After All
By: Wa Revised & Edited by: Ai
Chapter 4: Wife's first missionSakura ran down to the bridge, as her teammates were already there waiting for their teacher. No one in the village knew about her engagement with Neji yet, as the Hyuuga family kept their family profile very low. Everything was the same to her, just now, she had a new role in her life. And that was being the future wife of Neji.
"Sakura-chan! Good morning!" Naruto said excitedly.
"Good morning Naruto and Sasuke," Sakura greeted causally.
"Hn." Sasuke said. Sakura blanked, then she realized that it was Sasuke that she was talking to.
Since when did I forget how Sasuke would react to my talking? It must be the training that I did, that made me forget about him. I was really upset about him too that day when I decided to enter as one of the nominees.
Then just when Kakashi arrived in a puff of smoke in front of his students, Gai's team also arrived there to the training ground. Sakura looked at Neji, who stared back at her.
"So, your team is here to train as well, Kakashi? Why don't we train together and not waste our youth?" Gai held up his thumb with blinking stars around his face.
"Right Gai-sensei!" Lee answered with spirits while Neji and TenTen were just standing behind them, keeping quiet.
"Hmmm, that seems to be a good idea!" Kakashi said without looking up from his newest issue of Come Come Paradise.
Kakashi sensei probably thought that if we train with Gai sensei, he would have free time to read his stupid book.
Sakura gave a betrayed and sweat drop look towards Kakashi."How about we pair them up and let them spar? If my team wins, then I get to earn one more point for our 50 vs. 49 winning record." Gai said still with blinking stars around his face. Kakashi sweat dropped but agreed anyway.
"Now the rule is that, you can fight each other with any free style, however, if you're knocked down or go outside of this big circle on the ground, you lose. First pair, it would be TenTen vs. Sakura!" Gai yelled like the referee.
Sakura and TenTen walked inside the circle as the others walked outside of it.
"Go Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled!
"Ganbatte TenTen!" Lee yelled although he wanted to support Sakura too.
Then Sakura and TenTen started fighting. First it was the kick and punches from TenTen. Sakura didn't make any big moves and blocked all her attacks as she was observing TenTen's move. Then after ten seconds, she had already concluded TenTen's fighting pattern and started her counters. Sakura saw the opening of TenTen's movements so she didn't waste the chance and kicked her down.
Neji smirked as he remembered the similar kicked that he had used while he was training with Sakura.
TenTen didn't fall down, instead she flipped herself further away from Sakura and pulled out her kunais. Sakura followed her move and blocked all the kunais and ninja stars that TenTen throw towards her.
"Sakura-chan go Sakura go!" Naruto yelled happily. Sasuke was getting annoyed from all the yelling and cheering that Naruto was doing.
"Stop wasting your strength on cheering for her." Sasuke said, as he remembered that TenTen was far better than Sakura as he had observed through the Chuunin exam.
"What do you mean? HEY! Are you saying that Sakura is going to lose?" Naruto yelled, which caused Neji and Lee to focus on them. But before Naruto did anything stupid, Neji came into the conversation.
"Actually I am interested to see who is going to win too." Neji said as he looked at Sasuke, where Sasuke just stared at him and concentrated back to the fight.
Sakura put an end to the fight as she knocked TenTen down onto the ground. The teachers and the teammates were surprised to see the result of it.
"Yeah Sakura-chan! Congratulations!" Naruto yelled. Neji just smirked, and Sasuke just kept silent.
Then it was the fight of Naruto and Lee, it wasn't a very 'good' fight as you could say, since Naruto used his strange statergies to trip Lee out of the ring and won. After that, Neji and Sasuke walked inside the circle.
It's time for me to test myself this time.
Sasuke thought."Ready! Fight!"
Neji and Sasuke both jumped back and activated Byakugan and Sharingan. Sasuke was the one who charged first towards Neji with his Kunai in his hand. However, Neji wasn't an easy opponent either, when Sasuke started charging towards him, he already predicted what he was going to do.
Since the Sharingan is the copying technique, I may as well just use something that could not be copied. And right now with Sasuke's level and understanding of the Sharingan, he can't copy my ninjutsu that fast.
First, there were fireballs aiming at Neji. Then there was Kunais and ninja stars shooting at Sasuke. They both got heated up and somehow were beginning to fight seriously. Then Neji used his chakra point technique and blocked sixteen points of Sasuke's chakra points.
Sasuke almost fell onto the ground, but he used his arms as support so his knees wouldn't touch the ground. He death glared at Neji and had problem standing up. Sakura could feel the sense to kill in his red eyes; her whole body was shaking.
When did Sasuke become like this? I thought that after he returned from Orochimaru he changed?
"That's it Uchiha, I think there's are no point of fighting anymore as we already have a winner." Neji said. But it seemed that Sasuke wasn't about to give up yet.
Sakura widened her eyes in horror as she saw Sasuke started to collect chakra in his palm. He was going to use chidori on Neji for sure.
"Sasuke what are you doing!?" Sakura shouted. However, both of them didn't seem to notice.
"Sasuke that's enough!" Kakashi yelled.
Neji was ready to take that strike, just before Sasuke was about to jump up and hit Neji, Sakura ran inside the fighting ring and stood before Neji, protecting him.
Sakura!?
Sasuke thought, then he stopped."Sasuke don't hurt him." Sakura said, looking straight into his red eyes.
"Sakura, you just interfered with my fight, you could have been killed" Sasuke said coldly.
"This is not just your fight." Sakura told him. She didn't wait for his reply but turned around and checked on Neji.
"Neji are you okay? I'm sorry…" Sakura said, with sadness in her eyes.
She couldn't protect him, it was her duty to do so…but she couldn't because he was in a fight with Sasuke. She didn't know why her teammate was like this either.
TBC…
Side Story: The Branch House's Mistress
One day as Sakura was walking down the street towards her fiancé's house she saw her two teammates peaking through a gap between the two big doors of the Hyuuga's mansion. She smiled to herself as she saw the funny expression of Naruto's face and the annoyed Sasuke.
"Good morning you two, what are you doing here?" Sakura asked suspiciously.
"Sakura-chan, have you seen Hinata? I was supposed to have a date with her!" Naruto frowned and made a face at Sakura. Sakura looked surprise, they probably started out during the summer when Neji was with her she guessed.
"What time were you supposed to meet her?" Sakura asked.
"At one o'clock in the afternoon, it's already two thirty now." Naruto said with puppy eyes.
"Did they lock her inside her house? Too bad that Neji is not here right now, or else we can enter the house with him and go search for her. We need to make up a plan," Naruto said.
Sakura wondered where Naruto got the idea of the Hyuugas locking her up. But she can't blame him, in the outsiders perspective, Hiashi is always hard on Hinata and favoured Hanabi more.
"Naruto, there is no point for thinking up a plan since the Hyuuga family has anbu as their body guards." Sasuke said.
"Sasuke is right, we won't be able to sneak in, therefore, we could just enter by the front gate." Sakura said.
"Sakura wait! They won't let us in." Naruto said, but Sakura already knocked the door.
The guard opened the door and saw the three shinobis.
"What do you want kid?" He asked as Sakura walked up to him.
"They are friends of Neji, they were supposed to meet Neji today but he couldn't make it so he asked me to bring them inside the house to wait for him." Sakura said.
"And who might you be?" the guard asked as if he wasn't taking her seriously. Naruto covered his forehead with his hand, thinking that it would bring them more trouble.
"Haruno Sakura." She showed her the necklace with the Hyuuga family symbol on it.
"I'm very sorry Haruno-sama. Please go inside the house." The guard said with fear in his eyes as he recognized her name and the symbol.
"Good." Sakura said as she walked past the guard and into the house. She turned around and found that Naruto and Sasuke were still standing outside with disbelief in their eyes, the expression that people have on their faces when they see a magic trick.
"Come on! Naruto and Sasuke." Sakura said.
"Sakura, where are we going? We don't know the way to Hinata's room," Naruto said.
"You two better not get involved in Hinata's problem, just be Neji's guest for today, how about that?" Sakura asked, while her mind had already manipulated the whole situation.
When she saw a servant come into her view, she told her to treat Neji's guest with Ramen.
That should keep Naruto down for a while. As for Sasuke, he would probably not stay in the guestroom. But that would be okay, he wouldn't get himself into trouble.
As soon as Sakura settled the two of them down, she disappeared and went into the Main house to check on Hinata.Actually, she didn't know what the problem was. Hiashi locking his daughter inside her room and not letting her out? Even though Hiashi was a strict man, he would never do that to Hinata. Maybe Naruto got it on the wrong side? Sakura was now in front of Hinata's room, she slowly turned the knob and opened the door.
The room wasn't locked either.
Sakura walked into Hinata's room and saw her peacefully sleeping on her bed. Sakura silently walked to Hinata's bedside and pulled back up the sheet that fell down. Then she felt that Hinata's whole body was overheated. She placed her hand on Hinata's forehead and discovered that she was having a fever.
With no time to think, Sakura ran out of Hinata's room and brought back a bucket of water with a towel and some medicine. She first woke Hinata up and asked her to take the medicine. After Hinata lied back down, she wet the towel with cool water and then placed it on to Hinata's forehead. She then left the room and closed it behind her.
If Hinata was sick, why didn't she tell anyone? Did she not want other people to see her being weak? Just like me…Growing up in the Hyuuga household is sure not easy.
When she went back to check on Naruto and Sasuke, she saw Neji sitting with Naruto and Sasuke. Sakura walked over to Neji and sat beside him.
"How come I didn't know that I have an appointment with guests today, but I told them to wait for me at home?" Neji asked.
"Sorry, I made it up." Sakura said politely. Then she whispered something into Neji's ears, informing him that Hinata was sick, and that Naruto thought she was locked inside her room. That's why she brought both of them inside the house.
"Hey, what are you two talking about!?" Naruto said still with noodles in his mouth. Sasuke just stared at the both of them strangely. He questioned himself about what kind of relationship those two had that Sakura could enter the house freely and also go to the main house without being caught.
"I see, but she didn't want to tell her father."
"That is alright," he turned to Naruto and Sasuke, which were sitting opposite from him and continued. "Hinata-san is not feeling well right now, maybe you should come and visit some other time. I have to go. Sakura can you lead MY guests to the front door?" Neji said sarcastically to Sakura who cracked a smile.
"Yes." She replied and stood up from the tatami. But when she was about to leave the room she saw Hinata entering the room. Naruto jumped up from his seat and ran towards Hinata asking if she was alright, and so the rest of them decided to leave them alone.
Now everybody was gone, the room was silent and Hinata blushed as she saw Naruto's face so closed to her. Well actually, Naruto was examining her face since she looked so red.
"Hinata, what happened to you today?… Do you think going to the ramen stand was too boring for a date?" Naruto asked embarrassedly.
"NO! Hmm sorry Naruto-kun, I wasn't feeling well this morning and so… I couldn't come and meet you." Hinata said quietly.
"WHAT!? You are sick!? How come you never told me? Are you okay Hinata? No wonder you face looks so red, don't worry I'll get you an ice pack right now. Arr don't sit up, lie down and rest right now Hinata!" With that Naruto ran out of the room, but once he opened the slide door of the room, he saw Sakura looking up at him, she was actually spying on the two of them; whereas Neji and Sasuke was just standing behind her, one leaning on the wall and one just standing with his arms folded.
Naruto and Hinata, who was in the room, blushed.
"Hehe Naruto, if you are looking for an ice pack, the kitchen is that way." Sakura giggled when she pointed to him where the kitchen was.
After Naruto was gone, Neji walked towards Sakura, which caused Sasuke to stare.
"Sakura, it's getting late, I think you should leave." Neji said. Sakura frowned with a cute expression. It was one of those expressions that Neji couldn't resist. He knew very well that he would always give up and let her have her way. But this time it was different, maybe because Sasuke was here.
"Well I guess we should leave Naruto and Hinata alone then." Sakura giggled and smiled at Neji. Then Neji gave a signal to Sasuke, telling him to follow him to the front door.
After the three of them got to the front door, Sakura waved goodbye to Sasuke. But Sasuke was a bit hesitant to leave her, it was the evening after all. He was about to ask if he should walk her home, but then saw Neji walking beside her. Then he turned around and left. After all, their houses were in opposite directions.
When the couple arrived at Sakura's house, she stood in her doorway and asked.
"So what are you going to do with Naruto? Being that protective cousin that you are," Sakura teased.
"I'll take care of him of course." Neji said smiling, now embracing her.
"Yeah right, you are too kind to do that." She kissed him on the lips.
"Goodnight Neji," she said.
"Goodnight Sakura."
The end of the Side StoryAuthor Notes:
I'm so sorry for this crappy chapter and crappy HinxNaru story. I never wrote about them before so please be easy on me. And I'm so sorry for the late update, I'm taking summer school this year and it's such a busy course, it's not hard it's just that it's very time consuming. I couldn't do my manga and my fanfic I'm so sorry. But there are only eight days left for the course so I'll try to finish chapter 5 soon! One good news to you is that I wrote chapter 6-7 already I just need to finish editing it! Well see you guys soon! Wa