Disclaimer: Do Not Own...such a pain...It wouldn't focus on Naruto that's for sure if I did
Touch
Chapter 1 Isolation
You judged me by my name
And thought I was the same
If only they knew the life I've had to live
The secrets I've hid
Deep inside my mind even From myself
The scars underneath my sleeves
No one seems to understand or want to believe
It's a common misconception
That I can handle anything that comes my way
Are they listening to anything I say?
And now they wonder why I'm like I am
They never even looked at the path by which I came
They misread that we were all the same
Sadness is not the hardest part to live with
It's the shame
When people find out you're an orphan there is always one or more of three kinds of reactions people will show after you tell them... those are the three kinds of people Neji has learnt to loath the most in the world in his 15 years of living.
He could feel the stares...of pity and sympathy...he hated them ...they were all alike the social workers, in the end everyone Neji had met over the past year since his uncle had been murdered were all the same just mindless faces with pitying sorry looks some even backed away as if the very fact that both his uncle and his father before him had been murdered proved he had some contagious virus that makes anyone who became close to Neji die.
"Now Neji-chan have you and Hinata-chan finished packing?" The middle aged woman asked in a chipper voice, he just nodded and glared down at his brown canvas bag sitting on the ground "Good! Very Good Neji-chan"
Oh he hated them...but the others he hated even more, the people like the woman as he called her who were condescending and thought that just because you were an orphan you were not educated in anyway ...those were the kind he detested the most of all.
Hinata stood slightly behind him trying to hide herself from the lady, with one hand clasping onto her older cousin's and the other held up to her mouth biting down on her already short nails from nervousness, as if to give the shy fourteen year old girl a reason not to talk.
"Ok kids then I guess it's time to leave!" The older woman said loudly patting Neji on the head which earned her a stern glare after which her hand was immediately removed and he quickly brushed his long brunette hair back out of his eyes "I'll go get the taxi shall I" she announced walking briskly from the small apartment Hyuuga teens had shared with her as a temporary foster children.
Neji looked behind him at Hinata and gave her a reassuring smile, well it was as close to a smile anyone would get from him, "It'll be ok we'll be with people like us..." he told his cousin.
"Wh...at... if we...get s...s..ent to a ...um...pla..c..ce like... Hanabi-imoutosan?" she asked through her bad stutter looking up from her feet briefly.
"It won't be like that Hinata-sama I promise and we'll be together...Hanabi-sama tried to hurt people that's why they put her there..." he told her picking up their bags "In the end we're the only ones we can trust no one else is going to care for us or looked out for us...that is our fate".
&
After an hour and three stops the train finally stopped at the station on the outskirts of Yokohama. The three walked the block or so and rounded onto what looked like an old 6 floor apartment building in the middle class area of town, the from the outside it seemed quite run down with the rusted bars over the windows and graffiti covering it's worn red brick walls up to the second floor. Their foster mother pulled their three heavy bags from the boot of the car and walked them up to the double doors to the buildings atrium.
"So this is goodbye" she said slowly "I would say I'm sad to see you two leave but that would be lying I'll just say it was ok you two have been the best foster kids I've ever had...for once I don't have any damages to pay for..." unexpectedly she pulled Neji and Hinata into a crushing hug "That's all I ask for".
"Ok Miyamoto-san could...you...let go...it's starting to hurt" Neji gasped cringing at the physical contact.
"Oh...sorry Neji- chan I forgot" she apologized handing over the bags "So goodbye".
"Yeah bye" Neji said turning his back to the woman. The inside of the complex was fortunately a lot better than the exterior the reception area was clean and reasonably modern looking. He rang the bell at the empty desk "Is anyone here?" he called out ringing the bell again a scowl on his face, he was starting to become annoyed...patience had never been his strength.
Finally a black haired woman came running "Ok ok...I'm coming" she called out from the behind a group of filing cabinets. As she sat down at the front desk "...I'm Shizune...what...are...you here...for?" she asked gasping as she tried to get her breath back.
"Our foster parent just dropped us off I'm Hyuuga Neji and this is my cousin Hyuuga Hinata" he informed her.
"Oh...Yes the Hyuuga's" she said remembering what was happening that day and punched numbers into her phone "Hello yes Kakashi-san can you come down...now...yes...now" Shizune spoke into the receiver sternly getting more and more irritated "Kakashi-san is going to down here in a second so could you wait over there" she said pointing to the chairs lined against the wall.
The two were left waiting for half an hour until the silver haired man came strolling down the stairs leisurely with his nose in a bright orange book.
"Yo..." he greeted the bottom half of his face covered "So you're the Hyuuga kids...well come on I'll take you two up to meet to rest" he motioned for them to follow him to the elevator. At this point Neji would've sweat dropped if he could and thought 'That bastard he made us wait just so he could read his damn book' with his left eye slightly twitching.
The three of them rode the elevator up to the fourth floor in silence, Hinata still clutching to Neji for support.
&
Let's say the tour wasn't very much even by Kakashi's standards as soon as they got out of the lift he delegated his responsibilities to two of brunette girl and a short red haired boy about their age and walked off to go finish his book.
"Hi I'm Tenten" the first girl said blushing "and this is Gaara, what's your name?" pointing to the red haired boy behind her.
"This is my cousin Hinata - sama and my name is Neji..." he answered her flatly.
"It's ni...c...ce... to meet ...you Tenten-s..s..an" Hinata greeted politely and bowed to her making the rolled up sleeves of her oversized white jumper fall down over her hands again.
Gaara scowled and said "Let's get this over with..." crossing his arms.
"What is this place anyway I thought it was an orphanage?" Neji asked earning him a glare from the red head.
"The Yokohama Youth Rehabilitation Centre is an orphanage but it only takes children and teenagers with a physical or mental disability that that needs special care" she rattled off like a prepared statement which she had remembered by heart "Now these are the bathrooms, remember to early cue if you actually want to get to school on time" she advised him moving downstairs a level "This is our oh so glamorous library and games room..." the room was anything but glamorous with four large book selves lined up in a row against the back wall and a few outdated computers sat on tables in the middle of the room, in one corner there were a small group of six year olds playing board games with a 30 year old woman in a low cut dress "Kurenai-sensei!" Tenten called out to her.
"Yeah Tenten what is it?" the woman asked flipping her long auburn hair out of her face.
"Kurenai- sensei Neji and Hinata are new here so we're showing him around, Hinata-chan, Neji- san this is Kurenai-sensei she does counseling here and teaches art" Tenten exclaimed punching the air.
"I heard from Kakashi that you'd arrived...I hope you like it here I heard you just over came from Yokosuka" she said smiling softly towards him "If you need anything ask me when Kakashi isn't around which is most of the time, my office is on the second floor ok, I'm sorry guys but I really need to get back to work..." Kurenai edged away from the group slowly going back to the smaller children.
"OKAY BACK TO THE TOP!" Tenten yelled jumping up and down.
"Tenten!" Gaara said, speaking for the first time during the 'tour' "Just! Shut! The! Fuck! Up!" he emphasized each word to make sure she got the message "You're worse than Lee!" and crossed his arms again, glowering in the cousins' direction but not at him and told the Neji "Your rooms are upstairs...Jumper girl...you're with the skinny blonde bitch...emo boy you've got the big blacked out one with heavy curtains..."Gaara shook his head and left but not before muttering "and they call me psycho...".
&
Neji searched around the top floor it wasn't that hard really there were only eight rooms and two were empty.
The second of the larger rooms was very dark for one in the afternoon, he guessed this was it, and took Neji's eyes some time to adjust to the lack of light. In the dim light he could make out four seemingly empty beds with hospital curtains partially encircling all but one of them which had them closed, each had a dresser sitting next to them and a small cupboard at the foot of them.
He couldn't understand why this room was so dark in the middle of the day when all the other bedrooms he'd briefly seen were bright and well lit.
Neji walked over to the other end of the room over towards the thick heavy black curtains covering the two small barred windows, setting his bag down on the cupboard at the foot of his bed, and pulled them apart to have a blinding jet of sunlight shine directly into his white eyes. Suddenly he turned around; a large hissing sound like an angry cat was being made from behind the thin green curtain to his far right.
"WOULD YOU FUCKING CLOSE THE CURTAINS SOME OF US HAVE LIGHT SENSITIVITY BITCHES!" someone yelled from behind it and the screen quickly flung open to reveal a black haired teenage boy about the same age as Neji "I told you close the damn curtains you moron" he repeated but Neji just stood there "Ok be like that bitches...now it's ok Shadow" the boy called to a thin black cat that was lying on his bed meowing and pulled the black blanket over the animal as if it as well was getting hurt by the light; grabbing a long white cane that lent against his dresser.
'No wonder he's not looking in my direction...' Neji thought 'he's blind'
"Are you just going to stand there...are you deaf or something?" the other boy asked sighing.
"You're blind..." Neji finally said sounding very stupid.
"Nooo I wear sunglasses indoors because I feel like what do you think moron!" he replied sarcastically and pulled the curtains closed "Why am I surrounded by idiots?" he asked himself shaking his head "You're new here so I'll let you off this time but if you ever open those curtains again I will kick your ass got that?" he threatened and went back to bed where he picked up the book which he'd been previously reading.
"Ok..." Neji said slowly and thought 'So...I guess that's Shikamaru' he raised an eyebrow and he lied down on the bed next to him 'this place is going to be quite interesting'.