Chapter 7: The New Guy
As they entered into the hallway for the last time before Christmas break, a strange vision met their eyes. Standing before them talking with one of the twelfth grade teachers was a young man with black hair shaped into a bowl cut. Sakura noted with a slightly freaked expression that his eyebrows were so large if the Eyebrow Fairy came, he'd get more than a quarter under his pillow. He wore a green shirt and shorts, as if he had just gotten out of a workout video, and he had the muscle to match. "Who's that?" Naruto asked, motioning to the boy. "I've never seen him before, dattebayo…"
As if he heard the blond the boy looked over, and caught wind of the pink haired beauty standing next to him. Running up to the medic he gave her the thumbs up, his grinning teeth almost sparkling, and told her, "My name is Rock Lee, and if you go out with me I promise to protect you with my life!" She blinked and glanced around, trying to see if he was referring to someone else. All that met her eyes was completely cheesed off Sasuke, a shocked Shikamaru, and a clueless Naruto.
"Are you talking to me?" she asked, pointing at herself to demonstrate her confusion.
He nodded and questioned seriously, "May I ask this youthful flower's name?"
Again she glanced around herself, despite Lee's assurances that he was indeed talking to her, and told him hesitantly, "Uh, I'm Haruno Sakura, Lee-san…" A fire seemed to burn in his black eyes as he clenched his fist midair.
"Such a perfect name for a beautiful blossom as yourself!" he ranted, taking the emerald eyed girl's hand in his own and knelt down. Her eyebrows skyrocketed, watching him with astonishment, and Sasuke stepped forward, a murderous look in his eyes. "Would you do me the honor…" Sakura held her breath for a moment as he finished, "of going out with me this weekend?"
She blinked and then smiled sympathetically, fully prepared to decline in the nicest way possible, but Sasuke growled angrily, "No, she doesn't want to Lee, now go fuck off." He pulled Sakura away from the green clad senior, glaring at him, and the boy blinked as a false realization dawned on him.
"Are you two lovers already? Have I missed my moment to date the lovely Sakura-san?" Tears poured down his cheeks and Shikamaru watched him with an expression that was mixed between disgust and surprise. Pulling herself out of Sasuke's grip, Sakura shot the onyx haired Uchiha a dirty look before kneeling down by the crying Lee.
She told him, "Lee-san, don't get the wrong idea, Sasuke-kun's not my boyfriend. And," she shot him another contemptuous look, before smiling at the boy, "I'd love to go out with you this weekend." That perked him up phenomenally, and he grinned at her.
Hugging her tightly, he cheered, "Thank you for the chance to prove my worth, Sakura-san! You will not regret it I promise!" She waved goodbye to him and saw that Sasuke was glaring angrily after the powerfully built teen. She blinked in understanding and smiled at him slyly.
"Jealous, Sasuke-kun?" she teased, elbowing him in he gut. He shot her a fiery look and turned away, mumbling about how Lee was too old for her. She chuckled and walked with Shikamaru to their gym class, the brunet crawling along tiredly. She watched him with a humored expression and said, "Dude, Shika, I thought Ino would be riding on you to get more sleep since the computer fritz incident two weeks ago."
He told her, "Yeah, yeah, I know. But I have to find out what caused them to freak out like that. I found all of the computer codes that got onto my system, and most of them are legitimate. The problem is, there's so many damn codes that it's taking a long time to sift through them all. And I can't sleep until I find out who hacked the system." Sakura nodded and sighed, walking into the main gym to head for the locker rooms. Coming back out in the gym uniform of blue shorts and a white tank top, she saw that Rock Lee was in her gym class.
"Lee-san!" she called, running over to the boy. He glanced back at her and grinned, waving at the pink haired girl ecstatically. "I guess we're in the same gym class, huh?"
The black haired boy replied, "So it would seem dear beautiful flower!" She chuckled and ran to the girl's side of the gym as he walked to the boy's. It was boys versus girls in dodge ball, and Sakura and Tenten led the woman in the fight while Lee and a boy named Aburame Shino led the men.
She called to the weapons mistress, "With our aim, these boys are going down." She laughed and looked over to the stands where Shikamaru sat typing on his computer, and Gaara sat staring out the gym doors at the frosty area outside. The girl felt terrible for the man, seeing how he hadn't spoken in two weeks, and he barely ever ate.
"Poor Gaara…" she mumbled, turning back to the task at hand. Kicking the boys' asses. Holding up her red ball, she aim for Chouji, knowing that he'd be an easy target due to his slow pace. She hit him, and soon all of the other boys were gone, leaving Lee to fend for himself. On the girl's team was Tsuchi Kin, herself, and Sakura, all very good shots. "Get ready, Lee!" He smiled at her and stood ready, holding the only ball on the boy's side in his hand.
Sakura hurled the ball at him and he avoided it swiftly, going faster than any normal person should be able to. The pink haired girl gasped in surprise and Tenten took a shot, with him narrowly avoiding it. "Okay!" Gai-sensei called, blowing his whistle, "Brilliant displays of youth! But this class had been dismissed, so you can all go home!" Sakura and Tenten ran over to Lee.
"Lee! That was so cool!" Sakura said, crossing her arms over her chest with amazement. He smiled at her and held his fist in the air, tears brimming in his eyes. I have impressed Sakura-san! he thought with joy.
They met up after they got changed; waiting for the final bell to ring so they could go to lunch. Sakura stood outside in the cold atmosphere, watching the Health classroom window. Inside sat Sasuke, writing down something in his notebook as he paid attention to Jiraiya-sensei. She sighed with contentment, before she realized that she was blushing as she watched the black haired boy. Pressing a hand to her heart, she felt it flutter slightly. As if he realized she was looking at him, he glanced out the window, looking bored, and spotted her.
Smiling, Sakura waved to him, and he frowned, slouching in his seat and looking miffed. "What's your issue?" Naruto asked Sasuke from the seat behind him as the bell finally rang. When the onyx haired man didn't answer, he knocked on his forehead. "Hello, Sasuke-teme? This is Mission Control; please come in, over."
Giving the blond an annoyed expression he said, "Shut up, dobe." Standing up from the mostly empty classroom, the disgruntled junior exited the classroom with the blue eyed individual looking on in confusion. Sasuke stormed through the hallways with a sour expression, ignoring calls from his various fangirls and teachers. She did that on purpose, just to piss him off! He was trying to protect her from older men but no she had to go off and accept the damn date! That's what he gets for trying to be chivalrous. Maybe he should let her go off and date someone like… like Shino, the bug obsessed… gangster!
"Uh, Sasuke?" Ino asked, furrowing her brow uncertainly. "What's wrong with you? You look really pissed, like someone just shoved a crab down your shorts and it snapped onto your—" Her charming simile was cut short when a joyful voice called out to them from the end of the hallway.
"Sasuke-teme! Ino!" Naruto cheered, hugging the blonde in his extreme excitement. She looked repulsed and shoved him off, backing away from the over-excited Seeker. "School's finally out for Christmas Break, and that means I don't have to do any more homework!" Tenten and Neji met up with them a minute later, the brunette back from chorus and the white-eyed boy from the nurse's office (he had an eye exam, apparently), and the weapons mistress was ecstatic.
She applauded optimistically, "School's finally over! For two weeks at least…" She linked arms with Neji who blinked in confusion, and then shrugged, allowing himself to be carted out the door and to the bus. They were going to HQ to get some practice done and perhaps, Tenten hoped, to go get dinner afterwards. Hinata chuckled at her cousin's expression, and glanced over at Sasuke, who seemed rather angry. She turned to see the direction he was looking in and saw that Lee and Sakura were walking in that direction, talking animatedly with each other.
"S-Sakura, h-hi," she told her, waving when she saw that Sasuke was still being a bastard. She waved goodbye to Lee and hugged Hinata. "W-who's that?"
She explained, "He's a new boy this year, and he is kindly taking me on a date this Saturday." Hinata blinked. That's why the Uchiha seemed so mad. He was jealous of the black haired boy, and didn't want to admit it. Naruto laughed at him as he stormed out the school doors, Ino and the newly arrived Shikamaru right after him.
"It's so obvious he's jealous of bushy-brows, dattebayo!" he laughed, and looked to Hinata for her agreement. She nodded, blushing slightly and turned away at the eye contact. Naruto furrowed his bond eyebrows, his eyes curved up into slits of confusion and she smiled at him, running out to her car.
"HIYAH!" Loud shouts and crashes could be heard inside the training room, and anyone who had been around long enough would know that Neji and Tenten were working out. More specifically, sparring with each other. They were pretty much even, but that made everything that much more exciting.
Tenten yelled a battle cry, hurling a set of throwing knives in Neji's direction. He slid below them, and flipping forward powerfully punched her in the shoulder. She stumbled backwards only for a moment, before pulling out a set of nun-chucks and whipping them out in his direction. They barely clipped his elbow, but that was enough to set him off balance, giving the brunette time to pull her retractable scythe out and swing it at him. It skimmed the end of his hair and she frowned, watching for a split second the strands she had cut off float to the ground. That second he noticed she wasn't paying attention, he pulled out his sword and twisted his wrist, slitting the girl's upper arm. She winced in pain, as blood dripped down her arm, staining her pink shirt. He cut it a little closer than he meant to, and pulled his sword back, looking apologetic. "Nice one," she joked, clutching her wound tightly. "Oh, and sorry about your hair."
She walked over to the edge of the training arena and knelt down, opening a First Aid kit. Without hesitation she pulled her shirt off over her head, preparing to clean her arm up. Tenten sterilized it with an alcohol wipe, and pressed a gauze pad to it to stop the blood from dripping all over the floor. Neji averted his eyes, trying not to watch but really incapable of keeping his eyes away from her. She was physically fit, and slim and curved in figure. Noting she was having trouble wrapping the gauze around her arm, he walked over to her and sat down at her side, watching her progress. Tenten's chocolate eyes met Neji's vanilla ones, and he gave her a sight smile.
Taking the gauze from her, he ordered, "Hold still, Tenten. I'll help you dress that." Warm hands gently wrapped the cloth around her forearm, and she watched his stunning pearl eyes with enamored captivation. They were so… soft right then, so tender, and absolutely un-Neji like. They made her flush with embarrassment, knowing that he never behaved this way around anyone else besides her. She loved the feeling of his hands on her skin; it sent an amazing feeling through her body. "Tenten?"
She realized that she had been staring at the spot where she had been cut long after he had finished dressing it, and she laughed nervously. "Right, let's get back to training then." She pulled her long sleeved pink shirt back on and took her weapons out. Neji leapt backwards, ready to fight, but then Tenten sighed, dropping the weapons to the ground. "My arm…" she whimpered, clutching it. "I can't throw right with it." She picked up the various weapons she dropped and put them back away, looking rather miffed. "We'll have to postpone this for later, okay?"
"Mn," was his response, sliding the sword back into the sheath and exiting the training area. She followed him out, wondering if he would ever remember when she asked him out to dinner.