So here is the second to last chapter. I know i said it was going to be the last but it just got a little two long so the dance will be in its own seperate chapter. Hope no one minds. As always excuse my horrible spelling and grammar and enjoy this chapter. (By the way the football scene may be confusing. sorry about that)

Stupid 'Normal' Traditions

In the Girls Locker Room

"I just don't get it, how am I the one that ended up with the date to the dance." Tenten shouted. They were discussing the present homecoming situation as they got ready before the game. Each of them seemed to be suffering from some kind of shocking experience. Ino and Sakura did not have dates to the biggest social event of the year and Tenten did. And Hinata turned down Naruto! As far as all the others in the room were concerned they really had slipped into some kind of alternate universe instead of just a pretend one.

"What I don't get is how ironic it is that you said yes to a boy you don't like and Hinata said no to a boy she has been in love with for years." Ino said. Hinata had not spoken since relaying the information about Naruto's offer to take her to the dance. Sakura elbowed Ino. The reason they were focusing more on Tenten's situation was to avoid upsetting Hinata.

"At least Lee is a big sweetie and your not going to go with some jerk. That's what a lot of girls will do because they are so desperate. You're only going with Lee because you're a good friend." Tenten nodded knowing they were right.

"Even if we all came with dates the whole point is still to party till we drop and sleep till noon the next day. We can still do that." Ino was pumped up and could probably handle both the game and the dance in one night. Her friends wondered if she was secretly upset about Shikamaru not asking her to homecoming; if she was she was covering really well.

"Guys its time to go." Hinata said quietly. She held a watch in her hand that read six thirty and the game started at seven. She placed the watch in her gym bag and picked up pompoms. Ino smiled faded as she watched her friend leave the room. They followed.

On the field

The team was doing warm-ups on the field while the girls were stretching. The other school's team was coming in now and joining their team on the field. The girls watched the two teams and tried to put the dance thoughts aside. They could here giggling behind them and when they turned saw about twenty girls dressed in white and blue cheerleading uniforms. They all looked, perfect sounded like the right word. Each had a perfect curly ponytail, their make-up done perfectly and the perfect little smiles on their faces. The looked like the girls in the picture in the packet Sakura had made for them.

"Looks like this is going to be another win for us." One of the girls said as she watched the team. "I mean look at those boys they are pathetic." Tenten turned her attention away from them to where they were looking. The boys had been told that normal students who attend normal school did not have incredible strength or speed or accuracy or any of that other stuff that they as ninjas had been trained to have since birth. Tenten could tell they weren't putting any effort into this. Weather it was on purpose or they didn't realize it she was unsure because to be honest Neji, Sasuke, Naruto and even Shikamaru looked distracted.

"You know," Another one of the girls spoke up "they don't look like the best football players but some of them do look hot." Sakura choose now to try to be polite and great the girls.

"Hi you must be from the other school." Sakura said as she waved to them. The girls seemed to just now take notice to them standing there. They looked them over skeptically before muttering hellos. They then proceeded to walk away around to the other side of the track were the opposing teams supports were beginning to get settled.

"Well that was rude." Ino said with a scowl and crossed arms.

The rest of the crowd showed up and soon these people in black and white vertical striped shirts, something Ino said was a horrible fashion no no, came to the middle of the field with a player from each team and they flipped an odd looking coin. The crowds watched as Lee ran at the ball kicking it in the wimpiest kick anyone had ever seen come from him. A player on the other end of the field caught the ball and with his teammates ran back up the field. A lot faster then was expected by their own team. As the two collided head on to everyone's shock they (our team) was actually forced backwards. The strength the other team was not supposed to have was defiantly there and they had to put forth an effort. Next thing they knew the whistle blew and they ran back off to the side lines.

"What was that?" Naruto shouted. "I thought you said they weren't going to be strong." The sensei stared at them.

"How strong are they?" Kakashi asked them.

"A lot stronger then we thought but it's nothing we can't handle." Sasuke said.

"Then do it."

"The evaluators are here though; won't it look suspicious if we well get better?" Kiba asked.

"If those normal kids beat you at some pathetic little game (A/N: I love football) then it is going to look really bad to those people who hire us for missions. Go out there and win." And with that the game was on. The other team had the ball so the defense was on the field. When the opposing team came in contact with them they pushed them back nearly half the field. The other team stood in shock and the rest of the game continued the same while they continued to pummel the team to the ground. The end score was something like six to fifty six. The only reason they got the six points was to not blow are cover completely; they had been so surprised to get the ball they missed the extra point kick.

The girls were so pleased to watch the other team leave for their buses; the cheerleaders all looking less smug and some were even in tears.

"So what time are we meeting to get ready for the dance tomorrow, I was thinking around four." Ino asked.

"We need four hours to get ready?" Hinata asked.

"Yes." The other girls rolled their eyes.

"Whose house?"

"Mine's closest to the school. We can do it there." Tenten suggested. They agreed to meet at Tenten's house by four thirty the next day. The girls had started walking home, not bothering to change from their uniforms.

Hinata's P.o.V.

Neji and I waved goodbye to Tenten and continued are walk home. I noticed that Neji looked a little off. He hadn't said much to Tenten when we walked with her. It didn't seem odd for him to be silent but usually with Tenten he could start a conversation. I was going to ask him but thought better of it. He didn't like to share his feeling and I wasn't about to force him to. Besides I'm sure I must look a little out there too. I was still upset about Naruto. We finally reached home and I was going to go to the kitchen for some dinner.

"Neji don't you want any dinner?" I asked as he started for his room.

"No."

"Okay then, good night." I said. I walked down the hall placing my gym bag outside the kitchen door before going in. The first thing I noticed that was odd was that the light was on. The next was that my father was sitting at the table and I had just been caught in the middle of the biggest lie I can remember telling.

"Hinata where have you been and what are you wearing?" I froze and knew that my answer would come out in a stutter.

"I-I w-was at the g-game. T-the one w-we t-told you a-about." I said. First I have to turn down Naruto and now I'm going to be yelled at, how could my day be any worse.

"You didn't tell me that this ridicules game would be running so late and it still doesn't explain why you are dressed as you are." What really got to me was that his voice was calm through all of this; it kept me from saying anything. "Your attire is inappropriate and you lied to me about where you've been after school all week." My eyes shot up directly into his.

"I'm s-sorry." I didn't bother asking how he knew.

"Just go to your room." I left.

The next day

"Where is she, Hinata has never been late for anything in her entire life." The girls were all at Tenten's house. Hinata was almost two hours late and all of them were already for the dance.

Ino was wearing the light blue dress she had bought earlier that week. It was a halter dress and went down to her knees; she had her hair in an elegant bun, simple silver heels, jewelry and eye shadow.

Sakura was of course wearing a pink dress. It was held up with two straps that crisscrossed down her back; the skirt was layered and each layer became a darker shade of pink. She had her hair in tight ringlet curls with a white hair band, white heels, white silk choker and bracelet and eye shadow.

Tenten's dress was red. It had a turtle neck like top gold sparkles along the bottom. Ino and Sakura loved it, Tenten not so much. She had a gold necklace, eye shadow, and heels. Her hair was half up half down and in large curls.

"Maybe we ought to call her, something might be wrong." Ino suggested. Tenten picked up her cell phone and dialed Hinata's number. It rang for a couple of seconds before it clicked to voice mail

"This is Hinata I can't pick up the phone right now, please leave a message and I'll get back to you."

"Hey Hinata it's us just wondering where you are. Call us when you get the message." Tenten clicked the phone shut.

"Something is up. Hinata doesn't just become unreachable." Sakura said. Tenten flipped here phone back open and began dialing another number.

"Who are you calling now?" Ino asked. Tenten shushed her and listened to the ringing. Finally it picked up.

"Hello."

"Neji please tell me some logical explanation to why Hinata seems to have dropped off the face of the earth."

"What are you talking about?" Neji asked.

"She's not picking up her phone and she was supposed to meet us about two hours ago and never showed up." Tenten explained quickly.

"That's because she is grounded, her father figured it out last night that she's been lying and she's been confined to her room." Neji told her. Tenten stayed silent of her end of the phone. "Tenten?" Neji asked.

"Bye Neji, gotta go." She snapped the phone shut and was half way to the door before the others could ask what was going on.

"Hinata got caught, from what I can tell she's been grounded and we are going to break her out." It was quite an interesting sight as the three lovely dressed girls ran down the street towards the hyuuga home. Tenten knocked impatiently on the door for a whole minute before it opened. A maid looked them over before speaking.

"Hinata is in trouble and is not permitted to see her friends." She said and made to close the door.

"We're not here to see Hinata, we're here to see Neji." The maid looked at them all again. Sakura and Ino stood behind Tenten nodding in agreement to her lie.

"One moment." The maid left and returned a minute later with Neji behind her.

"What?" Neji asked. Tenten stared at him for a minute. He was obviously not in trouble for the lie because he seemed to be half way through getting ready for the dance.

"We need your help." Tenten said "We are going to break Hinata out because she is not missing the dance."

"How am I supposed to help you?" He asked.

"Just give Haishi some kind of excuse to keep him from going to check on Hinata or sending anyone to check on her for the rest of the night." Neji sighed but he just could not, not help Tenten.

"Okay, I'll see what I can do. How do you plan to get to Hinata?" He asked them curiously.

"Through her window of course." The girls ran around to the back of the house and searched for the window that belonged to Hinata's room. Luckily it was on the first floor.

"Hinata." Sakura knocked on the window trying to catch the girl's attention. Hinata was lying on her bed with a book when she heard the tapping. She stared wide eyed at her friends as they pulled open the window and crawled over the bush to get through it.

"What are you doing here? I'm grounded I can't go to the dance." She said panicky.

"Listen Hinata you are already in trouble so you might as well just take the risk to go to the dance." Ino told her as she opened the girl's closet and took out the dress she purchased.

"But-"

"No buts Hinata you're going. Neji is going to give your dad some kind of excuse to keep him and everyone else away from here for the rest of the night so you might not even get in trouble. Sit" Tenten said as they force her down in front of the mirror and started to get her ready for the dance. An hour later, thirty minutes before the dance was to start they were done and Hinata was crawling out the window in her white strapless dress. Her hair was in a pony tail but it wasn't a messy one. Her jewelry all had amethyst gems in them to the purple sparkles on the dress, the purple heels on her feet and the purple eye shadow that brought out her eyes. Tenten was the last to crawl out the window and as she was her dress snagged on the window.

"Guys we have a problem-" She tripped and fell into the bush. The dress tore up to her hip and it snagged in many more places. "Oh no."

They quickly pulled her out of the bush and realized the damage done.

"What are we going to do?" Tenten said. Hinata pulled some safety pins from her little purse and pinned up the dress.

"Can we get into other parts of the school? Not just the gym." She asked as she put the last pin in place.

"We should be able to. Why?" Sakura said.

"I have an idea." Hinata answered and they headed quickly for the school.

Hope you enjoyed. Please review. Next chapter shall come soon.

LovingMyLife