Two days earlier...

"Day after tomorrow is an auspicious day for weddings."

Today...

"Hey Temari-chan, can I borrow your phone?" Sakura asked, turning around in her desk. They just finished the last class for the day, Introduction to Algorithms, and because it was a core CS course, all of her roommates were in it along with most of their year. Most of their classmates were in a hurry to leave, but the four of them took their time.

"Did you not buy a new phone yet?" Temari asked.

"I don't have the money for a new one, and I don't really need one anyways," She said with a smile. "Anyone important can just call me on the dorm phone anyways."

"You could borrow one of my old ones," Temari offered, but Sakura shook her head.

"No, it's fine. I'll just deal with it until I can get another scholarship. But thanks, Tema-chan. I just need to check something." Sakura saw the look that Temari gave her but was thankful the other girl didn't insist. Even if their backgrounds were very different, she didn't want anyone to think that she was taking advantage of their friendship. Besides, now that she had a new laptop, she didn't really need a phone.

"Well, here then," Temari handed her phone over, "Don't go into my text messages though!"

Tenten leaned over from Sakura's other side to snoop, "You and Shikamaru-senpai sending lewd chats? Late-night texting when you're actually in the dorm for once?" She snickered when Temari shot her a death glare.

"It's none of your business what I send my boyfriend!" Temari retorted hotly, making even Hinata stifle a snicker.

Sakura shook her head, "I just want to check when the basketball game is. I have something else tonight, and I don't want to miss it." Sakura explained, ignoring the horseplay behind her. She opened Temari's calendar app and grinned a bit when she read the fortune-telling bit at the bottom. Today is an auspicious day for new beginnings, including business ventures and weddings.

"What else d-do you have, Sakura-chan?" Hinata asked from Temari's other side.

"Oh, just something in-game," Sakura said. If I say I'm getting married in-game, Tenten's going to tease me to death. "I might have to leave a bit early, is all. When are we going to the game? It starts at 6."

"We can go now and watch the warm-up and get good seats," Temari decided for them all, "It's the first match of the season, after all."

"It's only 4:30 though!" Tenten protested, "What about dinner?"

"We c-can just get something and eat in the stands," Hinata offered. "I wouldn't mind going now."

"And I'm sure Tema-chan is anxious to see her beloved Shikamaru-senpai," Sakura teased, handing the phone back to Temari.

"You!" Temari blushed a bright red and tickled Sakura in retaliation. Sakura squealed and shoved Tenten into Temari's line of attack, while Tenten struggled desperately to get away from her hands. Hinata helplessly giggled at their antics, knowing better than to try and stop them.

"Ah, overflowing youth!" Professor Gai shook his head indulgently at the girls' horseplay as he left the classroom.

＼(≧▽≦)／ヽ(>∀< )ノ(＞ｍ＜)(¬‿¬ )

"Deep breath, guys," Chouji murmured under his breath, as they all looked at the door of the conference room.

"Easy for you to say, your bit is tiny," Kiba muttered. He looked a bit green and subconsciously pawed at the collar of his dress shirt.

"Neither are you!" Naruto retorted, absently fiddling with something in the pocket of his dress pants.

"Just calm down. It's simply a funding pitch meeting. Don't wimp out on me now," Sasuke said sarcastically, not letting even a trace of nervousness show in his face. If I wait for them to find their backbones, I'm going to miss the wedding. Ignoring their unanimous exasperated glares, he nonchalantly pushed the door open and entered the room like it wasn't one of the scariest moments of their professional lives to date.

The entire small auditorium of men and a few women in business formal stopped talking for a second when their eyes fell on the handsome youth who came in. He ignored them all to exchange a few polite words and a handshake with the MC at the podium, then got out his laptop for the tech guy to start setting up their presentation.

"That asshole always has to steal all the limelight," Kiba muttered half-resentfully, half-admiringly. Now that the crowd's attention was focused on Sasuke, no one would notice when they entered.

"Well, c'mon, let's go then," Naruto said. "We can't let him get all the credit."

As they settled into places on the stage, Sasuke glanced over at their more determined, smiling faces, and smirked a little. He turned around to answer a question from the event's Master of Ceremonies, a young woman in a business suit, who had tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention.

"LEAF Corp. We're LEAF corp."

The MC nodded, blushing a little at the small smile that had turned his taciturn face from a little frightening to frighteningly charming. With a cough and a last look at the tech guy, who gave her a thumbs up, she picked up the microphone and began to introduce them.

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us today at this very special funding pitch, where we're pleased to present you with the chance to invest in the viral hit game of this year, Ramen Delivery Dash. With me today are the gentlemen of LEAF Corp, who'll walk you through their product and the phenomenal opportunity before you. Uzumaki-san, please."

"Thank you," Naruto took the microphone and gave the MC a broad small smile that had her turning her head away bashfully once again. I thought it was Konoha Tech that was known for their hot guys!

Naruto continued in a smooth, practiced tone with none of the squeaky nervousness that he'd had in the hallway before, "Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm here with my colleagues, Uchiha Sasuke, Akimichi Chouji, and Inuzuka Kiba to demonstrate exactly how we can bring our expertise to your companies in a mutually beneficial arrangement."

Sasuke hid a smile as he watched his roommates straighten their backs and put on their charming presentation smiles. I knew they had spines somewhere. Looks like they found them.

(๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ (ｏ・_・)ノ"(ノ_<、)(--_--)

"Woah, that's a lot of people," Tenten observed as the four girls entered the noisy gym. The chatter crashed over them like a rising tide, and the stands were at least three-quarters full at this point - an hour and a half before the game even started. Sakura was concerned as well, but it wasn't because of the crowd. She was worried because she noticed that the clock on the wall was running at least 15 minutes slow. I better remember to watch, or I'm going to miss the wedding.

"Oh no," Temari worried her bottom lip, scanning the players warming up on the court anxiously. "Shika had better have saved us some seats, or I'm going to wring his neck. Why is that boy so lazy?"

"I-Isn't that Shikamaru-senpai, Temari-chan?" Hinata pointed to one spiky pineapple-shaped head lounging on the CS faculty's players bench. Temari craned her neck to look and then scowled daggers at the back of his neck when she recognized her boyfriend. Shikamaru must have a very refined danger sensor - as soon as Temari opened her mouth to yell at him, Shikamaru happened to turn around and spotted them crowded at the entrance. He got up and lazily jogged over to them.

"Shikamaru, I thought I told you to save us seats!?" Temari demanded.

"Temari," He said in a placating tone towards his girlfriend, giving Sakura, Tenten, and Hinata a brief nod.

"W-why are there so many people here, anyway?" Hinata asked hastily, trying to head off Temari's ire. She anxiously peered at the crowds, uncomfortable as she was with so many people.

Shikamaru pointed his chin at a particular blonde in the bleachers, "It's because Yamanaka-san is here."

All four girls turned to try and get a better look at the blond-haired, blue-eyed campus beauty who was indeed sitting in the bleachers, chatting with a girl with sharp eyes and long black hair beside her. Sakura couldn't help taking another look - as much as the entire idea of the popularity contest had annoyed her, she had, after all, taken second place to this girl. This was her first chance to take a look at her face-to-face.

"What's she doing here?" Tenten frowned, "How did she not know Uchiha-senpai's not going to be here?"

Temari, Sakura, and Hinata all looked at her. You have an inside source, remember? Yamanaka-san was a fairly prominent Uchiha-senpai fangirl. She was even more conspicuous about it than Sakura was - Sakura at least had the cover of being from the computer science faculty to attend a lot of the same events as Uchiha-senpai. Yamanaka-san just turned up without any embarrassment.

"No idea," Shikamaru responded, "But since she's here, everyone thinks Sasuke's going to turn up. When word got out, the bleachers filled in ten minutes."

"Sasuke-senpai's going to be here?" Sakura asked hopefully.

"No," Shikamaru smiled sympathetically at her. Sakura wilted a bit, disappointed, but she had been expecting that, so she wasn't truly upset. She felt bad for Temari, though, who looked more and more anxious by the minute as more people streamed in behind them.

"Look, you guys should just go and grab an early dinner," Shikamaru told them, obviously trying to settle his anxious girlfriend, "Come back closer to the game, at 5:45, and the seats will be a lot more empty since more people will have realized Sasuke's not coming."

"Are you sure?" Temari asked him.

"I promise. I'll save you seats this time if it looks like it's going to get bad," He took her hand and rubbed it gently, making her blush and snatch her hand back. Shikamaru only smiled at her.

They're so cute. Sakura was just about to turn to leave with Hinata and Tenten and give Temari and Shikamaru a bit of privacy when she heard her name being shouted by a voice she didn't know.

"Haruno-senpai," A young man wearing the department jersey jogged up to her, sweaty and panting slightly from the workout. He must be one of the first-year students.

"Yes?" She smiled politely at him.

"I really admire you, Haruno-senpai. If we win this game... will you go out with me?" The freshman blurted out, blushing slightly.

Sakura's smile froze. Shannaro! Not this again. "Are you planning on losing?" She asked instead, raising a teasing eyebrow in a challenge. She didn't dare look at Tenten or Hinata in case either of them were making the same "not again" face.

The freshman saw her challenge and instantly puffed out his chest, "Of course not!"

"Then good luck!" She encouraged him. This time, as she decisively turned to leave and threaded an arm through each of Hinata and Tenten's, "Not one word from either of you."she whispered through gritted teeth,

"You're getting better at this rejection business," Tenten said mischievously despite her warning. She dodged the angry poke Sakura aimed at her ribs. Hinata only giggled lightly at both of them.

"Wait up, guys!" Temari called, catching up with them after a hurried goodbye to Shikamaru, "He had some nerve pressuring you like that where other people could hear, Sakura-chan. If you'd said no and they lost, some idiots would be sure to blame it on you, especially if they don't make the finals of the interdepartmental tournament."

"How?! It's not like that little freshman is a superstar or anything," Tenten said indignantly.

"They say you hexed the whole team or something," Temari shrugged when Tenten gave her a "Oh Really?" look, "Don't look at me, some people take basketball seriously!"

Sakura shrugged, "Well, whatever. At least we got out of that without too much hassle."

"L-let's go get some food," Hinata smiled, taking a few extra steps to pull Sakura and Tenten forwards. With a hint of mischief, she added, "B-before Sakura-chan gets confessed to again."

Hinata squealed and dropped Sakura's arm, as Sakura chased her out of the gym to tickle her in retaliation.

ヽ(~_~(・_・ )ゝ(⌒_⌒;)(＞﹏＜)

"If there are no other questions, ladies and gentlemen, we at LEAF corp look forward to working with you to bring your digital assets to a viral audience. Thank you very much for your time this afternoon." Sasuke wrapped up their presentation with a charming business smile. The applause feels good. He could already feel the restless excitement from his teammates - their reception had been better than they'd hoped for. Both BLOOM Inc. and ROOT Corp's representatives were already making eye contact to flag them down.

BLOOM Inc. reached them on the stage first. A tall man with two striking scars on his face stretched out a hand and introduced himself casually, "I'm surprised to see that four young men from the same university as my lazy son are behind the biggest viral game of this year. You have bright futures ahead of you. I'm BLOOM Corp's general manager of the games department, Nara Shikaku."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, GM Nara," Sasuke took his hand with a small smile. GM Nara also shook hands with Naruto, Chouji, and Kiba, and his assistant handed out his business card to each of the four founders with both hands, "We're familiar with Shikamaru. Unfortunately, we couldn't get him to join us in this endeavor, otherwise, he'd be here today."

Shikaku snorted, "Getting that lazy son of mine to do anything that requires any kind of energy and effort is a fool's errand. I hear you are planning to expand the company after you graduate?" His eyes scanned over the four of them, pausing on Chouji's face for the shortest moment.

"Yes, we've just leased the offices and are starting to hire staff," Chouji responded cheerfully.

"Energy is for the young," GM Nara grinned, "We fly back to Iwagakure tomorrow afternoon, so make some time to come by my hotel room for a chat before that. My secretary will have the details of my schedule."

"We will," Sasuke agreed, "Thank you, GM Nara."

"Well, I won't keep you. Plenty of these other small fry want to talk to you as well." He said with a smile and took his leave.

As soon as GM Nara left, ROOT Corp's representatives approached them quickly. They were led by a gaunt man with a long face who reached out his hand to introduce himself first.

"Very interesting game and philosophy, gentlemen," he said by way of introduction. "My name is Shigaraki Tanuki, and I'm the GM of the gaming and digital media department at ROOT."

"Nice to meet you," Naruto took the GM's hand first this time. GM Shigaraki then introduced a slim, young man, who barely looked older than Naruto and Sasuke, standing beside him. "This is our games development team leader, Shimura Sai. I'm sure you've heard of him before."

"Of course," Naruto smiled. His bullshitting skills are getting better, Sasuke thought. He knew that Naruto, who paid very little attention to the business side of game development, had absolutely no idea who that androgynous young man was.The adopted son of ROOT Corp's CEO Shimura Danzo, Shimura Sai had made waves when he'd suddenly scouted and acquired several budding companies, brought them under ROOT's banner, and developed their fledgling mobile game department into a real powerhouse.

Sasuke wanted to narrow his eyes, but he didn't let his suspicion show on his face. If he's here then... well, if that's the game they want to play, we can play.

"It's a pleasure to meet all of you," Team leader Shimura smiled, "GM Shigaraki and I would like to invite you to our offices to discuss your prospects, maybe later next week?"

"We're in no particular rush, since our head offices are in Konohagakure," ROOT Corp's GM added a little sarcastically, casting a glance over where BLOOM Corp had just left.

"Of course. We'd be happy to arrange a time to discuss," Naruto agreed.

With their objective achieved, the ROOT Corp contingent didn't linger either and took their leave. Sasuke watched them go. Something about the Team Leader didn't sit right with him.

Naruto, Sasuke, Kiba, and Chouji continued to stand on the stage, accepting cards and invitations from several other companies who were there that day, until the auditorium finally cleared out. Even the MC and the technical support had left, leaving them the only ones still there.

"Yes!" Kiba exuberantly punched the air, "Look at all these cards! And we even got a nibble from the two biggest fish in the audience!"

"Good job, Sasuke, Naruto," Chouji congratulated the two sincerely. Considering he usually handled the outsourcing, and Kiba was deep in the technical programming nuts and bolts, Naruto as the head design developer and Sasuke as their main business lead had done most of the talking at today's pitch.

"Thanks Chouji, dattebayo," Naruto grinned, finally letting go of the stiff business formal persona that he'd put on all day. Sasuke smirked at him, "What'd you think?"

"We had so much interest today, we're probably going to get some good terms," Chouji said happily, "especially with BLOOM and ROOT interested."

"We'll only know once we begin negotiating," Even Sasuke's pragmatic words couldn't bring down their elated mood. Let them have their fun. He checked his watch, noting the time. "It's almost time to get going. I'm going to head to my brother's place. See you guys at the wedding."

The three of them waved him off. Kiba leaned over to Chouji and asked, "Hey, do you think he's in a rush because he's about to get married?"

Chouji looked at him, "We're talking about the same asshole, right? Uchiha Sasuke?"

Naruto summed up their thoughts, "Yeah right."

(b ᵔ▽ᵔ)b(๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ

True to Shikamaru's word, the stands had emptied enough that Temari, Sakura, Hinata and Tenten were able to grab prime courtside seats. As the game continued and the CS department's varsity team easily overtook the chemistry department's team at the bottom of the third period, the crowd thinned even more until even Yamanaka-san got up and left.

Sakura watched her go. I guess now that the CS team is doing so well, there's no hope that Uchiha-senpai would turn up to save them at the eleventh hour or something. Still, she felt bad for the team, especially since once Yamanaka-san left, the bleachers were nearly empty.

"C'mon, let's get up and give them a cheer," Temari looked at them pleadingly. Shikamaru obviously wasn't bothered, but the rest of the team was looking a little dejected. The chemistry department took advantage of their depression to score a three-pointer and a breakaway.

"Sure," Sakura agreed. She tugged Hinata and Tenten up as Temari also stood up. Together. they cupped their hands around their mouth, loudly cheering, "Go CS Go! Go CS Go! Go CS Go! Whoo-hoo!"

The various players on the court all looked over at the four pretty girls determinedly cheering, and a couple of them raised their fists in acknowledgment, grinning broadly. Shikamaru looked at his slightly embarrassed girlfriend, giving her a small smile and a wave that made her blush even harder. Buoyed by their cheers at each basket scored, the CS department varsity team rapidly increased the gap once again, until, at the end of the third period, the score was 81