Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Judged By What We Cannot Change ❯ Judged By What We Cannot Change ( Chapter 1 )

 

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, and I'm definitely not making any money off of this story.
Pairings: Gai-sensei/Hyuuga Neji
Title: Judged By What We Cannot Change
By: BrucesGirl

Dedicated to Emeraude for being such a wonderful and fun person to talk to. Grow in grace, my dear.

 

The greatest decision a warrior will ever make is to lay his sword down.

~Jet Liin Hero~

 

Others believed that Gai-sensei had a high estimation of himself, proven by his unnatural knack of bringing up his good looks and his aptitude regarding the schooling of three young Chuunin. His looks were not as striking as he would have wished, however, and often times, he would sit on a boulder next to the Konoha river, looking down at his reflection in the peacefully flowing water, his dark eyes trying to find something superior than the overly made up haircut and bushy eyebrows.

 

Hyuuga Neji, however, didn't need to look at Gai-sensei's reflection in the river to know that the man was more than he made himself out to be. Beyond the deep, pounding laugh and the cheesy one-liners that he was famous for, Gai-sensei had been more of a father to him than the whole of the Hyuuga clan, and he had been more of a friend to him than Rock Lee had ever tried to be. Not that Rock Lee was a bad guy by any means, but he held that emotional kindness that Neji regarded as a weakness. Gai-sensei…he had been ANBU. The man laughed and smiled, but behind that, there was the same weight that all the ninja carried on their shoulders who'd been in the squad.

 

Neji watched the friendly rivalry between Hatake Kakashi and Gai-sensei with a certain amount of trepidation. The same tenacious resolve that shone in Kakashi's actions transferred into his students, namely a certain Uzumaki Naruto, whom Neji despised with his entire being. The Uchiha was not much better than the blonde headed pest, his resolve just as strong, if not stronger than Kakashi's resolve itself. Gai-sensei paid a special respect to that team for reasons beyond Neji's understanding. He treated Naruto as a human instead of the pest that he was, and that simple fact enraged Neji, and it brought him to the branch above the boulder where Gai sat so serenely in the forest.

 

“You know, you can't hide from me, Hyuuga.” Gai warned. Neji knew as much, but he wasn't making a move to drop down onto the rock where Gai was stretched out in the sun. Instead, he maintained his position in the forest branches, his pale silver eyes gazing out to the river, the sunlight glinting off the blue water nearly blinding him. “What do you want to talk about?” Gai asked boldly.

 

“Uzumaki.” Neji growled in annoyance. “Why do you treat him like he's a shinobi? He doesn't deserve the honor.” Gai's eyes opened, and he sighed. So that was it. Neji was jealous because of the way that he treated Naruto-kun, but Gai could hardly be angry at the silver eyed Chuunin. He sat up on the rock and stared straight ahead, the bulk of his muscles stretching against the tight body suit that allowed his speed to remain unchecked.

 

“You don't have much of an idea who that boy is, do you?” He asked quietly. “He is the highest breeding of Konoha. The son of a Hokage.” Neji felt his heart stop in his chest, and his silver eyes widened impossibly. Then, he did drop down to the rock next to Gai, his face contorted into a scowl that would have made the Kyuubi whimper in worry.

 

“That…little pest. He's the son…of a HOKAGE?!” Neji spat the words out of his mouth as if though they tasted foul to him, and his sensei just gazed at him quietly, those infuriatingly deep onyx eyes studying Neji's face with a strange compassion. All of his life, Neji had fought not to be the outcast…the lowest born. First, he tried to prove his case to Hinata, but she stood up, straightened her back and fought. In the end, she had pitied him, and it had destroyed his fury. She was the higher born not only of blood but also of spirit. She could not be broken.

 

“I don't expect you to understand.” Gai said in his deep voice. Neji snapped his gaze up to his sensei's face and glared at him. Of course he wouldn't understand! Everyone was higher born than him, and yet, he was the most powerful! He deserved the respect that the others received just because of their bloodline. Gai's hands suddenly rested on Neji's shoulders, a move that was, by anyone else, forbidden and dangerous. The Jounin looked into his student's eyes and shook his head gently. “You said once that a failure is a always a failure. That people can never change.”

 

“Maybe, Neji, that is true for some. For you, however, failure was never an option. Don't let the bloodlines of others fool you into thinking you have no respect in this village.” He tightened his grip on the slender shoulders of the Hyuuga, his dark eyes shutting in regret. “My apologies.”

 

That was something Neji didn't want. Everyone had felt sorry for him at one point or another, either because of his position in society or his intense bitterness over the situation of his family in the Hyuuga hierarchy, and he was sick of it. The result was a furious flurry of action that sent Gai leaping away in a split second in reaction to the series of gentle-fist taijutsu moves that could have easily melted his innards from the force of the chakra expelled from the boy's body. “Apologies are useless.” Neji snarled at his sensei as they came to a standoff in a forest clearing. “Apologies are nothing but words, and everyone has words. Integrity is something that they lack.”

 

Gai's brilliant midnight eyes darkened, and his fists clenched in anger. “You're stupid for insulting someone's integrity. Especially mine!” He rushed at Neji, intent on teaching the young Hyuuga a lesson, but the Chuunin had quickly become a powerful opponent. Each beautiful movement from Neji was a block or a punch, and each move from Gai as designed to at least knock the boy back, but he soon figured out that his basic movements were not going to stop this Hyuuga. Hinata would have been an easier opponent. She didn't aim to kill. Neji, however, in his fury, was perfectly at ease with the idea of snuffing out Gai's life.

 

With a delicate round house kick followed by a myriad of punches and blocks, Gai found himself flying through the air and landing against a tree. He gazed up into the silver eyes, and with alarm, he realized that Neji's Byakugan wasn't even activated. Instead, the young man hovered over Gai the moment his back touched the ground, his knees locking against either side of Gai's rib cage. Gods, he was beautiful when he fought. Gai couldn't help but admire the fury in the boy's face as he drew his hand back to deliver a fatal blow to his heart.

 

“Neji. I have never felt sorry for you. Why do you think I drove you harder and harder? I didn't have to drive Lee. He wanted to succeed. You only wanted revenge. Don't you see that you have a better potential than that now?” Neji snarled and brought his hand back further, fixing to drive it into the big man's chest below him, and his pale eyes flickered over the body, and he started as he realized that Gai's arms were not restrained beneath his knees. They lay placidly out to the Jounin's sides, and even as Neji had drawn back his hand, the chakra building heavily, Gai had not moved to defend himself. “If it will help you get rid of your bitterness, then kill me.” The older man demanded. “Do it!”

 

The last outburst made Neji flinch, and he bared his teeth again, fully intending on driving his palm into Gai's chest. He'd felt sorry for him. He'd lied to him about the Uzumaki baka. He had held him back from killing Hinata for her treacherous words. Then another thought made his hand waver just a bit. Gai had taught him the value of teamwork. He had taught him the powerful chakra he could derive from the simplistic emotion of protectiveness. He had taught him that friends, family, and teachers that care do exist. In fact, once, hadn't he protected Gai sensei? Just as Lee had so many times before.

 

His hand lowered, and the Jounin didn't budge from his position underneath Neji. He was almost afraid to startle the boy into another fit of rage, and so he laid there quietly, his shining raven hair splayed out behind his head like a dark halo. “Neji. Move, boy.” He prodded in a quiet, deep voice. Neji didn't budge. He only sat on top of Gai, his eyes oddly trained on his face. He no longer seemed threatening, but his face was contorted in the strange expression of thoughtfulness, and on a Hyuuga's face, that could have been either deadly or beautiful. Right now, Gai wasn't sure which one it was, so he stayed still.

 

“Neji…” Gai was getting slightly nervous. The emotions flickering through the eyes of his student were disturbing enough, but what was more disturbing was the way his hands had lowered to Gai's chest, resting against the solid heat that emanated from beneath the green spandex that covered his body. His face was only mere inches from his sensei's face, and a harsh, unforgiving snarl issued from him, his voice ringing out through the trees. The next few seconds were a blur in Gai's mind, and the first emotion that rattled through his soul was sheer, unadulterated shock.

 

Neji's lips covered his in heated fury, his teeth gnashing at Gai's sensitive skin, breaking his bottom lip open, making the coppery taste of blood fill the kiss. He assumed Neji would balk when he tasted that he'd hurt Gai-sensei, but instead, the kiss turned harder, and Gai had no choice but to open his mouth to prevent further damage to his sculpted lips. That was his fatal, ultimate mistake. Neji's tongue tasted of honey and green tea, and Gai had always maintained a weakness for sweet kisses. Those arms that had rested so placidly rested beside him now wound around the boy's back and hauled him forward, pressing his slight frame to his own massive chest.

 

When his hands had wrapped around his back, the tie in the boy's hair had come loose, and the silken chestnut strands fell down around his arms and brushed his cheek as the kiss continued brutally. At one point, Gai realized that Neji was not expressing any kind of sexual interest, but instead, he was brutally proving that he could be stronger…if he wanted to be. In his own mind. Regardless of Gai's inability to escape the Byakugan, should Neji have chosen to use it, Gai was still infinitely faster than the silver eyed Chuunin, and soon, in a flash of a blink, Neji found himself pressed between the hard steel of his sensei's chest and the forgiving leaves that padded the forest floor.

 

“Bastard!” snarled Neji. “The pest has no right to be called a shinobi! He's a cast off! A reject!” He roared against the solid chest that held him down, his energy spurning and then calming again and again, the sheer power of the Hyuuga clan plainly displayed in his furious eyes. “Let me up!” His sensei only gentled his holds, letting Neji fight until he was worn out, his breath coming hard and desperate against Gai's chest. As soon as Neji exuded all of his strength, the taijutsu master relaxed his weight on top of the boy, his head dropping down next to Neji's in exhaustion as well. His breath rasped along the boy's neck, and it was then that Neji let out something Gai had never heard the boy emit in his entire tenure as his student. Neji opened his mouth and howled in fury.

 

The surprise that rolled through Gai was not as powerful as the release of chakra from the furious Chuunin as he screamed his fury to the sky. He hated Naruto. He wanted him to die. He had been beaten down, laughed at, and now, he was the outcast. Every person who had once hated and feared the blonde now at least respected him if not befriended him and treated him as an equal…but they treated Neji as a killer and as an enemy. Even as Lee offered his friendship to him, he held back his trust, reserving that only for the blonde that had taken Neji's place in his heart. “UZUMAKI!!!!” The scream rumbled through the trees, scattering the birds, and then, Neji lost his mind.

 

His fists began to pound at Gai's body, his movements losing their finesse and grace that they possessed while he was controlled and responsible. Instead, the onyx eyes watched with compassion as those slender fists beat bruises into his hardened body and cracked a rib. He flinched when those hands tore apart the suit on his back from clawing at it, revealing his skin there and making it bleed along with his lip. He never stopped Neji, and he never asked him to stop. He left himself lying on the slender form, taking all the punishment the other had to give until Neji was mindless with fury, and then Gai spoke, his deep voice barely breaking through the young man's mist of fury.

 

“Neji-kun.” The name slowed the fists. No one had ever called him that. “Neji-kun, you are hurting me.” His words were calm, full of compassion, and they were so soft next to a perfect ear that was back-dropped by a splay of shining chestnut hair on the forest floor. Neji's furious blows stilled, and he panted underneath the hard body pressed into his, and a single, shining tear slipped from his eyes. His face hardened into his usual scowl of stoic proportions, and he turned his face away from his teacher's, his lips pursing. Gai almost felt relief at the familiar face of resolve in the boy, but underneath that, there was a world of emotional turmoil that would prove to be dangerous if it was not resolved.

 

“Let. Me. Go.” Gai raised up from Neji at the request and stared at him even as the boy rose, his gaze avoiding the onyx eyes. There were leaves in his hair, and the wild, thick mass of silk had fallen down over his shoulders, and his headband was skewed along with his clothes, giving him a very tousled and furious look. Before Gai could stop the boy from moving, Neji had disappeared into the forest in a silent, graceful leap, leaving the raven haired man to his thoughts in the middle of the clearing.

 

~O~O~O~O~O~O~

 

A rapacious knocking on his apartment door brought Gai out of bed mumbling in annoyance to himself. It was raining which meant the weather was changing. Which mean his old age caught up with him in the form of aches and pains in his powerful figure. His entire body hurt, and there were wide, deep myriads of scratches across his back that Lee rubbed balm into. They still hurt too. He pulled on a pair of his black sweats and snapped them in place as he stumbled to the door with annoyance, and as it was opened, his eyes widened. The rain poured outside, something that had previously helped him sleep, but after seeing the beauty in the rain before him, he didn't think he'd ever be able to sleep after this night.

 

Neji's hair was plastered to his body, water pouring down his clothes, pasting them to his lithe, pale body, and his face…it was the picture of tortured desperation, his lips contorted in a half sob, half scowl that Gai found oddly arousing and amusing at the same time. At that time, he'd considered sending the Hyuuga away for obvious reasons of propriety, but the moment those smoldering silver eyes raised to his, his resolve was lost on sending him away. Instead, Gai found himself tangling his fingers into the tan of the Hyuuga's vest and pulling him through the door with admonishment.

 

“Get in here and change now, boy.” He slammed the door behind Neji and huffed in patience as he grabbed a towel and threw it at the head of wet, silk hair. “Dry yourself after you strip out of your clothes.” The look of pure shock on Neji's face would have been nearly comical if it wasn't for the practicality of Gai-sensei's demands. He sighed in resignation, and he stomped towards the bathroom, dripping water on the hardwood of the floor the entire way. Before he managed to stumble into the bathroom, he found a grey pair of sweats thrust at him. “I don't have any shirts that will fit. These are the smallest pants I've got.”

 

Neji blinked. Then, he blinked again. This was unexpected from the jovial master of one-liners, and it threw his inner equilibrium for a loop. For one, the magnificent body wasn't covered up with the green spandex that the man usually sported, and the silver eyed boy found himself oddly attracted to the myriads of scars that covered the hard body of his sensei. For two, Gai-sensei's hips were oddly alluring with black sweats hanging off of them haphazardly, contrasting with the thick, nearly oversized muscles that wrapped around Gai's huge body. Three, the usual happy-go-lucky attitude was replaced with one that was laced with annoyance and concern. Gai-sensei was the last person Neji wanted to piss off.

 

So, he obeyed. He entered the small bathroom without so much as a thank you issued to the man who'd just pulled him out of the rain, and he went to stripping off the thick, heavy clothes that were melding against his sensitive skin. He hung them up carefully on the clothing lines that were crisscrossed from wall to wall, and he dried himself with an available, thick green towel that smelled oddly of light aftershave and rice soap. When his thick silken hair was dry enough to be acceptable to him, he pulled on the grey pants over his naked body, and winced as he realized he'd nearly have to knot the waist band to keep them up. Instead, he opted for just grasping them in his fingers and stepping out of the bathroom. It was just until his clothes dried anyway.

 

Exiting the bathroom left him in the short hallway that led to a guest room and the meditation room Gai was so fond of, and down the hall was the kitchen which Gai was currently shuffling around in, still dressed shirtless in his black pants. The scent of sweet, long grained rice with mushrooms sent instant hunger to Neji's stomach, and he took a few hesitant steps forward. How did Gai know what his favorite dish was? The old man had never even bothered to ask.

 

He sat at the small table in the kitchen and noted that three chairs surrounded the table instead of just one, and he sighed. The onyx eyes glanced back at him from the stove, and then away, thought building in Gai's expression. Was it always like this with Neji? Even when his defenses were broken and mangled, he still held them up with a perceptive talent. That was something Gai would have to get around carefully.

 

“Here!” He sat a bowl in front of the Hyuuga gently and then sat down across from him, offering him chopsticks and a cup of tea to go with the food. Neji gazed at him warily before taking them and beginning his meal silently. “You know, there' s got to be a reason you showed up at my door at two o'clock in the morning, Neji-kun.” The boy stopped his meal for a moment before gazing up into his sensei's eyes, debating on whether to admit his thoughts or not.

 

In the end, he chose to speak, and almost immediately regretted it when he did. “I'm sorry.” Gai nodded easily to him and began to eat. Neji almost smiled to himself, realizing that Gai wouldn't rub in the rarity of an apology, nor would he demand any more from him. Instead, the two ate in comfortable silence, their eyes raking over each other's bodies in curiosity to the things they'd never seen before. Neji was still quite taken with the beautiful crisscrossing of scars across Gai-sensei's chest, and Gai was concerned about the darkening bruises across the slender, pale body of his student.

 

“Let's get done and get some balm on those bruises before they block your chakra, Neji.” In a few minutes, Neji had followed his sensei quietly into the living room and found a place in front of the futon, his eyes training on the wall where the picture of a very handsome blonde headed young man hung. He looked so familiar, and yet, he'd never seen him before. He gazed at the picture evenly, but the moment it went out of focus was the moment that his body attuned itself to other things. Slick, warm fingers slid down the right plane of his back, rubbing in warmed balm where he had found himself pinned earlier that day.

 

The shock of that touch was enough to rip his focus from the blonde headed nin in the picture to being painfully aware that there was a hard, hot body behind him that was rubbing balm into his pale, sensitive skin like he would break. Gai's gentle hands slid over a knot in his muscle, and he tried to prevent a moan, and as a result, a grunt came out…of pain or pleasure, Neji wasn't sure. The noise wasn't lost on the man behind him, and the fingers slid over the beautiful skin again, just at the particular spot where the knot clung to stubbornly.

 

This time, the moan wasn't stifled. It slid out of Neji's lips unbidden, making the air in the room ripple with the immense power of his aroused chakra. Gai's eyes weren't exactly focused on Neji. Instead, the onyx eyes were shut, his hands feeling out the thick knots in the lithe muscles of his student. He couldn't get his mind off the sight of Neji grasping the too big pants against his pale. velvet skin, his long, silken hair falling down his shoulders and brushing against his hips and ass as he struggled to keep the sweats from falling off of him. The hand kneaded a bit more seductively, and Neji gasped again.

 

W-what the hell…? The question stuck in his mind as Gai's hands ran the balm down his back and pushed the thick mass of his hair over his shoulder and rubbed some more into other bruises. “W-who's in the picture?” He asked brokenly as another knot was worked out. Damn it…It was going straight to his groin, and he secretly thanked whatever god was watching over him that the pants were incredibly loose on his small frame. Gai grunted quietly behind him.

 

“Yondaime Hokage.” He pointed to the picture of Kakashi, Sakura, and Naruto on his desk. Sasuke was no where to be seen in the picture. “Can't you tell the similarities?” Neji's eyes widened as he realized the shocking truth. So Naruto truly was the son of a Hokage…The thought flew his mind as those calloused, strong hands ran down his back and then suddenly lifted him against Gai's hard, warm body. “Come here.” Gai's voice was no longer the deep, rumbling baritone of arrogance that it usually was. Now, a deep growl of lust escaped his throat as Neji felt a strange anxiety take grip of his stomach.

 

“Tell me what the hell was crossing your mind in the forest, and I might let you go.” Gai growled. His mind? In the forest. Immediately, delicate fingertips raised to the cut in his own lip, and Neji's eyes widened. The forest! He could have easily have broken the hold as Gai pushed him down onto the futon onto his back, and he could have easily kicked the Jounin off just to break the strange spell that had been cast over them, both, but he found himself not wanting to. This was the question that Gai had been wanting to ask all night, and he wasn't going to turn him down an answer now.

 

“You just…wouldn't listen…You wouldn't fight back.” It had made him furious. Just as now he was gaining fury by being restrained yet again under the man's skillful touches to his wrists. “Bastard.” He mumbled under his breath. “You aren't even from noble blood.” Gai didn't take offense to the lightly spoken insult. Instead, he purred his acknowledgement as his weight pressed down over the boy, arousal meeting arousal, sending Neji's breath into hard, short pants. “Get. Off.” The warning in his voice was clear, but the older man didn't seem to register the threat.

 

His raven black hair shone in the dim light coming from the kitchen, and Neji randomly thought in his mind that Gai was indeed a handsome man, regardless of how made up he seemed. His fingers itched to comb through the silky strands of his hair, but instead, he found himself restrained and not wanting to fight to get up. He only stared up at Gai with stoic, silver eyes, and he sighed. “If this were any other night, you would be screeching for me to let you go.”

 

That brought a chuckle of amusement to Gai's voice, and he looked kindly down at Neji, his lips tilting up slightly in a light smile. “You are quite the comedian, Neji-kun. There will be no nights where you will make me `screech' for you to let me go. You won't have that power over me.” This boy had been rejected for his power, cast out from the society, and the blonde demon bearer had been accepted in his place with wide, open arms, confirming Gai's suspicions in the end. Neji…no matter how cold he was…craved a human touch.

 

Gai fulfilled his desire as he released his wrists and ran his fingertips down the extended arms of the boy, tracing each crease of his muscles until he reached his chest and traced his muscles there. Neji had forgotten how to breathe, so intense was Gai's gaze. The onyx orbs seemed to be locked onto every movement of his hands, tracing the lines of Neji's muscles, then, smoothing his palms out over the sensitive planes of the boy's body, warming his skin with his own. Slowly, with each, gentle movement, Neji felt the tears of his heart slowly smooth away, and his edges were once again sewn back together from their unraveled state.

 

It was so good, and even though Neji tried to convince himself that the touches were not meant for anything but lust, the expression in Gai's face told him otherwise. The Jounin was completely entranced in his actions, and it seemed that he was genuinely enjoying this chance to touch the otherwise untouchable. Neji arched into the touches like a self-satisfied kitten, and he nearly howled out in pleasure as those fingertips brushed over the pale peaks of his nipples and paused at the junction of his sternum and collarbone.

 

He could have sworn that a tear leaked out of his eye, but he only told himself that it was his imagination. The loneliness had truly taken its toll over him, he realized. He didn't even know how to touch Gai back, and so his hands twisted into the covering of the futon, the soft velvet crushing underneath his death grip. He breathed out as the large, warm hands traced down his abdomen and sleeked down the skin and splayed out over the slim waist that was adorned by pants that were a few sizes too big.

 

Gai enjoyed this. He liked touching. Especially Neji. Gai's face took on the deep look of concentration that he was so marked for during training, and he applied his hands all over the visible body of his student, smoothing away any apprehension the boy had, causing him to lie carefully underneath him like a cat would bask in the touch of its master. This particular lesson seemed to be progressing fairly well, and Gai was pleased when the silver eyes fluttered shut, and a soft, submissive sigh escaped the mouth of the Hyuuga, filling Gai's chest with a tenderness he didn't know he'd possessed.

 

He continued his exploration of Neji's upper body, but when he came to the waistband of the loose pants, he faltered, wondering if the Chuunin would ever allow him to progress any further, but he took his safety in his own hands and slowly grasped the waistband, and at the same time, his other hand lifted Neji's hips, and with no resistance, he slid the clothes off Neji's body. Now the boy, who had for the time being been fighting his utmost desire to knock Gai into next week suddenly found himself arching into the touches in complete trust. God, he'd missed this. Just a simple touch.

 

His hands drifted to Gai's shoulders, and he whimpered quietly as the touch brushed over his painful arousal. The soft noise of realization from Gai's mouth was more gentle than Neji thought it would be, and the fingers that traced the scars and creases in his legs of his muscles were much hotter than he'd remembered them being over his chest. That hand traced its way back up, and the moment they wrapped around Neji's sex, he cried out into the night in a broken voice, immediately spilling himself over Gai's hand and his own rigid stomach.

 

While a flush came across Neji's cheeks, his hands brushed over the deep grooves his nails had cut in Gai's back, and his eyes widened. He opened his mouth to say some unnecessary words, but it was silenced as he was swept up into Gai's arms, his long, chestnut hair swaying beneath him. He had never expected such gentleness from the man. Their trek invited their way into the guest bedroom where Gai gently laid him down on the bed and pulled the covers over his lithe, naked body, his fingers brushing up the over sensitive skin before brushing a strand of hair away from the pale shoulders.

 

“Good night, Neji-kun.” He purred. Of course he wouldn't have been forced to sleep with Gai. This wasn't a seduction, and it definitely wasn't an attempt on Gai's part to coax the young man into an affair with him for selfish reasons. Neji growled at himself as he rolled to his side on the bed, his nose picking up the faint smell of his teacher's aftershave from the bathroom after the man had showered. Oddly enough, there had been no steam from the water. In the end, all Gai had wanted was to tame him. To bring him back to his side. And it had worked. As Neji's mind drifted to sleep, he couldn't say that he regretted being Gai's student. Even if it meant being tamed.

 

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

Ten Years Later

 

Hanabi shook her head at her sister in confusion as Hinata blurted the death of their father. “No! It can't be! It's too soon!”

 

“It was time.” Hinata answered her sobbing sister quietly as she pulled the girl to her chest and soothed away her tears. “I am rejoining the family.” Hanabi stopped crying and stared up into Hinata's silver eyes. Hinata smoothed back Hanabi's deep chestnut hair and sighed. “It was my hope that our blood would be joined with Yondaime Hokage-san's, but unfortunately, it seems that Uzumaki Naruto has found his love elsewhere.” It broke her heart…but she understood. Kakashi was the only being that Naruto ever trusted so fully.

 

“Then..who?” Hanabi asked. “The family can't be without a leader for long!”

 

“Neji will lead us.” Hinata declared in a heavy, powerful voice. Hanabi stared at her sister as if thought he heiress had lost her mind, but Hinata only gazed down at her. “He is understanding, strong, and thoughtful. He will not let harm come to us. I am not the one to lead us, sister, and you are not the one to save us. He'll put the branches back to the trunk, and there will be no more hate.”

 

Hanabi understood.

 

For the young man who stood outside the door, life had just come to a screeching halt. All those years that he'd spent hating the young heiress, he found himself suddenly respecting her with a newfound consideration. His hand rested on his chest, and his silver eyes closed to the night, and for the first time, Hyuuga Neji didn't feel like he was alone.