Chapter Two
"Can I tuck this scroll in someplace?" Sakura asked, a mischievous light in her eyes. Neji looked like a human tower, her various medical scrolls and supplies easily obscuring that frustrating, piercing gaze. He only grunted in response, shifting the merchandise in an effort to get a hand free. Amazingly, he managed, and Sakura lobbed the scroll thoughtlessly toward his waiting hand. She was mildly impressed when he caught it, and maintained his balance, and didn't drop anything, but she didn't show it: no need to encourage that ego. She turned her eyes instead to look for her friends.
Naruto and Hinata were a few stalls away, examining acupuncture needles. Naturo had a package under his arm and a bag in one hand, and was leaning in very close to look over Hinata's shoulder. Hinata was blushing faintly, then furiously as Naruto's free hand came to rest on her shoulder. He was, of course, oblivious to the effect he had on her.
"You shouldn't encourage it." Neji's voice was as hard as ever, much closer than Sakura had realized. She almost bumped into him when she turned to look at him.
"Why shouldn't I encourage her? She adores him." Sakura covered her sudden flustered state with irritation.
"And that adoration will only hurt her. They can never be together."
Sakura narrowed her leaf green eyes, "Why? Because he's not good enough for her? Because she's the Hyuuga heiress and he's…?" Her voice trailed off threateningly.
Neji rolled his eyes in irritation. "Because he doesn't notice her, and he will never notice her. Look at them." He nodded his head at the pair, Naruto practically breathing down Hinata's neck, all his attention focused on an acupuncture needle while Hinata seemed about to melt due to their proximity.
"A man who doesn't realize he can—do that to a woman with his presence…he's completely oblivious to her. Presently, the problem is that he will never notice her affection. However, if someone were ever so unwise as to point it out to him…" He paused for a moment, to reflect, and then continued "How can they be certain he wouldn't miss her other feelings in the future? How could one be certain he'd be gentle enough with my cousin's delicate heart? He has all the delicacy of an ox."
Sakura frowned and took some of her packages from Neji so she could look him properly in the eye. "And he has all the heart of a lion. Once he realizes how much she treasures him, he'll protect her heart with his life, Hyuuga." She spat out his name bitterly; he was so frustratingly judgmental. His only response was a non-committal "hnn".
"Hey, guys!" Naruto interjected, "Hinata and I were getting kinda hungry—wanna go get some ramen?"
"Naruto, didn't you have ramen for lunch? Three hours ago?" Sakura couldn't help but sound incredulous.
"Well, yeah…but Hinata didn't have any, and she said she'd like some." Hinata smiled faintly, her gaze barely drifting toward Naruto's hopeful face.
Neji snorted. "Did you brow-beat her into it?"
"No! I just happened to mention I was getting hungry! It was her idea!"
"Ramen d-does sound good, N-Neji."
"Hnn." Ever nonplussed, Neji turned to Sakura. "You have a lot of purchases here. I'll take these things to your apartment, and meet you at the ramen stand for dinner. I expect you to chaperone them properly."
Sakura stared at him. "They're not children."
Neji gathered back the packages Sakura had taken from him. "But she is the heiress to the Hyuuga clan. It would be unfitting for her to be alone with him. Your keys, Sakura."
She absently reached into a pocket, pulled out her front door key. She began to explain how to find her apartment, but he was already gone.
----------------
Naruto was only on his third bowl of ramen by the time Neji arrived. Hinata was doggedly working on her first bowl, but her frequent blushing and stammering while attempting to make conversation hampered her efforts. Sakura herself was lazily pushing her noodles around in her bowl while counting passersby when Neji again appeared much closer than expected.
"Everyone enjoying themselves?" he asked, his voice coolly pleasant. He took a seat beside Hinata and nodded at the cook, who began the man's unspoken order. Sakura pondered absently if Neji was enough of a regular here to warrant the cook knowing his "usual", or if it was his impressive aura that made it hard to forget. Judging by Neji's small frown as he inspected the countertop—apparently, he'd touched something sticky—she guessed it was the latter.
Sakura wrinkled her nose slightly as she studied the ANBU captain. She had the distinct impression he felt too good for Ichiraku's, and for anyone who would dine there regularly. He was seriously high-and-mighty. She noticed his eyes flick over Naruto's hunched form, how he frowned all the more while watching the blond man devour his meal like a wolf, how his gaze narrowed as he examined Hinata's shy blush, how his eyes finally came to rest locked onto her own emerald gaze. Her look of irritation was quickly replaced by one of embarrassment when she realized he'd caught her staring.
"Is there something you wanted to say, Haruno?" Neji accepted his bowl of ramen with both hands from the cook, his face impassive. He tentatively blew on it, took a delicate bite. His eyes never left hers and she felt her blush growing by the moment.
"You have something in your teeth," she snapped, turning to her own bowl.
"Hnn." No reaction, of course, on the Hyuuga front. Her frustration was mounting.
Naruto, finally sated, leaned back in his chair and patted his stomach thoughtfully. "That was a great meal, huh, guys?" His sigh of content reverberated through the ramen stand and he grinned like a pleased cat. He cast a slitted gaze toward the shy woman seated beside him, and Sakura held her breath as her friend's face became very serious.
"Hey, uh…Hinata…."
Hinata turned, wide eyed, toward him, but found she could say nothing.
"I, uh…I had a real nice time today…"
Hinata only nodded in agreement.
Naruto paused for a moment, then continued in a low voice. "So…you wanna catch a movie or something sometime?" He had turned to face her now, his gaze locked single-mindedly on her own. Had he looked just past her, he would have caught the daggers Neji was glaring at him, but for just one moment the world around Hinata and Naruto had stopped completely. Thankfully, Sakura remained in the present, and slipped past the duo to guide Neji away before he could throttle someone.
"I think we should let them have a little privacy, don't you?" She smiled innocently at him as she led him around the corner from the ramen stand. Neji was clearly furious—she could feel how tense he was under her grip, and she smirked inwardly as his right eye twitched, almost imperceptibly.
She did jump a little when the chopsticks he'd been holding snapped in two.
"This is all your fault, you—you—" Neji apparently had no word for what he was feeling, or thought better of saying it. After a momentary pause to collect himself, he turned coolly toward Sakura, but despite his composure she could tell he was inches from murder.
"Haruno, how could you encourage them while I was away? Didn't I make it clear to you that it was very unwise?" His eyes were closed, and his tone dripped with contempt, like a schoolmaster to a foolish student.
"Oh, shove it, Hyuuga, I didn't do anything. Naruto is apparently more in tune to her feelings than you thought." Sakura snorted with frustration while Neji's jaw clenched.
"Yes, of course, that's why he had the foresight to plan things out so romantically, so my little cousin would never forget the moment her dreams came true—sitting on a sticky barstool at Ichiraku's with noodles hanging out of her mouth like some flighty, two-bit teenager. That, Sakura, was a whim, his fleeting fancy. Do you think he plans to stick it out with her? Do you think he plans to be with her for more than just their next date? Do you think he'll even plan their next date? Do you think he plans at all?"
Sakura was slightly shocked by the usually stoic Hyuuga's outburst—both because it was an outburst and because it seemed he'd given this careful consideration.
Neji continued his tirade. "My cousin needs, no, she deserves someone who gives her more consideration than that. She deserves a man who is going to think things through, be meticulous, know what he wants—not someone who asks her out on a whim."
Sakura lowered her gaze slowly to study the broken chopsticks still clenched in Neji's fist, splinters bristling from his fingertips. "Don't forget, Hyuuga, that your cousin adores him—she may equally adore his spontaneity. Maybe she wants someone who will ask her out on the spur of the moment, someone who doesn't have a plan and is open to his whims." A gentle smile crossed her face as she thought about the couple they'd left at the ramen stand, the way Naruto's playful nature was sure to sweep up timid Hinata into a whirlwind romance—and for a moment she could see where Neji was coming from. She sucked on her teeth in annoyance, and considered how to reassure him.
"Hyuuga, Naruto will take good care of your cousin. He may be less…" she groped for an appropriate word, "meticulous than you, but he's fiercely loyal. You know I can attest to that." Sakura took Neji's hand in her own to remove the splintered chopsticks, which she tossed casually aside while brushing slivers off his palm and fingers. She went into medic mode at the sight of a particularly nasty splinter in his thumb. She picked at it softly; when it began to bleed he made no sound. "When he realizes his feelings for Hinata, he will never let her go."
Neji remained silent and unmoving while Sakura picked at his splinter. He didn't even noticeably tense when, in frustration, she took his thumb to her mouth to suck on it in hopes of loosening the splinter. She worked on his thumb pad with her tongue, a bit roughly, until she could tell it had begun to work itself out.
It was at that moment that Neji jumped, as if suddenly waking up, and wrenched his hand away from Sakura. He cradled it to his stomach like a wounded animal, and stared at her with strangely accusing eyes. She felt the heat of her blush creep up her neck to her hairline. Had she just been—oh, she was just going to die.
"I need to go inform my uncle about what has transpired between my cousin and Uzumaki this afternoon." His voice was sharp and curt and his chin was held very high. "I will inform him about your opinion regarding Uzumaki's loyalty. I hope, for his sake, that it is enough."
Sakura couldn't bring herself to say anything, and, after another moment of tense silence, she turned and fled home. It was when she arrived that she realized Neji had never returned her key.
----------------
That settled it. There was no way she could face Neji again that evening, or probably for the rest of the week, so she'd just climb up to her balcony. She was an elite kunoichi after all; surely she could sneak past some half-blind old biddy's window.
Unfortunately, Mrs. Maehashi was knitting on her balcony that evening enjoying the sunset. Sakura steeled herself for the old woman's outraged bellow, and tried to hurry her way up to the next story, but Mrs. Maehashi wasn't going to let her get by that easily.
"Miss Haruno! You get over here!" The woman had a voice like a bagpipe, honestly. Wheezy and in about six grating pitches at once.
Sakura dropped gently onto the old woman's balcony, looking entirely apologetic. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Maehashi, but I've locked myself out of my apartment and Ino isn't home right now…"
"Oh, hush, hush, I know all about that. Some nice young man came up that way about ten minutes ago and handed me your key." Mrs. Maehashi dangled Sakura's key from its cherry blossom key chain, a mischievous look in her old wrinkled eyes. "Who was he?"
Sakura felt her cheeks color slightly, but swallowed her embarrassment away. "No one, really, Mrs. Maehashi, ma'am."
"No one? Hmm…then I guess you don't want to read this note." Tossing the keys at Sakura carelessly, the old woman picked up a sealed letter from under her glass of lemonade and smirked evilly. "Too bad, 'no one' is such a handsome, polite young man. ANBU, by the looks of it."
Sakura snatched at the letter—how could such an old woman have such fast reflexes? "His name is Neji Hyuuga, and yes, he's an ANBU captain."
Mrs. Maehashi cackled in delight. "Hyuuga! Good for you, Sakura, I knew you wouldn't be a disappointment." Turning to her very lazy Persian cat, she said, "Come on, Cupcake, let's get you that can of tuna now."
Sakura was wracked with curiosity as she fled up to the safety of her own balcony. She had left the sliding glass door unlocked after all, and slipped inside. She refused to notice how neatly Neji had lined up all of her scrolls and packages in the living room as she sank into the sofa. It took her several minutes to compose herself enough to dare to look at Neji's note to her—and just as she broke the seal, she heard Ino's key click in the lock.
"Sakura, what are all these scorch marks on our doorknob?" Ino slinked confidently into the living room; Sakura still marveled at how her roommate could make even carrying groceries look like an act of seduction. Her lazy boyfriend wasn't far behind, and it was he that caught Sakura trying to hide the note between the sofa cushions.
"What's that?" Shikamaru nodded in Sakura's guilty direction.
"Oh. My. God. Sakura's got a secret admirer." Ino, of course, jumped to the worst conclusion possible. Actually, no, Sakura thought, the truth was for once far worse than Ino could have imagined upon her. Ino fished the note out from Sakura's makeshift hiding spot, and tore it open. Her bright eyes narrowed impishly as she began to read aloud, affecting a stuffy accent to do so.
"Haruno—I must apologize for my rude behavior today, I never should have spoken to you so harshly, nor should I have lost my temper. If it would please you, I would like to invite you to dinner in order to make amends. I will call on you Wednesday at five. Most sincerely—" Ino's voice trailed off as her eyes grew wider and wider. After a moment's silence, she whipped her head around to stare Sakura down. For her part, Sakura tried to disappear into the corner of the sofa.
Shikamaru rolled his eyes and put his fingers in his ears to drown out a banshee's shriek of delight.
Thank you, my kind reviewers! I made this next chapter a bit longer…I do hope you enjoy it! Once again, any suggestions are greatly appreciated.