Chapter 2: Who is she kidding?

'Easier said than done', thought Sakura as she prepared to go to sleep. She knew that only a few people knew her pain, only a cherished few saw her anguish and depression, and unfortunately, it was only those very few that had a direct association with that darkened horrid part of her past. Ridding herself of her gloomy thoughts, she forced herself into a fitful sleep.

The constant beep of her alarm was only one of the most annoying wake-up methods she possessed; the other one was scheduled to show up in one, two, three…

"SAKURA-CHAN!!!! Wake Up!!!" hollered Naruto.

"Good morning to you too, Naruto-kun," Sakura said as she opened the door to her best friend, "let me just take a quick shower and we'll get going."

Twenty minutes later found them running around the border of their beloved village. The comfortable silence that engulfed them gave Sakura leeway to steal glances at her friend and notice that he was uncharacteristically quiet, a phenomenon that was usually followed by chaos and upheaval.

"O.K Naruto spit it out"

"What do you mean?" he asked innocently.

Suddenly, using her massive strength to her advantage, she took him by the collar and had him hanging in front of her as she glared at him.

Nervously squirming, he answered, "I just…uhm,,,well you see," then she shook him one more time and his tint became a bluish purple, "Sakura.. urghh,…you're..chocking, me" she then loosed up her grip.

"Ahhh, o.k I just wanted to ask you if you wanted to go to the Spring Festival with me?" he timidly asked as Sakura's world came crashing down.

How could she tell her best friend, the boy who had a crush on her since they were 11 years old, that she only saw him as a brotherly figure and felt sick in the stomach by just imagining them together in an intimate relationship?

As she pondered for her answer she felt, rather than saw somebody brush next to her, and desperately, she grasp upon whatever part of said person she could grab and held on tight.

"I can't because, well.. you see..I have to take," and as she turned around to see her unsuspecting victim and felt her whole world come apart once again as her eyes met another set of green ones, but she was already hanging on thin thread, what better way to go than to be fully hanged?

"Gaara-san with me, as part of our political hospitality requirements," she finished.

Naruto was completely blown away by this revelation and had no time to feel sorry for himself as he continued to picture Gaara in formal attire accompanied by the rosette kunoichi, nothing could stop his roaring laughter at this mental image, and Sakura, as well as the victim, ahem, Kasekage, took several steps back.

"Wait! You're telling me..hahaha!!! that you're ha!ha!..going ha!ha!"

Angrily, she took a menacing step forward and was preparing to beat the crap out of the idiot as she quickly glanced at he unfortunate victim and noticed his confused state, not that it was easy to see, but Sakura had spend the last five years in his company, and was thus one of the few people that could actually distinguish his monotone facial expressions.

"Ano, you remember don't you, Gaara-san," she asked with a pleading look in her eyes that asked him to play along.

His only response was a slight nod as he rudely walked away and Naruto continued to laugh. The mortified Sakura said her farewells to her troublesome companion as she ran to catch up to her "future festival date".

She found him several minutes later sitting on a tree that overlooked the lake, the very same lake that had the hated bridge. She then easily climbed up the tree and sat fairly close to his intimidating person.

"Why?" he asked.

Sakura wanted to pretend that the question pertained as to why the lake looked blue-green and the sky itself was cloudless, questions that she could easily answered, but she valued her life, so she answered truthfully.

"Because I could not make myself tell him that I do not see him that way"

"So you're using me?" he asked with scorn and disgust laced in his harsh tone.

"I ah, well, to tell you the truth, have no intentions of forcing you to it," she answered.

Again, his only response was a slight nod as she suddenly disappeared without a trace or the traditional trail of smoke that belonged to the formation of such jutsu, but not before commenting,

"I find it hard to believe that someone whom he cherishes as one of his precious ones would deceive him so."

Sakura was deeply trouble by that statement, and she continued to be as she lunched with the rest of Team Kakashi at Sai's place, the only place acceptable enough to cook a decent meal besides her own.

"Why so quiet Hag? Looked at yourself in the mirror recently?" asked the ever gracious host with a cheerful smile on his face.

Surprisingly, the infamous temperamental kunoichi merely looked at him and turned her eyes back to her food; something which had the Copy Nin raising his eye brows and Naruto instantly complaining that if it was him, he'd be on the other side of the village by now.

"Nah, I'm just tired, shishou had me reading the mission reports all morning," she lied.

"It's not because she's forcing you to go with Gaara, is it? Sakura-chan, because you don't have to do it if you don't want to, I'll go tell her," volunteered Naruto.

Kakashi and Sai could only raise their speculative faces towards Naruto, as he explained Sakura's unfortunate situation.

"I've never heard of such policy," replied Kakashi as Naruto finished.

Sakura could only maintain face because of her extensive training as the Hokage's prime apprentice. She found herself regretting having to lie to her team, but she was not about to tell Naruto the truth. So she put in her foot even deeper.

"Yeah well, since I can't go with Naruto, I'm making it my personal mission to find him a date," she sidetracked.

"Really, is dickless that desperate that he needs a hag to find him another even uglier one?" asked Sai, earning several bone chilling glares.

"And who is it going to be?" Naruto asked.

"It's gonna be a surprise baka!" answered Sakura and proceeded to plummer him to the ground to stop his relentless whining.

For that little while, as Sakura beat the crap out of Naruto, Sai enjoyed the show, since this time he wasn't an active participant this time, and Kakashi pretended to ignore the commotion as he pulled out his beloved icha icha novel, all was well in the world.