第七間:浴衣
Chapter Seven: Summer Kimono

Festivals in Konoha were usually well-attended, but now that the entire village was home from lack of missions, the streets were overcrowded with people dressed in lightweight and colorful yukata and ready to celebrate. Neji was grateful his team had previously decided on a meeting spot because even with Byakugan, it'd be dreadfully difficult to find them in the sea of people around him.

He was late, most unusual for him, but getting ready took twice as long with his right arm out of commission. His fight with Kiba a week ago had officially ended as a draw, but while Kiba's nasty-looking bruises disappeared with healing chakra, Neji's broken arm was not so easily mended.

"Oh, good; you're here," Tenten said as he approached. "For a minute, I thought Lee was going to get here before you."

"Would that be bad?"

"No, but…" She nervously adjusted the sleeve of her yukata. "You know what to do, right?"

"Tenten, we've been over this five times already."

"OK, OK; just checking!" Tenten nervously looked over her shoulder to see if Lee was coming that way. "Hey, Neji? How do I look?"

Neji obediently swept his eyes over her, checking for anything amiss. "You look fine."

"Only 'fine'?"

He sighed and looked again; Tenten had clearly put in a lot of effort getting ready for the night, fixing her hair differently and even wearing a little bit of makeup. Neji wasn't exactly sure whether or not he was supposed to call attention to that, though, and the last thing he wanted to do was make Tenten mad by noticing the wrong thing.

"Your obi's a little crooked," he said at last, "but other than that, you look…" He tried to think of an adjective that wasn't 'fine.' "…nice."

"Are you sure it doesn't look like I'm trying too hard?"

"If you're that worried about it, why did you get all dressed up in the first place?"

"It wasn't my idea," Tenten grumbled. "We all got together at Ino's place to get ready, and she offered…I thought it'd be rude to say 'no,' and she did a really good job with everyone else." She sighed. "I'm just worried that Lee's going to look at me and say something stupid."

As if on cue, Lee came barreling around the corner and skidded to a stop in front of them, a rather impressive feat considering he was wearing geta, and greeted his teammates.

"I apologize for my lateness! Gai-sensei and I were racing, and I lost track of time, and—" He stopped and stared at Tenten. "Tenten, what happened to you?"

For a moment, Neji actually feared for Lee's life. Tenten was already on edge; whatever Lee said next was crucial in setting the mood for the entire evening.

"What do you mean, 'what happened?'" Tenten said, the level of danger barely concealed in her tone. "Is there something wrong?"

Please don't say something stupid, Lee; please, please, don't say something stupid.

"Huh?" Lee blinked. "No, it's just…you look really pretty tonight."

Neji sighed in relief, then did a double-take; where had Lee picked up a line that smooth? He eyed him suspiciously, but Tenten didn't seem to care whether Lee was sincere or not. She blushed, mumbled some form of thanks, and then avoided eye contact until Lee finally proclaimed he was starving and that they needed to get food that very minute.

In twenty minutes, the three of them managed to eat their way through a sizable amount of meat, seafood, and dumplings.

"Mmm!" Tenten said, polishing off the last of the sesame dumplings. "Festival food really is the best!"

"Indeed!" Lee asked through a mouthful of grilled squid. "Neji, are you going to finish your takoyaki?"

"You can have it," Neji replied, using his good arm to push the plate towards Lee. "I'm not hungry anymore."

"Are you feeling OK?" Tenten asked. "You look a little pale."

"My arm hurts," Neji said.

"Should you go to the hospital?" Lee asked, instantly worried.

"No, it's not that bad…I just need to find…" He scanned the people passing by for a hint of pink hair, but no luck.

"A medic?" Tenten finished. "Ino's right over there; she could probably help you." She gave Neji a look that spelled out this was a command and not a suggestion; although Neji was supposed to specifically seek out Sakura if and when his arm hurt, Tenten clearly wanted to get him moving and was willing to settle for Tsunade's other apprentice.

"I suppose…no need to wait up for me; this could take a while."

"OK, then; we won't," Tenten said cheerily before turning to Lee and challenging him to a goldfish-catching contest before he could protest against leaving Neji behind.

As he watched them leave, he silently wished Tenten luck before turning back to the task at hand. The original plan had been for him to only pretend his arm hurt, but for whatever reason (probably the guy who'd bumped into him while cutting in line for takoyaki), his arm really did hurt. Neji wasn't very friendly with Ino, but he really didn't want to spend the rest of the evening in pain, so he trudged over and politely asked her to take a look at his arm.

"It's normal to have mild discomfort when the bones are mending," she said, giving him an aspirin. "I know it's hard, but try not to use it; you'll heal faster."

"Of course; thank you." He was about to turn and leave when he realized he could use her help on another matter. "Excuse me for asking, but by any chance, have you seen Hinata-sama tonight?"

If Ino thought it was weird for him to be asking, she didn't show it. "I'm sorry; I haven't, but…" She pointed over his shoulder to where Naruto was furiously haggling with a merchant. "I bet if you follow him, you'll find her without a problem."

Neji thanked her again and rushed over to join Naruto, who was trying to buy a replica ANBU mask despite being two hundred ryou short.

"Neji! My savior!" Naruto shouted when he saw him. "Could you spot me just this once? I'll get you one too."

"You're in no position to be generous if you don't have enough for even one," Neji chastised him, but he did manage to talk the stand owner into selling them one mask at full price and one half-off.

"Aren't these the coolest?" Naruto said, putting on his fox mask and posing. "Don't I look awesome?"

"It suits you well," Neji answered. He was already wearing his own mask (a bird, which he thought fitting) and had activated his Byakugan in order to properly see out of it; while the actual masks the ANBU wore had eye slits carefully placed in order to maximize peripheral vision, these cheap plastic knock-offs had miniscule holes punched in the front and were practically useless.

"Damn it!" Naruto complained after tripping for the fourth time, "I can't see anything out of this!"

"I have no problems," Neji quipped, trying very hard not to laugh and give it away.

"Seriously? Maybe I got a bad mask—hey, wait a minute! Using Byakugan is cheating!"

"Naruto? There you are!" Sakura fought her way through a stream of people to make her way over to them. "I thought I'd never find you again; thank goodness you're loud," she muttered. "What are you two doing?"

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto whipped off his mask so he could actually see her. "Don't worry; I didn't lose you. Neji here was going to help me find you," he said, whacking Neji none too gently on the back. "Right, Neji?"

"…right."

"I'm sure," Sakura said, not very convinced. "Oh! I just remembered—Hinata was looking for you. Stay here; she was just a little back that way. I'll bring her here." With that, she took off back the way she'd come. Naruto's gaze lingered on her back until she disappeared from view.

"Sakura-chan sure looks good in yukata," he sighed.

"Most women do."

"What do you know? Neji's a man after all," Naruto teased.

"You misunderstand; I appreciate the view from an artistic point of view—that's all."

"Sure you do," Naruto said, not believing a word. "Then you know what the best part of a girl wearing yukata is, right? Aesthetically, of course."

"Back of the neck," Neji said absently.

"What?"

"Nothing. What is it?"

"Oh, you know," Naruto said mischievously, "there's nothing underneath."

Neji froze. Nothing underneath…nothing underneath… The words kept echoing through his skull.

"Not that it matters much to you, though," Naruto continued, "since you could just look through someone's clothes whenever you want."

Naruto was right, of course; using the Byakugan required intense focus and concentration, and it wasn't uncommon for novices still mastering the technique to accidentally get an eyeful of a victim's underwear instead of her chakra points. Neji had long ago mastered the art of looking through people without looking at them, but now…

Nothing underneath… He released the jutsu without hesitation and moved his mask to the side of his head, avoiding looking at Naruto and his self-satisfied grin.

A moment later, Sakura found them again, this time with Hinata in tow.

"Hello, Hinata!" Naruto said. "We found Neji for you!"

"Naruto-kun! I've been looking all night for—" Hinata took a moment to realize exactly what he'd said. "Oh, but I wasn't…"

"Not a problem! I'll see you guys later. Now, come on, Sakura-chan!" he said, pulling her off in the opposite direction. "We gotta get a good spot to watch the fireworks!"

Hinata stared after them, struck dumb with shock; she probably would have stood there all night watching after him if Neji hadn't coughed and reminded her that he was still standing there.

"Oh, Neji-nii-san…it seems I was looking for you without knowing it. Are you here alone?"

"For the moment. Lee and Tenten went off on their own, and I doubt I'll be able to find them again."

"It's the same with me. Shino-kun and I were separated, but it's all right because the fireworks are starting soon, and…" She sighed. "Well, at least I'll be able to see the fireworks this time."

"Should we get a good spot?" Neji asked, trying not to notice her flinch at the word 'we.' "It's too bright over here; we won't be able to see them as well."

"All right."

Hinata knew a good spot by the river, so she led the way. Neji, following behind, mentally cursed Naruto for putting all that nonsense about "nothing underneath" in his head; every time he tried to think of something to say, that and general nervousness kept him from forming a complete sentence.

When they reached the river, he finally managed to get a complete sentence out, asking if Hinata was excited to see the fireworks. It wasn't a great opening line, but at the very least, it got Naruto and his perverted ideas out of Neji's head.

"I love fireworks," Hinata said. "Hanabi always has fireworks on her birthday; I always wanted fireworks too because I love watching them so much, but it's never happened."

"So that's why they happen every March…I didn't know she liked fireworks."

"She hates them! The only reason we have them is because of her name; Mother started it as a joke, I think, but Father took it seriously and continued it even though Hanabi won't watch them." She shook her head. "She thinks they're too romantic."

"I've never thought of fireworks as particularly romantic, although maybe…watching them with the right person…" He leaned a little bit closer to her. "That might make a difference."

"Fireworks with someone special; that would be…" Hinata gazed off into the distance, looking decidedly unhappy.

She wanted to see them with Naruto... Neji was hit with guilt as he realized his own selfishness. Didn't Hinata have her own hopes and wishes? She'd never admit it, but he knew she didn't want to see the fireworks with him—she wanted to be with Naruto.

"Hinata-sama?"

"Hm?"

"I just remembered; I need to ask Sakura something. Let's go back and find her."

Hinata finally smiled, the first time she had all evening. "Yes!"

When they found Naruto and Sakura, Neji made sure Naruto was engaged in conversation with Hinata before he pulled Sakura aside and led her a few meters away.

"What is it, Neji-san?" she asked. "You had a medical question for me?"

Neji forced himself to ignore Hinata and focus on Sakura, who was beginning to look worried.

"Neji-san?"

"Yes. What do you recommend for severe chest pain?"

He never heard the answer; the first explosion of a firework overhead drowned Sakura out. Not that it mattered to him; Neji was certain no medical ninjutsu could cure heartache.


Author's Note: This chapter ended sadly, but next chapter will be the last one, so we have to have a happy ending, right? (Right?!)
I won't have computer access for the rest of the month, so a) if there are any mistakes in this chapter, I won't be able to fix them right away, and b) I may not be able to get the next chapter uploaded until mid-August, but I promise to be diligently working on it in my notebook so that when I get my computer back, all I'll have to do is type it up! Thanks for reading so far and putting up with my slow and sporadic updates!