A/N: Another random idea that I came up with while day dreaming. I'm not completely satisfied with it, but I still hope that you guys will like it. I should've uploaded this a week ago for Valentine's but I never really managed to meet with my deadlines so here's a Valentine's fic a week late! Enjoy guys, and please leave a review once you're done! Thank you! :)
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!
"Hinata?"
"No."
"Haruno?"
"Taken."
"Tenten?"
"She's with Neji."
"Temari?"
"She'll kill you."
"What about Yamana-"
"No. Just no. Sasuke will rip your eyeballs and use them as door decorations."
Suigetsu rolled his eyes at his companion's comment before focusing them back to the road. Picking Karin up before going to school has become a habit that started back when they still went to Kiri and it was hard to break even when they transferred to Konoha Academy, which was in the opposite direction. Meaning, Karin's house wasn't along the way to school anymore but he never really minded the extra minutes he spends inside his car.
"No one will get their eyes ripped out if you just agree to be my date. It's just a onetime thing anyway."
"Seeing as I'm not the one who spread some bull about my non-existent girlfriend, this doesn't really concern me."
"But I need a date!" Suigetsu whined and poked her in the arm. "The stupid ball is tomorrow and I would really like it if it doesn't involve my public humiliation."
"Like I said," Karin rubbed her arm before throwing one of the peanuts that she was eating at him. "I don't want anything to do with this."
"You've got to help me here. Those guys from Kiri will never let me hear the end of it. I can already imagine Kisame's face when he finds out that I lied."
"That'll teach you to shut your mouth. Stop bothering me about this; go seduce a random girl or something. I heard Yuki from class 2 has a crush on you, she'll definitely agree if you ask."
"But my date has to be hot. No offense to Yuki, she's probably real cute, but she just isn't on par with the beauty queens."
Karin snorted at the nickname for their little group. If Sakura were here, she'll probably hit Suigetsu for that. And Temari would probably kill him, they both hated that name.
"As if you can make them agree with this," she said.
"Why won't they? I'm pretty hot myself," Suigetsu tore his eyes away from the road to wriggle his eyebrows at her.
Karin threw another peanut at him. "They have boyfriends, Suigetsu. And one of those boyfriends is named Sasuke. Sasuke will destroy your life if you even think of asking Ino to the ball."
"Oh please, I can just bribe him with tomatoes. He'll agree in a heartbeat."
Karin glared at him and threw another peanut while Suigetsu laughed and dodged.
"I'll just talk to them later."
"Whatever, " Karin sighed. "This is a bad idea."
"How bad could it be?"
"You're an idiot."
"Touché."
Suigetsu glared at Sakura and Ino. "That's not helping."
"Who said anything about helping? You know it brings us joy to see you miserable," Tenten's voice resounded from the second floor of the playroom.
Suigetsu scoffed at the comment and glanced around the room. Nearly everyone was present in what they referred to as their playroom, a small unit located inside the campus grounds that Naruto begged his father for. By small, it meant that it had two floors and could snuggly fit more than 15 people. The ground floor is mainly a living room with three couches arranged in a U pattern. There's a soda-restricted mini-bar behind the middle couch and beside the stairs. There's a flat-screen TV on one side of the wall complete with a bunch of speakers, game consoles, and a full set of instruments for rock band. On the other side, opposite the couches, is a pool table. The computers, which were currently being used by Tenten, were located upstairs where there's a small bed that Naruto uses whenever he forgets to go home.
Neji, Sakura, and Karin were currently occupying the leftmost couch while Naruto was sprawled in the middle one. Shikamaru was snoozing off on the last one to the right. Ino was sitting on the counter-top of the mini-bar while Sasuke sat on one of the high-stool chairs beside her. Hinata was sitting on the floor, her back against the couch that Naruto was sprawled on, his arm casually draped across her shoulders. They were only missing Temari, Kiba, and Juugo who had classes at the moment.
"Look, whoever helps me with this will get treated to unlimited Starbucks for a whole month," Suigetsu said crossing his arms and leaning against the pool table.
Several heads perked up at his comment.
"Did someone say Starbucks?" Tenten's head appeared along the railings of the second floor.
"No," Neji answered quickly before glaring at Suigetsu.
Tenten blinked before shrugging and disappearing.
Suigetsu groaned. "Come on guys, free coffee? I'll even be your personal driver for a month."
"A month?" Ino grinned.
"Yup," Suigetsu smirked.
"No," Sasuke said.
"But-" Suigetsu tried.
"No."
"Two-"
"No."
"What about-"
"No," Sasuke glared.
"Let me finish!" Suigetsu yelled and ran a hand through his hair. He could practically feel the I-told-you-so vibe coming from Karin.
"Yeah, teme. Let the guy finish his sentence," Naruto muttered against the couch.
"Hn."
"Suigetsu," Sakura called. "I understand that you don't want to be publicly humiliated-"
"For not keeping his mouth shut," Karin mumbled.
"-But why us?" Sakura continued, ignoring Karin's comment. "There're a lot of girls out there that can help you out."
"That's what I told him," Karin rolled her eyes. "He's hoping for a hot date. And that you'll help him."
"Then we will," Naruto grinned.
Suigetsu looked at him. "You'll let Hinata be my date?"
"Eh?" Hinata started.
"Eh? No! I didn't mean that! I meant we can help you find a hot girl to date," Naruto sat up and half-pulled Hinata to sit with him in the couch.
"But it's easier to act if it's you guys," Suigetsu said.
"I'd love to help but Gaara will be there and we haven't seen each other since last month," Sakura shrugged.
"Hinata?" Suigetsu asked.
"Um," Hinata blushed. "Sorry, I already agreed to go with Naruto three months ago."
"Three months?" Sasuke scoffed.
Naruto glared. "What's with that reaction?"
"Will you guys shut up?" Shikamaru grumbled.
"Nara, what about Temari?"
"Sure, if you have a death wish," Shikamaru yawned.
"I don't think it's a good idea to ask Temari-san," Hinata said.
"Agreed," Sakura and Ino nodded.
"Tenten?" Suigetsu turned to Neji.
Neji shook his head. "It wouldn't look good to have my girlfriend date someone else in a ball. I don't like it. I can't help you with this."
"Karin?"
"I already gave you my answer."
"But you're the only one here without a date!"
"I don't," Ino chirped.
Everyone paused and looked at her.
"You don't?" Suigetsu asked slowly.
"Having a date means someone asked you and you agreed right? If that's the case then no, I don't have a date," Ino said, ignoring the gradually darkening aura beside her.
Suigetsu glanced at Sasuke who looked like he was about to explode. He grinned, this'll be fun. "Then would you be my date?"
"I don't mind," Ino said.
"Ino," Sasuke said darkly.
"I'm done!" Tenten exclaimed as she bounded down the stairs to the door while waving a bunch of papers. "I'll just go pass these to Kurenai, I'll see you guys later."
Neji automatically stood up and followed her out. Shikamaru yawned and glanced at his phone, muttering something about 'troublesome girlfriends' before standing up and leaving with the other two.
"Where's he going?" Naruto asked.
"Probably picking Temari up for lunch," Sakura answered.
"Anyway, what are you going on about?" Karin narrowed her eyes at Ino.
Ino grinned and winked at her before addressing Suigetsu. "What time will you pick me up?"
"Seven sounds good?" Suigetsu was pretty sure that Ino's doing this to annoy Sasuke but he doesn't really mind playing along. The idiot probably didn't even bother asking her and just assumed that they're going together. That's a big no-no in Ino's book.
"Make that eight, I don't want to arrive too early."
"Leave the corsage to me," Suigetsu smirked.
"Make sure it's blue, it has to match my-" Ino yelped as Sasuke threw her over his shoulder and began marching up the stairs.
"Sasuke!" Ino gasped. "You chicken head! Put me down! Stop acting like a caveman!"
"You're going with me."
"No. Too forceful, try again."
The remaining people downstairs rolled their eyes in amusement at the couple. Contrary to popular belief, Sasuke and Ino weren't really fans of public display of affection so it's rare to see them actually act like a couple. They barely even hold hands in public and even when it's just their group, all they ever do is sit beside each other and the occasional hand-holding and hovering.
"Have they even kissed in front of us?" Karin voiced what was going on in everyone's mind.
"I don't think so," Suigetsu answered.
"I've seen them snuggle though, it was actually pretty adorable," Sakura grinned.
"Seriously? When did that happen?" Naruto asked.
"Remember the time when we had a sleepover at Ino's place? It was when everyone was playing twister downstairs, they both went to her bedroom and I followed, let's just say they forgot to close her door," Sakura said before noticing Hinata's rapidly reddening face. "Wait! No! They didn't do anything that shouldn't be done in a place full of people! They just snuggled for a few minutes."
"You should've taken a photo!" Naruto groaned.
"You were spying on them?" Karin raised her brows.
"I was too busy internally squealing to remember to take a picture. And shut up Karin, stop judging me, you would've done the same thing if you weren't too busy trying to reach the green circle at twister. And I'm sure everyone is starting to seriously question whether those two are actually physically attracted to each other."
"A human male not attracted to Ino physically? Is that even possible," Suigetsu laughed.
Karin glared at him. "I could say the same for Sasuke."
"Ino's way hotter than Sasuke," Suigetsu returned the glare.
"Are you telling me that you actually contemplated Sasuke's hotness?" Karin smirked then glanced at the clock. "I have to call someone; I'll just go out for a bit."
As soon as the door slammed close, Sakura stood up and crossed her arms.
"Why don't you just ask her out?" Sakura glared at Suigetsu.
"I did! But she won't agree," Suigetsu said defensively.
"Maybe because you made her feel as if you're asking her out of obligation," Hinata said.
"What?"
"What Hinata means," Ino's head popped along the railings. "Is that she might've thought that you didn't really want to date her, just that you asked her as an eye-candy for tomorrow night. I doubt Karin would settle for just that."
"Whatever, it's not like she likes me," Suigetsu grumbled.
"Idiot!" Sakura hit him in the head. "Why do you think she doesn't have a date until now? Karin's gorgeous and she could get a hot date whenever she wants to but she still doesn't have one!"
"Maybe she doesn't want to go."
"She's waiting for you, idiot," Sasuke said from upstairs. "Ask her out before some random jerk takes her."
Suigetsu snorted. "I really don't want to hear that from someone who just asked his girlfriend two minutes ago."
"Just do it! Stop chickening out," Naruto nudged him to the door.
"I am not chickening out!" Suigetsu blushed.
"Then move," Sasuke scoffed.
"And make sure she knows the real reason you're asking her," Sakura glared.
"Ugh. Damn it, fine!" Suigetsu groaned before moving towards the door.
"Be prepared to get hit for being so slow!" Ino called.
"Yeah yeah." Suigetsu sighed. Taking a hold of the doorknob, he tried to steady his rapidly beating heart. He's actually doing this? He knew that he liked Karin and he actually kinda knew that she liked him too. But would it be worth it to risk their friendship for something more?
'Ask her out before some random jerk takes her.'
"As if I'll give her to anyone else," Suigetsu scoffed to himself, pushing the door open. "I'm not stupid enough to let that happen."
A/N: Thank you for reading! I hope you guys liked it. And I know it's a bit rushed and the ending is a ridiculous cliffhanger but I was trying to get this done before February ends. So Belated Happy Valentines everyone! Have a cookie!
a shadow eagle