Crimson Love


Chapter Fourteen: What Neji Saw and Heard


"You make it impossible for me to tell you that I like you!"

"Really, because I have absolutely no problem saying that I like you!"

There was a moment of stunned silence, during which they both starred at each other, wide-eyed.

"Y-You like me?" she finally stammered.

"DUH!" shouted the girls (and Haku) from the bottom of the steps.

Blushing furiously, Neji stormed over to the door and threw it open, gave the girls (and Haku) a death glare from hell, causing them to scatter, then slammed the door shut again.

"Neji," Shizuka said quietly, "if you liked me… why didn't you just tell me…?"

Neji looked at her over his shoulder; his eyes were agonized. "I told you why," he said, just as quietly. "Do you know how hard it is to tell someone you like them when all they do is insult you and make you think they hate you?" He turned away. "…And go out with other guys."

Shizuka flinched at his words, especially the last part; however, Neji wasn't finished.

"Even though I tried to help you, that night you first went out with him," he continued quietly, "all you cared about was… him. Even though I was right there…"

She flinched again, feeling her eyes grow hot; his near-heart-broken tone hurt her more then the actual words, especially since they had been true, at the actual event. "I don't… hate you," she finally managed. "I never meant to hurt you… with Itachi… I just thought you didn't care…"

Neji turned to stare at her as she sat there in the middle of the nest she'd constructed on his bed, totally helpless as she fought back tears.

"It… it's true I like the attention and everything," she admitted, her voice breaking. "But… he's never been there for me… like you have…" She sniffed slightly. "You're so much more to me then he ever was…"

Neji's eyes widened as tears leaked down her cheeks. I made her cry(No shit, Sherlock, what'd you expect?)

"He's never gone ice-skating with me just to make me happy," she continued, "or done stupid stuff to make me laugh… but I never told him to fuck off, because I thought you didn't care, and I liked the attention…" Another tear rolled down her cheek. "I don't deserve to have you like me…"

Shizuka hiccupped, running her fingers under her eyes. She faltered when a weight shifted on the bed, and looked up. Neji gave her a desperate look, half-kneeling next to her, one hand reaching out to her.

"Don't… don't cry," he said softly, his eyes, for a short moment, betraying emotion. His hand finished it's quest to her face, wiping the tear tracks away. "Please don't cry," he whispered again, his hand cupping her face. "…I don't want to see you cry… because of me."

She hiccupped again, and sniffed. "I'm glad…"

"For what?" he asked gently, his fingers unconsciously petting the side of her face.

"That you like me," she answered. "I mean…" She thought for a moment. "Well, yeah, you're kind of weird…"

Neji raised an eyebrow.

"…Your mother's really interesting…"

Neji sweat-dropped.

"…and you always manage to say the wrong thing at the wrong time…"

Neji twitched.

"…and you really are too obsessed with soccer…"

A temper-vein appeared on his forehead.

"…but I like you," she ended with a smile, "just the way you are."

Neji stopped being annoyed to stare at her in disbelief.

"Come on," she said, pulling him towards the door.

"Um… where?"

"Downstairs, baka, where else?" She rolled her eyes.

"Alright. Just a second." He went and sat at his desk, logging into the chat room.

"Whatcha doin'?" she asked through another hiccup.

"Chat room," he answered, going to the room he'd been in earlier. As he suspected, Kimimaro and Ukon were still there; waiting to kill him, no doubt.

"Ooo, is Kimi-kun there?" she asked, jumping up again and going to stand behind him. Upon seeing her brother's screen name, she pushed Neji out of the way and typed "HI, KIMI-KUN!"

"Now he's going to think I called him that," Neji grumbled as she perched herself on his knee so she could type better.

Brain-Wanted: Wtf, Neji?

FateK!ller: I loooooooooooove you, Kimi-kun!

Neji went temporarily bug-eyed. "What the hell are y—"

Brain-Wanted: O.o?

FateK!ller: I ree-a-aally do!

"Dude, stop it!" Neji protested, pulling her hands away from the keyboard.

AlphaGoesWooga: Hello, Shizuka-sama.

FateK!ller: Hello: )

Brain-Wanted: Oh… I was gonna say…

Brain-Wanted: Hello, Shizuka!

"Ok, you go downstairs, I'll be right there," Neji said, pushing her off his knee.

She shrugged. "Ok."

Once she was gone, Neji started typing.

FateK!ller: I didn't do ANYTHING to her, ok?

AlphaGoesWooga: Are you sure?

FateK!ller: I think I would know if I did…

Brain-Wanted: I don't think Shizuka would let him do anything, after Uchiha.

AlphaGoesWooga: True

FateK!ller: But I did find out she likes me

AlphaGoesWooga: But she actually likes Neji

AlphaGoesWooga: See?

FateK!ller: How'd you know?

Brain-Wanted: Lol

AlphaGoesWooga: Boy, the entire school population knows!

FateK!ller: O.o

FateK!ller: Seriously?

AlphaGoesWooga: Sha.

AlphaGoesWooga: For some time now

Neji signed out before he could get anymore nasty shocks. Going downstairs, he looked around. "Shizuka?"

"In here!"

He went in the living room and, instantly, a cold, fearful chill went down his spine. Every single girl in the room, even Tayuya, was giving him a huge grin that said "I know something you don't know" very, very clearly.

"Sit here, Neji," Shizuka said, patting the space next to her on the plush chair.

"…Ok…" He sat down next to her, deciding that sitting next to Shizuka was probably the safest place to be right at the moment.

"Ok, close your eyes," Sakura ordered.

"…Why?" He gave her a suspicious look.

"Just do it," Shizuka said, grinning.

"…" He closed his eyes as instructed.

"And don't you dare open them, ok?" he heard Shizuka say. He felt her arms go around him, but he still didn't do anything, since, hey, it was Shizuka.

"Ok, open them," Shizuka said, a few minutes later.

Neji opened his eyes… and promptly discovered himself duct-taped to the chair. "Hey! What the—"

"Didn't I tell you his hair was to die for?" Sakura cried, coming forward with a brush.

"Oh wow, you have really good skin, Neji!" Shizuka said, coming forward with a container of some mysterious green stuff.

"Lemme shape up those nails for you, ok?" Ino said, coming forward with a nail file.

"See, I told you he could be the test subject for this wax," Temari told Hinata, holding a hot bowl of… something.

Neji's eyes widened.

Flashback

"What's that, Hinata?"

"I-It's wax… it's suppose to remove b-body hair…"

"Oh, ok."

A few minutes pass

"GET IT OFF, NEJI! GET IT OFF!"

End flashback

"Oh, hell no!" Neji shouted, struggling against the tape. "I draw the line at wax!"

"It's not like you have a choice," Temari pointed out, rolling up the legs of his pajamas so they could see his shins. "…Hey, no fair!"

Neji smirked, for he was one of the few, choice anime characters that were gifted with having absolutely no hair on their legs, arms or chest, thus making it so there was nothing for them to wax.

"Ok, well, we can test the temperature on him, then," Temari said, shrugging as she dipped a spoon in the container.

"Huh? Temperature, what—AAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGHHH!" he screamed, feeling something unnaturally hot touching his shin. "OH MY GOD GET IT OFF! IT BURNS!"

"Ok, that one's a no-go." Temari scraped it off his leg and picked up another bowl. "How 'bout this one?"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

"Nope. Ok, this one?"

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

"Well, we're getting somewhere. This one?"

"AAAAHHH!"

"This one should be the right one, then."

"AAA—Whoops, reflex. Yeah, that one's good."

"Ok, then." Temari smacked an ice-pack on Neji's poor, burned shin, causing him to wince.

"Wait, what's that?" Neji raised an eyebrow as Shizuka started applying the green stuff to his face.

"A mud-mask," she said simply, putting some on his nose.

However, before they could go any further, who should show up but… SUPER MOM! Responding to her son's agitated screams of pain, Neji's Mom suddenly appeared in the doorway. "What's wrong?"

"We're making Neji pretty!" Shizuka chirped, smiling brightly.

"Oh… alright, then. Do you want to use any of my stuff?"

"Nope, we're good!"

"Ok." Neji's mom left.

"MOM, YOU TRA—Mmph!" Neji was cut off by Sakura's hand over his mouth.

"What colors, girls?" Ino asked, holding up a basket full of nail polish.

"PINK!" everyone but Shizuka shouted.

"Black," Shizuka said in a finalizing voice.

They all gave her pouting looks.

"Hey, if you wanna go paint a guy's nails pink, go find your own!" she said coolly, applying the mud mask with her fingers to Neji's face.

Saved… Neji thought, Gai-sensei tears threatening to pour down his cheeks.

"Ok, fine." Ino looked a little miffed as she took out the bottle of black nail polish. "Stop twitching, Neji, I'll mess up if you do."

"Pretty bows!" Sakura squealed from behind him.

"MMMMPH!"

"Ooo, let's French braid it!" Shizuka cried, finished with applying the mud mask.

"MMMMPH!"

"That would look so cool!"

Oh god, it's so wrong… Neji wailed inside; the French braids weren't half of what was bothering him… it was the fact that he actually enjoyed the feel of them playing with his hair that bothered him… no, more like disturbed him.

"Oh yeah, here." Shizuka put a slice of cucumber over each of his eyes. "There we go!"

Oh, man… Now, all he had to depend on was his ears… and that wasn't helping him much.

"Ooo, those colors look so good!"

"No, don't put that there! We can use it over here!"

"Would this color look better on his eyes or lips?"

"Eyes!"

"What're you talking about? Pink would look so much better on his lips!"

"Yeah, we can use the red on his eyes!"

"Hey, do you guys think his toenails should be black like his nails, or red?"

"Red!"

"It's not like anyone can see them, right?"

"Ooo that looks so good, Temari!"

"Hey, aren't his eyebrows a little weird?"

"Yeah, we should fix them up."

A few minutes later, Shizuka lifted up one of the cucumbers and smiled at him. "Having fun?"

He gave her a look that read 'pure agony'.

"You are? Ok, good!" She turned to everyone else. "He's ready for make up!"

Neji went bug-eyed.

"Yay!" Within seconds, they had washed off the mud mask and were coming at him with evil little cotton swabs with some kind of colored substance on them. "Close your eyes, Neji!"

He opened them very wide and shook his head.

"Close your eyes, please?"

He shook his head.

Tayuya frowned, pulling a tranquilizer gun out of her back pack. "Don't make me use this, asshole."

Neji's jaw would have dropped if he didn't have tape over his mouth.

"Wow, where'd you get that?" Shizuka asked.

Tayuya shrugged. "Found it."

"…Which poor hunter person is missing a gun?"

"Not telling."

"…Ok…"

Then, suddenly, a most heavenly of all noises:

DING-DONG! "Domino's pizza delivery."

"PIZZA!" the girls all squealed, running towards the door.

When they came back, several pizza boxes in tow, they found Neji hopping the chair towards the stairs in a desperate yet pathetic attempt at escape.

"Oh, no you don't!" Temari and Tayuya held him down by nailing the wooden legs of the chair under the plush to the floor. "There we go."

Neji screamed against the tape when Ino came out with a pair of scissors. "Let's trim his hair!"

"No!" Shizuka said at once, once again saving Neji. "I like his hair this length!"

(Inside Neji's head)

HALLELUJAH!

(Outside Neji's head)

"Ok, fine," Ino mumbled, putting the scissors away.

"Here, Neji," Shizuka said, pulling the tape back and stuffing a piece of pizza in his mouth before he could say anything.

"Ok, truth or dare, Sakura," Ino said, sitting down on the floor with a piece of pizza.

Neji sat quietly and ate his pizza; maybe he could actually learn something.

"Truth."

"How far have you and Ukon gone?" Ino gave her a sly look.

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Define 'far'."

"Have y'all fucked yet or not?" Tayuya clarified.

Sakura flushed lightly. "No."

Well, that was useless, Neji thought as Shizuka poked the pizza crust in his mouth.

"Truth or dare, Temari," Sakura said.

"Dare," Temari said boldly.

"I dare you to call Sakkon and tell him you like him." Sakura smirked evilly.

Temari's jaw dropped. "What?"

What is with this useless information? Neji thought as the other girls forced the phone upon Temari.

"I'm gonna get you so good," Temari informed Sakura as she dialed. She waited for a few minutes. "Hi, is Sakkon there?"

Sakura clapped a hand over Ino's mouth to keep the blond from laughing.

"Ok, I'll wait…" Temari tapped her fingers rhythmically on the floor next to her. A minute or so later, she said, "Hi, Sakkon? …Yeah, I'm from school… I just wanted to tell you that um… I've have a really big crush on you for a while, ok? Bye." She hung up very fast. "There, happy?" she snapped, throwing the phone at Sakura.

Sakura laughed and caught the phone just as it started ringing. She answered it. "Hello?"

"Who the hell was that?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Sakkon?"

Temari: Eep!

"Yeah. Who was that?"

"How'd you know it was from this house?"

"Caller ID, idiot."

"Oh, yeah…" She'd forgot they had that…

"So who was it?"

Sakura gave Temari a sly look. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Yeah, I would, actually."

"Guess."

Temari panicked.

"How 'bout you just tell me."

"Nope, you have to guess."

"I don't know, who's there?"

"Me, Shizuka, Ino, TenTen, Tayuya, Haku, Hinata, Temari, and Neji."

"Please say it wasn't Neji or Haku."

"It wasn't." She grinned.

"Ok… um… Ino?"

Sakura heard Kimimaro give a strangled scream from somewhere in the back round on the other line. "No, it wasn't Ino."

"Ok, um—Kimimaro, stop pulling on me, it wasn't Ino—Um… Shizuka likes Neji, right?"

"Yeah, it wasn't her either."

"Ok… Hinata?"

"No."

"TenTen?"

"Nope."

"…It wasn't you, was it?" Sakura heard the sound of someone falling over.

"Of course not!"

"Ok g—OW! What the hell, Ukon, she said it wasn't her!"

Sakura giggled to herself. (HELL YEAH! UKON'S JEALOUS… of nothing, but that's not important!)

"…It was Temari?"

"Yep."

Temari groaned, crawling under the sofa.

"Really?"

"…Yeah…"

"Cool, can I talk to her?"

"…No."

"Why the hell not?"

"Because I said so and I'm in charge of the phone." She hung up before he could protest. "Guess what, Temari, he didn't mind!"

Temari poked her head out from under the sofa. "Really?"

"No."

Temari hid again.

"I'm kidding, Temari." Sakura rolled her eyes. "It's your turn, get out from there."

Temari stuck her head and arms out from under the sofa. "Truth or dare, Ino."

"Truth."

"…" Temari thought for a moment. "I can't think of anything."

"I have one," Shizuka offered. Temari shrugged. "Do you like Kimimaro, Ino?"

The room went totally silent. Everyone looked at Ino.

I could actually use this, Neji thought.

"…….Yeah." Ino blushed slightly.

(GO, KIMIMARO!) "Your turn, Ino."

"Is Neji playing?"

All the girls turned to look at Neji, who was sitting there in all his innocence, hoping they wouldn't notice him so he could find things out for the good of the male population.

"Nah," Sakura said, and they all turned away.

Good… Any dares from them might be the death of me, Neji thought as Shizuka fed him another piece of pizza, remembering her obligation to feed him, since his hands were taped down.

"Ok, um… truth or dare, Tayuya."

"Dare."

Ino thought for a moment, while everyone waited impatiently, then got up and went into the kitchen. She came back a few minutes later with a peeled banana. "I dare you to give this a blow-job, pretending it's the guy you like."

Tayuya raised an eyebrow. "I don't like anyone right now."

"Well then just pretend it's an actual person," Ino said, giving it to the redhead.

"And we're going to be looking for teeth marks," Shizuka informed Tayuya.

Tayuya flipped her off, taking the banana and putting it in her mouth.

(CENSORED)

"There, happy?" Tayuya snapped, taking a bite of the banana.

Neji groaned, wincing slightly.

"Truth or dare, TenTen," Tayuya said.

"Truth."

Tayuya thought for a moment. "Who do you like?"

TenTen paused, as did Neji. There was a somewhat awkward silence.

Flashback

"It's just, I've had this crush on your since, like, first grade, and since we're actually kind of alone for once now, I just had to—"

"Sorry."

"W-What?"

"You're a nice friend and everything, but I'd like to keep it that way. As friends."

"You like that Shizuka girl, don't you?"

He gave her a blank look.

"Fine, you go ahead and like that freak. See if I care."

End flashback

"I don't like anyone right now," she said, shrugging and taking a piece of pizza.

Neji wondered briefly what Shizuka would have don't to TenTen if the latter had said she liked Neji, but pushed those thoughts away to listen in some more.

"Truth or dare, Shizuka," TenTen said.

"Dare."

"Mmmph!" Neji said against the tape; for all he knew, TenTen would dare Shizuka to kill herself, or something.

"I dare you to—"

"Make out with Neji!" Sakura said, before TenTen could say anything.

TenTen's eyes nearly popped out of her head, as did Neji's.

Shizuka just raised an eyebrow. "That's it?"

Neji starred at her.

Sakura nodded, smiling brightly. "Yep, that's it."

Shizuka shrugged. "Ok," she said casually, turning and ripping the tape off Neji's mouth and kissing him. Neji's eyes widened and he froze, but before he could react anymore, she pulled away and replaced the tape. "How was that?" she asked Sakura.

"He's blushing!" Sakura cried, poking Neji's cheeks, which were, indeed, very red.

"That wasn't your first kiss, was it, Neji?" Ino teased, grinning at him.

He sent them all death glares and turned his head away.

"It was!" they all squealed.

"Come on, let's go make some more masks," Temari said, getting up.

"Come on," Shizuka said once the other girls were gone, untying Neji and pulling him upstairs to the safety of his room.

"What the hell was that?" he cried, ripping the duct tape off. "….Ow."

"What the hell was what?" she asked innocently.

"Th—" He pointed to his newly styled hair and nails.

She shrugged. "It seemed like fun when they told me."

"…I feel used."

"Well, if you hadn't stopped to go in the chat room, you could have avoided it."

Neji gave her a look. Ok, good… for a second there, I thought she only came upstairs so she could bring me downstairs and use me as a fashion guinea pig…

"On the bright side, though, your face is really smooth and your hair's done really pretty!" She smiled brightly at him.

"Oh yeah, speaking of—"

"See?" She pulled one of the French braids into his line of vision. "Isn't it pretty?"

Twitch-twitch. "No it is not pretty!"

She rolled her eyes, sitting at his desk and pulling up the chat window. "Whatever."

"What're you doing?" he asked, pulling the bows out of his hair.

She shrugged. "Chattin'," she answered, signing in.

"With who?"

"Ukon and Kimi-kun."

"Oh…" He shrugged, sitting on his bed and picking up a book.

"Ukon says it's snowing!" she cried suddenly, jumping up and looking out the window behind his desk. "Awesome!"

"Really?" Neji looked, as well. Sure enough, large white snowflakes were covering the ground. "Cool!"

AlphaGoesWooga: Dude you let Shizuka-sama and Saku-chan do your hair?

AlphaGoesWooga: Idiot.

FateK!ller: Neji: Shut up!

Brain-Wanted: Welcome to my life

FateK!ller: Neji?

Brain-Wanted: Why do you think my hair is uneven?

FateK!ller: o come on, u pull it off, Kimi-kun!

Brain-Wanted: Yeah but… it's my HAIR

FateK!ller: so?

"Hair is precious when you think about how long it takes to grow out," Neji informed her.

"I never cut mine," Shizuka said with a shrug.

"Not even for split ends?"

"That's trimming. I mean like, cutting a few several inches off." She yawned slightly, going to curl up in a ball in the Nest. "You can talk to them for a while, I'm gonna sit here for a few minutes," she said sleepily.

"Ok." He shrugged slightly, sitting at the computer.

Brain-Wanted: So I said, "ok" and she just took some scissors to my head!

AlphaGoesWooga: I don't think even Neji is idiotic enough to let Shizuka-sama come near him with scissors.

FateK!ller: Hey!

AlphaGoesWooga: Lol

(KabukiPookie has joined the conversation)

AlphaGoesWooga: Hey, Kankurou

KabukiPookie: Hey

FateK!ller: Hey Kankurou

KabukiPookie: Hey. Have you hooked up with Shizuka yet?

AlphaGoesWooga: ….

Brain-Wanted: I was just wondering that myself

FateK!ller: Uh… define 'hook up'.

AlphaGoesWooga: He told her he likes her

KabukiPookie: Wow, didn't know you had it in you, Neji

FateK!ller: Shut up

KabukiPookie: What'd you guys do?

FateK!ller: ….do?

KabukiPookie: Good grief, you ARE a baka

KabukiPookie: WILL SOMEONE MAKE YAMIKO STOP HITTING ME!

FateK!ller: Um… we didn't do anything

AlphaGoesWooga: Why do you lie to me, Neji? I hate it when you lie

Brain-Wanted: Tell us NOW

FateK!ller: …Um ok…

AlphaGoesWooga: Kick her a few times, Kankurou, she'll go away eventually

KabukiPookie: Lol!

FateK!ller: She came upstairs for a hairbrush, and somehow I got around to saying that I liked her, and she said she liked me too, and we went downstairs and the girls all used me as a fashion guinea pig and then we went back upstairs

FateK!ller: That's all that happened

(Note: That's all that happened in the EDITED version… -shifty eyes on Neji-)

AlphaGoesWooga: That's IT?

KabukiPookie: Dude, you suck, Neji!

AlphaGoesWooga: I know, seriously!

FateK!ller: What the hell! You guys all told me not to lay one perverted finger on her so I didn't!

AlphaGoesWooga: And since when did you listen to us?

FateK!ller: Since you threatened to "fill me full of lead".

AlphaGoesWooga: Yeah, right, like I ever could. Shizuka-sama would kill me if I did.

Brain-Wanted: Is that all you did?

FateK!ller: Well, no, the girls did play truth or dare while I was down there

KabukiPookie: SPILL SPILL SPILL!

FateK!ller: You didn't come up at all

KabukiPookie: mumble grumble

FateK!ller: OH YEAH!

FateK!ller: Ino got a truth and they asked her if she liked you, Kimimaro, and she said YES!

Brain-Wanted: O.O

Brain-Wanted: REALLY?

Brain-Wanted: Don't you toy with me, Neji!

FateK!ller: Yes, really

AlphaGoesWooga: Holy fuck, I heard that, Kimimaro

Brain-Wanted: Where are they now?

FateK!ller: Shizuka is "closing her eyes for a few minutes" on my bed and everyone else is downstairs

FateK!ller: You want me to get anyone in particular?

Brain-Wanted: No that's ok

Brain-Wanted: I'll see them tomorrow anyway

AlphaGoesWooga: Oh yah that's right, Ino invited you to "hang out" with us, right?

Brain-Wanted: Yeah

AlphaGoesWooga: Shizuka-sama and you are coming, too, right, Neji?

FateK!ller: Where?

AlphaGoesWooga: Chinese food!

Brain-Wanted: HAIL CHINESE PEOPLE! (A/N: No offense to any of you who happen to be Chinese…)

FateK!ller: I guess so

Brain-Wanted: How many people are coming?

AlphaGoesWooga: Well, originally, it was supposed to just be me and Saku-chan, but then she invited Ino, who invited Kimimaro, and then I just invited Neji and Shizuka-sama, and Sakkon is probably going to ask Temari if he sees her between now and then, so….

AlphaGoesWooga: How many people is that?

Brain-Wanted: A lot

FateK!ller: 8

FateK!ller: 4 couples

Brain-Wanted:

AlphaGoesWooga: We should make reservations

Brain-Wanted: Yeah

FateK!ller: I'm gonna go to bed… see you tomorrow

Brain-Wanted: DON'T MOLEST MY SISTER!

FateK!ller: Then don't molest my childhood friend

Brain-Wanted: …Eh?

FateK!ller: Ino

Brain-Wanted: ….

Brain-Wanted: Go away!

Neji grinned, signing off and turning to face his bed. That's when he found a serious dilemma: Should he sleep in his chair again, like the time Sakura and Hinata fell asleep up here, or should he risk his manhood and sleep next to Shizuka?

To have children, or to have a backache: that is the question.

Neji sighed, curling up in a ball under the covers next to Shizuka. He had a game tomorrow, and he didn't need a backache; that was his excuse, anyway.

(Next morning)

BRRRRRRRIIIINNNNNGGGGGGGGG!

Neji slammed his hand down on his alarm clock… or, at least, where his alarm clock had been. When his hand met only desk, he frowned and opened his eyes. Sure enough, the mechanism was gone. Looking around, he saw a pile of broken machinery next to Shizuka on the bed. How was it still ringing?

He shrugged it off, glancing at his wrist watch. 9 a.m. He sighed, shaking Shizuka gently. "Shizuka, wake up."

"Henh…?" She cracked one eye open; Neji saw it was onyx-colored, framed with long lashes. However, she quickly clamped her hand over the other one before he could see it, screaming incessantly, "WHERE'S MY SUNGLASSES?"

"Right here," he said, taking them up from where he'd put them on the desk the night before.

"Give it!" she ordered, reaching around blindly.

"Why?" he asked, holding them out of her reach.

"Give it!"

"Lemme see your eyes first," he bargained.

"No!"

"Yes."

"No!"

"Then I'll break them." He ducked as she swung an arm towards his head, still searching for her sunglasses.

"Don't you dare!"

"Then show me."

(Insert serious inner-conflict for Shizuka)

"Fine," she muttered. "But you can't ever tell anyone. Promise?"

"Cross my heart," he said at once, now very, very curious as she took her hand away from her eyes, blinking slightly.

The right one was, as aforementioned, black, and, actually, really pretty, while the other one was completely white, with a light, silver pupil in the center, almost like a blind person's eyes. Neji starred at them for a few minutes; he was used to seeing pale eyes, having looked in the mirror recently, but he hadn't exactly been expecting her to have an eye somewhat like his.

Shizuka, however, took his look of shock the wrong way, and looked away. "…What?" she asked in a hurt voice, after a few moments of silence. "I was born with it, ok?"

Neji shook himself mentally and gave her a small smile, handing over the sunglasses. "I don't see why you wear them. Your eyes are pretty, you shouldn't cover them up."

"I tried that, when I was younger, and it didn't work," she said coolly, putting on the sunglasses.

"Let's go downstairs and get some breakfast," he offered, changing the subject as he got up.

She grinned, jumping on his back. "Carry me!" she ordered, throwing her arms around his neck.

He rolled his eyes, but complied, hooking his arms under her legs and carrying her piggyback style down to the kitchen.

And so it was that Sakura, Ino, TenTen, Tayuya, Haku, Hinata, and Temari got a rather interesting surprise when Neji came downstairs with a beaming Shizuka on his back.

"Don't you say a word," he said before Sakura could say anything.

"Wasn't gonna," she said sarcastically as Sakkon came in. "Hey S—I thought Ukon was coming." She frowned at the younger twin.

"…Yeah, you and Shizuka-sama need to come with me," Sakkon said quietly, starring at the floor.

"Why?" Shizuka asked, frowning as she hopped down off Neji's back.

Sakkon looked up at them; there were unshed tears gathering in the corners of his eyes. "Ukon's in the hospital. He got in a car accident."