Neji sighed quietly. He really didn't want to take that entrance into their quarters, Tenten was there. Before he'd left he'd said some rather un-nice things during their argument. They hadn't spoken since.
He leaned against the brick wall and tapped a pattern with his knuckles. Each member had their own signature entrance key; one that wouldn't look odd if they did it.
As the brick wall opened up into a door, he slid through it carefully.
He nodded awkwardly to a pissed off Tenten, "We'll talk later." He stated. She grunted in return as he made his way toward the actual entrance.
Minutes later and he was greeted by a sleepy Sai, "Hello androgynous-kun."
Neji was too tired to even give a damn about the nickname. He slipped passed Sai and into the actual place.
Dark and sewer-like was the best way to describe their hideout. While it wasn't smelly, it certainly was wet. There was much more too it than the small conference-esque room he currently stood in.
That was when Naruto arrived. Naruto was odd to say the least. He was scary in the sense that he was always smiling, even when beating someone to a bloody pulp. The scary part wasn't even that he could get his jaw cracked(it had happened once) and still force a smile, oh no, the scary part was the fact that the smile was genuine. He was actually enjoying every minute of his sorry pathetic life.
"Yo~!" He shouted loudly as Neji merely nodded in return.
"How'd it go?" Naruto asked inquiring.
"It went alright, though they were being stingy at first. I think they'd been robbed before our meeting."
Naruto's eyes narrowed, "We weren't cheated though right?"
Neji scoffed, offended, "Of course not. Naturally I got them to give us double the amount with only 75% of the original price."
Naruto smiled just before his eyes lit up with remembrance, "I met your cousin!"
Neji tensed. He knew he was referring to Hinata as he'd gotten word of her arrival a week ago.
"Yeah, I've been trying to recruit her but boy is she feisty." Naruto dragged on.
Neji stepped closer and leaned in, voice absolutely serious, "Don't."
Naruto's eyebrows shot up, "Look I get that you want to protect her with her being your cousin and all, but she's perfectly capable of—"
Neji reached out and grabbed him by the collar, "Seriously, don't. I say this as a member of our gang. She's completely fucked in the head."
Back in middle school, something odd had happened. They'd been at that lame-ass academics meeting or whatever, and something terrible had occurred. To this day, he feared what Hinata would to the others. The warning wasn't to keep Naruto away from Hinata , it was to keep Hinata away from Naruto. He knew that Naruto was insane, and if the two met it would not end well.
He let Naruto go and as Naruto's stared at his ever leaving figure, he was left pondering.
"Ah~! Wait!" The blonde shouted obnoxiuosly.
Neji inwardly cursed; he had been trying to walk away cooly but having to turn back around ruined the effect.
"What?" He asked, annoyed.
"Where is everyone?"
Neji wanted to hurt Naruto, "You weren't at the last meeting? I wasn't even there and I know what's going on."
Naruto shook his head innocently. Neji sighed, exasperated. "We're going to war."
Naruto tilted his head clulessly, "With who?"
"The people we've been having a turf wa with for the past 3 years!"
Naruto shook his head, "Doesn't ring a bell."
"Hell's Maggots you dumbass! They literally almost killed you a week ago! Shikamaru is leading the assault on them now. They might not be smart, but they're the largest gang in Konoha."
Naruto smiled one of those creepy,, happy ones, giggled, and then marched off onto the battlefield.
Neji didn't have the energy to sigh, so he headed home.
Opening the door he came to view Hinata talking to his 'mom'. What was she doing there? Granted it was her biological mother, but they hadn't had contact with each other in years.
"You're my mom aren't you?" Hinata shouted accusingly. That was when Neji stepped between them. Hinata had a nasty temper and he didn't want his mother to get the brunt of it.
She pushed passed him aggressively and just like that she was gone.
"Go, after her please." his mother asked nicely, coughing loudly. He looked down at her sympathetically and ran off to find his cousin.
After hours of searching, she was no where to be found. He'd looked everywhere, except for her house. He really wa unsure of where she lived.
Looking up at the sky he realized that it was dawn and he'd missed his chance to get some sleep before they took down 'Hell's Maggots'.
Sighing loudly, something he seemed to be doing a lot of these days, he made his way toward the battle field.
It was a 10 minute walk, and as he'd made his way into the abandoned factory, his eyes widened at the sight before him.
Hinata stood there, wheezing. Her hands clutching the scruff of the leader of the gang they were supposed to be assaulting. He looked down to view the unconscious body, all he could do was stare in puzzlement.
"Neji!?" She shouted loudly.
Hinata winced as they yanked her arm aggressively. Somehow it had impacted her rib, the medicine hadn't kicked in yet.
"You're just our boss' type! He's gonna love ya'!"
Hinata winced again, this time in disgust. It was just her luck that she wouldn't be captured, or have her head bashed in for beating them up, oh no, because she'd bumped into them they were so pissed they'd decided to offer her to their leader.
What were the odds that they wouldn't remember her kicking their asses, but would instead yank her towards their leader for bumping into them.
They placed a bag over her head, she rolled her eyes at the gesture. As if she couldn't already tell what direction they were headed in. She kept her ears open, she was new to town and after she escaped would probably end up lost somehow.
They walked a short way, and as she felt them maneuver her body various times, she judged they were in an abandoned place. No currently inhabited environment would have that much shit laying around.
There was knock, the sound of a door opening, and finally the bag was removed from her head.
"Look, Boss! We got you a present!"
They looked uneasy, as if waiting for him to explode. Hinata took in his figure. She had honestly been expecting some old creep, but he looked to be about her age. He was tall, and lanky.
Surprisingly he had a kind sort of cocky-esque aura about him, and was rather cute. He looked toward his lackeys in disappointment.
"You can't just bring people here against their will!" He shouted angrily at them. Hinata smirked triumphantly, at least she would be let go now, right?
They scrambled for words helplessly like ants, bowing in apology, "We're sorry boss! We just wanted to make it up to you!"
"Yeah, well you've done a shitty job! Leave!"
They muttered their apologies and left, heads hanging down in shame. He slicked his hair back as they left, leaving two stray silver strands to fall.
He chuckled nervously, "Ah~ sorry about that. Those fuckers can't tell left from right."
She nodded timidly, afraid of what was to come.
"Listen~ I'm fucking sorry but," He licked his lips as he neared her, pulling out a knife, "I'll have to kill ya now."
She nearly shrunk back before remembering that it definitely wasn't going to help.
She had to fight. She sighed tiredly, she'd done more fighting in Konoha this past week than in her life.
He made to stab her chest, she dodged cooly, face unbothered.
Rule #1 of being weak, She thought, Even if you're losing terribly always look stoic. It makes them lose their cool/ confidence.
She dodged a few more swipes, she nearly smirked as his brow twitched in annoyance.
Rule #2, use the terrain to your advantage, Just as he'd thought he'd got her, she dodged once more, forcing him to impale the knife into the coffee table. He tried to pull it out but upon defeat, he gave up in favor of his fists.
He landed a straight right where she'd cracked her ribs earlier, using it to her advantage, she over exaggerated the amount of pain she was in(which wasn't hard considering how painful it actually was).
Rule #3, catch them off guard. She knew he'd felt her rib pop, and using it to her advantage faked shallow breathing, as if her rib had punctured her lung.
He stared on in shock, and then triumphance. He leaned in closely, "Game over short-stuff, looks like you can't breathe."
That was when she head butted him as hard as she possible could. During his fall he bumped his head onto the corner of the desk, promptly knocking him out. She winced as the headbutt had not only harmed him, but herself as well.
She grabbed him by his hair, and spit in his face.
The door flew open with such force that Hinata felt a breeze blow through.
"Neji?!" She shouted, surprised.
He stood there, mouth ajar, taking in the disheveled room and unconscious body.
If Neji had wanted to keep her away from his dealings, it was too late now.
She was in deep shit.
Neji listened as she detailed how she'd gotten involved. The gang they were going up against was known for having large numbers, but being incredibly weak. Hinata may not have been strong, but Hidan was definitely no match for her. Where she lacked in brawn, she made up with in brains.
He sighed, brow furrowed and hair tangled.
They'd tied Hidan to a chair as they waited for him to wake up. Neji preferred not to kill, it was much easier to take someone down by destroying them mentally than physically. Plus, there was no trail left behind.
"I need him." Neji stated blankly, Hinata didn't need to know the details, just that this guy was his prey and she needed to stay away.
She smirked, "No way. This guy's my lackey now."
Neji face palmed. Hinata moved around frequently so their interaction with each other was scarce, however, no matter how many years had passed, one thing remained constant. Her love of power.
The last timed he'd seen her was at some academics conference for teens. She'd somehow managed to monopolize the whole thing. The conference was basically a grand competition, and if you did well on it your chances of getting into a top-notch college soared. HInata had somehow managed to manipulate the judges, and most of the competitors into giving her the number one spot. While Neji, had come in second based on hard work and a rather great essay.
Hinata had been too lazy to do the proper work for the categories. He'd hated her for that after a while, but eventually got over it. He'd learned that in this world power meant more than knowledge, it was it. And it did not apply the other way around
"You can leave it to me, aniki." She stated jokingly.
He nearly cracked a smile. "How's Hanabi?"
He could see her tense a little, but waved it off as family being a senstiive topic.
"She's good. You should come around sometime, she hasn't seen you since she was 4."
He gave a lazy half-grin and nodded.
"What are you planning on doing with him? I need him away from our- my business."
He trusted Hinata enough to know that she would take care of the problem for him. And that trust didn't come out of some deep, familial bond they had; it came out of knowledge of her power. He knew she could do it. His legs twitched semi-anxiously. He really needed to go check on his mom, she didn't seem all that well when he'd left her.
"You can go, I've got this." She stated calmly. He was grateful, before he left he handed her a slip of paper.
"Mom's number. She wants you over for dinner." Lie. There hadn't been enough time to invite her over.
She scoffed. Before he left the room fully, he chucked her the pills from earlier.
As he made his way out of the abandoned warehouse, he came face to face with Naruto, who was later than late.
"Shows over." He stated nonchalantly.
Naruto pouted, "You always finish things before I get here, I wanna be in the spotlight too!"
Neji shook his head in annoyance.
"Don't get lost next time then. Oh, and a little advice, stay away from Hinata."
Naruto waved him off, "Yeah, yeah, you already told me."
"No, stay away from her as in, she's dangerous, will crush you, beat you to a pulp….etc…"
Naruto laughed loudly, "Ha! Earlier her movements were piss poor, even if she did defeat the guy!"
Neji chuckled all-knowingly. "I think you're seriously underestimating her intelligence. She'll take over when you're not watching."
With that Neji left Naruto once again, pondering.