A/N- Hi everybody! I'm back! School's almost out yea and I'm getting a parakeet after final exams! (Which I though was kind of ironic given the story!) Enjoy your summers and read my awesome story which I also hope you enjoy…

Disclaimer- I don't own Naruto, if it would mean I didn't have to write one of these at the beginning of every chapter I'd write a song about that

Chapter Two- Japan, Land of Rose Blossoms and Bad Hair Days

Last Time: Neji heard a very crazy song on the radio that forced him into spiraling depression and now he and some of the crew are on their way to the land of rose blossoms to meet Crystal, the creator of the song. Meanwhile, Crystal and Jackie are still looking for a birthday present for Jackie's boyfriend…

"Crystal! Great news!"

"Pigs really can fly; they were just hiding it this whole time?" Crystal guessed sarcastically without looking up from the magazine she was reading. She had to finish five stock market articles by the end of the week or she was going to fail her business class.

"No, better. So I was thinking and I was like to myself 'Well what does everyone like?' And I was like 'I don't know, free food?' and I was like yeah and where can you get free to moderately priced food every afternoon?' and I was like 'Sam's Club! Of course!' but then I remembered Sam's Club doesn't have gift cards so I was like 'Well everyone likes some kind of electronics right?' so I decided to get Will, drum roll please,"

Crystal sighed and looked up, patting out a drum roll on her thigh, "Tada! I got him a Best Buy gift card!"

"You got your boyfriend a gift card? I thought you weren't gonna do that cause it was 'insensitive' or something."

"Oh well, he won't care."

Crystal got up, suddenly needing some spicy food, "Okay, let's just go."

"Yeah! Fancy restaurant time!" Crystal changed into well cut black pants and a periwinkle button up with a black camisole with silver trim under it. She buttoned the collared shirt up about half way and put on a pair of 'not-to-high' heels. Then she put on some light makeup and the two of them walked toward Crystal's dark blue Mustang convertible, the music biz has some perks after all.

"For the record," Crystal said as they got on the freeway to meet Will and his brother for his 'birthday dinner', "Sam's Club does have gift cards. They're by the customer's service desk."

Jackie sighed, "You tell me this after I buy a Best Buy gift card!" she whined. Crystal chuckled, things had calmed down in the past couple weeks, luckily, she was beginning to become old news. Never a dull moment, but at least people were jumping off roofs or sprinting through traffic to meet her anymore. Not that she knew of anyway.

SPACE/TIME SKIP

At the restaurant…

Jackie, Crystal, Jackie's boyfriend Will and Will's older brother Matt were sitting around a corner table packed with food. Crystal and Matt were enjoying some fine curry and Will was thanking Jackie for her 'wonderful' and 'thoughtful' gift. Jackie was nodding and smiling and being bubbly as usual. Crystal and Matt were high school seniors and the best of friends. They were happy to chow down on food they probably wouldn't pay for in companionable silence where as the other two, sophomores, had to talk all the time or they'd start to feel 'uncomfortable'.

At the moment, the conversation was about how much Jackie enjoyed Cheeze Nips, just about as random as usual. Then, abruptly, the younger girl stood up and announced that she had to go to the bathroom. "Then go!" Crystal groaned, Jackie frequently felt the need to announce her whims to the world. Matt nodded and Will didn't notice because he had finally found a break in Jackie's incessant talking to start eating, and now nothing would make him stop.

SPACE SKIP

Neji jumped out of the cab and ran toward the restaurant. The plane trip had nearly killed him. They had flown first class because Neji's uncle had insisted. So he sat there, his nails tearing little rips in the super-padded chair he was sitting in while his friends (Tenten and Lee had come because they wouldn't let him go alone and team 7 had come to fly first class and Shikamaru had come because he was the closest thing to parental supervision the group of shinobi had) while they ogled about flying first class and drank free refreshments and ate free food. They also played that damn song 3 times on the eighteen hour flight not counting all the times they played it in the airports that they switched planes at. Nonstop flight hadn't been an option. If all this wasn't enough to kill him, Neji hadn't been able to find out anything about Crystal Lira. Her agent must have been really good; there was nothing anywhere, a near impossible feat nowadays.

When they had finally landed in Tokyo, they had taken a cab to the small city that the album jacket said the girl lived in (Tenten loved the singer to death and had bought the CD the second it came out).

Once they got there, they finally hit a lucky streak. They asked a teenager for directions and found out that he played soccer with Crystal. She was the team captain at her high school. They also learned her best friend was the scariest random happy person the boy knew and that girl's boyfriend's brother was the co-captain of the team. The boy said he should have been at practice but Crystal and Matt (the brother) had canceled it for the boyfriend/younger brother Will's birthday and the four previously mentioned parties were taking him out for dinner.

At this point, it took Tenten, Lee, Shikamaru and Sasuke to keep Neji from ripping the restaurant name out of the boy's throat. He told them, reluctantly, where he thought the four were and he even offered to give the shinobi a ride, except his sports car wouldn't hold them all, so they had taken two cabs to the other side of town.

So Neji ran across three major streets to get to the restaurant and his friends caught him right before he could be crushed by an oncoming bus. Then, after Tenten rationalized away Neji's primary anxiety, they proceeded relatively calmly into the restaurant. Lee, who definitely had the most manners of all of the ninja, politely asked the head waiter if there was a Mr. Matt Gilding here (he figured if he asked for Crystal the guy would catch on. Lee's smart like that). The waiter went into the back of the restaurant and a girl walked out, her arms were crossed and she looked pretty pissed off.

"Hello miss," Lee began, all of them knew that this wasn't Crystal because she was on the her own album cover at least. "can you tell me where we could fine Matt Gilding?"

"You guys are here to talk to Matt? Who is your hair stylist? They deserve to be shot." The girl replied snottily. It was obvious that Lee's diplomacy was going nowhere with this kid, so Shikamaru stepped in.

"Yes, we are. We are interested in talking to him and Crystal Lira if she is available about a very interesting scholarship opportunity. Who are you?" Shika responded coolly.

"I'm Jackie Zales and I was already up to come tell you to beat it. How about you go home and take a shower then maybe we'll talk?" Jackie was just majorly pissed off because these goons were intruding on her Willy's b-day dinner.

"Well could you spare one minute of your precious minute of your time to step aside and let us find who we need? It's obviously not you." Sasuke tried, a bit indignant, he was used to being the stuck up one who always got his way.

"Your hair looks like a chickens butt." Jackie said arrogantly.

Sasuke looked like he was about to cry.

Neji sighed and stepped forward, "I really need to talk to Crystal." He said earnestly, showing way more emotion then usual. He was at breaking point.

"Okay, take your cheap conditioner and get a life." Jackie scoffed.

"Hey, don't talk to my friend that way!" Tenten wasn't usually a bitch, but any girl can be good at it if you push them too far.

"Hey G-I Jane (Tenten does kinda act like a tom boy and wear cargo pants a lot) get in line, I can only insult so many people at one time."

Tenten puffed and made a fist which was caught by Sakura.

Sakura, the voice of reason for once was calm, "We should go now. You can tell we're intruding. Some people like role playing while they eat, obviously this chick's playing the queen." All girls can be bitches, some are just naturally better at it.

Lee nodded and the ninja dragged Neji and Tenten out.

"Don't worry," Naruto muttered, he had stood at the back of the group, and he still wasn't sure why he was in Japan but he was upset because all of his friends were upset now, "this isn't over."

SPACE SKIP

Jackie got up and attempted to drag Crystal with her to the bathroom, something she usually did, but Crystal was way too caught up in her curry to notice her friend leave. So Jackie walked to the front of the restaurant all alone, only to be met be the madrilène half way.

"Miss, there are some people here to see Mr. Gilding; I don't think you would want me to let them in."

"Don't worry Marco; I'll take care of it." Jackie said with a confident smile, she didn't like when people intruded on her evening. Less then ten minutes later she was back at the table talking nonstop with Will, who had finished eating. He had learned to eat fast. Crystal wouldn't know until later that anyone at all had wanted to talk to her at all, and by the time she found out it would be too late….

TIME/SPACE SKIP

Neji paced angrily, wearing a shallow but steadily deepening rut in the carpet of their apartment room. Everyone had been much calmer and happier after ordering room service and after deciding they weren't going to make anymore progress that night Tenten promised Neji they would resume their search in the morning and the gang had headed for the pool.

Neji had gone too, trying to distract himself. Fully clothed, he had sat with perfect posture in a chair that was supposed to let you lay down. But watching his friends for only a few minutes told him trying to distract himself was a lost cause.

Naruto had started a water war with Lee and Shikamaru and they were cheerfully going at it. Sasuke joined for awhile but he was much too distracted trying to look emo to attract hot girls. (Everyone knows girls flock to built, mysterious bad boys who 'need to be loved/saved from themselves'-and the long, shiny hair which is not chicken-butt shaped when it's wet didn't hurt either). Sakura and Tenten had been enjoying flirting with local studs in the moon pool but had been pulled abruptly into their friends' war when the boys had teamed up to annoy them. Friends don't let friends date non-friends after all.

Neji had walked back to the room and started to pace. All of the sudden, an idea struck him. Crystal had to come out of the restaurant sometime, and when she did he could follow her home. Not in a pervy way or anything, just so he could get her alone to talk to her. The ironically funny part was that Neji didn't even know what he was going to say to Crystal when her found her. He just knew with burning intensity that he had to meet this girl who had so effectively finger painted her songs lyrics on the backs of his eyelids with his blood. She had written a song that reminded him so much of his own compressed emotions, he swore the first time he heard the song that he could feel her digging around inside his brain.

So, without further delay, Neji hopped out the window, planning to land gracefully on an awning. Instead, he missed the front one by inches and because of physics, wind speed and mass calculations that were then moot because Neji was falling in a different way then he planned to, he landed on his ass on the pavement in the alley that ran next to the hotel and probably broken his tail bone. But, being an invincible Hyuuga, he got up and ran to catch a cab.

TIME SKIP

Neji got out of the cab just as Crystal and the gang got into Crystal's Mustang and drove toward Matt and Will's house. Neji couldn't see any of the group's faces but he recognized the annoying girls outfit. He hopped into another cab and followed the 'Stang to the large and swanky apartment complex in a very ritzy neighborhood. Matt and Will said goodbye to the girls and went inside. Crystal then dropped Jackie off at her house and headed home.

Crystal's POV

Crystal had to park pretty far away from her house and walk because one of her neighbors was throwing a giant party and there were cars everywhere. As she crossed the highway, she was glad she had dropped Jackie off. If the girl was sleeping over, they would have had to walk all the way to the bridge (Jackie refused to cross the busy high way for fear of becoming a road pizza but Crystal found these fears to be childish and unfounded, being an invincible teenager and all). As soon as she set foot on the opposite side of the road, Crystal heard her name. She turned to look just in time to see a handsome-looking guy with long chocolaty (A/N- Yes, that is how you spell it) brown hair get nailed in the gut by the front fender of a Camero. Crystal covered her mouth as the boy flew 300 yards into a fire hydrant and slumped over on the ground, unconscious.

Neji's POV

Neji called out the girl's name. It had to be her. He could finally meet her. He knew he would know what to say when he needed to talk. He strode confidently into the street and called her name one more time. But as we already learned, Neji has a problem respecting the authority of oncoming traffic and the next thing he knew he was sailing through the air. He heard some of his ribs snap as he was hammered into a fire hydrant and the world sank into a hazy black.

Crystal's POV

Crystal hurdled garbage cans and parked cars to get to the semi-conscious boy. She knelt down and pressed her fingers to his neck. He had a pulse so she dragged him away from the curb unto some grass and put her head next to his mouth. She heard a steady stream of air coming out and was secretly glad she wouldn't have to do anything hard and embarrassing like CPR.

The ass hole in the car that hit the boy hadn't even slowed down so Crystal knew she was on her own. Just as she was getting worried about the fact that she had left her cell phone in her car, the boy sat up. He blinked blearily at first then his eyes were wide open. "You're Crystal Lira!" he exclaimed before promptly passing out.

TIME SKIP

Crystal sat next to her bed watching the boy's chest rise and fall steadily. She had half carried, half dragged him back to her house then hidden him in her room so her Dad wouldn't see him if he happened to come home. Not a large chance, but still a chance. The boy stirred and sat up, pushing himself to his elbows. Neji's ribs had already started to heal and soon he would be fighting fit.

"How do you feel?" Crystal asked, genuinely concerned. She usually only felt the extreme need for spicy food once a month, and this was the second time today she had it. She chalked it up to stress and forced her mind forward.

"Sore." Neji responded flatly. His head hurt and his stomach was growling but worst of all was the tightness in his chest that he knew had nothing to do with getting hit by a car. He didn't know what to say, and now was to time to talk.

Crystal compensated for his lack of words nicely though, "Are you hungry?" she asked.

"Starving." He responded. She went downstairs and came back with two steaming bowls of left over curry. She had taken quite a bit home with her. She handed him a bowl and started chowing down. He ate too, a bite or so anyway.

Neji grasped at his throat and clawed for breath. His bulged in their sockets and his tongue lolled out of his mouth. He choked and sputtered and coughed, trying to ask for help.

"Are you alright? I'm sorry, you should have said you didn't like spicy food."

Neji felt like his throat was closing up. He couldn't breathe. He was just starting to worry about the effects of lack of oxygen when he passed out. Crystal shrieked and caught him before he could fall off the bed. Within ten minutes, She was cradling the boy's head in the back seat of Matt's SUV as he speed toward the hospital…

A/N- So yeah, I've decided I'm gonna try to pair either Sasuke or Shika or Naruto with Jackie (I'm open to suggestions) and I'm gonna try to update soon.

Next time- Neji finally get's to talk to the girl who's made his life a living hell in only about fifty words and Jackie goes on a cleaning rampage. Stick around!