Chapter 8

"I can't believe we're doing this," Cornelia muttered as she picked up a kunai.

Across the training ground Taranee laughed. "Oh come on. You yourself said you missed training so why not have a little fun while we're here."

"Don't you think somebody will show up?" The earth guardian asked. "I mean I'm surprised Neji and Lee aren't here considering how renowned they are for their training regime."

The fire guardian bit her lip, looking rather guilty. "Um yeah about Neji and Lee…"

"Taranee, Cornelia you made it!" Lee cried happily as he burst into the training ground followed shortly by Neji who stopped dead when he saw the two girls standing there.

"Lee what's going on," the prodigy asked.

"What did you do Taranee!" Cornelia cried glaring at her friend.

Taranee held her hands up. "Okay before you guys get mad at us-"

"Too late," Neji muttered.

"-Lee and I decided that if we can be friends you guys can be too," the girl finished, ignoring Neji's remark.

"Taranee and I figured that it would be good idea to train together like we used to," Lee added with an enthusiastic grin and doing the nice guy pose.

Cornelia and Neji looked up at each other with an eyebrow raised, silently asking the other what he/she thought. Finally they both looked to Lee and Taranee.

"Alright," they said.

The dark haired girl clapped her hands happily. "Sweet! Okay Lee and I will be partners and you two can spar together. Sound good? Great let's do this thing!"

Reluctantly the blonde and the Hyuga walked toward each other while Taranee and Lee ran to the other side of the area.

"So how do you want to do this?" Cornelia asked rubbing her neck.

"I suggest we do it just as we used to. You're probably rusty from not having trained in the past five years," Neji said.

The guardian smirked. "Actually I've been training on Meridian and I've gotten much better. You might have a bit of a challenge on your hands Neji."

The Byakugan wielder raised an eyebrow and Cornelia could have sworn he looked amused. "A challenge it is then."

The girl's eyes widened a fraction before a smile grew on her face. Maybe, just maybe, they could succeed in being friends.

Irma gulped nervously as she reached the familiar house. She wasn't sure how they would react, but she had to do this. So gathering up her courage she raped on the door three times.

Seconds later the door opened and Irma gave a nervous grin to the woman in front of her. "Hey Yoshino."

"Irma?" Yoshino breathed. When the younger girl nodded a huge grin broke onto Yoshino's face. "Irma!"

Instantly and to the water guardian's surprise she found herself in a strangling hug from the older woman.

"You have no idea how good it is to see you dear," the Nara matriarch said after releasing her. "Oh hold on a minute. Shikaku! Shikaku you'll never believe this. Irma's back!"

"Irma? As in Shikamaru's Irma?" came the shocked sounding voice of the Nara male.

Irma blushed in embarrassment when she heard herself being referred to as Shikamaru's. "Yoshino I-"

"Of course! What other Irma do we know?" Yoshino shouted back to her husband.

"Well Shikamaru will be really happy to see her again."

"I know! Isn't it fabulous?"

"Yoshino I'm not staying for very long I just need to ask you something," the girl said clearly flustered.

"Oh of course dear. You'll have to forgive me, I mean it's been so long after all. Have you been to see Shikamaru yet?" the older woman asked.

"I actually came to find out where he lives," Irma explained.

Yoshino nodded and picked up a piece of paper and a pen, quickly writing something on it. "Here's his address. Oh Irma sweetheart, you have no idea, how much that boy has missed you. Did you know he's stopped escorting Miss Temari?"

"No I didn't know that. Why did he stop?" Irma asked.

"Well he said that, as your sister, she reminded him too much of you. He actually didn't leave his room for two whole weeks after you left and barely ate anything. It took months before Ino and Choji were able to get him somewhat back to normal, but I know that boy never stopped loving you and…oh Irma I'm sorry!" Yoshino said upon finally seeing how Irma's face had paled. "I didn't mean to upset you I was just running my mouth again."

"N-no don't worry about," the water queen said brushing her hair out of her eyes and turning to the door. "I'll just be going now."

"You had to chase her out didn't you?" Shikaku said after Irma left, sounding amused.

"You shut up and come help me with lunch!"

As Irma walked away from the Nara's house she tried to get her heartbeat to calm down. 'Shikamaru never stopped loving me? Man as if I wasn't screwed enough already...' Shaking her head the brunette brought her hand up to her neck and held the small necklace tightly. 'I have to do this,' she thought taking a deep breath.

Sasuke fumed as made his way to Naruto's office. People he passed by quickly jumped out of the way sensing his murderous intent, not wanting to be on the end of the famous Uchiha wrath. Upon coming to his destination, he swung the door open and he stormed in.

"Hey Sasuke what's-" Poor Naruto didn't even get to finish his sentence because Sasuke's fist came smashing straight into his face sending him slamming him against the wall.

"The freak was that for you jerk?" The Hokage shouted.

"You lied to me about Will!" The dark haired man seethed.

"Oh that," Naruto said scratching his neck with a nervous laugh. "Well uh see I only did that because I know you've missed Will so I thought why not try to make things better between you guys."

"The only thing you did was make things worse you idiot!"

"Well at least I got you two to have some sort of conversation with each other. You know that if I hadn't said she wanted to see you, you wouldn't have gone to see her!" Naruto replied. "Don't tell me you didn't want to see her."

"Of course I wanted to see her, but I have no idea what she thinks of me right now," Sasuke said, thinking about the kiss the two of them had shared before she ran off.

"Yeah well I could say the same thing for Hay Lin. Speaking of her, I made a deal with Will that if she wants me to sign the treaty Hay Lin is going to have to talk with me."

"I'll bet she'll be thrilled with that," The Uchiha muttered sarcastically. When Naruto shot him a questioning look he continued. "You know how Hay Lin get's when she's forced to do things against her will. She's probably throwing a fit right now or as much of a fit as a girl like Hay Lin can have anyway. Chances are she's not very happy with you right now."

Naruto frowned as he thought about that. He knew Hay Lin better than anyone and Sasuke was right. Hay Lin probably wasn't happy at all with the deal he made, but it was the only way they both would get any sort of closure.

"I just want to know if she still feels anything for me. If she doesn't I'll let her go," Naruto said.

"What if she does still care about you? What then?" Sasuke asked.

"I don't know."

Cornelia couldn't help, but grin as she dodged another of Neji's attacks. Propelling upwards she almost managed to land a kick in his stomach, but he was faster and grabbed her ankle. She freed it by quickly twisting in mid-air. Doing a quick handspring she pulled out a kunai and threw it at the Hyuga, becoming immensely pleased when it grazed the cloth on his arm.

"You have improved. I'm impressed," Neji said.

"I told you," The earth guardian smirked.

The Byakugan user gave a small smile in return. Cornelia was still as fiery as ever and he saw the gleam in her eyes as they sparred. 'She hasn't changed much,' he thought.

Lee and Taranee both smiled as they watched their friends. It was exactly like it was before. It was just four friends training and having a good time.

"You know I really missed this," Lee said. He and Taranee had long ago abandoned their sparring in favor of watching Neji and Cornelia.

"Missed what?" Taranee asked.

"The four of us spending time together like this. It was lonely without you and Cornelia here," the taijutsu master said. "I just wish that you and I…" He abruptly stopped talking before his thoughts could slip out.

"What about you and I?" the fire girl asked, not even daring to read his mind in fear of what she would hear.

"It was nothing. I was just babbling," Lee said, not meeting the girl's eyes.

Taranee nodded slowly and turned her head away from him. She was very able to guess what he had been about to say, as it was exactly what she had been thinking. Taranee had figured out earlier that Lee still had feelings for her, but was being a gentleman and giving her what he thought she would like best instead of being selfish. That characteristic was one of the reasons she had fallen for him in the first place.

Clenching her fists she quickly turned her attention back to Neji and Cornelia. What happened next made Lee and Taranee's jaws drop.

While trying to dodge an attack, Cornelia slipped and fell backwards. Trying to keep herself upright she grabbed onto Neji, but all that did was bring him down with her. When the blonde hit the ground her head came up, just as Neji's came down, fusing their mouths together.

The Hyuga prodigy quickly tore his mouth from hers and stood up. Remembering his manners, he offered Cornelia his hand, but she brushed it away and stood up, brushing the dirt off her clothes.

"I think I've had enough training for now. Taranee are you coming with me, or staying?" She asked her friend.

Neji and Lee were surprised at how calm she appeared, but Taranee could tell that as soon as they were out of earshot, Cornelia was going to have an all out freak out.

"I'll come with you," the dark skinned girl said. "Bye Lee, bye Neji. See you guys later!"

As the two men watched the girls go Lee turned to Neji. "Well that was...awkward."

"You're telling me," Neji replied. "I will never understand that woman."

As he watched Cornelia walked away, the genius began to contemplate about the relationship the two had once had. Theirs had been without a doubt the most dramatic when compared to their friends'. Their friendship had never been all that stable to begin with either as they both drove each other up the wall.

In fact, Cornelia still drove Neji up the will.

It was infuriating for Neji to be so confused and helpless in this kind of situation. He was used to being in control and being able to handle anything that came his way. His feelings for Cornelia however, were something he wasn't sure he could handle and he knew dang well that he couldn't control them. All Neji knew was that if Naruto didn't sign that treaty and soon, he was probably going to do something he knew he would regret.

Shikamaru lay on his bed trying to think of a way that he could get out of doing paperwork for the day when a knock echoed through his apartment. Too lazy to get up, the genius just closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep, hoping the person would go away. When he heard the door open he didn't think too much of it.

'Probably just Ino or Choji dropping something off for me,' Shikamaru thought.

"I know you're not asleep Shikamaru."

The second he registered who had just spoken the cloud watcher shot up and saw Irma standing in the doorway of his room, looking nervous.

"What are you doing here?" He asked hopping off of his bed.

"I'm here because we need to sort a few things out," Irma said.

"Alright."

"But I have two rules for you," the water girl said holding up two fingers. "Number 1: No touching. Number 2: Absolutely no kissing!"

'I knew she was going to say something about that,' Shikamaru thought with a wince. 'So troublesome.'

END OF CHAPTER