Naruto looked at the letter Kakashi-sensei had mailed to him. According to it, Kakashi would be gone for a minimum of a week at a convention. Naruto didn’t know how to feel. He was sad that there wouldn’t be any more missions since there wasn’t any Jounin to accompany them. On the bright side, there wouldn’t be any Kakashi to tell him what to do or make him wake up early! Inspiration struck Naruto like Kakashi-sensei’s One Thousand Years of Pain Jutsu. He began planning out his idea on a piece of paper lying around his messy room. “This is going to be so sweet!” He thought to himself.

Sakura lay out on her bed, staring at her ceiling. There was nothing to do since Tsunade-sama was too busy with her mountains of paperwork to train her, and Kakashi was out at a convention. She’d called Ino that morning to see if she wanted to go the park, but she had been too busy helping her parents in their flower shop. Hinata almost went, but her father insisted on her training with Neji. Tenten wasn’t home, for some reason, so that crossed out all the kunoichi. The pink haired ninja eventually fell asleep with nothing to bother her.

Sasuke had already read the letter from Kakashi and had left to train. Not much to talk about!

Hinata let out a sad sigh. Kurenai had mailed Hinata a letter, similar to Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke’s, telling that the teacher would be gone for a week. This meant no missions, which led to more training with Neji and Father. Oh joy. Speaking of which, Neji, at that moment, knocked on his cousin’s door.

“Excuse me, Hinata-sama, but your father insists you train.” Neji said.

“I told Sakura-chan that I would go to the park with her, though!” Hinata explained.

“Your father won’t take no for an answer, I’m afraid.”

“Okay, I’m coming.” Hinata sighed reluctantly.

After hanging up with a sad Sakura, she left to train with Father.

Shino, unlike the others, was quite happy with Kurenai’s decision to leave. This meant some peace and quiet from his teammates. Hinata, he didn’t have to worry about, as she was almost awkwardly shy, the exact opposite of Kiba. Kiba was loud and, at sometimes, obnoxious. And paired with Akamaru’s barking, they got on his nerves at most times.

“More time for my bugs,” Shino thought to himself contently, “No time wasted finding earplugs.”

“Alright, Akamaru, let’s go!” yelled Kiba. They were going out for a day of soccer without a certain person getting mad at him because Akamaru scratched at that certain person’s bugs.

“Ruff!” happily barked Akamaru in return.

“At last, some time alone without Bug-boy telling me what to do!”

Kiba thought about this for a little, at least for what seemed to be a little. Akamaru was already at the gate, waiting impatiently for his master. At last, Akamaru got fed up, and peed on Kiba’s leg.

“Ah!!! What are you doing?!” yelled Kiba.

“Ruff!” happily barked Akamaru.

“Ah, more cloud-watching time,” thought Shikamaru as he lay on top of his house.

He was very happy with Asuma leaving. Choji probably wasn’t. The Nara chuckled. It didn’t need a genius with an I.Q. of over 200 to figure that out, considering Asuma always treated the team to barbeque after training.

“I wonder how Choji’s doing right about now. He’s probably… no wait… maybe… Hold on! What are you doing?!” Shikamaru thought, “This is your break! No thinking allowed during break! The only concentrating you’re doing is on the clouds!”

After mentally arguing with himself, Shikamaru took a deep breath and continued watching the clouds roll by.

It turns out, Shikamaru was right! Choji was sad that Asuma was gone since it meant no eating barbeque for free, at least for a week. While thinking about this, Choji sat in his favorite room. He rested munching on chips, wondering what to do. Ino was probably too busy working in her parent’s flower shop to do anything. Shikamaru… he didn’t want to disturb his best friend from whatever thing he was doing.

“Man, I’m bored!” Choji sighed through a mouthful of chips.

So there sat Choji, with his barbeque chips and nothing to do.

Wow, Choji was right, too! Ino was at her parent’s flower shop, watering some roses, when her cell phone rang and answered to find Sakura at the other end.

“Hi Sakura, what’s going on?”

“Hi Ino, and nothing’s going on. That’s why I’m calling! I’m bored stiff! Do you mind going to the park with me?”

“Oh, you mean go right now? Well, I’m kind of busy with the flowers and all, sorry!”

“No, no, it’s okay. Well, see you later!” Sakura hung up and tried to hide the hint of regret in her voice.

Ino, however, wasn’t fooled.

“Ah, Sakura, now you made me feel bad!” thought Ino angrily as she went back to watering the flowers.

Lee was literally in tears as he read the letter from his teacher.

“Why, Gai-sensei? Why did you have to leave?!” Lee yelled to no one in particular.

The message was soaked wet by both Lee and his sensei’s tears, and to top it off, Lee was crumpling it in his hand. It looked rather like a giant spitball.

Get a hold of yourself, Lee! Inner Lee commanded.

“But since Gai-sensei is gone, I have no motivation to train!” Lee shot back at his inner self.

When you made that dojo, Gai-sensei wasn’t there, but you finished it, nonetheless!

“You are right! I must stop stuttering and train so Gai-sensei will see how much I have improved when he gets back!” And with that, Lee put the letter along with a picture that the teacher had sent of himself in his “Gai shrine” and went off to train. “What a smart conscience I have!”

Neji read the note to himself and slightly smiled.

“Maybe with Gai gone, I can get some peace and quiet. Oh, wait. Ksah, there’s still Mini-Gai (A.K.A. Lee.) If I train at the house for a while, I might not even see Lee!”

After thinking about this for a while, he went outside to train with Haishi-sama. Following some gruesome Byakugan training, Neji was told to tell Hinata that it was time to train. When he did so, though, Hinata complained that she promised Sakura that she would go to the park with her. Neji persuaded her to come by telling her that Haishi-sama was not one to take no for an answer. Once Hinata dragged along outside and began training, Neji lay down on the floor and took a short nap, though he was scolded by Haishi-sama for not watching and helping his cousin.

“Twin Rising Dragons!” yelled Tenten.

Kunai and multiple steel weapons rained down from two scrolls spun in midair. They were all aimed at one target, Gai-sensei. Well, a picture of Gai, anyway. The image showed a crying Gai that was paper clipped to the back of the letter. The likeness of her teacher was stuck to a tree in Tenten’s garden. I guess you could say this was Tenten’s way of expressing herself!

“Ah, nothing feels better than throwing weapons at your annoying mentor to calm yourself, huh?” Tenten thought to herself.

However, the weapon specialist thought about this too long. Long enough for her to plummet onto her mother’s gardenias, thus hurting her, which was bad…

“I might have to go to Ino’s later for more flowers… after this round!”

“Twin Rising Dragons!” shouted Tenten and pushed herself into the air.

I could tell you that Gaara was happily picking some cactus flowers somewhere and giving them to wandering children. I could tell you he was giving away his Kazekage fortune to the homeless. However, Kishimoto-sensei might sue me for character abuse, and you might be okay with that, but I’m not. Gaara was actually sulking in his room, unmoved by Baki’s decision to leave. Well, it’s Gaara, what do you expect?

Temari left the council room after receiving her mission. She sighed. It was an A rank escort to Konoha, so Gaara and Kankuro had to come as well. However, when the sand ninja heard that Gaara and Kankuro were coming she started screaming.

“What do you mean my little brothers have to come?!”

“Temari, we understand that you feel that they don’t have to come…” started Baki.

“Don’t you understand by now that I can do these kinds of things my self?!” complained Temari, “Why does Baki have to come, too?!”

“Temari that is quite enough!” commanded an elder on the council.

“Humph. It’s not like he’s going to help… or work… at all…” mumbled the wind user.

“Fine,” one of the elders said, “if it makes you feel any better, Baki will return back here once you enter Fire.”

Even with what was supposed to be an improvement in the mission, she grabbed the mission scroll and left in a huff.

“Black Secret Technique Machine One Shot!” yelled Kankuro.

Karasu pushed the straw dummy into Kuroari’s open torso. Immediately after, the former disassembled into separate limbs containing sharp knives, piercing the dummy through holes in Kuroari’s body. Kankuro pulled his puppets apart via charka string and smiled at the broken fake inside. Just before he was about to perform Black Secret Technique Machine Two Shot, he heard Temari’s annoyed screams from the third floor.

“Oh man, this isn’t going to be good.” Kankuro thought to himself as he quickly packed up his puppets and ran to the other side of Suna. By experience, he knew that at times like these, it’s best you don’t let an angry Temari see you.

“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.

“My, my, Naruto sure likes to sleep in, doesn’t he?” One annoyed Nara said to everyone.

The Konoha 11 and the Sand Siblings were waiting outside of Naruto’s door quite impatiently.

“Okay, I can’t stand this anymore!” Temari shouted, “I’m going in there and giving that twerp a piece of my mind!”

“Hmm, I actually feel bad for the shrimp.” Kankuro chuckled to himself as he watched Temari reach for her fan to tear the door apart, only to be stopped by Sakura.

“Wait, I have a better idea.” The pink haired told her with a very Tsunade-ish look on her face.

Sakura jiggled the doorknob, and it miraculously opened.

“Wow,” Tenten remarked, “How’d you do that?”

“If I know Naruto correctly, he wouldn’t take the time to lock his door.” Sakura explained, “Now to wake him up, you simply fill up this empty bowl of ramen with cold water…”

As she was doing so, everyone else snickered, minus Sasuke, Gaara, Neji, and Shino, the brooders, and Hinata. She just watched horrified.

“Then you pour said water onto Naruto’s head.” Sakura did so and Naruto jumped out of his bed, looking rather surprised and wet.

“AH!!!” Naruto yelled, “What are you all doing in my house? Why am I all wet? Why do you all look mad?”

“Because, smart one, we were waiting for you to wake up.” Temari shot at him.

“But why were you all waiting for me?” The Kyuubi boy asked.

“Baka Naruto! The Konoha Bay! Remember?” Sakura yelled.

Naruto’s eyes opened wide. “Oh no, you’re right! Sorry everyone! Just give me a few minutes!”

And with that, Sakura left the room, closed the door, and waited with everyone else. One minute later, Naruto slammed the door open and said, “Alright! Let’s go to the Bay!”

Even though the whole group was supposed to be traveling together, it was nothing of the sort. Sakura and Ino followed Sasuke, who was lingering in the back. Temari, Gaara, and Kankuro all took the lead and since they were the only ones who could actually talk to each other without feeling awkward, none of them noticed they were many paces ahead of the Konoha 12. Kiba tried to take the lead from the Sand Siblings, but every time he got close to them, he felt frightened. Gaara with his freakish sand, Kankuro and his deadly puppets, and Temari with her gigantic fan were not people to mess with. So, Kiba and Akamaru stayed a good distance behind them. Shino was walking along the side of the path, collecting bugs that were lingering on plants. Hinata walked after Naruto, who was only paying attention to walking faster then Sasuke, although the Uchiha was well in the back. Neji and Tenten were enjoying the walk more toward the back with no loud Gai telling them to speed up for once. Lee was doing lunges the whole walk, not wasting anytime for his improvement. Choji had to keep telling Shikamaru to hurry up because he was walking incredibly slowly while looking at the clouds. However, since his head was up pointed at the sky, he wasn’t paying any attention to where he was walking. Choji almost dropped his bag of chips when he had to stop Shikamaru from walking into Sakura.

Finally, the long and quiet walk ended with Naruto yelling in everyone’s ear, “There it is! I see the top of Mount Scream everyone!”

“What’s Mount Scream?” Hinata asked.

“It’s only the tallest, fastest roller coaster this side of the earth!” Naruto happily exclaimed.

Of course, many of them already knew that they were arriving the springs, since they were some distance ahead of Naruto.

“That’s great, Naruto-kun!” Hinata told him, just to make the Kyuubi boy feel better, since no one else seemed to neither care about nor even notice his outburst.

Everyone followed Naruto’s example and started sprinting toward the park. About 15 seconds later, people in the ticket line were almost trampled by Naruto, Kiba, and Lee, while everyone else lingered behind, embarrassed.

“Hey you three, get in the back of the line!” angrily shouted the man behind the three vacationing ninja.

“For your information,” Naruto announced proudly, “we happen to be here as V.I.P., so back off if you know what’s good for you!”

“I don’t care if you’re the Hokage! Back of the line, buddy!”

“You want to go, old man?!”

Just then, an elderly looking woman dressed in a very simple kimono came out of the park and walked over to the scene.

“Excuse me, what seems to be the problem over here?” the old woman asked.

“Well, baa-chan, I was just minding my own business when this man so rude-“

“Wait!” the aged lady suddenly exclaimed, “Bright yellow hair, and an orange suit! Are you Uzumaki Naruto?”

“Hai! This is my group! Who are you?”

“Oh, this is perfect! Please, let me introduce myself. My name is Kohaku Kanon, owner of Konoha Bay, but you can call me Kanon-baa-chan.

“Now, enough of this! All of you have your tickets, correct? Good! If you would all follow me, I’ll tour you to The Konoha Bay Resort on the other side of the park, okay?”

So they all started following Kanon-baa-chan (or as Naruto insisted on calling her “Auntie Kanon”) through the park. They walked past the Vomiter, Whirly-Twirl, and Dark Matter, all of which, Naruto stopped in awe. And all of which, Sakura pulled him by his collar and dragged him along the ground. But none of which awed him as much as Mount Scream.

“This thing is huge-ttebayo! Can we ride it, can we ride it, please Auntie Kanon?!”

The park owner chuckled, “Not yet Naruto-kun. We still have much more to see.”

“As you can see, we are now walking by the bay, which Konoha Bay is named after. Even though that’s not the bay’s official name, we like to call it that anyway.”

All the girls seemed to be enjoying the sunset dancing on the water, while the guys (minus Sasuke, Shino, Neji, and Gaara) were all staring in awe at the roller coaster, Dark Matter, to their left. A few meters on, they approached the beautiful Konoha Bay Resort. The magnificent building was set into a Y shape with each wing at least 15 floors high. The walls outside were a tan shape, almost covered in the numerous residential windows. The words “Konoha Bay Resort” were written in big cursive letters on the hotel roof. Even the guys and brooders couldn’t help but stare in amazement.

“Children, come along now! I still haven’t shown you the rest of the hotel yet!” Auntie Kanon called from several paces ahead of the awestruck group.

When they entered the hotel, a large lobby opened up to them as people checked in and out and walked this way and that.

“Now, children, I can only show you one wing. The other wings, you must explore by yourselves.

“We will be taking the ‘K’ wing here on the right. The ‘B’ wing is to the left and the ‘R’ wing is the one behind us.

“Now, the ‘K wing is home to the spa, springs, pool, and most of our rooms where you will be staying. The ‘B’ wing is the casinos and bars that the board of directors told me to put in for the older guests, but you kids aren’t allowed there. The ‘R’ wing hosts restaurants, gaming rooms, and party rooms. All of your rooms have great views of the park and bay. In your rooms, you will find V.I.P. passes that will get you first in line for rides, restaurants, arcade games, free internet connection, all-you-can-eat at the restaurants, and more. All at no charge and I do not want to hear otherwise.

“Go off to your rooms, pairings chosen by Auntie Midori herself. Don’t worry about bad pairings, you can switch with someone else if you’d like!” And with that, Auntie Kanon left to help a check-in clerk.

“Looks like we’re all in presidential suites on the top floor!” Sakura exclaimed.

“Yosh!” Kiba shouted, “Let’s go! I can’t wait to get on that roller coaster.”

Shino replied, “There’s something wrong with that last sentence. If you don’t remember, we have to go to our rooms, unpack, and shower. By the time we finish, the park will already be closed. If not, the roller coasters would.”

“Aww!” Naruto groaned, “I really wanted to go on Mount Scream!”

“Do not worry my friend!” Lee exclaimed, “We can get up early tomorrow and ride then!”

“Oh no! No one’s waking up early tomorrow!” Kiba told Lee, “We’re having a party tonight!”

“I don’t know, Kiba-kun. We really should get some sleep.” Hinata murmured.

“You guys, can you keep it down at least?” Ino asked.

“We are attracting an awful lot of attention.” Sakura agreed.

“What about we talk about this in my room?” suggested Tenten.

Miraculously, everyone managed to fit in the same elevator. Their luggage, however, did not. All the girls went in one elevator, the brooders in another, and everyone else crammed into the last one. Once everyone arrived at the top floor, everyone started following Tenten to her room.

“Okay, Room 212…,” Tenten murmured while walking, “Bah bah bah, ah! Here we are!” They stopped and waited while Tenten searched her person for the passkey.

Neji stepped forward and said, “You’re taking too long, Tenten.” Then he reached into his own pocket, pulled out his own card, and opened the door.

“I…I’m sharing a room with Neji?” Tenten thought to herself.

The main room was roughly the size of Iruka-sensei’s classroom, painted a light tan color, matching the two peach colored couches, sitting back-to-back in the middle of the room. One was facing a large fireplace, the other facing a large screen television. To the right of the door was a counter, kitchen complete with mini-bar, and table. By the fireplace were two doors, each leading to bedrooms with their own bathroom.

Kiba whistled, “Fa-ncy, huh Akamaru?”

“Ruff!”

“Yosh, everyone, gather ‘round!” Naruto called from on top of a couch, “Okay, so every will meet at the elevators at 10:45! Make sure to be dressed ready to party! Break!”

And so, everyone but Neji and Tenten left the room to get ready for the party.

Room 212 (Neji and Tenten)

The room was awkwardly quiet since Tenten was too shy to talk to Neji, and as for Neji, well, who knows what he’s thinking?

After getting a drink from the mini-bar (A/N: Just a Coke, don't worry!), Tenten quietly left the room to one of the bedrooms. The bed was queen-sized memory foam, set on a beautifully carved elm headboard. The closet was equally beautiful, with plenty of room for all of Tenten’s clothes and her scroll. In the bathroom, the words “Konoha Bay Resort” were engraved on the mirror frame. After her quick shower and unpacking, Tenten saw it was 9:45.

“Great,” she thought to herself, “what am I supposed to do for 45 minutes? Should I go see Neji? Or stay in my room with nothing to do?”

The weapon specialist sat on her bed and noticed something hard. She stood up to find her V.I.P. pass and put it in her purse. Then she heard strange beeping noises outside. When she opened the door, she was surprised to see Neji-

Meanwhile, Neji showered too, but finished unpacking much faster than Tenten did, so decided to explore the main room. He found a Nintendo Wii already hooked up to the flat-screen, complete with two remotes and nunchuks, Wii Sports, Wii Play, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

“Wow, this place is loaded.” Neji thought as he made his Mii.

When she opened the door, she was surprised to see Neji- playing Wii?

“H-hi Neji,” Tenten called from her doorway.

“Hi Tenten,” Neji turned to face his teammate, “can you believe how-“Neji was cut off by Tenten. Or rather, by Tenten’s hair. He had always seen her with it in two buns, but now it was let down.

“How what, Neji?” Tenten asked. Obviously she’d thought that Neji had seen her with her hair down before. How wrong she was.

“Uh…” Neji snapped himself out of his daze, “Just that they have a Wii here.”

“Wow. Tenten looks… great.” Neji thought to himself, “But I can’t let her know that I like her. She probably doesn’t like me anyway.”

“I can see that. I thought you had one.”

“No, I don’t. Where’d you get that?”

“Oh, I went over to Hinata’s house once and she had a Wii in her room.”

“Mental note: Go to Hinata-sama’s room and find her Wii as soon as I get home.”

“Anyway, can I play?” inquired Tenten.

“Uh, sure. There’s another remote in the drawer there.”

And so, Neji and Tenten ended up playing Wii with each other, Tenten beating Neji in Wii Tennis three rounds to two and Neji beating Tenten in Super Smash Bros. Brawl four games to three. Just as they were about to upload Wii Play, Neji pointed out that it was 10:30 already and that they should get ready for Naruto’s party.

As soon as he stepped foot in the room, Kiba shouted, “Oh my God, this place is loaded!” All the suites exactly the same as Tenten and Neji’s, but Kiba thought it was much more lavish than his room would ever be. Kiba went into one of the rooms and started showering for himself while Akamaru swam in the tub. He was playing with Akamaru in the main room when he saw the door open only to find Hinata come inside.

“I’m sharing a room with Kiba-kun? What if I embarrass myself in front of him? What if-“ Before Hinata could finish her train of thought; Kiba gave her a big bear hug.

“Yay, I’m sharing a room with Hinata-chan!” Kiba shouted.

Hinata turned red and asked, “Ki-Kiba-kun! Um, which room is yours?”

Kiba released her from his hug and said, “Uh, the one on the left.”

“Um, I, I should go unpack then.”

“Su-sure.”

When Hinata closed the door behind her, Kiba went to splash some water on his reddening face. Hinata emerged at roughly 10:00 and started teaching Kiba some cheats for Wii Sports. At 10:35, Hinata excused herself to get ready for Naruto’s party and since Akamaru wasn’t very good at Wii Boxing, Kiba decided to get ready, too.

“Hello, Sakura-chan!” Lee greeted Sakura as she entered the room. Of course, Lee dashed to his room as soon as Naruto said “Break”, so he was in his room before the others.

“Oh, hi Lee...” Sakura smiled, but really she was thinking, “Oh great! I have to share a room with Lee, not Sasuke-kun? I wonder who Sasuke-kun has as a roommate. Better not be Ino!”

“Lee, which room is yours?”

“The one on the right, Sakura-chan! Say, do you want to play Wii with me?”

“Sounds great! I’m just going to go unpack and shower… we can play afterward!”

“Yosh! I shall make my Mii!”

“You have fun doing that!” And with that, Sakura shuffled into the left room, closed the door, and quietly started moaning to herself. At roughly 9:40, Sakura came out of her room and reluctantly picked up her Wii remote. Even though Sakura didn’t like Lee as much as Sasuke, her friendship with him increased as they played. When Lee boxed, he didn’t go easy against Sakura, which she loved since she wasn’t one to like easy wins. Even though Lee couldn’t fight to his fullest, since any type of kicks were invalid, he put up a good fight, tying with Sakura at four matches each. Just as they were about to begin the tiebreaker, Sakura noticed the clock read 10:15. They went inside their rooms and began dressing up.

When Naruto shouted “Break”, Shikamaru was one of the last ones out of the room. He slowly began walking to his room, and since Chouji had a different room then him, the Nara walked slower than ever, if that was possible. When Shikamaru opened the door, expecting someone already there, the main room was empty. When Shikamaru started feeling good about being the one with a single room, one of the bedroom doors opened and who else to step out than “the most troublesome woman ever”, Sabaku no Temari, drying her hair with a towel, dressed in a simple purple yukata.

“My, my, out of all the people to be paired with, it just had to be you.” Shikamaru complained.

“Well, you weren’t exactly my top choice either, Nara.” Temari shot back, not even looking at him. And with that, she went back to her room, hung up her towel, tied up her hair, and began playing the Wii Boxing she’d already set up. 15 minutes later, when Shikamaru came out of his room, Temari was already fighting the grand champion.

Even though he was standing behind the couches, Temari asked, “Can I help you?” without stopping her game. Before he could reply, the champ was down and Temari’s level graph showed up. The line went straight up, without the slightest dip or bump in it.

She turned around and said, “Well?” in the same indifferent tone.

That sudden statement slightly surprised Shikamaru, but he calmly came back with, “You, me, Smash Bros.”

“You, going, down.” Temari shot back uploading the disc.

Actually, Shikamaru almost tied with Temari. Almost. Not quite. Temari was winning seven rounds to five when she turned off the game and started for her room without a word. “

Oi, woman, are you too scared for another round?” Shikamaru called.

“Three things wrong with that question. One, I’m not scared of a lazy guy like you. Two, even if we did play another round, and even if by some chance you won, you would still lose seven games to six. Third, I hate being late for parties, even if it is Naruto’s.”

With that, she closed the door behind her and left Shikamaru grumbling about troublesome women while he was changing.

Ino was smirking when she was opening the door because she saw Sakura in the same room with Lee, which means the pink-haired didn’t have Sasuke as a roommate!

“I wouldn’t be surprised if I opened this door and saw Sasuke-kun myself! Sakura even said it herself, ‘True love conquers all!’”

When she opened the door, she noticed a little bit of black hair peeking out over the kitchen counter.

“Yes! I got Sasuke-kun! I’ll catch him by surprise with a big hug!” And so, being as quiet as possible, Ino snatched up Sasuke with a bear hug. Or, at least what would have been Sasuke if he somehow turned into Shino.

“I-Ino?!” Shino stammered.

“No! Not Bug-boy!” Ino thought, “Anyone but him!” And immediately jumped back.

“Sorry if I’m not who you wanted to be put with, Ino,” Shino said with a bleak expression when he saw Ino’s “freaked-out” face.

“Duh, I don’t want to be with him, but if I upset him, he might set his freaky bugs on me!”

“No, no, it’s okay! Um, which room is yours?”

“The one on the right.”

“Okay, I’m going to just go unpack and all that…”

“You do that.”

Ino almost ran into her room.

“Why Bug-boy?! Why?!”

This room was one of the only rooms that didn’t play Wii together since Ino locked herself in her room and Shino didn’t find the game station very appealing. And only when time came for Naruto’s party did Ino come out.

“Naruto!”

“Chouji!”

The guys gave each other high-fives when they found out they would be roommates, but Chouji admitted Naruto wouldn’t have been his first pick as roommate.

“No offence, no offence, but I really wanted to be with-“

“I know, I know, you wanted to be with Shikamaru, no big deal!”

“But, now we can sneak out to the restaurants together!”

“Yosh! I’m afraid of some of the security around here though. It’s not like Ichiraku Ramen when Old Man Teuchi just lets us in.”

“Right… Do you want to play some Wii?”

“Sure! I’ve only played it at Hinata’s house before though.”

“Same here! We’ll just suck together!”

After winning only their service games on Wii Tennis by aces because neither of them could hit very well, Naruto decided to get ready for the party and Chouji followed in suite.

Gaara walked into the room, hoping very much that he was the one with the single room. Unfortunately, he found none other than his brother adjusting some of Karasu’s weapons on the couch.

Kankurou heard the noise and looked up, only to say, “Great. Just great! Just when I think I might get a vacation from being glared at by Temari every five minutes, I wind up with my adorable little brother-jaan.”

The elder brother decided to pack up his puppets and go to his room, where he stayed for the remaining 45 minutes. Gaara chose to follow in suite, since a brooder like him didn’t have much interest in making a little Mii.

Luckily for Sasuke, he was the one with the single room. No Sakura or Ino to follow him around, no guys cramping his style. Hinata and Tenten didn’t like him, but it still felt weird sharing a room with a girl. And Temari… even though he’d beaten her before, her freakish fan looked like it could kill him in his sleep. So, Sasuke was left alone to smile about other people’s misfortune for their pairings while showering. The Uchiha, however, did find some enjoyment in Wii Boxing and Smash Bros. He even made an Itachi Mii, left the 2nd controller alone, leaving the Sasuke Mii to beat up Itachi without any fighting back. At 10:40, he left the room without bothering to dress up. Why should he when it was Naruto’s party?

Sasuke began his walk to the elevators when he passed Sakura and Lee’s room. The door was closed, but his highly trained ears heard laughing on the other side of the door. Sakura’s laughes told the Uchiha that she was actually having a good time with Lee.

“Good. At least she won’t keep nagging at me anymore.” He muttered to himself. But deep, deep, deep, down, Sasuke felt a pang of sadness, and, dare he say, jealousy? No. Not for that loser with her big green eyes, and her pretty pink hair… Admit it, you want her! Inner Sasuke debuted. “Who are you?” Your inner self and I say you want her. “Hn.” Sasuke shut out his conscience and continued his walk. Great. He got a pervert for an inner self.

Naruto decided to walk with Kiba since Choji had left before him and there was no one to talk to, even though it was a two minute walk from his room to the elevators. When he got there, he Naruto noticed that the door was partially open so he peeked through to see what Kiba was doing. Instead of his Inuzaka friend, he was Hinata at the kitchen, getting a drink.

“Hinata’s sharing a room with Kiba?” Naruto thought to himself.

Oh, you’re jealous, aren’t you? Inner Naruto said evilly.

“What?” The Kyuubi boy asked, shocked that he had an inner conscience, “No, I’m not jealous. Why would I be?”

You have a little crush on Hinata, I know. It’s all here, in your head.

“So what? It’s nothing big, just a kiddy crush.”

Oh, sure, sure. But won’t you feel mad if Kiba got Hinata before you?

“What are you saying?”

I say, don’t lose to that dog-faced loser! You’re Naruto Uzumaki! You can certainly get Hinata before that Inuzaka can!

“No, no! I might have had a little crush on Hinata, but she loves Kiba and he loves her back! I know it, and I won’t break it for a puppy crush!"

Okay, if you say so. But I’ll be appearing much more often, count on it.

And just like that, Inner Naruto disappeared, lost in Naruto’s mind. The Kyuubi boy decided to walk alone to the elevators. It was only a three minute walk from here after all.

Most of the group was already at the elevators by 10:42, but Shikamaru and Sasuke had yet to arrive. Temari had left before Shikamaru had, and no one knew about Sasuke. The sand kunoichi was wearing a dark purple kimono decorated with white irises along with a decorative mini-fan, painted with a scene of Suna at dusk. Sakura had her hair up in a bun and wore a pink kimono that faded to white toward the end. It was decorated with red roses, which went well with Ino’s baby-blue white-rosed one. The lavender to white kimono Hinata wore went well with the lilies printed on it. Tenten braided her hair into two rings and wore a freesia-decorated, orange to red peignoir. Shikamaru, Sasuke (who both finally arrived), Gaara, Kankuro, Shino, and Neji were all dressed in their usual garb, while Kiba was dressed skater. Lee was wearing a green t-shirt with ripped blue jeans and Naruto was wearing a grunge sort of look.

The guys couldn’t help but stare at the girls, as they had never seen them so dressed up. Naruto was the first to snap out of the daze and ask, “You guys look great and all, but they’re not exactly partying clothes, are they?”

“Oh, don’t worry about that.” Sakura told him with an almost evil grin on her face.

“S-Sakura-chan, can’t we just tell them?” Hinata asked.

“What? Tell us what?” Kiba demanded.

“Well, there’s really no use to keep it a secret.” Tenten discussed.

“Just tell us!” Naruto whined.

“Hmm, we’ll talk over it first.” Temari decided.

So the girls walked into a nearby hallway and started talking to each other in hushed voices.

“What do you suppose they’re talking about?” Choji asked.

“Who knows?” Shikamaru said, “Women are just so troublesome.”

After a few minutes, the girls came back and Ino said, “We’ll show you at the party room.” And without another word, the girls marched into an empty elevator.

“See you on the 2nd floor!” Sakura waved.

The boys were all stumped. They turned to Shikamaru for his “genius” help.

“Well, I don’t like thinking about things like this, but they did seem like they wanted to there quickly. It also has something to do with their kimonos.”

“That’s not enough information!” Lee groaned, “We shall just have to go see for ourselves!”

“Agreed.” Neji actually spoke up, “Well, let’s go then.”

The guys separated into two groups of elevators, and when they arrived to the party room, the only lighting was a disco ball. However, the guys could see the back of the girls’ kimonos by the snacks.

Naruto whispered to the guys to jump the girls, just for fun. Naruto, Lee, Kiba, and reluctantly Neji and Shikamaru joined. They got out their kunais, just to threaten, not to hurt.

“On five.” Naruto whispered, “1…” One step closer. “2…” One more. “3…” One more. “4…” One more. “Five!” Naruto yelled. The guys restrained the girls in headlocks and showed them their kunais. But just as they were about to celebrate, they felt kunais at their own throats and turned around only to find out the weilders were…

“You guys?!” Naruto asked.

“Don’t you mean… you girls?” Ino asked.

“But, if you’re the girls, then who are…” Kiba took a closer look at the “Hinata” he was supposed to be threatening. It wasn’t Hinata at all, but a mannequin!

“Wow, I can’t believe that worked!” Tenten exclaimed, still holding her kunai at Neji’s throat.

“But, who...” Shikamaru asked. “Turn around, genius.” The Nara turned around only to find… “Temari?!”

“Yep, it was Temari who came up with this whole thing.” Sakura smiled, still head locking Lee.

“See, we knew you would be mad if we didn’t tell you why we were wearing kimonos.” Hinata started.

“So, we put our kimonos on these mannequins from the store next door, and waited.” Temari finished proudly.

Naruto stuttered, “B-but, that means-you guys shou-should be… NAKED!”

Ino punched Naruto on the head, “PERVERT! We were wearing our regular clothes underneath!”

“I expected more from you, Nara.” Temari smiled, “Did you think we wouldn’t have noticed ten boys come into the room without any music on? On second thought, don’t answer that.”

Suddenly, the guys disappeared in a puff of smoke and the girls were head locked by the real guys, who were hiding behind one of the walls the whole time.

“It was all part of the plan.” Shikamaru smiled.

“Yeah, we got you good!” Naruto shouted.

Then the girls started smiling themselves and all said together, “Reverse checkmate,” and disappeared in another puff of smoke.

“Cl-clones?” Neji stuttered.

“Clones.” Tenten said from behind them, “We were hiding behind this fake wall the whole time!”

“Hinata used Byakugan before and saw that you were just clones. So, we decided to let you fall for your own trick.” Ino explained.

“You really are dim, Nara. We even waved to your friends back there since they saw us before you did.” Temari taunted.

“You guys knew?!” Lee asked angrily.

“No!” Kankuro said sarcastically, “What would make you think that?”

“Well, if we’re all good and done, let’s party!” Sakura shouted. And for once, the guys agreed. Tenten pointed to a D.J. to start the music and “Move Along” by The All-American Rejects started playing. All the girls were hanging around the punch while the guys (minus the brooders, Kankuro and Shikamaru) were rocking it up on the dance floor. Kiba came over to get a drink and noticed Hinata standing to the side alone.

“Oi, Hinata, do you want to dance?” he called.

“Um, um-“Hinata stuttered.

“I’ll take that as a yes!” And with that, Kiba pulled Hinata to the dance floor.

The pair didn’t know that at that moment, Naruto was looking straight at them from the stage. You’re jealous… Inner Naruto taunted.

Naruto decided not to waste time arguing with himself and drank some coke.

Tenten smiled when she saw how horrified Hinata looked when Kiba started dancing, but the Hyuuga started to rock back and forth to the rhythm. When she started enjoying Hinata dancing, Neji came up and asked, “Uh, Tenten, do you want to dance?”

“N-Neji?”

“It’s okay if you don’t-“

“No, no, I do.”

So they went off to the dance floor, where the music had switched to “Never Had a Dream Come True” by S Club 7.

Lee approached Sakura, who was looking everywhere but him.

“Sakura-chan, do you want to dance with me?”

“Sure, if this song will end-“Almost by magic, the song stopped and was replaced by “Every Time we touch” by Cascada.

“Let’s go then!” Lee shouted victoriously.

You’re a big wuss, you know that? Inner Sasuke popped up.

“Do you enjoy coming up at the worst times?”

Now, what would make you think that?

“Tch,” Sasuke thought back.

You want her and you know that she wants you.

“Correction: wanted, not wants. She likes that Lee guy now.”

And you’re okay with that?

“Well…”

My work here is done, Inner Sasuke said.

The only girls left were Ino and Temari, and as sad as she was about not having a dance, Ino was glad she wasn’t the only girl left. Just then, Choji approached the snack table, so Ino stepped aside so her friend could get the chips. To her amazement, Choji actually was turned to her and asked, “Eeeto, Ino, do you mind dancing with me?”

Seeing her surprised face, Choji started, “It’s okay, don’t worry,” and started to walk back to the dance floor.

“No, no,” Ino held Choji by the elbow, “it’s okay. I’ll dance with you.”

The two started dancing as Shikamaru smirked from a corner.

“Poor Choji, stuck with such a troublesome woman”.

Naruto stood up on stage and announced, “Yosh, everyone! It’s karaoke time! First song is… Voice for You! Any takers?”

Kankuro, who was already a little bit messed up, thanks to drinking coffee, coke, and punch mixed together, said, “Hey, Temari! It’s your favorite song!”

Temari was looking very freaked out as the whole crowd turned to look at her.

“Kankuro…” Temari had a murderous look in her eye and was about to change her mini-fan to her regular gigantic one before Ino and Sakura started pushing her up stage.

“Guys, guys!” The wind user started pushing back, but it was too late. Everyone was already looking at her and waiting.

“Ksah! What do I do? That’s it!” The sand kunoichi smiled slightly and said, “Gee, I’d love too, but this song is a duet. We’d need a male singer. Too bad!” So she started off the stage, but Naruto stopped her.

“Oh, don’t worry about that. Shikamaru lost the karaoke draw before the party.”

“Is that so?” Temari saw a gateway open. One that would humiliate Shikamaru, which was the best kind. “Well then, why didn’t you just say so?”

Little did she know, Shikamaru was forced to do karaoke when he was little at his uncle’s parties, so he was no newbie.

“Yosh…” Temari and Shikamaru both thought, “I’ll definitely sing better then her/him!”

Temari started dancing to the beat, her skirt swaying with her. Shikamaru couldn't help but "glance" in her "general" direction.

Oh, is everyone's favorite genius falling for someone? Inner Shikamaru debuted.

"Tch, as if. Besides, she doesn't like me."

Ah, but that's the first stage! Denial! Well, I'd best be on my way, so have fun with your karaoke!"

Amazingly, both of them were evenly matched and got equal applause at the end of the song.

“Not bad, not bad! Too bad we can’t give away the grand prize!” Naruto shouted through the microphone, “What about we-“Before he could finish his tie-breaker suggestion, both had already left the stage. Shikamaru went to go in a little embarrassment corner with Choji while Temari went to go kill Kankuro with her transformed fan.

“Alright then! We still have one more song! It’s Ondo! I’ll be singing, but I need one more male singer and a female singer!”

“Forget it Naruto. None of us want to sing.” Neji told him.

“Really?” The Kyuubi boy asked, “Good! I didn’t want to sing anyway! I just thought you guys wanted more karaoke!”

“You couldn’t have been more wrong.” Sasuke replied with a smirk.

“That guy is so arrogant!” Sakura thought to herself, “I don’t remember why I even liked that guy! His dumb pretty face, that’s all! Well, Lee might not have a pretty face (or a good sense in fashion for that matter) but his heart is ten times better than that Uchiha’s! Why, I’d even bet-“ Sakura’s thoughts were cut short by Kankuro and Temari.

“Oi, Temari, can’t we talk this out?” Kankuro asked before dodging a powerful swing of Temari’s fan.

“No, not really,” Temari replied angrily. Just as Temari was about to tear Kankuro to bits, the sand kunoichi froze in mid-swing.

“Tch, women are so troublesome.” Shikamaru said from behind them, “It’s bad enough that I have to use my jutsu on vacation, but to help a sand nin?”

“Why you…” Kankuro started.

“Save it, Kankuro.” Temari cut off, “You should be thankful, even if it is him.”

Shikamaru smirked. Women were very, very troublesome indeed.

“But, if you think it’s a waste of chakra,” Temari added with a smirk, “why are you still using the jutsu?”

The Nara withdrew his shadow shocked and ticked.

The rest of the party went pretty normal, as normal as 15 genin on vacation could be, anyway. Once everyone was good and bored, they all decided to head back to their rooms, also since it was almost 2:00 in the morning.

“Okay, so girls,” Sakura told them, “meet me at the elevators tomorrow at around 9:30 to hit the buffet for a small breakfast, then we’ll go shopping and hit the springs. After lunch, we’ll go to the park.”

“I don’t know, Sakura,” Tenten said, “9:30 is kind of early for me. What about 10:00?”

“Yeah, 10 would be better for me, too.” Ino agreed.

“Okay, 10 then. Well, night everyone!” Sakura bid them farewell and started up to her room.

Everyone else followed in suite, including the guys, although Kiba and Lee had to drag Naruto up to his room since the Kyuubi boy was trying to escape to the park.

“Don’t worry, Naruto!” Kiba told him, “We’re all going to the park tomorrow at 11:00, remember?”

“I know, I know, but it’s like Mount Scream is calling me!”

“So are our beds, so let’s go to sleep already.” A tired Lee whined back. However, by the time Lee finished his sentence, Choji was already dragging Naruto back to their room.

The Following Day

Room 212 (Neji and Tenten)

Tenten’s eyes reluctantly opened as sunlight flooded in from the open window onto her bed. She yawned, stretched, and forced herself out of bed.

“What time is it?” She thought to herself as she searched the room for a clock. There was one on the nightstand that read 9:37 A.M.

“I still have another 23 minutes, no big deal.” Tenten decided that she could sleep another 10 minutes.

Oi, you! Get your butt of the bed and get going! Inner Tenten commanded.

“But I don’t want to get up!”

That’s just too bad! Do you remember the last time you thought you could sleep in? You were late for training and you had to run an extra 200 laps.

“Yeah, but it’s not exactly like Sakura will make me run laps.”

Fine, but do you want to look at the time now?

It was already 9:45 A.M. so Tenten had another 15 minutes instead of 23 thanks to her Inner self. As Tenten showered, she thought about how much she hated having a conscience that spoke back.

Meanwhile, Neji was already leaving the room for breakfast.

Room 213 (Hinata, Kiba, and Akamaru)

Hinata woke up at something furry at the foot of her bed. She groggily opened her eyes to find Akamaru sleeping contently by her feet. The Hyuuga heiress sat up in bed and picked up Kiba’s dog, waking him up with a puppy yawn.

“What are you doing here?” Hinata asked while petting him, and then saw that her door had been left open. Akamaru must have come at night, while she was still sleeping. She decided to take a shower, since Akamaru had fallen back to sleep.

At that moment, Kiba was waking up too, expecting to find his dog at his feet. However, Akamaru was, at the time, in Hinata’s room, but Kiba didn’t know that. What he did remember was that last night, when he got back from the party, Akamaru was already asleep on a couch in the main room. Kiba decided he must still be outside. When he went to check, the room was empty. Now, saying Kiba started to worry would be a complete understatement. He was checking under pillows and couches, only to find nothing. Reacting to instinct, he ran into Hinata’s room, without knocking.

When he barged in, he yelled, “Hinata, it’s an emergency! Akamaru-“At that moment, the Hyuuga heiress was sitting on her bed petting Akamaru, wearing nothing but a towel. Hinata turned bright red at the sight of her teammate and instinctively grabbed her shoulders and yelled, “Kiba-kun!” Akamaru woke up and ran over to his master, who was having a nosebleed moment.

“Sorry, but can we talk about this later?!”

“Yeah, I’m sorry, sorry!” Kiba ran outside and slammed the door behind him. He went to his room to change and cool down his face. After a few minutes, Hinata came out, fully dressed and explained that Akamaru came to her room at night through her open door. They walked with each other to the elevators, where Hinata waited for the others to show up and Kiba left to the buffet.

Before they went their separate ways, he said, “Wait, Hinata?”

“What’s wrong Kiba-kun?”

Before either of them could think, he had held her by the arms and kissed her, a short kiss, but meaningful, no doubt.

“K-Kiba-kun,” Hinata by, this time, had turned bright red, “I, I’ve al-“

“Shush.” Kiba held a finger to her lips and said, “I love you.”

“Wait, did I just say that? She doesn’t like me, she likes Naruto!”

“I-I love you, too, Kiba-kun.”

“Did she just say she loved me?”

“Did I just say I loved him?”

“Um, I, I’m going to go now.” Kiba said as he left since he heard someone coming.

Little did they know, Naruto was hiding behind his fake wall the whole time and saw their entire little “episode.”

Told you, you were too late! Naruto’s inner self taunted.

“No, there’s still time. I, I can still win Hinata!”

If you say so… Inner Naruto said as he left.

Naruto decided to quietly pretend to walk in on Hinata, so she wouldn’t find out he was spying on them.

Room 214 (Sakura and Lee)

“Ohayou, Sakura-san!” Lee greeted cheerfully. He was already dressed in his signature green jumpsuit, running in place.

“Ohayou, Lee,” Sakura answered groggily. She hadn’t gotten much sleep since Lee was jump-roping in the main room until 3:30 in the morning. The pink-haired kunoichi wondered how Lee could be so active.

“Do you know what time it is?” Sakura asked as she got a glass of milk from the kitchen.

“It is currently 9:40 in the morning, desu!” Lee reported happily while switching to push-ups.

Sakura nearly choked on her milk.

“9:40?!” She yelled as she ran to her room, “Why did you tell me sooner? I have to meet the girls in 20 minutes!”

“You didn’t ask desu!” Lee said to Sakura’s shut bedroom door.

15 minutes later, Sakura ran out of her room, fully dressed, though looking a little stressed.

“Hi Lee, how are you? Good? Good. Got to go! Bye Lee!” Sakura rushed out of her room.

“I’m fine…” Lee replied to the empty spot where Sakura was a millisecond ago.

Sakura ran out and checked her watch and saw it was 9:57. She was the only one in the halls, so she decided it was okay to run to the elevators. On the way, she happened to bump into--

Room 215 (Temari and Shikamaru)

Temari yawned as she pushed herself out of bed and picked up the clock. It read 9:00 in the morning, much later than she was accustomed to waking up at. She was usually on the morning border patrol, so she had to wake up at roughly 6:00. The sand kunoichi got up, showered, dressed, and was ready to leave at 9:30. It was still 30 minutes before she had to meet the girls, so Temari decided to take a look at the amusement park through one of the room windows. Konoha Bay seemed to take the shape of a circle, the roller coasters on the outmost rim. In the center was the Fire Breather, a whirly-twirl kind of ride. The pole was molded into a dragon and the seats were painted to make them look like fire. The inside of the circle was littered with all sorts of rides and snack shops, even a few ramen bars by the looks of it. Even though it was early, there were a number of people already there, and a line already forming for tickets. When Temari re-checked her watch it was 9:50, so she decided to leave.

Shikamaru, unlike Temari, was very accustomed to sleeping in, and didn’t seem to want to break his habit anytime soon. He woke up at around 9:45, but only because he was getting hungry. By the time he had showered and all, it was 10:00 A.M.

“I’ll check if Choji wants to grab some breakfast together.” Shikamaru decided and started out the door. Little did he know, Temari had forgotten her V.I.P. pass in her room, so she was running to go it at the same time Shikamaru opened the door. The two collided, Temari pushing Shikamaru backward into the room. She was on top of him, her arms the only things keeping her from lying on top of the Nara genius. Neither of them knew that they were both blushing furiously.

“Wait, why do I feel all weird, it’s not like I like this guy.” Temari thought to herself.

For once, Shikamaru didn’t know what to think. Temari was… nice, he supposed, but he didn’t feel about her this way. Or did he?

They were both speechless for awhile, Temari still hovering on top of Shikamaru.

The sand kunoichi started to get up and said, “I’m sorry.”

What are you doing? This is your one chance, don’t blow it! Inner Shikamaru chose to strike.

“But I don’t like her!”

Yes you do! Come on, you may never get a chance like this again, she’s always going to be around her friends or worse, her brothers!

“But—“

No buts unless your getting off yours and telling her how you feel!

“Fine, fine,” Shikamaru submitted to his inner self and snapped back to reality. He used Temari’s shoulders to pull himself up before she could stand up. The Nara pulled her closer to him and kissed her.

Temari, at first, was shocked, and part of her wanted to slap Shikamaru upside the head. A bigger part, though, wanted to be with the lazy genius, so when he broke the kiss, instead of knocking him unconscious, she whispered, “I love you, too.”

To Shikamaru, those four words meant the world to him. She got up and helped him up, too.

Once Temari straightened herself, she cautioned with a smirk, “You know, having two brothers can be a pain, especially since both of them can whoop your butt in a second. It’ll be hard having me as a girlfriend.”

Shikamaru smirked and replied, “You aren’t trying to scare me away, are you?”

“Okay, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Oh, and one more thing,” she added before walking to her room, “If I find you cheating on me, prepare to get kicked into the next century… and not by my brothers, if you know what I mean.”

With that, Temari left to her room, leaving Shikamaru to find Choji for breakfast, smirking all the way.

Room 216 (Ino and Shino)

Ino was used to waking up bright and early, since she usually had the morning shift at her parent’s flower shop. Nevertheless, when she woke, it was 9:00, thanks to the late night party. The Yamanaka stretched and yawned to the bathroom where she took a quick shower before changing. All this took around 30 minutes, with the full body bandages and all. With half an hour to spare, Ino whipped her diary out of her bag and lay down her bed. She opened the baby blue book and started writing.

“Dear Diary,

Today is my second day staying at the famous Konoha Bay resort. Last night, all of us, the Konoha 12 and the Sand Siblings had a party until 2:00 in the morning. I was amazed that some of us were still awake! Shikamaru looked like he would go at any second, though. Oh, yeah, Choji asked me to dance with him last night! He’s a pretty good dancer for someone of his ‘size.’ Kiba and Hinata seem to be getting fonder of each other, considering they danced for three songs. I just happened to catch Naruto watching them from the stage, and he didn’t look all that happy. I guess I was the only one who noticed, so I might be able to play this to my advantage. Billboard-brow was dancing with Bushy-brows, and they look like a perfect couple! I mean Billboard and Bushy brows! After dancing with Choji I went to Sasuke to ask him to dance, but he wouldn’t even look at me! He was too busy staring at something or someone on the dance floor. I would’ve looked too, but Choji asked me for another dance, and I couldn’t refuse! Well, that’s enough for now, I have to go meet the girls to hit the buffet, spa, and park.

-Yamanaka Ino

Ino closed her book and stuffed it at the bottom of her blue duffel. She grabbed her purse, checked that her V.I.P. pass was in it, and ran to the elevators.

Shino simply got up, showered, changed and went to explore the hotel gardens to collect more bugs.

Room 217 (Naruto and Choji)

Choji got up at roughly 9:45 and went out to the main room, still dressed in his pajamas. He used his V.I.P. pass to open the refrigerator and went to work getting himself a little snack. The Akimichi looked around for a bag of chips, but to no avail. Choji sat down, stumped, munching on a sandwich he made, muttering about how any self-respecting hotel should be supplied with an adequate amount of chips. He decided to go back to his room, change, and wait for Shikamaru.

Naruto was still sleeping while Choji was out in the main room, his eyes only flickered open at 10:00 in the morning. The Kyuubi boy dragged his feet to the shower, changed, and walked out to the main room for a snack. The hotel, however, did not supply instant ramen, so he searched through the cabinets. He found a bag of barbeque chips and started eating them on one of the couches. When he got down to the last chip, the other bedroom door flung open and out ran Choji, who pummeled a confused Naruto and wrestled the chip from him.

“Choji, what the heck are you doing?” Naruto asked, barely breathing under Choji’s weight.

“Where did you get this?” He commanded, shoving the chip in the Uzumaki’s face, “The hotel doesn’t have any chips!”

“Yes they do! They were right in those cabinets over there!” Naruto pointed.

Choji sweat-dropped and weakly said, “Really?”

“Yeah, really,” Naruto insisted.

“Oh,” Choji’s shoulders dropped and he apologized, “Sorry Naruto. Can I make it up to you?”

“How ‘bout you get the heck off of me?!” Naruto yelled, still being sandwiched between Choji and the couch.

“Gomen, gomen,” The Akimichi apologized and asked, “Can I keep this?” still holding the barbeque chip.

“Knock yourself out.” Naruto said while rubbing his back, “I got to meet the guys to go the park, you want to come?”

“Nah, I’m waiting for Shikamaru, we’re going to hit the buffet together for breakfast.”

“Okay, if you say so, bye!” The Uzumaki said before leaving Choji to wait another few minutes to go with Shikamaru to the buffet.

Room 218 (Gaara and Kankuro)

The Sand brothers woke up, showered, changed, and went to the buffet. Not much to talk about!

Room 219 (Sasuke)

Sasuke woke up at around 9:00, did his morning duties, and went out to train with the Wii boxing. After an hour or so, he decided to take a walk around the park. When he walked past room 214, Lee and Sakura’s room, he couldn’t help but peek in, to see if they really liked each other that much. When he looked, he only saw Lee, jump-roping in the main room, Sakura not in sight.

“Ksah, where is she?” Sasuke thought to himself.

Oh, is everyone’s favorite tough guy falling for a certain cherry blossom? Inner Sasuke teased.

All he thought back was a short “Hn” and continued on his way. On the way, he happened to bump into—

In the Halls

On the way, Sakura happened to bump into— Sasuke.

On the way, Sasuke happened to bump into— Sakura.

The two collided in the empty hallway, Sakura’s running force overpowering Sasuke’s walk, thus pushing her on top of him. Her head landed just to the left of his, and she sat on her knees, rubbing her forehead where it bumped the floor.

Sakura, of course, had her eyes closed the whole time, so she had no idea who she crashed into when she asked, “Why don’t you watch where you’re going?”

Sasuke replied, “Why don’t you watch where you’re running?” fully aware who he had just run into.

At the sound of his familiar voice, Sakura’s eyes widened open as she turned to face him.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Sasuke-kun! Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, but you have a cut on your head there.” Sasuke pointed to a small bleeding cut on Sakura’s upper brow.

“What?” Sakura tested it, winced, and saw blood on her finger. “Oh, don’t worry. I can get it healed.” She activated her medical jutsu and soon the cut was gone.

As she got up to go, Sasuke said, “Wait, Sakura.”

“What is it, Sasuke-kun?”

“Do you really like Lee?”

This caught Sakura off-guard and she asked, “What do you mean? Why do you care?" she paused, "It’s not like you like me.” The pink-haired kunoichi added, hurt.

Sasuke got up and kissed Sakura where the cut used to be.

“That’s what I like about you, Sakura; you can be so blind sometimes.”

Sakura, at this point, was blushing furiously, and murmured, “Sasuke-kun…”

“Sakura,” He interrupted, “I know it doesn’t seem like I like you, but I was just avoiding you because you know Orochimaru will do anything to get me, even if it means kidnapping my friends. If he found out that we were dating…” he paused, leaving Sakura to mull over what he just said, “I just don’t want you to go.”

“Sasuke-kun…” The Haruno whispered before hugging her childhood crush, “I don’t care if I will be captured by Orochimaru. I just want to be with you.”

“Then, it’s settled, we’re officially going out, ne?”

“Yeah,” Sakura looked up into his eyes, “Its official.”

They released each other from their hold and walked to the elevators. Little did they know, Lee was watching the whole time and was quietly following them from behind, his heart breaking in two. Before they reached the elevators, Sakura stopped, saying, “Sasuke-kun, we shouldn’t let the others know we’re dating. If Ino or Naruto found out…”

“Okay, I won’t tell, but meet me later back here to get some dinner.”

“Sure, that would be nice.” Sakura smiled as she took the lead, and before turning to the elevators, she looked back and said, “I love you, Sasuke-kun.”

The Uchiha smirked and started for the elevators himself, Lee still following.

At the Elevators

Currently, only the girls were at the elevators, since the guys were already at the buffet.

“Okay, everyone has their V.I.P. passes, right?” Tenten checked.

“Good, so let’s hit the buffet! I hear they have the best umeboshi, and I want to get it while the onigiri is still hot.” Sakura announced.

The kunoichi climbed into an oncoming elevator and waited until the hotel lobby opened up in front of them. There were crowds of people waiting at the desks, running to the amusement park, and trying to call relatives on their cell phones. After pushing their way through the hordes of vacationers, the girls finally reached the buffet entrance. The entry was a large archway with the words “The Bay Buffet” written in large cursive above it.

There was a large queue to get a table, but the girls were considered V.I.P., so they got to line up at the V.I.P. line, if you could call it a line really, since there was only one other lucky person there, who was already leaving. Sakura went up to the clerk and asked for a table for five.

“Very well, will you be using cash or check?”

“Oh, I have a V.I.P. pass.”

The cashier checked the card and said, “That’s odd, a group of young boys checked in not too long ago using the same type of card issued by the same person. And it seems that the only available table for five is next to their table.”

“So the guys are already here, huh?” Sakura thought.

“Okay, arigato gozaimasu.” Sakura thanked the clerk and walked over to the awaiting kunoichi.

“Looks like some of the guys are already here, and that we’re sitting near them.”

“Oh, does it matter?” Ino snapped, “I’m starving over here! I haven’t eaten anything since the party!”

“Okay, okay,” Tenten said, “Just calm down. We’re going in and we can get anything we want for free. You have plenty of time to gorge yourself before we hit the spas.”

A clean-cut waiter came and escorted the group to their seats, and as the clerk said, the guys had the table next to them. All the tables were circular, so the seating went as such: Sakura, Ino, Hinata, Tenten, and then Temari. The guys were seated: Naruto, Sasuke, Lee, Kiba, Choji, Shikamaru, Gaara, Kankuro, Neji, and finally Shino. The male ninja seemed so intent on their food, they didn’t notice the girls take a seat.

The girls left their purses on their chairs and went over to the buffet. It seemed that every possible food was laid out, and then some. Ino went off to the salad bar, Sakura went to find her beloved umeboshi, Hinata decided to try some gyoza, Tenten spooned some miso soup into her bowl, and Temari put some kamameshi on her plate.

Temari was one of the first to finish getting the food, since the kamameshi was one of the closest dishes to their table. She decided to walk by Shikamaru on the way back, who was slurping down some noodles. With her free hand, she pulled his hair tie out, and calmly strolled over to her seat. Naruto started laughing; almost choking on his ramen, and Lee and Kiba began to snicker.

Shikamaru looked up and obliviously asked, “What’s so funny?” unaware that Temari had let his hair loose.

“Oh genius…” Temari called from her seat where she stood waving the string back and forth with a playful smile on her face.

Shikamaru felt the back of the head and was alarmed to find his black hair flowing freely, reaching his shoulders. The Nara stood up and snatched the cord from his girlfriend.

“Nice to see you, too,” he said sarcastically, tying back up his hair.

Temari whispered in his ear, “You should keep it down. It looks so much sexier.”

This caused Shikamaru to turn bright red for a moment, but by the time he sat back down, he was his usual lazy, pineapple-headed self.

The sand kunoichi smiled as she started eating her food. Genii were so fun to play with.

Meanwhile, Sakura had a few umeboshi with her as she walked by Sasuke. She whispered, “Hey handsome,” into his ear without stopping. Sasuke paused for a second, but then continued drinking his tea with a smirk. Lee, unfortunately, was already watching Sasuke with utmost hatred throughout the meal, and happened to overhear Sakura’s comment, and was now absolutely livid, anime fire forming in his eyes. He was stabbing at his beef with such violence that it was amazing the fork, plate, and table didn’t break.

Hinata shyly walked by Kiba, who pretended not to notice she was walking by. Just when she was right behind him, he snatched one of her dumplings from off her plate.

“Kiba-kun!” The Hyuuga heiress exclaimed and tried to snatch the dumpling back.

“Uh-uh,” Kiba said while keeping the dumpling a safe distance from his girlfriend, “Please and thank you.”

Hinata sighed, knowing she wouldn’t get anywhere unless she listened to him.

“Kiba-kun, may I please have my dumpling back?” she asked, while making the sweetest face she could.

“Of course you may. Now, was that so hard?” The Inuzuka smiled while handing back her gyoza.

Hinata simply walked back to sit next to Sakura without answering.

Naruto was watching the whole incident and was talking with his inner self.

Ha! Hinata never gave you that face, did she?

“Well… no…” Naruto admitted.

Oh, so wouldn’t you say it’s too late to get Hinata?

“No, no, I can still get her! I know! I’ll ask her if she wants to walk to the park with me after breakfast!”

Okay, if you say so…

Tenten shuffled past Neji’s seat, feeling a little jealous. Even though none of the girls had said so, she knew that Temari was with Shikamaru, Sakura with Sasuke, and Hinata with Kiba. Tenten liked Neji, a lot. She had had a crush on him since they started as a team together as genin. The weapons specialist would’ve told the Hyuuga prodigy about it long ago, but whenever she went to, she would get embarrassed.

Tenten didn’t know, but Neji liked her as much as she liked him. But, hey, even prodigies and genii can get mixed up (A.K.A. Neji and Shikamaru.)

So, this is the great Hyuuga prodigy, eh? Inner Neji debuted.

“Hey, it’s not easy asking out a girl! Especially one as pretty, nice, kind, sweet, funny—“

Oi, lover boy, you’re trailing out.

“Oh… well, my point is I get all nervous whenever I get near her.”

Okay, just let me take over part of you after breakfast.

“Ugh… fine.” Neji ended his first talk with his inner self and went back to eating.

Ino walked past Choji, trying to get Sasuke to look at her, since he was sitting across from the Akimichi. At that time, however, Sakura whispered her comment to Sasuke, and Ino saw the Uchiha’s smirk.

“Ugh! That billboard-brow! She stole my Sasuke!”

Don’t worry! Just try to get him jealous!

Ino chose to go with her inner self and decided to play with Choji. After all, he was a close friend already, so it wouldn’t seem too odd if she didn’t do anything extreme. Just as she was walking by, the Yamanaka plucked one of Choji’s sushi from his plate and placed it on her own.

Choji turned around, his face a lot different from the “pleasingly plump” kind face Ino knew.

“Who took that?” He asked, not aware Ino did, “That was my…” He was cut short when he saw it was his childhood friend.

“Can I have it? The bar was all out by the time I got there. I imagine you cleaned it out when you got here.” Ino joked. This wasn’t entirely a lie, she really did like sushi, and the bar was all out.

“Oh, yeah, sure,” Choji smiled and went back to gulfing down his sashimi.

Shikamaru, for one, was shocked. Usually, Choji would’ve snatched the sushi back unless it was Shikamaru himself who took it.

“Oh, Choji has a crush on Ino, ne?”

Well, duh he does! You saw them dancing at the party.

“But what if Ino doesn’t like him back? I mean, she was trying to keep in Sasuke’s sight, for the most part. She’s probably using him to get Sasuke jealous.”

Tch, not working is it? He likes Sakura.

“But Choji really likes Ino. What happens when Ino goes too far and breaks Choji’s heart?”

I don’t know… We’ll have to wait and see.

Shikamaru was happy that his inner self wasn’t as annoying and bossy as before, and went back to breakfast.

Even though the guys got to the buffet before the girls did, they had a lot more food then the kunoichi did, so both groups finished at around the same time. Naruto set out to find Hinata, who was waiting at the entrance for someone. Before he could get to the Hyuuga heiress, however, Kiba was there, and he asked her something, though Naruto couldn’t hear. Hinata smiled but shook her head. The Inuzuka looked disappointed at first, but then smiled too, and waved good-bye before heading out to the park.

“Yes! She denied him! That means they aren’t officially going out!” Naruto thought triumphantly.

Well, smart one, go and ask her to go to the park with you!

“Oh, right!”

The Uzumaki ran over to Hinata, who had a kind, but confused smile on her face.

“Hi Naruto-kun, what’s up?”

“Oh, nothing, nothing,” Naruto said while rocking back and forth on his feet, looking everywhere but her, “So… Hinata… I was wondering… Do you want to go to the park with me?”

Hinata drew back, shocked. “Naruto-kun, th-thank you for the offer, but I’m going out with Kiba-kun right now.”

“What, you’re going out with dog-breath?!” The Uzumaki yelled, “But, but I saw! He asked you something just now! And, and you said no!”

“Naruto-kun, he asked me if I wanted to go to the park with him! And I said no because I’m going to the spa with the girls!”

“But…”

“Naruto…” For a split-second, Hinata looked mad, but she simmered down.

“That’s how she’s different from Sakura-chan.” Naruto thought, “If this was Sakura-chan, I probably wouldn’t be alive right now.”

“Naruto-kun, can you please not jump to conclusions anymore?”

The Kyuubi holder was taken aback, not only by how out of character that Hinata had just been, but also that she didn’t stutter anymore when she talked to him.

“I really like Kiba since he’s always been there for me, and you just didn’t see the obvious signs I tried to give. I’m sorry, Naruto-kun, but Ino and Temari calling me.” With that, Hinata left, leaving a shocked Naruto glued to the spot.

Sakura was a little later than the other girls, since she had to sign the check at the clerk’s window. When she did leave, Lee just “happened” to bump into her.

“Oh, I am sorry, Sakura-san.”

“Oh, that’s okay, Lee. Well I have to go now, so bye!” She waved and started on her way. Lee, instinctively, grabbed her raised arm, but quickly let go, blushing.

“Uh, Lee, are you okay?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine, but Sakura-san, I was wondering if you wanted to go…”

Before Lee could finish, Sasuke, who just happened to be walking by at the exact time that Lee asked his question, decided to pay his girlfriend a little visit. He moved in before Lee could finish, hugging her from behind and giving her a light peck on the cheek. Sakura was a little shocked, but then smiled when she saw the familiar face of her boyfriend.

“Hey Sakura,” he said, still holding her from around her neck.

“Hey Sasu-kun,” she replied, while smiling and holding onto his arms.

“So, Lee,” the kunoichi turned to face the crestfallen taijutsu user, “What was your question?”

“Oh, uh, never mind. I’ll see you later, Sakura-san.” With that he left, walking to the park entrance. The pink-haired kunoichi thought about her friend’s actions for awhile, but then shrugged it off, turning around to meet Sasuke’s face.

“So, Sasu-kun, what’s up?” She asked before giving him a light kiss.

“Oh, nothing, just headed to the park. Want to come?”

“Sorry, heading to the spa, got to go,” Sakura left to her friends, but turned around halfway, turned to Sasuke, said, “Don’t forget our dinner plans, ne?” and left to the awaiting Ino and Temari.

While all that was happening, Inner Neji was making himself go and tell Tenten about his feelings.

Trust me! I can almost guarantee that she likes you back!

“Almost sure she likes me, not 100% sure?”

Gah! Just go and ask her already!

Little did Neji know, while he had his conversation, he was grabbing his head and shaking it back and forth and Tenten saw the whole thing.

“Uh, Neji are you okay?” She asked with a worried look on her face, “Do you want me to get Sakura-san?”

“Oh, no,” The Hyuuga prodigy snapped up, “Uh… Tenten… I was wondering…”

“Yeah, you were wondering what?” The weapons mistress asked with a look on her face.

Neji saw the face and thought to himself, , crap! That’s my analyzing face! I can read emotions with that face! She must’ve picked it up somehow!”

Tenten, it’s just that… well…”

Crap, I have to say this quick before she sees too much!

“Neji, are you still here?”

“Oh, um… it’s just that… I-really-like-you…” Neji rushed the last words so his crush couldn’t hear.

“Sorry, I didn’t get that last part. What was it?”

The prodigy took a deep breath and said, “I really like you, Tenten, and I was wondering if you wanted to go to the park with me.”

The kunoichi had a shocked look on her face, so Neji’s high spirits momentarily dropped and he started to walk away.

Before he could, though, Tenten hugged him from the back and said, “I like you, too. No, not just that. I love you.”

Neji turned and hugged her back.

“So do you want to go to the park with me?” He asked while nuzzling his face in between her bun hair ties.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Neji,” Tenten said looking him up in the eyes, “I’m going to the spa. But we can go for dinner if you want.”

“Sure, that would be nice.” With that, he released his girlfriend from his hold and let her walk to her awaiting friends, who watched the whole thing. She was greeted with hugs from Sakura and Ino, a ruffle on the head and a “You did it!” from Temari, and a kind smile from Hinata.

The girls headed off the famous Konoha Bay spa while the guys went out to try Dark Matter.

The guys were walking over to the park, or rather; they were being dragged over by Naruto and Lee.

“Let’s go, let’s go,” Naruto yelled, “I want to get there before the lines get too long! Dattebayo!”

“We don’t need to hurry, baka, we have the passes, remember?” Sasuke said.

The Kyuubi boy froze in mid-step and turned to the boys laughing and rubbing his neck with an anime sweat drop rolling down his head.

“Ha-ha…” Naruto chuckled, “I-I knew that! We need to hurry because… uh… we need to… go there early so… we can ride more times before lunch!” The Uzumaki’s bright face returned, “Yeah, yeah, that’s it! Now, let’s go!” He turned around and started to walk, trying to hide his red face.

Kiba would’ve usually made a joke about Naruto at the time, but he was too busy thinking about how a certain blonde ninja was trying to bring a certain Kiba’s girlfriend to the park. The Inuzuka was currently throwing eye daggers at Naruto, and Akamaru, sensing his master’s anger, was also softly growling at the Kyuubi boy. Being the boy he was, he desperately wanted to see Hinata and get away from Neji who was glaring at the Inuzuka, knowing how the two were going out.

“That dog-creep better make sure he takes good care of Hinata-sama.” Neji thought to himself. Of course, this wasn’t the only thing he was thinking about. This is Hyuuga Neji, the Byakugan genius. He was capable of thinking about three or four things and still be able to walk and talk at the same time. The only other thing that was running through his head was his weapons mistress, Tenten. Even though they had only recently gotten together, Neji had liked Tenten for a long time. He could easily slip away from the crowd and visit her in the hot springs.

Just imagine what Tenten looks like in her swimming suit…

“Oh, great, I have a pervert for an inner self,” Neji thought regrettably.

Hey, need I remind you that this pervert got you Tenten in the first place?

“Tch, fine, whatever.”

Come on; just go to the springs already!

The Hyuuga genius finally decided to go with his conscience and snuck away from the group of boys. When he was a couple of yards away, Neji thought it was safe enough to jump up and get to the springs faster. In mid-air, he saw none other than Kiba and Akamaru a few meters ahead of him, also headed to the hotel. Overbearingly, Neji stayed a few paces behind the two, seeing if they were headed to see his younger cousin.

Now, Kiba and Akamaru, being the types of ninja they were, immediately noticed Neji’s scent and were thinking over what to do while jumping from ride top to ride top.

“What do you think we should do, Akamaru?” Kiba asked in a low voice.

“Ruff, ruff,” Akamaru replied.

Now for those of you who do not understand “dog” like Kiba does, I’ll translate Akamaru’s reply. Akamaru said that they should probably continue to the hotel.

“Yeah,” The Inuzuka replied, “you’re probably right. What’s so wrong about visiting your girlfriend?” So they continued jumping and Neji continued following.

Back with the rest of the boys, Shikamaru was lagging in the back of the group with Chouji. Even though it appeared Shikamaru was merely looking at the clouds above, he was actually thinking about a few things.

One; what would happen to Chouji once he finds out Ino was only using him to get Sasuke’s attention? Two; where was Temari and why did he miss her so much even though they had only recently gotten together? Three; how couldn’t have the other boys noticed Kiba and Neji had left? Shino, Sasuke, Gaara, and Kankurou probably noticed, and they, like Shikamaru, must have known the reason for their departure; their newly-found girlfriends. And four; why hadn’t Sasuke left to see Sakura?

Shikamaru had the ability to think each one through and get answers for all of them in about a minute or so. However, Shikamaru, being the lazy-butt he was, decided to only contemplate the one that seemed easiest; where was Temari? He had overheard some of the girls talking about going to the spa, so she was probably there too. A big part of him wanted to see the sand kunoichi, but another part felt guilty about leaving Chouji. What to do? Well, maybe he could ask Chouji to come with him. If Chouji met Ino, maybe another one of his questions could be answered.

So Shikamaru turned to look at eye-level again and rubbed the sore on the back of his neck. Then he whispered to his childhood friend, “Hey Chouji, do you want to ditch this troublesome thing and go see the girls?”

The Nara genius’s question made the Akimichi stop in mid-step and mid-bite. Did Shikamaru already know about his crush on Ino?

“Best not to take any chances,” Chouji thought to himself and murmured, “Sure, why not?” The two were about to take off when they were pulled back by the arms by Sasuke with his infamous smirk on.

“You guys…” the Uchiha paused as if to think, “…you guys are headed to see the girls, right?”

“Well…” Chouji almost answered him, but Shikamaru stuffed a few of the Akimichi’s chips into his mouth.

“So what if we are?” Shikamaru asked back. Sasuke jolted surprised. “Well, uh, I was wondering if I could…”

“Ksah, I’m stuttering! Better just say it out loud and get it over with…”

“I was wondering if I could come with you, just to see how Sakura’s doing…” The Uchiha tried to seem to space out on the last few words.

“Look at that, three pawns taken in one move.” Shikamaru smirked at his own analogy.

“All right, you can come,” the Nara genius decided, “but can we hurry this troublesome thing up? I don’t want Naruto to catch us.”

“Right, let’s go.” Sasuke agreed and the three jumped up and followed in Neji and Kiba’s path.

Now, Shino, being the boy he was, noticed the group’s departure the second Kiba purposely started lagging behind. However, Shino cared less where his teammate was going, and more what would happen to him on the rollercoaster. The twists and turns of Dark Matter would surely upset his bugs, and that is a sight no one wants to see. The Aburame decided to make a bug clone of himself and make it collapse when no one was looking. The real Shino left to collect more bugs in the gardens.

The only boys left going to the ride were Naruto, Lee, Gaara, and Kankurou, but not for long. Gaara and Kankurou decided to ditch the group and at that moment, Shino’s bug clone ungrouped and the bugs went back to their master.

When Naruto and Lee arrived at the gate, the Uzumaki turned around and yelled, “Alright, who’s ready to ride some Dark Matt…” The Uzumaki halted when he saw no one behind him.

“Naruto-kun, what is the…” Lee also stopped mid-sentence when he didn’t see the rest of the group.

“Aw… they ditched us!” Naruto yelled.

“That was indeed very un-youthful of them!” Lee hollered in agreement.

“So, what do we do now, ride or go find the boys?”

“Let us go find the rest of the group. Neji is probably visiting Tenten.” Lee smiled at the end.

“They’re a couple?!” Naruto yelled back.

“Of course they are!” the tai-jutsu user exclaimed proudly, “They both have liked each other for a long time now!”

“Well, let’s go spy on them! I remember Hinata saying that she was going to the spa with all the other girls, so let’s go-ttebayo!”

The two left the line, leaving a very confused ticket boy at the gate of Dark Matter.

While all of this was happening, the girls were leaving the spa to visit the hot springs.

“That spa was great!” Temari exclaimed in the lockers while everyone was changing into their bathing suits, “I’ve always been assigned really hard missions, so I don’t get to relax that much.”

“At least you get to go on hard missions!” Ino responded while pulling out her hair string like the others, “Our missions are always so boring!”

“Well,” Sakura said calmly, “let’s forget about missions for a second and relax.”

So the girls left the lockers with a towel wrapped around their bodies, concealing their suits and approached the hot springs doors. There were three doors; “Women”, “Men”, and “Shared”.

“Do you guys want to go to ‘Women’ or ‘Shared’?” Tenten asked nervously.

“Um… Well…” Hinata stuttered. She was turning a bright red.

“I think we should go to…” Sakura contemplated.

“‘Shared’ it is then!” Ino yelled and started dragging the girls toward the door.

“Chotto matte, Ino,” Temari protested and pulled herself free, “I don’t think it’s a good idea to go there, what with… recent events…” The sand kunoichi trailed off at the end, thinking about her “loyalty” to Shikamaru and the possible perverts in the shared springs.

“Oh, come on, it’ll be fun!” The Yamanaka insisted.

Temari sighed. Her friend would not take no for an answer, so she didn’t bother fighting back anymore. Besides, in her purse was her giant metal fan that was transformed into a smaller scale. Any possible perverts could easily be defeated.

All the other girls figured this out as well and each were perfectly capable of beating up any “Jiraiyas”. Sakura, Hinata, and Ino used jutsu, and Tenten had a scroll saved in her purse. Reluctantly, the four girls were herded into the “Shared” springs, but not quickly enough for Kiba to miss seeing Hinata’s black hair going into the “Shared” springs.

“Ha, perfect!” Kiba thought to himself, “I can surprise Hinata in the springs.” He ran to his hotel room to get his trunks, but once at there, Akamaru promptly fell asleep on the couch.

“Aw, come on Akamaru!” The Inuzuka whined, “Don’t you want to go visit Hinata?”

No answer.

“Fine, be that way!” Kiba promptly left.

“It’s probably for the best. The springs probably won’t let dogs in anyway.”

Meanwhile, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Chouji, and Neji had gone to their rooms for their swimming trunks and were currently going back to the hot springs, all at the same time as Kiba. So, as expected, they all bumped into each other into the halls.

Can someone say “Awkward”? All of them, even Sasuke and Neji, were turning some shades of red, though some were brighter than others.

Kiba was the first to break the silence. “Heh, well, this is an odd position… Um, well…”

“Since you both have swimming trunks like Chouji, Sasuke, and me, I’m guessing you are visiting the girls in the springs,” Shikamaru spoke up, addressed Kiba and Neji.

Kiba did a little anime jump, stuffed his hands into his pockets, and tried to look distracted while he was turning an even brighter shade of red.

Neji, on the other hand, looked shocked for a moment, but then returned to his normal arrogant self, and replied with, “Hn… Not bad, Shikamaru…”

“Well, considering Shikamaru was right, we can all hit the springs together.” Sasuke decided.

“Meh, okay,” Kiba replied, still a light shade of red, and trying to act like nothing happened.

From Neji and Shikamaru, there was only a “Hn,” while Chouji nodded and continued to eat his chips.

Once the boys arrived at the “Shared” hot springs door, they planned to get the girls back for the incident at the party, or rather; Kiba herded Sasuke, Neji, Shikamaru, and Chouji into doing it. Anyway, the plan was to again jump the girls from behind, but hopefully, the boys’ actions would be covered by the steam.

While this was happening, the girls were just relaxing in the hot water. Sakura was wearing a light pink bikini with small ribbons attached to the sides. Ino adorned a light blue bikini that had a white crisscross pattern on it. Hinata wore a blue-purple one-piece that was faintly bordered with white and had two large spaces on its sides which were larger in the center and got smaller when they reached her waist and upper chest. Tenten had a brown tankini with a blue trim. A sand orange bikini was what Temari was wearing as she unwound in the steam. The girls’ purses were safely behind them where no thief would dare to steal from.

“Ah, this is so nice, isn’t it?” Sakura asked dreamily.

“You said it!” Temari replied, “We don’t have these in Suna.”

“Are you serious?!” Ino asked, “Wow, I feel bad for you, Temari.”

“Um… Thanks?”

Following an awkward, yet relaxing, silence, Sakura excused herself to go to the bathroom. Afterwards, on her way back to the springs, she felt muscular arms hold her from behind in a warm embrace.

“What the…?!” the pink-haired kunoichi yelled as she prepared to punch whichever pervert had just approached her.

However, in mid-punch, her arm was held back by a strong hand and she was kissed. Sakura’s eyes widened, but then were comforted as they saw the familiar face of none other than Uchiha Sasuke.

After staying in that position for a while, Sakura broke the kiss and asked, “Why are you here?”

“What, you don’t want me to be?” Sasuke replied with a smirk.

“No, not that,” she said with a laugh, “it’s just I thought you were at the park.”

“Eh, I was, but the dobe was giving me a headache, so I decided to visit you.”

“I see… Well, I’d better be getting back to the girls. Besides, I’m freezing right now!” Sakura shivered as she was only wearing her bikini and a towel.

“Okay, wait here a second,” the Uchiha requested and headed for the Men’s changing lockers, leaving Sakura in front of the springs entrance very cold and confused.

A few minutes later, Sasuke came out with a towel wrapped below his shoulders, with his swimming trunks obviously underneath. Sakura blushed momentarily, but composed herself when they went through the spring doors.

Meanwhile, Temari, Ino, Hinata, and Tenten were still relaxing in the hot water. Suddenly, the peace was broken as none other than Kiba came into the water, almost yelling with delight.

“Kiba-kun,” Hinata shouted and covered her face as the aftermath of her boyfriend’s jump splashed her and her friends.

“Hey Hinata,” he yelled back and glided over to her through hot, choppy water, “what’s up?”

“You baka!” Temari shrieked. She, Ino, Sakura, Tenten, and Hinata were now completely doused.

“I’ve got a good mind to…” Her words were cut short as she felt her body freeze and she heard a lazy voice call out from behind her saying, “Ksah, woman, are you trying to pop out my eardrums?”

Temari was shocked for a minute but was then released from Shikamaru’s jutsu when he entered the hot water. The sand kunoichi turned to face him with a smirk on her face.

“Hn, so you finally decided to come, ne?” She asked.

In reply, Shikamaru merely shrugged and relaxed his arms on the sides of the springs, his hair let down to reach his shoulders. Temari calmly came over and rested her head on the Nara’s chest and began playing with loose strands of his hair while he lay back, enjoying it all.

Abruptly, Chouji was heard yelling by the door. “What do you mean ‘No food allowed’?” The Akimichi shouted at the counter attendant, “Are you trying to kill me?”

Ino sighed, “Oh man, Chouji’s at it again. Shikamaru, can you help me…” However, Shikamaru was, at the moment, almost asleep, and Temari as well.

The Yamanaka groaned. She would have to do this herself.

Ino climbed out of the water, wrapped a towel around her body, and stormed over to where Chouji was yelling, her long blond hair swaying side to side. When she finally reached her teammate, Ino yelled into his ear, “Chouji!” which shut him, the attendant, and basically everyone else in the springs up. It also woke Temari and Shikamaru from their almost-sleep, much to their dismay.

“Uh, yeah Ino?” Chouji asked.

“Could you just…” she didn’t want to say “shut up” to her old friend, no matter how loud he was, so instead, Ino said, “relax and come to the springs already?”

“Oh, okay,” the Akimichi replied with a smile on his face while trotting over and entering the hot water.

“Wow, this feels pretty good,” Chouji exclaimed.

“Wow, Ino looks awesome in her bikini,” he thought.

Now Sakura, who had found out what Ino was planning on for quite a while, was not only infuriated at what her friend was doing, she was also concerned for Chouji. They weren't as close as he and Shikamaru were, but friends nonetheless.

The pink-haired kunoichi thought to her self, “If I can somehow get Ino to like Chouji for real, maybe this whole thing will just blow over…” she sighed, “Wow, I’m in deep.

“Well,” Sakura thought as she was getting up, “might as well try,” and she walked over to Ino.

“Um, Ino, can I talk to you?” she asked.

“Sure thing, forehead,” Ino replied brightly and followed her friend to the near entrance of the springs.

“Uh, Ino, you do know how Sasuke-kun and I are… together, right?” she asked, trying to torture Ino a little.

Ino fumed on the inside.

“Gr, that little billboard brow! Sometimes she makes me so mad I just want to strangle her!”

Instead of almost killing the Haruno, she replied through gritted teeth, “Is that so? Well, congratulations.”

Sakura replied with a smirk and casually asked, “So, I saw you and Chouji dancing at the party. What’s the deal with that?”

The Yamanaka froze.

“How the heck does Billboard-brow know about this?!” Relax. She doesn’t know about anything. She’s just asking what happened with the dance with Chouji. Just take deep breaths and answer her already!

Ino decided just to say, “Uh, I just danced with him, that’s all,” and leave out the part about getting Sasuke jealous.

“Right…” Sakura replied, not fooled, “Look, Ino, I know what you’re doing. You’re trying to get Sasuke-kun to go out with you by trying to get his attention by pretending to like Chouji.”

“N-No I’m not!” The blond kunoichi retorted, trying to cover her plan.

“Ino, I’m not blind! And neither are the others! I can guarantee you that I’m not the only one who knows!”

The Yamanaka had a “come-let-the-floor-eat-me-up” expression on her face and hung her head.

“I’m sorry, then, Billboard-brow. I just couldn’t stand seeing Sasuke-kun someone other than me and I just… did something stupid; something that would hurt a friend, and I’m sorry.”

“Even though it’s a good apology, it’s not me you have to say sorry to,” Sakura replied.

Ino’s head looked up and she whispered, “Chouji,” and she and Sakura headed back to the springs.

They stood at the edge of the springs, right by their group of friends.

“Attention guys,” Sakura shouted, “Ino has something to say,” and she entered the water next to Sasuke, where his arm automatically held her in a hug.

“Um, yeah, so lately I’ve done something rather dumb and stupid to someone very close to me that really could’ve hurt them,” Ino stopped from her speech and took a sad look at Chouji, who Shikamaru had already informed the plan of while Sakura and Ino were talking, and was looking rather sad himself.

She continued, her voice slowly breaking up, “and when I finally realized that I shouldn’t have done what I did, it turns out everyone else had, too,” and she grinned a big smile, still Ino.

“And so, I’m sorry, Chouji. I use…” Ino started to confess, but she was cut off.

“Don’t worry, Ino, Shikamaru told me everything. And since basically everyone else here knows, too, then we should just forget this ever happened.” Chouji smiled and Ino was shocked. Even after all she had did, he had just saved her from humiliating herself.

Still, she entered the water and whispered a small thank you to Chouji and splashed him with a little water before swimming away, Chouji trying to catch her.

“Aww, that was so sweet!” Sakura commented, and the girls nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, but do you know what’s really sweet?” Sasuke huskily asked.

“What’s that?” she replied, looking into his eyes.

He murmured a quiet “you” before kissing her sweetly, with her obliging.

“Gag, come on you two, get a room,” Kiba yelled, and turned to Hinata, “and why don’t we do the same thing, ne?”

He advanced and Hinata turned bright red, but before their lips could touch, there was a loud roar from the entrance, “Oi! Dog-teme, get your hands off of her! Dattebayo!”

It was none other than Naruto and Lee behind him, and they almost ran into the water before the attendant said, “Uh, sirs, no running.”

“Oh, sorry,” Naruto replied, so he and Lee walked over to the rail, climbed in and calmly came over to where the rest of the group was watching them quite oddly.

“Okay, so where was I? Oh yeah! Oi! Dog-teme, get your hands…” the Uzumaki was cut off by Kiba’s even louder yell of, “She’s my girlfriend, you can’t stop that!” But at that, Neji came out of Tenten’s hold and shouted at Kiba, “I never gave you permission to date Hinata-sama!”

“Permission?! What is she, a piece of property?!” Kiba argued back.

And so the argument went, the three all yelling over who was dating Hinata, or in Neji’s case, who was “allowed” to.

Finally Hinata was sick of it, and came in between the three who which all immediately shut up because she actually had her Byakugan activated.

“Please stop fighting or I will be forced to use this.” Hinata strongly stated.

“Tch, please, I could beat you like that.” Neji retorted, and started to activate his.

“Please, Neji-nii-san, that is not the point of this.” The Hyuuga heiress deactivated her Byakugan and turned to face the three.

“It appears that there has been a misunderstanding. I am in fact dating Kiba-kun, and you should all know that well enough to not fight over it.”

The three looked down, ashamed.

Naruto was the first to speak up, as usual. “You’re right, Hinata, sorry.”

“I am, too. Can you forgive me?” Kiba asked with a puppy face on.

Hinata couldn’t help but giggle at her boyfriend’s actions and said, “Alright, I-I forgive y-you.”

“Back to normal Hinata, ne?” the Inuzuka asked jokingly.

“Tch, fine,” Neji stated, “I admit I can’t choose who you date, but I will be sure that if anything bad happens to Hinata-sama,” he turned to Kiba, “I will permanently every single one of your chakra points. Understand?”

The Inuzuka swallowed hard, “H-Hai.”

“Good,” the Hyuuga prodigy voiced, and he glided back over to Tenten where she thought it was best to just give him a light massage.

Now, with Lee, he approached Sakura and Sasuke after Hinata’s little fiasco with a shy look on his face. Sasuke’s arm was still protectively around his girlfriend’s arm and a stern look seemed to be engraved in his face.

“Um, Sakura-chan?” he asked, with a small blush on his cheeks.

“Uh, yeah, Lee?” the Haruno replied with caution.

“Um, I’m sorry for acting the way I did. I’ve realized that if you’re happy, then so am I.” At the ending words, the taijutsu master brightly looked up.

Sakura then smiled cheerfully as well and Sasuke loosened his grip around the pink haired kunoichi and even smirked.

After simmering in the hot water for a while, they all agreed to leave before they got dizzy and they would all meet at the park after resting for a time.