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Sasuke ruffled a hand through his hair, flicking droplets of water about as he made his way out of the bathroom. Whistling, he slipped on a black tank top and a pair of black shorts before throwing his towel aside onto a nearby bed. It landed with a soft thump on contact with the dark blankets and shook uncontrollably, slowly swelling in size until it resembled a miniature hill. Sasuke stood before it, confused and shocked. That was, confused until a lanky green figure emerged from the mound, immediately deflating it. He was, however, still shocked.
The green creature towered above Sasuke whilst standing atop the bed. Its hair was unruly and pointed in several directions even as fast hands hurried to straighten the hair out. It soon grew tired of the fruitless efforts and leapt off the bed into the bathroom, slamming the door loudly behind it.
Sasuke could hear the squeaking of the shower taps and the subsequent running of water flowing down from the taps and decided it best if he left the creature, his roommate, alone to do its grooming. But as soon as his hand grabbed on to the main doorknob, it appeared from the bathroom, hair now gelled down into a humongous bob. Sasuke examined his roommate's face more closely and nearly did a double-take.
Aside from the shiny bob, the jumpsuit he had mistaken earlier on as skin was shockingly green. Not the emerald green he saw on the earrings of so many girls he had taken out, the jade green colour of the necklace his father lovingly gifted his mother on their 20th anniversary, nor did it resemble the khaki green shades of his Suna training uniform that he so hated long ago. No, it was the dull, forest green that captured everyone's attention due to its sheer lack of colouring style.
The jumpsuit was covered at the forearms and lower legs by orange leg and arm warmers and at the boy's waist were white bandages wrapped tightly around it. To further shock Sasuke even more, the roommate's eyes were perfectly round. Not wide, or doe-eyed, just round. And prominent lower eyelashes to top it all off.
"Hello there! You must be Uchiha Sasuke-san! My name is Rock Lee! May our days together be filled with bliss and the budding bromance of youth!"
Lee fashioned a thumbs-up pose with his other hand on his hip and grinned at Sasuke, revealing a set of sparkling teeth - so sparkly, in fact, that Sasuke had to turn away in order not to blind himself. It strangely reminded him of the man who led them into the Gensho Hall upon their arrival at the Academy, the dazzling teeth, abhorring green choice of clothing and hairstyle. Whether they were related or not, Sasuke really, really, really didn't want to know.
"Might I remind you, Sasuke-san, the beautiful, blossoming, youthful Sakura-chan is someone very important to me and as she is your guide, please do not blemish her or her reputation."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow upon hearing this. There was no way someone like Lee could be able to have a girlfriend, or like a girl for that matter. He was just too...eccentric. But, on the other hand, beautiful, blossoming and youthful sounded like a girl worthy of his attention...
"Hey, you. Who's this Sakura person?" Sasuke asked as he turned around to face Lee, but the boy was already gone. He shrugged, opting to leave for breakfast, when someone knocked on his door. He strode across the room to answer it. A pink-haired girl, the one Sai insulted yesterday, was standing on the other side aimlessly. He leaned on the doorframe, making sure to flex his muscles. "Good morning," he drawled out.
Sakura blushed immediately, not missing his flexing. "Are you Sasuke Uchiha?"
"That's my name," he leaned closer, until his mouth was directly next to her ear, "but you can call me many other names." She stepped back, blushing an even deeper colour.
"I'm Sakura - your tour guide for the day." Her green eyes avoided his gaze, so he waved her into the room while taking off his shirt. She tried not to ogle his - very nicely sculpted - back. "What? What are yo-"
Sasuke laughed before pulling a jumper over his head. "Relax, princess, I'm just changing. Unless..."
"No, thank you."
After Sakura stormed out of his room, he decided to walk along the corridors of the Gensho Academy of the Leaf and mentally plot out the institute's many classrooms and facilities into a mind-map. He returned the dreamy looks directed at him with an arrogant smirk, or a deceptive sweet smile. They'd swooned, of course. His charm seemed to work everywhere he went.
He reached an empty classroom at the end of the hallway, finding it odd that every other classroom was clearly full of students except for this one. He tried to turn the knob. It didn't budge. Perhaps there was suspicious activity happening in this very room, unnoticed or undetected by the other students. He peered in through the windows and saw nothing out-of-the-ordinary. It looked exactly like the other classrooms, only dustier.
Relunctantly, Sasuke shook it off as nothing special. So what, the school has one locked up classroom. There was probably an accident or something. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't rid himself of the nagging feeling wriggling in the back of his mind as he walked towards the staircase leading to the lobby area, this time ignoring the longing glances of Academy girls.
A sudden movement out of the corner of his peripheral vision yanked him out of his thoughts. He turned his head towards the nearest mirror as if to fix his hair, and caught sight of a reflection of a darkly dressed figure just as it miraculously vanished into thin air. He proceeded down the stairs, maintaining a constant pace so as not to alert the new presence of his awareness. He felt it step into the rhythm of his footsteps, halting as he did, and disappear when someone ran up or down the staircase.
Sasuke reached the last step and turned around.
"Gaara, you really don't need to act like a ninja if you want to talk to me."
A redheaded boy materialised from behind a nearby wall and sauntered to him, feet barely making a sound against the marble-white floors of the lobby.
"I have a favour to ask of you," he stated. Sasuke rolled his eyes. Gaara was never one for pleasantries, and neither did he ever consider including them in his conversations. He never beat around bushes, opting instead to express his intentions clearly. He could be sitting in the middle of a sandstorm, drinking his bitter herbal tea in front of a bloodthirsty opponent and not move a muscle. That was probably why Sasuke had on no occasion seen his green-eyed classmate be tactless, impulsive or clumsy around famed businessmen and illustrious leaders. He was not afraid to sacrifice his pride or his life for the sake of his country, or achieve his ambition. The qualities of a ruthless Kazekage, Gaara had. But the title itself, he could not.
"Shoot."
"Keep an eye on Tenten."
Neji swiveled around, frustrated that the girl was nowhere to be seen. He'd only left her behind in the garden, for goodness's sake, and would have left her there completely were it not for Tsunade catching him alone and yelling at him. So he grumbled his way back to the garden, and found no one there. Fuming, Neji charged back to the central plaza, to where she was probably doing some more shopping. That annoyed him to no end, because he knew that she knew he was there, and knew that she knew that he wouldn't make any move to greet her, because people usually came to him.
Neji caught a glimpse of two brown buns bobbing up and down in the crowd and pushed his way forward to grab onto them, only to come into contact with two chocolate ice cream scoops. The melted ice cream dripped down his hands and onto his Hyuga robes. He cringed and looked up at the shocked child standing before him. He broke into a large wail that drew too much attention and pointedly ignored the scathing words thrown at him.
Now, Hyuga children rarely, if ever, broke into insufferable bouts of wailing, so Neji had no idea how to deal with his current predicament. "There, there," he said, lightly patting the child's greasy hair. He curled his lips in disgust, and wiped the grease down onto his robes. An elderly lady sauntered towards him moments later while waving her cane around in the air furiously.
"Oh my, is this the future of the Hyuga clan? You are a shame, young man! How dare you destroy my grandson's snack! You should start learning how to deal with children, you hooligan!" She shuffled away from him to her grandson, and gave him a comforting hug. "Your father will hear about this!"
Neji scoffed - like father cares - and continued down the street. At least, he tried to. The crowd had condensed even more during the happenings of the previous incident, limiting his walking space. One of the only disappointments of this Tournament period is the crowd, that's for sure. He irritably pushed his way through the hordes, glaring at screaming babies and chattering teenaged girls who were clearly truancing.
With a final step out of the multitudes, Neji shook off invisible accumulations of dust of his clothes and straightened them out with the palms of his hands, consequently marring his freshly-ironed Hyuga robes with dark chocolate streaks. They looked like skid marks against the pure white background. He grimaced.
Angling his head upwards, Neji found himself face to face with the very same girl he was looking for. Also, the very same girl who indirectly put him in his current predicament - chocolate-coloured clothing, shopping bags and all. He was relieved to see her unscathed - Principal Tsunade would've beat him up for being inhospitable to a visitor - and so very ready to scowl and condescendingly mock her for not following him at once. He eyed her hair-buns and glowered at them.
"Remove your buns."
"My what?"
"They're too noticeable."
She gaped like a fish and scrunched up her fists. "Keep your perverted white eyes off my butt."
He looked confused for a bit, and finally registered the meaning of her words. Neji scowled. "I meant your hair."
Ignoring her protests, he grumpily pulled out the elastic bands keeping her hair together and felt his breath hitch in his throat as he watched it tumble down past her shoulders to her waist in elegant brown locks. He suddenly grew painfully aware of how nicely her hair framed her delicate features, now twisted in an hostile sneer, of how her tank top revealed am evenly-toned upper body and the rise and fall of her breasts, held back tightly with bindings, of how intricate black tattoos wound themselves around her arms - the marks of a Gensho warrior.
She lunged towards him, effectively catching him off-guard and twisted his arms behind his back at an awkward angle. Enraged, Neji attempted to detangled himself from her grasp and face the brunette with a level-headed gaze, and it was futile. He'd never been in a vulnerable position before, and it was clear she liked to take advantage of those.
"Give me those elastic bands back," she said through gritted teeth,"Give them back, or I'll snap your arms off."
Hyuga Neji looked at the girl - Tenten? - again, and saw a small girl driven by her emotions, and one who had yet to come to terms with her past. She was too fiery, too rash, too...red. He scoffed, and tossed the bands back to her. She caught them with a triumphant smirk as she relinquished her grasp and grabbed her jacket from the floor, hastily hiding a black cape within it. Neji saw a blur of a red and white cloud just as it disappeared into her jacket and froze.
"Akatsuki."
It was a single word, not loud enough to be heard amongst the throngs of the crowd, and too far away from her to be heard. But with that single word, accompanied by a cold, suspicious glare, the brunette stiffened and did not meet Neji's eyes until he appeared right before her, furiously pinning her up against a brick wall.
"I've only ever encountered that symbol in books, and know that the Akatsuki disappeared from the face of the earth 40 years ago. Why do you have an Akatsuki cape? Are you reviving the cult? Are you betraying your country? Your village? The Alliance? TELL ME!" He shook her shoulders violently and roared in her face, agitation, rage and betrayal evident on his aristocratic features. Her lower lip trembled, and within a blink of an eye steeled herself in a metal armour, as was her second nature, like a second skin - the perfect defence mechanism.
Neji released his grip on her, shocked. It was rare, just like how a Gensho civilian learning both shinobi and Gensho techniques was - Gensho students never had enough chakra to fully complete and master the skills of a ninja, that he came across a power like hers.
"Excuse me, but you're clearly the one who needs to calm down right now. Besides," she nonchalantly folded up the cloak to hide the symbol, "You, prodigy-san, are extremely close minded, and wouldn't even believe me if I told you."
His features contorted into a sinister smirk at her words, veins dilating around the outside of his eyes. Tenten's eyes widened - the byakugan. "Try me."
"I found this cape," she started, holding it up in front of her, "buried underneath rags, inside a box, in a dark alleyway."
He jeered. "So what?"
"And this cape was folded neatly inside this particular box." He glanced down at the box Tenten handed over to him; the engraved symbol made his skin crawl. His face paled as she threw the cloak at him. He caught it with one hand.
"How about that, the Akatsuki and the Hyuga clan - working together."
With a shaky hand, he peered down at it. "Who are you?"
"I'm just a nameless orphan."
Disclaimer: Owning nothing!
Pretty dramatic ending, I admit. Please leave a review to let me know what you think of it!
~misspandalily