* Does anyone else think that the last chapter kind of sucks? Because I certainly do. This is actually the first thing I've ever posted that I haven't liked (from the get-go I mean). I suppose there's a first time for everything, right? Well, I'd once again like to thank my lovely reviewers (fan girl 666, JigokuShoujosRevenge, dragonlilly1993, iheartchainsaws, Akuma Tora, and, of course, Thura Huodae). We are birds of a feather, you and I. Well, anyway, this chapter is significantly shorter than the last, if you haven't already noticed. It's more of a short, foreshadowing outgrowth of the last chapter (again wrapped in an allegory…). Plus, you get some explanations as to the strange going-ons in Lee's mind. Oh, and as for Thoreau…my former (OMG no fucking way! I'm officially a senior in two months! It be summer!) AP English teacher said that to us when we read "Fate" (one of Emerson's many essays).
Disclaimer: "A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain." ~Mark Twain (P.S. I don't own anything that I happen to mention in my story…especially Naruto).
Chapter 7: Déjà Vu
"So to sum up Thoreau in a sentence: 'I went to Emerson's house for Sunday dinner every weekend; oh, look, I'm in jail now.' He's bit hard to take serious at first, but you'll grow to love him." A low rumble of a chuckle: the telltale sign of a college-level philosophy class with a charismatic teacher. The class, as always, was intrigued, laughing, adding comments whenever the students saw fit. Truly, it was what one would call a conversation.
However, there was one student who, no matter how very hard he tried, just could not seem to get himself into the same pleasant mood. Which was odd, very odd. Especially considering that this student was one named Rock Lee, the Gai-proclaimed enthusiastic youth. Lee was an active participant, to say the least. The only times when he did not partake in discussions were when he felt too ill to come to class or came to class with laryngitis. But now, now he just could not find it in him to speak, even to listen.
Something was wrong. Something was going to happen, but what? Lee seemed to be missing something. Something very, very important. He racked his brain for a clue, anything, but his mind just kept returning to his earlier encounter with Suna. He had just suddenly become so spaced out, so un-Lee-like. Almost as though something had snapped, and Lee had become a different person. Still, what was really bothering the college student so much was not the mood-swing itself, but rather the fact that Lee was almost certain that a similar change had happened to him before. But when? What was he forgetting?
Lee listlessly stared down at the board, at his professor. He was not an old man; in fact, he looked barely older than Lee himself (though he had hinted at the start of the semester that he was far older than he looked). With long, dark brown hair, big hazel eyes, and a rather feminine face, Professor Haku made for a strange teacher. Even so, he was kind and captivating, with an indefatigable approach to teaching and an almost unfaltering smile.
"I see it's about time to stop, but I'd like you all to work on Walden until next week. Read it, reread it, visit a pond or two, and hopefully, by next Wednesday we can make something of it." Lee watched with dazed eyes as the bulk of his class exited the room, some stopping to say goodbye to their professor on the way out. However, the black-haired boy did not move a muscle. He remained a statue, ever-gazing through the blackboard as if he was expecting it to disappear, revealing a universal truth in the process.
Lee did not even notice the presence beside him until it placed a warm hand on his shoulder. Lee blinked, looking up to find his professor standing next to him. Professor Haku had a way of sneaking up on people; it unnerved most students, but Lee never found it to be particularly daunting.
"You know," the brunette began, "normally, I don't find my students reaching enlightenment until we start Plato, but I suppose Thoreau has his moments." It took a moment for Lee to process exactly what his professor was suggesting.
"Oh…I am sorry, Professor. I just…have a lot on my mind." Professor Haku took a seat next to his student.
"Tell me about it," the professor murmured with and incomparable warmth and sympathetic smile. "I've got plenty of time."
Lee paused with a resolute yet speculative expression. How would he put this to his kind professor without giving away any of the more unbelievable aspects of his situation. "Well, Professor," he began, softly and strangely analytically, "I believe that I have forgotten something very important, but I am not sure what I can do to remember it." The brunette nodded with a sober expression.
"Yes, that can be troubling." He paused for a moment more, contemplating something. Professor Haku stood, before walking towards his desk. "I'm not sure how much this will help, if at all," he began, rummaging through his desk drawers, "but these haven't failed me yet." Haku nodded to himself as he found a plastic bag and returned to the seat nearest Lee's. "Old wives' tale or science, true memory aid or placebo, I've always found peppermints to be useful in the realm of recollection." With that, he took two small wrapped peppermints out of the plastic bag, handing one to Lee. "So, take this, and we'll try to talk you through what you do remember. Hopefully, it will help."
Lee nodded; after all, what did he have to lose? He unwrapped the peppermint, popping it in his mouth, and savored the strong minty-yet-sugary taste. Professor Haku had done the same, murmuring, "Couldn't resist." Lee merely chuckled in response. "So," started the professor once more, "let's start from the beginning. What made you suddenly believe that you had forgotten something?"
Lee mulled over the question, still sucking on the peppermint. "Well," he replied, "it began earlier today, before class. I had a strange…mood-swing (for lack of better word). I became very out of sorts, very spacey."
"That's not like you," Professor Haku murmured as Lee paused.
"Yes, that is precisely what worried me," the black-haired boy continued. "Normally, I would have just called it a strange but isolated incident, but it very much worried…a dear friend of mine." The brunette gave Lee a warm smile.
"I take it this friend of yours is very close to you." Lee simply nodded, agreeing whole-heartedly.
"Yes, he really is, and since it worried him so very much, it has been on my mind ever since I left for class. And…" The professor nodded encouragingly.
"And, while the incident was on my mind, I realized how very familiar this seemed, as though something very similar had happened earlier in my life, and it was connected with a very, very important event." Perhaps the peppermints did work indeed; already, Lee felt as though he was a bit closer to solving this conundrum.
Professor Haku rubbed his chin with the same analytic gaze. "Was there anything else, anything at all?" Lee rubbed his temples, hoping that something would come to him.
"Oh!" he nearly shouted as something akin to an epiphany came to him. "That is right. I am almost positive that it has something to do with my grandfather." Something to do with Old Jack. What could this mean? What legitimately important event happened with Old Jack? It seemed almost too grave to be associated with Old Jack. There was rarely a serious moment with his grandfather. True, he did know when to stop messing around and put on his "no-nonsense" face, but still, how few times had Lee seen Old Jack like that?
"Lee?" The college student blinked, remembering that he was not the only person in the room.
"Oh, I am sorry, Professor. I…suppose that I got lost in a train of thought. The professor nodded.
"Well, did anything else come back to you, Lee?"
"Yes, well, sort of." Haku stared at Lee with an expression that simply said, "Go on." "Well, it is just that…my grandfather generally is not a serious person. Nothing phases him, but I remember him being very stern when this incident happened." The professor thought for a moment, seeming to take everything into consideration.
"Well, tell me, what kind of situations would force your grandfather to become that serious?" The brunette absentmindedly crossed his legs.
Like all questions coming from the intelligent man in front of him, Lee was forced to sit for a moment and think in order to formulate a proper answer. "Well, when I was younger and less…experienced with the world, I would sometimes get into trouble." Lee conveniently remembered to gloss over the idea that most of this trouble involved the supernatural. "If I was in any sort of danger, Old Jack would put on his stern face and come to my rescue."
Again, the professor nodded. "Lee, do you think this incident has something to do with one of those times?" Lee barely had to think about the question before he shook his head.
"No, the event seems almost…bigger than that. More important," the student sighed, noting that the further he and Professor Haku got, the more confused he seemed to get.
"Bigger? How so?" Lee grabbed another peppermint, having finished his first. "Bigger." "Big-ger." He repeated the word in his mind with different emphases, hoping that something would come to mind. What on Earth would make Old Jack graver than his only grandson being in danger? Lee closed his eyes, allowing himself to get lost in his own perceptions. The room was chilly enough to need a jacket. His eyes were closed. He could hear the repetitive sucking sounds of both himself and his professor eating the peppermints. His eyes were closed. Eyes closed. He ran his tongue over the fresh peppermint, relishing in the faint aftertaste of the former mint while still enjoying the powerful, almost-spicy flavor of the new.
A substantial memory relentlessly forced its way into Lee's mind. It was almost like a vision, third person. A postcognition (1). Lee could see himself, a young boy, standing with Old Jack and a woman had only shown herself in photographs as of late: his grandmother. All three were dressed in black. Young Lee refused to look up, as if his shoes were the most entrancing objects on Earth. His grandmother, however, was looking straight ahead, almost through the horizon, as if she could see something that Lee and Old Jack could never even dream of imagining. Perhaps she was, especially with the strength of her powers. Old Jack was the anomaly, staring grim-faced at the two graves just ahead. A funeral. Lee's parents were being buried.
"Lee?" Professor Haku repeated, his inflection even more concerned than earlier. Lee started, completely forgetting that that had only been a memory. Forgetting that he was a twenty-year-old man attempting to work out an enigma with his favorite professor.
"When they died," he found himself murmuring.
"What?" asked the brunette, an almost instinctual response to Lee's sudden strange behavior.
"When my parents died," Lee began again, "and my grandparents took me in, my grandfather got serious. Professor, I think that my remembrance may have something to do with a death." Professor Haku nodded somberly.
"Your parents' deaths?" Lee shook his head.
"No, it is all coming back to me now. Not my parents, my grandmother." Lee seemed to be talking more to himself than his professor at this point. Haku placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Lee?" Lee looked up at the brunette with a pleading look.
"Professor, I know this sounds crazy, but I think I may have actually predicted my own grandmother's death." Lee believed that that was the first time that he had ever seen his professor look so genuinely shocked. "I remember now. I began to become very spaced out, similarly to the way I had when I was with S- my friend earlier. That was only the first part though. I began to isolate myself, and even started to sleep more. Then, the night before…the night before she died, I had a dream about her death. I do not really remember the specifics though…"
"That sounds like it could use a hell of a lot more peppermints," Haku cut in, unable to bear that strange high, monotonous tone to Lee's normally enthusiastic voice anymore. The professor took a deep breath before continuing, "So, you're positive about this? This is your revelation?" Lee simply nodded. "So, what you felt earlier today was almost like a repeat of what happened to you before your grandmother passed on?" Another nod. At this confirmation, the professor began to pace. He walked up and down the aisles of his lecture hall. He just needed to think this through, totally and thoroughly, for Lee's sake. Then, it just came to him, quick, sudden, like lightning. He stopped pacing and took his seat next to Lee. "Lee, there's one big problem with all this." Lee looked up, blinking in confusion.
"What do you mean, Professor?" Haku took another deep breath.
"Well, Lee, we've figured out part one of your conundrum. We know what your strange déjà vu is now, but there is a part two to this. Lee, we need to figure out what this means for you and the people you love." Lee gazed up at his professor with wide eyes. He was not entirely sure what Haku meant, but he had a bad feeling. "Lee, the last time you had this 'episode' your grandmother, someone whom you love dearly, died. Now you've had it again, and I really hate to say it, but there is a good chance that it means someone else whom you love dearly may die." Lee wanted to faint right then, but he knew that this conversation was far too important to miss.
"Professor…" Lee was about to continue, but he was at a loss for what to say. This went beyond peppermints. Way beyond peppermints. Someone whom Lee loved dearly could die. Lee had a feeling that it would be Old Jack. He was not particularly well, and he was getting on in age. Perhaps, Lee was only predicting the very natural death of his grandfather, something that he had been expecting for years. Lee took a deep breath, ready to start hyperventilating at any point. There were more though. Lee loved many people dearly, and any one of them had a chance of dying. There was Gai-sensei (though Lee really could not see him dying at any point in the near future. The man seemed practically immortal after all, larger than life). Dear God, there were so many. Professor Haku himself for one. Ms. Tsunade was very important to Lee. Then, there was Sai. Ino as well. And there was…
Lee's eyes grew ever wider. He fell out of his chair, landing awkwardly on his legs. Still, the pain did not register. Professor Haku's shouts did not register. And then there was…there was…there was…Suna. Lee nearly cried at the mere thought of it. Losing Sai, Ino, Professor Haku, Gai-sensei, Ms. Tsunade, Old Jack, all were difficult thoughts. Horrific thoughts. But losing Suna. Losing Suna would destroy Lee. Rip him to shreds. Kablooey would go Lee's sanity. He could not bear to even think about it. Then, Lee remembered it. He remembered his earlier conversation with Suna. He had been running on pure instinct. His subconscious. He had held the little redhead so tightly, pleading with him not to leave. It was almost as if Lee's id knew exactly who was going to go. Lee was going to lose Suna, his Godsend. The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away.
Lee wanted nothing more than to curl up into a little ball and never return to the world of the sane, to the world of the living. Instead, he found his body moving on its own. His arms and legs moved of their own volition, picking Lee's almost-limp body up. His arms grabbed his backpack, throwing it over his shoulders. "Professor," he voice began, "I need to go." And Lee was off.
*You know, some people use deus ex machina as a plot device…I use peppermints. Damn straight! No, wait, even better: deus ex machina peppermints!! God told Haku to give Lee those peppermints!
All right, so just two afternotes this time:
1) A postcognition is a dream, which reveals the events of the past, as opposed to a precognition which reveals the events of the future. Got it?
2) Another thing, I know this is more of a Neighborhood #1 type of thing, but I found myself listening to music while writing this, and it was, in fact, particularly appropriate. So, anyway, there were three songs in particular: PDA by Interpol, Optimistic by Radiohead, and Stay Tuned by Ambulance Ltd. I know, pretty random combo, right? Whatever, they were surprisingly suiting (also to be listened to in that particular order). I felt that credit needed to be given where credit was due because God knows how much theme background music can keep a story going. Anyway, the point is, even if you don't listen to them while reading, I'd recommend listening to the songs in the near future cuz they're just that awesome!
So, I hope everyone enjoyed this more than the last chapter, because I certainly did. Was it too rushed? I was a bit worried about that. Hmmmm. Oh well. Oh! So, I proofread and wrote this late at night (as per usual), so I really hope that there are no major mistakes. That would kind of suck. Well, at least next chapter promises to be a blast to write! We finally meet Suna's captor!! Awesome!! Well, I'm on summer break now, so hopefully this means that my lovely readers will get killer updates sooner than usual. Knowing me, probably not. Whatever. I'll try my best everyone! Wish me luck!!
