The Hyuuga Slave

Meet Rebekah

Chapter 1

"Neji, this is Rebekah. She will be living with you until further notice."

With those words, Lord Hiashi Hyuuga turned and left his six year old nephew with a young woman with an inverted branch family seal on her forehead. The young woman bowed at the retreating back of the man who had bought her.

"So, you are the one that will be my slave," stated Neji glaring at her.

"Essentially, young master Neji, but I really report to Lord Hyuuga until you are considered old enough and responsible enough to have full ownership of me. Until then, I have been assigned as a guardian of sorts to you." Rebekah answers the young boy calmly.

"What do you mean by my guardian? I thought that you were my slave."

"Someone needs to make sure that a budding shinobi eats his greens. If I listened to you on everything, you might end up eating only sweets. Most things you are in charge, but some things I can choose not to obey because it would not be in your best interest." Rebekah looks at the sun and looks down at Neji. "About food, it would be a good time to head to the kitchen so that I can cook tonight's meal. We can talk some more once dinner is started."

"Fine," Neji grumbles. He leads his slave/guardian to his small house that is in the cluster of other branch family homes that surrounds the main house. He shared this house with his parents before they died. His father was killed in place of his father's twin brother, Hiashi Hyuuga. His mother died only the month before from the seal activation by one of the elders. She had refused to go with the elder for a private discussion at night.

Rebekah carries a spare change of clothes and follows the young master. They enter the small house. Neji points out different places in the house. "The living room, kitchen, pantry and a bathroom are down here. The bedrooms and another bathroom are upstairs. Uncle Hiashi said that you can sleep in the small room off of the kitchen." They walk in the kitchen and Rebekah places her spare clothes on the futon in her new room.

When Rebekah returns to the kitchen, she finds Neji sitting at the island in the middle of the kitchen facing towards the general food preparation area. "How do I know that what you say is what you are supposed to do? How do I know that you are not lying?"

Rebekah turns to face the petulant boy. "Young master Neji, how about we make a promise to each other. It will make this situation easier on the both of us. I will not lie to you if you do not lie to me. I know you want to become a shinobi. If you will listen to me, I will do my best to help you become the best shinobi that you can be."

"That's it? I just have to not lie to you and listen to you, and you won't lie to me and you will help me? How can you help me be a good shinobi? You are only a slave." Neji crossed his arms and tried to stare her down like his uncle is able to do.

Rebekah just smiles and looks him dead in the eye. "One thing I learned pretty quickly is that unless a person has need of a slave, they will take no notice. I may not be able to physically perform the hand to hand fights, but I can watch others and then tell you how to do it and correct you. Also, as I told you before, I will make sure that you are healthy enough to be a good shinobi. That includes how you eat."

Neji frowns a bit and tries to find something else that is wrong with the two promises. "How will I know that you will follow your promise?"

Rebekah continues looking him in the eye. "In the first place, I don't lie. In some cultures, when two people come to an agreement, they exchange a sandal in front of the city elders, but for now we can just exchange a hand shake to prove our promise."

Rebekah now offers her hand to young boy. Neji considers the offer for a few moments and finally reaches for her hand. Rebekah smiles at him and turns to the food that they have.

"Tonight and in the morning we will have onigiri. Tomorrow I will go shopping so that we can have more of a variety. Would you like to go with me to the market?"

"I think I will stay here."

Rebekah nods at his response and starts to make the rice balls. "Would you like to hear a story about how good food can make a difference?"

"How can a story about food be interesting?" Neji frowns at her like the suggestion is absolutely ridiculous.

"You would be surprised. The story I wish to tell you is about four young men that rose from captivity to the service of the king. One of those men became beloved by the king."

"Fine, tell the story. It better be good." Neji tells her.

"You can decide for yourself once the story is over. This story takes place in a land called Babylon. The young men were from the land of Judah and were Israelites. Their homeland had been conquered by the Babylonians and most were taken as captives away from their homes. Their names were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

"They were brought to the palace along with other young men to be taught by the chief of the court officials. The best were to be brought into the service of the king. They were to be taught the language and literature of the Babylonians. They were to be from good families in their homelands, without physical defects, handsome, quick learners, know what is going on, quick to understand, and qualified to serve the king. The king assigned the young men with a daily amount of food and wine from the king's table. The training was to last three years. Young master Neji, how much training do you get from the academy before you enter the service of the Hokage?" She pauses in the telling of the story for Neji to answer. She places a plate of rice cakes and a glass of water in front of him while she waits for an answer.

"A shinobi in training attends the academy for about four years before they are placed on genin teams with a jonin instructor." Neji replies like he is reading out of a text book. He grabs a rice ball and takes a bite out of it. "I bet the food was the best part of it. If it came from the king's table it must be good." He finally swallows his bite.

Rebekah glances at him disapprovingly. "Swallow before you speak. It is rude and bad manners. Besides, they never found out how good the food and wine tastes."

"Huh? What do you mean they never got to eat the food? Were they so bad that they never got to eat it? Is it because they were captives?" Neji is completely confused now.

"They weren't bad, and all the other young men being trained were also captives. They chose not to eat the food. Anyway, I thought you weren't interested in the story." Rebekah smiles and takes a bite out of her own rice ball.

"It is not that I'm interested in it anyway, but shouldn't you finish it because you started it?" Neji tries to hide that he is actually interested in the story and tries to act a bit snobby.

Rebekah sees through him, but plays along. "You are correct, young master Neji. You should always finish what you start, no matter what you are doing. It could be finishing a story, a lesson, your rice balls, or even your mission as a shinobi. You must finish what you start. You will be respected for it is you live by that rule."

"So, if I start training, I should keep at it until it is done. Right?"

"Right. No matter how hard it is. Can I get back to the story now?"

"Continue, Rebekah." Neji says with an imperious wave of his hand.

Rebekah smothers a smile but continues to tell the story. "But Daniel resolved not to ruin himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to ruin himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel, but the official told Daniel, 'I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men you age? The king would then have my head because of you.'

"Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, 'Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.' So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.

"At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.

"To those four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.

"At the end of the time set by the king to bring them in, the chief official presented them to the king. The king talked with them, and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king's service. In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom."

By the end of the story both master and slave were finished eating. As Rebekah started to clear the dishes and began to clean them she asked Neji if he had any questions.

"Why did they look better than everyone else and wasn't it their fate to be better than anyone else no matter what they ate?" Neji asks Rebekah with a frown.

"They looked better because they were healthier than everyone else. If you expect good to come out of your body, then you have to put good in. That is one of the reasons that I will be the one in charge of deciding on meals, until you learn how to balance a meal by yourself."

Neji interrupts her at this point. "But I don't need to prepare a healthy meal. That is what you are for. You are the slave. You are supposed to serve me."

Rebekah calmly responds to the irate young boy. "I will not be following you when you are sent on missions for the Hokage. It is rude to interrupt a person when they are speaking. No matter what station the person is. It will become a bad habit and you could interrupt someone that you have no business interrupting. You said it was their fate to be better. I can confidently tell you that if they had eaten the food and wine from the king's table, they would not have stood out from the other young men."

"But why?" Neji is persistent about finding out this information. "Everyone has a fate and no matter how hard you try, you cannot escape from it."

She sighs. "There is some information about their God that I have not told you. Because they serve their God, their God gave his people some rules to live by. Some of those rules were about what food they could eat, because some food is bad for you and He wants what is best for his people. Now, those four young men followed God's rules even when nobody else was. God blessed them for obeying Him."

"But it still was their fate to be the best." Neji refuses to let the topic of fate die.

Rebekah pauses a moment and answers him. "It could be, but it is not our place to decide that. Only God knows what will happen, so we must try to do what is right." She glances at the clock. "We will discuss this more in the morning if you have any more questions. Now it is time to go to bed. Both of us will have long days tomorrow."

Rebekah sends him off to bed for the night and tells him she will be up later to make sure that he is in bed and asleep. While Neji is asleep, she draws up the shopping list for tomorrow. When that is finished, she checks the young master and says a prayer for his protection. She turns the house off and locks the doors. She then retreats to her futon, says her prayers and falls into a deep sleep. Tomorrow would bring enough trouble without her working about it now.

AN: I do not own Naruto. The story that Rebekah told Neji was from Daniel 1.