Sway

Archive: Just ask.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. That honor belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

The first thing that registered as he woke, was the intensely heavy feeling in his limbs. They were drawn to the bed as if weighted, while his chest seemed to have inflated, and was all but hovering above it, held to the world by each deadened limb. Though his eyes were open, he could see nothing but white, a blinding starkness with no shadow, even as he could see where the whiteness differentiated. His head ached with the sensation of a dull, throbbing pulse. While his mouth was dry, the rest of him was soaked to the sheets in fine layers of sweat.

His hair was unbound, and it was as if he could feel it to its very ends, stretched haphazardly over pillows and the edges of sheets. His skin was bare, unburdened by clothing, and everywhere the air touched seemed to burn with a white-hot edge. Every breath felt like drowning. Struggling to inhale where there was no sustenance, while a large pressure mocked the trembling rise and fall. His hearing was suddenly too sharp, the vast silence deafening.

Beyond all else, he could feel every single cell in his being. All of them swollen, stretched to their limits. His chakra paths felt as though they would burst any moment, and the pain that emanated from them was like no other he had ever before experienced.

If this was what it meant to die, Neji would not have wished it upon his worst enemy.

The ruffling of a kimono and the echoing footsteps were pure agony upon his system. The cool towels that were pressed against his skin seemed made of razored edges, the water that trickled free, following the natural curves of his graceful form, acid.

“Shhh…” came a voice that screamed at him. “It will be all right, Neji-sama.”

Odd, he thought in some still coherent corner of his mind. Odd, that someone would address him with such respect. Even if they pierced his senses with their grating voice.

“You will recover soon,” assured the voice. “But you must rest.”

Neji felt his entire body jerk in an uncontrollable seizure that seemed to be ripping him in twine. It may have lasted for a mere moment, or perhaps was not as serious on the outside as from within. For the hands that worked to heal him did not falter.

Other hands soon joined them.

His head was lifted up, a liquid poured into his mouth. What should have been relieving only added to the torture. Bubbling angrily against a raw throat. Neji could taste the blood on his tongue and wondered if he had the strength to go on.

If this were some sort of test in order to provide passage to the next world, he wasn’t so certain he would pass. The thought was ripped from him, however, as fingers combed through tangled locks. The pain so intense, the darkness beckoned, and he readily, weakly rushed into its tender embrace.


~ ~ ~ ~ ~


The next time he awoke, it only felt as if his head had been sliced in half with a windmill shuriken. Though his body felt puffy and sore, raw and a little too sensitive, he did not feel like he was about to come apart at the seams.

Pushing himself up took effort.

Looking around the room he was in, he was forced to blink several times. At first, because the world was an array of various shades of white. And then because he simply could not believe where he was.

The flowing curtains and the perfectly smoothed floors. From the furniture made of the finest cherry wood, with shinning silver fastenings and ivory inlay. To the scrolls hanging proudly from the walls, detailing their clan’s greatest achievements. The framed dividers, elaborately painted upon the finest, most delicate silk. The finely colored vase, settled upon an intricately carved jade table. The polished weapons of his clan’s greatest warriors, set against an alabaster wall. Tall bamboo standing erect in an ancient basin, the cool, crystal clear water swirling below its quiet, noble strength.

‘I must be dead’, he thought to himself. There was no other way.

Hearing the door slide open, he turned to find one of his fellow branch members. They stared at one another for a moment, and she almost dropped the basin she was carrying. With a sharp gasp, and an embarrassed – though he had no idea why - flush, she bowed low, before running away.

Neji sighed in exasperation.

Honestly, the women in his clan were all severely lacking in one form of intellect or another. With great effort, he forced himself upon trembling legs and got up from the futon. Thankfully, there was no need to search for clothing, as some had been lain aside. Carefully, he put them on, noting that they were the token wear of his kin. Though, he added, idly, these were of a higher quality material.

Padding across the room as quickly as he could, he paused as the door slid open wider, and his Uncle came to stand before him. Instinctively, Neji dropped into a bow and almost tipped over, suddenly unbalanced.

Hyuuga Hiashi waved a dismissive hand.

“Don’t bother, Neji. You are still recovering.”

Neji watched his Uncle cross to him, and inhaled only slightly as he was grasped high upon the arms. His Uncle said no more, instead, focussing his gaze upon his nephew’s pale brow. Neji tried not to fidget. Both, because it would hurt, and due to the fact that he didn’t like his Uncle to know when he was uncomfortable.

Cool fingertips rested against his skin and Neji’s eyes closed of their own accord. When they opened again, his Uncle was smiling at him. “You are much stronger than you’ve lead us to believe, Neji,” he said, laying an arm about the younger shinobi’s shoulders, and guiding him back to the futon. Neji went with no protest, settling back into the comfortable cushions as his Uncle helped him down.

“How are you feeling?”

Neji quietly cleared his throat. “Better, thank you.”

“I would believe you capable of feeling more difference than that.”

Neji’s brow furrowed.

“Your chakra is flowing much better today.”

The younger Hyuuga flexed one arm, reaching a hand to rub against his elbow. Actually, his chakra felt…heavier and swifter at the same time. His Uncle waited patiently, silently observing the younger shinobi’s self-assessment.

Slowly, Neji traced the feeling about his body. Running a diagnostic of every chakra coil, and individual pore. They all felt…different. And yet the feeling was…familiar somehow.

His hands moved to his brow on their own, chakra reaching for the familiar tug and solid glide of the seal. Instead of meeting the accustomed resistance, the chakra leaked out in all directions, and Neji had the oddest sensation of bleeding, before he reigned it in.

As he turned to face the Head of his clan, Neji couldn’t help the disbelieving stare.

Hyuuga Hiashi reached out and gently removed his hands, settling them in the young adult’s lap. His own fingers moved to once more smooth out the unmarked skin. “No one who has earned this right has ever survived the transition,” he said, fingers moving into tangled strands.

Feeling his throat tighten and threaten him with choking, he did not attempt to reply.

When his Uncle did not elaborate, instead, gently combing out Neji’s long hair with careful fingers, Neji’s own curiosity got the better of him. “Why?” he asked, thankful that his Uncle had moved to sit behind him, and he would not have to ask him to his face.

“Our clan needs you.” It was a moment or so, before he added. “And had our mother not faded, so that we were forced to be rescued from her womb, this would already be yours, Neji.”

Shocked by the revelation, Neji was unable to ask anything further.

His Uncle did not elaborate. He did not offer any more knowledge. Instead, he combed and untwined at an unhurried pace. And while it had never occurred before, Neji was surprised to find it didn’t feel awkward at all. To be here, with his Uncle, who had never given him much notice – beyond placing a seal upon his brow – before his first attempt at the Chunin exams.

“There is but one stipulation,” he said, after he had drawn the smooth, untangled tresses together and bound them with a bit of leather. “To keep peace within the clan, you must marry Hinata.”

Neji nodded.

“I expect no grandchildren from this arrangement. You will not need to provide an heir until you find a partner worthy of you.”

Neji stared out the window, wondering whether this was all really happening. Was his Uncle really proclaiming him the new clan heir? Did he have that much faith in a child of the branch family? Would he really be happy with his daughter the unclaimed wife of the new clan head?

Perhaps it was the pain, or the feeling of new limits yet to be tested. Perhaps it was because, in a way, he had foreseen this. Perhaps it was even the unfamiliar weight being settled upon him. Whatever the reason, Neji found, the situation could not be any better.

“As for Hanabi.”

Neji remained unmoving, back still to his Uncle. “It is about time the clan was brought together. You may start with her.”

Though he recognized it as part of the stipulation for his instatement as the new clan head, Neji wasn’t offended. How could he be?

The sooner the clan was his, after all, the sooner he could have Naruto and Takashi. The sooner Takashi’s life would be less entangled. He could be Hyuuga and Uzumaki. As well as the assurance that he would not be bound for life.

As his Uncle lay a warm hand to the back of his head and stood, Neji felt the new weight of responsibility settle comfortably in his chest. As the elder shinobi left him alone, the new clan heir looked about the room. And with a private smile, forgave his father.


~ ~ ~ ~ ~


Their friends didn’t take the news well.

Though Naruto had been the first to ‘father’ a child, Neji and Hinata were the first to announce engagement. And to one another, no less.

It took some time before the group would properly come around enough to be excited for them.

Much to Neji’s dismay, Naruto never once approached him over it.

He planned to tell his lover that everything would be for the best. As new clan head, he could best ensure Takashi’s safety. He planned to tell him that he neither wanted, nor was required to have intercourse with his new bride. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he could already hear his lover ranting about the unfairness. Not for his own sake, but for Hinata-sama…Hinata’s.

He wanted to tell Naruto that he loved him. That he hoped his marriage would not cause a rift between them. That as new clan head, he could support the blonde’s dream of being Hokage, with actual power. He wanted the younger shinobi to know that he wouldn’t feel for him any less, nor would the thought of him fade. He wanted to tell him that this would be a new beginning for them all.

Instead, he was met with stony silence.


~ ~ ~ ~ ~


It was the not knowing that drove him slowly mad.

Though Naruto had every right to be angry – and truly, Neji didn’t blame him – he had hoped his lover would at least consent to discussing the situation with him. He wanted Naruto to understand his motives. That he would never have agreed to anything, if it weren’t so ideal for their situation.

His Uncle’s original intention was to supplant his own heir with his nephew, via a relatively ancient law in which he could claim Neji as his own, because his brother had been his identical twin. The gist of it, basically, was that as clan-ship was determined by the males within, the substitution of members whose siring of heirs could be contested was admissible only whence said males shared exact genetic material. Leading for a conventional loophole in the cases where consummation and conception were impossible or met with great difficulty.

It was why there were so few cases of surviving twins in clans. Considering twins to be more or less the same person – seen only in the cases of same sex, and most often identical twins – clans could use the law to shift the balance of power within clans based on a simple genetic status. Ergo, most clans had ritualistically slain one of a pair of same sex twins until the founding of Konoha, in which the Shodaime had banned the practice.

In essence, because Neji was Hyuuga Hizashi’s son, who himself, was the younger, identical twin brother of Hyuuga Hiashi, the clan head, theoretically, had Hyuuga Hiashi slept with Neji’s mother, the resulting child would have still equated to Neji’s genetic make up. In which case, Neji could be considered Hyuuga Hiashi’s son, should the clan head but claim him.

Unfortunately, the clan elders had discovered what his Uncle had been planning and had forced a stipulation on him. The marriage of the ‘true’ clan heir to the new clan heir, resulting in the union of both legal claims to the title of clan head.

The only obstacle in direct violation to the union was that, given the above was all considered truth, then Neji’s marriage to Hinata was equivalent to marrying his own sister. At least, genetically speaking. And though marriage between siblings was illegal in Konoha, marriage between cousins was not, even first cousins – as long as the Hokage gave their consent. And because, technically he and Hinata were first cousins, and not siblings – genetic crafting aside – they could be legally wed.

At first, Neji had been surprised the Godaime had given her blessing. It seemed strange to him, that a kunoichi of her medical caliber would not be adversely objected to such a blatant abhorrence of ethics. But, he was forced to concede that where the Godaime was concerned, certain simple truths were subjected to considerable observation. And she probably had her own reasons for wanting the change.

By giving her consent, Tsunade-sama was taking part in a forward motion toward the direct changing of clan construction. A trait, she had apparently inherited from her grandfather.

It had been her stipulation however, that there be no children born of the union. One he found echoed by his Uncle’s own sentiments. And the clan had acquiesced, allowing for the use of yet another exceedingly old law, in which Neji – as a clan head in need of an heir – could take a second, pseudo wife whose sole purpose was to bear his children.

The end result – given that Neji had been the first to survive the removal of the curse seal in his clan’s entire history, and thus thwart the nay-sayers within – was Neji’s near guarantee of freedom. With his curse seal removed, and his marriage unconsummated, Neji was allowed to peruse the village for a suitable ‘vessel’ for his ‘seed’.

And really – though the clan considered otherwise – he had that part more or less covered.

Sometimes – and it was rare - it really paid to be a Hyuuga.