He hated it. There she was, cooking the fish wearing his victory smirk like she had done something worthy of it. He had to admit it though, a sieve was genius, but why did she have it in the first place? Did she always carry a sieve incase of emergency? Perhaps it was lucky? Almost like the bear toyhe had once kept in his possession a long, long time ago. He shook his head to rid it of such thoughts as Snooky, and to try and keep his focus at the task at hand aka 'Mission Smirk Retrieval'.
"So you had a sieve available for use why?" A rare moment indeed. Neji had made the closest thing to an attempt to strike up conversation in almost three years.
"I brought it so I could catch fish after you destroyed the first meal." The smirk never left her face only intensified slightly. She must think she was winning again. He almost sighed. Did she think it would be easy every time?
"So you were foretelling? Or using telepathy? Was my plan to always have you burn the dinner?"
"Neither of those. I was simply aware that you may try something like that and took every precaution I could."
"And you brought a sieve?"
"Of course." Damn. Well not every opponent could be easy to beat. Still she was just a Medic.
"A sieve is in your usual precautionary lists?" She took the fish off the fire, divided what was there evenly and handed one plate to Neji.
"Yes with many other useful things." She began to walk away. He wasn't going to give up that easily though.
"Like what? A spatula?" She entered her tent and he stood outside.
"No." There was a slight shuffling and he tried to see what she was up to. "Things like this for when strange men try to enter my tent." That was it she had lost it entirely. He peered through the tent opening to try and see what she was holding. Well that plan was highly successful as he got a good look at the cover of the 6th volume of the 'Birds of the Fire Country' encyclopedia before it connected with his face. How. Dare. She. "I knew that would come in handy! Oh sorry Neji did I hit you?"
(A/N: this bit is dedicated to CloeyMarie and Silversilence0who not only sent me a really nice reviews but also specified their liking of Sakura's sieve. Why shouldn't the book have a guest star role too?)
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Sakura was trying her hardest not to smile, even hours after the incident. Every time she saw Neji's face, it was all she could do to not start cackling out loud. Such a large bruise really did look quite remarkable on someone's face that had such pale skin. Still she wasn't entirely cruel.
"Neji, I can heal that if you would like me to."
"What? No! It doesn't need healing." Sakura took another look at the huge bruise blossoming across his left cheek. At least she wouldn't have the opportunity to make the sick/fair skin error again for a while.
"No your right it's tiny." They remained in silence. After a while Sakura decided she had more pleasant things to do with her time, like pluck every hair out of her own head. "Right, well!" She was trying her hardest to sound like nothing had happened as his facial expression was part blank, part plotting and part glaring at her. An excellent time to retreat to her tent. "So goodnight?" If she didn't think he couldn't, she may have sworn he smiled triumphantly before answering her.
"Hm." She checked her bed for traps that night. She didn't expect Neji to stoop to Naruto's level but she new something was going on, and she was pretty sure he wasn't planning a surprise party for her.
The next morning she woke. Much to her amazement she hadn't been murdered in the night. She got dressed and began to plan her day. The rest of the team would return that evening to compare notes and organize their 'surprise meeting' for the next day. She would organize her medical supplies then...walk. Until the others were around, it would be safest to just avoid camp entirely. Still she dropped a few kunai into her pouch, just incase. There could be bears or snakes or angry Neji's in the woods. Dropping in a few more she exited her tent.
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He had been awake for hours. She had not. This irritated him. Still the path to victory was not always an easy one. He continued to muse patiently. Then he spotted movement in her tent. She was up. He was pleased.
Last night he had been considering his few options. After a hard struggle with himself, he was able to admit (mentally) that she may in fact be intelligent enough to be considered a worthy debating partner. So it may be hard for him to prove he was superior to her in that angle. To do so, he would risk losing to her again (if she was very, very lucky). Therefore the next best solution would be to simply use brute force. She crawled out of her tent and jumped slightly when she noticed him.
"Train with me." That got her. She stared at him for a few moments before she registered what he said.
"What?"
"Don't make me repeat myself unnecessarily." She beamed at him. That was odd. Did she not realize they were at war?
"I would love too!" So, she thought he was trying to make peace. Well that would make it even better.
"Over here then."
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Sakura's unusually large forehead was currently ploughed about 3cm into the dirt. The rest of her was spread eagle on the forest clearings floor. Neji was standing above her, gently brushing non-existent dirt of his training outfit.
"You don't have to be so harsh!" Her voice was muffled but she new Neji would have gotten the general gist of what she was implying.
"Harsh? Sakura, I have only been using Tai Jutsu." She used her arms to pry her head out of the ground.
"I haven't exactly been fighting a lot lately. I am a Medic Nin."
"Right. Tell any enemies that and they will go easy on you."
"I don't need you to lecture me! I am working on it!" Sakura was officially pissed. Did he think she hadn't heard that one before?
"You don't need to work on anything." What, was he trying to chat her up now?
"What do you mean?"
"I mean there is no point. I'm sure they will find a position for you at the hospital." She really did not like were this was heading. "You're weak Sakura."
"So, what? You're going to kill me to prove your point?"
"That was never my plan. I simply was not aware at just how bad an opponent you were. I used that flip by accident. Don't worry I wouldn't use it on Academy students." She stared at him. He looked down at her with an air of greatness. This was not right. She was not going to let this happen again. He began to walk away. She stood up.
"Train with me!" He turned.
"What?"
"We haven't finished this yet. Train with me." She gazed levelly at him. He smirked, and then began to walk back towards her.
"If that is what you desire." He was just about to find out exactly how inner Sakura fought.
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Tenten called out her name cheerfully. She would of course, having only a view of her back. Sakura turned, and tilted her head slightly so she could watch her approach out of her open eye. Sakura was pleased with her performance in the second half of her training. She had lasted longer and even gotten a few hits in. In the end he had been forced to shut down her tenketsu. She knew he had been surprised. As for the present state of her face (not to mention the rest of her body), well, at least Neji couldn't be classified as chauvinistic, having no objections to the idea of a female taking a good beating from him if she had asked for it. Besides most of her injuries were brought about from her landing on the ground after he had attacked her. It wasn't like he was entirely unreasonable. She tried to call back but her lip split again. Maybe he was a little rough...she healed it with a tiny amount of chakra. Most of it had been used up on the broken wrist combined with the fight itself.
"Sakura! What happened to you?" Ah, Tenten had arrived. Neji strode out from between the tents. "Neji! Your face! Was there an attack?" Neji interrupted Sakura.
"No. nothing happened." Tenten looked at him. Then back at Sakura. She raised her eyebrows.
"Neji!" Kiba and Konohamaru were approaching. "As Tenten has no brother, you will be honorary Uncle to our children!" Tenten shook her head and dragged Sakura to her empty tent.
"Well? He has progressed to physical attacks already? That was quick! Did he ask you for a fight?"
"No he offered to train with me."
"So he asked you for a fight. He must be desperate to prove himself! But you hit him! His face! That is amazing."
"Ah yes, about that..."
Nut2: Erm, hello any readers who have made it this far. I hope you enjoyed it or at least didn't find it frighteningly bad.
Oh and if it sounds a bit like I am making Sakura weak in this chapter, I'm not. She probably wouldn't have realized Neji was fighting her not training with her at the start. After that she was already half pulverized and still did well. Sakura is one of my favorite characters so please don't get the impression I am bashing her character.
To anyone reading this, please review! If you liked anything at all! Like if you thought the paragraph spacing was great, please tell me! If you thought something could use improvement to make it better, please tell me! (Look! I'm begging now! How shameful! Review to make me stop!)
Thank you!
Nut2.
Disclaimer: I really don't own anything! If I owned Naruto I wouldn't still be doing math!