I've been a writing fool the past couple of days. lol
In the last chpater I explained the situation of my best friend's mom.
UPDATE - She's doing a lot better. A few days ago she was taken out of the ICU and is now in a recovery room. But with two broken legs, she won't be walking for a good 6 months the doctor says. She's in great spirits though. On friday she called her daughter (my friend) to come put makeup on her before anyone else came to see her. I haven't laughed so hard when I heard that. XD Thanks for the support, this whole thing has hit my community really hard...
Oh and the boy that hit her is not doing well at all. I hope he doesn't die. My friend's mom is more worried about him than she is about herself...sigh.
Thanks a bunch for the get well wishes :)
Ok here's the chapter!!!
Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Protection

Chapter 14

By: turtlechick

-Neji

Tenten's alarm hadn't gone off this morning, so we were running late. She never took long anyway, but Tenten was still a girl, and everyone knew that girls took forever to get ready in the morning. If she didn't hurry up though, we were going to be late to school.

"Hey you guys?" Temari said suddenly. We looked to her. "Neji you better watch Tenten's back today."

"What?" I asked dumbfounded.

"Today is transfer day, this is the start of the new semester and our school gets a lot of new transfer students. Let's just say that they don't really don't know their place yet. You guys know how Tenten is, always trying to find the good in people. They probably won't try anything but just make sure no one grabs her ass. Last year she was groped by over half of the little ingrates. " That would most definitely not be happening today. "Got it?" We nodded.

"Ok I'm ready." Tenten finally emerged from her room, in our usual uniform but it was obvious she hadn't done her hair very well. Strands of her hair were sticking out of her buns in all directions.

"Tenten you can't go out like that!" Temari said firmly. She rushed over to Tenten and loosened her buns so that she could secure them tightly. When she was done we headed out the door.

:::

Temari wasn't joking when she said there would be new transfers today. I had atleast gotten a little bit used to some of the students we already went to school with, but the number of new students was through the roof. Temari was also right about the boys that would be looking at Tenten. I guess I hadn't really thought of her like…that, because of the mission of course, but I guess she was very attractive. It was no wonder these new students couldn't keep their eyes off of her.

One time in class she dropped her pen and had to bend down to get it. One boy almost fell out of his chair trying to get a peek at her. And of course Tenten was oblivious to the whole situation.

"Neji you seem really close today, is something wrong?" We were in the hallway on our way to the next class.

As we walked all of the boys in the hall stared as Tenten walked through the hall. I was able to scare a few off but there were so many. "No, there is nothing wrong." Of course there was. We were able to keep a few terrorists away from these two but couldn't do anything about a few hundred horny boys.

"Well then why did you hit that boy in class?" She asked innocently. If only she knew…

"I thought he was a spy, but he was just a regular student." I didn't like making up lies.

"Will all students in grade 11 please report to the auditorium, for a surprise assembly?"

A surprise assembly?

"Come on Neji!" She grabbed my hand and pulled me off to the auditorium. "I wonder what this is all about!"

I hadn't been in the auditorium yet, but it was huge, but I guess it had to be to fit all of the students. For a private high school there sure were a lot of students.

Tenten spotted Temari and Shikamaru near the front and we took a seat next to them.

"Rough day Neji?" Shikamaru asked under his breath.

"You have no idea." I muttered back.

Just then the principal stepped onto the stage and stood at the podium. He was a wrinkly old man, but it was apparent that he must be very wise. I hadn't seen him much but everyone said good things about him, even Temari, and she hated authority figures.

"I'm sure you're all wondering why you've been brought here today. As you know this is the year that this class get's to go on their school trip. This year we have chosen you all to go to the beach." There was an eruption of applause and cheers from the students body.

I didn't see what the big deal was about. Shikamaru and I had gone to the beach plenty of times on a variety of missions, sure it was never for pleasure but all it was just a bunch of sand and the ocean. The final bell rang as everyone chatted about the upcoming trip.

"Come on boys, Tenten and I have some shopping to do." Since when did Temari shop? Shikamaru seemed as confused as I was.

:::

-Shikamaru

This was our fifth grocery store, fifth! Temari and Tenten didn't shop very often so when they didn't find something right away they were sure it wasn't there, so here were at our fifth store. The strange thing was that the girls still hadn't told us why they were dragging us around town to every grocery store. It wasn't like them nowadays to keep things from us, but every time we asked them, Temari had to make sure she covered Tenten's mouth. I guess Tenten wasn't the best at keeping secrets.

"You two really aren't going to tell us what this is all about?" Neji asked, he really didn't like to be out of the loop.

"Sorry Neji, but this is a no boys allowed event." That was the first time they gave atleast a hint about what they were doing. "You guys will find out later tonight, so just be patient." Temari said with a sly smile. Tenten was just trying not to spill the beans about whatever was happening later tonight.

:::

When we got back to the apartment; Temari and Tenten immediately shooed us into our room and told us we couldn't come out. The only reason we obeyed was because the walls were paper thin and if something were to go wrong, we would know about it.

I made the mistake of leaving our room to use the restroom. I finally got a peep of the living room, the girls had put out all of the food we had bought earlier today in a huge spread, enough to feed the entire auditorium at school. What were they doing? Feeding an army?

"Shikamaru you better get back in your room before I have to throw you in there!" I heard Temari yell from the kitchen. How did she know I was even out of our room? Needless to say, I scurried back into my room.

About another hour later of waiting quietly in our room we heard Tenten scream, Neji and I jumped into action and ran outside. There wasn't anyone being kidnapped but we did have a visitor. The reason Tenten was screaming was because Matsuri was here. She and Tenten were hugging like the first day we had met them at the coffee shop.

As soon as Tenten noticed Neji and I, she covered her mouth.

"Sorry Neji." She knew Neji didn't like her to yell unless it was a real emergency. Matsuri giggled. There was a knock on the door and Temari answered it.

"Ino, there you are." Now Ino was here. What were these girls doing? They each gave her a hug and then there was yet another knock on the door. This time Tenten opened it. She lunged at whoever was on the other side.

We could hear a girly laugh from the other side. "It's good to see you too Tenten." Sakura emerged through the door. Sakura too?

"What's going on?" I asked, still confused but a few of the pieces were coming together.

"We're having our annual sleep over." Tenten said proudly.

Sleepover? I'm sure Neji and I looked like a pair of idiots since we had no idea what a sleepover was. I could come up with a few educated guesses from the name, but why would they just want to sleep over?

"We have it every year, and rotate where we have it. This year it's mine and Tenten's turn." Temari finally explained. "It's supposed to be a secret, but I guess we kind of screwed that up." She let out a nervous laugh. "So go back to your room and no one get's hurt, ok?"

Neji and I did as we were told and went back to our room.

It was a pretty boring night, relaxing and quiet for the most part, but boring. I guess I should appreciate the break that we're getting tonight. We had no idea what was going on outside but we did hear them a few times. Tenten squealed a couple of times but then immediately stopped, followed by the others laughing at her. Neji smiled every time. It had gotten silent, Neji was reading a book while I took the opportunity to catch up on my sleep.

My eyes fluttered open when I heard the door open and the girls came in. The other girls watched as Temari advanced into our room headed straight for me. What was she doing?

I was in utter shock when she grabbed the collar of my shirt and kissed me. I was still groggy from my nap but that woke me right up. They left the room wordlessly, but I could hear Tenten as they left.

"I didn't think you would actually do it Temari."

"I told you Tenten, I always win at truth or dare."

I hope everyone got a few chuckles out of this chapter, because this one marks the end of the light hearted chapters...
After this one I'll start getting into the actual plot. :)
I hope you all enjoyed and thanks for reading!

Please review and even if you don't check out some of my other stories. XD

turtlechick...out