A/N: Hi everyone! If anyone's even reading this… Well, I'm back with another chapter! Thank you for all of my reviewers and readers! You guys are awesome! Here's chapter 3. Enjoy! Leave a review? Please?
Chapter 3: Mistakes
Sakura closed the door to her apartment and sunk against it, her hands clutching her traitorous heart that still beat so quickly after her encounter with Sasuke.
He can't do this to me, she told herself frantically in her head. He shouldn't be making me feel things that I don't normally feel. It's wrong. It's just plain wrong. I'm . . . I'm over him.
But why was her heart still beating so fast? Why could she still feel his hot, steady breath brushing against her skin? Why could she still smell him? That faint scent of blood and bandages mixed with fire and rain, and underneath it all, the smell of the deepest, darkest part of the forest where no one else dared to travel.
She forced her breathing back to normal and slowly sunk into a meditation stance, her legs crossed and her arms resting on her knees. She had to think, calmly.
Sasuke had acted very . . . strangely today. She remembered the look in his eyes back in the hospital as he had leaned in closer to her, close enough to kiss.
She shook her head, her pink hair flying every which way. She must have been imagining it. Sasuke would never look at her like that. He couldn't possibly have been meaning to . . . kiss her.
She couldn't help the shiver that ran through her spine at how very close he had been. No! Stop thinking of him like that! This is Sasuke we're talking about. I decided a long time ago that if he ever came back, I would consider him a team mate and a close friend only. I should be more concerned about what Tsunade-sensei will do to him. He is an S-class missing nin after all.
She had wanted to ask him so many questions back in that white room. Why did he come back to Konoha? How had he gotten so injured? Just how strong had he become? She knew he had killed Itachi (word travels fast), but had he been responsible for the death of Orochimaru as well?
She sighed. What was the point of thinking about him? He had betrayed Konoha. He had betrayed her. And yet—she couldn't find it in herself to hate him. She could never hate him . . . she lov—No, no, damn it, what was she thinking!
Sasuke is someone that I could never hope to have, she told herself in her most convincing voice. He doesn't love me. He never can, and I've quit wasting my time and tears over him. We will be friends now, and I will help him get back his Konoha headband and we will all be teammates just like before; me, Naruto, and him. Just like before . . . except this time, I won't be the annoying fangirl. I'll just be Sakura. Just Sakura.
She liked how that sounded. She was done with him, and she had left all of those feelings of what she thought had been love far behind her. Now, she was just Sakura . . . all alone. No, not alone, she told herself, Just independent. Yeah . . . independent. She closed her eyes, ignoring the pain in her heart. I don't love him anymore. I never did, she repeated in her head as she forced a smile up to her face.
Maybe, if she repeated it enough, she would believe it.
The sun was setting by the time Tenten and Neji decided to take a break. They had been sparring nonstop since the afternoon, and both of them were exhausted. Of course, after this break, they would continue well into the night. That was what they had always done.
Tenten looked over at her partner from her spot on the ground. He was leaning up against a tree, looking up at the darkening sky. She sighed and returned her gaze back up to the sky as well.
"Tenten," her name rolled off his tongue, old and familiar. She loved the way he said her name. She always had.
"Hm?" She cocked her head to the side to let him know that she was listening, but her gaze remained on the sky.
"You've been acting strange lately. Is . . . everything alright?" He knew that if something was wrong, she would never tell him, but he asked anyway.
"I'm fine," she answered, just as he expected. "What about you Neji?" She finally turned to look at him. "You didn't seem too focused today." Her face took on a worried look, her eyes traveling down to his arm. "I should take care of that," she said softly. He could tell that she felt guilty and was trying not to show it. But it wasn't her fault. After all, it was inevitable that you would get a couple of wounds during training.
"It's just a scratch," he said in a curt tone, dismissing the subject. But she was too stubborn.
She sat up and scooted over to him, bandages and ointment already in her hands. "Let me see it," she said, her voice soft, but commanding.
"I said I was fine." He moved his arm away from her.
"Shut up and stop being stubborn Hyuuga Neji," she told him, grabbing his arm none too gently and rolling up his sleeve. "Goodness, men and their inflated egos," she muttered under her breath.
"Stupid women and their constant nagging," he retorted.
"Well, this stupid woman and her constant nagging has saved your ass more than a couple times." She scowled and he wasn't sure if it was because of his comment or his bloody wound.
"It's a flesh wound," he told her, not liking the way she was biting her lip.
"You should have paid more attention when that second wave of weapons came at you. You know that I like to start big. What were you thinking?" She shook her head while rubbing the ointment into the wound.
He didn't answer, and she didn't seem to mind. She was too focused on taking care of his wound.
He closed his eyes at the feeling of her fingers massaging his arm. Damn, did she have any idea how nice that felt?
"Any new missions lately?" she asked, breaking the peaceful silence. She started to bandage his wound.
"No," he told her truthfully, frowning.
"I suppose the Hokage-sama wants to give us a break after the tough mission we had last time," she said thoughtfully.
"Perhaps." His frown deepened as he remembered the last mission. Tenten had been overpowered by a bunch of Sound nin during an ambush. Her weapons had run out and she was forced into taijutsu. None of the ninja had been much of a challenge, but there had been a jounin there of considerable strength that had managed to tear off her Anbu mask and catch her in a headlock. If he hadn't come just in time . . .
"We're working on taijutsu tomorrow."
She looked at him, her brown eyes flashing. "If this is about the last mission then just forget about it Neji." Tenten stood up abruptly, obviously angry. "I told you that I was tired and that guy was just physically too strong for me. I'm just as disappointed in myself as you are but we both know there was no way of avoiding it." They had had this conversation way too many times for her liking.
He gave her a skeptical look.
With surprising agility and strength, she had him pinned up against the tree he had been currently sitting against and was staring angrily at him, their noses just inches apart.
"Listen here, buddy," she told him, her breath feather light against his skin. He forced his face to remain blank as he stared right back into her furious eyes. "It was one mistake. Don't go thinking that I'm weak and—"
Before she realized what was happening, his deft fingers had already pushed some pressure points in her wrist, causing her the release her grip on his throat. He had her pinned to the ground in seconds, his calloused hands gripping both of her wrists.
"I do not think that you are weak," he said softly but firmly, his eyes boring into hers in that piercing, all knowing way that only Hyuuga Neji could. He held his body only inches away from her own, and she wondered briefly if she was the only one being affected by their close proximity.
"You . . . make mistakes." His smoky grey eyes darkened as he said it. "And it only takes one mistake to get yourself killed." He paused again, and she saw something flash in his eyes; felt his hands grip her wrist all the tighter. Still, she said nothing. "You—I will not let you die. I will never let you die."
There was a moment of silence, brief and fleeting. Slowly, she felt Neji's grip on her arm, loosening, as if he had just noticed how hard he was holding it. He rested his hands on either side of her head. He moved closer, his breath hot and steady against her face.
All Tenten could do was stare back into his cloudy grey eyes, waiting for him to kiss her. Wanting him to kiss her.
Their lips were so close now. So close that she could feel Neji's whole body tense up; hear his fists clenching up tightly from where they rested next to her head. So very close, and she hadn't even felt him move off of her. She lay there on the dirt, looking like a dumbstruck fool until her brain finally caught up with her actions.
Her teeth clenched angrily as she realized what she had done. He was going to kiss me and I didn't resist at all. Damn! My brain just shut down the minute he got within a foot of me. What the hell is wrong with me!
She stood up quickly, and didn't even dare to look and see where Neji was. With a soft, mumbled apology she was far, far away from the training field. So confused and angry with herself that she could barely see straight.
Neji was barely aware that Tenten had even left. He was too shocked at what he had just done. Of course, his face remained paper smooth (except, perhaps, for a small, almost invisible crease between his brows), but inside, his heart was pounding like a war drum. He closed his eyes and took a deep, calming breath, trying desperately to keep his emotions in check.
He had almost kissed her! He had almost kissed Tenten.
It was unthinkable! She was his best friend! And—well, best friends do not kiss each other.
But he himself could barely explain what happened. She had gotten angry. He remembered that. Then she had pinned him up against that tree, with that fiery look in her eyes that already had him thinking things he should not have thought. And the second she had accused him of calling her weak, he had just snapped.
And when she had been under him, her cheeks flushed and her breathing just as hard as his, he couldn't stop himself. Everything inside of him had needed to kiss her so badly that it physically hurt him now that he had deprived himself of it.
He opened his eyes again, and started gathering the fallen weapons that littered the forest floors. Where he would store all the dozens of said weapons was the farthest thing from his mind as he wordlessly gathered them into a large pile.
Of course, he had done the right thing by not kissing her. It was a mistake to have even allowed himself to become so close to her, he knew. He let his emotions control his actions and this was what it had led to. No doubt tomorrow things would be awkward between them. She might even make him talk to her about it. He wasn't sure if he could do that. He didn't know what he had just done himself.
He had been angry. Not really at her, but at the things she said. How she assumed that he thought she was weak, how she always seemed to be degrading herself, even without realizing it. It made him angry. Tenten was talented and strong and had everything any girl would want, but she was constantly looking down on herself. Constantly comparing herself to others and thinking that she was weaker or not as good as everyone else. She didn't seem to be aware that people made mistakes, and that it was okay to make them once in a while. It was as if she thought that she should be perfect in every way.
Tenten had made a mistake by challenging that enemy jounin, but it did not make her any less a ninja than she already was. And he hadn't been trying to make her feel inferior by making her train. He was trying to protect her in the only way she would let him. By training with her everyday so that she would be less likely to be injured in a battle.
Neji thought darkly of the one second he had seen her in the hands of another man before said man had been sprawled on the ground courtesy of his Gentle Fist. She had been struggling, bloody and tired and just barely holding on. That man . . . was touching her and trying to kill her at the same time. Two things that simply pissed him off.
A flash of possessiveness ran through him before he could stop it. Only he should be able to touch her, to look at her. And he had let every man in the village who had dared to show interest in her know that. Although Tenten was not aware of it, she had Hyuuga Neji written all over her in the eyes of every male in Konoha.
And somehow, even though he knew he shouldn't, Neji was proud of it. He was proud that Tenten was his. And he knew he would never let her go. Never.
A/N: So? How was it? Sorry if it got a little rant-ish at the end. Couldn't help it. Please review! I really want to know what you think. Did the story suck? Was it good? I want to know! Just push the little purple button. It's not that hard.
nothing but blue…