disclaimer: don't own naruto

olly: characters may be OOC at times, FORGIVE ME!! -tears-

friend in background: be creepy!

olly: no.

friend in background: -pouts and eats cocnut candy while making disgusted faces- i hate coconut!

olly: oo'' you're an idiot...anyways, CHAPTER 5!!!

friend: -- ...6...

olly: 6!!!!!!1!

Sakura hit her alarm clock again and again before she finally realized the beeping wasn't going to stop. She wearily opened her eyes. Her mind took a moment to take in the sound before she gasped and checked the time. 6:36. shit! She thought rushing into her bathroom. I'm so late! She stripped down and stepped into her shower. To save time she decided to brush her teeth in the shower, cursed at herself for putting toothpaste in her hair, rinsed it out, washed her hair twice, rushed out, dried off, and ran out to pick some clothes. As she checked the clock again (which was 6:47) she cursed and decided maybe just grabbing the first things of the rack would be fine. As she took a glance in the mirror she saw it wasn't too bad. Black capris like Ten Ten's, a grey shirt with the Chinese character for 'love' on it, and her black hoodie. She rushed out the front door without a good-bye to her parents, only to see Gaara already waiting for her. She cursed a string of words at herself as she ran to him with her bag.

"I'm so sorry Gaara. I really didn't want to be late." She said, shoving her bag into the side bag. He smirked. He could tell that she had been rushing.

"actually, I'm early. You had another five minutes." She looked at him like 'wtf?' and checked her cell phone, seeing it was 6:55. She muttered an "oh" and scowled at the ground.

Gaara chuckled and looked her over, not missing the character on her shirt—the same one as his tattoo. Did it mean something? He shook his head, smirking at her aggravated expression.

"I like your shirt." he said with a smirk. She looked up from her frustrated contemplation of all the things she could've done with her extra five minutes. As his comment circled through her head, she looked down at her shirt. Sakura blushed as Gaara straddled his bike and handed her a helmet. She hadn't really noticed the symbol. She shrugged it off and climbed on behind him. For a split second Gaara allowed himself to enjoy her touch but then let the bike plunge forward.

Gaara pulled into his usual parking spot and put away their helmets. Sakura walked wearily from the bike and they made their way to the tree. Gaara immediately pulled himself into the tree, and Sakura followed example. She quickly became bored with the silence.

"how come you like to come here so early?" She asked.

"I like this tree." He said simply. "If I'm not here, the other guys will try to take it." He put his hands behind his head, thankful that she had started a conversation rather than him. He frowned, however, when she only sighed and didn't say anything else. Arching an eyebrow he asked, "what's wrong?"

She shrugged and answered. "nothing." He frowned. She usually wouldn't shut up, and now she was completely silent. Was it something that he had done?

"Don't lie to me." He said with a scowl. "It's not a smart thing to do." She looked down. "Was it something I did?" he asked sternly.

"Well, yes." She said quietly. Dammit! It was like he was always finding ways to screw up people's lives. "But it wasn't a bad thing." He looked at her in curiosity and she continued. "I was really afraid that my dad would restrict me from seeing you, or any of the guys for that matter, but the way you spoke to him, all polite? He really acted different from whenever I've seen him around guys before. But he still didn't trust you, and it brought up the subject of how I never saw him around anyway. I cried, but it was a good thing. I haven't let that out for years now, and it made me feel a little less stressed. I know my parents love me, but sometimes it's like I have to remind them that I'm not just a little kid anymore. See if you hadn't spoken to him, I would still feel forgotten." She chuckled. "So thanks." Her words were still running through his mind as she leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. He was so surprised that he could've fallen out of the tree right then. He didn't, because Gaara's cool like that, but still. It took him an entire two minutes to bring his head back together before he turned to her.

"Err, you're welcome." He said. She giggled and finally smiled a real smile for the first time that morning. It made his heart melt. He hadn't known of her troubles at home. She always hid behind her beautiful smile. A frown showed on his lips. He had been worried about his problems, when she had her own. He couldn't ask her about his feelings. She was busy dealing with her own life. He sighed. Maybe later.

They sat in silence for a while, and soon their friends arrived. They talked about the band practice and decided that it had been really fun. Everyone agreed that they should do it again, and along with the practice talk came the subject of Truth or Seven Minutes.

"Hey Ten Ten, how'd it go with you and Neji?" asked Temari very loudly. Ten Ten turned pink and Neji looked at her. She glared at the beaming Temari and crossed her arms.

"Well what about you and Shikamaru?" she asked with a devilish grin. Shikamaru stumbled from his perfectly stable position. Temari's eyes widened slightly, but she closed them and crossed her own arms.

"It was good actually."

Shikamaru choked and fell backward. She only shrugged and continued. "But don't ask a question in which you can't answer yourself, Ten Ten. You know it's rude to answer a question with a question." Neji arched an eyebrow and glanced to Ten Ten. She was pink and giving Temari an 'if-only-i-had-my-bow-and-arrows' kind of glare.

"It was fine." Neji said, shoving his hands into his pockets. They all stared him as he shrugged and turned away from Ten Ten to prevent the growing heat in his cheeks from rising. Ten Ten on the other hand looked like she might faint. Kiba glanced from Ten Ten to Neji to Ten Ten to Neji, a big grin forming as he did so. Neji had his hands in his pockets, staring at the ground. Ten Ten was facing away from him with her arms crossed, apparently staring at a random spot on a tree root. He decided to lighten the tension, or so he thought.

"Well hey! What about Hinata and Naruto?" he asked, turning to the white eyed girl. She became red and stared at him in horror. Neji's attention snapped up immediately. He glared at the blonde boy who was grinning proudly and shuffling around on his feet. Neji was secretly daring Naruto to say anything at all about his cousin.

Naruto saw Neji's glare but threw an arm around Hinata's shoulder anyway. Neji's eyes widened in shock and Hinata stared at Naruto, becoming redder and redder by the second.

"Well it was my first kiss!" Naruto said, smiling at Hinata. She blinked repeatedly. Neji's eye twitched.

"Dude that's not something you just say out loud." Kankuro explained, arching an eyebrow at the blonde. Naruto shrugged.

"Well I just meant I was glad it was Hinata." The fox boy said, grinning at the purple haired girl. She blinked again and gave him a small smile in return.

"You…actually…kissed…my cousin?" came Neji's voice. The others wondered why he hadn't realized that before. Naruto turned back to the white eyed boy, who was twitching uncontrollably. Neji's face was red with anger. The blonde boy's arm quickly retreated from its comfortable place around Hinata's shoulder before he bolted away from the tree, Neji hot on his heels, while the rest of the group laughed at them (except Hinata, who kind of called out for them to stop). After a few minutes Neji outsmarted Naruto and tackled him, giving him a swift punch to side as he did so. Naruto coughed and grabbed his side. He looked weakly at the Hyuuga before standing up and smiling, which only made Neji madder.

"p-please stop!" yelled Hinata. "Neji! D-don't!" Both men looked at the white eyed girl, then at each other. Neji shoved his hands in his pockets and walked over to Hinata, standing protectively beside her. Naruto shuffled slowly over, watching Neji the entire time. The rest of the group chuckled lightly at them, but then Kankuro decided to continue the conversation.

"Ok, so we've covered Neji and Ten Ten, Temari and Shikamaru, Naruto and Hinata (Neji cringed at this), so all that's left is Sakura and Gaara." Temari smacked her brother in the head, while glaring at him as if to say 'I-told-you-we-weren't-going-to-say-anything-about-that'. Kankuro only shrugged and looked up at Sakura. She blushed.

"What do you mean?" she asked innocently, hopping out of the tree. Gaara arched an eyebrow but otherwise didn't move. He secretly wanted to know her opinion, but wouldn't for the life of him let the other guys know. Kankuro glanced up to his brother but then back to Sakura.

"Well everyone else said whether or not they liked the kiss, you know, except for Kiba and me, but anyways, we want to know how your kiss was. Gaara's never done something like that before, at least not with us around, so,"

Sakura cut him off. "You want me to tell you how your brother kisses? That's disgusting!" Everyone laughed at the stone faced Kankuro. He glared at her.

"That's not what I meant," he said coolly.

"That's what it sounded like," said Sakura smirking. Honestly she didn't want to talk about the kiss, at least not with Gaara there. She had come to really like him, and still wasn't sure how it had happened. Still, if she said the wrong thing, the others would find out, as well as Gaara.

Naruto smirked at her. "Well what if we ask Gaara?" he said. Gaara arched an eyebrow again as the blonde pulled himself up into the tree branch beside him. Naruto knew he wouldn't get much out of the red head, but he never passed up a chance to embarrass his friend.

"So how bout it Gaara? Is Sakura a good kisser?" Naruto said, flashing his biggest fox smile, eyes closed and all. Gaara glared at the blonde who was perched very carefully on the branch. One slip and he would fall. Gaara took advantage of that fact.

It was the second punch Naruto had received that morning, except this one was aimed for his forehead. He fell from the tree, hitting the ground hard on his back. Hinata ran over to him and helped him to his feet.

"Naruto I think it's best if you just keep your mouth shut for the rest of the morning. Otherwise your life may be at risk," Ten Ten said, smiling at the breathless Naruto. Hinata looked at Naruto in pity but then turned up to Gaara.

"That was a little harsh!" she said to him. Gaara only shrugged. Naruto gained his breath back and thanked Hinata with a smile. She blushed and smiled, but was then pulled back by Neji. Naruto looked angrily and Gaara and started to say something, but then thought about Ten Ten's comment and remained silent. However, when Sakura said aloud what he was thinking, everyone stared in awkward shock.

"Is your refusal to answer supposed to imply that I'm not a good kisser?" the pink haired girl asked hotly, looking at Gaara with her arms crossed. He blinked at her in shock but then answered, "No."

Sakura blushed and almost asked something else, but was cut off as the school bell rang. She was secretly happy that this happened (A/N now would be the perfect time to say "saved by the bell" lol). They all went inside without a word.

When school let out, Sakura walked out with Hinata and Ten Ten. They met the rest of the group outside. Nobody brought the practice back up, for Naruto's sake. Gaara soon became bored with that ramblings about school, so he picked up his bag and stood. Sakura looked up at him from her conversation with Ten Ten. "Are we leaving?" she asked him. He nodded and stated walking away. She raised an eyebrow, but then called good-byes to her friends before hurrying after him. They made a beeline to his motorcycle and got ready to leave.

"Hey Gaara," Sakura said, stuffing her bag in the side bag. "About this morning, I-" She had a helmet handed to her. Gaara was already straddling the bike. She sighed. "Do you think we could go by the auto shop, since we're leaving this early?" she asked, pulling the helmet over her head. Gaara shook his head. She wondered why he was being so distant all of a sudden. Had what she said that morning caused him to act like this? At first Sakura felt a little hurt, but then she scowled. He always seemed to do that. Act like a friend then go back to being all isolated again. She sighed and climbed on behind him, wrapping her arms around his middle as she did so.

Gaara took off, making his way towards the road. Sakura had already memorized the route from the school to her house, and almost didn't notice when he made a certain turn right, instead of left. Gaara felt her arms stiffen around him, but there was no way to explain what he doing at the moment, so he ignored it. Sakura thought about pulling out her arm and whacking him in the head for him too pull over, but decided against it, because it was possible the shock might result in him crashing (not to mention no one hit Gaara, unless they had a death wish). Gaara was actually surprised when he felt her relax a little. Sakura trusted Gaara, no matter how distant he might become sometimes. She was very curious as to where this mysterious man was taking her, but she just decided to wait and find out.

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olly: yay! another chapter! so where are they going? you'll have to wait for the next chapter. sorry for the delay, been busy at school...

friend in background: -grabs random black cape and dances to Phantom of the Opera in her own little world-

olly: yeah...uhh...

friend: the PHAN-tom of the Op-er-a is here! -runs around like a crazy person while making swishy sounds-

olly: i'm friends with you...WHY?

friend: i'm fun! true dat, true dat. -laughs at self-

olly: forehead/desk

PLEASE REVIEW!!! YOUR COMMENTS MEAN SO MUCH TO ME!!!(friend: DON'T FORGET ABOUT ME!)