Kakashi's Mistake

chapter 6

Machinations and an Avenger's Charge

Pupiless pale violet eyes snapped open, taking in the dull white ceiling before him.

I lost, he realized, the events of the fight flashing through his head, the face of a blond with cold blue eyes staring at him in congealed rage.

And yet, that hadn't happened. Instead he found himself here, a loser with nothing left.

...You will not find pity or understanding from me, because you have nothing compared to the living hell I have suffered through. Yet, here I am, because I refuse to believe in fate, I believe that we make our own fates.

"Were we much the same," he murmured that rhetorical question as he slid his eyes shut again.

"Yes and no," came the answer he wasn't expecting, causing his eyes to snap open and shift towards the blond sitting in a chair by his bed. The same blond that had just beat him.

"Don't worry. I'm just here to talk, the boss man's busy dealing with other matters. That and the Council has decided that it is not exactly comfortable with the Kyuubi's container being so strong," the clone offered with a wry smile.

He's not lying, Neji thought, watching the facial expressions of the clone, letting out a sigh.

"What do you want to talk about," he asked, if the blond deemed it important to send a Kage Bunshin while he's in a Council meeting then it was unwise to send him away in spite of his wish to be alone.

"Can I see the seal?"

Automatically Neji bristled without second thought, both at the reminder of his curse and the ingrained response and Hyuuga should have to an outside asking to see their seal.

"Why," he demanded.

"The Boss called it professional curiosity. But he told me to tell you that let's just say, hypothetically, he is aware of what the seal that binds you to the Side Branch most likely is. And, hypothetically speaking of course, that if the boss's suspicions are confirmed he will be most displeased with the Hyuuga Main Branch for stealing an Uzumaki clan seal designed for the maintenance of prisoners to enslave people. Furthermore, he would be so inclined to correct the Hyuuga crimes against the Side Branch."

He could only blink at the statement from the blond, trying to grapple with what he just said.

"Why," he asked, "why are you doing this?"

"He already told you Neji, boss believes in making your own fate. How can you decide your own fate when you are enslaved to someone else's whims?"

Neji could only stare at the clone for a few more moments, feeling a foreign emotion he hadn't felt in so long.

Could he dare to hope in a boy who had just defeated him? Could he afford not to?

He closed his eyes, straightening to look at the ceiling again.

"Do it."

He didn't need to see what the clone was doing, he already knew. Every year the clan did an 'integrity check' on the seal. It was both a diagnostic and reminder of their status.

"Those idiots," the clone snarled, causing Neji's eyes to snap open at the clone's face frozen into a mask of fury, an expression he hadn't seen yet from the blond.

"What?"

"They used a modified Uzumaki prison seal," the clone replied darkly, "but whoever did the modifications was a complete and utter fool! There are two backdoors and a hair-trigger fail-safe that can be unstable if there is one deviation in the algorithm. Not only that, but the esteemed imbeciles of the Hyuuga main branch are using a seal that shaves off years of a Side Branch members' life expectancy due to brain hemorrhaging whenever they use it. Tie in a chakra inhibitor and even I want to go over and start demanding answers of the Elders."