A/N: This is Neji's point of view of the story "Nejikun: You Will Love Me." My bff and I are "coauthoring" it, so please read and review! Oh, and I personally think this chapter is a little better if you've read the first chapter of Nejikun before you read this one. It gets much better, sorry if the first chapter doesn't hook you right away -sweatdrop-

I walked into the room, to wake up the kunoichi slumbering on our wedding bed.

"Wake up, Ino-chan."

"Uhhhhh, five more minutes dad," she mumbled. I grabbed her shoulder and tried to gently shake her into consciousness.

"Ugh, we were out late last night," she whined when she realized it was me.

"Wake up," I said again, ignoring the trivial fact that we were indeed up into the early hours of the morning the night before, going to the wedding celebration.

Ino continued to argue against me, not even giving a care when I pointed out that she was acting extremely immature.

When she kept resisting me, I simply glared at her and left the room. I had lost the patience to continue arguing with her.

---

Flashback.

"Hinata, why do you think this is happening to me?" I asked. The arranged marriage was constantly on my mind, I needed to discuss it just so I could focus on my training.

"I don't know, Neji-kun," Hinata replied. I always talked to Hinata whenever I had troubles, however much I envied her the main branch, no, I won't be envious, but anyway, she was always very thoughtful and wise, and a good listener.

"Hm," I hummed, as we sat on the porch in our compound. The sakura trees in the courtyard were just blooming, and the pink flowers were exquisite.

"I just don't understand it, Hinata. Why must I be chosen to marry that Ino-pig?"

"I don't know either, Neji. But…"

"What Hinata?"

"Well, wouldn't it be much better to just make the best of it? Since you're stuck that way…"

"I suppose…" I said with a sigh, knowing she was right.

End Flashback

---

"Neji, don't look at me like you hate me," Ino said.

What is she thinking? I don't HATE her…

"You're not joking that you can't cook?" I said.

"I'm not joking, I really can't cook," She said.

Great. This is not what I had hoped for.

"It's really not proper for girls not to cook the meals, so you should try anyway," I said.

"I don't really care what is proper and what isn't," she snapped. How rude! How dare she! Stupid Ino-pig…

"You should care," I said, my voice growing cold with annoyance.

"You shouldn't," Ino snapped, attempting but failing to copy my tone of voice.

"Come on," I said, standing up. Ino got up and followed me. I decided to lead her to the kitchen. Maybe just being there would make it easier to convince her to try.

We walked down the hallway, which was decorated with purple carpet and cream colored walls. After I turned the corner at the bottom of a flight of a small spiral staircase, I realized she had lost sight of me.

"Ino, this way," I called. Soon she turned into the doorway and blinked in the brightly lit room. "This is the kitchen," I said.

Ino crossed her arms and glared at me.

"I told you, I don't know how to cook," she said, sounding exasperated.

"You can try," I insisted, annoyed that she wouldn't even try. Couldn't she just quit obsessing about how she can't do something for once?

"I have tried. And it never works out!" she said stubbornly, simply refusing to honor me one request.

I sighed and then addressed her pitiful argument, "I'm leaving, I'll be back by lunch, so you'll have plenty of time to work on a meal. I suggest you start working on one now if your cooking skills are as bad as you make them sound."

"Wait, where are you going?!" Ino demanded. I could tell she was staring at me in disbelief as I walked out. I was fed up with her crap.

"Don't just leave me here all by myself," Ino said, coming up to me and clinging to my shirt sleeve.

"Hn. I'm just going to go train," I said, praying that this pitiful creature would just grow up and start acting like my wife should.

"You're going to train all day?" she asked, looking as if she was afraid of even the thought of being alone.

"I train every day," I said. Ino looked like she was about to suffer a mental breakdown, so I added, "You don't have to stay here all day. You can come and go as you please, I'm just expecting dinner when I get home."

"I can't cook," She whined, going straight back to that pitiful argument. I just sighed and walked away, no longer willing to deal with this level of disrespect. After all, she was my wife.

"Neji?" I heard her call after me. I didn't say anything, I was finished with that conversation long before it actually ended. And so I walked up the stairs and out the door to walk to our private training area.

---

When I arrived at our private training grounds, I stopped for a minute just to enjoy the silence.

As I stretched my arms above my head, I thought about how I was going to deal with the constant little breakdowns Ino was having.

Ino, you puzzle me. I thought. Resolving that it would pass in time, as Ino adjusted to living at the Hyuuga complex and started living up to expectations, I moved on to my training.

Settling into position for my sixty-four palm jutsu, I prepared to incapacitate the wooden stake in front of me that represented a human being that I might meet in combat.

Although most people would acknowledge that I had all of my techniques down to a 'T,' it was necessary that I continue training to improve agility and to maintain stamina.

After about a half an hour of disheveling wooden stakes, Hinata showed up.

"Where have you been?" I asked without breaking my pose. Hinata and I trained together every day, but she hadn't shown up on time today.

"I…I was training with Naruto-kun," Hinata said, blushing slightly.

I looked away with slight annoyance at her childishness, but it didn't matter and I immediately moved on.

"Are you ready to train now?" I asked.

"H-Hai," she replied. Although she stuttered she sounded more confident than she does most times.

We spent the next hour in combat, and I was surprised to find that Hinata was able to go the entire time without a break.

"Hinata, your technique has improved. Is this from training with Naruto?"

"I think so. Naruto…Naruto-kun helps me with my self confidence. It gives me the strength to fight ten minutes longer, if I have to."

"Well, if this improvement keeps up, I think you should continue to train with Naruto." I determined that perhaps Hinata's foolish crush on Naruto might end up for the better.

"Hai, Neji-kun!" Hinata said, happy that I seemed to approve of Naruto.

"Well, let's stop early for today. I suppose for once we can celebrate improvement."

"Okay, Neji-kun," Hinata said, and went off to get some tea. We always ended our training sessions with a cup of her tea.

As we set out on the porch sipping tea, I watched the cherry blossoms bob in a breeze. It was a beautiful day, and I considered taking Ino out to set on the porch and sip some tea also. Perhaps it would calm her nerves.

---

When I went back into my apartment of the Hyuuga complex, I called out to find where Ino was. I wasn't soothed by the smell of a meal in process as I had hoped, but I suppose I can't have expected her to magically develop cooking skills in one morning.

"Ino?"

"In the kitchen!" she called back.

At least she was trying. I suppose I can give her credit for that. However, I couldn't help but wrinkle my nose a little bit when I walked into the kitchen.

"Did you follow the recipe?" I asked, but apparently that was the wrong thing to say because a look of irritation shadowed her pretty face.

"Yes," she said spitefully.

"What is it supposed to be?" I asked.

Unfortunately, this made it worse. She fought tears for a few seconds, then broke down in sobs right in front of my eyes.

"Why are you crying?" I asked. She seemed to be taking everything I said personally.

"I-I-I can't c-c-c-c-cook to save m-m-m-my life!" she stuttered through sobs.

"We could go out to eat today, and I could hire a maid," I said with a sigh, wishing she would just stop crying and get over this most recent meltdown.

"You would?" she asked, rubbing her eyes and sniffling.

"Sure," I said.

"Where are we going to eat at?" She asked, recovering more quickly than I could have expected with my quick-fix.

"Wherever you'd like," I said.

"So we don't have to go eat barbeque?" she asked. Why I would have forced her to eat barbeque, I don't know.

"Not if you don't want to."

"Ok," she agreed. Then she jumped up and hugged me, quite by my surprise. As an automatic reaction, I stiffened and she stepped back and apologized. Avoiding my eyes, she stood there awkwardly.

"Hn," I hummed in acknowledgment of her apology.

There was an awkward silence before I began to walk towards the door.

"Let's go, then," I said. She nodded and headed out the door behind me.

As we walked towards the main entrance to the Hyuuga compound, I once again thought about Ino's unexpected reactions. She overreacted to everything, and she would have to get over it or I don't know if I'd be able to handle having her around 24/7.

Ino, I will teach you how to be a good wife, or so help me, I will lose my mind.

A/N: Well, I hope you enjoyed the first installment in our story!

rae-chan