Author's Note: Patience younglings, patience. Alright. Since you want to know so bad, yes, this story will end up NejiSaku. But don't forget, there's a triangle. Anyway, the NejiSaku goodness begins in Chapter 5, as I said before. And to answer your question, paccificgirl, that's sort of the basic plot. But its more complicated than that. It's not really to make them jealous, it has more to do with inflicting pain on them. So ha. And I've come up with a new segment for this story so you can expect more than 15 chapters. Now let's all say w00t and be happy. As I said, the plot will start to unfurl in chapter five. So just hold your horses people. T.T Storymaking takes time. I've been in band camp for two weeks and I need rest occassionally. I hope you people know I've been writing most of this stuff at 5:30 in the morning. So yeah. Ph33r me. And yeah, this story's going to get pretty intense. I warned you it wouldn't be all fluffiness. Now let's review.
NejiSaku goodnessPLUS Unfolding of plotEQUALSIn chapter 5.
Okay? Good. One more thing. Caleb, I put Devil's Fudge so I wouldn't have to write that I don't own Devil's Food in the disclaimer. I'm trying to avoid brand name products. So if I want to come up with a band and call their CD "Trixter Jack-Joe-Jim Johansen Goes Disco", that's what I'll do and you shall not complain. Mwa ha. Now onwards to the Disclaimer, and then, The Story!
Disclaimer: -points finger at Kishimoto-san.- You see him? He owns Naruto and all the stuff that goes with it. Not me. Wah.
Hey, quick question. If I wrote an incredibly weird story with the even weirder pairing of Lee x Temari would you read it? o.O It would be humor, of course.
Ama no Kagerou
The Shimmer of Heaven
Chapter 4 - Fates of Fury
Tenten stuffed her fingers in her ears and scowled. She'd just broken the 'news' to Lee, and he'd proceeded to jump around, hollering like a maniac who'd just won the lottery. She was feeling sick again was wasn't in the mood for Lee's celebration. "Lee." No response. He continued to jump off the sides of buildings and scream out his joy, demanding that everyone join him in his over-the-top happiness. And of course there were rivers of tears of joy coursing down his face.
"LEE."
"Eh?" Tenten growled in exasperation. "Lee, I really don't feel good right now. Why don't you go enlighten Gai-sensei?" Excitement lit Lee's face. "That's a great idea! No! An awesome idea!" He pecked her on the cheek. Then he turned serious. "You go home and get some rest. We don't want anything to happen to the baby." Tenten bit her lip. "Lee, I don't know if this baby's yours or Neji's." Lee didn't look at all concerned. He just waved it off saying, "Well, whether's it's mine or Neji's, I'll take responsibility for the child. Even if it's Neji's I'll raise it as if it were my own." Tenten relented a small smile and he winked. "Don't worry about it. You go home and get some sleep. I'm going to see Gai-sensei now."
Tenten watched as he skipped off in a random direction, whistling some weird happy tune. Well, at least one of them had taken it well. Now all she had to do was tell Neji. She had been debating on the proper time to tell him, not that there was one. If he got one hint that the father might be Lee, he'd pound Lee into ground beef. And then where would they be?
Walking home now, the weapon's master groaned aloud. Sometimes she wished she'd never gotten herself into this mess, wished she'd just stayed away from men in the first place. Damn teenage hormones and puberty. Now she was stuck with an impending baby and was in the middle of two men. One of which was overly hyper and obsessive and the other which was arrogant, thick-headed and insanely jealous. Or at least Tenten thought that was the reason he wouldn't even look at her. Not that she'd tried to come up with any more. One million seemed a decent number to stop at.
As she walked down the street, Tenten passed the butcher shop, with its door and windows wide open, the smell of meat wafting out. And right into Tenten's nose. She gagged and covered her mouth with her hand. Oh crap. Damn she hated this morning sickness thing. She would almost gladly take the bloating in its place.
Oh, it was going to be a long day.
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"Neji-nii-san?"
Oh dear. Oh dear dear dear. Neji-nii-san was not going to be happy. Hinata paced up and down the hallway in front of Neji's door, biting her nails. He was still fuming about his 'traitorous best friends' and the confrontation with Sakura, about which Hinata nor anyone else had any idea. He was not going to be happy about this latest piece of news.
Hinata whimpered softly. She really didn't want to, but somebody had to tell her cousin before he found out from someone else. If that happened, Neji would go on a slaughtering rampage. Most people were surprised he hadn't already. Hinata was too absorbed in her panicky thoughts to notice Neji's door open and the prodigy himself step out. He didn't say a word, merely watched her frenzied pacing.
Without paying attention to her pacing path, Hinata smacked right into her cousin. She looked up and emitted a squeak. "Nii-san...um...I..I h-have somet-thing to tell you." She backed up a step. He could really be scary when he was in a bad mood. Hinata cringed and nearly started to hyperventilate. This was harder than she'd imagined. Of course, in her imagination she was walking boldly up to Neji's door and telling him in a strong confident voice. Not so.
Neji glared impatiently at his poor stuttering cousin. "What." He said it in a tone that suggested "I'll bite your head off if you don't spit it out because I'm a freaking genius so bow at my feet". She just had to suck it in and say it. And die afterwords. Either that or Neji would first of shock. Or anger. Whichever kicked in first.
"I'm seeing Naruto."
No stuttering. No hesitation. It came out, just as she'd fantasized. Hinata even smiled at her small accomplishment. The corner of Neji's mouth twitched slightly. But Hinata didn't care anymore. She'd told him, and if he had a problem with it, let him take it out on a training dummy. Neji may be a caged bird, but his protective wings were still suffocating. So she turned on her heel and left.
"Hinata."
She paused to look back. He shrugged and turned back to his room saying, "You could do better," before slamming the door shut. Hinata blinked in surprise. That was way calmer than she'd expected him to take it. In fact, unless she missed her guess, that was his twisted sort of approval. She giggled out loud before hastily running back down the hall to her room to celebrate. The hardest part was over.
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Ah, lunch break. The most merciful part of the day. Or at least it was if you didn't have Naruto loudly singing your praises in your ear. Sakura groaned. For the millionth time today, Naruto was telling her what an awesome wonderful person she was, how she deserved whatever she wanted most in the world. Cute for a while, but now it was aggravating.
"If you're so happy that I helped get you and Hinata together, then why don't you go spend time with her?" The medic-nin gave up on trying to eat her lunch. It just wasn't possible. Naruto made a face. "She's telling Neji. Eck. Wouldn't want to be in her shoes right now..." Naruto continued to ramble, meanwhile Sakura was seething.
Hyuuga Neji. Just the thought of him pissed her off. Just who did the bastard think he was? Besides former Rookie of the Year, a genius, prodigy, ANBU Captain, and second best looking guy in Konoha apart from Uchiha Sasuke. Nope. Nothing special there. Okay fine. Maybe he had a couple reasons to be arrogant. But that still didn't excuse his behavior.
And how dare he threaten her! He had bruised her neck, and Sakura had had to smother them in makeup to keep them hidden. He obviously thought that just because he had money and an ancient bloodline that he was better than everyone else. Which of course he was, but Sakura wasn't going to admit that, now was she?
And that once again raised the same vexing, unanswerable question. Why, why had Tenten chosen Lee over Neji? But then, if she had been the one who'd had to choose, Sakura wasn't so sure it was the easiest choice in the world. Pretentious arrogant perfectionist or the obsessive lunatic? Clearly it was a matter of looks and which personality you preferred.
"HELLO!"
Sakura choked on her pink lemonade. She'd completely forgotten about Naruto. The blonde shinobi was scowling at her. "Earth to Sakura, anybody in there? Geez, do you always have to space out on me? Am I that boring?" He pouted, fake tears filling his eyes. The kunoichi giggled. "Sorry, got a lot on my mind lately. So where're you taking Hinata on your first date?" She wore a mischeivous smile, as she knew Naruto feared the topic of dating.
"Uh...Ichiraku?" "WRONG!" Naruto managed to dodge the blow to the head, but sadly could not avoid the nasty right hook to the gut. Standing in self-righteous outrage, Sakura's eyes were on fire. "You do NOT, I repeat, NOT take a girl to a ramen shack for a first date. Really Naruto, you can't be that stupid. Even Lee knows better. He took Tenten to an elegant restaurant that serves top-rate cuisine." "But I'm broke!" He whined.
Sakura dug in her pocket and pulled out a wad of cash. "Here." She shoved it in his hand, his eyes widening in surprise. "Take her someplace nice. And dress decent too. Not in your shinobi get-up. Use your manners, even if they are rusty. Compliment her, girls like that. No belching. Open doors for her. Pull her chair out for her. Move heaven and earth for her, damn you!" Naruto slowly backed away. 'Talk about scary.' "Uh, why are you doing all this for me?" Sakura sighed and slowly sank back down in her chair. "'Cause I know it'll never happen to me, so this way at least Hinata will be happy. She deserves it."
Naruto frowned. "What makes you think it'll never happen to you?" His former teammate scoffed. "Please, Naruto. I'm a freaking third rate shinobi with no special skills, I'm loud, bossy, obsessive, and let's not even talk about my ginormous forehead." She plunked said forehead down on the table. Naruto blinked. 'She kind of has a point, but..' "Pfft. Sakura, sometimes I think you're hopeless. You're the Godaime's apprentice, for Pete's sake, whoever Pete is. And you're like, the smartest girl ever. I don't think anybody's got pink hair like yours either. It's awesome. And if you haven't noticed, you're hot and the guys are constantly staring at you. I think somebody's self-esteem balloon needs some inflating. Yeesh."
Naruto grinned and held up a peace sign when she gave him a reluctant small smile. "Alright. I've done my responsibility as friend for the day. Later." He jumped out of his chair, tripped over it like a moron, and ran out of the room. Sakura laughed. She shoved the rest of her sandwich in her mouth and sobered up. She had serious things to think about. She was going to pay a visit to Hyuuga after work and she'd let him have a piece of her mind. She wouldn't let him get a word in.
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Ha. She'd found him.
Nine o'clock. It had taken her three hours, but at least she'd found that stupid reclusive Hyuuga. And surprisingly it was in a tiny little coffee shop whose entrance was hidden in an alleyway. Sakura could see at once exactly why Neji liked this place. The walls were black. The floor was black. And the coffee was black. Typical of him to haunt dark and depressing places.
She'd hidden her hair up as best she could under a black bandana, so no one would recognize her. Not that she knew anyone in here anyway. Slinking across the back wall, she approached the table at which the loner was sitting. He appeared to be bored out of his mind. Gee. What a nice way to spend life.
"Your stealth skills are even worse than Naruto's, Haruno." Sakura froze. 'Shit. Damn Byakuugan.' She cursed the Hyuugas and their bloodline ability at that moment. She'd wanted to make a sort of dramatic entrance where she would rain down accusations upon the Hyuuga and he would fall at her feet weeping and begging forgiveness. Ah me, such unrealistic expectations the poor girl had.
Ah well, cover blown. Might as well covort with the enemy for a while. She plopped herself ungracefully in the chair across from Neji and stared hard at him. He was unfazed. "Do you thrive off of stalking me? Have you decided to forget about Uchiha and mark me as the next target of your obsessive propensities?"
The kunoichi flushed angrily. She hadn't even said a word yet and already he'd insulted her twice. This was not going the way she'd planned. Stiffening, she folded her hands in her lap and prepared to deliver her fire and brimstone speech that she'd been working on for two days. All to be blown away by the stupid egotistical jerk sitting in front of her.
"I don't have time for your childish games, Haruno."
Sakura exploded. "Oh, but you have time to sit here and drink coffee, do you?" she shouted. In about 3.5 seconds she'd become the center of attention, and it was clear that the other patrons were annoyed with her outburst. Snapping her mouth shut, Inner Sakura woke up to berate her. 'Nice, Sakura. Let's play a game. How many times can he make a fool of you in ten minutes? The tally's already up to three.'
The Hyuuga prodigy smirked. He enjoyed making a fool of her, and she knew it. Oh, how she seethed. He took another sip of coffee before speaking again. "If I let you get this horrendous burden off your chest, will you leave me alone after that?" Sakura blinked. No. She would not rest until he'd learned a thing or two about manners.
She shot him a death glare, which he merely shrugged off. If he wasn't so hot she'd strangle him. Wait. No. Uh uh. Hot? No way. Not in her book. He did not compare, one iota, to Sasuke. Which was exactly why his eyes weren't having a weird effect on her that made her want to blush and hide under a rock. Nope.
"And if I say no?" He shrugged again. "Then I'll merely have to take steps to eradicate the problem." Alright. Sakura'd had about enough now. She was tired of his cocky attitude and the masculinity radiating off of him. He was going to get the speech whether he liked it or not. Grinding her teeth in resolve, she looked him straight in the eye.
"I don't care if you're the richest person in Konoha. I don't care if you have an IQ of 340 and can perform any and all jutsus. And I certainly don't give a damn about your stuck up 'I'm better than you' attitude. You owe them an apology, and you-- Don't you look away when I'm talking to you! You're a selfish, heartless bastard, I don't care how many times you've heard it because it's the truth. You know exactly who I'm talking about so don't even try to feign ignorance.
"They've made their apologies. They're both torn up with guilt, but sometimes these things happen. What happened to your 'Oh, that's just Fate. I can't change that' attitude? It's not enough for you is it? It's not enough to see them torturing themselves over it. Want more do you want from them? They can't turn back time. They can't fix it. What's done is done, so get over it and stop making them pay for what was probably your mistake anyway."
He continued to stare at her, his expression fathomless. Sakura was shaking from rage now, her emerald eyes smoldering with righteous fury. And yet not a muscle twitched, he barely even blinked. Dammit, if he'd ignored even one word of that she'd maul him right then and there.
"Why do you care so much? It's not your problem."
"Because," she ground out, "they're my friends. And unlike you, I take care of my friends. I don't want to see either one of them under the stress and strain that you've been putting them through. Jeez, Hyuuga, clearly you don't even care that Tenten's pregnant and that it might be your child, how can you be that frigid?"
Sakura couldn't figure out for the life of her why Neji's body suddenly went totally rigid. For the first time she could see emotion in his eyes, and it wasn't pretty to look at. His face contorted with fury and it dawned on Sakura what she'd done. Clamping her hand over her mouth, her eyes widened in horror. 'Oh, please no. Please tell me I did not say that.'
Too late. The words were out and there was no taking them back. She'd accidentally betrayed Tenten's trust and she knew the weapons master would never forgive her for it. And Neji would never forgive Tenten, whether it was his baby or not. It was more the fact that it had been Sakura that had had to tell him And possibly Lee might never forgive her for hurting Tenten. She'd just screwed herself over.
Sakura didn't say a word or move as Neji threw his bill on the table and stormed from the coffee shop.
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Tenten sighed contentedly as she emerged from a nice hot shower. Wrapping a soft, fluffy robe around herself, she flopped down on the couch with a tub of ice cream and prepared to relax for the rest of the day. Rare was the chance that she got to do this, so she planned to take full advantage of Lee's "orders". She wouldn't worry about telling Neji today. She had at least another couple months to figure out how to tell him before it became extremely obvious.
It became obvious to her after a few seconds that she couldn't eat ice cream without a spoon, so she reluctantly ambled her way into the kitchen. "Spoon, spoon, spoon...Where the hell are they?" Pots, pans, and silverware clanged and crashed as she turned the kitchen upside down trying to find a clean spoon.
Subsequently, she didn't hear the crash of the door opening. A few seconds later a hand roughly grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. Tenten screamed. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw it was Neji. He was in a black rage such as she had never seen him. Normally he was emotionless, which made his anger all the more terrifying.
Was this some kind of delayed reaction or something? Despite the seriousness of the situation, she couldn't keep stupid thoughts like these from flittering across her mind. He shoved her roughly away from him and turned away, hands folded tightly across his chest. Tenten knew Neji would never hit her, but he was so angry that she wasn't sure if his honor would hold him back now.
Massaging her aching shoulder, Tenten tried to gather up her courage. She'd never seen him like this and she didn't know what he'd do. First to find out what had made him so furious. "What the crap do you think you're doing barging in here and assaulting me? What'd I do now?" He didn't say anything for a minute. The next words he spoke were vicious and sharp, dripping with venom.
"Tell me why, exactly, I had to find out your impregnated condition from Haruno," he hissed.
The blood drained completely from Tenten's face and she swayed on her feet. Sakura. She'd told him. Her first reaction was shock. Her next, blind fury. 'That bitch!' How dare she tell Neji about the baby! It wasn't her secret to tell. The next time she saw Sakura she'd mutiliate her for this betrayal.
He spun around, grabbing her by the color. "Is it mine or Lee's?" Tenten's fists clenched. "I don't know," she said tersely. That seemed to further enrage him. She'd wanted to tell him in her own time. She remembered specifically telling Sakura that she couldn't tell anybody, putting emphasis on Neji's name. It didn't even occur to Tenten that she might have told him unintentionally. It was all the same. She'd told him, she would be punished.
Without another word, Neji was gone. Once again he'd sent her world crashing down on her. But it would not be him who paid for it. Stalking into her bedroom to dig out her weapons, Tenten vowed revenge for Sakura's indiscretion.
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Pregnant.
She was pregnant. Neji felt cold and numb. And, though his pride would not allow him to recognize it, hurt. He'd already convinced himself in his mind that it was Lee's little bastard. Now more than ever he desired retribution. There was no longer any doubt in his mind as to whether he hated them. The minute he'd heard of this pregnancy from Haruno, their fate had been sealed.
..Sakura..
He felt oddly grateful toward her for telling him. Otherwise he might not have found out until she was far gone with the child. It was easy to tell that she had not meant to divulge that information. She'd clearly been upset. But perhaps she could be of use to him. Obviously she didn't hate him, even if she did love to rant about his faults and supposed horrid deeds.
Maybe she didn't hate him, but before this whole sordid affair was over, he'd make sure she was on his side. And so it was that Neji instigated his plans of revenge by taking up a kunai.
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Author's Note: End seemed a bit OOC to me, oh freaking well. Sorry you guys had to wait so long. School started when I was just starting to write this chapter, plus I was exhausted from band camp. I originally intended for this chapter to just be a sort of boring filler chapter, guess not though. Heh. There was too many key points that needed to be put in this chapter. On another note, I have enabled anonymous reviewing, courtesy of Amy. I promise the goodness will start next chapter, so you won't have to wait too much longer. I'll try not to take so long, but my time's being eaten up by school and band. Now for my customary threatening review notice.
Review or else I shall sic upon you my army of rabid shrews and moustaches.
