The party was in full swing when we arrived.
   The Uchiha's large house was crowded; smoke and the scent of beer pervaded the air like a cheap incense, and it was warm, almost to the point where it was slightly uncomfortable. I guess that was due to the writhing mass of bodies that took up a large portion of the building.
   Several moments after we walked through the front door, Naruto, Kankuro, and Gaara seemed to dissapear into the crowd of high-schoolers, leaving me stranded by myself. Thanks, guys. Sighing, I turned into a small bathroom in the front hall to touch up on my eyeliner and dark purple lipstick (I also had matching nail polish; cute, right?), then, as bravely as I could muster, walked out and into the party.
   Kids parted to let me through, reminding me of the bible story of Moses parting the Red Sea that a Catholic foster parent had once told me. I'm not sure if it was out of fear that they moved, or if it was because it was sort of my party. Heh. Oh well. It was still cool, though I think they were all just shocked that I showed up at all.
   I found myself in a room that could only be the living room, as large as it was. This was where the music was coming from; Cobra Starship's "The City is At War" was beating from the concert-sized speakers that were set up in the opposite corner of the room. I seated myself on a rather comfortable couch that was only occupied by a couple making out at the other end; upon further inspection, I recognized the couple as two friends of Hidan and Kakuzu's. I didn't know their names, but I liked the girl the one time I had spoken to her. She had funky blue hair and piercings, but not as much as her orange-haired boyfriend, whose immense amount of piercings could give the guys in the world record books a run for their money.
   I averted my gaze, giving them as much privacy as was possible in a crowded room, and looked out at the crowd that occupied the room; teens were dancing, drinking, and seemed to be enjoying themselves. Karin was in the middle of the room, dancing with an unnamed boy like a couple of wannabe porn stars, and I snorted. She seemed to be enjoying herself just fine.
   'At least she's dancing with a boy at all;' my Inner snickered. I inwardly groaned.
   'Go away,' I thought. 'I thought I told you to go into your little corner and stay there!?'
   'You did,' She replied nonchalantly. 'But I'm your inner self, I don't have to do what you tell me, so shut up.'
   I ignored my Inner Self, really not in the mood for a fight, and sat back, observing the room like a good little wallflower. So the sudden rush of black that flashed across my vision surprised me, but not as much as the two warm hands that clapped across my eyes, blocking out the entire room completely. "H-hey!"
   "Guess who, Vampire Chick!" A male voice from beside me crooned. I was able to identify it as the younger Uchiha brother from the words alone.
   "Sasuke, she's going to hit you, leave her alone." Itachi's cool voice spoke from my other side.
   The hands were removed from my eyes, and I blinked as the partying teenagers came back into focus. An Uchiha brother swung into my field of vision from both sides. Sasuke's face was slightly flushed; a sure sign he'd probably been drinking, and I snorted to myself. Lightweight.
   Itachi looked faintly amused. "Lose your friends?" He asked, chuckling.
   I shrugged. "Sorta."
   Sasuke smirked. "You'll find them soon; it's almost time for the highlight of the party."
   I couldn't help but raise my eyebrows at him. "What, keg stands? Strip poker? Elaborate, Duck-butt."
   The ebony-haired boy snorted, and Itachi gave me the slightest of smiles. "Do we look like we're from Iwa to you, Monster Girl? I'm talking about karaoke."
   My eyebrows shot up once again. "Karaoke? Seriously? SERIOUSLY? What are you guys, like, five!?" I asked.
   Sasuke shook his head, grinning. "Nope. Seriously. It's hilarious, just wait. You'll be surprised how much a little beer will help towards getting people to participate. Care to join me up there, Vampire Chick? We can sing a song together!"
   I glared at him. "If you even think about that again, I'm afraid I'll have to castrate you. With a spoon."
   Sasuke shrugged. "Have it your way." And with that, he stalked over to Karin, shoved her dance partner out of the way, and began to dance with her himself.
   I watched, slightly amused. "Oookay then..." Glancing across the room, I found most of my friends, and had to smile at what I saw.
   Sakura and Deidara were having a lighthearted argument, and I had a vague feeling it was probably about art, one of Deidara's favorite subjects, and nearby, Sasori had a small puppet out and was explaining how it worked to Tenten, while Hatsukoi was gushing over a slightly bewildered Kari's outfit. Naruto and Sai were having a more heated argument, most likely about Naruto's reproductive organs (or lack thereof), Manami and Chouji were having a Dorito-eating contest that was being judged by Lee, and Higan and Hinata were standing together side-by-side in what appeared to be companionable silence.
   "You know, separate cliques never really interacted like this before," Itachi said from where he was perched on the arm of the couch beside me. I jumped; I had forgotten he was there.
   "Really?" I asked, only half-interested.
   "Yes," He replied. "I don't know what you did, but before you came here, no one would have ever thought that any of these people would talk to each other, much less look at each other. You must have done something to get a girl like Deidara to talk to Sakura Haruno, or to get Higanbana Tamakaru to even approach Hinata Hyuuga."
   I shrugged sheepishly. "I didn't do anything, though."
   The senior boy got up, glancing at me with his reddish-black eyes for a moment. "If you say so." As he started to walk away, the music stopped, and there were several complaints that were voiced.
   "Okay!" Hatsukoi called, standing up on top of a smaller speaker. "It's karaoke time! Everyone participating...OUTSIDE!"
   The room emptied quickly, and I frowned. All of my friends had gone outside. Traitors. But of course, being the desperate loser that I was, I followed the crowd outside into the spacious yard as well.
   A small stage was set up, and it looked like it could have been a patio if it weren't for the lack of furniture. Set up on it were several speakers, a microphone, an iPod dock, and several iPods. Great. Just great.
   "Who's going first?" Hatsukoi called.
   I groaned, face-palming when Kankuro, Kiba, and Naruto paraded onto the patio-stage-thing, and Naruto picked up an iPod, and scrolled through it for like half a minute, before shouting excitedly to his friends, "Hey, there's a Bon Jovi song!"
   "Oh my god,"  I sighed, as Naruto plugged in the iPod into the dock, and he, Kankuro, and Kiba proceeded to butcher the song "You Give Love a Bad Name."
   "Oh my Jashin," a voice next to me corrected. I looked to my right to see Hidan and Kakuzu, decked out to the fullest in Hot Topic's finest. Kakuzu was even wearing a new scarf for the occasion.
   "They're embarassing themselves," I stated, looking back to my three friends, who now had the surrounding teens singing along. "I don't know whether to be amused or totally ashamed to call these people my friends."
    "Just wait a little," Kakuzu replied. "People with some actual talent will start eventually, then it actually gets sort of cool. Though it is funny when they try to force someone like Gaara up."
    "That would be awesome," I said, scanning the cheering crowd of intoxicated teens, then glanced back to my companions. Both were totally sober. "You guys aren't drinking?"
    Both shook their heads. "I'm driving home," Kakuzu explained. "And Hidan's spending the night...I think my parents would kill us if we came back drunk."
   "Drinking is against my religion!" Hidan proclaimed proudly. Several kids on the edge of the crowd turned around to roll their eyes at him, and the pale-haired boy scowled at them. "What're you looking at, motherfuckers!?" Naturally, they turned back around.
   "You guys gonna go up there?" I asked, as Naruto and his two slightly-drunk friends stumbled off the stage at the end of their song.
   Hidan looked disgusted. "Hells no! It's fun to watch, but I'm not that much of a loser. You go up there, bitch, seriously."
   Kakuzu shook his head at his friend's outburst. "He just doesn't want to go up there because he actually can sing. He sounds like...what's his name...?" The dark-skinned boy stared off blankly. "Never mind."
   Hidan nodded, crossing his arms and pouting cutely. "I don't like singing...my mom used to make me take fucking lessons. Like, seriously."
   I snorted, and beside me Kakuzu was snickering softly. "Does that mean you sucked at it?"
   Hidan's normally pale face grew red. "No! I can fucking sing!" He grit his teeth in frustration when we continued to laugh.
   "What's got your panties in a twist, Hidan?" A new voice rasped. We turned around to see Gaara approaching, the slightest of smirks on his face.
   "Gaara-chan, Fujimoto-bitch and Kakuzu-teme don't think I can sing! They're making fun of me, the assholes!" The zealot declared to the redhead as he approached.
   Gaara immediately picked up on our plan. "Well then...why don't you go prove them wrong when Ino's done killing 'Love Story'?" He suggested in his sandpaper voice. (It was true; Ino had taken the song into a dark alley and stabbed it viciously in the back. Her loud, obnoxious voice may be fit for cheering, but not singing.)
   Hidan huffed. "Fine, I will. I'll prove you heathen motherfuckers wrong!"
   "What an idiot..." Kakuzu chuckled in my ear. I broke into another fit of giggles. "He seriously just fell for that.."
   As soon as Ino had finished and we had drained the melted brain out of our ears, Hidan grabbed Gaara's hand and began to push through the drunken and laughing teens. "C'mon, Gaara-chan."
   "Where the hell- Hidan, let go, you bastard!" Gaara struggled. "What're you doing!?"
   "You can't actually think I'm fucking going up there alone, can you? You're gonna sing with me, seriously." Hidan explained. Kakuzu and I both began to roar with laughter at the look on Gaara's face; he appeared to be holding something in, either a fart or the urge to kill Hidan.
    When they reached the wooden-platform-patio-stage-hybrid, the silver-haired Jashinist pulled a small purple iPod out of one of the many pockets in his baggy, heavily chained black and red pants. As he plugged it into the iPod dock, Gaara attempted to make a run for it, but was stopped by Sasuke, Itachi, Sasori, and Neji, who all stood to the side.
   "This is gonna be great," I said to Kakuzu once we calmed down. He nodded.
   "Indeed."
   As the beginning of "Not Good Enough for Truth in Cliche" began to play, Gaara made another escape attempt, plowing through Hatsukoi, Deidara, Ino, and Karin, all of whom stood on the other side of the stage. I tossed him the keys to Yoko as he ran by, and he muttered something about hiding.
   Hidan was cursing into the mic at the fact that Gaara left him, until a very drunk Sai called "SING ALREADY!", to which the partygoers cheered.
   And so he sang. And let me tell you...people were always saying that Hidan was going to be a great author one day, because he was a writer. But he seriously needed to become a singer, I'm not even kidding. Kakuzu and I were right to provoke him into singing, because damn, that boy could sing.
   The song was almost over, and I decided to check in on Gaara; Hidan seemed to be fine, in his own little world up on the stage-platform-thingy, and I didn't really want to be around when he came down and realized that Kakuzu, Gaara and I had tricked him into singing. I grabbed a half-empty cup of beer from Kankuro as I walked by, and ignoring the puppeteer's complaints, drained it in several gulps, threw the cup onto the ground, and walked around the side of the house. Hells yeah. I was like the effing queen of cool exits.
   I found Gaara sitting in Yoko's passenger's seat; head back and iPod on, small black ear buds in his ears. Climbing into the driver's side and closing the door, I pulled one of the buds out of his ears. He shot me a glare, which I gave a dismissal wave. "How ya doin', hidin' out here since ya chickened out?"
   He scowled. "You actually thought I would sing in front of....them?"
   I shrugged. "I guess."
   Gaara shook his head. "No way. You go up there, bitch." The red-haired boy gave me a confused look when I chuckled.
   "Hidan said the same thing, like, word-for-word." I explained. Gaara nodded, and slumped back into the seat, sighing.
   "I want to go."
   I shook my head at him. "We can't; the party's only just started. C'mon, stay!"
   Shooting me another glare, my enemy-turned-friend stuffed his hands in his pockets, still obviously wanting to go home.
   "Please?" I asked. "For me?"
   He shook his head. "Do you really think that that's going to make me want to stay?" He scowled when I stared at him expectantly, then opened the door to climb out of the van. "Let's go." I cheered with delight, grabbed his hand, and dragged him back around to the backyard. Deidara and Hatsukoi were singing a Jonas Brothers song in obnoxiously high-pitched voices; it was obvious they were being sarcastic in their enthusiasm.
   "Did you two remember to use protection?" Hidan leered as I walked by. Then I remembered his badass singing, and ran over to him and gave him a tackle-hug.
   "DUDE! Your singing rocked!"
   He smirked, putting his hands on the small of my back. "Hells yeah it did. Told you I could sing." He then shot a glare at Gaara. "Thanks for fucking abandoning me, you little demon."
   Gaara looked back stonily. "You seemed to be doing fine yourself. Fujimoto?"
   "Oh, yeah. Were we going somewhere in particular?" I asked, moving away from Hidan to stand beside Gaara. I gave the Jashinist a smirk when his pinkish eyes narrowed.
   "No. I just don't like to hear Hidan's obnoxious voice. Let's go." And with that, the crimson-haired demon boy dragged me away.
   "He's gonna kill you now," I said, as a senior that's not important enough to name began to sing "Remembering Sunday." He was pretty good, and some couples had begun to dance. We stopped several feet away from the slow-dancing creeps that were our schoolmates, and made ourselves comfortable. It was then that our challenge started.
   "Mo-chan?" A timid voice asked. I looked up in surprise to see a nervous-looking Hatsukoi.
   "'Suki?" I asked. She looked to Gaara.
   "Um, Gaara-san? Do you think I could talk to Mo-chan alone for a sec?"
   My blue-eyed companion crossed his arms, eyes narrowing at the black-haired girl, clearly not trusting her. "No."
   She nodded. "Oh...okay. Well.." She gave the boy one more glance, then got it over with. "IwasthinkingofaskingKankurou-kuntodancebutmybrotherswillinterfere."
   I only stared at her. "...pardon?"
   She sighed, and repeated herself. "Well...I want to ask Kankurou-kun to dance with me...but my brothers will interfere if they see..."
   Gaara snorted. "Why in the hell would you want to dance with HIM!?"
   Hatsukoi blushed and looked away, and I elbowed Gaara in the ribs. "We'll help you," I said. "C'mon, Gaara. 'Suki, you can go ask Kankurou to dance."
   Once Gaara and I walked away, I nodded to him. "You get Itachi, I'll take care of Duck-butt." He rolled his blue-green eyes and walked off.
   Suprise, I found Sasuke at a large keg, getting some beer with Neji. Neji seemed to be the more sober of the two, but not by much. "Hey, Sasuke?" I asked, approaching them.
   He fixed me with his drunken gaze. "Whaat?" It was then that I remembered that I didn't have an excuse to get him inside. I glanced across the yard to see Gaara, who was distracting Itachi by introducing him to a confused Kakuzu. Damn. He worked fast.
   "Umm...I heard that some kids were going through your room and screwing with your stuff," I supplied. Sasuke's onyx eyes widened, and he dashed inside. I snickered at my quick thinking and his reaction.
   "Very cleverr," Neji said from beside me. I looked up, suprised, having forgotten that he was there. His eyes were fixed on Hatsukoi and Kankurou dancing, and there was the slightest slur to his voice, though he seemed to be able to hold his alchohol better than most. "Sasuke and 'tachi have been a little...overprotective since 'Suki's 'accident'...I don't blame 'em...if something like that happened to say..Kari...or Hinata..I'd be the same way."
   I must have looked even more suprised, because he rolled his cold lavender eyes at me. "C'mon now, Momo-chan, don' look so suprised. D'you really think I'm a total heartless bastard?"
   I grinned at him, my heart fluttering when he called me 'Momo-chan', but then I mentally kicked myself for getting so worked up over it. Other people called me Momo-chan, it was no big deal...right? 'But it sounded so sexy when Neji said it!' My inner squealed.
   "I guess not..." I said, pulling myself from my thoughts. "But you are a little drunk too, so I guess I shouldn't have been suprised at all."
   He rolled his eyes, a smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth. "Please. I'm not an idiot; even when 'm drunk, I know 'ow to watch my mouth."
   I rolled my eyes back. "Sure, if you say so..."
   He leaned back against the table behind us, crossing his arms as the song ended and couples began to break apart as some fast-paced dance music began to play. "And why aren' you drinking? You're allowed to, ya know, it's your party."
   I shrugged, leaning against the table next to him. "I know, I keep trying to forget...it's just not really my thing."
   "Partying, or drinking?" He asked, with another little smirk.
   "Both."
   "Ah. I see."
   We stood there in a slightly awkward silence for several minutes, during which I argued with my inner.
   'He totally likes you! You guys should make out, seriously, like, right now. DO IT!!!'
   'Absolutely not,' I thought, apalled that this was seriously my subconcious. 'We're in public, and he's kinda drunk, in case you didn't notice.'
   'That hasn't stopped half of the people here,' Inner Momo replied snarkily. 'Look at Sai and Ino over there! They're totally sucking face!'
   'Holy CRAP are you serious!?' And sure enough, I discreetly looked to my right and saw Ino perched in Sai's lap several yards away, making out with the dark-haired boy like there was no tomorrow. I smirked. Manami would probably kill her if she saw.
   'Oh thank god,' I thought finally, when Tenten walked by, but stopped. 'No more awkwardness; Tenten has saved the day!'
   'Idiot,' my inner sneered. 'You ruined a great opportunity to totally jump Neji. I hate you,'
   "Hey, Momo. Hi Neji." Tenten said, glancing back and forth between us suspiciously. I caught the glare she sent when she saw how close together Neji and I were standing.
   'OH!' I realized suddenly. 'Tenten likes Neji!'
   "I just wanted to let you know I'm heading home," She said to me, giving me a fake smile. "So happy birthday! Great party and stuff...I'll see you on Monday!" And she like, speed-walked away, to where Sakura, Hinata, and Kari were waiting. My phone buzzed, and I checked it, to see a text from Hinata;

'Pardon my interference, Momoaranbo-san, but think you may have just landed yourself on Tenten's shit list.'

   I looked back up, but they were gone, and I giggled slightly at the shy girl's choice of words, despite the situation.
   "That was...odd." Neji said after a moment.
   "Hn," I replied, putting my phone away.
   "So," The chocolate-haired boy beside me began. "I was thinkin'...you busy tomorrow night?"
   I looked at him with wide eyes. 'No,' I thought. 'Not now. Not that I KNOW Tenten likes him!'
   Meanwhile, my inner was squealing. 'Say yes say yes say YES!!!'
   I let out the tiniest of sighs. Neji Hyuuga was asking me out. Neji Hyuuga. Of course I wanted to say yes...but I couldn't do that now, could I?
   "Momoaranbo?" He asked, grabbing my chin and turning my head to look at him. "I asked if you were busy tomorrow night. I want to take you out."
   "Neji," I sighed louder now. "I can't...sorry."
   "Why not..?" He murmured, leaning forward and brushing his lips lightly against mine. I groaned. This was going to take every single ounce of willpower that I had. Every single iota.
   He pressed his lips to mine, harder, but I turned my head away, mentally sobbing. "Neji, if I ever have to repeat this again, I will, quite cheerfully, might I add, beat the living crap out of you. I think it would hurt Tenten's feelings if we went out. And it doesn't help that you're not entirely sober."
   He pulled away, to my intense suprise. "Tenten?"
   "Yes, Tenten!" I said, frustrated. "The girl with the brown hair up in buns that just left a couple minutes ago? God, boys are so dense...but I don't want to go out with you, Neji. If Tenten likes you, then it would be a pretty awful thing of me to do." And before he could convince me otherwise, I stormed away.
   "Save some room for the Holy Spirit, kids," I said, breaking Sasori and Deidara apart so that I could walk right between them instead of around, though I'm sure that the moment I was gone they probably just shrugged and went right on kissing. I found Gaara where he had been several minutes earlier, staring at me as he sat beside Kakuzu and Itachi, who were engaged in a conversation about the school's finances. Wierdos.
   "C'mon, we're outta here," I said, grabbing his wrist and pulling him up. I quickly found Hatsukoi, thanked her for the party, and told Kankuro, who was still glued to her side, that he and Naruto could get a ride home from Lee. Then I found Lee, and begged him to give Kankuro and Naruto a ride home. The black haired boy grudgingly agreed, and I gave him a quick hug, before dragging Gaara out front to Yoko.
   "You know, I saw that," Gaara said quietly as I started the car and made my way down the long street.
   "Hn? Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Gaara?" I asked, in my best impersonation of Gary Coleman. He didn't seem amused. Damn. The Gary Coleman thing always seemed to crack Naruto up. Then again, Naruto and Gaara were total opposites...
   "You and Neji."
   I glanced at him. "Ah."
   "Why did you walk away?"
   "I think Tenten likes him. It would be pretty bitchy of me to go out with him while I have that knowledge." I responded, turning my gaze back to the road.
   "He kissed you," Was Gaara's only response.
   "Yes, I know."
   "Tenten is going to find out. And all hell will break loose."
   I sighed. "I know."
   I pulled onto our street and stopped in front of his house. "Here ya go."
   He trained those cold blue eyes onto me. "Would you like to come in?"
   Something about the question made my stomach clench.

* * *

(Gaara's P.O.V.)

   Temari was in the living room, playing 'Left 4 Dead' when we came in. "Back early?" She called, turning to look at us for a moment.
   "Boomer, on your left," Was my only reply, and she whipped back around, cursing all the while at the obese zombie that had attacked her on the screen. I continued my trek up the stairs, Fujimoto following behind me. "I have a birthday present for you in my room," I explained to her, once we were out of Temari's earshot.
   Fujimoto gave me a suspicious look. "Get your mind out of the gutter," I said, reaching my bedroom door and opening it. "What you're thinking is seriously the last thing on my mind."
   "Lies, all lies," She muttered, glancing at me, mismatched eyes shining mischieviously as she entered my room. She sat down in the computer chair at my desk, spinning around and examining everything; the black furniture, red-painted walls, band posters. "Cool room. Totally you. Emo and freaky." She grinned, and I rolled my eyes at her before moving to the corner where my easel sat.
   "Here." I rasped, face heating up as I pulled the cloth that covered the displayed canvas back. I knew that a rare blush probably had made its way onto my face. "Happy birthday."