Author's Note: It's weird what little shih-tzu puppies can do to a person...My own little shih-tzu puppy inspired me to write this little fic. Neji + shih-tzu puppy uber cuteness.
Also, this is my first Naruto fic, so sorry if Neji's a little OOC!
Neji was tired. He was always training, always sparring with Tenten, occasionally sparring with Lee, putting up with an over-enthusiastic sensei, and meditating can do that to a person.
Neji needed something. He was bored. Doing the same things every day until the Chuunin exams had become like a routine to him. Get up, get dressed, eat, train, come back home, take a shower, then sleep. 24/7. He never had anything better to do, anyways, so why should be be complaining? He should be grateful for what he has, but no. Neji finally knew what he needed, and decided to do something about it.
To put it bluntly, Neji needed a friend. Not just any friend, someone who he could talk to when he was upset or needed to get something off his chest, and they wouldn't tell. Someone who would show affection to him, should he not show it back; they wouldn't care. Just someone who would be there by him, and just...listen.
So, this brings us back to the present. Neji was walking down towards the small, nearly deserted dock at the edge of lake Konoha. The sun was about to set, and it was a cool spring day. Neji needed someone quiet and peaceful, where he could just sit and think.
And the dock was the exact place he had in mind.
Walking down towards the edge, he sat down and let his legs dangle over the water. It was quiet...Too quiet...Eerily quiet...Creepily quiet...Dangerously quiet...
Suddenly, he heard a rustling in the bushes. Thinking it was an enemy nin, he jumped up and grabbed a kunai from its pouch on his leg. He positioned it in front of himself; arm up in front of him with the kunai facing forwards.
"Who is there?" He asked, edging ever so closer to the bush.
He heard the rustling again, and he started walking over to the bush, despite the fact that an enemy nin could be there. But, the odd thing was, he didn't feel as if an enemy nin was there, thus the action of going over to see who or what else was there.
He knelt down, and parted the bushes gently, silently surprised at his find.
From his point of view, he was looking down on a shivering, white bodied, brown-black headed shih-tzu puppy. His heart, despite the coldness he showed everyone on a daily basis, nearly melted at the sight of the small puppy. It didn't look too old; about a week at the most.
It looked up at him with nearly black, dark brown eyes. It's face was mashed in, which made it look from the side like it barely had one. It's nose was small, and mashed in as well, which made it look kind of funny. The dog's eyes held sadness, if one looked deep enough they could see it. It was whimpering and shiver, desperately trying to crawl over to Neji.
Neji gave the poor creature a smile, a very, very small smile, but a smile nontheless, and picked up up. Holding it against his chest, he used his shirt to make a make-shift blanket for the shivering puppy. The dog looked up at him again, and happily licked his chin, which was the only thing it could reach at the time, and tried to crawl up further.
Neji scowled and made a move to wipe away the slobber, but found it useless as the puppy kept on licking him. So he just stood there, a shivering, one week old puppy in his arms, wrapped up in his jacket, licking his face.
If one of Neji's fangirls saw him, they would fall over, have multiple seizures, and die from the cuteness of it all.
Neji finally got the puppy to stop, and wrapped his jacket around it's shivering form even more, making it so it couldn't move anything but it's head.
He sighed and looked down at its small form. "What am I going to do with you?" He asked it in a gentle whisper.
The only reply was a whimper, and the small growl of the dog's stomach.
Neji couldn't help but smile more. Heck, it was cute, if not adorable. He knew he couldn't keep it, yet somehow he knew he had to. He thought that he was destined to meet this dog, and now that he thought of it, maybe this would be friend he had always wished for.
He sighed again and looked down at the small, still shivering form of the dog and decided that he was going to keep it. He couldn't take it home, but he could still keep it, right? Right.
So, he concluded, he'd have to make-do with building a small shelter in the bushes it had come out of. He could get it some food and water, a warm blanket or two, a small heater, and it would be set. He'd come by it every day, in secret, of course, and they just might, in the future, become friends.
Setting out to make his idea a reality, he knelt once more under the bush, seeing that it was near hollow on the inside; with a few good covering layers of leaves, that is, to hide it. There was just enough space for a small shelter, big enough for his new dog.
Still holding the puppy, he felt around for a few sticks. After finding them, and also putting the puppy down in the process, he set them up in a square position, took off his jacket, tore a few pieces off, and laid the remains over the sticks, creating a small shack that was covered on all but one side, which was still halfway covered, but created a small entryway for air to get in and the dog to get in and out.
Next, he layed out the pieces he'd torn off his jacket onto the soft grass, creating a small area for his dog to sleep and roam around it. Next, he started a small fire outside of the bush, found a medium sized rock and threw it into the fire, waiting for it to heat up.
While he was waiting, he walked over to the lake, hoping to find some trash or something that would improvise for a bowl. To his luck, he found two small tin cans, that seemed to have once held fish, and smiled. He filled one up with water, and set that aside.
Pulling out a kunai, he waded deeper into the lake until it was up to about mid-calf, just where the fish were. He concentrated hard on the fish, then brought down his kunai harshly on a medium sized one, stabbing it straight through.
It struggled and tried to get away, but Neji held it by it's tail until it stopped moving, dead by blood loss. Neji smirked and cleaned the fish until all the blood was gone, and walked out of the water and over to the fire, where he roasted it over the fire with a stick.
Once that was done, he cut it up into small, edible pieces with his kunai and put them up against a rock, smashing the fish until it was but a thick goo. Scooping the said dead fish goo into his hand, he grimaced and walked over to the hollow bush where the dog resided. He dipped his finger into the bluish, greenish glop and put it up to the puppie's mouth, allowed it to smell it and lick it gently.
The process repeated until all the food was gone, and the dog was full and sleepy. Neji smiled in content; happy inside that he was able to save a puppie's life.
He stood up and washed his hand off in the lake, then walked back over to the fire. After looking around for a bit, he found a medium-sized rock and used it to push the rock that was already placed in the fire out and onto the grass, where it whistled in heat.
With a content smirk, he began rolling it over to where the dog was in the bush and pushed it into the small shelter and into one of its corners, also improvising for a heater which would keep the small puppy warm until he could come back the next day.
He smiled at the already asleep puppy and moved it slightly closer to the make-shift heater, covering it up with one of the strips from his jacket to assure the dog's body warmth to return quickly.
He walked over to the lake and into it until it was again up to mid-calf, and killed another fish. He cleaned it, cooked it, and mashed it up into the same glop that he had made before. He placed the food into the small tin container he had found, and grabbed that and the one with the water in it and carefully walked back over to the bush.
He parted the leaves and set the food beside the rock, where it would stay warm, and the water beside it, where it would stay cool but also slightly warm, and made sure the puppy was warm and asleep.
Satisfied with himself and his work, he knelt back onto his knees and did a few hand seals, creating a small barrier around the shelter that would assure its safety and also to keep the heat in, but also allowed fresh air to come in so it wouldn't choke on stale air.
Now all he needed to do was make up an excuse as to why his jacket was missing...
Quickly thinking up an idea, he grabbed another kunai from his pouch on his left thigh and held it up to his chest, applying pressure and dragging the blade across his pale flesh. Wincing slightly, he did it a few more times until he was satisfied. Now he looked like he had been in a battle and his jacket had been torn apart.
Standing up and ignoring the smell and feel of warm blood trickling down his chest from the fresh, self-inflicted wounds, he began walking towards his home, now having something to look forward to the next day.
Concluding Notes: So, whatcha think? xD It's a bit gory, and kind of graphic, but I am pleased with the way it turned out.
R&R peeps!