Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ This Time Around ❯ chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

Title: This Time Around

Author: posted under skimmilk at mediaminer

Warnings: AU…we'll see where this is going…

Rating: PG-for now

Summary: Hina, Neji, mention of Hanabi, for now.

Pairing: hm…you figure it out…me confused…I got not idea who's gonna end up with who

Disclaimer: seriously, what do you think?

AN: like pulling teeth, I swear…all this, so I can see Neji half-nekkid in Naru's room. Since I wrote the last section in one go, I posted it all in one go…hmm, I didn't realize that it was quite that long a chapter. From now on, I'm breaking up the chapters into bite-sized bits. Chapter two will come in two parts. Without further adieu, Chapter 2, part a.

 

This Time Around: Chapter 2a

 

Hinata was sprawled on Naruto's bed randomly skimming a manga. Neji sat cross-legged beside the bed watching Naruto play solitaire on the computer and continually offering very bad advice. “Seven over the eight,” he turned back to the manga that he was reading.

 

Naruto, face incredulous, turned in his seat and stared at Neji until he looked up, “Neji, the seven and eight are same suit. If you're going to read, then read, if you're going to help, don't.” He turned back to his game, stared at the screen for a moment, then turned back around, “Do you even know how to play solitaire?”

 

Hinata laughed, “No, he doesn't.” She hit her brother in the head with the spine of her manga, “He can play poker though.” He shoved her back, making her roll into the wall beside the bed. She made a questioning noise in the back of her throat, pulling out Naruto's wrinkled Literature anthology from the gap between the bed and wall. She waved it Naruto.

 

“Gah, I totally forgot about that. Thanks,” he took it from her, and placed it on the center of his desk. Naruto reached into his desk to pull out a brand new deck of cards, “How well?”

 

Neji closed his book and looked at Naruto innocently, “Not very well at all.” Hinata laughed when Naruto gave him a skeptical look, not believing him at all.

 

“Neji, I might have believed you,” he slowly began to unwrap the cellophane from the box, “if I had just met you. I don't think that the “innocent” file was fitted into your programming.” He slowly shuffled the deck, watching as Hinata and Neji's hands twitched, wanting to shuffle faster. “Somehow I doubt that this game will be very fair.”

 

Hinata pouted, looking wounded, “Naruto-kun, how could you think that we won't play fair? Fair is my middle name.”

 

Naruto snorted, blue eyes staring at her from head to toe, “This from the girl who told Kiba that you were doing research on Pavlov and Freud, and that gave you free reign to grope him.” Neji's head flipped around, his long, loose, ponytail whipping around to flick Naruto in the head. His “look” visibly stated that there would be a reckoning.

 

Hinata sniffed, not successfully looking insulted, a hint of a grin was shown through her eyes and the dimple in her cheek, “I did not grope him, I was experimenting.”

 

“Experimenting in what exactly, how to train Kiba in perversion?” Naruto distributed the cards, “Texas hold `um, two dollars' the minimum, no limit. Big blind's two and small blind is one,” he reached behind him pulling out a jar of change he distributed that, too.

 

“Nothing, nothing at all.”

 

“Speaking of, where did Kiba go?” Naruto scanned his cards throwing down two dollars.

 

Neji snickered, “Kiba isn't a night person. By ten, he needs to sleep.”

 

Naruto glanced at the clock, “Yeah, uh it's past midnight. Don't we have classes tomorrow?”

 

“Yup.”

 

“When exactly do you plan on going to sleep?”

 

Neji shoved his sister again, “I go to bed around three, Hina will still be awake by four or five.”

 

Naruto eyed them with a little bit of incredulity, “And when do you sleep?”

 

“During Western Civ.,” Hinata laughed.

 

“Nothing better than a nap after a good dinner,” Neji stretched, arms above his head, spine arched, joints cracking profusely. He seemed to forget that he still had cards in his hand. Hinata and Naruto shared smirks when they both saw his cards. Naruto folded quietly, and Hinata won the ten dollar pot with three fives with two tens, while Neji only had two nines and two fives.

 

Naruto smirked, “You two are getting out of here by one. I need to sleep at night, sometimes.” Idly, he scratched at his cheek, rubbing at it for a few minutes as he stared at his new cards.

 

Neji and Hinata exchanged startled looks when they saw scars that were, unnoticed earlier, on Naruto's cheeks. Irritated by the scratching, the skin of the scars stood out a garish red as opposed to the pale pink of the rest of his cheek. The silence was broken by the buzzing of Hinata's phone, “Hanabi? What is it this time?” she frowned, and put her cards down, “Yeah, I'll be there in a minute.” She hung up the phone, heading towards the door. “Hanabi, our little sister, minor crisis.” She waved and opened the door, “I'll see you in the morning.”

 

Neji started to get up, “Wait, Hina, what's up?”

 

She waved him back down, “Stay. Just girl troubles, I'll give you the call and give you the down low when the crisis is averted. No big. Night, boys.”

 

Neji frowned down at his cards, “Playing poker isn't as fun without being able to make fun of Hinata.”

 

“Not that it mattered,” Naruto grinned, “You weren't even using it to your advantage.” He sighed mournfully as he collected all of the cards, reshuffled them, and put them back into their box. Neji threw himself back, on top of a pile of clothes. He got up and frowned at the pile, pulling out Naruto's school blazer. Directing a glare to the blond, he folded it and placed it carefully on his bed. He lay back down, closed his eyes, then opened them when he felt eyes on him.

 

Naruto was laying on his side, propped up on one elbow, eyelids drooping shut—knife thin, slits of blue that somehow conveyed an extreme amount of danger. Neji sat up, suddenly feeling defensive. Naruto traced his free hand along the whorls of his carpet, following the color yellow around and around. “So,” he said, “does Hinata know?”

 

Neji frowned…know what…? “Know what?”

 

“Don't play coy,” Naruto's eyes curved into crescents as he grinned, “you know exactly what I mean.”

 

Neji scowled, there were too many things that he could be asking about, “No, I don't, what exactly are you asking about?”

 

Grinning, Naruto rolled onto his back, one hand behind his head, the other in the air, conducting the invisible air currents, “So many secrets, Neji-kun?” he mocked. Neji froze; Naruto's hand stopped its graceful movements, slowly, his hand became completely lax, his hand dropping to the stereotypical limp wrist motion, a sensual smile playing on his lips. Naruto opened his eyes slowly, and turned to Neji. For a moment, Neji thought that he looked a little like he was stoned, then he realized the implications of what Naruto was not saying. “Does that answer your question?”

 

The last vestiges of his usual detachment struggled to gain control, but his breath caught. Neji hated to admit it, but he breathed more than said, questioned, or demanded, “How did you know?”

 

Naruto closed his eyes again, rolling back onto his back, both hands behind his head, “Everyone has ghosts, Neji-kun, I just happen to see them.”

 

Whaaaat the fuck? Neji started, this wasn't the Naruto of this afternoon—angry, willful, and arrogant—or the Naruto of this evening—playful, teasing, childlike—this was a stranger that, Neji just realized, he hadn't just met. He felt like he had just been kicked in the gut, these strange moods, the strange scars, it struck a chord. What was it? Like a word caught on the tip of your tongue, prodding, trying to get free, Something—with a capital `S'—was telling him, something wasn't right here. Just what was it?

 

“So, does Hinata know?”

 

“No,” Naruto made a questioning noise accompanied with an, almost, animal-like head tilt—how he did this while still lying down…“She may be my twin, but she doesn't know,” Neji ran a hand through his hair, following the length of the ponytail, and pulled out the hair tie. He quickly finger-combed his hair and pulled it back into a neater tail. “She thinks that I just…that I'm just a late bloomer.” He curled his legs up and rested his arms across the top of his knees, resting his chin of his crossed arms. “How did you know?”

 

One hand pulled from beneath his head, he began conducting again, “I just did.”

 

For the second time that night, the awkward silence saved by the ringing phone. Naruto raised an eyebrow; Neji's phone's ring tone was a muzak version of Three Blind Mice. What the hell? “Yeah? So, what's up with Hana, Hina?” Neji frowned then glared. “Wow, she shot high there, huh?” He took the ring off of his right thumb, rolling it around his fingers. “He shot her down? Dumbass.” He growled, “No, she is, I'm not gonna apologize for that. She could have done so much better than him, what is it, Masao…something or other, he likes her. And he isn't a prick.” Neji took the phone from his ear and stared at it incredulously for a beat, then put it back to his ear, “Uh huh, yeah, I'll see ya in the morning. Sleep well.” He hung up, threw the phone in the air and caught it, “Dumbass.”

 

“What was that about?” with that one question, he somehow expressed that Neji could easily tell him to screw himself, and it wouldn't be that big of a deal. Neji smiled, it was a family matter, and Naruto understood that necessity of holding some things back.

 

“Hana, our sister, is a first year. She tried to give a “love confession,”” sarcasm was too light a word for Neji's snarl, “to Uchiha. She got shot down quite effectively.”

 

Naruto ran a hand through his hair, eyes drooping briefly, “Does he get a lot of those?”

 

Neji snorted, “He gets way more than an asshole like him deserves.” He threw himself back on the floor, “All the girls seem really into the arrogant and asshole type. So,” he shot him a tiny smirk, “if you wanna get with some of the girls here, just treat them like trash and they'll be all over you.”

 

“Gah! Apparently that works for tweezer-man, but the girls here are already stalking me. I'm irresistible.” Naruto smacked his forehead with both of his hands, digging his palms into his eyes, “Any advice on how to get rid of them would be much appreciated.”

 

“If you have any, you tell me,” he sighed, “I've told them everything from, “I'm gay” to “My girlfriend gets very jealous” to “I have many venereal diseases,” and those girls still follow me around.” Neji held the end of his ponytail in one hand, waving it at Naruto, “It's the hair. They obsess with guys who have good hair, apparently, you and I, qualify.”

 

Naruto sighed, “So, my best bet, is to chop off the hair, or become a serious dirtbag by not washing it?”

 

Neji let out a brief chuckle, “Yes.” He stroked the end of his ponytail across his nose, “I, personally, would chop off my hair, but the way I figure, my devastating good-looks would overpower the distastefulness of any nasty haircut.”

 

“…uh…huh…er…I hate to cut this scintillating conversation short, but it's one in the morning, and your ass better be out of here by one `o two or it is grass my friend.” Rolling onto his stomach, Naruto grinned up at Neji, “Er, Neji, out of curiosity…that first thing was true, so what about the other two…?” a corner of Naruto's mouth kicked up into a lopsided smirk.

 

Neji laughed, “I'm out.” He stood up, threw the clothes that he was using as a pillow on to Naruto's head, “asshole,” and walked quickly out the door.

O
O

O

There was that state, right on the edge of sleep and awake, where you could either fall back into some of the best sleep ever, or wake up shaking and startled for no reason. Everything starts to fade out like some kind of old-school Hollywood dissolve, and your body just seems to be melting into your mattress. Naruto's limbs were tingling nicely…but he was cold, very cold.

 

And something was making his nose itch. It was soft, slightly damp, but fragrant, it smelt sweet. Irritably, Naruto reached to smack it away and encountered a cool hand. Startled, his hand slapped away, his eyes snapped open, and he rolled away, nicely awoken. Kneeling on all fours, sheets tangled around his ankles, and bed-head beating the back of his head with a brick, Naruto's baby blues stared at Neji with no comprehension. “Neji?” Naruto's eyes slowly grew wider as he realized that Neji, for all appearances, looked like every version of a ghost or monster that he'd seen in the movies.

 

In the light of Naruto's computer's screensaver, Neji's pale eyes glowed, reflecting the light oddly. His skin looked almost vampiric in this light, pale, unlined, and waxy. His hair was sticking to his forehead and bare chest, tangled with sweat. His limbs were trembling, and then, snapping Naruto out of his discombobulation, two, long-fingered and very cold, hands grasped firmly on Naruto's bare biceps. “I had the freakiest dream about you.”

 

His pale eyes suddenly close, Naruto realized, they were glassy with tears, and Neji was freezing. Fighting against the tight grip on his arms, Naruto reached to flick on the light, then grabbed his bedspread from the bottom of his bed. He tossed it around Neji's bare shoulders, noticing that apparently, Neji only slept in plaid boxer shorts…even in winter. “That's…interesting.” He pulled Neji's, spasmodically shaking, body up to the headboard, settling him into the warm spot he had previously occupied. Getting up from the bed, Naruto opened the vents to his room, allowing the unusually hot, institutional, heat to come in. He pulled on a short-sleeved shirt and sat next to Neji at the headboard.

 

“I dreamt about you,” Neji leant a shoulder into Naruto's, voice still husky with sleep.

 

“Really?”

 

Huddled in his cocoon of warmth, only his face visible, Neji nodded. “Uh huh. Even though we didn't look like we do now, it felt like you, I know it was you. We were thirteen or fourteen. Somewhere in Scotland. I was a girl named Sarah, you were Albert. We lived next door to one another. And another when, we were in Africa, I was the prince of your enemy, we sold your tribe into slavery into the Caribbean. There was another—”

 

Naruto placed a hand on a random part of the blanket, not really sure where Neji's arm was, “How many different dreams did you have like that?”

 

“I dreamt of seven, though one was really weird,” again, he nodded in his cocoon, “And they were the most clear I remember ever dreaming...” Neji turned to look at Naruto, a few strands of hair coming out of his cave, “Do you think that it's because we were hanging out all day?”

 

Naruto shrugged, “Probably. Maybe, I guess. You dreamt of seven.” He looked away, muttering, “That's cool, do you think that they're past lives?”

 

“Well, they do say that the people that are close to you during one life will come back to you in the next.”

 

“Where the hell did you hear that?” he shook his head. “You know, I was in a really bad accident when I was five, and was in a coma for about eight or nine months, when I woke up, I had dreamed of something similar. And when I saw you the other day, it just clicked, deja vu.”

 

“Hm…is that where you…? I heard that paranormal stuff occurs during times of great stress,” slowly Neji's voice gained a drowsy quality, lilting more than speaking.

 

Paranormal? What the hell? “I was born with whatever the hell kind of intuition that I have, it just got stronger after the accident.” He turned his head away, eyeing Neji out of the corner of his eyes, obviously wondering if Neji was this nutty when he was fully awake. In a voice barely audible, “But, yo, it's just any old gaydar…” Naruto stared at Neji's feet next to his—long and slim, with a few dark hairs on the toes, they were unexpectedly ugly. The toes, sides, and tops of his feet were calloused and certain areas were almost blackened from stress. His two big toenails were slightly gray, a sure sign that they had been torn out to the root—toenails never grew back quite right.

 

“Is that when your mom died?” half-asleep, Neji barely noticed that his head was sliding towards Naruto's shoulder, or the flinch that Naruto gave when questioned.

 

“…yeah,” Naruto smiled fondly when Neji's slide finished with his head resting on his shoulder, and face pressed into his neck. He laughed ruefully; quietly, thinking Neji was asleep, he said, “I know you less than a day, and you're already in my bed…”

 

Neji let out a puff of warm breath, creating a clammy feel on Naruto's neck, “known `uo fer more the' a da'…mu' like a cupl' hunded yers…been…in….yer…be'…b'fo'…” suddenly, he relaxed fully, muscles giving way liquidly, and soft snores escaped his mouth.

 

Naruto snorted, slouching down farther so Neji might not wake with a crick in his neck. Grabbing a book from his nightstand, he began reading, if Neji woke and wanted to talk, he could do that.

 

While his body cringed slightly away from unfamiliar contact, a part of his mind reveled in it, it was almost familiar. Part of Naruto questioned how good and normal it felt. Was it something that was innate—the comfort one took from the warmth of another person's body—or was there really something to Neji's past lives thing?

 

As he fell asleep, Naruto had only one thought, the feel of Neji's body was almost achingly familiar, it seemed that whatever the incarnation, the soul was the same and “Naruto” knew “Neji.” And Naruto slowly began leaning more into the warmth. Without realizing it, Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court let him drift serenely away, joining Neji in dreamland.

 

Mark Twain certainly didn't mind.
O
O
O

Naruto woke with a rather disgusting case of morning breath and something equally nasty in his mouth: a clump of Neji's hair. His right hand and arm being strangely numb, he used his left hand to pull the long strands from his mouth. He was rather disgusted by the fact that it clung to the insides of his mouth and his tongue. Barely fighting his gag reflex, the strands were pulled wetly from his mouth, looking slightly worse for wear. The rest of the hair was spread almost artistically on his pillow as Neji slept on. Naruto scowled, dropping the strand of hair.

 

He sat up, realizing why his arm had gone numb; it had somehow wedged itself under Neji, who apparently weighed only a little more than a feather. Tugging lightly, he pulled his arm from beneath Neji, feeling more than a little off balance when it still felt like it wasn't really attached. He noted that there was still two hours before classes began for the day, and decided to let Neji sleep on. Tucking the blanket more firmly around Neji, Naruto noted, with a grin, that Neji, not only was drooling on his pillow, but also was grinding his teeth. Euch…

 

A shower, teeth brushing, and change of wardrobe produced a happier Naruto, then he dove in to wake the sleeping Hyuuga. He set his (non-regulation)coffee maker with some of his favorite French Vanilla coffee, then set his alarm and cell phone to go off within a minute of each other. He took his cell phone and slid it beneath his bed where it would be impossible to get from lying still in the bed. Standing back, he waited to watch the effect.

 

Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-bee-urk! His cute froggy alarm didn't survive its relatively vicious altercation with the cement wall. And Neji was back to drooling on his pillow. Suddenly, a muzak version of Bittersweet Symphony was playing.

 

After he had bought that ring tone, Naruto had regretted it; it really was too good a song to destroy by turning it into a ring tone. Watching it slowly drive Neji mad, it was almost worth it.

 

One hand was sent out to venture into the unknown, patting down the nightstand. Only when it found nothing did Neji open his eyes. He sat up slightly, scanning the room, eyes tiny slivers of lavender, barely glinting in the light, while his hair created a deranged halo about his upper body. Slowly, he made his way to the desk looking this way and that, then tilted his head, listening. Like a hawk eyeing its prey from the distance, he gracefully began to swoop down back to the bed, ears leading the way. When he dove to reach beneath the bed, Naruto moved in with a steamy cup of coffee, light no sweet. Neji took the mug in both hands, slurping loudly and rudely, while Naruto ducked to get his phone, there really was no telling what Neji would do to his phone in sleep deprived state.

 

Phone hidden in pocket, Neji woken, Naruto turned to shove him out the door, when he realized that sending Neji back to his room in his boxers at six in the morning was asking for trouble. Wordlessly he handed him sweats and a long sleeved shirt and shoved him out the door. Neji was still holding his mug.

 

Apparently, Naruto was going to pretend that last night hadn't happened. The awake part of Neji slowly was feeling irritation, the drowsy part noted three things, Naruto's clothes smelled good, the coffee was amazingly good and perfect, and that was the best night's sleep he'd had since he was in junior high school. Neji slowly made his way to his room, not noticing the strange look sent his way via one Uchiha Sasuke. Nor did he notice the weighing glance given the door across the hall.

O
O
O

The neat paper football that pegged Naruto in the head escaped the notice of the teacher, but left a nice welt on Naruto's forehead. Unfolding the neatly(so precise he could probably use it to draw triangles in math) folded note, he sent a frown towards the back of Neji's head. How he had chucked it with such accuracy backwards was a little beyond Naruto's comprehension. What the fuck was that you schmuck? We have to talk.

 

Naruto copied Ebisu-sensei's(Ebisu-sycophant's. God, he was such the bitch of the administration) notes from the board, then he replied. What do we have to talk about? He flicked it back, irritated that he missed something on Jung. The next note pegged him in the same place as before, the bastard had perfect aim.

 

Do you know that you made me feel like some two-bit hooker or some one-night stand?

 

Naruto ignored the note for ten minutes. Ten minutes of Neji pelting him with tiny paper balls. Hitting his forehead welt. Bastard. Dude, I didn't even sleep with you. We had class, you had to get ready, and I'm sure that you didn't want to be caught up in any sort of speculation with me only a few months into the school year.

 

This time, the football broke the skin, yay blood. Screw what people here think, they are all assholes anyway. Besides, my father owns this school.

 

Despite what you think, you've got a reputation to maintain. Just helping you out that way.

 

 

 

TBC…

 

 

AN: I liked the way the first chapter came out more than this chapter. Unlike the first chapter, this one took a bit more time, and was written in fits.

 

Take of it what you will, I'm really not certain as to where it's going. After my last post, I only had one response to whether there should be any pairings at all, and that one person suggested no pairings. While I had planned it as a yaoi fic, the prospect of writing it as a non-pairing fic, and just a coming of age/sports story is filling me with equal parts horror and excitement. If you have any input, please review. ^_^ Next part of this chapter should be out soon.