Dreams are dreams
Chapter One
By cocoa-latte

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

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The wind was blowing softly in Konoha. The sakura trees were in full bloom and their soft pink petals fluttered down to the ground. The dirt roads were dusty, all was momentarily quiet and peaceful…

"Damn it! There's not enough ramen," screeched Naruto, shattering Sakura's ear. Naruto turned to her and gave a sheepish grin. "Gomen Sakura-chaaaan."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Honestly, how can you eat so much ramen and not get sick? Instant ramen isn't good for you," Sakura said as she tucked a strand of loose pink hair behind her ear gently.

Sakura was over at Naruto's small, cozy, and extremely messy apartment. She was helping Naruto pack for the mystery trip that the senseis and Hokage had planned; along with the other former genin teams.

Sakura had reluctantly agreed to come over to lend a hand with Naruto's packing. (Knowing that obviously wouldn't be capable of packing by himself.)

"Ne, Sakura-chan. Will you come with me to buy some more ramen please? It's just around the corner," the blond boy questioned.

Sakura sighed. "You already have enough ramen."

"Please," whined the seventeen-year-old boy.

Sakura grumbled, but agreed to go along anyways. 'First he talks me into helping him pack, and now this? I must be getting soft.'

Naruto quickly ushered the pink-haired kunoichi out the brown wooden door. He quickly grabbed his old, but still cute full frog wallet that laid on top of his junky side table. Naruto stepped out the door, joining Sakura in the fresh breeze.

"Perfect weather, eh Sakura-chan?"

"Hai," answered Sakura as she looked up at the almost clear blue sky. There was a thin layer of clouds that overcastted the sky.

The two began to set down to the nearby corner store where ramen was often sold. Naruto glanced up at the cherry blossom covered tree. 'It's so beautiful...'

"We're here!" exclaimed Sakura happily, breaking Naruto's reverie.

Naruto jolted out of his thoughts and pulled open the heavy door. Just as Naruto was roughly nearby the door was already occupied by someone else. Sakura lowered her jade eyes suspiciously at the man.

The silver-haired ex-ANBU stepped out of the store and glanced down at Sakura before resting his eyes on the vivacious blond-haired shinobi.

"Naruto, Sakura! What a pleasant surprise," said the smiling face of their former sensei.

'Yah, this is a surprise. He doesn't even live on this side of Konoha,' thought Sakura warily.

"Were you going to buy some ramen with Naruto?" The question was audibly directed to Sakura. Sakura nodded mutely.

"You do know that we will be feeding you, right Naruto?" asked Kakashi with mock concern.

Naruto's cheek had a twinge of pink, but ignored the question. "Um, will there be any ramen?"

"Is ramen the only thing you think about?" queried Kakashi as he rubbed a sore spot on his back.

"Well..." began Naruto, "Ne, you never answered my question! Will there be ramen?"

"No, none at all," answered Kakashi merrily, "Well, I best be off now. Ja"

Naruto pushed open the door again and headed towards the ramen aisle. It seemed to be empty. 'Damn it" thought Naruto as he began to walk over to the gray counter.

"Ne, old man. I would like a 24 pack of ramen please." Naruto said, feeling happy.

The store manager looked up at the hyper shinobi. "I'm afraid that we're sold out, Naruto." the man said softly, his eyes crinkled.

"Shit, why do these things always happen to me?" groaned Naruto, "I'm going to die if I don't get to eat any. Who knows where we're going?"

"Naruto, shut up, please!" hissed Sakura as she fretfully apologized to the old man behind the counter.

Sakura nudged Naruto out the door. "Why don't we go back and finish packing?" asked Sakura, distracting Naruto's mind off ramen for a while, as they walked on the red and brown cobblestone sidewalk.

"Sure," muttered Naruto, "Why do you think that Kakashi-sensei, and the other senseis won't tell us where we're going?"

Sakura concentrated on the sidewalk. "To be honest, I don't really know. They probably thought that it'd be 'interesting' to not tell us. So then, we won't be prepared for wherever we're going. That's just a guess though." she added hastily.

"Sakura-chan… do you have any ideas of what I should pack?" asked Naruto hopefully.

Sakura flopped down on Naruto's lumpy orange couch. The afternoon was exhausting. Sakura had the task of sorting through Naruto's clothes. They were strewn all over the place. In the closet, on the floor, on the kitchen table.

"Sakura-chan," started Naruto.

"Hn?"

"I'm going out to dinner with a few people tonight. Wait, let's rephrase that: I'm going out to dinner with many people tonight. Hinata's coming, Kiba, Shikamaru, Ino, Chouji... Tenten's coming she convinced Neji to come too. Basically, everyone's coming."

Sakura smiled. "Sure! My mom's not expecting me for dinner anyways."

Naruto grinned brightly. "Okay, be at 'The Hot Pot House' at six. I reserved it under my last name," said Naruto, exaggerating the word 'my'. "Bring money too. I'm only paying for my own meal," hr added with a cheeky grin.

Sakura nodded. "I'm going home to change and pack now."

Sakura began to walk to the brown wooden door. "Ja," said Sakura softly as she walked through the door. She heard the muffled voice of Naruto saying bye, before closing the door gently.

Sakura walked slowly back to her home, enjoying the sunshine. She had known Naruto and Sasuke since she was twelve. Already five years had past… Yet everything was different. The days of team seven, were over. It was just another memory lingering in her mind. It had been such a long time since the gang had been together.

Sakura stopped when she came to her favourite spot in Konoha. The sakura blossoms were littering the ground. Sakura walked up to the tree and sat down and leaned her back against it.

"Sakura," said a voice behind her back. She recognized it as Sasuke's voice.

The inflection in his tone gave no emotion. As usual.

It had been three years since Sakura had stopped acting like a fool, chasing him. Yet, she knew that deep down, she still loved him. Even Ino had given up. It seemed that even Sakura herself couldn't melt the ice in his heart. Deep down, she loved him, though she wouldn't act a fool chasing him anymore.

"Hai," answered Sakura, her back still to him, "why are you here? Did you want to talk"

"No," answered Sasuke.

"Oh. Well, everyone's going to hot pot later on tonight. Are you coming?" inquired Sakura.

"Maybe. Haven't seen the others for a while."

Sakura silently agreed. It really has been too long. "Well, I have to go home and pack now. I'll see you around I suppose," Sakura finished awkwardly as she continued walking down the cobblestone sidewalk.

Later-

Sakura had finished packing for the trip. She folded everything neatly into her suitcase. She sighed and picked up the framed picture of the old team seven that she kept safely on her clutter-free desk. Memories that she yearned for flooded through her mind, haunting her. They were the best of friends back then. But now, she wouldn't dare say that they were all still friends.

'He's to caught up in his goal of being an avenger,' thought Sakura bitterly.

Sakura walked up to her closet and pulled out some more casual clothes to wear other than her usual daily ninja clothes. She scanned around her closet until she found what she was looking for. The pink haired teenager pulled out a light pink top and white jeans and laid them down on her bed.

"Sakura-chan," called Sakura's mom.

"Hai."

"Are you going out later?"

"Yah, so don't cook dinner for me," answered Sakura as she got changed.

Sakura grabbed her wallet and stuffed it into her bag and walked into fresh crisp air. She had a tendency for being the early one there.

Sakura pushed open that glass door to the restaurant. A waiter came up to her. "Do you have a reservation?"

"Hai. Uzumaki." The waiter led her to the noisy people where Hinata, Neji, Kiba, Shino, and Naruto were.

"Wow! And I thought that I'd be early!" exclaimed Sakura as she took a seat on the colourful chair. She took a menu from the pile in the centre of the table and flipped through it absently.

After everyone arrived, Naruto called the waiter to take their order.

"What would you like?" asked the waiter with a bored expression.

"Umm, Chef's Hot pot special for 12 people onegai."

"Okay, any drinks?" asked the waiter hesitantly.

Kiba glanced up and scratched his neck. "Ne, Neji, Tenten, Lee. You three are of age. Would you like any drinks? Beer maybe?" he asked eagerly as he intently watched the three cautious chuunins.

"Hey, share some beer with me, okay?" Naruto said cheerfuly.

Sakura kicked Naruto under the table. "Sometimes, I don't know what's wrong with you!" she hissed at him.

The three chuunins shook their heads stonily, as if having alcohol was a crime.

Kiba looked disappointed. "Okay, pop for all of us please."

The waiter left with their orders, and a conversation stirred up.

Sakura listened to Ino's chatter. "Do you think that we're going to go somewhere warm or cold? Damn them. I don't know what to pack for." Sakura tuned in and out as she looked down into her pop.

"Ne! Maybe we should trash Kakashi-sensei's apartment tonight for fun!" said the blond spiky haired ninja.

"Do you mean inside his apartment?" asked Ino excitedly as she swung her silky blond hair over her shoulder.

"Inside of course! We can go to the store, and buy eggs, toilet paper, and lots of sticky honey, or molasses!"

'Hell yah!' cheered on Inner Sakura. Sakura smiled. "Are you sure that it'll work?" she asked dubiously.

"It will work," said Naruto adamantly as he poked his chopsticks into the thinly cut pork and stuck it into the pot of boiling soup.

Sakura didn't say anything as she took a sip of her drink. The idea sounded appealing but if it didn't work…

The waiter came by, refilling their drinks. The look of regret was on his face. Most likely regretting that he applied for the job in the first place, having to serve a bunch of talkative seventeen and eighteen year olds.

The night was long, although it flew by quick. Soon, the last piece of meat was swimming in the pot. Kiba picked up his chopsticks and reached over for the meat. Yet, before his chopsticks reached the meat, Chouji used the back of his chopstick to poke Kiba's hand away.

"Only I can eat the last piece of meat, that remains from or tasty dinner!" exclaimed Chouji.

"Does it really matter fat ass?" asked Ino.

"I'M NOT FAT! I'M BIG BONED" yelled Chouji, causing several tables to stare.

"Ino," began Shikamaru through gritted teeth, "Do you have to say that every time"

"I don't! It's the truth though, and you know it! Why can't you ever stand up for yourself?"

An argument stirred up, with Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji arguing, yelling, driving everyone else insane.

"I think the rest of us will just be leaving now…" muttered Kiba as he patted Akamaru tenderly on his head. Everyone slapped a couple twenty's on the table and left for the glass door. Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji followed them anyways, their argument had finally ended.

"Have a nice day," said the waiter meekly.

"Yosh!" shouted Naruto. "Lets go to the store and buy, heheh, toilet paper, eggs, and sticky honey." He dropped his voice to a whisper. "Then we can trash Kakashi-sensei's house"

"Okay, here's the plan. We'll open his window, I stuck I gum there so it won't close properly the other day. And we'll just throw the stuff in through the window, so it'll be harder for him to sense our charka."

"Are you sure that this'll work? He's a jounin. How can he not sense or chakra" asked Ten Ten disbelief.

"Trust me on this one" answered Naruto proudly as he scratched the itchy spot on his back.

"After what happened after last time?" snorted Neji, his cold white eyes hardening.

"Last time was an accident though," Naruto grumbled. Damn that Hyuuga, and his memory.

The chuunins carefully walked up the stairs to the door of Kakashi's apartment. Naruto carefully wedged opened the window with a tree branch.

"Throw the eggs first," someone whispered. They picked up a few eggs each, and randomly threw it inside of Kakashi's apartment. "Squirt the honey next!" someone else whispered. Hinata handed Naruto the honey, she blushed heavily, but thankfully, it was dark.

Naruto squirted the honey all over the carpet. He saw a glint of orange lying on the coffee table. 'Kakashi-sensei's Icha Icha Paradise! Yosh! I'll cover the whole book in honey!' Naruto was handed another bottle of honey. He twisted open the yellow cap and aimed for the Icha Icha paradise collection.

Suddenly, the fluorescent light turned on, blinding Naruto who's head was inside the apartment, his body, outside the window.

Naruto gulped as Kakashi entered the room, still in his usual jounin clothes. He looked angry.

"You, are all your friends will be cleaning up my apartment until it's spotless, and one of you, will get me a brand new hardcover edition of icha icha paradise. Is that clear?" Kakashi's voice was dangerously cold.

Naruto gulped nervously and nodded. Naruto stuck his head back outside. They turned the doorknob, finding it that it was unlock. Kakashi was already in his bedroom, his door closed.

"Kuso, we should've known better than have listened to YOUR plan," hissed Kiba as he grabbed a mop, located by the door and began mopping up some of the mess.

"Gomen," muttered Naruto, his eyes downcast as he started picking some of the eggshells on the carpet.

5 A.M. - STILL at Kakashi's apartment-

The apartment was nearly clean. They rented one of those carpet cleaners, which got of almost all the stains, but one.

"It still won't come off?" asked Sakura as she rubbed her tired eyes.

"No," came the muffled reply from Tenten.

"Kuso," scorned Sasuke, "We still have to get the Icha Icha paradise series for Kakashi."

Naruto snorted. "I'm still underage. The only ones who can get it are Tenten, Neji, and Lee. Can you get it Tenten?"

Tenten looked up with a disgusted look on her face. "No way! By the way, I'm still trying to get this damn stain off," finished Tenten firmly.

Neji glared at Naruto, so he decided to not ask him and asked Rock Lee instead.

"Yosh! I will buy back Kakashi's Icha Icha paradise," he gave a wink and left out the door."

"Wow," began Sakura, "he sure agreed quickly." She thought for a moment. Her voice dropped to a hush, "do you think it's because… he wants to peek into it?" asked Sakura, as bad thoughts ran through her mind.

After 10 minutes, Rock Lee came back with the books tightly sealed in the bag. He looked a bit flushed. "Here," he began, "just leave it on the coffee table."

Sakura looked at him suspiciously but didn't want to think Lee reading Icha Icha Paradise.

The apartment was finally clean, cleaner than before they made the mess. It was nearing 5:30 A.M., and they'd have to get up bright and early in the morning. (It was already morning).

"Finally. We get to go home and sleep," said Naruto as a yawn escaped his mouth.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Sakura dragged herself back to her home, which was located 5 blocks away from Kakashi-sensei's apartment. As she was a few houses away from her house, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the silver key. She stuck the key into the keyhole and turned the doorknob quietly. Her parents were already asleep. She walked up the stairs and grabbed a pair of fresh pajamas from the laundry basket and took a quick shower before retiring for what was left of the night.

The next morning former teams of seven, eight, ten, and thirteen gathered around in the waiting room of Tokyo's airport, with bags and rings under their eyes. Asuma, Kurenai, and Gai were already there. It was a wonder how they got there so early.

"What's wrong with you all?" asked Asuma with the cigarette still in his mouth, "it looks as if you haven't slept all night"

He waited for a reply but didn't get one. He raised an eyebrow at Kurenai and mouthed to her, 'must be partying.' The jounin shrugged. "By the way, Gai, have you seen Kakashi yet?"

Gai shook his head

"I told him that the plane leaves half an hour than it really does. Hoping that he'll be half an hour earlier..." Kurenai informed them all.

They impatiently waited for a certain silver-haired jounin. He finally arrived, carrying four large bags of luggage.

"Sorry that I'm late." Kakashi glanced at his watch. "Only forty minutes late. Pretty good actually. Well, it's a really funny story actually, this morning, right after I got out the door-"

"-save the excuse," said Gai sourly.

"Will you tell us where we're going?" murmured Tenten, her eyes partly close.

"Uhh... we'll tell you later," said Asuma.

They got on the plane, thankfully without being late. Sakura sighed happily, glad that she'd be able to get a good night's sleep. She only slept for about half-an-hour last night, before she was woken up by her parents. She then quickly rushed to the airport.

"Kakashi? Don't you think that we should tell them where we're going?" asked Asuma.

"Nope. Not yet. Maybe when we get there," said Kakashi.

AN: Very excited, because drum roll, please! This is my first Naruto story! Haha, cough anyway.