"For the last time, NO!" Neji glowered at the crowd at his door.
"Come on Neji, we're all going out for drinks since we got Sasuke back." Naruto whined, trying to coax the hyuuga prodigy out of his apartment. They had managed to successfully return the Uchiha to Kohana and wanted to celebrate it. A nin in a gray coat with dark fur surrounding the hood spoke up, "Yeah, we're even making Sasuke join us. You gotta come." Kiba grinned as the small white dog on his head let out a bark in agreement. Neji's glared deepened. "No I don't. I'm tired and I just want to spend the rest of tonight in bed. You know I don't go out drinking." "But it's a special occasion! We completed a mission." the two chanted. "All missions are alike, the sooner you realize this the sooner you can start acting like adults." The nin with the pup on his head spoke up again "We managed to get Sasuke to come, and you know how pissed off he is since we brought him back." "He's coming because he was forced by you two, and we're supposed to keep an eye on him." Shikamaru piped up from behind, he was standing next to Chouji who was gorging on a bag of chips.
Neji's response to this was simple. He slammed the door. He had no interest in partying when he could get a good rest, wake up hangover-free and train in the morning. Pounding on his door persisted for a good ten minutes until the stubborn nins finally took a hint and left. He washed up and threw on a baggy pair of what he deemed his 'sleeping' pants and nestled into bed content.
His peaceful slumber didn't last long, he woke up to a violent pounding on his door and groaned when he glanced at the clock. 'WTF? It's 4:30 in the morning.' his mind screamed at the thought as it forced itself into a functional mode again. It must be Naruto and the rest to coax him back out, if he didn't want to go when he was dressed, why the hell would he care to go now when he was cozy in his warm bed.
"Naruto, I told you I'm not going out tonight!" he was pissed now, he had to get up. He stomped over to the door, all the grace a hyuuga was famous for was now long forgotten as the nin swung the door open, ready to give the group a piece of his mind. He was cautch a bit off-guard to see the Uchiha staring back at him. "Sasuke? Why are you here?" Neji narrowed his eyes when he saw that he was alone, the others were under orders from the hokage to keep an eye on him at all times. They couldn't do anything right. "Why isn't Naruto and the others watching you?" his eyes wandered over the boy in front of him, who was swaying slightly from side to side and smelled of rum.
"Shut up Hyuuga, I have a few things I wanna say to yew." he slurred some of his speech but his message, in his mind, was perfectly clear. Neji only arched an eyebrow to this. "I had to walk allll this way to give yew a piece of my mind." the shorter nin held a bottle of expensive rum in one hand and brought it up to his lips to take a swig. Neji rolled his eyes and scanned the area, Naruto and his drunken pose were nowhere to be found. 'They had better at least be looking for the brat.' he thought now angered that he was left with babysitting. He sighed, "Why are you here Uchiha?" he rested his head against the doorframe and pushed some hair behind his ears. "I had to come here, cuz I wanted to say this: I hate you!" "Don't I feel special? Tell me, am I the only one lucky enough for you to hate?" Neji smirked at the intoxicated escapee before him, what did he care what Sasuke thought? As long as he kept him in sight maybe the others would find him. "Nooooooooo." the smaller boy drawled out, "I told Naruto first, the stupid dobe. Then I told Kiba and his stupid little dog. Damn thing bit my hand. Then Shikamaru, he didn't care and…and that fat one, I don't remember his name. I was trying to tell everyone off who, ya know, brought me back here. When I figured out you weren't there, I had to walk all the way out here to find you." Sasuke stuck his finger out and shoved it against Neji's chest in a lousy attempt to push him. Instead it had the opposite effect and the boy stumbled forward into Neji's chest.
The hyuuga sighed again, he was growing irritated at his company and to the growing realization the Naruto wasn't coming for the boy. "So, the others should be searching high and low for you by now?" the hyuuga pushed his guest back onto his feet without any sympathy. The sharingan user let out a hearty laugh "Yeah right Hyuuga, they were drunk off their asses before I was, they probably don't even remember me yelling at them let alone me storming out of the bar." Sasuke staggered back and forth in an attempt to retain his balance while he laughed. "Great." the hyuuga said sarcastically. The others were still drunk, most likely they wouldn't notice Sasuke's disappearance till morning. Meaning the hyuuga prodigy was now stuck with the Uchina prodigy until those goofs came by to find him. They'd most likely drop by in the morning and beg him to use his Byuken to find their missing nin and that's when he could hand over the hungover boy.
During the conversation Neji hadn't realized how cold it was at 4:30 in the morning, which reminded him of how little he was wearing. He shivered at the cool air, if he had to take care of the boy, he would at least do it in a comfortable setting. He opened the door wider, indicating to Sasuke that he was welcome to enter. Well, welcome may have been bit of an overstatement, he was merely cold. Sasuke however just stood there, he hadn't sobered up enough yet to notice the hint and pressed his bottle to his mouth for another drink. The taller boy groaned, if he was going to get the nin into his house he'd have to remove the liquor so he could come to his senses a bit. "Give me that." he grabbed the bottle right out of the other's mouth, cause the Uchiha to cough and spill some of it's contents all over his shirt. "God, you're like a child you know that? I hope I don't have to change your pants by the end of the night." he spoke as if he was worried there could lie truth in his statement and retreated into his room where it was warm.
He scanned the label of the bottle, this was expensive, which meant it was the good stuff and Sasuke just wouldn't leave it in his care. Which was a good reason too, because the hyuuga had already lifted the bottle to his own lips and gave the rum a small sample. As he did this he heard Sasuke enter the room demanding for his booze back. "Close the door behind you Uchiha, you're letting the cold air in." he asked nicely enough, which was doubtlessly why Sasuke had listened. Neji was pleased to see that the boy was at least abstemious enough to do a simple task.
After he did so he turned to the other boy in the apartment "Now give me my booze back." he held out his hand only to have it slapped away. "I think you've had enough." he smirked and moved away taking another drink. "If I didn't listen to the bartender, what makes you think I'll listen to you?" he slurred and reached for his rum again only to have Neji's hand against his forehead, pushing him back in a child-like manner. "Well for starters, I'm not drunk and could kick your ass if I wanted to, two, you can barely keep your balance and three if you don't listen I'll use the bottle to crack open you skull like a ripe watermelon." He chuckled at the smaller boy's pathetic attempts to snatch at the bottle and took another sip just to piss him off more. He savoured the taste for a few moments before swallowing. He decided it would be best to get rid of the bottle before he really did drink it all. He had to be clear-headed if he had to watch over the Uchiha tonight and alcohol wouldn't be the solution. He was already tired enough from being woken up early. He looked back down and the struggling boy, he would just have to deal with no drinking tonight. "I'm putting it away. You can have it back tomorrow." he shoved the nin in his grasp into the couch and locked the drink up in a liquor cabinet he owned.
It didn't even have much liquor in it, but it was built-in to the place when Neji bought the apartment, he was now grateful to have it. Sasuke huffed on the couch "I'm not leaving until I get that back Hyuuga." "Good, because until the others come, you're not leaving at all. I'm taking responsibility for you now." the taller nin quickly regretted saying those words, he wasn't sure why, but he felt the boy moping on the couch would now try to make this night a living hell for him. "Is that so?" The other spoke up, a sly half-drunken grin slipping onto his features. Neji inwardly sighed, his assumption had been correct, they always were.