After dark - that's when all those bad thoughts you try to bury away come back to surface. And with no one around to help, you find yourself falling into them.
Well, you were never alone. You'd always have something there for you.
naruto!various x...
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You were no stranger with dates—if they were important to you, you made sure to keep them in mind. And it just so happened to be that it was your teammates birthday come a few more hours.
The problem? You were out on a mission, in the middle of a forest with no leads on what to do for such a day. Luckily for you—Neji had been stuck with guard duty, so in search for answers, you crawled out of your sleeping bag and planted yourself next to him on the log he sat on. He didn't react, but he knew you were there.
"Neji, you know what day it is tomorrow, right?" You asked him in a hush voice. His usual glare that came with his Byakugan didn't faulter as he thought of what day it was. The last important date you made a fuss about was your teams one year anniversary—and that day wasn't today. It took him a good few minutes of thinking, and by the time he answered, you thought he completely ignored you.
"Lee's birthday." He answered quietly—hesitantly at that. It was his best guess—and he was right. You went far with birthdays, despite the fact you were flat broke, you hadn't missed Lees birthday once, Naruto's either—which apparently, you were the first to celebrate it. You didn't go all out on Nejis birthday, but you'd make sure to the next to it rolled around.
"Yeah, we've got to do something!" You declared in a whisper-yell.
"What can we do in a forest?" Neji answered plainly. "Go back to sleep."
"Uh-uh." You shook your head, leaning in a little bit closer to him with a hand in the air, holding a finger up. Neji tensed when you got closer, he wasn't facing you, but with the 360 vision of his Byakugan, he might as well've been. "How's our team motto go?" You asked.
"Stronger than we were yesterday...?" Neji recalled, confused as to why you'd bring that up in the first place. Nothing in this scenario called for it.
"Right... So I'm going to pull a little play on words here and say we have to be smarter than we were yesterday!" You declared. "So I'm sure you could use that big head of yours to think of something."
Neji dwelled on your 'big head' comment before he shook his head. "Sorry, but no. Go to sleep."
You stared at him for a second before sighing. "Well, I guess I see what our friendship means to you." You shrugged, Neji blinked his Byakugan away, looking toward you. As discreet as Neji thought he was about how be cared for the friendship between you, he and Lee, you knew it well ever since he apologized to you after the Chuunin exams. Neji wasn't an easy person to read, seeing as he wore the same expression for every scenario, but there were a few things you knew would get under his skin.
"Well if you're such a genius yourself, then what do you suggest we do?" Neji scoffed—watching you turn your head to the opposite side of him and talk to someone.
"... Any ideas, Shisui...?" You whispered, eyeing him from where you sat. He was adamant on coming along on this mission, as support or something come the time you ever found yourself attack. And he had also done the honors of taking guard duty as well, seeing as he didn't need to sleep. The ghost looked at you—thinking for a second before apologizing, he had no ideas.
