When I turned to finally sit in my seat, Neji was inches from my face. He had come to the other side of the table and into my already small personal bubble.

"Whoa."

"Don't think this is over," Neji growled at me underneath his breath.

"Yeah, whatever," I spoke as I hid what I could of my face under my hair and took my seat. I began freaking out in my head all of a sudden because my cheeks and ears had abruptly become hot and red since all I could think about at the moment was how horrendously sexy that idiot automatically became when he did that to me.

Get it together Rori! What's wrong with you?! It's not like you to get flustered like this.

'You don't understand Rori. Sometimes women just can't control their actions. Especially when they've discovered love.'

What the? I didn't notice, but I had closed my eyes when I began to internally scold myself. But why was I remembering that specific thing my stepfather said? I hate him, and I most definitely was not in love, so what was it? When I opened my eyes, I noticed a note in front of me.

Hm? Who...? I looked around searching for any sign that would single anybody out. No such luck.

What is it?

Nothing. Sorry.

I just closed it back up and noticed Pain's hand slip to take it. Oh. Are we OK now or...? Well, I couldn't tell since there were no more interactions after that. He just stared forward and said nothing the rest of class. I could feel Hidan fuming beside me. Class had finished and I lightly touched Hidan's arm to get his attention.

"What the hell?" he mumbled.

"I'm sorry," I apologized before looking into his eyes for a split second and leaving.

It's a good thing I was on Friday's roster for tryouts instead of Thursday's because that would have turned out disasterously.

I went to drop off my backpack in the car with Gilroy.

"Gilroy, I'm staying for soccer tryouts. Can you let Mom know? I'm leaving all my stuff in my bag, so I won't have my phone," I spoke as I switched out my footwear for my cleats in said luggage. They were black Nikes with midnight blue design. Gilroy nodded in response, and I ran over to the field for the training pre-course. Yamato called out to me.

"Rori! Where are your shorts?"

"Uh. I don't have any with me."

"Shorts are mandatory Rori. No shorts, no tryouts," Kakashi stated. I sighed.

"Does anyone have shorts I can borrow?" I announced loudly.

"Hey Rori. I've got a pair you can use," I heard from an eerily stern voice behind me.

"Oh, tha..."

I turned to see the face of the one and only Neji.

"...anks," I finished much less enthusiastically.

Great. What is he planning? I wore short boxers anyway, so when I went to change, everything was fine. However, I still turned my back to him and the rest of the guys that lingered since the mere fact that I was a girl changing around a bunch of guys still made me self conscious of my body. It was kind of hard to keep my eyes down to, but I kept reminding myself that something weird I could never erase could come into my vision.

The majority of the guys began to laugh as I walked out. Neji walked beside me with a satisfied smirk. Sasuke appeared disinterested, and Kabuto gave me a pitiful look. Suigetsu came up to me attempting to stifle his laugh and threw his arm around me.

"Hey. Nice shorts Rori! They really bring out the true you!"

I threw him a glare. I enjoy Suigetsu's sadistic and playful manner, but he really needs to learn when to shut it. He only smirked in response which caused me to growl in return. Suigetsu's smirk only grew wider. Next, only seconds later, Suigetsu suddenly jumped away from me. My expression became confused as I noticed the light pink tint on his cheeks.

"Hm?"

Sasuke walked up right to my face, expression still with a hand on his hip. It was as if he was attempting to stare my soul down. Then he closed his eyes and broke out in a smirk.

"Nice shorts. What are you supposed to be, a girl?"

The others erupted in laughter again. Is that really the best kind of insult he can muster? Lame. If this is the limit of their humor in Konoha, then this place is going nowhere.

"I couldn't care less the color of my own shorts. The only thing on my mind is why someone like Neji would have them. To each his own, I suppose," I replied as I brushed past Sasuke. The guys began to laugh harder and a couple even bent over from laughing too much. Suigetsu walked up to me and patted me on the back.

"Nice job. Not everyday someone gets to embarrass that Hyuga."

"I don't want to embarrass him. I just want him to learn not to mess with me or anyone else just because his life sucks. So, what happened to you anyway? Why'd you freak out like that?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

What?

"Back there. You just kind of freaked out all of a sudden."

"Rori, are you OK?"

"What? Yes. ... Hey! Don't try to confuse me! I know what happens and when I daydream. I can tell the difference."

"...I still don't know what you're talking about."

"Fine."

"Fine?"

"Yeah. I'll leave it at that if it's as far as we're getting with this."

Suigetsu didn't reply, and Yamato and Kakashi stared at me for a moment before they began their instruction. I noticed that their faces also had the same pink tints across their cheeks. It must be really hot today, not that I've noticed.

We began with a warm up jog, a few conditioning exercises, then went and practiced movement techniques. Two hours had passed, but we had another two to go. The coaches put us in teams to see how we played against one another. I was teamed up with Tobi, Kabuto, Lee, and about seven others I didn't know.

Surprisingly, Sasuke and Suigetsu made an incredible pair! I was usually a lone wolf, but I suspected we were teamed up so the coaches could observe our capability to work as a team. I more passed the ball to and played near the guys I didn't know. Why? I don't know, it's just what I always ended up doing.

I felt someone staring at me intently. I looked in the direction I felt it from to meet Sasuke's eyes. He was staring me down like a target. We had both been moved to the front near the center.

Our team was in possession of the ball, and we had been repositioned to the middle of the field. Lee was the one to kick the ball. He kicked the ball backward to another player who kicked it back to Lee. He then kicked it to me. Sasuke came out of nowhere from behind me and lightly pressed his palms against my triceps to keep us both balanced as he kicked the ball away from right in front of me through my legs. So that's how it is? Alright then.

Another player of his team caught it. We spent the next couple of hours going back and forth vigorously. No one had scored a goal so far. A few of the guys weren't very good, but just as determined as the rest of them. Kabuto was one of them. Tobi played as good as the others as well, but seemed to be trying to stay in the dark spots where not much action occured. I wonder why. Sasuke was on my ass the entire time, so I returned the favor.

The ball was near the opposing goal before Suigetsu launched it with a hard kick to Sasuke. Just about every sport is a fast paced game, so when you have a few seconds of an open window, you have to take your shot then and there. No time for thinking or planning.

"Lee, give me a lift! I'm gonna jump!"