Summary: She feels them well up but the tears do not fall.
Father should be proud of her.
Father should love her and she should be the one to earn it. She should stand and fight and be the perfect little monster that all Hyuuga darlings will become eventually. But, instead, she is on the ground, bent and broken and bereft of all hope for her own future, her eyes welling up with tears that should not spill. She is on her knees – fighting to get up, fighting to show her Father that she can be the one to take over, that the little bloody thing in her Mother's belly will not take her place.
(Her rightful place. She is Hyuuga Hinata and she will earn her place.)
She is not on her feet yet. Not standing, slumping is more aptly fitting. She is on her knees and she is trying. Hiashi does not ask for try, he demands perfection. She has to fight, has to win, and has to be the best. Victory is her only option.
She is only five years old and she is already twisted.
If Hyuuga Neji – Branch family, branded for life, and the innocence in Hinata screams – can get this, why can't she? It's simple. She can. She will. There is no question in her gaze anymore, and when she looks up and stares at her Father he sees himself. He sees steel in her lavender – in her white eyes and feels a burning pride rage because she is five and she is ready. Hizashi, a step and a room away, looks at the girl with the stone eyes and at his son with the glowing ones and draws a line that doesn't quite connect.
She is on her feet.
She is wounded and feels the chakra that has been sealed by her opponent – by her thirty year old opponent that stands and waits for her to get on her feet like no enemy would – sizzle under her skin. She cannot unseal her tenketsu but she will play the game.
She runs, it is sloppy and will be fixed, but she seals seven of his tenketsu in a single burst of fire and love and desire for a proud look. She is working and trying and striving and there is something in her – a beast with glowing eyes and a thick pair of claws that rip and shred – snaps its head and roars in her veins.
She almost kills the man. The nameless man who's only marking is the glowing green on his forehead. A week later she does kill the man trying to take her. She sheds no tears.
Something beautiful breaks and something ugly resettles inside Hinata they day she truly becomes a Hyuuga.
I thought Hinata getting up and fighting during training would chance her entire dynamic. It was interesting and horrifying at the same time.
But Naruto loves her regardless. :D
~AU.