Keeping Aflame
Bridges Rebuilt
Although they were in different classes, Neji found time to observe his cousin, occasionally. Quiet though she was, Hinata seemed to have found in herself a confidence she'd previously lacked, quashed by the disapproving frown of her father.
When they finally met again face to face, Hinata appeared apprehensive. A flick of her eyes to his now-defunct seal was all Neji needed to remind him of his once deep-rooted contempt for his cousin.
Yet a second look at her now-hopeful gaze brought, even more readily, a long buried memory of a time when she called him "brother".
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