Author's Note: No, you are not in the middle of an insane dream! Rachel and I are back - at least for now, oops! - and we just went through this story again and wanted to update and share the new version with you all! It's not too much different, but hopefully it'll be fun still and you guys will enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed rewriting it! Let us know what you think!
Disclaimer: We own nothing. At all.
Warnings: A lot of references, language, innuendos, OOCness, unbeta'd.
Word Count: 5,544
"Guys, pizza!" Naruto dashed down the stairs to the basement, as quickly and as carefully as he possibly could while balancing a stack of pizza boxes in his hands. Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and flocked around the table, squeezing onto couches and chairs, as Naruto set down the boxes and propped the lids open. Steam wafted outward in a delicious, mouth-watering cloud; Hinata began passing out paper plates even as people were reaching for their prospective slices.
"I want some of the pepperoni!"
"Can someone pass me one of the mushroom and peppers?"
"Hey, I wanted that one!"
"Would you guys please be civil about this? Goodness!" Sakura rolled her eyes. Once everyone was satisfied with their bounty and munching contentedly, Kiba broke the silence.
"So, what's the plan for tonight? Movie, cards, video games?" He slipped Akamaru a slice of crust as he spoke, and the rather large dog barked his approval. He laid his head onto Kiba's lap hoping that he would be passed more soon.
"We've done all those already," Shikamaru sighed, slouching in his chair. He fiddled with his short ponytail, looking around, bored already. He arched an eyebrow waiting for someone to voice an opinion so that he wouldn't have to.
"Yeah, let's do something new," Tenten said, taking the bait while perched on one of the couch's armrests, knee propped up to support her chin while the other swung rhythmically back and forth.
"Well..." Shisui tapped his finger against his lips; Itachi cast him a sidelong glance, black eyes narrowing in suspicion. Years of knowing the oldest in the room has left his very weary of the devious way his cousin thought.
"I don't like that look you're getting," he said.
Shisui failed to keep a grin off his face. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"What's your idea, Shisui?" Sasuke pushed his plate away; Sakura immediately offered to throw it away for him, to which he tried his best to politely refuse. Judging by the looks his elder
brother and cousin were sharing he felt like tonight was going to be a long one and he was going to need his fill of pizza.
"How about truth or dare?"
Immediately the room filled with of chorus of both excited "yes"s and horrified "no"s.
"Aw, come on, guys! It sounds like fun!" Kiba, one of the few boys that agreed with Shisui's proposal, encouraged. He was immediately slapped upside the head by a rather affronted Shikamaru who appeared to take offense to the formers outburst.
"Guys, we truly adulting adults only have this weekend before we go back to the University. I wanna do something fun!" Shisui pouted, gesturing to the oldest of the rooms' participants. Temari nodded, nonplussed, while Itachi and Kankuro didn't look convinced. Naruto leaned over to Kankuro, whispering something in his ear that seemed to change the older boy's mind on the game.
"I'm all for it, I've never played before," Sai said in his typical monotone, drawing the attention of half the room. When their eyes met his, his only response was a somewhat vacant smile that left everyone unconvinced and slightly disturbed.
"No." Gaara's monosyllabic, calm response was expected by everyone, but his older brother Kankuro wasn't having any of it.
"Come on, Gaara, lighten up a bit! You don't have to do anything you're not comfortable with."
The quiet redhead didn't look at all persuaded. While Kankuro continued in his efforts, Shisui went around the group to take a vote.
"Yes!" Ino said enthusiastically. This could finally be her chance to kiss Sai, on the chance that someone dared her to do so. However slim those chances were, she wouldn't run the risk of missing out on it.
"Count me in!" Sakura said, chewing on her lower lip, nervously. If this was going to be one of the last nights that they were all going to be together for a while, she wanted it to be memorable.
"Same here," Tenten waved.
Hinata looked down at the floor, her dark blue hair falling over one shoulder. "Um...sure, I guess."
Shino pushed his glasses farther up his nose. "Sure, I'm interested in partaking in this game. Why, you may ask? Well, because-"
"Shut up, Shino," Kiba said jokingly. Shino turned his head to look at his best friend without a word, then adjusted his glasses and looked away again.
"Of course, I'd love to play!" Lee said with barely contained enthusiasm. "After all, we must enjoy these youthful games while we still can!"
"Speaking of youth," Neji said from beside him, "I can feel mine being sucked away as we tool around just trying to decide who's playing or not."
Shisui barked out a laugh. "Yeah, that Shikamaru," he said, throwing his voice down a octive, "what a tool he is! With a huge pineapple-shaped head and no common courtesy to fill it!" Shikamaru whipped his head around so hard Choji cringed, wondering if he had almost broken his neck, to glare at Shisui.
"Well that was fucking rude," he snorted indignant, glaring at the cackling black haired boy. "And for your information; I do have common courtesy-"
"Could've fooled me," Ino interjected, to which she was promptly ignored by Shikamaru.
"-I just choose not to use it! And by the way, I don't have a huge head. It's average size," he finished off.
Sai turned his head to the side, a thoughtful look on his face. "So you aren't disputing the fact that your head is the shape of a pinapple?"
"No," Shikamaru sighed, letting his head lean back against the couch. "Because 'pineapple-shaped heads'" he said, putting air quotes around the words, "are hereditary on my dad's side and, unfortunately, irrefutable."
Kiba groaned far louder than need be, earning an annoyed look from Sasuke, "Oh my god, Shikamaru, shut your god damn face before I shut it for you!"
Shikamaru gave Kiba a droll look, rolling his head around to stare at the slitted-pupil-ed boy. "What are you going to do, Kiba? Sick your dog me? And by the way, you're on my shi
t list now."
Kiba glared playfully, reaching down to affectionately stroke the top of Akamaru's head, that was still resting on his knee. "Oh yeah? Isn't everyone on your shit list?"
"Yeah," Shikamaru said, slouching down in his seat. "You're just on it twice now, shit-head."
"Oof," Kiba clutched at his chest, looking wounded.
"Even Choji?" Tenten asked, thin brown eyebrows arched.
"Especially Choji," Shikamaru grumbled.
Pausing half way through his fifth slice of pizza, Choiji looked over at his best friend with raised eyebrows. "What do you mean by that?"
Now Shikamaru groaned far louder than need be, causing Kiba to roll his eyes and Naruto to snicker. "God damnit, Tenten, he wasn't suppose to know!"
Tenten looked back at him completely confused. "Wait, what? The hell did I do wrong?"
"So selfish," Lee said, shaking his head jokingly. He grinned broadly at her when she glared at him.
"Not that this wasn't completely how I wanted to spend my friday night," Gaara said after a moment of silence between Tenten glaring at Lee and Choji glaring at Shikamaru who was glaring at a still cacking Shisui, who then slapped an annoyed Itachi on the back that earned him a painful right hook to the shoulder. Shisui pouted and scooted as far away from his best friend as the cramped space on the couch would allow.
"But," Gaara continued when no one reacted to his words, pale green eyes watching the scene play out for a moment before continuing, "could we get this going?"
"Agreed," Neji said, running a hand through long brown hair. Sasuke waves his hand around to show he seconded that notion.
"Very well," Itachi said, playing his glare from his sheepishly grinning cousin to look around the room. "Did everyone vote?"
There was a mixed chorus of "yes"s and "no"s.
"Okay," Naruto said, completely ignoring the "no" half of the room, including himself, "let's do this!"
"Don't I get a say?" Sai asked, looking over at the spiky blond haired boy next to him. Naruto looked back at him and leaned in very close and scoffed really loud. Sasuke, on Naruto's other side, cringed at the noise while Sai seems unaffected.
"No," Naruto said after a long moment of staring into Sai's eyes, "you don't."
"Okay," Sai said.
"And on a totally unrelated note-" Naruto started.
"If that's the case don't continue," Neji warned, glaring at the blond with clear white eyes.
Naruto continued as if he didn't hear the Hyuga, "-you have beautiful eyes." Sasuke groaned, slapping his palm against his forehead loud enough for Sakura and Ino to both cringe and Akamaru to jump awake from his slumber to look around confused.
Sai stared back into the blond's blue eyes for a long, drawn out moment. Sasuke rolled his own eyes grumbling something about Naruto being "a stupid idiot" before Sai, as stoically as ever, replied, "Thank you."
"On that slightly homoerotic note, can we start playing now?" Temari looked around at the group, each displaying various facial expressions ranging from apathetic to excited to blatantly disgusted.
When no one protested, to his slight surprise, Shisui clapped his hands together. "All right, who goes first?"
"Well, since you suggested it, why don't you go first?" Sasuke asked with growing impatience. He was just ready for this night to be over with. Everyone in his life just drained all the life from his body. All. The. Time. "Or at least pick someone."
"All righty, then," his cousin replied cheerfully. "Hinata, since you've been ever-so vocal, why don't you go first?"
Hinata's serene expression turned to one of complete horror. "W-what? Why me?"
"Come on, Hinata, truth or dare?" Naruto encouraged. The pale girl's cheeks flushed a delicate pink; she averted her gaze from the unruly blond, focusing instead on Shisui while wringing her hands in her lap.
"Uh, I really don't think-"
"Truth or dare?" Shisui echoed firmly.
Hinata looked around helplessly, as though hoping someone would interject and save her from what she knew to be impending humiliation. When no such help came, she bit her lower lip and continued to rub her hands nervously.
"Truth," she finally squeaked out.
"Are you sure?" Naruto leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees.
Shisui shook his head, clicking his tongue in disapproval. "Are you sure you want to do that, Hinata? I really think choosing 'dare' would be better for you."
"Yeah, come out of the box a little," Tenten encouraged, bumping her knee against Sasuke's shoulder. Sasuke snuck her a sideways smirk.
"Umm..." The poor girl's nervousness was becoming more evident with each passing second. "I really think I want-"
"Dare? Okay!" Shisui clapped his hands together, and before Hinata could even begin to protest further he said, "I dare you, in the least perverted way possible, to take off your jacket and leave it off for the rest of the night."
Hinata's expression of horror only deepened. "I-I-I'm not wearing anything underneath m-my jacket," she stammered in protest.
"You're a horrible liar, Hina," Shisui laughed. "You wear the most amount of layers I've ever seen. You wear, what, a tank top and a sweater under that thing?"
Itachi turned to look at his best friend and raised one brow. "And just how would you know that, you creepy bastard?" Sasuke snorted the Pepsi he was drinking and had to turn away gagging, trying to breathe.
"I have never heard you curse before," Naruto said, looking at Itachi with wide blue eyes, laughing a bit. Then an annoyed look crossed his face and looked back at his choking best friend and whacked him hard in the back, jolting him slightly. Sasuke hissed at the rough treatment as Naruto said, "Stop being a drama queen."
"I fucking hate you," the youngest of the Uchiha in the room grumbled, falling back into his seat and nudging his pop away, showing no more interest in it.
Hinata hesitated a moment longer before finally unzipping her jacket and shrugging it off, folding it neatly in her lap. "All right, Hinata, good job!" Lee enthused, his black bowl-cut shaking a bit as he nodded. Still blushing, Hinata only looked down at her jacket.
While looking away she missed all the looks the boys in the room were giving her, oogling her rather healthy bodice, but Ino didn't. And she had to roll her eyes at the drool coming out of the corner of Kiba's mouth.
"It's only when it's not out on display that you boys finally pay attention when it is," she muttered just loud enough to snap all the boys out of their hormone-induced fantasies that she didn't dare wish to think about. Not yet, at least, maybe after a couple beers.
"Your turn now, Hinata," Shisui coaxed, being the first to recover.
She glanced up, again looking unsure. "Um...Kiba, truth or dare?"
"Dare!" the boy said instantly, wiping the drool from his chin.
Hinata paused for a moment, trying to think of something that wouldn't make the group pick on her some more. "I dare you...to act like a cat for the next turn."
The room was filled with snorts of laughter, and now it was Kiba who wore the expression of horrified shock. But he nonetheless consented to the dare and began meowing unhappily, to which Naruto, Shisui, Kankuro, and Lee laughed even harder, falling onto one another. Akamaru stared up at his owner with an expression that was very human-like in its disgust.
"Tenten, truth or dare?" Kiba said, pausing in his cat-like mannerisms, offering his pooch an bewildered look.
"Dare," she said calmly. Her response was met with some collective "ooh"s of suspense, but Tenten's expression did not change.
"I dare you to burp as loud as you possibly can." More laughter ensued.
Tenten looked affronted, brown eyes widening a bit. "Excuse me?"
"No, excuse you," Kankuro snickered, and the laughter only intensified. Gaara shook his head at his brother's poor joke.
"That's disgusting, Kiba." Tenten folded her arms indignantly.
"Oh, come on," he said with a wave of his hand that he had just paused to lick. "Don't be such a girl. Do it!"
The last few words seemed to resonate in Tenten; without a word she reached over Sasuke, grabbed his Pepsi, and proceeded to down the remaining contents, which turned out to be a little over half of the bottle. Sasuke merely arched his brows at the unceremonious seizing of his property. This girl always did have some nerve.
"Go ahead, it's not like I didn't want the rest of that," he quipped dryly.
Tenten ignored him and only screwed her face up in concentration. The room was silent with suspense; finally Tenten opened her mouth, and the burp that came from her throat seemed to rattle the glass of the coffee table itself. It lasted more than a few seconds before she closed her mouth and sat back, crossing her legs with satisfaction.
"Damn," Naruto said, breaking the silence that ensued.
"Damn is right," Kiba said, finally dropping the cat impersonations with obvious relief. "Never knew you had it in you, Tenten."
"I give it a ten out of ten," Lee joked, and the room was filled with groans. Shikamaru leaned over and smacked his friend upside the help with barely-contained disgust.
Shisui slow clapped, drawing everyone's attention to him. "Tenten received the I-have-the-world's-most-confusing-boner-award. Step right up and claim your prize."
The choking, snort of a laugh that escaped Tenten was inhuman as her friends died around her. Sasuke couldn't help but mask a chuckle as tears streamed down Naruto's red cheeks. He slapped the ground hard trying to find an outlet for his excitement.
"All right, my turn." Tenten let her watery brown eyes roam over the group, carefully deciding her next victim amongst the dying laughter in the room. Her eyes landed on the young, lazy Nara leaning against the couch next to Shino's feet, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye. "Shika..."
"No," he said, narrowing hawk-like eyes, no longer amused.
Tenten smiled coyly. "Truth or dare?"
"Fuck me. Dare," Shikamaru sighed, sitting up a bit more attentively.
Tenten leaned back in her seat, her leg brushing Sasuke's shoulder when she crosses it over her other one. She reached down and patted his shoulder in apology before she leaned back and cupped her chin. She hummed thoughtfully. "I dare you to go the rest of the night without saying the words: troublesome, annoying, and drag."
People "ooh"ed appreciatively, which made Tenten smile and Shikamaru glare, annoyed.
"Damn you," he muttered, slouching back into his seat. "This is so-"
"Shikamaru!" Choji called out a warning, making Tenten's victorious grin spread a bit wider. Shikamaru looked at his best friend for a moment before he looked back over at Tenten.
"This,' he gestured around them, "is so irksome."
Shino tilted his head slightly. "Now you've done it, Tenten."
"Seriously," Temari said, crossing her long legs and placing her hands neatly on her lap. "Now he's just going to have something else to bitch and moan about for the rest of the time here."
"You're welcome," Tenten said, laughing. "Your turn, Shikamaru."
The lazy genius lets out a whoosh of breath, looking around the room for his victim. Who has pissed him off the most today aside from Kiba who earned a second place on his shit list? "Huh...let's see. Lee, truth or dare?"
The overly energetic boy immediately straightened up in his chair. "Well, I should think the answer is quite obvious! Dare! Do your worst, Shikamaru!"
"Oh, believe me, I will," Shikamaru replied with a small smirk. "I dare you to go into the bathroom and let Ino spike your hair, and leave it that way for the entire night."
Lee looked appalled. "I could never shame my teacher's wonderful haircut! Never!" He reached up his hands to smooth down his glossy locks, as if to make sure they were still there.
"Oh, stop your bitching and do it, Lee," Kiba snorted among the cackles filling the room. With an increasingly pained expression, Lee trudged up the stairs at Sasuke's direction with Ino close behind.
"He better not touch any of my stuff," the younger Uchiha muttered.
Itachi raised one eyebrow. "You got something to hide in there, little brother?"
"Ooh, I bet Sasuke has porno mags!" The look Sasuke sent Naruto, if it could kill, would have reduced the wily Uzumaki to a pile of ash on the floor.
"You're so gross, Naruto," Sakura huffed. Shisui leaned over to whisper something in Itachi's ear; the latter chuckled low in his throat while Shisui pressed a hand over his mouth to smother his snickers.
"You got something to say, Shisui?" Sakura sprang to her feet, hand up ready to deliver a punch to the older Uchiha. Her jade eyes seemed to burn. "Come on, now, don't be shy!"
Shisui held up his hands in a gesture of "whoa, hold up" and tried to cease in his laughter. "It wasn't about you, Sakura." The lie was a shitty one on all accounts, and everyone knew it.
"So help me, I'll knock your teeth so far down your throat you'll be shitting them out for weeks!" Sakura made to deliver what everyone knew to be a hard hit, but the sound of Rock Lee's voice stopped her.
"Don't laugh," he said sullenly. Ino stood behind him, hands smothering her amusement at her handiwork. Lee's raven hair stuck up at all angles atop his head; it looked as though she had combined elements of both Naruto and Sasuke's hair in some bizarre lovechild. For a few moments they only stared before bursting out in fits of laughter.
"Oh-my-god!" Temari gasped out, clutching her stomach.
"It's beautiful!" Shisui collapsed onto Itachi while the latter shook with silent laughter. Even Sasuke couldn't hide his amusement. Gaara only shook his head, while Sai smiled his awkward smile.
Hinata, in between giggles, said, "I think it suites you, Lee."
"I said not to laugh," he whined. He reached up to try to smooth the gel-coated hair back down, but Ino swatted his hand away.
"You took the dare, mister." She tossed her long blond hair with satisfaction and took a bow, proud of her work. There was a powerful round of applause that bounced off the walls of the room.
"Well, in that case," Lee said, putting his hands on his hips with a stern expression. "Ino, truth or dare?"
The blond straightened up from her bow with a look of surprise. "Uh..." She cast a look at Sakura, narrowed her eyes, and replied, "Dare."
"I dare you to kiss Gaara. Doesn't matter where."
Ino's blue-green eyes widened. The room immediately fell silent. Temari and Kankuro exchanged looks, then glanced at their red-headed brother seated calmly on the floor. Gaara made no sudden movements, resolving only to remain in his cross-legged position, back straight, hands resting on his thighs.
After a moment he lifted his eyes to Lee and said, in the most serious voice possible, "I will end you."
Lee swallowed hard, but maintained his resolve. "A dare is a dare. Go on, Ino."
Looking more than a little frightened, Ino lowered herself onto her knees before Gaara. The redhead only looked directly ahead as she leaned forward and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek before scooting back to her seat on the floor.
"That was intense," Kiba whispered to Naruto. The blond nodded wordlessly, for once.
"Sakura, truth or dare?" Ino asked after a brutal silence.
Sakura straightened up and defiantly replied, "Dare." There was no way she was backing down from Ino, of all people, but she quickly realized the mistake she made when Ino grinned
wickedly.
"I dare you to sit on Lee-no, Shisui's lap for the next turn," she said. The room broke out into a mixture of hoots and catcalls. Lee groaned inwardly, mourning his loss at getting up close and personal with the girl of his dreams.
"Ooh, baby!" Shisui waggled his eyebrows while Sakura looked murderous. But she nonetheless stood up, strode over to the goofy Uchiha, and planted herself in his crossed legs.
"Touch anything, and you lose a hand," she ground out through clenched teeth, face beat red. Ino was beside herself with laughter, clutching her sides. It was then that Lee was resolved that he would get his chance later into the game if it was the last thing he did.
"Sasuke," Sakura said once the laughter had died down. "Truth or dare?"
The younger Uchiha lifted his onyx gaze with a look that was far from amused. "Uh...truth."
"Ooh, and the streak is broken!" Kankuro announced.
"Yeah, let it be known that Sasuke was the first one to take the coward's way out," joked Shisui with a smirk. In an act that almost seemed mindless, Shisui's hands lowered to Sakura's waist but her hands cracked against his wrists like a whip before he even had the chance. Her eyes never left Sasuke.
The youngest Uchiha closed his eyes slowly, obviously trying to keep his temper in check, before opening them again and looking at Sakura.
"If you had to kiss any girl in the room right now, who would it be?" A faint blush touched her cheeks. She locked eyes with Ino and tried her best to look intimidating, but her heart was fluttering like a caged bird inside her chest. She wasn't sure if it was the intense stare of everyone in the room, or the close proximity to Shisui that was giving her a stroke and a half but she wasn't a fan of either one.
Sasuke's eyes widened slightly. "You have got to be kidding me," he said. He looked around at all the females present-Temari, Tenten, Hinata, Ino, Sakura-and sighed loudly, pinching the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger.
"I dunno," he said after a brief moment, shrugging. "Probably Te
nten. She's got more balls than most of the guys in here."
Kiba, Shisui, Shikamaru, Naruto, Lee, and Choji exploded into laughter.
"He does have a point," Itachi conceded, a smile on his lips.
Tenten smiled, looking proud of herself, while the other girls (excluding Hinata, who only had eyes for Naruto as everyone already knew) looked more than a little miffed. Sakura sprang out from Shisui's lap and returned to her seat on the couch. But before they could begin arguing among themselves, Sasuke spoke up above the cacophony.
"Naruto, truth or dare?"
"Dare!" the blond declared.
Sasuke allowed himself a triumphant smile. "I dare you to give Lee a foot rub for the next turn."
"Aww, Sasuke, come on!" Naruto whined as laughter erupted once again. Gaara actually wrinkled his nose in disgust as Lee removed his shoes and extended his legs in Naruto's direction. With a nauseated expression, Naruto willed himself to touch Lee's feet and began rubbing them lightly, trying to come into as little contact as possible.
"Oh, this is awesome," Shikamaru chuckled; the lazy genius had taken out his phone and begun filming. Naruto shot him a murderous glare and paused in his massage to flip him off.
"All right, my turn," he said after a moment. "Hmm...let's see. Temari, truth or dare?"
"Truth, thanks," the older girl replied loftily, bouncing one foot in the air.
Naruto grinned widely. "What color are your panties?"
Choji choked a bit on his drink while Kiba snorted loudly; Gaara and Kankuro narrowed their eyes at the young Uzumaki. Hinata's pale lavender eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. Sakura, enraged, reached over and slapped Naruto as hard as she could upside the head.
"Pervert!" she yelled. Shisui hid his face in his hands, shoulders shaking with laughte
r.
"Oww!" Naruto winced, reaching up to rub the affected area. "Damn, Sakura, take it easy!"
Temari lazily drew the waistband of her jeans back, completely at ease. "Let's see...black and white polka dots."
Naruto immediately scooted away from Lee and dashed away to the bathroom, presumably to wash his hands. Shikamaru stopped his recording with a satisfied snort. He turned his phone off and smiled around the room in satisfaction.
"Those two embarrassing moments will be caught in history forever when I put this on the internet," he said, stuffing his phone back into his pocket.
"You wouldn't dare," Gaara said, narrowing his eyes at the shirker. Naruto walked back into the room, plopping back down next to Sasuke. He waved his wet hands around for a moment before rubbing them on Sasuke's shoulder. The sharp whack to the back of Naruto's head made Akamaru whine. Sasuke was really running out of dirty looks to give.
"Yeah, dude," Kankuro said, leaning down to pull the bottoms of his pant legs down over his ankles, smoothing them out before he returned his gaze to the brown haired genius. "I mean come on, she's our sister. This is about honor." Sasuke snorted loudly at that. Never mind, maybe he still had a few left in him.
"No skin off my nose, besides, I didn't even turn the camera on her," Shikamaru defended himself. That was enough for Kankuro to let it drop but Gaara still looked annoyed.
Temari rolled her eyes, not nearly as concerned about her "honor" as her two younger brothers seemed to be. "So my turn?" Her eyes scanned the crowd, searching for someone who hadn't gone yet. "Choji, truth or dare?"
Choji reached up and rubbed his long bushy cinnamon brown hair. "Um, truth?"
She arched a manicured blond eyebrow. "Is that a question or an answer?" She grinned when he blushed a little, not liking the sudden attention.
"Answer?"
She accepted that. "Um... excluding Shikamaru," the lazy Nara raised an eyebrow and he and Choji shared a quick curious look before they looked back over at Temari, "who would you more likely date in this room?"
Ino's hand went flying up to her lips with a loud slap, trying to smother the loud bark of a laugh that ripped free of her. Naruto's face twisted into a look of barely contained laughter. Choji's face turned bright red at that.
"Um..." he mumbled, looking around the room at all the other faces. He then reached up and ruffled his hair again. "Do I have to?"
"Yes," Temari said, tapping ruby red nails against her cheek, waiting patiently.
"Then..." he rubbed his chin, looking completely embarrassed. His cheeks are splashed with bright pink. "Um, I would probably... date Hinata..." He shrunk beneath everyone's gaze and Hinata blushed deeply. "I mean, I've never met another girl like Hinata, that's completely nonjudgmental. I'm not exactly..." he waved his hands around ambiguously. "I'm not handsome like Sasuke or grow on you like Shikamaru. Hinata loves people for personality." He shrugged his shoulders again, shrinking even more.
"Shikamaru grows on you for sure," Sasuke muttered to Naruto, "like a fungus. Or bacteria." Naruto had to smother his laughter.
Hinata smiled kindly, light lavender colored eyes stared back at him. "Thank you, Choji. I'm so flattered."
"Oh shit," Kiba whispered harshly, eyes wide. "We just entered a feels mine zone. Watch your feet!" Ino glared at the messy brown haired boy. He grinned back at her jokingly, his eyes conveyed that he was just trying to lighten the mood. Ino's sudden hostility died down a bit in understanding.
Choji nodded, ignoring Kiba, then looked around the room. He smiled over at his b
est friend when Shikamaru bumped him with his shoulder. Shikamaru wasn't a man of a lot of physical affection but that was something that he did to show people that he was on their side. It didn't seem like much to people on the outside looking in, but it was to those that knew.
"So," Choji said, turning away from Shikamaru to look around the room. He looked as though a tremendous weight had been lifted from his shoulders. "Shino, truth or dare?"
The insect loving teen, stared back at Choji behind his black shades, a completely expressionless look on his face. "I choose dare. Why, you may wonder? Because I, too, like to live on the edge."
Naruto raspberried loudly, while Sasuke rolled his eyes. Itachi gave both of them a solid, even stare that told them to keep their mouths shut. Both back down from the second oldest in the room. Pleased, he looked back over at Choji who paused momentarily to watch the exchange and nodded for him to continue.
Choji returned his attention to the awaiting Shino and thought carefully. "I dare you to..." he trailed off, lost in thought before a very un-Choji-like smile crossed his face. Shikamaru raised his eyebrows at the sudden shift in his best friend's demeanor. "I dare you to proclaim your ever lasting love to Shisui in a very believable and flattering way."
"Yes!" Shisui said loudly, making Itachi jump from the sudden boom of his voice in the long haired boy's ear. "I've been waiting all evening for this!" Sasuke's eyerbows pulled tightly together and his eyes widened as he stared at the eldest from across the room. Itachi pressed his lips together into a fine line.
"What?" Sasuke asked, incredulously.
"What?" Shisui fired back immediately, feigning confusion. Sai looked between them, eyes wide, absorbing the information.
Neji stared at the look of childish wonder on Sai's face and sighed exasperatedly. "Wonderful," he muttered as if the entire situation brought him physical pain.
Gaara, the only one to seemingly hear the elder of the two Hyuga in the room, turned a bit to look at him inquisitively. "What?" he asked after a moment of silence. Neji jerked his chin and Gaara followed it with his eyes in Sai's direction, taking another moment to fully understand what the Hyuga was refering to. When he did a little "oh, fuck" escaped him.
The two shared a look that could only be interpreted as: When Sai's turn comes around, they were all screwed.