Hi, it's me, the writer. How you doin'?

This story is set right after Chapter 310 of Naruto Manga, which, as you may have noticed, I didn't draw. Since I don't own anything about Naruto's show, I'm not going to earn any money by this fanfiction. And that's sad.

Anyway, um, for the Summary, this story is about a particular recurrence in the Konoha Village, which is purely fictional. I decided to call it "Teloma" (that is also the title for this story), and you'll know why by reading.

Well, let's start!

TELOMA

1st day

Konohagakure is one of the five great ninja village, and as such, it's one of five villages with a Ninja Academy, that is a school for young Ninja, as well as a training center for older Shinobis. It was the home of the main cast of the great country known as Land of Fire and, although being known as a peaceful country, it's military power was well know all over the world, thanks to the witness of his Shinobis.

In that autumn day, a little practice field in that village was occupied by a bright, young ninja, who at the age of 16 had already become a Jounin. His name was Neji, descendent of the Hyuga clan.

Neji was training. He had started at dawn, took a break of about two minutes at noon, and was going to train non-stop 'til sunset. That, in fact, was Neji's ordinary day when he was not going on a mission. He was working to improve his Byakugan (a particular power he inherited by his clan which allowed him to extend his sight and see through things that would usually be obstacles for ordinary eyes). That technique gave him the ability to see the chakra flowing in someone's body, as well as giving him an almost 360-degree field of vision, save for a small blindspot at the back of the neck. That small blindspot was his imperfection, and he had to go over it.

But in the evening he was starting to feel tired.

"Damn.. Maybe I should take another break... Just two other minutes…" he thought, and so gave up, sitting on the grass of the training field. His sight went over the sky, where the sun was very close to the horizon. "A little bit more, and I can go home".

But just right then, someone entered the training field. Was he Gai-sensei? No, it was a girl.

A girl?

Oh sure, he knew her. It was Ino Yamanaka. The girl of the flower shop. Their first meeting took place during the chuunin exams, three years ago. But they never knew well each other, so he was wondering what in the world could she want from him.

Moreover, he noticed she was coming toward him with a very strange face. Was it.. shyness? Well, a different sort of shyness of his cousin Hinata (that wasn't that pathetic) , but still…

Although he surely didn't ever feel scared by a girl, he was feeling uneasy as he saw her coming closer.

"Hi Neji.." she finally spoke.

"Hi" he answered, coldly. It's not like he was trying to look cool, that was just as he was.

She lowered her eyes, and played with her fingers.

"… How's your training going?"

Neji raised an eyebrow.

"Fine" he answered.

Silence fell between the two, she standing in front of him, who was sitting on the ground. She sure was feeling uneasy, too, but Neji realized it wasn't shyness, and if it was, she was not giving up to it, since she never stuttered (unlike her cousin).

"Is she just trying to look feminine?" he finally realized in his mind. Sure she was cute. Man, what was he tinking?

She finally broke the silence:

"You know, Neji.. We really don't know well each other, but I was thinking, maybe we could hang out together, the day after tomorrow?"

What??? Was she serious??? He was going to answer, when suddenly he felt a strange form of chakra slowly insinuating into his body, and then into his mind. He automatically summoned his power known as Byakugan, scaring Ino to death (let's say that Neji's power's not that cute to watch, since a few veins appear under his skin all around his eyes). He jumped on his feet, saying out loud:

"WHAT'S THIS?"

Ino shivered, quickly said: "Let's talk about it later, ok?", and ran away. The strange chakra in Neji's body disappeared before he could see where it was coming from. He confusingly looked at her as she disappeared from his sight.

That strange episode tortured his mind for a few minutes, preventing him to restart his training, until he was shocked by a sudden voice behind him.

"NEJI, YOU'RE SUCH A MORON!"

Neji angrily turned his head, seeing the disappointed face of his teammate and "friend" Rock Lee, watching at him from up the wall which delimited the training field.

"Lee, what the hell do you want?"

"YOU MORON!"

He jumped down, landing right in front of the other boy.

"You were so lucky to be invited by such a cute girl like Ino-chan, and you rejected her roughly!"

"What are you talking about? Invited to what?"

"Geez, the day after tomorrow it's TELOMA!!"

Neji stood there for a while, then his serious face slowly turned into a shocked one.

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"AAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWW", Naruto cried.

He was at Ichiraku Ramen bar, eating his daily ration of ramen, while talking with an older shinobi, to whom he referred as Iruka-senpai.

"Is it really that soon?? How comes I didn't know it??"

Iruka couldn't help but smile, looking at how serious this thing was for the boy.

"You should have known earlier if you had studied my lessons on Konoha's calendar and recurrences" he answered with a smirk.

"Man, I never cared about it before because I was too young to join the celebrations!" Naruto cried, not forgetting for even a moment to feed himself with a gulp of ramen, now and then.

"Anyway, now you're a fifteen genin, and so you're invited to the Teloma party in the Hokage's Residence".

"But, senpai, I need a girl to go with!"

Iruka, showing a grin of consensus, replied: "Do you already know who to invite?"

Naruto froze.

"Heu… well… Hmmm… Who are you going to invite, Senpai?"

Iruka froze.

"Herr… I have an idea or two…"

"Really? Who??"

Iruka looked straight into Naruto's eyes.

"You have to tell nobody, 'cause I have not asked her yet, understood?"

Naruto looked back.

"Yup, I promise"

Iruka's eyes became smaller.

"I'm going to invite…"

Naruto got closer to him.

"… Hana Inuzuka"

That was a real surprise to Nasuto.

"EEEEH? YOU MEAN KIBA'S SISTER?"

Iruka gasped and quickly put his finger on his mouth.

"Ssssssst!! Naruto, lower your voice!!"

"Eh.. Uh, sorry…"

The older shinobi, worried, move his sight around the bar, to see if anyone was looking at them. But nobody seemed to care them. He finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Naruto grinned.

"But, Senpai, it doesn't seem like she'll easily say yes to you!"

"What? Why?"

"She's a really cute girl, you know, and moreover she's kinda requested. It seems that Kakashi sensei's after her, too"

"WHAT???" Iruka exclaimed, terrified, "But then I have no chance at all!!"

Naruto, seeing his former sensei falling into depression, quickly added:

"Well, but maybe Kakashi sensei's going to invite Shizune-sama!"

But there was nothing to do. Iruka had lost his happy mood.

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Streets, in Konoha Village, are very large, especially those in the center of it, 'cause they had been built in order to allow great parades in special occasions, like the end of a war.

And in one of that large street, a young man was running desperately, escaping by a whole multitude of girls who were running after him.

"Troublesome" he said to himself, looking at all that girls behind him who were getting closer and closer.

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It was night, and Naruto was lazily going back home. Walking with both hands behind his head, he was thinking about the Teloma recurrence. He tried to imagine himself asking Sakura to go with him at the party. No matter which words he picked, it always ended up with he being punched away. Sigh

Suddenly he found himself unable to move another step. His body wasn't answering him anymore. Then he heard a particular noise coming from behind the corner. A noise which sounded like footsteps. It maybe sounded more like an army's marching. The noise was getting closer.

"What the…?"

A crowd of girls turned the corner, and ran toward the terrified young Ninja. They all stopped their run as they saw him. One of the girls leading the crowd spoke to him.

"Did you see Shikamaru around here?"

Shikamaru? He was going to answer that he hadn't seen him at all that day, when his right arm moved on his own and the hand pointed to the bottom of the street, in the other direction.

The girls nodded and ran away. After a few minutes of screams and running, they all disappeared from his sight.

"Phew, that was close!"

Naruto immediately recognized that voice.

"Shikamaru?"

As an answer, the boy came out from the shadows and released his control on his friend's body.

"Hey, Naruto!"

"So, it was you!! Hi there!" Naruto happily exclaimed. They stared at each other for a while, then Naruto erupted:

"Wait a moment, all those girls were after you??"

Shikamaru sighed, and nodded.

"How troublesome".

"You kidding me??? Man, I soo envy you!"

Shikamaru smiled, and lighted a cigarette.

"You shouldn't, really. Girls are such trouble"

Naruto put his hands behind his head again, seeming not persuaded at all.

"Were you going home? I'm coming with you" he smiled in response.

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"Kiba, where are you going at this time??"

Hana Inuzuka was staring with a very menacing look at his little brother Kiba who, riding his loyal Akamaru, was trying to slink out of his house.

"Ha… Hana, I'm going out!"

"Out where?? Dinner's almost ready!"

"Herm… I can't stay, I have a very important thing to do with Shino…"

"You're not going anywhere!"

That was getting bad. Kiba patted his hand on Akamaru shoulder's, and the big dod dashed out of the door, barkling in excitement.

"Kiba! Akamaru!" his sister shouted, but they were already gone.

After a few minutes, they were at Shino's house, where the boy was waiting for them.

"Ah, you finally arrived"

"Sorry if we're late, Shino, but we had to run away from my sister"

Shino nodded, then he took out of his sleeve a paper.

"Uh? What's that?"

Shino smiled, even though nobody saw that because his mouth was always covered by the collar of his upper suit.

"It's the map of the village"

"Really? And what are we gonna do with it?"

"On it, I highlighted the point with massive gathering of girls of our age"

Kiba laughed.

"Man, let's hope it'll work".

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The two boys walked along in the village, engulfed in the night's silence. It was very late.

"And so, the day after tomorrow it's gonna be Teloma, uh?" Naruto asked, giggling.

"It seems so" Shikamaru answered.

Naruto remained silent for a bit, then he spoke:

"Why is it called Teloma?"

"Hmmm… Once, Asuma-sensei told me that 'Teloma' is the term used to refer on the portion of the leaf over the upper ramification. And thus, this recurrence symbolize the birth of new ramification, and it's celebrated in Autumn 'cause that's when the old leafs will die, to let others come and take their place in Spring. Or something like that, I wasn't paying attention".

"And who are you inviting?" Naruto grinned, curiosity eating him from inside.

"Ah… I think I'm gonna pass"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I'm not going"

"What? Why??"

"Too much trouble" Shikamaru stated, closing his eyes.

Naruto, scratching his cheek with his hand, replied: "Well, that's so much like you"

"And what about you?"

"Me? What?"

"Are you asking Sakura to go with you?"

Naruto shivered.

"Ahahahah… I think she'd kill me if I asked her…"

"And why is that?" Shikamaru asked sincerely.

"You never saw her angry. And she gets angry every time I ask her on a date" Naruto admitted.

Shikamaru looked at his friend, trying to understand if he was kidding. Then he asked:

"Are you for real?"

"U-uh" Naruto nodded.

"Odd, I always thought you really got along with each other"

"Oh well, usually we do… We are good friends… That's all…"

Shikamaru seemed perplexed now.

"Don't fake it, it is obvious you like her"

"… Uh?"

Naruto looked straight to Shikamaru. He was smiling. A warm smile. Shikamaru was that kind of guy, too sensitive to ever take a fool out of someone's feeling. Yes, he was trustworthy.

"Uah, uah, uah.. so you noticed, uh?" Naruto laughed.

Kishimaru smiled back. Then he added:

"Seriously, that's no mystery"

"Eheh, I guess so…"

"Girls… So trouble…"

They kept on walking silently for a while.

"You should invite Choiji" Naruto said.

"Ahahahahah… No…" Shikamaru joked.

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Ino was on her way home. She had stopped at the central park, trying to absorb Neji's rejection.

"Waaaah, I have to go to the party with some really cool guy. Damn, that Neji bastard refused me! But maybe it was my mistake to try Shintenshin no Jutsu on him".

Geez, my girl, that was really stupid to start with. Her plan was to transfer just a little of her mind into his, so that he wouldn't have lost his consciousness, to make him unwillingly say yes to her, so that he could not take his word back, even if he didn't understand why he said yes to her. But that was really lame, she had to admit it. And what if he found out what she wanted to do? That was close.

Still… She was not sure if Neji would have said yes on his own, she had to do it. Last year Sakura came at the party with a very cool guy two years older than them, while she went with Kiba, and she totally lost her little competition. That year she had to win! Her escort should be cooler than Sakura's.

But who….

Wait!

Sure! Why didn't she think about that???

She grinned.

"Tomorrow… I'll ask Sai!"

She ran toward her house, unaware that someone was looking at her on the other side of the street. Someone fa… herr, I mean pleasingly plump.