The way home was long. She had to walk trough the forest, then cross the river, then into the village and finally home. She knew she would be late again, her training one more time consumed too much time. It was getting dark and she was getting uncomfortable. She knew the longer she was away, the more she would be yelled at, first by her father, then by her sister and also probably by him. And the last she feared the most. He was always quiet, but when he got mad he would spit at her every mistake. Her sister and her father loved her, she could feel it deep inside and their yelling was just a way of expressing fear about her. They considered her weak, and they thought she was too weak to defend herself. He was different, he had no warmer feelings towards her, moreover his feelings were cold as ice. His words did not express worry, but hatred. His hatred towards her. She wondered how it felt, the feeling of fire and range in your veins, but she was kind person and she never hated anyone in her life, so she could no understand him at all. She knew it was pain that made him the way he was, it was agony. She tried to help him in her own way, but he refused her pity. He hated her even more for it.
She could still feel the consequences of their fight years ago, although the wounds had been healed. The pain stayed, but it was different, it was a wound to the heart. She wanted to help him, and there was nothing she could do. Her loving soul wanted to ease his pain, but the more she tired the more he hurt her.
Sometimes in the darkness of the night she would dream about how it would be nice if he liked her just a bit. If he smiled at her, like he did only once or twice in the last years. If he was her friend. But dreams don't come true, that was one lesson she learned from Naruto, you have to have hope but sometimes you do not get what you desire. Naruto looked for Sasuke and found nothing. Hinata waited for Naruto and got nothing. Neji wanted revenge on the main house and achieved nothing. It was a circle.
Her heart still dreamed of him, and of their never-to-be-born blond children, her heart wanted someone to be there for her, but there was no one. She knew that in time there would be someone, some man chosen by her family to take her side as leader, but that wouldn't mean he would be there for her, wouldn't it? He would be there for the clan not for her. She would be alone just as she was now looking at the white sealing shining in the moonlight. She wondered what her life would be, if she could be leader, if she would have children, if she would be happy… But she was used to getting nothing. No birthday presents, no smiles, no good luck wishes, no friendship, no love, no support from her family… She would be surprised if that would ever change.
She got out of bed and decided to take a walk. The night breeze always calmed her down when she couldn't sleep like that night. She wandered around Konoha, looking at dark windows, passing by still open bars and restaurants. Her eyes looked up at one of the bar entrances and not knowing what she was doing she just sat down and ordered a bottle of sake. Maybe alcohol would sooth her pain, as there was no one who would do it…
"Why do you treat her like that! It's not her fault at all!" She heard a voice from the other part of the almost empty bar. She couldn't see who it was because there were plants between them, but she knew the voice, it was Tenten.
"Who are you talking about?" She heard Neji's irritated voice.
"You know who, your cousin, the cute girl with white eyes, Hinata if you still don't remember…" Lee teased him.
"Why do want to talk about her?" Neji asked angrily.
"Because it's high time you did something about it!" Tenten said. "I don't like the way you treat her, and as a girl I find it offensive." She stated her reason.
"I still don't know what you mean." Neji growled.
"You treat her as a push over, as a burden, a if everything in the world was her fault! And what did she ever do to you? Has she ever offended you? Hurt you? No! She did nothing." Hinata hearing those words blushed, she never thought Tenten would defend her.
"It's none of your concern." Neji cut Tenten's monologue.
"I don't like it either." Lee told him. "I can understand how you feel about the Main Family, but Hinata is the most kind and gentile person I have ever met… Of course she can't be compared to you TenTen." He spoke the last words quickly at this girlfriend who probably was getting angry at him again.
"She is weak and pathetic. She can't fight, she's just an imitation of a kunoichi. And she doesn't even look nice…" She heard words he never dared to tell her straight forward, but words she knew he was thinking all along, feelings she saw in his eyes many times before. Hinata bowed her head.
"I don't know why you two are defending her, but that's just a fact, she is worthless as a ninja. She might be a good wife, if someone ever finds taste in her lack of personality and character. I know I wouldn't spend any minute longer with her then my duties demand it from me." He spoke angrily at his teammates and friends. "She is just so boring that spending more time with her or even being her friend must be a torture."
Tenten responded angrily, but Hinata couldn't hear it anymore, she drank the last drops of her sake and left the bar. She did not know where to go or what to do with herself. She went out of the village and found her favorite spot, there she sat down and cried.
"Wasn't that just Hinata leaving the bar?" Tenten asked looking at the back of the girl disappearing into the night.
"It couldn't be, she's probably sleeping in the main house at this time, I doubt she would ever come to a place like this…" Neji smirked.
"I'm sure of what I saw." Tenten told him.
He just looked out of the bar again, and looked back at his team.
"I think I've had enough for tonight anyway, I hope next time you will choose a more interesting topic." He told them as he was leaving.
"Do you think he'll ever change?" Tenten asked Lee.
"Who knows, maybe…" He told her.
He decided to make sure about Tenten's words. If it had been Hinata and if she had been wandering around at this time of night, and if something happened to her, he would be blamed for not taking her home. It took him some time to find her, but the byakugan works even better at night than it does during the day, so it was relatively easy. She had gone a long way outside the town wall, but she wasn't doing anything special. She was just sitting there. He wondered if she had heard his words, and thought that if she left the bar at that moment she probably did. Good, at least he didn't have to say it again to her. She knew and that was all what counted.
He decided he can't leave her there, outside the town in the dead of night. He didn't feel like babysitting her, but he had no choice now that he knew it was her.
He walked up to her, and only then he could hear the quiet sobs. She was crying. He felt sorry for her, but that was the truth, and nothing could change it, better sooner than latter.
"You should go home Hianta-sama." He told her. She looked up at him surprised that he was there. But she did not respond. She just stared at him. And then buried her face back into her knees. She hugged herself tightly and continued to cry.
"You should go home Neji-niisan." She told him. "I'm not going home tonight."
He looked at her as if she was insane.
"You can't possibly stay here, you are outside the village, alone in the middle of the night and defenseless!"
"I'm not defenseless." She whispered in between sobs.
"Yes you are! You didn't even notice he approaching you! You can't take care of yourself!" His words only made her cry louder. She just kept repeating "I'm not defenseless!", as a magic formula that would change everything. Then she raised her voice, louder and louder, and finally first time ever she shouted at him "I'm not defenseless!" putting all her pain into those words, all the anger she found deep inside her.
He looked at her with surprise, she never spoke loudly, and she never ever shouted at anyone, but was it the blush on her cheeks that indicated she drank alcohol, or the pain in her voice, but something broke inside her and let it all out.
"Screaming about it won't help you, it's just a fact so get used to it." He told her with a smirk.
She stop repeating her mantra, she just stared at the ground and waited for him to go. He could feel that she wanted him to leave her alone, but somehow he couldn't. He had to make sure she went home and was safe. He leaned down and grabbed her arm to force her to get up on her feet. At first she did not react letting him pull her up. But as soon as he began pulling her home, she opposed him. At first gently but persistently, and later brutally with a strong blow of chakra. She got him by surprise, he never considered the possibility that she would attack him.
"Leave me alone. What do you care if I go home? Who cares? I might as well stay here and die and no one will notice the difference anyway." She began to cry again and landed on the ground again.
" I would…" He told her after a minute of silence. "Lord Hyuuga and Hanabi would also." He reassured her.
"Father would finally have the Heir he always wanted, Hanabi would be the Heir as she always wanted, and you would have succeeded in destroying me…Of course all of you would notice because it would mean you would all get what you dreamed for!" She spoke bitterly at him.
He could not argue with that, because all she said was true, Hiashi always considered her too weak to be leader, Hanabi was raised as the Heir and probably wanted to be the Heir, and he did want to destroy her… But somehow the thought of her not being there anymore hurt him. As if deep inside he knew it was not fair towards her.
"Come Hinata-same you should go home…" He began again.
"Home? What is home?" She asked him. "My home is just a cold building in which some people live. Is that really want a home should be?" She spoke that last question to herself, but he could hear it. He asked the same question to himself every time he went back to him apartment. To the place where he was always alone.
"Then just come with me, I can't leave you here all alone…" He told her extending his hand towards her.
She looked up at him, her eyes still full of tears, the moonlight lighting her face and hair. She looked ethereal, like a moon flower, blossoming only at night. He wondered how he would have ever considered her as plain, she was not plain, she was not even pretty, she was beautiful. Her eyes were shining with the tears, her lips were trembling, and she looked so lost. Something deep in him wanted to protect her, shield her from harm and pain.
She hesitantly accepted his hand. "But I don't want to go home." She told him again.
"I'm not taking you home." He responded.
They began to walk back to the village, he had to hold her arm because she must have drank a lot of sake and couldn't keep balance.
They did not walk towards the Hyuuga house as promised, instead he took her to his flat. It wasn't big, or luxurious as the Hyuuga compound but it was all his, and no one could take it away from him or ask him out.
He hesitated if he should let her in, but he made a promise not to take her back, and on other option came to his mind.
He left her in his bedroom, asking her to take a shower and go to bed. He decided to sleep in the living room. But the only bathroom was in is room, so after twenty minutes he knocked on the door, and when he got no answer he walked in. She was laying on the bed wrapped in one of his towels, fast asleep so she did not even cover herself with the sheets. He tucked her in, and went to use the bathroom. He took a shower, combed his long hair and decide to go to sleep. He was passing her sleeping figure on the bed, and felt too tired to go further, instead of going back to the living room, he lay down next to her and as far away in the bed as possible.
She woke up in the middle of the night still in soft slumber and under the influence of alcohol, she looked at him laying so close to her, but she did not run away. She got up and went to the kitchen to drink some water, when she came back almost the whole bed was taken. He must be used to sleeping alone, she thought to herself. She took off the towel and put on one of his t-shirt and gently moved his arm to make herself some space. As soon as she laid down, she felt his arm wrap around her, and it felt so soft, so warm and so good, she just dazed off into sleep again her head in his chest.
He woke up soon afterwards, feeling sudden warm, and smelling the scent of flowers, he was surprised he was holding her. He was surprised she didn't run away. He looked at her closely first time in years. And he called himself stupid, he was stupid not to notice the changes in her, her beautiful hair, gentile neck like, her tiny fingers and hands, her lips, her eyes, her delicate skin, and her whole body. She was not a teenager anymore, her body was mature, well developed, he couldn't help himself and he gently reached towards her breast, hidden under one of his favorite t-shirts. He took it into his hand and thought that she could already have been a mother. She was a real woman, not some little girl. And he wanted to see the woman in her. He wanted to get closer. He was blind for many years, and she had changed into something extraordinary just under his very nose. He reached for her and brought her closer, his hand on her breast and the other wrapped around her. She did not wake up, she just brushed her fingers against his chest, and put one leg over him. He gently lifted her face and pressed his lips against hers. At first she did not react, but soon she responded to him, putting her arm around him, and letting him deepen the kiss. She was slowly waking up, still a bit dizzy and unconscious of what was happening. Later things went really fast, within moment his t-shirt was on the floor, along with his boxers. He was closer to her then ever, and she was surprised to find this Neji gentile and caring. He became her first and with every addictive touch she could feel that he would be her only.
He would never admit it, but he was thinking about the same thing… She was always in his life, and she was his first and would forever be his only.
Despite all the pain and suffering, something beautiful can still grow on the ashes. Their love was a surprise to them both, the feeling of belonging they always sought in other people, the feeling they found in the most unpredicted of all people.