Chapter 2 - The Proposal
Neji finds it impossible to not bite his tongue. It's been trapped between his teeth for the past hour, and it will stay there until he can find a quiet hole in the forest where he can yell into the earth.
All the Hyuuga are gathered, awaiting the fate of Hyuuga Hinata.
No one says a word as the elders discuss. The main branch sits at the front, the elders are in a semicircle, and the rest of the Hyuuga line the walls, standing like guards, like statues. They all hold their tongues like Neji because no one dares to say a word against any of this. Most of them fear the seal, the excruciating, melting pain that comes with it.
Neji, honestly, doesn't give a damn about that.
He's more so concerned about dying before the fate of his cousin is made.
They are discussing candidates.
Marriage candidates.
They are selling her off. With Hanabi now in line for heiress of the clan, Hinata is considered a waste of potential. The only good she can serve is marrying her to a wealthy or powerful family that will only add to the Hyuuga's strength.
They discuss outside families — but only briefly. The elders are quick to decide a Hyuuga outside Konoha walls is too much of a risk, even if she is sealed. They discuss the Tachis, one of Konoha's wealthiest merchant families. They discuss the Sabus, a family full of single sons who happen to be pristine doctors and surgeons.
They discuss almost every man under the sun who is not Uzumaki Naruto or Inuzuka Kiba or Nara Shikamaru. They will not consider those fools. Those men will taint the Hyuuga name.
Across the way, Neji watches Hanabi flounder in her heiress robes. They're loose on her shoulders, and she suppresses a wiggle, clearly uncomfortable. She's not poised like Hinata once was, when she used to be the sister wearing those robes. But Hanabi is only sixteen. She will grow into them.
The topic moves to strength. The elders agree the stronger the husband, the better the offspring.
Hiashi's face twists just a tad. He bites his tongue just as Neji does, and they both taste blood.
And then — that name comes up.
"What of Uchiha Sasuke?"
The Hyuuga stir with their held breaths.
Another elder contemplates, face sagging with age. "Sharingan mixed with byakugan, no matter how flawed it is, still poses a great force. A force under the Hyuuga's guiding hand."
She is nothing but a door to them — a way of capturing another innocent into their disgusting, bleak grasp.
Hanabi nearly rips her nails into her robes.
Hiashi stares daggers into the corner of the room.
Neji cannot stop the shakes of rage bulldozing through him.
But Hinata?
Hinata sits.
Hinata sits calmly, without a touch of emotion to her face. She looks as blank as Hyuuga eyes, and there is no sign of her standing, yelling, fighting for her freedom.
When Sasuke's name is passed through those snake tongues, she blinks once, and that is all.
Her fate has been decided, and she is nothing but a doll.
*** Neji Hyuuga - Fate Twister ***
"Hinata, speak the truth."
When the meeting ends, Neji follows her to a far corner of the estate, where the yard is decorated with tall, waving plants. She pauses upon his call, smiling simply. It does not reach her eyes, and Neji cannot tell if it's because she's unhappy with the verdict or because she doesn't care.
"Well," she says, after a while of careful consideration over her words, "I suppose Mr. Uchiha will not be happy about this."
Neji frowns. The Uchiha's happiness is the farthest thing from his mind at the moment.
"And you?" he pushes.
Again, she's slow to words, thinking.
"If I consider the larger picture, I'm relieved."
"Relieved!" he spits.
Hinata turns to him completely, hands joined at her front. "Better an Uchiha than a Hyuuga," she says.
That's all she says.
Simple, but excruciating.
Because she's right.
For years, she's known that they'll marry her to a Hyuuga if she had stayed heiress. For years, she's worked tirelessly to make sure that does not happen. Years of trickery, of fooling those bastard elders. Years of feigning a decline in her byakugan, in her sight. Because if she did not, they'd marry her to him.
Her own cousin.
His disgust is overwhelmed by the hot shame he feels. Her selfishness leaves scars on his arms, and he bites his tongue no longer.
"Fight this," he tells her. "You are not their puppet."
He is begging her. It's beneath him, but he does not care.
Uchiha Sasuke is a cruel, heartless man. He does not fit children. He does not fit Hinata.
They both know this, but Hinata simply shakes her head.
"Mr. Uchiha is a fine pick. I don't mind."
She's gotten so used to lying, but he doubts she can trick herself.
He lets her leave.
Above, the sun is dying, and he wants the world to burn with it.
...
Neji walks the alleyways of Konoha, contemplating.
There must be a way to fix this — beyond outing Hinata's lies and putting them both in that horrible cage locked up by the Hyuuga elders.
In some parts of his mind, he hopes he's wrong about the Uchiha — because if it can't be fixed, at least Hinata will be with a good man, no matter if she loves him or not.
But there is only one man who truly knows Uchiha Sasuke inside and out, and Neji refuses to come even close to him. Really, it's for the idiot's sake. Neji fears he'll strangle the fool who caused so much of this shit to spiral into madness.
"Damn him," he mutters, that molten blanket of rage falling over his shoulders. "Damn the lot of them."
His shoulder shoves into a tower of boxes by a dumpster, and through the crash of cardboard, Neji hears a startled yowl. He turns just in time to see a flash of gray leap out of the way of the tumbling boxes, and before him stands the slick figure of a cat. It has Uzumaki eyes that make a foul taste fill his mouth, and he tries to shake the thought out of his head.
"Sorry," he whispers.
He leans over to grab the toppled boxes and stack them back on top of each other. The cat sits, the end of its tail flicking curiously, eyes wide and staring endlessly at him. Somehow, it reminds him of a rumor he's heard a few times — that Uchiha Sasuke has a fondness for the street cats of Konoha.
Hinata's allergic to cat fur.
A truly awful pairing, Neji thinks. They'll kill each other before any child is born.
But then, through the fog of his irritation, an idea pops in his head.
Finished with the boxes, Neji kneels down on the concrete floor of the narrow alleyway. The cat trots over, smells his outstretched hand, and rubs his head against his left knee. As it does so, Neji checks for marks that would signify that the cat is actually a ninja spy animal. The idea came from the Inuzuka, believe it or not, and many pets have been trained to spy outside Konoha walls.
The cat, however, is markless, and Neji's grand idea drops and shatters to the floor.
"I guess that's for the better," he murmurs, fingers trailing one of the cat's ears. "That bastard would be a pain to follow around."
The cat stares, then lifts its head to lick Neji's fingers. The feel of its tongue is rough — overwhelmingly so. Pins sink into Neji's skin, and his chakra snaps, and those startlingly blue eyes that stare out from the gray of the alleyway do not leave him for a second.
...
Suddenly, Neji feels feline.
It's a weird thing to describe, but you'd understand if you suddenly turned into a cat. Your body is small and warm, and you hear a million things and smell a million things, and suddenly the dark alleyway is not that dark, and the buildings look like skyscrapers.
His stomach twists.
He searches, relieved to find his chakra still within the tiny confines of his body. It is brimming, in fact, ready to spill over. The fur on his back bristles when a shot of panic goes through him, and on pure instinct, Neji pushes his chakra out of his body.
And then — he feels Neji, which is easy to describe. It is green tea chakra and a dull burn at his forehead and war scars on his chest. The alleyway is dark, the buildings look normal, and cat eyes stare at him from below.
When he activates his byakugan, he's surprised to see the cat has chakra of its own. It reaches out like toddler hands, coaxing his own to meet it in the middle and merge once more.
It's strange.
It's abnormal, really, and it leaves Neji absolutely bewildered.
But more than that —
"You, my friend, are my key to the Uchiha estate."
Neji is elated.
...
He waits until morning, when the scroll is prepared and Hyuuga are sent to announce to Uchiha Sasuke that he's expected to marry Hyuuga Hinata by December lest he wishes to be considered the number one enemy of the Hyuuga Clan for all of his lifespan and beyond. It is a humiliating demand, and Neji imagines if he were the one receiving such a notice, he'd be none too pleased himself.
Which is why the timing is crucial.
He must see how this man will respond to such an agitating, infuriating thing.
So once the Hyuuga messengers leave, Neji slips out of the estate. He finds that nook between bank and sushi restaurant, where his ticket to the Uchiha estate stretches out, tail pointed high, swiping back and forth in the air upon his approach.
He almost fears the day prior was all a dream. It is ridiculous enough to believe so. But the cat's chakra is there, attracting his own like a magnet. He lets it overwhelm him, his body feeling clustered and tightly wound. It almost feels like he's body flickering, going from outside the cat to inside within the snap of his fingers.
His chakra merges with it.
He finishes its stretch, hops from his perch of boxes, and makes his way to the Uchiha estate.
...
When Neji arrives, he's just in time to witness the Hyuuga messengers pass the scroll onto the Uchiha. Sasuke does not let them step foot into his estate, instead meeting them at his gate. When they leave, he turns to return to the main building — which seems to be the only one fully standing and furnished. Neji only vaguely notes how absolutely destroyed the place is, but he keeps that tucked away for another day.
He slinks past the gate and hops onto the engawa, following the footsteps of Sasuke into a backroom. Neji jumps up on the sill of the window and watches as Sasuke reads the scroll in front of an unlit fireplace — but, well, based on the dour expression taking over the Uchiha's face, Neji is sure it will not stay that way for much longer.
And he's right. He always is.
With a hiss, Sasuke spits fire, and the fireplace explodes with angry flames. He throws the scroll into it, the Hyuuga signature and fan being eaten away by the very anger Sasuke can produce. That perfect, Uchiha face is twisted in ugly lines of pure annoyance, and he paces around the room, uncaring, knocking into things, toppling furniture over. He's a hurricane in his own home. He's wildfire and thunder.
And Neji is not pleased.
Of course, it's an expected reaction. And he'd be foolish to think Sasuke would take it lightly.
But the cracking fire makes cold dread sweep down his body, and his limbs freeze up. He worries about the day when Hinata may push this Uchiha over the edge. Will he burn the whole house down because of his unstable anger?
And yet —
As soon as it is there, it's gone. Sasuke stops. His face relaxes, almost solemn, before he rushes back to the front, snaps the paper door back, and sprints down the street. Neji, in this cat form, has no chance in catching up with him.
He sits there, whiskers sprayed out, contemplating.
This will not do at all.
Uchiha Sasuke is not fit for his cousin — not even close to it.
But what can he do? What power does he have in this spiral of hell?
Neji thinks long and hard. With every failed attempt to come to a conclusion, his fur stands, and his front claws sink into the sill just slightly.
He ponders until his head hurts, and just as he gives up, Sasuke returns.
In his hand is a plastic bag almost filled to the brim with kimchi ramen packets.
He leaves his sandals on the stone path, steps up onto the engawa, then pauses before entering his home.
Uchiha eyes find Neji, and Sasuke blinks.
Shit, is the first thing Neji thinks. Busted.
...
The Uchiha hesitates, which does not happen often. Really, if Neji was less cat and more himself, he might have been so obliged as to mock the guy about this miracle he's witnessing.
Sasuke's hand slowly leaves the sliding door. He takes another pregnant pause before placing the bag down and lifting one of the ramen packets from its confines. He opens it, breaks the hard chunk of dried noodles into small pieces, and puts them on the wood of the engawa.
It's for him.
Neji could almost laugh. Most guests would be served tea and rice and small dishes to fill parts of the appetite, but he's given dried ramen. He feels himself frown, though he's not sure how a cat would look with such a feature. Sasuke watches him. He moves to go back into his home, and that's when Neji thinks — Ah, fuck it — and jumps down to sniff at the ramen.
Sasuke looks down at him. He barely moves, which Neji doesn't understand immediately.
"Sorry," Sasuke murmurs, "I don't really remember what cats eat."
Another miracle.
Uchiha Sasuke is apologizing — and to a cat, no less.
Seriously. If he were Hyuuga Neji, he'd never let the bastard live this down.
Sasuke's foot slides back, making Neji tense and stare at him. Sasuke slows his movements even more, lowering himself until he's sitting next to him, one leg folded under him while the other hangs over the side of the engawa. From the open packet, Sasuke grabs his own piece of hard ramen and chews on it, eyes narrow with clear distaste.
"It's better with seasoning," he mutters, "but I doubt you can have that."
Sure that Sasuke will do nothing to him, Neji goes back to smelling the pieces before him. Of course, he does not believe anything is poisoned. He watched Sasuke pull the ramen right out of the packet, and what reason would Uchiha Sasuke have to poison cats?
Nonetheless, he somehow felt the urge to assess it, and so he did.
"You're a stray," Sasuke notes quietly. He talks like his vocal cords are windchimes. Neji remembers the Uchiha Sasuke that would scream, that would curse. This is not him. "You don't have a collar."
The mention of a collar makes a noise grumble within Neji, and he turns back to glare at Sasuke.
Sasuke's not looking back, however.
He stares out at his gate. "I used to have one, but it got scratched up." Neji notes the bareness of his forehead. "Even if I did have one, I'm no part of Konoha."
And even if he doesn't say it, Neji hears that silent, trailing part at the end. "And yet, the Hyuuga are forcing me to marry Hyuuga Hinata."
It's a thought that flitters through Sasuke's eyes the same way it flitters through Neji's head.
They both understand, then.
This whole situation is fucked.
"They're stupid," Sasuke says, some of his irritation from before touching his voice, "and so is she." Neji spits and stands, ready to sink his teeth into one of Sasuke's plump veins in his wrist, but he continues. "But we're the same, I guess. We don't have a choice, do we?"
Sasuke falls back into silence, chewing on his dried pieces of ramen, staring out at the world of Konoha beyond his gate and toppled estate. He says nothing, but he doesn't have to. Either Sasuke's surprisingly open around cats, or Neji's gotten better at reading Uchihas, because every thought flying through Sasuke's mind is revealed to him.
There he is.
Uchiha Sasuke — considering the proposal. There is no ire or spite in his gaze.
He's weighing the pros and cons calmly, so unlike that Uchiha he saw inside, throwing the scroll into the fire and watching it burn into nothing. He bites into the ramen once again, frowning, and Neji feels the need to join him.
Because . . . if he were Hyuuga Neji right now, perhaps he would not mock and tease Sasuke. Perhaps he would sit here, eating hard noodles, joining Sasuke in his momentary misery. Two ninjas angry at the world, finding some way to grasp onto a speck of good to make the future worth pushing through.
"Be good to Hinata," he'd tell Sasuke, "and she'll make everything worth living for."
But all he is right now is a cat, so he bends down and chews on a piece of ramen.
Sasuke watches from the corner of his eye.
"Careful," he says. "It's not very good."
...
There is an Uchiha in the Hyuuga meeting room later that afternoon.
Most of the Hyuuga, including Neji, lag by the sliding door, trying to listen in and pick out words that will tell how negotiations are going. Many of the Hyuuga are worried. It's been almost decades since the Uchiha have visited their estate.
Suddenly, the door slides open, and the Hyuuga eep like caught children when Sasuke walks past, not sparing anyone a glance.
From inside the room, Hiashi slowly sips his tea and lets the branch members filter in, filling the place with questions.
He explains that Sasuke accepted the offer and will marry Hinata on her twenty-first birthday in six months.
As the Hyuuga gasp and goggle, Neji slips into the hall and searches for his cousin.
...
She's enjoying the sunshine at the back of the building. Her smile is light.
She knows.
He doesn't ask her thoughts on the matter because he knows what she'll say.
Instead, he joins her and says, "Uchiha Sasuke has a long way to go before he's even close to being worthy of you."
Her smile lifts, and she holds his hands in hers and tries her best to be brave, to not cry.
Chapter 2 - End