Hanabi's Dare
Chapter One: The Plan
As an aspiring matchmaker, Hanabi knew a set up between two stoic, stuck up, narcissistic, proud bastards could just prove a bit tricky to pull off. She would have to use all of her cunning and wit, which amounted to a great deal for her age. She was quite the fox.
Her plan so far could be summarized into the following: use Neji's faults to get him to ask Sasuke out on a date. Easy peasy. These two were small fry compared to getting Hinata to confess to her boisterous blond. Now, to execute step one. Get Neji to think about Sasuke.
"Hey Neji-kun, where are you going?" She asked sweetly. It was (as he'd learned the hard way) her most dangerous tone.
Wrapping his arm bandages as the final preparation for an outing past the Hyuuga sector, Neji tried to respond in such a way that his devious cousin couldn't twist to her own devices. He failed miserably.
"I'm going to train with team seven, apparently Kakashi thinks it's good to practice in all sorts of weather."
"Going to see Sasuke?"
"He'll be there, but that's not why I'm going." Neji stated cautiously.
"Oh really?" Hanabi asked skeptically.
"Um, yes, really." He replied bluntly.
"Oh. Well, say 'hi' to him for me will you?" And with that she turned on her heel and retreated into the mansion which the main line inhabited.
As he walked to team seven's training grounds, he pondered the possible meaning of Hanabi's farewell. Then he decided that snotty little preteens who don't mind their own business should be ignored. Sasuke on the other hand… No! Don't even think about it. Stupid cousin filling his head with intolerable ideas. Neji sighed, hopefully this would not affect his spars.
When he arrived, a cluttered two minutes of action decided his fate for the day. And such a thought provoking fate it was. Somewhat conspirational…Anyways, here is how it went.
Sakura: Sasuke, you'll spar with me right? puppy dog eyes
Sasuke: No. For the last time, no.
Sakura: So that means you'll say 'yes' tomorrow then right?
Sasuke: No.
Sakura: But you said-
Naruto: Sakura will you spar with me? I really want to show you my cool new trick- but don't worry, I won't hurt you I'll do it next to you or something, because I really like- Hey! It's Neji! Wanna spar with me? I want to know if I'm stronger than you yet because I must complete my dream and become Hokage!
Neji sighed. It seemed each team had very similar dynamics. The parallels were freakishly abundant. And speaking of freakishly, do both Naruto and Rock Lee have ADD? Stopping Neji's train of thought (and causing an explosion and a two car pile up) Sasuke caught Neji's eye. The Uchiha winked and ran off into the forest. Neji followed, glad to be away from the raving fangirl and the energetic orange thing.
But poor Neji. All he could think about that day was the conversations he'd had that morning. With brief interludes of 'does it make me gay to think he's as hot as I am?' and 'damnable cousin why do you inflict me with these torturous thoughts!'. It was really not a good state to be in for sparring and eventually he got so lost in thought that his sparring partner nicked his pale cheek with his kunai. They stopped their practice, Sasuke looking at the garnet liquid running down the blade, Neji wondering if he was really that out of shape.
"Perhaps Gai was right, we really shouldn't train when it's this hot."
"Is that your excuse?"
Neji blushed, he couldn't tell whether Sasuke was angry or flirting with him, it was like seeing himself.
"Well, um… yeah I guess."
"What are you thinking about that is so distracting?"
"Why are you so curious?"
"I suppose I'm not used to not holding people's attention." Short and sweet. Truthful. So Sasuke was just plain curious eh?
"Well if you really want to know, I had some very odd conversations with my cousin this morning, I can't stop going over them, trying to find meaning in them. It was just so strange."
Sasuke sat down, and invited Neji to do the same. The older boy then recounted parts of his morning, avoiding mentioning that Sasuke had anything to do with it. When he was finished, Sasuke thought for a moment, then asked what it had to do with him.
"It has nothing to do with you."
"It has everything to do with me, you are being obvious."
Neji gave in, it wasn't worth it. "How so?"
Something is clearly missing from the story. And if it wasn't about me then you would have just told me."
"Very intuitive. I bet you could just guess what it has to do with you."
"Something along the lines of Hanabi thinks you like me, judging from what I've heard of the previous conversation."
"N-no! Actually, Hanabi never went that far. It was Lee who said that after he burst in, I don't remember what I said but it twisted in his mind to become 'he likes me' or something. But later, Hanabi was acting sweetly, which is poisonous of course, and she told me to say 'hi' to you. Do you even know who she is?"
"Not really. I suppose she would look like a Hyuuga and from what you just said I think she would be sharp and bitingly funny. I might like to meet her. She sounds like much more fun than you are."
Neji glared. Sasuke smirked.
They both burst into laughter, such a rare sound that it brought the other ninjas in the vicinity racing over at once to see if something was wrong.
That night Neji lay in bed thinking about, you guessed it, Uchiha Sasuke. He rolled the name around on his tongue, it sounded nice, come to think of it. He thought about how easy it seemed to talk to Sasuke when he always felt constricted when he talked with others. As if he had no need to use formalities, even though they hardly knew each other. They just understood one another, perhaps they felt they were on equal footing. They were both from well respected clans, both were geniuses with high expectations, both had some family issues… both were steaming hot and totally sexy. The list went on in Neji's mind, or at least it would have if not for a small knock.
"What is it Hanabi?"
"Did you have fun today?"
"It was just training."
"That's all you did the whole day?"
"Yes."
"Liar."
"How do you know Hanabi? How do you always know?"
"I can't just tell you something like that can I? How about this: you have to do one thing I say, like a dare. And if you complete it, I'll tell you what it is you do that lets me know you're lying."
"Dare me."
"Ask Sasuke on a date."
"What? No."
"Why not, are you scared?"
"No, I just told you this morning, I don't want relationship right now."
"Is that why you kept saying his name over and over before I came in?"
Neji threw a pillow at her.
"Baka. You must have been hearing things. Go to bed, it's past your bedtime."
"For your information, I don't have one. But you're going off topic. So are you too scared? Because otherwise I'll never tell you what it is that you do."
"You know what Hanabi? I think I accept your dare. I'll prove you wrong. Besides, I only have to ask him out, I can stand him up if that's the only part of the dare."
"No you can't that defeats the whole purpose! You have to go through with it."
Neji scolded himself for letting her realize the loophole.
"I know you like him Neji, at least as a good friend. Just go have some fun."
"Only for you Hanabi."
Muahahaha! The sweet voice strikes again!
A/N: I hope you liked this chapter, I think it's much better than the intro. But anyways, I haven't exactly gone over this yet, but I'll replace this with the better edited version ASAP. So press the 'R' button. shamelessly begs for reviews I need feedback to make this a really good story. Thanks for reading.