Hallo again, minna-san! Sorry for the long wait...I had school stuff to do...and my net was down again...but enough with the excuses. Oh, and by the way, THANKS FOR ALL THE WUVWEE REVIEWS!
Chapter 3: Once and Forever
The Next Morning
"AAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrggggghhhhhhhhhlllllllmmmmmmm……g'mornin'….."
Neji tried his hardest to keep a straight face.
Naruto slouched into the general population of the school the next morning with what looked like the remains of a calculator stuck to his cheek. The blonde's normally vibrant blue eyes were dulled over with the remnants of sleep, with the whites a bit redder than the normal milky hue. His hair, making him look for the entire world like a canary had just died on his head, was piled frowzily on one side of his skull, which lolled on his neck like a loose hinge on a door. Naruto slouched down the stairs and ran straight into the Hyuuga himself, muttering incomprehensibly under his breath.
"MMmmmm….stay wherey'ar…mtired….huzbgh…" Neji obliged and stayed stationary as Naruto half-snored somewhere around the region of his stomach.
"I take it you were deprived of sleep last night?" A moan was heard from approximately where his navel would be located as Naruto let out a half-hearted response.
"Urrrmmm….damn kyoo-bee…kepmee frumstudying econ...econo…economics…but you ain't s'post tknow tha….thaaaaahhhh….."
Giving up all voluntary movement, Naruto fell in a rather pathetic heap at Neji's feet with a sigh and proceeded to snore gently on the sidewalk. The Hyuuga promptly felt his insides turn into a warm, fuzzy puddle of sludge-like substance, which didn't bode well for his own mental stability given that his fingers had suddenly started twitching with the sudden urge to….the sudden urge to think of it now, he'd suddenly developed a rather strong urge to do something to Naruto, though what it was, he did not know. After a while, Neji decided he hadn't the heart and woke Naruto from his peaceful slumber to patiently remind him that class was starting in exactly three minutes and forty-five seconds, that the distance from where they were to the destination took exactly six minutes and seventeen seconds to get to if they went at a fairly fast pace, so would he please get his sorry ass off of the sidewalk and start sprinting because precious seconds were being wasted?
"Snx-x-x….whuh?"
Neji calmly repeated his sentence.
"Mreeeehhhhh….WHAAAAAT!"
Naruto promptly shot to his feet and took off towards the science building with all the speed of a hummingbird on crack.
Neji could've sworn the campus grass had caught on fire, Naruto ran so hard. Slanting a quick glance at the sun, the Hyuuga sighed and broke into a light lope, arriving right in time for the bell.
Class
"All right, you pathetic bunch of sorry-assed losers, who can tell me the chemical formula for acetylsalicylic acid?"
The class visibly shrunk under the teacher's formidable stare. Neji's face was impassive as he evenly absorbed the aura the teacher was currently emanating; Naruto clasped his hands together and prayed with all his might that he wouldn't get called on.
"You, in the…blue, is it?" The blonde screwed his eyes shut and begged to whatever gods there were that there was someone else in the room wearing blue.
"You, in the blue with the blonde hair." One grimy paw rummaged around in his desk for a particularly sharp, pointy pencil just in case things got worse.
"THE ASSHOLE IN THE BLUE WITH THE BLONDE HAIR AND THE WHISKERS! ANSWER ME WHEN I CALL ON YOU!" Naruto let out a perfunctory sigh and managed a mumbled response.
"SAY IT LOUDER, IDIOT!" A chalkboard eraser bounced off his head with a clunk. The class tittered with murmured comments, and a few snickers as well as an "Uzumaki-baka got owned" were heard. Naruto sat up, deliberately ignoring the sneers, jeers, and pointed fingers.
"Yes, Anko-sensei?" The buxom brunette scowled heavily, raking a glower down the blonde before her.
"Board. Now. Formula for acetylsalicylic acid." Naruto exhibited a most fine impression of an immensely fake smile and rummaged around for his notes.
"All right all right, I'm coming." Neji shifted as Naruto walked down to the board and wrote down a set of formulas, turning around to face the teacher.
"Done." Contrary to his expectations, Anko's frown only deepened, chocolate eyes positively radiating bloody fratricide.
"Next time, Uzumaki, don't have Hyuuga-kun write it for you beforehand, do I make myself clear?" The class let out a nervous chorus of laughter and Neji shifted his stare down to the table in response. Naruto muttered a "yesm'" and returned to his desk.
After Class
Naruto's already dreadful morning took a decidedly downward tailspin as a highly nasal voice cut through the scatters of light conversation that filled the air with all the grace of a chainsaw through a three-foot-thick metal wall.
"Wow, Uzumaki, we didn't know you were that pathetic. Has Neji-kun been writing your tests as well? It figures…he probably has to spell your name for you too."
Naruto whirled around to find a slim blonde girl staring him down with a malicious smirk pasted on her overdone face. Half a dozen other girls backed her up, each with a delicious smile on her face in anticipation of what was to come.
"What the hell do you want, Ino?" The blonde girl shrugged one slim, dusky shoulder.
"I'm just wondering why Neji-kun would want to spend his precious time around someone like you." She mocked derisively. With a fierce, quiet determination, Naruto told the girl where to go, when, and in what condition, earning a silken smirk as his response. Ino waggled a contemptuous finger in Naruto's face.
"Tsk tsk, mind your language now. Your mother wouldn't like it if she heard you say such rude things to a lady…oh, but I forgot. You have no mother." Ino spat the last comment out with a massive amount of scorn.
It literally tore Neji's heart into a million tiny shards of glass to see the utter pain in Naruto's normally dazzling blue eyes. The sardonic laughter coming from the girls seemed to magnify and surround the blonde, his back ramrod stiff, his shoulders hunched inwards as if to protect himself from the verbal onslaught. Nails scrabbled at his books as Naruto clutched his belongings to his chest, jaw rigid and set against his teeth. The Hyuuga watched helpless as Naruto shook like a wind-tossed leaf as the girls hurled taunt after taunt, each one visibly cutting deeper into the blonde's soul. Hot, angry tears fell to the ground as Naruto bit hard into his lip to keep from losing his composure.
Abruptly something snapped inside of the Hyuuga. It was as if the energy that dripped like wax through his veins suddenly melted and flowed thrice faster through his body. Neji slowly rotated to face the laughing girls before him, eyes blazing with sheer fury and disdain. He looked Ino dead in the eye and ripped her body apart with his stare, spilling blood and slicing through entrails, sinew, bone, marrow, cell, flaying her alive, seizing every single blood cell he could find and scattering its remains to the wind. The warmth earlier lingering in the air suddenly packed its bags and left on a permanent vacation; Neji's aura leaked fiery ice and shrapnel as he stood tall in all his livid glory, impossibly long, alabaster fingers convulsing with the urge to kill. The blonde wisp of a girl shrunk back and whimpered at the frigid, wintry stare. Each word Neji spoke seemed to bring with it carnage and bloodshed.
"You. Are. Not. To. Speak. To. Him. In. That. Manner. Again." Ino nodded rapidly and retreated even further; the girls around her clung to their leader.
"Ne-Neji-kun…"
"Do I make myself clear?" Ino cowered even further.
"Y-yes…Neji-kun." The Hyuuga's mouth twisted in a snarl.
"Apologize." The blonde girl gaped at the comment.
"Wha…what?" The banshee-storm swirling around the Hyuuga magnified by a factor of four.
"I said: apologize." He was dimly aware of Naruto tugging on his shirt sleeve rambling about how it was going to be okay, but at the point he was now, Neji didn't care much about anything except for the victim in front of him. After a furtive glance at her terrified companions, Ino reluctantly glanced at Naruto.
"I'm…sorry…Naruto." In degrees the blizzard diminished.
"Good." The Hyuuga whirled about, strands of midnight silk falling around his sloping shoulders.
"Naruto. Let's go." Without a backward glance, Neji stalked away, Naruto in tow, neither of them catching the malevolent glitter in Ino's icy eyes.
Later that Night
He slept, bathed in the dim glow of his table lamp, sprawled messily across papers strewn helter-skelter across the width of his desk. The clock on the table read 12:48 a.m; the sheets of his bed were turned over and rumpled, looking for all the world like a person was sleeping in it. Naruto emanated a fuzzy sort of hum from the back of his throat as he slumbered at his desk, slouched haphazardly over a sheaf of papers which supported his head.
Gem-chips of eyes opened noiselessly and the blonde spun around, one hand groping silently for a long, thin, black-handled knife in the drawer of his desk. Still maintaining the sound of snoring in the back of his throat for extra advantage, he stood fluidly and padded silently to the doorway of his room where he pressed himself like a bed slat against the frame of the door, every muscle strung taught with anticipation. One hand cupped his mouth and propelled the sound of snoring towards the bed where it bounced off and seemed to genuinely convince whatever intruder there was that someone was indeed sleeping in the bed.
As if on cue, a tall, burly figure crept silently into the room. Not noticing the blonde's lithe frame pressed up against the doorframe, the man slowly crept over to the bed and seemed to fumble in his clothing. The glimmer of light from the table lamp ricocheted off of a shiny slice of metal as the man gripped the knife, raised both hands high, and plunged it point-blank into the mess of pillows and sheets. Naruto chirped a ventriloquized yelp that seemed to come from the mass of sheets, then smiled triumphantly as red liquid stained the blankets. The man stepped back, satisfied, then turned to go.
Every coil of muscle, sinew, ligament, tendon, and nerve exploded as Naruto snapped out at the man in midair, silver blade gyrating dangerously towards his target. He barely caught the look of registered surprise on the other when his knife slid cleanly through the middle of the man's shoulder blades. The blonde gritted his teeth and executed a sharp, downward slice that ripped muscle to pieces, caught on bone, and went through to catch on rib. With a flick of his wrist, Naruto pulled out the knife, its mercury blade dripping with wet, red rubies to puddle on the ground in a murky pool of scarlet.
The man stood stunned as liquid spurted from his wound. Mild surprise flashed in his eyes as he slowly absorbed the full extent to which he had been wounded. Naruto watched as the horror emerged in his opponent's eyes, and the man promptly sank to the ground and let out an animalistic howl that reverberated throughout the whole entire room. Still yelling with pain, he slumped to the ground like a sack of wet cement, writing with agony as he attempted to stave the bleeding.
Naruto whipped around and drew a bloody necklace around the man behind him, deftly dodging a quick blow, and plunged headlong into the throng of thugs that had just entered the tiny room, a golden whirlwind shining brightly in the darkness. Slashing, sliding, Naruto executed his full power as he fought, but eventually the thugs proved to be too much and overcame the blonde, tying him to the bed with much of a scuffle. Sapphire eyes glittered with sheer venom as the blonde stared defiantly at his triumphant enemies.
"What have I done to make you trespass upon my property and attack me?" He spat violently. One of the men smiled, cracking his knuckles menacingly.
"You toyed with my girlfriend, bastard. Apparently she said you were taking advantage of her in several different situations." He snarled sneeringly. Naruto's cornflower eyes opened wide.
Ino…
"I suppose it would be futile to argue with you." He spat sardonically, then coughed, spewing blood onto the pillows, his brilliant azure eyes clouded over with hatred.
"Nobody messes with my girl, got that, demon child?" The man snarled. The others around the bed chuckled as Naruto momentarily twisted on the bed. Slowly a small smirk dripped like oil onto the blonde's countenance.
"Thanks for the advice, I'll take it seriously next time."
To everyone's surprise, a momentary flash of brilliant scarlet cleaved the air as Naruto gave a mighty buck, deftly snapping the ropes like wet plaster, his knife flashing in his hand. Another leap, and the blonde was on the window sill, standing triumphantly on the ledge. The masked man that had spoken before bellowed in agony, clutching a blood-oozing gash on his forehead; blood dripped from Naruto's knife point. The others gaped at the sheer speed and power the blonde possessed. Still wearing the idle smirk, Naruto lazily tossed something in the middle of the room, then turned to face his shell-shocked opponents, the smirk widening into a positively feral grin.
"So long, fuckers!"
He flipped them a highly courteous hand gesture, then leapt out the window. Seconds later, the room exploded with a deafening bang that rocked the whole building, and gas began to steam out of the window. Faint yells were heard from the inside, and people began to scream in other parts of the apartment. With a last look at the steaming apartment complex, Naruto took off at a heavy, labored run towards the urban region of the city.
For what seemed like an eternity the blonde wandered further and further, no set destination in mind. Seeking shelter in alleyways or under overhangings, Naruto closed his eyes as he felt the first signs of rain on his skin, smiling gently as the heavens opened up and showered water over his pitiful form. Pink fluid ran in torrents to the ground as the rain cleansed his many wounds; Naruto stood for long moments with his face uplifted to the universe, silently begging for release as the divine liquid adorned him with transparent pearls that entwined themselves in his hair and flowed down his face in rivulets of fluid.
A thought occurred to him and he turned, walking slowly along the rain-slicked streets, a set destination in his mind. At long last, he came to a tall, magnificent building, and there he stood, wracking his brain for a certain scrap of memory. Sneaking past the half-slumbering receptionist at the desk, Naruto pressed the elevator button for level 17, then slumped against the walls of the transport. An ironic smile crossed his face as he surveyed his surroundings. It was almost laughable that he, a mere street rat without a place to stay, was riding in an elevator of the Semaruku apartment complex. Most normal people never even got a chance to enter the complex; but then again, he thought to himself, he wasn't really a normal person. Not quite. Not quite.
For those of you waiting for other characters to come in, I might put them in, and then again I might not, so you'll have to wait and see. Further pairings might come too, but right now I'm just focusing on getting the story off to a good start.
