Day 7
"Knock, knock."
"Who's there?" Lee went with Tenten's joke, although none of them were really in the mood to laugh.
"Honey bee."
"Honey bee who?"
"Honey bee a dear and get me a glass of water." She smiled at him, and he returned the gesture. Lee got up and went to get the asked for item.
The three of them were having lunch at Lee's apartment after a long morning of training. Their muscles ached, and they were beginning to run out of energy, but they persisted in pushing themselves to their limits. Why not? They told themselves.
"Here is your water Tenten. Did you want anything Gai-sensei?"
"No, thank you Lee."
Formal. Team Gai was never formal.
They were random and bursting with energy and immature. Anything but formal.
"I have an idea." Tenten said suddenly. She would at least attempt to bring things back to a semi-normal state, "How about we go see a movie?"
"That sounds like a wonderful idea, Tenten." Gai agreed, knowing why Tenten had brought it up. If it would make her feel better, then they might as well do it. They could use whatever pick me up that comes their way.
"Yes, we haven't gone to see a movie in quite some time."
After lunch they did go see a movie. None of them remembered the title, but it had something to do with fighting and a secret organization of some sort. They were unable to pay any attention to the screen. Seeing a man on the screen stab another just wasn't the same without Neji and Tenten commenting about how fake it all was. Lee and Gai would shush them, but would comment about their techniques in louder voices.
It happened several (many, many) times that they were kicked out of the theatre.
Watching a movie without having somebody be angry with them was strange. Too strange.
By the end of the movie, Tenten was crying. Lee held his own tears back while he wrapped an arm around his teammate to comfort her. Neither noticed the paleness on their teacher's face, proving that he was as affected as they were.
OoOoO
"Now will you behave? Ryo won't be so forgiving again. There is no such thing as a second chance here."
It had been two days? Neji hadn't noticed. He couldn't tell anymore. His sleep pattern was messed up too much for him to know when it was morning and when it was night. It changed nothing anyways. It would make no difference to him.
They were three men. Two were the samurai who'd been bringing his food, and the third was Matsu. As much as he knew how weak and vulnerable he was, Neji was glad to know they still considered him a threat. At least he'd left some kind of menacing impression on them.
With the chains removed, the men began to bring him to the same room he had been in a couple days ago. The interrogation room, as Neji liked to think of it. Like the last time, there was nobody there. They tied him up to the lonely chair in the center of the room and left him there by himself. Hardly two minutes passed before Ryo came to join him.
"Good morning, brat. Feeling talkative this morning? You caused more trouble for my men a couple days ago. I hope you'll be more obedient from here on out."
Neji said nothing.
"Never have much to say, do you?"
Silence.
"It's been a week, and your team hasn't tried to rescue you yet. Makes you feel special, doesn't it? Ah, but I wouldn't expect any more if I were you. Konoha shinobi don't really care much about the pain they cause others."
"You're using me to get revenge against Konoha?" He broke his vow of silence, but he no longer cared.
"It speaks!" Ryo smirked at him, but Neji ignored the look.
"Are you really that stupid? Look, all shinobi fight and kill. It doesn't matter what village you're from, because that's just how things work. We kill those who ought to be killed. No more, no less. You're a ninja, how do you not see that?"
"Of course I know that. But you've got one thing wrong. I don't want revenge against Konoha."
"Then who do you want revenge against?"
Ryo advanced and put one foot on the chair, right between Neji's legs, and leant forward with a look of pure hatred on his face, "I want revenge against the man who murdered my wife."
Neji didn't like the look on his face.
Ryo stepped away and began pacing, shooting Neji looks of miscontent from time to time. Suddenly he stopped and turned to face his prisoner. "I want revenge against the man you call Gai-sensei."
There was a moment of silence as the words sunk into Neji's mind, but he shook his head, his eyes narrowed, "You must be mistaken. Gai-sensei wouldn't murder anybody."
"How would you know, brat? Do you really know your sensei? Do you really know what he's capable of? He is a happy fool for you, but I've seen a darker part of him. He murdered her right before my eyes, and I will never forget the way she dropped dead at my feet."
Of course I know my sensei. At the very least more than you do.
"He didn't murder her." He stated calmly.
"Oh? He didn't?" The tone was mocking, but Neji wasn't bothered by it.
He kept his body relaxed, untroubled, and looked at the man with what appeared to be a completely at peace expression, "Of course not. Gai-sensei doesn't murder. That was the first thing he ever taught our team. Murdering is unforgivable. It is the act of harming an innocent. Killing on the other hand, is justice."
"You think Might Gai murdered my wife because she deserved it? Oh, you naive little bastard. How dare you believe my wife was guilty! He murdered her because he's a sadistic son of a bitch. End of story."
"Why do you believe he murdered her?"
"She had done nothing wrong! We were living in Konoha when suddenly some ninja came into our home and ransacked the place. He was a part of it. Along with his pal, the copy-cat ninja, Kakashi Hatake. I managed to escape, but she wasn't so lucky."
"Why did they target you?"
"Our work isn't really considered 'normal' among everyday citizen. Your Hokage just didn't get it. Good money is made from our work, but to the old man innocence is supposed to be preserved. Really? We're talking about ninja! To us there is no such thing as innocence."
"Then your definition of innocence must be very warped from its original."
"You're a child, you don't know what being innocent means."
"I know more about it than you, it seems. Innocence is purity. Purity of heart, mind, and body."
"Do you really believe your heart is pure? You've killed, you've murdered. You've seen blood that ought not to have been seen. You've stopped hearts. How can you say you're still innocent?"
"Because I am. My heart contains no guilt that I haven't made up for, my mind once had dark thoughts that are now no longer existent, and my body is untouched."
"Believe what you will. I have more years than you, and I have seen more than you. I know what it means to be innocent."
"My sensei taught me what being innocent means. He has mastered it more than anyone else I know. He didn't murder your wife. Whatever 'work' you do probably made her deserve what happened to her. Gai-sensei would never, never, take away somebody else's loved one unless there was no other choice."
His words earned him a powerful slap to his cheek.
"Why use me to get revenge against him? He was there. You could have faught him yourself."
"Might Gai is a sentimental man and clearly a person who holds people close to him. He took away one of my loved ones, and I took away one of his. An eye for an eye. The first law ever created."
Neji had never considered himself one of Gai's loved ones, but the way Ryo said it so offhandedly, he realized that, yes, he really was that close to his teacher. To his entire team.
"Why am I still alive?" He knew that it wasn't a good idea to ask such a thing, but that mere detail confused him.
"I thought the boss might like you. If he does, then I will finally be able to join him on his out of town ventures. Those have the most action and are the most exciting."
"The boss of this?"
"Yes."
Neji had thought Ryo was the boss, but he wasn't that suprised to know he wasn't. He just didn't seem like leader material. "What's your 'work'?"
"You seem competent enough, despite your disillusions about Might Gai and the definition of innocence. You'll find out on your own soon enough."
Neji glared at him, "I am not disillusional. You're wrong about Gai-sensei. He is too innocent to murder. You have no reason to keep me here. You have nothing to avenge."
Ryo stepped close, wrapped his hand around Neji's neck, and went uncomfortably close to him. His hand tightened until Neji wasn't able to get any air into his lungs at all. "Push, push, push. Patience wears thin when you push too much." A punch to his stomach knocked the bit of air he still had out of his lungs.
Neji struggled against the chains, his brain's alarm for oxygen blarring in his head. Breathe. Oxygen. Air!
Suddenly, the hand loosened and he was able to breathe again. His brain was calmed by the new air, but his throat was sore and breathing in made him wince in pain. Only his ragged breathing could be heard in the large, empty room.
"I. Am. Right. Wether you believe me or not. While you spend tonight in the room of seclusion, think about how well you know your teacher. You'll see. Might Gai isn't to be trusted. He is a murderer. You hear me? A murderer." Ryo whispered in his ear.
Neji looked off to the side, not looking at Ryo, and was trying to catch his breath. He flinched as the tip of a kunai sunk into the flesh on his shoulder. He glanced briefly at what Ryo was doing. He'd pushed back the shirt to get a clear view of his shoulder, and he was writing something on the pale skin.
He shrunk away, trying to get away from the weapon, but Ryo held him still. He kept reminding himself that he'd gotten worse. And he had. But the small cut that went from his cheek to his neck was still healing, and he knew anything more would take much longer. Without food, water, or chakra, his body wasn't able to heal as fast as it once could.
When Ryo stepped back to look at his handywork, Neji looked as well, and fell into a state of uncertainty upon seeing the word 'innocence' etched into his skin. Was Gai-sensei right? Or was Ryo the one that was right?
Of course Gai-sensei's right. I know him like the back of my hand, he wouldn't murder anyone. Right?
AN: Hello! Here's the next chappie. Finally, longish! I hope you liked it. I like writing Team Gai memories so you'll probably see a lot of them. The knock knock joke? Not mine at all.
I'd like to thank Just Me and AUehara for reviewing! It means so much to me!
Thank you for reading,
-MewMew
