NEJI

Neji knew he was being watched. And not just the normal surveillance that followed him around. His skin was tingling with the intensity of his hyper awareness and his byakugan kept flaring up without thought as he scanned the area around him again and again. 

This wasn’t the main branch’s spies or the elders’ judging gazes. This wasn’t even the nervous eyes of his subordinates. He exchanged another heavy glance with Lee and Tenten. Even his guards/ teammates knew something was wrong. They’d tripled their normal perimeter sweeps of the headquarter’s building and Tenten was spinning small scrolls through her fingers in a move he’d seen often when they were in the field and waiting for a fight. 

Whoever or whatever was watching him had a stifling presence to it. He walked down another corridor with Lee and Tenten flanking him as always. He nodded at the branch family servants he passed and ignored the main branch shinobi that wandered through. Neji had no real destination at this point, he was running from the gaze he couldn't find and he knew it. 

How all the ninja that he passed by couldn’t sense it, he didn’t know. Just another sign that the main branch was weak. Even Lee could feel it and his teammate couldn’t even use chakra correctly. 

Any other day the three of them would have returned to their shared apartment just outside the headquarters, but Neji didn’t think it would be wise to make himself vulnerable like that. The headquarters, a huge skyscraper decked out with the latest security measures as well as hundreds of pairs of byakugans, seemed the smartest choice. He scoffed again and looked around at all the oblivious pale eyes. 

“This isn’t safe, Neji!” Tenten hissed as he turned down yet another corridor. He couldn’t make his feet stop moving forward. 

“This is the safest place we could be,” Lee replied somberly. His wide eyes were narrowed as he continued his constant roving surveillance. There wasn’t much to see. Neji would know. Very few windows even. 

“Maybe it’s the Aburame,” Tenten suggested weakly. 

“They would send their bugs to spy on us. As they always have,” Neji said. “No. The Sarutobi clan think spying beneath them, the Uchiha are too weak to try.” 

“The Trio?” 

“Too obvious for them. They actually know how to use a spy well. This is…” Neji trailed off. He didn’t know what it was. He was often targeted as he was the head of the branch family, but this was different. 

Neji came to a halt in front of a door that would lead to another blank office holding another Hyuga member he didn’t know the name of and didn’t care about. “Perhaps,” Lee said softly in a moment of uncharacteristic uncertainty, “we should return home.” 

“Why?!” Tenten demanded, her scrolls disappearing into invisible pockets so she could place her hands on her hips. “That would just make us an easier target.” 

Neji both winced and felt a lightening in his chest at the word 'us' . He and his two involuntary teammates had had a tough beginning, but they’d come together over the past couple of years. They may be bound to him by clan law but they were also his friends. 

“Gai-sensei says that sometimes the best thing to do when a solution is not presenting itself is to try a different approach.” 

“Gai-sensei is idealistic, Lee,” Neji said. 

Lee puffed up his chest like he was about to launch into an impassioned speech on the glories of their strange sensei, but he abruptly deflated and merely replied, “And you are a pessimist, Neji.” 

“Are you really suggesting that this could be something other than an attack?!” Tenten asked. Her temper was flaring up but Neji could see the contemplative light in her eyes. 

“Who wouldn’t want to attack me?” Neji asked honestly. The Hyuga were hated and envied in equal measures. They were the largest clan and in many ways the most powerful. Neji himself was a weapon the elders were quite proud of. Neji pivoted on his heel and continued roaming. His companions followed in silence. 

Neji felt the burn behind his eyes as his byakugan activated once again. He tugged at a few locks of his hair harshly and let out a small groan of frustration. The watching presence was only getting stronger. He was tired of walking and waiting. He was Neji Hyuga, the one who the clan’s blood flowed most strongly through. He was part of a powerful team and he was done being scared. 

“Fine,” he bit out. “We’ll go home.” 

A glance at Tenten showed she was displeased but the tightening of her lips told him she wouldn’t fight him on it. Lee just gave a stern nod to him. He sighed and made his way to the nearest elevator. At least home would be more comfortable. 

Neji takes back that thought the moment he lays eyes on their apartment building. He stops in the parking lots and stares up at the building and into the seventh floor where their suite is. “What is it?” Tenten asks. Her scrolls once again at her fingertips. 

“They’re waiting for us,” he replies. 

“They?” Lee asks. 

“Two of them, already in our apartment.” 

“Where exactly?” Tenten asks. 

“One is on your loveseat and the other is in the kitchen.” 

“But how could they be there if they were watching us?” 

“I don’t know.” 

Lee bounced in place, shifting from one foot to the other. He asked, “Should we go up?” 

“If they’re making no attempt to hide, that can only mean two things,” Tenten said. 

“They’re overconfident in their ability to beat us,” Neji said. 

“Or they don’t want to fight!” Lee finished. 

Neji glared at the intruders that were only visible to him. “I don’t like being underestimated.” 

He looked at his teammates and Lee gave him a thumbs up and a sparkling smile and Tenten just returned his own smirk. “Then it’s decided,” Tenten said. He appreciated her bloodthirst. She was always so practical up until the moment before all hell broke loose. 

“East window?” he asked. 

When he was met with agreement, the group made their way over to the east side of the building and quickly scaled up the side of the wall and to Tenten’s bedroom window. The room farthest away from the main area where the strangers were. 

With a murmur and a touch of chakra Tenten easily pushed the window open and disarmed the traps she’d set. They quickly jumped into the room and then crept through the hallway toward the distant voices. 

Neji stopped a few feet before rounding the corner to the living room for two reasons. The first being that he wanted to gauge what he could of the situation before he stepped 'blindly' in. The second and more important one was that there was a very small white dog sitting on the ground in front of him. 

The trespassers had brought a dog with them? 

The animal barked at him once and then sprinted away and toward the voices. “Were you greeting our guests, Akamaru?” a young feminine voice asked. “How is it that the dog has more manners than Kiba, huh?” 

A throaty chuckle was the girl’s response. Neji clenched his teeth and strode forward into the room. 

“Finally!” Neji turned to look at the young boy standing by the large window looking over to the headquarters building. He was young, younger than him by a year or two. Neji would guess around 11 or 12 years old. The girl sitting several feet away on the small couch that Tenten used to store scrolls on looked the same age. The blond spoke again, “We were starting to think you’d never come out of there!” He gestured lazily over his shoulder at the skyscraper and grinned. 

The white dog yapped again and Neji glared at the little thing as it sat on the floor a few feet in front of him. Again. “What do you want?” he asked, eyes darting back over to the young duo. 

He felt Lee and Tenten fall into place at his sides. “You’re trespassing on Hyuga property,” Tenten warned. 

“It’s hard to step foot anywhere without trespassing on some idiot’s rightful place or crossing a border or insulting some high and mighty elder of some damn clan,” the girl with pink hair complained. She waved her hands as she spoke and Neji noted the inexplicably pink metal knuckle dusters over her fingers. 

“What clan are you from then?” Neji asked. 

“None,” the blond said. “Let’s introduce ourselves first, huh?” He gestured at himself and Neji gave the boy a quick once over. Tattered clothes and dirty sneakers. Bright blond hair that looked like it’d never been brushed. His teeth when he smiled were clean and bright and showcased two very sharp canines. “I’m Naruto Uzumaki!” With a point at the girl he added, “And that is Sakura Haruno.” 

Lee exclaimed, “I am Rock Lee! And these are my teammates Neji Hyuga and Tenten!” Neji didn’t bother glaring at Lee, he didn’t want to take his eyes from Naruto. 

“Great,” Tenten snarked. “So glad we’re done with that. Now what the hell are you doing here?” 

“And how did you get in?” Lee asked in genuine bafflement. 

Naruto completely ignored Lee’s question and only sort of answered Tenten’s. “We’re here to talk to you!” 

Sakura rolled her eyes and stood up from the very paper-crowded couch. “It took us a while to find you, Neji.” 

“That’s what the seals around the apartment are for, after all,” Tenten defended. She’d put them up herself and Neji knew how defensive of her work she could get. He did everything short of humiliating himself to avoid that temper of hers. 

“No, this place was easy to find. It was you we were looking for,” Naruto said with a point at Neji. 

“How’d you find it?!” Tenten demanded, her cheeks flushing red, though Neji couldn’t tell if it was embarrassment or anger that caused it. 

“Akamaru and I sniffed you out, of course.” Neji spun around to find a new boy walking through the front door like he owned the place. 

“Who are you?!” Neji asked with all the scorn he’d cultivated over the years. 

“Kiba Inuzuka and my partner Akamaru.” The white dog barked and Neji wanted to kick it out the window. Kiba walked over to lean on the couch by Sakura. He glanced at Naruto and said, “None of us were followed, us or them,” he gestured in  Neji’s general direction. “And no one’s running a perimeter of the building. Idiots.” 

Neji raised a brow and had to silently and grudgingly agree. The Hyuga were getting lazy and sloppy. Evidently. “You were watching me. Earlier today. How?” he asked. 

Naruto gave a wide grin that showed off his teeth and replied, “With a little help from a good friend, that’s all.” He looked at Sakura like he’d told a great joke but Kiba was the one that scoffed out a chuckle. 

“Let’s stay on track, guys,” Sakura scolded. 

“Right!” Naruto clapped his hands and took a couple steps forward into the room. 

“You were saying you were looking for me?” Neji prompted. A few subtle hand signs to his teammates and Lee placed himself in front of Neji as Tenten fell back, her scrolls at the ready. 

“I’d start explaining before things start to get decidedly less friendly around here,” Tenten threatened. 

Naruto held up his hands and shrugged, “Hey, now, we’re not trying to get in a fight here.” 

“I knew it!” Lee shouted with a fist pump. 

“We’re here to talk about our shared hatred of your family,” Sakura said. 

Kiba snorted and shook his head. “You guys are terrible at this diplomacy thing.” 

“As if you’re any better, dog boy!” 

“At least I don’t have pink hair and insist on painting everything else pink too.” 

“At least I don’t paint everything orange or wear fur lined hoodies in the middle of summer!” 

Neji’s left eye twitched in annoyance at Sakura and Kiba’s bickering. These three were a waste of his time. And the way they’d invaded his home was a clear threat. Neji murmured a single word and Lee was off. Neji activated his byakugan and watched Lee’s attack with interest. He’d gone straight for Sakura, which was an interesting choice. Neji would have gone for Naruto himself. But it didn’t really matter. 

Lee aimed a powerful punch for Sakura’s chest and Neji’s eyes widened in shock when she slammed her own fist into Lee’s wrist and pushed his punch off target. Her knuckle dusters glinted in the low lighting of the room and Neji saw the burst of chakra from her fist at the exact moment of contact. It was similar to the art of the gentle fist. But also not at all. Lee quickly recovered and spun for a kick at her knee. 

Kiba darted between the two and raked long nails down Lee’s thigh and pushed him off balance. Lee spun with the momentum of Kiba’s redirection and continued his assault. Neji watched as Sakura struggled to keep up with his speed but not with his strength. He saw the way Kiba went unerringly for the vulnerable spots of Lee’s body and left the heavy combat to the small girl. 

Neji glanced at Naruto to find the blond watching with interest but no concern. It made Neji hesitate. Lee was the strongest person he knew and he was decidedly dangerous. He could no doubt win this fight, but not without serious effort and likely damage to himself. “Lee, stand down,” Neji commanded. 

Lee was back by his side in under a second. His leg was bleeding sluggishly and the bandages on one of his arms was shredded and coming loose in large loops. He was also smiling ear to ear. “Your strength is admirable, Sakura! And Kiba, your youth shines bright and strong!” Lee said with a thumbs up. 

Sakura looked at the boy askance and Kiba just wrinkled his nose in confusion. Naruto laughed though and said, “That’s the spirit!” 

“What do you want with me?” Neji asked again. “I’m only part of the branch family, you do realize.” 

Naruto replied happily, “I don’t give a damn what family you’re from!” 

“Actually,” Sakura added, “branch is preferable, considering the main family is a bunch of dick wads.” 

“Excuse me?!” Neji managed to croak out. 

“Point is!...” Naruto interrupted with a wide gesture of sweeping hands. “I’m not here to talk to a Hyuga, I’m here to talk to you. All three of you, actually.” 

“Us?” Tenten asked with audible shock. 

“I can’t say I’m not interested in what you can do,” Naruto said with a vague gesture at his own eyes as he looked at Neji. His gaze roamed over to Lee and Tenten as he continued, “And I know that I’ve only seen a fraction of what you’re capable of...but what caught our attention is what you’ve already shown you will do.” 

A thrum of anxiety and disbelief went through Neji’s body. His byakugan burned even hotter as he tried to think of a time recently, before the gaze at headquarters, that he’d ever felt someone watching him. But there was nothing. He didn’t sense them and more importantly he didn’t see them. But how? “Stop talking around the point! What do you mean you’ve seen us?!” he demanded. 

“Kiba and I stumbled across you awhile ago on one of your missions. You reported it to your clan head as a ‘failure’, I believe. But we saw what you did, how you helped that family.” Kiba gave an agreeing nod and settled his hip once again against the side of the couch that Sakura was standing in front of. 

Sakura said, “We were impressed. Don’t see much of that around these parts.” 

“We decided to keep an eye on you,” Kiba said. “Or rather our noses.” 

Tenten stepped up next to Neji and said, “You’re an Inuzuka, aren’t you? You tracked us.” 

“For how long?” Lee asked. Neji glanced at the small frown on his friend’s face and then back in bewilderment at the three strangers. What was happening? 

“Few weeks, I think.” Kiba stretched over to scratch behind Akamaru’s ears. 

“Kiba’s been taking some lessons from my pervy godfather, and he kept real good tabs on you three,” Naruto said. 

“Turns out that wasn’t the only instance of non-clan behavior,” Kiba said. He picked the dog up and somehow balanced the thing easily on top of his head. It should have looked ridiculous but Neji found it a little intimidating. The stupid dog and the strange kid connected to him had somehow been following them for weeks and he hadn’t noticed. Maybe the main branch weren’t the only ones getting sloppy. “I watched you protect an old lady from one of the members of the Trio three weeks ago. You stood up to a Sarutobi bully the week after. And not three days ago you went against mission protocol to allow your crazy sensei to --” 

Neji stiffened at the mention of Gai. “Was that a threat against our sensei?!” Lee’s shout disrupted Neji’s own similar thoughts. 

Kiba held up his hands in genuine alarm and replied, “Hell no. I wouldn’t start a fight with that guy unless I absolutely had to. Even then I wouldn’t try it alone. He’s insane! I saw him punch a helicopter out of the sky and then catch it midair! What the hell?!” 

Neji’s mouth pulled into a small smirk and Tenten chuckled. “That’s Gai-sensei for you,” she said. 

Sakura looked suddenly very interested. “He got any tips for that kind of stuff?” Neji felt a shudder of foreboding down his spine.

“Gai-sensei is the strongest shinobi alive! He is truly a master of taijutsu and boasts the spirit of a true shinobi!” Lee exclaimed. Neji hoped he didn’t start crying. 

“Are you trying to blackmail us then?” Neji asked, his eyes returning to Naruto. 

“Nah,” he waved the accusation off. “I just wanna be friends!” 

“Friends?” Neji repeated doubtfully. “Hyugas don’t have friends.” 

Naruto’s gaze shifted from him to Tenten then to Lee then back to Neji. The skeptical expression on that whiskered face made Neji’s skin feel uncomfortably warm. 

“Why should I consider you a friend?” Neji decided on a different approach. “All you’ve done is spy on us and invade our home.” 

“We’re already friends to some degree,” Sakura said. She’d begun idly spinning her knuckle dusters around one of her fingers. “Like I said before, we hate your clan just as much as you do.” 

Neji somehow doubted that. They weren’t slaves to the elders. They didn’t know the agony that could be forced upon him with little more than a thought and half a hand sign. They hadn’t been formed into an automaton that could follow orders and do little else. They weren’t clan children, they didn’t know what suffering truly was. 

She glared at him as if she could tell what he was thinking. “They killed my family,” she snarled. 

“They killed mine too,” Neji responded calmly, though he didn’t mean to. Why would he give the enemy any more information than he had to? What was he thinking? “I’m not interested in petty squabbles or self-righteous fools.” He looked away from Sakura with careful nonchalance. He tried to ignore the way his heart was beating too fast. 

“Petty?!” Kiba shouted. 

Sakura’s knuckle dusters were back on her fingers and her hands were curled into fists but she didn’t say anything further. Naruto was the one to speak. “I think you’ll be interested in getting to know us, Neji. We’re not here for petty squabbles either.” Naruto stepped closer, only stopping a few feet away from him. Lee and Tenten both moved to intercept but Neji waved them off. He met Naruto’s eyes and raised an imperative and questioning brow. 

“We’re here to make real change. I’m talking about a reboot of the whole system. I’m talking about abolishing the clans and recreating Konoha. I’m talking about freedom.” 

Neji’s expression twisted into something ugly, he could feel it and he couldn’t stop it. “Freedom?! It’s a myth, you fool! We are nothing but pawns in the hands of the clan elders and Konoha is nothing but a cage in which to hold us!” He had to fight back the desire to lash out and cause pain. Wanted to wipe that grin off Naruto’s face and cram broken ideals into his mouth until he choked. “You can’t just say grandiose things and expect them to happen. We’ve already been given our places in this world and the best we can do is survive it!” 

“Is that you talking,” Naruto asked, “or the brand on your forehead?” The smile was gone to be replaced with an eerily blank look that Neji had trouble looking away from. 

“How could--” Neji stuttered to a stop. The curse mark, how could they know? How could they know and still talk about breaking the clan ways? A new rage, even hotter than the last boiled at his blood. He lashed out with one hand, one perfect strike, and slammed his fingers into Naruto’s chest. A burst of chakra escaping his hand and piercing through Naruto’s body and into his heart. 

The effect was instantaneous. Naruto’s eyes widened and he stumbled back several steps, just barely managing to not fall to his knees. “How can you speak to me of such things? Me?! If you knew what I’ve been cursed with?!” Neji demanded, not bothering to hold back any of the rage boiling through his being.

Naruto coughed and blood spattered onto the wooden flooring. Neji looked at it with a dark glee. Pain for pain. Naruto fell down to his knees with a thump. A loud growl reminded Neji of the others. A quick scan of the room showed Lee was keeping Kiba away from him and Tenten was using a staff to fight off Sakura. Neji turned his gaze and attention back to Naruto. He sneered and spat on the blood on the ground. “You’re nothing but a walking corpse and you have nothing but delusions.” 

Naruto coughed up some more blood but looked up at Neji with a small smile. “You’re wrong.” 

“What?!” 

“I’m not delusional. How could I be after all I’ve seen? I’ve lived in the gutters for years, Neji, I’ve been beaten, underestimated, mocked, and forgotten. I’ve eaten trash and watched the clans around me force more down my throat. How could I hold any sort of ideal after watching my family slaughtered and strewn across the city in pieces?!” Naruto was shouting by the end and Neji distantly noted that the fighting around him had stopped. 

Naruto stood up and Neji felt a new chakra undulate around the boy. It was a familiar one too, the presence from before when he was being watched. It was violent but reserved, hot like a fire but lapped at his skin like water. 

“Even starved and half dead I’m more alive than you ever have been!” Naruto was gasping and shouting and shaking and Neji couldn’t help but feel like he was watching something momentous. His eyes caught on the blond’s chakra pathways and the way they were coming alight with monstrously strong chakra. Watched that energy circle around his heart where Neji had hit just moments before. 

“What are you?” Neji asked. 

Naruto’s eyes went a little softer and the chakra that had been boiling started to cool down. Naruto stood straight and took a deep breath that made the power around him abate drastically though Neji could still see it roiling around in his body. “I’m Naruto Uzumaki. Son of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki.” 

Neji knew those names. 

“Seven years ago they went to the clans and told them to stop. Asked them to look at what they’d done to Konoha. Begged them to reconsider. And when that didn’t work they fought them, tried to forcefully turn things back to the way they were. That was delusional.” Naturo gave a sound that was almost a laugh and then he looked deep into Neji’s wide eyes and asked, “But do you know why?” 

“Because the clans are all powerful.” 

“No. Because they were fighting to destroy something. They’d already lost everything they wanted to defend, so they went on the offensive. That’s where they went wrong.” 

“I don’t understand,” Neji said, and he hated how weak and small his voice had become. 

“You’re only as strong as what you’re trying to protect, don’t you see? They wanted to do harm rather than to create something new. They tried to do it alone, because they thought they were powerful enough. What did they get? Destroyed and stricken from history.” 

“And how is what you’re doing any different?” 

“Because I’m not going to fight the clans. I’m finding people like me, people who can see what’s wrong with the world, and I’m going to protect them. All of them. I’m going to make friends in this damn city that forces everyone to do the opposite, and I’m going to make sure I can help them. I’m going to build something here, Neji. I’m going to do what my parents couldn’t do, because they didn’t understand.” 

“I don’t understand,” Neji said again. Uselessly. His chest felt tight and his eyes stung, and not from the byakugan. He hadn’t cried in years. Not since his father died. But now “What do you want from me?” 

Naruto stepped up close enough to place a hand on Neji’s cheek. Neji couldn’t help but look at Naruto and the way he smiled so hard his eyes crinkled around the edges. They looked almost like they were shining with how intensely they were focused on his own eyes. “I want to break your chains, Neji. That’s it. I want to see you fly.” 

The hand on his cheek shifted to place firm fingers on his forehead. Only a small piece of cloth tied around his head stopping the contact with the curse mark itself. “You can’t do that.” 

“Watch me.” 

Neji was very good at many things. What he was best at above all of those however was observation. Watching and seeing things. 

Looking into Naruto’s eyes he got lost in what he couldn’t quite make out. What he could see though, was enough. 

“Okay,” he said. He closed his eyes as a couple of salty tears escaped and he swayed on the spot. Naruto’s other hand came up to steady him by the shoulder and two familiar chakra signatures raced to his side and supported his faltering body with strong arms. “Lee? Tenten?” he asked without really asking. 

“We’re right here with you, Neji,” Tenten replied.

“Wherever we end up,” Lee said with uncharacteristic somberness and very in character determination.