第四間：ＳＰＦ１５０
Chapter Four: SPF 150
They'd made it to the beach at last! Everyone admired the view of the ocean, marveling at just how magnificent it was.
"Nice work, Neji," Naruto said. "You really picked a great spot."
"Indeed." Neji couldn't help feeling proud about that.
"All right!" Lee shouted, whipping off his clothes to reveal his bathing suit underneath. "Everyone to the water!" He took off in a mad run, clearly expecting the others to follow.
No one did, as Lee had been the only person who had actually worn his suit under his clothes. Tenten rolled her eyes and put down her bag.
"I brought a tent for people to change in," she said. "Let's get everything set up first."
By the time Lee realized he was alone in the water and came running back, the rest of the gang had started setting up a camp of sorts. Tenten and Shino set up the tent, Hinata and Ino laid out beach towels and picnic blankets, and Shikamaru built a fire while Chouji unpacked the ingredients for lunch. Neji was helping Sakura set up an umbrella when Lee came back and tried to organize a swimming race.
"The water is perfect!," he enthused. "Naruto-kun, Neji, I challenge both of you to a race!"
"You got it!" Naruto yelled. "Sakura-chan, come be our starter, pretty please?"
"OK; just let me change first!"
"Hooray!" Lee cried. "Neji, are you coming?"
He shook his head. "Not yet."
"Oh, all right." Lee was too excited to really be disappointed. "First one there gets a five-second head start!" he cried before zooming toward the water as fast as his weights-free body possibly could, leaving a cursing Naruto scrambling after him.
Once all the set-up work was finished and he'd changed into his swim trunks, Neji sat down in the shade and sighed contentedly. The weather was perfect, everyone was in a good mood, and the day had only just begun; nothing but good could happen now. Of course, there was one task he had to complete before he could join in the fun. Neji opened his bag (which was not girly in any way, thank you, no matter what Kiba said about it) and pulled out a bottle of sunscreen.
"This cannot end well," Tenten said, nodding in Lee's direction where he and Naruto were now trying to convince Sakura to join them in the water.
"I think you're right," he agreed, then went about the serious task of coating himself in sun block.
"Didn't you put some on before we left?" Tenten asked.
Neji turned the bottle to where the instructions read "reapply as needed."
"Right…" She sat down next to him and started blowing up a beach ball. She was almost finished when her prediction came true; Sakura was stalking away from the water, leaving Lee and Naruto, who now sported matching bumps on the head, behind. "We should go cheer Lee up," she said. "Are you almost done?"
"Just need to do my back."
"Well, when you're done…" She trailed off as Hinata approached them. "I'll see you later, OK?" she said before skipping off to ambush Lee with her beach ball.
"W-was I interrupting?" Hinata asked nervously.
"Not at all," Neji said. "Did you need something?"
"Actually, I forgot my sunscreen at home; could I use some of yours?"
"Of course." He passed it over, then became fascinated with an overhead cloud when she took her coat off. Hinata wasn't wearing a particularly scandalous bathing suit, but even so, she somehow managed to make a modest one piece much more…
"Um, Neji-nii-san, could you get my back for me?"
He looked over just as she swept her hair to the side to reveal the back of her neck…suddenly, Neji was very glad that he still had his bag on his lap.
"Um, sure."
All things considered, he was very professional about the task at hand, and less than a minute later, the sunscreen application was finished, and all that was left was to wait fifteen minutes for it to sink in…fifteen minutes where Hinata had to stay in the shade…with him.
'This is my chance,' Neji thought, and he was about to start a conversation when Kiba plunked himself down on the towel between them.
"Hey, Hinata, what's taking you so long?" he asked cheerily, completely unaware of the death glare Neji had aimed at his back. "Shino wants to make a sand castle, and we're not going to start without you!"
"I just needed sunscreen," Hinata replied, passing the bottle back to Neji. "Thank you."
"Whoa," Kiba said, spying the label. "I didn't know they made sunscreen that strong."
"Hyuuga skin burns very easily."
"Oh…well, when you're done, we'll be over there!"
Neji sighed; Kiba was finally gone, which meant he and Hinata were finally…not alone. Sai was sitting under the umbrella now, staring blankly at the sea with a sketch pad handy. Neji fixed him with his death glare for a moment; Sai didn't notice, so he guessed it was safe to resume his plan without fear of interruption.
"Lee-san is very energetic, isn't he?" Hinata said, saving Neji the trouble of thinking up something good to say.
"He is. You get used to it."
They watched as Lee ran around chasing Tenten with something before falling face first into the water.
"Kiba-kun's the same way sometimes. I don't mind, though; he's been helping me train, and with all that energy, he pushes me harder…" She trailed off. "I'm sorry, I must be boring you."
"No, not at all." For once, Neji didn't try to hide his smile. "So is that why you've been training with me less?"
Hinata turned bright red. "N-no! I mean, well, I didn't think that…" She paused, collected herself, and continued. "Before we started vacation, you'd been so busy; you're a jounin now, and I thought…"
"Thought what?"
"Thought you wouldn't have time for me anymore."
"Hinata-sama, I…" Neji looked over his shoulder to make sure Sai was still engrossed in his drawing before moving a little closer to her. "Don't ever think I won't have time for you. It's really important to train with other Juuken users, so if you need to train, I will make time for you."
Hinata didn't meet his eyes. "I'm sorry; that was silly of me to think that."
Neji cursed under his breath; he'd tried to sound caring, but instead he'd been too hard on her. "No, it's not; I—"
"Neji!" Lee yelled as he came running up the beach with Tenten right behind him. "Are you done yet? We need you!"
The last thing Neji wanted to do was move from where he was, but Hinata smiled at him and told him to go with his friends, and there was no way he was going to not do something she told him to do. So he reluctantly set down his bag and went to see why his friends needed him.
Apparently he was needed to be a judge in a sandcastle competition, which suited him fine since he had no intention of digging around in the sand. It was a tough call: Lee and Tenten had built the tallest castle, but Ino and Sakura's had the best decorations. He had to use Byakugan to fully comprehend the detail present in Kiba and Shino's castle, which was the largest, the most intricate, and had the deepest moat. Clearly they were the winners, which the other contestants protested because they had Akamaru to dig and the insects to help create the tiny "bricks" and "windows" in the sand, but Shikamaru drily pointed out that no rules stating they couldn't use their respective animals to help existed and it wasn't like there was a prize for winning anyway, so what did it matter?
By then, Chouji had finished making lunch, so everyone gathered around the grill for his homemade yakisoba.
"Chouji-kun, this is amazing!" Lee said while stuffing his face.
"Yeah, it's really tasty," Naruto added. "What's in it?"
"Sorry, it's a secret Akimichi clan recipe."
After lunch, Naruto gathered all of the boys into a huddle. "I propose," he whispered, "a game of volleyball."
"Volleyball?" Kiba wrinkled his nose. "Seriously?"
"Think about it."
Neji had a pretty good idea where this was going, and he didn't like it, but before he could say anything, the light went on in Lee's brain.
"Naruto-kun, what a brilliant idea!" he exclaimed.
"It'll be difficult to play volleyball without a net," Shikamaru observed.
"Leave that to me," Shino said, standing up and extending his arms. His insects flew out and floated in the air forming a perfect facsimile of a volleyball net.
"Perfect," Naruto said with an evil grin. "Now we just have to get the girls to play…"
It didn't take much to convince them; Ino saw the net and immediately challenged Sakura to a game, which resulted in them quickly forming teams. Neji wound up on Sakura's team with Lee, Tenten, Chouji, and Shikamaru; and dutifully took his position behind the ersatz net; he couldn't help noticing that Hinata, now standing next to Naruto on the other side of the net, kept fidgeting. If only Shino hadn't picked her first…
Ino beat Sakura in rock-paper-scissors and decided to serve first. She made a perfect overhand serve, aiming the ball directly at Shikamaru, who, true to form, displayed no intentions of hitting it back. Lee, however, ran from the other side of the court to bump it back into the air towards Tenten, who set it so Sakura could jump and spike it over the net.
Naruto dove to bump it back up to Kiba who tipped it back over the net. Chouji hit it back over, then Ino hit it back to him, and they went back and forth until Sai had a bad hit that almost fell short.
Neji leaped forward, the ball seemingly suspended in mid-air over the net. Just as he reached the perfect position to strike and score the point, Hinata ran from the opposite side of the net and jumped and…well, Neji wasn't exactly sure where the ball went because his attention was suddenly focused on Hinata's obvious lack of chest support before he landed face-down in the sand, the ball landing next to him.
He could hear Sakura's frustrated yell and Tenten moaning, "How could you have missed that?", as well as Ino's team shouting with victory. Hinata had ducked under the net to ask him if he was all right, but he couldn't look up to answer without his face growing hot.
"Geez, Neji, your ears are really red," Naruto observed.
"Yeah," Kiba chimed in, "looks like you missed a spot with your sunscreen!"
Author's Notes: Sorry about the long gap between updates; I hit a really bad block with this chapter for some reason. Next chapter is almost done so it should be out soon.