Work Text:
1. Neji maybe looked up to his uncle more than his father when he was little. Hiashi is just an incredible ninja, and Neji used to think he was so cool. His dad was cool too, but Hiashi was better, and Hiashi was more important, and even if Neji didn’t really understand what that meant when he was just three or four years old, he knew that Hiashi did a lot of great things, and he admired him for it. That admiration went out the window and died a bitter death the moment his father died in Hiashi’s place.
2. He admits that he’s probably been a lot harsher on Hinata than she really deserved, and he admits that it was just out of jealousy and spite that he hated her and treated her the way that he did. He regrets it now.
3. After his fight with Naruto during the Chunin exams, and after Hiashi revealed the truth about his father, Neji started feeling very sympathetic towards Hinata. He wasn’t the only one who had been needlessly cruel to her, and she hadn’t deserved any of it.
4. Neji has a weird relationship with Hanabi. His relationship with Hinata is good now, but his relationship with Hanabi is weird, because they both know what kind of future Hanabi could be looking at. Hanabi sees in Neji and his curse mark and his past behavior everything that she could become, and Neji sees in her the potential for his own history to be repeated. Hanabi is fierce and fighting for the right to be her father’s heir, and in her determination, Neji can see the strained relationship she has with Hinata over it, even if Hinata isn’t fighting as much as Hanabi is. Neji can see the potential in Hanabi to become bitter and jealous like he was, and he tries to quietly steer her away from that path, because it’s not worth it.
5. Guy is the most annoying sensei anyone could ever have, but Neji has to admit that he’s also one of the strongest people he knows, and one of the most intelligent – despite his terrible memory and his tendency to point out the obvious.
6. Neji rejected a lot of Guy’s wisdom at first, because he was too busy being angry at the world. He’s over that now, though, and he’s thankful that Guy never gave up on him, even when he was rude.
7. He hated Lee at first. He thought Lee was pathetic. Now, Lee is undoubtedly his best friend, and he would die for Lee. He’d rather die than see Lee hurt again.
8. He thinks Tenten must be an angel of some kind to put up with Guy and Lee on a daily basis, because she has far more patience for them than Neji ever will, and she also has to deal with Neji and his moodiness, so really, she must be some kind of saint or angel, and Neji feels blessed by her presence.
9. He’ll always cover up his curse mark. He doesn’t hate it anymore, he’s learned to live with it, but he still doesn’t like it. He doesn’t want to look at it.
10. Neji isn’t the type who wants to atone for his bad behavior. After the Chunin exams, he apologizes to Lee and Guy and Hinata, but he doesn’t actively do things to try and make it up to them. He makes it up to them in other ways. He treats them better and supports them more, and that’s all he does. That’s all he needs to do. Lee and Guy and Hinata can all see what he’s doing, the changes he’s making, and they appreciate it. They don’t call him out on his past behavior, and he appreciates that. He’s turned over a new leaf. He doesn’t want to be reminded of the other side of the leaf again.
11. Sasuke gets on Neji’s nerves more than anyone else ever has. How someone can be as stupid and stubborn as Sasuke is with an IQ has high as his, Neji can’t fathom. Sometimes he just wants to shake Sasuke until he admits that he’s been an idiot, because honestly, he feels like someone needs to.
12. Neji honestly isn’t that great at ninjutsu, because he’s never tried much beyond the basic academy stuff. He’s even less proficient in genjutsu. Why try either when he’s so amazing at taijutsu that the rest doesn’t matter, anyway?
13. He doesn’t know how or when it happened, but at some point, Ino started coming by the Hyuga complex a couple times a week to chat with Hinata and give her all the updates and juicy gossip she could want. Neji doesn’t how or when it happened, but at some point, he started being part of these conversations. He started sitting with them on the porch, talking about their friends, while they drink tea and Ino spills all the gossip she has, and Neji actually kind of enjoys it, strangely enough.
14. Neji is not a morning person at all, but no one knows because he always looks grumpy anyway.
15. No one has ever really fawned over him, but he considers himself to be quite handsome anyway.
16. He’s never felt the burden of being a genius. He’s just felt the harsh slap of reality that hard work can mean far more than natural talent.
17. He wants to be a squad jonin one day. He wants to be in charge of a group of genin. He wants to teach them how to be good and honorable shinobi. He hopes he’ll get the chance of being a teacher to someone like himself, so he can teach others like him that bitterness and resentment is not the way to go. He hopes he can teach them that hard work is the real way forward, and that good friends are invaluable and should never be taken for granted.
18. He’d like to be hokage someday. Not for a long time. He doesn’t want to deal with the paperwork and all that stuff until he’s old, but when he’s old and his fighting prowess isn’t what it used to be, he’d like to be hokage. He’d like to lead the village like he’d lead a genin squad, and he’d like to protect the village even when he can’t do as much in actual battle.
19. He doesn’t want to be hokage until after Naruto. He’d never take that away from Naruto.
20. Naruto isn’t Neji’s best friend, but he is one of the most important people in Neji’s life. Neji looks around him, and he isn’t sure how many of his friends and comrades he’d lay down his life for. He’s not even sure how much of his family he’d lay down his life for. But he would for Naruto. Unblinking, unthinking, he would jump in the line of fire to save Naruto, just like Naruto saved him.