The story is not over yet. It gets harder this chapter as we actually get an inside peek at the Hyuugas. I don't know how I'll work around the revelation of this chapter, but I promise I won't throw in the towel easily! GO NEJITENTEN!

Disclaimer; found floating in a bathtub somewhere was the shocking proclomation that Naruto etc... does not belong to me. Booh.

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Hot Water

Hyuuga Bathhouse

Neji was not hiding, at least he told himself he was not hiding. His was a tactical retreat in the face of greater numbers, and he did not feel the least bit stupid about being up to his nose in hot water while fully dressed. No siree. In fact bathing fully dressed was benefical for his health, no wait, it was a part of his training, yes that was it. He was practicing his juken techniques in case he ever had to fight up to his nose in water again. Hey, Mist and Rain ninja were dangerous.

Giggling from outside in the garden made Neji dip lower in the bath until his lower eyelashes touched the water. Familiar curses against the head family floated away in bubbles from Neji's mouth.

Damn Hiashi-sama for being lenient enough to allow Hanabi to have a sleepover. Damn Hanabi-sama from having so many overtly flirtatious little girlfriends, damn the little witches for being too young to suffer from his Juken moves. Even Ino wasn't as bad as this little lot of vampires, no wait the only difference was she at least had a healthy respect for his skills and therefore limited the actual physical touching. These little werewolves used the difference in age to their advantage. If he had to piggy back one more 12 year old who claimed to have twisted her ankle he'd really snap their little legs. Or if one more leaped on him claiming to be terrified of shadows in this 'bwig swary houwse', he'd show them something to really be afraid of.

Neji crossed his arms and frowned, it wasn't fair, why did he have to put up with this kind of treatment? Sasuke had this cold 'do not touch' thing going on, why couldn't he get the same message through to the little blockheads? Neji grumbled a little more for good measure then decided to get out and try hiding in his room. The branch house should be off limits, even for personal friends of the daughter of the family head. He hoped. At least it would be cooler than here.

He had one hand on the bath's edge, (the word 'bath' is being stretched here as the Hyuuga Bathhouse was doted with a large indoor naturally heated rock pool the size of your average olympic swimming pool, but you get the idea,) when he heard it.

"...and so Neji ran away?" Tenten's voice scoffed from the other side.

Neji turned red and glared at the wall partition between the men's and women's baths. How could she think he'd done that? He had half a mind to tell her off, but he was getting out already.

"With his tail between his legs? Or did he leave that in the tender care of those little darlings?" Ino asked snorting.

Neji stopped dead.

"Ino!" Came Sakura's shocked voice.

"What? It was a metaphor." Ino protested with false innocence.

"Like hell." Sakura said unimpressed.

Neji nodded his agreement. He slipped back into the water and waded silently across the bath until he was beside the wall and could hear more clearly everything they said about him. After all it wasn't really eavesdropping when the subject they were talking about was you, it was more like self defense.

"You won't tell Neji that I told you, will you?" Hinata's soft voice asked worriedly.

Ah ha! So she was the traitor.

"Wouldn't dream of it." Sakura's voice promised.

"Of course not." Tenten said.

Everyone waited for the third person to speak up.

"Ok, ok, I promise too." Ino's voice complained.

The sound of splashing water covered the banal requests for soap and shampoo, it wasn't until Tenten made a simple request that a basic fact became abundantly clear to Neji.

"Sakura could you wash my back please?"

They, at least, were not bathing fully dressed. Embarrassment pushed him away from the wall, how could he have even considered eavesdropping on them while they were bathing? What kind of pervert spied on young women bathing? The grinning heads of Jiraya-sama, Naruto and Kiba popped into his head. Neji had reached the middle of the bath when he heard.

"So Tenten, Hinata, is it true that Neji's gay?" Ino's voice floated across.

Neji was suddenly back at the wall ear pressed against the wet stone.

An uncomfortable silence followed. Neji frowned, why weren't they saying no immediately? He wasn't gay, they had to know that, right?

"Well," Hinata's voice started, "he's never shown any interest in any of the guys, so I guess not."

Neji almost banged his head against the wall.

"But he's not exactly showing any interest in the girls either." Ino's voice reminded them. "And the Kamis know I've tried to open the boy up."

The sound of a snapping towel echoed over the partition wall and a sharp yelp came from one of the girls.

"You've probably scared him off women for life." Sakura's voice dripped with amusement.

"Hey you are not blaming Neji's gayness on me!" Ino's voice complained. "Either you're born gay or you're not."

"So you reckon Neji's gay 'cause he hasn't taken you up on one of your oh so blatant 'let's get to know each other better' invitations?" Sakura's voice replied with thick sarcasm.

"Watch it forehead girl, you're not big for me to whup right here, right now."

"Bring it on Ino-pig."

Neji had a sudden, and highly inappropriate image. His already red cheeks reddening he pushed away from the wall and strode quickly towards the edge.

"So what do you think Tenten?" Hinata asked.

Neji returned to the wall just as quickly, cursing silently under his breath at his own weakness. Surely his own teammate would know he wasn't gay.

"Hmmmmm." Tenten hummed.

Neji's heart sank.

Could it be he really was gay? Thinking carefully he tried to imagine some of the guys he knew in that way. He started with the obvious, Sasuke, because hell, the guy was pretty, but nothing much seemed to be moving for him, though he was heating up a little. Feh probably the embarrassment from doing such a stupid thing. Neji tried again just in case, Naruto, because maybe blondes were his thing. Nadda, even a slight revulsion when he thought about the ramen breath Naruto probably continually had. Kiba, worse than Naruto, guy had a wet dog smell, Chouji? Barbeque smell, Shikamaru? Guy was too lazy to wash his hair regularly, it smelled like, like, unwashed hair. Shino? Neji shuddered. Nope, there it was, he gave a sigh of relief, he wasn't gay, at least he was pretty sure he wasn't.

"I don't think he's gay," Tenten's voice started uncertainly.

Neji silently thanked his teammate and promised to buy an extra large bag of her favourite toffees as a thankyou.

"But he might be afraid of women." Tenten's voice finished.

Neji almost fell face first into the hot water.

"Whaaaaat?" Ino's voice was full of disbelief. "The man can take down small armies and you're saying he's afraid of women?"

"It's just a feeling I get when he's around other women. Especially women he doesn't know well." Tenten voice sounded unsure.

Neji pressed even closer to the wall ignoring the rising heat in his face.

"Hmmm, the question is why would he be afraid of women?" Sakura's voice sounded breathless. "Is it just me, or it getting hotter in here?"

"There's a new steam room next door, the extra steam is pumped through here, it's supposed to be really good for the health." Hinata's voice sounded a little breathless as well.

"So back to the important news, why is Neji afraid of women?" Ino voice piped up. "Uh, you don't think it could be my fault?"

Neji nodded furiously, but stopped as it made his head spin. They should just blame it on Ino and move away from the subject, he wasn't afraid of women, that was stupid, he was just suitably wary. Afterall a guy didn't have to be one big ball of hormones to be straight, he was just waiting for the right moment, and the right person. He was, he told himself, an old fashioned romantic. Leave the skirt chasing to the guys with their brains in their pants like Naruto and Kiba.

"It could be childhood trauma." Sakura's voice sounded further away now. "Or the result of a bad experience. Alot of Kunoichi suffer from this kind fear after... well you know."

The girls stayed silent while.

"I heard Hiroko was being released soon." Hinata's voice was quiet.

"Yeah, but mentally she's not ready for active missions again. She's going to follow treatment and Tsunade-sama will pass judgement in about six months."

"Give her our best." Hinata's voice said quietly.

"How are Yoshi and Keitaro taking it?" Tenten's voice sounded faint.

"They've been assigned a new team member for the time it takes Hiroko to recover, but it's not sure she will recover enough to stay on active duty. They're doing okay, just the normal guilt, but they've been really great trying to support her."

"So," Ino sounded like a dog with a favourite bone, "you think Neji has suffered some great trauma involving a, or many, women, who are not me, and now has a fear of women which stops him from enjoyig normal young adult fun?"

"Now I see why your speciality is information gathering Ino. You just don't let go."Tenten voice sounded impressed.

"Well let's go to the source." Sakura's voice said reasonably. "Hinata?"

"Me? I didn't do anything to him! He's my cousin, and..." Hinata sounded so much further far away than before.

"Not you, but do you know if anything happened to him when he was younger?" Ino's voice sounded impaitent but it was weak and hard to tell.

Neji wiped the sweat from his face, climbing a little up the slick wall to get away from the hot water. At the same time he mentally begged his cousin not to tell the others about that time. If only she didn't tell anyone about finding him with that women, he just couldn't call her a cousin, he wouldn't have to change his identity and go missing nin. The mere idea that the others might find out he'd almost been the victim of molestation made him cringe. He'd worked too hard on his image of perfection for it to be ruined now.

Neji waited desperately as Hinata's stuttering voice tried to avoid the questioning. If there was one thing you could say about the girl, it was that she was extremely loyal Neji thought, silently praying that his gentle cousin didn't fold under the pressure.

"Well...you know that Neji's mother died when he was born, and well, the terrible loss of his father when he was only a child. After that he was mostly raised by the other males from the branch house, so I guess maybe he doesn't have much experience with women." Hinata's voice sounded unsure.

"Man doesn't want any experience is the problem." Ino's voice sniffed.

A lengthy silence followed.

"Okay, okay, I admit it I was in the wrong to have chased Neji before, but really Tenten if you don't mark your territory how do expect other women to know to keep their hands off?" Ino's grumbles were heard even by Neji.

"So why, may I ask oh angel of virtue, haven't you stopped?" Sakura's voice sounded about as sincere as Kakashi-sensei's famous late excuses.

"I'm helping Tenten out." Ino sounded very sure of herself.

Again silence followed the remark.

"Hey! I mean, if the guy can just realise that there is a difference between men and women and not just on the battle field then I figure he'll realise that Tenten is one fine example of women hood and will actually try molesting her once and a while." Ino's flippant voice was met with a round of shocked 'Ino!'s.

"What? Stop pretending you have absolutely no hormones." Ino sounded somewhere between hurt and angry. "Stop making out that I'm some sort of slut for admitting that I have."

Neji felt his hands slipping on the wet wall and reconcentrated on sticking to the wall. It was getting hard to see with all this steam, and the heat was getting worse. He considered just getting out, it seemed the conversation was turning away from him and so he really didn't have any excuses for staying, and it really was getting too hot in here, someone must have forgotton to shut the steam evacuation pipe again.

"Tenten, if you admit out loud that if Neji were to suddenly jump out at you naked and demand sex you'd say yes, I'll lay off Neji for good. Word of honour." Ino's voice suddenly sounded so very far away and Neji was finding it very difficult stop the spinning in his head.

He tried to listen for the reponse, he wasn't sure why, but it was important for a reason that he couldn't think of because of the heat. The damn heat.

Should've gotton undressed. Neji thought as he tumbled head first into the hot water below.

Neji's Bedroom, Hyuuga Compound

Neji sat up on his futon, red as a tomato, and not from his recent heat stroke. Beside him Hinata knelt, a cold compress in her hands, concern in her eyes.

"Do you feel better now Neji-kun?" She asked.

Neji nodded stiffy, eyes fixed on the wall at the end of his futon, humiliation rooting him to the spot. How could he, Hyuuga Neji, genius of the Hyuuga Clan, shining example of Konoha ninjahood, be found floating in a bath fully dressed, facedown with a nosebleed, apparently caught in the act of spying on a group of young ladies bathing? It was a humilation like he had never before suffered. He could imagine now the snickers which would follow him everywhere, the outright laughs that Kiba and Naruto would direct towards him. He deserved to be dead for having behaved in such a shameful manner. Crawling to his knees he abased himself infront of Hinata, his forehead touching the ground.

"Hinata-sama! I present all my excuses to you. Never did I wish to embrass you or the family, I will of course submit myself to any punishment you think is necessary. I will of course present my excuses personally to your friends and beg them not to think that my behaviour is a reflection on the Hyuuga family..." He trailed off as Hinata's tsking broke through his inhabitual babbling.

"Neji you're being too emotional." Hinata said in a tone that mimicked the voice of a particularly Hyuugaish Aunt of theirs.

Neji blushed ever so slightly at the admonition raised his head to bow again before sitting up staring at his clasped hands, resting on his knees.

"I do have one question though." Hinata asked staring at the wet towel in her hands.

Neji nodded silently, it was an obvious question.

"You...you didn't use your Byukyugan, did you." Hinata said it as a statement not a question.

Neji smiled slightly, at least some of his reputation was intact, he thanked his cousin for that.

"No, Hinata-sama, I never have, and I never will use my Byukyugan for such a low purpose." Neji said calmly.

Hinata nodded fast.

"Of course."

An awkard silence followed, Neji wondered why Hinata had not gotten up to leave. Did his cousin have something else to say? He pinched closed the open front of his sleeping robe. As an act of revenge Sakura and Ino had insisted on trying to strip him themselves. Sakura at least had the decency to claim that it would be dangerous to his health to stay in his wet clothes. Neji had of course been unconsious at the time. Apparently Tenten and Hinata had protected his honour by pushing the two girls out and sending them searching for cold water and compresses while Hinata wrestled him out of most of his wet clothes and into his sleeping robe.

Finally Tenten had to help her lift his upper body, but at least it hadn't been some stranger. At least it hadn't been Ino, shudder, or Sakura. Naruto wasn't exactly the type to share more than he had to. He'd woken a little while after that but Tenten had already hearded the other two away. Hinata had stayed.

"I have humiliated myself with my behaviour, worse I have humiliated you in front of your friends." Neji said quietly.

"Oh no, I'm not embarrassed. We-we're are more embarrassed about ou-our topic of conversation." Hinata's voice dwindled away in embarrasment.

"I should not have been listening." Neji repeated firmly.

"We should not have been gossiping like that." Hinata said a strong red in each cheek.

Again the two cousins fell silent, and again Hinata did not leave.

"Do you have a question for me Hinata-sama?" Neji asked gently.

"Y-yes, we were...I was wondering if you...felt a certain way about...well..." She stammered, unsure of how to broach such a personal subject.

"Am I gay?" Neji asked, enjoying the shocked look on Hinata's face as her head snapped up to automatically deny any such thought.

"I don't think so." He said. "I haven't thought about it much, the family will choose me a bride from amoungst our cousins. It would be silly to develop feelings towards anyone that the family is unlikely to choose."

Hinata nodded. The idea of an arranged marriage within her family to protect the Byukyugan, always to protect the Byukyugan, was a familiar one. In some small part of herself she knew that it would probably be her fate as well. But she hadn't yet given up, Naruto was now forever out of reach, unless Sakura and Sasuke died, but still she was holding on to something. An undefined dream that as yet had no face but she waited paitently. It hurt to think that her cousin had never held that dream at all. She opened her mouth to offer some comfort or wisdom, but found her mind blank.

Neji wondered if she would stay much longer, the hate he'd felt towards her had melted years before, but he wanted to be left alone. Especially if she was going to keep asking such personal questions, subjects which were never brought up in their family. Love was not important for a Hyuuga, sex outside of a marriage, the risk of a Hyuuga baby born outside of Hyuuga control was forbidden. Limit, a Hyuuga female could risk it, the baby would be born within the family, and the father if unwilling, or unsuitable, was 'encouraged' to sign away all rights to the child. A thing which was harder to do if the mother was not a Hyuuga. Any baby born outside of a Hyuuga chosen marriage was almost always relegated into the branch house with the mother. After all such a baby would be only half a Hyuuga, and unfailing weaker than their full Hyuuga cousins.

It was not something Neji wanted to think about alot.

"You know Neji-kun, things...change, things don't always have to be so...so..." Hinata trailed off again unsure of what exactly she wanted to say.

She didn't want to imply that all the Hyuuga traditions were bad, but she couldn't think of the word to express that sentiment. But in the end it didn't matter because they were cousins, they had grown up in the same place, the same family, carrying the same burdens. He understood her even without words. Like now.

Neji placed a warm hand over Hinata's and gave her a small, rare smile of encouragement. Hinata smiled softly back. Theirs was a life defined by codes and regulations laid out well before the birth of even their parents. Life was not a frivoulous thing, great things had been accomplished and would be accomplished by the family. Alone they were nothing.

And yet...and yet...

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For anyone who might be wondering, no the story is not over yet. I just got my stubborn up! CHAAAARRRGE!