Aloha all! Or hola, or ni hao, or konichiua, bonjour, or jambo, or priviet (sp?), or... hm... o.O
MOVING ON. People seem to like my three NejiSaku oneshots that I've posted so far, so here's another one! It's Neji's birthday, so he's having a big expensive birthday party. He's really bored, and embarassed that he couldn't gather the guts to ask someone to be his date at his own party... Until he sees Sakura, dancing by herself...
Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto. Stop laughing; you don't own it either, do you?!
--Sanded Silk--
Neji was completely and utterly bored. Seriously- words couldn't describe how much he wanted to commit suicide. At least that would be exciting. But then again, Hyuuga Neji wasn't the type to get angsty over boredom, was he?
Neji sighed.
Same old, same old. It wasn't his fault that his uncle happened to be ultra-rich.
Neji sighed again, but this one was completely meaningless. Every single friend/aquaintance/whatever was there, in his uncle's Complex, dancing to some sort of classical-ish music, wearing big flowy dresses and suits. And him? He was standing there by the fruit punch, wearing a suit with a white shirt and tie, immensely bored, and- most embarassing of all- without a date.
Of course, he had considered asking Tenten, but she was too much of a friend for Neji to couple with without both of them feeling extremely awkward. Their relationship was strictly a friendship; anything more would be too overwhelming. Besides, Lee, who couldn't gather the guts to ask Sakura, had gotten to Tenten first.
Neji had also considered all of the other girls around his age; Ino, the one who tried- and failed- to seduce him in the Chuunin exams; Hinata, his own cousin (that very fact certainly crossed her off the list); Temari, whom Neji didn't even know existed until his uncle mentioned her; and of course, the pinkette that Lee wasn't brave enough to ask, and whom Neji had come the closest to asking.
Haruno Sakura.
Sakura, with her exotic tinctures of cherry-pink hair and sharp emerald eyes, was the only girl who seemed to know what she was doing most of the time. She also had better intellectual skills than the other girls. Neji, when considering her, had thought that if they conversed over something reasonably intelligent during the party, they would at least appear to be comfortable with each other. Plus, under the eyes of Neji, she was the tiniest bit more attractive than the other girls he had thought of earlier.
But Neji just couldn't ask her to be his date. Maybe it was because he didn't want to hurt Lee. Maybe it was because of his pride. Either way, he himself couldn't clearly name the reason- or reasons- for why he hadn't asked the pinkette. He just couldn't bring himself to squeeze those simple words out of his lips.
And he realized now that there were consequences to reasonless cowardice.
For example, the wrath of his uncle. "Take Hinata if you must!" His uncle had bellowed, but Neji, being unfavorable to incest, turned that offer down as courteously as possible.
So now he was stuck in this hullabuloo of a party, as a sign of his uncle's "love" and "respect of Neji's place in the family", drinking fruit punch, and dateless at his own occassion. Of all times to strike, fate had chosen now.
Neji blinked slowly at his plight, sipped his punch, and gazed around, masking embarassment with boredom.
And then he saw her.
Almost in the middle of the dance floor, dancing by herself, was Sakura in a strapless midnight-blue gown and matching blue heels, the lengthy slit down the right side of the skirt showing off a strip of healthily-toned skin. Her eyes were closed, and she was smiling to herself as she swayed her body to the music, as though dancing with an imaginary invisibe dance partner. To some, she might have looked a bit stupid, but to Neji, she was simply beautiful; she made the fact that she was dateless seem not as bad as it really was.
Suddenly, Neji knew what he wanted.
Neji set his cup down and moved swiftly, gracefully, through the crowd and toward the lone dancer that had caught his eye. He reached out his arms at exactly the right time in the midst of her twirl and finished it with her, catching her in a dip.
As he swung her back up, Sakura realized that she was indeed not being suspended in the air by some sort of jitsu, and a small "Oh!" escaped her lips. Neji curled a corner of his mouth up into a half-smile and backed away a few steps as the music melded into a considerably faster piece. He bowed slightly, extending his hand.
"Shall we?"
Surprised and blushing, Sakura hesitantly took his hand, and gasped as he pulled her into a complicated combination of twirls, steps, and various other moves. Their bodies moved in perfect unison to some sort of tango.
Sakura had always dreamed of being trapped in the arms of the Hyuuga prodigy. She had fantasized, at one point, that his embrace would be warm, soft, and sensual. At other times, she thought his touch would be ice-cold, marble-hard, and chaste.
Now that she was actually in his arms, she discovered that she was almost completely off. His embrace was a mixture of both of the sensations she had imagined; warm and cold, hard and soft, sensual and chaste.
She didn't know what to think as she was swept away in his enigmatic arms.
Both were unaware of the curious eyes that were watching the sparks fly between the unlikely couple. The viewers observed how the poker-faced Hyuuga prodigy moved with the Haruno blossom, twirling and catching her with his suddenly-gentle hands, and how the prideful, controlling pinkette allowed the silver-eyed man to lead the dance, his body sweeping hers into multiple dance moves. No one knew how the two had learned to dance; even the two dancers themselves didn't know.
As the last note of the song ended, Neji, with one smooth move, spun Sakura around one last time. Sakura obliged happily, twirling on her toes, and landing neatly on his chest, his arm around her, her arm around his neck, their fingers interlocked, panted breaths mingling.
The crowd burst into applause, and the pair caught sightings of the faces of their friends, either smirking or laughing. Neji released the girl in his arms, realizing what had just happened. He backed away a few steps, before bowing slightly and turning on his heel to run for his room.
Sakura stood in the middle of the crowd now, unsure of what happened.
Then, suddenly, to the crowd's surprise, she smiled discreetly to herself and turned around to walk in the opposite direction.
A/N: Hmm... I like stories with dancing, so I might be doing a few more... I have a few ideas... :D
Please tell me what you thought about this one! And PLEASE; give me suggestions on how to not write such an abrupt of an ending... o.O I know perfectly well how to start a story and how to stretch it far from within its limits, but to end a story... hmm... T.T
--Sanded Silk--