Author: aFigureOfSpeech

Title: Conflicting Chaos – Chapter 6

Word Count: 2,220

Pairing: NejixSakuraxKiba

Rating: T (for mild swearing, some suggestive situations, minor alcohol)

Summary: When Naruto manages to get Neji mad at him, Sakura helps Naruto, but in the process she hurts Neji's pride. Now he's out for revenge, but it may not turn out how he expected. Especially when Tsunade has plans of her own and Kiba's not going down without a fight. NejiSakuKiba

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters (unfortunately). If I did, I wouldn't be putting this here, I would actually be putting it in the story. Duh.

Chapter 6: Implications: Neji's Beauty Sleep Interrupted

Neji's beauty sleep was rudely interrupted by a shriek. He growled in frustration. Didn't they know he had to have a certain amount of sleep in order to maintain any form of patience with (most) of these people?! Suddenly it dawned on him that they could actually be under attack; cursing, he ran out.

Instead of attacking enemies, Neji saw only Sakura, sitting a few feet from her tent. Her hair was a mess (she had obviously only just woken up as well), and her eyes were wide as she stared at where she was supposed to be sleeping peacefully. Tenten and Hinata poked their heads from the tent, apparently as confused as Neji, if not more.

"Sakura, what's the-" Hinata began, but was cut off by a commotion in the third tent. It sounded as though a rampaging heard of elephants were inside it…or two boys trying to get out of their sleeping bags and tent as fast they could (a noisy feat, to be sure). Suddenly, with a shout, Naruto and Kiba fell out.

"What's going on? Who shouted?" Naruto spotted Sakura sitting on the ground. "Sakura-chan, are you alright? What happened?"

"S-s-spider," she stuttered.

Neji didn't know whether to laugh or to kill something. He settled on his infallible standby: sneering. "A spider. You're afraid of a little, probably harmless spider."

"No!" she exclaimed. "I just, don't really like them. I mean, can normally deal with them, but I opened my eyes and there it was, sitting three inches from my face and staring at me!"

"Pathetic," he scoffed. "How anyone so pathetically girly ever became a shinobi is beyond me. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed." With that, Neji turned around and headed back towards his tent. He didn't get very far, though.

……………………

Naruto watched as Sakura's face flushed in anger. Uh-oh. That couldn't be good. His unease only increased as her expression changed to that of a smile, one far too sweet, innocent, and cheerful for someone who had been filled with rage a moment before. Worse still, Naruto knew that expression. It was Sakura at her very worst. She was going to make Neji regret his words.

"Uh, Sakura-chan, I'm sure Neji didn't mean it," Naruto tried.

"I wouldn't have said it if I didn't mean it, dobe," Neji informed him, not turning around.

"You're really not helping anything, Neji," Naruto said back. Before Neji could reply, Sakura spoke up.

"Ever look in a mirror, Neji-san?"

Everyone froze.

……………………

Hinata and Tenten, with their heads sticking out of the tent they shared with Sakura, watched as Neji slowly turned to look where Sakura was now standing.

"Oh, she's done it now," Tenten whispered. "I can't believe she insulted him like that. Even if it wasn't the, er, snappiest of insults."

"Not many have the guts to insult Neji at all," Hinata whispered back, "Especially when he hasn't had his beauty sleep. Uh-oh. He sure looks mad." Suddenly, she grinned mischievously, something rather at odds with her usual personality. "Hey Tenten," she whispered again.

"What?"

"You still have that camera?" Hinata did have her moments though.

Tenten's grin matched hers as she dove back into the tent, grabbed her bag, and stuck her head back out, so as not to miss anything while digging for the object that could capture the significant moments, for future reference (aka blatant blackmail).

……………………

Neji glared at the green-eyed spitfire. Unfortunately, as he had already discovered, his glare was not enough to make Sakura back down. Instead, she simply smiled at him with that sickeningly sweet smile. It reminded him of Tsunade's smile. How disturbing.

"Are you implying something, kunoichi?" he growled. Ah Neji, ever quick with the accusations.

"Me?" said Sakura in mock-surprise and hurt. "Imply something? What would I possibly be implying? And I already told you, my name is Sakura."

"Alright then, Sakura-san, just what are you saying, then?" he demanded through gritted teeth.

"Oh, nothing, nothing at all," she said in an airy way, still looking suspiciously innocent. "Only that your features are just a bit too much on the…feminine side for you to be making comments like that." Everyone but Neji and Sakura clutched their mouths, trying not to laugh and interrupt the beautiful, picture perfect moment (which was lucky, since Tenten just happened to have a camera). Of course, they were also afraid of attracting the attention of the two murderous-looking teens. Neji was now radiating anger so strongly it was almost palpable.

"So you're saying that I look like a woman," he spat.

"No, no, I never said that!" she told him. "If anyone said it, you did. But, now that you mention it, I can see what you mean. What with your pale complexion and fine features, I'm sure there are many people who could mistake you for female at a distance. Oh, and that hair of yours. I know quite a few girls who would kill for hair like that."

Ohhhhh no. She had not just brought in his meticulously cared for hair into this. He spent hours his hair, as much as, and probably more than, any girl (although he would never admit to that under pain of death), and was very proud of it. Insult Neji's hair and you insult his pride, and you do not insult Hyuuga Neji's pride. Unfortunately, Sakura did not seem to know this important survival skill. Before he could say anything, however, she went right on.

"Then, there's always the question of your sexual orientation. I mean, as far as anyone knows, you've never shown any interest in a girl. Even Tenten doesn't know, and she's been your teammate for how many years? Although, in all fairness, that doesn't necessarily make you a homosexual, as you've also never shown an attraction to others of the male gender, but one really has to wonder."

……………………

Sakura suddenly found herself with her back against a tree, a hand against her throat, and Neji's face uncomfortably close to her own.

"Do you really want to continue that particular line of argument?" he said in a low, dangerous voice.

'How the hell did he do that?' she wondered. She hadn't even seen him move, and yet here she was, held up against a tree. Then again, it was Neji. She tried to swallow, but couldn't.

"Well, why not?" she grinned, even though she could barely speak. "It's working, isn't it? I've obviously hit a nerve. Bit touchy, aren't you?"

"Fine." Neji growled. "You want proof?"

"Sure." She was still grinning, though it had faltered a bit. He wouldn't…

He did.

Sakura found her smirk completely wiped off her face by a sudden pressure against her lips. Eyes wide, it took her a few moments to register that, yes, THE Hyuuga Neji was kissing her. It was one of the oddest and surprisingly pleasant things that had ever happened to her. And, rather than pulling away after making his point, Neji seemed to be trying to deepen the kiss, of all things. She wondered if he even knew that he was doing that. It certainly wasn't what she had been expecting. Then again, he could just be trying to confuse her even more. Whatever he was up to, who knew that the hormonally-challenged male could be such a good kisser?

She thought she heard shouts, but Sakura couldn't make out what they were saying or who was saying it. (Her hearing difficulty may have been caused by the tongue that was currently against her lips, imploring entry.) Naruto, most likely. One voice sounded vaguely like Kiba, though.

Still, Haruno Sakura had her pride. Even if it was the undeniably hot Neji. Quickly suppressing any notions of responding otherwise, she gave the Hyuga a sharp knee to the stomach.

This, as she had expected, effectively 'persuaded' him to release her. She had considered for a moment of aiming a bit lower and hitting where the sun didn't shine, but then decided against it. She figured she had made her point well enough already. Plus, it would probably make him that much more determined to have her sorry hide. He sank to the ground with a groan.

"I think I'll go for a walk," Sakura said, sending a glare down at Neji, who was currently curled up in a fetal position on the ground. With that, she huffed out into the surrounding forest.

Neji stood up not long after and stalked off in another direction.

……………………

Neji ground his teeth in frustration. He didn't understand how it had happened, but Sakura had once again managed to come out victorious. How had she done it? He thought that kissing her (not that he had really thought it through at the time that he did it) would have caught her completely off guard, to his advantage. She had been, for a moment, but had then regained her composure much sooner than he had expected. At least, she did it before he had, and could make his graceful and victorious exit. He vaguely wondered, though, if he would have wanted to make an exit. Or could have. Damn his formerly-dormant, recently-aroused hormones. Yes, that was all it was: some raging hormones that would soon settle down into their previous state of non-function. These thoughts were not helping, though. Neji quickly reverted to his former tirade.

That damn, insufferable girl! (Yes, that was much better!) She had once again somehow ruined every one of his brilliant plans! No one did that. No one! Then again, no one dared contradict him, and yet Sakura did just that. She was so…so…amazing. Yummy, too, as a matter of fact, like-

Neji halted abruptly. That most certainly was notsupposed to be there! Damn, how had he gotten back to that particular train of thought? He was supposed to, to, despise Sakura, not…admire her, and like how she tasted, of all things. Or kissed. Her lips sure had felt nice. If only they had opened up a little more… Ergh, damn hormones! That stupid kiss had gotten them all riled up! They were probably affecting him now with such a vengeance because they were not used to such activity. Shaking his head to clear it of such unwanted thoughts, Neji tried continuing his walk, and his previous lines of thinking.

As he reflected, Neji concluded that all of his plans were just being twisted around on him. Not a very comforting notion to be sure. As much as it pained him to admit, verbal confrontation was obviously useless when it came to Sakura. Challenging her to a fight was the same, resulting in her point-blank refusal. No matter what he did, it all failed against her.

Neji wasn't even really sure why he had kissed her. The notion had come to him in an instant, and not thinking much about it, he had acted upon it. Apparently, that was a rather large miscalculation on his part. He thought, much to his humiliation, that he might have even tried to deepen the kiss, of all things. Damn, he hadn't been supposed to like it! It had been supposed to be a strategic move to silence and hopefully confuse her, nothing more. Tch, yeah, right.

Another thing bothered Neji as well, though. He wasn't sure that she had responded at all either, which aggravated him a bit for some reason. But, then, reality had given him a rather cruel awakening. His stomach still felt rather tender. Moving on…

What else could he do, short of ambushing her? Neji couldn't do that, though; in this situation, it would be cowardly and dishonorable, and his pride would not allow it. Damn pride. Well, maybe more sleep would help. Although, he doubted that sleep would come easily to him tonight, not with the odd feelings that kissing Sakura seemed to rouse in him. Even though they were not…unpleasant feelings, really, now that he thought about it. Quite the opposite, rather. Just very…new, and unfamiliar. Touching his lips gently, Neji headed back to camp.

……………………

After Neji left, Tenten and Hinata burst out laughing. They seemed to be doing that a lot lately, but who could blame them? Neji had it coming to him.

"What are you two laughing at?!" Naruto demanded them, glaring. "Did you see what Neji-teme did to Sakura-chan? How dare he! I never gave him my permission to do anything!"

"Well, he never gave you permission to so much as look at Hinata, and yet you do," said Tenten. "Beside, you'd never give anyone permission to go near her, if you had it your way."

"Are you defending that bastard?! After what he did?!" Naruto did not seem pleased.

"Yeah, Tenten!" Kiba did not seem very happy, either. "He really crossed the line with that one."

"Sorry, Naruto-kun, Kiba-kun, but Tenten is right." Hinata giggled some more. "And Neji-niisan's face! It was priceless!"

"And luckily, I have caught each priceless one on this beautiful little thing," Tenten added, showing the remaining boys her camera.

"What!" they yelped in unison.

The remainder of the night was spent in Kiba and Naruto's tent, laughing over the pictures and scheming up wonderful plots of blackmail. The photos (as Tenten got multiple shots) of Neji kissing Sakura was especially popular.

AN: Well, another chapter come and gone. ((sigh)) I particularly enjoyed writing this one. I have realized that Neji really is quite the little bitch in here. Man, I didn't mean for that to happen. Can Neji ever be redeemed? It would seem doubtful, especially in my future chapters. Those poor Naruto guys just always seem to get the short end of the stuck. I have no idea why… (heh heh)

You know, that last part, with the kiss? That was completely last-minute! But, I'm actually really glad I did think of that. It's just beautiful. ((sigh)) And I know you NejiSaku fans love it. Well, not the Sakura-kneeing-him-in-the-stomach part, unless you like seeing the Naruto guys in pain (like I do, insane little sadist that I am), but the kissing part, definitely. Oh, those poor, poor boys. What did they ever do to deserve an authoress like me? Oh yeah. They were the hot, smexy beasts that they are. What a curse. ((sigh))