It had been a week since Hinata and Temari had agreed to switch Kankuro and Neji. The September breeze was starting to come in and the days were getting colder as they prepared for winter. Hinata woke up an hour early to get prepared and pack for the two week trip to the Yoshino River. The night before when Hinata was supposed to pack was much too busy.
Hiashi was overly happy about Neji and Hinata traveling together to a river far away. He was unaware of the fact that it would not be Neji with Hinata, but Kankuro. Neji was innocent too, for he thought that Hinata just tricked their father into thinking that they were going to marry. Not that she was tricking both of them.
Hiashi began drinking and after a while was completely drunk. He made Neji and Hinata get into marriage robes and had them sit "seiza position" on pillows. The two had to sit there while Hiashi danced around them in his drunken state. And Hanabi was pulling Hinata's cheek and calling Neji lover boy while prancing around with her drunken father.
While Hinata was suffering with her family Temari was having the time of her life. She and Gaara had a net and were chasing Kankuro around the house in attempt to capture him. The whole house was chaotic. Whenever Kankuro made a turn he would knock over something and Temari would stop to gasp at whatever he broke and swear at Kankuro. Kankuro was sweating and gasping for breath, he had been stalked everywhere he went, including the bathroom. He never knew it was so important to Temari that he hangs out with Hinata.
It was morning time now and Hinata was sore and tired from last night. She could only sit seiza position for a couple of minutes, but last night she had to sit like that for hours until Hiashi was sober. She got dressed in her usual cloths: an overly baggy jacket and overly baggy black sweat pants. She didn't think it would be important to dress up for Kankuro.
She was walking down the hall with her head down; she was much too tired even to put her head up. She could walk to the hall while looking at her feet; she had done it many times before and memorized the path. She was making a turn when she hit Neji and fell backwards.
"Oww. Damn Neji your head's as hard as a rock." Neji looked down at her with a confused look on his face. "You didn't hit my head, you hit my chest." Then he yawned and walked to his room. Leaving Hinata sitting there blushing. "Bastard."
While Hinata was awake and packing, Temari was asleep. Temari was completely unaware of what the time was and thought she could sleep in today. Luckily for her, Gaara doesn't sleep and was able to wake her up in time. Gaara was standing outside her door with his arms crossed. His gourd was clinging to his back with one of his white cloths, and the cork that usually sealed it was on the floor right under him.
"Hmph. It's locked." He said with absolutely no emotion in his voice. Kankuro grumbled. He was trapped in a giant net behind him. The net was glowing blue with chakra and there was no chance of escape for Kankuro. "Tch that bitch is probably still sleeping." "SILENCE." Then the net around Kankuro tightened as Gaara closed his hand slightly so it looked like he was about to make a fist. Kankuro was bleeding slightly and breathing heavier than before.
"B-bastard." He said on the verge of passing out.
Much to Kankuro's surprise, he didn't see Gaara tighten his hold on the net, but he saw Gaara's other hand out in front of him. He saw sand form around Gaara's arm and knew what he was going to do. "Sand Bullet no jutsu" Then Kankuro saw the sand form into a giant ball then Gaara pulled his hand towards him. And with a couple of hand signals, he shot his hand forward and the ball shot towards the door. Temari heard her door slam out of the frame and land on the floor.
"GAARA WHAT THE HELL?" Temari cried. Gaara noticed that her hair wasn't put into the four ponytails as they usually are and her hair was down a little below her shoulders. It was messy and there were strands sticking out or the sides.
"You were asleep." Gaara replied, again with no trace of emotion. "Did you forget what day today is?"
"Gasp! I totally forgot! Oh my God what am I gonna do?" It was clear that she was panicking. She hopped out of bed and ran past her two siblings and started towards the bathroom. "Gaara! Can you get Kankuro a couple pairs of cloths? Thanks!"
Gaara turned around and saw that his sister was gone. He grabbed the net with the hand he used to perform the Sand Bullet jutsu and dragged it with him to the bathroom. When he got to the bathroom Temari was tying up her hair. She had two turquoise hair bands in her mouth and was working on her second ponytail.
"I already packed Kankuro's stuff." Gaara stated.
"Great. Shanks." Temari finished with her second ponytail and took another hair band out of her mouth.
"Shouldn't you hurry?"
"Nah. The shings an hour ahay." Temari finished with her third ponytail and began on the last. "But you're right. We should get going, just let me get dressed and…."
She realized that she needed something to wear. I mean Neji was going to be at her house for two weeks, and she needed to look presentable for the first day. Then she realized that the house was a mess. All that running around and chasing after Kankuro really wrecked the place up. She began to panic again.
Meanwhile Hinata had nothing to worry about. She was packing all her cloths and a couple of things to keep her busy. She had went to the local book store days earlier and bought a couple of books to read while she was trying to fall asleep. She also brought a couple of board games. "This is going to be great!"
She was finally completely packed and hopped on her bed. Her back sank into the cushions and she sighed. Tonight was going to be the last day sleeping in this bed for a while. She rolled to her left and saw Nova in her cage. The bird was chirping and hopping around. Hinata smiled and opened the cage. "Goodbye Nova. I'll miss you!" Then she put the bird up to her face and rubbed the soft feathers against her forehead.
"Hinata! Are you ready yet?" Neji was standing at the door, his arms crossed. He was wearing the same gray shirt with the same blue shorts. And the bandages still around his right arm and leg. Hinata put the bird back in her cage and made sure Nova had fresh food and water. "Yeah." She took on last look around her room. "I'm ready."
They walked toward the main house and found Hiashi, Hanabi, and the rest of the Hyuuga house blocking the gate. They were all smiling deviously and staring at the two confused Hyuuga's. "W-what's going on here?" Hinata stuttered. "Well Hinata, today is the last day we'll see you two as children." Hiashi smiled deviously at his two children. Neji put on a confused face. "What do you mean?"
"It means that if you two are going into a cabin by a beautiful river for two weeks, there's an eighty percent chance that you two will have mad sex and fill this house with children!" Hanabi cried unable to contain herself. Hinata was startled by how blunt her sister was and began blushing rapidly. She looked over at Neji who was also blushing.
"N-no i-it's not like that at all!" But Hinata's stuttering only made things worse.
"Riiiiiiiight whatever you say Hinata, but I know Neji wants to do the naughty." Hanabi looked over at Neji meaningfully.
"Uh Hinata let's go already! Wouldn't want to be late!" And with that, Neji grabbed Hinata's hand and walked out the door.
After Hinata and Neji were outside the gate Neji stopped and let go of Hinata's hand. He saw that his siblings face was beet red. Thoughts were racing through her head and she was trying to summarize what had just happened. "Why did he avoid Hanabi's question? Why did hold my hand? Is this really Neji I'm standing next to?" She looked over at Neji and was as confused as ever.
"Sorry about that." He could see that Hinata was confused. "I had to make it seem like that was the case or else they'd call off the trip." He saw the confusion slip away from her face and smiled a little. "Well c'mon then. Like I said, we don't want to be late!"
Hinata watched as Neji began to walk away and fell back into reality. She ran a little to catch up to him and looked straight ahead. "Damn him! Even now he still acts like the genius he is." Then Hinata smiled a little. "Thank god though. Without him, I'd never have been able to get past the rest of my genius family."
Gaara watched as his sister ran around the house throwing things into hampers and cleaning up messes. He sighed as Temari tripped over her feet in attempt to race over to the next room. "You just turned seventeen two weeks ago and you still act like a three year old." He said while she zoomed past him to get to the next mess.
"Fuck you!" She was breathing heavily and sweat was covering her forehead.
"We should hurry. But why should I care?" Gaara shrugged and continued to watch his sister. Her suffering kept him amused. He smiled a little when he heard something crash and then the following "Dammit!" Kankuro broke into laughter. It seems no matter how many times this happened it was still funny.
"What time is it?" She yelled while looking over the side of the wall. Gaara frowned and looked at the clock. "We're late."
"Dammit Gaara what am I gonna do?" Temari fell down to her knees and looked down. She was so stressed she was on the verge of tears. Gaara looked over at her and sighed. "Look, the house is clean enough. Besides, he's a guy trust me he won't care."
Temari's face lightened up and she stood with her hands tugging on her hair. "Duh Temari!" She started towards the door continuously saying: "Stupid! Stupid!" She walked over to the corner where she had placed her fan and fastened it around her back. "What are you waiting for? C'mon like you said, we're late." Then she opened the door and walked out.
Gaara stood there for a second looking at the door. Then he grabbed the bag and walked out the door. "Tch, women." Kankuro snarled. "I just don't get em'."
Hinata and Neji were walking through the streets of Konoha trying to get to the gate before anybody saw them. Unfortunately, they were stopped and interviewed by almost everybody in Konoha. First they met up with Shikamaru and Ino. Ino was overly exited to see them and asked hundreds of questions.
"Oh my god! Shikamaru get a camera I knew these two would hook up! So where are you two lovebirds going?" She was almost screaming and Hinata was wondering how Shikamaru could put up with her.
"Training." Neji lied.
"I don't know why you guys even bother." Ino said with her hands at her waist. "You Hyuuga's are strong enough."
"Training is so troublesome." Shikamaru stated.
Ino looked at him angrily. "You think everything's troublesome! I'd bet even I was on your troublesome list!" She laughed a little and then realized that Shikamaru was staring at her meaningfully.
"You're at the top of my list." He said.
Luckily Hinata and Neji managed to sneak away while Shikamaru endured screaming and bitch-slapping from his partner. Hinata began to wonder if that's what Kiba and Shino thought of her, while Neji compared which was worse, Ino or Tenten.
Then they met up with Lee and Tenten, which was worse than the last meeting. Lee and Tenten danced around the two both talking about how they give their best wishes and throwing flowers. Tenten pulled Hinata's cheek and kept saying "Guess you got to him before I did. Well can't change the future, take good care of him or you'll be talking to me!"
Lee wouldn't shut up about how youth brought these two together and how youth and love will decide their fate. Both Hyuuga's wanted to kill themselves.
After their encounter with Neji's teammates, they met up with Hinata's. Luckily for them, Kiba and Shino could care less and didn't question anything. Just as they were about to reach the gates of Konoha and be rescued from all these people, the worst happened for Hinata.
They saw Naruto and Jiraiya arguing about which direction to go. Hinata hid behind Neji in hopes that Naruto wouldn't notice her with her cousin. Naruto looked over at Neji and made a confused face. "Hey Hinata why are you hiding behind Neji?" Hinata fell on the ground and hit her head.
Neji laughed a little and said, "Klutz." Naruto was confused as ever. "You're weird Hinata." Then he turned and looked at Neji. "And I thought you hated each other." He said while pointing an accusing finger at Neji.
"We did." Neji stated calmly. "But our father ordered us to go train together."
Naruto smiled. "Hey that's what we're doin!" Hinata got off the ground and rubbed her head a little. "W-where are you training?" She began to twiddle her fingers.
Naruto's smile grew wider. "The Y-"Jiraiya had hit him before he could finish. "You idiot don't tell anybody where we're training! What if there was a spy anywhere around?"
Naruto grumbled while holding his head. "Damn Ero-sennin." Jiraiya looked at the two Hyuuga's and smiled. "We'll be leaving now. Goodbye!" And with that, Jiraiya grabbed Naruto by the ear and dragged him the opposite way of the gates.
Finally after an hour of interruptions, they got to the gates and started running through the forest. Each eager to get to Yoshino. Hinata had a lot of things to talk about, but didn't want to make it seem like she wanted to talk with Neji. So she waited for him to talk first.
"Damn. A lot of people were up early today." Neji said almost immediately.
Hinata smiled. "I swear brother, you read my mind."
Neji smiled and ran faster. Hinata saw his change in speed and ran faster too. Neji kept looking straight ahead and ran ahead. Hinata was startled at first, then she realized. "I get it Neji. All right I'll play your game!" Hinata ran two times faster than her cousin and soon the race was on.
"Last one there has to drink a cup of river water!" She cried while looking behind her.
As soon as she moved her head forward she saw Neji running right next to her. "Then I hope you're thirsty." And with that he sped ahead so that Hinata could barely see him.
She wasn't the least bit intimidated; she knew he wouldn't run as fast as he could. So she ran up to where he was, and the two Hyuuga's raced at the same pace for the rest of their fifteen mile trip.
Temari and Gaara weren't having as much trouble as the two Hyuuga's were. They had been running in the forest for about half and hour now and were beginning to tire out. Gaara looked over at Temari and saw she was sweating and breathing heavily. Then he looked over at Kankuro who was sitting there with his arms behind his head and his legs crossed inside the net. Temari noticed her brother noticing her and smiled a little.
"Thanks again for dragging that lazy ass for me." Gaara looked over at his sister, and then stared out in front of him. "It's no big deal."
Temari stared wide-eyed at her brother. "No big deal? Are you fucking kidding me! I'm so tired if I had to carry him on top of running I would have passed out minutes ago!"
"Aw quit your bitchen'." Kankuro yawned.
Temari looked angrily at her other brother, then back in front of her. "Gaara!" Gaara closed his eyes and pulled out his hand. "Say no more." Then he closed his hand slightly. The two heard their sibling grunt and continued on.
After a while Temari stopped at a tree. Gaara stopped soon after and looked behind him to see Temaris back on the bark and the fan uncomfortably pushing against her. "Temari there's no time to stop we're going to be late." Temari was shaking and trying to pull herself away from the tree. "I-I can't! There's something pulling me against it!"
Gaara looked puzzled at his sister. "What are you talking about?" He said.
There was a long awkward pause and Temari was struggling to make up an excuse, but after a while she just gave in, as usual. "Nothing," She said finally. "I just needed a rest that's all."
Her brother stared at her puzzled. "If that's all then why didn't you just say so?"
Temari stared wide-eyed at her brother. A couple of years ago he would have called her a slacker and went on without her. She smiled and realized he wasn't so bad when he was nice. "I dunno." She said playfully.
Gaara smirked playfully back. He jumped on the tree Temari was resting, and sat down. He looked up at her and gestured with his hand to sit next to him. She fell to her knees and hung her head. "Phew! Good thing we stopped, anymore and I would've passed out!" Then she looked up and smiled broadly at her brother. "Thanks."
He looked at her and blushed slightly. She almost never smiled at him, and this was the first time her smile ever made him blush. He felt a weird feeling, but he just couldn't describe it. It was either that or he just didn't know how to describe it.
Neji and Hinata were racing side-by-side through the forest. Their backpacks were almost flying off their backs caused by the speed. Hinata could see sweat forming on Nejis forehead, and then felt some on her own. They were both getting tired, but couldn't stop even if they wanted to. Both of their legs were numb, and it would be hard to gain control again if they ever tried to stop. They had no idea that Yoshino would be so far away!
Suddenly Hinata noticed that her breathing was growing heavier than usual. She had to stop running soon or else her legs would give in. She was also very hungry. The two Hyuugas were too busy escaping their friends and their family to get something to eat. This thought made her hungrier and she soon slowed down, preparing to stop.
She was now far behind her cousin and wondered if he would ever stop and notice that she wasn't beside him. She was standing there breathing heavy waiting for her cousin to notice. "Ok, now I'm pissed. Does he really not notice me?"
"NEJI YOU BASTARD I STOPPED NOW YOU STOP TOO!" She cried.
Neji looked to his right where his cousin was and realized she was behind him. He instantly stopped and ran toward Hinata's direction. He stopped to her left and began to panic. The worst thing you could do to a girl when you're running is keep going when they stop.
"E-eh sorry Hinata-sama." He stuttered while scratching his head.
Hinata pouted and walked toward him. "You idiot." She said gently. Then she crouched down by a bush and examined some berries. "I'm hungry. Are these edible?" She said.
Neji soon came back to Earth and crouched down beside her. He took some of the berries Hinata had been looking at and began examining them himself. Hinata watched him hopingly, eager, and hungry. Neji smirked and plopped some of the berries in his mouth.
Hinata gasped. "Neji you idiot! Those could be poisonous and we could've used our Byakugan to check!" She instantly saw Neji fall to the ground. He was unconscious.
Hinata stared at her unconscious cousin. She could feel sweat trickle down her neck and began to panic. She knew nothing about herbs and antidotes, and Neji was dying quickly. She instantly picked a green berry and used her Byakugan to analyze it. "It has a soft core." She said. "Good."
She grabbed a kunai and carefully split open the small berry. She tore off a leaf and placed the soft core of the berry in the center. She looked around her anxious to find a weed. She found one only three feet away from her and counted the leaves. There were two.
She used the same kunai she used to slice open the berry and cut off the leaves. Hinata worked frantically to smash the mixture of berry core and leaf to a liquid. Her right palm was bleeding from holding the blade of the knife in order to keep it straight. The blood didn't slow her down a second and soon she had a fine, el natural antidote. Hinata forcefully shoved the mix down Neji's throat and prayed.
In a few minutes Neji was awake.
Hinata threw her arms around him. "Yay! The antidote worked! You're alive!" She cried burying her face in his shoulder. "Err Hinata? You're hurting me." Neji said. Hinata instantly backed away blushing at what she had done. Neji smiled and tried to get up. He fell to the ground shortly after and rubbed his back. "You idiot! You can't get up yet! It takes people at least a day to recover from poison." She cried.
He attempted getting up again but this time fell forward into the ground. Hinata sighed and crouched next to him. She picked up his arms and pulled them to her shoulders, then pulled his legs up to her waist and held his feet. Nejis face turned red. "Wha-What do you think you're doing?" He stuttered.
"Giving you a piggy back ride. You can't walk in your condition and we have to get there soon." She said. And by that time Temari was done resting as well, and both families walked the rest of the way to Yoshino.
