Burning Bright

"So…" Karui said, pouring out another glass of sake. "How was work?" Firelight flickered across her chocolate brown skin as she lounged across the rug in her sweatpants and tanktop.

"Good enough." Neji shrugged, accepting the glass. He also lay on the rug, half-propped on one elbow. "I had an audience with the Raikage. Much bowing took place."

"Really? How is Darui?" Her amber eyes lit up with interest.

"Well. He remains his… placid self. I presented him with the sword Kusanagi, which Konoha nins finally recovered from Orochimaru's old base last week."

"You GAVE him that sword?" Karui sat back and studied him with an air of vague confusion. "What the heck for?"

Neji shrugged again as he raised his glass. "It originally belonged to Kumo. Kusanagi isn't even it's real name, that's just what Orochimaru titled it after he took it from the corpse of a Kumo hunter nin."

"Really? What did it used to be called?"

"Murakumo no Tsurugi. Sword of the Village of the Clustering Clouds. Not the most imaginative name, perhaps, but then, no ninja has ever been accused of being a poet."

"Not even Killer Bee," snorted Karui.

Neji eyed his wife dubiously. "How is it that I know the entire history of your own village's sword, while you have never heard of it, even in school?"

Karui shrugged and waved the accusation away. "They probably mentioned it… sometime. I just don't remember. I didn't have a lot of time for studying swords then. No…" She leaned forward, touching her nose to his, flashing a wicked grin, "…I spent all my time studying YOU."

She was possibly slightly drunk, Neji decided. "I think you mean, studying how to kill me and all my kind."

"AND gouge out your eyes. They were working on a way to counter the seal thing, y'know, so that you could take out a Branch Member's eyes and still use them." She giggled a little.

"That definitely would make my position here as ambassador more… tense," admitted Neji, smiling back at her. "If they were ever to work it out, I would lose the chief reason the Hyuuga clan allows me to remain here."

"Oh? And what makes you so sure they HAVEN'T worked it out?" asked Karui, still grinning devilishly.

Neji didn't blink. "Because I used my Byakugan to spy out the whole Raikage's Tower on my visit to the bathroom." He responded.

Karui's mouth dropped open.

It was unusual for him to surprise his unpredictable wife, and Neji rather enjoyed the expression on her face. "I wonder that your people haven't bothered figuring out new ways to block my sight." He commented drily. "Or at least that they don't bother keeping me under closer surveillance. Though I suppose it's possible they cleaned out the tower just before my arrival."

Karui shook her head in bemusement and took another sip of sake. "Maybe they've got more surveillance on you then you think."

"True. Perhaps they are spying on me in my home. Perhaps there is a spy, watching us this very instant."

"Perhaps I'M the spy." Her eyes danced with mischief. "Perhaps I just married you at the behest of my country to keep tabs on you."

"That would speak to a great devotion to your country," answered Neji gravely. Distantly, he wondered if HE was slightly drunk. It was still a somewhat… novel sensation to him.

Karui snorted with laughter. "Oh… you have NO idea. They had to beg me to do it, emphasize how war would follow and all sorts of things… they went around to all the girls in the village, but none of them cared enough about their country to marry you."

"What, were you their last choice?"

Karui's smile disappeared and she punched him in the ribs. "That's not funny."

"Really? Because I thought it was rather hilarious." He MUST be drunk, Neji decided.

"That's just cause you have no sense of humor." Karui grumbled, but her smile was coming back. "It's why no one wanted to marry you. None of the Kumo girls wanted a serious husband."

"A great fortune, then, that so many of the men in Kumo are patently ridiculous."

"HA! Oh, that's good. That's good. That's friggin' hilarious…" Karui dissolved into giggles. "Oh… wow." She put down her drink, a little unsteadily. "Whoah. Think I… I'd better lie down."

"Here, let me help," said Neji, as Karui tried to get to her feet. Her grip almost made him lose his own balance, but he regained it and helped her up. He wasn't NEARLY as drunk as she was.

"Oh…" Karui blinked as they made their way along the passageway to the bedroom. "M'ssage come in… this morning. From Konoha. Your uncle wants to see you. Says it's urgent."

"Oh?" His uncle was getting on in years, before too long he would have to appoint a new clan head to take his place.

"Oh yeah. Your cousin's getting married and there are all sorts of formalities and stuff." She leaned into him. "We goin' down there again?"

"I think we must." Neji smiled. "But this time, perhaps we should not bring your mother along with us."

"No… that didn't go so well." Karui agreed as he laid her down on the bed. "It's okay, I don't mind most of your family, they're just sort of… odd."

Neji leaned down on the bed next to her. "That is what you get for marrying an odd man."

"Or just being really odd myself." She giggled.

"Or that." Neji agreed, leaning in for a kiss.

The End

A/N: And we're done. I may have rushed this last chapter because I wanted to complete this series, but at the same time I think it works. I like the idea of Neji as diplomat, despite his former arrogance and rudeness, he'd actually be a great person for pretending to be polite to those he hated. And his intel would be killer.

It's good to be done with this story. It ended up a little longer than I thought, and a lot more deeply developed. But I really enjoyed writing for this rather unique couple, and though I never expect this to actually occur in canon, I find it a fun little AU of sorts, a pairing that theoretically might be fun. And nobody ask about the wedding Karui mentions at the end-honestly, I have no idea which cousin is getting married or who she's getting married to. I thought about exploring that, but then decided that it would distract from Karui and Neji. I didn't bring up the other pairings anywhere else in the narrative, throwing them in now would be kind of... tacky.

So fun story. In Japanese Legends, the prince Yamato-Dake renamed his sword Kusanagi or "Grasscutter" when he saved himself from a brushfire by chopping away the grass that the fire fed on. However, the sword itself came from the goddess Amaterasu, who had received it from her brother Susanoo, who had found it in the guts of a nine-headed snake (because where ELSE do you find swords? In Stones?). And HIS original name for the sword was Murakumo no Tsurugi. Or, literally, "Sword of the Village of the Clustering Clouds." Hence this out-of-nowhere reference to the sword.

Amazing the stuff you learn from comic books, right? If none of you are familiar with it, check out Usagi Yojimbo, by Stan Sakai. It's an AWESOME series with loads of Japanese mythology and folklore.