Neji Pov: Ch-16

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I left the training ground behind the Hyuga Palace. I was going to head straight into my shower and then my jacuzzi bathtub until I heard Hinata's voice in the back of the deck behind the porch. She was talking to her father. I peeked behind a tree to hear what they were talking about but suddenly Hiashi stood up and then they both got up and left I waited for about five minutes before he came back out and gave me a sign to come back in. We stood on the deck before I spoke up to him. "What was that about?" I asked quickly.

He crossed his arms. "Neji! Are you crazy?"

This was unbelievable. "Are you trying to ruin the plan?" Still, I didn't answer him.

"Well, I'm waiting." He said, still waiting for me to answer him.

I scoffed at him feeling fed up with all of the cover-ups, the lies, the betrayals, the tests, all of it!

"Has it ever occurred to you that she doesn't want to be the heiress? Have you ever considered... That this isn't what she wants? Have you ever asked her what it is that she wants?" I shook my head as I thought about the questions I was asking him.

"You have another daughter! Hell! You dote on her! Way more than I ever saw you dote on Hinata. Don't you see how much you have hurt her?" His face was expressionless. "Why can't Hinabi be the heiress?"

He started to yell. "Because she isn't the eldest! But you already knew that." He grunted at me.

"I thought that we agreed to change the way of our clan? No more hierarchies, no more mains, no more branches, no more!" I said to him feeling defeated.

"If we do that then we lose power!" My eyes shot at him. "As if I had any of that power, to begin with."

This made him go silent which was quite shocking to me. He looked down as though he was ashamed.

I wasn't trying to make him feel bad but I was just being honest. My father died for the sake of 'the clan' and I was treated like dirt but I saw that the grass wasn't so greener after all on the other side when I saw how Hinata was treated from our younger days.

After everything that happened after the war, my curse seal was removed due to me being on the edge of dying. I was hospitalized for about six months due to also being on bed rest. Hiashi came to me and told me about his 'plan' to have Hinata replace him as the head of the clan. I was surprised by this. He told me that he had the support of the clan, the councils, and the Hokage to set it in motion. Which was why I and everyone else had to comply with his lies at the time.

"Neji... I'm sorry about your father." He said quietly. I know that it wasn't his fault that he died, I mean he was just following our traditions and rules. After all, he and my father were born into it. So I really can't blame him. But I realized how much suffering I had gone through as well as Hinata. After 4 years of all of that, I saw just how much our clan was ruthless and cutthroat. Who would wanna belong to such a thing?

I cleared my throat and spoke my next words to him. "I'm revealing myself to her this Sunday so you have to choose whether or not you're ready to be honest."

He sunk his head and sat down as I left him to sit with his thoughts by himself.
~~~~~~

"I thought that I could do it but I couldn't." Me and Naruto were having a drink on my balcony that was right outside of my room. He was ranting about his feelings for Hinata to me. "I-I care about her Neji."

I gave him a quick chuckle. "Yeah, it only took you about 4 years to figure that out."

I found it suspicious in a way. "Tell me this Naruto is it that you care for her because you feel pity for her? Or is it that you care for her because you know that Sakura will never stop loving Sasuke? Or did it just take you a long time for you to realize your feelings?"

He slammed his glass down. "I love- I like- I..."

He was stammering over his words. "She-I- I'm..."

For a minute there I thought he was her with all of his stutterings that he was doing. So I spoke back up.

"Is it that you don't want her but you also don't want anyone else to have her?" He took his drink and then he snatched the bottle from the table and started to take his drink to the head. "I do want her! Okay!"

I squinted my eyes. "Wanting, loving, and caring are 3 different things Naruto." He gave me a long sigh.

This must've been bothering him more than we all realized. But I had to test something about him first.

"How do you feel about Sakura?" He didn't waste any time answering me.

"I loved her since we were kids. But I realized that... After I came back from training with Jiraiya that it wasn't anything but competition with me. Don't get me wrong she'll always hold a place in my heart but my feelings weren't for the right reasons. Ya know?"

I was taken aback by his answer but I wasn't done with my testing of him. I didn't need to say anything else because he spoke back up.

"I feel different things about Hinata though. I guess you could say that I was dense toward her feelings... I just didn't want anyone to feel like she was the last option for me because of Sakura." He started to hold his chest. "My chest hurts." I grabbed the bottle from him and told him to go home and get some rest.

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