A/N : Just to answer Dragon/Yami. Actually, I have no answer to your question. The manga was very vague about who can trigger whose cursed seal. So you can make a lot of assumptions about it. Anyway, the manga didn't tell us whether Hinata knows how to trigger Neji's cursed seal, that's why I didn't consider that possibility.

* * * * * * *9

They walked. Slowly, silently.

People threw them worried and concerned looks.

He didn't care. She didn't look.

They kept walking.

Their arms on each other's shoulders.

Preventing each other from falling on the ground.

She raised her head to take a look at him.

He didn't look at her, but straight in front of him.

"Neji-niisan, I'm---"

"We're almost there."

She shook her head.

"But we can't leave like this---"

"Why wouldn't we?" he spat.

She looked down.

"Neji-niisan, it's never good when people separate in bad terms." she turned to him, her voice soft. "I...I know that he likes you. He likes you like his son and---"

"I don't care." he snapped. "I don't care if he likes me like a son when he treats his daughter the way he treats you."

Hinata smiled, bitter.

"I know dad is a very nice person. But he is very strict and he doesn't let things slip easily you know..." she sighed. "If he---"

"I won't let him." he said with a firm voice.

Silence.

He frowned.

Hiashi-sama had let him leave the Main Family mansion. Unharmed. 

And he wondered whether he should be happy about it.

Right now he felt disappointment, for the man had interrupted their fight before it even started. Not that he wanted to beat Hiashi-sama. No. But he felt his mission was incomplete.

Hinata-sama was quite wounded. And it was sort of his fault.

He hadn't been quick enough to jump into the fight before she got hurt.

He had been no help.

He was frustrated.

Maybe that was the reason why he had wanted Hiashi-sama to attack him. So he could prove that he could defend himself. So he could prove that he could stand him. Just like her.

Just like his sister.

"Neji-niisan, are you alright?" came Hinata's voice.

"Yes."

They stopped at the house's doors.

"Hold on there." he said disengaging from the girl's hold as he leaned her on the wall.

He pushed the door open, went back to take her before entering the place.

"Neji, are you-----Hinata-sama!" the woman gasped at the girl's pitiful state.

Neji wordlessly carried the girl in the kitchen then sat her on a chair.

"She is staying with us." he finally said.

Hinata's eyes widened.

The woman's face was showing incomprehension.

"Hinata-sama, what happened?!" she asked her eyes wide with angst.

"I...I had a fight with father."

"Ah...? I don't understand. How---"

"I mean, a real fight Auntie."

The woman shook her head bewildered.

"No wonder you're hurt that much." she turned to her son "Neji, go and get the first aid kit please."

"Already got it." he came closer "I'll treat her wounds."

"Well, Neji-niisan, I can do it myself..."

"I'll do it." he said already taking the bandages out.

"I think I'll go prepare a room for her..." she turned away "I'll be upstairs."

"Aa." he nodded without even looking at her.

"I'm sorry for bothering you..." the girl said lowering her head.

"It's fine Hinata-sama. You're family." the woman smiled good-heartedly before disappearing.

Hinata looked up, then returned the smile.

She plunged her hand in her pocket and took out a little plastic jar.

"Neji-niisan..."

He looked up at her.

"...I use this to treat my wounds."

"Aa." he took the little jar. "What is this?"

"Some ointment I made."

He couldn't hide his surprise.

"Yourself?"

"...yes." she nodded shyly.

"Fine. I'll use it."

He closed his eyes as veins slashed his face.

"Neji-niisan, thank you." she said softly.

He simply nodded.

His ears warned him a door had been opened.

His eyes flew opened.

Once again, she was going out.

He pushed the covers aside and climbed off the bed.

He slowy walked to the window. Just in time to see her clumsily walk away.

He sighed.

Her knee was still hurting. He could perfectly see it.

Yet every morning, she kept on with her training.

She would leave for two or three hours, to jog around the forest he assumed. Then she would come back, take a quick shower before heading to her team's meeting place. And she never showed any sign of weariness. With her delicate pale features, never would anyone guess how much hard work she was putting herself through.

Not even her father.

He clenched his fists.

The more he found about the Main Family's way of life, the more he hated Hiashi-sama. The man wasn't only a total bastard. He was also the worst father anyone could have, treating his daughter like some piece of trash, as if she was nobody. She was straining herself like mad and he refused to see her.

He turned away from the window.

He shouldn't blame Hiashi-sama, because he was no better than him.

He too had refused to see her. He too hadn't accepted the change in her.

Until they met in the forest.

Until she told him herself.

And he had always wondered why she had told him, because she usually was a very secretive girl.

But that was the way she was. She was a mystery. And even though they had been living in the same house for three days now, he still had trouble to figure her out.

He had always thought his abilities to figure out people were unbeatable. But Hinata-sama was an exception. Just like he was. That Naruto. Both of them were defying every categories.

He snickered.

Categories? As if people were made to fit into categories.

There was no category. Just like there wasn't losers nor winners.

There were just people. People living. With their legacy, their abilities, their goals. And no matter the pain, the obstacles, they would always try to overcome. They would always head straight forward.

They would never give up.

He looked down, a puzzled expression on his face.

Never give up.

No matter the pain in her body, Hinata-sama kept on.

No matter his broken arm and leg, Lee kept on.

No matter what people thought of him, Naruto kept on.

He was smiling now.

He smiled because he felt he understood them better.

He smiled because he felt he understood himself better.

No matter what happened before, he would never give up either.

Because he had made a promise.

To his father.

To Hinata-sama.

To himself.

"I understand Hiashi-sama, but---"

Neji stopped in his tracks as he overhead his mother's voice.

He quietly leaned on the wall.

"My decision is already taken."

"But, what about Hinata-sama. I mean, maybe she---"

"I'm not worrying about her. I know I'm making the right decision." He paused. "She has always been independant. Actually, since Hanabi was born. She can deal with whatever happens to her. Besides, there is Neji. I know I can count on him."

Neji frowned, incomprehension marking his features.

"Neji?...Neji is still a boy Hiashi-sama."

"He isn't. He is a ninja and he knows his duty. I know he will fullfill it."

"But, isn't it too early for him to---"

"No. I have no doubt in his abilities. I've seen what he is capable of. He is pretty grown up, I know he would protect Hinata no matter what." he chuckled. "Did I tell you that he jumped in the middle of the fight I had with Hinata a week ago? He thought I was hurting her..."

"He did?" the woman choked out.

"Yes, he even fought me better than I expected. That's why I think Hinata is definitely in good hands. I trust him with all this. He is Hizashi's boy afterall. I know brother raised him well."

There was long silence.

Neji didn't move from his eavesdropping spot.

He couldn't.

He was baffled.

"Since Hizashi died, I've been hoping for the moment when the argument that started between us and turned into a quarrel between our two families will end. Neji and Hinata, these two children, they represent the future of the clan..."

"Hiashi-sama..."

"...you know, they'll probably do what Hizashi and I weren't able to build. Because, they have the will to change. I've seen both of them change so quickly I still can barely believe it. They've changed so much, in such a short amount of time...unlike me. I've always been afraid to change our clan. Hizashi showed me there was another path that can be taken. The path of love. He saved me because he cared about me as a brother, not because he had to follow the rules of our clan. Can you believe it? Just because he cared about me, he found the strenght to protect me from death that day...And I think, over the years, I've realized the strenght of a clan does not rely on the jutsus nor the abilities of its members...but on the bond they share."

Sounds of steps.

"That's why I want the Hyuga clan to take a new direction. I believe in a time where the Main and Branch families will be one big family again. The great Hyuga Family. I believe these two children will make it. That's why today, I'm begging you to take care of them."

"I...Hiashi-sama..." she stuttered, emotion clear in her voice "...of course I'll do it. Please, don't bow to me..."

"Thank you."

He slowly pushed himself off the wall.

Hiashi-sama believed in them.

Hiashi-sama believed they were strong.

Neji wiped the wet drops forming on the corner of his eyes.

He silently walked away.