Chapter Twenty Six

Sakura wasn't the only one waiting at the bridge when Sasuke and Naruto got there. Neji, Lee and Tenten were too. And Kiba was there, and appeared to be bugging the shit out of Neji with stupid questions.

"We all know you're prude, Neji, but come on!"

Neji was shooting daggers at him with his eyes. "I am not prude."

"Then can Hinata have a party!? Will you please not tell? Come on! It's her birthday!" Kiba whined. Akamaru was on his shoulder and was whining too.

"But Hinata wont be having the party. You will." Neji replied simply.

"Yeah, for her!" Kiba frowned. "She was right. You're way too uptight. Oh well, we'll just have to have the party somewhere else."

Tenten was grinning. "Neji isn't that uptight! You know his uncle would blame him for that if he found out."

"That's why we wont let him find out. It's not that hard! I have parties whenever my parents are gone and they've never found out!" Kiba was smirking. "You know everyone will be invited. But if Neji won't let us, I guess we're just shit out of luck. Pity, I told Hinata that he couldn't possibly be that lame, but I guess I was wrong. I guess I just lost that bet with Ino too."

Tenten jumped to Neji's defense, as it was obvious that Neji didn't really care what anyone thought. "Neji isn't lame! He'll let you have the party, and we'll supply the alcohol!"

"We'll what!?" Neji snapped.

Tenten ignored him. "When is this party?"

Kiba was smirking even wider now. "Tomorrow. Starts at six. You're all invited, by the way." He said to everyone who was standing around. "And don't worry about the drinks. We already got that covered." He left.

Neji still looked a little pissed when Kakashi and Gai showed up twenty minutes later. Sasuke still looked like he couldn't care less, but everyone else was excited. It wasn't often that anyone had a party.

No one answered the curious questions they received from the two senseis, although Neji was tempted to blow the whole party right then and there. But he didn't. He really didn't care that they were having a party, but stupid Kiba had to come ask him. He wouldn't have even blinked an eye if they had just thrown the damn party. But now that he knew about it, it would be his painful duty to "baby sit" all the drunken teenagers. In the immortal words of Shikamaru, what a drag.

Training that day was the average boringness that it normally was. The two teams were racing against each other on a relay course. It helped them work on their chakra control as well as their speed and agility. It was a near tie, like always, but Gai's team won. Sakura wasn't quite as fast as she needed to be for team 7 to pull out a victory.

All through Gai's speech about how Kakashi shouldn't be a sore loser, and should accept defeat honorably, Kakashi was reading Icha Icha paradise and didn't hear a word of what Gai was saying, whereas Lee was holding onto every word that came out of his Sensei's mouth.

"You can go. Training's over for today." Kakashi told them as Gai was still talking. "But expect a hard workout tomorrow, since I suspect that no one will be feeling up to one the next day." There was a knowing twinkle in Kakashi's one visible eye as he disappeared in a whirl of leaves. Gai stopped talking, looking around wildly for his fellow Jounin.

Sakura and Tenten both quickly departed, and Lee was comforting Gai as he sobbed "manly" tears about how Kakashi didn't take him seriously.

"Well, I gotta go find Hinata a birthday present." Naruto smiled widely and quickly darted off. Neji and Sasuke left the look-alikes that were now both sobbing.

"You're coming to the party, aren't you?" Neji asked casually.

"I wasn't planning on it." Sasuke replied. "I'm not much of a drinker."

"Neither am I. You could help me baby sit." Neji suggested. He was trying to casually ask the Uchiha to come and keep him company, without sounding too desperate.

"Baby sit?"

"Yeah. Have you ever seen a bunch of drunken teens? It's a nightmare." Neji shook his head.

"I'll come." Sasuke agreed.