"At least you have a history!" Naruto is yelling. "At least you know who your family is."
This is an old argument. Neji suspects he is simply the easiest person for Naruto to argue with, in the absence of any other likely suspects. The knowledge just makes him angrier.
"You know nothing," he hisses. "You have no idea what I would give to be free of my name's weight."
He waits for the next outburst, but after a moment Naruto lifts his hand and Neji stands very still as the Uzumaki pushes his hitai-ate and his headband upwards as a single block of fabric, laying bare the blue lines on his forehead. Naruto traces them with one finger and Neji thinks, all right then, and puts his own hand square against the curse seal on the other boy's stomach. He can feel body warmth through the shirt and he can feel roiling spitting power underneath that, totally at odds with Naruto's calm eyes.
They stand like that for a while and then Naruto says, his voice layered with laughter, "I suppose we could call this one a draw."
Neither of them are the type to accept compromise. But Neji nods.
Hyuuga Neji can read violence in the line of someone's elbow and envy in the pattern of their lips and breath -- he's good, he's very good, but if the people around him are books then Naruto is written in large, stark characters meant for people with the blindness that Neji's eyes only hint mockingly at, or for children. He is a book well illustrated. Open and guileless in everything he does and every expression that moves fluidly across his features, simple to interpret, effortless to read.
This would be easy, Neji realises. He moves his fingers purposefully against the seal and Naruto looks at him, curious and aware, the heat of his skin and the violence of his chakra creating something in Neji's body that he is far too self-aware not to recognise as desire.This would be easy, and perhaps it would be fun. But easy has never been something that Neji values: there is no strength to be found in taking something that offers no challenge.
But to hold oneself back from taking something so simply offered -- yes, there is strength in that.
Neji pulls his hand away, and smiles, and adds Uzumaki Naruto to the long, long list of things that he wants but he will not let himself have.
(hi!)
This is an old argument. Neji suspects he is simply the easiest person for Naruto to argue with, in the absence of any other likely suspects. The knowledge just makes him angrier.
"You know nothing," he hisses. "You have no idea what I would give to be free of my name's weight."
He waits for the next outburst, but after a moment Naruto lifts his hand and Neji stands very still as the Uzumaki pushes his hitai-ate and his headband upwards as a single block of fabric, laying bare the blue lines on his forehead. Naruto traces them with one finger and Neji thinks, all right then, and puts his own hand square against the curse seal on the other boy's stomach. He can feel body warmth through the shirt and he can feel roiling spitting power underneath that, totally at odds with Naruto's calm eyes.
They stand like that for a while and then Naruto says, his voice layered with laughter, "I suppose we could call this one a draw."
Neither of them are the type to accept compromise. But Neji nods.
Hyuuga Neji can read violence in the line of someone's elbow and envy in the pattern of their lips and breath -- he's good, he's very good, but if the people around him are books then Naruto is written in large, stark characters meant for people with the blindness that Neji's eyes only hint mockingly at, or for children. He is a book well illustrated. Open and guileless in everything he does and every expression that moves fluidly across his features, simple to interpret, effortless to read.
This would be easy, Neji realises. He moves his fingers purposefully against the seal and Naruto looks at him, curious and aware, the heat of his skin and the violence of his chakra creating something in Neji's body that he is far too self-aware not to recognise as desire.This would be easy, and perhaps it would be fun. But easy has never been something that Neji values: there is no strength to be found in taking something that offers no challenge.
But to hold oneself back from taking something so simply offered -- yes, there is strength in that.
Neji pulls his hand away, and smiles, and adds Uzumaki Naruto to the long, long list of things that he wants but he will not let himself have.