Surviving a Boy's Boarding School
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Many thanks for the reviews. Actually, reviews are probably the reason I even bother to write fanfiction.
Chapter 5: Bad Days
The early morning passed normally; Tenten and Neji had done their morning rituals quietly and were out of their room within half an hour. Once again, Taiyou and Tsuki were both absent from the cafeteria for breakfast, and Lee once again proclaimed (tearfully) that it was his fault for shoving the pizza down Tsuki's throat. Tenten had learned by now the best course of action was to ignore his rants. When he got too loud and blubbered too much, though, she snapped and hit him over the head, hard.
The two were nowhere to be found in the classroom either when Neji and Tenten arrived, so they silently went to their seats. Two minutes before the bell, though, the familiar brown hair rushed through the door, Tsuki right behind him.
"G'morning," Taiyou mumbled. Tenten was about to reply when she noticed that he sported several bruises, a black eye, a scabbing wound on his arm and a wearied smile. Rather than get worried, though, Tenten sweat dropped and glanced at Tsuki. Unsurprisingly, he had a murderous aura about him and was still glaring at Taiyou with his red-orange eyes.
Wait... what?
"Tsuki, why do you look different?" asked Tenten, raising an eyebrow. Tsuki temporarily calmed down and looked at Tenten curiously, as if silently asking her to elaborate. "I mean, why are your eyes that color and why is your hair... metallic blue?" she finished, staring at his hair. It was, indeed, a shinier and lighter blue than his usual color, but blue nonetheless.
"I'm wearing contacts," replied Tsuki. "My vision is blurry around the time that I get sick, so I have to wear them. As for my hair... Taiyou put a bucket of paint dangerously close to the edge of the bookshelf and it plummeted onto my head. It took a long time to get the paint out." He then went back to glaring at Taiyou, scratching a small brown patch on his neck.
"So you beat him to a bloody pulp," finished Neji in a slightly incredulous tone.
"For the pizza incident as well. Oh, and for calling me 'Tsubame-chan' again, for feeding my pet fish too much food so it was killed last month, for making me nearly throw up again because I had to smell paint fumes, for using his Kekkei Genkai again... wait, I already punished him for that, so scratch that last part," he responded, ticking off the things in his hands. "Actually, there's a lot more, but it'd take a few days if I were to talk about all of them."
"...hn."
"I guess that's... interesting?"
"S-sorry, Tsuba... erk." Taiyou's face paled at his little slip as Tsuki smacked him in the forehead.
"So I guess everything's normal, thankfully," said Tenten, smiling. Neji silently nodded.
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The following month passed by swiftly for Tenten. She had sparred some more with Neji and Lee, and even trained with the other teams from time to time. The times that Taiyou was injured decreased greatly after the first day, but he was consistently scolded by Tsuki nonetheless. It stayed that way until the first day of October. She came to regret going to school that day, and, from the look on Neji's face, so did he.
It was a normal morning; the five had gone through their breakfast rapidly. Kakashi didn't arrive until ten minutes into the class period, in which Tenten listened idly to Tsuki and Taiyou arguing about something that had to do with the FSMA team. After the normal routine in which Kakashi gave an excuse and Naruto accused him of lying, he became dead serious.
"Tsunade-sama has given me the information on the required event," he said, pulling out a few pieces of paper. "And the event is... well, to put it simply, a ball."
The next few minutes in the class were utter chaos. Some of the guys dropped their jaws in total disbelief and horror while some cheered. Others seemed indifferent. Tenten was one of the ones in disbelief, as was Taiyou. Tsuki looked like he wanted to strangle something and Neji, well, looked indifferent, though she thought she saw a hint of a glare in his eyes.
Tsuki banged the table with his fist, hard, which was ignored by most of the students. His teeth were tightly grit as he refrained from kicking a hole in the ceiling too. His eyes, which were mahogany again, were glaring at the board; it had been a while since he's been so furious. Taiyou slowly scooted his chair away from his friend, and turned to Tenten instead. "What the heck were they thinking?!" he half-yelled.
"I have no clue, but I can tell you that I hate the idea," replied Tenten as thousands of thoughts rushed through her head. She would have to dance with another girl, and that would be impossible. Maybe she could be a wallflower...? That was an idea. She was sure she wasn't going to be the only one, seeing from some of the reactions of the other students.
There was a loud bang as Kakashi slammed two textbooks simultaneously onto his desk, looking slightly annoyed. The room went silent. "As I was saying," he said, frowning behind his mask, "this event requires us to meet each Sunday with Jiraiya-sama's school, and you have to pick a partner by Christmas." Various groans went through the class, including from Tenten. She had to get rid of her previous plan. "All of you are expected to wear formal attire, as in suits that wouldn't embarrass you. You will have dance lessons in place of sports practice every Tuesday and Thursday so you will know what you're doing during the dance. Questions?"
Silence reigned as the boys tried to take in all the information. "Good. Oh, and Tsunade-sama has requested that Miyamura and Kurayami to go to her office right now," he added. Tsuki shrugged impassively, though still slightly mad, while Tenten got up, getting ready for the worst. They marched out of the room and walked to the headmistress' office.
They found Haku already there with his pleasant smile. Tsunade looked up. "Great timing," she said. "I'm assuming you all know about the dance by now?" All three of them nodded, though Tenten and Tsuki did so with contempt. "Good. Well, the thing is, Jiraiya's school is short in girls, and the number of boys total is greater than the number of girls by six, so we need you three to dance as girls."
Silence. Again.
"...you have got to be kidding me," said Tenten as the information registered in her head, taking a step back. "We have to dress up as girls? And dance with guys?" Truthfully, she felt a lot better at that idea, but she was acknowledged as a guy in this school, and she did not want to dance with somebody who thinks she's the same gender as he is. "Why us?"
"Because you three look the most... well, no offence, but the three of you look the most feminine out of all of the students," Tsunade said in a slightly sheepish voice.
"What about Hyuuga?" asked Tsuki, crossing his arms with a scowl. "His hair is long enough.'
"But the problem is, he'd kill somebody in the process and his features aren't as feminine," answered the headmistress, albeit a bit nervously. Tsuki popped a vein.
"You're saying we act like girls?" asked Tsuki in a dangerous tone. "I do wish that females would have more rights, seeing that it's what my parents taught me, but this?" Tenten didn't think that Tsuki acted like a stereotypical girl. Many people thought of females as more emotional than males, and that was untrue unless it involved getting annoyed at Taiyou.
"No, but you do look the most feminine," pointed out Tsunade, wincing at Tsuki's murderous aura.
There was a small silence in the room. Tsunade was looking at Tsuki nervously as he seemed to ponder what to do. Tenten glanced around; Haku was the only one who seemed completely calm. The tension was thick and nobody dared to talk until…
"Fine."
All heads turned to the source of the voice, eyes wide. Tsuki sat down on the chair, arms crossed with a visible scowl on his face. "Fine. I'll do this darn, cursed task. It'll save people like Hyuuga from dying of embarrassment if they were to do this. So what if I had to wear a dress multiple times until Christmas for rehearsals? I'll just have to suck it up," he mumbled in a speech-like style, though he didn't hesitate to put in several sarcastic remarks. He then glared around the room. "However, I have to get along with, or know at least one of the other people forced to do this task if Miyamura and Haku here don't agree."
"I will do it," said Haku serenely. That was quick.
Tenten, however, hesitated some more. Dressing up as a guy dressing up as a girl could potentially blow her cover, especially to more observant people, whether they were male or female. She took another look around the room. Haku was, of course, looking kindly at her. Tsuki's face didn't show whether or not he wanted Tenten to do it as well, but just told her that he wanted an answer. Tsunade, well, she was just impatient.
Taking in a breath, she said, "Okay." Tsunade grinned at this and clenched her fist in success, obviously happy that she didn't have to pull out other boys who would be less cooperative.
"That settles it," she grinned and handed out papers. "You all will have private lessons apart from all of the other males and apart from the females as well with a specialized dance instructor that is used to doing female parts. I will give you more information later, but here are the basic details. You are all dismissed."
Haku was the first to leave, his face fairly indifferent on the matter. Tenten was a bit more reluctant to go. She still had a few more questions to ask Tsunade, but she bit her tongue; everything would be revealed soon. Tsuki stopped at the doorway and waited until the other two were safely out of hearing range.
His back still facing Tsunade, he asked, "You love messing with us, don't you, Tsunade-sama?"
"You've got that right," responded Tsunade, smirking. Tsuki lingered there for a few more moments before he, too, walked off briskly, his face betraying his irritation, mixed in with a trace of amusement.
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"..."
"..."
"You two are unusually quiet today," stated Taiyou as he started his lunch, glancing at the two. Neji also looked up with mild interest. "Care to tell us what happened in Tsunade-sama's office?"
"..."
"..."
"Is it really that bad?" inquired Lee rather innocently. Tsuki gave him a small glare before he resumed his pretend-they're-not-there attitude, his chopsticks walking aimlessly on the plate of food. "...yes?"
"Do you three really want to know?" asked Tenten, exasperated as she looked around the table, glaring at all of them. Lee and Taiyou nodded in unison. Neji just stared at her, so she took that as a yes as well. "Should I tell, Tsuki?"
"...whatever," breathed the annoyed boy, drinking all of his glass of water before refilling it. Tenten assumed that he didn't really care what she did.
Sighing, she looked up. "You guys know about that Christmas event, right?" They all nodded. "Well, there's a shortage of girls in the other school, so, well..." She couldn't bring herself to say the next few words. Lee and Taiyou made hand gestures as the signaled her to go on.
Tsuki sighed as well. "...we're filling in for a few girls' parts," he finished for her.
"..."
"..."
"..."
After about fifteen second of complete silence at the table, Lee dropped his chopsticks at the same time that Taiyou choked on his piece of broccoli. Neji winced slightly, as a trace of sympathy crossed his face, but that was it.
"Are you serious?" asked Taiyou incredulously, looking in between the two more "feminine-looking" members of their group. "Tsunade-sama seriously asked you to do that?" Tenten slowly nodded.
Taiyou burst out laughing as he pounded on the table, earning them weird looks from people passing by the group. Tsuki glared at him and hit him over the head so that he nearly splattered into his lunch.
"That seems quite unlucky," stated Neji with a tiny smirk.
"Shut up," muttered Tenten, her face turning red. "You're fortunate you weren't picked; you were probably the fourth one on the list." He frowned at that, gave his trademark grunt, and returned to his food. Tenten grinned in triumph and, ignoring the shocked look on Lee's face, resumed her lunch.
It was actually a peaceful lunch. Lee was so surprised that he had eaten his food in a daze while Tsuki and Taiyou refrained from another round of shouts.
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Tsuki and Tenten were pulled out of class again in the middle of poetry class. Sasaka had looked disgruntled when she was analyzing a haiku, but she dismissed them nonetheless with a wave of her hand, allowing them to follow Shizune. Tenten was wondering what happened this time, and the only conclusion she could draw was that it had something to do with the dance. Hopefully, the people of that other school had miscounted the number of girls and they were going to dance the male parts.
Again, Haku was already at Tsunade's office when they arrived and the principal was grinning at them mischievously. Tenten thought she felt her friend tense beside her as his mahogany eyes narrowed in a hard glare at the legendary fighter.
"What is it this time?" he snapped, not even bothering to use honorifics as the poison seeped out of his mouth. "I was hoping that you were going to cancel the cross-dressing thing, but apparently, I'm going to be disappointed. Miyamura here was thinking the same thing, right?" The sudden address by Tsuki startled Tenten, and it took a second for her to register what he said. She was surprised at how he had read her mind, but he was probably just assuming; she didn't bother to hide her contempt for the subject at lunch, after all. Silently, Tenten nodded.
"Well, that certainly hurts, Tsuki," said Tsunade, her smile vanishing as she returned the glare. "But you are right on one point. The cross-dressing idea has not been withdrawn. Instead, I was going to inform all of you that you all have a special delivery." Her eyes twinkled as she nodded to Shizune. All eyes turned to the assistant as she sighed and, giving the three sympathetic looks, took out a box. Slowly, she took out three items packed in separate plastic, completely transparent bags.
All three of the students gaped. Even Haku, who was usually either pleasant, stoical or deadly, looked at the items in her hand like they were talking six-legged panda cubs with three eyes. For in her hands...
Were three dresses.
Snap.
"WHAT!? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!" exploded Tenten, pointing at the sadistic little articles of clothing. Everybody jumped; all of them had expected Tsuki to yell, not Tenten. "IS THIS SOME KIND OF SICK JOKE THAT YOU'RE PLAYING ON US?! WHY THE HECK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO WEAR THOSE WHEN THE DANCE WON'T HAPPEN MONTHS FROM NOW?!"
There was a ringing silence in the room as Tenten's voice echoed down the halls; Shizune had forgotten to close the door.
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"For homework, I'd like all of you to write a haiku of your own that has some importance in your life. It's going to be due tomo—"
"WHAT!? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!" shouted an extremely loud voice that seemed to come from the hallway. Most of the students jumped in reaction, and Sasaka accidentally banged her head against the whiteboard as she wrote down the homework. "IS THIS SOME KIND OF SICK JOKE THAT YOU'RE PLAYING ON US?! WHY THE HECK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO WEAR THOSE WHEN THE DANCE WON'T HAPPEN MONTHS FROM NOW?!"
An eerie silence hung in the air. Slowly, some of the students walked over to the sliding door of the classroom, opened it and looked out. Similarly, other doors were opened and various students poked their heads out, curious about the monstrous voice that had reached the remotest ends of the school. After a minute of nothing, though, the doors began to close and the classes returned to their original schedules.
Neji, who sat in the front of the room, thought he heard his teacher mutter, "Tsunade better not be torturing them too badly..." He made a mental note to ask his roommate what happened after practice.
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"I think my eardrums bursted," groaned Tsuki as he massaged his ears. "Why did you have to scream that loudly, Miyamura?"
"I know it's a surprise," said Tsunade, raising and eyebrow, "but why did you overreact? Even Tsuki here wasn't that surprised, and Shizune only scolded me when she first saw the dresses."
"What do you expect?" asked Tenten, seething. "There is no reason for you to make us wear the dresses before the appointed date of the dance, and maybe some days before that for the measures. Wait, how do you know our sizes?"
Tsunade smirked at this. "Didn't you know? One of the questions in the registration forms for this school was 'What is your clothing size?' Many people thought it was crazy, but we had that on there for a reason. It helped us in the physical exams. Besides, we ask that question every year." Her smirk widened when she saw Tenten's eyes grow larger. Oh yeah, Ryuhi said something about a strange question before. She didn't know he meant it was this strange... and she was lucky that Ryuhi was short for his age and that they were around the same size.
"But still, what is the point in giving us these dresses now?" asked Tsuki, raising an eyebrow as he crossed his arms. "I mean, like Miyamura said, the dance won't be for ages, and quite frankly, I wouldn't want to prance around the halls of this school sporting a dress."
When Tsunade's grin grew, the three students instinctively stepped back. "Well, the thing is, we'll need to see if these dresses are appropriate for you three and that you all actually look feminine enough in them," she said with obvious amusement.
"What do you mean, Tsunade-sama?" asked Haku in the most respectful tone he could get out.
"I mean..."
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'Darn this whole event,' thought Tenten acidly after practice. She had been a lot harder on her team than usual, and she was actually able to put up with Lee's speed and dodged half of Neji's moves instead of being forced to block. She used weapons much more and didn't fall for most of their traps. Her aggressiveness had taken all three males aback and she managed to pin Gai-sensei to a tree when he approached her.
It definitely wasn't usual for her to be so belligerent during practice; most of the time, she was more calm and collected even when Neji had struck her chakra points. Today, however, she went all-out on him when he tapped a point on her arm, which surprised the prodigy. After dodging a flurry of shuriken, kunai and knives, letting one scar his shoulder, he had finally agreed with Lee and Gai's cries that she was furious today.
Actually, she had given him and the others a cold shoulder ever since that meeting with Tsunade. Tsuki had seemed in mildly worse spirits than usual as well, but he didn't snap at everybody who tried to ask him something. Both had stubbornly refused to let any information on the meeting out, though Tenten had done it in a more threatening manner.
After practice, she didn't bother to say anything to the others as she stomped off, using chakra strings to return her weapons into her scrolls. She grabbed her bag, clothing and other various items and headed straight towards the dormitories. If you haven't figured it out yet, the dormitories are located in a different building from the school.
She went into her room and slammed the door shut. Neji was still getting his things in the training grounds. Growling, she threw down her things roughly and climbed up to the second bunk. She grabbed her pillow and yelled into it at the top of her lungs, but her voice was muffled by the fluffy item. She wanted to punch it too, but she already got most of that need during practice, since she let out her anger on her teammates, though she didn't hurt them much.
As Tenten's anger slowly subsided, she jumped down from the bed and walked briskly into the restroom. She needed to take a shower in order to cool off. However, before she did that, she used the toilet, and came to an unhappy discovery. The bottom of her underpants were stained crimson and some of the blood had leaked to her outer layer.
Cursing puberty, she punched the wall before she ran out of the restroom, searching for a sanitary napkin to add to the pile of clothes she had gathered in the restroom.
As luck would have it, Neji came in right after she stuffed the thing into her pocket.
"Hayaite?" Neji raised an eyebrow as Tenten looked at him, stuffing the just-hidden pad farther into her pocket. "What are you doing?"
"Nothing," she answered, trying to keep the contents of her pocket out of the view of her teammate. "I was going to take a shower. You just startled me."
"Hn." Tenten relaxed at his normal response, but stiffened when he spoke again. "You know, there's blood on you pants."
"Just a little injury; nothing big," she said casually, trying to put on a smile. Darn it, her stomach area was starting to cramp... "I wasn't being careful on the way back and I accidentally stabbed myself with a kunai. I'll get it wrapped up," she lied, gesturing towards the bandage that sat on top of her pile of clothes through the open restroom door. Neji nodded silently and went to do his own business, though he was slightly skeptical. Tenten, glad that something went right, raced back into the restroom and took her much-needed shower.
When she got dressed, she walked out the door and then stood, frozen solid, as she just remembered what her task that night was. Sighing, she turned to Neji. "Hey, I have to ask you a favor."
"What?" asked Neji, looking up from the book he was currently reading. She gulped.
"Can we have Lee, Tsuki and Taiyou come over tonight for about half an hour?" she asked. Neji shrugged, and she took that as a yes. "Thanks."
That night, Tenten invited the said people over to their room, saying that she had something to ask them. She exchanged unnoticed glances with Tsuki, as they knew what they were supposed to do and neither of them was looking forward to it.
After dinner, the five of them headed to room 325. Tsuki had stopped at his room on the way and had come back out with an opaque bag carrying various unseen items. When the whole group was assembled in front of the door, Tsuki and Tenten ordered the three to stand outside until they were ready. Confused, they stood outside and waited.
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Inside the room, Tenten and Tsuki looked at each other glumly. "Ready, Miyamura?" asked the taller of the two. Tenten nodded solemnly. Tsuki, with his bag, walked into the restroom.
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"What are they doing in there? It has already been ten minutes!" wondered Lee out loud, looking intently at the door. "Neji, can you use Byakugan on it?"
"No," answered Taiyou for the prodigy. The two gave him weird looks. "What? Tsuki hates it when people sneak up on him outside of the practice sessions, and frankly, using a Byakugan on him is worse than sneak attacks. Besides, the two of them are probably just talking to each other or something."
Lee pouted but stayed silent for the rest of the waiting time. Neji closed his eyes and leaned against the opposite wall, attempting to meditate, while Taiyou tapped his foot impatiently.
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"Miyamura, are you ready yet?" asked Tsuki from behind the bathroom door. Tenten nodded, but Tsuki obviously didn't see her. "Miyamura?"
"Yes," answered the girl, biting her bottom lip. Tsuki opened the door and Tenten staggered back a few steps, taken aback.
Tsuki raised an eyebrow. "Let's go," he stated.
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All three of the students outside of the door looked up when a voice sounded from the other side. "Okay, you three can come in now," said Tenten's voice from the other side. Neji was the first to react and he turned the knob on the door, flinging it open. He walked in, but he came to an abrupt halt, raising an eyebrow. Taiyou, who was following right behind him, bumped into the prodigy.
"Ow! Hyuuga, don't stop without warni..." Taiyou trailed off when he figured out what caught his attention and his jaw dropped. "You're kidding me..." Lee bounded in after them, but he also stopped as his already large eyes became rounder.
"How do we look?" asked Tenten grimly as she stood next to Tsuki. But that wasn't all.
They were wearing dresses.
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…uh, I apologize for those who were mentally scarred by the female puberty thing (though I don't think that's many of you), but this IS a rated T fic… Is Neji too ooc? But anyway, I was slightly amused when I typed this chapter up. Many thanks to my beta reader Zaywex for editing.
Anyway, please review (criticism is always welcome). And check out my new story, Two Meanings, One Task! ... ... I sound like an advertiser... ...
Happy Holidays! I couldn't go on the internet for four days, so I hope you enjoyed this chapter.