Outcast with a Home
By: Sly Omi
Disclaimer: As pertaining to all chapters herein: I, Omi, do solemnly swear that I do not, have not, and will not ever own any claim to copyrights of Naruto, either in manga or anime form, or any merchandise thereof. I am writing this for fun, not with the intention to make money.
Raiting: PG, and unlikely to go up
Pairing(s): SasuNaru
Warning(s): You are reading this of your own free will. If yaoi or shounen-ai offends your sensibilites, turn ye back now. Failure to comply with this might result in your tender sensibilities being mortally offended, incurring mental trauma on your behalf. However, failure to comply with this also means that it's your own fault should that happen - I am morally obligated to do nothing about it other than laugh at you for not reading the warnings. Oh, and Sasuke plays the flute.
Neji sighed softly and resisted the urge to fidget on his horse admirably, as was his way. His ability to resist twitching was, and had always been, the envy of just about every child and adult in the village, though for completely different reasons. Children envied him because they were always caught by their parents as they fidgeted and squirmed impatiently, and were invariably scolded for it. Adults envied him because they wished their own children were as well behaved as he was – scolding their children as frequently as many did, they were rather embarrassed. Neji was a dignified boy by nature, and had not needed the constant scolding of his parents to discipline him – even before the death of his father.
Though he had not needed practice in discipline, he had gotten it anyway due to his position as the only son of the Hyuuga branch house. After his father's death Neji had been left with responsibilities that he would rather have been without. Responsibility itself was one thing, responsibility that brought him into contact with people on a regular basis was quite another, and yet it seemed that his life's work would be to deal with people just as his father had. Hence the reason he was returning from Sunagakure this very day, from a diplomatic mission to the Shogun Kankuro in the name of the Hyuuga house.(1)
It had taken them the better part of the week, traveling as slowly as they were, to reach the last leg of the trip – they had just reached the three mile mark to Konohagakure. The horse caravan rode on slowly, taking their time to return. There was no rush, after all, on such a beautiful day as this. It made Neji all the more restless. He preferred his feet to his horse any day, though riding was essential to his various missions. Even so, riding for extended periods of time was little more than a test of his patience. Besides, there were things to be done that weren't being done because of his absence.
Beside her young charge, Yuuhi Kurenai allowed the corners of her lips to turn up in a smile. She knew Neji was impatient and anxious to be back home no matter how much he tried to hide it. Or how good he was at hiding it.
"Neji-sama, we're approaching the gates," she said soothingly. "We'll have returned home before sunset, certainly."
Neji didn't turn to her, though his eyes flicked to his left in acknowledgment of her, "Aa."
"Don't be too excited, Neji-sama," Kurenai said, her voice lightly teasing.
As always Neji allowed her the insolence. She was his teacher and constant companion, after all, and not annoying like most girls in the village. He would rather talk to her than most people in Konoha – particularly because she didn't grovel like anyone else. Complaining about it would strip him of that.
"I'll try," he said solemnly.
Kurenai smiled, "I estimate an hour more due to our pace."
They rode on in silence for that hour, until at last the gates of Konoha could be seen down the road, growing slowly bigger on the horizon. Neji never ceased to be impressed by Kurenai's knowledge of their homeland – not that he would ever tell her that. He himself had guessed an hour and a half – but that could well have been his natural pessimism.
"Tell the men to ready the gates," Kurenai called to the man in front of her.
The man nodded and shouted to the two men riding at the front of the procession. The two servants promptly sped their horses in answer to the order. They rode at a quick trot until, Neji saw, they were less than twenty feet from the gates. He could hear them calling up to the guards at the top of the huge wall, and see the impressive gates move slowly open. Then his servants were waylaid by a sudden streak of blonde running in front of their path, causing the horses to start and rear up.
"Shit!"
"Woah!"
"Calm them! – Get that thing out of the way!"
The rest of the servants who had been riding in front of Neji and Kurenai (who were riding in the middle of the twelve others) rode quickly to the aide of their comrades. They jumped down from their horses, attempting to catch the reins of the scared animals before they threw off their riders. Kurenai had stopped her horse and was holding back Neji's, just incase the blonde thing had malicious intentions towards them. Neji strained his eyes to see what was going on in the chaos.
The streak of blonde turned out to be a small child, Neji saw, probably a girl, who had thrown her arms up to protect her head from the horses' hoofs and tried to back away. Being unable to see where she was going, she ended up tripping on a loose stone and fell backwards with a startled cry. After a second of shock she pushed her way back until she was sitting with her back pressed to the gate. Her eyes were wide and scared.
The two servants, having dismounted as soon as there was no imminent danger, shouted at the child in anger as they lead their horses away. One, satisfied that his horse was no threat to anyone, approached the girl with his sword drawn. Neji hissed and kicked his horse sharply and broke away from the rest of the party.
"Neji-sama!" Kurenai called out, "stop! You don't know if this is a trap!"
But Neji ignored her, riding quickly and coming to an abrupt stop between the servants and the child. "What is this?" he demanded, but held up his hand to prevent an answer. His voice was scathing, "Are you going to sever a child's head because she ran into the road unknowingly?"
The servant dropped his sword and fell into a low bow, groveling. The Hyuuga boy snorted at him and turned to face the girl, who had yet to pick herself up from the ground – rather, she had curled in on herself in an attempt to hide from them. Something about the sheer vulnerability she radiated struck a cord in Neji. He turned back to his servants, his eyes cold and glaring.
"Stay there. Do not interrupt us." He dismounted and knelt in front of the child. Behind his horse he could hear the murmurs of the servants as they moved back. Probably wondering what I'm doing. Too bad I don't know myself, he sighed.
This close to the child, Neji could see clearly that this was no girl curled in on herself in pathetic defense, but a boy. A very pretty, very slender boy, wearing billowing white robes. Which explained why it was easy to mistake him for a girl, at least. There were grass stains on and slight tears in the robes, though there was not a single scratch to any part of his body that Neji could see, which he found odd and filed it away for later analyzing, but put aside in favor of more important questions.
"What were you doing running in front of horses, boy? Have you been hurt?" he asked sharply.
The blonde head moved, and suddenly two stunning blue eyes were peeking out from between tan-skinned arms. Neji sucked in a sharp breath. The hair color of the boy was unique on its own. But never before had he seen eyes that shade of blue. The combination of hair and eyes and tanned skin allowed the child an exotic appearance and an angelically innocent face – marred only by three whisker-like marks on each cheek. Absently Neji wondered where the boy had gotten those marks.
The boy didn't answer his question, though, staring up at Neji unblinking instead. Neji wondered if the boy were deaf – or perhaps he really was from another country and couldn't understand the language.
"Can you understand me?" the Hyuuga boy asked.
"... Your eyes are pretty." Neji's eyes widened and he stared at the child, absolutely flabbergasted. His eyes? Pretty! The Hyuuga clan were known for two things: their superior powers of observation and for their glassy, almost sliver colored eyes. But to most people the eyes of the Hyuuga clan only served to make its members more distinctive and odd, or scary even – they were never "pretty". Where in the name of the gods did this boy come from?
Though Neji himself didn't really care, that was probably the best place to start. It wasn't safe for anyone to be caught wandering around without a purpose these days. He narrowed his eyes just a little and asked sharply, "Where do you come from, boy?"
A look of confusion entered the boy's eyes. His arms slowly lowered to his sides, resting in the dirt in spite of the white robes he wore – Neji didn't miss the slight wince of pain, but didn't see any reason to be alarmed by it. His hands clutched at the loose fabric as if it would held him answer the question. Neji had to stop himself from turning his nose up. The boy's brow wrinkled, but his eyes remained blankly lost.
"I ... I don't ... know," he said at last, as if he were just discovering his lack of knowledge for himself.
For all Neji knew, he might have been. He raised an eyebrow nonetheless, his voice skeptical. "Don't know? Well then what are you doing here? Do you know what country you're in?"
The child picked up on his skepticism instantly, and his expression became strained. Almost as though he were desperate for someone to believe him. His mouth opened and closed, trying to come up with a 'real' answer, but it was clear he didn't know that, either.
"I ... I ... " the boy stopped, looking down at his lap. He shook his head. "No. I don't know. I woke up ... there," he pointed to the right side of the gates, "and I didn't know where I was. So I went off trying to find someone, 'cause I didn't see anyone up on the wall, but all I found was a bear who tried to eat me."
Neji's other eyebrow raised to join the first. Normal bears didn't attack humans unless they smelled food or were in danger. The boy, though seemingly oblivious to just about everything else around him, picked up on the skepticism right away and flushed prettily.
"I stumbled into its home accidentally. ... It must have thought I was a threat to its cubs."
That explained it. "And that's why you were running."
It was a statement, but the boy nodded anyway. Neji sighed, knowing what he was going to do next and mentally kicking himself for it. Damn this kid and damn his big blue eyes that got his protective side screaming. "What is your name, boy? Do you know it? Or should I pick one for you?"
"U ... Uzu ... maki. Uzumaki Naruto," the blonde said slowly. He nodded sharply, affirming that he did, in fact, know his name and was giving the right information.
"You know your name, but not where you are or why you're here?" Neji asked, surprised. He'd been fully prepared to find some name for the child, since the child didn't seem to know anything else.
The boy shrugged and pressed himself closer to the wall, as if expecting an attack. Instead Neji stepped back and gave the boy a bit more breathing room. He held out a hand.
"Come on, stand up."
Naruto looked at the hand extended to him for a moment. Then he slowly reached out his own and grasped it, allowing himself to be pulled to his feet by the black haired boy. They stood there, Naruto casting nervous glances at the servants and Neji staring at Naruto's eyes, for a moment. Naruto wondered suddenly if he could sit back down – he hadn't felt quite so dizzy then. The wound on his shoulder, which had been jarred and aggravated repeatedly since he'd gotten it, ached. He could feel the warmth of blood running down his back. The world wobbled and darkened around the edges of his vision.
Neji let go of Naruto's hand and turned away, walking towards his horse and calling over his shoulder, "You'll be coming with us. You were here for a reason, so I'll take you to the Shogun."
There was no reply, not even the sound of feet moving. The Hyuuga boy stopped, frowned, and turned back to face Naruto. The blonde boy swayed a little on his feet, and his eyes were glazed over. Suddenly Neji became aware of a slowly growing stain of red on the stark white robes – Naruto had been hurt in the incident with the bear. That explained the earlier wince, and once more Neji hadn't been observant enough to see that. He swore loudly in his head, all but leaping back to where he had left Naruto, and caught the boy just as his brilliant blue eyes fluttered closed and he started to fall.
"Shit," Neji breathed softly.
He cradled the limp form closer to his chest, reaching under Naruto's legs to get a better hold on him, as he straightened and turned back towards his men.(2) Naruto's blood slowly seeped through the cloth of the boys robes and Neji's hand was getting damp and sticky. "Kurenai!" he snapped.
The older woman rode up quickly, "Yes, Neji-sama?"
"Go and warn the medics. We will go to the hospice before we meet with Jiraiya-sama."
Kurenai nodded sharply and kicked her horse, cantering through the gates and heading straight for the medics of Konoha.
Notes:
(1) Yes, Kankuro, you saw right. I know, I know, Gaara is the Kazekage, but think about it; Jiraiya is acting as Shogun so who says Gaara gets to be Shogun? Besides, Temari wouldn't be allowed to lead the village – she's a woman and they weren't allowed to lead anything. Gaara is off being Gaara-like; and chances are he won't play much of a part in the story at all.
(2) Or, incase I didn't properly word it for a good-enough visual: BRIDAL STYLE. Hehehe. Neji and Naruto, sittin' in a tree ...