Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto – thus the personages in my story are not of my creation.
For reviewers – please no flames, if you don't like it – then just close this window and leave me and my story alone. Thank you for reading. If you have any comments of suggestions about possible changes – please write. Constructive criticism will be warmly accepted. I want to apologize if I happen to make any grammatical or orthographical mistakes.
This was supposed to be an oneshot, but it turned out a bit long, and I like this story too much. Soon new chapters will be published :) thanks for reading!
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A nice sunny day. And a good day for training. Kiba, Shino and Hinata were going to their favorite training ground to find that it already had been taken by Neji, TenTen and Lee. To their surprise they invited them to join the training. Kiba with Akamaru decided to try their luck with Lee. Neji said he wanted to meditate so he sat by a tree. Shino went to look for some new bugs. Only TenTen and Hinata were left.
Hinata slowly approach TenTen.
"Would you like to train with me?" she asked kindly.
"Why not? Let's see what you can do" smiled TenTen.
"I would like to practice my defense. I still can't make the Heavenly Spin but I…" she choked on the last word looking at Neji. But he did not listen or pay any attention to her so she decided to continue "But I learned how to avoid getting hit in a different way and I want to try it out" she finished hesitantly.
"Ok, for a start I will only use part of my weapons, and when you decide you are ready we will take it serious" TenTen replied.
"Let's go over there" said Hinata pointing away from the other people. "We wouldn't want to hurt anyone" she smiled.
After three hours everyone was worked up. Kiba and Lee were already resting on the grass. Shino had come back and sat near them. Only TenTen and Hinata were still training.
"Shit I can't hit her at all! How the hell is she doing this? He defense is better then Neji's!" thought TenTen struggling with Hinata. "I can't loose to her! She's such a weak girl!" That moment TenTen was so angry and tried her best to defeat Hinata, but it was simply impossible. "I will show her! Just wait Hinata I will prove I'm better then you" she felt a bit of regret when seeing how sincere was Hianta's smile. But TenTen could not fight back the envy. She wasn't born with any special powers, and she was born in a normal family. She wanted to have the byakugan, she wanted to be special. She was very angry and sat near Lee but as far away as possible from Hinata. Soon Neji joined them as well.
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"I've prepared some food" said timidly Hinata "Here you are there should be enough for everyone."
"My God Hinata this is great!" yelled Lee "Too bad you aren't on our team, I would love to eat this kind of food more often"
"Indeed this is something, she cooks better then my mom" smirked Kiba. "But don't think we will let her join your team, she is ours. You have TenTen instead." Kiba smiled.
"We can always switch! You take TenTen and we take Hinata, what do you say Neji?" said Lee.
"I think we should leave it as it is, it would be unwise to have an all short range fighting team, and that would happen if we would take Hinata in, and the other way their team would be weaker if they had more long range fighting people like TenTen. It's good as it is" said Neji.
TenTen smiled to herself "So he does care about me. He defended me." She thought.
"I don't know about you guys but I think it's time to go and train some more" said Kiba after almost half an hour. "Hinata let's go and practice."
"Alright Kiba, I'm coming" she smiled at him, and they together went away to the other part of the training ground.
"I wonder how she can train with that dog boy… he's way too strong for her" Neji thought "Maybe I'll move a bit closer so I can see better."
"TenTen let's train some taijutsu!" Lee smiled at her, but she didn't notice it, she was too concentrated on Neji who was approaching the training ground where Hinata and Kiba had gone.
"Ok Lee. Let's go over there." She pointed at a field as far away from Hinata as possible.
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"This is very interesting" thought Shino looking at Neji approaching Hinata's training ground. "Maybe it's time to move the Hyuga family a bit" He slowly walked towards Neji.
"What do you want?" asked Neji.
"Well, it's very interesting you know." started Shino.
"What is so interesting?"
"The way you look at Hinata" Shino said.
"What are you talking about?"
"You look at her, and still you can't see how strong she is now. Have you noticed the way she was fighting with TenTen? Have you noticed the technique she uses against Kiba?" inquired Shino. And he walked away leaving Neji to his own thoughts.
"Maybe I should take a closer look" Neji thought, he came closer to Hinata and Kiba, then he found himself a nice tree, sat leaning against it, but backwards to Hinata and Kiba, and looking straight at TenTen fighting with Lee. He did not want Hinata to notice that he was observing them, so he preferred to remain unseen, and simply use his byakugan to observe their fight.
"Indeed she has improved, what is that style she is using?" he thought.
Then he noticed that Kiba and Akamaru took their special food pills. "How is she going to defend herself if they use that? Those idiots they are going to hurt her!"
But to his surprise nothing like that happened, she just stood there, then he noticed her pose, it was like that 64 palm stance but it was a bit different. She was not moving from that spot, and her hands were stoking the air around her, as if she was charging it with her own chakra. Then he saw Kiba and Akamaru charge at her with full strength, and she just moved her hands again, making the air glow from charka, as they reached her there was a strong blast of chakra and both Akamaru and Kiba were thrown away.
"How the hell did she do that?" thought Neji "When did she learn that?"
He decided to stay longer and observe in detail everything that happened. He noticed how she moved, it was more gentile and more subtle then the typical gentile fist style, she stayed in one place, and her moves imitated dancing. Her hands moved as if she was playing with some butterflies flying around her. "What kind of technique is this? The last stance she made was just like the 64 palms but her moves are different. And it proves to be very affective looking at the distance she repelled Kiba's attack, and all the bruises on his body. Why didn't she tell me about this? Why didn't Lord Hyuga acknowledge her is she had a technique like that? Or maybe she did not tell him at all? But why? If she had told him he would treat her better, and maybe even respect her for creating a technique of her own…" He sat there for a long time trying to concentrate but his mind kept thinking about Hinata and what he saw. He was shocked to see the other side of her, the talented and skillful side. Her moves were almost perfect, subtle but swift; her stance was very secure standing hard on the ground. She was beautiful. It was technique perfect for her, showing all her charm and power at the same time. He felt his heart beat fast looking at her.
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He didn't notice when TenTen and Lee came by him, they both thought he was concentrating; at least that was how it looked.
"Hey let's go home. It's been a long day." said Lee.
"I'm going to wait for Hinata" said Neji "we are going to have dinner together at the main house this evening" he explained.
"Ok, so maybe let's go right away all together" said TenTen.
In three they walked up to Shino standing nearby.
"Are you going with us to the village?" they asked.
"Yes, but first we need to get them to stop. They usually train till one drops so we must interrupt them." replied Shino.
They all approached the training genins. But in that very moment Kiba was attacking Hinata, and she lost concentration due to the people coming close. The blast that came out of her hand was uncontrolled and it blew her backwards, and Kiba away at the same time. Kiba had a very hard landing on a nearby tree. But Hinata surprisingly landed on something soft. She turned around her head to look at what rescued her, to find identical eyes looking straight at her. "He is so close to me, he is holding me, his hands are around me… ahhh!" thought Hinata just before she turned all red and fainted in his arms.
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Neji carried her all they way home. He could notice that TenTen was mad that he didn't walk her home, but he did not care about her feelings. She was just a team mate and she would never be anything more to him.
He noticed Lord Hyuga waiting for them to return.
"What happen to her?" he asked, he rarely was concerned about his eldest daughter so it was a huge surprise to Neji.
"She trained till she dropped" Neji replied. Lord Hiashi did not say anything to that news. "Make sure she comes to dinner on time." He said and simply walked away.
Neji took her to her room, and put her on the bed. Then he went and got a glass of water, he tried to wake her up but it did not work. He went to the bathroom and wet a towel; the feeling of water on her face finally woke her up. She was surprised to see Neji sitting on her bed just next to her. She blushed again, and he thought she would faint again but somehow she managed to stay conscious.
"Dinner starts in 30 minutes; I will be here waiting for you, so get ready." said Neji.
"You don't have to…" she whispered.
"You father made it my duty to make sure you come to dinner on time." He replied.
"Did he see me like this?" she asked very quietly.
"Yes he was waiting at the entrance when I came back with you." He replied. "I have to go now, see you soon."
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As he said he came to her room just before dinner, she had changed her ordinary clothes into a nice light purple kimono; he noticed she looked very beautiful in it, as a gentile and fragile flower. They both went into the main dining room. There were several people in the room, Lord Hyuga, Hanabi and the elders. Suddenly Neji felt a bit strange he was the only Branch member invited, and he did not want to be there. He wanted to turn back and go away but Hinata was just next to him and she predicted his move and stopped him with her hand. "Don't worry, they will bite me first before they get to you" she whispered. In that moment he realized how hard they were for her, how hard her life was. He could run away, she was trapped without any way to escape.
The dinner was not pleasant at all. Most did not comment Neji's presence at the table, but all were glaring at him with anger, as if trying to say that he should not be there. No one tried to talk with him much for which he was grateful, but Hinata sitting next to him was shamefully listening to accusations on her behalf. She had to listen how she was too weak, how she was not talented. He felt sorry for her, she was so pure, kind and gentile but that was not enough for them. He wanted to protect her, to stand up and hit them all saying that it did not matter she was weak, that what only mattered was that she had a kind heart and that she was smart and beautiful. But he knew they would kill him for saying those words. So he did the only thing he could, when he caught her eyes on him, he gave her a faint encouraging smile, and then he held her hand gently under the table for just a short second. He could not do more for her. But what he did was enough, she knew he was supporting her, and that was more important then any accusations said by the elders. She felt strong enough because she had him on her side.
After dinner he walked her back to her room.
"Thank you Neji" he said quietly.
"Anytime Hinata, anytime…" he replied holding her hand gently. "You can always count on me."
"Thank you" she whispered back.
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She knew she had a lot of things to thank him for. Starting from the chunin exam which changed her life, the exam in which she almost died from the wounds he caused her, but at the same time the exam which made her strong. If not for him, she wouldn't have stood up for herself; she wouldn't have tried so hard to make herself strong and perfect. Thanks to him she grew strong, she learned her new technique and she managed to complete successfully many missions. She kept wondering how much he saw during the training, and she supposed he noticed her new technique but he did not comment in any way. She had to make sure, she did not want him to tell father about it. She abandoned the idea of making her family respect her; no matter how hard she tried they would never respect her because in their eyes everything she did was bad. They did not respect her very good results at the academy, her healing ointments and herbs she used to heal their wounds, nor her cooking, or her help at the house, nor her successful missions. She was nothing to them, and no matter how hard she tried nothing she done was right. If they knew about her technique they would laugh at her calling it an ill developed 64 palms or something like that… she left very sad, and lonely.
She knocked twice on his door but there was no answer, so she walked in. He had come out of the shower recently; he was sitting on his bed in a t-shirt and boxers trying to comb his long hair.
"Sorry, to interrupt you…" she started and got stuck on the last words.
"What happened Hinata-sama? What do you want from me?" he asked in surprise.
She did not answer but came closer and took his comb from him and started to comb his hair.
"What are you doing?" he said.
"I'm helping you" she replied "I could see you were struggling so I thought I could help you with this…" she finished quietly.
"Thank you." he replied so quietly she could barely hear those words.
While combing his beautiful hair she finally found the courage to tell why she came. "I came here to talk about today's training" she began. "Please don't tell father about what you saw… I don't want them to know about it."
"But why? Maybe this could change the way they treat you…"
"I stopped believing that anything will change. All my life I tried so hard to be the best. To prove I even I was worth something, but for them nothing I did was good enough. It didn't matter that I had good grades in the academy, my herb skills, house and cooking skills nothing matters to them." she chocked on the last words. "You know, when I was younger I thought that since I can't learn all those fancy gentile fist techniques that something else might satisfy their demands, that's why I started learning how to use herbs, but it did not matter to them." She took a deep breath. "Sometimes I feel like telling them, or showing them it, but I keep hearing voices in my head saying that 'it's just a primitive form of yuken' or that 'she was too weak to learn yuken so she profaned it turning it into something weaker'" She gave back his comb. "I am not worth anything to anyone, that's why I will keep my technique secret, so that it does not become worthless as I am. Until they don't know about it, they can't find it's weak points and prove to me that it was stupid to even try…" tears came to her eyes
"Please promise me you won't tell anyone." She begged him.
"If that is what you wish, then I promis." He said.
In response she started crying "Thank you so much". He could not stand her looking so pale and looking so desperate, he slowly took her in his arms and let her cry out on his chest.
"I know exactly how you are feel. I've felt the same things everyday of my life" he told her. "I hate being alone with no one to believe in me or support me" he confessed.
"You are not alone anymore" she whispered hugging him tightly. "I am here for you."
"And I am here for you Hinata." He replied. "I'm so sorry about the Chunin exam, I shouldn't have…"
"I've forgiven you already, if not that for that day I wouldn't have found the strength in me to fight to change my life" she whispered "So it is I who should be thanking you, thank you for making me strong Neji." Soon they feel asleep in each others arms, closer then ever before.
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The next day she woke up feeling strange. She felt warm around her, and then she looked up at the person holding her. It was Neji. She spent the night in his arms, and it felt so good she did not want to go away. He was still asleep, without the stern look he normally had on his face. She gently slipped out of his arms, leaned towards him and gave him a tender kiss on the cheek and left the room. She felt happy, she wanted to jump, but she knew she had to make it safe back to her room. When she passed around the corner she made sure no one saw her and quickly went into her room. She got dressed and went to make herself some breakfast. This day was perfect and nothing could spoil it.
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He woke up but something felt wrong. He was cold. She was not there. Then he smiled, he remember how she trusted him, how she came to him, and slept in his arms. He could even remember the sweet kiss she gave him before leaving early in the morning. It felt as if it all was just a dream, but he could still feel her scent in the room and on him.
A sudden thought made him wake up, it was already 6 a.m. and he was to train with Lord Hyuga that morning. He quickly got up.
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They saw each other around lunch time in the village, Hinata was with Kiba and Shino going to eat something, and he was with his team as well. They met in the same restaurant, so it ended that all were eating at the same table.
He saw Hinata smile at him which made his heart jump. He sat opposite to her, but did not return the smile. She knew why, she knew him well enough to know that he would not show her any feelings in public and she did not mind it.
No one noticed anything, they were acting as if nothing happened last night, and yet something deep in them has changed. A feeling of belonging and a feeling of not being alone anymore. That was more then they had ever dreamed of.
When no one was paying any attention to them Neji decided to do something. Something that would change their lives even more.
"Would you like to go training this evening Hinata?" Neji proposed.
"I'm sorry but this evening we are going to the cinema the three of us" she replied. "How about after lunch?"
"Ok after lunch then, at the same training field as yesterday?" he said.
"That will be fine." She replied.
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"Where are you going Hinata?" asked Kiba after lunch.
"I have to go home now, and later I will go training with Neji." She replied.
"With Neji? Are you sure that what you want? He will hurt you again…" said Kiba.
"Don't worry, she can handle herself now" Shino barged into their conversation. "Go on and don't mind us" he nodded his head at Hinata.
"Thanks Shino, bye boys I will meet you in front of the cinema at 8!" she walked away towards the Hyuga mansion.
"Where are you going Neji?" said TenTen "I thought we would train together after lunch"
"Sorry but I have a different appointment. Family duties" replied Neji briefly.
"Don't worry about us" said Lee "I will keep TenTen in good form without you!" he grinned at his teammates.
"Bye" said Neji and walked away towards the Hyuga house.
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They met just in front of it.
"I'll see you in 10 min, ok?" asked Neji.
"Ok, I will be ready." She smiled at him and walked into the house.
They walked to the training ground; as soon as they went into the forest he gently held her hand.
"I want to start from that technique of yours, Can you explain how it works?" he asked her on the way.
She tried to explain the best she could, and he listened patiently to her. When they reached the training ground he asked her to demonstrate her abilities. He was impressed by what he saw. She has improved a lot since the chunin exam. He watched her carefully trying to tell the strong and weak points of her technique. Then she carefully tried it again using his tips. They trained for several hours, with good results.
Soon they were heading back home.
"You know Hinata, that technique is really good" he told her. "I find it amazing that you haven't managed to use the proper Heavenly Spin or 64 palms yet. I think you have the right abilities to do them."
"You really think so?" she said with hope in her voice.
"Yes I think so." He replied. "Would you like to train again tomorrow?" he asked her.
She just nodded her head.
"I think you haven't used them yet simply because no one has shown you how. If you practice more the Gentile Fist Style you will be able to do them" he smiled at her. "Do you plan on taking part in the next Joanin exam?" he asked her.
He was already a Joanin one of the first in his age group; most of their friends were, including Hianta, chunin now.
"No, I don't think I'm ready" she replied.
"You will be if you train with me…" he whispered to her.
"Would you really do that for me?" she said hesitantly.
"Anytime Hinata, as I told you before anytime" he smiled back at her.
She wished he did that more often, his smile looked so warm.
"Would you like to go with me and my team to the cinema tonight?" She timidly asked him.
"Would you like me to go with you?" he asked back.
She blushed, and looked at the ground. "Yes I would." she said quietly.
"Then I will come, and if your team asks stupid questions we can always say that I'm your protector and that's it's my duty to follow you around." She smiled at him, and he smiled back.
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Shino and Kiba were not happy with the sudden company, but none commented on it. The film was ok; the company was bearable and most had a good time. Hinata and Neji did not show any affection or anything, but deep inside they felt content with each other's company. After the film they met Ino, Shikamaru, Naruto, TenTen and Lee, so the group headed towards Naruto's favorite ramen bar. The evening was warm, and the food was good. They stayed there late talking about their recent missions, Naruto kept talking about how the village changed during his absence, and about the fore coming chunin exam. He tried to get Shikamaru to tell him the details of the exam, but the Chunin was mercy less. Slightly after midnight they split up, Kiba proposed to walk Hinata home, but as Neji was heading the same direction there was no need for that. Kiba was not pleased too much, but he had no right to say anything.
Walking back home Hinata felt like smiling all the time, this day was perfect. Neji seeing that smile unwillingly smiled back to her. When they came home, each went to his own room.
Hinata lay in bed for sometime trying to grasp all that happened that day. It was amazing, and she felt dizzy as if she took some drugs. She felt proud of herself, Neji said she was talented, Neji said she could become Joanin!
Sometime later she felt someone lying down next to her, she knew it was him.
"Neji?" she asked.
"Yes Hianta?" he replied.
"Why are you here?" she whispered.
"I can't fall asleep without you" he replied hugging her. He laid his head on her arm and held her tightly. Soon he fell asleep, and she whispered "Me neither without you", and moved closer to him.
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Lord Hyuga was surprised. Yesterday Hinata and Neji came from training together, today they came back home and went out again together. He waited curiously when they would come back. It was late at night when they finally arrived. Each went to his bedroom and Hiashi felt that he could finally go to sleep himself. He was worried. Yesterday when Hianta was brought home fainted he felt bad. He felt guilty that he did nothing, that he did not do anything to help her. Today she seemed a lot different. Her eyes were brighter. "Maybe it's the Fox boy" he thought to himself although deep inside he wished it was not, that boy meant only trouble to her. He knew she had a crush on him, but Lord Hyuga hopped it would die due to the distance and time. But looking at her face today he realized he might have been mistaking, and that the fox boy's return could be the reason behind her sudden happiness. She looked so much like her mother when she smiled. Although he would never admit it Lord Hyuga loved and missed his wife. One of the things he regretted most in his life was not telling her that, and not showing that. He wished he could have changed the course of events, but her death made it impossible. "Maybe I should be more gentile towards Hinata? She is so much like her mother, nothing like the tough Hyuga. But the leader of this clan cannot be weak as she is, maybe it would be better if it was my brother who was born ahead of me. Then Neji would be heir and everything would work out just fine. Then I could show my daughter that I love her as much as her dear mother. Then I wouldn't have to demand from her so much." He heard a quiet sound from the corridor. He stood up again and turned on his byakugan. It was Neji, he was standing in front of Hinata's door hesitating. Lord Hyuga was going to go outside and ask him about his presence in this part of the house, but Neji made his decision and walked into Hinata's room. He could see him walk over to her bed and he could see her hugging him. It was a shock. "Neji and Hinata, Neji and Hinata? Together?" he wanted to interrupt them but the he realized both were already asleep. "So that's how it is" he thought "I will have to watch them more carefully. Until it's only sleeping in one bed I'm not going to do anything. When it gets more serious then I'll deal with it. So this is why she was so happy today, it was Neji." He did not know what to think about it, Neji was a branch member and all his talent could not change that, but maybe if things work out well this could be used to the advantage of the clan. He stayed awake for many hours thinking of the possible actions he could take. Revealing that he knew about them could scare them off, so he decided to just observe for now. Maybe later in the future a good solution will emerge.
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Several weeks have passed. Hinata had been training hard. Neji has been absent for almost 3 weeks, but he left her instructions how to work further on her jutsus. She missed him a lot, she couldn't sleep at night without him, but she knew duties came first. The joanin exams were to begin in 3 weeks and she felt anxious. "I am not strong enough." she thought with every punch she laid on the tree in front of her. She had to train harder; she had to prove she was strong and smart, because the most important part of the exam was tactics, and keeping emotions at bay. When she came to sign up for the exam she met TenTen. They both went for tea.
"So you are going to take part in the exam as well?" asked TenTen.
"Yes, I am going to try. But I'm scared, I've never taken the exam before and all the people who are taking part are so good and strong." replied Hinata.
"You shouldn't think about that, who knows maybe you'll get some weak opponents."
"At this level there are no weak opponents" said Neji coming in.
"Neji! You came back from your mission!" smiled TenTen "How was it?"
"Neji-nissan how good to see you!" greeted him Hinata with a smile. He smiled back to her, and sat next to her.
"Well I guess it was ok, it was far away from here, that's why it took so long." he replied briefly not giving into the details of his work. "How is your preparation for the exam going TenTen?"
"It's ok, but I missed you, you were a great help in my training, but since you have lots of work I can't keep you away from your duties."
Hearing those words Hinata blushed a bit; she knew TenTen liked Neji too much, and that she would be jealous to hear that Hinata and Neji spent so much time together. Neji gently pushed his legs against hers under the table, so she woke up from her thought and concentrated on the conversation.
"So how is your training going Hinata?" TenTen asked.
"I'm not as talented, and I'm not at jaonin level yet, but I will try to take this exam." she replied kindly.
"I hope we won't have to fight against each other." said TenTen.
"I agree it wouldn't be too good for both of us." replied Hinata.
"I have to go home now to report to Lord Hyuga, are you coming Hinata?" interrupted them Neji.
"Yes I will come with you; I have to talk with my father about the exam." She said.
They slowly walked away together not knowing that someone was very jealous and that someone was very mad at a kind gentile girl.
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"So you haven't told him yet?" he asked her.
"No he's been praising Hanabi so much all last week that he would not notice if I say it" she whispered.
"I see. Do you want me to be with you during that conversation?" he asked.
"If you could do that for me?" she smiled at him.
They both entered the house, Hinata went to the kitchen to prepare some lunch for herself and Neji, and Neji went straight to give a report to Lord Hiashi.
"So you've finally come back Neji. What can you tell me about your mission?" asked Lord Hyuga.
Neji have a detailed description of everything he experienced and soon was dismissed.
He found Hinata cooking in the kitchen. She was cooking for both of them he noticed. He felt a warm feeling fulfilling his heart. He walked up to her, but she did not notice. He slowly leaned down to her.
"Did you miss me?" he asked gently taking her in his arms from behind.
"Did you miss me?" she asked back, but he did not answer, he just looked at her and smiled.
"What do you think?" he asked.
"Well you certainly weren't in a hurry to come back home." she provoked him.
He just held her tightly for a moment and let her go so that she could finish preparing lunch. He knew he would have time later to show her how much he had missed her. They had all the time in the world.
That night when Neji sneaked to her room she greeted him with a smile.
"So did you miss me?" he smiled at her approaching the bed.
"Well I don't know…" she started laughing. He hugged her, and said "Then try to guess…"
He looked her in the eyes and waited for a response. After several minutes she finally answered "I missed you, so I hope you missed me." she whispered.
"I missed you a lot" he told her leaning down to kiss her for the first time. Never before had he the courage to do it, she was so gentile and fragile he feared that she would run away again from him. "I can't sleep without, I can't go on without you" he told her holding her tightly.
"I need you" she told him in response "I'm so scared that one day you will push me away again. This Joanin exam is too much for me, I'm so scared. If I tell father I will participate and fail he will be mad at me, just as after the first chunin exam."
"He will find out anyway so it's pointless to hide it from him. You will pass this exam, you are wise and strong and I believe in you."
"You believe in me?" she wanted to make sure she heard him correctly.
"Yes, and as the Hyuga genius I am always right, you will passed this exam!" he smiled at her, and soon both fell asleep.
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With Neji's return their training started again. She was happy, when he was with her she had a feeling she could accomplish anything. She tried so hard to please him, to improve herself and it finally started to pay off. All those years of trying and of hard work started giving effect. She made huge progress and her abilities grew everyday.
He was surprised with her raise of abilities, but it only made him happy, he hoped that this will give her the self-confidence she needed so much.
"We should go and talk with your father" he began after they finished their training.
"I know, but it's just that, I promise myself that I will do it tomorrow and then tomorrow again. Time passes by quickly and I'm still scared of telling him." She replied.
"Then lets do it today after dinner." He stated. "Why wait any longer? It's pointless. I will go there with you and if necessary I will tell him it was my idea…"
"No, we will tell him it was my idea and that I asked you for help with my training…" she replied stubbornly. She knew that if her father got mad, and it would be Neji to blame, that he would use the curse. She was used to punishment, and she did not want Neji to get hurt. She was ready to take anything her father could throw at her; he did it all the time, so one time more could not make a difference.
"Ok let's go home and get ready for dinner" he replied softly.
That family dinner was less official then the pervious one, only the main family and no elders. It was grave quiet at the table and no one was talking. Neji preferred it that way, at least no one insulted Hinata, and he was not tempted to stand in her defense.
Lord Hiashi observed his daughters and nephew. They were so alike and yet so different. He wondered how things were going between Neji and Hinata, and not realizing himself he started thinking warmly about that possibility.
After dinner Neji and Hinata approached him asking him for a conversation in private, and he complied with their wish.
"What is it that you want to speak with me about?" he began the conversation sitting at his favorite desk.
"I want to inform you father that I have inscribed myself to the fore coming Joanin exam." Hinata said abruptly.
"Are you sure daughter that you are ready for it? It is a hard exam and your level of training… well your level of training is rather unsuited for the occasion." He concluded.
"You are mistaking Lord Hiashi, she is well prepared." barged in Neji.
"Well prepared you say?"
"Yes father, I have been training with Neji for some time now. I know there is much to improve in my technique, but I want to try." Hinata explained.
"You've been training together? Well then I will agree with this. But I demand one thing – if you will be put with a strong opponent, remember to withdraw if there is no chance to win. Your wounds from the chunin exam could open, and this time you might not be as lucky to be saved in time." demanded Lord Hyuga.
"I promise father." She nodded her head.
"You may go now by daughter, leave me and Neji for a moment" he dismissed her from the room. When she closed the door he turned to Neji.
"Do you really think she could survive this exam?" he asked the young man.
"Yes, she has become very strong, she knows Yuken and 64 palms and her taijitsu level has rapidly increased." replied Neji.
"For her sake I hope you are right, the Joanin battles can be very fatal." said Lord Hyuga. "You may go now"
Neji slowly walked out of the room surprise with the concern Lord Hiashi showed towards Hinata.
Three days before the exam Hinata was training harder then ever. Neji could see she was very determined to win and that she really wanted to pass the exam.
"Ok, I think that's enough for today." He stopped her. "We don't want you to land in the hospital just before the exam, so as your training I order you to relax the last days."
"But Neji I need to train more!" she demanded.
"No! You need to relax, get your mind focused and regain all the charka you used in the last days!" he nearly yelled at her.
"If you say so Neji-sensei!" she started laughing at him.
"What are you laughting at?" he grinned at her.
"At you!" she laughed at him again. She ran up to him and gave him a warm hug. "No one really cared about me like that before" she whispered to his ear.
"Well if I care about you so much then I should make sure you are busy all the time before the exam. So get your self ready tonight we're going out" he smiled at her.
"Out? In public?" she blushed rapidly.
"Yes, let's go and eat dinner somewhere nice, and maybe go to the cinema." He proposed. "I've had enough of hiding, I've had enough of girls trying to pick me up, and I want everyone to see we are close…" he whispered.
She gave into his smile and agreed.
The evening was great, they had a great time. The film was nice, and he held her hand all through it. She smiled at him and he smiled back.
After the film they decided to go and eat somewhere nice. The entered Hinata's favorite restaurant to see some of their friends there. Lee, Tenten, Ino, Shikamaru and Sakura were all sitting at one table. Lee seeing Neji and Hianta walk in yelled across the room for them to join their table.