A/N: Read and review! Two more chapters to go!

NINETEEN: Spend some time alone.

The cousins have been sparring for almost an hour and Hinata couldn't be more elated. Typically, whenever she trained with her stolid cousin, their matches lasted ten, sometimes fifteen minutes with Neji the victor. By the end of it, she was thoroughly beaten up while Neji looked as fresh as a daisy. She had often wondered if her cousin thought their training sessions a waste of time for he hardly seemed challenged but he had yet to refuse her offers to train and had, on occasion, initiated a training session whenever she was too shy to ask.

Now, as she stared at her cousin across the yard, it appeared he was breaking a sweat. Hinata took that as a small victory.

"You have been practicing," Neji said to her simply.

"A little," Hinata returned.

The boy smirked. It was the closest he ever came to smiling and Hinata wondered absently if the serious boy had ever once gave off a full blown smile in his sixteen years of existence. She would have to ask Lee and Tenten next time she saw them.

"Ready?" Neji asked as he raised his hands to fighting position.

Hinata mirrored his movements. "Always."

They flew at each other. Chakra flared as the two clashed in a high speed battle. Where Neji's strength was in his power and precision, Hinata's was in her flexibility and grace and between the two, the Gentle Fist looked more like a choreographed dance than a deadly martial art.

She zeroed in on Neji's right side where he had left an opening and for a wild moment, Hinata thought that this would be the day she'd beat the undefeatable prodigy and she raised her hand to the exposed chakra point ready to strike. However, in that moment, Neji showed why he was considered a prodigy in the first place.

Spinning suddenly, Neji managed to barely avoid Hinata's attack and the girl's momentum carried her forward unprotected. Neji came up fast and with a blast of chakra from his open palm, sent her spiraling crazily across the yard where she crashed painfully against a tree several meters away. She could feel her bones and organs shift unhappily upon impact but she paid little mind to that and to the pain as the adrenalin of the fight continued to course through her veins.

'I was careless!' she chastised herself as she leapt to her feet assuming the fighting stance. 'When did he learn to do that?'

She waited for her cousin's next attack but it never came. Neji was staring at her with a look of abject horror, arms hanging limply at his side.

" Lady Hinata, are you alright?" He sounded on the verge of panic.

"Yes!" she said determinedly, focusing on naught else but her opponent, despite it suddenly becoming more difficult to do so. She felt a warm, sticky fluid trickle down her forehead between her eyes but she ignored it. After all, a ninja could not allow mere trifles to distract her from the fight at hand.

Unfortunately, she could not ignore the sudden wave of vertigo.

Or the ground as it rushed up rapidly to meet her.

Her last coherent thought before she fell into black oblivion was to recall the last time she saw Neji smile.

He was four years old.

0

By time Hinata regained consciousness on a hospital bed; she had missed out on quite a bit.

Fearing that he'd accidently done what he had intentionally attempted to do a few years ago; Neji had hoisted his charge upon his back and ran to the hospital nonstop. Upon arriving, he found that most of the more seasoned medical ninjas were unavailable, as they were attending a talk of some visiting medic, and the only person available was Tsunade's secondary apprentice, Yamanaka Ino.

And Neji was NOT cool with that.

The two had never gotten along under the best circumstances and a copiously bleeding, unconscious Hyuga heiress on what was supposed to be a slow day for Ino did not meet the criteria of best circumstances. It certainly did not make things any better for Neji after an awkward confession revealed exactly why said heiress was insensible and bleeding all over the floor in the first place. Nonetheless, this did not stop him from seriously questioning Ino's credentials and competency as was his duty as Hinata's protector.

By time Hinata came around, Ino had crudely told Neji where he and his credentials could go; the trip requiring a hand basket and sunscreen, and Neji had opted to wait out in the waiting area before he found himself with more blood on his hands.

"W-What happened," Hinata asked groggily. Her body ached all over but that was distant news from a faraway land compared to the pounding in her head.

"Your cousin smashed you through a tree," Ino supplied before realizing she should probably check the girl's memory. "What do you remember?"

Hinata laid still momentarily, trying to get her bearings. She felt terribly confused. 'I-We were training…how did I get here? Where is Neji?"

"He's outside waiting for you," Ino said gently, making mental notes of the Hyuga's symptoms. She was obviously concussed; it was just a matter of determining the severity. "He carried you to the hospital. You don't recall?"

Hinata shook her head slowly in the negative, closing her eyes. She wanted to sleep.

"I can't let you do that quite yet," Ino's voice cut in through the fog of Hinata's mind. "Let me check your eyes."

Hinata opened them blearily; annoyance floating sluggishly through her mind at the fact that she couldn't focus. A small light then flashed in her eye, making her squint involuntarily.

"Tsk, Hyuga eyes," Ino muttered to herself before putting away the standard light and reaching for a light specialized in filtering past the Hyuga cornea to the pupil behind it. "How does your head feel?" she asked after resuming her examination.

"H-Horrible."

"Nauseous?"

"Yes."

"Hmph," the blonde ninja stepped back after seeing all she needed. She placed the small light in a pocket on her white coat and placed her hands on her hips. "Looks like you got a grade three concussion. You're going to be out for a while."

"Oh, no," Hinata groaned as she sat up, swinging her legs over the edge of the table. The movement made her dizzy and she had to stop to collect herself. "How long?"

"With this type of concussion, at least two weeks," Ino answered with a shrug, watching as her patient visibly sagged at the news. "That also means no Byakugan for that amount of time too. The brain is quite vulnerable while it's recovering so 360 degree vision would not be a good idea right about now."

"I u-understand," Hinata said slowly but she was very disappointed. This could not have come at a worse time. She was just starting to see improvements in her fighting and now she would have to sit out for almost half a month.

Ino watched the girl for a moment before her expression softened into sympathy. She couldn't say she and Hinata were good friends but one couldn't help but like Hinata. The same, however, could not be said about her cousin. "Are you a glutton for punishment or what? What are you doing training with someone like Neji anyway? The guy's off."

"He's helping me to get stronger," Hinata defended.

"Really? From here it looks like he's helping you to an early grave."

The Hyuga sighed deeply. "He is my cousin and he means well. He may not show it but he feels dreadful about this, I'm sure of it. So please, do not be too hard on him." She looked up at the blonde and smiled timidly. "Besides, he's the only one who's willing to push me. It's the only way I'll ever become a stronger ninja."

"Oh, well, alright, Hinata," the medic relented, "It's just that I don't like to see my girls beaten up like that. We have to stick together, you know."

Hinata laughed weakly at Ino's show of 'girl power.' "Of course."

"Alright, let me take you to Neji before he comes kicking down the door looking for you."

Ino guided Hinata to the waiting room. The Hyuga's steps were slow but steady and that in itself was encouraging. They found the Hyuga prodigy sitting alone in the waiting area, staring out the window. He immediately rose from his seat the moment he saw them.

"Like I said before," Ino began as she gently handed Hinata's care over to her protector, "no training, no Byakugan for two weeks. Get plenty of rest, although tonight you'll need someone to wake you every six hours. It's just a precaution to make sure nothing else is going on. If nothing comes up, come back in two days and we'll check up on you."

All this time, Ino had smiled pleasantly and spoke in a soothing voice in deference to Hinata's comfort but that quickly changed the moment she decided to leave parting words for the village genius. "And you," she added, pointing sharply at Neji in an aggressive manner, "I'm going to need you to practice what the rest of us like to call 'self restraint'! You got that!"

Neji scowled and turned his head aside in a dismissive manner.

Ino scowled in return but opted not to say anything as she was more concerned with Hinata getting home.

Hinata bowed. "Thank you, Ino. I'll see you in two days."

"Yes, and remember, take it easy."

0

The walk home was uneventful if not slow. Hinata was determined not to fall over and had focused solely on keeping one foot in front of the other. Neji was a silent shadow beside her for the most part, although she did notice the fretful glances he cast in her direction whenever she slowed down or put a hand up to her head. At one point he even offered to carry her home and as tempting as it was, Hinata's pride made her refuse. She was not going to let her father see her being carried home. She would crawl first. However, when Neji offered his arm for support (a very chivalrous and kind gesture from one who did not liked to be touched), Hinata gratefully accepted it.

Once they made it to her rooms, there was a potentially disastrous and most likely scarring situation when rather than going straight to bed, as Neji had naively assumed she would do, the Hyuga girl opted to take a shower first, leaving her mortified cousin to agonize the entire time that the first time he would ever see a naked woman would possibly be when he found his swooning blood relative face down on the shower floor in all her birthday suit glory.

It was the longest ten minutes of his life.

Thankfully, she came out of the washroom on her own power, fully clothed and soon she was settled comfortably in bed.

"Neji, I thank you for all your help. You need not stay…" Hinata was quickly falling into slumber even as she tried to persuade her duty bound cousin to take the rest of the evening off.

"Ino specified that you are to be awakened every six hours," Neji reasoned sitting comfortably on the floor next to the futon. "Therefore, it makes more sense for me to stay here for the duration of the night."

Hinata's eyes were beginning to drift shut. She was too tired and in too much pain to argue but she gave one last effort. "Someone else could watch over me. It need not be you."

"I prefer to do it. Unless," and here Neji glanced away self consciously, "you rather have someone else to sit with you. Then, of course I would find someone more to your liking, Lady Hanabi perhaps."

Hinata smiled very faintly, her voice, when she spoke, was equally so, "No, stay…"

Neji nodded, sighing with relief. He was going to ask if she wanted anything for the pain but soon realized that his charge was fast asleep. The young man noted the time and settled in for his watch.

The first six hours passed by with no interruptions. At the designated time, Neji gently shook Hinata awake, asking if there was anything she needed. She looked vaguely confused, as though she wasn't quite sure why her inexpressive relative was in her room to begin with, but then she said no, smiled softly and fell back asleep.

It didn't take long for Neji to become bored and he began to look at the books on Hinata's bookshelf, hoping he would find something of relative interest. He was more than mildly shocked to find that Hinata had some heavy reading material: history, philosophy, law, poetry, dance theory (that, oddly enough, made sense to Neji) and classic literature. The books looked very well read with notes jotted in the margins.

"You are full of surprises, aren't you," he murmured softly to the sleeping form.

He had just selected a history book, preparing to resume his watch when the door slid open suddenly revealing Hyuga Kõ.

"You," the Main servant said with derision. "What are you doing here?"

Before Neji could answer, Kõ turned and saw Hinata asleep in her bed. His eyes widened in surprise. "Lady, Hinata, forgive me! I didn't realize…"

He stopped when he realized there was something unusual about the young woman's sleep. Kõ carefully drew closer to the bed and saw the stitches along Hinata's hairline and bruising. He whipped around to face Neji, his eyes glaring accusingly, "What have you done to her!"

Neji was taken aback by the sudden accusation and it took him a moment to answer. "There was an accident during our training session. I struck Lady Hinata with too much force. She has a concussion."

"This is the second time Lady Hinata has come to significant harm by your hand," Kõ stated harshly. "You…" He stopped and looked down at Hinata, making sure she was still asleep before promptly marching over and grabbing Neji by the shoulder to lead him out the door.

Neji, with very little effort, could have easily outmaneuvered Kõ but status reigned in this situation. As a member of the Main House, Kõ had unquestionable authority over Neji.

Once they were outside, the servant continued his verbal attack. "You are a menace! You are hardly worthy of calling yourself her protector!"

Neji simply stared back at the servant, trying to hold firmly onto reason. "Again, it was an accident."

Kõ narrowed his eyes. "Hardly. You have attacked Main House members in the past in addition to Lady Hinata. There are no accidents when it comes to you. You may have won over Lord Hiashi but I don't trust you in the slightest. You won't be satisfied until you finally kill her."

"That's not true!" Neji exclaimed, unable to take that slander quietly. "I-I'm not that person anymore. I want to protect Lady Hinat—"

Kõ suddenly reached out and forcibly grabbed Neji by the collar, stunning him to silence. "If I had the power to do so," he said lowly, "I would activate your seal until it killed you."

And he meant it. Neji could read the sincerity in the older man's face and knew that the only reason he wasn't dead was because Kõ didn't know the hand seal that would activate his curse mark.

"Get out of here!" Kõ ordered, shoving the young man away roughly.

Neji staggered but recovered his balance. "L-Lady Hinata needs someone to wake her every six hours!" he said desperately, unwilling to abandon his duty as Hinata's protector.

"I will take over the vigil for Lady Hinata," the servant said as he opened the bedroom door, "and inform Lord Hiashi of your involvement in her injuries." He looked back over his shoulder and glared at Neji with cold determination. "Make no mistake, I will not allow you to harm Lady Hinata ever again!" With that he closed the door rudely in Neji's face.

Neji stood alone in the hallway, momentarily at a lose. He looked down and realized he was still holding one of Hinata's books and sighed. Now Kõ will probably accuse him of thievery in addition to attempted murder. The day just kept getting better and better.

With very little options, Neji settled himself on the floor next to the bedroom door to continue his vigil. He will not shy away from any punishment of Lord Hiashi's choosing nor will Kõ's threats intimidate him.

Neji was as determined as he was stubborn.

It's going to take more than a Main House servant with a vendetta to keep him from his place as Protector.