Chapter 3
"How could you do that?" Hanabi exclaimed, standing up from her position on the ground. She had a distressed look on her face, and ran her right hand through her hair. Her pale eyes were furrowed as she looked at her sister. Hinata still sat, with a calm expression on her face. The increasingly darkening sky seemed to make her more shadow like; her pale skin gave her a ghostly hue. She only smiled up at her sister.
"Otou-san asked me the same thing after that meeting." Hinata said, a little bit of sadness in her voice. She had a faraway look on her face. She sighed and stood up from the ground. She was still taller than her sister; Hanabi had to look up to see her face. Hinata looked at her younger sister; her face was serious, but gradually melded towards a smile.
"I couldn't let my cute little sister have such a fate." She smiled and ruffled her sister's hair. Hanabi's eyes widened.
"No one deserves the fate of those in the Branch House. None of them. And being in the Main House is selfish. We are all humans, and humans always seek to become stronger, more powerful." Hinata said as she dropped her hand to her sister's shoulder.
"To think, both you and I have the power to wipe out every single member of the Branch Family. At a mere stare from us, most of our family could be dead. No one deserves that kind of power." Hinata continued on, "It's scary Hanabi-chan. And Otou-san was scared senseless that one of his daughters would be shackled to the same fate that the Branch Family, on the whim of a couple of archaic fools." Hanabi looked up at her sister.
"But you don't have the curse seal on your head." She stated, covering her arms to keep her warm.
Hinata's eyes grew sad again.
Hiashi watched her from afar. In just a couple of days, it would be a New Moon, and one of his eldest would be bound to the fate of those in the Branch House. He had never seen his eldest so headstrong. After she had proclaimed that she would take Hanabi's place as a Branch House member, all the elders were in an uproar. She was next in line. She shouldn't be placed with the Branch Family. But she had shown how headstrong and how downright stubborn she could be. And they had finally relented. He remembered her gentle words after she had won her argument.
"Please do not think any less of Hanabi. It is my choice to take her place. She will make an astute leader of our clan. It is her rightful place to be leader."
He felt as if he hadn't done her justice before. When she was younger, she would always take so long to learn new jutsus. Her footwork was appalling and she lacked any confidence in herself. She never thought right under pressure and most often, her strategies would fail. He had thought she had failed him as a daughter.
But now he understood. He had failed her as a father.
He had failed her so badly. He had treated Hinata as the experiment daughter. Everything he had done wrong with her, he swore he would not do the same to Hanabi. And Hanabi performed excellently. She exceeded his expectations, unlike Hinata. Hiashi had entrusted Kurenai-san with the teaching of his eldest, while he focussed on his little child prodigy.
And he realised now, as he watched her training with Neji at their world renowned 'Gentle Fist' style, that he had missed out. Hinata was an amazing child, bright and honest, and she cared so much for her family.
A pain struck him hard near his heart.
"Tsukiko…"he uttered under his breath.
She was just like her.
Hiashi watched as his eldest continued to train with Neji. Her movements were swift yet graceful. She moved in time, and her footwork was excellent. Very much like his late wife. She even looked like her. She had grown up like her and he hadn't even realised it.
He saw that both she and Neji had stopped their sparring. Both were now working their way through the large tree stumps, cutting their way through the thick wood. They both worked with incredible speed and strength. He heard his daughter give a bright laugh.
"Last one to break through this wood has to pay for dinner tonight." She laughed. She caught the small smirk on Neji's face and both battled their way through the stump.
Hiashi found a small smile come to his face, quickly replaced by a frown. He caught sight of a genin team coming towards their home. Carrying a sword. Hinata had requested a sword. Hiashi hadn't known she was interested in swordsmanship at all, but she had requested it for when she would become a member of the branch family.
Truth be told, she was really nervous. And very scared. She had paced about the room, wearing the black clothing. A headband and bandages lay on her bed for after the 'ceremony.' She sighed and tried to calm herself down. She closed her eyes, taking deep breaths. She felt herself ease a little. With a sigh, she opened her eyes and walked to her desk. There lay two photos. One of her family. That had seemed like such a long time ago. Hanabi had just been a baby back then and both parents looked proud at the young daughter. But she loved this photo. For despite her mother holding Hanabi closely, she still had an arm around her.
She felt like one of the family in that photo.
The other photo was of her team. The team that she considered close enough to be her new family when her mother had died. She had to laugh as Kiba had his wolfish grin and she had to admit, it wasn't dissimilar to Akamaru's. Most of Shino's face had been covered by his jacket, but despite that, he still seemed to give off a warm and pleasant aura. Kurenai was smiling and looked very proud of the group. And Hinata stood in the centre, between her team mates. She had felt like she belonged then.
"What would you think of me now?" She whispered to the photos.
A knock on her door startled her out of her reverie.
"Come in!" she called.
The door slid open to reveal Neji. He looked so serious, and she knew that it must have been time to go. She only nodded, and made sure all her clothes were neat and that her equipment was fastened to her securely.
She stepped out the door and walked with him down the corridor and out the door. The sky was dark and there was no wind blowing. It was a warm night.
"Ne…Neji-niisan." Hinata started as they stepped out.
"Nani?" He asked, still looking ahead of him.
"Does it hurt?" She asked, her eyes up in the sky. The moon showing its shadowed side fully to them. Neji glanced at her. He had been really young when he had the curse seal put on him. In truth, he thinks they may have spared him a little bit of the pain with some medical jutsu. But he could still feel the burning pain, the curse running through the motorway of nerves around your body. He looked up at the dark sky.
"Iie…"He didn't want her to have the curse seal. But he had no power over the decision. He still found it hard to believe that she was doing this out of her own free will, to free her little sister from the same fate. He fully respected his younger cousin, she had a heart as big as any of the Hokage's of the village. She was truly brave. But he didn't want her to worry.
She turned to look at him. His gaze was on the sky too. She then smiled. 'Arigato…Neji-niisan.' She thought.
The both approached the clearing where the ceremony was to take place. Members of the Branch family could be seen around about the edges. Their eyes looked solemnly at the young Hyuuga, about to have her fate sealed with this curse. Neji turned to stand with them, but not before shooting her a rare hopeful smile.
The elders stood in a circle, awaiting Hinata. And right in the very centre stood her father.
"Otou-san?" Hinata asked, surprised that he would be here.
His eyes looked sombre, his whole countenance showed how utterly distressed and depressed he was to witness this. She slowly walked up to him. Despite her growth physically and mentally, she still only reached to his shoulder height-wise. Looking at his face, she frowned.
"Please don't look at me like that Otou-san. If I was given this chance again, I'd do this all over again." She said. She let a small smile form on her face. "Hanabi-chan may have stolen your affection for me, and I don't blame her or you for it. I want her to succeed every much as you want her to, and if she can get through without this procedure, then I will be at my happiest." She smiled again.
Her eyes widened a little, a surprised expression coming to her face as she felt he father embrace her. How long had it been since she had last been embraced by him? Before her mother had died?
"Gomen nasai…Hinata-chan." She heard him mutter. Her eyes widened again. He hadn't called her that since before Hanabi was born.
"I couldn't stop this. I tried to join the families as one. I wished…I hoped that I could have succeeded before this." He said so that only she could hear.
Hanabi saw her sisters eyes
become clouded and foggy, and small tears start to form in here eyes. She shook
her head and wiped them away. Hinata's face showed so much sadness and yearning
for their father. Hinata looked up at her sister's eyes.
"But it seemed that the Cloud Country will forever hold a grudge against our family." Hinata frowned at the memory.
"As you know. When our uncle Hizashi-san died, the curse seal disappeared, and his Byakugan abilities were sealed within him. The Cloud Country was particularly angry that we had tricked them and since then, we've forever had attacks on the family. But they seemed to have discovered that with death, the Byakugan still remained a secret. On the night of my initiation into the Branch Family, Cloud-nins were hidden, waiting to kidnap me." Hinata remembered.
She looked up at the night sky. Not a single cloud could be seen and she smiled.
"And on that same night, Otou-san fought for the clan."
Hanabi saw the distant look on her sister's face. Every now and then there would be a twinge on her face. As if she was reliving that night in her head. She turned to face her, her pale milky eyes peering right into her.
"It became clear to the Cloud-nins that they wouldn't be able to grab me. So they ambushed our group, and tried to grab anyone within their reach." Hinata said, her eyes had a proud and wondrous gleam to them. "And that was when Otou-san was at his strongest as the Head of the House." Hinata's eyes once again took a distant look.
"Otou-san died because he used a forbidden jutsu to save our clan."
Hanabi remembered it only too well. The Forbidden Kaiten. A jutsu used to protect every member of the clan no matter how far away they were – even she had been protected, though she had been in the Sand Country. A normal Kaiten only required chakra. But this one required you to put your very soul into it. She looked at her sister, who seemed to be looking right into her own soul.
"The foundation of a shinobi's strength is the people that they love. And to protect them with your life is what it means to be the Head of this clan, and what it means to truly be strong." Hinata said directly to her.
Hanabi gazed at the ground, her hair hung loosely around her, hiding her face from view. She couldn't help but feel ashamed of her behaviour, but right there and then, she understood why her father's dying wish had been for Hinata to become the Head of the clan. She truly had been blinded. All these long years, she had tried to become and remain stronger than her sister. But she understood now. Hinata was always stronger than her. She looked up when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
Hinata gave her a small smile.
"Otou-san wanted us to be happy Hanabi-chan. He didn't want the Head Family. Or the Branch Family. He just wanted Hyuuga. The way it should always have been, and that is my objective as the Head of the family now. To unite the families."
Hanabi only nodded.
"But until then, let's spar." She grinned. Hanabi snapped her eyes wide open. Hinata laughed at the surprised look on her younger sister's face. Taking advantage of her shock, she swiped her leg, causing her sister to land roughly backwards.
"Really Hanabi-chan…as the pride and joy of the Hyuuga clan, I'd have thought you'd be stronger." She winked at her sister and stuck her tongue out her in a childish way. Hanabi smirked, and rose to the bait.
The End.
A/N: A thousand apologies for such a long delay. This chapter was hard to write and I re-wrote it several times and this is really the best that I could get it at. I also got buried in some homework so that gave me less time to write.
I really wanted a light-hearted ending. This story is so sombre already. XD
Also...I'm sorry if all the italics made your eyes go all funky. But I don't like the whole FLASHBACK banners used in fanfics.
Many thanks to all who reviewed. You guys rock – hands you all a cookie! You really made my day with your reviews and they encouraged me a great deal. I'm sorry for all those who desperately wanted some NaruHina. I'm not the greatest at fluffy romantic things and when we have conflicting personalities like Naruto's and Hinata's. It makes it harder for me to write. Also, I couldn't really find a way to mention Naruto into this fic as the bulk of it is mainly a flashback to that Hyuuga event. Also, I happen to prefer GaaHina for some odd reason. XDD But even so, I wouldn't have been able to put Gaara in this story, so I'd say I was fair in putting no pairings in. But if it makes you feel any better, you can pretend that Hinata is with Naruto in this story. P
Once again, thank you very much for your patience in me, and for taking time to read my little story. Any comments and criticisms for this chapter or the story as a whole will be greatly appreciated.
Until next time,
Mithua (21/3/05) -