A Virgin Kiss

Chapter 39: The Friends

Kiba and Shino had once more arranged the dinner party to celebrate Gaara’s return to Konoha. This time, however, they chose a small restaurant that they could rent out entirely for the party. They’d also collected money ahead of time and prepaid the estimated costs. Naruto and Lee had claimed tomorrow night, renting out a bar, and hiring a band. They weren’t serving food, and everyone would have to pay for their drinks. There was a bit of competition going on between the two sets of hosts. “But why didn’t Neji help with any of the arrangements?” Sakura asked of Naruto as they sat side by side at one of the tables waiting for more guests to arrive.

“Sakura-chan, you know,” said Naruto blushing.

“No, I don’t. If my boyfriend was arriving, I’d do everything to try to make his time the best possible. Are you sure they are still a couple?”

At this point, Kakashi who was sitting there reading yet another volume of the Icha, Icha series, snorted and said, “They had sex in front of an entire ANBU unit this morning, Sakura. Naruto is trying to let you know that Neji didn’t help with the planning because he wants Gaara all to himself.”

“OH MY GOD—they didn’t!” screamed Ino, who had walked up only moments before.

But Kakashi was reading his book again, and Iruka was bright red but not denying it. Iruka wouldn’t let Kakashi get away with telling lies about Neji, his former student. His silence and clear embarassment was all the confirmation needed.

“Shit,” said Ino, “I’m going to go get more tissues; I have a feeling I’m going to losing a lot of blood before this dinner is over. Those two are so fucking hot!”

“Ino?! You like gay men?” asked Naruto, a little shocked at Ino’s blatant declaration.

“No,” said Ino, “I like sexy men—straight or gay. And Naruto, you didn’t see the outfit Gaara had on the last dinner party, and, oh my god, the way he was sucking his food and licking it with his tongue—hell, Naruto, I bet you would’ve got a hard on.”

“INO!!!” came a shout from Iruka, Naruto, and Sakura.

“Fuddy-duddies,” said Ino, in a sulky voice, heading off for the bathroom.

“Hey, excuse me Sakura-chan, I, ah, well, I need to ah—“

Sakura interrupted Naruto a scowl—“Just go and gossip with the guys, Naruto, I don’t mind being left here all alone. I don’t need to listen—“

Naruto was gone before Sakura finished, and she sighed. Iruka took this opportunity to strike up a conversation about the uncoming exam matches with her, which Lee, Gai, Asuma, Kurenai, Tenten, and Hinata soon joined. It became clear this table was going to be the “respectable” one.

Over by the bar, Naruto, Kiba, Shino, Shikamaru, and Chouji were deep into discussing Gaara and Neji’s sex life and the erotic impact of watching the two of them together.

“Fuck, it was so fucking hot, I had to go jack off in the bathroom,” said Kiba. Shikamaru and Chouji exchanged significant glances at that point, carefully avoiding looking at Shino.

“Really? I just can’t see Gaara acting that way—he was tonguing Neji and had hickeys all over?” said Naruto in a bewildered voice.

“Naruto, we’ve told you this a million times, and you heard about how the two of them just up and fucked right in the middle of the highway in broad daylight. Supposedly one of the ANBU guys had to direct a farmer to take the road through the rice paddies, so he wouldn’t drive his cart right up to them.”

“Neji, Neji who can’t bear to have a smudge on him—it’s just so weird,” said Naruto. “And seriously, aside from me, has anyone here ever touched Gaara at all?”

The answer to that was no, and the five of them exchanged glances that frankly acknowledged the shocking strangeness of Gaara getting intimate with anyone. There was a buzz at the door, but it was just Tsunade, Kotetsu, Izumo, and Temari arriving. Kiba and Shino went to help arrange the seating while Shikamaru and Chouji headed towards Temari.

Fifteen minutes later, when everyone was starving and starting to question whether it would be too rude to just order the food, Neji and Gaara finally showed up. Neji’s hair was loose, not caught back in that usual low ponytail. He wasn’t wearing his Hitai-ate, but instead had a black scarf over his forehead covering his curse scar. He had on a tight greenblue button-up-the front shirt that was barely buttoned, revealing a good bit of chest and stomach. His black pants were the painted-on type, and they slid into knee-high plain black leather boots. He had two hickeys on the right side of his neck and one visible on his stomach. He looked tall, dark, and dangerously sexy.

Gaara had on similar pants and boots, but his had silver fastenings for the laces that ran up the sides of each one. His shirt was black mesh with arms and yoke of transparent black net. If you looked closely, you could see a shocking number of hickeys on his chest, stomach, shoulders, and back. He also had one visible hickey above the thin white gold chain around his neck with the dangling red-gold kanji for love. But what made all eyes go to him was really his shockingly messed up hair, his puffy red lips, and the glow he seemed to emit: he looked like someone that had been thoroughly and completely kissed and fucked all afternoon and had loved every single second of it.

They were holding hands. As they came in from the doorway, Gaara was walking a little slowly and awkwardly while Neji’s movements seemed more graceful, more lithe, more effortlessly elegant than before. Naruto looked ridiculous with his mouth open and eyes popping out of his head. Kiba snickered, coming up behind Naruto and slying reaching around to feel Naruto’s half-hard cock as they were standing behind Shikamaru and Shino. “See, Uzumaki, I told you you would get an instant boner. Looks like you’re a little less straight than you claim,” he whispered into Naruto’s ear.

Naruto elbowed Kiba, untucked his shirt to cover the slight bulge in his pants, and went to greet the two guests of honor.

“Naruto!” cried Gaara, smiling dazzlingly, dropping Neji’s hand, and reaching out to hug the stunned blonde. Naruto grinned and hugged Gaara back, then eased back out of the hug when over Gaara’s shoulder his eyes met Neji’s. Despite the fact they were white eyes, they looked frightening like Itachi’s for a moment there. Lee also eagerly greeted Gaara and received a hug as well, which made him burst into tears. Before his tears had even begun to slow, however, the first of the food was served.

This dinner went a lot better than the first one Kiba and Shino had hosted—everyone but Naruto had been fully prepared for the sight of Neji and Gaara. And Kiba, knowing now that Gaara was as available as the moon, wasn’t trying to coax Gaara away from Neji, nor was he as aroused by Gaara’s sexuality. For the smell coming from Gaara and Neji was, to Kiba’s experienced nose, the smell of mates.

Throughout the dinner there were other signs that Neji and Gaara had spent a lot of time together during that month in Suna. There was the way they put food on each other’s plates and ate little bits from the same, never awkward, never pausing, their hands and chopsticks gracefully dancing together. They talked in each other’s pauses while never seeming to need to say anything to each other—they didn’t need any words. A mere glance of Gaara’s eyes, and Neji would pass him the soy sauce or tea, whatever he wanted.

Ino did get a few nosebleeds as she predicted. The first was from the mere sight of the two of them. The second came on when one of Gaara’s dumplings dribbled juice down his chopstick on to his fingers. Gaara swallowed the dumpling and set down his chopsticks. It wasn’t really clear if he moved his hand towards Neji or Neji claimed it, but the fingers went up to Neji’s mouth, and he licked them clean. They then continued eating as if that was nothing.

Naruto, sitting on the other side of Gaara, didn’t notice this. He’d soon gotten over both his shock and arousal and was back to being his usual self. Lee, Gaara’s other friend, was sitting across from him. They were planning Gaara’s week for him. Gaara didn’t comment on their plans, but he would look at Neji and under the table his knee pressed against Neji’s leg. Neji was silent on the plans the two were proposing as well. He was still kind of high from the whole day, and there wasn’t really any room in him right now for worrying.

But when Naruto mentioned spending the night in Gaara’s hotel room “like usual,” Neji cracked his knuckles and stretched his arms up. Shikamaru, Asuma, and Kakashi went suddenly on alert sensing imminent violence. But Gaara cut Naruto off in midflow, “My nights belong to Neji only, Naruto. But we’ll be at your party tomorrow night.”

“Are you sure about this, Gaara, you look pretty, uh, well, uh—“ The conversations that had paused when Gaara had cut off Naruto, now went dead, and all the heads swiveled at once to focus on the two jinchuuriki.

Gaara’s calm reply sent the room into laughter, “Thank-you for telling me I’m pretty, Naruto. I think I’m sure about it, but you know it was awful hard to make it here to this dinner tonight, so maybe Neji and I won’t make it to your party. But I think we can take a break for our friends, eh baby, what do you think?” Gaara leaned back, tilting his head to rest it on Neji’s chest and look up at his face. Neji’s arms slid around Gaara, and he looked down at him. For once it seemed to the onlookers that the Hyuuga forgot his pride and his self-awareness, for the expression on his face was so tender, so full of love, that Ino’s nose started bleeding for the third time while Hinata blushed, and Sakura, Kurenai, and Iruka looked away. Tenten sighed deeply.

Neji and Gaara were still looking at each other oblivious to everything else. It was hard to look at them without feeling something intense inside. Asuma put his arm around Kurenai; Kotetsu’s and Izumo’s hands met under the table; and Kakashi whispered something in Iruka’s ear that made the chuunin blush bright red. Shino’s arm found the small of Kiba’s back, and his fingers drew lazy circles on the shaggy brunette’s back. Lee and Gai burst into tears and hugged each other. Tsunade and Tenten poured themselves more saki, looking depressed. Temari beamed, and a few tears gathered in her eyes.

A slight blush appeared on Naruto’s whiskered cheeks, and he jumped up and proposed a toast to Kiba and Shino, then to Gaara, and at that point, getting on a roll, to Konoha and Suna, to the memory of the Third, to the great Fifth, and finally, to friendship.

“To friendship!” everyone cried, raising their glasses. The very room seemed to pulse with a warmth of the heart, not of the body.

“To Ramen, the greatest food ever!” cried Naruto next.

The laughter and rebukes were still ringing around the room after that toast was drunk when Tsunade stood up, swaying a little, saying, “To saki!”

The glasses were emptied and refilled, and Chouji offered, “To Barbeque!” The challenge had been thrown down, and now each one took their turn proposing a toast to some pleasure or one of their favorite indulgences.

“To the festival!”

“To the upcoming matches!”

“To cigarettes!”

“To chocolate!”

“To shogi!”

“To cloud watching!”

“To cute guys!”

“To dogs!”

“To bugs!”

“To youthful spirit!”

“To our sensei’s!”

“To teammates!”

“To strawberries!”

“To Jiraiya, the author of the greatest series of books ever written!”

“To knowing how to cure a hangover!”

“To, to, N-Na-Naruto!”

And then it was Neji’s turn, and he stood and raised his glass, “To kisses!”

“To kisses!” they all echoed and drank as they had done for each toast.

There was no one left now, but Gaara. Many of the hands that refilled the glasses one more time were unsteady, and a lot of the liquid splashed on the tables. After a moment, Gaara stood and silence fell on the room.

“To Love!”

This time, Tenten, Tsunade, and Temari cried along with Lee and Gai. Iruka boldly kissed Kakashi’s mask while Kotetsu and Izumo began to make out. Asuma’s arm slid around Kurenai again. But Gaara and Neji only looked at each other as they drained their glasses, not touching.

But Ino, who had a good view of their faces, cursed and fumbled for a tissue. Her nose was bleeding again.

Naruto jumped up, deciding it was his turn again, “To sleeping in!”

Sakura punched him.