[Open] Where do the dead go when they die?

[screw_fate]

This isn't what he expected.

Neji stands at the outskirts of a village, one he's never seen before, and tries to trace the moments that brought him here. The battlefield, Hinata's suicidal move to protect Naruto, his own moments later to protect them both... The stunning, numbing pain as his body was pierced. Naruto supporting him, holding him up, as he gasped out a few soft words...

And then darkness, and an almost-unfelt flare of pain in his eyes as the seal did its ugly work.

But now, there is no evidence of it. He wears the uniform of the allied army, and it is clean, untorn, unstained. His body is whole, with no pain or weariness.

He can see.

The seal still sits on his forehead, a quiet but tangible presence, a gentle pulse that doesn't quite match up with his heartbeat. Foreign, but for short times, forgettable. It's there, as though he's never died to trigger it.

What happened?

He gains nothing by standing here. Slowly, still feeling a floating sense of unreality as though his feet don't truly touch the ground, he steps forward.

Where am I?

Perhaps there will be answers. Or perhaps this is what death is. His fingers rise to touch his forehead, covered by his hitai-ate, manji pulsing beneath. Is even death not an escape, then?

Who knows?

He enters the village, silent and wondering.

Comments

[bunsofsteel]

"Neji!"

The shout was accompanied by a wave from a few yards away. Someone certainly looks like she hasn't been anywhere near a war in some time; she has her Konoha forehead protector across her brow, her clothing still in that distinctly her style, but hardly something he would have seen before, the tunic a mix of purples and blacks. Instead of Bashosen, she's carrying a bag of groceries.

She's been here long enough that the sight of him in strange clothes doesn't faze her; she's pretty sure she'd just seen her teammate up by Mikoto's, so this meant he was someone new, most likely?

Perhaps the most radical difference is also the smallest; there's a necklace around her neck, one she doubted Neji had any reason to recognize -- Itachi's necklace.

[screw_fate]

Tenten -- that was Tenten, but hardly the battle-worn teammate he knew. And she still wore the Konoha symbol, stranger yet. The questions stirring in his mind grew, rose to tug at him with ferocious desperation.

"Tenten?" He moved toward her, the feeling of floating unreality only increased. She couldn't be dead. Couldn't be -- he refused to believe it.

[bunsofsteel]

Definitely new -- what was that mark on his hitai-ate? Her lips curved into a bit of a frown at the unfamiliar sight as she shifted her groceries and approached at a bit of a faster pace.

"Neji? Are you okay?"

[screw_fate]

At any other time, that question would have earned a dismissive positive, regardless of his actual status. He didn't believe in being less than 'okay,' especially in front of others.

But right now, too much had been pulled away too sharply for him to hide behind his usual attitude.

"I don't know," he admitted, frowning. "I was... on the battlefield." Dying. "And now I'm here."

[bunsofsteel]

"Battlefield...? With Pain?" She moved in closer,and let a hand rest against his upper arm. Something looked... off, but she didn't know what it was. "Oh boy... you're going to have some things to get used to, then. You're not injured, are you?"

[screw_fate]

The question only deepened his confusion. "Pain? No, that was a while ago," he said, shaking his head. "With Madara... don't you remember? All of us, the army..."

Injured. Was he injured? He didn't actually know. He was dead, was that an injury?

[bunsofsteel]

"The future, then..." It's almost a mutter as she glanced up at him, staring briefly at the shinobi symbol in the center of his headband.

Somehow, she's had yet to hear of the war -- most of those involved had been keeping the details to themselves, for good reason. The only Madara she knew of was the description from a man named Obito.

"I don't remember, because I haven't been there, yet." She sighed and rubbed both hands over her face with with a groan, groceries clinking around inside in a stark sign of just something absolutely mundane. "There's no way to say this so it doesn't sound absurd."

[screw_fate]

Not there yet. The future. He didn't understand; genius didn't stand him in much good when logic had nothing to grapple with.

"Please explain," he said, his voice tight, somber. He needed to hear this, needed to understand. I should be dead. You... you should know of it.

[bunsofsteel]

"Basically? You're in another country entirely. Jiten no Kuni. This village here is Michi no Sato, and it has this weird habit of pulling people out of wherever they were originally and bringing them here."

It's all said completely matter-of-factly, with an air implying that she's done this multiple times before.

She still searched his face, though. "I know it doesn't make sense, but it's true."

[endeavorbeyondgenius]

The morning had been going rather well in his opinion! He'd awed one of the children who lived in the house with his team, rescued Itachi from some stairs, and now, at long last, was ready to do laps!

Admittedly, it was harder to get his teammates to run with him when they were so busy themselves, but that was a small thing, and he had taken off with thoughts in mind of how to actually get everyone to sit still in one place long enough for a proper training session.

Sadly, nothing was coming to mind.

Thus, he was a bit unprepared to almost run down a Neji out near the edge of the village, given that he was completely sure he'd left him back at the house with his students.

"Neji! You decided to join me after all?!" He came to a halt, looking him over. "Or are you a new Neji?" He brightened a bit. "That would be excellent as well!"

There was no sign of the shinobi hitai-ate anywhere on him either, so seeing one on Neji was a little confusing. When he got there.

[screw_fate]

Lee. What was Lee doing here? Was he also dead? Neji's gut tightened at the thought. No. No, Lee couldn't have died -- he would not accept his teammate's death as he did his own. It wasn't right. Lee -- Lee of all people needed to live.

Lee was speaking to him, but the words made no sense -- they just washed over Neji's disconnected, confused, and now rather upset state. But there were patterns, and they were familiar enough. Lee was Lee, and his responses to Lee were so ingrained they might as well be programmed.

"What are you talking about?" Sharper than he intended, in his confusion, but for all that, nearly normal for how he spoke to his teammate. "Where are we?"

[endeavorbeyondgenius]

His gaze tracked to the hitai-ate, curiosity written all over his face. "Oh! You're from the future!" He pounced forward, throwing his arm around his shoulders and turning his body so they were facing the same direction, letting the other teen stay still. "This is Michi no Sato. It kidnaps everyone from everywhen."

[screw_fate]

"'Everywhen.'" Was that even a word? Neji turned it over and over in his mind. You're from the future. This village kidnaps people. No, it didn't sound any more sensible than when Lee said it.

He didn't even protest the arm around his shoulders. That was normal; Lee was touchy, and while Neji wasn't, he had learned to accept the closeness. Sometimes, even enjoy it a little -- guiltily, and doing his best to hide any evidence that he did.

"What do you mean, kidnaps?" he asked, frowning. "I was..." Dying. He didn't actually want to tell Lee that, not quite yet.

[endeavorbeyondgenius]

"In the war yes? I was helping rebuild Konoha just after Pein's attack. I am much ahead of Tenten, who is not aware of any of the events since Naruto-kun's return at all!"

There was a beat of pause here and he looked sideways at him. "You are not the only Neji here. Two live in the house with me and one is just a young child, the other is our age, but I understand is from Tenten's point in time. Ahh." He looked away, leaning into him a bit. "I am the only Lee however! Many may have different versions and times of themselves but I am wholly unique!"

[screw_fate]

"Different versions?" Neji felt vaguely as though he'd become nothing more than a parrot, repeating all the unbelievable things Lee was throwing at him. But the whole thing was mind-boggling, and Lee wasn't exactly the type to tell him everything in neat, organized bullet points.

[endeavorbeyondgenius]

"Yes." He seemed to grow a bit more subdued for a moment. "The first version of you that was our age hurt Tenten very badly, but he was gone again very quickly! Worry not, for you have otherwise been yourself! ...Though it has been amusing watching another you try to juggle your youthful passions."

He shook his head, giving him a brilliant smile. "And of course there are the youngers as well, as this place seems to very much like versions of you."

[screw_fate]

It was still too much information, too fast, but at least there were things Neji could focus on. "Hurt Tenten?" he snapped, eyes narrowing. "How? Explain this, Lee." Because of all the things he wouldn't do, seriously hurting his teammates was high on the list. He wasn't that uncaring person anymore, and had promised himself he wouldn't be again.

It only made him more confused about what this place was. Lee and Tenten from his past, other versions of himself, ones that would turn on his teammates...?

[twinlionfists]

She had tried in her time in this village to put the sight of her cousin's death behind her. However, seeing Neji-nii-san in that uniform was like a lance to the heart, as if he hadn't jumped in front of her during the juubi's attack.

After several long, pain-filled moments, Hinata continued walking down the main street of the village towards her cousin, trying to keep her face as pleasant as possible. "Neji-nii-san?"

[screw_fate]

He looked up, hearing her, and dipped his head. "Hinata-sama." The cousin he'd died to protect, protecting in her own turn the hope of the entire army, of the entire continent. To see her here was... odd. "What are you...?" What are you doing here? Why are you here?

It hovered on his tongue to ask, too, if Naruto -- or perhaps the entire army -- were here. But first of all, he wanted to know that she was safe.

[twinlionfists]

She could read the questions on his face as well as the pain in his eyes. How strange it was to be able to read him so well, but if he was from the war, it was probably just the shock of seeing her here that was making him so...open. Now, how to answer him?

"I-I am well," she said, her voice soft in an effort to disguise her own pain. "It is a relief to see you..." whole, moving, alive "...here. Perhaps I might take you somewhere for a cup of tea so that I can explain things to you fully?"

[screw_fate]

The temptation was there to ask -- to make sure. He'd taken the death-wound to protect her, and it seemed inevitable to think that he had failed, that despite his sacrifice she'd still perished. But her manner seemed subtly wrong for it, and he nodded. "Please." Taking tea with Hinata, something that had become commonplace over the last couple years, would be a familiar enough ritual to give him some stability again.

[twinlionfists]

As they walked, she decided that it was cruel that he would be ripped away from a sacrifice that he'd made so nobly to wind up here. When they arrived at the teahouse, she asked for a private room. The motions of preparing the tea for Neji would give her the time to find the words to say, despite what he might find correct or not.

Once they were alone and she had begun setting up the tea service, she felt she could speak reasonably about the situation. "I find this difficult, Neji-nii-san. I have been here a few months already, and yet to see you here, wearing that uniform, brings back the memories anew."

[screw_fate]

He frowned, regarding her thoughtfully as she went through the motions of the tea service, a tension in her frame that he could easily recognize. Hinata... was not the most opaque of people, and had only grown less so over the years that he'd started spending time with her, mostly in training.

"A few months?" he asked quietly. "I remember otherwise, Hinata-sama. Only a few minutes ago..." But he had died. Perhaps that played strange tricks on a person... hell. How did he even know if any of this was real, let alone what rules it worked under?

[twinlionfists]

She gave him a small, pained smile while her hands moved on their own. "Allow me to explain. This village is called Michi no Sato. It is another reality, I believe. Things that have happened to us may not have happened to others in this village, such as the war or Konoha being destroyed by Pain.

"Shinobi have been pulled from different points in time, different situations, sometimes they are different genders than we remember. This village is surrounded by an extremely complex genjutsu that does not allow us to dispel it or to leave entirely." She looked down and noticed that the tea she was making was done. She put the cup before her cousin and set about making a cup for herself.

"Before I arrived here, I...I was at nearly the same point as yourself. You...you had thrown yourself in front of Naruto and I to protect us from dying."

No, she wasn't crying.

[screw_fate]

It was a great deal of information to take in at once; Neji absorbed it, holding it within his mind to consider in greater detail later. For the moment...

For the moment, it was the tears he saw gathering in her eyes, and those last words, that most firmly held him. He knew if he brushed them by, it would do harm to her -- perhaps irreparable. Things between them had been so greatly improved in the past few years, and yet, the memory of what had been before loomed strong. He had to watch himself, watch his behavior with her, to ensure that he was not mistreating her.

So he answered with a quiet, unforced assent, and a nod of acknowledgment. "Yes." Yes, he'd done that; he remembered it. It was his choice.