Hey everyone! For any of you new readers, this is a prequel to my 3-shot The Penis Game. For those of you who haven't I suggest you check it out now.

I was going to make this a one to two chapter prequel, but I figure you guys really enjoyed the previous fic that I may extent this out to be comprised of several smaller chapters than what I'm used to writing. Hopefully you guys will enjoy it.

Without further ado,

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters in any way, shape, or form.

Title: The List

Setting: Mikoto's Christmas Party

Humor / Crack

Summary: The last time Sakura took up Ino's drinking challenge to commemorate her integration into ANBU, she snagged a date with Uchiha Itachi. The first time, celebrating a successful year at Mikoto's, something entirely different happened. "I propose we play a game." "What kind of game, Ino?" Prequel to The Penis Game.

Chapter 1:

It was that time of the year again: Mikoto's annual Christmas party -not at all a typical, secret-santa sort of party (she reserved that for only family and close friends), bur rather a party to simply celebrate another successful year. To mourn those who could not make it, but celebrate all that had made it another year, and not to mention to celebrate all that they stood for. Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, it was simply an excuse for everyone to get absolutely wasted, as was already becoming the case for shinobi like Tsunade or Jiraiya.

But Sakura and her group of friends (Team Gai included) were not having as fun a time as most.

Ino had come here solely to party -Sakura had come solely out of a courtesy to the woman who had become a second (or third, if you count Tsunade) mother to her, and of course to make sure Ino didn't do anything she'd regret in the morning (then again, her pig of a friend seemed unrepentant of anything she did). Hinata had come simply because her team had (and because Naruto would be there), and TenTen had come to make sure Lee did not become too drunk and decimate half of the Uchiha estate.

Given the fact that none of the girls except for Ino were truly big on drinking, it had set up a sluggish atmosphere around them. Plus, it probably didn't help that the men were essentially huddled up at a different table, talking about men stuff which none of them cared to part-take in. Unfortunately, they were simply at that age were their hormones ran rampant and did as it pleased.

It seemed only Ino liked to take advantage of this, but whatever.

"Come on, you guys are no fun." Ino sat, slumped against the table with a bitter frown on her face. "Can one of you at least dance with me?" she suggested, a pout on her lips to try and convince her friends to liven up.

"Ino, that is not dancing." Sakura frowned in distaste, her eyes roaming the crowds. "That is dry-humping to the beat of music." she spoke matter-of-factly, content in sitting there and taking sips of her non-alcoholic beverage for the rest of the night.

"But that's what makes it so much fun!" Ino proclaimed with a frown. Sakura gave her a pointed look but did not respond, her attention elsewhere. "My Kami at least put that book away and make it seem like you're having a fun time." Ino glowered. "In recent times, it seems all you do is study and work. You look like a grandma -who is ever going to want to date that?"

"Well if I'm planning on taking the ANBU Exams soon, I need to make sure I'm prepared." Sakura frowned, clearly upset that Ino would even call her out on in. Truth be told, ever since she had gotten her recommendation letter from not just Tsunade, but Kakashi and Gai as well, she had become exceedingly more confident about it; of course, there was still much for her to study, and if she wanted to pass it on the first try then she had to study now. These exams only came twice a year, after all. But despite all this, Ino had successfully accomplished in making her feel self-conscious (because, come on, who does read at a party?). With a sigh, she put her book down and stared at Ino, then to Hinata and TenTen, who were both staring at the group of males across the room curiously.

"What do you suppose they're talking about?" TenTen sighed bitterly, her eyes on a particular male Hyuga.

"Truth be told?" Ino raised an eyebrow, "Probably which one of them will score tonight and with who. Kami knows there's a whole bunch of willing women in the crowd." It was the only reason they could have possibly attended, other than the free alcohol and food (other than the fact that Sasuke's own mother was the host, so it was mandatory attendance for him).

"Please. If Sasuke scores I will personally be your servant for life Ino-pig." Sakura scoffed. But regardless, she knew Ino was perhaps not far from the truth; this had been why they had separated themselves from the girls after about half an hour after their arrival. Pfft -men. "Why is it alright for them to be scouting girls but anytime I even consider dating someone Naruto and Sasuke shut it down like Sakura and men are an unnatural sight to be together?" she decided with a frown. She was sure perhaps the "Scoring" would only be done by a selective few in the group -namely Kiba and perhaps Shikamaru if he didn't find it too troublesome, but as far as their other teammates went... Well, Sasuke was Sasuke, enough said there, Naruto was perhaps more interested in having Sakura notice home more than anything else, same went for Lee, and Chouji would be too preoccupied eating to pay any mind to a female. Sai was too emotionally constipated, and the Hyuga was a mixture of that ad too divested in protecting Hinata to allow anyone else into his life.

Ino laughed -more like snorted. "Please, you're not the only one. Remember that one time Shikamaru interrogated that guy who I wasn't even serious about?"

"D-Didn't he go home crying?" Hinata's eyes widened alarmingly re-calling the event with apprehension. She didn't know much about the event, having not actually been there, but she had heard from word of mouth from TenTen. Ino had only been on one date prior to that one with the lad, nothing remotely serious, but once Shikamaru caught one whiff of it (he had been away on a mission the first date), he had completely interrupted their date, made himself welcome, and continued to bombard him with questions until he finally remembered he had forgotten to turn off the lights at his house.

Needless to say, Ino had never seen or heard of the nin again -which was odd, because Konoha was a relatively small, close-knit village, which meant that he was taking extra precautions in making sure he was never around her.

Ino sighed, not really upset about the whole thing now, although she had been really frustrated with Shikamaru for weeks afterwards. "Hai. As is life with a prodigal genius as a protective brother-like figure, I suppose." the blonde shrugged.

"Okay, but at least you can get that far." TenTen snorted. "People don't even consider asking me out simply because Lee's there. They think I'm part of the freak show too, and if that wasn't bad enough Neji's always there staring at them with those creepy Byakugan eyes. Stupid Hyuga prodigy."

"Okay but why does it matter if you have an undying crush on Neji anyway?" Sakura stated matter-of-factly. "Even if you had the chance to date someone you wouldn't take it." Sakura reasoned.

Heat rose to her cheeks almost immediately. "Because my undying crush on that idiot will be nothing more than a crush til the end time." TenTen stressed. "I wouldn't be surprised if Neji practiced celibacy for the rest of his life." she stated honestly. The only things that he ever cares about are training and protecting "Hinata-sama" after all, not that TenTen would ever be resentful of her friend.

Sakura snorted -Hinata giggled. "I-It can't be any worse t-than my situation." Hinata finally stated, trying to make her companion feel better.

The remaining three kunoichi rolled their eyes and made it a point to glare in Naruto's direction, who was too busy conversing with Kiba to notice (although he did feel a strange shiver run up his spine). Unfortunately, her situation seemed to only be worse because Naruto had an undying love for Sakura -of which Sakura knew he would eventually grow out of, but my Kami it was taking too damn long already. What more could she possibly do to get him to understand?

It was then that Ino finally spoke once more, and indignant huff pouting her lips. "Ladies, we're young, hot kunoichi. Why are we wallowing in pity? Why don't we go out there and seize the day by its balls? Who cares what the men think or how we feel about them. We're withering away here because of them and their inability to make some moved on us." Of course by we, Ino meant everybody but her. Despite how desperate she was to have a chance at scoring with Sai, she would not wait around like a damsel until he noticed her. Kami knew that boy still had a lot of emotional growing to do before he could even consider being attracted to the opposite sex, after all. She guessed she would just have to move on.

No. She was young, she was hot, and god damn it, she wanted to have fun -Kami knew parties where all of her friends (and all of the hot older shinobi) attended were few and far in between, due to everyone's conflicting schedules and grueling missions. And now they were all starting to grow up in their own respects, which meant there would be even less time for them all to hang out. So if she wanted to have fun with her female companions, and even get a little raunchy, well god damn it, she had ever right to.

But in response, Sakura could only cringe. "Why must you use such grotesque vocabulary? And why is the day metaphorically described as an anatomical male?"

"Oh my Kami Sakura, are you really about to start this line of questioning? What are you, a grandma?" Ino gave her a pointed look, to which Sakura merely scoffed. "What you should be asking here is the more pertinent question? As in, what should we do?" Ino raised her eyebrows provocatively, in order to coax not just Sakura (although she knew the Billboard Brow would be the hardest one to convince), but Hinata and TenTen as well.

Sakura scoffed. "Alright Pig, humor me. What do you want to do?" And then, as an added afterthought, she decided to clip in quickly, "although this is not me saying I'll go along with anything you want." Kami knew she had to clarify that or she'd never hear the end of it with Ino.

Ino frowned, before turning to stare at their other female companions. "Well, how about if I can convince Hinata and TenTen to join us? Surely if the love-stricken fools will join us in our drunken bafoonary, you have no right to decline, right?"

"D-Drunken?" Hinata question in trepidation (nevermind the fact that she was an heiress from a respected clan, and as such "bafoonaries" was hardly on her agenda either). Kami knew she couldn't hold her liquor -in fact, she was keenly aware of the fact that neither could Sakura, while Ino had built up a pretty good tolerance, and TenTen was mildly capable of holding her own.

Ino brushed Hinata's apprehension aside. "Don't sweat the minor details, Hinata. Are we in or are we out?"

"It depends." TenTen frowned. Truth be told, Ino was unmistakably, one hundred percent right. Why should they sit here, sighing and frowning because neither Naruto nor Neji respectively would give them the time of day? Why would they limit themselves to men that were clearly incapable of noticing that they would be willing to do anything and everything for them? "Does anything that you have planned for us involve sleeping with somebody?" For once, she decided, she would want to be a little more like Ino in regards to love.

Ino chuckled. "Not unless you want to, of course. Why, do you already have somebody in mind?" she winked provocatively at TenTen, who merely blushed in response.

"Cut it out you grotesque pig." Sakura scowled. "I'll go along with your ploy until I deem you too drunk to continue making objective decisions with your body. Then I will take you home and call it a night." she declared seriously.

Ino grinned, pleased with the development. So long as she got a little bit of alcohol in Sakura's system (of which she knew she could do with a little big of egging on from Tsunade), then even Sakura's reservations would be thrown out the window; plus, it didn't hurt to know that Sakura got drunk faster than she did. "I propose we play a game."

"What kind of game, Ino?" Sakura's eyes narrowed in forewarning. Why did she feel like Ino's supposed "game" was more so a disaster waiting to happen than anything else?

Knowing that Sakura had gone in for the bait, she used her hand to pull something out of her purse. "I came prepared." she snickered with delight, unfolding a piece of paper and laying it out in front of her, and the remaining three girls scooted in closer to see what it was. At first glance it seemed like a to-do list, but once Sakura actually began to read it her eyebrows knitted in confusion and disdain.

"Oh absolutely not."

"Uh-uh." Ino tsked at her pink-haired companion. "You already have the go-head. You have to at least give it a shot, you promised."

"Yeah, if TenTen and Hinata are down," Sakura spoke indignantly. "Which I know for a fact they will n-"

"I'm okay with this." TenTen stated with only slight hesitancy, her eyes reading over the list; some things genuinely funny, others a little more on the raunchy side, but she was sure it made for a fun experience nonetheless. "We can refuse to do these as they come, right?"

"Yeah, absolutely." Ino nodded, quite eagerly appeasing TenTen. "It's a point-based system. Of course, losers receive a punishment based on the winner's choice."

"This already has disaster written all over it." Sakura looked over the contents of the paper, oh-so innocently titled The List, although what it entailed was anything but an average check list or to-do errands. "Hinata, there's no way-" she couldn't even finish her sentence. She didn't need to, because Hinata's cheeks were already flushed red simply by reading a miscellaneous number on the list.

"I-I-I don't t-think I could m-m-manage these..."

But it seemed that Ino had already planned ahead for coaxing Hinata, putting a small arm around the beautiful raven-haired kunoichi. "Hinata, aren't you tired of waiting for Naruto to give you the time of day? Wouldn't you rather make him notice you? I guarantee you you'll capture his attention with any one of the items on this list. Plus, it's all for good fun. It's just a game among us girls, and it'll be the perfect activity to kill time."

Hinata hesitated for a long time. "W-What are the rules?"

Ino grinned, from ear to ear, especially in seeing Sakura slump into her seat. "Well-"

It was simple, really. There were twenty one rounds in total, and after every third round there was a mandatory shot of sake (or other miscellaneous drink) to down, with a mandatory shot before the game started. Each round had a given objective -whether truth or dare. You could choose to do it and get the points, or choose to not and get nothing. At the end of the game, each player counts their points and the winner gets to leave a punishment for every loser.

A game which would succeed in making them all drunk, make them regret their actions in the morning, but be entirely fun while doing so all in one. Sakura noticed with much disdain that, although it didn't start off too bad, the truths (and perhaps more pertinently, the dares) got progressively worse as the rounds continued but she decided she didn't even want to read past number five.

What in the hell had she gotten herself into?

"Alright, let's get this show on the road, shall we?" Ino grinned in glee as she stood with confidence. "I'll go get us a bottle of sake for our first shot." And then she sauntered off, paying to mind to her other three female counterparts as they exchanged hesitant looks. Ino had returned relatively quickly, and after placing a cup in front of each girl and pouring some sake, she put the sake bottle down and grabbed her own small cup. "Alright, here we go. Cheers." she raised her glass, and although Sakura and Hinata were clearly hesitant on continuing this, they too raised their glasses. The four cups clinked together, and no sooner were they downing the burning liquid down their throat.

'Kuso, that's strong.' Sakura grimaced, but had no time to ponder it, trying to blink away the tears.

"Let's get this show on the road!" The girls subsequently turned to peer at number one on the list. "We'll start it off easy with a simply truth, it seems." Ino stated. Truth be told, despite how excited she was, she had never played this game before -she had gotten the list from Anko (of course, a slightly redacted version, for Anko had claimed Ino was still not up to her standards), who had stated it made for a great game during a party -with or without the male party, it didn't quite matter.

Sakura groaned at the question.

1. Truth - Have you ever had any sexual fantasies about anyone? If so, who and how many times? 1 Point.

End of Chapter

So like I said, this will be shorter than what I'm used to writing, primarily because this is mostly a crack-fic to kind of explain and set up the plot for The Penis Game

As far as the items on the list, I think I'll probably do one or two per chapter to add length x) Because these chapters will be short, I think updates for this fic will be a lot quicker than my other projects.

Also, if there's any sort of scenario you guys may be itching to read, don't be afraid to drop a review or PM me =] I have most of the 21 things already planned, although I did leave a few spots open in case any of you had any input for it c:

Anyway, that's all for now. Just wanted to write up some crack and humor to replace most of the drama/angst I've been writing up in Sakura's New Present, the TNO sequels and Somewhere We Belong respectively x)

Any and all feedback is much appreciated!

-MarzSpy