"Neji, what makes you think I'll let you go and hang around by yourself down there? Don't you know how dangerous it is for someone of your status...? I won't allow it." Neji's father growled at him, upon hearing Neji's request to do whatever he wanted unsupervised. Actually, before he even said anything at all he laughed at the boy. Neji couldn't believe how un-fair that was and was about to get angry and talk back when General Izuro cut in.
"Sir, I believe Neji should be allowed to do this. However, unsupervised is a stretch...maybe you could send someone down with Neji? To watch him and make sure nothing bad happens?"
"Hmm..." he considered this for a moment before waving his hand as if he didn't care about the conversation anymore. "I don't care very much for this topic anymore. Fine, let Neji do what he wants." Neji was about to smile as wide as he could before his father continued with, "however, I want someone to go with him...hmm, how about Izuro."
Both Neji and Izuro expressed how much they hated this silently, only letting the emotions play on their faces rather than speak back to his lordship.
"It's settled then, Neji can do what he wants as long as the general is with him." he dismissed Neji and with a huff the boy turned and walked down the hallway. He didn't care about this at all. He lost the general's trailing watchdog scent, he could do it again. He was just happy that he could go and see Sasuke and Gaara again.
After Neji ate a silent lunch with his sister and the general, he was supposed to see his father again but he couldn't really think of anything else other than his plans for that afternoon. He had it in his head like this: eat, say no to every suitor brought before him but pretend as if he considered them for a short moment, then go down to the commons and separate from the general to find his new friends. He smirked to himself knowing that his little visits to the commons would cut into the general's alone time. Neji really enjoyed it when Izuro wasn't happy and he could really tell that this bothered the general.
"Neji, please don't just say no to every girl brought before you. It really angers your father to no end and I think he is planning to take drastic measures..." the general ground out each word so that Neji would understand the full extent of what he meant. Neji understood but didn't care, his father would never hurt him in any way if anyone was going to get hurt for this constant stubbornness it would be the general. 'Which is the only reason this fool really cares...' thought Neji.
"I consider each one carefully. I am not just going to choose some boring as hell person to spend the rest of my life with..." when really, Neji just didn't want to spend eternity with a woman.
"Look, if it's really that much of a problem then no one will care, not even your wife, if you have several bed mates as well! You can have a wife for formalities and then you can sleep with a different woman each night!" Neji scoffed at how disgusting that sounded.
"Perfect! Not only do I have to deal with one terrible to live with hag I get a different one each night! How wonderful that sounds!" the sarcasm was as plain as day and it ended the conversation as there was nothing else to say.
They made it to the main room and Neji wasn't greeted by some women who looks like she spent days doing her make-up and choosing just the right clothing, instead he was just greeted by his father and sister.
"Neji, my son, today you do not need to worry about suitors and making yourself look nice for another family and woman. Instead I want you to just go out and have fun with your new found friends in the commons..." his father said with no hint of deceit or anything else. It still made Neji suspicious.
"Why...?"
"No reason Neji, none at all. Today I'm just focusing on Hinata so I don't really need you hanging around if there is no reason for you to be." Neji still wouldn't take this as an answer. His father was notorious for deceit.
"Father, I must politely ask that you tell me what your plan is."
"Son, I must politely tell you that if you don't get out of this room right now, I'll see to it that you are never allowed back to the commons again." His father was clearly losing patience. So Neji bowed his head and left, the general was silent the whole time and seemed to show no emotion while that was going on. Neji decided that he would dig the general for information later, right now though, he had to go find Sasuke and Gaara.
When Neji found some clothing that wouldn't make him look too rich he left for the commons. He tried just leaving without the general but the second he left his room Izuro was on him like the faithful dog he is and wouldn't leave for any reason at all. Neji had a plan anyway, so he wasn't crying in defeat just yet.
"Izuro, I need to stop by the doctor's for a moment...would that be okay?"
"Hmm...whatever..." Neji celebrated silent victory at how the general was zoned out of the whole situation. He wanted his alone time so it was clearly obvious that he was going to get it one way or the other.
They made it to the doctor's house, with Neji so much more excited than his usual trips that he enjoyed the walk even more than usual. The general was ready to kill himself at the fact that Neji wouldn't shut up the entire time. 'Perfect, my plan is working perfect!', thought Neji. They entered and were greeted with Ginji who was surrounded by bottles and bottles of alcohol.
"Neji! How good to see you~" said a cheery Ginji, who offered Neji something to drink and Neji just shook his head. "So, why are you here...it's not your usual check-up day...is something wrong?"
"No, I was just wondering if you had anything in that pile of booze for my dear old friend here..." Neji said with sarcasm on the words 'dear old'. Izuro got angry and was about to protest when he noticed his favorite cheap bottle of alcohol on a dresser. He made a beeline to it and picked it up,
"...May I?" said the general, disbelief that he could find this again.
"Of course, drink as much as you like. In fact...you can be my drinking buddy until Neji gets back, how does that sound?" Izuro put the bottle down, in refusal due to orders he was given to watch Neji like a hawk but Ginji continued, "You can't go around drinking that in public at this hour, general."
With that said, the general just waved Neji goodbye and grabbed the bottle again, sitting next to Ginji to get ready for a long day of drinking. Neji wanted to cry at how perfect this plan was and he just had to find a way to thank Ginji later.
Neji trailed along the river, since it was the last place he could think to look for them. He tried everywhere and figured it would be better to just look in the last place he saw them. He wanted to cry at the thought of never finding or seeing them again but he still didn't give up. 'What if they are hiding from me because they don't want to be friends with me? What if they find me annoying because I want to be friends with them and they don't?' Neji thought as he decided to give up. He turned around and started walking back along the river to the path. So he could go home and sit in solitude until the day his father gets fed up with having him around and marries him off against his will. He wanted to cry until he heard,
"Neji!" A smile broke across his face and he spun around to see Gaara and Sasuke in the direction he just turned from. He ran over to them and said, "Hello, Gaara, Sasuke." while nodding to them.
"What are you doing down here? Did your father say it was okay to hang out with us down here?" asked Gaara, ready to turn and run if Neji tells them his father said no and he actually snuck out.
"Of course he said it was okay. Although, he seemed as if there was something he had planned for me...in return for me going down here. " Neji said, remembering when his father sent him away. He was now very curious to find out what his father was planning.
"Well, it's not like he can have you killed. You are the only son and heir." Sasuke said with a chuckle, which causes Gaara and Neji to laugh a little too. When they were finished laughing at this dark joke they all sat down on the grass. The conversation had a slow start but when it got going everyone was joking and talking. Although it was mostly Sasuke and Gaara since Neji didn't want to talk about himself. He didn't want his friends to become jealous and hate him. Whenever they would ask him a question he would beat around the bush with the answer and then change the subject.
"Why don't you answer our questions?" Sasuke asked, finally losing patience.
"Well I just...I don't know...I don't really like talking about myself."
Gaara cut in, "Well, friendship isn't a one-way street. You can't get to know us and then let us know nothing about you, that ruins the whole point of us all being friends." knowing that if he didn't say it then Sasuke would say it. But Sasuke wouldn't say it in a calm manner, he would be rude about it.
"Oh well...then ask me questions and i'll answer. But I won't if I find them to be personal."
"You find all our questions to be personal..." mumbled Sasuke before he asked, "What do you think of the general?"
"Anyone can see that I hate that man. All he ever does is breath down my shoulder and invade my privacy. Ever since we were little that was all he was good for and that was all he ever did. I know I shouldn't hate him like that because I know he means well and really cares for me like no one has ever before...but I just hate him so much."
"Was he always like that? Since you knew him when you were younger." asked Gaara.
"No...when we were younger he was fun and we would play games together until I turned eight. Then I didn't see him for a week and when he came back he wasn't fun anymore and he was always serious. He started getting into my business all the time and watching everything I did. Making sure I was never alone and what not." he sighed and then bit his lip, "Ask something else."
Sasuke and Gaara nodded a moment before thinking of what to ask next, "What do you think of Hinata?" Gaara finally asked, only knowing Hinata's name from hearing it on the streets.
"We are the only siblings we have, so we love each other to death. I thank every moment of my life that I don't have any half-siblings, uh, that I know of. I think out of the both of us, she hates these marriage arrangements the most. She has no choice in the matter, when she is sent to a room to talk with the person and get to know them it's not to see if she likes them...it's to give father time to see if he likes how much money they have. I think that now that we have started this marriage search she has started resenting me. She resents me because I can just choose who I want." Neji sighed.
"Must suck..." said Gaara.
"It does...just curious but...do you guys have marriage arrangements?"
"Sometimes, it's more free than yours though. Ours usually happens when we stay single too long or our parents find someone with a lot of money to marry us off to. But the second one is usually for women." Gaara chuckled, not wanting to brag but feeling the only answer to Neji's question was bragging.
"Well, must be nice." mumbled Neji.
"What?"
"Being able to fall in love." Gaara and Sasuke burst out laughing when Neji said this and he pouted at the two of them. Then he joined in the laughter and when it died down they forgot why they started laughing in the first place.
The conversation continued just like before but this time Neji was answering questions back, finding that instead of being jealous the two boys wanted to know more and more about him. He actually enjoyed not being able to make someone jealous and hate him for the first time ever. When the conversation started to die down and they were about to sit in a comfortable silence they all heard,
"Neji, come on. We need to get going." Neji turned around and upon seeing the general he scowled but stood up anyway. The other two stood us as well, almost as if they wanted to follow so they could keep talking.
"I hate you general...why can't you just stay with Ginji and continue getting drunk?"
"Because, I can't show up drunk in front of your father. He wishes to speak with me later and it would be rude of me to show up wasted."
"I don't think it is, hell, it might even be my dream come true!" Neji said with mock excitement in his voice.
"What would be? Me talking to your father drunk off my ass?"
"No, it might get you fired!" Neji ignored the scowl from Izuro and turned to the other two, "I'll see you both tomorrow then. Sorry I can't stay longer."
"It's fine, Neji, we understand. Just don't expect us out here about the same time everyday. We finished work early today." Sasuke said to make sure Neji didn't think they were ditching him the next day.
"Okay then," Neji said before turning back to the general, "Let's get going, Izuro, you have to speak with father and I have to find and speak with Hinata."
Neji and Izuro turned and left, back to the main path that would lead them to the palace(1) again. Sasuke and Gaara chuckled at how Neji was right, the general was making sure Neji didn't get out of his sight by following behind him like a dog.
They both suddenly wanted to know Neji's entire life story, to know more about this general.
(1) I said palace, even though I don't want to SAY palace. I just can't think of anything else to say...
