This time I have volunteered the know-it-all Talia to inform you of what I do and don't own!

Talia: Gemina does not own any characters mentioned except me and Mr. Smith the History teacher.


Argh...a fundraising event.

Neji couldn't think of anything worse.

Tenten may have been having a good time dishing out food to total strangers, but he did not.

Especially since he was stuck with soup duty.

Every time he struggled to pour the soup into the person's bowl without spilling any of it, but no matter what, there was always one drop that fell onto the white table cloth.

Very irritating.

Lee seemed to be having the best time of all. Out of everyone in the whole fundraising event. Even Layla.

" Is this soup vegetarian?" A patron wanted to know.

Neji gritted his teeth. How often had he been asked this? Hadn't this person already been here?

" Sure." The reassured patron sipped from the bowl.

" All except that poor cow."

Neji had to admit, it was very amusing to see the patron's eyes bug out like that as he spewed the soup everywhere.

Too bad Tenten had heard the whole exchange.

" Neji!" She exclaimed.

She turned to the patron apologetically. " Don't mind my obnoxious friend, the soup is completely vegetarian."

The patron left, though they were a tad paler.

Tenten turned to Neji.

"Neji! Why did you do that?! I know you're bored, but seriously! Are you trying to get us in trouble? We volunteered for this, we're supposed to be nice to the patrons!"

Neji smirked. " You volunteered me, remember? I am under no obligation to be nice."

Tenten sighed in frustration. This event had started out as fun, but Neji had an even more sour than usual mood, and it was ruining everything.

Another patron came walking up. He grinned broadly at Neji. " You sure have lovely hair, miss."

At that point, Tenten actually burst out laughing. This had been happening quite often since they'd come here.

Neji glowered. " I'm. a. boy." He said menacingly. " Call me a girl again and I'll rip your guts out and force feed them to you!"

The patron's eyes popped wide open in surprise. With a mumbled apology, he shuffled away without even asking for soup.

A few seconds later, Layla came over with a huge grin. " How's it going? Do you need any refills?"

She looked over at Neji's practically still full soup pot. " And I thought it would be more popular. I'll get you some more lettuce, Tenten."

Tenten gave her a huge grin in reply, but the second she was gone, it was replaced by a frown.

" You'd better behave yourself Neji, or else Lee and I will mob you while you're asleep!"

Neji rolled his eyes, but he didn't bug anymore patrons. Tenten did tend to make good on her promises, after all, and he needed a good night's rest.

They all headed home afterwards, tired, but carrying along leftover soup that Layla had forced on them.

Tenten and Lee settled down on the couch, tired and ready to go to bed soon. Neji smirked at them and threw a stack of paper at each of them.

" What are these?" Tenten asked.

" Homework on the top, status report on the bottom. Have fun completing them."

Tenten and Lee groaned loudly. To be completely honest, Neji had just as much to get done, and it would probably take him about as long, but he made it look effortless. He had a genius image to keep up, after all.

They all settled down after a weary night's work to sleep.


They hadn't slept for more than an hour, however, when Tenten and Lee were awakened by loud screams coming from Neji's room.

They both ran in as fast as they could, to find Neji thrashing wildly on his bed. His face held a look of pure terror and pain.

" Neji! What's wrong?!" Tenten yelled.

Lee, who is not as stupid as he looks, hit Neji hard on the head, knocking him out.

" Omigosh! Lee!!" Tenten yelled.

" It was his curse seal. I had to knock him out." Lee replied.

Tenten cocked her head to one side. "His what? Lee?!"

Lee, however, had left the room in search of a towel to dampen and put over Neji's eyes. He was going to be sore.

Tenten and Lee took turns keeping watch over Neji and changing the cloths until morning, in which time, Lee explained to Tenten what had happened.

" ...and I only know about it because I came to his house at a...um...bad time. That time Neji didn't show up for practice, remember?"

"I remember, and you made up an unbelievable story about why Neji wasn't there, and Gai sensei believed it."

She was furious at him for never telling her about Neji's curse seal, but in her tired state she was more forgiving than usual. Besides, being angry and beating up Lee were two things that really wouldn't help right now.

When Neji woke up that morning, his teammates were asleep on the floor next to his bed. And he had a killer headache.

He still had an hour to wait for the bus, so he set about getting ready for school. He wished painkillers helped with an activation headache.

He let Tenten and Lee sleep, seeing as they had probably stayed up all night watching over him. They would be useless if they were tired. He would have to think of a good reason for them to stay home.

The teachers would notice they were gone, after all.

He ate his breakfast, yogurt, since he couldn't handle anything hard, and met the bus at the corner.

This day was not going to go well.

--

Well? Will Neji be able to make it through the day without biting anyone's head off? Doubt it.

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