Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
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I've become so numb I can't feel you there
I've become so tired so much more aware
I've becoming this all I want to do
Is be more like me and be less like you- Numb, Linkin park
"Presenting Hyuga Neji and Hyuga Ino."
They entered the room, Neji first as was custom for the male to walk before the female, Ino followed a few steps behind. The couple looked lovely to the eye, the perfect example of what a husband and wife should be. However, that was to anyone else. The Hyuga family was not just any people. Regardless of the years that Neji and Ino had been married despite the rules of the Hyuga clan that prevented marriage to outsiders.
Neji had finally prevailed with a special favor from his cousin, Hinata, who was, afterall, heir. Nevertheless, this did not prevent the hatred within the family's eyes. They felt like a thousand needles on Ino's form yet she remained unchanged from when she first entered. A porcelain mask hiding her true face beneath. The stares could do nothing to compare to the ache within her heart.
When Ino first married Neji, she thought she was living a fairy tale. Despite the Hyuga family's resistance, she believed she would happy with just Neji's love. She learned quickly that there were no such things as fairy tales.
As soon as they had been married, Ino became a doll. She was taught what to do, new skills, the proper way to act in front of the Hyuga clan, and how to be the perfect wife to her husband. The last had been the hardest for Ino, she believed she could make Neji happy on her own and expressed so to her husband. Neji had changed however, she saw that he had crumbled under the pressure of his family and begun to treat her as everyone else. When she spoke out of line, he didn't just give her a playful look anymore, now he placed her back in her spot rather coldly. No longer did he accept her kisses at random, she was to be formal.
They were turning her into their own little doll, a beautiful, emotionless porcelain doll. Soon Ino began to smile less and less. She was confined in Hyuga estate, not allowed to leave unless she was with her husband. The glow from her skin, formerly so full of life, began to dull. Her hair which had used to shine like sunlight on wheat began to lose color. Her eyes, the color of water, slowly darkened into the color of dark polluted water. Her spirit was being slowly broken. How? How could Ino, so full of life be brought down by a simple family? Why didn't she leave?
Love was the factor.
She still deeply loved Neji. Part of her hoped that he would return to the Neji she had fallen in love with. This cold new Neji reminded her of the days of his youth. So she continued to be his doll, his beautiful, emotionless porcelain doll, in hopes of her love returned. Until her spirit and the porcelain doll they had made her into shatters into shards.