Chapter 4 - Shower Gardens
Hyuuga Neji feels like he's watching a toddler. The newest member to the Hyuuga clan, Aki, a sparkling 10-months-old, has a better grasp of the world than Uchiha Sasuke does at present. The poor bastard is looking down at his pathetic excuses of snapdragons, peering down at it like he expects it to come alive and take care of itself. But the shivering sprout just droops over, like a tired grandpa, and Sasuke looks absolutely perplexed.
Neji reads it in his eyes.
I don't think it's supposed to look like this, Sasuke is thinking. And, indeed, he's right.
But Uchiha Sasuke knows nothing of the world of gardening. He knows hand signatures and chakra control and war and betrayal, but he does not know weeding, nor does he have any skills with a trowel. While baby Aki would be protecting his chubby fingers by grazing his hands against the handle of a toy kunai, Sasuke would be sticking the blade into his mouth, floundering, desperate to find something.
So — maybe — Neji is witnessing the failures of something more akin to a newborn than a toddler.
I cannot keep watching this. Neji stretches out from a spot on the engawa, then hops down to prance past Sasuke. Hinata will have a heart attack if she marries a man who will kill all her flowers.
A spike of distaste fills his mouth. Still, the thought of this man marrying her makes him uneasy. He tries to push it away, focusing on the matter at hand. Sasuke watches him make his way to the gate, so he leaves his spot on the warm ground to open it for him.
"When you come back," he mutters, annoyance with his severe lack of knowledge and skill tainting his tone, "bring a fucking manual, will you?"
Neji's tail flicks.
Indeed, that's exactly what he'll be doing.
*** Hyuuga Neji - Little Thief ***
Hinata has a journal of the stuff. A whole folder full of flowers listing how to care for them, what they require to bloom to their fullest, the best places to buy certain seeds — really, it goes on. Her mother had given it to her before she passed, and ever since, Hinata's put it on herself to continue her mother's long collection of flower journals.
Neji has only come in contact with it a few times in his life. To no one's surprise, gardening was never a huge calling for him. But even so, he's seen it enough times to know the general look of it, as well as its location in the Hyuuga estate.
He's making his way toward the main garden at the center of one of the long housing buildings in the middle of the estate. Hinata's chakra is a light flutter in Hiashi's office, so he's sure she'll be busy for some time. Though, well, it's not like he's sneaking around and doing something dubious. It would just be better to take what he needed without having to answer questions.
Really.
Neji's not doing anything wrong here.
If anything, he's doing a generous service towards Uchiha Sasuke. Without his help, those snapdragons will be long dead by the time Hinata arrives — and, again, he does not like the idea of his dear cousin living in such a horrid place.
So this is necessary.
He travels through the garden, the perfumes of flowers irritating his nose. There's a closet in the nearby building, and after checking the perimeter (not because he's some kind of robber, mind you, but because he doesn't want any other Hyuuga to be curious about his being in a gardening closet of all things), Neji enters with ease.
It's well decorated, thanks to Hinata.
The shelves are labeled and seem to have been dusted just the day before. There's a small desk pressed against the back wall, and Neji opens the long drawer at the bottom to come across the file he's been aiming for. It's a white binder stuffed with pressed, lineless paper, all organized in alphabetical order. When he comes across the two sheets titled Snapdragon, he's quick to remove them from the journal.
Really, it's all going rather smoothly.
Until there's a cough at the door, and he turns to find Hanabi watching him, shimmering lips tipped in an amused smile.
"Hum, hum," she snickers. "Is our star genius finding a sudden interest in flowers?"
Neji does not panic. There's nothing to panic about. He's borrowing papers from a journal about gardening — big deal.
Instead, he looks down at her crummy appearance with an inkling of distaste. She's shoeless, her toenails caked with mud, and her hair is tangled in nests.
"Fix your look," he says. "And you're slouching. Straighten your spine. Look me in the eye when you speak."
Hanabi frowns. "You're lecturing me when I just caught you stealing —"
"I'm not stealing," he drawls, "and you're going to need to perfect your approach to confronting someone. I'm not intimidated by a child rolling around in the mud, Hanabi."
She huffs, nose wrinkling. "That's Lady Hanabi, dear, sweet Cousin."
Neji holds back a snort, but he cannot hold back his smirk. "You're not heiress yet, Baby Cousin."
"Oh — will you —" She sighs and pulls her fingers through her mess of hair. Neji winces as a cluster of long, dark strands comes loose, but she doesn't seem to mind at all. "Alright, fine. But the fact still remains. What's up with you needed somethin' from Hinata's journal?"
This is exactly what he was hoping to avoid.
Neji opens the front of his yukata to slip the papers into an inside pocket. "That's none of your business."
Hanabi balks. "Neeeeji—"
"Be more authoritative."
Her sharp eyes blink, and her mouth opens as she seems to understand. After a nasally clearing of her throat, she crosses her arms and demands, "I'm ordering you to answer my question, Neji."
He looks down at her bare feet wiggling against the floor and smiles. "Better." He leaves the closet, motioning for her to follow, and travels back through the garden. "Truthfully, an idiot I know is trying to impress someone, but his gardening skills are atrocious."
It's not a lie. Not at all. But he purposefully keeps it vague in hopes Hanabi will associate that "idiot" with someone like —
"Oh god. Lee again? Is he tryin' to grow roses for Sakura this time?"
Bingo.
"Ergo, I'm borrowing a few pages from Hinata's journal to help him out."
His face is a perfect, ninja face — leaving nothing to be read, to be analyzed. And Hanabi takes what he says without a moment of hesitation.
"Sister knows, right?" she asks.
He stares up at the sky, noting the stream of dark clouds coming in, covering the blue of the afternoon sky. "She's busy with her father."
"I'll tell her when she's done. She'll freak if she finds some pages missing. You know how she is."
He gives a non-committal hum, which doesn't satisfy Hanabi at all, but she only frowns to herself rather than say much more.
When he makes his way to the gate, she stands on the gravel path. The small rocks do not seem to bother her bare feet.
"It's going to rain today," she tells him, "so make it quick."
He raises a hand in farewell, passes the gate, and makes his way back to the alleyway in town.
...
Minutes later, Neji comes hopping down from the Uchiha wall, a guideline for planting snapdragons stuck in his mouth.
Sasuke actually looks surprised when he takes it from his teeth, which has left little indents in one corner of the papers.
"You actually . . . ."
His sentence flutters off, and he begins to read the papers.
Around them, rain begins to fall.
...
It's fine, for a while.
They sit on the engaway, the smell of rain and wet grass surrounding them.
Then that flickering chakra that once glowed softly in Hiashi's office approaches the gate, and they both look up at the same time. Sasuke squints in wonder, placing the papers down before he hoists himself up to let Hinata in —
But Neji?
Well, frankly, Neji panics.
Because those are Hinata's journal papers right in view.
Papers that Hanabi probably told her were borrowed by him just fifteen minutes ago.
Papers that she told him would be given to Rock Lee.
Uchiha Sasuke is not Rock Lee.
And Neji — he's a cat.
And it's a stretch — but Hinata might wonder — and she might use those Hyuuga eyes of her to see that Hyuuga chakra coursing through this strange cat — and all of the sudden, Neji's plans of helping this sad Uchiha out will turn into the exposure of his true identity.
This cannot happen.
"It's raining," Sasuke mutters when Hinata comes through the gate.
She's holding a small, wooden chest with the Hyuuga fan carved on the top. Her hair is dripping, rainwater running down her bangs and into her eyes.
"I'm sorry for the sudden visit, Mr. Uchiha, but I've been asked to —"
Her eyes trail over, and the moment her eyes find him, Neji snaps his jaws around the papers and books it.
...
He's sprinting for, perhaps, a minute.
And then he realizes.
I'm leaving that Uchiha brat alone with Hinata.
The same Uchiha brat who couldn't even present a ring properly. He's doomed if he's not there to bite him if he says the wrong thing.
So Neji finds a bush, pushes the papers under it, and sprints back to the Uchiha estate. He leaps over the wall and lands on the engawa, soaked to the bone, already creating a puddle beneath him. Sasuke is towering over him, shoulders just slightly damp. He's looking at him like he's wondering why the hell he'd bring him something, only to run away with it two minutes later. He looks annoyed as hell, but he says nothing, instead pulling back his sliding door and stalking inside.
Hinata remains outside, sitting, feet perched on the small staircase leading up to the engawa. Her hair is stuck to her face, and her eyes look like clouds. She wrings water out of her sleeves, and then she turns to him once more, blinking.
Neji tries to keep some distance between them. A breeze blows over him, and he shivers and tries to lick at his body to get the rainwater off his fur.
When Sasuke returns, he has two towels in his possession. He hands one to Hinata, who thanks him, before he bends down to Neji's side.
"Don't run this time," he says.
Neji coils when the towel falls over his body, scrubbing up and down his back and pushing down his ears. It's extremely unpleasant, but he's dealt with worse. It will not kill him as Sasuke awkwardly and roughly dries him off (though, well, it does hurt his pride slightly). But then Neji recalls the whole point of him being a cat in the first place is to not stalk Sasuke, but to help prepare him for a future life with Hinata. The image of him drying his own children like this makes Neji wince, so he lets something low rumble through him as a warning.
Sasuke eases up for a moment, giving him a look. "Don't give me that," he huffs. "You're the one who ran through the rain, not me."
Behind him, Hinata scoots a tad closer, momentarily pausing in her own drying.
"Gently, Sasuke," she tells him quietly. "Move in the direction of the fur, or you'll hurt him."
Sasuke squints, but he does not brush off her advice. Slowly, he goes back to drying him, this time much more gently. Maybe even a little too gently, but it's the thought that counts, Neji supposes. Sasuke makes sure to be careful around his face, and after a while, Neji is decently dry. The fur on his belly is still damp, but he refuses to roll over on his back to give Sasuke full access to that part of him.
"What is his name?" Hinata asks as Sasuke throws the wet, furry towel to the side.
"Shisui."
"Shisui," she repeats, smiling. "You're very handsome, Shisui."
A spark of pride makes Neji's dour mood lift a bit, and Sasuke snorts to himself.
"He's a glutton."
I'll kill you in your sleep, Neji spits. Easily.
"You spoil him," Hinata muses. "But I suppose everyone deserves to be spoiled every now and then. And it's clear he trusts you."
"Is it?" Sasuke drones.
Do I? Neji mocks
"If he didn't, he wouldn't have let you clean him. Um. I think."
She presses her hands together, losing courage in her words. She goes back to drying her hair, but then stops again to cover her face as she sneezes. Dread fills Neji's belly as Sasuke peers at her.
"Cold?" he asks.
She gives a guilty smile. "I'm allergic."
They both look at Neji, who is seriously considering throwing himself back in the rain so as to not spur Hinata's allergies. Sasuke looks pensive, and then he stands and motions his chin towards the entrance of the building
"You can come in," he says, eventually. He sounds miserable, like that's the furthest thing he wants at present — someone in his home.
Neji hears it, and so does Hinata.
She shakes her head and pats her hands against the engawa. "I'll have to get used to it, I suppose, so it's fine." She blinks, flushes, and turns to the rain. "And . . . it's a nice day."
Sasuke doesn't argue; instead, he sits between her and Neji and looks at the chest she brought with her.
"Go ahead," he says. "Show me."
Neji steps to the side as Hinata opens the chest, revealing different samples of fabrics and colors inside. He strikes him rather quickly. They're samples for Sasuke's formal yukata: the one he will be wearing for the wedding.
And, again, Sasuke looks like a child, analyzing something he knows nothing about. He peers down at the options, eyes narrow and unsure. He lifts his hand, as if to touch them or drag them out of the chest, but then places it back at his side. Hinata watches him for a short while, understands his predicament, but hesitates to help, as if expecting her offer to be shot down immediately.
Neji has the mind to march over and pick himself, but he fears getting too close will trigger another allergic reaction out of Hinata — so he stays, useless, to the side.
Finally, after a moment, Sasuke says, "I don't know."
"Oh," Hinata says.
"Does it matter?" He looks away. "You pick."
Light brightens the corners of Hinata's eyes — a look Neji hasn't seen in a long time. A look he feared he'd never see again.
"Can I?"
The genuine lightness in her voice makes Sasuke blink, perplexed. He doesn't say anything, but Hinata takes that as her go ahead, so she begins picking out different slips of fabric and holding them up to him.
"Look at me, please," she whispers.
He does, reluctantly, and lets Hinata lean in slightly to compare colors, deciding which would work best with his complexion and overall state of being. When she pulls out a silver strip that shines just slightly in the rainy glow of the afternoon, her smile widens, and that sparkle in her gaze takes over her entire face.
"May I be honest with you, Mr. Uchiha?"
He grunts.
"I think you should wear white more often," she says, gleaming. "It looks very good on you."
Sasuke glares down at the band on his ring finger, face twisted in that odd, Uchiha fashion that Neji now recognizes as muffled embarrassment. His ears perch, and his tail swipes in amusement.
...
The rain turns into a light drizzle as the clouds begin to part, revealing flashes of brilliant sky.
It's just then that Hinata pulls away from the overwhelmingness of Uchiha and notices the beginnings of a struggling life for the snapdragons. Neji can almost see her falling back into memory, recalling Sasuke asking her about the flowers a little more than a week ago.
"You're growing snapdragons," she says.
Sasuke clicks his tongue against the backs of his teeth. "If you call it that."
Hinata hesitates, pressing her hands against the top of the wooden chest, fingers trailing the emblem of her clan. She finds her courage, takes in a breath of rain-scented air, and says, "I can teach you . . . if you'd like."
Sasuke is wordless.
At first, Neji thinks it's that usual, stark, Uchiha silence that fills most of his conversations. But with a tilt of his head, he sees that, instead, the Uchiha is frozen. Stuck.
Neji wacks the back of his arm, and Sasuke stirs.
"Fine," he says, just a little bit breathless.
...
The musings of Hinata's teachings are a gentle song in the air.
The sky clears, and sunshine once again falls over the Uchiha estate.
Neji tries to focus. Really, he does.
But there's a patch of sunlight calling for him, and for some reason, he cannot ignore it.
So he curls up in it, feeling warm and at peace, and falls asleep.
...
He's awakened by the tickle of nails against the top of his head, which feels absolutely heavenly, and peeks an eye open to see Hinata standing in front of the engawa, leaning down just a bit to scratch his head.
"Goodbye, Shisui," she says, her other hand covering her face. "Maybe I'll see you again."
She makes her way to the gate, pushing it open with ease, before forcing herself to stop. Neji raises his head to find Sasuke next to him, sitting. Hinata stays by the gate, waiting, becoming pink with shame the longer she stands there. It's clear what she's hoping for, but Sasuke is completely oblivious.
Hopeless, Neji sighs in his head.
He hops down and circles around Hinata, keeping enough distance to hopefully not cause any trouble. After a while, he sits and stares at Sasuke expectantly.
When he gets it, he stands. "Ah."
Hinata looks as though she could melt. "I-I'm sorry. I should have just left. You don't have to force —"
"On the way there," Sasuke interrupts, voice gruff, but expression anything but, "you can tell me about . . . hydralias."
Hinata does not correct him. She simply smiles and follows him in the direction of her home.
And unlike before, Neji feels no need to stay with them, to look out for his cousin.
If anything happens, she'll be able to deal with it herself. Though he doubts that Uchiha will do anything at all, considering how absolutely inept the fool is.
Brimming with amusement, Neji makes his way out to retrieve the hidden papers under the bush.
...
Back in the alleyway, Shisui (even he's gotten to referring to the cat as such) doesn't look very pleased at all.
"I know," Neji sighs, "I won't make us run in the rain again — but you understand it was a dire situation."
They both look at the papers, totally ruined, and he frowns.
The cat purrs and rubs its face against his legs.
...
"Hinata." He finds her in the garden, staring off, not really focusing on anything in particular. She doesn't even regard him when he calls out, instead peering at the collection of colors before them. "I've returned with what I've borrowed - though, well, they're not exactly in perfect condition."
She turns, and he presents the ruined papers.
"I apologize," he says.
She shakes her head, smiling. "It's fine, Neji. I have copies."
That does make him feel slightly better, and he turns the subject onto her. "Are you alright?"
Hinata hums, as if wondering about that question, herself. Unconsciously, her hand plays with her ring, and Neji watches the black steel shine in the fading sunlight.
"Yes," she whispers, "I think I am."
She's not lying.
Neji believes her, and his heart nearly stops.
"Good," he says. "Good."
She turns, smiling at him, and then quickly looks away to sneeze.
"O-Oh dear."
Neji blinks down at himself, notices Shisui's fur on his clothes, and gapes, horrified.
"Don't worry," Hinata sniffs. "Sasuke has a cat. I think it's still stuck on me."
Neji says nothing, but that night, he sneaks out of the complex to buy two packs of lint rollers that he stores in a drawer in his room, away from the curious eyes of the Hyuuga —
You know.
Just in case.
Chapter 4 - End