“Hey Sakura, Sasuke, do you have anything planned for next week?” Naruto asked one day at the Ichiraku Ramen Bar.

“Hmm… I don’t think so. If I finish my assignment from Tsunade-sama early, I think my whole week is empty. Do you have anything planned, Sasuke-kun?” Sakura asked.

Sasuke was as quietly emo as ever, so Naruto took that as a no.

"Alright, good, because I booked all of the Konoha 12 and the Sand Siblings a room in the Konoha Bay for a party next week since the senseis are all gone!”

“Are you serious?!” Sakura yelled, “The KB is the most famous amusement park in all of the Land of Fire!”

“Yeah, I know, but the granny who kept loosing her cat is friends with the park owner, so every time she lost her cat, she gave us three free tickets to the Bay from her friend!”

“Cool… wait, why didn’t we know about this whole ticket thing?!” Sakura shouted.

“Well, I was supposed to give them to you, but… the thing is…” Sakura and Sasuke hit Naruto on the head before he could explain anything.

“Just meet my in front of my apartment room on Sunday at 7:00, okay?” The blond ninja asked weakly, “And bring your bathing suit, goggles, and enough clothes for eight days, just in case.”

“Humph, I’m bringing my weapons anyway.” Sasuke said.

“Good idea Sasuke. In fact, I’ll tell everyone to bring theirs,” agreed Sakura.

“There’s no use to bring them, really. Oh well, if Sasuke says something’s okay, then I say its fine, too.” Sakura thought to herself.

“Fine, do whatever you want. Can you just tell all of the other Konoha 12 about it, Sakura? I know that Sasuke won’t do anything…” Again, Sakura punched Naruto on the head.

“Then I’ll find the Sand Siblings… If I knew where they were, it would be much easier though…” Naruto complained while tending to his third wound in the past ten minutes.

The pink-haired ninja told Naruto, “Well, I know that they’re coming to Tsunade-sama’s mansion after their A-rank escort.”

“Cool thanks… Wait, how come they get an A-rank?! None of them are advanced enough!”

“Relax, Naruto,” Sakura said, “Baki’s bringing them to Fire territory and do you really think the Sand council wouldn’t trust them when they have that murderous Gaara?”

After paying Old Man Teuchi, they went their separate ways, Naruto running off to the Hokage’s mansion, Sakura catching up with Tenten as she was walking by, and Sasuke going off to sulk some place else.

Naruto ran up the steps of the mansion, not wanting to miss the Sand Siblings. His instincts told him that they were close. Gaara’s murderous intent was near… nearer… nearer… nearer… It was so close that the sand-user could have been right around the next flight of stairs. Which he was. However, Naruto did not know that and would’ve crashed into him if not for Gaara’s sand.

“Hey brat, watch where you’re going,” said an angered Kankuro.

“What did you just call me?!” Naruto shot back while on the ground, repelled by Gaara’s sand shield.

“Hey, hey, break it up.” Temari told both of them, “We can get in trouble if we aren’t in Suna, so zip it, Kankuro.”

“Man that kid’s lucky Temari’s here,” thought the puppet user, “Or else I would’ve used my Black Secret Technique One Shot on him…”

“Kankuro, it’s obvious you want to hurt Naruto with that murderous look in your eye, so don’t even think about it.” Gaara said without moving from his spot.

Naruto felt relieved and decided to take advantage of Gaara’s protection.

“Whoa, you’d better calm down, or else I won’t give you my little present…” Naruto said, purposely trying to provoke the puppet-user.

“Humph, like I care, punk.” Kankuro spat back.

“Okay, if you don’t really want them. I’ll just have to give these KB tickets to someone else then…” Naruto called as he went down the stairs, putting emphasis on the park initials.

A little sign went up in Temari’s head. She knew that KB stood for Konoha Bay, the best and most exciting amusement park in all the Land of Fire, well known even in the Land of Wind, which meant one of her idiot brothers probably just messed up, yet another, part of her life.

“Not if I can help it,” thought Temari.

The wind-user raised her giant fan, quickly bonked Kankuro on the head, and ran up to Naruto, who was taking his time down the steps, making sure the Sand Siblings could hear every step he took.

“Hey, Naruto, I know that Kankuro said he didn’t want the tickets, but that doesn’t mean you can exclude Gaara and me.”

The blonde boy turned around and gave Temari two of the three tickets.

“I was about to give these to Old Man Teuchi and Ayame-chan, but oh well! Are you sure Kankuro doesn’t want to come?” Naruto asked after seeing the disappointed expression on the puppet-user’s face.

“No, no, I want to come!” yelled Temari’s eldest brother.

“Well,” Naruto said teasingly, waving the ticket in front of his face, “I guess you should’ve thought of that before you called me a brat and a punk, huh?”

Kankuro grumbled. He usually wouldn’t stoop down to this level for just one ticket, but this was a very special ticket.

“Alright, alright, I’m sorry. Happy?”

“That’s much better! Here’s your ticket!” Naruto handed him the last ticket and told them, “Meet me outside my apartment, that’s number 213 of the ones with the big sign over there, on Sunday at 7:00! Make sure to bring enough clothes for eight days even though we’re only going for a week, a swimming suit, goggles, and you can bring your weapons if you want! Okay, see you!”

And with that, he jumped out of a nearby window and started running to his apartments.

“Wow that kid’s weird, huh Temari?” Kankuro asked his sister. Or rather, he would’ve asked his sister if his siblings hadn’t already started walking up the stairs without him.

“Hey, hey, that’s not nice!” The puppet-user yelled after Temari and Gaara.

“And your point is…” Temari called over her shoulder without stopping.