Four is the Magic Number

Fukyuu no tenshi

Standard Disclaimer Applies, as always.

(A/N: I hope you enjoy this story, it's the first one I've ever written where the story is divided into four. I am writing this one for pure fun, so if you don't like it, too bad. Also note, because I am someone who can only write during times of inspiration, updates might be slow and sometimes I might update back-to-back.)

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"Here, I brought some coke." Tenten grinned as she set the bottles on the table.

"I cannot believe this, I thought you guys were my friends, but now… now, you're abandoning me!" Tenten rolled her eyes at Ino's overly- dramatic display.

"We're not abandoning you Ino; we're just not taking you with us." Replied Sakura jokingly as she took her own bottle and screwed the cap off. Ino ignored the pink-haired girl and continued to moan, much to Tenten's annoyance. Having enough, Tenten chucked a pillow at Ino and settled down on the bed.

"Hey!" Came a slightly muffled response.

Hinata gently took the pillow from the blonde and squeezed it. "I-Ino, it's not l-like w-we don't want you to c-come, but we can't take you w-with us…" Hinata was the shyest and most polite of the four-member group, always looking at things from a calm light and settling problems without violence.

Sakura patted the blue-haired girl on the back.

"Don't worry about it Hinata, it's not your fault Ino has nowhere to go this summer, but she'll have fun working at the shop. Won't you Ino-pig?" Ino moaned once more and grabbed the pillow back.

"This is so unfair! You guys all get to go your own separate ways, enjoying your own adventures filled with romance and fun while I stay here and rot all summer."

"Fun and romance? Hinata is going to visit her grandparents, okay? I'm going to a camp and Sakura is visiting her aunt. There is no romance in our 'adventures' Ino." Tenten took another sip of her drink calmly, trying to hide her irritation, Ino was such a drama queen…

"But there aren't even any cute guys here!" Sakura burst out laughing.

That was typical Ino behavior. Ino was a boy-chaser, she loved to go after boys who seemed to have no interest in her at all and make them fall head-over-heels for her; there was no man on earth who could resist her charms once she tried. But then, as soon as they confessed their love to her, she dumped them. And while this may seem like horrible behavior, her three best friends knew she had a reason for it and said nothing to her about what they would have normally considered bad. Ino was a blonde with blue eyes, a tall, slim and had a model-like figure.

Sakura, the pink-haired green-eyed one, was the brainiac. Sakura loved to study and read, but never excelled in sports or anything else. She did like drawing and art, but never thought she was anything special with the pen and pencil. Sakura and Ino were the ones who had the longest history, knowing each other from their first day in preschool, but Sakura was usually the one in Ino's shadow. Sakura didn't chase after boys like Ino did, and occasionally developed a crush or two, however she never approached her crushes, because she was too afraid of being turned down. Sakura was average in height and didn't believe she herself had anything more than average in the looks department, she actually thought of herself as quite…plain.

"S-Sakura, watch out!" Turning her head slightly, Sakura was hit face-on with a pillow.

"Gotcha!"

Hinata was a rich girl who had only convinced her father to send her to public school by swearing that her friends would take care of her. She was the absolute shyest in the group, stuttering when she talked and never meeting anyone's gaze. Hinata was someone who didn't like people she didn't know very well because they made her feel uncomfortable. She was also smart, but not as smart as Sakura. Hinata's favorite subject was History, as she liked to read about the past. She was somewhat short, but petite. She was beautiful, but whenever boys asked her our paid attention to her, she wouldn't know how to act, and then they would move onto her younger, more confident sister, Hanabi.

Tenten was the last one of the group, she would probably be categorized as the 'sporty' one, because indeed she did love sports more than anything else in the world, and would do anything to reach her goal of becoming a professional soccer player. Well, almost anything, Tenten would never, ever hurt her friends even if it meant she would be the most famous soccer player in the whole world. Tenten also hated boys and couldn't understand why Ino kept chasing after them, after all, boys were just as important as socks to her, and wasting even a minute on something like that was pointless. Tenten was the tallest and had brown hair kept in two buns.

Sakura, still stunned by the attack grabbed the pillow and was about to throw it at Ino when she suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong, forehead-girl?" Ino taunted her friend loudly, hoping it would help her cheer up. Though she could be brash sometimes, Ino cared deeply for her friends, and knew Sakura well enough to know that whenever she looked down at meaningless object without averting her gaze; it meant she was in deep thought.

"Guys…"

Tenten and Hinata turned to look at their friend.

"I think," Sakura paused, suddenly aware that her eyes were somewhat blurred. She smiled to herself before speaking again.

"No, we should do something this summer."

Tenten and Ino had similar confused looks on their faces.

"I think S-Sakura t-thinks we s-should do something different this s-summer." Hinata supplied, hoping to clear up their confusion.

"What did you have in mind?" Ino asked, suddenly serious.

"This." Sakura held out a book all the girls were familiar with, it was their book.

'Their book' was the scrapbook Ino's mom had once gotten for them all when they were seven, and they had kept it with them throughout all their friendship. Now there was only one page left for them to write down their memories.

"I think we should all write down something that we have to do this summer, just so we'll still be connected, even though we're so far apart. After all, this is our last summer together before we're off for college." All the girls were silently aware that it was true, that even if their laughed now, in two months, they would be starting their own separate lives, without each other.

"Okay, I'll go first." Ino took the book and silently pondered what to do with it. Should she write something mushy? Naw, that wasn't like her, she was the fun in this group. Finally, making up her mind, Ino grinned mischievously. "We should all get boyfriends this summer. And I have something else, if one of us doesn't follow these rules, when we get back, the girl who failed to comply with these guidelines will have to do whatever the other girls want her to do."

"Like a dare?" Sakura questioned hesitantly. Ino only nodded.

Tenten, Sakura and even Hinata were a little scared by the idea. When it came to dares, Ino was the ultimate, she could name the dare of your worst fears and make you do it.

"Okay. I'll go next." Tenten was handed the book. "I think we should only write in letters this summer, you know, so it seems more… personal." The other girls nodded in understanding.

"M-Me t-too… I think w-we should, w-when we c-come back, t-tell each other everything that happened t-too them."

One rule to go.

"Well, I think this may be kind of obvious, but we should write it down anyways. Rule number four will be that we will never forget we have each other this summer, because even if we are going our own ways, we're still best friends."

"Okay, everyone agree? Then sign your name at the bottom."

In the end, the girls fell asleep next to each other, wondering what tomorrow would hold.

The Contract

1. We shall all get boyfriends this summer.

2. We will only communicate by letters.

3. We will tell each other everything when we get back.

4. We will never, ever, forget we have each other.

Signed: Ino, Tenten, Hinata and Sakura

(A/N: It's a tad mushy, but it'll get better. You don't know the pairings now, even if they kind of obvious, but you'll know them soon, probably by the third update.)