Stage 7: Disengage
Neji answered his summons as soon as he received them. Lady Hokage requested he wait to follow Tsuki until she had a team put together, but there was a slight problem with that plan. Tsuki would have to fend for herself for the time being, and Tsunade would have to be informed.
She laced her fingers together in front of her taught lips and stared him down. "Are you able to leave?"
"Immediately if necessary," he informed her. "However, I do not think my departure wise. I am confident one of their numbers is following me, for purposes I cannot deduce. However, I'm sure that he would intervene should I attempt a rescue mission."
She narrowed her eyes in calculation of this new information. "That changes everything," she stated in frustration. "Make preparations to allow you to leave at a moment's notice. I want you capable of departure as soon as we know he's off your trail. Meanwhile, keep your own careful watch on him. I want as much information as you can gather." She glared out the window for a moment before whispering to herself, "Who can he be?"
Neji, taking it upon himself to answer any question she asked, simply stated, "Tsuki was not able to describe their chakra. At this point, all I can do is guess."
Tsunade sighed. "So he remains hidden, and has yet to actually make himself visible. If you didn't have the Byakugan, you wouldn't have noticed him at all. It's no matter; eventually he will provide us a clue. They can't idly watch forever."
"I'll keep a detailed report of everything he does," Neji offered. "If he does anything that gives him away, it will be on your desk."
"Do you have any idea of who this person might be?" she asked. "Even if it is a wild guess, it would be better than operating blind."
A wish for better news crossed his mind before he answered. "I wish that were the case. From her information, I gathered a few of the members' chakra types. That eliminated a few right off the bat: Kisame, Kakuzu, Hidan. Itachi can be ruled out, simply because clans share similar chakra, and this one is nothing like Sasuke. Pein wouldn't dare risk himself. Deidara is a medium range fighter. Somehow, I don't see him getting this close to a target."
An eyebrow arched with impatience.
"I believe it's Zetsu," he stated. "There's another member we know nothing about, but my gut tells me it's him."
Tsunade sighed. "That truly is going in blind." She turned to look him in the eye, applying the stern mask Neji was used to. "For the sake of the more naïve shinobi, we must behave as if she has gone away on a mission. I don't need anyone running off to their death to rescue her as pretence to gain access to the Akatsuki. Eventually, this man will leave. When he does, you are to be dispatched immediately. Make sure she comes home. Do not interact with the Akatsuki. Do not engage the Akatsuki" Tsunade dismissed him at once, and he left the office.
Thus far, he had to make sure Naruto didn't learn she was abducted to keep him from going after Itachi to get to Sasuke, keep tabs on this intruder, and be ready to leave at the drop of a hat. When he found her; if he found her, he would have to extract her without their immediate notice. He would have to debrief her as to how to act upon returning home. It would cause panic if the general public knew they had been so close to chaos. It wasn't going to be easy, getting to her, but this was one of the risks he had signed up for when he had taken her under his wing. Now he had a promise to keep, and would rather die than break it.
XxX
Tsuki sat in a chair in the common area. A book lay open on her lap, unread. Deidara sat across the room from her, poorly engaged in reading his own magazine. Several times a page, he would glance up and glare daggers at her. She met his eyes every time he did this, showing no emotion, and he quickly dropped his gaze. Between obvious glares, he would continually sneak glances up to see if she was still watching him. She never took her eyes from his face.
After five minutes of this, as she tested the bounds of her own patience, she unexpectedly called out to him, "What the hell is your problem?" She closed her book loudly.
"Problem?" he mocked, "Why would I have a problem, hm? You've used me like a whore and played me like a harlot, but I don't think I have a problem." His anger seethed into his words, spreading like poison across the room.
She rolled her eyes in exasperation, feeling the urge to rip his hair from his tender headed scalp. "You're stupid, Dei. You're allowing yourself to become worked up because of a lie."
"Un," he conceded sarcastically, "But that's all I should expect from you, isn't it?" He threw his magazine down on the table and glared at her.
She folded her arms across her chest. "What is it that I've lied about now?" she demanded, frustrated. She warned him this would happen. She's warned every man she's encountered that this is what happens when you allow your emotions to run unchecked. This is precisely why she refuses to allow herself to love someone; it clouds your judgement and turns you into a temperamental nincompoop.
"Everything," he answered. He sighed, sensing her frustration, and feeling his own anger approach the brink of violence. "Just forget about it."
She threw her book at him angrily. "You're an ass, Dei."
He glared at her intensely. "Now I'm the ass, hn?" he asked incredulously. "All I did was become your victim, and I'm the ass hole? I don't think so."
She looked at him in shock. "Somehow you're the victim here?" she asked sarcastically. "You're the criminal, Dei." She rose from the armchair to make her escape from the infernal man.
Without a hitch he was by her side, pinning her to the wall. "You told me you wouldn't love,' he hissed in her ear. He was so close; his hair was brushing her mesh clad shoulder where her tank top strap failed to shield her. "You told me it was a weakness you would not indulge in. What happened to that, hm?"
She looked him dead in the eye, glaring her message home. "It hasn't changed, Deidara. I don't love anyone, nor will I ever," she spat.
"I don't believe you," he growled. His forehead was creased with the intensity of his anger.
She shifted under him, pulling her right glove off. She had been careful for the last two years to never remove her gloves in front of Neji, for fear he would learn this secret. Shaking the leather glove out into her palm, something small and silver fell into her open hand. "If you don't believe me, Dei, then here's your ring. If I were committed to a man, I would have thrown it away a long time ago."
The change in tactic worked. Guilt spread across his face as he took from her his Akatsuki ring, which read "blue". She drove the nail home when she slid it back onto his right index finger, where it belonged. "I didn't think you'd have kept it," he informed her. "Why bother, hm?"
She replaced her glove. "You promised me, Dei, that you'd come back for it," she answered, her tone harsh and angry. "Two years is a long time to be without something so important." When she looked back into his eyes, they were no longer angry, but sad. She had successfully turned the blame to him.
He figured she thought he had forgotten about her. He couldn't have retrieved it, and he had tried. Every time he would get close to her, he would get sent away on a mission for Leader-sama. When things would quiet down, Leader-sama would get restless, and form some harebrained scheme to find her on his own. If Deidara left, surely he would have been followed. He couldn't have endangered her like that.
Forced out of his reverie, he looked her in the eye. "Forgive me," he whispered. She nodded her response silently, pressing forward to leave. He lowered his arms to allow her to pass, caressing her cheek softly before she left. She swatted his hand away.
Tsuki wandered aimlessly around the compound in the rain after leaving Deidara, allowing various memories to resurface. First she thought about the incident with the hair he had left behind in her room in Otogakure, and how much trouble that had caused for her with Orochimaru. From there, her thoughts had drifted to the first time she had ever seen him, lying, in his bed sleeping off a mission. She had plucked another hair from him, causing their first argument. He had always had a morbid curiosity with her; she fascinated him for whatever reason. It had led to their disastrous exploits in each other's pleasure. She had allowed herself the freedom and satisfaction of exploring every inch of him, as he had done to her, in a sinful exchange that had lasted through the span of one of Itachi's missions. It was because of that mistake, she concluded, that he was acting the way he was now. He had marked her as his so long ago; did he really expect her to remain that way? He was the closest thing she had ever had to a stable boyfriend. "How sad is that?" she asked herself. "The closest thing I ever get to romance is with a criminal." There was something seriously wrong with her.
She had decided that her encounter with him years ago was the closest thing she ever wanted to come to love. She would not dare go any further. She was committed to leave what ever relationship she had with him behind when she had returned to Konohagakure. She couldn't go back on that now.
Feeling like a caged animal restricted to the confines of this ghost of the city, she could go anywhere within the limits of the Akatsuki's territory; but one step into a crowded street and she would be painfully and embarrassingly dragged back within the depths of the darkness. No one inhabited the homes she passed, and the shops were empty and deserted. Couple that with the perpetual rain that shrouded the city, and depression had crept into her soul. The city was mourning for her captivity, it seemed, and she longed to stretch her legs and run through the surrounding forests.
There was video surveillance throughout the complex. Someone was watching her, following her as she meandered through the city. She was noting their progress when the wind shifted, or when they stepped to heavy on the concrete. The cameras, however, were not in place last time she had been there. Escape would be a lot more difficult for her.
She had gone a bit further into the darkness; power had been cut from this portion of the complex. She could see the figure lurking in the shadows when she turned the next corner, fifty meters ahead. It was clear to her that he thought he was hidden. He lacked the experience with her senses to know that he wasn't.
She made no effort to look at him as she passed, waiting until he withdrew from his hiding place to follow her until he could find another one. She stopped in the rain, and so did he. "I know you're there," she called back to him. "You're not very stealthy."
"Your vision is remarkable in the dark," Kisame answered. He stepped forward, drawing parallel to her. "Welcome back, kid."
"Why were you hiding from me?" she asked.
"Leader-sama has been watching your progress through the videos," he answered, pointing to a camera that was trained on them. "He sent me to follow you as soon as you had left the commons. He wanted me to prevent you from running, should you try to escape."
"Well, that makes my life incredibly more difficult," she stated sarcastically. "And here I thought you had come to keep me company."
Kisame chuckled. "If it makes you feel better, Leader also wanted to know what it was you were growling about."
She arched an eyebrow. "How does he know I was growling?" she asked.
Kisame laughed again. "With the look that was on your face, you couldn't be doing anything else. You looked like you were ready to kill someone."
She sighed. "Well, I guess if he's sent you to eavesdrop on me, I shouldn't rant about my plans to take over the Akatsuki and turn it into a prostitution ring."
Kisame's chuckles had turned into a barking laughter. "Don't let Pein hear you say that; he might take you seriously."
"Let him," she answered. "He'd be my top seller."
The laughter was still in Kisame's freaky eyes, though he kept his silence. He knew that Pein was listening to them as they spoke; the rain had ears. He kept the city in perpetual downpour to keep tabs on everything that was going on inside its walls.
"Why did Pein send you," she asked, suspicious.
Kisame shrugged. "With Itachi piled behind so much paperwork that he can barely find time to piss, no one else would actually keep up with you. Either they'd wander off and do their own things, or they'd try to kill you, or they'd be killed for annoying you."
She nodded, thinking of the absence of Tobi. As much as she hated to admit it, Tobi made her miss Sasori. It was a different hatred with the puppet; less intense on her end, and far less annoying on his. With Sasori, she could at least have a conversation with him from time to time. For a dead man with no body and no soul, he could kiss like a man on the verge of sexual eruption.
Kisame could see the inquiry in her eyes regarding the annoying bastard. "He's on a mission, that's all I can say." He stopped and turned to her. "You really should be getting back. Itachi is worried about you."
"I'm not going to stay by his side this time," she told Kisame. "I can't be bound to Itachi forever.
He arched a blue eyebrow at her. "Then you and Deidara have made amends?" he inquired.
"I think not," she replied, recalling her determination to stop anything that might progress from their past relationship. "I don't think I should lodge with anyone here."
He looked at her expectantly. "Are you mad?"
She bluntly answered, "No."
"Leader-sama will require your constant supervision. You couldn't get away with it the first time you were here. He knows your antics by now. That's out of the question." She was making his job so much harder than it had to be. If she had just stayed with Itachi, or even mended things with Deidara, she could be spared from the indecency of Pein's plotting.
She arched her own eyebrow. "So what?" she asked. "He can monitor me from anywhere in the city. He's got so many damn cameras around here."
Kisame's eyes narrowed. Pein didn't need the cameras to keep an eye on her. In truth, most of them didn't even work. They were just for show, a message to her that he's always watching, listening to her every word. He had to proceed with caution as to not give too much away. He had to allow her to come to her own conclusions, and point her to the right ones.
"It's not just that, kitten," Kisame added after thinking for some time.
She narrowed her eyes at him. "What else could Pein want from me?"
Kisame smiled knowingly. "Think about it for a moment. What has he always wanted from you? I know you couldn't see it, because it seemed that they were acting of their own accord, but trust me, someone had orders to baby sit you. It's a whole lot easier if you're willing."
She thought for several minutes, drawing connections where there weren't any before. "He wants me to stay attached to a member," she stated, breaking the silence. "Does he really think I'll stay with Itachi forever?"
Kisame forced a laugh. "He knows better than to point you to Itachi. Why do you think he's been so busy since you've been here? When it comes down to choosing between you and Pein, Leader-sama knows where Itachi's loyalties lie."
She continued thinking, pressing her brains for an answer. "Deidara can't be his answer; he's been so angry at me the last few days. If anything, I bet Pein planted that hatred in Deidara's brain himself. That, or Hidan did." She trailed off at her final realization. Who did Pein always send to intercept her? There was only ever one man she was supposed to be attached to. The image of Hidan lounging naked, fresh from a shower, on her bed in Otogakure flooded into her mind. "That's just sick," she stated angrily.
She audibly gagged, thinking of the crimes Hidan had committed against her. The man had slaughtered her entire family in front of her eyes! How could Pein expect her to become emotionally attached to that monster? Not only that, but to accept her own godfather as a lover? He was a man who had spent his youth wooing her mother and was now being sent to woo his past lover's daughter, a lover he had killed in cold blood, just to prove he could.
"That's just disturbing," she reiterated.
Kisame nodded in agreement. "Highly; this is probably why Hidan has agreed. Itachi doesn't even know about it."
She arched an eyebrow at him in suspicion. "If Itachi doesn't even know, why do you?"
He shrugged again. "Kakuzu warned me about it. He said someone decent should know, and now so do you. You need to watch your back, kid." With that, Kisame left her to her own thoughts, leaping away into the downpour.
Crazy ass holes, she silently sulked. She hastily began moving toward the main drag of their compound. The only sound in the night was the sound of rain hitting the metal of the city around her. The sound only amplified her thoughts. She watched as Konan meandered from another street onto the one Tsuki's feet were devouring, not even bothering to look up at the girl. "Hidan seducing me would be just as futile as me attempting to seduce Pein."
Darkness had surrounded her again, the rain echoed in her ears louder than it had before. She couldn't think of sleeping. All she wanted was to see it in Pein's eyes when he watched his pawn fail. You couldn't use someone else's body against them in war, Gaara had taught her that. You could certainly use your own to get what you wanted. She was ready for his assault, knowing what was in store. She made a mental note to thank Kakuzu, if she ran into him.
XxX
Itachi was surprised to see Tsuki when she walked in so late, soaked from head to foot from the rain. She immediately made for the bathroom, and it wasn't long before he had heard the shower running. Of course she would want to wash away the stress of the day and the cold of the rain. After the conversation he just had, he'd been half tempted to beat her to it.
Kisame had just left not two minutes prior to Tsuki's arrival. Itachi had listened intently to what his partner had to say, and was appalled by what he had heard. Kisame had told him that Tsuki had gotten the same warning from him, though he had to be considerably more careful in how that message was delivered. She had arrived at the correct conclusion a lot faster than Kisame had imagined, and in his eyes, had taken the news fairly well. Nothing had been broken, at least.
Itachi assured Kisame that Tsuki would not take this lying down, and though Kisame laughed at his choice of words, Itachi knew she would already have her own plan forming to counter strike. That could be just as dangerous as her allowing Hidan to get to her. He had to do something to stop this madness, something that would change her forever. It would hurt her, in the end, he knew it, but it was also the only way to keep her from being killed.
He shrugged off his cloak as he thought, hanging it up on its allotted peg in his closet before pulling the elastic out of his hair to allow it to cascade around his shoulders. Tsuki would be in the shower for at least another twenty minutes. He pulled his tee shirt over his head and threw it into his laundry basket. After donning a fresh pair of pants for sleeping in, he wandered into the kitchen. It didn't take him long to get reacquainted with his old libations again. Sweet sake relaxed his mind, and within the second shot, he could feel his tension loosen; by the fourth, a familiar warmth lie within his belly and his mind buzzed with mild intoxication.
He heard the shower being shut off. At the rate he was drinking, he would be completely drunk within another twenty minutes. As much as he wanted to continue drinking the sake, he knew better. He would need his self control later. Stowing away the porcelain bottle, he instead reached for a bottle of chilled plum wine. He had poured a glass, and gotten halfway through it when a shower moist Tsuki emerged.
She eyed the glass in his hand suspiciously. "You know, it's bad luck to drink alone," she pointed out. She eyed him carefully, noting his shirtless appearance and his hair had been let loose to cascade around him, concealing him behind an ebony curtain.
Either due to the amount of alcohol that was coursing through his system, or due to his intentions, Itachi was unable to help noticing Tsuki's lack of bindings. Her loose fitted tank top was darted with two taught peaks at the tips of her ample breasts. "I would suppose that would call for another glass," he sighed. There wasn't even a hint of a slur in his voice. He diverted his attention away from her to the bottle on the counter, setting down his glass to pour another. Once it was safe in her hands, he topped off his own drink and continued through it.
She watched him as she sipped the pale liquid. "How much have you had to drink, Itachi?" she asked. She could see the glaze in his eyes already, though his voice and movements were perfectly stable.
"Not nearly enough," he answered, allowing his eyes to look at her again. Though his vision had become blurred over the years, it was still a sight worth seeing. Water dripped from her hair, making her shirt wet where it touched her shoulders and breasts. This would account for the tension in her nipples, as Itachi preferred to keep his home a little bit cooler than most. Her bottom half was barely concealed by black shorts that clung to her curves and stopped just a few teasing inches away from her core. He took another sip from the wine, feeling a familiar tension in his waistband.
She watched him as he watched her before she emptied her glass. "Are we celebrating something?" she asked, unsure of why Itachi had suddenly begun to intoxicate himself.
He shook his head with a soft smile. "Can't I indulge myself in a pleasure once in a while?" he asked. He automatically refilled her glass before she even had the chance to ask.
She had never seen him give in to any sort of temptation before; it was understandable for her to think he was above such things. It was true that she had nights where she was tempted to pull out the sake, and there were nights when she had. "Do we at least have something to drink to?" she inquired.
He regarded the question for the slightest of moments. "I drink to your health," he answered. He took another sip, finalizing his statement. She followed suit, only out of respect. She knew that her health was not something Itachi would normally drink to.
Itachi watched her body relax as she finished her second glass. She didn't hold a question in her eyes when he automatically refilled it. By the bottom of her third, she had acquired a pink blush at her cheeks and giggled at the smallest things. Her lack of tolerance amused him.
Now he could cut back on his intake to where she was out drinking him two glasses to one, though by her fifth glass, it was clear that she was done. He took the half empty glass from her hands and drained it for her, ignoring her pout at the lack of libation. "I think you have had more than enough," he told her. He could feel the heaviness of his words, and wondered if he hadn't had a glass too many. There wasn't even a full drink left in the bottle.
She took a step toward it, clearly intending to finish it off, but she wobbled on her feet and fell into his arms. She looked up at him, the pale blush turning a deep red. "I think you're right," she agreed with a giggle. "I am clearly quite drunk." She straightened up in his arms, but made no efforts to remove herself from them.
Her wet hair was cold against the exposed skin of his chest, causing his nipples to harden in response. He held her against him, feeling the heat of her body rise to meet him. Though he felt immense guilt for what he was about to do, her tipsiness amused him greatly. He knew he wasn't the only one who felt the warmth of the alcohol pooling around their insides. She would be just as affected as he was, if not more.
Just as he had finished that thought, he felt her hand on his chest. She turned her head to look up at him with clouded eyes, her lips parted, a blush still set on her cheeks. Her fingers ran down his muscle hardened abdomen, causing them to ripple and flex under her touch. He laced his fingers through her hair and gently tightened his grip on her, pulling her slowly to him. She had plenty of time to say no; he was almost begging her to, but she didn't. Instead her eyes closed just before his lips met hers, pushing her lips further apart as his tongue brushed against her lower lip, inviting her to play.
She cringed. It was not the response he had expected from her, and he had to respect it for what it was. He slowly pulled away from her. He could see the protest in her features, the way her mouth turned down at the corners and the pleading in her eyes. She was afraid of him, and the love he offered her.
He took her hand in his to lead her away from the open kitchen, but through a sudden onset of drunkenness she managed to stumble forward again, causing him to catch her. Impatient with her lack of equilibrium, he simply picked her up and carried her into his bedroom where he dropped her onto his bed.
The act let her shirt ride up her stomach, causing him to think in a partially drunken stupor of her belly round with his seed, giving him an heir to the Uchiha name. He knew better than to allow it. He couldn't guarantee her nine months of his life, let alone the years it would take to help her raise a child. Departing from those fantasies, he looked her in the eyes once more and hated himself. With this woman, he could have had happiness, and made her emotionally whole again. Instead, he dealt the hand that would destroy her.
Watching, he allowed her to curl up on his bed as she once used to do. She was drunk, but unhappy, and there wasn't much he could do about it. He pulled her close to him, but the walls were already up. Even when she was inebriated, she could be the most distant person he knew.
"Are you all right," he slurred. He was concerned for her sudden change of behaviour.
She turned to face him. "No," she stated blatantly. "I just found out that Hidan is going to be trying to seduce me sometime soon, then you set out to do just that, and I'm trying to stay as far away from you guys as possible." She looked him in the eyes with conviction. "You're going to die, Itachi. Why do you insist on dragging me down with you?"
Confusion welled in his eyes as he gazed at her. "How am I dragging you down with me?" Offence laced through his words. He released her from his embrace and sat up.
"Love is weakness, Itachi. You know you're going to die, probably within the year. Why would you set out to seduce me now, of all times? It's cruel. I don't know what your intentions are, or were, or whatever." She folded her arms. He made a note that she was obviously drunk. "Even if you were to succeed in bedding me, that would be a death sentence. If your brother ever found out I went back on my word and slept with you, he'd hunt me down while his sword was still warm with your blood."
Itachi held her gaze with strength. "It was a distraction," he stated. "Kisame told me about Hidan, as well." He leaned against the headboard behind him. "I didn't know how you would react, and frankly there are times your reactions aren't as thought out as they should be."
The desire to stab him coursed through her veins. "You couldn't have thought of a different way to do that?"
A sigh escaped his lips. "I didn't pour the wine with the intention to get in your pants," he stated. "That's the last thing I wanted to do. I wanted you to open up to me more, so that we could perhaps find something else to do."
"Then why did you kiss me?" she demanded. She too sat up, apparently no longer in the mood to be lying in his bed.
He shrugged. "You looked like you wanted to be kissed. I've kissed you before," he reminded her. "Why would these kisses be different?"
A growl emanated from her, with much the same amount of thought as she would give a sigh. "I was a rogue then," she explained. "Fraternizing with a band of S rank criminals was exciting for me. Now, to court one of you is to court treason, and throw away everything I've worked so hard for."
His brow furrowed in sympathy. "You're really trying to turn yourself around, aren't you?"
"I owe it to Neji, damn it," she answered. "I couldn't care less about Konoha on my own, but he cares. What he will lay his life down to protect, I will protect too."
The words rang through the silence. He couldn't believe what he had just heard. "Are you certain there's nothing between the two of you?" he asked again.
"No, I'm not certain," she answered. "He's been changing slowly over the last few months. Small things would suddenly start happening, a touch, a tone of voice, a look would suddenly feel so weighted."
Itachi looked amused. "You sound so angry about it," he observed. "Being loved frightens you."
She glared at him. "It doesn't frighten me," she protested, slurring her words together. "I just don't like it."
"What's the worst thing that could happen to you?"
"A lot of things could happen," she hissed. "He could die, for instance."
The jab hit him in the chest; once more he felt like she was holding a grudge against him because of what the fates decided for him. "Why are you so upset that I'm going to die?" he asked her, finally curious enough to know.
She flung herself backwards on the bed. "I don't know, Itachi." Her hair fanned out around her, her arms stretched out. "I'm scared, I guess. Once you die, I have nothing here to keep me safe from the other ass holes that would like to kill and ravage me."
A low sigh came from within him as he laid back beside her. "Deidara is still being an ass, is he?"
"He's part of the problem," she declared. "He can't restrict himself, either. He's injured and wounded, but not angry at me anymore. I'm angry with him, though. I told him exactly what to expect, and he still crossed the line. He's proven to me that I can't trust him." The room started spinning around her as she stared at the ceiling. She felt as though she were going to roll off the bed, even though she knew she wasn't moving.
"I guarantee he was hoping you would change your mind," Itachi explained. "Your boundaries were taken more as a challenge than anything else."
"I mean what I say, and say what I mean," she growled. "I don't have the time or patience for false promises and mind games."
A chuckle escaped Itachi. "You are a straightforward woman." He looked at her. "Are you all right?"
She looked at him sideways. "I'm spinning."
Sympathy overtook him. "You really shouldn't drink much." His arms wound around her, pulling her out of his bed. "Are you going to be sick?" She shook her head, no, then leaned into him. He carried her into the second bedroom. The hallway swam around her as they moved. When he set her down, he kissed her forehead. "You'll be fine. Sleep it off, and I'll see you in the morning."
A curious look ebbed into her eyes. "Why are you leaving me here," she asked. "Aren't you afraid I'll run off?"
He smiled at her. "I'll be attaching bells to your door from the outside. You made it clear that you want distance and independence. I will do everything I can to respect that as long as is possible."
She smiled at him as a way of thanks. He turned and left her alone, closing the door. A few minutes later, she heard the shuffle and soft clinking of bells being attached to her door. After he was finished and satisfied, she could hear him walking away.
She rolled to her side. Out of the window, she could see the moon through a break in the rain clouds. She wondered vaguely if Neji was looking at it, too. In two years, she'd never been so far away from him. Homesickness overwhelmed her. Her drunken state allowed her to acknowledge that she missed him; something she would deny in absolute if sober. However, while drunk, she accepted that he had become a necessary part of her.
A single tear threatened to escape her eye as the moon illuminated the clouds it was now hiding behind. She remembered his scent, the way his effortless walk lulled her. The rain pounding on the glass combined with the memories of her comrade lulled her into an agitated sleep.
Her dreams were plagued with his image, his voice rang in her ears with a realism that woke her many times. She swore she could smell him on her pillow. Her heart was heavy with worry for him, and her dreams served to calm her the way Neji could if he were there.
