AN: Well, I think I deserve some punishment. Posting the 2nd chapter within 1 day of the 1st chapter's creation was a bad idea, especially since it was too soon. I've gotta learn to be a little more patient when it comes to posting new chapters...
But anyway, as you've seen, Naruto has discovered that Neji is female. What's going to happen next?
LET'S FIND OUT SIRS AND MA'AMS!
Chapter 3: It's a Trap!
A few hours later...
Naruto found himself following Neji as they were walking in the woods, trying to find a way back to Gai and Rock Lee. Naruto had to distance himself from Neji, since the Byakugan user did not want to be near him as of right now. Naruto couldn't blame him; the blonde found out his secret after all. Naruto looked up at the cloudy sky, trying to think things over of what in the world just happened.
"I just can't believe that Neji is a girl... And I kinda mistook his... er, her... chest for... well... something else..." Naruto thought, trying to get his thoughts straight.
A day earlier, in Naruto's Flashback...
Naruto could not believe what he was seeing. After his voice echoed throughout the land that seemed to have been heard by everyone in a 50 mile radius, he stood up and started pointing towards Neji's chest, in total awe. What he saw on Neji's chest was a bandage around his chest, but with 2 lumps underneath them that seemed to stick out. It was still wet, and loosened the bandage a little bit, indicating that the bandage was tight around Neji's chest to make his chest flat. But when the bandage got wet, it became loose.
"H-How...!?" Naruto blurted out. "Breasts! I mean... chest! No, wait, I..." Naruto was stumbling over his own words, shocked on what Neji is. Neji kicked the two clones off his arms that was suspending him to the ground, and immediately grabbed his shirt and put it on. However, that failed to hide the two obvious lumps now that the bandage had loosened. Neji blushed, but was furious.
"N-Naruto! T-This isn't what it looks like!" Neji said, trying to tell the situation to Naruto.
"Not what it looks like!? You have two lumps on your chest! Breasts! How can a man have breasts!?" Naruto said, still pointing at Neji. But what he said next was oblivious. "Unless... wait... YOU'RE A TRANSSEXUAL!?" Neji just fell to the ground at Naruto's idiotic comment. Neji immediately got up and yelled at him.
"D-Don't be ridiculous! I'm a girl you idiotic imbecile! What do you--" Neji immediately shut her mouth. He let the word 'girl' slip from his lips. Neji is so flustered with the situation she was not thinking straight, and gave Naruto an even more surprised face than his previous surprised face.
"Wh.. Wha.. How... But... Your...Who... HOW IN THE HELL!?!?" Naruto yelled, still not understanding the situation. Neji may have given the slip of the tounge, but she wanted to get out of this situation.
"Naruto, I am going to ask you this once. Turn around. Now."
"But, I have questions..."
"NOW!"
"O-Okay..." Naruto was still confused on the situation, but he knew that this was a very delicate matter. So he turned around. Neji put her hands under her shirt, so she could tighten up the sarashi around her chest. As she tightened the sarashi, she began thinking.
"Damn it, how could I let this happen to me..."
As Neji tightened up her sarashi, she lowered her shirt. Neji signaled Naruto to turn around, and what he saw was unbelievable. The lumps on Neji's chest were gone, and she looked like the Neji he knew. However, Naruto knew her secret now. But still hasn't figured out why Neji is a girl.
"Neji... How come you hid your---" Naruto was interrupted by Neji's cold voice.
"Shut up, now." Neji said, coldly. He didn't want to talk about his secret at all.
"But Neji...! This is too much of a surprise to ignore...! Why are you a woman? Why are you not a man!? And why do you still have your manly voice and not a woman's voice!? THIS IS TOO CONFUSING!" Naruto shouted, scratching his head in frustration. Neji just stood there emotionless. He turned his back on Naruto, and started heading towards the forest that was laid in front of him.
"N-Neji...?" Naruto started to get close to Neji, until Neji threw a punch at Naruto. Naruto saw it coming and dodged it by backstepping 5 ft. Neji stared at him with emotionless eyes.
"Don't get near me. I want to be alone." And with that, Neji started heading down the forest path, with Naruto following her from far away, still dazed with confusion...
End Flashback
Naruto and Neji haven't spoken a word in hours. Neji had her hands in her pants pockets, while Naruto just followed her from far away. Naruto still couldn't understand everything that has happened to them. First they both fall from that watefall, he rescues Neji, then takes off Neji's shirt due to her incompetence of getting dry, and then suddenly finds out that she's a woman. Naruto scratched his head, as he got to thinking.
"Why would Neji hide her identity like that? I mean, all this time I figured Neji to be a guy, and this happens..." Naruto thought. The uncomfortable silence between Naruto and Neji was unbearable, as they walked in silence. Naruto needed to say something legitimate so Neji doesn't get offended. As they walked through the forest, he noticed that the whole forest was wet, covered in puddles, and even the trees were drenched in water.
"Looks like it rained recently here..."
This brought Naruto to reality. He then realized the battle he and Neji went through before getting into the rampaging river. He now had a good question to ask Neji. Naruto caught up to Neji, where he walked with her side by side. Neji just looked at him and growled.
"Did I not just tell you to leave me alone?" Neji said, staring coldly at Naruto. Naruto shook his head and spoke.
"I just remembered something. What do you think that girl Naomi did to Fuzzy Brows and Big Fuzzy Brows?"
Neji just stopped, and looked back at the direction of the opposite path.
"I've completely forgotten..."
Meanwhile...
Naomi had left an hour ago, leaving the two frozen green beasts alone, in their icy prison. They were all alone, to stay in eternity of their icy grave. However, the two were still alive. Frozen, but alive. Gai and Rock Lee knew that this icy prison was a strong one, but it did not contain them by much. Gai's icy prison began to shake and tremble, and a couple of cracks have appeared outside the frozen glacier. With a few more shakes, and several more cracks within a few seconds, the icy prison shattered, along with Gai's battle cry.
"YARGGHHHH!!!!!" He cried, as his fists were spreaded in the air in opposite directions. The icy prison he broke left several pieces of shattered ice. They spreaded all around and hit the ground, giving it a sparkly form and look. Gai relaxed his stance and took a deep breath. Then he hugged himself over his shivering body.
"I-IT'S COOOLLDDD!!!!" Gai yelled. He immediately started to rub his hands over his body to warm himself up, and to take a few breaths into his hands. But as he looked at his current frozen student, he immediately stopped. He ran towards Lee's icy prison, and clenched up his fist. He focused energy into it, and immediately slammed his fist into the ice, causing it to shatter into several pieces. Lee immediately collapsed to the ground, but regained his stance in a kneel position. But like Gai, he shivered and rubbed his hands over his body, trying to get warm. Although things get unnecessary.
"Lee, my student! Come embrace me so we may both be warm!" Gai opened up his arms wide, indicating he wanted a hug. Lee had no trouble agreeing.
"G...GAI-SENSEI!!!" Lee rushed right into Gai's open arms, hugging each other tightly. Their hug only lasted for a short minute, as they started to get the bearings of their situation. They then remembered the event of where Naruto and Neji dived into the river by accident. Lee looked at the river with a concerned look. But Gai was not worried, and put a hand on Lee's shoulder.
"Do not worry, my student. I am sure those two are fine. Not even a mighty current can damage their youth, nothing can!" Gai gave him a smile and a thumbs up. Lee cheered up a bit.
"Gai-Sensei, what should we do for the time being?" Lee said, for once, snapping back to reality. Gai crossed his arms and put himself into his thoughts.
"Well, it's no use just standing about here. We should go ahead and move on with the mission, so we can find the bandit camp. We might even get revenge on that woman that frozed us into that giant popsicle."
"But Gai-sensei... Something has been bothering me..."
"What is it, Lee?"
"What were those strange kunais she was throwing at us?"
"Hm..." Gai recalled the battle that he had with the woman, and the tag-attached blue kunais they kept getting hit with. "If I had to take a guess, those kunais had a special tag on them-- similar to explosive tags-- that would freeze upon impact."
"Brilliant Gai-sensei! Your eyes do not fail you!"
"Hm... Let us go now Lee. We should go find the... hm?" Gai noticed a rustle in the bushes, and immediately pounced right into it. As he was fighting with a bush, Lee started to cheer him on.
"Go Gai-sensei! Show that that bush cannot defeat the spring-- huh?" When Gai-sensei finished tackling the bush, he took out a single man with shredded clothing. It appeared to be a thief.
"H-Have mercy!!!" The thief cried.
Meanwhile...
"Well, whatever those two are doing, I'm sure they're fine..." Neji said. Naruto and Neji were still walking on the forest path, trying to find their way out of the forest, and back to their team.
"You sure? I mean, that woman seemed to be pretty strong... and sneaky, too!" Naruto said, having a worried look on his face.
"Even if those two are muscle-bound nimrods, they're fast, and strong. I doubt that woman would stand a chance."
"Well... if you say so."
They stopped talking, and only started to walk in silence again. It would seem Neji wasn't uncomfortable anymore, since they were talking about their enemies. However, Naruto still hasn't forgotten about the white-eyed girl's situation. The blonde was afraid she would reject him if he brought up the subject again. He decided to leave it alone for now, since there was no point in pushing it any further.
"Is it that much of a surprise to know that I'm a girl...?" Ironically, Neji brings it up. Naruto just looked at her, wide-eyed.
"Well... yeah, it is. I've known you for 3-4 years, and all this time I thought you were a guy! Everyone did! At least... I think everyone did...?" Naruto started to think... And then he realized it. He put his fist into his other hand, coming to a conclusion. "I get it now! Everyone knows you're a girl, and I'm the only one that thought you were a guy!" Naruto then started to pout. "WHY DIDN'T MY FRIENDS TELL ME ANYTHING!?"
"No, no one knew." Neji immediately disagreed with Naruto's understanding.
"Eh?"
"No one knows of my true identity. None at all."
"Really?" Naruto said, curious now of the conversation he was starting to ignore.
"None... I've been trying to keep this identity of mine hidden for so long... I hate being a female."
"Hate being female...?" Naruto asked. Neji nodded, while looking down.
"This body... It's nothing but a burden towards me, it's not how I wanted to be born, it's not---" But before Neji could finish her sentence, her feet suddenly became immobile as she stepped into a small puddle. Neji widened her eyes in shock as the puddle suddenly became frozen, and frozed Neji's feet! Naruto immediately reacted to the situation and tried to pry Neji's feet out of the now revealed frozen puddle. But Naruto immediately stepped back as he was about to be hit by a few kunai. What Naruto saw in the trees he couldn't believe.
"Awww... And there was a 76.73% chance of hitting you too..." A familiar voice rang Neji's and Naruto's ears. They couldn't believe it. The girl, Naomi, the ex-ninja of the Land of Sea, had found them! Naomi hopped down from the tree, and stood between Neji and Naruto, whom were each 3 ft apart. Naomi gave a mean look.
"You know, I really didn't expect you guys to survive that waterfall." She then brought out her mini-abacus from her pocket, and started toying with it. "Normally, a normal person would have a 0.00000001% chance of surviving it. And I can see that you two are not--" Before she finished her sentence, Neji threw a kunai at her abacus, looking at it shatter in front of her in shock. She then turned around, and got angry.
"Hey! That abacus costed me quite a bit of yen, you stupid girl!" Naomi yelled. Neji couldn't believe her ears when she heard Naomi say that.
"Wha... How...!?" Neji said, in shock.
Again, meanwhile...
"Well now, that bandit sure started talking his mouth off when we caught him..."
"Yes Gai-sensei. Thanks to his help, we know where the bandit camp is."
"Especially their ringleader. I can't believe that girl Naomi is behind it all. We should've been more careful."
Thanks to their sudden findings of a hidden bandit, they were off towards the bandit camp, where they were hoping to liberate, so one of the nearby villages would be at peace again. But as they walked through the clear open field, they noticed a certain view in the distance. Thinking it was the bandit camp, Lee and Gai ran straight towards it. As the scene got bigger and bigger, they noticed it to be a small bandit camp. And by small, it's a few tents and huts here and there, which is pretty low down. When Gai and Lee stepped towards it, they noticed they got several icy glares at some of the men who were outside their tents. The bandits immediately recognized them as intruders. Then, a guy with a evil grin, and a red skullcap stepped up.
"Well well boys! Looks like we have a couple of green morons who stumbled upon the wrong path, eh?" The skullcap guy looked back towards his men, taunting Lee and Gai.
"Sure is, Lieutenut. You think we should have some fun with them?" Another bandit spoke up.
"Heh, what else did you have in mind?" The guy in the red skullcap just laughed. But then he gave a more serious face, and pointed towards Lee and Gai. "Attack! Don't let them escape!" A few bandits charged through to attack Lee and Gai. They immediately got into their attack positions.
"Are you ready for this my student!?"
"Yes Gai-sensei!"
"THEN LET THE SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH PUNISH OUR FOES!!! HOOOOH!" Gai let out a battle cry, as he threw himself into the bandits, unleashing his taijutsu on his foes. Left hook there, right hook, a kick in the face there. Every enemy was a pushover, and got knocked out within one attack. Lee was doing the same, as he was clearing out each bandit with no trouble at all. However, The red skullcap guy just stood there, avoiding the battles. Once all of the enemies were cleared up, Gai and Lee looked at the red skullcap guy. He laughed mockingly.
"Well now, I didn't expect you to wipe out every single person of my men." The skullcap guy brought out a couple of gloves from his pockets, and put them on his hands. They seemed to have a couple of metal knuckle points on the gloves, indicating that a punch from them can hurt. "But you are not the only ones that know Taijutsu. Let us see... IF YOU CAN HANDLE THE METAL BRAWLER!" The red skullcap guy rushed towards Neji and Gai, as they prepared themselves for the attack.
AN: CLIFFHANGER!!! But in all honesty, I don't feel confident with this chapter. But at least I managed to tie down a couple of things. But things should pick up a little bit in the next chapter. Expect a battle people. Oh, and before I forget... I have a poll setup in my profile, so I can decide what story to do next once one of my stories have concluded (I predict Heart of Ice). So be sure to check it out people!
