Naruto : Monsters

My knee is still shaking, like I was twelve,

Sneaking out of the classroom, by the back door.

A man railed at me twice though, but I didn't care.

Waiting is wasting for people like me.

Don't try to live so wise.

Don't cry 'cause you're so right.

Don't dry with fakes or fears,

'Cause you will hate yourself in the end.

Don't try to live so wise.

Don't cry 'cause you're so right.

Don't dry with fakes or fears,

'Cause you will hate yourself in the end.

...

In a futile effort to try and sneak in a few more minutes of sleep, I shifted over to my side and squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block out the sunlight that poured through the windows, past the thick curtains that he had just drawn open.

"Good morning Hikaru-sama, it's time to get up." A voice that held far too much cheer than should have been legally allowed this early in the morning called out to me. "And praise the sun, it's such wonderful weather we're having, isn't it? It's going to be another great day, I can tell."

The sheer joy he spoke with as he greeted the new day could not be denied. It brought to mind a baby's laughter, the sound of children playing. It was a voice filled with so much happiness, innocence and nigh endless optimism that it could've coaxed a smile from the even the bitterest of souls.

I had never wanted to stab anyone more in my life.

"You say the same thing every single morning," I grumbled out as I tossed my blanket over my head, trying to block out the light. "Even when it's raining."

"Why would a little bit of water prevent us from enjoying all the wonders that a new day would bring Hikaru-sama?" He questioned as he drew closer, his footsteps on the wooden floor giving him away. "Quite the opposite, the life-giving water that is blessed upon us by the rain would only make the day a better one. Oh, praise the rain."

My blanket was yanked out of my hands and with it my last layer of protection from the sunlight. I resisted the urge to flip myself over onto my stomach and try to get just a few more minutes of sleep, knowing from experience that it would only get worse for me if I tried. So I simply surrendered to the inevitable and forced myself to get up.

"Okay I'm up, I'm up." Grousing, I pushed myself up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes as I threw my legs over the side of my bed. When I could finally see clearly I looked up to find the all too familiar face of the perpetrator smiling happily down at me. I levelled my best glare back up at him in turn. "Why the hell do you have to be so damn cheerful all the damn time Neji?"

Neji's smile just grew wider. "What's there not to be cheerful about? I'm blessed with a great father and mother, a perfectly healthy body and was born into a powerful and noble family. When life is so wonderful, how can I not be cheerful?"

I narrowed my eyes at him, an idea dawning on me. "And what would you do if your life wasn't so wonderful anymore? What if something terrible happened to you, say, oh I don't know-" I pretended to think on it for a moment, "Your father happened to be murdered before your eyes, would you finally stop being so cheerful then?"

At the moment I was seriously contemplating murdering my uncle if only to put an end to the abomination that Neji has become and turn him back to his original self.

Neji frowned mournfully as he thought on the matter. "Death is truly a terrible thing but like most things, it is an unavoidable part of life, something that comes to us all. 

And while I would miss my father dearly, I know in my heart that he would not want me to suffer because of his passing. 

And that is why," Neji smiled at me with all the benevolence of a saint, "I would carry on as I am, being happy, because I know that is what he would have wanted."

And with that, all my hopes were dashed.

Jumping out of bed, I reached out and grabbed the clothing that Neji was holding out for me. One of the small but peculiar changes to my life was the change in my morning routine. For one thing, I no longer took showers but baths, and it happened at night instead. 

It took some getting used to taking a bath before bed rather than after, which was the norm here. Though I had to admit, it was nice not having to go through the hassle of cleaning myself up every morning. Just a quick change of clothing and a brush of my teeth then I was done.

"Hey Neji," I asked, pulling my shirt off and tossing it onto my bed, "was somebody singing just now?"

"Singing?" Neji took on a thoughtful look before shaking his head. "No, no one was singing as far as I could tell. Why?"

I halted halfway through putting a new shirt, and thought back to that half-forgotten melody that filled my dream - 'Cause you will hate yourself in the end – I gave away my head a quick shake and continued dressing. "Nothing. It was nothing Neji, just a dream. Don't worry about it."

"If you say so." Neji sounded a little dubious before shrugging and changing the subject. "So are you looking forward to your first day at the Academy?"

I couldn't stop myself from frowning as I pulled on my pants, "Well, it'll be interesting at the very least."

Truth be told, I didn't even know why I was being sent to the Academy. There wasn't anything for me to learn there, not at my level. Its coursework was designed to transform ordinary children with little or no formal training into competent Genin. And let's face it, I was the farthest thing possible from being either ordinary or untrained.

The few things that I could still be taught there I could have just as easily learned at home, from either the library or one of my private tutors. There was absolutely nothing for me to gain from going to the Academy yet I had no choice in the matter. My father had ordered me to attend and for the life of me, I had no idea why.

Over the years Hiashi has been forced to put up with a lot of shit from me, as I kept sticking my nose in all sorts of places a little child had no place being, and yet he has always given me a lot of leeway. Outside of training, where he was an absolutely brutal son of a bitch, he had always been a little soft when it came to me.

Maybe it was because I was a 'prodigy', but so long as I upheld my duties as the Clan Heir and continued to maintain my progress in training, he would more or less give in to any of my demands. Well, reasonable ones at least.

At one point I tried finding out how far I could push him and started asking for minor but unusual things in order to understand what my limits and bounds were. 

Turned out quite a bit. So long as what I asked wasn't too expensive or dangerous, I could get away with asking for the most outlandish things. 

He only put his foot down when I asked him for a signed copy of Itachi's autograph, mostly as a joke. He had even prohibited me from asking him myself for one should we ever meet, seeing as we had the whole clan rivalry thing going on between the Uchiha and Hyuuga.

Honestly, he didn't need to worry. It wasn't as if I had actually wanted Itachi's autograph...alright, it's not as if I wanted it now. Embarrassingly enough had I still been ten years old my preteen self would have been squealing for joy.

My preteen years were not my proudest moment.

Yet on this one matter, Hiashi was being unnaturally stubborn and wouldn't budge an inch. He had even forbidden me from fast-tracking and skipping any years. So no matter how well I did, I was stuck spending an entire six years at the Academy, which I got to tell you was going to suck.

Not that I was in any hurry to become a ninja or anything, not yet at least. I was still six and there was no way I was going to allow myself to be sent to the battlefield this early. Adult mind or not, I'd get killed out there faster than I could blink. 

I'd always intended to wait until I was at least 10 or so before deciding if I was ready to become a Genin or not, but by the looks of things, the choice was being taken out of my hands.

By the time I was done with my musing, I found that I had finally finished dressing, and turned to face a smiling Neji, who was already dressed up, having prepared long before he came to wake me. Damn him for being a morning person.

"The Academy is a wonderful place Hikaru-sama, I believe you may end up liking it more than you expect."

"It's not a matter of me liking it or not," I replied as I made my way through the side door and into my personal bathroom. "It's the level of training that I'm worried about. I didn't push myself for so long only to see my hard-earned skills deteriorate as I sit down in a classroom all day."

Neji shook his head while smiling indulgently as I began to wash my face, "Ah Hikaru-sama, now that there is where you are wrong. While you are correct that the level of training in the academy is not up to our standard, there is something they can teach us that we cannot learn anywhere else."

"And pray tell, what may that be?" I asked before I started brushing my teeth.

"Bonds," Neji answered. "Comrades, friends, people we can trust our backs and lives to. These are things we can never discover if we seclude ourselves in these walls. That is something you can only experience if you leave this place, and I believe that is precisely what Hiashi-sama intends for you to learn at the Academy."

"I doubt that's what my father intends for me to learn. That man is too practical to waste time on something like that." 

I muttered around my toothbrush before spitting out the toothpaste and quickly began rinsing my mouth clean. Really, Hiashi sending me to the Academy to learn about the 'power of friendship'? As if he'd do anything so asinine.

...

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