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A pair of tiny birds fluttered into the vastness of the sky. The morning breeze had settled. The sun began to rise in the canvas of deep blues and oranges.
"Look up, my child. See how the sun touches the night ever so slightly?"
A pair of pale lavender eyes looked up, open and wide with curiosity. The child was barely a few months old as he still had the same wisp of dark baby hair on his head. Within the past two weeks he had barely learned how to sit up. It was expected that he would learn how to start walking soon after. But in the meantime, his father indulged in the mornings with him. His father knew, as having children before him, that once a child learns how to walk it would be difficult to keep them still. It was crucial that he would use this time wisely and often used it to talk to his child.
The small babe sat perched on his father's lap, innocently staring at things pointed to. His father rarely spoke in a dumbed down language. He always spoke eloquently to his son as if he were speaking to an equal or to a peer.
"You must wonder why the day and night could coexist, chasing each other without meeting?" His father lowered his face to plant a gentle kiss on his son's chubby cheek. "I will tell you a secret," his father said in a soft whisper, "They do meet. Watch the sky and see how the morning catches the night."
The son's wide eyes looked up, as his father's forefinger pointed out a section in the vast sky. As the crickets still made songs of the night the sun began to rise, touching the edges of blue and illuminating the vastness of night. Of course the babe did not understand the meaning of it, but he had seen this every morning with his father.
His father smiled at him and said softly in his ear, "Do you want to hear its story?"
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Hyuga Neji was twenty-two that year.
Of course, the babe was not born during that time, although it would be a few years until the possibility would be feasible. His parents were barely into adulthood, barely recognizing each other's existence but always reminded of it through vague and fleeting memories. His mother had recently reached Jounin status and was preparing to settle into the role she was born to perform, that of a clan leader. His father had returned home and trained while awaiting orders for new missions. Although he was one of the brightest ninja of his peers, it did not save him from the mundane rhythm of life.
While home, his father would always begin his training in the dawning hours of the day. His mother, however, was everything their father was not and would train in the deepest darkness of the night. While she striked in the darkness it provided her with the cool and gentle silence of night. Her vision, consequently, was ten times more sharp than what the best her clan could offer.
The courtyard where they had practiced as children changed with time, just as everything else did. It was once barren with dust and a lone tree, but gradually someone had begun tending and planting around the edges, growing a garden around the dusty path. Soon after the courtyard was adorned with all kinds of foilage.
But they would never practice together as they did in childhood. They would follow one another like night and day, simply leaving the courtyard without meeting one another but passing one another in soft greeting. He had always entered from the south as it was were members of his house hailed, as she would enter from the north. But eventually as time passed he began to rise earlier, his back would rest against the panels of the hallways, eyes gently focusing behind him. He would hear her heart beating, her breath exhaling, and the droplets of sweat that fell to the floor as she executed each move with surprising accuracy.
It was then he realized how strong she became.
How is it that she kept all of this to herself? Why hadn't she challenged him to test her skill, or has he been blind to see her exponential growth? Does she not see that she needs to show her family that she can excute Kaiten with fluidity?
But what angered him the more was that everytime she was asked to perform such things later in the day, she would sometimes fail as if she purposely did it to mask her strength. It was so much different from himself, who succeeded to mask the deepest weaknesses of his soul. He simply couldn't understand it. But deep inside he had to understand it to understand himself.
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One dawning morning their mother had finished her training. As she gathered her things she placed them down once more. She gently tended to the plants around the courtyard, insuring that one is fed, the other is pruned, and the last leaf turned. It was her way of meditation and she did this every morning. While she began to exit to the north to retire her foot stopped on the wooden steps leading to her room.
"Hinata-sama."
Of course she knew he was there. He had begun lurking by, always patiently waiting for her to finish her training before entering the courtyard himself. At first she understood that it was a silent truce that they made. They never were the best of friends after their first Chuunin exams, but they had come to a substantial peace. Although he could not be seen by the naked eye, she knew he would sit nearby, crosslegged and back against the wall. His hands would be in a perfect position as if he were meditating and clearing his mind.
"Yes, Neji-niisan?"
The crickets had stopped singing by now.
She could see that he had lowered himself in a stance. His feet were planted at the center of the dirt courtyard.
"Fight me."
She glanced over her shoulder and stood there idly for a few moments. She knew it as much as he did. He was too stubborn to let down without a fight.
Her body turned and lowered in the same identical stance. Her hands flexed out. She could smell the dust grinding underneath her toes.
"Come." He told her. "Fight me."
Both eyes squinted, narrowed, then widened with thick veins about the corners of their eyes.
Rushed steps, a pulled knuckle. Dust flying. Fingers then graced out into a crane figure. Blue chakra ripped through the air, producing a distorted, low howling noise. Their palms slapped against one another, force against force. Then she was met with a fearsome block and a swift hit to the shoulder.
Hinata dragged back and gripped her right shoulder. She had bent slightly to avoid a strike to one of her tenketsus, leaving only a tiny pinpoint of a bruise on herself. She breathed heavily and braced herself.
A flurry of attacks flailed out. A strike to the right, to the left, and an uppercut. Each hit was powerful, sounding out with a sighing roar. It was a strength that was harnessed and raw with impact. But each hit was blocked, evaded, gently swayed and manipulated away with a touch. Fast, quick, intense.
"I never thought we would fight again." Neji breathed, finding that she had been able to evade and push away his strikes. "You have improved tremendously...But would you be able to handle more?"
She watched as he positioned himself in another stance.
"Is he intending to do it?" she thought to herself.
"Hakke Hyaku Nijuhachi Sho!"
She was unable to comprehend it, but she suddenly found her body rotating on a single axis, her arms reaching and flexing to each bend. Her palms emitted an immense ray of blue-green chakra, deflecting each forced strike from touching her body. The execution was graceful and dance-like, but as she returned to her stance her was rooted and prepared.
It was her turn now.
Her opponent's eyes lightened while she struck him head on with a forceful palm, sending him back with much surprise. In his moment of total dumbfoundedness he was caught off guard and suddenly launched backwards by force. His body tumbled clumsily and while he attempted to stand back up from the momentum, he felt an accute pain at his kneecaps and felt his body lowering as if forced to kneel.
But it came anyways. He fell half-paralyzed. His knees hit the ground as several loose leaves fluttered upwards to break the impact. He was stunned and speechless. It was clear he had just been bested.
His opponent's eyes looked at him calmly, softly. And as her dark lashes fluttered for a moment her lips parted slightly to murmur.
"I am not your shadow any longer, Neji-niisan. You are mine."
His fists clenched. He would have to prove her wrong. He had to. He wanted to.
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It was clear afterwards that the darkness of the night would be chased, unknowingly, by the coming of the rising sun.
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