I don't like you

By Kerrie-chan

"How did that get in here?!"

Neji stared at the offending object in front of him, which was currently blocking the way into the apartment.

Large blue eyes stared right back at him.

Sakura chose that moment to enter the room and froze at the scene before her. Her wide emerald eyes blinked a few times before she burst out laughing. It was certainly a sight to see.

Hyuga Neji was having a staring contest with a puppy and losing.

Neji of course didn't find it near as funny as the pink haired woman. In fact he was rather annoyed by it. The sleek looking puppy was sitting right in the middle of where he wanted to walk, refusing to move, and staring at him with suspicious puppy-like eyes.

Neji didn't like puppies.

In fact, he didn't like many animals, cats being the exception because they were actually independent and intelligent. He didn't like kittens either.

"How did that get in here Sakura?" He repeated, his pale eyes narrowing to mere slits, mentally willing the puppy to remove itself from the premises.

Sakura sighed heavily, obviously already prepared for the battle she was about to face. "That is Maro, Neji, Kiba gave him to me." She explained shortly, stepping forward and scooping the black puppy up into her arms. "He will be living with me from now on."

Neji scowled blackly, following behind her as she made her way down the hallway into the kitchen. "No it's not. You can't keep that thing. Give it back to the mutt."

Sakura rolled her eyes, glancing over her shoulder and giving her tall fiancé a glare worthy of himself. "I can and I will. It's not your house Neji and you can't tell me whether or not I can have a dog!"

"Yes I can. You will be living in my house in two months. That thing will have to come with you."

The pink haired kunoichi crossed the kitchen and placed the puppy gently in the blanket filled basket that occupied one corner behind the small dining table. The puppy whined a bit but stayed put. He seemed to know that his new woman needed to talk to the newly arrived man with the mean aura. Maro didn't like the new man. He smelled like bad attitude.

"He's not a thing Neji! He's a puppy. You're making it sound like I brought home a bear for a pet." Sakura tossed her hair over her shoulder and turned her back on Neji, opening her fridge and rummaging through it. "What do you want for dinner?"

"I don't care. You're avoiding the situation. I don't want a puppy. I don't like puppies."

Sakura huffed, pulling out some random items of food from the fridge and setting them on the counter, sparing him only a glance. "You don't like anything Neji."

Without a sound Neji glided up behind her, circling her waist with his arms and tugging her against him. His mouth descended on the underside of her jaw, his voice dark and gravely. "I agreed to marry you didn't I? Surely I don't hate everything."

Sakura giggled, tilting her head to the side and allowing him better access to her neck. "If I remember correctly Hyuga-sama, it was I who agreed to marry you. You asked."

"Only because you made me. Sicking that evil blond wench was cruel."

Once again Sakura laughed, reaching up behind her and entwining her fingers in Neji's long hair. "I'll have you know, Ino threatened you on her own volition! She just wanted to be a bride's maid. I had nothing to do with it!"

"I'm sure."

"Are you complaining? Because I know for a fact that there are a couple of other shinobi in this village that would be happy to marry me! Kiba for example."

Neji's teeth bit down on the junction of her neck and shoulder gently, a low, threatening growl erupting from the back of his throat. "You stay away from that mutt. I don't like him."

"I thought we crossed this path: You don't like anyone."

"I like you. Sometimes."

Sakura shuddered as he emphasised the words with small fluttery kisses up her neck and across her jaw. She moaned lightly. "Is now one of those times?" She turned her head, desperately seeking the lips that teased her mercilessly. "Neji…!"

He chuckled, smirking against her skin, avoiding her seeking lips. "It might be. If you keep begging like that."

"I'm beginning to not like you."

"That's not what you said last night. I believe you told me you loved me."

"I hate you."

"The feeling's mutual I assure you."

Sakura could take no more, he kept dancing away from her lips, moving backwards to her ear, down to her neck, back up her jaw, all places where she couldn't get to him. Forcefully she turned her body in his arms, grasped his jaw and brought his mouth down onto hers.

At last she found peace.

Well, as much peace as one could find when Konoha's hottest ANBU was kissing you.

He was so damn good at it.

However, just the kiss was starting to escalating into something more 'fun' Neji broke away, his face a dark mask of annoyance. "It's not staying Sakura."

Sakura blinked, trying to push away the hazy lust that always accompanied Neji's kisses. "What are you talking about?"

"The mutt. Give it back to the other mutt. Because you're not keeping it."

Where had that come from? Sakura could feel Neji's tense muscles under her hands and couldn't help but wonder what his problem was. He was fine two seconds ago…

Unless…

She glanced down, and sure enough found two large blue eyes staring up at her and Neji, a low puppy growl filling the air in the kitchen.

Maro had the hem of Neji's ANBU uniform pants clamped tightly between his little teeth and was tugging as hard as he could, growling as loud as his little lungs would let him. Sakura would have giggled at the cuteness if it wasn't for the fact that Neji was so obviously royally irritated.

"Oh calm down Neji," Sakura scolded, pulling away, "He's just a puppy and he doesn't know you. He probably thinks your trying to hurt me." She bent down and gently pulled the puppy away from Neji's pants and picked him up, cuddling him against her chest.

Neji glared at the puppy, all too aware that it had turned its eyes to him to look at him with a smugness not unlike that of a human. He clearly read the look as "Haha, I get to be where you want to be!"

His hand itched to toss the obnoxious little animal out the window.

"Anyway, he'll get better as I train him. Kiba said he'd help me since I don't know very much about training a puppy."

Neji's attention snapped back to his fiancé at the words, his eyebrows furrowing even more. "I told you to stay away from him." He snapped moodily, not liking where things were going. She didn't look like she was going to give the puppy back. She was completely ignoring his orders.

"You tell me to do a lot of things, but that doesn't mean I do them. You're word is not law Neji." Sakura shot back with a teasing grin. She then set the puppy back in his basket then returned to the counter where she went back to sorting out food articles.

"Not yet anyway," he muttered sulkily. "I don't see why you have to be so contrary. It is irritating."

Sakura smirked pulling a knife out of the drawer beside her. "You only think it's irritating because you know I've already won, and we all know how much you hate to lose." She sniffed a bit. "Besides, I think you're the one that's being contrary. You only don't want me to keep the puppy because he was a present from Kiba."

Neji scoffed, settling himself against the counter beside her, the edge digging into his back. "No. If you remember correctly I told you that you couldn't keep it before you informed me that he was a…present."

She shook her head. "Nope. All you said about Maro was asking how he got here. And when I told you it was then that you decree that I couldn't keep him."

He paused, mulling over their conversation in his head. Damn it.

She was right.

He sighed, now thoroughly irritated at himself as well. How could he miss such an important insight? Now he was truly finished. "Perhaps, but that does not mean that it being a gift from the mutt is why I don't want it. I don't want animals."

"Well that's too bad because Maro will be staying with us for the next twenty years."

At the new piece of information Neji started, his eyes widening exponentially. "Twenty years?!" He demanded harshly, his gaze swivelling to the innocent looking puppy on the other side of the room. "Dogs live to be eleven, maybe fifteen if you're lucky. But not twenty."

"Normal dogs yes," Sakura replied tartly, in her know-it-all fashion, "But Maro is a nin-dog and they live to be at least 20."

"What the hell do you need a nin-dog for?!"

The sound of the knife slamming to the counter echoed throughout the small kitchen. Maro jumped up and gave an apprehensive whine, not really sure what to do as he looked between the man and the woman.

Sakura's face scrunched up into an angry scowl, her wrath filled eyes centering on the obstinate jackass she was sometimes proud to call her future husband. Now was not one of those times. "For our children Hyuga Neji, our children!"

Neji wisely remained silent.

"Did it ever occur to you that there might be times while they're growing up that both of us will be on a mission at the same time?" She continued, her face flushing with adrenaline. "I know I would feel better knowing they had someone to watch over them while we're not around, even if they are staying in the branch house surrounded by family. Your family is not the warmest."

He had to agree with her there.

She sighed, her shoulders going slack, exhaustion suddenly creeping into her voice. "Besides, it gets lonely around here with you gone so much…and all my friends so busy. I just thought he'd make a good companion."

It was all Neji could do not to groan out loud. Her saddened words sealed his fate, as they always did when they disagreed. Who could argue with logic like that? The very thought that she was thinking of their children, something he hadn't even fathomed, moved him more than he'd ever say to anyone. He sighed.

"Fine," he grumbled flatly, "You can keep the mutt. But it does not, under any circumstances, sleep in our bed."

Sakura perked up visibly, her emerald eyes moving from glassy to shining in seconds. "Really?"

"Yes."

She laughed, her face transforming into a grin that looked slightly sinister around the edges. "Good, because you're watching him while I'm on my mission tomorrow."

Neji's scowl couldn't really be called a scowl per say, it was something darker, something far more frightening than his usual disproving scowl. However, he didn't argue, knowing that he had already lost. He wouldn't waste words trying to convince her of something that had already decided would happen.

Instead he turned his black look to the puppy who backed up a little bit but still stared at him defiantly. Neji sneered.

"I don't like you."

Maro yipped back.