DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO.
Brand of Betrayal
Summary:
The corruption of desperation and obsession has pushed Neji to defy fate in order to claim a soul. If joining Akatsuki is the means to his goal, so be it.
Author's notes: This was the very first fic I had planned to write, even before 'Exiled to Paradise' was conceived. But creating the plot was a bit challenging for me; I had to make sure I covered the plot holes. But every time I tried, it seemed like a new hole would pop up to friggin' cover up. Ah, well. I'll try, people. I've never been able to write a lemon before (I'm shy, alright?! Kyaaaa), but it's necessary for this story. For future chappies. Can I ask for help? --; If only on the M-rated parts. IF I decide to add. So rating may go up.
NejiHina is FATE!!
LoLXD
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Brand of Betrayal
Prologue I: Night of Mutiny
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The motions of fingers weaving into her indigo locks were so soft, that in her drowsiness, she wasn't sure if they were surreal. But it was stirring her consciousness in the sleepy haze of her mind.
She made a deep sound from her throat to indicate that she was waking up, and she turned on her back before opening her eyes.
"Neji-niisan...?" she groggily called out to the silhouette sitting by her bedside, looming over her sleeping figure. "Why're you... here...?"
He did not answer; his fingers continued to run through her long hair. Hinata was beginning to doubt that this person was her cousin. It was odd that he would be in her room at this time of the night, and even more suspicious that he would be at her bedside, stroking her hair. But her eyelids were forcing to shut, and her arms were so heavy, and she didn't really mind the soothing gesture at all...
"N-niisan...?" She called out softly, as her mind was beginning to darken. She fought the overwhelming sleep by blinking her eyes, but she felt it slowly beginning to drown her consciousness into a muddled state.
"Shhhh... Just sleep." It was indeed her cousin's voice, and the familiarity of hearing his deep voice probably soothed her, and she finally let her eyelids close.
"Niisan..." She vaguely felt his lips on her forehead, on the corner of her closed eye, and then her lips, and the gentleness of his kisses lulled her to a dreamless sleep. And she slept on, unable to detect the aroma of crushed poppies being burned in her room.
--
"Neji." A figure stepped out from the shadows of the Hyuuga house to confront the figure in the courtyard.
He stopped, but did not turn to acknowledge the Head of the Hyuuga clan. "Hiashi-sama." He turned his head to look behind and confirmed the stern face of his uncle, his frowning eyebrows and the tension in his jaw.
"What are you doing, Neji?"
The addressed person then turned fully to face the intruder. "I was hoping to get away uncaught, but it seems it was unlikely, given your attuned perception of your daughters' rooms. And I even took great care not to bother Hanabi."
Hiashi merely deepened his frown at his nephew's exasperated and mocking tone. He had caught a slight whiff of drugging incense coming from his eldest daughter's room, and instinct told him that something was amiss that night in the compound, just like that night years ago.
Neji's sinister smirk alerted Hiashi, but he held ground obstinately, unwilling to heed the apprehension of the situation. He trusted Neji as did his daughter. At this night, this moment of reasonable mistrust, he would give his beloved brother's son the benefit of the doubt.
"Put Hinata down." He ordered. "I will return her to her bedchamber." He would have commanded Neji to return her himself, but Hiashi's suspicion needed confirmation.
He relaxed when Neji knelt on the ground to lay Hinata down, and he was about to take a step forward to retrieve his slumbering daughter when Neji's hands flashed a series of hand signs and a puff of smoke revealed a clone. The real Neji stood and moved back, letting his clone reclaimed Hinata, peacefully unaware of the happenings, of her current situation, as if the blankets she were wrapped in trapped her in a world of somnolent oblivion.
"Forgive me, Hiashi-sama, but I won't be returning Hinata to you, or to the clan for that matter."
Hiashi's eyes went wide. "Do you betray the Hyuuga, Neji?! Is this your act of rebellion against the Main House, against me?"
The clone, holding an obliviously sleeping Hinata in his arms, stepped to a considerable distance, making room for the fight that was about to ensue.
"No, Uncle. I do not betray the Hyuuga." He took his fighting stance, eyes alight with an unknown desire, a dangerous glint. "I betray the Leaf."
--
Hanabi's eyes snapped open, as if torn abruptly from her sleep. She sensed the strong sure of chakra, of the activation of her bloodline limit. In the blur of sleep, she might have been aware of it, but was much too deep in slumber to notice. But this time… it was much too strong to simply be a random pair sparring for practice. The imminent bursts of chakra she sensed were too heightened, as if caught in the intensity of battle.
The second daughter of the Hyuuga Head carefully peeled the thick comforter of the bed and quietly set her feet on the wooden floor, placing her weight deliberately on the flat of her toes to avoid any sound. Upon reaching the shoji doors, she crouched and very cautiously slid it open, eyes darting to and fro to anticipate any attack or weapon. Making sure that none foreign was present in the hallway, she tiptoed to the bedroom next to her and opened the shoji door with ease and silence.
The bed was empty. In fact, the bed was bare, the comforter missing. Only the pillow remained along with the mattress and linen.
Hanabi found this odd. Had her sister gone to check the apparent anomaly in the Hyuuga compound earlier and brought her blankets with her? Maybe so.
But a certain memory caused Hanabi's panic to arise. The only other incident that disrupted the quietude of the Hyuuga estate was when her elder sister was kidnapped.
Hanabi sucked a breath.
Could it be that…?
Could another intruder have infiltrated their property and attempted another kidnap on the heir of the family?
Screams disturbed the silence.
Hanabi rushed through the hallway, determined to reach the courtyard. She rushed first into her father's bedchambers, but she found the shoji doors already opened, and she deduced that he was already at the scene, perhaps the first. Perhaps, her sister was also there, intercepting the intruder with their father. Hanabi wasn't a chuunin yet, just one of the aspiring gennin enlisted to take the first wave of the chuunin exams later that year. She had never been experienced in real combat, but she would fight alongside her father and sister.
Yes. There was no way, with her Neesan's current status as a shinobi, that she would fall prey to a kidnapper's attempt to whisk her away in the dead of the night to steal the secret of their bloodline.
--
That night, Hanabi painfully understood the knowledge of Uchiha Sasuke's motivations.
Several Hyuuga members were already crowded at the courtyard as Hanabi rushed to the scene.
"No! Hanabi-sama! Get back inside! Hide with the women for safety!" Hiroshi, a branch member, called out to her as he spotted her.
But it was too late to prevent her from perceiving the scene in front of her.
Shock clutched a hand upon her neck, caught her breath and increased the level of her heartbeat.
"Otousan!!" She cried out as she rushed to her fallen father, falling on her knees, ignoring and avoiding Hiroshi's prevention.
"Otousan?! Otousan!!" She shook him, but he did not rouse. She fought to control the panic and the tears. She gripped his shoulder and with a heave, pulled him to lie on his back. The sight of her father's empty sockets once again trapped her breath. She wasn't even aware that she was already screaming until Hiroshi, along with several Main House members had dared to approach and checked on their leader's life.
"His heart is still beating but it's faint"
"He must be treated at once!" Hiroshi removed his hitai-ate and the bandages underneath it, using it to wrap around their leader's eyeless sockets. The Main House members prepared to lift the body of their head, before leaping away.
Hiroshi grabbed the stunned girl by the shoulders who had stopped her screaming and looking lost. "Hanabi, go with the men who are taking Hiashi-sama to the Hokage. Go!" He lifted her forcefully and pushed her to urge her to run. But as soon as she became aware of the reality, she turned livid, monstrous eyes at the figure at the center of attention, and fought the arms holding her back and carrying her away from the ensuing deathly spectacle promising to offer more blood. There were already several fallen Hyuuga shinobi lying at the circumference of the perpetrator.
"What is the meaning of this, Neji?!" an elder shouted, obviously aggravated.
"For your attempt on the Head's life and the kidnapping of the heiress, your cursed seal shall be activated until death!" Another elder proclaimed, and without waiting for the others' agreement, flashed the hand seals of the cursed jutsu, before reaching its final sign of activation.
A loud cry emitted from Neji. But it was only the prelude of a deluded laughter. When his derisive laugh was fading, his hands clapped echoing his mockery and the fear within each Hyuuga present in the vicinity to witness the madness of the Hyuuga genius.
Neji ripped the bandages covering his forehead, revealing the absence of the green mark upon its flesh. "What curse?!"
And he charged at the elder who had attempted to activate it, killing him with a blow on a vital point on the neck. Several other members – it didn't matter anymore whether they were Main or Branch– rushed to attack, Byakugan triggered. But Neji's speed, strength, mastery overpowered them, and they lay as either dead or unconscious heaps on the ground.
"Now. Come at me, at once!" Neji challenged, with all the impudence of a genius. Hyuuga men, enraged and affronted, activated their Byakugan to charged. But each and every one were blown away by the power of his bloodline, the same one running through the veins beside their eyes.
Hiroshi maintained his hold on Hanabi as she struggled, trying to distance her from the courtyard. Hanabi managed to escape Hiroshi with a strong prod of her elbow on a vital area of the stomach and she dashed to where her cousin stood in his fighting stance as Hiroshi was left clutching his abdomen.
"No, Hanabi-sama! He's gone mad! He'll kill you!"
But Hiroshi was too late, as Hanabi activated her Byakugan, a fist held back to deliver a blow to her cousin.
Nej blocked the punch. "If Otousan dies, I'll kill you!" Hanabi seethed through her clenched teeth as she withdrew her arm and fell to assaulting him with the learned attack style accompanying their bloodline limit. Neji went on the defense, parrying or deflecting her strikes.
Suddenly, his eyes distracted to the left, he pushed Hanabi away and leaped to his clone to twist the neck of the Branch member who attempted to rescue Hinata.
"Neji!" Hanabi shouted as she charged to his current position, fingers poised to close off a chakra point. "Get away from Oneesan!"
But before she could even reach him, she was forced back as several blows that were too fast for her eyes to see closed off her chakra points. She skidded across the ground, where Hiroshi ran to her, cradling her and checking her pulse. Blood seeped from the side of Hanabi's mouth as she lay there unconscious, but alive and sorely injured.
"Neji! Why…?" Hiroshi was a cousin on Neji's mother's side. Neji had come to live with his family after his father died and he was orphaned.
Neji just glared at all the remaining Hyuuga standing, who did not dare to approach, unmoving so as not to insinuate any offensive movement from him. Seeing that none were daring to oppose him anymore, he took the hitai-ate from his pocket and retrieved a kunai from his pouch, creating a dent across the symbol of Konohagakure before tying it around his forehead devoid of the Caged Bird Seal. He approached his clone and retrieved Hinata into his arms again, before his doppelganger disappeared in a puff of smoke. And he leaped into the night, into the shadows of the forest trees, taking the Hyuuga princess with him to join the ranks of Akatsuki.
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Next on Prologue II: Aftermath of the Assault
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A/n: Hope that intrigued you a bit. Please, anyone out there, update your NejiHina fics. Onegai? T-T I need more fics to indulge my NejiHina fantasies in!! ToT And I just read a few NejiHina essays, which really spurred me on to write this chapter and this whole fic, along with the song "Prisoner of Love" sung by Utada Hikaru. Gawd, 'tis painful.
CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM IS WELCOMED BUT NOT FLAMES!!