Summary: Neji x Sakura Meet Haruno Sakura, a typical junior high school prankster. When her prank got out of hand, the school principal decides to assign Sakura a mentor. Sakura thinks it's going to be a hell but things might not be as bad as Sakura thinks. AU and hopefully not too much OOC

Genre: Drama/Romance

A/N – Author's Note

Italic - thoughts and/or emphasis on the word

Bold – emphasis on the word


Troublemaker

Chapter 5: The Deal

Four days later

Sakura went to Hyuuga's dojo like always. But when she approached the place, she heard loud, noises coming from the inside. There were noises that sounded like brick breaking, woods colliding, lots of boys yelling, and a bunch more noises that Sakura could not figure out. Sakura slowly opened the door and to her surprise the whole front yard was crowded with boys of all ages.

The brick breaking sounds that Sakura heard came from the bunch of boys that were breaking it with their hands and legs. Then Sakura directed her attention to the opposite side and saw a few swordsmen practicing with their wooden swords. There were a bunch more boys scattered everywhere, and doing some kind of training. None of them seemed to notice Sakura's presence. Either that or they chose to ignore her. Sakura was glad that she didn't catch any unwanted attention.

Sakura walked past them and headed toward a hallway that seemed to lead to the main hall. When Sakura got there, she saw more boys, but this time they were practicing some form of martial arts. She didn't want to disturb them, so she quickly and quietly left the room. Then she proceeded toward another hallway. "Damn, where could Hyuuga-senpai be?" Sakura questioned herself.

As Sakura walked down the quiet hallway, she suddenly heard a voice called out "Shoot". Sakura stopped to listen to the voice better and where did it came from. "Shoot!" There it was again, and this time Sakura recognized the voice. That irritating and commanding voice could only belong to one person only: Hyuuga Neji.

"That sounded like Hyuuga-senpai." Sakura then turned in the direction of the voice was coming from. Sakura quickened her pace toward where she heard it. When she got there, she found herself in a field with gates all around it. There were a bunch of boys all lined up with a bow and arrow in their hands. They were wearing training outfits and then Sakura spotted Neji. He was standing behind the lined up boys and he said "Shoot!"

The second that he said that, all the archers shot the arrows to their assigned target. It was a remarkable sight to see, even though not all the archers hit the targets on the red spot, they still hit it with great precision. Almost all the arrows landed near each other.

"Your stances are weak. Straighten your back and take your aim again," Neji said loudly.

"Yes, sir!" they all said loudly.

Sakura saw them shuffled to straighten their back even more, and took their stances once again.

"Shoot!" Neji said. And once again all the archers shot their arrows, but still didn't hit the targets. Neji gave out a sigh, and told them to take a break. Sakura took that opportunity to run over to Neji and let him know that she was here. Neji saw Sakura coming toward him when he sat down on a bench near the tree.

"Haruno, you're late." Neji said to Sakura.

"I'm so sorry, Hyuuga-senpai." Sakura apologized. Neji didn't say anything after she apologized to him, so she took that as a good sign.

"Um…Hyuuga-senpai, what should I do now?"

"You could go run around the park like always."

"Ok." Sakura then walked away from the archer field, but then Neji called for her.

"Wait, Haruno."

"What is it, Hyuuga-senpai?"

"I'll go with you."

"Eh! Why?"

"Because I want to that's why. And plus I could use a little bit of a warm-up"

"Oh…"

Sakura was about to walked off again, but then turned around and faced Neji again.

"Um, why don't you lead the way, I might get lost again."

"Aa."

With that Neji, and Sakura proceeded to the front door and both began to run. They started to run evenly, but when they almost reached the park, Sakura started to slow down. She kept her eyes on the tree house. It looked exactly like it did yesterday when she ran past the park. Sakura couldn't put her finger on it, but something about that tree house really intrigued her. Maybe some day she'd go up there and find out what it is.

"Haruno, your pace is dropping. Speed it up," Neji said without looking back.

"O-okay!"

Then Sakura speeded up and caught up with Neji, and both arrived at the dojo at the same time. Neji led Sakura back to the archer field and told her to do her regular training near the trees so that he could keep an eye on her.

Neji took a bow and an arrow and started to lecture the boys about something. Then he shot the arrow and it landed right in the middle of the red target. Sakura watched in amazement at Neji's precision and accuracy when it came to archery. He was excellent, but of course she would never say that to his face.

Neji just increased her push-ups to thirty-five for the past few days. But unfortunately, Sakura could barely go to twenty-five, let alone thirty-five. Then after that she had to do fifty sit-ups. Sakura struggled to do her push-ups has caught Neji attention, and he went to her.

"I don't want to be known as a cruel mentor. So don't push yourself too hard, or else you'll injure yourself. Take a break if you want to." He said.

"O-oka-" Neji walked off before Sakura could finish her word.

--

Two weeks later

Back at school, Sakura and Naruto just came out from Sakamoto-sensei. Both had frowns on their faces and were holding a piece of paper in their hands.

"I swear that teacher is out to get me. How can I get a 40? I studied for that damn test!" Sakura said.

"Same goes for me." Naruto agreed with Sakura, while nodding.

"But you never study." Sakura stated.

"I know. I just like to say that." Sakura chuckled at Naruto's comment. Both laughed softly until an unexpected person arrived at the scene. It was none other then Hyuuga Neji, also known as Sakura's mentor, just in case anyone forgot.

"Hey Neji, what are you doing here?" Naruto asked. Neji looked at Naruto then at Sakura, and Neji walked right past him, as if he didn't want to answer Naruto's question.

"Haruno, come with me," Neji said and started to walk off in a different direction, which indicated that Sakura should follow him.

"Ok, but wait a minute." Sakura then turned to Naruto and was about to say good bye, but then Neji turned back with a hint of anger on his face.

"Now!" he commanded. Then he began to drag Sakura by her backpack and walked off. Sakura could barely give Naruto a proper good-bye before she left.

They both walked in silence and when they reached the dojo, Neji led Sakura into a room instead of the usual training ground.

"I heard from her teacher that you've been slacking off lately." He said.

"I wouldn't call it slacking off, really." she answered.

"Then how can you explain your poor test grade?"

"What does it matter to you? And beside, Sakamoto-sensei has a grudge against me ever since I was in her class. She probably gave me a bad grade on purpose."

"No, she didn't. Because I was the one who graded your paper and everybody else in the class."

"Why were you grading our paper anyways, senpai?" Sakura asked.

"I was her teacher assistant (TA for short) for the day. But that doesn't matter right now. What matters to me is that why did you do so poorly on it?"

"Who knows…?" Sakura shrugged it off as if she didn't care.

"I know! And do you know what? Your bad performance is giving the other teachers the impression that I haven't taught you anything for the past few weeks."

"What does it matter to you, anyways?" Sakura asked.

"It matters because I am your mentor, and when you get bad grades like this, it makes me look bad."

"So, this is about your stupid reputation, is it?" Sakura was starting to feel her rage toward her mentor. "Urgg…." Sakura grunted.

"Fine! Be that way. If I can't teach you by just making you do push-ups and running, then you leave me no choice but to use the last resort."

"Uh…what are you talking about?" Sakura asked with a hint of nervousness and fear.

"Come with me." Neji then proceeded to another room with Sakura following from behind. He led her to the kitchen and from the looks of it, it hadn't been used a lot because there was a lot of grease and dirt with shoe prints on the floor.

"Go grab a sponge or cloth and a bucket over there." Neji ordered.

Sakura didn't know what Neji was up to, but judging from the way he looked it wasn't pretty. Sakura could feel something was wrong but she couldn't figure out what it was. But then Sakura did what she was told, and grabbed a dirty old cloth from the counter and a bucket near it.

"What do you want me to do with this?" Sakura said with the most questionable face ever.

Neji smirked at what he was about to say to her. "I want you to scrub the entire floor in this kitchen room."

"WHAT!! You got to be kidding me?? I'm not doing that!!" Sakura protested.

"Do I look like I'm joking to you?" Neji glared.

"No! But still, I am not doing it. Look at the floor. It's so dirty and greasy and…urg…"

"Exactly my point. This will teach you to never again fail another test or else you will have to scrub a different floor each and everyday."

"You can't make me." Sakura glared at him

"I can and I will." Neji glared back with more forces. Both continued their glaring until Neji threaten to call her mom and principal, and have them decide her punishment instead. Knowing her principal, Tsunade, she probably has something more evil than what Neji gave her to do.

"F-Fine." Sakura gave up.

Sakura filled the bucket with water and grabbed the cloth and started to scrub the greasy floor. Neji watched her from a distance away to make sure that he was not in her way. A few minutes have passed and Sakura continued to scrub the floor. She was done with one corner and now she went to another corner.

"You're lucky it is Friday, and there's nobody here, or else you'd be humiliated."

"Lucky me," Sakura said sarcastically.

Sakur's legs and back were getting tired from all the bending, and so she stood up for a while. Then Neji approached her and she looked up at him. She was about to say something, but when she looked up at him and saw his serious face and she stopped any attempt to say anything.

"Tired?" he asked. Sakura didn't say anything and she just gave him a nod.

"Well then, that should teach you a lesson not to slack off again."

Sakura nodded again and lowered her head. She bent her knees and began to scrub the floor again. Neji continued to watch Sakura. Then something popped in his head, and so he thought that might be a good idea.

"Haruno…" he began, which got Sakura's attention and she raised her head a bit to see him.

"Tell you what. If you pass your test next time then you won't have to clean the floor ever again. How about it?" he asked.

This took Sakura by surprise but she was happy even more. She got off from the floor and jumped in joy.

"Really, Hyuuga-senpai?"

"Aa."

"Yay!!" Sakura started to do a victory dance.

"But!" then she stopped.

"But what?" she asked.

"But only if that test is above a passing grade."

"Uh…what do you mean by that, senpai?"

"It means what if sounds like. You have to get a grade that is not barely a passing grade but above it. For example, if the test is worth one hundred percent, then the passing grade would be a sixty percent. I want you to get more than a sixty percent in order for my deal to maintain."

"Ohhh I see. So all I have to do is to get a grade higher than a sixty percent then I won't have to scrub this stupid floor again?"

"That's right."

"That should be easy."

"You talk big, but can you do it?" Neji smirked.

"Just watch me."

"Fine. So do we have a deal?" Neji extended his hand toward Sakura, and she looked at his hand for a few second.

"Deal." She said while shaking his hand and that sealed the deal.

"But for now, you still have to finish cleaning the floor." he stated.

"Ohhh…..man…." She moaned.


A/N: Ok! Five chapters down and many more to go. This story will have a lot of chapters, so don't expect it to end anytime soon. As usual, I don't want any Flame.

Personally, I don't like this chapter, and don't ask me why, I just don't. I just want to kill some time before I get to the climax of the story (but even so, I don't consider it to be the climax). So in other words, I might not like any of the up coming chapters (with the exception of the next chapter, though)

Oh yea! Sorry, if it seems that Neji and Sakura relationship is taking to long to develop. Just bear with me and you won't be disappointed.

Next Chapter: Babysitting

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