Title; My Place
"So I sorta wished that Gaara hadn't been possessed by the sand demon…" Kankuro was explaining to his siblings as the three of them traveled to Konoha via the Ninja Express that hasn't been mentioned yet in the actual series, but you'll find it'll appear very soon.
"And you're telling me that it came true?" Temari said with a raised eyebrow. Gaara only sat there casually with his eyes closed as if the thought of Kankuro wishing for something like that was outrageous and it had reason to offend him.
"Yeah." Kankuro said.
"So that's why we're traveling all the way to Konoha?" sighed Temari. "Because you went temporarily insane?"
"No, it's true!" Kankuro said. "For some reason, YOU had the curse, Temari! And you were much more frightening than Gaara!"
Gaara opened one eye and looked at Kankuro.
"That's ridiculous, Kankuro." Said Temari. "I hope you realize how ridiculous you sound."
"I know it sounds ridiculous." Kankuro said. "But it's true. I just want to see this guy who made the crystals and ask him about them."
"Well, if wishes really do come true, then hand it over." Temari said, holding her hand out.
"What?" said Kankuro.
"If I get to make a wish, then I want mine." Temari said. "You said we got three in the mail. That means one is for me, so give it to me."
"No way!" said Kankuro protectively. "We can't change anything! It's bad! I almost got killed because of you, Temari!"
"Well, I'm not going to make a stupid wish like you." Temari said.
"No way." Said Kankuro just as the Ninja Express came to a stop.
The three of them got off and looked around.
"So who makes these things?" Temari asked.
"Uh…" Kankuro stuttered.
Temari frowned. "What's the company called?" she tried.
"Um…"
"Are you serious?" Temari said, slapping her forehead.
"You don't know?" said Gaara, sounding angry.
"Well, it's a new place so let's just find somewhere that has a big, 'Grand Opening' sign!" Kankuro tried, not wanting to make Gaara TOO angry.
Even though Temari and Gaara were both SO against it, they weren't about to admit that they were a little curious about Kankuro's strange crystal thingys, so they followed him around the town, keeping an eye out for a Grand Opening sign.
Unbeknownst to them, two people were coming their way.
"Did Hinata say why she wanted us to come over?" Kiba asked Shino as the two of them wandered in the direction towards Hinata's house.
"No." Shino replied. And that was all the response Shino cared to give.
As they rounded the corner, they crashed right into the Sand Siblings, knocking all of them onto their arses. Well, except for Gaara, but that much should have been obvious.
"Hey!" Kiba yelled, jumping to his feet. "What's the big idea!"
"Kiba, calm down." Said Shino, recognizing whom it was they had just crashed into.
Kiba frowned. "Stay out of our way!" he said threateningly, but you can only sound and look so threatening when you're… KIBA.
"You stay our of OUR way!" Kankuro said angrily.
They all eyed each other as they sidestepped around.
"The NERVE of those guys!" said Kiba as he pounded one fist into his other palm. "Coming into our village and harassing us, then saying that it was OUR fault for being harassed!"
"They dropped this." Said Shino, holding up an orb with a little butterfly in it.
"That is the ugliest thing I've ever seen!" said Kiba. "Let's break it just to spite them!"
"WAIT!" came a voice behind them. They turned around to see Ino and Sakura running over to them, which seemed awfully strange.
"Don't break that!" Sakura commanded.
"We weren't going to." Shino said.
Kiba gasped. "I thought we WERE!" he said, sounding betrayed.
"Are you guys on your way over to Hinata's house?" Ino asked.
They looked up to see that they were standing in front of the Hyuuga villa.
"Well…I guess we're HERE…" Kiba said.
"Well, Hinata wanted everyone to come over her house to talk about something very important." Ino said. "She told us to bring our teams, but Shikamaru said he'd be a little late and I couldn't get in touch with Chouji."
"And Sasuke and Naruto…um…I don't know." Sakura said. "I never really know where he is anymore. And Naruto said he'd meet us there."
The large group frolicked up to the front door, except for maybe Shino who just WALKED. Hinata answered the door since she was expecting company, and led them into the other room where Naruto, Neji, Tenten and Lee were already sitting.
"Hey, it's a party!" Kiba announced.
"Kiba, obviously Hinata has to talk about something very important." Shino said.
"Shino!" said Lee. "YOU brought a Butterfly Crystal too!"
Shino held up the crystal. "You mean this?"
Lee nodded enthusiastically.
"No." Shino replied. "We crashed into Kankuro, Gaara and Temari on the way over here and they dropped one of theirs and I picked it up."
"Oh." Said Lee. That was still an amazing story, though.
"All right." Said Hinata, taking a deep breath and sitting down. She didn't want to be the MC, so she turned it over to Sakura.
"Okay," said Sakura. "This weird old guy rolls into town selling these weird crystal things and expects us to buy them. When we do, he tells us to make a wish to change our past. He doesn't say anything about changing our PRESENT! He also doesn't mention accidental wishes either!"
"Yeah, and the stupid things are defective too!" Ino added.
"You still all believe in those things?" Neji said, giving a heavy sigh and standing up. "I don't know why I sat down to listen to your petty problems when I could have been doing something more useful with my time."
"Neji, they DO work!" said Tenten. "You wouldn't believe what YOU were like because of my wish!"
Neji's eye twitched, half annoyed but also partially intrigued.
"Hey, if these things really do work, then I want to get my hands on one too!" said Naruto.
"No way, Naruto." Said Sakura. "The last thing we need is for you to wish for something absurd."
"I resent that!" said Naruto. "What did YOU wish for?"
"Uh…" Sakura started. "Well, I knew what I was GOING to wish for, but I sort of accidentally wished for something else…"
"I wished that Sasuke would be my boyfriend, but for some reason KIBA ended up being my boyfriend." Ino sighed.
Kiba perked up from his activity of ignoring the world, but was jolted back into reality at the sound of his name. "What?" he said, looking around.
"Ino said your name and 'boyfriend' in the same sentence." Shino replied since he had zoned out for a few minutes as well.
"AHA!" said Kiba. "I KNEW you were coming onto me the other day in your flower shop! And don't try to deny it!"
"Kiba, if anyone was coming on to ANYONE, you were coming onto ME!" Ino argued. "I was minding my own business and if you hadn't broken my crystal, you probably would have RAPED me!"
"I WOULD NOT HAVE!" Kiba yelled defensively. "That never happened!"
"A lot of really strange things happened in the alternate realities that were created by the crystals…" Tenten said. "For example… I didn't even know about the crystal, and Neji just so happened to have one. I, for no reason, wished that he would have more appreciation for things that I did."
There was silence.
"And?" Neji prompted.
"Well…" Tenten said awkwardly, starting to wish that she hadn't brought it up in the first place. "You sorta… professed your love to me… and were acting all nice and gay and stuff…"
Neji slammed his hand down on the table.
There was more silence.
He didn't do anything else except sit their wide-eyed, and his expression slowly morphed into an enraged glare.
"I'd be interested in seeing a gay Neji." Said Lee, as if Neji's reaction didn't suggested that he never wanted to hear anyone mention such a thought ever again.
"Well, he wasn't GAY." Tenten said. "He was just ACTING gay. He couldn't have been gay because he was in love with me."
"Define 'gay'." Said Naruto, doing the quotey things.
"That's enough." Neji said.
"REALLY gay, or just kinda gay?" Lee asked.
"Well…just sort of gay…" Tenten thought.
"STOP." Said Neji, raising his voice slightly.
"Yeah!" said Ino. "Let's change the subject!"
"Shino, can we see the crystal for a second?" Hinata asked politely.
Shino placed the crystal in the middle of the table.
"So you make a wish, and the only way to make it go away is to smash the crystal." Hinata said.
"Yeah, even though the old man might tell you otherwise." Said Sakura, rolling her eyes.
Everyone stared at it.
"Nobody make a wish." Said Tenten. "As I've learned, it works as long as it's NEAR you, whether it's yours or not."
It was silent for a while as they all sat there foolishly looking at the crystal.
"Okay…" said Naruto finally. "What are we waiting for?"
"I don't know." Was everyone else's dumb responses.
More exciting waiting ensued.
"Well, I know if I had a Butterfly Crystal, I'd wish that I could become Hokage!" Naruto announced.
"Naruto, you IDIOT." Said Sakura. "You have to change something about your PAST. Your ridiculous Hokage dreams are in the FUTURE so the magic won't work with that wish."
"Oh." Said Naruto with a nod. "What if two people made a wish at the same time? What would happen?"
"I don't know!" said Sakura with an irritated tone. "I'm not an expert!"
"Shino, we should SO make a wish together!" said Kiba, snatching the crystal off the table. Pretty much everyone leaped on top of him and wrestled the crystal away, placing it gently back on the table.
"So you guys are saying that all you got to make a wish but I don't?" Naruto said.
"I didn't get to make a wish either." Said Kiba with a frown. "And neither did Shino."
"Or Neji." Said Tenten. "But he DID buy one with intentions of making a wish."
"Stop bringing me into this absurd conversation." Neji said angrily. "You all made such frivolous wishes, like wishing that a boy would like you, or indirectly that a girl would like you or what have you, but the wish I was going to make was going to have meaning, so I'm not in the same category as any of you."
Neji got a few hard glares after that comment. But he just threw those glares right back at them.
"Well then what?" Tenten said. "What was your wish? You never did tell me, even when you WERE being a pansy."
Neji came very close to kicking the table over. "I wished my father was alive, but it didn't work!"
He spun around and made his way for the door to exit the room.
"And furthermore," Neji continued, turning back to face the group to tell them off a little more and lower their self-esteem only to find that they weren't there. He glanced around the room for a moment in a very frazzled and confused fashion, even turning on his Byakugan to check to see if they had dodged behind couches in the split second his back had been turned. No one was in the room.
But there was a strange crystal sitting on the table.
A moment for pondering passed before Neji approached the crystal and picked it up.
Strange…
He opened the door only to almost crash into someone he didn't know.
"Neji, what are you doing inside?" said the man. While he didn't know who this strange man was, apparently this strange man knew who he was. Perhaps he was just someone he had never met, but this was peculiar considering he was a Hyuuga.
"Why do you care?" Neji said in response, not owing anything to him.
"It's a nice day outside…shouldn't you be there?" the man suggested.
"There…where?" Neji said, a little confused.
The man was also confused. "Outside?" he clarified, though it was clear in his expression that that much should have been obvious.
"Oh." Said Neji, putting the crystal in his pocket, sidestepping around the man and then making his way in the opposite direction. What right did this man have in making commands such as those?
"And Neji—" the man said suddenly, making Neji stop in his tracks. "—Your father's mission is running late, so he won't be back until the morning."
Neji nodded and continued walking, but then stopped again.
"My what?" he said, turning slowly around, but the man had already walked off.
After standing there foolishly for a moment, he pursued the man and practically leapt upon him to stop him.
"What did you just tell me?" Neji demanded.
"You nodded your head and implied that you heard me and understood." Said the man difficultly.
"I know what I did!" Neji said, getting irritated. "Did you just mention my father as if he's alive?"
The man nodded cautiously, not making any sudden movements to upset Neji. "Yes…" he said. "The mission wasn't that dangerous, they're just running late. Have more faith in your father than that."
Neji blinked once, then twice and then THRICE.
"I—" he began, and paused, making sure that he wasn't imagining it all. "I am going to go and wait for him…"
Neji turned his back to the man and quickly walked out of the room. He rounded the corner and found himself outside, sliding into a sitting position on the front step and then staring off into the distance. After a moment of reflection, he pulled the Butterfly Crystal out of his pocket and looked at it curiously, wondering if maybe if all the things everyone else had been talking about was actually true.
No one would ever joke about Neji's FATHER.
"Neji?"
Neji turned around and looked up to see Hinata standing over him. He rolled his eyes and faced forward again, and was quite surprised and disturbed when she sat down next to him.
After a few moments of awkward silence, he finally looked back at her. "What do you want?" he said.
"Nothing." Hinata shrugged. "I'm not doing anything. What are you looking for?"
Neji gave a heavy sigh. "I'm waiting for my father to return home from his mission." He replied.
"Oh." Hinata said, leaning back. "Hidamari said he wasn't coming back until—"
"Tomorrow morning, I know." Neji said, offended that Hinata would think that he didn't know such a thing. "But what am I supposed to do until then?"
Hinata paused. "Uh…I don't know…" she said truthfully. "Do you want to train?"
Neji really didn't know how to react to that. "What?" he said.
"Okay…I guess not…" said Hinata with a bit of a laugh in her voice. "I'll just wait with you then."
As Hinata sat there acting as though nothing weird had just happened, Neji only sat in stunned silence. Did Hinata ask to train with him? Besides, WHY was she just SITTING there?
When Neji realized that Hinata wasn't going to just leave on her own, he cleared his throat and stood up. If he had until the morning, he might as well go and visit this foolish old man and speak to him about a thing or two. He started his journey to the old man's cart that he had visited a few days before, but it didn't take him very long to realize that Hinata was following him.
"Why are you following me?" Neji said, losing all his patience for Hinata in a very short amount of time. But what else is new?
"Why not?" Hinata said with a frown.
Neji frowned right back at her and even threw in a glare.
She…laughed.
"Stop laughing." Neji said angrily.
She nodded and tried to stop herself. But the harder Neji glared at her, the harder it was for her to stop laughing.
"Don't make me hurt you." Neji threatened.
"Oh sure." Said Hinata. "I'd like to see you try."
If Neji's family had had a long history of heart attacks, he probably would have hand one right then and there. "Did I just hear you correctly?" he said.
"Let's have a go!" Hinata suggested, getting in a completely unfamiliar battle pose.
Neji stared her up and down, not knowing WHAT to think and be offended by. Well, first of all, Hinata was acting all friendly and not shaking like a vibrating pen. And then she made the outrageous claim that he couldn't beat her, and NOW she wasn't standing in the traditional Hyuuga battle stance. Sure, Hinata didn't DESERVE to stand in the traditional Hyuuga battle stance but…she still SHOULD be…
So Neji got in the Hyuuga stance. If Hinata had to put in her place, then so be it.
Hinata looked confused at first.
"If your father gets angry, then it's all on you." Neji clarified.
Hinata froze and then stood up straight. Neji waited for a second or two and then stood up straight as well.
"What?" he said.
"Why did you do that?" she asked quietly, going back to her usual demeanor.
"Do what?" Neji said.
"Talk about my father." Hinata said.
"Why not?" Neji said with a raised eyebrow.
"That's not fair, Neji." Hinata said. "I never talk about Kajou in front of you."
"Kajou?" Neji said. "I don't know what that is."
Hinata looked shocked. "He was your brother!" she said, raising her voice dramatically to a tone that was certainly out of the norm.
Neji looked like he was ABOUT to respond, but he only left his mouth open.
Hinata looked to the ground. "Sorry." She said.
"My brother?" Neji said finally. Neji crossed his arms and thought about it. He supposed it made a little bit of sense… if his father had survived, he probably would have had another child. Well, this certainly was a pleasant surprise. Not only did he have his father back, but he got a brother too. "Well fine." He said. "Where's Kajou?"
"Are you serious?" Hinata said, looking almost disgusted. "He died two years ago."
Neji sighed. Well, scratch that present.
"What is wrong with you?" Hinata demanded in a very disrespectful tone. "Why are you acting all stuck-up and mean all of a sudden?"
"Why do you think you have to right to speak to me that way?" Neji said.
"I should ask you the same question!" Hinata said angrily. "I'M in the Main House and YOU'RE in the Branch House! The only reason I was ever nice to you was because I always considered you and Kajou like brothers to me! And Hizashi like a father!"
"What would make you feel that way for?" Neji said.
Hinata looked like she was welling up with anger. "Because my father died!" she yelled. "There! I said it! Do you feel better now!"
Neji shifted his weight to the other side and sighed audibly. Well, it made sense. If his father didn't die, then it had to have been Hiashi. And, even though he didn't want to feel bad about it, something inside him told him that it was wrong, and a little knot formed in the pit of his stomach.
"And you know what!" Hinata continued as she started walking backwards towards the house. "You're father would hate you if he knew that you're trying to pretend as though Kajou wasn't apart of your life!"
She turned around and went up the stairs and opened the door.
"I'm sorry for ever treating you like my equal!" Hinata yelled. "It's your fault my father is dead, and it's your fault Kajou is dead! It's your fault that the entire Hyuuga clan means nothing! I hope you can't sleep at night!"
She slammed the door shut.
Neji shifted his weight again. That was certainly out of character for Hinata.
But what did she mean by the Hyuuga clan meaning nothing? And since when was it his fault that anybody died? If it was ANYONE'S fault, it was HER fault for being kidnapped that night, or it was Hiashi's fault for killing that ninja who kidnapped her.
That's right! Because that village ended up with Hiashi's body instead, they had an opportunity to examine the Byakugan…what if a dramatic discovery about its secrets had been revealed? Could that possibly be why Hinata struck a battle pose that was different from the traditional Hyuuga one?
There certainly was an abundance of questions, and Neji didn't want to have to plague himself with them until after his father returned from his mission.
He sat on the front steps and watched the sun go down, rehearsing in his mind over and over again what he was going to say when his father came strolling up the front walk. It was going to be awkward, because as far as his father was concerned, he had been alive this whole time, and it wasn't going to be a joyous reunion for him.
The front door opened. "Neji, come inside." Neji looked up to see the same man he had spoken to in the hallway and given him the news about his father's mission.
"I'm waiting for my father." Neji replied.
"He won't be back until the morning." Said the man. "Come inside. Now."
Neji looked at the man skeptically. Who was this guy?
"By the way," the man went on. "I heard Hinata crying. Did you say something to her?"
Neji turned around and avoided eye contact. "She upset herself." He replied. "All I did was ask her to leave."
"And why did you do that?" the man asked.
"I don't owe you explanations." Neji said, trying not to clench his teeth. "I just wanted to be alone and she was bothering me."
"Neji, Hinata is a member of the Main House, and you are apart of the Branch House." The man stated the obvious. "Therefore, it is not within your rights to decide when she bothers you and when—"
He trailed off when he noticed he was being ignored.
Neji's attention was focused on a figure coming up the front walk towards where he was sitting and waiting.
"Hizashi, I thought your mission was running late." Said the man.
"We made good time." The figure—Hizashi—answered.
Neji got to his feet and opened his mouth to say something, but no words came. He swallowed hard as he watched his father walk right by him and into the house without even looking at him.
After a moment of foolishly standing there, he ran inside after him.
"Father!" Neji chased after him and got in front of him.
"Neji…what is it?" his father said, sounding exasperated.
Once again, Neji was speechless, only looking his father up and down.
"Neji, I'm very tired." Said his father, walking around Neji and continuing down the hall.
Neji followed after him as he made his way to his room and shut the door half way behind him.
"Whatever it is, it can wait until tomorrow." Hizashi said.
"Hizashi, wait." Said the voice of the man who had been ever so bothersome as he made his way down the hall. Hizashi lowered his head to bow and the man walked right by Neji, eyeing him slightly, before stopping in front of Hizashi. "I need to speak with you."
"Of course." Said Hizashi. "Come in."
"Neji, go to bed." The man instructed.
Neji was appalled. He hadn't seen his father in nine years after his had so cruelly been taken from him at such a tender age, and now it seemed to be happening all over again.
The man entered the room and shut the door behind him. Neji leaned up against the door, but he couldn't hear their quiet conversation. Every once and a while, a word or phrase leaked through, but he knew that they were aware of his presence.
"—he has forgotten his place—"
"—I will speak with him—"
"—it needs to be more than that, this happens too often—"
"—I understand—"
Neji backed away from the door and quickly went down the hallway. He knew the reunion would be weird, but this was far from weird… it was unbelievable. He opened the door to his room and turned the lights on, only to see that his room was decorated in a completely different fashion. As he looked around in a confused state, he saw someone in the bed roll over and see him standing there.
"Hey!" yelled the young boy, sitting up in his bed. "What are you doing in here!"
"This is—" Neji started, his eyes darting around the room.
"Get out of my room before I call my father!" screamed the kid who could have been no more than seven years old.
Neji backed up into the door and pushed it open, then closing it behind him.
Okay…
Now what?
He wandered around the halls, peeking into rooms that were open, but they all appeared to be occupied. Finally, he sat down at the kitchen table and stared off absentmindedly. It wasn't quite what he had expected, but it was better that his father was alive than… NOT alive… wasn't it?
Neji looked up to see Hinata standing in the doorway.
"What has gotten into you lately?" she said. "You seem so unstable!"
"Stop speaking to me that way." Neji commanded, standing up so he was above her.
Hinata looked shocked that he would do something like that. "How dare you!" she said. "What makes you think you're so great?"
"What makes you think YOU'RE so great?" Neji threw right back at her.
"I am in the Main House, which is more than I can say for you!" Hinata said angrily.
"What is going on in here?" came Hizashi's voice. Both Hinata and Neji spun around to face him.
"Your son doesn't know his place!" Hinata said, storming past Hizashi and going down the hallway.
Hizashi stared Neji down. Neji got the feeling that maybe now wasn't the time for a heartfelt reunion. "Neji, why do you have to stir things up within the family?" he said. "You are a disappointment to the Hyuuga name."
Neji blinked. No?
"You have to learn your place." Hizashi went on. "You are a member of the Branch House and that will not change. Hidamari has just told me that you are continuously stepping out of line. Now, it's bad enough I have shamed my family by not being able to protect Hiashi, but now I am burdened with a selfish and useless son who does not care for me, the family or anyone but himself."
Hizashi waited for Neji to say something.
"…Father…" he started, in a state of complete disbelief. "What is… how… do you hate me?"
"I don't hate you." Said Hizashi, looking ashamed. "I am just frustrated and I'm taking it out on you." He went over to the table and sat down, and Neji took a seat next to him. "The world has become complicated ever since the Hyuuga name fell."
"Fell?" said Neji. "What do you mean?"
"I wish Hiashi listened to me when I told him it would be better for me to die in his place." Hizashi said. "Then, maybe, there would be a need for our abilities, and there would be some secrecy in our techniques. Perhaps we would have also been able to do something to prevent the Uchiha massacre."
Neji looked away for a moment. "I doubt that." He commented.
"But that is irrelevant." Hizashi said, putting his head in his hand as he leaned on the table. "I lead a miserable existence with the knowledge that I didn't do all I could to save this family. It's wrong for you to blame yourself."
He got to his feet.
"But now it is time for bed." Hizashi got to his feet and exited the room.
Neji watched him go.
What a drag.
He put the Butterfly Crystal on the table. He had his father, but at what cost? Why did fate have to toy with him? Was he truly destined to make such a decision?
Neji lied his head down on the table with the crystal sitting within inches of him.
He had a choice between his father, and his family. What had the Hyuuga clan ever done for him?
Neji acted on his first impulse, and felt he had made the right decision. The next morning, he pushed himself up off the table and looked around, waiting for something to happen.
Someone was standing in the doorway.
"Neji, did you sleep here all night?"
"Yes, Hiashi, I did." Neji said, sliding the chair backwards and standing up.
Hiashi watched Neji go, wondering if he'd ever understand that boy.
