Notes: Italics are internal thoughts.
Street food farther from the city is a niche. It takes more authentic than its counterparts in the city. Tenten scrunches her nose as she forces down a rubbery piece of meat down her throat. She truly hates working out later than usual and then having to deal with nighttime pedestrian traffic. Beside her is Kiba, struggling to hold his crutches as one of his hands is occupied with managing three separate skewers. And standing in front of her is Shino, who is shoving fish bread into his mouth instead of what Kiba is eating. Tenten supposes fish bread is better than the poorly made garbage meat she's holding by the skewer right now. The corner of the sidewalk fills up instantly as they wait to cross the street to the other side. Kiba wanted to have a little drink to celebrate their case closure tonight.
It is almost tradition to eat at the tiny, family-run restaurant after successfully completing a case. Usually, Tenten will be the most enthusiastic about eating together since there's no other time that will allow her to eat with other people at home. However, tonight is just not sitting right. While Kiba drank away and has Shino to keep him company, Tenten's own mind is focused on something else. There is only one thing on her mind tonight and that is the whole situational exchange between her and the man she apprehended. Holding her chopsticks and picking at the air, her wrist rests at the edge of the table. She is deep in thought. And even though Kiba assured her the man they caught fits the description made by their profiler, she can't seem to shake off the persisting incongruity of it all.
Speaking of their profiler, Tenten is beginning to doubt if Sai's actually sick tonight. The man is paler than usual from the last sight of him that she recalled. However, he is on this case as well. In fact, he is the most adamant about catching The White Killer because one of the victims is his only brother. Tenten believes that Sai's persistence probably drove him ill but it could have been the most beneficial to all of them if he was there at the scene to confirm the man's identity. It will have also eased her mind for she won't be sitting at a table full of food and not be able to eat any of them because she thinks she's shot the wrong man. Kiba's mind doesn't operate as well as Sai's. And though he is smart enough to become a detective, he isn't a profiler nor is he quite a keen man when it comes to utilizing the profiles framed by Sai and matching them to their potential suspects. Nonetheless, it never escapes her mind of her doubts for what duration she's in as she spaces out in the restaurant until Shino's deafening snap sent a ringing sensation into her ear. Tenten jerks away from him, "Sorry, it's just not adding up."
Kiba stares at her in utter disbelief, halting the continuous probing of his meat cooking on the grill, "We just talked about this earlier, though?"
"I know," she replies in devastation, "but I feel like it's the wrong man."
"You shot the wrong man," Shino comments as he nudges his round glasses. "Are you scared that your job might be jeopardized if you did?"
Tenten shoots him a glare and ultimately decides to reach for a strip of meat from the grill. She knew that he knew how much she's worked to reach the position she's in to be the captain of their team. Losing her job all because of Kiba's "take my word for it" attitude might as well be compared to stepping on dogshit. Needless to say, it is never smart to trust whatever Kiba says because it'll either be 100% correct or 100% false. Kiba slides her a dipping sauce and swallows down his food hard before being offered a shot of the nation's cheap alcohol, "sake". "Look, we've already detailed and made the report. The case is probably being tidied up and it'll probably be finalized tomorrow. Your face will be everywhere tomorrow and I'd gain recognition for being on your team!"
"I can never trust you," Tenten tells him. Kiba boasts a whole lot about many things that aren't remotely factual. The only thing that comes to her mind whenever he talks big is about how he cannot get any dates because he simply is too busy running around with Shino, Sai, and her when in actuality, it's his mighty personality that turns women a full 180 from him. "Maybe if it happens, I might just buy you the dog you wanted," Tenten quickly dips the strip of meat into the sauce and places it into her mouth. The taste is far better than the rubber she swallowed earlier.
"Let's bet on it," Kiba stretches his hand out to her, seeming all too confident. Tenten is sure it's just a ruse but she shakes on it, regardless. She'll never buy him the dog because it's already sold.
"You're saying there's no identification of him anywhere in our system?" Inoichi glances up from his desktop screen and pulls back from his desk. Asuma personally requested a private meeting to discuss the anomaly of the suspect his team apprehended earlier that night with him and here they are in his office.
"Our database shows no one with that type of fingerprint nor DNA. We can't identify him, Chief," Asuma replies as he comfortably sits back on the leather chair. His night was arduous and he should have gone home and been with his kid but here he was, working overtime again and breaking his promise to Kurenai to be punctual. "We checked the registry in the Social Security Bureau and even reached out to the military to see if he's ever served but we came up short." Inoichi joins him at the coffee table and sits at the opposite chair. "It's as if he doesn't even exist."
Inoichi scratches his chin with his index finger and crosses his arm in confusion. "Isn't that expected? You know, for a serial killer? Wouldn't he be the most fitting to be one? He has no connections here, no digital traces— he even passed the background check."
"That's why it was so difficult to create a profile, Chief."
"I see," Inoichi replies rather uninterestingly, earning a scornful look from the latter. "Have you tried reaching overseas for their databases?"
It's quite possible that the suspect Asuma's team apprehended might've been born in another country but nothing in the case suggests that he's of any other descent except Asian ancestry. "There is no need, our profiler deducts that our suspect might have a lock on his personal background files. We just need to get his name and send it to other countries' bureaus."
Inoichi squints and makes apparent his age from the wrinkles underneath his eyes. He stares at the younger man across from him and nods, "Then why don't you do it?"
"You see, that's the thing I'm here for."
"What is it?"
Asuma gulps and reaches for the back of his neck to massage it, "My team is beat."
"I don't even know what that means," Inoichi sounds, "is that a new lingo you younglings are using? Should I write this down?" He quickly reaches to the coffee table to grab a pen from the pencil holder and slides a half used pad of sticky note to the edge. Inoichi leans down and clicks on the pen, "I'm trying to reconnect with my daughter. She's-" he tilts his hand right and left, "a little too grown since the last time I saw her."
"That's not even remotely related to my issue."
Inoichi backs off immediately, "Fine, fine. But you have to tell me after this." Asuma inclines and the latter ushers for him to speak, "Go on."
"My team's been staking out in that location for the last three nights," it's quite repulsive if Asuma were to imagine the whole situation with his team. He can't even imagine staying cooped up in a car for three days and two nights and having to breathe in Kiba's sweaty glands even in the coldest nights of Fall. Asuma mentally thanked Inoichi for dragging him back to the post with Shino or else he would have to deal with a stench trying to dominantly fight a male's body spray in a car. Thinking of it now, he pitied Tenten. "They're in no shape to conduct an extensive and professional interrogation."
"I'll have Shikaku's men take care of it," Inoichi spouts as he brings the notepad to his face. "Now, about the new lingo."
Neji's visions are limited to white flashes within the darkness of his own mind. He supposes that he is probably dreaming but even so, these dreams are quite different from those he used to have. Pulsatively, he will be shown an image of himself, the real image of himself in his coffin. It is the round coffin he's come to learn and he's just standing there, watching in the third person as a golden speck keeps entering his abdomen and ricocheting to all gaping holes in his dead body before lodging itself at the apex of his heart. He will black out, well, in this case, his visions will blacken and it will burst into whiteness before revealing to him unlikely golden vegetation growing and thriving harmoniously in the holes of his chest. Like parasites, those vine-like sprouts thread and weave throughout the empty spaces in his body, taking its place permanently there. Yellow flower buds and gilt leaves spill down to his collapsed feet and they spread anew unlike anything he's seen in his life as a shinobi. He glows a radiant hue of gold, almost outshining the sun if he dares to compare. And then the image blacks out and it'll repeat again and again. Upon the sixth or seventh repetition, Neji noticed that his visions are different. He tries to make out the new thing he's seeing and it came to him that he's in a room: a hospital room.
The outline of the room is quite different from what he imagined. He's been in a hospital before, but this one isn't sitting well with him. "Maybe, they renovated," Neji surmises as he blinks to dissipate the blurriness. He hasn't even tried to move a muscle except roaming his eyeballs to every corner of the room. A single light stemming from the ceiling cascades strongly throughout the room, blinding him. He can hear an eerie beeping noise coming from somewhere. The temperature is extremely low, much lower than he expected from Konohagakure's hospital. It is even worth it to mention how cluttered and narrow room is? Neji suspects that the Hokage must have reduced the room dimensions in order to accommodate the countless injured shinobi but not even that can explain the clutter. He painstakingly leans his head slightly to the left and rests his eyes on odd blinking monitors. He's seen something similar since hospitals aren't something rare for him to visit but these "things" blaring noises back at him seem all too peculiar.
Neji attempts to sit up, but doing so requires his abdominal muscles to contract and he fails so miserably. He groans at the excruciating pain sitting at his stomach and feels it travel to his toes. Neji tries to support himself up no matter the agony and he hears a clink. He looks down to his hand, to his wrist, and finds a silver brace. It is two metallic circles, one encapsulating the bar of the rail attached to his bed and the other to his wrist. Now, Neji is unsure if he is in Konohagakure. In actuality, he's unsure if he's real at all. Surely, he believes that he died in the war. And for that faint memory of busting out of his coffin, well, he isn't all too confident that that physically happened. He quickly looks out to the curtains hanging by the wall. There is not a single inkling of light permeating through it. Neji can't even tell if it's day or night or if he's anywhere near Konohagakure. "Is this a bind of some sort?" he asks himself. Neji can't answer that question at all.
By the will of fire, of the shinobi way, as Neji saw it, he musters and stomachs through the pain that radiates wider throughout his frame and manages to sit up with dignity but not without the difficulty of breathing. Neji takes in short pausal breaths and expels them in the same way. The silvery metal that binds him to the bed never leaves his mind. He reaches for the round metal with his other hand and feels it. By mistake, Neji squeezes on the object and hears a click, the handcuff tightens. He raises a brow, quite amused with the item. Neji tries to pull the handcuff off but he realizes it takes too much of his body to do so. The already growing war his body's going through seem to spike whenever he seeks to exhaust just a tint of energy. Never has he felt so helpless in a hospital.
Neji supposes that getting thorned with spikes to protect Naruto and his cousin was the right thing to do at the time, but looking back now, and seeing how unattended his room is, he's beginning to regret shouldering the fate of the world with his body. "The least they could do is leave some flowers for me," he murmurs as he gently lays himself back onto the bed. The round bind on his wrists is the last thing he worried about while he is awake because of the pain that shoots up within his body. But as drowsiness sets in and his eyelids pull with ten times the force of his consciousness, the thought of the handcuffs brushes his mind again. He has no idea why he's bound nor for what reason he's being bound.
Neji eases awake a second time and finds that the curtains shielding the window is capable of bleeding in natural light into the room. He glances down to his wrist and rolls his eyes into oblivion. Sleeping off the oddity of being chained to the bed and trying to figure out a plausible reason as to why he's in such a predicament isn't nearly the most genius idea but there is nothing that Neji can do. He sighs and pries off the oxygen mask attached to his face just as the door slides open. Standing before him stands what he assumes to be a nurse but he doubts that that is true. Since when did they have these uniforms? She wears a two-piece uniform unlike the long white tunic and long pants that nurses used to wear. The woman looks frightened at him before stepping out of the room and closing the door. In just about ten minutes, just as Neji examined his own wounds, finding his whole torso and chest bandaged, the door slides open again. This time it reveals two middle-aged men with clothes all too familiar but otherworldly for him. He doesn't say anything to them nor bats an eye. Neji wants to return home. He just wants to see the familiar faces that he knew.
"So, this is what he looks like?" one man speaks to the other as they both slide stools under their buttocks. "The White Killer," the man expresses confidence and arrogance just from the smile on his face.
They must have not been referring to him, at least that is what Neji wanted to believe. He's beginning to doubt the authenticity of this reality. This is Konohagakure, right? Neji stares back at the two of them without much interest. He has no clue as to why they're here or what he's done to receive such a nickname.
"Alright, let's get started," the other man says as he pulls out a notepad. Neji blinks onwards blankly. "I am Officer Ken and-"
"I am Officer Ji," Neji eyes dart back to the man who first spoke. He notes where they sat: Officer Ken on the right of him and Officer Ji to the left of him.
Neji then draws an actual blank. Aren't officers supposed to wear the shinobi vests? Wait, where is my uniform?
"Pay attention!" Neji's eyes widen as he stares at the man to his right working up a louder tone to him. "Gosh, I don't even want to be here-" his voice trails off in an abyss. He calms down and they meet eye contact again, "Let's start over shall we?"
Officer Ji signals to Officer Ken with one mere finger before overtaking the interrogation. "We're here to ask some questions. Whether you answer willingly or not, we will get an answer from you."
Neji is barely listening. He is more occupied with how much pain he's feeling in his body. He's always someone who can stomach injuries well but it is as if he's gone far too weak. Neji believes it might just be because of how long he's been locked in his coffin but even he isn't sure if that can explain how fragile his body is right now. In mentioning his coffin, he recalls the whole incident of breaking out of it. When he escaped from the coffin, it was dark but less dark than when he was inside the container. And then I just— I swear I saw Tenten.
"Hey," The man to his right starts to snap his fingers in front of Neji's face. Neji flicks his eyes up to look at the man. "Stop spacing out, we're trying to not hurt you-"
"Even though we want to," the man on the left adds. "Right, well, anyway-"
"You deserve to get shot," Officer Ken blurts out in disgust as he stares at Neji. "If not for our senior putting a bullet straight through you I would've the moment I came in here."
Officer Ji is appalled and he jumps right into the questions. If not for Officer Ken being older than him and is in need of constant seniority, he would have excused the man out. "Do you remember your name?"
Neji has no comprehension of what these two men are bickering about. He has no idea what a bullet is and no idea who or what The White Killer is or did. He is now sure that this isn't his world and that this perhaps might just be a lucid dream or a purgatory of some sort. Neji then hears the man's odd but simple question. He wonders if he should answer it or not. Maybe it's a test? Neji has convinced himself to answer the question, "Hyuuga, Neji." What transpires thereafter provokes curiosity from Neji.
Officer Ken stares at his partner in shock before turning his attention back to Neji, "You mean you're a Hyuuga?" Neji nods. They both lift themselves from their stools and crouches towards the criminal patient in an eerie manner. Officer Ken squints and the corner of his eyes crinkle as if on cue. He focuses on Neji's eyes, taking in the enchanting eyes only a Hyuuga can obtain. The irises are documented to have various colors within ranging from a violet lavender to variants of grays to pure white. From afar, any sane human will believe a beholder of the Hyuuga's special eyes to be either blind or have faint gray tints under certain lighting. But no one and Officer Ken mean it, no one in the Hyuuga name has never been issued eyeglasses, or in these days in age, contact lenses for the sake of "seeing better". Officer Ken draws back and pulls his partner from smooching his face onto the potential Hyuuga associate. He gulps and drags Officer Ji out of the room.
"Is it possible for a Hyuuga to be a serial murderer?" Officer Ken asks frantically. "I mean I know the higher-ups have been having a whole lot of issues regarding who's going to take over the Police Agency but-" he pauses and stares back at Neji's patient room in fear, "can we even let the public know about this?"
Officer Ji shrugs and begins to dial for his captain, "If it's true and the guy inside isn't lying, then we'll be in so much trouble."
Officer Ken complies, "Right, right. Call Captain Shikaku." He begins to pace around back and forth, "I think my brain is going to explode! I just told him I would've shot him!"
"I just threatened him!" Officer Ji exclaims as his line is picked up from the other end.
"Hello?"
"Cap.! We have a problem," Officer Ji replies.
"What is it?"
The man gulps and peeks in through the tiny rectangular window on the door. He meekly meets eyes with their supposed suspect, "He's a Hyuuga. Hyuuga, Neji."
Shikaku chokes on his evening water and sprays it all over his son's face. He quickly excuses himself from the board game and heads out to the hallway. Shikaku cautiously is on the lookout for his wife. He promised not to bring in any work-related issues under his own home and he's not about to receive a cold shoulder tonight. "Are you sure?" he whispers as he struggles to put on his coat. He makes his way to the entryway, a genkan, and quietly slips on his tennis shoes before grabbing for his keys. "Did you check his eyes?"
"There's no mistaking it, Cap.!"
Shikaku quickly opens the door and carefully steps out. He gently clicks the door shut before panicking his way to his car. Today is supposed to be his day off, hence the reason why he sent officers instead of his team members to interrogate the city's most wanted killer. "Do not let him out of your sight!" He throws his phone to his passenger seat and presses on the gas. "Please don't let it be a Hyuuga, please!" He begs hard. "Shit! The Commander's going to flip if the man's really a Hyuuga!"
When the two men return, they bring with them several nurses of varying uniform colors to Neji's side. "What is going on?" he is apprehensive, but rightly so.
"We're moving you to a VIP room, sir," a nurse tells him. Her answer suffices and he does not question any further. The move allows Neji to inspect the surroundings outside of his former room. He makes note of potential exit points, the lighting, the number of people on that floor, and for weapons that can easily handicap without much energy expended. They all come across two shiny metal doors with a flashing countdown above it. Neji wonders what it is, now that for the last minute, they've been standing there waiting. When the shiny metal doors slide open automatically, fear begins to build up within his aching body. He has no place to store it and there is no possibility that he'll be able to jump out of his bed with his wrist still chained to the bed with wheels that he's come to realize. He is rolled in and the door closes. Neji can see a disfigured reflection of himself on the shiny doors as he sees several buttons to the side. The nurse presses a button, the number eighteen. Before Neji knew it or can even imagine, the contents in his body, his organs, blood, muscles, everything, began to weigh at the lowest point of his entire being. It feels similar to thrusting himself into the sky, jumping high and far as adrenaline kicks in. But this time, the movement is impeccably slow and almost nauseating. Neji can't stomach the fluttery feeling, well, he isn't sure he even has a stomach to be thinking of such thing. The pressure and fear cap his entirety and he immediately black out. And when Neji comes to, he realizes he's still in the moving contraption. He faints once more. Upon the second revival, he wakes up to the door opening. Silently, he lets his peripherals read the people standing beside his bed. They seem unaware of his embarrassing blackouts. If anyone were to see me like this, I'd never be able to live it down.
The new floor is surprisingly fitting for VIP patients according to Neji. In Konohagakure, there is no such thing as a hierarchical classification system that discriminates the important from the not-so-important. Again, he searches for alternative routes out of this floor. There has to be another way out. I'm not going through that thing again. Just the mere thought of it sent a chill down his spine. They push him and his bed into a larger room from before. It is spacious, containing a black leather couch, a short-legged glass table, a family dining table, and things he believes to be unnecessary. It looks like a functioning home with the exception of a full kitchen but Neji couldn't care less. A place this big is far larger than the meager home he had in Konohagakure.
"Do you need any other services?" the nurse asks him. He declines the offer. As the door close, the two men remain.
"About what I said earlier, um," Officer Ken stands at Neji's bedside with a guilty face. Both officers' shoulders hang low, even their heads cast downward. Their hands clasp one wrist as the other forms a fist. With legs pressed as closely as possible, he can only assume that, evidently, they are guilty of something. However, Neji is unsure what it is that they are guilty of or what he has to do with being a Hyuuga. "What I said earlier was a joke!" Officer Ken laughs nervously. "I'm sure they've caught the wrong guy 'cuz obviously you can't be the suspect! Haha," his tailored chuckle at the end awkwardly descends into silence.
Neji supposes this is the best time to be the one pressing for answers. If it isn't for the agonizing pain in his body, he would have escaped this place in a hitch. "Where exactly is this place?"
Both officers looked at each other and offer Neji a compensating smile, "We're in the city's hospital."
"What city?" Neji asks. This is definitely purgatory. I've no idea what a "city" is.
"Did you mean the address of this hospital?" Officer Ken asks. Neji merely stares at the man. He has no real clue what an address is. Konohagakure doesn't have "address". Should I just stay mute? "30450 Pippotori, Ha-chiku, Konoha."
Neji is more confused than ever. He doesn't understand the numbers nor anything after that except the familiar word: Konoha. He shouldn't feel dumb because this world, this place that he dropped into isn't where he is supposed to be, but Neji can't help feeling unintelligent. He wants to leave but his chained wrists prevent him from doing so. Neji isn't even sure if his legs are capable of moving. He sits there and ponders if he can use this newfound elitism the officers bestowed to him. Neji stares at both of the men standing cowardly in front of him. With just a move of his wrist, he "accidentally" makes it known to the other two of his bondage to the bed. Immediately, Neji conjures the most confident and stuck up tone in his life that he's lived, "Remove it," he orders them.
Officer Ji jerks and hurries to the side of the rail, "Uh yes! Let me just remove these handcuffs from you, sir!" The man pulls out a key and jams it into a tiny hole. Neji is in awe the moment it snaps open. He feels for his wrists and it agitates his body. A splurge of pain crashes to his chest and he grunts. "Oh my god! Are you okay, sir? Should I get a nurse for you?"
Neji waves the man off and the tension rises again. This time, Neji notably comments on it. For seven straight minutes, both men stand at the foot of the bed, refusing to leave. If there is more that he wanted to ask, his mind just can't muster up the mentality to ask. There is one thing that he's curious about, "I want to see outside," he states.
"Ah, yes!" Officer Ken swiftly reacts. He's been sweating in a cold room much to Neji's lack of concern. He opens the curtains just as the sun disappears from the sky.
Neji looks out to the little white specks that uniformly shoots up to the sky. The silhouette of these buildings scrapes high up, higher than where he currently is in. Never in his life has a world such as this cross his mind. It is a shame that he cannot simply stand up to look out the window. He wants to see what the ground looks like to prepare himself for when he does escape this place.
Shikaku thunders towards the VIP room as his phone vibrates in his pocket. He pulls it out and sees that it's his wife. Gulping hard, he silences his phone and knocks on the door. The knock catches all three of the occupants' attention. The door swings open and by the frame, Neji sees a second familiar face. "Shikaku-san!" He is eager to talk to someone he recognizes. And though the relationship between him and the older man is nonexistent, surely Shikaku must have heard about him, right?
Upon hearing his own name, Shikaku freezes. He has no idea as to how this man who popped out of nowhere know his name. Shikaku's eyes examine the young man sitting on the bed and he musters up the courage to walk towards him. All that he pays his utmost attention to is the man's unique eyes. Confirming for himself, Shikaku lets out a shuddering sigh and he shoos his officers out of the room. He turns to the disabled man and immediately bows low. "I do apologize, sir. If there's any wrong we've made while handling you, let us know."
Neji stares in utter disbelief at the top of Shikaku's head. It seems to him that Shikaku knows who he is but not himself. Neji stutters to form any coherent words but fails at every turn.
"Our team must have mistaken you for our suspect and injured you. I— we will not let this incident go by easily!" Shikaku firms up.
"I don't- even-"
"I must contact the CEO, I've no idea how you managed to come here without any traces from overseas, but your uncle must know," Shikaku immediately bends back up and he turns around.
Neji perks up as he hears that his uncle is also here, "My uncle?"
"I will be right back!" Shikaku paces out the door and closes it. He turns to Ken and Ji, "Make sure he does not escape." Both men nod once and Shikaku hurries down the hall to the elevator. He slides into the stairwell and pulls out his phone. He just missed three calls from his wife. Shikaku sighs and bites his lips. He calls Inoichi instead.
Neji is left alone again with this new information. His uncle is here, Shikaku is here, and Tenten is here. He wonders if everyone he knew from Konohagakure is here as well. Neji shifts in his bed. Although he's disregarded the pain in his body for a while, it is never completely gone. Constantly, it reminds him of how incapacitated he is at this moment. Neji can barely move and if he did, he cannot swallow the pain. He cannot simply strut out of this place and expect to be fine. Neji understands that this world isn't the one he lived in. He's unsure of the differences atmospherically but he knows that no one here has any recollection of their lives back in Konohagakure. All of their names are kept, oddly enough. Neji wonders why he's been put here. If he is able to get hurt in this world, surely, he'll be able to die here. This place looks and feels real, it is real but Neji knows this is not the world he's supposed to be in. There must be a reason why I'm here. So, what could it be? Usually, things that occur happen for a reason. There is something to be learned and to be gained from. It is much like going on missions that Gai-sensei used to give to all three of them, Lee, Tenten, and himself to find their teamwork. But without them here, Neji feels lost. He has no way to find them in this alien world. Neji concludes the night. His head is overloaded and he is far too exhausted to think of anything other than to let his body heal.
Inoichi's mouth runs dry even as he gulps in a glass of water from his own kitchen. No matter how much he drinks, nothing is relieving the stress that is pressured against his neck. Shikaku just called him to inform that their Commander, their Agency's CEO's nephew just got shot and is mistaken to be a serial murderer. Inoichi rubs his temple as he sticks the sticky note from yesterday onto the fridge. He picks up the phone and dials a direct line to the CEO, to Hiashi and his foot begins to tap. Inoichi is far beyond nervous. If not for the CEO not revealing his nephew's profile to the nation, the whole problem will not have been mishandled. Inoichi walks out of the kitchen and goes into the living room. He turns on the television as the phone rings and immediately, the news reports on the case of The White Killer drawing to a close. "The suspect is apprehended and is currently undergoing an intense examination as we speak. Let's go to Miss Moegi-" Inoichi switches the channel and another version of the same news pops up. His heartbeat quickens and he shuts it off.
"This is the CEO's assistant," a sweet soft voice echoes from the other end.
Inoichi paces around his living room as a sweat bead trails down his temple, "Hinata, let me speak to your dad."
"He's not available right now," Hinata stares at her father sitting right next to her in the backseat. They are returning from a restaurant and heading back to the hotel room after a tiresome day indulging in meetings.
"Tell him this is very important, please," Inoichi begs. He knows Hiashi is most likely around her somewhere. In the background, he hears his front door keypad making noise. He groans, Inoichi forgot that his daughter is visiting him today. As rarely as she does visit after his divorce with her mother, he found it not to be a good time for her to arrive at all.
Ino opens the door and steps inside. "Dad, I'm here!" she scoots in slowly as she carries groceries with both hands. The heavy door closes itself and locks up automatically. She can see him on the phone and her bright expression immediately wipes off.
"Yep! I'll be there!" Inoichi yells from the wide living room, "I just gotta handle this thing-" he walks and disappears into the hallway. Ino hears a door close and she sighs. She can see now why her mother couldn't stand her father.
Inoichi flicks on the light to his office and whispers into his phone. This information is not supposed to be revealed to anyone, not even his own daughter, "It's about your cousin, Hinata. Neji."
Hinata removes the phone from her ear and she stares at it in disbelief before carefully handing it to her father. She is flabbergasted. Hinata hasn't seen her cousin since she was five. She mentally begins to count the years he's been sent overseas. It's been twenty-three years. Her father glares at her, he does not want to speak to Inoichi, "It's about brother Neji, dad."
Hiashi's eyes narrow and he reluctantly takes the phone from his daughter and presses it to his ear, "I am on a business trip for a reason, Inoichi. If you haven't gotten the gist of it, I wanted to take a break from you-"
"Neji is here," Inoichi whispers.
"Why are you whispering?"
"He is here, Hiashi-sama!"
Hiashi's jaw tightens and his heart plummets. There is no possible way that his nephew should be here. He specifically banned his nephew from entering this country for his own good. "That's impossible, he's not even due to return here in three more years."
Inoichi cannot reiterate it enough, "Hiashi-sama, your nephew is here and he just got shot."
The car immediately pulls to the side far from its destination. Hinata scurries to get out of the car and she runs to her father's car door to open it. Out came Hiashi fuming from his ears. He blesses the night for being breezy and cold because it is the only thing keeping him from blowing Inoichi's ears off. "Who shot my nephew?!" Hinata closes the door as she follows her father up the curb and onto a deserted sidewalk in front of a closed business building.
"Brother Neji got shot?" she meekly asks as she tries to gain any insight from her father.
Inoichi flinches as he pulls his phone away from his ear, "Um, one of our police detectives, Sir."
Hinata watches on as her aging father angrily yells into the phone, "Is he alive?!"
"A-alive and well, sir," Inoichi stutters at the receiving end. From his door, he can hear his daughter making a whole lot of noise in the kitchen. He knows he has angered her for putting his work before her but his job is on the line.
"I'm coming back in two days and you better make sure he stays alive!" Hiashi grips the phone tightly in his hands before smashing it to the ground. For everything he's done to keep his nephew safe, he feels as if he's going to lose his mind. Hiashi grumpily stomps back into the car as the chauffeur patiently waits for them. Hinata bends down to collect the chip before entering the car.
Inoichi finally releases the tension in his lungs and sighs the longest sigh he's ever had. He believes that it is done and that all will be well. He steps out calmly back into the living room to find his daughter flipping through the channels from the kitchen island, "There's nothing but coverage on this, dad." Every channel blares coverage on The White Killer. Inoichi's eyes bulge and he stares at his phone in his hand. He needs to make sure no one finds out who the "suspect" is. If left unchecked, Hiashi will definitely make his life hell. Ino glares at her father and he stares back innocently. "Don't you do it-"
"I'm sorry, honey," Inoichi dashes back into his office and the door slams closed.
Ino huffs and turns around. She rolls her eyes and stares at the fridge. If not for her dad being such a workaholic, she would have had a brighter childhood. Looking at the peculiar sticky note, she plucks it off from the fridge and reads it. A smile comes to her face and she begins to pull out the groceries she bought earlier. Her father rarely gets to eat homemade food.
The car floors back into traffic and Hinata tenses up. She dislikes when her father becomes angry because it will usually end in him berating her for not being good enough to lead the Agency. She tucks the phone chip into her bag and clicks on her seat belt as the car halts at a red light. Staring at the red light reminds her of the rumors that linger around her father. She believes that it might be true but she doesn't have the guts to ask him. She doesn't even have the guts to ask why her cousin had to study overseas for exactly twenty-six years.
"Call Inoichi and make sure Neji's identity isn't revealed to anyone," Hiashi commands Hinata.
"Yes," she replies. Hinata pulls out her personal phone, seeing as how her business phone just got shattered into pieces a few blocks in the back.
Hiashi tries to calm down as best as he can but it couldn't. The whole situation does not make sense. He personally made a travel ban for his nephew, barring him from ever entering Konoha for the duration of his father's imprisonment just to spare him of any hatred for his father. Hiashi believes that if anyone should bear his nephew's hatred, it should be him for putting his father, his own twin brother behind bars to save himself. Doing so strained his relationship with his nephew but it's inevitable not to. The more that time passes, the less that he receives calls and letter from his beloved nephew. Not even a decent picture of the, then boy, has ever made it to him. Hiashi misses Neji and he hopes he did the right thing to hide his father's disappearance from him. "Have them send me a photo of him."
Hinata dials up Inoichi's number, "Yes, dad." At the other end of the phone line, she discovers that is it busy. She sends a text instead.
Shikaku sends Officer Ken and Officer Ji back and replaces them with some of the CEO's personal bodyguards at Neji's door. He finally unmutes his phone and continues to see his wife's missed calls increase. Shikaku scrolls up the missed calls and spots a text from Inoichi. It asks him to take a picture of the man that he's just been promoted to keep an eye on for the next two days and send it back to him. Shikaku looks up from his phone and uncomfortably walks toward the VIP's door while the bodyguards stare and scrutinize his every move. He blows out a sigh and opens the door. He will not say that he's intimidated by them, instead, he's more on guard of himself now that they're here. If he makes any wrong move, the bodyguards might just relay his mistakes straight to Hiashi and get him fired. "Or demoted," Shikaku whispers as he enters and closes the door. He peeks at the patient on the bed and sees that the man is asleep. Quickly, before the man wakes up and starts to question him as to why he is trying to take a picture of him, Shikaku tiptoes as close as he can with his arms stretched out in front of him. In his hands, he holds his phone with the camera lens zoomed in to its maximum. "All I need is a decent clear picture," he breathes out. He will not take an extra step if he does not have to. Shikaku snaps a picture and he dips from the room without a second to lose. He sends it to Inoichi. Now, all that he has to do is call his wife back.
