I think I forgot to put up a disclaimer on the previous chapter? Well, sorry! Just to let you know, I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does. [because if I do, Neji and Jiraiya and Kushina and Minato and Itachi and—and many others, 'cus my sentimental side sucks—wouldn't've died. But, they did, so.]

Chapter 1

Sakura woke up in the middle of the night, and for the first time in a long, long period, she was fine. She wasn't happy—she would never, ever, ever go that far—but she was fine. She had been sleeping on nice, warm, comfortable bed in the luxurious Hyuga Manor, she hadn't cried herself to sleep the night before, she woke up with no dry eyes or sore back—which usually happened due to the crying-herself-to-sleep and sleeping-on-the-floor that had been previously mentioned. Briefly, she was fine.

Knock, knock.

"Sakura-sama."

Sakura practically jumped out of her bed when she heard the soft knocking on her door. She didn't know which one to be more surprised of, the fact that somebody was knocking on her door so early—or should it be so late? Sakura was scared, to put it on the very least, but then she assured herself that no robbers would ever knock on their victim's door, and did the only logical thing someone in her situation would do—open the door.

"Yeah?"

And she realized that she had been a fool—the guy standing in front of her couldn't be a robber or a kidnapper or a thief or a sadistic murderer or anything bad. He was probably older than her by one or two years, and he wore a Konoha forehead protector—which is kind of weird, Sakura had thought, because why would anyone wear their forehead protector in the middle of the night?—and lastly, his eyes were Byakugan, indicating that he was a part of the Hyuga clan.

"Um… good evening?"

"Hiashi-sama is expecting your presence in the training ground right at this moment."

"P-Pardon?"

"Hiashi-sama is expecting your presence in the training ground."

"You've got to be kidding! It's midnight!"

Neji stared blankly at her like she was the stupidest creature he had ever came across, and he had seen many—he stupid ramen-boy, the stupid oh-I'm-so-emo Uchiha, his stupid green-spandex-wearing teammate. But none of them had been stupid enough to keep staring at him after talking back to him when he was annoyed—"P-Pardon?"—or accused him for kidding when he was being serious—"You've got to be kidding!"—or telling him something he had already known—"It's midnight!". Neji mentally rolled his eyes at the girl as he turned around, his back now facing the girl, and muttered this way.

And as if she hadn't reached her stupidity limit yet, she smiled at him.

There's no way denying it, Neji thought. Her smile could make the Souke less pathetic and Hinata-sama less weak.

All she saw was two girls sparring in front of her, one of them noticeably smaller it almost seemed unfair for her. But nobody would think that, becase she was obviously winning, and her bigger and older opponent couldn't even place a good hit on her body. The man observing their movements, Hiashi Hyuga, seemed really upset, most likely at the bigger girl. Is she really that weak, Sakura thought, feeling a little bit symphatetic for the losing girl. Sakura herself had gotten many experiences feeling weak and unappreciated, but she still couldn't put herself on her shoes—being weak enough to lose to a girl who was probably five years younger than you, then having your father's cold eyes staring at you in disappointment. Even though my father died, at least he would never stare at me in disapointment. Or compare me to anyone else. Thoughts like that made her want to cry, and she couldn't cry right now, so she just shook her head and adverted her gaze to the rude boy from earlier, trying to see his reaction of the whole thing—the two-girls-sparring-and-the-smaller-one-was-losing thing, the Hiashi-was-disappointed thing, the why-was-I-here thing—and realized that he had been staring at her since who knew.

"H-Hey. You."

Neji had never been addressed not by his given name before—because everyone knew him as the-prodigious-Neji, Neji-kun, or youthful-Neji, or sometimes just Neji. But never you. Neji couldn't even think of how many stupid, idiotic, weak, ugly people with bad hair that had been substituted into the word you. I'm not just a 'you'. I'm Neji Hyuga, damn it, bow down to me, I'm not 'you'!

"Are they… are they siblings?"

"They're Hinata-sama and Hanabi-sama, daughters of Hiashi Hyuga, the man standing there."

"Oh—Hinata… as in the Hyuga heiress?"

"Hn."

"Then why is her younger sister, Hanabi, stronger?"

Because it was fated, it was just fate, dumbass, Neji wanted to snap at her for being so stupid.

"Because that's the way it is. It's fate. She couldn't change it even if she wanted to."

Just like the Souke and the Bunke and the reason why my father died.

"She could. She could just train harder, and then she would become—"

"No, she could not. You think she hasn't trained hard enough? She trained twenty-four-seven. She had begun her training five years earlier than Hanabi-sama, but look. I mean, look. She's obviously losing to her younger sister, and she's failing, if not already failed."

"It's completely not true and you know it!"

"No, it is true. Just—"

And their conversation ended with a loud bam coming from somewhere on the other side of the training ground—the younger girl, Hanabi had managed to defeat her sister, who was now lying on the ground, her face making full-contact with the floor. Even though Hinata wasn't looking her way, Sakura could see the blood dripping from her mouth and most likely her broken nose. I have to help her—

Someone was holding her arm, preventing her from helping the injured Hinata.

"What on earth is wrong with you? She's injured!"

"And is there anything you can do, Sakura?"

"…"

"So I thought."

"Actually, there's something I can do. I can just stay by her side and assure her that—"

"That she just lost from her younger sister?"

"That she will be alright!"

"Or that she's such a disappointment to her father?"

"You bastard, just shut up!"

"Or that she will never become stronger?"

"She will, I tell you, she will!"

"You can not—"

"Neji. Sakura."

Sakura and Neji adverted their gaze from each other to the firm-looking man standing right on the spot where Hinata had been lying, Hanabi a few steps behind him. He was staring at them so coldly that Sakura couldn't help but wonder what was wrong with him—wrong as in the your-daughter-just-got-beaten-up-by-her-own-sister-and-she-was-coughing-blood-but-you-still-had-the-time-to-be-mad-at-me wrong. Maybe he was one of that men who had let power and pride controlled him. Whatever it was, Sakura didn't like it.

"Hai, Hiashi-sama?"

"You two, spar."

"W-w-what? Me and him—"

Neji gave her an almost reassuring look before he spoke up quite bravely to his uncle,

"Hiashi-sama, I do believe that Sakura is… how do I put this—weaker than me by a wide margin, which resulted to a spar with an already determined winner."

Sakura didn't quite agree with him—how dare he said that I was weaker than him!—but didn't speak her disagreement out either, because firsly, she didn't know how strong the Hyuga standing next to her was, and secondly, she would love to stay silent and avoid talking or communicating in any way with the cold-blooded clan leader.

"Well, unlike you, Neji, I believed that fate is not that unchangeable."

If Neji was annoyed with his belief being insulted, he didn't show it in front of Hiashi. He just took a deep breathe and eyed Sakura, as if saying I'm really sorry. And Sakura felt sorry too, for herself, for the boy's—Neji's—unspeakble grudge, for the cold-blooded clan leader, for the beaten-up girl, Hinata, and even for Hanabi, who was for sure going to spend the rest of her life trying to catch up with her father's ambition. What am I thinking about, Sakura shook her head. I have to focus. Defeat him. What's so hard about it, anyways?