ARC 3: Day 41

Note: There really exist tests for malingering: they are taken when doctors think their patients are faking a decease or disorder, in order to get money or something other beneficial. People who fake usually score much higher than non-fakers or real patients, because fakers usually say they have strange and crazy pains everywhere, which is technically not possible.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and Characters. Spotting typos is appreciated!

The first Sunday of the month was sunny and warm, and it felt like today was going to be just like all the other days I had here so far.

"Neji, today I want to go through this questionnaire with you." As usual, Dr. Asuma started my private session. Initiative to start talking almost never came from my side.

"Okay."

"The test will take about 20 minutes. After that, you are free to go back to your room. We don't need to fill the rest of the hour."

"All right." I smiled. The extra time I could most definitely spend trying to talk to Sasuke, or even to Gaara.

"Please answer every question as honest as possible."

"Yes."

"You can answer with 'yes', or 'no', and there will be 70/80 questions."

"..." At this, my ear perked up, and I fell silent. I knew that somewhere along the road of faking a disorder, people would probably start to question me.. Was this the moment?

"I'm ready. Please begin." I replied with my usual soft and bored voice, not indicating that I was somewhat feeling uncomfortable about the whole survey.

"Question number 1: Sometimes I lose all feeling in my hands and it is just like I'm wearing gloves."

Mentally, I grinned.

I was going to be fine.

Because I, Hyuuga Neji, Boy Genius, was suspected for malingering, meaning they were suspecting me for faking a disorder.

They are right about the faking-part, though they would never find out.

Especially if they wanted to catch me with the most basic questionnaire ever: the 'Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptonatology'.

(Ha! Never say I don't prepare myself before doing something outrageous like faking a disorder.)

"No." I answered at last. Doctor scribbled something down on the note block, before asking me the next question.

"I never smile."

With a quick thought of Gaara, I answered 'no'.

And so it continued for a while. I answered all the questions, and I left the room after 25 minutes.

And then I went to the recreation room, and I spend a lot of time listening to Kiba's rambling. And then I stopped another fight between Ino and Sakura.

And so a few hours went by.

And I wasn't put aside, or confronted with the test. And doctor Asuma never called me back the rest of the day, to tell me I was caught faking a disorder.

So I guess I was okay in the end.

That afternoon however, my uncle had boldly decided to visit me today.

"So.. How are things, Neji?" My uncle tried to lighten the tension between us, but it didn't quite work.

I rather disliked the fact that my uncle was here.

"Okay, I guess."

More silence. A thicker tension between the two of us.

"NEJI!!!" Came the sudden loud yell from the other side of the visitors-room. I looked up, only to see the most familiar blonde at the entrance. Before I knew, he came running to me, and before my uncle could send me a 'who-the-hell-is-THAT?!' stare, a drawing was pushed in my face with quite some force.

I smiled. Deidara wasn't allowed to work with other materials than paper at the moment, because in the last art-class he tried to hit Sasuke with a piece of wood, and the class before that he threw a handful of clay to the teacher.

So it was all paper drawings for Deidara right now.

"That's a very cool bird you drew. May I hang it above my bed, Deidara?"

Said Blonde gave me a foul look, but I wasn't fazed the least. Deidara was very unpredictable, but I started to learn which buttons to push to keep him satisfied.

"Oh, I don't mean I want to cherish them for-ever. I just want to collect a pile of your drawings, and then I'll rip them all up at once: Gaara will love it!"

Deidara's smile came back tenfold.

"Yeah! That's a great plan, un!" came the loud reply Deidara was known for to make, before he ran back. He only stopped to stick up his middle finger to Sasuke (who was moping in a corner of the cafeteria), before disappearing completely in the crowd. He was probably going to rip up the drawing himself.

(Just like he did with the other 34 drawings he gave to me.)

"Neji?"

Oh, right. My uncle was still here.

"Uncle, that's Deidara, who just gave me the drawing. He's kind of crazy, because he likes to hurt people who he loves, but he's okay I guess. I mean, my roommate can't even move his arm to tie his shoes, and this other really great friend I have believes that he's being followed everywhere he goes.. But they're all cool, I believe." I said with an enthusiastic voice, before making my way to the nearest table.

Yes, I know, I know. Normally I wasn't as talkative as I was right now.

.. But it felt so satisfying to hear my uncle splutter for the longest time when he understood I made friends with the people here.

That evening, I was walking back to my own room, as dinner was done, when I bumped into Deidara again.

"Yo, Deidara." I friendly greeted him.

"Fuck off." Deidara snapped back at me. However, he didn't say it with his usual grumpiness. And, he didn't seem like he was okay as well.

"Tssk, what is your problem anyway, Dei? You are looking like shit. What, did someone die or something?"

Apparently this was the wrong thing for me to say, because Deidara's face grimaced so he looked like shit even more, but he did not retort to snap back to me. This irritated me, so I kept pushing the conversation.

"You're pathetic."

Still no answer.

"Come-on Deidara, snap back! I'm being annoying, so the least you can do is to tell me to shut up."

"Say, what is art exactly?"

Eh?

Art?

"You're talking nonsense, Deidara." I told him, and then I left. I did not feel like babbling more crazy talk with him any longer.

I quickly walked back to my own room, not feeling like meeting more people tonight. However, fate was not quite spent on me.

"Neji!" Sasuke seemed to have appeared out of thin air, and from the looks of it, wouldn't disappear anytime soon.

"Shouldn't you be in your own room by now, Sasuke?"

"I might. But did they not see me coming here. No, they did not." I believed him instantly. Sasuke always had a knack for sneaking around.

Apparently, Sasuke had been secretly planning this nightly visit for a long time already. So why tonight?

"Because I wanted to make sure no-one will catch me. I had to wait until my brother was out of town, and Deidara is locked up in the lone room."

His sense of logic failed me, as always, but when he asked, I assured him nonetheless that I hadn't found any cameras or bugs in our room so far.

"Or in your radio. Because they might be monitoring our conversation through your radio. Neji, turn the power of your radio off." Sasuke babbled, looking agitated. Gaara slowly flapped his right hand.

I turned off the power, and braced myself when I finally asked the question I wanted to ask Sasuke ever since our field trip.

"Sasuke, who are they?"

For a moment, he hesitated to answer, but when Gaara settled his eyes on the raven-haired boy as well, he opened his mouth.

"Akatsuki."

Akat-.. Red Dawn?

"Red dawn? Is that some kind of band? Or something- oh, is it a culture-thing? Is it something, say.. Your Founding Father had invented? Or is it-

"Neji!" Sasuke hissed, and I knew he thought I was mocking him.

"I'm sorry. What I said was uncalled for." I said with a sour look, because I didn't like apologising. Gaara stayed silent, and stopped flapping his hand.

"Yes, uncalled for," Sasuke agreed, and stayed silent for a moment, "Are you sure you-

"Yes, Sasuke. I've never heard of this 'Akatsuki' before, so don't you even dare thinking I'm part of it," I shot a glare in Sasuke's direction. When I got no reply, I continued, "But can you tell me what this.. 'Akatsuki' is?"

Sasuke seemed to think about it, but made up his mind very quick.

"Akatsuki.. They're this organisation," He whispered, "It's one big dark secret, and.. Oh, I can't really talk about them. You see, they know that I know more than I should. They know I'm after them, and that's why I have to be really careful. There are 10 of them, though I'm sure Nagato isn't the master-mind, even though a lot of people thought he was."

"Nagato?"

"The guy with the piercing from the West Wing.. You know, he always sits next to Konan in art-class."

No, I did not know. I didn't even know this Konan-person, let alone someone who sat next to her during art-class. But that was besides the point, because Sasuke already continued his explanation.

"Well, Nagato's real name is actually Yahiko, but I'm still looking for the ultimate clue so I can understand who Pein really is." And he nodded, as if the world was so very clear to him.

Yahiko? Pein?

What was Sasuke talking about!?

"Sasuke." I started, but stopped a moment to formulate what I was going to say.

"Sasuke." Gaara mimicked, but he was just saying empty words, so he was ignored.

"Sasuke, I don't understand what you are talking about." I finally said, which made Sasuke look sour.

"No-one seems to understand. Well, my coach always listens when I confine my secrets to him, and sometime he even says he doesn't like my brother too, but I'm not sure whether he is just trying to be a good coach, or he really understands it all."

I think his coach was just trying to be a good therapist, but I didn't say this to Sasuke. Instead, I opted for a more diplomatic answer.

"Sasuke, these crappy Doctors here know what they're talking about, so I'm sure your coach understands you, even if it's just for a little bit."

Sasuke seemed to think about it for a moment, before he suddenly nodded furiously.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I mean, the last time I showed him the clues I gathered, he was really interested in the answer I thought I found. He even wanted to know if I finally found the answer I've been looking for."

"The-.. What answer, Sasuke?"

"The reason why my brother killed my entire family, but let me live." was my answer. Then Sasuke nodded again, and his eyes widened. It might have been a glimmer of madness that I spotted, but I wasn't sure. And besides, this was Sasuke. Sasuke wasn't crazy. He was just plain weird.

"Sasuke, I'm very happy that you trusted me enough to tell me this," I started, because I know Sasuke liked to hear these things a lot, even though he didn't really trust anyone, "So you're an orphan too?"

"An.. Too?!" Suddenly, Sasuke gave me a very compassionate and sad look, like he had suddenly found out I had to carry a heavy burden.

"Neji, why didn't you tell me your parents were murdered?" I-.. Oh God, was is your uncle's fault? It must have been. Neji, don't you ever take an apology from him, even if he gets on his hand and knees. He might not be familiar with Them, but he did visit you twice in uh, in the last week, with uh, which means he is watching you. Neji, your radio is off, uhh, you turned it off, didn't you?"

Sasuke had started babbling again. At times like these, I just ignored him, mainly because Sasuke's acclamations got more and more illogic to understand.

"Gaara, do you have parents?" In the end I just turned my attention to Gaara, who looked unfazed as always by the sudden question. Sasuke looked ugly for a moment because I didn't confirm the turning off of my radio again, before he looked to Gaara's side intriguing.

"Gaara." I almost cooed, as Gaara stayed silent. Sasuke looked at me with a weird look, before he too started cooing.

"Gaara, you have to say things. Of are you afraid that They are listening? That is really stupid to think; Neji check already, and I checked the door and Deidara is in the lone room by now, yeah, he is. I checked that. So you're uh, safe. And you have red hair, just like Sasori."

I wondered about Sasori's hair for a moment, and then decided that Gaara wouldn't find that piece of information interesting enough to start talking. But Sasuke seemed satisfied, now he said his thing, so it didn't really matter.

"Gaara, do your have any parents?" I asked him again, and this time, Gaara actually answered a little bit.

"Got a eh.. A father.." He started, and Sasuke and I both nodded, urging him to continue, "Brother and sister."

And then he stopped talking, so I guessed that was as far as his family stretched.

Of course Sasuke immediately started blabbering again, for the word 'brother' was mentioned, and to Sasuke, that mean Gaara might be corrupted.

Sasuke's blabbering got louder and louder when Sasuke found out that Gaara had not put off his radio.

And the loud blabbering was finally heard by the staff, and they weren't pleased that we were having a late-night meeting.

And then Sasuke was sent back to his room, without even saying a quick goodbye.

But it wasn't that bad.

Because I made Gaara talk, and I felt (perhaps a little too much to be considered normal) overjoyed by this.

I helped Gaara talk.

And it felt Great.