The entire rookie nine decided to have a little "reunion" at the academy just for old times sake. And so there the all were, wandering the halls and classrooms, reminiscing of the past where they learned simple jutsu and took tests of strategy, remembering all the embarrassing events that occurred and other random memories that's happened long long ago…
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura stopped as they heard a noise coming from one of the classrooms in the academy. The doors were closed and the three genin were afraid to open the doors incase something private was going on.
"What was that?" whispered Naruto in the softest whisper he could manage, which wasn't very soft.
"Shhh!" said Sakura giving Naruto the angry look she always gave him for no specific reason at all but because she claims "Its annoying" though it seems as if everything Naruto did was "annoying" to her.
They stepped closer to the doors and tried to listen to the sounds emitting from the room more clearly.
"Ah…uurn…" The noise from inside the classroom sounded strained. A groan followed shortly after.
"Hey guys what's up? Why are you standing there like –"
"SHHHH!!" Team seven shushed Ino. Shikamaru, next to her, yawned and said his signature "how troublesome" and the two newcomers joined in on the eavesdropping.
"Where's Chouji?" asked Naruto.
"I think he found a vending machine," Shikamaru answered.
Soon after, the rest of the nine ninja arrived and started listening to the strange noises coming from the classroom too.
A low grunt sounded from the closed room. And then a tense "Hn…"
"That sounded…familiar…" said Naruto, thinking hard; "Kind of like…some obnoxious genius with long hair a year older than us who's cousin is with us here…"
Everyone gave Naruto a weird look (kind of like this 0o)
"What" he asked.
Everyone stared at Hinata, the only person with them there who had an obnoxious genius with long hair a year older than them as a cousin.
"I-is it N-Neji nii – s-san then?" stuttered Hinata, realizing after some time that everyone was looking at her expectantly.
A gasp came out of the room that sounded like a held breath finally being released after some time. Another breath of air taken in was heard.
"Mmmm…" Another sound came from the mysterious room. The voice was feminine and the noise sounded forced.
"Ok so if that's Neji…well then who's the second person in there?" asked Kiba.
Someone seemed to growl in the room.
Everyone thought for a while. Naruto started naming off all the girls he knew who he thought may possibly be in there with the Hyuuga.
"Ayame (the girl in the ramen shop)…Kiba's sister…"
"My sister obviously wouldn't be in there, stupid"
"How do you know? It's a possibility! Hmm…who else…Ino…"
"BAKA, I'M RIGHT H – "
"SHHH!!" everyone shushed her. Naruto grinned at Ino as she sent a fierce glare at him.
"Hn"
Sakura and Ino turned to Sasuke eagerly. And then everyone turned to Sasuke, thinking that he had the answer.
"Of course Sasuke knows who it is! He's the totally hot genius here!" squealed Ino. Sakura giggled and nodded three times fast.
But after two minutes of no results from Sasuke they all turned to Shikamaru who had his hands in that circular position he always had when he was churning his brain around.
"Tenten"
"Ah…Shino's smarter than he looks," said Kiba, slapping his back approvingly, "Good job there bugboy…wait a sec…what the heck did I just hit…"
Shino's expression didn't change though a frightening aura began emanating from him.
"Please do not touch me ever again for I believe you have just killed the entire ant colony living in my back." Shino said stoically.
"…O-okay…"
"So, its Neji and Tenten in there huh…" mused Sakura.
Everyone let what Sakura just said process through their heads and connected it with all the weird sounds coming from the classroom.
"What. The. Hell" said Naruto, with a shocked expression on his face.
"…wow…" was all Shikamaru could say.
"Tenten got there…before me…" Ino said quietly. Everyone gave her weird looks and Sakura shook her head disapprovingly.
"Lets not jump into conclusions, this is too absurd," she said sensibly.
"Well then what can we do to check then?" asked Shikamaru.
"…"
No one said anything for a while.
"Oh man seriously this is stupid," Naruto complained, "Sasuke use your sharingan and just look inside will you?"
Sasuke gave him a look that said something like "you are retarded".
"The sharingan can't see through walls. Go request Ms. Byakugan, who actually has the ability, to do it."
Everyone looked at Hinata, who blushed and shifted her eyes, poking her fingers together like how she always does when she gets attention from more than two people and especially from a hotheaded blonde shinobi…
"Hinata?" Sakura asked gently.
"U-um…u-uh…w-well…u-uh…"
A vein threatened to pop on Ino's forehead and the corner of Sasuke's mouth twitched. Naruto scratched his head and frowned as Shikamaru closed his eyes and sighed. Chouji looked up from his empty bag of chips to stare at Hinata for a while before opening another bag and Shino stood there and looked exactly the same as he did four minutes ago. Hinata's face grew tomato red.
"What's wrong girl?" asked Naruto bluntly.
Hinata hid her eyes behind her bangs and poked at her finger faster. The pressure was high. Sweat slid down the side of her face while eight pairs of eyes burned into her.
"I-I'm afraid…t-t-to s-see…w-what's h-h-happening…and N-Neji nii – s-san m-might get m-m-mad if he f-finds o-out I was p-peeking a-at h-h-him…when h-he's…doing…t-that kind of th-th-thing…" she said shakily.
She seems to stammer a lot more when she's under the pressure like this…or is it just because Naruto's staring at her so intently…Kiba thought.
Wow it looks like she's going to break down crying, and just because of this little troublesome deal! thoughtShikamaru, yawning.
Aw, poor Hinata thought Sakura, looking at the girl pitifully.
Hey I would've danced in a chicken suit on top of the Hokage's office just to get into your body to use your ability and to get to look into there to see what they're doing Ino thought enviously, and then the dusty light bulb in her empty head finally clicked. Wait a sec…I CAN!!
"Hey I have a fantastic idea! I can – "
"Hey Ino, I just thought of something. You can do that mind transfer jutsu right? Why don't you just use it on Hinata and see for us since I'm sure you wouldn't mind and I'm sure Hinata would be happy to be relieved from all the pressure," Shikamaru said lazily and Hinata – still hiding her eyes and red in the face – nodded furiously.
Ino pouted. "I was just going to say that!" she said sullenly.
"Yeah, right," laughed Naruto.
"That's funny Ino-pig," said Sakura giving her an obnoxious You're-Dumb-So-Don't-Even-Try-Something-Like-This-Because-No-One-Will-Believe-You smirk.
"You believe me right, Chouji?" Ino asked angrily, spinning to look at the uninterested guy a little farther than everyone else munching on chips.
"Huh? About what? Oh yeah sure whatever," he answered inattentively.
Ino sighed at him and gave everyone a mean look (except when she looked at Sasuke she plastered a big bright smile on her face).
"Just do it already," said Shikamaru, gradually getting bored of the situation.
"Fine then! Don't believe me. But if it weren't for me and my awesome powers you'd all be ripping all your hairs out from the curiosity," she said indignantly, and she started to form the hand sign.
"Wait where's Hinata?"
"……………….."
"Oh man," said Kiba, sighing. Shikamaru slapped his forehead and groaned. The corner of Sasuke's mouth started twitching again. Sakura pulled at both sides of her bangs and gritted her teeth. Naruto swung his head around in attempt to look for the girl. And of course, as always, Shino just stood there.
"……………….."
"Okay…" Ino sighed. "I guess that plan is out of the question now."
Everyone sighed in unison.
"You know what? Akamaru and I seriously can't take this anymore," said Kiba frustrated, and Akamaru barked in agreement. "We're going in!" he shouted, and everyone watched tense as he prepared to bust through the closed doors…
"KYAA!"
The door burst open as Kiba rammed into it. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, the three ninja closest to the door, were pushed into the room at once. Ino rushed in next and was followed closely by Shikamaru, Chouji, and Shino.
"AH!" Tenten yelped, surprised to see the crowd, and jumped a little in her seat and Neji took the chance to slam her fist onto the desk.
"I win," he said simply.
"……………….."
Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji, Shino, and Kiba stared at the two older ninja. Neji and Tenten stared back, wondering just exactly what was going on.
"You were arm wrestling," said Shikamaru.
"…Yes…" Neji answered matter-of-factly.
The eight ninja who barged in all did the anime fall.
"Yeah, nice observation," said Tenten sarcastically, "You guys made me lose!" She crossed her arms and pouted. "It wasn't fair, they were a distraction, rematch!" she screamed at Neji.
"No, you saw how long that took. We need to go meet Gai-sensei and Lee right now," he checked his watch, "We're three minutes late already." The two older genin looked at the little crowd of ninja.
"……………….."
"You were arm wrestling," repeated Ino, blinking a lot.
"Of course we were!" said Tenten throwing her arms up, obviously angry with the lost match. "I said that already! What did you think we were doing then?"
"……………….."
Kiba looked down at Akamaru, who looked back up at his master. Naruto scratched his back and grinned innocently. Sakura and Ino started whistling a song together, both girls completely out of tune. Shikamaru closed his eyes and sighed at his own stupidity. Sasuke went to a desk and put his head down. Chouji continued to eat his chips, and Shino, again, stood there.
"Don't answer that," said Tenten, suddenly aware of what they thought was happening. "Well then Neji if we're late already then lets go," she said to her teammate.
"Hn"
Neji eyed the group carefully, noticing that it was the rookie nine, except there were only eight of them…
"Where is my cousin"
Just then, Hinata slowly crept into the room poking her fingers together and looking embarrassed though her face had returned from the bright scarlet shade back to the natural pale color of her skin. Ino gave her an irritated look.
"Where did you go?" asked Sakura glowering at her.
"W-well I j-just r-remembered that I-I f-forgot to f-feed Lee's s-s-squirrels s-since he t-told m-me h-h-he was g-going to b-be busy w-with – "
"Lee wanted you to feed his squirrels?" asked Neji, interested for some reason.
"Lee actually owns those squirrels?" asked Tenten puzzled. "Well then I guess the saying is true then…you really do learn something new everyday…for instance yesterday I learned that Sakura's hair isn't naturally pink but is really – "
"Stop it with the excuses!" Sakura screamed at Hinata, cutting Tenten off from telling the embarrassing story of her fake pink hair. Ino looked interested for a second and Sakura couldn't risk what could happen if she found out her secret. And so she turned the topic back to Hinata and her disappearance.
"Whatever, we'll deal with you later Hinata," Ino said dangerously. Hinata cowered before the two kunoichi glaring at her and took a step back shaking in fear.
"Yeah well we're just going to go now then. See you guys later," said Tenten, on one of the windowsills of the classroom, giving the Hinata a sympathetic look. Neji, on another window, jumped out without any word of farewell.
"……………….."
"Well that was awkward wasn't it," commented Sakura smiling a little.
"Hn."
Shikamaru nodded in agreement, stretched and yawned, and went to sit on his old seat back when he was in the academy. He laid his head around his arms on the desk and didn't move for a long time.
"……………….."
"You've got to be kidding me," said Ino, staring at her sleeping teammate.
"……………….."
"Hey…" Sakura started slowly, looking around, "Where'd Hinata go?"
"Oh yeah that reminds me," said Ino, walking over to sit on an open windowsill smiling evilly, "So what's the deal with your hair anyway, Haruno?"
Everyone looked at Sakura, whole paled and looked around frantically for a distraction, but found none.
"……………….."
"LOOK EVERYONE IT'S A GIANT PURPLE PANDA!!" she screamed.
As Ino, the only shinobi who actually believed Sakura's yelling, turned to look, Sakura swiftly ran over and pushed her out the classroom window from the seventh floor. Her screams and curses were audible throughout all of Konoha until she hit Hinata on the ground feeding three squirrels with bushy eyebrows and bowl haircuts that all looked strangely like Rock Lee…
"CURSE YOU HARUNO SAKURA!!!" Ino's scream echoed from the ground. Hinata slowly crawled out from under her weight, coughing and sputtering.
"I-I think this i-is p-p-punishment e-enough f-for w-whatever I've d-done that y-you wanted t-to d-deal with m-me a-about," she choked out. "N-now p-please g-get off m-me I-Ino…"