A/N: SPOILER ALERT. Don't read if you haven't read Chapter 700 of the manga and don't want any spoilers.
Headcanon is that Neji had a thing for sunflowers, thus, the chapter 700 scene featuring Hinata and Himawari. Also, from what I watched on the latter episodes, Hinata wasn't stuttering anymore? So... not much stuttering on this fic. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Italics are thoughts.
Here goes.
Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine. I sure hoped I did.
Remembering Nii-san
By ChoppingBoard
Hinata tried not to be intrusive with the scroll her brown-haired cousin was dealing with. She noticed he had been staring at it, then closing it again repeatedly. He had done the cycle 6 times already. That is, if his first one was when she entered the kitchen.
Clutching an apple with his right hand, Neji furrowed his eyebrows. I can't let myself be defeated by this scroll.
Noticing he was getting more uneasy, the blue-haired girl took a seat across him and pushed a cup of hot tea to him. "Is something wrong nii-san?"
Neji sighed, as if accepting defeat. He shrugged his shoulders and decided to let it out. He was with Hinata after all, he was certain she wouldn't judge him. "I'll be leaving for a mission soon but I can't seem to figure out the difference between these." He opened up the scroll to reveal inscriptions and drawings of flowers. Side by side were the pictures of Sunflowers, Bush Daisies, Coneflowers, Yellow Daisies, and False Sunflowers.
Hinata grinned, so this was what he was looking at. In all fairness to Neji, the flowers did look similar. He was no doubt a genius, but it was acceptable to some extent that he didn't excel in the subject of flowers. "I see. How is this related to your mission?"
"My team and I are to retrieve several blooms of sunflowers to aid in the Hokage-sama's research. She mentioned that there are special types of sunflowers that only bloomed near the Hidden Village of Mist" He responded.
Hinata thought for a while, but when she was about to say something, a servant gently knocked on the half-open shoji door.
"Hinata-sama, please excuse me." the servant gently bowed to her and turned to the other person in the room. "Neji-san, Hiashi-sama wishes to speak with you."
Neji nodded, but turned to Hinata first. "Hinata-sama, was there something you wanted to say?"
The blue-haired girl smiled and shook her head.
–-
After speaking with the leader of the clan, Neji decided to retreat to his quarters. Looks like I'm still going on this mission after all. He initially thought that Hiashi will ask him to do something important, but it was just about several techniques which he thought Neji might've picked up from his training.
–-
The next morning, Neji found himself on the kitchen again, clutching an apple on the right hand, with the scroll on his left.
"Good morning Neji-niisan!" Hinata sounded very ecstatic and Neji couldn't help but look at her and smirk.
"Good morning, Hinata-sama. You seem to be in a very good mood."
"I am!" She scurried to sit on the chair across his and mechanically ate an apple.
Neji's left eye twitched when he noticed that Hinata was hurriedly eating the fruit. "You seem to be in a hurry."
"Ahhh, don't mind me."
"I'll take my leave then."
"W-w-wait!" Her apple was half-eaten but she hurriedly stood up. "No, I'm in a hurry because I wanted to show you something!"
–-
"Here you go!" Hinata spread her arms proudly at the 5 jars of yellow flowers in front of her.
They were at a pond near the Hyuuga library and Neji couldn't help but smile at the effort. The 5 jars of flowers looked familiar, then he finally realized that those were the flowers he had been studying.
"Hinata-sama, you shouldn't have."
"I insist. You know, when I was younger, I also had a hard time with these flowers. But mom..." she trailed off for a few seconds, then continued. "My mom helped me identify these."
They spent the entire morning talking about the flowers and there were several instances that Neji had to activate Byakugan to see if it looked different with the bloodline limit.
–-
The next day, the Hokage requested Team 9's presence in the Hokage tower. They were supposed to leave by lunch time for the mission but it was still early, so a quick meeting won't be too bad.
Neji smirked as he eyed 5 jars of yellow flowers on the Hokage's table. It was so similar to how Hinata presented the flowers the day before.
Tenten and Lee exchanged glances as they noticed the expression on their white-eyed companion's face.
They were asked to properly identify the flowers, to which he continued to smirk and to the horror of his teammates.
The door suddenly opened and Gai was seen dragging Shikamaru.
"HOKAGE-SAMA! TEAM 10 IS HERE!" The green beast of Konoha exclaimed and he later found the other people in the room clasping their hand over their ears.
"Aa. In that case, Team 9, you're dismissed. Team 10 will be handling it from here." Tsunade clasped her hands together in delight. "I'll let you know if there's another mission for you."
Tenten, Lee, and Neji looked impassive as they heard the news. It was true that Team 10, Ino specifically, would be perfect for this mission. "Hai" they said in unison.
–-
Neji met Hinata again in the kitchen. It was about time for lunch.
"Neji-niisan! I prepared a bento for you." Hinata was still preparing something on the sink but pointed towards a lunchbox wrapped in white cloth on the table. "For your mission"
"Ah Hinata-sama, thank you for preparing this. Unfortunately... Fortunately, we won't be going." he offered a smile to the blue-haired girl across the room. It had come to this despite all the effort Hinata made and he even memorized everything.
"Oh..." she trailed off, unsure of what to say.
"Gai-sensei met Shikamaru on his way to the Hokage Tower this morning. Hokage-sama then decided it would be better to have Team 10 handle it." He walked closer to the table to remove the white cloth from the bento. He removed the lid and saw his favorite food, herring soba. "I wouldn't definitely put this to waste, let's eat Hinata-sama."
"Hai."
–-
After that, the sunflower had been an inside joke between the two of them. Neji would give her sunflowers if he happened to pass by a field on his way home. The bright-yellow bloom with alternating leaves with serrated edges was forever etched in his mind. He even joked to Hinata how it was very fitting for her, a flower which blossoms towards the sun.
It was his way of letting Hinata know that he appreciated that day she spent on lecturing him about flowers and that he remembered everything.
–-
Chapter 700
"Mama, do you think uncle likes them?"
"Of course. Since those flowers have the same name as you, Himawari"
FIN
A/N: Hai translates to yes in English.
Sorry I'm out of fluff these days. I personally hate drama/angst fics but I just had to get this out of my system.
I've been noticing a lot of hate being hurled to one another with the shipping wars though I have to admit, I didn't also like the pairings at the last chapter and also what ultimately happened to Hinata. I just hope it would stop and people would just respect the pairings each person is rooting for, canon or non-canon. Plausible or crack.
ANNNDDD reviews are appreciated. Thank you in advance!
