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depressedhatakekakashi · 1 year

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Do It For Choza

For: @shikaku-the-nara

Words: 1466

The streets were bursting with life. Children dragged their parents through the busy crowds pointing at all the stalls lining either side of the marketplace. Konoha was in the middle of a war, but no one would have guessed it watching the villagers today. Everywhere Shikaku looked there was cheer.

Seeing children laughing and begging their parents to win them a prize or buy them a treat almost made all the long nights of mission planning and paperwork worth it. To know that his village, the people he worked so hard to protect, were able to find joy while so many others were out in the field doing everything they could to keep Konoha safe.

“It’s because it’s New Year's day,” Inoichi nudged his arm playfully. “Everyone is happy on New years.”

“Everyone?” Shikaku found that difficult to believe. “Choza didn’t look too happy this morning.”

“Yes, but that’s because he got sent out on a mission when he spent the last week making plans to spend the day with his girlfriend,” the pair continued down the path through the marketplace, stopping every once in a while to let a running kid pass them by. “If he were here he’d have the biggest smile in all of Konoha.”

There weren’t many times Shikaku found himself agreeing with his old friend, but on the rare occasion that it did happen, he didn’t bother to question it. Choza was a cheerful man and if Shikaku hadn’t needed him for this particular mission he would be in the middle of all of this commotion enjoying as many sweets as he could get his hands on and spoiling his girlfriend at the same time.

“Speaking of Choza,” Inoichi stopped suddenly, his eyes lingering on one of the shops. “Isn’t that one of his students?”

Leaning forward, Shikaku searched for the kid that Inoichi was trying to point out to him and instantly regretted it when he saw a bright green jumpsuit and a red bandana wrapped around the kid's neck. “That is,” he confirmed. “He’s the most energetic of Choza’s group apparently. You remember Maito Dai?”

“You mean that over-the-top Genin who’s always getting picked on by the bloated ego chunin’s?” Shikaku nodded his head. “Yes, I remember him. Though, didn’t he-”

“He did,” Shikaku confirmed, not needing to hear the end of Inoichi’s sentence in order to provide an answer. Although there was no great funeral for Dai, news of his death had spread like wildfire. Shikaku had heard about it from Choza who’d come to him for advice on how to comfort someone who didn’t seem to need or even want comfort, and now that he was looking at his friend’s student he could understand his dilemma.

Maito Gai was a kid who always seemed to be smiling. No matter what happened, he was energetic and ready for the next challenge. On the rare occasion that Shikaku had seen him in the village, he always seemed to have a smile on his face.

Even after his father’s death that hadn’t changed. Choza had worried that his student seemed to be brushing off his father’s death. Acting as if it had never happened, even though he had seen his father’s sacrifice with his own two eyes. He’d paced Shikaku’s office trying to think up a way to help his precious student, but in the end, he’d been unable to come up with any solution.

Today, though, there was no smile.

No endless pools of energy pushing the kid to seek out the next great adventure, and no Sensei to keep his mind occupied with training. It was new years day, everyone in the village was happily running around with their families, and that kid was sitting alone.

“Awww, I’ve made a mistake,” Inoichi groaned, calling Shikaku’s attention back to him. “You’ve got that look.”

“What look?”

“You know the one!” Inoichi snapped. “The I need to do something or I’ll never forgive myself look.”

Unable to think up a good argument against Inoichi’s accusations, Shikaku simply shrugged his shoulders. ‘He’s Choza’s student.”

“He might not want two people he barely knows to walk up and start chatting with him,” Inoichi argued.

“Have you seen the kid? He’s the most personable person in the entire village. As soon as we walk over he’ll probably plaster a smile on his face and offer us dango,” an offer that Shikaku wasn’t likely to turn down. It was nice to relax and have a nice treat once in a while. “Besides, if we walk away and Choza finds out.”

Inoichi only took a second to figure out what he was suggesting, and as soon as he did he cringed so hard that Shikaku worried his face might get stuck. “We’re supposed to meet Yoshino and Kimi at the Barbeque place.”

“They’ll understand if we’re late,” though he had no doubt that Yoshino would have a lecture ready for them as soon as they arrived. He’d have to be quick in explaining himself if he didn’t want to end up sleeping on the couch again. “Ten minutes to try and cheer the kid up and then we’ll go.”

“At that point, we might as well invite him to lunch,” Inoichi regretted his words as soon as he saw a smile stretching across Shikaku’s lips. “No.”

“You told me that Kimi likes kids.”

“She does,” he confirmed. “But my idea of a fun date does not include one of my best friends' students tagging along.”

“It is his birthday,” Shikaku reasoned. “And Choza isn’t here to celebrate with him. Don’t you think he’d want us to pick up the slack? Make sure that his student isn’t left alone to cry over his dango on what is supposed to be a happy day.”

“I can’t raise people from the dead,” Inoichi objected. “And since I’m certain that’s the only way to actually bring the kid's spirits up I’m not sure that we should be intervening.” Twice in one day, Inoichi was right. An impressive feat for a man who couldn’t play a game of Shogi without getting unreasonably angry.

“What if…you went ahead?” He was surprised by his own suggestion, but it made sense. If Inoichi could explain what was going on the girls would have a warning, Yoshino wouldn’t be seething with rage preparing a three-hour-long rant during the entirety of their date, and Inoichi would get at least a little time with just him and Kimi. A proper date before Shikaku showed up with Gai in tow. “You tell the girls what’s happening and give Yoshino this,” he paused for a moment to pull his wallet out of his back pouch. Grabbing a few hundred Ryo he handed it over to Inoichi. “Tell her to treat herself to a game or a present while she waits. That way you and Kimi will have some time together.”

“Well, I do like the thought of time with Kimi,” Inoichi snatched the Ryo out of his hand. “And how long should I tell Yoshino you’ll take?”

“Give me twenty minutes.”

“And not a second longer?”

“Maybe two or three seconds longer,” Shikaku cringed. “But I’ll be there and then we can all have lunch at the BBQ place just as we planned.”

“With an extra mouth to feed.”

“Which we will both pay for,” Shikaku insisted. “Otherwise I’m telling Choza that you were no help in cheering up his student.”

Inoichi glared at him through narrowed eyes. “I will help pay because I am nice and you’re giving up time with your girlfriend for this so it’s the least I can do. Not because you’re blackmailing me.”

“Right,” slipping his wallet back into his pouch, Shikaku stepped past Inoichi towards the Dango shop. “You keep telling yourself that.”

If his friend had anything else to say it was quickly lost amongst the crowd's noise as Shikaku made his way through the street, weaving between people until he finally reached the entrance to the dango shop. Examining the area, he noticed that the only person in the small shop was Gai. Every other table was empty, and whatever customers did make their way inside quickly exited as soon as they had their desired treats in hand.

“At least it’ll be easy to chat,” He sighed, suddenly feeling a little less confident in his plan as he looked at the kid. Not only did Gai seem a little less energetic than normal, but he looked downright defeated.

As if he’d been kicked to the ground and had the spirit beaten right out of him. Shikaku could only hope that a day hanging out with him and his idiot friend would do something to brighten the kid’s day. If it didn’t, he’d never hear the end of it from Choza.

#Nara Shikaku #Yamanaka Inoichi #Gai's Birthday Month #Gai's Birthday Bash #Gai's Birthday Bash 2022

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ncji · 2 years

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Saiko Denshin

Rating: Explicit

Pairing(s): HiaHiza (Hiashi/Hizashi), HizaNeji (Fantasy), InoichiNeji (Fantasy)

WARNING(S): Incest, obviously. Dl;dr.

Summary: Ibiki wants to recruit a certain Hyuuga prodigy into T&I, but he needs to make sure he's psychologically sound first. There's one particular issue he wants his colleague to look into for him...

"Ibiki is very thorough. You can understand why."

In his short eighteen years, Neji had learned that people only insisted he understood something when they wanted to shame him into silent acceptance, but, in this case, he could understand why anyone seeking to join the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force would have to be thoroughly vetted. The division likely attracted sadists and psychopaths. He was neither, though, so he was confident he would pass whatever inspection Inoichi had in store for him.

"We'll need some privacy for this." The Yamanaka passed two open doors before he settled on a specific room. Like any person, he was a creature of superstition in its simplest form. His best inspections had happened in the small room, so he brought his favorite candidates there to hopefully raise their chances of passing.

After ushering Neji into the room, he closed the door behind them, leaving them in the quiet of the cozy little space. There, he guided him to sit on one of a set of cushions in the center of the room while he sat before him. "I will, of course, need your consent." Uncharacteristic of him, Inoichi cupped the edge of the teenager's jaw. "You can trust me. I have probed every mind in this facility, and there isn't a person here who wouldn't let me in again."

Neji wondered if his face was as red as it was hot. Flustered, all he could think to do was nod his head.

"Good." Resting his hand atop the Hyuuga's head, Inoichi closed his eyes and prepared for the probe. "Now, let's see where you stored that memory of me, huh?"

Eyes wide in horror, Neji almost withdrew his consent, but his consciousness slipped away and into Inoichi's capable hands.

"The attraction to parental figures is one of the most easily exploitable weaknesses a person can have. They exploit it over at T&I," Inoichi explained as he swam through the young man's mind. There were no traps, thankfully, though he hadn't expected any. The Hyuuga clan was secretive, but not paranoid. "Ibiki wanted yours explored. 'Said it stood out like a sore thumb. I have to agree."

"Sometimes, the attraction to older men is just an attraction to older men." Neji's disembodied voice countered. While he couldn't see Inoichi, he could hear his voice, which was seriously jarring. Like anyone else, he had memories of voices, of songs, of sounds, but they were all limited to a certain range, like a poor recording. Having a clear voice speak in his unconscious mind was giving him mental tinnitus. "I like maturity."

"Yeah, and I'm the hokage." Drifting through a door that opened so willingly for him, he entered a private part of Neji's mind. It was the most active part of any teenager's mind. There was an official term for it, but Inoichi had hear a different term from Nara Shikaku one too many times to use any other word. "Ah, the spank bank."

"What!?" In his mind's eye, he watched as the memory of Inoichi played out, from his request for Neji's "consent" to the hand that had rested so gently upon his head. And he was humiliated. "Get out of there."

"It's right where I thought it would be, at the front of the line. Of course, that's by design. The latest interest takes priority over the classics, and memories take priority over..." He waved the memory aside, making way for something he couldn't have predicted more accurately had his life depended on it. In the mind's little theater, Inoichi's hand brushed down along Neji's neck and over his chest, hooking beneath the overlapping flap of his shirt. "...fantasies. I'm flattered. You made me look like a model."

Fantasy Inoichi unclasped his shirt, almost purred out the words, "Since I have your consent," and Neji wanted to die. All he did, though, was groan inwardly, which resonated throughout the space Inoichi occupied.

"Don't be embarrassed. No one will know about this, and I've seen much worse in a person's mind." Before his fantasy likeness could kiss a man one year his daughter's senior, he slid the thought aside for the next, and he saw why Ibiki had pegged the boy for a daddy's boy. There was Morino Ibiki, gloved hand on Neji's shoulder. A single touch and a declaration of desire to have Neji join his division had earned him Neji's interest. "Ibiki?"

Neji didn't answer. If Inoichi was going to continue to humiliate him, he wasn't going to get the satisfaction of his reaction. Besides, if he didn't understand the appeal of an intimidating torture expert, he wasn't going to understand.

"I don't know if I'm flattered anymore." A peek behind the memory revealed a little too much leather for his tastes, so he swiped them both aside at once. Unfortunately, Neji's interest in Ibiki had started days ago, and Neji was a teenager, so Inoichi had to suffer through fantasy after fantasy, though he was surprised by the content of more than one. "All it takes is a little praise and emotional support, huh? That's...kind of wholesome." The lighter side of the otherwise unhealthy fixation on father replacements he supposed.

When the Ibiki saga ended, another began. Shiranui Genma. A fixation that had likely started at the Chuunin Exams--Yes, Inoichi had done his research--with an interaction that had not been at all interpretable as sexual. There had been no touch, no innuendo, even for the most creative mind to find, just some advice. Somehow, that had resonated with Neji, on a sexual level.

Past Genma was a worse sexual interest, a line most never crossed.

Inoichi's eyes narrowed, a certain suspicion taking hold. With a hand seal, he was able to maneuver the memories and fantasies outward, spread them out like security monitors, and, to his absolute disbelief, he found a wall of men that were completely inappropriate for Neji to think of in that manner. It didn't take long to find one that he just knew had a part to play in his corrupted sexuality. As his eyes settled on the particular fantasy, Inoichi felt some resistance, hard resistance.

"I withdraw my consent. Leave," Neji stated firmly. Like he was in the middle of a nightmare, he fought to open his eyes.

Inoichi was stronger, though. Two hand seals was all it took to draw Neji deeper into unconsciousness. Understandably, he felt the turmoil of betrayal and distrust. "I'm sorry, Neji, but, to be frank, Ibiki wants you. That means I need to find the source of what I just saw." Hopefully, if he could confront the source of it, Neji could begin the healing process and find the stability within himself that was required of T&I. "Did he--?"

"Shut up," Neji warned.

Those words came out with a lethal snap that caused his physical body to flinch. Inoichi could see why Ibiki wanted him. "That's not normal. You know that, don't you?" He didn't know what the silence meant, either that Neji was fuming or he hadn't known. The latter possibility was heartbreaking.

Backing out of the erotic fantasies, he closed the door behind himself, an unnecessary but polite gesture. "We'll get through this together, alright? You're not facing this alone."

"I don't want to face it at all." Some things weren't meant to be confronted. Sometimes, it was easier to just accept them.

"Do you know where it comes from?" the blond asked, maneuvering through an increasingly rough current.

"No."

Despite his insistence, the question had forced him to give it a vague thought, albeit briefly, and Inoichi had felt the pull of his thoughts in that direction. Memories. Specifically, the most pivotal of memories, both precious and traumatic. Whatever had broken Neji had only been a brief occurrence, just a glimpse into his life. 'How tragic...'

Another door manifested, and Inoichi was swept inside on the hurried steps of a mere toddler, riding the memory from Neji's point of view. With a growing warmth in his heart, he observed through the boy's eyes as his father swept him up and brought him to his chest in a tight hug. In that moment, he felt safe, he felt loved, and he felt...whole.

There was no doubt about it. It was the precious memories of others that made Inoichi love his job. Like most shinobi, his life hadn't been perfect, but it got a little closer with each precious memory he secretly collected.

"Can you wait in your room for me, Neji? I need to talk to your mother for a minute, alright?"

Strong arms carried him to a room lit by a small lantern, where Inoichi noted he felt isolated and uneasy. The door was cracked, but not shut. Then, he was startled by a shout.

"That's what I mean, Hizashi! You can't spend more than a minute with me! You love him more than you love me!"

Peeking through the cracked door, he could see the face of a woman. She might have been beautiful had her vitriol not made her so monstrously ugly. 'His mother,' he realized, his heart breaking for the toddler, whose tiny hands were braced on the edge of the door, ready to sweep it open so he could run out and protect his father if he needed to. His own mother, a monster Neji had seen as a threat to his beloved protector.

"That's how you should feel, Mio...That's how parents feel about their children. They love them..." Hizashi reasoned with a desperation buried under the weight of fatigue. It was clear he had been trying to convince his wife to love her own son for a long time, probably the child's whole life.

"I never should have had him for you."

"He is the best gift you have ever given me. He's the reason I still love you...even after seeing this side of you..."

"I was the best gift I've ever given you!" she screamed, causing her rejected son to quake and stumble back into the darkness of his room. Imagined monsters of the shadows seemed safer than his own mother. "You should remember that."

A door slammed, and a tense moment passed, before little legs carried Inoichi to a broken father, an expression Inoichi recognized as hopelessness on his face. When he registered that his son was there, though, that expression brightened, like the rising of the sun, and the boy was lifted into his father's arms once more. "Titi?" the toddler questioned, his hands balled up in his father's shirt in an attempt at a hug. 'Chichi,' Inoichi mused.

"Are you afraid I'm sad? I'm not sad." To Inoichi's surprise, Hizashi sounded genuine. He was either the best actor he had ever witnessed or a man that could be lifted out of his darkest moments by the mere presence of his child. The latter moved the Yamanaka. "How can I be sad when I have you?"

As the memory ended, Inoichi was left standing in the middle of a long hallway, another memory. When? He couldn't tell. It couldn't have been too far away from the last, though, because he was still so close to the ground. With a jolt of excitement, a squeal erupted from his vocal cords as he was lifted into the air.

"I've got you!"

The voice, though it sounded the same to Inoichi, did not elicit the same love in Neji. There was still an abundance of love, just not the same kind of love. When he was turned in the man's arms, he could see why. 'Hiashi?' It seemed wrong to see him so carefree and, dare he even think it, loving. A fitting attack on a toddler, the uncharacteristically adorable Hiashi kissed his nephew's belly several times.

Giggles mixed with his squeals, and Neji's hands grabbed at the clan head's nose to capture him. "Didi!" Inoichi chuckled inwardly at the name because, from Neji's thoughts, he knew he was trying to call him jiji of all things.

"Hiashi-sama," Hiashi corrected with a playfully high-pitched voice.

It only made his baby nephew laugh while he tugged on his nose. "Didi!"

In a genius strategy, Hiashi threatened to eat the little hand with a few bites of the air beneath it. When tiny fingers released him, he rewarded the boy with a kiss to his forehead. "Neji~," he cooed.

The Yamanaka behind the toddler's eyes melted. He would never look at Hiashi the same again.

"Ah, there's my twin, and Hiashi-sama."

"Titi!" Neji called, flailing a bit in his uncle's hands. He was saved from his own excitement by Hizashi, who wrapped him in a secure embrace. Neji, in return, nuzzled his face into his father's chest. The scent, Inoichi would never forget, because it triggered a calm in Neji that was so blissful.

"That was cute until you weaponized it," Hiashi told his brother, tone even, even though he was clearly bothered by it. Inoichi could see the pain on his face.

"Until I realized it, you mean," Hizashi shot back. Like his brother, he maintained an unnatural calm to keep his son from realizing he was angry.

"I am your twin, Hizashi, even when you hate me."

"You lost your soul when you gained our clan, Hiashi-sama. My twin's soul is in Neji. Look at him, he looks just like me~." Despite his harsh words to his brother, he smiled at his child, who was peering up at him curiously, and kissed the tip of his nose.

That was when Hiashi's voice cracked. "I never lost my soul, Hizashi. You're still here. If you think mine is gone, it's you who has lost his soul."

Neji's eyes lingered on Hiashi's face, and Inoichi knew he understood only vaguely what he was seeing, not just sadness, but heartbreak. Inoichi could never understand the bond of twins, as he had never had one, but he imagined losing a twin, even if just part of that bond, felt like losing a crucial part of one's own body. The soul claim seemed fitting.

The twins faded into the environment, and Neji's small frame drifted safely to the floor, where he rolled onto his back. The hands that raised into the air, just so he could see them, were smaller, the thoughts were simpler, and his perception was far more limited. A tickle against the sole of his foot made the baby push outward with his leg, and his foot collided with something warm and flat. He couldn't lift his head to see what it was, but Inoichi knew his foot had been caught by an adult's hand.

A gasp overhead focused curious eyes on a familiar face. His pristine forehead caught Inoichi by surprise. He hadn't expected to see Hiashi again. "What was that? What was that, Neji? Was it the tickle monster?"

Off to a side Neji's eyes couldn't see, Hizashi chuckled. "You can't come up with your own material?"

"Of course I can. I just don't want to confuse him," Hiashi laughed.

There was no comprehension in Neji's underdeveloped mind, but he did feel. When his father leaned over the bassinet, the top of his head pressed to his brother's, and smiled down at Neji, that was when the baby felt safe. With their faces staring down at him with so much love and adoration, that was when he felt happy.

"He looks just like you," Hiashi told his twin softly. "He's your little twin."

That made Hizashi laugh, a sound that excited Neji and made him push his foot harder against the palm, likely Hiashi's. "You're my twin."

The way Hizashi smiled as he looked up at his brother made Neji feel the beginnings of what Inoichi imagined was love, a love for his family. Inoichi felt something else, though, an uneasiness. What made it worse was the look in Hiashi's eyes when he returned the smile.

"What's a twin?" The voice of a slightly older Neji, a child rather than a baby or toddler, rang throughout the young man's mind, and a current pulled Inoichi back into that long hallway.

There, he sat, still too small to take many steps on his own, and watched as the twins horsed around.

Hizashi was trying to wrestle his brother to the ground, his arms around his waist and body pulling in one direction, but Hiashi had a grip on the frame of a bedroom door. Both men were trying to restrain their laughter, but each failed at different times. After a few good attempts, Hizashi relented and gave his twin's core a pat to forfeit their impromptu match. A bad decision, it seemed, as Hiashi threw his weight into Hizashi, sending them both to the floor.

Momentarily, Inoichi was distracted by the attempted clapping of little hands in front of his face. As a father, he couldn't help but admire the gesture as a very good attempt! They were little pats at best, and, at the end, he lazily allowed one hand to ball up, but Neji would definitely get it right the next time he tried!

Then, the hands lowered, and the twins came back into focus just in time for Neji to witness their lips parting from a kiss that made Inoichi's breath catch in his throat. There was such love in Hiashi's eyes as he stared down at his twin, love beyond a brother's love. A hand lifted to his flushed cheek, cupping it tenderly, and he leaned down for another warm kiss.

"What's a twin?" the voice repeated behind a layer of memories.

His stomach was in his throat when Inoichi was lifted onto somewhat steadier legs. Neji turned around, and the lighting changed, from midday to the cool wash of evening.

There was a thud in a nearby room, which the tiny boy cautiously toddled up to. Peeking into the cracked door, he saw something he couldn't have possibly comprehended at his age.

"Stop," Neji's voice cut through the memory. He was a helpless observer of memories long forgotten, memories he didn't want to confront.

Inoichi ignored the plea, though, and watched in stunned silence as Hizashi pulled Hiashi's head towards him to connect their mouths with passion. Hiashi had his twin pinned against an old armoire with his body, and the arm nearest to the door was trapped in the space between the brothers, suspiciously low, moving in an all too familiar rhythm. When their lips parted, Hiashi maintained contact with his forehead resting comfortably against Hizashi's. The look that Hiashi bore into his twin's eyes rose to an intensity that Inoichi wasn't sure he had ever seen before, let alone felt.

It was overwhelming for the adult inside of the toddler's mind, but the child himself felt a warmth Inoichi recognized as the security a child felt when their parents showed love and affection in front of them. His mother had always been absent, but his uncle--

There was a gasp, and the movement of Hiashi's hand between their bodies sped up. The older twin brought his younger half to the peak and sent him sailing over it, swallowing his moans in a muffling kiss along the way. When Hizashi came down from the high of orgasm and his body relaxed, he stroked his twin's hair and whispered his love for him, which Hiashi somehow heard through his captivated adoration.

"I love you...I'll always love you..."

It was disgusting. It was wrong. It was...somehow beautiful...

No wonder Neji was so confused. If his father could have a sexual relationship with his own twin, where did he believe the line should be drawn? From his fantasies, Inoichi knew there was no line.

"What's a twin?"

Following the echo to what he hoped would finally bring Neji clarity, Inoichi forced his way out of the child's perspective and through the barrier of memories.

He broke past Hiashi's yelling from behind closed doors. "I'm your twin, Hizashi! I am! Stop this! You can't live without me, just as I can't live without you!"

He stumbled and fell through a late night visit from Hiashi, a kiss the twins shared while Neji was tucked into Hizashi's side.

He shoved aside Hizashi's hushed sobs on the other side of Neji's bedroom wall.

Finally, he saw Neji, standing strong on his own two feet. The child looked to be about three or four and blissfully unaware of the trauma he would soon face. "What's a twin?"

"You don't know?" his father asked from his spot on the edge of the porch. Clearly, he had thought otherwise.

Feeling a little embarrassed about his ignorance, Neji lowered his head before he shook it. It was a word he had heard his whole short life, but he had never asked for the meaning of it.

Hizashi hummed thoughtfully, then pat the sturdy boards beside him. When his son was at his side, legs swinging idly, he started with the basic definition. "A twin is the person you're born with...They come into the world with you." That must not have satisfied the twin who had loved his own twin so deeply, though, since he carried on. "A twin shares your soul. They're part of you, like your heart is part of you. They can feel what you feel, and you can feel what they feel. When they hurt, you hurt. When you laugh, they laugh...A twin is..." Lost in memories of what Inoichi suspected was a love lost, Hizashi closed his eyes and sighed out, "your love."

Neji's face contorted with confusion, then relaxed with what he thought was understanding. "So you're my love."

'Ah,' Inoichi thought. 'There it is.'

The conclusion stunned Hizashi, but realization made him chuckle. Amusement dancing in his eyes, he pulled his child into his lap to cuddle him. "Yes, Neji. You're my twin after all."

Outside of the mental space, soft sniffling and the slight gasps of sobs could be heard, Neji's body reacting to the singular moment that had confused him and skewed his sense of love and sexuality.

"Sorry, kid..." It was his least favorite part of the job, exploring traumas.

"Please..." that little boy's future begged Inoichi.

The memory crumbled around him, collapsed into fine fragments that were carried away by the current. The Yamanaka reached out to a form he materialized with one simple hand seal and an intense focus, finally giving the disembodied voice a body.

Neji's sobs were unbroken by his new state of being, and they did not stop when he took the offered hand.

"You're not alone. I'm right here with you, alright? We'll face this together," he assured the teenager. The crying was a good sign, though, a healthy reaction to trauma. It made him hopeful.

When all he received was a single weak nod, he delayed no further. It was a short journey back to the cache of fantasies, even though the current had died down to a sticky stagnation, a sign of depression. Inside, Inoichi found what had sent him on his investigation and presented it to Neji. He needed to face it, to see what his mind had subconsciously done.

The fantasy was a copy of a certain memory, Neji offering a love from his eyes that was so rare, something any man would envy, something his lover would treasure. His forehead was pressed to the branded flesh of his own father, who was calming his breaths, implied to have climaxed recently. They were leaning against that same armoire, in that same room, in that same house. And Hizashi was whispering his love to Neji. "I love you...I'll always love you..."

Hiashi had dubbed Neji Hizashi's twin, an innocent little remark at the time, then both twins had twisted and perverted the meaning of the word through their actions and words. It had been no different than if Neji had grown up being called his father's lover. All during a time when Hizashi had rejected his real twin, as if he had left him for his new twin, his soul, his love...

Weakly, Neji sobbed, his voice carrying on the current and echoing throughout his mind. In the physical world, his body collapsed against Inoichi.

And Inoichi was there for him, arms encircling him as his eyes fluttered open. "Welcome back," he greeted, but Neji only withdrew into his own thoughts, eyes distant. The Hyuuga was understandably exhausted, probably still processing, so Inoichi held him for the next few minutes, stroking his hair. "You can start to heal now..."

After sucking up the snot from his recent release of emotion, Neji looked into the Yamanaka's jade eyes and disappointed him, "I choose to heal through acceptance..."

"What?"

"I accept my love for my father was based on a misunderstanding and...witnessing his relationship with Hiashi...but I still love him. I still love him and won't accept anything less than the standard he set for me in a partner."

Inoichi just stared in disbelief at that innocent child's future, so acclimated to incest that he was willing to just accept it.

That night, he wrote the Hyuuga a recommendation fit for a prodigy, complete with a note about Ibiki's specific concern.

**Prominent sexual attraction to paternal figures. Unexploitable. Not influenced by his sexuality in any meaningful way and has impossibly high standards for a romantic interest.

#Hyuuga Neji #Neji Hyuuga #Hyuuga Hizashi #Hizashi Hyuuga #Hyuuga Hiashi #Hiashi Hyuuga #Yamanaka Inoichi #Inoichi Yamanaka #HiaHiza #Morino Ibiki #Ibiki Morino

9 notes · View notes