A Virgin Kiss

Chapter 17: The Healing

Neji woke up, screamed, and shut his eyes—this had to be a nightmare. But he heard Shikamaru say, “Well, that explains his nickname.” It was ok: he was just dreaming about Shikamaru because of their talk last night. But those fingers in his ass felt real.

“Well, there’s no tearing, but I can take some of the soreness away.” Oh god, that really sounded like Sakura. Then Neji felt a flare of chakra. Fuck--that really was chakra entering his body. Dammit! Chakra in dreams didn’t feel like this.

Then Shikamaru’s voice said, “Wake up, Screamer. Come on, we already saw Kiba and Akamaru heading out to meet Gai and Lee.”

He felt a sheet covering him, and Sakura’s voice demanded, “Hey, Neji, do you feel any better?”

Neji accepted that this was real and opened up his eyes, snapping, “I feel exactly the same as I did before you molested me. I wasn’t hurt.”

“Yea, well, you hadn’t tried to walk or sit up either,” snapped back Sakura. “So do you want the hickeys healed or do you go with Gaara’s theory that they are nothing to be ashamed of?”

Hickeys? Neji looked down at his chest, shocked at the row of black marks curling across his chest. Fuck, when had that happened? “Healed, please, Sakura,” Neji said with a sigh, shutting his eyes. It was easier to act cool when you didn’t have to look your friends in the eye lying naked and covered with love bites.

“Roll over,” said Sakura. Shit, thought Neji, rolling on his stomach. He felt the chakra on his back, and then the sheet jerked away. Sakura spent a little time healing each butt cheek and then a few places on the backs of his legs. He felt the sheet cover him again, but he didn’t move, putting off that awful moment when he had to look at Sakura’s and Shikamaru’s faces. Wait, Shikamaru’s face didn’t have a black eye—well, clearly Sakura had healed him first.

“Listen up, Screamer,” said Shikamaru. “The two of us spent the night in the living room of Temari’s suite drinking way too much. I sent for Sakura to cure our hangovers. Now unless you want to confront Kiba, Lee, and Gai naked, you need to get up, dress, and take a drink so your breath at least has some alcohol smell on it.”

Neji rolled over and sat up, “Nara, Sakura, why are you doing this for me?”

Shikamaru tossed him a bottle of shochu and said, “Stop being so troublesome, Hyuuga. I’m certainly not doing it for you. Let’s just say not everybody in Gaara’s family enjoys being the main topic of gossip.”

“Thank you, Shikamaru. But Sakura, what’s in it for you?”

Sakura grinned, “Future favors. You both owe me big time. And now I’m out of here.”

“No,” said Shikamaru, “please check the front of his legs first. Stick them out from under that sheet, Hyuuga.”

Neji set the bottle of shochu on the bedstand, moved over to the edge of the bed, and swung his legs out from under the sheet. It wasn’t that bad—just four. The only really embarrassing one would be that one on his foot that his sandals might not entirely cover. But after Sakura went to work there wasn’t a single mark on his legs that wasn’t permanent.

“Thanks, Sakura, that’s really impressive. Well, I think you’ve checked every bit of me now, so . . .“

“I’m leaving. I am a medic, Neji; I’ve seen it all before. You should see what Iruka looks like after Kakashi gets home from a long mission,” said Sakura with a smirk.

After she shut the door with a bang, Shikamaru and Neji exchanged glances. They really hadn’t wanted to know that about their former academy teacher. Then, trying to be positive, Neji said, “I didn’t even know about Kakashi and Iruka until dinner last night. I guess Sakura is pretty discrete—I think I’ve misjudged her. She’s no Ino.”

“Thank god,” said Shikamaru and went and slumped into the chair near the bathroom door.

Neji got up and dressed. Damn, Shikamaru and Sakura would think he was uke all the time—it was so annoying. But it was beneath him to even talk about his sex with Gaara. But then, as if he was reading Neji’s mind, Shikamaru said in that lazy voice of his, “Don’t give it too hard to Gaara tonight because I think we’ve used up all of Sakura’s charity, and frankly, I can’t see Gaara letting anyone besides you touching anything below his waist.”

Neji thought about Shizune or Tsunade trying to examine Gaara’s ass and burst into laughter. He went over and took a long swig of shochu and then tossed it back to the shadow nin. Shikamaru drank a little and then stood up pulling some keys out of his pocket. “Well, let me drop this off in Temari’s room, and then it’s showtime, my good drinking buddy,” he said.

Neji thought about that as he stood in the halls waiting for Shikamaru to relock Temari’s door. As they moved down the stairs, Neji said in a quiet voice, “Hey, Shikamaru, I have a feeling I’m going to be needing a drinking buddy bigtime after they go. Let’s have `another’ night drinking in a few days.”

Shikamaru gave him an odd look, probably pity, thought Neji. But he nodded his head, saying, “Sure.”

Neji shut away thoughts about the future—about after Gaara. God damn, no wonder ninjas avoided love. As soon as a ninja married, they almost always retired and did something lame like—like opening a flower shop or tending deer. “Is your dad happy tending those deer?” asked Neji abruptly.

Shikamaru looked over at him with another weird look, but he just said, “You’re not the type to tend deer, Neji, don’t even think about it.”

Neji looked away. It was beneath him to deny he’d been thinking about it. Oh, well, if Shikamaru was right, there would be a big banquet tonight, and he’d have another night with Gaara. His last night for a long time. Dammit, focus on the now, focus on today, focus on meeting Kiba in a bit who will be full of jokes and questions—and jealous as can be. Neji smiled—yeah, Kiba was jealous, and the smell of Gaara all over Neji was going to make him even more envious.

“It will be interesting to see if your cousin is still willing to train with Kiba and Shino. She might want to do more training with you in the future,” pointed out Shikamaru.

“Hmmpt, I don’t think she’ll want to train with me no matter what. She’ll deal with it. She is a Hyuuga,” said Neji. “She’s defended the two of them for years; I can’t see her stopping over a little blow job in the bathroom.”

“Blow job? I’ll bet it was a hand job.”

“What’s the point in a bet like that? We’ll never know,” said Neji.

“Hinata knows,” said Shikamaru.

“And she’ll faint if you try to talk to her about it, Nara.”

“Hmmm, but I’ll bet Kiba can be persuaded or tricked into telling.”

“Nara, I don’t care what dogboy and bugboy do to each other. I don’t want think about it or talk about it.”

“So you want to talk about sandboy?”

“Ok, ok, I’ll take the bet! No, wait, what the hell are we betting?”

They were still squabbling over the exact details of the bet when they met up with Kiba, Akamaru, Gai, and Lee.