Geez, I haven't even thought of Naruto since I last posted. Once again sorry. I was going to try to update before Christmas, but I wasn't even home then. Trust me I'm killing myself just trying to think about what to put down next.

Jimmy the beaver is named after a teddy bear I got for xmas. Jillian gave it to me. So if u think the beaver was cute, please remember that it was inspired by a real person. (well … by a gift that a real person gave me.)

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

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Chapter 14: Useless

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Iruka closed the door. "Okay, class, I'm sure you all want to talk about the dance, but—"

"I spilled juice on Sasuke!" Sakura yelled from the back of the room. "It was awesome!"

Naruto jumped up. "Hinata fainted! Oops, she just did it again…"

Ino tried to ignore them as they shouted out more random things. Pretty soon, it was all they were talking about. "I knew this would happen," she said to herself. "It always does, every year."

She looked at Shikamaru, who was in the desk next to her. He was sleeping, as usual. No matter how angry she was at him for hanging out with Temari instead of her, seeing him sleeping calmed her down a little bit.

Then, his eyes opened. He saw her just staring at him like he was some kind of miracle. "Okay," he said. "You can stop it now."

She blinked. "What?"

"You can stop staring at me."

She looked at him as she was brought back to reality. "Oh, um… Okay." She turned back to the front of the classroom.

What just happened?

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Hinata waited at her locker. Naruto said he would come to tell her something, but he was late again. It was becoming a habit, but she kept telling herself that he probably just got held up and lost track of time.

She would have given up waiting for him if she wasn't so curious about what he wanted to talk to her about.

Soon, he came running down the halls running straight at her. "Sorry I'm late," he said. "I ran into Anko on my way here, and she made me make-up a test that I missed. Really sorry."

She blushed slightly. "It's okay. What did you want to tell me?"

"Um… Well I wasn't really going to say anything. I was just going to give you this." He handed her the stuffed brown anime. "You like it?"

"Uh… I do like beavers… a little."

"But, but, but… It's supposed to be a BEAR. I even cut the tail shorter."

She looked at it. "Naruto, you cut the leg shorter."

"Oh…" He slapped his forehead. "I'm and idiot! I've confused a beaver with a bear and a leg with a tail! You can't get any dumber than me."

Hinata bit her lip, wondering what she could say that might cheer him up. "Naruto-kun, it's alright. I like beavers!"

"No you don't."

"Well… I like it if you gave it to me."

He calmed down. "Wow, really."

She nodded. "Yeah." She gave the beaver a hug. "I'm naming him Jimmy."

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Tenten watched Neji walk out the school. Oh, it was painful watching him walk up to her carrying the box with a smile on his face. It would have been a really happy moment, if she hadn't forgotten to get him a gift. Of all the days to forget, it just had to be today.

"Hi, Tenten."

"Hi…"

He looked at her. "Is anything wrong?"

Well, I sort of," she began. "I forgot about Valentine's Day. I forgot to get you something."

"You, of all people, forgot about today?"

"I know, right."

He nodded. "Okay."

"Wait. You're not upset about it?"

"No, I'm not. I actually wasn't even expecting to get anything from you. I always thought of it as more of a day that the guy gets the girl something. Plus, I was too focused about thinking what to get you."

She blushed. "How sweet!"

He gave her a small smile. "Open the box."

"What box?" She looked down at her hand. She was holding a white box in it. "How did that get there?"

"Just open it."

She lifted the lid off. Then she smiled. "Oh, Neji! Did you actually make this? It's beautiful." It was a handmade bracelet, made from a few blue beads and some silver charms. "Beautiful" wasn't really the right word, as Neji was creatively challenged, but it was cute.

"Do you like it? I couldn't think of anything else to give you. I was going to make it pink, but they didn't have any pink beads."

She laughed. "It doesn't matter. I'm just surprised you even took the time to make it."

"You're worth it."

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Sakura looked at Sasuke and rolled her eyes. "I can't believe you got me chocolate. Where's the thought in it. Did you even think about it?"

He crossed his arms. "Are you serious? Do you have any idea how much that brand costs?"

"A lot, I know." She walked on.

He followed her. "Sakura! Sakura, wait."

"You can buy any girl that. How do I know that I'm different?"

"You just have to take my word for it." He caught up to her. "Sakura, I know most people expect me to be like the best boyfriend in the whole world. The thing is, it's so far from that that I won't even try to deny it… You really are different, Sakura. You're the only one in the whole wide world that makes me loose my cool like this."

Sakura ignored him. "Prove it."

"Well, what do you want me to do?"

She stopped and turned to him. "If I tell you what I want, then what's the point in it? Sure, you can play cool, but that's not what I want. I'll give you a hint though. Be willing to not be cool… for me."

"Huh?"

She rolled her eyes and continued to walk away, until she was completely out of sight.

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Temari found Choji at the food court. (Figures…) "Where's Shikamaru?" she asked him. "I have to give him back his jacket."

Choji paused from his eating. "Um, I think he's at his house. I'm stopping over there later. I could just give it to him when I get there."

"Okay," she said. "Um… I'll just leave it on the table then, okay?"

"Sure."

After she left, Ino came along. She looked at Temari as she walked away. "Hey Choji, what did she want?"

"She was just looking for Shikamaru."

Ino freaked out. "What!!! No, that can't be! Choji! Choji! CHOJIII!"

"What is it now?"

"Please tell me they're not going out."

He rolled his eyes. "No, she just wanted to give him back his jacket."

"Oh." She gave him an exaggerated angelic smile. "Oh, it's okay. I'll bring it over for you. I'm going in that direction anyway."

Choji cautiously handed the jacket to her. "You're not planning anything devious, are you? You're acting way too nice."

"No… Shut up!" She breathed out to calm herself down. "It's nothing. I just feel like doing you a favor. Is that a crime?"

"No, but if it's you, it's a miracle." He looked at her. "Ino, whatever you're going to do… Shikamaru's got enough troubles on his hands without you. Make sure you don't go too far."

"I won't."

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Naruto and Hinata were sitting on a bench at the park. "Well, I'm going to have to remember to get a matching pair of PJs for you," Naruto said. "After all, that was the whole point of buying you a teddy bear… or a beaver… with a missing leg."

She giggled. "Well, I have a new found interest in beavers."

He laughed. "Yeah." He picked up her backpack and opened the zipper. "Let's take Jimmy out." He looked inside, looking for the gift that he had given to her. Then, he saw a teddy bear. A real teddy bear. It had black marble eyes and white velvet fur.

That looks familiar.

Hinata grabbed her bag back. "You're looking in the wrong pocket."

"Huh? Oh, I knew that." He smiled as she got Jimmy out from the right pocket. But something was bothering him about the teddy bear he saw. Then he realized what it was.

Kiba gave that to her.

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Shikamaru opened the door. He saw Ino standing outside. She gave him a big bright smile. "I brought your jacket," she said. "Temari was too busy."

He took it from her as quick as he could. The last thing he needed was to have Ino step into his house. "Okay, you can go now."

She gave him another smile. "Bye. See you on Monday."

"Yeah." He closed the door. "That was just too normal to be normal."

He threw his jacket unto a hook and went back to sleep.

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Sasuke, Naruto, Kiba, Shino, Shikamaru, and Choji, Neji, and Lee were just hanging out at the basketball court. The only two people that were actually playing were Neji and Sasuke. Mostly, everyone was just talking.

"Hey," Kiba said," am I the only one that had a gift prepared today?"

No one raised his hand. No one said anything. Kiba nodded in satisfaction. "Yeah, that's right."

Naruto stood up to face him. "And who did you give that present to?" he asked.

Kiba stepped back uneasily. "Uh, I didn't say I gave it to anyone. I just said I had it prepared."

Naruto ignored him. "Don't think that I don't know that you know that Hinata knows that you gave her a present, because we both know that you and I know that you did."

"What?" Kiba thought for a while. "I was just doing something nice."

"She's my girlfriend. You can't just do that."

"You're the one who said to give it to who I brought it in for."

Naruto got fired up. "Oh, no you didn't just indirectly admit that you like my girlfriend."

"You want me to DIRECTLY admit it?" He stomped around. "I like Naruto's girlfriend!"

"You're so dead."

The rest of the guys started to laugh. Then, Shino stood up as well. "I like Hinata as well."

Neji rolled his eyes and pulled Shino back down. "Dude, you don't want to get involved in this. This isn't one of those things you use to try to make your life better. It's one of those things I talked to you about."

Shino gave him a confused look. "An armed robbery?"

"NO! Remember when I told you the story about the two friends who killed each other over money?"

"So… Naruto and Kiba aren't fighting over Hinata, but they are fighting for money?"

Neji crossed his arms. "Never mind. Just sit back and watch as they destroy their friendship."

By this time, Sasuke and Lee had stood between the two fighting friends and managed to keep them from punching each other.

"Calm down!" Sasuke told Naruto. "Dude look. If Hinata hasn't shown any sign that she likes Kiba, then most likely she never will. I'm speaking from experience, trust me. Why do you think Lee and I don't get along?"

Naruto calmed down. "Okay… Okay, I'll let it go. But, it's not fair. I just found out that I liked her, and then one of my own friends likes her too?" He glared at Kiba. "Loosing her to someone else is worse than loosing her because she doesn't like me. You should understand, Sasuke. You wouldn't want Sakura to leave you."

Sasuke looked at the wall. "No… I wouldn't." He looked back at Naruto. "I change my mind. If you want to go punch him, go ahead."

Naruto shook his head. "No. He's Hinata's friend. I can't do that."

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Kiba sat down next to Shino. "God, I can't believe that just happened."

Shino looked like he blinked, but of course you wouldn't be able to tell under his sunglasses. "Kiba, does your friendship with Naruto mean anything to you? If it did, you wouldn't fight him."

Kiba shook his head. "God, I can't believe I just had a fight with Naruto... over Hinata." He sighed. "I thought I had it under control, I really did."

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yayys. please consider this chapter a late holiday present. (or new years... whatever u like.)