Amaranthine Flame 2

"What did you just say?" Tsunade-sama and I said in unison. Surprised, we glanced towards each other.

Neji waved off his comment. "Nothing. Don't mind me." Then he let out a smirk, amused at the similarity of our reactions.

Pissed off, Tsunade's eye twitched and she frowned at Neji. Finally, she just decided to ignore his comment and turned her attention back to me. "You would really have to drop by tomorrow for the session," Tsunade said.

"You still don't believe me?" I felt slightly insulted. People don't normally forget their parents' names, you know, I wanted to blurt out.

"It's not that. I'd want to know how he had lived...Nawaki. I still can't understand why Orochimaru kept this information from me." She gritted her teeth in anger.

"I'm not sure if my memories will be of use. I've lived such a normal, boring life before I came here. Right, Neji?" My voice tinged with sarcasm as I recalled the stunt he pulled off at my school.

Neji shrugged his shoulders. "How should I know?" he smirked.

I glared at him. He couldn't keep himself from grinning. "Yes, much too boring," he retorted.

"You're exaggerating."

"I don't think so."

"Hey, don't you two start arguing again," Tsunade-sama scolded and we both shut up. Tsunade-sama sighed and then continued, "Kimiko, we will delve deeper into your memories, during the time that you were still very young," she explained. "There must be something...some clues that could explain the reason behind the Akatsuki's pursuit on you."

I kept silent. Well, there won't be any harm in trying. "Okay, I'll be here first thing tomorrow, Hokage-sama."

"You might want to start calling me aunt." She smiled softly.

"It'll probably take some practice..." I smiled back.

Tsunade stood up from her seat and walked towards me. "It's nice to know I still have someone to call family." She pulled me in a tight hug.

Surprised by her actions, it took me a second to react. Slowly, I lifted my arms to hug her back. I felt her shoulder shake. She was crying again.

She pulled me away slowly, placing a hand on my cheek. "You do look a lot like Nawaki." She smiled as a few more tears trailed down from the corner of her eye.

"Yes, he had always told me that," I said, smiling sadly.

I breathed in deeply. The cool afternoon breeze felt so relaxing. We've just stepped out of the hospital. Neji looked funny, lugging a backpack on each shoulder. I walked over to him and tugged down on my bag. "Hey!" He wobbled to keep his balance, holding on to my stuff.

"I can carry that, you know."

"Nevermind. It's not that heavy... Well, actually, it is heavy. What have you got in here anyway? Ten-pound weights?" he kidded. I wasn't able to take out the stuff that I brought from home before I went in on the mission. I didn't have enough time to do that anyway.

"Nothing that would interest you." I waved it off.

"So, I guess you wouldn't mind if I rummage through it?" he grinned evily.

"Yes, I would definitely mind." My brows met in a frown. "Don't you even dare..."

Before I even got to finish my sentence, Neji sprinted off, taking my bag with him.

"What the...? Hey, come back here!" I shouted out after him.

Neji glanced back and let out a smirk towards me, not even pausing in his tracks.

I quickly dashed off, running after him. Oh no... I'd die if he finds out what's in there!

I saw him heading for the woods. "Neji, get back here this instant! Argh! Wait till I get my hands on you!" He's going too fast for me to keep up. It didn't take a minute before I lost sight of him.

"Damn!"

I halted in my tracks. He must have headed off to the clearing.

It took me a few more minutes to get there. I trudged through the bushes, heading towards the plateau.

The moment I got there, my stuff was already scattered on the ground...a ragdoll, some old albums, my dad's wooden box, trinkets and other memorable stuff that I had brought along.

Oh no...

Neji sat in the middle of the mess, flipping through a large sketchbook.

"Get your filthy hands off my..."

"...interesting diary." Neji didn't even bother to look behind him.

I lunged to grab it from him but he pulled it back, holding it high up above his head.

"Wait. I haven't gone through all the juicy parts yet. I promise to give it back once I'm done reading," he teased.

"Ohh...how I'd love to strangle you right now!" I was fuming in anger.

Neji grabbed a hold of my shoulder, trying to keep me from jumping up to grab my diary. "...we went to a far away place, my daddy and I. He said that we will be going there to meet his friend..."

"Neji! Stop fooling around and give that back!"

He completely ignored my plea and continued reading. "...we went to a big, big house with lots and lots of people. We saw daddy's friend. They talked about lots of stuff. Then daddy's friend called out to a boy. He walked to us. Daddy said he is as old as me. Daddy said I am bee throat..." Neji frowned and looked down to me, asking, "Huh? What's 'bee throat'?"

Taking the chance. I pulled off his hand from my shoulder and snatched my precious diary. Out of curiosity, I flipped through the page that he was reading. It has been ages since I've read it again.

"There." He pointed out the part where he left off. He was leaning over my shoulder.

"Stop hawking over me. I'm trying to read." I was making out the handwriting. Sheez, this is barely legible.

I re-read the entry. "Bee throat?" I frowned. What did I mean by that?

I flipped on to the next page...there was a sketch, a stick drawing. I turned around to face Neji and lifted up my diary just a few inches away from my face, staring at the stick drawing then I slowly lowered it, looking over at Neji. I frowned then lifted the book again to glance at the sketch and lowered it down to stare again at him.

"What are you doing? What's in there?"

I turned pale and then started to blush furiously. The words written on it dawned upon me. I closed the book. "Nothing." I decided to keep it to myself.

Neji's brows met in a frown. "Hey, I want to know what it meant."

"None of your business." I knelt down to pick up my backpack and slipped in my sketchbook. I started to pick up my other stuff and squeezed them all in the bag.

"What was that all about?" Neji was still frowning. "You wouldn't be staring at me like that if it had been 'nothing'. You looked like you've seen a ghost."

I shook my head. He doesn't have to know.

I stood up and started walking back. Neji held on to my arm. I turned to look back at him. He was staring at me, his eyes wide with puzzlement.

"Betrothed?" He kept on staring at me.

He held on tightly to my hand and eased up my hold on my backpack. He unzipped it and pulled out the sketchbook again. I started fidgeting and lowered my eyes. I could feel my cheeks burning. The moment I looked up, I saw him staring at me, his face all red.

He turned the book to face me. The stick drawing of a boy with long hair and big round eyes stared back at me.

"We're betrothed?" Neji asked, his voice just a little over a whisper.

"I don't know..."

"You don't know?"

"Well, do you?"

"I don't..."

"See? That must have just been rubbish. Don't take it seriously." I walked over to take back my book. I held on to it but he didn't let go. He lowered the book and looked straight at me.

"That must be the reason why you somehow seemed so familiar when I saw you unconscious in the woods," Neji said in awe.

He handed me back my diary and kept his glance on me. "We had met before..."

We walked the whole way back in silence. Neither of us even attempting to say a word. We were both deep in thought. We got to the compound and I lifted my hand to knock on the gate. Neji suddenly held on to my arm, letting it hang in mid-air. We both turned and stared at each other, both of our cheeks starting to turn crimson. Quickly, he let go. He looked away and mumbled something.

"Uhh...what did you just say?" This feels so awkward. I've never felt this uneasy with him. Pissed off, yes. Annoyed, yes. But this awkward, no. I couldn't even stay close to him without blushing.

"Could we just go someplace else first? I don't want to leave this thing hanging," Neji repeated.

"There isn't anything to talk about. It's all in the past," I said. My voice was just a little over a whisper.

"Being betrothed isn't just 'anything'." He glanced at me. "I'm starting to remember that incident. It did happen."

"No one's here to force us to go through with it. Both our fathers are gone. There's no need to make a big deal out of it." I looked back to stare at the gate. I felt so awkward discussing the topic.

"Let's just go someplace where we could talk privately."

"Why not in there?"

"Hinata's waiting for us and it'll take time before we could talk privately. I'd like to get everything cleared out as soon as possible." Neji held on to my arms and turned me towards him.

I glanced up to him and blushed. I looked away. Talk about fate. I never even had a hint that things would turn out this way.

We walked off, looking for a quiet place to sit. We got to the village walls and sat down on a stone bench. We were sitting a foot away from each other, neither of us saying anything. Neji turned to look at me.

"This feels awkward."

"I know."

He folded his hands and started to speak. "You and your father did come to our house. I remember seeing you for the first time," he smiled at the thought. "You were wearing a kimono, a white and red one. I thought you looked cute."

I couldn't keep myself from smirking and glanced over at him. "You did?" I grinned.

"Fishing for compliments..." he laughed, looking back at me. "Anyway, father mentioned something about taking care of you when we grow older... That time would come when we will see each other again."

"Who would have known it'll be this soon..." I shook my head in disbelief.

"You're right. No one is forcing us to go through with the agreement. Still, they must have had a reason why they wanted us together. We may not know why but there must be one."

"Probably they're just that close and would have wanted to strengthen their bonds even more," I said.

"Probably..." he mumbled. "I wouldn't want to bind you to this agreement but I promised my father to take care of you...and I'll continue doing just that." He looked so serious.

I bit on my lip. "Neji..." I hesitantly held on his arm.

He raised a brow. I grinned back at him. "I know you would." I smiled softly.

He looked straight out. "Funny to think that we'd end up here together without anyone telling us about what had happened."

"Yeah, who would ever think you'll find me. Of all people, you would be the one who'd be there to rescue me. Why were you in the woods during that time anyway?"

"I don't know, I usually practice with my team but somehow, I had wanted to be alone during that time," Neji said. "And why where you in the woods?"

"I was out on a date." I smirked.

"In the woods? Didn't the guy you're with have any money to spend to bring you someplace else?" He frowned.

I laughed at his comment. "We were just going through there to take a shortcut. Of course we won't be 'dating' there." I snorted.

"Well, what happened to him?"

"I saw him when I got back home and he made a big fuss about me not waiting out for him. I didn't want to go on a date with him in the first place. I had him trailing back in the woods and didn't want to walk alongside him. He thought I had left him and gone back home." I laughed.

"Well, talk about rude." Neji grinned. "Good thing you never did that to me."

"You're different." I smiled.

"Hmm...is that so?" He gave me a loop-sided grin.

"Sheez... Fishing for compliments..." We both laughed.

"I guess we better head back home. It's getting dark," Neji suggested.

"Yeah, I guess we better do."

We stood up and headed back to the compound.

Just a few seconds after, I felt something...that same dark presence that I had sensed before. I held on to Neji's arm.

He appeared to have sensed it also.

I looked towards him, frightened.

"He's here."