Crimson Love


Chapter Nineteen: Blackbird Flies

"NEJI!"

Neji turned around just in time to get hit full in the chest by the burning ball of energy that was, and remains, Shizuka. He grunted, staggering, as she beat him repeatedly with her fists. It didn't hurt, but she certainly seemed to think it did.

"What're you getting me? What're you getting me? What're you getting me? What're you getting me? What're you getting me? What're you getting me?" she demanded, beating on him.

He blinked. "For… what?"

"CHRISTMAS!"

Blink-blink. Oh shit, I forgot about that… "Something… nice…" He scratched his chin, his eyes shifting around.

"What, what, what, what, what?" she demanded, tugging on him.

"If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise."

"I don't wanna be surprised! I wanna know now!"

"…I'll think about it." He turned to walk down the hallway to his homeroom.

"NOO! TELL ME!" she shrieked, jumping on his back and getting him in a head-lock. People were starring at them, but she obviously didn't care as she wrapped her legs around his waist, clinging to him koala-style from behind as she shrieked at him to tell her what he got her.

Neji glanced back at her, hiding a grin. For a few weeks now, she had been abandoning her sunglasses more and more. Now, not only was it easier to determine her expressions, but Neji, personally, thought she looked better without the sunglasses covering her eyes. Granted, she'd had a few people ask her about her eyes, but the general reaction was "Oh, cool! Your eyes look awesome!" so, after a few weeks, she just stopped putting them on all together.

"Oh come on, just tell me what you got me!" she whined, tightening her grip around his neck.

"An engagement ring," he said bluntly, not at all effected by her koala-ness.

She starred at him. "A what?"

"Kidding." He rolled his eyes, walking towards class with her still on his back. "You should get to class. You'll be late if you don't."

"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what you got me!"

Neji sighed, opening the door to his homeroom class. "Hey, coach."

"Hey, Neji." Genma, the Algebra 2 teacher, caught sight of Shizuka. "…And slave-driver."

She glared at him, pulling her eyelid down at him. "Shut up, soccer-freak."

"Why don't you come over here and make me?" Genma tipped his chair back on its back legs.

"Right. Onward, Neji!" she ordered, pointing in Genma's direction.

"…" Neji weighed his options. "No." He sat down at his desk.

She beat on him for a while, but, when she realized he wasn't budging, she huffed and crossed her arms, sitting on the back of his chair. "I am not moving from this spot until you tell me what you got me."

"I'll inform your teacher," Genma said casually, reaching for the phone.

"ARRGH!" Shizuka pulled at her hair. "I hate you two together! It's like the Pinky and the Brain!"

"…Which one's the Brain?" they both asked at once.

She crossed her arms, looking away. "You know what, I'm not saying."

Genma's battle aura burned. Condescending little—

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Breathe in.

Speak calmly.

"Shizuka, if you do not shut the fuck up and let me get on with class, I will throw you out of this class bodily," Genma said in a calm voice.

"Just you try it!" She stuck her tongue out at him.

Temper vein. "I'm serious."

"So am I!"

HUGE temper vein. "I'm dead serious."

"And I said, so am I!" She crossed her arms, sticking her nose in the air. "I am a goddess compared to you, and I deserve to be treated as such."

Neji smacked a hand over his eyes as a few girls chattered their agreement that girls are goddesses. "Coach," he said, before Genma could rip Shizuka's head off, "can she just stay here for today only? She'll stalk you if you don't."

Shizuka nodded firmly. "Damn straight."

Genma weighed his options: deal with her for 45 small minutes, or the rest of his natural life.

Needless to say, he picked the 45 minutes.

"Only if she's quiet," he said coolly, sitting down at his desk and picking up the phone to inform Shizuka's homeroom teacher, thinking up a lie nice and quick. "Hi, Ibiki? This is Genma… yeah, Hakai-teki is in my class for today… morning detention."

Shizuka nearly fell over. Neji's sides nearly split from holding in laughter.

"Uh-huh. Ok. Yeah. Sure. Bye." Genma hung up. "God, I hate that guy."

"Morning detention?" Shizuka shouted.

"What else would you be here for?" Genma asked coolly, taking out his attendance records.

Shizuka crossed her arms, pouting and glaring at the same time. She and Genma had a semi-secret war going on for Neji's time. Genma wanted Neji for soccer stuff and figured he deserved Neji's time because Neji was a soccer-freak like him. Shizuka wanted Neji because he was her boyfriend and she figured she deserved his attention one-hundred percent of the time. The first collision had occurred, not when she demanded that he not keep Neji at all hours again back in September, but about a month and a half later, when Neji's two schedules collided.

Flashback

"Neji, what do you think you're doing?" Shizuka demanded, crossing her arms from where she stood at the end of the aisle in the boy's locker room.

"AHH!" All the other boys freaked out, struggling to cover themselves, but Shizuka didn't notice as she walked past them towards her victim.

Neji gulped, in the process of pulling on his goalie jersey. "Um… I'm… getting dressed?"

"You said you were coming home with us today," she said in a cut voice, jabbing him with her finger at every forced syllable. "What do you think you're doing in soccer practice?"

"Um… I forgot?"

"Wrong answer!" Grabbing him by the back of his halfway-on shirt, Shizuka dragged Neji away, down the aisle towards the door. Behind her back, he gave pleading looks to his teammates.

"Just where do you think you're going with my goalie?" Genma demanded as she walked past him, terrified Neji in tow.

Shizuka turned on him. "Neji is going home with me like he promised."

"Noo, Neji is staying at school and practicing."

"The hell he is!"

Genma was taken aback. Was someone defying him? And a freshman, at that? No one ever defied him! Ever! He was Genma, damn it! Everyone listened to him! People (i.e., the staff and his team) feared him! Ladies loved him! Why wasn't this girl scared?

"Neji," Genma grabbed aforementioned goalie, "is staying to practice."

Shizuka's jaw dropped. How dare he take her boyfriend away from her! And a measly soccer-coach, at that! No one took her boyfriend away! Never! She was Shizuka, god damn it! She was practically omnipotent! Seniors (i.e., Ukon and Sakkon) feared her! How dare this guy take her boyfriend away!

This won't end well, Gaara thought from where he was sitting against the wall, waiting for the rest of the team to come out.

"Neji," Shizuka grabbed aforementioned boyfriend, "is going home with me."

Grab. "No, he is not."

Grab. "Yes, he is!"

Grab. "No, he is not!"

Grab. "Yes, he is!"

Grab. "No, he is not!"

Grab. "Yes, he is!"

Grab. "No, he is not!"

"Please stop, you are making me dizzy!" Neji wailed as he was passed around again.

End flashback

"Tell me what you got me," Shizuka hissed in Neji's ear while he worked on the drill.

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because."

"Because why?"

"Because."

"'Because' isn't an answer."

"Just because."

"Because why?"

"Because I said so."

"Ple-e-ea-a-a-ase tell me what you got me?" she begged, laying her head on his shoulder and looking up at him with sparkly Shojo-eyes.

Neji gave her a sideways glance, then went back to his drill, using all his will power to do so.

"Oh my god, Neji, you're so mean!" she said loudly, sitting back so her voice projected.

Neji looked around quickly; a few of the guys in class were laughing at him or giving him the thumbs up, while the girls in the class wrote notes to each other, or Shizuka. One of said girls passed said folded piece of paper to Shizuka, who opened it behind Neji's head, where Genma couldn't see.

Oh my gawd, are you, like, Neji's girlfriend?

Shizuka sweat-dropped, writing back.

Well, durr.

OH—MY—GAWD. You are SOOO lucky! He is SO hot! If there was, like, a fan club for him, I would, like, TOTALLY join! I heard there, like, use to be one, but it got, like, destroyed.

Shizuka snickered, thinking of that pathetic club. Oh, yes. That club had been found out. And destroyed.

But the response from the odd girl went on.

But I like, am totally jealous of you now! I was in his class last year, too, and I thought he was just the HOTTEST guy out there! This year, apparently, it's the little Uchiha Sasuke boy, but oh well. I used to have the BEST dreams about Neji, it was so awesome, I'd wake up and see him that day and—

Ok, ew, Shizuka thought in disgust, crumbling up the note and stuffing it in her book bag. Too much information.

Neji saw TenTen giving him the Evil Eye while she copied the drill, but he chose to ignore her, since she hadn't even spoken to him since the sleep over. He was well-aware that TenTen hated Shizuka, and he was also well-aware that Shizuka had absolutely no idea. Yet.

Shizuka seemed to notice TenTen's glare, because she leaned down and whispered in Neji's ear, "That girl looks like she's got a hernia or something."

Ok, maybe she'll know now… "I know. She's looked like that for a while, now."

"I should go talk to her, maybe she needs a confidence boost," Shizuka mused.

Neji's warning signs twitched. "No, no, that's ok, she's… she's confident enough."

"Why do you keep glaring at me?"

Neji whipped around, eyes wide. Sure enough, Shizuka was across the room, standing beside TenTen's desk with her hands on her hips. Oh, no… He groaned, banging his head on the desk surface.

TenTen looked up at Shizuka with another deadly glare. "Because I can."

Neji saw a temper-vein appear briefly on the back of Shizuka's head, but it quickly disappeared.

"Why, though?" Shizuka asked, crossing her arms.

"Because you're annoying and you're disrupting the class."

"Girl, please," Shizuka said with a scoff. "You know as well as I do that no one in this class gives two shits about Algebra."

"Hey!" Genma snapped from the front of the class room.

Shizuka turned to stick her tongue out at him. "It's true."

Neji banged his head on his desk some more.

Shizuka turned back to TenTen. "Since we're both girls, and both, therefore, goddesses," here there were murmurs of thought amongst the other girls, "I'm not going to punch your face in. But stop starring at me. It's rude, and you're not pretty enough to think I stole your chances."

Oh, burn, Neji thought, working on his drill.

After class, since Neji's and Shizuka's second period classes were close to each other, they stopped at each other's lockers. While Neji was opening Shizuka's locker for her (Yes, she was still incapable of opening it independently), Shizuka leaned up on the lockers next to them, arms crossed, starring at the floor, deep in thought.

"There we go." Neji stepped back, grinning, opening the locker.

"Thanks," she said bluntly, going and getting out the books she'd need.

Neji starred at her, frowning. "Ok, what's wrong?"

"Huh?" She looked up from sorting her textbooks in her book bag.

"Come on, seriously," he said, crossing his arms. "You're always sarcastic, or overly excited, when I get your locker open."

"Do you want me to be overly excited?" she asked sarcastically.

"…No, not really, no," he admitted. "But I would like you to tell me what's wrong."

"Nothing's wrong," she said at once, slamming her locker shut with the force of a speeding bullet.

"…Are you still thinking about what TenTen said?"

"What part?"

"The 'you're annoying' part."

"I don't know," she said, almost carelessly.

"…Ok," he said, totally not believing her, as they started towards class.

"…So?" she said, after a long silence.

"So… what?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Am I annoying?"

He nearly toppled over. "I thought you weren't thinking about it."

"Maybe I am, now that you mentioned it," she said coolly, crossing her arms.

Neji thought about it, while she stared at him. "I don't think you're annoying," he said slowly. "I mean, you'd be annoying if you were one of those whiny girls who'd be like, 'oh save me from the bug, Neji! Save me!'" he said in a mocking, girly voice, clasping his hands in front of his face. "That would just be annoying. I like you this way," he ended, putting at arm around her waist and offering a smile.

She smirked. "Good answer. If you'd said anything else, I might have to break up with you, after deeming you unworthy."

Neji grinned sheepishly. Yeah, right, he thought, not letting it show on his face.

(-oOo-)

Now, granted, Konoha High was a very loud school. You had your cheerleaders, your pep squad, your Narutos, your Kibas, your Shizukas, and, occasionally, your rabid angry soccer coaches chasing aforementioned Shizukas. But nothing compared to the noise erupting from the building at the last bell.

"WINTER BREAK!" all the students screamed, rushing out of the building. (A/N: Since they don't celebrate Christmas, poor things, and thus, don't have a winter break, I'm giving them one anyway.) The courtyard outside instantly became a battle field as students fought to get to their buses, or rides, or to the student parking lot. Ukon and Sakkon shoved their way through, making a path for the others, grimacing as two girls started clawing at each other.

"This is insane," Kidoumaru stated blankly as they crawled into the safety of the limos. "It's just two weeks."

"If they're so desperate for vacation, they should just get themselves suspended," Tayuya put in, turning on the little TV in the limo.

Meanwhile, in the other limo, which contained Ukon, Sakura, Hinata, Shizuka, Neji, Gaara, Kimimaro and Ino, Shizuka was resuming her quest to find out whatever Neji had gotten her for Christmas.

"Don't you want to be surprised?" Ukon asked in a long-suffering voice, leaning his chin on his hand and leaning the elbow linked to said hand on the window sill.

She turned and stuck her tongue out at him. "I'll be surprised by your present."

Neji, meanwhile, was doing a rather good job of ignoring her. He had Kimimaro's Game Boy on him, since the latter was currently "speaking to" Ino, and was, actually, playing a pretty good game, his tongue between his lips in concentration as he zapped evil minions of the dark force of whatever the heck he was playing. Suddenly, Shizuka's head appeared in his line of vision towards the screen, and he heard the nerve-racking sound of 'Game Over' as he was suddenly unable to see the scene, thus enabling him to dodge the evil minions of the dark force of whatever the heck he was playing.

"AH! Shizuka!" he protested, struggling to get the Game Boy into his line of vision. "Ohh… I lost…"

"Wow, you suck," she commented, taking the Game Boy from him ad examining the scene.

"You made me lose!" he cried.

"Pssh-haw," she said easily, tossing the Game Boy over her shoulder. Kimimaro yelped, breaking away from Ino and scrambling after his beloved toy. Shizuka turned Shojo-eyes on Neji: "Please tell me what you got me?"

He crossed his arms, huffy now that he could no longer play the game. "No."

Now, let it be publicly known, Shizuka has been trying to get him to tell her what the hell this darn present consists of for… (counts on fingers) Ok, less then nine hours, give or take. And, as we all know, Shizuka has the patience of a wood-pecker on crack. So it was no wonder that the little sliver of patience she actually did have… now was gone.

"TELL ME WHAT YOU GOT ME, HYUUGA!" she ordered, grabbing the front of Neji's uniform and drawing her other fist back.

He caught the fist annoyingly easily, having caught the exact same fist many, many times since the beginning of the semester, and shook his head. "Ask Hinata. I never tell what I give people."

Shizuka turned on Hinata, who instantly nodded vigorously in agreement to her cousin's statement. This instant act of submission, however, diverted Shizuka's attention to Hinata. "Hinata-chan," she said, moving to sit next to the younger Hyuuga, "next time someone looks at you like that, I want you to say 'What're you lookin' at, freak?' ok?"

Hinata seemed appalled by the very idea. "B-B-But then Th-they would be a-angry…!"

Shizuka feather her hands out, as if this were the obvious point. "Duh!"

Ukon turned to give Shizuka a look. "What are you driving into that poor girl's head now?"

Shizuka glared at him, flipping him off. "There, see?" she said to Hinata. "Easy."

Hinata instantly turned bright pink. "I couldn't d-do that to someone!"

"Yes, you can," Shizuka insisted, grabbing hold of one of Hinata's fingers and curling back all but the middle finger. "See, look?" She held up said middle finger to Neji, who raised an eyebrow. "'Bet you been waiting a short forever to do that, huh, Hinata-chan?"

Hinata made no answer, causing Neji's eyebrow to quirk.

"Shizuka-sama, stop torturing people," Ukon said tiredly, starring out the window.

"Ukon-chan, stop telling me what to do," Shizuka said, mocking his tone.

Ukon's eyebrow quirked, as well.

"See?" She turned to Hinata again. "You can not believe how fun that is!"

Hinata blushed lightly, twirling her fingers around themselves. "I'll try…"

"Ok, then!" Shizuka turned back to Neji. "So, what'd you get me?"

Neji face-faulted.

(-oOo-)

Skipping a few days because sand-nin-gurl is lazy…

Actually, it's more like, skipping a week, but oh well. You get the idea.

Anyway.

Ahem.

Ukon prided himself on being one of those unshakable people. Sure, he could be a little surprised now and then, but, honestly, he was pretty much made of stone. (Inner-Sakura: LIKE HELL HE'S MADE OF STONE!) He didn't get shocked easily. In fact, if one were to compare him to anyone, it would probably be Kakashi, who faces the entire world with a bare-faced lie and a "…Huh?" Except that Ukon didn't look like he was THAT high.

However, it is an undeniable truth that the "unshakable" among us, will, eventually, have their days when they get scared so badly that they face the rest of their life with a flashlight and a divination tablet. For the near-comatose Ukon, that day… was today.

"MERRY CHRISTMAS, UKON!"

Ukon's eyes nearly popped out of his head, and he quickly zipped out of the room, leaning his back against the wall next to the door, taking long, deep breaths.

No, that was not his living room.

That could not be his living room.

Actually, he didn't own a living room, but that's beside the point.

That could not be the living room in which he had spent oh so many a day semi-drunk with his little social group.

Convincing himself thus, he stuck his head in again.

"MERRY CHRISTMAS, UKON!"

He nearly fell over. "What the hell is going on!" he shouted in response to the new atmosphere. "Why are you all awake?" he shouted, pointing to Tayuya, Kidoumaru, Sakkon, Jiroubou, Shizuka and Kimimaro. "Why are you here?" he shouted, pointing to Neji, Sakura, Hinata, Ino, Kiba (Wtf?), Haku, Naruto, Gaara, Temari and Kankurou. "And why is the room so sparkly?" he added, pointing to the humongous Christmas tree in one corner, and the many odd Christmas decorations Tayuya and Kidoumaru had bought off of eBay. "It's too early to be sparkly!" his voice rising to a shriek. "I have not had my coffee yet!"

"Cool your jets, man," Sakkon said, rolling his eyes and tossing Ukon a Santa hat. "We're celebrating Christmas today, remember?"

Ukon starred at Sakkon, who was also wearing a Santa hat. "What… happened to you?" he asked in a careful voice, the hat hitting his chest as he ignored it.

Sakkon shrugged. "No idea. I woke up with it on." (Naruto & Kiba: PEACE!) "Anyway, hurry up, I wanna open presents."

Ukon perked up slightly. "Presents?"

Shizuka nodded, pointing to the huge pile of presents under the tree. "You did buy presents, right?"

Ukon thought for a moment. Yes, yes, he did vaguely remember something along the lines of "gift shopping" with Sakura, about a month ago. However, he had forgotten about the presents, and the fact that said presents had to be wrapped, and the bag of presents had remained in the deep dark depths of his closet ever since. "Uh… yeah… hang on a sec."

He ran out of the room, stopping in the kitchen to grab the aluminum foil before zooming into his room and into the closet. Grabbing the bag of presents, he dumped the contents on his bed and started doing a five-second job of wrapping them in the tin foil. Thankfully, he still remembered which present belonged to which person, and made mental notes on which disfigured present belonged to which person. Finally, two minutes later, he ran back into the living room with an arm load of presents. "Yup, see, I got presents!"

"…Forgot about 'em again, did you?" Sakkon asked, taking in the tin foil.

Ukon glared, kicking Naruto out of a chair and sitting down. Sakura sat on the arm of the chair, impatient for her gift, which he gave her. Her present was the only one that he hadn't had to wrap in foil, since it came gift-wrapped. Shizuka restrained herself from ripping the wrapping paper off of Neji's gift to her, to watch Sakura unwrap Ukon's present.

There was a long silence.

"Um… it's real, so it won't turn your finger green or anything," Ukon said quickly, as Sakura starred at the little box.

"What is it?" everyone asked at once.

"A ring, duh," Sakkon said, as if they were all idiots. (Which they are…)

"WOW, REALLY?" Ino cried, whipping around to stare at Sakura.

Now, barely two weeks prior to this event, Sakkon had gotten bronchitis. And of course, because Sakkon and Ukon shared the same bathroom, Ukon shortly got bronchitis, as well. And, since Ukon and Sakura exchange saliva on a daily basis (i.e.: kissing), Sakura had bronchitis, so the only sound she could make in response to this present was a quiet, scratchy little "ahhhhhhh!" as she lifted the ring out of the box. It was a silver band, pretty plain, except that it had Sakura's name carved in the surface and filled in with light pink metal, and Ukon's name carved in the inner-surface and filled in with black metal. (Does that exist? Hmm… it does now)

"Ahhhhhhh!" said Sakura as she took it out of the box and put it on her finger. "Ahhhhhhh!" said Sakura as she hugged Ukon.

"Finally!" Shizuka said impatiently, attacking the wrapping paper enclosing Neji's gift to her. Paper flew everywhere in little confetti-size pieces as she attacked.

Everyone else: (sweatdrop)

Shizuka paused, having finally uncovered the long-awaited gift.

Neji backed away slightly, wincing as he thought of the supreme pain he would be experiencing if she didn't like it.

"…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" she squealed, ripping the necklace out of the box and waving it around. "Omigawd, omigawd, omigawd, GODDESS JEWELRY!

When she held still long enough for them to see, they saw that the 'goddess jewelry' was a small, beaten enamel pendant on a chain. The pendant bore the sign of a woman holding a baby.

"I asked the people at the counter, and they said that represented the Goddess in European legend," Neji explained as Shizuka glomped onto him, squealing her delight at the present.

Everyone else's presents were either funny, thoughtful, or just disturbing. Gaara's present from Neji had everyone laughing, since it was a megaphone. Naruto, of course, got a lot of frog plushies and ramen discounts, for which he was very grateful (cough cough). Kimimaro got a lot of video games, and a joystick from Ino, which he received with sparkly eyes.

"As if he doesn't already have about ten of those," Kidoumaru said aside to Tayuya.

"This one is significant!" Kimimaro insisted, holding the joystick close.

"Oh, yeah, how?" Kidoumaru crossed all his arms.

"Behold!" Kimimaro held the joystick out.

"…It looks the same."

"Behold closer!"

"…This is bullshit." Tayuya pulled out a pair of coke-bottle glasses and put them on, examining. "…Oh… my… fuckin'… god."

Kimimaro beamed, stroking the tiny little heart sticker on the top of the joystick with a sparkly little smile.

"Where's my present?" Temari demanded boldly of Sakkon.

He shrugged. "Probably still in my room."

"Why?" she demanded, crossing her arms.

"…Because… I forgot… to bring it?" he offered, looking around for assistance.

"Hmph. Fine. Come on, Kankurou," Temari ordered, heading out of the room.

"Uh… ok…" Kankurou got up, and Gaara, who wasn't invited, also came, but only to make sure Temari didn't burn the house down.

Temari somehow found Sakkon's door (Perhaps because there was a sign on his door that said 'SAKKON'S ROOM' with a smaller sign underneath that said 'KEEP OUT OR DIE SCREAMING'), and, after trying the handle, discovered it locked.

"Break it down, Kankurou," she ordered, stepping back.

"What? are you kidding me? This is hand-carved mahogany!" Kankurou cried, running a finger down the wood of the door.

"And your point would be?" she asked, after getting over the initial shock that her brother (HER brother) could tell the difference in wood.

"Tch, you have no appreciation." Kankurou sighed, cracking his knuckles.

"Not when there's presents involved."

"It's probably something lame like a book," Kankurou muttered under his breathe, bracing himself as he charged.

ZAP!

"…'Da fuck?" Temari starred at Kankurou with a dot-dot-dot face as he was thrown backwards from the door.

"What the hell!" Kankurou shouted, recovering quickly as he jumped up. He frowned, picking up a stick that randomly appeared from The New Void, and lobbed it at the door. Not only did the door zap the stick with electronic whatever, but two torches also appears out of the wall and torched the stick.

Temari: "…O.O"

Kankurou: "…o.O"

Gaara: "…"

"I will not be beaten by a door!" Kankurou said boldly, picking up a crowbar that he also got from The New Void.

This will be interesting, Gaara thought, taking out the video camera he'd gotten from Ukon.


UP NEXT!

Christmas: The continuation

New Years: Alpha really goes wooga

Kitchen Secrets: Shizuka bakes a cake!

Review responses! (Heavenly music)

KageNoKatana: Go Zana… she and Shizuka are, like, separated at birth, or something…. O.ox

DreamAnimeKitten: No, the boys don't know about it. She hasn't told them yet. Kimi is SO sexy! I found a picture of chibi kimi and have it has…. Well, actually, it's just sitting in my folder but yeah. I have it. Lo.

Dragonman180: Mean usually ARE helpless in that situation… but it's ok. No one expects you to console Shizuka. She's working on Hinata… slow and steady wins the race, no da! Except… I doubt Shizuka has that kind of patience.

Andrea: Yes, that update was fast… but this wasn't… oh well… HAIL GODDESSES! Anyway. Ahem. No, the boys don't know yet. Only Shizuka knows (and Maya, obviously). Your nickname for Gaara makes sense now…I didn't get it at first but now I do. (heart)

RLN and IHN: Kimi is awesome! (heart) Ohh… give your friend a hug from me, ok? And pass the goddess theory on to her! (heart) Hinata will show up… sometimes… she's not my favorite character, but I work her into the story every once and a while, you know? (heart)

NarutoFreak101: I was like that in school, too! Holy crap! But then again…Shizuka IS based off of moi, so yah. O.ox As long as Apprentice? Holy crap… maybe… just maybe… you never know.

Hinata's Biggest Fan-boy: Glomp is recognized by my dictionary in Word Doc now! I'm so happy! And… yeah. You're dense, no offense. But… HOLY CRAP THAT RYTHMS! (feels touched by god)

Mika: Just kill him, man… kill him… KILL! (seeth seeth)

Kie-san: YOU GOT TO GO TO L.A.? Lucky… (pout) Hell no, I'm not going to END it! Holy crap, dude, I still gotta punish Itachi! And Orochi! And… yeah, TenTen needs to seriously bug off. I'm proud of Shizuka, too! (heart) Ino and Kimi aren't really… "official"… but they kiss and hug and whatnot… yeah. They're odd. Plus ONE has the coolest lyrics for some songs, no da!

Crazytreeotaku: Hell, yeah, dancing gay men! (heart) She didn't completely bounce back though… she's a little unsure. No, Neji didn't find out… he will eventually, maybe. Rape isn't something you proclaim to the world, tho.

Flaming Sakura: I'm not going to put the whole story into Journal, but it sure as hell helps when I don't feel like explaining stuff. In response to the O.C. thing… unfortunately, this plot was already planned out, and I don't want to add anything that would mess it up, not that you would. Just that, I had it all planned out the way I wanted it to be when I started writing, and I want the ending to stay the same. Sorry. Also… the Ukon picture… yeah, e-mail me and I'll give it to you. My e-mail is in my profile.

IsaacSaysBooga: Actually, it's not unrealistic at all. see, I went to this site and they had all these facts, and I just followed their advice. The goddess thing is to help recognize your sexuality as not being something to be soiled by rape and whatnot. It's odd but it makes sense to me. (heart)

Jazzy Uchiha, Aka Yuki-hime, epuneyujah, AznNarutogrl-91, Riyo Shiban, AlphaC, Ginka: Thank you all for your reviews! Unfortunately, they either didn't have enough to comment fully on, or I'm just too lazy, but yeah. Thank you anyway!