Author's Notes: Okay, what the hell was up with fanfiction this week? I swear, I SWEAR I posted a new chapter of this and MND on Monday and it just didn't post! What's up with that? Anyways, sorry for the wait. School year's coming to a close and I think the teachers are feeling the pressure. But my last day is on Monday and my last final is on Thursday, so I should update more. If phantom1ntheshadows would like to write her next letter. HINT

And if you didn't notice, I changed my penname. Melantha now. XD So much cooler than balletphantom or even ::shudders:: my real name, which shall never again be uttered on this site. Don't worry though; its the same balletphantom under this crazy new name! I also decided that naming the chapters after the dates looked too wierd and was too hard, so they're back to being just 'chapter one' etc. Happy Reading!

From: Ino Yamanaka

Date: September 27, 2007

Bitch, I told you to LEAVE HIM ALONE!!! THAT MEANS NO SPEAKING NO NOTES NO NOTHING!!! So LEAVE HIM ALONE GOD DAMMNIT!!!

clears throat And I have no idea what you're talking about the notes. It wasn't a trick to get him to like me. It was just a trick to talk in class without getting caught. So LEAVE HIM ALONE!!!

And yes, Neji left this morning. He was driving to Denver and then taking a 5:30 flight to New York. And I have a message to him from Tenten that you should print out and give to him.

Hey I miss you! And, Neji…IF YOU LAY ONE FINGER ON THAT POOR COUSIN OF YOURS I WILL BEAT YOU SO HARD YOU WON'T SEE STRAIGHT FOR A MONTH!!! I SWEAR TO GOD, DON’T YOU DARE MAKE ME COME DOWN THERE TO KILL YOU!!! DON’T! HURT! YOUR! COUSIN!

See you on Friday, baby! XD

-Tenten

Yes, and I fully believe she could kick his ass. Although Neji is apparently a very competent fighter, (more on that later), Tenten is scary. Beware Tenten's wrath!

So, anyways, the drama of my life unfolds...

I feel like a terrible person. And I know you will deny it vehemently but not when you here my tale of woe. It all started the day after my birthday, the day after our little confrontation with Jacob. I went to lunch fully intending on giving Shikamaru my huge hunk of birthday cake for 1) Giving me the best birthday present, and 2) Saving my life, or at least my innocence. ::wink::

But when I got to the lunchroom he wasn't there! Neji was mysteriously absent as well, even though he was most definitely in homeroom. Even Tenten had no idea where they were. I was certainly unsettled by the dark look in her normally cheery eyes, and the downward tilt of her mouth. Worry squirmed into my stomach, and I suddenly wasn't hungry. The four of us ate lunch in silence, me just staring at my food. Tenten didn't look like she actually tasted it.

After school we walked out the front doors together.

"It's okay…" Tenten was saying her herself. "It's okay…there are a thousand reasons for them to be missing…its okay…"

"You're freaking me out…" I told her. I didn't get a response.

As the crowd cleared, Tenten's fears were assuaged.

"Neji!" She cried, dashing at him and throwing herself into his arms. Neji was standing off to one side of the staircase, his shoulders hunched and his icy eyes scanning the crowd of students for us. "I was so freakin' worried about you! You better not disappear again, bastard."

"Nice, you're swearing at me." He murmured, but held her for a bit longer than I thought he would. He finally released her, taking a step back.

"So?" Tenten asked in an irritated voice. "Where the hell have you been?" She caught sight of his hands at the same time I did. His right hand was badly bruised around the knuckles. His left hand was wrapped in a bandage, and a bit of blood was leaking through the end. Tenten's eyes widened and I realized that Neji had winced painfully when Tenten hugged him. "What. The. FUCK DID YOU DO?!?!" She screamed at him.

"Sh!" He said and led us through the forest and to the clearing Shikamaru had shown me yesterday. "I'm sorry! Shikamaru and I sort of got into a fight."

"What?!?" I chimed in, thinking it was between each other. "Over what?" And where the hell was Shikamaru? Hinata's warnings echoed through my already paranoid mind.

"No way! You guys get along so well!" Tenten said. Neji rolled his eyes.

"We didn't get into a fight with each other." He clarified. I was still worried. "With Jacob. And half the football team. Over you." He said, his white eyes turning to me. I bit my lip, guilt gnawing at my insides.

"Okay…" Tenten said very calmly, more calmly than I had ever seen. "Start from the beginning." She said, sitting down in the grass. Neji and I joined her and we formed a circle.

So here's the story as Neji tells it…

Both Neji and Shikamaru had History first period that morning, right after homeroom when we last saw Neji. He was gathering his books after everyone had left and Shikamaru was the only other one in the room. (They were taking their time, as they were both free second period.) Shikamaru stepped outside the door just before Neji, and he heard a crash that sounded like books falling to the floor. He stopped short, analyzing the scene in front of him.

Jacob had indeed caught Shikamaru by surprise, knocking the heavy textbooks to the floor. Shikamaru himself was looking eerily calm next to the red faced, vein popping Jacob.

"You are so going to pay for what you did yesterday, Nara." He said in his most threatening voice.

"I don't really care what you try to do to me, as long as I can still come up with a less clichéd sentence than that when you're done." Shikamaru said icily. Jacob's hands clenched into fists.

"In any case, you're outnumbered." Neji said, stepping out of the doorway. A second after he stopped he was slammed into the lockers beside him by 180 lbs of beefed up football player, bruising his ribs and knocking the air out of his lungs. The junior linebacker kept Neji pinned to the lockers, as Neji caught his breath again.

Jacob threw the first punch at Shikamaru, who easily dodged it. He kept throwing punches that didn't hit until footsteps pounded down the hallway. Jacob was distracted for a moment and Shikamaru took the opportunity to punch him in the face, splitting his lip open and knocking out a tooth. Neji thought for a split second it might be a teacher before it came into view. It being one of the defensemen. He caught Shikamaru completely by surprise, and with a well aimed body slam and his entire weight, sent him to his knees.

Neji says there is no sound in the world like the sound of breaking bone. The crack was actually audible when the huge junior crashed calculatedly into Shikamaru, breaking his wrist in two places, according to the nurse's suspicions.

Shikamaru fell to his knees, letting out a strangled cry. He hugged his right arm into his chest and bit down on his lip to keep from screaming again. It was the first time Neji ever felt pity towards the other boy.

He had finally caught his breath and decided that it was time for this to be over. Twisting out of the linebackers hold, three well aimed kicks to the shins and knees took care of him. He punched the defenseman in the face, hence the bruising on his knuckles. But the defenseman brought out a small, jagged piece of glass. He split Neji's hand open and stabbed through the flesh of his shoulder before Neji knocked it out of his hand and split his lip. Someone barreled down the hall. More football players.

Neji was actually able to hold his own for quite some time. Defending himself and Shikamaru, he kicked the asses of half the football team. I know, I saw them later. They looked way worse than the two of them. Neji managed to break a couple bones before Mr. Edwards, the enormous gym teacher who used to be a body builder, stopped them. He discerned who started the fight and Neji, Shikamaru, and Jacob ended up in the principal's office.

The Principal gave them the usual speech, suspending all three of them for the rest of the week. The other football players only got detentions. He called their parents, or Shikamaru and Jacob's parents, since Neji lives alone. That was why Neji managed to escape back to the school to tell us this tale. He still had to leave soon, to go to the ER, probably needing stitches in his hand and shoulder.

"THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL YOU ARE GOING ALONE!!!" Tenten yelled at him. Neji merely nodded at her. In my opinion, he really wanted her to come with him. He needed her. They were really sweet together, despite Neji's cold demeanor and Tenten's loud shouts. She helped him up and they said goodbye to me, leaving the clearing. Neji draped his arm over her shoulders and Tenten wrapped her arm around his back. Like I said, they were the sweetest couple.

Later that night, I tried calling Shikamaru. A couple times. I didn't get an answer, making me very nervous. I barely slept Thursday night, for no reason I could think of. I mean, Neji told us that Shikamaru was fine, and it probably wasn't a very serious break. In hindsight, I realize that I was a little afraid that Shikamaru blamed me for getting hurt. That he was mad at me.

The next day passed at a snail's pace, even through Fridays usually passed quickly. I made up my mind to go over Shikamaru's that afternoon, just to make sure he was okay. And not mad at me. So after school I nervously walked up his front walk.

His house was almost as isolated as mine, dark green in color. It was midsized, nestled neatly in the trees. I noticed that there weren't any cars in the driveway, meaning either his parents weren't home, or none of them were home. I was seriously hoping for door number one.

I knocked, and the door was pulled open, thankfully, by Shikamaru. He smiled a little at me.

"Hey. Miss me already?" He said with a smirk. I glanced down at him. It was the first time I had seen him out of uniform. He was wearing baggy jeans and a red long sleeved shirt. My heart twisted when I saw his right arm, which was wrapped in a cast up to the elbow.

"Hi…Ah…I just came here to…" Yes, I was lost for words. "I'm so sorry." I said. I could feel the tears welling in my eyes. I threw myself into his arms, sort of surprised when he wrapped his arms around me, patting my back.

It's okay…" He pulled me into his house and sat me down on his couch.

"Sorry."

"Really, it wasn't your fault." He insisted.

"Yeah it was. You first got into a fight with him over me and then he broke your arm and I am so sorry!" I am now ashamed of the speed at which I spoke.

"I probably would have gotten into this fight eventually. We don't really like each other. At all." I could definitely see that.

"Did you get into a lot of trouble?" I asked, the main other reason I was feeling insanely guilty.

"Not really. I mean, I was suspended today, but my parents weren't really mad. I explained everything."

"That's really good. Your parents sound cool." Shikamaru smiled.

"I think they were more disappointed that I only split his lip." That made me laugh, because it seriously reminded me of my switchblade-present-giving father.

We spent the rest of that night watching bad movies and eating every possible junk food known to man. It was amazing. We had a ton of laughs over the crappy acting and shit writing. Yup, awesomeness.

Saturday we all went into town and hung out. Nothing really groundbreaking happened.

Today I was charged with lifting Tenten's spirits. She's still depressed over the fact that Neji's leaving for the week. But she was very happy to hear that I knew Hinata and could get a message to him. Hence, the message at the beginning.

Give that to him or she'll kill us all…

Final thoughts:

LEAVE! SASUKE! ALONE! I SWEAR, IT WILL WORK! GIVE HIM TIME!

Okay…on that note…Goodbye!

Sincerely,

Slightly Guilty

From: Sakura Haruno

Date: September 29, 2007

Wow, jeez. All I can say is…wow. And I thought that time Sasuke got his arm broken by his own brother was bad…So how long is Shikamaru going to be in a cast? As you already know, Neji arrived two days ago. He seems just as cold as you described. I knew that you and your friend Tenten would want her message delivered, so as soon as I saw him in the hallway, I walked up to him. I knew who it was right away, he bears a striking resemblance to Hinata.

“Hey, you’re Neji Hyuuga, right?” I yelled to him in an attempt to get him to stop in his fast trot through the hallway. I received a glare in response.

“What of it?” He looked seriously pissed off. Like DOOM CLOUD pissed off. I half expected him to kill me or something…

“Well, I’m Ino Yamanaka’s friend, Sakura. You have a girlfriend named Tenten right?” He raised one eyebrow at me, looking kind of freaked out that I had all this information.

“Yeah…”

“Well, here.” I handed him a copied out section of your last letter with Tenten’s message on it. He glanced over the page, shoved it in his pocket, and stormed off, looking angrier than before. It must really be bugging him to have to go to the same school as Hinata for the next week.

Sai seems to have cooled down a bit. The day that I had my little ::ahem:: upset, I know I said he left me alone then. Well…he did say one thing to me, but then Gaara dragged him out into the hallway and I heard a lot of yelling. When they came back, Sai had a black eye and didn’t speak to me or Gaara for the rest of the period. Gai-sensei (inattentive twit) didn’t even notice they had left. I guess I really owe Gaara one, Sai hasn’t called me “hag” once since then! I’d say he’s definitely off the “freak” list in my book. Sai, however, is DEFINITELY on it. IN BIG RED LETTERS. AT THE TOP.

You were right about leaving Sasuke alone. ::loud sigh:: I admit it, you were right. It was dumb for me to pass him that note. Things seem to have worked out anyway despite it, though. I might as well get down to what happened.

So, Friday night I went straight home and went to bed early. Needless to say, I was pretty upset still over what had happened earlier with Sasuke. (no need to rub it in ANY MORE how dumb I was, just telling you ahead of time.) So anyway, as previously stated I went to bed early.

The next morning I woke up pretty far before I usually do. In fact, the sun was just starting to peek out over the treetops as I opened my bedroom window to let some light in. On the windowsill laid a branch of cherry blossoms and a note. Now, as you know, my window is NOT on the bottom floor. And cherry blossoms are NOT in season. I wondered for a second how they had gotten there, then proceeded to read the note.

“I’m sorry about yesterday. Meet me at the field when you get up.”

Okay, forgive me for being so slow, but I had NO IDEA who that note was from. Before you start yelling at me, think about it. Would you have figured it out? I mean come on, does it really seem like him to go through all that effort procuring those cherry blossoms, CLIMBING THE SIDE OF MY HOUSE so he can put them on my windowsill, and on top of all that APOLOGIZING for his behavior? Do you see now why I had no clue as to whom the note was from?

Despite my confusion, I got dressed, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and headed down to the old field. You know the one I’m talking about… behind the pond, a little way from our old middle school. When I got there, it was deserted. As in NO ONE around. As you can imagine, I was sort of pissed off at whoever had the nerve to leave me a note on my windowsill instructing me to go to the field, then LEAVE ME THERE BY MYSELF! As I turned to leave, I felt someone grab my wrist. Being the idiot I am, the first thing that popped into my head was “pervert!” So I Swung around, ready to clobber whatever had grabbed me.

There was Sasuke. I swear to god my jaw touched the ground. He stared at me quizzically for a second before letting go of my wrist.

“After you’re done pounding my face in, do you think we could talk for a second?” I dropped my arm once I realized it was still in the air, my hand balled up into a fist. I glared, of course still angry about the day before.

“I don’t know, are you going to think that it’s a ‘mistake’ later on, Sasuke?” I huffed. He let out a very long, audible sigh.

“Did I or did I not already apologize for that?” he asked me, looking exasperated, like he always does when he thinks I’m being stupid.

“I guess so.” I let my guard down a little. “You were kind of a jerk, though.” I know, it’s lame. I know, I should’ve said something like “SASUKE, YOU ! YOU’RE LUCKY I’M FORGIVING YOU AFTER YOU TORE MY HEART OUT AND RIPPED IT APART LIKE THAT!” But I didn’t. I held my tongue.

“And for the millionth time, I’m sorry. I don’t know…what am I supposed to say?” He gave me another quizzical glance. I was shocked. Sasuke Uchiha, apologizing verbally, and to my face! I couldn’t help myself…I admit it…I kissed him. I know, probably not the smartest move, but would you have been able to help it? He didn’t seem to mind though ::smiles sneakily to self:: He didn’t pull back or anything…

So, anyways, I would appreciate an update ASAP. I NEEEED to know what’s going on with your life! You’re my best friend, moving to Colorado is DEFINITELY not an excuse not to talk to me at EVERY AVAILABLE MOMENT! That means email me back!

Bored (in case you couldn’t tell)

Sakura Haruno