Two
Neji has one priority, and one alone: break the caged bird seal.
He can't truly be free until he does, and yet, it's no small task to escape the confines of the seal that destroyed countless generations before him. If it were easy to undo without repercussions then he has no doubt other Hyuga would've been freed long before him. And yet…with the heavy censorship in his clan, does he really have any proof at all that the seal was well and truly unbreakable? For all he knows there could be dozens before him that have managed to escape the clutches of fate.
In any case, it doesn't matter, not really. Regardless of if he is the first to break the seal or the hundred and thirty first, it doesn't matter. Not as long as he can do it. Not as long as he can be free from the life he's been doomed into since before his own birth.
In the pain of death, Neji will destroy that seal and be free.
Logically there are only so many ways he might be able to do it. He can't rationally expect to find a person willing to help him with this particular task without offering something compelling to them in return. The Hyuga are utterly out of the question. Why else would he bother escaping, if not for the knowledge that they would do nothing to aid his cause? If anything they would sooner slit his throat than let even their greatest prodigy attempt to defy the way of the clan. Very well: if he can't get the help of the Hyuga, he can at least use them. Neji is a walking trove of clan secrets and prowess. Any shinobi with half a brain will stop at nothing to extract the secrets of the Byakugan from him. So long as Neji has his eyes, he has his best bargaining chip.
From there only one question remains: who to break the seal?
He has an inkling where he can find exactly the person to do it. First, though, he will have to track them down and compel them to bargain. It will be a delicate matter; in truth, all Neji had is his eyes and his prowess at the Gentle Fist fighting style. He cannot appear desperate. Then again, he is on a time limit–if it takes too long for him to break the seal, he will no doubt become a slave to the Hyuga regardless. A weapon, perpetually waiting for the day a Hyuga of the main line runs into him again and commands him into subservience.
Neji would rather die than let that happen.
Sitting poised at the edge of the Land of Fire, he gazes down at the border beneath his feat. This is it. A single step further and he'll be out of the land of his birth and into the world. Neji's scowl hardens.
Soft as a bird, soundless as the night, he steps off of the ledge and vanishes from Fire Country.
Rumors abound. A man with pale lavender eyes is spotted at a small village near Amegakure. Long brown hair and a scratched-out shinobi headband from Konohagakure. Sittings pop up like flowers, budding in the spring and wilting into non existence during the long months. The Hyuga clan elders search tirelessly. They scorn their fellows from the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Punish branch members more harshly than before. Neji hears none of it, of course. The Hyuga become even worse about their affairs, hiding everything under the sinewy membrane of branded tongues and bloodied fists. Neji's chakra networks flare, bulging around the eyes, swelling with each swivel of his head.
Finally he finds what he was looking for.
Neji's Byakugan picks out three chakra signatures in the compound. The rest are vacant rooms, flickers of pale blue that don't quite manifest into full signatures. The pale murk of dank fungus and rotted leaves invades his nostrils. Neji's face twists into one of disgust. He prowls down the dimly-lit corridors, heading for that flicker of blue at the end, rehearsing the script he's been practicing tirelessly for the last two years.
The end of the hall spills out into a mock-laboratory, flush with jars and herbs and rot. Sound escapes this place save for the thin drip of salted minerals, stalagmites stalking the roof above and encroaching ever-further with each drooping deposit.
He knows each face, and he knows them well. Two of which are more recent–faces he's only committed to memory since the Chunin exams–Kabuto, and Orochimaru. The third…the sole survivor of the Uchiha Clan Massacre. Sasuke Uchiha, younger brother of the murderer himself. Neji's brows flicker upwards in thin surprise. "Uchiha."
He isn't the only one to find himself caught off guard by the encounter. Sasuke's eyes narrow. Orochimaru seems belatedly amused; Kabuto, disinterested. "The Hyuga Prodigy on my doorstep," the Snake Sannin muses.
"Former," Sasuke clarifies. Neji doesn't care enough to let it be specified one way or another.
"So it seems."
The Hyuga lets his Byakugan fade. He heard wind of Sasuke defecting shortly after he did when he was in the Land of Lightning nearly two years ago; idly, he'd wondered where the Uchiha had gone. No part of him was surprised to see the Sharingan wielder here after everything he'd heard on the road. Sasuke craves power. Like a glutton, he feasts senselessly, greedily inhaling every drop he can get his greasy hands on. Itachi may be the weasel, but Sasuke's pursuit of power–ignoble, senseless–made him the roach.
Neji, at least, had the sense not to throw himself senselessly at the man who could single handedly kill a Kage. "You are a sealing master," he says by way of introduction. A person like Orochimaru, with an informant like Kabuto next to his side, wouldn't need one anyway.
"Perhaps," he agrees, purple tongue forking around parchment lips as he grins.
That's all Neji needs to know.
One hand reaches to his headband, pulling it away from his brow. To reveal a card like this feels trivial; Sasuke has already seen what lurks beneath, and a man like Orochimaru wouldn't get where he has without learning the ins and outs of the village he once claimed allegiance to. It's a calculated act: the desperate genius, willing to bare his weakness to the man of a thousand jutsus.
He can see, already, that things will work in his favor. Orochimaru has spent far too long with the likes of Sasuke, grooming his little pet to become the next victim of whatever schemes he's notorious for concocting. While the Uchiha is undoubtedly strong–highest marks in combat prowess in his year–what he possesses in strength, he lacks in intelligence.
Sasuke is a subject. Neji is a genius.
And so, before he even opens his mouth, he knows he's already won. The finer details can be squared away later; all that matters is, based purely on the look in Orochimaru's eyes, he'll walk out of here with cut shackles.
Finally.
"Make a deal with me," he says, and Orochimaru grins.
A/N:
Sorry for taking so long to update! I got super busy there for a minute but now that my summer course is done I should be free to write more! Let me know what you think?
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