Disclaimer: I don't own it. If I did, everyone would be a lot more sarcastic.

A/N: Guys, I'm sorry this chapter took me so long to post! Being busy isn't much of an excuse...I mean, everyone else has a life too, and they get their chapters done...oh well. ; Please enjoy this chapter--I think it's the longest one yet...by about a hundred words or so. lol

EDIT: Grr, I just noticed that it didn't put the dividing lines in! It looked really confusing...but I think it's fixed now.

Chapter 7

"Oh Sasuke, you're so dreamy with your golden locks that hover around your depthless eyes…it's like a halo of sunlight framing two dark stars..." he murmured, his breath fogging up the mirror a little. Sasuke was still admiring his hair. It's not like he had a social life or anything to distract him from himself. He thought for a moment. How would his new hair look with red Sharingan? His eyes slid into scarlet and specks of black. After a moment of careful studying, Sasuke had to admit that the harsh red clashed a little with the baby blue and buttercup yellow. But no matter. At this rate, he wouldn't even need his Sharingan to defeat Itachi! A simple taunt and a chidori or two ought to do it.

Turning the Sharingan off, he gazed back at the mirror again. Nobody would dare call him emo again….

A knock.

Sasuke jumped, and knocked a bottle of hairspray off the vanity. It crashed to the floor with unnecessary noise.

"Oh no! Sasuke?! Are you alright?" squealed a voice. Sasuke groaned. He knew that irritating voice well. It was Ino. He kicked the offending can across the room, which also made a loud noise.

"S-s-sasuke?"

Hinata was there too?

"I'm coming!" he growled, and stalked over to the door. His hand hovered over the knob for a moment. This was it! The moment of his unveiling! He hoped his hair was in absolutely perfect condition, because he didn't have time to fix it. He gripped the knob firmly, took a calming breath, and opened the door.

"Oh Sasuke!! We just came to—" Ino's irritating voice stopped abruptly. Sasuke closed his eyes and smirked, making sure to run a hand tantalizingly through his practically luminescent hair.

"Uh……uh…..uh…………" Ino blinked rapidly, trying to make sure she wasn't hallucinating. Hinata heard her hesitation and blushed under her sight-obscuring bangs. She wished she could see whatever was happening, but she had to keep her forehead protected at all times!

"W-w-what is it, I-I-Ino?"

"Uh……uh….um….." Ino blinked again. Hinata took this as a bad sign. She squeaked, and poked her two index fingers together.

"W-w-hat? Is he na-na-naked or s-s-something?"

Sasuke's eyes shot open. What the hell was that Hyuuga's problem?

"WHAT?! Sasuke's naked?!" Orochimaru instantly forgot about the little baby snake he'd been trying to charm, and dashed over. When he saw that Sasuke did, in fact, have clothes on, his excited grin faltered a little, but in wasn't until he saw Sasuke's hair that it disappeared completely.

"I can't believe her!! How could she just let that pedophile in?!" Tenten fumed.

"It's disgusting, really," Sakura agreed. "So…..how do we get back at her?"

Tenten grinned. "I'm sure there's plenty of ways to get her back. The real question is: what is the most painful way to exact our revenge?" She chuckled evilly. Sakura was slightly disturbed. This wasn't the usually sweet Tenten she knew…

"Uhhhh…we could get Sasuke to change his ways before they do?" Sakura suggested timidly. Tenten shook her head.

"No! They'll be expecting that…." She frowned and bit her thumb. It had to be something so sinister that Ino would never make fun of her again! And the Sasuke Seven could be renamed the SasukeTen!!

Suddenly she straightened, and a vile grin filled her face.

"I've got it!!"

"Neji, you haven't lost Tenten's heart!" Guy proclaimed. "You've only lost her eyes!! A woman's eyes are fickle and easily led astray!!"

"….What?"

"Look at you!! You're as plain and boring as they come!"

Neji looked down at himself. "I am…?"

Guy and Lee nodded simultaneously.

"You don't exactly stand out in the crowd with such dull clothes, dull eyes and a dull personality!" Lee exclaimed. Neji felt his battered self-esteem plummet. What was wrong with these people?! Couldn't they see he just wanted to be left alone?!

"Don't look so down Neji! We're going to get you back together with your true love!" Guy sighed. "Oh, the true love of youth….."

Neji sniffed. "Can't you just leave me alone so I can be emo?!"

Guy looked at him quizzically. "Excuse me?"

"Emo. You know, I-hate-my-life-and-I-hate-everything-in-it."

"YOU DO!?!?!?!?!? BUT WHY NEJI, WHY?!" Guy sniffed back tears, and put a firm hand on Lee's shoulder.

"T-t-that's so horrible Neji!" Lee wiped at his eyes. "How could you hate your life? Y-y-you have everything! You've got talent, you've got a clan name, and you've got the heart of a beautiful lady! W-w-what do you have to cry about?"

Neji almost remarked that he wasn't the one crying, but decided that would only call attention to himself, and he was having way too much of that lately.

"—I mean, if anyone here should be emo……" Lee choked pathetically on a sob. Neji wasn't sure if it was a real choke, or if he was only trying to win pity points. Either way, he was making a pretty pathetic sight of himself.

"—I SHOULD BE EMO!!!!" Lee wailed. His knees gave out, and he fell to the ground, right beside Neji, who tried one last time to become one with the bushes. Why couldn't he be a nice, thorny bush whose only purpose in life was to be a nice thorny bush?

"LEE!! NO!!" Guy fell down next to them. "You have so much going for you!!" Lee looked at the ground, trying to force his bowl-cut bangs into his eyes.

"Guy-sensei, let's be realistic here. I can't actually DO anything. All I do is taijutsu, which anyone else can do anyway, and to top it off, I don't even have a real style. I just copied it off you…."

"You DID?!"

Neji only stared. Guy hadn't noticed?

Unbelievably, Guy took a moment to digest this newest revelation. After a moment he sighed and stood back up.

"Well, Lee….while I am flattered that you copied me…it is still stealing a copyrighted style. In a way, it's plagiarism. You stole my idea of fashion…" Guy looked to the sky with the usual tears in his eyes. Lee slumped in shame. Neji couldn't believe it. How like them to take his moping-place, and his angsting, and make it into a drama for the two of them! No one ever cared about Neji! No! And now they were even making him feel like he shouldn't be complaining!! NO! Instead, he should just make it easier on himself, and just go get Tenten back. Tch. Why was it always him?!

"But Lee…." Guy put his hands on his hips, and glanced down at his despairing mini-me. "Everyone makes mistakes. But it takes a real man to learn from them and move on."

Oh, Neji got it. Now he wasn't a real man, because he was just trying to mope in his moping-place. Nooooooo. A real man should 'learn from his mistakes and move on'!

"B-but Guy-sensei…" protested Lee weakly, "I'm not the one you should be comforting. My troubles are small compared to Neji's…and he bears them without complaint!" On cue, Guy looked over at Neji with a concerned expression.

"Is this true Nej—"

"NO!! No! No no no no no! Don't come near me! I'm just going to go and get Tenten back by myself! You guys are absolutely hopeless!!" With that, Neji turned and ran off as fast as he possibly could. The last thing he wanted now was a comforting hug from Guy.

Guy watched Neji dash out of the Hyuuga complex. He waited an extra five minutes, just to be safe. Then, he reached down and helped Lee stand up.

"You know, Lee, I was really moved by your performance."

"Me too, Guy-sensei. I couldn't believe how convincing your act was! You're the best, as always, Guy sensei!!"

Guy's mouth twitched into a ridiculous grin.

"I can't believe he BELIEVED that! You were SO out of character, Lee!!"

"So were you, Guy-sensei!!"

"Oh, Lee!!"

"Guy-sensei!!"

The two embraced, and laughed. Then they cried, because they knew Neji was going to be all right again.

The closer the mysterious man got to Konoha, the more disturbing rumors he heard. Apparently, not only did the populace of the Fire Country have nothing better to do than to spy on a teenager, they talked really loudly to anybody who was close by. It sickened him. Wasn't this supposed to be a village of ninja? Shouldn't they all be quiet and sneaky?

Apparently not.

Regardless, he stuck to his shadows and kept his face down in public.

The more he heard, the more he knew he had to get to Konoha as quickly as possible, before irreversible damage was done.

He stopped again that night for tea, but he drank it quickly. He didn't even wait for it to cool. So, he spent the rest of the night jumping through conveniently placed trees with a sore, burnt tongue. Jumping through trees at night became boring after a time. He wished in vain for a flashback or something to make the time go faster. Unfortunately, he was too mysterious for a flashback. So he continued on, doing his best to ignore his oral agony and the tedium of leaping through trees.

Things at Sasuke's apartment began to get very, very awkward.

Sasuke was mildly perturbed that Orochimaru's grin had faltered a little upon the realization that he wasn't naked, but what really scared him was when Orochimaru's smile disappeared completely. This time, even Sasuke was perceptive enough to know something was wrong. Something besides the fact that a fifty-something old man was looking at him with bigger, shinier eyes than the two teenage girls.

"What?"

"I-I-is this the part where we tell him how we r-r-really feel?" stuttered Hinata.

"Um…how about no?" squeaked Ino.

"Girls! Emergency meeting!!" Orochimaru gasped. The three of them dashed off down the hallway.

"H-hey!! Wait a minute!!" Sasuke followed them. What the hell was going on!? Orochimaru looked over his shoulder, and made a peculiar noise when he saw Sasuke giving chase. Quickly, he turned a corner. Ino followed him, but Hinata, who had been following them solely by the sound of their feet…

SMACK!!

A loud clang of metal crashing into wall stopped everyone.

"OH MY GOD!! HINATA!!" Ino hurried back to the fallen Ino Faction member. Orochimaru was tempted to just continue running, but he figured that would look bad as a member. He reluctantly went to the blind-folded Hyuuga's side. Sasuke caught up. He raised an eyebrow.

"I think she's been knocked-out!" Ino exclaimed. Sasuke snorted. The Hyuuga Clan WAS loosing it. First wanna-be-emo Neji, and now a self-blinded Hyuuga?

"Well, at least she figured out how to wear her headband correctly," Sasuke muttered.

Hinata groaned.

"Ow…"

"Hinata! Are you okay?!" Ino asked, a tiny part of her mind wondering if she sounded cheesy. Oh well.

"Sasuke…." Hinata's voice was a mere whisper, "We…….were going to tell you….some…ng…."

Ino laughed nervously. Great. Hinata was stunned or something. And now she was going to tell Sasuke how they really felt! Wonderful. At least she hadn't seen the horror that was….Ino glanced up at Sasuke, and shuddered. Buttercup yellow?! What was wrong with him? It was more like he'd run face-first into a wall, instead of Hinata. It almost made her want to….no!! She couldn't!! A member of the SasukeSeven was a member for life! Even if Sasuke had completely lost his mind. After all, wasn't that true love?

"We…..we wanted to tell you…"

Hey. Something was different about Hinata. But what—

"…that we think your new style is…"

--she wasn't stuttering!

"terrible—"

"OH MY GOD!!!"

"—ly—"

"HINATA!!! YOU'RE—"

"—attractive and—"

"—NOT STUTTERING!!"

"—handsome—"

"WOW!!"

"—what?"

Sasuke ignored the fact that Hinata had suddenly learned how to speak properly, and focused solely on what he had heard Hinata say between Ino's very irritating yells. They thought his new style was terribly attractive and handsome!! HA! Choke on that Itachi!!

"Mwahahahahahaha….." He giggled under his breath.

"What did you say, Sasuke?" Orochimaru asked, taking a step towards him.

"Nothing." Sasuke took a step away.

Ino tried to get Hinata to speak again. It was so nice to hear her complete a full sentence without stuttering a thousand times! Too bad it had been a little too truthful….did she really have to add the part about how terrible and girly he looked? And judging by the twisted look on Sasuke's (still handsome, regardless of the terrible yellowed mess that surrounded his gorgeous depthless eyes) face, he'd heard every word.

"W-w-what's going o-o-on?" Hinata mumbled, trying to sit up.

"Oh no! You're stuttering again!!" wailed Ino. Would nothing go right today?

"W-w-what happened?"

Ino sighed. Great. She didn't even remember it.

"You know, Hinata, that's just the thing I needed to hear from you," Sasuke stated confidently, straightening his back.

"R-r-really?"

"Now I know for sure that I can go kill that moronic strengthless, weakly imbecile!" He smiled, very pleased that such an insult came very easy to him now. Making sure he was standing tall and strong, he strode off, ignorant of the true reason of their visit, and all else except his new mission: find and utterly destroy Itachi.

They watched him walk off. Ino grimaced at his golden spikes. Orochimaru's eyes were quite a bit lower than eye-level.

Hinata just laid on the ground, completely confused. But, she was happy that, even though she'd been knocked-out cold, she wasn't even going to have a bruise. Her forehead had been protected!

A/N: I want to say thanks to everyone who's reading and reviewing!! I love all of you, thank you so much! It's really inspiring to know that someone out there actually enjoys what I do in my spare time.

I would also like to say that I think there are only one or two chapters left, so I hope you will all stick around to see how if Sasuke ever realizes how terrible his new style looks, and who could the mysterious, burt-tongued tea drinker be?