A month had passed since that night and Neji grew very much accustomed to sleeping next to the rookie. Neji cracked an eye open to see Sasuke had already left for his duties, the hyuuga had granted him enough freedom, and trust, to leave unescorted now.

Neji pushed himself out of bed and onto his lush new baby blue carpet, after the tar incident he decided the whole place was due to be redecorated. That and he ruined the carpet more (if that was even possible) by trying to get the tar out.

After showering and dressing, Neji threw on his jacket and headed towards the marketplace. You would say he was going shopping, but that wouldn't be the truth. The great hyuuga Neji didn't "shop". He searched. Girl's shopped and although he may appear feminine, he was definitely, no girl. It was almost April, and the snow in Kohana was almost completely melted, save for a few mounds of the whiteness here and there. Some people were already out preparing their gardens; others seemed to be fixing up their homes. They were all indicators that it would be an early spring.

The former rookie scanned the tables selling small trinkets, none to his taste. He wanted something more meaningful to give to the Uchiha when he returned. However, there was a catch. Neji was purchasing a gift for Sasuke for their supposed one-month anniversary, but it was also a way of saying sorry without actually saying the word. Hyuuga Neji also didn't apologize. He convinced himself he had nothing to apologize for, this was his job. Earlier that week he had met with the fifth and received news he would be leaving on a mission for one week. During that time Sasuke would be temporarily reassigned to another home. Neji tried to argue against it, as much as he could without Tsunade becoming suspicious but in the end he was unsuccessful.

"Oy! Neji!"

The Hyuuga glanced around and found Naruto waving to him frantically. Neji chucked inwardly and approached the blonde.
"Hey Naruto. How are you?"

"Things are great, the hag gave me a mission. I think it's just her way of getting rid of me for a week, personally."

Neji's eyes widened a bit. Naruto was going on the same mission as him? In spring? For one week…Neji quickly masked his astonishment before Naruto caught it.

"You too? I'm on the same mission I believe." He spoke as monotone as possible.

"Yeeeeah? This will be the first one we've been together on since we had to get Sasuke back."

Naruto began walking as he spoke and Neji followed, keeping his eyes open for anything that might be of interest. Neji nodded his response and Naruto continued speaking.

"Oy, Neji. Do you think that this week would be a good time?"

The hyuuga stopped dead in his tracks. It was either now he came clean about his relationship with Sasuke and ended the problem before it began. Or let on that he was willing to let a replay of last year to happen. Neji closed his eyes briefly to reminisce those happenings.

/Flashback/

In the woods Neji had been training for almost three days straight. He had convinced his uncle to leave him in solitude in the woods for five days. Training purposes only of course, Hiashi would have never of let the branch member out of sight for that long otherwise.

The rookie's hair was dampened thoroughly with perspiration, not to mention his clothing. Neji, despite how much he hated the feel of wet clothes, continued on for another few minutes until he sensed a presence.

"Who's there?" He spoke out loudly to the woods. His voice echoing through the trees.

Naruto stepped out with an almost feral gaze in his eyes. A malice ridden grin crawled onto his face as his launched himself toward the Hyuuga.

/End Flashback/

A small smile surfaced to Neji's lips upon remembering the past events of that spring. The spring he learn Naruto had kyuubi within him. He had heard all about the great demon fox that had terrorized their village years past,

Naruto misread his expression and took it was an agreement.

"Great. Don't worry, it shouldn't be long until I'm able to win Sakura over, then you won't have to worry about this." He spoke gleefully in his trademark tone.

This of course snapped Neji right out of his stroll down memory lane. "Ah..no no Naruto I believe you misread me…I…uh…"

Shit, how was he supposed to say this? Should he just come out and say it? 'Sorry Naruto, I'm too busy fucking Sasuke to help you out.' No, that would not go over well. Neji sighed and ran his fingers through his long dark hair. Come to think of it, it wasn't really 'helping' was it? Neji couldn't decide, he couldn't imagine what went on in Naruto's head. The boy would have probably been just as unpredictable if he didn't have a fox demon lying inside him. A fox like all others, becomes frisky in spring.

Naruto furrowed his brow at his friend who had stuttered into silence. He waited for the boy to continue, but it become obvious that Neji was too lost in some type of argument with himself to remember what he was saying.

"Neji?"

"Huh? Oh right…"

Neji tried to weight his options. On one hand, he was the only one that knew of Naruto's secret little problem with the horny demon, on the other, Sasuke and he were involved in a relationship Neji really did not want to screw up. The prodigy sighed, he didn't want Naruto to end up acting on impulse again and do something the he would regret, not to mention get him locked up.

"Look, I can't. I'm sorry, but I'm occupied with a lot of things at the moment."

"Well, what about on the mission?" Naruto question hopefully.

"I'll be busy then too." Neji lied; it was getting difficult making an excuse out of nothing.

"With what?"

"With mission….stuff…look, if I can get a chance I will, but I doubted. Don't you have a back up? In case of an emergency or something?"

Neji swallowed, he never liked talking about the subject of sex, in a public place…involving him…out loud…where people can hear. As if sensing the awkwardness Neji was feeling, Naruto took his hand and lead him to a quiet section of the market. The smell of pies cooling on the table now beside them was quite inviting.

"You know very well I don't. I don't want anyone knowing this. It's bad enough I think Kakashi knows, and it wouldn't surprise me if the hag guessed it too."

"What about Gaara? He most likely has the same problem as you." Neji guessed.

Naruto shook his head. "I don't know, and even if he did, he's all the way in the sand village."

"Maybe we could make some kind of detour in our mission then? We'll only be a few hours away from it so-"

"Let me get this straight Hyuuga…" Naruto cocked an eyebrow suspiciously. "You're 'too busy' during the mission, and yet on the mission you're willing to make a 6 hour detour just to find out if Gaara has a similar problem?" The blonde folded his arms. "Neji…Explain." His tone was laced with suspicion and harshness Neji hadn't heard in a long time.

Okay, new strategy. Neji's mind raced mostly with thoughts of 'I'm a freaking genius, think of something brain!' then he focused the rest of his will power to slow the beating of his heart, he wasn't going to lose his cool over this. He would just need to think of something logical, shouldn't be that hard to fool Naruto anyway. He drew a breath and plastered on an awkward smile.

"Naruto, it's nothing to be concerned about. I mean look at it this way; Gaara's an odd boy. He probably isn't as lucky finding someone in the spring right? People are already afraid of him. Why not solve two problems?"

There. With the power of Neji's impressive brain, he used logic once again and saved his hot ass. He scanned Naruto's face to see if he was buying it.

"Okay…that does make sense…wait, Gaara was down here in the spring and he never did anything that would indicate he had similar urges." Naruto looked up at the older nin. "As I'm sure you would have noticed. Especially since that was around the time you and I had slept together."

Neji's face went a light shade of pink and gazed around the pie stand to make sure no one was ease-dropping. He would have looked shocked too, if his facial expression wasn't usually harden into his vacant expression. When did Naruto become this observant? For the first time in years, the genius felt cornered. He had no idea what to do, normally his brain would kick in right about now with a brilliant explanation and Naruto would trot off happily without knowing Neji avoided the whole question. But right now, all of his smarts seemed to evaporate in one giant brain fart. If he told Naruto the truth, Sasuke wouldn't forgive the hyuuga anytime soon. If Neji slept with Naruto, well he just flushed his first real relationship down the toilet. The guilt from lying to both parties started to bubble to the surface of Neji's conscience as well. The stress made the poor boy snap.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a fistful of change before slamming it down on the table beside him. The motion completely confused Naruto, who dawned a puzzled look at Neji's hand, and then back to the hyuuga's face, which appeared in slight panic. The blonde opened his mouth to speak, but by this time Neji had both picked up a pie and launched it at Naruto.

The pastry hit the demon-child face first, causing him to stumble back and fall on his butt. Neji took off faster then a bat out of hell leaving Naruto in a state of complete disbelief at what had just happened.

'There's no way I just did that! I just threw a pie at Naruto. This is the most spontaneous thing I've ever done.' Neji ran faster, was this what happened when he couldn't escape a situation? The hyuuga swallowed. At least no one would believe the blonde, hell, Neji wasn't sure if he would and he was the one that did it. It just wasn't like him. He stopped by a bookstore to catch his breath. He calmed himself down enough to think clearly.

"I…I…pied Naruto." Neji blinked at his own statement before entering the bookstore.

Kowaikage: Okay, I just found out that apparently you're not allowed to respond to your reviewers in you fic, so when I figure out how to respond, I will. But I'm not gonna post this without at least thanking all you guys who reviewed. /huggles you all/ thank you sooooooo much. You really inspired me to continue this.