Once upon a time, there was a boy who never smiled.
He never smiled because there was always one terrible thought circling around in his head.
Envy: Invidia. A feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another's advantages, success, possessions, etc.
Neji couldn't stand it, but he knew he had to. If he didn't, there would be more un-standable things, say, the activation of that flipping curse seal.
It was just so… unjust. Fate had given him one of the most horrible prizes from the treasure box: the life of a branch Hyuuga. He had tried to be content about it, but that didn't work. And then he had tried to not care about it, but that didn't work either. Not deep down inside, anyways.
So all he could do was to keep silent about it and not let anything concerning it slip out through his speech or body language.
Neji narrowed his large, opaque eyes.
His cousin, standing in front of him, had the life that he – Hyuuga Neji, prodigy – had always been meant for: the Hyuuga heir, born of the Main branch. Hyuuga Neji was the one that was strong enough to lead the whole clan to prosperity, not the one to bodyguard who he was supposed to be.
Unfortunately, fate was cruel to him.
And as he went into the traditional, deadly Hyuuga stance and activated his Byakugan, an old, strong, familiar surge of hate and anger, and, most of all, envy, rose up in him, a wave of jealousy that had not come to him so strongly from the day his father died.
Neji knew that however much he hurt Hinata, it would never make things right. He could kill her and still that jealousy within him could not ever fade.
But maybe, just maybe, he believed, it would make the pain just a little bit numb and null.
The resentful feeling grew inside of him and clawed at his insides, demanding to be let out.
Once upon a time, Hyuuga Neji lunged forward at his cousin, ready to brew his own potential painkiller.