Belated birthday gift for mI.ShOE... enjoy!
Sorry about the goofy title. My brain refuses to work on Mondays.
Sakura had planned a surprise birthday bash for Ino in the backroom of the Yamanaka flower shop. Teams Gai and Kurenai were patiently waiting for the birthday girl to arrive, and two-thirds of Teams Kakashi and Asuma were present while Sakura ran out to grab her perky blonde best friend. Even the delegates from the Sand had conveniently stopped over for a visit.
Konoha's balmy summer heat had extended far into the month of September. Fortunately for the guests, the inside of the shop was kept at an incredibly cool temperature to accommodate the large selection of flowers that were delivered to the shop daily.
The invitees helped themselves to some of the refreshments Mrs. Yamanaka had prepared for the festivities. Cups of iced tea or berry-flavored punch in hand, everyone had branched out into different areas of the lively-decorated room to either chat animatedly amongst each other (Kiba, Akamaru, Kankurou and Naruto were trying to prove who had the survived the most dangerous mission), engage themselves in a glare-off (Neji, Gaara, and, of course, Sasuke), stand idly (Shikamaru and Shino), talk about the latest trends in weaponry (Temari and Tenten), or partake in the large selection of h'ors d'eouvres (Chouji).
Sadly, since Hinata was still too shy to willingly include herself into any of the other groups, that left her alone with Lee, who was happily showing her ways to make her training more youthful.
Occasionally, when Lee wasn't paying attention, she'd look towards the door hoping to see a flash of pink or platinum blonde, or peer at the other groups, praying to make eye contact with anyone who would be merciful enough to help her out of her current situation. Despite the fact that Lee-kun was a very encouraging, talented, and hard-working shinobi, Hinata was too nice to tell him that she was bored out of her skull. If she had to hear the words "youth", "flames", "YOSH!" or "Gai-sensei says..." one more time, she'd send a well-aimed life-ending Jyuuken punch to her own heart.
Finally, Kami answered her prayers when she noticed Sasuke and Gaara rubbing at their eyes furiously. Having an inkling as to what might be wrong with them, she excused herself from the green spandex-wearing taijutsu specialist and nearly skipped over to where her cousin was.
Placing a gentle hand on his arm, she asked, "Nii-san? A-are they okay?"
The older Hyuuga huffed. "I believe they're allergic to some of the more exotic flowers in the room, Hinata-sama."
Surely enough, once the Uchiha and Kazekage opened their eyes, they were irritated, red and teary. Hinata had a small smile on her face, despite the circumstances.
She dug into her purse and found what she had been looking for- allergy medicine and a small bottle of saline solution for allergy relief. She slowly approached the two and handed them two tablets each, which they eyed warily at first but took anyway. She then pro-offered the eye drops, explaining that it would help relieve the itch in their eyes. After another awkward silence, the eye lubricant was used, much to the joy of the happy heiress who enjoyed helping others.
However, that joy was short-lived once Ino and Sakura arrived. Ino had started to greet her friends and paused when she saw Gaara.
Distracted by Ino's silence, everyone stopped to stare at Sunagakure's Kage, former Shukaku vessel Gaara of the Sand, who greatly disliked being made the sudden center of attention.
Kankurou and Temari flanked to his sides in an instant observing the obvious changes. His hair was white, and his 'self-love' tattoo had been blanched... Kankurou thought his brother's new attributes made him look even MORE like the nickname given to him as a child...
Panda...
Panda!Gaara quirked a hairless brow, crossing his arms in displeasure. "What the hell are you all looking at?"
Looking into the eyeglasses of the Aburame bug ninja, he noted his appearance. His eyes widened a margin in surprise before scrutinizing the shy kunoichi, who began to fret over being observed under a pair of angry ice-blue eyes.
Sasuke was having troubles of his own. He had excused himself before the girls' arrival to use the restroom, and while he was washing his hands, his mood darkened. He really didn't want to come to this party, knowing it would be a waste of his time, especially since Ino and Sakura were only going to annoy him more than he already was. Working himself into a mild rage, he looked into the mirror in an attempt to calm himself down. Noticing only the three tomoe in his eyes and not the blood-red irises that accompanied them, Sasuke slammed the bathroom door open, causing everyone's eyes to fall away from Gaara and onto the white-eyed maniac standing in the middle of the room.
"AAAAACCCKKK! TEME'S A WHITE-EYED FREAK!" hollered Naruto, who then remembered he was in the presence of other white-eyed friends… "Um, no offense, Neji, Hinata-chan…"
Sasuke snapped. "YOU! WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME!" he screamed, as he tackled the startled girl to the floor. It took Lee, Neji and Kiba to bodily pry Hinata from his grasp, while Gaara was immobilized by Temari and Kankurou (just in case). Neji, Ino, Tenten, Shikamaru, Shino and Chouji formed a protective wall around Hinata while Sakura checked her for injuries.
"Are you okay, Hinata?" Sakura asked. "What happened?"
"I-I-I..." The stunned soft-eyed kunoichi struggled with her words while Tenten grabbed her another cup of iced tea. Hinata took a few tentative sips of the slightly bitter brew.
"A-allergy m-medicine... I g-gave them allergy medicine... a-and some e-eye drops..."
EYE DROPS! Hinata froze. She hurriedly scrambled for the saline solution looked at the label affixed to the bottle.
"Oh no..." she whispered blankly before falling to the floor; the meddling article falling out of her hands and scuttling across the floor near Shikamaru's feet.
Picking it up, Shikamaru examined the object and sighed. "How troublesome. I should've known."
VISINE: GETS THE RED OUT.
finito
Ehehehe... forgive me, Shoey! I couldn't conjure up a KabuHina, even though I tried...