Neji's Romance

Thrown Together

Well that had been eventful.

She had not expected a visitor during her attempt at using the bath house again, of course she had been wondering how exactly you stopped people from wandering in while the bath house was in use, but as of yet, it had not been an issue, she had not been able to locate the lock, and had thought it was normal, since many of the doors had no locks to speak of.

As unexpected as the surprise visit had been, she could not say it was unpleasant entirely, for Neji was not unpleasant to look at with his clothes on, and now she had seen all of him, and, with a draining revelation she realized, he had also seen all of her.

Warmth crept up her neck to her face and her knees went a little weak, oh dear. She would be lying if she told herself that she had not thought about Neji in a few very odd ways, including in the same manner that she had just been exposed to, or that many of her sleepless nights were because of him.

Not surprisingly, tonight was another restless night, her insomnia kicking in, but there was another underlying note that night. Every time she closed her eyes, there he was, in all his gloriousness, Neji, his outlines lightly blurred by the damp, steamy air, his hair gleaming as it caught hold of the moisture in the air, his skin starting to glisten as the warm air condensed against it and the distinct shape of his strong muscles rippling as he moved. A smile crept up her face as she recalled his slip and fall, neither of which left her with much to imagine, slowly her smile faded as she recalled the lighter patches of scars on his body.

He had obviously lived a hard life, to carry so many memories of old wounds.

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What he had seen had been nothing new to him, having worked closely with a girl on his team, he had experienced feelings of attraction before, but nothing like this. He had seen girls in all kinds of ways, being a very popular young man, and he knew it, girls had taken it upon themselves to try and court him, and even though he had never taken advantage of any one of them, keeping strictly to his code of honour.

Something was different this time though, he had lost his cool here, he never lost his cool, and she was at the centre of this reaction.

The occurrence this evening had fanned into flames something that he had been suppressing for a while now and he could not repell her from within him.

He had no time for this and decided that in the morning, he would go and see the Hokage, at the earliest moment possible. He just HAD to put distance between them and he would do so by taking on any mission available, even ones that he considered below his rank.

Unbidden the steamy image of her in the expansive bath burst into his mind. Groaning, he threw himself back onto his soft bed, his hair spreading haphazardly over his pillow as he closed his eyes, trying desperately to sink into a dreamless sleep.

It had been utterly useless, while he had been able to achieve somewhat of a semblance of sleep, it had been less than restful and even further from dreamless. He awoke very frustrated as the dawn lightened the sky over the cliffs that surrounded his village. The dreams that plagued him were of the steamy sort, matching the previous night's incidents and it had made waking up more uncomfortable than usual. Eventually he had given in to his wakefulness in the early hours, and was now pacing in front of the closed doors to the Hokage's office.

As the sun started to crest over the masses of treetops, a bleary eyed Kakashi came strolling into his office, his one visible eye frowning as soon as it found Neji standing in the hallway. Quickly he pushed open the doors to his office, gently holding the steaming mug of tea in his other hand, and strode briskly into the circular office. At first Neji was slightly taken aback by the sudden urgency of Kakashi's motions upon seeing him, realising with a pang, that Kakashi probably assumed there was something amiss with their visitor, who had been put under his watch.

While he was not entirely wrong, Neji was sure that Kakashi would take a dim view of his perspective, he decided to set things straight immediately, thus avoiding any misunderstandings.

"Hokage-Sama" he started, "I have come to inform you that our guest seems to be settling in just fine, she seems to be happy with us and Lady Hinata is making sure that she has everything she needs."

There was palpable relief in Kakashi's eye and Neji found himself relaxing in return, now he could ask for his favour.

"I however seem to be redundant in that area, so I wish to request a mission as I dislike being idle."

Kakashi was giving him a suspicious look, which quickly turned into one of mischief as Neji spoke.

"It is somewhat early in the day for such a request, why, I wonder, do you need to make the request at the break of day?" Kakashi said, with a hint of amusement in his voice.

"I do, however, have the perfect mission for you. Since you mention our guest, I believe she has not been let out of your compound since her arrival?" his voice was quizzical.

"Correct sir." Replied Neji

"Good, now I want you to be her escort for one day, get to know her, find out exactly who or what she is."

As he spoke, Neji noticed his Hokage's eye flicker towards the top drawer of his desk, it was an ill kept secret that Kakashi kept his erotic books in there, and it was obvious that he wanted Neji to leave soon.

"Show her our beautiful town, without exposing us too much to her; now you may leave" drawled the Hokage, leaning back in his red swivel chair.

Walking out of the building, Neji could not believe his luck, or the lack thereof. All he had wanted was some distance to clear his head, now he had to spend an entire day with her! Why on earth would Kakashi utilize him, Neji Hyuuga, as a tour guide? What kind of games was he playing? This was the kind of mission rookies, or someone like Naruto used to get, not him, as a prodigy he had always been given high ranking missions, and he had earned his reputation as genius. He was, after all, the strongest Hyuuga of his age, and had won many battles, but now here he was, a mere escort to a stranger. What's more, a stranger that distracted him in such a way that he just could not comprehend why he reacted to her in such a manner. It could not be because she was female, there were many women, both ninja and non-ninja, that had tried for his affections, but none had disturbed him in such a manner.

He stopped, he had been standing in front of her door. He did not know when he had arrived, and he clicked his tongue in frustration, this was what he had been worrying about, this kind of distraction, it was not who he was.

He was always alert, he never just wandered or forgot where he was going. Slowly it came to his realisation that not only was he standing at her door, but that it was open, and she was standing in the doorway. Travelling up from her feet, where his eyes had rested in his deep thoughts, he let his eyes travel up her. She was dressed more suitably now, obviously wearing some of Hinata's old clothes. A cream jacket and long dark pants with sandals now fit her quite snugly, accenting her figure in ways that it never had for a younger, slightly more awkward Hinata.

Since she was shorter than Hinata, it only stood to reason that she should wear something from Hinata's youth. His pale eyes now reached her face, from which her long hair was now drawn back into a tight ponytail, their eyes connected, his pupil less ones meeting her bright green ones for a split second, before both glanced away, shuffling awkwardly in each other's presence.

To anyone watching, it was painfully obvious that they shared an awkward secret.