p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"I silently followed Hiashi Hyuga into the hospital area where Neji was being kept after his battle with Naruto. I knew my duty, though I bit back tears; to end his life and destroy the Byakugan if he was beyond saving./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"Beyond use to them. /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"I was sent out into the hallway while Hiashi spoke to Neji alone. Then I was permitted in for healing./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"Neji and I had not had much contact. He was a member of the Hyuga Clan, and I was a priestess./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"I was Priestess to all of Konoha, but I had special jobs, tasks that only I could preform. Clans like the Uchiha and the Hyuga often had me preform Last Rites on their members because I alone could seal the powers in those eyes forever./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"How many eyes had I closed to the light? I did not know. /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"I was a miko, and duty was my cage./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"Watching Neji overcome his today, had been encouraging./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"I sat down next to him. /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"His eyes were closed and he breathed heavily, asleep again./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"I leaned over him and poured my silver reiki into his body./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"I wondered for the thousandth time what Byakugan would see if it looked at me? Did I have the same pathways in my body as a ninja—even though I lacked Chakra, and my miko body was filled with the sacred spiritual energy of reiki? /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"I wondered if Neji had ever been curious himself and looked my way./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"I watched his calm, relaxed expression./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"Probably not./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"A man like him, so far above me that I could not hope to reach...for him to glance my way he'd have to look down, so far down, and why would he? /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"The hopelessness of everything, my life, consumed me. Looking at him, so close to him so intimate, and yet we couldn't be farther apart./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"I had mimicked his movements with my body when alone, wanting to learn the Gentle Fist—knowing that I was settling back into the Lotis (the Priestess' martial art) instead./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"He was stirring, so I stood, pulling the blanket back over his bare chest where I had been healing and heading for the door./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;""Wait. Kuri." /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"Xxx/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"Neji realized as soon as he said it that he had never used the Priestess' name before. He didn't know if anyone ever had./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"She was just the Priestess. To everyone in Konoha. It was honorable to call her 'Priestess.' But...to never, in your life, have someone use your name?/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"His brow furrowed. Why did that irritate him. /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;""Kuri." He repeated. "Come here." /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"The priestess—Kuri—came back and sat in the chair. She didn't say anything./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;""Tell me about the Lotis." Neji managed to land on a topic, grasping at straws. It was a taijitsu form he had noticed her practicing in the temple—circular, and similar to gentle fist—though it had words and incantations he did not recognize./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;""The Lotis is the art of learning and using the power of the runic words of Lotis and Maram to penetrate the Inner Heart and render an opponent defenseless by attacking their Heart rather than their body." She recited the words as if reading from a textbook./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;""Words?" Neji asked. "Words have power?" /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;""Even someone's name has power." Kuri replied. "You used my name, and no one ever does. You...always call me by name, and I you, Neji. That unlocks my Inner Heart a little."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"Neji was silent, thinking./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"She continued. "A person also has a secret name. A name that even they don't know themselves. If someone else learns it, they have absolute power over that person. All their secrets, weaknesses...everything. So words...are more dangerous than any weapon." /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;""And here's a word for you." Kuri leaned down. "Bui-muku." /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"There was a flash of silver light and he saw a rune blaze and sink into his forehead, and then the sound of something unlocking in his mind. /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"He touched his head. The mark of his bondage—was gone!/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"And so was the priestess./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;""Kuri!" /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"Beyond use to them. /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"I was sent out into the hallway while Hiashi spoke to Neji alone. Then I was permitted in for healing./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"Neji and I had not had much contact. He was a member of the Hyuga Clan, and I was a priestess./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"I was Priestess to all of Konoha, but I had special jobs, tasks that only I could preform. Clans like the Uchiha and the Hyuga often had me preform Last Rites on their members because I alone could seal the powers in those eyes forever./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"How many eyes had I closed to the light? I did not know. /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"I was a miko, and duty was my cage./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"Watching Neji overcome his today, had been encouraging./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"I sat down next to him. /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"His eyes were closed and he breathed heavily, asleep again./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"I leaned over him and poured my silver reiki into his body./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"I wondered for the thousandth time what Byakugan would see if it looked at me? Did I have the same pathways in my body as a ninja—even though I lacked Chakra, and my miko body was filled with the sacred spiritual energy of reiki? /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"I wondered if Neji had ever been curious himself and looked my way./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"I watched his calm, relaxed expression./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"Probably not./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"A man like him, so far above me that I could not hope to reach...for him to glance my way he'd have to look down, so far down, and why would he? /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"The hopelessness of everything, my life, consumed me. Looking at him, so close to him so intimate, and yet we couldn't be farther apart./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"I had mimicked his movements with my body when alone, wanting to learn the Gentle Fist—knowing that I was settling back into the Lotis (the Priestess' martial art) instead./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"He was stirring, so I stood, pulling the blanket back over his bare chest where I had been healing and heading for the door./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;""Wait. Kuri." /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"Xxx/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"Neji realized as soon as he said it that he had never used the Priestess' name before. He didn't know if anyone ever had./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"She was just the Priestess. To everyone in Konoha. It was honorable to call her 'Priestess.' But...to never, in your life, have someone use your name?/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"His brow furrowed. Why did that irritate him. /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;""Kuri." He repeated. "Come here." /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"The priestess—Kuri—came back and sat in the chair. She didn't say anything./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;""Tell me about the Lotis." Neji managed to land on a topic, grasping at straws. It was a taijitsu form he had noticed her practicing in the temple—circular, and similar to gentle fist—though it had words and incantations he did not recognize./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;""The Lotis is the art of learning and using the power of the runic words of Lotis and Maram to penetrate the Inner Heart and render an opponent defenseless by attacking their Heart rather than their body." She recited the words as if reading from a textbook./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;""Words?" Neji asked. "Words have power?" /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;""Even someone's name has power." Kuri replied. "You used my name, and no one ever does. You...always call me by name, and I you, Neji. That unlocks my Inner Heart a little."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"Neji was silent, thinking./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"She continued. "A person also has a secret name. A name that even they don't know themselves. If someone else learns it, they have absolute power over that person. All their secrets, weaknesses...everything. So words...are more dangerous than any weapon." /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;""And here's a word for you." Kuri leaned down. "Bui-muku." /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"There was a flash of silver light and he saw a rune blaze and sink into his forehead, and then the sound of something unlocking in his mind. /span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"He touched his head. The mark of his bondage—was gone!/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"And so was the priestess./span/p
p style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Charter;"span style="font-family: Charter-Roman; -webkit-font-kerning: none;""Kuri!" /span/p