AN: blah blah blah. Ok, so things that people requested were: something less depressing, some NejiTen and some news about Kakashi. Put it all together with some classic Kiba moments (which always go down well), and I'm desperately hoping this might turn out to be less pathetic than some of the crap I've been churning out recently.

I must admit that it was on of those horrid moments where I had 700 words written and was trying to find a chapter to wrap around it. I thought it was best to tag an extra scene on rather than trying to pad out the one I had written already.

and i want lots lots lots of reviews to keep me on happy writing juice, ok?

Enjoy…

2262 words in this chapter

Unmasked

Chapter 14- Satisfaction

"Sakura!" Ino yelled from the other room in an agitated tone

"Hold on pig, I won't be long" She sighed and tried to avoid the inevitable again.

Ino had already spent the last two hours smothering her in make up and painting her nails. Now the dress lay out on Ino's bed waiting for Sakura to put it on.

Every time she tried, she just ended up fiddling with some detail, rather than putting it on like she was supposed to. The irony didn't fail to hit her square on the forehead. She'd spent years fantasizing about when she'd finally be able to go to a dance like this, and now she was preparing to go, it was the absolute last thing she wanted to do.

It's nothing to do with him, nothing at all. It is just nerves…that's all, just nerves… she tried to convince herself.

'You are allowed to be worried you prune, look at Naruto…"

This is insane…

'It's not like he's going anywhere'

No… I should be there though

'What's the point of a secret relationship if you're going to be this clingy in public?'

Kuso, you're right… I've got to be strong…

"Sakura! If you aren't down here soon I'm coming up there!" Ino's high pitched voice screeched.

She picked up the dress now, wary of exactly how homicidal Shikamaru's glares would be if she subjected his eardrums to anymore battering from his fiancée.

Letting the dressing gown she had around her shoulders slip to the floor, she quickly pulled the dress on and shivered. Despite the additions, the garment was still quite revealing for her taste and left her feeling very cold, even with the summer heat.

Looking into the full length mirror Ino had set out; she held her heels in her hand and sighed in defeat. There's nothing I can do about it now. Just so long as I can get under a duvet as soon as possible once this is done, I can manage a few hours.

The final dress was a dark silver silk number, with a slit up the side of one leg reaching to just above her knee. The front was held on by thin ribbons crossing over the back, which was otherwise completely bare from the hip upwards. The lace inserts Hoshi had suggested were exactly that, a suggestion. At the neck line a small section of black lace no more than an inch thick distracted attention towards the cleavage being displayed, while still pretending to cover a small portion of it. The insert at the back that was suggested was exchanged for a lace up section of ribbon decoration which she was struggling to fasten up properly so just left it as it was.

Looking closer, it amazed her exactly how much make-up she was wearing without it being noticeable at all. Most of it had been to mask her tired skin, rather than actually change her appearance; only the smoky silver and black eye shadow stood out and it didn't look too bad at all.

Wanting to get it over with, she began to make her way down to the others. Thankfully they hadn't waited at the bottom of the stairs for her like they often do in movies. That would have been too embarrassing considering that she was only just trying to master walking in the heels.

"Ugh…" she muttered to herself in a whisper as she walked towards the main room where everyone was waiting "if this dress wasn't so bloody long I wouldn't have to wear these stupid shoes and then I could walk properly. It's a good job they aren't expecting me to dance because it's never going to happen, no chance…"

She looked up and found that she'd already reached her destination and at least four pairs of eyes were staring at her.

"Go ahead and laugh" she sighed and leant against the door frame tiredly, not bothering to pay much attention to their expressions.

"Damn you Sakura" Tenten grunted and crossed her arms over her chest.

Everyone else stayed quiet until Ino let her eyes wander back to Shikamaru, who she had been lapping up in formal wear, but broke the silence quite abruptly "Shikamaru! Get your tongue back in your head!"

Sakura looked up in shock to see that he was looking away with a blush but Kiba was unashamedly still checking her out. She turned to leave and escape the situation "Bloody hell, I'm going back to bed"

"No you are not" Ino dived forward and caught her before she could take another step. "I haven't done your hair yet"

"Stay the hell away from my hair" Sakura snapped, fed up of Ino's fussing.

"Ano…"

"No, I have to agree with Sakura Ino" Kiba told her "It looks so much hotter all messy like that."

"Actually…" she corrected him "I was just referring to the fact that it's already seven and I need to be presentable, not art. It'll do; and it's not messy at all, it's just not as over-styled as Ino's hair"

Ino took the opportunity to fiddle with her own artistically pinned-up hair and turned to Shikamaru seeking reassurance.

He stepped forward and took her hand from her hair to hold it in his own. "You look stunning, honestly"

She blushed lightly and leant up to give him a kiss softly.

They soon seemed to forget our presence as Shikamaru reached to hold her hip with his other hand and she pulled her hand free to lock them both behind his shoulders as they deepened the kiss.

He seemed to get quite frustrated as his hand kept slipping across the deep purple satin of her dress, and eventually settled for reaching a hand to the back of her head and resting the other on her bare shoulder.

I noticed Kiba scooting closer to me out of the corner of my eye and I could tell what he was up to before he even got close.

Thankfully, we were all interrupted by a knock at the door and Tenten, who was already looking away with a blush, visibly shrunk further into the sofa in her Hyuuga dress robes, hugging a cushion close.

"I'll get it" I told them, glad to have an escape from Kiba for a second, and strode off to the front door, swinging it open to find Neji looking exactly the same as he always did.

"Sakura" he nodded politely "you look overdone"

"Arigato; that's what I said but they wouldn't listen. Come in?"

"I'd rather not. Just send her out. She is there, isn't she?"

"Hai, hold on" she held up a hand to make him stay still, not that she needed to seen as he rarely moved anyway. She wandered back a little but stayed at the door. "Tenten, get your sorry ass out here!"

She appeared a few seconds later, being shoved along by Ino while she scowled at anything she could just to avoid eye contact with her husband.

"Tenten, we have to go." Neji told her stoically

"Don't start issuing orders Teme" she spat back, crossing her arms again. "It's bad enough you blackmailed me into this"

"It wasn't my idea. I don't want to do this anymore than you."

"Of course you don't." she rolled her eyes "It involves actually spending time with me. We all know how much you hate doing that"

"Tenten…"

"Just get it over with." She pushed passed him out of the house to leave

Neji followed her with his eyes then turned back to Sakura and Ino with a downcast expression. "Arigato, she seems calmer at least."

"Calmer?" Ino glared at him "That's calmer? How bad did your domestics get?"

"You don't want to know." He blinked tiredly "Goodnight"

He turned and left but they didn't bother to shut the door. Ino just called through to the guys "Are you ready?"

"Hai, hai we're coming" Shikamaru sighed as he strolled out and held Ino's hand.

Kiba followed after him and slid smoothly up to Sakura, letting his hand rest on the ribbon laced area at the base of her spine.

Noticing the action, Ino stifled a giggle and Sakura leant up to whisper in Kiba's ear "You are lucky I'm supposed to be dating you or I'd have you castrated by now"

Getting the hint, Kiba moved his hand to wrap around further up her waist with a charmingly toothy grin and she smiled back in satisfaction. Maybe it really won't be too bad tonight. Kiba will keep my mind of Kakashi for sure.

"Right, we're leaving" Ino announced and ushered everyone outside while she locked up the door.

Kakashi felt weightless. Numbness filled his senses as he felt his connection to, wherever he was, slipping.

He experienced a rush to his head followed by nausea and groaned mentally at the experience.

He didn't notice before just how cold he had become, but when he felt warmth against the bare skin of his face, the contrast snapped him back to his senses.

Heavy eyelids struggled to lift as he tried to shift away from the heat but he was almost completely paralysed. He tensed his body in an attempt to move anything, but was only greeted by an aching pain shot through his chest.

He gasped out loud and felt a rush of air through his lungs.

A feminine voice called out softly from a little distance away. "Hatake-san?"

He again attempted to open his right eye but it was too sore. Please don't tell me I've lost both eyes now… taking a deep breath; he warily opened the left one, expecting the usual dull ache that came from the permanently activated Sharingan.

He almost froze though, when he opened the eye easily, without pain and without the Sharingan. What the…?

He watched as a dark haired medic stepped closer to him, apparently the only one in the room. "Hatake-san? Are you awake?"

"Wha...?" he croaked

"Dear Kami, you are! Hold on, I won't be long"

He watched as she shuffled quickly out of the room, only to be brought back in by Shizune.

"B-but Haruno-sama told me to…"

"Haruno-sama is busy. It took us long enough to get her out of here, we aren't dragging her back." Shizune scowled at the younger girl, and then walked over to sit beside Kakashi. "How are you doing Kakashi?"

He glanced over at her and tried to move his limbs again "I can't move…"

"I know, don't worry, you aren't paralysed. It was the only way we could restrain your fitted sleep without damaging your healing injuries. It should wear off in about half an hour. Why are you only opening one eye?"

"The other hurt when I tried"

"Let me see that for a second" she walked around and sent a small amount of chakra into his eye, soothing it with the touch.

In a few seconds time, he found that he could open his right eye as well as his left as Shizune supported him to a sitting position.

Noticing his wince, she ran some chakra over his aching ribs aswell and he soon felt much better. "Arigato Shizune"

She stood up away from him in shock "D-did you… did you actually just thank me?"

"Hai, and could you please thank whoever it was that healed the rest of my injuries when you next see them for me"

Her eyes couldn't have been any wider as she turned to the younger medic to check she wasn't hearing things.

"Shizune, what happened to my Sharingan?" he asked impatiently. If I've lost it…

She smiled back but held out a signal to the other medic instead "Haruka…"

"Hai Shizune-san" She almost jumped, exited at the opportunity to show off her knowledge "Haruno-sama developed a new technique that bonds elements of the bloodline trait genetics to the existing DNA. This means that the tissue implant you received is more responsive to the rest of your body. Now you have the ability in both eyes to enable or disable the Sharingan, aswell as, theoretically, the ability to pass it on to your children."

Kakashi was astounded. Sakura did that for me…? He turned to look at Shizune, who merely looked smug in return, obviously satisfied by his awed expression. "How long will it be before I can move about again?"

"The medic in charge of your treatment drained every drop of chakra they could spare into your healing. By the time that paralysis wears off, I'd say you'll be back to normal, if only a little sore. I could tell you to avoid strenuous exercise, but we both know you better than that" She gave him a quick wink as she left the room.

Haruka approached the edge of his bed and looked down nervously "Gomenesai Hatake-san. She really wanted to be here when you woke up, but she had to leave a few hours ago."

"It's alright, its better this way" he breathed deeply and looked out of the window at the sunset "What time is it?"

"Seven O'clock"

He attempted to nod in acknowledgement but couldn't move his head very far "She did leave early then"

"Hai, the dance starts any minute now so she had to leave to get ready in time"

"The dance?" he frowned

"Oh, we never said?" She got all flustered for having forgotten "Gomenesai Hatake-san. It's Thursday already. You've been unconscious for three days"

"Kuso" he closed his eyes in frustration.

"Were you supposed to be at the dance?"

"Hai…"

AN: alright, I need feedback. I have no idea if it came out the right way. The irony is supposed to hit round about the 'Sakura's getting comfy with Kiba thinking that Kakashi might not ever wake up, round about the same time he actually does.'

Mean I know, but re-reading it doesn't make it sound like that at all.

Note the change in Neji for a blink and you miss it moment aswell, in case you blinked.

It all kind of seems irrelevant right now but it's important.

The Dance starts next chapter, and as far as I know, doesn't end for a long time, cos there's so much that goes on.

Stay shiny and show the luff

Xx Belizma-chan xX