hey, i found some mistakes. Naruto was not alive during world war one but we will pretend he was. i totally forgot about the 20's and moved right to the dirty thirties. the twenties were a great year in the america's. i skipped from 1919 to 1930. so... my bad. the twenties wpuld have been like a depreession in germany, because of the treaty of versaillies, so naruto lived though one big twenty year depression. but that does not work with my stroy. so for my sake, the twenties no longer exsist...can i really do that? i feel so powerful! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
phew. anyways. Happy thanksgiving.
Change
I pressed a new plank of wood against my shack and started to hammer it in place. 'Home.' the wood proclaimed. I could feel a warm sensation between my toes and the palm of my foot. Soft and smooth but burning hot on the surface and cool below. Somewhere in my mind I registered that this was warm sand. I can't look behind me, but I know what's there. The ocean. I can hear water sounds. The dripping of rain, the flowing trickle of a river, the rushing of a sink or the splash of jumping in a puddle. Which sound was right? I have to finish the house.
I blinked my eyes open, but snapped them shut immediately. Why the hell was it so bright? My head throbbed unsympathetically, I vaguely wondered why. Was I late for school again? Jiriya will have my ass. Was Sasuke already waiting at the Café? I started to sit up, but I suddenly felt a weight across my chest.
"Eh?" I spun a bit under the weight only to discover that is was an arm. Slightly confused but muggy from sleep I calmly followed the arm back to the source. Red hair. Gaara.
Oh.
I shook away the sudden pain that came with remembering that I was no longer 16 but in my 20's. Sasuke was dead and I was in university. This happened every morning since the first night without him. But I felt a small swell of something unusual in my chest. I smiled. I was in love with Gaara. I snuggled closer to him, suddenly extraordinarily content. It was a new feeling to wake up with, not self pity or loneliness. I was happy with Gaara, I loved him. This felt so great, I had forgotten how great it felt to wake up and be in love.
I was embarrassingly giddy. So I giggled. Then my head pounded and I remembered collapsing into Neji's car. I bolted upright.
How stupid! I glanced down and sure enough my wig and dress were gone. I was in my underwear and undershirt. I could almost imagine the comical look on Neji's face as he tried to rationalize my cross dressing. Crap. Why the hell did he decide to undress me anyways? I was a girl! Is he a closet pervert?! My happy feeling faded. I shoved the lovely sentiment of Gaara's arms wrapped around me off and sat very still for awhile on the end of the bed. My mind raced around for a few seconds.
What was I going to do? How was I going to explain this? Would he tell the Nazis? Would I be sentenced to death? Exported? Sent to a 'camp'? What about Gaara?
Then my stomach growled.
"Oh well. Nothing I can do about it now. Might as well get some grub." I shrugged and headed out the door to the kitchen. What's done is done after all.
I must sound terribly half assed or lazy, but seriously, what was I supposed to do? Deny it? After he's seen me almost naked? Yeah, that'll go over well. "No no, I really AM a girl! You just have to squint!"
'Sides, I'm hungry.
I strode into the kitchen with as much nonchalance as I could muster. I pretended that waking up in a boy's body after being a girl yesterday was the most natural thing in the world to me. Yep, totally normal. I grabbed a bun and a piece of fruit off the counter and looked about.
As expected the Hyuuga estate was huge and extravagant. I can tell everything about a building from it's kitchen. And this kitchen was huge and extravagant. Seriously. The ceiling rode much higher then my or Gaara's head. The finery and carvings on the walls and cutlery were beautiful and practically oozed expensiveness. It was a nice change from my slummy ghetto style two-room apartment. I felt like stealing his silverware. Old habits die hard. I took a bite out of the bun and chewed thoughtfully while gazing at the table.
It stood out, because it was more beautiful then anything in the room. It was beautiful to me because it was the exact same one that I had. It was small and round and made of simple wood. There were no carvings or any engravings, and one of the legs was slightly shorter then the others so a thin book was shoved under it.
It only had room for one. It was a lonely man's table.
I sat in the forlorn single chair and thought for a second. Neji had the same table as me, but not because he couldn't afford better, but because it was all he needed.
How long had he lived alone? As long as me? Neji was not the huge and extravagant type of person. Neji was a lonely uneven table type of person. I suddenly felt very attached to him. In some twisted way, we were similar. Gaara, Neji, me, even Sasuke, we were all like. All the broken hearted people.
There was something missing on his table that was on mine though. When I turned 18, I carved something on the top of mine. I was feeling a little alone because the apartment felt to big and empty. No one to say good morning to me. So I thought I'd have my table say it. For the last couple years the words smiled up at me from below my breakfast. 'Good Morning!' they declared in slightly messy text.
If my tiny apartment felt so big and empty, I wonder how Neji's must feel. I got up and pulled the plainest knife out of the drawer. I sat at the table and carved. It wasn't till I finished that I realised I'd just carved words onto someone else's furniture.
"Oops." I mumbled, tossing it back in the drawer and blowing the wood chips of the table. "What's done is done, I guess…" that seemed to be my motto this morning. Why must I be so impulsive? I wandered away from the table and out into the halls. I wonder where Neji is…
"Good morning…Angelina, is it?" a voice called bitterly.
"Good morning Neji!" I said happily. Hopefully, if I pretended all this was normal, he would to. He was a good guy.
"What the hell. Are you a man or a woman? Lord or lady? Solider or nurse? Make a decision." he snapped.
I lifted up my under shirt to reveal my abnormally tanned flat chest.
"Man. You?" I asked playfully, smile still in place. Neji didn't laugh. My hope was quickly dwindling. "Ha….Well, my name is Naruto. We've meant before, haven't we?" I trailed hopefully. Neji wasn't biting.
"Look. Gaara wouldn't have survived a ball without some help. I hated it, but Sakura had a lot of fun." I shrugged as close to honesty as I could get without mentioning my participation in the underground rebellion. Neji sighed suddenly, he wasn't as angry as I thought. He just looked…a little disappointed or betrayed.
"I don't care what your relationship with Gaara is, but the Nazis will, so why don't you do me a favour and we'll forget all this…" Neji shrugged. Blackmail. Ouch. Neji hadn't struck me as a blackmail kind of guy. He was a lopsided table guy. I knew this much at least. Neji was calm, collected. But he was easily irritable and oddly loyal with too much pride to sink to black mailing. I can read people pretty well. Or at least I thought I could.
"Yeah? What do you want? Money? I'm broke! Sex? No way. What could I possibly give you?" I scoffed. Neji frowned.
"Why so angry little boy? All I need is a favour." Neji replied cheekily. Where did this arrogant façade come from?
"Little boy?" I hissed.
"You prefer little girl?" He sounded suitably amused.
So I punched him. Hard. This was not turning out well. I had, in fact, just decided how much I liked Neji. Now he was ruining it. Neji straightened, slightly shocked. A hand hovered above his lip for a second.
"That was stupid of you." He told me, clearly angered.
"Yeah, well." I shrugged concentrating on not hitting him again. What a bastard! Like him? I take it back! He's a jerk. I read him totally wrong.
"I need you to pretend to get married."
There was a long pause, during which I tried to collect myself. Which would sound something like this;
'Ok. Yeah. Sure, why not? That is… And we…Um. What the hell is all this about?'
"Um, er, huh?" I replied intelligently, yeah, that long pause had not helped at all. Neji gazed at me for a long time, a look of disgust flashed on his face, then one of fear. Then he looked away from my face.
"I've got to find Lady Hinata." He said finally.
"What?" I snapped. He wasn't even making any connections between anything he was saying! What did that have to do with my getting married? Whom am I marrying? I mean, why should I marry anyone?!
"It's complicated. Just understand that I'm threatening you. Gaara and you will be married by the Führer himself." Neji exclaimed, exasperated. That was certainly a shock.
"Ok! Stop right there! First off, you will not be threatening me into anything! Secondly, in case you forgot, I'm a man! A full grown man. I can't marry Gaara! He's also only 16! Third, I would never let that scum marry me to anyone! Hitler can go to hell!" I breathed heavily. I still didn't understand what was going on. All I knew was that there was no way in hell I was going through with any of this.
"Gaara's only sixteen? But I thought you were 22?" Neji asked, confused.
"That's completely irrelevant!" I snapped, aware I was incriminating myself.
"Pervert." Neji smooth features rumpled.
"Says the man whose never been in love!" I shot back, embarrassed. "Look, climb off your high horse for a second and explain something to me! I don't understand! I just finished deciding that I liked you, despite the Nazi scum that you are! But now you're whipping this crap at me and I don't understand any of it! Who is Lady Hinata anyway? What happened to her? Why does my getting married have anything to do with it? I can't help you if I don't understand you!"
"Shut up!" He back slapped me, his face turning a lucid pale. "You wouldn't understand anyway! How can I like you? I don't even know you! Are you a girl? A boy? What's your name? Are you working for the underground? I can't trust someone like you! I can't trust anyone! That's dangerous! That's stupid!"
I spit some blood onto his perfect clean floor. I hope it stains.
"Full grown man, thank you very much. I don't work for the underground, but I do support them. Sort of. It's complicated. I'm not trying to be anyone's enemy. I'm a pacifist. My name is Naruto Uzumaki, the pleasures all mine." I put my hand out, trying to be civil, well as civil as you can be to someone who's trying to blackmail you. Neji shoved my hand aside.
"The Uzumaki's are dead. Don't lie. A gas leak. I investigated last night, there son was Naruto Uzumaki. He died 15 years ago."
"Gas leak?" I laughed coldly. "Is that what is says in those pretty government documents?"
Neji shifted his weight to his other foot, curiosity on his ghost white features.
"What…what do you mean?" He asked awkwardly.
"If it was just a gas leak, how come they didn't let anyone see the bodies?" I asked, my voice beginning to waver. "My dad was slashed across the throat, my dad was beaten and shot, then he was burned to death. My mother was raped. Repetitively. Then she was thrown into the wall and beaten. She was also burned to death. Want to know who…WHO is responsible? WANT TO KNOW?? Well, look around next time you go to work. Look at all the lovely uniforms and understand why I flinch at the sight."
I was shaking hard. Sakura, Sasuke, Shino, Kiba, Iruka. I'd never told an of them this. All they knew was that I was an orphan who was desperately afraid of soldiers. Even Gaara didn't know the full story. I wasn't sure why I told Neji, but it felt like he really needed to know. I don't hate soldiers. I am so afraid of them it hurts. When I was little, I used to go into hysterics if they came near. Now I just act out against them, but I know the fear is not gone. I'm terrified. I'm so scared, all the time. Gaara was wrong. I'm not strong. I'm so weak.
"How…why should I believe you? How would you know?" Neji demanded, a frightened look in his pale eyes.
"How…how would I know? Because I watched. They tied me up and let me watch. They called it a Christmas gift. Soldiers sang me Christmas carols as it happened. Jingle bells, carol of the bells, Rudolph the red nose reindeer. Do you understand? How could I forget? I was seven. SEVEN!" I clasped a hand over my mouth so that I wouldn't cry out. I hate Christmas. I hate Christmas. I really, really hate Christmas.
"And they let you live? Seems highly unlikely." Neji's voice was cold, calculating, filled with disbelief. But his eyes showed such a frightened shadow that I knew he already believed me. He must have had his own doubts after reading the lovely notes about the convenient gas leak at the traitors house.
"They didn't mean to. See I was next, the pedophiles wanted a turn as well. So they untied me, my dad told me to run and I bolted. I hid under my stairs for three days, drinking rain water that dropped in from the leak in our ceiling." I excluded the part between them untying me and me running. Some stuff will stay private for ever.
"Uzumaki was…was a great man. I can't believe something like that would happen to my teacher. You're lying." Neji said slowly. And I remembered something.
"Oh!" My mouth opened wide. "I know you!"
Neji blinked, 'Obviously' written across his forehead.
"No, I mean, you used to come to my house sometimes. My dad taught you how to fight, I used to try and join you guys. You taught me how to…"I thought back to those days with my dad. I was only 5 or 6. He used to take this little boy, only a few years older then me and he taught him how to fight. I was so jealous. I wanted to learn to! Then one day when I was spying the boy came over and smiled at me. He became like a big brother. He used to play games with me or teach me strange tricks. He taught me how to play football and rugby. It was fun. His eyes were a pale lavender and his name was…
"Neji! You were like a big brother to me. I was what? 5? You were maybe 9 or 10, we used to play all these word games and you taught me how to play cards! I can't believe I forgot! Do you remember?" I was buzzing with excitement.
"You really can't be…that's too cruel." Neji's face was all pinched. He looked so angry and distraught. I was just happy to find him again. "I thought you stole Naru's name. I hated that. I mean, why would I want to believe that story? Uzumaki was a great man, I knew he was disliked, but I didn't know why. Is it my fault?" Neji wouldn't look at me. "Is it cause he spent so much time with the Hyuuga disaster child? I'm sorry. You must hate me."
"What are you talking about? They killed my dad because he refuse to join the military. My dad was a brilliant fighter, but he was pacifist. He caused them a lot of trouble, he leaked information during World War One. They murdered him because of that. Why would it be your fault? Hyuuga disaster child?" Why is that phrase so familiar? Neji was gazing at me with such an intensity I thought I might fall over.
"You really are little Naru? The cute little kid who fell more then he walked?" He asked and I laughed.
"I'm still a klutz. You said I would grow out of it. Liar." he smiled, or something akin to one.
"They sent me to your dad because no body else wanted to teach me anything." his smile faded. "You see, Lady Hinata is my cousin, but also my sister."
"Oh." I was still confused. How is that possible?
"My mother was her mother. But our fathers were brothers. My father was younger by a couple of minutes and was deemed what the Hyuugas' call a branch family. A lesser member, only there to protect the older one. When my father became a young man, he fell in love with my mother, and she lover him back. My uncle was engaged to her before either was born. My uncle was not in love with her. When I was born they found out that I was my father's child. They murdered my father. My Uncle was forced to father Hinata, considered a true heir to the main family. My mother became clinically insane. I'm the cursed Hyuuga child, neither branch nor main. My purpose in life is to join the militia and protect Hinata." Neji looked a little worse for wear. I understood suddenly. All the scornful looks we earned between our two reputations, all the hesitant moments before he placed a hand on my head, like he was not allowed to touch me or anyone. Neji was warped. Like me. Like Gaara. Like Sasuke. Like anyone.
"I hate it. Your dad was right. Fighting is stupid."
Neji huffed. He leaned heavily against a wall. I gazed at him for a very long time.
"Then don't." I said clearly.
"What?"
"Then don't fight. Don't do what you don't want to do."
"I have to."
"No, you don't."
"It's my destiny. I have no choice."
"Bullshit." I snapped. It felt like Neji was dragging my dad through the dirt. If he really believed in my dad, would he be wearing that uniform? "There's no such thing as destiny."
"Yes, there is. My fate lies in this hell hole. You're in one as well, you understand. Our lives are shit, and we had no say in the matter."
"What the hell is that? You just want to blame anything but yourself. If it's fate that I'm in this situation then it's not my fault? Is that what you're saying? You can't change it cause it's fate?" My fists tightened at my sides.
"Once a sheet has been stained, you can't un-stain it." Neji was frustrated. I punched him as hard as I could. He just wasn't listening. Neji smashed against the wall and slid down to the ground.
"What are you trying to do then? Hide it? Cover it up? Pretend it's not there? Trying to wash out the stain is better then crying over it." I accused wildly. "I think it's time you grew up and faced the music. Everyone's life is shit. So shut up with the 'woe is me' crap. Man up. You may have been dropped in this hell hole, but no one said you couldn't try to climb out of it. It takes hard work, sweat, blood, and a little heart ache but if you have the back bone for it, you might end up somewhere nice. And if you're not going to change it for yourself, I will push you into it. Because there is a better life out there somewhere for the both of us, and there is no way I'm going to let you sulk in that pit when you could be else where. Because I like you. And you deserve better." I took a deep breath. I felt the meaning of my words running through me. This was how I would help people. This took strength. I would be strong.
"But fate is a sure thing!" Neji yelled.
"The only sure thing in life is change. Believe it, Neji." I reached down to help him up.
"My fate would have been to die that night 15 years ago Neji. But I'm here now. I'm walking, I'm talking, and my heart's beating. You can't rely on fate or me to get you out of where ever it is you have fallen." Neji gazed at me. "You got two legs and heartbeat, what's stopping you?" I quoted my dad for effect. Neji smiled. Then he laughed.
"You always were one troublesome kid." Neji said softly. "I don't really understand much these days."
"You always were a terrible learner." I replied. "So, let's have breakfast first. Then you can explain the whole marriage thing so we can get Lady Hinata home again, huh?"
"You would…you would help me find Hinata?" He asked.
"If you ask, yes. Plus you called her Hinata instead of Lady Hinata. It isn't duty that makes you want to find her." I smiled as he flushed.
"S-she…you know, she is my sister, after all." he looked away. My smile grew, he really did like being a big brother.
Gaara strolled into the room, oblivious to our fiasco.
"I fell asleep again." He said thoughtfully. "My head hurts." I laughed.
"Of course, you idiot! You were so drunk it was embarrassing!" I chimed, hitting his shoulder playfully. "How about you drink some water and see if that helps. My head hurts too, now that you mention it."
Neji watched us, amusement clear in his face.
"Gaara. What's the ocean sound like?" I asked suddenly. My dream was bothering me, I know it was the ocean, but what should it have sounded like? Neji gave me an odd look.
"Sort of a ka-shoosh, ka-shoosh. Hard to describe…" Gaara trailed off thoughtfully. "Why do you ask?"
"I dreamt last night that I was by the ocean. But I don't know what it looks like or sounds like so…" I trailed off pensively. Ka-shoosh?
"Next time you dream it you can listen to my voice saying ka-shoosh then." He said. This would have been lame if he had said it differently, but he said it like he was giving me permission. I laughed happily.
"Oh? What about how it looks?" I complained. "Really, you're no help at all!" I teased. From the corner of my eye I noted an intense look on Neji's face.
"Well…it's blue and, um, big."
"How descriptive. Like the sky, you mean?" I asked.
"Size wise, yes. It seems to stretch on endlessly. But at the same time, no…a deeper blue. More like…your eyes I guess." He stared at my eyes then nodded, agreeing with himself.
"I can't dream my own eyes!" I blushed.
"Then I'll dream about them for you." Gaara nodded, again sounding like he was offering me some kind of prize or gift.
"Ah! Pervert! Don't tease me!" I hit him again, wondering if he knew how cheesy he sounded.
"Are you as hungry as I am?" He asked seriously, ignoring my punch.
"Are you hungry Neji? How about I make us some eggs?" I offered happily. Neji stared at me for a long time.
"Yes, I suppose." he said finally. Then, oddly enough, he laughed.
We all strolled into the kitchen like nothing ever happened. It was lovely.
phew. all done this took forever. sorry. i kept rewriting neji's story but i jsut felt like it needed to be this way, instead of the classic story. btw, im not a neji/hinata fan. just so you know. ok, so my weird thing? Naruto and gaara are gettting married! ha! (makes me laugh!) yeah! By hitler! (lol, omg im bad)see you next chap! btw, hinata is coming soon!!
