Interlude: Seeds of War
Neji was very glad he was a Hyūga, in general because it would be madness to feel otherwise, but in the specific because he would still have the Byakugan to fall back on after his latest punishment left him blind. It was early morning, and Neji was once again in the poorly-lit depths of the clan archives, sorting through the clan's tax records and ensuring that each document was in line not merely with the current Hokage's Office legislation—that would have been too simple—but with the legislation of the year in which they had been made. Neji had never appreciated how frequently and extensively the Hokage's bureaucracy revised a set of laws which essentially boiled down to "here is how much money you pay us".
Meanwhile, the majority of the scrolls were older than he was, could not be taken out of the archives (whether because they contained sensitive information or because they would crumble to dust if moved, Neji wasn't sure), and were written in tiny scribbly characters that meant a single spread could take half a day to decipher. It would have been far less cruel to make him dig latrines, which was probably why Lord Hiashi had ordered it, at least until he came home with an even more refined punishment that likewise placed Neji out of focus. It would not do to remind his clansmen that Lord Hiashi's hand-picked Chūnin Exam representative was capable of such catastrophic folly.
Not that it had been
his folly. Somehow the fact had been missed in this entire mess that the Gōketsu had proposed the plan, the Gōketsu had brought them to the verge of implementation, and then the Gōketsu had pulled out, leaving them to take the fall. He'd tried to explain, but Lord Hiashi had dismissed it as an excuse with a wave of his hand, which in a way was fair. A true Hyūga did not spend time blaming others for his downfall. He rose again to seek bloody revenge. At least, once he was done with his paperwork.
There was the problem of
how to seek revenge. The weird one was the most culpable, but also the one whose gloating manner was so confusing that Neji didn't want to smite him until he knew more. The impertinent one he found himself wanting to save for later. And as for the terrifying one… he wasn't going near her with a ten-foot pole.
"Hello, Cousin Neji!" a young girl's voice called out from behind him, interrupting his ruminations.
"Lady Hanabi?" Neji turned around. "You shouldn't be down here—you'll choke on the dust!"
Lady Hanabi ignored his admonition as she was wont to do.
"Will you help me practice?"
"Practice what?" Neji asked suspiciously. Lady Hanabi might be the future second-in-command of the Hyūga Clan, but she was also a nine-year-old girl with a tendency for mischief and a natural talent for leaving no evidence. This time, he would not be deceived.
Lady Hanabi drew herself up. Her eyes flashed. "Practice mortal terror from being in my very presence!"
Neji raised an eyebrow pointedly. "Has Lady Hinata been recommending children's fiction to you again?"
"Oh, no!" Hanabi said brightly. "Gōketsu Keiko has taken me on as her apprentice!"
Neji tore the open scroll he was holding in half.
"She thinks I have the potential!" Hanabi exclaimed. "But she's not here right now, and I need people to practice on so I can impress her when she comes back. Will you help?"
Neji felt dizzy. That… that abomination was corrupting his innocent young cousin. She was planning to turn Lady Hanabi into a copy of herself. This could not be tolerated. He would go straight to Lord Hiashi and—
But no. Lord Hiashi would already know, by virtue of being Lord Hiashi, and would also not appreciate Neji in any way interacting with Lady Hanabi or any other human being right now. Neji would have to… he would have to overcome his discomfort and force himself to confront the beast a second time. Even if Lord Hiashi knew, if by some unimaginable twist of fate he
condoned it, no one who had not faced Gōketsu Keiko's fury head-on would be able to appreciate the depths of depravity into which she was capable of plunging poor Lady Hanabi.
"Oh, but promise not to tell Father!" Hanabi said quickly so as to make things worse.
"He can't forbid it if he doesn't know," she added in the tones of someone confiding a great secret.
Fantastic. He had to choose whether to betray a young girl who trusted him and incidentally would hold the power of life and death over him someday or to lie by omission to a man who could not be fooled and who had no more mercy left for him. This, too, was Gōketsu's fault.
But then Neji looked down at the remains of the scroll in his hand. At the teetering stack of others at his side still waiting to be processed.
"Tell him what?" Neji asked. "Surely Lord Hiashi does not expect me to believe every fanciful claim made by a child at play? No offence, Lady Hanabi."
Lady Hanabi nodded seriously. "So you'll help me, then?"
Help her be further brainwashed by that monstrosity? Help her lose her innocence in favour of malevolence and bloodlust? Help her forsake the dignity and self-respect that defined their clan?
But wait. A thought occurred to Neji that might not have come at all if his cruel and usual punishment hadn't left him so sleep-deprived. This was it. This was his means of revenge without direct confrontation. Everyone knew that the apprentice was ultimately destined to take the master's place. If Neji could secure her loyalty, and empower Lady Hanabi with the sophisticated wiles of the Hyūga that triumphed over the Gōketsu's base trickery… if she could surpass and defeat that abomination at her own game…
Neji rose from his seat. "What you must understand before anything else, Lady Hanabi, is that you are not merely a shinobi-in-training. You are no mere commoner seeking to rise above their station despite crippling natural inferiority. You are no foreigner desperately claiming parity with true Leaf ninja. You are no Motoyoshi or Inuzuka hoping to ride to glory on their superiors' coattails." His voice rose. "You are the direct heir of a thousand-year legacy of power, wisdom and lore. You
are the Pride of the Hyūga, the third most noble person in Leaf, and thus in all the world."
Lady Hanabi listened silently, eyes wide.
"Now, speak to me the way Lord Hiashi speaks to a civilian who has failed him but cannot be killed because he belongs to someone else."
Lady Hanabi took a deep breath.
"You pathetic worm! I granted you the honour of assisting a main family Hyūga, and this blind stab at guidance is all that you have to offer? Kneel and give praise to the Will of Fire that I do not simply destroy you now and hope that you are more useful to me in your next life!"
"She's right," Neji breathed after a second. "You
are a natural."
Lady Hanabi bowed like a performer on a stage.
"Has he ever… actually said that?"
"No," Lady Hanabi grinned, "but you can tell he thinks it every day."
Neji sighed. He still had such a long way to go as a Hyūga.
But he'd confirmed the important part. No matter how powerful his uplifted mudcrawler of an opponent might be, she shared with most of mankind the critical flaw of not being a Hyūga. She could not teach Lady Hanabi how to use her natural superiority as a noble, against which all of Gōketsu's petty tricks would be as nothing. With the full glory of the Hyūga in one hand and Gōketsu's unholy powers in the other, the student
would surpass the master, and Neji would be there at her side to guide her ascension.
Then, once the upstart was properly crushed, with Lady Hanabi at the height of her power and trusting him as her mentor...
"Come back during my lunch break, Lady Hanabi," he said with a satisfied smile. "It seems you and I have much to discuss."
we can just seal him into a scroll.
