Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or its characters, nor am I making any money off of 'em.

Comments: Hello! Been a while, huh? Yes, well, let's not dwell on that! This (semi-AU) fic follows the sort-of established storyline found in my other fics, entitled Sunshine and Catch Me. It might help you to understand certain things here if you've read those before reading this one, although it's not necessary.

My hopes are: 1) the format isn't screwy, and 2) that you'll enjoy this—and if you'd like, leave feedback and concrit. All are highly appreciated!

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Neji:

In case you're wondering, yes, you're in my apartment and no, you weren't seduced in any way – last night, you were drunk and I had to carry your inebriated butt here by myself, all the way from Yumiko's pad. Which is funny, in an ironic way, because I had to drag you there in the first place. Remember? She was having a party to celebrate the return of her friends from that tough A-rank mission over in Wave Country… Ringing any bells?

Anyway, I thought you'd be more responsible than to get so plastered! You surprise me so, Hyuuga.

I changed you while you were out of it – and don't get any ideas, I had some male help! By the time you read this, I'll be at the grocery store and your clothes will be finishing up in the dryer. You should shower before you leave. You'll be hungover. A nice shower will do wonders. Help yourself to tea or coffee or chai or whatever's left in the kitchen (or medicine cabinets, )

--- Haruno Sakura

P.S. - Don't worry, you still have your kidneys. That's an allusion to an old myth in case you didn't know, which I'm betting my life's savings you didn't! P

Neji groaned.

Waking up to the sound of whirring fan in semi-familiar surroundings with a splitting headache and a note folded onto his chest was definitely not the best way to start off his Saturday morning.

His head felt like it was burning up from the inside out and was being drilled into with a kunai at the same time. His mouth was dry and hot, and a bad taste lingered on his tongue. A sick yet hollow feeling existed in his stomach. The couch was too short-length for his body and because he slept in cramped conditions, every muscle, bone, and limb now felt like it'd been compacted.

And to top off his wonderful morning, he was wearing a very bright orange sweat suit that was at least two sizes too small for him.

He groaned again. How could he have let this happen? He'd always been a responsible drinker – he rarely consumed alcohol, and even when he did, he severely limited himself to just a few sips (especially after those few occasions where one Rock Lee had too much sake and Neji, unfortunately, had to help sort him out). He took every precaution to not completely give in to the temptation of alcohol.

His going over the proverbial edge last night in spite of his overly-precautious ways was just another example of fate playing him like a cheap deck of cards. Again.

"I'm never drinking anything with alcohol in it again. Not even cough syrup." He muttered those words out loud, hoping that hearing them would allow them to sink in because, clearly, they hadn't before.

Rolling sideways off the sitting room couch, Neji paused, convinced himself the room was not spinning nor was it pink, then made his way to where he vaguely remembered the bathroom to be located. The hangover remedies would have to wait—that shower was the first step toward recovery he was willing to take.

Sakura's bathroom was small in comparison to the large one in his estate but at that moment, a broom closet would have suited Neji just fine, so long as it had running hot water and a 'porcelain god,' just in case.

The small sweat suit Sakura had dressed him in was more or less shredded off. Neji didn't care if Naruto would miss it anytime soon; he just wanted that hideous, constricting thing off his body. Fully disrobed, Neji practically launched himself into the stall and cranked up the shower to its full potential.

Ah, glory and Heaven.

Sakura was right: the shower was doing wonders. The mostly hot water rained down on his back like massaging senbon, relaxing every taut muscle and nerve. The ill feeling evaporated with the droplets and the overall presence of the previous night's party no longer lingered on him. He inhaled the steam and felt the cloudiness in his head beginning to clear, though not completely – he was sure some tea would fix that, though.

Neji finally opened his white eyes and found himself facing Sakura's shower caddy.

"The Hell…"

Nothing else could possibly fit in there. The poor thing was packed with all sorts of stuff: puffy-looking sponges, something that looked like a dried up chunk of okra, pumice stones, foot scrubbers, face wash, medicated face wash, men's shaving gel (something Neji would keep stored in his brain for future reference), feminine razors, a body wash for normal-to-oily skin, a body wash that exfoliated, an unscented body wash, some three types of shampoos and conditioners…

He remembered using Tenten's shower a while back and found she had more than enough things stored in her caddy, too. Sakura definitely had her beat, though. Just how much stuff could one woman possibly need at one time in the shower?

Neji realized he would never understand the logic women put behind such decisions. After making use of the unscented body wash, he focused his attention back on the plethora of bath products on the caddy.

He'd be lying if he told himself he wasn't the least bit curious to use something… maybe just one item that he'd rinse off immediately thereafter, like shampoo perhaps? Neji reached for the least feminine-looking bottle of shampoo of the bunch. It was plain white with the product name written along the side in big, black letters. Perfect.

Still, he had to make sure it wasn't floral or anything too strong and girly. He uncapped it and took a whiff.

There was nothing that could have prepared Neji for what one waft of the shampoo did to him. When he inhaled deeply, his olfactory system immediately registered the scent as similar to coconut, but his mind continued working…

It was familiar. Very familiar. It had to be: didn't 'they' say that scent is the strongest sense tied to memory?

So this was what Neji often caught whiffs of when Sakura would briskly walk passed him, in its most potent form.

Memories triggered.

Memories of that pink-haired woman… A Konoha hospital attendee who'd helped him when he, for the first time in his life, couldn't help himself…

"Good morning, Sunshine." She'd lean in precariously close and he would be stirred from his daze in an instant at the sweet smell evaporating off her delicate neck. "Here, let me fluff those pillows. Your neck must be killing you."

A very reliable medic-nin whose presence and relieved smile made dealing with pain a small price to pay…

Sakura held Neji's upper torso against her body in order to inspect his injuries. With his nose buried into her flak vest for those brief moments, he was bombarded with a multitude of scents: dirt, blood, sweat, and the most potent…fruit. It was strangely relaxing, like a sedative. "Oh… Thank goodness," she breathed out, "The kunai missed anything vital. I'm going to use a jutsu to heal the wound closed. You're going to be all right, Neji…"

A feisty young woman who kept him grounded and in check, despite her constant nagging…

So caught up in his thoughts and the dull ache in his muscles allover, he failed to notice he'd stopped abruptly in the very center of the corridor; he failed to care, too, until someone that smelled syrupy and felt soft bumped into him from behind. "Hello, Hallway Hog! Mind moving out of the way?"

A friend who'd tried everything to make him come out of his shell, and was there to pull him back when he went too far out…

Sakura looped Neji's arm around her shoulders and coaxed him into heading toward the door with little resistance. He muttered incoherently into her ear…something about how she smelled nice. "Ooh, I don't think I smell nice, unless you're into the beer fragrance," Sakura laughed, "but, I do think a certain someone's had a bit too much to drink."

Neji shook his head. He was sure the alcohol hadn't completely left his body if shampoo, of all things, made him think of Haruno Sakura in a wistful manner.

He shrugged and poured a generous amount of the product into his palm and worked the lather into his hair. When he was rinsing the last bit of the shampoo out, someone pounded his or her weight against the bathroom door, startling him.

It was Sakura. She was home.

Neji's heart raced. He almost lost his footing within the shower and would have if he didn't place his hand against the slick wall to balance himself. "What?" he called out.

"How long are you planning on staying in there, Neji? Some of us have to take showers too, you know!"

He blinked and looked at the prune-like texture of his fingers. How long was he in there?

After he rinsed himself off one last time, Neji quickly dried up and wrapped his lower half with the largest towel on the rack. Sakura was still waiting outside of the bathroom door when he opened it. She looked none-too-happy at the veil of steam permeating out into the hallway.

"What, did you think you were in a sauna instead of an actual shower?" she huffed.

Neji said nothing to the chuunin directly, knowing his silence was a far more useful weapon against her instead of senseless banter that resulted in headaches for him. Besides, when Sakura was frustrated, her eyebrows furrowed slightly. Big forehead or not, there was something strangely endearing about the way she looked when he pushed the right buttons.

"You probably used up all the hot water already!" she added.

"I doubt it. But if I did, you might want to talk with your apartment manager and ask him to get that boiler of his looked at," Neji said with a sigh.

The frown melted away from Sakura's face as she stared him down before it came back in full swing, flaring nostrils and all. "What do you know, anyway? You live in, like, the biggest house in Konoha! You don't have to pay for utilities or rent!"

"Mansion, not a house," Neji corrected her.

"Whatever! The fact remains!"

It was amusing, really, how Neji could stand before her, damp and with a towel as the only thing to keep from exposing himself completely, and she'd think nothing of it. He would think nothing of it too if he'd been more careful lately…

His mind started to wander in that particular direction again. His sly mood gone, he uttered, "Whatever," and turned to walk away before things could go further.

But he was no more than six feet away when Sakura's voice halted him. "Wait a minute," she commanded, softly.

When he turned around, he pretended to be annoyed, hoping she'd take it as a challenge and would argue with him once more instead of chipping away at his emotional walls of defense. Neji wasn't sure how to react if the latter continued on. He didn't want to think of it happening.

"What do you want, Haruno?"

"Neji…" Sakura didn't sound like she wanted to argue with him. In fact, she stepped closer to him, which made his body freeze with apprehension.

Still, the jounin was determined to keep up his image of self-control and apathy. He even leaned away from her as she approached. "What is it, woman?"

"Neji, did you use my shampoo?"

Neji's white eyes widened briefly. "…I don't know what you're talking about."

If it weren't for Neji's honed skills as a ninja, he was sure he would have dropped the towel from around his waist when Sakura suddenly came upon him, cheek brushing against his as she leaned in to sniff his damp hair.

"Mm. Yep. I knew it," she mused.

Neji blinked, dumbfounded. That was it? He could have sworn she was going to… He blinked himself out of his thoughts, again, and looked down his nose at her.

She was smirking a mischievous little smirk.

He hated that smirk because of what it meant and what it did: she was plotting something that would most likely bring mild embarrassment and headaches to him; even so, he was willing to suffer through it because it stirred something within his chest and had almost prompted his lips to twitch upwards at the corners, his hands to come up on her sides and—

"—Wait until Ino-pig hears about this," her voice interrupted his wandering mind. With that, she calmly stepped away from him and into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

Neji stared at the beige finish of the bathroom door, dumbly.

Did she just get the upper hand without a contest from him?

He sneered, knowing she'd hear it. "I wouldn't speak of that if I were you, Haruno,"

"Oh?" she called out, challenging him. "And why is that, Neji?"

"Because you use shaving gels intended for men."

--finis—

By the way, the okra thing in the shower? A Loofah. And the shampoo? Paul Mitchell's Shampoo Number One. Good stuff.