Eighth 2010-Dropbox-Cleanout post. I planned a 'Neji hallucinates Obito' fic a month or so back, and then I came up with the idea, what if Neji saw Kakashi's whole team? Or just one of the others? Seeing as there were zero Neji/Rin fics on the entire sight I felt I needed to remedy that.
C o l l a t e r a l D a m a g e
"Neji…"
"Rin, stop." Neji spoke slowly, his words a bit hesitant as if he didn't really want the brunette to stop at all.
"No one's going to find us." Rin whispered, leaning her head into Neji's chest without removing her arms from around his shoulders. Her long, brown hair fell into Neji's lap and pooled against the pillow of the big, cushioned chair. "Well," Rin giggled a little, and Neji could almost see her pale cheeks flushing. "No one will find me. I can't imagine how awkward it would be if someone walked in and saw you-"
"Rin!" Neji said indignantly, his eyes narrowing as he considered just how awkward that would be. No one would even be able to figure out what was going on. But it must look bizarre, someone making out with what seemed to be thin air.
Not that they were going to be making out.
"Please Neji?" Again Neji was a little disturbed at how desperate the girl sounded. She was only a year younger than he was, a good fifteen.
"Rin!" Neji shouted, pushing the girl off of him violently, more violently than he'd intended. Rin's face turned up towards his, and her brown eyes were wide. As always Neji's eyes flickered down momentarily to the blood that eternally stained her cheeks where her killer had scraped off her tattoos.
"Neji…"
"Rin you're- this isn't right!" Neji said, shaking his head because it wasn't. The medic had changed him, even now he had no doubt he felt something for the girl. But even as he looked across at her face, beautiful as bruised as it always was, he felt as if he was cheating. "You're not mine, you never will be! Even if- even if you were real and alive and you weren't just some figment of my imagination-"
"Neji, I'm as real as you are-" Rin began, almost angrily, starting to straighten up and walk back towards Neji.
"Even if we could get married you'd never be mine, don't you understand? You're his! You see him at the stone everyday- I know that's where you go when you're not following me around! You're Kakashi's and you always will be!"
Silence seemed to descend, if only for a split second, and Neji thought he could see Rin's shoulders falling.
"But I'm not- I- I didn't-" And all of a sudden the girl was shaking, her bruised arms hugged around her bloody chest. "He has Obito."
"But he loves you." Neji said, because he knew it was true. Ever since he'd begun to see Rin's ghost he'd watched the man closely. The man loved her.
"No, he doesn't! What I'd give to- what I'd have given-" Rin shook her head. "He never loved me! Even after Obito died, he only took care of me because Obito wanted him to. I will always just be the girl Obito loved. Kakashi loves Obito, Neji, more than anyone else in this world, can't you tell? And I want- just this once I don't want to be collateral damage!"
Neji couldn't think of an answer or counter-attack, so he stayed silent as Rin sat back down in his lap and loosened her shoulders with a shrug.
"Please?"
For a moment longer Neji hesitated. He saw the silver-haired man with the picture of his team in his top pocket. He was the man standing every morning in front of Rin's grave… in front of Obito's grave.
"You do realize how awkward this will be if somebody walks in on us?" Neji whispered as Rin's frown faded and she began to unbutton his shirt.
Rin only laughed.
"Oh Neji, but that's the fun part…"
