Chapter Eight:
Naruto gasped. Sasuke stood up so quickly his chair fell. Shikamaru's eye's widened slightly. Neji opened his eyes and shot up as well.
Kakashi's eye(s) twinkled in amusement at the boys reactions but then hardened at the sight of the girls. It had to have been a pretty bad beating for them to look like they did.
Ino and Sakura were supporting each other, and Tenten seemed to be keeping Hinata standing. Ino had several large bruises forming on her face and a cut on her neck where other bruises were forming. Where her arms were visible they saw several large bruises that were purple in color. Blood was trailing down her arm from a cut on the inside of her elbow. Sakura looked the same. Her glasses weren't on her face and Kakashi saw them in her hand which was bleeding. Hinata had scrapes and scratches all over her arms and one on her forehead, and as many bruises as the other two. Her ankle was twisted.
Tenten was the worst. Her lip was bloodied and blood dripped down the sides of her mouth. Several deep gashes were on her arms and one on her leg. Her hands and wrists were a sickening purple color and swollen, one twisted at an angle. Her neck had several bruises as well.
"Shikamaru, Neji, Naruto, Sasuke take the girls down to the nurse. Stay with them, I will come and see you when class is over," Kakashi ordered and when the boys didn't even move added, "Now would be good,"
They woke up and ran into action. Shikamaru picked up Ino bridal style and Sakura would have fallen to the ground without her support but Sasuke caught her and picked her up as well. Tenten was reluctant to give Hinata up but let Naruto pick her up. Suddenly the world started to spin for her and she went hurtling to the ground. Strong arms wrapped around her waist and brought her back up. Neji picked her up and the boys made their way to the nurses office.
Twenty minutes later the nurse was done setting Hinata's twisted ankle and Tenten's broken wrist. She put bandages on the most severe of cuts, gashes, and bruises.
"I need you ladies to take your shirts off," the nurse said.
"What? Why?" Tenten asked.
"I have a feeling there are more bruises under those shirts and I need to be able to see them," the nurse said sternly.
"In front of the guys?" Sakura asked giving a questioning glance in their direction.
"Yes," the nurse said flatly. Groaning the girls took their shirts off with a little bit of help from the nurse. More bruises littered their stomach's and backs. The nurse put some crème on the worst of them and helped them put their shirts back on.
"I did all I could, the rest is going to take time to heal. You will be very sore, and I don't recommend walking around too much. No training Tenten. Just take it easy, you should be good within the week. Tenten, Hinata, Sakura can do a healing jutsu on that wrist and ankle of yours when she is ready," the nurse said and left the room.
The guys hadn't said a word and they weren't now.
"G-guys?" Hinata asked quietly.
"Anything wrong?" Ino asked.
"Yes! There is! What did you guys do? What happened?" Naruto yelled at them and then lowered his voice remembering they were in the nurse's office.
"I don't think your fan girls like it when they find fake imposters looking like you guys," Tenten said trying to sit up but being pressed down again lightly by Neji's hand.
"What did you do?" Sasuke asked looking at Sakura who was examining her broken glasses. He took them away from her noticing that there was broken glass.
"We did a henge jutsu, and changed into you guys. The jutsu didn't hold very well though with all of the girls around," Sakura said looking down at her hands.
"When they found out that we had posed as you and that you weren't there anymore they kind of went berserk," Ino said looking out the only window in the room.
"They went crazy, saying something about how you were theirs, and that we had to stay away from you," Tenten said looking at her feet.
"T-they beat us up, saying that we would learn our lesson," Hinata said quietly looking down at the floor.
"You shouldn't have done that," Sasuke said frowning.
"I agree, you should have thought about how crazy they would have gotten," Neji said his cold eyes looking at Tenten.
"We did, we just wanted to help you guys," Tenten said quietly.
"Why?" Shikamaru asked. "I mean, you guys are our targets and all, why would you do anything to help us?"
"Being a loser means you get ignored by almost everyone, but being popular means you get more attention then you want. You guys looked like you needed help," Sakura said softly meeting the four boy's gazes.
"You guys shouldn't have done anything, especially knowing you could get hurt," Naruto said.
"Yeah, yeah. Look at it this way though, they won't know if it's the real you or if it's us the next time they try to mob you," Tenten said smiling. Sakura, Ino, and Hinata joined in and the boys couldn't help but smirk back.
"Thanks," Sasuke said.
"No prob," Ino said.
About five minutes of complete silence later Kakashi arrived, his favorite book in hand. He put it in his back pocket upon seeing the girls and guys.
"How are you guys feeling?" Kakashi asked.
"Besides feeling like I hit a brick wall at about fifty miles an hour, I am good," Tenten said sarcastically. Hinata giggled and agreed with her. Ino and Sakura nodded.
"What happened?" Kakashi asked. The girls went completely silent and didn't say anything. The silence held for about thirty seconds before breaking. "Ok, don't tell me. Anyway, you four aren't coming to school for the rest of the week," The girls started to protest but stopped when he raised a hand.
"You aren't and that is final. The guys will be staying at home with you as well, to help take care of you. That is what a loving husband would do for his wife. Anyway, I will give you the assignment which I have given the rest of the class. You are to find out everything you can about your wife/husband in the next week. The following Monday you will have a test on it. This assignment is to get you talking," Kakashi said. Shikamaru and Tenten groaned, Naruto grinned, Hinata gave a small smile, Ino frowned and glanced at Shikamaru, Sakura smiled while looking at Sasuke, Sasuke smirked, and Neji frowned.
"Cool!" Naruto said "I get to know more about Hinata!" This statement caused Hinata to blush madly.
"You don't have any homework for the rest of the week either," Kakashi continued, and everybody's eyebrow's raised.
"Only for your class right?" Sakura asked. Kakashi rarely ever let people off the hook for homework, despite how lazy he looked.
"No, for all of your classes," Kakashi said calmly and reached into his back pocket for his book again "You are to go home today as soon as you can. Boys take good care of them, they are injured," Kakashi finished and left without a trace.
"I hate when he does that," Ino said rubbing her head and wincing when she touched a bruise.
"Well we don't have any homework except to get to know our 'spouses', which is going to be enough work by itself, and we get off of school for the rest of the week, I think we should go home!" Tenten said yawning. Her eyes were starting to droop and it was getting harder to concentrate on anything. "Hey do you guys feel a little bit tired?"
"Now that you mention it, I do," Ino said yawning as well.
"Hey, yawns are contagious," Sakura tried to say but a yawn interrupted her.
"Come o-on guys, we c-can take an n-nap at h-home," Hinata said and then yawned. She blushed and tried to stand up forgetting that one of her feet was in a brace. Naruto steadied her and then picked her up bridal style again causing her to turn into a tomato.
"Yeah, I think that these girls are tired," Naruto said and started to walk out towards the door.
"How the heck are we supposed to get them home?" Sasuke asked.
"Why don't we just carry them? They aren't that heavy," Naruto said blinking in confusion.
"Y-you can carry u-us all the w-way home?" Hinata asked confused. Sure these four guys were all jocks but it wasn't just a little walk home.
"Um yeah…what if you guys like drop up half way home?" Ino asked eyeing Shikamaru suspiciously.
"Yeah, you guys might do it as one of your pranks," Sakura said narrowing her eyes in Sasuke's direction. Sasuke either didn't notice or didn't care because he ignored her.
"Good point! Why should we trust you?" Tenten asked looking at Neji who just looked right back at her.
"Ok to answer your first question, we can carry you all the way home with ease because we are the best ninja in the school and you guys really aren't that heavy if you haven't noticed," Neji stated.
"Number two, we promise that we won't drop you half way home," Shikamaru said looking at Ino. She saw honesty in his gaze.
"Number three, you don't have to trust us but if we are going to make this assignment work then you are going to have to try to trust us," Sasuke said picking Sakura up before the girls could protest anymore.
"And besides we don't injure already injured girls, who got injured to help us in the first place. Actually we don't really injure girls physically at all. At least not that bad," Naruto said grinning. It did nothing to relieve the girl's of their fears.
The girls arrived home safe and sound. Hinata, Sakura, and Ino had already fallen asleep. Tenten was fighting a losing battle against sleep and she had trouble opening her eyes more and more.
"Just go to asleep," Neji said quietly so that only Tenten would hear.
"Are we home yet?" Tenten asked trying to get a bearing of her whereabouts.
"Yes," Neji said looking at her face.
"Where are Ino, Sa" Tenten started to ask.
"Fine, they are just fine. Now go to sleep," Neji said quietly walking up the stairs. Her eyes drifted close and they didn't open again. He had a little bit of difficulty opening her door but he managed and then he set her under the covers on her bed. He watched her even breathing for awhile and finding that she was asleep got up and left the room.
Neji walked down the hall as Sasuke and Naruto came out of Sakura and Hinata's rooms. He nodded to them and they went down to the 'game room' that they had dubbed it. It had x-box 360, ps3, game cube, a pool table, an air hockey table, a dart set, and a huge screen TV. There were three couches around the TV and they took a seat, Neji on one, Sasuke on one, and Naruto on one.
They waited for about three minutes for Shikamaru glancing at each other sometimes but mostly just caught up in their own thoughts.
When Shikamaru came in Naruto started laughing, Sasuke had to suppress a chuckle, and Neji's eyebrow's raised. Some of Shikamaru's hair was out of his ponytail, his jacket was askew, and he had a red handprint on his face.
"What hahaha happened?" Naruto managed to ask clutching his stomach for air. Shikamaru sighed as he sat down next to Neji and glared at the fox boy.
"If you must know, Ino woke up, called me a 'pervert' and then started throwing things at me. She was only half awake, I don't think she knew what she was doing," Shikamaru said closing his eyes and leaning back on the couch. "Now, lets discuss what we came here to talk about,"
"The girls," Sasuke said quietly.
"Yes the girls," Shikamaru agreed. "What do you guys think about them?"
"Well they are losers, but they are really nice," Naruto said thinking.
"They have guts," Neji added.
"They are strong opponents, and skilled ninja," Sasuke said.
"They have extreme loyalty towards one another, and their determination is incredible for someone of their status. I mean most losers at our school are completely empty. They are just shells walking around, ignored for too long," Shikamaru said.
"Why are they losers? I mean everybody calls them a loser but for what reason?" Naruto asked.
"Good question, I think Ino is because she is so bossy and loud," Shikamaru said.
"Hinata is because she always stutters," Neji said.
"Well, I know Sakura is because she is sort of a geek. Always studying and knowing the right answers," Naruto said. "What about Tenten?"
"I think Tenten is because she is such a tomboy. And because she likes sharp objects so much," Sasuke said.
"Do you guys remember their first reaction to having to sit by us and be partner's with us?" Shikamaru asked. "They were appalled at the idea. I mean we are the 'populars' and they are the 'losers', we just aren't suppose to mix. But then they tried to be nice to us and everything. It might be just because of the assignment, but that doesn't mean that they had to help us out of that whole fan girl thing,"
"So are you saying that maybe the girls are trying to be nice to us for real, even though we haven't been nice to them? Even though they know that we are going to pull pranks on them and everything?" Neji asked.
"Exactly," Shikamaru said.
"So what are you trying to make us consider?" Sasuke asked.
"All I am saying is that maybe we should make more of an effort on the whole thing, try to be nice to them and everything. At least until the end of the assignment," Shikamaru said.
"I think that we should try to be nicer since they have, and they got beat up because of that, but I like pulling pranks on them. I mean no other loser's have ever taken a prank and then turned against us like they have," Naruto said.
"The dobe has a point," Neji said. "And if we are going to be nicer to them then we have to stop calling them losers,"
"Ok, it's settled then. We will not relinquish our claim that they are our new 'targets' but we are going to try to be nicer to them," Sasuke said.
"Yep," Shikamaru said.
"One problem," Neji said.
"What is that?" Naruto asked confused.
"Pulling pranks on somebody is not nice, and we said we were going to be nicer to them. Also, what if other people start noticing that we are being nicer to the 'losers?'" Neji said.
"That is two problems," Naruto said. Neji only glared at him.
"We could always pull pranks that were not very serious. You know, pranks that won't make them want to leave the school, just funny pranks like honey in the hair and things like that until the end of the assignment. Then we can pull off the serious ones," Sasuke said.
"And for your second question we could always act not so cruel but not really nice either at school. Be nice to them enough so that people don't really notice but we are doing it. And if people do notice and ask about it we can always tell them that we are being nice because they aren't as annoying as the fan girls," Sasuke said.
"That is a good idea," Shikamaru said.
"Ok then it's settled, now can I go get some ramen?" Naruto asked.
"Dobe," "Leave," "Moron,"
"Hey!"
A/N: Ok somebody tell me if I am rushing it or if something is wrong with it. The next few chapters are going to cover the events of the week. Does anybody have any ideas about what they should talk about? Read, enjoy, review! In whatever order.