Neji's Loneliness

There was no wind in Konoha's forest that afternoon.

Ringo had come to look for synthesis materials for the Sound Wave Fragment. Jiraiya's warning still rang in his ears: imbalance was the norm, but testing the norm required more materials. He walked through the woods with the card slot's scanning range turned to its maximum.

He saw Neji.

Neji stood in a clearing with his back to Ringo, not training. He was merely standing there. He held a leaf in his hand, not looking at it but crushing it, then picking up another.

Ringo made no sound. He stopped twenty meters away from Neji, turned around, and began his own training. Golden steam rose from his palm, its temperature lowered to the minimum. It was not because he feared being noticed, but because he did not want to disturb him.

Two people shared a training ground. There was no conversation, no exchanged glances, only the faint fluctuations of their chakra in the air.

Neji spoke first.

"Are you following me?"

"No. I'm looking for materials. I happened to run into you."

"Then leave."

Ringo did not leave. He stopped the steam and turned around. Neji turned around as well. Twenty meters separated them—exactly within the range of the Eight Trigrams Palm.

"What you hate isn't Hinata—it's the Hyuga clan. Right?"

Neji's expression changed. It was not anger, but the blankness of someone being struck at the core. That blankness lasted only an instant before cold indifference covered it again.

"What do you know? You're an outsider."

"I don't know." Ringo took two steps forward. "But what I saw wasn't someone who wanted to kill Hinata. It was someone trapped by the Caged Bird. When you fought Hinata, every strike held back a fraction of its strength. You thought no one noticed. But I saw it from the stands."

Neji clenched his fingers. The leaf in his palm crumbled into pulp, green juice seeping through the gaps between his fingers and running down his wrist. He did not wipe it away. It was not that he had not noticed. He was simply used to it. Used to crushing things. Used to not wiping his hands.

"Why are you telling me this? We're opponents."

"Because I want to fight the complete you," Ringo said. "Not the you burdened by hatred—the real Neji. Not the Caged Bird. You."

Neji said nothing.

His breathing changed. Not faster—deeper. Once, then again, as though he were forcing something down from his chest.

Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, drawing stripes between them. Neji stood in the shadows of those stripes. His Byakugan was not activated, yet Ringo felt that he was looking. Not at another person, but at himself.

"What do you understand?" Neji's voice lowered. "You don't know what the Caged Bird is. It's not a curse mark. It was decided the moment we were born. The branch family can never resist the main family. Hiashi Hyuga's son, the Hyuga heir—it won't be me. It will be Hinata, Hanabi, anyone from the main family. My father died in Hiashi Hyuga's place. Not because he belonged to the branch family. Because he had no choice."

Ringo listened.

"When my father died, Hiashi Hyuga stood beside him. He didn't stop it. He didn't take his place. He only watched. The Caged Bird isn't meant to control the branch family. It exists so the main family can legally watch the branch family die. Without taking responsibility."

Ringo did not respond. It was not that he did not want to, but that he could not. He was not a member of the Hyuga clan. He did not know what it felt like to have the Caged Bird curse mark carved into his forehead. But he knew what it felt like to be trapped by something. Not the Caged Bird, but the orphanage. No one cared whether you improved or declined. Whenever the class assignment list was posted, everyone else looked for their own names. He searched for a long time and found only his own. No one else.

Neji's fist trembled. Not with anger, but because anger suppressed for too long had finally found someone he could speak to. Yet that person was an opponent, an outsider, and the only one who had ever asked him.

"So you beat Hinata."

"I wasn't beating her." Neji's voice softened. "I was beating the Hyuga clan. Showing Hiashi. Your daughter is in my hands, utterly helpless. You made the branch family die, so I made the main family lose before everyone."

Ringo did not argue.

He remembered Hinata lying in the arena. There was blood at the corner of her mouth, but her lips had formed the words "I'm sorry." She had not been saying it to Neji. She had been saying it to him. Hinata did not hate Neji. She was only apologizing. Apologizing because she had failed to win.

"She didn't hate you," Ringo said. "The last two words she said weren't for you. They were for me. She said she was sorry. She wasn't angry because you hurt her—she was apologizing. She couldn't beat you. From beginning to end, she never saw you as an enemy."

Neji's body stiffened.

Not his shoulders—his fingers. The fingers that had crushed the leaf loosened.

"What did she say?"

"I'm sorry. Not what you heard. She said it while looking in my direction. She didn't win. But she didn't hate you. Not because I'm her companion—she understood it herself from the very beginning. You weren't fighting her. You were fighting the Hyuga clan."

Neji did not respond.

The wind came through. Leaves drifted between them, not the kind Neji had crushed, but fresh ones that had not yet fallen to the ground.

Neji turned around. He did not leave. He simply faced away from Ringo, the line of his shoulders looking narrow beneath the sunlight. Not the outline of a genius, but shoulders burdened for far too long.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I want to fight you in the finals. Not the Caged Bird—you. Neji. Not Neji of the branch family. Not Neji who hates the main family. You."

Neji did not look back.

He left. His steps were not fast, but each one fell lighter than usual. He was not simply walking—he was thinking. Before he went, Ringo saw his step slow for a beat as he crossed the edge of the clearing.

The card slot trembled.

The system displayed a line of text.

"From—Neji—Respect Fragment—purple—dropped—unconditional—no collection required—automatically obtained."

It was not defeat. Not a kill. Not teaching.

It was respect.

Ringo lowered his head and looked at the purple fragment in the card slot. It was different from Neji's battle fragments. It had not come from battle, but from conversation. Its color was lighter than a battle fragment's, yet it carried more weight. Because it had not fallen from a fist, but from the heart.

So the system did not only drop fragments from chakra. It also dropped them from understanding.

He held the purple fragment without synthesizing it. Not because he did not need it, but because he could not bear to. It was not material to him, but proof. Proof that today, in the forest, he had exchanged a few words with someone trapped by the Caged Bird.

Those words were not a battle. But they had been harder than one.

"Neji," he said to the empty forest. "In the finals, I'll give it everything I have. Not for revenge. But to give you a battle you deserve."

The leaves continued to drift. There was no wind, yet the leaves drifted. They were not carried by the wind, but by the last faint current of air Neji had stirred when he left.