Both Sakura and Taya were now slightly scared to meet their 'so-called' masters. After the incident, both girls met up in one of the manor's bathrooms and quietly discussed what had happened to one another, and both now felt a new sense of dread building in the hollows of their stomachs.

Taya, predictably, didn't mention how she felt something for Sasuke, Sakura wouldn't understand that stirring flutter that she just couldn't shake, but she told Sakura everything else anyway. When they had finished telling each other their stories, Sakura sighed and rubbed her forehead, "I at least hope Temari's having a better time than we are."

With Temari

Temari was utterly confused. There was no other possible way to describe it. But she just couldn't let Shikamaru know that, after all, she didn't want to appear weak in front of the lazy man.

After they had talked, Shikamaru had brought her to the kitchen, brought out the broken toaster, the manual, and then stood there with a contempt smirk spreading across his face; and Temari would bet her old car that he knew perfectly well how to fix the damn thing himself but was waiting for an opportunity to test her.

Deciding to prove her worth to this contemptuous man, she tossed the dusty old manual aside, and jumped head first into the mess. And that's how Shikamaru observed her several minutes later: with no visible progress and with quite a few screws loose.

Several more minutes later Shikamaru was right beside her watching, aka napping, and although he said earlier that he would make sure nothing went to horribly wrong, that infuriating smirk would appear on his face whenever he occasionally opened an eye to watch her, told a different story.

He watching her make a silly fool out of herself, and both of them knew it. If anything, she was making the toaster even worse than what it was to begin with. The only reason she hadn't quit yet was because of her damn pride anyway, she couldn't very well quit without atleast trying to show up lazy ass, could she? But even more so because she didn't know what would happen to her if she lost this silent battle of wits.

Her teeth grinded together in frustration as yet another bolt fell from the toaster, or what was left of it anyways. There were very few pieces even left attached together, most of the parts were scattered in various forms across the counter. She sighed as she continued to attempt to fix the darn machine. How did she get herself into these situations again?

With Sakura and Taya

Taya was now pacing around as much as the small confinements of the bathroom would allow her, and her hand kept coming up to run compulsively through her hair.

"Oh gosh," she kept repeating, "What can we do?"

Sakura sighed and bit her lip, "There's not much we can do." She began to say, "I mean, we can act like it never happened bu-"

"Works for me," Taya interrupted, "Thanks for the help Sakura," and with that, the girl scurried from the bathroom. Leaving Sakura blinking at the door before exiting the room herself.

Sakura went over to the living room and began to rearrange movies, organizing had often helped her think and calm herself down in the past. It was why if someone walked into her home that not even a pin was out of place. When she was feeling stressed she would actually be grateful for the messes because then it would give her the chance to clean them up.

Just when she was finishing up, she felt a presence beside her, "Hello, Neji." She told the male.

"Sakura," He began to say, the uneasiness in his voice caused her to stop what she was doing and look over at him. "I wanted to tell you...that I am sorry if what I did before caused you any discomfort."

Sakura's eyes went wide. He was...apologizing? It was almost too good to be true. She thought that he was too stuck up to do such a modest action. And yet, here he was, saying he was sorry. "Oh...um…Thank you." She looked back towards her task and began to finish it. "So have you sorted out your...feelings yet?'

She heard him sigh. "Not yet," was his answer, "and I want to sort them out, but if you do not wish me to act upon them, I will refrain myself."

"I think...that I would prefer it if, for now at least, you keep your feelings to yourself. If you don't mind." She replied to him.

"...Alright," Neji replied, turning to leave the room. Sakura furrowed her eyebrows, for a second, when he had said "alright', he almost sounded...disappointed. She sighed and left the now organized movies to find something else to do.

After two seconds of thought, Taya had decided that the best course of action to take was to avoid Sasuke for as long as possible. Which was what she was doing now. She had been doing yard work, washing windows, and anything else that would give her as much space from Sasuke as possible.

So far it was working. Ever since she had been avoiding him, she hadn't seen Sasuke. Sure it had only been about two hours, but still, it was working, and that's what counts right? She was currently occupying herself by pulling out weeds in the backyard flower bed. They technically didn't need to be done until tomorrow, but might as well use them as a chance to get away from him.

"So this is where you ran off to." Sasuke's voice said from behind her. Taya froze, dropping the weed she was holding onto the dirt. "You know, you really don't need to try to avoid me."

"I-i wasn't." She stuttered.

"Don't lie, it's obvious really. You hate gardening almost as much as Temari, and yet here you are. So don't act like you're not." Judging by how close his voice sounded, she guessed that he was standing right behind her. "And that is really pointless, especially when you consider the attraction between us."

Again she protested. "There-there isn't..."

"Once again, do not deny what is obvious." Sasuke replied. "Now stand up and look at me." There was no room in his tone for objection.

Slowly, she turned around and stood up, her eyes slowly lifting to meet his. "What?" she asked him.

"You really should just accept your feelings, not hide them Taya." He told her. "There's no point in you trying to hide them."

"Actually, there is." Taya replied. "Because I don't like what I feel. In fact, I hate what I feel. I can't fall for the person who kidnapped me and made their slave just because they didn't want to do their own chores. I don't want to fall for someone so egotistic, cocky, and selfish as you. And if ignoring my feelings is what I need to do, then I'l-" She was cut off when Sasuke kissed her. At first all she felt was shock, but soon she felt herself responding to the kiss. She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, and he snaked an arm around her waist.

She felt total bliss, until she reminded herself that she couldn't like him. Then she immediately ended the kiss and pulled away from him. Her eyes were wide when she looked at his confused face, then she ran back to the house saying, "I can't do this."

Temari looked with fury and shock at the thing that used to be the toaster. After rearranging the pieces, she had officially managed to ruin the thing far beyond any repair. It looked more like a snowman then a toaster. She threw her hands up in the air and glared at Shikamaru, "Alright, I give. Happy?"

He opened his eyes and stared at the creation. A chuckle escaped his lips. "Very. Now, before I tell you the condition..." He grabbed the broken appliance and threw it in the trash. Then he reached over to the above cabinet and retrieved a brand new toaster. He then put it in place of the old one.

Temari was now angry. "You had a new one all along?" She asked, glaring at him.

He nodded, "I knew you weren't going to able to fix the old one. So I bought the new ahead of time."

"How, what, why, who, you!" She felt her anger grow. "You planned this?!"

He nodded. "Now, since I won. You have two conditions, first one is to go on a date with my, tonight. The second is to promise not to try to escape or anything while you're there."

All the anger in Temaru quickly left and was replaced by pure shock. A date? With Shikamaru? Was he serious? He looked serious. Hey, why not. He was cute, and besides, it would get her out of the house for a few hours. "Oh, um, alright." She answered. "I promise to not to leave."

"Alright," He replied, "I'm going to go take a nap. We'll leave at five. In the mean time clean up the mess you made."

When he left Temari stared at the mess on the counter and groaned. She really, really hated cleaning.

Sorry for the wait people! Please read and review. Oh and I did some moving around with the other chapters, so if you're really confused about the chapter numbers and such, that is why.