Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto
'…' thoughts
"…" spoken words
Attacks/Techniques (except for the first part, that's a flash-forward)
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
"Go Lee! I can hold them off." A battle-weary Hyuuga held his ground, fighting six Rock-nin at once. "Hakkeshō Kaiten!" Neji whirled in perfect formation knocking all of them back, but four came back in ready for more. A small amount of panic crept into his lavender eyes, but he kept it under control and did not lose focus.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Their mission had been dangerous from the start: to retrieve a stolen scroll containing ancient and dark techniques that had been forbidden in Konoha. A single Rock nin spy had infiltrated the village and stolen the scroll and as he fled, met up with forty other various Rock chuunin and jounin. The Hokage had been informed immediately but the damage had been done, she sent the only two able-bodied jounin available. Rock Lee and Hyuuga Neji.
They had been warned that they might not come home, in fact the success rate stood at merely twenty percent. But being the proud shinobi that they were, the pair accepted the mission without hesitation. The plan was to wait for the cover of darkness and to silently infiltrate the foreign shinobi's forces. Unfortunately, the pair had been discovered when a frightened flock of birds had signaled their presence.
All at once the Rock nin swarmed on the pair. At first they Konoha shinobi seemed to be fighting a losing battle, but they soon gained the upper hand as Lee opened his Initial and Heal Gates. The taijutsu-master's speed and stamina increased greatly and he immediately took out four opponents, and three more soon followed their fallen comrades.
Neji also aided the green beast, greatly. Byakugan activated, he rushed in and easily ended the lives of two young chuunin with a Jyuuken blow to the temple. His Jyuuken style attacks proved deadly once more as he used the Hakke Rokujūyon Shō, closing all the tenkutsu points on his opponent and ending the fight with a kunai across the throat.
However as the battle waged on for hours, both fighters began to feel the effects on their bodies. Lee's muscles ached from keeping the gates open for so long, and Neji's eyes were throbbing from the continued use of his Byakugan. Neither of the rivals wanted to show their weakness to their enemies, or more, to each other; so they continued without any sounds of complaint.
But luck was not on their side for long. One of the Rock nin, tired of the fight pulled out a handful of stinging powder from his kunai holster. Waiting for Lee to turn to attack him, he thrust the concoction into the Green Beast's eyes. The taijutsu-master cried out in pain as his eyes began to burn, but he was not to be deterred for long.
Using instinct alone, he struck out at his opponents. Hitting one, two, three of them he did not notice a creeping presence behind him until it was too late.
"Ahhrg!" Lee shouted in agony as he was stabbed violently with a kunai in the back of his shoulder. The green-eyed Rock shinobi grinned and twisted the cruel metal into the soft flesh.
However, his victory was short-lived; a Jyuuken blow to the face ended his life quite quickly. Neji had heard his teammates cry and worked his way over to him as quickly as possible.
Not one to bother with pointless questions, the Hyuuga did not ask whether Lee was alright or not; he merely stepped in front of him and began to fight with renewed vigor.
"Neji I am fine I can handle these warriors."
"You are not fine. You can barely see or move your right arm; I will fight the remaining shinobi."
"But-"
"Shut up Lee!"
The Green Beast held his tongue but sensed another Rock nin coming up behind the pair and quickly engaged in another small battle with him.
Unbeknownst to the taijutsu-master, as his eyes were currently incapacitated, Neji was not as fine as he pretended to be.
A sudden lapse in judgment had left a deep gash in his side and the Hyuuga had nearly lost four of his fingers to an exploding tag only moments before. However his fingers were burnt and blistering, paining him whenever he struck an opponent.
Soon the opponents both were fighting dropped dead, one with a broken neck, and another with a stopped heart. However sixteen enemies still remained.
Neji and Lee stood guarding each other's backs. The Hyuuga was desperately trying to formulate a plan during the small lull in the battle. Coming up with nothing else, he reached for his teammate's arm with one hand and activated a flash bomb with the other. While the Rock nin were temporarily blinded, he pulled the taijutsu-master along with him towards Konoha.
"Neji! What are you doing? We still have to retrieve the scroll!"
"I have the scroll." To emphasize his point the pale-eyed jounin pressed aforementioned paper into Lee's palm.
"Then what are we doing? What is the purpose of this?"
"I'm sorry Lee." The green beast looked at his teammate quizzically.
"For what?"
"This." The Hyuuga struck the taijutsu-master in the head, knocking him unconscious. He tucked the scroll in the green-clad jounin's kunai holster and pushed him under a partially rotted log. Neji took one last look at his slumbering teammate, before heading back to the battle with renewed vigor.
"Looks like the brat decided to come back! Let's make sure he regrets it!" The team of Rock nin surged in on the Konoha shinobi. He remained silent and focused his chakra.
"Hakke Rokujūyon Shō!" Neji closed the tenkutsu points on three of his opponents and slashed their jugulars before they knew what was happening.
Two more met their ends with a Jyuuken blow to the heart, but they rest took the next moment to fire a barrage kunai at the Hyuuga.
Still regaining strength from the last attack, the pale-eyed jounin could not muster enough chakra to perform a Kaiten. He tried to evade most of them on speed alone, but eight managed to slip past his defenses and struck him.
"Kill him quickly, this one's dangerous!" A young looking Rock chuunin looked at Neji fearfully.
"No. We may already have the information contained on the scroll, but this one caused us quite a bit of trouble. We don't have to be back at the village until tomorrow night…let's have some fun with this one." The man that appeared to be the leader grinned sadistically.
"Yes, let's."
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Despite his attempts to keep quiet, to not give his enemies the satisfaction of knowing he was in pain, Neji's broken cries soon filled the glen.
Exploding tag after exploding tag was attached to his body and activated. He was covered in blistering burns, and when the team ran out of the pain-causing paper they attacked with kunai, fists, and even logs leaving the jounin on death's doorstep. He knew what broken ribs felt like, and the iron bands of pain that threatened to stop his lungs, signaled that at least one was fractured.
"Enough." The leader halted the rest of his team. "The sun is coming up, it'll take us 'til night to reach the village anyhow, we'd best get going."
"Sir, what about the prisoner?" The cruel leader looked at Neji with hateful eyes. "Cut him down, death will have him within the hour anyhow. Besides, he's unrecognizable anyhow; no one will be willing to save him." It was true. The Hyuuga's face was blackened and blistering. Only his eyes stood out clearly, and even they were dull from the pain.
The young chuunin released his captive from the ropes that bound him to a thick tree. Neji fell to the ground roughly, unable to stop himself.
"Move out team."
The group of Rock nin turned and headed back to their village, without looking back.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Lee woke hours later as the sun peaked through the trees. The first thing he noticed was that he could see clearly. He stood up and noticed an unfamiliar weight in his kunai holster. He investigated and found the scroll that he and Neji were supposed to—
Neji!
That idiot must have gone back to face the rest of the Rock shinobi by himself. Panic welled within him, and the green beast headed back to the area of the fight in record time.
"Neji! Neji where are you?" He searched frivolously for a few minutes until a small fit of coughing met his ears. He turned to find a severely burned body.
"Neji?" The figure faced him. No one else had pale eyes like that. "Neji!"
He was by his teammate's side in an instant. "What did they do to you Neji?"
"N-nothing I c-c-couldn't handle." The Hyuuga's strong words were betrayed by his voice.
"I have to get you to a medic. Come on." Lee attempted to scoop the jounin into his arms, but was stopped, by a burnt hand. "What are you doing?"
"I-I won't make it. Its m-my time." Tears formed in the taijutsu-master's eyes, and he grabbed his friend's hand.
"No. I will not accept that."
"You were t-t-t-too good to me Lee, tak-take care of y-yourself."
"Stop it! You can beat this, I know you can."
"Lee," Neji's weak voice was stern.
"Why would you do that for me Neji?"
"C-can't have my r-rival beating me. Y-you'd better complete the mission, l-loser. T-they know wh-what's in the scroll."
The grip began to slacken as Neji lost his footing in this world.
"I-I'll be waiting for you." The Hyuuga's hand went limp, and the tears ran freely down Lee's face.
"Your death will not be in vain Neji, it WILL NOT." Without further ado, the green beast opened three of The Gates and headed after the retreating Rock nin.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Three days later, a funeral was held for Hyuuga Neji. Many people attended, more people than Neji, himself, would have expected.
After the funeral, each of the remaining Rookie 9, Tenten, Gai, Hiashi, and Lee held back. Each gave time to one another to give their final goodbyes to the prodigy.
"I'm sorry Neji. You tried to get Sasuke-kun back; I know it wasn't for me, but I thank you just the same. You will be missed."
Sakura left a white rose behind.
"Neji, I know it was troublesome, but I never repaid you for coming with us after the Uchiha. I still owe you one."
Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji left a violet clematis before leaving as well.
"Neji, I never forgave you for what you did to Hinata-chan. Maybe I should have, now it's too late. See you in the next life."
Kiba and Shino left forget-me-nots on the grave.
"Neji-nii-san. I'm sorry, I should have been stronger. I never blamed you for what happened when we were genin. I shall miss you nii-san."
Hinata left a purple iris for her cousin.
"Neji, I should have protected you. Forgive Hizashi, I failed."
Hiashi left only a glance as he, too, left.
"Dammit Neji, why you? Hyuuga Neji. Does. Not. Die. You were supposed to be a genius, yet you believed in a loser like me, I'll never forget you."
Naruto left a yellow rose before departing.
"Neji…my student, you never liked me did you? It doesn't matter, I am proud of you. I thank you for saving Lee; I just wish that it did not have to end like this. Goodbye Neji."
Gai left an orchid before he sought solitude to grieve his student.
"Neji-kun. I'm sorry, I should have been there. I should have told you this before, but I'm telling you now. I love you; I love you and what do you do? You go off and get yourself killed! …Please wait for me, as I shall for you."
Tenten left a white lily and a river of tears behind as well.
Lee was all alone.
"Neji! We were supposed to be rivals forever! Why did you have to do that? We should have died together, like teammates, but you had to go and save me. I shall miss you forever, my friend."
Lee could remain strong no longer; the death of his best friend hit him hard, and he wept on Neji's headstone.
It read:
A Good Friend
A Proud Shinobi
A Free Bird
Hyuuga Neji
A small bird landed on the green beast's shoulder.
"Neji?"
The bird cheeped, and looked at me with unusual pale eyes and flew off.
"Until we meet again, my friend."
Lee took out kunai and carved a symbol on the back of his hand, before he too left.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Rock Lee went on to become captain of an ANBU team and the most powerful, next to the Hokage, in Konoha. And from the day of his best friend's funeral on, he carried the mark of a caged bird on the back of his hand to remind him of the brave sacrifice made long ago by a free bird.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Another sad little one-shot I wrote last night while I should have been sleeping XD Poor Neji I always hurt him or kill him off. Sorry Neji-kun.
Please review on the way out, it just makes me write more!
Thanks guys!
Hugs,
MM