They got no rest, he decided. None at all.
Itachi had been sent back out on a mission almost immediately. They'd thought he would have his usual break between missions, and they'd made plans since Neji's seventeenth birthday would be in five days. And Itachi was back out in the field on a mission that he'd said could take a week, and then Neji had been called out as well, and now he was crouched under an overhang the day before his birthday in a raging thunderstorm that had built up during the heat, and it was all just so wrong.
At least he was dry.
Finally the rain let up, and then the clouds cleared, and the team was able to proceed homewards again. They leapt the walls, skimming the rooftops and bursting in through the large window on the side of the reports office. So often had shinobi come through the windows that they had simply installed a bigger window and made it an entrance.
He asked after the ANBU codenamed Yuki. He was told they hadn't reported in yet.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Neji's birthday was made better by Itachi returning in the middle of it, walking in fresh off a mission still in his gear again and handing Neji a neatly wrapped box that turned out to contain a fine yukata and a string of hina shuriken from a famous weaponsmaker in Mist. How Itachi had known that Neji had been lusting after such shuriken for years was a mystery, but he wasn't going to complain.
But the best present of all was given to him when Itachi was 'helping' Neji by carrying all the presents he'd gotten back across the garden to his room. He said, in that matter-of-fact way that always made even the Hyuuga prodigy feel a little stupid, that Neji knew his way around the compound and he, Itachi, did not. So it was Neji who was carrying nothing and Itachi who held everything, and it felt more than a little awkward.
The branch house was quiet; a party had been thrown in honor of Neji's birthday, and every Hyuuga currently in the compound was in attendance. It was more a social event at times than a birthday, as half the guest list was comprised of people Neji didn't know but was expected to shake hands and smile pleasantly at. He slid open the screen to his room. "Just put them down on the desk there," he said. There was the rustle of the various packages being set down.
"Neji."
"Yes?"
"Turn around and close your eyes. I've got one last thing to give you."
Curious, as there was no other place for Itachi to put something of any size without it bulging out, he followed the instructions and stood in the middle of the moonlit room, eyes closed. "What—"
Itachi kissed him. It wasn't a hurried kiss, or a passionate one; he simply put his arms on Neji's hips and kissed him.
Very flustered, Neji almost pulled away, but as though he'd read the Hyuuga's thoughts Itachi's grip on him tightened just a little, and just like that Neji was caught. It occurred to him that he should do something with his hands, so he hesitantly placed them on the front of Itachi's flak jacket. Under his right palm, he could feel Itachi's heartbeat, faster than normal—was the ice-cold Uchiha genius nervous?
He decided then that it really, truly didn't matter.
When they finally returned to the party, only a few people understood why Neji looked so flushed and Itachi looked so triumphant.