A rain-soaked night.
The crescent moon was smothered by cloud and gave no light.
The downpour had spent its fury. Fine beads fell onto the treetops and leaves with a soft, ceaseless hiss.
Beneath a great banyan scarred by countless blows, two boys who had found the same goal sat on the roots, wide bands of cloth draped over their thighs, one black and one white.
Ash-gray met milk-white.
An umbrella stood between them, turning aside the intermittent drips shaken loose from the canopy.
Neji watched Konome Taketori's uncanny Byakugan, unable to hide the agitation in his chest.
He had already heard her story. Blood of the Hyuga's condemned line, driven from the clan rather than accept the Caged Bird. To evade the main family's hunt, she veiled her eyes in black and passed as blind.
As long as the Caged Bird existed, she and the main house were enemies.
Just like him.
The difference was cruel. He had already been branded and stripped of all leverage. Konome still had the strength to fight back.
She was not only his hope, but the flicker of hope for all branch families. If the Hyuga learned she existed, both main and branch would lose their minds.
"How do you want to do this."
Neji trembled so hard his words shook. After centuries of branch-family yearning he could finally see a crack in the lock. It was a joy language could not carry.
A prodigy of the Hyuga who had escaped the brand. To him it felt like a gift from heaven. Fate at last had stretched out a hand.
Konome met his feverish eyes and said slowly, "Gather the main house's information for me. Techniques, secret arts, historical records. And quietly find capable people among the branch families. When my body has finished growing, I will come for the Hyuga and abolish the main house and that damned Caged Bird. Until I am fully grown, you will not reveal anything about me to anyone."
"What about the others like me in the branch…"
"Do not be naive."
Her lidded gaze was a warning. "If I die or get branded, the chance your people have waited a thousand years for will be wasted."
"Do not worry. I would rather die than reveal you."
Neji clenched his teeth and nodded hard. If he slipped and ruined her plan, Hyuga Neji would be the greatest criminal the branch had ever produced. He would not be able to face his father in the underworld.
He feared the brand touching Konome more than she herself did.
"Konome, if I remember right, Hyuga Hinata is in your class. She has already awakened her eyes. Be careful. You might fool others, but you cannot fool the Byakugan."
His concern was plain. He was already anxious on her behalf.
Konome smiled. That was the moment she knew he had truly chosen her side.
"I took care of her already."
"Took care of…"
Neji blinked. He could feel the danger humming off this girl, and he knew the name Konome Taketori. First day at the Academy she had put the jonin Kazama Etsu in the hospital. Neji had heard of the foremost prodigy even if they were not in the same year.
Had she killed Hinata.
The thought flashed cold through him. Hinata was not branch. If she died, the Hyuga would flood the streets. Konome's identity would never hold, and the hope of breaking the brand would die again.
He had met Konome only once, yet in this moment she mattered more to him than the main-house girl he had grown up beside.
"Not entirely. I have leverage on her. She will not dare make a sound."
"Is that safe."
He leaned in and peered up at Konome with the expression of a back-alley contact trading contraband.
"Not very. Which is why I need your help."
"What do I do."
"I cannot approach the Hyuga compound. You will watch Hinata for me inside the clan. Any movement at all, you report."
"Understood."
He slipped into the role at once. His answers came clean and quick.
With her goals met, Konome glanced up at the ink-dark sky, lifted the black cloth and tied it back over her eyes as usual, then started to rise.
"Wait…"
Neji's voice stopped her as she picked up the umbrella.
"What is it."
Shoulder under the shaft, half-turned to leave, Konome looked back in mild puzzlement.
"Do you not want to ask me about Hyuga matters."
First day as a spy, and he sounded remarkably professional.
Konome brushed a damp lock from her temple. In truth, there was little she wanted to ask. A branch child's access would be limited, and the Gentle Fist materials she needed were flowing from Hinata. Neji would be of little use there.
The intelligence work was a pretext. As long as Neji protected her secret, today's meeting had served its purpose.
Still, if he was offering, hearing him out could not hurt.
"Go ahead."
She tipped her chin for him to report.
"A few days ago, a pair of branch brothers disappeared."
Konome stood under the umbrella without a twitch.
When she stayed silent, Neji went on. "The chief elder said they would investigate to the end, but the searchers have all been recalled. It may be that there will be no more investigation."
It was a probe, and Konome's calm told him enough. She had already revealed the Byakugan. Anyone who knew of missing branch men would naturally think of her.
"If you have something to say, say it. Do not swallow it in pieces."
She sounded impatient, not defensive. Neji took his measure.
"There is a story about Aunt Hyuga Amaoi. My father told it to me. On the Mist front she was ambushed. She had a chance to withdraw, but she was the enemy's main target. To give her guards a chance to live, she left survival to the branch protectors and chose to draw the enemy away alone. Before capture, she destroyed her Byakugan."
He spoke with his father's voice in his memory, and longing warmed his eyes.
Konome said nothing, listening in the rain.
She did not know the particulars of Amaoi's fall. No one had told her. So that was why Ao of the Mist bore only one Byakugan. Amaoi must have destroyed one in the fight.
"The branch guards who escaped brought back word of Hyuga Amaoi's death. Because the Byakugan had been lost, the main family meted out terrible punishment to those guards."
"For the first time in a thousand years the Byakugan had been lost. The clan roiled. Some said that for the sake of a few branch guards she had let the bloodline slip away, and that was unforgivable. A sinner to the Hyuga. Others called her a hero who covered the retreat. A crime, yes, but understandable."
"The quarrels between main and branch grew hotter, even turned to blows. In the end the chief elder, Hyuga Kei, stepped in to mediate. He was also Hyuga Amaoi's father, and he delivered the judgment."
Neji's voice sank and grew grave, unconsciously mimicking his father's tone and face.
"Hyuga Amaoi lost the Byakugan and her guilt cannot be forgiven. Strip her of main-family status and name, cast her out as a criminal, and forbid her from entering the Leaf's Hero Memorial as a hero."
Thunder rolled and rolled. The rain thinned toward silence.
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