A/N: Sorry for a later than usual update! Enjoy chapter 2!

"Why is my light on?" Tenten asked him. She even asked herself. "Did I seriously leave it on for two whole weeks?!" She inched closer to her door whilst frustration at herself materialized. It was when she unlocked her door did she turn back to Neji fully, "Why are you here?" she asked him, "at this hour?" she added.

The pale-looking boy stared at her with even paler eyes. For a few seconds, she believed he'd turn and walk away without any explanation. But he spoke, "I didn't expect to see you here tonight."

She frowned, "Well this is my home, odds are 100% that anyone would see me here. What are you here for?"

"I believe we are past due for a conversation. But it seems you are fatigued tonight, I will seek you out another day. Goodnight," just like that, he began to make his way from her.

Tenten hesitated to go after him and ask what they'd talk about. She had her own few words to say to him too after many days and nights forming them carefully. Tenten turned back around and entered her home. Her accumulated stench from the mission would soon devour the atmosphere of her place if she'd to stand and do nothing. She began on the bath immediately. Fuming over her electricity bill would have to come later.

She'd be lying if she said she wasn't petrified when she heard his voice call her name. Although their separation was short, she had forgotten how her name rolled off his tongue. If he was anyone else, if he wasn't the person she admired the most, if not for the fact that she held him dearly in her heart, she wouldn't have cared nor bothered to distinguish the way he said her name from others. Hearing it again was nostalgic. And though her body begged her to close her eyes to sleep, his voice kept repeating in her mind and keeping her awake. It was almost haunting at how many times him calling her name replayed in her head. Tenten kept the cries of his voice echoing in her ears until she passed out. She didn't think once about what he wanted to talk about.

Tenten awoke in midday. Every cell in her body ached when she rolled to face her balcony windows curtained by white fabric. Almost instantly, she recalled her brush with Neji yesternight. Tenten then tried and failed to remember the way he called her name. It was as if her exhaustion had chased his voice from her memories. It then dawned on her that he was there to converse. If he were to come today to have it done, would she be able to summon the strength to tell him her own accumulating thoughts? Tenten sprung up from her bed and headed to the bathroom to refresh herself. Whether it be today or not, she must be ready to stand firm and tell him.

It was still useless to confess a stringy love story to him. By now, with how he hadn't grown nor shown a sense of development even after she pointed out the obviousness of the false illusion of his fate, or his false escape from it, Tenten didn't need to bring up such a confession. It would only make her confused.

She wanted to say it as clearly as possible. She would no longer allow their paths to intersect. Tenten found it unbearable to see him the same after he pulled off that noble stunt he did in the war. Neji was willing to die the way fate had written out his life for him. There was no amount of coercion on her part to change that aspect of him. Because of his stubborn selfishness, it would only hurt her to no end. Tenten had decided she wouldn't participate and observe him flying to the Hyuuga's guillotine. She had to make it clear that being on his side no longer benefitted him nor her.

Tenten pondered their friendship and if it would crumble. She could only hope that they'd both be mature enough to work alongside one another without any hinges. As for her insignificant feelings for a half-dead boy, she prayed that time would chase her lingering heartaches away.

Neji held the broken doorbell piece in his palm. Here was his excuse to seek her out before another mission got to her.

When the sun rose and the palpable summer heat began to settle in, he too, made his way out of his compound. However, the prospect of meeting his friend was stopped short when he encountered his cousin. Again, Neji hid the doorbell piece in his sleeve.

"My father wanted to speak to you but an urgent meeting came up. He wanted me to have you wait at our compound this morning." Hinata meekly met her cousin's eyes as a draft flew around them. "Will you come?"

He felt nothing now that time had flown by and allowed him to witness the outcome of his minor sacrifice. Frankly, he found that it was not worth it. Neji knew regretting the past was pointless and thus never said a word. Protecting Hinata was his duty and he had met the requirements. Still, there was no sense of achievement. Tenten said it herself back then: he was still walking on the path fate carved out for him.

As the sun beamed warm rays, they both took shelter in the welcome room. Hinata offered him tea to which he accepted. Neji held the teacup in his hands but refused to bring it to his lips. He only let it warm his fingers before it ran cold.

Hinata sat across from him, letting silence fill in the air. She'd yet to thank him for his sacrifice but this feeling of hers knew he wouldn't take her gratitude with open arms. She had done plenty of wrong in her life, one being the most selfish of the three of them, Hanabi included. Always, she put Naruto first, inherently placing herself in danger and letting others fend for her.

Hinata shifted in her position and took in a deep breath. She blew it out quietly before raising her head to meet her cousin's dead orbs. "Neji-niisan, you've completed your duties."

Neji stared at her with the slightest blink, "I'm not following."

"I'm relieving you of your duties to me," she said with a small simper, "I truly mean it. You've done enough for me."

"I know how much I've done for you and it was more than enough. I am not going to die for you a second time," Neji told her monotonously. "I can no longer be selfless to you. I've decided, through several nights pondering our future as a family, that I don't belong here. My request to you is to lead your life quietly."

Hinata's brows furrowed, not making sense of the meaning of Neji's words. "Are you going somewhere?"

"Who's going somewhere?" Hiashi announced his arrival. Hinata spun her head toward her father. She was promptly excused with one single nod.

Hiashi took his time to situate himself before his nephew. There was an abundance of great news bestowed to his nephew. But seeing how unusual the boy had been acting these past few days, Hiashi knew he must choose his words wisely. Their blood may be carrying the same genes, but it seemed as though his nephew had ascended into a completely different person from before. The old callous nature that once resided deep in his nephew's heart had resurfaced and malformed into a new resentment. There was no predicting his nephew's thoughts or movements with those eyes.

"Neji-"

"Give me my father's estate," Neji requested directly. "You forbade me from living where I grew up the moment my mother passed away. Here, my hatred grew for you and extended unfairly toward my cousins. And although I've tried to make amends these past few years, I've come to realize that I am only making you and my cousins happy. It did not satisfy me to learn that I am nowhere near my freedom so long as I keep myself attached by your ankles, uncle. I believe I have stayed past my dues with you. I see now that my freedom is what I make it to be and it is not here within the confines of the clan. I wish to return to my home far away from the former duties implicated onto me."

It was akin to slapping Hiashi in the face. Regarding the estate, the aging man knew long ago that he would return it back to his nephew as a gift for when the young man reached the marriageable age. He just did not calculate that his nephew would personally ask for the estate back especially at this time. Hiashi's heart rested uneasily.

"Neji," Hiashi affirmed, "your father's estate is another matter of its own. For now, the clan has acknowledged your dedication to the clan and strength at full capacity. They've agreed to allow you to participate as a competitor for my position."

"I don't wish to repeat myself, uncle," Neji made himself clear. There was not a single knot in his stomach with every word he said. His eyes remained glossy and fixated on the cold tea in his hands.

Hiashi studied the unmoving expression of his nephew, finding no spark of life whatsoever. His confidence in breaking the spell his nephew was under lowered. "Neji, I don't understand you. Isn't what Uzumaki Naruto said what you wanted? Didn't you want to change the Hyuuga? Your chance is here and yet you've paid no mind to it."

Neji blinked dully. His lips rested fully. His uncle's words strummed no part of his heart. Since when did he want to personally change his clan? The memories from within his mind couldn't recall a single time he put those words in his mouth. The closest that came to these words came from someone else's mouth: Uzumaki Naruto's. It was here that Neji recalled where he put his faith in Naruto. He truly believed the child of prophecy would change the Hyuuga ways. That was until he realized he couldn't have been able to live to see it.

"That wasn't my dream," Neji's eyes remained unfocused on his uncle. "I never envisioned myself fixing the wrongs of this clan. That was what Naruto wanted. That was his dream. But in the end, he forced these words onto me."

"Neji, the Hyuuga clan sees its future with you at its head. Surely, this route can't be far from your own dream-"

"I didn't have a dream in the first place, uncle. As for the clan, it is a fallacy to say that change can only be achieved with me. The ways of the clan could've changed even with you. But it didn't. Although you've resolved my misunderstandings of my father's death, you've done nothing to lessen the burden on my shoulders when you could have far, far earlier."

The grimace on his uncle's face would have caused the heavens to strike Neji on the spot for implementing blame. However, the young man was too heartless to care,

"The little hope I had for you to lift this curse mark from me is now gone. If you truly loved me as a memoir to my father, you would've done everything in your means to remove it when I was young. But now, I've come to realize that there can be no change unless there is a want for meaning to push for a new revolution. In me, uncle, there is no such thing as meaning. I've no reason to be the pawn for the clan to push their agenda of development. If you wanted change, you could've raised me with the notions of reinventing the clan. However, I've grown too accustomed to the ways of the branch family. This is what separates our family. Our unity was never complete because you failed to abolish this system that plagued me. Therefore, please grant me my wish. The entirety of the Hyuuga estate has been collecting monies from its smaller compounds in order to rebuild my father's home structure due to the disasters of the war. You've done enough to keep my home vacant for me. I am indebted to your hospitality but I believe I've paid my dues by trading my life for your daughter."

"You must've wanted to say these things long ago," Hiashi reasoned. He shut his eyes briefly to collect his thoughts as well as his nephew's. "I fear you will regret this decision, Neji. I will give you some time to think it over."

"If I was dead, there wouldn't be time given to think over who should take over the head of the main family. Had I remained dead, would you even bow as low as you are now to consider a mere branch member?" Neji set the teacup on the tray and finally locked his eyes with his uncle. "I have a feeling you'd keep at it with the clan's tradition until the new times catch up. I suppose you'd smile even brighter now that a mouth to be fed is now gone." He stood up to his feet and turned to the opened doors, "I implore you to bestow what's left of my family to me. If you'll excuse me, I must head out."

"Very well," Hiashi called just as his nephew stepped out of the room. "I will give you your father's estate. But," the old man bit his inner cheek and basked in the darkness of closed eyes, "your eligibility remains intact."

The only way to look is forward. Neji's desires remained unwavering. Next, I'm going to you Tenten.

Just as Tenten placed the last plate on the dishrack, she heard a knock at her door. She stiffened up and spun toward it. What in the hell? "Knocking is forbidden!" She yanked the door open to find a fellow shinobi instead of her anticipated comrade, Neji.

"I'm sorry, Tenten-chan, there was no doorbell."

"No doorbell?" Tenten glanced down and found the piece she hung missing. She was flabbergasted. "I- forgot about that."

"The Land of Waves requires your assistance immediately. Their method of transporting lumber has broken down forty-six kilometers from Konoha. We urgently need these lumber in supply. It seemed the hawk had missed you and it is why I am here."

Tenten gave him a nod. She did not think twice about staying. Her conversation with Neji would have to wait. Tenten grabbed her lengthy scroll and headed out the door.

The task was an easy one. Before evening arrived, Tenten was already back in Konoha. But with the movement of goods at a constant, her mission prolonged until nightfall. And when the night passed, another assignment sprung up for her. It was then that she knew this would be another round of village-hopping. She prayed that this time it would end sooner than before.

Ultimately, Tenten bathed in the shades of trees and the surfaces of bodies of waters. She counted the number of suns rising and falling. When the neverending nights came, she forgot about the days that had passed since Neji visited her. With her one-day mission extending to weeks, her pillow had lost its scent since she left on that midday. Her beds soon became the skyrocketing tree branches, tree stumps, the cool summer ground, and more. Still, in the recesses of her mind, she constantly used the day of their long-awaited talk as a means to push on forward.

However, her hope to meet him again kept being postponed onto no end. The weeks turned into months and the months added up to more than a year. Her feet hadn't stepped in Konoha in 372 days. She had missed her birthday celebration along with her friends'.

Alas, the hawk that held her Hokage's orders sent the last of its assignment. Tenten rolled the tiny slip of paper between her fingers and a tired smile graced her chapped lips. She was due to return home. Tenten spent her last night away from her homeland in the stormy rain. Without time to waste, she sped toward home.

Presenting herself to the Hokage, Tenten discovered that it was not only her who had been subjected to conditions of her lengthened isolation from Konoha. Beside her stood her own comrade, Lee, Sai, and Shino, all with different tasks to uphold.

While they were running maniacally outside the village gates, the Hokage explained that the rest of their squadron had worked equally hard to rebuild internally from the disasters of the war. And with reparations nearing its finality, the people of Konoha had chosen an auspicious date to celebrate the completion of their new village in the upcoming week. By hammering the last nail onto the board of the village's largest bridge, a new era of peace would begin with the season of Spring.

It all sounded pleasant to Tenten's ears but all that she wanted to do was to melt into her bed. She was sore and half-hallucinating due to insufficient hours of sleep. After hearing of their compensation, Tenten did not bother to chat with Lee for too long. She headed straight home.

Upon rounding the corner of her house, Tenten recalled her doorbell missing. What else was missing was the absence of Neji greeting her tonight. She remembered being stunned to meet him on that day calling her name so intricately. However now, she could no longer remember his voice or how he said it. Does he know that I'm back? Tenten dragged her lazy feet to her door and fiddled with it until it unlocked. "Thankfully, I turned all the lights off."

Tenten clicked the door closed and stared at several of her unopened boxes. She was relieved to be home to a half-furnished house. Sliding off the heavy scroll from both of her shoulders, Tenten kneeled down to the hardwood floor and closed her eyes. Gravity squished her until every muscle in her body relaxed. She laid on the floor, breathing shallowly. The last thing on her mind before she succumbed to her slumber was still the prospect of meeting Neji again. If we don't talk soon, I'll forget the words I'll say to you.

The gossip all around Neji confirmed that she was back. It was good news indeed, except that she hadn't come to him after keeping him waiting for so long. Even Lee, the friend who abandoned all notions of their rivalry came to greet him in person despite being gone for so long. Neji was not one to hold a grudge against a friend, but he had come to conclude that he would no longer reach out and give his time where the other end won't do the same. Does she know I've moved? Words surely did travel fast in Konoha. Neji was sure this wasn't a reason for why she wouldn't show up at his door.

Neji hinged on by the days in the past year with the prospect of meeting her in order to talk. In the beginning, it was all that he thought about. He even rehearsed what he'd say if she were to return home on that same day. But as the days turned into months and from months into an entire year plus some, plenty of those initial words had changed:

It began with a strong resolve to separate himself from the clan, one which was granted to him early on. By the end of that day, from his failed attempt to catch her before she flew out of the village, his uncle had bestowed him the key to his father's estate. Promptly, he collected every item belonging to him and slid from the cracks of the Hyuuga's massive compound into the night. Neji intended to follow his teacher's words closely. He swore to himself to find the will to live, a reason to keep him waking up in the morning. That reason was to talk with her. He should let her know as soon as possible that he had changed. Yet, she wouldn't return home.

Littered throughout the year, Neji was assigned errands around the village. And for a brief period, that was his reason: to help others where he could because he couldn't help himself. But when the days became routine and it seemed as though his life had stagnated, he dwindled back to his tiny shadow. It reminded him that a piece of him was out there somewhere traveling with her. Neji came to the conclusion that he missed her.

On a snowy night, where snowflakes casually floated down onto his lit veranda, Neji confessed that he missed his charm, his sun. The friend who seemingly left without a word became an entirely different person that night. She had become a figment of a lover, a shadow that extended his own by twice his size. That frigid night gave him a new reason to wake up the next morning. He now had a special person to confess his heart to. He prayed she'd return soon.

The heart grew and grew until it filled up all the empty spaces in his home. Daily, Neji would fiddle with her broken doorbell. He had thought about having it fixed but wondered if she'd allow that. His consideration for her spiraled through the rotating moons. Neji began to ponder if she had forgiven him in all the months that they've gone not seeing one another. He mulled if her anger towards him had subsided. "Would she feel the same? Would she understand?" Uncertainty plagued his mind but optimism renewed with the days of tomorrow. Neji knew he was one day closer to meeting her.

His physical departure from the Hyuuga clan came with repercussions. After all, Neji could never truly escape the heavy implications of his surname. Elders from both branches sought to keep him under the eyes of the moon. Did they discover that his sun had been missing somewhere with his shadow?

His uncle's powerless position subjected him to scrutiny. A gardener was assigned to his estate once a week despite his disapproval. A housekeeper began to show up at his door along with the gardener. These people were of his branch family. Without his knowing, the higher echelons of his clan had begun to hold him to the standards of a main family member. It bothered him onto no end. And without his adherence, this aggravating feeling seeped into his heart, tainting his patience for her return.

Neji believed Tenten was deliberately taking on more assignments to avoid him. He believed that was why she wouldn't return home and wouldn't even write a letter to address her well-being. Lee made an effort to report on his duties daily until it diminished to by the month. Still, he was more considerate than the woman who left without a single word. The only way Neji would know if she was alive was through her accomplishments written by customers across the Lands. If she hated him this much to isolate herself from him for this long, Neji believed it would be impossible to speak with her.

The things he wanted to say to her had maximized at one point of the year and subsequently diminished heavily by the next. The decision of whether to omit his confession rolled in and out of his head until the day she returned.

Tenten had come home a bit late. His bitter feelings had run its course. It thrashed and threw him against his cage until his shadow became nothing more than a faint stain beneath his feet. There was barely a pulse of his passion for her. Even though he said he'd seek her out another day to talk, he no longer wished to speak.

The cool spring breeze tugged the candlelight as the night passed. The words he had been rehearsing were floating for the wood beams of his home to hear. The solitary dance of his leaping heart did not have its admirer to see it.

Tenten climbed out of bed feeling refreshed. For three entire days after returning home, she hadn't the chance to step out. She wanted to take care of herself before anyone else and it included her fully furnishing her home. And when she had settled down, feeling satisfied with her work, the sun still hung high above her.

She stepped outside to feel Konoha's weather. Truly, this was her place to live. The cold weather was melting into puddles for Spring and the mood in the air reflected it. Tenten counted four more days until the festivities would engulf the village. Until then, she wanted to catch up with her friends. But then came the thought of having to meet him as well. Tenten descended the stairs anyway. Seeing him would be a sad ending but her heart had already decided long ago that this was the only way. She would not waver just like he would not change.

Ino surprised her with a tight hug, expelling all the molecules in her lungs. While Tenten was gone, the blonde woman had grown beautifully. Soon, she was dragged across the village to collect Sakura and Temari. Tenten could feel her fingers light up in mischief around these girls. Her stern complexion softened and her cold guard shed away. Remnants of being on a mission for so long disappeared one by one. For once, she could say that she was content after the war.

Tenten paid no mind to Hinata's eyes which shallowly resembled much like her cousin's. The young woman still had many insecurities. However, these insecurities never made her gloomy. Tenten would have asked her why the woman's face was so dull but Temari beat her to it.

"It is nothing," Hinata attempted to force a smile.

That woman could never lie to blatantly, "I hope it really is nothing," Tenten replied. "But guys, I need a new doorbell! It broke and now it's missing."

"Is this some sort of bad omen for you?" Ino asked. Beside the blonde, Hinata stared at her with misplaced concern.

"How so?" Tenten inquired.

"I don't know, I thought it was," Ino said.

"Now that you mentioned it," Sakura broke through their mini huddle, "it breaking sort of means you're receiving bad omens right? People have been knocking on your door?" Tenten gasped. "Are you gonna die soon?" Sakura blurted it out facetiously.

Tenten smacked her arm and screeched, "I'll have you know my lifeline is quite long!" The pink-haired woman laughed and pulled them to the nearest home improvement store.

When the sun began to set and the skies started turning red, Hinata asked her if she knew where Neji now resided. Tenten looked around them. Ino, Temari, and Sakura were long gone. She snickered and rubbed her nose, "He lives with you, silly girl! Why? Did he move?"

He had moved. But all he did was move. So why was it bothering her endlessly? Tenten did not expect Neji to do anything of that sort. It was not like him to act rashly.

Did things change?

On the rooftop place of her home, she watched the twilight obscure the scenery into a black shadow. Dimly, she recalled his face. She was overcome with melancholy with the last image of him.

A chilly breeze turned her around to her door. The rampaging tides of their clashing oceans seemed to have made peace with one another but this overwhelming sadness would not subside. Poignant, Tenten gripped the bag of her goods tightly. Her eyes remained on her vanished doorbell piece. "Are you gonna die soon?" Tenten tensed her jaw and busted through her door. Would she die talking to him? Now that their roles had reversed, if they spoke again, would she be the one to perish?

The sky glowed red with the sun disappearing. Tenten was reminded of their conversation prior to the war.

Tenten did not bother to fix the doorbell.

Beyond the walls of his home, the rising noise of preparations for the celebration echoed through his white paper windows. It's today? He hadn't been counting such a pointless celebration. Neji removed Tenten's doorbell piece from the shelf after a shallow cough. He examined it with care. Even when he was mad with her, she was all that he thought of.

A familiar loud voice howled his name at the front of his gate. Neji activated his kekkei genkai only to find the child of prophecy fiddling with his gate. Yesterday Lee came here. And now Naruto too? Neji steadied his pace toward the front of his gate. He collected dust clouds of dirt from his courtyard, eager to make the blonde boy regret attempting to break his gate apart. Neji kicked his gate open, knocking the whiskered man down.

"Have some respect, Naruto!" Neji stood over the blonde boy with arms crossed over his chest.

"It hurts!" the latter yelped.

"What are you here for?" Neji asked. He watched as the boy stood up and dusted himself off.

Naruto simply grinned, embodying the spirit of Konoha himself. "You couldn't be nicer? Anyways, the others and I decided to celebrate today until tomorrow! You gotta join us!"

Neji peered past his gate and found the boys of their squadron waiting for him to concur, "No thanks. I'm not interested."

"Neji," Lee's voice halted him from shutting his gate. "You usually don't mind these things."

"I'm minding them now, Lee," he replied dully. Ending it off like that would be too cold. Neji turned around and pulled his gate door closed, "I am unwell today," he excused himself.

"You're not well?!" Naruto yelled. He broke through the gate, hyperactive as he was and peeled the long-haired boy's cross-collared robe open, "Can you still feel pain? Should we head to the hospital? Sakura-chan can-"

"Get off me-" Neji tried to fight him off.

"Naruto-kun," Lee pulled the boy off, "let me handle this."

What Lee wanted was space to speak to him alone. And that he got but not with the eavesdropping ears of their comrades on the other side of the wall. Neji, his closest friend stood before him in a manner so reminiscent of the fate-preaching boy from long ago. The round-eyed boy could not understand what the prodigy was going through. He felt the instance of a friendship thinning the moment his black orbs met that of those white eyes. Except for this time, it was like staring into a blind person's translucent own.

Lee asked his teacher what he should do nights ago after he first visited his friend. He felt that his friend was deliberately losing himself and suffering alone. He wanted to help and carry the weight of his friend's problems by any means possible. However, it seemed as though their pace no longer went in rhythm. The struggles it took to mend and tend to this field of flowers suddenly overwhelmed their bond. In every aspect of their friendship, a budding flower was wilting and spreading its death. Lee asked his teacher why the heavens were intent on making the genius's world cave under. He asked why he was powerless to save a friend being swallowed into the darkness. His teacher said it was because his friend was a born prodigy.

A born prodigy would be born sophisticated. The pressure to impress and uphold worldly standards were bestowed to born prodigies. Before he could pick up a toy, before he could choose a favorite food, every cell within his body would be injected with the weight of the world. The subjects of what was morally correct or incorrect superseded the needs of a child. Born prodigies could not afford naivety in a world where disasters occur daily. His teacher said Neji may as well be an insoluble crypt. No one, not even himself could solve his sufferings. If it was meaning he sought to find, the only solution was his own perception of it. Like a frog in the well, its entire world was what it could only see.

"But for Neji, he's trying hard to look outside that well. He requires patience and understanding. His heart and mind are now melded as one. Within him, I know there's a mountain of confusion he's trying to decipher. He cannot do it alone unless he chooses to ask for it. Don't worry, Lee. Neji is strong. You have to trust him."

"However, Gai-sensei never finished his thoughts," Lee looked at his long-time friend with determination. "If your heart and mind is settled on one thing, it can only settle on the better. I won't see you becoming a shadow of your former self. I won't allow it. You are a good person and good people will never let their own darkness eat them up!"

From behind the wall, the sound of a gasp and a hush erupted.

"You always talk funny, Lee," Neji made light of his friend's dire confession. "Do you really think I am a good person?"

Lee's eyes grew glossy until the tears fell ungraciously. The years of friendship together, from two naive kids learning to work with one another and blossoming into understanding each other, such a question hurt him so much. This friend was a bond wishing to happen. And when it did, Lee believed their ties were forever. To question him if his friend was a good person, it was to assume there was a considerable amount of doubt. "Never once have I ever doubted you were a good person."

However, the sad smile on that friend's lips shook the earth bed of their field of flowers. The tendrils of blooming memories began to uproot. Lee was determined to keep their bond intact.

"Hey, that's a smile!" Lee wiped his tears away, purposefully misconstruing those somber lips as happy ones. He waved for his friend to accompany them on such a bright day, "C'mon, Neji! It won't be fun if we're not complete!"

Deceitful as that smile of his was, he replied "no". "I'm feeling unwell today, truly."

Did the world stop to lift this sophisticated prodigy off the ground to his friends? Lee believed it did. The born-genius had no choice but to dally for tonight.

"Just for one night, Neji. Let's believe the world is on your side."