11. A rainy day
Today was one of these days when the sky was dominated by languid greyness… A brownish grey sky, hidden behind brownish grey clouds and then the earth still fast asleep underneath a dense veil of morning mist – also grey of course…
Not even the sun seemed in the right mood to come up with enough effort to break through these low, rain laden clouds, which seemed to be drawn down by gravity, rather than being moved in one of the cardinal directions…
This really wasn't a day for any kind of activity and even though they didn't know it yet, that was exactly what the two shinobi inside the spacious room in one of the most imposing buildings in the entire Leaf Village did – complying with this tacit rule of laziness.
Only when the first drops of rain started pattering against the window pane and the roof covering the terrace, was it that the first sounds ripped through the silence, which had beforehand hovered over the room like it was a thick stifling cloud itself.
Woken by this change in atmosphere, a raven haired man slowly opened his coal black eyes and let them wander through the dim and drab seeming room. His facial expression didn't give anything away of his attitude toward this rather gloomy prospect of the morning – a result of years of training.
Harsh years. Years in which he had been forced to come up with every possible kind of defence out of necessity… But that was behind him now. Another dark chapter in the book of his past he didn't plan to open again. Even though he still couldn't believe it; believe that everything was over now… Something was still there, deep down in the most remote corner of his mind, that kept him from abandoning his defences.
The reason why he couldn't even lower his guard in his sleep and was woken up by anything out of the ordinary, even the faintest sound, the faintest disturbance in the air around him, something as miniscule as the sound of rain. Or the reason why so many things seemed simply ridiculous to him; all these little everyday problems people attached so much importance to – they seemed comical compared to what he's gone through…
This was one of the reasons why everything seemed so unreal, not even the fact how serious some people took mere, unimportant trifles, but rather that his problems had yielded to trifles as well; the very same unimportant trifles which plagued other people as well and he was beginning to take them just as serious as they did.
Was that the price of leading an easy life – getting soft and being unsettled by even the most trivial things? Actually it should have been comforting to think that all reasons for worry have been reduced to a minimum and that there was no more need for constant alertness, no more need to expect the worst behind each and every corner… but somehow it wasn't, he just wasn't ready to believe it yet…
It's not like he's lived in fear the past years – he's lived under pressure would be far more accurate to say. The pressure to do the right thing and not in the sense of this whole right or wrong debate.
It had been like the aim of his life, his revenge, had lain in the middle of a labyrinth and every right decision was like a step into the right direction, whereas every wrong decision had sent him to a dead end.
Now that he reached his goal he no longer had to consider all the possible consequences his actions might have on his path, but could keep it down to seeing the effects they had on his immediate future. Looking straight ahead, rather than twice around two corners.
He was becoming lazy, too confident of his safety and less selfish, which he didn't consider as positive, even though it might sound so. Being selfish was actually a good thing – he knew that and everyone else knew that too, even though others weren't as ready to admit that as he was. It's a part of the self-preservative drive, the one that keeps you from dying – which is quite common in most people – one of the best defences a human being possesses.
If it hadn't been for his selfishness he wouldn't be here now. He wouldn't have been able to cope with the loss of his family; he wouldn't have left Konoha to seek new power from Orochimaru; he wouldn't have made it through the endless days and nights of nothing but training and he wouldn't have been able to become strong enough to kill his brother.
All his life was marked by selfishness – it had been his selfish wish to retaliate the injustice which had been done to his family. All his selfish actions, the sacrifices he had made, the people he had abandoned or used to his advantage – all of these had been necessary deeds – deeds to create a world for him to live in. Trying to erase the unfairness which had been done to him, by becoming strong enough to turn it against its perpetrator. Again it had been a subconscious necessity to create a world in which there was an order; a world in which bad things weren't just accepted and forgotten but avenged.
His self-centeredness – his urge to bring himself through no matter what – had been his greatest support in attaining his goal and yet he had relinquished a part of it. Relinquished it to a person with an apparently underdeveloped self-preservative drive and who therefore needed it much more than he did…
He tilted his head to the side, trying to move as little as possible and cast a pensive look at the girl in his arms. She was lying with her head in his armpit and all her limbs drawn as close to her body as she could possibly manage. She had wrapped her hand tightly around a corner of the white blanket and had pulled it up to her nose, so actually he couldn't see anything but her long dark hair and a little of her pale cheek. If it wasn't for the feeling of her even breathing against the side of his chest, he couldn't have told if she was dead or alive; she was perfectly still, he couldn't even make out the stirring of her chest and the soft rain and the covers muffled every sound she might have made.
Cautiously he brushed some strands of her hair out of her face and observed her sleeping features and noticed a slightly troubled look in them. With a light frown on his face, he watched her for some more time, but the expression remained unaltered, she stayed as rigid as a statue. So after a couple of seconds he averted his eyes from her again and focussed them on the round ceiling lamp instead, just allowing his thoughts to drift off again…
He had definitely changed. Just to think that he had shifted his focus and was now not only considerate of satisfying his own needs, but thought about someone else, too and actually wanted that person to feel good as well.
That he had actually started to care for someone other than himself… If someone had told him a year ago that he would be here now – at this place again and above all in this situation, he would have doubted his sanity… And yet he was lying here, right next to his girlfriend and he must have changed so much that he didn't even see anything remarkable about that… On the contrary…
Actually he had always been convinced that his dream had lain in the past and that the future held nothing for him and that hadn't changed; however by changing something about the present – his current past – he had been able to come up with a new dream and somehow the future didn't seem too uninviting any longer…
Now there was finally some motion in the girl to his side. She finally quitted being a stone and stretched out her legs, while her lids fluttered slightly, but didn't open just yet. A soft sigh escaped her lips, while she pulled the blanket almost completely over her head and snuggled closer to him, burying her face in the side of his chest, right underneath the arm he now slung tighter around her back, even though he still seemed to hold nothing but the blanket.
"You're finally awake." He said in a low murmur, even though he wasn't this sure about it after all.
"… not so very…" Her voice was muffled by the covers, which she then pulled back a little to look through half-shut eyes at the owner of the voice.
"Hey…" She smiled lightly and wrapped her arms around Sasuke's neck, while he rolled on his side to face her directly and drew her closer into his arms. Their eyes met for a brief second, before their lips did for a significantly longer time.
They remained lying like that for quite some time; their faces only inches apart, so close that they managed to block out the bleak and dreariness of their surroundings and create their own little realm with much warmer colours and a cosier atmosphere, completely unlike what there really was.
They kissed again and once their lips parted, Sayuri lowered her gaze and stroked her hand down his breastbone, while the soft smile slowly vanished from her lips. Sasuke watched this change in her expression and furrowed his brows, before he placed a hand on her cheek and traced his fingers along her jawline, down the delicate curve of her neck, until she closed her hand around his and looked up with a hesitant gleam in her grey-blue eyes.
"You're not gonna leave again… are you…?" She spoke very carefully, as if the words themselves were fragile and not just their speaker…
"You still hold that against me, huh?" He raised an eyebrow and watched how Sayuri turned down her troubled eyes again and shook her head lightly – that really wasn't it, she'd just like to be prepared…
"Not really…" She murmured softly and rested her chin above both their hands, while Sasuke still watched her with a thoughtful expression.
"I have the whole day off." The Uchiha raised his voice in a calm tone. "We can do whatever you want."
"Really…?" Sayuri turned her head up with a sceptical look on her face and bored her eyes into Sasuke's.
"Hn." He nodded his assent and watched a mild smile rise on Sayuri's lips, before she folded her hands behind his neck again and placed soft kisses on his lips.
"Then… can we just stay here and do nothing? Just a little bit longer?" She asked hesitantly, but instead of answering, Sasuke rolled onto his back again and pulled her along with him – words have never been his strong point anyway…
This was her chance to catch up on her cliché-ridden idea of how a morning-after was supposed to be. Like the morning-after reloaded or take two. The first point on her list, which would be the spending-the-whole-morning-in-bed point, could be ticked already, next one would be the putting-on-his-shirt point, but there was still plenty of time for that one… still she should make sure to know where his shirt was lying in the first place, just so that she could get it first in the unlikely case that he wanted to put it on himself – completely unacceptable.
She wrapped her arms around his torso and placed her head on his firm chest, listening to his steady and calm heartbeat, but that didn't matter too much, because it was absolutely quiet except for the light rain on the other side of the window, which she only just noticed… She hadn't realized up to now how uncomfortable and gloomy the day was, so she just closed her eyes to it and felt only confirmed in her idea of spending the day with being lazy.
A contented sigh passed her lips as Sasuke's fingers began wandering across the soft indentations of her porcelain ribcage, up and down as if they were piano keys and Sayuri had a hard time not to cringe and start giggling, but after some time she grew accustomed to that feeling and then it was only pleasant and calming and she could already feel how she drifted back into a light slumber as the movements became slower and lazier…
Then she started dreaming; dreaming but not sleeping… There was a major difference… at least to her, the good dreams never came by themselves, her sleeping mind would only spit out the bad ones, so dreaming something nice required an active thinking process…
In sleep she could never dream up anything as intense and vivid as this here… Something blurry and yet sharp, appealing to all senses… There was this feeling, so many feelings actually, like that of skin against skin, as if her body was explored by uncountable hands, even though there was just one other person, so she figured something about her senses must have gotten confused, somehow…
This wasn't about concrete actions though, in this invisible bubble which circled them and excluded everything else, it was only about perception. It was about the soft touches, the hungry kisses, the teasing – it was about the closeness. The attempt to cover every inch of separation; to completely enfold. Hands holding hands, trying to make the sweet sensation more bearable; legs wrapped around legs, thighs against thighs, hips moving to a self-paced rhythm, writhing bodies, grinding against each other in sweet agony. The heat of their mouths as they melted together, tasting each other's lips, necks, earlobes – every bit of skin, as if it was the first time. Her lungs filled with his scent as she breathed him in, savouring the moment, the weightlessness, the warmth… allowing herself to get lost in a whirlwind of overwhelming sensations and emotions. Trying to memorize these feelings, every single second, even the faintest touch, the tiniest gesture, like how a hint of a smile played over his lips, or the uncommonly tender look in his eyes… how he managed to make her feel special and wanted merely by looking at her.
Their eyes met, locked together and fused into a blur of black and blue, as it became harder to breathe and her head started spinning at the approach of suffocation, her vision reduced to a narrow crescent as it became too exhaustive to keep her eyes open any longer. She wasn't afraid though. There are some dreams in which you don't die – in which you are invincible, immortal, beautiful, perfect – anything you're able to come up with and she somehow felt like this was one of them… so she wasn't afraid… It was one of these dreams in which you fall into a bottomless pit and learn to enjoy the feeling of falling and this is what happened. She allowed herself to fall into a sea of pleasure, drowning in pure bliss and taking him along with her. Clinging to his strong body, digging her nails into his broad shoulders to not lose him in the turbulent waters, trying to capture the moment in which they merged into one being as he pushed her past her limit and guided her back into reality again. The blurriness began to fade, as if the bubble had burst and as she was only about to wake up, she fell asleep after all…
…
…
About a cozy eternity, but more likely just an hour or two later, which told her that her sense of time still hadn't normalized yet, Sayuri was woken up by her human pillow, as he shifted his weight lightly. She opened her eyes drowsily, feeling even sleepier than before, but probably because she had gotten far too much sleep this time…
A languid sigh escaped her lips and she closed her eyes again while cuddling closer to Sasuke, wrapping her arms around his upper body, as tightly as her tired form would manage like he was some kind of teddy bear, before she yawned again.
"How can you still be tired?" The dark-haired man whispered into her smooth hair, while he moved a finger up and down the side of her neck, causing a contented sound to pass her lips.
"Hm…?" She exhaled, not really able to open her lips far enough to form articulate words yet, or grasp the meaning of his question in the first place… Instead she just hunched her shoulders up and nodded eventually, before she ran her hands down the side of his torso and tickled his ribs with her fingertips.
"You're not ticklish, huh?" She asked, as she didn't get the desired reaction from the raven-haired man, her voice still thick with sleep. However Sasuke didn't even bother to answer her ridiculous question, but stared at the top of her head with a raised eyebrow, which she couldn't see, even though she could pretty well imagine the look on his face…
"Is that enough 'doing nothing' for you now?" He enquired in a calm tone and rested his hands on her shoulder blades.
"Hmm… depends…" She murmured in a breathy voice, again losing herself in the rhythm of his heartbeat.
"On what?"
"… On what you want to do…"
"How about breakfast?"
"Uhm… that's okay I guess…" She mumbled into his chest, but instead of getting up, she only tightened her embrace and snuggled closer to him. She didn't really feel like facing this day so much… especially not with the weather and everything and then considering how warm and cozy it was in here, but that wasn't really what motivated her, to not do anything…
This was the first day since they had gotten back from their mission and the last two days have been more than just sobering – she didn't even want to imagine how it would be from now on… with even more people who could give her the silent treatment. Sakura had really mastered that one… She had resolutely refused to talk to her or even look at her and after some time her cold attitude had started to get to her and she had lapsed into silence as well, afraid that words would only make things worse and apparently it was really bad… she would have rather liked Sakura to scream at her or do something else, as long as she did something… this apathetic behaviour didn't fit to her. It wasn't even like she had shown her that she was mad at her and didn't want to talk to her, like it had been the case before, but like she didn't even notice her presence any longer – as if she was nothing but air…
To Naruto or Kakashi she had talked about the same way as usual, just a little more snappish and every time they had tried to talk to her about this situation she had gone deaf again and after some time no one had felt like talking any longer. It's really hard to imagine how long two days of journey could appear if you had to walk them in silence, even though you were barely able to hold back all these words you wanted to utter so badly.
All these situations you had planned out in your head and wanted to translate into action and then all those times in which you wished for a time-machine so you could travel back into the past and do everything in a different way. At first she had only thought about going back to that scene in the restaurant, but later she had realized that she would have to go back to the day he had been allowed to come back, or better the day in the hospital when she had told Sakura that she believed to have feelings for him and tell her that it really was the case and that it was apparently the same with him as well… She would have to travel back to the very day she had started lying, but since that was impossible she would have to bear the consequences now… so why leave this safe, warm, comforting shelter at all?
"So?" Sasuke asked with an impatient frown on his face, as she still hadn't moved a bit in quite some time.
"So…?" She repeated his monosyllabic question, stalling for time, but Sasuke just rolled his eyes and placed his hands on her upper arms, before he sat up and accordingly forced her to do so as well. Still she didn't let go of him yet, but tilted her head up to place a light kiss on his lips, before she leaned her head against his chest again and therefore missed the smug smirk which appeared on Sasuke's face.
"How come you're so clingy today?" He asked in an amused tone, while Sayuri lifted a hand to her mouth to cover another long yawn.
"Dunno…" She shrugged and looked up with a sceptical expression, as Sasuke lifted her off his lap and slipped out of bed. She pulled the blanket around her body to cover herself and observed through watchful eyes how the Uchiha put on his boxer shorts and then picked his dark, comfortable-looking shirt off the floor, causing Sayuri to wrinkle her nose in frustration. Missed the chance – stupid laziness…
Wrapped inside the blanket she slid her legs over the edge of the bed and sat there in a half crouched posture, before she ran a hand through her tousled hair, but then looked up as Sasuke stepped in front of her and slid his far too big shirt over her head, but leaving her to put it on by herself.
"Thanks." She beamed at him with a proud smile on her lips; she didn't really know if he had known how much she had wanted this, but she was happy about it anyway – that was number two of her three-point-plan…
"C'mon now." Sasuke muttered eventually and frowned about the way she tugged at the fabric of his shirt, but then cast her shiny eyes up again and nodded brightly. So she allowed him to pull her to her feet, before they both went downstairs and took care of the last point on her list…
…
…
At the same time, a blonde shinobi was already busy with eating his second breakfast or rather lunch, considering what he was eating… And even though it was actually his favourite meal, he slurped his soup rather half-heartedly, his deep blue eyes all the time fixed on the numerous tiny raindrops which ran down his kitchen window; at least some motion in this grey apparently abandoned world on the other side of the thick glass…
He really hated this kind of weather; not even because of the rain itself – he wasn't made from sugar so the rain wouldn't melt him – but it seemed as if everyone else was, so it was really hard to get someone to leave the house… Therefore he always connected rainy days with boredom and each and every time he was reaffirmed again and these were some of the rare occasions when he hated being right…
Far too soon his second breakfast came to an end as well and he really contemplated eating even a third portion, just for the sake of having something to do, something to fight the boredom – even if only by stuffing himself, because he was long past being hungry already. His half empty fridge thwarted his plans, though, but at least it gave him a new idea, which would be buying groceries – not exactly the most exciting thing but definitely better than nothing… So ten minutes later he left his flat, armed with plastic bags to protect his soon to be provisions from the heavy downpour, which seemed to become stronger with every step he took away from his house – how else could it be?
Once he reached the small shop, which was closest to his home, he already saw quite a lot of people, standing underneath the white and yellow striped awning, which provided some shelter from the rain – numerous sugar people who thought the water would kill them. Looking like a drowned rat, but whistling happily, Naruto squeezed past them, grinning about how they backed away from him as his wet clothes come in contact with their still mostly dry ones.
Inside, he picked up one of the small, red plastic shopping baskets and headed straight towards his favourite section, which would be the one with convenience food, obviously.
Once his basket was about as full as it could possibly get he walked towards the next section and still somehow managed to squeeze a bottle of milk into it as well, which even seemed like a little miracle to himself…
With a satisfied face, he looked at the rather one-sided products he had chosen – the same ones he had also chosen the week before and the week before that – you get the idea…
He was just about to walk to the checkout, when he saw a familiar shock of dark blue hair in the aisle next to the one he was in.
"Hey, Hinata-chan!" He called out, knowing that it would be fatal to surprise her; he had done that before – it had been meant as a joke actually. He had sneaked up on her and had then jumped into her path with a loud 'Boo!' and next thing he saw was how the Hyuga crashed into a pyramid of bean cans and then vanished somewhere in the midst of it.
It had ended with them having to pile it up again by themselves – actually it had just been Hinata, but since he somehow felt like it had been his fault that she had fainted, he had volunteered to help her, but they've had quite a hard time…
Hinata had still been all shaky and had twitched every time he had addressed her and with that made the pyramid collapse again and in the cases when it hadn't been her, his gross motor skills had managed to do so and in the end they had needed almost an entire evening to get this thing done, but he can't deny that it had been fun… She wasn't the most talkative person, but she was definitely a pleasant company…
"N-Naruto-kun." She stammered wide-eyed and dropped a really big jar of pickles in shock. However Naruto was prepared already and stretched out his food to catch it in time, however he seemed to have underestimated the weight of that thing a little. He managed to catch it alright, but it seemed to smash his toes and squash them into the wet linoleum floor.
A soundless scream left Naruto's agape mouth and his eyes nearly shot out of their sockets, before he squeezed his teeth together tightly and forced himself to grin, just so that he could soothe Hinata a bit, who had clutched both her hands in front of her mouth and was bright red, as she so often was.
"Ehe…" Naruto grinned before he bowed down with almost robot-like stiffness and lifted the luckily undamaged glass jar off the ground, while he had to force himself to keep smiling, which became pretty hard as he saw his red and swollen toes peek out of his boots like tiny throbbing sausages.
"There you go." He squeezed out through clenched teeth, bravely keeping the corners of his mouth lifted up, before he passed the Hyuga her glass back.
"I'm so sorry, Naruto-kun…" She bowed down apologetically, looking at least as miserable as he felt, but he was a man and he wouldn't let it show, so he just shook his head and allowed his smile to grow even wider, but simultaneously more artificial and it's not like he could do anything about that…
"Never mind…" He exhaled explosively, as if he had held his breath for the most time of the day and moved his injured foot behind the other one, trying to get some ease by pressing his toes against his calf, but they were still throbbing painfully and he feared they'd grow out of his boot and burst like water balloons, flooding the floor in a gush of red.
"Uhm… I-I have an ointment… it should allay the pain…" She stuttered and started searching through the pockets of her white and lilac jacket, while the look on her face grew more and more desperate as she apparently couldn't find anything.
"I-I guess I must have left it at home…" She said more to herself than to anyone else, before she looked into Naruto's expectant face again and stuttered an apology with yet another light blush on her cheeks.
"Never mind… Let's go then!"
"… … go? Where to?"
"Well to the checkout and then to your house of course."
"T-t-t-to my… h-house…?" Hinata stammered, her pale eyes widened to the max and she looked really close to fainting again, which Naruto didn't fail to notice.
"Yo, Hinata-chan, are you okay? You need to sit down?" He enquired but didn't dare to touch her or even move closer to her… bad experience and so on… He really wondered how she got through life at all when she was like this with all people… even standing in a queue must be totally traumatic for the poor girl, but there had to be something he could do for her…
"To-my-house." Hinata rattled off in a weirdly monotonous voice, trying to figure out the meaning of these words, but Naruto apparently took it as approval and grinned widely.
"Well then – off we go!" He exclaimed and limped into the direction of the exit, but then turned around after a couple of steps and looked at the Hyuga who still hadn't moved a bit.
"Hey? Are you coming now or what?" He asked sounding slightly startled, and his words seemed to have woken her from her trance and after giving a hectic nod, she followed after the blonde, still feeling kind of dazed though…
Hardly more than fifteen minutes later, they had nearly reached the Hyuga main house – actually the way would have taken only about five to ten minutes, but with the way Naruto was limping and then he had also insisted on carrying all their bags and then also Hinata's umbrella – even though from the way he was holding it, it wouldn't have made much of a difference if they had left it away completely… so it had taken them a bit longer.
Naruto had talked through all the way back, while the Hyuga had merely watched him with awe, as he told her about his latest missions and even though she kind of felt uncomfortable it was still like a personal achievement for her that she was walking here with the Uzumaki, without having lost her consciousness yet.
She had injured him though, but if she hadn't, they wouldn't be here now, so maybe it was fate… And if it really was fate, then maybe there was no reason for her to be nervous. Maybe she should just stop thinking about what could be and just see what comes. It would be really good if she could do so, but it's not like she could switch her nervousness on and off like a lamp, she unfortunately didn't possess this kind of self-control…
They walked over the huge courtyard, which also served as a training ground most of the time, but was nothing more than a huge mud pit at the moment and Naruto only just noticed how much damage this building must have suffered from the last attacks. The entire left wing was still covered with scaffolds and tarps and half of the roof seemed to have broken down. He also remembered that there had been a tree, somewhere in front of the house but there wasn't anymore… just loads of mud and sea-like puddles…
Hinata looked a little ashamed as she noticed how Naruto was staring at the scaffolds and wanted to explain that it usually didn't look like this here, that this was actually a neat and clean place, but then they stood in front of the entrance door already, both dripping wet and then she couldn't get herself to utter the words anymore.
Even though it churned her up to think that Naruto would enter her house, maybe even her room, she still turned to him and asked: "Y-you want to come in?"
"Well sure – you want to leave me out here in the rain?" The blonde looked at her with a raised eyebrow and from one second to the next Hinata's skin turned bright red and she shook her head vehemently.
"N-No! – Please come in!" Hinata stammered with widened eyes and shoved the door open before she walked in and turned around again to make sure Naruto had done so as well.
"Would you mind waiting here a moment – I'll get it at once!" The blue-haired girl said in a hurried voice and before Naruto even had the chance to answer, she had already vanished behind the next corner, only to come back two seconds later and add: "Oh, and please do take a seat!", before rushing off again.
Naruto still stared at the corner behind which she had only just vanished, for a couple of seconds, before he looked down at himself and the small puddle which had formed around his bare feet and he didn't really think he should sit down and probably ruin the furniture, so he just slumped down to the floor and stared at his toes, which still reminded him of some certain breakfast products…
"What are you doing here?"
The blonde perceived a voice and as he turned around he could see Neji, who was standing in the doorway and scrutinized him with a slightly startled expression.
"Me? What are you doing here?" Naruto countered, mainly out of habit because of the slightly snappish tone in Neji's voice, before he recalled that he was a Hyuga as well and was therefore probably supposed to be here.
Neji seemed to be of the opinion that the whole thing was pretty obvious, so he didn't reply, but kept standing where he was and cast a definitely haughty look at the Uzumaki and raised an eyebrow expectantly, causing the blonde to finally explain the reason for his being here.
"Your cousin attacked me with some pickles." He grimaced and stuck out his tongue, while Neji now finally walked towards him and sat down on a low wooden bench, right next to the Uzumaki and asked: "Really? What did you do?"
"Said hello."
"I see…" Neji nodded in understanding. "you really shouldn't do that…"
"I shouldn't greet her?" Naruto asked and looked at the brown-haired man like he was out of his mind.
"Not straightforwardly…" Neji shrugged, but as he saw the clueless expression on Naruto's face he felt like he had to explain further. "You could be at least a little less brash and loud…"
"Woah – wait a second! What are you trying to say?" The Uzumaki put his hands on his hips and stared with a raised eyebrow at the Hyuga, who just rolled his eyes though and sighed.
"Nevermind." He shook his head. "So you finished your mission, huh?" He looked at the blonde, who just nodded in response, so he added: "How was it?"
"Tze, horrible… I've never done a worse mission than that one…" Naruto crossed his arms in front of his chest and nodded to himself, as if to lend weight to his statement.
"Hard?" Neji asked with a raised eyebrow, not knowing what to make of his words.
"Pfft – not at all!" Naruto grunted and took a deep breath before he started retelling the major points of their mission. "It was about the easiest and most eventless mission we ever had! We only had to look after a man who had to bring a necklace to some woman – I mean like a necklace – what's up with that? As if we were still genin or something…"
"But aren't you a genin?"
"Wha- but… you know what I mean… like fresh from the academy and everything…" Naruto tried to talk his way out of this uncomfortable situation – really feeling kind of embarrassed right now, which happened rarely enough…
"And the Uchiha is a genin as well, isn't he?" The Hyuga sneered mockingly. "And then you wonder why you always get the lame missions."
"Pah – don't act like you're so much better!" Same as always he was irritated by the smug look on Neji's face – the super great Jounin Neji. "In a real fight I would so beat you!"
"Tze… of course you would…" Neji soothed him, but the irony in his words was hard to miss…
"Anyway…" Naruto tried to ignore that and carried on with his story. "The first time we encountered some enemies our client nearly gave them that stupid necklace himself, well yeah and that was the only action there was. The rest of the mission was just entirely boring and if that wasn't enough Sasuke and Sayuri admitted that they were a couple and then Sakura totally lost it… I mean… I don't know… she wasn't screaming around or anything, actually she was really calm, but if eyes could kill none of us would have made it back alive, that much is certain…" Naruto finished retelling the past days with a dramatic sigh, before he turned his attention to Neji again and observed the shocked expression on his face.
"They are a couple…?" Neji asked after a couple of seconds, adding a weird intonation to the single words…
"I know what you mean - who would've thought, eh? Someone actually managed to get to our ice-block…" Naruto grinned and looked into the air with a dreamy look on his face; he still couldn't get Kakashi's metaphor out of his head, especially now that he understood what it meant and therefore pretended it to be his own idea. Especially as Neji didn't reply to his words for a couple of seconds he saw it as his chance to show off and kick the Hyuga off his high horse.
"You know ice-block – like how cold Sasuke always behaves and now apparently not anymore… I don't know I didn't really see too much of a change, but if they say they were a couple there must be something, don't you think?"
Again he didn't receive an answer and he noticed that the Hyuga looked kind of downcast… just a little, but it was still noticeable and at first he couldn't make sense of his reaction but then he remembered what Sakura had said before their mission, after they hugged there and so on, or even what she said, as they still lived in the Uchiha mansion together… as she hinted that he and Sayuri had a date – Sayuri had denied that though, but either way they had been eating together, so maybe Sayuri wasn't interested in him, but he apparently in her. Damn how was that with 'A closed mouth gathers no feet'? It was exasperating how he always managed to say the very wrong thing in the very wrong situation to the very wrongest of wrong person…
"Uhm… Neji…look I don't know how-" Naruto started but was then interrupted as Neji rose to his feet and before he could even ask what he was doing, the door on the other side of the room flew open and a very red and breathless looking Hinata rushed into the room.
"I… I found it!" She gasped out and first had to rest her hands on her knees to breathe through, before she looked up and only then noticed the presence of her cousin.
"Neji-nii-san… you're here, too?" Hinata sighed in relief, glad that he had kept Naruto company and that he hadn't been bored while waiting here…
"Hm." He nodded, his face back to blank again. "But I have to go now."
He started walking towards the door while Naruto rose to his feet and thought about holding him back, but then Neji came to a stop and raised his voice again.
"Be nice to her, Naruto."
"N-Neji…" Hinata stammered, all red again and was afraid the two of them had talked about her while she was gone, but Neji had already walked out, his departure allowing the pattering sound of the rain to enter the room for a moment, before it was shut out again as the door thudded heavily against its frame.
…
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