Hold me.

Neji was a remarkable child. He worked hard and was diligent, eager to learn and eager to please. For a mere branch child, he excelled in the art of the Gentle Fist. He was even better than his cousin Hinata, who was supposed to be the heiress of the Hyuuga clan and had access to all of the family secrets that Neji could not even fathom existed.

Some noted that if Neji's mother and father had not survived, he might have become a vastly different child.

Neji's mother was a gentle, kind woman who no one expected to live through the childbirth. She and Hizashi were engaged since they were young, and held enough politeness to each other before the wedding on their eighteenth birthdays to be willing to produce a child. Of course, she was a branch family member, and her wide pale forehead was always covered with a thin strip of silk as she went about her day tending to her own personal garden or whispering stories to her son.

Hizashi tutored Neji himself, always helping him when things felt too tough to continue. Neji did his best to please his father and protect the Main House. Sometimes though, his father would get a dark look in his eyes and scowl in the mirror as if he kept seeing something he didn't like. Neji would go to his mother instead and she would placate him as best she could.

"He is not angry at you or anyone else," she told him. "He is merely angry at his destiny."

Destiny. Neji wasn't too sure he liked the idea of it, but he wasn't about to do anything about it because the next day his father would go back to being the peaceful, amiable man he knew him as.

As Neji grew older though, he began to learn things. For one, invisible rules seemed to govern his life. All Branch House members must return to the compound before midnight unless on a mission. Bow your head low to a Main Branch member, and even lower if it's Lord Hiashi or his family. Your eyes will make people stare at you for the rest of your life, but you will give your life without hesitation if it will save the Byakugan. You can't play with Lady Hinata because she has more important things to do.

Bitterly Neji caged all of these feelings of oppression inside him, wondering if this was how his father felt every time he looked in the mirror. The jade green mark he had found so pretty, when it stopped throbbing after he first got it, had become a constant reminder of these intangible bars. Despite this, Neji's mother cooed him stories and his father helped him meditate to ease his mind. He didn't know what he would do if he didn't have them.

When Neji entered the academy, he was reluctant to let go of his father's hand. Hizashi's palms were always calloused and rough, but they were warm and tender too. His father smiled down at him, the wrinkles around his eyes always becoming more pronounced as he grinned. He focused Neji's attention to a young girl standing away from the crowd of new academy students and their parents, noting the buns on her head and her pretty pink shirt. "She looks lonely. Why don't you go cheer her up, I'm sure she could use a friend." And Neji agreed, letting go of his father's hand to jog over to her.

Smiling boyishly, he told her, "Hi I'm Neji Hyuuga. You looks rather lonesome alls bys yourself, so I wanted to see if you needed a friend." His eyes sparkled as he saw the girl lift up her head, tanned cheeks round with childishness and dark brown eyes seeming to stare right through him. She wasn't smiling though.

"I don't need friends," she told him coldly, her high-pitched voice completely monotone as she shifted away from him. "Go away, you're a bother."

Absolutely crushed, Neji turned to where his father had been to inquire why this girl was so cold. Unfortunately, Hizashi was nowhere to be seen anymore and Neji felt completely lost for the first time in his life.


The girl was in his class, sitting in the back and never paying any attention to her peers. Neji sat away from her, closer up to the teacher to hear what the lesson of the day would be. Survival techniques, ninja code, and how to use basic ninjutsu. He would always become distracted though by that cold-eyed girl, the one who kept to herself and wore a pretty pink shirt every day.

Neji became friends with several of the other students, who seemed to like him more for his milky eyes than his friendly smile. Only one of the boys seemed to not care, even though he was a failure in the class.

"You'll get it next time," Neji assured Rock Lee as the other failed to yet again use the substitution jutsu. Apparently the teachers have said something about unformed chakra coils, but Neji truly believed Lee will be able to be a great ninja despite the handicap.

A fire seemed to physically burn within the boy's wide circular eyes as he clenched a fist and made a rather strong face that turned out to be more hilarious than inspiring. "I will run five hundred laps around the track if I cannot perform the substitution jutsu next time!" he assured Neji, causing the brown-haired boy to mentally groan. Lee was way too exuberant!

"Don't hurt yourself," he settled on, noticing just out of the corner of his eyes the bun-haired girl leaving the room for their lunch break. Whispering softly, Neji said, "That girl's always been uninterested in whatever we do. She barely speaks and she's always wearing that pink shirt. What's her name?"

Lee peeked over to where the girl had done, already recognizing her signature hairstyle and dress. "Oh, that's Tenten. She's like that because she's the only kid in the class without any parents. She lives in the orphanage and was the only one capable of becoming a ninja." Startled, Neji wondered why he had not known this before. "We don't really talk about it because we pity her too much. I don't think she even wants to be a ninja."

More curious than ever, Neji snuck off before lunch break ended to find Tenten reading in the library. She had her button-nose buried in between the pages of a very, very large encyclopedia of the history of every ninja tool in existence. Her brown doe-eyes, which were rather dark and blank for a child her age, were studying the material in all seriousness. And it looked like she completely understoood the information.

Feeling apprehensive of interrupting her, Neji tried to walk over as casually and smoothly as he could, but she still noticed him with the way her eyes flickered to him briefly before returning to her book. She probably thinks that if she ignores him, he'll go away Neji thought, chagrined by her reaction. Swallowing, he said, "Hi I'm Neji Hyuuga. You look a little lonely here by yourself; would you mind someone to talk to?" He smiled shyly at her, hoping to melt her icy exterior a bit.

But she didn't even look askance at him as she grunted and waved him off. "You're a bother," she said, flipping a page to display a rather intricate diagram of some explosive bomb.

Disappointed, but feeling something weigh on his chest oddly, Neji walked back to the classroom without another word.


That Tenten girl sure was weird. Only a year and a half at the academy and she had top-ranks in nearly every subject despite appearing as if she wasn't listening to a word their teacher said. She often gazed out the window and didn't answer questions unless specifically asked, and of which she was always correct. All of the other students strayed away from her to be with more talkative and less-insulting people, but their gazes would wander back on her should she pass by them or enter the room.

Neji didn't enjoy getting shot down by her, but he just couldn't pin the feeling she gave him. It was a mix of pity, sadness, curiosity, and something more... He wanted to know why she was so alone if she was from an orphanage. Wouldn't she want more friends to be with her? To smile or laugh once in a while instead of shooting that blank, judging look at everyone? How could someone go through life like that? Neji wanted to know.

So he tried.

Bringing up the orphanage sounded like a horrible idea, and thus Neji decided to ask her about other things.

"What's your favorite thing to eat?" he said one day, catching Tenten in the library once more. A new book was in front of her, big as the last one. Did she really finish the first one? Neji tried not to appear so impressed.

As usual though, Tenten told him, "Go away, you're being a bother." But this time, Neji didn't. He simply repeated his question, prompting Tenten to take a second glance at him with a hint of irritation in her eyes. "What I like to eat doesn't matter. Now leave."

"What if I wanted to make you a lunch?" Neji defended, looking rather defiant on the outside but on the inside mentally berating himself for going up against a girl like this.

Tenten scoffed almost sardonically and waved him off once more, a rather cruel smirk on her features. "Highly unlikely. A pretty boy like you has probably never lifted a finger in his life." Stung, Neji scurried away as he clutched his chest tightly. Her words were as razor-sharp as the weapons she regularly employed, and it felt like his heart had just been stabbed through - a dead bullseye.


After that experiment Neji strayed from Tenten as much as possible, but destiny seemed to have something against him.

Every exercise involving teamwork paired the both of them together. Tenten would barely look his way, expecting him to obey her without a single word being uttered between them. At first, it ticked him off to be honest, and they scrambled most of the time with their own capabilities. Their teacher seemed to think they made the ideal team though, because he kept rattling off their names together like they were a two-for-one sale.

Neji noticed patterns though, something he had not been able to see in Tenten when he approached her directly. By observing her out of the corner of his eyes he noticed that her gaze was often straight ahead, but habitually it would glance over at something that would take her interest or concentration. Just by following her hardened earthy pupils he could understand where to strike or what to target. Every move of hers was calculated at least ten steps beforehand, allowing her to be smooth and graceful. New factors were accounted for on the fly, and Neji found himself adapting to every new battle strategy just by peering into her eyes.

It was just survival tact, Neji reasoned, and that he could do the same thing were he be forced to fight alongside anyone else.

Soon though, the two of them had been fighting so efficiently it would be absurd not to put such complementary individuals on a team. And that is exactly what happened when they graduated. Being the best of the best, they were given the failure Rock Lee. Tenten appeared unimpressed, but Neji was glad he wouldn't be stuck with such a frigid girl.

Their teacher Gai pushed for hard work and the spirt of youth. Neji was hit by a mix of morbid curiosity and annoyance from the man, but respected his strength adamantly. Lee especially seemed to have taken a liking to him, which Neji was grateful for because that meant he wouldn't have to wear that disturbing green jumpsuit.

At first it was very basic stuff. Running up trees and hanging by their branches. Walking on water and learning more advanced jutsus. Team sparring consisted of two random students facing off against each other, and the winner would have to face off with the one who didn't get to battle in the first round. Naturally, Tenten was able to outsmart Lee and overwhelm Neji. He had the Byakugan, but his body just couldn't move around enough to dodge every single one of her weapons.

He wondered if there was a Hyuuga jutsu meant to solve that problem.

"Boring," Tenten groused as she stepped over Lee's incapacitated body. A solid blow to the back of the head with the blunt end of a pole arm and he was out. Gai gave his precious team flower a disapproving look at her words, before going to pick Lee up and set him aside.

"Yosh! Neji, you're next! Give our dearest flower a fight to remember!" Neji sighed, feeling resigned to his fate. It was like this every day, no matter how loud Gai's booming voice got. Tenten would wipe the floor with them, using only her weapons and speed to sometimes literally whack them into the ground. If Neji was true to himself, he would admit that constantly losing to a girl in a pretty pink shirt was rather embarrassing.

Today felt a little different though. Neji tracked Tenten through her eyes as usual, watching her pupils take stock of her opponent before she turned them to the left and disappeared into the surrounding forest. Activating his bloodline, Neji only had half a second to spin out of the way of three kunai.

Not even giving him any time, more barrages of weapons sailed at him. It got to the point where Neji was not really dodging so much as pivoting on his heel endlessly. The spinning was making him dizzy, allowing him to be an easy opponent should he become disoriented. Gritting his teeth, Neji focused his eyes on where Tenten was. She was watching him this time, staring straight back as Neji centered on her face. Soon the whirling around him was blocked out by her dark iris', and he lasted ten more minutes before Tenten seemed to have gotten fed up with him and threw a weighted chain in the exact place he would spin next.

It wrapped around him easily with his momentum, and when Tenten pulled he was swept off his feet and landed on the ground in a daze, unable to move.

She walked over to him, her breathing slow even when his was erratic. "You need to work on your defense," she told him right before she sealed the chain back into one of her many, many scrolls and walking off. Gai frowned after her as Neji sat upright on the ground.

A defense, he thought curiously. How could he make a defense that would protect him from literally every direction?


Team Gai was already one of the best teams in its generation. Tenten was the strategist, with Neji and Lee as the close-combat duo. She organized them to the roles best suited for them, and Gai would often praise them for their effortless teamwork.

In truth, Tenten was simply commanding them like pawns on a chessboard and Neji and Lee simply obeyed. A wall had developed between Lee and Tenten, Neji noted. While he and Lee were friendly, and Tenten was slightly more polite to him than the average person, she was downright antagonistic when it came to Lee. She would do often to provoke him, pointing out his many flaws such as a reckless move or an impulsive action that would end in his defeat whenever they spared.

"You're too soft-hearted," she told him coldly as he lay on the ground once more, numerous lacerations bleeding freely all over. "You fight me like a teammate, not the enemy. If you don't start taking this seriously, you're going to die without any credit to your name." And then she would leave. Neji didn't know where she would go, and by the time he had recovered from their own spar she was out of his Byakugan's range.

Wrapping the bandages over his forearm, wincing at the cuts running up and down his arm, Neji said to Lee idly, "Why is Tenten so cruel?" Like last time, Lee recounted her orphanage. "But just not having any parents can't be the whole story. There has to be more," Neji insisted. "If I lost my mom or dad, I'd be devastated. But I'd also be incredibly bitter to whoever killed them. Do you think Tenten became a ninja to exact her revenge?"

Lee frowned uneasily at the prospect. "If she is doing this for revenge," he said lowly, whispering as if the blowing leaves around them had ears, "the light in her eyes will never shine again."

Swallowing, Neji fixed his bandages and said goodbye to Lee early. After Tenten beat them, he and Lee would train together or with Gai, but their teacher had to be called away for important business regarding their qualifications for the upcoming Chuunin exams. Though Neji wanted to do it, he wasn't sure he could rely on his team enough to successfully pass the test together.

Neji went straight to his father that day, sitting beside Hizashi as the two shared some green tea. "She's been cold for a long time," Neji recounted, watching as some grey pigeons pecked the ground in search of food in the Hyuuga courtyard. "Ever since I could remember. Lee thinks she's doing it for revenge, but I'm not so sure."

His father was contemplative as he sipped his drink. Finally, after a moment, Hizashi turned to Neji. "Revenge is a very... empty thing," he began, drawing his son's attention from the birds. "It can control you, shackle you even more than our curse seal ever could. If you seek revenge, you imprison yourself. Revenge is not a pretty thing, Neji. It is the cause of many of our wars, and the motivator of our greatest evils. This Tenten girl might have succumbed to her thirst for vengeance, but I believe she can be saved from her cage."

"How so?" Neji questioned immediately.

Hizashi smiled at him, albeit a bit sorrowfully. "By creating a key."


Once again he was told to get closer to her.

Tenten was like a fortress though, all of her weapons made to keep everyone out. She was icy and emotionless, isolating herself from the rest of the world. Neji watched her as she walked down the road to training, noticing how alone she truly looked with her pink top contrasting the greys of the early morning.

"What's your favorite thing to eat?" he asked the moment she could hear him.

If she was surprised by his question, she didn't show it. Recently she had been expressing a lot less since Gai didn't allow them to take that Chuunin exam, though it had more to do with his rivalry regarding another Jounin than it was their lacking teamwork.

"What I like to eat doesn't matter." Her answer was the same as before, and as her mouth moved to give him an insult, Neji spoke up.

"I will make your favorite food," he told her, staring straight at her earthy brown eyes. "If you tell me, I promise I can make your favorite food exactly the way you want it."

Something seemed to flash in Tenten's eyes. A flicker of amber, or a sparkle of gold. Whatever it is, Neji's heart fluttered as he watched her make a decision. He was almost afraid she would tell him to stop being a bother, but thankfully she said, "I like sesame dumplings."

Neji smiled at her, feeling like he had made a step towards whatever he was reaching for.

It momentarily went away when she seemed to spent extra time making him spin around, and by the end of training he had nearly dislocated his ankle from all the movement.

"I think she's trying to get you to do something," Lady Hinata told him as she helped him make the dumplings that night. It was a miracle that Neji had been able to wrangle cooking lessons from her, what with all of Hinata's studies for her graduation soon and Neji being a rather unimportant branch member. Their relationship was like brother and sister, despite whatever barrier the two houses had made.

"I do not get why she would purposefully make me rotate on the ball of my feet," Neji sighed as he rolled the dough between his hands in sesame seeds. "She's been doing it for weeks now."

Hinata didn't reply right away. Instead she filled the uncooked dough with sweet black bean paste, licking her lips nervously because she couldn't twiddle her fingers. "Maybe...," she said softly, even quieter than she usually spoke so that Neji had to lean over to hear her properly. "Maybe... she wants you to learn the Heavenly Rotation..."

Tenten most certainly did not know any of the forbidden Hyuuga techniques. Neji himself did not know them, and Hinata said that the Heavenly Rotation was not something even most Main branch members were unable to master.

"It involves spinning in place and surrounding your body within a dome of chakra expelled from all of your tenketsu," she explained cautiously, the two of them on high alert as she told her cousin a jutsu he should never be allowed to learn. "I have tried it, but being able to revolve in place on command is difficult. I think Tenten is just trying to get you to dodge, but learning the Rotation would improve your defense capabilities enormously."

Neji thanked his cousin, for the sesame dumplings and the concept of a new jutsu. He was so grateful to her, and told her to simply forget their conversation should he be caught learning a move off-limits to him. She smiled kindly at him, making a silly show of zipping her mouth shut before she had to go off and train with her father.

The next day, Neji approached Tenten with a new resolve and a boxed lunch full of sesame dumplings.