Image is Everything
Part Four: The Caged Bird


Neji stood on the bridge, cold, beautiful, and purposeful. You could tell just by glancing at those colorless eyes the determination within the boy. His spirit burned with a fire that all the tragedy in his life could not put out.

"For I," he said, his hair flowing out behind him, "am but a caged bird in the Hyuga clan."

As if on cue, a bird flew across the sky, and Neji turned his head to watch its elegant arc through the sky, his eyes filled with unshed tears.

"If only I could fly free one day..."

"Yeah... that's nice and all... but we just wanted to know how to get to the ramen stand." Kisame looked over at his traveling companion. "Hey, aren't you from here? Why don't you know where the ramen stand is?"

Itachi shrugged. "They moved everything around since I've been here. Urban renewal and all that."

"Ah..."

Neji stared at the two strangers that had appeared before him. He didn't know who the tall guy was, but the short one looked familiar... "Sasuke?"

"No."

Neji stood there with a question mark above his head.

"Uchiha Itachi, reluctant hero, at your service."

"You can't be a reluctant hero if you're advertising it... then you aren't being very reluctant, are you?"

Itachi clenched his teeth. The Hyuga kid was right.

Suddenly, there was a commotion from some nearby bushes and a small girl with her hair in two buns stumbled out of them. She rolled around a little on the ground before flopping over, a cage in her hands. There were two birds in the cage... they looked suspiciously like the bird that had flew overhead earlier.

"Ten Ten!" Neji scowled at the young girl as she scrambled to her feet. "You're supposed to stay hidden!"

"Sorry, Neji." Ten Ten chuckled embarrassingly, rubbing her head in nervous gesture. "I tripped when I tried to get a closer look."

Ten Ten turned to look at Itachi. He was even cuter than Sasuke.

"Ne..." Kisame was getting excited. He had actually figured something out. "Don't tell me your girlfriend lets go of a bird every time you give that speech."

"I'm not his girlfriend," said Ten Ten, still staring at Itachi.

Neji, for his part, had turned to face the horizon, arms crossed. The sun was setting behind him, lighting up his profile, his expression completely serious. He looked every inch the determined hero that he was. "If it is one thing that I value, besides my purpose in this world, it is... my image."

Itachi nodded sagely. This was something he could understand. "Then you will help me become a hero."

Neji glared at the older boy. "Just because we understand each other doesn't mean I'm going to help you. I have my own goals to ob-"

Neji would have said more, but at that moment he found Kisame's sword at his throat.

"Come on," Kisami said, grinning, "it'll be fun."

"Fine." Neji managed a reply from between his clenched teeth, but he wasn't happy about this at all. "So what am I supposed to do?"

Itachi thought of all the time he had spent playing Final Fantasy and other similar video games. "Heroes always seem to come in one of two types. There's the reluctant hero, who doesn't really care enough about anything to get involved but always ends up saving the world anyway, and the purposeful hero, who has an honorable goal and will stop at nothing to achieve it."

Neji nodded. It was obvious he was the second kind of hero in this story.

"I don't really have some righteous goal, so I figured I'd be a reluctant hero, but it's hard to try to be a reluctant hero."

"Obviously."

"So maybe you can pretend to be a villain and hurt somebody, so I can come in and save the day."

Neji grimaced. "Wait a minute, I'm not the villain. Why don't you have your friend do that for you?"

"Well," answered Kisame, "now that Itachi's a hero I kind of have to be his sidekick."

Itachi nodded.

"I'm not going to play a villain, so why don't we think of something else."

"Fine."

Itachi, Kisame, and Neji sat down on the ground to think things out. While they were busy Ten Ten took the time to sneak away. Damn that Neji, always making her do things for him like taking care of his birds. Sometimes he even made her carry around a fan and use it so it seemed like his hair was blowing in the breeze. When he was feeling particularly melodramatic he would have her scatter sakura petals around him. Damn it, if only she hadn't lost in that poker game so many months ago...

"I think I have a plan," Neji finally said. "Since none of us wants to be the villain, we'll just make some one else do it."

Itachi raised an eyebrow. "Go on..."