Note: My God, thank you sooooo much for the reviews! Here's another chapie for you Hope you'll love it.

Ps. Btw, just so you know, I rated this story M because of what will happen in the later chapters (hehehe). But for the mean time, it's only PG.

The Hyuuga Cousins

Chapter Three The Festival

True as he said, he let me walk by myself once we were outside the hotel, although the moment I took a step forward, I began to regret asking him to let me down. A ribbon of pain shot up my leg whenever I moved, but even the little pride that I had kept me from complaining, and I tried my best to hide my face whenever I flinched.

The first booth in the festival that I visited was the takoyaki booth, and both Neji nii-san and I bought a packet, unable to hide our hunger any longer. Neji nii-san, being a boy that he was, finished his in seconds and moved on to grab a plate of okonomiyaki, two sticks of barbequed octopus, two sticks of barbequed corns, and another round of takoyaki.

I couldn't help laughing when I saw his eagerness to wolf down all those food. For that moment, Neji nii-san didn't seem to act like the Neji nii-san that I knew, always so calm and composed, and hiding his emotions all the time. Was the one I saw now the real Neji nii-san whom I had never known?

Somehow, I was glad I got to see this part of him.

I bought a bag of pink candyfloss, and wandered off to a booth selling toys which had caught my interest. The booth sold products that would definitely attracted the children's attentions. There were dolls, kites, marbles, and even fake Anbu masks. But what had attracted me the most was the toy rings.

I took one of the toy rings, the one with the tiny, fake diamond at the center of the ring, and slip it on thefourthfinger of my left hand.

I remembered when I was little, I loved to play as a bride with my friends, and during the game, I would wear a toy ring which the groom had pretended to give me. Who knows that soon enough, that silly, little game I had played in my childhood days would come true? In just a few months, my real husband to-be would slip a real diamond ring onto my finger.

I sighed as I tried to pull the toy ring off my finger, but it won't budge. I started to sweat in anxiousness as I felt the stallholder's eyes on me. I tried tugging the ring off again, but all I could manage was to pull it halfway up my finger.

Ah well, this is a toy ring after all. The size is not suitable for adults.

I gave up and glanced at the price tag. Two hundred yen. I rummaged my wallet, and took out all the coins I had left. One hundred and fifty yen.

Great, I was short of fifty yen. Why on earth didn't I bring more money with me?

"May I help you?" asked the stallholder persuasively, and I felt a blush tinting my cheeks as I struggle to find a way to explain the embarrassing problem.

"Um…I—" I started to say, but someone else beat me to it.

"Here's two hundred yen," said a masculine voice from beside me, and I knew who that was even without turning around to see.

"Tha-thank you, Neji nii-san," I mumbled, feeling more embarrassed than ever as he led me to walk further into the heart of the festival, "I'll pay you back once we get back to the hotel."

He looked back to glance at me for a moment when he replied, "Don't bother. It's only two hundred yen, anyway."

I looked up at him in surprise. He was buying this ring for me?

I raised my left hand—the one with the toy ring—up to my lips, feeling surreal as incomprehensible and unexpected happiness seeped into the core of my heart, and touched the cold surface of the tiny diamond as I said again, "Thank you…Neji nii-san."

He didn't reply this time, so I wasn't sure if he had heard, but I was happy nonetheless.

Neji nii-san was walking in front of me at a much faster speed, given that his legs were much longer than mine, and like any other time, I found myself trying hard to keep up. I cursed myself for not daring to call his name and ask him to slow down.

Or maybe, the thought popped up from somewhere in my mind, you're just afraid that he won't look back even after you've called him.

In my attempt to keep up with him, I had accidentally knocked into somebody, who unfortunately decided to take the incident seriously.

"Watch where you're going!" the man snarled, his breath smelling heavily of sake and smoke, "Where's your eyes!"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" I apologized at the same as I tried not to lose sight of Neji nii-san. All I could see now was only that raven hair of his, bobbing up and down among the crowd of people.

"Look what you've done!" the man pointed at his stained yukata, "You've ruined my best yukata! You've got to pay for it, girly!"

Since when did I stain his yukata? Neither of us was holding any food with us. Was this man totally drunk or just simply trying to create trouble? And how dare he called me 'girly'!

The man suddenly grabbed my shoulder. Hard.

"Don't worry. I know an easy way in which you can pay me back for ruining my best yukata," his words were slurred, and I was getting scared of what he was going to say next, "All you need to do is just to have tea with me. That's all! Easy, isn't it? And it won't take long either. Let's go!"

I tried to push his arms away. "I'm sorry, but I've got to look for my…"

"You can do that later," he gave me that scary lecherous-old-man smile, but he blinked stupidly when he looked up at something—or someone—behind me, "Er, what do you say again just now? Are you looking for your husband?"

"No, I'm looking for my cou—" I stopped mid-sentence when I noticed who the man had been looking at.

Neji nii-san was glaring daggers at the drunken man, his Byakugan veins could be clearly seen, making his glare even more frightening than ever.

"Do you have a problem with her?" he growled, and I thought the drunken man's goose bumps stood up in fear.

"No-nothing…" he mumbled as he walked backwards (it was amusing to see him do this) much more faster than a man his age probably could walk.

But my trouble didn't just end like that. This was Neji nii-san that we were talking about. He wouldn't leave me alone without a good scolding.

"Why do you always get into trouble?" now was my turn to be glared at, "First is at that toy booth, now is with some drunken man. You'll never know what he could have done to you!"

But I'm a shinobi too! I know how to protect myself when the time comes!

That was what I wanted to say, but being who I was, I just simply couldn't. Instead, I bowed my head in guilt and apologized endlessly to him.

"Enough, enough!" he dug his ear as if my apologies had made him deaf, "Next time, be careful when you walk! Especially when you have injuries like that to begin with."

"I-I just can't keep up with you," I whispered, but instead of commenting that he had walked too quickly, I chose to say, "I walk much slower than you."

He gazed at me meaningfully. "If that's so, why didn't you tell me?"

I lowered my gaze so that I was staring at my feet, and didn't answer.

What was I supposed to say? "Oh, I didn't tell you to slow down because I'm scared you won't. You've been never bothered with what I've got to say, anyway"?

Brrrr…just the thought of actually saying those lines almost made me clap my hand to my mouth to keep it shut.

My heart sank even deeper than the Titanic did in Atlantic Ocean when I heard him sigh.

When would I stop disappointing him? It seemed that every little thing I did always able to make him sigh.

Before I knew it, I found myself starting to tremble, and my useless tears beginning to well up in my equally useless eyes, but then, these worthless eyes of mine also couldn't help bulging out when I felt his callused hand touching mine.

Neji nii-san's hand was bigger, stronger, firmer, warmer, and felt so unfamiliar in mine. But the fact that it was unmistakably his made me felt a sudden warmth in my stomach, like the first swallow of homemade vegetable soup.

Without a word, he turned around and continued to walk as if he had done nothing than merely leading a crying child to her mother. But I smiled anyway.

Neji nii-san…there are so many things about you that I don't know…that I wish to know, more than anything in the world. But today, I've at least discovered two great things about you: that you can even eat a cow when you're hungry, and—the other one which I love best so far—that you're a kind person.

I just hope that, by the end of this journey, not only me will succeed in finding out more about you, but also you knowing me better.

My smile wiped away my tears as I gaze at our linked hands, which somehow looked like it was a seal of the promise of our much more beautiful future.