Hinata: Please review! _ flames/critics/comments accepted

Neji:…… who's going to kill hinata-sama?

Me: you -__- evil bastard -

Hinata: *Gasp. Hides behind "Me"*

Neji: Fine *evil laugh* mwahahahaha

Sasuke: *shoots neji and carries hinata to a far away place*

Me: This is supposed to be a NEJIHINA. Freaks .

Me: This is MY version of the chuunin exams so don't correct me on the events that happened, I am perfectly aware of them. I just wanted to make it more dramatic

Hinata: Mixedsushi-san does not own this yada yada yada

Chapter 4: He Who ALMOST Killed Me

(Neji : 15 (and lee and tenten and so on) Hinata: 14 (and so on) people (I don't care anymore about their damn ages 'tis too boring -) and other yada yada yada)

It was quiet. All around him people were looking frightened, some disgusted, others in the state of near tears.

There she was, Hinata, lying on the floor, surrounded by a pool of blood. Her blood.

Neji felt choked, suffocated. He wanted to be anywhere but here. Hinata…Hinata…Dead…on the floor….Because of him.

There was no noise, only stillness….silence….death

It wasn't his fault, he kept reminding himself. There was a reason for him killing her. She was main branch, better, she was Heiress of the main branch. She represented all his suffering and all his…his…oppression... She was his cage.

But a voice in the back of his head was saying, whispering ever so slightly yet effectively, the words 'Was it worth it? Is your hatred worth it for sacrificing her? Are you satisfied? Are you Happy? Did all your sufferings vanish?'

Naruto was there, in front of him, clutching her dead body in his arms. His tears freely flowing down his face. Neji knew he should be ecstatic, triumphant. But he wasn't. He wanted so much to grieve like Naruto, but he was different.

He was numb, numb all over. He looked around to see hanabi, trying unsuccessfully to restrain the flow of tears that fought to be free.

Beside her, her father was looking harsh and strict as ever. Only, neji knew it wasn't the truth. That was his façade. Appearing like the strong, indifferent hyuuga leader.

But neji could see it, the pain was hidden in his eyes, the moisture appearing in his left eye, his thundering heartbeat. It was amazing, how byakugan can see so little details.

He stared at his hands. They were stained a beautiful crimson shade, like her pale cheeks whenever she was embarrassed or shy or both. Only now it was her blood that was staining his hands.

Her blood was everywhere on him. His face, his hands, his feet. Every blow he delivered spurted that beautiful flow of crimson liquid.

-FLASHBACK-

A kunai flew and grazed the side of her face.

He soon got addicted after the first appearance of it flowing down on side of her face. And soon enough his hands were hitting every inch of skin exposed.

He started delivering different blows to every vital part of her body. At the same time sealing of her chakra points.

She, who was trying to avoid the blows and deliver her own, but he was too fast. He knew he was winning after her first fall.

He was going to leave, but she kept standing up. Soon he was deflecting blows, he didn't know how she could still stand he sealed almost all her chakra points.

He was caught of guard and was hit on his upper arm. He was enraged! How could a pathetic weakling land a blow on him. The Hyuuga Prodigy.

But she kept standing up, because of that fool. That Uzumaki Naruto. He couldn't take it anymore so he delivered one final blow to stop her pathetic life.

He knew, he was doing her a favor. By ending her stupid life, she wouldn't have to train so hard to be acknowledged by a father who, in truth, was very proud of his daughter. She didn't have to prove herself of becoming a kunoichi.

But the words that she uttered were what made him so blinded with fury, she spoke them surely "Your wrong neji-niisan. People can change. Destiny has no leash over us. I can see that you are confused and suffering more than me."

She was too weak to be a chuunin and was going to die sooner or later, the odds were against the 'later'. So why couldn't it be him to take her life? It would be so much better, rather than her body never being recovered.

Besides it was a tournament, it didn't matter about who their opponent was. It was kill, fight, live, survive and kill again.

But before he could deliver the finishing blow the other jounins stopped him and she fainted. Weakling that she is.

-End Of Flashback-

She was put into a canvas of some sort and was carried of towards the treatment room. They had to pry naruto off her.

He looked up at the accusing stares he received, some with hatred, the others with anguish. He could hear the faint sobbing of sakura, ino even tenten.

He left the stadium, not bearing the airless atmosphere any longer. That voice was still whispering in his head, 'Is it worth it? Was SHE worth it?'

And then he saw it, a bird, its wing broken, lying on the dirt, desperately flapping its other wing. Trying to fly again. Neji knew it was pointless to struggle and it was only a few more moments before it died.

He pitied it, it was just like his cousin, his dead cousin. The one who he killed. So helpless, fighting, struggling even thought it was pointless. Its life was already dwindling away.

Then suddenly, a bird flew to it, its feathers so white, whiter than snow, than anything else he has ever seen. It was gently nudging the other bird.

Urging it to fly. The bird stopped struggling and for a moment Neji felt like he understood them, like he was intruding on something so mysterious yet powerful about death and love, about how nature healed and changed like winter, with its cold bite gives way to spring.

He scooped up the bird in his hand. It was so tiny, defenseless. Confused. He had made the wrong assumption.

It was he who was the struggling bird. And the white one? He did not know, for who could ever heal his wounds? Nobody. He was destined to struggle….Forever.

Upon entering his house he placed the sleeping bird inside a box filled with towels and small pillows. He went to his bed and slept

He dreamt of his cousin dead on the floor, covered and surrounded in scarlet blood. The voices screaming "Was it worth it?! Are you finally happy?! Are you content?!" He kept running but wherever he went the voices would soon follow.

He turned into that little brown bird, with its broken wings struggling. He watched as people passed by him, looking at him with disgust and contempt then walking away.

Then he dreamt about a girl with midnight blue hair and a gentle smile looking down at him turning into a white bird and flying away.

Her words to him in the dream were "Be happy niisan. Goodbye" He was unaware that tears were streaming down his cheeks.

She felt horrible. It was like something trying to pull all her hair out at once and her body felt like it been stampeded on by a heard of buffalos.

She was tired too. So tired that she wanted to just give up and let the blissful clutches of death take her. Away from the pain, the anguish, the sorrow.

She could remember everything with stunning clarity now.

Neji hit her heart and after speaking awhile she fainted.

She still remembered her last words to Naruto. "Did I change...?...E..ven..for..a little......bit" but she did not hear his reply and let the comfort of sleep overtake her.

She didnt know why she was feeling pain, she was sure that when one dies, you would feel nothing. Death was only a void.

She opened her eyes slowly and was momentarily blinded by the lights, but after adjusting her eyesight she could see that numerous people were staring at her. All wearing masks on the lower part of their faces.

Wondering about death again, she succumbed to the lures of sleep.

**************

When she opened her eyes again, the pain was quite bearable. Only a dull throbbing in her head and a numbness in her body. She gradually looked around her and saw multiple people in the room. All of them sleeping peacefully.

She saw that the room were covered in multitudes of flowers. All ranging in size and color. One was even green, she laughed softly at that and knew that it was the dynamic duo, gai and lee, who gave it.

Looking again at the sleeping faces of her friends and family. She smiled and felt the tears burn behind her eyelids. She was so lucky to have them, her beloved friends and family.

She spotted sun yellow hair and stared at naruto in all his sleeping glory.

She closed her eyes, content and slept. For once she dreamed of nothing, no sorrows, no pain, no anguish. Only A Void

'Was This What Death Feels Like?'

NO THIS IS NOT THE ENDING!!!!!!!!!!