Uhm… long time no update? Mmph, I had stuff to do. Plus, the lack of reviews is making me more and more unmotivated.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, b/c if I did, Sasuke would be MINE!!
Chapter Five
During the two weeks before the final chunnin exam fights, Neji had established a habit of going to the hospital every day, and Leiko and Kanaye had established a habit of following him around. Each day, while the morning was still fresh, they would observe Neji leave the Hyuuga compound with a white eyed, short-haired girl. Leiko immediately recognized her as the same girl Neji had talked to that one night, but Kanaye was too absorbed in staring angrily at Neji to notice anything. Together, the genins made their way towards Konoha hospital in silence.
Neji never bothered to speak to his cousin; there was no point, and Hinata was perfectly fine with the silence; she didn't have much to say, anyways. There was a mutual agreement between the two and they never cared to discuss it. Hinata simply wanted to get away from home and from her father, so she had decided to dedicate her days to the hospital, keeping Tenten company when Neji wasn't around. She had taken a great liking to the older girl, especially after watching her latest battle.
Neji's motives were his own. He never discussed it with anyone, and always acted as if Hinata didn't exist. She suspected it was because he just wanted to see Tenten, but couldn't very well ask him to make sure.
Still, it was pretty clear why Neji tolerated their walks. Something had changed him, if only slightly. He didn't glare as much and had stopped his rude habit of walking away from someone while they were talking, but he still failed to show any care or feelings. He may have been a bit better to be around, but he was really the same, old Neji.
After arriving at the hospital, the two parted without any exchange of words. Neji immediately went to the nurse's counter to see if there were any updates on Tenten's condition, then promptly headed for her room.
On one particular morning when he entered the hospital room, he was met with quite a surprise. Almost immediately after stepping into the room, he found himself bombarded with noise by a very excited Tenten. Apparently, she had just realized something was wrong.
"Neji!"
"Wha-"
"It's not even! I have to fight, because it won't be even!" Tenten was on the verge of jumping off the bed and Neji quickly restrained her, while trying not to use too much force at the same time. Damn. She was one strong girl.
"What are you talking about?" Neji interrupted, slightly annoyed by all the babbling.
"The fighting! It won't be even!" Tenten unsuccessfully explained.
Neji gave her a confused look.
"During the last part of the chunnin exams, the fights are one-on-one. So, what'll happen to the person that was supposed to fight me?" Tenten demanded. She secretly rejoiced at having thought of such a thing, for that meant they'd have to let her fight now, right?
Wrong. "There's no need for you to worry about that", Neji replied.
"Why?"
"Gaara isn't fighting either"
"Gaara?" Tenten wondered aloud.
"He's returning to the Sand Village immediately to become Kazekage"
"He's- why?"
"The death of the previous Kazekage during the last chunnin exam threw the Sand Village into chaos. The council debated on a candidate for the new Kazekage and chose Gaara. They think they can better control the monster inside him like that", Neji explained.
"How do you know all this?" Tenten asked this out loud, but in her head, she was secretly wondering how Neji could possibly talk so much. It was just so unlike him!
"The problem of having an odd number occurred to me a while ago, and I asked the Hokage what she'd do".
"That's so amazing. He's a genin and already, Kazekage", Tenten murmured mostly to herself.
"His skills surpass the genin level by far", Neji replied. Tenten took this moment to notice that his fists had now clenched and the blank "I don't give a crap" look in his eyes had been replaced by one of bitter rivalry.
"He's a worthy opponent for you, isn't he?" Tenten asked softly. Neji nodded once and looked away, apparently lost in thought. Tenten followed his gaze to the wall and they both stared at the same, blank spot, passing the time in a calm, comfortable silence.
Deep within the heart of the Sand Village, under a bright orange sky that glowed with the sunset, two figures stood atop the highest plateau in the area. They faced the sun, soaking in its last rays as it descended towards the Earth. The figures stood a bit apart, one near the edge, the other, farther back.
The shorter of the two kept his gaze on the sky, while his older brother began to speak.
"I hate to say it like this, but to the village elders, you're just a weapon. Gaara, you… you create fear".
There was no reply.
"It's going to be difficult to be Kazekage, you know. They'll be everywhere, all the council members", Kankuro continued.
Gaara nodded and continued looking out. "But, I've found my purpose", he replied, mostly to himself.
"Purpose?" Kankuro echoed.
"I'm going to bond with the village. I'm going to protect its people with my life. Because that hard work will make people respect me, and one day, I won't be feared. I'll be needed".
"That's- "
"That's what I learned from fighting Uzumaki Naruto", Gaara interrupted. They brother's fell silent and together, they watched the very last bits of sunlight melt into a night sky.
Two days before Neji would have to fight in the Chunnin exams, he decided to take a break from his usual schedule and visited Tenten in the dead of night. There really wasn't a reason; he just couldn't sleep and the hospital happened to be the first place to pop into his mind.
He left the house without a sound and slipped through the front gates, making his way onto the now deserted streets. The soft padding of his shoes against the road was the only source of sound, save for the occasional cooing of a bird hidden somewhere in the trees.
He walked down the path towards Konoha Hospital, taking his time. There was no rush, and no one was expecting him anywhere. He liked that. No expectations. As he approached the glass doors that led into the hospital, he realized the nurses who worked the night shift wouldn't just allow him to barge into a patient's room at this hour.
So, he took a few steps back and looked at the large building in front of him, counting the windows until he came to the one that led to Tenten's room.
It was on the second floor, all the way at the end of the building. Not too high up, and far away enough for him to not be caught. Neji closed in on the area directly underneath the window and began concentrating chakra to his feet, when a murmur of voices caught his attention.
He froze on the spot and listened carefully, searching for where the sounds came from. There was a dim light lit in one of the first floor rooms, and a soft glow emitted from the windows. Neji really had no interest in what went on in other people's lives, but for some reason, a strange force drew him to the window and he felt compelled to see what was going on.
As he approached the window, the voices grew louder and Neji sensed a bit of tension and anxiety in them. He normally wasn't one to eavesdrop, but the voices became so clear that even without trying, Neji could hear them echo in his head.
A frantic voice, definitely female, seemed to be calling out instructions to someone else, who, from their reply, also seemed to be female. The second voice seemed familiar and Neji listened closer.
"Check those charts again! There has to be an antidote somewhere on there!" the first voice yelled. This voice was only vaguely familiar, but Neji could identify the second one as Sakura's.
Her clear voice rang out as she called off the different antidotes they had at the moment. None of them were the right ones.
The door in the room opened with a bang and a third voice joined in. Neji could easily tell this one belonged to the Godaime. What were they doing?
"Shizune! Move!" Tsunade ordered. The owner of the first voice, who Neji now knew to be Shizune, quickly moved to allow the Hokage near the patient.
"The poison is spreading again! Sakura, there's a different antidote that works for this purpose as well. It's the green one", she ordered. Sakura immediately fetched the antidote and Tsunade set to work.
A blue-ish glow now radiated from the room and Neji knew the medics inside were hard at work. From what he had gathered, the patient was poisoned and in critical condition. His mind immediately flew to Tenten, and Neji panicked. Was there something wrong? Did she move rooms for treatment?
"Byakugan!"
After checking the chakra flow of the people in the room, Neji confirmed that none of them were Tenten, and he let out a sigh. The voices in the room rose again and Neji could hear Tsunade yelling frantically.
Suddenly, all at once, the eruption of noises died down and there was only silence.
A quiet sobbing that had emerged from the silence grew louder and Neji narrowed his eyes. The Hokage was crying. He quickly used his byakugan again and checked the room. The patient that had been on the bed no longer had flowing chakra.
"Dead", Neji murmured to himself. A heavy tension settled upon him and he felt like something was choking him. As a shinobi, it wasn't rare to see death, but for some reason, this time had been different. Could it have been because this time, there were people working so hard to save someone? Could it be because they failed?
No. People failed all the time. Everywhere he went, he saw people working harder than they ever had to save someone, and everywhere, there were failures. Neji could only explain this gut-wrenching feeling he had with the fact that it made him think of a teammate in a similar situation.
He had, for a while, truly believed Tenten was the patient on the bed. It made sense, didn't it? After all, she had been poisoned too, and the Hokage hadn't let her out for two weeks because the small traces of poison they couldn't remove still had high chances of spreading. Even though Neji already knew that whoever had died wasn't Tenten, part of him, the insensible part, couldn't be sure.
He quickly left the spot near the window and drew chakra to his feet again, walking up the hospital walls until he reached Tenten's window. The glass panes easily slid open and Neji pushed aside the curtains as he stepped into the room. A figure was sleeping peacefully on the bed and Neji breathed a sigh of relief when his eyes told him it was really Tenten, and that she was perfectly fine.
He neared her bed, but didn't sit on it, for fear that it would wake her up. Instead, Neji just stood there, looking quite dumb, actually, and watched the sleeping figure breathe peacefully.
Kanaye and Leiko had followed Neji to the hospital that night and watched him from the safety of a large tree. They were slightly confused, because from what they had gathered, this supposed Hyuuga genius had gotten up in the middle of the night, walked to the hospital, walked up to the hospital door, then walked away, walked to a window, stood there for about five minutes, then literally walked up the walls to a second story window and climbed in.
To the pair, Neji seemed like a psychopath. No normal person would just get up in the middle of the night and hang out at a hospital, no, outside a hospital, then enter through a freaking window. To put it bluntly, Kanaye had the crap confused out of him, and even Leiko was a bit mystified.
Nevertheless, they sat patiently outside the hospital, waiting for Neji to reemerge from the window.
He had lost track of time. It could have been a few minutes; it could have been a couple of hours, but Neji didn't really care. He just stood there, unable to tear his eyes away from Tenten. Part of his mind tugged at him, telling him that he was tired and needed sleep. But, part of him was determined to stay there. So, his body compromised. Neji found a chair in the corner of the room and sat down, falling asleep almost immediately.
The first things Neji saw upon opening his eyes again were a pair of honey-brown eyes and a pair of bright green eyes staring at him from this close. He immediately fell back in his chair and landed on the floor, hard. The retreating figures of Tsunade and Sakura revealed a third figure on the bed: Tenten. She was laughing hysterically, clutching a pillow in her arms.
Neji stood up and quickly brushed off his embarrassment, then nodded to the Hokage. He didn't really know what to do or say; it was just all too awkward.
"Alright, now that you're up, we can leave", Sakura smiled. Neji waited for the door to close before beginning to talk.
"Are you ok?" Tenten asked, holding back her laughs. Neji gave her a blank look. "It was just a bit of fun", She added.
"They recovered so fast", Neji murmured.
"What are you talking about?" Tenten asked. The seriousness in Neji's voice had pretty much killed all the laughter in the room.
"Last night, the Hokage and Sakura were treating a patient", Neji explained, "But, she died. And, the Hokage was crying and -"
"What?"
"They just acted as if nothing happened".
"Neji, maybe… I mean, as a medic-nin, they have to be able to face deaths", Tenten replied, "And, just because they don't show it, doesn't mean they don't feel it". I mean, you obviously don't show anything. She added silently.
Neji nodded.
"So, what were you doing here at night?"
"Couldn't sleep", Neji suddenly felt suffocated and wanted, more than anything, to get home right away.
"You look tired", Tenten agreed. Neji nodded and quickly excused himself, muttering an excuse about needing to sleep. He left the room abruptly, through the door this time, and hurried home, leaving a confused and lonely Tenten behind.