Chapter Two:: The Ino Problem

Hey! Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I was really only aiming for four reviews, so my expectations were exceeded. ;D


Two hours. Neji and Sakura had been shopping in Konoha's largest female clothing store, 'cleverly' named Kunoichi Kloset, for TWO HOURS. Tenten was keeping track of the time and couldn't stop wondering what the hell they would be doing in there that they wouldn't let her come along.

It had been about two days since 'The Earring Incident' as Tenten referred to it in her mind. She had had many awkward dreams (more like nightmares) about Sakura and Neji getting married and having little babies with pink hair and pale lavender eyes. The weapons mistress shuddered when she thought of it.

'Why do I care?' she thought, shoving her hands in her pockets and walking down the streets to get to Sakura's party early, 'Why. Do. I. CARE?! Sakura's my friend and Neji is my best friend. I should be happy that they've become friends too...or...more...I mean, I'm not losing Neji forever! Things won't change...'

But Tenten knew that if Neji and Sakura ended up together that things would change. She just had trouble picturing Neji with anyone; she had always assumed that she would be the only girl in his life, romantic relationship or not.

"I DON"T like him." She said angrily to the ground, "And I'm NOT jealous. Not at all." Tenten knew she was lying but she also knew that the ground she was lying to wouldn't really care.

"Who're you not jealous of?" a voice coming from behind her made Tenten stop in her tracks and inhale sharply.

"Temari..." Tenten exhaled as she turned to face the female sand-nin, who she had become very good friends with in the past few years, "No one, it's nothing…"

"Ok theeen..." Temari smirked a bit, preparing to meddle, "But if you're thinking about Neji and Sakura spending so much time together, don't worry about it. If—I said if, don't glare at me—if you like him, and told him, he would dump Sakura in a second for you."

'How does she know so much…?' Tenten thought a bit before answering.

"Really...?" but she was slightly intrigued, "Not that I like him as more than a friend or anything..." this was added as an afterthought.

Temari shrugged lightly, "If you want real love advice you should go to Ino, but yeah, that's just my opinion."

"Hey Tenten?" Temari asked tentatively after a minute of silence, "You know your—oopsdidIsayyour?Thatwasatotalslipofthetougne...I meant Sakura's party?" Temari chuckled nervously.

"Um...yes?"

"Well Shikamaru asked me to go with him, a 'troublesome date' as he called it." Temari looked at Tenten almost shyly.

A smile lit up Tenten's face, "Temari, that's great! But...why do you look so upset about it..."

Tenten almost knew the answer before it was said, "Ino..." was the reply.

"Are you...afraid of her?" Tenten stifled a laugh.

Temari laughed a bit too, "HELL no!! I just don't want her all over Shikamaru. That's why I need YOU to find her a boyfriend and get her out of my way."

"WHAT?! Why me?!" Tenten put her hands on her hips.

"Because you're my best friend!" 'And my only one besides my brothers...' Temari thought bitterly to herself.

Tenten caved, "Well you are my best girlfriend, so I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks Tenten-chan!" Temari smiled awkwardly and waved as she ran off in the opposite direction, "I have to get ready, so I'll see you at the party!!"

Tenten laughed to herself and continued walking. But when she walked past a shady, dusty alley a pair of hands reached out to cover her mouth and pull her down into the darkness...


"Sakura-san, the party is in less than an hour, I think that we should head over there," Neji was standing outside a dressing room surrounded by several shopping bags. It wasn't exactly that hard to figure out who was doing the shopping, and who was going to end up carrying the shopping bags.

"Just a second!" Sakura's voice flowed over the stall doors making Neji sigh. He was worried out Tenten and how she was reacting to him and Sakura spending so much time together in the last few days. When he had tried to talk to her yesterday she had seemed distracted and kept giving Sakura looks of...jealousy...

He had secretly liked thinking that Tenten could actually be jealous of another girl because of the time that Neji was spending with them. He also inferred that it might mean that she had feelings for him. Well, other than feelings of friendship. The thought excited and intrigued him, so maybe that was why he had accepted Sakura's invitation to go shopping…something he had always loathed.

But even the steel nerves of Neji had had enough, "If you insist on taking so long, then I'm leaving." He said, closing his eyes and walking calmly out of the store with his hands in his pockets. After he had walked a small distance away from Kunoichi Kloset, Neji looked back with a raised brow and saw Sakura running after him.

"Well despite your stubbornness," she panted when she caught up with him, "you made a pretty good shopping partner."

"Hn...I have to go get Tenten's present from my house, so I'll see you at the bar I guess." Neji continued to walk away from her.

"Wait!" Sakura linked arms with him, "I brought my present for her with me, so I'll come with you to pick it up and then we can go to the party together!"

Neji kept his face blank and pulled his arm away from the pink-haired kunoichi, "Well I also have to get your present, and I don't want to spoil it." He said monotonously,

"Aw, Neji-san, you didn't have to do that!" she squealed and squirmed excitedly.

"Well it is your party." He was grateful that she hadn't called him 'Neji-kun' like most of his fangirls.

The Hyuuga prodigy almost fell over in surprise when his companion gave him a peck on the cheek, "Neji you can be so sweet when you try! I'll see you soon then!"

As he watched Sakura run off and wave at him shyly he thought of two reasons that would explain her actions towards him; either she was rebounding from the heartbreak that Sasuke put her through, or she had a thing for prodigies and was becoming attached to him. He sincerely hoped that it WASN'T the latter.


"SHIKAMARU!!! YOU SCARED THE CRAP OUT OF ME!!!! DON'T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN!!!" Tenten had one hand clenched into a fist and the other hand was clutching the collar of a half-conscious Shikamaru. Cowering in the corner of the alley for fear of the weapons mistress was one Akamichi Chouji.

The owner of the hands that had grabbed Tenten roughly and dragged her into the dark alley belonged to none other than Nara Shikamaru, who obviously didn't expect such a violent reaction from the brunette kunoichi, "Troublesome woman..." he muttered.

"Well what did you expect me to do?" Tenten countered, with her hands on her hips, "You could have been an assassin or an enemy ninja."

Shikamaru rubbed the side of his face that Tenten had hit. It smarted painfully, "Ouch...you're obviously too troublesome for even enemy ninjas to bother to attack."

A deep sigh was given from Tenten as she pulled a cold compress out of her back pocket and pressed it up to Shikamaru's cheek, letting her sisterly side take over, "I'm sorry..." she said with a concentrated look on her face, "but what do you guys want anyway?"

"Shikamaru needs your help." Chouji stated bluntly.

"Why is everyone asking me for help today?!" Tenten wailed, throwing her head back.

"Was it Temari?" Shikamaru drawled lazily.

Tenten answered in an equally lazy tone, "Yes it was. And I suppose that you'll be wanting the same thing, yeah?"

"Yes! But we have a different strategy!!" Chouji interrupted eagerly, "To keep Ino from bothering—"

"She doesn't bother me," Shikamaru was now the one who interrupted; he was actually too lazy to let Chouji finish, "I just don't want her to freak out about me and Temari." He rolled his eyes and looked at Chouji, "Ok, now you can tell her your genius idea."

Chouji looked unbearably excited, "If Ino goes out with ME, she won't care about what Shikamaru is doing!"

An image of Chouji and Ino...together popped into Tenten's mind. And then their future children; chubby little blond kids converting calories into chakra while running to deliver flowers and panting. She was really going to have to stop imagining what peoples' kids would look like, because it was thoroughly disturbing.

"Um...sure Chouji..." Tenten forced a smile at the obliviously happy glutton and could see out of her peripheral that Shikamaru was chuckling unabashed. Poor Chouji had never gotten over his childhood crush on his former teammate. No, not Shikamaru, Ino. (Sorry ShikaCho fangirls.)

Shikamaru suddenly remembered that he had been recruited by Sakura and Neji to stall Tenten long enough so that she would be the last one to arrive at her surprise party. He had been very reluctant to accept this responsibility, but the threat of Sakura's chakra enhanced punch was more than enough to influence him, "Hey...why don't we get a quick drink before the party?" Shikamaru suggested the first thing that popped into his head...obviously something involving alcohol. A confused look was all he got in response.

"No? Well let's see..." Shikamaru was beginning to think that this was going to be more troublesome than he originally thought, "Y'know, Chouji can't dance. You should teach him." Wow, that was stupid. Shikamaru hit himself mentally.

Chouji opened a fresh bag of chips; a favorite pastime of his. Just because he had lost a bunch of weight since his Genin and Chuunin days didn't mean he didn't still love the delicious crunch of a fried slice of potato, "No thanks, I don't think I'll be doing any dancing tonight."

Shikamaru glared at Chouji and sighed deeply, "All of us should...go confront Ino. Right now."

"Don't worry Shikamaru, I already have a plan to get Ino a new love life." She winked at him, feeling bad that an excited Chouji probably wasn't going to be in her plan.

"Do you have your present for Sakura? We could go pick it up at your house." Chouji piped up and saved Shikamaru the trouble of coming up with something to stall the stubborn kunoichi. He earned a gracious nod.

Tenten patted her back pocket, "I've got it right here!" she chirped.

"Jeez, you've got everything in that back pocket..." Chouji observed, "No wonder your butt always looks big. Haha...just kidding...please don't punch me..." Tenten was glaring at him sourly as he cowered away from her.

'Ugh...this is a drag. Why even bother...' Shikamaru gave up, "Well I've got to go pick up Temari, so I'll be leaving you two." He saluted them half heartedly and then was gone.

Now she was stuck with Chouji who was eager to talk about nothing but Ino, so Tenten decided to quickly make her escape, "I'm...I'm meeting Neji soon." She lied smoothly, "He hates when I'm late. So bye!!" Then Tenten zipped off as well.

As if on cue, she saw Neji walking down the street right after she had come out of the alley. She greeted him casually.

'Nara may be a genius, but he's horrible at distracting...oh well, I'll have to do it myself.' Neji thought, unimpressed but not surprised. But he had a backup plan to make sure that Tenten was the last person to arrive at the party so that the surprise wouldn't be ruined, "Tenten?" he turned to her.

"Hmm?" he had her attention.

"I left my present for Sakura back at the house," he said (mansion is more like it), "and I…promised Sakura that I would get there early, so do you think you could get if for me so I won't be late?" It was a white lie, but a good way to keep Tenten busy for now. The only thing he was worried about was her reaction to being tricked.

Tenten flinched invisibly when Neji mentioned he had a 'promise' to Sakura, but she nodded, "Ok Neji," and headed off to the Hyuuga mansion.

Now, Tenten had only ever been inside the Hyuuga complex when escorted by Neji, so she had no idea how to deal with the guard resistance she met at the door.

"I'm sorry miss," the muscular man said, rather sincerely, "but friends can only enter the main house of the Hyuuga household if a Hyuuga is present with them."

'He's like a bouncer...' Tenten thought despairingly, "Neji told me to come here and pick up his present for Sakura, so I really need to get in!!"

The Hyuuga Bouncer looked confused, "I'm positive that Master Neji remembered his present for Sakura. I was ordered to remind him actually."

'Master Neji? What the...wait, WHAT?!' The thoughts in Tenten's mind were racing. Did Neji just want to get rid of her? But why...? 'Probably so he could have some alone time with his wonderful Sakura...' she thought, clenching her fists, "Well, thanks anyways." She said to the door guard and stormed off.


"Ok, is everything all set?!" Sakura was almost screaming in excitement as she fluttered around the Kichigai bar making preparations, "Neji, is she coming?"

"Hn?" Neji wasn't really paying attention, "Oh, yeah."

"Then everybody HIDE!!" she said in a hushed tone and the many attendees of the party hid under tables and behind the bar (some more reluctantly than others). Temari and Shikamaru could be heard giggling as they hid in a corner of the bar, but no one really wanted to know what they were doing.

Mere seconds after the large group had hidden and the lights extinguished, the door to the Kichigai Bar was thrown open by Tenten. The dainty ring of the bell attached to the door to announce customers was followed by Tenten exhaling sharply and crossly. There was silence for a few seconds, because everyone could tell that Tenten was in no mood for surprises.

"WHY ARE THE LIGHTS OFF?!" the brunette kunoichi shrieked out of anger.

Awkward coughing was heard before Sakura flipped the lights on, "Um...surprise...Tenten...!" everyone said awkwardly, their shaky voices overlapping.

"P-pl-please don't be m-mad, Ten-Tenten-chan...w-we just w-w-anted to cel-celebrate you be-becoming a J-Jounin..." there were more than a few people who were grateful that Hinata spoke up; she was one person that Tenten could never be mad at. But the poor girl was stuttering more than usual, scared of the furious look in the weapons mistress' eyes.

Tenten's mouth hung agape before turning into a warm smile, "That explains so much," she sighed, relieved, "I can't believe you guys did this for me!" she allowed her eyes to stray to Neji, who was leaning against the bar with his arms crossed and smiling at her, 'At least now I know why he tricked me earlier.' She then looked over at a nervous looking Sakura, "Happy birthday!! And thanks for including my becoming a Jounin in your party too!" she said gratefully, hugging the pink haired girl.

'But if you and Neji start going out, I will hunt you down like Sasuke hunts down Itachi.' She thought viciously through a smile, 'But I'm not jealous. Not at all.' She added this as an afterthought.

When the awkward start to the party had been concluded, and everyone had started mingling, Tenten made a beeline for Ino, 'I might as well get this over with...'

"Hey!" she greeted Ino cheerfully before she noticed that the blonde girl had a despairing look on her face, "Ino...what's wrong?" she asked, concerned. But Tenten knew perfectly well what was wrong.

Ino's hand trembled, causing the water in the glass she was holding to spill a bit, "Sasuke dumped me for Sakura...and now Shikamaru is ignoring me for Temari." She said quietly, sadly. There was pure heartbreak in her words.

Tenten's heart silently ached for her despairing friend. She hadn't remembered that Sasuke had broken Ino's heart as well as Sakura's later on. She tried to put on a surprised, concerned look, "Ino-chan, don't think about them. Sasuke ended up dumping Sakura too, and you know that you could do better than Shikamaru!" Tenten said the last part half heartedly; she knew that a good-looking genius from the Nara family was a major find, "You're a beautiful and amazing person Ino, and I bet you could have any guy you want!"

Small tears welled up in the blonde girl's eyes, "But all the guys that I do want...don't love me back..." she mused.

The brunette kunoichi wasn't sure how much more of Ino's sadness she could take, "Ino, how about I hook you up with any other guy you want, right now." Tenten smiled confidently.

"You would do that for me?!" Ino looked hopeful as she set her drink down on a nearby table and clutched Tenten's arm.

"Just say the name, and I'll get to it!" Tenten was glad to see Ino smiling again. Unfortunately, it was a mischievous smile.

"Neji."


Ay-oh!!! This cliffhanger is not what it seems!!

I'm sorry that Neji was ooc...hehehe... I'm also sorry this chapter took me so long to write!! I had an unbelievingly frantic week. If I told you, you would review this story out of pity for me, but I don't think I'll milk it. Review anyway because you love me.

Mori