Next up for kissing goodness :) I don't know if this is T or M. I think I'm gonna revisit it later, so I'm gonna mark it M, and incomplete. Lemme know what you think and I might keep going. Cheers!


Red.

That was the color flashing adamantly behind her pupils, causing her to feel overheated to the point of dizzy...

After a long day of work Sakura had merely wanted to meet her friends at their usual restaurant and have a nice, relaxing dinner and a beer. Upon arriving, the pink haired medic spotted the usual gang, consisting of Ino, Hinata, and Naruto. Quickly bypassing the hostess, she weaved her way through the booths and approached the trio.

"Sakura! Finally!" Ino looked at her with exasperation, scooting over to make room on the snug bench.

"Sorry, one of my patients decided to go into convulsions about twenty minutes before I was supposed to get off work. It's just been a long, crappy day," Sakura reached over and took a large swig out of Ino's beer, looking around for the waiter so she could place her usual order. Luckily, Ino decided not to chide her for stealing her drink, but instead slyly relocated the beer out of Sakura's reach.

Quickly, the group of friends lapsed into a comfortable rapport of joking and chatting. Then, without warning, he walked in. He walked in to her restaurant. And not only did he walk into her restaurant, but he walked into her restaurant with that tramp on his arm.

"Sakura, what's wrong?" Hinata questioned, looking puzzled at Sakura's suddenly seething appearance.

Naruto discretely nudged her and whispered, "Neji" and nodded in the direction of Hinata's cousin.

It was no secret that Neji and Sakura were enemies. What was a secret was the fact that the two were insane about each other. No one knew it. They hadn't even admitted it to themselves. However, despite the fact that this information had not yet hit the minds of the people themselves, much less the rumor mill of Konoha, Ino smirked behind her beer.

Neji and the blond girl made their way to the bar, his hand at the small of her back, Sakura all the while glaring daggers at his back.

"Who's the girl?" Naruto asked Hinata, who just shrugged in response.

"Does it matter?" Sakura managed to spit out, finally turning back to the table, making a point to not look back in the direction of the male Hyuga.

Apparently, Neji had yet to notice Sakura, as his back was to their table, his attention focused on the blond in front of him in the rather revealing outfit.

Trying her best to ignore the raven haired boy sitting at the bar, Sakura grabbed a drink and downed it, not realizing what she'd just done.

Ino glared at Sakura, snatching the glass out of her hands forcefully. "And now you're gonna have to go to the bar and buy me another one. That's the second beer of mine that you've stolen tonight."

"I am not going up to that bar, Ino. HE is there."

"Well, you should have thought about that before finishing my beer and before we'd already paid our tabs. There's no way the waiter is going to come back over here, it's too crowded in here at it is!" Ino yelled at the pink haired girl.

"Ino, I am not going up there. I will pay for another beer for you, but I cannot deal with him right now. I had a crappy day, and I just can't do it," Sakura started off strong, and ended in a pleading whine, noticing that her friend's glare was no closer to softening.

Ino promptly folded her arms and narrowed her eyes even more at Sakura, making it clear that the bed was made, and all that was left was for her to sleep in it.

Sighing as though the weight of the world were crashing down around her, Sakura rose from the bench, silently cursing her luck and her own stupidity. The beer, and the price of it, was not nearly worth it.

Elbowing her way up to the bar as far away from Neji as possible, she kept her eyes facing the other way and did her best to get the bartender's attention. Unfortunately, as she was trying to raise her hand for the stocky man's help, a jostling of people caused her to get shoved farther down the bar, landing her about half a foot from the back of the man she was desperately trying to avoid.

If I just keep facing away from him, his back is to me and he won't realize I'm here. It could happen...Sakura begged to the great unknown. As she stood there, trying to catch the bartender's eye, she caught snippets of the conversation occurring behind her.

"Oh, I just can't believe you went up against that...that thing! I'd have been sooo scared. You're so brave Neji-kun!"

Sakura wanted to die. Or kill someone. The second option seemed more appealing. Maybe two someones.

"Whatever Aya, did you want something to drink? I'm getting a beer," turning away from the girl without waiting for an answer, Neji raised his arm to signal the bartender, who almost immediately started in his direction.

"Are you kidding me? I've been waiting here for like fifteen minutes!" Sakura almost yelled, not realizing that the person contending for the bartender's attention was the man sitting right behind her.

"Sakura??" She grimaced hearing her name in the voice she knew and hated all too well.

"Don't even talk to me, Hyuga. I'm not in the mood. I've had a shitty day, and the fucking bartender is ignoring me!" she said the last part slightly louder hoping that the barkeep heard her, beyond caring whether or not this would speed up the service.

"Maybe if you knew how to act human, he'd respond in kind," Neji smirked – the closest thing to a smile that he allowed to grace his lips.

Sakura turned to yell at him, and gawked when she saw a beer raise to his lips.

Now was when she saw crimson, her anger overtaking her.

"I...you...Argh!" the sputtering ended in a yell and without a second thought Sakura gave him a good shove to his chest, causing him to glare intensely at the pink-haired hellion.

Or at least that's how it should have happened.

As Sakura's hands made contact with Neji's shoulders, his entire body rocked back on the barstool, as it tipped precariously in the direction of his utterly confused date. While he managed to react in time to grab desperately at the bar, the beer that had been in his hand was dropped in favor of holding on. And it drenched his white button-up shirt and dark jeans.

Watching the scene play out in front of her, as if in slow motion, Sakura was snapped back to the present moment as Neji jumped off the barstool, hissing "Sakura! What the fuck?!"

Then, without warning, he grabbed ahold of her wrist and pulled her along behind him as he made his way toward the back of the restaurant. Too stunned at what had just transpired she allowed herself to be dragged away from the bar and into the hallway leading to the restrooms.

"Neji, I -" Sakura tried to stammer out an apology, but was immediately cut short as the taller man pushed her roughly up against the wall, pinning her wrists on either side of her head.

"What is your problem? Geez, I – Seriously, what the hell, Sakura?" Neji looked her in the eyes. Eyes that were staring back at him in shock and confusion. And then the emeralds glazed back over with their usual contempt for the Hyuga boy, and words came to her mouth as if second nature.

"Reaction time was a little slow there, Hyuga. If you don't watch out, your adoring fans might allow you to fall off that pedestal you sit so high up on," her eyes glued to his, taunting him despite her weakened position. "It'd be a pity, afterall. No more 'oh Neji-kun, you're so beautiful and valiant, I don't even know what 'valiant' means, but I'm sure that's what you are!'" She batted her eyelashes at him mockingly and smirked, causing him to re-slam her wrists against the wall.

Neji paused briefly, as if considering something, eyes narrowing and staring into her own.

"...Jealous, Sakura?" he questioned, as if testing the waters, raising an eyebrow attached to his own smirk.

Shocked for the third time that evening, Sakura felt her face grow flushed, as she started to struggle against his tight grip.

"You are such an arrogant bastard. You're a cold, unfeeling, bitter, lonely jerk and I want you to get your hands OFF OF --"

Without warning, his mouth crashed down against her own, effectively putting a stop to her ranting and opening flood gates that neither of them realized were holding in an entire ocean of feeling.

Copper. A tang of beer. Neji.

And she was responding. She had no choice. His mouth had smashed her lips against her own teeth hard enough to cause blood, and yet she didn't feel the pain that should have assaulted her senses. Instead, she only felt him. His soft lips pressing fiercely against her own, willing her mouth into pliancy beneath his own, ravaging her tongue as he pushed farther into her, both with his mouth and his body. Ragged breaths drawn around open lips, never moving far from the other so as to repeatedly dive back into the probing, animalistic raping of each other's mouths.

His hips ground against her own, but her gasp was swallowed by his mouth, persistently mauling her own, as if their mouths were the pinnacle of the rapidly growing explosion threatening to overcome them both.

Shifting slightly, her arms were dragged over her head, quickly locked together in the grip of one large, masculine hand. The other hand, now free to roam, slid down her left arm, continuing down her side to cup her breast, palming her gently, running his thumb over her already hard nipple.

Finally allowing their lips to part, Neji rested his forehead against the cool wall in between Sakura's head and her still-restrained left arm, never moving either of his hands, he breathed out her name, sounding almost as if in pain.

Sakura's head was thrown back, eyes closed, gasping for breath and focusing as intently as possible on the points of contact: hips, wrist, breast. As he ground against her slightly, she moaned.

Neither of them knew what had happened, but here they were, in the hallway of a normal restaurant in Konoha, ready to do anything and everything to each other, desperate for touch, feel, scent, taste.

"Get a room," someone grumbled as they passed on their way to the men's room.

Instantly the two put some space between them, Neji's hands dropping to his sides, Sakura straightening herself and focusing her gaze on the ground off to the right.

"Stay here," Neji suddenly said to her, turning and walking toward the bar. She assumed it was so he could return to his date without being seen leaving the hallway with her. He didn't really need to tell her to stay there. She was still reeling from him, unable to move. The feel of it was still all around her. A shudder passed through her as she could still feel him pressing her into the wall, both of them frantically wishing their clothes into nonexistence, praying that they could somehow be relocated to a more private setting, begging for continuance. Fingers played gently across her lips, lightly ghosting over the cut left by the Hyuga, marking her as his own, the salt of her skin causing a sting that she reveled in.

Interrupted from her thoughts by a hand grabbing her raised arm, she jerked her head toward her captor. When she saw that it was Neji, she furrowed her eyebrows, unsure as to why he had returned, but silently pleading with him to let his touch linger, travel, become a permanent fixture in her daily routine.

Looking down, she saw that he had her bag and jacket, and was holding them both out to her, looking at her with his usual moody expression. She quietly took them, before uttering, "I...I don't...what..."

"We're both covered in beer. I told Aya to have as many drinks as she wants and to put them on my tab, and I told Ino that I was taking you home." Sakura shook her head, still confused, but he knew.

"I apologized, but told Aya that it wouldn't work. Now let's get home and out of these wet clothes."

Sakura blushed as he let his hand slide from her wrist down to her hand, entangling his fingers with hers, tugging her toward the door.