After battling with his inner self for a while, Neji concluded that he needed a vacation else he go mad. But Neji couldn't go on vacation because… well, because he needed to train. Yes, he needed to get stronger. He also needed to stop thinking about Tenten- oh God, he just did it again. He thought of her! It had only been, what, four minutes since he had left the hospital? And already his mind was centered on only one thing: her. Her soft brown buns atop her head, her unmarred skin, her petite little feet… He really was insane, wasn't he? Neji realized, while walking through the streets of Konoha, that he needed help, and he needed it soon.
He also needed to stop thinking about Tenten.
But you don't want to, said a very nasty green-eyed monster in his mind. No, you like thinking about her.
I do not.
Yes you do. You love the way her body is curved.
I do not!
Tsk, tsk Neji! Denying the obvious?
There is no truth in what you are saying you stupid ugly green eyed-
"Excuse me?"
Neji snapped his head around and grabbed a kunai on reflex, but upon seeing the familiar aqua-marine eyes of Gaara, he let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding a raised an eyebrow in question.
Gaara looked forever amused. "I heard you mutter 'you stupid ugly green-eyed' and I was wondering if you wanted to continue that sentence."
The black haired man frowned upon realizing that he must've been talking aloud to himself and Gaara had heard him, mistaking the green-eyed thing he was talking about with himself. "Oh, sorry, I wasn't talking about you."
"Ah…" said the red-head, with a knowing smile on his face that made Neji feel extremely uncomfortable. "You know, talking to oneself is the first sign of madness."
Neji raised an eyebrow. "Are you implying that I'm mad?"
"What?" Gaara raised his arms up in mock horror. "Who me? Never!"
The Hyuuga shrugged by, saying, "I'm not in the mood, Gaara."
But the former sand-nin wasn't about to give up just yet. He slung an arm around the taller man's shoulder and said in a very soothing manner, "The boys are hanging out at Ichiraku tonight. Care to join?"
"Gaara, I already told you I am not in the mood."
Gaara widened his eyes as realization dawned on his face. "Neji Hyuuga! Are you telling me that you're, dare I say, gay?"
Neji stopped in mid-step. "What?" he said, incredulously.
"Oh buddy! Don't worry about it! Being gay is nothing out of the norm. I mean, everyone is convinced that Sasuke is gay. No need to be shy about it!" He grinned cheekily.
"What?" Neji, although he was noted as a genius, couldn't even start to understand where the crazy babbling redhead got this idea from. Him, Hyuuga Neji, gay? As if! "Gaara, I think you might be mentally instable. I am not gay."
"Ahh… tsk tsk, denial. Buddy, it is nothing to be ashamed of!"
The world, inside and out, was against him.
"I'm not," he said, a bit childishly. He had to restrain himself from sticking out his tongue as an extra bonus.
A glint came into Gaara's eyes. Neji didn't like the look of where things were going. "Prove it."
Six minutes later found the two in Ichiraku, one deliriously happy, the other on the verge of pouting.
"Hello boys!" Gaara glanced around, and upon seeing Sasuke, he added, "and, er, girls! Sorry we're late!"
Three pairs of eyes fixed themselves on a very frustrated Neji.
"Wow," said Naruto. "You were able to get Mr. Cold-As-Ice to come? Amazing!"
Chouji was eating his seventh bowl of ramen.
Sasuke said, "Hn," before lowering his head and sipping at his ramen.
Shikamaru was sleeping in his ramen.
"Wow," commented Gaara. "What a lively bunch we have here tonight, yes?"
"Yeah!" yelled Naruto, punching his fist up into the air and nodding a bit too enthusiastically.
"Uh… anyway. We've got an important announcement to make!"
"No we don't!" denied Neji, a little to quickly.
This, of course, caught the attention of Naurto, Sasuke, and even Chouji. They all asked in unison, "What?"
"First off, Chouji, poke Shikamaru until he wakes up."
Chouji wined, "What? Why me? Naruto's closer!"
"Chouji, it's not that hard to remove your hand from those chopsticks that you have in a death grip and poke that lazy ass a few times." By the look on Chouji's face, Gaara had obviously given him one of his all-famous death-glares.
"Fine," he pouted and proceeded to poke the pineapple-head.
"Ehh…" said Shikamaru, swatting the chubby man's hand away. "Mmm… go away."
"Poke him harder!"
Chouji winced. "No! You don't know what he's capable of when he's mad!"
"Good for nothing retard." Gaara shook his head as he walked over to the lazy brown-haired man and punched him in the face, hard.
"Ow!" said Shikamaru, snapping his head up from his pillow of noodles, "what was that for?"
"Shikamaru. Number one: you've got soup running down your face. Number two: you never sleep through one of our manly meetings." Neji raised an eyebrow at the word 'manly', "And number three: Neji's got a very important announcement to make."
Shikamaru continued to look at Gaara with half-lidded eyes. "And…? Why did you wake me up?"
Gaara's non-existent eyebrow twitched. He hit the stupid Nara again. "Just shut up and listen."
"Com'on!" yelled Naruto. "Tell us, tell us, tell us! I'm dying to know!"
Gaara gave Neji a questioning look. "Well, what are you waiting for? Tell them!"
Neji almost squirmed- almost. "There's nothing to tell."
"Ok, fine. I'll tell them, since you're so damn shy!" He turned to face the guys. "Neji's gay."
Silence.
Naruto burst into laughter. "Oh, Gaara, that was a funny one."
"I am not gay!" Neji cried hotly.
"Oh my gosh," said Chouji. "He is gay!"
"No I'm not!"
A quiet voice came from the corner. "There's nothing wrong with being gay, you know."
Silence.
Neji glared. "Shut up, Uchiha."
"Hey hey!" Gaara broke in, while hitting Shikamaru. "Wake up, damnit! Anyway, there's no need to fight!"
"I am not gay!"
Shikamaru lifted his head and opened his eyes groggily, fixing them on Neji. "What? Neji's gay?"
"No! I'm not gay!"
Shikamaru buried his face in his arm, once again, and mumbled, "So, what else is new?" before falling back to sleep.
"Damnit! I'm not gay!"
"There's nothing wrong with being gay!"
"I'm not gay!"
"I will surpass Hokage!"
"Slurp. Another bowl of pork ramen, please!"
"Ok, ok! Calm down children!" Gaara but in, jumping on the tables in the process. "Since Neji won't agree to the fact that he's not gay," the red-head wisely chose to ignore Neji's snaps of 'it is not a fact!', "let's find a way for him to prove it."
"Ooo!" squealed Naruto. "This is getting exciting!"
"I've thought of a pretty good idea to make him prove it." The former sand nin grinned impishly. "I propose that we give him three weeks. Three weeks to woo a girl, get her to declare her undying love for him, and kiss her, with one of us as witness."
Neji's jaw dropped to the ground- literally. "No way."
Gaara shurrged. "Ok, then. By this time tomorrow, I'm sure you'll find plenty of Konoha's eligible gay men at your doorstep, begging for dates." He cast a very suggestive look in a certain raven-haired man's direction.
"It's not like it's going to be hard, Hyuuga," said Shikamaru. "I mean, it's obvious that Tenten's head over heals for you. Just go tell her you love her, even if you don't, get her to kiss you, and obviously she's going to pour out her heart and soul to you."
Five pairs of eyes turned to glare at the extremely smart male.
"What?" said he, before going back to sleep.
Chouji scratched the back of his head. "I thought he was asleep."
"Stupid idiot," said Neji calmly. It was all a face though, because inside, his heart was beating irregularly. That damned pineapple head just had to bring up Tenten's name in there somehow. He had a point, though. This would be the perfect excuse to woo Tenten… but for some reason, Neji felt like he was betraying her somehow.
Gaara was watching Neji's expression, and saw the inner turmoil that he was going through. He reached over and gave him a friendly pat on the back. "I was just kidding, you know. You don't have to do it."
After a moment of silence, Neji stated, loudly and clearly, "I'll do it."
A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews! I wasn't going to post this chapter up so soon, but since you guys were all so nice and encouraging in your reviews, I decided to thank you all by posting this extra early!
I know you guys are all probably wondering why Gaara is so… happy. Well, I love this red-head dearly, and I couldn't imagine writing this story without him, so I decided to incorporate him. I mean, this is about 5 years later. You never know what can happen in the time span of 5 years. Also, the reason I made him to happy is because the demon that was inside of him is very wack. Also, I am so sorry if I offended any of you Sasuke lovers in this! I just had to make him gay. It's just too funny… -ducks as all the Sasuke fan girls and guys throw tomatos-
Thanks so much to- h4t5uh4ru . Kesshin . Nalio . Cookie6 . kashisenshey . Fwoggie . yurimineko . ino lover . White Witch . Miako . Souungo . Peter the Muggle . carrot stix . Kou Haruko . Angl – for reviewing!