When the bell rang, Sakura resisted the urge to jump up and sprint for the door. Instead, she tried her best to calmly close her book and place it back in her bag. She then proceeded to swing the same bag over her shoulder and walk to Ino's desk.

All without looking at Sasuke.

Step 1, ignore him as much as possible…

"Pig you ready?" She asked leaning on her desk. She looked up at Sakura with her big blue eyes as she turned from a bored looking Shikamaru.

"Oh! Hi Shika-kun!" Sakura chirped.

The lazy genius just nodded his head with a slight smile on his face. Sakura felt Hinata shyly slide up behind her as she patiently waited for Ino to finish packing.

"Kami! Hurry up you slow pig!"

She growled, "A lady never rushes."

"Yeah well these two ladies have psychology with Ibuki-sensei and we can't be late!" Sakura hissed back at her.

Hinata shook her head, "You two bicker more than you work together."

Ino and Sakura looked at Hinata with an insulted expression.

"Have you never heard of keep your enemies close, and your friends closer?" Ino asked with a finely raised eyebrow.

Sakura's jaw dropped, Shikamaru slapped his forehead, and Hinata shook her head.

"What?" Ino asked as we exited the classroom. Hinata and I looked at each other before I looked to Shikamaru.

"Should I tell her? Or do you…"

"You tell her please." He begged as his shoulder slouched. He took Ino's books from her and carried them before walking ahead to their second period psychology class. Which Sakura also had with Sasuke…

"Tell me what?"

The pinkette rolled her eyes, "The saying is keep your friends close and your enemies closer, pig."

Ino furrowed her eyebrows, "That's stupid. Why would any one of us want to keep Karin the cow more than 2 feet close to us?"

Hinata uncharacteristically let out a gasp of horror and paled more than I thought she could, "No. way. In. Fucking. Hell."

Ino and Sakura spun on Hinata. She never cursed. Never. It wasn't part of Hyuga heiress training. We were sure it was Hyuga law not to curse…

Sakura ignored the glaring freshman who pushed past them in the hall. They were obviously upset that the trio were blocking the hall way. As they stared at the curvy indigo haired teen, she seemed to be looking far past the two. She always had had eye sight better than the average human.

Sakura followed her gaze and gasped at the sight ahead of them. While a huge crowd was blocking most of it, their somewhat taller heels gave them the leverage they needed to see past the other teens.

There, surrounded by a huge crowd, stood Naruto Uzumaki. A tall, toned, tanned, golden blonde, cerulean eyed, and Hokage's son kissing Kiki Wasabi. An ugly brunette whose hair was dry and hard and had the ass of a cow with boobs as fake as balloons. She was pressed up against him and for his credit, he looked shocked and horrified.

But this was a sight far to devastating for Hinata to see. She had long since had a crush on the energetic blonde since 5th grade when he stood up for her and said her pearl eyes were awesome.

Hinata's thin hand covered her mouth as tears formed in her eyes. Sakura continued to glare at the sight with disgust. She barely heard Hinata run in the opposite direction with Ino behind her as she pushed past the crowd.

This two timing cheeky bastard! He asks Hinata out to ramen for Friday and yet he's kissing a mutant heffa?

Nah. Not in my house!

After Sakura effectively pushed through the crowd, she straightened her red top and white skinny jeans before looking at the two in front of her. Naruto seemed frozen in fear, but Sakura didn't didn't care.

She stomped toward them and pulled Kiki by her brown locks away from Naruto. Kiki screamed in outrage as Sakura pulled her back roughly and tossed her behind her. Sakura looked down at her ivory hands and found horrendous clumps of brown in between her fingers.

"Ew!" She yelled.

She turned to Naruto, her chopped locks tickling her cheeks as she glared at him. Sakura stepped closer to him before slapping his cheek. His horror filled blue eyes widened in pain before he jumped out of his skin. He continued to stumble backwards and hit the wall of lockers behind him. She refused to let the shit eating grin grow on her lips as she watched him growl and rub his face.

Sakura then turned to the crowd, "Show's over! Go on with your business!"

Immediately, everyone dispersed and Kiki's friends, Karin and Ami, helped her up and trudged toward the outside fountain.

Naruto grumbled something, "What the fuck happened?"

"You contracted herpes from a cow." Sakura deadpanned with her hands on her hips. She rolled her eyes as he wiped his tongue on his black shirt. She groaned and began to look for her handkerchief in her bag. Once she found the pale pink cherry blossom embroidered cloth Sakura handed it to him and growled as he wiped his tongue repeatedly.

"You better clean that before returning it to me."

"Yeah, no prob Saks." He promised as he stood up.

The two of them stood in an awkward silence as they both registered the fact that the halls were empty and the bell was going to ring.

"… Did… Hinata-chan see?" he asked cautiously.

Sakura sighed and nodded, "Unfortunately, yeah. She's probably crying right about now…"

Naruto's eyes widened before he clutched the pink shoulders, "I honestly didn't kiss her Sakura-chan! Kiki came up to me randomly saying something about ramen flavored gum… and I-I… she reached for her bag but then she spun around and planted herself on me."

Sakura looked up at the guy she thought of as her little brother, "I believe you."

He sighed in relief, "Thank Kami-"

"But it's not me you have to convince."

Naruto stopped halfway. He was about to say something but a loud RIIIIIING stopped him.

She adjusted her bag and sighed, Great. I'm late to psych… but I bet the girls are still in the bathroom.

She glanced at the long rows of ivy green lockers, yellow walls, granite tiled floor, and various sliding doors before looking back to Naruto.

"Go tell her what you just told me at lunch or something. And make your date with her twice as awesome than what you planned." Sakura ordered before walking in the direction of the nearest girls' bathroom to find her best friends.

Sakura left Naruto standing in the middle of the hall way clutching his binder with a serious and determined look on his face.

As she walked away from him, her eyes widened as Sasuke walked out of the men's room. His soft black gravity defying locks seemed to glisten for no reason. His tight navy blue v-neck caressed his muscles wonderfully as stuffed his hands in his pocket after adjusting his book bag. His onyx eyes registered her for a moment before a rare emotion of shock crossed his face. Sakura raised an eyebrow curiously before walking on as if she never saw him.

"Wait, Sakura!" Sasuke called.

She froze and turned her head toward him, "Hai?"

"… Are you ok?"

"Hai…"

"About last Saturday… was that what you really wanted to say?" he asked warily. He looked desperate.

Sakura repressed a gasp and blinked back the tears behind her eyes.

"... I uh I um, I hate your guts!"

"What if I did?" She asked faking nonchalance.

His eyes narrowed as if sensing her tension, "Really?"

She stiffly nodded, "If that's all…"

He in turn nodded before walking toward Naruto's direction.

She ignored the forlorn look on his face as she strode toward the girls' bathroom with urgency.

Ino and Hinata seemed calmed down as Hinata patted her wet eyes. When they saw Sakura, they huddled around her.

"Sa-sakura-chan?"

"Forehead?" Ino squeaked, "What's wrong? Why are you crying?"

I'm not crying…Sakura touched her cheeks and jerked at the warm salt tears cascading down her cheeks.

"*sniff* Pig! It's so hard! Romance is stupid!" Sakura cried out while sniffling.

"What's wrong forehead?"

Hinata's hand reached out for Sakura's own, "Saku? What happened?"

She let out a breath and rubbed around her eyes carefully thanking Kami for making waterproof mascara.

"Nothing. Nothing at all. Just releasing some stress! That's all! And Naruto's going to explain what happened just now later. So don't worry!"

Hinata nodded warily and Ino looked at Sakura with scrutinizing baby blue eyes as she flipped her platinum blonde ponytail.

'Really? Like really really? That's all? Just stress reliever?" she asked.

Sakura nodded, "Now let's go before Ibuki-sensei makes us write how the brain functions in a 5,000 word essay for being extra late."

"We could just cry for forgiveness…" Ino suggested.

Hinata raised an eyebrow, "i-I don't think that'll work."

"I agree! That man is known as the steel man for a reason! There's a rumor that he takes joy in watching little kids cry!" Sakura exclaimed as they walked out of the bathroom and past another hall of lockers.