sorry for the wait. Here you go. Enjoy. Read and Review
It was the second day of rehearsals and Sakura realized that she had woken up late. She looked around frantically trying to find where her alarm clock was. She couldn't find it anywhere. She didn't need to look st the time to notice that it was past nine in the morning. Rehearsals started at eight in the morning. She shot up trying to get out of her bed, but her sheets were tangled between her legs and she feel face first into the ground.
"this must be how Naruto feels like when he falls, which is almost all the time," she thought.
Speaking of Naruto, she and Shikamaru had been discussing various ways to get Hinata noticed by Naruto. Shikamaru had suggested Kiba kiss Hinata in front of him, but Sakura didn't think that would be wise. It wouldn't be fair to both Hinata or Kiba. They were close, but in brother and sister kind of way, so she rejected that idea. She just had to hope that this contest would do the work. She was so caught up in Hinata's love life that she didn't even think about what to do with her feelings towards Sasuke. Maybe this contest was slowly helping her get rid of said feelings.
"oh crap, I've been laying here for about thirty minutes," she internally screamed as she got off of the ground and ran to the shower. She cleaned up as fast as she could and changed at a records speed. She was out the door in only fifteen minutes. Shikamaru was already outside the door. He didn't look angry with her, but she felt bad for making him wait that long.
"I am so sorry, Shikamaru really," she pleaded with him, but he wasn't angry at all. He laughed instead.
"it's cool, I came late anyways," he stated. As they walked to the rehearsals room he spotted Sasuke and looked towards Sakura but she didn't seem to notice him, it seemed as if she had forgotten about trying to make Sasuke jealous, so he initiated contact.
Sasuke was out of tomatoes for the day and that was a no, no. So he went where only the best tomatoes were located and that was besides Ichirakus. He walked towards the stand he could already see the luscious red of the tomatoes when out of the corner of his eye he saw a bright pink color, which compelled him to look back and there he spotted Sakura. He didn't want to make it seem obvious that he was staring at her, so he turned his head a little bit forward so that it looked as if he was staring ahead.
"This is stupid," he thought, he shouldn't be staring at Sakura, this was ridiculous, but he continued to stare. He decided that the tomatoes could wait. Checking up on Sakura was more important at the moment. Yeah, he was only checking up on her well being was all, nothing more nothing less.
Shikamaru put his arm around Sakura's shoulder. He began to converse about the different methods that they could practice for today, and he made sure to keep his voice low, so he could have Sasuke wondering about what they were talking about.
"I think we should have Hinata sing the parts that don't have curses in them, that way she won't be in trouble for what she sings about," he said. Sakura didn't know why he suddenly decided to put his arm around her and whisper, but at this point she didn't even care anymore. She was supposed to focus on their performance which was a week from now.
"I was thinking the same thing, her dad is really strict I guess we'll do Love bites and I'm still thinking about the next song," she stated.
"I thought you already had he other song?" he questioned, he could see Sasuke following them. At this point he decided to slow down the pace and greet the guy. He came to a halt stopping Sakura and waiting for Sasuke to catch up to them.
"what's wrong?" she asked.
"Nothing," he said as he let go of her shoulder and turned around to greet Sasuke.
"Hey Sasuke," he greeted. He could see Sakura's eyes widen. She stayed on the spot and would not turn around, so he grabbed her hand. She spun around slowly.
"Shit, he caught me" he thought
"Sakura...Shikamaru" he greeted. He tried to catch Sakura's eye. But she looked anywhere but at his face.
"where are you headed to?" Shikamaru asked.
"Nowhere important" he said avoiding the question.
"well, wherever it is, it seems close to where Sakura and I are going," he said as he held Sakura's waist and tugged her closer to him. Sakura let out an 'eep' and he could tell Sasuke was trying to keep his anger from showing. Meanwhile, Sakura was beginning to get really nervous, she didn't even notice Sasuke until Shikamaru had said hi to him. She caught on to what he was trying to do and decided to play along. Sasuke was always ignoring her so it was her turn to ignore him.
"Shikamaru we need to go, its getting late," she said as she grabbed his hand and waved goodbye to Sasuke. Once they headed into the building she let go of his hand and whacked him on the back of his head.
"ow, what was that for?" he asked while rubbing his head.
"this must be what Naruto felt like" he thought.
"why didn't you tell me he was behind us?"
"what fun what that have been."
they stayed silent for a few minutes and then erupted in laughs.
"Sakura? Shikamaru?" they heard Hinata open the door.
"whats wrong?" she asked.
"We saw Sasuke and boy was he jealous," said Shikamaru with a chuckle.
The three of them headed inside and spotted Kiba had already been practicing.
"Sorry, I'm late guys" she apologized. As they finished setting up their equipment they began to rehearse their song once again, but this time they had gotten a bit better. As the day went by they decided to to go out and eat at Ichirakus.
Naruto was once again out of ramen to eat at home, so he decided to head towards the only place that could satisfy his cravings. Ichirakus. He walked to one of the stools asked for the usual.
"hey Naruto" Spoke Sakura. He turned looked around for her ans spotted her by one of the tables. She wasn't alone. She was with Shikamaru, Kiba... and Hinata. His face began to heat up.
"come over here" she said
Come over here, she heard Sakura say. She gave Sakura a look that said 'what are you doing'.
"Relax," she whispered.
Naruto took a seat opposite of Hinata. "Hey guys," he said they sat in silence for a while. Sakura spoke first.
"Naruto, did you know Hinata is going to compete in the Konoha music festival?" she asked.
"No I didn't, that's really cool though," he said while smiling at Hinata.
"Maybe I can be there to watch."
They ate their food in silence. When they finished they talked a bit more.
"I think I-I'll go n-now" said Hinata.
"so early" said Sakura smirking.
"y-yeah, its getting dark/"
"I'll go with you."
all eyes turned towards Naruto. "It's alright I-I can go by M-mysel-"
"No it's okay" he said while he stood up. "Shall we?" he held out his hand.
Hinata was blushing like mad.
"Don't do anything I wouldn't," said Kiba with a chuckle.
As the walked towards Hinata's House Naruto decided to talk more about her competition. "So... I think it's awesome that you're doing this competition. I always knew you were brave, but this is really really brave of you. I think that makes you really special, to me." he said. He didn't know what he was saying but he spoke with his heart.
"T-thank you," she said. "I think you're really brave too." Naruto was beginning to come closer. She thought he was going to kiss her, but he brought his hands towards her hair.
"you've got a leaf on your hair," he said. While they said their goodbyes Naruto spoke up once again.,
"I'll come see you... I-If it's okay with you," he said sheepishly.
"o-okay," she said and they went their separate ways.
As Naruto walked towards his own house he felt really disappointed.
"I should have kissed her," he thought.
Well there you have it. I hoped you liked it. Anyways read and review.