Disclaimer: The story of “Naruto” just like its characters does not belong to me.

Main parings: Sasuke x Neji, Itachi x Neji.

Side parings: Naruto x Hinata.

Rate: R to NC-17

Summary: (Sequel to “Because of you”) AU. Sasuke has an obsession with Neji, but if he has to fight against the past and his own ghosts to get closer to him, maybe then he would understand how much he’s hurting them both.

Notes: Just let met remain you all that English is not my mother language, I’m sorry about the mistakes.

Warnings: Some graphic material. And this chapter was not been Beta-ed

“A Distant Cry”

By Yersi Fanel

Chapter 3: His emotions

Hinata ran trough he halls of the manor, trying to keep everything in silence, he opened the door very slowly, just as She expected, Neji was there, she took Neji’s hand and guided him to his room, the boy whispered a “thank you” walking behind his cousin.

It was already late, and most people in the house were sleep, Neji had used an old trick between him and Hinata to let her now that he needed her to open the gates for him. It was simple, Neji would write a not and singed it with his chakra, then use a bird the only obey himself and Hinata to send the message, Hinata would recognize the chakra almost instantly and read the note.

Once they both were safe in Neji’s room, Hinata looked at his cousin waiting for an explanation, this time she was not going to walk away.

“Niisan?”

“I just… please… I’m tired” Hinata was not happy with the reply, but Neji really looked very tired, so she nodded, the girl waited until Neji was in his night cloths and gave him extra blankets, Neji gave her a faint smile and fell asleep almost instantly.

Hinata got out the room and closed the door slowly, watching the sleeping form of his cousin, she sighed.

“I just want to help you…”

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Sasuke was looking at the ceiling of his room; he still could smell Neji’s scent in the mattresses, he knew it was going to fade away in a little while, but he could drag the boy there to fill the cloth whit his lovely scent ones again.

The boy went of the bed to take a shower, remembering the night before with a grin of satisfaction in his lips. When he went out and got changed, he walked over his desk and took the box of his brothers things, he keep it under the on with his own drawings.

Sasuke took the journal and stared to read it again:

“Father’s stupid ambitions are getting in my nerves, he can not even pretend that he cares for my opinion, my patient is getting less and less every time I see him, I swear that if was not for Sasuke’s convenient interruptions I would had displayed my distress more than once.

Yes, Sasuke’s presence had helped me but also the encounters between me and the object of my inspiration, that gorgeous creature... It is simple, every time I saw him he tries to make conversation, he is just being polite but after a while he just stays there with me, he let me draw while he reads or practice the use of his kekkei genkai.

He has the potential to be an strong shinobi and unlike my brother he is modest, no matter how strong he can actually be I can see that he is very fragile, looking him into the eye I can almost read him, even if his opal eyes not have something that gives them more to express like the normal concept of eyes I had become very good in breaking trough that mirror, behind that screen.

And because of that I can make him feel whatever I want.”

Sasuke tossed the journal aside, gritting his teeth, he wanted to have that effect on Neji as Itachi did ones, the boy tried to regain calm, letting put a heavy sigh he lays down on the futon, thinking.

It does not matter what Itachi could do in the past, he had Neji in the present, even if Itachi could break trough the mirror of Neji’s eyes, he could also do it.

He will do it, Sasuke decided.

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Hyuuga Hiashi throw a series of kunais to his daughter, Hinata dodge them all and cached the last one, throwing it back to his father, Hiashi used another kunai to stop the weapon.

“That was very acceptable Hinata, where did you learn it?” Hiashi watched his daughter, she was catching her breath.

“Neji-niisan” she simply answered and went back into the Jyuuken fighting stance. Hinata wanted to master the 64 points of divinity to keep going with her family’s jutsus, just like her cousin.

She was also training with her team to get better, not turning back no matter what, she had decided, she was working in create a jutsu for absolute defense, since her physical strength was less than his team mates she needed to defend herself more.

Neji had been training with her to master the Hyuuga jutsus, but that morning Neji was in a deep sleep and she didn’t wanted to disturb him, so she asked her father for help. The girl showed her progress in molding her chakra and the build of her confidence, but she still get more red than an apple when Naruto was near, years of being shy could not just disappear that easily, Neji found this amusing.

Said Hyuuga woke up feeling very sore, he sat up trying to not hurt himself even more, he stayed there for a few minutes, flashes of the night before came and went, he stood up and went to the bathroom to take a shower.

When he returned, he pick up a set of cloths, black shorts, white T-shirt and a black vest with the symbol like the one in Hinata’s Jacket in the back. When he was dressed, the Uchiha pendant caught his attention, it was besides the futon. Neji fixed his eyes in it and a flash of red sharingan crossed his mind, he took the pendant and put it on, hiding it under his cloths.

Neji gripped the pendant, trying to remember why he was afraid of the sharingan, the image was there, but the owner of that sharingan was not Sasuke, that sharingan was fully evolved and even darker but he couldn’t remember, as far ash he knew he had only seen the sharingan in Sasuke’s eyes.

“Then, were this image come from?...”

Neji keep thinking in that while wrapping bandages in his right limps, he put his headband on and his hitai-ate, once he was ready, he leaved the room.

The Hyuuga genius found his cousin training with his uncle, Neji saw the sun up in the sky, it was near noon, he had sleep all morning.

“Neji-niisan!” Neji walked near them.

“Hinata-sama, I’m sorry for the lack of punctuality, Hiashi-sama, good afternoon”

“It’s okay, let’s eat something” Hinata suggested, Hiashi looked at him with a plain expression and walked away, Hinata saw his father leave and sighed “I feel like eating outside today, what do you say, Neji-niisan?”

“I’m agree”

Hinata smiled at him and both of them got out of the Hyuuga manor to the streets of Konoha, looking for a place to eat. The girl looked to his cousin more than once, to be sure he was still walking with her, Hinata’s worried expression was very obvious, she forced herself to be calmer, for Neji’s sake.

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Hinata was trying to have a conversation with Neji, thing that ended in a monologue, but Hinata kept talking, maybe her voice could drive Neji to the present moment, she hoped. The terrace were they were eating was very calm at that time of the day, Neji was chewing a piece of tempura shrimp, looking at Hinata once in a while during the conversation to nod of shake his head.

The Hyuuga Heiress sighed at her cousin’s lack of enthusiasm, she took a piece of the vegetables in her plate and the signing of the birds was the only thing that filled the silence, Hinata was not used to be the one always talking, after all in her team the loud and hyperactive one was Kiba, she took a sip of her tea while thinking in what to say next.

On the other side of the street were Naruto and Sakura, the pink haired kounichi was doing some shopping for Tsunade and Naruto was there to carry the bags, that was the Oh great mission Tsunade gave him, Naruto wondered if this kind of mission was lower than D ranked.

“I think there is not lower rank than D, Naurto” said the kounichi looking at the shopping list, making sure she had everything in it.

“But Sakura-chan, after everything we had crossed we’re going back to D ranked missions?! She has to be kidding”

“To be honest, I think Tsunade-sama is just mad at you for be loud and annoying and this is her way to punish you”

“Awwww, no fair” Sakura rolled her eyes at him, after that she spotted Neji and Hinata in the terrace of a restaurant “Neji-kun, Hinata-chan!”

Hinata raised her gaze to locate the one who called; Sakura was running to get near them while Naruto was having troubles with all the bags and boxes, Neji saw the two of them over his shoulder.

“Good afternoon, Sakura-chan” said Hinata with a smile “N-Naruto-kun” there was that blush, Neji smiled, it was just very amusing to see his cousin that way, but sometimes he felt like kicking Naruto for been so clueless.

Naruto tripped and fell onto the floor, all the bags and boxes over him, the tree of them sweetdropped.

“H-Hi there” saluted Naruto moving the bunch of bags and boxes from his back to stand up “Hey Neji!” The Hyuuga looked at him with a bored expression “How come that you stared to fight Sasuke without even thinking about it and you refuse to fight with me when I asked you to?”

Neji tensed when he hear Sasuke’s name and turns his back at Naruto, taking his cup of tea “I didn’t felt like fighting with you when you asked me to, If you don’t recall I was training with Hinata-sama at that moment”

“And you felt like fighting with Sasuke-teme yesterday?” Naruto was back on his feet, glaring at Neji.

“He attacked me, I was defending myself” he explained looking over his shoulder, keeping his cold and calm tune.

Naruto murmured something about Sasuke always getting what he wanted while taking back the bags and boxes from the floor, Neji’s eyes turned sad for a moment

“…always getting what he wants” Neji whispered while placing a hand over his chest, cursing the pendant under his cloths.

“Neji!” Naruto called again, the brunette turned his attention back to the blonde “Train with me today, come on”

“I’m sorry Naruto, but I’m going to train with Hinata-sama” he said, Hinata nodded at this.

“Can I watch?” the blonde boy put his best big sweet eyes, Neji sweetdropped.

“You just want to get away from the mission Tsunade-sama gave you” murmured Sakura under her breath, Naruto ignored her.

“If you want, Neruto-kun, I guess is not a problem” said Hinata looking at his cousin, Neji nodded in agreement.

“Yeah!” Naruto let go of all the bags and boxes and jumped to sit beside Neji in the terrace, Sakura gave him a death glare pointing at the mess.

“Oh no, you are going to help me with this then you are going with them” warned Sakura with fire in her eyes, Naruto gave a nervous giggle and nodded.

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Naruto was sitting on a three watching Hinata and Neji, at first he wanted to shout and give Hinata support but Neji shut him up by throwing at him Hinata’s jacket, when he was about to arguing Neji shut him up again this time by throwing his vest at the blonde boy.

“Since when do you have cloths beside you normal outfit?” asked Naruto looking at the vest in his hands.

“I do have a guard rope you know” answered the opal eyed boy looking at Naruto as if he had just said something stupid “I’m sure you have more cloths than that orange outfit of yours”

“Of course I do!”

“Same with me, happy now? good. Let’s get stared, Hinata-sama”

“H-hai, Neji-niisan” Hinata was trying to not giggle at Neji and Naruto’s conversations, but it was just funny to her to see her cousin discussing about cloths.

Neji and Hinata moved in a very similar way and contrary of their fight in the chunnin exams, Naruto was actually enjoying watch them train, when Hinata needed a rest, Naruto would pick to opportunity to train himself little with Neji, until the silver eyed boy needed to rest too.

They keep this routine all afternoon, by the time the sun was setting, Hinata had perfected her Jyuukenhou Hakke Rokujyuu Honshyou a lot, Neji was happy for her, He knew Hinata was working hard to get better, no matter if her father did not believe in her like he should.

Neji was resting against a three while Naruto was sparing with Hinata, the Hyuuga girl was trying her best to focus in the practice and not in the fact that was Naruto the one helping her. Neji was watching the whole thing with a little smile on his face but after a while he closed his eyes, letting his mind fly away…

Neji was by the river, looking his reflection in the wild water, he was suppose to be heading home by now but he didn’t felt like going, the little boy throw a rock into the water, scaring the few fishes swimming in the spot.

The Hyuuga rules were clear, even if him or Hinata came exhausted from their classes at the academy, they should have training seasons with their mentor in the Hyuuga manor, Neji didn’t care about that very much, because since they were having a lot of ninjutsu exercises in the academy their study in the manor was more about reading the scrolls of the Hyuuga style and history, scrolls that, most of them, he and even Hinata had already read, this of course, without their mentor’s knowledge.

It had been Hinata’s idea, she wanted to read the scrolls to know more about the byakugan and the Hyuuga Family, she asked for his assistance to get the scrolls, since they were not suppose to enter the library my themselves yet.

When they mentor let them know that hey could enter in the library now, they had already read a lot of the scrolls, but of course that no one knew that.

Neji saw something odd in the water, a reflection that did not belong to him, the boy looked over his shoulder and his eyes encounter with the deep black ones of the shinobi he saw in the training grounds before.

“Good Afternoon” said the little boy, the older shinobi walked near him and patted him on the head, smiling softly, Neji blushed a little, not used to this kind of sings of affection, because the only one that normally displayed affection to him was Hinata and she just hugged his arm of something.

“Good afternoon, chibi-chan” replied the other boy, his voice was deep for someone of his age, Neji saw him in the eye, the older boy was smiling at him, just enjoying his company, the little boy retuned the gesture, the little flush in his cheeks was still there.

Neji stayed with the older boy by the river for a while, he was using his byakugan to count the fishes in the water while the other boy was drawing…

“Niisan?” Hinata stroked Neji a little; the boy had fell sleep against the three, the sun was already down and the night was coming “Neji-niisan”

“Neji” that voice was not Naruto’s or Hinata’s, Neji opened his eyes like if someone had just punched him, that voice was Sasuke’s “There, you are awake now”

Neji looked at his surrenders, Sakura and Sasuke were there, Hinata was at his side, he took Hinata’s sleeve and stood up “Sorry” he whispered to Hinata, she just nodded.

“We should go back” said Hinata, feeling Neji’s tense grip of her jacket.

“Naruto no baka!” said Sakura slapping Naruto on the back of the head “I trough you were going to be with them for a while not the whole day! We’re suppose to train together”

“Calm down, Sakura-chan, what’s done is done, besides, Sasuke-teme did not wanted to train” said the blonde.

“I did arrive to the training grounds, you know?” explained Sasuke “You were the one that was not there”

“Well for once you were the one in that side!” glared Naruto, used to be the one that was left alone in the middle of the training season.

“Let’s go, Hinata-sama” said Neji just to be hear by Hinata, she nodded but before they could go, Sasuke took Neji’s wrist.

“Don’t want a rematch, Hyuuga?”

Neji slapped Sasuke’s hand from his and shocked his head, turning his back at him and walking away.

“W-wait for me, Neji-niisan!” Hinata had to run to catch up with Neji, Sasuke smirked to himself.

“Jezz, what happened to him?” Naruto asked “He was fine before”

“Leave Neji-kun alone, Naruto, maybe he was just tired to deal with you all afternoon” said Sakura passing a hand over her hair, Naruto’s eyes turned watery.

“Awww, don’t said that, Sakura-chan!” the boy waved his arms, Sasuke stopped him.

“Were did you get that vest?” he asked, Naruto looked at himself; he had put on Neji’s vest when the other boy fell sleep.

“Oh, this? It’s Neji’s” he explained “Isn’t it cool? I like the flame in the back”

“My question is…” stared Sasuke “Why are you wearing it?”

“Neji took it off while training and I was taking care of it and Hinata’s jacket, Hinata got her jacket back but Neji was sleep so I was trying it and you guys came and I got distracted then he left, I forgot to give it back” he said while taking the vest off, Sasuke took the cloth from his hands.

“I’ll return it”

Sasuke turned to the direction the Hyuugas had gone moments ago, Naruto looked and him and blinked in confusion.

“Since when does he care?”

“Sasuke-kun is just being polite, Naruto!” said Sakura as it was something very obvious, Naruto just sighed.

“Yeah, right” he said with clear sarcasm, Sakura glared at him but the blonde ignored it “I’m hungry, let’s get some ramen!”

Naruto jumped and stared to run to head towards Ichiraku’s while Sakura yelled at him, the blond laughed and ran faster.

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When Hinata and Neji arrived to the Hyuuga estates, the older boy noticed that his vest was missing, he decided to get it back before dinner and so he excused himself and went out of the manor again.

In the middle of the road, however, he encounter with someone he definitely didn’t wanted to see. Sasuke was smirking at him, and he was wearing his vest.

“Forgetting something?” Sasuke teased him, Neji narrowed his eyes.

“Just give it back, Uchiha”

“Sasuke”

“What?”

“You call me Sasuke” he said, walking near him while taking off the vest, he handed it to Neji, when the other boy took it, Sasuke used the chance to get a grip of Neji’s wrist and pulled him close, taking a kiss from him.

Neji felt Sasuke’s tongue demanding to enter in his mouth, the Uchiha boy had got a grip on his neck and waist, pulling him out the road and into the woods, making him fell onto the ground, Sasuke bitted Neji’s lip to make him open his mouth, the brunette pushed him.

“Stop, you are hurting me” Neji’s eyes got wide after saying that, pulling and hand over his mouth is surprised that he had actually let know Sasuke that he was hurting him.

The other boy narrowed his eyes at him, Neji’s back was against a three and Sasuke was on top and he didn’t move he just stayed there watching Neji for several minutes.

The boy cupped Neji’s face with his hand; his gaze was softer than before, Neji blinked slowly.

“Then let me in…” Naji closed his eyes as Sasuke stared to kiss him again, his time was gentle, me moved from his mouth to his neck, placing butterfly touches on the soft skin, Neji moved his arms very slowly, not sure if he was doing the right thing and embraced Sasuke lightly, the dark haired boy returned to his mouth and this time Neji did not fight.

Sasuke’s tongue explored the brunettes mouth and his hands got under his cloths, touching him softly, Sasuke felt something that he wished since long time but didn’t actually expected to happen…

Neji was kissing him back.

Sasuke left Neji’s soft lips again, tracing to his neck, while on of his hands was holding him close and the other was caressing his manhood over this cloths, Sasuke saw that Neji had his eyes closed, moaning softly under his touch.

He was about to go beyond, he looked at Neji into the eye… and those opal eyes got wide and pushed him.

Sasuke, not expecting this, fell on his back side and looked at Neji in confusion, Neji was trembling, a hand covering his mouth and the other over his chest, the boy stoop up and took his vest.

“I’m sorry”

Neji ran away from him, Sasuke sighed then he noticed that his sharingan was activated, he did not actually wanted to use it, he wasn’t sure what drove him to activate it, maybe he wanted to see trough the mirror as his brother had describe it, it didn’t worked, obviously. He closed his eyes, letting them return to normal.

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Neji ran without direction, he just wanted to get away from those red eyes, he cursed himself for it.

Sasuke was actually being gentle with him, the touch of the Uchiha felt good it was different from before, it had feeling in it, and the touch wasn’t just blind lust.

But those red eyes…

Neji shocked his head in aggravation, trying to get rid of the image, he tripped and was about to fell onto the floor, he used his hands to protect his face but his body never felt the impact of the hard floor but something else.

He opened his eyes to see that someone had caught him before he fell, Neji blinked, adjusting his gaze to see the person.

Dark hair… black eyes… black cloak with red clouds.

Neji’s eyes got wide and he did not move a muscle, the older shinobi ha his arms around him, he was trapped, the older shinobi looked at him in the eye and smiled.

“It’s been a long time, Neji-kun”

Neji’s lips trembled a little, his voice was gone, he tried to said something but the words did not came out, finally he felt something coming out, a name.

“I-Itachi-san…”

To be continue…

I’m evil like the pork meat at night, muhahahaha! cough, cough…

I’m so sorry!! This chapter was not beta-ed, sorry, sorry!! I’ll update for the revised version when I got it.

Ones again, thanks for taking some of your time in read the product of my crazy mind, and I apologies for mistakes in spelling and grammar, for comments and questions I’m at your service, see you latter!