Hope you like the quick update :) at least me being sick brings happiness to others :D (and more free time for me)

Enjoy!

Kakashi felt like someone just punched him. He sat up and looked at her stern face and tried to find the answers, tried to read her as when she was younger when she had all emotions on the palm of her hand for everyone to read in those vibrant green eyes.

That girl was gone, not even the flicker of amusement that played in her eyes most of the time was there. What he saw right now was something unexpected and unimaginable. It's as if someone had pulled all her emotions out of her and put this emotionless husk in front of him. He saw this before on other shinobi, those jaded absent eyes, that face that never gave a true smile that would reach the eyes. And as soon as he saw it she pulled it back and gave way to a frown that seemed to be more genuine, but Kakashi was beyond confused. His mind usually working fast and sorting through facts and emotions at light speed under normal or battle circumstances was failing him at this moment. He at last managed to mentally slapp himself to regain some composure.

"Why Sakura?" asked Kakashi with a calmer voice, not letting her see or hear his inner turmoil, dreading the answer.

"Because I assumed you understood what this was about." continued Sakura with a slight irritation in her voice, as if she was speaking to a mere child that did not understand why he needs to take a bath before bedtime. This irked Kakashi to no end but he didn't let it show.

"And what is this about?" Kakashi probably knew what her train of thought was but the hell he is not going to make this easy for her. He knew the real Sakura is there somewhere, the old, honest, temperamental Sakura that he knew from years ago and not this emotionless shell she was trying to present to him now.

"A good arrangement. Nothing more." Answered Sakura and stood up from the bed crossing her arms in front of her.

"I'm not sure what arrangement are you talking about Sakura?"

"I'm sorry Kakashi, I thought we both wanted the same thing here. I'm not looking for a relationship. I thought you of all people would understand that."

"And what is that supposed to mean? Me of all people?" Kakashi's anger flared and he let it show on his face.

Sakura's eyes gave way to her own anger and frustration. "It means that you are not really known for having long term relationships. You leave more broken hearts behind you after your one night stands then Genma. All I wanted was some good time. Is that too much to ask? What is wrong with guys these days? I thought men wouldn't have a problem with having some fun with no strings attached."

He didn't expect this, certainly not from Sakura. The pink haired, green eyed girl, that dreamt of romantic, eternal love. What the hell happened that made her so cynical about love and life?

She saw something in his eyes that she didn't like. Pity, judgment or both. She didn't want pity and certainly didn't need him to judge her or her decisions. Her emotions flared and before she could stop herself she stepped closer to the bed and pulled his book from under the mattress.

"Think you'll need this now more often." Her words were dripping with anger and hint of disgust as she threw it at him and without looking back she stormed out of their room.

She made her way to the forest. She wanted to be alone or else she might punch someone. Instead she took it out on an innocent by-standing tree. It took her about an hour to make the whole tree into tiny splinters. She took a step back from her handy work and feeling that most of her anger was out of her system she turned to go back to the feast sensing that Kakashi was still in their room.

When she entered the room she found Ino arguing with Izumi, both already slightly drunk.

"You did that?" asked Ino still not believing the blue haired girl sitting opposite from her.

"That was aaaaaall me." Smiled Izumi devilishly and hiccupped at the end of the sentence, pouring Ino another drink.

"You scared the shit out of me!" Exclaimed the blue eyed blond and drank the small sake cup. She was about to return the favor and pour some sake for Izumi when she stopped herself.

"Wait a second. I'm not sure I want to be friends with someone who enjoys scaring people with fake ghosts from mist." Said Ino dejectedly and with a pout.

"And I don't need a friend who tries to steals my man!" Izumi declared and in a second realized what she said and looked at Mochi with a bright red blush on her face and ran out of the room. The surprise on Mochi's face was visible but a smile and panic soon followed the initial emotion on his face. "Izumi! Wait! Izumi." Mochi stood clumsily up and ran after the pretty blue haired girl and that was the last anyone saw of them that night.

Sakura sat down next to Ino, taking the liberty to drown the rest of the sake in the bottle that Ino sat down on the table. She didn't bother with pouring it into the cup and just drank it out of the bottle. She would need more bottles if she was going to get really, really drunk as she intended. One of the good, or in this case bad, perks of being the Hokage's apprentice. She built up a really good tolerance for alcohol thanks to Tsunade.

Ino was sitting with a pout on her face and Sakura nudged her to take her out of her daydream.

"What's wrong?"

"How can someone name his son Mochi?" Ino shook her head disbelievingly.

"Someone named Wasabi?" Sakura supplied a reasonable explanation and in took all three seconds for them to sucubm to a fit of laughter.

"I wonder what his mother's name is." continued Ino with a speculation.

"Itadakimasu?" suggested Sakura making them almost roll on the floor with laughter.

When they finally calmed down Sakura smiled at Ino. "Thanks pig, I needed the laugh." She smiled at her friend.

"What? Trouble in paradise?" asked Ino half jokingly.

Sakura contemplated of talking to her friend about the whole situation but decided against it. She needed to process is internally first before she could even start to explain it to Ino.

"Nah, he was just tired. You know how old people get." giving Ino a cheeky smile.

After they found few not fully empty bottles and after few silent drinks Sakura breached a topic with Ino that came up in discussions with for the past year constantly and talking to Ino when she was drunk was the best approach.

"So when are you going to admit it?"

"Admit what?" Ino asked with a fake innocent expression on her face.

"Do you want me to say it? Do you want me to say his name?" threatened her Sakura. She and the other girls, Hinata and Tenten, were trying to get her to admit her feelings for him for the past year, since THE incident, but she was too stubborn for her own good. So they made a pact that every time she was drunk (because otherwise she would be able to run and deflect their questions better) they would ask her about him.

Ino kept going out with anyone and everyone just to prove that she didn't have any feelings for him, but very quickly found something wrong with each of them, keeping herself in the character of the superficial blond flirt that people who didn't know her thought she was. She was hiding behind the blonde bimbo act as good as she could but her friends saw through her and sometime she hated that. She felt better if people underestimated her. It made her feel as if she had the upper hand, having more options.

"No, you don't have to because there is nothing to admit."

"Are you kidding me? Did you actually look at Mochi?"

"What does he have to do with anything?" Ino wrinkled her nose disapprovingly when Sakura said his name.

"Whatever, Ino-pig." Sakura gave up, she didn't have the energy anymore to argue with her friend. She just wanted to get really drunk and get rid of the dull feeling she had when thinking of her argument with Kakashi. Luckily for her someone brought more bottles of warm sake to the table so she liberated three of them for herself.

After two bottles Ino was still pouting with a frown on her face. She seemed to be thinking really hard, probably about her own love life. She noticed Sakura was looking at her after several minutes; she wanted to smile at her and tell her all was alright but her smile wavered in few seconds and she let her real feelings show on the surface.

Sakura just smiled at her and gave her a hug when she saw the tears waiting to be spilled out of her baby blue eyes. Sakura held her as the good friend she was and waited for her friend to calm down. Sakura knew she didn't want love in her life anymore, it brought more pain than good, at least where she was concerned. On the other hand she wished that at least her friends will find what she dreamt of as a little girl and knew that in their case it would last. She was just cursed in this matter and didn't want to tempt fate anymore with trying to find love for herself. When Ino pulled away from her hug she didn't look at Sakura and kept staring at the table with her head hung low.

"What if he doesn't want me anymore? I was so awful to him." Ino said after several minutes with a quiet voice.

"Do you want to end up wondering what if for the rest of your life?"

Ino just nodded her head. Her friend was right. She was scared from the beginning, scared of being rejected for her personality, scared of her own feelings for him. She made up her mind. She will give them a chance if he will let them. No more running away, no more hiding. She was feeling tremendous relief at her decision but at the same time dreaded the day she would see him.

Sakura in the meanwhile managed to drink through her sixth bottle of sake during the last two hours and was on a good way to passing out. She helped her to her feet and wanted to take her back to her room when Sakura weakly protested, that she didn't want to go back to him and wanted to sleep in Ino's room instead. As Ino herself was feeling quite drunk she didn't have the energy to argue with another drunken person so she just dragged her to her own room, which was conveniently much closer then Sakura's room

Sakura was dragging with her another battle of sake that she didn't want to let go so Ino had to pry it out of her hands as she didn't want to sleep in after-sake-smelling wet bed. Sakura was fast asleep, snoring softly into a pillow.

Ino wasn't feeling like sleeping yet, so she sat down to the small table in her room with the half empty sake bottle. After few sips of the liquid courage she decided that she needs to take action now, or she will chicken out in the morning, or worse, will not remember her own decision.

She found a piece of paper and pen and somehow managed to summon her familiar. A small wild boar with a red ribbon around its neck named Angelina. She scribbled the note and gave it to the little boar to deliver it to the right person.

With a happy smile on her face she went to the bed. She had a really good feeling about this and was happy to go back tomorrow to Konoha.

Before falling asleep she went through her note in her head over and over again before she finally fell asleep.

Dear Choji

Firstly I want to apologize for all the awful things I said to you. I didn't mean them and I should have never said them. It wasn't right and it wasn't true. I don't understand how I deserved your friendship or the feelings you conveyed to me. I wish I could take everything back. I hope you still see me as more than a friend and we can talk about us when I get back home tomorrow.

I hope you can forgive me.

Love Ino.

P.S.: You won't believe who is getting married. Sakura and Kakashi!

I really, really enjoy writing these parts :D there will be more fun once they get back to Konoha :)