False Pretense
Description: He had fallen for her and her him. But he screwed up, when it came to it he dumbly rejected her to uphold a reputation, but will he cave in when they start spending even more time together because of a band? SessKag, mainly
Recap: Sesshoumaru gathered his things and slowly exited the room with Neji at his side; they were speaking as quietly as they could as they headed for the boy's locker room. Sesshoumaru spoke as Neji mostly nodded and asked a question here and there. But the real story had yet to come. Sesshoumaru was just buying time until they were more secluded.
And by the end of the "talk to buy time" they both came to the same conclusion:
Sasuke shouldn't be mad at Sesshoumaru.
But Izayoi.
Chapter 12. A Secret No Longer A Secret
Neji looked around the boy's locker room in utter confusion. He has never been in a locker room before. He's never been to a normal junior high school before either.
"Something wrong?" Sesshoumaru asked looking at Neji's disgruntled face. Sesshoumaru, though amused genuinely wanted to know what was troubling his new "Friend."
"What do I do?" Neji asked through his confused face.
"Alright, go to the gym teacher and ask for a locker, and a pair of gym clothes. The fucking office should have already done that. But they're incompetent.." Sesshoumaru said shaking his head. "I'll wait for you in here." He added.
"Ergh.. Thanks." Neji said heading to the teacher's office. Next to the door, there was a sign with the teacher's name on it. It read: "Mr. Ikeda." Neji knocked twice before he heard a muffled "Come in." Neji opened the door, and stepped in letting the door close behind him.
"Excuse me sir, today is my first day, and I was not provided with a locker, or clothes." Neji said politely, while bowing his head in respect, if it's one thing you learn by being a Hyuuga, its respect. "I was told to report to you for this matter." He added.
"Name?" Mr. Ikeda asked, standing up, he was a very well built, tall man, very young too.
"Neji Hyuuga." Neji answered looking up at the taller man. He watched as his teacher wrote something down on an attendance sheet, and look around his office for something, Neji didn't know. Upon pulling gym clothes out of a cabinet full of other clothes, the teacher guessed Neji's size by looking at him, he also handed him a form to fill out.
"Here's your clothes, and this is a medical form, I would like you to fill out. When your done with the form go to the nurse and give it to her, and get dressed and join us outside, on the soccer field. I'll have someone assist you for today." Mr. Ikeda said before walking to the door and opening it. Then stuck his head out and called for someone.
"Sesshoumaru Taisho, come here please!" He called out the door, even though he should have known he didn't have to call for him, he could have used his usual speaking voice. He made a disgruntled face, as he hoped he didn't hurt the young boy's ears.
Sesshoumaru cringed as he heard the sudden very loud noise. He walked over to Mr. Ikeda's office with a very disgruntled face, much like his teacher's.
"Yes, Ikeda- Sensei?" Sesshoumaru's very annoyed voice sounded.
"Sorry about that, and I would like you to assist Neji Hyuuga with his forms and locker, please." Mr. Ikeda smiled at his star pupil and handed Neji off to him.
"Alright sensei." Sesshoumaru nodded and smirked at Neji, who was looking as serious as ever.
"Thank you, Sesshoumaru." Mr. Ikeda said as he grabbed his clip- board. And proceeded to meet the rest of the class in the boy's side of the main gym.
Sesshoumaru, sat down in one of the chairs in the office, and Neji did the same, looking at the form. Sesshoumaru handed him a pen, and he started to write. Sesshoumaru was already in his gym clothes, which didn't symbolize anything. They were just a pair of black sweatpants with two white stripes going down each side, and a plain white t-shirt. Particularly you could see the muscle shirt under Sesshoumaru's shirt, it was also white. And you had to bring in your own sneakers. But since Neji didn't have any at the moment he was allowed to use the shoes he was already wearing and hope he didn't slip. He had on converse, and flat shoes, plus wet grass from dew of the previous night, because it was 8:30 in the morning, equals, you constantly falling on your ass, and or face if your not careful.
The form was obviously a medical form, you know, what to do if he suddenly goes into anaphylactic shock. The usual. Neji finished it within about two minutes, and set the pen down where he saw Sesshoumaru get it.
"Alright. Now what?" Neji asked, rather bored.
"Look on the back of your medical form." Sesshoumaru instructed as he got up, and headed for the door. Neji did so, and there was his locker number and combination hand written by the teacher.
"Sneaky isn't he?" Sesshoumaru chuckled and opened the door holding it for Neji to get it so they could go. Neji and Sesshoumaru walked out the door, and Sesshoumaru showed Neji where his locker was. Which was in the same row as Sesshoumaru's just quite a few locker's down.
"Eh.. Yeah, I didn't see him do that." Neji said as he worked on his combination. Upon opening it, he began to undress, and put on his gym clothes. He placed his clothes in his locker and locked it. He took his form from a back- turned Sesshoumaru as he walked by, Sesshoumaru pushed him self off the wall he was leaning on and caught pace with Neji, leading him to the nurse's office.
Neji turned his form to the nurse and turned around and followed Sesshoumaru yet again, this time to the soccer field where the rest of the class was running laps. Sesshoumaru and Neji simply joined them and stayed dead last. They proceeded their conversation on their last conclusion.
"So Izayoi is really… Sasuke, and Itachi's older sister? And now she's your step- mother?" Neji asked still utterly amazed. "But that doesn't explain why your families have been enemies for centuries. Izayoi is human." Neji said now stuck.
"I'm just saying that that's one of the reason's our families are feuding. There are a bunch of other reason's. The Uchiha's hate my father and I specifically for 'stealing their beloved Izayoi away'. They think my father seduced her, so she was on our side, but that's not true. She is on our side now, because she is part of our family now. But my father and Izayoi had fallen in love with each other before they even knew who each other was, well last names anyway.." Sesshoumaru elaborated cringing a little bit. Sesshoumaru didn't know Neji more then an hour and he trusted him a great deal. He felt… Happy that Neji seemed to be such a good person to him.
"I see. So Sasuke hates you and your father for taking his older sister away from him. I have to admit.. That is hard.. If they were close. Sasuke really has been through a lot. I acknowledge that." Neji nodded in unison of his words.
"Yes. I do too… But his father… Took the life of my mother. And I'll never forgive the Uchiha's for that. Every last one of them.. Even if there are only three left. I was actually just informed of this.. My father knew that Sasuke was coming to Tokyo, and he told me everything. Before he told me that she was not strong enough to give birth to me, and she died trying. I always accepted that answer, but I was always skeptical. If only a little." Sesshoumaru spoke without fatigue, for it was impossible for him to get tired or become short of breath. Neji on the other hand was breathing only slightly heavier. And was sweating a little bit.
"Yes, I heard of that, it was quite the public affair. 'Wife of prime minister of Japan dies after giving birth to first son.' I saw the newspaper a couple of years ago in the Hokage's office. Your father was investigated for the murder of your mother." Neji said nodding, and continuing to run. But what he hadn't noticed was that Sesshoumaru stopped dead in his tracks. He stared dead ahead into nothingness, wide- eyed.
Neji noticed this and stopped and jogged back to Sesshoumaru. Neji looked worried. Was this the Sesshoumaru who he was just talking to?
"Sesshoumaru? What's wrong? Sesshoumaru?" Neji was calling, waving his hands in front of Sesshoumaru's face. Sesshoumaru seemed to go unconscious for a moment, but came too.
"What…. What did you say?" Sesshoumaru asked genuinely looking.. Scared.
"Sesshoumaru… You didn't know that your father was investigated for murder? I thought you said he told you everything? He was investigated on a false accusation made by an Uchiha. The investigation didn't last long because he was proven innocent, because he was proven to have a solid alibi. But it still took them a while to figure out who did it because the crime scene got severely contaminated by a broken glove. They didn't know who did it until after the Uchiha massacre. He already paid for his crime." Neji explained.
"No.. He didn't say anything about being accused of murder. But it's obvious why. Thank you for explaining, Neji." Sesshoumaru closed his eyes and took a deep breath. That just ruined his day.. And he was having so much fun. Maybe he could salvage the day when he see's the Uchiha again.
It was time to change and go to their next class so they jogged back inside, and changed.
"What class do you have next, Neji?" Sesshoumaru looked at him, bored. He hated his next class, it could put him to sleep so fast it was funny.
"Japanese class." Neji replied also looking bored, looking down at his things putting them in his bag, then slinging it on his back.
"Interesting. Well follow me then." Sesshoumaru said, he also had that class, sadly it lasted 80 minutes. They walked out of the boys locker room, and saw Kagome, whom didn't see them and kept walking.
"Hey, Kag, back here!" Sesshoumaru called over the commotion of the busy hallway. Kagome turned around and saw Sesshoumaru and knew he was the one who called for her. She smiled and stopped walking, waiting for them to catch up to her. When they did she hugged Sesshoumaru around his lower torso, and Sesshoumaru smirked patting her on the head.
"This is Neji Hyuuga. He's one of the ninja's." Sesshoumaru introduced her to him, adding the ninja part knowing that would interest her more.
"And Neji this is Kagome Higurashi." Sesshoumaru added. "She is the one Uchiha was talking about when he said he would do the same to me." He elaborated, and chuckled.
"Ah, the one he said never leaves you alone. And we prefer 'shinobi' by the way." Neji said, smirking. "It's nice to meet you Kagome." he said nodding at her.
"Same here, Neji." She said smiling. "So who said I never leave you alone?" Kagome asked a little annoyed. She didn't see herself as annoying.
"Uchiha. We were 'talking' first period." Sesshoumaru said as he continued to walk down the hallways Neji at his left, and Kagome to his right.
"Oh. Alright. The guy you said hates you. You hate him, all that.. Blah.." Kagome replied bored. Then someone caught her eyes. There was a boy, just as tall as Sesshoumaru, with the reddest hair she's ever seen, piercing blue- green eyes, with thick black eye- liner around them, the boy had porcelain skin, but had no eyebrows. Though it didn't make him look ridiculous. Actually he looks better without them, she thought. He had on black cargo pants, with many assorted chains tucked into knee-high combat boots. His belt was black but had red splattered on it to make it look like blood spatter, his belt buckle was a symbol from the band Dir En Grey. His shirt was black and red, for the band Phantasmagoria. He had on two studded wrist bands and his necklace was that of big silver balls, but what really caught her eyes was that he had a tattoo of the 'love' kanji in blood red ink. What could that be about?
Kagome stared at him as she walked by him who was simply walking slower then she was. She decided to ask who he was. Perhaps Neji might know?
"Neji- San, do you know who that was? The one we just passed with the bright red hair?" She asked, knowing the boy was new, and could be with Neji, and the other Shinobi.
"That was Gaara, Kagome- Chan. He isn't with our group, but he is a shinobi from Sunagakure, the village hidden in the sand. He is a year ahead of me and the others." Neji confirmed.
"Then how come he's here? Shouldn't he be in the high school?" Kagome asked, confused.
"He failed this grade last year. But he just transferred here. He said he wanted to get away from Suna. Badly." Neji answered with suspicion hidden in his voice.
"He looks cool." Kagome giggled, smiling brightly. Sesshoumaru stiffened. He just noticed something odd. He wasn't paying much attention until just now, hence just noticing it.
"He's a demon." Sesshoumaru interjected. "Wait…" He started. "But he's not like me. He has a demon living inside him, he's not the demon, if the demon inside him wasn't there he'd be human. This is interesting. Someone cursed him." He added.
Neji looked at Sesshoumaru and smirked. "Very good."
"What happened to him?" Sesshoumaru asked, interestedly.
"His father, the Kazekage, cursed him with the 'Shukaku', a powerful raccoon demon, when his mother was still pregnant for him. His mother died while giving birth to him, and he blames himself for her death, as a child and even now, he's treated like a monster. He's been in and out of places someone our age shouldn't even know about. He's a little insane, I guess you could say. But only because everything that's gone wrong in his life has taken such a heavy toll on him. He tries. I know he does. I feel a little bad for him." Neji explained shaking his head.
"That's so terrible." Kagome said looking down, upset.
"I agree." Sesshoumaru said sighing, as he looked at the time.
"Well, we have to go, Kag, we'll see you later." Sesshoumaru said taking a turn down a hallway, Neji nodded to her and followed.
"See you guys." Kagome said waving slightly.
Sesshoumaru and Neji walked into their Japanese class and took a seat next to each other at one of the far back tables. Sesshoumaru was taking out a pen and notepad incase they had to take notes, when he caught two scents he was hoping for. He looked up and saw Sasuke and Sakura walk through the door. As soon as he saw them he smirked, and when Sasuke saw him he tensed and glared at him. He pulled Sakura to the very front adjacent table to Sesshoumaru and Neji's. Sesshoumaru had to admit, Sakura smelled quite nice. But Sasuke, as he would forever be convinced smelled disgusting. Sasuke was looking at Sesshoumaru in the corner of his eye, so to piss him off more, Sesshoumaru plugged his nose, and made a disgusted face. That was it..
Sasuke got up from his chair and suddenly disappeared and re- appeared behind Sesshoumaru who was already standing back to the front of the room. As Sasuke was about to take a swing, Sesshoumaru was too fast, and spin kicked Sasuke into the wall behind them. Sesshoumaru's eyes were pure red, even the whites of his eyes. He watched as Sasuke slid down to the ground clearly unconscious. He stepped a bit closer to the boy who had attacked him, and as soon as he was at his feet, Sakura threw herself over Sasuke to protect him.
"NO STOP, PLEASE DON'T HURT HIM!" Sakura screamed, with tears in her eyes, threatening to fall. Sesshoumaru cringed at how high pitched her voice was. He blinked, his eyes turned back to normal, and growled angrily at Sakura, which made her wince in fear.
"Keep your boy the hell away from me. If you don't he knows what will happen.." Sesshoumaru said still growling in his throat.
She nodded still shaking and turned to Sasuke. "Sasuke, wake up, are you ok? Sasuke, please, wake up!" Sakura cried, while shaking him a bit. Sasuke's eyes opened and his head snapped up, glaring at Sesshoumaru.
Sesshoumaru glared back. "Praise Jesus he's awake…" he said with the utmost sarcasm.
"Get a muzzle, T-.." That was all he was able to say before he found himself suspended in the air by his neck. Sesshoumaru had him pinned against the wall with one hand on his neck.
"Ha! Maybe the day you get better reflexes. Just maybe.. But you know what Sasuke? You and me have three thing's in common.. One, we both don't stand to be made fun of, or stand for the arrogant, two, we're both very hot headed people, and three.. Your Sharingan, and my demon instinct work exactly the same. Triggered by any possible bodily harm. All those characteristics are found much more strongly in me.. Think about that… " Sesshoumaru said with venom seeping from his voice. "I wonder where the girl went.." Sesshoumaru said pretending to be curious. "She ran away? Ha.. Shows how much she cares about you. I thought she was a shinobi too.. She's pretty pathetic. Don't they teach you ninja to not fear anything? Even demons such as myself. Truly pathetic.." Sesshoumaru said with real disappointment in his voice as he let Sasuke go to fall back to the ground.
Sesshoumaru shook his head and exited the room, and headed for the principal's office before the Japanese teacher could see what was going on and ultimately send him there anyway. He sighed.
"It's 9:50, the third day of school, and I'm about to get my ass suspended.. Dad is going to ground me longer… He wont let me see Rin, or let me go to band practice. Fuck my life…" Sesshoumaru sighed entering the office. As soon as he walked in he picked up a scent he never thought he would.
"Dad?"
:] Haha, this is great. I'm loving this, I have so many ideas, they're all just rushing out of my hands. Anyway, here we are, another chapter. Hope you liked it.
~Akio Toshiya