Author's note: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. I simply borrow them to use in my own sick, twisted fantasies. ^^ –Nira

P.S. I'm SOOOOOOOOOO sorry it's been such a long time since I've updated! My life started to get busy with going to school full time and working all the time. I really shouldn't even be typing right now because it's 1:30 in the morning and I have to be up at 7 to get to work, but I've gotten a bit of inspiration for a few of my stories. Since it's been forever and a year since I've updated, I thought I'd be nice and finally update so I'm giving you three chapters! I had seven and half of eight typed, but I never really felt like finishing, but now I have and I'm sharing them with you! Yay! Again, so sorry it's taken so long, but please enjoy. :) Thanks to everyone who has been patient and stuck with me from the beginning, and to those of you who have only recently stumbled upon this story and stuck with it anyway. I really appreciate your support. :)

Chapter Seven

((Yoruko's P.o.V.))

Pancakes, bacon, eggs, and tea were the scents that awoke me from my dream the next morning. I'd slept on a futon in Hinata-san's room and she'd lent me a pair of pajamas and an outfit to wear for the next day. I yawned and stretched, rubbing the sleep from my eyes before I got dressed and walked out of the room to the kitchen. Hinata-san was cooking and Neiji was sitting at the table. Both of them were smiling and talking and I felt out of place and like I was intruding.

"Good morning, Yoruko-san. I hope you're hungry," Hinata-san smiled.

"Definitely. It smells great," I smiled back, taking the seat beside Neiji and facing him. "So what's our schedule like for today?"

"While Hinata-sama is at work, we'll be shopping for a new wardrobe for you. Tsunade-sama sent you a gift card with a note that says there's enough on it to buy you a new apartment since your last place was insured."

My entire face lit up in excitement and Neiji was in for a long day. After breakfast, Hinata-san left for work and Neiji and I set out to go shopping and I was ecstatic. I'd never gone clothes shopping before. All of the clothes that I'd had had been either given to me by friends or collected piece by piece over the years since I first got to Konoha. When I left Sunagakure, I'd brought absolutely nothing with me. We went to every clothing store that was in Konoha and I bought enough clothes, shoes, and accessories to fill a small bathroom. I even splurged and bought gifts and presents for my friends. I'd needed to make clones to take things back to the house and deliver presents, I bought so much stuff.

When my spending spree had finally ended and my girlish desire for material things had been satiated, it was about seven hours later around four PM. Hinata-san didn't get off work until five thirty and Neiji had collapsed onto the couch, but I still needed to go grocery shopping so I called Shigure-nii to come get me. When he'd arrived at the door, he chuckled.

"Why couldn't Neiji-kun take you?" he inquired.

"He's asleep. I didn't want to wake him up. I think I overworked him today," I laughed.

"So you wear one chaperone out and move on to the next? You must have an expansive source of energy at your disposal."

"I guess so. Thanks for taking me anyway, Shigure nii-san."

"Thank you for the present. You really didn't have to, you know."

"I know, but it's the least I could do since everyone's been so kind to me since I got here."

After we went grocery shopping, Shigure-nii brought me back home, helping me carry the food, and I started making dinner. It had been forever since I'd made sushi, but I wanted to make something nice for Hinata-san and Neiji. I made two different kinds of sushi—tazuna sushi and futo maki—miso soup, tea, and mocha for dessert. It took me forever, but it was really fun and as I was setting the table, Hinata-san walked in.

"Yoruko-san, did you really make all of this on your own?" she gasped, eyeballing the array of food laid out on the table.

"Welcome home, Hinata-san. I hope you're hungry," I smiled.

Hinata-san walked over to the couch and shook Neiji awake, telling him that I'd made dinner in excitement. When Neiji had rubbed the sleep from his eyes and wandered into the kitchen and Hinata-san had gotten settled and joined us, they both sat at the table in astonishment.

"What's all this for?" Neiji asked.

"It's just my way of saying thank you for everything you've both done for me. It's also my apology for being such a burden to the both of you and taking up space in your home."

"Itadakimasu!" Hinata-san smiled and was the first to take a bite.

Neiji and I soon followed after, and the day of shopping and cooking had really made my appetite into something voracious. It was delicious and all of my hard work had paid off in the end.

"This is so good!" Hinata-san beamed and I blushed.

"No it's not. I'm sure you've had better…" I mumbled, poking at my sushi.

After dinner, Hinata-san made room for my new clothes in her closet while Neiji washed the dishes and I started organizing everything that I'd bought and sneaked Neiji's and Hinata-san's presents in their rooms while they were distracted. When I'd finally finished putting everything away, I flopped onto my futon with a sigh and a smile on my face as I stared up at the ceiling. I'd had a lot of fun and gotten a lot done in just a half of a day.

I'd had a question that I'd wanted to ask Neiji, so I jumped up, finally remembering what it was. When I got to his room and knocked on the door, he didn't answer, so I cracked it open and peeked inside. He was fast asleep on his bed with his clothes still on and his headphones in so I smiled, walked over, and removed his headphones. I slipped his MP3 player out of his hand before turning it off and setting it on his nightstand and kissed him before I turned off the light and silently closed the door behind me. I woke up the next day to Neiji softly calling my name and caressing my cheek.

"Yoruko, it's time to get up. Yoruko…"

My eyes fluttered open and I buried my face into my pillow to yawn. When I turned my head back with my eyes closed, Neiji kissed my forehead and I blushed, fully awake now that my face felt like it was burning and my heart was racing.

"Good morning. Are you hungry?" he asked.

I sat up, kicking my legs over him and the side of the futon so I was sitting beside him and leaned on his shoulder. We sat in silence like that for a while just holding hands until I stood up and stretched, asking if Hinata-san had already gone to work.

"Yeah, she left before either of us woke up."

"What time is it? Did we really sleep that late? I wanted to at least say good-bye to her before she left," I pouted.

"If you want, we can go visit her at the hospital."

"Sure… but what's the plan for the day?"

"After breakfast we're going to train with Naruto."

"Alright. I'll start getting ready."

"We're going to the café. You're always saying that their food is really good, so I thought I'd try it for myself this time."

I smiled and raided my side of the closet for something to wear. I took a quick shower and got dressed in loose fitting black pants with a silver and blue dragon curling up and around my leg and a silver sakura embroidered blue shirt with an angel flap sleeve that ended just under my chest. I pulled my hair up into a sloppy bun with my bangs hanging and wore my blue forehead protector and black flats.

"You look great," Neiji breathed, somewhat awestruck, so I blushed and looked at the ground with an impish grin across my face.

When we got to the café after saying "hi" to Hinata-san, we sat in my usual spot and I ordered my usual meal while Neiji ordered a yakisoba dish with peach ginger tea, another of my favorites. I'd never had the café's soba so I stole some from Neiji while he stole some of my steamed cod. The soba was really good, so we'd both ended up eating off of each other's plate as well as our own. Afterward, we walked to Naruto-kun's house to pick him up so we could start training.

"Hey guys! Ready to train?!" Naruto-kun beamed.

"I guess," I chuckled. "Where are we going, anyway?"

"I was thinking that the mountain would be a good place. What do you think?" Neiji inquired.

"Sure, sounds great," Naruto-kun and I agreed, so we started walking toward it.

"What are you going to work on today, Yoruko-chan?" Naruto-kun asked.

"Taijutsu. I've mastered my ninjutsu and genjutsu techniques but since they consume so much chakra, I can't always rely on them. That, and I don't seriously want to hurt either of you."

"You won't. We're tough. We can handle it," he smiled.

"No you couldn't. My blood and chakra aren't the same as a normal person's. They're incurable poisons that are deadly in large doses. It's my bloodline trait kind of like Neiji's Byakugan or Sasuke's Sharingan except mine never turns off," I explained.

"That explains everything! No wonder Tenten's in the hospital. That's so cool!"

"Cool? I hate it… It's a curse… It shouldn't exist…" I muttered, getting lost in a flashback.

I'd just gotten to Konoha and Tsunade-sama had assigned me to a cell as an official Konoha jounin. The three of us were training two against one with me being the one and I'd kept using petty jutsu against them to try to give me the upper hand and slow them down. I didn't think that I'd hit them with much chakra at all so when it had finally caught up and they'd passed out, I assumed that they'd be fine and wake up in a week. A week came and went and I started to worry when they didn't wake up. When the nurse at the hospital told me that they were just getting worse, I panicked. Another week rolled along, then a month, then two and they still hadn't woken up. There was nothing that anyone could do. They were in comas and their bodies were slowly rotting away.

I called their names, Rinku-san and Enishi-san, begging them to wake up. I desperately wanted it all to be a dream and I wanted to wake up and see them smiling down at me because they'd found me taking a nap in the forest and ditching training again… but they wouldn't wake up. It wasn't a dream… I'd killed my teammates and I could never take it back.

Their faces contorted and eyes glossed over and they called out my name, moaning and complaining that I was a horrible person. They were grabbing at me from everywhere, dragging me down to the ground and asking why I'd done it—why I'd killed them. I screamed and struggled against them, tears running down my cheeks and begging for their forgiveness. It was an accident. I didn't mean to. I apologized over and over again, kicking and screaming and sobbing and trying to get out of their deadly grip.

Then I felt it and everything froze and went silent. Calming warmth washed through me and I melted into it. It was a pair of sweet, silken pillows against my lips and it tasted like soba noodles and steamed cod and I slowly came back to my senses.

((Neiji's P.o.V.))

All of a sudden Yoruko had stopped walking and as I looked back at her, her eyes had gone distant and glazed over with horror and she slowly sank to her knees. Naruto and I called her name, gently shaking her but she was lost to whatever she was seeing. She struggled against us, sobbing apologies and pleas to forgive her, repeating over and over again that it was an accident and she hadn't meant to. We tried and tried to bring her back for about five minutes, growing more and more frustrated and worried.

What was she seeing? What was she talking about? I didn't know what was going on, but she was struggling with something painful and I didn't know how to get through to her. I'd vowed to protect her and had told myself that I would make her smile or happy, no matter what, but I couldn't even do that. Out of frustration, I cradled her in my lap pinning her arms down and pressed my lips to hers. If my voice and touch couldn't get through to her, maybe sharing a part of my soul with her would and let her know that it was me—that I was there for her.