A/N: I've just realized how fast time passes in this story… I hope you're all still reading and can keep up with the pace….
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto's plot/characters.
"Please don't tell me your drunk…" Naruto pushed off against the ground and began walking away from Neji. Naruto kept walking even as Neji began laughing hysterically.
Neji stopped laughing then hurled the sake bottle at Naruto head, only for it to smash against a tree, its contents spilling out. Tears beginning to stream down his face, Neji screamed, then fell to his knees, his whole body shaking.
Naruto stopped walking then turned his head slightly to look at Neji. His face was ashen and his eyes drained of all life. His hair looked as if he had tried to cut it off, but stopped himself at the last second. Naruto didn't know what to say.
"She left me… for such a stupid reason but…" Neji swallowed as much air as he could, trying to stop crying. "But… I've done this so many times before…"
Naruto sat on the ground, his back to Neji. "What do mean?" His voice was croaky.
Neji smirked, though managed to retain some sort of sombre look to it. "I've made her feel inferior so many times… called her an idiot, weak and…. so many other things… but without her-"Naruto cuts him off.
"Your nothing."
"Exactly."
The two of them sat in silence. They were waiting for something that would never come. Not at that moment.
"You're not trying to bring back the eye of the moon project?" Sasuke's eye's widened. His voice was filled with obvious panic and his chest swelled with guilt.
Madara roared with laughter, mocking Sasuke's presumption. "Well… you're half right. But half right isn't good enough now is it?"
"Shut up!" Sasuke stood up shouting. His face was red with confusion and anger, no longer the calm, level-headed Uchiha he was famed to be back home. Taking a deep breath, Sasuke sat back down, trying to supress his rage. "What are you planning to do with Hinata then?"
Madara stayed silent, enjoying his way with Sasuke. Konan began laughing, seeing how Madara clearly had the upper hand when it came to mentality. Sighing, she spoke to Madara sweetly. "Oh dear! Just tell him, it's obviously driving him crazy!"
Madara smirked, nodding in agreement. "After some research, I've found out that this girl, Hinata, is the object of the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki's desires. All I had to do was wait for the perfect time to act. And I did. Just after you joined me in my travels, the Jinchuuriki decided to finally court the girl."
Sasuke stayed silent for a moment. Court is such an old word to use… Naruto finally figured Hinata out, huh?
He smirked for a moment at this thought, only to spit at Madara. "You didn't answer my question. And how do you know all this?"
Madara frowned tired of being spat at. "I know this because I am a very good spy. And when you say I didn't answer your question, that's because there was nothing to answer. You were right. I was just messing with your head. It's rather easy these days…" The amusement in Madara's voice was evident.
Sasuke breathed heavily, trying not to lash out and remain civilised. "So you are trying to complete the eye of the moon plan. But how come no one knows of your resurface? I assume you have the Hachibi? "
Madara smiled. "Yes. It took a while though… I first had to wait until he was away from his village for a while. Then I apprehended him, and replaced him with a reanimation that is under my control. Simple."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "You know the reanimation technique?"
"Yes."
"Liar. It was Kabuto that can perform the reanimation technique, not you."
Madara smirked, his eyes darkening, and he tapped his nose, motioning that he would never reveal certain secrets.
Sasuke looked down at the still unconscious Hinata. He then looked out towards the horizon, where Konoha was waiting. Placing a grip on the hilt of his katana, he jumped up and threw a fist in Konan's direction, knocking her out immediately. Madara got up and grabbed a fistful of Sasuke's hair, pulling him back.
"What are you doing?" Madara hissed into Sasuke's ear.
"Something I should've done a while ago." Grunting, Sasuke threw Madara in front of him, then activated his sharingan.
"I guess the cat's out of the bag…" Shikamaru groaned, trying to support the wobbly blonde next to him.
"What cat?" Ino slurred, her face riddled with confusion. Tenten frowned mouthing something. Sakura raised an eyebrow.
"Care to share your thoughts with us?" Sakura chimed.
"Oh it's nothing… just, why did you hide your relationship?" Tenten seemed unsettled, obviously thinking about something else, someone else.
Shikamaru scratched the back of his head, trying to remember when he first asked Ino out. "Well, we haven't been together long… I asked her out a week ago. Ino wanted to announce it today, so she could make some sort of big deal out of it…. Something like that…"
"Sounds like Ino. Wants to be the centre of attention on a day for all girls…" Sakura grumbled, creases appearing on her forehead. "Anyway, you should go and get some hot sauce and some iced water. Oh and some oranges! She needs that too." Sakura began prancing around Ino's apartment, looking through the kitchen draws and grabbing a knife.
"What's the hot sauce for? And the oranges?" Tenten questioned as she rummaged through some odd looking bottles in one of the kitchen cupboards. Shikamaru threw some oranges at Sakura, who sliced them in half and squeezed the juice of it into Ino's gaping mouth.
"Hot sauce is for smelling, to wake Ino up a bit. The oranges… well, she needs her vitamins." Sakura continued squeezing orange juice into Ino's mouth until there were no more oranges left. "You and Shikamaru look after her for a bit. I need to do something."
"What do you need to do?" Shikamaru droned.
"Tell Tsunade Ino has a hangover and won't be able to make her morning shift."
Throwing the knife into the sink, Sakura kicked her way through the rubbish and out the door.
Shikamaru hauled Ino over to the sofa and placed her on it. Tenten went to look out of the window to see Sakura bump into Suigetsu, who took hold of Sakura's hand and pulled her away somewhere. Tenten began to get teary eyed as she remembered how Neji first asked her out.
Tenten was breathing heavily. Lee was lying on the ground, furious at being beaten once again by him. Neji.
Neji stood tall above both of them and had a sly grin plastered across his face. He was red from the heat that had settled on this august eve. "Why do you always pull me into your fights Lee? If you can't beat him then what makes you think I'm any help?" Tenten pouted, letting her legs give way.
Lee jumped up with extraordinary amounts of energy and went into a long rambling speech about youth. Somewhere, Gai was probably crying with joy. Neji looked at Tenten, annoyed and snapped. "Why did you have to get him started?" Tenten giggled shyly, not knowing how to argue back against him.
Lee finally stopped talking and breathed. Getting up, he bid his farewell and then raced off. Tenten got up as well. "I guess I should be going too…" Tenten spoke quietly, not wanting to annoy Neji anymore.
"Tenten wait!" The words began rolling out of Neji's mouth. Tenten looked at Neji, her eyes asking a million questions.
"Tenten…" Neji became a deeper red then before. Tenten frowned. Neji huffed. He started walking towards Tenten and stopped until he was only a few centimetres away from her. It was now Tenten's turn to go red. "Tenten…" Neji gulped, and then pulled Tenten towards him, pressing his lips against hers.
After a few moments of bliss, Neji pulled away, leaving Tenten dazed. "Tenten-"
Tenten slapped him. "If that's your way of asking me out, then it sucks. But… yes! I will go out with you." Tenten grinned. Neji held his cheek and sighed contently.
Shikamaru looked at Tenten and rolled his eyes. She still loved him, but was filled with too much pride to swallow.
Of course she doesn't want to admit it! Being treated like crap and all…
"Women are so troublesome…" Shikamaru slapped himself, preparing himself for the unthinkable.
Tenten snapped out of her trance and looked at Shikamaru questioningly. Ino who had finally sobered up enough to understand her surroundings, screamed as Shikamaru raised his hand at Tenten.
"Suigetsu, what's wrong?" Sakura frowned, her eyes filled with worry as she looked Suigetsu up and down. He face was paper white, and he was sweating himself dry.
Placing his hands on Sakura's shoulders, he licked his lips and spoke. "Sakura… I like you…and I don't just like you as a friend, I like like you. You know, as in I want to go out with you and stuff like that and-"
"Suigetsu! You're rambling! Get to the point!" Sakura raised her voice slightly in annoyance, but then she hugged the now dazed Suigetsu.
He's never going to come back… give up to love… because you know you'll never win…
Sakura whispered into Suigetsu's ear. "I like like you too." Pulling away, Sakura smiled genuinely. Suigetsu turned red, then kissed Sakura on the cheek. He began laughing.
"For a second there I thought you were gonna send me flying into a wall or something!"
Sakura scoffed. "That's easier said than done with you."
"Very true."
"Don't flatter yourself."
"I have every reason to."
"Like what?"
"You."
Naruto and Neji were still sat in the forest clearing, still content with the heavy, tense silence that had decided to settle. It was just two men experiencing pain that is alike. Two men longing for a shoulder to cry on, but no one to turn to. Two men who, without their beloveds were nothing. Nothing.
Neji finally broke the tension, though it didn't do much good. "What did you do to save her?"
Naruto flinched, not knowing what to say. He knew Neji was still drunk and that if Naruto wasn't careful he could send him into a fit of rage. Licking his lips, Naruto spoke hesitantly. "What I did to save her…" Naruto sighed, deciding not to lie to himself. "What I did… was nothing."
Absolutely nothing.
"I just watched as those bastards took her… right from under me!" Tears began to brim Naruto's eyes once more. With clenched fists, Naruto jumped up and took large strides towards Neji. Grabbing the collar of his grey shirt, Naruto slammed Neji against a tree and began screaming at the enraged Hyuuga's face. "You're an idiot! You still have the world and you just throw it away! So much for Mr I'm too smart for you! I will bring Hinata back. I will do whatever it takes, as long as it helps you realise that you need pull yourself out of the grave you dug yourself and stop pitying yourself! Because you still have Tenten! And she loves you! She left you because you refused to let her in! Just because I've lost the love of my life doesn't mean you should lose yours! Now go get her you son of a-"
"Hey!"
"Heh… I got carried away…" Naruto let go of Neji and began smiling, if not barely. Neji looked at Naruto with a blank expression. After a moment went by, Neji gave Naruto a warm brotherly embrace. Naruto smirked and gladly returned it.
Releasing Naruto, Neji tapped him on the back. "Thank you… and umm… don't tell anyone about this." Neji spoke the last part sternly.
Naruto chuckled and nodded. "Now go clean yourself up! You stink!"
Neji frowned, but looked at Naruto and asked, "What about you?"
"Oh me? I'm… I'm just gonna stay here for a bit. Still have some things to think about." Naruto smiled, and shook the hand that Neji held out.
Sasuke broke past the two shinobi who apprehended him at Konoha's gates, holding tight onto the sleeping girl slung over his right shoulder. He raced away from there shouting, and kept running, having vowed not to stop until he reached the Hokage's office. He ran and though his legs wanted to, he didn't stop. Until that is, he passed a blur of pink.
His heart skipped a beat at the thought of seeing Sakura after so long. And today! On the Seijin No Hi festival.
She's twenty one years old…
Walking back to where he saw the pink blur, he smiled knowing he was finally going to see how much she had grown.
Sasuke scowled. Suigetsu was with her. Sakura was in his arms. Her hands were tangled in his hair. He was crouching down to reach her height. Her face was bright pink. He stroked her face as he kissed her. As she kissed him.
"Sakura…" Sasuke was lost.
Sakura's head whipped round to look at the source of such a deep, brooding voice. "Sasuke!"
Please… no… I have to be dreaming… all this was for nothing?
A/N: I worked REALLY hard on this chapter, so I hope you like it^^ Not that I didn't work hard on the other chapters or anything… I think this is the longest chapter in the story so far, but regardless… I hope you're still reading and that you enjoy it!