Neji stood in front of the stove, rolling the vegetable and cheese omelet in the pan before transferring them onto a clean cutting surface. He then cut the omelet into four sections and placed a section each on top of a bowl of rice.
"I would've gotten that," Chiaki told him from the doorway of the kitchen. He smirked as he replied, "remember last time you cooked breakfast? I thought Tetsuya was going to keel over," he joked.
She laughed and nodded in agreement, "okay, yes. You have a point."
He smiled and asked, "Speaking of that though, anything additional you want with breakfast?"
"Hmm, some pickled plums would be great," she replied as she grabbed the jar of preserved plums. Neji held his hand out for the jar, which she passed over to him. He opened the lid and extracted eight small plums from it, asking her, "is that enough or would you like more?"
"That'll do," she advised before questioning her own judgment on how much she was craving the preserved fruit. He observed her before placing more into a separate sharing bowl for everyone to have a few.
"Anything we don't eat can always go back," he reasoned as he picked up the serving tray. She was smirking as she jested, "protecting the kids from my weird pregnancy cravings?"
"Not necessarily, just ensuring they'll eat something," Neji replied as he headed into the main room. Chiaki quietly snickered, this was a side of him she hadn't seen before. He was gentle, nurturing, protective, but also firm with the children.
She couldn't have imagined that the same guy who had once attacked a hollow without even knowing what it was would have such a softer side to him. Yet she'd also known that softer side existed, even if he didn't display it to everyone so why was she so surprised? Maybe because she thought she'd seen those same qualities in Atau Rindo and it turned out she had been looking at him through rose tinted glasses. Then again, her sister had believed the same thing as her. So maybe it was there, but neither of them were the right ones to bring that side of him out?
She pushed the thought from her mind as she followed Neji into the dining room with a tray which carried three glasses of milk for herself and the children as well as a cup of tea for him. Her cravings were typically the worst when she woke, but would tame towards nighttime.
She smiled as she set the tray of beverages down, and passed them around. Neji had given everyone their omelet and rice, separate bowls of dates, pickled plums, pickled vegetable salad, and miso soup. He knew that Chiaki's morning sickness was still triggered by fish but usually by midday it had subsided enough that she could eat anything, breakfast however was still a little uncertain.
Suzume took some of her omelet and asked, "how long do you get morning sickness?"
"It's different for everyone," Chiaki answered as she took a drink of her milk, adding, "some people don't have it for every long, some have it the entire pregnancy. Some even end up not liking foods they used to like after they've had the baby."
Suzume blinked and wrinkled her nose as she replied, "that's sucky."
Neji couldn't help but chuckle at her reaction. He agreed with her, "yes, it's very 'sucky'."
She hesitated at the main floor of the building. Her dark hair blew in the winter wind, her white eyes looking up at the balcony where he'd sometimes sit and meditate, or he'd wave to her before letting her into the building. Two months had passed since that day. Two months since she watched the curse mark fade from his forehead and yet Hinata found herself frozen once again at the same place where her will to do this always faltered.
"Hey Hinata," a voice greeted her. She blinked and looked in the direction the voice had come from. Wearing his trademark orange track suit was the blonde haired blue eyed man with six fox like whiskers on his face.
"Hi Naruto," she replied. Naruto blinked as he looked up and realized why she was standing there, seemingly in a trance.
"Oh—you gotta get something from Neji's?"
"His landlord wants his apartment cleared out. Dad was paying the rent the last two months but—he won't keep doing that forever. It has to be done-"she replied, tears starting down her face towards the end.
"—and I know Neji wouldn't want a lot of people going through his things. I had no trouble setting up the boxes yeterday—but I—" she cut herself off as she hurriedly wiped her eyes with the back of her sleeve.
"Let's do it then. You and me," he offered.
"You'd do that? I mean-" she began he gave her his trademark smile and gave her a thumbs up. Together they ascended the outside stairs to the door of the apartment. With a shaky hand Hinata inserted the silver key and turned it. She entered his living room and almost sighed at how basic the furniture was. A single bookshelf, that was fully stocked, beige couch with a brown throw blanket with a leaf pattern to it. She knew he'd bought that while Chiaki was briefly living with him.
Naruto grabbed one of the boxes and went to the book shelf, might as well start there. He began placing the books into the box, all of these titles sounded immensely boring to him. The tenketsu and you as an example. A buddhist's guide to better meditation, being another one. About half way through the shelf however he came across one title that stood out from the rest: The Notebook by someone named Nicholas Sparks.
It certainly didn't sound like anyone local. He'd never heard of such a ridiculous name in his life. When he opened the book however he gasped as several photos fell out. There were pictures of Neji smiling and laughing with a brown haired girl whom Naruto knew wasn't Tenten. She was smiling and laughing as well. She was looking at Neji and he was facing her. Then there was another one with the girl sitting on the railing of a bridge. She was wearing a yellow sun dress with beige sandals, and her hair was pulled back with an orange ribbon. In this photo he could tell that she had amber eyes, once again she looked happy. There was another one of Neji making some kind of cake in his kitchen, and someone pitching what looked to be a fistful of flour at him. The photo had been snapped as he'd brought his hand up to shield himself, and again he was laughing.
"Oh, I didn't know he had pictures of her," Hinata commented when she saw the photos. She smiled as she added, "I guess she took the one of him in the kitchen."
A small giggle escaped her as she reminisced, "I never saw brother Neji so happy."
"Who is she?"
"A friend from out of town," Hinata replied. It was true enough without telling him everything, and without Chiaki there to back her up, he may think she was a raving lunatic if she told him the entire truth.
"Huh—looks like she might've been more than a friend. I always thought Neji and Tenten were a thing," Naruto commented.
"They were—but Tenten became jealous of her when she was in a tight spot. To help her out, brother Neji let her stay here for a bit over a month. They grew really close," Hinata revealed.
"Yeah, looks like," he agreed.
'I hope you found her again big brother Neji. I hope you and Chiaki can have the life in her world that you always wanted,' she silently prayed.
