Chapter 6. The End of a Wonderful Evening

Neji and Ten-ten are now on their way home. Neji decided to end this date with Ten-ten after he freaked out upon seeing Uchiha Sasuke smiling at him.

"He's so freaky." Neji said, out of the blue.

"Who? Uchiha Sasuke?"

Neji nodded. "He smiled at me?"

"So? What's so freaky about that?"

"Don't you get it? Uchiha Sasuke smiled!" He said hysterically.

Ten-ten suddenly thinks of how Sasuke treats other girls like Sakura and Ino. That's when the most outrageous idea hits her. "Well, well, well…" Ten-ten said and let out a silly smile, "…I think he likes you."

Neji gritted his teeth as he looked at Ten-ten formidably, "Shut it Ten-ten, just shut it."

"Oh c'mon Neji, you wouldn't have acted like that if you didn't think so."

"I said shut up!"

But Ten-ten kept on snickering.

They are almost at Ten-ten's house when she saw a photo booth.

"Hey, let's have our pictures taken." She took his hand and dragged him over.

"What for?" he asked.

"So you won't forget this night. Now hurry up."

They enter the booth and started the picture taking. "Ok, cross your legs and smile." Ten-ten ordered Neji as she did the pose. But Neji didn't move at all.

"I said…cross your legs and smile!" She said, yelling at Neji's ears.

Neji gritted his teeth even more while scratching his ear where Ten-ten yelled at. "Alright, alright, you don't have yell." He did the pose then turned to the girl beside him. "Satisfied?"

"Perfect!"

Click…

"Now, another one…"

Click…

And more girly poses followed. (A/N: I'll just leave that to your imagination.)

After that horrifying moment, as for Neji, ends, Ten-ten took their photos out the booth and handed some to Neji. "Here you go."

"I don't wanna take that." He said, turning his head away.

"Just take it!" Ten-ten insisted. But Neji didn't care to listen or even to look at her.

She looked at Neji for quite a while with sympathy visible on her face, then took his hand. "Hey, I'm sorry." She said softly.

Finally, Neji turned his gaze back to her. He took the picture and started walking. "Let's get out of here."

Ten-ten smiled, feeling relieved inside.

Few moments later, they finally reached Ten-ten's house. "Do you wanna come inside?" asked Ten-ten.

"No thanks. I don't want your parents to see me like this." He said, seeing the light inside the house on. It means Ten-ten's parents are back from their mission.

"Ok."

Few moments of silence later, "Anyway, thanks for doing all these for me, Neji. I know how hard it is for you to went through all the gruesome stuffs I made you to go through. Making you wear that dress, put make-up, speak and act girlishly and all that. Thank you and…I'm sorry."

"I never thought you're such a drama queen." Neji snapped then smiled, not really used to see Ten-ten like that. "Don't let yourself get bothered about that. And besides, I had a wonderful night."

"You did?" her eyes widened and her face enlightened. "But I thought you're really pissed?"

"Well, kind of. But I don't really care about how I look for as long as I'm with you, that's what matters most."

"Oh Neji." Ten-ten gave Neji a huge hug and a big kiss. "You really love me." She breaks away and looked deeply at his white eyes. "I love you too."

"I know."

For the first time tonight, they had their sweet moment. But the moment of truth arrives, the moment to end this wonderful evening.

"I have to go now."

"I know. But are you sure you'll be fine? I mean, how would you get into your house dressing like that?"

"Don't worry, I can take it from here. Bye." Neji waved goodbye.

"Sayonara! Oyasumi nasai!" she waved back. She entered their house and was surprised to see her mom inside her room.

"What's the meaning of this? How did these get in here?" her mother asked suspiciously, holding Neji's dress in her arms.

Ten-ten seemed dumbfounded. She gulped, "Um…" and can't find the words to say.

"Yes, how?" her father revealed himself from the back. She's cornered now. Good thing an idea came to her rescue.

"That Neji! How dare him to leave such personal stuffs of him in my room!" her parents seemed confuse. "Don't worry mother, don't worry father. First thing tomorrow, I'll confront that Neji."

"What the hell are you saying?" her mother asked but then continue. "Ten-ten, we know that Neji is your boyfriend, but you don't have to rush yourself to do something you do not ought to do?"

Now, Ten-ten understands what her parents were trying to say. "Oh, now I get it. You think we had 'sex' in my room while you were out for a mission. Am I right?"

"Yes, that is correct." Her father answered.

"How dare you think of your daughter like that? Don't you trust me?" Ten-ten sighed in disbelief. "Mother, father, I know my limitations and I believe Neji does too. He loves me so he won't take advantage of me unlike what you think. And I will not intend to betray your trust. Besides, we're too young to have sex, and knowing Neji, his not that type of guy. He's not a pervert, okay? So please trust me. Trust us. And if we really had sex, why would he left his dress here and went back home naked? Don't you ever think of that?"

"Okay, we understand you. But how come his dresses are in here?"

Ten-ten have no choice but to confess to her parents, but not all. "I bought him new clothes. That's my gift for him and he changed here in my room for our date. He must have forgotten his dresses here. Anyway, I'll give that back to him tomorrow."

"Alright, we're sorry if we doubted you and Neji. It will never happen again. Now go to sleep, you look tired. Goodnight." Her parents gave her a goodnight kiss and left her in the room.

Meanwhile, Neji arrived home, safe and sound. He looked at himself in the mirror and still can't believe his eyes, seeing a beautiful girl in front of him. 'Is that really me?' he asked himself. He opened the purse Ten-ten gave him and pour all the things inside it on his table. He found a lips tick, a foundation, and the concealer Ten-ten used to cover-up his curse seal. He still can't believe himself not having the curse seal on his fore-head. He changed to his usual sleep-wear and washed the make-up off his face. That's when he saw the curse seal once again. He get ready to go to sleep, but before he closes his eyes, he reminisced all the scenes that happened that night.

Morning comes, Ten-ten found Neji on their team's usual meeting place. He's always the one who gets there early. More often, Lee and their sensei, Gai, arrive together.

"Hi. Did you had goodnight sleep?" Ten-ten asked then sits beside Neji.

"Yes." Neji nodded then smiled. "Ten-ten, before I forget, I left my clothes at your house yesterday."

"Yeah, I'll give them back to you later. Actually my parents found your clothes in my room last night and asked how they get there."

"What did you say?" he asked, kinda nervous.

"I told them that I bought you new clothes as a gift and that you changed your outfits there."

"Did you tell them what kind of clothes?"

"No, of course not."

"Good." Neji released a sigh of relief.

"Ten-ten, Neji, good morning!" Lee was rushing over to them while waving his hand widely.

"Where's Gai-sensei?" asked Neji.

"He said we meet him in the Hokage tower. Hokage-sama called for a meeting and we have to be there now."

"Ok, let's go."

They jumped over tree branches as fast as they could. When they get to the Hokage tower, they found their sensei talking with other jounins. They also found there other teams of genins, the teams of Azuma (with Shikamaru) and Kurenai. Team seven arrived shortly after them. Neji's heart pound a bit heavy upon seeing the arrival of Sasuke. Naruto, on the other hand, quickly approached Hinata, who is currently talking with Kiba and Choji.

"Hi Hinata!" Naruto greeted Hinata with a smile.

"He-hello N-naruto." Hinata greeted back while blushing.

"Um…mmm…." Naruto was hesitant at first but he still managed to let the words out. "I just want to ask you something."

"Sure…w-what is it?"

"Here's the story. I saw a girl last night and I think she's a Hyuuga because of her white eyes. She has a long brown hair that runs up to her waist and she's really pretty. She doesn't have a curse seal on her forehead so I figured she's from the main house. Do you know her?"

"You mean you saw her too?" asked Kiba and Choji in unison.

"Actually Naruto, that's exactly the same question Kiba and Choji have been asking me." Hinata interrupted.

"I saw her too." Lee suddenly involved himself to the conversation.

"What! Even you fuzzy eyebrows?" Naruto screamed.

Meanwhile, all ears are on Hinata, waiting for her answer. 'Are they talking about the same girl we saw last night in the park? The one who caught Sasuke's attention and made him smile?' Sakura and Ino are having the same thoughts. They looked at Sasuke and weren't surprised to see him listening hard to the people talking, excited to know who the girl is. Neji and Ten-ten just looked at each other, waiting for what's gonna happen next. They can't believe, especially Neji, that his disguise as a girl would create such effect to these boys.

"To tell you the truth, I'm not really familiar with all the members of the main family. So I'm afraid I can't answer your question." Hinata finally said.

"What?"

"That's too bad." Everyone were really disappointed, most especially Sasuke.

The same question still instills on their minds, 'Who's that girl?'

Neji wasn't really stunned of what he heard. He's been expecting Hinata's answer to be like that.

"Is everyone here?" the 5th Hokage asked. Everybody formed their formation to face the Hokage. After confirming that all is present, she announced what she has to say.

"I called youall to tell you what we've talked about last night in our meeting. Your jounin instructors and I have decided that each of the genins, including you Shikamaru, will be paired-up with another genin from the other team. In other words, by two's.

Side comments from the genins came to surface. Sasuke raised his right hand to ask a question. "Why do we have to do this?"

"Yeah, why?" asked the other genins.

"Because we want to see how you would work and cooperate with other genins other than your team-mates. Teamwork is important but cooperation with other ninjas is also necessary to be a good shinobi. Now, I will show you the list of pairings." Shizune handed a scroll to the Hokage who unveils it in front of the ninjas.

Aburame Shino – Hyuuga Neji

Akimichi Choji – Ten-ten

Inuzuka Kiba – Yamanaka Ino

Rock Lee – Haruno Sakura

Uchiha Sasuka – Nara Shikamaru

Uzumaki Naruto – Hyuuga Hinata

Different reactions came from different genins. This time, Neji raised the question. "Who made the pairings and how?"

"We basically made it through draw lots. Your respective senseis do the picking for you. If you do not have anymore questions, listen to me carefully." Tsunade cleared her throat as she went on. "I'm giving you one week to train and bond with your team-mate. Next week, you have to fight against other teams to see how your training goes, it's also a form of competition so you have to work hard and do your best, understood?"

"Hai!" everyone nodded to Hokage.

"Okay, get outta here and begin you're training now. I'll see you all next week. Dismiss."


(A/N) It took so long for me to update because midterms just ends. Finals will begin tomorrow but I promise to finish this as soon as possible. Hope you like this chapter. Please REVIEW, please, please, please. Thanks!