The hour is early, but the sun has yet to creep over the horizon. Neji awakes in gloom, and sits up. There is little to hear in the dark at this hour. He folds his legs upon his futon, certain he is alone. He takes a deep breath, gathers his chakra, pooling it.

Chakra expertly focused and flowing steadily to his eyes, he glances to the guestroom. His lids narrow as he searches. Trying.

"...his chakra is so dim..." he mutters, stomach sinking slightly with disappointment. He lets out a breath and finally admits his failure aloud. "I can't see..."

Heartbeats pass and just as he slumps forward in utter defeat, he notices his mistake. He draws in a breath and climbs to his feet in his rush. Silently, with long practice, he reaches the hallway. He has no difficulty seeing the circular hole in the ceiling, nor the structure that looked like a series of steps that lead upwards, much like a ladder would. He was certain neither feature existed when he laid his head down for the night.

He knows that he was one of the last of his clan to sleep for the night, due to the late hour he returned to the compound. His report to the fearsome Hokage, and then to her council, and following that with another report to the council formed with the other ninja villages...He shook his head slightly at the overwhelming feeling of being involved in something so huge as a ninja war, and instead focused on the task before him

This structure was not supposed to exist in the building at all. He absolutely knows this for certain because he had resided in this very building, massive though it stands, for his entire life. Seeing the blocks, the smooth opening above, looking as though these things had somehow always been... there.

An icy breeze cuts against his exposed skin.

His stomach twists sickly, violated, and by long habit, he represses the rising of his emotions. He stops his approach, shifts, and then presses his back against the wall just before the sharp turn that is the sliding door.

The paper thin barrier sits closed beside his arm, and he silently breathes, in through his nose and out through his mouth. Watching with his chakra-enhanced vision, he narrows his lids, seeing the dim chakra, golden in color, flickering along in its trickle of a flow. He notes that watching it is akin to watching a similarly dim candle flame struggling to remain lit in a strong wind.

One ghostly yellow foot touches down upon the blocky solid surface, and Neji tilts his head. The blocks, no, single block, stretches upward from the ground, the base of it well below the wooden deck that serves as the floor. Something seems odd about it, for the structure is not exactly.. He searches for the word... Grown? Organic? As he would expect to see if...

There are regular grooves cut into the block, which allows it to serve as a climbing surface, rather like a ladder. Yes, it is indeed a ladder, he decides. Additionally, as he stares, he sees the entire surface is not nearly as smooth as it first appears—he can see a multitude of tiny imperfections, all rectangular in shape.

He also notices a few other members of his family watching as well, situated within their rooms in the compound. He lets out a breath, noticing that said members did not appear particularly concerned with a guest deciding to sit up on the roof rather than be in the guestroom as expected.

Great, he thinks. That means I get to be the genius that puts on a show for the entire family to talk about...

In careful silence, there is a slip, a struggling weight shift. The other foot, chakra-less and therefore dead, rings out a cheap metallic chink as it follows its companion down, but the living foot hurries down too quickly, hardly allowing any weight to settle upon the dead limb. The awkward gait continues, step after step downward.

Neji watches the golden ghost of the boy's face as the mouth turns down in a pain filled grimace. Living foot steadily on the floor of the room, the transparent heel of the boy's left hand digs into the left thigh even as the entire form shakes with impressive tremors. Even from the distance he stands, Neji easily hears the boy's teeth chattering as he shivers from the cold. With his enhanced vision, he can see the puff of frozen breath as the boy moves awkwardly to the wall, favoring his false limb with a rather pronounced limp.

The golden ghost boy glances upward once, touches the palms of his hands together- much like a priest would when offering a prayer to some unnamed god- and then graces the fingertips of his right hand against the wall.

Neji blinks hard against the sudden glare as lightening, blue in color, dances throughout the room over the boy, and more than that-steam rises from below in reaction to... molecules moving on their own accord so fast the blocks moving and melting like icing on a pastry, only moving both up AND down simultaneously...

Neji slides door open as the ceiling, intact and ladder-less, shows very same tiny imperfections he noticed earlier upon the ladder. Those imperfections seem to fall off in flakes like ash, leaving a smoother surface as time passes, and Neji lets out the breath he didn't realize he held. His brows lower as he analyzes what he just witnessed.

Instead of attacking, the golden haired boy flops to the futon on the floor and a heartbeat later all but burrows beneath the layers of blankets-flickering chakra levels low as ever in spite of the massive jutsu just performed..

"What.." Neji breathes.

"FUKK!" The boy yells out as he rolls instantly to his back, nearly off the futon, instinctively bringing up and together the palms of his hands...'

... which, if not blocked by no less that 3 layers of very thick blankets between them...

... surely would have touched as he tumbled and shivered and quaked from the cold of winter.

Sorry for the long wait for an update. RL got the way big time. I was disgusted with the world of "Naruto" too, as that stink of a manga finally finished up. That was a disappointment as the story was a huge letdown, and killed my muse for a good while.

So.

Anyhow. I have decided something important.

Y'see. I have this here fic, and I have to figure out just what the heck I'm going to do with it. Because, well, this is MY story. The "Naruto" bits are going to be decidedly different that that utter crap that is cannon. You screaming Naruto fans have been warned.

No guarantee on the quality of my own writing, and I can't even guarantee regular updates either. RL again. I will write what and when I can, and yes I do have a sort of plan for where this is going. I just have to locate WTF I put my notes...