Chapter Text
The ANBU headquarters always smelled faintly of ink, steel, and earth. A place where secrets were stored and blood was washed clean before morning came.
Arai Kazuki, veteran ninja and ANBU Captain, leaned against the cool stone wall outside the mission room, mask dangling loosely from his hand. His muscles ached with the dull hum that followed a week-long mission, but his mind was already preparing for the next one. That was when he noticed him.
The newcomer’s chakra was controlled, measured, but it was his presence that caught Kazuki’s attention. Long, dark hair fell like a curtain over pale robes, each movement precise, calculated. His eyes as pale as the moon and just as cold, scanned the mission board without so much as a flicker of emotion.
“Who is that?” Kazuki murmured to the ninja standing beside him.
The operative blinked, surprised. “You don’t know who that is? That’s Hyuuga Neji. Genius of the Hyuuga branch family. Freshly recruited into ANBU from the Hokage's recommendation. How could you not know?”
Kazuki hummed thoughtfully, gaze lingering longer than was strictly polite. “He’s… very pretty.”
His colleague smirked under the mask. “Careful, Captain. That one’s got teeth. And he bites when cornered.”
Kazuki’s lips curved into a small, amused smile. I’d like to see that for myself.
He found out soon enough that Neji wasn’t just another recruit. He was assigned to Kazuki’s unit, directly under his command. Their first introduction was formal, as it had to be.
“Hyuuga-san,” Kazuki greeted, bowing his head slightly.
“Arai-san,” Neji replied, bowing in turn. His tone was polite but cool, a perfect wall of professionalism.
Days fell into months: mission briefings, debriefings, reports, assignments. Neji was flawless, too flawless, Kazuki thought. Every move was sharp, every word carefully chosen. There was no room for warmth, no crack in the armor he wore so naturally.
Until the night the armor broke.
Their two person undercover mission had been a disaster. An ambush. A bloody fight under a sky that refused to give them light. They had barely survived, both of them limping and bleeding by the time they found an inn deep in the countryside.
Kazuki sat opposite Neji in their shared room, the single candle on the table flickering weakly. His own shoulder was bandaged, still seeping blood. Neji’s hair was damp from a quick rinse in the river, framing a face that looked far too young when stripped of his usual composure.
The silence was heavy, oppressive. Then Neji spoke, his voice soft but shaking in a way Kazuki had never heard before. “Do you know what my clan said when I presented as an omega?” he asked suddenly, staring at the candle flame. “They said it was fitting. That an omega should serve quietly, not be seen and that their only duty was to bear strong children to secure the clan’s strength.”
Kazuki said nothing, letting the words hang. “I trained harder than anyone. I became a jonin younger than most,” Neji continued, the bitterness in his tone barely restrained. “And still, they look at me and see someone meant to be docile, to be ashamed of."
Kazuki’s jaw tightened. “You’re not docile.”
Neji’s lips twisted into something that wasn’t quite a smile. “No. I’m not. And they hate that.”
The silence stretched, then Neji let out a breath he’d been holding. “I thought if I became strong enough, if I became useful enough, they would see me as more than my designation. But some nights… I wonder if they ever will.”
Kazuki leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees, meeting Neji’s pale gaze. “Then stop waiting for them to see you,” he said quietly. “You’re already more than they can understand. You don’t need their permission to live.”
Something flickered in Neji’s expression, pain maybe, or relief, before he looked away.
“What do you want for your future, Arai-san?” he asked after a moment, changing the subject.
Kazuki thought about it, then spoke slowly. “Peace. A family. A reason to come home alive from every mission. Someone to fight for.”
Neji blinked, startled. Then he nodded, as if committing the words to memory. “That sounds… nice.”
For a long time, they just sat there, the night outside soft and dark, the candle burning lower and lower.
After that night, something between them shifted. A week later, during a mission briefing, Kazuki caught Neji watching him with an expression that wasn’t quite his usual mask, softer, curious. When Kazuki caught his gaze, Neji didn’t look away immediately.
Their sparring sessions also changed. Where once they exchanged only clipped words, now there was the faintest edge of teasing in Kazuki’s tone.
“You’re holding back, Hyūga-san,” he said one morning as they circled each other on the training field. Neji’s pale eyes flashed, a ghost of a smirk touching his lips.
“Perhaps you’re just too slow, Arai-san.” It was small, barely anything at all, but Kazuki felt it. The thread between them had grown taut, humming with something alive.
And on a quiet evening not long after, when the stars were out and the night was calm, Kazuki finally asked, voice steady: “Hyuuga Neji… may I court you?”
Neji froze, surprise flickering across his features before melting into something far more vulnerable. “…Yes,” he said softly. And this time, he smiled like he meant it.