Chapter 11- Erin go Braugh!
Today was March 17th; St. Patrick's Day, which is quite possibly one of the most pointless, yet incredibly fun and AWESOME holidays of the year. Lee was dressed in close to what he wears every day, except on THIS day, his leg warmers were green and he was wearing an absurd festive hat. He actually resembled Lucky the Leprechaun. A really… UGLY, yet strangely adorable,Lucky the Leprechaun.
So Lee hopped up the steps of Tenten's house and knocked on the door. Tenten opened it, sticking only her head out.
"Oh, hi Lee." She said, completely unfazed by his ridiculous attire.
"You're wearing GREEN, I trust!" said Lee.
"Yeah…" Tenten said. "I didn't really have any green in my wardrobe so I hope you don't mind that I slightly altered the spandex that Gai gave me…"
She opened the door all the way to reveal that Tenten had cut off the sleeves of the spandex, as well as the entire bottom half. In the place of the of the bottom half, she now wore a pair of black sweatpants.
"Slightly altered!" Lee gasped. "That is approximately only a FOURTH of the original battle uniform!"
"Oh well!" Tenten shrugged, trying to act as though it was NO BIG DEAL. "So why did you come to pick me up?"
"I just wanted to make sure you were wearing green." Lee replied. "Because our teachers threatened something HORRIBLE if we weren't!"
"So is that why we're heading to Neji's house since he undoubtedly either did not remember about St. Patrick's Day or just doesn't care enough to wear green or doesn't respect the teachers enough to take their threat seriously?" Tenten asked.
Lee nodded.
They must have been speed walking or something because they were already at the Hyuuga complex, where they also just so happened to meet Shino and Kiba who were there to pick up Hinata! Kiba had ditched his favorite jacket for the day and was wearing a green hooded tee decorated with a shamrock, and had dressed Akamaru up in a ridiculous St. Patrick's Day outfit. As for Shino, all he had on was a green plastic Mardi-Gras necklace.
"Shino, you're not particularly festive." Lee frowned.
"At least I put something on." Shino said, adjusting his glasses.
The door opened and Hinata stepped out, quickly closing the door behind her so her new puppy wouldn't run out and cause mischief with Akamaru who has come to find that he's not that partial to Oniba.
We won't say that Hinata was clad in green from head to toe, but she was pretty darn close to it. When she noticed Kiba and Shino's limited festivity, she became a little embarrassed.
"Maybe I should go change." Said Hinata nervously.
"Nonsense!" said Lee. "The more festive, the better! Say, do you happen to know if Neji remembered to wear green?"
Hinata thought for a moment. "Well, actually…" Hinata said. "I think I remember his exact words when he saw me this morning. He said, 'Oh right. Today is that infernal holiday in which one is supposed to wear green. Well, green just so happens to be my least favorite color, especially after training with Lee and Gai every day of my life so I believe I will—'"
"Okay, okay…" said Tenten, noticing Lee looked deeply affected.
Just then, the door opened and Neji stepped out. Of course, he wasn't as concerned about Oniba and Akamaru's less than perfect relationship so when Oniba came frolicking out and then came face to face with Akamaru, a growling contest began that would ONLY be broken up with Kiba and Hinata separated them.
Hinata put Oniba back in the house and then closed the door.
"Neji, where's your green?" Lee asked.
"I hate green." Said Neji.
"Well, just so the teachers won't punish you, I will allow you to wear my festive hat!" said Lee as he took his hat off and attempted to hand it off to Neji.
Neji just had this FACE that was all like, "…yeah right…"
So Lee eventually put the hat back on his own head and the two teams began their journey on over to Team 10's training area.
"—So I had the feeling that Shikamaru and Chouji would both forget about wearing green so I took it upon myself to make us all matching outfits!" they heard Ino explaining as the entered the training area.
Sure enough, Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji all had on identical green shirts and, where Ino was wearing a green skirt, the males of the team had pants. There were various other accessories to go with the outfits that they had CLEARLY only put on so Ino wouldn't throw a temper tantrum. One of the more noticeable of accessories were the earrings; it is a well known fact that everyone on that team wears earrings, whether it be one or two! And no matter how effeminate the shamrocks earrings looked, yes, Chouji and Shikamaru sunk down to THAT LEVEL.
"I can't help it that I'm forgetful!" Chouji shrugged.
"It was troublesome." Was all Shikamaru cared to contribute to the conversation.
"Well, MY outfit is FAR better!" said Sakura. She was wearing essentially the same thing that she wears all the time only instead of being pink, it was green. So just assume that someone colored her in wrong.
Naruto had failed at matching because he was wearing a vivid green shirt underneath his vivid orange getup, so he looked absolutely ridiculous. No one was about to tell him, though, because they enjoyed laughing at his expense to his face and behind his back.
As for Sasuke, he was wearing just a plain green shirt with an Uchiha fan sewn on the back (of COURSE!) and his same white shorts.
"There now, Neji, aren't you embarrassed that you're the only one who didn't wear any green?" Tenten said.
"No." said Neji, looking at Tenten as if she was stupid for believing that such a minor thing could EVER embarrass him. "Besides, I knew Gai would have a conniption if I didn't wear any green so…" he pulled his hair over his shoulder to reveal that the elastic he had used was actually a very dark shade of green that was awfully close to black.
"Oh." Said Tenten, looking awfully disbelieving that Neji could possibly be THAT odd.
That's when the teachers came. They actually looked quite engaged in a conversation and appeared almost as if they were going to just walk right by all the students, but the copious amount of green managed to catch their eyes so they stopped.
"Say…" said Asuma. "What's with all the green?"
"Not that I MIND!" said Gai, striking a pose.
"It's St. Patrick's Day." Sasuke reminded them.
The teachers looked baffled at first. Then they turned to each other, pointed dramatically and let out a loud gasp. "YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO REMIND ME!" they all screamed at each other.
The students were in a state of utter astonishment.
"Wait… you guys forgot about St. Patrick's Day?" Naruto said finally.
"I don't know if 'forgot' is the right word." Said Kurenai.
"Then what IS the right word?" said Shikamaru.
"Uh…" Kurenai said, looking to her pals for help.
"Overlooked." Kakashi answered.
"Ah, yes!" Kurenai agreed.
"How could you have 'overlooked' St. Patrick's Day?" demanded Kiba. "You guys are the ones forcing us to obsessively celebrate every holiday!"
"All right, all right." Said Asuma. "Let's not be hasty. This is easily fixed."
"Besides, I've got green on." Said Kakashi, gesturing towards his jounin vest.
"That's right!" said Asuma, pointing his finger up in the air.
"And um…" Kurenai said, looking around. "My UNDERWEAR is green!"
The male presence winced.
"So let's just move on to the celebration part!" said Gai.
"How do we celebrate St. Patrick's Day?" Chouji questioned.
"Why, we drink copiously!" Asuma answered.
He didn't get an immediate response to that.
"Well…" he said, realizing his mistake. "Let's do something else instead. Let's search for a four leaf clover!"
"I'm going home." Sasuke decided.
"Me too." Said Shikamaru.
"I'll come too, Shikamaru!" said Chouji.
"If Sasuke's leaving then I don't have to stay!" Naruto declared.
"I'm not going to be the only one on my team not leaving!" Ino said.
"You're not topping ME, Ino!" Sakura argued.
"Shino left a little while ago…" Kiba said, gesturing to the empty spot that Shino once stood. "So I'm gone! Come on, Hinata!"
"…Oh---okay!" Hinata said as she followed Kiba.
"I'm glad I didn't bother." Neji said as he turned to leave as well.
"It's pointless for me to stay." Tenten shrugged.
"I don't want to be the ONLY one not walking out!" Lee announced.
Once the four teachers remained, they looked at each other in a depressed fashion. They couldn't believe they had forgotten about St. Patrick's Day.
"This just reinforces the fact that we must celebrate MORE holidays!" Asuma decided after a long silence.
"And just because our students aren't here to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with us doesn't mean that we can't celebrate it." Kakashi said.
"You mean…drink copiously without them?" Gai asked.
"What's our other option?" Kurenai said. "Drink copiously WITH them?"
"Good point." Gai said.
The teachers put their hands in the middle and then leapt up into the air like Power Rangers. Except the Power Rangers would NEVER drink copiously like the jounin teachers were about to do!