Bluebird

Here's a one- shot that I've had for a while... tell me what you guys think!

Disclaimer- I don't own Naruto.

What if I wanted that blue sky, that freedom to do as I pleased and not be punished for it? Would she give it to me, that girl with the hopes and dreams and quiet strength?

Training, alone and glad of the silence, Hyuuga Neji spun, kicked, flipped, and allowed his chakra to flow freely through his body, mind blank and movements easy, relaxed, calculated. The dojo was quiet except for his slight pants, the room dark and cold. No one used it at night, so he did, to practice, to get better. To become stronger than Hiashi could ever imagine.

Even though he was not part of the main branch of the Hyuuga family, he had been blessed with the genius of the clan, the chakra control and ability. But his cousin… She was of the main branch, and was useless, with her silence, her shyness, her weakness. She could barely use the trigrams, and her rotation… was useless.

But she possessed the one thing that Neji would never have- a father, a welcoming family, no matter how that family viewed her skills. She was the Heir, and she got what she wanted. But he could control his jealousy; turn it into hate for the girl with the pale eyes and quiet grace. No matter how much he admired her freedom, he would never admire her.

So he trained, learned things that only the elite of the main branch could even hear about, and mastered the ancient techniques- all on his own, with no father to teach him, no tutors to educate him. He was a genius, and no one could fault him for that.

It was cold, the night, and he shivered slightly as the warmth of movement left his body. He was clad only in loose cotton pants, a bad idea for such a brisk, windy, black night. But he ignored the cold and sat on a stump, activating the Byakugan, his eyes becoming strained and his vision sharpening. He counted the kunai in his hand, biting his lip. Eight kunai, with nine targets to hit. He would improvise, then, and get them all. He didn't need to aim, only let them fly, and they would hit the targets easily.

He stood, glancing around again, and smiled grimly. One of the kunai had gone straight through one target to hit the next.

He went inside, closing the door behind him, and went to the kitchen. The light, to his surprise, was on, and inside stood Hyuuga Hinata, the Heir, the bane of his existence. Even though he had nearly killed her in the chûnin exams, she had forgiven him easily. Even so, he saw a flicker of fear in her eyes that never ceased to amuse him slightly.

He was cruel, that was sure- but it was a subtle cruelty, an art that he had perfected since the death of his father. He was regretful that she had been hurt so badly, but that was the past. And he made it a point not to dwell on the past.

So, he nodded at her and opened the fridge, searching for something to eat. It didn't matter that it was nearly two o'clock in the morning- there were few rules when Hiashi was asleep. He pulled out a box of leftover ramen from Ichiraku's and grabbed some chopsticks, then sat down, glancing at Hinata, who was watching him. "Hello, Hinata- sama."

"He-hello, Neji- san." She had a glass of orange juice and was sitting on the counter, sipping it carefully. He nodded, quickly eating the noodles. He needed to get some sleep before training, which started at ten. "Why are you up so late, Hinata- sama?" he asked between bites, glancing at her. She was blushing, her cup empty. "I couldn't sleep."

Neji finished the ramen quickly and tossed the empty box in the trash. Before leaving, he turned to her again. "You really should get some sleep." She sighed, and he left, climbing the stairs to his room. The plain walls were welcoming, the comfortable bed in the center even more so. Neji stripped, slipped under the covers, and slept, not hearing the soft footsteps that meant that his cousin was returning to her room.

At ten, Hyuuga Neji was at the training grounds, warming up with Rock Lee and TenTen, who both noticed the faint circles under the Hyuuga's pale eyes. They didn't comment, however, merely shared a glance and continued warming up, waiting for their sensei to arrive. Gai arrived not ten minutes later, and was so moved by the sight before him that he decided that they would be battling against Hatake Kakashi's team instead of survival training.

He was paired off with Haruno Sakura, interestingly enough. He had expected to be fighting Naruto, but it wasn't like he cared. He would beat them all. The Hyuuga and the Haruno squared off, fists crackling with chakra. She had gotten good, this girl, and he was mildly impressed by the flicker of determination in her eyes. Naruto, who had squared off against Lee- and had lost- cheered on the pink- haired kunoichi, who just grinned.

They leaped at each other, his white chakra and her green chakra meeting and pushing against each other, opposing forces of equal strength. She aimed a flurry of punches and kicks at him, her legs moving far too fast to be natural- chakra- enhanced blows. They were useless against his gentle fist, however, and she reeled back as vines of ripping chakra wound up her arms.

Then, faster than the eye could track, the two shinobis began to really fight, and all that the watching teams could do was gasp and clap. Neither could gain an advantage for long, until Neji activated his Byakugan. Then, Sakura gradually began to lose as her tenketsu were pressed, one after another, with taps that she could barely feel.

Finally, she collapsed, gasping and sweating, clutching her sides. Neji stood calmly above her, chakra still buzzing and Byakugan piercing the surroundings. "Ohmygawd, Neji!" TenTen cheered, and Neji swore when he felt Lee hit him on the back. "Sorry, sorry! Did she hit you there, Neji- san?" The Hyuuga only shrugged, glancing at Gai, who was bent over the immobilized girl with Kakashi. No doubt they were getting sworn at-

Yes, they were, and it was an astounding vocabulary that the Hokage had probably accidentally taught her apprentice. He listened for a while, then started walking home, a small, satisfied smile on his face. He was a jônin for a reason.

He ended up in his room, showering and bandaging his hands and applying some medicine to his worst wounds, which were not that severe. Hinata, no doubt, would still be in training, leaving him with the house to himself- relatively speaking. So, he changed into his cotton pants and went to the dojo, grabbing a katana on the way out.

He ran through the easiest drills first, controlling his swings and technique. Then, he started into the more complicated patterns, feet and katana flying, until he was sweating, and his hands shook with the strain. Only then did he put the weapon down and start working his chakra, settling on the padded floor cross- legged, arms across his chest.

His chakra spiked, filling the air with a static charge that was visible as a white aura around him, potent and thick. He was doing well, until… He lost his precarious control. His chakra, uncontrolled, turned on him, and he…

He lost everything.

Hinata found him there, passed out, in a pool of his own blood. She screamed for help, kneeling beside his prone form. She shook him, called out to him, through the tears that were running down her face. Because he wasn't just the boy who had nearly killed her. He was Hyuuga Neji, her cousin, who had been so nice to her on multiple counts, had apologized and tried to live with the curse of being born into the cadet branch.

He didn't wake, and she was pulled away by the hands of a family member, unable to fight back, unable to do anything at all but watch as her father knelt next to him, his face indescribably sad and stricken. How had this happened? He was so adept at control…

And Hyuuga Hiashi saw the mark on his nephew's back, a dark bruise, which could have only been made recently. When he was training.

If I wanted to fly, Hinata- sama, would you let me go? Or would I stay here with you, forever chained by the bonds that I wear? Would you let me fly?

Hyuuga Neji did not wake from his death- sleep, and Sakura could not help but blame herself for it. After all, she had caused the wound that had broken his chakra's thin bonds, which had sent him into this coma. The coma that not even Tsunade could wake him from, though all his wounds were healed and his body was running perfectly fine.

His mind, she had said, was not, and the barriers around it would let no one in, no matter who they were. And if no one could get in, Neji could not get out, no matter how much he might desire to. Not until his mind- his unconscious mind, that was not actively used, which took over in emergencies- had decided that it was safe, to let him out.

He had been a prisoner before, in a gilded cage of lies and illusions. Only now, his cage was his own mind, that raw, powerful mind that was so quick, so smart. So quick to judge.

He was kept in his room, and Tsunade checked on him every day, though there was not much she could do. His room became his tomb, and none of the family dared to venture there. None, except for Hinata, who visited every day, bringing him flowers, beautiful wildflowers, orchids, lilies… The only color in that white room, that bare room with the boy in it who only seemed to be sleeping.

Like that story about the princess, who was put under a spell to sleep. And she slept, for a long time, until her prince charming rode in an kissed her awake. Only Neji wasn't a princess, and Hinata was sure he had no prince charming. No, Neji would sleep, sleep for eternity, a Sleeping Beauty without a reason to wake, no fairy godmothers to guide the prince to the chambers guarded by the dragon.

Neji would just sleep, and never wake up.

She wondered what it must be like, to be trapped like him. Did he hear her when she spoke to him? Or was he gone, and the his body merely an empty shell, albeit a living one? Did he care that she visited him, or did it make him angry, this show of weakness? Because every time she came, she couldn't stop the tears from falling onto his face, his still, perfect face, those white eyes forever closed, forever bound to the darkness that wouldn't give him up.

Sometimes, his friends would visit, only the visits began to stop, and then they didn't visit at all, because he couldn't hear them, couldn't laugh with them, couldn't share their tears and sorrow. Because, to them, he was dead. And dead men don't speak.

And so the days, weeks, months, passed, and he slept on, his face tranquil, his ever- growing hair surrounding him like a shroud. But she still came, and brought those beautiful flowers. People asked why she did, and she merely responded with a careful, sad smile and a sweet reply, always the same.

"Because he would have done the same for me."

And so she lived, telling him her deepest, darkest secrets and dreams, her fears and weaknesses. Because he could listen and not tell her that she was stupid, that she was weak. And Neji, trapped in his mind, began to emerge slowly. He began to be able to think coherently, to feel emotions. But he could not escape his prison, his prison of the flesh. He was awake, but he was asleep, and there was nothing he could do about it.

"Neji- san, today Naruto and Sakura invited me to come to Ichiraku's with them. But I'm not going to go, because Haruno likes Naruto, and so do I, and it would only cause trouble." You should go anyway, and win that boy's heart. "So instead, I'm going with Kiba- kun, Ino- san, Shikamaru, and Temari- san to get ice cream." I wish I could get ice cream, too. "I brought you more flowers today."

Hinata placed a vase of white roses on his nightstand, next to the violets from the day before. You didn't have to. I bet you're wasting all your money on these. "White roses. Anko- san grows them, so I had her cut some for me. They smell lovely." She sighed, and Neji strained to hear what she whispered. "I don't know what to do anymore, Neji- san. Father says that I'm wasting my life in here." Don't go. "But I'm not going to stop coming."

She stood, and Neji felt an ache, inside him. If only he could wake, and tell her to stay strong. Because she was strong, this girl, and he realized that. If only he could tell her a simple thank you, perhaps kiss her forehead, and experience life as he once knew it.

But he could not wake.

And the days passed, agonizingly slowly. And Hinata matured, and his body matured, in his death- sleep. But he could not move, make any noise, because inside, his chakra and mind were at war, a silent war that never ended, a war that sent waves of pain down his body when chakra lost and blankness when mind lost.

Hinata came every day, with new stories to tell, with more flowers that she painstakingly gathered for him, even though there was no way for him to see them, smell them, appreciate them like any other man she could spend her time with. And Neji felt himself coming to appreciate his cousin, to understand her, as she told him more and more- how she was afraid of being the Heir, her insecurities about Hanabi, and her fear of him, which had subsided completely. What was to fear from a corpse?

Finally, her visits dwindled as she realized that he wasn't going to wake, but she kept coming every week with flowers, words, and the warmth of her presence. Eventually, Neji realized that she was the only thing keeping him from sinking into the abyss, and that he wanted her to come, to spend her time with him, to talk to him, to bring him flowers, to take his hand and pray to Kami that he would wake, that he would answer her.

But he could do nothing, and learned the true meaning of loneliness, the meaning of despair and sadness, of depression and of longing, to return to that realm of light that he had taken for granted for so many years. He might have been a prisoner before… but now, he was hardly more than a shadow, a consciousness in a body that refused to die even though it should.

And Neji wished for death, for the end.

I can fly, Hinata, and I'll take you anywhere you want to go. Just say the word, and I'll sweep you off your feet to the corridors of my heart.

Light… Neji wanted to see the light, before he died. He wanted to wake, no matter the cost, and see the sun, the grass, feel the wind in his hair. He wanted to see Hinata, TenTen, and Lee. He wanted to move, to run until he couldn't run, to jump, to do ridiculously childish things until the sun set and he had to go back inside.

He had been in the coma for nearly two years, now. And it was unbearable, though Hinata visited every week. He knew everything about her, her secrets, her dreams. And he wanted to be a part of her. It had taken a coma and two years of prison for him to realize that he could love, and the person he loved was the person he was not supposed to love.

So, he started trying to control his chakra, which still warred against his mind. To his surprise, it soothed under his influence, and though he couldn't wake, he realized that he could control his chakra. And if he could control his chakra, he would find a way to control his mind. And if he could control his mind, he would be able to wake, and see the light, run, jump, and thank Hinata for everything she had ever done for him.

"Neji, today I brought you mountain lilies. They're beautiful, like lace and snow and everything pure. They smell like heaven should, like ice and honey and vanilla. They're my favorite flowers…" she touched his forehead, where the Caged Bird curse mark rested. Then she screamed, falling backwards. Neji's eyes flicked open, and he stared at the ceiling, mesmerized by the shadows and the whiteness of it. Then, slowly, he sat up, his muscles protesting such movement after so long.

When he was sitting straight, he looked directly at his cousin, who looked like she was caught between fainting and hugging him. "Hinata…sama?" his voice was scratchy, croaky, and low. "N-Neji!" and she tackled him, tears flowing down her face as he hugged her back, pale eyes closed, face one of joy and extreme jubilation.

No one would believe it, at first, that Hyuuga Neji, who had been presumed dead for nearly two years, was alive, awake. That is, they couldn't believe it until they saw him themselves, his hair hanging to his hips, his pale eyes seemingly dazed and his hand always clasping Hinata's. His body, which had grown and matured when he was in the coma, seemed unfamiliar to him- he hadn't been six- foot- two when he fell into the coma, that much he knew.

And he didn't realize that Hinata had become heartrendingly beautiful, her hair as long as his and her pale lavender eyes gleaming with intelligence and compassion. She ran with him, jumped with him, stretched out in the cool grass with him and watched the sunset. She was there, and he knew that he would never take her- or anything- for granted again.

Because to gain, sometimes you have to lose.

And to fly, sometimes you have to fall.

Yay! there it was! Please leave a review on your way out!!

~Kiri