Neji's kitten ch. 4

Neji’s Kitten
Chapter 4

Neji walked to the 3rd training ground, as Lee had told him too, and leaned against a tree, waiting for the pinhead to get there. He wasn’t kept waiting long. Several seconds after he arrived Lee flew from the tree that Neji was leaning on and immediately went into his fighting pose.

“This is the day, Hyuuga!” Lee announced as if he was not only addressing the person in front of him. “Today, we will fight, and I will beat you, proving that you are not the only genius on Team Gai!”

With that he back flipped several feet away, a good fighting distance, and waited. Neji stood and went into the traditional Hyuuga fighting pose, and the fight began.

Neji had to admit that Lee had gotten stronger since their last battle. As the battle began Lee came at him at his medium speed, then disappeared. Neji barely dodged the kick that rushed pass the right side of his head. He flipped away and sent a steady stream of chakra to his middle and index finger, ready to strike Lee as he ran pass. As expected, Lee came running, and Neji ran at him, preparing to meet him half way and deliver his blow. As they met, he thrust his fingers into Lee’s upper arm, stopping chakra flow. He hadn’t even activated his byakugan; he had memorized the points. Suddenly a powerful blow in the shoulder blade threw him forward. He lost his breath, but managed to kick against the tree that he was about to crash into and land on his feet. He stood there panting for a moment, making sense of what had just happened. He would never admit it out loud, but Lee had given him a good hit. However he forced himself to quickly recover and decided what he would do next. Lee came rushing at him. He dodged and landed behind him then proceeded to activate his byakugan and quickly locked as many chakra points as he could before knocking Lee to the ground. Neji backed away and watched as Lee picked himself off the ground and went back into a fighting stance. Neji prepared to run at him and deliver the final blow when he heard…

a soft “mew.”

Apparently Lee heard it too because they both cocked toward the sound. Neji’s jaw dropped as he saw a little white head pop out of the bushes. Gingerale crawled out from under the bush and trotted up to Neji and sat down, as if there were nothing unusual about a kitten randomly showing up in the middle of a training ground. And apparently, to her it wasn’t.  

“Aw, a kitty,” Lee chimed in, running up to the cat and stroking her head, despite his injuries. “I wonder how it got here?”

Neji stiffened. He suddenly realized that he would lose a great amount of his reputation if he told Lee that he had adopted a kitten. He thought of something quick. “I… think I know who it belongs to! I’d better take it back, it’s been missing for a while now!”

Lee blinked at Neji. He looked down at the kitten. “It doesn’t look like it’s been missing for a while. It’s not skinny or-”

Before Lee could say anymore Neji picked up the kitten. “I have to go,” he said quickly, running off immediately.

Lee watched as his eternal rival leapt off holding this cat, which he SWORE was purring. For a moment it occurred to him that it was quite odd for Hyuuga Neji to even know how to pick up a kitten, let alone know how to carry one in a way that it was content enough to purr. But then he blew the thought away and replaced it with what he thought was a more suitable one, striking a nice guy pose. “Neji is just being a good person by returning a lost kitten to its owner!” he said aloud, as if someone was listening. With that in mind he leapt away, with nothing particular involved for the rest of the day.


Farther away, Neji was walking along the sidewalk that led home, Gingerale cupped between his hands and barely visible. She pressed against his hands as he gazed down at her, trying to answer so many unanswered questions.

“How in the world did you get out of my room?” Neji mumbled to the kitten. Before he had left he had set the kitten on his bed and closed his door.

“Meow meeew,” the kitten exclaimed, peering through Neji’s fingers with her big sparkling green eyes.

“Who let you out?” Neji asked, as if he could understand the kitten’s answer.

Gingerale let out a tiny “mew” and stuck her nose through the gaps between Neji’s fingers. That ‘mew’ almost sounded like a ‘you’.

He blinked. He HAD closed the door… right?

He turned the corner leading to the Hyuuga estate. “How did you find me?” he asked. It was no question how she got out of the house once she was out of his room; the front door was almost always open so everyone could easily get in and out. But he doubted that she could track his scent all the way to the training grounds. He knew dogs could do that because of the little time he had been around Akamaru, but he didn’t think cats were capable of it too.

Gingerale seemed to smile up at him- but that was not what made Neji’s eyes grow wide with amusement. Her smile had left so much mischief swimming through her eyes he could TELL that she had come up with some kind of plan to track him.

Neji suddenly realized that he had a VERY smart cat in his hands.