A/N: Please REVIEW…. Your reviews inspire me to write. :
IT STARTED WITH A NIGHT
By KeepMeInspired
Chapter IV
[The third day of "honeymoon"…]
Sakura woke up early and decided to sit out on the front porch and wait for the sun to rise.
She passed the couch upon which Neji was lying fast asleep. She knew it was unfair for him to sleep on the couch when they're now officially married. Also, it was his family's ancestral manor so why the hell would he sleep outside the bedroom?
She sighed.
"Busy, Haruno?"
"What are you doing there at the windowsill?"
Hyuuga Neji was there, sitting charmingly against the windowsill. One leg folded and one arm resting on top of it. Combined with the sunlight streaming in from outside, he looked absolutely gorgeous.
"Whatever. I'm busy. So leave."
"Well, since you're busy…." He said as Sakura scowled. "I'd just go straight to my point then."
"You're pregnant."
Sakura froze.
"My child."
Shocked, Sakura just gaped at him. "I..I'm sorry?"
Suddenly, she remembered. The nausea. The morning sickness. The weird stomach cramps. "W..What?"
"Is there really a need to repeat myself?"
Inside her desk was two months worth of unused tampons. Two months!
"Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo… This absolutely cannot be happening!"
"I…. actually have a proposition to make."
"Which is?"
"We're going to get married."
"Excuse me?".
"We're going to get married." he repeated patiently.
"A penny for your thoughts?" A deep baritone interrupted her musings.
She turned around. "It's actually gonna cost you more than that." Neji smirked. She smiled.
"Good morning, Hyuuga."
"Good morning, Sakura." He lowered himself down beside her. When he awoke, he found Sakura sitting on the front porch and staring into space. He then decided to accompany his wife and this is what he gets in return. Hyuuga?
Great.
"I'm sorry. I should've gotten used to calling you by your first name by now." She shrugged. "It just doesn't feel right."
"Hn."
"Yet." She added.
"Right."
Sakura fixed Neji with her gaze. What is wrong with him? "Look, Hyuuga. I'm really trying my best here. Don't go ruining your wife's pleasant morning."
"I am doing no such thing."
"Then go cook breakfast."
"Excuse me?" Neji stared at her.
She pursed her lips together and pointed them at the kitchen.
Neji's expression was priceless!
He continued to stare at her incredulously and when she nodded towards the kitchen, he followed with his eyes. His eyebrows shot up in surprise and disbelief. Did this woman just demand breakfast from me?
Sakura observed Neji's face closely. It was incredibly funny! She could guess what was running through his mind right now.
HAHA!
Sakura couldn't hold it in any longer. She started giggling and the tiny chuckles developed into loud laughter. "Priceless, I tell you!" HAHAHA!
She was laughing so hard, she was having trouble catching her breath. When she caught sight of Neji's vexed expression however, she stopped abruptly.
She composed herself and sneaked glances at him from under her lashes.
Neji's stare pierced through her. She squirmed and cleared her throat. "I'll go cook now." She managed to mutter demurely.
"Very funny." Neji folded his arms across his chest and chased her away with his irritated glare.
Geez. Such a scary person.
Sakura picked up the phone and dialed Ino's number. The bitch didn't pick up. Ino!
She considered calling Tenten. But she's Neji's teammate! And they're close!
She thought of her third best friend, Hinata. But she's his cousin, you freak!
Ino, Tenten or Hinata?
She decided on the weapons master first.
"Hello?" Tenten's voice was heard at the receiver.
"Tenten!"
"Hey, you're supposed to be on honeymoon!"
"Puh-lease! Two weeks alone with just that guy to talk to? I'm gonna go nuts."
"I've survived him." She could imagine Tenten shrugging at the other end of the line. "What seems to be the problem between you two?"
Well, for one, aside from Neji's uncle, only Ino (and for this, Sakura had to threaten and blackmail her to no end to shut her mouth up for a change and keep this secret) knew about the main reason why they were forced to get married. She couldn't just say 'We aren't in love!" to Tenten right now.
She bit her lower lip angrily.
"Uh, I don't know." She opted to say. "He's out right now so I don't have somebody to talk to."
Across from her, Neji lounged at the porch and was meditating. With his shirt off!
"Well then, you should use this time to plan an exciting night for both of you later." She sniggered.
"Shut the fuck up, Tenten. You're suggesting such malicious-What was that?" A loud bang had sounded from Tenten's end of the line.
"Oh, Ino's here. She just banged my door open."
"Ino? Wait, don't-"
"Who's that you're talking to?" Ino's voice floated to her.
"Sakura." Tenten answered flatly.
Sakura wanted to hit her friend in the head.
"Oh really?" She heard Ino say.
The next thing she knew Ino was talking to her on the phone. "Hey, Mrs. Hyuuga. How's it going?"
"Fine." She said through pressed lips.
"Have you… had your first night yet?" Ino chuckled.
Sakura breathed heavily. "You forget. We've already had it." She rolled her eyes.
"Oh right! But I meant, consciously this time." Sakura could feel Ino's teasing eyes from the other end.
"Whatever, Ino. I'm hanging up."
"Wait! You should report first."
"Uh-" What report? There's nothing to report, dammit! "Sorry, Neji's calling for me now." And she placed the phone down on Ino's "You're such a bad liar, Sakura."
"I wasn't calling for you." Neji, still shirtless, emerged from the kitchen doorway where he had gotten himself a bottle of water. There were the telltale signs of a smirk on his lips.
She just rolled her eyes at him.
She flopped down on the couch and heaved a huge sigh of ennui. Neji sat down beside her.
"Put a shirt on please." She told him flatly.
Neji only raised his eyebrows at her.
She glared at him.
"Well if you're bored…" He said and slowly leaned in closer to her. "I can surely entertain you." His lips made contact with her earlobe.
She jerked and pushed him frantically away. "PERVERT!"
A chuckle issued from him. "Don't pretend. I know you like it."
"Ha!" she scooted over to the other end of the sofa, as far away from him as possible. "You wish!"
"Why are you neglecting your husband like this?" he said as he eyed her seductively. "As the wife, you have the responsibility to appease my raging hormones you know."
A vase nearly hit his face.
"You are one violent woman."
Glare.
"That was antique."
Glare.
"That was a Hyuuga heirloom."
"It was your damn fault!"
Smirk.
The days went by definitely not in a blur.
Each moment of every day was unbelievably frustrating. The hands of the clock seemed to be moving in slow motion. The sunrise and the sunset seemed to have lost their sense of time.
"How long have I been trapped here?" She muttered in a defeated voice.
"7 days."
From her cross-legged position, shoulders slumped and all, she turned her head slowly sideways to the husband meditating with his eyes closed beside her.
"Put me into a 7-day slumber please." She muttered in a barely audible voice.
"If you could just stop whining, you can turn this 2-week honeymoon into something much more bearable."
"What, like meditate shirtless on the porch every day?" she rolled her eyes at him.
Eyes closed, he smirked. He then opened them. "That wouldn't be such an eyesore." His gaze dropped audaciously to her chest.
Sakura wrapped her arms around her and glared. "You perv."
"Hn. Don't regard yourself so highly, Haruno. I know you're dying to see me naked."
Her jaw fell and she gaped at him incredulously. What did he just say?
"Excuse me, Hyuuga!" she shifted around to fully face him. "For your information, I, as a medic-nin, have seen bodies way more gorgeous than yours." She declared haughtily. She raked her eyes nonchalantly over his upper body as if to prove her point.
"I, on the other hand," Neji matched her glare with a stare. "…have sexiergirls literally begging me to undress them."
Sakura abruptly covered both her ears with her hands. "Oh. My. Gosh. I don't want to hear you talking about your sex life." she pressed her eyes shut for a more dramatic effect. "Spare me—the gory details."
He smirked, that gorgeous trademark of his. "Jealous, dear wife?"
"Absolutely not." She scowled at him.
"Right." He nodded teasingly.
Sakura threw her hands up exasperatedly. Her glower didn't dissipate one bit. "I'd gladly trade my position with one of your concubines if they'd-Wait, where are you pulling me?"
Neji had suddenly grabbed her hand and was dragging her outside.
Smirk.
"Let's spar."
The rest of the afternoon was filled with clanks and clinks as kunais and shurikens collided with each other.
"Byakugan."
Neji's 360 degree vision allowed him unrestricted view of his surroundings. He swept the grounds for any sign of pink. Dammit she's nowhere to be seen.
"Come out, Sakura."
A slight blur of movement on his left. His kunai shot out.
A loud thump revealed it to be a log.
Tsk.
Sakura was not the genjutsu type of ninja. She prefers taijutsu and ninjutsu every time. However, Neji, being the tensai (genius) that he is, made sure that he kept his distance from her. She's one violent woman. One punch from her could prove to be fatal.
That leaves ninjutsu on the list. Most probably, she's already at her chakra limit by now.
Movement from the tree branch above. With lightning speed, he threw a kunai upwards. Sakura.
There was silence as the tree leaves rustled. Neji trained his face upwards, squinting because of the sunlight.
Suddenly. Something dripped down from above. It hit his cheek.
He reached up and swiped it off.
Blood.
He stared at it disbelievingly.
Then another drop of blood fell down and hit him.
And another.
And another.
His head snapped up. "Sakura."
Without even bothering to wipe the blood off his face or perhaps he had forgotten, he sprinted his way up the towering tree. In a blur, he jumped from branch to branch. A split second later, he arrived, panting and with a serious look in his face, at the topmost.
Sakura was there alright.
He scanned her hastily with his Byakugan for any sign of open wound. The kunai he threw was equipped with heavy chakra. If indeed it had hit her, he was sure it would have landed on one of her tenketsu points. And if, as he assumed, she was out of chakra, having one of her points hit could have a serious toll on her.
However, as he scanned her thoroughly with his bloodline limit, he found that there seemed to be nothing physically wrong with her.
Sakura whipped around to find Neji surveying her with his Byakugan. He had this puzzled frown on his face. And blood.
"Neji!"
"Hn." A little smirk. "Finally."
For a moment, she was sidetracked. "Finally what?" she asked, confused.
"You called me Neji." Smirk, a little wider this time.
"Well, whatever." She waved her hands off dismissingly. Hands with specks of blood.
Neji's frown returned to his face.
"Did I hit something?"
"Damn right you did." Sakura had her back turned to him. He stepped nearer in order to see what her two hands are busy doing.
Over her shoulder, he saw a bird.
Dead.
Nailed to the tree.
With his kunai.
Sakura had her hands all over it and green chakra emitted from them.
He released the breath he just realized he was holding.
"The bird's dead."
"Yeah. Because of you." She muttered somewhat bitterly.
"Hey it's just a bird."
She turned around with a whip of her hair. "It's an innocent being, Neji!"
He felt the strong urge to roll his eyes at her but managed to stop himself. "Well, sorry then." he said. "Want me to bury it." Just beneath the mock concern, there was sarcasm.
Of course, Sakura didn't fail to notice this.
He was rewarded with a scowl.
She turned back to the bird, released one last batch of healing chakra then when it still showed no signs of life, finally gave up.
She sprung to her feet. "What had you running up here in the first place, huh?" She was wiping her hands on a handkerchief.
Neji cleared his throat.
But didn't answer.
Sakura glanced at him. "It seems like I married a mute person here." She snorted contemptuously.
She jumped to the tree branch across, not bothering to wait for him.
"Well…" He said in a barely audible voice. Nevertheless, it made her pause out of curiosity. "…I thought it was your blood." He shrugged offhandedly.
"Awwh. That was sweet." Sakura chuckled. Neji jumped to her tree branch. "If I didn't know you for the ice block that you are, my heart would have melted." She sniggered teasingly.
Glare.
Teasing smile.
Stare.
Stare.
After a while of silent eye interaction, both erupted in laughter. Well, at least that's what it was for Sakura's case. What Neji did was sport just a tiny hint of a smile on his gorgeous lips.
Still giggling, Sakura reached out a hand and gently wiped away the blood on Neji's cheek.
She thought his smile widened just a little bit.
She took his hand in hers. "Let's go home." She beamed at him.
A/N: oohhh. A happy ending, I guess. Suggestions and reviews please =)) They'll be very much appreciated.