🌀 I like to imagine it all starts with Naruto using his newfound proficiency in seals to take the one on Neji's forehead off.
🌀 He already gave Neji the courage and means to choose his own path during their first confrontation at the chunin exams, but for him to come back from training with Jiraiya and to immediately think of him? To come to him, to work so hard to remove the stain on his skin that's weighed him down like an anchor and caged him like a bird?
🌀 He would give Neji the freedom to choose, and Neji would choose him. Because this came out of nowhere, and now he's afloat with nothing to grab onto. Blindsided, but more than happy to grasp what's closest to him.
🌀 Neji devoting himself to Naruto as a new path to follow. Naruto gave him the realization of what he'd always thought was an impossible dream, and Neji can see him so clearly now. Neji sees, and he wants.
🌀 For the first time in his life, Neji has the freedom to take. To do whatever he wants. So, he does.
🌀 Naruto's kindness and goodness is astonishing. The depth of his will to help others is so noble and selfless he can barely believe it's real. The village despises him, but Naruto loves it and the people in it despite that. In a way, Naruto is in a cage too, but he doesn't let it define or stop him.
🌀 Neji's curiosity very quickly turns to obsession. Naruto's got a smile unlike any other, and eyes that sparkle like the ocean when he's happy. He's enthusiastic, and energetic, and somehow the freest person Neji knows despite his circumstances.
🌀 Golden hair and sunlit skin. Cousin like cousin, he'd start to follow Naruto. Using his Byakugan to find him and observe from a distance, learning everything there was to know about him.
🌀 He's interesting to watch. It's enamoring to see him in action and to realize just how deep he truly is as a person. For as immature and childish as he can be, there is a depth to him that few have. Neji wants to peel back all the layers and see it all.
🌀 Naruto, being a natural sensor, picks up on him. Instead of reacting badly like Neji expected him to, he beams like a sun ray. He invites him closer, includes him effortlessly, like there's nothing he'd like to do more. He treats Neji warmly, like they've been friends for years.
🌀 And maybe they have been, and Neji simply never realized it until now.
🌀 Naruto would be so touchy. Neji has never let anyone close, but he can't help it now. He slinks into Naruto's space knowing how clingy Naruto is, taking advantage of it, letting them grow closer and closer together until the gap between them is nigh imperceptible.
🌀 He'd start to notice the small of Naruto's back, and how it arched under pressure. The delicate blonde of his eyelashes, the allure of his eyes and lips. His obsession with him and his ideals, his future, would deepen until Neji desired it all.
🌀 He'd follow him everywhere. To the point that he stops going home to the Hyuga compound at all, always a step behind him. And Naruto would never really question it, simply accept it as being how it is and welcoming him effortlessly.
🌀 Neji stalking after him like this second shadow, always listening with rapt attention. Soon, it would be commonplace to see Naruto dragging Neji along by the arm, yammering away while Neji answered in slow, low tones.
🌀 The first time Neji follows him to his door at night, Naruto would just kind of squint at him and raise an eyebrow when he failed to go away. He'd step away from the door and Neji would follow silently past the threshold, and Naruto would shrug, because alright. Sure.
🌀 Neji climbing into bed next to him and curling around him. Running his hands up the knobs of his spine, snaking them under his shirt to feel every divot of his skin. Letting their chakra ting together, tapping at all the pressure points that'll help Naruto relax best.
🌀 Naruto would get the best sleep of his life and promptly decide that Neji wasn't allowed to ever leave again. Neji would have zero problems with this, of course.
🌀 Neji knowing Naruto's chakra so intimately that he could recognize it even with his kekkei genkai off. The warm buzz of it would be something he could drown in, would drown in if Naruto let him.
🌀 He'd have unwavering faith in all Naruto's dreams and pursuits, and would do his utmost to help him work towards them in any way he can. If Naruto says he'll be Hokage, he'll be Hokage. It's as simple as that.
🌀 Neji wanting to give Naruto everything because this is his new path, his new life's dedication. His new future laid out for him in blinding orange, but Neji is content because it's what he's chosen for himself, and he knows he's chosen well.
🌀 Beyond wanting to help Naruto make his dreams come true, Neji wants to give him everything else too. He wants to feed him, to help him sleep, to give him safety. He wants Naruto to have everything, and he wants to be the one to give it to him. His devotion is unshakable now that it's cemented.
🌀 The Hyuga clan disowns him when they realize the seal is gone but by then he's mostly staying with Naruto anyways. Naruto is so indignant on his behalf that he makes their living together official, and Neji feels satisfaction and glee curl in his gut.
🌀 Neji starts inserting himself into even more aspects of Naruto's life. He takes over cooking, he cleans, he runs his hands through his hair when he groggily wakes up in the morning. He massages his muscles after training, and insists on helping him wash his hair and back.
🌀 Naruto wakes up with morning wood, as teenage boys do, and Neji insists on helping with that too. He wants to give Naruto literally everything. Pleasure included. He lets his hands snake down and Naruto is too flustered to do anything but hold on and bury his face in his chest out of embarrassment.
🌀 Service top Neji with a praise kink a mile wide who practically breaks apart when Naruto tells him how good it feels.
🌀 Neji being able to see Naruto's chakra and memorizing every single unique branch, tattooing them on his body and across his back as a show of dedication. Replacing the Hyuga Clan's brand with one of his own.
🌀 I can see him being wild about wanting to carry Naruto places. He'd insist Naruto perch on one of his shoulders or get scooped into his arms every two seconds.
🌀 If Naruto gets hurt all bets are off. Even though he heals fast, Neji doesn't care. He's handling it all. He's making homemade soup, he's fretting over the injury, he's changing the bandages every hour and cooing over him
🌀 Naruto has never had someone worry over him or take care of him and has no idea how to react. He just looks at Neji with big, hesitant eyes and asks him if he's sure about this. Like yeah, obviously he's sure. He's so sure he tattooed your chakra pathways on his body, not that you know that.
🌀 Naruto would loveeee his hair. Braiding it, fiddling with it, helping wash it. He'd get so distracted just running his fingers through it and marveling at how soft it was.
🌀 Neji doing literally anything Naruto says, often without question. He says stop, he stops. He says sit, he sits. He says harder or again, he goes harder or again.
🌀 Basically incredibly devout Neji and Naruto who is semi clueless to how deep that devotion runs.
