Neji

My kunai hit the last target perfectly like usual. It wasn't unusual for me to train late into the night. Sometimes I just lost track of time after dinner. The peaceful breeze blew through the trees in the darkness as I yanked the knives and shuriken from their depths in the old, worn targets. The only sound I could hear was the breeze, but I felt a presence very near. Not a threating one, but one to be cautious of. Their chakra was vaguely familiar , but I couldn't pin it to someone I knew. Turning slowly, I held out a kunai to the person standing on the other side of the fence. With a quick glance to the moon, I'd say it was nearly midnight.

"Who's there," I demanded from the shadow at the fence. The person lifted their hand to their face before replying quietly with their name. Keeping my face void of emotion, I tried to keep my thrown thoughts on the logical side of seeing things.

"It's just me, Yamamoto Hanako, Neji-san," she said softly, almost like she was holding back some emotion from her voice.

I crossed the dirt training ground slowly. Why was she here? I hardly know her. We've sparred about as many times as I have fingers, but I don't know if that warrants her coming to the Hyuuga Compound for nightly visits. Perhaps she thought of us as closer friends than I did. I could see her coming to see Hinata, them being only a bit closer than her and I. That could be the reason for her late night appearance. Putting my hands on the fence, I tried to see her face. Doubting she could see mine, I asked her what her purpose for being here was.

"I…I need somewhere to stay for the night," she said slowly, "Could I stay here? Just for tonight?"

She had a home, so I didn't understand why she was asking, "Why don't you just go home?"

She remained silent, not answering my important question.

"Why did you come to me?" I tried again.

"…Because I knew you wouldn't ask a lot of questions…and everyone else I've asked has turned me away," there was ache in her voice, so she dropped it to a whisper to hide the pain again, "Please don't turn me away…"

In my mind, I gave a sigh. What was wrong with her? Motioning for her to walk to the gate with me, I noticed how she walked with her head down. I could see her face now, and tears threatened to spill over. Soundlessly, I opened the gate. I took notice of how noiseless her footsteps were. My feet were louder than hers even though I wasn't making much noise at all. When we got to the door and took off our shoes, she made no sound once so ever. I found an empty guestroom with a bathroom adjacent to it across the hall from my own room. Leading her in, I snapped on the lights when the door was shut.

"Since you don't want me asking too many questions, tell me what you want and don't want me to know," I told her with my arms crossed. She wiped her face before she spoke.

"I don't want to talk about why I can't go home, no, I'm not in trouble, this is a onetime thing, I don't want to talk about this in the morning because this never happened, I was never here, I'm fine, it's nothing that anyone should be concerned about, and I'll be out of here in the morning before anyone notices I was here," she said quickly, her head still down. It was easy to see how upset she was. Her eyes were full of tears and they were dark pools of misery. Never had I seen someone look this way outside of my own mirror. Her pain was something I felt I knew. Just bottling it up inside until emotions exploded and you could barely keep yourself standing. But both of us had façades to up hold. Hanako was never negative. She was always bouncing around with a bright grin on her face, playing pranks with Naruto as a kid and being friends with as many people as possible. But her friendships never seemed to go deeper than good friends. People knew who she was, but didn't know what she was really like. Her two teammates seemed to be the only people who could consider themselves her best friends, but even they said she was perfectly happy all the time.

Hanako laid on top of the covers of the bed and put the pillow on her face, so I shut the light off and left. But my thoughts of her kept churning. Sure, everyone had seen her cry before, but only for things where anyone would cry, like at the Third Hokage's funeral or when her family pet passed away. Her life was perfect. She had both parents that loved her, a younger brother, a nice house, she'd made it to Chunin and rumors were going around that she would soon be promoted to Jonin, her family had a reasonable amount of money, and she even had people stop for a few seconds on the street to look her over. So there seemed no logical explanation for her to be this upset, at the dead of night, looking for a place to stay. As I laid in my bed and stared at the ceiling, I could hear Hanako muffling sobs with the pillow. Only a couple minutes later did I hear her retching in the bathroom. After that, it was dead silence.

Hanako

My stomach burned and my lungs begged for air. It wasn't easy to hide the sobs. My throat was tight and bile burned at the back of it. I knew Neji wouldn't ask prying questions, that was why he was my last stop before sleeping in the woods. I had been to Sai's house, but he had no room for me. I had been to Naruto's house, but he wasn't home. I had gone to Sakura's house, but everyone was asleep. I thought about going to Shino, but he crept me out too much. Then I chanced going to the Hyuuga Compound, knowing they weren't nosey people. My first thought was Hinata, but then I saw Neji and knew he would be the better person ask. He was never one to pry at all. Curling into a ball, I tried to calm down. Just sleep…God damn it, why can't I just sleep! It always took hours for me fall asleep. The burning filled the rest of my body as I cried more. But if I wasn't quiet, someone would notice and come find out what was going on. Shaking as I held in heavy sobs, tears coated my cheeks and the pillow. I gripped the sheets tightly as I thought over what had all happened. Why was it always like this? I said this would be the only time, but I couldn't guarantee that. My whole body felt like it was on fire and my tears were salty on my lips. I was drowning in my own tears. I felt like I was suffocating. Suddenly, it was too much to hold in and I sprung out of bed. Running for the bathroom, it emptied my stomach. After expelling anything left to leave my stomach unsettled, I found it easier to calm down. My sobs became lighter and I climbed to my feet. Washing out my mouth, the bed called my name. Its blanket felt softer beneath me and the pillow didn't feel as wet on the other side. I laid in the darkness for the next couple hours before I nodded off.

Neji

She wasn't lying when she said she'd leave before anyone was awake. I couldn't sleep all night; thinking of reasons for her to be upset kept my mind busy. Hearing her moving around quietly made me quickly get out of bed. Silently, I crossed the hall and opened the door to the guestroom. Not looking up from her ministrations, I watched her fix the bedspread and stare at it as she sighed. Her gaze refused to meet mine as she moved to leave. I put a hand on the doorframe and she stood before me with shame on her face.

"You're welcome back if this happens again," I told her softly. Never had I seen her like this before.

"It won't happen again. I'm sorry for burdening you," she murmured, ducking under my arm and walking down the hall to get her shoes.

I felt bad for her. Her mask had cracked for just a moment and she was forced to show it to someone for help. I remembered a time when I had been like that. I had all my hatred and anger and pain all bottled up inside me. Fighting was the only way I knew to release it all. People expected me to be level-headed and have my emotions under control all the time. No one was supposed to know how much pain I was really in. I came from a prestigious clan, I was considered a genius, and my skills were much more elite than others. What was there for me to be angry about or in pain over? Hardly anyone knew I lived without a father, a mother who worked more often than she was home, though she loved me, no one knew about the seal my clan had put on me, or the power they held over me. I was the vision of a perfect ninja. I had fan girls and all the boys wanted to be me. I refused to let them know I was so broken. But then Lee, Tenten, and Gai came along. An outlet for my pain was to beat Lee. To put him down. To ignore Tenten and make her feel unworthy in my presence. To make my sensei feel like his skills were inferior to mine. But…as fate would have it, I came to like my eccentric team. And then my fight with Naruto happened. Things changed for me. I didn't have to hide my pain so much anymore. After all I put my team through, they still cared about me and consoled me over it. They knew I didn't want any pity; my pride was too big for that. Everyone started to see me differently. But not in the way I had been worried they would. They saw me as an even stronger person for being how I was while living with all that mess inside me. The walls I'd put up around myself now had doors and it was my choice who could have the key. Going back to my own room to change, I thought about going after her. I decided against it. She didn't want to talk about it. She trusted me not to ask. She deserved that much after losing much of her dignity to asking for help.

But it didn't seem to feel right just leaving things the way they were. So going to my desk, I tried to think of a way to put my words that wouldn't bruise her ego even more. What I came up with I thought might amuse her, since humor was one of her favorite things. Everyone knew that.