Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me

Sorry this is so late! The site wouldn't let me upload any documents for the longest time and I had to wait for the support system to get it fixed. But yeah, hope you enjoy this!

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Chapter 5

It was the feel of cool cotton sheets sliding over her that woke Ino up.

"Neji?"

The shadowed figure bent over her straightened, hands falling back to his sides after he tucked her plain white sheets around her shoulders. The room was dark, the thin curtains waving in the air as a night breeze entered through the open window next to her bed. Moonlight barely illuminated his features as he stood there quietly.

"You should sleep."

Ino struggled to sit up, only vaguely aware of how the Hyuuga had carried her home again. Blinking the sleep from her eyes, she sighed listlessly, gazing out the window onto the empty streets below.

"I can't."

The faint skepticism in his voice was tinged with tiredness of his own.

"You slept well enough on the way back."

"Yeah."

An exasperated tug at her hair tie had her hair falling around her in a loose array of pale gold. Ino wrapped the sheets tighter around herself, finally turning to look up at him. He was watching her, those opaque eyes just visible in the darkness. It reminded Ino of the luminescent eyes of the various creatures that would blink at them from the blanket security of the forest during missions.

She shivered.

"Will you stay?"

There was no shocked jump or flustered response. Neji merely raised an eyebrow, shifting his gaze to the wall. If he was surprised, Ino couldn't tell.

"Why?"

"…because."

There was complete silence after that. She was just ready to cringe inwardly at how her request must have sounded when the boy suddenly sat down on the edge of her bed. Leaning back against the wall, he propped up a bent leg, considerately keeping his sandals off the mattress.

"That's not an answer, you know."

Ino chuckled, gingerly lying back down. She kept some space between them, curling up on her side so that she was facing him. Or rather, facing his thigh.

"Yeah, I know. And stop throwing my words back at me."

Lifting a corner of the sheets, she offered it to him. Neji looked down at her for a moment before accepting it wordlessly, draping it over his legs as he continued to sit next to her.

"You can sleep here if you want. I don't mind. I share tents with other shinobi all the time."

"It's fine."

He shifted slightly, uncrossing his arms so that one bandaged hand lay in the space between them.

"I will stay until you fall asleep."

Yawning, Ino nodded, closing her eyes gratefully. It was somewhat disconcerting to have Hyuuga Neji in her bedroom in the middle of the night but at this point, she didn't have the energy to ponder over it. His scent was … warmer for some reason and she had to resist the urge to inch closer. A light touch on her head had her pouting.

"Hmm, what?"

"Nothing. Sleep."

He was stroking her hair, not unlike the way she often did to him whenever they were together. Long fingers brushed through the silky strands, soothing and non-threatening; Ino mumbled something incoherently, too relaxed to bother opening her eyes. At the same time, she felt oddly exhilarated despite the late hour, the sound of her heart pounding in her ears as if braced for a fight.

His fingers grazed her cheek as he smoothed the hair away from her face.

"You feel flushed. Are you sick?"

"N-no."

Turning so that her face was pressed into her pillow, Ino grimaced. This was silly; it was only Neji. Neji, who was basically another Shikamaru. Someone whom she trusted and fought alongside. Someone whose company she enjoyed and whose skills she admired. Someone whose face popped into her mind whenever she had something exciting to show him, or whenever she had something to talk about. Someone who was undeniably attractive, but more importantly, had become important to her…

Oh, crap.

Muffling a groan, Ino barely registered that his motions had stopped and that he was now much closer than before. Neji leaned over, frowning at the way she had abruptly stiffened a moment ago. Dark hair spilled over to mingle with gold on her white pillow.

"What's wrong? I thought you had all your injuries attended to already?"

His tone was brisk, easily mistaken for irritation or impatience. But Ino had spent enough time with him by now to recognize that it was worry that added the hard edge. She forced her voice to be strong.

"No, I'm fine. Just thought of something."

The hand firmly urged her to tilt her head up to face him. He frowned down at her, clearly disregarding her words as he assessed her for himself. Ino held her breath as he scrutinized her closely, praying that her heated cheeks had cooled down somewhat.

"What were you thinking about?"

"It's nothing. Don't worry about it."

The frown marginally lessened and Neji sat back up. He was close enough now that the small hand Ino curled next to her mouth was pressed against him. He resumed his caresses, face turned forwards towards the dresser opposite her bed.

"Sleep. Stop thinking."

"Hah! I'm not Naruto, you know."

Her half-hearted grumble had the corner of his lips quirking as he closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the wall. He was so warm, the heat practically radiating off of him and enclosing her in a protected cocoon.

He's right. Stop thinking, Ino.

"Goodnight, Neji."

His hand stilled momentarily before slipping down through the mass of hair to softly touch the bare skin on the nape of her neck.

"Goodnight."

-o-O-o-

Ino hurried through the narrow entrance of the bar, hastily smoothing out a non-existent wrinkle on her skirt. It was already dark and the place was packed with off-duty shinobi and villagers alike. The atmosphere was friendly and comfortable, even with the buzz of conversations and constant clinks of sake cups.

A familiar dark-haired man waved lazily at her from his position right in front of the drinks server. It was Shikamaru's father, completely sloshed judging from the way he was toppling over his stool. Thankfully, her own father was nowhere in sight.

I'm running late as it is. I don't need an overprotective interrogation on what I'm doing here and who I'm with.

The very thought of who she was meeting added an extra sparkle to her bright blue eyes. It had been almost a week since Neji had spent the night with her. Ino had awoken to see him slumped over in his upright position, mouth slightly open as he breathed slowly. His hands were in his lap, hands that could kill without mercy or hesitation but had been so gentle with her before. She had simply lay there staring up at him, turning over her thoughts in her head as he slept on obliviously.

To be honest, Ino was not really all that surprised. She had long acknowledged that the Hyuuga was unearthly beautiful, possibly even more gorgeous than Uchiha Sasuke had been given the absence of that perpetual scowl. And although her initial objective in getting to know him better was because she had been curious, Ino also admitted that it was because she felt like she knew him.

That night by the lake, all those months ago, she had not been lying. She understood how it felt to be on the run all the time, constantly searching for some meaning, some purpose that would make all of this worthwhile.

What she hadn't expected was that, in the process of finding herself in him, she had also lost herself at the same time.

Hyuuga Neji was the part of her she both lacked and strove to achieve at the same time. He was solid where she was floundering, strong where she was weak. The proverbial calm in the eye of a storm. There was iron-clad restraint as befit his clan and rank but also the promise of passion behind that forceful will. Passion that whispered to her and tempted her with every cautious word, every held gaze, every lingering touch.

Who would have thought?

A small, self-deprecating smile played on her lips. Indeed, who would have thought that after rejecting so many others over the years, she had been searching for something that she had known since she was thirteen? Artfully stomping on the foot of a leering man who had the temerity to pinch her on the butt, Ino ignored his indignant yelp, focusing instead on searching for the Hyuuga.

She spotted him quickly. He was sitting alone at a table in the corner of the room, the others apparently intimidated enough by his usual stony glare to give him a wide berth. Naturally, he paid no heed to the deferential stares and hushed murmurs aimed in his direction.

Grinning at his deliberately threatening manner, Ino started forward to tease him when she was stopped by a loud voice.

"Neji-kun!"

She watched in mild interest as Sakura made her way over to him. Curious as to her friend's rather determined expression, Ino stealthily pressed her back against the wall, concealing herself in the shadows efficiently.

The Hyuuga turned his head slightly to see a head of pink hair perched on to the high stool next to him. It was that Haruno girl again, the one Ino hung around. The one apprenticing under the Godaime.

He made some non-committal sound in reply, not interested in starting up a conversation with her.

"How come you're sitting here all by yourself? Waiting for someone?"

The teasing tone in her voice had him smirking.

"Not for you."

She pouted jokingly, openly staring at him for a moment. He was indeed gorgeous, his long dark hair gleaming despite the smokiness of the bar, his features perfectly sculpted, his body lean and muscled. Even now, when he was just sitting there imitating a frozen lump of wood, she could easily see the covert glances other females threw at him in appreciative admiration. A brief pang of envy struck her as Inner Sakura howled.

Damn that Ino! How'd she manage to snare him?

Yeah, but looks aside, he's like a block of ice.

Ah, good thing she could rely on her rational side.

"Ino's going to be jealous if you're waiting for another girl."

Her laughter was cut short as she felt a pair of hard eyes fixed intensely on hers. Sakura waited for him to say something but he didn't. He simply continued staring at her like she was some annoying, freakish insect.

A disturbing thought popped into her head. She was probably just being suspicious since she wasn't really all that familiar with the Hyuuga but it wasn't in her personality to brush it off.

"So…what's up with you and Ino anyways, huh?"

The boy tapped long fingers against the hard surface of the table, his jaw tightening imperceptibly. The girl was nosy.

"What do you mean?"

Sakura blinked uncertainly. His tone was cold and flat, but nevertheless, she felt as though there had been some sort of warning in it. She had the same disconcerting feeling she always got whenever a mission entailed venturing into unknown enemy territory with only your brain and a blunt kunai.

"I mean, you spend all your time with her. You like her…like that, right?"

Neji looked away from the pink-haired kunoichi, his pale eyes blank and emotionless. Around the corner, Ino swallowed painfully, her fingers gripping the edge of the wall so hard that the plaster started to crumble around her hand.

He was silent.

A slight frown creased Sakura's wide forehead. This had not been what she had expected when she came over to tease the Hyuuga prodigy. Ino's laughing face surfaced in her mind; the blonde brimming with excitement and pleasure, her flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes rendering her even more beautiful than before. A sense of anxiety accompanied it. Despite everything, or perhaps because of everything, Sakura did not want to see her friend hurt.

More than hurt. Even if she wouldn't admit it to herself.

Leaning tentatively on the table, the girl's steady voice was unusually serious.

"If you don't like her, why are you treating her like this?"

He gave no indication that he heard her, his gaze distant as he tossed back the remainder of the small cup of sake he had been nursing the entire night. Staring sympathetically at him for a moment, the other girl smiled sadly before leaving him alone.

A rush of air she had not realized she had been holding in escaped Ino's lips. Releasing her white-knuckled grip on the cracked wall, she turned away to lean her head back against the cold plaster. Nameless people flowed past her in the narrow corridor, their chatter and faces a dull blur as she stared unseeingly at the flickering yellow light on the opposite wall.

Closing her eyes against the sudden throbbing in her head, Ino pushed herself off, clenching her hands into fists in order to hide the trembling she could not seem to stop. Pushing her way through the mass of bodies out into the chilly night air, she sucked in a couple of deep breaths, consciously clearing her brain of the encroaching fog.

She was so stupid really. So naive. To honestly believe that she could be the one to reach out to him. To believe that he would let someone like her in.

So stupid.

The thought kept running through her mind like an endless chant. The streets were relatively empty at this time of night, the majority of the village slumbering peacefully as a lone kunoichi made her way slowly down the road towards her house.

How many times had she traveled down this exact same path before? Hundreds? Thousands? And yet, never before had it seemed so long, so empty.

Ugh, please. No need for me to get all melodramatic. That's Sakura's job.

The quiet snicker that escaped her lips held no mirth, only bitterness. It was on the way home that she heard a familiar voice loudly calling her name from behind.

"Oi, Ino! Wait up!"

She turned to see Kiba sauntering over to her, his customary hooded coat discarded in favour of a heavier jacket. He was good-looking in a rugged sort of way, the brash attitude combined with a gruff underlying kindness rendering him irresistible to some of the village females.

"Hey, Kiba. You're out late."

Ino was dimly pleased to find that her voice came out steady. She was not a kunoichi for nothing.

"'A shinobi must never show emotions.'"

"Would you break the rules for me, Neji?"

She bit her lip, forcing down the damning sting beneath her eyelids.

The Inzunuka grinned widely at her, his fangs glinting ferally in the streetlight. The strong smell of alcohol wafted off him in droves.

"Yeah, just finished drinkin' with Naru...Naruto. Frickin' idiot's out cold!"

Her nose wrinkled as he lurched unsteadily on his feet. Just her luck to have to deal with a drunk on a night like this.

"You should go home, Kiba. I so do not need you throwing up on me right now."

"Awww…Ino! Come drink with me! You look…look like you need it."

Great, had she become so transparent that even a totally pissed Kiba could tell that something was wrong? Shrieking as he swayed heavily against her, Ino fumbled with his arms, trying to shift his dead weight into a more tolerable position.

"Dammit, Kiba! Get off me, dog-boy! You stink!"

All she got was a reeking groan right in her ear.

Whacking him on the head hard enough to produce another pained moan from the passed out boy currently draped all over her, Ino gritted her teeth as she began dragging him down the road. It was a choice between dumping him here in the dirt or bringing him back to her house. There was no way she was going to carry his ass all the way around the village until she found wherever it was that he lived.

At least the rather pressing problem of dealing with the Inzunuka served to take her mind off what she had just witnessed in the bar. Thank Kami for small graces.

"You owe me, dog-boy. You owe me big."

-o-O-o-

Glancing irritably at the clock on the wall, Neji masked a frown.

The girl was two hours late and he had never heard anything about her being late before. Well, at least not that late and not without a good reason. The never-ending noise around him was giving him a headache and he had no desire for another drink. Alcohol was unnecessary; it merely served to impair one's ability to control themselves and if there was anything Neji had a firm grip on, it was his self-control.

Where is she? A last-minute mission? Or what if she's injured somewhere and can't get a message to me?

His forehead creased involuntarily. Pushing himself smoothly to his feet, he walked out of the bar, the crowd parting easily for him as people inched out of the way of the obviously annoyed Hyuuga.

Leaping swiftly over rooftops en route to Ino's house, Neji's mind sifted through the odd conversation he had had with Sakura. His first impression of her had been correct; she was nosy.

It was none of her business. None of this was anyone's business besides the two of them.

That was what he had sorely been tempted to bark at her when she started questioning his relationship with Ino. Her blatant interrogation had been unexpected and to his irritation, he had been unable to formulate an appropriate response and so, had remained silent.

I mean, you spend all your time with her.

Neji hardly knew why.

All he could say for sure was that he enjoyed spending time with her. Enjoyed the way she tilted her head to the right when she laughed, the way she tugged absentmindedly on the ends of her pale blonde hair when she was thinking about something seriously. She was openly affectionate in a manner he could only aspire to and generously accepting of all his various flaws without condemnation.

You like her…like that, right?

His pale eyes narrowed. That girl. She was confusing him. He sped up, heedless of the biting air snaking under his clothes.

Which girl?

A sharp knock startled Ino from her unthinking reverie.

She glanced up from her huddled spot on the floor, blindly wondering who on earth was visiting at this hour. Her mother was asleep in her room, while Kiba was sprawled out in the exact same position where she had brusquely dumped him on the sofa in the living room. His snores were relatively muffled since his face was squashed into the cushion.

Another loud knock had her groaning as she forced herself to get up and answer it. What was with everyone today? Couldn't she just get some peace and quiet, for once?

"I'm coming, okay? Hold on."

Unlocking the heavy door, Ino blinked into a pair of calm white eyes.

"Neji?"

"Where were you? I waited for you for nearly two hours."

His voice was curt, more so than usual anyways. Tossing a quick look over her shoulder, Ino kept her hold on the door, blocking the way into the house.

"Can you be quiet, Neji? Do you know what time it is?"

Just at that moment, his opaque gaze landed on the obviously male jacket thrown on the floor in the middle of the hallway. His eyes narrowed as he took in the large, worn pair of sandals unceremoniously tossed on the floor, hardening like flint as he took in her rumpled appearance and faint scent of alcohol on her.

Leaning back nonchalantly against the doorframe, his head cocked to the side as he crossed his arms across a broad chest. His eyebrows raised mockingly.

"Oh, is someone here?"

Kiba took that moment to snort out a particularly loud snore. The sudden surge in killing intent emanating from the Hyuuga almost had her taking a cautious step back.

Calm down, Ino. You know he would never hurt you.

Urging herself to stand her ground, Ino scoffed, long since having learned not to back down from his unexpected bursts of temper. She glared pointedly at the strong hands that were already forming familiar seals.

"Don't you dare use Byakugan to peek into my house, Hyuuga Neji! That's one invasion of privacy that I will not forgive."

"I asked you if there was someone here."

His voice was colder than the feel of a shurikan slicing through flesh during the dead of the night. Her hand tightened on the doorknob.

She could give as good as she got.

"I don't see how that's any of your business. I mean, it's not like you're my boyfriend, right?"

Those eyes flickered over her face once before shifting back to glare at the offending garment behind her. His pointed disregard for her last statement merely served to feed the flames of pain and humiliation coursing through her body. It was instinct, a sense of self-preservation, which had her on the offensive.

Trying desperately to hold on to the shreds of dignity she still had left before he ripped those from her with his inevitable rejection, Ino pressed on recklessly. Anger lent a sting of forced cruelty to the spew of words tumbling out of her mouth.

Tipping her head up closer to his in a mimicry of the intimacy they had lately begun to share, the girl arched an elegant eyebrow right back at him. A bitter laugh accompanied the sneer on her lips.

"You must have made some sort of mistake, Hyuuga. Did you actually think that we were in love or something?"

To her horror, Ino's voice cracked just the slightest bit at the end. Hurriedly slamming the door shut before she could see his eyes narrow at her, she slowly slid to the floor, leaning against the door in a limp pile. The tears were flowing freely now, Ino having no companion to mock her for her display of weakness or tease her awkwardly out of it.

No one besides the rumbling snores of the boy she had unthinkingly used to protect herself from the boy she wanted with every fibre of her being.

She knew he had heard it; nothing escaped Hyuuga Neji. And that was why it hurt so much. He must have known how she felt. And yet he had allowed her continue on, had allowed her get closer to him in the blind hope of his one day returning those feelings. He had allowed her to make a fool of herself even though he did not feel the same way towards her.

Had never had any intention of accepting or returning.

And that was what was too cruel.

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A/N: School is fast reaching the end...been BEYOND busy trying to get caught up on all my studying and reading so I won't embarass myself (again) during finals this time. Urgh...

Next update should be coming next Thursday or so. Thanks for reading and please do review!