Twenty Questions:

AN: OMG I'M SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG! But it's here and I hope it doesn't disappoint! Thank you for everyone that reviewed, favorited, followed and messaged me to keep me going! :) you're all awesome!

As for some questions: I guess specifically I'm following the Japanese school system year where it's 3 years to high school and the school year starts in April. So right now in the story, they're ending February and entering March, which is the last quarter of their second year. The soccer club...this I am assuming since soccer is played outside will start their tournaments and championship in spring and through first part of summer. And if it isn't...just play along with me, please and thank you! :) (Ugh, sorry I had made this so complicated...)

Don't worry about Ino seeming like a b*tch...it's not really...I can't say anymore or I'll spoil it! But don't worry, she's not! Gaara...is misunderstanding everything bahahaha and since he's so awkward with girls...everything just makes it worse for poor Gaara baby.

And some terms (though I realized, I probably shouldn't have used Japanese honorifics in case some of you aren't familiar with it...but I've already included it in the first two chapters...)

Sensei - teacher

Senpai - addressing an upperclassman

San - more of a formal way of stating someone's name

Kun - informal way of stating someone's name (sometimes endearingly)

Chapter 3

Day 4 (continued): Thursday

"He-hello, Sabaku-san."

The indigo haired girl stares up at him timidly, falling more into the neckline of her huge sweater.

"Hyuuga-san. 'Morning."

She backs up further, hitting the wall of the hallway.

Without fail, the idiot coach's transcript showed up right before practice this morning. Shizune, the principal's assistant, stomped across the field noisily and threw the wad of paper at Jiraya-sensei, all the while screaming atrocities at how he shouldn't leave obscene things laying around for innocent students to stumble across.

Right after that, chaos erupted. Kiba and Naruto complained about false accusations, some boys hooted to know who stole it, others scrambled to try and catch the document flapping in the wind, and Sasuke, the vice captain, walked off the field in resignation for the day.

They are never going to get into shape for spring championship at this point.

Though he may be reserved, Gaara is no saint.

Weaseling information out of Shizune-sensei was delightfully easier than he had originally imagined.

Turns out, it was Konoha High's very own angelic princess. Oh the irony.

"Where did you find it?"

Her eyes widen and the corners of her lips twitches downwards like a terrified rabbit. "Find w-what?"

"The manuscript." He narrows his eyes at her. The Hyuuga looks like she is ready to melt into the wall at this point.

Cocking his head to the side, he regards her movements.

Her brows furrow, then they straighten out in recognition, and then she blushes madly, eyes darting to the floor...in embarrassment...adoration...or is she just scared out of her wits because of him? Damn, he's really bad at reading emotions unless they were on the soccer field.

"Oh...that." Well, someone obviously took a peek at the lewd writing.

"Yes, that."

"S-Sakura-chan gave it to me and told me to return it to Tsunade-sensei. She s-said they just found it laying around."

"Thanks." He replies curtly and notices how she's still gripping onto the wall with great force. "Sorry about that." And he takes off, not a moment to waste.

As he makes his way down the hall, he throws a glance back at the terrified and confused pale-eyed girl.

If it gets around, he'll hear it from Neji. Gaara sighs, he's really not good at dealing with people...humans in general. The raccoon living in his backyard likes him better than most of the people he knows. Somehow, the planets aligned for him to become captain of the soccer team and though he's gotten slightly more sociable, he thinks it's partially his team that learned how to deal with his bluntness also.

And of course fate takes him from one spectrum of emotions to another. Hyuuga may be easy to coerce information from but Haruno, on the other hand, can get snappy quick.

He finds her in the science teacher's lounge, making copies of handouts for class.

To be honest, he knew she was a teacher's pet...but seriously, to this extent?

She glances up and catches his raised eyebrow-look.

"What?" She snaps at him, one hand on her hip and the other hand smashing buttons on the poor abused machine, creaking and screaming as it continually was put to work.

He's definitely caught her at a bad time.

"It's punishment for throwing Naruto out the window." Sakura grumbles, apparently not ecstatic about being the paper girl now. Gaara wasn't going to ask, but sure, that was a pretty good excuse.

"Sakura, Sakura! You'll never guess what just happened!"

A high pitched voice, not belonging to him pierces through the door as it slams open.

Yamanaka Ino bursts through the doorway with the strength of a hurricane, nearly blowing him away.

"Er," The blonde pauses, eyes sliding back and forth between the two and Gaara starts to panic.

"Am I interrupting something...?" A mischievous grin slides across her features. He nearly breaks out in cold sweat. He does not need the two loudest girls assuming things.

"It's not what you think, pig." Sakura rolls her eyes, stifling a laugh from the apparent distress stricken over his face.

"And since Gaara was here before, he can go first." Sakura jabs at the 'copy' button again, starting a new packet.

Ino pouts in protest but promptly swings herself onto a nearby desk, her hair in the signature high ponytail and still dressed in her archery club uniform, glove and all. She flashes him a smile as she settles in quietly.

He nods in appreciation.

"I was told you found Jiraiya-sensei's manuscript?"

The rosette throws a quick glance his way, "Yeah, Ino-pig and I found it this morning." She waves by the fact that the material is quite X-rated and Ino giggles at the mention.

Well...

Now that makes it a bit more complicated for him. They could be telling the truth...or they could be in cahoots and be each other's alibis.

He presses his lips into a thin line.

Sure, they're both overwhelmingly loud and competitive-but cruel? He just didn't see it in them.

"Where did you find it? Did you happen to see anyone nearby it?"

"Eh? Are you looking for whoever took it?" Sakura starts attacking the stack of papers with the stapler.

"Yeah."

"It was laying right in front of Ino's locker. I didn't see anyone around really. Did you?"

She grazed over the statement as if it held no importance.

Gaara turns his gaze to the blonde. In front of her locker?

Surely if they are in it together to make him miserable, they wouldn't divulge something so obvious, right?

The blonde purses her lips, "I don't think so? I think there were a few guys milling around but no one I recognized."

He gives both of them a long, hard look. Neither of them show any type of suspicious activity.

Ino taps her chin in contemplation. "I think Suigetsu and Juugo from class 2C were outside the building when we entered. Other than that, I can't think of anyone else there. Sorry."

"Ah, that's fine. Thanks though." He nods, looking around awkwardly, not sure if he should leave or stay.

Quickly deciding to leave the two to their own devices, he's not one for girl gossip, he turns and starts for the door.

What should he write to the book thief next? What could help him weed out the possibilities?

Color? Food? Hobbies?

He stops abruptly, swinging back to the two girls who stare back at him owlishly.

"What's your favorite color?" He asks, already knowing the answer, but he just wants to affirm that so he knows who to rule out. Pink and purple.

Sakura and Ino blink. Then they turn to each other and then back at him.

"Me or Sakura?"

"Both."

Ino snorts. "You can already guess Sakura's favorite color."

The rosette glares at her friend. "I had no choice, it's natural, you brat." She swings her gaze towards Gaara. "And for the record, my favorite color isn't pink. It's red! And for the other part of the record, Ino's favorite color isn't purple even though that's all this pig buys!"

It's not? Damn. Favorite color might be a bit harder than he thinks. Sakura's is red and Ino's is...?

"What's your favorite color?"

She laughs nervously and shifts her eyes towards the pink haired girl briefly. Her usual composure changes and Gaara's not too sure but Yamanaka Ino looks like she's shy...

That can't be right. She's anything but shy.

"Sea foam green..." Ino mumbles.

He raises a non-existent eyebrow. Oddly specific for a color.

"AND violet! That's different from purple, okay?" She exclaims, albeit still fidgety.

"You can't have two favorite colors. Which one is your favoritest of favorites?" Sakura shoots a smirk, hands on hips.

"That's not even a word! And I thought you're the smarter one with that forehead!"

"You're avoiding the topic, pig."

"What's wrong with liking two colors?!"

Ah, he's been forgotten.

"Nothing wrong, I'm just asking you which one you like more."

"It's not even your question to begin with. Gaara seems fine with my answer."

"No, I'm reiterating his question. He didn't ask you for your favorite colors. It's color. Singular."

Ino seems red in the face. He's not sure if she's blushing or if it's natural when she's arguing with Sakura one-on-one. Though he sees no reason for her to be blushing anyway.

"Jeez, the teacher's science lounge isn't a place for you guys to hang out."

Sakura and Ino jump, eeping in surprise at the newcomer. The blonde sticks her tongue out indignantly as soon as she realizes who the other redhead is.

Karin snorts as she strides past Ino and Gaara, sparing him a smirk, wholeheartedly ignoring Ino, and then towards Sakura.

"You're quite slow at this, Haruno."

"Why don't you do it then?"

"It's not my task." Karin crosses her arms, the stare down with Sakura evidently is happening with Gaara still present.

"Then don't tell me how to do my job." Sakura hisses.

There's a slight tug on his sleeve and he turns towards the blonde girl.

She presses a finger to her lips and motions with her head towards the door. Shhh.

Then she takes off, his sleeve still within her grip.

He flies out of the room, towed by Ino and she breaks into laughter as soon as they're away from the doorway.

"Trust me, Gaara. You do not want to be around when they're at each others throats."

He shrugs off her grip, the warmth left behind from her hand feels odd to him.

"Ah, thanks. Didn't know Sasuke can cause fights without being present."

Ino giggles at the statement and grins. "I guess that's just some fuel to the fire. But it's honestly not always about Sasuke-kun."

Gaara's not sure how it happened but they're walking together down the hallway now.

"Not always about Sasuke?"

The blonde smirks. "He's pretty good eye candy, doesn't hurt to have him around." She places a finger on her lips and winks. "Don't tell anyone I said that."

His stomach flutters oddly.

"Aren't you supposed to defend your love for him?"

She shrugs, skipping slightly besides him and he realizes he's walking quite fast.

"Love's a rough word, isn't it? Besides I've liked him for the entirety of my childhood with unrequited interest. People do move on, you know."

"But you're still president of the fan club."

"You can't give up positions of power that easily."

He nearly, nearly laughs at the solemnity in her voice from the statement. It's quite a feat.

"And the other two?"

She fixes her uniform and he quickly averts his eyes. Not that she's showing any skin with the heavy archery uniform anyway...but he feels jumpy just thinking about it for some reason.

"Well you know, they're both big nerds."

"So are you."

She pauses in step and cocks her head, staring at him.

"What?"

"You're...quite sassy today. What's up?"

"What."

Ino laughs, the throw-her-head-back laughter and somehow, this time he can't take his eyes off her. Blonde hair flying haphazardly and her eyes squint together-her natural laugh-not the one she does around the Uchiha.

"I think this is the most we've talked in the two years in high school, Gaara."

"Is it?" He didn't say that's what he thought of too. But it isn't bad...so far.

"Yep!" Ino chirps, they continue down the hallway. "Anyway, Sakura and Karin are competing for a science scholarship to Konoha U."

"Aren't you going into sciences too?"

She shrugs, a slight pout appearing and he averts his eyes from her lips. "I think I'll ride the sports scholarship first. Then maybe something in business?"

Sounds awfully close to what he is thinking too...not that he put that much thought into it either. Soccer has always been his priority since he found enjoyment in the sport.

"Sounds quite similar. Better not be taking my scholarship, Yamanaka." He's not sure where that came from but it flew out of his mouth before he knew it.

She raises an manicured eyebrow at him, lips twitching. "Are you making a joke?"

Gaara pauses, eyeing her evenly. He's never really noticed it before but...she is quite of easy to talk to when she's not screeching randomly. Perhaps this really is how Shikamaru and Ino became childhood friends and stayed friends since diapers.

"Yes. If you're going for the soccer scholarship...then we can't be friends."

She grins at him and he can't help but throw back a smirk. Who would've known.

"A-Ah...Gaara-senpai...Good morning!"

The redhead stops. He didn't even realize they are already at his locker.

"Oh...Matsuri. 'Morning."

Matsuri waves awkwardly from her spot in front of his locker, her other hand twisting the loose thread on her sweater.

Oh...no...

If what the guys had been talking about yesterday were correct...then he will need to tread lightly. And unfortunately he's quite heavy footed. Damn.

Beside him, the blonde had gone silent and he notices that the rosy hue on her cheeks is gone.

"Well I gotta go change. See you in class, Gaara." She pats him on the arm lightly and takes off, her eyes not meeting his.

"Ah, see you."

He circles around Matsuri and blinks at her as she stays rooted on the spot, stammering. Opening his locker, he slides the one strap of his backpack off his shoulder.

"Did you need something?" Gaara mentally curses as she flinches.

"Well...uhm...you-you see..." She pauses, her eyes locking onto something right over his shoulder. "What's that?" The copper-haired girl blurts, her finger pointing right at him.

Following her direction, he turns back towards his locker.

Fuck.

That.

He had forgotten this is when it usually comes back to him.

"It's nothing." He grabs the atrocity and shoves it in his bag. "You were saying...?"

She pauses, a little alarmed at the sudden action and Gaara prays she doesn't pursue the topic. Given her surprise, he can definitely rule her out as the writer. That's quite a good dodge for him.

"O-Oh...well the practice match between Sarutobi Academy and Kaguya High is next Saturday...I was wondering...if you'd like to go and see them w-with me..."

His celebration was too soon.

"Haku can't make it?" He replies quickly, and realizing soon enough his mistake. Matsuri stares widely at the floor, stumbling over her words and eyes bright and shiny.

Oh fuck.

He's done it. He's going to go down as the asshole who inadvertently is insensitive. She's going to cry and it's going to be all over town...aka...the soccer club.

But he didn't really want to go with just Matsuri...that might lead her on...on whatever it is that she's trying to do.

"I'll...take a look at my schedule and let you know later."

"Of course!" She brightens up immediately and he dies a bit inside. Only a fool would have missed that light in her eyes at his reply. He's digging his proverbial grave at this point. "I'll see you tomorrow, Gaara-senpai!" And she dashes off before he can spout anything else.

He resists the urge to slam his head against the lockers and instead, fishes out the letter and rips it's open.

Hello Gaara,

I find boxer briefs pretty hot too...teehee. Anywho, the manuscript has been returned! Yes! And let's just say I know some people who owe me favors and that Jiraiya-sensei doesn't exactly keep the important things in his office locked up soundly. It was a quick and easy swipe. I'm sorry for the mess it had caused with the soccer club. It was not my intention to ruin practice for you, I just needed a way to make sure you will see this game to the end...

Oh, damn right. He's not going to let her get away so easily for disturbing their practices. And if this brat thinks that little apology is going to be taken, she's quite mistaken.

Anyway, for my second question...dun dun dun...what's your favorite food?

He raises an non-existent eyebrow at the harmless question.

So, you know, I can cook it for you when I become your wifey (smiley face)

Once again, he thought good of it too soon.

Where the hell did this chick come from? And if she fell off the Sasuke bandwagon, he'd gladly help her get back on. She is certified nuts.

Sighing, he skims the random hearts and smiley faces at the end of letter and turns it over. Scribbling messily on the back of the letter, he starts his own. Maybe if he exchanged letters twice a day with her, this ridiculous game will end sooner and he can outright reject the questionable stalker.

#3: What's your favorite color?

He'll humor her until the time comes.

Dropping the letter off at the library, he dashes to class. Not that he really needs to hurry-Kakashi-sensei is known to show up to class later than every student he has taught.

But to his surprise...and the rest of the class, as they sit erect and slightly terrified, at the sight of their homeroom teacher walking through the doorway.

Kakashi-sensei stood at the front of the room, and not only is the one-eyed teacher on time, he is early to class.

Sitting down as quietly as possible, he shoots the other guys an inquisitive look. Shikamaru rolls a shoulder in a half-assed shrug.

"Good morning," He eye-smiles at them, the signature scarf muffling his drawl. "Looks like everyone is here, so I'll get started."

Grabbing the messy stack of papers from his briefcase, he slaps it onto the equally disorganized desk. "So it seems like this is your last quarter as second years. Come April, you'll all be entering your third year...and that means getting ready for college exams and careers and whatnot."

Kakashi-sensei pauses to stare at the quiet class, the ominous cloud buzzing around them.

Since when did the lazy poof-head care about what their future plans are? He usually didn't even know what their next lesson plans are until that day.

"And to broaden your horizons in the important decisions you'll be making in the future, I am going to assign you one big assignment for the rest of the quarter. Pass or fail. It is worth 75% of your grade. The other 25% is from attendance and miscellaneous homework."

The class collectively groans and Gaara would roll his eyes if it isn't too out of context. Of course their lazy teacher would do something to make his own life easier.

"Now this assignment will be done in pairs."

Immediately, the class shifts and he sees dozens of eyes staring his way-actually right past him...to Sasuke.

The dark-haired boy tries not to shuffle in his seat and instead glares right back at Kakashi-sensei.

"Pairs that I have already decided." All eyes shift back to the teacher. "On a non-bias basis." He adds quickly before clearing his throat.

"Adulthood is a lot of teamwork and collaboration-whether it is in the workplace or personal. Now this assignment will help you work on that aspect of being able to compromise and work well with others. It's fairly easy, you see this color palette?" He holds up an intense chart, probably with color swatches taken from a paint shop. "In pairs, you will pick 20 colors of your mutual liking and make a photo book of those colors and what you associate it with."

Gaara could only crawl under a rock. A drawn out creative team project is...not his forte. And he's gnawing at the idea which unhappy fangirl is going to end up with him as a partner instead of Sasuke. The odds are quite against him.

"Now onto the topic of the pairs I have chosen. I have done this randomly...based on your last take-home quiz."

From somewhere, Gaara heard a "That's not random at all!"

"The two students with the closest test scores are paired. First pairing, with 100% match on all the questions...even though some of them were subjective..." Kakashi-sensei pauses and squints, "...is Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto."

The entire class-females in the class erupts in clamor.

"WHAT?! How is that possible?!" Tayuya complains loudly from the front.

Across from her, Kin just wails, something along the lines of "That's not fair, Naruto-baka already gets to sit next to Sasuke-kun!"

Much to his surprise, Karui snaps at both girls to quit whining over such a trivial thing since it's making her headache worse.

In the other corner, Sakura shares a look crossed between bewilderment and murder. Ahead of him, Karin is straight murder. Aimed right at her blond cousin.

Beside Sakura, he could see Ino, her face downcast and shoulders shaking.

Didn't she say she isn't in love with Sasuke?

He squints at the blonde girl, shaking and turning purple.

And then he realizes it as soon as she dives her head into Hyuuga's chest (much to the jealousy of the guys in the class) and bursts out in laughter.

Oh.

Oh.

She had been holding in laughter. Her eyebrows wrinkled and eyes squinted shut. She's really laughing...and not her fake chortle.

Ino chokes out a long-suppressed laugh and Hyuuga turns bright red in the blonde girl's clutches, to the point where Sakura slaps herself on the forehead in resignation.

Most of the girls in class quiet down after Ino's outburst-their Sasuke fan club president. To which, Gaara can only assume they think she went hysterical.

The corner of his lips twitch upwards minutely and she catches his gaze and gives him a quick smirk before turning back to an eye-rolling Sakura.

"Moving on," Kakashi-senses clears his throats, "Our second pair is Hyuuga Hinata and Inuzuka Kiba."

More eyebrows shoot up this time than the last pairing.

"Naruto and Kiba...if you're going to copy off of Sasuke and Hinata...try not to copy everything completely, even the opinionated questions."

Sakura chokes on air and Ino bursts into laughter again, hugging the indigo-haired girl, whom shrunk even further into her sweater, completely bright red.

Gaara glances behind him and catches Sasuke's...expression...

The usual stoic boy is crossed between relief that he's not stuck with a fangirl and pissed that Naruto is an idiot that copied his take home test verbatim.

The expression itself...made him snicker under his breath and he averts his eyes back to the front.

"Third pairing, is Haruno Sakura and Uzumaki Karin."

The outburst this time is only between the two girls and Kakashi-sensei seamlessly continues despite their whines.

"Tayuya and Dosu. Shikamaru and Karui..."

Gaara starts to tune him out. The excitement earlier wearing off and his entire morning of running around is taking a toll as the room is nice and warm compared to the crisp air outside.

"...and Gaara. Kin and Kimimaro. Zaku and..."

He blinks, he had completely missed who he is paired up with.

Glancing around the room quickly for any clues, he's met with sapphire eyes.

Ino grins at him, flashing a thumbs up quickly before turning back to the front as Kakashi-sensei finishes up the teams.

Huh?

"Now, go sit with your partners and we'll go ahead and rearrange the seating charts from there."

Wait...?

His eyes trail over to where the blonde girl is as she's gathering her things. Kiba is already beside Hyuuga, waiting on Yamanaka to vacate her desk.

There's no way...of all people for him to be matched up with her...right?

Blonde hair blocks his view and his heart nearly leaps out in surprise.

He's losing focus more often than not now...

"Guess we're partners for this odd project!" Ino laughs as she plops onto the seat beside him-Kiba's previous seat-and moves her desk a bit closer to his, all the while chatting nonstop.

He feels his hands get sweaty. He's partners with Yamanaka Ino. For the rest of the quarter.

Kakashi-sensei basically threw him to the sharks.

What is he supposed to say? Supposed to talk to her about for weeks? He's barely had any contact with her for the last two years or so, and then this?!

He slides a glance at her as she chirps on about how completely random this project is but it shouldn't be too difficult.

Gaara chokes on that last statement. He's already finding it difficult. His eyes flit to where Kiba is grinning at a blushing Hyuuga, Sakura and Karin are in the process of negating each other's existence, and Shikamaru is asleep while Karui fixes a chip on her nail polish.

Okay.

Actually being paired with the smiling blonde isn't so bad. She's being friendly. And from what he's concluded from the previous experience...she's not that bad.

So he needs to stop inwardly freaking out.

"Hey Gaara," he turns to her as she fishes out her phone, "What's your number?"

He freezes on the spot.

"Huh?"

"Your number?" She tilts her head, "So we can coordinate things for the project during weekends or whenever?"

"Oh. Right." Really, he shouldn't get ahead of himself, assuming things.

She's friendly to him. They're in a project together. There's a girl stalking and writing letters to him.

There's no concrete evidence that it's her. Not at all.

Thinking of the letter writer and her stupid prank makes his blood boil and he glances at the blonde beside him adding her number into his phone and humming to herself.

Pleasantly.

And it feels strange...but not unwanted to his own surprise.

The rest of the day passes almost in a blur. After exchanging ideas-which Ino, whom insisted that he calls her by first name-has already thought of an idea for their project and he wholeheartedly agreed with. Then she dashed off to play interference on Sakura and Karin.

It had been an eventful day, not too bad of one and he nearly forgets about the letter until he opens his locker end of day.

Lo and behold, his magical day crumbles and he grumbles, ripping the letter open and skimming the contents quickly.

My favorite color? Of course, it's the color of your eyes. I could get lost in that space between sky and sea. You know, the color of your eyes is quite beautiful.

That made him want to vomit. Ugh.

You're quite the one with short words, but hey, I guess I didn't specify for this letter. At least you're "talking" to me now! Yay! As for gizzard and salted...uhm you've got quite exotic taste there!

My third question...hmmmm...what's your least favorite food? (So I can avoid making that for you. Wink wink wink)

He grinds his teeth at the end of the letter and sighs in defeat. Pulling out a pen from his bag, he scribbles 'sweet bean jelly' and with an afterthought, writes the same question as she did before.

#4: Whats your favorite food?

The librarian looks at him funny as he strides past her, second time in the same day. If he was her, he'd be confused too. This is the most he's ever been in this place.

After dropping off the letter he heads towards the building exit, only to see a familiar blonde head.

They usually leave at the same time, he shouldn't be thinking too much of it. But he's never been this aware of her. She is bent slightly over, fixing her shoe.

His phone vibrates and he checks the screen quickly as he walks by.

[Temari-nee is back for the weekend or something. She's cooking tonight. Make sure you're home on time. I ain't eating her cooking solo. -Kankurou]

He snorts to himself. The idiot brother should've just not mentioned it if he wanted Gaara to suffer too.

"What's so funny?"

The phone almost went flying.

Shit.

He turns to the side to see the blonde, stepping alongside him, head cocked in curiosity.

"Did I scare you?" She chuckles, "I didn't mean to, but you were smirking and snorting to yourself."

Slightly ashamed for being caught in his own bubble, he averts his eyes. She chuckles again to his chagrin.

"My sister is in town...and she's making dinner tonight."

"Oh?"

He pauses, guess they're heading in the same direction. Wherever it is. Or is he following her pace now?

"Well her cooking...isn't edible."

Ino snorts this time. "You gotta start somewhere."

"For as long as I've existed. I think I've given her enough time."

"You're being harsh."

"She used vanilla soy milk to substitute for regular milk in beef pasta."

"Oh? Oh. Oooooh...nooooo."

"Yeah."

Then she starts to giggle and he looks over, her face partially covered by the light scarf. The late afternoon weather a bit chilly.

"So you're going to eat before coming home?"

He blinks, "How did you know?"

"You don't usually head in this direction." She shrugs nonchalantly. "I'm actually going to have early dinner with Shikamaru and our friend Chouji. Want to join?"

He pauses, almost turning down the offer. But why? He had planned on eating alone since Naruto left to meet his parents and Sasuke was nowhere to be seen-not that he'd actually seek out the other unsociable guy to hang out with. Shikamaru...on the other hand...went missing during the later half of the day. He had assumed the genius took a nap and had forgotten about class.

"Sure."

"Really?" She twists towards him, grabbing onto his sleeve, "Yay! Chouji's parents own this really awesome barbeque restaurant!"

Her enthusiasm starts to rub off onto him and he obliges, letting the blonde drag him along.

It's not too bad, he muses.

"Gaara-senpai?"

Ugh, can't his bubble stay complacent?

"Haku?" He turns to greet the other girl, to see that the dark haired girl has company. "Matsuri."

"Where are you going?" Haku shamelessly stares at the blonde.

"Hi! I'm Ino!" She flies forward, extending a hand towards the other two.

"I'm Haku, and this is Matsuri." The dark haired girl states as the other one stammers and bows to their upperclassmen.

He glares at the two intruders and decides to move before he gets wrapped up in something he'll regret.

"I'll see you two at practice tomorrow. Have a good night."

"I think we're heading in the same direction. Where are you two going?"

Damn Haku and her persistence.

"Dinner with some friends!" Ino chirps from beside him and he could roll over and freeze on the sidewalk right about now.

The nosy soccer manager is not someone to delve any news that could become gossip to.

"Oh really? Matsuri and I were just trying to figure out where to eat also!" Matsuri only stammers unintelligible sounds at them.

Oh no. No no no...

It's already awkward enough that he's going with Ino to meet her childhood friends, he didn't need the two managers of his club tagging along.

"Mind if we join you?" Haku and her tenacity and Ino and her generosity accepts.

Damn them all.

Buzz

He glares at his phone screen before opening the message.

Rereading it, Gaara decides, Kankurou is a saint. He'll have to remember to be nicer to the guy.

[Actually come home asap. Dad's back too. Some important shit or something-Kankurou]

"I have to go home actually. Something came up."

He glances up at the three women. Ino's lips tighten slightly but she continues to smile.

"Oh, don't worry about it! Next time!"

Nodding in appreciation, he moves his gaze to the other two.

"See you tomorrow then, Gaara-senpai." Matsuri blushes and mumbles out.

"Okay." Haku stares skeptically at him. "Have a good night."

As he takes off, he hears the dark-haired girl. "Actually, we forgot we had arrangement with Zabuza today. We'll have to take a rain check too, Ino-senpai."

"Eh?" Matsuri's oblivious.

"Oh, okay. Well have fun..." He could hear Ino's confusion.

In all honesty...he did feel kind of bad for ditching Ino's hospitality but also relieved that he's out of range of the other two.

Even an idiot can catch onto Matsuri's feelings towards him and Haku's advances to help her friend out.

He'd rather they didn't do that in front of Ino. It felt odd, and a bit embarrassing.

I owe you one, Kankurou

But of course, he wouldn't tell his brother that.

Day 5: Friday

Practice took off well. Nothing imminent happened and Sasuke didn't walk off the field in protest. He'd manage to avoid a one-on-one with Haku and Matsuri all morning to put the cherry on top.

Dashing out of practice at lightening speed, he makes it to his locker without an interception.

Without fail, the letter is already waiting for him.

He scans the contents with slight disinterest.

So she likes tapioca pudding. Sounds kind of gross to him. That might fall on the level of his distaste for sweet bean jelly.

Oh well. More useless information to store.

Do you have someone you like? You don't have to say who, it's just a yes or no. In all seriousness.

Hmph. He's not to sure what to think of that question. It's not like she's going to squash the competition if he did have someone he likes.

Tolerates? There's quite a few he tolerates, including Naruto's slightly moody cousin Karin. And those he enjoys the presence of? Not too many and newly added is Ino, which he's still unsure if he actually enjoys her company or if he's just ambivalent to it since she's not as clingy as he'd imagine. Which is a pleasant surprise.

No one at the moment

He scribbles on the back, pausing from adding a 'and it wouldn't be you ever'. It's probably not good to make someone cry so early in the morning.

Now what to ask her back?

He's at a loss for questions...because honestly, he's not exactly taking this letter thing seriously.

#5: What's your least favorite food?

He could at least copy off her for awhile.

Making his way to the classroom after dropping off the reply, he muses about the free period they have from now on with Kakashi-sensei to work on their project. Perhaps Ino already went ahead and started. That'll be actually pretty nice.

She's quite smart, something he didn't actually pay attention to until recently. And sharp.

He blinks. It wouldn't be too far fetched if she is the letter writer.

She doesn't like Sasuke anymore and she's one of the few that he thinks is clever enough to do something like that.

Frowning, he stops in the hallway. Is he actually okay if it is Ino? He's supposed to be angry at the letter writer, not praising her on her wittiness.

"Oi Gaara."

He looks up to see Karin passing him, but the voice belonged to Sakura as she huffs slightly, catching her breath, to meet him.

"Yeah?"

"Just wanted to let you know Ino isn't here today to help out with the project."

His lips dip further down. "Oh."

"She'll probably text you later about the project." Sakura makes a move to follow Karin.

"...is she okay?"

The pink haired girl raises an eyebrow before flashing him a smile. "She's fine. Her older brother is in town just for the day and he's eccentric as always. He wanted to spend the day with his beloved little sister." Sakura rolls her eyes playfully at the last statement, shaking her head slightly. "But yeah, looks like it's a free period to work on the project, so I gotta go work with..." She huffs and stomps in place. "Well, gotta grab my books. See ya in class!"

She waves as she turns the corner, going in the direction he came from.

Ino is nowhere to be seen and Sakura placidly works on the project with Karin during class. The only other person absent is Karui, the headache yesterday was an impending cold.

[Sorry I can't help out today! :( But I'll be home tomorrow and Sunday if you want to meet up somewhere to start it?-Ino]

His fingers grip onto the pen harder, the odd sensation in his chest irritating him.

If she's not present...and he gets a letter today, it obviously couldn't be Ino.

And so what if it isn't? It's not Karui either. And somehow that's not irritating him as much?

Mechanically, he messages her back.

[I have practice tomorrow morning but it should end late afternoon. Otherwise, Sunday is open.]

Almost immediately, she replies.

[How about tomorrow evening then? Unless you'll be tired from practice?-Ino]

He twirls the pen in his free hand.

[No, tomorrow evening should be fine. Where did you want to meet up at?]

It's quite a feat how fast she can type even with all the random emojis.

[My parent's flower shop? Lol. It'll be easiest for our project?-Ino]

He smirks at the reply, imagining her rolling her eyes at the obvious statement.

[Who are you texting? Smiling and shit to yourself? Huh huh huh?-Naruto]

Pausing at the new text, he whips around to glare at Naruto. The blond boy just smirks back and turns to the boy next to him.

"Told you, he's definitely texting a girl!"

Sasuke, as disinterested as possible, sighs and slaps Naruto's face, pushing it away from his.

"Leave him alone. Don't be jealous that it's not you he's texting."

"Buuuuuh...I was going to say, that was a good look for Gaara!"

He leans back on the seat. "A good look?"

"Yeah! Kinda like lovestruck. Cupcaking and shit."

He sighs and throws his pen at Naruto. And he thought the idiot was going to be serious for once.

Lovestruck? Him?

[My idiot brother wants us to have sibling bonding time. So he said we'd do whatever I wanted to do today-Ino]

The following picture made him snort out loud.

Naruto and Sasuke pause in their argument to stare at his behavior and Gaara turns away.

That wasn't supposed to happen.

And he plays it off coolly. There's no need to divulge either boys any information.

He stares at the picture again, smirking as he types a reply.

[As much as you're complaining, I think you're enjoying the day off more than him. And I'm going to make sure to do as less as possible today on the project.]

It was a picture of Ino and a male replica of her at the nail salon, foil covering their fingertips. Hell knows how she manages to type with those things.

[I'd worry if you actually did some work on the project...-Ino]

The rest of the day passes by faster than he had expected and facing his locker at the end of the day, he sighs.

Opening the door, he grimaces. The solid feeling in his stomach weighing down and his mouth goes dry.

The little blue envelope sits lightly above the mess of paper and notebooks, staring back at him mockingly.

End Chapter 3

Thanks for making it this far with me!

Aya Kazuki