-two-

"Hyuuga Neji, going to a Christmas party thrown by Haruno Sakura. Now is that not just a little bit strange?"

"Put a sock in it, Lee," Neji said in a calm, low voice. He was standing at the foot of Lee's bed, watching as his friend slowly slid himself off the blindingly white hospital sheets. Once on the ground, Rock Lee tested the weight of first one foot and then the other before grabbing his clothes from off a chair and going behind a curtained off section of the room.

"I will stop asking if you tell me why."

"Why?" Neji looked around the clean white room as if he could find the answer in a corner somewhere. The bright fluorescent lighting hurt his eyes when he looked directly up into it. "I just felt I needed a little break, that's all. What's so surprising about that?" He squinted at the bed Lee had just been laying on, trying to get rid of the little black spots dancing in front of his eyes.

"It is surprising that Hyuuga Neji needs a break at all, because he usually doesn't break for anything short of a sky that is falling." Rock Lee stepped out from behind the curtain, tying his forehead protector around his waist. He ran his fingers along the metal insignia before straightening up and looking at his teammate.

"Well, maybe the sky will fall tomorrow. Who knows. Now, let's get going." Neji walked to the door and opened it, holding it for Rock Lee to exit his hospital room first.

The first thing Rock Lee did was give a good stretch. "Ohhh yes, it feels good to be outside again." Rock Lee pushed his neck to his left, making it emit a satisfying crack.

"That's disgusting. I hate it when you do that."

"Oh, right, sorry. Forgot. So, tell me, Tenten is going to the party too, correct?"

"I wouldn't be going if she wasn't going."

"Hm? So this is this type of situation, is it?"

Neji gave a quick glance at his green clad teammate. "What type of situation?"

"You know what I'm talking about."

"No, I don't."

"Yes, you do."

"No, I actually don't."

"You like her."

Neji frowned as they exited the hospital completely, coming out into the soft light of close to late afternoon. Rock Lee stopped and took a deep breath of the sharp winter air. Neji waited for him patiently, turning over the three words Rock Lee had just said.

"No I don't," Neji said when they started walking again.

"I disagree."

"She was upset, all right? She seemed tired and sad so I told her that I would go if she went."

"In other words, you wanted to make her happy."

"I guess."

"And if that's not caring about someone, what is?"

"I wouldn't know anymore than you would, Lee."

Rock Lee made an indignant noise in his throat. "Are you insulting me?"

Neji turned his head away and rolled his eyes. "No, Lee, I would never insult you," he said flatly, infusing the sentence with inner sarcasm.

(sing)

Tenten watched the drama-in-the-making scene with interest.

"Shikamaru, let ME wrap the ribbon around the staircase!"

"Let go, Ino. I've got it!"

"You're just going to screw it up!"

"How the hell do you know?"

"Because you're a guy and I'm a girl."

"Does that prove anything?"

"Girls are better at decorating than guys are. Now LET GO!"

Tenten smiled. She liked the fact that she had volunteered to decorate Sakura's house for the holiday bash more and more. With Ino and Shikamaru present, it was fairly guaranteed that at least she would be entertained.

"Ow, that was my foot!"

Ino and Shikamaru were tangled together very cutely in a mess of red and golden ribbon. Ino was attempting to wrestle Shikamaru to the ground as she ripped the ribbon spool from his grasp, while Shikamaru was just trying to escape any major injuries. The reason why they both wanted to decorate the stairs so much escaped Tenten's mind, but the absurd fight was funny to watch.

Ino's leg moved behind Shikamaru's and then she pushed her weight forward. Immediately Shikamaru almost crashed backwards onto the carpeted floor, only to save himself by pulling very hard on the ribbon that Ino was also pulling very hard on, but in the opposite direction. Ino made a noise of protest and let the ribbon go in a moment of quick and smart thinking. Shikamaru then toppled over, but since he was still pulling a handful of ribbons, Ino went down with him.

"HEY! You jerk!"

"That was not my fault!"

Now the both of them were a mess of flailing arms and legs and red ribbon, with Ino desperately trying to get up off of Shikamaru's chest. Tenten covered her mouth with one hand, smiling as they got angrier and angrier. Then Sakura walked in and the look on her face was priceless.

"Oh god, what are they doing?"

"I have no idea," Tenten lied through her covered mouth. She watched as Sakura stomped over, and started screaming.

"What do you think you are doing? If you volunteer to come and help me decorate the house, then DECORATE THE HOUSE INSTEAD OF FLIRTING WITH EACH OTHER, FOR GOD'S—"

Then the front door opened behind Tenten. She turned at the gust of cold air and saw Neji and Rock Lee standing in the doorway, looking very disoriented. They stepped farther into the room and as Rock Lee closed the door, Neji spotted the tangled mess. Even though his face hadn't moved a muscle, his voice changed to disgust and amusement. "What are they doing?"

"Bonding," Tenten answered with a smile.

"Sakura is scary when she yells," Rock Lee remarked timidly, shuffling so he stood behind Neji.

Tenten's smile widened as she turned back to the Christmas tree, her arms heavy with golden garlands as she strung them along the branches.

(laugh)

Under the multitude of twinkling strands of Christmas lights all over the house, the red ribbon lined with golden thread that wrapped around the staircase looked beautiful and richer than it actually was. The party was in full swing and, for all the trouble it was worth, only one person had said anything about it.

"What a pretty shade of red," Hinata had said when she passed by.

The ribbon was forgotten and unnoticed, but the episode that Ino and Shikamaru had with it was far from quiet. They were sitting as far apart from each other as they could, one on the far end of one of the two couches Sakura had in her living room, and the other on the far end of the other couch. Both were scowling as Sakura, sitting in the middle where the two couches met at a ninety-degree angle and surrounded by curious people, made fun of them in a loud, raucous voice. Both Ino and Shikamaru, of course, occasionally voiced up words of dissent, but they were usually shouted down in the favor of making fun of them some more.

Tenten had lost interest though. She had seen the thing first hand already and was not too keen on listening to five more retellings. She glanced about the spacious living room instead from her perch on the back of one of the couches. She liked Sakura's house, she decided, before she moved on to watching the people that had come.

First there were the silent people. Hinata, Shino, Sasuke, Neji, and herself. Then there were the loud people, which consisted of everyone else. All the loud people were congealed at the center of the living room, which was where the couches were. Then the quiet ones were dispersed at random intervals from each other and random lengths from the center of the room.

Then she observed the positions that people were in, in relation to other people. Ino and Shikamaru were far away from each other, a given. Hinata was pretty far away from Naruto, who was busy trying to scoot closer to Sakura. Sasuke was busy sighing in a remote corner, so he was a distance away from Sakura, although she looked over at him often in what she thought was a discreet manner. Rock Lee was on the other side of Sakura, much to her apparent chagrin. And Neji was…where was he?

Tenten swiveled her head back and forth until finally she turned to look behind her. And there he was, leaning against the wall a few feet back from the couches, pale eyes on the ground. But when she finally spotted him, he lifted his face and his eyes found hers. Startled, she held his gaze for a few seconds and then quickly turned away. But she did catch the small smile that had started to form on his lips before she looked back forward.

"All right, Sakura, I've had just about enough," Ino screeched after she was the butt of another joke that got the whole company laughing. She stood up, upsetting some chips that flew out of a chip bowl that had been resting partly in her lap and partly in Choji's lap. He grabbed at the chips as she stomped over to Sakura and took hold of her arm.

"Hey…" Sakura protested with a grin, "what are you…?"

"We're having a private conference," she said, glowering pointedly at the boys. They all laughed and scoffed, jeering about coming along with them too.

For lack of anything better to do, Tenten slid off the back of the couch she was sitting on and followed the two, with Hinata close on her heels. As Tenten passed Neji, she could feel his eyes on her and it made her shiver. She didn't know if it was a good shiver or a bad shiver.

"So you really might like him?" Sakura was asking Ino as Tenten and Hinata rounded the corner to where they were hidden.

"Who?" Tenten inquired, curious, "Shikamaru?"

"SHUSH SHUSH SHUSH," Ino said, quite loudly for the word meaning to quiet down. "You guys don't ever give me a break, do you?"

"We try our best," Sakura said with a sly grin. Ino turned on the pink haired girl, glaring at her with flaming daggers in her eyes.

"Hey, I was just trying to get caught up on the situation," Tenten justified herself innocently. "You don't want me saying the wrong thing out there. Besides, we were all under the impression that both of you," –she indicated with her head at Sakura and Ino— "were completely in love with Sasuke." Tenten couldn't help adding a bit of mockery into her voice. Because, seriously, what good was that emo loser?

"Well, I am," Sakura confirmed confidently, glancing at Ino.

"I don't know…" Ino mumbled, looking at her bare feet. "I'm so confused."

"Well, I can see why you kind of like Shikamaru. He's a nice guy and all," Sakura said, looking up at the ceiling and helping Ino analyze the situation.

"Yeah, but he's lazy."

Hinata looked up at her slightly taller friend and Tenten looked at Hinata as well. They both shrugged and turned to look back at the other two. Tenten really didn't get this whole complicated boy business. It seemed kind of childish and lame to her. The fact that you could change who you had feelings for on a whim was a bit crazy and made the whole thing a bit superficial.

"Aren't all guys lazy?"

"You got a point there."

"Neji isn't lazy," Tenten blurted out before she thought. Hinata gave a sharp, startled glance at her friend. Tenten could feel her heart wilt. Now she'd never hear the end of it…

And by the looks on Sakura and Ino's face, the end for her was beginning.

"Oh really?" Sakura remarked casually. "I never paid much attention to Neji. Do you, Ino?"

"No. Why do you bring him up, Tenten?"

"I was just saying. As an example," Tenten said, trying to keep cool while racking her brain with good deflecting remarks and potential white-lies. She could think up one brutal deflector involving Hinata and her little crush on Naruto, but that'd be terribly mean. She'd rather take the brunt of their little teasing game than to have Hinata deal with it.

"Really? An example?"

"Well," Tenten said off-handedly, "he isn't lazy."

"Tenten is right," Hinata suddenly spoke softly. She smiled and it was small but completely sugar and heart melting. "N-Neji is probably not even as lazy as me."

Tenten could see that Sakura and Ino were both smiling because Hinata was smiling. Tenten was as well. Hinata was so cute and shy, but so lovely at the same time. However, the peaceful and cute moment did not last. Ino immediately rounded back on Tenten, much to her annoyance.

"Well, I'm thinking that you guys have got something going."

Tenten raised her eyebrows. "Who?"

"You and Neji."

"We do not."

"He was practically staring at you the whole time back in the living room," Sakura stated with her sly smile back in place.

"No he wasn't," Tenten refuted confidently. Even so, she could feel the heat in her cheeks involuntarily rise. "You were too busy making fun of Ino to notice."

Ino looked at Sakura with a haughty look on her face, as if she had just won some small victory against her pink-haired opponent. Sakura stuck her tongue out at Ino in a very mature way.

"Well, you're blushing, so you must like him at least a little," Ino said, ignoring Sakura's attempted insult. "You know what? I even bet you ten bucks that you two will be under the mistletoe before Sakura and Sasuke are."

"There's mistletoe?" Tenten asked in horror at the same time Sakura exclaimed, "Ino, you pig!" and slugged her in the arm.

"Ow, Sakura, don't hit me, for goodness sakes," Ino said, glaring at Sakura again. Then she continued, turning brightly toward Tenten, "It's a bet then?"

"What? No!" Tenten exclaimed. Too late. Sakura and Ino were already striding briskly toward the living room again. Tenten followed them miserably with Hinata by her side. The loud male voices rose in volume like a wave before them.

"Your favorite people are back!" Ino declared, flouncing grandly back toward the couch only to find her previous seat taken. "Monsters!" she then called the boys, grabbing a nearby pillow and whacking Choji over the head with it. "Scoot over, snack boy! Give me back my seat!" She emphasized each word of her last sentence with a hit from the pillow against Choji's head.

Bad idea.

A/N: Thank you so much to my seven reviewers and the other people that checked this story out (yes, I'm thanking those who essentially linked on this story's link, hehe). I couldn't resist updating this one again quickly (usually I take a while), but this one is a short story, so I guess I'll make an exception.

Sorry to not take your idea, Luna Forest, but this chapter only had two dividers anyway. Meh.

I'm working on a Ino x Shikamaru story right now. Just so y'all know.

This story will end next chapter. Tear tear. T.T

So please give me feedback. I'm not begging for reviews. I just want feedback to make my writing better. Thank you, again, for all those that did give me feedback for the last chapter. :D

So, until next time...