"Neji! There you are!" Neji swiveled around at the sound of his teammate's...no, his friend's voice. Tenten was running down the street towards him and waving.
"Neji, I have news!" she said. Neji rolled his eyes.
"Is is worthwhile?" he asked, sardonically. Tenten disregarded his mood.
"Of course it is!" she answered happily. "Yamanaka Ino is hosting a party, and she invited us, and Lee."
"I still don't trust that girl," Neji said, skeptically. Now it was Tenten's turn to roll her eyes.
"Oh, don't worry. You'll know everyone there. All we'll be doing is playing a few games and maybe raid a corner store or two. It will be fun!"
"I somehow doubt that." Neji retorted blankly.
"I promise it will be fun, Neji, pleeeeeaaaase? You're my beeeest friiiieeeend!" Tenten's eyes got big and puppy-like. Neji's heart melted. (Who knew that it was possible?)
"Well...ok. Just as long as I don't have to do anything humiliating," Neji said in a warning tone. Tenten cheered inwardly. The puppy eyes have done it again!
"Of course you don't have to do anything you don't want to!" Tenten said, reassuringly. "Although there is no doubt in my mind that you will be humiliated anyways." she grinned.
"Wait, what?" Neji panicked, but Tenten was already dragging him down the street by the hand, grinning.
Later that Evening
The friends sat on the floor of Ino's basement, pizza and soda in their laps. They'd just made the pizza delivery guy rich; twelve teenage ninjas really knew how to eat. Neji had to admit that it wasn't that bad. Hinata, Kiba, Shino, Naruto, Sakura, Sai, Shikamaru, Chouji, Lee, Tenten, and himself had all come, and of course there was the hostess herself. First they'd played Ultimate Ultimate Frisbee; the ninja version of Ultimate Frisbee. Then, they'd done a few rounds of Capture the Flag. Now the food was here and they were all replenishing their strength.
"Hey, It's getting dark out," Naruto pointed out. "We should play Manhunt later!" The group nodded collectively at this idea. This wasn't so bad at all.
"First, we have some quiz games, though," Ino said, grinning expectantly. Neji recoiled from this idea; he wasn't the only one.
"Do we have to?" Shikamaru asked.
"Yes!" Ino said, smacking him on the back of the head.
"OUCH!" The Nara boy cried. "Troublesome..."
"Anyways," Ino continued. "The first one is played like this; you write down each of your friends' names on a piece of paper, then what kind of office supplies they resemble."
"Office supplies?" Shino asked, skeptically. Ino glared at him, and he flinched.
"Come on, it's funny," Ino said. "And be thinking realistically, guys. You should be able to explain your answer."
The group begrudgingly complied, each getting a piece of paper and beginning to scrawl down names.
Neji looked at his paper for a few moments, then began writing.
Naruto-copy machine: makes multiples
Lee-highlighter pen: really bright
Ino-phone: won't shut up
Sakura-tape: fixes things
Kiba-trash can: disgusting
Shino-thumbtack box: full of little things
Chouji-stress ball: inflated
Shikamaru-calculator: smart and fast
Hinata-glue stick: devotes strongly to people
Sai-ink brush: self explanatory
Most of the answers were very easy for him, and they came to him naturally. however, when he got to Tenten, Neji paused. What did she resemble? His brow furrowed for a moment. He began to write.
"Time's up!" Ino said, just as Neji put down his pen. "Now, let's all see what we've got?"
Each person read his paper in turn. Neji found that most people had called him a stapler. Cold, and sharp. Well, that made sense. Tenten called him a locked file cabinet. That made sense too. Lee had called him an unused inkwell, "full of youthful tears he longed to shed and youthful words he longed to say." This did not make sense. Neji glared at Lee.
Most people had agreed that Lee was a highlighter pen, and that Naruto was a copy machine, although he had also gotten highlighter, answering machine, and even a box of crayons. (Go figure.) Many of the others had similar choices.
When Neji's turn came to read his paper, he went down the list. Ino folded her arms, Shino looked like he felt disrespected, Shikamaru grinned smugly, and Kiba rolled his eyes. When he got to Tenten, Neji paused. "White-out," he said.
"What?" was the collective response. Everyone looked blank. "Why?" Neji was about to answer, but he thought better of it.
"I didn't have time to write down a reason, and now I've forgotten why." he said, logically.
"Oh. Ok," Ino said. "So, moving on..." The next game was a 'Who Am I' game, in which each participant wrote down three little known facts about themselves on a slip of numbered paper. Ino read them off, and the object was to guess who the person was by their facts. It was to test the knowledge you had of your friends. Neji didn't know anyone but Tenten very well, so instead he looked for peoples' reactions. Hinata's face would redden; Naruto and Kiba would look about as if they were doing the same thing as he was. Shikamaru would look as blank as ever. Sakura would probably suddenly get more talkative. Shino might smirk, and Chouji would likely be hiding laughter. Lee would get a big stupid grin on his face. Sai's eyes would widen. something like that. Through these methods of intuition, he actually got a few right.
As for picking questions about himself, well, that was easy. Hardly anyone knew much of anything about Neji. He would be surprised if anyone got his right. Perhaps since most of the others knew each other well, they could piece the missing bits together and match them up with Neji, but nobody knew offhand these things about him.
Afterward, they went out and played Manhunt until 1:00am, when they finally all got tired and decided to go home. Neji walked Tenten home, as was usual for them, these days. As they walked, Tenten struck up a converstion.
"That was a great party. Didn't you think so? See, it wasn't so bad. And those quizzes were alright; Ino knows some good ones. Say, why did you call me white-out? I know the Hyuuga genius didn't forget his reason." Neji, who had been letting her ramble, paused and then answered softly.
"Because you cover my bad memories."
They walked in silence. Tenten contemplated his answer, and Neji wished he'd tried to further convince her that he'd really forgotten. As they were about to part, Tenten turned towards him and hugged him. Neji stiffened, surprised.
"I'm glad I can make you be happy, even if it's temporary," she said, and he relaxed slightly. Halfheartedly, he wrapped an arm around her, barely touching her back.
"See you tomorrow," she said, and, kissing him lightly on the cheek, she pulled away and was gone.
Neji stood there for several moments, his eyes unfocused. His hand covered the spot on his face where her lips had brushed him. His eyes shifted slightly, and he began to stumble in the direction of his home.
How unreal...
A Note From ME:
thanks for being patient people who asked me to update! school is interfering with my writing...grrr...-.- So, anyways, please review! Much appreciated!
