I don't own Naruto…
Author's Note: Sorry this took so long. But I have a very good excuse. I was accused (I did NOT) of putting pot in this guy's locker so I was queit…busy the pass few days…read my live journal for more.
Also, I have a Beta! Catsmeowh44 is THE awesomeness:D
Pairings: Neji/Gaara, Naruto/Sasuke…Not to sure about others.
Warnings: Violence, guy and guy loving, self inflicted violence, crazyness, OCCness.
Reviewers:
I heard that we're not allowed to put these here any more so I'm going to acutely read the rule things and see if it's true. If I can't talk back to you guys know that I do read them and they're much appreciated.
A Dangerous Game: Party and a New Side of Gaara
By: Dead Walking Raccoon
"I can't wait until you're party tonight Hinata!" Sakura chirped happily. Friday had finally come and every one at their lunch table was excited, as well as those who weren't in their lunch period. "This is going to be so great! I've got a bunch of CD's to play. Oh, and my mom is making some really good appetizers."
"I-I'm sure everyone will love them." Hanta's voice was soft as well as her smile.
Looking across the table, Sakura pinned Gaara with her stare. "You're coming right? It's going to be really fun! Maybe Ino-pig and I can show you how to dance. I bet you'd like that. Oh! And maybe we can show you…" Sakura continued with Gaara nodding or shaking his head. She seemed to be lost in explaining how the party would be even before it happened.
Hinata smiled shyly glancing over at Naruto before back to the pink haired girl. Gaara looked up from the cup of soup Neji and Naruto had been ready to force down his throat if he didn't eat. Neji was sitting at their table again, next to Gaara, and Kiba on Neji's other side. The people sitting at the table had gotten use to the new addition to their 'family'. Though Gaara still felt himself blushing at random times and had to put his head down.
"Keep eating." Neji's voice came from next to the redhead. Gaara mumbled something unidentified to any one but him self and stirred his noodles. Glancing up at the dark haired teen next to him and seeing the other staring down at him, Gaara popped a piece of vegetable into his mouth. Neji seemed pleased enough and turned to eat his own lunch.
Gaara twisted the noodles around his fork and put them in his mouth when Kiba was pushed into Neji who's elbow went straight into the tender flesh of one of his worse bruises on his stomach. The red head bit back a yip of pain and doubled forward with his head touching the table. He could feel his throat contract and put a hand over his mouth while bolting out of the school lunch room.
"Gaara? Gaara!" Naruto yelled after his friend but he was already out the doors.
Making it just in time to the bath room, Gaara hung his head over the toilet letting his stomach decide if it wanted to have him re-look at his food from before…again. The bruised area had started to become a dull pain but was back at full force after being elbowed. His father had gotten him good there the last two nights and it was worse then it should have been. Perhaps he really should be eating more. His body probably had no energy from lack of food.
Stomach curling and making a grumbling noise, Gaara decided it wasn't the right time to be thinking about food.
Finger tips touched his back lightly and the redhead's head snapped back to identify the person. He was mildly surprised to see Neji looking down at him, his usually emotionless mask sliding just enough to show concern before sliding back into place. Gaara turned away and held his head over the toilet again.
Here Gaara had been thinking he was finally going to get some time on his own, when it's crushed before it can totally form. It wouldn't have been so bad if say, Naruto had fallowed him. But this was Neji. To Neji he must look like the weakest person in the whole damn school to some one as great as Neji.
And smart. Maybe to smart for his own, and Gaara's, good.
Neji could see past a person's outside like it was nothing. Sometimes Gaara had the feeling that he was look into his heart or reading his mind and had to look away. It didn't help that he had such an intense gaze or white colored eyes.
What if he saw past Gaara's lies and knew what happened to him at home? What would happen if he ever saw Gaara's bruises or occasional gashes? Gaara was making friends for the first time in a long time and didn't want to give them up. Maybe he was just being greedy but he wanted to have friends to eat lunch with, or talk to during classes. He wouldn't let Neji, or anyone else, find out about his life out side of school.
"People don't throw up from getting elbowed in the stomach." Neji spoke, reminding Gaara he wasn't alone.
"I-I'm find." Gaara's voice became muffled as he used some toilet paper to whip off any reminds of his lunch from around his mouth. He stood and was going to rinse his mouth out but Neji was still in his way. "I have to go…"
Neji didn't move. His brows came together and Gaara took a step back. Luckily he had gone into the largest stall in the bathroom, the one at the very back, so there was plenty of room. Neji took a step closer though, still looking angry at something Gaara couldn't guess.
Before Gaara could talk, or possibly stop him, Neji's hand came out and lightly touched the area on Gaara's stomach which was bruised. He whimpered and pushed the hand away. He was still on edge about people touching him, even more so when it was to his injuries. "Please…don't."
"Does Kankuro hit you?" The white eyes were pinning Gaara down, standing in the shall's doorway and letting nothing drop until he got his answers.
Gaara stared at him for a few minutes. Had he heard Neji right? Did Kankuro hit him? He said Kankuro right? Finally when all his brain cells were sure he said 'Kankuro' he let his eyes widen. "What? No! Kankuro would never hit me!"
"And Temari?"
"No!"
Neji was about to ask more, when pounding came from the door. "Gaara! Are you ok?" Sakura's voice came from out side the door. When no one said anything, she continued. "If you don't answer me I'm coming in there!"
"We're coming." Neji said after a minute and moved to the side so Gaara could get pass. Before Gaara pasted him though, Neji reached out and touched his shoulder lightly. "If you ever need something, just call me." He handed Gaara a small piece of paper and walked out of the bath room.
When Neji was out he opened the small piece of paper. On it, 'Neji's Cell' was written neatly at the top and under it was, what Gaara guessed to be, the black haired boy's number.
Tucking it into his pants pocket, Gaara wondered briefly why Neji had already had the paper written, before he walked out to be checked over by Sakura to make sure he was ok.
Gaara didn't tell his siblings about what had happened in the lunch room or bathroom with Neji. He knew they'd hear about it no mater what he did. He was just preparing him self for it. Some one who was in his lunch would say something, and tell his sister or brother, and then the two would gang up on him and demand answers.
But until then, he'd try and ignore it as much as he could.
'Try' was the key word. Ever since Neji had gently touched his shoulder it had been tingling like he'd never before felt. He passed it off as something people must feel when having physical contact that wasn't trying to harm them. But then he would remind himself that it was totally different from when his siblings would try and comfort him.
At the moment they were sitting in a bus that would drop them off a block or two away from Hinata and Neji's house. They had gone home first, Temari demanded she take another shower before going and her brother's agreed to as well. Luckily their father hadn't been home yet and they were able to slip out of the house with out an incident. When other kids may hate their parents going to work, the three siblings prayed for it and cursed the holidays their father was given off.
Gaara sat in between his older siblings listening to Kankuro's CD player with one of the ear pieces and Kankuro with the other. Temari was listening to her own CD player and waiting for their stop.
When it came up, the three ushered out and headed for the Hyuga's house. Gaara was in awe of everything around him. The houses were at least three times bigger then any he'd ever seen or been to. The size only seemed to enlarge the closer they came to the end of the block. Seeing a few cars parked on the street or driveway gave away the location from a street down.
"Holy shit." Kankuro was looking up at the tall house as they walked up the long drive way. "If I didn't believe their family was rich before, I sure as hell believe it now!"
The other to siblings nodded in agreement. When they reached the door way and Temari raised her hand to nock but the door was pulled open. Gaara moved behind Kankuro as he looked at the very creepy man. His noise was long and pointed, pale white, and stiff looking. He looked down at the three with a stern yet bored look. "May I…help you?"
"Ah…yeah." Temari looked at Kankuro for a second but he shrugged. "Is this the Hyuga residence?"
"It is."
"Are Hinata or Neji…home?"
"They are."
Gaara knew his sister's patience was wearing thin. He couldn't oppose from how she was acting though. The man was being a real ass. Before his sister had much of a change of mauling the guy, a well-known voice came form inside. "Who is it?"
"Three in which are looking for you and Hinata." The pale guy said opening the door a bit more.
"Oh?" The voice sounded closer and the door was pulled open fully. Neji stood in front of them, glancing over each person before settling on Gaara. "Glade you could make it."
The red head wasn't sure if he had been talking to him, or the three of them, but Kankuro never gave him the chance to linger on it. "Well do you want us to stand here all night or invite us in?" Kankuro grumbled.
Neji raised an eyebrow, but side stepped and allowed the three to enter. Gaara walked threw the doorway and felt the back of Neji's hand brush against his. When he looked at the white eyed boy though he seemed not to have noticed. "Every one's down stairs. Fallow me."
As they were lead through some rooms and down a few hallways Gaara had a chance to peek into each room. All the rooms were clean to the T and in a traditional Japanese style. Each had picture of the family or a family member looking at the camera calmly. It showed Gaara it wasn't just Neji who had such a blank glare. It ran in the family.
Neji opened a door and music flooded into their hearing. The four walked down the stairs to be greeted with a room full of people, food, and drinks. A few people Gaara sat with at lunch, others he had seen at school. He was glad he hadn't seen any one who had bullied him. Kankuro was still on a rampage for the person who had bullied him the first day of school.
"Gaara you made it!" Sakura said handing them each a glow-in-the-dark necklace. "Who are you two?"
"T-this is my s-sister Temari and b-brother K-Kankuro." Gaara spoke a little louder because of the music in the back round.
"Hi I'm Sakura, Gaara and I are in the same lunch." She smiled before spotting an irked looking Sasuke and giggling Ino. Her anger rose. "Hey Ino-pig get your hands off my Sasuke!"
Temari raised an eyebrow at the girl but forgot quickly once she saw some people she knew, waving to her brothers; she headed over to talk with them. The youngest noticed that Neji had disappeared somewhere when he'd been introducing his brother and sister to Sakura. Looking up at his brother he noticed a small smile on his face as he eyed the food in the corner.
They wouldn't have to worry about leftovers with Kankuro there.
"N-no!" Gaara shook his head franticly as he looked at the place he was being dragged to.
"Aw come on, it will be fun!" Sakura grinned.
"B-but I don't k-know how!" Gaara argued back.
"That's ok I can show you!" The pink haired girl pulled him deeper into the swarm of people dancing not knowing the person she was dragging behind her was trying to become invisible very fast. When she found a space with enough room for the two of them and, she took his hand and tried pulling him closer but the other wouldn't budge. "Come on Gaara, you'll never get a girl friend if you can't dance."
Gaara wanted to say he had no intentions of getting a girl friend any time soon, but was pulled forward suddenly and blushing as he looked around at the people around him. He had to get that close to Sakura!
"Just go with the flow, you know, and if you feel nervous just pretend like no one else is here." Sakura advised as she started moving to the beat of the music.
He observed, horrified, as he watched Sakura and the other people move, or what she called 'dancing'. He never knew that rubbing up against some one was considered dancing. Then again, he didn't know a lot of things about how normal people acted.
Sakura must have been tired of waiting because she put her hands on his hips and started to make him move along with her.
It was really, really, odd at first, but after a while Gaara started to get the hang of it. Not that it wasn't still something that confused him, but he had to admit he was having fun. Naruto had even come by to dance, rather oddly, with them before saying something about showing a certain Teme how to dance.
"Sakura."
Said girl stopped dancing and turned around. "Yes Neji?"
Gaara sighed in relieve. Maybe he could sneak away while Sakura's attention was somewhere else.
"Sasuke said he was looking for you, last time I saw him he was by the food table." Neji sounded like he would rather be anywhere else in the world.
The girl's eyes widened and she clapped her hands together in front of her. "Really! I knew he liked me!" She hurried off before stopping and turning around with a grin. "Oh and can you help Gaara with his dancing, by the end of the night he's going to be the best on the dance floor!" She cheered before heading off the dance floor.
Gaara watched the girl go and frowned. He distantly remembered Sasuke and Naruto playing something called DDR on the very opposite side of the room. He was about to voice his thoughts when Neji spoke.
"She was wrong." Neji said suddenly. When Gaara gave him a questioning look, the other's lips twitched up. "She wasn't teaching you how to dance right." He walked pass Gaara and the younger boy thought he was leaving him until he felt a light touch on his hips where Neji's hands were now resting. "You dance like this."
Gaara's face was the same shade of red as his hair. Neji was using his hands to make Gaara's hips sway back and forth, the other's moving the same way. He'd seen other people doing it too, most of them any ways, and it was somewhat similar to how Sakura had made him dance.
He could feel Neji's breath on the back of his neck, and the place where his hands were making his skin tingle. He felt stiff though and his heart was racing. Being so close up to someone that was so much like a god, with people all around them and probably watching. What surprised him, more then anything, was that he wasn't completely nervous about being so close to him.
It was short lived though, as he saw Kankuro making his way toward him and broke away from Neji. The older looked at him, smiling faintly, and then left before any one could see it. Kankuro reached them and looked at the two. Gaara was blushing and looking at the ground like it was the most fascinating thing in the world. Neji looked quiet pleased with him self but since Gaara seemed fine asked nothing about it. "Hey there's some really good food come try it."
"Ok…" Gaara said loud enough to hear over the music. "Bye Neji…" He turned and fallowed his older brother away and to the food table.
"What was up with you and Hyuga back there?" His brother asked when they arrived at the table and he handed Gaara some food.
"N-nothing…" Gaara's face heated up and he took a bite of the food.
"Liar."
"Sorry." The red head looked away from Kankuro. "He was…s-showing me h-how to dance…"
Kankuro expression was hard to read. Gaara saw astonishment, anger, more surprise, and something he wasn't sure of. He'd seen it once or twice before when Temari had brought a boy home with her. But he didn't bring some one home, and he wasn't even at his own house! So why was Kankuro giving him that look?
"I have to go find Temari, I haven't seen her in a while." Kankuro said suddenly.
Gaara nodded, watching as his brother was lost in the sea of people. When he was done eating he walked over to the chair in the back of the room and sat down. He watched the people around him, talking, laughing, and dancing. Some of the people that he knew waved at him. Others came over to talk to him for a few minutes before hearing a song they liked and leaving to dance. He had to admit this was the best night he could remember having in a long, long time. If having friends meant having more nights like this, then he'd have no problem with it.
Kankuro walked through the crowds of people looking for his brother. Temari had gone home with a few friends and it was getting late. A lot of people had already gone home and he wanted to get back home before it was too late. Their dad would either be at the bars or at some business trip. Hopefully gone for a while, Gaara's body couldn't take much more abuse.
Coming up to the back of the room, Kankuro saw his brother sleeping on the chair and curled up. The fact that Gaara was asleep somewhere that wasn't in his room surprised him. His brother had to be extremely tired to fall asleep at all. He didn't want to wake his brother after this one chance of rest.
"Are you and Gaara leaving now?" Neji questioned from behind him.
Kankuro turned and looked at the dark haired boy. He still wasn't sure what had been going on between him and his brother. Gaara was blushing and he never did that. He'd been proud of his brother for not having a panic attack or anything like that. Gaara had changed just slightly in the past few days. He had a feeling he knew why.
Shaking his head, Kankuro got to the point at hand. "He's sleeping." He pointed out the obvious. "He hasn't been getting a lot of sleep lately. Can he spend the night and I'll come pick him up in the morning? You've got more then enough rooms." Kankuro knew he wasn't telling the whole truth and he wasn't exactly being polite. Gaara never slept and he wasn't ever polite.
"Sure." Waiting as Kankuro picked up the younger boy carefully; he led them up to the second floor and stopped at one of the doors at the end of the hallway. "My room's right across from here, so I'll be close if anything happens." Neji added.
Kankuro laid his brother down in the bed and pulled the covers over him. Gaara should sleep through most of the night, maybe even until he came in the morning to pick him up. Walking up to the shorter boy, he took a piece of paper out of his pocket and scribbled his cell phone number on it. "Call this number if you need me." He said.
Neji nodded and lead the elder to the front door. Kankuro hoped that for once Gaara would sleep through a night with no nightmares until he came to get him.
Neji yawned and stretched as he woke up. When he looked at the digital numbers on his clock it read'1:21' in large green numbers. Shit, Gaara was probably either gone or up and wondering where the hell he was. He had stayed up late helping to clean after the party.
Standing up he put his hair in a low ponytail and made his way to the room across the hall. Pulling the door open slowly he was surprised to see the redhead up and sitting near the window. "Are you hungry?"
Gaara turned and looked at Neji and right away he knew something was off. Gaara's eyes looked harder, more dangerous then he'd ever seen in the timid boy. The smirk that was growing on his lips as he started walking slowly toward him only added to it. Neji's eyes narrowed.
"Hyuga." Gaara said in an unwavering voice that only added to his suspicions that something was wrong. It was deeper and stronger sounding, almost completely different.
Watching the redhead carefully Neji tired to figure out what was wrong with him. When he could find nothing he asked him. "What's wrong Gaara?"
Gaara smirked, stopping a few feet away from the older boy. "Gaara?" He said tauntingly. "I'm not Gaara. I'm Shukaku."
Oooooohhhh! What will happen next! What's wrong with Gaara and what can Neji do to help?
I know! Mahahaha! But I'm not gunna tell. I'm kinda worried about I'm gunna write this whole "Shukaku and Gaara" scene… But I'll make it through, no worries! Already almost done with the next chapter.
I've also found that if I write the chapters on the computer, then print it out, I find a lot more errors then just trying to re-look it over on the computer. Plus then I can take it to school.
Thanks again for all the reviews!