Naruto had been put through pure torture over the last few days during training. At which Kakashi replied was his very much deserved punishment when Naruto had thought to complain about the severity to him after the first exhausting moment. And to make things worse, Sakura had gotten off free, because she had hospital shifts right in row on those days with Baa-Chan.

And to his dismay, it appeared to him that Ino's engagement Party would be the same, only a different sort of torture. With a scowling pout on his whiskered face, Naruto pulled at the black and blue Kimono he was forced to wear which ironically enough made him reflect on the thought of some of the nastier bruises he had received during training, when he had tripped and landed hard upon some very oddly shaped rocks.

"Why is there not any orange Kimono's?" Naruto grumbled to himself as he pulled at the silk fabric wondering why such a cool color would not be made into a Kimono.

"It's because they hid them all. They're getting tired of you always wearing orange, dobe," remarked Sasuke wearing a deep dark blue Kimono that looked almost black. He looked indifferent and cold-hearted even though he wasn't as much anymore.

"Who asked you, teme?" Naruto shouted at Sasuke, already getting riled up at him. He glared harshly at Sasuke who promptly just ignored his look and walked off with his usual bored expression. Naruto scoffed at his abrupt departure and scowled even deeper.

He saw Sakura headed his way and he glowered at her, not bothering to notice her elegant reddish-pink kimono or the fact that her vivid pink hair was slightly curled about her nape. She came closer and narrowed her green eyes at his scowling expression.

"Don't you give me that look," Sakura growled low in her voice, her green eyes flashing with irritation, "Tsunade-Sama punished me also because of the consequences of our actions affected the outcome of her stupid bet," Seeing that he was dumbfounded, she willed herself to forget about her urge to strange him and added tightly, "She lost a bet."

"I knew that," Naruto said indignantly, even though he hadn't understood at all. But seeing her shake her head at his antics, he figured she knew he was faking knowing what her words meant. He grinned sheepishly and realized how pretty Sakura looked, "You look very pretty, Sakura."

"You're not getting out of it that quickly," She responded glancing towards the door and spotting a very lazy guy waiting close by the door as if expecting someone. Sakura's eyes lit up and she headed in that direction to ask if Shikamaru was waiting for Temari. But she stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder that stopped her. Sakura turned around thinking it was Naruto, and discovered it was Kakashi-Sensei who had tapped her on the shoulder with his gloved hand. Naruto had vanished, but she didn't blame him if training had been truly been that bad. Sakura glanced back at Kakashi-Sensei and noted that he wore a dark grey Kimono which was a couple shades darker than his silver hair, but he still wore his natural silk black mask. But he didn't have his headband over the left eye; instead, some of his hair covered it.

"Don't," he said calmly, as he pointed towards the entrance with his long slender finger in order to get her eyes to focus on the target person, "He might look like he doesn't care if Temari shows up or not, but you can see that his shoulders are slightly tense. That's because he doesn't know she's going to come or not."

Sakura stared at Shikamaru and noticed how lonely and forlorn his dark eyes looked. It almost looked like Sasuke's expression before he had gotten close to his teammates. It was like the time that he felt like he had no one. It made her eyes tear up and she lightly blotted it with some fabric which she quickly let go up when she realized embarrassing that it was Kakashi's-sensei's gloved hand that she had been wiping her watery eyes on. Kakashi just crinkled his one visible eye and she wondered if there was any chance that Temari would show up.

Suddenly as if the idea just hit her, Sakura glanced towards Kakashi-Sensei's face and asked, " How could you tell? He sure hid it well."

"I look beneath the underneath," Kakashi answered mysteriously enough as he turned his head to the side, which lightly moved enough to notice that there was a small black eyepiece covering his left eye. Sakura wondered if his hair had basically covered the straps that must be wrapped around his head. She sure didn't know it at first. She waited for him to emphasis his answer, but when none came she stomped her feet.

"Are you really that reluctant to tell anyone about yourself?" Sakura hissed crossing her arms with frustration at his very short answer that he didn't even bother to elaborate on.

Kakashi said absolutely nothing and just smiled beneath his mask and walked off leaving Sakura muttering underneath her breath that he was too secretive. Sakura noticed at the corner of her eye a beautiful light greenish blue kimono and turned her head to better see who it was. But when Sakura did so, she saw that Shikamaru was somehow blocking her view; so quite normally she stood up high on her tip toes and ducked her head to the side to be able to see exactly who it was.

"That's. . .!" Naruto voice carried loudly ringing with preciseness which was highly unlike him, but Sakura didn't notice for she was too busy staring straight at the very familiar girl who had caused the commotion.

Her mouth wide open with shock, Sakura kept staring with her deep emerald green eyes, while Naruto shook her shoulders to reawaken her mind which had almost collapsed at the realization of who the owner of that lovely blue-green dress was.