A/N: You know what I enjoy doing? Drinking and eating unhealthy things while writing fanfiction like the degenerate I am. Let's do that now.
Time for chapter 16
Enjoy!
"Fight back, damn it! Don't just gawk at me! Give me what I want! Is it that hard to understand, you pathetic simpleton?!" a horned girl screamed, her teeth bared to reveal a set of fangs. Naruto, whose eyes were crimson with slitted pupils, clenched his jaw and ducked down to avoid a kick aimed for the side of his head. The blonde then planted his feet and returned fire with a hard punch to the left side of her jaw that sent the girl tumbling backwards.
"That's better. Now keep that up. We aren't finished yet" the girl hissed as she rubbed her bruised jawline. The blonde looked on in a confused haze as he was attacked again and again by the girl, who he couldn't quite identify. Her movements bore similarities to something Naruto had seen before, but they were much more feral and aggressive. As he retreated away from her, her features became more and more clear.
The more visible the specific details of her face and figure became more recognizable, the greater the confusion ravaging the Jinchuuriki. Despite the obvious answer being presented to him as to her identity, it took another two minutes of frantic combat for Naruto to catch sight of something that forcibly confirmed his fears.
In the center of the black sclera encompassing her eyes, was a pair of pale lavender irises. The Jinchuuriki's eyes widened and his body tensed, allowing his opponent to land flush with a palm strike to his chest. Naruto coughed up blood and dropped to his knees.
"H-Hinata…?" he sputtered as he struggled to breath properly. The demonic Hyuga scowled for a moment, but allowed a dark, sanguinary grin to spread across her black lips. She knelt down in front of Naruto and rested her forehead on his, the tips of her small horns digging into his skin under the weight of her skull.
"Something wrong, Naruto-kun? Do you feel like...giving up? If so...you're out of luck. I'm not done with you yet. Not nearly. We're going to have such fun together here, where nobody can hear you scream" she whispered in a smooth, almost hypnotic tone.
Before Naruto could respond, his throat was seized by his teammate.
Naruto's eyes snapped open as he sat up straight in bed. His breathing was ragged, and his body was soaked with in a cold sweat. It had all been an awful nightmare. The Jinchuuriki flopped back onto his side and rubbed the side of his head.
'That...was a new one. Where the hell did that come from? Most of my dreams are about things that have actually happened. That definitely hasn't happened' he thought to himself as he repaired his badly compromised composure. He then sat back up again and sighed.
'And I have to see her face in... he thought, glancing to the left at his alarm clock as the thought formed completely.
'...four hours. Great, just great. At least she doesn't actually have horns. Not that they wouldn't be fitting right now. She's been so...edgy lately' the genin thought to himself as an image of his far-from-demonic teammate flashed into his mind.
'What's your problem, Hinata? One day, you're being about as close to friendly as you're capable of being, and the next you act like you'd rather eat dirt than be around me. You're so frustrating' he thought to himself. He then performed a mental comparison between the horned girl in his nightmare and the Hyuga heiress, sighing as he came to the same conclusion for both versions.
'You were still kind of hot as a demoness, which is really saying something. Honestly, you'd be really desirable if you were consistently likeable. Too bad you're about as reliably warm as a blizzard' he thought to himself somewhat humorously. The blonde then hopped off of his bed and stretched as he sensed that sleep would not come easily that night. He threw on a jacket and strapped on his sandals before making his way to his front door. Before he opened it, he checked his pockets and sighed when he realized they were empty.
He quickly jogged to his dining table and grabbed a kunai from its surface. He tucked the blade in his pocket and exited his apartment. He jogged down the stairs and leapt down to the ground, skipping the final four on his way down.
"For somebody who should be asleep, you're quite energetic"
Naruto froze and glanced over his shoulder. Leaning against the side of his apartment building was a very tired, but still quite amused-looking Hiashi Hyuga. The blonde stared at the man for several moments before asking the most obvious of questions given the situation.
"What are you doing outside my apartment? Don't you have clan head things to be doing? If we're both being honest with ourselves, you need the sleep more than I do" he asked skeptically. The Hyuga clan head sighed and stepped out into the light of the street lantern that illuminated the street.
"Under any other circumstances at any other time, I wouldn't be caught dead outside of your dwelling. Not because I strongly dislike you, but because of the image I must maintain. You understand all too well, I know" he replied tiredly. The Jinchuuriki chuckled.
"What are the circumstances that make tonight an exception? I'm honestly dying to know" he asked curiously. Hiashi smiled tiredly.
"Do you really want to know the answer? Because it will both shock you and make you very uncomfortable" he replied. Naruto raised an eyebrow and motioned for the Hyuga man to continue. The clan head rubbed sleep from his eyes and stood up straighter.
"Hinata sent me out to watch you until at least one in the morning. She had studies to attend to, so she simply did not have the time tonight to do it herself. I, for the first time in six months, had a night of free time. So, taking advantage of the fact that I had not yet drank the herbal tea that allows me to sleep at night, she demanded that I do it instead" he explained. The Jinchuuriki frowned.
"And you listened to her because...why?" he asked skeptically, clearly confused by the series of events that had just been explained to him. Hiashi shrugged.
"If I am to be honest, I have no idea. Maybe it's because I expected this to be much more interesting than it has been. I don't know how Hinata manages to entertain herself three nights out of the week, but her methods have eluded me" he replied. The Jinchuuriki studied the response carefully, becoming more and more concerned as he took it apart.
"I have several questions" he said. Hiashi grinned and motioned for the excitable genin to continue speaking.
"First of all, you're making it sound like she comes out her and watches me sleep three times per week. Does she do that? And if she does, why?" he asked. The Hyuga clan head nodded.
"She does. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, she leaves her bedroom nine o'clock sharp to silently intercept you on your walk home. From there, she trails you until you enter your apartment. Then, she waits outside the building and watches you with her Byakugan until either midnight or one o'clock. As for why she does it, it's her very, very unconventional way of showing you that she cares" he explained. Naruto frowned.
"If you hadn't come out here and told me that, I would have had no idea. If she wants to 'show me she cares', why doesn't she just be nice to me on a regular basis? That would be a much better way to do it than stalking me" he asked. Hiashi sighed.
"Hinata is not, and never will be good at expressing positive emotions coherently. She chose this method because she has absolutely no clue how to actually be your friend, or more than that if she ever wishes to be. Even her sister, Hanabi, is substantially better at such things, and her only friend is terrified of her due to her incredibly aggressive approach to attempted courtship" he said. Naruto stifled a laugh as he recalled the scene he had witnessed between his young friend and the aggressive Hyuga.
"That all makes sense, I guess. My one problem with it is that she's been even more volatile than usual lately. She refuses to talk to anybody, especially me. Any idea what her problem is?" he asked. The elder Hyuga shook his head.
"Don't worry about it. It has little to do with you, for the most part. She is merely frustrated with herself, and she is using you as a scapegoat. It will come to pass in due time" he said. Naruto nodded and yawned.
"I will be leaving now. Sleep well, Uzumaki-san. The Chunin Exams begin in four days time, and I fully expect you to perform excellently" Hiashi said as he turned and walked away. The blonde watched the clan head disappear into the night and sighed.
'No matter how nice he is to me, I can never shake the feeling that I'm being tested every time we talk'
Hinata growled as she picked herself up from the blood-stained mats of the Hyuga Estate's dojo. Across the mat stood the culprit who had knocked her to the ground, Neji Hyuga. Despite their placements in different cells, they had been ordered to spar one another regularly in preparation for the upcoming exams.
"Rise quickly, Hinata-sama. We still have much to do today" Neji ordered from across the room. The Hyuga girl spit blood out of her mouth and re-assumed her stance, prompting her cousin to take a step forward and extend a hand, a silent invitation to attack. She obliged and leapt forward with a flurry of palm strikes, all of which were either blocked or parried by Neji. As she took a step to recreate space, Hinata was kicked cleanly on the right side of the base of her neck, deadening her nervous system momentarily and sending her crashing to the mat again.
"Calm down. You're being far too openly aggressive. This isn't like you, Hinata-sama" the Hyuga boy said as his cousin struggled to her feet once more.
"Then let me work this aggression out of my system" Hinata said as she steadied herself. Before Neji could respond, he was forced to pivot around another blitz from the heiress. The Hyuga girl quickly rebounded from her missed strike and pursued the boy across the mats once more, running face first into a stiff punch from her cousin.
"As I said, you're being sloppy. I will simply continue to counter you if you don't calm down. Getting hit will only anger you further, so try not to run yourself into my strikes" Neji said as he leaned his head back to avoid a high kick from Hinata. As her foot sailed past his face, the heiress pushed off of her planted leg, landing several feet away from Neji.
She took several deep breaths and slowly dropped into a less rigid stance. Her cousin nodded in approval and charged forward to engage her. The pair then began to exchange leads and counters in a rhythmic dance of taijutsu.
"Would you mind telling me what has you so perturbed, Hinata-sama?" Neji asked as her countered a left-handed palm strike from his cousin with a hard elbow to her forehead. Upon recovering from the counter and returning fire, Hinata shook her head.
"It's none of your concern, Neji-san. My personal trials and tribulations are exactly that. Personal" she replied as she planted a hard palm strike in Neji's stomach. The Hyuga boy doubled over momentarily, but quickly snapped to attention and kicked out one of Hinata's legs, forcing her to take a knee momentarily.
"Is that so? If you won't tell me yourself, would you mind if I took a guess as to what has you so very irritated?" he asked as the heiress climbed to her feet. Hinata raised an eyebrow and re-entered the fray with a palm strike that was blocked.
"Go right ahead. Even if you guess correctly, you have nothing to gain from the information" she pointed out as she was grazed by a cutting strike to the right side of her face.
"In that case, I'll put my intuition to the test. Would the emotion at the center of your ever-present whirlwind of negativity happen to be...jealousy of some kind?" he asked, earning a high kick that he was barely able to block from his cousin.
"Not jealousy, Neji-san, but indignation. Indignation at the cruel and unfair reality that was forcibly demonstrated to me several nights ago. Something you should understand quite well" she replied. Neji chuckled and snapped her head back with a sharp punch.
"Why must you always try to drag others down into your own pitfalls? You have a team of good people behind you, and yet you still cling to your petty arrogance. They deserve better, you know" he said. The heiress snorted and wiped blood from her nose before stepping into range and striking him twice on either side of his ribs with her palms, eliciting a grunt of pain from her cousin.
"Is it arrogance when it's rooted in a system that has been in place for generations? If a system has stood the test of time, then that means it is working. Why would I give my respect to those beneath me?" she snapped. Neji shook his head and tripped her again, this time in such a way that her head would collide with his knee as she dropped to the ground.
"You've already shown one member of your team more respect than you've ever shown me. You readily admitted upon your return from the Land of Waves that you wept for Naruto Uzumaki as he lay dying in your arms after paying the ultimate price for you. Beyond that, you oh-so-elegantly stalk him from the shadows for the sake of your own worries. You may not want to admit it, but you respect him, and possibly only him, greatly. In fact, based on the state of the kitchen the past few mornings, you feel some degree of attachment to him" he said. Hinata sighed and stood up to her feet, rubbing the side of her head that had fallen onto her cousins knee.
"Why must everybody in this family be so gluttonous?" she muttered in reference to Neji's comment about the kitchen. She then turned her attention back to Neji.
"Maybe I have developed some level of respect for Naruto-san, but he is still not my equal. Should he prove to be such a thing, then I will...make arrangements" she said before stepping into her stance once more. Her cousin silently chuckled.
'If you're anything like myself, you will strongly dislike the feeling of being matched by a clanless shinobi'
A/N: There ya go, folks. More Neji scenes. I hope this gave you more of an insight into his personality in this version of the story. Tell me what you thought of the chapter!
See you next chapter! Read and Review!