A/N: To correct my mistake in the last chap. That little poem like thing was not part of the note. He wrote more, that was just a little part. The real note part will be read in this chapter.
7: They Switched Bodies
(VP: Tenten) I am sitting in no where, all alone. I want to wake up and be out of here. I know it's not a dream so any minute I should wake up and Neji will be there and it'll all be okay.
Why did this happen? I really don't know. I forgot, I was on a mission with Neji we were doing something but since we left Konoha I forgot it all. Why am I asleep, why can't I wake up. Where is Neji? Why won't someone help me?
I have tried to wake up but I can't. These answers plague me like nothing ever before. I know the truth, the truth is. Well the truth is: I don't know. I want to wake up. My mind won't allow me to. It says I have to stay, I can't wake up. I may never. Who knows what happened to my body, or Neji or anyone else. I wish I could remember.
I sit here in my own mind just to find it empty, I can't even seem to create a dream here, it's like I'm awake but I'm not. I can't wake up because I'm not asleep. It's so empty, it's like part of me is crying out that I need to stop being so empty. I don't remember ever being this empty…
…wait, yes I do…
…when I was little…(Flashback)
I sat there in my huge house all by myself, I had taken to it. I had been alone as long as I could remember. I can't recall anything from my past, it was like I was born to being this age. I am only 7 but I'm finally going to do something, and stop being empty.
Everyday since I can remember it was the same, some lady would leave food on my doorstep twice a day; I'd eat it then I'd sit in a small room in the basement and play games. I enjoyed playing games by myself. It was all I had to do, all I had to look forward to. I was a lost cause.
My favorite game was Darts, there was a small target board in another room in my basement and throw darts at it, since as long as I could remember I would always hit the little white dot in the center, it would always say underneath the mark, 100.
That was why when asked if I wanted to join a ninja academy, make new friends, and become something more than a lonely girl, playing darts by herself. I jumped on the chance. They asked me what I would like to become.
What would I like to become? I didn't know. I had no one telling me what to do or guiding me. They gave me a test, a simple test, they gave me ten knives called a 'kunai' and I was to throw them at a target board, much like my favorite game, darts. All ten of them I hit straight on. They said I was to be a weapons specialist.
That was where I began, kids picked on me because I was the best student they had besides some Neji kid but he was a prodigy of our class. He was picked on for his genius and because of his eyes. He was constantly beaten, and he had a strange mark on his head and every time someone looked at his eyes, it would burn him. I never knew why but he seemed like me. Lonely, and sad; I could read his eyes without them burning him. He said that 'my eyes are unreadable'. I answered him 'I never knew anyone who I couldn't read. You're just like me so I don't have to be able to read you anyway, bye.' That was the only thing I ever said to the boy. They called me 'The Weapons Mistress' and he was called 'the Hyuuga Prodigy' and we, the picked on kids were paired with another so called prodigy boy, a taijutsu master. Another weird blonde haired boy in a lower class called him 'Bushy Brows' he was a weird kid, though he could beat us, but he never could.
Even though I attended this academy I would return home with thoughts of how every kid in my class had family, except that strange kid but he had our sensei who was like a father to him. It was a very close call to say that Neji didn't have family. I think he did. People didn't refer to you by your last name if you didn't have a family. I guess he must judging by the high expectations he had of himself and others. I felt bad for him.
Every night I'd cry myself to sleep, or just collapse thinking about how it would be to be loved, to have true friends, to be the best, to have a family, to smile. These were things I longed to have.
---
I couldn't wake up because I realized that I had no need to. I tried to sense if anyone was around me, as far as I knew there wasn't. I couldn't hear breathing, not even my own. I think I just might be dead.
I could hear but that's about it, I would have felt a chakra pattern if someone was there, but there wasn't. I might as well be dead anyway. I was lost and lonely.
I laughed, I'm quite pathetic. I must have been hurt by some strong guy, seeing as I'm weak I'd be no match for him, I cried realizing that I was just as alone as I had always been, Neji was gone.
I don't want to wake up, a shallow existence to return to isn't a blessing. Here it was peaceful and I didn't have to see to realize I was alone. It was a shallow existence, and an empty one at that. I was sad, pathetic, miserable and lonely. I cried.
Suddenly I heard the door open and a few people walked in, one was quite quiet, the others were arguing quite loudly. Stupid people, I'm dead, respect me. If I am alive I would wake up just to beat those who were disrespecting me up.
"You're not dead, you're unconscious." A voice corrected me. Who was reading my mind, but I trusted it. It was so familiar. If I'm not dead, wake me up!
"You think she can really hear you Gaara?" Tamari asked. I could finally recognize them now that they were calm and using names. I knew Tamari's tone of voice, so that must have been Gaara who told me I wasn't dead, thanks.
"I can sense her spirit stirring and fighting but she won't wake up." What, why not! I want to now that I'm not dead!
"What can we do to wake her up?" Kankuro asked stupidly. Now Gaara and Tamari would yell and correct him.
"She's not asleep, she's unconscious. When it's time she'll wake up." Gaara answered.
"I wonder where Neji went." Tamari asked. "You'd think he'd stay with his fiancé."
"He's trying to find himself, he's lost." Lost, Neji knows everything, he always has, he's always been the one who is clued in, the person who could answer all the questions. How can he be lost, he has the Byakugan.
"Poor guy, wait a minute. Doesn't he have the Byakugan? He can't get lost!" Kankuro yelled.
"Without her he doesn't know what to do. He blames himself, he's complete falling apart. What he needs is to cry, let it out of his system. You can't let go of feelings like that without crying. I don't have those feelings so I have no need for crying." Poor Neji, I feel like surgically making it so he can cry. I know I can't because it would mess with the Byakugan, he wouldn't be able to see the chakra points, and he'd just be a normal person. I have to wake up, I need to!
I could hear aloud beeping now, it was really fast and now I could hear my breathing and my heart beating. "She's coming." Gaara said calmly.
I quickly sat up and ran out of the room, down the stairs, out of the hospital and activating my chakra I ran through the streets, and down alleyways until I found Neji, and I crashed into him.
"Who are you?" He asked. I broke into crying and though he had forgotten about me. "I asked you who you were." He said looking into my eyes but his eyes were black, like nothing I had ever seen, there was nothing, he was blind.
"I have only ever seen you like that when that man activated your seal and blinded you. What has happened?"
"I don't know who you are but can you get off me?" He asked politely, he was the most unlike Neji person ever.
"Sure," I realized I didn't sound like myself, but Neji was not voice in tuned either so that would make a difference, my vocal cords were hardened a stiff. "You don't know who I am, do you?" I asked concerned.
"No, but would you help me out."
"Nope, when you're read you'll find out. I recommend you go see Tenten now, she needs you as much as you obviously need her." I kissed his cheek and walked through the market, and I collapsed. Someone caught me.
"I don't know who you are still but you might not want to kill yourself by passing out."
"I was just let out of the hospital and I really needed to find you for Tenten's sake. It seems I should have stayed a while to heal even though I was released. Thanks."
"You're welcome; I really wish my senses would pick up on who you are." I giggled.
"You will I'm sure that Tenten would know right away. Would you mind, taking me to the hospital?"
"No," Neji carried me to the hospital and walked in the door.
"There you are we were so worried." Tsunade yelled.
"You can let me down now."
"Sure," He let me to my feet and Tsunade was about to say something.
"I'm sorry I left, I thought I needed to get someone for Tenten." I said.
"But you…"
"I know but I am really feeling better, I mean, I did channel my chakra pretty well to be able to get all the way to him and a quarter of the way back. I'm going to go rest, bye."
"He doesn't?"
"No, I would like it to stay that way."
"Are you serious?"
"Take care of him for a while, let me save my chakra, I'll take care of him after that." I said walking back to my room.
"Yes," Tsunade was confused as to why I hadn't told him and he doesn't know but I know that someone would come to help. I was right.
"Tenten, there you are. We were so worried, how are you feeling?"
"Fine, why would you ask?" I said, my body relaxed and returning to normal.
"She doesn't remember." Neji said, still not seeing me but they had brought him to 'Tenten's room.'
"Why doesn't she?"
"Because it damaged her memory at the instant, even though you didn't get to her brain, her memory had damage indirectly." Neji completed. "How are you feeling?"
"I don't know why I couldn't wake up, or why I'm in the hospital. I just am and then after… well. I was trying to find my friend and I almost fell down the stairs, so I didn't try that again."
"So that's where you went." Tamari asked.
"Yeah, I was right outside; I was just a little over jumpy. Can I talk to Tsunade alone?"
"I'll go get her." Gaara said, the others left her room.
"Your friend said that you needed me here, so I came. That's where she was."
"I was wondering." I answered him. Neji walked out, his eyes didn't hold his normal clearness, they were still black and it still scared me. "What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing," I sighed, this wouldn't be easy.
"If that's what you want to tell me Neji, then fine but when I gain up enough chakra I'm going to heal you."
"Don't…"
"Why?" I was confused, why would he want to be blind.
"I need to clear my mind about a few things first."
"Then I demand that while you doing it you stay with me after I find out what happened to me." He nodded. Tsunade came in; Neji walked out. "So what's wrong with me?"
I was told by Neji not to give you the exact details, as to not hurt you but you accidently got in the way of an attack and damaged your body pretty bad, 3 months of surgery and we though you'd never wake up.
"Three months, what kind of attack was it?"
"It was quite similar to the one we did on Lee a few years ago. You got hit in the chest with Sand Coffin." I gasped, that was scary. My mind had only been open for the last few hours, how could this be, three months.
"And Neji?"
"What about him?"
"Haven't you realized, his Byakugan and sight have sealed themselves, he's completely blind?"
"Actually you're the first to notice, I thought you were talking about his strange requests and such."
"What?"
"He wanted us to take his Byakugan away from him. He said give it anyone, he couldn't stand it anymore. He said that it hurt him so much, he couldn't live with it, it hurt him so much." I wanted to cry, had I done that?
"That… can't be."
"He really did ask it, I told him I would do no such thing. He has been in mental recovery for 8 weeks, two after you went, and two weeks ago he came out."
"For what?"
"His family put him in for trying to attempt treason, and trade over the Byakugan. He tried himself to blind himself, but the seal almost killed him." I gasped, why had I left. I was going to cry.
Neji walked in. "I don't want you to cry in sympathy for me Tenten. I know you are, I can hear it. My hearing is quite a bit better than it has ever been. You've only cried three times ever, the deception problem, when you got hurt and you're about to now. I don't want you to, it's okay." Tsunade had long gone, but Neji couldn't see her but he probably knew better.
"Let me open your eyes Neji, do you know what will happen if you don't?" He nodded.
"Of course I do, I'll be put into exile. I'll be kicked out of Konoha and I'll live a life free of what they want. It sounds fair."
"No, I don't want you to leave me. I don't care about your clan okay, I just want you to stop being tortured. I love you Neji, I want you to see. I know the Byakugan is something that hurts you. And I don't want you to hurt but… you see… you can't. It's who you are. You must get over the fact because there is no one who you could switch eyes with except for Orochimaru and then you'd be a traitor, exiled, killed and you'd have to leave me."
"I know but you don't understand."
"You'd die, and you can't leave me. That seal is a small line away from death, you almost died before and left me. You can't," I was now shaking him.
I stopped and looked in his eyes, they were empty, the Byakugan and seal had lifted. He was free but they wouldn't be gone long. He was gone as well, he was lost within his mind, that's why it was so hard for me to realize it was him. He's lost.
---
I hugged him. I placed my hand over his forehead. I was accessing his spirit though his body. "Come back to me Neji, please."
"I can't, I'm free and living without the seal. I can't."
"The seal resides in your body; your soul can't go on without your body. You can't leave me."
"I know I can't but for just a moment can you let me go free."
"I'll do one better, I'm going to trade bodies with you. Only for a little while but this way you can be free and I can understand you."
"I don't want you hurt." Neji responded.
"I don't care, I have to understand you. I can't lose you. Ready?" He was unsure but I did it anyway.
---
I opened my eyes but I could see everything, through everything and 360 degrees around me, I had the answers to all the questions I had always asked myself about him. I felt awkward in his body, but he was sitting there, lying on his back in my body which was weird.
I knew a lot of people who would be perverted if given this chance but I knew Neji, and he wasn't like that. He could be with his Byakugan but I knew it. Sometimes it went across my mind that he might but I realized he wouldn't do that. He looked around and he smiled, he walked over to me. "Thank you." I nodded. I felt a lot heavier; I was a lot stronger than I was. He was in my body, he was happy because there was no pain, I didn't know how long that I'd be able to hold the jutsu knowing that it wouldn't be a while.
"Take advantage of it Neji; we only have a little while." He was confused for a second, and then nodded. He walked outside and stared around in circles. I leaned against a wall and watched him/me. I activated his Byakugan and looked everything wasn't solid, it was light little lights, and faded lines. I saw everything clearer than I ever could, especially Neji. I deactivated his Byakugan and sat on the ground, I touched the seal and it burned. I guess I understood now how he felt when I helped him. I looked at him and he smiled at me. It was really the other way around but I'm talking our spirits. I looked at Neji's body, the one I was currently in. It was hard to be him, really hard.
I realized that I was getting pretty weak. I walked over to Neji who was just sitting there in my small normal uniform. He was examining my body as I had done his. Then he closed his eyes, he was smiling in a rather stupid looking way but I won't blame him, even when his eyes were closed they were truly open, he could see through his eye lids so he could never rest.
Then I saw him crying, he was smiling and crying. "I feel so great." I walked over to him and hugged my body. It was really quite weird but I wanted to thank him and I was glad I couldn't understand him.
Tsunade came and looked at Neji and I. Neji's body was sitting in the middle of the grass crying tears of joy and smiling and I was examining chakra points in the body and marking them on a chart so that when I was in my body I could easily hit them, it would make for a good team thing.
Then we switched back but Neji was relaxing next to me by the lake. He had his arm around me. I had never seen Neji as such a romantic, that was the truth but he had shown some traits sometimes.
"What was it like to be me?" I asked, just wondering.
"It was the one the best things I've ever felt. I like with you better than being you though. It was awkward and strange but I enjoyed it. I felt so free, but it was gentle but strong, just like I imagined it would be."
"You imagine being me."
"I imagine being everyone, especially you."
"Everyone?" I asked.
"Well a few people really, Hinata, you, Naruto, Hiashi, my dad and mom, and a lot of the time, you. You're always there and I always tend to think about if I was you could I do the things you could."
"I know I could be you, but being you was nice." He looked confused at me. "You don't see it how I see it, you have an amazing ability to see things that no one else can, it's a gift. I know it hurts, I found that out the hard way but you need to see the positive things, you're strong and handsome." He looked at me like I was being strange. "Hey you are, I'm sure I've told you that." I rolled my eyes. "I'll never forget what it were like to be you."
"Me too," He said gently. He held me close to you and breathed. "It's a lot more comfortable hugging you in my own body." I nodded.
"Neji, have you ever used your Byakugan to look at people."
"Yeah, all the time, their chakra patterns and weak points; that's what it does." He answered.
"Like…" I sighed. I'm sure I wasn't the only one wondering that.
"Point please?"
"Have you ever tried to look at me with your Byakugan?"
"I told you that."
"You don't get it."
"No, I don't."
"I mean like Kakashi's books. Have you ever looked at me like that?" He was shocked and quite surprised I would ask that. He looked at me suspiciously. "Have you?"
"That's the lowest form of Byakugan abuse, it is considered high crime. We consider that a high crime, we do not treat people like that. We are an honorable clan Tenten, why would you even think that." Because I can.
"Have you ever though?" I asked. He just stared back at me. "You have haven't you?"
"What, I don't see where you're coming from."
"I would have never guessed."
"What?"
"That you misused you Byakugan."
"I didn't."
"Sure, tell the truth to me."
"No, I really haven't ever done it Tenten." He then smirked. "What if I had, what would you have done." He obviously hadn't but I enjoyed tormenting him.
"If I knew that you were doing it, I would have probably slapped you very hard." He smiled, that was the only answer he needed.
"That's all the answer I needed, we really aren't allowed to misuse our bloodline trait, if I had you would know because I'd been beat up, and possibly dead. I've heard of husband in the main house using it on their wives to entertain themselves but that's allowed, not buy unmarried branch house children."
"And you?"
"I'll tell you in a few years." He said smirking; I smacked him hard so he got from daydreaming. I kind of doubted he was thinking about it, he was torturing me but it was working.
The Reasons Why… They Switched Bodies:
1. She was unconscious.
2. She wouldn't wake up.
3. She wasn't asleep.
4. She might be dead.
5. She might as well be dead.
6. He was lost and lonely.
7. She didn't want to wake up.
8. 3 months away from her.
9. Coma because of Sand Coffin.
10. Byakugan caused him pain.
11. She loved him
12. She wanted to understand him.
13. He wanted to be free, and see throw her eyes.
14. He threatened to kill himself and die.
