Author's note: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. I simply borrow them to use in my own sick, twisted fantasies. ^^ –Nira
P.S. Welcome back to my fans from "A Heavier Burden in My Heart" and/or "Remembering Sunday" and hello and welcome to new readers. :) I wrote this story a long time ago (maybe two years or so?) before I'd really gotten into Naruto Shippuden so many of the characters, especially the Akatsuki members are OOC, though not all of them, and very little of the plot has anything to do with the plot from the manga or anime. This story is kind of between episode 210 of Naruto and episode 1 of Naruto: Shippuden but it dips a bit into some of the Shippuden episodes later. I hope that makes sense. If it doesn't now, it will as you read more.
This story is also told in multiple points of view, but mostly in Yoruko's point of view since she's the main character. Whenever there is a change in P.o.V., there will be a page break and it will say whose P.o.V. it is switching to in double parenthesis ((like this)).
…I think that's everything you need to know for now. Please review and let me know what you think. I know it can use some improvements since it's such an old story, so please don't be harsh or write flames. Thanks a million and I hope you enjoy. :)
Always and Forever: A Neiji Romance
Chapter One
((Yoruko's P.o.V.))
My body was numb but I felt something warm and sticky on my midsection. It was hard to breathe and my vision blurred in and out. The last thing I remembered was fighting the legendary S-ranked renegade ninja the one and only Uchiha Itachi, himself, and then everything went blank. I saw everything as it happened, but I didn't quite comprehend it. It all seemed so strange and foreign as if it was in a science-fiction movie.
I saw the sun darting in and out from behind a blanket of leaves above me and a blurred face hovering over me. It looked vaguely familiar as one of my cellmates, but I couldn't make out his features to be sure. The blurred lips of the face moved telling me to hold on and hang in there and that we were almost to the city gates. I recognized the voice as Shigure nii-san's but I couldn't reply. My voice was gone, drowned out by a violent cough that brought the metallic taste of blood to my mouth.
Bright, white fluorescent lights flashed by overhead as more blurred faces looked down on me shouting orders slightly muffled by masks or saying encouraging words like, "You'll be fine, just hang in there" or "we're here to help you, Koishikawa-san."
Where was I? What was going on? Where did my teammates go? Why was everyone in masks and monochromatic uniforms and so frantic?
((Neiji's P.o.V.))
My cousin, Hinata-sama and I had moved in together when Tsunade-sama became the fifth Hokage. Despite previous family differences, I realized how childish I'd been toward her and vowed to apologize and make things right. Ever since, we'd been as close as brother and sister. I supported her in everything she wanted to do so when she told me that she wanted to become a medical-nin, I encouraged her and invited her to live with me since becoming a medical-nin wasn't something that the rest of the family was too keen on.
Hinata-sama and Haruno Sakura from Hatake Kakashi-sensei's cell were trained by Tsunade-sama, herself and worked part time at the hospital. Hinata-sama came home after work one day and told me about an emergency patient who had come in.
"When she came in, she was in critical condition. Her lungs had been punctured so she was rushed into surgery immediately. She'd been on a mission and was attacked by Sasuke-kun's older brother," she explained as she prepared dinner.
"Is she alright now? Did they stop the bleeding and stabilize her?" I inquired.
"Yes, but she's lost a lot of blood so she's unconscious. Since she's stable, we moved her out of ICU and into a regular room. She should be just fine in about a month."
She then went on to tell me that I should come by the hospital to visit her and Sakura or maybe do some volunteer work when I got the time, so I said that I would. The next day I was free, so I went. Sakura told me that Hinata-sama was busy looking after the emergency patient in room 1313, so I walked down the hall to the room and softly rapped on the door. Hinata-sama's voice called for me to come in and when I walked in I saw that she was putting a new blood pack on the IV drip.
She smiled, saying that she'd be done soon, so I sat on the empty bed and watched her check the patient's vitals until she realized that she'd forgotten her clipboard and asked me to keep an eye on the patient for a moment while she went to retrieve it. When she left, I looked at the patient's face and found myself staring. Hinata-sama hadn't told me how beautiful she was. Her long black hair was splayed carelessly on the pillow and behind the breathing mask her full lips were slightly parted. Her cheeks were tinged pink and her long, thick eye lashes curled up toward her perfectly arched brows.
((Yoruko's P.o.V.))
A bright, white light showed through my eyelids, waking me up. My eyes fluttered open half way, too heavy to open fully and I found myself looking up at the ceiling. I could hear a steady beeping noise along with the whirr of machinery and blinked a few times. I saw the clear plastic of a breathing mask over my nose and mouth and felt something phallic stuck in the crook of my elbow. I looked down at it to see a needle held in place by a piece of medical tape so I followed the tube that was attached to see an IV. There was also a clamp on my middle finger that was measuring my heart rate. I concluded that I was in a hospital and sighed. So that's what was going on. I'd been rushed to the hospital. I remembered flashes of images and feelings—bloody utensils and a tube shoved down my throat with a nurse on the other end, pumping air into my lungs, and something about needles—so I guessed that I'd gone through surgery, too.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a blurred figure sitting on a bed next to me, so when I turned my head and focused on the form, I found myself looking into the face of a boy with gray-white eyes and really long black hair. I'd seen him before around the city but I'd never been so close to him before. He was handsome and serious looking and I was staring as he stared back. He looked like a male version of one of the nurses I'd seen in the operating room. The leading doctor had called her Hinata when he'd barked orders to her. I was entranced by the boy's gorgeous, milky eyes, so I smiled and told him that he had beautiful eyes. His eyes widened and his cheeks flushed pink. Just then the nurse came in, the same one from the operating room, holding a clipboard and smiled at me.
"How are you feeling, Koishikawa-san?" she asked.
"I feel… numb…"
"That's just the pain medicine. Is there anything I can get for you?"
I felt my eyelids getting heavy again and smiled as I turned my head back to the ceiling with a rasping breath.
"Your name is Hinata-san… right?"
"Yes, I'm Hyuuga Hinata."
"There was a boy… He had really pretty eyes and was… sitting on the bed over there," I labored, pointing in the direction of the bed beside me as my vision began to fade again.
"Neiji-kun?" she inquired and I heard her turn to look.
"Is that his name? …He looks like you, Hinata-san… Is he still here?"
"Yes, he's still here. He's my cousin. Did you have something to say to him?"
"I just wanted to… thank him for visiting me… despite us being… complete… strangers…" I trailed off as the darkness of unconsciousness took over again.
I don't know exactly how long I was in the hospital but I would wake up sometimes and see Hinata-san checking my vitals or tending to stitches on my chest or Sakura-san, my other nurse doing it if Hinata-san was unavailable. There were a few times I saw vases of fresh flowers on the windowsill next to my bed when I woke up, or Neiji-san sitting on the bed next to mine. I wondered if he was the one who kept bringing me flowers, but I never asked. I always ended up staring into his eyes until I fell back asleep, instead. It felt like I'd known him from somewhere before, but I knew that I'd never had contact with him before in my life. I was calm and at peace whenever he was around, so I didn't mind him being there. I was just unsure of why he had such a powerful emotional affect on me at all. I saw more of Neiji-san than I did of my own teammates. It seemed like they never came to visit me at all.
For the last couple weeks that I was there whenever I woke up, I was awake for longer and longer and had regained the feeling in my body because they'd taken me off of the pain medications. I could breathe without a mask and I could even get out of bed and move around on my own, of course with Hinata-san or Sakura-san accompanying me. When they told me that I was free to go, I was excited. I'd never liked hospitals.
((Neiji's P.o.V.))
I'd learned that the emergency patient I'd visited was named Koishikawa Yoruko and I visited her often after that initial visit. Sometimes I would bring flowers for her and stare at her beautiful face, waiting for her to wake up just so I could see her eyes. They were the color of warm, melted chocolate and when she'd look at me, I always got a strange feeling that I'd known her before but I could never pinpoint when or where from. It always sent a chill down my spine and made me blush. I couldn't figure out why but it happened every time her kind, tired eyes would meet mine.
When Hinata-sama told me that they were letting her go, a sense of emptiness filled my stomach as I wondered if I'd ever see her again.
