Naruto Primer: Sakura/Neji
Blind Angle
"Well THAT was a completely wasted day!" sighed Sakura as she and Sasuke walked away from the bridge area. "I mean, waiting around for Kakashi for all that time…I think it's a little unfair that he never even showed up."
"…Yeah." Said Sasuke.
"So…Naruto ran off so now it's just you and me." Sakura said. "Do you want to…I don't know…do something?"
"Like what?" Sasuke asked.
Sakura beamed. The response, "Like what?" was a step up from, "No, you're annoying." She thought for a moment. It was the moment of truth. She had to suggest something good right off the bat so he wouldn't decline. Then it occurred to her. "Well, I guess we could—"
"Sakura," came a voice behind her. She turned around to see Neji standing there. "Could I speak to you for a minute?"
"Um…hi…Neji…" said Sakura uneasily.
"I need to talk to you about something." Neji said.
"This'll only take a minute," said Sakura to Sasuke.
"Actually, it might take a while." Neji corrected.
"All right then I'm not hanging around here." Said Sasuke with a shrug as he sauntered off.
Sakura watched him go and was just about to turn around and beat up Neji but then she realized that he was Neji and not Naruto so instead, she turned around and tried to look pleasant. "Yes?" she said through her teeth.
"I must ask you…" Neji began.
"This better not be about your blind angle." Said Sakura, looking annoyed.
"How'd you know?" Neji asked.
"Look, all I did was shoot the gun randomly and it just so happened to be in your blind angle, okay?" said Sakura with a sigh.
"I don't believe that." Neji said. "You said you'd tell me how you knew about my blind angle if I helped you get Sasuke back into his correct body so that means that you DID know it."
"I was just saying that so you'd help me." Sakura confessed.
"Sakura, just tell me." Said Neji. "Make this easier for all of us. Was it Lee?"
"Yes, yes it was Lee." Sakura said, hoping that he would be satisfied with that answer and leave and then she could potentially catch up with Sasuke.
"I don't believe that." Neji said immediately.
"Why not?" Sakura asked.
"He just wouldn't go around telling people where my blind angle is. Lee isn't one to just go around and tell people's secrets, especially crucial ones like that. He's too nice a guy."
"You're right, he is really nice." Sakura admitted.
"Yeah, I'm getting to like him better." Said Neji. "I thought that he was really going to annoy me when he got assigned to my team and, don't get me wrong, he DOES annoy me, but not as much as I thought."
"He's pretty annoying…" Sakura agreed. "And he's got an unhealthy obsession with me."
"I've noticed that." Neji said. "He really wants to date you. It's all he ever talks about. Why don't you just date him?"
"Would YOU date him?"
"No, I'm a man."
"I mean, IF you were a woman."
"If I…wha…Sakura, this isn't about me being a woman!" said Neji suddenly. "This is about my blind angle and how you got to know where it was! Now tell me honestly this time, this is important!"
"Fine…er…Tenten told me!" Sakura tried.
"No, Tenten did NOT tell you." Neji said.
"How do you know?" Sakura said.
"I just DO." Neji answered. "She may have excellent aim but she's never been able to hit my blind angle. Ever. So that means there's no way she could possibly just TELL you where my blind angle is!"
"How come she can't hit it?" Sakura asked. "You said yourself she has excellent aim."
"I don't know." Neji confessed. "I guess it's just a mental thing. Think about it. If she DID hit my blind angle, then I'd have a shuriken sticking out of the back of my head. Do you think she wants that?"
"I guess not." Sakura said. "She likes you too much."
"You think she likes me?" Neji said, raising an eyebrow. "I thought she liked Sasuke."
"Who doesn't like Sasuke?" Sakura said, shaking her head.
"Well…I don't." Neji said.
"How can you say that you don't like Sasuke?" Sakura said. "You randomly challenged him to a fight and when he refused, we could ALL see that you wanted blood."
"You could…you could tell?" Neji said hesitantly.
"Yeah, it was pretty obvious." Sakura said. "So, while you may not like him in a sexual way, you like him as…a rival, I guess."
"As a rival, maybe." Neji admitted.
"I bet if you were a girl, though, you'd want to date him." Sakura said. "There's no way you would be able to be a rival with him so you'd have the next best thing! Plus, all us OTHER girls are in love with him."
"Well…I…" Neji said slowly. "Wait…we're STILL not talking about me being a woman!! We're talking about my blind angle! Now tell me how you knew it!"
"How about Gai?" Sakura suggested. "He's pretty loud."
"I don't think Gai would just go around telling people my blind angle, no matter how loud he may be." Neji said. "And, no offence, I doubt he would tell YOU."
"What's that supposed to mean?" said Sakura, putting her hands on her hips.
"It's not like you'd be able to do anything with it." Neji shrugged.
"But I DID." Said Sakura even though she knew very well that she didn't.
"True." Neji said with a nod. "But still. Gai wouldn't tell you. He's loud, annoying and talks WAY too much, but he wouldn't tell anyone. Why couldn't I have just gotten a quieter teacher like yours? Or ANYONE else's?"
"I don't know, Kakashi can be kind of annoying sometimes." Sakura said.
"You mean that whole look underneath the underneath thing?" Neji questioned.
"Yeah, but that's not the worst part." Sakura said. "Take today for example! He told us to meet here on this bridge this morning and didn't show up so we've been wasting all this time."
"You should be training or something." Neji said.
"That's the thing though." Said Sakura. "There's the chance he might show up with this ludicrous training session in mind! Sometimes, he might tell us not to eat breakfast and to not brush our hair and then focus training on the fact that we're hungry and our hair is messy!"
"Why would having messy hair matter?" Neji said.
"You should know!" said Sakura. "You have to brush your hair every morning, don't you?"
"Well yeah, but it's not like going a day without brushing my hair would hinder my training performance." Neji said.
"If you were a girl it would." Said Sakura.
"Why does this keep coming back to me being a girl?" Neji said. "We're talking about my blind angle!"
"Oh right!" said Sakura, snapping her fingers. "I just remembered. Hinata told me. After all, we were on the same team! She wanted to give me a heads up on how to beat you."
As soon as the shadow covered half of Neji's face, Sakura realized that her most recent plan to get rid of him had kind of backfired.
"I mean…" she started.
"Hinata wouldn't do that." He said. "Because then that would be giving away one of the secrets of the Hyuuga, putting the Main House in danger because the Main House and the Branch House both have the SAME blind angle! It's not like the Main House is any BETTER than the Branch House is, they're exactly the same. In fact—"
"Your blind angle, Neji!" Sakura interrupted.
"Oh right." Said Neji, clearing his throat. "What about Sasuke? You guys are together all the time. How do I know that he hasn't told you?"
"That's who it was!" said Sakura, completely acting. "And I'm going to go and find him now and tell him not to tell anyone else."
"Wait." Said Neji, stopping her. "Sasuke has never seen me fight before. I know because I want him to see me fight because I want to fight him. So that means he couldn't even possibly know that I even have a blind angle! He probably doesn't even know I have 360 degree vision."
"I think everyone knows that." Said Sakura.
"Why?" said Neji.
"Well…after the incidents at the three-legged race, people would be kind of stupid NOT to know." Sakura said.
"Hey, that wasn't really my fault." Said Neji.
"How so?" Sakura asked.
"Lee and Tenten were the ones who were saying 'left right left right' when they should have been saying 'inside outside inside outside'." He explained.
"Why didn't it occur to YOU?" Sakura asked.
"Because I didn't know until Shikamaru told me." Neji said.
"Well fine, whatever." Said Sakura, throwing her hands up in the air.
"You know what?" said Neji. "I have convinced myself that you really didn't know my blind angle and it actually WAS just a random shot."
"That's what I've been saying this whole time!" groaned Sakura.
"You weren't saying it convincingly enough." Neji said.
"So you're done?" Sakura asked. "I can leave now? You're happy?"
"Yeah, you can leave now." Said Neji and, before he had even finished, Sakura had tore off to find Sasuke.
He wasn't ACTUALLY satisfied, he just knew that Sakura wasn't about to surrender that information to him. Obviously someone had to have told her since, after all, there was NO way she could have possibly been able to find out the location of his blind angle.
He would have to try finding out the answer some other way because the direct approach obviously didn't work. So, he figured he'd think on it while he made his way back to his favorite training area where he would go and train.