Chapter Text
The rain is fucking deafening in the forest of death, and Neji can't breathe.
His heart is still beating in his ears. It's not real. It can't be real. An illusion, a genjutsu, a nightmare.
Any second, Neji was going to wake up. He closed his eyes, and opened them again, just to be met with the same exact scene as before.
Naruto is in front of him, his teammates on either side. The blond haired man’s hair is plastered to his face with water, and his eyes are glazed over. Shellshock, dissociation, whatever you want to call it, Neji had seen it before.
Sakura is crying, and Sasuke is standing stoically behind the two of them, pensive. Neji’s own teammates are somewhere behind him, but he doesn't care about them. They don't matter.
“We didn't know,” Naruto managed weakly, shaking his head and looking up at Neji, some of the fog seeming to clear from his eyes. “We didn't- we didn't know.”
Neji can only stare at him, at the blood on his flak vest. Abruptly, the ringing in Neji’s ears halts, and he just-
unadulterated rage filters through his system, and he lunges for Naruto, grabbing him by the collar and slamming him into the nearby stone.
Naruto doesn't even bother fighting him off, even though he could probably kill Neji without an ounce of effort.
“What do you mean you didn't mean to?” Neji demanded, enraged. Behind him he heard Tenten demand that he calm down, and could hear Sasuke shout at him to leave Naruto alone. Neji couldn't bring himself to care.
Because she was dead. She was dead to some random A-Class missing nin, and now Ashina and Natsu didn't have a mother, and Neji didn't have a cousin, and she was dead . She survived their family, she survived Pain, she survived the war, and now she was gone.
Neji had just begun making up for everything he had put her through when they were younger, had just begun figuring out how they were going to reform the clan, she had just pooled her money and Naruto’s to buy a new house- and now she was dead. She was dead, and it wasn't fair . It shouldn't happen so quickly, not like this.
Neji should have been there. He should have prevented it, should have helped. It was your fault rang endlessly in his mind, over and over. It was your fault, it was your fault, it was-
“This is your fault,” Neji snarled at Naruto, and watched the man’s eyes widen. “You can save the whole fucking world but you can't even save your own fucking wife ?”
Naruto flinched, and Neji knew that wasn't fair, he knew Naruto would never have wanted this to happen, but he didn't care. The pain was all consuming.
This wasn't the ending Hinata deserved. Her story should have been longer than this. She should have been alive to see Ashina and Natsu grow, to see them get older and stronger. To raise them the way she and Neji had never been allowed to.
Sasuke shoved him away, putting himself between Naruto and Neji.
“That's too fucking far, Neji!” he shouted, but Neji just glared over Sasuke’s shoulder.
“It should have been you,” Neji snarled, prompting an abrupt sob from Naruto, and then he whirled and stalked back through the forest to get rid of his own tears. At the time, Neji had no idea what the future would hold.
Because that night, Naruto would go home with the stress of his wife’s blood on his hands and two small children to take care of.
For the next three days, he’d keep himself secluded in his home, barely speaking to anyone while Neji refused to even look at him. His friends would stay away, per his request, because he told them that he just needed time to grieve on his own.
On the fourth day, Naruto would write a note, detailing his hatred of the village and desire never to return. “Don't look for me,” was the last line on the page.
By the fifth day… by the fifth day, Naruto and his children would be gone, with nothing but the note and a shinobi headband with a slash through it left behind. The only thing out of place in the house was a single photo of his wife.