Originally written: August 6th, 2012
To cater to my own desire to write a typical character death.
And because I am obsessed with Inception.
"Hinata!"
There was no time. Hinata had been lucky enough to move only a step to avoid the direct hit to her heart. There was no way she had enough luck to make it back to the medical tents.
But she was smiling as he lifted her into his arms. With their enemy weakened, the rest of their team could take care of him. Only Neji could take care of Hinata.
She reached up to comfort him, brushing her thumb against his bottom lip. He had given up crying the day he found out his father had died. But now that Hinata was comforting him in her death, his eyes betrayed him.
"N-Neji-niisan… Do you remember," she paused to breathe, closing her eyes at the effort, "the riddle from… the festival?"
'
The pyre in the middle of the festival had yet to be lit. At midnight, all people of the village would help to light the pyre that would burn well into the morning. They would toss in a simple scroll hand picked for them by the Hokage and one that read a certain fortune or gave advice. The advice was said to be life lasting and that anyone that followed it was sure to live a longer life than most shinobi.
There was a frenzy of paper as people unrolled their scrolls to read their advice.
"Fate is determined by your own heart."
Neji felt that he could have done without it. It was several years too late. He turned to Hinata, who had yet to look up from her own scroll, only to watch a dim blush bloom on her face.
"It's a riddle," she explained in a soft, confused voice as she noticed him watching her.
"You are waiting for a train, one that will take you far away. You know where you hope that train will take you, but you cannot know for sure. Yet it does not matter. Why does it not matter?"
Neji waited patiently for the answer before he realized that Hinata was looking at him expectantly. Was the answer not on the scroll?
"Maybe all the trains at that station take the same route no matter what, so no matter where it goes, you know where you will eventually end up."
She smiled and threw her scroll into the growing fire.
'
"I didn't know the answer," he mumbled. Why would Hinata mention something so trivial in these last moments? Though neither of them were ones for affection, these were not the words he wanted, needed to hear or give her as she died in his arms.
Her grip on his shirt strengthened one last time as she pulled his ear down towards her lips.
"Because we'll be together."
Together. The word rang in his head, her bloodied lips replaying her answer as their enemy's reinforcements rained down above him.