Chapter 9, I think? Anyway, sorry for a delay and hope you enjoy. Oh, and I want to thank Toph43, because they reviewed and have one of those private messages things. So thanks for the review, and I'm glad you like it, Toph43!
I do not own Naruto or Some Kind of Wonderful…
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It's a big, new, and semi clean mall. Hanabi is sitting on a food court table with her friends, talking to the group.
"I'm his sister," she says "If you're a brother or a sister, you're in. It's like they have to accept you or the whole social order collapses."
"You get to go to parties?" A friend asks
"Of course. I'm probably going to the one on Saturday at Sasuke Uchiha's. Neji is going out with Sakura. We might double." Hanabi finishes
"Who'd go with you?" a different member asks
"The choices are limitless." She grins
"Can we go, too?"
"Eventually. If you stay cool."
"You're lying." One says and crosses her arms.
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah." The friend is still defiant, and takes a look around the mall.
Sasuke and a group of friends are hanging around out side a record store. The girl turns back to Hanabi with a big grin.
"If you're so in tight with Sasuke's people, why aren't you down there with them?"
"Because I'm here with you, Baka." Hanabi retorts.
"Maybe you're here because you're false."
"Is this a challenge or something?" Hanabi asks
"Yeah."
Hanabi slides off the table "I was hanging with you fungi in a vain effort to cool you out, but all I get is a breeze, so, cie la vie."
She heads down the mall. The girls watch curiously. Hanabi sneaks glances back at them. She's over-estimated the situation badly. The girls continue to watch Hanabi walk.
"She's a liar. Her brother loathes her. He'd never let her play with his rep."
Hanabi strolls down the mall. She slows as she reaches the boys. She looks back at the girls, strikes an attitude and flips them off. She slides up on another table, adjacent to the group. It looks like she's part of the group.
She's not really connected to the people. She's just on the edges. She puts herself in a confeident, careless attitude. The boys are below and to the side of her. Unaware of her.
"Sakura has to bring him. What else can she do? She can't take the pressure. She'll bring him.
Hanabi makes a puzzled look as she eavesdrops. Sasuke continues the story.
"The partly will go down as expected; Sakura will blow in with the guy; We'll nail him and go back to business as usual. It's real simple.
Hanabi is devastated by what she's overheard. Stunned. All the evil she's done on Neji comes rushing back on her. Tears gather in her eyes. She leaps down off the table and takes off through the mall.
Her friends watch as she charges past, breaking in and out of the crowd.
"Hey, Hanabi! Did they send you for beer?"
They laugh.
Hanabi bursts out of the doors and runs back to the bike rack. She rides as fast as she can home.
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It's night. Lights are burning. Hanabi rides up on her bike.
Neji is laying in bed looking at the sketch of Sakura hanging on the wall at the foot of his bed. Music is playing and it's lonesome and pale.
Hanabi listens through the door. She flips a table knife in the lock and compromises it. She turns the knob and opens the door. She stays in the doorway, watching, troubled. Neji turns slowly to the door and sees Hanabi. He stares at her.
"I guess you wouldn't be you if you knocked before breaking into my room."
Hanabi stand, she's serious and grieved. "I'm sorry, Neji. I thought if I knocked, you wouldn't open up, and I want to talk."
Neji sits up on his bed. "This should be interesting."
Hanabi walks in and sits on the edge of his desk. "I heard something tonight at the mall. Sasuke Uchiha and his friends were there, and I heard them talking about you.
"So?"
"I've jumped on you pretty hard for a pretty long time, Neji."
"What's your point?" Neji asks
"You know that blood is thicker then water, right?"
Neji rotates his finger, signaling her to get to the gist of her intrusion.
"It's true. I thought I hated you. I really did. But I don't." she says
"What's wronge."
"Neji, it's a joke. Sakura Haruno. The date. The party. The whole thing is a joke. She's going out with you to get you to Sasuke's house so he can mess you up."
Neji freezes.
"I heard Sasuke say it. I heard him, it's true."
"A joke?" Neji repeats.
"I'm sorry, Neji. For everything." Hanabi nods her head.
She backs slowly out the room and closes the door. Neji hears the click of the lock, and he turns to the window. He realizes what a fool he's been. How he's turned from his friends. How exposed he's let himself get. He looks at the sketch of Sakura on the wall.
Sakura is looking over her shoulder.
He shifts his look back to the window. Neji stares out into the night.
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She stands outside in the small target filled yard, tossing weapons at the furthest sand dummy. Music is blasting from her room, directed outside from her window. She throws along with the rythum of the song, moving around in the grass with graceful steps. She's soaked in sweat, wearing shorts and a old torn shirt. The yard is green, with a small garden nestled under her window. In the summer she takes pride in the beauty of her work. The weapon filled targets, and the vast color of her garden melt together and create her ultimate sanctary. Although she is alone and in a constant struggle to stay a float, this piece of earth is her utopia.
She hears the creak of the old wooden fence, and pauses for a moment, twisting her body to see who was there. Neji, with his hands in his pockets walks towards her. Tenten smiles at him, but she continues her practice. Neji walks over to a tree near the entrance and sits down. Tenten throws one last kunai and joins him, picking up a small remote and turning the volume of the music down with some difficulty. It still plays, but is hardly audiable.
"You're aim is still perfect." Neji says
"I'm working on it." She says back formally, stiff.
"You're neighbor's don't the music?"
"I don't know, I've never asked." She hasn't looked at him since she sat down. "To what do I owe the honor?"
"I have a little problem."
Tenten sense big trouble. She gets up from her spot on the ground and begins picking up her fallen weapons.
"You know hoe you told me that the thing with Sakura was a joke."
"Yeah?"
"It's a joke." He says
"You mean a joke, as in a joke on you?" Tenten asks
Neji nods. Tenten winces. As angry as she was at him, she understands how bad he feels.
"Hanabi overhead Sasuke talking about it. Sakura is supposed to get me over Sasuke's house, and they're gonna pound me."
Neji leans back against the tree. Her reaches behind him and comes up with a bra. Tenten blushes and snatches it away quickly, hiding it behind her back.
"Good thing you found out about it." Tenten says
"She doesn't like Sasuke. I know it. The guy uses her up and down." Neji answers
"You're playing word games. The fact is, she sucker-punched you and set you up to lose your face." Tenten folds her arms over her chest, nearly turning away.
"I'm not afraid of Sasuke."
"You're gonna got through with this?" Tenten turns back, an odd expression on her face.
"I have to." Neji says
"You think it's just Sasuke?"
"If the guy wants me, he'll get me. I don't have to go to a party. He'll find another chance. I'm not gonna hide."
"Leave it alone," Tenten says, trying to keep the desperation out of her voice.
"I can't."
"Why?" Tenten asks
"Because I want to stand up to them."
"Yeah? Well, forge it." Tenten continues "It's impossible. They rule the world, and that's a fact, and you fight it, you get crushed. Another year and you're gone. It's better to swallow pride then blood."
"You don't think that. I'm not going to believe that you think that.
Tenten is completely frustrated. She walks to the garden and looks down at the flowers.
"I'm not giving into them anymore. Not for another year. Not for another minute." Neji says
Tenten turns from the flowers. She can't argue with him.
"I'll do whatever I have to do to make her see me for what I am." Neji continues
Tenten smiles and sits beside him.
"All right. I get it." She says
Neji looks down at her before pressing his back against the tree again. Tenten sighs and rests against him. He turns his face to hers again.
"I'm sorry I was so tough with you." He says
"Me too."
He touches her cheek. "You always hurt the ones you love."
"So, when're beating the shit out of Sakura Haruno?"
Neji looks away and laughs. Tenten doesn't laugh. She just stays still, feeling his body against hers.
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End. I hope you liked it, please leave a review!