When Red Bled Into White
Author: Mujaki no Tsubasa
Disclaimer: Naruto and its characters belong to Kishimoto Masashi.
Author's Note:
This piece of drabble was written for Miss Anonymous HP's birthday. :D She is love. And to those who are wondering about the status of Twisted and The Best Mistakes, I regret to inform you that… we haven't gotten anywhere yet XD;; We have been busy with school and life, and then there's this RPG where we are totally warped in, and that was eating away our time. We did not abandon these stories, I assure you. We may be slow, but we will continue to write. Please be patient and wait for us.
When they first met, Sasuke and Neji hated each other.
When they were paired together for a mission, the target almost escaped because Sasuke had refused to work with the Hyuuga's plan, and Neji in turn degraded the Uchiha by calling him weak.
When Naruto was mortally wounded and had to stay in bed for a whole month, Neji and Sasuke – who had never spoke to each other since years ago – were stuck with each other in the same ANBU squad. Every mission was completed extremely quickly but the other members of the squad had requested to change teams. Working with two geniuses who only ever glowered at each other whenever they're in the same place was suffocating.
When Naruto became Hokage, the blonde had enraged them by assigning them together permanently. The two stopped talking to the Rokudaime.
When Sasuke burned his house down to the ground, Neji's was the house Naruto put him into, despite resistance and death threats – Sasuke's openly and Neji's silently.
Another winter came and went.
When Sasuke's injuries proved to be mortally dangerous, Neji had to take care of the Uchiha against his will. There was a lot of china breaking and yelling from the small apartment.
When Neji broke away from the Hyuuga main house, it was Sasuke that pulled the lifeless form in from the snow storm that day. The wind wailed and raged, but Neji slept more soundly and peacefully than ever.
When Naruto dropped by for a visit without announcing, he found the two dark-haired boys sitting there, backs leaned against the shoji door and eyes fixing on the scrolls before them. Something the blonde never expected them to do around each other's presence.
When the two reported back after a successful mission, the usual tense atmosphere around them had faded, leaving only a blank mood surrounding the two, to the point where others could not tell what Sasuke or Neji was thinking. They were elite ninjas after all, masking emotions was only a minuscule trifle.
When Itachi's death was executed, Sasuke stood there before his brother's corpse under the pouring rain, hands falling limp by his side with blood staining spinning irises. Pale fingers encircled thin wrist, and soaked body was pulled under a tree where another pressed flush on his back.
When the water marks on the Uchiha's bruised cheeks were wiped away by an equally bloody hand, they had pretended that it was just the rain.
When Sasuke's head fell on Neji's shoulder, they had told themselves that it would just last this one time.
When the wood creaked and the glass on the windows fogged, and the thunder outside drowned out quick breaths, the two knew that they had fallen into the trap that they had strung themselves.
But when red bled into white, hell was heaven.
Owari.