CHAPTER 4
Blah- story
'Blah'- thoughts
"Blah"- dialogue
Blah- inner Sakura
Sakura took a step outside her room and looked around. Surprisingly, no one was around and no sound could be heard. She sighed and started to walk down the corridor.
She passed a few doors and discovered that she had never been in that place before and that …she was lost.
' Great, now I am lost in this huge construction called Hyuuga manor'
She was concerned, how is she supposed to know where to go? It is her second day here for goodness sake! Sakura came to a stop as she found herself in the middle of two corridors. ' Where to go?'
Sakura opted for the one on the right. It was not a long corridor she could see the sun shining at the end and the sound of something hitting another something. She walked to the shogi door and slid it open, there, in all his glory, was the Hyuuga Neji.
He was covered in sweat and shirtless, located in where it seemed a small garden. Neji was hitting an apple tree, the petals of the white flowers floating in the warm air.
Neji was turned, his back facing her. The only thing she could do was stare at the shirtless male who stole her kiss last night.
"Morning Neji-san"
"Morning? Is nearly one PM"
Sakura looked stunned. 'One PM! What the hell'
"But is ok, I guess, you were up until late at night"
She blushed a little bit.
" Uhm…about last night…uhm…no hard feelings right?"
Neji stopped what he was doing and turned slowly revealing his forehead bare to the world. With his green seal still in contrast with his skin.
" As you wish"
Neji said as stoic as ever and grabbed a towel to dry himself. Sakura felt bad for some reason but then she remembered that she still owed him a 'thanks' for carrying her to her room last night so she advanced forwards.
She stood beside him and started to pull her face closer to his cheek. She was about to peck him when he turned around and their lips touched again.
Blink
Blink
They stood like that for what seemed like hours, no one daring to move. Confused green eyes staring at even more confused pearly eyes and lips merely touching.
Neji's hand touched her cheek and his eyelids closed as he brought his lips fully on hers. Sakura was startled at first but somehow; it was impossible for her to stop him. So she kissed him back.
Neji broke the kiss and smirked at her.
" Fight Me," He whispered in her ear sending her some shivers.
"What!"
Sakura was confused but there was no time for her to react when she saw Neji disappear in the thin air. She felt his presence backwards and turned, she saw Neji readying himself for a punch. He punched. She dodged.
"You've got fast," Neji said with a bit of amusement in his tone.
" You don't know a thing yet" Sakura smirked
With that, it was Sakura's turn to attack, she made a few seals and ran against Neji who was in kaiten position. Sakura stopped in mid running and punched the ground making it crack towards Neji.
The Hyuuga saw this and jumped aside just in time for the breaking earth to pass through without hurting him. He stared in awe at the jutsu displayed before his eyes. It was definitely something to be afraid of. He turned his gaze to the culprit of all this chaos.
'This strength! Is even matched to the one of Tsunade herself"
Sakura was still smirking at the effect of her technique on him. She stood there proud of her effort during this past years. To surprise Neji was a hard task and she won the price for the most surprised face on Hyuuga Neji for a long time.
Hinata was taking a walk in the lilies garden thinking about a certain blond haired boy. After all of this years, she still loved him. She couldn't help it, he was her everything.
She sighed for the seventh time this morning and resumed walking. Hinata knew that he didn't even know her and much less to love her or even like her a bit, she knew she was just the background.
Sakura had been his center of attention since forever and she knew it. It hurt her so much to even think of it. She didn't blame Sakura; she was one of her closest friends after all. She just blamed herself for not being his type of girl, for not being more confident when he was around, for stuttering all the time at every word she spoke, that's why she hated herself, for not being brave for him.
Life can be so cruel sometimes and since forever, life had shown her it's worst face. She knew the meaning of cruel. Like her family, who blamed her for being weaker than her little sister and ordered her to train harder so they locked her in a desolated room without food. If it wasn't for Neji and Hanabi who brought her food, she would probably be dead by now.
Ironic, what people can hide behind a smile.
When she heard of the dead of Sasuke, she knew Sakura would be devastated. So decided to help her as much as she could. She didn't want to see someone close suffer like she did.
'I must be strong'
Hinata arrived to the front gates and walked outside to the ninja academy. She was a chunnin teacher there, and she was quite content with that job, she loved kids.
When she passed the chunnin exams on her second try-out, she was so happy, that she almost kissed Kiba until she remembered that Naruto was looking so she stopped and instead hugged him.
She giggled, maybe she wasn't that broken inside.
Naruto was eating (If you call eating to make a lot of noise and giving the near people free noodles on their faces then yeah…) at the Ichikaru thinking about his pink-haired friend.
'Where the hell is she! I've been looking for her for two days…Oh! I just finished my miso ramen'
" Hey old man! Another miso ramen over here!"
Naruto pouted his lips as he always does when he is "thinking". His stupid antics had lasted until now but at least that is what makes him Naruto. Even though he is more mature, successful ANBU and perfectly attractive, he was still the same childish twelve-year-old…but with the same indomitable spirit.
He finished his ramen and decided to take a long walk to think of the whereabouts of his teammate. His feet guided him to the ninja academy, to his old swing exactly. Naruto looked down at the small old swing and smiled. This swing brought him a lot of memories he didn't really wanted to recall, it remembered him his lonely days.
Naruto was about to leave when he saw a petite woman with short blue hair and shy white eyes arrive. He smiled and waved at her.
" Hello Hinata-chan!"
Hinata turned and blushed a bit before returning the wave. She saw him run towards her with enthusiasm as she was fidgeting with her fingers. They say old traits die hard and that was happening to Hinata's fidgeting fingers.
"Hi, Naruto-kun"
"Hi, what are you doing here?"
"Uhm…I work here"
"Really? I didn't know you were a teacher here"
"Well I…uhm…"
"You are still weird Hinata-chan"
Hinata's face fell and she laughed nervously. Naruto was still looking at her when suddenly he remembered he still had to look for Sakura.
" By the way Hinata-chan, have you seen Sakura-chan?"
" Y-yeah, she is living at my house…currently"
Naruto anime fell and looked at Hinata.
"Really?"
"Y-yeah"
" Oh boy, why didn't she tell me? We could have omitted all this stressful days in search of her"
Hinata giggled a bit and smiled. She was more relaxed now.
"If you want, I could take you to her"
" Are you serious?"
Hinata nodded and smiled again. This boy always made her laugh even though she didn't show, his dense comments always made her smile.
" Thank you Hinata-chan! I owe you one"
Naruto hugged her. Hinata was paralyzed by his sudden display of appreciation but hugged him back. But there was still a problem…
" Uhm…but I still have to work"
"Don't worry, I will wait for you"
"Ok then"
Neji stood up and dusted himself. Sakura was still smirking and staring at him.
"Do you know staring is rude?"
"Yeah"
"Then why are you doing it?"
"Because is fun"
Neji snorted and walked away but Sakura was still not done yet.
" Now, now Neji-kun don't be so mad just because I won this match"
The effect of that sentence was the desired one because he stopped abruptly and turned around slowly. Sakura felt a pang of fright cross her but she stood still and waiting for her end to come.
Neji was now fully turned with his eyebrow twitching. His pride was one of his weaknesses, if his pride was hurt; he turned into a completely different person. Like now, but then he decided that he will play with her like she was doing to him.
He breathed, in and out.
In and out.
Neji opened his eyes and smirked at her. Sakura was now fully afraid about this man in front of her.
" Now, now don't flatter your self kunoichi"
Sakura smirked again. 'So, you decided to play uh?'
"Why not? You have to admit it was a great move"
"Who told you that cruel lie?"
Sakura smirked at her defeat. Usually she wouldn't give up so easily but today she was feeling generous. Oh how she loved sarcasm.
" Today I will give up Hyuuga…I am feeling generous today"
"Hn. And a humble spirit is one of your most prized virtues right?"
"Just look in the mirror Hyuuga"
Neji smirked at his defeat.
"Hn. I will let you go without pain if you shut your mouth"
"Ha! Speaking of humility…"
"Shut up!"
"Shut up to you too kiss stealer!"
"Shut up!"
In that moment Naruto and Hinata came into view and Naruto heard everything.
"Don't yell at her for yelling at you Hyuuga!" Naruto yelled
"Don't yell at him for yelling at me for yelling to him Naruto!" Sakura yelled
"Don't yell at him for yelling at him for yelling at you for yelling to him Sakura!" Hinata unexpectedly yelled
"Don't yell at her for yelling at him for yelling at me for yelling at her for yelling to me Hinata!" Neji yelled too
"Hey! Don't yell at her for yelling to her for yelling at...her…uhm…yell at me…no, no…for yelling at…URGH! I've got crossed eyed!"
Naruto grabbed his head and ran away. The three of them stared at him in awe. Neji was the first one to react.
"He's an idiot"
Hinata and Sakura nodded. Indeed that was the most stupid thing he had ever done but they continued with their lives.
Naruto, Hinata, Neji and Sakura were seated in the living room talking peacefully and drinking tea…well except for Naruto who was as loud as a snowstorm and a tornado put together.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier!"
Naruto yelled at Sakura.
"I don't know Naruto, I just…uhm…forgot"
"But we are best friends and…and…well…I"
"Yes Naruto?"
"Well…uhm is just that I was so worried"
Naruto who was seated in front of Sakura stood up and hugged her tightly. Sakura just sited there and hugged him back.
"You mean more to me that you can ever imagine" He whispered
"What did you say Naruto?"
"Nothing"
While the two friends hugged each other, both Hyuugas were feeling uneasy. Neji had this certain feeling in his stomach that was ordering him to stand up and murder the blond onoxobious boy and Hinata had this sad expression on her eyes and for a second a scowl was tugging at her lips but she resisted the urge and smiled a sad smile instead.
"Well, I think I must go now, now that I know you are alright"
"Yeah" Sakura and Neji said at the same time.
Both looked at each other and Sakura smiled. Naruto saw this and walked forward to put his arm around his female friend and glare at Neji. He jut smirked and glared at him like saying is-not-yours-you-fox-boy.
Naruto seemed to surprisingly understand and retorted back a glare saying not-yours-neither and all that exchange of hate in a record of five seconds.
Sakura was looking from Naruto to Neji and back to Naruto and she was feeling at bit uncomfortable but again came Hinata into the rescue when she broke the intense glares between the two males.
"Uhm…why don't you come tomorrow Naruto-kun?"
"I…uhm…ok I guess"
Hinata guided Naruto to the front door and left Sakura and Neji behind. Bad choice…
"So, see you tomorrow kiss stealer" Sakura said as walking to her room
"Sakura…"
She turned around just to find herself face to face with the Hyuuga who pinned her to the wall. His face was inches away and he was looking intently into her eyes.
"How did you just call me?" he said in a soft voice almost above a whisper
"I-I j-just c-called you…uhm…k-kiss stealer"
Sakura was more afraid now because she was completely alone with Neji and no one to help her.
Neji on the other hand was having such fun. Inside he was dancing like hell and on the outside he was smirking like hell but in the end, all of this reactions mixed in one action. He kissed her again.
Sakura was caught off-guard again but like the other two times he had kissed her before, she was not able to stop him. Even though she knew this was not right for the memory of Sasuke, she had made her decision now…
She will chose Neji.
It was not fair for her to live in the past, in a world that hurt her so much. The memory of Sasuke made his heart sting because she remembered all those times he had rejected her, all those times she had loved him and the only thing that he could offer her was a cold shoulder. Then she learned to stop loving him but deep, deep inside, she knew she still loved him.
Now in her dreams she saw that he loved her as much as she did. She was afraid at first to love someone else because if she did, her feelings for Sasuke will fade eventually but now she is ready to move on.
Sasuke saw them from afar and inside it hurt him like hell. He understood he was now gone, gone from this world and gone from her life but it still anger him because he was not able to tell her how much he loved her, because he lost the chance to love her and her to love him back.
He flew out of the mansion and to Neji's garden. He seated under the cherry tree and looked to the sky still there was the same red moon who haunted him and will forever.
Sasuke stood up and suddenly a strong wind came, sending the Sakura petals to dance with it. Sasuke smiled a sad smile
'Sakura'
A/N: Well ppl, we are done with another chapter sorry for the late update but I had some…uhm…issues to solve. But is finally done now wait for the next chapter.
