a/n: okay, so I expect tons of reviews!!!!!!!
A Spark Within Insanity
She hated him. Period. Ever since she could remember, he resembled that block of an ice cube that she used to obsess over in her childhood. However, though she knew this wasn't the source of all her antagonism for the man, she wouldn't bring herself to admit otherwise. It was a perfectly feasible explanation and for the life of her, she wouldn't allow herself to accept anything else.
He was arrogant, stoic, and completely down-right repulsive. This, of course, was completely untrue, but she felt better placing those traits upon his characterization. If anything, one might deduce that she was jealous. And she was. Of course, she would never admit to that.
It would suffice to say that she possessed quite the competitive streak that couldn't be quelled ever since her appointment as ANBU captain within the last couple of months. Unfortunately, around the same time she'd risen to the ranks of the elite, he, too, achieved such a status. This irked her to no extent. She often wondered whether the man knew she was waging a silent competition as they both accepted mission after mission, gaining commendation and prestige within the ranks of the Konoha Black Ops. He never acknowledged such an issue, but his actions seemed to indicate otherwise.
He would smirk upon the returning of a successful mission so openly that she wondered whether his jaw was ever sore. She, in turn, would send a silent glare as they both reported to the Godaime the occurrences of their missions. All in one smirk, he seemed to crush the ounce of pride she gained from completing an equally dangerous and difficult mission. Consequentially, it seemed that it couldn't be helped. Haruno Sakura officially despised Hyuuga Neji.
It was at a moment like this that she couldn't decide which she despised more, the Hyuuga's presence or the lack of decision she possessed when attending such events. If Haruno Sakura only knew a couple of months a ago that she would be forced to spend her weekends on outings with the other ANBU captains, to promote unity between the leaders of "tomorrow" (whatever that meant), she would've immediately resigned her ANBU position. Unfortunately, she was in for the long haul.
So here she was again for the third time that month wondering whether if she stared at the wall hard enough, it would open up a hole to another dimension and take her along for the ride. Of course, this hadn't happen yet; otherwise, she wouldn't still be here with a glass of some lovely chardonnay within her grasps. She just simply deduced that she wasn't staring hard enough.
The other ANBU captains didn't seem remotely as miserable as she felt at the moment. She deemed it likely that there was something wrong with her, but there was something at the being sole outcast within a gathering that seemed to intrigue her, almost to a point that she was likely to perpetuate it. She sighed. Maybe she was becoming increasingly cynical, but the thought of being anywhere near a mile of the pompous arrogant jerk sent a bitter taste down her throat towards the pits of her stomach.
And speaking of pompous arrogant jerks, he was yonder gathered within a circle of men and women, conversing happily and peremptorily as if he was actually enjoying himself. Maybe he was. She could've cared less. It was in that split second that she caught his impressive pearly white eyes that she realized her mistake for the matter; Hyuuga Neji had just caught her staring at him.
She immediately regretted it. By the looks of things, he was muttering an apology and excused himself from the circle of popularity to move towards the seat beside her. She was suddenly reminded of a scene she saw in a movie at one time or another, where the lovely heroine and main character that came from poverty rose within the ranks of society after being courted by a savvy and rich young heir. She scoffed inwardly. Surely, she was delusional. The Hyuuga wouldn't sit next to her. For all she knew, they couldn't stand each other.
However, it was possible for the impossible to happen. He took a seat next to her, white calculating resting strangely upon her face. Now, it wasn't the extent of his scrutiny that sprouted the growing annoyance within her. It was more of the fact that those calculating eyes belonged to Hyuuga Neji.
With the finality of her last strand of patience, eyes burning with antagonism, she snapped, "May I help you?"
He seemed amused, almost aroused at her cynicism. Of course, this only served to fuel her hostility. "How many of those have you had?"
What the hell was he talking about? He had just gone up to her, stared at her in an undignified manner, and answered her question with another question! Oh god how she hated the man!
Giving the man an inquiring look, she managed to bite out an 'excuse me". His gaze fell down towards the shiny glass resting snuggling within her grip. "A few," she answered with an incredulous note hidden within her voice.
"How many is 'a few'?" he countered.
Scrunching up her nose in an undignified manner, she hesitated, seemingly counting, but silently simmering. "Why does it matter?" she asked bluntly.
By now, she finally realized something. His eyes had been gazing directly at her throughout his inquiry. She didn't know what to think. All she knew now that she was quite unnerved with the man. The Hyuuga seemed to be contemplating a response to her question.
Finally, he said, "Because it wouldn't look good if one of our ANBU captains were to hypothetically make a fool out of themselves."
She blinked. No really, she just literally blinked. She really did not expect that. She had to say, she was a little more than miffed. "Excuse me?" was all she managed to bite out.
He cleared is throat, then reiterated his response, "Because Haruno, it wouldn't be dignified if one of Konoha's ANBU captains were to…"
"No," she cut him off, "I heard you." Her voice was a little over a whisper, restrained to a very significant degree. By now, a very obvious frown had made its way onto her face as a very evident crease on her forehead made its display.
"Good," he stated, "I was just reevaluating your sense of judgment seeing that you've consumed quite a bit of alcohol."
Reevaluating my sense of judgment? Who the hell does he think he is? "Hyuuga, I appreciate your concern, but I am quite…no almost certain that my sense of judgment," she spat, "is perfectly fine. In fact, I believe that I am sober enough to make an exit." Downing the last of her chardonnay, she turned to him with a strict greeting, "Goodnight."
She could feel the burn of his gaze boring into her back as she slowly stalked away. And then, she heard his voice, "Let me escort you home." She paused in mid-stride, contemplating on his strange request.
"Suit yourself."
And then, they were off as the awkward tension intensified.
It was a long walk, one that she wished she declined in the first place. The two ANBU had failed to utter a single word since their departure from the outing. Now, she was contemplating resignation of her ANBU position. Unfortunately, she was certain that her shisou would reject her resignation by all the means at her disposal. She inwardly groaned. Why the hell did she let him walk her home in the first place? Actually, no, that wasn't the important question! Why the hell did he even offer to walk her home in the first place?!
Silently calculating the time before her dreadful walk home would end, she finally realized that they were now standing out in front of her porch. Releasing an unwarranted sigh, she quickly turned to go inside her home, overwhelmed with joy in departing the pompous jerk.
His voice broke the icy silence. "That's very polite of you."
She froze.
"The least you could do is to thank me for walking you back."
Who the hell is he to tell me where my manners lay? It's not as if he kept his manners at any level of decency around me?! Violently collecting her wits, she spun around to face him. Her breathing came out in sporadic short spurts as she spoke through gritted teeth. "Hyuuga-san," she took another deep breath, "thank you for escorting me home…" He nodded and turned to leave.
Now, she really could've spared herself the trouble by choosing to keep her trap shut as tightly as possible. However, this was not possible for two reasons, Haruno Sakura was under the influence of alcohol and number two, she really really hated Hyuuga Neji. So it was under these circumstances that the words escaped her lips before she could stop herself, "…..you jerk face."
Very mature indeed. The jerk face rotated around at a speed humanely impossible, shocked plastered within his pearly orbs.
The pink-haired kunoichi was seething now. Giving the man in insult one last ferocious glare, she spun on her heels and promptly slammed her front door in his face.
Hell had just froze over.
Okay, so she realized that her behavior had borderlined on bitchy. But, honestly, she couldn't help herself. Whenever she was around the man, she felt completely irritated even if he hadn't done a single thing. However, this was not the case that night. He had indeed been very politely rude to her (whatever that meant).
She had considered apologizing, but she'd be damned if she was to be put in a situation where she would have to spend more than five minutes with the man. In addition to that, she had done absolutely nothing to the man (unless of course that didn't include calling him a jerk face), but that was beside the point. He was rude to her!
Five minutes was enough to say a simple 'I'm sorry' right? So she decided she would be the better person and apologize (even if she had done absolutely nothing wrong). Of course, it would probably take her about four and a half minutes to actually get the words out. By that time, the words might drag the timing past her resistance. No, it simply wouldn't work.
Groaning loudly, her fist buried itself into the trunk of a poor helpless tree that was decimated before any tree hugger could say 'Save the Environment'. Sakura knew she was seconds away from completely turning into a deranged maniac. In any case, she knew it was completely her fault.
She was under the influence of alcohol which in turn completely overruled any decent courtesy that she was raised with. That however, was not a viable excuse for her behavior. She knew that she would have to apologize. That didn't imply though that she couldn't continue destroying the training grounds. So that's what she continued to do until the sun that day hovered above the horizon.
She berated herself endlessly traveling up the trail towards the doors of the Hyuuga branch house. She'd rehearsed her speech countless times within her head. Most of them began with 'I'm sorry I called you a jerk face', followed by a quick bow, and then she would bolt out of there before her pride was completely demolished. Though the scenarios differed somewhat, they were too similar in layout.
She truly was about to tear her own hair out, that is until she caught sight of the furnishing of the branch house doors. Sucking it up one last time, she wearily knocked on the shiny wood, hoping that there was a slight chance that he wasn't home. Catching wind of approaching footsteps, she took a deep breath.
The door creaked open as white pearly eyes peered out from behind the barricade. "Hi-i Sakura-san. A-are you hee-re to see me?" Well, she sure as hell didn't expect this. Wasn't this the branch house? What was Hinata doing here?
Flashing the girl a genuine smile, she spoke affectionately, "Unfortunately, this time I'm here to see Neji. But, I wouldn't mind seeing you, not in a million years. Actually, I'd prefer it if I were to see you over him." Pausing, she gauged the blue-haired girl's reaction. Hinata seem somewhat amused.
Smiling, the Hyuuga heiress bowed and stated that she would get her cousin for Sakura. It was unforutunate for Sakura for she deemed that this was her last and only chance to escape her apology, but as she was about to make a clean escape, the man in question came to the door. His eyes twinkled mischievously, as if he knew what she was contemplating the second before. Of course, she'd been prepared for that. What she wasn't prepared for, standing before her like Adonis, was a shirtless Hyuuga Neji.
"Haruno, I'd just been informed by my cousin that you're here to see me." That should've been a question, but somehow, miraculously the man managed to word that sentence into a statement, a very very intimidating statement.
Struggling to keep her eyes away from his torso (anything above the neck was fine), she stammered out, "Uh… yes." She could've sworn she was sweating. Did it suddenly get hot in here? Wait.. she was outside!
A pregnant pause overtook the atmosphere. "So I suppose your purpose here is to stand here and gape at me like a dead fish?" What the hell? What that sarcasm?
Clearing her throat, she stated in an utmost professional voice, "I came here to apologize for my poor behavior last night. I hope you would forgive me." Giving a sincere bow, she released a breath before she dared looking at his face again.
He certainly wasn't sympathizing. If she wasn't mistaken, he seemed rather amused by her apology. NO, she was NOT going to get angry. "Okay." That was it. No beginning, no end. Just a simple 'okay'. She supposed it was enough. Taking a another bow, she turned to leave, bottling up her newfound anger.
Maybe it was the walk down the trail. Maybe it was her apology. Whatever the case, Haruno Sakura had been hit with the biggest hailstorm in all of Konoha's history. It was definitely Hyuuga Neji; shirtless Hyuuga Neji to be exact. In all this turmoil, she'd never bothered to determine her source for her antagonism towards the man. Today, sauntering down the path away from his house, Sakura discovered a truly horrifying revelation; she was attracted to Hyuuga Neji.