A/N: This story isn't about Karaoke, although it was going to be originally. This story is of friendship and the things your friends do just so they can spend some time with you.

Enjoy.

"Karaoke night…" Looking at her reflection in the mirror she pouts and makes silly faces, trying to psyche herself up for the total humiliation that would inevitably be 'Karaoke night'
"How in the hell do I get myself into this? Oh well Hinata, brave face, at least everyone else will be making idiots of themselves."

"Maybe I should just stay home." Hinata said to no-one in particular. She gave the idea some serious thought until an image of 'The Cousin Seducer' popped into her head. "Maybe not…" She shuddered and with those final happy thoughts, she went off to get ready for a night that was bound to be humiliating. Oh the joys of Karaoke night…

"Hinata," Neji yelled up the stairs "dinner will be ready in an hour!"

"Man, this was going to cause problems. Ino is going to have a fit." Hinata mumbled to herself.

Speaking of Ino…

"Oi Forehead!" Ino yelled "You think you could muster up the strength to lift your grossly over-sized forehead off my top? I have plans to wear it; I have to look good for someone tonight"

"Excuuuse me Pig, but it's going to take more than a sparkly top to make you look remotely passable as a human, much less a female." Sakura said whilst getting to her feet, balling her fists.

"Ha! That's rich coming from someone who blots out 95 of the sky with her forehead!" I know, makes no sense but, once they get started the insults get very… we'll say odd, just to be nice.

"Put on your top so we can go porker! Oh look it's pink, must be an omen piggy."

"What did you say? Is your forehead blocking your eyes or something? That wasn't the top I was talking about idiot!" Ino hissed back at Sakura and walked around her, cool as air, and picked up another top of the non-sparkly variety and proceeded to put it on.

"Friendliness aside Ino, you think Tenten is gonna show?" Worry mildly evident in Sakura's tone

"It's Hinata I'm worried about," Ino said poking her head out the neck of her top and walking off into the bathroom "she'll probably get ready, give herself a pep talk and then decide to stay in and watch Hanabi and Neji wrestle over the remote or some crap!"

Just that image alone was enough to have Sakura in fits of laughter because Neji wasn't one for wrestling, especially not over a remote with Hanabi. Once Ino was done getting ready, 20 minutes after Sakura started laughing, she came out of the bathroom to find Sakura still chuckling slightly to her previous statement, wiping tears from her eyes.

"You know what?" Ino started. "We need to do some intervention." and finished not even giving Sakura a chance to open her mouth.

"Let me guess," Sakura said, tapping her chin with 2 fingers "You want me to go and call Tenten and tell her to meet us about 25 minutes earlier than planned so we can go and ambush Hinata?"

"Uh… no," Ino said a blush forming slightly on her cheeks "I wasn't going to say that at all, but your plan is much better than what I was going to say!"

"I figured it was something like that, Pigs aren't the smartest creatures around now are they?" Sakura said whilst simultaneously dialling Tenten's number.

"What did you say?" Ino all but bellowed at Sakura, walking menacingly across the room gearing up to choke her.

"Shhhh Ino… Tenten?" Sakura asked into the headset. "It's Sakura; there's been a change of plans."

Upon hearing those words, Tenten knew she was in trouble. Considering Sakura was phoning from Ino's house, it meant that Hinata had to be 'freed from her oppressor!' or so Ino's slightly over active imagination told her. This was only a bad thing because it was always left to her to distract The Cousin; you can even hear the capitals when they talk about him.

"Let me guess," Tenten said apprehension coursing through every word. "We need to 'liberate' Hinata right?"

As soon as those words had passed her lips she heard Ino's shrill tones through the phone exclaiming, "We need The Cousin Seducer!"

The Cousin, being Neji, was a tad over-protective and so Hinata having any time outside of the house and school, although there were times when he disapproved of that too, was a no-no on his list; too many interactions with man-boys or something; and thus The Cousin Seducer was formed! Righter of wrongs, killer of evil doers; whose arch nemesis, The Cousin, always fell foul to her charms. Or something like that, Ino always was a bit melodramatic.

"There is no way I'm doing that shit," Tenten stated clearly down the phone. "I thought you were joking."

There was a moment of silence and then mumbling could be heard.

Mumbling was always a bad sign, always.