Hi xD
I think I've never updated so fast before. My ByaRuki readers who may come across these oneshots will want to kill me .
Well… Today is day 4 of NejiHina Week and here I am to update the last of the oneshots I've written, not planned. Again, if you go to my profile, you'll find all of the summaries from the stories I intend to write and post here.
This oneshot is set before Duty and Love and after The Sakura Kiss. Again you don't have to read the others to understand this one, but I'd feel very happy if you read and reviewed it for me ^^
Keep in mind English is not my first language, so a few mistakes will surely pass.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Kishimoto does, but I own this plot. I also don't own the cover either, it belongs to kimiquin. If you go to my tumblr (velvetsins) you will find the fanart in which I got some inspiration for this oneshot as well ^^
Enjoy!
Prompt 4 - Tradition
The Daruma Doll
by Velvetsins
He did not really like just a few things in life. Most of them were related to how people reacted to the heiress and how the heiress herself reacted to people around her. Or let people treat her.
And some people treated the heiress pretty badly, in spite of the fact she was the heiress to the most important clan in Konoha.
Neji hated people who did not know their places.
However, there was something else he quite did not know how to deal with.
It was about people and their beliefs. Actually, it was about believers. And Hinata, his cousin, was a believer.
Kami, he really did not know how to deal with it.
Hinata, his kind, sweet cousin was a believer. He, on the other hand, has always been skeptical. Being the guardian of the heiress, her guardian, it was a luxury he could not afford.
He had to be always on guard, alert all the time and aware of their surroundings. Even if she was a capable kunoichi who had proven herself countless and countless times, it was his duty and Neji would be damned if he did not fulfill his role to perfection.
The fact Hinata was a believer meant she trusted people far too easily and sometimes they posed a treat she would not always be willing to acknowledge because she thought everyone was as kind as she was.
He could see that now as they walked together the street fair. People used her kindness to make her buy useless stuff because, according to them, it would bring good luck and Hinata was a weakling for such objects.
Neji could barely carry anything else in his arms. From plants, flowers, sweets, drinks, to even stuffed little animals, she decided to buy everything people told her would do some good.
By now, he had learned that there were things to get a woman pregnant — there were some people who really believed they were a couple and Hinata had blushed beautifully at this, except that her way of calling him made them look kinky —, to achieve good healthy, to earn more money and simply feel relaxed and happy or have a goodnight's sleep.
Neji was surprised she had quickly accepted the one related to bad dreams. He wondered which kind of dream she was having lately. She would have seen his quirked eyebrow if the amount of stuff he was carrying did not hinder even his face from her scrutiny.
By the time they reached one of the last stands, he realized he must have made a terrible mistake by coming with her.
Well... not that the remaining option seemed good either.
It was either coming with Hinata to the street fair, or train Hanabi for the rest of the day. And while he enjoyed sparring with his younger cousin, she was undoubtedly a capable fighter, she had grown into a cunning, meddlesome teenager.
And to think she had found out about them.
Found out about their relationship. Rather: secret relationship that was not so secret anymore.
At first, Hinata felt bold. They could tell her father about them, their relationship. It was not wrong. Actually, it was quite common to have people of huge, important clans to marry amongst themselves in order to protect and continue the kekkei genkai.
What Hinata did not realize is that there was something different in their situation. They were from different sections inside the Hyūga Clan. The elders of the main house would rather die than have someone such as himself, a common branch house, marrying the heiress.
It was better to have her married to someone entirely different and lose the Byakugan than to have Neji dealing with the politics of the clan.
It did not matter he was a jōnin before anyone else in his class and a skilled ANBU at the tender age of seventeen. He was still a member of the branch house and he would always be.
Their fairytale was doomed to fail.
Even if Neji did not believe fate was what ruled one's life anymore — Naruto had shown him how wrong he was and for that he was glad — he was not foolish enough to think they could go against this particular fate.
It was useless to fight against it. The sooner the heiress realized it, the better for both of them — especially for her.
"Neji-nii-san?" Her sweet voice dragged him out of his thoughts. She wore a confused frown. "Are you okay?"
He nodded, not bothered to give her a response.
Sometimes he hated it.
Hated how she still called him nii-san in public and how they would have to hold themselves and have just brief moments of happiness while others, such as Temari and Shikamaru, could scream their love for everyone — not that Neji would ever do that, public display of affection never got along with him. He was a silent lover, more prone to stay quiet and show his feelings in a physical way rather than using words.
Words were as useless as the storm in a quite hot day. After the ground dried, it would remain hot, if it did not get hotter.
It was just the same with words. After they were spoken they most likely would be forgotten. And words that could not be proven by acts were just deceitful. More of a weapon to hurt those we love the most.
Neji would not bring himself to hurt Hinata again.
Because he had hurt her so foolishly so many times before.
He would never say the words.
Looking up, he realized it was almost night and in spite of the fact he was about to forget how it was to have the blood pumping freely in his arms, he enjoyed the fair and Hinata's happy, random babbling more than he should.
"Please, don't tell me you are buying one more of those souvenirs, Hinata-sama," he scolded her when she opened her small purse and pulled out a few coins.
"But it is…" She looked at the old vendor and back at the small thing… What was that again? Whatever, it was just plain…
"…Ugly?"
"Calm there, youngster…" The elder shook his head. "It's a very powerful amulet, I would not joke about it if I were you."
Good, because you certainly are not, oyaji.
"Would you give me four of them, please," Hinata asked, counting on her fingers the people she planned to give the ugly doll to — amulet, he would better remember.
"Four?" Neji asked, wondering where he would carry four of those.
"Yes… One for my father and Hanabi, one for me and of course for you, Neji-nii-san," she replied kindly, as she paid the old vendor and carried this bag herself.
Me?
Does she really expect him to engage in such foolishness?
He was so flabbergasted he did not realize she was heading ahead and back to the Hyūga Compound.
"Let's go?"
He nodded.
"Good, I can't wait for us to sit in the veranda and make our wishes."
Neji gulped.
Oh, Kami… there was no doubted. She really expected that he, the skeptical one, would engage himself with such nonsense. What a waste of time.
.
.
.
Sitting in the garden, close to the veranda Hinata asked to meet him, Neji fleshed his arms once again. It still felt like the blood would not pump back in some places, but he felt content.
If Hinata was happy, then he was too. There was no way he could he unhappy when she seemed so happy in their way back and happily talked and acted happy.
It felt good.
To have her talking freely to him. The proximity they build after the Chūnin Exams was more than welcomed. Who thought that taking a beating from Naruto would make him see how wrong he was all this time about Hinata.
And who knew the once bashful and quiet Hinata would feel at ease around him. Would talk to him and sought him?
What an upturn their lives took because of Naruto.
Neji smirked.
The prodigious boy, the one who could see everything was the blindest of all. And he continued blind for quite a while after Hinata came around him.
He was blind for his feelings.
Blind for her feelings.
Blinded by guilty.
The boy who could see everything could see nothing at all.
He was so distracted he almost did not notice her soft steps in the wooden floor. Almost. His senses were too keen to miss that. He did not turn to face her, however. His fingers pressed around the hideous doll. Daruma doll, if he was not mistaken.
"Neji-nii-san." She sat by his side. One of the kitchen's servant helped her by carrying the tray with tea he assumed Hinata prepared — she always did — while Hinata herself carried two brushes and black ink — for the stupid amulet, he concluded.
As soon as the utensil and the tray were settled down, the servant left both of them alone. In silence, Hinata served him and watched as he looked at the starry sky.
"Thank you, Hinata-sama."
"We have spoken about the honorifics, nii-san."
Looking at her out of the corner of his eyes, he inhaled the steam coming from the hot matcha tea and spoke,
"The same could be said about you, Hinata-sama."
He did not have to look at her to know she was blushing and fidgeting. He sipped the tea and closed his eyes.
"Sorry… Old habits die hard, I guess."
There was silence between them. It was quite comfortable now, contrary to the old times in which silence always meant something bad or awkward.
"Here…" She moved on the zabuton to get the brush and the black ink. "Shall we make our wishes?"
Neji paused.
So the moment he dreaded finally came.
"Hinata-sama…" He did not know how to begin it, but he knew he should. "I do not think it…"
"Yes…" Her eyes were shining expectantly as she sank her brush into the ink.
Dammit.
Why did she have to be such a believer?
Why did it must be so hard for him to tell her no?
"Oh… You don't know how to do it, right? You missed the explanation."
Yes. He did.
But that was not what he was trying to say.
He opened his mouth once again, but her warm smile forced his lips shut.
"It's quite simple, Neji-n…" She stopped and furrowed her brows. "Neji-san."
He nodded, appreciating the change.
Encouraged by his nod, she continued, "You just have to make your wish, eyes closed of course, and paint one eye of the daruma doll."
Who the hell made wishes upon a doll? An ugly doll on top of that?
"Once your wish has been granted, you paint the remaining eye. Simple, isn't it?"
He nodded once again.
"Hinata-sama, look…" He had to tell her that it was foolish. Very foolish. A doll could never grant wishes. It was the same as wishing upon a dead star that was billions of years away.
"You look stiff."
He closed his eyes for a moment.
She was clueless. So damn clueless. And that's why he had fallen in love with her in the first place. She was kind and a believer, she believed in forgiveness when be firmly believed there was no condonation for what he had done.
He thought about the best way to tell her that while he found it foolish, he respected her beliefs, as crazy as they seemed, but it did not mean he had to engage himself with it.
Neji opened his mouth, ready to give her a piece of his mind — when did he become so afraid of speaking his mind to her of all people? He always did it regardless of her possible reactions — when she spoke for himself.
"You don't believe it."
He looked for a trace of resentfulness in her beautiful eyes — the same eyes that mirrored his — but only found curiosity — the curiosity he hated for years after his father's death and had come to love whenever she meant to ask him something after their brief interludes.
"Why?"
"Why?" he asked back. He did not know why. It was simply, plain foolish. There was no other way to put it. There was no way a doll, charming doll, could grant whatever one wished.
Perhaps because what he wished no greater being could ever give him. And all the other things he could achieve himself.
He remained silent, looking for ways to tell her that, but failed miserably. He was really not a man of too many words.
"I understand, Neji-san…" Her sigh was somewhat relieved? which caused him to look at her in confusion, even if his face remained stoic. "I would never force you to do something you do not believe…"
Then realization sunk into him.
It was just another of Hinata's common trait. She was just being the understanding and caring Hinata. It was somewhat a trait that both irked and amazed him. How she could care and put other's wellbeing before her own.
He even thought about giving in, but it would not do. It would not just be him and Hinata would know.
And it would upset her.
And Neji vowed to do anything under his power to never upset her anymore.
"I can get it back if you don't want it…"
"No." He pressed the ugly doll between his fingers.
"Well… If you ever…" She let the rest of her sentence in the air, her eyes shining with hope.
"I will never."
His smug reply had her blushing madly and burying her nose back in the tea, the hot steam kind of covering her rosy cheeks.
.
.
.
He called it a night when Hinata finished painting the hideous doll's eye. He did not let it out, but deep inside he was dying of curiosity to know her wish.
Yet, as an ANBU member, a prodigy, he had to remember that, Neji was quite aware that curiosity was not a trait that he should possess. Curiosity killed the cat after all.
Instead of asking, he let her go and decided to move back to where he belonged. His bedroom in the branch house was placed in a secluded area, far away from everyone. He would say a strategic place. It was far away from all of the branch members, but close enough to the heiress. If the need to protect her arouse…
Neji removed his kosode, walking towards the small desk in his room with his upper body bare. There, placed in the wooden table, sat the Daruma doll. He looked at it and thought once again how ugly it was before Hinata's words played back in his mind.
Well… If you ever…
In spite of his reply, he knew she would have liked if he believed in such stuff. He could even try, but Neji had seen too much in life — even at his tender age — to buy fantasy stories.
He looked over his shoulder and noticed the dark and quietness of the room. Opening the first drawer of his desk, he pulled some papers, the ink and the brush to practice some shodō before going to bed, but stopped as he heard soft steps on the wooden floor.
A small smirk tugged at the corner of his slips as he walked to the source of the sound and surprised the intruder by placing his lips upon hers in a slow although deep kiss.
"Neji…"
.
.
.
It was almost dawn when they finally broke apart and leaned on his futon, catching their breaths. He was not much of a speaker after their lovemaking sessions, but the heiress seemed to enjoy pillow talk more than should be appropriate for both of their sakes.
At first, Neji wondered if someone would catch on them, but if none ever heard her moaning — as quiet as she tried to be, he took devilish pleasure in making her chant his name as loud as possible — them no one would ever hear as the heiress talked — mostly alone, for he would usually hear her and nod his head, sometimes let out an acid or arrogant retort that would have her laugh.
"What is wrong?" he asked her, removing a few strands of raven hair that clung to her sweaty forehead.
"Nothing…" She smiled sheepishly. Next thing he knew she was kissing his jaw tenderly and playing with his long hair. "I was just…"
And the words died in her mouth as she sighed contentedly.
"Just…" he asked back, sleep finally taking the best of him.
"I'm happy…" She yawned, sleep getting the best of her. "Happy to be here with you."
He did not reply, instead, he kissed her softly on the lips and moved aside to give her more room into his futon. He would never tell her that, but her confession made his heart flutter a bit. And Neji thought that was a distraction he did not need in his life, but that was already there and would not go away.
Actually, if it meant it would drive Hinata away from him — sooner than what he knew was bound to happen, because it would happen someday — he would gladly let such distraction get the best of him.
"Please… Don't let me sleep too much, Neji-nii-san…"
There was no reply this time either, and even if he replied, she would not be able to hear. His arm tightened around her and he too drifted off to sleep.
.
.
.
It was almost morning when Hinata finally opened her eyes. Neji was by her side, even if not holding her anymore. She propped herself into one elbow and looked at him.
He slept peacefully by her side, his rich brown hair feel over his face and nude chest. Slowly, she traced her finger over his throat too distracted to notice him stirring under her touch. He did not wake up though.
She let her eyes roam over his bedroom — the place where their night interludes usually happened, their sacred paradise —and marveled at the lack of furniture. He was a practical man, he had always been — that explained his blatant refusal of making a wish upon the Daruma doll.
Never mind.
Hinata loved him all the same. Her stubborn, skeptical and harsh cousin. Yet sweet and tender lover.
Somehow she was glad he did not surrender for her beliefs. It would just be not like him. She was the believer and he was her opposite, the unbeliever. And she loved him for that.
She would not have him any other way.
Her eyes stopped however, at a few disarranged papers and ink scattered all over his desk. There, in the middle of it, sat the small amulet she had bought that afternoon.
Slowly, she rose from the bed and walked to it.
Her eyes went unbearably wide at the sight.
The Daruma doll had one of the eyes painted.
How?
When?
Why?
A snort reached her ears, making her freeze in place, waiting for him to wake up. He merely turned to the other side and hugged the makura.
A small smile took over her lips as she walked to him and placed a brief kiss on his forehead.
"Thank you for loving me."
Still smiling, Hinata gathered her things and left his bedroom before both the Main and Branch House wake up for the day.
It seemed her wish became a reality sooner than she expected.
Yes. Neji may never believe it. But Daruma dolls definitely worked.
Vocabulary:
Futon – Japanese mattress
Makura – Japanese pillow
Shodō – Japanese practice of calligraphy
Zabuton – Japanese cushion
A/N – Well, that's it! Hope you have enjoyed. I intended to make it a very sweet and funny oneshot, but in the end it became bittersweet, for those who already read my ByaRuki fanfics, you know I can turn everything into angst and drama, so… there you have it.
About the Daruma Doll, well it's a Japanese amulet to which people make wishes. It kind of ugly, at least I think it is. Usually the wishes are made in the New Year's Eve, but it doesn't prevents you from buying one and making wishes whenever you want.
And I don't have much to say, except that I'm very, very tired and I'm going to sleep. I slept very little the night before working like crazy and tomorrow I'm gonna work a lot again and until next Monday, I think my work schedule will be no joke guys.
Hope you have enjoyed and again don't forget to review. As soon as I can I'm gonna write Clandestine Happiness (if you know Clarice Lispector you know where I took the title from) and Lies of the Century, which are continuations of Duty and Love.
Take care,
Velvetsins