The aura of reposing activities gave the streets of the village a quiet murmur that was pleasant to the Hyuuga as he and Lee made their way back towards the clinic. His mood slightly lifted as he sent a glance over at the Chunin walking in step with him. Lee's brow raised and he met lavender eyes that quickly reoccupied themselves. Neji felt the rise in heat up the back of his neck and over the front of his face.
But of course Neji Hyuuga did not blush.
A rare feeling of nervous excitement bubbling in the man's chest. His eyes working over the horizon and how the sunlight was bleaching the tops of the trees.
The Jounin saw the clinic come into view and felt anxious as the previous session's events flashed through his head for a moment. He wondered if the Doctor would give him leave to return to the village or if he'd be stuck here even longer.
Lee held the door to the clinic open as the approached it and received a hard look from the Hyuuga, who eventually let it go and walked through the doorway. His attention quickly moving to the rumble of noise coming from the back of the clinic, a pair of voices barely loud enough to made out. One of which the Jounin picked up as the Doctor but his words were too muddled by the walls to be clear enough to understand.
The two made their way to the reception desk where a young woman wore a worried expression and was starring at the doors leading back to the office. Lee spoke up first, grabbing the girl's attention.
"Everything alright, Ame-chan?"
The girl waved her hand and laughed, awkwardly. "Oh yes, sorry, Lee-san. Sensei had an unexpected visitor and they've gotten quite loud. He hasn't even asked for coffee in over an hour."
Neji ignored the strange taste he got in his mouth from their friendly interaction, he hadn't realized Lee had spoken to the receptionist outside of formalities. But this was Lee he was talking about. The Chunin was always kind and sociable; it was to be expected that when the other shinobi sat for the few hours to wait for Neji, he would make conversation with whoever was willing to listen.
The Hyuuga also didn't acknowledge that their conversation had moved on without him. He focused on the sounds coming from the back and how they seemed to be getting louder and clearer.
"-breaking patient confidentiality, you idiotic brute!"
Suddenly a body came through the rice paper door and Ame shrieked, bringing her clip board up to cover her mouth. Neji and Lee both jumped back, the Chunin's fingers already in his hip pouch as they eyed the man who laid on the floor. The lobby grew silent as everyone turned to see the Doctor holding his arm up, the sleeves of his yukata drawn back as he glared down a second man standing next to him. The two strangers were dresses similarly, Chunin from the Hidden Valley village from the symbol on their headbands. Neji made a quick once over of both shinobi, they didn't seem to have any chakra pooled but he didn't relax just yet.
"Sensei! We just had that door replaced!" Ame scolded but dropped her glare when she met the Doctor's dark stare.
"I suggest you leave before I contact the authorities; Yugakure shinobi do not take threats lightly." The Doctor's hand reached for his waist and the metal click of a weapon came from his belt.
The shinobi on the ground stood slowly, keeping his head low. His comrade did not break his gaze from the Doctor as he walked towards the door. The Valley's Chunin cleared his throat and spoke repellently.
"Forgive us, Sensei. I meant no disrespect. We will take our leave." His eyes holding a foul look in them as the Doctor glared back. The two shinobi turned to leave, the second Chunin cursing under his breath as he looked Lee over, eyeing his Leaf headband hanging from his waist.
"Konoha."
"Taniga." Lee returned the 'greeting' with less malice but a cautious stare as they walked past. They didn't regard anyone else in the lobby but the first Chunin let his eyes double take at the Hyuuga, a look of recognition flashing before they quickly exited the clinic.
A thick silence fell over the lobby as the few patients waiting looked around and the remaining two shinobi sharing a knowing look.
What were Hidden Valley ninja doing in the Land of Hot Springs?
"AME! My coffee is twenty minutes late." The Doctor barked before heading back down the hallway to his office. The receptionist girl perked up and blinked as she gathered a tray with a mug already made.
"Sensei! What about the door?" She called after him as she followed and carefully not spilling the coffee as the door to the office slammed behind her.
Neji activated Byakugan discreetly and searched for the foreign shinobi, watching as they headed for the end of the south west edge of the village. The veins around his eyes slowly relaxed as he watched Lee come stand next to him, his finger dropping a kunai back into his pouch.
"That was…unexpected." Lee sent Neji a questioning look, noticing the Byakugan. The Hyuuga hummed in response.
"They would've had to cross the Land of Fire and gotten Tsunade-sama's approval to move through untouched." The Jounin had a bad feeling his chest. Lee made a face before looking back at the broken door.
"Either way, we should let the local authorities deal with it." The Chunin held eye contact with Neji as he moved closer to speak softer. "You are here to recover, as quickly as you can. We don't need ay distractions."
The Hyuuga gave a nod and went to sit down, figuring the Doctor would not be ready for a few moments. Whatever the foreign ninja were doing was their own village's business and if they had traveled through the land of Fire there was probably no need to be worried. Not to the mention the local Yugakure shinobi would not take unwanted visitors in their country well.
The two shinobi sat quietly for the better part of a half-hour, Ame soon returning and giving an apologetic look before grabbing a scroll and running back to the office. Another twenty minutes passed before she returned again, two empty mugs on her tray and a few hair strands out of place from her bun. Neji could feel the tension in the lobby hadn't loosened very much. The other patrons sat still and made little eye contact with each other, no one dared to question what had happened. Or they were use to weird things happening in a therapeutic area like their village.
One of them was an older woman, long blonde hair ran down the front of her chest. Her piercing eyes met the Hyuuga from behind her thick blonde lashes and Neji found himself turning away from the cold stare. He hadn't seen eyes so dark in a while. Lee hadn't seemed to notice the exchange and nudged Neji when Ame motioned for the Jounin to stand and follow her. Neji took one last look at Lee before he stood and walked with Ame back into the Doctor's office.
The receptionist opened the door to the office and gave an unbelievably smile as Neji entered.
"Sorry about the wait, Mr. Hyuuga. Some people have no manners." The Doctor was sitting in his usual lounge chair, gulping down the caffeinated drink. He held the empty mug up for Ame who took it and replaced it with a full one on the nearby desk before leaving and closing the door behind herself.
Neji sat in his spot and folded his hands in his lap. He was not known for great small talk.
"Anyway!" The Doctor disregarded the new mug and reached for his notes, grabbing a pen from behind his ear. "I'd like to hear of the results of our last session. You left in quite a vulnerable state. How was it?"
The Hyuuga wasn't sure where he was supposed to begin. "Well, it was actually more terrifying than I was prepared for."
"I was surprised that you repressed the revenge angle out of everything. Any thoughts on that?" The Doctor's voice masking the scratching of his pen on paper.
"I'm not sure…" The Jounin's brow furrowed. It was indeed unlike him. He could still feel the whispers of touches on his skin but the memories of blood stains and bodies seem to hold him grounded. Eleven people were dead because of him. His first reaction was that they deserved to die but deep in his gut he felt a pull of guilt, not all of the rouge shinobi had hurt him. They had not helped him that was for sure but that didn't mean they needed to die for it. A shinobi's death is very rarely a clean one.
The Doctor cocked a brow at the other's silence and wrote more down in his notes, underlining a few words.
"It could be that your brain needed to feel hurt. It needed to go through the pain before it was ready to heal. You would be surprised at the things our own minds hide from us." The older man looked down at his notes as he continued. "You don't let many things faze you. For this kind of horrible event, your mind needed you to acknowledge the damage done before it could properly fix it."
Neji pulled his lips into a thin line. It made sense in a weird way but didn't sound like how he usually worked.
"Are you feeling guilty for having killed them?"
The Hyuuga looked up to meet an amused look on the Doctor's face. He glared lightly at how this seemed to humor the other man.
"I'm not sure. They were not innocent, but they would've been more use to me alive than dead. I still never figured out what they wanted with my family's kekki genkai." The Jounin rubbed his fingers against each other in his lap.
The Doctor let the silence hang for a moment before he laid his notes down in his lap.
"Stop being so hard on yourself, Neji." The Hyuuga sent the older man another look, more perplexed now. He couldn't remember the man using his first name before, and without a suffix was quite bold.
"And why shouldn't I? I am a highly skilled Hidden Leaf shinobi, I should strive for perfection. Is that so wrong?" The words ended with more venom than Neji had meant but the Doctor was unaffected by the change in tone.
"Because no one is perfect, no matter how hard they try. People fail, people win and people die. You're happiness is not worth forfeiting over every mistake."
Neji wasn't sure if he should be angered by the bluntness or moved by the somewhat sincerity in the man's words. He instead thought for a moment. No one ever learned from winning all the time, the only way to really learn was to fail at something and try again. So the Doctor wasn't wrong but he was horrible insensitive with his words sometimes. Very unusual for a mental health professional, not to mention some of his other strange quirks. The caffeine addiction one of the obvious ones.
"Anyway, getting back on track. Has anything changed since out last session? You seem to be more relaxed, even after the ruckus from earlier." The older man spoke up again, letting the Hyuuga brew in his own silence for just a moment before he kept the dialogue moving.
#
Sakura knocked on the Hokage's office door, waiting patiently until she was given permission to enter. She smiled a good morning to Shizune and her teacher before giving her morning report.
"And Naruto's hair is still green? Goodness, what did that Sai boy use?" Shizune held her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing. The pink haired girl waved her hands comically.
"He swears he read the recipe in a book but I can't find the one he is talking about."
Tsunade wore a weak smile and heavy bags under her eyes as she scanned the third scroll since Sakura had walked in. Usually her teacher loved hearing about Naruto's strange antics but something serious was hanging in the air.
"Tsunade-sama?" She questioned, causing the Hokage to finally look up from her reading. Shizune gave a sympathetic look.
"Sorry, Sakura. There are a few annoying issues that came up last night. Ones I thought had been dealt with a while ago." She grumbled and reached for her tea. Her gazed watched it carefully as she lifted it and sipped at the green drink.
"No, I understand. Is there anything I can do to help?" The kunoichi replied, ready to deal with anything her teacher could give her. Tsunade just shook her head slowly. She closed the scroll after stamping it and handed it to Shizune, who went to place a seal on it.
"Not at the moment, I'm sure Naruto can sit put until his hair goes back to normal. I can give you a few C-ranked missions to keep you three and Kakashi busy if you'd like…" Tsunade opened a new scroll and trailed off. The three women stood quietly while Sakura clenched her fists at her sides, trying to find the right way to breach the topic.
"Find me the treaty with the Land of Rivers." Tsunade called out to Shizune, who quickly nodded and walked out towards the archives.
The click from the door closing filled the mostly silent room. The Hokage slowly lifted her eyes to meet the bright green irises staring at her. "You have something you'd like to say? That doesn't have to do with Naruto's new hair color, I assume."
Sakura nodded before clearing her throat. "I was wondering if Lee-san will be back from his mission soon."
News of Neji's trip had been kept to a minimum but the kunoichi could only imagine how bad it was from how Tenten and Hinata were acting recently. And the pink haired shinobi felt a tightening in her chest about all the recent rumors about Neji and Lee. She desperately wanted to talk with Lee to get everything figured out.
"I gave him at least two weeks time to compete his mission, if he need longer then he will send word and I will let you know. Is there…something that can not wait?" Tsunade raised a brow at her pupil. The girl was acting off.
"No, of course not, Tsunade-sama. I'll go receive our mission from Iruka-sensei. Thank you and have a great day." Sakura bowed and left the room.
She stood in the hallway and stared at the floor for a moment. It wasn't fair of her to feel jealous of Lee possibly going after Neji. She had made her rejection of his affections quite clear for a while. And it was only normal he would give up after so long. Maybe she had just assumed that Rock Lee would always like her.
She bit her lip as she started to walk down towards the mission briefing room.
#
Gai woke up, mostly in pain. He groaned as he tried to sit up, noticing his skin was sticking to the porcelain of his toilet. The taijutsu specialist slowly pulled his skin free and felt his stomach rock unpleasantly.
The events from the previous night's drinking were blurry but he made out most of the important details. Kakashi had helped him home and the older man had basically gotten to third base with his toilet. Gai stood slowly and gripped the counter, running a hand over his face. He might be getting just a little too old for this.
But he'd be damned if he let Kakashi best him without a fight.
After washing his face and brushing his teeth, the Jounin made his way to the kitchen and made some yolk-less eggs, steadying his stomach as much as he could. After giving up on breakfast half way through, a light precise knocking filled his hallway.
The man fixed his clothes as he moved to answer the door.
A chipper Tenten stood, smiling for a moment before seeing the state her squad leader was in. "Um, morning, Gai-sensei? Are you sick?"
The weapon's specialist wrinkled her nose at the thick smell of gross mixed with 'ew'. Gai laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Ah, Tenten, no, I'm fine. Just a late morning for me." The taijutsu Jounin raising his voice to meet his wide smile and a sparkling thumbs up.
"What can I do for my precious youthful student?"
Tenten gave her energetic teacher a confused look before rolling her eyes and digging into her bag for a scroll. She didn't know how she could deal with their teacher without Neji and Lee to buffer. She was too stir crazy with everything happening to just sit at home for another day bored or training by herself.
"Tsunade-sama gave us the okay to terminate our vacation early. I picked up out mission for today, we're escorting some lord's daughter to the border tonight." She handed over the scroll for Gai to look over. The older man opened it and scanned the barely B-ranked mission. He hid a face he wanted to make, Tsunade was trying to keep him busy while still letting him take it easy.
"Well, one week of minimal training has made me itch to get out their and let the full power of my youth explode!"
"Yeah, well can you 'youth' somewhere away from me. I already have a migraine, Sensei. I might actually look forward for another week off now."
"Nonsense, Tenten. The only way to over come pain is to embrace your youth and let it fuel your passion!"
Tenten tried to ignore the speech Gai started on, youth-this and green spandex-that. Just as she was getting ready to leave his to prepare, a puff of smoke cut both of them off.
The cloud dispersing and a slyly smiling Sai sat on the railing of Gai's balcony.
"Good morning." A cold, shallow tone came from the pale shinobi. Tenten had barely sensed him, the newly introduced member of Team Kakashi was still giving her the creeps.
"Sai-kun, how are you this wonderful, youthful morning?" Gai spoke up and gave Sai a pat on the shoulder, knocking him off balance. The pale shinobi steadied himself and his smile tightened on his lips.
"I am fine, Gai-san. I have a new mission for you from the Hokage. She said to disregard your first assignment." Tenten noticed Sai was fully dressed for travel, his kunai pouch fully stocked and a cloak hanging over his shoulders.
Gai exchanged a look with Tenten before taking the scroll Sai held out towards him. He broke the protective seal from the Hokage. Such a precaution for a new mission was unlike the Godaime. Gai skimmed over the content written in the scroll and his smile slowly turning into a firm line.
"The Land of Rivers…" He stared at the fox smile sitting on the pale ninja's face.
"Kakashi-san and I will be going ahead to meet with the contact. You and your team are to meet us at the rendezvous point by sunrise tomorrow." Sai replied and it was Tenten who made a grim expression.
"Why are we going back to the Land of Rivers? We were just at the border." She questioned Gai, who went back to reading the details of the scroll.
"It seems your team failed to kill every hostile." Sai spoke with a blunt and harsh tone. "All I know is that the ANBU sent to the ambush sight returned last night with different numbers."
Gai ripped the top of the scroll before he could stop himself causing Tenten to quickly take the scroll from him. The older man felt his fingers roll into fists at his sides. Sai let his eyes glance down at the man's body language and then met his glare. Gai's black orbs were looking past Sai and he could feel his blood boil under his skin.
A heavy stillness came over the three of them as the shinobi's words hung in the air. Tenten closed the scroll and gripped it tight to her chest, her own anger flaring in her chest. Did that mean some of the ambushers gotten away? Even after all the checking and double checking they had done.
"Sai-kun, dismissed. Tenten, gather the remainder of our scout team and have them meet us at the gate in one hour or we leave without them." Gai's serious tone took the kunoichi off guard but she responded quickly, acknowledging his order and jumping off.
Sai watched Gai for a moment before he lifted his fingers to release his clone.
"Happy hunting, Gai-san."
#
"Well everything sounds to be going quite well. No one expected you to bounce back to a hundred percent, so take it easy. You can remain in the village for at least a few more days until I'm confident in your mental status to send you back to the Godaime. We'll go through one last exposure session to check you out whenever you think you're ready." The Doctor stood and sipped at his now cold coffee.
Neji simply nodded and had refrained from asking about the shinobi earlier, reminding himself of Lee's words. They needed to focus on their task.
"Very well, our time is up for today. Please rest up and I'll see you tomorrow." The Doctor showed him to the door.
Entering the lobby again, he found the blonde girl starring at him once more. Her glare was almost hateful. The Hyuuga did his best to ignore it as he made his way towards Lee who waiting with a smile.
"Miss, if you're ready?" Ame motioned for the blonde woman to follow her back.
Neji watched from the corner of his eye as the girl stood and walked with Ame. Lee caught the Jounin's line of sight and asked quietly once they were out of earshot.
"What's up?" The Hyuuga's brow tightened for a moment before he shook his head and waved for Lee to follow him.
"Nothing, just got a weird feeling." The door chimed as it swung open and the two left the clinic.
The surrounding plaza was buzzing with people now, it was the weekend and those who had the time off were flocking to the stores and spas the little town was famous for. Neji felt less tense than he had early, it had been quite a strange morning.
"Are you hungry?" A voice pulling the Hyuuga's attention to meet Lee's face. The lines of his face were well defined in the bright midday light, Neji refused to let his brain overwork its neurons over the way Lee's smile hit his gut. He couldn't tell if he wanted to vomit from the awkward tension. The last few days had been very eventful.
"Are you hungry again? You must've eaten half a loaf of bread and full pot of rice for breakfast." Neji arched his brow, not doubting the hyperactive Chunin would burn through all of his day's calories from just sitting around for an hour.
"Hey, I'm carb loading right now, I was going to go work out tonight. And you didn't eat breakfast." His words were playful and a little whiny but Neji could tell Lee was not used to having so much down time. He'd basically been workout free for the past two weeks, he was a puppy getting wound up after finishing a nap. The last few words were muttered quickly, the tanner of the two making an expression Neji couldn't place.
"I've skipped meals during missions all the time." The Hyuuga retorted, daring the other shinobi to mothing over him like he had been.
Lee caught Neji's tone and smartly decided not to explain the importance of every meal. He also didn't comment on the fact that the Hyuuga had lost a bit of weight since their last mission. Not enough to cause alarm, but enough for Lee to feel uncomfortable when the Jounin would bend over to get something and he could see the lining of his ribs starting to show.
Lee knew it was probably stress, he had spent his spare time waiting in the lobby asking Ame questions are reading the random 'feel-good' pamphlets littered around the clinic. He knew if he tried to keep pushing thing that were worrying him, Neji could get annoyed and snap at him. But it wouldn't be the first time.
"Well I'm hungry. I think there's a curry place down the main street." Lee broke the paused that he hadn't meant to take.
Neji made a face that caused Lee to let out a loud laugh.
#
A/N: Hello New and Old readers ^^' This has been the first update to this story in a long time and I deeply apologize for that. I am in my second year of college and battle mental illness at the same time. Over the past year or so I took a bad turn and am just coming out of it as summer gets closer.
I would like to thank all my readers and those who leave such wonderful reviews and messages. This is about the half way point I had wanted to meet in this story. I would've ended it quickly after this chapter but I don't think that is fair for everyone who has waited so long for an update.
I will promise at least 8 more chapters if I continue at the pace I am. Maybe more if I get excited XD and do not worry, there WILL be more smut soon.
A species thanks to TsundereCapricorn, EatEmUp, , darkstardragon432, YukiNoSamurai, Lazy Gaga, Cole-Hyuuga, HyuugaNejiLover and little-neon for your amazing support.