Red Packet
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto & the characters that come with it.
Chapter 1 – An Engagement
Eyes closed, he could feel the wind coaxing his hair loose.
Without sight, things were absolutely calm, perfectly black and still; he had deactivated all his powerful senses and brought to rest his thoughts for this moment, and he lavished it – a state of ease like never before, with nothing to bother him but the soft whining of the wind and the scrubbed, spicy scent of freshly cut wet grass in the forest, surrounding him.
Slowly, as if he did not wish for this tranquility to depart from him, he opened his palms, letting the descending wind run through them. In a split second, his thoughts were jammed with the information this mere gesture could provide: the wind was blowing south-east, decreasing in speed, and someone was standing in its path, interrupting its flow. Of course, he knew that already, but for the sake of putting his mind at complete ease, he chose to ignore it.
There was some movement now: faint footsteps, the gentle treading of someone's feet over the grass, a strong upsurge in the scent of the forest and the immediate alteration in the direction, force and speed of the wind.
But Neji Hyuga continued to remain completely still. His eyes shut. His head slightly bowed. Don't hesitate. Relax. Wait for the first move.
The forest around him was burning with all kinds of rapid, indiscernible movements which he was barely able to keep up with. But he did not let his panic take get the better of him. Silence. He felt queer speaking to himself, but he knew he had to be close to perfectly composed to execute his moves. Never mind that the wind told him he was surrounded, or that someone was charging towards him, feet crashing onto the grass at an incredible speed. Or, worse yet, he chose not to see.
"Defend yourself, Neji-san!"
He felt the drag of the wind scar his left cheek – it hurt so painfully that it finally woke him – his body now took control from his slumbering mind. His arm when to his face – just in time – to block a swirling leg which had come out of nowhere – wait – another drag and now the wind was being sucked through the gaps in between his fingers so fast that it felt like a kunai was splicing through them – again – his other arm ascended to his torso and with his outstretched, open palm successfully caught someone's fist.
The pressure on both his arm and palm lessened. He's retreated; he's looking for another opening. But still Neji refused to open his eyes. Already, he was unable to stop himself from radiating chakra, something which came naturally to him in an emergency scenario; the information he was obtaining from this reflex, inconsequential action could best be described as nothing less than this. Distracting.
His opponent was coming at him again. But instead of charging right at him, Neji thought he was falling on him from above. He confidently struck his arm out, but the force of his entire opponent's bodyweight landing on him was so strong that he could not block the blow. Damn it. He parried the kick, which in turn whizzed past his face, the wind so sharp that it bruised him.
A second's pause. And the attack resumed in earnest. Two low strikes, a roundhouse kick at his torso again and, to his surprise, an ambitious uppercut in the fashion of his friend Naruto Uzumaki, aimed at his chin, threatening to knock his teeth loose. Another second to recover. And followed by a flurry of punches, chops and kicks, one which went so far as to graze his temple. Neji clapped a hand to his forehead automatically; he could feel the contours of his cursed family seal, but beyond that, he was unhurt, untouched, undeterred.
Time to get serious now. He readied himself into a fighting stance. All his senses sprung into operation, his every nerve in his body aligning itself to attack mode. But no I need to relax. But let me open my eyes first.
Byakugan.
The entire world became a map. And the invading light overwhelmed him for a short moment, but he recovered fast enough to see the terrain, the surroundings, his situation, his sparring partner. He was ready to counter.
As Lee came at him again, he almost mechanically dodged his fierce double-step, his eyes seeking out the chakra burning within his opponent's muscles with every strain and stretch. Even as Lee's entire knee rose to meet his chin he absorbed the blow with his arms. He caught his opponent's leg; his downward fingers injected a mild dose of his own chakra into that offending muscle. Take this. And he flipped Lee over him in one swift motion.
Ha. That should be enough.
But Lee wasn't done yet. Midway through the air, his leg came down like a bullet onto Neji's head. Neji, already prepared for a counterattack, dodged, returned the blow, only to be blocked by Lee. Moves within moves within moves. Neji allowed himself a grin. Wait. I must not allow myself to get too excited.
Lee broke into a grin as well, before his eyes gave him away. Even before he made his move, Neji already knew what was going to happen.
"Tenten! Give him your best!"
He had just half a second to look up (perhaps less), when he heard Tenten muttering her jutsu. Before he could make another move, what appeared to be two thousand kunai and shuriken came bearing down on him like rain shower. He was expecting it, of course, but he was surprised at the intensity of the attack.
Wait, wait. And whirl.
His arms outstretched in a pre-prepared stance, he twirled with an almost graceful ballerina ease, the chakra expelling from his spinning instantly connected with every sharp projectile, and deflected it into a perfectly safe tangent away from his blind spot. Nice try, Tenten-chan, but not good enough. He maintained his spinning for another two more complete revolutions, before coming to a complete stop, hardly losing breath. The deflected kunai and shuriken were scattered into several cleanly-defined orbits around him, with an almost mathematical distance from each other.
Now, one step higher.
As expected, two more weapons – in the form of rotating katanas – came flying out from Tenten's position behind Lee. Too dangerous for a whirl. Relax. Try something else. He steadied himself, feet closed, arms frozen in the act of preparing a jutsu. He had seen Hinata-sama do this, and he hoped his modified version would work nicely in defending himself from such offensive, deadly weapons. But he right now he needed to be perfectly calm.
Wait, wait. And move.
He flailed his two arms out, as if he wanted to catch the two weapons closing in on him. He could feel the sharpness, the swift accuracy of the chakra coming out from within his fingertips. He swiped both his hands into the rapidly compressing air – and felt the two spinning katanas pass him harmlessly, in at least five separate pieces.
Now almost at his optimal attacking strength, he paused as Lee moved aside, only to reveal a swarm of three malicious yari rapidly closing in on him. No doubt one of Tenten-chan's secret moves. Too fast for him to even get into a stance, he made a rash decision to try out something else. Picking up on of the fragments of the broken katana, he just needed a second to concentrate all his chakra into his defensive throw. But for this he needed to be completely calm; fear or adrenaline, he knew, had the uncanny ability to numb his chakra flow.
Wait a little longer. Now!
He flung the fragment into the air, and it exploded into a hundred thousand smaller pieces of steel which, like a magnetic cloud surrounding him successfully met with each approaching yari, hitting them off tangent at an angle small enough for him to remain unhurt. Some of those fragments, however, surpassed his targets, and like darts rained upon the trees.
Neji landed feet first, as the yari hit the ground with a unconvincing plunk. He got into position for another wave of attacks again, but none came. Instead, Lee was approaching him, applauding and smiling. Tenten had kept her scroll of ninjutsu of weapons. The sparring session was finished. Relax. Relax. It's over. At once, he broke his stance, and let out a breath of air.
"Marvelous, Neji-san," he said, placing a hand on his shoulder to steady his teammate. "But nothing less than expected from you."
"You flatter me," Neji replied, although getting congratulated by Lee could sometimes feel as good as being awarded the title of Hokage.
He stared at the two of them. "Please, tell me your comments."
"Why didn't you use any of your Eight Trigram Palm moves?"
"And what were those two last moves that you used to hit away my katanas and yari?"
Nice observation. "I was perfecting Hinata-sama's move against your katanas, trying to blow chakra through my fingers against an object in a single direction and cut through the air," Neji could not suppress a small grin when the knowledge showed on his teammates' faces. "And the last move… well, I haven't thought of a name for it yet. Trying to use chakra to turn anything in my hands into a weapon."
Tenten gave Lee a deadpan look. "Well, nothing less from the great Neji-san, the genius of Hyuga."
He chose to ignore that. He already knew the resentment his Jonin rank was causing amongst the other Chunin, but he had always laughed it off as friendly competition. Unless there really is such a thing as overachievement.
"Relax, Tenten-chan. You can have another round at him another time," Lee said, breaking the tense silence between the two. "We'll end our training here today. We better get going. I'm sure you two have family functions to attend."
Indeed. I almost forgot. But as much as he would hate to admit it, he was not looking forward to yet another Hyuga family reunion dinner. He might be a Jonin among the Kohona ninja, but well, Neji knew family was something else altogether. As he watched his friends depart, he felt he should have asked Lee whether he would like to join him, although he already knew Lee would politely refuse. Anyway, he wanted to spare Lee the unpleasant business of his splendid Hyuga family.
As with any noble family in Kohonagakure, the Hyuga family was compelled by tradition to hold its reunion dinner on the eve of the Lunar New Year. And like all the previous years, Hiashi Hyuga his uncle would be hosting the assembly of his elders, cousins, nephews and nieces from all over the nations. As a member of the branch family, Neji had an important role to play.
He was the doorkeeper.
"Don't believe that just because you have that mark you must listen to what those elders say," Hiashi-sama would say to him. "You do not have to keep the door in my house."
Neji would not have any of that. As he dressed in traditional Hyuga robes for the formal dinner, he thought over his reply to Hiashi-sama: suffer me this little dishonour now, for I do not want to shame the head of the family or the man who has been putting a roof over my head.
He stared at himself in the mirror; he did not think of himself as essentially vain or, on the other hand, stunningly handsome. He might have some distant cousins to impress, but he was sure they had already heard he was a Jonin. That would keep them quiet. He took the time to straighten his sleeve: his robes were so much lighter without all his weapons and ninja equipment.
And of course, he spent that time to make sure his fringe thoroughly covered that curse mark. Only when the moon and the universe was harmony on the first day of the calendar did he allowed himself to let his hair down.
It was custom that he receive the other distinguished members of Hyuga's main family into the sitting room, but the members of the branch family would have to spend a moment in the open courtyard before they could assume their seats – at a separate table. By the time he had taken his place, several branch family members, probably his late mother's cousins, were mingling in the courtyard. Within, guests in the lighted sitting room were being attended to by Hiashi-sama and Hanabi-sama.
At every gentle knock on the door, it was custom that Neji greet these guests with a short bow, them address them by their honorific titles in the house and family. It was difficult to memorize every single face and match it to every name, but he wasn't a Jonin for nothing. Door keeping might be banally tiring, but it did have its privileges: he was on the receiving end of otoshidama from his married relatives. He might be probably too old to accept money in such childish New Year packets, but it was a Hyuga tradition to give otoshidama to all unwed members of the family.
He noted the arrival of an important Main Hyuga family member, Hidetori-sama; his father was a distant cousin of Hiashi-sama's father. In spite of the complex family ties, he was a respected Main house member who sat with the Hyuga elders in formal functions such as these. Neji was sure to greet him very carefully.
"Blessings and prosperity be on you and your family, Hidetori-sama," he said, but the man just brushed past him, clearly not interested in a doorkeeper's greetings. Well, politeness doesn't always go both ways.
He gently shut the door. The courtyard was a moving mixture of his distant cousins and their families, patiently waiting for permission to enter the sitting room. It should be any time now. He caught sight of Hanabi-sama ushering Hidetori-sama to his seat; almost everyone was here, but was someone missing? There are still empty chairs. But he could not put a name to the guests who were late. Memory failed him this time.
As if to confirm his forgetfulness, he was alert enough to notice another knock on the door outside. Hinata's face swam into view.
"Hinata-sama," he said. He was trying to contain his smile, but this was one area which he did not have complete self-mastery over. Unlike him, she had braided her hair for this occasion, and it framed her angelic face with the perfection of a full moon.
"Hello, Neji," she said. Her kimono, which she had only started wearing to such formal occasions as the heir to Hyuga house, was a dazzling, deep red, with lighter blossom-shaped smudges of lighter black. Simple and sweet. "Is everyone here?"
He was too taken in by her to reply. He caught the scent of her perfume as she passed him, the loose locks of her hair threatening to sweep his face. She was that close. She smiled as other relatives greeted her, and she turned to Neji, holding out something to him.
Otoshidama? He stared at the red packet, confused.
"Hinata-sama, what's this for?" he questioned. "I don't understand –"
In his conversation with Hinata he had absent-mindedly left the door open. Someone else edged into the courtyard. Because he was not wearing any Hyuga robes, or not in such striking colours, he was easy to identify.
Naruto? What are you doing here?
"Neji!" he greeted him. It took him a moment to connect Naruto's wide, over-eager smile, Hinata's obvious blush and the packet of money in his hand. His eyes swept past Naruto to Hinata, then to her father at the head of the table in the sitting room, and finally back to Hinata again.
"Wait, don't tell me..."
"Neji-nii-san, don't say it yet," Hinata put a finger to his lips. He realised that with her so close he was trembling now. "But Father knows, and he has given us his blessing. Let him break the news of our engagement to the elders in his own way."
He took Naruto by the hand, and led him within, earning the curiosity of some of the other relatives. Stunned, shocked and speechless, Neji clutched Hinata's otoshidama like it was his heart. In his dreamy shock, he closed the door and took his seat with his fellow cousins at the Branch family's dinner table.
What does she think she's doing? He stole a glance in Hinata's direction. With her colours and dress, she wasn't hard to notice. Flanked by her father and her fiancé, she had never smiled so much before. Engaged or not, Neji believed, she was still the heart and soul of this occasion. But what stunt is she trying to pull? Hiashi-sama appeared not be to concerned; he looked even delighted to finally meet the young man which had so much influence on her daughter. Glancing beyond them to the other members of the Main family table, he seized upon the questionable looks they were giving the new couple. They will never approve, won't they? What does Hinata-sama think she's doing?
But as he concluded his dinner and returned to the door to see his guests out, he felt something stir inside him. All those years of tough ninja training, and yet I cannot master myself. He tried to fight the stifling jealousy he was experiencing, and to tighten the loose thoughts of doubt which were lashing out every time she saw Hinata smile. He wanted her to be content, he told himself mentally. And she's nothing more than my cousin, right?
Wrong.
As he saw his guests out, it was Hyuga family tradition that between the end of the reunion dinner and the first celebrations of the New Lunar Year that other well-wishers be allowed into their mansion to bring good luck, blessings and prosperity. So as he kept the door, Neji had the dual role of seeing his relatives off into the night and receive friends eager to wish them happy new year.
Sure enough, just as the first batch of his cousins were taking their leave, two figures – a young man and his muscular pet dog – emerged from the shadows. Kiba Inuzuka. Akamaru barked an introduction, and Neji left his post to approach him.
"Kiba-kun," he said, smiling. "May the gods bless you and your family this year, and of course, Akamaru too."
"Same to you, Neji," he replied. "I've heard some amazing news from Hinata and I want to congratulate her. Is she inside?"
"Oh yes. And she's never looked better."
NOTES: My first Naruto fanfiction – and it's a short story. I've only just started writing short stories, because I lack the patience to write epic, long stories. Think of this particular short story as a standalone episode, just like one of those annoying anime filler arcs in the Naruto series, the purpose being trying to explore the relationship between the Hyuga shinobi we all love.
Some other clarifications: my coverage of Lunar New Year in my story might not be entirely accurate, because I'm Chinese by birth and Japanese and Chinese customs differ technically, although their reasons and purposes are the same. Firstly, the reunion dinner is an essentially Chinese tradition that I've tried to adapt for this story. And I have been a 'doorkeeper' on several occasions myself, being the first to greet guests and announce their arrival. Secondly, in the same way we Chinese have 'Hong Bao' (red packets or 'Ang Pow' if you are Hokkien like me) the Japanese have their otoshidama. How it relates to the title will be revealed later. Whether or not they are distributed to unmarried family members is something I seek clarification about.
I'm planning to keep my short story below 10,000 words, or just at 3 chapters. Your reviews are greatly appreciated :) Thanks!
