Author: aFigureOfSpeech

Title: Conflicting Chaos – Chapter 7

Word Count: 1,906

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: Me? I own nadda. Well, maybe this fanfiction. And a kick-ass awesome Naruto Leaf hatai-ate (received from my friend for my most recent birthday). But not Naruto. Unfortunately.

Chapter 7: Lost and Found

The next day (or really, later that morning), everyone was in a slight panic. Actually, that was not entirely accurate. They were in a panic. While Neji had made it back before too long, no one had seen hide nor hair of Sakura since she had gone for her little 'walk' the night before, and it was almost time to start moving again.

"Argh!" yelled Naruto. "Where the hell is she?! She's been gone for ages!!"

"You don't think anything happened to her, do you?" asked Hinata in a worried tone.

"I sure hope not," said Kiba.

"Alright, everyone, calm down" said Tenten. "The quickest way to find Sakura will be splitting up. We'll start in the direction she went last night and spread out from there."

"What if she comes back?" asked Hinata.

"I'll wait for her," Neji said suddenly, entering the conversation for the first time. Everyone stared at him. "I-if it worried you so much, Hinata-sama."

"Alright, let's go."

They were off on a Sakura hunt.

……………………

Neji meditated. That always took his mind off things he didn't want to think about. Unfortunately, since Haruno Sakura had entered his life, certain things like "always" or "never" weren't so certain anymore. So, in actuality, he only tried to meditate.

As that wasn't working so well, Neji paced instead. He didn't know why he was so worried. It's not like he overly cared about Sakura or anything, right? Well, not beyond her being his teammate and all. Beside, she could take care of herself. She had proved that enough times already (although, in his own defense, he had been a bit distracted). The klutz, she probably just got lost in the woods. All night. Yes, that was it. She was perfectly fine. So he could stop worrying. Anytime now.

Damn.

He was still worrying. He couldn't seem stop. She had to be fine. He still had to enact his master revenge! Which no longer seemed to be quite so masterful. He'd hardly found any opportunity to use it. Whenever he had tried, she had the annoying habit of turning it around and throwing back in his face (or, as the case may be, in his stomach). As unbelievable as it sounded, and as much as it killed him to admit (not that he would do so, to her or to anyone else), she was just too good for him. Damn that girl. She was so…so…

Neji realized that his train of thought was coming dangerously close to the one he had had earlier. He needed to watch it, or he just might find himself thinking about how remarkable Sakura was…

Oh, damn it all.

……………………

Sakura woke up with the feeling of a breeze on her face and the sound of rustling leaves in her ears. Stirring, she opened her eyes…and looked down at a ten-foot drop.

"Damn it," she muttered. Sakura slowly began to remember what had happened: the argument with Neji, walking off into the surrounding forest, finding the tree… Double damn. She must have fallen asleep after getting on the branch. She was lucky that she hadn't fallen right off.

Contrary to Neji's belief (or what he was trying to convince himself of), Sakura had not gotten lost. In fact, she knew exactly where she was. Well, maybe not exactly, but she knew perfectly well how to get back to camp. She just hadn't wanted to. She had wanted some alone time, away from – ahem – certain people, hence her climbing into a tree.

Well, it had made perfect sense the night before at least.

Sakura didn't know what to think about Neji at the moment. One minute they were arguing, and the next, he was kissing her. It was all a jumble. She liked to think, though, that she hadn't responded in any way. Well, besides kneeing him. Sure, she hadn't exactly fought back per se, but it wasn't really her fault. She had been put into a mild state of shock. And Neji was hot, as infuriating as he could be.

'I had better get back,' she thought. 'I have no idea what time it is, and who knows what Naruto will do when he finds out I'm missing.'

No sooner had she climbed down then she was tackled. Sakura tried to fend off her attacker, but to no avail. A wet tongue managed to lick her face.

"Akamaru, that tickles!" she giggled, finally managing to stand up.

"Sakura!" Someone's arms enveloped her from behind. "You're alright!"

"Kiba-san?" she said in surprise. Once she had recognized Akamaru, Sakura had expected Kiba to be not far behind, but she certainly hadn't expected him to hug her. As if realizing just what he was doing, Kiba abruptly let her go. She turned around, arm on Akamaru, to see Kiba's face turning a shade of red that could easily put a tomato to shame.

"Errr…" he stuttered, not looking at her. "Hey guys!" he shouted suddenly, turning around. "I found her, over here!"

Before she could say anything, Sakura found herself embraced in a big bear hug and was, once again, tackled to the ground. Only one person could give hugs like that.

"Sakura-chan!" came a voice in her ear. "You're alive!"

"Naruto," she gasped. "Can't. Breathe."

"Sorry, Sakura-chan," he said, loosening his death grip just enough so that she could breath and righting them both.

"Sakura!"

"Where have you been?!"

Two consecutive thumps and additional squeezing force marked the arrival of Hinata and Tenten.

"Sakura, what happened to you?" Tenten demanded.

"We were all so worried!" Hinata exclaimed.

"We thought you had died or something!" Naruto added.

"Yeah, guys, I love you, too," Sakura wheezed. "But seriously. I. Can't. Breathe."

"Sorry!" they chorused, and quickly let her go. Once Sakura had regained her ability to inhale, all four returned to bombarding her with questions.

"What happened to you?!"

"Why did you stay out all night?!"

"Why didn't you come back?!"

"Do you have any idea what time it is?!"

Sakura held up her hands to stop the flood of questions. Although they were all said at relatively the same time, she seemed to be able to make sense of them nonetheless.

"Nothing happened. I didn't mean to stay out all night. I feel asleep in a tree. No, I don't know what time it is." Sakura paused here to draw a breath. "I'm sorry I worried you guys, I never meant to."

"Hell yeah I was worried!" Naruto butted in. "I thought something had happened to you!"

"He was ready to tear up the whole forest looking for you," said Kiba, grinning.

"Like you weren't worried," Naruto snapped.

"Of course he was," Tenten said as Kiba went slightly red (again). "We all were."

Suddenly Sakura looked around. "Hey, where's Neji-san?"

"He's back at camp," Tenten answered. "Waiting in case you came back before we found you."

"He actually volunteered to," Hinata added. "He said he did it because I was worried, but I think it's because he was and didn't want the rest of us to see."

Everyone stared at her, until Sakura burst out laughing.

"Neji-san?" she scoffed incredulously. "Worried about me? After the fight we had last night? More likely he's worried that he won't be able to enact some diabolical master revenge against me if I've gone and gotten myself killed first."

"Or he won't be able to kiss you again," sniggered Tenten.

"Aw, come on, Sakura-chan," said Naruto as he glared daggers at the weapons mistress, with the help of Sakura and Kiba, before he turned back to Sakura. "Why would Neji want to 'enact some diabolical master revenge' against you?" Sakura stopped in her process of drilling a hole into Tenten with her eyes to stare at him (which the others joined in as well), and was amazed all over again at how dense her dear friend could be. And here she was, thinking he had gotten better. But, then again, Hinata had been trying for years (with the help of her friends) to get Naruto's attention, and the idiot was only just realizing it.

"Because I questioned his maleness and kneed him in the stomach," she said bluntly. Sometimes it's the only way to get through to him.

"Yeah, that might do it for Neji," said Kiba. "And, there was that little incident before the mission where she saved Naruto's ass from the Neji-on-a-war-path."

"Wow, you're right," Naruto said.

"Thanks guys, you make me feel sooo much better."

"Your welcome!" they chorused.

"Well then," said Tenten with a grin, "we'd better get back to camp and stop Neji from all that worrying."

……………………

Neji couldn't believe it. It had been one hour, fourteen minutes and twenty-seven, no, twenty-eight seconds since the others had left (not that he was keeping track or anything) and still, all he could think about was that wretched, damnable kunoichi! How she had wormed her way into his thoughts he had no idea, and probably never would. The point was, she had, and it didn't appear that she would be leaving any time soon. Damn her.

Eventually, Neji had given up trying to do anything else, and since just thinking about her was easier for his peace of mind than worrying about her, he planed on doing the former. Unfortunately, having come to this decision, Neji drew a blank. Damn. He realized that, for all his studying, he knew next to nothing about her. Sure, he knew her strengths and her weaknesses (for the most part), but he knew nothing of what made Haruno Sakura, Haruno Sakura. She was a mystery to him, an enigma. All he knew was that she was smart and beautiful and witty and clever and beautiful and she constantly beat him and made his stomach do back flips whenever she smiled, at him or otherwise (but especially at him) and she was beautiful and tasted like strawberries (not that he had actually been tasting her when he kissed her or anything), and she was beautiful. He felt vaguely as though he were repeating himself.

Neji made a decision then: he would study Sakura, watch her, and really learn more about her, this time for an entirely different reason. A challenge, maybe, but Hyuuga Neji was willing and up to it.

That was when he remembered something rather important: he and Sakura had not parted on the, er, best of terms. She had insulted him (and his hair), he had kissed her, she had kneed him in the stomach, and they had both stalked off into the forest. Now she was missing, probably hurt somewhere, unable to get back. Maybe she had walked off a cliff, or fallen into a river, or was attacked by rabid squirrels, or-

"Neeee-jiiiii, we're baaaaaa-aaaaaack," a sing-song voice interrupted him. It sounded like Tenten.

"And we found Sakuraaaaaa," came Hinata's voice, also in sing-song.

"Not a scratch on her," Naruto said next.

They were back! Wait, great gods, they were back! He couldn't face them like this! He was having an emotional overload! He wasn't used to or prepared for a situation like this! Damn it!

Well, he would just stay in his tent and refuse to talk to anyone, until he regained his normal Hyuuga calm and composure. Yes, that would work.

"Neji," he heard Tenten's voice call again. "Come on, it's time to start moving!"

Damn. So much for that plan.

A/N: Okay, just wanna say: WHOO-HOO!! OVER 100 REVIEWS!! WOOT-WOOT!! I'd like to thank all my reviewers for supporting me. I love you guys!

Alrighty then: I've gotten a couple of reviews saying that they would like to see Neji win at an argument with Sakura. At the moment, I don't believe I've got one of those in store (mostly because I've seen that in so many fanfics and I'm sort of tired of it). If any of you agree with this and would like to make a suggestion, please feel free. Otherwise, I'm probably just going to stick with what I've already got planned. Thanks! -