Years later, when Neji looks back on this day, what he will remember most vividly is the climb up the mountainside. Alone with his father, making the long trek to the head family's house, it comprises, in itself, all the best and the worst of being Hyuuga Neji, a son of the second son.

He will remember how he holds his father's hand as they climb the earth stairs up the hill: tightly, palm cold and slippery around his father's fingertips. A half-rotting log, mottled by slick moss, marks each step, and they are just a little too high for Neji's small legs to navigate, so he must wait until Father is able to pull him up onto the next and the next and the next.

The forest shivers in the breeze cutting up the path from the village below, green except where the pine trunks slip in straight, soldierly lines up into the canopy and the yellow katabami flowers twist out from under the blanket of fallen leaves. Like Neji, the forest is waiting for snowfall.

"How old will Hinata-sama be?" he remembers asking, when Father pauses to straighten the belt of his kimono, which keeps slipping out of its knot. Father tugs hard, making Neji huff a little as the belt tightens around his waist.

"She is a year younger than you" is the answer as Father takes him by the hand, and they start up the stairs once again. With his free fingers, Neji counts to four and then takes one away.

"Three?" he asks, holding up his fingers to show Father the results of his calculation.

Father's eyes crinkle at the edges, and he shrugs as if to say, "why ask if you are not certain you are right?"

The path gets steeper as they reach the top, and the forest thins where trees have been cut for construction. Smoky Eight-Hand shrubs scatter the ground around the path, their blossoms still rounded and a soft mauve in the uneven light. From the branches overhead, a rose finch twitters and from father away, another one answers. Neji stares at his toes, which are muddy, where they hang over his sandals.

"She didn't come to my birthday," he will remember saying, as petty and stupid and childish as it may seem, years later, when he thinks about everything that came about because of this day.

And he will remember that Father doesn't answer immediately and when he does, all he says is "No. She didn't."