Hearts In Decay (Neji X Reader)

Snakes!

Weaving through the hallways, I glanced back. I was currently riding piggy-back style on Neji. Sasori was riding Deidara did that sound wrong? and Naruto and Sasuke were fighting. Sasuke was winning. Shikamaru, Gaara, Shino, and Kiba were in charge of camouflaging the vehicles and protecting them.

Fortunately for us, the infirmary was close by and we would escape quickly. The bad part was that the snake cage in the lab was broken; those snakes were all mutated with special genes that would allow them to fly and/or grow legs. Another change thanks to Orochimaru-san was that the retiles could become invisible. They could be slithering up any alley and no one would notice.

So far, we'd killed all the zombies climbing the building, with the courtesy of Shino. Apparently, the creatures were afraid of bugs. So when the boy released the swarm of bugs, they scampered down from the lab and away from us. After that, all the bugs were coming towards their master.

"S-shino, get those bugs away from me!" I screamed. Beetles, flies, bees--any type of insect, you name it--were crawling next to the 10 of us. Normally, I wouldn't be scared of bugs. It's only natural to find them all over Konoha, the 'village of the leaf.' But, this wasn't any ordinary group of bugs. They were huge! And some of them looked like hollow-shelled creatures.

The master only shrugged. "I can't. They go where they want." I pouted.

"Fine. Have your way. Neji? Turn around." The Hyuga obeyed and I jumped on his back. "Will you carry me?"

He smirked. "Of course. Anything for you, milady." I blushed.

"Then onward!" He ran forward towards the building.

"Oi, wait up!" Two impatient boys shouted. Naruto jumped on top of Sasuke and Sasori jumped onto his partner.

"Danna, you're heavy!" The blonde shouted. His dandere friend lightly kicked him.

"Go brat. We'll lose them!" Deidara moaned.

"In which sense are you dandere?" He said before running off. Meanwhile, the slightly younger duo (Sasuke and Naruto) just shrugged and went off in search of the scientists. And ever since then, the two boy duos were trying to switch their positions.

~.~

Neji's movements were getting a bit slower. I jumped down. "Are you ok?" He nodded.

"I just felt something slippery and it freaked me out." I giggled and began to tease him.

"You, the great Hyuga Neji, are freaked out by slithery snakes? I should probably catch this on tape!" However, the puppeteer behind me tapped my shoulders.

"I'm way ahead of you!" Eh, if there's anything that the Akatsuki members are good at, it would probably be predicting peoples thoughts. For example....

"Akame, why are you narrating outloud?" I glared at him.

"Shhh! Stop breaking the fourth wall, Deidara!" He let out an arrogant "hmph" before dropping Sasori. Sasuke did the same to Naruto.

"What's the big deal!?" The two boys said before standing up.

"Something's on the floor," I answered for them. The lights above us began flickering. I held on to Neji. The feeling on our legs became rougher.

"Those snakes are getting on my last nerve, dattebayo!" Naruto shouted.

"Well dobe, we all are irritated. Now, I know how to tame snakes. My master taught me. So first off, don't move or scream. Two, wait for help!" Sasuke said as calmly as he could. I squirmed. That statement sounded easier than it looked.

"I'd rather be fighting a zombie than standing here," the pyromaniac truthfully said. Neji took one step forward.

"There's a person standing right in front of us...we just can't see him," he explained. The lights went off as he spoke. Then, I felt something hit my head.

"Omph, what? Oh, it's a rope!" Deidara, Sasori, and Naruto moved closer. Sasuke sighed.

"No one's listening to me," he mumbled. Then, he spoke more loudly. "Neji, who's in front of us?"

"Some guy with long hair and he...looks like a human snake?" His byakugan was clear in the darkness, as well as Sasuke's sharingan.

"Orochimaru-san!" I shouted. The scientist giggled crazily.

"Two of my most precious students are here today. Now grab the rope and I'll save you." Two? I looked at Sasuke. He did mention that he learned to tame snakes from a master. Could that be where he got his curse mark from?

Eh, I ignored that and held onto the rope. The man pulled on the rope.

"Oh, thanks for the help," he said in the darkness. A familiar gruff voice responded.

"No problem. Anything for my daughter and her friends."

I was shell-shocked. It had been so many years. I had finally met up with him again. "D-dad."