Neji's Romance

A new start

Her head swam, there was just too much... Having been caught my them, this was the end. Having disobeyed most of their rules and restrictions, with her nightly excursions, she wondered what they did to people like her. Would she end up in prison? Maybe they would throw her out, even though she was not from here. This was the only place that she currently knew, and because of her ventures, now knew very well.

What she would do, where she would go, was beyond her, she knew nothing of the forest beyond those walls, except for her brief time during her arrival. Prison would almost be better, at least she would have somewhere to live.

Standing, once again, in the circular office that housed Kakashi and his stacks of paperwork, she waited for their verdict, refusing to look guilty, she kept her back straight and looked directly at the spiky-haired man seated at the centre of the very large table.

He peered at her, past the many stacks of paper that now cluttered his desk, she felt a small tinge of sympathy, the poor man had so much work to do, running a place as busy and in such turmoil, could not be easy. For a split second she wished she could be of some assistance, but then she hardened her heart, if she was going to be thrown out anyway, why should she feel for him?
After a few minutes of awkward silence, Kakashi leant back, and with the telltale crinkling of his lone, exposed eye, he smiled up at her, "I think, that it is time to decide on a name for you, assuming you have not yet chosen one of your own?", Kakashi cut straight to the chase.

She stood rooted to the spot, a name... something she had not thought about in a while. Mostly left to her own devices, almost never speaking to anyone, she had not yet found the need of a name.

"Um, no name yet, I have not yet needed one" she replied.

Neji felt a little abashed by this, he never referred to her by a name, just a pronoun, not thinking, or even recalling that she had no name at all.

A curious voice interrupted his thoughts, "Why?, why should you pick a name for me? Why do I need a name?"

"Well when you accompany a team on a mission, we will have to call you by something, won't we?"

The shocked silence stretched out, everyone, save for Kakashi just stood there. The first person to move was Shikamaru, "Hokage-sama, is this your final decision?" his voice hinted at a hidden smirk, and when he met Kakashi's eye, he broke into a grin, knowing what he knew, he could not help but feel some satisfaction.

His expression irked her, what did he know that she did not? Why on earth was she being chosen to go on missions? She was unfamiliar with those procedures, but she knew, from her nights out, that they were dangerous and it was not uncommon for ninjas to not come home after some of the more dangerous ones.

"I realise that I cannot order you to do anything, since you do not actually belong to this village and you have no connection to us, but I wish to give you the chance to explore beyond our borders, I feel that if we keep you cooped up for too long, then you will just waste away."

True she had been feeling a bit restless lately and very unmotivated, so if they were ready to accept her, then yes, she would go, she yearned for the outside world, and maybe to get her mind off a certain someone.

Nodding she said "I agree, I would gladly go out on missions" She did not want to seem too eager.

"Excellent, well then, Shikamaru will brief you on the rules, I have to get back to work." with that, she was dismissed and Shikamaru stepped forward.

"Wait, Neji, please stay" Shikamaru called after Neji's retreating back, all other ninjas involved had been departing, happy to return to their duties.

"Tsk, this is going to be troublesome, but I need to explain to both of you, how is this going to work."

He stepped aside and ushered them into an empty, dark office that opened onto the winding, circular hallway. They strode in, one after the other, Shikamaru closing the door behind him.

"So this is how it is going to work, the name that we have chosen for you is Kagame, and you are now paired with Neji. Not only does he know you a little, since you have spent some time with her, but he has also spent time accepting some lower ranking missions, and this makes him perfect as your mentor in this situation. You will work together until you are able to take on more challenging missions. Is that ok for you?"

"Yes Shikamaru sama" she had learnt to address superiors by watching the others speak to theirs, and just by listening, she had picked up the language to such an extent that she was almost fluent in it.

Neji stood there, flabbergasted. What had just happened? How had his ploy to get some distance from his Number one distraction just backfire on him? All he could do was stand and listen to Shikamaru, not letting on at the turmoil raging within him. He had to keep up appearance. Unable to control himself, his eyes kept darting to catch glances of her, she, like him, was showing little emotion, and he wondered if she cared at all.

Catching himself he thought "Why do I even care?"

"Do we understand everything?"Shikamaru's voice pulled his thoughts up short.

"Yes, Shikamaru-sama", he replied quickly "I will do as instructed"

"Tsk" came the short irritated sound from the dark eyed youth, "this sama business is just too troublesome". He looked briefly at the two of them, smiled, and then left the room, leaving the two alone.

She stood there for a minute, staring into the unlit room, which had obviously been an office. Her gaze focused on a small beam of light that was pushing through the blinds that covered the windows.

"So he is only doing his duty after all" she thought to herself, "man I feel stupid, thinking he might accept me as a friend". Though deep inside she heard soft laughter, friend? That is not all. "Ok, Ok thoughts going in the wrong direction here."

They walked out together after having received their mission brief. She was a bit confused. Chasing down a runaway cat? This should be a job for animal welfare, not ninjas. Though Neji did seem a bit apprehensive about this, maybe this was a special cat of sorts, you never knew in this strange place.

It could be interesting.

After all, she had seen ninjas returning from other missions, often looking worse for wear, sometimes with less members than they had left with.