Chapter 9: Answers

Exams were beginning once more a couple of days before the festival. As usual, Sasuke studied very diligently every night to beat Neji. Things were finally feeling normal again.

There were barely any signs of awkwardness between the two whenever they met. Sasuke began to worry Neji might have forgotten the conversation they had not too long ago.

On the day of the exam, Sasuke went to school early to study, heading to the library as the sun peeked out of the horizon.

As expected, Sasuke opened the door to the library to see Neji sitting by the window with a book open in front of him on a desk. He rested his chin on his knee, which was propped up by his bent leg on the chair.

"Good morning…" Sasuke greeted Neji. Neji did not answer, seeming to be lost in his thoughts.

"Hello? Are you asleep?" Sasuke asked, putting his face in front of the dazed teen.

"Huh? Whoa, why are you so close?" Neji asked, backing off a bit. "Well, I said 'Good Morning' but you didn't respond." Sasuke said.

Neji looked back at his books, ignoring Sasuke. "Ah! I still haven't finished this chapter!" Neji frantically said, flipping through the pages. Sasuke raised one eyebrow and sat down, opening his own books.

While reading, Sasuke looked up to see Neji's face, thoroughly looking through the textbook. He liked seeing Neji like this. Even when Neji was dazed, his figure was too perfect.

Soon, classes had begun and the two headed for class. It was a wonderful treat for the girls. Two beautiful teenage boys were walking together down the halls. Even the teachers were having a great time staring.

"Good luck on the exam." Sasuke said to Neji. "Not like I'll be needing it, but thanks." Neji joked, sitting on his seat.

The exam started and the class was quiet, Sasuke knew most of the answers and quickly finished his exam, proudly checking it over.

Time flew past and people begun handing in their exams, including Sasuke. As he returned to his seat, he noticed Neji wasn't moving his pen. Rather, he was staring outside, dazed once more as he was in the library.

"Ahem…Hyūga, are you finished with the exam?" Kakashi asked. "Huh? Oh, right." Neji said, closing his exam book without checking it over and handed it in.

Sasuke stared at Neji make his way back to his seat, baffled that Neji could simply hand in his work just like that.

The day passed and all the exams were done. Sakura sighed and dropped her upper body onto her desk, sighing in relief.

"That was so stressful…" She sighed. "Aw, cheer up Sakura! It's over now! We can focus on the festival!" Ino said, immediately making Sakura smile.

"I can't wait to see Sasuke in a host uniform! I wonder how it's going to look like!" Sakura said.

Sasuke overheard their conversation and wondered about the uniform. Did someone already prepare it for them or was the clothing optional?

Hoping to ask Neji, Sasuke turned around. "Hey, Nej-" Sasuke stopped when he noticed Neji was not in his seat.

Looking around, Sasuke saw no sign of Neji and sighed.

The following day, after the school day passed Gaara posted the exam results with a crowd of people hiding far behind the fearful red head, waiting for him to leave.

As soon as he turned left of the hallway, every student crowded the paper. Sasuke stood in the back, hoping he could see the results from afar.

Failing to see the chart, Sasuke walked into the crowd where the girls immediately made a path for him, squealing in his ears.

This was what Sasuke wanted to avoid. Having no choice, Sasuke finally went through the crowd using his looks.

Sasuke's eyes went straight for number one, hoping to see his name. Sadly, he failed to see his name, however, strangely enough, he did not see Neji's name either.

"Shikamaru got first this time huh? Looks like I lost my streak." Sasuke heard from behind him. Turning around, he saw Neji with a troubled face.

Sasuke was third place and Sakura placed fourth.

"Oh, I got first…" Shikamaru nonchalantly said. Neji turned his head to the tired teen.

"It's rare, you usually don't like studying." Neji said. "Ah, well, I don't study…I just remember these things." Shikamaru lazily explained.

"Shikamaru is just trying to get first place so he can go to the same college as Temari. I guess that's what happens when people date. Love is a strong thing." Choji said, munching on some chips.

"Shikamaru and Temari are dating?" Sasuke asked.

"…Choji, you spoke too much." Shikamaru said uncomfortably.

"Oh, sorry." Choji grinned.

Sasuke jealously stared at Shikamaru and thought about Neji. It has been about a week since he had told Neji to think about it. Where was his answer? Did he really forget?

Sasuke didn't want to ask Neji. It'll bring back the awkward feelings once more. He wondered about who he should ask about this problem.

He then remembered Gaara. He was the only one who knew about Sasuke and Neji anyway.

Sasuke walked to Gaara's classroom and opened the door where the students stared in shock. The class was quiet and Gaara was sitting quietly reading a book.

"Gaara, come here." Sasuke said, moving his index finger to point to his direction.

Looking up from his book, Gaara gave a sigh, walking to the door. "What?" He asked.

Sasuke said nothing and walked out of the doorway, not wanting to attract attention. Gaara followed Sasuke, eyeing the classroom to make sure there was no ruckus.

The two walked to a corner of the school where not many students would walk by.

"Why did you call me here?" Gaara asked.

Disliking the attitude, Sasuke went straight to the point.

"I want to ask you something." Sasuke said. Silence followed.

"… I apologized to Neji about a week ago and told him to think about my confession…" Sasuke explained.

Gaara merely stared at Sasuke.

"…Well, it's been a week since that happened and I think he might have forgotten about it." Sasuke said.

Gaara had no comment on this. He simply pulled Sasuke back to the charts, where the two saw Neji as second place.

"Do you ever see him as second place?" Gaara asked.

Sasuke looked at the charts. Neji's score was one point lower than Shikamaru's score.

"What does this have to do with anything?" Sasuke asked.

"Neji, no matter how smart Shikamaru is, always gets higher than the full score. In the teacher's records, there was not one student who could do that. Why do you think he was unable to receive first place this time and have a grade lower than the highest score?" Gaara asked.

Sasuke remembered that morning where he saw Neji in the library, how he looked when he was lost in his own thoughts.

"Looks like you know now. Neji is seriously thinking about it. Give him time." Gaara said, closing his eyes and leaning to the wall.

Now that Sasuke thought about it, Neji's eyes weren't as alert as they used to be. They were tired and bags were forming below his eyes.

Usually Neji would come to school early to watch the sunrise in the classroom, but that day, Neji was in the library trying to study.

"In the student council…" Gaara began, interrupting Sasuke's thoughts. "…He would start to stare into space, and would either forget what he was doing or writes his paper work incorrectly. It is an inconvenience to me but I can't do anything about that." Gaara said, walking back to his classroom.

Feeling bad for not believing in Neji, Sasuke returned to the classroom where once again, Neji sat in a daze.

"…Neji?" Sasuke called out. There was no response. "Hey!" Sasuke called out again, placing his hand on Neji shoulder.

"What? Oh! Don't sneak up on me like that!" Neji said, startled by Sasuke's presence.

"I called out to you before already." Sasuke said, noticing Neji's inattentiveness.

Neji simply sighed and looked down to his unfinished papers for the student council.

"…Hey, take a walk with me." Sasuke said, hoping to calm Neji's mind.

Neji knew what Sasuke was trying to do, but went along with it anyway. He was too stressed out thinking about it.

The two walked past the many students preparing for the festival. Signs were up and the chairs were stacked up nicely.

Students were hurrying around here and there, which would usually annoy Neji.

"Have you been getting enough sleep lately?" Sasuke asked. Neji nodded, lying to Sasuke.

Sasuke had no idea how to help Neji in this situation. It was something Neji had to do on his own.

They walked towards a student who was putting up a metal sign on top of the classroom door with a ladder. The student had forgotten a nail and quickly used the ladder to prop up the sign as he ran down to grab the nail.

As the two walked closer, Neji clumsily tapped the ladder with his foot as he was walking. The ladder toppled over and the sign began to fall.

"WATCH OUT-" The student cried out after seeing the sign fall. Neji snapped back to reality, but it was already too late to react.

Neji felt a strong pull on his arm, causing him to move out of the way before the sign fell on him.

Sasuke had quickly reacted to Neji's clumsiness and pulled him towards his body, causing Neji fall on top of him.

"Ah, are you alright? That was my fault!" The student said, checking on Sasuke and Neji.

"We're fine." Sasuke said, lying on the floor with Neji sitting on top of him.

This was the best day of the female students' life. One hot teen sitting on another hot teen; their dreams and wishes has been fulfilled.

"S-sorry, I knocked over the ladder." Neji said to the student, not realizing who he was sitting on.

Sasuke had no problem with this, but if this went any further, he wouldn't be able to contain himself.

"Neji…" Sasuke called out. Neji turned his head to the boy on the floor and finally realized who he was sitting on.

"WAH! S-Sorry!" Neji cried out, backing off of Sasuke.

"That's alright." Sasuke said, rubbing his head that hit the floor during the impact.

Neji noticed a drop of blood on the floor and looked up to Sasuke's arm below his elbow. There was a slight scratch and it was bleeding quite heavily.

"Infirmary! Let's go to the infirmary!" Neji said, pulling Sasuke up.

"It doesn't hurt that much…" Sasuke mumbled, but Neji didn't hear him.

It was the first time Sasuke had seen Neji like that. He was clumsy, dazed and making mistakes.

Shizune had given Sasuke a bandage for his arm and confirmed his head was okay, leaving the two in the infirmary to hand in some documents.

"Sorry about that…" Neji apologized once more.

Sasuke waved his arm. "Come on, this little injury is nothing! I used to get wounds bigger than this!" Sasuke said, hoping to make Neji feel better.

Neji already knew Sasuke's intentions, which made him feel more down.

Sasuke sighed and looked out the window. "Did you see that drummer's last concert?" Sasuke asked.

Neji perked his head up. "The security had to hold back the fans!" Neji said.

"I think one of them threw her shoe at the stage haha!" Sasuke laughed.

Neji laughed along with him and as the laughter began to stop, Neji looked at Sasuke's injury.

"You know…I've been thinking about the conversation we had that day…" Neji began.

Sasuke thought he felt his heart stopped. Did Neji finally reach a decision?

Neji began to grow quiet. Sasuke closed his eyes. Ah…I'm going to be rejected…

"It's okay Neji…" Sasuke said.

"Eh?"

Sasuke looked down to his hands and continued.

"I know it's not possible. You're originally straight anyway right? I get it. Besides, no one would like it if someone forcefully kisses a person like that right?" Sasuke said.

"Wait…"

Sasuke shook his head. "You don't have to feel guilty, I'm alright. Rejection was inevit-"

Unable to finish his sentence, Sasuke found Neji's lips on his, startling him in the process.

Neji pulled away and looked away in embarrassment. Sasuke was just stunned, sitting there like an idiot.

"S-say something…" Neji said.

"…inevitable…" Sasuke finished his sentence. Neji angrily pulled Sasuke's cheek.

"Ow! Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow!" Sasuke cried.

"That's all you got to say?!" Neji yelled.

"Well it's hard to believe!" Sasuke retorted.

Neji sat back down and pouted, embarrassingly looking to the side.

"Let me hear it." Sasuke said.

"Huh?"

"I want to hear it from your lips. Tell me your answer." Sasuke repeated.

Neji turned red and felt one of Sasuke's hands cupping his cheek and the other on his hand.

Sasuke leaned closer to Neji, waiting for his answer.

"…I like you…"

The orange sun set on the two teens, creating a silhouette in the infirmary of another kiss that burned into their memories.

A/N: Okay you can love me now :D Just kidding. After 8 Chapters, Sasuke and Neji are finally together! With a little bonus of Shikamaru and Temari! I loved seeing your reviews my wonderful readers! Please continue to review~ ^^