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marmeladovnas · 14 days

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How do you think the relationship between Neji and Hinayana should have developed? Unfortunately, Hyuga clan didn’t get much screen time in Part 2. I’m curious how they gradually got closer and care for each other. It’s a great loss this part was almost ignored in the manga. I think it’s very important to the character development of both Hinata and Neji. Happy to hear any headcanon!

Thank you so much for the ask, I really appreciate it! ♥ Sorry for the late reply, real life will do that, and sorry that this got, ah, long.

I'm torn on the subject because Kishimoto kept the focus on Naruto and Sasuke for good reason and there's only so much he could have fit in of other character's lives -- but at the same time if Hinata was going to end up so important and Neji our beloved martyr, it would have been nice to see them get more to do.

At least the anime's love of Hinata means we tend to get a lot more about their relationship, which is nice, even if I don't always agree with what they do. Boruto's time travel arc provided some interesting stuff:

Fascinating! They imagine that even in their recovering relationship, Neji is still acutely aware of his place in her life -- does he fear some kind of retribution for seeming too chummy with her, or does he fear that it will further drag down her reputation in the clan? As he goes on to explain to Boruto: NEJI: I belong to the branch family, so she is like my lord. BORUTO: But she calls you big brother. NEJI: We were raised together as siblings. I've told her not to call me that ... but Lady Hinata does not listen.

Hinata is very polite. She uses honorifics for everyone, and it's not sarcastic -- unlike Neji, whose use of '-sama' is contrasted with his lack of polite speech for her. Superficially, Hinata is being polite yet familiar, while Neji is rude and uses the honorific out of obligation. Yet I think Neji is also trying to create distance between them which Hinata is trying to counter, so in a way Hinata is crossing a boundary. Which is interesting! For a terminally anxious girl, Hinata can be surprisingly bold about taking the first step: she approaches Naruto in the chūnin exams, she jumps in front of Pain and confesses her love, and it seems with Neji, she even tried to keep reaching out to him despite his cruelty.

Hinata seems lonely in a familial sense. She's been virtually disowned, Hanabi is (in the anime very explicitly) her rival, her mother doesn't seem to be around ... I imagine she spends a lot of time trying to make connections, and Neji is an immediate family member who happens to be her peer, so naturally she seeks a relationship with him, especially because they had a good start. When you think about how simple and sweet their relationship when they first met was, it's very sad to think it was torn from them -- they were both left lonelier for the loss of it.

There's an added layer where you can also read some guilt or even pity in Hinata's response to him -- how much she knew about the Hyūga Affair is ambiguous, but she is aware of Neji's suffering in the clan because of his subordinate position.

Interestingly, she prefaces this with "I can see it now ... that even more than me ..." which also suggests to me that Hinata was very wrapped up in her own problems and Neji has probably settled for a few jabs and walking off in the past so she hasn't been exposed to the depths of his feeling. I've said it before, but I think they were basically strangers at this point in time.

Once those lines of communication were finally opened, they probably found the things they have in common, and went forward from there. A sense of solidarity would be core to their relationship, and of course we're told that their mutual acknowledgement of each other basically fixed the clan. Which is a powerful thing! They've both been hurt and effectively pit against each other, and only by healing that relationship and themselves can they heal their clan.

Now, when it comes to Neji's side of things, his feelings are a lot more complicated! Undoubtedly there's an extreme level of resentment when we first see them together -- the "I hate seeing you happy" kind -- but at the same time, his backhanded compliments are only insults in the cynical ninja world.

It's condescending and disrespectful, but he doesn't see Hinata as a bad person, just a useless one. If anything, you get the sense that Neji would like these traits in a person -- even admire them -- if he hadn't been left so jaded. We can see this from how much Neji liked Hinata when they first met, and it speaks to his own natural sweetness and light that all his trauma tried to steal from him. Which is certainly a theme of Naruto, of course, but it never stops making me sad.

In the most perfect of happy AUs Neji probably just ends up a more outgoing (if still refined) version of Hinata lmao. They really are meant to be two sides of the same coin.

When their relationship goes forward from this, the anime shows Neji training Hinata, and it's not hard to draw that conclusion from Neji and Hinata's ease fighting next to each other in the war. I think once Neji acknowledged Naruto's determination he also acknowledged hers, and can see him trying to give her the skills to match her willpower. I like to think he played a part in her growing confidence by showing faith in her abilities. I also think he probably practised being gentle with her. He hadn't let himself be that in a long time.

My main sticking point with the anime and a lot of fandom interpretation is this idea that Neji defaulted back to this 'Must protect Hinata-sama!' overprotective big brother mode (which I think is a disservice to him) or that they became besties. They're both gainfully employed child soldiers so they're plenty busy, Neji outranked her professionally while she continued to outrank him socially, they have other friends, and so forth. I'm sure they were amicable -- and fairly close -- but their lives had diverged a lot by the point that they reconciled.

Maybe with more time, and peace changing the dynamic of the world, and their clan (presumably) changing (officially) also, they would have gotten very close, but as it was, well ...

Ultimately, for me, I find their relationship rather sad, as it will always be coloured by Neji's sacrifice. While I think it had more to do with Naruto than Hinata, she was still a factor, and so you can't escape the implication that Neji did what he was 'meant to.' It sets the tone for their whole relationship. Like, he will always be marked. He is marked until he dies. It's why it doesn't matter if Neji ever actually experienced the seal first hand: the fact that it exists is a perpetual boot to his neck, and is a violence unto itself. Did Hinata know how to activate the seal? Can Neji ever forget their power imbalance? Am I supposed to believe that on that battlefield, it never once crossed Neji's mind that he may be called on to protect her with his life?

The idea of someone feeling -- grateful, complacent, loving -- toward someone who owns them, owns their life, is hard to swallow. It will downright choke you once you remember that his life is ultimately forfeit to her. Like, I love Hinata. I don't think she's a bad person, or that she'd ever abuse the power she has over Neji. I genuinely love their relationship ... but they're meant to parallel their fathers, and when Hizashi comes back, he hits with us a classic:

Hizashi chose to die with love in his heart, and he comes back like 'Oh boy check out this cosmic punishment for forgetting my place.' So, uh, yeah, when Neji pulls the exact same thing about 6 hours later, don't we naturally parallel them and assume that even telling yourself you're doing something out of love doesn't change your crushing sense of servitude? Or, as I once wrote into a fic:

“That’s not freedom, Neji. That’s -- putting pillows in your cage.”

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I really, really wish that Hinata had not been in the line of fire. She and Naruto could have just as easily bonded over Neji's rapidly cooling corpse without her having been in danger. All it does is reinforce the hierarchy between them, which in turn can make it hard to see Neji being nice to her.

If I remove myself from the meta narrative, however, I will say that relationships are complex, even along hierarchical lines, and while Neji doesn't owe Hinata anything, I wouldn't want him to continue burning with resentment. You don't have to be complacent, but perpetual anger is exhausting. Thus, it's good they managed to repair their relationship, and find a little bit of the children they used to be together again.

TL;DR;JUST ANSWER THE QUESTION THAT WAS POSED: I think that a sense of solidarity and commonality, and training, brought them closer together over the years. I believe they are, at their cores, very similar people so they got along well, even if they weren't the very best of friends due to circumstance.

TL;DR;THE WHOLE ESSAY: I love them both and believe they loved each other, but if I think too hard about the meta narrative I want to chew my own leg off like it's stuck in a bear trap ... but don't get me wrong, I love how inherently complicated and deep their relationship is because of it. There's a lot to work with there!

#this is so perfectly written #when a media analysis is so good you could cry #thank you op #their relationship but most importantly the wasted potential of it #as well as the potential of them as individuals #will forever haunt me #the decision to kill neji will never sit well with me especially since the hyuga clan was completely sidelined after his death #they tell us things but don't show us #how i wish we could've seen their relationship AFTER they got rid of the seal #because as you said they loved each other #even before neji got the seal #but love is unfortunately not enough. love doesn't make him free #it's not something hinata wanted even if it was attached to her regardless #but it's impossible for it not to weigh down on their relationship and dynamic

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