Olly: ahh! sorry bout the delay guys! the end of the school year is one week away and everything's been a little crazy. i hadn't really thought my cliff hanger was that big of a deal. please dont yell at me anymore! alrighty then here's chapter 11!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto...or Wall Mart

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Recap:

The person that was holding Sakura hostage dragged her over to chair, holding her tightly the whole time. She was forced to sit down and she felt her hands being tied in the back. The hand over her mouth was removed, but only to cover her eyes. She was too afraid to make a sound. Sakura felt someone's hot breath in her ear. Tears started forming in her eyes. She was scared.

"Guess who."

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Sakura immediately recognized the deep husky voice that had made her melt so many times. Emotions started running through her—relief, happiness, confusion, realization, anger…

"GAARA!"

She heard him chuckle and he uncovered her eyes. She looked over to her left to see the other three girls also tied to chairs. Temari was glaring and baring her teeth like an angry dog, Ten Ten was blank faced, but her eye was twitching, and poor Hinata looked as if she might have had a seizure. Sakura guessed she had been so afraid that they had rendered her speechless. She snapped her head to look the smirking Gaara in the eyes. He chuckled again and stood to walk over to the other guys, who were all standing in front of the four trapped girls.

"Well frankly, I'm disappointed," Kankuro said shaking his head sadly. "We thought you girls would put up more of a fight."

"Yeah, what if we had been real kidnappers? Would you have reacted the same way?" Neji asked. All the girls just stared at him.

"YOU FILTHY BASTARDS!"

They all looked at the red faced, white eyed girl who had suddenly had that outburst. She was panting and looked on the verge of tears. Naruto took a step forward with worry in his eyes, but Temari growled at him, so he stepped back.

"I agree with Hinata," Sakura said coldly. Gaara smirked at her, but she turned her head away in anger, and his face softened a little. Had they gone too far? Temari had no trouble answering their question.

"I can't believe you! This time you really went too far. We're not forgiving you this time! NOW UNTIE US DAMMIT!!" she started rocking back and forth, trying to untie herself, but had no such luck.

"It was just a joke," Kiba said. "Be thankful. This time we're not taking you anywhere." He crossed his arms, and Ten Ten narrowed her eyes on him.

"You mean to say you were going to keep us here. And do what with us exactly?" All the girls snapped their attention on Kiba, and he suddenly felt cornered.

"Nothing. We were just going to scare you is all." Naruto said quietly. He felt really horrible about making Hinata cry.

"Whoop-dee-fuckin-doo…you accomplished that. Now untie us and get the hell outta my house!" Sakura said angrily. All the guys looked at her.

"It was just a joke, Sakura. Really!" Kankuro said, holding up his hands defensively.

"…not…funny…" Hinata said quietly. She was crying freely now, but was trying her best to stop. The guys looked painfully at her, especially Naruto and Neji. Naruto quickly went behind Hinata and untied the ropes binding her hands. She stood and walked to the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

"Way to go, dip shits, you made Hinata cry. You just had to ruin our whole night didn't you?" Temari said angrily while Shikamaru untied her hands. She stood up in a huff and went over to the bathroom. "Hinata," she said. "It's me, open up." They watched as Temari disappeared into the bathroom as well.

Neji went to untie Ten Ten, and she glared at the back of his head the whole time. Once she was free she cast a nasty glare towards the guys and walked over to the bathroom, also disappearing inside.

Gaara stood with his arms crossed, as Sakura sat there, the only one not untied. He waited for someone to go untie her, but when he looked over at the other guys they were looking expectantly of him. "Oh," he said stupidly and walked behind Sakura.

He stoked her fingers gently, hoping it would make her less angry, but he only received a stab in his finger with one of her particularly sharp fingernails. Gaara winced and untied the rope around her wrists. She rubbed her wrists for a second but then stood and looked at all the guys angrily.

"Get out."

"What?" asked Kankuro stupidly.

"Get out."

"Well what do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"I mean get out," she said irritably. "You six are trespassing on my family's property. Get out now, before I call the police."

"You wouldn't call the cops on us," Kiba said unsurely.

"After what you just did I might." She glared at them, and they looked at the floor as if it was the most interesting thing in world. "But first," she said. "Tell me how you got in."

Neji grimaced and said, "Well we climbed through the window while you were at the door."

"And how exactly did you get the window open? Because I know for a fact that all the windows were locked." She looked at each of them in turn, her gaze landing longest on Gaara. He looked up to meet her eyes.

"I did it," he said. "What?" Sakura asked. "I did it," Gaara repeated. "I got the window open." Sakura knew it was true, from how he admitted it. She didn't need to ask how.

Sakura nodded and pointed to the front door. Shikamaru led the guilty group. They walked out the door and she closed it behind them. "Shit, we screwed up," Kiba said, rubbing the back of his head. The others guys nodded. "We need to give them a really good apology," Naruto said, looking sadly at the ground. "A really good apology." He was still very upset at making Hinata cry. The poor fox boy felt absolutely devastated. The others guys nodded, except for Gaara. Secretly he felt the same way, though. Only that afternoon he and Sakura had become so much more than just friends, and he had already screwed it up.

"Flowers."

The others looked at the speaker: Shikamaru. "Girls like flowers, right?" The others considered this idea. Kankuro leaned against the door. "How about just the crushes get flowers? Kiba and I haven't got anyone to give flowers to." Kiba nodded. Gaara's face showed distaste. They would look really stupid holding out flowers to the girls, and also, the girls might not accept their apology. What would they do with the stupid things then? Plant them in a garden? He sighed.

"Well…" he said. "I guess we better get going." The other guys followed him back down the road to their cars.

Sakura leaned her back against the door. The guys had practically ruined her whole night, not to mention the other's girls' too. She also wondered if they had been watching them since they supposedly 'left'. She looked over at the bathroom door. "Hey guys," she called loudly. "They're gone, you can come out now."

Temari came out first; she still looked angry. Ten Ten came out with an arm around the shaking Hinata's shoulder. Her eye make up had run from crying, and she held some crumpled tissue paper in her hand. Sakura went over and gave the girl a hug. "Oh Hinata, are you ok?"

Hinata's voice cracked when she talked, and for some reason it reminded sakura of a beaten puppy dog. She was back to stuttering. "I-I'm o-ok S-Sakura." She gave a weak smile, but it wasn't very convincing.

"She's not good with scary movies and stuff like that. Especially after the one we watched tonight, and then the guys pretended to be kidnappers. Not cool…not cool at all," Ten Ten said scowling. Some of her hair was falling out of the buns, and she looked like she wanted to punch something.

"I am so gonna kick their asses," Temari said, cracking her knuckles. "But I'll need back-up, Sakura?"

Sakura smiled. "It'd be six against two, Temari, consider the odds."

Temari smirked. "Yeah, but they can't hit girls. We have a slight advantage." The giggled, and Sakura got an idea.

"Hey, you know what I do when I'm upset or something?" she asked with a smile. The other girls looked curiously at her. "I bake something. It relieves stress and then you get to eat it."

"t-that sounds f-fun." Hinata said quietly. Ten Ten hugged her and they made their way to the kitchen. "Alright," Sakura said. "It's lots more fun to make by scratch, so I get everything ready." She opened a closet and pulled out four cooking aprons (A/N why they have four cooking aprons? I don't know XO ) and threw three of them to Temari, who passed them around. Sakura put on her own apron and started pulling out random things. "Ok," she said. "Cake, pie, cupcakes?"

"I like cookies," Ten Ten said. "Chocolate chunk cookies!"

Temari scowled and folded her arms. "Well I like cookies with little toffee bits in them."

Hinata looked at them both before saying, "I like vanilla chip cookies."

Sakura looked at each girl in turn, then smiled. "And I like chocolate pecan cookies." The other three looked around unsurely. "Let's mix them all together! Any objections?" The others smiled and told her no, so Sakura pulled out chocolate chips, vanilla chips, toffee chips, and pecans, along with the other ingredients for making cookies. Temari, Ten Ten, and Hinata kind of stood off to the side a little, but soon they were each mixing their own bowl of dough, occasionally flicking some at each other. Ten Ten spilled sugar everywhere, and Temari slipped in it. They all laughed and screamed and teased before cleaning it up. Sakura pre-heated the oven. Her dough had pecans in it, Hinata's had vanilla chips, Temari's had toffee chips, and Ten Ten's had chocolate chips. When all the dough was ready they put it all in one big bowl and mixed it together, laughing and chatting as they did so. Sakura was happy that they were still able to have a good time.

Everyone's mood was lifted and they all spooned some of the concoction dough onto a cookie sheet. Sakura put it in the oven and set a timer for twenty minutes. They sat in the kitchen and talked for a while. None of them brought up the guys. They talked about normal girl things—clothes, movie stars, clothes, make up, clothes—and so on. Ten Ten took Hinata back to the bathroom and fixed her make up. Soon the timer went off and Sakura pulled the cookies out of the oven and set them on the table. They all stared at them.

The cookies were definitely not a pretty site to see. They were lumpy and jagged and the multicolored chips stuck out here and there, making the cookies different shades of milky yellow, darkened brown, sticky orange, and toasted nut color. Sakura looked sadly at the cookies. They had gone through all the trouble of making the cookies and the poor things didn't even look edible in the least. She looked back at all they had done. Sakura was sure she had measured everything out right when they made the dough. What could've gone wrong?

"They look disgusting!" Temari said, sticking her tongue out. Ten Ten nodded and Hinata just looked at them sadly. Sakura went over everything they had done nearly three times in her head before she decided that they had done everything right. She glared at the disfigured cookies and took a spatula from the counter. Carefully Sakura lifted a cookie of the sheet and delicately brought it up to her mouth. She thought about taking just a small bite, but the decided 'what the heck'? She took a huge bite out of the cookie. Temari and Ten Ten and Hinata all looked at her in shock, but said nothing because they were also curious at how the cookies would turn out.

Sakura almost choked in surprise. She couldn't even taste the cookie. All she could taste was chocolate and toffee and vanilla. As she chewed there was the occasional crunch of a pecan. It was sooo good! She closed her eyes to enjoy it. Soon however, she had to sadly swallow, and the cookie left some toffee sweetness to linger in her mouth. She finished the cookie in one bite.

"Well?" Temari asked. Sakura looked up at her friends. She nodded and took two more cookies for herself. They looked at her a little surprised, and each took one of the soft, warm, ugly cookies. Carefully each girl took a bite, and all went through the state of shock and surprise that Sakura had gone through. After five minutes, half the cookie tray was cleared, and Sakura was secretly thankful they still had a huge bowl of cookie dough to bake.

"Damn, we're pretty good cooks!" Temari said. They giggled. Sakura put the rest of the cookies on a plate, and they spooned some more dough on the sheet. Ten Ten carefully placed it in the still hot oven. Suddenly the door bell rang.

All the girls' attention swept around the room. Then they heard knocking at the door. "I'm not going to answer it," Sakura stated, crossing her arms. "It's probably the guys again."

Hinata crossed her arms as well. "If they thought the last thing was funny, and now they want to do it again? Argh! They can be so horrible sometimes!"

Again knocking was heard on the door, and muffled voices. They recognized Naruto's loud voice above the others. "SAKURA! HINATA! TEN TEN! TEMARI! IT'S US! WE WANT TO APOLOGIZE!"

Sakura made a sound of disgust. "They're going to wake the neighbors." She stated plainly. As much as she didn't want to see them right now, she had to save her poor neighbors' ears. She walked over to the door and opened it, not a crack, but just enough so she could see them all.

It was Kiba and Kankuro in the front, and the other guys were lined up behind; each of the four had a plastic bag in hand. Gaara was blank faced, Shikamaru looked bored, Neji was looking at the ground, and Naruto was smiling weakly. She glared at all of them. "What do you want?" she demanded.

"To apologize," Kiba said. "We didn't think you would get so mad at us. We're sorry." He looked behind Sakura. Temari, Ten Ten, and Hinata were standing a little ways behind her. He gave a small wave to them. They only glared back. Kiba's hand fell limply back to his side.

Kankuro grunted and shuffled his feet. "Could we come in?" he asked. Sakura looked at him. She was a little surprised that he would have the nerve to ask such a thing. "Why should I let you in? You're all jack asses." She said coldly.

"We know," Neji said. It was the first time he had spoken. "You don't have to,"

Naruto kind of glared at him but then turned to Sakura. "We just wanted to really say we're sorry,"

"To each of you individually." Shikamaru finished. Sakura looked at each guy in turn, her eyes lingering on Gaara for just a couple seconds longer than the others. He gazed into her eyes as intensely as he could without letting the other guys notice. Sakura swallowed hard and looked back at the other girls. The all held the same pose, arms crossed, glares apparent. Sakura sighed. "Fine."

All the guys looked at her in shock and their moods seemed to lift as she opened the door to let them in. Sakura closed the door once they were all inside and they waited for her command. She only walked into the living room with the other girls. They hesitated a moment but then followed. All four girls were lounging on the couch, waiting for their explanation. Kankuro cleared his throat, and Naruto jumped. The blond made his way to the front.

"Hinata?" he asked quietly, looking at Hinata. The girl took some deep breaths and answered. "Yes?" Naruto chuckled nervously and asked, "Can I see you in the other room please?" Hinata looked questioningly at her friends, but they didn't have an answer. She gulped and stood, allowing Naruto to lead her into the room down the hall.

Once they were gone Ten Ten looked back at the guys and started to ask them what that was all about, but Neji spoke up before her. "Ten Ten?" she blinked at him. He motioned that he wanted to leave the over crowded room. She looked around and then to Sakura and Temari for support. Like before, they couldn't help her, so she stood and followed Neji out of the room.

Temari looked expectantly at Shikamaru, and he didn't even have to say anything. All he did was look at her and she stood, grumbling something that no one could understand. He led her out of the room. All that was left was Kiba, Kankuro, Gaara, and Sakura.

"Do I smell cookies?" Kankuro asked, eyeing the doorway to the kitchen. Sakura glared. "Yes and you're not getting any so forget it."

"Oh, ok." Kiba said a little sadly. Gaara arched an eyebrow at them but then looked at Sakura. She sat with her legs crossed and her arms folded across her chest. Like hell was he going to ask her permission for anything in front of the other guys. Gaara held out his hand to her.

Sakura cocked her head questioningly at his hand, but then sighed and took it. He pulled her to stand and led her into the kitchen, only because it was closer than the rooms down the hall.

Once they were gone Kiba grunted. "Dammit! They went into the kitchen." he said angrily. "I wanted a cookie!"

Gaara glared at the two guys still remaining in the living room. They caught his drift and headed out of the room. He turned back to Sakura, who was already sitting at the table. "Uhh, hey." He said stupidly.

She rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah, great explanation." Gaara fought back the urge to glare at her sarcasm. He sighed.

"Look, I'm sorry. I don't know what else to say." He said, placing the plastic bag on the counter and shoving his hands in his pockets. Sakura crossed her arms again.

"Why don't you tell me why you did that after this afternoon?" she demanded. He cringed but then regained his blank face.

"I don't know." He said shrugging. "We did it to the girls last time and we had a great time."

"Yes but you didn't sneak up behind them and pretend to be fucking kidnappers or robbers or something horrible like that!" Sakura said angrily. She stood up and had her fists clinched. "Last time they knew it was you! You don't know how fucking scared we were!"

She was breathing a little heavily now. Sakura couldn't tell, but Gaara was starting to feel a little concerned. Had they really scared them that bad? He watched Sakura walk across the room angrily, no doubt trying to distance herself from him. Damn, he had really messed up.

"Sakura we're sorry. We thought that we'd be laughing it off by now. We created this whole plan to come and apologize to you guys. We even got these."

He picked up the plastic bag off the counter and walked up to Sakura with it. He stopped a few feet in front of her and removed the bag from whatever it was covering. Sakura gasped.

It was a perfect pink cherry blossom (A/N surprise surprise! lol—it used to be a rose, but Athena's Guard reminded me that Sakura was cherry blossom. Oops, my bad. But whatever, cherry blossom is better right?). The petals had little droplets of water on them, as though the flower had just been saved from a rain shower. He handed it to her, and she took it hesitantly.

"I still feel the same way I did this afternoon, and I'm really sorry. I hope I didn't screw things up." He said quietly (A/N omg, who knew Gaara could be so romantic? XO OOC!!). Sakura touched the petals of the cherry blossom delicately. She sighed.

"No, you didn't." she leaned closer and rested her head on his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. "Where the heck did you get a cherry blossom at nearly two a.m.?" she asked.

"Thank God for Wal-Mart, right?"

Sakura giggled into his shirt. She looked up into his face and gave him a small kiss. They heard voices in the living room, and looked up to see the couples reentering, as well as Kiba and Kankuro. Gaara reluctantly released Sakura and she found a vase to put her blossom in before they both walked into the living room.

Hinata was standing shyly next to Naruto, holding a white lily. Shikamaru was smirking as Temari was holding onto his arm with a grin on her face. In her right hand she was clutching a handful of beautiful daisies. Ten Ten was standing next to Neji, blushing. She held two carnations; one white, one purple. All the girls looked at Sakura, who didn't have a flower. They looked at her with pity, thinking she hadn't received one. Gaara just stood there.

The room was silent until a timer suddenly went off. All the girls jumped, suddenly remembering the cookies. Kiba had already guessed what it was. "Now can I have a cookie?" he asked.

All the girls giggled and they went into kitchen. After a few minutes they returned carrying two plates of cookies. The guys raised their eyebrows at the ugly things piled on the plates.

"On second thought, I'd rather not have one," Kiba said, looking questioningly at the repulsive looking things. Sakura laughed. "Oh just eat one!" she said, handing him a cookie. "They're good." He stared at the ugly cookie but then threw it across the room to Kankuro. "Here Kankuro, you can have the first one."

Kankuro shook his head and threw it to Shikamaru, who didn't even say anything and only passed it to Neji. Neji looked at it unsurely but then passed it to Naruto. The blonde held it away from his face. "I don't want to eat it!" he said loudly, making all the girls glare at him. Gaara rolled his eyes and said, "You dip shits."

He took the cookie out of Naruto's hand and bit into it. He was surprised at how good it tasted, and finished it quickly. Everyone but Sakura was staring at him in pure shock. "What?" he asked.

"Gaara!" Temari gasped. "I don't think I've ever seen you eat a cookie before!" All the others nodded. Gaara rolled his eyes and took another cookie. He chucked it at Kiba's head. "Ow!" Kiba voiced, rubbing his head. "What was that for?"

Gaara shrugged. "You said you wanted a cookie. Just eat it already." Kiba glared at him and picked up the cookie lying beside him. "Geez fine." He said. He brushed off the cookie and ate it. All the girls crossed their arms as he swallowed and looked at them in shock.

"They're awesome!"

"Told you so."

"Sorry," he said, taking another cookie and eating it in two bites. The other guys tried the cookies too and immediately liked them. Everyone sat down. The order around the room was: Naruto, Hinata, Sakura, Kiba, Ten Ten, Neji, Gaara, Temari, Shikamaru, and Kankuro. All the guys were secretly wondering why Gaara and Sakura weren't sitting next to each other. They also wondered why she didn't have the cherry blossom. Had she not accepted Gaara's apology? Surely she did, or else she would still be acting angry. They decided to say nothing and ask Gaara later. Soon chat arose.

"You girls look good!" Kiba said loudly. All the girls realized they were still dressed from their game. Hinata immediately became embarrassed and hugged herself.

"Oh shut up!" Ten Ten said blushing.

"Yeah, all you guys are jerks!" Temari said. She tried to look serious, but a smirk was tugging at her lips.

"I think Sakura looks especially good." Kankuro said, arching an eyebrow. Gaara glared at him and Sakura blushed.

"Well…yeah…but the other girls look pretty too…especially Hinata!" Naruto said. The poor girl instantly blushed redder than her fishnet shirt.

Neji glared at the blonde then looked at Ten Ten. "You look great." He said quietly, though the whole room could hear him. Ten Ten blinked at him in surprise, because she couldn't remember the last time she had received an actual complement from Neji. She blushed a dark pink. Some of the other guys wolf-whistled them. Neji glared at them. "Shut up!" he said angrily.

"Well hey, what about me?" Temari asked angrily with her arms crossed. Shikamaru smirked.

"You look sexy." He said.

Kankuro and Gaara blinked a bunch then glared at Shikamaru. Temari blushed slightly and gave him a big grin. She pulled him into a bone crushing hug.

"Let me go!" he practically gasped. Temari giggled and released him. He rolled his eyes. "God, you're so troublesome sometimes." Temari shrugged. "Hey, do guys like our hair?"

"Yes!" Naruto said. "I really like Hinata's blonde streaks!" Hinata blushed and smiled triumphantly to the others girls who only rolled their eyes.

"Twenty's hair is pretty cool, too. I like it better than last time." Kankuro said.

"Thanks," she said but then her expression changed. "And what was wrong with my hair last time?" Then her expression changed yet again, this time to anger. "And dammit Kankuro, don't call me Twenty!" They all laughed at her slow brain on that one.

"Temari's is cool." Kiba said. "I like how it gets darker like that," Shikamaru put in. Temari tried to pull him into another hug, but this time he was able to scramble away just in time.

"Sakura's is awesome." Kiba said, grinning at her (Gaara glared at him too). Everyone looked at Sakura's pink, blonde, red, dark red, and black locks. She blushed. "Yeah, who did her hair?" Neji asked. All the guys rolled their eyes. They all knew Ten Ten had done her hair. Neji just wanted an excuse to talk to her again. Ten Ten blushed and said, "Me."

"You did good." Neji said smirking at her. She smiled and blushed harder.

"Yeah when you guys are alone you become completely different people!" Naruto said, hands comfortably behind his head in his friendly pose. All the guys' hearts stopped when the girls arched their eyebrows at the blonde. Each guy was having his own personal battle with himself, trying to restrain from strangling the stupid fox boy. All five of them had the same things running through their minds. That stupid air headed idiot secret-letting-outing dumb ass dip shit! Naruto suddenly realized his mistake had had the wonderful idea of changing the subject.

"Hey Gaara!"

"What?"

"Say cookie again!"

"Why?"

"Just do it!"

"No."

"Aww, please?"

"No."

"Just once?"

"…"

"Just once! Just say cookie!"

"Why?"

"Just say it already!"

-sigh- "…cookie…"

Every one burst out laughing, except Gaara.

"What the hell?"

"It's funny to hear you say cookie!"

(-.-) "Why?"

"Because you're Gaara. Gaara doesn't say stuff like 'cookie'."

"hn."

"See? That's usually your whole vocabulary."

"Shut up."

"And that. That's you're vocabulary. 'hn' and 'shut up'. And maybe 'shut the fuck up'. You'll probably say that next right?"

"Grr!"

"Oh yeah, and growling. Does growling count as talking?"

(Sakura) "I don't know. I asked him that once. He almost pushed me out of the tree."

"No I didn't!"

"I was kidding Gaara."

"Shut up you guys! Hinata's asleep!" Naruto said. It was true. They looked over to see Hinata asleep on Naruto's shoulder, who in turn was looking at her fondly. They weren't sure how she had fallen asleep so quickly, because she had been awake just about thirty seconds ago. They all silently decided that poor quiet Hinata just wasn't hard core enough to stay up so late. She would've passed out sooner or later. Naruto smiled caringly and carefully adjusted his position so that Hinata could be a little more comfortable. Sakura smiled at the two and Neji glared at them, but remained seated. Sakura stood up and took the lily lying next to Hinata. She took it to the kitchen and put it in the vase with her cherry blossom. They continued talking, except a little quieter. Everyone was finally becoming sleepy, except Gaara. It was already nearly three a.m. After a while, everyone started drifting off to sleep.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------olly: alright, maybe its not the best chapter i've written but at least thres no cliff hangers.

gaara and others: you made us seem all sappy! and...and sad! and...

olly: and i know it was really OOC. sorry bout that guys. R&R please!