Repent
Chapter 2: Return to the norm
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Those who reviewed thanks, I've noticed that for the first chapter I didn't put much into what is currently going on. It will change, beware however I am not one of those people who will suffocate you in fluff I believe in the truth and this story holds many truths, it's a serious fic so please don't be childish. Read a fic with a plot for once,
Thanks.
Rafael and co-writter Naza.
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A smirk was firmly plastered on the boy's face his hands were tucked inside the pockets of his sleeveless hoody as he leaned against the wall. The suns gleam reflected off his normally black hair to expose a tint of red. He shifted a little and resumed his watch over the classroom entrance,
"Bet you he's waiting for Kaizen-kun"
"What for?"
"He told me they were playing a game"
"A game?"
"Yep, to see who's number one"
"Really? I don't think Kaizen-kun knows about that game"
"Shh here he comes!"
The two girls quieted down as said boy came into the room; he was staring at the ground as he walked in. The boy on the wall seemed annoyed at not being noticed he got up and sat in his desk with a 'plop'. Kaizen took the chair opposite to him on his left. The girls, a row above the boys, shrugged at the lack of action and sat back down.
Shikamaru walked into the classroom in a rather sluggish manner. He yawned, scratched the back of his head and looked up to his students,
"I'll be leaving for a mission in two days and won't be returning for some time, Yes what is it Sereku?"
The boy who had been leaning on the wall earlier stood "Who's going to be our sensei then?"
"I'm unsure" Shikamaru answered truthfully "Does it really matter?" The boy slammed his hand on the table,
"Of course it matters! I need to become the strongest and I need a good sensei!"
"You can have the greatest teacher in the world it won't mean you'll learn anything" Sereku looked over to his left, Kaizen had his arms crossed defiantly,
"Oh so the great Hyuuga speaks" Sereku faced his classmate. Shikamaru rolled his eyes,
"Both of you quiet, it's too early for this" Sereku scoffed and sat back down, the girls in the back giggled "Now let's get started with the lesson"
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The day had passed rather normally or as normal as it could get. They practice hand signs, chakara formation, and target practice. Most doing horribly with the activities but it was expected from children so young. Once the day started fading into the afternoon they were taken outside to wait for their parent's arrival. Most left quickly others waited a while.More minutes passed by and the sensei assigned to the group began cloud watching. He then looked down and saw another parent leave with their child. Damn, those two are left.
Kaizen and Sereku were taking turns throwing kunai's at the straw dummy, neither of them hitting the center. Sereku watched his classmate out of the corner of his eye; Kaizen wasn't throwing with any intention of hitting the target. He was just flicking the knife, Sereku focused on the target,
"Not really trying are you?" he commented casually. Kaizen didn't answer he only threw one faster. Sereku smirked; he had hit a bull's eye alright,
"Let me guess daddy troubles?"
"Mind your own business" Kaizen threw another one more violently,
"You're lucky you have a dad Kaizen-kun, I wish I had a dad"
"Take mine then"
"Nah" Sereku said "We have different eyes" He pulled down his eyelid and stuck out his tongue. Kaizen smiled and turned back to the target. He aimed and threw as hard as he could. The kunai zipped towards its target but was plucked out of the air by a familiar hand,
"That was going to hit!" he whined. Tenten gave him the knife,
"No way kiddo you would have missed" Sereku snickered, Kaizen glared at him "Come on we have to get going"
Her voice dropped from its usual tone, the boys didn't notice. The man leaning against the wall, however, did. He watched her with curiosity.
"When is your mother coming Sereku?" Tenten asked putting a soft hand on her sons shoulder,
"She's at work I was just keeping Kaizen safe"
"As if" Kaizen shot back as Sereku stuck out his tongue. She smiled in amusement,
"Well thank you young man, you should get home. You don't want to worry your mother do you?" Tenten called out to the boy who ran off into town. Her shoulders dropped a little as she looked downward to her son "Let's go bud"
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The walk toward the compound was a quiet one. Tenten had grabbed the necessary items for the night and stuffed them into her bag and a smaller one for her son. She will retrieve the rest later from her home. She looked downward towards her boy. He walked, or more, marched alongside her. Such a young child and he already exhibited traits that his father was known for.
Tenten shifted the bag on her shoulder and tightened her grip on the smaller bag in her hand. It seemed like a morbid walk towards their fate. She knew her son would object if she had told him earlier that they would stay at the compound. A frown made its way on her features but only momentarily. In public she was required to play the role of the 'happy wife'. The Hyuuga name must not be soiled with rumors, gossip, or actual truths. Such a grand truth and no one outside the Hyuuga walls knew about it.
So lost in thought was she, that she had not noticed her speed in pace until Kaizen ran up to her and tugged on her arm,
"Mother?" voice coated with worry. She smiled at him,
"Come on we're almost there."
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The rest of the trip was silent and quick. Tenten rapped at the door which was opened by one of the gate keepers. The other stood vigilant eyeing those who entered; he gave Tenten a quick look over and nodded. They shut the gate behind her and took their posts once more. Tenten continued forth into the mansion. A Hyuuga servant walked up to her and took the bags she held knowing well were they belonged. Tenten thanked her and proceeded through the house. Two Hyuuga women conversing walked past Tenten. They gave her a silent stare and continued with their conversation,
Tenten understood why they stared. She hadn't been in the compound for a while now. She would usually leave her son with a member of the household and be on her own way, hoping and praying that she did not have to run into a family member who may want to discuss with her the reason she was not living with them. Why she wasn't upholding family tradition. Why she wasn't with her husband raising their child in the ways of the Hyuuga.
Tenten did not want to answer these questions, she did not want to hear them, and she wanted nothing to do with the past.
But Neji lived in the past.
She couldn't mend what they lost if he wasn't willing to move with her. Tenten closed her eyes briefly, painfully.
After turning down countless hallways they found the head of the Hyuuga sitting on cushioned seats. The training pad was behind him and a cup of tea was held in his hand. He was sitting across another elderly man. Both involved in a game of shougi. Hiashi moved a piece then stood, Tenten and Kaizen bowed,
"Tenten thank you for personally bringing my grandson to me" He said coolly. Tenten winced slightly, but gave a slight nod. The other elderly man stood and straightened his robes,
"And who might this young boy be" his voice was raspy but lacked the coldness of Hiashi's,
"This is my nephew's son Kaizen, another Hyuuga genius" Kaizen bowed at the sound of his name,
"Genius? Well it seems your father passed on some great traits to you boy"
"H-Hai" Tenten could tell he struggled to say it, to say anything about his father, was hard for the boy.
"Speaking of which here he comes now" Tenten whipped her head to look behind her; Kaizen had inched closer to Hiashi. Tenten walked up to Neji and placed a gentle hand on his cheek. He leaned forward, his forehead touching hers.
These sign of affections weren't for Hiashi, Kaizen, nor themselves but the outsiders who stood beside Neji's uncle.
They were masters of acting. His eyes locked with hers, emotions that they both kept locked away were threatening to come out in a violent wave, but no. They were experts in containing these emotions as well.
"We have something to discuss" he whispered to her. She gave a slight nod and they separated. The old man gave a toothy smile,
"Ah to be young eh? With those great genetics I won't be surprised if we get another genius soon?" he directed his comment to Hiashi, who had accomplished to ignore him completely. Kaizen looked upward at his grandfather; the six year old child was at lost at what the man was hinting. His parents, however, were not.
"Please excuse us Hiashi-sama" Neji and Tenten bowed. Hiashi gave the signal of his consent. Neji looked over his son once more, "Kaizen stay here with your grandfather."
With that Neji turned and headed in the opposite direction with Tenten following closely behind. She had noticed Neji staring at their son and knew getting out of the situation was to everyone's best interest.
That old man may be a fellow Hyuuga, but he did not reside in the compound. He was a cousin of Hiashi's who, with a group of 5 other Hyuuga, were banned from the compound. They lived outside the village, usually doing work that required them to transfer goods to other countries. They were given the curse mark and another seal with disabled them from passing on their Byakugan blood limit. It was done so that in their travels they did not leave the seed of a Hyuuga in another country.
As done before. They supported the clan with their labor, rather than being ninja. It was that way, those who are not worthy of being a shinobi had two other choices. Be a servant or lose their Hyuuga traits and work to provide for the family.
Most chose to stay safe within the compound walls.
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Neji lead Tenten to his room. He watched as she looked around the room absorbing lost memories and feeling deep emotions. She walked across the room and took a seat next to the window, after glancing outside for a minute she turned to him. He shut door silently behind him and spoke,
"We've been assigned a mission. A-rank assassinations of the following people who have associations with Kabuto. The Hokage believes that they are too dangerous to be left alone and there have been reports of killings and tortures. I'll be leading the four man cell, we leave in two days" He handed her a folder with the mission specs inside. She seemed a little taken back,
"Neji…" she responded quietly running a hand through her hair "This mission will take weeks, if not months. What about Kaizen?"
"What about him?" he questioned, angered that she will begin to falter her duties as a ninja after years of devotion,
"Never mind" she put down the folder and picked up her bag that had been left in the room, proceeding into the bathroom. A knob was heard and then water running. Neji stormed out of his room, he needed to be in solitude for the rest of the day. He felt anger for some reason, was it her reaction? Was it the mission? Was the fact the fact that when she touched him earlier he wanted to embrace her and he knew he couldn't? It took most of his effort to contain himself from destroying the nearest possible object.
The after noon quickly faded into night. Not much had gone on since his conversation with Tenten. She had told Kaizen of her mission, the boy seemed bothered but spoke nothing of it. He watched Tenten drop to her knees to embrace their son. He heard her voice muttering into their son's ear, the boy simply nodded and wiped tears away from his face. Tenten's smile was pained and she took Kaizen's hand and led him to his quarters.
He had retreated to his own room and sat near the window in a meditating position. Neji closed his eyes and focused his breathing; he wanted to clear the jumble of thoughts and emotions that were circulating through his mind. What did you tell Kaizen Tenten? Why did I see my son's tears? Neji clenched his jaw in anger feeling the pressure between teeth. Inside he struggled with a storm of emotions however his appearance is the same cold, silent one that he is known for.
Tenten.
He opened his eyes to see his wife who shut the door behind her. She then focused her gaze on him, perhaps contemplating why he was on the floor in the first place? He continued to read the movement of her eyes, how they kept moving from him to the bed and back to him again. Neji rose from the floor and passed by her without so much as a glance sitting on the edge of the bed. He could feel her glare as he adjusted his pillow and tossed the extra one to the other side of the bed. Finished with his adjustment he pulled away the covers and got underneath them resting his arm across his eyes. Tenten was staring at him in disbelief and he lifted his arm enough to see her from the bottom of his eyes,
"Are you not tired?" the question held what could have been sarcasm, maybe bitterness,
"Neji don't play games with me I'm no child!" her voice rose.
"There is no game Tenten, either sleep or don't" with that he covered his eyes once more. A low growl was heard and a click of a switch. Neji could feel an extra layer of darkness being pulled over his eyes. He heard her as she walked slowly to the other side of the bed, did minor adjustments, and finally lay down beside him.
It had been years, but that night, they shared the same bed. Neji made sure to get as close to the edge of his bed as possible. She mimicked his move. Sleeping on his side Neji tried to adjust himself to get a good night sleep, but with no avail. He could hear her breathing, faint, as she fell into slumber. It bothered him keeping him awake, memories of the past resurfaced. Back when they were younger, how she loved to lay upon him her breath would sooth him to sleep, their bodies fit perfectly into each other. Neji shifted to lie on his back, he started to get weary, before everything went black he glanced at her wondering if their bodies could fit together like they used to.
She is the one I desire to be with.
Then be with her.
I love her.
Than take her.
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I know I haven't updated in ages and have no escuse to baby my readers with. Sorry for the late update, there will be a new chapter up shortly.
Thank you.