A/N: Oh wow, where have I been? x.x” I’m so sorry it’s taken me almost a year to update! But freshman year took its toll on me, though I did enjoy it. I had been getting a bit out of Naruto at the time, but summer came, and I found myself indulging in the wonderful world of fanfiction again. My updates most definitely won’t come as often anymore, so please bear with my new-found slow updating.

I thank everyone who has waited ever so patiently for my return and those of you who took the time to update—I appreciate it! As a reward for y’all’s much appreciated patience, I present an extra long chapter! Anyhoo, let’s see if I still got it after completing English Honors I with a 99 average (cracks knuckles).

Warning(s): Possible OOCness…not very funny at all o.0 More dramatic than usual. Poor Neji…

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, because if I did, Neji and Sakura would most definitely be together, like after the Rescue Gaara Arc or so. But I don’t…so go figure XP

--

Chapter 3: Neji’s “Rivals”

Seven days after the ramen date incident, Neji was glad to know that one-fourth of his punishment had already passed. Now if he could endure three more weeks, it would certainly be an accomplishment for him, for after just a week within his ordeal, he had been absolutely miserable.

Can you say DISHES?

Yes, two days after the ramen date incident, our favorite Hyuuga had finally finished those evil towers of dishes that Sakura assigned him to clean once he had arrived at her doorstep. Oh, you can bet Neji had a dandy time scrubbing away all the mold and hardened rice and other once-food particles attached to the various dishes.

Disgusting, really.

When he had finally completed the task of washing all six towers of dishes, plus the new set that Sakura had bought, said roseate kunoichi had come in with an innocent smile on her face, one that the Hyuuga was afraid that would lead to another set of dishes. But no, instead she had gazed at the empty sink and said, “Thanks for washing all my dishes.”

Neji was dumbfounded at her gratitude at first, but before he could respond, she intervened with, “Let’s go on a trip on the 11th.”

“…huh?”

With that cheeky grin of hers, she explained. “I got discount tickets for an overnight trip at a hot spring resort. I got four of ‘em, and they’re for couples only. And since you’re here with me, we can go together!”

As the sepia-haired man began to register what she had just said, realization finally hit him. Was he supposed to be her date? The term was foreign in his vocabulary, and before he could protest, she cut him off by saying, “But me, Hinata, Ino, and Tenten planned on going to the beach on the same day, so we get to go in the afternoon and then go to the hot springs in the evening.”

“And how much is this hot spring trip?” he asked suspiciously, noting that she had said “discount” rather than “free.” Not to mention that he was from a wealthy clan…

Maintaining her innocent façade, she simply said, “Something I can’t afford.”

Of course it would be. Why, with a rich Hyuuga at her every beck and call, it was inevitable that she would take advantage of him for episodes of luxury that were once-in-a-lifetime chances. And so, he knew what was coming next.

“You’re a Hyuuga, you’re rich. I’m sure Hiashi-sama won’t mind if he knows I sent you to fetch some money.”

Oh how he hated coming from a wealthy, prestigious clan.

And now he reclined under a beach umbrella with sunglasses on—yes, THE Hyuuga Neji was wearing sunglasses—as he watched the rest of his companions enjoy some fun in the sun. He wasn’t one who enjoyed the beach all that much, for the heat irritated him, as well as the tanning that came along with it, thus resulting in him staying in the shade. Nausea prodded at him as he watched his cousin build a sandcastle with Sakura directly under the sun. However, when his eyes settled on Sakura, a blush heated his cheeks, adding to the heat already building up from the sun.

Said girl was currently clad in a scarlet bikini, in which the top tied around the neck and around the back. The bikini bottom tied at the sides as a translucent pink sarong hugged her hips. Her mid-length hair was tied up in a spiky ponytail, emphasizing the shape of her petite face. Her revealing body was truly a sight to die for.

And she wasn’t the only eye candy on the shore either.

His shy cousin wore a more modest swimsuit, for a blue floral one-piece hugged her body, light blue flowers scattered around the material. The one-piece was more like a dress, for the end of it flared out at the end past her hips, concealing the bottom. However, unlike Sakura, she kept her long, cobalt tresses down, which cascaded down her back. Neji had to wonder how she couldn’t feel hot under all that hair.

Then there was Ino, the ever-flirtatious blonde. The seductive kunoichi was not surprisingly dressed in a purple bikini, the top being strapless whilst the bottom was a miniskirt, three lavender stripes adorning the left lower corner. Her recently cut hair, which was similar to her hairstyle back in her childhood, was tucked behind her ears with the exception of her side bangs. Matching purple clips on her right side separated her bangs from the rest of her hair.

Tenten didn’t mind showing a bit of skin and proved it by also wearing a bikini—a green one, to be precise. However, her top was more modest than Sakura’s and Ino’s, for it looked more like a sports bra than anything else, adorned with a light green stripe down the middle of the front, where a zipper was nestled. Her bikini bottom was like a pair of shorts with light green stripes also running down on the sides. And as expected, she kept her hair in its usual buns.

Of course, females weren’t the only eye candy around.

Neji himself could feel the intense gazes of pathetic former Sasuke fangirls and silently cursed the Uchiha for leaving the village, thus leaving behind his “twitterpated” flock of lovesick chicks. He was only clad in a pair of black swimming trunks with the renowned Hyuuga crest embroidered on the right leg. He didn’t wear his hitai-ate but still retained the bandages to conceal his cursed seal. His long sepia hair was worn down as usual with the end loosely tied. And yet he had to wonder why all this set the fangirls into gear.

Naruto, Shikamaru, and Lee didn’t have much luck—or should he say misfortune—with attracting the opposite sex. Not that they actually needed it since they had dates of their own (although Lee and Tenten were only going as friends). All three were clad in swimming trunks as well, and were currently playing beach volleyball, along with Tenten. Naruto and Shikamaru played as a team against Lee and Tenten, although the blonde and the lazy genius could be heard bickering for loss of points from time to time.

The other three girls were indulging in less productive activities. Sakura and Hinata continued building their sandcastle innocently, completely oblivious to the oogling eyes of young men around them, who were charmed by their endearing activity. Ino was not too far from Neji with her sunbathing as she also reclined under a beach umbrella with a pair of sunglasses on, positioned in a pose that seemed to be model-like and attractive to other hormone-raging males, thus earning catcalls that seemed to piss off Shikamaru from time to time.

And so our protagonist continued to keep a close eye on his cousin and his master—er, charge. He himself felt like falling asleep until he noticed a group of young men approach the castle-building Sakura and Hinata. His mauve eyes glared at them from behind his shades as they began to converse with the two kunoichi, who seemed to blush from what seemed to be complimentary remarks. One particular young man seemed to be hovering especially close to the medic-nin, and the Hyuuga’s protective instincts immediately kicked in.

However, upon realizing that killer instincts had set off his Byakugan, he calmed himself down, trying to keep his supposedly inactive hormones under control, which indeed meant that after eighteen years his hormones had finally activated.

“Oh no, we’ve got friends with us,” he heard Sakura saying to the assemblage. “So we’re not going anywhere.”

The male teen standing next to her kneeled down to eye-level with her as he said, “We can promise you two a nice time.”

Twitch.

Oh how he wanted to strangle the young lad now…

“Oh no, really…your offer is flattering, but we have male friends here as well…they might get a little jealous if they see you talking to us…”

Jealous didn’t even begin to describe how Neji was feeling now, for said Hyuuga was practically hyperventilating with fury as he watched the scene unfold before his shaded white eyes.

“Do you two have boyfriends?”

“I do…” Hinata murmured blushingly as Sakura shook her head.

The kneeling boy clapped a hand on Sakura’s bare shoulder, saying, “I’ll gladly be yours, sweetie–”

And before the boy could get to feel up any more on the roseate girl, he was cut off by a certain beach umbrella abruptly smashing into his face, forcing him away from Sakura and into the hot sand.

As his buddies stared at him in awe, Sakura turned to the direction the flying umbrella had…flown from and caught sight of Neji’s cool, eye-concealed form still reclined on his beach towel, yet without his—or actually Sakura’s, to be exact—umbrella. She tilted her head in confusion until he answered rather monotonously, “A seagull was about to drop bombs. I guess it decided not to.”

The corners of her lips began to turn upwards, and he felt himself begin to actually smile back until he himself felt something rather hard and leathery smash against his face.

“Oops! Sorry, Neji!” came the familiar obnoxious voice of a certain blonde.

The Hyuuga furiously sat up, the volleyball plopping down from his face and revealing a bright red indent on his usual handsome mug, his sunglasses following suit. His Byakugan veins were elevated and visible, the familiar pupils evident in his usually pupil-less eyes. He glared dangerously at Naruto, who held his hands up in defense and backed away from the obviously pissed Hyuuga.

“H-Hey, Neji…l-let’s talk about this, okay?” he stammered as he continued to back away from Neji’s bloodthirsty advance.

“What’s there to talk about?”

Sakura made a mental note to never bring Neji to the beach again after today.

--

As Sakura led her party to the registration desk at the hot spring inn a few hours later, Naruto held an ice pack to his bruised face, his left eye swollen shut with his right one encircled with a dark blue shade. His cheeks were also swollen, puffed out like a rabbit’s face. A few teeth were missing, and cotton squares had been shoved up his nostrils to stem his nosebleed. Steam seemed to emit from his head as well…

“Ah’m thowwy, Hinatha-chan, buh Ah’m brohke…” Naruto apologized in a nasal-like voice as he held out his empty toad change holder.

At the registration desk, Sakura called over her shoulder, “Don’t worry, Naruto. Neji-san has it all covered.” She shot an innocent smile at the Hyuuga that stood next to her, who attempted to death-glare at her in return, even though it wasn’t so intimidating because of the bandage smacked dab over his nose.

“Damn woman…” he muttered as he dug around for his wallet in his shinobi fanny pack, Sakura patiently waiting for him as she held the tickets.

Naruto, Hinata, Shikamaru, Ino, Lee, and Tenten stood a few feet away from them as they waited for the two to book them their rooms (while Hinata tended to Naruto’s needs).

“Here,” he snapped irritably, handing the money over to Sakura before she handed it to the clerk, along with the tickets. He kept silent as she conversed with the clerk, inwardly wishing for three more weeks to pass so that he could get away from the Godaime’s apprentice. He imagined the corpses of Hiashi, Sakura, white walls, dishes, perverts, and volleyballs scattered around the Main House of the Hyuuga estate, while he towered above them, laughing at their pathetic deaths. Muahahahaha…

His mental uncharacteristic laughter abruptly stopped when he noticed how the clerk stared at Sakura…the same way the waiter from the ramen restaurant incident had eyed her the preceding week. And you could say that the memory wasn’t exactly a nice one, but rather that it reopened pent-up fury…

He didn’t like Sakura that way, he assured himself; it was just that he did not tolerate such lascivious and blatant behavior, and that no man had the right to call himself that if he were indeed a closet pervert. He certainly did not appreciate the way the clerk oogled at her just as the group of miscreants at the beach had, and he wasn’t going to allow it taking place here, of all places.

Reassuring himself once again that he was doing it to protect Sakura from another pervert, he boldly stepped up to the reception desk and slammed his hand down loudly, catching the clerk’s and Sakura’s attention. This would be rather rude of him, but his patience was wearing thin, and the fact that another pervert had decided to become an obstacle only increased his growing fury. “Do excuse me from cutting your insignificant conversation with my woman short, but I and the rest of our group would like our rooms anytime now.”

He could sense the heat radiating off Sakura’s face from being called his woman, but he ignored it as an arrogant smirk curled onto his lips, his mauve eyes penetrating through the clerk’s lust-filled ones.

The clerk glared back at him at first but quickly covered it with a sickeningly sweet apologetic smile. “Oh, excuse me, sir. I’m terribly sorry for holding you and your group up. I simply cannot help it with such a lovely woman standing before me–”

“Yeah, well save it and give me the key to our room,” Neji spat bitterly, fury manifesting itself as his Byakugan veins began to elevate around his eyes.

“If that guy knows what’s good for him, he better give Neji that freakin’ key,” Tenten muttered as she and the other group members watched the tense verbal battle.

They all nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, look at Naruto here, for example,” Shikamaru drawled out, waving a hand lazily at the “attractive” blonde ninja, who merely attempted to glare back at him but failed oh so miserably.

Neji could hear his friends’ whispered conversation, but he merely ignored them and continued staring tensely at the clerk.

Meanwhile, Sakura was caught so deeply in the heart of the tension that it was almost suffocating. No longer able to bear it, she finally laid an arm on Neji’s and said to the clerk, “Er, yes…our keys, please?”

The clerk broke Neji’s gaze and redirected his at her instead. Smiling, he answered, “Of course. Anything for a lovely–” He stopped when an apprehensive shiver ran down his spine, and he wisely chose to shut his trap and immediately get on to his duties. Rolling back in his chair, he reached behind him to extract keys from four cubbies. Rolling forward, he handing them to Neji without making eye contact, adding a rather dry, “Enjoy your stay.”

“Er…we will,” Sakura chimed in when Neji only glared icily back. She turned to the rest of their group, chuckling nervously. “Keys, anyone?”

--

“Ah…I feel my wounds from Neji healing already,” Naruto sighed contentedly as he leaned against the edge of the spring. “I can even speak clearly again!”

“Unfortunately,” Shikamaru added, at which he earned a glare from the blonde once again for the day.

“Ah yes, the remedy to the springtime of youth, no?” Lee preached with a grin before submerging into the water. Only several seconds passed before he resurfaced again, arms outstretched, spraying his three companions. “I feel myself rejuvenating with the youthful fire!!”

“That’s nice, Fuzzy-brows! But don’t splash us, okay?”

“Ah, my apologies, Naruto-kun!”

Would those two just shut up? Neji thought impatiently as he also reclined against the edge, draping his arms over. He closed his eyes as he felt his rather sore and tense body relax with the sweet scent of herbs and other botanical plants that he didn’t feel like attempting to name, and the minutes that passed as he immersed himself in the spring did wonders to his body. It certainly was rejuvenating…

…until he heard a certain ninja snickering from afar.

Without bothering to open his eyes, he activated his Byakugan and watched the familiarly immense chakra flow of Naruto travel a little too happily to the wall that separated the guys’ side from the girls’ side. His eyebrows drew together. There was no freakin’ way he was going to allow Naruto to spy on the girls, especially his cousin.

“No, Naruto-kun! You must not–” came Lee’s distraught voice.

“C’mon, Fuzzy-brows! You gotta wonder what the girls look like–”

“Naruto, I honestly wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Shikamaru warned, looking back at the chakra raging Neji.

Naruto blinked at him. “Huh?”

“Cuz Neji will Jyuuken your ass if you let even one eyeball roam on the girls.”

The blonde shivered upon sensing the dangerous air of bloodlust behind him, and he didn’t dare look for fear of his life. Scared crapless, he sunk slowly under the water, bubbles of fear rising to the surface. Lee and Shikamaru merely popped them without a word.

Finally, Shikamaru said, “Do you think he’s dead?”

Neji snorted as he deactivated his Byakugan. “He’ll live. Perhaps a few moments or so he’ll realize that he is inadvertently drowning himself.”

“Naruto-kun?” Lee said hesitantly upon the nonexistent return of the drowning ninja.

Having had enough of idiocy and perverts for one day, Neji grabbed a nearby towel and wrapped it around his waist as he stood from the spring, stepping onto the concrete floor. He wordlessly slipped on his yukata, removing the towel in the process, and made his way out of the area, Shikamaru and Lee staring after him.

“You should probably save Naruto now before he really does drown,” the lazy genius pointed out to the taijutsu master.

You could say that later Naruto was ungrateful for Lee’s method of saving his life, for the only person allowed to even make lip contact with him was Hinata. Woe is Naruto…

--

Sleep was definitely in order for a certain Hyuuga once he noticed how bloodshot his usually blank eyes were due to certain lascivious individuals he had been running into all day. It didn’t help that he had defended his pink-haired charge during each and every encounter, and it pissed him off to think that he cared just a bit for her. Definitely not in the sappy, crappy, lovey-dovey way, but as a friend and comrade that he respected. Nothing more.

He continued to repeat the phrase in his head as he made his way to his room, his towel slung over his shoulders while his room key dangled from his right hand. And repeat he did until he swiftly opened the door only to suffer from a massive nosebleed as a scream echoed throughout the halls of the hotel.

Sakura looked at him in horror as she covered her bare chest with her arms, clad only in a pair of lacy pink underwear. Her pink hair dripped and hung around her face in dark roseate tangles as crimson stained her cheeks. “N-Neji-san?! What the hell are you doing back here already?! And close the door!!”

Desperately but failing oh so miserably to recover from his spontaneous nosebleed, Neji weakly closed the door as he collapsed to a pathetic slump on the floor outside their room. What the hell was he thinking, just moseying on down to their room without a care in the world that Sakura could have been changing in the room? That was what his Byakugan was for, damn it! But then again, the all-seeing eye could have seen more than he bargained for and possibly bring about his death through extreme blood loss…all through the nose.

But wait a minute. What the hell was she thinking, just changing in their room without the thought of someone just walking in on her? Like Neji, for example.

And so the Hyuuga concluded that the incident was definitely not his entire fault (although he also blamed his defective, belated hormones).

Dismissing the thought once another came into mind, he blinked before asking, “Sakura, how the hell did you manage to get back to the room before me?”

A pause. Then, “I was going to change into my swimsuit so that perverts wouldn’t get their kicks in case they tried to peep on us. Hinata, Ino, and Tenten had all brought theirs with them to the spring, so…”

“That still doesn’t explain–” Why was this bothering him so much?

“Neji! Who gives a flying crap about how I got here first?! I don’t know! Apparently I left earlier than you, so back off and knock next time!” she snapped, opening the door but failing to notice the Hyuuga sitting next to it. Feeling the thump! that sounded upon the opening of the door, she glanced down to notice Neji with a hand clutching his face, the exact same area where he had been sucker-bopped with Naruto’s volleyball earlier that day. “N-Neji?! Oh wow, I’m sorry! Why the hell were you just sitting outside the door—oh, never mind. I’m going back to the spring.”

And with that, an uncharacteristically irritated Sakura left a rather peeved Hyuuga outside their room.

Neji glared after her as he clutched his face, which throbbed rather painfully after being hit for the second time that day. The relentless nosebleed didn’t help much either. How the hell could one girl reduce him to such a pathetic state? And what kind of medic-nin just left a comrade slumped outside their room with a face smashed for a second time and a massive nosebleed?

Oh, he would get her after this whole slave ordeal was over. Sakura, Hiashi-sama, white walls, dishes, perverts—he would get them all! But first, he had today to get through, leaving just two wonderful weeks and six days afterwards. Ah, wishful thinking…

Mumbling curses about whom he would get revenge on in twenty days, which would actually be his birthday—oh joy, how he would enjoy it indeed—he brought himself to his feet and opened the unlocked door, slamming it shut behind him before collapsing facedown on the king-sized bed, exhausted from the events taking place throughout the day. He had had enough of this trip already—the infinite number of perverts crawling everywhere he went brought a rather unsettling feeling of disgust to his stomach, and he felt his blood pressure soaring high due to the circumstances each and every pervert had presented before him.

And it was all her fault—her and her damn good looks!

Bloodshed was definitely in store for a certain pink-haired kunoichi. And his uncle. And white walls. And dishes. And perverts.

For once, he was actually looking forward to his birthday.

--

Neji didn’t stir as the door creaked open hesitantly, quiet footsteps carefully walking across the room towards the bathroom. His eyes remained closed as he activated his Byakugan to see Sakura in the bathroom with the door carelessly left open, innocently rubbing her hair dry with her towel. He watched her chakra streams flow gently throughout her body, more smoothly due to the aftereffects of soaking in the hot springs.

And then she began to change.

His lips pursed as a mad blush settled on his cheeks. He honestly couldn’t believe how open and careless the woman was! Not wanting to be lumped in with the degrading group of perverts, he deactivated his Byakugan and inadvertently listened as she dropped her yukata to change into a pair of pajamas.

The sepia-haired man steadied his breathing—regardless of total panic raging inside of him—once he sensed Sakura making her way to the bed. His heart pounded so hard that it threatened to pound straight through his chest and bring about his immediate death, which he wouldn’t have minded to happen at the moment.

The bed shifted under the newly added weight as the kunoichi carefully sat on the edge, watching Neji to make sure she didn’t disturb him. “Neji-san…?” she whispered timidly.

Deciding to answer her rather than feign sleep, he mumbled back a disgruntled, “What?”

“You don’t mind too much about sharing the bed, do you?”

Despite the fact that he did mind that they had to share a bed and that he was sure to have another massive nosebleed in the middle of the night, he didn’t feel like putting up with her—just in case she ended up doing something to add to his reasons for getting revenge on her later—and decided to be civil towards her. “No, I’m not that kind of man.”

Well, at least he attempted civility.

He expected one of her sharp comebacks but instead received a timid, “Then could you please scoot over a bit? You’re taking up most of the bed.”

It was then that Neji realized that he was indeed sprawled diagonally across the bed, having not moved at all since his collapse earlier that day. Embarrassed about his inconsideration and rather awkward position, he reluctantly shifted more towards the left side of the bed and lay on his right side as Sakura reclined on the opposite side.

“Thanks…oh, and by the way,” she said, facing his backside, “sorry about today.”

He simply waved it off, too tired to say reply. He could feel her fumbling with the covers, and it didn’t take long for the constant movement to grate on his nerves. Finally pushed to his limit, he lifted the covers underneath his weight and slipped under them, allowing Sakura easy access now. It didn’t occur to him that they were underneath the same covers until he felt a light brush of Sakura’s leg against his own, and the mere contact brought panic to his system and sent him jolting off the bed.

“Neji-san?!” Sakura cried alarmingly, crawling across the bed while disheveled in the sheets to peer over the left edge of the bed at a partially sheet-entangled Hyuuga lying flat on his back, glaring straight up. “Are you all right?!”

Neji was too embarrassed and pissed off to give a coherent reply, and so all he said was a mere “hn” before climbing back onto the bed as Sakura scooted back to allow him room. He was embarrassed that he had actually flung himself off the bed just because of a millisecond of skin contact, and he was pissed off that he his so-called defective hormones had reacted to her presence and humiliated him in front of his charge.

Mumbling a chain of curses under his breath, he threw the covers over himself and buried the right side of his face into his pillow, fully aware that he was acting like an immature child. He clamped his white eyes shut and begged for fate to just kill him right there…or at least make him fall asleep faster. But alas, he found himself wide awake and listening to Sakura’s even breathing.

“Mm…g’night, Neji…” she murmured as she rolled over onto her stomach.

Neji had a feeling that he would be awake for a majority of the night as Sakura flopped onto her back and mumbled something like “shannaro,” fast asleep.

--

When our protagonist had woken up the next morning, a blood-curdling scream almost broke out from his mouth.

But since he was Hyuuga Neji, he kept his mouth shut.

Ah, but yes, Neji had almost given himself a heart attack upon waking up to a certain pink-haired kunoichi glomped onto his chest…with an iron grip that only she and her master possessed. He had finally gone to sleep around three in the morning after listening to Sakura’s unconscious conversations with herself and being beaten up by her nonstop movement, which consisted of kicking and rolling and flopping and all other movements that sent Neji’s blood pressure soaring and sucked away his time for slumber.

And so when he found Sakura innocently hugging him like a teddy bear (or maybe Uchiha Sasuke), he found it rather difficult to resist tearing his sexy hair out and killing the kunoichi right there. He had tried time and again for half an hour trying to free himself from the pink-haired girl’s arms, but it was to no avail as he now lay forlornly with a scowl on his face, Sakura still latched onto him as if holding on for dear life.

He was finally tempted to just Jyuuken her and cut off part of her chakra supply to break through her chakra-infused hold when she whispered, “Sasuke-kun…” Her hold tightened even more.

The Hyuuga wheezed due to the sudden cutoff of oxygen in his system and blinked before scowling at her again. How dare she mistake him for the traitor! How offending it was to him and the Hyuuga clan! Mistaking her for the second-to-last of the Sharingan users who ripped off their kekkei genkai from the Hyuugas—how rude it was indeed!

Well, she was asleep, so…

But still, that gave her no excuse to treat him as her pillow and call him by her old crush’s name.

Fueled by his annoyance, pissiness, and sleep deprivation, Neji grabbed her arms and, with all of his strength caused by his current dysfunctional state, attempted to force them apart.

Mission failed. Again.

Neji pulled and pulled, but she wouldn’t budge. “Damn you, woman…” he cursed under his breath, silently swearing that he would indeed inflict revenge on her in the very near future. Screw resisting the urge to Jyuuken her! If he valued his life and didn’t want to be caught in an inadvertently provocative position, then he would go ahead and Jyuuken her now and save her the trouble of labeling him as a pervert and himself the trouble of being rendered infertile for the rest of his fate-condemned, miserable life.

And Jyuuken he was about to do when Sakura loosened her hold, rolling over onto her stomach, mumbling another jumble of incoherent words. His jaw almost unhinged itself and dropped open, but alas Neji held back the uncharacteristic gesture and just scowled at the slumbering girl.

“Damn…you…woman…” he cursed again, seething through gritted teeth as he tossed her arms over her head to plop onto her pillow like a rag-doll as if they were contaminated. He propelled himself off the bed instantly to get as far away from the girl as possible at the present moment until incessant knocking began on the door.

“Neeeeeeejiiiiiiiii!! Are you awaaaaaaaaaaaake?!” came the familiarly obnoxious voice of a certain blonde shinobi.

Having no patience to put up with any more crap for the morning, Neji headed towards the door, opening the door to a sickeningly exuberant Naruto, who grinned at him with the trademark freaky pinging-teeth smile of Lee and Gai. “No,” was all he said before promptly slamming the door in his face.

Oh how he couldn’t wait to leave this place and get away from all the idiocy and perversion flying in the air.

--

When they had checked out that morning, the main at the receptionist desk was the one from the previous day. And upon seeing Neji’s pissed off expression that was brought forth by the events that had ensued earlier that morning, he wisely decided not to pull any moves on Sakura and instead sullenly took back their keys and thanked them for staying (even though he seemed rather ungrateful for the Hyuuga’s interference with his advances on the pink-haired kunoichi).

And so they started the long journey back home.

Well, home was actually on the other side of the village, so it really wasn’t that long. But it was just an uber-boring walk that made even the calmest of people want to amputate their own legs to escape the pain and hitchhike with passing travelers with wheels by faking their own “misfortune.”

It didn’t take long for a conversation to start on the way back.

“So Sakura…” Ino started, shooting Sakura a knowing wink-wink look and inadvertently causing Neji to listen in on their chat. “Anything interesting happen last night?”

The medic-nin tilted her head to the side in question. “May I ask what you’re implying by that, Ino?”

“Did ya get to be all hoochie-koochie and lovey-dovey with a certain someone?” The devilish grin playing on the pretty blonde’s lips was not missed by her friend…or Neji for that matter.

“Ahem, for your information, Neji-san and I are not like that,” Sakura said after a brief pause after having remembered the previous nights events…such as Neji walking in on her while changing in the bedroom and her asking about sharing the bed with him. She tapped her chin thoughtfully. “He was a gentleman and didn’t complain about having to share the bed with me. And unlike you, he kept his hands to himself.”

Neji silently thanked Sakura for making him not look like a pervert.

“Are you saying I get all touchy-feely with you whenever I sleep in your bed during your sleepovers?”

The Hyuuga promptly raised an eyebrow at this. Was Sakura implying…?

“No! I’m saying that he can sleep in bed with the opposite sex and control his hormones, although I can’t say the same for you,” Sakura replied, shooting a knowing glance at a blushing Shikamaru, who was currently being teased by Naruto about his relationship with Ino.

Neji inwardly snorted. If only the woman knew how damn hard it had been to temporarily deactivate his belated hormones…

“But I have to admit…I was so comfortable last night.”

Crimson stained the Hyuuga’s cheeks upon hearing that, and he instantly increased his pace, attempting to put some distance between himself and Sakura. The embarrassment was getting to him, and he didn’t know if his great Hyuuga pride and his hormones for that matter could take any more of this.

Unfortunately, Hyuuga Neji still had twenty more days to go to put up with his hormones and Sakura.

…unless he died of a nosebleed before then.

--

Next time in “Neji’s Fatal Sacrilege”: Inadvertently Learned Secrets…

Just three days after the beach and hot springs trip becomes a typical slave-obeying day for Neji, as Sakura forces him to clean her cleaner-than-clean apartment, from the icky storage room to the cabinets filled with even MORE dishes. But cleaning every part of her apartment also includes her room, where Neji accidentally finds top-secret material that may change his opinion about the kunoichi from that moment on.

--

A/N: ZOMG, I’m finally finished with this chapter!! Eh, it was a decent chapter…I think it’s cuz I’ve been writing so much drama lately that I’ve grown accustomed to writing that particular genre with a different style from my humor fics. BTW, someone named queenmage flamed three of my fics for liking NejiSaku and Hinata. Anyone know her? Well anyway, sorry for the long wait and thanks for reading! Reviews are always appreciated! X3