Chapter 1
Neji breathes, wishes for the well of patience he has only to find the reserves in it startlingly low. But he's not gonna start a fit now --not after so long-- so he just cringes and trudges forward, grinding his teeth and gripping the straps of his bag tight.
He walks a little slower this time, praying that there will be a physical well instead of his metaphorical one to wash the mud off his feet. Thank Kami there aren't any leeches.
He hates the weather in Kirigakure with fervour.
A reason why he is beyond glad that he's finally leaving that overgrown humidifier of a village to head somewhere warmer for the winter. They've got to keep moving after all, for all their lethality as shinobi in combat, nature is a death trap of its own.
It can wear down the best of them. Storms and tsunamis. Whole towns swallowed by the earth; hundreds of lives squandered to the luck of the tides, the tilt of the sun. Creatures crushing you with the force of thousands of years of evolution.
Chaos.
Disease.
Neji swallows the lump in his throat at the mellow scent that the Land of Mist always seems to have. It's getting fainter, now that they're heading west. There's more sunlight to go around and it's a relief. They'll be circling back to home.
Neji never knew he'd grow to crave such a word, that he'd come to connect Konoha.
They're going back home.
Well. Home... other than this.
"Lee," he calls behind him, still walking at his sedate pace. The sounds in the Water Country echo differently from the Leaf, as if the constant mist not only wishes to disturb their vision, but one's hearing as well.
They've been here for months now and they've barely just gotten used to it. The fog is a well-accursed curtain.
But Neji has made himself clear. Where Neji calls, Lee will follow.
He has to.
Neji stops when he receives no response. Standing calmly, he forces himself to listen better for the tapping of footsteps, the scuffle of the luggage Lee has with them.
He forces himself to keep his guard up and smooth his nerves, already starting to fray.
He doesn't need to fear. Neji has a bag of ninja tools and the Byakugan at the ready. Not to mention his trust in the capacity of his teammate. He should need nothing else.
And almost as if Lee can see Neji's patience drying right before his eyes, there's movement telegraphed through the racket of his heavy jogging. The other nin quickly catches up with a clatter of steps and all their stuff being smushed together.
Lee has a bright grin on his face, undaunted by the gloom of the climate.
"I saw a river and filled up our canteens!" Lee offers, "That way we won't have to worry about water for a while." A simple explanation, complete with a guileless smile.
And Neji has to wave away the annoyance that's just starting to bubble under his skin. His growing short temper has been fought over plenty of times before, complimented by Lee's new tendency to turn himself into Neji's personal headache.
He has been shockingly unapologetic these days. If Gai-sensei ever had the chance to Lee's new attitude for himself, he'd surely go mad, would have to drill the power of Youth and Courtesy and Basic Damn Set of Manners while he's at it. All with a blow to the head strong enough to make him feel like an Academy student even though he'd been chuunin for years now.
They'll probably end up dragging Neji into it too.
Neji shivers at the image and accepts Lee's words with a hum. They continue their trek, but this time, he's sure to match Lee's giddy skipping to keep him beside him. Between the both of them, they'll begin to cover ground at a much faster pace.
He sneaks a glance with a critical eye at the way Lee smiles and looks around with wonder here at the border of the country.
There is sunlight breaking brilliantly through the thick of the clouds just to get caught by the thinning vapours around them. It's like watching gold suspend from the heavens. But Neji has no interest in that.
The knees of Lee's jumpsuit are just as dirty as the soles on Neji's feet. The bangs of his hair are wet. Probably washed off from that river he spoke of. When Lee notices his staring and meets his gaze with a grin, Neji hastily begins to get rid of that scarily familiar urge to bolt.
The arresting deepness in Lee's onyx eyes isn't new, so is the shine of his white teeth that catch the day's soft rays with an audible ping! that feels more like a warning.
It's not new. Neji's dealt with the feeling of being prey for months now.
Verging on a year, specifically. And yet he still hasn't gotten rid of this itch in him. The desperate need to flee or strike back -- the pull to push away, by any means necessary.
Because there's something terribly wrong with Lee.
And it starts with the alarm in his head that shouts how blood and decay spill around a person like Lee on the daily. How that blood would be his if he doesn't watch out for that sliver of teeth.
An unnaturally natural reaction.
It's a weird feeling. Amazing how weird feelings can easily topple men into war.
"Is something wrong, Neji?" Lee says. His eyes are blank, sucking up the sun like a parasite, and he says it in a voice that's just a tad too mellifluous to really be his.
But behind all that is a friendly face, is the boyish scratchiness that Neji remembers, so he answers amicably, "We'll be crossing to Fire Country once we get beyond this cliff. You should be warier by then. We'll definitely encounter more people in Konoha than before."
"I'm aware, Neji. Don't worry about it!"
He nods. "Are you doing okay?"
"Of course, I am! You know that I know better than to keep myself in bad form. Your worry is admittedly admirable, but you don't have to constantly--" Lee stops his thought. A shocked expression on his face as he gives out a little, "Oh."
Neji purses his mouth in caution but gives his own surprised noise when he sees what Lee is staring at.
A bridge in tatters. The wreckage is of it so severe that it's visible from a distance.
There's blood smeared, ruddy colour absorbed by the soil and stark on the bridge's platform. There are edges burnt black, the shape of some parts welded into abstraction, some fully broken through. A feat in itself because this bridge is a notable landmark on their map. It was made to be sturdy. It has a century of safe travel written between the kilometer of its iron boards.
Now, it's as artless as a ruined grave.
He sneaks a look at Lee, whose eyes are glazed; glassy. Faraway and filmed as if he's watching memories of another time, mind obviously sad and someplace else.
Neji gives him a prompt nudge with his foot.
There. Now Lee's shin is dirty too.
Lee snaps out of it pretty quick, life flooding back into his figure. He takes a step back, covers his nose with a bandaged hand.
The inside of his palms are turning red, the stain blooming like a handheld carnation, but Lee's eyes are full of unyielding emotion and Neji decides for them to move away as quick as possible. The look in his eyes is anything but naivety but Neji would do anything to keep the conviction in them.
"It seems like we'll have to look for another way, then" Lee chirps with cheer, muffled by his fist. His fingers are dripping.
It's not a hassle in the long run but it's still an inconvenience. They'll just take another hour for a detour, climb down the side of the mountain and just... cross.
They quietly walk away from the bridge. Neji might not have Lee's nose right now but he's sure the entrails savagely hung across the platform means the bodies are out there somewhere, if not under that damaged ramp. He wonders what could have caused it. Normal shinobi work, an accident, or an "accident". It's useless to think about but it's a good distraction from Lee's anxious speedwalking.
There's a tick on Lee's jaw but Neji's no more afraid than usual. If anything, he's just as helpless, what with Lee looking like this.
Distressed and devastated. Like he was the one who'd killed all those people. Like, ever since he's become what he is, he's now always liable.
"Your temple is bleeding," Neji says to him once he catches up.
Lee just nods, his eyes are downturned but he swipes a wrist over his bleeding head anyway.
He does it with the hand not clinging onto his mouth, as if to hold in his lunch -- which is its own gruesome sight. Not that his body will fail him like that. Vomiting is beyond him now.
Neji wordlessly activates the Byakugan to scout ahead of them, not faltering. Lee gives an interested sort of sound at him. Nevertheless, he doesn't ask.
He's starting to breath deeper now. Calmer. As always his chakra pathways are eerily deadened, but the outline of his chest continues to rise like a tide without a moon.
He stops Lee with a swift signal. Neji's eyes rove on images far beyond the both of them.
Lee looks to the places that aren't. He scales the cliffside, its steep drop, the mist obscuring the very bottom. Though if you have a lick of knowledge on the terrains of Kirigakure, you'd know it would just be rocks and more water down there. A crocodile or two the size of a house if you're unlucky. Hopefully no hidden traps for undercover nin.
"There are a couple of people further north. They're washing off blood. Probably the same guys who made the ambush in the bridge," Neji reports, closing his Byakugan in favour of watching the trepidation on Lee's face at the facts.
Predictably, Lee repeats, "People?"
"People," he confirms.
"Ah."
Lee wanders over the edge, looking down. Relief is plain in his movements, meaning he's finally stopped sweating. There's blood that has crusted over from the parts where his bandages hadn't absorbed or where Lee hadn't been able to reach.
"Are you hungry?" Neji asks, light as a leaf.
"No!" Lee yells, red in the face, "I'm okay! We should start climbing down here. Or otherwise, we might barely get across before night falls, right? The sun sets sooner here in Kiri."
Lee suddenly perks up, hitting a fist against his palm. "I got it! We should make it a race to get across, Neji!"
"Eh?"
"Gai-sensei would agree and say that this would be a wonderful form of special training! When will we ever get the chance to test our skills, not only against the treachery of the Mist's landscape, but also against each other! In the context of the treachery of the Mist's landscape," he clarifies.
Neji crosses his arms as he stares down pointedly at the other boy. "Why does it always have to be some challenge for you. Can't you tell how slippery the ground is? I'm not exactly looking forward to watching you accidentally drop our items or break your neck."
They'll have to watch their step. Inviting an accident just because of Lee's impulsiveness would be foolish. The next drop is probably more than a hundred meters down, which wouldn't be a problem if they could actually see where they're landing.
Which, luckily for them, Neji can. "It'll be better to go one at a time. I'll lead the way."
"That's what you think, my dear Friend! I bet I'll be able to cross there twice --no! Three times faster than you! If not then I'll do two thousand push-ups with my thumbs tomorrow!" Lee exclaims with a thumbs up, as if there was any way that could happen.
Neji scowls. "Were you planning on jumping off the cliff? And what? Impaling yourself on a ridge somewhere?" Not that there's any rock hard enough against Lee's head.
"Well, I mean..."
He impatiently grabs at their heavier luggage on Lee's back. "Here," Neji says, tugging, "I'll help you with some of the bags."
"I'm fine!" A hand pushes at his face as Lee tries to wiggle away.
"What are you doing, now? Stop being so fussy!"
"I am perfectly capable of carrying our luggage, Neji! I've carried sensei's weights which are more than a thousand times heavier. On each leg! When I was twelve!"
"I'm more concerned with you not knowing where you're going! At least give me the sleeping bags! They're too bulky," he hisses.
Lee pauses at that, pouting at the ground with a sour look on his face. He grumbles openly but, with a huff, he does manage to do what he's asked. The latches of their sleeping bags unclick one after another off his backpack and he hands them to Neji who shoulders them easily as if they weigh nothing. Then, he spins on his heel.
Honestly. And Tenten used to say Neji was the petty one.
Not that Neji can leave Lee in this state either way. He sighs, taps at Lee's elbow, and makes a show of rolling his eyes at the other's moodiness. His mouth melts into a softer smile when he spots the grin back on Lee's face, hard feelings forgotten.
All this in the span of a couple seconds.
But he's just as fast to turn serious.
"Byakugan!"
It's tricky, finding a place to jump, much less one that can support both their weight. Carelessly, he flicks his eyes a little to his right before looking back down. That one group seems to be rousing from their makeshift camp but it seems unlikely that they'll reach Lee and Neji now.
He cautiously climbs down, chakra dispelled at the pads of his fingers as he sticks past the surface of the crumbling dirt, strings of random roots winding around his hands. There are fire ants and bugs, sloping stones covered in slime. All easy in hindsight.
When he makes it, he sets himself down carefully, looking back up. He would barely see the edge without the Byakugan with the thickened mist being so much closer to the water, but the outline of Lee's bowlcut peering down at him, waiting for Neji, is unmistakable.
A deep gurgle shocks him into looking around. There's water slapping against stone. But nothing beyond it yet. Just the river then. When the sound doesn't repeat itself a few seconds later, he calls, "Lee! The coast is clear!"
There's nothing from the group from before as well. Neji cringes at the number of them, confirms it to himself that it's an average vampire hunting group.
Though a rather frightening chakra disease, vampirism itself can't be infallible. Vampires could be, on their own, but not against specialised groups of fifty or more aiming to kill.
He idly observes the hunting clan, shifting uncomfortably as he watches them pass around teeth and fingers. Hair. Other organs. To develop a cure, no doubt.
Nothing to be done now. At least, they're far away. And Neji won't have to worry himself, except for Lee's obnoxious challenges at his every turn.
But it's too quiet, Neji hadn't even noticed that there hadn't been a response. He can still see Lee from beyond the cover of the ledge, looking at some point behind him. Does he sense anything up there?
"Lee?"
What's taking so long?
Neji feels himself start to sweat. He fiddles with his bag. The one he usually carries, not the one that has the sleeping bags they need. Or rather he needs. Lee doesn't have a need for comfort now, way less than the time when he used to sleep upside down to test his stamina or how fast he can kill himself by blood rush or whatever. The bags that Lee used to carry that Neji needed and it's now with Neji. It's only ever been for Neji. His eyes widen at the realization.
Something's wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
"Lee," he tries again, stomach bottoming out unpleasantly. Lee is motionless and as stationary as the dead heart in his chest, but there's a tenseness to Lee's stance that Neji's seen a thousand times before. Fighting with or against him, you see it once you see it a million times.
'He's gearing to run.' Neji thinks with stunned alarm, even as he wishes so desperately it's not true.
He's going to run. He's not even facing the hunting group, he doesn't know about them. No. He's facing the Mist. He's facing a lineup of mountains and forests where a nin like him can hide, better than a needle in a haystack as big as the Kage building.
"There's no loyalty like Lee's!" Gai had said when they were young and Neji had been in dismay over the mess that was his teammate. If Lee takes so much as a step away, Neji is seriously going to find their sensei and drive a fist to his face for being an awful liar.
Neji will hunt him down. Lee can't run away, not even with his speed and strength now. That monster in him. Disease. There is no world that he can be in that Neji won't overturn and he knows this.
"Lee!"
Neji will fight him all the way through.
The strain in his voice must've snapped at least some sense back to him. Lee looks back at the direction Neji is stuck in, the conflict in his eyes plain for his Byakugan to read.
Lee stutters through some half-baked excuse, the words catching in his mouth as he bathes in his guilt.
'He was really going to do it,' Neji thinks in disbelief. They're around a hundred and fifty meters away but Lee knows Neji can see his shame as clearly as if he were in front of him.
"Neji, I--"
"I don't care," Neji interrupts, practically screams, "I said it's fine. It's fine, Lee. The coast is clear so just get down here, you absolute moron. Now. Please."
The silence after makes Neji wonder if he should start getting up there now.
He breathes better once Lee finally drags his steps closer, but Neji doesn't disable his kekkei genkai until he can meet him at eye level.
Guilt is etched in every line of Lee's figure.
There's blood collecting on the corner of his eyes, his lips wobbling even as he bites at them to stop. He won't meet his gaze.
Neji, exhausted from the emotional toll of it all, just sighs and brings his white sleeve to dab at Lee's growing tears. He has to really pay attention to prevent himself from shaking. The grip he's holding Lee's face with must be short of painful. Neji gives out a shuddery breath at the sight of blood on his clothes. Blood that is stolen. A reminder that Lee's still here.
The burble of the pool underfoot is the only witness to their display.
"You could get so annoying, did you know that?" Neji asks. In return for his dry question, he receives a small, quivering laugh from Lee, who shakes his head as if he hadn't driven Neji crazy with the stress he's caused today alone.
Lee reaches behind him, pats around until he presents Neji with this: a canteen, the water heard sloshing inside it.
"Here," Lee says, back to being buoyant. It's infuriating. He got over the remorse quick, that's for sure. "You always get so snippy with me when you're dehydrated. Taking care of yourself is important, especially as we've got a long journey ahead of us yet," Lee says.
Really unbelievable. Neji almost got a heart attack and Lee doesn't even say sorry. He never does, something about the difference between saying an apology and meaning it. Neji understands the principle but he still would have appreciated it for all the grief his teammate gave him.
Neji takes the container anyway. It makes for a pathetic peace offering but Neji has become quite the enabler. Plus, he's sort of pathetic himself.
He takes a deep drink, as if he's swigging their Hokage's supply of Grade A alcohol rather than some river water Lee found along the roads of their muddy trail somewhere.
It tastes clean and fresh though, a brilliant distraction to the darkened eyes Neji feels on his throat as he swallows.
He drinks until it's almost empty, a small retribution, even with the satisfied look on Lee's face. A cat looking like it got the cream.
"Aren't you grateful I filled them out?" Lee asks, cheeky, pertaining to a while ago.
Neji really doesn't care either way. He's still pissed at Lee, there's still the taste of betrayal on his tongue.
"Thanks," he spits, as if the anger were a tangible thing, residue to purge himself from, spilling out his mouth.
Because what the hell.
When he softens, it's at the same time as Lee, and it's all through the other's doing. He finally must have managed to read Neji's emotions --thank, Kami-- because he reaches for Neji's hand, grips Neji's frigid fingers and holds on tight.
He's ice cold too but he's also Lee. It's so easy to imagine the warmth there that he doesn't need to focus on it at all. Like a phantom feeling, this is without a doubt Lee, and Lee would always be the fire to melt Neji's resolve.
They stay like that for a while, just holding onto each other, until Lee prods at Neji for them to continue. By then, the sun's long gone.
But it doesn't matter.
They make their way to the depths of the earth. In the dark. Down again. This time, together.