Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Rosemary For Remembrance ❯ Snowdrops ( Chapter 5 )

Title: Rosemary For Remembrance

Author: Sintari

Summary: Hyuga is a house with many rooms. A Neji & Hinata-centric fic. Expect madness, love, sex, and murder.

Rating: G for this chapter; eventually up to NC-17

Genre: Het. Drama/Angst. Yaoi will be mentioned. Naru/Hina (for now?).

Spoilers: Up to Manga 238; Timeline diverges after that chapter

Archive: Scimitar Smile, FF.net

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

 

AN: I apologize to any readers who may have been following this story on Mediaminer! You guys get this chapter a lot later than everyone else. It just slipped my mind to put it up until today when I received a review from here. Oops… (Thank you so much endless_calendar! I really appreciate the feedback!) If anyone else follows the fic here, I would appreciate you dropping me a line. Constructive criticism would be even better. ^_~

 

 

Chapter 5 - Snowdrops

 

The eagle suffers little birds to sing.

 

- Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus

 

Reports filtered in quickly. There had been a disturbance in the Wave Country. Uchiha Itachi was dead, Orochimaru gone to ground, Uchiha Sasuke disappeared.

 

Uzumaki Naruto returned to Konoha before his status could be upgraded from “missing-in-action” to “missing-nin.” Directly after he reported to the Hokage, he proceeded to the ANBU's favored tavern where, as the proprietor confided to Neji, he drank for hours with the deliberate arm motions of a man looking to get stinking, sodden drunk.

 

Hinata couldn't come and check on him herself, of course.

 

After taking money from Naruto's wallet to settle his bill, Neji situated one of the shorter man's arms around his shoulders. He scowled at the sickly sweet smell of alcohol - it wasn't just Naruto's breath, it was radiating out his very pores. For a few seconds, his head lolled into the crook of Neji's neck. Just as he did everything else, Naruto had done a thorough job of getting himself trashed.

 

“I'm fine,” he muttered as the tavern door swung shut behind them. As they neared his apartment he straightened up and muttered it again. Neji was surprised to see that he was telling the truth. Neji had never allowed alcohol into his body, but even in his inexperience he knew that going from falling down drunk to reasonably sober in the space of a few minutes walk was a remarkable feat. Naruto's constitution really was phenomenal.

 

Neji stopped abruptly in the middle of the street.

 

“You seem recovered. I should go.” Though Naruto had done much for him, they had never had the chance to become close. Neji began to excuse himself without a goodbye.

 

“Wait,” Naruto clapped a hand on his shoulder. “She sent you, didn't she?”

 

Neji glanced around, searching for witnesses to their conversation, though they both knew that, in Konoha, just because you could not see an eavesdropper did not mean they weren't listening.

 

An almost imperceptible tilt of Neji's chin answered Naruto affirmatively.

 

Naruto grinned a little at that.

 

“Come up with me. I'll warm you up some curry. It's the least I can do.”

 

Neji began to beg off but Naruto persisted. “I need to talk to you.”

 

So he found himself following Naruto up a set of back stairs so rickety that he thought it might be wiser to leap over them altogether. Out of politeness, he took the stairs, but made sure to follow exactly in Naruto's footsteps.

 

There was no drunken fumbling with the keys - Naruto truly was sober. He opened the door and flipped on the light switch to reveal, well, exactly the type of apartment Neji would have expected of him. Naruto's apartment was a typical bachelor pad, with more attention to the food in the refrigerator than the décor. He couldn't say much. The notes on the wall and the magnets on the freezer door already proved the small apartment more personalized than Neji's own quarters. Out of habit, Neji glanced all around the apartment before he stepped in. Naruto quickly crossed the kitchen and shut the bedroom door, concealing a mess.

 

He scratched his head, grimacing slightly. “I'm scared to go in there. I've been away for awhile. Well, you know that.”

 

Neji took up a position in front of the door, his arms folded across his chest. Naruto pawed through the freezer, finally emerging with two glass bowls filled with a brown mush.

 

“Hinata,” he answered Neji's questioning look. “She makes me curry and freezes it in bowls so all I have to do is heat it up. She's something else, your cousin.”

Neji nodded. Ah, of course. He wondered suddenly if she had been here, following Naruto's footsteps up those dangerous back stairs.

 

Naruto pushed some buttons on the microwave and then leaned back against the counter, his hands behind him gripping the inside of the sink.

 

“You can sit down,” he offered.

 

It would have been impolite to refuse, so Neji took one of the two chairs at Naruto's square kitchen table.

 

“You wanted to talk to me?” he asked.

 

Neji saw Naruto flex his hands on the sink, suddenly uncomfortable.

 

“Just to thank you, is all. Hinata said you cover for us. And I know that you could get into a lot of trouble for it.” He was scratching the back of his head again.

 

“Try not to do that,” Neji said suddenly.

 

Naruto's blue eyes fixed on him, confused.

 

“Scratching the back of your head. It gives you away when you're nervous.”

 

Naruto tilted his chin back and looked at him through slitted eyes, grinning a little.

 

“I guess you would know, eh Neji?”

 

Neji shrugged slightly.

 

The microwave sounded then, and Naruto sat the first bowl in front of the Neji, along with a set of chopsticks.

 

“Hinata is a great cook,” Naruto complimented. “I envy you. I guess you get to eat her cooking all the time.”

 

Neji looked up from his bite of curry.

 

“No.”

 

He watched Naruto begin to scratch the back of his head again, and then stop himself. Neji pretended to focus on his curry instead, taking a small bite. He thought he recognized the taste of the mitsuba she grew in her garden.

 

“It is good curry,” he conceded. He found that he could imagine Hinata standing where Naruto was, washing her herbs in his sink, looking out the second story window at the village below. There would be curtains on the window, of course. Hinata placed a lot of importance on that sort of thing. Just like her garden shed, a place like this suited her much more than a ceremonial kimono and a cherry wood desk in a dark office hidden away inside the Hyuga compound.

 

“And you're welcome.”

 

Naruto grinned at him, and then took a bite of his own curry.

 

“Hey Neji,” he said suddenly. He was poking holes in the curry with his chopsticks. “Apologize to Hinata for me. For worrying her.”

 

Neji nodded then watched Naruto fish around in his kunai pouch.

 

“I bought her something,” he explained as he finally upended the entire container onto the counter. A small parcel wrapped in tissue paper came out along with several kunai, some scrolls and what looked like a bloody cloth. Naruto hastily stuffed everything back into his pouch before unwrapping the parcel.

 

Neji saw the silver chain first, then the matching dove pendant. Its eyes were made of shiny black chips of stone. He remembered a dove in the Hyuuga courtyard when he was a child but brushed the memory aside.

 

“I know it's not much, but it reminded me of her.” Naruto was explaining. “And she can't wear anything I give her because of… Well, obviously. So I thought she could pretend she bought this herself. Or she could say you gave it to her.”

 

Neji did not remark on the impropriety of that suggestion. Naruto seemed anxious enough.

 

“I'll give it to her,” he assured the other man.

 

“And tell her I want to see her tonight at the lake, but I'll understand if she's mad.” Naruto's eyes moved to the window, to his view of Hyuga's walls. “Tell her I'll wait for her.”

 

Neji already knew that he would.

 

()()()()()

 

ANBU headquarters, like any bureaucracy, provided a breeding ground for rumors. It became common knowledge that, after the mysterious incident with Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto took the toughest missions: the solo assassinations, the months-long deep cover assignments, and the volunteer-only tasks.

 

Tales of his heroics - or, some would say, his recklessness - followed him back to Konoha. Naruto supposedly pitted himself against insurmountable odds, sometimes even endangering his teammates. Neji attributed the nastier rumors to the attitude the villagers had always held toward the orphan. He would defend Naruto when he had the chance, citing his fellow ANBU's inexorable urge to help people. Neji never forgot that Naruto had even thought to change Hyuga once - back when they were so much younger, before the ways of the world were so clear.

 

Once in a while he still mentioned his ambition to become Hokage.

 

Yes, some of the rumors were nasty; that was inevitable. But everyone conceded that Naruto had a demon's luck. And after years of proving himself over and over again, no one really expected it to run out.

 

Then reports filtered in that the Hidden Village of Grass was holding a friendly blonde weapon smith's apprentice for questioning as a possible Konoha nin.

 

It was a game all the hidden villages played. As Yakushi Kabuto had proven, some spies lived double lives for years. Naruto had been sent to steal a set of documents regarding Sound's movements subsequent to Orochimaru's disappearance, and then exchange them with an altered set. Naruto, oddly enough in Neji's eyes, had already proven himself at several of these undercover missions. Rumor had it that his natural charm tended to disarm people. Neji found that he could believe that.

 

No ANBU squad was sent to retrieve Naruto right away. The Hokage would try diplomacy first. After all, Grass was ostensibly an ally of the Leaf. Catching them with the Sound-related documents put them into a sticky situation, practically broadcasting that they were in the midst of a backdoor deal with Orochimaru's struggling village.

 

Naruto was presumed to be imprisoned. Until five days later when a basket was tossed over Konoha's west wall. It contained the head of the Hokage's envoy - his hitai-ate replaced with one emblazoned with the symbol of the Hidden Village of Grass.

 

()()()()()

 

They celebrated Hinata's twenty-first birthday with a lavish family dinner. As before all major events since Hinata had attained her majority, rumors had flown that Hiashi would possibly step down that night. His father had done the same for him on his twenty-first birthday, after all. And this year, several of the Branch Family elders had been called into Hiashi's office in the days before the dinner. As with years before though, nothing significant had happened at Hinata's birthday dinner.

 

Even if Hiashi had suddenly declared her the leader of Hyuga, Neji wasn't sure Hinata would have noticed. He noted that she forgot to stand up during the toast and had to be prodded by a tug at her elbow from Hanabi. Then she had said “thank you” and sat down before all of the speeches were complete. With his imprisonment, she seemed to have lost all the confidence she had gained in her time with Naruto. It was a tense night, and the family was finally dismissed after the customary five course meal. The Main Family - now consisting of only Hiashi, Hinata and Hanabi since Ojiisama had passed away last winter - stood first, and Neji watched Hinata retreat outside while Hanabi followed her father to their private quarters within the main house.

 

This would be the first time Neji was able to speak with her since her… since the envoy's head had been found.

 

He wasn't sure what made him follow her footprints through the frosted grass, or knock on the door to her garden shed, but he was surprised when she opened it right away, as if she had been waiting on the other side of the door, and then stood back to allow him to pass her.

 

He had been inside her shed a handful of times since the afternoon she had applied her salve to his injured hands, but mostly the small space remained her solitary domain. Today he did not have to duck to avoid drying herbs hanging overhead. So deep in winter, he supposed she had them all put away. Nevertheless, the whole place still smelled like potpourri.

 

“I wanted to make sure you were holding up all right, Hinata-sama.” He stood in the doorway.

 

She smiled faintly then. He noticed that her eyes didn't really focus on him.

 

“I was just putting some tea on,” she said quietly. “There's plenty. I'll hope you'll stay.” He spied a mortar and pestle on her sideboard next to the sink and he watched as she crossed the room and put it away. The shed was as impeccably neat as he had ever seen it. After secreting the pestle in a cupboard, she looked around for a moment, as if at a loss. Her lavender formal kimono seemed distinctly at odds in the unremarkable room.

 

“For a moment,” he agreed.

 

She finally looked at him then. Her wobbly smile grew a bit stronger.

 

“Sit, Neji-niisan. Let me serve you.”

 

“It's your birthday, I should serve you,” he protested.

 

Hinata ran a pale hand through her short hair.

 

“I'm afraid I made a fool of myself back there. I was… distracted.” Both their gazes turned toward the main house.

 

“I don't think anyone noticed,” he lied.

 

The kettle whistled then, and she served the tea. It was different from the tea she had given him that afternoon years ago. Better. He told her so.

 

“Do you think so? I've been experimenting again.” She blew on her tea. “I've had a lot of free time lately.”

 

Hinata was rarely allowed on missions anymore. No one argued with Hiashi that an unmarked Hyuga was too valuable to risk in the current political climate. She was assigned to the hospital almost continuously now. And Naruto was often gone.

 

“The last time we did this, you had bloody knuckles,” Hinata suddenly echoed his earlier thoughts. “I never asked you if they scarred.”

 

Scars he was proud to bear.

 

“I never noticed,” he lied. If she realized the deception, she didn't let on.

 

“Well, let me see.” Abruptly their mugs were pushed across the table and she was reaching for his right hand. “I remember the right one was worse. The one you always keep wrapped. Let me…”

 

But he pulled his hand away and undid the tape himself. There was no point in allowing her to touch him this time. He was not hurt.

 

Soon enough his hand was uncovered, revealing a thin web of scar tissue over the two most prominent knuckles.

 

“Oh! It did scar!” She frowned, seeming to take it as a personal affront. He quickly retied the bandages.

 

“They don't bother me,” he said calmly.

 

“I still wish you had come to me sooner,” she admonished.

 

He took another sip of his tea, looking into his cup instead of her eyes.

 

She stood up then, and went over to window. She pulled aside one of the curtains - they were yellow, with flowers - and pressed her fingertips against the frosted glass. If she could see outside at all, he knew she could only see the inner wall, or maybe a corner of her garden. He supposed it might be the action of looking out a window that comforted her. He had already decided that if she wanted to talk about Naruto, she would bring him up first.

 

“I wonder if he's warm tonight,” she asked the pane of glass. Neji watched her trace a tendril of frost with her index finger.

 

Neji doubted it. It seemed kinder to keep silent.

 

“I've been to Grass,” she continued. “It gets colder there in the winter than it does here.”

 

He watched her square her shoulders. She looked small and cold against the black window.

 

It made him want to touch her. He wrapped both hands around the tiny tea cup instead.

 

“If anybody can escape, he can.” Neji realized that he had little practice at words of reassurance. “Naruto is lucky that way.”

 

“I think he's given up on finding Sasuke,” she said quietly, still looking out.

 

Neji arched an eyebrow. They were not exactly close, but he and Naruto had been paired together on several missions in the last few years. He had never heard Naruto mention his missing teammate.

 

“He was still looking for Uchiha Sasuke?” he pressed.

 

“If it's the last thing he does,” Hinata answered a bit tightly. He wished he could see her face. Her tone was difficult to read.

 

Something made him stand up and join her at the window. He was right. The only thing they could see was the reflection of the light inside. He took her empty tea cup from her hands and refilled it, then brought it back. She looked up at him when she wrapped a finger around the handle. Then she turned back to the dark window.

 

“My mother committed suicide.” Her back was to him again. Her breath frosted the glass.

 

Still standing behind her, Neji nearly dropped his own cup.

 

“It is said that Himiko-sama's death was an accident,” he finally contradicted.

 

“It is said that,” she agreed mildly. She turned to face him again. She looked somehow more solid than she had all night. “But it's not true.”

 

“Why…?” He meant “Why are you telling me?” but she took it to mean something else.

 

“I don't know why, exactly. Why does anyone sew stones into the lining of her favorite yukata and walk into a river?”

 

Neji couldn't meet her eyes.

 

“I have guesses. But I think…” she continued. “I think that a person can die of failure.”

 

Her eyes were steady on his while he digested her words.

 

“I'm sorry,” he said, a bit feebly to his own ears. “Himiko-sama was always kind to me.”

 

“She was a kind woman,” Hinata said distantly. Her fingers were on the frosted pane again.

 

“I should go.”

 

“Or you could stay. Just for awhile.”

 

So he did.

 

It was past midnight when he left her. They sat for hours, drinking cup after cup of tea. Sometimes talking quietly, sometimes just sitting together like parents waiting up for a child out past curfew.

 

TBC…