Okay so don't hate me for taking forever on this chapter i kind of got attached to this thing on youtube and well anyways during the time i was working on it i found it difficult to write from a boys point of view. it was weird but i think it came out okay. So yeah i hope you all enjoy the chapter. As always please excuse my mistakes.

Two Times the Harder

I had woken about thirty minutes before my alarm had been timed to go off but there was no hope for falling back to sleep. My brain was focused too much on trying to remember all the stuff I had learned yesterday; flips and kicks and twirls and wow I'm getting dizzy just lying here thinking about it. I glanced once more at my alarm clock before pushing myself up and climbing from my bed.

'Might as well start getting ready.' Ino had promised not pull me from bed at five in the morning again. Today's spirit day was 'Twin Tuesday' and I had quickly agreed to be Hinata's twin. We could both agree on a quick simple outfit with no concern of which shirt looked best with which skirt. It left Ino and Sakura to pair up and at last check they were arguing about what to wear. I took my time in the shower to put me back on schedule and then dressed in my ocean blue Chinese top and light khaki capries. Instead of the usual twin buns, I only put my hair in one today with a pretty hair pin. I grabbed up my stuff for school and ate a slice of toast on my way out the door. About half way to the school I caught up with Hinata and Neji who were a little farther ahead of her.

"Hey guys." I said with a smile. Hinata had not forgotten to dress appropriately, although Ino had believed we all would, and was wearing a lilac colored Chinese top with dark khaki capries with her long dark hair pulled into a bun of the top of her head. Neji was dressed as normal. 'Of course.'

"Good morning Tenten." Hinata smiled. Neji glanced briefly in my direction but didn't speak. He seemed a bit distracted and I didn't want to bother him by asking why. Although when we arrived at school he still seemed distant, not even scoffing at the ridiculous ways the students had dressed up, I began to worry just a bit. 'I wonder what it is he's thinking about.' They went straight to homeroom where they found the others. Lee and Naruto had dressed as twins along with Shikamaru and Chouji and Kiba and Shino. In the other corner of the room stood Ino and Sakura not dressed as twins.

"What happened?" Hinata asked the two who only continued to argue.

"You were supposed to wear the pink top!" Sakura shouted.

"No the purple one and you were supposed to wear your jean skirt!" Ino yelled back. The rest of the class was ignoring the pair's shouts as they had become used to it. Sakura was wearing a pink t-shirt, white jacket, jeans and pink and white sneakers. Ino was wearing a long sleeved purple shirt, jean skirt and black wedges. Ino's hair was up, Sakura's was down; Ino had on gold jewelry, Sakura had on silver; anything that could be opposite was.

"I knew something like this was going to happen." I said as I sat down with Hinata and we started talking. Soon the girls tired themselves out and joined us.

"Hey did you all decide about going to the homecoming dance?" Sakura asked.

"What do you mean decide, we have to go." Ino said before myself or Hinata could respond.

"I guess I could go." Hinata said uncertainly.

"Yeah, might as well." I responded. I knew I wouldn't get asked to the dance but I could always go just to hang out with everyone.

"Okay that's good because I called Temari yesterday and told her to come over on Thursday to come shopping for dresses with us." Ino said

I looked over at Neji to see if he still looked distracted, he was reading the book our class had been assigned but his eyes weren't moving across the page but instead fixed on one spot. 'It's going to bother me all day.'

Neji's P.o.V

I stared at the page in the book in my hands. I wasn't really reading it I had finished the whole book last night to help distract myself from the bet I made with the other guys, now I had it out just to keep them from speaking to me.

'Why?' that was all I could wonder 'Why had I accepted that bet, what could possible have gone wrong in my mind to convince my self to agree?' Naruto had one good point; he was right about me being normal. Or maybe normal wasn't the best word but I do happen to like someone. It took me forever to admit it to myself just because admitting only made it more real and more distracting and being distracted isn't a good thing. I glanced away from the book and in Tenten's direction; she and the other girls were talking until she glanced back my way and I put my eyes back in the book. I figured the best way to do this bet was just to get it over with quickly. I would just have to ask her a hope for a yes, which even if she didn't like me she would probably say yes just because she was a nice person. And if she was to say no I would have to just hope that all the other guys failed as well. If Naruto would win the bet we would all be stuck doing stupid tasks for him; if Sasuke was to win it was certain things would not end well for any of them and well maybe if he got a no he would secretly cheer that Shikamaru didn't because he would probably only have them do tasks deemed to troublesome for himself. However the chances of him even asking were slim to none. He had to ask Tenten soon. The bell rang and we exited the room and swarmed the hallways. I joined Tenten as we walked and watched Lee sprinting down the hall to talk to someone; might as well try now.

"Hey Tenten?" I said bringing her attention to me.

"Yeah?" She turned her head in my direction as we continued to walk. All of a sudden the words seemed a lot more difficult to get out.

"I was just wondering…" and then the other words just wouldn't come. For the first time in my life I felt really stupid.

"You were just wondering-"She said trying to get the words from my mouth.

"If you would…spar with me after school." I felt really, really stupid "This evaluation thing really is disrupting my training." She smiled at me.

"Sure Neji, no problem." And with that the day started.

Normal P.o.V

The girls were back in their life skills class and were learning some more, non-poisonous, recipes.

"So what do you think were going to have to do at practice later?" Ino asked. Before anyone else could answer Sakura was going into a very in-depth description.

"We should be practicing the stunts later because they are the more difficult part, supposedly. Although I don't see how getting Hinata up into the air could possibly be difficult, and really we are certainly strong enough the toss her and catch her and spin her and all that other stuff." Hinata was beginning to look paler the usual.

"You all right? Hinata?" Tenten was asking the girl carefully.

"I-I don't think I wanna be tossed into the air." She answered as she held tight to the counter.

"We won't drop you, we promise." Ino told her reassuringly.

"I believe you really I do but I don't know." She still looked a little queasy.

"How about I switch places with you?" Ino suggested. Hinata immediately agreed.

"That won't work though, Hinata and I aren't even close in height, and we won't be able to lift you evenly." Hinata sighed.

"Well I guess, I could-" Hinata started to say.

"I could do it." Tenten interjected. "It doesn't matter how tall you are and I obviously don't mind being tossed into the air."

"You do know you'll have a lot of attention on you while your up there right?" Sakura explained. "You're not really a spotlight girl."

"I think I'll be fine, I'm already going to have more attention on me then I really ever want so what's a little more." Tenten said with a shrug of her shoulders.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

"Food's ready."

Neji's P.o.V

'This cannot be that hard or maybe it could.' I had not even tried at any other point during the day to ask her. And I wasn't going to unless I was sure I could do it. I don't like feeling stupid. Although by the last class of the day I was willing to try again. Lee had gone to ask the sensei a question and that left me sitting next to Tenten alone. As I was about to speak the intercom system clicked on.

"Attention." Shizune's voice came out. "We will be having our monthly fire drill in a few minutes please evacuate the school calmly and stand with your teachers." Although no one in class had any idea why any school would have a monthly fire drill, 'everyone should know what to do by now,' they didn't say anything because the evaluator in the back of the room may find their questions suspicious and the guy already had something against the school. The plus was that all fire drills are the same. A loud siren like alarm goes off, you can't hear anything 'including your own thoughts,' and you evacuate the burning building.

"I wonder how long this drill will last." Tenten said as she continued to do her class work. "I mean right after this class we have practice, I hope it doesn't run into it."

"Really?" I asked.

"What do you mean really?"

"Well I would want it to run into it." I said thinking of the nonsense of the football practice I would have to endure later.

"But then it will be longer and we won't be able to train together." 'She makes a very good point.' At the mention of the training I was once again reminded of my first failed attempt and that I needed to try again. I remained silent for about a minute and answered a few more questions of my own class work. Finally I spoke.

"Tenten?" She looked away from her work and directly into my eyes.

"Yeah." She said and once again those eight short, very short, words became the eight hardest words to put together; but I could do this.

"Would you go to the-" I made it through the sentence, really I did but that that siren just had to go off at that moment rendering Tenten incapable of hearing me. Our eyes moved to the sensei who was directing up out of the class with the evaluator lagging behind. Nobody had jumped at that alarm; we were used to loud noises. We did cover our ears though. Knowing this was only a drill we didn't have to worry about getting instructions on how to go about fixing the problem. Once we were all out of the school, gathered in different groups and already ready to go back in Tenten caught back up to me.

"Hey what was it you were saying inside, I totally missed it." I sighed and realized I couldn't do it again yet. Especially now that Lee had finished his conversation and was joining us once again.

"Nothing important." I replied. She gave me a strange look. "What?"

"Nothing, it's just usually you don't bother speaking unless it's important." She giggled and then began to talk to Lee. I guess I'll try again later.

Normal P.o.V

Girls before practice

"So you two just want to switch places?" Kurenai asked Tenten and Hinata. They nodded. Anko and Shizune only shrugged, none of them really knew what they were doing. "I guess that's fine."

"You are just going to let them change positions, right in the middle of all this?" Ayako the evaluator asked.

"Well we believe that if Hinata does not feel comfortable with what she has been asked to do then she should not have to." Kurenai explained making it up on the spot.

"I still don't see why she wasn't removed from the position earlier if it makes her so uncomfortable." They all glared at her.

"Actually I had asked a week or so ago if I could try being a flyer," Hinata said shakily "I just wanted to see if I could do it we just now learned that it is not the best position for me." By the end Hinata's voice was steady and she could look Ayako right in the eyes. Ayako made a noise as if she was excepting the reason unwillingly and walked away.

"Alright Hinata." Ino cheered. "Not a single stutter." Hinata smiled shyly.

"Alright well let's get you up in the air Tenten."

Boys after practice

"I know this football thing is supposed to be some great sport at normal schools but this practice even without the whole ninja training doesn't seem like it would have been that hard." Kiba said as the boys entered the looker rooms.

"Maybe "normal" schools are just wimps." Naruto did, not surprisingly, love playing football.

"Naruto," Shikamaru was about to tell him to shut up but after a moment of thought he realized "you're probably right."

"Of course I am, but as wimpy as these others are they could probably ask a girl to a dance," Naruto smirked "I can say they have you beat there."

"What about you Naruto you're part of this bet have you asked anyone yet?" Sasuke asked.

"Already been done, I got a no but Sakura will come around in time. " He replied. "Yeah or her fist will." Shikamaru said quietly enough that only Neji heard. He smirked and began to pack up his stuff.

"What about you two?" Sasuke said turning on them.

"I'll get around to it." Shikamaru said lazily.

Neji didn't answer the question but asked one of his own. "What about you, you are interested in what we have done but have yet to say where you are standing at."

"Just thought I'd give you three a head start." Sasuke said leaving the room. The rest followed.

After training with Neji and Tenten (Neji's P.o.V)

"That was fun after not training since last Friday." Tenten said happily as she sat down in the middle of one of the training fields the school owned. She stared up toward the sky with a smile on her face. I watched her with some amazement.

"You thought that was fun? You look pretty exhausted to me." I sat down next her. She only smiled more and lay back in the grass. We sat there and relaxed after the long day. Well my muscles relaxed, my brain refused to do the same.

'Just try one more time, think of the consequences if you don't. Besides if you don't ask her someone else might and do you really want that on your mind?' I did it I tried one last time.

"Tenten." She sat up.

"Yes?" And then I basically blanked out for two minutes just staring at her. "Neji-"

I shook my head slowly. "You want to train again tomorrow?"

She rolled her eyes at me. "Sure but first you're going to see Shizune."

"Why?"

"Because you have been blanking out all day and that is not normal Neji behavior. "

So thanks for reading. the next chapter will be mostly Sakura and Sasuke (wish me luck i've never wrote anything for them before) Hoped you liked it

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