Love's Misconstruities
Chapter 2
The talks had gone well. The Hidden Village of the Sand would be allowed more military power, pending finalizations tomorrow.
As the sun set, the three Sand-nin went their separate ways. Temari had promised to meet up with Shikamaru—they had a date, as her siblings teased—and Kankurou had gotten permission from the Academy to tag along with a small group of students and their teacher overnight for work on their stealth techniques. Gaara had been invited to go with them but had respectfully declined. Tonight he would be embarking on a stealth mission of his own.
Once the veil of night had fallen, he made his move. Surprisingly, the security at the Hyuuga estate was more lax than he'd expected. It was easy to mask his presence and sneak toward the main house.
Perching atop the roof, he decided to narrow his search to the rooms with lights on figuring Hinata, like most teenagers he'd observed, stayed up later than their children and adult counterparts. After studying the layout of the buildings, he deduced which one was the head family's and concluded that his target's room would be near the center of it. He then created his third eye, allowed it to pass as sand through the roof, and rematerialized it once inside.
After several short minutes he found what appeared to be her quarters. Her coat hung on the back of the chair at the desk confirming his suspicions, yet there was no one inside. Hoping she'd be back, Gaara decided to wait a bit longer, reviewing his plan on how to lure her away from the estate. However, it seemed he waited a bit too long.
By the time he sensed the other ninja's presence, two shuriken had already been thrown in his direction. Without effort, his sand created a shield, protecting him. Dropping his third-eye jutsu, he turned to face his opponent.
"I mean no harm," Gaara calmly explained.
His attacker jumped from a nearby tree, revealing himself.
"If that were true, you wouldn't have been spying on the head family!" growled the angry genin before him.
"Hyuuga Neji," Gaara acknowledged.
"Sabaku no Gaara," he replied with malice.
"Allow me to explain. …Please."
"Explain that you were here to assassinate someone in the head family? That these talks are all just a ploy to make war on Konoha again?!"
Not wanting to attract any more attention, Gaara swiftly retreated, darting across the roofs and into the outlying wood behind the living quarters. Neji was quick on his tail, pursuing just as planned. Gaara only stopped once the two were a small distance away, turning around and waiting for his assailant to catch up. To his surprise, he felt the Hyuuga boy's presence from above and used his sand to repel the attack of kunai this time. Preparing for a counter-attack, Neji landed in front of the boy and immediately jumped back further and readied himself, his Byakugan already activated.
Gaara sighed inwardly. He had been careless. Had this been a mission, such a mistake could have resulted in not only failure, but possible casualties.
C'mon, let's take this guy out!
'No. We didn't come here to fight him.'
Ahh! C'mon! We've got him out here all alone! We could make it look like an accident! I want to taste his blood…
'No, now be silent!' Gaara internally shouted, earning him an angry howl. "Now that we are alone, I will say again that it was not my intention to harm anyone, nor is Suna seeking to sabotage the treaty it has worked so hard to reestablish with Konoha. My actions are mine alone."
"…Assuming that's true, what were you doing on the roof of the head family?!" Neji growled, his guard still as sharp as ever.
"My business is with Hinata-san."
"What kind of business?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.
Gaara suddenly felt quite stupid at his response, however not being fond of lies and wanting to diffuse the situation, he decided to be honest, as embarrassing and ridiculous as it seemed.
"I wanted to test her."
"Test her?"
"I wanted to find out how strong she was."
"So you were looking to hurt Hinata-sama!"
"No. Only to test her."
"I don't believe you. You could have just challenged her outright if that were your intention."
"Her ability to sense my presence was part of it." Gaara continued to explain in his irritatingly calm voice, yet his demeanor was the only thing keeping Neji at bay for the time being. He currently had shown no intention of wanting a fight, but Neji wouldn't let his guard down yet. He knew just how dangerous this boy was.
"Why would you want to do such a thing? What purpose could you possibly have?"
That was a good question. How could Gaara put into words the feelings that had been running rampant inside him all day; the ones that even he was having difficultly understanding?
"I…" Gaara began.
Neji, who had been analyzing his stoic posture from the beginning now saw, for the first time, Gaara fidgeting. His gaze had been averted, his right foot had been turned slightly outward shifting his body away from Neji, and his left hand had begun to fiddle with the seam on the side of his pants.
"I suppose I was…intrigued by her."
Beginning to understand, and somewhat horrified at the thought, Neji advanced on him. Surprisingly, Gaara merely turned toward him, meeting his eyes. He offered no resistance as the taller boy grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him close.
"Someone like you has NO reason to be…intrigued with Hinata-sama! You'd be smart to stay away from her altogether."
"That sounds like a threat," Gaara calmly commented, only furthering to anger Neji.
"Good."
Gaara, unsure of what had caused the other boy to suddenly react in this manner, continued to suppress his sand shield which was desperately attempting to repel his opponent.
'No, we must not harm him!' he told his inner demon which continued to argue back. "Hyuuga-san, why are you opposed to me testing your cousin? No harm would come to her by me. Are you simply afraid she would lose?"
"Of course she would lose!"
"Knowing that, why are you so adamant that I stay away?"
Neji's grip tightened as he lowered his face to the younger boy's, deepening his voice. "Don't play stupid."
"I'm not playing anything."
Neji could see the truth in the confused green eyes before him. "…Then you really are stupid," he finished, releasing him. "For both your sakes, then. Stay away from Hinata-sama." Without waiting for a reply, he did a back-flip into the trees behind him and quickly masked his presence, vanishing.
Confused as ever, Gaara stayed there a while longer as he contemplated what had just happened, all the while unaware of the pale eyes that had been watching them from behind a patch of distant bushes.
Translations/Term Definitions...in no particular order:
- Shuriken: Ninja throwing stars.
- Kunai: Ninja throwing knives.