Cursed

Chapter Two

Unwanted Dreams

White bandages slowly fell to the floor. The long cloth falling and overlapping itself as it sailed through the air until it finally fell to the titled floor.

There it was again. That cursed mark. Frowning, Neji brought his fingers up to his head and rubbed harshly. He remembered when he was a kid, shortly after he found out what this mark meant, he had ran into his bathroom and locked himself in for hours. He had scrubbed at the mark until it bled, hoping it would come off.

Of course, it never did. No matter what he did he could never rid himself of the mark. Deep concentrated eyes stared at the mark as he leaned forward slightly. His head gently hit the cold mirror. Sighing, Neji allowed himself to close his eyes and try to forget about the curse that followed him everywhere.

He couldn't dwell on it for to long. After all, he did have a mission to do that day.

Slender hands came up to cover her gaping mouth as she yawned. Sakura opened one sleepy eye to stare at her white ceiling before she closed it again. The sound of her alarm clock beeping sounded throughout the room, but it seemed to go in one ear and out the other for Sakura.

Rolling on her side, Sakura delved her hands deep under her pillows and pulled her sheets and blanket as high as she could until they reached her chin. Slowly, the girl started to drift back to sleep, the alarm clock doing nothing to stop her tired form from falling into her dreams.

There she was, in an open field of grass. The wind was warm against her cheeks as it blew against her, sending her long hair flying behind her body in dizzying and playful circles. Gently, several strands of hair touched her pale white cheeks that were slowly being toasted a light red from the high afternoon sun. Grinning, Sakura took off running; her arms open wide and stretched out beside her as she ran. Reaching what she assumed was the middle of the never-ending grass, the girl twirled around in a circle happily.

As she twirled, the hem of her dress gently rubbed against her legs and rose slightly with the movement. She was no longer wearing her PJ's.. but a beautiful white sundress that reached just past her knees. The straps on her pale shoulders were small thin pieces of fabric and the fabric going around her chest was made to stick tightly, as well at her hips. It was a playful dress, a beautiful expensive looking dress.

As Sakura marveled over the simple beauty of it, her slender hands gently smoothed out the wrinkles that she had caused. Once she was sure it was perfect again, Sakura dropped her hands back to her side and turned her attentions back to her surroundings.

Clouds were starting to gather into the sky, dark clouds that seemed to promise rain in a few minuets. Sakura's head was tilted back as she stared at the clouds with wide eyes. The only thing she could think about was how the water would ruin her dress!

Pouting, the girl started to run forward, looking for shelter to protect the precious piece of cloths. Wincing, Sakura stopped in mid-run and looked down at her feet. She didn't have shoes on. Frowning, Sakura noticed the blood beneath her feet.

Sakura stopped herself from whimpering, she wasn't one to whimper after all, but there was so much blood. She hadn't even realized she had stepped on anything.

Sakura sat down on the grass, her slender fingers reaching for her feet. Grasping one foot, she brought it up to her face so she could see what she stepped on.

Pale, unmarred skin was what her jaded eyes saw. Frowning, Sakura's nimble fingers grabbed for the other foot. Also unmarred.

Horror struck Sakura then. Her feet weren't hurt. This.. Wasn't her blood. With her eyes wide, Sakura made to stand up, but her hand slipped on the wet grass. 'Wet?' She faintly thought in her confusement. Looking down, the once bright green grass was now a dark shade of red. The sky that was so bright now seemed to be turned into a starless pitch-black sky.

With what little she could see, Sakura brought her shaking hands to her face. They were covered in blood. Shrieking and crying out, Sakura forced herself to her feet, her eyes whipping around.

Blood rolled in small drops down her legs and arms. Somehow, she was covered in it. Gasping, Sakura looked down at herself with wide eyes. Her once pretty white dress was now a deep red. Whimpering, Sakura fell forward. Her bloodied hands went up to grab her hair in fright, not paying attention to the blood that was being smeared in her hair.

And then her dull green eyes spotted it. A body.

Whimpering, Sakura crawled slowly to the body that all of this blood had came from. One bloody slender hand came up to grasp the shoulder of the person. She had to see their face. 'Please don't be dead..'

Those words echoed in her ears and followed her back to the waking world as her green eyes snapped open.

She was back in her bedroom, the alarm clock still beeping that it was time to get up. It had only been five minuets. Gasping, Sakura threw the covers off of her lithe form and sat up. With one slightly shaky hand she brought it up to run through her hair in a calming manor. "Just a dream…just a dream." She mumbled to herself a few times.

When she was finally composed, Sakura proceeded to get ready.

It was a rather gloomy day in Konoha. Dark gray clouds hovered threateningly above the little village and all of the townspeople. "This has got to be a bad omen." Ino half mumbled as her blue eyes stared at the darkening clouds.

"There is no such thing as bad omen's." Said a positive Lee as he also watched the clouds.

"'Course there is! Its bad luck to be leaving the village for this long on a cloudy day!" Light bickering followed this statement between the two as they playfully argued over it.

Neji sighed lightly as he watched them from a distance. His arms were crossed as he leaned against a tree, looking as serious as ever. Neji was never one to show emotion. The only emotion that was ever shown from him was anger or mockery. He never smiled, only smirked.

The entire team was there, except Sakura, of course. Neji had noticed with his limited time around her, that she was always early to everything. So when she was late to the meeting yesterday, he had been surprised. Not that he ever paid attention to Sakura. He didn't. He just liked to be aware of the people around him.

As for Sakura, he remembered the little girl from their genin days. She always seemed to be crying, or watching from the sidelines. He had only seen her fight twice. The first didn't count though because she was lying on the ground, bruised and had black eyes. The second was when she fought with Ino. It was a boring battle, indeed.

Neji sighed lightly. 'Where is that girl?' He thought, annoyed as his eyes narrowed. 'Useless girl is late, again.' The irritated thought came up. Though, secretly in the back of his mind, he had to wonder what had been making the girl late to everything. Huffing slightly, Neji turned his head away from Lee and Ino who were still bickering. 'None of my concern.'

They waited a few more minuets before Sakura finally appeared looking slightly disheveled. "Sakura-san, are you alright?" Asked a wide-eyed Lee. It was no secret that he liked her, everybody knew about it with his open mouthed wide eyed stares he always sent her way. Which was the look he was giving her now.

Laughing slightly, Sakura waved her hand as if to wave off the question. "I'm fine, Lee-san! I just overslept!" She said, a light gentle smile on her face.

"If that was all it was, perhaps I should buy you an alarm clock." Neji said his eyes narrowed in annoyance. "Perhaps then you wouldn't keep us waiting and bring your useless self here." His voice was cold and there was no expression on his face. This was something Sakura should have been used to. After all, she had been around Sasuke-kun everyday for over a year. He used to say the same things and they would hardly bother her, but this time, she felt real anger and hurt swivel into her being.

"If I was so useless you should have left without me." She snapped, sending her own glare at him. Neji stared at the girl that was throwing death glares at him with a calm expression. Raising one eyebrow, the Hyuuga took a few steps closer to her so he was standing right in front of her, forcing her to look up to see his face.

Smirking, he said, "I would have. But seeing as Tsunade-sama only gave you this mission out of pity, it would look bad on me to not go along with it and leave you behind." His pale face was emotionless. His eyes were serious as they stared her down. The only show of emotion that he showed was the corners of his thin lips. They were raised slightly giving him a look of arrogance, almost as if he was looking down at her, which she knew he was.

White teeth were clenched together as Sakura stared in anger at him, her hands forming tight fists as she stared up at him. Why did he have to be so damn tall! It was almost as if he moved closer to her to make her feel inferior to him, so she would be forced to look up and feel slightly defenseless in his presence. Which she was almost positive that was his intent.

A small noise escaped her throat in the sound of a low growl as the girl promptly turned on her heel and started to walk past the gates of Konoha and into the wilderness. Smirking, Neji followed after her, his pride swelling that he had won this match. Long fingers wrapped around the straps of his pack as he also walked away from Konoha, not even sparring a look behind him to see the city that he wouldn't be seeing for a few days.

Black boots gently thumped against another tree branch. They had been traveling through the trees now for a few hours without rest. Needless to say, Sakura felt as if she could fall from the trees any second and plummet to her death from her tiredness.

She would not give that satisfaction to Neji, however. He was problem doing this on purpose just so she would fall and later he would return to Tsunade-sama saying how he valiantly tried to save her, but in the end she was lost.

Scoffing, Sakura glared at Neji's back. 'He would do that too!' She thought, her chest swelling with anger at the thought. She suddenly felt the urge to use her super human strength and hit him upside the head. A small smile started to come to the pale girl's face at the thought of Neji having a rather large bruise on his head with that seemingly always perfect hair messed and sticking to his face and neck.

Sakura's little smile turned into a full-fledged triumphant smile that seemed to reek victory. 'That would be awesome! But knowing my luck when we get back to Konoha I would be put on night duty for a month as punishment.' She thought sorely, the smile leaving her face rather quickly.

Sakura sighed lightly as she jumped to the next branch. She was starting to have to put to much concentration into landing perfectly and taking off again. Her legs were starting to feel like lead. She knew she couldn't go on much longer without rest, but she pushed on. She wasn't going to let Neji win.

Sakura took her eyes away from the tree hopping for a second, her gaze turning towards the darkening sky. It should be raining any minuet now. Sakura's face lit up suddenly. 'Why didn't I think of this before?'

Grunting slightly, the girl's jumping increased in speed until she was by Neji's side. He, of course, looked completely unaffected by the long hours of traveling.

"Neji, it's going to rain soon-" She started, but was interrupted by a cold glare sent her way.

"How observant of you, Haruno-san. You really are the genius I thought you to be. Next your going to tell me that we are traveling by trees, right?" He smartly commented, his eyes not giving her more then a glance, almost as if she wasn't worth his time.

'Stay calm, girl.' Inner Sakura whispered to her. If she blew up at him now, then she would ruin the idea of why she even bothered talking with him. Pressing her pink lips together in anger, Sakura rolled her eyes. "Baka! If it's going to rain we need to travel by land. The rain should be ice cold. We are going to end up falling."

Neji spared an emotionless glance towards her before he raised one dark eyebrow. "We have pursers. Surely you have noticed? It would be suicide to travel by land. They would have the advantage from attacking any direction above us."

Green eyes widened slightly. "Pursers? Nobody has tracked us." Sakura said, her pale face showing nothing but surprise. Sakura was no Jounin like Neji, but she wasn't a weak Genin either. She knew when somebody was following her.

Turning his head away from her Neji spoke softly, each word meant for her to listen to and hopefully not argue with him. "Not yet. But there will be. It will be easier for somebody to conceal their chakra if they are hidden in the trees. We will continue at this rate until nightfall."

'Nightfall…?' Sakura's lithe body seemed to scream at her. It was around noon now, but they had been traveling without rest for hours now. She didn't think she could handle going another six hours.

Pressing her lips together, Sakura sighed and dropped back into step behind him where she was supposed to be. She would rather collapse from exhaustion then tell him that she needed rest.

Neji, being the team leader, had formed a straight-line formation for their travel. He was first, naturally, surveying all the dangers in front of him. He put Sakura behind him because he knew with just one look at her that she would need protection. Of course, it also occurred to him to put her by Lee. He knew with certainy that Lee could protect her. But, he felt better to have her nearby, so he could properly keep his eyes on her.

Followed by Sakura was Ino, another weak useless girl in his opinion. But she was quick on her feet and had quick reflexes, which was why she was at the back. Surveying the back of the line and watching for any pursers was, of course, Lee.

Sighing, Neji continued to watch in front of him, his byakugan activated once more. When he had spotted Sakura approaching him from behind, he had immediately released his byakugan. After all, he didn't want her knowing that he had been using it to spy on her and the people behind her, as well as observe the area. He had a feeling that she wouldn't appreciate that he saw all of her stumbling, the tired looks she would throw at his back and the hope that would be in her eyes when he would signal to stop because he heard a noise, and then the aggravation at going again a minuet later.

He had a weird feeling that Sakura would pound his head in if she knew he was doing it on purpose. Neji sighed once more. Using his byakugan he looked at her again and stopped himself from gasping in alarm when she stumbled, almost falling off the limbs of the tree before she caught herself and resumed again. 'Useless little girl. If she would be mature about this and tell me she was tired, I would have the team take an hour break.' Neji shook his head lightly.

She was such a little girl.

AN: W00t for another chapter! This one was really fun to write! The interactions between Neji and Sakura and really fun to write XD!

The dream was my first time ever really writing something dark.. So I'm not to sure what to think of it. I hope I did good with it though!

Neji is so adorable XD "I hate that little girl! But.. I'll put her behind me so I can stare at her all day and protect her." XD Yesh yesh.. Funny how he cares but.. Doesn't.

Also, in some of the reviews you guys said how you liked how I kept him the same old arrogant Neji..and of course I would! That's half the fun XD

Anyway! Review people!