FOURTEEN: When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer, smile and ask, "Why do you want to know?"
"What are you doing here, Branch?"
Immediately, Neji deactivated his Byakugan and turned around. There were two Main House ninjas staring down at him; chunins based on their chakra levels but those things never really meant much to Neji.
The boy watched them warily as the boys stepped into the courtyard and surrounded him. He kept his eyes on the one who first addressed him.
"You're awfully far from your training yards, Branchie. What are you doing here?"
Neji didn't feel inclined to answer, hadn't really felt inclined to say or do much since that night, so he opted to simply bow and walk away hoping that might appease them.
He was wrong.
"Don't walk away from me! I asked you a question! Stop!"
Neji did as he was commanded and kept his head bowed in servitude but his hands balled up into fists.
The leader circled around to face him, looking incredulous at the gumption displayed moments before. He studied the boy intently before his eyes narrowed in recognition. "I know who you are."
"Who is he, Mitsuo?" the other chunin asked, eyeing Neji with rapt curiosity.
Mitsuo frowned, "This is Hyuga Hizashi's son; went dumb after his father died."
"What! What does that mean," the chunin stepped uncomfortably close to Neji like he was studying an insect. "He can't talk or something?"
"Calm down, Norio," Mitsuo ordered, "and give him some space. You're being a creep."
Norio laughed but backed up—slowly.
Neji's fists tightened even more.
"Listen," Mitsuo began, "your father did the right thing protecting Lord Hiashi. It was his destiny, after all. He was a good Branch. But that doesn't mean you can come wandering around here on the Main training grounds. It's not your place. Do you understand?"
'You're wasting your time," Norio said snidely with his arms crossed. "They carry on so about the injustice of the curse seal yet fall apart at the slightest bit of stress. They're inferiors, especially this one." He reached out to touch the young boy like he was touching something unpleasant, "Who or what did Hizashi have to fuck to produce this specimen?"
It happened faster than anyone could ever expect but it ended with Norio splayed out on the other side of the training field, unconscious and with a third of his chakra pathways blocked.
"Hey, take it easy!"
But Neji was far away from being rational. That felt good! After months of feeling numb, this anger (hate!) was a welcome change. Neji eyed his handy work, the fool chunin who dared to touch him; to insult his father, and a vicious smirk formed slowly on his face. Inferiors? Who were they kidding? They were the inferiors! Neji relished the feel of the hot chakra pulsing in his hands, the looseness of his body that allowed him to propel the idiot so far and his Byakugan, alive and searching; hungry.
Neji could hardly catch his breath with his new found elation.
His first victory bolstered his confidence and made him reckless. There was one more and the idiot was just standing there doing nothing; his guard was down. Neji could easily overwhelm him because he was faster and maybe this time he'll hold back a little les—
Before Neji could turn around and attack, his seal was activated and it dropped him to the ground like a stone. The pain paralyzed him. He wanted to scream but he couldn't. It would have helped, he was sure, to endure the pain if he could scream.
"What is the meaning of this!"
"Father!" Mitsuo turned to see his father standing behind him with the recognizable hand seal. He looked back at Neji lying on the ground. "He just went crazy!"
The older man deactivated the curse seal and strode forward, taking in the scene before him with a scowl on his face. "Take Norio away from here," he hissed vehemently and his son quickly complied. He spared one more contemptuous glance at the Branch boy shivering and barely conscious on the ground before he left.
It all felt so surreal to Neji. The pain—because he never thought it would feel like this, not even after seeing what it did to his father—left him disoriented and sick. Where moments before he felt invincible, his mind was now panicked and scattered in all directions. His body was still trying to function as it knows it should but there was still the shock to contend with. In the midst of the seizure, he had soiled himself and the smell of his own vomit made him gag but he still couldn't move effectively and so he could only lay helpless in his mess and humiliation. But the rage was still there.
Is this what his father died to protect? To be forever caged by these people; to be used and punished at their whim with no consequence. It was his father's destiny, and apparently it was his as well.
"He was a good Branch."
The hate consumed him and he welcomed it, allowed it to fill the void his father's death left behind. He would use it to become stronger and one day, and here he smirked through the pain and sick, he would show them what a good little Branch he could be too.