Disclaimer: -Insert random fact here- and I don't own Naruto
Chapter 3: The Window to the Soul
It was Tuesday morning and Neji was sitting at the kitchen counter waiting for Hinata to finish getting ready before they left for school. He really should have been finishing his English assignment, but he had other things on his mind. Besides, he could finish his paper in the few minutes before class started. It was no problem.
His mind ran through the many events of the past few weeks, so much had happened and he wasn't sure he could handle it. The problems with his uncle were ever present, but worsening just the same. How he wished his uncle could just see him for who he is, and not for whom his father was. Although, now, Neji didn't think that no matter what happened, his uncle would ever accept him. The Hyuuga family was too traditional.
The other thoughts had been plaguing him for a while now. Yesterday, however, they were only intensified. Sure, it would all be easier if he could just push it all away and do what his 'family' expected him to do, but what would that do? Make him more miserable and not solve anything. He thought about telling Hinata, he was sure she would not care either way, nor would she tell her father unless she felt she had good reason to.
Tenten didn't make it any easier. He knew of her feelings for him, and felt sorry that he could not return them. He was trying to send them to someone else, someone who would probably turn him down in a friendly but hurtful manor. He often thought about telling her soon, before he did anything that he might regret. He liked Tenten, but as a friend and nothing more. He had a feeling that Tenten knew somewhat, but was denying it. Perhaps she was just waiting for him to tell her, but he didn't know.
He fiddled with the strap of his backpack while his head wondered back to the object of his affections. The person who was so nice and energetic, accepting, and thoughtful. The one who would often compete against him in their younger years, but had now matured far enough to abandon some of his youthful endeavors. Probably the closest person Neji would ever have to a best friend. The person referred to as the Green Beast of Konoha, and would save a squirrel from a grenade if he had to.
Neji closed his eyes and dropped his hands, "Lee…" The name escaped his mouth before he could stop it, and he opened his eyes in shock at it. He was snapped out of his thoughts for a moment and his mind was literally empty for a time. A sound from the second floor finally awoke him and got his mind started up again. He looked to the stairs and saw his cousin trotting down them groggily.
"Good morning, Neji." She smiled when she saw him and he returned it as best he could. She grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl and looked into his pale eyes. She could see he was troubled about something, but did not ask, she knew he would tell her if he wanted to. She sent him the silent message with her own lavender eyes, and he unconsciously nodded. Hinata smiled again and Neji picked up his keys and headed to the door, Hinata following close behind. It wasn't long before the man's thoughts returned to their earlier location.
Gaara was snapped out of his daze as he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. He sighed and reached for it. He thought about being sneaky about it, for fear of the teacher confiscating it, but he decided he didn't really care, besides, the teacher was blabbing away about how youthful the subject of economics is while writing practically illegibly on the board.
Before flipping it open, he glanced at the number and instantly recognized it. He furrowed his brow and answered it, "Hn".
"Hey, when can you guys come visit?"
Huh, why did she care all of a sudden? "Dunno, why."
"Well, he called me." The voice of the women on the other end of the line suddenly dropped.
Gaara's heart skipped a beat and he almost gasped, "What did he want?"
"I don't know, but he told me that he wants us to go back there for something, but I don't think that's such a good idea. We need to meet up or something to talk about it."
"We were just there, and you saw what happened to Kankuro." Gaara was struggling to keep his conversation under wraps, fortunately the only people who could hear him were, Shikamaru who didn't care, Hinata who knew better, and some loser kid sitting in front of him that Gaara would kill if he kept turning around to glare.
"I know, which is why I don't understand why he called, of all people. Must be pretty important, I mean, he was the one who told us to leave and helped us get out. Just tell Kankuro so we can get together and discuss this further, I need to go now. Bye." The line clicked and Gaara snapped his phone shut and laid his head on the desk with a sigh.
God, I need a cigarette. When the bell rang, Gaara turned the other way and exited the building, leaving after first period. Kankuro saw him outside the door and pulled out his phone to call him. He stood there waiting for Gaara to pick up. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, without even looking at the number he turned it off and got on his skateboard. He lit a cigarette before pushing off.
"Damn." Kankuro shook his head and entered the class.
Two women were in the bathroom during class talking. Not like the normal girl talk, with gossip and giggling and several 'ohmigosh'es but talking like two very close friends would talk. One of them was in front of the mirror adjusting her makeup, and the other was leaning against the cold tile wall with her arms crossed.
"So, you still staying at Shikamaru's?" Sakura looked up at her friend who was staring intently in the mirror.
"Yup." Ino did not look away from the mirror, probably out of fear of losing the one spot where she could actually see herself underneath all the tags, smudges, lipstick drawings, and other things. She thought she recognized one of the tags, but didn't say anything.
"She's gotten worse hasn't she?" Sakura never took her eyes off of the woman at the sink. Ino did not look away, but she put down her makeup and clenched one of her fists. Sakura took it as a yes.
"Why don't you do anything?"
"Because, it will only cause more problems. I'm staying with Shika, and I'll be moving out completely soon. It's not like she cares. Once I'm gone, it will be all over." Sakura opened her mouth to say something but Ino cut her off. "No thanks, Sakura. You and your 'friends' will not be needed, I can handle this on my own." With that said, Ino put her various makeup items in her bag and lifted it to her shoulder. Sakura got up off the wall and followed her friend out of the bathroom.
"So, how are things with you?" Ino asked as they walked slowly down the hall. They had picked the bathroom furthest away so they would have more time to talk. It wasn't like they never saw each other, it was just that there were things that they never really got to talk about because everyone else was always there. Things that only best friends could talk about.
"Alright." Sakura didn't give any indication of another meaning, but Ino knew better.
"You really should do something else with your life. You were smarter than that."
"Don't preach to me, I did what I did for a reason, and I stick by my decision." Ino looked down and the long scar on Sakura's arm. A constant reminder of what she did, and it always makes Ino's heart hurt. She understood what made Sakura do it, but it still hurt, and now she would probably lose her friend before they graduate. So many of her friends would probably be gone before they graduate, but losing Sakura would be the worst.
They reached the door to their class room, but before they entered, Sakura put her hand on Ino's shoulder and squeezed gently, "Don't worry about me." Ino didn't what to argue, she couldn't help but worry. But instead she put her hand atop Sakura's and smiled. Sakura removed her hand and opened the door so the two could enter.
Shikamaru sat at the board thinking deeply. He was pondering any move he could think of, and any variation of those moves, seeing if he could see a win out of any of them. He had been thinking for a while and he could tell his opponent was growing impatient, even if Neji tried to not show it. At last, Shikamaru picked up a piece and placed it strategically on the board. Neji was about to make his move, but the door opened, distracting him.
"Sakura? I didn't think I'd ever see you in here." Asuma looked up from own game and gave Sakura a welcoming wave.
"Yeah, well, it's kinda hot outside, and Neji said you were looking for members." Sakura shrugged and sat down next to Neji and pulled out her lunch.
"Alright, Shikamaru told me you were good, but didn't expect you to join the shogi team. You gonna be able to make it to any of the tournaments?" Asuma was happy about his former student joining his beloved shogi team.
"Um, I don't know. When are they?" Sakura shook her head when Neji touched a piece to move it. He saw her and thought a second before he took his hand off and went back to thinking. Asuma stood up and walked over to his desk and grabbed a sheet of paper and began highlighting several items. He walked over to Sakura and handed her the sheet. She glanced it over and frowned.
"I don't know, maybe some of them. How many do you need to compete?"
"Well, at least 5. Normally they are divided up into varsity and JV, the 5 varsity members are what we need, and the JV would be alternates should any of the varsity members not be able to attend. We will be having our own tournament starting tomorrow to determine who will be on varsity and in what order. (1)" Asuma had returned to his game and Sakura went over all the dates.
Shit, these are almost all on Saturdays and Fridays. I can't abandon my other obligations for this. I'll probably just go to the few on the other days. I just hope Shikamaru doesn't tell Asuma why I miss so many.
"So, what do you say?" Asuma was staring at her now.
"Sure, I would love to. I'll go to as many tournaments as possible." She gave a fake smile and looked at Shikamaru giving her an all knowing look and she looked away.
"Good, I'll add you to the line up for the tournament tomorrow. If you're as good as Shikamaru says you are, then you'll be on varsity no problem." Asuma returned to his game and didn't talk much more.
Shikamaru placed one last piece on the board and Neji sighed in defeat. Sakura took his place and the board was set up. "So, what do you think about Ino living with you?" Sakura moved a piece and talked quietly.
"She can't stay with her mother anymore. It's not safe." Shikamaru mirrored her move.
"You guys gonna move in together officially soon, she says it's getting worse."
"I know, that was why she was late on Sunday."
"Hinata is very worried about her. From what she saw, she thinks it would be wise if she leaves immediately." Neji spoke quietly as he remembered how much his cousin had been affected when Hinata had seen how bad Ino's situation had become.
"I keep telling her that, and she is trying, but it's not going as quickly as I would like." Shikamaru had slowed his tempo and began to think more about his moves.
"We should probably go over there soon and get all her belongings and put them in storage until she can get a place of her own." Sakura sat back and began thinking about her future moves while she waited.
"I suggested that, but we don't have enough money for it, not yet at least. We've been saving up for an apartment; I don't know how much longer we can wait though." Shikamaru took his move and Sakura paused to think, not about her move, but Ino.
"I can take care of the storage, leave it to me. This weekend though, we should get her stuff."
"I don't know if she wants your help, especially financially. I don't think I do either, there's enough criminal happenings going on." Shikamaru looked up from the board and stared into Sakura's blazing emerald eyes.
"You may not want it, she doesn't either, but you need it. Don't worry about it. I'm doing this for her. I'll have it ready by Friday." Sakura moved her gaze from Shikamaru's, but his did not falter.
"You better be careful about this." With that said, the game, and lunch period, finished in complete silence.
Ino slammed her gym locker shut and rubbed her still sore shoulders. "Damn her."
She started to head out of the now empty locker room when a familiar voice behind her asked, "Talking about me?" Anko leaned against the door frame of her office with a smirk on her face.
Ino glared, "What do you think?" she turned around and started to walk again when a hand reached out and grabbed her shoulder roughly and spun her around.
She was face to face with Anko, only a few inches between their noses. Anko had a suspicious grin on her face, "Believe me, I can make you hurt more in so many different ways." She winked and exited the locker room, leaving Ino in shock. What the hell! Ino snapped out of her daze and exited the room quickly.
All through class, she didn't notice, or refused to notice, the looks Anko was giving her. Back in the locker room, Ino tried to ignore the pair of eyes burning through her back.
Gaara never went home. He just rode his board until he was out of breath and his hair was stuck to his head with sweat. The sounds of the city were lost to his thoughts, silenced by the voices screaming at him. He tried turning up his music, but the volume would no longer increase. Sighing, he pulled out a cigarette and sat down on the curb.
What the fuck is going on now?
'You screwed up again'
No, it has to be something else, I didn't do anything this time.
'Yeah right, you always do something. Always make a bad situation worse'
You're wrong, it was never my fault…there was nothing anyone could do.
Gaara began breathing slowly, in through his nose and out his mouth. He tried to remember everything his shrink told him to do in this situation. The pills in his bag were calling to him, and that woman said it would be the right thing to do, help calm him down, and make him feel better. He pulled them out of the pocket they were in and popped the top of with his thumb, but hesitated dumping them into his palm.
Temari says you don't need them. She says your strong enough without them, and all they do is make things worse. Temari says it'll be ok. Temari's always right.
Thinking about his big sister, even though he would never admit it to anyone, always calmed him down. She was always the strong one of the three, even though she was probably hurt the most, in the most horrible ways, and he cared deeply for her because of it. The voices in his head were quieted for a moment, and he was able to turn down his music and 'enjoy' the sounds of the city. At least they weren't yelling at him.
He pulled out his phone and turned it on. He saw the missed call memo pop up and recognized the number as Kankuro's. He'll understand. He dialed a long time familiar number and waited for an answer.
"Gaara?"
"Yeah."
Temari could hear the disappearing panic in his voice and knew what had happened. "How ya doin'?" She kept her voice calm.
"Okay. I didn't take them." Gaara closed his eyes to take in his sisters' voice fully.
"That's good, just keep thinking positively and you'll be alright."
"Thanks." Gaara was silent, and ignored the other sounds around him, except that one of his sister.
"So, I got a hold of Kankuro, he says that Friday afternoon should be alright." Temari seemed a bit more cheerful. "But we decided that me coming home would be better, more convenient."
Gaara's heart jumped. He always liked it when Temari came home. Well, he just didn't like going to the University, it wasn't his type of atmosphere, to many people. "Okay, see ya then."
"Goodbye Gaara." Temari waited for him to say it too, even though she knew it wasn't likely to happen.
Gaara paused for a bit, and then took in a small breath, "Bye." Temari gave a small smile and hung up her phone. Gaara kept his phone open for a bit to try to listen to the sound of her voice over that of his surroundings, but eventually, he knew it was gone. He closed his eyes and looked at his cigarette. It had burned almost all the way to the filter and an inch of ash remained, waiting to succumb to gravity and fall to a billion microscopic pieces and float away in the wind.
Temari had never Approved of them smoking, Gaara and Kankuro. She said it was a terrible habit that would keep them from ever finding a suitable girlfriend. Gaara didn't mind, he wasn't looking for anyone anyway. He thought that maybe she didn't like it because their father had smoked, but he smoked cigars, expensive stuff, cigarettes were for hicks and smelt bad. He shrugged the thought of his father out of his head, that always made things bad. He looked at his watch and decided that he should call Kankuro to let him know he wasn't dead, though he wasn't quite sure where he was, but that didn't matter. He listened to the ringing on the other end and before long a man's voice answered groggily.
"H-hello?"
Great, he was getting high, "Yeah, it's me."
"Oh, heyhey Gaara, where you at?"
Gaara decided to lie so Kankuro wouldn't get the idea to drive, he wasn't the best judge on his condition when it came to driving, and he already had two DUI's on his record, "Just a few blocks away. Felt like letting you know I'm okay." A familiar girl's giggle on the other end surprised him, "Um, what are you doing?"
"Makin' some mac & cheese with Tayuya." Gaara shook his head and felt like smiling, Of course.
"I'll be home soon." With that, he snapped his phone shut and stood up pulling out another cigarette. He lit it and looked around, trying to decide how to get home. After failing to come up with a quick and easy route, he just turned around and went back the way he came, making sure to keep track of where he was.
"She's late again." Neji paced the auditorium stage back and forth angrily. "She's gonna get kicked out if she keeps this up!"
"Um, Neji, you didn't really expect her to actually be prompt did you? The only reason why Jiraiya hasn't kicked her out yet is because she's a talented musician. Just give her a few minutes."
"There's no point, we'll just get started now, everyone else is here." Hinata reluctantly nodded and took her place in the audience with the rest of the group.
A booming voice erupted from the stage, "Welcome one and all to our first official drama meeting! Sorry about the canceled class yesterday, I was getting in a meeting and Kakashi was late, which I'm sure all those familiar with him will understand." A few of the students in the audience nodded and rolled their eyes. "Glad to see so many new youthful faces among the familiar ones." Gai stood on the stage in a spotlight that had just appeared, and was striking his nice guy pose.
"Um, Gai is the Drama teacher too?" Hinata leaned over her armrest and whispered in Neji's ear.
"Uh, yeah, guess I forgot to tell you." Neji smiled weakly and avoided Hinata's glare. She didn't really like Gai, he traumatized her on her first day freshman year back when he taught English. He had made her stand up in front of class with Naruto when she had the huge crush on him. To show the kind of things that they would be doing that year, Gai thought it would be a wonderful idea to have her and Naruto act out the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. As expected, the two didn't get very far before Hinata passed out and Gai had to carry her to the nurse's office. Ever since then she had tried to avoid him, which was impossible this year seeing as she now had his economics class.
"It's alright Hinata, he's not gonna do anything to embarrass you." Neji tried to comfort his cousin with what he hoped was the truth. Yeah right, you know how Gai is, and she's new this year.
Gai started speaking excitedly in his booming voice once more, "Alright, this year, our class is going to be putting on a performance of Shakespeare's Othello." Everyone, whether meaning to or not, looked at the single black guy in the entire class, probably entire school (2) who shifted in his seat and rolled his eyes.
"Well, I guess that means I get the lead role for once."
Gai scratched the back of his head and continued talking. "Well, to practice some Shakespearian speaking and acting, I have a few scripts here from Romeo and Juliet. Neji why don't you come up here since you're our veteran lead." Neji rose from his seat and walked cooly up to the stage.
Neji saw Gai scanning the audience for someone to play, he assumed, Juliet. Finally, he stopped on someone and Neji heard an all too familiar squeak, Oh, Gai, don't do it. Neji prayed to every single God he had ever heard of, but apparently they were all out to lunch with each other.
"Hello there, I do believe you are familiar with this play, why don't you come up here, uh…Hinata!" Gai smiled proudly, completely oblivious to the trembling girl in front of him, lost in the horrible memories of her first day of high school.
Gai handed her a script when she got on stage and was standing next to her cousin. "Go ahead with the balcony scene, that is something that should be familiar." The two flipped through the script until they found it.
Neji noticed Hinata's trembling hands and whispered "Don't worry about it, it's me this time, I'll help you." Hinata gave a small nod and thus began the scene.
Although Hinata stumbled slightly in the beginning, she quickly became comfortable with Neji there to guide her. When she finished, everyone clapped and they both bowed. Gai was clapping the loudest and walked up to the two students.
"That was excellent, wonderful display of youth (cue eye rolls)! I do believe I have found our Desdemona!" Gai clapped Hinata's back so hard she almost fell over, but she smiled at the praise. "We will still have to hold auditions, but I also think that Neji would make a wonderful Cassio, or perhaps Iago if you feel like playing on the dark side for a bit?" Neji shrugged, he didn't really care. The two returned to the seat and Gai stayed on stage.
The rest of class was pretty mellow. Gai handed out the scripts to Othello and told a few freshmen to hang up posters around the school to advertise auditions while the rest of the class acted out a few minor scenes. When class let out, Neji waited for Hinata outside the auditorium doors.
"Um, Hinata, can I talk to you?"
"Sure Neji." Hinata was a bit confused to this, but continued to walk with him to his car.
"Would you hate me, if I liked-er, if I was- um-." Neji was stumbling with his words, something that almost never happened and Hinata became concerned.
"Neji, whatever it is, I promise I won't hate you. I could never hate you, no matter what my father says."
Neji nodded and began to formulate his words. He began slowly, "Hinata, I'm…gay." Wow, that wasn't to bad, just three words.
Hinata paused for a moment and looked at him, she could see he was waiting for her answer and preparing himself for her disapproval. Suddenly she smiled and gave him a big hug, "Oh, that's so sweet. Is that why you have such pretty hair?" She let go of her cousin and looked at him. She giggled at the confused look on his face, "What, did you honestly think I wouldn't like you because you're gay?"
"Er, well, your family isn't exactly, Liberal." Neji was now smiling at his cousin's open mindedness.
"Listen to me Neji, I am not my father, and I never will be. I don't think I could even if I wanted to. No matter what you do, I will always love you. I was there for you when you had your problems when you were younger, and I'll be here with you through this too."
"But what will your father say, or do?" Neji was worried now, his uncle had already threatened to kick him out or worse for things not nearly as bad as this.
"I don't know, but when you decide to tell him, I'll go with you if you want. Hopefully he won't over react." She gave her cousin a warm smile and another hug. This time he smile back and embraced her back. Still, neither of them couldn't help but worry about what would happen should he decide to some out to her parents. "Let's go get some ice cream to celebrate!" Hinata let go of Neji and ran to the car and hopped in.
Neji followed her rolling her eyes. "Fine, but you're buying." He started the car and pulled out of the school parking lot.
"Okay, but you have to tell me who you like first." Neji looked over at her wide eyed for a second before he looked back to the road.
"How did you know I liked someone?"
Hinata smiled, "Well, you wouldn't know you were gay, well, at least have a strong enough feeling about it to tell me unless you had someone in mind. So, who is it."
Neji nodded his head at his cousin's logic, even if it wasn't perfect. He had always preferred guys, as far as he knew, but it's true that it wasn't until he developed such strong feelings for a certain friend of his that he knew for sure. "You really wanna know?"
Hinata shook her head furiously. "Of course."
"Okay, but you have to promise not to laugh."
"Why would I laugh?"
"Well, he's, uh, not exactly every girls dream."
"So, you're a guy. Just tell me, I'm dying to know."
Neji laughed and took a deep breath, "Alright, it's Lee." Neji braced himself for her response.
Indeed, Hinata was very close to laughing, but she promised, so she sucked it up and thought about it. He was strong, nice, somewhat intelligent in certain things, would save a squirrel from a grenade, she could see why Neji liked him. In fact, the only reason why Lee wasn't beating the women off with a stick was because of his clothing choices and his hair style. She looked over at Neji with a smirk, or as much of a smirk as the Hyuuga heiress could muster, "Just promise me that you'll fix his hair and clothes."
Neji let out a small laugh, "That's only if he likes me back, I don't even think he's gay."
Hinata noticed his sad face and was sorry herself. "Don't worry about it, Lee is a nice guy and a great friend. I'm sure if you told him he would not take any offense. Knowing him he would yell something about what a wonderful display of youth or something. Besides, I've always thought he admired you, and I know for a fact he is jealous of your hair." Hinata smiled at the memory and so did Neji. Lee had practically announced it once, although no one could really remember why.
"You're right." Neji still wasn't entirely convinced though, and Hinata saw this.
"Hey, I know this is cliché and all, but the worst that could happen is that he could say no."
"I guess, I just don't know how to tell him without embarrassing either of us."
"Trust me, I don't think Lee could be embarrassed. Just do it straightforward and honest."
"I'll try. I think coming out to you was the first hurtle I needed to jump, and that turned out well." The two pulled into the parking lot of the ice cream shop and Neji turned off the car and they both got out. They entered the shop and took a second to laugh at the guy behind the counter.
"I still can't believe you actually got a job." Neji leaned on the counter still chuckling at his favorite shogi opponent. Hinata was also giggling slightly.
"Yeah, well, if me and Ino are gonna get an apartment, we need the money, and I figured this place was as good as any. Even if I gotta wear this stupid hat and troublesome apron, hmph." Shikamaru sighed and fiddled with his white and pink hat. "So, what do you guys want-what are you guys even doin' here, don't you have your own ice cream shop in that mansion of yours?" Shikamaru looked at his friends questioningly.
"We're, uh, celebrating." Hinata smiled and Neji blushed and didn't say anything.
"Celebrating what?" Shikamaru tried to still look bored, but was genuinely interested.
"Um, well, I-uh…came out." Neji avoided Shikamaru's eyes and pretended to be interested in a particular flavor of ice cream.
Shikamaru was silent for a moment as he thought of what to say, "That explains the hair." Shikamaru said plainly and Hinata started laughing. Neji glared at the two and Hinata shut her mouth and Shikamaru just continued to look bored.
"Just give us some ice cream." Neji huffed and Shikamaru mumbled before turning to Hinata.
"What do you want?"
"Um, that chocolate fudge kind right there in a cone." Shikamaru nodded and turned to Neji.
"Mint chocolate chip in a cone." Shikamaru nodded again and rang it up.
"$4.07." Hinata gave him the cash to the penny and Shikamaru through it in the register before turning to prepare their products. He handed them to the two Hyuuyas over the counter and they sat down at a table and began talking quietly while Shikamaru laid his head back down on his palm and yawned.
"So, you gonna tell Tenten?" Hinata licked her ice cream not taking her eyes off Neji.
"Yeah, I'll have to. I hope she doesn't take it bad."
"Don't worry about that, it's better for a guy to turn you down because he's gay instead of him not being attracted to you."
"Really?" Neji turned his attention away from his ice cream with a look of curiosity on his face.
"Duh, that means he doesn't like any women, not just that one." She smiled and he nodded in understanding. The two finished their frozen treat and stood up to leave.
Before they were out the door Shikamaru spoke up, "Hey, you might wanna be careful about telling Ino, knowing her she would squeal and ask to play with each others hair, and paint nails, or something." Shikamaru smirked, Neji rolled his eyes, and Hinata giggled.
"Yeah that sounds like something Ino would do." Hinata said.
"What sounds like something I would do?" The three jerked their heads to the door where Ino was standing with an eyebrow raised.
"Um, just your reaction when you found out Neji was gay." Shikamaru said calmly. Neji and Hinata both got almost identical looks on their faces, though Neji's was of horror and Hinata's was of laughter containment, must be a Hyuuga thing.
Ino paused for a moment to take it in, then her face contorted and she…squealed and ran up to Neji and gave him a big hug. "Ohmigosh, I love gay guys! No wonder your hair is so pretty. Ah, we should braid each other's hair, that would be so much fun." Hinata and Shikamaru were rolling on the floor laughing while Neji sweat dropped.
Sasuke pulled into his driveway and parked his car. He sat in it for a few minutes while he finished his cigarette and listened to the music that blasted through the speakers. He didn't think anyone was home, they never were, always working not even caring about him. He was coming home hours late and they would never know. Heh, I should throw more parties. God knows Itachi and his friends got away with a ton.
He dropped his finished cigarette out the window and turned off his car. When he got out he stepped on his cigarette before he made his way to the front door. He failed to look around and notice that his was not the only car in the driveway.
Before he even opened the door he heard someone playing guitar in the upstairs and gasped. He threw the door open and ran upstairs without even taking off his shoes, his father would have his head for that.
The guitar playing slowly grew louder as he ran down the long hallways toward his room. He stopped shortly before to catch his breath before he threw open his door to his room, the source of the racket.
"What the hell do you think you're doing here?" Sasuke had a glare that could turn the most dangerous dragons into geckos.
The person playing the guitar looked up but didn't stop playing.
Sasuke was angry, but was trying desperately hard to control his growing temper. "I asked you a question." His voice could freeze ice it was so cold.
The man stopped playing the guitar and set it down before getting up and approaching Sasuke. Sasuke didn't move and just stared the intruder in the eyes. The man stopped in front of Sasuke and placed his tattooed arms into his pockets before smirking. "Now, now, Sasuke, is that any way to greet you brother?"
"Hmph, what do you care?" Sasuke caught a glimpse of the shining metal in his brother's mouth, dancing around with the movement of his tongue, and it irked Sasuke to no end. Look at him, it's despicable. The great Itachi Uchiha is nothing but an embarrassment to the name, parading around like a side show freak. I can't believe my parents actually prefer him over me.
"I don't." Itachi smirked again before sitting down on Sasuke's chair and putting his heavy spiked boots on the desk.
Sasuke growled at his older brother's behavior. "What are you doing here!" This time it came out as a yell rather than a civilized question.
Itachi merely pulled his hands out of his pockets and crossed them behind his head, his sleeveless black shirt rising above his studded belt revealing parts of additional tattoos on his abdomen. "I had business here."
"What do you mean business?" Sasuke made the last word as spiteful as he could, and it tore through the already uncomfortable atmosphere.
"Just a simple…transaction with an old client." Itachi was appearing to be purposely trying to anger his younger brother further, but he was indeed choosing his words very carefully. His brother was smart, and Itachi knew better than to try to be too cocky around him lest he grow some balls and turn him in.
"What kind of transaction?" Sasuke feigned indifference.
Itachi knew better, Foolish little brother, you'll have to do better than that. "Business transaction, that's all." Itachi got up from his seat and smirked at his little brother again. He put his hands in his pockets again and pushed past Sasuke and exited the room, the chains on his torn pants jingling away in Sasuke's ears.
"I'll be staying the night here. Don't bother trying anything, little brother." Itachi continued down the hallway and entered his old room, slamming the door behind him. Before long, death metal music could be heard blaring throughout the house.
Sasuke slammed his door and punched his wall. "FUCK!"
1) Ok, I don't even know if shogi teams are real, but I'm assuming that they are. I also have no idea how they would be ran, so I based if off of Chess Team…which I was on.
2) Yeah, there are no black people in the entire series, at least that I've seen. The closest I think would be Kidoumaru (sp?), and I don't really feel like putting him in, so I'll have to make one up. Talk about a racist show.
YAY! Itachi's here, he'll become more important as time goes on. I think I decided on the partner for Gaara, I suppose it's pretty obvious. I'm gonna get them together a bit differently though. I wanted to make Hinata a little braver in this fic because I'm tired of the wussy one, though I couldn't help but throw in a good ol' fainting-in-front-of-Naruto-because-she-has-a-huge-crush-on-him moment, classic. There will be moments of younger Hinata breaking through though.