Tenten stands at the punch table, pouring herself a cup of punch. She is at Madoka's birthday party, which Neji is hosting at his house. Tenten is not quite sure having a party in the Hyuuga compound is a good idea, but Neji is really into parties now. Even Guy sensei could not persuade Neji to hold the party elsewhere. Not even mentioning the Caged Bird Seal, and how the Hyuuga Clan might use the seal to punish Neji for break the 'no parties rule. Neji just laughed and said it would all be just fine.
The party itself is a little tense at the moment. Everyone is worried about the rest of the Hyuuga Clan turning up to shut the party down. Hiashi and Hizashi are out so that they do not have to listen to what they seemed sure would be a 'ragey' party. The members of Team Gai, Team Shisui, Team Asuma and Team Kurenai are all present at the party, but Team Kakashi is missing Sasuke. Sasuke was not allowed to go to the party because she is still very, very grounded. (All of Team Kakashi have bright green hair, which everyone is choosing to ignore, because Team Kakashi keeps denying their hair is green.) Madoka's parents are at the party too, along with Lady Tsunade, Shizune, Tonton and Karin's mum. The latter four all arrived a little late, claiming the just came from the Never Ending Party.
Feeling a little bored, Tenten decides to attempt that seal she was practicing in the hospital when she visited Sasuke that time. Tenten places her cup of punch on the end of the Punch Table and head over to the other side of the room. Then she draws the seal and attempts to summon her cup of punch over.
Poof! A cup of punch appears in the centre of the seal. Tenten grins. Thinking that she succeeded, she picks up the cup. Then she notices that it is not her cup, or the punch they are serving at the party. Tenten examines the cup carefully. The cup is blue and it has a strange yellow monster on it. The big, bold letters under the monster say 'Pikachu'.
"Hey, everyone," says Tenten, addressing the rest of the room. "Come and take a look at this."
Curious, everyone else crowds around Tenten and peers at the cup.
"Where did that come from?" asks Asuma sensei.
"I tried to summon my cup of punch over here," explains Tenten, "but this cup appeared instead. My cup is still over there on the punch table."
"Interesting," says Kakashi sensei. "Most fuuinjutsu students summon something from a parallel dimension at some point, but not usually when they are trying to summon something to them from across the room. Has this happened before?"
Tenten tells Kakashi sensei about Sasuke's lunch.
"Try sending the cup back," suggests Karin, poking at the cup of punch.
Tenten puts the cup back into the centre of the seal and tries to send it back. Nothing happens to the Pikachu cup, but Tenten's original cup of punch disappears off the punch table. Tenten sighs. "I'm not sure I should use this seal," she says. "For all I know, I might summon something terrible or really mess up someone's day by stealing their food accidently."
"Hey, at least you still have a cup of punch," says Shin, smiling. "You might as well drink it."
Tenten does so and pulls a face. "I think that was alcoholic punch," she says.
Tsunade snatches the cup and sniff it. "Smells like someone spiked that punch with my favourite sake." Then Tsunade pulls out a bottle of her favourite sake, heads over to the punch bowl and tips it in. "Drink up, everyone!" she orders. "This party is too quiet!"
"You are right!" agrees Neji, heading over to the buffet table, grabbing a bowl and filling it with the most sugary things on the table. Once the bowl is full, he hands it to Shisui. "Eat up, we need some excitement!"
"No, no, no…" Hinata makes a dive for the bowl.
"Neji!" says Naruto, tossing Neji a bottle of sake, which he could only have gotten from Tsunade. "Catch!"
Hinata stops in her tracks and turns to look at Neji, horror written all over her face.
Neji starts drinking the sake.
Shisui starts shovelling the sugar into his mouth.
Gai sensei and Kakashi dive to take the sake and sugar away.
Gai sensei grabs the sake, spilling some on the floor as he pulls the bottle out of Neji's hands. Kakashi sensei grabs the bowl of junk food, and slides across the floor, away from Shisui.
There is a moment of absolute stillness and silence.
Then Neji rips off his shirt with a chesty roar, skids over to the buffet table and starts using the various dips and sauces as war paint. He drags fingers dipped in tomato sauce across his cheeks to make stripes and then starts drawing more complex patterns on his chest and arms with the dips.
And all the while, Shisui is just standing there, looking down at his hands as if he is trying to figure out why there is no junk food in them anymore. Then Shisui sniffs, tears welling up in his eyes. "My food…"
Naruto pulls out a violin and says, "It's time for some DANCING! Also, Kakashi sensei, give Shisui back his food, 'tebayo. He's already high, so it doesn't matter."
"Tenten, you shall dance with me!" Neji announces, sweeping Tenten out into the middle of the room as Naruto starts playing a lively waltz.
Kakashi sensei sighs and gives Shisui back the bowl of junk food. Shisui's face lights up and he starts stuffing his face with a happy, and rather stupid, expression on his face.
Asuma sensei starts dancing with Kurenai sensei, grinning like he just won first prize.
"COME ON, EVERYONE!" Yells Naruto. "START DANCING, 'TEBAYO!"
Ino drags Sai onto the dance floor. Madoka bows gracefully before offering his hand to Karin and leading her onto the dance floor. Kiba starts dancing Akamaru around like a moron. Tsunade grabs Tonton from Shizune's arms and starts spinning the pig around the room. Karin's mum grabs Shin and forces him to dance with her.
And then Neji and Shisui start doing some kind of wild war dance together. Shisui appears to be finished his junk food and is now also shirtless and painted in condiments. Naruto changes his tune to something more dramatic and warlike. Tenten, who was waltzing with Neji until the second he decided to do a war dance, is so flabbergasted she finds herself joining in. Tsunade, Okami san and Shizune join in, adding their own war cries to the mix. Neji jumps up on a chair, holding up the bottle of sake Gai sensei was holding a second ago. He lets out another war cry and downs the rest of the bottle.
The door to the room they are partying in crashes open and three very unhappy Hyuugas march into the room. Tenten recognizes them as high-standing members of the Main branch. "What is going on here?" demands the most severe-looking of the trio.
"We're having a party!" roars Neji, clenching his fists and planting one foot on the table beside him and the chair he is standing on. "Now join in or GET OUT!"
"You dare raise your voice to me?" the Hyuuga marches towards Neji, angry beyond reason. He does not seem to realize that there are many powerful shinobi in the room who can and will stand up for Neji.
"W-we have permission to have this party!" says Hinata, a little nervously, but rather firmly.
"You be quiet!" snaps the angry Hyuuga.
"SHOW SOME RESPECT TO THE HEIRESS!" roars Neji, activating his byakugan. "KNOW YOUR PLACE!"
"You are the one who does not know your place!" snaps the Hyuuga, making angry strides towards Neji. Everyone in the room except the other two intruders plants themselves between Neji and the angry Hyuuga clansman.
"Watch yourself," says Gai sensei sternly. "If you lay a finger on my student, I will unleash my wrath upon you."
"Even though I'm not a ninja," says Shisui, pointing right at the Hyuuga's nose. "I'll pretend like I am and kick your butt!"
Tenten sniggers. Shisui is wearing his forehead protector, after all. He is obviously a ninja.
Neji laughs triumphantly. "I have permission to host this party, despite the Clan's No Party Rule. I have friends who will stand by me. You cannot touch me."
The Hyuuga's face darkens. "Yes I can." He raises two fingers in the Half-Ram seal.
"NO!" Hinata lunges forward and tries to stop him.
Neji just keeps laughing.
"No, stop!" Hinata pulls on the man's arm. "Leave him alone!"
The Hyuuga twists his face with immense effort.
"Haha," Naruto laughs. "You look like you're pooping."
Neji jumps down off his chair and swaggers drunkenly up to the Hyuuga. "How about you stop making that stupid face?" he says.
"Why isn't it working?" demands the Hyuuga.
Naruto laughs his 'I'm up to no good' laugh. "Neji just spent a few months with three seal masters, dattebayo."
"What?" demands the Hyuuga, lowering his hand, an expression of realization dawning on his face.
Grinning, Neji takes off his forehead protector.
Tenten gasps in shock, a little squeal escaping as well. Neji's Caged Bird Seal is gone. "Neji…" Tenten covers her mouth with her hand.
"This clan is scum for what we did to the seal gifted to us," Neji says. "A seal was made by an Uzumaki sealmaster. He called it the Hidden Bird Seal. It was designed to destroy all traces of kekkei genkai and doujutsu upon the death of the wearer. It was originally a gift for the Uchiha clan, and they chose to share it with us. If you want to know why the Uchiha hate the Hyuuga and why Pantsu Uzumaki went rogue, look no further than the Caged Bird Seal! The travesty the Hyuuga Clan turned Grandfather Pantsu's seal into. While we were on our tour of the Whirlpool Temples, Iruka sensei, Naruto and Grandfather Pantsu worked their arses off to remove the Caged Bird Seal from me. And now…" Neji starts molding chakra. A seal appears on his skin. It looks similar to the caged bird seal, but the design in the centre is different. "This is the Hidden Bird Seal."
"I have one of those too, now!" says Shisui, bouncing up and down excitedly. He takes off his forehead protector and shows everyone his Hidden Bird Seal. "Now no one can steal my eyes!" Shisui goes cross-eyes. "Ooooh, I feel funny." He falls face first onto the floor.
Neji points and laughs at Shisui, then falls face first onto the floor himself. "I'm a loaf of bread," says Neji.
"He's drunk, isn't he?" says one of the other two Hyuuga interlopers.
"Whoooo's druunk!?" demands Lee, shakily pushing his way through the crowd to get to the Hyuuga. "I'm not DRUUUNK! I'll FIGHT you!"
"OH S***!" swears Gai sensei. "Lee got at the punch!"
"Best birthday ever," grins Madoka.