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Neji is starting to sympathize with Sasuke's decision to run away to Oto.Formal clothes are heavy, hot in the middle of a Konoha summer, and Neji can't quite breathe. He wants to stand up, rip them off, tear off his hitai-ate and scream at Hiashi, chase the Kumo ambassadors out of the compound with fire and earthquakes and all the fury beating a tattoo in his chest, but—But the Caged Bird seal is still on his forehead, and despite all the apologies in the world, Neji still remembers all too well the feel of it tearing through his mind at Hiashi’s command.“A boy?” the white-haired man at the front of the group says, surveying Neji with a twist to his mouth that makes Neji want to tear his throat out bare-handed. “I was informed you have two daughters.”Informed. Neji swallows the bitter laugh that wants to shake loose in his chest. Right. He’s sure that’s how they came by that knowledge. Nothing at all to do with their ongoing quest to secure Hyuuga eyes for themselves.“My twin brother’s son,” Hiashi says firmly, resting a hand on Neji's shoulder like he has any right to. “My daughters are currently both in line to succeed me as Clan Head, and I cannot make a choice between them until the matter is settled. Neji is the greatest prodigy the Hyuuga Clan has seen in decades, and will surely suffice.”It would be so easy to strike a vital point from this distance. So easy to kill. Neji breathes through the urge, eyes fixed straight ahead, and doesn’t give in to temptation. Hiashi only needs an instant to activate the Caged Bird seal. It isn't worth it.The Kumo nin doesn’t look entirely satisfied, but he doesn’t protest. Inclines his head, gestures out with a hand, and says, “Kumo has no clans the way Konoha does, but our legacies run through students and teachers. We offer Omoi, Killer B’s most proficient student, in return.”Neji tenses, scans the group before he can stop himself. For a moment he thinks it’s the blond man, who lifts his head, but there's another already rising, a boy Neji's age with dark skin and short white hair, black eyes framed by long lashes. He looks as uncomfortable as Neji feels, chewing on his lower lip like it’s a habit, and when he steps forward Neji can see his fingers are tapping nervously at his thigh.The fact that he’s wearing a Kumo hitai-ate sours in Neji's stomach, makes him want to throw a kunai, tumble them into war, do anything to escape this.He can't, though. The Branch House members are slaves to the Main House, and for all of Naruto's promises that hasn’t changed at all. Hiashi is watching him, eyes cold, and Neji takes a careful breath, rises to his feet, and steps forward to meet his new husband.“Welcome to the Hyuuga Clan, Omoi,” he says. “I hope our union will be…fruitful.”The words are like acid on his tongue.Omoi hesitates, but then bows, just a little deeper than Neji would have expected from a foreign nin. “Thank you,” he says, quick, though the words don’t quite trip over themselves. Behind him, Neji can see a redheaded Kumo kunoichi wince, mouth opening, before the blond man makes a sound for silence. “I hope for the same, Neji. Thank you for accepting me.”I had no say in it, Neji doesn’t tell him, because Hiashi is three paces behind him, and he can feel the weight of his uncle’s eyes on his back. Instead, he inclines his head, then stiffly offers his arm. Omoi's eyes widen slightly, a flicker of something like panic crossing his face that makes Neji want to frown, but the redheaded kunoichi hisses, low and sharp, and Omoi moves, slipping a hand under Neji's arm to rest his fingers in the crook of Neji's elbow.He’s shorter than Neji, a little leaner. When Neji looks down at him the Kumo hitai-ate is all too clear, and he grits his teeth until it feels like his jaw is going to crack, looks away before he’s overcome by the urge to do something violent.“A house has been prepared for you within the compound,” Hiashi says, benevolent, and steps forward, offering the Kumo ambassador his arm, though his eyes are watchful. All the other eyes around them, too; no one has quite forgotten what happened last time a Kumo nin was allowed so close, though somehow Neji thinks the rest of the Main House are focusing more on the kidnapping of Hiashi’s daughter than the murder that happened afterwards. After all, his father was from the Branch House. He was supposed to die for Hiashi. All Hizashi did was his duty.Darui clasps Hiashi’s arm, and if the tension is getting to him he doesn’t look it, his expression calm and almost lazy. “The wedding ceremony will take place tomorrow, then?” he asks.“Tomorrow morning,” Hiashi confirms. “I thought we could leave Neji and Omoi to get acquainted today.”Darui nods, flicking a look at Omoi. Omoi stiffens a little, like he’s been caught at something, and nods to him before he turns back to Neji.Neji is of the opinion that it would be more enjoyable to throw himself off a cliff than spend the evening getting to know a Kumo nin, let alone a Kumo nin he’s about to have to spend the rest of his life with, but he unclenches his jaw enough to say, “Thank you, Hiashi-sama.”Hiashi hardly seems to hear him, stepping closer to Darui and murmuring something about checking on arrangements for the ceremony, and Darui makes a noise of agreement, turning away. The rest of the Kumo nin rise, the blond man falling into step one pace behind Darui without pause, while the kunoichi casts a quick, unhappy look at Omoi before she follows as well. A girlfriend, or just a teammate? Neji can't tell, and doesn’t particularly care to know.For appearance’s sake, he lets Omoi keep touching him as they pass through the compound, skirting the Clan Head’s house and making for the back wall, across a spacious and secluded garden. Neji doesn’t want to be grateful for anything Hiashi has done, but he can admit that out of all the empty houses in the compound, Hiashi picked the best for him. Or, more likely, Hanabi picked it—she’s sharper where people are concerned than Hinata and Hiashi put together, and she’s caught Neji in this garden more than once, meditating or training out of sight of the rest of the clan.The house itself is small, neat, and has been obsessively scrubbed clean, every inch made to glow in the morning sun. Neji pulls away from Omoi with relief to slide open one door, then steps out of his shoes and into his own pair of slippers, leaving the new ones for Omoi. Some of the furniture is his, moved from his small rooms to here, and his books are neatly shelved. He tries not to feel bitter about the liberty taken, but fails. He was on a mission with Team 10, came back to the news that Kumo had heard of a threat to their jinchuuriki and was seeking an alliance through marriage and that Hiashi had already accepted on his behalf, moved his possessions, made arrangements with the Hokage.If Gai hadn’t found him on top of the Hokage Monument that evening, Neji isn't entirely sure what he would have done. Sasuke's decision certainly looked tempting, and Neji had spent several minutes convinced that he could prove the superiority of the Byakugan to the Snake Sannin and earn a spot as his apprentice, leave Hinata to marry a shinobi from the village responsible for his father’s death.He’d thought about Naruto's face, though, how he would look hearing that while on his training trip. Had thought about how much Sasuke's desertion hurt him, and—Neji doesn’t delude himself into thinking that he means as much to Naruto as Sasuke, but he doesn’t want to cause him any more distress, either. That promise he made is still a tightly-held hope, a spot of brilliance in Neji's grey life. Someday, someday, when Naruto makes Hokage, he’ll fix the House system, save the Branch House members from their indentured servitude to the Main House.Neji has to believe that, or bearing all of this is for nothing.He slides the door shut carefully, turns, and—“Oh, gods,” Omoi groans, sinking to the floor and burying his face in his hands. “I didn’t start a war. No one died. You're not a horrible old man or a woman who likes to pinch or a child. Oh gods that’s so much better than I expected it to be.”Neji blinks at the top of his head, entirely caught off guard.Apparently unaware of this, Omoi pulls a—a lollipop, Neji thinks incredulously, from the sleeve of his haori and unwraps it, then shoves it into his mouth. He tangles his fingers in his hair, heaves out a breath, and then tips his head back to give Neji a strained smile.“Aer you going to divorce me now?” he asks. “Because I don’t want to be responsible for the world ending because we couldn’t stay married.”Neji's mind is completely blank as he grasps for a response. It’s—it’s like meeting Gai for the first time was, except this is a Kumo nin, not an eccentric jounin. This is a cunning, conniving warmonger, kidnapper of children, whose village tried to start a war when they took Hinata and demanded Hiashi’s head—With a heaved sigh, rolling his eyes skyward, Omoi fishes in his sleeve, then comes up with another lollipop. He flips it to Neji in a shinobi-deft motion, and it’s solely because he’s spent so many years on a team with Tenten, who is insufferable when her weapons get dropped carelessly, that Neji catches it.“I only have peach left,” Omoi says, like it’s the sort of thing that needs an apology, even as he slumps back against the wall. Then his expression twists, and he groans. “But what if you're allergic? What if just holding it is enough to set off a reaction? What if you die and the Hyuuga blame me and then Konoha kicks us out? What if that’s why Shishō and Yugito die? What if that’s enough to throw all chakra everywhere out of balance and—”“I'm—I'm not even allergic to peaches!” Neji protests, several decibels louder than he intends to.Omoi stops, hands dropping from his hair. He looks suspiciously at Neji for a long moment, then asks, “You're not?”“I'm not allergic to anything!”“Oh.” Omoi relaxes, shifting up and rising to his feet in an easy motion that makes Neji think of Tenten with a sword in her hand. “I’m really glad,” he says around the lollipop, and gives Neji a quick, small smile. “Uh. I did mean it, about hoping it’s not going to be too bad. Arranged marriages aren’t usually a thing in Kumo, so you're going to have to be patient with me, sorry.”Person. He’s a person, Neji thinks, a little bewildered, a little off balance. He doesn’t like realizing that. Better when all Kumo nin were the enemy, or out to get him, and there's nothing that says Omoi isn't, but—Neji's been brainwashed for almost five years at this point. He looks at weird people and thinks they're fine just because they're weird. It’s a defense mechanism, and he knows it; there's no way he would have survived being on a team with Gai, Lee, and Tenten without developing that reaction. And—Omoi is undoubtedly weird. He looks like he needs someone to dump blankets on top of him and not let him up until his heartrate goes from paranoid hummingbird back down to human.Not that Neji is going to be the one to do that. Absolutely not.“I'm going to go change,” he says shortly, turning on his heel, and heads for the bedroom and a pace that’s just a little slower than a bolt. He’s not—he has to go through with this marriage because of the Seal, but that doesn’t mean he has to like any part of it, his new husband included. His new husband especially.The fact that Omoi hits every this is a person you should like button that Gai and Lee have left inscribed in Neji's psyche is probably a calculated, targeted attack by Kumo as a whole, and not to be trusted at all.It’s only when he closes the bedroom door tightly behind him that Neji realizes he’s still holding that damn lollipop.