This is a one shot I thought up of while I was reading the old Naruto manga. It's the part where they go after Sasuke when the Sound Four take him. And Naruto, Shikamaru, Kiba, Neji, and Chouji split up along the way.
Remember Kidoumaru? The spider dude?
Well, yeah, this is about his fight with Neji.
Neji's not really one of my favorites, but I wanted to say happy birthday in my own way so...
Happy birthday Neji!
Neji really hadn't planned on spending his birthday like this.
Not that he had planned it, but it would've been nice to at least have been forced once to accept gifts that day. Or maybe hear someone singing him "Happy Birthday".
Of course, this would all be forced.
It's not like he secretly liked it or anything...
None of that mattered now though. Not now that he was battling Kidoumaru. Not now that he was losing either. Well, losing was not the word...More like getting his ass kicked. He muttered curses at himself for thinking like that.
Neji had been in worse situations, he knew that. Faced danger. But now he was facing death and he really had no intention of dying yet. The Hyuuga remembered he wasn't only doing this for fun. He was doing this to repay a debt, so to speak.
A debt to Naruto, for helping him realize that destiny wasn't something that could bind him forever.
And Naruto was desperate to bring Sasuke back.
Neji agreed to stay behind and fight while Shikamaru, Kiba, and Naruto went on ahead to see if they could catch up with the young Uchiha.
While they ran after him, Neji had gotten his shoulder pierced with a shoulder and was now running from a second. Definitely not one of his best birthdays.
Kidoumaru laughed as his second arrow missed Neji by about six inches and dug deep into a tree that the Hyuuga had ran behind. This would only force Kidoumaru to add a little spin to the next arrow, literally. That way, even if the arrow hit a tree, it would continue to drill through and kill his prey.
Behind the tree, Neji was breathing heavily. With a huge hole in his shoulder, he began to doubt that this was worth dying for. That Sasuke was worth dying for. Sasuke, someone who he barely knew and almost never talked to.
No, this wasn't worth it.
At that second, Kidoumaru's third and final arrow pierced through Neji. The Hyuuga coughed up some blood as the weapon sent him through the air and crashing into a tree. Kidoumaru laughed. This kid was really entertaining, the way he struggled. Except for that moment, right before the third attack, that he stood still. As if he finally gave up.
It wasn't something that would be deeply confusing though. The kid had just simply given up.
Kidoumaru was about to enjoy his victory when he felt something. He looked back to his wounded prey to see that Neji had his hand on the rope connected to the arrow, sending his chakra right into Kidoumaru and paralyzing him.
The Hyuuga saw his chance.
He gathered the last of his chakra to cut the rope pinning him to the tree and ran to his opponent.
One last hit.
That was all it took.
Kidoumaru fell on the ground.
Neji did the same. Lying there, he accepted the fact that he was dying. Fatally wounded. Maybe a small possibility that he was going to make it out of this alive. But he accepted that too.
He wasn't dying for Sasuke.
No, that wasn't it.
He was dying to bring a Konoha ninja back to his village.
Dying to bring back one of his own.
Laying his life on the line, that was worth it.
And that, Neji realized, was the best birthday present he would ever get.
Like I said, not one of my favorites so I'm not sure if I got his personality down.
Hope I didn't make him OOC. If I did, sorry!
Review and tell me whatcha guys think!
-Tsuki Uzumaki