CHAPTER FOUR~ YUUKI~ NEJI~ Nightmares
The first thing Yuuki heard as she woke up was the sobbing.
Yuuki sat up. She was on a futon. Yuuki tried to recall what she had been doing--and then she saw the one sobbing.
It was Hani.
“That’s right…” Yuuki murmured. “Tsunade asked me to watch Hani while she and Shizune were away…” Yuuki sat up.
What she hadn’t remembered was the person sleeping next to her.
Yuuki nearly jumped ten feet. There lay Neji Hyuuga. Yuuki tried to recall what he was doing here…Yuuki smacked herself in the head lightly. Neji had been asked to stay, too. That’s a ‘big brother’ for you.
Yuuki slowly inched out of the covers, leaving Neji there, and tip-toed to where Hani slept. Yuuki brushed the hair out of the child’s eyes, just to find that the girl was still sleeping--crying in her sleep.
Yuuki racked her brain. Why was Hani crying? Was she having a nightmare?
While Yuuki was contemplating on whenever to wake the girl up or not, a quiet hand rested on her shoulder.
This was the second time Yuuki felt like jumping out of her skin in the last two minutes.
Neji stood there, his index finger motioning Yuuki to be quiet. Silently, Neji adjusted the Hani’s sleeping position until she was on her back, and then tenderly placed a rag doll in a dark pink dress in her arms.
It was then that Yuuki noticed the scars and faded bruises on Hani’s arms.
Yuuki looked at Neji, wanting answers. Neji glanced back at her, and, after
Hani had quieted down, led Yuuki out of the room, until they were out of earshot.
Yuuki finally let out a ragged breath. Keeping quiet in that room was nearly impossible. “Where did the scars--?”
“Her grandfather.” Neji replied quickly, glancing back into the room with his Byakugan. “She seems okay now. She stopped crying.”
Yuuki sighed in relief.
“I have the feeling I have a lot of explaining to do.” Neji said, almost sheepishly. Almost.
Yuuki nodded silently, as if even the slightest sound would wake up the child in the other room.
“To make a long story short…her grandfather abused her.”
Yuuki’s eyes widened.
Neji went on in explaining, in hushed tones, how her parents were killed, and she was the only one left in a devastating fire that killed most of her family. The abuse she suffered in fits of rage from her grandfather, the way she sometimes still cried in her sleep, even after half a year after being rescued from the hellhole she had been in for so long. The nightmares she must suffer, the scars that it left her with…it took all of the ninja training
Yuuki had to keep from tearing up.
When Neji finally finished, Yuuki rushed back into Hani’s room. She ran to the small, fragile girl on the bed, and gently lifted her into her lap. Ever so slowly, she rocked the tiny girl, and in a hushed voice, sang her a lullaby.
Even if there are nightmares, there is always someone who will give you sweet dreams.
