A/N: Happy birthday AWickedMemory! (I fixed it this to show your new user name ^^) My gift to you. The second part will be up soon because I wanted to make sure to post at least part one on your actual birthday. Also, there is a certain person missing from part one, but that just makes the suspense build up even more!

A/N #2: Characters may be slightly OOC and I apologize for that, but it is an AU so that shouldn't be as bad…oh, and I made Sakura and Neji best friends, sort of. I don't know pairings include: (eventual) ShikaNeji, KanKarin, TenTem, Saku/?? and others.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any songs I reference in this story.

"Speaking"

"Thinking"

/action/

emphasis

Smashing Blue

"What are you doing?" asked a very annoyed Hyuuga upon seeing the back of a stranger throwing his clothes randomly behind them.

"Raiding your closet," came a voice from behind him, "what does it look like?"

Startled, Neji turned around to come face to face with a smirking girl with bright pink hair. He stood in front of Sakura, his mouth hanging open slightly in puzzlement at the implication of her words.

Shaking his head from side to side quickly to get out of his stupor, Neji glanced over his shoulder once and turned back to Sakura.

"Why are you raiding my closet?" he asked, his teeth grinding together and his anger rising due to this sudden intrusion on his room and privacy.

"And who the hell is in there?" He pointed an accusatory finger at his open closet doors at the same time as one of his t-shirts was thrown in his face.

Removing the shirt with more force than necessary, Neji was about to stride forward and stop the mysterious person from tossing anymore of his clothes on the floor and furniture, but Sakura laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Our plan's been foiled Tenten, you can come out of the closet now," the young woman said to her partner in crime.

A resounding "damn" was heard from the closet and out stepped Tenten, dark hair piled rather sloppily on top of her head in her standard two buns, "Sakura you know I've been out of the closet for five years now." She winked suggestively at the other girl while Sakura just rolled her eyes.

Tenten shrugged her shoulders innocently and turned to the person whose closet she had been ravaging.

"Hi Neji, how've you been?" She looked at him with the face of a child whose hand has just been caught in the cookie jar but who knows there is still a chance to make a break for it.

"Dandy," he deadpanned. "Now, why are two in my room and why, Tenten, did you decide to imitate a tornado in my closet."

The two girls looked at each other and then back at Neji. Sakura spoke first as she walked up to him and put an arm around his shoulder. "To put it simply, we, as your closest friends, decided that you need a break."

"Yeah," Tenten continued, walking up to his other side and propping her elbow on his shoulder, "You've been cooped up in your room for the past three weeks. We've hardly seen you and you haven't even IMed or texted. We were worried."

Neji turned to her and glared, "That's because I was trying to finish my thesis. It is imperative that I finish it because it will impact my final grade and help me get into graduate school. A good graduate school at that. I haven't thought about anything else because this is what is most important."

Sakura grabbed his chin and turned his head so he was facing her. "More important than your sanity?"

"Yes," he replied without hesitation.

"Well, either way, you're done with your thesis, right?" asked Tenten.

Neji shook off Sakura's grip on his chin and turned to face Tenten. "I've completed the third draft and sent it to my advisor but—"

"Good!" Sakura exclaimed and turned Neji around to face her again. "Then you won't mind taking a well-deserved break for all your hard work. Tenten and I were really hoping you would say "yes" so we'd be able to catch up and all. What do you say?"

Neji narrowed his eyes, knowing Sakura was up to something, especially since she was using the "all teeth and no lips" smile.

"Well…if it's only a small break…."

"Wonderful!" Sakura let go of Neji so suddenly that he stumbled into Tenten who made sure to get a good grip on his arms to keep him from falling over. She turned back to Tenten who was still holding on Neji.

"It's settled then," she beamed. "You're going clubbing with us."

Neji's eyes went wide. "What?! I did not agree to that!"

He struggled against Tenten's grip but was unable to break free from the young woman. She was on the university judo team for a reason.

"You heard Sakura, we're going clubbing. Why do you think I was in your closet? It wasn't because I suddenly had an urge to cross-dress."

Neji tried to glare at Tenten but couldn't because she was behind him and still held him in a tight grip. "You had no right to go through my things and I am not going clubbing!"

Sakura, who had taken over Tenten's job of going through Neji's clothes while he bantered with the brunette, now stood up and walked over to the two and pointed her finger right in Neji's face.

"Yes. You are. You already agreed to take a break. It's not our fault that you didn't wait to hear what was in store," Sakura paused as she noticed a figure walk by past the door. "Oh look, our reinforcements have arrived just in time."

"What reinforcements? Get off me Tenten, I mean it." Neji said as he attempted to look over his shoulder unsuccessfully at the young woman who had now managed to lock his arms firmly behind his back.

Sakura smiled at Neji. "You'll know soon enough."

She walked out into the hallway and shouted at the retreating figure, "Hey Sandman! In here!"

Neji's eyes widened.

"No. Not him." He said this more to himself than to Tenten, but she heard him anyway.

"Aww, what's the matter Neji-kun?" Tenten looked at the door over his shoulder as Sakura walked in followed by a tall young man who clearly sported makeup on his, more even than Sakura had on. "I thought you and Kankuro were friends?"

"I wouldn't exactly go that far," Kankuro said as he set down the case he had been carrying onto Neji's desk. "More like acquaintances, really. It's not my fault that he doesn't hang out with me. I'd want to hang out with me."

"You'd also want to have sex with yourself if it was physically possible," Neji retorted.

Kankuro smirked. "Yeah, well even then, I'd still be getting more than you."

Sakura was about to open her mouth and tell Kankuro and Neji that the teasing had gone too far when she saw the latter turn his head away.

"What?" Kankuro asked, then smirked. "No comeback? Or you just can't come?"

/punch/

"Ow! What was that for?!" Kankuro rubbed his shoulder where Tenten had just punched him. Hard.

"For being a dumbass!" Tenten said and punched him again. "Not everyone is a man-slut like you so just leave it."

"Man-slut?! If I'm a man-slut then you're a…."

Sakura turned to Neji while those two continued to argue. "It's okay, you know, being single. I'm single and I'm perfectly fine with—"

"I'm fine with being single, Sakura," Neji interrupted her.

"So what aren't you fine with?" she prompted, wanting to know what was bothering her friend.

Neji closed his eyes and shook his head. "Kankuro is a dumb ass, but he wasn't off the mark. Being single means I won't be disappointed when I put myself out there and everything goes wrong."

"Aww, Neji, dating isn't always easy," Sakura soothed. "It's hard to find someone you have a real connection with. Believe me, I know."

"And it's even harder when you're looking among your own sex, not knowing who's genuinely interested or who just wants to use your body or who still thinks of you as a freak. I'd rather be practical by staying single and not have to deal with any of it."

"But if you did that, you'd still be missing out on someone who's genuinely interested in you," Sakura replied.

"Maybe," said Neji, "or maybe not. I'll take that chance, though. Even if it does get a bit lonely sometimes, I'm still happy where I am, Sakura."

"Whatever you say…" she said, leaving the conversation for another time because right now, she had work to do.

Turning around to where Tenten and Kankuro were still going at it, she shouted, "Leave it you two! The club opens in two hours and you know how the line gets. So, let's fix up Neji and get out here."

"Look," Neji began in an attempt to thwart Sakura's plan once more and move further away from the topic of his social life or lack thereof, "You all obviously want to go clubbing. I do not. So why don't you use the time you were going to spend on getting me ready by getting yourselves ready."

Sakura just smiled. "We're already ready, Neji."

"What…" his voice tapered off as he noticed, for the first time, exactly what everyone was wearing. Sakura sported knee-high black boots that complimented the black shorts and skirt combo she was also wearing along with a slim burgundy and gold sleeveless top.

Tenten had chosen a formfitting Mandarin-style dress with blue and green hues that stopped mid-thigh. Like Sakura, she, too, wore knee-high boots except hers were white.

But if anyone looked like they were about to go clubbing, it was Kankuro.

He wore a sleeveless black graphic tank with some band's image and name Neji had never heard of printed on it. Tattoos of various desert attributes and animals were now visible on his arms due to this shirt choice. His dirty-blonde hair, usually hidden underneath a hoodie, was gelled to appear as if a nuclear bomb had dropped on it, it was going in ithat/i many directions. Not only that, but his hair also sported red tips.

But the pièce de résistance was Kankuro's pants.

They were leather.

"When did you do this?" Neji asked while silently thinking to himself, "And how did Kankuro get into those pants?"

Sakura rolled her eyes as she grabbed Neji and shoved him into a chair.

"We got ready this afternoon because we knew it would take a while to convince you to come with us. And it would take even longer to make you over."

Neji turned and looked at the pink-haired girl standing behind him. "I still haven't agreed to—"

Sakura interrupted Neji as she whispered to him, "You're going to come with us, Neji. Admit it, you need to stop being a recluse and go out and have fun. You can't be afraid to try something new…."

"I am not afraid," he said vehemently.

Sakura just raised an eyebrow in response and watched as Neji's eyes wavered slightly to show his uneasiness, but he didn't turn away from her.

"Okay. Look, the club we're going to is very…how shall I put it? Open to everyone. Nobody in there cares about labels or stereotypes. They may care about your dancing skills since that's what the club is all about, but trust me, you're not going to stand out. You don't have to do anything you don't want to. And you'll be with the three of us. Don't you think you've been alone long enough?"

She looked at him and awaited his answer, but his face gave nothing away.

Taking a breath, Neji sighed because he knew that Sakura was right. They had been friends for years because they always knew what the other needed to hear and Neji had been avoiding this particular conversation for a long time.

"Fine," he said. "I'll go to the club with you."

"Wonderful!" Sakura clapped her hands and turned around to talk to Kankuro.

"I will not promise to enjoy myself, though," Neji said after her before muttering to himself, "It's highly unlikely that I will anyway."

"Tenten, put together an outfit," Sakura ordered. "Kankuro, do your magic."

"Excellent," said the Sandman as he donned gloves and approached the back of Neji's chair with a bottle in each hand.

"I'm going to regret this," Neji thought and closed his eyes not wanting to know anything that Kankuro, Sakura, and Tenten were doing.

An hour or so later…

"I can't believe you dyed my hair!" shouted a voice from behind the open closet doors.

"Get over it!" Tenten shouted back.

"It's only a few highlights, Neji." Sakura tried to quell his anger.

"Yeah, really," put in Kankuro. "And it's a fantastic dye job, too, for what I had to work with."

Neji's head, now sporting blue streaks in his dark brown hair, poked out from behind the door.

"Are you insinuating something, Subaku?" He narrowed his eyes.

Kankuro crossed his arms. "What if I am, Hyuuga?"

Sakura let her head fall back and raised her arms to the ceiling and asked, "Why me?"

She lowered her head and looked at Neji. "For the tenth time, the color washes out. Now, finish putting on the outfit Tenten chose for you."

Neji glared but he did like he was told, not wanting to incur the wrath of Sakura any more than he already had.

"Besides," Tenten piped in, "The color looks good on you, and it matches the outfit perfectly!"

A grunt was her only response.

Kankuro looked at his watch. "We're gonna be late if he doesn't get his ass moving."

"So you have to wait an extra ten minutes to get laid," Sakura replied. "I think you can handle that…at least I hope you can." She looked at him suspiciously while Tenten snickered.

"Alright. We can go."

All three students stopped bickering and turned toward the voice. What they saw actually surprised them. Well, the girls anyway. Kankuro just looked smug and pleased with his dye job.

"Neji," Sakura began, "you look…."

"Hot." Tenten finished.

Sakura and Kankuro both looked at her strangely while Neji raised an eyebrow, not expecting that answer.

"What?" she asked innocently. "He does. If I didn't like girls and was single, I'd take him in a womanly fashion right here, right now."

"Uh, yeah," Sakura attempted to change the topic. "What Tenten means is that you look good, Neji. You're set for your first club!"

Sakura had to thank Tenten for putting together a look that suited her best friend quite well. His hair was loose instead of pulled back like he normally wore it. The few new highlights were indigo blue and blended in well with his dark hair. They matched the dark blue shirt button-up shirt Neji also wore. The sleeves were rolled up to his elbows and the top few buttons undone to reveal a tight black t-shirt. This combined with the tight but not too tight black pants that he also sported and Sakura had to admit that Tenten was right.

Neji looked damn sexy.

"Let's get this over with," Neji stated and the four of them headed out to the club.

* * *

Waiting in line outside the club, Sakura put her arm through Neji's and looked up at him.

He did not look happy.

"C'mon Neji, give it a chance," Sakura started. "You never know, you may end up having a good time."

He turned his head and looked at her. "I doubt that."

"I know I'll have a good time," Kankuro shouted over his shoulder at them. "I'm meeting up with Karin and getting some tonight. Oh yeah."

Tenten scoffed. "Didn't she break up with you last week?"

Kankuro brushed her off. "Nah, she was just in a bad mood. She'll be all over me and begging to take me back to her place the moment she sees me."

"Whatever you say." Tenten rolled her eyes. "At least, my girlfriend never kicked me out of bed twice in the same night."

Kankuro's eyes went wide as he turned toward the young woman beside him. "That was one time. One time! Stop reminding me!"

"Then stop telling your sister about your "nightly exploits." You know it just gets thrown back in your face." Tenten smirked.

"I should have never introduced you two." Kankuro shook his head.

Behind them, Neji turned to Sakura. "Promise me one thing."

"Sure," she said.

"You won't leave me alone with him," he said and pointed to Kankuro.

Sakura chuckled. "Okay, okay. I won't leave you alone with Kankruo. And I won't abandon you tonight, either. But who knows, Neji. Maybe you'll meet someone who'll steal your attention away from us?"

"I highly doubt that is going to happen."

"Whatever you say," Sakura replied as the bouncer opened the club door in front of them.

The four friends walked into the club, as the music drifted outside and the neon blue lights of club's name "Smashing Blue" shown down on them.

To be continued in part two.

And yes, the title is taken from the song "Smashing Blue" as heard in Gravitation. I don't own that either. ^^