[Naruto] Upholding Traditions
Jun. 6th, 2007 04:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
runespoor1) I have a thousand comments I should reply to but my brain's dead and I'm unable to think of even one intelligent word to type in answer. I love you guys anyway. *snuggles*
2) Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance is a GC RPG that was not supposed to leech into my soul. (Also, I'm not supposed to ship Ike/Soren.) But leech and claw and seep it does.
Title: Upholding Traditions
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
runespoor7
Rating: PG-13
Summary: 'When Neji wants to show respect to Hinata, he escorts her in town to meet her team or Sakura and Ino, so they can do girly stuff and she and her team can spend buddy time, and he waits for her outside of the Hyuuga district.' Hiashi loves that, you can bet. [NejiHina]
Notes: Celebrationverse, takes place (well) before The Return.
The door slides shut, and Hiashi is left staring.
Some days Hiashi doesn't get his nephew. (Some days Hyuuga-sama doesn't understand Neji. Some days, the current – all-too-current, all-too-ephemeral – head of the Hyuuga is left wondering at the motives of a Branch house member.)
Privately Hiashi prefers to think of it as the first way. It sounds more… reassuringly normal like that. But as the situation precisely isn't quite normal, it doesn't go a long way to let Hiashi fool himself on the fact that Neji's behaviour may have more lasting repercussions than just average teenage rebellion.
Part of what makes it abnormal is that Neji's rebellion doesn't look particularly rebellious from the outside, and it certainly doesn't lend itself to outbreaks. It never did; Hiashi remembers well that his nephew taught himself Kaiten, that he called his weak cousin, Hiashi's own daughter, Hinata-sama even as he was humiliating her – or trying to kill her; both versions are palatable to Hiashi.
Part of what makes it abnormal is that Neji's breaking of the traditions could so easily be interpreted as upholding these very traditions, and that Neji goes at it in a way that leaves no doubt as to his intentions.
Hiashi never thought he'd attain such a deep, personal comprehension of the word 'passive-aggressive' before. That was before he started being confronted with Neji's special brand of – rebellion.
He'd rather just think of it as rebellion, something that might just be another phase of adolescent anger. Though if he goes by the standard of anger, then Neji has been a teenager for almost as long as he's been alive – and Neji's not so angry anymore nowadays.
The anger isn't the problem – it never was, if only because the curse seal means no Branch House member will ever pull an Itachi. Hiashi could understand the anger.
No, the problem, as it so often seems to be, is Hinata.
Hiashi has no idea what is his nephew's relationship with his cousin, but he is faintly annoyed with the way Neji chooses to squander his time.
He closes his eyes.
He has just been informed (by someone he can't help but feel slightly resentful with) that Neji and Hinata have been seen leaving the compound a few minutes ago.
Hiashi knows without needing to be told, from the times he's witnessed it himself – pure chance that he was near the main entrance at the time the three times that happened – that Neji must have been standing stiff, arms crossed, head turned slightly to the side, waiting for her. He'd have looked simultaneously brisk and ostentatiously at Hinata's disposal.
In half an hour – the time it takes for him to march her off to town and come back – Neji'll be leaning against a wall outside the district, a hundred of feet away from the entrance, so conspicuous that even in another clan he'd be noticed. The use of the Byakugan indoors, while restricted to training dojos, will ensure that no-one will be unaware of his presence before the morning is up.
Hinata won't be back before nightfall.
This isn't what irritates Hiashi.
Hinata is free to waste her time away, mostly because she hardly ever does it. Hiashi doesn't pay much attention to his elder daughter's training schedule; he has more than enough on his hands with Hanabi's and Neji's, now he's decided to train him formally – the way the boy really should have been taught from the moment they realized his potential – not to mention his duties as a head of clan.
Still, he can't afford to be oblivious of the heir's training. He occasionally sends for some Branch member to check on her. From time to time he calls for her, to test her by himself, though he hasn't done it in the three months since the last chuunin exam. She hadn't been promoted, of course.
Neither had Neji.
The need to watch over Hinata's training has been less pressing, especially with Neji's strengthening of Kaiten being at such a critical stage.
Hinata is a disappointment in many ways, but Hiashi can't fault her for slacking on her training. When she's not away on a mission, she's training, whether with her team or by herself, for longer hours than anyone else, according to one of the watchers.
It might be better if she did slack off, if she showed interest in something else, because Hinata really is a failure, and she might be better off as a medic-nin, something which would keep her far away from field missions where she'll only make an embarrassment of the Hyuuga, and with enough respectability that it wouldn't be looked upon too horribly.
From what Hiashi recalls from Hinata's school years, she wasn't entirely stupid; she might make an ending as a medic-nin. As a Hyuuga, she has some measure of chakra control, even if it cannot compare to Neji's.
Then Hiashi remembers that Hinata would crumble under the pressure.
It's a miracle she's survived as long as she has, he esteems.
Some days he's concerned that he went somewhere wrong with her. Maybe he's at a fault there. Is he lacking somehow, that his own weakness might be revealed in his eldest child and heir?
It would be easy to blame it on Hinata's mother, who conveniently died giving birth to Hanabi, but that answer fails to reassure Hiashi. There are superstitions in the Hyuuga about twins.
Of course she shouldn't take her natural mediocrity as an excuse, and Hiashi acknowledges that she fulfils that duty.
Neji's training is an entirely different matter.
There is no doubt to Hiashi – to anyone – that Neji, once he's fully grown, will be stronger than him. Stronger than most of the jounins in Konoha. Probably as strong as a Hokage. Possibly strong enough to be one.
Hiashi also knows that Neji wants to grow stronger than him. There's enough of the old anger for that.
Hiashi sympathizes with Neji's goal.
This is why it angers him that Neji chooses to throw away days of training to wait upon Hinata – who is off doing nothing more worthwhile with her time than chattering with friends.
Hiashi would pretend he wasn't aware of it if it was just a matter of spending time with the Aburame and the Inuzuka boy, because whatever else they may be, they come from solid clans, are competent ninjas, and they are her teammates. But he cannot just condone the movie-going and the ice-cream eating – anymore than he can accept the shopping or girly occupations that filled her day if she was out with her female friends instead.
It may be fine for the Yamanaka girl, who doesn't have the honour of a noble clan to uphold, and for the Hokage's apprentice, who as such is necessarily naturally gifted, but Hinata's situation is quite different.
So is Neji's.
It is his duty to train, as it is Hiashi's duty to train him.
On the days Neji takes Hinata out – or he accompanies her, Hiashi is unclear on the responsibility – he does nothing at all but lean against that wall and wait. Hiashi knows because he's checked on him more than once with the Byakugan, and because the whole clan is abuzz with puzzlement.
Sometimes someone he knows will walk past him and he might exchange a few words, or even let himself be drawn in a short conversation if the intruder is one of his teammates or refusing to let go that easily, but he doesn't step away. Hiashi cannot be one hundred percent sure of it, but he is fairly certain Neji foregoes eating as well.
Hiashi isn't entirely sure why he doesn't step out of the compound himself to order Neji back, or indeed why he doesn't send someone. In a way he'd like to, as it would be the most rational way of putting a stop to that foolish nonsense.
In another way he is vividly reminded of Hizashi's words as he said that he was willing to die for his brother.
If Hiashi looks at it like that, like Neji wants to do something for his cousin, he finds he can accept the whim.
The thing is Neji doesn't act like he's doing anything for his cousin.
He doesn't behave like a cousin. He stands there like a sort of bodyguard, and he doesn't ask Hinata how her day went when she comes back. Hiashi isn't convinced Hinata knows what Neji does with his day – nothing – because it doesn't make the girl come home any faster, and he's often wished that she showed a bit less consideration to people under her rank, no matter how unworthy she is.
That must be the second reason why Hiashi prefers to leave it at that.
He isn't sure Neji would actually obey.
Neji has never blatantly gone against straight orders before, but so far he's shown uncanny ability at disregarding implicit rules – again, as regards to Kaiten and the attempt to kill the heir of the Main House during a formal match; and, what's more, Neji makes it repeatedly clear every time he waits for Hinata, Hiashi-sama might be the head of the Hyuuga, and Neji might, as a member of the Branch House, have to obey him, Hinata is the one he belongs to.
This was how things were planned: Hinata was to be protected by her cousin, even before anyone knew what a genius he was, what a failure she'd be.
Hiashi can only blame himself for the unforeseen result of that idea. A little over one year ago, all he had to worry about was his nephew's unwavering hatred towards the whole of the Main House. It was much more straight-forward than whatever game they're playing at now.
When the sun finally sets, Hiashi stops in his paperwork.
He's been signing a maternity leave, a request for a change of shifts at the hospital and an order of a mission outside the borders of Fire Country with nothing more than a cursory glance; the last one already bears the Hokage's stamp, and the first is more 'informing him' than actually asking for his permission. He can't exactly force an abortion on the woman. As for the second, he acknowledges that Takeo has been working night shifts for over four months now, and his wife just came back from her mission.
Hiashi activates his Byakugan, and looks for Neji. The spot his nephew chooses is suspiciously close to Hiashi's office, which Hiashi supposes is another mark of disrespect, but as it allows him to keep an eye on Hinata's arrival, it does serve his purpose, in a roundabout way. That way he can stop them the moment they cross the compound's doorstep.
Chances are that's the major reason why Neji consistently picks this wall, but what can Hiashi do? Nothing, except pin them when they come back, that's what.
It isn't long before Neji's shape straightens; Hinata's silhouette is standing a few feet away. They stay immobile for a moment, barely enough for Neji to tilt his head. Then Hinata fumbles for something in her pocket and hands Neji a small pack.
They eat the dango slowly – or in any case, taking their time, which Hiashi counts as the same given the circumstances. Of course he can't know if they are speaking or if they are as silent as they look from here.
Finally they start walking towards the compound.
Hiashi stands, and doesn't bother to match their leisurely walk.
He calls their names the moment they go through the gate.
They both stop. Neji is half a step before Hinata, on her left, and his face is a study in blankness, unlike Hiashi's daughter, whose struggle not to fidget under her father's eyes is all too obvious. Of course she fails to carry his glance with dignity. Her eyes are downcast so fast Hiashi cannot even meet them.
He regards his failure of an heir for a few seconds more.
"Follow me." Hiashi's tone is a bit too curt for perfect composure. He doesn't catch Hinata's flinch, most likely because he has already his back turned on them, but he's seen it so many times that he can picture it with as much clarity as if he was watching her with the Byakugan.
There are only two pairs of steps resonating through the corridor as he leads them towards his office. The faintest thumping of Hinata's pace is, like the rest of her, almost entirely muffled. By contrast Neji's steps and his own sound proud and sharp.
When he looks back at them, once they've reached the office and the door is closed once more, effectively cutting the room from the rest of the house – privacy respected because it is the office of the head of the Hyuuga – his frustration is renewed by the contrast in their attitudes. His daughter is already twisting her hands in front of her, and Neji's stone-cold face expresses only his utter distance from the situation. Hiashi wants to grind his teeth.
Neji is the first to speak, which would be surprising if the other person wasn't Hinata, with her shoulders hunched and her meek silence; Neji usually lets others set the tone of the conversation. It is often wise for a leader to let the others make the first move, and it irks Hiashi that Neji doesn't yet have the patience to wait until Hinata's nerves betray her and she starts stammering excuses.
"You wanted to see us, Hiashi-sama?" There's an undercurrent of feigned indifference to Neji's words. Neji is good at sounding distant, especially when compared to his cousins, but Hiashi has been playing that game for much longer than him.
Hiashi sends the girl a glance. She is as still as a mouse.
Hiashi isn't sure what angers him more, that Neji isn't asserting his superiority on his cousin, or that Hinata isn't acting with the confidence befitting the heir of the Hyuuga.
He doesn't understand why Neji wastes his time on her, no more than he understands why Hinata lets herself be dragged in such situations when she hates conflicts of any kind and, even if she's too irresolute to make use of the mark, she could insure that Neji never crosses paths with her – after all, she is the heir. He doesn't understand why Neji would grant Hinata's favour, and why Hinata would ask him for anything.
Most of all, he doesn't understand why Neji is pretending he's in this with Hinata.
Neji's attitude is as unreadable as ever, heavy with feelings Hiashi can only guess at, and Hinata's is overwhelmed by nervousness.
This situation has occurred so many times over the last year that Hiashi has almost lost count. His eyes fall on Hinata, still as much of a genin as Neji is, and this is the – tenth time in three months, Hiashi realises.
Still, he is disposed to be fair.
"Did you have to spend the day in town for some reason?" he inquires. So far as he knows, she doesn't, because when she's off training Neji follows his routine, but maybe something arose – one of her group age landing in hospital, or a visit to one of her teammates' – and maybe nothing did and Neji only wanted to stir trouble.
There's a flash during which Hiashi wonders if he imagined Hinata glancing up. But her head is still bowed and her hands behind her back. She hesitates.
"N-no, Father."
Neji, Hiashi can see from the corner of his eye, stands as removed as ever.
He's standing on the same line as Hinata, but is slightly turned towards her. Their positions match none of the patterns the Hyuuga are taught. He doesn't stay a full step behind her the way he ought, Branch House to Main House; he doesn't bear himself unlike Hiashi in his role of head of the Hyuuga, but then he should be ignoring her; and his arms are crossed.
As for Hinata, her neck is obediently bent, with the sort of proper respect he would expect from his daughter, but not from the heir when she is defending herself. Which, Hiashi reminds himself, she isn't.
Slowly, her hands fold in front of her, in a movement Hiashi recalls from when she lays the tea tray. She looks like she's waiting, demure and bland.
Hiashi lets out an impatient sigh. This is hopeless. He knows it, and yet every time, he still asks…
He looks at his nephew. It's been forever since he last wished Hinata could be stronger, prouder, better, because his disappointment was at least part of the reason behind Hanabi's conception. Of course Hanabi herself isn't progressing as fast as he'd hoped, and as steady and dutiful as she is, she lacks subtlety in her attacks; sometimes Hiashi isn't sure that she grasps that which surrounds her.
He tries to soothe his concern with the consideration that Hanabi is after all only eight and a half, and that as long as she's a gifted shinobi the manners and skills of a leader can be instructed into her – and Hiashi is still young. He has time.
He can't shake the feeling that it might not suffice, that Hanabi will never be able to learn and perform such duties when he's alive – so long as there's someone to guide her she will do well enough, but he doubts that she could be the one leading the Hyuuga.
In a way he hasn't stopped thinking of her as the other one, should something happen to the heir.
When Hiashi thinks of Hanabi as the spare to the heir, he isn't thinking about his older daughter.
Neji looks like his father, looks like Hiashi himself.
Recently Hiashi found old photographs of when he was Neji's age, and he was surprised by the differences, not merely in the mannerisms, but also in their very features. Neji is leaner than Hiashi and Hizashi were, willowy; his jaw isn't as square, his eyes and brows are set differently, his nose is very much his mother's, his lips are already thinner, his cheekbones cast softer shadows.
Their body languages have little in common. Hiashi has already caught his nephew turning his head away in a manner strongly reminiscent of his sensei, and sometimes he leans forward like the Hokage does, and once Hiashi saw Neji's teammate juggling one-handed with her kunais and he was struck by the briskness of her wrist moves, and the similarity it bore to Neji's.
Neji is a genius, and seeing him standing to attention, not looking down when the head of the Hyuuga meets his eyes, Hiashi is pierced with the screaming sensation that this isn't fair.
Branch House. Neji isn't his son.
But he should be.
Such a ninja should be allowed to become head of the Hyuuga.
And, if Hiashi had anything to say about it, he would. He will, if Hiashi lives long enough to see that he's wed to Hanabi. Hanabi is eight and a half; there's still six years and a half Hiashi needs to wait. And even if Hanabi blooms the way Hiashi can only hope she will, it can't hurt her to be partnered with Neji.
Hinata most likely won't live to witness her sister's fifteenth birthday, or her ascension to the position of heir.
Hiashi wants to make Neji his heir, equal to his daughters, and that is the reason it annoys him to see Neji himself undermining his hard work.
Does he know the struggling – the quiet, subdued struggling – Hiashi had to do with the Hyuuga council to convince them he was right in overseeing Neji's training? Does he know the work still awaiting Hiashi, for which he's constantly preparing, when he'll let the Council know about his decision? Does he know that every time he leans against the wall out of the Hyuuga compound as Hinata spends her day in town, he's giving the Council newer arguments to keep him as far from the Main House as possible?
The boy doesn't want to be treated as one of the Main House.
He shouldn't be allowed to mix with the heir; how long will it be before her calling him that foolish, childish name of 'Neji-niisan' ruins his mind?
He is already acting above his position.
He isn't Main House, he simply isn't meant to deal with such hardships.
So far Hiashi has succeeded in holding them back, arguing that Neji is an asset to the greatness of the Hyuuga and of Konoha the likes of which the clan hasn't seen for generations, pointing mostly that Neji is Hinata's – bodyguard, servant, adviser, shadow – and that as such no-one is in a place to keep them apart.
The Council always falls silent at that.
As much as they dislike admitting it, Hinata is the heir – perpetually on the brink of disgrace or not – and as such standards have to be maintained.
These days Hiashi hates the Council because when they do nothing but fear the downfall Hinata is bound to bring the clan if she ever, by some monstrous misfortune, becomes the Head, or torture their mind for a way to make Hanabi the heir without passing Hinata over, because she's the elder and traditions have to be upheld and decorum has to be observed, quietly wishing the girl will die in some mission, desperately hoping Hanabi will prove an adequate leader – Hiashi himself is working for the greatness of his clan – and working to settle a score with his dead brother.
If he makes his nephew head of the Hyuuga through marriage with the daughter he isn't ashamed to say is his, then Hiashi thinks he will have repaid his debt.
And he can't do it if Neji works against him, if Neji stands by Hinata – who is a failed heir, whom no member of the Council no matter how selfishly ambitious and greedy supports, whose grasp on shinobi things is faint and dull and numb and shaky, who has no future set out before her except that of an early grave, dead girl too foolish or stubborn to turn her back on the fights, the blood and the Jyuuken which she will never master - Hinata who will drag him under if he keeps on attaching himself to her fate.
This is why Hiashi brings them to his office, of course; not to worry about Hinata, but to scold Neji back to his senses.
"Neji."
His nephew's eyebrows raise in a silent interrogation, the casualty of the move almost a challenge. Hiashi refuses to pick the bait, but his voice is almost biting.
"The trials to become a jounin wait for no one."
Something flashes in Neji's eyes, and his lips narrow. Neji has still to be officially promoted to chuunin.
"You shouldn't waste your time on trifles," Hiashi says, eyes flickering almost mechanically to the blue-black hair of his daughter's downcast head.
Hinata doesn't flinch, but her knuckles are white and her fingers twisted. Neji is the one who recoils, and for a moment he is glaring. Then his lips curve, slowly, into a positively vicious smile, and he cocks his head back and slightly to the side.
"Hinata-sama willed it so," he pronounces, detaching the words as though he is savouring them, still smirking mockingly.
It should sound as if he was denouncing her – and it is basically the case, he's blaming her for it, he's making her the sole culprit, he's implying that he was only following her orders – and Hiashi finds himself once more staring at his daughter, who is very still with her eyelids lowered and the strangest, faintest waver of a smile on her lips, though he knows, better than anyone, that Hinata does not give orders, that she's unfit for command, that she'd never try and land anyone into trouble and that she lacks the authority to be obeyed at all.
It shouldn't feel as though, by throwing her at Hiashi's mercy, Neji is taking her side.
Hiashi doesn't look away so swiftly that he can pretend he failed to get Neji's point.
I only take my orders from her.
Neji's smugness is palpable, and at that moment Hiashi hates him for working against him, and he hates Hinata for being the cause Neji chose to support.
When he dismisses them, voice even terser than before, he doesn't look to see which one opens and closes the door, knowing that no matter the combination it will upset him.
*
Years later, when the war has already been raging for almost a year and when he has already lost his younger daughter, Hiashi has a vivid flashback to those days, as he hears the messenger who has come to tell him that his oldest daughter has been killed.
He is standing still in the middle of the Hyuuga compound, staying in Konoha according to the Hokage's orders, as a head of clan and ready to protect the village to the death should all other shields fail, when he learns that in Grass Country where Hinata was accomplishing her role along with three dozens of Konoha ninjas, a possible ally was attacked by the Sound. There are only ashes left.
The Hyuuga clan has lost its last heir, and, Hiashi acknowledges, he has lost his role with it.
Eerie calm seeping through his veins, he strides to his office, paying no attention to the rush around him and giving absent-minded instructions. It takes him very little time to mark his last formal command as the Head of Hyuuga down. He hesitates less than a moment before leaving it there, in plain view.
He's never felt the absence of his protective shadow more keenly than now, and as he briskly makes his way towards the limits of the Hyuuga district, he repeats his order to all those who accost him, with a voice steady and far-reaching. He has no idea how many times he says it, or to whom.
Then he's out of Konoha, dashing through the forest as he hasn't done for years, going as far from the village as he can because no matter what he's still a Head of Clan and as such he understands responsibilities. If anyone is following – and he hopes they aren't, but he knows some will – it will be too late; in such cases people always need a few moments to wrap their mind around the reality of the fact.
The last heir of the Hyuuga is dead, and Hiashi has a score to settle with his brother.
Tomorrow, if his instructions are followed – and why wouldn't they be? Protection of the Byakugan is a priority – Neji will wake up Head of the Hyuuga clan, urgently recalled from his position on the front lines.
What difference is there between Main and Branch House if everyone is wearing a seal? – Who better than Neji to be in charge of the clan?
With that thought Hiashi starts to fight, at peace with himself – his kaiten will one day be surpassed by Neji's, but these are the last moments of the Head of the Hyuuga, and it is still his role to take down as many of the enemies of Konoha as he can.
But as he gets swarmed over by the Sound-nins, the image clouding his mind is that of Neji standing beside Hinata with his arms crossed and not stepping forward, refusing to take the lead, giving it all to her who never knew what to do with it, small shy girl as transparent as a ribbon of fluttering smoke, faltering and rising, stubbornly starting over when the wind wipes her away, small weak chuunin with no more sense than talent, barely good enough to get back on her feet when struck down, small ill-fitted heir who should never have been a shinobi at all or who should have died the death of a shinobi Hiashi is and not burned alive in a massacre played out by the Sound, small stubborn thing that proved Hiashi right only by dying.
The Head of the Hyuuga is losing his last fight. In his mind Hinata is training long after he's stopped asking for her to prove what she can do, and Hiashi knows defiance when he sees it, but when he looks at her he reads only meekness in her attitude and her eyelids are forever lowered, though her eyes never let go of her opponent when she is sparring.
(Perhaps if his corpse stays intact through some miracle, the members of the Branch House sent to rescue him will report that there were tears on his face, but no-one will be able to guess why.)
Thoughts of his brother and nephew all forgotten, his younger daughter a shadow of ever-present remorse, Hyuuga Hiashi-sama is crying because his daughter Hinata died yesterday.
If you want to know how Hinata didn't die, and reappeared three months later on the outskirts of Konoha, it's all explained in The Return.
2) Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance is a GC RPG that was not supposed to leech into my soul. (Also, I'm not supposed to ship Ike/Soren.) But leech and claw and seep it does.
Title: Upholding Traditions
Author:
runespoor7Rating: PG-13
Summary: 'When Neji wants to show respect to Hinata, he escorts her in town to meet her team or Sakura and Ino, so they can do girly stuff and she and her team can spend buddy time, and he waits for her outside of the Hyuuga district.' Hiashi loves that, you can bet. [NejiHina]
Notes: Celebrationverse, takes place (well) before The Return.
The door slides shut, and Hiashi is left staring.
Some days Hiashi doesn't get his nephew. (Some days Hyuuga-sama doesn't understand Neji. Some days, the current – all-too-current, all-too-ephemeral – head of the Hyuuga is left wondering at the motives of a Branch house member.)
Privately Hiashi prefers to think of it as the first way. It sounds more… reassuringly normal like that. But as the situation precisely isn't quite normal, it doesn't go a long way to let Hiashi fool himself on the fact that Neji's behaviour may have more lasting repercussions than just average teenage rebellion.
Part of what makes it abnormal is that Neji's rebellion doesn't look particularly rebellious from the outside, and it certainly doesn't lend itself to outbreaks. It never did; Hiashi remembers well that his nephew taught himself Kaiten, that he called his weak cousin, Hiashi's own daughter, Hinata-sama even as he was humiliating her – or trying to kill her; both versions are palatable to Hiashi.
Part of what makes it abnormal is that Neji's breaking of the traditions could so easily be interpreted as upholding these very traditions, and that Neji goes at it in a way that leaves no doubt as to his intentions.
Hiashi never thought he'd attain such a deep, personal comprehension of the word 'passive-aggressive' before. That was before he started being confronted with Neji's special brand of – rebellion.
He'd rather just think of it as rebellion, something that might just be another phase of adolescent anger. Though if he goes by the standard of anger, then Neji has been a teenager for almost as long as he's been alive – and Neji's not so angry anymore nowadays.
The anger isn't the problem – it never was, if only because the curse seal means no Branch House member will ever pull an Itachi. Hiashi could understand the anger.
No, the problem, as it so often seems to be, is Hinata.
Hiashi has no idea what is his nephew's relationship with his cousin, but he is faintly annoyed with the way Neji chooses to squander his time.
He closes his eyes.
He has just been informed (by someone he can't help but feel slightly resentful with) that Neji and Hinata have been seen leaving the compound a few minutes ago.
Hiashi knows without needing to be told, from the times he's witnessed it himself – pure chance that he was near the main entrance at the time the three times that happened – that Neji must have been standing stiff, arms crossed, head turned slightly to the side, waiting for her. He'd have looked simultaneously brisk and ostentatiously at Hinata's disposal.
In half an hour – the time it takes for him to march her off to town and come back – Neji'll be leaning against a wall outside the district, a hundred of feet away from the entrance, so conspicuous that even in another clan he'd be noticed. The use of the Byakugan indoors, while restricted to training dojos, will ensure that no-one will be unaware of his presence before the morning is up.
Hinata won't be back before nightfall.
This isn't what irritates Hiashi.
Hinata is free to waste her time away, mostly because she hardly ever does it. Hiashi doesn't pay much attention to his elder daughter's training schedule; he has more than enough on his hands with Hanabi's and Neji's, now he's decided to train him formally – the way the boy really should have been taught from the moment they realized his potential – not to mention his duties as a head of clan.
Still, he can't afford to be oblivious of the heir's training. He occasionally sends for some Branch member to check on her. From time to time he calls for her, to test her by himself, though he hasn't done it in the three months since the last chuunin exam. She hadn't been promoted, of course.
Neither had Neji.
The need to watch over Hinata's training has been less pressing, especially with Neji's strengthening of Kaiten being at such a critical stage.
Hinata is a disappointment in many ways, but Hiashi can't fault her for slacking on her training. When she's not away on a mission, she's training, whether with her team or by herself, for longer hours than anyone else, according to one of the watchers.
It might be better if she did slack off, if she showed interest in something else, because Hinata really is a failure, and she might be better off as a medic-nin, something which would keep her far away from field missions where she'll only make an embarrassment of the Hyuuga, and with enough respectability that it wouldn't be looked upon too horribly.
From what Hiashi recalls from Hinata's school years, she wasn't entirely stupid; she might make an ending as a medic-nin. As a Hyuuga, she has some measure of chakra control, even if it cannot compare to Neji's.
Then Hiashi remembers that Hinata would crumble under the pressure.
It's a miracle she's survived as long as she has, he esteems.
Some days he's concerned that he went somewhere wrong with her. Maybe he's at a fault there. Is he lacking somehow, that his own weakness might be revealed in his eldest child and heir?
It would be easy to blame it on Hinata's mother, who conveniently died giving birth to Hanabi, but that answer fails to reassure Hiashi. There are superstitions in the Hyuuga about twins.
Of course she shouldn't take her natural mediocrity as an excuse, and Hiashi acknowledges that she fulfils that duty.
Neji's training is an entirely different matter.
There is no doubt to Hiashi – to anyone – that Neji, once he's fully grown, will be stronger than him. Stronger than most of the jounins in Konoha. Probably as strong as a Hokage. Possibly strong enough to be one.
Hiashi also knows that Neji wants to grow stronger than him. There's enough of the old anger for that.
Hiashi sympathizes with Neji's goal.
This is why it angers him that Neji chooses to throw away days of training to wait upon Hinata – who is off doing nothing more worthwhile with her time than chattering with friends.
Hiashi would pretend he wasn't aware of it if it was just a matter of spending time with the Aburame and the Inuzuka boy, because whatever else they may be, they come from solid clans, are competent ninjas, and they are her teammates. But he cannot just condone the movie-going and the ice-cream eating – anymore than he can accept the shopping or girly occupations that filled her day if she was out with her female friends instead.
It may be fine for the Yamanaka girl, who doesn't have the honour of a noble clan to uphold, and for the Hokage's apprentice, who as such is necessarily naturally gifted, but Hinata's situation is quite different.
So is Neji's.
It is his duty to train, as it is Hiashi's duty to train him.
On the days Neji takes Hinata out – or he accompanies her, Hiashi is unclear on the responsibility – he does nothing at all but lean against that wall and wait. Hiashi knows because he's checked on him more than once with the Byakugan, and because the whole clan is abuzz with puzzlement.
Sometimes someone he knows will walk past him and he might exchange a few words, or even let himself be drawn in a short conversation if the intruder is one of his teammates or refusing to let go that easily, but he doesn't step away. Hiashi cannot be one hundred percent sure of it, but he is fairly certain Neji foregoes eating as well.
Hiashi isn't entirely sure why he doesn't step out of the compound himself to order Neji back, or indeed why he doesn't send someone. In a way he'd like to, as it would be the most rational way of putting a stop to that foolish nonsense.
In another way he is vividly reminded of Hizashi's words as he said that he was willing to die for his brother.
If Hiashi looks at it like that, like Neji wants to do something for his cousin, he finds he can accept the whim.
The thing is Neji doesn't act like he's doing anything for his cousin.
He doesn't behave like a cousin. He stands there like a sort of bodyguard, and he doesn't ask Hinata how her day went when she comes back. Hiashi isn't convinced Hinata knows what Neji does with his day – nothing – because it doesn't make the girl come home any faster, and he's often wished that she showed a bit less consideration to people under her rank, no matter how unworthy she is.
That must be the second reason why Hiashi prefers to leave it at that.
He isn't sure Neji would actually obey.
Neji has never blatantly gone against straight orders before, but so far he's shown uncanny ability at disregarding implicit rules – again, as regards to Kaiten and the attempt to kill the heir of the Main House during a formal match; and, what's more, Neji makes it repeatedly clear every time he waits for Hinata, Hiashi-sama might be the head of the Hyuuga, and Neji might, as a member of the Branch House, have to obey him, Hinata is the one he belongs to.
This was how things were planned: Hinata was to be protected by her cousin, even before anyone knew what a genius he was, what a failure she'd be.
Hiashi can only blame himself for the unforeseen result of that idea. A little over one year ago, all he had to worry about was his nephew's unwavering hatred towards the whole of the Main House. It was much more straight-forward than whatever game they're playing at now.
When the sun finally sets, Hiashi stops in his paperwork.
He's been signing a maternity leave, a request for a change of shifts at the hospital and an order of a mission outside the borders of Fire Country with nothing more than a cursory glance; the last one already bears the Hokage's stamp, and the first is more 'informing him' than actually asking for his permission. He can't exactly force an abortion on the woman. As for the second, he acknowledges that Takeo has been working night shifts for over four months now, and his wife just came back from her mission.
Hiashi activates his Byakugan, and looks for Neji. The spot his nephew chooses is suspiciously close to Hiashi's office, which Hiashi supposes is another mark of disrespect, but as it allows him to keep an eye on Hinata's arrival, it does serve his purpose, in a roundabout way. That way he can stop them the moment they cross the compound's doorstep.
Chances are that's the major reason why Neji consistently picks this wall, but what can Hiashi do? Nothing, except pin them when they come back, that's what.
It isn't long before Neji's shape straightens; Hinata's silhouette is standing a few feet away. They stay immobile for a moment, barely enough for Neji to tilt his head. Then Hinata fumbles for something in her pocket and hands Neji a small pack.
They eat the dango slowly – or in any case, taking their time, which Hiashi counts as the same given the circumstances. Of course he can't know if they are speaking or if they are as silent as they look from here.
Finally they start walking towards the compound.
Hiashi stands, and doesn't bother to match their leisurely walk.
He calls their names the moment they go through the gate.
They both stop. Neji is half a step before Hinata, on her left, and his face is a study in blankness, unlike Hiashi's daughter, whose struggle not to fidget under her father's eyes is all too obvious. Of course she fails to carry his glance with dignity. Her eyes are downcast so fast Hiashi cannot even meet them.
He regards his failure of an heir for a few seconds more.
"Follow me." Hiashi's tone is a bit too curt for perfect composure. He doesn't catch Hinata's flinch, most likely because he has already his back turned on them, but he's seen it so many times that he can picture it with as much clarity as if he was watching her with the Byakugan.
There are only two pairs of steps resonating through the corridor as he leads them towards his office. The faintest thumping of Hinata's pace is, like the rest of her, almost entirely muffled. By contrast Neji's steps and his own sound proud and sharp.
When he looks back at them, once they've reached the office and the door is closed once more, effectively cutting the room from the rest of the house – privacy respected because it is the office of the head of the Hyuuga – his frustration is renewed by the contrast in their attitudes. His daughter is already twisting her hands in front of her, and Neji's stone-cold face expresses only his utter distance from the situation. Hiashi wants to grind his teeth.
Neji is the first to speak, which would be surprising if the other person wasn't Hinata, with her shoulders hunched and her meek silence; Neji usually lets others set the tone of the conversation. It is often wise for a leader to let the others make the first move, and it irks Hiashi that Neji doesn't yet have the patience to wait until Hinata's nerves betray her and she starts stammering excuses.
"You wanted to see us, Hiashi-sama?" There's an undercurrent of feigned indifference to Neji's words. Neji is good at sounding distant, especially when compared to his cousins, but Hiashi has been playing that game for much longer than him.
Hiashi sends the girl a glance. She is as still as a mouse.
Hiashi isn't sure what angers him more, that Neji isn't asserting his superiority on his cousin, or that Hinata isn't acting with the confidence befitting the heir of the Hyuuga.
He doesn't understand why Neji wastes his time on her, no more than he understands why Hinata lets herself be dragged in such situations when she hates conflicts of any kind and, even if she's too irresolute to make use of the mark, she could insure that Neji never crosses paths with her – after all, she is the heir. He doesn't understand why Neji would grant Hinata's favour, and why Hinata would ask him for anything.
Most of all, he doesn't understand why Neji is pretending he's in this with Hinata.
Neji's attitude is as unreadable as ever, heavy with feelings Hiashi can only guess at, and Hinata's is overwhelmed by nervousness.
This situation has occurred so many times over the last year that Hiashi has almost lost count. His eyes fall on Hinata, still as much of a genin as Neji is, and this is the – tenth time in three months, Hiashi realises.
Still, he is disposed to be fair.
"Did you have to spend the day in town for some reason?" he inquires. So far as he knows, she doesn't, because when she's off training Neji follows his routine, but maybe something arose – one of her group age landing in hospital, or a visit to one of her teammates' – and maybe nothing did and Neji only wanted to stir trouble.
There's a flash during which Hiashi wonders if he imagined Hinata glancing up. But her head is still bowed and her hands behind her back. She hesitates.
"N-no, Father."
Neji, Hiashi can see from the corner of his eye, stands as removed as ever.
He's standing on the same line as Hinata, but is slightly turned towards her. Their positions match none of the patterns the Hyuuga are taught. He doesn't stay a full step behind her the way he ought, Branch House to Main House; he doesn't bear himself unlike Hiashi in his role of head of the Hyuuga, but then he should be ignoring her; and his arms are crossed.
As for Hinata, her neck is obediently bent, with the sort of proper respect he would expect from his daughter, but not from the heir when she is defending herself. Which, Hiashi reminds himself, she isn't.
Slowly, her hands fold in front of her, in a movement Hiashi recalls from when she lays the tea tray. She looks like she's waiting, demure and bland.
Hiashi lets out an impatient sigh. This is hopeless. He knows it, and yet every time, he still asks…
He looks at his nephew. It's been forever since he last wished Hinata could be stronger, prouder, better, because his disappointment was at least part of the reason behind Hanabi's conception. Of course Hanabi herself isn't progressing as fast as he'd hoped, and as steady and dutiful as she is, she lacks subtlety in her attacks; sometimes Hiashi isn't sure that she grasps that which surrounds her.
He tries to soothe his concern with the consideration that Hanabi is after all only eight and a half, and that as long as she's a gifted shinobi the manners and skills of a leader can be instructed into her – and Hiashi is still young. He has time.
He can't shake the feeling that it might not suffice, that Hanabi will never be able to learn and perform such duties when he's alive – so long as there's someone to guide her she will do well enough, but he doubts that she could be the one leading the Hyuuga.
In a way he hasn't stopped thinking of her as the other one, should something happen to the heir.
When Hiashi thinks of Hanabi as the spare to the heir, he isn't thinking about his older daughter.
Neji looks like his father, looks like Hiashi himself.
Recently Hiashi found old photographs of when he was Neji's age, and he was surprised by the differences, not merely in the mannerisms, but also in their very features. Neji is leaner than Hiashi and Hizashi were, willowy; his jaw isn't as square, his eyes and brows are set differently, his nose is very much his mother's, his lips are already thinner, his cheekbones cast softer shadows.
Their body languages have little in common. Hiashi has already caught his nephew turning his head away in a manner strongly reminiscent of his sensei, and sometimes he leans forward like the Hokage does, and once Hiashi saw Neji's teammate juggling one-handed with her kunais and he was struck by the briskness of her wrist moves, and the similarity it bore to Neji's.
Neji is a genius, and seeing him standing to attention, not looking down when the head of the Hyuuga meets his eyes, Hiashi is pierced with the screaming sensation that this isn't fair.
Branch House. Neji isn't his son.
But he should be.
Such a ninja should be allowed to become head of the Hyuuga.
And, if Hiashi had anything to say about it, he would. He will, if Hiashi lives long enough to see that he's wed to Hanabi. Hanabi is eight and a half; there's still six years and a half Hiashi needs to wait. And even if Hanabi blooms the way Hiashi can only hope she will, it can't hurt her to be partnered with Neji.
Hinata most likely won't live to witness her sister's fifteenth birthday, or her ascension to the position of heir.
Hiashi wants to make Neji his heir, equal to his daughters, and that is the reason it annoys him to see Neji himself undermining his hard work.
Does he know the struggling – the quiet, subdued struggling – Hiashi had to do with the Hyuuga council to convince them he was right in overseeing Neji's training? Does he know the work still awaiting Hiashi, for which he's constantly preparing, when he'll let the Council know about his decision? Does he know that every time he leans against the wall out of the Hyuuga compound as Hinata spends her day in town, he's giving the Council newer arguments to keep him as far from the Main House as possible?
The boy doesn't want to be treated as one of the Main House.
He shouldn't be allowed to mix with the heir; how long will it be before her calling him that foolish, childish name of 'Neji-niisan' ruins his mind?
He is already acting above his position.
He isn't Main House, he simply isn't meant to deal with such hardships.
So far Hiashi has succeeded in holding them back, arguing that Neji is an asset to the greatness of the Hyuuga and of Konoha the likes of which the clan hasn't seen for generations, pointing mostly that Neji is Hinata's – bodyguard, servant, adviser, shadow – and that as such no-one is in a place to keep them apart.
The Council always falls silent at that.
As much as they dislike admitting it, Hinata is the heir – perpetually on the brink of disgrace or not – and as such standards have to be maintained.
These days Hiashi hates the Council because when they do nothing but fear the downfall Hinata is bound to bring the clan if she ever, by some monstrous misfortune, becomes the Head, or torture their mind for a way to make Hanabi the heir without passing Hinata over, because she's the elder and traditions have to be upheld and decorum has to be observed, quietly wishing the girl will die in some mission, desperately hoping Hanabi will prove an adequate leader – Hiashi himself is working for the greatness of his clan – and working to settle a score with his dead brother.
If he makes his nephew head of the Hyuuga through marriage with the daughter he isn't ashamed to say is his, then Hiashi thinks he will have repaid his debt.
And he can't do it if Neji works against him, if Neji stands by Hinata – who is a failed heir, whom no member of the Council no matter how selfishly ambitious and greedy supports, whose grasp on shinobi things is faint and dull and numb and shaky, who has no future set out before her except that of an early grave, dead girl too foolish or stubborn to turn her back on the fights, the blood and the Jyuuken which she will never master - Hinata who will drag him under if he keeps on attaching himself to her fate.
This is why Hiashi brings them to his office, of course; not to worry about Hinata, but to scold Neji back to his senses.
"Neji."
His nephew's eyebrows raise in a silent interrogation, the casualty of the move almost a challenge. Hiashi refuses to pick the bait, but his voice is almost biting.
"The trials to become a jounin wait for no one."
Something flashes in Neji's eyes, and his lips narrow. Neji has still to be officially promoted to chuunin.
"You shouldn't waste your time on trifles," Hiashi says, eyes flickering almost mechanically to the blue-black hair of his daughter's downcast head.
Hinata doesn't flinch, but her knuckles are white and her fingers twisted. Neji is the one who recoils, and for a moment he is glaring. Then his lips curve, slowly, into a positively vicious smile, and he cocks his head back and slightly to the side.
"Hinata-sama willed it so," he pronounces, detaching the words as though he is savouring them, still smirking mockingly.
It should sound as if he was denouncing her – and it is basically the case, he's blaming her for it, he's making her the sole culprit, he's implying that he was only following her orders – and Hiashi finds himself once more staring at his daughter, who is very still with her eyelids lowered and the strangest, faintest waver of a smile on her lips, though he knows, better than anyone, that Hinata does not give orders, that she's unfit for command, that she'd never try and land anyone into trouble and that she lacks the authority to be obeyed at all.
It shouldn't feel as though, by throwing her at Hiashi's mercy, Neji is taking her side.
Hiashi doesn't look away so swiftly that he can pretend he failed to get Neji's point.
I only take my orders from her.
Neji's smugness is palpable, and at that moment Hiashi hates him for working against him, and he hates Hinata for being the cause Neji chose to support.
When he dismisses them, voice even terser than before, he doesn't look to see which one opens and closes the door, knowing that no matter the combination it will upset him.
*
Years later, when the war has already been raging for almost a year and when he has already lost his younger daughter, Hiashi has a vivid flashback to those days, as he hears the messenger who has come to tell him that his oldest daughter has been killed.
He is standing still in the middle of the Hyuuga compound, staying in Konoha according to the Hokage's orders, as a head of clan and ready to protect the village to the death should all other shields fail, when he learns that in Grass Country where Hinata was accomplishing her role along with three dozens of Konoha ninjas, a possible ally was attacked by the Sound. There are only ashes left.
The Hyuuga clan has lost its last heir, and, Hiashi acknowledges, he has lost his role with it.
Eerie calm seeping through his veins, he strides to his office, paying no attention to the rush around him and giving absent-minded instructions. It takes him very little time to mark his last formal command as the Head of Hyuuga down. He hesitates less than a moment before leaving it there, in plain view.
He's never felt the absence of his protective shadow more keenly than now, and as he briskly makes his way towards the limits of the Hyuuga district, he repeats his order to all those who accost him, with a voice steady and far-reaching. He has no idea how many times he says it, or to whom.
Then he's out of Konoha, dashing through the forest as he hasn't done for years, going as far from the village as he can because no matter what he's still a Head of Clan and as such he understands responsibilities. If anyone is following – and he hopes they aren't, but he knows some will – it will be too late; in such cases people always need a few moments to wrap their mind around the reality of the fact.
The last heir of the Hyuuga is dead, and Hiashi has a score to settle with his brother.
Tomorrow, if his instructions are followed – and why wouldn't they be? Protection of the Byakugan is a priority – Neji will wake up Head of the Hyuuga clan, urgently recalled from his position on the front lines.
What difference is there between Main and Branch House if everyone is wearing a seal? – Who better than Neji to be in charge of the clan?
With that thought Hiashi starts to fight, at peace with himself – his kaiten will one day be surpassed by Neji's, but these are the last moments of the Head of the Hyuuga, and it is still his role to take down as many of the enemies of Konoha as he can.
But as he gets swarmed over by the Sound-nins, the image clouding his mind is that of Neji standing beside Hinata with his arms crossed and not stepping forward, refusing to take the lead, giving it all to her who never knew what to do with it, small shy girl as transparent as a ribbon of fluttering smoke, faltering and rising, stubbornly starting over when the wind wipes her away, small weak chuunin with no more sense than talent, barely good enough to get back on her feet when struck down, small ill-fitted heir who should never have been a shinobi at all or who should have died the death of a shinobi Hiashi is and not burned alive in a massacre played out by the Sound, small stubborn thing that proved Hiashi right only by dying.
The Head of the Hyuuga is losing his last fight. In his mind Hinata is training long after he's stopped asking for her to prove what she can do, and Hiashi knows defiance when he sees it, but when he looks at her he reads only meekness in her attitude and her eyelids are forever lowered, though her eyes never let go of her opponent when she is sparring.
(Perhaps if his corpse stays intact through some miracle, the members of the Branch House sent to rescue him will report that there were tears on his face, but no-one will be able to guess why.)
Thoughts of his brother and nephew all forgotten, his younger daughter a shadow of ever-present remorse, Hyuuga Hiashi-sama is crying because his daughter Hinata died yesterday.
If you want to know how Hinata didn't die, and reappeared three months later on the outskirts of Konoha, it's all explained in The Return.
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no subject
Date: 2007-06-06 04:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-13 01:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-06 09:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-13 01:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-07 04:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-13 01:14 pm (UTC)Because she basically gets ignored for most of the fic and in the end she's still dead?I love Hanabi. Someday I'll write a fic that doesn't summarily kill her off. *looks sideways at long, looong list of fics to be written*Glad you liked!
no subject
Date: 2007-06-07 09:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-13 01:20 pm (UTC):3
no subject
Date: 2007-06-11 10:26 pm (UTC)Also, I think the following broke me a little:
small shy girl as transparent as a ribbon of fluttering smoke, faltering and rising, stubbornly starting over when the wind wipes her away, small weak chuunin with no more sense than talent, barely good enough to get back on her feet when struck down, small ill-fitted heir who should never have been a shinobi at all or who should have died the death of a shinobi Hiashi is and not burned alive in a massacre played out by the Sound, small stubborn thing that proved Hiashi right only by dying.
Beautfiul. Beautiful. Beautiful! And I'll always think of this when I think of Hinata. ♥
no subject
Date: 2007-06-13 01:33 pm (UTC)And though at first glance, the two sections of the fic seem a little awkward next to each other...
Tell me about it. When I started writing the fic, I had no idea it was going to end the way it did, and every time I tried to rationalise it, it looked very very awkward, but there was no breaking the fic into two different fics. And making two chapters out of it was even worse.
It was also an extremely cathartic fic to write.
by the last few ending lines, I understand just why you chose to begin this piece by explaining Hiashi's views on Hinata and Neji's strangely close relationship. It all led so beautifully and emotionally to the last few lines, where Hiashi makes his final sacrifice while thinking of his daughter, and made the heart-break in it even more apparent.
AND HAY, HINATA'S NOT DEAD. TRAGICAL IRONY FTW. >D
In case you ask, I think Hiashi's an interesting character and I can't help but feel some... pity? for him and I agree with everyone saying that he's not a black-or-white character at all, but the fact remains that he's at worst a bastard and at best utterly and absolutely blind to Hinata at least. (All issues which are broached in the fic, hallo thar.)
I loved writing that paragraph. It's one of my favourite in the whole fic. small stubborn thing that proved Hiashi right only by dying. >D because it's too late for him to make amends no~ow...
no subject
Date: 2007-06-13 11:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-08 12:08 pm (UTC)wow
Date: 2007-07-13 04:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-19 01:45 pm (UTC)I'm looking forward to read more from you!