Chapter Five:

Day Four: The Final Plot

A/N: When did I last update this? I'm not even sure anymore. Anyway, I'm terribly sorry if it's been a long wait, time seems to pass much faster when you're back in school, and testing, and gah, excuses, excuses, let's just get on with the chapter! Remember, this is the second to last chapter, in the next one, Kiba will have to make a move or else!

"Kiba, Kiba, Kiba, KIBA!" a voice yelled from Kiba's window. Whoever the speaker was, the person was getting very agitated waiting for Kiba to awaken. Sighing, the mysterious speaker picked up a nearby rock and chucked it out his window. Then another rock, and another rock until-

"SHUT UP, WILL YOU?" Kiba screeched, getting up and flinging his window wide open. "What? What the hell do want with me?"

The speaker was Neji, crossing his arms and tapping his feet impatiently. "Come on, will you?" the white-eyed teen asked. "We don't have time to be doing trivial stuff like sleeping. Today is the last day we'll be Naruto free, the last day we have to stopping this madness!"

Kiba, now fully awake now, didn't bother brushing his teeth or doing anything a normal person would do in the morning. All he did was change out of his pajamas, grab Akamaru and rushed out his house like it was on fire.

"Where were you yesterday?" Kiba questioned, now following Neji as they both ran off to wherever Neji was leading them. "I came up with the plan of trying to convince Hinata that Naruto was gay and going out with Sasuke, but conveniently…he mailed her a letter telling him that he wasn't."

"Well, that was a brilliant plan," Neji said sarcastically, turning a tight corner. Kiba followed him, and Akamaru let out a few playful barks. Where in Kami's name where they going?

"I'd like to see you come up with something better," Kiba retorted, Akamaru barking in agreement. Again, Neji flashed his infamous smirk and continued on rushing, until he spoke.

"That's the problem, we need to accept that we were not given the intellect to come up with a solution to this problem. I spent all of yesterday talking the lazy "genius" into helping us, and after being bribed with a new go board, he agreed."

"Lazy…genius?" Kiba asked, then it suddenly snapped. "Shikamaru's helping us?"

Neji shrugged. "He's better than Uchiha, and if this doesn't work, remind me to actually get my go board back."

Kiba tried not to laugh, remembering the incident with Sasuke and the ramen coupons. But then Sasuke reminded him of the incident with Sakura, and then that reminded him of going over to Sakura's house to get a picture of Naruto and Sasuke kissing, which reminded him of how odd Sasuke looked being dragged over to Hinata's place. He had done some crazy stuff this week, and the madness still wasn't over.

He looked over at Neji, who had his white eyes fixed on the floor, still running confidently. He was an ok guy to have helped him with his Hinata troubles, even if there was something in it for him…

"Hey Neji," Kiba asked, twisting around yet another corner. "How come we were never friends before?"

"Because I thought of you as an annoying dog-boy, who smelled like a dog, acted like a dog, and hung around Hinata way too much."

"Oh yeah."

"And you never were friends with me because you thought me an arrogant, cousin-mistreating, pompous jerk, who also hung around Hinata way too much."

"True…"

"But you're asking me this because if our plan doesn't work, which it better, you won't have Hinata to hang around, and I won't have Hinata to hang around because she was like our best friend. She'll be hanging around Uzumaki. So you want us to be friends, or at least on good terms or something of that sort."

"That's…about right…"

"If all of this is in vain, Kiba, at least we still have our hatred of Uzumaki."

Kiba nodded, glad Neji had said everything on his mind. They were alike in more ways than one.

-----Finding Shikamaru-----

Shikamaru, clad in his green chuunin vest, sat on his porch, obviously waiting for the twosome to show up. Before they could greet him, or even say a word, Shikamaru held out a piece of paper to them.

"What's this?" Neji asked, Kiba craning over his neck to see.

"It's a plan," Shikamaru stated while rolling his eyes. "What else would it be? Now let me explain."

He snatched the paper from Neji and unfolded it and Kiba almost choked when he read what Shikamaru's "master plan" was.

Tell her you love her.

"Tell her I love her!" Kiba questioned, taking up the paper and mashing it to bits with his dog-like claws. "This is your genius plan?"

Shikamaru shrugged. "It's the only way to get her to not blab it out. Then, being the gentle being that she is, she would never tell Uzumaki because she'll obviously be hurting your feelings. Who knows, maybe she'll even like you back."

"I can't… I just…can't…gah!" Kiba exclaimed, tossing his hands in the air. "Look, I cannot do that, isn't there any other way?"

Neji nodded, not really wanting Kiba's feelings returned anyway….

Shikamaru sighed. "You two are so troublesome." he said, pulling another piece of paper out of his pants pockets. "I made another plan, since there was a 99.9 chance you wouldn't like my first one.

Shikamaru handed the paper to Neji, who was glad that this plan wasn't as drastic.

Transform into Naruto, say that you returned home early, and when she tells you her feelings, reject her.

Kiba backed away. "No way am I turning into Naruto, it would break my heart to see Hinata depressed."

"I'm not doing it," Shikamaru stated firmly. "It was hard enough thinking of this plan as it is.

Akamaru also barked, as if to back him out of the plan as well.

Neji sighed, making the appropriate hand signs for a transformation technique and in the blink of an eye, he was Naruto.

"I'm ready…" Neji stated grimly.

Everyone stared.

"I'm ready…dattebayo…"

-----Finding Hinata-----

Today Hinata was at the Ichiraku's, where all the madness started. It made sense that it should, scratch that, would end here. Kiba, Akamaru and Shikamaru who tagged along to watch if his plan was going to work, hid near the ramen shop, far away so that Hinata wouldn't see them (hopefully she wouldn't activate her Byakugan) but close enough so they could see the look on her face when she heard Naruto's answer. Kiba only hoped Neji wouldn't make Hinata cry.

Shino was talking to Hinata, as usual, as Hinata was writing down something on a piece of paper quickly. Neji (aka Naruto for the moment) wished Naruto had Byakugan for a split second, so he could cue in on what the paper said. From this distance, it looked like the title of the paper said, "Ramen Recipe for Naruto". Around her on the table was the gifts she had gathered from later this week. The flower necklace, the orange butterfly, and the kitsune sweater. The ramen recipe obviously was another one of Hinata's presents.

"Oi, Hinata!" Neji called over to Hinata as Naruto-ishly as possible. Hinata looked over Naruto for a second and her whole face turned red for a split second. The transformation even fooled Shino, who patted her on the back and whispered something that sounded like a "Good luck."

"N-N-Naruto-kun!" Hinata said, her hands becoming shaky and putting down her pencil immediately. She stood up and tried to resist the urge to twiddle her fingers, but instead clutched the kitsune sweater she had made with her hands to stop her nervousness.

"Morning, Hinata-chan!" Neji, aka Naruto said, grinning in a Naruto way. "What's that you've got there?"

"I-It's for you!" Hinata said, looking down at her feet. "B-But…wh-what are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to c-come home tomorrow?"

Neji aka Naruto shook his head. "Got off early…" He then hesitated. "…dattebayo!"

"Th-There's something I've been waiting to t-tell you, Naruto-kun."

Neji grinned inside, knowing his job would be easy now. The transformation completely fooled her!

He was just about to ask what Hinata had to say, when a voice rang through Konoha that made Neji almost die of a heart attack.

"I'M HOME KONOHA! DATTEBAYO!"

The real Naruto was home.

"That…" Kiba started, squirming in the bushes.

"Baka…" Shikamaru groaned, now plopping down on the ground to stare at the clouds.

"NARUTO!" Neji yelled, pulling out "his" blonde hair in frustration.

A/N: Yes folks! The real Naruto has come home from his mission early! With Neji still looking like Naruto, and the real Naruto screaming out to the heavens, obviously Hinata knows something's up. How is Neji gonna explain himself? How is Kiba gonna bare it if Hinata's words slip out? Is Shikamaru gonna get to keep his go board? WHO'S GONNA FEED AKAMARU!

Poor puppy, no one ever feeds him. Anyway, review people! The more reviews the quicker the long awaited final chapter comes out!