Split and Strike by DoomaWriter

Author's notes: Sorry for the wait everybody....again! Hopefully this wont become a habit.... anymore. Here's the chapter I'm sure many have been waiting for. The one starring the super popular character: Kurenai! Oh and there's also those genins, I guess. (Just kidding. I know barely anyone is here for the Kurenai factor.)

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Chapter 6: An Impossible Task! Two Hyugas and an Akimichi.

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Neji sat up in his bed as light began to slowly pour into his house. That morning, he had been uncommonly slow at getting up. Sitting there he remembered the day the new teams were announced, especially his little chat afterwards.

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Yesterday afternoon, Kakashi-sensei had just finished his conclusion allowing all of the genins to leave. As he left the door, Neji looked back and spotted Choji walking up to him with a stupid smile on his greasy face and a chips bag in his hand. Taking that as his cue to get far away, Neji ran off and disappeared from that place.

As he walked toward his home, Neji sensed a presence behind him. "Listen," he said without turning around. "Though we may be forced to work together for a while, I'd rather not see your tubby face if I don't have to."

"Well, is that how you speak to ladies?"

Turning around, Neji spotted his new teacher with a disgruntled look. "Kurenai-sensei.... Sorry." The phrase was more of a sign of respect than an apology. "Why are you following me?"

"It's about you being on the same team as Hinata." As soon as Kurenai said those words, Neji regained his usual pissed-off look and turned around. "I'm not done speaking with you, Neji!"

"I know what you have to say," Neji said with his back to his new teacher. "You want me to put aside my stupid, petty anger and try to get along with sweet Hinata-sama, correct?"

"That sounds about right," Kurenai said. "I'd like to go a day with you two around each other and nobody dies."

"So I just have to hold back for one day?" Neji asked. "Then all bets are off? Because that's what I'm hearing."

"No!" Kurenai replied. "I don't want you hurting Hinata for whatever trivial reason-"

"Trivial!?" Neji yelled. After that he jumped to a nearby rooftop. "Don't worry..." he began, "Angry Neji won't kill precious Hinata-sama." After that, he hopped from rooftop to another, escaping his teacher.

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"Trivial!?" Neji said out loud as he looked into the mirror, focusing on the symbol upon his forehead. He put on his protector and tied it in the back. "The hell does she know...?"

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Later that day, Neji sat on a bench uncomfortably near Choji. Of course anywhere in a three block radius would've been uncomfortably near for Neji. Neji tried to remain calm with his eyes closed and arms crossed as his new teammate munched loudly on chips. With each chomp Neji flinched a bit and grew angrier.

Finally, Choji had finished his bag and Neji let out a sigh of relief. After licking his fingers clean, Choji looked between Neji beside him and Kurenai-sensei standing in front. Knowing that they were both waiting for Hinata to come, Choji thought he'd better find a good way to pass the time. So he reached into his pouch and picked up another bag of chips, opened it and crunched the first one.

"Where the hell is she!?" Neji yelled. After seeing the other two look at him as if they had spotted a ghost, Neji quickly regain his composure and resumed waiting.

Kurenai couldn't really blame Hinata for being late. It'd be hard for her to show up knowing Neji was waiting. Maybe that's it. Maybe she wasn't going to show. With a depressed look, Kurenai figured she might as well start without the third member. "For our first mission-"

"Please, wait!" a familiar voice pleaded.

Choji looked on and Kurenai smiled at the sight of Hinata running up to the group. Neji opened one eye to look at her before quickly closing it again.

"G-gomen," Hinata apologized with a slight bow.

"It's okay," Kurenai said comfortingly.

"Yes, Hinata-sama can do no wrong," Neji said under his breath. Hinata frowned but Kurenai chose to ignore the comment and begin her announcement.

"Hinata, please take a seat and I'll begin."

The female Hyuga agreed and looked toward the bench. She hesitated when she saw Neji sitting on the far left and Choji in the middle of the rest of the space. "Um...can you please move over?" Hinata asked politely. Choji gladly agreed and moved to the far right, leaving the middle free for Hinata.

"Uh...." Hinata began shyly as she saw the space next to Neji, "I meant...the other way."

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With the three genins sitting on the bench – Choji separating the Hyugas – Kurenai told them of their first assignment. "For today, you will all do a very difficult mission. As a matter of fact, I'd say this would be classified as an A-rank mission."

Hinata gave a worried look while Neji simultaneously smirked. Choji reacted by dropping his chips bag. Then again, the bag was empty.

"Though it will be difficult, I have full confidence that this team can handle this mission." Kurenai held up three fingers and continued. "For thirty minutes, you three will have to engage in a conversation."

The three genins nearly fell out of their seats. "Tch," Neji scoffed. "This is an A-rank mission?"

"Prove me wrong then," Kurenai said with a smirk of her own. "Say something to Hinata right now."

"Fine," Neji replied confidently.

"And it can't be an insult."

Neji stopped in his tracks. Defeated, he refolded his hands and looked off to the side.

"I thought so," Kurenai continued. "I want you to all find out each other's likes, dislikes, hobbies and so forth. I know it'll be easier without an adult listening to your every word so begin after I leave. Though when I return, I expect for everyone to be here in one peace..." she turned to Neji and added: "...and for nobody to be mentally attacked by the aid of the Byakugan."

"I wonder whom that last rule applies to," Neji said sarcastically. Kurenai frowned at him one last time before disappearing from her spot.

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Time passed and not a word was uttered from any of the three. Every now and then one would look at another but quickly turn away if their eyes met. Each of them began to worry and think about the inevitable failure.

'I can't talk to Neji-niisan,' Hinata thought. 'He's probably itching for a reason to fight me.'

'I can't talk to Hinata-sama,' Neji thought. 'Just being in her presence makes me itch for a reason to fight her. Not only that, but I have nothing to say toward that fat weakling who won't stop eating those damned chips!! Calm down, Neji. Think of something calming.... like beating Lee for the hundredth time. Heh heh...He'll never learn...'

'I can't talk to those two.' Choji thought. 'I'm too busy eating. I'm so hungry.... Why did I skip brunch this morning?'

'At this rate, I'll fail,' Hinata thought. 'No! I can do this! Just remember those words: I'm smart enough, I'm good enough, and doggonit people like me!'

"S-say...Neji-niisan..." Hinata weakly began. When she saw her cousin look toward her she swallowed and forced herself to press on. "S-so.... Anything interesting happen lately?"

As Neji looked at her, a scream could be heard from far away. "The big-head ones wont stop dancing! Make them stop!! Give me back my eyes, dammit!!"

"No, nothing worth mentioning," Neji said calmly.

"Oh," Hinata said. The three sat quietly once again. 'That wasn't so bad.' Hinata thought to herself. 'Maybe this can work after all.'

"Uh, Choji-san..." Hinata started again. "What are your hobbies?"

"It's easy to tell," Neji interrupted. "Let me guess, could it be eating, more eating, and buying more food for which to eat?"

Choji stopped consuming his food and glared toward Neji. After a while of locking eyes, the young Akimichi said, with a very serious tone, "That's right! How did you know? Those creepy eyes must see a lot." With that, Choji picked up his eating pace once again.

"It doesn't take a Hyuga to see you can't stop eating, Chubby." Just as Neji said his last word, his target had just crunched another chip and had heard the word "Choji" instead.

"So, what do you like to do?" Choji said in between chews, getting into the conversational mood.

'You mean besides staying as far away from you?' Neji thought to himself. "I like to train with a dummy. However, when Lee's not around, I use a stuffed one."

At that moment Tenten was jogging past the area and giggled at the joke. Lee ran up to her and asked what was so funny but didn't get an answer.

"What type of training dummy do you use?" Hinata asked, happy to be able to talk to her cousin without any anger between the two.

"I use one roughly this big," Neji said, raising his hand to a level precisely as high as Hinata.

After seeing this, Hinata quickly grew silent again.

"What about you?" Choji asked Hinata. "What do you like?"

With her index fingers touching, Hinata began to blush. "W-what do I like? Well ... I enjoy watching....somebody that I admire..."

"You mean like stalking?" Choji asked innocently.

The female Hyuga sat in shock. Could what she was doing be considered stalking? 'Sure I watch Naruto-kun without him knowing I'm there but – oh, who am I kidding?'

After that, Hinata didn't mutter a word or move an inch. Choji waved a messy hand in front of her face but she still remained still.

"What about you?" Neji forced himself to ask. "You...notice anything interesting lately?"

Choji thought hard while behind him a frantic Sasuke ran by while being hounded by Ino and Sakura. "Oh! They came out with a new kind of chips I've been meaning to try. Maybe you can tell me how they tas-"

"Fascinating," Neji interrupted before getting up and walking away. "Who are we kidding? This mission was doomed to fail from the start."

To be continued...

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Author's notes: Wow, that was a long first day eh? (For anyone confused on the screaming in the background, refer back to the third chapter please). More genin action in the next chapter!