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"No," I fixate on the woman in Neji's book, mouth agape. "No way."
He nods solemnly. "Yes way."
"I look like her," I point at her blankly. "And you look like him."
Neji nods again, slightly impatient. "The Hyugas have looked like him for centuries," he shrugged, "I've just never seen her before. It's weird."
"So weird. But…not the weirdest? I can't describe it, but I feel like I know her."
"But she's my relative," Neji says, somewhat defensively. "How could you possibly know her?"
I pull the book from his lap and take in the picture. There's a shogun lord knelt down beside his wife, the picture of serenity. Her lips are placed in a slight smile, hands held slightly over her stomach. "I don't know. She feels familiar somehow but I can't place it."
"How so?"
I squint harder. Resting in between the woman's collarbones was a dainty necklace with a carved stone hanging from its middle. Something tugs at my mind. "That," I point at it, "Her necklace. I swear I've seen it before."
He shifts a little in his seat.
I close my eyes, pressing my fingers to my forehead in frustration.
You know that feeling, when you know the answer's right there in front of you, just out of your reach? Yeah.
Shogun lord in Neji's book, married to a woman who looks just like me.
My mother's extensive research. Tenten 1.0, married to a shogun lord. Died in childbirth.
Coincidence?
Neji gently places a hand on my shoulder and pushes it slightly. I look up at him, startled. "That's…my family's betrothal necklace. We've been passing it down generations for years. Well," he pauses in thought for a bit, "We've been passing on the stone for years, and it's just sitting in the family library now. The fabric on the necklace wasn't really built to last for centuries."
I glance from him to the book, to the achingly familiar stone resting on her décolletage. My head starts to hurt unbearably, like it's trying to remember something so distant, yet so close.
"Can I see it?"
The perks of having Neji around is that Grandpa loves him and conveniently forgets that me being grounded exists, and lets me leave the house again. Even if it is because Hyuga Mansion (and therefore Hinata too) is literally twenty seconds away.
Hinata loves it, really.
Just not when I show up on the front doorstep with Neji in tow, looking mildly distraught and asking to see her family library.
"Why? It's late and I have homework," she glares pointedly at Neji, "And you offered to help me."
He shrugs. The motion sends his book bag careening into my thigh. Rubbing my leg, I send him a glare. "I will, after I show Tenten the necklace."
Hinata blinks. "Again, why?"
Neji and I exchange a glance. He quirks an eyebrow, clearly letting me take the fall. I scowl and turn back to Hinata, half-smiling, half-shrugging.
"Fun?"
She closes her eyes and purses her lips, then lets us in. "I'm in the study, let me know when we can compare notes."
When Hinata and Neji compare notes, I imagine it in the complete opposite scenario as me and Temari, where exchanging notes equals asking Hinata and now Sakura what even happened in class. Hey, they're always happy to share - the system works!
Neji leads me past the main staircase, where the memory of Hiashi being his usual unpleasant self and my bad behaviour makes me flinch a bit.
Note to self: talk to Hinata after she's done.
There's a large archway leading into their gigantic library. The Hyugas are known to be one of Konoha's oldest families, and they have the museum to prove it. I'm not kidding. It's floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall of ancient tomes and scrolls to thick books and even artefacts held in delicate glass cases. I can't help but stare wide-eyed at their stands of katanas, their preserved shogun armour, and their pristine, never-ending walkway.
I take a deep breath and feel the history whispering around me the farther we walk down the library. Neji appears unfazed, reaching into his book bag and settling the tome onto a wooden table. He flips back to the portrait and turns around to a display case behind us.
I follow his gaze and land on the necklace. Or, an adapted version of it. I step closer, feeling the heat of Neji's presence behind me, and study the fabric. It's not as intricate as the one in the picture. This one is old, clearly, yellowing at the edges with its former lilac colour now faded. I follow the path of the satin and land on the stone.
It's round, with the colour and luminosity of the full moon. My eyes follow the markings, where delicate lines form waves stretching diagonally across the stone. A lone crane, with its wings spread wide, flies across the ocean.
Leave.
The ache returns, radiating throughout my head. I press my fingers to my forehead again, shuddering. Neji calls out my name but it sounds faint. A millennia of voices explode in my mind, each echoing a different name, a different memory.
Princess. Husband. My beloved.
You are mine, and no one else's.
Our child will have a father. Trust me.
Wait for me.
I come to, kneeling on all fours, ears ringing deafeningly and my heart beating a million miles a minute. There's sweat dripping from my forehead, onto a smooth wooden surface underneath. I blink rapidly, willing myself to slow down my breathing.
In, out. In, out.
My chest rises and falls, each time less severely than the last. The world around me comes back into focus. There's a hand on my shoulder, a voice calling out my name.
I follow the path of the hand, up the pale arm and to the face of someone I've known for a thousand years and less. The face I've dreamed about.
No, not a dream.
A memory.
"Neji." I pause, hearing my a voice that isn't mine speak.
His eyes widen in recognition, and he falls to the ground, shaking. "Neji?"
He's kneeling, arms on the ground and body convulsing in place. Weakly, I reach up to place my hand on his shoulder. "Deep breaths, let your breath fall back into place. In and out." He doesn't seem to hear me at first and gulps several times. And then it stops, his body rises and falls at a steadier pace. Distantly, I realise this must have been what Neji saw me do.
I sit back on the ground, the dawning realisation hitting me in waves.
He sits himself up, back resting against the cabinet with the necklace resting innocently on top. Neji takes a deep breath and turns to look at me with the same haunted eyes.
"My mother didn't just name me after a dead relative," I rasp out, my normal voice returning. Neji shook his head. "Tenten was my ancestor, my dreams and my memory. It sounds crazy but I think that she-I…are the same."
There's a beat of dead, uncomfortable silence.
Neji clears his throat. "You loved roasted chestnuts. You loved your country. You loved your family til death."
My mouth falls in shock, recalling those exact memories. Memories that aren't even in the history books. I nod.
"Your husband loved you…I love you."
"One thousand years you waited," the voice-my voice - speaks again, choking back tears from a past I remember as vividly as the moon, "One thousand years I searched. Where were you?"
Neji, the warrior, the literal man of my dreams, crawls forward and pulls me forward into an embrace. The tears tumble, flowing onto his shirt as I grip it tight. "I have no idea."
School, to say the least, is a surreal affair.
I'm tempted to avoid Neji like the plague, given our…interesting interaction a few days ago.
It feels strange to move obediently from class to class, writing down notes and preparing for exams, and also know that somehow, somewhere along the line, the universe decided to drop this reincarnation bomb onto a high school student.
I have lunch every day, in the cafeteria, chattering to Lee about taekwondo and Ino and Temari about their families and lives. Almost every day I walk down the hallways and grab books from my locker on autopilot, barely registering Naruto accidentally hitting me in the head with a basketball, the times Temari clicked her fingers in front of my face, and the many food-to-chin incidents at lunch.
Because it's hard, okay? It's hard being present when there's years of history following me with every step.
The only normalcy I've been feeling is with Neji, who's probably the least normal person after me now, in this entire school. He brings flashcards - I kid you not, flashcards - to me after class every day and quizzes me on my memories, then his memories, like a true or false game.
Did you have twins? Yes.
Did you die in the war? Yes.
You ran away with someone before me. Yes.
…and what do you remember from…after? I can't remember, he shrugs.
Because somehow, Tenten has been searching her whole after-life for him and I know this for a spiritual fact. There's an afterlife for people who get reincarnated. Like some form of strange meadow filled with spirits, which Neji doesn't seem to recall ever seeing.
Yeah, imagine studying for finals after knowing all that.
…But speaking of studying, it's actually been nice. Not the studying, the company.
The grandparents heartily approve of my daily study sessions at the Hyuga Mansion. And it's actual studying! There's a new system now - Hinata 'encourages' me and Temari to revise, then shares her notes with us and Neji basically becomes the new Umino and schools us all on what organic chemistry is.
It's great, my grades have gone up and Tsunade actually smiled at me in the hallway once, confirming that yes, teachers all talk about us.
And, also, the flashcard history revision sessions that Neji insists on are…nice. It's good for me to engage in my history and compare notes that my mother wrote with Neji's tomes. It's hard to describe, but it makes me feel closer to her when she's probably a gazillion light-years away by now.
Even Neji, who I realise more with each passing day is as reserved as a hermit crab, starts to drop his confident facade and open up a little more. His first time happens on a walk from school to Ichiraku's.
"I live with my mother away from the Mansion," he says quietly, "My family hasn't been the same since my father passed away."
"Oh…" I look down, focusing on the scuffing of my soles against the pavement as we slow down our pace to a halt. "I felt the same when my parents left. I'm sorry you had to go through that." I place my hand on top of his and squeeze it reassuringly. I suddenly register that his hair has nearly grown back to its original length. "You're a strong person, you know that right?"
He smiles. "You are too."
"Tenten?"
We swivel around to the person calling my name, sheepishly pulling our hands away from each other. There's a faint blush on Neji's cheeks.
"Oh hey, Sasuke!" I give him a smile, "Haven't seen you in a while."
He momentarily stares at something between us and smiles. "Just been settling in. Where are you off to?"
"Ichiraku's. There's a coupon we're going to split with the others before we head home. Wanna join?"
He stares - he does that a lot? - at Neji and shrugs. "Sure thing. Wouldn't want to third wheel you, though," he smirks and pushes ahead to our embarrassment.
I catch a whiff of something - chestnuts? - as he walks by, and stare at his retreating back. I clutch at Neji's arm before he follows after him.
"Neji." He looks down at my tone, "His shirt." It's unmistakable, the Uchiha logo. The red and white fan that echoes back to a past memory.
"What about it?" Neji looks confused. Of course he does, he's never seen it from before.
"The man I ran away with. An Uchiha. He was an Uchiha."
"That could be any one of them. They're an old family too," he points out, ever the logician. "Besides," he gently pulls at my arm to keep walking. I follow suit apprehensively. "What are the chances he's been reborn too?"
I think back to the stalker, the paint on my walls, the threats and the screams that haunt me at every turn. Sasuke looks back to where we're standing and gives me a small, imperceptible nod as though he's been listening to us.
Tenten's eyes widen in horror. There's a shift in the air that throws her mind through a loop. I squeeze Neji's arm a bit tighter.
Very likely. Very.