Keeping Up Appearances
by Nezuko, Prince of Rats
This is a work of derivative fiction based on the manga "Naruto" by Kishimoto Masashi. The characters and the world in which they live are the property of Kishimoto-sensei.
for Go-chan, Happy Birthday
It was late at night, well past midnight. A cool, pleasant sort of early-summer night, with a breeze and glittering stars and a nightingale singing somewhere in the trees. The sort of night to clear your head and calm your heart, and Kurenai had needed a little of both that night, so she'd gone for a walk. She passed one or two cheerfully intoxicated shinobi on their way home from the bars that had just closed, and somehow that lifted her spirits, too. A normal, life-goes-on sort of night in Konoha.
And then she saw something that made her stop dead in her tracks and stare.
Kurenai had spent enough time around the Hyuuga clan, thanks to her student Hyuuga Hinata, that she'd come to an understanding about them. At least she'd thought she had. They were vain, pampered, aristocrats who kept up appearances for appearances sake. They lived formally, adhered to traditions that were dying out almost everywhere else, and generally thought themselves above the hoi polloi.
Hinata had been surprisingly human, despite her upbringing. Perhaps it was her shyness. Perhaps it was the fact that her family failed to see her as the shining star she was. Perhaps she was just naturally a rebel. Whatever the case, Kurenai had been relieved when the Hyuuga genin she'd agreed to take on as a student turned out to be a kind-hearted girl, eager to learn, and not a pampered ice-princess.
That certainly hadn't been the case for Gai's student Hyuuga Neji. Everything about the boy had screamed arrogance. It was only because he was so very, very good as a ninja that he got away with it. But times had changed, and Neji had changed. Neji's transformation during his first chuunin trials was obscured by the chaos that followed, when Orochimaru attacked. But his heart had been changed, anyone who looked could see it. And with it, maybe a little of the Hyuuga ice had melted.
But one thing that hadn't changed in the boy, now grown to a young man, was his formality. His traditionalism. He wore traditional Hyuuga dress. He spoke in the patrician manner of his clan. And he always, always kept up appearances.
Except now.
The man retching miserably into the bushes outside Yamanaka's flower shop was definitely Hyuuga Neji, and he was definitely stinking drunk. She waited for him to finish and stagger back into the street before she approached.
"Neji?"
He stopped and blinked his strange, ghostly eyes, and stared at Kurenai for a long moment, then reached out and pulled her into a bear hug.
"Kurenai-sensei! Ish... ish... ish kinna late. How come y'er out here?"
Kurenai extracted herself from his arms as best she could, then held out one of her own to steady him. "I was taking a walk, Neji-kun," she said calmly. "Are you alright?"
""M drunk," Neji said, with a little nod of his head as if confirming some great secret.
"Yes, I can see that," Kurenai returned. "Why are you so very drunk?"
"Had a lot to drink," Neji said and laughed.
Well, that wasn't going to get them anywhere. "Come on, Neji, let's get you home and cleaned up. You're a mess." Kurenai tugged on his arm, and Neji stumbled after her.
"Can' go ta my place," he said, suddenly serious, and Kurenai thought she knew why.
"Don't want to let your family see you this way? I don't blame you. My apartment isn't far, we'll go there," Kurenai said.
"Jus'... jus' a minute," Neji said, and turned away to be sick again.
Gods help us, Kurenai thought, is there some reason it's always the big, strong guys who can't hold their liquor?
ooo
Neji slept on Kurenai's couch that night. Late the next morning he woke to find a note telling him to drink some water, take two pills from the bottle on the counter in the bathroom, and have a shower. His fouled clothes from the night before were cleaned and neatly folded next to him, and he was surprised to find himself stripped to his briefs and wearing a somewhat too large, smoky-smelling yukata.
Kurenai was nowhere to be seen, and Neji had only the vaguest memories of running into her the night before. He followed her instructions. Then, dressed and squinting against the appallingly bright sunlight, he took his headache home to nurse with his bruised dignity.
He never--and she never--considered what the effect of his being seen leaving her apartment in such a state would do to his precious appearances.
ooo ooo ooo
OK, that's the end. Happy birthday, Go-chan!