Chapter 10- The Birthday of Tenten
"Oh come on, there was no way of predicting this!" Sakura argued.
"Sakura… it's hardly March!" Tenten yelled. "It SHOULD have occurred to you!"
So that's how it was. Sakura had figured that since all the birthday parties so far had essentially been your every day birthday parties that she'd do something FUN for Tenten! Like throw her a pool party!
But, as Tenten pointed out, it was the beginning of March and in the beginning of March you are still at quite the unfortunate probability of getting snow. And wouldn't you know it? It was snowing.
So the entire party was confined to the insides of the Hyuuga complex. Because Sakura was the MC of Tenten's birthday, she went around trying to find a pool available and, as it turned out, the Hyuugas had BY FAR the best yard and pool for such an occasion so she borrowed it for the party. Now, as everyone stood in their bathing suits, watching the snow fall into the water of the pool, it suddenly didn't seem like that great of an idea.
"So now what?" said Kiba.
"Can we leave?" Sasuke tried.
"No way!" said Sakura. "We are throwing Tenten this pool party whether we have a pool or not!"
All she received was silence, and the occasional glare from those who were enraged with this statement.
"Didn't this occur to ANYONE?" Tenten said, looking around the room at all the people who had clearly been feeling uncharacteristically forgetful when Sakura had brought up the idea.
Just then, Hiashi strolled by. "Hinata—" he started but then he took a moment to take in what he was seeing. "Why are you all in your bathing suits?" he asked.
"Sakura was throwing Tenten a pool party." Hinata answered timidly.
"March 9th?" Hiashi said.
Hinata nodded, cowering in fear as if it were her own fault.
Hiashi shook his head and tried to get past it. Not EVERYONE can be as smart as him, after all. "Hinata, have you fed Oniba?"
"Yes." Hinata replied.
"Well, then don't forget to walk him so we don't have another accident like last week." Said Hiashi as he walked away with his arms crossed and his hands tucked in his sleeves.
Everyone breathed a little easier now that Hiashi was gone.
"Oniba had an accident?" Kiba said. "I told him ONLY to go outside!"
"Yeah." Said Neji. "In MY room. And I am personally blaming YOU, Kiba, for giving that dog to her in the first place."
"Whatever, Neji." Said Kiba. "You personally blame everyone for everything so I'm not worried OR offended."
Neji looked like he actually didn't have a retort to that statement.
"Hey!" said Tenten. "This isn't about you guys! It's about ME and my ruined birthday party!"
"Calm down, Tenten, it's not ruined!" said Sakura. "I made a back-up plan just in case of this!"
Minutes later, everyone was clad in pajamas and sitting in one of the empty rooms of the Hyuuga house, waiting for Sakura to emerge with her fool-proof back up plan.
"Why do we even have to do this?" said Shikamaru. "Our teachers aren't here to supervise us so if we left and TOLD them we celebrated Tenten's birthday then they'd never know that we didn't."
"But then my birthday wouldn't be celebrated!" Tenten pointed out.
"You're going to have tons of birthdays." Shikamaru reminded her.
"No, you're ALL staying." Tenten said, crossing her arms childishly.
That's when Sakura burst through the door. "Spin the bottle!" she cheered.
"Yay!" cheered Ino as she clapped happily, but when she realized she was alone on this cheer, her clapping slowly quieted and she looked at the floor.
"Sakura, perhaps you failed to notice—" Tenten started.
"The unbalance of testosterone, I KNOW!" Sakura said as she sat down and placed the empty bottle in the middle of the circle everyone JUST SO HAPPENED to be sitting in. "But it's YOUR birthday party and I'M calling the shots so I say we play spin the bottle!"
"Why's everyone so upset?" Kiba wondered out loud as he looked at everyone's perturbed faces. "Spin the bottle won't be THAT bad, aside from being boring and repetitive."
"Have you ever played before, Kiba?" said Sasuke.
"No." Kiba said. "But how hard can it be?"
"Okay, these are the rules." Sakura decreed. "If the bottle lands on someone who is your own gender, you don't have to kiss them. But if it lands on someone of the OPPOSITE gender then you HAVE to!"
"Whoa!" said Kiba, standing up. "Kissing? You never said anything about KISSING!"
"I just did." Sakura said.
"Let's get started before we waste anymore time." Ino said eagerly as she reached for the bottle. "I hope it lands on Sasuke so it can be a repeat of Valentine's Day!"
Sakura slapped Ino's hand away. "Not only did NOTHING happen on Valentine's Day between you and Sasuke, but Tenten has to go first because it's HER birthday!"
Sasuke glared at Ino.
"All right…" Tenten said, taking a deep breath. "I have to admit, though… I've never really played before…"
"Well then hope it lands on someone good so your first impression of the game will be a good one!" Sakura said as she gestured for Tenten to spin it.
"What's that supposed to mean?" said Chouji.
Tenten leaned over and gave the bottle a hefty man-spin. She crossed her fingers and hoped that it wouldn't land on someone undesirable, while all the men were hoping it wouldn't land on them. Just as the bottle began to slow down, Neji reached out and grabbed it, lifting it right up off the floor.
"Hey!" said Sakura and Ino.
"I have to protest." Neji said. "I object to this game because eventually, this will all get out of hand and turn into a romantic excursion and it'll all be awkward for us all tomorrow."
"What are you expecting to happen?" said Tenten, taking the bottle from him.
"Yeah, geez Neji, what are you even thinking about?" Naruto said.
Neji frowned. It was everyone ELSE'S fault!
Shikamaru, who just so happened to be sitting next to Tenten, suddenly grabbed the bottle right out of her distracted hands and tossed it out a well-placed window. It was all very abrupt.
"Oops." Shikamaru said.
"You did that on purpose!" Ino scolded.
"Oh…" said Shikamaru. "…Yeah…"
"That's littering!" Lee exclaimed. "Not to mention that now we can't play spin the bottle!"
"Are you telling me that you WANT to?" Shikamaru said.
"Shikamaru, think about for a second who you're talking to!" Lee said. "I'm willing to take any form of kiss however I can!"
Just when Lee was about to be jumped because of his mindless statement, the four teachers suddenly appeared in the middle of the circle. This caused many people to scream like little girls (though theones who did won't admit it) and leap backwards to recover.
"Hello students!" said Asuma.
"Sorry we're late for your birthday party, Tenten." Said Gai as he handed Tenten a pink bag with purple tissue paper. "But don't worry! We brought you a gift so you have no need to fret!"
"So what have we missed?" Kurenai said as she wedged herself in between Shino and Kiba.
"We were just about to play spin the bottle when Shikamaru chucked the bottle out the window." Ino answered, throwing a glare at Shikamaru who only shrugged flamboyantly.
"Well, you kids are too young to be playing spin the bottle ANYWAY." Kakashi decided.
"Yes, we have a much better came you can play!" said Gai as he whipped out a hammer and nail. He proceeded to drive the nail halfway into the wall, Neji and Hinata wincing with every slam, and then hang up a poster that had a tailless donkey on it.
"Pin the tail on the donkey?" Shino said finally. You see, while everyone else was left speechless, Shino had the strength to speak. Imagine that!
Tenten pushed the purple tissue paper aside and pulled out a green spandex bodysuit. "How did I know I would be getting this?" she said with a sigh as she dropped the spandex back in the bag.
"Now you can match me and Gai whilst we train!" said Lee enthusiastically.
"I look forward to it." Tenten said, rolling her eyes.
"Anyway, Gai, we're NOT playing pin the tail on the donkey." Said Sakura, standing up.
"Well, of COURSE we're not playing!" laughed Gai. "That is why we must hurry and start!"
"No, we're not going to play at all!" Sakura argued. "I get to plan this birthday party and I say we're playing spin the bottle!"
"I brought an extra bottle just in case!" said Kurenai, pulling a bottle out from behind her back.
"You bring around a spare bottle?" Kakashi questioned.
"Well, it was a girl planning another girl's birthday party." Kurenai said. "I looked underneath the underneath."
"Hey." Said Kakashi. "That's my phrase."
"I know." Said Kurenai. "I was being amusingly ironic."
"Ahh…" said Kakashi with a nod.
"So…no pin the tail on the donkey?" Gai said, looking sad.
"No, just sit down!" said Sakura as she sat down as well. The male teachers joined the circle as Kurenai placed the bottle in the center. Tenten spun the bottle around and it slowed down…coming to a stop and pointing directly at…
Chouji!
If they had been outside, then certainly a cold wind would have blown by.
"Awkward…" Chouji said finally.
"All right, FINE!" said Tenten as if everyone had been pestering her to no end to hurry up and kiss Chouji. She crawled across the circle and closed her eyes. The "kiss" wasn't exactly a kiss… it was really just Tenten's face lightly brushing Chouji's cheek, and then she quickly hurried back to her seat.
"Um." Said Chouji.
"Why do girls play this game?" Kiba said.
Then he realized he had loudly stated this to the group instead of just quietly whispering it to Naruto like he had originally planned. Somehow, when the thought was going from his head to his mouth, he lost track of the fact that his comment had to be quiet.
"I mean…" Kiba said. "Okay…who spins the bottle now?"
"Chouji does." Sakura answered.
"I don't know if I really want to play—" Chouji started but he was pressured by his female peers to commence in the spinning. He did, and the bottle LOOKED as though it was going to stop on Ino, then it looked like it might stop on Lee, but finally it stopped on Neji.
Chouji gave a sigh of relief.
"That means I don't have to kiss anyone, right?" Chouji said.
"Yeah." Said Sakura. "Now it's your turn, Neji."
"I already said I wasn't playing." Neji said.
"You HAVE to!" Gai insisted. "Otherwise you will be severely punished! I don't want to have to be severe, but if you don't listen to Sakura who is the leader of Tenten's birthday planning then I WILL!"
Neji grumbled but, after a quick assessment of the people that surrounded him, he realized that his chances of landing on a male were much greater than landing on a female so he gave the bottle a spin.
And… wouldn't you know it? The bottle ended up landing on none other than…
HINATA!
"Oh wait, that's just weird." Said Kurenai as she took it upon herself to turn the bottle a good 180 degrees so it was facing Sakura.
"Okay, I think that's enough of this game." Sakura said as she picked up the bottle and stood up.
"But it was just getting good." Said Kakashi, looking disappointed.
"That was the dumbest game I've ever played." Said Sasuke.
"Wait, so the only person who had to kiss anyone was ME?" said Tenten, sounding appalled. "How is that at all fair?"
"Now we're going to play pin the tail on the donkey!" said Sakura.
"YAY!" cheered Gai as he punched the air.
What followed was an intense game of pin the tail on the donkey. And, even though everyone accused him of cheating, Neji won. Then they cut the cake and devoured it… after Tenten had made her wish; to become a strong female ninja like Tsunade! The men "har har"ed her behind her back while the women cheered her on to her face.
Finally, when the day was drawing to a close and the snow was finally stopping, everyone changed OUT of the pajamas and back into their regular clothes, wondering why they had changed into their pajamas in the first place.
"St. Patrick's Day is on the 17th!" Asuma said. "You will all meet at my team's training spot that day!"
"For all those who show up NOT wearing green…" Kakashi began, but he trailed off, almost as if he was searching for the correct threat. "There will be blood."
"When's the next birthday?" Tenten asked. "How long do I have to plan and who am I planning for?"
Kurenai flipped through the calendar. "The next birthday isn't for a while." She replied. "There are no more in March, and NOBODY'S birthday is in April so…"
"That's me then!" said Chouji. "My birthday May 1st!"
"Hey, you and Chouji are getting pretty close, aren't you?" said Ino to Tenten. "You got him for Random Acts of Kindness Day AND you kissed him just now… now you have to plan his birthday!"
"Those are coincidences!" Tenten yelled.
"Well, you're all free to leave now." Said Neji who not so secretly just wanted everyone to leave his house.
"Okay…" said everyone who was not so secretly offended as they left the house and slammed the door. But Neji not so secretly didn't care.