Title: Belong

Rating: T

Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own it

Authors Note: Taste the Rainbow

"You belong here."

It was a simple statement, yet it carried with it weight that was unimagined. She had delivered this single sentence up to him on two knees; kneeling and looking at him with imploring eyes.

"Belong?" He asked unsure of how he was supposed to react to this unexpected declaration.

"Yes, I was never meant to be in this position. It is never said, but yet acknowledged widely. I'm stepping down and I will not leave this legacy to my sister," Hinata said softly yet firmly.

Neji absorbed his cousins words and let them cycle in his head. After a moment he sat down across from Hinata and attempted to look her in the eye, failing when she kept her head bowed and her eyes down.

"Look at me please," he said softly.

Hinata brought her chin up and leveled her silvery eyes with his, "Does this convince you of my sincerity?"

"I do not understand," Neji stated, conveying with a small statement his whirling emotions and overturning thoughts.

"I feel that I am the wrong person to lead this family. I do not have the fortitude for it."

"You have grown into a strong-" he began.

"My heart is not in this," Hinata cut him off. With that she stood and walked to a door that had been slid open to view the night view of her garden.

Quietly, Neji stood and followed her coming to a stop less than a foot behind her. He could feel the head of her body rolling off her gentle waves. She kept her back to him and took a breath to steady herself before speaking again.

"This family has done things," she whispered having lost the ability to speak out loud to churning emotions, "Things from which I may never heal. Things that I can't forgive."

Neji tensed as her quiet words flowed into him and her reasons became clear with a jolt. He understood, he wished he didn't. His father had the luxury of choice, she was never given one.

She turned to face them and the distance between them closed even more. Her head tilted back to lock their eyes, willing and at the same time pleading with him to relent to her request.

"I have made changes where I could. I have started what you have the ability to finish. You belong here," she reiterated her statement from before.

"Why do you think that?" He had to ask, he had to know.

"Because you are what my father wanted me to be and at the same time you became the man he feared the most."

"They are very much the same thing," Neji said heavily.

"But different enough to matter," Hinata countered.

Neji's mind finally wrapped around what she had been driving towards. He was the strength, skill and iron will that Hiashi had desperately wanted for his daughters, and he was the steeled compassion, determined fairness and the open mind that the last head of the Hyuuga household had feared.

Neji was change.

Yet, the young ninja wasn't confident in his ability to do it by himself.

"I'll need your help," he said.

"You will always have it," agreed Hinata, "The announcement will be made tomorrow. After that I will leave and you will take over."

"Leave?" He asked confused, "Why? How will you be able to help me if you are not here?"

"I will come whenever you need it," she said, "But, for awhile it least, I must leave. There are things that I must do."

"What is it that can not be done here?"

"I will need to be buy myself, I need the quiet. I will be back."

"Why?"

"I must prepare myself," Hinata said.

Her older cousin still stood in front of her silently encouraging her to explain. She knew that it was time, he would have to know. Things this big could not stay hidden for long.

"I am pregnant."

It was a simple statement that brought all of the pieces into focus. And as shocked as he was my her proclamation he understood her reasons. Because, the baby was most certainly not of the Hyuuga line.

"The father?" He asked in a low voice.

Hinata smiled sweetly, "Now is not the time for that."

Neji nodded once in acceptance of her words. She finally took a step back form him then to the side to walk past him to the room's exit.

"Get some rest," she said, "Tomorrow will be a trying day."

With that she exited the room and left Neji alone with nothing but his thoughts and so many possibilities in front of him. When the door slid closed, the sound brought the weight of all that he would do came down on him and he was forced to sit in the dimmed room and begin to organize his turning mind.

-fin