Vindicated

Chapter 3: Neji's house

Gaara untangled himself from the mound of covers he was in when Kankurou woke him up the next morning. He had fallen asleep on the floor in Kankurou's room the night before. Kankurou must have covered him. Looking at the watch Kankurou had on the nightstand, he saw that is was only nine o'clock and he gave Kankurou a dirty look. Kankurou just grinned and told him the shower was open.

"Why do we have to get up this early on a Saturday?" he grumbled as he trudged down the hall to the shower.

"We're going over Neji's remember? Neji said that everyone in the family gets up at like six every morning and we could come whenever we wanted," Kankurou said from his desk.

Grumbling to himself, Gaara got in the shower while Temari went down stairs and made breakfast. Their father came down as she was finishing and took the plate of eggs and sausage off the counter.

"Um, dad…that was for Gaara..." she said.

"Hmph, he doesn't need it, he eats too much anyway," he said, walking away with the plate.

Temari made a rude gesture behind his back. 'You fucking bastard! Are you blind! He's like skin and bones!'

She made more for all three of them, but she was now pissed off and glaring at the wall the whole time.

When Gaara stepped out of the shower he looked at himself in the mirror, touching his eye, then his side. The bruise on his head was gone, but his eye was still slightly swollen and his side was stiff. He didn't bother looking at his back. He could tell the bruises and scars were still there. Glaring at his reflection, he quickly pulled his shirt on and finished getting dressed. Right before he left the bathroom, his curiosity took over and he slowly inched back over to the mirror and looked himself over. His eyes widened when he saw very visible bruises on his arms. He covered them by wrapping his arms around each other and hurried out of the bathroom.

He met Kankurou in the hall as his brother was going down to eat. Kankurou smiled at him, but Gaara looked troubled so Kankurou asked what was wrong. Biting his lip, Gaara uncovered his arms and held them out.

"Can I borrow your hoodie?" Gaara asked quietly, covering them again. "I don't have a long sleeve shirt."

"Sure," Kankurou said, giving him a reassuring smile. He went into his room and came out with a black zip up hoodie. Gaara took it and pulled it on, zipping it up as well. Kankurou looked at him and tried to smile, but he could feel how fake it was and Gaara saw it too. Kankurou sighed as Gaara's shoulders slumped.

"I look bad don't I?" he asked.

"Not bad," Kankurou said, shaking his head. He put his arm around his brother's shoulders and led him down the stairs. "Just smaller then you should," he muttered, barely audible.

The two stopped short at the kitchen door when they heard their sister inside. Peaking in, they saw her practically surrounded in flames muttering angrily to her self. She was standing by the sink scrubbing at the poor helpless pot she had used to make the eggs.

"Uh…Temari?"

"WHAT!"

Kankurou and Gaara 'eeped' and ducked behind the wall, then peeked out again. "Are you ok?" Kankurou asked.

"What makes you think otherwise!" she demanded in a cold low voice.

"Nothing!" Gaara squeaked.

"Have no idea why I asked!" Kankurou squeaked.

"Alright then, your breakfast is on the kitchen table," she said pointing with the scrubber to the table.

"Ok," they said in little voices as they came in.

Ding dong!

A man dressed similar to the one who picked Neji and Hinata up in the limo opened the door and looked down his nose at them.

LONG silence.

"May I help you?"

"….uh…we're friends of Neji," Kankurou said. "He invited us over."

"Did he?"

"Yeah," Kankurou said, a bit freaked out by the monotone voice.

". . . . And who are you?"

"Kankurou?" he replied, totally freaked out.

The man looked down at Gaara next. "And you?"

Gaara swallowed and replied, "Gaara."

The man looked at Temari.

"Temari!" she shrieked in fright before he could say anything.

"I see." He said. "May I see your invitations?"

"It was a verbal invitation," Kankurou said.

"Was it?"

"….yah…."

"Please stop you're scaring me!" Temari whined.

"Follow me," he said turning and walking slowly down the hallway. The three siblings followed, unconsciously holding onto each other.

The Hyuga estate looked big on the outside, but the inside was enormous. It was built in a traditional Japanese style with paper doors and wooden floors (hey that rhymed!). There was a second floor however, and this was where the man led them, taking each step at a drastically slow pace. Kankurou frowned and began to loose patience.

"Can you go any slower?" he demanded, giving him a glare.

The man stopped and turned slowly to give him an expressionless glance. "Am I going to fast for you?"

He held a fist out and glared. "No! I want you to go faster!"

"I see." The man looked down at him then turned around and continued at the same pace up the rest of the stairs. He stopped at a door and knocked. "Neji-san, your guests have arrived."

The door opened and Neji smiled at them. "Hey, guys, what's up?" he opened the door wider and motioned them in.

The three slipped past the man in black and went in. Neji shut the door behind them and they all relaxed. Temari grabbed Neji but his shirt front.

"What the freak is up with your butler-people!"

"Oh that's just George he does that to everyone who comes over," Neji said casually.

"….."

The three siblings looked around Neji's room. It still had the same Japanese style architecture, but with some modernization. His bed was a futon in the corner with black sheets and comforters; also there was about fifty different pillows piled up at the head of the bed. There were two windows since Neji's room was at the side of the house: one big long one and one smaller on the right side of the room. In front of the big long one was an art desk littered with rough sketches of various things. There was an easel next to it, but it was empty. Posters of soccer players and pictures of his team mates and friends were scattered across all the walls. A book case stood by the smaller window, filled with mangas. There were several types of chairs in the room too: the desk chair, which went up and down and spun in circles, several beanie chairs, a small hammock in one corner and, by the bookcase, one of those spiffy chairs where the frame is made of metal and you hang that fuzzy thing over it to make a chair (like you can get at Claire© or Spencer's©).

"Wow…I like your room," Kankurou said.

"Sit down, make yourselves comfortable," Neji said motioned for them to take a seat anywhere.

"Neji," Hinata said calmly, poking her head in the door. "I was told that Temari was here and I was wondering if she would like to join me and a few other girls at the Avenue."

"Sure," Temari said. "What's the Avenue?"

"It's a side street with a whole lot of different stores and restaurants," Neji said.

"Cool," Temari waved to her brother and followed Hinata over to her room.

"So anyway…" Neji said, turning back to the brothers. "What kind of manga do you like?" he asked when Kankurou went over to his bookcase.

"Bleach is good, um…and I like Ranma ½," Kankurou said scanning the shelves.

"Have you read Fruits Baskets?" Neji asked, pointing them out (put in for Kage-chan). "They're pretty good. Whistle's good and Fushigi Yugi is real funny; so is Gravitations…if you...like that…kinda stuff…. (cough) yeah, Gaara, you like any manga?" The two boys turned to look at Gaara who had found his way to the hammock in the corner. They laughed at him.

"Comfortable?" Kankurou asked.

"Yah," Gaara replied, sprawled across it.

A knock sounded at the door. It opened and a tall man with long dark hair and the same white eyes as Neji and Hinata stepped in. He smiled at the three boys.

"Hi, Hiashi-ojisan," Neji said. "Um, this is my uncle, Hyuga Hiashi. Hiashi-ojisan, this is Kankurou and Gaara."

"Hi," both boys said in greeting.

"Good morning, boys," Hiashi said nodding his head. "Neji, why don't you three go out or something? It's a nice day out and I don't want you three inside all day."

"Ok," Neji said. "Can we go to the mall?"

"That kinda defeats the purpose of going outside, but ok," Hiashi said, nodding his good byes and shutting the door behind him.

The three immediately walked the ten minutes to the mall and began walking around. It had only been open for a small while, so there wasn't really anyone there. Kankurou seemed to be looking for something since the mall was new to him and finally asked Neji.

"Dude, do you have a Hot Topic in here?" he said still looking around.

"Yeah, it's on the second floor," Neji said leading them towards the escalators.

Neji had never been inside the store before and the loud music wasn't very welcoming to him. Kankurou seemed to enjoy the music; Neji noted when Kankurou mentioned that he knew this song (Pieces by Hoobastank) Neji waited outside while they went in.

Kankurou went though the large store, picking something up every once and while, Gaara in tow. Neji watched from where he stood as the smaller boy repeated over and over that he didn't want Kankurou buying him new clothes.

What a strange pair of people, Neji thought to himself. Then he frowned, examining the smaller boy closely. His clothes looked very old and big on him, like they were Kankurou's old clothes. Why would someone make their child wear such old clothes? He was glad Kankurou was buying him new clothes. He admitted he had first started trying to be friends with the three some to find out about their strangeness and secrets, which he'd discovered were many, but he found he was growing to like them. Like he liked his teammates. Cool, he thought. I've got new friends. He smiled at this. Kankurou was a bad ass, but cool to hang out with. Gaara was very shy, but Neji was determined to get through the little wall that surrounded the smaller boy.

"Hey Neji, we're gonna try stuff on," Kankurou called to him. "Be done in a sec."

"Take your time," Neji called back.

Kankurou led Gaara into the dressing room, closing and locking the door behind them. As he hung up the several hangers of clothes he saw Gaara's expression in the mirror. Sighing, he turned back to his brother.

"I don't want you buying my clothes," Gaara said through his sullen expression crossing his arms.

"And I don't care," Kankurou said tossing him a shirt. "Think of it as an early birthday present."

"My birthday's not for two weeks," Gaara said glaring.

"And?" Kankurou crossed his arms as well. He didn't like arguing with Gaara since he knew he would win each time. It made him feel guilty, but he wasn't going to back out. "Look, you need new clothes. Your old ones are horrible, and you need a jacket that'll fit you."

"But…but these are so expensive…" Gaara mumbled, loosing his steam already.

"Don't worry about it," Kankurou said turning away again.

"Where are you getting the money anyway?" Gaara asked.

Kankurou grinned over his shoulders and pointed to the clothes, then sat down. Gaara continued to frown at him as he took his shirt off and tossed it on the floor. He shook the new shirt out and pulled it on. Kankurou grimaced and looked away, unwilling to look at him. He knew they were there, but that didn't mean he cared to look at them, knowing it made Gaara uncomfortable to show them to anyone, even him. Kankurou glanced back, noting that there were some new decorations on top of old ones acquired over the years.

Gaara slipped his arms through the t-shirt, catching Kankurou's attention. He saw something that made him jump up and grab Gaara's wrist, forcing the inside of his arm upwards.

"What the fuck are these?" he demanded, holding onto the arm Gaara was trying to pull back.

"Nothing."

"I know nothing. These are not fucking 'nothing'!" Kankurou shouted.

Gaara looked away, embarrassed and half worried Kankurou would hit him. He looked mad enough. He didn't though, just continued to stare at the semi fresh cuts and scars crisscrossing his wrist. The skin around the cuts was still red and inflamed. After a long silence, Kankurou let go and sat back down on the bench. Gaara rubbed his wrist as if trying to brush away the cuts he seriously regretted having now.

"Just hurry up and finish," Kankurou said quietly.

Neji noticed the change in attitudes the second they stepped out of the dressing room. Kankurou paid for the clothes they chose and walked out of the store, with Gaara following like a shadow. As they continued down the mall, Gaara trailed behind the two boys. Every time Neji glanced back at him, he was staring at the floor, but Neji suspected he was looking at Kankurou the rest of the time.

Finally, Gaara mustered up the courage to give his brother's sleeve a tug. Kankurou stopped and turned to him.

"What?"

Gaara looked up at him then back down at the floor. "Are you really mad at me?" he asked quietly.

Kankurou sighed and thought about it for a while. "No. I'm not mad …. just …. disappointed. Don't you ever do it again."

Gaara gave him a small smile. "I wont."

Neji acted like he didn't hear. He didn't know what they were talking about and it wasn't his business anyway. Looking around, he noticed the sports store. "Let's go in there," he said.

Once they were inside, Neji made a bee line to the soccer section. Kankurou wandered around looking at nothing in particular. Like Neji with Hot Topic, he had no interest in what this store had to sell what so ever. Gaara once again followed in his shadow.

Seeing this, Neji thought fast and went over to drag Gaara back to the soccer section. Gaara seemed to realize that he was no where near his brother anymore and pulled back from Neji, staring at him like he was a complete foreign object.

"Watch this," Neji said, making a staying motion, then picked up a ball from a bag of soccer ball on the shelf.

He bounced the ball on the ground then began juggling it with his foot. He bounced it six times on his knee…then several times on the top of his foot, then on the inside of his other foot, then on his head a few times then began doing tricks. Gaara watched him, captivated, forgetting that Neji was a new person that might find out his secret, forgetting that Kankurou wasn't with him to make him feel safe. Neji allowed himself to show off to entertain Gaara since he saw that he was watching him, fascinated by his abilities. He slowed down then kicked it up and over to Gaara who caught it.

"That's something Coach has us do to get ball control," Neji told him. "I'm a floating starter so I have to have good control over the ball and I have to be fast."

"What's a floating starter?" Gaara asked looking over the ball.

"I can play any position Coach wants me too, so I float with the positions when we play, but I always start," Neji explained, on cloud nine.

"What do you do with the ball?" Gaara asked.

"When I play offense I have to kick the ball into the other team's net. That's my favorite position cause you get to run a lot," Neji said droning on and on about the positions he played and liked. Gaara didn't mind though, no one had ever talked to him so much before that he could remember. He did learn with some amusement that even though Neji said offense was his favorite position, he actually loved playing all the positions. Gaara had never seen anyone so excited before, but he realized Neji must really like soccer and was glad he was willing to talk to him. "Come one, come on! I'll show you."

He took the ball from Gaara and led him into a wide area. He put the ball down and began kicking it around.

"You're not allowed to use your hands in soccer, so you really have to rely on your feet," Neji explained, dancing around, knocking the ball around. "Here," he passed the ball lightly to Gaara, who scrambled to catch it. "Not your hands," Neji said automatically.

"Sorry!" Gaara said dropping the ball like it was burning him.

He moved away from it and let Neji get it. Neji bounced it back up to his hands and smiled at him. "Have you ever played before?"

"I've never touched a soccer ball before."

Neji: "……………."

Gaara: "?"

Neji inwardly freaked out knowing from past experiences that freaking out on people outwardly wasn't always the best way to make friends. Biting his tongue he began trying to teach Gaara how to pass and kick the ball, but he learned that Gaara was serious when he said he hadn't touched a ball before and seriously sucked. But he seemed somewhat eager, though shy, to learn and Neji wouldn't pass up the chance to play.

Kankurou peeked out from behind a shelf where he had been watching, smiling to himself. How long had it been since he saw Gaara playing with another boy with a smile? Long time.

Neji led the two brothers to the food court to pick out lunch. Kankurou gave Gaara money then went to get his own. Gaara stared after him like a lost child. He was about to follow him when Neji took his arm.

"Do you like Chinese?" he asked, smiling.

Gaara shrugged shyly, not looking at him.

"Let's get some," Neji said leading him over to the Chinese place and ordered a 3 item combo platter. "You should get a combo too," he said turning back to Gaara. "You get to choose three of whatever you want."

"I—I can't eat that much," Gaara stammered quietly.

"You can get two instead of three, honey," the lady behind the counter said, smiling.

Gaara looked down, concentrating on the food in front of him. It all smelled so good. He finally picked, choosing the lo mein with bon bon chicken and an egg roll. They found a table and waited for Kankurou. Gaara offered to take the trash from their straws to the trash can. On the way back two teenagers bumped into him, yelling at him to watch where he was going. Gaara coward away, apologizing, but the two saw this and grinned to each other. Before they could do anything, Neji stepped in the middle and glared at them.

"Hyuga!" one said surprised, laughing a fake laugh. "What's up?"

"Get lost."

"Alright, geez!" they said, backing off. "It's his fault anyway."

"Don't matter does it?" Neji shoved his hands in his pockets, glaring daggers.

"Whatever man," they said leaving.

Neji huffed to himself and returned to the table, taking his anger out on his food. Gaara sat down too, embarrassed.

"You didn't have to do that," he stammered out.

"Why wouldn't I?" Neji asked looking up.

"You just…didn't have too…" was the reply.

Neji grinned mischievously. "You should have given them a glare and punched them. Right here," he pointed at his nose.

Gaara stared wide eyed at the thought and shook his head.

"Why not?" Neji asked. "Just a glare like this," he said, demonstrating. Neji smiled to himself as Gaara bit his lip trying not to laugh. After taking a drink of his soda, he glanced back over to the other boy. "Why you let those assholes walk all over you like that?"

Gaara tried to explain himself but only ended up stammering more and blushing, very thankful when Kankurou came back and sat next to him. He quickly stopped and shrank back into the silent comfort of his brother.

"What assholes?" he asked, catching the tale end of the conversation.

"Those boys over there. I think Gaara should knock them flat," Neji said, pointing the where the two boys were leaning against the railing.

"Why?" Kankurou asked after he looked. "They bothering you guys?"

Gaara shook his head at once. "I bumped them," he said quietly.

"No you didn't," Neji said, his face full of noodles. "They ran into you. You didn't do anything, they were being asses."

Kankurou turned slowly and looked pointedly and accusingly at Gaara, clearing his throat as he did. Gaara bit his lip, then nibbled on his egg roll to occupy himself. Kankurou sighed shaking his head and ate his pizza. Neji watched them, eyebrow raised, wonder what was going on.

They stayed at the mall until three in the afternoon. When they got home, the girls had gotten back (all with their hair done, nails painted, an new clothes) already and were sitting in the living room chatting their girly heads off. They all squealed happily in greeting when the boys came in, sporting bags of clothes, comic books and cds. They all seemed very interested to know what they got, for reasons the boys could not figure out.

Suddenly, a pink blur popped up in Gaara's vision. "Hi, Gaara, do you remember me?" she asked.

Gaara blinked and stared at her, thinking hard. Should he remember her? Nothing came to mind, but that was ok since she seemed eager to answer her own question.

"I'm Haruno Sakura (heart), I'm in your Gym class," she said smiling. "You might not remember me cause you never come play, but that's ok. Not many people do. Anko-sensei must like you…she usually doesn't let people not get dressed two days in a row. Although, Thursday doesn't really count for you cause you just got there. Are you gonna get dressed on Monday? You so should! Ino's in our class too. So are these two boys your age they're real cool. A little weird but cool."

Gaara wasn't sure how to respond to this, but he didn't really feel like it. So he kept silent, but that didn't seem to faze her in the slightest. She pulled him over to sit with her and Temari on the sofa. Neji and Kankurou each found seats as well and the two 'sides' compared the things they bought.

They were laughing at some random thing when Hinata's mother came in.

"I'm so glad to hear you all having such a good time," she said smiling. "But Temari's father called and he wants you guys home."

A series of complaint filled the room. She held up her hand in her defense.

"I tried asking if they could stay for dinner, but wanted them home, I'm sorry," she said.

The three siblings gathered their things and said good bye and thanking Neji for inviting them. He, of course, said they could come over whenever they wanted to. Kankurou said he'd hold him to it, grinning evilly but jokingly.

As they walked home Temari rattled on about what she and the girls did at the Avenue. When she was out of breath she asked them how their day was.

"We went to the mall and I got new clothes and Neji taught me how to play soccer," Gaara said, surprising them both by speaking up first. "I'm not good at all, but Neji still wanted to play."

Temari smiled widely at him. She, like Kankurou, was also pleased Gaara had made a friend. She also had made several friends that day. All in all it was simply a great day for all and not even having to go home early could dampen their day now.