Wow, another chapter. That was fast, hope you guys are happy. This one is okay, it's mainly just about the party and I don't really like the ending, but it'll do for now. I can see some Gaara loving in the near future, so buckle your seat belts, kiddies!

PS, there is some mention of video games in this chapter. Please, just remember that I know nothing about any games, so don't criticize, please! I just picked one of my bro's games!

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Disclaimer: I own nothing.

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Chapter Six: Gamers Extraordinaire

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At the sound of girl's voices, one in particular, Neji jumped back from the doorway and out of sight. They had infiltrated the kitchen.

After school Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino had followed Hinata home to help finalize Saturday's party. Neji had been hiding in his room since then which was not too bad, but hunger had driven him out. Last time Neji checked, they had camped out in the study. Damn, he thought he would be safe here.

Listening to them talk, Neji knew that they were just using Hinata's birthday as an excuse to throw a huge party. That girl really had to learn to stand up for herself. Their whole year was invited, and Neji knew that Hinata hated large gatherings. But since she was such a pushover, Neji would end up hiding in his room all night just like last year.

Neji sighed. Now what? He really did not want to go in there and be subjected to their fan girl craziness that he dealt with at school, but he was damn hungry. Maybe he could run and make a grab at the cupboard. Or maybe they wouldn't notice him if he went in. yeah right, he puts one foot in there and he's a goner. Hmmm, just how hungry was he? Was it worth dealing with their insanity?

Neji was about to give up and go raid the candy stash in Hinabi's room when he heard Sakura mention something that caught his interest.

'Uh, Gaara's on the list? Um, Why?'

Neji inched closer to the door. What were they saying about Gaara? Why would it be bad that he was invited?

"U-um, m-my father said to, to invite him…'

'And you actually did? Gross, I hope he doesn't come. He'll ruin the whole thing.' Ino? What did she have against Gaara?

'Yeah,' Sakura said, laughing, 'he'll probably give you like a crystallized fetus or something for a present!'

Neji heard Ino and Sakura burst out laughing and Hinata giggling softly. A fetus? What the hell?

'Oh, oh, you know what I heard?' Ino said excitedly when she stopped laughing, 'I heard that you know that bar he always goes to? The one in what's-it-called where that Kabuto guy lives? Well, I heard that Gaara was there on the weekend and this guy was giving him a hard time and then Gaara just snapped. He went crazy and beat the shit out of the guy. His dad had to get him from jail the next morning. Paid off a bunch of cops.'

'Oh, seriously?' Sakura asked in disbelief.

'Yeah, heard it straight from Kiba.'

'Oh, what does that dog boy know?' Sakura said, laughing that annoying laugh again.

'Y-yes,' Hinata said, surprising Neji, 'I-I don't think that's t-true, Ino…'

'No, it totally is. Kiba's friends with his brother Kan-something-or-other.'

'Yeah, yeah,' Sakura said, 'we all know someone in Gaara's family. Whatever, I just hope the little freak show doesn't show up.'

After that they started talking about the party again and Neji drowned them out. He stayed there against the wall for another moment before slowly heading back to his room. so that's who he was. Gaara. He was the one everyone spread rumors about, the supposed Satanist and all that. Neji made it to his room and lay down on the bed, looking up at the ceiling. That's what he meant by a favor. Neji knew that associating with Gaara was a 'social suicide'. As far as he knew, no one liked Gaara and the guy had no friends.

Why didn't he remember before? Neji had heard people mention the name Gaara several times, and now he remembered them all, how could he not before? Oh well, it's not like it bugged Neji that was him. he knew that all the rumors were untrue, most were just plain ridiculous. If anything, this just made him want to get to know him more, get to see who the real Gaara is. Not the one everyone knew, behind all the lies and stories. Just Gaara.

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The rest of the week Neji saw neither hide nor hair of his little red head. It was like he disappeared off the face of the earth. Of course, this started even more rumors, which Neji now listened to but still did not believe.

Part way through the week, Neji asked Hinata what she knew about Gaara. She recounted all the rumors she knew, which were quite a few, and told him that she had never actually talked to him face to face. He was quiet in class and never said anything to anybody, just stayed to his own business.

So basically, Neji learned absolutely nothing. He spent the week waiting for Saturday, wondering if Gaara would actually show up to the party. And if he did, what would Neji do? Would he talk to him, or would Gaara ignore him? Neji seriously doubted that Gaara would even acknowledge his presence, but still, Neji could not wait.

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At seven on Saturday people began showing up. By eight everyone on the list was there and they were spread through the house. Everyone but Gaara.

Neji had set up camp on a couch on the living room. From there he could hear the door over the loud music blaring through the house, and it was the room least populated with tipsy teenagers. So Neji sat there, waiting.

By eight-thirty he had pretty much given up on Gaara. That was it, if he did not show up know, then he knew he never would. Another fifteen minutes. Fifteen more, then he would go upstairs.

Twenty minutes later, Neji sighed and stood up from the couch. Weaving his way through the people in the hall, he made his way to the stairs. Again weaving, Neji began the trek up the grand staircase. A few times he had to jump out of the way of flying booze, but eventually made it to the top. There were less people upstairs per his uncle's wishes, so Neji made it to his room alright.

He got in and shut the door, effectively cutting off most of the blaring music. Now it was just a dull throb that went to the beat of his pounding head. Trying to ignore it, Neji was just about to pick out a movie when there was a knock at his door.

In quite a bad mood by then, Neji stalked over to the door and wrenched it open to find his uncle looking down at him.

'Neji,' he said. Neji could swear that one of his eyes were twitching to the beat of My Chemical Romance. 'Would you go downstairs and tell your cousin that there is to be no one besides family up here?'

Hiashi walked down the hall muttering something to himself about priceless paintings and stupid reckless teenagers. Neji sighed, not even bothering to wonder how his uncle had known he would be up there and went to find Hinata. It took some time, but eventually he was able to locate her talking to Naruto in the kitchen. Well, Naruto was talking and gesticulating wildly while Hinata just blushed and nodded along.

Walking over to her, Neji whispered his uncle's instructions in her ear. Her eyes went wide at the thought of what her friends could have done and she rushed off to do whatever she could about it.

Job completed, Neji was once more going to find solace in his room, but as he was walking through the hall he passed the television room and looked in to see what they were watching. It was some sort of comedy that had the whole room laughing uproariously except for one person, a red head casually leaning on the wall.

As soon as he saw him, Neji made a beeline for the red head. Gaara was standing by himself, dressed in a blood red undershirt with a plain black shirt on top and dark blue jeans. With the pissed off look on his face, Neji could not help but notice how great he looked. Neji felt almost giddy as he made his way over.

'So, you like movies, Gaara?' Neji asked, mimicking Gaara's pose against the wall with his arms across his chest.

'Not this one,' Gaara said, eyes never leaving the screen.

'Didn't think that you were going to show up.' Neji said making a stab at conversation.

'Neither did I.'

Well, he knows how to keep it short. 'So where were you all this week? I had absolutely nothing to do all math.'

'I was sick. Flu.' Gaara said, finally looking Neji in the eye. He turned and peered at him as if trying to figure out a complex puzzle.

'What?' Neji asked, trying to stay focused. The way they were standing, facing each other while leaning on the wall meant they were very close, almost touching, and Neji had to force himself not to close the gap.

'Why are you talking to me?' Gaara asked.

'What d'you mean? Why wouldn't I talk to you?'

'Well, now that you know who I am, you probably know all the 'tales' of my life, right? So, why are you talking to the school's number one Satanist?'

'Satanist? I heard that you actually worshipped aliens. They abducted you once, didn't they?'

'Oh, yes. We had a great time cruising the cosmos on their intergalactic space ship. Then I reported to their commander and told them all the earth's secrets. Helped them start Hurricane Katrina, actually.'

'Oh, that was you. I should have known. I could have sworn that one was started by Santa Claus.'

'No, he's all political, I'm afraid. The only one who really deals with the environmental stuff is the Easter Bunny.'

'Oh, my mistake.'

Gaara smirked a little. But he quickly lost it as he once again got serious. 'Seriously, though. Why? Social suicide and all that. Even the Uzumaki kid doesn't talk to me. I mean, people are already noticing.'

Neji looked around. There were in fact, some people who were pretending that they were not watching them and then some who were watching outright. As if it was some sort of miracle someone was talking to Gaara. Others were whispering to each other and watching with awe written all over their faces. Well, the conversation would have to move to somewhere more comfortable then.

'Neji waved his hand in the direction of the onlookers. 'Nah,' he said with a false confidence, 'they're just jealous that you're talking to the one and only Hyuga Neji, child genius. They'll get over it.'

He gave Gaara a large toothy smile who only shook his head at him. 'So,' Neji continued, 'should we go somewhere else, then? I know a place where we could watch some good movies.'

Gaara hesitated a moment and Neji tried to pretend that he was not anxious. He had to forcibly stop himself from shifting from foot to foot. Gaara took one last look at the screen then turned back to Neji and nodded his head, 'If it means getting away from this.'

'Alright then,' Neji said, trying to remember how to breathe, 'let's go, shall we?'

Neji turned and began to make his way through the people and towards the stairs. Looking back to see that the red head was in fact still with him, he began to weave up the stairs. When they got to the second floor, Neji quickly checked to see that his uncle was not poking his head out and led Gaara down the hall to his room.

When they made it down the hall successfully, Neji swiftly opened the door and ushered Gaara in, then going in behind. Closing the door, Neji said, 'Sorry, my uncle's a bit anal about having people up here,' only to turn and find the red head not listening to him at all. Gaara was slowly drifting to Neji's bookshelf in a trance-like state. 'Uh, Gaara?' Neji asked, only a little freaked out.

'Soul Caliber,' the red head said quietly. He reached for the shelf and took out one of Neji's many video games.

'What?' Neji, more then a little freaked out now.

'You have the new version of Soul Caliber?' Gaara turned to face Neji, awe written all over his face as he looked at the game. Neji walked over to look at the cover. Dimly he remembered getting that from someone… 'How did you get this?' Gaara asked him, still marveling over the cover.

'It was a present from someone, I think…'

'Oh god, I wish I could get such presents.' Gaara moaned. 'I've been waiting for this game forever but can't find it in any store. We're playing it.'

'Um, okay. The Playstation's over in the cupboard thing…'

Gaara rushed over to the TV and opened the small cubby underneath. When he looked inside Neji ran over to him because he thought the red head was going to faint. He sort of wavered in spot then began breathily talking about Xbox, Wii, and Playstations all in one room ready to play…Neji had no idea what was going on.

Gaara hooked up the Playstation and did whatever it is people do to start the games. He grabbed two controllers and moved back to sit on the edge of Neji's bed, while Neji stood confusedly off to the side. Gaara looked up at him while he waited for the game to load and held up the second controller. 'You gonna play?'

Neji started as he was brought back to reality then nodded at the red head. He sat next to him and took the controller wondering what on earth you did with the damn things. 'Right,' he said, looking at all the buttons, 'how do you play?'

Neji thought Gaara was going to faint again. Gaara looked at him like he was just beamed down from a spacecraft. 'Do you mean to tell me,' he said, 'that you have these games and amazing systems here in your room that you don't know how to play?'

'Well, it's not like I went out and bought them. Everything here are just gifts that-'

'Are you insane?! Do you know what I would do- who I would kill to get this stuff? Man, all I have is a PS2 and DS! This shit is latest technology! I mean the Wii accessories alone…'

Neji watched Gaara as he went off on a rant. He looked so cute when he was indignant, and the kid certainly loved his games. Eventually Neji stopped listening entirely to what he was saying and just watched as Gaara got more and more out of breath but still kept yelling. Suddenly, the music for the game was heard in the far distance and Gaara's head snapped back to watch the TV.

There was some stupid story in the beginning about a princess or something and then some big bad guy showed up…Neji was lost. How did people play these things for hours? Eventually they actually got to the playing part and Neji and Gaara faced off in a fight. Gaara was playing with some ninja dude and Neji used a guy with a huge sword.

Thirteen times in a row Gaara destroyed him in only a few moves until, on the fourteenth match, Neji pressed the right button for the first time and managed to land a hit. Then Gaara killed him for revenge. Again. Eventually, Neji just started jumping up and down in one spot to infuriate the red head until they both gave up. Well, Neji complained that he sucked and managed to drag Gaara away with the promise of more games later.

Now that the game was finally turned off, Gaara was wandering around Neji's room looking at all the books, games, and DVDs he had collected over the years. Neji said that he could borrow any games he wanted and Gaara already had a pile lined up. He could keep those for all Neji cared. Eventually he came to a stop in the DVD section and grabbed one from the shelf. 'Here,' he said, tossing it to Neji on the bed, 'Let's watch this one.'

Looking at the cover, Neji saw that it was Snatch. Excellent, one of his favorite movies, and damn hilarious too. Neji agreed and set up the DVD player. When he finished and turned around he found that Gaara had set himself up on the bed, leaning against the headboard directly in line with the TV. The Hyuga was unsure of what to do. Should he sit on the bed with Gaara? Would that seem too forward? Should he just pull up a chair? But the bed would be much more comfortable…

Eventually Gaara told him to get out of the way and sit down. Neji took this as an invitation and sat on the bed next to Gaara. Not too close, but not far away, either. The red head didn't move and Neji took that as a good sign.

They watched Snatch and then Lock Stock and Three Smoking Barrels, then Gaara destroyed Neji in some more games, and they argued about music. Gaara thought that 12012 was better the Antic Café, but Neji severely disagreed. All in all, they had a great time, and while the party raged on beneath them, neither had a passing thought to go join in.