He didn't need the Byakugan to practice strikes, and so didn't see her coming out of the forest behind him. Nevertheless, she knew that the quiet sounds of her stride and the subtle feel of her chakra told him of her presence even before she spoke.
"Neji-niisan?"
"Hinata-sama." He turned to look at her, and his voice and face were calm - but an unspoken chill and the tension around the corners of his eyes set her heart sinking in her chest.
"I..." she paused, then plunged ahead. "The Hyuuga clan... -needs- to change. When, when we left the Lightning Country, the two-family system... stopped being neccessary. The longer we keep it, the more harm it does, pain it causes. I... I'll be the clan head, but... I won't be able to change things without at least one ally in the Branch family. If, if you want your children to be free of the Caged Bird seal, then... I know that you've... been hurt. I know that, that you probably hate me. I know you have a right to. But..."
He looked at her as she trailed off, and his face was very cold, indeed. "You know nothing. I don't know why you even feel the need to try, but -no- -one- can alter destiny's decrees, let alone someone with your fate of weakness and cowardice. The heavens have appointed the Hyuuga's fate of suffering and hatred, and neither of us can hope to alter it... any more than -you- could hope to defeat me." Something red-fanged and shadowy seemed to stalk in the echoes between his last words.
"You're wrong, Neji-niisan. People... -I-... -can- change. I will. I -have-. And I will prove it to you, if you'll only... give me the chance."
"As a member of the Branch House of the Hyuuga, it is my duty to aid and educate the heir, and try to keep her from folly." His face, somehow, grew even colder as he crouched slightly and brought his hands up into the first of the Jyuuken's five stances. "If you want to break free of your loser's fate, then it's better you see the truth at my hands than those of harsh reality."
She matched his stance. "Then it is my duty as Heir, to guide and protect those who have lost their way, and forgotten what it means to be family."
He flinched, and paled, enough to be noticable to normal eyes rather than just Byakugan. Then his lips pulled back in vicious snarl. "A CAGED BIRD HAS NO FAMILY!"
His rage nearly cost him the fight as she slipped outside of his leading right hand, and though he managed to avoid the strike that would have slammed across the side of his head and sent him out for the count with a five-day migrane - if he was lucky - the twist of his body and the momentum of his charge left him completely unable to avoid her outstretched leg. He tried to recover - twisted, failed, fell, crashing to the ground with all his weight and speed grinding his left arm across the ground. When he rose and spun towards her - just in time to block her kick - a seeping mass of blood was spreading over a patch of stripped skin and embedded dirt from wrist to elbow.
She backed off a step, then came in again, leading with her left arm. With his damaged like that, immobilizing his right arm would give her a serious advantage - and did, as the locked limbs twisted off to one side and let her naturally rotate her body in closer for a strike against...
The bleeding on his left arm was even more superficial than it looked, and that hand flashed in a long flurry of strikes that scattered pinpricks of fire across her entire right arm. Her palm strike still broke his nose, but the blue flare that would have marked a proper hit was completely absent.
She twisted the other arm around his and slapped her palm against his shoulder. He flinched, and recoiled, leaving them almost at arms' length. His attack had been typical Hyuuga work, precise and deceptively effective, sealing her tenketsu, the external opening points that let her vent chakra for the Jyuuken's strikes - or redistribute her body's energy to operate the limb's muscles. Her strike, on the other hand, had turned her greatest problem into a strength.
The Hyuuga's reputation and the effectiveness of their Gentle Fist taijutsu style concealed a serious weakness - the same genes that passed on the Byakugan were closely, perhaps inextricably linked with an unusually low natural chakra capacity. While the lesser flow made precise control easier, many Hyuuga Genin had to struggle to muster the power for more than a Bunshin or two, and only a rare handfull would ever improve enough to be able to perform more than a single Kaiten before collapsing in exhaustion. A large part of Neji's reputation as a genius was due to the fact that his chakra reserves were actually quite normal - a trait inherited from his mother.
Hinata, however, was a sport, an individual in whom the collision of random, otherwise ordinary genes had produced an effect entirely different from the usual. Where other Hyuuga could direct their chakra with instinctive, casual precision, she struggled. Where they seethed, she grieved.
And where her kin husbanded the contents of a meagre pool of power, and even Neji worked from a simple mountain lake, she held back a sea fit to rival any genius of the Uchiha or Sarutobi.
That simple slap had delivered far more chakra than Neji's system was prepared to channel, and the effect was much like that of a lightning strike on an open power grid. His body would heal the damage eventually, in a few weeks alone or days with the right medical assistance, but in the meantime that shoulder would be useless, and likewise the arm beneath it.
His working arm struck, once, twice, three times before she blocked the fourth and grabbed his wrist as he pulled back. For a long, painful moment she felt her heart stop in her chest before fear kicked it back into operation and set it hammering against her ribs.
Then she jumped - bracing herself against his wrist and shoulder - and brought her knees up against her chest. His eyes widened.
She wasn't able to put very much chakra into the kick that sent him staggering back and threw her out and away in a long, low flip, but what she -could- do was enough to double him over, retching helplessly as she landed and looked up and across the small clearing at him.
He spat, sending a spatter of the blood flowing down his face and chin arcing out into the lush grass. "You can't -do- that! A stupid little pampered flower can't be that strong!"
"N-not if it's cut every time it tries to grow... but Anko-sensei's finally given me a chance."
"You haven-ack!" He doubled over and collapsed to his knees in mid-word, hacking blood free from the passages of his lungs.
She raised a hand, as though to offer assistance. "Neji-niisan... Why are you so angry with me?"
He coughed one last time and snarled at her. "Why? You have the nerve to ask? I thought you were different. I thought you were better than them. And instead, you play politics and power games, twisting everything you can reach." He planted one foot underneath himself and lunged upright, good arm leading. "You're just like the rest."
She flinched, fell back one step, two. "I-i-i... No! It's n-n-not-"
"SHUT UP!" he roared, lunging half the distance between them before pulling up and visibly forcing himself back to some semblance of control. "I don't see any more point to this. Hinata-sama."
"B-but-"
"If you're going to accept a fate as just another manipulative little bitch," he snarled, overriding her quiet words, "you'll need to do something about that stutter."
She flinched, but when he turned to go she managed to force a word out. "WAIT!" He stopped, but did not turn, so she walked around in front of him. "Not even the clan head can change the Hyuuga alone, Neji-niisan. I need your help to do what we both want to happen. And if you won't believe me... then I'll have to start by finding a way to convince you. I -am- telling the truth, whatever you're afraid of. All I ask is that you tell me how to prove it."
He snorted and stormed past her.
Once she felt his chakra signature leave her senses, Hinata collapsed down to her knees and looked up to the sky with a quiet, plaintive little wail. "I said... to -him-...?"
===========
===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."
"Neji-niisan?"
"Hinata-sama." He turned to look at her, and his voice and face were calm - but an unspoken chill and the tension around the corners of his eyes set her heart sinking in her chest.
"I..." she paused, then plunged ahead. "The Hyuuga clan... -needs- to change. When, when we left the Lightning Country, the two-family system... stopped being neccessary. The longer we keep it, the more harm it does, pain it causes. I... I'll be the clan head, but... I won't be able to change things without at least one ally in the Branch family. If, if you want your children to be free of the Caged Bird seal, then... I know that you've... been hurt. I know that, that you probably hate me. I know you have a right to. But..."
He looked at her as she trailed off, and his face was very cold, indeed. "You know nothing. I don't know why you even feel the need to try, but -no- -one- can alter destiny's decrees, let alone someone with your fate of weakness and cowardice. The heavens have appointed the Hyuuga's fate of suffering and hatred, and neither of us can hope to alter it... any more than -you- could hope to defeat me." Something red-fanged and shadowy seemed to stalk in the echoes between his last words.
"You're wrong, Neji-niisan. People... -I-... -can- change. I will. I -have-. And I will prove it to you, if you'll only... give me the chance."
"As a member of the Branch House of the Hyuuga, it is my duty to aid and educate the heir, and try to keep her from folly." His face, somehow, grew even colder as he crouched slightly and brought his hands up into the first of the Jyuuken's five stances. "If you want to break free of your loser's fate, then it's better you see the truth at my hands than those of harsh reality."
She matched his stance. "Then it is my duty as Heir, to guide and protect those who have lost their way, and forgotten what it means to be family."
He flinched, and paled, enough to be noticable to normal eyes rather than just Byakugan. Then his lips pulled back in vicious snarl. "A CAGED BIRD HAS NO FAMILY!"
His rage nearly cost him the fight as she slipped outside of his leading right hand, and though he managed to avoid the strike that would have slammed across the side of his head and sent him out for the count with a five-day migrane - if he was lucky - the twist of his body and the momentum of his charge left him completely unable to avoid her outstretched leg. He tried to recover - twisted, failed, fell, crashing to the ground with all his weight and speed grinding his left arm across the ground. When he rose and spun towards her - just in time to block her kick - a seeping mass of blood was spreading over a patch of stripped skin and embedded dirt from wrist to elbow.
She backed off a step, then came in again, leading with her left arm. With his damaged like that, immobilizing his right arm would give her a serious advantage - and did, as the locked limbs twisted off to one side and let her naturally rotate her body in closer for a strike against...
The bleeding on his left arm was even more superficial than it looked, and that hand flashed in a long flurry of strikes that scattered pinpricks of fire across her entire right arm. Her palm strike still broke his nose, but the blue flare that would have marked a proper hit was completely absent.
She twisted the other arm around his and slapped her palm against his shoulder. He flinched, and recoiled, leaving them almost at arms' length. His attack had been typical Hyuuga work, precise and deceptively effective, sealing her tenketsu, the external opening points that let her vent chakra for the Jyuuken's strikes - or redistribute her body's energy to operate the limb's muscles. Her strike, on the other hand, had turned her greatest problem into a strength.
The Hyuuga's reputation and the effectiveness of their Gentle Fist taijutsu style concealed a serious weakness - the same genes that passed on the Byakugan were closely, perhaps inextricably linked with an unusually low natural chakra capacity. While the lesser flow made precise control easier, many Hyuuga Genin had to struggle to muster the power for more than a Bunshin or two, and only a rare handfull would ever improve enough to be able to perform more than a single Kaiten before collapsing in exhaustion. A large part of Neji's reputation as a genius was due to the fact that his chakra reserves were actually quite normal - a trait inherited from his mother.
Hinata, however, was a sport, an individual in whom the collision of random, otherwise ordinary genes had produced an effect entirely different from the usual. Where other Hyuuga could direct their chakra with instinctive, casual precision, she struggled. Where they seethed, she grieved.
And where her kin husbanded the contents of a meagre pool of power, and even Neji worked from a simple mountain lake, she held back a sea fit to rival any genius of the Uchiha or Sarutobi.
That simple slap had delivered far more chakra than Neji's system was prepared to channel, and the effect was much like that of a lightning strike on an open power grid. His body would heal the damage eventually, in a few weeks alone or days with the right medical assistance, but in the meantime that shoulder would be useless, and likewise the arm beneath it.
His working arm struck, once, twice, three times before she blocked the fourth and grabbed his wrist as he pulled back. For a long, painful moment she felt her heart stop in her chest before fear kicked it back into operation and set it hammering against her ribs.
Then she jumped - bracing herself against his wrist and shoulder - and brought her knees up against her chest. His eyes widened.
She wasn't able to put very much chakra into the kick that sent him staggering back and threw her out and away in a long, low flip, but what she -could- do was enough to double him over, retching helplessly as she landed and looked up and across the small clearing at him.
He spat, sending a spatter of the blood flowing down his face and chin arcing out into the lush grass. "You can't -do- that! A stupid little pampered flower can't be that strong!"
"N-not if it's cut every time it tries to grow... but Anko-sensei's finally given me a chance."
"You haven-ack!" He doubled over and collapsed to his knees in mid-word, hacking blood free from the passages of his lungs.
She raised a hand, as though to offer assistance. "Neji-niisan... Why are you so angry with me?"
He coughed one last time and snarled at her. "Why? You have the nerve to ask? I thought you were different. I thought you were better than them. And instead, you play politics and power games, twisting everything you can reach." He planted one foot underneath himself and lunged upright, good arm leading. "You're just like the rest."
She flinched, fell back one step, two. "I-i-i... No! It's n-n-not-"
"SHUT UP!" he roared, lunging half the distance between them before pulling up and visibly forcing himself back to some semblance of control. "I don't see any more point to this. Hinata-sama."
"B-but-"
"If you're going to accept a fate as just another manipulative little bitch," he snarled, overriding her quiet words, "you'll need to do something about that stutter."
She flinched, but when he turned to go she managed to force a word out. "WAIT!" He stopped, but did not turn, so she walked around in front of him. "Not even the clan head can change the Hyuuga alone, Neji-niisan. I need your help to do what we both want to happen. And if you won't believe me... then I'll have to start by finding a way to convince you. I -am- telling the truth, whatever you're afraid of. All I ask is that you tell me how to prove it."
He snorted and stormed past her.
Once she felt his chakra signature leave her senses, Hinata collapsed down to her knees and looked up to the sky with a quiet, plaintive little wail. "I said... to -him-...?"
===========
===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."