A/N: To hell with author's notes.

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Neji POV

You know what I hate the most? Out of everything? When stupid people who should know better shatter your solitude. Guess what I was enjoying? Guess what Hanabi was doing?

3rd POV

"Neji!" she screamed, banging her fist on the door of his room. "I know you're in there!"

"That doesn't mean I can hear you, though, does it? I could be listening to music. As a matter a fact, I am." he called through the door in a much less frustrated voice than he thought he was capable of right then.

"Neji, open the door, and listen to music later! I got something to tell you." Neji sighed and, resisting the urge to open the door and throw them in her face, let his drum sticks drop from his hands to the floor. He pushed the pause button on his Walkman(1), got up off of the stool in front of his drum set and walked over to the door.

"What do you want, Hanabi?" he said in tired tone.

"Didn't I just say I had to tell you something? Open the goddamn door!"

"Now, now Hanabi," he scolded, reluctantly complying, "I think you'd better watch that mouth of yours. We wouldn't want daddy to hear us, now would we?" She rolled her eyes.

"Fuck you. You're chaperoning me and my friends at the concert downtown." She said, getting straight to the point.

"Really? Hmm, why do I think I'm not?" He said, preparing to shut the door in her face.

"Because you're stupid." She said, holding out her hand and stopping it before he could.

"Hey, I'm not the one who dresses like a whore." He commented.

"These are low riding hip huggers, the thong is supposed to show, duh! Dumbass." she said.

"Hanabi, go away before I make sure your father hears about that filthy mouth of yours." Her eyes narrowed.

"Then I'll tell him you called me a whore." She replied in a very aggravating tone. Neji sighed inwardly, knowing that this was a battle he could not win. Hanabi gleaned from his demeanor that she had won. She flashed him a victorious smile. "Great. We're waiting by the car." She said as she started off down the hall.

"What! Now?"

"Yeah! And hurry up; we're already, like, ten minutes late for this damn thing!" Neji swore loudly, startling one of the maids passing by, who almost dropped the laundry basket she was carrying. She quickly handed it to him and darted off. Neji closed the door and dumped the contents of the basket on the floor. Then he dove for clothes.

He came up about three minutes later, wearing a pair of baggy black cargo pants and a T-shirt that read 'Go Be Stupid Somewhere Else'. He grabbed his CD player and a jacket, then on impulse shoved his drumsticks in his pockets and walked down to where his cousin and her friends were waiting, putting on his jacket and sticking his headphones in his ears on the way.

"Took you long enough." Hanabi said in greeting, peeling her back off of the idling vehicle.

"Hi Neji." Said one of the girls amongst the titters of the rest of Hanabi's posse, looking down at her hands and blushing. Oh god, not another one. Almost all of Hanabi's friends had developed what they called a "crush" on him. He pretended to be oblivious and normally just didn't pay attention to any of them.

But he guessed the way the girl fidgeted reminded him of a younger Hinata, because he forced a smile into his voice and after a moment of racking his brain for a name, said "Hey, Kira-chan. How you doin'?"

"F-fine." She replied faintly as the rest of the girls went into hysterics at him actually speaking and not just nodding or grunting.

"Omygod he actually spoke to you!"

"He called you Kira-chan!"

"He is so hot…"

Neji cast a pained look at Hanabi, who shrugged and rolled her eyes. "C'mon girls, let's get in the truck." She said.

"Wait, Hanabi, we're taking the Hummer?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"Does your dad know?" He said skeptically. The H2 was his uncle, Hisashi's car.

"He's out of town. And he doesn't have to know." She said sweetly.

"You know I hate this…thing, and that's why you chose it, right?" Neji asked dryly.

"Just drive Neji."

------IIII

Neji pushed up the sleeves of his jacket to his elbows, displaying his muscled drummer's forearms as he tried fruitlessly to tune out the conversation about him going on in the back seat. It was obvious that Hanabi's friends had no idea that they weren't whispering, because every now and then they would say things related to him that would make a pedophile want to cover his ears. Finally, Hanabi did something.

"Guys!" she whispered fiercely, "that's my cousin you're talking about! Gross! And besides, we can hear you up hear." This shut them up very quickly.

"Are we near Myron Blvd. yet?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"…'Cause that's where we're supposed to-"

"I know where we're going, Hanabi, will you stop nagging me?" said a frustrated Neji to the occupant of the passenger seat.

"I was only trying to help." She huffed, crossing her arms.

"Backseat driving never helps."

"…"

"…"

"Actually, it would be called front seat driving because I'm in the fro-"

"Hanabi! Shut up! If I hit somebody because of you I swear I'll-" but Neji was never able to finish his threat but at that precise moment a motorcycle pulled out in front of them, causing him to have to step abruptly on the brakes. "HEY! WHAT THE FUCK MAN!" Neji yelled, sticking his head out of his open window and glaring. The guy on the motorcycle turned his un-helmeted head, looked at Neji and then flipped him off before speeding off into the night. Neji leaned his head back inside the car.

"Is everybody alright?" he asked, looking at the girls in the backseat. They nodded their shaky affirmation. Neji turned toward Hanabi. "You okay kid?"

"I'm fine. This is Myron. Turn a left here." She said. For once, Neji complied without any hesitation and turned in the same direction the motorcycle had gone.

"Red-headed bastard." He muttered under his breath.

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There.

(1) Walkman equals CD player.