I

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"Uzumaki Naruto is not a person of interest, especially not someone the main family should interact with."

He can remember dear Hinata-sama's face as her father had said those words, his hard, soulless eyes drilling into her thin shoulders. He recalls the ache in his knees as he had knelt (at the back, one more face among the masses, just another branch) during the ceremonial celebration of the heir's acceptance into the Academy. It didn't matter that Neji was already well ahead of his classmates, didn't matter that his taijutsu forms were faultless, didn't matter that he was already estimated to be the rookie of the year for his cohort. There had been no celebration for him, just cousin Natsu and her gentle head pat. No, he'd had no celebration.

He'd also had no warning to stay away from this 'Uzumaki Naruto', whoever that may be. Oh, it had been heavily implied that the Hyūga clan were not to associate with her, but it'd never been stated that they had to stay away. Only the main branch and, with the print upon his brow, Neji has the hard evidence that he is not one of those ordered to remain away.

Crouched on the think limb of a Konoha-native tree, he watches the blonde (younger than him by a year, his junior in the academy) stumble through the basic steps of the simplest taijutsu form. The angle of her elbow is wrong, her feet not placed a sufficient distance apart to offer her any form of stability. It's almost pitiful to wat- no, it is pitiful to watch. Neji cringes, head ducking low into the comforts of his shoulders as he watches Uzumaki Naruto throw a punch and almost stumble face-first into the snow-covered ground. The red of her scarf flashes against the white backdrop, as obnoxiously coloured at the orange jacket that covers her arms. She's useless, destined for failure, it's painfully clear in every movement, in ever motion.

'…not someone the main family should interact with.'

Yet, why does his clan head warn Hinata away from her? Why does his clan head know her by name? In the heir's class she may be, but Hinata has been attending the academy for all of two days. Why would their clan head bother with an academy student this early on? And why does 'Uzumaki' ring a bell? He doesn't have the answers, nor does he have the facts to deduce them.

Nothing some covert information gathering cannot fix.

.

He follows Uzumaki Naruto for five days, covertly and only for a half hour each day. He doesn't want the clan head realising what he is up to, for if the instruction to remain away is given, Neji would have to obey. So, little and often is his new motto. He's gathering information, forming opinions and facts and the mystery is only deepening.

The villagers whisper about her, treat her poorly. Today, he had quietly integrated himself among them as she walked by, listening to the harsh words that don't meet Uzumaki's ears, though the tone and facial expressions make it all painfully clear exactly what opinions they hold of her. But Neji, Neji had heard the words.

Demon. Monster. Beast. Jinchūriki.

The latter had been the most specific term, the most damning. That the civilian who whispered that had been whisked away by the ANBU told Neji he'd heard something he wasn't meant to, even the higher powers that be didn't seem aware he'd been close enough to catch that.

It'd taken him weeks of digging to find so much as a reference to the title, between his observations of Uzumaki (who remains as dismal at taijutsu and her studies as he first observed) and his forcibly meek appearances in the Hyūga compound.

The first Jinchūriki had been a woman, the wife of the Shodaime Hokage, the woman who had drawn the Nine Tailed Demon Fox into her body and sealed it there. The same beast that had attacked Konoha seven years ago. A Biju that had once been sealed into Uzumaki Mito.

It's too much to be a coincidence, even if Neji's mind spins with the facts he's bee taught. The Fourth had killed the beast that night. That's what the textbooks say, that's what the academy teachers proclaim. But the way the adults act, the way the civilians recoil in repulsion, the way his clan head had all barred the heir from talking to Uzumaki; it makes a blistering, blinding amount of sense.

…

A life-changing seal given without consent, huh?

.

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"Your form is wrong."

Uzumaki Naruto squawks, arms flailing and eyes swivelling around the clearing she's come to claim as her own. No one has found her here before, not even Iruka-sensei, meanie that he is. He's managed to suss out her every other hiding place, this is her last haven here. He can't have found it! Only, the voice isn't deep enough to be Iruka-sensei.

Fists still clenched, she swings around, searching for the source.

It's a boy. A boy her age with long, dark brown hair and freaky white eyes. The same eyes that weird girl is class got bullied for before Naruto stood up to them. Or, she tried to. It hadn't exactly ended in her favour but she'll prove them all wrong when she becomes Hokage! Believe it!

Wait, forget that for the moment, she needs to focus on the boy.

"So!" she hisses, shoulders tightening and teeth bared, "I'll just keep working on it 'till I get it right."

"Then you will continue to practice the incorrect form, engrain it into your foundations and become fated to remain mediocre." Engra-founda-medi-orca? Isn't that a big fish? Is he calling her a fish?!

"I'm gonna be a Hokage someday, believe it!" She will. She will, she will, she will. Jiji promised she has the potential and Jiji is the only adult who has never, ever lied to her. If he thinks she has a chance, then god damn it, Uzumaki Naruto is going to keep chasing that dream until her feet are bleeding and raw.

"Lower your voice," the boy with the girly hair hisses, his eyes turning freaky as hell with the veins around them bulging and oh god, that's ugly and sorta cool. "You never know who is listening."

Naruto doesn't care. She doesn't' care who is listening, doesn't care who is watching and laughing at her failures. She'll come out on top one day, she'll be the best and then all those who've look at her with those hateful eyes'll be sorry!

She swings around to the boy, ready to tell him those nasty words the drunken men slur at the Uchiha police.

Only, only the boy is standing before her with his knees bent and arms held aloft, a stance that she's seen often enough at the academy. Only, his looks so much better than hers does.

"Look at my feet, see how they are planted to spread my weight and offer better foundations. This is what you should be aiming for, even if you will not achieve my level of mastery."

"Not achi- You're on, pretty boy!"

.

Pretty boy is called Neji. He's cold, uses words that're too big for her to understand sometimes, and he's a year older than her. He's also very, very good at the tai-what's-it-called stuff. And… and he's kind. He helps her, even if he states he will not associate with her outside of her clearing. Naruto's not a stupid girl, she's well aware she isn't liked. She knows the people with the freaky eyes don't like her because the girl in her class hasn't talked to her again, not since that first day.

But… Neji does. Even if his family probably don't want him to. So, Naruto can deal with being a dirty little secret now.

When she's Hokage, they'll have to let her spend time with Neji; she'll make it the law if she has to.

.

And, unknown to the two academy students, Hyūga Hiashi watches their latest interaction and smiles.

It'll be 1,000 words a chapter on average and I've got this baby going to try and kill my writers block.

Tsume

xxx