Reviewers:

Kzzzzzzzz: Kzzz, you REALLY think a Tramatized woman and an oblivious man would WILLINGLY confess to the other? Are you MAD?! ...Well...nt a bad idea...I'll think on it

BirdManJohn: Aww John! You trying to cause me to have a meltdown?! Naw, you aren't the first and many people have liked the saucy parts. I really try to make it integral to my stories.

AN: So everyone! Someone suggested what I write isn't romance, but Erotic romance, where the sexual stuff is integral to the story. I never thought about my stories like that, but wow! This one sure is!

On another note, I'm debating about putting my stories on Amazon or something. OF COURSE, I would work to take out any copyright, but I've had enough of you telling me that the characters are almost their own people. Would any of you buy them? Curious to see how many would be interested if I did such a thing.

I mean, I DO have two published books through small publishing houses, but I want to show ALL the sides of me, you know? Anyway, let me know what you all, thing.

Glazed Emeralds: A Hallmark Story

Chapter 22: Summer Festival

Up in her room, Ino was just putting on the final addition to her look. She leaned forward, her black skirt rising up as her purple blouse with golden flecks shined in the mirror in front of her, and dabbed the last line of mascara around her eyes.

Ino smiled at her completed look, sending air kisses to her mirrored self and smiling wide. "You are beautiful." She spoke to herself, before heading out the door and down her back staircase.

After closing her door, she stepped out onto the street and began to move hastily down the boardwalk of shops and businesses that she had grown up around all her life, gliding across the ground in her thigh high boots.

Ino looked forward and widened her eyes in glee and took off in a short sprint towards the pair ahead of her, joining them as they were heading to the same place.

"Naruto! Sakura!" She called out, and the two paused to wait for her, the girl's arm tightly intertwined with the boy's. Ino came to a stop before them and twirled before striking a pose.

"Naruto, how do I look?"

Naruto smiled and nodded his head. "You look very pretty, Ino."

Ino giggled as she moved to join them on their walk. "Just pretty? Nothing…more?"

Naruto smiled at the temptation. "If I said more, then Sakura would hit my arm." To emphasize the point, Sakura gripped it tighter as they walked down an old road, turning off the main street, onto a worn avenue that was surrounded on both sides by forest.

"What was that, Sakura?" Ino cocked her head as they moved into the trees themselves. "You were muttering."

Sakura puffed her cheeks out, annoyance easily marking her face. "Naruto called me pretty too."

"Ooh!" Ino hissed, before shaking her head towards her blond companion. "Naruto, you can't do that."

"Why not?"

"Well you two are….um...closer!" Ino chirped at the end, pushing a little further ahead.

Meanwhile, Naruto stopped and looked Sakura over, as Sakura pressed her chest out against her tight red top, her breasts encircling his arm, leaving her stomach bare until her own black skirt and boots came into view. Naruto was about to say they looked similar until he looked closer and noticed a small headband in Sakura's hair, with a small bow. It was so simple and yet...

"Beautiful…"

Ino grinned wide ahead of them, and Sakura embarrassingly blushed as they continued forward, Naruto's arm moved to rest around her waist, as she snuggled into his chest. "So, why are you two wearing those outfits again?"

Instead of speaking, the two pulled him out of the trees and Naruto widened his eyes as after the quarter mile of road, before them was a nice school, relatively modern looking versus the traditional look of the town. It was about two stories tall, and surrounded by a wall and gates around it and what seemed to be a huge ancient park from time gone by all around it. "I haven't been here before."

"It only has the purpose of being a school and park." Ino told him as they moved around the wall. "All the kids from the county come to school here. We even have that small dorm over there for the ones who don't want to travel twenty miles a day."

"Dang...Konoha is so large. And the park?"

"It's for… weddings mostly." Sakura shyly cut in, and Ino smiled, remembering their talk a few days ago about love and romance.

"Oh!" Naruto jumped as people came into view, and lights began to be lit in the evening hours. All around him, people dressed in black, but with various single colors for shirts and tops. Large lanterns and lights covered the area above the open square in front of the school and a few areas had tables and benches to sit and eat at, with some twelve and thirteen aged students playing their instruments in the background.

"I'm going to check out Shikamaru!" Ino called out as she ran off, leaving the two of them alone.

"It really is a summer festival." Sakura heard Naruto say and rolled her eyes.

"What did you expect?" She giggled.

"Well...I didn't expect anything I guess, but the atmosphere seems really nice."

Sakura smiled warmly and pulled him closer. "Just as a background and because you'll ask me again if I don't answer you, everyone you see has what we call their family color on."

"But Chouji over there has red just like you." Naruto retorted, pointing the large man out.

Sakura scoffed. "Families can have similar colors, Naruto. Mine is just er…lighter…"

Naruto grinned wide. "What would my color be?"

Sakura looked over, her eyes tracing over his taut body in his nice shirt and shivered as she got to his eyes. "…Orange."

Naruto snorted. "What? No way."

Sakura leaned in close, scraping her fingers through his hair. "Your eyes are like the ocean...your hair is the sun….I just feel orange suits you."

Sakura pushed up, and left a burning kiss on his cheek, and Naruto smiled. "Well. When you put it that way, orange it is."

"So then...what should we do first?"

After having a nice long chat with Shikamaru, Ino grinned from the periphery as darkness fully enveloped them, the moon barely shining down on them tonight. Only the lanterns and the huge roaring bonfire in the middle provided sight, but Ino slid across the grass to stand beside Naruto.

"Did you enjoy the culture stuff, Naruto?"

Naruto smiled and nodded. "Yeah. You really learn about a town and such from these things."

"It's the town's roots. They matter greatly to the people, and remind us of our heritage."

"Well said, Ms. Mayor." Naruto chuckled as Ino grinned. "So...You were really a ninja, huh?"

Ino giggled, the school mascot painted across from them on the wall. Ino rubbed her arm to keep herself warm. "Born and raised. Hey uh? Do me a favor?"

"Sure. What do you need?"

"See Sakura over there?" Ino asked, pointing down aways to a group of gaggling girls, with Sakura in the middle of them.

"Yeah?"

"Can you ask her to dance? She always has trouble finding a partner for the next one."

Naruto smiled and nodded rapidly. "Yeah! I'll ask her now."

As he moved away, Ino smiled haughtily. "Go get him, Sakura."

Meanwhile, Sakura laughed at something Hinata and Tenten were talking about, just idly standing when a throat cleared before them. Sakura turned to madly blush as Naruto over exaggerated his arm as he swept it through the air towards her.

"May I have this dance?"

"Oh my god!"

"Kawaii!"

Sakura blushed terribly as the girls around her parted, leaving her bare to the onslaught of emotions racing through her heart. "D-did you just bow?"

Naruto chuckled. "Too much?"

Sakura looked around them and shook her head, accepting his hand. "No. It's just...nevermind." Sakura smiled bashfully as they walked out towards the bonfire as the music died, and once they were standing, Naruto slid his hand to her waist and she brought her hands around his neck.

She grinned sourly. "Ino asked you to ask me, right? Just before the song ended?"

"Yeah. Why?"

Sakura smiled, defeated, and silently counted to five before slow music began to play and only two by twos of people began to dance slowly around them.

"This is a couples dance." Sakura whispered with a blush, as they began to sway back and forth to the soft chords of the violin. "Every year, I get asked as a courtesy as all the others are spoken for."

Naruto turned his gaze to Shikamaru, a twinge of jealousy peeking out. "You were dancing with Shikamaru earlier. You seemed mighty comfortable with him."

Sakura blanked as they paused in place and then kept moving with a fit of giggles sounding out of her mouth. "That's because I know he'd never go for me, Naruto."

"Why not?" Naruto muttered back. The distance between them allowing whispers to sound like normal speaking. "...You're breathtaking."

Sakura leaned in, sneaking a kiss as he twirled her, her heart slipping at his compliment. "He and Ino are a total thing, like a package deal."

"You mean," Naruto wondered, "I never had a shot with her when I got here?"

Sakura smiled and nodded. "No shot whatsoever. They have a promise...that if they're both single at thirty, they'll marry each other, which is practically an engagement when they don't try to date anyone."

"They fuck from time to time, maybe like once a month." Sakura commented as she looked up to see Naruto gapping at her, and shrugged. "It's not that big a deal, Naruto. The whole town knows."

"What? How could they-"

"Small community." Sakura shrugged again.

As Naruto pulled her closer and twisted them around in a circle, Naruto gulped at a disturbing thought. "Then they know about us?"

Naruto looked down and at her widening silent smile, he sighed in utter defeat. "Oh god. I didn't think a small town would gossip like that. What do they say about us? What we're doing? What about- ah man." Naruto groaned with a raging blush on his ears. "The guys razzed me a while on that when we hung out. I didn't think that they actually knew."

Sakura giggled and snuggled closer as the tempo dropped and pressed her face into his chest. "That's why I love it here...everyone is so transparent...everyone is honest, and brave, and caring…" Sakura frowned into her lover's shirt before looking back up at his eyes. "...But everyone has their secrets."

Naruto leaned into her, pressing his forehead against her own. "What's your secret?"

Sakura balked. Her heart raced and her throat was suddenly dry. 'I'm in love with you.' Her mind yelled, no screamed, at him. That's all it would take for him to know the real her. Ino had set this up, she had to take the chance! But instead, she smiled back and laughed. "I haven't even known you for a month, Naruto! You can't know everything in my life! Why? What's your secret?"

Sakura watched as Naruto blushed deeply and looked away. Sakura smiled sadly, clenching her heart. 'Way to deflect, Sakura.' She thought miserably to herself, but she wasn't ready. She only just found out her feelings. She wasn't ready to speak the words. But words and actions are a funny thing, as she found out next.

Sakura snuggled even closer than before, as Naruto's hands grasped at her waist just above her ass, and she grinned, knowing just where he wanted to touch her if not in public. "Don't worry Naruto...I'm not looking for another dance partner." Sakura grinned and turned her face to plant a kiss onto his neck. "I've already found the one for me."

Hearing her words made Naruto blush terribly. Such a stupid thing to ask her! Deepest darkest secret after two weeks?! What was wrong with him? He couldn't even speak his own secret. But her saying those other words...not needing another dance partner...this was a couple's dance?

Naruto turned a deeper shade of red. They were just fooling around! They weren't… Naruto's thoughts of denial ebbed and faltered as he glanced around the bonfire, holding Sakura by the waist as they slowly spun around. All the other couples were doing the same, and all the faces around the fire were ones of smirks and knowing looks. Naruto mentally shrugged. They probably did look like a couple right now...was Sakura okay with that impression?

Naruto saw Ino off a ways smiling at them and looked down as Sakura gazed back up. "Hey Sakura, if this is a couple's dance...why did you say yes?"

Sakura blushed a terrible red hot and embarrassment turned into a weak anger. "I-it's rude to say no, you know!" She lied with a massive blush, before looking away. She couldn't tell him that she had wanted him to ask her all evening.

Sakura looked down as they side stepped back and forth along the dirt. She'd been blushing too much; she'd been saying things that were too close to her heart. She didn't want Naruto to find out she'd started to love him. Wasn't it too soon? Sakura thought this as they slowly danced into the night, until the song ended and they were allowed to leave.

Next chapter will follow this up, so stay tuned.