Without a Doubt by lilmisssushi
A/N: Erm…I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this chap. A lot of stuff happens so if it doesn't really make sense now, it should make sense later, although that's not much of an excuse :) Please tell me what you think.
Summary: For Sakura, being in love with Sasuke is a given. She's loved him through rejection and betrayal and everything in between, so why should she stop now?
For Neji, blaming everything on fate is the most tried-and-true method around. But throw in Haruno Sakura, and his extremely versatile excuse just doesn't seem to cut it anymore. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. (NejiSaku)(SasuNaru)
Disclaimer: Nope, don't own.
Chapter IV- Surfacing
Back when they still didn't know each other very well, there had actually been a time when Sakura had been too busy to see to Neji herself for one of his usual after-mission check-ups, and had sent one of her many (what he termed as) 'minions' to treat him instead.
He had not appreciated the gesture.
He had ended up pushing past the replacement medic and terrorizing the assistant at the front counter (by glaring daggers and probably scaring her half out of her wits) with all the hidden grace of a coiled tiger. And finally, he stalked along the hallways of the hospital with bandages trailing every which way, blood dripping off his arm and onto the spotless ground, until he found her.
She had been in the midst of updating the medical charts of one of her more regular patients when he had shown up, grabbed her arm, and forcibly proceeded to drag her halfway back across the hospital to where his bed was situated.
"You. Me. In my room. Now." He had ground out, and the surprised look on her face - the Hyuuga could be scary when he wanted to be - quickly disappeared as it dissolved into a rather unfamiliar smirk.
"Why, Neji-san, I had no idea you were so desperate for my attention. You could have just asked, you know."
"Don't patronize me!"
She stepped closer to him, and tried to hold in her laugh as she caused him to back up against the wall. She placed her fingertips against the warm blue cotton of his hospital shirt, and tiptoed and leaned in close enough to whisper in his ear;
"That wasn't my intention, Neji-san."
Then, she pushed open the door of his room and approached his bed. He narrowed his eyes and followed her. She motioned for him to sit, but he ignored her.
"So, what's up?" she asked, sitting herself down and crossing her legs at the ankles primly. He glared at her, saying nothing.
"I haven't got all day, Neji-san!" Sakura pressed him in a sing-song voice, knowing it would piss him off. She grinned inwardly. (Sakura 1, Hyuuga 0).
"…"
She patted the bedspread invitingly, but he crossed his arms, refusing to budge like the true human icicle that he was. She wondered how far she could push him before he'd snap.
"Come to mommy Sakura!" she cooed, waving wildly with her hands.
"…"
"Aww, don't you love me anymore?"
"…!"
Finally she took pity on him and sighed, giving up. "What was it that you wanted then, if not treatment, Neji-san?
"Why did you send someone else to heal me?" he asked, and was suddenly aware of how childish he sounded. "I thought we had an understanding."
She was momentarily startled by the sincerity of his tone. She blinked a couple of times before answering.
"Well…I guess I was thinking that you're probably sick of seeing my face every time you get injured. I'll become a bad omen for you if we keep going at this rate."
He 'humph'ed lightly. "That's for me to decide, Haruno. And it's my prerogative if I want to keep getting the best services the med-squad has to offer."
Sakura looked up to find Neji's pearly-eyed gaze trained on her. Was that…a compliment she detected somewhere in that bland remark of his?
"Since when did you start thinking of me so highly, hmm? Not that I'm complaining." She directed a huge, blinding sunshine-y smile at him.
He chose not to grace that comment with a response, but relaxed his tense body just a little.
"Well, if we're going to be doing this on a long-term basis, I think we better start over again," she held her hand out in his direction. "Hi, I'm Sakura, not 'Haruno' and not 'woman' either." She grinned.
He paid no mind to her outstretched hand, but sat down on the bed beside her.
"You should really cease with the formalities then. It gets tiring."
It seemed they had come to a truce.
"My pleasure, Neji." She boldly placed a finger under his chin and turned his face towards her. Then she pulled a tongue depressor (aka an ice cream stick) out of nowhere and threatened him with it.
"Now, say ahh!"
"You've got to be kidding me."
It was a couple of weeks after Naruto and Neji's return, when Ino found Sakura, her lifelong best friend/rival, entering her family's flower shop and causing the little bell placed above the door to tinkle engagingly.
She beamed widely in welcome and rushed over to throw her arms around Sakura's neck, a bouquet of roses and peonies in hand and all.
"Forehead-girl! You came at just the right time! I was gonna come find you later today actually, 'cause it seemed as if your pitiful excuse for an existence disappeared off the planet once the Hyuuga came back."
Ino paused at this point and threw a conspiratorial wink in Sakura's direction before waggling her fine blonde eyebrows suggestively. Sakura just stood there, amused at her friend's antics and babbling and shook her head, laughing.
"Which reminds me…"
Ino placed a finger thoughtfully against her lush lips, before declaring that she and Sakura should catch up since it was the mid-morning lull in her floral sales. She daintily stepped her way back to where the register was located and dropped her armful of flowers on the table.
"Mom!" she yelled, "I'm going out with Sakura okay! I'll be back soon!"
"Alright, dear!" came the expected response, floating in from the garden out back.
Ino grinned and spun on her heel, sashaying back to Sakura and grabbing her arm, before they headed outside together and to the nearest café shop, bickering like the truly dysfunctional best friends that they were.
After Sasuke had left for Orochimaru, Ino and Sakura had taken the high road and decided that friendship was a lot more important - especially in the dangerous world of shinobi, where death could literally be around the corner- than anything else that stood in their way, and that they would never fight over a mere guy again. Ino had been the one to approach first and attempt to get their friendship kick-started again, and for that, Sakura had been extremely grateful, in her time of need.
Ino had always had the bigger heart, it seemed.
Soon, they became inseparable once again, and on the days Sakura had off work, she found herself a regular fixture in the Yamanaka's living room.
(Besides, as Ino grew up, she grew out of her, admittedly, rather shallow affections for the Uchiha, whereas Sakura had been the one to hold on, much to the dismay of her best friend.
"You need to pick yourself up out of the dirt, forehead girl! Brush it off and get back on that horse!" she had impulsively and spiritedly yelled in Sakura's ear one day, which caused Sakura to wince and dearly hope that her suspicions about having somehow burst an eardrum would not be confirmed.
"Maybe I like the dirt," she had replied, dryly. Ino had merely sighed and let her off the hook.
Ino thought that Sakura could be too empathetic and forgiving for her own good, sometimes. It would be the death of her. Of course, she voiced these suspicions out loud, to which Sakura scoffed at.)
She had really missed her loud, confident, sassy best friend- and Ino could happily say the same.
Ino had confessed to missing having a girl for a best friend, because, there were some things that she just naturally couldn't talk to her guy friends (namely Shikamaru and Chouji) about, as open-minded as she was.
Not that she hadn't tried.
But she had caught on after several catastrophic events that had caused even the utterly laidback Shika to break down in (manly) tears.
Sakura stifled a laugh as she recalled the time Ino had managed to somehow (violently) coerce Chouji into going lingerie shopping with her.
It had been complete with personal modeling of all the outfits she had picked out for herself. Chouji had keeled over, blood spurting out of his nose, more than once, and finally she took pity on him and allowed him to return to the safety of his home and his chips, all in one piece. She had never seen him run so fast.
Ino had also grown up to be a beautiful, curvaceous woman (whose height was a constant source of annoyance for Sakura, who was entirely too petite for her own taste.) She had grown out her platinum blonde hair again after the Chuunin exam, but hadn't forgotten the reason she had cut it in the first place. (It was now as long as it had been before, and in pretty much the same style, although she liked to vary it every now and then.) She was a huge flirt and had hordes of men lusting after her, with her deep blue eyes and clear porcelain skin, but she was also a fully capable kunoichi whose expertise lay in interrogation.
The Yamanaka's mind infusion technique was put to good use with Ino, who had learnt to interpret body language as well. She was now of jounin status and had ended up in the examination department of Shikamaru's tactical planning division, which was really no mean feat.
Sakura had also been subjected to Ino's beady eyes and sticky nose too many times for her to count, so she wasn't really all that surprised when Ino got promoted to being Morino Ibiki's assistant and guilted Sakura into bar-hopping with her into the lone hours of the night.
They settled at a cute café shop which had little white tables covered with huge red umbrellas by the roadside. They sat down, Sakura leaning back in her seat and Ino crossing her legs, causing the hem of her purple skirt to rise slightly, and revealing the tight spandex shorts she wore underneath, much to the disappointment of several male passerby's.
Ino looked over at Sakura inquiringly to find her staring off into the distance, and proceeded to flick her on the forehead. "What is it, forehead girl? Having another episode with yourself again?"
------
This had become an inside joke between the two, because after the preliminaries of the Chuunin exam, despite their professed 'mutual dislike' for one another, they had trained together a couple of times while their male counterparts had been slacking off elsewhere. Ino had been astonished to find that Sakura, indeed, had an alter-ego (and a manic one at that) which constantly made its presence known, whether she wanted it to or not.
Ino had found out when she had once again been prevented from fully tapping into Sakura's inner psyche using her family's mind technique. (She had been booted out of Sakura's head through no indecisive means a number of times, and had since learnt to keep far far away.)
She had reluctantly kept it secret after Sakura had threatened, in her friendly way, to keep it to herself, or else Ino's obsession with one Shiranui Genma – and subsequent collection of photos of him naked in the shower – would be made painfully public, which permanently settled the matter.
They had laughed about it afterwards, and Ino teased Sakura, saying that now, she at least knew what went on in Sakura's mind whenever she stared off into space.
-------
Sakura smiled and answered Ino's question from before;
"Shut up, Ino. What was it that you wanted to tell me? You needn't have dragged me out all the way out here just to say hi. So let me hear your excuse."
"Gosh, you really don't have a social life, do you? Well, I suppose it's my responsibility to get your lazy butt out in the world, otherwise you'd wallow at home all the time. I'm ashamed to say that my best friend is nineteen years old and hasn't yet been on a single date!"
Sakura groaned and tried to defend herself.
"Oh, not this again, you've really got a one-track mind, Ino-pig. I have too been on dates! Just…nothing…serious. Not everyone can find their soul mate by the time they're eighteen like you guys…. Oh yeah, how's Shika doing lately anyway?"
(She had tried changing subjects to get Ino off her back, but unfortunately the blonde saw right through her. Ino narrowed her eyes and waved a manicured finger back and forth menacingly.)
"Now, now you're not getting rid of me that easily. We're gonna get you some male booty eventually, don't you worry about that."
Sakura gaped at her friend's blunt statement.
"Heeey that's not what I meant-"
"Nuh-uh." Ino quickly slapped a hand over Sakura's mouth and 'shh'ed her until she was quiet. She yelped indignantly and glared up at her blonde friend.
"Genma's birthday is in a couple of days and you are coming with me to his party, missy. Everyone'll be there and you can't not make an appearance."
Sakura licked her hand evilly and watched smugly as Ino recoiled away in disgust before wiping it on a napkin.
"Just watch me."
Ino decided that Sakura really was a hopeless case. She'd be forced to use her ace in the hole at this rate, preferably sooner rather than later. She smirked slyly, batting her lashes, and beckoned Sakura closer. Sakura ignored her.
"Sasuke-kun will be there."
Sakura looked up in surprise. "He will? But he usually hates these types of things!"
Ino laughed in a scary manner. "I have my ways…"
"You mean you overheard Naruto begging and succeeding in getting him to go."
"Well…yeah."
Ino soon left to go back to the flower shop after acquiring Sakura's promise that she'd show up at the highly anticipated party. (Apparently Genma always threw crazy birthday bashes and they'd become infamous over the years.)
Sakura was left to walk alone, deep in thought, back down the street.
Which was how she bumped into Kiba. Akamaru's shaggy head loomed right behind the dog-lover, who greeted Sakura in his usual boisterous manner. She squealed and took the chance to kiss Akamaru on his nose, ruffling the fur between his huge ears.
"Hey Sakura! How come Akamaru is always the one who picks up the ladies? What about me?"
She hugged Akamaru (who had saved her life on more than one occasion) one last time before backtracking to face Kiba.
"Hahaha, what about you?"
He pretended to faint in mock distress, his hand held over his heart.
"Ouch, oh, snap, you're as cruel as ever," he said, and they grinned at each other.
"Only to you," she replied. He smiled mischievously and then his gaze wandered down the clean lines of her body, gaze obviously appreciative. Her countenance turned murderous when his eyes lingered somewhere below her collar, and she bopped him one over the head.
"Kiba you pervert!"
He yelled out and held up his hands in defense.
"Don't hurt me!" he said, "Think of the baby!" He pointed at Akamaru, who howled back in response.
"And what, pray tell, were you looking at?" she asked, her voice low, and he laughed nervously.
"Nothing, nothing…I just-"At this point, he started sniffing the air, and he stepped carefully around her, being sure to keep out of her punching distance. He circled her, lifting strands of her pink hair every now and then before she slapped his hand away. Then came the bombshell.
"Hey Sakura…how come you smell like the Hyuuga?" he asked, clearly puzzled, while scratching the back of his head.
She was startled by his question (she had forgotten that Kiba had a dog's keen sense of smell and its sanitary habits to boot), so she didn't really think much before answering.
"Oh…about that…"
--------
It didn't rain much in Konoha, so it had come as a surprise to Sakura and Neji when they were in the midst of training the other day and the heavens opened up and really started to pour down on them. They had persisted with their spar for awhile until Neji had called it quits, his gaze leveling into concern as he noticed how much Sakura resembled a drowned rat in that moment.
Then they ran back to the Hyuuga Compound together, wordlessly. She was soaked through to the bone and shivering by the time they'd arrived back, and his warm living areas were a welcome sight.
Neji had asked her to stay over for the night since the rain didn't look like it'd be letting up any time soon. She'd thanked him softly and her fingers grazed his arm as she brought it up to wipe a smudge mark off his cheek, the flames from the fireplace casting them both in a warm glow.
---------
"…So meanwhile, one of his maids washed and dried my clothes. And I asked him what his secrets were for keeping his hair so shiny- I didn't really expect an answer, you know, but he reached around me and pulled out a couple of bottles of specialized shampoo from his closet, that he'd gotten once, from a mission in Mist."
"Ah, okay," Kiba answered cautiously, "I guess that pretty much explains it…"
She turned towards him and asked him suspiciously why he still sounded so hesitant, almost unconvinced. (While they'd been talking, Sakura had unconsciously chosen a random direction and led them down the street, Akamaru shuffling slowly behind them.)
"Well, I guess it's 'cause that really doesn't sound like the cold-blooded Hyuuga that I know…oh yeah, except for the shampoo bit, I always knew he was a pretty-boy."
Sakura laughed at Neji's expense.
They walked along companionably for awhile, exchanging jokes - and then Kiba stopped, and she bumped into his arm. She raised her head to tell him off about stopping so suddenly, but when she looked up and followed his line of sight, she realized what had caused him to pause.
Hinata and Naruto were up ahead…Naruto was laughing and saying something while steadily gazing down at the Hyuuga heiress, whereas Hinata was blushing and hiding behind her newly grown hair, adoration clearly labeled in her eyes, and looking just about ready to faint…but most importantly of all, they were holding hands.
Quickly, Sakura accessed the situation. Sasuke was off to the side, somewhere in the distance, and looking entirely as disgruntled as she felt, (if not with a hint of something more.) She guessed that the last Uchiha had witnessed the whole scene, and made a note to herself to get the story off him later. Hinata and Naruto seemed to be oblivious to the entire world, and meanwhile, Kiba had frozen like a startled deer in headlights right beside her.
In a corner of her mind, she dimly remembered that the Inuzuka had made no secret of wanting to be with Hinata for a long time, almost as long as the Hyuuga heiress had been holding that torch for Naruto and Naruto alone. She instantly felt for him.
"Okay, Kiba, you go get Hinata and I'll take off with Sasuke. I'll handle Naruto later."
"Deal," he replied, somewhat breathlessly.
He'd been smacked in the face harder than she thought.
Swiftly, she made good on her end of the bargain, barging right through the middle of the would-be lovers and grabbing Sasuke's hand. She yelled an apology at Naruto and told him she'd talk to him later before stalking off with the Uchiha in tow.
He let her.
Sakura was in a bad mood by the time that she found Sai training alone in the forests. She sat down on one of the huge boulders along the edges of the clearing and let her shoulders sag a little. It had been a long, tiring day, and if anything, she needed some major therapy. Sai's twisted logic would have to do for now though.
Sasuke had been even quieter than usual as she walked him home.
"What are you doing here, ugly?" Sai's voice rang out against the silent backdrop that the Konoha training grounds provided.
"Don't you think I see enough of you as it is with our team meetings? Must you haunt me even as I run away from you?"
Sakura seriously felt like kicking another one of her teammates right then. Sai's voice, so similar to Sasuke's, grated along her nerves.
"What happened?" she asked, trying to subtly poke him in the right direction. He turned to look at her, and there was something that flickered momentarily in his dark gaze, before he averted his eyes once again.
She settled for splitting the ground in warning with a single tap of her heel. Sai gulped audibly and backed away from her.
"Just keep doing what you were doing," she growled dangerously, "I came to find you so that you could hold me back in case I felt the need to pulverize something."
"Nothing much."
"Haha you're obviously in denial. That's a new one. How 'bout you just admit that you like staring at my ass while I train? I've seen the way you look at me you know."
"The dobe's just gotten himself a girlfriend."
Sasuke smirked, but she knew him too well to just leave it at that. Her breath hitched somewhat in her chest, and for some odd reason, the back of her eyelids started to prickle a little.
"WHAT THE HELL? Are you insane? Are you trying to get smothered in record time or something? And I thought that you'd-"
"I never thought that he'd get one before I did, you know."
She cut herself off and tried to swallow back the sudden lump in her throat.
Sakura realized that Sasuke was trying to justify something to himself. He would never tell her what he was feeling, not if he could help it. She surmised that he thought he'd be alone again now that Naruto was distracted…with Hinata. She sighed, turning to him and placing a hand on his upper arm. His clothing felt soft underneath her fingertips.
"You thought what? That I'd listen to your life story while you use and then discard me like your personally whipped punching bag?"
"Ohh, Sasuke-kun…"
He smirked reassuringly, but shrugged her placating hand off. Then he shoved his curled fists into his pockets and walked away. She'd been about to go after him when he turned and saluted her, the corners of his lips lifting up slightly.
She shook her head and got up to leave. It had been a mistake to come.
She stopped in her tracks and watched, once again, as he left her there, the Uchiha fan on his back fading slowly into the distance.
Sai grabbed her wrist, and pulled her towards him. She tried resisting a bit, but finally she just gave in and collapsed against his chest, grasping onto his shirt helplessly. He awkwardly put his arms around her.
"Hey hey, ugly. You're upset about something."
"Good night, Sasuke-kun."
She snorted. "Ya think?"
They stood there in silence for awhile, neither making a move to leave, each contemplating what to say next.
He tentatively patted her on the back. "Well, about what I said before… I didn't really mean it. I don't actually mind you having your way with me as long as you feed me later."
She snuffled kinda pathetically and he pulled back to look down at her seriously. "I'm sorry. Can I take that last line back? I'm still learning, you know."
She smiled a little at his peace offering.
"…Sure. When you put it like that, how can I resist?"
They sat down side-by-side, and then the forest was quiet once again. A leaf floated down and came to rest in her palm, and the breeze picked up a little, sending shivers of something that felt almost like…anticipation, down her spine. She wasn't exactly sure what was about to happen, but it was big, she could feel it in the heaviness of the air.
She suddenly thought of Neji. What would he say if he saw her like this? Her heart lifted a little at the thought.
-end chapter 4-
The ball is finally getting set into motion lol. More to come soon! Thanks for your support everybody! It's party time when the next chapter rolls around!
And gosh, this chapter…seriously didn't turn out the way I thought it would. I really hope the last part made sense to you all, it's a little emotional. You might wanna read kinda slowly there. Meh. Ah well.
Ooh yes, and credits go to the Cashew Nuts for the shampoo idea! XD
Thanks again for reading!