Born to die
Chapter two:
"Icha Icha Paradise II and a battle worthy of a ninja"
"That person that can make you laugh, smile, or cry and you don't even know it until they tell you, and then you laugh some more. Yup, that's a damn good friend right there even if their a stranger." ~Me!
Disclaimer: Ya ya, I don't own Naruto.. blah blah blah… don't sue me…. Blah blah blah… just read the damn story!
Author notes:
Hello there! So I promised some Neji in here and some grew into over half the chapter so, he-he ya. The next chapter will be centered around team gai and team Kakashi, get ready for bushy brow jr. vs bushy brow sr.!
PLEASE REVIEW ME PEOPLE!
Also for neji/saku art on the scene at the very end (only in the chapter its night) go to my devian account at
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please visit and comment there too!
"IT'S BEEN TWO HOURS!" Naruto whined, using the loudest most obnoxious decibel of sound a ninja could possibly reach. Sakura winced slightly as Naruto was so conveniently standing right next to her at said time, and Sasuke only scooted further away from the two.
"NARUTO! SHUT THE HELL UP WOULD YA!" Sakura roared and then punched Naruto harshly on the head, successfully pounding him into the ground.
"Thank you, I think we might be able to hear again in a minute or two now." Inner grumbled, rubbing her temples slowly.
"Ugh, Baka I can read time contrary to your beliefs." Sakura hissed, glaring coldly at the blond before stalking off. They had been waiting at the training ground for almost two hours now and their silver haired sensei still had not shown any intentions of even considering showing up and it was pissing off his pink haired student majorly,
"Hn." Sasuke mumbled before leaning further into the tree he was at.
Sakura shot him the same cold glare, "Ugh, Uchiha could you please do us all a favor and expand your vocabulary to above ten words?" She said, positively fuming by now as she felt the days stress begin to implode.
"Uh Sakura-" Naruto started nervously.
"GAHHHHHH!" Both boys immediately scrambled for cover, unsure of what exactly had just happened. Slowly the dust began to settle, and reveal that half the training ground was cracked and covered in crystal mounds that jutted dangerously from the ground.
"What just happened?" Naruto asked before picking his jaw up off of the ground and sparing a sideward glance at Sasuke.
"Hn, I don't know. Are you blind dobe?" Sasuke spat before turning around to pick a different tree to practice shuriken throwing on.
Naruto surveyed the training grounds again and realized something was missing, "AHH! WHERE'S SAKURA?" He cried hysterically while running around like a mad man on the loose.
Surprisingly, the Uchiha stopped dead in his tracks and then not so surprisingly cursed, "Fuck, Sakura."
(With Sakura)
"To hell with waiting! I think I'll just go find bastard sensei and drag him there myself!" Sakura hissed before quickly making the horse hand seal and then letting out an ear-piercing whistle.
"Ooh! Pervy-sensie is so dead!" Inner said, chuckling with the thought of burning, shredding, or destroying the jonins entire Icha Icha collection.
"Cork it Inner." Sakura snarled.
Within a matter of seconds a large dun nin-horse was standing warily in front of her, "Uh, hey kid? Care to explain?" Kemuri asked, a nervous tone detected in his normally steady voice.
Sakura stormed right over to Kemuri and then boosted herself on, using the absolute largest amount of charka she could without blasting herself off into the stratosphere.
"Pony boy, we need to find purvey-sensei so I can teach him what happens when he is late!" Kemuri just rolled his eyes, exhaling in relief at the fact that it was only her late sensei that was royally pissing her off.
"Kid, you can be so immature I swear your letting Anko rub off on you way too much." He huffed before propelling himself forward at high speed while scanning the area for a chakra signature.
"Ya! Let's kick his sorry ass and teach him a lesson! CHA!" Inner shouted, pumping herself with adrenalin fueled by her pissed-off outers attitude.
"Damn straight inner, damn straight."
Sakura was practically snorting with pent-up rage when Kemuri finally smirked a little, "Ah hey kid, I think I've found the perve in question." He snorted, tossing his head in anticipation as he headed into the forest.
And there he was, Hatake Kakashi (A.K.A. Pervy-sensie) was leaning lazily against a tree with the newest release of Icha Icha paradise II in his hand. A creepy smile was plastered on his face as he giggled occasionally.
"WHAT THE FUCK?" Inner screamed, losing control of her own temper as she began throwing a fit in her sub-conscious realm. "HE IS READING HIS PERVY LITTLE BOOKS! And what the hell, he laughs like a girl!"
"The book must die." Sakura seethed, staring at the wretched paper bound distraction as if it would burst into flames. Oh wait, she would make it.
"Ah might I suggest the new scorching palm technique we have been practicing?" Inner asked sadistically, rubbing her hands together in a villainous manner on the verge of an evil laugh.
"Let's." Sakura laughed inwardly.
The pink-haired Kunoichi quickly ignited a small, but lethal flam on both palms before performing fifteen different hand signals and laying her palm out flat as if to blow a kiss.
Kemuri felt his rider's chakra change and groaned, lowering his head in irritation.
" Oh Kid c'mon don't do it." he groaned quietly, hoping to avoid any further irritation but his mediocre efforts proved useless.
"Ya sure, Fire style Scorching palm Juutsu!" Sakura whispered before blowing on her palm and causing the small flame to ignite into a fit of sparks and ember, blowing straight towards the now very active Kakashi.
"Damn!" Kakashi hissed, jumping straight up as a shower of sparks danced below him. How the heck could someone have snuck up on him? He is the great and almighty Hatake Kakashi right?
"OH NO! OH NO! ICHA ICHA PARADISE II? WHERE ARE YOU?" He called out nervously, searching frantically around for his precious book.
Sakura smirked slightly, her pervy sensei's trashy book clasped tightly in hand while her other was held below it a dangerous flame flickering from her palm. "Oh Kakashi-Sensei!" Sakura called out, her tone was dripping with a sadistic sweetness.
Kakashi's head shot up and looked to his left to find his new student perched comfortably atop the nin-horse with – "SAKURA! Give me that book back right now!" He growled dangerously before stalking over to the pair.
She laughed as she spun Kemuri around in the opposite direction, "HAHA! You'll have to catch me first!" She teased and then bolted away with Icha Icha paradise II still in possession.
"SAKURA!" the pissed-off silver ninja bellowed before giving chase, and thinking of the unlimited number of ways to torture a thieving student. Number one was reading him the rest of Icha Icha Paradise, oh yes that would do just fine.
(Back with the boys.)
"Ah, Teme! Where do you think Sakura-Chan went?" Naruto asked nervously, rocking back and forth on the ground.
Sasuke breathed out heavily in annoyance, "Hn, I don't really care dobe."
As if to answer their question a tan, flaming ball whizzed past the two before skidding to a halt and chucking a book at Naruto's head.
"Naruto! Head's up!" the only head that shot up was Sasuke's though.
"Wow, remind me again how this kid passed the academy?" Inner sighed before face palming as the book hit Naruto Square in the head.
Sakura groaned as she trotted over to her boys, Kemuri's mane and tail blazing with fire in his battle mode. Being a nin-horse meant he had a special nature style too, his happened to be fire style and he had figured out how to set his mane and tail on fire without burning it off.
"Hey Naruto, it's a gift from me to you." Sakura said deviously, grinning in such a way that hinted she was totally guilty.
Naruto quickly picked up the book and turned it around before lighting up with a smile, "ICHA ICHA PARADISE II! HOW DID YOU KNOW I WANTED IT?" He babbled excitedly as he danced around like a giddy, drunk idiot.
Sakura and Sasuke both sweat dropped before the girl promptly whacked Naruto on the head with a chakra-enhanced hand. "Naruto! You Baka!" She roared, sending some chakra into Kemuri and forcing his mane to flame up in a huge, impressive display.
Suddenly a silver-blur came spitting out of the bushes just as Naruto stood to get up, and crashed past him sending him flying past the others into a tree. Sakura quickly yanked Sasuke by the collar out of Kakashi's way, saving him from death by icha-icha deprived sensei.
Kakashi quickly scooped up his precious book, fondling it and then inspecting for damage. Satisfied that there wasn't anything wrong with his beloved book he stuffed it in his pocket and then turned to a very smug looking sakura, " Hey there Kakashi-sensei, nice of you to drop by," She said, smiling with a sickly sweetness that made even Kakashi shiver a little.
"Sorry about that, I was on my way here when a black cat crossed my path." Sakura twitched slightly before opening her mouth to scream,
"LIAR!" She yelled in unison with Naruto who had made a miraculous recovery and was now standing to the left of Kemuri.
"Heheheh, maybe Kakashi-sensei has learned his lesson." Inner laughed.
"Hn." Sasuke grunted before dodging another flare up of Kemuri's blazing mane. The Uchiha glared forcefully at the nin-horse, cursing him for stealing his beloved spotlight with his fire-nature and became determined to show him that only an Uchiha could truly master the flame.
"Uh, Anyway today we will be testing you to see if you really can become genin. The test you are about to give has a 60% fail rate and only two of you will pass and one will have to go back to the academy * cue flailing Naruto* The objective is to get one of these bells before that timer runs out." Kakashi explained, pointing to a timer that had magically appeared on a tree before jingling his bells slightly.
"OH MY FUCKING GOD!" inner gaped.
"The bell test? Seriously!" Sakura added, a deceptive smirk slowly creeping its way onto her face.
" Oh, this is going to be a piece of cake." She said and inner's maniacal cackling backed her up because she had been doing this drill for three years now, and her outcome had always been an improvement. Today she suspected would be no different.
Two hours passed and the boiling Konoha afternoon was beating down on the three ninja, and they found that they had yet to steal a single bell from Kakashi.
In fact, not only did they not have a bell but also Naruto was tied to a stump and Sakura and Sasuke were commanded not to feed him lunch.
"Remind me again why i'm the one tied to the tree?" naruto whined, squirming in his ropes as he tried to free himself. Sasuke sneered at his blond teammate, why did he have to be so dumb?
"Oh, that's easy! Your the one tied up because your the easiest on to tie up!"Sakura said sarcastically, earning a grunt of approvement from sasuke before she rolled her eyes.
Sakura sighed, and waited for Kakashi to poof away before calling to Kemuri who arrived within moments, "Hey pony boy, can you grab me some lunch please? Ill groom you later, promise." She said sweetly, grinning with success as he flickered off to find her some lunch.
"Why did you do that Sakura-Chan?" Naruto asked, tilting his head in question.
Sakura smiled before stuffing her onigiri into Naruto's open mouth, "That's why Baka, I promise to take care of my team and that includes not letting them go hungry."
Sasuke narrowed his eyes at his foolish teammate, "Hn, you're going to get in trouble for that." He hissed, looking down at his own bento, which was suddenly very interesting.
Suddenly Kakashi poofed right in front of Sakura, and he looked even more pissed off than when she stole his Icha Icha Paradise that morning. "YOU ALL-" he started, glaring at Sakura with killing intent which she surprisingly returned but with a smirk before stuffing yet another onigiri into Naruto's trembling mouth.
"Pass!" Naruto choked on his Onigiri while Sasuke's eyes widened just a little in surprise.
Sakura on the other hand only grinned wider, "I thought so. The whole point of this exercise was teamwork, but it didn't really matter to me I would've shared my lunch anyway." She said humbly, cramming the last of the onigiri into Naruto's mouth before he could say anything stupid.
"That's right sakura. Shinobi who disrespect the rules are trash, but those who disrespect their teams are worse than trash." Kakashi stated confidently, sending a proud grin to sakura who smiled back and hoped that maybe he would recognize her now as a Kunoichi and not just some little pink haired girl.
It's been a week since my team and I took the bell test, but I feel like nothing has changed. I mean I should be happy because I'm one of only nine shinobi that passed the test this time around but still Kakashi-Sensei treats me like I'm made of glass and so does Naruto while Sasuke- just calls me annoying but I could give a damn about what that Uchiha has to say.
I tilted my head up a little, gazing at the inky black sky that was dotted with thousands of sparkling stars.
"I just wish someone would see me as a ninja." I whispered silently, breathing in the cool, crisp night air deeply. It smelled like pine trees, and rain but nothing else.
Half an hour passed and I was getting ready to go home, it had to be at least 1:30a.m. And Anko was out on a mission *sad face* so it didn't matter when I returned or not. I sighed and breathed in deeply one last time, but I smelled something new.
"Cinnamon?" I asked with an amused tone, whirling around to see the Hyuuga emerging from the forest with his typical impassive face on.
I nodded my head slightly in acknowledgment, "Neji-San." He just grunted towards me and then walked toward the edge of the mountains outcrop, staring at the sky like I was moments ago.
I sighed and walked up next to him, "You come here when you're troubled too huh?" I asked quietly, trying not to disturb the peace and pry an answer from the impassive Neji at 1:30 in the morning.
Neji glanced down for a moment before 'Hn' ing, "Elders." He mumbled, just loud enough for me to hear it as an amused twinkle shone in my eyes. I had watched Tenten train as much as I could for the past year ever since she got her team, and coincidentally had observed the Hyuuga training as well. One big thing is that this pearly-eyed ninja was not a talker, and if you managed to get two syllables out of the guy it was like winning a Grammy award.
I smirked a little, raising my head back up to look at the stars, "Well Neji, in my opinion it shouldn't matter whether you're a branch member or main member. Truth of the matter is your protecting the next heir and that's a pretty damn good reason to have as much say in things as those old geezers do ne?" I questioned, allowing my eyes to wander over to his as a flicker of surprise went through them.
" Didn't expect that now did you Neji?" Inner said, causing me to burst out laughing in my sub-conscious mind,
I could've sworn that I saw the tiniest microscopic smirk appear on Neji's face, "You?" I whipped me head around and silently questioned my hearing for a moment before grinning lightly.
"Well Neji-San, my team doesn't seem to see me as part of the team. Kakashi-Sensei just focuses on training Naruto and Sasuke all the time, it's like I'm invisible to him or like some pretty ornament only used to decorate." I growled out. eyes narrowing in anger as I clenched my fists.
"Damn you Pervy-sensie, and your porn." Inner spat, grinding a picture of Kakashi posing with his little orange book under her foot like some pathetic little bug.
Suddenly Shino shuddered violently.
Kiba looked at him strangely, "You okay Shino?"
Shino nodded slowly, "Ya, it's just I got the weirdest feeling someone called my bugs 'pathetic' and compared the way people smash them under their feet to that of a picture."
Hinata and Kiba stared at Shino, both assuming that they had lost it. Hinata, still staring blankly at shino mumbled "O-Ok Then."
"Hn." He muttered, casting me the kind of 'go on' glance.
"I just don't get why I don't even have a chance to spar or train or practice with my team? I mean Tenten always gets her chances to train fairly with you guys, Ino practically runs her team and Hinata is being personally trained by Kurenai. I just need a chance; one chance is all I'm asking for to prove myself you know? But Pervy-sensie seems to think that's too much of a trouble" I said, looking over at Neji to see him looking at me with an eyebrow arched amusingly up in questioned.
"What?" I asked, panicking slightly.
"Pervy-Sensie?" he asked me, and I immediately blushed a deep pink before looking away.
"Uh, Ya you see well um. Kakashi, has this god damned little orange book that he carries with him EVERYWHERE and well its, um, a uh." I blurted out, barely able to keep from sounding like Hinata.
"Just say it already!" Inner shrieked.
"Icha Icha Paradise." I squeaked, glancing back at Neji who now had a very dull look on his face, but after being forced around the almost-as-impassive Uchiha for years I have learned the language of the assholes quite well and knew that meant he was slightly disgusted and amused at the same time.
"Wow outer, way to go. You just spilled your guts to the one person who might possibly be more emotionless than the Uchiha on earth that can still be called a human being. Nice." Inner said, eying me with a 'way to go!' look as I glared daggers back at her.
I sighed and turned around, "Well, Good night Neji-San." I whispered before making my way across the field.
Suddenly a huge gust of air narrowly missed my back as I spun around to see Neji, just finishing an air palm technique as he straightened back up again. The slightest trace of a smirk visible, he said, "Fight me Sakura-San, I'll see if you're worthy of being a ninja."
"HELL YES!" Inner cried, jumping for joy.
I grinned deviously, tightening my gloves in the signature 'sakura stance' as I stared him down. For a whole minute neither of us moved, neither breathed or blinked or spoke, and then "Your on Neji!" I said confidently.
Neji narrowed his eyebrows, obviously trying to seek out my chakra network and I let him do it because the byakugan's chakras disabling wont work on me since I have combined my chakra network slightly with Kemuri's. Handy little Juutsu that one is, almost completely rendering the Hyuuga's Byakugan useless.
"Crystal style: jade Crystal labyrinth Juutsu!" I mumbled, releasing the crystal roses to create a giant crystal dome encasing us in the Hokage Mountain's clearing. Neji cocked an eyebrow suspiciously at me, and I blushed a little because I hadn't explained a thing to him.
"He he, sorry about that. It's just I don't think the Hokage would be to happy if we destroyed the monument, ne?" I asked sheepishly before resuming my battle position.
Neji and I held our positions, each staring the other down with intimidating glances as a 'last chance' offering. And suddenly the battle started, I quickly whipped out 5 shiruken and then coated them in crystal " Crystal style: Hexagonal Shiruken!"
Neji moved in a flash, "Air Trigrams Air palm!" he yelled, thrusting his palm in my directions before shooting out a massive stream of chakra damaging airwaves. My eyes widened just as I was about to release the shiruken, and I felt my arm lock up.
"DAMN YOU OUTER! MOVE YOUR ASS!" Inner screeched, and I instinctively pumped chakra into my feet and dashed left but not before the passing tunnel of air could catch my right shoulder causing my shiruken to miss Neji. Damn him.
I growled in annoyance as I re-gained steady footing, and glared at my opponent whose impassive face now was twisted into an arrogant smirk. I felt the rage bubble up inside of me, and then I quickly performed the hand seals needed and slammed my fist into the ground shouting "Crystal Style: Crystal Needles!"
I watched in triumph as huge clusters of deadly Crystal needles began sprouting out of the ground everywhere, quickly heading in Neji's direction. "We got him! We got him!" Inner squealed, pumping her fist with pre-mature victory.
Suddenly Neji began making some strange hand seals and shouted "Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven." And immediately I knew I was in some deep trouble.
"And we don't got him." Inner said, dropping her head in a depressed manor.
I watched as Neji began spinning rapidly around, a huge sphere of chakra molding around him to make what I heard tenten call the "ultimate defense." Neji's Chakra sphere spun like a tornado, shattering my crystal needles as they attempted to sprout underneath him.
"Aw shit." Inner groaned, plunking down on the floor of my sub-conscious mind as we watched the poor crystals be reduced to nothing but dust in the wind.
I growled at Inner, "SHUT UP! I'm trying to fight the Neji Hyuuga here! I could do without your helpful commentaries." I snapped successfully shutting her up for a moment so I could think.
'That is supposedly the ultimate defense, and the Juutsu works by creating a shield of chakra by spinning rapidly." I thought, desperately trying to find a way to break his Juutsu.
Suddenly a light bulb went off in my head, "But No spin means no shield!" I whispered to myself as I quickly found a solution to my problem.
"Crystal style: Falling tears Crystal Dragon" I said, rapidly performing the hand seals before slamming my palm into the ground. Almost immediately a giant, crystal dragon began to materialize in front of me.
"Hell yes. Oh ya, go us! Go us! Go us! Oh Ya!" Inner cheered.
I groaned, "Didn't I get rid of you already? Just – uh whatever." I said before returning to the present matter at hand.
Neji's Chakra sphere seemed to be spinning at a slower pace, and I smirked. "Sexist." I muttered before hopping onto the dragon's back and flying straight toward Neji's chakra sphere. "Fire style: Dragon bullet!" I said, making the hand seals as my dragon began to fly around Neji's sphere but in the opposite direction.
As soon as I finished the seals the dragon started breathing scorching hot flames onto Neji's chakra sphere, just as planned. I pumped more chakra into the dragon, rotating the other way faster and faster forcing Neji's rotation slower and slower.
"Hehehe, excellent." inner laughed, throwing her head back like some evil scientist.
I ignored my persistent peanut gallery and watched the shield grow thinner and thinner until suddenly-
"BOOM!" The Chakra sphere disappeared and the forced pressure of the air met my dragon's flames and created a huge explosion.
"GAH! ABANDON SHIP! ABANDON SHIP!" Inner cried and I wasted no time in hurtling off of the crystalized dragon, landing a safe distance away from the deadly flames. I smirked as I saw a small, smoke plume spit out of the explosion and hurtled into the walls of the crystal battle arena, hitting them with a dull but back breaking 'thud'.
"Ouch, that's gonna leave a mark." I said, hissing with fake pain as Inner laughed a bit at my remark.
"Hey I think we won! HAHAHA! In your face Hyuuga!" Inner yelled, dancing a victory dance around like she had just had one to many shots at the bar. I rolled my eyes, and silently agreed with inner that chances are I probably did win.
Kami was I wrong. Suddenly I felt a chakra flare 'fuck' and then heard "Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four palms!" 'Double fuck' before snapping my head in said voices direction just in time to see a very angry and scuffed Neji with Byakugan eyes intensified on me. 'Triple fuck.'
(You might be wondering where 8-year-old sakura's inner learned those words, she lives with Anko. It's pretty self-explanatory)
I had never had my Chakra pathways messed with before and quite honestly I liked it like that, so as Neji began to perform what I like to call the " sixty four pokes of death' technique I did the one thing anyone would do in this situation.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHH! PANIC! PANIC! AHHH! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" Inner wailed, running around in pointless circles while flailing her arms in my sub-conscious.
Okay scratch-that, Inner totally lost it and I just sat there counting each painful strike as it landed. "41, 42,43…." I counted, squeezing my eyes shut in anticipation of the final strike. "62,63,64-"
Suddenly I felt my chakra flow stop, and then burst back to life again throwing Neji and I back in opposite directions. I heard the Crystal walls of the stadium moan and heave as our backs slammed into the walls, and I managed to look up and see cracks beginning to crawl up the walls. The last thing I heard sounded like a thousand mirrors all shattering at once, and then I blacked out.
"What-" Neji groaned, slowly getting to his feet, "Was that?"
He looked around at the makeshift training ground, not a thing was out of place except for a certain pink-haired Kunoichi. "Why didn't my technique work? It's like at the last minute a wall went up and I couldn't freeze her network. Hmm." Neji mumbled, and then made his way over to the unconscious girl.
Neji frowned a bit, "And what was that force, it sent us both flying back?" he silently questioned before reviewing the results of the battle with a small smirk on his face. He had won (duh.), but he couldn't help but think how this had been his closest battle yet.
It seemed almost impossible to Neji that such a weak looking girl had managed to destroy his 'ultimate defense', and come the closer to beating him than any of the other genin had. He hadn't ever taken notice of this girl before, he only happened to see her when Tenten brought her along to watch them practice. Key word, WATCH. She never battled with Tenten or him, and mainly focused on staying as far away as possible from Lee and Guy-Sensei.
"And I've never seen anyone who can control crystal before." He mumbled before glancing over to the pink-haired Kunoichi. Suddenly he felt his breath stop a bit, something was wrong. It had been about 20 seconds and it didn't look like she was breathing. But she couldn't have possible died from that right? Right?
"Damn." Neji muttered, kneeling down next to her before placing to fingers at the pulse point on her neck. His blood ran cold, no pulse.
The seconds slowly ticked away, twenty seconds turned into thirty and Neji almost began to internally panic- almost. It would be a shame if she died but no skin of his back right? So why had he suddenly started sweating and why was his heartbeat speeding up and why-"
"WHAM!" Suddenly Neji felt flesh connect with his shoulder and he went flying back a few feet- again.
Sakura had finally come to, and the first thing she saw was Neji Hyuuga's face hovering about 4 inches above hers and did what any girl in her situation would do.
She punched him.
"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry!" Sakura cried, stumbling to her feet as she attempted to make her way over to Neji.
Neji scowled, shooting sakura with a death glare that said ' I'm going to be a total asshole and shoot you down now'. He quickly got to his feet with a little more difficulty than before, glaring as sakura stopped cold. "You fought well Kunoichi, I must go now so goodbye." He stated bluntly, hey just because he was an ass sometimes didn't mean he was manner less. But he did mean it when he said she fought well, and for some reason it troubled him that she was ignored by her teammates.
"OMG! He said we fought well! Holy hyuga's!" Inner squealed.
Sakura drooped her head, "damn, " She muttered, hiding behind her walls of bangs. But she knew that it wasn't really Neji's fault, and that he actually had the right to be an ass considering he tried to help her and she punched him in the shoulder.
Neji turned around to walk past her and leave but suddenly felt an unidentified chakra source flicker a few feet in front of him, standing beside the pink-Kunoichi.
"Hyuuga-" growled out a voice, its owner belonging to whatever was blocking his way. Neji looked up and saw an 8foot tall, tan nin-horse with a flaming mane and tail and a very angry chakra towering over him.
Sakura felt Kemuri's presence and immediately groaned inwardly, "oh great, of all the times he's got to show up he does now!" she whined inwardly before looking up. Sure enough there was her nin-horse practically face to face with Neji, and sakura could tell that Kemuri was about two seconds away for crisping Neji's insides.
"Kami, pony boy back off would ya!" She yelled out, storming up to the animal as angrily as she possibly could, putting herself between Neji and Kemuri.
Kemuri took a step back and squelched his flames, a shocked expression on his face, "But Sakura, he totally just went all Uchiha on you!" Kemuri said, confusion and anger evident in his tone.
Neji had the strangest urge to stick out his tongue at that moment when sakura came between him and the animal, but decided to just watch instead. "No pony boy, stop being the ass you are and listen for a second. One, this Is Neji Hyuuga and he is like required or something to be another one of konoha's famous ice-cube's. Two, we were sparring and then I got knocked out and he won. He came over to check on my and I woke up, and accidentally, um kind of punched him in the shoulder."
Kemuri stood silent for a minute, and then suddenly burst out laughing, "You punched him! HAHA!" he snorted out, suppressing some of the laughs before looking over his master's shoulder at the Hyuuga, "Forgive me Hyuuga-san, I tend to jump to conclusions."
"Hardy har-har." Inner deadpanned at Kemuri's horrible pun.
Neji raised an eyebrow a little, 'what is with these two, she steps in and protects me from this creature who is obviously very attached with and then he asks for forgiveness? Weird.' He thought, nodding in acknowledgment toward the huge creature.
Sakura sighed in relief before stumbling to Kemuri and placing a hand on him. Neji watched as her whole body slowly started to faintly glow green in certain places, and then remembered his final attack.
"Why didn't it work?" Sakura's head snapped up shocked at the Hyuuga's sudden question.
"Why didn't what work?" She asked, tilting her head in question.
"My final attack, the eight trigrams sixty four palms technique?" he clarified. Neji silently wondered when and if he had ever talked that much one day in his life.
Kemuri eyed Neji with calculating eyes thinking, "Hyuuga, Hyuuga where have I heard that before? -Ah!" he started laughing again and then snorted out, "You're a Byakugan user aren't you Hyuuga-san? So that means you probably tried to shut down the kid's chakra network to? So tell me, how did work out for you?" He asked, breaking into another fit of laughs before sakura slapped him on the shoulders successfully shutting him up.
She sighed and turned back to Neji, grinning sheepishly "uh, sorry about him. What pony boy meant to say was that he and I wont be affected by any chakra stopping techniques unless you can get us both." She explained watching as Neji's expression stayed blank of all emotion except for the tiniest flicker of confusion.
"You see, we managed to find a way to combine our chakra networks-partially. So he always has about 5% of my chakra running in him and vice-versa. That's why when you went to finish the technique and you came to the last chakra points there wasn't really any chakra there for you to stop and so your technique failed. Sorry, I kind of cheated on that?" Sakura said, laughing a little on the end as she explained.
Neji was shocked to say the least, but of course neither of the two knew that. He was also quite impressed, never before had he even heard of such a thing, but he couldn't help but admit to himself it was an ingenious idea.
Sakura smiled lightly at the almost un-noticeable changes in Neji's face, and she could tell that he was just the slightest bit impressed, but still. That was like being told your going to be the next Hokage. "Here, let me heal you." She offered, walking toward Neji as he glared a little.
Sakura huffed putting her hand on her hips, "Look Neji, Tenten told me how you never go to the hospital for anything and you just go home and 'wait it out'. Well you should know that that is the most stupid thing I have ever heard of!" She growled, slowly growing angry at the Hyuuga's stubbornness.
"So, either let me heal you here or ill get the horse to drag your sorry ass down to the hospital! What's it going to be Neji?" Sakura smirked, triumph plastered on her face.
Neji sighed a little in defeat, "Fine, I will allow you to heal me Sakura-San but only if you teach me how to combine one's chakra network." He said, watching as the pink haired ninja's face lit up with delight as she trotted over to him and began healing his wounds.
"Where did you learn Medical-Juutsu?" he asked, watching as she worked.
Sakura grinned proudly, "I taught myself, and it was pretty easy. I'm not able to do anything major but I can do cuts, scrapes, fractures, smaller broken bones, some internal bleeding, and poison." Neji just sat quietly as she explained how she learned it and such.
Half an hour later Sakura stood back, looking at her handiwork "Well that just about does it." She said, pride overflowing in her tone.
Neji 'hn'ed and then asked, "Now, the chakra-Juutsu."
Sakura smiled a little, "Alright but you have to have a summon for this, and I cant exactly teach it to you. I've tried before and no one else but me seems to be able to learn it." Neji nodded, and then pulled out a long, creamy colored feather.
He quickly bit his thumb and then smeared it along the feather, rubbing his blood into it. Immediately afterwards the feather disintegrated and a large barn owl came flying form the forest, and landed on Neji's outstretched arm.
Sakura's eyes turned into hearts, "SHE'S SO COOL!" she squealed, fighting to restrain herself from running over and tackling said owl in a bear hug. Kemuri snorted and laid his ears back flat, giving the bird a once over.
"I don't see what so special about some bunny with wings." He grunted.
Sakura laughed and then embraced Kemuri, "Aw, Someone jealous? It's okay Pony boy, I'll always love you even though you're a total ass." She said, quickly pulling away as Kemuri threw his head up.
"Hey!" he whined, and then joined Sakura in her giggles.
Neji watched this whole thing play out, and then suddenly he felt his face twitch up. 'What on earth am I doing?' he wondered silently.
Sakura turned around and then gasped, her whole face suddenly tweaked into that of complete surprise and Neji felt his own face twitch, the muscles pulling down. "What?" he asked.
"Neji, you-you were smiling!" She squealed, her eyes sparkling with delight. Neji thought for a moment, 'so that's what it was like to smile, I haven't done it in so long.' But amazingly he felt no urge to bite back and detest the words of the pink Kunoichi.
Instead he just sighed and said "Hn."
Sakura rolled her eyes, "And we're back to single syllables. Oh well, I knew it wouldn't last." She said with sarcastic disappointment. She then got to work, quickly painting symbols on the ground with her own blood and that of Neji's and his summons.
"Okay, Neji you stand here and um-" Sakura stumbled, realizing she didn't know the name of his summon.
"Kashikai-san, but you may call her Kashi." Neji said, and then felt a wave of heat rush through his body before he shook it off.
Sakura stood there shocked for a moment before smiling, "Oh, Ohaiyo Kashi-Chan, please stand over here." Sakura chirped, pointing to another circle before she assumed her position of the ground between the two.
Quickly she began performing hand seals at a blinding speed, Neji watched and thought there had to be at least 50 of them in the sequence. Suddenly she shot her hands to the bloody rims of each circle and said " Chakra Network merge Juutsu!" both circles flashed with a white light and then the characters slowly began to move and switch places with the characters in the opposite circle before sinking into the ground.
"Alright, that's it then." Sakura said, standing up and dusting off her baggy ninja pants. Neji watched her for a moment, suddenly noticing a- 'what on earth? Is that a dragon tattoo on her shoulder?' he thought and then saw yet again a red dragon was sewn into the left side of her pants coiling down and around her leg. He looked at the black ribbon that held her forehead protector and then saw a small kanji written in red on it, ' dragon. Okay something isn't right here.' He thought again.
Sakura by this time had noticed Neji's close observations and had figured what he was noticing. No, she didn't think he was checking her out sakura knew better than that. "Ya, I kind of have a thing for dragons." She said casually, taking in Neji's slightly shocked expression. She also noticed how he showed a lot of emotion compared to normal right now.
"Why the tattoo?" Neji asked, staring at the marking with curiosity.
Sakura sighed a little bit, "Actually it isn't a tattoo Neji, it's a scar. It just looks like a Tattoo. I don't know where or when or even how I got it, and it doesn't do anything as far as I know other than be a total pain in the ass when I want too wear short sleeves."
Suddenly something bubbled out of Neji's mouth, the sound caused him to jump a little bit because he had never heard it before. Sakura smiled and laughed at Neji's completely surprised face, "Ha-ha! Neji you are so funny! That was called a laugh genius! You were laughing!"
Neji just stared for a moment, shocked. 'I-I was laughing? But that's showing emotions, no! I cant do that!' he quickly trained his face back to its customary scowl. Sakura noticed this and sighed slightly.
"Neji it's okay to show emotions when you're around friends. I wont think any lesser of you if you laugh or cry or yell, it's part of being human." She said, smiling softly at him.
Suddenly the façade dropped a bit from his face, 'It's not weak? So emotion can be okay?' he wondered silently, allowing just a bit of the mask to break and the corners of his mouth to tilt up a tiny bit.
Sakura's own smile became blinding, "See? It's not that bad?" she laughed. "So, meet me her tomorrow for a re-match?" She asked hopefully.
Neji smirked, his tiny grin turning devious, "I'll be here." He said watching as her face lit up with happiness and felt that warm rush again. Kami it felt so-so strange. It's not that he didn't like it its just that it was so weird.
"Alright, I have to go back now Neji. Thanks for sparring with me; it's great to have a friend who will actually take the time to help. Well, have a good night or erm- morning Neji!" Sakura said, Smiling as she quickly swung onto Kemuri's back, and sitting tall and proud up there.
"8:00 p.m. tomorrow, be here. Have a good day, Sakura-chan." Neji said, and sakura smiled back a yes before whirling around and dashing off.
Neji felt his muscles twitch again, but this time he didn't fight it or that warm fuzzy feeling. "I remember now, this feeling its that one you get when someone cares." He mumbled softly, "Wait, sakura-Chan? I didn't even know I knew her name." he mused.
"She called us friends."
Author note:
AWWWWW! Neji found a friend! Now let me just make it clear the only kind of compassion is brother/sister and friendly compassion going on here! Alright I don't do romance before the age of twelve sorry people! But they will have a very strong friend relationship, but tell me what you think. Was the battle scene good, im trying to get better at them without to much gore, blood etc. PLEASE REVIEW!