Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

When I'm Gone	By : tragic.violinist Category: Naruto AU/AR > Het - Male/Female Views: 2134 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: NARUTO and its respective characters were created and are owned by Masashi Kishimoto. No copyright infringement intended. I make no money from this story.

Chapter List
- 5
- 6
- 7
Chapter 6: We weren't born to follow
A/N: I realize that little Hikari kind of got away from me on the last chapter I just couldn't stop her and everything was flowing so well. It might have something to do with the fact that during the day that I wrote chapter five I only had three hours of sleep and copious amount of coffee with way too much sugar in it, same thing can be said for at least the start of this chapter, I'm not sure how far I will get before I burn out. Lastly Hikari is not singing the song in this chapter I just thought it would fit the mood at the beginning of this chapter, so I will just feature it at the beginning before carrying on with the story. Additionally I am posting these chapters unedited, they will be reposted once my BETA Greater Evil has had a chance to go over them, so try to ignore any grammatical errors :)
This one goes out to the man who mines for miracles

This one goes out to the ones in need

This one goes out to the sinner and the cynical

This ain't about no apology

This road was paved by the hopeless and the hungry

This road was paved by the winds of change

Walking beside the guilty and the innocent

How will you raise your hand when they call your name?

Yeah, yeah, yeah

We weren't born to follow

Come on and get up off your knees

When life is a bitter pill to swallow

You gotta hold on to what you believe

Believe that the sun will shine tomorrow

And that your saints and sinners bleed

We weren't born to follow

You gotta stand up for what you believe

Let me hear you say yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah

This one's about anyone who does it differently

This one's about the one who cusses and spits

This ain't about our livin' in a fantasy

This ain't about givin' up or givin' in

Yeah, yeah, yeah

We weren't born to follow

Come on and get up off your knees

When life is a bitter pill to swallow

You gotta hold on to what you believe

Believe that the sun will shine tomorrow

And that your saints and sinners bleed

We weren't born to follow

You gotta stand up for what you believe

Let me hear you say yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah

Let me hear you say yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah

We weren't born to follow

Come on and get up off your knees

When life is a bitter pill to swallow

You gotta hold on to what you believe

Believe that the sun will shine tomorrow

And that your saints and sinners bleed

We weren't born to follow

You gotta stand up for what you believe

Let me hear you say yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah

Let me hear you say yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah

We weren't born to follow - oh yeah

We weren't born to follow - oh yeah
   “Hikari, wait up, where are you going?” Neji called after her, running to catch up.
   “I need to talk to Aunt Tsunade about this, something has to be done. I can't just sit back and wait for something else to be fucked up. There's no reason for there to be tension between our two villages. Well there is, but it's no worse than things that have occurred in the past. If we can form alliances after a full out war, why can't we get passed this?”
   Suddenly Tsunade's words from a few days ago came back to him, “if there were to ever be peace between our two villages, it's because Hikari would be the driving force, whether she realizes it or not.” Oh she realized it alright, and she was determined to make this a reality. If nothing else she was a force to be reckoned with right now, if anyone tried to stop her in this state she would probably tear them a new one without skipping a beat. All Neji could do was hold on tight and watch the fireworks explode. The winds of change were coming, he could feel it, quite literally.
   She stormed Tsunade's office which was thankfully empty except for the Hokage herself. Tsunade looked up to see her niece standing before her, determination so prominent in those amber eyes that they resembled a wild fire burning out of control. Her first thought was that things had not gone well with Neji after her return, that was until he came bursting into the room behind her, shirtless, frazzled and out of breath. Just what in the hell is going on here? She questioned herself. The raw power was flowing off of her in waves, it made the curtains flutter and sent the papers on her desk blowing across the room. “Neji, close the door please?” she asked him, trying to stay calm, Hikari appeared very close to having her chakra lash out against her will. Neji did as he was told and went back to staring at Hikari in nothing less than awe.
   “Hikari, honey, I need you to calm down and tell me what's wrong,” Tsunade said soothingly.
   “We need to put an end to this, this feud between us and the sound, it's gone on long enough. You know him Aunt Tsunade, please do something about this before something happens again. We should be building bridges right now, not burning them. I've already lost two people that I cared about because of all this bullshit and then just today I learn that one of those people was killed by someone else I consider a friend. I won't sit back and let it happen again. Please reach out to him Aunt Tsunade, I know we can fix this, I just know it.”
   “Of course Hikari, I understand how you feel, I will write to Orochimaru right away and we will try to figure out a way to go about this, now I need you to calm down and relax before you burn yourself out,” she cautioned her, drawing Hikari's attention to her out of control chakra.
   This had never happened before, she had always had perfect chakra control, but now that it was leaking out she found herself unable to reign it in. Hikari panicked, “I can't, I can't stop it.”
   “Neji you'll have to stop it,” Tsunade ordered but he was frozen. “Hyuuga! Do something!” she yelled at him, breaking him out of his shock. She watched as he activated his Byakugan and enabling him to disrupt several locations in her chakra network to bring it under control. Immediately afterwards she lost consciousness, he held her. Neji looked at Tsunade in shock, not sure what to do now. Tsunade took a deep steadying breath, “Stay here with her, I'm going to find you a shirt and then we'll take her to the hospital.”
   Neji looked down at himself, just now realizing his state of undress, he hadn't the time to put his shirt back on before he had run out of the house after her. Tsunade was back in under a minute, he accepted the shirt before picking Hikari up bridal style and following Tsunade as she led the way to the hospital.
   On the way there Hikari had begun screaming and thrashing in pain despite the fact that she was still unconscious. Tsunade led them straight to an exam room and had him place her on the stretcher. Her body seems to be changing rapidly in front of their eyes. Tsunade rushed out of the room returning quickly with Shizune and a team of doctors trailing behind her, as well as Hinata. “What's wrong with her?” Neji asked, his eyes wide in concern.
   “Out,” she ordered, he opened his mouth to argue but Tsunade silenced him with a look, “we need to work, wait in the hall now, you'll only be in the way!”
   Neji sat against the wall in the hallway, it had been two hours and he could still hear her screams. It seemed to go on forever before they subsided, but it was still another hour after that before the doctors came out, he watched them walk away leaving only Tsunade and Shizune behind. “Is she okay?” His nerves were just shot, he needed to see her, needed to make sure she was alright.
   “She's resting comfortably now, but she's likely to be sore for several days. I've never seen this before, though I have read about it, it's extremely rare,” she began to explain. “What happened is she subconsciously locked away a large portion of her chakra, this event was more than likely triggered by a traumatic event when she was younger. It effected her physical development as a result. That's why she has always been so small.
   “When she lost control today that dam holding back her chakra broke, causing her to go through a rapid growth spurt. When a person goes through a normal growth spurt the change is very gradual over a period of days or weeks, it will result in a dull ache at the most, it was the speed of which the change took place that caused her pain. Once she stopped growing I had Hinata remove the block I had you put in.
   “I know you want to see her, and I can give you fifteen minutes and then I'll have to send you home. I will make sure you are notified as soon as she wakes up and you can come back then. I will warn you, her appearance has changed considerably.”
   Neji nodded, he just wanted to get in there, he needed to see her for himself, he knew Tsunade would never lie to him but he still needed to see her with his own eyes. Tsunade stepped aside to allow him to enter the room.
   “I will come and get you in fifteen minutes, I need to speak with you a little more before you leave,” She closed the door behind him granting them privacy.
   Neji slowly approached her bedside, gently clasping her hand in both of his. Her hair, which hadn't been very short to begin with had grown a good two feet. It was a little hard to tell with her lying down but she looked like she had grown at least a few inches, the most noticeable change however was how her body had filled out. She looked young for her age no longer, with the exception of her two toned hair she looked remarkably like a shorter, slightly slimmer version of the Hokage. If he had found her beautiful before she was simply breathtaking now. His vision blurred, he quickly wiped away the tears of happiness welling up in his eyes just from the relief of knowing that she would be okay. He pulled up a chair and sat next to her, bowing his head to rest it against the back of her hand he still held tightly. Sat there in silence, relishing in the warmth of her presence until Tsunade came back to get him.
   “Come Neji, she'll be fine now, I promise,” she said from the door way.
   He kept his head down, taking a moment to blink back the tears once more, before standing and following her out into the hall. She led him up the stairs, to the office she used when she was putting in hours at the hospital. She steered him into a chair before taking a seat behind the desk.
   “What happened? Before she decided to storm my office.”
   “We were just talking,” he explained. “At first I just wanted to understand, what it was she saw in him,” he said not sure if he should use his name or not. “She told me about how he helped her when she was younger, and how there were others he had helped over the years as well. Then she asked me to tell her about the time we tried to retrieve Sasuke from the Sound Four.”
   “Was that what she was referring to earlier, about losing a friend at the hands of another?”
   “Yes the girl that was with them, the one that faced off against Shikamaru that day,” Tsunade nodded for him to continue. “After that was when she started to get really intense, for lack of a better word, she started talking about wanting peace between the villages and then she just took off in a run towards the tower.”
   “You're sure that's it, there was nothing else?”
   “No that's everything,” he insisted.
   Tsunade frowned, “what about your shirt?”
   Neji looked confused for just a moment, with everything that had happened he had once again forgotten that he had ran into her office, and through the village for that matter, without a shirt on. His face flushed a brilliant shade of red when he came to the conclusion of what she was insinuating. He shook his head quickly, “No, no it wasn't like that, when we were talking, when I was telling her about the sound four, I took it off to show her the scar left behind from Kidomaru, that's all I swear.”
   Tsunade studied him for a moment, taking note of his reaction, before deciding that he was telling the truth. “Alright. You should head home now, I will send someone for you as soon as she awakens as promised.”
   “Thank you Tsunade-sama.” He bowed to her and left the room.
   Tsunade sighed, what a day, she figured that she might as well write to Orochimaru while she was sitting at her bedside, he would want to know about this. She grabbed a clipboard, paper and pen, before heading back to Hikari's room. On the way there she stopped an orderly in the hall and requested that he find Shizune for her. She would get her to track down Jiraiya and drag him down to the hospital too.
   Hikari jolted awake with a blood curdling scream, her mind still lost in a nightmare, then she became aware of the excruciating pain that filled her whole body. She collapsed back onto the mattress, eyes closed as she tried to get her breathing and racing heart under control. She attempted to analyze her body, trying to pin point where the pain was the worst, which was impossible, every nerve was shot from the tips of her toes right up to her scalp.
   Oh Gods.
   There was weight on her chest, a huge weight that had never been there before. It felt like it was crushing her. She wanted to open her eyes but even her eye lids ached. She tried to remember what had happened, she remembered standing in her aunt's office, her chakra was out of control and then Neji had done something. Then darkness, darkness and pain.
   What happened.
   She took note of her surroundings, eyes still closed. She was in a bed but it wasn't her bed, the mattress was too firm. The sheets and blanket, not the usual silk she had grown accustomed to, it was coarser, cotton maybe. She twitched her fingers, she groaned in pain but could feel the edge of the bed on either side, much smaller than the one she shared with Neji. She could hear the soft breathing of another person in the room.
   What the fuck is going on?
   “Neji?” she croaked, her throat was so sore. She felt large hands encompass her own. Bigger than Neji's, more calloused too. She forced open an eye.
   “Sorry kid, it's just me,” Jiraiya said as he came into focus before her.
   “Uncle, what happened,” her voice was so hoarse. She closed her eye again it hurt too much to keep it open.
   “Well that's a story for sure. It turns out you had locked a bunch of your chakra away, now you probably didn't know you had done it but you had. That lock was the reason you were such a squirt.”
   Were?
   “Anyways, when you lost control that lock broke, and when it did it made you go though all those changes, that you should have gone through years ago, all at once. Consider it an accelerated growth spurt, and a lot of growing pains. That's why you're going to be sore for a few days.”
   “Where's Neji?” she asked in a whisper.
   “Tsunade had to send him home.”
   “Can you get him?”
   “Of course kiddo, but I need to let Tsunade know that you're awake first, she's asleep in her office right now, she wanted to be close when you woke up.” He gave her hand a gentle squeeze before standing, “Feel better soon kid, I'll come by later to see you again, maybe next time you'll be able to open your eyes.”
   She heard him walk across the room, and then the sound of the door opening and closing. Growing pains, great, she thought to herself, well at least I won't look like a prepubescent boy anymore. Her mind slipped back to that weight on her chest, she forced her eyes open, they widened in painful surprise, her breasts were huge, almost as big as her aunt's, Fuck me!
   Tsunade came in, “How do you feel?”
   “Horrible,” she croaked, she forced herself to look at her. Tsunade came to stand next to the bed, she took a syringe out of her pocket and injected a light green liquid into the IV that was attached to her arm.
   Tsunade then pressed a button on the side of the bed to raise her into a sitting position, she whimpered in pain. “I'm sorry Hikari, that should kick in soon and it will take the edge off the pain. Did Jiraiya tell you what happened?”
   “Yeah.”
   Tsunade pointed at the IV drip, “This is to help you regain all the nutrients your body lost during the transition. It could have been worse, but since you've always had a healthy appetite you had some to spare, I'll be putting you on a special diet to help build you back up as well. You gave us quite a scare Hikari.”
   “I'm sorry Aunt Tsunade.”
   She brushed Hikari's hair behind her ear, “Just get well soon okay? How's the pain now?”
   “A little better, thank you.”
   “Alright I'm going to go and get you something to eat, If you need something just press the call button.”
   Tsunade left the room, and Hikari rested her eyes. She knew she would have to go shopping as soon as she was better, none of her clothes were going to fit any more. She heard the door open again and her eyes flitted towards the door.
   “Neji,” she whispered and offered him a faint smile.
   Neji came and claimed the seat Jiraiya had occupied less than an hour ago, he took her hand. “How do you feel?”
   “Better than when I first woke up, Aunt Tsunade's got me doped up pretty good. I'm sorry about yesterday, Aunt Tsunade said I gave everyone a scare.”
   “It was terrifying. I can only imagine how she must have felt, watching you go through that and not being able to do anything about it, it was almost unbearable just listening to it. But Hikari it wasn't you're fault, none of us blame you, we're just glad that your okay.”
   At that moment Shizune entered the room with a large tray of food. She placed it in front of Hikari, “You're under strict orders from Tsunade-sama to eat it all,” she looked at Neji, “and Tsunade-sama says it's your job to make sure she doesn't cheat.”
   Neji nodded, “I will.”
   “Thank you Shizune,” Hikari croaked pitifully. She surveyed the tray. There was a large bowl of oats, a plate of eggs, ham, sausages, and bacon, whole grain toast with peanut butter, apple slices, an individual carton of milk and finally a large glass of orange juice. She went to reach for the milk and cried out in pain. She should have known better, it had been painful just to open her eyes why should moving a whole limb be easier.
   Neji jumped up to help her, he grabbed milk and opened it, sticking a straw in the top before raising it to her lips.
   Hikari took a large sip, and sighed in relief, it soothed her sore throat. She gave Neji a look of gratitude as he helped her eat. “I'm pathetic aren't I?” she asked pitifully.
   “You are not pathetic, you've been through a great deal in a short time, you need time to heal, there's nothing wrong with needing some help,” He told her, and he didn't mind helping her one bit. He pressed his lips to her temple.
   “Oh you did not just do that, I'm in pain, not sick, at least give me a real kiss,” she squeaked out.
   Neji smirked, “only after you've eaten everything on your tray,” he told her.
   “Well then start shoveling it in, because I can't feed myself, and I want that kiss.” Neji smiled and fed her an apple slice, I could get used to this, she thought to herself.
   A week later on the first of July Hikari was finally being discharged from the hospital, much to her relief. She was tired of being stuck in there. She had had a steady stream of visitors. Some came just to visit like Hinata, Jiraiya, Naruto, Kakashi and the big shocker Sasuke.
   Others came bearing gifts. Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji all came together. Chouji gifted her with some specially grown food from his clan, perfect for building her body's stores back up. Ino had brought her some new clothes so that she would actually have something to wear when she left the hospital, and Shikamaru had bought her a Shogi board of her very own. Well actually Shikamaru had paid for it and told her what to buy while Ino had picked it up, it was too troublesome for him to do it himself. Ino had also brought her a large bouquet of flowers everyday she had been in the hospital. Ino hadn't known who they were from, just that an anonymous letter had arrived at the shop that morning requesting daily deliveries to Hikari as long as she was in the hospital and the funds to cover it. Ino joked that it was from a secret admirer, but once they left for the day Hikari assured Neji that she was sure Orochimaru was responsible.
   Tsunade also came by each day to check on her. Neji and Shikamaru took turns staying with her. Which she was thankful for, especially at first, when she was just starting to be able to move without pain again, Shogi was a great way to pass the time and she could take as long as she wanted to make a move and it didn't seem unusual.
   Despite all that Hikari was more than happy to get out of there, she missed sleeping next to Neji at night. Tsunade had had to put her on a regimen of pills at night to not only help her sleep but to stop her from dreaming as well. They did the trick, but a side effect of the medication made her groggy for half the day.
   Throughout the week Tsunade had performed a medical ninjustu on her daily in order to build her muscles back up without her having to re-learn her gross-motor skills. Hikari still had a long way to go before they were at their previous levels but at least she could walk, run and above all fight.
   Hikari stood in her bathroom after changing into the clothes Ino had brought her. A pair of black tights, black mini skirt, and mesh shirt with a royal purple, high necked, zip up vest. Which she had to leave the top undone thanks to these stupid new boobs. Then there was the new bra, she adjusted the offending article of clothing. She hated this damn thing, it had under-wires which kept digging into her ribs which made it extremely uncomfortable.
   She looked in the mirror trying to decide what to do with her hair, she needed a hair cut, badly, perhaps she could ask Ino to come over tonight and help her. Giving up she decided to just braid it down her back. She stepped out of the bathroom, to see Neji standing there with a wheel chair waiting for her. She looked from him to the chair, “You're kidding right? I don't need a wheel chair,” she said indignantly.
   Neji looked apologetic, “Hospital policy, we don't have a choice in the matter,” he explained to her.
   “Great they spend a week making me walk the length of the building every hour and now they won't even let me walk out of here,” she pouted.
   “Just sit down,” he said with a smirk, and she did. He pushed her out of the room and towards the door.
   Hikari started squirming in her seat, she hated this stupid thing, she thought as she began adjusting her bra, “I miss my sports bra,” she complained.
   Neji looked down at her and saw a lot more cleavage than he expected. He cleared his throat and diverted his eyes, as he felt blood rush to his face, and his pants tighten slightly, against his will. The sound drew her attention to him, she took in the look on his face as well as the looks of several others in the hall, and that's when she realized what she was doing.
   Hikari blushed brightly, “Oh my God, I'm so sorry. I guess I'm just not used to these things yet, I wasn't thinking,” she stuttered out, completely embarrassed. As soon as they reached the door she hopped out of the chair. “Alright, I need to go shopping,” she told Neji. “Nothing I have at home is going to fit anymore. I hope this doesn't take to long I hate clothes shopping.”
   “It's already done,” he told her.
   “What?” she looked at him in surprise.
   “Tsunade-sama and Ino, they've both been working on a new wardrobe for you all week.”
   “I don't know whether to be relieved or apprehensive,” she joked.
   “Well let's go see what they've picked.”
   “Okay, but let's stop by the Yamanaka's flower shop, I need to ask Ino something.” Neji nodded and grabbed her hand weaving his fingers between hers. It didn't take them long to reach the flower shop and find Ino, who was working outside pruning some rose bushes.
   “Hikari, they let you out today?”
   “Yes, they set me free,” she laughed, over the last week she had grown close with the blonde girl. “I was wondering if I could possibly ask for your help?”
   “Sure, what's up?”
   “I desperately need a hair cut,” she said pleadingly.
   “Why not just shave it all off, then you wouldn't have to worry about it for awhile,” Shikamaru suggested, he was leaning against the wall, next to the roses Ino had been working on.
   Hikari hadn't even noticed him before but she narrowed her gaze on him now. “How about we shave your head first? So I have an idea of what it would look like first.”
   “Troublesome.”
   “You took the words right out of my mouth,” Hikari told him dryly. She then turned back to Ino and flashed her a bright smile. “So what do you think? Can you help me?”
   “Of course I can,” smiled back, “what time do you want me to come over?”
   Hikari glanced at the time, it was nearly three. “How about both you and Shikamaru come over for dinner around five, and we'll do it afterwards?”
   “Why do I have to come?” Shikamaru asked.
   “You can keep Neji company and play Shogi, so we don't bore him to death,”
   “Whatever.”
   “We'll see you later then,” Ino said brightly as Hikari dragged Neji off in the direction of the market.
   “Where are we going now?” Neji asked.
   “To the market so I can get something to make for dinner. Do you realize this is the first time since I got to Konoha that I have actually gotten to use the dining table. Over two months and the only person I have ever had over has been you, and Ino the one time she did my make-up. Not to mention I've been in the hospital for the past week I'm sure my fridge has expired food in there by now. I'll need to restock.
   Ino and Shikamaru showed up just before five, “It smells amazing in here Hikari,” Ino told her.
   “Thank you, that would be the pie, strawberry rhubarb, made from scratch,” Hikari said with a smile. “My mother taught me to make it when I was little.”
   After dessert the guys set up the Shogi board in the living room while Ino and Hikari set up in the bathroom. Ino closed the door behind him and guided her into the chair. “So what do you have in mind?”
   “Surprise me, I trust your judgment, just not above the shoulders,” she told her.
   “Alright it's going to look great, just you wait and see.” Ino set to work. “Do you guys have any special plans for Friday?”
   Hikari wrinkled her brow in confusion. “Not that I know of, why is there something special going on this Friday?”
   “You mean you don't know? It's Neji's birthday, didn't he mention it?”
   “No he didn't,” Hikari became lost in thought. Ino silently continued working on her hair, not sure if she had upset Hikari or not. “I think I may have a plan though, you want to help?” Hikari asked her conspiratorially.
   Ino smirked back at her, “What did you have in mind?” Hikari gave her a quick run down in a whispered voice, Ino's smile only grew. “Oh you are evilly delicious Hikari, count me in. Shikamaru too, I'll make sure that he keeps Neji busy at his house for a few hours so he doesn't get suspicious.” Ino turned Hikari's chair around so she could look in the mirror, “Done,” she announced proudly.
   Hikari looked in the mirror, Ino had done a beautiful job. She had layered it so that the longest fell three inches below her shoulders, and the shortest to just below the ears. She had used a brush and just a small amount of hair spray to curl the ends of each layer outwards. “Thank you so much, Ino it looks wonderful,” Hikari said and embraced the girl.
A/N: Lyrics from We weren't born to follow by Bon Jovi
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When I'm Gone