Warnings for angst, past death, time travel, and again arranged marriage.

Two - Failure

Hyuuga Neji died in the dark.

The only light present was in his heart, strong and sure. It was the Will of Fire that was a story to joke about, the belief in the future that would be strong and everlasting helmed by Uzumaki Naruto and his spirit. As far as he had been concerned, it was a death without regret.

But then he woke up.

He woke up under soft blankets and with the seal yet to be on his forehead. He woke to his father rubbing his back, murmuring about a fever. He had cried for a solid hour and refused to let go.

He was alive. He was alive and his father was alive and everything was wrong, all wrong. Just after he had accepted, had come to terms with everything that was wrong with his life not being the end, it was going to happen all over again.

Was he really going to experience it all again? His father dying, his beating by Naruto, this war? Was he just going to die fruitlessly saving the hero again? Much as he respected Naruto now, dying for him repeatedly was not on the agenda. He was determined to find another way, or maybe to end all of these things before they happened at all.

Though, that was in books. This was the reality of his situation. He was not going to be so lucky. That was the idea of the fallen Uchiha, a perfect world. At least, that was what he had read.

"Neji? Come."

His father's voice, soft and warm and caring, still alive, still present, drew him from the ball under his covers.

Perhaps he was dreaming. Perhaps whatever that Uchiha had been planning had worked and now, now he was in the infinite dream, dying but unable to pass on, cursed with this happy non-life where his father lived and everyone lived and everything was happy.

Except for Hinata-sama.

Hinata-sama was a timid toddler. She barely looked at him. That was nothing new before, and yet his father claimed that they got along reasonably well. And yet she avoided his gaze now, focusing more on the hems of her robes and not tripping over her own feet. In the past, (other world, dreams?) it had been more of a disappointment, an irritation, but now it was concerning and more than a little sad.

What was she afraid of him for now? She was the most normal person in the world so far. It was the most understandable behavior… in the least understandable situation. He avoided being cruel to her, avoided in fact, too much with her at all. Because now she was young and small and cherubic and within years she would go to war and bleed to death for Uzumaki Naruto.

Only, when he asked a clan member, apparently no one named Naruto existed.

… Maybe he was actually crazy.

"Neji?" His father's voice cut through his musings. "It's time."

Oh right. He was also being married to the youngest Uchiha, apparently. The very thought made Neji's body ache with memories. He remembered chasing the youngest Uchiha from being kidnapped, how it had failed by the Uchiha's own will, how he had led to that entire god damn war that was fully meant to kill everyone and all for the sake of killing one man.

Hell, Neji was starting to think he should find a way to kill Uchiha Itachi. That would be the polite thing to do. He didn't know what the man was actually playing at when he decided that he would be marrying the spare of the Uchiha clan, who was also a male. Wasn't that the opposite purpose of a marriage? Wasn't he supposed to have children? Perhaps they were adopting, or there was surrogacy? Or everyone expected Uchiha Sasuke to die? Why would they? Would there still be a massacre? Did they actually manage to create precognitive techniques?

Or maybe the massacre had been planned all along by someone and Uchiha Sasuke wasn't meant to survive.

… Oh god that was it wasn't it? That was stupid.

Neji considered this all the way down the hall. When his father told him very sternly how he was to behave, each word flew over his head like a Naruto shadow clone. What, did he think he was going to hit the kid? He wasn't the sociopathic garbage he had started of as when they had met. None of the terrible things in his life had happened. Still, it was an Uchiha. The Uchiha had a place, a self, a way of being. Even young, like the Hyuuga, they possessed it. It was elitism, honestly.

He was old enough and young enough to recognize it, especially now. He was so enlightened that he felt like puking.

Neji entered a room that stank of lily incense. The candles all flickered in time to the movement of the door as it opened and closed. Neji looked around the room slowly. Inside was just a nearly ordinary girl, not Uchiha Sasuke with the failure to be controlled duck wing mane of hair, but a five-year-old girl with green ribbons and pale skin that looked only colorful because of the candles in the room.

She bowed, then knelt, then was prostrate on the floor, offering words of polite servitude, of marriage. And he couldn't believe it, he just couldn't.

He needed answers.

Saori, she said her name was Saori and she had Sasuke's sharp tongue but with more wit. Somehow more of a brain existed in that head and it was too much, too much for any one person to handle because this wasn't his past, this wasn't his world, where was he?

Somewhere in that dizzy blackness, a hand, cool from sweat, nerves, and fear, brushed his forehead. "Perhaps this is a bad day." Her voice kept its even clip for some reason. He did not know why. "Perhaps your nerves are getting the better of you. I can… empathize."

There was something so wrong about hearing the very idea of empathy from the Uchiha. The few he had met before they were mercilessly slaughtered had all been stiff and unwelcome, locked up like birds in cages themselves. What empathy could she possibly have?

"However, if this is not successful it is likely you will suffer the consequences much more than I will."

To his own surprise, Neji let out a strangled laugh. Because she was right and he would and he did not god damn care right now.

"What can they do?" he said, voice low and ever so amused. "Kill me?"

"At least." Her voice was mild if a little quivery from horror. God, she was a child, what was he doing? "Or your dad."

"They're not that stupid," he said, laughter finally slowing. "My father and his brother look so much alike they need one to be able to keep the clan not looking like puppets of idiot Clouds and everything else."

Too much, he was being too talkative what was wrong with him-

Then again, he hadn't slept properly in three days, at least. And he had also died… at some point.

Uchiha Saori lifted herself up and carried her small feet over to him. "Hyuuga Neji-san," she said, voice slow. "You are in the Hyuuga Compound, we are on almost six years since the recall of the Nine-Tailed Fox from captivity. We are at peace for the moment. Is there anything else I can tell you?"

The words were not grounding exactly, but they were a buoy in the middle of an ocean. Answers. Solid answers.

He managed to bob his head slowly. "Yes. So many. And I will… I will give you mine."

She raised an eyebrow. Neji supposed he deserved that.

A/N: I'm so sorry for this delay, Neji is a useless narrator. We were supposed to be a lot farther than this but he angsted so damn hard we weren't getting anywhere, so I decided to stop it for the time being. Please continue with this massacre of a fanfiction, it really does mean a lot to me.