Ch.3.: The Ghostly Compound
"So…you've finally become a gennin." Sasuke smirked at his friend who now was sporting a brand new Konoha headband on her forehead. Over the last two years, she had started wearing bandages around her arm or leg aside from the forehead ones and a weapons pouch. Her features had also slightly changed, no longer so childlike.
"Yes, and in a year you also will." She answered. They were leaning on the same tree where they had hugged each other two years ago. Both of them had just finished earlier a training session. The last one.
"Top of the class, I suppose." Sasuke remarked what he already knew. He was absolutely sure that it would only boost her already high ego, yet he needed to confirm it.
Neji smirked arrogantly and nodded.
"You suppose well, and when you graduate, I hope you also end up at the top." The girl reminded him smugly.
"Tch. It's good to know how little faith you have in me." Sasuke scoffed feigning hurt, still sporting his smirk. Even being the stoic beings they were, between each other they actually joked –even if it was almost every new moon.
Neji shook her head with a small smirk playing on her lips. Her all-seeing eyes were closed and her arms were in their usual crossed position.
"You know this will be our last session, right?" Neji broke the silence. Her breathing was steady but the permanent frown on her face was in place.
Sasuke's smirk transformed into a scowl.
"Yes. Since you now are gennin you'll be busy with missions, training, and all that stuff." Sasuke said, repeating the words Neji had pronounced two months ago.
"Since this is our last training session I'd like to take you out for lunch." She offered before walking away.
Sasuke nodded and followed her. They already understood perfectly each other without the need of using words. As when Neji proposed something and immediately trailed away, it was a sign of 'follow-me', or when Sasuke sat under the tree and closed his eyes resting his chin on his folded hands, was a sign of him wanting to talk –which rarely happened.
"Well, you know these meetings are to be kept secret, so…do you know someplace where we won't cross paths with people we know?" Neji asked him as they were walking out of the clearing. The secrecy of their friendship was something they both had agreed on. Sasuke did not wish for anyone else to know about his planning for revenge against his brother, and it wasn't on Neji's best interest for the Main Family to know she'd been delving into the Hyugas' secret techniques.
Sasuke thought of it for a moment. The ramen shop was discarded. Narruto and almost everyone went there since it was right in front of the Hokage Tower. The dango shop was in front of the gates –and it reminded him of Itachi- so everyone could see them. He began inwardly going over all the places where they could peacefully have a meal together but knew none.
"Well, you know about my situation so…how about you go and buy some food, and I cook some in my house. Then we meet there." He suggested.
"I have never been to your house, Sasuke. I don't know where it is." The Hyuga girl deadpanned. They had arrived at the forest's outskirts.
Sasuke gave her his house's address and they parted ways. Even if they had been friends for over two years, as part of their agreement on making their friendship a secret, they hadn't ever gone to each other's houses. There hadn't been the need to.
It certainly was a sunny day as most at Konoha, but that day was closer to Suna's hot and dry weather. Downtown was crowded. Women wearing summer dresses, or tank-tops and shorts with flip-flops, children running around sporting shorts as well as men. The human heat everybody around her was radiating wasn't helping either at all.
Neji was walking through Konoha streets when she spotted her new teammates. Rock Lee and Tenten were chatting amicably outside the restaurant she was heading for. She stopped in her tracks debating herself between going there or searching for another restaurant. However, Sasuke had told her that the money his family had left him was managed by the Hokage, and clothes and food were bought by gennin on missions so he couldn't touch his money 'til he was 18 or ninja. Since Sasuke had mentioned once he wanted to try that place's food, she made a decision. The Hyuga placed her best indifference mask and rushed inside the establishment hoping for no one to notice her. No such luck.
"Oh, Neji-chan! My youthful new teammate. The flower of our new team!" Rock Lee exclaimed and she inwardly cringed. She continued approaching the counter trying to ignore the overjoyed shouts. But that day luck wasn't on her side.
She turned around to see Lee waving at her and Tenten pretending not to know him. Lee had his black hair braided and Tenten his breast-long hair tied into a ponytail with a bang over his face. She turned away and focused on what she had initially intended to do.
"Good afternoon, sir." She greeted politely to the young man on the counter. He was a young man –or probably a teenager- with brown hair and honey eyes. He appeared to be bored to death and it seemed like he was slowly dozing off.
"Good afternoon, how can I help you?" he asked a little startled shaking his head as if wearing off the somnolence. He leaned over the counter slightly to see her better.
"Could you please give me two orders of…" she glanced over at the menu. "Skipjack tuna, takeout please."
"Would you like something to accompany them? We have rice balls, fried rice-"
"Rice balls, please."
After she paid for the meal, the only thing left to do was waiting. Neji sat at a nearby empty table, but to her misfortune, Lee hadn't gone away yet and approached her merrily, almost with a spring on his step.
"Neji-chan! What brings you here to this excellent food establishment where we can-"
"Lee, shut up." Tenten scolded him smacking him on the head, sensing her new teammate was almost at her wits' end. The taller boy gave Neji an apologizing look.
"Excuse me but I have to get going." She bowed and rushed for the girl's restroom hiding in it from her rumbustious teammate, much to her dismay.
"Mrs. Hyuga, your order is ready!" The counterman finally announced to which she made a beeline from the restroom to the counter, only earning her a weird look from the guy.
She bowed, muttered a 'thank you' for the food, and headed towards her next stop. When she rushed outside, she noticed Lee and Tenten weren't in sight. A sigh of relief escaped her lips.
The market was packed and it being a sunny day didn't help much. She was sweating and her hair was sticking to the back of her neck. Neji finally got tired and tied it into a high ponytail. Then the Hyuga took off her short-sleeved jacket, tying it around her waist and proceeded to the fruits' stand.
An old lady with her white hair tied into a tight bun was in charge of the stand, and a boy around her age with sandy hair and a ninja protector on his neck–who seemed to be the woman's grandson- was being bossed around by the lady.
"Tamaki-chan, weight this watermelon!" "Tamaki-chan, receive the change!" "Tamaki-chan, pick up that apple!" "Tamaki-chan, isn't that young lady pretty? Go help her." Was what she heard. The boy complained but his grandma pushed him towards her.
"Err…Good afternoon, how can I help you?" Tamaki asked her, sporting an embarrassed grimace at his grandmother's antics.
"Good afternoon, could you give me 10 tomatoes, please." she asked politely, her expression blank.
The boy quickly went towards his grandmother and the woman picked the tomatoes herself.
"Ask her name, Tamaki-chan." The woman 'whispered' while giving him the tomato bag.
"No! I don't want to." He complained a little bit louder. People were starting to stare at the odd granny.
"If you don't, I'll go ask her and introduce you. Do you want me to do that?" The grandma threatened. She surely was persistent.
The boy only whimpered slightly and looked horrified at his grandma. He spared a last glare at his granny and approached Neji with the tomatoes bag.
"It would be 126 ryo." He said to Neji. The Hyuga was inwardly scoffing at the granny's antics.
She paid him and was about to walk away when the boy asked her.
"Ehem…excuse me, but…what is your name?" Neji just stared at him unperturbed with her aloof attitude. The boy looked back at his grandma who gave him a threatening glance. He looked at Neji and back at his grandma not knowing what to say 'til he spoke. "Name's… Sekonda Tamaki."
Any other day Neji would just have left, but this day she was determined to bury deep her bitter self and spend it happily. Also, she had heard his grandma's threat, so the girl pitied him.
"Hyuga Neji." And with that, she left.
The market was more packed than when she had first arrived, so it was a tad more difficult with all the people there. However, in the end, she managed to escape the civilians' horde.
She followed Sasuke's instructions and arrived at the ex-Konoha police headquarters. The Uchiha crest stood proudly on the abandoned building, and Neji remembered some class with Mizuki-sensei where they had learnt that the Uchiha were the founders of the Konoha police.
She continued walking until she arrived at the outskirts of what looked like a small village –no, compound- and a big open gate with the Uchiha crest on top of it. Sasuke had told her that his house was the one at the very end of the main road, so the girl only had to walk in a straight line.
Neji remembered when she was younger and her older cousins used to try scaring her with ghost tales of dead Hyugas who came back after dead, or ghost desert villages. When she was four, those stories hadn't scared her, but now she felt as if she was inside one of them. A dead silence reigned over the compound. The window crystals were darkened with a thick layer of dust on them. Old shop announcements had turned yellow for the time and the same atmosphere continued all throughout the compound. Neji questioned herself if such a massacre ever occurred to the Hyugas, the compounds would look like that after a few years. The thought itself made her shudder.
Neji finally arrived at the end of the street where a house slightly bigger than the rest stood tall. It looked kind of rusty, but with her ninja trained hearing, she could hear some movement on some part of the house.
She grabbed the knocker and…well, knocked the door twice.
The Hyuga heard footsteps approaching the door, and a second later it opened revealing Sasuke. He had changed his ninja attire into comfy black shorts and a loose navy-blue shirt. When he saw her, a tiny smile formed on his lips.
"Glad you made it."
She 'Hn' ed', took off her shoes and walked inside. Neji followed Sasuke to the kitchen where he showed her where to set the bags. The kitchen wasn't a big one and was painted a soft peach color with a darker tone on the edges. It was considerably cooler on the inside of the house, so Neji let a relief sigh escape her lips.
"It's very hot outside, isn't it?" Sasuke said noticing how some hair tresses were sticking to the girl's pale face which was positively flushed.
"Awfully so." Was her answer as she rinsed her hands. Her eyes slowly began taking in every detail in the place while setting the food on the table. She stood up and walked over to the sink to wash the tomatoes. Once she was finished, she asked Sasuke for a knife and a cutting board. The Hyuga began cutting the tomatoes into thin slices before cutting them all over again into smaller pieces. She asked Sasuke for a bowl, and once it was in her possession she emptied the tomatoes there.
Sasuke was carrying some plates, chopsticks, and teacups to the table. Neji took that as her cue to begin placing the food on the plates. The Uchiha went to the stove and returned with a steaming kettle. He poured green tea on them and sat seiza style, Neji mimicking him. They both thanked for the food, broke their chopsticks and began eating in utter silence.
The silence was comfortable and the food delicious though Sasuke was flickering his eyes between the girl across the table and his food. Neji had also noticed the stares but kept her mouth shut. Finally, after a couple more glances, she finally adressed it.
"Is something the matter?" she asked, her eyes pinning Sasuke's. The Uchiha held her stare without flinching, but hesitation was written all over his face.
"I've been wanting to ask you something for some time now…may I?" he questioned, surprisingly asking for permission instead of just shooting the question. Neji stared at him, confusion denoting in her eyes 'till she nodded.
They had stopped eating. Sasuke placed his chopsticks on the table and locked their gazes. He thought –was sure- it was a touchy subject, but he might never be able to talk to her again- or at least in a very long time. He needed to know. They were friends after all.
"What do you hide under your bandages?" The Uchiha cautiously asked.