Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
This is but a series of drabbles of Neji and Hinata, in varying lengths, from short to even shorter, in no exact particular order, some will follow a sequence, some won't, but all are connected., I hope.
A montage of events, I guess
Montage
Falling
He fell down on to the hard earth with a heavy thud. Neji clutched his side where Kidoumaru's arrow has pierced him, feeling more of the pain, his breathing even more labored. And he doesn't how the moment spurred memories in his mind.
Of Hyuuga rituals and white pale eyes, of shurikens embedded in training dummies, of Naruto's fist sharply connecting with his chin…
The truth behind his father's death, and a memory of that solemn funeral fitting for the Sandaime…
Of that brief stop at the towering doors of Konohagakure, just before all this danger.
Are these thoughts of a dying man? That you see your life flash by upon death? Neji questions and speaks to the wind.
Everyone… I leave the rest to you.
…
And a final image appears in his mind
Hinata-sama…
Discomfort
A kunai dropped to the ground.
Hinata's hands went limp, not from the exhaustion of perfecting her aim all day, but from the sudden painful feeling that fills her inside. She slowly brought her now trembling hands to clutch at her chest.
Hinata closes her eyes and opens them up to the sky above her. A clear white-blue heaven.
And sees eight birds flying through.
Neji-niisan..
Two Confessions
It was during a warm Thursday afternoon, in the farthest side of her garden, Neji stands in silence, and she sits on the grass. Hyuuga Hinata is staring off into nothing.
Somehow, she already expected that kind of response from the Uzumaki boy she loved, but how come does it still have to hurt.
Neji hands out a plain handkerchief, and finally, she began to cry.
Love
His fists roughly connect with the coarse wood, and he doesn't even seem to recognize the nasty wounds forming in his pale shaking knuckles. The only pain he feels comes from one that clouds and storms in his mind. And he strikes again, harder this time, accompanying the growing anger he felt for but himself, because just this afternoon his heart finally had a realization and an obvious truth he cannot deny.
Our two worlds
Hinata stares at him from the platform that separates them both, Hinata and Neji, Main and Branch, Master and Slave.
Please forgive me, I should have kept better watch, Neji bows down and brings his forehead to the floor.
And her heart is crushed, but not because he failed in his duty.
Calling
She reaches out to him,
But all he does is step back further and further.
Away.
From her.
Confusing
I can't.
Why? Why Neji?
You know I can't. We can't... You and I...
The Main and the Branch? Is that it?
My duty... I have sworn my life to… protect you Hinata-sama.
Her stage play
I do not wait for your return from each and every mission. And my stomach doesn't turn sideways when you enter the room and you smile a split second before you bow in my direction. I do not feel the comforting and protective warmth coming from your back as you shielded me from the enemies' arrows. And during that raining night, I didn't cry over you when you're bleeding to death, and I did not scream and scream for help because you're lying there dying and my hands couldn't do anything to heal your wounds. Neji, I do not.
Witnessing
He could sense she was trembling, her tiny hands shook as it gripped the folds of his bloodied kimono.
And without a word, he reaches for her hand and enfolds it within the warmth of his calloused hands before his vision fades into a calm darkness.
Proposal
What can she give him, she often asks herself. But Neji never ever did ask for anything to begin with.
Until today, the first day of spring, when his right hand left the steaming cup of tea she made for him and reached for her own small ones, and he simply asked, tranquil and bold,
Hinata-sama...
Will you make my tea each and every morning I wake up?
Proud
Today is his inauguration as Jounin, Neji finally got dressed for the big ceremony and was about to leave the Hyuuga manor and has stepped out into the garden. And much to his surprise his small cousin was there and looked as if she was waiting. Walking up to him she said, Neji-niisan, can I ask you for something?
Yes, anything...
She then moved her hands to reach around his head and untied his hitai-tei, finally pulling off the white bandages that hid the mark, revealing a green cross etched in his pale forehead.
There, will you go like this? She smiled as she smoothed her hand through his coffee-colored hair.
Wounded heart
There are scars that will never heal, nor fade because that is the way things are,
And she tends to his heart as much as she could, for she doesn't want him caged ever again. Hinata decides she likes, she loves her Neji even more. So she tends to him, day by day, dinner by dinner, bandage by bandage, kiss by kiss.
Where
From the porch outside her room, Hyuuga Hinata looks wistfully into the night, He's not here, not coming.
Her birthday celebration that evening was entirely grand as expected of any Hyuuga occasion. But a certain young Jounin was nowhere to be seen, his duty to act as bodyguard for the heir was cut off by a crucial mission to the marshes of Mist Country.
Hinata pulls out a fourth roll of tissue.
Just this
He told her, Give me my broken heart.
And she returned his mended and whole.
Winter
"Did you see them? Did you see them Neji-niisan?" Hinata asked with light in her eyes pointing to the blue horizon, a flock of birds fying away from them..
"Yes I did, Hinata-sama". He followed his charged and watched her run ahead of him, the princess still eyeing the flock, a rare one, the kind that only passes by Konoha on its coldest season.
"Neji-niisan! You're being slow!" And she runs back to him, her face shining, still all smiles and takes his mittened hands. "Come on, let's go!" She manages to say, her cheeks pink due to the cold.
And he follows.
"I did Hinata, including the eight…"
:: Because there is just so much that gets healed... whenever they are with one another, whenever they share worlds. ::
I am not exactly a writer, I actually paint for expression, but seeing Neji and Hinata gives a lot of inspiration that I just felt to draw and write, and write and draw about it., all the while, hoping that I do come up with something half-decent.
For those who are reading this line right now meant you read through the piece, thank you and thank you!