Disclaimer is in Chapter 1
I guess I've irritated some people due to the filter I've put the characters on. Oh well. No matter what I change it to (I've changed the filter 3 times now) I still get very personally insulting comments. But I will continue to delete those.
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I'm Not A Princess: Ahahaah I wonder if you would be in favor of this sequel... Wait until the end, and then tell me haha XD
MyKyo: Because then the story wouldn't be my story, and that would kind of defeat the purpose. Besides, I thought I made it clear when Hinata was going on and on about how it was her child inside of her, another living being, etc etc... She's having an inner conflict with her duties and her motherly instincts, and her instincts as a human being basically. Not that I'm taking sides at all on any life v choice issues or anything. But in the next chapter it will explain more in depth why she chose to kill herself.
just a reviewer: There can be more than one main character. Although this is not a NaruSaku. But. Sakura is basically gonna get her life flipped turned upside down (cue fresh prince of bel aire) -ahem- but no really. At the very end of this fic, if anyone needs some serious fucking help, it's her. And why did this all start? Because of Naruto's drunk sperm, of course! And he does come in later to try and fix everything. But does it work? dun dun dun! (I love how no one ever asks about Neji XD)
the (most likely a Guest): I DELETED THIS REVIEW RESPONSE CUZ IT WAS RUDE AND I FEEL BAD ABUT IT. :/
groomer: If Hinata sucks then why the fuck are you reading this? GTFO.
If you're here for pairings and love and NaruSaku, you can leave now. Cuz really, there's very little, if any romance in this fic.
If you're here to read a decent fic just for the helluvit, enjoy!
A shrill scream awoke all those residing at the Hyuga compound. Bare feet pounded loudly against the wooden floor.
"What is it, Hanabi?" Neji gasped out.
Hiashi followed close behind. "Hanabi?"
But the girl was silent, staring out into something beyond the two men.
"What is it, Hanabi?" Neji pressed. Flashbacks of Hinata's face came and went. This urgent, terrifying feeling was becoming too much.
But the girl slowly shook her head. She slid down the wall and onto the floor with a plop.
"Was there something in the bathroom?" Hiashi asked.
Neji glanced nervously toward the bathroom. The light was on, and the door was barely ajar. He feared the worst. Hiashi made as if to open the door, but Hanabi suddenly sprang to life.
"NO!" she shrieked. "Don't go in there!"
Hiashi's expression changed quickly from shock at his daughter's outburst to annoyance. "Well, why not?"
Tears ran down Hanabi's face. "No… Don't go in… Don't look…" she muttered.
Neji knelt down and held her to him, nodding at Hiashi. 'Go on,' he mouthed. He was being a coward. He knew this. But something was telling him exactly what Hiashi would find inside the bathroom, and Neji wasn't strong enough to see it. In any case, he had to take care of Hanabi, because she had seen…
Hiashi's features took on qualities of someone attempting to scream. He stumbled backward, and his knees gave way under him. His mouth moved very quickly but no sound was coming out.
"Wh-what is it?" Neji asked, feeling bewildered, even though his mind already knew exactly what was going on.
Hiashi didn't respond.
Neji gently let go of Hanabi, and he peered anxiously around the side of the doorway. White pills littered the damp tile floor. There was a broken bottle of—was it vodka?—around the perimeter of the bathroom. The curtains of the tub were pulled back just enough to reveal a stark, white body, painted red with the fluids in the water. The arms were absolutely torn to pieces, and the lips were blue. The face looked to be twisted somewhere between an expression of pleasure and agony.
Numbly, Neji stood up and went to his room. Somewhere, in the far reaches of his mind, he noted that there was an envelope on his bed. But he ignored it, and went to sleep.
There had to be an autopsy done. Even though everyone knew that it had been a suicide, it was still the unnatural death of the heir of a Noble clan. Procedures, procedures. Hiashi hadn't opposed it, but he didn't like it, either. Neji actually had opposed it. He'd asked if there was any other way. When they'd told him no, he requested one of Tsunade's doctors to perform the autopsy. He knew that they wouldn't release any information to the public.
The three surviving, close relatives to Hinata Hyuga were called in the very next day. It was suggested that Neji and Hanabi wait outside in the waiting room, but Hiashi deemed that unacceptable. They had every right to know all the details about Hinata's autopsy, straight from the horse's mouth.
According to Shizune, a trusted doctor who dabbled in many fields of medicine and had been personally trained by Tsunade, was present herself to give the report. Apparently, a fetus had been found in Hinata's womb. Neji reeled with shocked. Of course this was something he had thought of, but… Why hadn't she gone to Naruto? I don't really like him… But he would have done his damnest to take care of her and that kid! What in the hell—
It suddenly struck him that he had never opened that enveloped on his bed. Maybe it was from her… It was unlikely, but shouldn't he at least check?
He, Hiashi and Hanabi all knew Hinata's death was a suicide. Shizune hadn't shed any light on that. She hadn't shed any light on how she killed herself, either. She didn't have to, in that respect, as they could all well imagine how she did it. But they all went home that day with a heavy feeling pressing down on their chests—the feeling of someone else having died as well—that this was, in actuality, a murder-suicide.
At home again, Neji silently dragged himself up those big wooden stairs. He didn't look at that bathroom. The envelope had been on his dresser for the past few days. He took it gingerly in his pale hands, and looked at the writing scrawled across it: Neji Huga
A feeling he couldn't quite understand—a mixture of excitement and sadness—was bubbling up within him. He slid his thumb between the pieces of paper to separate them, and he pulled out two folded pieces of notebook paper.
One taped up, with a name written over it: Naruto Uzumaki
The funeral was a closed casket. Everyone was wearing black. Neji had to keep himself from giving people displeased looks as they passed by. Hinata wouldn't have wanted all of this… sorrow, all of this black and grief and…
"Hey." Neji jumped at hearing a voice suddenly very close to his ear.
"Sakura." He growled. "Don't startle me like that." He sat up a bit straighter in his chair and fidgeted with his tie—he'd been itching to take it off all day.
Sakura sat down across from him. They had had a viewing, and a funeral, and now the clan was treating everyone to lunch and drinks. It was somewhat like a reception at this point, although it had the same atmosphere as the viewing.
"So…" The pinkette began. Neji glanced uninterestedly at her. "Naruto is not here…"
He raised one of his eyebrows in disbelief. "You really think that idiot would come to this? I hear Kiba is out to get him."
"What?"
"Yep." Neji looked at her full on then, clasping his long fingers together in front of him. She had on a very troubled expression, twirling her long pink hair between her small white fingers. He didn't like how little light there was in her green eyes. Neji sighed, defeated. "Look." He said. "As long as Naruto stays out of Kiba's way, I'm sure this will all just blow over. But he has to be careful, because I think Kiba is really serious."
They sat together in an uncomfortable, yet companionable silence for a short while. Neji stuffed his hands into the pockets of his long, black dress jacket—Oh! What do we have here? Neji's fingers curled around the letters Hinata had given to him. Ahh. Yes.
The brunette stood. "I am going to go and get us some drinks. Anything in particular that you want?"
"Oh, just some water would be fine for me!" Sakura returned.
This gave Neji a bit of time to consider just how he was going to go about things. Hinata's death had been really tough on the both of them. He knew that Sakura and Hinata were both med students, and they were both good friends. Sakura was the prodigy, that was no secret, but Hinata had been very good.
It made him want to punch something. All of that could be taken so quickly…
"Are you alright?"
It was Sakura.
Neji could have kicked himself.
"You were bringing back our drinks, and all of a sudden you just kind of stopped… You were just standing there…" The concern in her eyes felt so warm… He wanted desperately to feel that warmth, to be wrapped safely inside it…
But those were foolish thoughts—they were the thoughts of a person who was hurting. He would defeat these demons on his own. He didn't need others. He never had needed anyone else. Neji would not be comforted by some woman, let alone by Sakura.
"Come on, let's go sit down." She smiled softly. "I know it's been hard… It's been hard on all of us."
"Did…" Neji shook his head. He didn't even know where he was going with that. He felt the heavy weight of the letters in his pocket. I have to focus on the tasks at hand!
"Did what, Neji?"
Neji looked away from her, almost ashamed of himself—really, he did want to know. "Have… Have you seen Tenten here tonight? Did she come?"
Sakura's response was rather unexpected, at least to Neji. He wasn't looking at her, so it was a bit of a shock when he received a flick on the head. When he looked at her to protest the abuse, he was reproached by her fierce, angry gaze.
"Of course she came, Neji. I held her during the viewing and the funeral while she cried. She and Hinata were dear friends. Tenten probably didn't come here to this, I can tell you that much. She was falling to pieces. And she certainly didn't come for you."
Neji sighed, sitting back down. "…Well then. I guess that's that, then."
"Ugh!" Sakura fumed. "How… Just… Ugh! You're so infuriating! You just asked about her so that you could avoid her! You asshole!"
Neji had to admit, an angry Sakura—an angry Sakura flitting around in a rage while in a filmy, swooshy, little black dress—was sort of sexy.
"While that may be true," Neji's hand dipped into his pocket. No time like the present. "I still have this to show you…"
Sakura stopped her mini rampage to look at the paper in Neji's hand. "What is it?" She asked, all curiosity now.
"Here, sit down." He gestured to the chair she'd been previously sitting in.
Sakura sat down elegantly enough and crossed her legs. She leaned over the table conspiratorially and said, "Okay, lemme see it." Her eyes glowed brightly with excitement.
Forcing his eyes upward—not anywhere near where Sakura's cleavage may or may not have been spilling out onto the table—Neji tossed the letter to her.
"Here is the first one… You could say it's basically her suicide note."
As I said, I will continue to delete the rude reviews posted here, because guess what? No fucks given. You can't hurt me with words (half the time misspelled) on a screen.
