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Fate is inescapable. He is a cloud flowing unchangeably to a fixed destination. He is a bird living in an iron cage: periodically pulled out to be shown off, but not allowed to fly. He is a genius waiting to be sacrificed. That's what he'd believed for so long.
That’s how he reconciled his father’s
sacrifice
murder.
That’s how he explained the iron bars that suffocated him. That’s what he’d held onto for his entire childhood.
He had known fate to be a strong force in his world.
But maybe some people were stronger.
The first to open his eyes to this (by beating it into him publicly) was none other than Uzumaki Naruto, the village idiot and outcast. Neji had always dismissed his cousin’s fondness for the pariah as a fleeting fancy. But if she had fallen for what Naruto had displayed in that fight, his tenacity and willpower, perhaps she wasn’t as foolish as he had thought. What a strong spirit, to overlook everything fate had told Naruto to be, and yet smile in the face of it all.
But Naruto was far from the last person to show Neji how to overturn his fate.
His own teammate, whom Neji had disparaged all year, smashed his fate into pieces. It was only fair, though, after the way that fate had sabotaged him in the first few minutes of his life, closing off both his chakra coils and the path to his dearest wish. Rock Lee had stared fate in the face, recognized that there was simply no road for him to become a successful ninja, and then did it anyway. He fought for his dream, he chased it, and he built a new road with his own bloodied hands.
Neji’s other teammate, Tenten, was also thwarted by fate. It ripped away her dream of practicing medicine and following in Lady Tsunade’s footsteps. So she spat in its eye and made her own footsteps. She became her own Lady, pioneering developments in weapons and sealing fighting tactics. Fate had declared that Tenten would never be Lady Tsunade. But she proved she didn't need to be. She was her own person with her own talents. And as much as she had wanted to heal, she loved weapons and sealing so much more.
But the one that is surprising to Neji the most is his cousin — his meek, docile cousin. Hinata doesn’t fight fate; she quietly subverts it. She has accepted her meager abilities and her demanding position and is discreetly using them against fate’s own decrees. All those years ago, she had smiled at her cousin, forgiveness in her eyes, and vowed to set him free. Soon, she will single-handedly change the fates of her entire clan with her compassion.
Neji will not be the only one that surrenders to his fate. He will look destiny in the eye, spit in its face, and tell it "you're not the boss of me." His cousin has already pledged her help to his freedom. But he won’t be simply waiting for her to deliver. He will find his own way to challenge his fate.