A/N: Hello! I wrote this NejixOC fix because, well, everything fell into place in my head and screamed, WRITE! So I wrote.
No offense to NejiTen - I read those too, and I wish I could write as well as some of them! Despite everything, I hope you will give this story a chance. :)
No Mary Sues, no. Mana will not enter the story and blow everyone away with her powers. She is far from perfect. Also, Neji will not fall in love at first sight, and not in the first chapter...sorry. However, you may expect some pretty good fluff in the chapters coming up!
Note: This story takes place after the Sasuke and Sai arc in Shippuden, when Naruto tries to bring Sasuke back. Except in my story, he succeeds. It's not a huge deal here, so no worries.
Disclaimer: I wish I owned Naruto. In fact, I wish I lived in it. But no, and no. Such is life.
Whatever it is that has chased her to this point – friendless, with nothing but the clothes on her back – it cannot be benign.
If she brings harm to Konoha, I will do what must be done. If it is only directed towards herself, then good. I will not interfere.
Extract from Neji's diary, Nov 27
Wild Skies
Chapter One
Thud.
There was a blur of white as he spun, hand whipping out, sending a kunai shooting towards its target. Thunk. Dead centre.
He fingered his last kunai, then threw it. It flew with the force of pent-up frustration, hit the board and cracked it in half.
It was not enough. He wanted to blow the boards to smithereens, and the trees they behind, too.
It was his fault. He had balanced the life of a teammate against the security of his village, and had chosen such as one in his position - ANBU captain, responsible for the safety of his village - had to choose. Now Dog lay in the hospital, dying.
Code name Dog was one of the ANBU that Neji actually got along well with. I don't even know his real name, Neji thought bitterly. I can't even apologize to his family.
His fingers brushed the empty pouch, itching to throw something hard and pointy.
It was this instant that, years later, he would look back on to see for what it was - not just a turning point in his life, but the turning point of his life. In fact it was a relatively small event, to an ANBU especially, but like the proverbial butterfly's flap of a wing, which escalated and culminated as a tornado at the other end of the world, it proved to be more than he ever imagined.
But at that moment, he didn't know. He had no idea; and so when the back of his neck prickled, a warning that he had learned from experience to heed, he spun without any hesitation and stood ready. Ready for-
For a moment he thought he had seen wrongly, impossible as that was. His eyes told him there was no one in a one mile radius - that is, no one except the girl curled on the ground, gripping her head, without any signs as to how she had appeared there without him noticing.
Her chakra flow was weak, barely worth notice. Her clothing was unremarkable, unadorned with any clan symbols, and she carried no weapons. Was he supposed to believe that not only had she managed to get this close without alerting him, she wasn't even a shinobi? Puzzled, Neji deactivated his Byakugan.
He stepped closer cautiously, eyeing the disheveled figure. His kunai may have been embedded in the boards nearby, but he was Hyuuga Neji and needed no weapons to kill.
"Who are you? Identify yourself!" He commanded.
She jerked around when he spoke, her expression wild. Well, Neji thought, as he saw the flash of her gray eyes under the moonlight, she's certainly not someone from the village. Even as she sat, mute and shivering, black hair falling messily over her shoulders, there was a quality about her that he did not think he would forget after seeing it once.
"Answer me. Or can you not speak?" He stepped forward warily.
She flinched, and Neji thought: If this is an act, it is a good one. For anyone can see that the girl is terrified.
He closed the distance between them and slowly knelt down beside her. Adrenaline still pumped in his veins and heightened his senses; and it was riding on this that he caught the faintest whiff of flowers from her.
"If you are not an enemy," he said levelly, "I will do you no harm. But you must tell me your name and how you got here. You're not from Konoha, are you?"
She stilled as he finished his sentence, his words slowly registering. Her eyes flickered from his hitai-ate to his traditional dress, then she scanned the surroundings slowly, as if searching for clues as to her whereabouts.
When she looked back at him, there was something like wonder in her eyes.
As Neji watched, tension seemed to seep out from her, and her air of complete terror lessened. At the same time, he felt the throb in his muscles and head – the accumulated effects of his week-long mission were taking their toll on him.
Frowning deeply, he shut his eyes, trusting his instincts to warn him should she attempt anything. Tired he might be, but he was also patient, and understood that there were situations which called for violence, and situations which did not. He made his call.
"My name is Hyuuga Neji. Jounin of Konoha. May I know your name," he said politely. He had tempered his tone – almost, he thought wryly, as if they were not sitting in the middle of a training ground at an ungodly hour, but instead at a formal gathering, and getting to know each other.
A long moment passed, in which he could not read her expression. Finally, she pointed to the ground between them.
He twitched; her hand froze, and a heartbeat passed before he consciously brought his shoulders down. Slowly, very slowly, she drew a character in the grass.
By the Hokage! Neji thought. She really can't speak!
He brought his attention back to the characters she was tracing: "Hayashi…Ai?" He said.
She shook her head, gesturing with her hands, and wrote the character again.
"It's read as Mana?" He guessed. She nodded – what, he wondered, was she so happy about? That he'd guessed her name right?
Shaking his head, Neji took quick stock of the situation. A few obvious difficulties immediately presented themselves to him. But before all else, he had a duty. "Come with me," he said, standing up and offering his hand to her. "We're going to see the Hokage."
She eyed it, but didn't move. Neji waited.
After a short battle of wills she gave in, and allowed herself to be pulled up. He was about to let go, when he realized she was swaying where she stood, dizzy from the little exertion.
Neji sighed. He wasn't that patient.
"I'm going to carry you," he said and he picked her up in one smooth motion, before she had time to do more than widen her eyes. "It's faster."
He made a quick seal with his free hand, and with a swish of air they reappeared in the Hokage's office.
In the Hokage's office, Neji thought once the momentary disorientation disappeared. He was more weary than he thought.
Tsunade was still inside, as he had guessed she would be – after his report a few hours earlier, she had sprung into action, ordered him to get some rest, and yelled for a pot of green tea to be brought in. As Shizune had hurried in, Neji knew he would not be the only one going without sleep that night.
"Neji?" Tsunade looked up from her table, which was overflowing with books and stacks of paper. The stricken girl he carried in his arms caught her attention immediately, and she put her brush down on the inkstand. "What kind of emergency made you barge in here without knocking?"
"I apologize, Hokage-sama." Neji placed Mana back on her feet, and bowed. "Her name is Hayashi Mana. I found her in the third training ground twenty minutes ago when I was training. She seems to be unable to speak."
While he spoke, Tsunade noted that Mana's hands remained unbound, and her body showed no signs of a fight – and she guessed what Neji in his taciturn manner would not say: that Mana was not a threat, and posed no danger.
"Hmm. I see. You're not from Konoha, are you?" Tsunade directed her question to Mana, who answered with a shake of her head. "Here." Tsunade pushed a sheet of paper forward, and held her brush out. "You can write, can't you? Use this and tell me why you are here, and," she glanced at Neji, "how you managed it."
It might have been a trick of the flickering lamps in her office, but Tsunade thought the girl paled even further.
"You can't write?" Tsunade frowned.
Mana shook her head once, not looking any higher than the table. Behind her, Neji's face was covered in shadow.
Rubbing a hand against her tired eyes, Tsunade stood up and walked to the window. From here she could almost see the entire village. It was a sight she knew by heart, and she knew, if not the history, then the trivia of every building and street of Konoha.
This was the village that she would give her life to protect. There were too many unknowns about the girl, and as Hokage she had every right to lock her up, or ask her to leave. Yet her instincts, which were legendarily bad at the gambling table but uncannily sharp when it came to people, told her there was no need for such.
Tsunade turned back to them, decision made. "You can stay here, if that's what you want. Do you want to?"
As Mana bit her lip, considering, Tsunade added, "If you choose to stay, there will be a guard on you at all times. It's unfortunate, but you should understand why."
Mana nodded. She expected no less, and rather was surprised at the Hokage's offer.
She took a deep breath. Please take care of me, Mana bowed.
Tsunade returned to her desk and rummaged for a while in a drawer, finally drawing out a small key. "This is for the room under Shikamaru's. Neji, can you take her there?"
He nodded, and when Mana showed no signs of moving, stepped forward and took the key. "I will do it."
Her attention shifting back to her work, Tsunade added, "and report here tomorrow morning. We'll need to arrange some things regarding our new enigma."
Once they were dismissed, he placed an arm around Mana, tugged her to him and formed a seal. The next instant, they were standing outside a red, slightly battered door.
"I'm sorry," Neji said as he unlocked the door, then pressed the key in her unresponsive hands, "but it's faster."
Mana shook her head and he noted with amusement the faintest air of resignation. "You could learn how to do it," he suggested, entering before her. Some part of him noted how unusual it was for him to be so relaxed with a stranger, and he attributed it to his exhaustion, which really was making his head feel a little fuzzy.
Mana stood outside, staring aghast as Neji walked in and opened her cupboard.
He proceeded to search under the bed, sift through the drawers, and finally to open the window and inspect the wall outside – all standard ANBU procedure. When he finished, he turned, about to speak, and stopped when he saw her expression.
He winced inside, realizing how it must have looked to someone without a shinobi background.
"Konoha is safe, but not that safe," he explained shortly, not wanting to be branded a lout in her mind. "Lock the door before you sleep, and if anything happens–" Here Neji cut himself short.
If anything happens, scream. Was what he had been about to say. Of course she couldn't, it was absurd.
Neji took out a smoke bomb from his pouch. He couldn't believe he was doing this.
"If something happens, throw this." He handed it to her. "Throw it outside. Don't worry," he said, for she certainly looked worried, "it's a smoke bomb. You won't kill anyone."
He was improvising here, and knew that his suggestion was ill-conceived at best. It was his first time having to think of such solutions - unlike Mana, the women he knew could actually fight.
"Shikamaru stays above, and the noise it produces should be loud enough to get his attention." Neji frowned, and made a mental note to tell Shikamaru about his new neighbor. If anything happened, he'd better come running.
Mana had no idea who Shikamaru was, but she found the 'should' part of the sentence interesting. More of her attention was on the smoke bomb, the first she had seen, and she held it gingerly cupped in her hands. How did one keep such a thing? In room temperature? Out of the sun?
"Goodnight," Neji said at the door, and she looked up to see that he was leaving.
Mana bowed, hoping he could sense her sincere gratitude for his help - even the smoke bomb.
Neji stopped for no reason he could think of and waited until she looked up again.
"Tomorrow," he said. "See you then."
A/N: What do you think? Did I get the portrayal right...and have I taken an impossible challenge in making my OC mute? Do leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you :)