Disclaimer : Naruto © Kishimoto

A/N : Last year I wrote up a series of 12 drabbles for 12 days... the 12 days leading up to Christmas. This year I'm going to try and do it again. I might post more than one though because I'm not sure if I'll be doing Kibahina and Nejiten together or each of them separately... we'll see.

MEMORIES OF GLITTER BOMBS

"He... and... they... bahahaha!" the bellowing laughter of the young Inuzuka echoed through the small study in his girlfriend's house.

Sitting next to him on the white carpeted floor, which in any other house would seem a poor choice in color but somehow worked in the Hyuga compound, was the white-eyed heiress and her bun-haired friend. As Kiba laughed his head off, the two girls tried to hold back their own chuckles, exchanging amused looks, while the fourth member of their group glared angrily at the fang-faced boy.

"oh my go… hahahahahah!" Kiba continued laughing loudly, gasping for air as he struggled to keep his composure, a battle he was quickly loosing. "And you..." he pointed at Neji who was all but foaming at the mouth with rage at the Inuzuka's taunting.

"It... it really wasn't that bad," the timid Hyuga girl looked over at her cousin apologetically. She knew nothing she could say could stop her boyfriend from teasing the white-eyed prodigy, but at least she could try to ease Neji's embarrassment a little.

The reason her feral-eyed teammate was laughing so much was that as the four of them sat in the small study room, helping each other wrap colorful papers on various sized boxes, labeled for all of their friends for the big party Ino was throwing on the twenty-fifth, was a story that Hinata had recalled of the previous Christmas. She had mentioned it only because the four of them had been working on making hand-made cards for their fellow shinobi, on request from the Hokage herself. The story had been about one such card that the white-eyed prodigy had received the previous year from his bun-haired girlfriend. A card that he had happened to open only moments before stepping into a room full of Hyuga elders who had called him in to discuss his future within the clan.

Little did anyone know, when Neji pulled at the small string holding the red envelope together, that it would explode in the prodigy's face and send out a massive glitter bomb that covered the white-eyed shinobi from head to toe, and wrote a message in the air for all the elders to see. Hinata had been in that room, and had immediately begun blushing. She couldn't help it, feeling her cousin's embarrassment herself, especially once the older men began poking fun of and making jokes about how Neji's 'future bride' would bring new life to the stale old Hyuga household and how they wished Neji would just hurry up and marry her already, as it was clear as the glitter on his head, that both young ninjas loved each other. For days to come, the Hyuga had struggled to get the shimmering silver glitter out of his long black hair. And being a family who was good at keeping secrets outside of the compound, but horrible at it within the Hyuga walls, the other clansmen had quickly found out what had happened and had all joined in on the teasing.

The poor prodigy had had to endure weeks of jokes at his expense, until the glitter all washed out and the memory of it began to fade. But for those few weeks, Neji had done everything in his power to keep Tenten from entering the compound, lest she be exposed to the teasing as well, or worse... find out what they were saying about wanting to marry Tenten into the Hyuga clan. If anyone was going to tell her, it had to be him, and not those busybody elders who seemed intent, especially after that display of mischief and ingenuity that quite amused them, to hurry things along at an even quicker pace. Considering the meeting they had scheduled for him that day was to discuss speaking with Tenten's parents about a possible union, was already going quite fast.

"hahahah, Tenten, kami! You have to show me how you did it!" Kiba laughed louder, picturing the glaring man sitting next to him completely covered in the sparkly glitter.

"Well," the bun-haired girl turned to her boyfriend and meekly smiled, as if apologizing a year too late for the trauma she'd made him endure, though she only knew the half of it. "It actually wasn't supposed to explode like that. It was just meant to write a message in the air," Tenten admitted, a little ashamed that her plan hadn't quite worked out as she'd hoped, but still proud of the fact that she had managed to surprise the Hyuga, who had met her in the training field that same day he opened the envelope, covered in glitter.

She had laughed so hard that day... Tenten couldn't really blame Kiba for doing so now, but she wished he would stop... if for no other reason then for his own well-being and safety.

A/N : The story referred to here is chapter 5 of my 12 days of christmas from last year... it was a fun one :)