Neji is of course not owned by me. All credit goes to the wonderful Kishimoto Masashi bows down though of course I wrote this flash-in-the-pan symbolic weirdy whatever-it-is.

Btw, this is a one-shot, meaning I'm not going to continue. Though of course, if anybody wants to keep going with it themselves, then tell me. I'm open to your ideas!

Btw, this... thing is supposed to be set after the Chuunin Exam ordeal. Right after. coughMAJORSPOILERScough

[...] = Neji's thoughts

Flocks

Tired from training 4 hours straight, Neji sat down on the grassy ground of his training spot, and thought.

About that day when he was four years old...

[Perhaps if I had known what would happen, I could've changed how it turned out. This curse... why? Why did the main Hyuuga family decide to turn on their own relatives? There have been reasons, but they still don't make sense... to me...]

Neji lay down, moving his ponytail to the side so his head wouldn't be uncomfortable on the soft grass. He closed his eyes and thought hard about that day. When he was on the brink of tears, he turned his mind's eye towards a more recent event - his fight with Naruto.

[I was so ignorant. I thought fate decided everything about a person. If only I hadn't been so, so wrong for so many years. My life could have been so much better.

Though... it still can turn up roses...

Why am I thinking about roses?]

Neji had been keeping the letter from his father in his pocket. He bent over, gingerly placed his fingers over the scroll, and slowly took it out of his pocket, not wanting to do so much as dent it. He read it over, absorbing every word, as he had done so many times before.

Laying down again, he sighed. The scroll rolled out of his open hand. The young Hyuuga pondered his life.

[Why am I alive? What do I have to do?]

Suddenly, it came to him. He sat up, and wondered if his new idea would really work.

Neji took a new kunai from its holster, and examined it.

[What a perfect shinobi weapon. It's easy to use, and the composition is solid. No wonder it is used all over the world.]

He took a firm grip on the cloth handle, and raised it to the sky. Above he saw a flock of birds... no, several flocks...

[The lucky birds. They're so free, not being bound to a curse must feel great. I can't say I remember what it was like.]

Neji decided to abandon his idea. It was too harsh, too hasty. Instead, he put his scroll back in its pocket, ran up a tree, climbed from there right up to the shrubbery at the top, and jumped into the sky.

When he landed, he only jumped higher.

Omake? You decide!