Finally updated!

LOTS of thanks to my lovely BETA Twinkletoast, really, she might be the reason this chapter is here right now!

Enjoy,
Springflake

That Monday Sakura returned to school with a happy feeling that seemed to have nestled itself inside of her stomach ever since the previous Friday afternoon. Everyone was used to her being in an almost unhealthy bad mood every Monday morning, resulting in not only she but most of the student body finding themselves surprised at the way the pink haired sophomore seemed to float through the hallways, the sheepish grin not once leaving her face.

To the rest of the students, though, this was a Monday like every other one. The end of an amazing, short weekend and the beginning of an unbearably boring, long week. In fact, the only thing stopping them from just walking out of the classroom and taking the rest of the week off was the sun colouring the hours a bright yellow and - more importantly - the promise of the long, well-deserved summer break that would kick in after this week. Just five more days, and they'd be free to do whatever they wanted to.

The first three periods had flown by and before Sakura knew it, she found herself standing in front of her locker, surrounded by groups of chattering teenagers. She looked around, her smile faltering for a moment when she realized she had no idea where her friends were. Then the sound of a familiar snarling voice caught her attention.

Karin!

Sakura snapped her head around. She caught sight of the tall redhead talking to a somewhat nerdy-looking junior, her friend (Or enemy - Sakura still wasn't sure about that) Suigetsu looking back and forth between the two. He looked amused. Even though Karin appeared to be snapping at the nerdy-looking boy repeatedly, the crooked smile on the junior's zit-covered face didn't waver. Sakura decided to listen to their conversation.

''Where have you been all my life?'' squeaked the junior. Sakura felt a shiver running up her spine at that sappy, overused line.

''Hiding from you.'' Karin answered snippily, crossing her arms at him. Sakura snickered silently, but just loud enough for Karin to hear. The redhead caught her gaze and threw her a grateful look. ''Oh, look, somebody I don't want to kick in the crotch. I'll be seeing you guys again. Or, you know, not.''

''What was that about?'' Sakura asked with a sheepish grin when Karin had stomped her way over to the girl.

''Can you believe what fucking Jaws did?'' Karin questioned, but before Sakura could answer she continued talking, ''He promised that fugly mathlete that he'd get him a date with me if he tutored Suigetsu in math. That bastard!'' she placed a hand on her forehead in attempt to calm down. ''Like hell I'm going to dump my reputation down the drain like that. Well, not that I have a reputation- I mean, I do, but 'gangster bitch' isn't exactly what people usually mean when they're talking about reputations.''

Karin stopped her rambling and gave the smaller girl a strange look. Sakura shrugged, still smiling.

''Should I be concerned?'' the redhead arched an eyebrow.

''Psh no,'' Sakura replied with a wave of her hand. ''Don't be silly, everything's oooo-kay.''

''Wait- I know that look,'' the redhead said then, completely forgetting about Suigetsu for a moment. She didn't buy her friend's denial in the least. ''You wear it around Naruto! Did something happen?''

''Well, I-''

''Spill, honey!''

Sakura looked around for any unwanted eavesdroppers and then stood on tip-toes to whisper a quick summary of last Friday's events into Karin's ear.

When she had finished her story and leaned back, she was taken aback by the huge grin on her friend's pale face. She could see Karin was struggling to find something to say but then gave up and just gave Sakura a forceful pat on the shoulder, before letting out a girlish squeak she immediately tried to mask by coughing into her fist. ''That guy,'' the crimson haired girl started when she felt like she had regained control over her enthusiasm once more, ''is totally into you!''

''What?'' Sakura giggled.

''I heard that he doesn't kiss girls very often. Like, he does flirt and things, but he just thinks kissing is something special!''

Several feet up the hallway, Naruto came strolling out of the canteen innocently, planning on taking the books for his next class out of his locker. He had just spoken to his friends about summer break, which would start next week. It was official now. He and his friends would go to Ino's summer home in Europe. He could almost feel the summer enthusiasm running through his veins. The pressure of school being lifted off his shoulders. When this week was over, there was officially nothing for him to worry about. He upgraded - barely, but still - and then all that was left for him was to enjoy the summer (which was always kind of endless in Konoha. Long summers, short, snow-less winters.) If only Friday would come just a little bit faste-

''He's totally into you!''

Naruto jumped up in shock, losing his coordination long enough to bump into a locker leaning against the wall. ''Fuck,'' he muttered, rubbing his nose. He glared at the person that had startled him from the corner of his eyes for a few seconds until it finally dawned on him who she was. Karin, Sakura's friend.

Something didn't add up to him. Wasn't she normally, you know, notweird?

''You're just being silly,'' a voice replied. The person it belonged to was shielded by Karin, standing tall on her high heeled boots as always. The redhead moved to the side so now some pink hair and a flash of red clothing was visible to Naruto. Sakura.

He arched an eyebrow when he noticed how his heart skipped a beat when he thought of her name. Shit, was he always this- this cheesy?

Naruto was about to turn around and go to his locker (like he had meant to before he was distracted) when he caught his name.

''Naruto would never try to kiss you if he didn't want to.''

'Shit!'

They were talking about Friday afternoon!

Naruto quickly decided he wasn't curious for the rest of the conversation between the two girls and scampered away into the direction of his locker. After he had opened it, though, he found his thoughts drift off again. To Friday.

He still had no clue what had happened that afternoon or what had brought him to actually try to kiss Sakura. Sakura! The girl he was supposed to crush! The girl he had been sure he hated, no more than a month ago!

But... A lot had happened in a month. He was sure he didn't hate Sakura anymore. She was actually quite... Attractive in a way. And fun to be with.

Naruto fished a crumpled piece of paper out of his jeans pocket and unfolded it. 'Debutante Ball' was written in the upper right corner.

'You are invited to the Debutante Ball, held in the Konoha Theatre this year... Blah, blah, blah...'Naruto read quietly. He'd already read the letter a few times before. For what had to be the at least the fifteenth time, he felt his eyes being dragged to the last sentence of the letter.

'You are welcome to bring a guest.'

A guest...

Unwillingly, he found his mind wander off to Sakura once more.

The ball would take place in only two days, leaving almost no time at all for him to think of whether he would invite Sakura. Not that he really had a choice, to be honest. He'd promised Sakura he would take her if she gave him dancing lessons, after all.

A part of him wanted to just forget about the entire ball thing, so he wouldn't have to deal with it getting even harder to tell Sakura what the reason was he had wanted to befriend her. Another part of him wanted to take Sakura to the ball just to have an excuse to be close to her again. To sweep her off her feet, and give her that look in her eyes she always had whenever she was happy.

But he knew that would only make it harder for him to tell her the truth.

Honestly, even thinking of telling her how he had planned on hurting her gave Naruto a sickening feeling in his gut. Like he was going to throw up. He was sure he couldn't do it. He just couldn't.

And Friday- well, he didn't even want to think about what could have happened. They'd just had so much fun, and she'd looked so amazing...

But he was sure that, if he could do it over, he would've never tried to do something as stupid as kiss her. No way.

Right?

'There must be a reason why you've been avoiding her all day,'a tiny voice in his head sang. He ignored it.

Fed up with the direction his train of thoughts was going, Naruto tiredly ran a hand through his spikes and slammed his locker shut. He jumped slightly when he noticed a person standing next to him. She had previously been shielded from his view by the door of his locker.

''Shit! Ino! Hey!'' Naruto yelled, to which Ino teasingly put two fingers in her ears.

''A bit louder, please. I think a few people in the Whirlpool country might not have heard you," she tittered in that squeaky voice of hers.

''You scared the shit outta me!'' Naruto replied, crossing his arms.

''At least I got your attention, didn't I?''

''Didn't we talk like five minutes ago?'' he asked the blonde, wondering what she could want to talk about that couldn't be discussed with the rest of their friends around. He realized it a bit too soon, in his opinion.

Sakura.

''You know what I want to talk about,'' Ino said, leaning back against the cold metal of the line of lockers. She was wearing one of those tops that were short enough for everyone to be able to see her belly-button. Naruto guessed some guys could find it sexy. He wasn't one of them. All his life he had been strangely unaffected by Ino's charms. Maybe that was why they were such good friends.

He nodded.

''So, how's it going?''

''How's what going?'' Naruto questioned when nothing more intelligent came to mind.

''You and Forehead's relationship, dummy!'' At the word 'relationship', Ino flicked her index and middle fingers at him, indicating 'relationship' really wasn't an accurate word for the current situation. Naruto thought she was wrong. ''I haven't talked to you about it for at least two weeks. I was starting to think you were avoiding the subject.'' The blonde giggled, twirling a lock around her finger. Naruto let out a strained laugh.

''Well, I've just been busy. But- err-'' What was he so scared of? Why couldn't he just tell his friend he wasn't going through with the deal? He opened his mouth and closed it. Open. Close. Open. Close.

''What's wrong, cat got your tongue?'' Ino asked him, growing impatient now. She crossed her arms. Naruto took a deep breath and prepared to tell the truth.

''I just wanted to tell you everything's going fine. Sakura's definitely falling for me,'' was what popped out of his mouth instead, though. Mentally, Naruto stomped himself.

His blatant lie seemed to satisfy Ino, though, who clapped her hands together excitedly. ''About time! Well done, Naru!'' She prepared to walk away, but then stopped in her tracks. ''Wait- I wanted to ask you something else...'' Naruto motioned for her to keep on talking. ''Has she, you know, ever badmouthed me?''

If Naruto had somehow known what Ino thought, he would have known Ino was trying to soothe her conscience by finding out whether she had a reason - a real reason - to dislike the girl.

He crushed her hopes immediately by replying, ''Huh? I don't think so. Why?''

Ino stood frozen for less than a second. ''Okay- Well, er, I'll be seeing you around.''

He watched his friend disappear through the main doors, pondering over where her last question had come from. Naruto turned around, only to instantly bump into somebody that was at least an entire head shorter than him.

''N-n-naruto! Hello!'' Sakura stuttered, taking a few steps back.

''Oh, hey- er... What's up?''

''I was just- err-'' Sakura started, wondering where the cloud of happiness she had been surrounded by the whole day had gone all of a sudden. She was so... So nervous! ''What were you talking about with Ino? I could have sworn I heard my name...''

Naruto turned his face away from her and started fidgeting with the strap of his bag. ''Yeah, we were talking about- um...'' he trailed off, wondering what he could tell Sakura that wouldn't make her suspicious. Because she wasn't stupid. Her friend and the girl that had bullied her talking about something involving her- how big was the chance they had said something Sakura didn't need to be suspicious about?

Well, pretty small.

All too aware of the fact that it was taking him a bit too long to answer - and the fact that Sakura noticed, too - Naruto crumpled the paper in his clenched fist even further.

The paper!

''I was just telling her that I wanted to take you to the Debutante Ball tomorrow, like I promised,'' he finished finally, flashing her his sexiest smirk. And just like he hoped, this news made Sakura happy enough to forget about how hard he'd had to try to come up with this reply.

''Oh my gosh! Naruto, are you serious?'' she gasped, putting her hands over her mouth.

''Well, yeah, I promised, didn't I?''

All awkwardness seemed to have vanished. Well, until Sakura leaped towards Naruto, attempting to pull him into a hug, and they both, instead of moving their heads on each side of the other's, managed to both choose the same side and their foreheads collided painfully. They jumped back, each clenching their forehead.

''Ow, fuck!'' Naruto hissed.

''I'm sorry, I was kinda... Rash, wasn't I?''

''Oh, no, it's perfectly normal to bash somebody's head in with your own on impulse,'' the blonde growled sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

''Like I meant to, I hurt my own forehead too, you know. How masochistic do you think I am?'' Sakura cracked a smile, giving him a playful punch on the shoulder. Her sentence, though, was cut in half by the sharp ringing of the school bell.