Disclaimer: I own nothing. I humbly request a moment of silence for that tragedy.

A/N: These two chapters were really short once they were rewritten, so I merged them into a longer chapter. Enjoy and review if you care to.

Five Kingdoms for the Dead

-Chapter Eleven-

Calm Before the Storm: Part II

Sakura was looking, with the predatory gaze the word implied. They were making good time, still within the familiar forests of the land of Fire, so she felt free to let her mind wonder. She was alert for danger, but only so much of her brain was devoted to it. The rest was occupied in trying to evaluate her partner.

Neji had graduated from the Academy two years ahead of her, so she'd never participated in even the most basic drills with him. And remembering how long it had taken for Team Seven's shaky teamwork to come together she thought it would be best if she tried this before something happened. Her knowledge of his strength was limited to what he'd displayed in the chunnin exams, but that alone was impressive enough. He was a practitioner of Gentle Fist style taijutsu, designed for use with the Byakugan, his kekkai genkai. A prodigy among a clan whose strength had equaled the Uchiha's at their peak.

But he was an almost exclusively close-range fighter, which would be trouble if she relied on her five-style taijutsu. In a two-man team he'd have done better with Tenten, who was a solid middle-range fighter. Squad One would be having the same problem with Naruto and Lee, but Sasuke was good enough he could switch ranges, which made Squad Two the most balanced.

Sakura frowned. There was nothing for it but to deal with it. Glancing ahead at her teammate's back she thought, Ino, you were wrong. Hyuuga Neji is as attractive as Sasuke.

Where Sasuke was all hard, sharp edges from his hair to his personality, Neji was subtle, from his beige shirt to his silver-white eyes. If Sasuke was the flame Neji was the river, flowing and graceful. Which is just unfair to every kunoichi that has to work with him, she pouted. How does Tenten stand it? To distract herself she called ahead, "So what's the plan?"

He dropped back to speak to her, not stopping. "If you can keep up this pace we'll try to make the outpost town by nightfall. It'll be our last good rest before we leave Fire country's borders. After that we'll have to be alert for foreign-nin."

Sakura nodded. If she pushed herself, she could keep this pace until then. With a good rest, she'd be fine tomorrow too. Thank you, Gai-sensei, she said silently. "Not a problem," she said to her teammate, smiling at him. He nodded and moved back into the point position.

They traveled in silence until the outpost town came into sight. The two gennin perched on the same branch at the edge of the tree line. "There seems to be a lot of people, even for an outpost town," she said warily.

Neji apparently agreed as he activated his kekkai genkai. After a moment he blinked, the veins receding. "It's a founding festival. It looks like they have food vendors and games."

"Should we still go? It'll probably be hard to find rooms." Sakura asked, a little disappointed that they'd miss out. Not only on the festival, but real beds.

"It was in our plans to spend the night here. We'll see if we can find lodging, then enjoy the festival for a few hours."

Sakura hid her surprise well, but apparently not well enough.

"Is something wrong?" Neji asked.

"Nothing, Hyuuga-san," she demurred.

"Haruno-san."

"Just surprised you'd make time for the festival in our schedule is all."

Though the light was fading she could see his eyebrow raise in question. "Why shouldn't I? We're both tired and I like festivals."

Sakura tried to imagine Sasuke making the same concession and couldn't. Even if they were staying anyway, he'd have ignored the festival as best he could. She giggled. "That makes sense," she admitted.

Neji leapt from the branch and Sakura followed him through the crowd, staying close as he guided them with the help of his kekkai genkai to an inn. It took them four tries, but they finally found a single open room at a clean inn with a cheerful proprietress. There'd been an open room at the third one, but the stern-faced man behind the counter hadn't let them have it when he found out they intended to share.

Neji claimed the bed nearest the door and Sakura wasn't about to fight him for it, so she put her pack on the other bed and dug through it looking for her comb. Producing it, she slipped into the tiny attached bathroom to wash her face and tug her comb through the worst of the snarls. Sakura tugged out her hairtie, noting that her hair was to her collarbone again. It didn't take long to have her hair in order, the spiky tail at the back of her head beginning to resemble an actual ponytail again.

"Should we leave the case here or take it with us?" Sakura asked as she exited the bathroom. Festivals in the outpost towns were notorious for their pickpockets. She didn't want the attention breaking a pickpocket's fingers would bring and she knew that she made a good target: young, female, and her candyfloss hair didn't help things.

Neji still looked frustratingly immaculate. "I'll carry it," he replied.

Wordlessly she handed over the scroll case, which Neji put into his pack underneath several layers of things.

Sakura left her backpack in the room as they headed out. First on the list was dinner. The restaurants weren't as crowded as she expected, most of the people apparently enjoying the festival food. She was in high spirits throughout the meal, looking forward to the festival and enjoying Orochimaru and Amanozako's silence. It was the most whole she'd felt in a long time.

His temporary teammate belonged in a festival atmosphere, Neji decided. She just seemed so alive and free as she danced through the crowd, verdant eyes shining as they darted here and there. And she almost matched, what with her light pink hair and bright red obi, though her kimono-cut top was in a rather somber shade for the celebration. Not at all like a kunoichi from Konohagakure and nothing at all like Tenten.

A stranger wouldn't be able to tell she'd kept pace with him the entire day, though he'd noticed her tiring toward the end. The Haruno Sakura he remembered from the chunnin exam wouldn't have been able to do that—her performance had been so unremarkable he'd almost forgotten who she was until he'd seen her hair. Primarily he remembered her tenacity, fighting when he'd known her to be outmatched by her opponent from the Yamanaka clan.

But this Sakura seemed different. Her confidence didn't ring false.

"So, what did you want to do?" she asked.

Neji hesitated before he admitted it. He liked festivals only because of a memory from his childhood, before the Birdcage Seal and his father's death. His father had taken him to one particular stand and he remembered the hour he'd patiently spent teaching him the technique. "I wanted to catch a goldfish." He was prepared to defend his choice as a test of skill, but Sakura only nodded.

"I think I saw that…,' she abruptly changed directions, leading them to the stand he remembered seeing during their hunt for a room.

"I hope you're better at this than Naruto," she said as they waited for a mother to herd her crying child out of the way. "It's apparently his worst festival game."

Neji's brow rose as he paid for his chance and handed over his bag to Sakura, who hugged it to her chest. Kneeling in front of the low basins, Neji cleared his mind of everything but the sound of his father's voice as he'd explained that it was gentleness that would win the game. That festival was one of the few, treasured memories he had of his father that didn't involve the Hyuuga clan. Even if he'd made peace with Hiashi-sama there were long and bitter years of memories that would never leave him. Not all the Main family had been as accepting that a son of a Branch line had discovered their techniques.

His lips formed a firm, stern line at those memories, but as he put the paper net in the water he was slow and gentle, trapping the black-and-gold fish easily. The man congratulated him and plunked his catch into a waiting plastic bag of water.

"What are you going to do with it?" Sakura asked curiously as he rose.

He didn't answer, instead leading them over to where the child was still crying softly, rubbing at his eyes. "Here," he offered. Dark eyes, not special in any way, lit up at his simple gift. Carefully taking the bag out of his hands, the child beamed up at him.

"Thank you," he said, echoed a moment later by his smiling mother.

Neji nodded, collecting his bag from Sakura and merging back into the river of people. Sakura appeared at his side a moment later, her eyes shining almost as brightly as the child's. She looked like she was about to say something teasing and overly familiar, but then she simply said, "My turn. I choose watching the fireworks."

Neji had said he 'liked' festivals, but it must have been a very complex kind of like. Sakura had eventually been tempted into buying dango as they looked for a good vantage for her favorite part of any festival, the fireworks, but Neji didn't even look at the food vendors. He didn't seem very fond of the loud, shuffling masses, but that simply could have been she wasn't familiar with interpreting his blank facial expressions.

Except for the goldfish, he didn't display any interest in the games either, though they wouldn't have been able to take the prizes with them in any case. Instead he seemed satisfied to follow after her with a reflective look in his eyes, like he almost wasn't seeing this crowd and this festival. His pupiless eyes only increased the impression of blindness.

Ninja in a civilian town had an advantage when looking for the best place to see the fireworks. Sakura and Neji ended up perched on the roof a three-story apartment complex near where they were setting them off. Head leaned back, knees pulled up to her chest, Sakura watched the colorful explosions of light and sound and wished it was her real team with her.

"We should retire," Neji suggested eventually. "We'll need to leave before dawn."

"O-kay," Sakura agreed, rising and stretching, hands far above her head. "Can't let the other squads win."

"Exactly."

It was almost midmorning and Sakura had taken point. They'd looked over the map again when they returned to their room and debated their route, eventually deciding on the most direct path, bypassing the roads in favor of travelling by trees.

From behind, Neji spoke for the first time in an hour. "We're being followed," he announced.

Sakura slowed her pace for a moment until Neji caught up. "How many?" she asked.

His kekkai genkai was activated. "Nine," he answered shortly. "Likely gennin or low chunnin level, from the look of them."

So they were ninja. "Are they trying to close the distance?"

Neji seemed focused on something she couldn't see and she wondered briefly how he dealt with the sensory overload. Had his brain structure somehow been changed to accommodate a wider range of visual information or was it the result of training? "They appear to be keeping a constant pace."

Scenarios ran through her mind. "Do you think they're driving us into an ambush point?" her voice had become clinical and impersonal as she thought aloud. "They have enough people to flank us and we don't have the advantage of terrain. It would be better for them to force open confrontation if they knew we'd detected them, so we can assume that they don't know about the Byakugan."

She felt Neji's eyes on her as she plotted. "Can you tell if they're trying to drive us into a trap?"

He was quiet for a moment as he focused his attention ahead of them. "I can't see anything and there are no reinforcements within my range. Do you have an idea?"

That's good, because nine is a large number of ninja to commit to a C-class mission, gennin or not. What's in this scroll case?

"Yeah. We keep going. They obviously have a good idea where we're going if they intercepted us so easily, so we don't have to worry about throwing them off the trail. If they haven't closed by afternoon, we slow our pace like we're getting tired. We make camp and wait for them to make their own. Then when there are only sentries posted, we make our move. With the Byakugan and the wireless comm pieces you'll be able to guide me through their camp and I'll take care of them. That's the plan that offers the most advantage to us." It never occurred to Sakura how it sounded or the sudden alert stillness in her psyche. Deep in her cage, strung up by chains and trapped by bars, Amanozako smiled.

Neji's brows raised in question, but he only said sardonically, "Yes, Haruno-taichou."

The Iwa-nin had posted two sentries at their own camp and two were busy watching the logs and packs masquerading as Neji and Sakura. They'd waited until the first watch had gone to sleep so they wouldn't be interrupted during their attack.

"Are you sure about this?" Neji asked with concern, his voice low. Sakura glanced over at him and smiled weakly. It had finally sunk in that she'd committed to killing the Iwa-nin. "You could just leave them unconscious," he said, seeming to read her mind.

Sakura shook her head. "Never leave an enemy alive behind you." Her hands clenched.

Neji stared at her long and hard. "If you're certain," he said at last.

You shouldn't worry about Sakura-chan, Orochimaru chuckled. It will be her pleasure.

Shut up, Sakura snarled. I've only been a gennin for a year. I'd be normal for me to have still not had my first kill. Of course he's worried.

She nodded curtly at Neji.

"Alright. Whenever you're ready," he said and clicked on his earpiece.

Sakura was crouched in the brush beside him and her eyes almost closed as she focused. Her chakra was already cloaked. She concentrated on erasing her breath and presence. It was a jounin-level technique but her control was good enough she thought she'd accomplished it well enough to hide her presence from gennin or chunnin level opponents. If they had a jounin with them it would all be over, but according to Neji none of their enemies had chakra coils developed enough to signify jounin. So it either meant they didn't have one or that they were really good.

She heard Neji inhale in surprise. Cracking one eye open she knew that it had worked. Moving forward without even the rustle of leaves to advertise her presence she snuck into the enemy encampment, bypassing the sentry. One of the Iwa-nin had bedded down a little distance from the others, so Sakura approached him first. Her, she corrected herself as she drew nearer.

The girl was blond, her breath puffing out her bangs as she slept. Sakura crept up behind her, her hand curled into position for a two-fingered strike. Bloodless and instant.

Suddenly she was beset by images of the camp splattered with blood, the Iwa-nin in pieces. Instead of horror victory, pleasure, and desire flooded through her so quickly her heart skipped a beat. She ground her teeth together silently. It would feel so good, but that wasn't Sakura, that was Amanozako, and she wouldn't think of the fact that Amanozako was her.

Before Amanozako won, Sakura slipped her hand over the kunoichi's mouth, striking at her vertebrae with the same move that'd she'd almost used on Sasuke. She died with a gasp against the palm of Sakura's hand that made her shiver.

Biting down on her bottom lip, Sakura moved efficiently through the camp with Neji whispering instructions in her ear. Unwilling to repeat the peculiar sensuality of the last kill, Sakura drew a kunai. Three more died quietly with their throats slashed, their allies none the wiser. It was only with the fifth and final of the sleepers that gave her trouble. Something alerted him and his eyes fluttered open, as blue and clear as Naruto's.

He was disoriented at first, mumbling "Wha…" and Sakura flitted forward, pinning him to the ground. She smothered her yelp as he bit down on the side of her hand, drawing blood as he struggled to alert his teammates. She'd accidently dropped her kunai in the struggle, so it was with her hands that she snapped his neck, his head lolling to one side.

Touch is the most intimate, Orochimaru purred. And you have such gentle hands, Sakura-chan.

"The sentries heard you," Neji's voice in her ear said. "I'm coming to help."

Sakura turned on her heel and rose, catching a kunai that would have flown over her head if she'd stayed down. A feral smile spread across her face and Amanozako laughed with Sakura's mouth. The small, sane part was grateful she hadn't flipped the comm on to two-way. "Ready to play?" she demanded.

Closing the distance between them with speed that left her dizzy, she caught him with a straight kick to the chest. His back exploded outward in dark, shredded droplets but the darkness hid the color. Nothing could hide the smell as his intestines leaked out onto the ground. The sight of his falling body was enough to make the last one hesitate. Sakura's wrist snapped out and she returned his partner's kunai to him. She followed it, quick as thought, driving it in deeper and deeper, feeling warmth run over her hands.

His body fell to the ground in what seemed like slow motion as she returned to herself, just Sakura, and Amanozako laughing in some deep place. Sakura began to tremble, holding her hands in front of her face, looking at the blood that covered the pale skin.

Hush, hush, Sakura-chan, Orochimaru crooned. You were beautiful. She could almost feel him stroking her hair, but that was only a soft wind.

Strangling a sob, Sakura lowered her hands as Neji burst through the bushes the camp had been hidden behind. She tried to smile at him, but a single tear flowed down her face and ruined the effort.

He seemed about to say something, but then he closed his mouth. Looking around the massacre she'd made of the camp, his lips formed a stern line. "I'll go take care of the others," he said at last. "Wait here."

Sakura nodded, wiping away the lone tear with an unbloodied forearm. "'Kay," she agreed weakly. She sunk to her knees and wrapped her arms around them, being careful not to touch her hands to her legs.

It didn't take long before Neji returned with their bags. Sakura stood shakily. "There's a stream about four hundred yards ahead," he told her. "You can wash your hands there."

She followed him dumbly, kneeling automatically next to the small stream and plunging her hands into the cold water. "Sorry," she apologized, not really certain what she was sorry for. The killing? The crying?

He grunted. "Don't worry about it," he said. As Sakura scrubbed and rescrubbed her hands he spoke. "Your stealth was impressive."

Flicking the water off her hands, Sakura stared into the water. It was too dark to reflect anything back. "Thanks."

Neji tried again and Sakura realized he was awkwardly attempting to comfort her. "That move with the second-to-last ninja was specialized taijutsu, wasn't it?"

"Yeah," she said, standing. "Gai-sensei, he...during the training period for the Chunnin exams I asked him to train me. Taijutsu, speed, and stamina training. He's the reason I'm not holding us back." She held out her hand and Neji passed her the backpack.

"It's called Shifting Sands. It's a style from Suna. That's probably why you didn't recognize it."

Neji nodded as she slid the straps of her backpack on and settled them comfortably on her shoulders. "I see," he said. "Do you want to rest for a while?"

"I'd rather run for a while, if you don't mind," Sakura told him. Truthfully what she wanted to run from was herself.

But Neji only nodded again. "Then we'll press on and take a short break later. Lead on," he said, indicating she was to set the pace again.

Sakura pushed them to the point where her lungs burned and her calves ached, but not once did she slip, even when it began raining. She kept her mind blank but her senses open, though she knew she was too raw, too unbalanced by the last fight to have another encounter so soon. She knew there wouldn't be another one.

Whatever was in the scrolls was valuable, but not so valuable as to send more than three cells, even without their jounin-sensei.

Neji let her run herself out, then stopped them at noon when he spotted a cave. Huddling inside, waiting for her damp clothes to dry out from the heat of a small fire, Sakura didn't even brush her wet bangs out of her eyes.

"Stop worrying about it," he finally said. "It was well done, but it's over now. We still have to complete the mission."

I wish it was over. But Amanozako won't ever go away, she thought to herself. Outwardly she tried a smile that only managed to look painfully tragic.

Neji sighed. "I'm going to sleep. You'll take first watch?"

"Got it. I'll wake you in two hours," she assured him.

"Make it one," he told her. "As hard as we've been running, if we push it we can make the inn by nightfall. We can sleep properly there."

With that he lay down, pillowing his head on his pack. Sakura watched him by the dim natural light filtering into the cave and the flickering orange light of the fire. His breathing soon evened out and for the next hour Sakura watched the rise and fall of his chest, her mind dulled into a pleasant numbness by the repetition. She memorized his features, from the fall of dark hair that fanned across the pack to the straight line of his nose.

When his hour was up, she gently shook him awake and he switched places with her, taking a seat near the mouth of the cave. As he folded his legs into the lotus position she realized he meant to spend his watch in meditation. Laying down where he'd been only moments before she imagined she could feel the lingering heat of a human body, providing a much needed sense of closeness. Curling into herself, she let her eyes fall closed and prepared herself for the nightmares.

They'd made the hotsprings inn a little after dark, both of them exhausted but too proud to show it. It was located in a little resort town that was still bustling even after nightfall, strings of lights strung above the dirt streets just coming on for the night and some of the shop owners coming outside to turn on lighted signs advertising that they were still open.

Neji led them to their destination, where they were greeted by an attendant who invited them inside as she went to fetch the master. Kioshi Takumi himself appeared a moment later, a man in his fifties, with a face that still bore the remains of stern, regular features beginning to soften with age.

But when he smiled all that sternness disappeared and Sakura realized why he was in the service industry almost immediately. He genuinely liked people. Naruto would have enjoyed meeting him, Sakura thought as they exchanged the obligatory greetings.

Rising from his slight bow, Kioshi-san remarked, "I had not expected the scroll to be delivered so promptly. Did you encounter any problems on the road?"

"Nothing we weren't able to handle," Sakura responded politically, though she knew that the amount of foreign ninja they'd encountered probably should have upped the mission rating to a B-class.

Neji's voice was equally polite as he inquired, "Were you aware that Iwa-nin would be sent to retrieve the scroll case?"

Kioshi-san looked startled. "I was aware my competitors would probably make some attempt at it, but they have their own family retainers. I didn't think they would hire ninja. They must have been more desperate than I thought. Let me give you my sincerest apologies," he said, bowing again.

Neji and Sakura returned the gesture.

"As part of my thanks, would you like to enjoy the baths? I can have dinner and a room prepared as well."

"It would be much appreciated," Neji said.

"This way then," he said, escorting them through the halls after they slipped off their muddy ninja sandals and exchanged them for slippers.

At the junction where the entry hall led into the main dining room he took their packs himself and introduced them to a young and eager attendant he called Mai-chan. She was pretty in the mint green yukata the attendants all wore, with her brown hair pulled into a ponytail down her back and her cheeks flushed. "So you're ninja?" she asked eagerly.

"That's right," Sakura replied.

"Oh, wow, that's so exciting. We don't get many here-we're a little out of the way for the Iwa-nin and most of the Konoha-nin prefer not to cross the border," she chattered as she led them to the shower rooms. "If you'll leave your clothes in the baskets, we can have them laundered for you. Is there any fabric that will need special care?"

"My top is silk," Sakura said as Neji shook his head.

"Okay, we'll watch out for that. While you shower I'll see if I can find some yukata to fit you."

Fifteen minutes later Sakura was refreshed, her candyfloss hair clean and her spirits lighter. She was beginning to look forward to her soak in the hotspring before bed. Pulling on the plain dark blue yukata that Mai-chan had returned with, she drifted down the hall and into the dining room. The hostess seated her at one of the low tables and served her tea to drink while she waited for Neji to join her.

Smiling as she breathed in the fragrance of the rather standard green tea, Sakura watched the slow stream of people that drifted in and out as people caught a late dinner. Two teenage boys a table over kept eyeing her and she was counting down in her head as she waited for them to gather the courage to approach her.

She was almost startled as Neji seated himself across from her. He was wearing a matching yukata and looked very traditional and handsome with his hair down and loose. She smiled as the boys' faces fell. "What's so entertaining?" he asked.

"Nothing, nothing," she assured him, almost laughing.

He smiled at her, his lips quirking up slightly at the edges to form the slight gesture. "I'm glad you're feeling better."

"Mmm," Sakura hummed as a waitress bustled out of the kitchen and placed their meals before them. Picking up her chopsticks after the brief prayer, Sakura spoke again. "I'm a shinobi. It's just hard, sometimes." Like when you were certain you were not only going crazy, you were already there.

But Neji nodded. "Lee also had difficulties in dealing with the deaths. He cried after our first four missions where we were forced to kill."

"What about Tenten-san?" Sakura asked curiously. She was the only other ninja from a civilian line. Even though Lee's chakra coils had been damaged, he also came from a clan. And Tenten was a kunoichi, though Sakura wanted to tell herself that didn't make any difference. But the fact was it did. Even from the Academy their training was different.

"Tenten never cried in front of us. I think she was determined to prove she was as good if not better than her shinobi teammates. I was...making that more difficult than it should have been," he admitted.

"You didn't like kunoichi?" Sakura asked.

"I didn't anyone," Neji corrected wryly. "I was resentful of both my teammates and Gai-sensei."

"Oh," Sakura said in a small voice. She remembered the chunnin exams, how angry and proud he'd been. But he'd also seemed to have a solid relationship with his teammates. "Sasuke and Naruto," she confided, "I don't know if they've made their first kill yet."

It had come close, on the bridge with Haku, but that had been Kakashi-sensei's kill in the end.

Neji's brow rose. "This didn't seem like your first."

Sakura shook her head, her mouth pressed into an unhappy line. "No, but never on that...scale," she said, pausing as she searched for the right word. "I'd just like to not think about it."

Neji nodded, satisfied to respect her wishes. Or perhaps just not that curious. "When do you want to leave in the morning?" he asked instead.

"Early?" Sakura said, a question in her voice. "I still want to win."

Neji smirked broadly at that. "Early," he granted her. "Enjoy the baths."

Sakura smiled at him as she rose. "Of course." As she left the room she saw the two boys glaring at an unaffected Hyuuga Neji's back. She giggled at the sight.

She stayed in the bath for a blissful hour, but the third time she almost drowned herself by falling asleep she decided it was time to find her room. Peering up and down the hallway, Sakura was considering trying to track Neji in the hope he'd found the room when Mai-chan appeared.

"Ah, Haruno-san, I was looking for you," she chirruped. "Are you ready to retire?"

"Yes, thank you," Sakura said gratefully.

"Follow me, please," the young girl instructed. "The laundry women admired your top, you know. They said both the stitching and the silk were high-quality. Where did you get it?"

"It was a gift from my father," Sakura said. The materials had probably come from their own stores as the Haruno clan dealt primarily in luxury goods. Her mother's pride wasn't simply the pride of a tradesman, but also that of a highly respected merchant clan. Disappointed pride was a main factor in their strained relationship.
"It was beautiful," the young attendant said admiringly. "This is your room," she said, sliding the door open and stepping to one side. "Have a nice night."

Sakura thanked her again and slid the door shut behind her. She saw her backpack and Neji's bag laid on a table and two futons already prepared on the floor. She happily claimed the one further from the door. She couldn't quite imagine Neji tripping over her in the dark, but she decided not to tempt fate.

Snuggling between the covers, she fell asleep almost immediately, waking only briefly when Neji slid the door open and surveyed the room. Groggy, she sent him a half-hearted wave, then collapsed back into her pillow and remembered nothing until morning.

There was a respectful tapping at their door that woke her up. "Yes?" she groaned, barely lifting her face from the pillow.

"Hyuuga-san asked us to wake you when breakfast was prepared," a female voice outside the screen answered.

Sakura sighed grumpily. "Thank you." Light footsteps signaled the retreat of the attendant.

Growling into her pillow, she glanced over at the neighboring futon. Hyuuga Neji apparently didn't move when he slept, because he looked like a model for sleeping posture. Seized by impulse, she flung her pillow at him.

His hand immediately shot out and caught it. Sitting up he sent a disapproving look her direction. Foiled, Sakura flopped back down onto her futon. She stretched like a cat as she tried to wake up. Normally it was easier, but they'd really pushed themselves yesterday and she still felt tired. In the middle of making a bridge with her body, she collapsed back down to the futon, deciding it wasn't worth it.

A snort of laughter told her Neji was watching. "Don't tell me you're a morning person, Hyuuga-san," she said repressively.

"When compared to you, perhaps. When compared to Gai-sensei? By no means," he answered, standing.

Peering up at him through her tousled bangs, she tried unsuccessfully to smother a giggle in the fabric of her futon.

"What is it?" Neji asked.

"Your...hair...," Sakura choked out. The Hyuuga Neji proves he's as human as the rest of us.

He apparently wasn't as sound a sleeper as he appeared, because he had a case of bedhead, his silky brown hair standing up in strange loops in the back. Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair, smoothing it out while Sakura continued to snigger into her futon. Definitely not enough sleep, she decided.

Her hair was probably just as messy, but its ravaged spikes always looked messy. She noticed Neji look over at her as she finger-combed it roughly. "Something wrong?" she asked as she dug through her bag, looking for her comb.

"It looks like you cut it with a kunai," he finally said.

"That's because I did," Sakura said dryly. "I think you showed up right after that."

A brown brow rose. "And you haven't trimmed it since then?"

"I kept meaning to, but there were always better things to do."

Neji looked unconvinced. "Presentation is also an important part of being a shinobi," he said.

Sakura sighed. I always spent too much time on presentation. I'm probably overcompensating, but still...

"We still have time before we leave," Neji said. "You could ask one of the attendants to trim your hair."

It was her turn to send him a questioning look with raised brows. "They'd do that?"

"With this many attendants, surely we can find one skilled in hair setting. If nothing else, the proprietress should be able to suggest someone." As he slipped out of the room to call an attendant, Sakura blinked. Most days it was difficult to remember that some of the clans were also wealthy as well as powerful, but then something like what had just occurred would happen to remind her.

And the Hyuuga clan was not only both powerful and wealthy, it was as intensely traditional as any of the civilian noble clans. Presentation, bearing, and manners would have been taught to Neji from the cradle. It was part of what created his arrogance, but also what prompted his consideration. Sakura sighed into her pillow. Clans all seem unnecessarily complicated.

Minutes later he returned, an older woman following him. She bowed to Sakura. "I am Matsuoka Sakae, Kioshi Takumi's wife and proprietress of this hotsprings inn. Hyuuga-san said you had some trouble with your hair?" she asked delicately.

Compared to this composed older woman who had her black hair elegantly pulled up, she did indeed. Sakura blushed. "Yes."

Matsuoka-san had her wet her hair, then set to trimming it, sometimes stepping back and tilting Sakura's head from side to side. Neji disappeared, presumably to dress and eat breakfast. At last Matsuoka-san seemed satisfied. "Your hair was very rough," she chided her softly. "You need to condition it properly. I can recommend some treatments for you, using natural oils if you don't like synthetic compounds. A girl's hair should be her pride."

Sakura grimaced. "Not for a shinobi."

Matsuoka-san's pursed lips told her she was unconvinced. "I don't see how caring for your hair is a conflicting interest. If anything, the color of your hair already draws attention." She reached out and brushed some loose strands to the side with her manicured nails. "I've done what I can. The rest will be your decision. Breakfast is ready when you're dressed." With that she took her leave.

When she washed her face, Sakura was pleasantly surprised. All the rough ends had been evened out in the back, cut slightly shorter than her bangs which angled forward to frame her face. It wasn't an unflattering cut. Pulling her hair back into its now habitual tail centered at the back of her head she found even the natural spikes looked neater and more regular.

She smiled at Neji as she joined him at breakfast. "You were right," she admitted.

"Of course," he agreed without a hint of modesty.

They were about halfway through their meal when Kioshi-san joined them. "Your hair looks very pretty this morning Haruno-san," he complimented her with sparkling eyes that said he'd been complicit.

"Thank you, Kioshi-san," she replied, still grateful for the compliment.

"I hope you both had a pleasant stay?" he asked.

"Very much so," Sakura said with a genuine smile.

"It was the least I could do. Within the scrolls you brought to me with such trouble is the location of a rare mineral said to have miraculous healing properties. I was hoping to have it mined and added to the baths here. It's why my competitors were so desperate to retrieve it." He rose from the table. "I thought you might be curious to know. Please enjoy your breakfast."

When they'd left the hotsprings inn, Sakura asked quietly, "So what do you think?"

"About the mineral? If it works as Kioshi-san claims, it will doubtless assure the success of the inn."

Sakura skipped ahead and turned to face him, "Just think, we stayed here before it was famous. That's pretty cool, don't you think?"

Her enthusiasm appeared to be infectious, because that small upturn returned to Neji's lips. "Well," he asked, "after a proper night of rest, do you think we can beat our record back?"

Sakura groaned, "You are Gai-sensei's student," but she was game. The two gennin disappeared from the town of Surotaiga before the civilians who'd been sharing the road with them even noticed they were gone.