Falling

Prologue

I am useless.

"Where is your heir, my son?"

"Right here, father."

I am an heiress but my value is zero.

"Oh, this little one here! So tell me my grandchild, how strong are you going to be? Strong enough to defeat your rusty old daddy?"

"…"

I am a misfortune.

"Hiashi… why does she not speak? Why does she cling to you instead? Is there… a deformity with her?"

"… No… father."

I am a burden.

"I see…My son… you have disappointed me... but answer me this… What use does our clan have… for a weak heir?"

"…None…"

I am the sole disgrace of the Hyuuga.

"Then you know what to do, of course."

"… Yes… father…"

I am the worst thing one could be.

Weak.

But… I am also a human being. I have feelings.

The clock struck twelve. Immediately, eyes flew open and swift little feet hopped out of bed and scurried around a room much too large for a being her size.

In a matter of minutes, the child ran through her system of complex actions and reached her destination- "The Great Big Book of Everything".

She rested on her tummy at the top of a 10-foot tall bookshelf, allowing her legs to kick back and forth ever so slowly, and with a mass amount of strength from her small arms, opened the giant, dusty old book. She flipped to page 1 and began to read.

The Byakugan is the dōjutsu kekkei genkai of the Hyūga clan. It is one of the Three Great Dōjutsu, along with the Sharingan and the Rinnegan…

She continued to read, analyzing and disecting each sentence as carefully as possible in order for her simple mind to understand.

As the minutes flew by, her knowledge grew. If she was going to get stronger, she would need it.

Suddenly, there was murmuring and shuffling. Her entire body froze. The clan was supposed to be asleep at this time, completely asleep, silent enough for a pin to be dropped and heard. Unless… something suspicious was going on.

Curiosity getting the best of the child, she placed the book mark string at her page and closed the book. Quietly, she leaped from the top shelf onto the ledge of her bathroom door. Once she attained her balance, she tiptoed across it and then hung on to the edge with her fingers, allowing her body to dangle in the air, several feet above the ground. She swung herself back and forth, aiming for a landing on her wooden table. She propelled herself forward, making a silent thud as she landed safely. It was easy sailing from there on. She climbed off the furniture and onto her chair where she then hopped to the floor.

Her feet glided across the room, arriving at a large window sill. Being her size, she couldn't see anything but wall. So she climbed up onto the window sill and slid her curtains open by just an inch. Now she could see out into the night.

For a second, she dwelled on the beauty of the skies, lit to different shades of dark blue by the moon shying behind roaming clouds. It made her smile to know that her hair looked somewhat like that. At least a part of her had a beauty to it. But as soon as the thought came, she pushed it away, soon remembering why she interrupted her studies for this. She had heard noises.

She directed her gaze downward, and her eyebrows furrowed at the strange sight. There was Akihiro and Shō, the two Hyuuga gate guards, walking towards… the guest wing? But who was visiti… There was another one. A small person, like her, moving behind Akihiro but in front of Shō. She wasn't sure from here but their hair looked bright. It was different from all the dark hues she was used to. She didn't know what to call the foreign coloring.

But there was something stranger than their hair… They were in chains… Their tiny hands were cuffed together by one shackle that hardly even fit and two more were at their feet. The feet shackles didn't fit either. They looked like two big circles around the person's feet. It looked really heavy. Maybe that was why their head was down.

Suddenly there was another clack. One of the foot shackles had hit the floor.

Shō hissed something into the person's ear. Probably reprimanding them for making noise.

She frowned out of sadness. They were the ones making the person were chains as if they were some kind of animal! It didn't even fit them! And they were so small… how could they even be expected to lift it?

They must be really strong… she thought to herself.

The small person didn't say anything. Instead, they just kept walking, trying not to make any more noise.

She felt bad for the person even though she didn't know who it was. No one deserved to be treated that bad… She'd know…

She continued to watch the three walking until she could no longer see them. She didn't know what was going on, or who that person was… but it was none of her concern since nothing bad was happening.

Quietly, she hopped off the window sill and looked upwards to the top of the bookshelf, debating whether she should go back to studying or get some sleep.

Father would be mad at her if she wasn't performing her best tomorrow… but she wanted to read some more…

She chose to go to sleep. It was either that or being disgraced even further. She crawled into her large bed and silently put the pillows she used to make a dummy back to their original position.

She closed her eyes and slept. Tomorrow would be a big day for her. Maybe she could impress her father with what she learned… or maybe even impress Neji too… That'd be great. But what about the new little person in her home? Maybe she could say hi to them… and finally have a friend… Yeah… that'd be even better…