SN

Sasuke hears their voices first. Through the trees, above the rustling of the leaves, someone is yelling. Naruto quickens his pace, forcing the rest of the group to break into a trot to keep up. “HEY, LEE!”

The yelling stops. “HELLO?? WHO IS THERE? DID I DISTURB YOUR YOGA AGAIN WITH MY LOUD ENCOURAGEMENT??”

Sasuke is already regretting his decision to follow Naruto here, but Naruto is grinning from ear to ear. “NO, IT’S ME!” he hollers. “HOLD ON, WE’RE COMING TO MEET YOU!” He takes off into the trees, leaving everyone else to scramble after him.

Sasuke barrels after Naruto, intent on not losing him, and winds up with a mouthful of leaves. Sputtering and coughing, eyes squeezed shut, he stumbles into what must be the clearing (he can feel sunlight on his face). It isn’t until the chatter of voices breaks off that he opens his eyes -- and finds himself staring directly into Neji’s cool, milky-white gaze.

“Who’s this?” Sasuke is vaguely aware of the girl reclining in the grass on the periphery of his vision. There might be another person too --a blurry green figure off to hs left -- but it’s hard to focus on anything more than the fact that Goddamnit, freaking Neji who Sasuke has been looking for for the past week and a half is right in front of him. He looks different than he did the first time they met, Sasuke is sure -- his gaze is cooler. He’s more composed. No stray hairs escaping his headband. He’s sitting cross-legged on the ground, a book in his lap. Sasuke’s eyes flick down to it for a moment, long enough to make out what looks like stage directions, before Neji snaps it shut.

“This is Sasuke!” Naruto says cheerfully, oblivious to the fact that Sasuke has suddenly developed the inability to breathe. “We met in the cafeteria. We’re rivals now.”

The girl laughs, and Sasuke manages to tear his eyes away from Neji and glance over at her. Her hair is tied up in two Mickey-Mouse buns on her head, and she’s idly fiddling with some sort of hair clip. She’s pretty, in the way Sakura is pretty -- she doesn’t catch your eye the way someone with startlingly pale eyes might, but she isn’t too bad to look at. Her eyes skip over Naruto and land on Sasuke, catching him staring, and Sasuke looks away, embarrassed.

“Rival?” Sasuke only now notices the boy behind Neji. His bowl-cut gleams in the sunlight, he’s dressed from head to toe in a green jumpsuit, and -- were those leg warmers? At first Sasuke thinks he’s also reclining, but it takes a moment to realize the boy is actually doing pushups. Catching Sasuke’s eye, the boy grins, all shiny teeth. “I, too, have a rival! Neji and I are locked in a constant battle for dominance!”

Neji rolls his eyes, and Sasuke’s attention is drawn back to him. “We’re not rivals, Lee,” he drawls. “You just challenge me to a contest whenever you decide you need practice.”

“Oh, God.” The girl throws her arm across her forehead dramatically. “Here they go again. Sorry they’re so weird, Sasuke. Wake me up when you two grow up.”

Neji scoffs. (I know that scoff, thinks Sasuke.) “It’s not me, Tenten.” He moves over to her side and lies down, and Tenten rolls over and buries her face in Neji’s stomach.

“Uhggg,” she groans, her voice muffled. “I was up ‘til two last night studying for the stupid math test. Don’t move, okay? You’re warm.”

Neji shifts, but doesn’t move away. “You’re heavy.” he says, a small smile playing over his lips.

Tenten smacks him on the shoulder. “Shut up. I hate you.” But the smile in her voice belies her words.

Naruto laughs and joins the two of them on the grass. Sasuke doesn’t move. He’s having a hard time swallowing. Why did he think that girl was pretty? She’s obviously hideous. He can’t believe he didn’t realize it before.

There’s a rustling behind him, and he turns, grateful for the distraction. Sakura and Gaara emerge from a small path hidden between the trees, and Sasuke instantly feels like an idiot. Why did he have to go plunging through the bushes after Naruto?

Sakura huffs in annoyance. “You could wait for us, you know,” she says to Naruto. “Oh, hi, Tenten. How was your math test?”

Tenten rolls over, eyeing Sakura. “We do not speak of such things on a beautiful day,” she proclaims, and flops onto her back. “Hey, Gaara.”

Gaara doesn’t answer. He’s staring down at his ratty sneakers, and Sasuke feels a sudden wave of empathy for the boy. The two of them are both outsiders in this group of close-knit friends (even though Sasuke has the feeling Naruto could make friends with a brick wall if he wanted to) and from his lack of eye contact, Sasuke is pretty sure Gaara isn’t as outgoing as the blond boy.

“Gaara!” Lee springs to his feet and skips -- actually skips -- over to the redhead. Instead of greeting him, like Sasuke expects, the shiny-haired boy swoops Gaara up in a bone-crushing hug (he’s stronger than his twiggy limbs would suggest).

Gaara’s feet have hardly touched the ground when Lee is firing off a rapid stream of questions. “Whydontyouevercomeoutheretoseeus? Howareyourangermanagementclassesgoing? Gaisenseiwantsyoutocomeoverfordinnersometimesowhenareyoufree? Didyougetanewhaircutordidyourhairalwaysdothatthingwhereitsticksupintheback? Wannahaveapushupcontestdidyouknowmynewrecordistwothousandtwentyseven?”

Tenten is laughing. “Give him a break, Lee! Let him catch his breath at least before you start interrogating him.” She and Sakura are playing with Neji’s hair, now, Sasuke realizes -- braiding it and twisting it into small buns -- and although Neji is making small irritated noises when they tug too hard, he seems to be enjoying the attention.

Sasuke kind of feels like he wants to puke.

Naruto is sprawled out on the ground like a housecat soaking up the sun. “We brought Sasuke out here to meet you guys. And Gaara decided to tag along.” He drops an extremely unsubtle wink in Gaara’s direction, and the redhead turns the color of his hair.

Lee seems to be oblivious. “It is very nice to meet you, Sasuke!” he cries, bowing so low his bangs brush the tips of his toes. “I apologize. I did not introduce myself properly.” He bobs to attention, flashing those blinding teeth again. “I am Rock Lee.”

“Oh.” Sasuke isn’t sure what to say. “Um, nice to meet you too.” Lee is studying him in a very disconcerting way. “Is… something wrong?”

Lee stares at him for a moment. “You are powerful,” he proclaims. “I challenge you!” He drops to the floor. “Pushup contest!”

Sasuke isn’t really the social type, but he’s pretty sure that most people don’t usually challenge someone they have just met to a pushup contest. “What?”

“Lee, relax,” calls Tenten. “S’okay, Sasuke, you don’t have to listen to him.” She stretches her arms above her head in a luxurious yawn and pushes herself to her feet. “I need coffee. Who’s with me?”

“Oooh, me.” Sakura stands. “Naruto, come on.”

Naruto opens his eyes, smiling lazily. “I’m good.” There is a long pause. Sakura is giving him a look, and Naruto blinks once, slowly, before the message hits him. He leaps to his feet, eyes wide. “I mean, yeah! I’m coming!” He flicks Neji’s shoulder and grabs Sasuke’s arm. “Let’s go! We’ll bring back a cake pop for you, Lee!” Without waiting for a response, Naruto takes off into the shrubbery, dragging Sasuke.

It isn’t until the five of them are well out of the park that Sasuke stops spitting out leaves. “What was that?” he manages.

Tenten and Sakura roll their eyes in unison. “You guys are pretty dense, huh?” Tenten says. “Now they can be alone.”

Is everyone in on this? Sasuke wonders, but one glance at Neji’s raised eyebrows tells him that the Hyuga is in the dark, just like him. “So, are we really going to buy coffee?”

Tenten yawns, covering her mouth. “You bet.” She looks over to Sakura. “Oh, Sakura, omigod, did you hear about what happened to Kiba? About the party?”

As the girls (and Naruto) begin an enthusiastic conversation about some sort of gossipy tidbit involving a game of truth or dare and a dog, Sasuke drops back to walk beside Neji. After a few moments, he sneaks a peek at Neji out of the corner of his eye. The boy is staring straight ahead, ignoring Sasuke. Should I say something? Sasuke wonders, but before he does, Neji breaks their silence.

“What happened in the hall -- forget it.” Sasuke stares, but Neji doesn’t look at him. “It was stupid. I was being stupid.”

“No you weren’t.” Sasuke says before he has time to think. “You were sad. It’s acceptable.”

“No it isn’t.” Neji turns a fierce look on Sasuke, but when Sasuke winces, he quickly looks away. “Sorry. It’s…” Neji exhales, puffing out his cheeks and blowing back a stray strand of hair. “I can’t just lose it like that. It was ridiculous. Childish. If my uncle had seen me --”

“Why do you care what your uncle thinks?” Sasuke’s words come out louder than he means, and Sakura glances over.

“You two all right?”

Neji gives her a single-shoulder shrug. Sasuke says nothing, but when Sakura turns back to Tenten’s story, he looks over at Neji -- only to find the Hyuga boy scowling at him.

“You know nothing about me,” he hisses. “We’re strangers. All I know about you is that you’re a loser who Naruto took pity on.”

This stings Sasuke far more than it should, and the realization that Neji has this kind of power over him -- that Sasuke has let Neji have this kind of power -- is what moves his tongue. “And all I know about you is that you’re a whiny uncle’s boy who thinks he’s a girl.” he shoots back. “So shut up. I was trying to be nice to you and you’re acting like a brat.”

Neji’s face goes as red as Gaara’s hair in less time than it takes to say “androgynous.” He opens his mouth to say something, seems to think better of it and closes it  again. He shoots a venom-filled glare at Sasuke and quickens his pace to join Naruto and the girls, leaving Sasuke alone at the rear of the group, half triumphant and half sickened with himself.