Disclaimer: Not mine, dude.

Chapter three

It worked

The car turned to the right and abandoned the asphalt path to ride over the dead-leaves covered dirt path. Then, it turned to the right and moved past the tall trees. It finally slowed down when the people in it could see the lake. It slowed down until it stopped, and Temari turned the engine of her old car off and turned to the girl sitting on the co-driver seat.

Sakura was staring at the trees above them and seemed very anxious. Temari didn't blame her, she was nervous too, so she waited a few minutes before Sakura finally turned to her and smiled. "Thanks again for helping me, Temari," she said sincerely.

Temari had offered Sakura to take her to their meeting place with the other girls. Sakura had to accept because she needed a car to carry the stuff they needed for the spell and her parents couldn't take her.

"I'm the one who is grateful, Sakura," the seventeen years old blonde girl replied, smiling back. "This thing was your idea, after all."

"Oh…" Sakura's smile disappeared suddenly. She looked down and seemed sad. Temari's own smile faded too, and she started wondering if she had said something wrong. "Yeah… I guess you really have faith in me," Sakura continued.

Temari discovered the hidden message in those words instantly, and she frowned. "Sakura, if you are worried because you think that if the spell fails we'll blame you, let me tell you that that you're wrong." Sakura looked up to her, with slightly widened eyes. Temari continued, "This whole thing… it's just a game, isn't it? I mean, because if it works, then it'd be awesome, but if it doesn't, then whatever! We would never stop being friends because of a silly game, would we?"

The way Temari was looking at her and the things she had said made Sakura feel better. "Yeah… it's just a game," she repeated. "This is not a big deal… it's just… a silly game!"

"Exactly." Temari smiled triumphantly. "Now, we have things to do, Miss Haruno, so let's get moving."

Sakura nodded and they got out of the car. It's just a game… nothing serious, she repeated in her head, wanting to believe it even more. They walked to the back of the car, their feet making crushing noises as they walked over the dead leaves on the ground, and Temari opened the boot. Sakura took a large box out. The boot was closed again, and then the friends started walking towards the lake.

Sakura saw two familiar people standing in the lake's bridge as she and Temari approximated their meeting place. One of them was pale and had long, dark blue hair, and the other was taller and had her brown hair tied in two buns.

Hinata and TenTen waved at them when they saw her two other friends walking towards them. They stepped out of the bridge and started walking towards them, too. The four of them stopped, face to face, a couple meters away from the lake's shore.

"Ha! I'm more punctual than the great Haruno Sakura! How's that!" TenTen exclaimed proudly, crossing her arms over her chest. Sakura just smiled at her.

"Hi guys," Hinata greeted.

"Hi!" Temari exclaimed. "Are you guys excited?"

"Of course I am! I can't wait!" was TenTen's response.

"I'm…eager, I guess," Hinata said after a moment of hesitation.

"Anyways, where's Ino?" Sakura asked, kneeling down and putting the box on the ground (ugh, it was heavy).

"I don't know. Hinata and I arrived together just a couple minutes ago and there was no one here." TenTen shrugged. "Maybes she's just late; you know how she is..."

"That's weird... She seemed so excited today at lunch time when she got Sai's hair…" Hinata murmured, and then looked down to Sakura. "Should we wait a little more for her?"

Sakura raised her head to the sky. The twilight adorned it with its dark mystic colors and she could see the blurry shape of the silver full moon already. She calculated it was around seven pm, just the hour they accorded.

Where the hell was Ino? Sakura was so eager to do the spell, but Ino wanted to torture her, of course. However, she would never start without her.

"She wouldn't miss this… and I guess we have time, so we'll wait a little more," Sakura decided, and then she looked down at the box she was already opening. "But we should start preparing everything."

TenTen, Temari and Hinata watched with curiosity as the pink haired girl took five big crystal jars out of the big box. "What can we do to help, Sakura?" TenTen asked.

Sakura smiled, feeling glad her friends wouldn't let her do everything by herself even though she was the only one who knew what she was doing, as she continued taking more things out of the box. She turned to Temari and handed her a red container. "You make a circle around us, a big one," Sakura ordered.

Temari looked at the container and realized it was salt. She frowned, wondering why the hell they needed that, but obeyed her. "It's to make the magic stronger," Sakura explained, answering her mental question. "My aunt told me that salt was like barrier that didn't let anything come in or out, and that it let the power concentrate in one single place."

Sakura then turned to TenTen. "TenTen, fill the jars with water from the lake. Calculate five liters into them." TenTen nodded enthusiastically, took two jars, and then walked towards the shore. When she was done with the salt, Temari helped her with the rest of the jars.

"And what do I do, Sakura?" Hinata asked eagerly. Sakura turned to her and put a finger in her chin, thinking.

"Oh, I know!" she announced. "I have a special thing for you, Hinata. You'll help me with the candle!" Hinata raised an eyebrow, wanting to know why the hell they needed that. Sakura took a big wax candle and a lighter out of the box and handed them to Hinata. "My aunt gave me this candle," she said, as Hinata reached for them. "She said that this kind of candles makes magic and concentration stronger. These are just extra tips my aunt gave me. I want it to work, so I'm using them."

Hinata nodded and kneeled down, right in front of Sakura. She put the candle on a plate Sakura had put right in the middle of the big salt circle Temari had made. She looked up to Sakura, asking with her eyes what to do next, and her friend jerked her chin towards the lighter in her left hand. Hinata took a deep breath and lighted the wax candle. Soon, they were illuminated by the dim light of the candle.

TenTen and Temari walked towards them, holding two crystal jars full of water each one, and they looked at the candle illuminating them with confusion. "It's a special candle to make magic and concentration stronger that Sakura's aunt gave her for this," Hinata explained. She turned to Sakura. "I guess it's also to have some light, right?" Sakura smirked and nodded at the question, thinking they couldn't have not brought one, unless they wanted to do the spell surrounded by darkness, because the sun had already set by now.

"Look, it got dark already," Temari said, realizing too. She looked down at her friends. "I think we can start now, the moon is in its perfect position."

The other girls threw their heads back and stared at the beautiful full moon in the sky. It seemed so big tonight. Its silver color was very bright and it seemed that they didn't exactly need the candle, because the moon illuminated pretty well. "So beautiful…" TenTen murmured, staring at the moon dreamily. She sighed and looked down at Sakura, frowning. "Where the hell is Ino? I'm gonna kill that-!"

"That what, TenTen?" a familiar voice said. Everyone turned to where they heard the voice coming from, and saw a blonde girl walking to them from the same place Temari and Sakura arrived. "Don't worry, TenTen, I'm already here!" Ino said, smirking.

"You're late, Ino," Sakura said sternly as her best friend sat next to Hinata. "May we know why?"

"Yeah, of course," Ino said casually, running a hand trough her long ponytail."My dad didn't want to lend me his car, because mine is at the repair shop. I planned to steal his keys while he was taking his nap, but today he fell asleep later than usual so I had to wait." She didn't seem worried at all, but her friends weren't surprised, because they knew that Ino was carefree like that.

Sakura sighed. "Okay then, but you will have to fill your own jar with water, calculating 5 liters into it."

"That's unfair!" Ino whined. Sakura looked at her with seriousness, and after a moment, Ino gave up. She stood up, took the last empty jar from the big box next to Sakura, and walked towards the lake to fill it.

"Okay, now it's time," Sakura announced nervously, and motioned Temari and TenTen to sit on the ground. She started putting the five containers around the wax candle in the middle. Ino was walking towards them already, with the crystal jar full of water in her hands. She sat between Sakura and Temari, and now the five girls were sitting inside the salt circle, around the candle.

"Follow my instructions," Sakura said, taking the last ingredient out of the box: the boys' locks. She handed her friends their locks and kept Sasuke's hair for her own. She pulled one of the crystal jars closer, putting it right on front of her, and the other girls did the same. "Firstly," she started, "we put the rose petals."

Sakura took one of the containers that she put around the candle and opened it to take some of the white rose petals Ino donated from her mom's flower shop. She counted twelve petals and then passed the container to the other girls. They did the same and Hinata, the last one, put the container back on the ground. Sakura waited and then threw the petals into the jar. Her four friends imitated her and the twelve petals in each jar floated lazily on the water.

"Secondly," Sakura continued, taking another container, "we put the feather." She opened the container and took five yellow feathers out. She gave one to each of her friends and they put them into their jars.

"I hope my aunt's bird didn't mind," TenTen said, remembering the yellow bird she plucked for this.

"I'm sure it didn't," Sakura said, smiling.

They continued putting the ingredients in their jars. They put the sand (a cup), the rock from the cemetery Temari voluntarily brought (two per jar), the forks made of silver Hinata took from her house (one per jar), some of their perfumes (five drops), a picture of them, the boy's locks and, finally, a drop of their own blood.

"This was my least favorite part," Hinata murmured, sucking the blood in her thumb.

"Don't be a baby, Hinata," Ino said, rolling her blue eyes. "It's just a little cut." But she was sucking her thumb too, and making a face that let the fact that she hadn't liked it either obvious.

"We're done, girls," Sakura suddenly said, giving a wood spoon to each one of them. "Now it's time to mix it! And I hope you learned the spell."

"Of course we did! That's the most important part," TenTen said, submerging the spoon into herjar.

"Okay, then we'll say it together." Sakura took a deep breath, suddenly feeling her body heavier. She ignored that feeling and counted: "One, two… three!"

"With the power of my love and the presence of the moon, the man I love will love me back and my dream will come true," the five girls said in unison while doing circles in the water with their spoons to mix the ingredients in their jars.

Suddenly, a pink lightning illuminated the sky for a second. The girls froze and looked up. "What the hell was that?" Temari murmured.

"I didn't know there was going to be a storm tonight," Hinata said, confused.

"Was it just me or that lightning was freaking pink?" Ino asked, her eyes widening.

"Yeah, it was pink. Freaking pink," TenTen said, and she looked so panicked Sakura expected her to jump up and run away.

"Maybe it was us," Sakura said with eyes full of joy. The other girls looked down to her with surprise. "Maybe… it's the spell working," she continued. "We have to continue mixing, girls. Don't stop!"

The girls nodded and continued mixing the ingredients in their jars. Sakura felt her heart beating faster as she saw another pink lightning illuminating the sky again. However, they didn't stop this time, and suddenly, they felt the ground under them shaking.

"It's an earthquake!" Hinata screamed as they all stood up.

"This can't be a coincidence!" Ino realized, trying not to lose her balance.

"Girls, look!" Temari exclaimed, staring at something in the ground with wide eyes. The other girls followed her gaze and saw the water in the jars turning bright pink. It kept turning brighter and brighter, and the light almost blinded them, so they had to cover their eyes with their hands. The floor continued to shake under their feet.

"What the hell is this?" Ino screamed, panicking. "Sakura, what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong!" Sakura said, and she was smiling. "It's working, the spell is working!"

Finally, the pink light coming from the jars was too bright to bear, and the girls closed their eyes tightly to protect them. After that, they didn't feel, hear or see anything else. They just fell into the darkness.

Sakura opened her eyes tiredly. A beeping sound was contaminating her ears and she couldn't stand it anymore. She stretched her left arm and turned the annoying alarm clock off. She glanced at it once and then closed her eyes again, groaning and pulling the covers over her head. God, it's just 7.45, she thought.

It took three seconds for her to remember that it was Monday and school started at 8 o'clock.

Fortunately, Sakura hurried up and she arrived two minutes before the bell rang. Her first class was Math, and Hinata and Ino were there too. That was good, because she really needed to talk to them about last Friday. She just remembered she had woken up on her bed Saturday morning, but the memories before that were blurry.

But there was something else was disturbing her even more. She didn't know if the spell had worked yet; of course, they made magic that night, because there was no other explanation to the events that occurred. But…would the boys really fall in love with them? Sakura felt uncertain, but also excited, and very, very anxious.

And what if it did work? To be Sasuke's girlfriend would be everything Sakura ever wished for. There would be finally a happy ending for her, something she had never had before. But what if it didn't work? Well, she would never give up on magic, anyways. It would be just a failed spell; maybe they had done something wrong. Everything and everyone deserves a second chance. Besides, like Temari said, it was just a game, right? There was nothing to regret.

Sakura entered her homeroom. Kakashi was her teacher, but he was always twenty minutes late. He wasn't there yet, so she was glad that she had time to talk to Ino and Hinata. She spotted them in a corner at the back of the classroom, and she ran towards them without thinking twice.

"Sakura!" Hinata exclaimed when she saw her.

Ino turned to her and smiled. "Hey, forehead," she greeted, and Sakura smiled back.

"Hey, girls," Sakura leaned closer for them to hear her whispering. "We need to talk about last Friday."

"Yeah," Ino said, also whispering. "Listen, Sakura, I don't remember anything, dude. I just woke up on my bed the next morning, feeling a little dizzy, but I don't know how the hell I arrived to my house! Hinata doesn't remember either. What about you? Can you explain us what happened?"

"Oh my god…" the pink haired girl sighed. "That's exactly what I was going to ask you! I don't remember what happened to us, and my memories are blurry!"

"Perhaps we fainted," Hinata murmured.

"Yeah? Well, how the hell did we drive home then?" Ino questioned.

"We woke up later… but we can't remember," Hinata continued.

"Doing magic can make you weak and tired," Sakura said, remembering one of her aunt's lessons about magic. "Maybe Hinata's right. Maybe we woke up and tiredly drove home and then we just slept until morning. I remember I was wearing the same clothes when I woke up that morning…"

"I guess that could be." Ino sighed. "It makes sense."

"But…" Hinata turned to Sakura with a worried expression. "Did… did it work?"

Sakura stopped breathing. Did it? Did Sasuke fall in love with her? She had to find out. She needed to find him… and she knew where he was.

Sakura turned around and searched for the unique hairstyle of her crush among the students in the classroom. When she saw him, her heart skipped a beat. "Sakura, what are you doing?" she heard Ino asking, confused, but she ignored her and just ran towards him.

She was breathing heavily and her sight was a little blurry, but she forgot about everything and everyone and just walked. He was getting closer and closer, and when she stopped, with his back just inches away from her, she froze. She didn't know what to say. "Hey, I want to know if the spell I made worked, so are you in love with me?" wasn't something she planned to say. But before she could think of something else, he turned around, and Sakura's heart froze.

"Sakura?" Sasuke said, raising an eyebrow. He seemed… himself. He wasn't looking at her with sweetness, he wasn't acting with nervousness. He was just… surprised.

"Hi Sasuke," Sakura managed to say. She felt disappointed, and all of her hopes died right then. So… maybe they did something wrong. Maybe they could try it again. Or maybe… maybe she had to give up. Maybe this whole thing was sing to let her know she was losing her time. Maybe…

Sasuke hesitated a little and then asked, "Um… how are you?"

"I'm fine…" she lied. She wasn't fine, she was terrible. He wasn't in love with her, and she was very stupid to think he would leave Karin to be with her. But he couldn't know that. "And you?"

He shrugged and looked away. "I have been better."

Sakura blinked. "Why? What happened?"

"I broke up with Karin."

WHAAAT!

"She's being a bitch towards me now. She's so annoying…." Sasuke sighed tiredly.

"B-But why?" Sakura couldn't hide her shock. "Why did you do that?"

And does this mean the spell did work…?

"I guess… I guess I realized she is not the one," he replied, and the look on his face was so out-of-character that Sakura almost thought he wasn't Sasuke Uchiha anymore. His eyes were finally saying something, they weren't blank and emotionless as always, and they were showing nothing but… love?

Oh God, she so hoped she wasn't hallucinating.

"Oh," Sakura's voice finally came out. "I see…"

Sasuke smirked, the same smirk he gave her when they talked the day she cut his hair, but Sakura didn't melt this time because she was too shocked to do it. They stared at each other for a moment that seemed like an eternity for her, but they came back to reality when they heard their teacher's voice. "Okay, everyone, sorry I'm late. Please take your seats."

Sasuke looked at the teacher and then at Sakura. He smirked again and this time, she realized how close they were from each other (so close that she could feel his body heat) and she blushed slightly. "See you later," he said as he turned around and walked towards his seat. Sakura felt the urge to beg him to stay with her for a little bit more, but instead she turned around and walked towards her seat.

Gosh, the teacher couldn't have been more inopportune.

Sakura sat next to Hinata and she gave her a what-the-hell-happened look. Sakura sighed, smiled dreamily, and shrugged. Hinata eyed her suspiciously, but didn't insist. After that, Sakura tried to pay attention to the class, but she couldn't stop thinking about Sasuke.

During lunch time, the five girls met at the school's garden. They had to share their experiences with the boys. Sakura already knew the spell worked, but she let her friends find out by themselves. TenTen was the last one to arrive to their meeting place, and when she did it, she did it in an uncharacteristic way: she was jumping and smiling and waving her arms in the air.

"HOLY CRAP!" she was screaming. "GUESS WHAT!"

"Neji asked you to be his girl-?" Ino started to say, but TenTen interrupted.

"YES! HE DID! I SAID YES! WE ARE!"

"OH MY GOD!" the other girls exclaimed happily and they all hugged TenTen.

"It worked, girls! The spell worked!" Temari said. "They are falling for us! Today, Shikamaru walked up to me and asked me if I wanted to go to his house this afternoon. He said he had a new game he wanted to play with me, but he seemed weird, and I know the new game is you're an excuse! Because he likes me, he just realized, and now he just wanna spend time with me!"

"Oh God!" Ino exclaimed. "And also, today in my art class Sai offered himself to help me with my drawing. He said he wanted to me to go to this house so he could give me lessons, and he had been sitting so freaking close to me, and he had been playing with my hair, and the way he had been looking at me, and - oh god, he totally likes me!"

"You see? We made magic!" Hinata exclaimed. "I really didn't have so many hopes but it actually worked! I'm so happy, because Naruto asked me to be his partner in almost three classes, and that was really weird, because one of them was P.E. and you all know I suck at sports, but he actually wanted to be with me!"

"That is great!" Sakura smile grew wider (if that was possible). She was very happy because her friends happy, and also because the spell worked with her too. "Oh, and I forgot to tell you! Sasuke broke up with Karin!"

"OH MY GOD!" her friends exclaimed and they all hugged her this time.

"That's awesome!" Temari said.

"Finally, the bitch is out of the game!" Ino said proudly.

"I know!" Sakura continued. "It's great! And he told me it was because he realized she wasn't the one, and then he looked at me in a weird way, and I believe it was sweetness, or love, or something cute! And that was so out-of-character for him! Can you guess what it means?"

"AHH!" they all squealed, acting like the fangirls when they saw Sasuke.

"It… it's just…." Ino gasped, out of breath because of squealing so much, "Too good to be true! Magic does exist!"

"I knew it!" Temari clapped her hands and turned to Sakura. "Thank you, Sakura; without you, none of this would've happened!"

"Thanks girls," Sakura said as everyone hugged her again.

It was just too good to be true, like Ino said. Everything seemed to be getting better in their lives, because now the boys they loved felt the same way about them. It was just a matter of time before they would be their girlfriends (except for TenTen, she already was Neji's) and the happiest girls in the world. They couldn't be prouder, and they thought nothing could go wrong now…

But shit happens.

Notes: Edited chapter number three. :D