Of Beauty

Have you ever wanted something beautiful?

He saw everything. Saw the smallest twitch of movement from Sasuke’s lips [forever possessed by arrogance]. Saw the grass bend to the will of the breeze as it swirled around them, and how the leaves responded in kind with a gentle rustle of sound. Almost like that of a bird taking flight.

And he knew that very little escaped those blood-stained eyes. A trait born from the one he carried, and yet so very different. Neji imagined he could catch the way the wind tugged at his hair in that gaze, the dark strands fluttering out only to fall back onto his shoulder with a natural grace. Uchiha Sasuke was someone who would watch such a thing. Those smallest of details.


* * * *

“Do you realize, Neji?”

“Realize what?”

Lips pulled back into that effortless smirk. Haughty by design, and damnably beautiful. “Realize that your right index finger always curls back slightly when you’re unsettled?”

Neji studied the Uchiha heir quietly, mouth a firm line of distrust. He never gave himself away. Ever.

Or so he had thought. Touch ghosted along the edges of his mind, and his thoughts shot out. Traversing over skin, muscle, nerve until all focus was on that single digit just ever so lightly brushing against his thigh.

“Hn. How observant of you.” A bitterly terse statement, and yet had it been anyone else, like Naruto or Kiba, Neji knew the feeling driving those words would have gone entirely unnoticed. But Sasuke. . . .

“Details make the picture all the more beautiful.” He tilted his head away from Neji, the sunlight catching the top of his head. The Hyuuga prodigy couldn’t help but notice the way the stitching caught that light, the tiny black strands glinting maliciously against the pale skin of Sasuke’s forehead.

And for the briefest moment, Neji knew that had it not been for the reinforced leather binding his wrists, the jutsu claiming his body, Sasuke would’ve found his way to his side. All to just simply utter one final phrase and then walk away.

Instead, the Uchiha heir settled his head back against the pillow and shut his eyes. As if accepting the fact that he, at this moment, was powerless to escape. And it wasn’t simply the cuffs, the binding jutsu that kept him that way. Neji knew far too well [could see it, the stunted flow of chakra through a body built on perfected revenge] that Sasuke was, for the first time in many years, incapable of doing as he wished.

Only this time, the young man seemed to openly accept his fate. Neji’s right index finger shifted against his leg.

* * * *


Sasuke took a step to the left, placing himself dead center in the small clearing. A cursory glance around told him that the place had once been used as a training area. Though, it had long since passed those days. Not a single bare spot could be found, yet the tell-tale scarring on the surrounding trees bore testament to what had once occurred here.

Finally, he returned his attention to Neji. For a good long moment, they did nothing. Simply scrutinized one another with eyes that saw more than any other. And it wasn’t simply blood that gave them such a gift, something each had recognized in the other.

Neji couldn’t help but wonder if that had been part of the attraction six years ago, when they both stood ready to take the Chuunin exam. If even then that fledgling talent had recognized itself in the other. Beyond the well-bred arrogance and deeper than the God-given genius they had been inundated with at birth. Something that would take years of fighting and trial and spilt blood before it could fully reveal itself.

He could see it now as Sasuke shamelessly scanned his body, taking in every curve, every flow of cloth as it rode the wind. And he wondered what beauty Sasuke saw in that, in this moment.

Evening out his weight over his feet, the Uchiha heir turned his head to the sky. Oddly clear for this time of day, for where they were.

Neji had hand picked the spot, after all. A place to seek respite from the rest of the world, a place to forget just as it had been forgotten. A place where the birds nested freely and soared the skies without the slightest hint of fear.

Even now, Sasuke showed no fear. Though. . . . Neji watched calmly, his face open, blank. Like water, absorbing what was fed into it, diluting it until nothing remained. Just the same crystalline expanse that could never be held.

There was a quiet grace to him now. For a moment, Neji was certain he could see the man Sasuke could become. Head held tilted towards the sky, the raven locks splayed with a possessive air over his cheeks, shifting with each wind-born caress only to reclaim skin. His stance was confident, shoulders back though there was no tension there. Nothing rigid about the way he stood. It was pride that held him aloft, the casually intimate kind known only to those who understood and accepted all that they were.

So caught up in that image, it was a full second before Neji realized Sasuke was now looking at him. Pale lips pulled into a smirk, its usual arrogance oddly dulled at the moment. Rather, it appeared to be a reaction, like the way a heart kept beating though a thought was never spared to its existence.

Knees gave way, but not once did those eyes leave his. They bore into him, as fiery as ever. Red and seething and full of all the emotion Neji knew rested beneath Sasuke’s sharply-honed self-control. A restraint he knew Sasuke had paid dearly for.

“You always said you wanted to see me on my knees.” It was cool, conceited. A response he would expect from the Uchiha heir, and yet it was strangely heartbreaking.

Neji didn’t break. But when he responded, his words sounded foreign. Strangled and full of a concern he hadn’t been aware of. “Not like this. . .”


* * * *


He hadn’t imagined it like this. Warm. Scalding. Pressuring his senses with a blinding flash of heat that made him cry out ever so softly. Just for him to hear. Only for him.

And Sasuke was quick to reply, thrusting in again as his mouth found skin, found lips, found everything and anything he could sear the Hyuuga prodigy’s name onto. Thoroughly guiltless in the way he moved, in the way he had whispered of each and every thing he planned on doing to the young man currently clinging to him.

Hand fisted in hair, gripped his right shoulder. Legs wrapped about that deceivingly slender waist. It had been surprising, not so much a shock as a delight, to find Sasuke’s body like that. So well crafted by the hands of perfection, the muscling evident and yet cloaked so well beneath far too pale skin that reminded him of moonlight hitting water. A body so like his own and yet touch shattered that illusion.

Sasuke was hot. A breathing monument to fire, set to burn what got too close, set to consume anything that dared trespass beyond that. Despite the coolness of his glances, the chill of his words, Neji understood that Sasuke had never been able to fully conquer himself. The betrayal was there, flushing his skin, licking at his fingertips.

And he. . .he was far from fluid like that. It took time to ease his muscles out of their rigid security. To coax him from duty. For all his agility, all his athleticism, Neji found it frustrating how easily Sasuke maintained himself. How effortless it seemed to hold onto a confidence that was just as regal in its pride without all the formality.

But he found the key to that in the way Sasuke moved against him. It made him wonder why he had ever found it such a secret. All simply a matter of letting go.

He bit down against Sasuke’s shoulder. Hard. It was only natural that the Uchiha heir, Konoha’s second most infamous missing nin, be placed under surveillance at the Hyuuga compound. But when he came, Neji couldn’t help but think that it was fate.


* * * *


“It’ll burn you.”

Neji glanced down at the sword. Beneath the sun, the snake-charmed sheath took on a violet shade. A beautiful obsidian-drenched purple that reminded him far too much of the young man kneeling before him.

They had said the weapon was protected [a snake had its bite after all]. Sasuke hadn’t uttered a word on that. Not even to Neji. And while the Uchiha heir’s refusal had stung [just a bit, hardly enough to register upon his face], he could now understand why. And for that, Neji had to admit. . .

“I know. . . .”