#choneji

goddamn I am hERE for all this Chouji love!!

(requests closed for now)

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“Hey, Neji, come look at this,” his voice was soft, almostcarried away on the slight breeze, but with an edge of excitement that he sworecould cross nations.

His first instinct was to activate his Byakugan; he clamped thaturge down hard and instead slowly turned to where Chouji’s voice had come from.His companion was crouched by a cluster of tall wildflowers, dark eyes wide ashe stared at one in particular.

This, Neji thought, was where he belonged, in this place,surrounded by nature, calm and gentle, smiling at a flower and just so captivatedby everything around him.

Chouji fit here perfectly; one day, he hoped to find a placelike that for himself.

He jumped when that kind smile was turned in his direction, ifChouji noticed, he didn’t say anything, just waved him over once more.

Neji shook his mind of all thoughts and stepped through the unevenlayer of grass and fallen leaves littering the forest floor, to crouch besidehis friend, following his pointed finger. Hidden away on the underside of aleaf, was what looked at first glance to be a flower bud, except it wasshifting, shuddering in place despite being sheltered from the wind. With awe,he watched as a fine crack spread down its side and a single, twitching, blackleg emerged.

In all his life, he’d never actually seen a butterfly emergingfrom its chrysalis before.

“Amazing, isn’t it?” Chouji was grinning, though he remainedperfectly still, content just to watch without disturbing it.

He nodded, shifting to sit more comfortably, simply baskingin the emergence of a new life and the silent, but warm company of his friend.

He wasn’t quite sure when they’d become so close, it wasn’tlike they had much in common, at least outwardly. But, there was a pointsometime after the Sasuke retrieval mission when he’d found himself interactingwith the other boy more and more often. Even with all their differences, that teamall held a mutual respect for each other, they weren’t necessarily all friends – Neji still found Kiba gratingto be around for more than an hour at a time – but there was an understandingbetween them all, and a trust that they would always have each other’s backs.

Maybe that was why, when he ran into Chouji while trainingin the forest, he let himself be pulled into a dull but pleasant conversation.

And when he saw him in the market a few days later, heagreed that the weather they were having was nice and bought the daikon he wastold in a whisper were the best in Konoha.

And when he noticed the Ino-Shika-Cho team leaving a restaurant,he broke away from his own teammates to go and greet them.

And when Chouji mentioned struggling with a new jutsu in oneof their weekly meetups – it wasn’t something either of them ever planned, butNeji found the unspoken arrangement quite agreeable – he’d jumped at the chancefor a new sparring partner.

The transition from acquaintances to friends was a subtleone, but one day Neji woke up and realised that there was no one he trustedmore with his darker periods, outside of his team. There was no judgement whenhe revealed his past to Chouji, a little pity perhaps, but it was not suffocatinglike it could be from others; he was allowed to talk as much as he needed,allowed to be quiet when he couldn’t find the words he wanted, his new friendwas unbelievably skilled at distracting him with everyday banality, giving himback a little of the youthful freedom he’d lost.

Around Chouji, he could let himself go, say the mundane, oreven stupid, thoughts he sometimes had, but always held close to his chest forfear of cracking the perfect image he’d built for himself, all weaknessand incompetence hidden away, lest his clan strip him of what little worth hehad left.

In return, Neji offered what little he could, mostly in theform of coaching ninjutsu and trying to bolster his friend’s confidence, proveto him that he was truly a great ninja, and an even better person.

How successful he had been was debatable, but he had noticedthat he grinned wider every time he mastered a technique and didn’t protestcompliments quite so much anymore – though the slight blush he got at each one receivedalways remained.

He wondered about those blushes sometimes, late at night,when he was alone and remembering just a bittoo vividly the sound of Chouji’s soft laughter, the way his eyes crinkled atthe corners when he smiled, how his hair – even longer than Neji’s now – would sometimestickle against his skin when a strong breeze passed, sometimes he wondered ifthere wasn’t a little more to the blushing than mere modesty.

It was wishful thinking, it had to be wishful thinking… but still he wondered.

The warm pressure against his shoulder made him snap hishead to the side fast enough there was a distinct crack, but his friend’s grinand whispered urges to look, look,quickly returned his attention to the emerging butterfly, just in time to seeit’s light, crumpled, blue and orange-speckled wings unfurl from the cocoon,fluttering weakly a few times as the creature pushed the rest of its body free.

He was tempted to reach out, see if that fuzzy body was assoft as it looked, but contented himself with just watching it fumble until itcaught a good grasp on the flower stem.

“Its wings look a little small,” he murmured, “will it be ableto fly?”

Chouji nodded once, keeping his voice just as soft as Neji’sas he replied, “Yeah, they always come out like that, once they’ve dried off it’llbe fine.”

He hummed, trying to memorise the feeling of his friendleaning into him before he realised that he hadn’t stopped. “How long does thatusually take?”

“At least thirty minutes, usually.”

Tipping his head back, he eyed the trees above. “Duringwhich time, it will be quite vulnerable to predators,” he said, not reallylooking for a conformation, heart hammering against his ribs as he finally foundthe words he’d been looking for. “…I think I’d like to stay here and keep watchover it, would you… stay with me?”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Chouji turn to face him,though he couldn’t find the nerve to turn himself.

Warm, calloused skin brushed against the back of his hand,before curling around his little finger lightly.

“I’d really likethat.”