Surviving a Boy's Boarding School
Disclaimer: I do not own anything... except some of the characters, part of the plot... and I'm most definitely not a real authoress.
Yes, I am now "Artemis Lightmetal" without the nickname "Temisu". Temisu and I actually came up with the chapters together, and I was the main writer. We split up so that one of us will do the writing and the other will do the art (even if it's just so readers get an idea on what the characters look like). We were using her username as the main name before now, but now this is solely my account (though she MIGHT pop in from time to time).
Speaking of chapters, I got a general idea on how the story will go. Just general ideas, though. I've told Temisu and she's working on a few drawings for the future chapters. Whether or not she puts the art up is her choice.
Thank you for the reviews, alerts, faves and views. They encouraged me.
Chapter 4: The Lady of the Pond
"Miyamura..."
"We're roommates, right? Call me by my given name. And what?"
"Fine. Hayaite, please stop pulling my collar. I can walk by myself," grunted Neji as Tenten dragged him down the hallways. That morning, Tenten had set her digital watch to beep about half an hour before Neji set the alarm clock at. She had taken a quick shower, changed her bandages, and dressed, all before the alarm clock rang. Her earliness seemed to surprise Neji, though he didn't show it, and he, in turn, did his morning rituals as well. When he exited the bathroom, Tenten, who was immensely bored, told him to hurry up and grab his things. She then proceeded to drag him out the door.
"Well, you were being too slow this morning," she retorted, but let go of his shirt nonetheless. Rubbing the back of his neck to reinitiate the blood flow of the area, he followed her to the cafeteria, scowling. When they got their breakfast and arrived at their table, though, they noticed that the only person there was Lee.
"Hello, Neji! Hello, Hayaite!" exclaimed Lee enthusiastically, grinning from ear to ear as he took a bite out of his meal. "I slept soundly last night! Those pizzas were really filling!"
"Glad to see you're your normal self, Lee," Tenten replied with a small smile. She looked around. "Where are Tsuki and Taiyou?"
"I am not sure," answered Lee, looking up. "I think they are still in their room. They probably overslept or forgot to set their alarm clock last night."
"They're going to miss breakfast at this rate," commented Neji, breaking open his chopsticks. For the rest of the breakfast, the three of them forgot about the absence of the two as Neji stayed silent while Tenten and Lee discussed various things, ranging from the quality to the food to last night's practice.
"Are you fully recovered, Miyamura?" asked Lee, looking at Tenten with concern. "I don't know if that kick was too hard yesterday."
"I'm fine," answered Tenten earnestly. "It takes more than a kick to bring me down!" She clenched her fist, grinning as Lee gave a hearty laugh.
"I'd hate to break it up," said a voice emotionlessly, "but we have five minutes until class starts." Tenten and Lee turned around, and saw Neji, who was already carrying his bag and lightly tapping his foot impatiently. They then looked at the clock and found that he was right.
"Great," sighed Tenten. They both got up from their seats, cleaned up and threw away their trash. Lee departed from their group and to his own class, leaving the two of them alone. The walk to the classroom was mostly in silence, and they got there just as the bell rang. Kakashi, as expected, was still not there, so they didn't get in trouble. Some of the other students were in their seats already, though. When Tenten took her usual seat in front of Neji and besides Taiyou, though, she realized that the boy was half-asleep and the seat next to him was empty.
"Taiyou, wake up," said Tenten, lightly shaking him. Immediately, he bolted up and turned as a panicked look crossed his face.
"I didn't do it! I swear, I didn't... oh, it's you, Miyamura," said Taiyou with a small amount of relief in his voice. "Sorry, I was just having a strange dream."
"We could tell," said Neji with a slight shake of his head while pulling out a book. Tenten ignored him.
"Well, anyway, where's Tsuki? He doesn't seem to be the type of person to skip class. Did something happen?" she questioned, her eyebrow raising a bit.
Taiyou laughed nervously. "Well, he's calling in sick today. I think I shouldn't have forced him to eat that last piece of pizza; he said that he was going to kill me after he got better."
Tenten sighed, exasperated, and rubbed her forehead. "You brought that upon yourself. But anyway, is he going to be all right?" she asked, looking up. "It's possible that he could have been sick from food poisoning."
"If that was the case, all five of us would be sick," stated Neji. Tenten was slightly startled when he spoke; she didn't realize that he was listening into their conversation. "All we can do is wait for him to get better. He'd hate it if somebody worried about him too much."
"Tch, that's true," said Taiyou, smirking. "He hates it when he has to be taken care of. It took me a long time to convince him to let me help him with his homework. His brain wasn't working properly, after all."
Tenten nodded silently, and put her head on the desk. She was wondering whether if Tsuki was going to be all right; he never struck her as the frail type, like her brother. Ryuhi got sick every month or two, and he occasionally got asthma attacks, though it's rarely just from running. Even though she's only known Tsuki for two days, he seemed to treat her like a little sister, or little brother; it depended how someone looked at it.
What do the others think of her... what does Neji think of her? Was he pretending to not know she was a girl when he used his Byakugan? Neji was so cold... couldn't he lighten up even a little? What happened? She didn't know that much about his situation, as much as she wanted to know about the caged bird business. Come to think of it, she'd have to pay more attention to the few pictures he hung up when she went back to the room... And her thoughts went on.
Her reflections had drifted to the other FSMA teams when Kakashi walked into the room and the usual scramble as the students tried to get to their seats was heard. He didn't seem to notice as he turned to the class, arms crossed. As he opened his mouth, though, a loud voice shouted, "YOU'RE LATE!" Tenten sweat dropped, immediately recognizing the voice; it was Naruto, again.
"Skipping the excuse," said Kakashi, waving off Naruto, "I have some news for all of you. Today will be a half day, and you will not have classes after lunch, and nor will any of you have to go to your respective sports groups. Most of the teachers will be out this afternoon for a meeting. You can do as you will this afternoon; just don't get into too much trouble. Each class' time is halved, so we only have ten minutes of class left.
"Furthermore, Christmas is going to be in three months, approximately. I know that seems far away, but we have a special event during Christmas that Tsunade-sama will be co-hosting with the co-ed private Konoha High School principal, Jiraiya-sama. I would like you all to buy suits that would be of formal attire; what the event is, though, I will leave for next week." He looked up, surveying his class. "Questions?"
Taiyou raised his hand. "Will this event be mandatory?" he asked, blinking. "I think my parents want me home during Christmas, but that's only if there are no mandatory events for school."
"Yes, it is mandatory for all second years to attend this event; it has been a tradition for ten years now," answered Kakashi, nodding. "It is optional for third years, and first years are not allowed to know of this event. Some of you may not enjoy this, but if you are caught with a fake or unworthy excuse, you will have to do exercises in place of the time that you spent outside of the event. Under the supervision of Gai, of course," he added, and almost all of the room simultaneously shivered. Tenten understood why; if Gai supervised, that person may end up doing three hundred pushups, sit-ups, chin-ups, and laps around the school.
Tenten thought she heard Taiyou mutter something under his breath, something along the lines of Tsuki not being happy about this, but he was listening to the other questions after that.
"...no, I will not tell you what the event is even if you were going to give me the latest Icha Icha book," said Kakashi, exasperated by now. "Tsunade-sama would have my head. But why don't we get off the topic of the event and just wait?" There were a few groans in the room, but they were silenced when Kakashi glared at them through his visible eye. "Because there are only a few more minutes to this class, I will let you all do as you will for the rest of this period, but quietly." With that, he took out his Icha Icha Paradise book and read as the students around him chatted.
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After going through all of their classes before lunch, Neji, Tenten and Taiyou were met at the door by Lee, who, in contrast to his usual optimistic air, had an outlandish amount of tears gushing from his eyes. "Taiyou! Is it true that Tsuki is desperately sick in bed today, so much that he had to miss a youthful day in school?!" he cried. Taiyou hesitated, but didn't even get a chance to answer. "I knew it was wrong of me to force him to eat that fourth piece of pizza!"
"Hey, I'm more to blame than you are," Taiyou pointed out, looking agitated. "And besides, he's going to be all right. He only threw up twice last night..." Immediately, he clapped a hand over his mouth at that last comment, eyes widening. As all three expected (Neji and Tenten with sweat drops), Lee's tears came down at an even faster speed as he agonized out loud about how it was his fault Tsuki missed school and threw up not once, but twice, in the span of one night.
"Lee," said Tenten, mouth twitching as she tried to snap the sniveling boy out of it by calling his name a few times. That didn't work. Finally fed up, she took his shoulders and shook him violently. "For crying out loud, Lee! It could have been way worse! Just feel lucky he didn't come down with a deadly disease or something!"
"Y-yes sir," murmured Lee timidly and the four proceeded to the cafeteria. Lee was still cringing slightly and Tenten still looked slightly disgruntled. Neji silently followed them, though he wondered how he was supposed to survive, having those two in his team. Suddenly, Taiyou ran off as he said something about forgetting an item. He came back a few minutes later with three pails of paint.
"What are you doing with those?" inquired Tenten as she warily gazed at the three pails. The other two turned to him as well, though Neji's curiosity was well-masked.
"Well... I promised Hayate-sensei that I'd help him paint something that was requested by the co-ed private school's drama teacher. He wasn't feeling very well today as well, and I like painting, so I volunteered to do this for the afternoon," he said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. There was a blue speck on his forehead, although it wasn't very noticeable.
"I see," said Neji simply and he continued towards the lunchroom. The others followed right after him.
After they got their lunches, they found their usual table occupied by the six other FSMA team members. "Hey guys!" yelled Naruto cheerily when he spotted the four perplexed teens (though only three showed their confusion). "I hope you don't mind us using this table today. Our table is currently occupied by the teachers who said they had to eat lunch in here today."
"...sure," said Neji, sighing. They sat in the empty space closest to the wall. Taiyou chose his seat beside Shikamaru, who was almost asleep (having already finished his lunch). Tenten sat next to him, raising an eyebrow when Kiba and Naruto got into a shouting match on a topic she could not hear. Neji sat next to her, contemplating as to why they were stuck in the same table as Naruto; he had no idea why his cousin Hinata, who went to the same junior high as Naruto, had a crush on him. Lee happily sat between Shino and Neji and immediately started eating, occasionally commenting on how good the food tasted.
"What do you guys think the event that Kakashi-sensei mentioned will be?" asked Chouji out of the blue to the group of four, startling Tenten and causing her to drop her chopsticks.
Taiyou was the first to answer. "I'm not sure," he stated, shrugging. "Whatever it is, we'll be forced to go anyway." He paused and muttered under his breath, "And I'll be responsible for forcing Tsuki to go." Only Lee, Tenten, and Neji heard him, but all three decided not to comment.
"Naruto, you're acquainted with both principals to a degree greater than most of us; why don't you give a guess?" asked Shino, taking a sip of tea. Tenten cocked her head slightly to the right; after all, he rarely speaks.
"I don't know. Believe it," sighed Naruto, scrunching up his face in concentration. "They've never told me anything about this, and I don't think they will."
"For all we know, it could be a dance," said Sasuke monotonously, his statement followed by shudders from all around the table. "After all, the other high school has a significantly lower amount of males than females. But, that is still highly unlikely. And unwished for."
For the duration of the lunch period, the twelve, though excluding Shikamaru, who was sleeping by now, discussed other things similar to the earlier conversation. Tenten got to know how each person thought of things and listened to all of their opinions, occasionally putting in her own. Taiyou had left five minutes before lunch officially ended and staggered back to the dormitory with the three buckets of paint. Tenten offered to help him, but he declined her offer.
After the remaining three bade farewell to the six, Lee ran off, saying something along the lines of training more in private, leaving Neji and Tenten to walk back to the dorm building. Somehow, Tenten had convinced Neji to accompany her to explore the grounds, even though he had already been to most of the places. He seemed disgruntled at first, but he decided to let it go.
"Hey, Neji, can you tell me why Tsunade-sama is the principal of this school?" she asked as her earlier question came back to her. She'd heard, of course, of the great Tsunade, legendary in FSMA, and how she retired years ago. After all, the woman was Tenten's idol. However, Tenten didn't know why Tsunade would start a boy's boarding school, of all things, since she was a female.
Neji stayed silent for a few more minutes before finally answering. "I'm not sure of the details," he said slowly, "but from what I've heard, it had something to do with a bet with Jiraiya-sama on who would be able to open a more successful school that would be solely of students of the opposite gender. Yes, I know it is a strange thing," he added when he saw the look on her face, "but apparently, Jiraiya lost the bet and had to make the school co-ed in the end due to other reasons. There were a few incidents that I've heard of that ended with the principal sporting a large wound in the head."
"O...kay," said Tenten, sweat dropping. She has, of course, heard of Jiraiya-sama as well; he was just as powerful as Tsunade and still is a well-known to be a pervert. She's heard that he has written a book series... right, it was the Icha Icha series. So that's where she heard the titles from. At that moment, Neji stopped abruptly, stiffening, and Tenten nearly ran into him. "Hey! What was that about?"
"Quiet," he murmured, looking towards the pond, his eyes narrowing. Tenten also looked towards the pond, and heard something. It was a female's voice, from what she could detect. Neji regained his mobility and gave her a look that clearly said, "Come on." Nodding slightly, she followed him silently to the pond.
As they had predicted, it was, indeed, a female who was singing. With her back turned to them, all they could determine for the moment was that she had long silver hair tied with a red ribbon. Her dress was a pale yellow color. It was tied by a black sash, as was the strip of cloth-like material that hung around her neck. She was hugging her knees, not caring if the grass stained her dress.
The female was starting a new song, and this time, Tenten strained her ears to hear it. From the look on Neji's face, he was doing the same. The first thing she noticed was that the lyrics were in English.
"Look at me. You may think you see who I really am, but you'll never know me. Everything, it's as if I play a part. Now I see, if I wear a mask I can fool the world, but I cannot fool my heart. Who is that girl I see staring straight back at me? When will my reflection show who I am inside?
"I am now in a world where I have to hide my heart and what I believe in. But somehow, I will show the world what's inside my heart and be loved for who I am.
"Who is that girl I see staring straight back at me? Why is my reflection someone I don't know? Must I pretend that I'm someone else for all time? When will my reflection show who I am inside? There's a heart that must be free to fly, and I burn with the need to know the reason why: Why must we all conceal, what we think, how we feel? Must there be a secret me I'm forced to hide... Oh. Hello, there," the girl said happily, when she finally turned towards Neji and Tenten. Her eyes were a shocking golden color that seemed just as intimidating as Neji's pupil-less ones. "What can I do for you?"
"Uh... oh, right," said Tenten, snapping out of it. She and Neji had arrived a few moments before, but she was mesmerized by the girl's words. "What are you doing in this campus? I don't think that it's open to the public, and I know that the only females here are a few staff members." Secretly, she crossed her fingers behind her back, hoping that nobody would figure out there was at least one female in the student body.
"I'm Gin, and I have permission from the principal," answered the female, smiling. "And don't worry; I won't be here for more than a day. I'd like to keep my reasons for being here secret, by the way. But..." She cocked her head, raising an eyebrow. "You two can see me?"
'Why would anybody ask that?' wondered Tenten. "Yes, we can see you very well," she said aloud. "But... should we not be able to see you?"
"Only a few people here can see me," answered Gin simply. "You can only see me if you fulfill one of three requirements. One of them is that your Kekkei Genkai has to have something to do with doujutsu, and apparently, yours does." She directed the statement to Neji. "The other possibility is that you have the ability to talk to spirits. Do you talk to spirits?"
"Not that I know of," responded Tenten. "And the third possibility?"
"I'll keep that a secret," she said in a playful tone. Neji seemed to want to roll his eyes at her childish attitude, and Tenten had a bad feeling about the third possibility. "But shouldn't you two be going? I mean, you shouldn't waste your time talking to me when you can spend the rest of your day relaxing or taking classes."
"Then I will be correct if I assume that you are past schooling age, seeing that you're not in your school?" asked Neji, crossing his arms.
She nodded. "I'm a lot older than many people think."
"How old are you, then?" asked Neji, curious. "A hundred?"
"Neji!" yelled Tenten, wrapping an arm forcefully around his neck, cutting his air supply off. "You're not supposed to ask people those things. And I'm sure you're way off; there's no way that she could be a hundred years old!" She turned to the woman apologetically. "Sorry about this," she stated sheepishly before dragging Neji off and leaving Gin waving at them.
When they were just two dots in the distance, she turned back towards the lake, a small smile gracing her lips. "You're right; he is off." Smirking, she laid down on the grass. "I'm way older than that, so that wasn't insulting at all."
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"Neji! Please, mind your manners around people. You don't have people skills, do you..." she scolded, shaking her head in disapproval.
"You sound like a mother," he answered gruffly, knocking her arm away from his neck; he was suffocating enough as it was. Tenten went slightly rigid before calming, concluding that he just said that to annoy her, from his disgruntled expression. Truthfully, he didn't look particularly disgruntled, but he did have a small frown on his face, even if it was barely noticeable. "And do you even know where we're going?"
"Uh... no," said Tenten sheepishly, looking around. Gin was out of view, and she couldn't locate the dormitories. There were a few students milling about, but most of them were either in an area outside of the campus or inside the dorms. Beside her, Neji shook his head and walked ahead of her, invisibly signaling to her to follow him. Grunting slightly, she muttered "know-it-all" before she followed him. If he heard her comment, he ignored it.
She was grateful, however, for the fact that in a matter of minutes, they arrived at the entrance of Dorm 3. Once they neared their dorm, they found a surprised Taiyou heading the opposite direction, also to his room. In his hands this time were two red boxes of items, with all the lettering in Kanji.
"What are those?" asked Tenten, staring at the two boxes. They were emitting a strange yet pleasant aroma that suggested that there's food in those boxes.
"Well, I have a cousin in China and today is the moon festival; the day of the brightest full moon in the year," answered the boy, grinning. "He sent me moon cakes. They're items made out of egg yolk (optionally) and a filling inside, though I myself prefer lotus seed filling. They're generally circular and have things written on them. I don't know what went through my cousin's mind, though," he sighed, "since he bought me two large boxes of them. I'm bringing some to Tsuki, of course; he'll enjoy them after he gets over his digestion problem."
"Today's the day of the brightest moon?" asked Tenten, surprised. "But wouldn't that aid Tsuki's kekkei genkai?"
"Yeah, but that doesn't prevent him from being sick," answered Taiyou with a hint of sheepishness. "Anyway, since I obviously can't eat all of this, why don't you two come over to our room?"
"You just want help for the art project, don't you?" asked Tenten, smirking. Taiyou shrugged and led the way to room 322, and opened the door. Neji and Tenten followed behind him.
The room was decorated a deal lot more than Tenten's room, though that's not saying much. There were a few posters and pictures around the walls. There was an open navy suitcase near the door, displaying some clothes sprawled inside them. Half of the room was relatively clean while the other half was messier, but still clean. There were two laptops and both desks were filled with random things, from paperweights to a... teddy bear.
On the top bunk, Tsuki was sleeping soundly in his bed, his sheets covering all but the top of his head. Bits of his hair hung down from the wooden frame, yet his hair was still, for some reason, in a ponytail. Next to the bed were the three buckets of paint and a strange white sphere that would most likely be the target of the paints.
"Here," said Taiyou after he opened the first box and tossed the two circular cake-shaped sweets to his guests, whom easily caught them. "They're lotus-flavored."
Tsuki opened the wrapping on hers and bit into the cake. A sweet taste entered her mouth. She looked back at the moon cake; the inside was a creamy texture and its color was somewhere between yellow, brown and gray. "This is actually pretty good," she commented, taking another bite. "But it might be a bit too sweet."
"Typical for my cousin to pick the sweetest ones," breathed Taiyou in an annoyed tone, taking a bite out of his own cake, and winced. "I'll have to tell Yuui to not go to that sweet shop. Again." He then turned to the two, grinning. "Now, where shall we start with the painting...?" Neji shook his head at Taiyou's behavior as Tenten sweat dropped.
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By the time two hours had passed, the sphere was finished, but Neji was so annoyed with Taiyou and his childish behavior that day that he cut off some of his chakra points and left him lying on the ground, writhing in pain, as Tenten and himself worked.
"H-Hyuuga... I beg you to release my chakra point now," pleaded Taiyou weakly as Tenten held up the finished globe with a content grin on her face, eyes sparkling. Bits of hardened green paint were stuck in her hair and there was a blue streak across her right cheek. Neji's hands had a few spots of brown on his hands, but that was all.
"Hn."
"Please?"
Sighing, Neji tapped the area that he had cut off chakra from and Taiyou sat up, relieved. "Thanks a lot. For painting this thing, too; it would've taken a lot longer if you two haven't helped."
"You mean we painted all of it for you," corrected Tenten, shaking her head. "Next time, don't annoy your helpers, especially if they aren't extremely tolerant. Like Neji here," she said, nudging the prodigy, who promptly gave her a glare.
"Technically," sighed Taiyou, setting the finished product on some more newspapers. He looked up at the bunk bed. "He sleeps like a log, doesn't he?" he asked, smirking. "His sense of smell is a lot worse than Inuzuka, but it is better than average, yet he didn't wake up to the smell of moon cakes."
"Is that so?" Tenten was only half-hearing the things he was saying, as she had gazed out the window of the bottom bunk. It had a clear view of the pond, and the silver-haired girl was still there. She was completely still. A few guys were there too, but they didn't seem to notice her at all, even though the sunlight gleamed in her hair. She really was invisible to most people. "Hey Taiyou," she began, catching the attention of the boy, "do you see that girl out there?"
"The girl... Oh, God, what the heck is a girl doing on the campus?" he asked in an almost panicked voice. "She's going to be in so much trouble if Tsunade–sama finds out! Why would there be a girl here, anyway? Wait, is that a girl or is that a woman...?"
"She said she already had permission," answered Neji flatly. "And if you'll excuse me, I'll be going now." He immediately stood up and walked out the door. Taiyou made no move to stop him, and Tenten sprang up as well.
"Neji, wait! Uh, bye, Taiyou," she said hastily before hurrying out the door.
Taiyou just sat there when the door slammed shut. Smirking, he went back to his bunk bed and looked out the window. The girl, Gin, turned around and looked right at him. Both still unfazed, she returned back to gazing across the pond after a thirty-second long-distance staring match. He then looked to the semi-cloudy sky, the sunlight reflectinged in his eyes.
"The brightest full moon of the year, huh?" He got away from his bunk and glanced at the sleeping figure on the top bed. Shaking his head slightly, he said in a semi-amused tone, "You take precautions even when you feel sick and are sleeping, don't you, Tsuki?" Still standing, he looked out the window again, this time a little more somberly. "But I guess it can't be helped. After all, she appears on the surface only once a year..."
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"Hey! Neji! Wait for m... AGH!"
Tenten jumped back and nearly slammed into Taiyou's door when a large pail of cold water was dumped onto her head. There was a small silence and then somebody burst out laughing, but she could hear one small "oh no" apart from the person. Resisting the urge to growl and attack the people blindly, she yanked the bucket off her head with a scowl and glared at the people around her.
Kiba was bent over laughing, revealing a small puppy in his hood that seemed like it was laughing as well. Shino didn't look like he cared, but she thought she saw a hint of a smile on what she could see on his face. Shikamaru just stared at her with pity. Chouji was eating his chips, but was chuckling a bit. Sasuke had a smirk on his face, obviously amused while Neji stood behind the group, shaking his head in disgust. Naruto was looking at her with horror, and visibly gulped. Apparently, he was aiming to pour water on Neji, who he had thought was going to be Taiyou when he exited the room, but Neji dodged, making the pail hit Tenten instead.
Her clothes were soaked, and it was freezing cold. Mouth twitching and the pail still in her hands, Tenten growled and Naruto ran for it in breakneck speed. Tenten followed him shortly afterwards, yelling things like "YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT, NARUTO!!"
After a minute, Taiyou poked his head out of the door. "What the heck is going on and who is screaming in such a high-pitched note... oh. Naruto. Figures." He shrugged and went back into the room. "Yes, Tsuki, it's an idiot who's screaming out there. Nothing serious," everybody heard him say. Those who weren't laughing sweat dropped.
After Tenten gave Naruto a thorough beating (he was lying motionless for ten minutes), the guys invited her and Neji to Kiba's room because he had various games and gaming systems in there. Tenten agreed, but she had to get out of her soaked uniform first.
She went into her room by herself; Neji and the others were going to go into Kiba's room first, which was room 321. She grabbed a few articles of clothing that Ryuhi had lent her as well as the roll of bandages that she had securely put in the bottom of her case. She hasn't completely unpacked yet, and she planned for it to stay that way. Neji didn't seem like the type to snoop, so as long as she kept her more feminine items on the bottom of the suitcases or in inner compartments, he shouldn't be able to find out that she is really a girl.
Walking into the restroom, she took off all of her wet clothing and put it in her "to wash" basket. After pondering for a moment, she took a quick shower and came out more refreshed. She was glad her hair was cut short, and that Kazemi actually did it correctly; it was going to be a lot easier to dry. She reached towards the bandages and cut off a reasonable amount to use. She was about to wrap it around her body when she noticed something.
A huge fly was crawling on her hand.
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"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGHH!!!"
The guys turned, alarmed. Naruto jumped about a foot in the air and Kiba turned his head so fast that it was a wonder why it didn't crack. The rest of them had milder reactions, but they expressed surprise nonetheless. Even Shikamaru sat up. They waited for a few more minutes, but there was no second scream.
"...I think that came from Neji's room," said Naruto, opening the door and peering out. Most of the other guys weren't in the building, so few people were disturbed by the cry. Naruto looked back into the room. "That was Miyamura, right? Shouldn't somebody check on him?" All eyes turned to Neji, but he just glared at all of them.
"He's probably startled about something or another," he stated coldly, though he was also wondering what could have possibly caused his roommate to scream like that.
"Is anybody else going to volunteer?" asked Kiba, looking around the room. Everybody just stared back until Shikamaru closed his eyes, sighed and stood up.
"How troublesome... I'll go, in that case," he said in an exasperated tone. People were giving him funny looks, which he pointedly ignored. He walked out of the room and towards the source of the scream, i.e. Room 325.
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Tenten took in vast amounts of air as she clutched the towel rack. She didn't have a fear of bugs or anything, but she was startled by the sudden appearance of the fly. She was surprised by its size as well. By now, though, it had flown off to some other place and she had calmed down from her near heart attack experience. Shaking it off, she proceeded to wrap the bandages around her body, reaching for her shirt, when there was a sharp rap on the door, which caused her to jump, and she silently scolded herself. She had been too jumpy ever since she entered this school, and that was extremely unlike her...
"Miyamura!" yelled somebody from the other side, and she immediately recognized the voice as belonging to Shikamaru. Again, she jumped; he was expecting to enter the bathroom, was he? After all, she only said she was changing her clothes, not take a shower... but that would be unlike Shikamaru. He continued. "They sent me. Are you all right?"
"Yeah, I was just startled for a moment," she answered nervously, pulling on an undershirt. "You can go back. I'll be fine." She thought she heard Shikamaru mutter his famous phrase before his footsteps sounded, indicating he was going away. Sighing in relief, she finished dressing, dried her hair using her towel, and walked to Shino and Kiba's room.
After answering a few questions, they started playing some video games, including some that were extremely old, like the beginning of the Kingdom Hearts series, until it was time for dinner.
----------------- -----------------
Tthey had split up into their respective groups; Lee was already at the table when they got their food. Taiyou came in a few minutes after them and announced that Tsuki should be able to return to classes tomorrow.
"Of course, if I die because he wanted vengeance for the pizza incident, I'd like you guys to write speeches for my funeral," he finished in a gloomy voice, his head on the table. "I am going to be murdered..."
"Not to worry! I am sure that Tsuki would not kill his dear friend," soothed Lee enthusiastically. That just made Taiyou even more depressed for some reason.
"Oh yeah... he's going to torture me and then kill me," he muttered, sinking lower and lower into gloom. Tenten sweat dropped as Neji shook his head as if he was a lost cause.
They parted ways after dinner and went about showering, brushing their teeth... the usual things. Tenten and Neji were both finished with their homework by nine, and went to bed at nine thirty. Tenten had a feeling that Neji had fallen asleep immediately but she lingered away from the world of dreams.
She gazed out of the window next to her bed. It was a cloudless night and the moon really was extremely bright. It was full and large... she looked back down towards the pond. She thought that the woman had left until she saw a shimmer of silver next to the pond. She squinted. Gin was sitting cross-legged next to the shore, completely still. Her hair and the ribbon were the only things that moved in the stillness of the night. Was she meditating? Tenten dismissed her thoughts on the mysterious female and went back to her pillow, drifting off.
----------------- Midnight -----------------
The full moon shone down onto the lake, illuminating it so that it, too, gleamed. Gin sat cross-legged next to the pond. Slowly, her eyelids began to lift until her eyes were only half-closed, and slowly got up. In the same speed as if she was moving in the water itself, she walked to the water, as if in a deep trance. Kneeling down, she extended her palms and fingers and placed them on the water. The pond rippled where her hands touched, but she did not sink.
Almost immediately after the ripples subsided, images flashed in the water between her hands.
Tenten wearing a dress... Ryuhi running up the stairs of his house wildly... Taiyou with a girl with normal blue hair... The girl embracing Tenten like a mother... Shikamaru talking with Shino... A pale-eyed girl blushing, Naruto beside her with his normal expression... A pink-haired girl looking at Sasuke in adoration... A blonde-haired young woman hitting Shikamaru over the head with a small fan, a larger fan strapped to her back... Another blonde-haired female, though younger, giving Chouji a fruits basket... Lee hugging Gai... Kiba and Akamaru running after something... Neji wearing a suit... Trees blowing in the wind... Tears... Blood...
This continued for a few more minutes, the images getting sucked into her hands as they appeared. A warm glow was crawling up her arms, spreading to the rest of her body. By then, the images had appeared at much slower paces, and eventually stopped. Gin's eyes were still half-closed and glazed as she removed her arms from the water as two massive wings erupted from her back. Each were brown bat/dragon wings, and glowed as if they were made of pure energy. She lowered her arms and kicked off the ground, soaring into the sky. Her eyes were still lifeless, however; she looked like she was stuck in another world.
She soared upwards until she arrived in front of the large moon. Her glow seemed to be fading, and she turned to face the campus; her front side was shadowed, as the light source (the moon) was hitting her back. Like a haunting phantom, her pale yellow dress billowed silently in the wind in tempo with her sleeves, hair and ribbon. She stayed like that for some more time and then flew.
Towards the dormitory.
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"Must you always arrive so late at night after your meditation periods?"
"Well, excuse me. I'm not exactly young, you know; I've lost count of how many years I've seen go through me."
"Whatever. Anyway, what did you see?"
"'Please' always helps."
"Sigh... fine, please tell me what you saw in your annual reading."
"Many... interesting things. This reading was a lot more interesting than last year's, at least. The most attention-worthy thing in my last vision was about Miyamura attending this school."
"What about... well...?"
"...you don't even want to know... I myself wish I didn't see that."
"Okay... I wonder how Miyamura's doing, surviving this? He seems to fit in well."
"Stop playing around. Nobody's eavesdropping."
"...Fine. Then I'll just say that I'm wondering how well that person is fairing...
"She seems to fit in well, that Tenten, don't you think?"
----------------- 4 AM -----------------
"Ugh... I have to start on my homework... Taiyou, what the heck are you doing up so late?" asked Tsuki, popping a vein as he sat up on the bunk bed, now healed. Taiyou looked at him sheepishly.
"I can't figure out this one problem," he said meekly. Tsuki sighed in exasperation and jumped down from the top bed. Walking over, he observed the math problem and slapped his forehead.
"You're a real idiot in math, aren't you?" he asked, shaking his head. "Fine. I'll go get my notes out as well..." Still disgruntled, he walked over to his bags and accidentally bumped into the bookshelf. He cursed his own clumsiness.
He would be cursing a lot more in a moment.
The bucket of paint on the top shelf wobbled, fell off, hit Tsuki in the head, and drenched him in paint. "..."
"Oh, god," squeaked Taiyou, standing up and backing up until he hit the door. Tsuki's aura was slowly becoming darker and darker as he clenched a fist until his knuckles turned white. He turned and, with a menacing face on, he slowly advanced towards Taiyou.
"Hikari, why was there a paint can put so loosely on the top shelf of that bookcase?" he asked in a venomous voice, emphasizing the words "Hikari", "paint" and "bookcase". Taiyou just shook in fear. "Consider yourself dead... and write an epitaph or tell it to me so I'll write it down later..."
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...Don't worry, Taiyou won't be hurt. Much. He seems to suffer way too much in this story, doesn't he? And sorry for adding another oc... though I can tell you that it's not really "another" oc and will most likely not appear for a long time.
Just to clear this up now, I have nothing against Gai and Lee. After all, my favorite team is Team Gai as a whole, including those two. Actually, I have nothing against any of the characters.
That was boring, wasn't it? I at least put the rest of the team in there more... Oh, and remember to pay attention to details. Well, anyway, please review; that would help me a lot in updating.
Also, many, MANY thanks to my beta-reader, Zaywex. She saw tons of grammatical errors that needed to be fixed. ;;