The Moonlight Walkers

By withered-soup

three

It started to rain.

"You really look different now." Neji smiled as he steered the wheel. The lights flashed past the two faces inside the car. There was an obvious lightness in the teen's features. His cream eyes looked liquid and mellow. "You've grown taller, too. And that hair." He shook his head in slight recollection. "You've always wanted that short, yes?"

"Just like old times." Sakura touched the end of her pink hair that reached the middle of her neck.

"Just like old times." Neji repeated with a wider smile.

"How did you find me?"

"I was just taking a night ride when your pink hair caught my attention. I saw you walking seemingly aimlessly. I couldn't tell if it was you so I followed you."

"You're great at stealth." She chuckled.

"You're just a failure in being unnoticed." The Hyuuga stopped when the traffic light went red. He watched the windshield wiper push the rain off the glass. "Then when I saw those thugs approaching, I didn't care who you were. I just needed to stop that preposterous act of wanting to perhaps, rape, that unattractive girl."

"You're so evil!" She slapped his arm and they both laughed. When they had finished, Sakura looked down on her lap and muttered, "I missed you, you know." The only sound heard was the movement of the wiper and the raindrops against the car. "I mean, after you left…" she stopped and smiled sadly, "after you left…"

"Hey, stop it." Neji gave her a glance. "I tried contacting you, too. Your family simply disappeared from my radar." He turned around a corner. "I missed you too." The two smiled at each other for a brief second. "Oh, here we are." The car slowed into a stop in front of a house pretty much identical to the rest of its neighbors. "Your new house? I'm afraid I prefer the old one."

"I do, too." Sakura replied with apparent regret.

It was a morning characterized by clear skies when Sakura's pet fish died. She was playing with her doll when she glanced at her small bowl. The fish was just at the bottom and it didn't move one bit. She tapped the glass but the eyes did not seem to respond. That was when she encountered death as a concept. With her stubby little hands, she grasped the fish bowl and went out of the house. She didn't know where exactly to go but she remembered once in a movie that the "dead" ones had to be placed under a heap of soil. But she thought of her fish. Her fish flapped its fins whenever she tried placing it on her pillow because she wanted to sleep beside it. And it just calmed down when placed back in the water. Wouldn't her fish want to get buried in water instead? So she returned to the pond where she took her fish.

"Here you are, fishy." Sakura squatted and was about to drop her fish when someone yelled, "what d'you think you're doin'?" A boy jumped out of nowhere and ran to her side. He wore a cape and a cardboard crown. He also held a small folded umbrella and he used it to point at the clueless lass.

"I'm burying my fishy." Sakura replied.

"It's dead."

"I know!" Her brows met.

"That pond is full of fish." The boy glared at her with his unique cream eyes. "Living fish. Dead fish will make the others to die!"

"Really?" Sakura stood up with the fish still on her open palms.

"Yeah!" The boy lifted his chin and marched around the girl as if surveying her. "That's what my mama said." He poked the mossy surface of the pond with his umbrella. "She cuts the yellow leaves because she said the dead leaves will kill the others." Sakura remained unmoved. "So?" She raised her brows. "So?"

"So…?" Sakura looked remained clueless.

"So what are you going to do now?" He shifted his weight on the umbrella. "With your pet." When she did not speak, the boy bit his lip. "I'm Neji."

"My name is Sakura." She smiled.

"I think I can—" Sakura pulled her wet hair back behind her ears. She and Neji were standing under a small protrusion of the ceiling in front of the front door. They ran through the lawn from his car.

"I know you're already panicking." Neji slightly inched away from the rain that was hitting his leather shoes. "Let me handle it." Before she could open her mouth, he shook his head, "let me."

Ding, dong.

It took a second or two before the door opened and the furious face of her father appeared. "What—" Neji placed a hand around Sakura's shoulders, "good evening, Sir Haruno."

He stared, "N-Neji?" His eyes went from Neji to Sakura to Neji. An awkward smile passed his face. "Well, uh, come in!" He moved back to let the two dripping individuals enter. "You, ah, I, we didn't know you're here!" He forced a laugh as he took a look at the Hyuuga from head to toe. "You've grown so tall!" He turned and called out to his wife, "Neji's here!"

"I'm really sorry," Neji eyed Sakura who was looking down on her wet feet, "I found her buying some medicine but I was so excited to see her so I swept her away. I'm really sorry."

"No, no, it's fine." He grinned. "My wife's fine. Ah, just, just tell your father we said hi."

"Of course. He'd be delighted to see your family again." Hyuuga continued and then he turned to the shaking girl. "She's really tired, she better go rest, sir."

"Sure!"

"Go on." Neji whispered and gently pushed the pink haired girl away from him. He continued to coerce her through his eyes until Sakura lip talked, "thanks" before she went up the stairs. Sakura raced up but she stopped to peek. She saw Neji walk to the tiny living room. Perhaps he was killing her parents' time so they would have no time to scold her. She smiled.

"Morning."

Sasuke closed his locker and lifted a brow at Neji who appeared to be happier than usual. "What?" He replied nonchalantly.

"What?" Neji asked back. Sasuke went away.

The Hyuuga shrugged and caught up with the Uchiha's pace. "You seem to be unscathed today."

"You seem odd today." Sasuke muttered as he entered their room that seemed to be a white box containing robots who moved about calculatedly.

"Remember the girl I often told you about? The childhood friend of mine?"

"Yes, and I begged you to stop talking about her when your mind goes idle."

Neji ignored the statement between the lines. "I finally found her." Sasuke could swear he saw Neji's eyes glow. "For years I've been trying to reach her and amazingly, she's here at Konoha." Sasuke watched the Hyuuga stare off at the distance. "She looks so beautiful now. It's been ten years since I last saw her…"

The Uchiha gave his closest friend a long gaze though Neji did not return the favor. His lips moved as he recalled his joys with that childhood friend and he did not care whether Sasuke listened or not. At that very moment, Sasuke did not give a damn. It was not until Neji's joy became frequent that he felt something wrong about it all.

One afternoon, Sasuke went to the lockers with Neji but as usual, he brought a body bag and he gestured that he was going to go earlier. "Alright." Neji even smiled. "You go enjoy. I'll be going ahead, too." And with just that, he turned around and left. It didn't matter to the Uchiha until these encounters became almost every day. He never heard Neji scold him for going to the fight clubs. He never asked about Sasuke's injuries anymore. In fact, Sasuke seemed to have vanished.

And a frank side of the Uchiha did not like it.

"OWWW!" The host tossed his long black hair and then flashed a grin. The crowd had stood up and the yelling intensified. "He's DOWN! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?" The man in his trademark psychedelic suit threw his arm up and then cut through the air to point at the boy at the floor. The boy was on his hands and knees and he was pushing himself up against the blood stained ring floor. "He's been our star alright! But will he become now our…falling star? Ahahahaha!" The host continued to fire up the crowd. "It's a fight to the end, boys!"

"FINISH HIM!"

"STAND UP YOU SON-OF-A-BITCH!"

"WE FUCKIN' BET ON YOU!"

"KILL THE FUCKIN' BOY!"

The background—the lights and the sounds—was a blur. Sasuke could only hear his breathing and the pounding of his heart. His head felt cold and so did his palms and against his cold temples, he felt warm liquid trickle down. The liquid dropped and suddenly, that red droplet became the focus of his eyes.

"Ha…ha…haaah…" He continued to pant. His muscles trembled out of fatigue.

Fuck you. Stand up. The Uchiha gritted his teeth and with one strong push, he struggled upright. "Aaaah!"

The crowd roared and the host laughed wildly. Sasuke's unfocused eyes darted from left to right. Everything was spinning or was doubling. His feet stumbled backwards, making him hit the boundary of the fighting arena. The angry buffed guy in front of him grinned.

"Let's see the end of it, boys!" The host yelled.

Sasuke pushed himself forward but he only managed to stand though his knees wobbled. He stared at the brute advancing towards him. "AAAHH!" He angrily threw a punch.

He missed.

Suddenly, a knuckle made contact with his cheek.

He blacked out.

…

…

"H-Hello?" He opened his eyes and then closed them. "Can you hear me?" He opened them again and saw someone shadowing over his face. He couldn't make out anything but he could guess it was a girl. "…um…" He felt something wet touch his temple and then it was followed by a sound of cloth being washed somewhere near. He felt that same wet thing touch the corner of his lips. "I'm sorry for the place."

Place? What? What happened? His hand moved to touch the throbbing pain at his cheek. His fingers then travelled to his forehead and felt the wetness of the area. "I-I just cleaned your face." An obvious hint of fear was in the speaker's voice. "And your wounds…"

Sasuke squeezed his eyes shut and then focused hard on the face of the girl. Amidst the inadequate orange light of a nearby lamp, he made out some features of her features: her face looked soft and so did her familiar cream eyes, however, heavy make-up destroyed her innocent expression. The girl seemed to have noticed that he had regained much of his consciousness for she smiled shyly and said, "I'm Hinata." She paused to look down on her dirty fingers. "You're in my apartment."

"Apartment?" Sasuke inched away by using his elbows but he dropped back on bed.

"I-I'm sorry." Hinata bit her lip. "No one took you so I—"

"Took me?"

"You lost." She almost whispered. "Those who rooted for you were very angry so they left you at the ring. Orochimaru wanted to throw you out but I said I'll take you instead. You couldn't be awoken, you see." She waited for him to speak but he just looked away. "You never really told them your name, did you? They just called you 'kid'." Sasuke seemed to ignore the actual question behind her words. "Um, you can stay here if you want." She took the basin and went to the bathroom to throw the water.

"No, I have to go." Sasuke pushed himself upright but when he managed to sit at the edge of the bed, he felt a sharp pain at his side.

"You really don't look good—"

"I'm not weak!" He bellowed. His eyes glanced at the lamp desk where there were some bills and coins. He swiped over the desk, taking almost half of the money and forced himself to stand up. Hinata did not budge from where she was standing nor did she speak to stop him or get her money. She just fearfully watched him limp out of her room and into the dark hallway.

Sasuke found himself leaning against the wall of a rundown apartment with one hand grasping his side and another hailing a cab. He tried to reminisce how the night went and how he, one of the ace fighters there got beaten on a night when the bet on him was on its peak. He hit his head against the wall in anger. "FUUUCK!" He yelled. "FUUUUUCK!" His head dropped forward and then he slid down the wall. He gave the stolen money a long look before he eyed the empty road.

"The cabs are rare at this side of the city." Sasuke turned at the familiar voice. Hinata was there by the entrance of the apartment building. Her black hair made her face whiter. "They're scared to frequent here. They get robbed." At that word, Sasuke instantly looked away. "If you really want to go…"

"I can stay there, can I?" The Uchiha pushed himself up. Hinata nodded and unexpectedly, she smiled. "Fine." He limped back to the entrance and when he came to her, he stuffed the money back to her palms. "Hn." He walked on followed by the girl.

"Please take the bed." She smoothed the linen and fixed the pillows. Sasuke dropped on the mattress that squeaked under his weight. "I'm sorry, it's all rusty." She hurriedly gave Sasuke a blanket and picked up the shoes the Uchiha kicked off. She moved in such hurry to prepare things until finally, Sasuke was comfortable on bed. "I'm sorry for the light—"

"Quit saying sorry, it's annoying." He interrupted.

"I'm sorry—" Hinata held her breath and sadly looked away. "I'm…I'm going to need the lamp light for a while. I-I hope you don't get disturbed." She smiled apologetically and took some clothes from the cabinet. The Uchiha closed his eyes. It was a tiring night.

Zzzzzip.

Sasuke's orbs went to life. That was definitely a sound of a zipper. His curiosity was too much at that moment. His male hormones moved. It was to his greatest disbelief that Hinata, despite knowing that there was a guy in her bed, was disrobing with her back turned right in front of him. She thinks I'm asleep. Sasuke wanted to peel away from the dress that slipped from her petit body. That was the only time when he noticed that Hinata wore a familiar tight tube dress that was sewn allover with gold sequins. Sasuke felt some kind of heat rush when she bent over to pick up the dress and fold it. Her buttocks pressed beautifully against her panties.

Shit. Shit. What the hell…

The Uchiha only managed to grip the sheets of the bed to calm himself when she straightened up. He thought she was going to pick up the new set of clothes but Hinata reached back behind her and held the ends of her brassiere. Sasuke felt all the pain go away as he watched as if in slow motion how the hook unclasped and how Hinata pulled the bra off and hang it on a wooden chair. Stop watching. Fuck, stop watching. However, he could not stop…especially when Hinata started pulling her panties down her thighs and finally off her ankles. He could only see her smooth back and her round buttocks but he could feel something…wrong…down at his crotch.

I'll just sleep this fucking thing off. I'll just sleep. Fuck this. I'll—

In a split second, Hinata turned to him and looked at him eye-to-eye before he could pretend to shut his eyes. They stared at each other for a long time. There was no apparent reaction on her face other than the blush on her cheeks. She did not even move to cover her small breasts and her groin area. The wrong feeling at his crotch had become painful. "I'm—"

"I'm sorry." She muttered and then quickly slipped into an oversized shirt. Without giving Sasuke another look, she moved on to pick up her clothes and keep them at a basket. She then went to wash the heavy make-up from her face. Sasuke continued to watch her while hoping that the erection would simply go away. When she turned to look at him once more, however, he felt he would suffer some more.

"Good night." She turned off the lamp. It was pitch black.

"H-hey."

There was a sound of someone hitting some sort of a mat on the floor. "Yes?"

"You can sleep on the bed." He gulped. "It's yours, anyway."

The same sound suggested that the user of the mat shifted position. "I'm fine here."

"We can…sleep together." What the fuck am I saying?

Another shifting. "It's a small bed."

"It's—" Just when about he was going to give up, he felt a body press against his. He moved nearer the edge to let Hinata take some space. He couldn't tell whether she was facing him or facing the other way but either way, he couldn't think straight.

"Does it still hurt?"

"No," Honestly, he couldn't feel his wounds at the moment.

"I meant your penis." She sounded so innocently that it made Sasuke hard to breathe evenly.

"Shut up." He roughly turned away from her and squeezed his eyes shut. Hinata apparently did not move anymore and soon, Sasuke also learned to doze off.

Sakura watched the longer hand of the clock hit twelve for the last three hours. She was supposed to do a research for next week but she could not concentrate even for a bit. That Friday, Neji promised her that he would come at eleven p.m. Sakura did not like the idea at first because eleven would be too late for anyone to entertain guests. Who said I'll be a guest? She remembered him saying. She smiled to herself and toyed with a pen she wrote some of her home works with. She couldn't ask for more happiness that seeing Neji again.

Tap. Tap. Some stones hit her window. Sakura immediately opened her window and waved at the Hyuuga who silently thanked her for preparing a ladder immediately below her window sill. After a little under two minutes, Neji was already inside her room and was dusting his hands. "That ladder sure is old." He went straight to the bathroom to wash his hands.

"So why are you here?" Sakura sat on her bed and watched the Hyuuga explore her shelf and her study table. She felt really comfortable around him.

"I hoped to see your room." Neji replied while flipping through her notebooks. "You got a nice room."

"Thanks." She shyly smiled and gazed at how lean Neji's back was. He had changed a lot, alright.

"Hmm," The Hyuuga found a pink notebook and opened it at the middle. I have always wondered where Neji is or if he's thinking of me too. Maybe he has forgotten all about me. Who am I to remember, anyway? "Is this your diary?"

"What?" Sakura jumped and grabbed the notebook from the chuckling guy. She stuffed it under her mattress and kept her back to her childhood friend. The laughter stopped and suddenly she felt two arms envelop her from behind. Blood accumulated at her face.

"Of course I thought of you always. You're very unforgettable, remember that." Neji turned her to him and pat her head. "You're such a little rascal, how could I forget?" She simply smiled as he sat on her bed. "Tell me everything."

She sat beside him. "What everything?"

"Everything that happened while I was gone."

Sakura shifted and leaned against the headboard. "Well, we stayed at the province for a couple more years." She paused. "A lot more years. My parents didn't want to go to the city because they believed they could not afford to live there. If ever they could, they thought they'd die trying to support the family." She traced several letter 's' on the bed sheet. "When I graduated valedictorian at my school, I secretly applied for scholarship in Konoha Academy—the school where I am now in. They accepted my application so I told my parents I wanted to study in the city. But they got angry." A frown escaped her lips. "They said I was too young to make decisions on my own and they started getting paranoid because I might be doing something else behind their back since I was able to apply for scholarship. And they stressed that we could not go with the standard of living there."

"I should have found you sooner." Neji leaned against the headboard as well.

"So I used the first two years of my high school showing them that I can still do well in academics and I saved while I studied. Finally, after second year high school, someone who my father knew offered him a position in a company. We could finally move out to Konoha. I tried applying to the same academy and there I am now." She beamed but the smile quickly vanished when she noticed that Neji was staring hard at the bed. "What is it?"

"You said you didn't go anywhere from the time I left to the this year, right?"

"Yes."

"Then how come you didn't get any of my letters?"

Sakura thought hard for a moment. "I…I don't know."

Neji audibly sighed and lied down. "Come." Sakura did not budge for a whole second. Neji, the guy she had been dreaming about for years, was lying on her bed with his arms open to receive her. What is he thinking? Does he like me? Is he going to…? But emotions were stronger at the moment. She awkwardly lied down and placed her head on his arm. They smiled at each other for a few more seconds. "Tell me more about school."

Neji seemed to be a lot interested. Sakura, savoring the rare moment, began talking about school and how she met new friends. She told him about Ino who was into guys and Naruto who was such a ramen addict. She later on told him about having her purse snatched for the first time and how she got robbed the second time. Sakura continued narrating until everything became blurry and Neji's smiling face became an angel in a dream. He did not speak but he just looked at her with unfathomable joy and interest. Everything swirled as if she was drugged but it was a happy feeling. Sakura mumbled her story until she finally fell asleep in Neji's arms.

Author's Note: I promise that in this fiction, I won't detail any sex. I would just like to add the complication of teen hormones. Haha. To add to the characters' being human.