(Untitled)

[byakuugangenius]

Joining: Open to Rookie Nine (Including Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma), Team Gai, and Sand Siblings
Location: A restaurant in Konoha
Time: 7 p.m., January 1st
Recap: The teams are brought together to celebrate another year of surviving the life of a ninja.

Neji entered the restaurant where the teams were to meet to celebrate the new year but saw no one

Comments

[weapon_goddess]

-a few blocks away from the restaurant-

Dipping a finger into the smooth liquid glass, Tenten watched the ripples dance across the surface of the water. Too nervous to remain home where she would pace back and forth across her living room floor, she had arrived early at the fountain in order to allow enough time to collect her thoughts. Her encounter with Lee earlier had done nothing but fill her mind with unwanted doubt and concerns. She had ran into the young shinobi while on her way home from Anko’s training and had mistakenly filled him in on her plans with the current young Kazekage. Needless to say, the kunoichi regretted doing so almost instantly. She could still almost hear his speech on her ‘Flames of Youth’.

I swear, chipmunk, you‘re too naïve for your own good, she half-heartedly fumed

[byakuugangenius]

Neji looked at the clock and wondered what was taking his team so long. He was starting to get a little hungry but no one had gotten there yet and it was bad manners to begin eating before the entire party had arrived.

"If this was Gai Sensei's idea of a joke I'm going to kill him the next time I see him...", Neji said to himself.

--------
OOC: Tenten, since we don't have a Gai or Lee yet would you like for me to to write them in or do you want to have a go at that?

[byakuugangenius]

OOC: I take that back. We have a Gai sensei! ^_^ All we lack now is a Lee and we're all set.

[weapon_goddess]

OOC: I suppose since we don't have a Lee yet, you can write him in [that's what we did in the other post: wrote in characters that haven't been claimed yet].

[green_gigolo]

Gai burst into the restaurant with a passionate fury. Scanning the desolate place once over, it was not long before his eyes landed on Neji. He was not very hard to find, considering he was the only one in the restaurant so far.

With the very essence of fervor in his eyes, Gai lunged towards Neji. He practically flipped the table in sheer rhapsody as he proclaimed, "Neji! Forgive me for being so horribly tardy!! However, Lee and I were out on another session of rigorous training!!! I can never excuse myself for losing track of time! But when I realized we were going to be late with the date with our youthful comrade, Neji, it seems my heartfelt outcry caused the 4,000,000 ft high cliff we were hanging off of to give away!!" He then bellowed with laughter a he reminisced on the adventurous day he had.

"But that is behind us now! Tell me, Neji, have you been waiting long?"

[byakuugangenius]

Neji's eye twiched at Gai's "youthful" entry though by now he supposed he should be used to it. Though he would never admit it, he was glad that his sensei had finally arrived. The owners of the restaurant had begun to give him compassionate stares as they had begun to think that he had been stood up by a date. At least now they would stop staring at him. Neji opened his mouth to explain that indeed he had been waiting for a long time before he realized that doing so would just send Gai sensei off on another long speech about how sorry he was or could possibly make him cry.

"No Gai sensei, I just arrived in fact. I was delayed at the Hyuuga compound for a while and thus I myself was a few minutes late for the meeting."

He looked to the owners and asked them with his white eyes to go along with his story and then quickly turned back to his enthusiastic teacher.

"Gai sensei, have you seen Lee or Tenten?"

[green_gigolo]

"I'm afraid I haven't seen Lee since our fateful tumble. As for Tenten... WHO KNOWS?!" He gave another exuberant chuckle. "As long as you and I are here, let us make the best of it! Besides, even over our mission, we have hardly gotten a chance to bond!"

Gai loved to connect with all of his students. There was more to teaching than just practicing to throw a kunai perfectly for days on end. He wanted to interact with them on a much deeper level. The more he understood of his students, the more he could adjust his methods to bringing out the fullest out of them. Even so, it was still enjoyable to sit down and converse with a teammate.

Pulling out a creaking chair, Gai sat himself down across from Neji. Gai brimmed with dynamism as his words fluttered over the table, "And what is my endeared student going to order? I hope it will be overflowing with nutrients! After all, you are still a growing young man."

[byakuugangenius]

"I see...We were busy sensei. There was no time to socialize."

Neji wondered if his dad would have been like that if he had still been alive. Always questioning what he had done, what he liked, trying so hard to get to know his son just a little bit better. Outwardly he smiled a little and was sincerely happy that his sensei cared about him even though Neji hadn't exactly treated him like a model student. All in all Gai sensei wasn't that bad. A little, ok over enthusiastic about things, but he was better than most teachers.

"For now I only want tea...I'll wait for the others to arrive before I order anything. What about you Gai sensei?"

[weapon_goddess]

Tenten noted how much better Ino’s attitude seemed after taking her arm and proceeding into the restaurant. She was glad for that, despite the odd looks the blonde kept sneaking of Gaara. The small distraction made it a little easier for her to deal with her own insecurities...or at least it made Tenten forget about them completely for the moment. I wouldn‘t call it butterflies…just a slight case of anxiety. Returning the younger kunoichi’s smile, she felt her own spirits lift a little; such is the infectious good cheer Ino usually radiated. She was beginning to feel better about everything, including the looming quiet figure of the Kazekage beside her, who appeared to be lost in thought. As if to calm his own wandering mind Tenten gave his arm another light squeeze, hoping that Ino wouldn’t see the minute exchange as she took the opportunity to smile at him when she had caught his attention

[precious_cosmos]

Ino had heard the older kunoichi’s small comment and took it upon herself to provide an answer. “We probably are,” she started, her warm smile only widening as soon as they had entered the restaurant. “But who cares? At least we’re here now, right?”

Gently detaching herself from Tenten in order to take in her surroundings better, Ino could not even begin to fathom her excitement at having made it here at long last. Despite her date’s absence and the small embarrassment regarding Gaara and herself, she was steadfast on having a good time tonight. “Finally!” she commented cheerfully, glancing around with the intention of locating the others. “Now where are they…”

Sharp eyes promptly caught the dark blue hair that belonged to someone she was acquainted to rather well. Ino pointed (rather rudely) at a table to her far left, losing her polite demeanor. “I’d recognize that head from a mile away! Hey, Hinata-chan!”

[iheartkarasu]

[[OOC: Oh god, I am coming in SO late to this. I probably should have mentioned my random personal problems on the OOC but- hey, y'know what? Kankuro probably would have been late anyways!]]

Ino was going to be angry.

Hell, he didn't even know her very well and he knew she was going to be angry. Girls cared about stuff like that- politeness, cleanliness, tardiness. Although Kankuro had to admit that, yeah, they probably should care about stuff like that but-

- he hadn't quite forgotten. He'd just.

... forgotten.

Or rather, he didn't think that Ino had actually taken him seriously until a random Konoha chuunin had approached him on the training grounds and asked: "Hey, weren't you supposed to take Yamanaka on a date tonight?" (how many people knew about that anyways!?) and then he had to go through the motions of chaging and washing his hair and re-doing his face paint and-

- well, he had been training. It wasn't like he was trying to look especially nice for her or anything- it's just that an old, black one-piece suit that

[weapon_goddess]

Ino was right of course, at least they had managed to finally arrive at the restaurant. By now it was most likely well past the time the dinner was supposed to begin. So why were there so few of them gathered there? Tenten understood that for shinobis there were no breaks, but even during this time of the year missions were sparse if not limited to C-ranked and below. But I suppose that doesn‘t matter as long as someone‘s here. The brunette would have been at a loss of she, Gaara, and Ino were the only ones who bothered to show up.

She greeted Hinata with a nod from where she stood at the door, the younger girl having caught sight of them when Ino had made her entrance. Continuing on, her eyes soon fell on Neji who seemed to be mulling over other matters within his mind. Usually perceptive of his surroundings under any circumstance, he had failed to notice their arrival despite the grand show Ino had made to greet the young Hyuuga heiress.

He looks like he‘s starving, she thought, quickly dismissing it afterwards, But Neji knows