"So," Neji started, "Do we start?"
At the moment, Neji was hovering over the indian-style Sakura and Tenten, while the latter had her hands entwined in Sakura's white mane, braiding it.

"Hell yeah we do!" shouted a familiar voice. Both girls yelped in surprise. The new addition to their little tea-party could be awfully loud sometimes. Neji smirked. "That dog'll never learn", thought the Hyuuga genius."And one day it might get him killed".

All of a sudden, a chunky black object fell from the tree the Inuzuka boy was currently upside down in.

"Kiba! How many times have I told you not to hold that damnable thing from the cord?!" shouted Tenten. "One day the damn thing will fall right off!" Currently, the heir to the Inuzuka clan was dangling a black CD player from the cord. Kiba cut off the chakra to his feet and started plummeting to the hard earth. While in mid-air, he did a back-flip and landed gracefully on his feet.

"Oh, come off it Ten-Chan!" Kiba started. "It was only a little fun!"

"Cool it guys. We've got company." Sakura whispered hastily.

Sasuke was puzzled. "What the hell are they doing?" the raven-haired youth thought.

"Since when was Sakura so 'buddy-buddy' with that mangy mutt and the Hyuuga prick?"

Sasuke made his way over to the small group of four, his pale features set in an annoyed scowl. "Hey Sakura!"a familiar voice yelled. "Kami," Sasuke thought, "That was right in my ear!" the Uchiha heir's scowl deepened as he turned around to face the perpetrator. But the look of annoyance drastically slid from his face after he saw who yelled.

There, running ahead of him, was a very enthusiastic and grinning Nara Shikamaru. The brunette boy was waving one arm in the air while running toward the bunch Sasuke was about to interrogate.

"Wait, what the crap?!"Sasuke thought bewildered, "SINCE WHEN THE HELL DID SAKURA HIT IT OFF WITH THE NARA?!?!" (A/N: Sakura and Shika are not going out, mind you!!) Shikamaru bumped into Sasuke in his earnest sprint to his friends. "Oh, sorry dude!" the Nara boy called over his shoulder. "My bad!"

"OH.MY.GOD." a certain blonde thought. "Why the hell is MY boyfriend so happy to see that freak?!" Yamanaka Ino thought.

At the moment, her jaw was hitting the ground, anime-style. "Where is he running to?" the blue-eyed girl asked herself. She then got a glimpse of a certain 'Haruno' sitting on the ground, who was currently bumping fists with her self-proclaimed boyfriend.

And judging by his wide, fox-like grin, he didn't seem to mind who was watching. "And what the hell did Billboard-Brow do to her hair?" Ino asked herself, inwardly snickering. The Yamanaka girl stomped over to her sensei, an annoyed pout adorning her features.

"Asuma-Sensei!" She started, "Shikamaru isn't paying attention! Shouldn't all of them be over here, so we can get the meeting started?" Asuma inwardly sighed, shooting Kakashi a pleading look.

Kakashi gave him an glance that seemed to say "Hey, she's your student, don't look at me!" Yamanaka Ino was now standing directly in front of her teacher, her arms folded across her chest. "Okay Ino, I'll call them over." the Sarutobi said tiredly.

"Dude! Did you hear?! Temari's coming!" Shikamaru was positioned in a low crouch, a huge grin appearing on his face.

"I know! I can't wait to see Mari-Chan!" Tenten responded excitedly.

Unbeknownst to all but five of the Rookie Nine, Shikamaru had been going out with the third female member of their tight-knit group. Their relationship was long-distance, mind you, but anytime a mission to Suna turned up, the 15-year-old Nara was always the first to jump at it.(A/N: In my story, Temari is the same age as everyone in the Rookie 9) "Hey Kura-Chan!" Sakura stood up as Shikamaru scooped her up in a tight bear-hug. She smiled warmly at the nickname.

After her mother's murder, the young Taisho girl had been taken in by one of her family's close friends. The Taisho and Nara Clan had been fast friends and allies for five generations. So when Sakura's family had an emergency, Shikako and his wife were always more than willing to watch their pseudo-niece. Because of this, the Nara's youngest son became Sakura's closest friend.

Up until the time they were two, the pair were inseparable. Then, a new family moved in two houses down from Shikamaru, and the pair came across Tenten. (A/N: Just imagine Edward and Alphonse' house from FMA. All the houses look like that!)

After that, a woman and her five-year-old daughter and three-year-old son moved in next door to Sakura. With the new addition to their pair, the trio of three-year-olds discovered Inuzuka Kiba and his big sister Hana.

Being five, going on six, Hana wasn't too keen on having toddlers for playmates. But when anyone tried to lay a finger on her little bunch of rag-a-muffins, Hana knew how to bring on the hurt. Her famous tagline was: "Nobody gets to call my brother or his friends' brats but me punk!" After that, the perpetrator usually got his ass handed to him by a five-year-old girl.

(But, back to the story!)

It was only after until the groups of friends were four that they met the fifth and sixth addition to their bunch. It was August, the summer of Taisho Sakura's fourth year. She was walking down the dirt road toward Tenten's house, a drippy vanilla ice-cream cone was in her grip.

She stopped suddenly, peering down the road with her hand acting as a visor to keep the sun out of her eyes. Sakura gasped excitedly. "New movers!" she thought happily, "Maybe they need help!" The four-year-old gulped down the rest of her cone and jogged cheerily down the road.

Her new Jellies© slapped the hard-packed earth. She smiled down at her sandals. Her mommy had just gotten them yesterday, and they had sparkles in them and matched her eyes (or so her mother said.) Nothing could have gone wrong that hot August day. And to
add to the excitement, she was about to make a new friend.

"Wow." the young Taisho squeaked out. "It's big." Currently, the four-year-old was gawking at the size of the house that was being moved into.

A man of 23 years wiped sweat off his brow. When he opened his eyes, pure ivory could be seen.

Hyuuga Hizashi had just set down the last cardboard box of silverware. "Whoa! Neji be Careful!" the man called out. He seemed to be shouting at a cardboard box with legs. "I grunt can handle grunt it!" called the boy. Neji was about to drop the load when a pair of small hands grabbed the tilting side.

"Watch out!" cried a female's voice. "You could hurt yourself!"

The young Hyuuga peered around the side of the box and blushed. "Uh, t-thanks…" Neji stuttered, his cheeks stained a light pink.

Who was this girl? He thought. And boy, was she pretty!

"Umm, what are you looking at? Is there something on my face?" Sakura asked innocently.

"M-my name's Neji," the boy started, regaining his composure. "What's yours?" The white-eyed boy smiled brightly at her.

"Me?" she asked. "Yes you, dummy! What's your name?" Sakura growled deep in her throat. "Hey white-eyes, if you're gonna call me names, then I'll drop this box!"

"I-I didn't mean it like that!" the branch-member sputtered out. "I wanna know your name so I can thank you!"

Sakura was taken aback a bit. That was all? He just wanted to thank her? "O-oh…" it was her turn to stutter. "It's Taisho."

"Taisho what?" Neji was getting annoyed. "Sakura. Taisho Sakura."

"Well, it's a very pretty name, Sakura," a baritone voice rang out. "Nice to meet you! My name's Hyuuga Hizashi. But you can call me Hizashi." He smiled the same way Sakura's daddy smiled at her.

"As you may already know, this is Neji." He got down to her eye level and gingerly took the box out of the child's hands.

"Thank you very much, Miss Taisho! If you hadn't come along, we would have had a big mess on our hands. Neji," The Hyuuga man
started, "Didn't you say something about thanking Miss Taisho?"

"Oh!" Sakura interjected. "You don't have to call me that! Sakura is fine!" Neji's cheeks colored faintly again.

"Thank you Miss Taisho." Neji said, emphasizing every word. He rolled his pearlescent eyes. Geez Louise, dads could be so embarassing sometimes!

And that was the start of a beautiful friendship.

PRESENT TIME

"Hey Sakura!" Said girl turned her head in the direction of the shout. "What the hell does he want?" Shikamaru sneered, a scowling Sakura still in his arms.

Tenten shot up and walked to meet him halfway, cleverly obscurring his veiw of their little powwow.

"Hey, why don't you just run it by me first, Uchiha, and I'll tell you if it's worth our time." The brunette curtly began, cutting off Sasuke completely.

Sasuke growled. "I just wanted to tell her that the meeting is started, so she might wanna quit canoodling with the Nara."

"Will do, Sasuke. Will do." She mumbled as she stalked back.

"NARA SHIKAMARU! ANSWER WHEN YOUR GIRLFRIEND TALKS TO YOU!" The angry Yamanaka screeched. She was pissed.
"I'm coming, miserable bitch..." Shikamaru mumbled. "Since when the hell were you and Ino a couple?!" Kiba barked. "I thought you would stay true to Temari-chan!" The fifteen-year-old Nara just chuckled. "Dude! This isn't a game! How could you do that?!"

Kiba was angry. "Here's gasp the thing gasp guys," Shikamaru was panting from laughing so hard. "We're not!"

"Huh?!" Neji was baffled. "You mean, you're...not...dating Ino?" "Duh, you jackass!!" Shikamaru was sweatdropping as a vein popped out of his forehead, anime style.
"Why the HELL would I want to date INO?!?!"

Back with the other ninja:

"Oh!" Thought a certain blonde kunoichi. "Shika must be defending my honor!" She had anime hearts in her eyes.

Boy...was she dense.

THANX 4 READING MINNA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll try 2 update again today!!!! pleez reveiw, and tell me what you think!!