Anthology

A selection of Sakura pairings in one place; prompts welcome! SakuxMulti


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Prompt: Inebriated

Pairing: Neji x Sakura

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The yearly ANBU "hurray not all of us have died/been mutilated" party was beyond famous.

Or, perhaps, infamous.

Infamous for the awful, bizarre couples formed and destroyed in those blazing hours (Anko and Gai in the storage cupboard, anyone? ), infamous for the amount of damage caused to the surrounding area ('The Blind Shinobi' used to have three floors, you know), but mostly infamous for the mind-boggling gallons of hard liquor consumed and the fact that no one had, as of yet, squirted out a kidney or two. A minor miracle, considering.

Hyuuga are well-known rule-book aficionado, sticklers for tradition.

And from the slow, careful, measured way the esteemed Taichou Hyuuga Neji handled the delicate, hand painted, clay cup, sipping sparsely at the warm liquid within; he made it clear through his exaggerated restraint that he was absolutely pissed. Following the party tradition to the letter as any good Hyuuga shinobi would. Haruno Sakura, second year ANBU medic, smiled, amused and more than a little tipsy herself, into her own cup.

If he caught so much of a hint of the fact that she was laughing at him, then she knew her face would very quickly become acquainted with the tatami mats on the floor. Because, you must understand, the very esteemed, very tight-laced Taichou Hyuuga Neji just so happened to be an implusive drunk; a reckless, feckless, rear-grabbing, table-smashing, tongue-lashing, whirlwind of mischief.

"Why, pray tell, are you smiling, Haruno-san?"

She saw the pronounced veins around his eyes, and knew he was using the byakugan to see through the cup to her face. Her smile faded as she mentally prepared to withstand any drunken not-at-all-gentle fist he might throw at her. She also tried to control her excitement at that thought.

"I didn't say that you could stop."

"And I didn't realise that your authority extended to being able to order my facial expression, Neji-taichou,"she leered at him from across the table.

"It does, and," he raised a slim, pale finger, "it extends to where you sit and I hereby order you to come and sit on the bench beside me."

Sakura half-inhaled the rest of her sake."Of course, leader, I am nothing but obedient to your whims."

He snorted, and the sound made her start a little though it was barely audible above the clamour. Standing made the world spin a little faster and Sakura realised that she was more drunk than she had thought. The bright lanterns dangling above them were like greasy smears of colour on the ceiling. Tsunade would have been ashamed.

Looking down at Neji as she moved around the table, squeezing between two men in deep conversation, was strange; it was odd to be so high above him when he usually towered over her, and she quite liked it.

"Neji -" she began

"Taichou", he corrected.

"Oh, do you like that?" She squinted at him as she tried to restrain a smirk breaking free, and felt his hard, long thigh press against her own as she squeezed into the scant space on the bench beside him.

His strange, silvery eyes looked sideways at her as he took a drink: measuring her, always pushing, always testing – on missions and out, "Certain parts of me like it more than others."

His bindings and headband had slipped so that a tiny sliver of the green of his seal was visible. Bright and vivid as a blade of grass stuck to his skin. Her fingers itched to touch it, but she had no idea how he would take that. She had never seen the full thing. She elbowed him gently in the ribs, mindful of the fact that he let her, to distract him from the fact that she was blushing furiously.

They chatted happily for another hour or so about missions, and their teammates, and the latest trend in slightly curved kunai that Neji absolutely despised. Eventually, it just got too hot and noisy inside so they slipped out into the small garden - mindful of the many couples dotted around in the bushes. They crept past into the 'restricted' section where the establishment grew their famous plums; used to brew one hell of a plum sake. Sakura reached up to snag one of the ripe fruits on the way past, the act making her feel far more rebellious than it should.

She took a large, sweet mouthful, giggling as she had to wipe the juices off her chin, and passed it to Neji. Her stomach gave a strange flutter as she watched him take a deliberate bite out of the same section she had just bitten. They stood for a while, in companionable silence, and passed the fruit between them until only the stone in the centre was left.

"Bet you can't get it through that window," Sakura said, childishly, pointing at the upper story where Naruto's golden head was just visible.

Neji's pale eyes narrowed in challenge, before he took careful aim and lobbed it with deadly accuracy. Sakura bent double, clutching at her stomach and trying to be silent as Naruto's shrieking curses echoed across the garden. Predictably, he blamed Sasuke, then Sai. Sakura laughed silently for what felt like eon, the flush of liquor making everything seem far more hilarious, before drawing up to her full height.

Neji was a lot closer than she remembered him being, and was watching her intently. In the dim light, the edge of his cursed seal seemed to glow a little. She couldn't resist, then, and reached her hand up to stroke her thumb across the surprisingly delicate skin.

"I am still of the lower house." He didn't sound angry like he usually did, instead there was something below the edge of resentment that crackled with electricity.

"You'll always be taichou to me – lower house or no."

"The lower house was made to serve," he continued as though she hadn't spoken.

He knelt in a single, fluid movement between her legs, yanking her onto the grass before she could so much aim a kick at his head, and shoving her legs apart with his broad shoulders. Sakura felt as though she was going to faint. She thrust her hands into his long hair - less smooth than she might have expected - and tilted his face up to hers. He gave her the cool smirk she hadn't seen since he had brutally beaten up Hinata in the chuunin exams and hooked her knees over his shoulders.

"I hope you don't serve all the upper house members like this," she teased, only to hide her own fluttery anxiety.

He let out a short bark of a laugh and quickly made her regret those words. When she had not even recovered, he lifted her Judas of a body and carried her swiftly into one of the unoccupied back rooms. One she really hoped hadn't been the famed Gai-Anko room.

She didn't know what to make of the power balance between them, but she was right; one smart remark and he did make a hasty acquaintance between her face and the tatami mat…

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As before; please leave suggestions as to prompts and/or pairings because I could really use the inspiration!

Thanks for reading,

Silver ~