A/N: So, a few days ago I had cause to go through all my old notebooks from 5-10 years ago. Apparently, ever since Neji became my favourite character, I've gotten a lot meaner to him in my stories.

Gaara thought that he hadn't come to host this party unprepared. He was warned of any number of disasters that might occur: a shortage of drinks, unseasonable weather, food poisoning, even assassination attempts. But he wasn't sure that anybody could have predicted the bizarreness that was this evening, much less prepared for it. He tried to imagine his advisors telling him what to do. If a situation arises in which a guest insists that you kiss another guest, but a third guest takes umbrage with this and insists on kissing you himself...

No, there was definitely no official set of rules about this.

There were so many eyes full of keen anticipation, all trained on him even though he was yet to do anything. He'd had no idea that kissing was such an entertaining spectacle and never expected that anyone would want to watch him kissing another person. Even the ones who professed not to care were looking on expectantly.

"Are you sure?" asked Sakura, sounding unconvinced, swiveling her gaze between Gaara and Neji. "I mean, if we know he's going to ruin it …"

"Speak for yourself. I'm dying to see if he goes through with it," said Tenten.

"Oh, okay then … well, I guess we dare you to kiss Ne- no, Hinata! We dare you to kiss Hinata."

As Naruto said, Gaara probably could have just refused. Definitely, in fact. He was still the Kazekage and, game or not, he had zero obligation to follow an order from Chuunin of another village. Except, on a personal level, he couldn't help but feel that the fact that these people were willing to play this game in his presence, including him with no more or less deference than anyone else, signified that he was one of them. Naruto had said as much many times in the past, but it was uplifting to see it proven. Could he really let them down by saying no?

Of course not. "All right."

He had very little doubt that Neji meant to fulfill his promise to take the first kiss for himself – he had some kind of desperate resolve that made no sense unless he thought it was very important – yet that hadn't swayed the decision to choose 'dare'. If anything it made it easier: nobody was pressuring him to kiss Neji, nobody really wanted it to happen, therefore the decision was completely his own. And he'd still end up kissing Hinata anyway, so he wasn't making a choice that the others would find disappointing.

Hinata shuffled forward uncertainly, and Gaara studied her as she did. He didn't know much about her; he must have seen her fight, but he couldn't even remember that. All he could tell at sight was that she was quiet and shy, preferring to stay shoulder-to-shoulder with either her teammates or the other girls rather than stand on her own. Was she really the sort of person who would volunteer to be part of a dare like this? Gaara's instincts would have told him that she wasn't.

She was a pretty girl, he supposed, but was he attracted to her? Not really. He didn't know why Ino was so insistent that they would be good together.

It was only then that he realized he was frowning as he watched Hinata, and she had faltered and stopped moving in response. He turned to Neji instead.

Neji hadn't moved at all but he looked ready to leap forward at a moment's notice. Again, Gaara hadn't known a good deal about him before tonight, but the party had certainly revealed more than it had for Hinata. Neji wasn't quiet: he wasn't loud in the way Naruto was loud, but he expressed his opinions vociferously and didn't seem to care if they came across as rude. He was defensive and proud, too much so to back down or apologise. He didn't want to kiss Naruto, but he did it. He didn't want to kiss Gaara, but he would. And Gaara had no real idea why.

He was good-looking, too, and far more aware of it than Hinata. Gaara could see it in the way he carried himself. But attractive? Just like with his cousin, there was a big difference between good looks and attractiveness, and Gaara didn't get a sense of the latter from Neji, either.

"Well?" said Sasuke, raising his eyebrows. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you need to be within ten feet of each other."

"Afraid, Neji?" Ino asked cattily.

Neji, haughty as ever, ignored her. "I was just giving the Kazekage one last chance to back out, Sasuke."

Somehow, he made it sound like a taunt.

"I don't back out." Gaara scowled at him. "Can you say the same?"

Jaw clenching, Neji took one threatening step closer to him, but no more than that. There was conflict darkening his face, his resolve almost visibly wavering. Gaara decided to push him further, testing him: as Neji moved, so did he – towards Hinata.

It worked. Neji's eyes narrowed and he took two more steps. Gaara did the same. Three more steps. It must have looked ridiculous to those watching but he was paying them no attention. He was right beside Hinata now; if Neji was going to take action, he would have to do it now. He must have known that, too, because he grimaced as he closed the remaining distance.

"Tongues and hands, was it? Whatever."

He reached out and seized Gaara roughly by the arms, pulling him in. In spite of everything, it managed to catch Gaara by surprise and he had to resist the reflexive urge to fight back. He forced himself to go with the motion and let himself be kissed. Neji's lips hit his hard and immediately parted, not wasting any time, however no matter how quickly he tried to get it over and done with, every detail was being burned into Gaara's mind. There was much more to it than lips, tongues and hands: he hadn't expected there to be so many elements to something so simple.

His first impression was that it felt like Neji must have done this a lot because he moved with the fluidity of experience. One of his hands was still holding Gaara steady, but the other had crept around his back and now rested somewhere between his shoulder blades. Their noses almost touched but due to the slightest tilt to the left by Neji they didn't collide. As Gaara's own mouth fell open an inch, the kiss deepened, and he felt his control start to slip. Neji's breath was warm on his cheek, and it actually smelled somewhat pleasant, too.

For some reason, as Gaara's mouth became more active – Neji's tongue had passed his lips and was moving over his own tongue, and he knew without question that his was supposed to move, too – his eyes wanted to close, like there wasn't enough strength to keep them both going at once. He tried to resist at first, knowing that it was stupid to be in an unfamiliar situation without being able to see, but gave in when he realized he had nothing but the right side of Neji's face in his field of vision anyway. Besides, this wasn't exactly dangerous.

That was when Neji lifted his hand from Gaara's arm and buried it in his hair, grabbing it hard.

His senses went alight. The pain of having his hair pulled was nothing compared to other pains, but it ignited a battle-flame in his stomach, along with flashbacks of every fight he'd ever been in. It aroused a combative desire in him: the desire to react, to retaliate. Barely registering the orders his brain was giving him, he raised one hand to Neji's neck and, using his fingernails, not-too-lightly raked down the front of his throat. Neji's breath hitched but he didn't break the kiss, so Gaara ascertained that this sort of thing was acceptable.

That was strangely unexpected to him. He had always had kissing described to him as soft and calm and gentle. He didn't know they could also be aggressive. It felt natural and comfortable to him that way, which was probably not a good sign for his general wellbeing, but so be it.

When the kiss finally ended, it wasn't because either of them noticeably broke it; amidst all the intensity and the flurry of sensations, a natural rhythm had started to form, and after a time the rhythm simply reached an end point, letting them know simultaneously that they were done. They separated themselves and Neji coughed awkwardly. Only then did Gaara see their audience, and the way they were looking at them.

"Holy shit," said Naruto, his blue eyes disbelievingly wide. The people closest to him nodded mutely in agreement. Gaara didn't know what to say, unsure what the problem was, so he decided to wait until somebody elucidated it.

Neji had no such hesitation. Ino was in his sights as he stuck out his chin and asked challengingly, "Was that good enough for you?"

Was it good enough for them. Gaara found that the question irked him. It was his first kiss, so surely the proper thing to do would have been to ask if it was good enough for him. If he had, Neji might have even been flattered by the answer he received, for Gaara had enjoyed it immensely and was going so far as to wonder if he'd been missing out by not doing it earlier. Although, perhaps Neji disliked kissing so much that he didn't want to hear compliments about it, which would then beg the question, how could he possibly dislike something so appealing? It was nonsensical.

Gaara supposed he couldn't ignore the likelihood that it had to do with the fact that it was males he'd been made to kiss (not that anyone had actually forced him in Gaara's case, of course). Obviously males more commonly kissed females, but if diverting from that was stigmatized, Gaara hadn't heard about it. Hell, maybe it was only a sore point in Konoha. As far as he knew, a person's sexuality was rarely mentioned or acknowledged, but then if games like 'truth or dare' were Leaf Village staples, things may very well have been different there.

So, then, was Neji hostile because he was homosexual and that was a problem in Konoha? Or because he wasn't homosexual and he didn't like that the events tonight were giving the impression that he was?

"All right, if no one else'll say it, I will," Kankuro announced, breaking the reforming silence. "Hyuuga, you devoured my brother's face so thoroughly I'm surprised you haven't gone back for seconds. You put so much energy into it that anyone else you've kissed should feel ripped off. You were groping him so hard I'm surprised your pants weren't –"

"Shut up, Kankuro, we get it!" Temari burst out.

"And you know what, I bet he's going to deny he was into it. I seriously bet you."

Neji flushed a very dark red. "I wouldn't have done it if I didn't have to."

It wasn't an answer – a fact which escaped no one, but they seemed content to let him keep his ego intact and only roll their eyes behind his back. Well, Gaara didn't want to let him off so easily. It was his own turn of the game next, was it not?

"Well, I hope it was worth it, because the Kazekage's still going to kiss Hinata," Ino pointed out stiffly.

"And Naruto!" piped up Sakura. "Don't forget, he hasn't finished his dare yet, either."

That was true. Gaara had forgotten that the orally physical part of his evening was only one-third complete, though if the rest was of the same quality as the first, he had no complaints.

Hinata looked frantic. "I – I don't know if I can do it exactly like that." She glanced pleadingly at Neji, who shrugged.

"Do it however you want. I don't care."

She winced, and Gaara was left puzzling over her churlish cousin once again. Surely it was strange for him to not care, when only minutes ago he had almost come to blows with Ino over it? Whatever logic was working through his mind was clearly either far too complex or far too stupid for others' comprehension. As far as Gaara could tell there was absolutely no reason that it should only matter that she not kiss him if it was his first kiss.

He watched as she headed over to him, making a conscious effort not to scare her this time. She wouldn't be like Neji in this at all, no matter their aesthetic similarities. That much was obvious. Still, that wouldn't necessarily make her bad.

When she was close enough to reach him, Hinata shut her eyes, then opened them again – then closed again, then open – as if she couldn't decide which was less nerve-racking. She finally chose to keep them open, but still looked worried that she'd done wrong. After even more pausing and fumbling, Gaara grew impatient, realizing that unless he initiated it himself it was never going to happen. He leaned forward and kissed her, although unlike with Neji, he deliberately kept his mouth closed.

It wasn't fair to compare the two kisses no matter how one looked at it, because they were so unalike it was as if the Hyuugas were kissing for completely different occasions. Neji had something to prove, whatever that was, and that was expressed every second in his body language, making him fierce and assertive. Hinata, Gaara knew now without a doubt, had volunteered for this even less than he himself had, and must have been fervently pressed into it by the other girls. She was tense and unsure what to do with her hands, and when neither of them tilted their heads and their noses briefly bumped into each other, he noticed that she was holding her breath.

It only lasted a few seconds. When they parted, Ino and Sakura sighed a harmonizing, "Aww!" Apparently they saw something in it that Gaara didn't feel.

"Th- thank you?" Hinata said to him, with a tangible question mark in her tone.

Tenten snorted. "You don't thank someone for kissing you, Hinata." She paused, looking thoughtful. "Unless it was like the one Neji gave him. Damn."

"Stop it," Neji snapped.

"I'm just saying. If I'd known you could do that I would've asked you out again."

"Shut up!"

"Wait, hold on a minute." Chouji looked from one of them to the other. "You two went out? I didn't hear that."

"Lee," Neji growled.

Everyone looked at Lee, who hadn't been his usual vocal self since the beginning of the game (evidently Sakura had provided a decent distraction for him). Now, though, his eyes lit up like he had been waiting for his moment. "Yes, it was I who suggested that Neji should treat Tenten to an evening of romance to celebrate her sixteenth birthday last year! I sensed a budding passion between them and vowed that I would help them realise their love!"

"Yeah, you vowed it right in front of Gai, and then neither of you shut up about it until my next birthday." Tenten rolled her eyes. She didn't seem to notice Lee's bizarre way of speaking, which was still jarring to Gaara's ears after all this time. It was like he had swallowed an anthology of poems and was doomed to recite all the verses.

Neji was shaking his head. "'Budding passion'?" he repeated irritably.

"I could sense it!" Lee insisted. "The stolen glances, the wayward sighs –"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"He means me," Tenten explained. "Because he knew I liked you. And that's 'liked', as in past tense, everybody, so don't get any ideas! But Lee couldn't get it through his thick head that you didn't like me back, because he lives in some crazy fantasy world. So yeah, we went on one lousy date –"

Neji stiffened. "Stop. This is ridiculous. You don't have to tell them all this."

"Hey, believe me, I'm embarrassed, too. But I'm not ashamed of it. Plus it's not like they won't just make me spill everything on my turn anyway. So, we had this date, only it was barely even a date, and it ended in a stupid fight and we never tried it again. You know what the fight was about? Irony of all ironies, it was because he refused to kiss me!"

There were some good-humoured laughs at Neji's expense, but none was as intrigued about this as Gaara. So girls were off-limits under Neji's self-imposed kissing restriction as well? This was getting beyond peculiarity and heading closer to madness. It would definitely be the subject of Gaara's next question – which he would get to ask soon, right after his third scheduled kiss for the evening.

Naruto looked uncomfortable, but had resigned himself to it by the time Sakura reminded him again about what he had to do. Everybody else settled down and forgot about Neji for long enough to watch, but they seemed to be losing their eagerness. Well, it was not only Gaara's third kiss but also Naruto's ninth, so maybe the novelty was beginning to wear off.

This kiss was closer to Hinata's than Neji's in terms of boldness, light and quick and like Naruto would rather have been anywhere else but here. However, there was something odd about this one that bore no resemblance whatsoever to the others, which was actually quite unnerving. As soon as their lips touched, Gaara felt goosebumps prickling on the back of his neck, a sensation rarely experienced in the Suna desert, as if in response to a sudden danger. He felt exposed. Then, just as suddenly, when the kiss ended it was gone. Naruto also looked uneasy, but if it was for the same reason, Gaara couldn't tell. Well, as long as it was gone…

Still, he kept an eye out for anything strange. If there really was danger it would be unlikely that nobody besides himself would sense it, but if some kind of attack happened, it would prove a bitter end to a party that was meant to show solidarity of alliances. He did not want to be responsible for something like that happening in his village just because he ignored a bad gut feeling.

He couldn't help but look warily at Neji. There was no reason for Neji to give him feelings of ill intent about kissing Naruto, but in the back of his mind there was a niggling suspicion that that spine-tingling sensation felt similar to having the Hyuugas' Byakugan focused on him at close range. He didn't know why he thought that, being unable to draw on personal experience, but it was there. Neji, though, was giving no indication that he'd even seen that kiss, much less felt demonstrably angry about it.

"What?" he said, sullenly when he noticed Gaara's stare. "Planning on asking me next? Going to hound me about any other bad dates I've had, or just get me to kiss everyone else, too?"

Gaara considered. He had intended to ask Neji on his turn, but if Neji didn't select 'truth', it would be a waste. He didn't know how to make up dares besides ones related to kissing, and he didn't have any desire to force any more of that. There was always the option of asking Tenten – she knew Neji well and seemed more than happy to reveal secrets about him. Hinata might have been a possibility as well. But again, if they chose 'dare', he'd be lost.

On the other hand, he could abandon the hope of learning anything new about Neji and instead go after someone else he knew was hiding something: Naruto. He had been very evasive earlier and pointedly ignored Gaara's question about with whom his second kiss had been. There must have been a story there.

It all came back to kissing. Apparently everything did, to some people. Was it really that special?

Well, that depended on the kisser, it seemed. Some were more memorable than others. As Gaara thought that, he knew he couldn't pass up the opportunity to ask something only Neji could answer.

"Truth or dare, Neji?"

He didn't look surprised. No one did. "Of course," he said darkly. "Well, what if I don't want to pick either? What happens then?"

"Oh, shove it up yourself, Hyuuga," retorted Kankuro. "Like the rest of us were so desperate to play."

There were sounds of agreement.

"What are you so afraid of?" Sasuke asked with an air of smug condescension, which Neji must have caught, because he rounded on him.

"Like you can talk. I know about you – what you're hiding –"

"Me? I'm not hiding anything."

"Bullshit."

"You can ask me whatever you want." Sasuke folded his arms. "I hear it's not healthy to keep secrets. But first you'll have to play like a good boy and take your turn."

It was lucky Neji was far enough away that he couldn't punch him. The desire to do just that was written all over his face in what was becoming a familiar expression. He snarled, "Truth, then," through gritted teeth.

Gaara didn't care much about Sasuke and what he may or may not have been hiding – as was the case with a number of the guests here tonight, all he even really knew about the Uchiha was his rank and the fact that Naruto seemed to care about him – so Neji was the only one in his sights. And he'd just chosen 'truth'.

"I'm not asking what you think I'm going to ask," Gaara said, not trying to be assuring, simply stating a fact. Neji didn't take it graciously.

"Don't do me any favours."

"Believe me, this isn't a favour."

"Then go ahead."

"I'm asking how your kiss with me was when compared to kisses in general."

Even though he was warned it would be an unexpected question, Neji still looked like he had been thrown off balance. He did a double-take, with his eyebrows creased in bemusement as if Gaara had suddenly started talking in a different language. "What was that?"

"Don't play dumb," Ino goaded him.

"Yeah, you heard him!" Tenten agreed. "He's asking if he's a good kisser. Quite frankly, you'd better say yes. I'll feel a lot better about myself if it turns out you've been into dudes this whole time."

That hadn't been what Gaara was asking, exactly. Whether or not he himself was good was as irrelevant as which hand on a person was better at clapping: what was the use in judging it alone if it always worked in a pair? All he was after was some insight into whether it had been typical or not. He wanted to know if all kisses were supposed to be like that and the ones with Hinata and Naruto had gone wrong somehow. Before he'd believed that Neji might have been superior to many due to practice, but Tenten's testimony suggested that him being experienced was unlikely.

"Well?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow after Neji remained silent a moment too long. "Do you really think that not answering is an option here? We all know that's tantamount to an admission."

He was right, and Neji knew it, because he said, "This is … this is ridiculous. Fine. It was good. I was told to do it properly, so I did. As for comparing it with others, Kazekage, I'm afraid I can't help you. Unlike some, I have better things to do than try to build up bedpost notches."

His eyes briefly met Tenten's, a movement that no one missed, especially her.

"I'm sorry, 'unlike some'?" she said heatedly. "So 'some' is me, I take it?"

"Take it however you want."

She shook her head in disbelief. "Geez, I can't believe you're so sour about the game that you're lashing out at me. Bedpost notches? Huh? That isn't really what you think of me. But in case it is, unlike some, I don't believe wanting a kiss on the first date automatically makes me cheap! What century is that idea from? Just because I'm your teammate doesn't mean I'm going to be your emotional punching bag while you go through the most ridiculous coming out in history."

Neji glared. "I'm not coming out."

"I think you are."

"No."

"Do you think we're going to laugh at you? Come on, you might as well get it over with, you idiot."

For a split second, Gaara actually believed Neji was going to give Tenten the admission that she wanted, but instead he practically spat out the words, "Truth or dare?"

"Huh?" Tenten blinked, her teasing momentum halted. "Oh! Oooh, you want to play with me? Bring it on; I'm not afraid of anything you've got. Go on, then. Dare."

Neji must have had something prepared, though. He didn't even have to stop and think about what he was going to say next. "Then I dare you to repeat what you said about Sakura after you asked Lee out and he refused."

"What?" said Sakura, bewildered.

"What?" Lee echoed beside her.

Tenten looked confused, too. "What are you talking – oh!" She blanched in a sudden panic. "I'd completely forgotten … no, no, no, you can't make me say it again!"

"I can't?"

"What was said about me?" Sakura's eyes were wide and innocent, like she was a child trying to understand a difficult joke. Tenten turned to her pleadingly.

"It wasn't anything. I didn't mean it, I was having a bad day … Neji, this isn't funny! Everything up until now has been in good fun, but this is crossing a line. You're going to hurt people's feelings."

Neji merely tossed back his hair, uncaring. At least, it looked like it was supposed to be uncaring, but Gaara suspected that Neji thought 'crossing a line' had been done a long time ago, and was now trying to bring everyone else down with him. This did nothing to dispel Gaara's belief that these dares were bad news. Games weren't supposed to have casualties.

"So she went out with Neji and tried to go out with Lee?" inquired Kiba. "That's not weird? If Shino went out with Hinata and then wanted – er – and then Hinata wanted to go out with me, I'd find it creepy."

Lee broke in: "But I turned down her advances in the most amicable and gracious way possible to avoid any discord! I told her I appreciated and valued her but my feelings for Sakura were too strong!"

"Is he always such a sap?" Temari muttered.

"Shut up," hissed Ino. "I'll bet you'd kill for your so-called boyfriend to say things like that."

"But what did you say about me?" Sakura asked Tenten softly. Tenten grimaced.

"I … basically said that I didn't know why Lee was so into you and I didn't think you were worth it. And I may have … elaborated on that a bit. I'm sorry, I'm really sorry! I was going through a crap time as it was, asking him out made sense in my head, and when he said no I just flew off the handle. I was upset that I saw Lee and Neji every single day and yet neither of them wanted anything to do with me romantically … it sucked, and I was venting to make myself feel better. I'm so sorry."

At first it was hard to tell how Sakura was taking it, but after a few seconds she gave a very strained smile, blinking back some dampness at the corners of her eyes. "That – that's okay, Tenten. I get it, we all say stupid things sometimes. Just … just give me a minute." She hastily slid past the people beside her and rushed over to the door. Her footsteps echoed behind her while nobody else made a sound.

Then Tenten glared at Neji and said, "Thanks. Thanks a lot. You're being a massive jerk tonight, you know that? Deal with your identity crisis on your own!" She rushed out after Sakura.

Seeing that eyes were on him, Neji looked defensive. "I'm not –"

"For crying out loud, we don't care! Follow them and fix this, you idiot!" Naruto shouted, and several others nodded vigorously.

"Fix it? So it's fine to force me into things but not them?"

"No, you fucked up," Sasuke said plainly. "We didn't know beforehand that you had some weird hang-up about kissing, so we weren't responsible for tiptoeing around it. You deliberately threw Tenten to the wolves. That's different."

"I'd suggest groveling," added Chouji.

With the whole room against him, Neji's options were limited. His shoulders slumped in defeat, he mumbled, "Fine," and then went for the door as well.

The resulting atmosphere was the least game-like, the least party-like, that Gaara could imagine, and he was far from an expert on the matter. Still, he knew enough that he could practically hear his advisors' voices ringing in his head with the explanations of etiquette they had given him earlier that day: if an issue or dispute arises, as host it is your place to find a solution quickly and peacefully. Well, this was certainly an issue or dispute. He had no solution to it, but it was clear enough that he would be expected to follow the three who had left. He would have to … mediate in some way. If he could do it for a village, surely he could do it for what amounted to a few teenagers.

"Excuse me," he said as he walked to the door. There still wasn't much noise besides awkward shuffling, but right as he stepped out into the hallway, he was positive he heard Ino's voice.

"So, how about we stick to nice questions from now on? Also, can somebody please pick me already?"