So I'm going to be really angsty for a second. I didn't get a single review on my last chapter. I got a new follower. But no one said anything. I don't know whether what I wrote was shit or amazing. I can't tell whether I'm wasting my time on a story I don't know if I like anymore. I kept working on it because I thought you wanted to read it. There were a thousand times I almost quit because I didn't like what I was writing. But I'd get a review asking for more, and for just that one person, I'd want to continue. But not one single person reviewed, and I just keep thinking that maybe I should quit, start a new story. I'm not fishing for compliments here, if anything I'm fishing for insults. A flame would have made me feel better. It would have meant that someone cared enough to review.

Okay so that was really unnecessary, I know and I'm sorry. I do apologize for that but it was super disconcerting and I had to get that off my chest. I decided to split what was going to be one chapter into two parts, so you get this bit sooner! Enjoy, and PRETTY PLEASE REVIEW!

When Hinata woke up the next day, she was in an overlarge sweatshirt and sweatpants of Naruto's. She beamed, remembering the events of the previous night. She moved to the kitchen and began preparing rice for breakfast, rather than pick something more elaborate that someone might not like. Humming lightly she stepped into the shower, not bothering to go to her own room, a scant two hallways down.

Gaara felt faint breathing on his chest when he finally came to. He shifted slightly to see a small mass of brown hair resting there. He stroked her hair and propped himself up against a couple of pillows and Naruto's legs. He'd get up proper when she did, he thought. But no sooner than his brain had spoken the words, Sophia stirred. Her brows were furrowed as if it pained her to be awake. But when she realized it was Gaara's hand on her hair, her expression calmed and she grinned up at him. "It's almost a shame we stayed here. You could have come to my place and we could have had some privacy," she muttered sleepily, glancing at a snoring Naruto.

Gaara went a little red. "Well, perhaps it was better all the same, because you were in no mood to try anything last night. The second you hit the bed you were out cold."

It was true; she'd been too tired to even change out of her dress. She smirked and slid into his arms, her back against his chest. "Yes, well… There's always this morning." She pulled down his head and began to kiss him deeply, when they were interrupted by Hinata getting out of the shower. She whispered a quick, "I told you," as a small groan of annoyance escaped Gaara's now unoccupied lips. Sophia then got up to wish Hinata a good morning as she toweled down her hair.

The rest of the crew woke up rather more alone and much more drained manners. Sakura heard her alarm go off and groaned in annoyance. She'd come home alone, before Ino had got back and found the tub of ice cream in the freezer beckoning her. From the bed she looked to the nightstand, there was the empty cardboard carton, a couple drips leaking from the overturned lip. She turned off the alarm and stared out into her bedroom, the silence oppressive, as if daring her to make a sound. She sighed and got up to take a shower and on her way, threw last night's indulgences in the trash.

Neji, however, woke up feeling tense as if he'd gone to bed with too much energy, and just forced his mind into submission. He remembered the previous night with Tenten and smirked. But then he remembered how she'd left, and how he had keenly wished she'd let him into her dorm, if only to finish up their rather hurried kiss. But she insisted on walking back by herself.

Ino was conflicted. She felt guilty about kissing Shikamaru while out with 'Dei.' When she left Shikamaru in that narrow space, she went to Deidara and told him that she wouldn't see him again, socially. "It isn't fair to you because I have feelings for someone else," she had told him. He didn't seem all that upset. He just said, "All beauty fades, un. It seems fitting that it happen at a school dance, how appropriately spectacular," and then walked away. Still when she thought about that kiss with Shikamaru, the smile seemed to reach all the way from the tips of her toes to the crown of her head. All that time she'd fancied him, hoping he might make a move. And now he finally had. And he'd said that she stood out among other girls. The guilt melted away to pure giddiness as she prepared for the day.

Sasuke felt broody and solemn, but nonetheless, better than he had been in the last few mornings. Gaara wasn't there again, and he wondered if he was shacked up somewhere with that American. Then he mentally corrected himself for being rude and set himself to making coffee. He remembered how happy Sakura had looked and smiled bitterly. He wanted her to be happy of course, but at the same time cursing Lee for being the one to do it.

To be brazen, Tenten was horny. This was due in part to the incredibly steamy dream she'd had involving Neji. When she woke up and saw that he wasn't shirtless next to her, she was considerably put out. Hinata hadn't returned all night, and Tenten bitterly wished that she'd pulled Neji in by his shirt collar and snogged his face off at the very least. She sighed deeply and took a cold shower to start off her day.

Shikamaru had spent the night coming in and out of consciousness at least half a dozen times. His dreams were hazy, not the crisp clear testing grounds he usually had. So when he woke, it was in a thin veneer of sweat, though the night had been quite cool. He groaned, his mind considerably more befuddled than he would have liked. Shikamaru then trudged off to the bathroom and drank a large amount of water, trying to achieve some sort of mental clarity. When that failed he hobbled into the shower to at least wash off the sweat if nothing else.

When the smell of food became too powerful to sleep through, Naruto got up and joined them at the table. "I don't feel like doing homework today," he announced. "Let's go out today with everybody. Like to the beach or something."

"But Naruto-kun, it's too late in the year to go to the beach. Why don't we-"

"I KNOW! LET'S HAVE A PICNIC!"

Hinata smiled indulgently and then looked at Gaara and Sophia. "What do you guys think?"

"I don't mind," said Sophia. "I don't really fancy doing homework. Gaara?"

"Yeah, sure."

Naruto was already dialing up the entire group to invite them.

"I have the feeling you're going to need help making food for the picnic," teased Sophia. "If Naruto does what I think he will and invites the whole of Konoha." Hinata giggled.

"Why don't we just order delivery to the park?" suggested Gaara.

The both of the girls heaved a huge sigh of relief at that and at the other's reaction, burst into laughter. "Okay, well I'll leave that to you sweetheart," said Sophia as she leaned up to give him a quick peck. "I'm off to get cleaned up. I'll meet you there in like half an hour?"

Everyone showed up at almost the same time, Naruto and Gaara with the food (just picture whatever it is that you're craving at the moment. That is what they brought. And even better quality. And more than you could hope to eat in three days. Okay? Okay) arriving first. Then Sophia and Hinata. Ino and Sakura arrived together, but didn't seem to be that bothered with the other, Sakura wanting to seem happy and Ino trying to be calm. Shikamaru and Neji also arrived together. Shikamaru hadn't put up a fight to going out, being much too fuzzy in the head, so it had been incredibly easy for Neji to drag him along. Sasuke and Tenten showed up almost simultaneously despite coming separately.

Now what happened just then is a bit difficult to explain, because it all happened at once. Hmm. Let's start with the smallest of things and move ourselves forward from there, shall we? Sakura saw Sasuke arrive and tried breathing slowly and calmly not to draw attention to her anxiety. Lucky for her, the attention wasn't focused there. Sasuke saw her carefully avoiding his eyes and he huffed and turned his back from her. He was sort of hurt. She wasn't going to start pretending he didn't exist, was she?

Ino saw Shikamaru and all previous attempts to appear as if all was normal evaporated. She beamed at his obnoxious pineapple hair and frowning face. Shikamaru saw her smile and through the fog started to panic. He suddenly remembered what he'd done and said the night before, not quite accurately. And then from that tried to come up with his next move. Maybe if his head had been clearer he would have done something smarter, but maybe not.

When Tenten met up with the group, her eyes locked onto Neji's. Don't picture that frolicking across a grassy field shtick. That's way too romantic for them. The pause before either of them moved was palpable and everyone, whatever else they were doing or thinking, noticed. What happened next was disgusting. That food that you've been salivating over from earlier, yeah that's inedible now. In a moment of coordinated revulsion, the other eight pulled them off each other and physically restrained them. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU TWO?" cried Hinata, of all people.

Neji was clearly irritated by the interruption (somehow wasn't embarrassed), but started talking. When he got to the point where he found Tenten in the bathroom, Ino yelled, "Is that where you were? UGH! I looked all over for you! I only ended up stopping because— Um… Go on."

When he was finally done, Sasuke said, "And that's why you chose to do… that?!"

"I can't eat for the next year."

"Ugh… I think I have to burn out my retinas now."

"You sick bastards!"

And in all the chaos of their friends yelling about how disturbing that just was, Tenten and Neji found another opportunity to go at it.

"Oh no you don't," said Sakura, pulling back on Tenten's collar. "You two need to be hosed off."

That all sort of took care of the activities. It was mostly eating and talking, but now everyone was too uncomfortable to even look at each other. Naruto tried to get the derailed party back on track. "How about Frisbee? Cards? Swimming? Anybody?"

"Please," said Gaara. "Just get my head somewhere else. I beg you." There was a chorus of murmuring assent. In the end it was decided they play volleyball, but Tenten and Neji were forbidden from being on the same team. So it became Tenten, Sophia, Gaara, Sakura and Shikamaru against Neji, Hinata, Naruto, Sasuke and Ino. The game was played for quite some time, resulting in grass stains and general sweatiness among the entire group. Eventually the incident was forgotten in favor of food. Tenten complained that they needed a conclusive win before they could quit, (it'd been neck and neck the whole time) but even she consented when she saw the spread in front of her.

"You should cook more often, Gaara," teased Sophia. She blinked, wide-eyed in mock innocence. "What's your recipe?"

"Well you need a credit card, if that isn't available, you can substitute with cash or your favorite payment type. And then you trade it with someone who has food. Serve hot."

Neji and Ino ate quickly and left quickly to go "play volleyball." No one believed that that's what they were doing, but at the same time no one wanted to go looking for them.

Shikamaru decided that it'd be a good time to talk to Ino. He pulled her aside from the group, far enough so they couldn't hear. Ino was smiling. "What is it? Do you think we should tell them? I thought maybe we might keep it a secret, so as not to steal Tenten's thunder, you know?"

He cut her off before she could keep going. "Ino, here's the thing. I don't want to put any pressure on you from last night. I understand if that kiss didn't mean anything to you, so don't worry about it."

Ino's smile turned sour as she bit her tongue so she could wait until he was done to unleash a tirade at him. Her voice barely rose above a whisper as she spoke to him, venom in every syllable. "You bastard. I thought that of all the guys, you thought better of me than that. I know everyone thinks I'm a slut, but we've been friends since we were kids and I guess I thought that counted for something. I thought you'd give me the benefit of the doubt. But yeah. Fine. That kiss meant nothing to me." She got up to leave, determined not to cry. "I won't be coming to dinner tomorrow. You can go ahead and explain why to your mom. Dick." She walked away fists clenched. When she walked past the group, Sakura got up after her, but Ino just waved her away, still refusing to break down.

After Ino got in the cab and was far enough away, that Sakura thought she couldn't see her anymore, she got up from the picnic. "I'm going after her. She doesn't look like she should be alone right now."

"Here, I'll drive you back. That way you won't have to wait for a cab."

Sakura resisted slightly before accepting his offer. She smiled awkwardly. "Thanks. I appreciate it."

When she got to the door, it was unlocked and slightly ajar. Sakura heard shaky breathing coming from just behind the door. Ino was sitting there, trembling, too empty for tears to start falling it seemed. She must have collapsed just after getting into the apartment. Sakura knelt down beside her and pulled Ino into her arms. "Shh. It'll be okay sweetheart. It'll all be fine." Ino didn't say anything, but her breathing started to become less erratic. When she finally seemed to be calm enough, Sakura said, "Come on. We'll sit down and watch some crappy movies and eat ice cream. Okay?" Ino nodded, but her heart wasn't in it.

Gaara, Naruto, Sophia, and Hinata packed up not long after Sasuke and Sakura left, no one having spotted Shikamaru in ages. The day sort of ended on a low note, the high never really having happened. "Maybe I should have just done homework today," said Naruto.

"If the two of us put our heads together, we could probably finish most of it tonight. What do you think?" Hinata smiled in encouragement. Naruto frowned, clearly not having meant it. But when he looked at Hinata, her enthusiasm in earnest, he acquiesced.

"Do you two want to join us?"

Sophia looked up at Gaara. Reading her own thoughts in his expression, she answered, "No. I think we'll be just fine on our own." After all, they'd been wanting to be alone since they woke up that morning. When they finally got back to her place though, the mountain of books on her table stopped them. In the middle of finishing their Japanese homework, she said, "I think the Universe is cockblocking us."

Sakura and Ino were on their third shitty chick flick (redundant, I know) when Ino said, "Boys are just dicks. Walking, barely talking, dicks."

Sakura, not having heard the full story yet, just agreed with her. "Yep. Better off without the whole lot of them." She wasn't sure she believed that though. Sakura's mind lingered back to Sasuke offering her that ride. Maybe they weren't that bad after all.

Shit... So... Sorry. If you thought that almost everything was fixed up. It very much isn't. I know and that sucks, but you will see some adorableness very soon.

NOW! Very important question that I need answered. It won't be relevant for at least two more chapters, but do you guys want lemons or would you prefer me keeping it rated T. I don't mind doing either, but if most of you don't want anything lemony, I don't want to offend you. And also if my readers are dying for some steamy romance, I need to know. So please tell me if you want lemons or not! And ALSO, is there a couple you think should take the screen next? For the next next chapter, I was thinking of doing a spotlight on one couple while at the same time having secret hush hush goings on. Who do you want to see more? (BTW SakuxSasu and InoxShika aren't viable yet because they aren't couples. Yet...)

Wow that got really long. Okay well, I'll have the next chapter out in a couple weeks.

~MorwenKazul ^_^