Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/ works/430183. Rating: Explicit Archive Warning: Underage Category: M/M Fandom: Naruto Relationship: Hyuuga_Neji/Might_Guy Character: Hyuuga_Neji, Might_Guy Additional Tags: Triggers, Spanking, Dubious_Consent, Jealousy Stats: Published: 2012-06-10 Words: 2678 ****** Transparent ****** by orphan_account Summary This is ridiculous, Neji thought, what is he going to do? Punch me and then hug me and apologize afterwards? Kink meme fill for the prompt Gai/Neji, spanking. The training grounds were doused in the warm orange light of sunset already, but Neji was nowhere near finished with his training. Tenten had left him standing on the torn up lawn thirty minutes ago with all her weapons summoned back into her scrolls and an apologetic look in her eyes. She didn’t need to say it aloud; they both knew why their sensei hadn’t come.   Gai -sensei was too busy sitting in that hospital room, watching over his precious shattered reflection.   It’s just narcissism, Neji thought, that’s all it is. He didn’t really need the training anyway, certainly not to defeat that loser Uzumaki Naruto. Two weeks left to the final matches and he had nothing to fear. At least not from his first opponent.   In fact, Naruto was so pathetic that even his sensei had left him behind to train the far more promising Uchiha. That was what the people in the village were saying anyway.   Things were different in Team Gai, their sensei cared more about drop-outs than geniuses.   Neji shifted his stance and focused on his target. Without a human sparring partner he would have to make do with the wooden training posts, but what did it matter?   He inhaled, molded the flow of his chakra into his palms and prepared to strike. Behind him,  he heard the sudden whooshof displaced air. His sensei’s form, defined by the light blue flow of his chakra, appeared in his byakugan’s field of vision.   He ignored it.   With a sharp thrust he almost slammed his right hand into the post in front of him, stopping the movement abruptly before his skin so much as touched its surface, his chakra ripping out and tearing into the wood viciously.   Only then he willed his eyes to relax and turned around to face Gai.   His teacher was grinning broadly, left hand resting on his hip, the other extended in his dynamic thumps up. Behind the jounin the last butterflies of the day were fluttering past.   “Good job, Neji! Your skills are getting more impressive every day!” The shout was followed by  forced laughter, then Gai scratched the back of his head and added in a softer voice, “Ah, I´m sorry that I wasn’t here earlier, I went to visit Lee at the hospital after I came back from my mission, you see, and…well…” Gai trailed off.   It took Neji quite a bit of willpower to hold back a derisive snort, but somehow he managed. Keeping his eyes fixed on a spot slightly left of his sensei’s face helped.   The problem was that he could see right through the older man, anyone could.  Gai-sensei had never even made an effort to conceal his unfair treatment of his students.   “I don´t care,” Neji said coldly, at least one of them had to be able to show some control over himself, after all. “Let´s spar.”   “Actually, Neji, I have thought of several exercises that—“   “No. I want you to spar with me,” he interrupted, anger and impatience winding around each other inside him, trying to force their way out. Neji squeezed his eyes shut, hissed, “Byakugan” and felt the cold pulse of chakra shoot through his veins. When he opened his eyes, everything was sharp and in focus and Gai´s chakra was an enticing blue flame, begging him to extinguish it with a brush of his fingertips.   It s not like he´s just stupid, Neji thought bitterly as a shadow of suspicion crossed his sensei’s face. It wouldn´t matter if he was an idiot, but he´s nowhere near as dumb as most people think he is. He just doesn´t care what anyone thinks. Neji was moving before he had made a conscious decision to do so, running towards his sensei and striking at him with all his force.   Or at least at where he had been a fraction of a second before.   Gai was a streak of chakra now, Neji could see him, but he knew he couldn´t keep up with his teacher´s speed. Not yet.   Frustration boiled right under his skin, propelling him forward again. Gai wasn´t even attacking, just dodging Neji´s efforts with disgusting ease, demonstrating how far apart in skill they were.   ***   “Neji , you were really exploding with youthful determination today! I´m proud of you!” And there was Gai´s obnoxious grin, brighter even than usual when he looked at it with his byakugan activated.   Gai walked towards Neji, who had collapsed after what had seemed to him like an eternity of chasing his sensei . At least he knew that it must have been more than only a few minutes, because it was dark now, the black night sky glittering with stars, which were outshined only by Gai-sensei´s annoying smile. Neji could bear the injury – his ribs were aching where his sensei’s fist had brushed him in something that Gai would probably consider nothing more than a loving caress – but the insult was eating at him.   Apparently oblivious to his student’s displeasure, Gai bent down and offered Neji a hand to help him up.   It was simply too much.   That smile, the gleam in his eyes, the hypocrisy! Every day Gai walked into that hospital room, hovering over Lee´s broken body – defunct even before he had lost against Gaara – and whispered lies into his ears, breeding false hope.   All of that, despite the fact that they had been standing almost in this same spot a few weeks ago, when he had made Neji promise that he would accept his place, his fate.   Oh, he hadn’t used those words – instead he had talked around the whole topic pompously and theatrically in his usual infuriating manner – but Neji had understood anyway.   What he didn’t understand was why his sensei was so ready to believe that the rules he had enforced on Neji himself −first with that promise and later with his own hands holding back his student – didn’t apply to Lee, or, Neji was starting to suspect, Uzumaki Naruto.   He wanted to wipe the patronizing expression off Gai’s face, just like he had wanted to eradicate that look full of pity from Hinata’s during the preliminaries. This time, there wasn’t much distance between him and his target, so his rage was more than enough fuel for the few movements needed.   Neji pushed himself up fast and gracelessly, the fingers of his left hand digging deep into the earth, while he ducked past his teacher’s stupid gesture of camaraderie to land his first hit on Gai’s unprotected side, blocking the flow of the older man’s chakra and −judging from Gai’s sudden change of expression − causing him quite a bit of pain in the process.   And somehow this had been what Neji had needed to relieve some of his inner tension; he could feel the veins around his eyes smoothing as he released a long breath. He was almost a little ashamed of the sheer satisfaction he derived from the look of shock and hurt in his sensei’s eyes.   Gai’s left leg had given way beneath him; now he was half kneeling on the grass, rubbing his sore side. As usual, though, he recovered quickly. It wasn’t easy to tell in the dim light, but Neji thought he could pinpoint the exact moment when Gai forced his emotions back and covered them with an expression of mild surprise.   “Ah, I see!” Gai exclaimed, his general cheerfulness seemingly restored, “Our hot-blooded sparring session has ignited your passion to the point where you lost control over yourself for a moment, it’s bound to happen when one is in the springtime of one’s youth, right Neji?”   Neji wasn’t listening anymore, however. During Gai’s speech he hadn’t met his teacher’s eye once; instead he had focused on the task of wiping stray blades of grass and clumps of dirt off his shorts with sharp, impatient movements.   “If we’re done, I’ll be going,” Neji said and turned to leave without waiting for a reply. He wasn’t in the mood for any more of his sensei’s meaningless prattle tonight.   “Neji,” Gai called after him, “I understand that you didn’t behave in such an unsportsmanlike manner on purpose, but don’t you think you should at least have the decency to apologize to your sensei?”   For a second, Neji froze in his tracks, but the prospect of having to turn around, walk back, and formally apologize to Gai right then…  No, he wouldn’t, couldn’t do it. Wordlessly, Neji went on.   Only to bump face first into something hard, warm and smooth like spandex. The metal clasps of Gai’s open vest brushed his cheek and confirmed his horrible suspicion. Neji jerked back so violently that he might have fallen over backwards had his teacher not grabbed his shoulders to steady him.   His teacher, who had been a few meters behind him less than a second ago, down on one knee and holding his side.Neji hated that Gai could still reduce him to this state of utter disbelief, of awe, really. He had seen it happen so many times already and yet, all he could think in that first moment of shock – and it was still shock – was How?! He had seen men die with that same question written all over their faces.   “Neji,” Gai-sensei said, his voice softer now. “You’re acting in a very disrespectful manner. Why won’t you apologize to me?” The hands on Neji’s shoulders started to feel less like they were holding him up and more like they were holding him in place. Gai was trying to search his eyes, but Neji kept avoiding his teacher’s gaze.   “You’ve never shown me much respect, but I always thought that that was because of your upbringing and decided to let it go as long as you followed my orders. I never thought that you needed or wanted the kind of student-teacher relationship I have with Lee, but you’re going too far, Neji, and if you don’t apologize I will have to discipline you.” Gai stared at him; Neji stared back defiantly.   This is ridiculous,he thought, what is he going to do? Punch me and then hug me and apologize afterwards? “Neji…, fine, you leave me no choice!” To Neji, his teacher looked as if he wasn’t quite sure what would happen now either. After a moment, though, Gai let go of his shoulders. However, just when he thought that this stupidity was finally over and he would be able to go home now, Neji suddenly found himself plummeting forward. Gai-sensei had grabbed the back of his jacket and pulled him down hard.   “Wha—,” Neji gasped, unable to finish the word, because his stomach collided with what turned out to be his teachers leg. Gai had taken up his former position, only now Neji was draped over his knee, and his crotch was unpleasantly snug against his teacher’s thigh. He struggled to push himself up, but all he managed to achieve was friction in all the wrong places. His sensei had planted one hand on his back and was holding him down with ease, Neji couldn’t see what he was doing with his other hand, but he had a very disturbing idea of what his immediate future might hold. It didn’t help that certain parts of his anatomy had taken on a life of their own.   Neji had the distinct impression that it was too late to apologize now.   Gai-sensei cleared his throat, there was only the faintest hint of uncertainty in his voice when he declared, “I’m sorry that it has to come to this, Neji!” He paused dramatically, then went on, “but this is for your own good and – “ Wait, had there been a sob? Neji found to his own amazement that he could get even more annoyed than he already had been. “ – this will hurt me more than you!”   And then Gai-sensei’s hand came down and landed with a sharp smack – somewhat weakened by his trousers, but still rather painful – on his behind. Neji squeezed his eyes shut and bit his lip. Every time Gai struck his rear, Neji jerked forward a little, rubbing against the other’s thigh. In addition, the heat from every stinging slap hitting his butt seemed to be pulled downwards, flowing like liquid and collecting between his legs.   He was sporting a full blown erection now; he could feel it straining against his underwear, and every slap from his sensei made it that much worse. First the sudden pain, then a nanosecond later the hot friction of his erection rubbing against the fabric of his underwear and the warm pressure of Gai- sensei’s thigh. Neji dug his fingers into the ground until he could feel the dirt crawling under his fingernails. He tasted blood, in an effort to bite back the small gasps that tried to escape him.   His cheeks were burning. All four of them.   And then it was over, as quickly as it had begun. Gai simply lifted him off his knee and put him on the ground, where he apparently expected him to be able stand on his own. Neji, however, wasn’t ready to live up to those expectations quite yet; his legs felt like rubber and were supporting his weight just as well. He plopped down onto the grass and winced as his sore backside hit the ground.   When Neji looked up, Gai was towering over him – hands on his hips an uncharacteristically serious look on his face, staring him down. Neji had to pull himself together fast, but he was practically shaking with humiliation and anger. His body was betraying him.   Even though he kept his eyes cast down, he could still feel his sensei’s intense gaze burning into his back. Worst of all, his arousal was not dying down, his blood rushing in his ears, rhythmic like waves crashing against cliffs.   At least the darkness was covering him. Only a narrow stretch of moonlight reached the forest-enclosed training ground, and – of course – Gai-sensei was standing in the light, casting a long shadow over Neji.   “You acted like a child, so I had to punish you like a child,” Gai said sternly.  Neji chose to ignore his teacher’s surprisingly cool tone. He refused to look up. He wasn’t a child, hadn’t been one since the day his uncle marched him into that stark, grey room by to see his father’s body before it was shipped off. When he touched his father’s white, white hand it was so cold, so stiff, not like his father’s hand at all. A corpse’s hand.   His throat tightened at the memory. Even if he threw that at Gai, his teacher wouldn’t understand; all he would have to offer was pity and Neji couldn’t stand being pitied. The soft murmurs when he walked past certain members of the clan, the way they shook their heads. That poor boy, they said, such a brave boy.  Like his father. Gathering what was left of his dignity, Neji got up. He turned away from Gai deliberately, waited for another reaction from his teacher. “Are we done now?” Sardonically, “Do I have your permission to leave yet?”  Or do you want to spank me again?  Just thinking it was enough to bring the heat back to his cheeks.   “Neji…” His name hung in the air like a hand reaching for him. Neji waited, but didn’t turn around. A light breeze was moving the leaves of the nearby trees, the sound reminiscent of predators sneaking around somewhere just out of sight. But no matter what was out there, Neji knew that few creatures were more deadly than the man on whom he had so deliberately turned his back.   Finally, Gai sighed. “You can go. We’ll resume training tomorrow morning.” He brightened a little – the fake optimism instantly set Neji’s teeth on edge. “I’m sure your youthful energy will be restored then!”   Youthful energy. Right. “Right,” Neji said with as little emotion as possible and strode into the darkness without sparing his sensei another glance. Please drop_by_the_archive_and_comment to let the author know if you enjoyed their work!