#somehow Neji is more scary with someone crying into his chest

[dark-elf-writes]

Oooo Naruto and Neji becoming very codependent because for however many loops they only had each other to rely on. And when it comes to fighting an opponent that has decades of experience on you and no intention of going easy, that trust has to be absolute.

It doesn’t help that Sasuke and Sakura would probably refuse to listen to any of Naruto’s original attempts at telling them to hurry tf up or that something is going to happen. And depending on how far back the loop goes (beginning of day? Once they step foot into the forest?) even more of his trust could fracture when the people around him do nothing to help.

I’m living for Neji and Naruto being scary in tune with each other during/after this. Fully knowing exactly what the other is going to do and when with nonverbal communication all the way.

I’m feeling the loop starts right when the enter the forest/maybe during the downtime before that so there would definitely be some begging at the gate before Naruto had to get moving. He would be so frustrated by that point. Particularly in the first few loops when he keeps getting hit by the snake and doesn’t even know about Orochimaru yet. Just “there’s a big ass snake!” “Yeah kid we know that’s kind of the point”

Naruto realizes adults are useless pretty fast.

But yes Naruto and Neji would get so codependent. And start hunting for each other from the very beginning of each loop because maybe this time I’d they’re together a even a second sooner they can do this. Team Guy is easier to herd than Team 7 (and neither of them want to watch their friends die again if they can help it) so Neji’s team are always the first ones to find them. As the loops go on they are getting more and more desperate and everyone else more concerned.

But then they get out.

They break free.

Naruto bathed in orange chakra and more fox than man at that point, finds the person responsible for holding up the loop and kills them with nothing but his own claws and it’s like he and Neji can feel the weight of it fall off their shoulders the way the both sag a little. Neji is at Naruto’s side before anyone realizes his legs are starting to give out, Byakugan still active as he looks for threats even as he clings to Naruto. Is clung to in return.

Neither of them cry yet even though they both want to.

No crying comes later when they have reached the tower and the scrolls are opened to reveal Iruka-sensei looking down on them. Telling them they did it. They made it.

Naruto bursts into tears on the spot, leaning so far into Neji that it’s a wonder neither of the have ended up on the floor already. Lee and Tenten stand guard, Lee watching Neji’s blind spot and Tenten on Naruto’s other side with her hand white-knuckled around one of her scrolls. Team 7 is a bit more confused but Sakura, hair sheered short and hands shaking as she holds her kunai does take up Neji’s other side while Sasuke takes point, arms crossed and scowling at their former teacher.

Neji tosses a head at Iruka’s feet — still wearing a sound headband — those usually unexpressive Hyuuga eyes blazing with some sort of emotion Iruka can’t place.

“Orochimaru invaded the exam.” He says like a damnation, tightening his hold around Naruto just a little more. “That man could control time.”

Iruka sees it then, the change in these kids. How close they must have come to shattering entirely. How they decided to roar in the face of death instead. The Will of Fire in each of them, burning bright and deadly.

He sees it and he knows that he failed these kids. That all of them failed these kids. Who knows how many times they failed them.

He’s not sure he wants to know. He’s not sure that after everything he’s done: the blood on his hands, the shuriken buried in his back by someone he thought he could trust, the weight of his past hatred of a child turned to guilt; that hearing these kids stories won’t break him entirely.

[discoabc]

Extra: A Certain Redhead

A/N: I wrote this very quickly so I’m not sure it is entirely great BUT it was pretty fun to write :) Especially when the POV makes characters that aren’t really that scary seem so haha. P.S. You should watch stuff on Karin’s backstory because I (for once) actually really enjoyed how it was done in the anime

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Karin Uzumaki, quite frankly, did not want to be there.

Clutching at the fabric of her shirt, she watched as her two teammates continued to bicker about their team’s next move. They’d been arguing over whether they should go into the tower or not for the past five minutes and it was getting to the point where Karin had lost the ability to care what choice they made. Not that my opinion mattered anyway, she thought, repressing a shiver.

The Forest of Death was cold with all its thick overgrowth that blocked what light of the evening Sun remained. It wasn’t a cold that Karin was unfamiliar with. Vivid memories of windowless hospital rooms plagued her mind making her urge to shiver worse and marks across her skin ache. Suddenly, she wished she’d ignored the order to keep her arms uncovered and instead worn long sleeves to at least try to keep the cool air away.

She shifted her feet, tightening her grip on herself. Everything about her day so far was making her feel worse and worse. The first stage of the Chūnin Exams in of itself had been terrible. She’d managed to struggle through the majority of the questions with her sensory abilities by focusing on the methods of others to cheat (she really stroke lucky when she realized she could sense the movement of a bug spelling out the answers to questions to its user). But the fact she’d missed three questions preyed on her mind, anxiety that she could be the cause of her team’s failure weighing her down. That Ibiki asshole hadn’t made it any better - it was only because putting up her hand would result in guaranteed punishment for failure that she persevered.

The second stage had at first almost elicited a sigh of relief from her. A deal had already been struck with the other Kusakagure team that they would work together if it was a sensible option to take. Normally such a deal would have never been accepted, however, Kusa had made it clear that they wanted a team to make it to the third round, through whatever means necessary. So they’d all gritted their teeth and agreed to, for once, play nice.

Except, when Karin tried to sense the position of Shiore’s team for the first time that day, she couldn’t find them.

Her teammate’s had been furious, spitting in fury at the apparent betrayal, but Karin had known better. Shiore’s team was stronger than their own in all regards and expected to be the ones to make it to the third round, however, they also weren’t good enough to hide their chakra signatures. So, either they’d made a run for it out of Konoha, or…

Karin forced down another shiver.

To make matters worse, there had been a huge explosion of chakra earlier that had nearly reduced her to her knees. Something was terribly wrong in this forest in the most deadly of ways. And yet there her teammates were, arguing without a care in the world when they could be using this time to get out of here already-

She spun, heart that was already pounding fast pumping faster. “Enemies!”

Her teammates finally shut up at her strained warning, weapons drawn not a moment too soon. A barrage of kunai flew at them and Karin barely managed to dive into the cover behind a huge root of one of the trees to avoid being skewered. Her eyes then widened as she watched a boy with long hair leap down from above, one hand stretched out in front of him and veins on either side of his face bulging unnaturally.

A Hyūga.

Oh no.

Karin stared on in horror tinged with awe as the Konoha-nin easily dodged the swing of a sword and the stab of a kunai. Finger’s moving fast, he drove chakra into her teammates' bodies with expert precision - three to the chest, two to the shoulders, one to the abdomen. Then, ducking under a far more clumsy swipe of a blade, the boy slammed a chakra infused palm into one and his foot into another. The palm strike sent one of the Kusa-nin flying into the tree Karin was hiding behind, his head smacking into the trunk so hard she felt it reverberate through the wood.

Pale eyes met red and Karin made a noise close to a squeak, scrambling to her feet and diving her hand into her weapon’s pouch. Her clammy skin made it difficult to hold the shuriken properly and they flew off in widely different directions when she threw them. The few that did fly towards the Hyūga only made it part the way there however, there being a blur of green before the shuriken were kicked (kicked, she thought in amazed terror) out of the air. Stumbling backward, Karin fumbled for a kunai but her feet were kicked out from under her before she could grab one, sending her sprawling into the ground.

The coppery taste of blood in her mouth made her stomach turn, not helped by her suddenly blurred vision, glasses having been sent flying courtesy of the attack. She stretched her arms out for them, hands waving across the dirt in the desperate hope she’d manage to grab them. It was the feeling of a foot on her back that stopped her, not pressing down hard enough to be painful but pressing down enough to carry the threat.

Don’t. Move.

Karin slowly craned her neck to see the fuzzy image of someone with either two hideous growths or buns atop their head and the familiar shine of a blade. She swallowed thickly, turning her head back around fast. Her fingernails dragged through the dirt to squeeze her hands into tight fists.

“Tell us what you know about the exit.” The voice was calm and steady.

Her teammate, Shigeri’s, was not. “F-fuck you!”

“You do realize the situation you’re in, right?” A feminine voice drawled from the person keeping Karin pressed into the ground. “Both your teammate’s are imobilized and you’re not exactly doing well yourself. It would be easy to take you all out.”

Karin bit her lip hard to stop herself from making a noise of panic at the easily spoken threat. Tell them, she wanted to scream at the boy but the words stuck in her throat, choking her. She could feel every groove of the sandal pushed against her back in painful detail and the phantom sting of the kunai tip in her neck despite the weapon hovering well away. Tell them.

“Well? Do you want to walk away from this or not?”

Shigire’s hesitation was excruciating.

Tell them.

Tell them, tell them, tell them, tell them, tell them.

“....Fine.” Relief made Karin’s whole body go limp and her cheek pressed into the ground as she exhaled shakily. Her eyes squeezed shut and for a moment she could almost pretend that this wasn’t all happening, that she was lying in her uncomfortable bed instead, safe within the walls of her home with Konoha a thousand miles away. But the lie was less comforting than she’d hoped as home had long since ceased to be the safe haven it was once so she opened her eyes again.

To the blurred sight of Shigire being knocked into the ground unconscious.

This time she couldn’t stop the terrified noise that left her mouth, the gasp coming out muffled against the ground. A sudden fit of panic made her struggle fiercely against the foot pressing her down, terror forcing her to move. To her surprise, she somehow managed to break free and Karin stumbled to her feet, breathing haggard. I’ve-I’ve got to get away!

She only made it three paces before a familiar blur of green settled in front of her. A strangled cry left her lips, almost falling backwards in shock. “Forgive me for this,” was the last thing she heard before something slammed into the back of her neck.

Lee crouched in front of the unconscious redhead, the girl tied to the tree alongside her teammates. “Lee, come on already!” Tenten called to the boy, Neji and her waiting on a tree branch with varying degrees of patience.

“Just a moment please!” Carefully, Lee slid the pair of brown rimmed glasses onto the Kusa-nin’s face, stepping back to check he’d put them on correctly. Neji’s disbelieving scoff was loud but the boy didn’t seem to notice, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. Then, with a self-satisfied nod and grin, Lee turned on his heel and jumped away.