Author's Note: Hey guys! Thanks for clicking! I hope you like my story! I've been writing too many oneshots and they're all not finished, not yet. I do hope to post some more. This story came out of nowhere… It's a nejisaku by the way…
-chibi-abi
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, enough said.
Obsessed Much
As far as he knew, as he sat there and watched her move around, was that Haruno Sakura had many smiles. Yes, one such as him can be oh so observant without being found out about. He swung his leg back and forth, getting comfortable up in the tree as his only female teammate sparred with the woman he was clearly scrutinizing right now.
He never thought he'd see the day when he would finally listen to his clearly obsessed teammate, who was practically hugging himself over their sensei's last exclamation of his undying youth. Now, really, who would take a man clad in spandex green seriously in the battlefield? Surely not him. And that is why he never took Lee's words for granted. Well, maybe when he's ranting about youth, that's when he decides to ignored the bowl-headed idiot.
And when he starts talking about defeating him, as if…
And when he talks about anything else…
Besides the green eyed woman he was staring at right now.
But that isn't the point now. The point is, his teammate, aka Lee, had finally gotten through to him as he was now observing the apple of his teammate's eye. She was sweaty and worked up, doing very well against a friendly spar with his only female teammate. And that's where his problem lies. The woman was practically smiling while fighting, as if she was hiding something.
There, he labeled that smile as her I've-got-a-few-tricks-up-my-sleeve smile. Her eyes were determined and half her lips were curved into an almost smirk. It was as much mischievous as it was happy. She was smiling like this as she fought, gracefully weaving her way in and out of the death course of Tenten's weapons. Man, was he impressed! Who would've thought that this pink-haired woman would practically glide through a sparring session with the weapon mistress?
Okay, he was getting so off track. So now, looking back, when he first met the subject at hand, he was 13. The first thing he saw was a grin. Yes, a grin. But not that I'll-be-Hokage-someday grin like Naruto's or Yosh-the-springtime-of-youth type of grin like Lee's but it was sort of her signature Hell-yeah grins. No, it wasn't all shiny and sparkly that it would blind a ninja several miles away but held its own certain sparkle. It was when all her teeth were showing and she would hold a fist up in the air like she was trying to prove to someone, particularly to a brooding avenger, that she wasn't just a stupid fan girl with an abnormally sized forehead.
No! He wasn't saying she had an abnormally sized forehead!
He was just… uh… quoting how her friend Ino called her…
Yeah, that's it!
Ehem… right…
And then, there's when he would see her walking down the street. She'd have another smile on. And this he labeled as her polite smile. Yes, she had one and it was nice. Makes you feel all warm and tingly inside. Did he just say that? No, he didn't, did he? But whatever, this smile shows when she talked to people, when she was trying to be polite. So, that's why he gave that smile that name. It was really nice, if he might add. He'd seen her use that most of the time, around different people.
She used it too when she was sort of uncomfortable with the atmosphere. Well, he used to see her smile at him like that. He wasn't intimidating was he? No, he hoped not. It's too bad though.
Then, there's her only-for-the-Uchiha-bastard smile. It was sweet, soft. Basically, all her good emotions were seen there. It was a mixture of love and admiration. Her face was lowered just the slightest bit and her face was flushed. Her eyes were filled with care and worry. Just one little smile, and it practically swept him off his feet. No, he's not obsessed with her.
He's just… observing!
Really!
Just observing!
But back to the smile. The smile isn't even in full, her lips were put together and no teeth were showing. The corners of her lips were raised just so softly. There was no hesitance and no fear, just a simple curve of her lips that showed her true feelings.
Of course, during the course of their life's timeline, the Uchiha bastard abandoned them, and he saw a new breed of smiles. Yes, it was sad. She didn't smile while walking down the street anymore. She hardly showed her Hell-yeah grins. He had missed those grins, though. It was kind of a gloomy period of time. One time, he saw her and Naruto in the Ichiraku, he did a double-take and saw her smiling.
Her my-heart's-been-dashed-to-pieces smile was all over her face. It was small. Her lips were poised together and only twenty percent of it was curved up. He could see that it took almost all of her energy to just give that twenty percent of a smile. He bets Naruto tried to change that smile into something better.
He would too…
If they were close enough at that time…
She also developed another type of polite smile. But he decided to call it her pseudopolite smile. It was her polite smile in a totally different light. The smile came off rather fake and he didn't like it one bit. Her polite smile was out of kindness, but this smile was out of her trying not to let others be worried about her. She smiled this way when Ino talked to her, or when Hinata tried to comfort her, or basically when people asked her how she was doing. She tried to use this smile to assure everyone that she was moving on.
But it never worked, and this smile became like a piece of carved plaster stuck on her face. She was as angelic as ever, but she became a doll, porcelain and cold. And that's when things started to go from bad to worse.
She stopped smiling altogether.
He didn't know why but he didn't see Naruto anymore. Their jounin sensei was nowhere to be found at all. There came a period of time, that he saw her walking, holding all her medical scrolls, with neither a smile nor a hint of emotion on her face. She was practically like him, cold and unfeeling. Well, he isn't cold and unfeeling now, is he?
He walked up to her and helped her that time.
They became more than acquaintances…
They became friends.
You wouldn't call that cold and unfeeling.
And look, he even cares much to take note of her smiles.
Well, if Lee hadn't pointed her first smile out to him…
And NO, he is not obsessed…
But that was so six years ago. During the course of time, everyone knew she grew up. She moved on. Naruto came back, they got their old team back together, minus one person. She started smiling again, and new smiles would appear. She had one just for Naruto. He knew she was an only child and she had this really weird smile for him. It was lopsided and kind of grinnish. He called it her I-love-you-like-the-brother-I-never-had grin. This grin showed her pride in his abilities and her understanding of his pain, his real self. She would smile this way when Naruto was talking to her, doing stupid things, or trying to get her to buy him some more ramen. But more when he was doing some really stupid things…
Like talking to her about his relationship with Hinata.
What!
To him it was stupid…
Naruto? With Hinata?
Tch! As if…
And that's where her other smile comes in. She let her lips curve up all the way, and only her upper teeth were shown. Such pearly white were those teeth, much much more pearly white that his eyes. She would smile like this when talking to her friends, or watching Naruto hit on Hinata, or when their jounin sensei would walk up to her and say hi. Her eyes would shine like the brightest emerald, twinkling in the new day sun. It was a happy smile. It was her I'm-thankful-that-you're-here-and-that-I'm-here-today smile. It made him want to smile more often. Maybe he should.
Then, of course, one could never forget her wicked smirk. Thinking about it made him feel slightly warmer. Was it him or did things just heat up? This smirk could be mistaken for a seductive and alluring smile, although he could swear his Byakugan hineyness that she doesn't even practice that art. It was a relative of her I've-got-a-few-tricks-up-my-sleeve smile. It would come right up on her face when she got tired of bickering with Naruto over his stupidity or when she got too sick with watching her former sensei read that porno filth. Usually, a punch or a few broken bones come after this smirk. And either of the two previously mentioned men would be found in the hospital in the next few minutes.
He held out his arm, still not taking his eyes of the cherry hair and the jade eyes.
With a loud oof, his female team mate collided with his arm. He broke his gaze and turned to her as she muttered a few words of thanks, evidently still occupied with her "friendly" spar. He saw her pat her arms and legs of dust, trying to avoid all the big cuts and bruises. She sighed and looked at him,
"It's gonna take a few days till I can probably get out of bed."
He smirked and gave her a push as she jumped off the swaying branch that he occupied. Then, the woman he was thinking of glanced up at him and gave him one of her smiles. She saluted him and turned to face his team mate once again. She glanced back, her wicked smile on…
"Next time, Neji-san, it'll be you and me fighting."
He couldn't help but smirk again as he observed their continuous sparring. Lee was now below him, looking up at him with confused eyes, not seeing what he could see. As far as he knew, Lee liked the emerald eyed woman before him and that he didn't have any rivals as of now.
Well, he has more than half of Konoha's male population as rivals…
But he meant a WORTHY rival…
Someone who was strong and worthy enough of the love of Konoha's cherry blossom…
Maybe…
Someone like him.
He jumped off the branch, patting all invisible dust away. He watched the gray and blonde-haired men watch in approval, smiling their pride and joy at the woman she had become. He saw both his team mates enamored by her smiles and her strength, not only physically but also emotionally and mentally. He glanced back at the smiling woman, her movements like a dance.
No, he could probably not name all of her smiles. He, just a few minutes ago, gave it a try and ended up with only a handful of her hundreds. It was too hard, even for a prodigy like him. Maybe, they weren't meant to be named and listed down. But they were meant to be seen. Her smiles were filled with true emotions that some ninjas cannot express anymore. And that's what made them all the more special.
Now…
All he needed was a little time and he was sure…
That even though he only named a handful of her smiles,
There would be one just for him…
Author's Note: Hey, hope you liked it. I kind of think I'm falling in love with the nejisaku pairing. I think it's just so cute! Well, anyway, please review and tell me what you think about it!
If you have time, please read my other stories, I've got another nejisaku My Cherry Blossom Swirled Fate, a narusaku Of Journeys, Abnormal Eyes, and Home, and a handful of sasusakus like Sunsets and Artificial Intelligence. Please drop a review too!
Oh, yeah, if you want me to make a fic that's dedicated to you, or whatever pairing you want, just drop me a PM! Thanks again for reading!
Don't forget to review!
-chibi-abi