No matter what other people thought, Hyuuga Neji was not high-strung, a perfectionist, or paranoid.

Why, then, did he feel like he was being watched?

Re-centring himself, he gathered his focus and went through the familiar movements of the basic kata that he always warmed up with. The pure physicality relaxed his mind as well, and soon his breathing was deep and even.

He was just about to move on to a more complex set of forms when a sound from one of the nearby rooftops startled him. Neji whipped his head around, but there was nothing there except leaves and a lingering sense of panic.

I'm not going mad. He sliced and lunged his way through one of Gai-sensei's harsher workout routines. There was a degree of reckless violence in the way he overstretched his limbs. I'm not.

He blinked awake.

No morning light had yet wormed its way into the spartan room. If the sun hadn't woken him, what had?

With an unfounded yet fervent sense of alarm, his eyes darted toward the window. No one. There's no one there.

Neji didn't get another wink of sleep that night.

Or the night after.

He looked like shit.

His nerves were as frayed as the torn edges of his old genin jacket (but less frayed than the ends of his hair. He knew how to take care of himself.)

This wouldn't do. Sleep deprivation was a serious business, and if this continued, he would have to submit himself for psych evaluation. Utterly degrading.

Keep it together.

He threw himself into training with a rather greater amount of gusto than usual. Lee was ecstatic. Gai-sensei was incoherent with joy and practically drowning in tears. Tenten threw a few hurried and worried glances at the dark bruises under his eyes.

And still he felt eyes on him, in him, all around him.

This wouldn't do.

The physical exhaustion had done its job.

After a typically subdued dinner, where Hinata had almost dared to voice her concerns about his state of shit-looking-ness and Hanabi had continually voiced hers, he dragged himself onto his futon and passed out.

He slept through the entire night. A small smile tugged at his lips when he opened his eyes to what was undoubtedly dawn. There were even birds chirping outside.

Ha! Definitely not mad. As if sanity was a triumph. (Maybe, for shinobi, it really was.)

Neji wasn't usually a morning person, but this was a good morning, so he hummed contentedly as he folded his futon. The fatigue of the previous day was gone. After stashing his pillow away, he stood and turned to close the window.

His blood froze.

The window had been bolted shut the night before — he was sure of it.

Maybe just a little mad.

He began to spend entire days with his Byakugan activated.

Tenten side-eyed him openly now. The only thing keeping her from commenting was the murderous glint in his eyes (and the fact that he wouldn't bloody listen anyway, stubborn hard-headed Hyuuga). Gai-sensei was away on a mission. Lee matched his newfound preference for brutal training methods with a crease between his thick brows.

If they started asking questions, he decided, he would just train on his own. They weren't technically a team anymore. He could move on whenever he wanted.

Though he never caught sight of anything suspicious, the feeling of unease burrowed deeper into the cavity between his lungs and ribcage.

Hyuuga Neji does not beg.

So when the Hokage refused to send him on a long-term mission, he managed to refrain from clutching onto her legs and pleading.

It was a very close thing.

He had to consciously stop himself from tearing out strands of his hair. Hair was almost sacred in the eyes of the Hyuuga, and a well-kept head of hair symbolised authority better than lavish clothes or expensive accessories.

Those who balded prematurely were treated like lepers and often encountered difficulty in finding a spouse from within the clan.

Neji didn't necessarily want to marry into the clan, but he didn't want random bald patches either. Chewing the back of his knuckles, he vowed to find out whoever was responsible.

There was no predisposition toward madness wired into Hyuuga genetics. Someone was watching him. He knew this without a shred of doubt.

I'll fuck them up. A voice strangely similar to Naruto's growled inside his sleep-deprived mind.

And Naruto never went back on his promises.

Over the next week, he broke a tea tray ("Don't sneak up on me like that, Hinata-sama!" "I thought you could use s-some hot tea... You've not been yourself lately, nii-san."), Lee's wrist, and Gai-sensei's face. Tenten knew better than to come within a three-metre radius. From the calculating glint in her eyes, he could tell she was just waiting for the right opportunity to march him into the Interrogation Unit in a straitjacket.

He was still no closer to getting answers or explanations or assurance that he wasn't going mad.