Chapter 38: Birthday, Part 2

Neji and I thank everyone for coming at the end of the night when the shop closes up. We all part ways, each heading to their own homes before I hear my name being called from behind me."Ami, please wait a moment." Sakura calls out to me, and Neji and I pause and turn to her. Neji nods to her in parting, and says he'll give us a moment and waits down the road for me."What is it, Sakura?" I ask curiously."It's about... it's about him." She says pointedly, and my eyes widen slightly in recognition, she means Sasuke."What about him?" I ask her with a slight edge, not comfortable openly discussing him in the streets."I... The other day made me realize something. When I saw..." She trails off, and I know she means the kiss. "I didn't feel as sad as I thought I would. He looked so happy in that moment, I don't even know if you noticed his smile when he turned, but I saw it. I could never make him smile like that. So... I want you to know that I'm happy for you, and that I hope it works. Just please, treat him well for me, ok?" She asks sincerely of me.At first I was going to argue that Sasuke and I weren't together, that we never had that discussion, but I take a good look at the face she is making. She is putting all her faith in me right now, and is closing the chapter in her heart on her love for him. I match her gaze, and nod firmly at her. "I will do my best, Sakura. You have my word.""Thank you, Ami." She bows respectfully to me, and I return the gesture."Sakura." I call out to her before she turns to leave. "I must also request the same of you. Please, he is one of the best people I know, treat him well." I request of her seriously."Who?" She asks in confusion.I look pointedly at her, "You know who, Sakura. He has fought for you for years. He cares very deeply for you, please don't break his heart." I plead softly, hoping she won't break Lee's heart.She blushes for a moment, speechless. Then she also nods firmly, "It took me a while, but I'm beginning to see that. I think it's why seeing him with you didn't hurt me at all, because my heart was already moving on."I grin at her, and we bow again to one another. I make my way over to my patiently waiting brother, who is handling his alcohol a little worse than I am at this point."What was that all about, little sis?" He asks with a slight slur, throwing his arm over my shoulder and leaning heavily on me."Passing a torch." I say vaguely, then he adds more weight onto my shoulders. "You're heavy.""Oh come on, give me more details than that! I bet it was about," He says loudly, then goes right next to my ear to whisper not very quietly, "Sasuke." He honestly giggles from that and I just look up in horror at him. He's a gossiping drunk! I never would have guessed it."Let's get you home, Nii-san. You need to sleep this off." I grip him tightly, and increase our walking speed. I don't trust myself enough right now to transport since the sake was fairly strong."I still won't let you marry him, nope, not gonna happen. He has to beat me in a fight if he wants to marry you. So do all the other guys who like you, they all have to fight me, all together at the same time. I can take 'em, just you watch." He drunkenly says, getting lost in his own world and throwing punches into the air sloppily."Fine, fine. You battle the boys, but all the girls who like you have to beat me in a fight." I say back to him casually and he stops dead in his tracks, slipping off my shoulders but remaining standing."I'll be single forever!" He says loudly with a look of horror on his face. I just raise an eyebrow at this new version of my brother. Who knew, drunk Neji is hilarious. I may need to exploit this more in the future."Yup, come along Perpetual Bachelor, let's get you up to bed now." I say and we finally get home. I take him straight up his bed, plopping him down on his mattress and taking off his shoes and gear for him. I got up to leave, but he grabs my hand before I go."Ami... Thank you for tonight." Neji says softly and coherently. "I know you are sometimes uncertain about your friends. You sometimes look like you think you don't deserve them, but you do. You are the best person I know in the world, and you aren't just my twin, but also my best friend." Neji says in complete sincerity, holding my eye contact."Oh Neji." I say softly, then pull him into a fierce hug that knocks him back down onto his mattress. I kiss his cheek softly when I pull away a little bit. "Thank you for that." I get up and go to my room then, smiling softly to myself as I fall asleep, thinking about my friends I have made in this world. Before I completely fall asleep, I hear a tapping on my door. I get up and in flies Haitaka, carrying a note for me.'Happy Birthday, Ami. For once, I have a gift for you. I miss you. Sasuke.'"A gift?" I ask the hawk, who just holds out his other leg that has a small sealing scroll attached to it. I open it and summon whatever is inside of it. My eyes widen upon seeing a new scythe. It has a different and unique design and pattern on it, and the center of the longer blade has designs cut out of the metal. Also, the metal itself if strange, it's blue instead of steel colored."It is specially crafted for Wind Nature attacks. Master Sasuke had this made for you from the Uchiha weapon's specialist, Granny Cat." Haitaka informs me. I immediately channel some wind chakra through the handle into the blade, and lift it slowly into the air, carefully not to send out a draft with it. Wisps of black and purple wind stream off of it as it moves. It's beautiful to watch, and is the most thoughtful gift I have ever received. "Please tell him thank you, and that I love it." I tell him, choking down on a sob. This gift is perfect. I inspect it closer, and see he put the Hyuga clan symbol on it next to the Uchiha one along the handle. Haitaka nods his head in acceptance of the message, and leaves to deliver it. I hold the scythe for a few moments longer before sealing it again and replacing it with my old scythe in my weapons pouch."Neji, wake up!" I call out to my brother the next morning, eager to show him my new gift and to test it out fully. Neji groggily calls down the stairs in reply, then I hear a thump and go to investigate. He's knocked himself over onto the ground, his shirt off and one leg sticking out of his pants. I just sigh at him, "Neji... You're a mess." I shake my head, going over to help him sit up."My head hurts." He whines out to me. "And I don't remember how we got home."I hand him a clean yukata top and pants, as well as a glass of water. "You don't remember confessing your love to Lee last night? It was such a moving moment." I say with complete sincerity, and watch his eyes widen in shock.7"I would never do that!" He yells out, then narrows his eyes. "I know I would never do that. You lied."I smirk at him, "Ok fine, you didn't, but you certainly surprised me last night. You are a very touchy, gossipy drunk." I tease him."Oh god, what did I do and to who? Tell me now." He orders to me."No one else had the pleasure of witnessing. Even drunk, you still only acted silly in front of me, don't worry. The world is safe from meeting the funny Neji, he only appears for the lucky Ami." I console him jokingly and I can see him relax. "Though speaking of what and to who, I saw you talking a bunch with Tenten last night." I nudge him obnoxiously on the arm with my elbow as he stands to get dressed."I did no such thing." He tries to gracefully argue, crossing his arms over his chest and turning his head stubbornly away, his face not betraying any emotion."That would be much more convincing if you weren't standing in your underwear." I tease him, and he looks down and realizes he still hasn't changed yet."Get out!" He yells at me in embarrassment."Hurry up, I wanna show you something!" I yell back as I run out of his room laughing at him. He quickly changes and comes downstairs to where I have breakfast prepared and ready for us. We eat together, and I practically have to drag him out to the forest."What has you so excited this morning?" He asks with a moan as he still has a hangover."This!" I say, and summon my new scythe. "I got it last night as a gift. It's been custom made and specially crafted for me. It works with Wind Nature chakra, watch!" I say, and infuse the chakra again into the blade and move it slowly, like I did last night. Neji's eyes widen as he watches the black and purple wind coming off of it. "I haven't tried an attack with it yet, but I want to see how it does. Stand back." I warn him, and he jumps up into a tree behind me. I focus on creating an arc of wind coming off of it, and then spin the scythe in front of me.The trees within 15 meters in front of me all get sliced down instantly, a perfect clean cut running through the bases of them all. I try another attack, this time spinning in a spiral with the scythe as I jump up. Everything in a full circle around me is shredded this time. I turn to look back at Neji, grinning up at him from where he is staring in awe at what I did. My old scythe worked best with water and with making attacks heavier and harder to block. This new scythe is like a guillotine, plowing everything in its way, and is lighter in weight than the old one."That was amazing. So much more precise than your fans. That will be very useful in the war, so you don't accidentally catch our comrades in the line of your attacks." Neji observes and I nod in agreement. "Who gave you this?"I show him the handle. Right where I naturally grip it is where the clan symbols are. "A very good friend." I say with a smile."He really does know you well." Neji says softly to me."Aww, does this mean he doesn't have to fight you anymore?" I tease him, wondering if he will remember that part of last night."Who said he had to fight me? Actually come to think of it, yeah, he has to fight me." He says, quickly thinking it over and liking the idea."You did, last night." I say smugly and he grimaces. "You said all the boys who like me have to fight you at the same time. You seemed confident you could take on an army. Maybe I'll just get you drunk before the fight, maybe you're also a secret drunk fighter like Lee." I poke him in the stomach to annoy him."Please don't." He deadpans at me. "Also, I'm good, but I don't think I could take on every boy who likes you all at once. That would be an army, Miss Popular." He teases back, poking me in the forehead with equal obnoxiousness."Says Mister Popular." I quip back. We tease each other the whole way home before we head to the Hyuga clan's main house where we will spend the day training.Over the next month or so, that's all everyone in the village does. We train and prepare for battle in every way we can. Tsunade and Kakashi have a few extra meetings with me in private, going over everything that I can remember from the story. I know the biggest problems will be the reanimations, but since I don't know where they will appear, I can't just have the best teams ready in advance for them. We instead work on having a good variety of strengths in each platoon, so that no matter what, they will be able to handle it. The reanimations I could remember, like Gaara's platoon meeting with the former Kage's, we put more emphasis on who to send there. Thankfully, Tsunade and Kakashi have a lot more knowledge available about the former Kage and can plan accordingly, at least better than my memory can. We also made plans on how to spot imposters, for when the Zetsu imitate the allies and come at night to cause chaos. I recalled that Byakugan didn't really work on them, but if we can put a chakra marker on each person, similar to my Shinigami mark, then it would be easier to identify as long as a Hyuga was around. We aren't that big of a clan, but there should be at least one Hyuga in the medical area to keep an eye out for fakes. Kakashi also thinks a codeword system will help, so they put a plan in play for that.One bigger meeting I had with Tsunade and Kakashi, we had also Shikaku join in. I know he will be giving out strategy orders during the whole war, so I plan to tell him every single thing I can remember for the upcoming war. He doesn't know how I know, but Tsunade and Kakashi just tell him to believe everything I say and to not question how I now. He accepts this after a moment, and I tell him everything about the war. I tell them about the 100,000 White Zetsu that will be underground and the reanimations I can remember. I tell them that Kakashi's unit will face Haku, Zabuza, and the seven swordsman of the mist. Kankuro's unit will fight Sasori, Deidara, and Chiyo. Darui and Tenten's unit will face the worst enemies, Kinkaku and Ginkaku as well as Kakuzu and my own father. It was hard to tell Tsunade that her former lover will also be there as well, but at least I prevented Asuma from joining that fight. Gaara's unit will fight against four former Kage from the other nations, including Gaara's father. I couldn't remember the names of the other Kage's, just that there was a guy who went invisible and looked like a mummy, a former Raikage, and a giant clam. Thankfully, they knew who those were, and could plan around the gap of me not remembering who the last Kage was. I also remembered that the former Jinchuriki were also brought back, but not until later in the fight and they will face Naruto. And I had remembered that the Sound Four ninja come back and target the ones who they originally fought, but I couldn't remember what happened from there other than they were defeated. I told them how Itachi will be the one to break the reanimation jutsu, along with Sasuke, and that Orochimaru will come back and actually reanimate the former Hokage's and use them to assist the allied forces against Obito and Madara. Tsunade already knew about the fight against Madara, and has been training herself to prepare for the battle for years. I was very honest that my memory of timing was not the best, but that Obito would join in with the Gedo statue to take Kinkaku and Ginkaku once they are sealed. Shikaku started to make plans to have the first division be a two part division, and twice the size with more specialty types in it, and that the second division will focus on the Zetsu's instead of the reanimations, with a few exceptions. He and Kakashi also made plans for Naruto to be on the scene at night, after the first rounds of battle when I told them about the Zetsu's perfectly impersonating us and attacking us from the inside. We are all hoping that knowing ahead who the enemies will be can help them better place the soldiers into the platoons.At the end of one our last meetings together, the one with Shikaku, I also cleared out the one black mark on my success record. I had smiled sweetly and apologetically to Tsunade, and quickly threw a kunai at her, successfully stabbing the last Sannin I hadn't gotten already. Kakashi and Shikaku both had jumped to defensibly guard her and also hold me back, but I just laughed and apologized, explaining how Tsunade was the last Sannin I hadn't stabbed and I had to get the whole set. I barely stabbed her at all, and she healed it easily in less than a minute, but I booked it out of there as I watched her annoyance building up and she went to attack me.Asuma was sworn in as an official village elder, replacing both of the current elders. I would have loved to have listened in when Tsunade forcibly retired them from their positions, but alas, I couldn't. She told me it was her favorite moment she's had as Hokage so far. They were allowed to remain in the village and could be called on for advice, but only when requested by the Hokage. Jiraiya was offered the other position as village elder, but since he was out with Naruto, he declined to give an answer until after the war. Tsunade thinks he will do it, that way he can be an elder and advisor to Naruto when the blonde becomes Hokage.When Tsunade tried to assign me to help fight the Kage's in Gaara's division, I put my foot down and refused. She was taken aback, assuming I would be one of the better fighters to handle them because of my speed and Flying Death God jutsu, but I told her I won't leave Neji's side during the war. Nothing means more to me than saving his life, and I told her he would die on the battlefield. She tried to argue that the armies are better prepared, but I wouldn't hear it. It took me threatening to go rogue and leave the entire village in order for her to relent. Also, Asuma stepped in and agreed with me, saying I am best when with Neji. He didn't even know the full context of the conversation when he chimed in, but knew if I was fighting that vehemently for something, it was worth agreeing with me. I earned his unyielding respect after I saved his life. The war is important, but Neji is my twin and best friend, I will not allow him to die. Besides, I know from the show that at the time of his death, almost all of my friends will be located at that part of the battlefield, which is not the same location as the Kage fight. I will be there to save all my friends, and to fight at their sides until the end of the war.