NejiTen "The Fortuneteller" Chapter Three
The weekend is upon us! I am so gloriously happy that this week is over. Now all I need is for it to rain all weekend and get rid of his horrid heat. It's been over 100 every day this past week so I'm ready for a different weather pattern.
Still moving quickly on this so I think there will be regular updates. I'm waiting to see if it explodes in my face before posting it on FF.Net. It's kinda of fun really. I've never written myself into a corner before so it might be interesting if that happens. (Yes, I am insane, but you knew this.)
Title: The Fortuneteller - Chapter Three
Series: Naruto
Pairings/Characters: NejiTen, SasuSaku, Hinata, Lee, Orochimaru
Rated: PG-13
Word Count: 2,375
Chapters: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII
Notes: Flashback happy! ♥
ONE DAY - TRADING YESTERDAY
[DOWNLOAD]
Lonely finds me.
One day youth will come
but I’ll wait for love’s sake
one day to be loved.
- “One Day” Trading Yesterday
THE FORTUNETELLER
Chapter Three
Hinata set the dinner tray beside the Fortuneteller’s bed on the scrolled stand made especially for it, steam rising from the freshly baked bread. The food looked appetizing but her mistress never noticed what she ate, taking a bite only when urged. Hinata had arranged things so that she was the one to have the duty that night, telling the other maidens that she needed the chore in order to get her mind off something. The other girls had immediately guessed that she was tragically in love with some soldier and Hinata hadn’t denied it, wearing a suitably forlorn expression to the kitchens to pick up the oracle’s dinner.
She didn’t mind doing Neji the favor. He was her most favorite cousin growing up. They’d been raised apart, she in the city and he in the country, but he had written her letters from time to time, telling of his life there. They had been beautiful distractions from her own troubles - her father’s disapproval with her lack of scholarly interest, her sister’s jealousy of her position. She had been overjoyed when Neji had moved to the city in order to join the army. That had been almost six years ago. Barely a year later she had entered the new oracle’s service, discovering that the power behind Orochimaru’s rule was nothing more than a girl barely older than herself.
But Hinata was not a prisoner. The Fortuneteller was.
Hinata reached over the tray and picked up a small glass vial filled with something that looked very much like wine. It was the draught that kept the Fortuneteller drugged and docile, a thing Hinata had often had to pour into the girl’s cup and force her to drink. She would not be doing so that night and the relief was so sharp she couldn’t help but smile as she slipped the vial into her dress.
The oracle moved slightly, her hands in her lap as she sat on the edge of her bed, patient and utterly unconcerned with her surroundings. She wondered if Neji had really known her as a child, as he had said. She could not remember hearing anything about such a friend in Neji’s letters but that was not something he would have written about anyway. He had never been an emotional person and the inherent rules of their family demanded obedience and a cool restraint.
Neji was certainly bending that obedience now. What he was doing was very dangerous and Hinata knew she was involving herself, but she couldn’t help but want to know as well. What would her mistress be like if she could be herself, free from the War Lord’s shadow? What would it be like to see the haze clear from those dark eyes?
Hinata had a shy hope that the Fortuneteller could be a friend if only she could be released from her captivity.
Pulling up a chair, Hinata sat and set out heavy silver flatware, smiling into the Fortuneteller’s serene face.
“It’s time to eat, my lady.”
The Fortuneteller - Tenten, if what Neji said was true - woke from her after-dinner nap with a start.
Hinata jerked, startled, and dropped the book she had been reading, the volume falling to the thick carpet. The oracle had been asleep for over an hour and night was falling outside. Neji had said he would come after the sun set, when the guard changed for the evening shift, but Hinata wondered if she would be able to control the situation for that long. Her mistress was sitting straight up in bed, legs curled beneath her skirts, her eyes wide.
“My lady?” Hinata asked carefully, leaning forward. “Are you alright?”
Tenten turned her head, and for the first time in all her years of service, Hinata felt her lady see her.
Hinata froze, barely breathing.
“I…” Something flitted across the Fortuneteller’s face and she swallowed visibly, “I…don’t know where I am.”
Hinata felt her heart ache in sympathy and found she could move again, rising from her chair to go to her mistress’ side. “You are in your own chambers, my lady, in the temple,” she answered soothingly. “You are safe here. I am Hinata, one of your handmaidens.”
“Hinata.” Tenten repeated the name as if she had never heard it before. She swallowed again and Hinata poured her a glass of water unasked, motioning for her to drink. Hinata had been giving her as much water as possible since dinner to help flood the drugs out of her body, and if the oracle’s current lucidity was any indication, it appeared to be working.
“How do you feel, my lady?” Hinata asked softly. “Do you have pain anywhere?”
Tenten nodded slowly. “My head…” Her expression twisted slightly. “I feel rather sick.”
It was to be expected. Tenten’s body was used to Orochimaru’s potion. Without it, she was going to be very ill. Hinata put a hand over the vial under her clothes and keep her voice low and calm. “Don’t worry, my lady. It will pass so-“
“Don’t lie to me, Hinata,” the Fortuneteller interrupted quietly. “I know you do so for my benefit, but please don’t.” Tenten’s gaze grew focused and Hinata felt herself shudder under the power of it. “Truth is your ally. Don’t forget.”
“I..I will remember,” Hinata managed, her stutter reappearing in her anxiety. She had never seen the Fortuneteller use her sight before. It was rather unnerving.
Abruptly Tenten wavered, trembling, and Hinata reached to steady her before she could collapse back onto her bed. The Fortuneteller gripped her hand, her breathing unsteady.
“I don’t understand this,” her mistress whispered. She turned pleading amber eyes to Hinata. “Tell me again where I am?”
Hinata could not keep the worry from her voice. “You’re in the temple, my lady, in the Sound.”
“The Sound,” Tenten repeated, but she still seemed confused. Hinata squeezed her hand.
“It’s g..going to be alright, my lady.” She paused, remembering the Fortuneteller’s words about lying. “I won’t let anything happen to you.” Her words were firm and clear. Tenten smiled weakly and Hinata felt her eyes well up at the sight.
“I know you won’t,” Tenten said, “And I forgive you.”
The handmaiden blinked at that last phrase and then sniffed, willing herself not to cry.
Only an oracle would have known how much she’d needed to hear that.
As soon as Neji stepped into the Fortuneteller’s sitting room, Hinata was there, wringing her hands and watching him with anxiously determined eyes.
“Neji, I can’t do it.”
He frowned, still a little distracted by the fact that only Lee stood outside the door, keeping him from being discovered. “What?”
“I can’t d..drug her anymore. It’s not right!” There were tears in her eyes. Her voice had no strength, as if she had already spent it all. “We have to take her out of here. I can’t make her go back to that… that…” She shuddered and he took a breath. Her panic was worrying him.
“Hinata, what happened?”
His cousin sniffed and rubbed her eyes. “We’ve been giving her those potions for so long it’s making her ill to be without it. She’s confused and doesn’t seem to recognize anything. It’s like…like she’s been asleep for six years and just w..woke up, only she does know some things. She knows who Lord Orochimaru is, and Sasuke, but it’s as if it’s all scattered and she can’t make sense of it.”
That was going to be a problem. He needed to learn how she had come to be there. It was the key to knowing if his theory was correct. The idea that he might have lost moments of his life was troubling.
He wanted them back.
“I’m going to speak with her,” he said, “Lee is outside. Stay here and wait for me.”
He didn’t give her a chance to reply, but brushed by her into the Fortuneteller’s bedchamber, closing the door behind him.
She was standing in front of a painting of the countryside, dressed in her intricate wine-red robes, gold chains looped around her waist. She looked very regal, with that circlet glinting in her hair, but her face was drawn and pale when she turned to look at him. The dazed look was gone from her eyes and she saw him clearly, fingers tightening in silk fabric as she realized who he was.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she murmured, and then frowned as if puzzled by her own words. He stayed where he was, hands loose at his sides. This girl was an entirely different creature from the passive woman who had prophesized in the sanctuary. He was not entirely sure how to handle her.
“Why do you say that?” he asked quietly.
Her gaze slid away from him to the floor. “You’re undoing things. It’s going to come apart.”
“What is?”
A whisper. “Everything.”
He took a single step forward, his face smooth, expressionless. “Tenten.” She jumped, startled enough to look at him again, surprise etched on her pretty features. It was like she hadn’t remembered her name until he’d said it. “I know you, don’t I.”
And even as he spoke, a familiar ache throbbed in his temple and he grimaced against the force of the memory.
“Shall I tell you your future, Neji?” a young girl asked, her hair in buns. She was grinning at him as they lay sprawled on the hillside, dappled sunlight moving over the set of cards in the grass. She seemed to have them in some sort of order, her fingers touching each one carefully.
“I don’t want to know my fate,” he answered, with all the seriousness of an eleven-year-old. He was on his back next to her, watching the sky.
She laughed. “But what if they say you’re going to be the best soldier the Sound has ever seen, just like your father?”
He was a silent a moment. “They?”
Tenten’s smile disappeared and she looked at him seriously.
“The cards.”
Neji jerked backwards, one hand on the side of his head as he blinked at the woman in front of him. She was watching him worriedly but she made no move to touch him. Something was flickering in his mind, fluttering like a rapid heartbeat and his eyes shut as another scene overcame him.
“My mother says we can’t be friends anymore,” she told him, brushing a strand of hair from his forehead. They were sitting under their tree, Neji’s head in her lap. He had been halfway dozing but her words brought him awake in a moment.
“Why?”
“She says we’re getting to be ‘that age’.” Tenten paused, a crooked expression on her face. “What does she mean by that? No one said anything about this when you turned fifteen.”
“Perhaps she’s worried. There’s only another month before I go to the city.”
Tenten’s face smoothed and she smiled. “I don’t know why she would be. Remember that time in the cave?” Her fingers ran through his long hair. “You’ve always been able to find me.”
He was on his knees on the carpet and the room was tilting oddly. There was a hand on his shoulder and a voice calling him but he was pulled under before he could answer.
“You won’t forget me, will you?” There were tears in her eyes and he frowned. He hated to see her cry.
“Don’t be an idiot,” he replied quietly, “It’s not forever.”
She hugged him, her arms too tight around his neck but he said nothing, just let her sniffle into his shoulder and pull back again, color in her cheeks.
“Your father would be really proud,” she said, scrubbing at the tears on her face. She gave him a suddenly fierce look, her eyes shining.
“Stay alive for me, Neji.”
“Neji!”
He was flat on his back on the floor, the ceiling swimming in and out of focus. Cool fingers rested on the side of his face, while another hand rested over his heart. It was the Fortuneteller, he realized. She was on her knees leaning over him, calling him.
“Neji, please,” she choked, “I’m so sorry. Please…”
And then he could see her, tears on her face, her body rocking back and forth slightly. She looked devastated for some reason he couldn’t fathom, and he barely thought about it when he lifted a hand to touch her cheek. Her hand covered the back of his instantly.
“I’m still alive,” he managed. Her expression crumbled but she nodded through a blur of tears and leaned into his hand. He inhaled and felt his mind settle, everything exactly where it should have been from the beginning. “You were right. They took you.” He tried to think, to count. “It must have been just after I left. The soldier who came for me saw you.”
She nodded again, her voice scratchy. “It was the cards. He asked me to read them for him, for the trip back. I didn’t think…” She swallowed. “He said what I did was a gift. A week later he sent soldiers to fetch me.”
“He made me forget,” Neji murmured, “so that I would not object.”
“I… don’t remember much after that, “she said, almost apologetic, “but I think Orochimaru is, and always has been, a little afraid of you.”
His thumb wiped away a stray tear from under her eye, his gaze calm and even. “You knew then, what they did to me.”
Her lower lip quivered briefly. “They told me it was for the best, that you were going to be a great soldier, perhaps even Commander one day.” Her eyes shadowed with pain. “That was your dream, Neji.”
“I don’t want it if it means you have to spend your entire life in Orochimaru’s,” he answered, his throat tight.
She finally bowed under the weight of it all, her spine curving as her head came to rest against his chest, her hair spilling over his abdomen, the rich fabric of her robes wrinkling. Her shoulders shook under his hand but she made no sound.
“It doesn’t matter,” he whispered steadily, his eyes closing as he breathed in her familiar scent. “I found you anyway.”
TO BE CONTINUED.
Still moving quickly on this so I think there will be regular updates. I'm waiting to see if it explodes in my face before posting it on FF.Net. It's kinda of fun really. I've never written myself into a corner before so it might be interesting if that happens. (Yes, I am insane, but you knew this.)
Title: The Fortuneteller - Chapter Three
Series: Naruto
Pairings/Characters: NejiTen, SasuSaku, Hinata, Lee, Orochimaru
Rated: PG-13
Word Count: 2,375
Chapters: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII
Notes: Flashback happy! ♥
ONE DAY - TRADING YESTERDAY
[DOWNLOAD]
Lonely finds me.
One day youth will come
but I’ll wait for love’s sake
one day to be loved.
- “One Day” Trading Yesterday
THE FORTUNETELLER
Chapter Three
Hinata set the dinner tray beside the Fortuneteller’s bed on the scrolled stand made especially for it, steam rising from the freshly baked bread. The food looked appetizing but her mistress never noticed what she ate, taking a bite only when urged. Hinata had arranged things so that she was the one to have the duty that night, telling the other maidens that she needed the chore in order to get her mind off something. The other girls had immediately guessed that she was tragically in love with some soldier and Hinata hadn’t denied it, wearing a suitably forlorn expression to the kitchens to pick up the oracle’s dinner.
She didn’t mind doing Neji the favor. He was her most favorite cousin growing up. They’d been raised apart, she in the city and he in the country, but he had written her letters from time to time, telling of his life there. They had been beautiful distractions from her own troubles - her father’s disapproval with her lack of scholarly interest, her sister’s jealousy of her position. She had been overjoyed when Neji had moved to the city in order to join the army. That had been almost six years ago. Barely a year later she had entered the new oracle’s service, discovering that the power behind Orochimaru’s rule was nothing more than a girl barely older than herself.
But Hinata was not a prisoner. The Fortuneteller was.
Hinata reached over the tray and picked up a small glass vial filled with something that looked very much like wine. It was the draught that kept the Fortuneteller drugged and docile, a thing Hinata had often had to pour into the girl’s cup and force her to drink. She would not be doing so that night and the relief was so sharp she couldn’t help but smile as she slipped the vial into her dress.
The oracle moved slightly, her hands in her lap as she sat on the edge of her bed, patient and utterly unconcerned with her surroundings. She wondered if Neji had really known her as a child, as he had said. She could not remember hearing anything about such a friend in Neji’s letters but that was not something he would have written about anyway. He had never been an emotional person and the inherent rules of their family demanded obedience and a cool restraint.
Neji was certainly bending that obedience now. What he was doing was very dangerous and Hinata knew she was involving herself, but she couldn’t help but want to know as well. What would her mistress be like if she could be herself, free from the War Lord’s shadow? What would it be like to see the haze clear from those dark eyes?
Hinata had a shy hope that the Fortuneteller could be a friend if only she could be released from her captivity.
Pulling up a chair, Hinata sat and set out heavy silver flatware, smiling into the Fortuneteller’s serene face.
“It’s time to eat, my lady.”
The Fortuneteller - Tenten, if what Neji said was true - woke from her after-dinner nap with a start.
Hinata jerked, startled, and dropped the book she had been reading, the volume falling to the thick carpet. The oracle had been asleep for over an hour and night was falling outside. Neji had said he would come after the sun set, when the guard changed for the evening shift, but Hinata wondered if she would be able to control the situation for that long. Her mistress was sitting straight up in bed, legs curled beneath her skirts, her eyes wide.
“My lady?” Hinata asked carefully, leaning forward. “Are you alright?”
Tenten turned her head, and for the first time in all her years of service, Hinata felt her lady see her.
Hinata froze, barely breathing.
“I…” Something flitted across the Fortuneteller’s face and she swallowed visibly, “I…don’t know where I am.”
Hinata felt her heart ache in sympathy and found she could move again, rising from her chair to go to her mistress’ side. “You are in your own chambers, my lady, in the temple,” she answered soothingly. “You are safe here. I am Hinata, one of your handmaidens.”
“Hinata.” Tenten repeated the name as if she had never heard it before. She swallowed again and Hinata poured her a glass of water unasked, motioning for her to drink. Hinata had been giving her as much water as possible since dinner to help flood the drugs out of her body, and if the oracle’s current lucidity was any indication, it appeared to be working.
“How do you feel, my lady?” Hinata asked softly. “Do you have pain anywhere?”
Tenten nodded slowly. “My head…” Her expression twisted slightly. “I feel rather sick.”
It was to be expected. Tenten’s body was used to Orochimaru’s potion. Without it, she was going to be very ill. Hinata put a hand over the vial under her clothes and keep her voice low and calm. “Don’t worry, my lady. It will pass so-“
“Don’t lie to me, Hinata,” the Fortuneteller interrupted quietly. “I know you do so for my benefit, but please don’t.” Tenten’s gaze grew focused and Hinata felt herself shudder under the power of it. “Truth is your ally. Don’t forget.”
“I..I will remember,” Hinata managed, her stutter reappearing in her anxiety. She had never seen the Fortuneteller use her sight before. It was rather unnerving.
Abruptly Tenten wavered, trembling, and Hinata reached to steady her before she could collapse back onto her bed. The Fortuneteller gripped her hand, her breathing unsteady.
“I don’t understand this,” her mistress whispered. She turned pleading amber eyes to Hinata. “Tell me again where I am?”
Hinata could not keep the worry from her voice. “You’re in the temple, my lady, in the Sound.”
“The Sound,” Tenten repeated, but she still seemed confused. Hinata squeezed her hand.
“It’s g..going to be alright, my lady.” She paused, remembering the Fortuneteller’s words about lying. “I won’t let anything happen to you.” Her words were firm and clear. Tenten smiled weakly and Hinata felt her eyes well up at the sight.
“I know you won’t,” Tenten said, “And I forgive you.”
The handmaiden blinked at that last phrase and then sniffed, willing herself not to cry.
Only an oracle would have known how much she’d needed to hear that.
As soon as Neji stepped into the Fortuneteller’s sitting room, Hinata was there, wringing her hands and watching him with anxiously determined eyes.
“Neji, I can’t do it.”
He frowned, still a little distracted by the fact that only Lee stood outside the door, keeping him from being discovered. “What?”
“I can’t d..drug her anymore. It’s not right!” There were tears in her eyes. Her voice had no strength, as if she had already spent it all. “We have to take her out of here. I can’t make her go back to that… that…” She shuddered and he took a breath. Her panic was worrying him.
“Hinata, what happened?”
His cousin sniffed and rubbed her eyes. “We’ve been giving her those potions for so long it’s making her ill to be without it. She’s confused and doesn’t seem to recognize anything. It’s like…like she’s been asleep for six years and just w..woke up, only she does know some things. She knows who Lord Orochimaru is, and Sasuke, but it’s as if it’s all scattered and she can’t make sense of it.”
That was going to be a problem. He needed to learn how she had come to be there. It was the key to knowing if his theory was correct. The idea that he might have lost moments of his life was troubling.
He wanted them back.
“I’m going to speak with her,” he said, “Lee is outside. Stay here and wait for me.”
He didn’t give her a chance to reply, but brushed by her into the Fortuneteller’s bedchamber, closing the door behind him.
She was standing in front of a painting of the countryside, dressed in her intricate wine-red robes, gold chains looped around her waist. She looked very regal, with that circlet glinting in her hair, but her face was drawn and pale when she turned to look at him. The dazed look was gone from her eyes and she saw him clearly, fingers tightening in silk fabric as she realized who he was.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she murmured, and then frowned as if puzzled by her own words. He stayed where he was, hands loose at his sides. This girl was an entirely different creature from the passive woman who had prophesized in the sanctuary. He was not entirely sure how to handle her.
“Why do you say that?” he asked quietly.
Her gaze slid away from him to the floor. “You’re undoing things. It’s going to come apart.”
“What is?”
A whisper. “Everything.”
He took a single step forward, his face smooth, expressionless. “Tenten.” She jumped, startled enough to look at him again, surprise etched on her pretty features. It was like she hadn’t remembered her name until he’d said it. “I know you, don’t I.”
And even as he spoke, a familiar ache throbbed in his temple and he grimaced against the force of the memory.
“Shall I tell you your future, Neji?” a young girl asked, her hair in buns. She was grinning at him as they lay sprawled on the hillside, dappled sunlight moving over the set of cards in the grass. She seemed to have them in some sort of order, her fingers touching each one carefully.
“I don’t want to know my fate,” he answered, with all the seriousness of an eleven-year-old. He was on his back next to her, watching the sky.
She laughed. “But what if they say you’re going to be the best soldier the Sound has ever seen, just like your father?”
He was a silent a moment. “They?”
Tenten’s smile disappeared and she looked at him seriously.
“The cards.”
Neji jerked backwards, one hand on the side of his head as he blinked at the woman in front of him. She was watching him worriedly but she made no move to touch him. Something was flickering in his mind, fluttering like a rapid heartbeat and his eyes shut as another scene overcame him.
“My mother says we can’t be friends anymore,” she told him, brushing a strand of hair from his forehead. They were sitting under their tree, Neji’s head in her lap. He had been halfway dozing but her words brought him awake in a moment.
“Why?”
“She says we’re getting to be ‘that age’.” Tenten paused, a crooked expression on her face. “What does she mean by that? No one said anything about this when you turned fifteen.”
“Perhaps she’s worried. There’s only another month before I go to the city.”
Tenten’s face smoothed and she smiled. “I don’t know why she would be. Remember that time in the cave?” Her fingers ran through his long hair. “You’ve always been able to find me.”
He was on his knees on the carpet and the room was tilting oddly. There was a hand on his shoulder and a voice calling him but he was pulled under before he could answer.
“You won’t forget me, will you?” There were tears in her eyes and he frowned. He hated to see her cry.
“Don’t be an idiot,” he replied quietly, “It’s not forever.”
She hugged him, her arms too tight around his neck but he said nothing, just let her sniffle into his shoulder and pull back again, color in her cheeks.
“Your father would be really proud,” she said, scrubbing at the tears on her face. She gave him a suddenly fierce look, her eyes shining.
“Stay alive for me, Neji.”
“Neji!”
He was flat on his back on the floor, the ceiling swimming in and out of focus. Cool fingers rested on the side of his face, while another hand rested over his heart. It was the Fortuneteller, he realized. She was on her knees leaning over him, calling him.
“Neji, please,” she choked, “I’m so sorry. Please…”
And then he could see her, tears on her face, her body rocking back and forth slightly. She looked devastated for some reason he couldn’t fathom, and he barely thought about it when he lifted a hand to touch her cheek. Her hand covered the back of his instantly.
“I’m still alive,” he managed. Her expression crumbled but she nodded through a blur of tears and leaned into his hand. He inhaled and felt his mind settle, everything exactly where it should have been from the beginning. “You were right. They took you.” He tried to think, to count. “It must have been just after I left. The soldier who came for me saw you.”
She nodded again, her voice scratchy. “It was the cards. He asked me to read them for him, for the trip back. I didn’t think…” She swallowed. “He said what I did was a gift. A week later he sent soldiers to fetch me.”
“He made me forget,” Neji murmured, “so that I would not object.”
“I… don’t remember much after that, “she said, almost apologetic, “but I think Orochimaru is, and always has been, a little afraid of you.”
His thumb wiped away a stray tear from under her eye, his gaze calm and even. “You knew then, what they did to me.”
Her lower lip quivered briefly. “They told me it was for the best, that you were going to be a great soldier, perhaps even Commander one day.” Her eyes shadowed with pain. “That was your dream, Neji.”
“I don’t want it if it means you have to spend your entire life in Orochimaru’s,” he answered, his throat tight.
She finally bowed under the weight of it all, her spine curving as her head came to rest against his chest, her hair spilling over his abdomen, the rich fabric of her robes wrinkling. Her shoulders shook under his hand but she made no sound.
“It doesn’t matter,” he whispered steadily, his eyes closing as he breathed in her familiar scent. “I found you anyway.”
TO BE CONTINUED.