Midsummer Afterglow: I finally got around to update this story! ^^ I'ts super late but it feels good to write again after so long. Please leave a review if you can guys; I would greatly appreciate it.
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO.
Friday, August 27th
8:42 PM
H.S.C. Building
Hinata was on his mind again. Stuck at work for the night, Neji had brewed a new batch of coffee and had just poured himself a fresh mug.
Hinata wouldn't take any of his phone calls and her absence was starting to irritate him. Neji was still itching to ask her about the boarding school. If she was really headed there, then perhaps it meant that she was taking this time to prepare for the move.
Truth was that, Neji never really believed Hinata would go; at least not now. Sure, a new semester was about to start - not that he had ever bothered to enroll in college after graduating high school - but Hiashi had kept such a tight leash on Hinata that the thought of her father allowing her to be at all independent was simply laughable. On the off chance she really was leaving, well then, he might just get it in his head to go after her.
Earning a degree was almost pointless at this point though; so even if he wanted to, he would be unable to follow her to the same university. Neji was a pretty intelligent guy but he was not cut out for classrooms and lectures. Hinata was just fine with it because she had grown up disciplined all her life.
Neji, on the other hand, was much like a delinquent. Not that he went around getting into trouble or anything remotely standard like that. Rather, his whole existence was troubling to everyone around him and this set him adrift from his family, from his friends, from anyone that tried to get close to him. It was not until Hinata stepped into his life that things had changed for him.
She was the reason Neji had a head position in Hiashi's company. Even his own father had failed to help him out in this way. With his mother dead, Neji had learned to rely solely on himself, but Hinata made him see that sometimes it was okay to rely on others. She had a way of setting such a simple example for him.
She never begged him to be like her. All she ever asked was that he prove to her that the Hyuga family had been wrong about him. Somehow, spending time in her company had lightened Neji's burden of forever being alone.
Setting down the last of his data for the night, Neji prepared to wrap things up. Loosening the tie around his neck, he sighed wearily and promptly saved the word document he had been working on for the last hour. The most recent data he had gathered had shown some decent improvements with their new drug.
Neji was almost positive now that with a few more test runs, his team would be able to determine the pros and cons of FADE and then present a full report to Hiashi and the board. In the meantime, as there was no rush for deciphering Hinata's uncharacteristic silence, Neji felt that he ought to look into the boarding school himself. In fact, he was a bit surprised he hadn't thought to do this already.
As he was presently in front of his computer, he typed Konoha University into the company search engine and found the school's official website. From the pictures provided on the home page, he could instantly tell that this school was unlike any he was used to. The place was a looker and most likely accepted only the best of the best.
There was no way in hell a school so uptight would be able to afford him. Hinata though, she would fit in just fine.
There were a couple links pertaining to alumni and then others which were far from what he was looking for and finally, one in particular that caught his undivided attention.
University Sponsors.
Neji scrolled over the link and clicked it. Immediately he was directed to a new page. And there it faced him plain as day, the reason why that news report from the other night had seemed so out of place.
Under the school's list of current sponsors, H.S.C. was nowhere to be found. Hiashi never intended for his business deal with the university to be made public. It was simply coincidence and perhaps luck that Neji had turned the television on at that moment.
Hinata wasn't simply leaving for her own benefit. No. If that had been true, she would have first discussed it with him. The reality was that she was being sent away by none other than her dearest father. The damned bastard!
Neji should have known better than to have waited on Hinata to come to him. He needed to go to her, and now!
If she was being forced to leave, then there was not a second to waist. Jumping up from his seat, Neji removed his lab coat, grabbed his car keys off the desk, and stormed out of the building.
Neji felt his body tense up when he came to realize that she was gone. Not a single trace of her remained in his apartment. Now that the leak had been fixed – yes, he had gotten around to it at last – there was no way for him to recall her presence. All the sheets on his bed had gone through the washer and dryer the night after she had made love to him; and without him even realizing it, she had taken her tooth brush, leaving his to stand alone inside the white rimmed cup on the counter.
Even when he had left to work in the morning, he had taken little notice of these warning signs. Now that it came down to it, he felt the hole of regret widening beneath his feet.
It had to be a sick joke! That's right, this wasn't happening. None of this was real. The ache causing his words to catch in his throat was all but a twisted nightmare he would soon wake up from.
Neji felt the earth spinning around him and though he felt like retching, he straightened his back and forced his feet to slide across the ground one step at a time.
He had gone to Hiashi's home only to find out that Hinata was not there. Then, he had driven to his own apartment, hoping desperately that she would be sitting by the front door, waiting for him to come home. But, when he'd reached that last flight of wooden stairs, he knew that his leaving the office, to look for her, had been useless. Chasing her after all the time he had let pass was entirely ridiculous.
Had he paid attention to what was happening earlier, he might have had a chance at stopping her, or at the very least stopping Hiashi.
The unfortunate truth remained though, that Hinata was already gone. She had left and had not bothered to say goodbye. Those times he had called over and over again, thinking maybe she was too busy to answer, he had been purposely ignored.
For some reason, Hinata was attempting to cut him out of her life and Neji had no idea why or what might be fueling her actions. Hiashi was surely to blame for Hinata leaving, but Neji knew her well enough to know that no matter what, she would have found a way to contact him if necessary.
So then why was she avoiding him? Why had she caused him to worry like this?
Neji felt salty tears gathering in the corners of his eyes.
"Please," he begged as he trudged over to his apartment door. "Let it not be so."
Balling both his hands into fists he fell to the ground, his knees shattering with pain from the sudden impact. And then he beat his fists against his door as he uttered his final plea, "Let it not…be so."
A/N: To be continued...
