"Did you just come here to try to prove yourself to me…" His voice breaks the uncomfortable silence. "…or did you need something?" He adds in a cold tone, showing no gratefulness for her earlier kindness. It´s only now Akai realizes the man might have foud her slight stalking a bother.
The man seems to consider if he can believe her judgement in the bird subject but his frowning face tells her that he doesn't appreciate that she told him he was wrong. A cold shiver runs down Akai´s spine as those white, all seeing eyes of his pierces her soul. Akai notices his tenseness and understands that she somehow made him upset. Her eyes can't see well but the blurry picture of the Hyuuga in front of her somehow makes her rather curious.
"What's your name?" He asks her when he gets no reply on his first question.
"Isozaki Akai." She tells him, but adds when he's about to ignore her. "It's regarded polite to tell your own name when someone told you theirs."
She dares to say, wanting to know more about him, even if her tone is slightly off. Akai´s smile turns into a challenging smirk as she notices how the man seems to consider it, as if he doesn't really think that she's worth knowing his given name or thinking that it isn't any reason to tell? Something tells her that he's not underestimating her, he's just careful around an outside ninja who also has a problem of coming off as too rude than she means. He decides to share his name with her after a moment of deliberation.
"Hyuuga Neji."
Akai can't help but stare at him for some moments as her picture of him changes, "the man with the eyes" isn't nameless anymore and she wonders for a while if the name Neji is well suited him. What his mother and father thought of when naming him. Akai´s weak sight can´t see or tell if that name compliments him or not. Akai decides that she has to be honest with him because a strange feeling tells her that his eyes will discover her secrets anyway, and she wants to make up for her slightly stalker-ish behavor. Akai doesn´t want to come off as a threat.
"Hyuuga-san, to tell you the truth, I want to know more about your eyes." She tells him in a gentle voice. "Your kekkei genkai interests me...because your presence is so strong and clear."
Neji gives her a long gaze without any attempt at answering her since she didn't really ask any questions. The Konoha ninja can't help but wonder what the foreign ninja wants to know, but he's rather sure of that it's something he doesn't wants to tell her: tell anyone about. His uncomfortable silence tells her to continue talking before he loses his interest. Akai sends him a forced smile, a simple movement of her lips that tells him that she's quite nervous and uncertain about this.
"When I, someone who can't see too well ...noticed that someone can see further than the average…" Akai stops talking for a moment. She can't help but lose her words. How can she explain so he will understand her? It would just sound as some strange novel or something if she tried. Akai´s pigment-free hair moves around her shoulders as she shakes her head as she changes her way to approach him with words. "…I just want to know you since I've a feeling that we could have things in common."
Akai doesn't dare to look at the man since the things she's about to say is not something she would say to just anyone. Small vibrations in the ground tells her how Neji has tensed up even more, maybe he thinks that she pities him somehow? Talking about things she can´t or shouldn´t be able to understand? The albino girl decides to continue.
"I've researched about your clan… "
"What do you know?" Neji interrupts her in a cold voice, in an almost angry tone. He doesn't want to hear what she's about to say. "What do you think you know about the Hyuuga clan, about me? You can't possible know…you´re.."
"An outsider." Akai ends before he could utter the word; she returns his impoliteness by interrupting him. "That's something I always hear. Or ´We can't trust her, she can't see!´ like my sensei once said to our village's leader. I've always been underestimated and neglected."
Akai stares at Neji with determination shining within her blue eyes. Her sensitive senses notice how the man in front of her keeps on tensing up. The small vibrations in the ground grow stronger as the man seems to get into a defensive pose. Akai knows that she's making her situation worse but she also believes that this is the only way she can explain how she thinks. Some might say that she's adding fuel to the fire. While it´s clear Neji grows frustrated with a stranger wanting to be closer to him than she should be, saying things she clearly can´t understand.
"We can't trust her, she can't see!´." She tells him once again and adds something she believes he's familiar with. A sentence that is really alike the one she hears all the time. "We can't teach him that move, he's not from the main family." Akai adds.
Something inside of Neji explodes. He moves foward and grabs her by her shoulders forcefully in a quick motion that takes her by surprise. A small gasp leaves her lips as Neji pushes her against a cherryblossom three with a pair of arms that seems to be made of iron. This girl, who's not supposed to be here on the Hyuuga´s training grounds, shouldn't know about any of this!
Akai doesn't like the iron grip he has on her and she uses one of her basic grass techniques to get out if the situation. Her body turns into grass suddenly and she appears beside Neji with an alerted expression on her pale face. She evades quickly as he charges at her with the gentle fist she read about. Those hard hands moves quickly to hit her charka points and Akai has to use her full hearing to escape from his sudden fury. She isn´t even successful in her attempt, because he seals a few and makes her body grow heavy. Akai can easily tell that the man is very talented and much more skilled than herself. His eyes and style leaving her quite defenceless.
"You're in the …AUGH!"
A strong hand encircles her throat and makes it hard for her to breathe. Her blue, misty orbs stir but she finds Neji´s narrowed eyes at last; looking into a pair of Byakugan eyes she feels so defenceless and weak. She doesn't look away when he narrows them further. In times like these you should be afraid and fight for your life, but Akai can't help but just stare. Neji is in more pain than her at the moment, his angry composure tells her how upset her words made him. Akai thought she knew about his pain but now she realises that Neji is more hurt than she ever could have guessed.
"D-does it …h-hurt?" She stutters by the lack of oxygen.
"What?" He breathes. Akai notices the slight change in the man´s willpower and that makes her believe that her question actually caught him off guard, even if his composed body tells otherwise. As if the man regrets his sudden outburst against her.
"…The mark."
A girl from another country shouldn't know the Hyuuga´s secrets and this one; she speaks as if she understands him. It pisses him off. His Byuakugan eyes turn shocked for a mere moment before he shuts them close firmly, he decides that it's best to not fight her since it would only make things worse. Hyuuga Neji feels naked in front of her, like she has him figured out. He knows that it isn't possible but Akai knows more about him that he ever told his fellow comrades. It's only his fellow clan members who should be able to see through his cold façade…
"Hn!"
Neji drops her suddenly and Akai falls to the ground gasping for air slightly, she glares at him with a pair of misty blue eyes while rubbing her aching throat gently. Maybe he's more like me than I knew? What if he also pushes away people who want to help by thinking that they pity him? The Hyuuga doesn't bother to even look at her as he slowly turns around to walk away. Her senses notice how his body composure has changed from tense to a battle mode, her sensitive ears can almost hear his quick pulse. I must have pushed some of his buttons…just great! She thinks with sarcasm. But a strange feeling rages in her stomach as she sees how the outlines of the man slowly disappear from her sight. Akai doesn't want their first meeting to end like this. Something about Hyuuga Neji is special and she knows that she'll regret it if she gives up now. Without her mind knowing what to do she opens her mouth and utters two words that she doesn't know where they came from.
"I know how it feels!"
The light vibrations in the ground get to an abrupt halt and that tells her that he stopped waling away. Akai closes her eyes. She doesn't know if her words will be the right ones, or if the man in front of her will understand something she can't explain herself. But somehow, in someway, she feels this special connection to him. His family relations and hers; always being underestimated somehow…by the ones you're supposed to love the most. But why should he listen to her? A stranger from another village, a blind girl with sickly pale skin and weird pink eyes, someone everybody else has rejected, underestimated or thought was not reliable enough.. Someone who he has not known for a day. But sometimes you've to try something you might regret to obtain the things that you want. Thinking she has nothing to lose, Akai tells him her thoughts in a lone sentence filled with more than the words can ever explain.
"…I know how it feels to live like a caged bird." Akai tells him in a low voice. "Locked away in your own home, or in your own body." Akai adds at last. "And the ones who you're supposed to love have thrown away the key…"
A long silence spread between the too and Akai feels that she has done too much. She regards his tense composure with a sad expression. I've ruined it…His blurry figure looks really beautiful there as he stands completely still with the wind playing with his long hair. But his whole body tells her about his weariness. Akai´s own clumsiness with words might have driven him further away than closer.
"I'm sorry." A sad and pained sigh leaves her lips.
Neji´s white eyes twitch as the apology reaches his ears. Her sadness confuses him just as her way to ask for forgiveness. Something that her weak eyes can't notice is how his emotional amour is lowered for a moment as her words seems to reach him. He nods one lone time more to himself than to her before he continues to head toward the Hyuuga mansion on the other side of the bridge. The blurry picture of him nodding slowly makes her breathe out with some relief; Neji turns away from her to walk back over the bridge. His tenseness fades slowly as he moves away, the sakura flowers falls down around him as the breeze turns. Akai can almost feel how the cherry blossom petals touch his skin; Akai just wishes she could have seen it too. A pair of blue eyes flutter close slowly as Neji´s steps disappears out of her senses range. She touches her chest; her heart is aching.
The grass kunoichi feels that she can't stay here any longer now and she walks towards the Hokage building to ask Tsunade if the papers are ready so she can return home again. Her fight with the Hyuuga depresses her greatly and it's one of her reasons to try to get out of the village. She needs calmness, she needs to rethink and get over her mistakes. Akai knows that she's fleeing and the thought makes her hesitate a little. By accepting the mission to guide Uzumaki Naruto back to Konoha and create a new alliance she thought that she could find some peace and freedom. Being away from an overprotective Akane, her ´I know everything brother Aoi and the whining Gosai but she never thought that she would want to return, return to the cage. Something tells her that she never was free even outside her village, her cage follows her somehow and even new people, foreign people, treat her like the do at home. People are too superficial...and it isn´t even the biggest problem. She also acts a special way because she´s so very concious of that she´s different and an underdog.
"How are you, Isozaki-san?" Shizune asks her when she passes her by in the corridor, Akai frowns at the tone the woman is addressing her with.
"I'm fine thank you." Akai answers in an half lie. "Is the Hokage busy? I've something to discuss with her."
"Hokage-sama is always busy." Shizune laughs. "But she's signing documents at the moment and I believe she would be happy to get interrupted."
"Well I'm off to interrupt her then."
The two women nod before walking away from each other. Akai knocks on the door three times before she opens it. She crinkle her nose as the strong smell of sake invades her senses. Tsunade greats her with a casual hello´ and a wave of her hand. The big breasted woman takes a sip from the bottle before she lowers it to the table.
"Hokage-sama, are the preparations done? I need to return to my country soon." Akai tells her bluntly.
"Sorry, but things like these takes longer time then I expected." Tsunade explains.
"How long will it take?" Akai asks in an irritated tone.
"Akai-san. You must have noticed that Konoha is a busy village; it'll take as long as it has to. We can't rush it. And now when Uchiha Sasuke might plan something I need my men ready. To tell you bluntly; your papers isn't our first priority at the moment." Tsunade tells her in a quite harsh way.
"But that's exactly why I need those papers now! What if he attacks Grass?" Akai starts to object.
"Isozaki-san!" Tsunade interrupts her. "Don't rush it. Nothing good will come out if it. As I've already told you once; I'll send someone when all the preparations are done. "
Akai is about to argue but she decides not to. Tsunade regards the girl in silence.
"If something is troubling you, sort it out now. You shouldn't run from your problems; solve them. So just be patient. You can leave"
"Sure… Bye." She utters with venom in her voice.
Akai knows that she's fleeing from her problems. And it's not her village's alliance that she's thinking of. The glares directed at her has always taught her how to stand up for herself and be strong. Dirty remarks about her pale face made her more determinated to show that she isn't as weak as people might think. She was treated roughly but she never thought of running from them; all she wanted and still wants is to prove herself. So why does his eyes haunt her? Why is she running from him when she didn't when the other kids in grass bullied her? Why is he different?
Akai can't sleep, she just toss and turn thinking about what she did to him, maybe she ripped open his scar and forced him to recall his clan´s quarrel? Well sure I did! I literally punched him in the face! She feels uneasy, like she just has to tell him something more to make it right again, but what? When Neji is around she seems to lose her words. And she is just…
Restless.
Have you ever regretted something so badly that you felt like screaming?
But why should she care? Neji is just some guy she thought she could relate to. She corrects herself; he's not just some guy…He´s the guy with the eyes. No… he's a person like everybody else and she doesn't know him, but why does it hurt? Why does Akai regret meeting him? Why does she replay her actions over and over again trying to find what she did to make him upset? What could she have done different? Could she approached him in a different way? It has always been hard for Akai to approach new people, her sarcastic attitude pushes them away but now when she really wants it she seems to offend them instead. Creating bonds with people sure is hard when they avoid you because of the way you look. Way too hard. Sometimes, Akai pondered, that it would be better if you didn't try.
What if he's the same?Having trouble with people in general…
Akai turns in her bed, frowning into her pillow.
I think that when you want to find someone you won't and when you doesn't want to, you'll find him. Like fate is toying with them like it wants…Akai finds Neji at that field again, near the bridge and the cherry blossom trees. He's sitting all alone in the tall grass with closed eyes, totally relaxed. Akai can't help but feel uncomfortable and she's quick to hide her charka and step in behind one of the trees near the river. The sound of the current below the bridge calms her nerves and she gets a chance to really observe the man that has caught her interest. He´s sitting on the ground crossed legged with his back towards her hiding place, the white sleeves touches the grass as his hands rest on his knees in a comfortable manner. Long dark brown strand of hair falls down his back but it's pulled together by a thin ribbon that keeps it in place. The pair of blue eyes is not able to see other smaller details but Akai can literally feel the other's calmness. He's meditating? She doesn't want to ruin it. She closes her eyes again and pushes her body away from the tree, slowly making her way toward the centre of Konoha again. She's fleeing away from him.
"I know you're there." He states bluntly.
Her eyes snap open at the sudden voice and she stops walking immediately. A sigh leaves her lips as she turns around. I guess I've already ruined his moment…She awaits harsh words from him but the man doesn't move an inch nor does he open his mouth to talk. Akai can't read him at all; her body is tense and ready to flee in any moment but his tranquility and silence calms her nerves slowly.
"I never got the chance to learn how to meditate…"
"Is that your way of asking me to teach you?" He asks her in a calm voice, this time without any coldness.
"Eh? Well I…" She answers dumbly. "…Yeah?" A half lie, but she´d take any chance given to mend what she did when they last met.
It hadn't been her way to ask him to train her, but Akai shrugs it off, feeling pleased with the sudden opening. If Akai could see she would notice that a small but visible smirk grace Neji´s lips for a split second. With small steps she approaches his sitting form slowly using her hearing to locate his position. His calm breathing guides her to his side but she sits down and makes sure she's not too close to him. Akai is still wary about the sudden change in attitude and wonders what Neji wants. The tell grass tickles her skin through her fishnet trousers and she adjusts her position to avoid the irritating feeling. She's alerted by his sudden invitation to join him and feels slightly uncomfortable in his presence. A silence grows between them and Akai relaxes at last exhaling loudly. Neji shifts next to her as he starts explaining.
"…Meditation is like a mental discipline where you try to get beyond the conditioned thinking´, into a deeper state of relaxation and awareness." He tells her in a way that makes her believe that he just copied that from a book somewhere. "You've to turn your attention to a single point of reference… You'll find a higher sate of consciousness and gain greater focus."
"…Okay." She answers him hesitantly, trying to understand what he´s telling her.
A deep breath leaves her as she exhales. The Hyuuga´s presence does still bug her a little but she tries to calm down. Her arms rest against her legs as she starts to think of a place far away, but still so close; home. She remembers that sound that's created when the breeze moves quickly between the bamboo sticks, how they sway by the force of the wind. Tense shoulders falls down as she slowly starts to relax more until she's sitting there daydreaming. Gosai´s childish laugh enters her mind and she recalls his face, how his mouth seems to get wider as he gives that special sound no one else can create. She's there with him now with a smile on her face.
This meditation works…I feel as if I've left my body…
Neji observes the Grass ninja as he notices how she relaxes beside him at last. His pearl white eyes move as he regards her in silence. His all seeing eyes regards her carefully in hope to find something, anything, that would make him understand why she acted the way she did some days ago. Why she spoke as if she know him, being rude, before she claimed they were alike as both are birds in cages. Neji looks at her for a long time before he turns away. Pale white skin, long white eyelashes, soft pink lips.
"I'm sorry." Neji breaks the silence between them after several minutes.
Akai opens her eyes and dull blue eyes moves to look at Neji. The voice brings her back to Konoha again and she feels as if her spirit collides with her body as she´s brought back to reality. Neji notices this and stiffens slightly. It takes some time for Akai to believe that she really is here at the field with him. She feels lost for a moment when she starts to think about want he meant, why would he apologise to her? Neji sits there beside her with an emotionless expression on his face staring into space; she notices a slight tenseness in his shoulder area, it is as if he's waiting for her to answer somehow. Perhaps this is his way of asking for a new start.
"Heh, I should meditate more often." Akai tells him quite hesitantly but with a smirk growing.
Both of them relaxes as the breeze blows by and the tenseness fades slowly. Neji sigh quietly and he starts to meditate once again with a new tranquilness, the wrinkles on his forehead disappears as he finally lets go of his worries. Akai finds herself in her home village once more as she starts to focus; she's greeted by her old shinobi team. She misses her home badly but it's her duty to get the papers ready so Grass can once again join Konoha in an alliance. Her thoughts wander and she ponders over why it takes so long to prepare. Time passes by without words but none of the two feels uneasy. But they're soon brought back by a squeaky tone.
"N-neji nii-san."
The sudden voice seems to startle them and Neji tenses as he turns towards the voice he knows well. His cousin Hinata stands there near the river with a shy look on her face; her eyes are glued on Akai´s sitting form next to him. The said Grass ninja turns a little but doesn't open her eyes. She feels the vibrations in the ground as Neji gets on his feet
"Hinata-sama." Neji greets the woman with respect before he turns to Akai. "…I've to take my leave."
Akai turn to Neji as she gets off the ground and she nods as a reply. Her eyelashes flutter open and she looks at him with a pair of squinting, blue eyes. The air between them has turned from awkward to hatred to at last serenity and the change is clearly visible in their composures toward each other.
"Thank you, Hyuuga-san. Take care." She tells him politely and in a sense thanking him for forgiving her.
He nods. Neji´s eyes linger on her as he turns around to head over to his cousin, the Hyuuga heir. Akai watches his back for a moment before her eyes flicker close again with a large smile on her lips.
"So that's how you guys became friends?" Ino asks in a loud voice.
It has passed two weeks since the day Akai met Neji and much has changed. Tsunade has not yet contacted Akai about the alliance and the date when she'll travel home is not yet decided. Ino looks at Akai with a pair of slightly narrowed blue eyes. Ino, Akai, Sakura, Naruto, Shikamaru and two unknown girls to her, called Tenten and Hinata hangs out at a lovely Chinese restaurant where this Tenten´s parents work. Ino who's the social of the group forced Akai to join her and friends to dinner.
"Well,... I'm still working on it. Could you stop shouting, Ino? I'm half blind and don't want to become half deaf too!"
Ino smiles sweetly as she takes another bite of her fried chicken. Sakura who sits next to Ino roll her eyes a little at the blonde. Shikamaru can´t help but lean against the table with a bored expression, a sigh leaving his lips. Why am I here? He ponders as he sighs again. The pink haired kunoichi stays silent though, looking at Shikamaru with an amused expression.
"Well Akai-san, whatever it's you're working on, it seems to be doing just great. You've managed something I haven't even after all these years as his team mate. I've never seen Neji act this way around anyone."
"What do you mean?" Akai asks her while taking a sip of her bottle of ice cold water. "He's a bastard towards me; sometimes I think that he ignores me too."
Akai is quick to tell them that the relationship isn't as great as the others might think. It's a friendship based on a still growing trust towards each other, but more about politeness and understanding. Sometimes Akai feels as the word friend is too strong to describe the bond she has with Neji, it doesn't fit them just yet. She feels that their relationship is breakable and not strong enough. During the days she spent with the silent, cold and polite Hyuuga she has noticed that he's a very strict sparing partner. If they think that he treats her in a special way the doesn't know anything, she has returned to her hotel with bruises and aching limbs everyday.
"Oh, A-a-akai-san… My cousin has changed a bit since you came h-here." The purple haired kunoichi stutters. "You just don't s-see what w-we see."
Akai looks at Hinata in a strange expression, not really understanding. She can't help but sight also, sure she knows that Hinata didn't mean anything with it but of course she can't see what the others see; she's half blind! The grass shinobi doesn't know the Hyuuga girl well but Naruto seems to consider her a close friend so she didn't hesitate when she also came along to eat dinner. The lavender haired girl has eyes similar to Neji´s but they lack the intenseness he possesses. That doesn't matter; Akai still feels that Hinata could become a good friend but also that the girls shyness might come in the way too. She recalls that she was the woman who came when she and Neji meditated together for the first time.
"I guess what Hinata means is that Neji seems happier, well at least happier than back at the chuunin exams." Naruto explains. "He was really grumpy before…" Naruto shivers as he once again recalls how he fought against Neji.
No one noticed how a small red blush covered Hinata´s cheeks as Naruto talked about her; she was quick to direct her eyes to the ground.
"You only say that because he almost killed you!" Sakura jokes.
"Yeah." Shikamaru smirks in his lazy way. "…It's too troublesome to remember, isn't it?"
Naruto grimaces.
"Quiet!" Ino interrupts the others in a rude way, but she smoothes it over with a friendly smile and a blink of her right eye"…I agree with Naruto there. I don't know Neji very well but even I can see that he considers you special." Ino tells Akai at last.
"Yeah…" Sakura agrees. "He doesn't seem that cold and…alone anymore. Maybe he likes…"
"No… It's not like that! At all!" Akai shouts almost panicked.
The group flinches and stares at her.
"It's not?" Tenten asks in a confused voice.
Akai can't help but blush. She has never been in one of these situations and the strange feeling that grows in her stomach makes her squirm. Everything is new to her and she doesn't want to make it stranger than it already is. When someone tells her that Neji might consider her special she can't help but feel uncomfortable. No one has ever considered her special, maybe her team mates back home and her parents or siblings but not in a way Ino and Co are mentioning. Akai shakes her head. She can't even think of that someone will think of her in a stronger way than friendship, who would want her? She's just happy that Neji seems to accept her and that's enough.
"No. We´re just growing comfortable in each others presence… that's why we cooperate so well. Eh… Ino, Shikamaru? I believe Asuma-sensei will scold us if we skip practise…Chouji is probably already waiting for us so let's go." Akai is quick to change subject.
"What a drag…" Shikamaru mutters as he moves toward the exit." Chouji will surely kill me if he finds out that we were here, I mean he would love to taste Chinese food. Troublesome…"
"Well Akai´s right!" Ino tells the others in a cheerful tone. "I guess we have to go, thank you for coming though. And Tenten, tell your parents that the food was delicious!"
"Bye Ino-pig." Sakura chants in an innocent tone.
"Bye Akai-chiyaaaaaan!" Naruto shouts in his squeaky voice.
Ino waves and turns to follows Shikamaru, Akai gives the others a nod before following the other blonde. She feels relived when the three of them leaves the restaurant, a sigh leaves her lips. She has never liked being around many people at once and especially if it's people she doesn't know. It's in times like these she wishes that she was with Neji. He doesn't force her to talk about anything she feels uncomfortable with; he's silent and will listen if she has something to say. His tranquil ness affects her in a way that brings out a unknown personality from her; his mere presence brings her out of her defensive self, her amour towards the ones who underestimates her…She can be herself around him and it's oddly comforting.
"Akai! You're daydreaming again." Ino complains but her voice turns into a teasing tone. "About a certain…."
"No!" Akai shouts a little flushed.
