Chapter 2: A path to the wrong fate

"So…" Sakura said dryly as she looked up at the sky. She and Neji were sitting outside the café at a two person table. Neji was surprised that they had actually made it before closing time. Sakura seemed to take forever in her house and for what? She was dressed the same way she was dressed everyday when she didn't have hospital duties.

"Aren't we supposed to be meeting Naruto and Hinata?" Neji asked as he sunk in his seat and twiddled with his fingers. He could think of a million other places to be besides here, on a date with Sakura. A girl he had never pictured himself with. Don't get him wrong it's not like he didn't think Sakura was pretty she just wasn't his type.

"Yeah, I wonder where they are" she said looking around. "Oh over here!" she called after she finally spotted them. "Pull up a chair"

"Hey Sakura-Chan…hey Neji." Naruto said in a sly voice. "Are you two enjoying yourselves?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Huh? Yeah sure…" Neji said in a rather bored voice. Sakura shot him a glare. I wouldn't blame her I would've at least acted a little more enthusiastic then that.

"So Sakura- Chan" Naruto said as he leaned back in his chair and put his arm around the back of Hinata's. "Did we keep you waiting?"

"No-"

"Yes, you did." Neji butted in. He hated the fact that he had to wait alone with Sakura for that long.

"Neji…" Sakura started to say as she glanced at him with a look of concern. Something was defiantly up with him.

"What's wrong Neji?" Hinata asked as she rested her head on Naruto's arm.

"Nothing, just leave me alone." Neji sneered at Hinata. She drew back in shock at her cousin's sudden attitude.

Naruto stared at Neji after glancing at his poor shocked girlfriend. He didn't really care if Neji was her cousin nobody was going to talk to Hinata that way. "Hey man cool it don't talk to her like that." He finally said after glaring at him for a good minute with clenched teeth.

Neji grunted as he sunk even lower in his chair. This defiantly was not his favorite place to be right now. Sakura put her hand on her face what kind of date was this turning out to be? An awful one. "Hinata-Chan…" she asked looking over at her shocked friend.

"…"

"Hinata?" she repeated again after receiving no answer from her the first time.

Naruto looked down at Hinata who sat speechless. He shook he shoulders a little. "Hinata-Chan?" he asked "Are you alright?"

Her cheeks suddenly flushed with redness as she felt Naruto's not so gentle but not so rough touch on her shoulders.

"I…" she finally said.

"Hinata?" Sakura asked. "You okay?"

She nodded as her cheeks turned into a dark fire engine red color. "I'm sorry if I bothered you cousin Neji." Naruto mouthed dropped open as he glanced at Neji and then to his white eyed girlfriend. He defiantly didn't deserve an apology for the attitude he was giving everybody especially to Sakura.

"Neji" Sakura said in a deep, dangerous, serious tone. "You should be the one apologizing to Hinata not the other way around."

This was defiantly not how he had expected his day with Sakura to turn out. He sunk lower in chair as he felt all the people at the table glare at him as if he was being stabbed to the death. He wished that he actually was at the moment. He snorted.

Sakura couldn't believe this. She threw her hands up in the air and stood up almost sending her chair flying across the concrete. "Neji may I talk to you?" she asked as she grabbed his hand and pulled him out of his seat.

She dragged him all the way to the other side of the building until she was sure Naruto and Hinata were out of ear shot. "What's wrong with you?" she asked him.

Neji choose not to answer.

"Stop acting childish and answer me." She said through clenched teeth. Oh how she wished that she could just punch him out and beat him down but if she were to try that she knew that she would be the one getting beaten and not the all powerful Hyuuga Neji.

Neji looked down into her jade eyes which looked so beautiful and delicate to him just like her face. He had wanted to scream and curse her and everybody else out so badly but he would hate to see such a pretty face like hers get upset again. He'd already seen her up set the night Sasuke had left. It had pained him to look at her like that so he defiantly wouldn't want to be the one to upset such a pretty face.

"I…" he couldn't find words to say.

Sakura looked at him as he gazed into her eyes. She didn't know who she was kidding when she thought that her and Neji could actually get somewhere on this date. They were very different. After Sasuke left that night Neji was named most handsome ninja in the village by all of Sasuke's former fan girls when they immediately started swarming after him after Sasuke's disappearance. But she just couldn't get past his horrible attitude. She had no idea he was like this.

"Well it's obvious you don't wanna be here…" she stated "And I guess that…I guess that…" The more she glanced into Neji's glazed eyes the harder it was to find words for her sentence. It was like losing pieces to a puzzle that you're trying to find but you keep getting distracted by a television program and you my faithful readers should all know what that's like…well at least I do.

"What do you think they're doing?" Naruto asked Hinata back at the table. They had been waiting almost minutes for the return of their comrades there was no sign of Sakura or Neji anywhere.

"Shame, shame Naruto-Kun" Hinata said scowling him. "It's not good to spy."

"Who said anything about spying?" he asked her as a weird smirk crossed his face. "I'm just wondering." He leaned back further into his seat. "Would it be considered spying if oh lets say I got lost on my way to the bathroom and suddenly see them talking and I 'over hear' them?" he asked his girlfriend as she peered at him in disgust.

"Oh Naruto spying is wrong and you of all people should know that." She tried to adjust her head on his arm and to her surprise she found it wasn't there. She glanced over at his seat that was empty. He looked up and saw him running around the corner.

"Naruto!" she screamed after him. "It's not right to spy!" she got up and chased after him.

"It's obvious that you don't wanna be here with me" Sakura finally found the words to her sentence after she broke away from Neji's seductive gaze. "I don't want to be getting in the way of anything better you could be doing so…you can leave. Don't you have to train? Aren't you and the others going on another mission to try to find Sasuke in a few weeks?"

Neji's eyes widened. Sure he would have left on his own but after being ordered to leave by her…well lets just say that's something he was not about to do. "Sakura…I"

"You can leave!" she barked at him with her jade eyes that seemed to be turning red.

Neji frowned. "I'm not leaving, you can't tell the almighty Hyuuga Neji to leave I tell you to leave, so leave!" he barked back.

"Why don't you leave? You know I bet you Sasuke wouldn't have acted this nasty to me."

Neji's eyes widened and the corners of his mouth folded upwards into a grin. "This isn't about me at all is it?" he asked her. "This is about Sasuke. It's all about Sasuke." He chuckled.

"W-what! Shut up. You don't know anything!" she screamed but it turned a little raspy because of all the screaming she had done before.

"Oh please…you've got to let him go and move on" he crossed his arms and shook his head. "If I last recall it he didn't appreciate you at all, I thought you said that he thought you were annoying, isn't it true?" he asked.

"…"

"If I were you Sakura I would try to find a man who appreciates the love you have to offer." He turned around and gave her a small wave. "I'll see you when I see you…" he said weakly.

Sakura stood there silent. Neji made an excellent point. Sasuke never showed any real interest in her. Sure on the night she was knocked out he had mumbled 'thank you' to her but all the rest of the times it was as if he hated her. "If he really cared…" Sakura said to herself. "He wouldn't have left me here to suffer without him." She held her head down. Her eyes stung as she felt tears rising into them. "No" she said weakly. "I'm done crying…I won't cry over him anymore." She wiped her eyes and turned around to leave but she bumped into something or someone rather who was crouched behind a bush. She saw blonde spikes pop out of the bush.

"Naruto what are you doing here!" she screamed frantically. "Were you spying on us?" she narrowed her eyes at him

"What no of course not Sakura-Chan I would never spy on you what kind of person do you take me for…I was just headed to bathroom." He said nervously as sweat rolled down his face.

"The bathrooms inside you dope" she said grabbing him by the collar.

"Please Sakura-Chan!" Hinata said as she rounded the corner. "Be gentle with Naruto-Kun. I tried to stop him." She put her arm around his as Sakura released him from her killer grip.

Naruto sighed in relief. "Hinata-Chan just in time!" he said embracing her. She blushed a dark red. "I was about to be killed." He lifted her up a little.

Sakura's frown turned into a warm smile as she watched the two of them.

"W-well I told you about spying Naruto-Kun" she said as she was released from his embrace. "I hoped you've learned a lesson."

"Yeah don't make up a corny bathroom excuse when it's inside." Naruto chuckled as he put both hands behind his head but he was soon on the floor with Hinata's foot pressed against his back. "You idiot I should've let Sakura clock you." She scowled at him. She bent down to help him up and rubbed his spiky hair. "You're so silly sometimes." She smiled at him.

"Yeah…hehe" Naruto said nervously as Hinata helped him up. He gave her a kiss on the cheek. Hinata stood frozen there as red a fire hydrant. "Come on Hinata I'll take you home."

She gasped in panic. "But Naruto I haven't eaten anything yet!" she whined as she was pulled away from the café she glanced back at Sakura in hopes that she would do something but she just gave them a friendly wave goodbye. "Naruto…" she whined.

Sakura giggled as their voices got softer. She suddenly felt all depressed again. She sat on a nearby bench and covered her eyes to hide her tears. "Maybe he's right…" she said after about a minute of sobbing. "I do need to find someone who can appreciate the love I can offer. Sasuke never appreciated it. It meant so much to me when he whispered the words 'Thank You' in my ear. But now that I think of it, it doesn't really mean anything. I've got to get over him."