The female Hyuuga girl couldn't hold back her tears, and hugged her older cousin for comfort. Neji wrapped his arms around her instinctively, and held her tight while she cried. After a few minutes of thinking nothing but ways to murder the blonde, he noticed Hinata stopped crying a bit. "He's a bastard to do this to you. You deserve much, much better Hinata." The eighteen year old fell apart like a child in his arms. He was her first boyfriend, he was her inspiration, he was her everything. Neji felt so helpless. She looked at him softy, wiping a tear from her cheek. "I-I d-don't want b-better, I-I w-wanted h-him! I-I've a-always liked him, y-you kn-know that." The look she had on her face was pure torture, and Neji wished he could take all the bad feeling she was happen and feel them for her. "I l-lived for him, Neji-nii-san, I-I love him! Now I'm n-nothing a-at all. I-I could die and n-nobody would care!" She sobbed and held unto her older cousin.
Neji's brain was reeling. 'He's not good enough! I'd do everything for you! I'd die in your place! I'd die with you! I'd care! ' And suddenly for Neji, time stopped. There, in the middle of the pink room, on the corner of a girl's bed, with the girl's smell of lavender wafting through his senses, he realized what he'd been denying. 'I've fallen in love with my cousin.' He looked down at the pale girl clutching to him in a new light. She was perfect in every way. The way she laughed, the way she cared, the way she came to him for help, the way she didn't care if he was a bastard or cold, the way she saw through all that, and he loved her. "Is th-there something wr-wrong?" Hinata quietly asked.
He held her tighter then he ever had before. "Hinata, you're not nothing. You're a beautiful, smart, caring girl. You're every good quality I could imagine." He let her go, slowly, and tilted her chin up so they could meet eyes. "Hinata, you're somebody's everything." Neji watched as she closed her eyes and gave him a hug. "Thank you Neji-nii-san. You really think so?" Neji smirked as he got up off the bed, cursing the sudden distance from her. "Better. I know so." She smiled, and Neji's problems went away. He offered her a tissue, and slowly slipped out the door.
The oldest Hyuuga walked at a very fast pace down the hall to his room, avoiding the servants and pushing past Hanabi, who stuck her tongue out. When he finally got to his destination, he closed the door, slid down the wall, and just sat there. Not thinking. And he stayed like this for longer then he can remember. It was almost dark out when he looked up, and he only had one thing on his mind. He wondered how it got this way. He hated her not long ago, hated the main branch, and now he couldn't remember why.
His father had died out of his own will, it was his choice. If anyone was to be blamed for his death, it was Hizashi himself. And yet, Neji didn't accept or acknowledge this until now. All this time, all this hate, all this hurt; it was for nothing. And it was distressing how, despite all the barriers, beliefs and everything he'd come to establish, even though he lived by set rules he'd created for himself, everything Neji had known was being crushed. By a silly little emotion. It wasn't even a very long word. It was four letters. It was small, and it was just that; a word. Love. But four, seemingly harmless letters broke down thousands of set notions and picked apart certainty. And even being the genius he was, Neji didn't understand it.
Neji was woken by a loud voice much too early in the morning. "Neji-kun! Hello! How are you today? Your uncle informed me that you were in your room, and gave me permission to come see you!" Neji half-opened his pallid eyes to a bright green blur, slowly coming in and out of focus. Blinking, Neji instinctively felt a rush of anger. "What do you want, Lee?" "You are awake! Good! Shall we proceed to meet Tenten?" "What are you talking about?' Neji checked the time; almost afternoon. He usually didn't wake this late. "Right. Go wait downstairs while I get dressed." Kohona's green beast gave him a thumbs up. "Yosh! I shall be waiting with vigor!" And with that, he ran to wait. With vigor. Quite opposite of his friend, Neji lethargically pulled himself out of bed. And threw on some clothes. And brushed his hair exactly fifty times. And walked downstairs.
On his way to where his dynamic friend waited, Neji was caught off-guard by a light tap on his shoulder. "Neji-nii-san?" A shiver ran up his arm and down his back. All the feelings from the night before exploded in his heart, and he showed not a sign of it. "Hinata-sama." He nodded in acknowledgement. "I, um, I just w-wanted to say thank you. F-for last night." Their eyes met, and although Neji has always thought their eyes were exactly the same, he now noticed how different they were. He looked into her eyes, and saw sincere emotion. She was truly grateful for his help. And his eyes stayed vacant, unfeeling. "You're welcome." "It really m-means a lot to me." He nodded again. "I know."
"I-I'm really glad we're talking. I used to be terribly frightened of you." Neji flinched slightly. Was he that cruel? He took the comment and tucked it into another part of his mind, to recall later. "I know." There was a moment of uncomfortable silence before he turned to walk away. Then, spontaneously and completely against his will, he turned around to face his cousin, and pulled her into his arms. "If you ever need me, I'm there." He pulled back, and it was Hinata's turn to nod, bemused and clearly not expecting that. "T-thank you." And with that, he bounded down the stairs.
When Neji and his bouncy friend Lee finally saw Tenten in the distance, she was talking to a man with bright blonde hair and even brighter orange clothes. Neji was immediately angry at the fact that such an asshole had the nerve to walk around, talking to people like nothing was wrong, and like he hadn't just broken Hinata's heart into a thousand pieces. And even worse, he was chatting up one of his best friends.
As they came closer to the talking pair, Naruto's loud voice was heard first. "So then, I guess I'll give you a call, huh babe?" Tenten gave him a weird look. "Babe? I never gave you my number." The Hokage winked and began to stroll away. "I'm the Hokage; I have everyone's number." With that he was gone in a flash. Tenten let out an angry sigh and turned to meet her ex-team members. "Hey guys, what took so long?" "Why was that idiot flirting with you?" Neji asked right away, surprising Tenten a little. Neji never talked first unless it had to do with a mission. "Hey, nice to see you, Neji. I'm good, thanks for asking." Lee laughed but promptly stopped when the Hyuuga gave him a stern look. "Okay, geez. I dunno, I was just standing here and he came over and started hitting on me. Why?" Kohona's green beast leaned over to whisper in the branch member's ear. "Are you jealous, Neji-kun?" Neji dropped all emotion, if there was any to start. "No." Lee laughed; he clearly didn't believe him.
'If he only knew.' Thought Neji.
Ah! I didn't update in forevs! So I wrote a longer chapter. I'm going to be updating more often now, since Summer is coming. Yay!
Lots happened in this chapter, I found I went out of my style a little around paragraph five, more descriptive. Hopefully it wasn't too bad. I particularily like it.
I was sad this chapter, it was missing the Hanabi factor. Don't worry, next chapter, Hanabi AHOY!
Read and review please. J