Puppy Love

An innocent late-bloomer teen- turned- puppy

A pretty, unknowing pink-haired caretaker

Two suspicious teammates

One little girl with secrets inside her sleeves

Chapter 4

This is just the beginning

This time there was no escape, Sakura ensured. A glint of evil momentarily appeared in her sparkling emerald eyes and Neji definitely caught it.

He was definitely in big trouble. Not only was she going to manhandle her, she was going to see all of him! Not that… there was anything to see since he is in dog form after all. But, still!

“Aah, really. I feel really smelly and dirty today. Kakashi-sensei really…” Sakura ranted on, as Neji just looked at her, terrified.

“-you, Mai-chan?” Sakura looked at Neji questioningly, as if waiting for him to speak back. He didn’t even realize she was speaking. All he was thinking about was…was…

No! No dirty thoughts Neji!

I must be going crazy. To think of her like… that…

“Let’s go!” Sakura suddenly scooped his small form into her arms and ran upstairs.

What an exciting turn of events.

Neji kept struggling, almost tempted to bite her smooth, delicate skin… come to think of it, even with the rigorous training she had been taking, her skin still felt so unbelievably—

Unbelievably…

Hyuuga Neji, Neji scolded himself; I dare you to finish that sentence!

With all the arguments going over his head, he hadn’t realized he was being lowered to the white, tiled floor.

Right! Here’s the cha—

But Sakura was faster, before he could even turn around, she locked the door. Trapping both of them in.

Damn it. Sneaky girl. Aren’t there any other doors here?

As he explored the bathroom, Sakura carried him again suddenly, placing him in the sink.

“You stay there first while I undress, okay?” Sakura gave him a reassuring smile, which, to him, doesn’t look a tad bit reassuring at all.

You… you little witch! Don’t underestimate me just because I’m in this body! I will… will…

Without warning, Sakura pulled the zipper of her shirt down. Neji never got to finish his sentence, or even think of an escape plan as he was busy trailing his eyes on Sakura’s fingers, which was going down, down, down…

He gulped. His heart beating faster by the second. This was the unfortunate result of confining himself in the comforts of the forest, training grounds, and his room. He may be a mature teen, complete with heart-moving wisdoms and all but with all those particular hobbies of his… he just never had the time to see any woman at all.

Rock Lee was right. He should’ve taken a break and started experiencing the springtime of his youth. If he did, he wouldn’t have been dumbstruck by a pink-haired beauty like her (who is currently stripping in front of him).

Suddenly, he was all too aware of his surroundings. He could hear her hum, the rhythmic drip, drip, drip of the shower, the fast beating of his heart and his ragged breathing. Really, just seeing a bit of skin from a female is already making him nervous.

Yes. Neji… is an innocent little boy. Untouched. Inexperienced. Clueless.

And to think, of all the people in Konoha, it just had to be her!

She dropped her dirty shirt into a basket that lay on the floor and started on her skirt.

Neji traveled his eyes to her neck. How I’d love to have a bite of that inviting skin.

Wait. I did not just say that. Haha. Of course, I didn’t.

Great. Now, he’s even attaining the instinct of an animal. Just great.

He wanted to cover his eyes. He really, really, really wants to but somehow, he can’t help but take a little peek.

Yeah, just a little peek.

He left her neck and traveled further down to her collarbone, and down to the…

He felt dizziness instantly, his blood was rushing over to his head like crazy that he felt like he was going to explode.

Damn, why is it so hot and stuffy here?

But he didn’t stop his adventures. He became more curious and—

Oh. Black lace, huh?

That was the last thing he ever told himself as he felt liquid ooze slowly from his nose and then… everything was gone.

Sakura fumbled with the straps of her bra when she noticed that it was so unbelievably quiet.

Why wasn’t Mai making any noise?

She turned her head to his direction.

“Aaahh!!” She screamed, horrified. “M-Mai!!”

It was the most terrifying sight she has ever seen. Blood was all over the sink, dyeing Neji’s fur red. Sure, blood has always been part of her life, being a medic that she is. But she had never ever seen a dog nosebleed!

“A-are you alright? Crap. I just leave you for a moment and you become like this.” Sakura pulled her hair in frustration. “Aaah! What am I going to do? I’m not a vet!”

Sakura turned on the faucet, water gushing out and rinsing Neji of his own blood.

“Oh. I hope you’re not injured. Please be okay!” Sakura took the nearest towel she could find and wrapped Neji with it.

“You.”

“You!”

“What the hell are you doing here?” They said in unison.

They both scowled.

“Dobe.”

“Teme.”

“So?”

“So what?”

“What the hell are you doing here?” The Uchiha raised an eyebrow.

“I should be the one asking you that. I’m headed over to Sakura-chan’s.” Naruto straightly declared. “How about you?”

“The same.” He paused. “Huh.” What? Sasuke widened his eyes, not realizing he was headed to Sakura’s without knowing himself.

“You’re thinking about that dog too, huh?” Naruto asked.

“I…. guess.” They started walking at the same time, headed to the pink-head’s home.

“Really. That dog gives me the creeps. Have you ever seen a dog with white eyes? White eyes! I mean, what kind of dog has white eyes!? Gah, seriously…” then Naruto started ranting.

Sasuke ignored his chatter and listened to his own thoughts instead. The chakra that the dog had emitted was faint, but it was there. He had sensed it before, he couldn’t quite remember where he had encountered such chakra. It wasn’t threatening but his instincts kept on telling him that it wasn’t really harmless either.

And then there were those white eyes. Everytime he thought of those white eyes it reminded him of the Hyuugas. He had no idea what connection they had though.

Ugh. Maybe the exhaustion is getting to me. Really. What would the Hyuugas and that puppy have in common? I don’t have any proof except the white eyes though. He ruffled his hair. It must be something else…

“… Right, Sasuke?” Finally, Naruto had stopped talking.

“What? Were you saying something?”

“You…” Naruto tried holding back his temper and repeated. “You wouldn’t think it’s some kind of monster in disguise, right?”

“Hm…”

“Jeez, why am I getting so worked up about this?” Naruto pulled his hair in frustration. “Aah! I have a really bad feeling about this!”

Naruto’s right. Sasuke tentatively agreed. Why are we overreacting over such a small matter?

Before he could answer though, they found themselves face-to-face with Sakura’s house. Immediately, Naruto walked up to the front steps and knocked.

Sasuke followed suit.

They waited.

Naruto tapped his foot impatiently. “Yo, Sakura-chan, you there?” He knocked again.

“Sakura-chan?” He knocked louder this time. “Hey, teme, you didn’t think… Sakura-chan… puppy… Sakura-chan…” Naruto adopted a face full of concern and worry that he almost got Sasuke to panic.

Their eyes met and they nodded in a silent agreement, running to the back of the house.

Oh, jeez. This is so hard. I didn’t know what to do next so I had to stop there. It’s supposed to be longer but I forgot the plans I made after that.

With the year-long hiatus, I’ve finally FINALLY come to a conclusion that I really want to finish this story… for the sake of… not getting any dreams about zombies killing me for not updating me or something. And with the hiatus, I’ve also decided to change a lot of things as well. Maybe their age, what’s been happening to Konoha and how some of the people act and stuff (since this was made before Shippuuden after all) when they were older. I’ll post those stuff in the next chapter… which I really hope can be done by this month since I’ll be having this summer work thing. So I know how a lot of you hate me for not updating but… here you go. Sorry, again. The story may not be as good as you thought it might be since I really wanna rush and finish this. Thanks for reading :)

And don’t worry, more nosebleeds to come ;)