breaking the cage

by blue and gold

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto—that right belongs to Kishimoto.

Warning: Spoilers for chapter 614.

There is a boy.

There is a curse.

There is a destiny.

There is a choice, though it was never an easy one.

:x:x:

It is summer.

The sun shines high, the wind rustles through the leaves, and a bird calls out as it takes flight, wings stretched out and feathers ruffled as it flies.

What is it like? He wonders, face turned up towards the sky, to be free?

:x:x:

Some people think fate is a string.

Some people think fate is a force.

They are wrong, he thinks, as his fingers trace the lines branded onto his skin-

-For fate is a cage, and he its captive.

:x:x:

He watches her from a distance.

She is small, she is weak, she is a failure, with brittle bones and paper skin—yet she has everything and he has nothing.

It is unfair, he thinks, watching her trip and stumble.

But such is the way of the world.

:x:x:

Idiocy reigns supreme. He decides.

The blonde boy with the big mouth and the gaudy clothes comes parading out into the stadium.

It is unfair. He thinks, not for the first time.

That boy does not try at all-

-and he is allowed to fail.

:x:x:

[Later-

-he lies there, broken and beaten and bruised; and he thinks that maybe he was wrong about the blonde boy.

Some part of him is content with this failure, though. This error.

It is not so terrible, to be a sufferer, when you are not the only one in misery.]

:x:x:

It is summer.

The sun shines high, the wind rustles through the leaves, and a bird calls out as it takes flight, wings stretched out and feathers ruffled as it flies.

I will soar, one day. He knows.

It is only a matter of when.

:x:x:

War is hell.

The vermilion bodies of shinobi and kunoichi lie in the scarlet stained earth, and he cannot tell whether or not they were on his side or the other.

And in that moment, he is caged again-

-and, like before, there is no real way out.

:x:x:

"Because I…was called a loser."

"Why would you go this far for me…?! Sacrificing your life…"

"Because…I was called a genius."

:x:x:

There is a boy.

There is a curse.

There is a destiny.

There is a choice, though it was never an easy one.

A/N: Written in a fit of well-contained hysterics after Neji's death (come on, Kishi—really?)

Second to last section comes from chapter 614.

Review, please. (It won't bring Neji back, but I can dream, can't I?)