Reborn as Sakura and Hinata: Lost in the Wind

Hyuga Time: Big Brother Neji

I fumbled with my keys as I tried to unlock the door with only one hand, the other one holding Lipstick as securely as it could, but it wasn't like the dog was trying to escape or anything. Pushing the door open with a sigh, I walked into my apartment, not surprised to see Neji sitting on the couch reading a book.

He didn't even glance in my direction; who else was going to come through the door? I thought that maybe I'd be able to get the dog into my room without having to explain myself, certainly save me some stress.

"How was it?" He called from the living room.

"Turns out Naruto's going to live in her house now." I responded, hanging my keys by the door.

"Was he there when you arrived?" he followed.

I chuckled to myself, "Yep, scared all of us. He looked so depressed sitting there all alone."

"Is he okay?"

I was kind of touched that he was actually concerned for him, "More or less. He's taken Sakura leaving harder than most of us, which makes sense, but it didn't make it any easier to watch."

"Of course not." Neji hummed, "How were the others? You went with a group I'm guessing."

"Sasuke and Itachi seem to have reformed a normal-ish brother relationship." I noted, smiling to myself at Itachi's light teasing and how amused he seemed at his brother's antics, "Kiba's doing okay too."

"You two are spending time together again?" Neji's interest in the conversation seemed to increase at that.

"Dating would be difficult if we never spent time together." I scoffed, walking through the kitchen and to the mouth of the hallway.

I wasn't expecting Neji to turn around at that, "You two are dating again?"

"Uh... yeah?" I shrugged awkwardly, not quite knowing what the proper response to that question was.

Neji's brows lowered in an unimpressed frown, "You can't blame me for not knowing when you never tell me what's going on." Before I could come up with some sort of excuse, his eyes narrowed at the object in my arms, "What is that?"

"Sakura's dog?" I shifted nervously; great, I guess I couldn't avoid a lecture after all.

"A... dog?" he brushed that off in lieu of another question, "Why do you have Sakura's dog? I thought you didn't like dogs."

"Okay, look, Mr. Twenty Questions," I huffed, "Sakura left her dog behind, and I was deemed the most able to take care of her until we can secure her a new home."

"Mr. Twenty-? Okay, whatever, it isn't going to make a mess is it?" leave it to Neji to immediately assume that everything was going to be an annoyance.

"No, she isn't." I responded hotly, "I thought you'd be able to trust me enough to keep the house clean." he opened his mouth most likely to try and backpedal, but I was getting tired, "Are we done with the interrogation?"

Neji clearly didn't seem to agree with my terminology, but refaced his book anyways, "Yes, I'm done with my 'interrogation'."

With that, I quickly went to my room, closing the door behind me and flopping on my bed, setting the dog in front of me. She was apparently unaffected by the whole ordeal of being moved to a new location, not making a move to explore at all. I slowly extended a hand to her, which she slowly leaned forward to give a solitary lick.

She was it, she was the only thing of Sakura that I had left, and she wasn't even going to be staying with me forever. It was hard to think about; I felt like I had just gotten her back but once again she had just slipped through my fingers, and now I was stuck looking into the eyes of her stupid fucking dog that I gave to her.