Disclaimer: Standard Disclaimers Apply.

The author's note and her ginormous apologies can be found at the bottom.

100 Days with Mr. Stupidhead

Chapter 6: There's no place like (Neji's) home

"Nyuuuuuuuhhh…"

"Guuuuuuuurrrghhh…"

"…Myaaaaa"

Neji's hand froze halfway through unlocking his front door. He swallowed. Nope, he hadn't heard wrong; there was definitely something inside his house. A dying cat? He listened again. A sick whale maybe, he mused, never mind that he was on the 17th floor. Well, he'd read somewhere that whales were friendly, so…

"GYAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Oof!"

"NEJINEJINEJINEJINEJI!"

"Naruto."

"OhmygodNeji, you have to help me out here; that Sasuke-bastard is the mostevilpersoninthehistoryoftheworld ever! You know what he made me do—"

"Naruto."

"—made me clean the toilet and he made me chuck all of his expired ramen away—"

"Naruto."

"—but of course like the awesome ninja that I am I snuck back to the trash compactor when he wasn't looking and stole back the precious—"

"Naruto."

"—but then he caught me and I thought I was going to die, but ninja skills ya know, only he was kinda better at it—"

"Naruto."

"—and then I had to watch him throw it into the trash bin and it was awful Neji, it really was."

Teary blue eyes stared reproachfully at rather disinterested pale ones. Neji sighed, reaching up to rub at the vein that seemed to be the source of all his headaches as of late.

"Naruto. What are you doing here?"

"Eh... I was hungry."

"…"

So that's what those unearthly noises were. Sometimes, the brunette wondered what sort of monster lived in the depths of his best friend's stomach. He looked towards the kitchen where Naruto was busily preparing something instant and soupy with noodles. Definitely the ramen-eating kind, he decided.

Three minutes later found Neji sitting across the blond with his own plastic cup of preservative-laden goodness.

"Eat up, Neji! You look more like a PMS-ing girl than usual!"

Neji snorted. Trust Naruto to point that out after the lobby clerk had just yesterday congratulated Neji on having such a "cute, sweet (albeit flat-chested) girlfriend". As expected, Naruto had thrown a fit and had had to be dragged away before he did something stupid to prove he wasn't a girl.

The blond slurped up the last of his noodles contentedly and grinned before moving to get up.

"Thank you muchly, Neji! I havta get to work now. Ramen jii-san is expecting me tonight!"

Neji frowned. Since when did Naruto start working so late?

"You know, an idiot brain like yours needs all the time it can get to study if you actually want to pass this term."

"Hey! I'll have you know my IQ is right up there with Einstein and –"

"Are you behind on rent again?" Nonchalantly, because God forbid anyone suspect that he actually cared.

"Pfft. Nah. That Sasuke-bastard's got me cleaning after school, so I had to switch to a later shift. Anyway. Later, Neji!"

Neji watched silently until the blond's retreating back was gone, and then made a quick and painful decision. He would have to deal with the devil himself.

10 pm was normally when Sasuke would, in keeping with his rich and stuck-up nature, pour himself some expensive sake to unwind from the daily stress of his fangirl hoards and his bastard boss-slash-brother. Of course, now that he was no longer rich (though still unbelievably stuck-up, some might say) he'd had to make do with cheap wine that came in tetra packs, and even then, only once or twice a week.

Tonight was definitely a tetra-pack wine night, Sasuke though smugly to himself, giving his impeccably clean apartment a satisfied once over. Who knew blond, loudmouthed dobes could clean so well? Free of charge, too. Perhaps when his slave's contract was over, he would trick said slave into prolonging the sentence. Yes… that was an excellent, and more importantly, economical idea… Fufufufu…

He had just settled upon the couch to begin plotting on how exactly to go about deceiving the blond when three sharp knocks quite rudely interrupted him.

"...Stupid dobe" He made his way to the front door with tetra-pack wine in hand, already certain of who would dare interrupt his scheming.

"What, did you miss a spot, do—"

"Uchiha."

Sasuke's normally well-controlled eyebrow muscle twitched. This was the second time he'd had to entertain his abhorred neighbor in a week. A week. What was he, some kind of saint?

"Hyuuga, your kind isn't allowed to enter homes unless invited."

"…"

To Sasuke's great amusement—although, really, no one could tell—the Hyuuga heir was looking vaguely uncomfortable.

"Uchiha." Neji tried again. "Sasuke. I know you and I have had… differences… in the past,"

Ah, thought the shorter brunette, leaning against the doorframe. This is about that blond idiot again.

"And we might have exchanged… some words…"

"…"

"…that erm... we—or at least I didn't really mean…"

"…"

The Hyuuga cleared his throat. "Anyway, I was hoping we could discuss Naruto's contract."

Silence.

Sasuke lifted the straw of his tetra-pack wine to his mouth and slurped deliberately at the last few drops.

Slurp slurp.

"…"

Slurp.

"…"

Sluuuuuuurp.

Neji's eyebrow was beginning to twitch, he noticed with expertly-concealed glee. Still…

Slurp.

Then, when he could slurp no more, he tossed the box aside and yawned. "Go away, Hyuuga. I'm bored."

"Sasuke!" Neji said sharply, with the door less than half an inch from smashing in his perfect nose.

Something in his voice made Sasuke's hand still on the doorknob, and the Uchiha leaned his head on the doorframe to listen.

"Sasuke," the Hyuuga heir repeated calmly, now that he knew the other was listening. "I don't know what you want, but I know that you're… You're not as big an assho—erm, not as bad a guy (a snort from the other side of the door) as you show yourself to be. That is, after all, your brother's role."

Sasuke stiffened at the mention of his brother, fists suddenly itching to punch someone.

And then Neji dropped the clincher.

"Uchiha, I know why your brother fired you."

Tun-dun-duuuuun cliffhanger! Yes, I know; a lot of people will probably shoot me for this, and I'm sorry T-T Over five years of no updates and this is where it ends?

I'm sorry, I really am, I know how it feels like to keep following something and be left hanging for the longest time… And for that, I apologize a gazillion times T-T I was still in high school when I wrote this, and now I'm working! _ eeps. I guess the onset of responsibility is what made me realize that it was rude and downright evil to leave stories undone. /slaps self on the wrist/ I'm soooorrreeeeeee….

Anyway, for those of you still reading this, thank you, and please let me know what you think!

I realize that my writing style has probably changed (hopefully not for the worse), but hopefully you'll still enjoy it, ne?

More to come soon!

Much love,

Kyria