#40: Rope
-Sunpies-

Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto et al.

He sometimes thinks Naruto was the first to do it and like everything Naruto does, it was accomplished with an inhuman speed and overzealousness. It came as such a shock at first -having been so long without them- that he doesn't struggle until it's too late.

In the aftermath, it's all too easy for the rest of them.

Maybe Hinata was next, maybe it was her father. He thinks that maybe his team is smarter than he ever gave them credit for because he's beginning to suspect that they've been doing it since the beginning.

A long time ago Neji decided that even as he was, destined to remain a caged bird of the branch house, he would not allow others to tie him down; there was no strength there.

It is with some amount of humbling irony then that he realizes that he's never been quite as strong as when he's been completely tied down by every single one of them.

#40: Rope
-Sunpies-

For Lady Silvamord