Cursed

Chapter Four

Battle

This had to have been the most single handedly the funniest thing he had ever seen in his life. He had only been trying to catch dinner for the group. They had to eat something if they were to survive this mission, after all. So, without thinking about warning anyone, I mean, why would he? Nobody could get trapped in such a simple trap anyway.

Apparently, he was wrong. Because out came Sakura who walked right into it. Neji had been kneeled over beside the stream, his hands dipped into the ice-cold stream and splashing it at his pale face. The water running down his cheeks and neck was enough to cool the young man off.

As he was about to get up, the sounds of leaves bristling and footsteps reached the prodigy's ears. Instantly, he activated his byakugan and looked through the trees to see the outline of a small body walking towards him. Upon seeing the frame, Neji knew exactly who it was. Instead of yelling out a warning, Neji turned his back and deactivated the byakugan. 'She won't get caught in it.' Was his last thought before he had come face to face with an angry Haruno Sakura.

'Apparently she can get caught in it. And did.' Was his thought as he stared at the girl swinging back and forth. For once in his life, it took everything for him to not start laughing at her expense. Instead, he settled with his trademark smirk.

He knew it wasn't in his character, he knew it went against everything that meant the Hyuuga name and he most certainly knew that when this was all over that he was going to suffer a gruesome painful death by the hands of Sakura. But he didn't think about any of that. For once, Hyuuga Neji didn't care about consequences.

"You'll do whatever I tell you to for the next two weeks."

The sentence hovered in the air like it was some kind of bad omen, which Neji suspected, it was for her. He really didn't know what made him say that. What could the useless girl do, anyway? But he had already said it and he never took his words back.

She was still upside down, her long pink hair was dangling towards the ground and swaying slightly. Sakura's face was a bright red maroon color. It was hard to tell if it was from embarrassment, anger or from all of her blood rushing towards her head.

Slowly, Sakura closed her eyes, her teeth clenching together in anger. A small growl was the only warning that Neji had before the kunai that she had been holding was suddenly thrown towards him. He dodged it easily without even batting an eye, his traditional smirk coming to his face once more. "Should I take that as a no?" He asked, one eyebrow rose as he watched her angry face. He was immensely enjoying this.

"Basterd." She mumbled, her green hues narrowed at him.

"Ah! What was that?" Neji asked, his voice rather loud as he leaned forward, one hand behind his ear as if he didn't hear her. But, going by the smirk that was playing on his lips, he had heard her.

It was completely unlike Neji. A Hyuuga didn't tease and didn't take advantage of a woman that had hung herself upside down. But, it also wasn't in the nature of a Hyuuga to grab a young girl and watch out for her well being either.

Sakura growled lightly, her hands forming tight fists as she closed her eyes for what she was about to say. "Fine." It took everything out of her to mumble just that one word. She could feel her dignity and pride fall down to join her ego down in the bushes below her.

Smirking, Neji walked to the rope. To him, it would have been extremely easy to get out of this. But for someone like Sakura, a weak girl, he could see why she wouldn't be able to get herself free. In one fluid motion, Neji cut through the metal like rope with just a swap of his hand.

She fell quickly and landed down on her feet with grace. She felt like a real idiot now. He had cut through the rope with chakra to get her out. Slowly, Sakura rose to her full height, her cheeks a blazing red as she looked at his arrogant face.

Slowly, he walked towards her, his eyes locked on her green ones as he came closer. As he stopped in front of her, Sakura scoffed at him lightly and looked down at the ground, infuriated with herself for letting him win so easily.

Hot breath started to tickle her cheek and ear then. Gasping slightly, Sakura looked to him. He was leaning over now, his lips almost touching against her ear. "Reset the trap, slave."

"Wow! Look at all of this food!" Cried Ino as she stared at everything while Lee was drooling. Lying in front of them perfectly set out was a cooked chicken, numerous fish and a whole bowl of rice.

"Yes, well, I worked hard." Said Neji a little to smugly as he looked at them; not even sparing a glance to the fuming girl that was glaring daggers at his back.

'Basterd.' Sakura thought to herself not for the first time. She had only been his slave for a total of two hours. During those two hours, she set the traps, caught the fish, made the rice, set everything up, cleaned and cooked the chicken as well as the fish. What was Hyuuga Neji doing during this time? He was sitting down against a tree and watching her every move and told her when she did something wrong and laughed at her for it.

Growling, lightly, Sakura pushed past him and sat down to eat, which he followed. Smirking slightly, Neji sat down beside her, letting his legs hit against her slightly just to annoy her. He was rewarded with a glare to which he responded with a raised 'I didn't do anything' eyebrow look.

Slowly, Neji started to eat the food that she had prepared. In the last two hours, Neji found that he actually liked aggravating the girl to no end. Her reactions to everything amused him like nothing else could. 'I'm going to really enjoy the next two weeks.' He thought, as he looked at her the wheels in his mind turning to come up with more stuff for her to do.

Sakura continued to eat her rice, though she didn't really taste it, her mind was to preoccupied with a certain light eyed Hyuuga. 'I can't believe he's doing this to me.' She thought. It was quite odd. In all the time she had known Neji, it just didn't seem in his nature to take advantage of a situation. He had been known for being a gentleman towards woman, never a vulgar word was said to them, but there was never any interest either. Not that she thought he was interested in her. She didn't. And even if he was interested, she wasn't. Definitely wasn't. Sure, he was cute and handsome. He was one of the men in Konoha that everybody wanted, the first being Sasuke-kun before he left. But from the rumors that she's heard, he had never once shown interest in anyone. Somehow, Sakura felt slightly relieved to know he hadn't been with anyone.

'Relieved?' She questioned herself then, the chopsticks stopping halfway towards her mouth. Neji kissing her passionately sprung into her thoughts suddenly as she remembered her dream. Blushing brightly, Sakura put her chopsticks down and stood up, making sure she didn't look at Neji.

"I'm going to go scout around." She said without much thought, not even realseing that she had echoed Neji's words from before. She turned swiftly on her heel and walked out of the camp. This time, however, she went nowhere near the stream. 'With my luck he put up another trap specifically for me and is waiting till I get caught again to tack another week on.' She thought bitterly as she walked.

Sakura was not a weak person, nor was she stupid. She was an intelligent person who always thought things through. But when Neji was there smirking at everything she did, she couldn't seem to help but mess up and not remember things properly because it suddenly seemed like her brain had turned to mush and had fallen out of her head to poke at the sides of her feet.

Sakura sighed lightly. 'I never did this with Sasuke-kun.' The forbidden thought came. Quickly, she shook the thought out of her head, litterly, with a small shake of her head. The last thing she wanted to do was compare Neji and Sasuke-kun. It almost sounded like she was comparing whom she liked more.

"I don't like him." She stated out loud, not even realizing that she said it. Sakura rolled her eyes at herself then. 'Talking to yourself, Haruno? That's an all time low.' She would have probley hit herself for her comment, or Neji since it was about him, when she felt chakra flowing all around her.

It seemed to scream murderous intent.

"That was so good!" Cried a very full Lee as he patted at his now slightly pudgy stomach.

Grinning, Ino nodded her head. "You surprised me, Hyuuga! Who knew you could cook?" She said, a small smile coming to her pink lips as she poked at Lee's protruding belly.

Neji smirked lightly, keeping completely quiet about who actually made it. He opened his thin lips to say something, probley to say how he sweated and worked over an open fire for hours to bring this meal to them, when an explosion went off in the trees.

Forgetting and dropping everything, all three shinobi jumped up, each with kunai's, weapons or their hands out in fighting stances. Shinobi started to swarm around them just as suddenly, each with weapons in their strong hands.

The fight began quickly, kunai's and other weapons started flying randomly through the air, all of them coming from the tree's. Jumping away slightly, Neji managed to just barely dodge a kunai that had been thrown. Grunting slightly, the man started to spin in spot as he used his chakra as a makeshift barrier. All of the weapons flying about were immediately bounced off of him and fell to the ground in a harmless move.

Yells were heard then as jutsu's started flying everywhere at the group below. Lee being as nimble and fast as he is had no trouble moving aside and away from harm. Ino, on the other hand seemed to be having a tough time as she narrowedly missed being hit.

And Neji was suddenly nowhere in sight.

Perspiration slowly rolled down the young girl's skin, her green eyes were wide as her fists became even tighter. "Where..?" She mumbled, her pink lips set in a firm concentrated line. "There!" She cried out suddenly as her eyes widened on a specific spot on the ground.

Crying out, Sakura slammed her gloved fist into the ground and watched with satisfaction as the ground crumbled and broke all around her. Rocks flew through the air and the trees started to sway back and forth with the vibration of the ground breaking apart before they fell down.

Below her who was now caught up in the rocks and other debris was a shinobi struggling desperately to get out. Smirking, Sakura turned to the next shinobi, her fists raised as she watched his eyes widen. One hit from this woman and he would be dead.

Crying out, Sakura started to throw her fists at him, her face scrunched up in concentration as she flung punch after punch. The man was crying out now in alarm as he swayed side to side before he jumped back. Finally, the man tripped over his own two feet.

Slowly, a small grin came to Sakura's pink lips as she threw the final punch. From the force of the punch the ground cracked and broke apart all around her once more. She had punched the ground beside the man instead of punching him directly. It was still enough to knock him out.

Smiling brightly, Sakura looked around, admiring her handiwork. Trees were knocked over, the ground was nothing but dirt and rocks with cracks in it when it used to be bright green grass and five shinobi all lay on the ground moaning in pain.

Nobody messed with Haruno Sakura. She might let one man make her tongue-tied and slightly foolish at times, but she was not a weak little girl like people made her out to be.

Smirking in triumphant, Sakura turned on her heel and started back towards camp, she thought she heard an explosion before. She didn't get further then two steps when she felt a kunai slice into her back. Gasping, Sakura fell to the ground in a heap.

She laid there for a second; feeling the blood run down her small back before her eyes narrowed and she sprung to her feet, suddenly mad. She was up in a second, her fists up. Her eyes were narrowed with anger as she brought her fist back to slam it into the shinobi. Only to find he was already on the ground.

Neji stood above him then, his eyes as hard and as cold as she'd ever seen. In his hands he held a bloody kunai. The blood slowly ran down the blade to drip onto the unmoving man at his feet. Slowly, with his hard eyes, Neji looked to Sakura.

Her heart skipped a beat then. 'Is he mad at me?' She thought with panic in that moment. His eyes were so cold and unfeeling as he stared her down.

"Let's go." He said with no emotion as he dropped the kunai with no remorse at the pitiful form below him. He turned and started back to the camp. Surprised by his actions, Sakura followed, her wide green eyes lingering on the bloody form on the ground for a second before she looked away.

He had been mad. When the fight started at camp, the only thing in his mind had been that Sakura was by herself and probley hurt. He had abandoned his team to go find her. It didn't take long to find her, she hadn't wondered away to far. The cracking of the ground served as an easy way to find her as well.

The scene that greeted him left him speechless. She was fighting and she was damn good at it. Neji realized in that moment that Sakura was not the weak defenseless little girl that he thought her to be. She was strong and very capable of protecting herself.

He had watched her in awe as he stayed perched high in a tree. He didn't want to get caught in the disformation of the ground breaking up, after all. 'How can such a tiny person cause so much damage?' He asked as he saw tree's falling over from one punch that wasn't even close to it.

When she was done, Neji grinned. Not smirk, he grinned. It was a rare sight, and he never did it, but this time he couldn't help it as he observed her destructive power. The grin was wiped off of his face a second later when a shinobi that had been hiding himself in the tree's came out. Neji's eyes narrowed in alarm as he jumped down, preparing to kill him for even thinking about harming Sakura. As soon as he touched ground though, it was to late and he had slashed her back diagonally with his kunai.

Neji saw red then. His entire body grew tense as he felt anger coursing through him. In a blind rage Neji lifted his fist and punched the man in the back of the head. The shinobi stumbled; stunned that someone else was there. That was when Neji grabbed a kunai from his leg holster and he stabbed it into the small of the man's back. Neji watched with satisfaction as he fell to the ground.

It was almost a monstrous thing to do. He stabbed a man when he wasn't looking. It definitely wasn't honorable or respectable. But he didn't regret it at all. He had hurt Sakura. He couldn't allow a man that would hurt her walk away without some kind of permanent damage happen to his body.

Not that he cared about Sakura. He didn't. He just wanted to protect her. He wasn't sure why he had to and why he got so mad. But he was not interested in her. Nope. Not the great Hyuuga Neji. Never.

Neji sighed lightly as he hopped tree to tree to get back to camp. With his byakugan activated he could see Sakura follow him. She looked fine, like she was in no pain at all. But every now and then he could spot a small wince. 'She's tougher then I thought she would be.' He thought as his chest swelled with pride for her. Why he was proud of her, he wasn't sure, but he knew he liked it.

They both landed at the camp within moments. Neji wasn't surprised in the least to see shinobi covered the ground. He looked at Lee who looked like nothing had happened, and then Ino who was gasping for air.

"We need to leave. We've lingered here for to long. Grab your stuff and we'll leave in a few minuets." Neji said with authority. As everybody started to move to get their things and cover their tracks, Neji turned towards Sakura, his rough hand grabbing her arm.

She gasped lightly, her wide eyes looking at him. "Neji..?" She asked quietly, staring at him. Without saying a word, Neji started to pull her away from camp and towards a more secluded place.

He turned to her then and with the most serious look he could give he said, "Take off your shirt."

Sakura shrieked out in surprise as she wrapped her arms about her chest, as if to protect herself from him. "Nani!" She all but yelled as she took a step away.

Neji sighed impatiently as he put one hand on each shoulder and pushed her down to the ground. "Your hurt. Take your shirt off so I can tend to it." He said.

Well.. It was reasonable. It did need attending to. Sakura cursed to herself then. She was a medic but she couldn't exactly fold her hands behind herself and heal when she couldn't even see it. Still, she would rather it got infected then take off her shirt. "No."

'Uh oh.' She thought as anger crossed Neji's face.

"Woman, who said you had a choice in the matter. Take it off or I will." Neji scowled at her. They were on borrowed time; they didn't have time for her to be fighting with him.

Sakura growled lightly as she turned her back to him. Slowly, she unzipped the front of her shirt and shrugged it off, but in a flash it was folded in front of her and against her chest to preserve her modestly. Rolling his eyes, Neji sat down behind her with his ointments and bandages in one hand.

Sakura tensed as she felt nimble fingers on her skin. Surprisingly, his fingers were warm and somewhat hesitant. She smiled slightly. 'So he's actually nervous about this.'

In reality, Neji was trying to figure out how to unclasp her bra. 'Damn woman didn't do it for me. How do you un-do these things anyway? Maybe I could just cut it off?' He thought, but he had a feeling Sakura wouldn't be to thrilled to have him cutting her cloths up.

Sighing, Neji started to fiddle with the clasp. He turned it one way and then the other, he tried overlapping them, tried pulling and then finally tried twisting before he decided a kunai was the only way it was coming off.

If it had been any other situation Sakura would probley be angry and punching the person into next week. But all of the weird things he was doing to the clasp was enough to clap her hand over her mouth to keep from bursting out laughing. 'Poor guy! Next he'll probley try cutting it off!' She snickered. 'Nah, not even he is that stupid.' She thought with laughter.

Until she felt her bra come loose. And she hadn't felt fingers but the cold metal of something. Gasping, Sakura tilted her head to look behind her. "Neji! You did not cut that did you!" She asked, her face tinting red from anger.

Looking at her, Neji smirked openly at her. "Me? I would never do such a thing! Your imaging things." He said innocently as he quickly stashed the kunai behind him. Raising one delicate pink eyebrow Sakura turned back around, making sure she held her shirt against her chest securely.

Slowly, Neji brought his fingers up and traced her wound with gentle fingers. The cut wasn't to deep, but it was long. It started just below her shoulder and was slashed diagonally that reached almost the other side of her waist.

He started to feel his body tense in anger once more. Grabbing some cloth he started to pat some ointment onto her wound. 'At least he's suffering more then her.' He thought with an evil smirk as he tended to her.

If anybody else wanted to hurt Haruno Sakura, they were going to have to get past him first.

AN: This chapter was so much fun to write! There's a lot of humor in this one. Which is good cause I was kind of down when I wrote this.. So writing this cheered me up!

Omg.. I was so surprised by the reviews from the last chapter! Quite a few people said they hoped that Neji wasn't going to ask her to do something perverted.. I really have no clue what caused some of you to think that.. Maybe it was the way I wrote it? But that was neeeevverr my intent! So, I'm sorry if that's what you guys wanted or thought. Also.. One quick shout out.. Somebody gave me a review saying how much they hated this pairing.. But they still loved this story! I've read quite a few stories with pairings I hated, but by the end of the story I was in love! So, for me, it's a huge honor that somebody would like this story even though they hate the pairing! It must mean I'm doing something right! So thank you a lot to the reviewer!

About Sakura.. I for one do not think she is weak. I know she was weak for a long time when she was a genin, but not any more! A lot of people like to portray her as weak and somebody always needed to protect her. In this chapter, I tried to show that she is very capable! She would have kicked some ass to if it weren't for Neji butting in!

Also, I tried to highlight on some of the unsure feelings in this chapter. Like Neji gets soooo mad that Sakura was hurt and really hurts the person that did it.. But then he thinks that he only wanted to protect her but not because he was interested. It's kind of a conflict in emotions. I mean, why else would he protect her so furiously if he didn't at least care for her?

Anyway, hope you enjoyed! Reviewwwwww! Chapters come out so much faster when you do!