Neji's Romance

Caught in the act

Later that evening she was once again preparing to escape from her extravagantly large room, having lost, once again, the fight for sleep.

Surprisingly, she did not feel worse for wear, the couple of hours she caught ever other night seemed to suffice. As quietly as she could, she shifted the door that would lead to her nightly freedom and stepped out into the inner courtyard.

Glancing around, she stuck to the shadows, knowing that her usual watch was complacent and tired by now, though, oddly she thought, she could not sense them nearby. Maybe they had given up by now.

Making her way to a large tree that grew close to the roof, she made sure not to disturb the sand, or step on any of the floorboards that might creak. Her extended stay in this compound had given her time to work out exactly how to do this without making a sound.

Having reached the tree, she glanced around, and lifted herself easily onto the first branch, with a practised leap. She had done this so many times, that the leap was one of muscle memory. Her leap took her into the tree, and as soon as she had panted her feet, she pushed off and glided over the wall in a fluid cat-like motion.

The moment she landed, she knew something was wrong. Lifting her head, which she had ducked down on impact, her eyes caught sight of 3 pairs of feet, which she recognised as those of her two watchers and, none other than Kakashi himself. It had taken some time, but she had found out that as Hokage, he was one of the most important people in the village. Her heart sank, she heard more footsteps approaching, she had been caught.

It was not until she looked over at Neji, who was one of the people who had approached from behind, that she realised, with confusion, that the looks on her captor's faces were that of concern. Hinata, who was standing next to Neji, was looking at her intently, with both concern and a bit of disappointment in her eyes. The collected attention was making her more than uncomfortable, especially the single focus she was receiving from Neji. When she pulled her eyes from his face, she looked over at Kakashi, and noticed a very obvious smirk on his face, which confused her even more.

"I am glad to see you enjoy exploring our beautiful village", he said, with humour in his voice. He did not sound angry, he sounded amused, if she had to pin point the emotion.

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It had taken several weeks to figure out that she snuck out at night. A chance second of luck, or not, was the reason that she had been caught at all. He did some serious reprimanding after that. Of all the 10 ninjas he had put on guard, not a single one of his best had even noticed that she left her room every night. After giving yet another detail the slip, Kakashi had decided he would tail her himself, and it turned out to be an interesting night, what people exposed when they thought they were alone, especially in this case, could end up being very helpful to him. She had shown him some extraordinary talents, which he could put to use.

He also knew exactly where she would be needed.