Hyuuga Neji; 5 Years Later

Age 18

-Conspiracy-

Today was definitely not a good day.

You would have to be living underneath a rock to not know that Uchiha Sasuke had been promoted to a jounin.

Everything he does or says is practically the news of the town, though it really doesn't need to be.

However, after waiting a couple of days to hear about my most definite promotion, I was utterly shocked to have received no word.

Had the news come when I was not home? Had they simply forgotten my name?

No. I was not promoted. For the second year in a row.

The jounin exam was easy the first time around and even easier the second time. I masterfully showed off my skills and even won the tournament this year. There wasn't a doubt in my mind about my potentially jounin rank.

So why wasn't I going to pick up my vest today?

Why didn't I get to strut around flaunting the vest I SO deserve?

I can tell you one thing.

If Lee gets a vest before me, there will be blood.

I was now in a royally bad mood and I felt the only way to alleviate that was to spread my misery to other people.

And who better to spread my suffering to than the Main House?

After all, they are the cause of most of it so if I am to cause them some slight unhappiness every now and then, I felt I have done my part as a bitter Branch House member.

Whose father was killed…

BY THE MAIN HOUSE.

At this point, I didn't care who I stumbled across as long as they were in the Main House.

But someone must have been trying to make up for the years of horribleness in my life because the first person I managed to find was Hinata.

It's not that I ENJOYED picking on Hinata, it's just that it gives me a sort of pleasure.

Okay…I enjoy it.

But lately, it's gotten too easy to the point in which it doesn't feel satisfying anymore.

Okay…so it IS satisfying…

It's not like I like making her cry…

Okay…I do…

But it's so easy so that takes the fun out of it…

Okay…so maybe it doesn't…maybe it makes it even MORE fun…

She was walking toward me down a hallway. I could tell that she was trying not to make eye contact because her eyes shifted from side to side.

I stood up as straight as I could so, even though I was much taller than she was, there would be no mistaken who was bigger, stronger, better and more powerful.

My challenge was getting her to say something to me so I could interpret it wrongly and get offended about it.

So when we got close and she showed no signs of greeting me or needing to tell me anything, I coughed loudly.

She jumped, unsurprisingly enough. I bet her father beats her or something.

"Ah!" she yelped pathetically. "G-g-good morning…" she said, bowing to me slightly and continuing on her way.

She wouldn't have greeted me if I hadn't brought it to her attention. That is SO like the Main House to think they're too good for a member of the Branch House to even so much as say hi to.

Yeah…that sounded good.

"That is SO like the Main House to think they're too good for a member of the Branch House to even so much as say hi to." I said quietly.

It was too quiet for her to hear but loud enough for her to basically know what I was saying.

"I did greet you…" she said.

"I had to practically force it out of you." I told her.

"I was going to say it anyway…" she lied.

"No you weren't." I told her. "I'm not as gullible as you Main House members might think the Branch House is."

The more I speak to members of the Main House, the more I realize how much they look down upon us members of the Branch House. Just thinking about it makes me want to collect up a bunch of rocks and pelt them all in the back of the head when they're not paying attention.

Petty?

Maybe.

But I have my reasons.

"I don't think that at all!" she said timidly.

What other things could I drive home? "And you don't seem to recognize that we are on the same level."

"What?" she asked.

"Why don't you look at me when we're talking?" I asked. I knew the answer.

It was because she knew that I was more powerful than her even though she's in the Main House and I'm in the Branch House.

It just goes to show that the houses are just names and don't mean anything.

"I just…" started Hinata. I knew she didn't have an excuse or anything to say so I figured I'd put her out of her misery.

"Do I disgust you Hinata?" I asked her. I knew the answer but I wanted to ask it anyway.

"N-n-no!" she said.

LIES!!!

"Don't lie to me!" I told her. I don't know why I have to be her second father.

"I wasn't!" she said. I could tell she was going to cry soon. Once she started crying, my job would be done.

"I can tell by the way you don't look at me that you can't give me a straight answer." I said. I made that up on the spot. But it sounded about right. "And the way you stumble with your fingers, it tells me that you think you're better than I am!"

Hinata just gasped. I guess I had hit the nail on the head. It wasn't hard to do. She was perfectly predictable.

Suddenly, her father walked out.

Even though I'm not afraid of him, I wasn't about to pick on his daughter ruthlessly while he was there.

We exchanged glares while he walked away but eventually, my glare burned a big enough hole in him that he looked away.

I had won.

He continued on his way, once again leaving Hinata and I alone.

"Tell your father that I'm not scared of him." I told Hinata.

"I don't think he's…"

"Tell him." I interrupted. Feeling in control gave me satisfaction.

"N-n-now?" she asked me, not able to talk.

"Yes." I said.

She stuttered, whimpered and then turned around and ran. I had never sparked such a reaction out of her that she actually sprinted away from me without at least thinking up an excuse. Perhaps I commanded even more control than I had originally thought.

I hadn't made her cry this time, but I guess there's no point in doing it every time when I can do whenever I am feeling angry.

That had made me feel slightly better, putting Hinata into her place. But I was still angry about not being a jounin.

Maybe I should go to the Hokage's office and ask about it. Or find Sasuke and do to him what I did to Hinata.

Though, I don't think he'd react quite in the same way. Though if I ever got him act that way, I would be able to die happy.

I decided that I would go have a one on one chat with the Hokage. Maybe I could talk her into thinking about how awesome I actually was at the exam.

If all else fails, I could try getting her to act like Hinata and scare her into giving it to me.

So I exited the Hyuuga complex, glaring one last time at the Main House before I departed. I wouldn't feel complete unless the Main House knew the extent of my hatred toward them.

Though, it's not like the Main House would EVER know the extent of my hatred.

My loath and despise towards them and their ways is on an immeasurable scale.

I made my way to the Hokage's office and knocked on the door.

I knocked quite vigorously and no one came to answer the door so I figured that maybe she was out.

Now my mood that had been lifted by my Hinata conversation was now back down to what it had been before.

I had walked all the way here for no reason and I was still a chuunin when I deserved to be a jounin.

I decided to glare. I tend to glare every once and again. In my glaring, I noticed Ino and Sasuke standing there doing nothing.

They were both wearing jounin vests.

INO was a jounin?

I had seen her and while she was good, her skills where nothing compared to mine and she definitely didn't deserve a vest over ME.

I would have to talk to her about that. Maybe she got my vest by accident. I definitely out-performed her.

In fact, I think it was I who bumped her out of the tournament.

Come to think of it…it WAS.

Why was the system of promotion so flawed? Who exactly was in charge of deciding who would get promoted? Was this person BLIND or just incredible impaired when it came to making judgment calls?

Something was going on.

Something bigger than me.

And that frustrated me to no end. To think, once again I was completely out of control of my own destiny. I had thought I had finally grabbed the reins on this whole problem with fate.

I'd never be able to get out of this place.

I went back to the Hyuuga complex and sat in the back yard.

I thought a lot that day.

But no amount of thinking was going to get me promoted.

If no one was going to come and tell me I was to be promoted, all I could do was participate in the next jounin exam and once again show everyone that I deserved to be a jounin. I would perform so excellently that they wouldn't be able to turn me down.

I looked up to see my uncle standing there, watching me. It's not like I was doing anything. I wasn't going to entertain him.

"Neji, stop hurting Hinata." He said.

"I never touched her." I said.

"You don't need to touch her." My uncle said. "You know she's not a strong girl. But you have to accept your destiny. That's what your father did."

How dare he bring up my father.

"Neji, I don't want to ever have to punish you." He said. "But if you hurt Hinata again then I will have to."

He turned his back to me.

So pompous…bastard…

Today was definitely not a good day.