Happy Halloween! Or close enough.

Disclaimer: The Naruto franchise does not belong to me. I make no profit from this story.

"Tenten, you're late." Neji stated coldly. He did not approve of lateness.

She brushed him off. "Yeah, I know. I got caught up in something."

"You will be staying late so that we can complete the normal training session." Neji stated, oblivious to the possibility that she might refuse.

"No."

Neji blinked in surprise, as much of a reaction as he ever showed. "What did you say?"

"I said 'No.' Unless …" her voice trailed off, waiting for him to ask.

And ask he did. "Unless what?"

"How about we put a little wager on this battle? If you win, I'll train as much as you like. If I win …"

"If you win, what?" Neji demanded, impatient.

"If I win, you have to go to the Halloween ball in the costume of my choice."

Neji barely had to think. Why should he? He always won their matches, so why did it matter what the consequences would be if he lost? "Agreed."

At the moment, he was regretting that one word with all of his being. It had not occurred to him that Tenten was no idiot, and knowing that she never won, decided to fight dirty. And here he was: it was Halloween, and Tenten had a very scary look on her face.

"Sit." She ordered. Neji sat, swallowing hard. Her dresser was covered in a variety of bottles, brushes, pencils, something that looked like it was for torturing people but she said was for curling eyelashes… Was she actually going to put make-up on him? And curl his eyelashes? And spray him with perfume? And make him go to the Halloween ball dressed as a girl? Unfortunately, the answer to all those questions seemed to be yes.

Kiba stopped dead, his eyes traveled up and down the tall newcomer, lingering here and there in appreciation. She was seriously hot! Long, silky hair of the richest brown fell gracefully to her waist. Her face had delicate features, with large lavender eyes that looked almost vulnerable at the moment. Her flawless, pale skin was accented by a slight pink blush. Her dress was long, falling to the floor with an easy grace, and was colored a delicate lilac that set off her eyes perfectly. The material was thin, and draped itself effortlessly over the slim build of the girl in front of him. He had always like tall girls. Especially tall girls with long hair. And this one was drop-dead gorgeous.

Kiba had to suppress a growl as he noticed that most of the males in the room were ogling the new girl, some more obviously than others. Jealousy surged. He was going to be the one to capture her heart. Looking around, he saw Hinata. "Hey Hinata!" he called to his teammate.

"Yes, Kiba-kun?"

"Hey, why don't you introduce me to the pretty Hyuuga girl? I don't think I've seen her before."

"Hyuuga girl?" Hinata enquired, puzzled.

"Yeah the one in the purple dress."

Following Kiba's pointing finger, Hinata gasped, blushed, and fainted.

"Hey! What did you do to Hinata-chan?" Naruto glared.

Kiba held his hands up in front of him. "I didn't do anything! I just asked her who the pretty Hyuuga girl in the purple dress was, and she fainted."

Still looking suspicious, Naruto scooped up the shy Hyuuga in his arms and headed outside, muttering about fresh air. Kiba didn't mind. Naruto could have Hinata; Kiba was more interested in the newcomer. Damn! She was hot, whoever she was.

Kiba started weaving his way through the crowd, trying to make his way to the girl, but he was interrupted by Sai, wearing his normal fake smile. "Do you know who the ugly Hyuuga girl in the purple dress is?"

"Are you gay or something? She's hot!" Come to think of it, Sai had called Sakura ugly, maybe he actually was gay. That would explain all his comments about Naruto's … equipment.

Sai just shrugged, still smiling and avoided the question. "She's the only one here I didn't know, so I was curious as to who she was."

"I was just going to talk to her, so if you'll excuse me?" Kiba left before Sai could respond. He wove his way through the crowd, determined to get to the girl before any other male could get to her. The one thing that was bugging him was that the girl seemed slightly familiar, but he shook himself out of it. It's probably just the family resemblances to the other two Hyuugas he knew, he decided. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen Neji yet. Oh well. That guy was no fun anyways; no one would miss him if he didn't show up to a party. But this new Hyuuga girl, now she looked like a whole different story.

Meanwhile with Neji, Lee didn't seem to recognize his teammate.

"My most youthful blossom of youth!" Lee cried, dressed as always in his green bodysuit even though it was supposed to be a costume party. "Your eyes remind me of delicate lilac flowers; your smile could light the world for a whole year! Your skin is like fine porcelain; your hair looks as soft as the softest lambs' wool!"

Neji was at a loss for words, just staring at his teammate with a horrified expression. But Lee didn't seem to notice, continuing his monologue enthusiastically. "If you will just grace me with your name, I vow to protect you with my very life! I will go to the ends of the earth and back again for you, my love!"

Neji still hadn't recovered his voice, but he had the use of his hands, and that was all he needed. Wordlessly, he sent his teammate flying through the air, arching over the crowds to land on the other side of the room. Meanwhile, Neji fled in utter mortification. Could this party get worse?

Kiba reached the corner where the mysterious goddess had been standing, and growled in frustration. She wasn't here. Where did she go? Normally he could use his nose to find someone, but there were so many people, and he hadn't gotten a good whiff of her. Though he was sure that she would smell good. How could she not when she was as hot as that? He turned slowly in place, scanning he crowd for that purple dress and rich brown hair. It shouldn't be that hard to find her right? She was taller than most of the girls he knew, just the way he liked. There she was! She was talking to Tenten.

"Enjoying the party?" Tenten asked, voice dripping with honey.

Neji gave her his best icy glare, but it didn't seem to faze her.

"You know, I'm surprised you don't have a suitor or two following you around. You make a cute girl, you know."

"I had a suitor." Neji ground out between his teeth which were clenched together so tightly that they creaked in his attempt not to attack his teammate in the middle of the Halloween party.

"Where is he?" Tenten asked, craning her neck around. "Was he hot?"

"It was Lee." Neji growled.

Tenten doubled over in laughter, clutching her stomach, tears dripping from her eyes. The thought of Lee courting Neji was just too much. Oh what she would have given to be there and see it with her own eyes!

Shikamaru cracked one eye open. Tenten's laughter had woken him from his nice nap. What was she laughing so much at? She seemed to be laughing at a Hyuuga girl he didn't know. Wait a minute. That wasn't a girl; that was Neji. Neji was wearing a dress. Why, Shikamaru didn't know. And he didn't really want to know. It would just be too troublesome to get involved. His eye slid closed once more. Next to him, Choji kept on munching away, oblivious to everything but his food.

Kiba finally managed to maneuver his way through the throng of people to reach the mysterious Hyuuga beauty. "Hello there, beautiful. I haven't seen you around before, and I would have remembered someone as gorgeous as you." Kiba spoke to her. "Would you do me the favor of introducing us?" He asked Tenten.

"This is, … Akari."

Neji desperately wanted to glare at Tenten for giving him such a girly name, but he seemed to have been paralyzed by Kiba's flirting. Oh, kami, how he wanted the ground to just swallow him up. This was utterly mortifying.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Kiba lifted Neji's fingers, kissing his hand, while giving a flirtatious smile.

Tenten was about to die from trying to hold the laughter in.

Neji was about to kill her for this whole fiasco. But at the moment, he was trying to figure out which would be more mortifying: telling Kiba who he was, or playing along and pretending to be a girl. But he couldn't really make his voice sound feminine, so that decided it for him: option three: flee.

Kiba watched in consternation as his beautiful goddess fled. He turned in confusion to Tenten, who was now rolling on the floor, laughing so hard that tears were streaming from her eyes.

"What did I do?" Kiba asked plaintively.

Tenten just kept laughing.

A/N: If you want to see Neji in his dress, you can see it on my deviantART page ( h and then a t and then a t and then a p : / / autumn-is-beautiful. deviantart. c o m ) just remove the 'and then's and spaces