Naruto Primer Lost Chapter: Neji
A Branch House Carol
This chapter was requested by one of our friends who, for some strange and inexplicable reason, would prefer if his name were NOT put in the credit section. It was kind of a collaborative effort. And yes, this means that we are now getting in the suggestion portion of the Lost Chapters. Wait patiently and your request might show up!
Nothing could ever stop Neji from hating the Main House so immensely. Most Branch House members felt the same, but Neji had extra reason to abhor everything it was and stood for. We all know the reasons why, so we do not have to explain.
It was Christmas time in the Hyuuga Household. As a matter of fact, it was Christmas time for EVERYONE! Whether you were part of the Main House or the Branch house or not even a Hyuuga at all, it was Christmas nonetheless! But Neji would have none of this good cheer because wintertime reminded him of Hinata's birthday, which reminded him of the day he got his curse seal, which reminded him of the day his evil uncle killed the representative from the other village, which reminded him of the day he found that the Main House killed his father.
The Hyuuga children were out building a snowman but Neji was way above that. Suddenly, Lee and Tenten approached him.
"Merry Christmas Neji!" said Lee.
Neji crossed his arms and muttered something under his breath that sounded like the start of a Main House rant but also sounded a lot like, "Bah! Humbug!"
"Aw…do you not like Christmas?" said Tenten.
"You have no idea." Said Neji.
"Gai's going to have a BIG Christmas celebration!" said Lee. "And we're all invited! Isn't that great?!"
"I'm not going." Said Neji, putting his nose up in the air.
"Why?!" gasped Lee and Tenten.
"Because the Christmas season is my least favorite time of the year!" Neji answered flatly.
"Oh…I see…" said Lee, looking hurt FOR Gai. Neji didn't want to linger any longer so he stood up and went back into the house where Lee and Tenten both knew they were NOT allowed to follow. It's not like they WANTED to though, so they didn't.
He almost crashed into Hinata on his way in.
"I'm sorry!" said Hinata quickly as she quickly hurried past him. He decided that she would live for the day, and someday, when he got her alone, then he would have his revenge.
That night, Neji went to bed just as usual. He knew he wouldn't be getting any presents upon awakening. AS USUAL. However, in the middle of the night he was awakened by a strange sound. When he sat up in bed, he found that his window was opened. He got up and shut the window and turned around to get back in bed only to see Naruto standing there!
"Good god…" said Neji, taking a deep breath after getting over his surprise. "WHAT are you doing in my room?"
"I am here tonight to warn you that you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate!" said Naruto.
"What?" said Neji.
"I don't know." Naruto confessed. "But tonight, you will be haunted by three spirits!"
"What?" Neji repeated.
"Look to see me no more; and look that, for your own sake, you remember what has passed between us!" Naruto exclaimed as he ran to the window and went to leap out it. But he found that it was stuck. After struggling for a moment, he finally forced it open and then jumped out. Neji raised an eyebrow at all of the commotion and figured that this was only Naruto doing one of his practical jokes so he closed the window again and went back to bed.
Neji lied down and was just about to go to sleep again when he heard some knocking at his window. At first, he figured it must have been the wind or a tree, but the rapping continued at a slow and steady pace so he soon realized that there was someone out there.
"Lee, I'm going to kill you." Said Neji under his breath since he knew that Lee was the only one who had done this to him in the middle of the night. He went to the window and opened it, expecting to see Lee sitting there but, instead, found Shikamaru.
"Hi Neji." Said Shikamaru.
"Why are you here?" said Neji with an exasperated sigh.
"I'm here to take you on a little trip." Shikamaru answered as he grabbed Neji's arm and pulled him out onto the window ledge.
"Are you kidding me?" Neji started but then Shikamaru pulled him out the window and the two of them plummeted to the ground. Luckily, it was only a few feet since Neji's room is on the first floor.
"Come on." Said Shikamaru.
"It's late." Said Neji. "I don't feel like it."
"Fine, then I'll show you here." Said Shikamaru as he pulled a large photo album out from behind his back.
"Hey, this is mine." Said Neji as he went to take if from Shikamaru but Shikamaru only turned around and opened the book himself. He flipped through a few of the pages as Neji peered over his shoulder.
"There, you see?" said Shikamaru, turning around and showing one of the pages to Neji.
"That's when I was three." Said Neji.
"At Christmas time, right?" Shikamaru said.
"Yeah, so?" said Neji.
"Here is everyone partying about, and even you, along with the two houses and I believe that's your father there…" Shikamaru said, pointing to things in the pictures.
"So what?" said Neji, looking a little annoyed.
"Fine, fine." Said Shikamaru as he closed the book.
"Are you done?" Neji said, going back to his window.
"I guess." Shikamaru said with a shrug.
"Did Lee put you up to this?" Neji said as he jumped back up through the window. "Or maybe it was Naruto."
"Uh…" said Shikamaru. "Never mind. Whatever. I'm leaving."
With that, Shikamaru was gone.
Neji rolled his eyes and got back in his room. He closed the window and locked it. He also pulled the curtains out in front of it and figured that he wouldn't open it no matter what.
He stood there for a moment or two and just when he was about to get back in bed, he heard more rapping. "Go away." He said. "I'm not opening the window."
Neji's curiosity got the best of him so he drew the shades a bit to the side and saw Kiba's face pressed against the window. He nearly fell over from surprise as Kiba forced the window open.
"Why is everyone bothering me today?!" Neji demanded but it was obviously just a rhetorical question.
"Come on!" said Kiba. "Akamaru and I have something very important we want to show you!"
Before Neji could even argue, Kiba grabbed hold of him and leapt out the window. Without stopping for even a moment, he dragged him halfway across the Hyuuga grounds before they parked outside a window.
"All right, that's enough." Said Neji, drawing away from Kiba.
"Come on, look!" said Kiba, peeking his head over the windowsill.
Neji couldn't have come all that way and NOT have looked! So he peeked over as well to see his evil uncle tucking Hinata and Hanabi into bed.
"Why are you showing me this?" Neji said. "Just to remind me that I don't have a father?"
"Shh!" Kiba hissed.
"I'm glad we'll all be together for Christmas!" said Hanabi.
"Well, we all have Hizashi to thank for that." Said Hiashi.
"It's a wonder that his son turned out to be such an odious, stingy, hard, unfeeling person!" said Hanabi.
Neji glared at Kiba. "I don't want to be here anymore." Neji said.
"Hey, they're likely to say something nice about you!" said Kiba. But Neji was standing up and walking away so Kiba chased after him. "Hey! Wait!"
"I don't see what you're proving." Said Neji.
"Oh come on." Said Kiba. "I'm missing Gai's big party for this! Hey, let's stop by there!"
"I'm in my pajamas." Neji said.
"Come on, it'll be fun!" said Kiba, grabbing onto Neji again and pulling him halfway across the village. Once again, they observed what was going on from a window.
"He said that Christmas was his least favorite time of the year!" said Lee to the rest of the guests.
"More shame for him!" said Tenten.
"Why is everyone always talking about me?" Neji said, sounding annoyed.
"He's a comical old fellow," said Gai. "That's the truth; and not so pleasant as he might be. However, his offences carry their own punishment, and I have nothing to say against him. Who suffers by his ill whims? Himself, always. Here he takes it into his head to dislike us, and he won't come and dine with us. What's the consequence? He don't lose much of a dinner."
"A-wha?" said Kakashi.
But Gai only broke into warm laughter. Not soon after, everyone else couldn't help but join in.
"There, you see?" Kiba said to Neji.
"I see what?" Neji asked.
"Didn't you just learn a life lesson from Gai?" Kiba asked.
"No, I don't even know what he said." Neji confessed. "I can hardly hear them out here."
"Well fine." Said Kiba, looking offended. "This isn't going to work unless you try too, you know!"
"WHAT isn't going to work?" Neji said. "Is there some kind of joke going around?"
"Be quiet you." Said Kiba. "I'm going home. Come on, Akamaru!"
With that, Kiba and Akamaru sprinted off.
Neji stood there for a moment.
"Great, now I'm half way across the village." Sighed Neji. "In my pajamas. I hope no one sees me…"
He started the long walk back to the Hyuuga villa. He decided to take a shortcut through the graveyard since there are always graveyards around that provide handy shortcuts.
At about the halfway mark of the graveyard, he suddenly saw a figure off in the distance with a large, heavy coat on and a hood that covered his face.
Normally, he wouldn't approach such a figure but this person was in the way of his shortcut so he had no choice. He tried to walk around the person, but the person maneuvered himself so he was blocked his path. Neji sighed and tried to step around him the other way, but the person once again go in his way.
"Who are you?" Neji asked finally.
"Sasuke." Said the figure as he took his hood off.
"Oh." Said Neji. "I should have figured it'd be one of you. How many more times am I going to be pestered tonight?"
"This is the last time." Sasuke answered.
"Okay, good." Said Neji. "So what do you want to show me?"
"Um…" Sasuke said, looking around. "That."
He pointed to a grave.
Neji bent down and looked at it. Fully expecting to see his own name there, he was slightly disappointed to find the name of some random person whom he didn't even know.
"And?" Neji said finally.
"This is my father's grave." Sasuke said, framing the part of the gravestone message where the name "Uchiha" was.
"Okay…" Neji said slowly.
"And this is my mother's grave." Sasuke went on. "And over here is my grandmother's. This is my cousin's. Here's someone's grave who I didn't know, but he was also apart of my clan."
"Where exactly is this going?" Neji inquired.
"I don't know." Sasuke admitted. "I don't really know what I'm supposed to be doing so I'm just winging it."
"All right…" Neji said. "I'm just going to head home now."
"Okay." Said Sasuke. "Nice pajamas."
"Shut up." Said Neji as he walked past Sasuke and continued on home. When he finally reached home, he went in through the window, shut it for good and then climbed into bed. After waiting for a moment to make sure no one else would come, he finally went to sleep.
The next morning, he woke up. He opened up his window for the last time to be faced with Lee.
"Lee, are you the one who made a bunch of people bother me and drag me halfway around the village last night?!" Neji demanded.
"Uh…no…" said Lee suspiciously. "Uh…do you have the Christmas spirit now?"
"What are you talking about Lee?" said Neji. "If you don't get away from my house right now then I will most likely fight you and end up killing you."
"Aw man!" said Lee.
"It's not like I don't like Christmas, I just don't like this time of year because it's around the time that my dad died." Neji said. "It has nothing to do with the actual Christmas season."
"I wish you had told me that before I went through all that trouble!" said Lee angrily.
"Whatever." Said Neji, shutting the window.
Lee turned around and looked at Tenten, Naruto, Sasuke, Shikamaru and Kiba.
"Well guys, we tried our best!" said Lee.
"I still don't even know what we were trying to do." Said Sasuke.
"It doesn't mater." Said Kiba. "God bless us! Everyone!"