The Best Time for Flowers
It is not a well-known fact that Neji still has nightmares about spiders, and he makes sure it doesn't get around. However, that doesn't stop it from happening.
It was just supposed to be a simple visit to the Sand, but then, he is learning that nothing is simple in war.
Neither is the weather in the Sand predictable. The stifling heat of this night contrasted with the coolness of the nights before, and maybe that could be partly blamed for waking up wrapped so tight in his light linin sheets that he had to use the gentle fist to cut it apart, once he regained presence of mind enough to realize he wasn't about to have his eyes shot out by arrows he couldn't see and couldn't defend against.
The feeling still haunted him from that first real mission as he wandered the grounds of the palace where they were staying. It was effectively as large as the main Hyuuga house at home, but then, Konoha had a history of modest leaders and established families with their own kind of power.
"Oi. What do you think you're doing out here this late at night? Looking weaknesses to exploit with those eyes of yours so you can take over some day?"
He must have been more preoccupied than he would have liked to admit, not having noticed such a figure strolling in the moonlight behind him for who knew how long. He stopped. The voice almost sounded familiar, but his memory was not up for the task this late at night.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
A history of good breeding had it's advantages, and one of them was the Holier-Than-Thou voice. It turned everyone who heard it into your servants, metaphorically speaking.
"Just a joke."
Unless one was used to it, of course. That was when he remembered where he had seen this combination of blond hair and green eyes. It was a family trait - more specificly, the family trait of Suna's ruling family.
Neji dredged up a name as his head dropped a carefully calculated inch in something like a noble's bow.
"Kankuro-sama."
Nothing wrankled more than being corrected. Kankuro seemed to know this, because he smiled, eyes crinkling up in mischiviousness the way Naruto's did when he was planning something devious.
"San. The suffix 'sama' is reserved for the hokage. Which I am not."
The easy figure beside him sighed and continued it's walk with the manner that told Neji that it was used to being followed. He gritted his teeth and argued with himself that it was just that he was being polite, inot/i because he was curious. All thoughts of his oft-repeated nightmare flew out of his head.
"If I iwere/i Hokage-sama, I would be more likely to be spending my nights of insomnia doing paperwork and checking battle plans rather than taking a stroll in the moonlight. But I am only a lowly puppeteer - admittably the head of the theatre, but just a puppeteer nevertheless."
For someone who had seemed so concise on the battlefield, this Kankuro seemed to have a rambling streak when caught unawares. While it keeping his mind on lighter things like not-dying, the Hyuuga decided that it behooved him to encourage the slightly older shinobi.
"You take your theatre seriously around here."
His team had watched a training session by some of the theatre's shinobi once before, and while the various mechanations had been what had attracted Tenten, Neji had been more interested in how the person dissapeared behind their puppets. It was almost a metaphor for the defensive mechanisms a shinobi had to put up in order to retain their sanity during run of the mill life.
"Better than taking walks through the forest."
The huff of laughter carried farther than Neji would have thought as they passed a fragrent bush of flowers. Neji slowed to a stop, fingers hovering over the soft petals, searching out a stem to pluck one. He never could resist beauty like that.
"Watch it."
A sudden whirr and his hand was wrapped in almost invisible wires. A flash of an apologetic white smile in the darkness made him blink instead of just shaking the wires free with a few well-placed needles of chakra. Kankuro walked back and the wires slivered free as the prince lifted some leaves carefully up so that the moon's light showed their undersides.
"The ants that live on these flowers don't like to be disturbed," he said quietly as the industrious little insects went about their work, barely disturbed. Kankuro reached out and plucked one of the other flowers from the same plant. It was unopened, and Neji realised that the ants wouldn't bother with the unopened blossoms - there was no nectar yet.
He took the proferred blossom with a small smile of thanks as he lifted it to his nose and took a delacite sniff. iBeautiful./i
Kankuro coughed awkwardly and turned back to the bright moon, shoving his hands deep into his black pant pockets. Neji wondered how much training it took to become the head of a war-theatre at around ninteen years old as the muscles in Kankuro's arm bunched and released, bare to the night air under a black t-shirt.
"I should get back to bed; it's going to be a long day," Neji said finally, almost allowing a note of reluctancy to tinge his voice as the moon started it's downward slope.
"Aa."
Neji didn't even realise he was being walked back to his quarters untill he was there, and Kankuro gave him a little pat on the shoulder as he smiled and headed passed him down the hallway.
"Sleep well, Neji."
And with the smell of the blossom in a cup beside his bed, he did.
...is during war