Author: aFigureOfSpeech

Title: Conflicting Chaos – Chapter 1

Word Count: 2,277

Pairing: NejixSakuraxKiba

Rating: T (for mild swearing, some suggestive situations, minor alcohol)

Summary: When Naruto manages to get Neji mad at him, Sakura helps Naruto, but in the process she hurts Neji's pride. Now he's out for revenge, but it may not turn out how he expected. Especially when Tsunade has plans of her own and Kiba's not going down without a fight. NejiSakuKiba

Author's Note: Hey, everybody, I'm here with my first ever Naruto fanfic. Actually, it's my first ever fanfic, period. I'm so excited! I hope you all like it. Since I'm new and all, I don't know how much flaming I can take, so please don't be too hard on me! However, I am happy to accept any and all story/pairing suggestions (although I won't necessarily use them, obviously), constructive criticism (don't criticize me just to criticize me – that never helps anyone), or anything else you might want to add (like telling me how much you like my story – hint hint). Anyways, on to the story, but first:

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. The only Naruto things I own are some manga books.

Chapter 1: What Not to Say to Hyuga Neji

Haruno Sakura yawned as she open her eyes. She wondered why she was awake. She hadn't heard her alarm go off…what the- it was almost an hour before she usually woke up! She always woke up when her alarm clock went off, and then it was with much muttering and dark looks at it. Why the hell wasn't she sleeping?! 'Ah well,' she thought with a sigh, 'I doubt I'll be able to fall asleep again. Might as well get a start on the day.' Smiling a bit to herself, she quickly donned her regular red outfit, ran a brush through her hair, and grabbed some toast on her way out. Tying on her hatai-ate, Sakura walked along the path, not really looking where she was going. The sky was much more interesting. 'I wonder why I feel so happy right now,' she thought. 'Wow, the sky looks so blue today, and so open. I wonder what it would be like to fly in it.'

Daydreaming as she was, Sakura didn't notice anyone around her until she ran right into someone, who almost fell over. "I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed, "I didn't see you –"

"Aw, that's okay, Sakura. No serious injuries," said the person she had run into with a grin.

"- Kiba-san," Sakura finished, smiling back at him. Suddenly, she was knocked backwards by a large, furry blur, which had rammed itself into her. Sakura landed on her back with a small "oof," but started giggling as the fuzzy thing standing over her began to madly lick her face and wag its tail. "Well, it's good to see you, too, Akamaru," Sakura said to the dog with a grin.

"Ack," Kiba exclaimed "Akamaru, get off Sakura before you suffocate her!" Akamaru huffed disappointedly at Kiba before reluctantly allowing the small kunoichi to right herself

"It's okay," Sakura said as she stood and brushed herself off. "After all, he's just a big sweetie, aren't you, Akamaru?" She wrapped her arms around his neck and rubbed his head affectionately, while said dog woofed in agreement.

"If only you knew," said Kiba, eyeing the dog, who had just let out a contented sigh and was now snuggling himself in Sakura's arms. He thought Akamaru was looking a bit too full of himself. "Lucky little devil," Kiba muttered under his breath.

Sakura stopped scratching the top of Akamaru's head. "Sorry, Kiba-san," she said, still smiling, "did you say something?" Akamaru whined in protest at the change of her attention, and Sakura immediately resumed her scratching, while still looking at Kiba.

"No, no, nothing," he replied. With that, she returned her full attention to Akamaru, who was giving Kiba a very smug look.

Suddenly, Akamaru's ears pricked. He raised his head off of Sakura's elbow, sniffing the air. Breaking her hold, he raced down the street. "Akamaru!" Sakura shouted before following, Kiba close behind. "Kiba-san, do you know what's wrong with Akamaru?" she asked.

"Not exactly, but he must smell something." he replied. Suddenly, they heard a loud bang and a crash, near where Akamaru had finally skidded to a stop.

The site that greeted them was enough to make almost anyone turn tail and run for their lives: one pissed off Hyuuga. Looking around, they quickly spotted the cause of Hyuuga Neji's – ahem – intense annoyance: the one, the only, Uzumaki Naruto, who was, at the moment, trying to pull himself out from under a pile of debris (the supposed cause of the crash). Neji, on the other hand, was busy rifling for the kunai with which to gouge out Naruto's innards. Moving quickly, Sakura placed herself between the two of them and said (or, really, almost yelled) "Neji-san, stop it!"

For a moment, Neji froze, shocked. Standing in between him and the chosen object of his anger was a small, pink-haired, green-eyed kunoichi. Not only that, but she had just told him, Hyuuga Neji, to "stop it." Narrowing his eyes, he glared at her. "What did you just say, Haruno?" he asked coldly. He thought he saw a flicker of fear in her eyes, but she quickly controlled it and held her ground. Neji was mildly impressed. Normally his glare would have been enough to make just about anyone back down instantly.

"I said," Sakura repeated herself, "to stop it, Neji-san." He looked at her for a moment more, then slowly relaxed into a (slightly) less threatening stance. "Now, what did your over-active mouth get you into this time, Naruto?" she asked the still-hyper 17-year-old.

"What!" Naruto yelled indignantly. "I didn't do anything! All I said was that I was thinking of asking Hinata-chan out, and he went into fire-breathing-dragon mode on me!"

'Ah, so that's what this is about,' Sakura thought. 'Hmmm, interesting. I'm going to have to look into that some more.' She turned to Neji, grinning, but before she could say anything, he beat her to it.

"What are you smirking about, Haruno?" Neji demanded, a bit of his former anger resurfacing. Was she making fun of him!?

"What, Neji-san, you don't approve of Naruto?" she asked innocently.

Neji narrowed his eyes until they were nothing more than slits. "I don't see how it's any of your business, one way or the other." Uh-oh. Wrong thing to say.

Sakura's current expression disappeared, replaced by sudden anger. Now it was her turn to narrow her eyes. How dare he! "That, Neji-san, is where you're wrong," Sakura said, her calm voice belying her anger.

Neji's jaw dropped (although his pride automatically prevented it from dropping too far). His expression was matched, if a bit more exaggerated, on Naruto and Kiba's faces. No one talked to Hyuuga Neji like that. Ever. And yet, here was a slip of a medic-nin, talking to him just like that.

Sakura continued. "Naruto is like a brother to me, and Hinata is one of my best friends. As such, it is completely my business. Being Hinata's cousin, it is completely understandable that you want to look out for her. In fact, if some leech tried to hook himself onto her, I'd want to throw in a couple of punches myself. But this is Naruto we're talking about, here. He may open his mouth without thinking, but we both know he would never intentionally hurt Hinata. You may want to protect her, as is your right as her cousin, but it certainly is not within your rights to prevent her from being happy, no matter how good your intensions are!" By then she was almost shouting, but with that, she shut her mouth and waited for a response.

Neji had gone into a state of shock. He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, but nothing would come out. He wasn't used to this sort of a situation, and was at a complete loss of words. Salvaging what pride he could, he turned on his heel and stalked off, fuming.

……………………

Neji couldn't believe it. Some little girl had left him floundering for words. Him! Hyuuga Neji! Genius member of one of the most illustrious clans of Konoha! How had she managed that? It was impossible! Intolerable! Inconceivable! He would not stand for it! Although, he had to admit (very grudgingly), that it must have taken a lot of guts to stand up to him and then start yelling. In fact, most of those who had ever insulted him (or suggested a particular interest in Hinata, as Naruto had learned the hard way) did not live to tell they tale. Or, at the very least, never made the same mistake twice, after they got out of the hospital. He didn't know why he hadn't set that Haruno girl straight. Well, she hadn't really insulted him, per se, but she had sufficiently wounded his pride! Damn her!

There were only three ways he could think of to take his mind off this problem: 1, meditate; 2, train until he dropped; or 3, plot his diabolical revenge (okay, so that wouldn't exactly take his mind off his "problem" – quite the opposite really – but it would probably make him feel better, at least). At this point, he doubted even he could meditate. Sakura had railed him up too much for that. Training until he dropped sounded tempting, but, once again, he most likely wouldn't be able to focus enough to be productive at all. Again, how had she done it? How was it she was able to get under his skin so easily? Almost nothing could do that, or do it enough to get a proper reaction from him.

So, all that left option number 3: plot his diabolical revenge. Yes, that was good. That was very good. He couldn't seem to get the annoying girl out of his head anyways, so this was perfect. Grinning a bit to himself, and causing anyone who happened to be walking nearby him to move as far away as possible, Neji began scheming Mission: Avenge His Injured Pride.

……………………

Sakura turned to see Naruto and Kiba staring at her open-mouthed. "Wow," whispered Naruto, his eyes wide.

"What?" Sakura asked the astonished boys.

"Oh, I don't know," said Kiba, his expression changing to a cross between admiration and a face-splitting grin. "You just stood between a pissed off Neji and his target-of-choice, told him off for it, left him speechless, and sufficiently wounded his nearly immeasurable pride, all in the course of a few minutes. Quite an accomplishment, I'd say, especially since I'm sure all that stuff pretty much never happens to him."

She looked surprised. 'Hmph,' Sakura thought, 'I guess I did. I didn't even really realize what I was doing.'

"Well, he's had it coming to him for a while now," she told them both. "Someone needed to knock him down a peg or twelve."

"Yeah," said Naruto, his expression similar to Kiba's. "Way to go, Sakura-chan!" he shouted, his smile stretching from ear to ear and giving her two thumbs-up signs. "You sure showed him!"

"Uh-huh, and saved your sorry butt in the process, lucky for you," she told him. "You really need to think before you open that big fat mouth of yours."

"But I only said I wanted to ask out Hinata-chan!" Naruto protested. "How was I supposed to know he'd try to kill me over it?"

"Well, Hinata-chan is his cousin, and in case you're still as thick-headed as you've always been, he's grown just a bit protective of her," Kiba told him. Akamaru barked his agreement. "Not to mention, that's pretty much how you act when someone you don't 'approve of' tries to ask Sakura out. Which is almost always."

"That's not true!" protested Naruto loudly.

"Yeah, actually, it is," said Sakura.

"Well, maybe, a little," Naruto relented. "But a lot of those guys are bastards anyways. You wouldn't want to date any of them! You should be thanking me!"

"Admit it, Naruto," Sakura told him. "You and Neji-san are the same: you're both way over-protective. Neither of you seem to approve of anyone."

"She's got a point there, Naruto. Anyone who wants to ask out either of them has to first get past you self-proclaimed older brothers." Kiba grin was, if possible, only growing wider. He found all of this immensely amusing.

"I'm nothing like him!" Naruto exclaimed, outraged that Sakura would even suggest he was anything like Neji. He ignored Kiba's last comment. It was too true.

Sakura let out an exasperated sigh, while Kiba just laughed. 'It's not often you get to see Naruto told off like that anymore,' he thought. 'Most people wouldn't dare. Although I bet Sakura does it often enough. Somebody has to keep him in check, and no one can do it quite like she can. Man, Neji's face was priceless!' He snickered. 'I'd better watch out, though, she's on a role today!'

"Anyways, Naruto, you're serious about asking Hinata out?" Sakura asked, curious. This could be very interesting, since, the last time she checked, Hinata still had a major crush on Naruto.

"You bet!" Naruto yelled, punching his fist into the air. He then leaned his arm on her shoulder.

"So…" Kiba said, also leaning his arm casually on her shoulder. He was taking a chance on that. He wasn't quite sure if she would let him do it, as he wasn't one of her closer friends, but after glancing at it (and causing Kiba to hold his breath), she didn't object, and he left it there. He continued in a news-reporter type voice. "So, Haruno Sakura, you have just succeeded in what was thought to be impossible (aka, making Hyuuga Neji back down from something). What do you plan to do now?"

"Well," Sakura answered him, "I was planning on going to Ichiraku for some ramen." She smiled. "On me, if you guys want to tag along."

"OH YEAH, FREE RAMEN!" Naruto shouted, ecstatic (predictably). He raced off ahead, leaving behind Kiba, slightly uncomfortable now, with his arm still on Sakura's shoulder.

"Hey you!" she shouted and began jogging after him. "I'm only paying for one bowl for that bottomless pit you call a stomach!"

"YEAH, BUT IT'S STILL FREE RAMEN!" Naruto, completely unfazed, called back over his shoulder.

Sakura laughed at her crazy friend's antics. Kiba, just walking, smiled. He liked the sound of her laugh. He would have to get her to do that more often.

Akamaru trotted up to Sakura, looking to see if he could get her attention again, which, of course, he did. She slowed to a walk, petting him the whole way.

Yup, that dog was looking far too smug with himself. 'Lucky little devil,' Kiba though.

AN: Hey, everybody! So? What do you think? Love it? Hate it? Don't really give a damn either way? I hope it was the first! I am having trouble deciding something. At first I wanted to make a NejiSaku fic, because I love that pairing, but then I read some KibaSaku fics and I thought it was really cute, so now I don't know which one to do. Sorry Sasuke fans, but this is not going to be a SasuSaku fic. Sasuke just makes me mad, what with his high-and-mighty, I-may-really-care-about-you-but-I-need-to-avenge-my-family-so-I-won't-show-it thing; so, in here, Sakura got over her him a while ago.