Wow! Two whole chapters for you guys this weekend because I'm going away for that funeral and stuff. You know you love me right? Okay, read because I know you're dieing to know what happens next...
Day Six
Behind closed eyes Jen was praying. 'Tell me it wasn't a dream, please don't be a dream.' She begged and opened her tired eyes carefully. She scanned her room then sat up to look around better. The lights were off and her bedroom door what shut. 'What happened yesterday? The last thing I remember is that kiss. Did I faint?' She wondered and stumbled onto the floor. As she fell to her knees a panic slashed through her. 'Oh my god! We didn't have sex, did we? Okay, okay, don't panic. Just because you're having trouble walking this morning doesn't mean that's happened. He wouldn't do something like that…right? My god I'm so confused…' Jen held her head in her hand and closed her green eyes to help calm her mind.
She jumped from a sudden ringing and grabbed the phone from her bed stand. "Hello?"
"Hey Jen where are you?" Tenten's voice came over the device and she sounded very annoyed with the curly haired girl.
"I'll be there soon, give me…ten minutes." She mumbled, voice still weary from sleep and sickness.
"Alright, but hurry up." Tenten sighed, trying to be patient with her semi-sick friend.
"I will, hey order me a hot chocolate!" Jen asked as she opened a drawer and started pulling out clothes.
"Fine." Tenten agreed. Jen could almost see her roll her eyes.
"You're an angel. Bye."
"Bye." Tenten clicked her phone off and shoved it away quickly.
"Well?" Ino asked excitedly.
"She sounds tired."
"Well she would be if she was sick." Sakura points out plainly.
"Or, they kept each other up all night." Ino giggles suggestively and Sakura smacks her.
"Don't be stupid. She would never let something like that happen." Sakura reasons, remembering the arguments their emerald eyed friend made at the beginning of the dare. But Ino was only half listening.
The blonde gasped suddenly and Tenten and Sakura looked at her confused. "Maybe he raped her!" She breathes and Tenten shoots coffee out her nose, causing quite a scene in the quiet coffee shop.
"W-what!" Tenten shouts and clenches her fist at Ino while Sakura sits there petrified.
"Um…" They all fix their attention on the person who just interrupted their would-be fight.
"Yes?" Tenten growled at Kiba in a way that made him want to run home with his tail between his legs but somehow he stood his ground against the older girl.
"You're meeting Jen here right?" He asks carefully, noticing how fired up the kunoichi already were.
"Yeah, so?" Ino asks as Tenten lowers her arm.
"We were supposed to meet yesterday but when I went to her apartment… well, just tell her to get back to me. Okay?" He questions a bit nervously.
"Sure, we'll do that." Sakura comes out of her shock and waves politely as the dog-boy leaves.
"What was that about?" Tenten wonders out loud.
"No clue." Ino shrugs and they continue waiting on Jen and Hinata in silence.
Honey curls bounced into view and Jen quickly plopped into a seat. "Coco, now." She said and made a grabbing motion with both hands.
"What are you, four?" Tenten rolled her eyes and passed the hot chocolate to her. Jen didn't respond but drained half her cup in two gulps.
"Mm, yummy."
"Okay, now spill!" Ino demands impatiently.
"Well, should I start before or after you guys came over?" Jen questions with a small smile on her face.
"Before." All three answer instantly and Jen takes another calculated sip from her steaming cup. Teasing her friends like this was just too fun, she had to draw it out.
"Okay, after I left I went home and started cleaning and sorting through my kit when I started getting sick myself. I eventually crashed on my couch and the next morning who should come barging into my apartment but our thought-to-be heartless Hyuuga Neji."
"Barging?" Ino repeats.
"You mean he didn't knock or anything?" Tenten asks, it didn't sound like something her teammate would do, but she had been experiencing that a lot over the past few days…
"He might have, it could have been what woke me up because when I opened my eyes the door was opening and my first reaction was…"
"Scream?" Ino asked.
"Faint?" Sakura stated.
"Throw a kunai at him?" Tenten guessed and Jen pointed at the weapons mistress.
"Bingo! Luckily I was half asleep and missed but he didn't say anything." Jen continues and fingers her cup gently. "He brought over my shawl because I left it behind again, the next part is kinda hazy but he ended up staying for some reason. I don't really remember… then you three let yourselves in and that happened." Jen paused to think, being sick really messed with her mind. "I think he burnt his hand…yeah on the stove because I went to get the ointment! Then…uh…" She mumbles and blushes unmistakably.
"Then?" Ino encourages.
"We uh…kissed?" Jen whispers and takes a fast drink from her coco.
"You mean like mouth on mouth?" Sakura blinks confused.
"Of course mouth on mouth! Look at her face!" Ino argues and Jen blushes more.
"Wait, wait, wait!" Tenten waves her hands around to stop the conversation. "Neji kissed you, or you fell on him and accidentally kissed him." She asks, not thinking it to be possible for Neji to even know how to kiss. (Shame, shame Tenten…)
"He k-kissed me." Jen clears her throat and looks away from her friends. A silence falls on the group while they stare at each other, looking for some explanation.
"Then what?" Ino whispers with a mischievous grin.
"I uh… I don't remember." Jen distracts herself with her almost empty cup of hot chocolate, knowing what her friends were probably going to think of her.
"You don't remember or you don't want to tell us?" Tenten raises an eyebrow at the nervous girl carefully.
"I don't remember. The next thing I know is I fell out of bed then you guys called me. My fever was gone too." Jen recounts, frowning at her hazy memory.
"Hm, maybe you passed out." Sakura thinks while glaring at Ino so the blonde would keep her perverted mouth shut.
"That's what I was thinking." Jen admits and drains her cup at last.
"Oh yeah Kiba came by, he said to meet him later." Ino changes topics, not interested in their current conversation any more. "Something you want to tell us?"
"Oh yeah! Well you know Kiba has had a longtime crush on Hinata, so I was going to help him get the courage to ask her out but I was sick." Jen shrugs as if it was nothing but her friends were a little more excited then she anticipated they would be.
"This is perfect!" Sakura smiles and bounces in her seat a little.
"What's perfect?" Jen questions while looking over each of her friends suspiciously.
"We were planning on bribing Neji to come to the movies with us." Tenten revealed the three's secret plan.
"Yeah, we can invite Kiba along. It will be like a first date thing." Ino says, picking up on the idea.
"Alright! Everything is falling right into place." Jen comments as she understands her friends' motives.
"Wait, we still haven't come up with a way to make Neji come with us." Sakura reminds them all and they settle back in their seats.
"Oh yeah…We could get Hinata to grab some baby pictures and bribe him with them." Ino suggests her thought from the previous debate.
"We don't want to make him mad. Then he won't come. Here, give me the tickets and I'll handle this." Jen says, holding out her hand as a plan forms in her mind.
"So you've completed the dare? In just five days? You're a miracle worker!" Ino gaps and pulls out the slips of paper.
"Actually I haven't yet…" Jen winks and snatches the tickets then jumps to her feet to nearly run into Hinata who was just entering the café. "Whoa! Good Morning Hinata!" Jen recovers and side-steps the shy girl. "Bye!" Jen waves and exits the shop to seek out her target.
Jen was waving the movie tickets back and forth in a bored fashion as she tried to think of how she was going to track down the elusive Hyuuga and Kiba before the movie that evening. "I have all day so it shouldn't be too hard, but where to look first…" She mumbled to herself when a glimpse of brown spikes flashed in the corner of her eye. She turned in the direction quickly to find herself staring at a stranger. Jen sighed and tucked back a loose strand of honey before deciding on traipsing off to the training grounds first.
Feet tapped faster on the worn streets but screeched to a sudden halt and backtracked, green eyes focused down a side street. After a moments observation Jen waved her arm widely and jogged down the street. "Neji!" She called to get his attention, not realizing he already knew she was running towards him.
'Now's my chance then, to apologize for yesterday…' He thought wearily. All last night and through this morning he made lists of ways to apologize to her but none really seemed to be right… It was then he spotted the small pieces of paper, recognized as movie tickets, clenched in the hand she was waving at him.
Jen slowed her pace as she got closer and let her arm drop, for some reason she couldn't stop smiling but that didn't matter right now. "Good morning, I hope you slept well." She started simply in the hope of working up to her intended question.
"I did, what about you?" He answered simply, also building up to his apology.
"For the most part but I can't remember some of yesterday. Did I faint?" Jen asked off-handedly before she could stop herself.
"Yes you fainted…about that…" If he was going to go through with this, now would be the best time.
"I thought so. I wanted to thank you for yesterday." Jen interrupts and holds up the tickets, unaware of what he was struggling to say.
"You want to go to the movies…?" Neji stated the obvious, hoping she would explain the sudden invitation. As far as he knew they were no longer in debt of each other and she didn't need to do more than say thank you, let alone invite him somewhere.
"Well we were all going to go anyway but Ino's parents told her she has to work in the shop so we have an extra ticket. I thought of you first." Jen smiles and holds one of the slips out to him. He takes it and scans the movie title, it was some horror film he heard of that was supposed to be really good. "Will you come?" Jen's smile faded a little, she expected him to say yes being that he took the ticket but it appeared he was still thinking about it. "I would hate to be in debt to you." Jen adds, her voice dipping into meek softness.
He didn't need to say anything. The confused look was clearly represented as he looked up from the slightly crumpled slip and locked onto her light struck green eyes. She was getting shyer by the second as the kiss from yesterday flashed in her mind and made her lips quiver pleasantly. "It's in my nature to help other people when they need someone, but it's not in yours. I know that you didn't have to stay and try to help, you could have left at any moment but you didn't, and that means a lot to me. So please accept this." Her empty hand encloses over his, pushing his fingers tighter around the ticket. It was that soft smile again, the shy sweet one that recently started too drive him mad.
"I'll come." He answered before he could think and her smile grew wider, his own lips were unknowingly copying the action.
'He looks so nice when he smiles like that, I wish he would smile more…' Jen mused inwardly and reluctantly let her fingers slip away from his warm skin. "W-well, I have to go. I'll see you tonight!" Jen says a bit louder than before and turns back the way she came, now on her quest to track down Kiba.
"Bye…" He whispers as she disappears around the corner. Once out of sight he looks down at the ticket in his hand. 'She really wants me to come to the movies with her? I thought she might be mad at me, but then again she did say she couldn't remember much of yesterday so maybe she doesn't remember the… Would it be lying if I didn't tell her about it or would that just make things worse? If I ignored it and she did remember…' Neji shook his head and slipped the paper in her pocket. 'I already promised I would go, I can't turn her down now.' He concludes finally and keeps walking to his destination, thoughts now completely jumbled and confusing after the short encounter.
"Not at the training grounds, not at the ramen shop, not at home. Where is that guy!?" Jen pouted with crossed arms as she leaned on a shaded wall. It was two hours until the movie started and she still hadn't found Kiba anywhere. "I have to make this work, I have to. I promised I would help so I can't give up!" She nods with new energy and jumps on the nearest roof to start scanning the city once more.
A familiar hood catches her attention and she stops, drops down to the street and chases down her target while shouting their name. "Shino!" Jen skids to a stop as the quiet male turns to her slowly.
"Jen…" He greets shortly.
"I'm looking for Kiba, have you seen him?" She asks hopefully while clasping her hand together over her chest to visually show her distress in not discovering the dog-boy.
"I just saw him walking west from here two streets over." Shino reports.
"Thank you! Thank you so much!" Jen laughs with relief and darts in the indicated direction. Shino starts walking again while recovering from the energetic outburst from the curly haired kunoichi, he was just glad she didn't tackle him in a hug from her excitement.
Meanwhile Jen leapt over roofs and scanned streets carefully as to not miss her target. It took mere seconds to locate the large white mass that a certain dog-boy was riding. "Kiba!" Jen shouted and bounded over with much more enthusiasm then on the other two occasions that day.
"I was wondering when you were going to catch up to me." Kiba smiles politely as Jen fights a pant.
"I've been running around all day trying to find you. Here." Jen shoves a ticket into his hand roughly and he glances at it. "We're all going, it's a horror so make sure you sit next to Hinata okay? Hold her hand if she gets scared or something, that's the most help I can give you." Jen rambles quickly. "I have to go now, don't be late!" Jen shakes a warning finger and Kiba nods shortly, both departing in separate directions. "Great, now to get ready." Jen sighs again, smiling and takes a much more leisurely pace to her apartment.
The large group filed into an empty row of seats. First was Sakura next was Hinata and Kiba followed by Jen, Neji and Tenten with empty seats on either side of the group. Buckets of popcorn were passed and shared as well as candy and drinks while the advertisements flashed on the screen. The group conversed about not much of anything, their favorite candy, bad movies, bad movie theaters, bad things that happened to them at movie theaters. Sakura was just getting into recounting a time when she, Naruto, and Sasuke sat on the ceiling and watched a movie and the valet thought they used their ninja skills to sneak in when a certain blonde flower girl walked up with a diet soda and a small bucket of popcorn.
"Ino! You made it!" Jen cried happily and the blonde Yamanaka sat on the end of the row next to Tenten.
"Yes, I got the night off after all." Ino recites her part, which Jen had told all her friends about before they met up with the guys.
"Well that's great. They should let you take time off to relax now and then." Tenten nods and steals the popcorn bucket out of Kiba's lap.
"Sh! The movie's starting!" Sakura hisses as the lights dim and the previews start.
Jen smiled and snuggled deeper into her seat as she heard Kiba whisper to Hinata, "You can hold my hand if you get scared."
"T-thank you Kiba-kun." Hinata mumbled and Jen didn't even have to look to know her blue haired friend was blushing persistently. Suddenly the shaggy haired boy turned to her with a mischievous grin. "You can hold my hand too Jen-chan." He teased. Neji nearly crushed the soda cup in his hand but restrained himself by making rationalizations in his mind and focusing on the projector screen.
"If you're that scared you should have said so before Kiba-kun." Jen grinned back devilishly and Neji inwardly smirked as Kiba turned back to the movie intro flustered.
Tenten stuffed her fist in her mouth to suppress her laughter as another victim's head was severed clean off, but the others were not handling the situation as well as her. Sakura was chewing on her straw, being her drink was now empty. Ino was shoving some kidnapped popcorn in her mouth handfuls at a time. Hinata had a death grip on Kiba's hand since the movie started playing and Jen thought, but couldn't confirm in the darkness, that his fingers were turning purple by now. Though it is not to say Jen was not also freaked out. She had shrunken in her seat and pulled her knees up to hug them under her chin tightly. Every sudden sound made her jump and Neji could clearly see it out of the corner of his eye.
After about half the movie was over, he got tired of seeing her like that and forcefully took her hand in his. The response was exactly what he wanted, her feet dropped back to the floor and she rubbed her fingers over his in subconscious nervousness. So progressed the movie…
It had gotten to a teasing now, everyone once in a while Neji would squeeze Jen's hand suddenly and make her jump even when nothing scary was going on in the movie. It started when earlier someone in the front row dropped their popcorn on the floor and Jen nearly shot out of her seat while squeezing his hand hard from the sudden sound. They had been doing it during the entire rest of the movie but no else one seemed to notice, they all still had rapt attention to the screen in front of them.
The credits rolled and the theater suddenly brightened. Sighs of relief and muttering instantly commenced but the group was slow to rise. Jen and Neji were now doing something between tug-of-war and arm wrestling while Jen smiled quietly. Hinata was glued to her seat, eyes glazed and hand gripping Kiba's so hard he was wincing. Tenten was laughing and conversing with Ino while Sakura was quietly mulling over what she had just seen in her head.
"That was great." Ino sighs.
"We should do that more often." Jen smiles and looks up at the cool dark sky, both hands now shoved in her pockets.
"No, what we should do is spend some time at the gaming booths!" Tenten cheers, not a touch of sleep could be found in her as she grabbed Sakura's hand and started to pull her across the street where the first of the booths shone with colored paper lanterns.
"That sounds like fun." Hinata accepts meekly. Neji shrugs and starts walking behind them, he didn't feel like going home yet either, at least if it meant spending more time with a certain kunoichi.
"Oh wait, come here for a minute Kiba." Jen snatched his arm and pulls him back. "Don't worry, we'll catch up." She assures and waves them to go on ahead. Neji was just about to turn the other way and go home from the action but Tenten's grip found his sleeve and she pulled him on.
"I challenge you to a game." The weapons mistress snickered and dragged him along, knowing full well he would never turn down a challenge, which left him stuck there until Jen got back, for that was Tenten's motive.
Okay, this was pretty patchy. I know that but just bare with me on this one, I might fix it later but it's too late now and I need sleep before I get stuck in the car all day tomorrow so I'll proof read it when I get back. Now go read the rest of day six!
