Tanabata Matsuri

Finally, arriving at the village, after two long days of boat trip was the most relieving thing for all the ninjas who were on that mission. Finally, they had successfully completed their task and, after all that had happened, it was clear that things were very different. TenTen and Naruto, in a short span of days, hated each other and subsequently formed an alliance. Sakura was able to form friendly relations with some medical ninjas from the country of Lightning, even promising to return any day to visit them. The Gai team had never been closer than at that time. And finally, Sasuke and Sai left the hateful past behind and accepted each other as a human being; saying they were friends or something was too much.

Gai, after a day of rest and recovery from the malaise that occurred during the sea voyage, left home to visit the Hokage, his former opponent and current best friend, Hatake Kakashi, in order to report all the details of the completed mission. He had written a scroll during his time at Kumogakure, he needed to hand it over, in addition to discussing some other matters. However, when he arrived at the Hokage's office, he realized that he might not have gone in a good time.

The room was full. Ino Yamanaka, together with his parents and others he didn't know, discussed something that seemed important, all at the same time, while Hatake's head was resting on his hands, as if he had zero patience to deal with so many people and needing only an excuse to get rid of everyone present. And the excuse simply came when he caught sight of the newcomer.

"Gai, my dear friend." He commented, louder than anyone, that they stopped to look at Maito leaning against the door, who gave a nervous laugh, not knowing exactly what was happening. Was that really Kakashi or was it some kind of bad joke from his friend to ridicule him? "Can we continue to talk about this later? Let's take a coffee break."

Despite being upset, especially the younger Yamanaka, who saw the attitude as an offense and kept glaring at the two who were left in the room, they all left quickly, which made the gray-haired man sigh in a noisy, relieved way.

"They are driving me crazy with all these preparations. Ino came to my house yesterday. At dawn! "

"Where's your youth fire, are you tired already? That calls for 100 laps around the village! " They smiled at each other, remembering the times when the current Hokage had time to do competitions of all modalities with his friend. "The mission was completed successfully and here is the report."

"Everything went well?" They got serious again. Kakashi didn't say the words, but Gai knew that he was referring to Sasuke and how he had behaved outside the village, which made him a little irritated.

"Don't you trust me, Kakashi?"

"Gai, this is not the case. Of course I trust you. " That was never the case, but the green beast of Konoha was already prepared for that situation, although it never pleased him to enter into that merit.

"You were the one who assigned him to me. Please let me take care of him my way. " Kakashi raised his arms in surrender, that fight was lost for him. He nodded and changed the subject to appease the air.

"Do you remember the festival?"

"What festival?" The other had no idea what that phrase meant. Was there a festival nearby? His memory was not very good.

"Tanabata Matsuri (Festival of the Stars), which takes place tomorrow. That is why all these people are here every day, all day. Especially the Yamanaka clan, most excited about the decor. Ino wants everything to be just perfect. Honestly, I'm grateful that it will happen, because dealing with it for a few more days would drive me crazy. "

"I had forgotten ..." Gai scratched his head, embarrassed. It didn't take long for him to pull himself together, however, and it was then that he realized that, however much he had rested, he was still a little tired; one day was not enough to make him recover his energy, especially when the festival was so close. So, he quickly said goodbye to the Hokage, arranging to meet him the next day, and left his office.

***

He was still trying to understand what he was doing there, in the midst of that many people, wearing that traditional kimono of his clan, which, at that time of year, the ideal was that it should be kept in the bottom of the wardrobe due to the high temperatures; they were in the summer, after all. Luckily, big luck, it wasn't raining that day, considering, too, that the beginning of that season was marked by a few weeks of intense rain.

Beside him, TenTen and Lee walked, both admired by the festival's decoration. They commented on their animation to write some notes on the tanzaku (small pieces of colored paper) and hang them on the bamboo, so that their wishes could be fulfilled by Orihime and Kengyu. For Sasuke, all of that was bullshit. He was only there because he had really been overcome by tiredness; the companions were bothering him for hours, with the argument that the festivity would not be complete without him. Gai was nowhere to be seen, which made him imagine that maybe the sensei had forgotten.

They stopped at a food stall, one of the only positive things for him, since he was a little hungry. Shortly after they stopped at that location, to make the day even better, they found the scandalous Kiba, with Akamaru. I had nothing against Inuzuka, other than the fact that he speaks too loudly, invades the space of others in an inconvenient way and is impulsive, saying anything he wants without thinking too much beforehand.

At first, as soon as he returned to the village, the two were surprised, they did not speak well. Truth be told, everyone was like that with him, even his own team was. However, Akamaru's companion was a simple person, who could not sustain bad feelings, and so the grudge did not last long. They weren't best friends now, but at least they talked to each other without any problems.

"Hey guys." Kiba still had the habit of greeting people by clapping their hands. He had a big smile on his face, it was nothing new, since he always seemed very excited. His dog also greeted everyone with a bark, looking as euphoric as the owner. "Do you know what day it is?"

"Day of the festival of the stars?" TenTen replied, as if it were obvious. Offended, the questioner snorted.

"Beyond the festival?" He tried again, getting excited again, in vain. TenTen and Lee looked at each other, as if the answer was in the other. "I can't believe that my own friends don't remember ..."

"Is it your birthday and Akamaru's?" Sasuke, the most unlikely to remember a date like that, was the one who got the answer right, earning, even against his will, a big hug from the other and even a lick from Akamaru, no matter how much the dog always insisted on not get too close to him. Sometimes his good memory was not so positive, as he would like to not remember certain things.

"At least someone remembers!" The companions looked at the Uchiha as if a third eye had grown on his forehead, they did not expect that he would soon remember that fact. When he noticed all the attentions in him, the brunette just shrugged, bothered by so many looks. "Well, the thing is, I'm going to celebrate at my house later today. Only Sasuke is invited… it's a joke, you two can come too. "

The two excited members of the Gai team gave smiles that would be able to overshadow the sight of whoever was passing in front of him, so big and shiny they were. Of course, they both liked parties and, mainly, dragging their dark partner to them, even though they knew how much he hated them.

TenTen looked around for Gai, because that way, the team would be complete and they could write their wishes together; they did that every year, it would be inexcusable to start without him. She didn't see him anywhere close by, maybe they would need to walk a bit to see if they found him, if he hadn't forgotten and was at home doing something else, or doing exercises in remote places, which was an established hypothesis in head of all three, as it would not be difficult to be reality.

Instead of meeting the sensei, he spotted Team 7, his new formation with Sai, talking to Ino. These last two seemed very close and smiling at each other, while Sakura fought with Naruto for some reason, while doodling something on their papers.

It was inevitable to nudge Sasuke to look at that scene. She wanted to be able to respect her friend, however, it bothered her the likelihood that someone else would be interested in Sai, as she was hoping - very much - for him to stay with the Uchiha.

"You have to fight for him!" She whispered, euphoric. He sighed, but already resigned.

"TenTen, this is not a competition." As always, the companion was calm, even too much. While she wanted to go there to pull the man, or even get into the conversation in order to separate them, the owner of the Sharingan did not seem to have the same intentions; he didn't seem even remotely interested in the situation.

"Sasuke!" She spoke a little louder, as if to get his attention. Couldn't the brunette see what she was seeing? "Do you really want to lose it to Ino?"

All he could think was that, again, they were getting into the subject of Sai and not in a way that he liked. Would Mitsashi insist on that subject forever? It was already getting tiring. Even annoyed, he restrained himself from changing his tone; all I wanted least was the attention of the people in them.

"To begin with, you don't lose what you don't have. And other , don't play this game on me! You must be confusing me with Naruto or Kiba, who do everything to be the winners, or win the challenge at any time. I have no intention of fighting Ino or whatever you are proposing. Forget it." She looked disappointed and furious at the same time, but someone spoke before she could get a chance to object.

"You and Sai, huh?" This was Kiba, the last person who should have heard about it. Sasuke knew that, like Naruto, even the two of them were very similar in terms of personality, he was gossipy, so the possibility of spreading information was high, which made him automatically look at TenTen, who had the decency to look embarrassed; she also knew what happened when gossip reached Inuzuka's ears.

"Kiba ..." The kunoichi tried to remedy the situation, but the other just gave a loud laugh, as if he thought it was all very fun.

"Why do you have these serious faces? I will not tell anyone, I promise. But next time, you should be quieter, because, you know, super-hearing, right? " Of course, how had they not thought of that? But the man was being modest, no matter how low they spoke, with that closeness, he would hear any sound.

"What does he mean by you and Sai?" There was no one more lost in that matter than Lee, in relation to the rest of the group. Even Naruto, who was super wild and distracted, already knew about it. TenTen, predicting that the situation could get worse, since if they thought that Uzumaki and Inuzuka were scandalous, who will say Rock, who, surprised, had not spoken in a low voice, whispered to the friend who would tell him later .

"And if you're worried about him and Ino, forget it. She's with me and, well, I don't need to say that I trust her. " As silly and cliché as the sentence sounded, Sasuke couldn't help admiring Kiba at that moment. Especially the fact that that impulsive teenager had turned into a decent adult. Sure, he had his moments, but overall, it wasn't too bad. He could be scandalous in any way, but he was not completely clueless. The Uchiha was relieved that he didn't comment on his sexuality; with so many things in his life, he didn't have time to deal with someone else's prejudice.

On the other side, Naruto, seeing the other group, insisted with the two companions to go to them. As they had finished their tickets, well, at least he and Sakura no longer needed to be occupying Yamanaka, who, from the beginning, had made it clear that he could only dedicate a small amount of time to talk to them, busy as he was. .

They approached, spotting team 9 accompanied by Kiba and Akamaru. Sai walked a little behind, his red tanzaku with the message already written, embarrassed to see Sasuke in a traditional kimono. I should admit, the Uchiha was handsome dressed in him. What were you thinking and how did you manage to like him that quickly? She hated him just a few weeks ago! It was unbelievable.

Sasuke noticed when the Yamato team approached. Everyone had pieces of paper in hand, looking as if they were already written. Naruto's was green and he had no doubt that the blonde had written something related to becoming Hokage; it had always been his dream. Sakura had several, one of each color. Sai held one behind his back and, even though he couldn't see it properly, it looked red in his eyes. This made him curious; Was Sai asking for a passion? It couldn't be him, could it? TenTen was just saying nonsense; it couldn't be real, the real desire.

This left him with the flea behind his ear, so much so that he barely heard what the people were talking about. He only came to his senses when the newcomers were leaving, leaving him again with his own team and Kiba, with the claim that they would find a place to arrest his wishes. An idea settled in his mind, refusing to leave it. You knew it was wrong, but would it be so wrong if you used your Rinnegan to see what Sai had written on your note? I just wanted to confirm that he really was the object of desire, not that it mattered much.

When they were long enough and TenTen and Lee were entertained talking about the party with the birthday boy, he pulled the fringe that covered his left eye and activated it, aiming in the direction that the former Root member was hanging his simple note on the bamboo. There was not much written, just two letters and he had to blink to make sure he was reading them right. As much as he previously knew, the last letters he expected to see were the initials of his name.

He disguised himself with a clearing of his throat when he saw that TenTen was smiling beside him, probably because he had caught him in the act, peeking. He tried to be discreet, but unfortunately, she, who was already attentive, was even more so when it came to gossip. Well, after all, she didn't say things that had no connection. The question was, what would you do with that information now that it had been confirmed?