could predict the outcome of most situations before they even occurred. Ino was always one for betting against Sakura's predictions and hadn't won yet.
Sakura wasn't just watching her friends though; there were people everywhere around them that were surveying the tables for just those types of people that liked to count cards and find new ways to cheat the system. Sakura wasn't stupid; she knew that her friends had caught quite a bit of attention and Sakura needed to know just how much.
"Hina, I'm going to go check out their desert table; I'll be right back."
Hinata nodded in response as she watched her pink haired friend walk out of view and towards the area where they had seen the desert table when they had first arrived.
'Be careful Saki…'
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Her pink hair cascaded down her back in rippling waves as her emerald eyes danced a bit with glee. She hadn't done anything this thrilling since college and she loved using her old skills. Ino swore up and down that Sakura should've tried to become a spy instead of a doctor and the four of them could've become a super secret spy team.
They were in a nightclub and everyone who was anyone was there. Of course Ino had called Sakura up and mentioned that she just had to go to grand opening of the place because Ino now had the connections to get them in to such a place. Hinata and Sakura had been best friends for about a year at the time and so she had tagged along on the little adventure. Tenten, whom had gone to high school with Sakura and Ino, was also there; they were all pretty close friends.
"Saki, it's been forever since I've seen you!"
Sakura laughed at the brunettes juvenile antics.
"Tennie, you saw me last week when I went to your martial arts competition!"
Tenten stuck out her tongue in a childish manner as she hugged the pinkette.
"Can't a girl miss one of her besties?!"
Sakura's laugh rang out like a soft string of chiming bells as her jade orbs reflected the strobe lights that moved around the room. She was in one of her rare moments in which she was completely content with everything around her.
"Of course Tennie!"
In one fluent motion, both the ravenette and pinkette were dragged towards the bar and pulled up onto the counter by their two friends. The music was thunderous and the beat got their blood pumping as the brunette and blonde let loose with the moves. Hinata immediately wanted down but Tenten and Ino were all about being the center of attention and so they grabbed Hinata and sandwiched her in-between the two of them. Sakura felt bad for her friend but continued to dance until she noticed the unwanted attention. She immediately hopped down much to her friend's disappointment and began to dance through the crowd.
"The girl with the pink hair disappeared; grab the other three and then we'll find her."
Sakura caught the news as she danced behind the bouncer and immediately returned to her friends. They were still dancing away on top of the bar until she pulled them down much to Hinata's relief.
"Saki, why are you being such a party-pouper?" Came the whining of her blonde friend as she attempted to get Sakura to get back up on the bar again. "Ino, we caught some unwanted attention; we gotta' get out."
The girl's heard the urgency in her voice and without delay were on her heels as she found her way to a back entrance. On their way there, Sakura caught one of the guys dressed up in regular clothes and before she knew it was pulling the girls into bathroom in order to hide. Unfortunately it was the guy's bathroom. It was definitely a night that they would never forget.
"Woah, there're chicks in here!" Replied a tall burly brunette with darkened green eyes, next to him was a blonde that was equally surprised to see women in the men's bathroom. Ino and Tenten just smirked as they put on a sexy feminine strut and began their way over to the two unsuspecting men. Within moments the two men had been seduced under their command.
"Enough flirting you two, the coast is clear."
Much to the men's disappointment, the four women left with only a few winks goodbye.
The girl's had made it just outside the door when one of the bouncers spotted them. He grabbed Hinata by her upper arm and spun her around in an aggressive way. Unfortunately for the bouncer, Tenten didn't like it when you touched her friends. He was on the pavement in a matter of seconds unconscious and would definitely be feeling Tenten's martial arts butt-kicking skills effects the day after.
"You know Saki, with your sleuthing and sneaking skills, Tenten's martial arts skills, and all of our feminine wiles and charm in seducing the opposite sex, the four of us could be like Charlie's Angels or some kind of spy group! Are you sure you want to become a doctor? You could use what you know now as a doctor to kill someone instead and we could do assassin work!"
"In your dreams Ino; I want to become a doctor in order to save lives not take them."
The blonde began to pout as the other three laughed and they began their trek to find a cab.
A man with an earpiece stood next to the desert table and had his eyes on the poker table that Tenten and Ino were sitting at. Why was it that those two always managed to be the ones to get them into messes like this? Sakura grabbed a couple strawberries and began to dip them into the chocolate fountain that was right next to the man as she listened to what he had to say.
"Yeah, I see them. The brunette and the blonde?" There was a momentary pause as he listened to the speaker on the other side of the line. "Yeah, I understand. We'll pick them up after they cash in their chips; understood."
Sakura glanced over at the small hand motions he made to a couple other people in the room. There were five of them that Sakura had noticed were watching the table. They took their gambling serious in Las Vegas, it was a city that was known for its gambling and only the best could actually get away with cheating here, Tenten and Ino should've known that.
"Wow, these strawberries are so delicious…mmm…" She had managed to catch the man's attention as she seductively licked and bit at the strawberry. After finishing it off, she playfully licked her lips. She gave a wink to the man as she made sure he was watching her while she strutted back to her machine.
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Hinata had been waiting patiently and was relieved when her friend made it back to her safely. She never liked it when they tried to play things on the more dangerous side of life. Eventually things like this were going to catch up with them and she knew it. She only hoped that tonight wouldn't be the night that they did.
"There are five of them. I've got one guy's attention completely on me which may have drawn a couple of the others' attentions. They plan on taking Tenten and Ino into custody after they cash their chips in. I want you to walk over and give them the signal to start losing a bit and then get out of there."
Hinata knew exactly what she had to do and she nodded her head in response as she continued to play the machines for a few more minutes so that it didn't seem obvious as to what she was doing. A little while later she announced a little louder than she normally speaks that she has to use the restroom and began her walk to the bathroom in a wispy fashion. As she was passing the poker table she managed to catch Tenten's attention and gave a slight flip of her hair that wouldn't have been noticed by anyone but them which was a sign to get the hell out of there.
Tenten immediately caught on and lost a couple hands which gave Ino the signal to do the same. As Hinata was on her return from the bathroom she noticed that Sakura was once again missing and began to worry. She hoped that nothing had gone wrong.
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He had no clue where they were going as the two of them wandered aimlessly through the lively city. There was never a moment when the city would lay restless, like New York, it was a city that never slept. Naruto was rather cheerful about not being maliciously strangled by Neji though and so the blonde made sure that they went on to something equally as entertaining as drinking with the guys. What that was, he had no clue once again.
"Sasuke-teme?" Came the annoying voice of his companion as the blonde held both of his arms behind his head and looked up at the sky. It was impossible to see any of the stars because the lights were too bright in the city but the moon was still shining bright and Naruto couldn't help but think of Hinata.
"Hn?" Was the only reply that came from the distant Uchiha as he gave the blonde a sliver of his notice.
"What do you think the girls are doing right now?"
"Not what we're doing, that's for sure."
"Teme, don't be a sourpuss just because Sakura's been giving you the cold shoulder!" The blonde's attentiveness was now focused on his best friend that had been in an overly bad mood lately because of his sister. "This is supposed to be a vacation, remember? Try to enjoy it while it lasts and then go back to the real world when you return to Konoha."
"Hn" was the only reply that he received from his friend but he decided to interpret it as a 'fine'.
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Tenten and Ino had both left the table at separate times and cashed in the remainder of their chips. Their sudden losing streak had thrown the guys off and now they were only under strict surveillance as they switched to the machines where Hinata was seated. Sakura was still nowhere to be found and they were quite worried as to what might've happened to their pink haired friend.
"Do you g-guys th-think that she's a-alright?" Asked Hinata timidly as she tried to inspect the area for any signs of pink. Ino was the one who replied first as she tried to muster the confidence in her voice, "Of course she's alright! There's a reason why I keep saying that she should be a spy."
"Ino, this is a time for being serious; stop joking around." Ino threw a slight glare towards Tenten before objecting, "I am being serious! She's fine!"
Ino hoped that she sounded convincing as her blue eyes scanned their surroundings in hopes of finding their friend but there was no such luck.
'Forehead girl, you better not be in any trouble because I don't know how many guys Tennie can take on at once.'
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Kate: Alright, so I decided to leave you with a semi cliffy! Don't hate me… It's just that it's 3am in the morning and I'm tired of writing. I thought that this looked as good as any as a place to stop. I surrender to the need to sleep! Hey, at least I managed to update and it turned out to be quite long if I do say so myself!
If you want me to update faster this summer then R&R people! Whichever story receives the most reviews and hits will be the one that I pay the most attention to and update the fastest. I'm not super woman and I do have many other things to do. School may be out but I've got a job, friends, and a life…along with a mother that likes to hog the computer which prevents me from getting on during all the good hours when my brain can function normally…-lol- I thank you for reading my story and an even bigger thanks to all of those who have been faithfully reading my stories and patiently waiting for the next update!
Until next time! Adieu…