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Tenten [ テンテン ] ([info]oriental_dragon) wrote in [info]last_stretch,
@ 2009-10-07 23:12:00


Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Current location:Konoha no Gakuen Boarding School
Current mood: energetic
Current music:You're Gonna Go Far, Kid - The Offspring
Entry tags:kiba, naruto, neji, open log, sakura, tenten

[ Open - In Progress | Man, he never had a chance... ]
Who: Everyone Naruto knows.
What: Party for Blondie~ And coming in costume is encouraged!
When: October 10th... ish, evening/night
Where: Faculty Lounge at a certain boarding school
Warning(s): The usual warnings when people get shit-faced drunk.

It was like taking a page out of their long history together, to the very origins of who they once were. Phantom ghosts of what they would become. The place where it all began for a good number of them. And where the foundation of their collective friendships found its root. To be able to walk the halls again gave her an eerie yet exciting thrill she could hardly understand.

It was like they had never left.

Konoha no Gakuen. She could hardly believe that it had been more than three years since they left the hallow halls of the institution. They had a lot of good times there. Some, not so much. All the same, the school held many memories. For her, and most of all, for Naruto. So it only made sense that on the day that they would celebrate the young man's birth, they would have the festivities here. It was a small little tradition that she had taken to practicing. With the help and not-so-official approval of the local administration, of course. Silly, really. But one that she, at the very least, looked forward to year after year. Because this had been the beginning, so many long years ago. When a foreign girl from China thought it would be a nice gesture to plan a surprise party for a rambunctious blond she hardly knew. And in return, she had gained a life-long friendship. Several, in fact.

There was no rec room, this time around. Most certainly, with the presence of alcohol they could hardly allow it anywhere within reach of the students. But the faculty lounge on the other side of the school grounds made for an excellent substitute. And if their old instructors happened to drop in for a drink or two while they congratulated the young man on surviving another year, who was to stop them?

It had taken longer than expected to decorate the room, especially with only one other set of hands to help her this time. But to her credit, Tenten was a good planner, and an efficient worker. And with Neji's diligent -- relentless, despite her efforts to avoid adding to his already full schedule -- attention, they were an unstoppable team.

As she took a step back from making the last touches to the room, she could hardly be disappointed with the results. Spirals of orange and black streamers looped out from the center fan, reaching out like long bony fingers to touch upon each wall of the room. Hanging along its body were long colorful ribbons, curled in helical tendrils some draped over one row of streamers, others over two or even three. Ultimately, the design created a sort of webbing effect. If one took the time to notice. And to complete the illusion, scattered all throughout the room and netting were plastic spiders. Most were black, but a small portion were of the glow in the dark variety, illuminated by the black light she had fixed in the corner of the room.

The food was already heated and set out for party-goers to enjoy. The balloons were evenly distributed throughout the room. And as the rhythmic beat of the music boomed against the creeking floorboards, Tenten could only smile to herself.

This would definitely be a night to remember.



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[info]infrawhite
2009-10-21 12:40 am UTC (link)
Neji frowned, despite the fact that he'd gotten what he'd wanted. For now. Under these circumstances, that was hardly consolation. But the man was paying attention, staring back at him through those glasses.

Those glasses. No, they didn't at all feel right. At best, what they did was get in the way, and the Hyuuga no longer felt up to yet another barrier shoved between them. It was due to this that he reached up again, this time to get a hold of the rims, fingertip brushing against Naruto's cheek in the process, perhaps not on purpose, but he wasn't particularly careful to avoid it, either.

"Going to hear me out?" He mused as he pulled the pair off, though in some way, that possibility seemed to amuse him.

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[info]impellere
2009-10-21 12:52 am UTC (link)
Could he just have one wonderful moment in his life where everything made sense? He was angry with Neji for one reason or another. Check. He wanted to push the guy and go drink his birthday night away. This made perfect sense to him and he'd wanted to get back to that once he found his cup, not at all thinking that he could get another. All of these things were the right choice in the Naruto mindset.

Neji's touches did not make sense. His body reacting to the touch and him stumbling when he leaned forward with the motion of those glasses leaving his face... did not make sense. The way he completely forgot about the stupid alcohol table and the stupid music and the stupid stupid stupid everything when Neji spoke, or moved, or breathed, did. Not. Make. Sense.

At some point he remembered to breath and did so heavily through his nose, the hairs on the back of his neck standing and tips of his ears flushing red when Neji's fingers lingered. He tucked his hands in his pockets to keep from scratching the tickling sensation away, huffing once he registered that the other was still talking. Just more bullshit he didn't want to deal with. "All y'are is talk talk talk. But nothing important ever comes outta your mouth."



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[info]infrawhite
2009-10-21 01:35 am UTC (link)
If there was anything the Hyuuga didn't fail to notice, it was Naruto's reactions. It was almost satisfactory to see Naruto contradict his own anger at the hands of the other -- but then again, who would Neji be to jump to conclusions about whether or not and how much or little this was at all unusual.

After all, he now knew perfectly well what kind of drunk the other was.

The things he didn't know, the countless questions that had come up over the past ten months were likely what was giving Neji the sense of purpose not to let Naruto's words deter him at all. He continued about neatly folding the glasses, though kept his eyes on the other's face, before hooking a finger into his shirt pocket just enough to let the accessory slip inside.

There were some matters he simply hated to be literal about, but clearly, all skirting and metaphors had taken them nowhere, if not worse places. Whether it was the stubbornness to remain dense on Naruto's part or the stubbornness to remain decent on his own, something needed to be done about it. His lips quirked briefly at the fact that the first wall was out of the way, patted on to straighten out wrinkles that weren't there, for others soon to follow.

"For once, I think you're absolutely right."

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[info]infrawhite
2009-10-21 01:46 am UTC (link)
He had it coming was such a standardized excuse for any rash actions people took, but Neji found in his moment of simplicity and literal expression of sentiments, that there were truly no better words to describe his reasons.

Had he completely thought this through? No. That would have been doing things his way, something lacking all effectiveness right now.

Unlike a quick jerk back before he delivered a loaded punch to that infuriatingly close face.

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[info]impellere
2009-10-21 02:21 am UTC (link)
For a moment the OCD mentality didn't phase Naruto. His psyche was far too engrossed in the way Neji was nitpicking at his clothes and appearance. Like some diligent wife. Any other time he might backtrack his thoughts. Question them a little. Then spit them back out without any sort of resolve. Alcohol helped lube up the already disturbed imbalance in the way Naruto fixed his life issues. When drunk it didn't matter that Neji was tending to him like this or touching him like that.

It felt good. Only now after drinkie trois would he admit that to himself. Yet no amount of filled Styrofoam cups could get him to squarely say just how pathetic that was.

Something he would look back on and wince is how he had fallen for that tempting act. Because you shouldn't trust a man you had a good part in screwing over both figuratively and literally. You don't sigh like it feels good and you should never, ever let your guard down. Because those first instincts that signal doom and destruction are almost always right.

His tailbone and eye socket could vouch for that.

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[info]impellere
2009-10-21 02:29 am UTC (link)
Suddenly there was no music or chatter filling the room. At least not in Naruto's general vicinity.

Aww's and oh's. A screech of a fine record the disk jockey had been tuning. All of those stupid things that happen in movies when shit goes down.

First he noticed how his tailbone was already sore from his blunt landing, second being blood pulsing into the area around his eye, not yet tender enough to be sore, but it would be a bitch to deal with later. He touched it, fingers just brushing the skin as he slowly pushed himself off the ground.

A breath. A single breath.

Not enough time for him to think 'hey, this is a bad idea' or 'stop it. just stop it and let it be'. Because those things didn't matter as much as his fist flying through the air to collide with the fine curve of Neji's jaw. That mattered.

"What the Hell is your problem?!" Almost as much as Naruto's hit now, talk later policy.

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[info]infrawhite
2009-10-22 01:06 am UTC (link)
The good thing about starting a fight was that one could expect the comeback, and so he could brace himself for the punch not to send him to land on the pretty ass that he didn't know from his pretty face. He did stumble backwards, did almost slip to one knee, the force of the impact temporarily muddling his trace of thought. His jaw hurt, but he was angry enough not to pay it too much mind, or the split lip that had probably resulted from the punch.

Once he'd gathered enough of his balance and bearings to glare back at the other, it didn't take him long to cross what distance was between them and grab that shirt collar. They weren't done yet. Not even close.

"It's been ten months-- what do you think, Uzumaki?!"

He wasn't sure why he asked. Clearly, Naruto didn't do a terribly big amount of that.

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[info]impellere
2009-10-22 02:12 am UTC (link)
He'd never wanted this. A long time ago when Neji couldn't keep his trap shut about fate and how far below the food chain he thought the blond to be Naruto couldn't wait to shove him into the ground and make him eat those words. When he'd woken up that morning... He wanted to press that handy redo button that would set everything back to normal. Before he got drunk and before he did whatever he did with Neji after the stumble to his apartment.

At some point they could have talked. They could have worked things out. They could have done a lot of things before it came to this.

Honestly he didn't think Neji would be the first to throw a punch, either. The shock of the hit made it hard for him to ground himself, falling forward all too easily when Neji yanked him towards him. The other had the benefit of height, although it was only by an inch or two, his anger rising when he had to look up at that angry face.

"I don't think anything, Hyuuga! BECAUSE it's been ten. Fucking. Months!" Of course he grabbed Neji's lapels as well, fingers twisting in the fabric and ramming the man with as much force as he could into that handy wall behind them, his arm tucked firmly under the man's chin.

There was a crowd starting. He could feel them staring, his nerves on edge and his voice raising considerably. This emotion was something he rarely felt, tried so hard to ignore, and wasn't entirely happy to revisit. His arm pushed down harder. "Why would I think anything, huh?! Why can't you just let this shit go?!"

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[info]infrawhite
2009-10-22 10:31 pm UTC (link)
He wouldn't be noticing the crowd for another while, especially not when Naruto insisted on temporarily cutting off his oxygen supply. The collision with the wall had already knocked the breath out of him; it was fortunate enough the impact hadn't hit his head back against it.

"You aren't, either--" He eventually forced out between struggles. The wording was by far not carefully picked, not that he would expect this conversation to go anywhere, not when they were both busy bashing one another's heads in.

It took him all of two more seconds to decide he needed to breathe more regularly and all but pulled the blond in closer by his collar to make the kick to his stomach more effective. Despite both of them having martial arts experience, their scuffle wasn't very refined, a fact that didn't surprise him and didn't hold him back from tumbling both of them to the ground.

Neji wasn't looking for a comparison of skills and strategies. At this moment in time, he wanted to beat sense into Naruto, or give him the opportunity to do so to himself, until something, anything took a change.

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[info]impellere
2009-10-23 01:16 am UTC (link)
Unfortunately for Naruto he knew all too well what a million eyes on him felt like. All he'd wanted to do was find a close friend that would allow him to practically attach to their side so that the big, bad crowd didn't make his lungs constrict. Anything was wonderful distraction, the drowsy effect of alcohol making him vulnerable. Only now he was lashing out instead of keeping that feeling inside, not at all taking it easy on Neji even though only half of Naruto's anxiety was his fault.

Falling backwards to collide with the hard floor again brought enough of his sense back to release that one, his spine now hurt like a bitch, and two, he was an idiot for leaving himself so open, his stomach already twisting and cramping where Neji's knee had lodged into his abdomen. Sure he hadn't kept to his training like he should have, but that was pathetic. He sucked in his breath pushed up against the other man in order to flip him over, his fist ramming into Neji's chest.

Knock the wind out of him. Flip him. Proceed to beat the shit out of him. This spur of the moment plan seemed awesome.

"I'm not doing shit 'cause it doesn't matter! You got that?!" Another punch, this time aimed towards Neji's collarbone. Screw the height difference, he wanted the bastard off of him NOW.

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[info]infrawhite
2009-10-23 01:49 am UTC (link)
"Nonsense," He hissed in return, because if anything was really just that simple, they wouldn't have even reached this point. The fact that not even now did Naruto seem to realize this was infuriating. "If nothing matters-"

But there was a force behind those pushes and punches that made his prior concern retrieving the function to breathe from his aching upper body as he indeed rolled over, grabbing the blond's shoulder in an attempt to slam him down again, but it wasn't a particularly well-coordinated move.

Still.

He wasn't going to accept getting the full blame. Naruto hadn't treated him normally for the longest time, either, until at some point, their awkwardness provoked more and more anger. And now this. With Naruto having gained the upper hand, the main occupation of his own hands was keeping Naruto's from doing more serious damage.

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[info]impellere
2009-10-23 02:00 am UTC (link)
What could he even say to that? He could waste the whole night punching and kicking and coming up with a million excuses for why things were the way they were. After all it wasn't like he exactly knew the reason behind any of his actions up until now. The reason for avoiding Neji or even how the other felt about the situation weren't obvious even now while they tousled on the floor.

Neji kept saying stupid things that made no sense. Naruto kept hitting. To release some sort of inner rage or shut Neji up? Couldn't decide. Either felt like good choices right about now as he looked down at the bastard trying to haul him off, his body turning into dead weight. He wouldn't be moved. While Neji blocked Naruto tried to get through, his fingers twisting in the man's shirt again to haul him up and deliver another blow to his jaw. They were sloppy at best and his grip wasn't near as tight as it should be to keep Neji in place.

All these 'friends' in the room and everyone clustering around for the show like a bunch of high school brats. Things never do change do they...

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