Today I'm staying home from school because I'm sick. I've got tons of work to do though... Writing this might cheer me up.
Naruto: Chapter 10, wow. I'm barely in this story. Are you getting bored aleady? Luna owns nothing. Except this plot, which ressembles the one in her old Digimon fic…
Luna: Hush!
Black and White
Chapter 10
When he woke up, Neji was disappointed to find out that Tenten had disappeared without a trace. Yet, perhaps it was better this way. He wouldn't know how to look at her. He got out of her house and proceeded downtown.
There, among the crowd of shoppers and merchants, the Hyuuga saw Kiba coming his way. The dog boy had clearly seen him too, but both evaded each other's gaze. However, as Kiba walked passed him, he deliberately bumped his shoulder hard into him.
Neji gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, but did not turn around to give the rude boy a piece of his mind as he would have any other day. Today, remembering Kiba's exceptionnal sense of smell, Neji knew that Tenten's scent was all over him and that he should get away from Kiba at all costs before he could notice, to avoid unnecessary problems for the girl.
The Inuzuka took a few steps further before stopping.
"That smell..."
He quickly turned around but Neji was no longer there. He eyed the crowd suspiciously and continued his way.
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Lee had led Tenten to a quiet place and had requested to know what was going on. He stood in disbelief as the girl told him absolutely everything, desperate for someone to hear her out.
"I can not believe it," he said. " I am disappointed in you. And Neji. I never would have guessed that he would do such a thing. Coming into a lady's room at night..."
"What should I do, Lee? I feel terrible. It's all Neji's fault!"
Lee crossed his arms. "It is unfair to blame everything on him. While it is true that Neji has acted wrongly, I think the only one you can blame is yourself. You were hazy about turning him down, that is why he was unsure of your feelings for him. You should let him know clearly. Unless... you do have feelings for Neji?"
"I- I don't know... Whether I do or not doesn't change the fact that I'm with Kiba-kun now."
"In that case, you should choose the one you really want to be with, right?"
Tenten sighed. "I really like Kiba-kun. He makes me laugh and he's always lots of fun to be with."
"He would remain this way even if you were not with him, would he not? On the other hand, Neji would still remain quiet and still have you training with him until you drop even if you were with him, yes?"
Tenten was a tad confused by Lee's words. "Are you telling me I should choose neither one of them?"
"I am not telling you to do anything. You have to decide for yourself. I think both of them have qualities and flaws. Just ask your heart what is best for you. However, you should start by telling Kiba-kun the truth. It's not right to let him believe lies."
"I know. Thanks, Lee."
"Now go seek your happiness , youthful flower of Konoha!" And he gave her the nice guy pose.
Tenten's eye twitched a little. How could a guy who gets constantly shot down give good love advice?
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Kiba had found Tenten's house to be empty, and Akamaru was missing again. Hinata and Shino were nowhere to be found. The boy felt a bit lonely. He didn't want to return home yet, so he took a walk in the woods instead. Once there, he smiled as he picked up Akamaru's scent. Great! He must be nearby.
He followed the direction Akamaru's scent was coming from and eventually began to sniff a different smell. Kiba did find Akamaru, but much to his dismay, Neji was with him, sitting on a rock. The dog was handing the Hyuuga a stick when he noticed his master's arrival. He froze in a oh crap! manner, now that Kiba had seen him hanging out with his rival. Neji barely raised his eyes, but braced himself for yet another confrontation with the dog-boy.
Kiba couldn't believe the horror he was seeing. Akamaru was playing fetch with Neji?! "You again! What are you doing with my dog now?"
Neji got up. "Nothing."
Kiba turned to his dog. "Akamaru! Don't tell me you've been with this guy all this time? You shouldn't go near him!"
Akamaru barked something while Neji glared angrily at the other boy. He was talking as if Neji would actually harm the dog.
"What do you mean, I'm wrong about him?" Kiba said as he translated the dog's speech. "Lonely? Why would you be so lonely that you'd want to seek the company of that guy? Why are you wandering off recently? The female? What do you mean?"
As Akamaru continued to 'talk', Neji started walking away.
"Hey, where do you think you're going?" Kiba growled.
The long-haired boy turned his head. "It seems like you and your dog have some things to discuss." Finally Akamaru would tell Kiba how he felt about being replaced by his girl.
"Don't talk like you know my dog better than I do! Are you trying to steal my dog and my girl away from me?"
"Think what you want."
"Where is Tenten?" Kiba asked, annoyed.
"I don't know." Neji started walking away again.
"I'm not done talking to you!" the dog-boy groaned. "Even though you washed up now, do you think I did not smell Tenten's scent on you this morning? You were with her! You can't deny it!"
Neji turned back to Kiba one more time and smirked. "Why would I deny it?"
Kiba showed his fangs. "Where is she??"
"I don't know!" He frowned. "It would be best for you to leave her alone right now."
"Like you'd know what's best for her! I told you to stay away from her!"
"Leave her alone right now," Neji repeated. He was now starting to get seriously annoyed at Kiba. He wanted to avoid unnecessary conflict, but it seemed like Kiba was only asking for it. "You're not fit for her," he added.
It was Kiba's turn to smirk now. "Is that so? That's not the impression I got when I had her screaming my name the other night..." He'd soon regret saying those words.
Neji did not know nor care that Kiba was lying, and it wasn't the fact that he had said that just to make him jealous that made Neji furious. It was the total lack of respect he showed for Tenten that drove him to charge insanely at Kiba. He came at him so fast that Kiba had no time to evade Neji's punch and was sent flying to the ground. The Hyuuga glared at him, Byakugan activated, with the scariest infuriated eyes Kiba had ever seen.
Kiba got back up and whiped his face. "Alright. You asked for it! Let's go, Akamaru!" But the dog did not budge. "Akamaru?"
This fight does not concern me. I have no reason to fight this person. You're on your own.
Akamaru did not want to fight Neji, and he wanted to see how well Kiba would fair without his help. After all, it didn't seem like he needed him very much lately...
"Fine! I can beat this jerk without you!"
Kiba did some hands signs and gained his animal-like features. He dashed towards Neji and attempted to slash him with his claws, but the Hyuuga easily dodged and striked Kiba with his palm.
As the two exchanged various blows and jabs, Akamaru watched the battle without blinking an eye. It appeared to him that Kiba was getting his butt kicked thoroughly. What was he thinking, provoking someone stronger than him in such an arrogant way? Now Neji was so mad, he probably wouldn't stop until he beat the Inuzuka to a bloody pulp.
Kiba coughed some blood. He knew his situation was bad, but he wasn't about to get on his knees and ask to be spared. Ok, so he knew he never should've made that comment about Tenten, but he couldn't undertstand why Neji fought him as if he were a real enemy. The younger boy winced in pain as his chakra points got poked one after the other. Damn Jyuken. Much better than what he knew from Hinata.
"Without your dog, you're no challenge at all!"
Kiba growled at the remark, doubled his efforts and one of his punches managed to connect. Then, he noticed an opening and quickly took advantage of it. Before Neji could deflect his arm, Kiba fiercely slashed across his face with his claws.
The Hyuuga stumbled a few steps backward and held a hand to his face, moaning from pain. Kiba was panting as he watched the blood dripping from the older boy's face. He was also surprised to notice Neji's Byakugan was no longer active, and that he was breathing harder now.
Kiba was shocked as Neji finally removed his hand from his left eye and shot him an extremely mad look before lunging at him while screaming insanely. The dog-boy had scored a perfect scratch on his face, all the way from his forehead to his chin, including his precious white eye. You don't hurt a Hyuuga's eyes! Unable to keep his left eye open, Neji used his remaining one to strike each side of Kiba's nose with two fingers as hard as he could. An eye for an eye, they say. Or in this case, a nose for an eye.
Expecting to get hit anywhere but his nose, Kiba was taken by surprise and fell down. He looked up at Neji above him. The sight was so frightful that Kiba forgot about the striking pain to his nose. The other boy looked down on him with a merciless eye, blood covering the other side of his face. Neji looked like a scary monster and Kiba seriously thought he was about to die as the frightfully mad genius prepared the final blow.
Just then, Akamaru jumped in between the two young men. The dog stood motionlessly, muscles flexed, and stared at Neji, while not showing any signs of aggressivity yet. He barked something and even though the Hyuuga didn't understand his words, he knew what Akamaru said.
If you hurt my master any more, I will have to fight you.
"Akamaru..." Kiba said softly. He had protected him.
Neji stopped and eyed the dog. Akamaru had chosen to stick by Kiba's side, even though he had been neglected. Because the love he had for his master was stronger than that. Neji decided to respect this and backed away. He knew that Akamaru's problem with Kiba would be resolved and that the dog would never come to him again. He disappeared.
Now alone, Kiba sighed of relief and patted his dog's head.
"I'm sorry, Akamaru."
Fighting without him had reminded Kiba how much Akamaru meant to him, and how little he had paid attention to him lately. Tenten meant a lot to him, yes, but it was nothing like Akamaru.
"I won't let girls come between us anymore but if you get to know Tenten better, I'm sure you'll come to like her too. Forgive me?"
Akamaru licked his face and all was good again. Kiba still wondered where Tenten had gone to, but right now he had some catching up to do with his best friend, right after he patched his wounds, that is.
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Neji had made his way to the Hyuuga compound while evading people's gaze as much as possible. He had too much pride to let others see him with this injury. As he reached the door to his apartment, he tried to open his left eye. He had been to scared to do so until know, afraid to find out that his eye may have become blind. Though it pained him to keep it open, Neji was relieved to find out that his eye was not blind. However, his vision was incredibly blurry. Unable to calm himself, he called up the Byakugan to verify if it still worked, only to deactivate it seconds after because of the unbearable pain it sent throughout his optical nerves. Surely Kiba's attack had damaged the chakra lines to his eye. He cursed loudly and punched his door out of frustration.
The sound alerted Hinata, who had been nearby. She came closer and hid behind a wall and watched Neji as he unlocked his door before going in. She couldn't help but notice the familiar wound on his face.
"Those marks... Kiba-kun?"
Inside, the frantic young man headed for the bathroom and washed the blood off his face. He restrained himself from punching his reflection in the mirror has he noticed that his left eye was swollen and that he must've been bleeding internally because his eye had turned pink from the mix of red and white. He hanged down his head and tried to regain his composure. He reached into his cabinet for some eye drops. A handy medicine made especially for Hyuuga eyes, though Neji feared it wouldn't be enough to fix his eye this time.
There was a noise. "Um... excuse me... Neji-nii-san?"
The boy sighed as he recognized his cousin's voice. "What do you want?" he asked harshly. It annoyed him to let her see him like this.
Hinata followed the sound of his voice and joined him in the bathroom, a bit scared because Neji looked really pissed. "I-I'm sorry for coming in... but I saw you with that wound and..." She took out that bottle of ointment she always kept with her for situations like this. "You must apply this because marks left by Kiba-kun's claws tend to leave a scar..."
Neji figured Hinata would be able to recognize his teammate's attack. "Thanks," he said dryly. He then tried to put some drops in his eye, but he was so agitated that his arm was shaking too much.
"Allow me..."
The girl took the small bottle from Neji's fingers and he sat down, raising his chin. She delicately held his head with one hand while putting in some drops of the medicine in the boy's eye with the other. Neji hated being babied by his cousin as much as he appreciated her help. The medecine stung in his eye a lot but he tried not to show it.
"Thank you, Hinata-sama. I can handle the rest."
"Y-yes..." the shy girl said as she was about to leave. "It would be best if you did not let Father see you like this..." she added.
Neji frowned. He didn't need her telling him to know that. He was so upset about what had happened that he totally forgot about Tenten.
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The next morning, Kiba felt sore all over from yesterday's battle when he got out of bed. As he got dressed, he couldn't help but feel like something was different about his surroundings, but he couldn't tell what it was.
He got down the stairs, and Akamaru greeted him. Yet Kiba was confused because he couldn't tell his dog had been there before he heard and saw him. He proceeded to the kitchen to ask his sister what was for breakfast, but saw that she was almost done preparing eggs and bacon.
That's when it hit him. Usually the sweet smell of bacon woke him up as it filled the house, but this morning he simply did not notice.
"I can't smell!!"
Kiba started panicking. He couldn't pick up any scent anymore! That's when he remembered the blow Neji had delivered to his nose the day before. He must've blocked the chakra points allowing him to smell, as revenge for his damaged eye.
Kiba stormed out of the house.
"I'M GONNA KILL HIM!!"
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Kiba stomped furiously down the streets, looking for something or someone to destroy. His nose! It wasn't working anymore! An Inuzuka losing his sense of smell was like a bird without wings, a writer without a pen and paper, a Naruto without kage bunshin... or a Hyuuga with only one eye...
As he turned a corner, Kiba accidently bumped into Hinata, sending the small girl to the floor. He helped her up and apologized. If only he had his nose, he would've smelled her coming. However, as he gazed at her, Kiba's anger diminished.
"Kiba-kun, I was looking for you.," Hinata said quietly.
"For me?" Kiba smugly replaced some hair, and Hinata took his arm as he did so, and gently pulled up the sleeve of his shirt. The girl's soft touch on his skin sent shivers through his body as he remembered how he used to be in love with her some time ago.
"Kiba-kun," she said in a serious tone. "Where did you get those?" She referred to the various finger-shaped bruises all over Kiba's arm.
The boy quickly made something up. "Um, I got those from you during sparring, most likely."
Hinata was silent for a second. She knew she never hit her teammates with Jyuken hard enough for it to leave marks. And she had seen Neji's wound the day before. "You're lying, Kiba-kun. I met Neji-nii-san yesterday...you..."
Kiba grunted. "Yeah, I did fight with Neji yesterday. So what?"
The girl looked sad. "Why did you do that? You should know that...a Hyuuga's eyes is..."
"He totally asked for it! You should've seen how he came at me and..."
"Is this... about Tenten-san?" she asked in a quiet voice. Kiba didn't respond and looked away. "It's not nice of you and Neji-nii-san..." she continued. "..to fight over a person as if she were a mere object to claim..."
Kiba still remained quiet. Getting scolded by Hinata...he felt awkward.
"S-Sorry, Kiba-kun. That's not why I was looking for you."
"Why, then?"
"I was sent to deliver a message to you. Hokage-sama wants to see you. There is a mission for you," the girl explained.
"Aren't you coming?"
"No... me and Shino-kun were assigned something else. It seems you will fill-in for someone on another team..."
Filling in for someone... Kiba remembered how Tenten had been missing the day before. He got woried. Was she still missing? Did something happen to her? He headed for Tsunade's office right away.
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That was another fun chapter to write. Did you like it? Are you getting bored already? XD Next chapter: umm…I'm not telling!