Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor do I make any profit from this fanfiction.
A/N: This was born after I read Romeo and Juliet for English and wondered what would happen to their love if their parents found out and protested vehemently.
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Dear Hiashi-sama, Hinata,
Please do not look for me. It is my dearest wish to live the rest of my life with my love, Sabaku Gaara, and I hope you respect my wish. And yes, Sabaku Gaara is a man. The love of my life is another male, but I do not care about his gender. I do not care about how the world will view our relationship. I love him, he loves me back, and that is all I need. As I said before, please do not look for me.
I have taken some of the money from my bank account to set up our new life, but the rest I will leave untouched. It is your money, Hiashi-sama, and while I thank you for keeping a roof above my head ever since my parents died, and also for putting me through college these past four years, I will forego using any more of your money. As you know, I have been accepted into a number of prestigious law schools, and I plan to go to one, although I will pay for it myself. I have a half-scholarship already, after all, and it shouldn't be too difficult to pay for the rest. And Gaara and I will manage to support ourselves without our families, so please do not worry.
Perhaps we will return to Konoha after I finish law school, and after I have secured a prosperous life for me and Gaara. We have not thought about it a lot, but coming back seems to be a safe assumption, since we are both abandoning our families to do this. But this abandonment is necessary. Neither you, Hiashi-sama, or Gaara's father would allow us to marry, and we will not be kept apart. We will marry, and we will spend our lives together, no matter what you or Sabaku-san says. And if you attempt to separate us, prepare to face our wrath. Our love is true, Hiashi-sama, as deep as the ocean and more precious to me than anything else on earth. If you try to take that away, the force of my hate will match the depth of my love. Please do not take it that far. I have no wish to hate you.
Thus, Hiashi-sama, Hinata, I bid you two farewell for a couple of years. We will hopefully not see each other until I come back, since if you come after me, I shall quit law school once and for all and turn to other, more menial, jobs. Anything to stay with Gaara.
Yours truly,
Hyuuga Neji
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Hyuuga Hiashi read his nephew's letter with wide eyes, hardly believing the things he was reading. Neji in a relationship with Sabaku Gaara? Impossible! Hiashi hadn't even known they were friends, much less lovers! No, this was a trick. This couldn't be real. Maybe Sabaku Gaara had pretended to be in love with Neji in order to elope with him, and then would steal his money once they married. It was common knowledge that the Sabakus, while having formerly been one of the richest families around, had lost their fortune over the last two decades through business failures and personal tragedies. And since the Hyuuga family had once been one of their greatest rivals…
Yes, Hiashi convinced himself, this could only be a trick. Neji couldn't, just couldn't, be in love with Sabaku Gaara, the youngest child and one of the only remaining Sabakus by blood. It was just impossible.
And with that in mind, he tossed the letter back on his desk and grabbed his phone, dialing the operator and asking to be connected with Sabaku Kaze, Sabaku Gaara's father.
"Sabaku Kaze." said a deep voice as someone picked up.
"This is Hyuuga Hiashi. Your son has eloped with my nephew." He tried his utmost to imbue the word 'son' for all the contempt and loathing he held for Sabaku Gaara just then. "Have you got anything to say to that?"
"Well, Hyuuga, I believe your nephew was the one to seduce my son and to convince him to run off. Gaara would never do such a thing on his own."
"And why should Neji seduce your son? What has he got to gain by it? Nothing, obviously. But your son has everything to gain by it! Everybody knows I'm planning to make Neji head of the Hyuuga clan and CEO of our company once he gets out of law school. If your son were to get his permanent clutches on Neji by then, I'm sure he could wheedle enough money out of my nephew to reinstate your business. Or, if not, he could at least insure your retirement will come that much faster. Am I right?"
Sabaku Kaze seethed at the other end of the line. There was no way he could dispute that argument, because if he had told Gaara to seduce Hyuuga Neji, that would be exactly the goal he would be aiming for. But he hadn't told Gaara to do anything of the kind, and he didn't appreciate this independence from his youngest child. It would've been better if Temari had done this instead of Gaara – she could have had a baby or two, cemented the link between the two families, but Gaara couldn't do that.
But while Sabaku Kaze was shouting at Gaara within his mind, he kept his voice level as he talked to Hyuuga Hiashi. "Perhaps, Hyuuga-san, perhaps you are right. I do not know, since I did not know Gaara would do this, nor did I order him to. But let me ask you this – are you going to disown your nephew now? I believe you should. After all, now you know he doesn't have your business interests at heart, don't you? He has abandoned you to run off with my son, no matter who seduced who. If one of my children did that, I would punish them severely."
Hiashi was startled by this. Disown Neji? The thought had crossed his mind, but he hadn't considered it seriously. He was sure Neji would come to his right mind once he had gotten away from that Sabaku Gaara. "Actually, I was thinking of finding the two of them, separating them, and then talking some sense into Neji. I'm sure I won't be forced to disown him. And you, Sabaku? How will you punish your son?"
"I will think about that later, Hyuuga. Once we find the two children, of course. Should we synchronize our plans or work alone?"
"I am sure we will find them all the faster if we work alone."
"Well then. Goodbye." And then Sabaku Kaze hung up. Hiashi growled, but then sighed. What else could you expect from a Sabaku? When they had had a business empire to speak of, the Sabakus had been ruthless, with no sense of morals whatsoever. It was also rumored that Sabaku Gaara had been raised personally by his father, conditioned to become the most ruthless Sabaku of all in order to rebuild their business. Hiashi shook his head. He couldn't believe Neji had fallen into the clutches of someone like that. He had thought he had raised Neji to be smarter.
Hiashi blocked out a small whisper in his mind that Neji and Sabaku Gaara might've actually been in love with each other. That was ridiculous. Impossible.
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Neji looked up from his book and glanced at Gaara, who was sitting across from him in the train compartment that was empty except for the two of them. The redhead had been silent for a while, and now had a frown on his face.
"What's the matter?" Neji asked softly.
Gaara snapped out of his daze and shook his head. "Nothing. I was just wondering what our families must be thinking right now."
Neji took Gaara's hand in his own and squeezed gently. "You and I both know they're probably freaking right now. But if they try to come after us…"
"I'll kill them." Gaara vowed, staring into Neji's eyes. "I'll kill anyone who tries to take you away from me."
Neji tried to smile, but he admitted to himself that sometimes he was scared of this side of Gaara, if only because he knew Gaara was being perfectly serious. "I know, Gaara. And I hope our families do too, or they'll be getting themselves into deep trouble if they come after us."
Gaara frowned a little, sad that Neji was still afraid of him. But then his face smoothed back into blankness, as close to a smile as he would get. "I love you, Neji. Never forget that."
Now Neji smiled a genuine happy smile. "I know, Gaara. I love you too. I love you so so much…"
And the two shared a kiss in that train compartment, both brilliantly happy at the thought of starting their new lives together. But they were in love, and foolish because of it. Neither would know that their happiness would not last, because their families were right around the corner.
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Thanks for reading...