Notes: Wow, it's been more than a month since I last updated! I am such a bad person. ): I've been so busy writting my other fic that I kind of abandoned Love Spell! Please forgive me, Love Spell, I still love youuuuuu! D':

Disclaimer: Kishimoto is the owner of the characters!

Chapter nineteen

The friendship spell

"Hey, mom, it's me… Yeah, everything's fine, it's just that something awesome has happened. Guess who is back? Hinata! Yeah, I know… Okay, hold on." Sakura put the cell phone against her chest, turned to Hinata and said, "Mom says she's glad you're back."

Hinata smiled. "Tell her I say thank you."

Sakura nodded and put the cell phone against her ear again. "Hinata says thank you. But anyways, mom, I called you because I want to know if it's okay if I spend the night at Hinata's. We're gonna make a sleepover to celebrate she's back. Tomorrow's Saturday, anyways, so we don't have to go to school." She listened for a few moments, in which her four best friends stared at her, anxious to know what her mom would say. Finally, Sakura smiled and her friends sighed in relief. "Thanks, mom!" Sakura said. "Yeah, I'll pick up my stuff up in half an hour or so… Okay. Love you!"

Sakura hung up, put her cell phone back into her school bag and looked at her friends with a grin on her face. "Alright," she said. "TenTen, Ino and I have permission. What did your dad say, Temari?"

Temari, who had called her dad right after lunch time, when the girls had planned the sleepover, shrugged. "You know how he is. He said no, but he's too busy with his job to check if I obey him or not. When he gets home he'll see I'm not there, but he'll know I'm at Hinata's, so he won't be worried. I'll get grounded later, but that doesn't matter."

"Are you sure?" Hinata asked doubtfully. She didn't like the idea of Temari getting grounded.

"Yeah!" Temari said, grinning. "You guys don't worry. Let's just have a good time tonight."

"Alright then," Hinata said, because, really, if she got grounded she wasn't going to die. And besides, Temari was right. They just had to have a good time tonight.

Ino grinned. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

The car was parked in front of TenTen's house. They were all waiting for said girl to come out. Temari was driving (obviously; it was her car), Ino was in the co-driver seat, and the rest of them were in the back seat.

The door of TenTen's house finally opened and TenTen came out. Her mother came right behind her, but she stayed at the doorway, and waved at the girls in the car. The girls waved back just as TenTen got into the car, yelling, "Bye, mom! Love you!" at her mom. When the door closed behind the brunette, she said, "Okay, girls. Let's go."

As Temari started the engine, Hinata remembered the time they met Kim. The five of them were in that same car, sitting in the same seats, and they had been on their way to Ichiraku's to celebrate that the Konoha Kyuubis had won against the Suna Lions. It all seemed to happen centuries ago, but it actually happened months ago. It was surprising how many things had happened since that day, and how different things were now.

"A penny for your thoughts?" Sakura asked her as Temari pulled the car into the driveway and Ino and TenTen sang loudly the song playing on the radio.

"I just thought of that time when we first met Kim," Hinata said.

"Oh, yeah," Sakura said, nodding. "Wow, we all were in this car that time, right? Ino made a joke that annoyed and distracted Temari, and I suddenly screamed "watch out!" because a girl, who was actually Kim, was standing on the middle of the road and we almost knocked her down."

"And we also almost ran into a tree," Hinata added, and even though it wasn't funny, she smiled. "Yeah, I remember that. We were scared shitless."

Sakura smiled too. "Amazing how it feels like that happened years ago, huh?"

Hinata nodded and her smile widened. "I was thinking the exact same thing."

An hour later, Hinata was sitting on the edge of her king-sized bed, frowning. She looked at Sakura, who was lying on the floor right in front of her, staring at the ceiling with sadness-filled green eyes. She looked almost dead, and Hinata would've freaked out if it wasn't because she was blinking every now and then and because her chest raised and lowered, showing she was breathing. Still, she was so immobile Hinata was getting kind of worried.

She turned to Ino, who was sitting on a chair in the balcony. The blonde was very immobile too, and, even though Hinata couldn't see her face, she knew those eyes staring at the dark sky above them were as sad as Sakura's. Besides, Hinata noticed how her shoulders raised every now and then, as if she sighed deeply. And she seemed to be sighing a lot. Hinata thought that wasn't good.

She turned her head and looked at TenTen, who was lying on her stomach, on the bed, right behind Hinata. She was playing with her iPod, and Hinata knew she was just pretending to be listening music, because she wasn't. If she were, Hinata could've heard the music coming from the earphones even if she was sitting almost a meter away. TenTen loved to torture her ears with loud music. She also loved to sing it out loud, but she wasn't doing that now, which was weird. Very weird.

Lastly, Hinata looked at Temari, who was sitting on a chair, with her back to the dressing table. Their eyes met, which surprised her. None of her other friends looked back, or even noticed Hinata was staring at them. They were too trapped into their little, troubled minds. But Temari wasn't; actually, Hinata suspected those dark-blue, worry-filled eyes had been staring at her even before she noticed.

"What's wrong?" Hinata asked.

Surprisingly, all of her friends turned to her. She had spoken very lowly, only for Temari to hear, but they all had heard her. The room was that quiet.

Temari, who had raised her eyebrows at Hinata when she spoke, as if she had forgotten she could speak, replied, "Uh… nothing. Why? What seems to be wrong? I don't see anything wrong in here." She laughed nervously, and that, plus her talking too quickly, made Hinata realize she was hiding something.

"I do," Hinata said, narrowing her eyes at her eighteen-year-old friend.

"Ah hell," TenTen suddenly said, in an I-just-realized-something tone. All of the girls turned to her, and she said, "Don't you guys realize? It's a déjà vu!"

"A déjà vu?" Ino repeated from the balcony, frowning. She stood up, came back into the bedroom and sat beside TenTen.

"Yeah, a déjà vu," TenTen said. "You know, the experience of feeling sure you've witnessed or experienced a situation before. It means "already seen" in French and the first person to use this term was-"

"Okay, Miss Wikipedia, we get it," Ino said, rolling her eyes.

"We know what a déjà vu is," Sakura said. "But why do you-?" She cut herself off, and her green eyes widened and her mouth formed a small O. "I get it now!" she exclaimed, and the sadness in her eyes was replaced by amaze. She told TenTen, "You mean that time when we decided we'd do the love spell, right?"

Hinata got it too, and she gasped. Of course! She hadn't paid attention to it, but she also kind of felt the déjà vu, though she had been too busy being angry at her friends for being all depressed when they were supposed to have fun.

"Yeah!" TenTen said, smiling and looking as amazed as Sakura.

"Oh, I get it now," Temari said lowly, but she didn't seem surprised or amazed; she was just interested.

"I don't," Ino said, frowning at her friends.

"Remember the night we decided we'd do the love spell?" Sakura asked her, and she nodded. "Well, we were here, in Hinata's bedroom, supposedly having a sleepover, just like we do right now, but we were all moody, except for Hinata, just like right now… You get it now?"

Ino nodded and she said, "Ohhhh, yeah, I get it. Yeah, it's a déjà vu! It's so cool… I feel special."

"Well, why don't we do the same thing we did that time?" Hinata suggested. "You guys tell me what's in you minds, just like that time. We have to be honest with each other."

"Yeah, and it'd be just fair we'd all confess in the same order," Ino said. "So you're up, Temari."

Temari looked at her friends, and Hinata frowned when she saw the emotions that filled her eyes: worry, sadness, pain, horror, confusion, frustration…

"Why don't we do it backwards?" she asked, trying to smile.

"Yeah, let's do it that way," Hinata supported, because she knew Temari needed it. There was something going on with her, but Hinata thought her friend wasn't ready to let them know yet. There was no hurry, and she didn't want Temari to feel pushed. So Hinata tried to remember who had been the last to confess that time, and when she did, she turned to TenTen and wiggled her eyebrows at her.

TenTen rolled her eyes. "Alright, alright. I'll do it." She ran a hand through her loose hair and hesitated a little before finally saying, "I was just thinking about Neji. A few days ago, he asked me - looking very scared and sweet, by the way - if I was ready to… umm… you know…" She blushed madly and didn't say anything else, but the girls instantly got it, and they gasped.

"And what did you say?" Sakura asked, shocked.

"Well, I haven't given him an answer yet. I told him I needed time to think."

"If you want to say no, then that's the worst thing you could've done," Temari said. "But if you want to say yes, then it's perfect."

"Why?" Sakura asked.

"Because if TenTen doesn't want to, then she'll keep his hopes up," Temari replied. "But if she does want to, then keeping his hopes up but never giving a straight answer is perfect because that'll keep him more interested in you. Don't exceed, though; he can give up if you take too long."

"Do you want to say yes, TenTen?" Ino asked the brunette.

"Yes. No. Maybe. I don't know!" TenTen exclaimed, covering her blushed face with her hands.

"And how can we help?" Hinata asked, worried about her stressed friend.

"I think that we can't do anything," Temari said. "She'll do what she thinks is the best thing to do."

"But I don't know if there's a right or a wrong choice," TenTen whined. "I mean, I love him, he loves me, and of course I'd like to, you know, have that kind of intimacy with him, but… Aren't we too young? What if I mess up? And what if I don't like it!" TenTen covered her face again, shaking her head and murmuring how unsure she was. Ino patted her back, consoling her.

"Just follow your heart," Ino said.

Sakura snorted. "God, Ino. That sounded so lame."

"But it's the truth!" Ino glared at her. "And at least I'm helping, forehead."

"Oh, shut up, pig, I'm helping too."

"Oh, really? Well, I don't see how."

"Yeah? Well, I'll show you what I-"

"Hey, stop bickering!" Hinata said, and her friends obeyed. "It's not time for that. Who's next?"

"Huh, I think it's me," Ino said. She stopped patting TenTen's back and took a deep breath. Everyone, even TenTen, listened attentively at her. "Okay, my problem is about my new boyfriend, Itachi. You all know who he is, right? Sasuke's hot older brother? Okay, yeah. Well, yesterday, he picked me up from school, and he took me to the movies, and then to eat dinner and he bought me a cute teddy bear and a rose, even. So, yeah, he was super sweet, and I felt very happy. But then… at night… he took me to watch the stars. We went to a hill from which we could see the whole city, and it was very romantic. We were in his car, cuddled against each other, and then we started kissing."

"Don't tell me you lost your virginity last night," Sakura said. Her green eyes were wide and filled with horror.

"Jeez, no!" Ino said, repulsed. "I'm not a whore, forehead; I'm a good girl. But, honestly, I was kinda close to, because things started to heat up and… well…"

"He tried something you didn't want?" Temari asked.

"Yeah, exactly. I stopped him and told him I wasn't ready, and he was cool about it, but he hasn't called me yet. I think he got mad at me, because he is a jerk who only wanted sex from me and now that he knows I'm not that kind of girl…" She sighed deeply. "It's not as if I'm in love with him," she continued softly. "It's just that he was perfect. He is hot and nice and hot, and he made me forget about Sai. But now that I discovered he's a jerk… I don't know how I'm going to get over Sai."

This time TenTen patted her back to console her. "Aw, Ino, it's okay," she said. "He's not the only hot man on earth, and you'll get over Sai someday."

"Someday when? In two decades?" Ino said, scowling.

"No. I read in the internet that you need two years to fall completely out of love with someone you really loved," TenTen replied. "But don't worry; maybe you'll need less than two years."

"TenTen is right, Ino," Temari said. "He's not the only man on earth. Besides, you only liked him because he's hot, but you aren't in love with him. You actually need to fall in love again to get over Sai, and you have to wait for the right guy to come. You can't just pick him because of his looks; you have to really fall in love. "

"I hope the guy comes soon," Ino murmured, pouting.

"We hope so too." Hinata turned to Sakura. "You're next, Saks."

"I think you all know that my problem is about Sasori," Sakura said. "There's nothing new to tell; you saw the bouquet of roses he sent me, and you know I'm still not over Sasuke. Put those two things together, and you'll guess how confused and unsure I am. I don't know how to tell Sasori to give me some time, and I don't know how to get over Sasuke. My head is a mess and I'm also tired because I didn't sleep well last night. I also think I need a massage, because my back hurts. So, yeah, my life sucks. That's all."

"My life pretty much sucks too," Ino murmured.

"Mine doesn't suck, but it's close to," TenTen commented.

"We all understand how you feel," Hinata told Sakura.

"You should just talk to Sasori, be honest, and tell him how you feel," Temari said matter-of-factly. "If he does care about you, then he'll understand it. And about Sasuke… well, you just need time."

"I know," Sakura said. "Thanks for listening to me, girls."

"That's what friends are for," Hinata said, smiling at her pink haired friend. She turned to Temari and looked at her with gentleness. "Temari, it's your turn, but if you don't feel ready to tell us…" she started, but Temari shook her head.

"No, it's okay, Hinata. You guys need to know it sooner or later, anyways. It's now or never." Temari's face was a mask of conviction. Hinata thought she looked like she didn't want to do it, but she was forcing herself to toughen up. She was about to tell her that really, she could do it later, but then Temari burst out, "I'm moving to Suna when this school year ends." Her four friends gasped, but she continued, "I'll go to Suna University. My dad doesn't want me to stay here and I can't change his mind. Besides, I have to accept that he's right: if I do a degree in architecture there, I'll have more possibilities because Suna University is one of the best universities in the country." She looked at her friends with tears in her eyes and finished, "I'm sorry for not telling you before, girls. It's just that you've been the best friends I've ever had and it was really hard for me to find a way to tell you this."

Sakura and TenTen were crying. Ino was so shocked she was immobile. Hinata, who knew how to control her emotions, was the first to speak. "Temari… It's – it's okay, we understand. I can imagine how hard this is. We'll miss you as much as you'll miss us. We… we're also very glad you'll go to the best university-"

"TEMARI, DON'T GO!" Ino suddenly screamed, throwing her arms around Temari, and crying.

"INO!" Sakura exclaimed. "Don't say that! You're being selfish." She wiped her wet cheeks and sniffed. "I mean, it's true we wish you could stay," she told Temari, "but we just want the best for you, and we're glad you'll get it, as Hinata said. But it's… it's going to be weird not to have you here to give us good advices and everything."

"And it sucks because now I'm going to be the older one in the group," TenTen said, smiling weakly.

Temari was already crying, but she laughed at TenTen's comment. "Girls… you're awesome, you know that?" she said, and that sentence seemed to break something in Hinata's heart, because just then she burst out crying.

"Yeah, we know," Ino said, hugging Temari tightly as the other girls moved closer to hug the blonde too.

After crying for a few minutes, the girls finally calmed down. They were on the bed, cuddled against each other, like sisters. Hinata was on the edge of the bed and not very comfortable, but she didn't care. She wanted to stay like this, with her best friends, forever.

"I have an idea," Sakura suddenly said, breaking the silence. Hinata raised her head and looked at her. She was at other edge of the bed, besides Ino. Temari was in the middle, and TenTen was between Hinata and the blonde.

"Another spell?" Ino asked, smiling sarcastically at the ceiling.

"Actually, yes," Sakura said, surprising them. "But it's not a love spell. It's a friendship spell."

"Is another bitchy fairy going to come back for her pay if we do it?" TenTen asked.

"No, because it's another kind of spell," Sakura explained. "Love spells make a person realize his or her feelings for the user. This spell I'm talking about is just to make our bond stronger and to keep us together. Like, for example, in twenty years, we won't forget about each other, because the spell will remind us of our friendship and of all those times we spent together."

"Sounds cool," Hinata said, smiling. "How do you know about it?"

"Last week, I visited my aunt Tsunade and read a few of her books. I read about this spell and thought I'd told you about it when the time came and, now that Temari's going leave soon, I think it's time."

"By the way, we should visit your aunt soon," Ino said thoughtfully. "I liked her tea."

"Yeah, we will. Maybe I'll call her tomorrow," Sakura said. "But anyways, do you guys want to do the spell? It's safe and it doesn't need fairies' services. It needs some of our blood, but just to identify ourselves."

"I say we should do it," Hinata said.

"Yeah, I wanna do it," TenTen agreed. "It'd be so romantic… but in a straight way."

"I'll need band aids if I'm going to slash my finger again," Ino said.

"I think it's a great idea, Sakura," Temari told the pink haired girl.

Sakura smiled. "Okay, then let's go to your kitchen, Hinata. We'll need some things from there."

The Hyuga mansion was dark and empty at night. Hinata had only two flashlights; she took one and TenTen took the other. Sakura was walking besides Hinata, in front of the rest of the girls, while Ino and Temari walked in the middle and TenTen at the back. The darkness made it seem a super scary adventure, but they had to be quiet if they didn't want to wake Hinata's family (Neji and his parents and Hinata's sister, actually) up, so they all promised not to scream if something scared them.

When they got to the kitchen, Hinata asked Sakura, "What do you need?"

"Uh, well, firstly, the biggest bowl you have," Sakura said. "A spoon and a sharp knife too."

Hinata told Ino to hold the flashlight. Ino lighted for her as she searched for the things Sakura needed. Finally, she put the bowl, the spoon and the knife on the kitchen's bar and asked, "What else, Sakura?"

"Salt, rosemary, pure water, pepper and the roots of a living plant," Sakura replied.

"Okay, I think I have all of that, except for the rosemary," Hinata said. "But I'm not sure. Meanwhile, can someone take the roots from that small plant over there?" She pointed the small plant in the brown plant pot sitting beside the gas cooker.

"I'll do it," Temari said, walking towards it.

"Aw, poor plant," TenTen said, pouting. "It's just a baby! And now we're going to kill it."

"It'll die for a good cause," Sakura said, putting a hand on TenTen's shoulder. "I bet it's the best way for a plant to die: helping five best friends to stay always together."

TenTen smiled at her and Hinata put the salt, the pepper and a tall glass of drinkable water on the bar, with the bowl, the spoon and the knife. "No rosemary," she told Sakura, shaking her head.

"Is it elemental?" Ino asked.

"Yeah," Sakura admitted disappointedly.

"Wait, what does rosemary look like?" TenTen asked. "Is it like a tall stem with slim leaves and little purple flowers?" Sakura nodded. "Oh! I think there's a bush of it in the garden."

"Really?" Hinata asked, surprised, and TenTen nodded. "Wow. Maybe the gardener planted it during my absence. How much will you need, Sakura?"

"Just a couple of stems," she replied.

"Okay. Temari, can you go with me? I don't want to go out alone," Hinata said sheepishly.

"Sure. Let's go," Temari said, smiling. She gave the roots of the plant to Sakura and then she and Hinata left.

Sakura prepared the things for the spell. Ino helped her and TenTen held the flashlight Hinata didn't take for them. Sakura put the pure water in the bowl and sprinkled the salt, the pepper and the roots she had cut into tiny pieces on it. When Hinata and Temari came back, less than five minutes after they left, she took the rosemary, smashed its' pretty flowers with her hands, and then threw them into the bowl.

"Is there going to be an earthquake and are we going to pass out just like with the last spell we made?" TenTen asked.

"No. I told you, this is a different kind of spell," Sakura replied as she mixed the stuff in the water with the spoon. "According to the book, the water will just start to boil and we have to inhale the vapor."

"And when do we have to cut our fingers? I brought the band aids," Ino said, showing the little box of band aids Hinata gave her.

"Oh, right, I almost forgot," Sakura said. "Okay, after I finish mixing this up, we'll say the spell out loud, in unison, five times, right before one of us slashes her finger. The water will start to boil then. We have to slash our fingers quickly, throw a couple drops of our blood into the water and then pass the knife around. The quantity of blood doesn't matter, neither does the order in which we do it, but I want to be first, if you don't mind."

"We'll do it here?" Hinata asked and Sakura nodded.

"Hey, but we don't know how the spell goes," Ino said. "I mean, what are we going to say?"

"Okay. Listen up." Sakura made a pause and then quoted: "With the strength of our bond, the moments we have shared, and the joy we have felt, forever in our minds this friendship shall stay."

"Those words are less cheesy that the ones from the love spell," Ino commented.

Sakura smiled. "I like them more, too."

"With the strength of our bond, the moments we have shared, and the joy we have felt, forever in our minds this friendship shall stay."

Sakura slashed a small cut on her index finger, a cut deep enough to let drops of scarlet liquid come out. She let her blood drip over the water of the bowl in front of her. Three drops of blood fell into the water, and then Sakura stuffed her finger into her mouth, sucking the blood of the small wound, and passed the knife to Hinata, who was standing beside her.

"With the strength of our bond, the moments we have shared, and the joy we have felt, forever in our minds this friendship shall stay," they repeated, and then Hinata made a small cut on her index finger and let a few drops of blood drip into the bowl. The water was heating up and vapor was already coming out.

"With the strength of our bond, the moments we have shared, and the joy we have felt, forever in our minds this friendship shall stay."

Temari received the knife from Hinata and did the same thing her two friends did. She let five drops into the hot water and then licked her small wound. After she passed the knife to TenTen, she took the band aid Ino handed her and put it around her finger.

"With the strength of our bond, the moments we have shared, and the joy we have felt, forever in our minds this friendship shall stay," they said, and, a second later, TenTen's blood was dripping into the water, which was already starting to boil. She barely gave two drops of her blood, but it was enough.

Ino took the knife and said with her friends, "With the strength of our bond, the moments we have shared, and the joy we have felt, forever in our minds this friendship shall stay," for the last time, and then she slashed a three-millimeters-long cut on her index finger. Her red blood dripped into the water before she hurried to cover her small wound with a band aid.

Sakura leaned in and inhaled the vapor. It smelled like rosemary, mostly, but it also had a sweeter smell that reminded her of honey, and a little of that metallic smell of the blood. She straightened up and motioned Hinata to do the same. Her other friends did the same thing in the same order, and when the last one had inhaled the vapor, Sakura took a towel and used it to keep her hands from burning as she took the bowl and threw the water into the drain under the faucet. The water had turned purple, like the rosemary, and thicker. There were no sings of the ingredients Sakura threw into it; it was just thick, purple water.

She put the empty bowl back on the bar and then looked at her friends. "Well… that's all," she said, smiling.

"Wow. That was easy," TenTen said and then she turned to Ino. "Give me a band aid, will you?"

Ino obeyed and offered one to Sakura and Hinata. As they wrapped them around their fingers, Temari said, "I think this means we shouldn't be sad anymore. I'll leave the city, and maybe you guys will leave someday, too, but, thanks to this spell, now we'll never forget about each other, right?"

"Right," Sakura said, smiling. She put an arm around her blonde friend. "Now we are, literally, best friends forever."