Flowers For Gaara

Chapter Seven: Tests

"Please?"

"No."

"It'll just be this once...I'll never ask you for anything ever again."

"Absolutely not!"

"But, Neji..." I whine as I look up to that cold face. He's a cold man. It's not like I'm asking him to murder anyone. I got no sleep last night, I left extremely early just to catch this guy and ask him for this favor. I'm on my knees, begging for his help and all he can say is 'No'.

He's so cold.

"Please..." I look up at him with my watery eyes. He turns his angry gaze towards me. Very slowly it becomes inquisitive and then completely unreadable.

"You're insane."

I scream.

"Neji! Neeeeji! I know it sounds bad--"

"NO! What you're asking isn't 'bad', it's insane. I won't stoop that low. Never."

"Come on..." I try to coax him for the millionth time, "All you have to do is hit on him a little--"

Neji clutches his head as if he is a teacher dealing with a very slow student. He lets out a huge breath and tries hard to calm himself down. I move away from him a little to give him space, but my pleading blue eyes never leave his face for an instant.

"It's for love, Neji...Love!" I pull on his long billowy shirt gently and whimper again, "Please?"

"That's it! I'm leaving!" He turns to walk away.

He sure is a tough one to crack. What kind of man can resist sad blue female eyes like mine? I mean, sure I don't know Neji that well, and yeah, I am asking him to seduce the man I love, but that has nothing to do with it! Okay, well it does, but I have good reason!

Or I might just be going insane.

No! I have to test this out! After seeing Gaara with Naruto I have too many questions that have to be answered now! I mean...does he really like guys? Like that?

I feel a lonely breeze pass by. I brake down in tears.

Not to worry, I'm a pro at this. I'm not really that upset. It takes a lot more than rejection to get me in tears. The truth is that Sasuke may be the number one heart-throb, Naruto may be the number one noisy-ninja, and Shikamaru might be the number one genius, but I am the number one beautiful-kunoichi-that-gets-everything-she-wants! Tears, obviously, are a major tool I use to achieve my goals if all else fails.

My sobs stop Neji in his tracks. He turns around slowly and looks at me with a surprised look on his face. That's the classic 'oh, shit. I made a girl cry' look. He's probably still a little irritated, though. It's time to really put on the water works. With enough tears, hopefully, he'll give in. Now I just have to think of really sad things. A girl must picture the worst of all possible tragedies in order to make the tears seem real.

My parents were slaughtered...

Nope! Not sad enough! I'm alone, it's raining, and I don't have an umbrella. Then I see that someone has drowned a litter of puppies. Cute, tiny white puppies with little pink bows tied around their necks. Their tiny furry bodies are cold and wet with death. Oh, God! That one hits the spot. Those poor little puppies!

"I-Ino...?" Neji stutters as he carefully approaches me.

Now I have his attention. Damn it! I still need to concentrate more on these tears! He's not giving me the 'consoling hug' yet!

Okay, Sasuke was going out with me, but he left me for Sakura! That might as well be true except for the part where he was going out with me. Oh, the tragedy! Even my sad thoughts are better than reality. At least in my sad thoughts I can pretend I was dumped and not just totally ignored. My tears are falling more freely now. Good! I still need to concentrate. Alright, not only has Sasuke dumped me for Sakura, but he's started wearing her signature color!