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He stared for a long while.
It was a small party (Team 10 were the only attendees), and that wasn’t what he was staring at. It was a small cake, his favorite kind (no doubt Chouji knew where to find something like that), and that wasn’t what he was staring at. Well, not really.
No, the thing he was staring at was not so much the cake itself as it was what was on the cake.
Candles. Lots and lots of candles.
He counted.
Yes, they actually had gone and made it the full twenty-nine candles. Twenty-nine very thick candles, candles designed more for lighting a room than a cake.
He sighed, and stared blankly across the table at the kids.
They stared blankly back. Well, at least Shikamaru did; the others just blinked at him, innocent and doe-eyed (or as close as they could manage with that pure evil glinting from the corner of their eyes).
"You three..." He laughed. "You just want to make me feel old, don’t you?"
Shikamaru smirked. Ino smiled a very cold smile. He suddenly realized that this was what vengeance was like from a Nara and Yamanaka when you made them share a birthday party to save on spending.
Or at least a Yamanaka - he doubted Shikamaru would have done anything if he hadn’t been forced into it. Ino was very forceful like that, at times. He turned to his final student.
"Et tu, Chouji?"
Chouji just grinned.
"Happy birthday, Asuma-sensei!"