Zero Hour!

(A:N) I decided to do a short side story since I made chapter two so damn long to fit it in there…by my standards. Enjoy!

Chapter III
Side Story


‘Where…’ Neji opened his eyes and looked around in the dark. His room was covered in blackness, or at least he thought it was his room. He reached to grab his table lamp to turn it on and felt it not there. That’s about the time he felt the crawling liquid flowing from the back of his head. That’s about the time he realized that he was laying in it.

He quickly sat up and looked over his bed, or at least he thought he’d been in his bed. He put his hand down onto what should have been his mattress and found a cold-chilling flow of something. He still couldn’t see what it was though. He felt the back of his head since he assumed this substance was blood. No injury was found so he closed his eyes and tried to relax. He knew he was in a dream and all he had to do was find a way out by concentrating.

For the passed three months Neji had been having nearly the same dream. Each time more was revealed to him. Each time there was something he hadn’t seen before. Each time…there was something a lot scarier for him to face. If he just relaxed then he wouldn’t have to worry about jumping out of his skin this time.

When he was finally calm he opened his eyes to find he was now sitting in an underground waterway. He would have to stop watching Itachi play so many Zelda video games. Standing up he could see that the water was clouded with traces of blood. It was faint but there was enough of it for him to know that it was fresh and had just been washed down from wherever it was coming from. Deciding he was tired of wasting time he started sloshing through the water.

When he came to a cross-way he looked left then right. He didn’t know if he wanted to veer off or go straight like he had been going. He stood there for a couple of minutes, unmoving. A fairly huge rat scurried through the water next to him and he turned up his lip. Dammit he wanted to get out of there. It was cold and the sweat pants he had worn to bed were soaked. If he weren’t in a dream he would have been worried he’d catch pneumonia.

Back to his situation of choosing a path Neji went left. Apparently all the right choices in life he thought he’d made had gotten him stuck in the confounded dream world so left was the better choice. He didn’t have to walk too far before he came to a spill way and it didn’t take a genius to know that all the blood was coming from behind it. Neji cursed his luck and climbed up the tunnel. He slipped once or twice but it was hardly difficult to get up there.

Stepping out the tube and onto dry ground Neji gulped as he found his source of blood. Looking carefully at the fallen body he already knew who it was but he was entirely too afraid to approach. The contorted position the body was didn’t make it any better. He couldn’t see the face but one of the arms was casted behind his-yes it was a he-back. His other arm was lying under him and a pool of blood was flowing. Neji noted that there couldn’t possibly be this much blood in the human body but it was a dream so he overlooked it, and the fact that it was terribly scary.

Giving himself a second to breathe in the rotting air Neji began walking over to the body. He stepped around to see the face covered in blood. Jade wide eyes stared at him in after shock. Lips were sealed and sewn together by thread. Neji blinked and kneeled down to roll the body over.

Gaara’s dead eyes seemed to be focused on him wherever he moved. Neji didn’t bother looking away. He’d been told too many times that it was his fault for all of this. By now he was beginning to believe it after having denied it for the last couple months. It wasn’t his fault Gaara was so drastic and never thought things out. It wasn’t his fault Gaara was born into a family that overlooked him. It wasn’t his fault that Gaara felt like he needed a way out…was it?

Neji wanted to wipe the blood from Gaara’s face and get him out of that horrible death trap of a room. He was starting to feel bad every time he found Gaara like this, how he had really found Gaara like this that…one time.

A groan? Neji shuddered and fell back on his ass to get away from the body that had…groaned? Gaara sat up like a night of the living dead zombie and slowly turned his head towards Neji. The older opened saucer sized eyes to the moving dead man.

‘H-He’s moving. He’s…n-not supposed to move.’ Neji couldn’t remember any of the passed dreams he had where Gaara had actually come back to life. And now Gaara was looking at his battered arms covered in living liquid. It pulsed out his arms faster as he looked upon it. Gaara stared at Neji, eyes still had not blinked and mouth still clamped tight.

Could Neji have gotten up to run? Yes! He could have but aside from being scared, this was a new development and maybe he was on the path to stopping the dreams. He watched as Gaara slowly pulled the thread sealing his lips. His neck fell to one side as if it was broken so he used a shaky hand to correct it. His tongue fell out his mouth once it was opened and the words he relayed weren’t more than whimpers.

Neji was scared that much he could admit. Truth be told, that’s why he tried to stay away from Gaara so much. All he had were bloody images that Gaara had left him with on that late Sunday night.

“Aren’t you dead yet?” Neji spat. He wasn’t going to go out like a coward if he had to die here. He didn’t know if dying in his dream would kill him in reality but he sure wasn’t going to keep having the dreams if he could stop them now. Gaara didn’t seem to respond to him. He seemed to be looking right through Neji, literally. The Hyuuga trained his eyes down to his chest where he found gaping through and through hole where his heart should have been. He lifted a hand to touch his body. He’d been fine two seconds ago but now it was hard to breathe. He looked up at Gaara, the boy was now holding his vital organ for life.

“You always wanted what you couldn’t have.” Neji coughed and a few drops of blood entered his hands. “Give it back. I took it from you long ago.” He slurred his words as he tried to stand so he could retrieve it himself but his legs weren’t moving now. Gaara palmed the beating organ in his hand and stretched it forward to give it back. Neji stared, he couldn’t get it. It was out of his reach. He could see how the longer he stared, the more the heart stopped beating. He was going to die, he could feel it. With every small beat his heart took, the weaker his body felt.

He frowned at Gaara, trying to convince him with his eyes to give back what he needed to survive. The other didn’t move as he held his hand out. Neji knew he couldn’t make it. His body started aching in places he couldn’t describe. A heavy strain was put on his shoulders and a stress to live was eating at his mind. He felt a swirl of emotions, none of them were feelings he wanted to hold onto.

“Have you-“ Gaara began, still unblinkingly staring. “-ever wondered about my pain?”

It was a question Neji didn’t comprehend very well. What exactly did Gaara mean by that? Neji backtracked for a second and thought about all the time he’d been with Gaara. For the most part it had been a typical relationship. There were little arguments, make up sex, followed by more make up sex. They were damn near best friends. Gaara often spoke of his problems to only Neji and the latter would rescue him from those problems as much as he could, but in the end it hadn’t been enough.

Neji saw his heart beat in Gaara’s hand for the last time. It turned to ash and blew after shortly after. Neji could feel his body withering away as well. He looked at Gaara for some kind of explanation. He got no answer from the boy aside from some other cryptic wording.

“You wanted me to stop feeling that way when there was nothing I could possibly do. Don’t you remember?”

‘Is this how he was feeling?’ Neji whined to himself as he felt the need to literally kill himself. This was a horrible feeling. How in the hell did Gaara survive with all this baggage? Neji looked at him and frowned again. He could feel his last bit of breath leaving his body. Helpless, he hoped he didn’t die in his sleep. Gaara moved, which caught Neji’s attention. He shuddered in a weakened state of shock when Gaara physically reached into his own chest and tore out a healthy heart that was beating with effortless joy.

“Take mine.” Gaara whispered and stretched his arm forward. Neji blinked and anger rose fairly quickly. Hell if he was gonna go there again.

“Keep it.” Neji growled. “I gave it back didn’t I?” Neji laid on the ground and looked up at the dripping ceiling. “I don’t need your heart to survive.” He was right. He was doing just fine without Gaara. He didn’t need the boy running around in his life again, causing havoc and worry. He was stressing Neji out and said boy didn’t need that.

“You’re dying without it.” Gaara pointed out. “Would you rather?”

Neji turned his head to look at him. Gaara was right too. He was dying, he could physically feel his life sliding out of his hands as he laid there gasping for air now. But hell if he was going to take that something back and make Gaara apart of him again. He had enough to deal with.

“I don’t need it. I’d so much rather-“

Gaara was hovering over him in a flash. He was completely healed-aside from the hole in his chest-and clean. His eyes were soft and they reminded Neji of the helpless innocent boy he’d fallen for.

“Take it.” Gaara begged. “I can’t keep it anymore. I can’t have yours, but you can have mine.”

Neji gulped as Gaara leaned closer. Neji could feel how warm Gaara’s breath was as he towered there. Why wasn’t he freaking out? Why wasn’t he pushing Gaara away? What about this damn dream was keeping him calm? Neji shifted but Gaara caught his lips and the Hyuuga froze. It wasn’t meant to be hurtful but Neji’s lips burned. He wanted to accept the kiss and return it but by the time he could think straight, Gaara had stuffed his heart into Neji’s chest and disappeared.

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Neji jerked awake in his bed. Just what the hell was that? He didn’t love Gaara anymore. He didn’t need Gaara. He didn’t want the boy’s heart back. This was absolutely aggravating. He touched his chest and saw that he was whole again. He felt the rushing beat of his heart in his chest. It was his heart, not Gaara’s. He didn’t have to be apart of the other. He wasn’t apart of the other. He was fine…without Gaara. He rolled over onto his side and stared at the something next to him.

“Hey, are you okay?” Haku asked, groggy. Neji stared down at him and blinked. No, he wasn’t okay.

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(End End End) AH! Haku’s in his bed! No! We’ll get back to the high school glorious drama stuff next chapter. You get to follow Neji to a session and you can have fun seeing the ex couple run into each other again. YAY! Thanks for the Reviews….keep ‘em comin’! Kisses…thanks to John for the relationship advice.