Pandora Imperatrix

He pulls her up, sitting her on the vanity table. Hinata's knees part to make room for him, when their middles touch, he lets out a needy grunt and that makes her pull him even closer, her legs hooking around him on their own accord. Her hands are on his face, one cupping his cheek, the other sliding possessively down his chin to his throat, feeling every single crevice and arch under his heated skin until her hand is lying flat over his heart, beating steadily against her palm. His lips leave her lips, but not her skin. Neji spreads kisses on her cheek, and when he licks a tear, that's when Hinata notices she has been crying silently. 

"What is wrong? Talk to me," he pleads against her ear. 

Hinata sighs and regretfully lets him pull away completely. He doesn't look like a model soldier anymore with his lips red and swollen, his ponytail askew. Something pleasant tugs at her stomach, because she made him like that. 

"W-why are you dressed like this? Father said-" 

He sighs and seems to notice how he looks in the mirror behind her, because he flushes and tugs his hair loose, letting cascades of chestnut silk fall around his shoulders, not noticing Hinata's breath hitching. 

"He changed his mind," his tone betrays his bitterness. "I...” he sighs pushing the strands that fall on his face, “I was pulled aside today, by grandfather of all people,” he pinches the bridge of his nose, “It wasn't pleasant. But at least I've got permission to go on missions with my team. I wanted to tell you first, but you didn't return at the usual time. Lee found me first. I told him, you know how he is..." 

Hinata’s hands reach for his hair, helping him to tame it back to its usual style, very content in being touching him again. 

"And you're already leaving?" 

With one hand, he cups her face lovingly. 

"I won’t be away for long, it's not even a real mission, just some B-rank quick job Lee bullied Rokudaime to give us... I have to go, soon, or he'll come to get me," he winces, “Hinata-sama, about what the elders said..." 

Hinata gasped, and he answered that with a proud grin that was mostly a grimace. 

"You can do it!" Her voice, though low, was embedded with fervour. 

He was standing! Finally! And without having to hold onto anything either! Euphoria running through his veins, Neji then decided to push progress forward and raised his right foot, taking a first tiny step. 

"You're walking, nii-san! You are so amazing! I'm so happy!" 

He was happy too. He didn't want to die anymore. He could win this if he had her there, in front of him, lovely moonlit eyes gleaming with pure joy, for him, he could win over any battle. Neji reached towards her face, and instead of retracting or looking confused, Hinata just smiled as his pink gloved hand cupped her face. Her smile was so big she was squinting, and he took another vacillating step forward. They were very close now. Neji's whole body was shaking and it wasn't only because of the colossal effort he needed to stand. She opened her eyes, smile melting into something else. It wasn't the first time she looked at him like that, but it was still hard to believe it was true. Her gaze dropped to his lips and Neji let out a little tortured sound from the back of his throat. He leaned forward, he was considerably taller than her and had managed to grow a few inches even in sickness. They were so close now. He tried another step, but this time, his knee betrayed him, giving in. But before he could fall over, Hinata hugged him, keeping him standing. 

"I've got you, I've got you," she promised in a firm but gentle voice. 

Shame burnt in Neji's chest, but when he raised his head from her neck, all he could pay attention to was how she felt pressed against him like that. He searched for her eyes and found no pity in there. Instead, she looked like a cat that had just swallowed a very plump canary, white pupils blown, rosy cheeks, slightly parted lips. 

Oh... 

Since the war he had dared to hope but that... 

Neji had no fear then, not anymore. Forget walking, he was ready to take a leap.

"Na-naruto-kun asked me to go with him on a mission," she stammered too fast, he leaned back, and she felt that mix of disappointment and relief that had become so familiar when dealing with him, "to... to f-figure things out just the t-two of us... And I... I-i couldn't even c-c-concentrate on what he was saying b-because..." she straightened herself and covered her eyes with the heels of her hands, "I was worried you could be doing something s-stupid again” she let out a raggedy breath and added in a strangled voice, “I cannot live like this."

"Doing something stupid?" He crossed his arms, looking not even a little moved by her confession. "But you said yourself that I don't like you," Hinata shivered when she saw through her fingers, him giving her another predatory look and smirking, "ridiculous assumption by the way. And yet you think what? I was jumping off a cliff because you told me off...” He uncrossed his arms, leaning over her propped on one arm and using his free hand to uncover her face. “I mean... After that kiss, Hinata-sama?"

"It is true," he sounded more tired than upset, but it didn't convince her, it didn't convince her at all. 

"Nii-san, you don't even like me," the raw way she said it surprised even herself. She ignored his dumbfounded expression and pinched his mouth shut with her fingers as she continued her onslaught. "You... you c-challenged Naruto-kun to further h-humiliate me, d-didn't you? That's w-why you crashed our date to get some w-weird r-r-revenge on me, wasn't it?" 

He grabbed her wrist, freeing his mouth, and looked down at her, eyes shining with indignation. 

"How can you think that?" 

"What e-else should I t-t-think? You said... you said that you don't m-mind me going out with him... so I don't r-regret it later? What k-kind of reasoning is that?" 

He didn't answer for a moment, choosing instead to look at her with such contained fury that Hinata wasn't sure if he would juuken her to the afterlife or push her down with not so gentle fists and have his way with her on his bed. 

"Why are you so upset, Hinata-sama?" Neji finally said with a predatory tone that made her clench her thighs together firmly. "Why were you so worried if I am this horrible of a person?" 

Hinata's throat felt dry as a desert under this intense gaze, there was something really wrong with her. And it had been for a while. 

"Y-you... you are not horrible," she began with a thick low voice, "I'm just... I was just..." 

He all but hissed, and advanced against her, Hinata fell on her elbows, one lock of his hair tickled her cheek. 

He sighed and covered his face with his hands; the boy clearly looked like he was going through some nasty inner battle, until he finally relented. His shoulders fell, and he raised brave eyes to Kurenai. 

“Because I love her.” 

“Do you, now?” She said in a sceptical tone, but she believed him; she just enjoyed seeing him suffer a little. In the years after the chunin exams she had observed how he treated her pupil with so much care that bordered on devotion, and heard from Hinata herself how close they’d gotten. It was a stark difference from how things were before that incident. She could hardly believe how someone could change that much. She even asked Guy about it one time, who explained to her that Neji had been an angry young man, but very protective of the people he cared about, and that his change of heart was genuine. That calmed Kurenai’s worries and, little by little, she started to notice how Hinata herself changed around Neji. It was different from the camaraderie she had with the Team Eight boys, but Kurenai never commented on it. 

It was quite funny to watch Hinata mooning over Naruto—to whom, somehow, her feelings were still a mystery—while having another boy pining for her without her noticing. To be fair, she thought it was a matter of time for Hinata to give up on Kakashi’s hyperactive student and consider the boy who was by her side most days. 

“Yes.” 

“Does she know that?” 

“I... I told her.” 

Kurenai crossed her arms, amused; that one was almost as shocking as discovering her little shy pupil was two-timing. 

“And what did she say?” 

“I’m not entirely sure she understood... But she was surprised...” then he added under his breath, “which doesn’t make any sense.” 

He was looking like he was about to implode; Kurenai was getting a little worried. Maybe she should call Guy after all. 

“Why wouldn’t it make sense?” she asked gently. 

“Don’t I show it enough?” He frowned and started shaking a little. Hinata was doing a number on that boy, goodness! “Sometimes I think it’s so obvious I feel disgusted with myself and we have... we have been... physical... very often.” 

Well, the shocking revelations were never-ending! 

“Neji-kun, have you been using protection?” 

It IS a very silly fic with something we can only vaguely call a plot so it is easy to pull something like this.

I hope you'll enjoy the extra chapters

Tá eu sei, eu totalmente perdi o hábito de escrever prosa em português e eu não lembro mais da voz dos personagens no meu idioma.

MAS é engraçado que esse ship tenha tantos followers por aqui.

She knew she should, she really should. Naruto-kun was waiting, they were on a date! At a restaurant! He had been holding her hand just now!!  

What  

Was  

Wrong  

With  

Her  

????????????????????????????????  

Hinata should kick Neji for his audacity, she should scream, juuken or not, she should push him away and tell the whole council that they should seal him again and punish him accordingly.  

Instead, Hinata cupped Neji’s face and pulled him down with both her hands, hungrily pressing their mouths together again.  

this too one day will fill me with nostalgia

Me hanging from a cloud, safe, but still starving

I was right

Chapters: 4/8 Fandom: Naruto (Anime & Manga) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Hyuuga Hinata/Hyuuga Neji, Hyuuga Hinata/Uzumaki Naruto Characters: Hyuuga Neji, Hyuuga Hinata, Uzumaki Naruto Additional Tags: Endgame NejiHina, Romance, Drama, Messy, Love Triangles, what if Neji reverted to the nasty personality he had when he was a boy?, everyone i s a little ooc, or more than a little, it's nothing too cracky but still, former child soldiers behaving badly, Hyuuga Neji Lives, and decides to fight for what he wants, he wants Hinata lol, Blank Period (Naruto), No Bashing, Cousin Incest, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, this is not a serious fanfic, nobody in this story has their pre-frontal lobe fully developed and it shows, no beta we die like NOT Neji because I'm never letting him die Summary:

He had no birdcage seal anymore, but her warm soft lips, her pleading eyes, her vicious grip on him, as if she was afraid he would dissolve through her fingers, Hinata-sama herself was a prison he had chosen to bury himself into and that death itself could not free him from her.

Had she not given him reason to believe that maybe there was hope, that maybe there was still a way, that maybe not all the paths towards her heart had been blocked for him...

Maybe he would have remained good.

But she kissed him back.

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