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"It must be a curse or something."
"Yeah, why else would 'both' of the Hyuuga heirs be so...pathetic?"
Hanabi didn't know when it first began. Maybe it was always there, just not in her 'earshot' before now. Clenching her fists, she wondered if those two Branch House sentries 'knew' she was still awake. If they did, than they must 'want' her to activate their curse seals.
"You have to wonder which is 'less' of an heir. After all, Hinata-dono may be a timid weakling, but Hanabi-dono seems totally mindless!"
Feeling herself go rigid, Hanabi couldn't help but whisper heatedly into her bed, "'Mindless'? How can they possibly determine I'm 'mindless'?"
"No kidding. She constantly loses to Hinata-dono whenever they do strategy games like shoji, chess, or checkers. Not to 'mention' the fact that I've yet to hear of her having a 'personality'! If Haishi-sama tells her to do something, she does it with little to no expression on her face. At least some 'annoyance', for crying out loud! We can't have a leader with no individuality, it would be the end of the Hyuuga!"
For half a second, she felt her jaws ache from her gritting them so hard. She could almost 'feel' her rage 'leaking' out of her body. Just as she was about to jump out of bed and show those gossiping fools some 'personality' in a violent manner, their next words made her freeze in shock.
"Hinata-dono is definitely going to inherit, no matter 'how' disappointed Haishi-sama is of her."
"That disappointment can't last much longer. She apparently went one-on-one with Neji-kun during the Chunin preliminaries, and actually held her 'own' against him!"
Blinking rapidly, Hanabi just couldn't see how that was 'possible'! Hinata didn't have an aggressive bone in her body, or a spark of pride in her blood! Whenever she won in a strategy game, she almost tried to hide in her fluffy jacket...why 'did' she wear that sweater anyway? In the Hyuuga compound at that, where just a small spark of chakra would go as far as seeing through the 'skin' if desired? No matter how much Hanabi tried when she 'sparred' with her sister, she couldn't infuriate her elder. Hinata just blocked again and again, sometimes lucky blows piercing through and forming bruises, making those who hadn't seen the actual 'fight' think that the younger was a 'genious' in comparison. How the entire Hyuuga clan could be so blind was 'amazing'! Hanabi wasn't that impressive, it was just that she couldn't find a way to 'anger' her sister. Make her fight 'back' with some kind of 'fire', and break that insipid wall of 'shyness'! If there was one thing Hanabi wanted, it was a rivalry of some sort. Considering the fact that the Hyuuga clan as a whole rarely associated with others, and she wasn't old enough to leave the compound without an escort, finding a way to make Hinata fight back was the best bet to experience 'rivalry'. Rivalry, the thing that was said to bring out the best and worst in people.
"By 'holding her own', do you mean blocking most of Neji-kun's attacks?"
Twitching, the young girl felt like hitting herself. Now 'that' she could see all too well. If that was it, no wonder Hinata had been hospitalized!
"Actually, she fought like a berserker! Hinata-dono barely blocked at all, and landed a fair amount of hits herself!"
"On the self-taught warrior of the Branch House? The person that the village elders call the quickest growing genius to ever come from the Hyuuga clan?"
"Yeah, and I even saw some bruises on his right lung! Maybe she landed those hits 'before' he started slamming her heart?"
Gasping, sitting up with a burst, Hanabi said to herself, "Impossible! That would be conceivably 'leathal', why would ni-sama hit Neji-san there?! Was something he said so galling to 'her' that she lost 'control'?!"
Jumping out of bed, the young girl thought if she should change out of her pajamas: blue shorts and a black sleeveless shirt. No, Hinata was probably still in bed too, nothing formal was required. Sliding her door open, noting the surprised jump the guards did at the sight of an 'awake' heiress, she muttered coldly, "Your comments about ni-sama have sparked my 'mindless' interests, and I feel that makes your transgressions today...ignorable."
Starting to walk by them, hearing their relieved sighs, she snarled - or as close to a snarl as an eight year old girl can manage, "The next time I hear 'any' Branch House member gossip about either Hinata's or my own chances as an 'heiress', the seal will be the 'least' of that fool's problems! I'll cut out their tongues and nail the rotting flesh to a random wall as a 'warning' to every other moron who 'thinks' they have the right to be so 'flippant'!"
Stopping in her tracks, turning around to glare at the shivering guards, she yelled, "DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!"
The two guards dashed off like frightened squirls, and she couldn't
keep herself from smirking a little. That might not stop the gossiping,
but at the very least that would make them think twice about 'where' they
hold such ridiculous conversations.
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Hanabi felt herself hesitate in front of the door. She'd never entered her sister's room, much less had an extended conversation with her. And here she was, preparing herself to do both, with the objective of finding out how to piss off Hinata.
Hanabi muttered to herself angrily, "I have to calm down. My sister is many things, but she is not a brainless husk. I can have an intelligent conversation with her. All I need to do is open the door, and get her attention. After that, I can let things flow on their own."
Swallowing a bit of anxiety, she grabbed the handle for the door and slid it open as quietly as she could. The moment she saw in interior of the room, Hanabi couldn't even manage a confused 'huh'. Whatever she was expecting, this was 'not' it.
Two pedistals were set up in the middle, each with a different notebook. Near one was a black pen, the other a set of colored pens. That wasn't the sort of set-up for mindless doodles after a long day, it actually looked like a hobby that brought joy. Strange, Hinata never carried pens or notebooks with her outside of the mansion. Why not bring them along in case of a dull moment?
On the ground lay clothes of various sizes and styles. Some the older girl had probably grown out of. Others had just worn out, multiple rips and holes covering them. Why leave cloths that couldn't be worn on the ground to make a mess? It couldn't be for sentimental reasons, she couldn't remember Hinata wearing even 'half' of that stuff.
Hung on a coathanger, why 'that' was there was a mystery, was a set of three coats. The sweater that the older girl usually wore zippered up, just as baggey up there as it was on her body. The other two, however, seemed strange to Hanabi. One looked like a buttoned-up jean jacket, the brown collar folded down, and the pockets overflowing with lined papers. The other was a part red, part orange trenchcoat, unzippered, the pattern of flames evident all over. Weird, she never 'could' recall Hinata wearing anything other than the one modest sweater, even when walking in the mansion. The trenchcoat probably would gain more attention than if she was 'naked'!
The part that really surprised her was Hinata's bed, lacking the shy girl and a small note taped to the headboard. Walking up, reading the note, Hanabi felt her eyes widen. How much did she not know about her own 'sister'?
Gone for training, will be back before dawn. Right, as if anyone will read this when nobody ever cares enough to knock on the door. Okay, that was bitter. Maybe I should stop writing now.
Hanabi felt her stomach start to sting, as if she'd just eaten a badly cooked bird. Was she actually...depressed by the fact she didn't know Hinata? By the fact that this note seemed surprising? Sure, she'd never gone to her sister's room before, but that didn't mean that other people in the clan didn't come once in a while...right?
Shaking her head, she whispered softly, "Oh please, as if Hinata is anything more than a minor fasination. What good is a sister like 'her' anyway? She doesn't assert herself, hence should not be 'worth' my time...I need to get back to bed."
Almost sluggishly, she left the room with thousands of questions flooding her mind, all of them impossible to ask or answer. Hanabi probably took ten minutes to reach her bed and lay down, despite the fact that the rooms were less than twenty feet apart.
Shutting her eyes tightly, she grumbled to herself, "Right, Hinata's
buisness is her own. Besides, what do I have to do when she's such a wimp."
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A loud crash startled Hanabi awake, her groggy mind barely able to think straight. There were multiple small cracks caused by the crash, like wood of some kind was broken through. What made it even stranger was the fact that it came from 'above', did that mean someone tore the roof? Wait, she had been woken up by a 'sound', and was awake enough to identify it? The one fault her father 'sternly' chatased her about was she slept too deeply! If something had rung out loud enough for 'her' to wake up, then every Hyuuga in the mansion was probably rushing to deal with it! Childish excitement built in her gut despite herself. Watching the idiots trying to break in get knocked around was 'not' something she wanted to miss.
Almost bounding to the door, she gripped the handle, ready to throw it open. A sudden cold chill swept across her neck, making her gasp, and her spine shiver.
Looking down, seeing a kunai grazing her Adam's apple, Hanabi felt her insides twist around violently, and her muscles felt parylized. Oh god, what was going on? What happened to the guards? Weren't they on twelve hour shifts that were changed every nine-o'-clock? The Hyuuga mansion was supposed to be impregnable, the patrols all using the Byakugan and able to notice anything! How could someone get in the second floor and reach 'her' room without being stopped? If she'd been in a calmer set of mind, she would have tried thinking of some way out of this, but nothing could have prepared her for what came next.
A deep voice came from behind her, assumingly from the man ready to kill her. "Where is Hyuuga Hinata? Answer quickly, and you may live child. Answer wrong, and your wind-pipe will be pierced. Would you really want to die so brutally at such a young age?"
For the first time in her life, Hanabi stuttered. Not a surprised sputter, or angry stream of nonsense, but a full on, timid stutter one usually associated with Hinata. "H...how d-did you-"
The man finished her question for her, clearly amused. "How did I get by all the guards and enter one of the Head Family's most protected areas? It was simple enough. My partner made a distraction, everyone focused on him and the chaos he left in his wake. With all the Hyuuga family focused on a problem from 'above', it was embarrassingly easy for me to sneak in from 'below'. Now, where is Hinata?"
Hanabi felt the knife push a little firmer onto her skin, and she managed to say, "Sh...she's five d-doors to the r...right."
The blade disappeared from her throat, and she fell to the ground, legs not moving in the frantic dash she wanted to. Her lower body just felt...limp. Shooting a hand to feel her throat, the girl was releived to find no cuts. Turning around, staring at the intruder in the eyes, her shaken mind tried to analyze him as her father taught. Black cloak with red cloud patterns, hiding his build well. Maybe a uniform for some special group. Reddish iris, with a trio of black tear-drop shaped lines came out of the equally black pupil. An Uchiha...but weren't they almost extinct? Wasn't Sakuke Uchiha the last of them? And why keep the Sharigan activated in such a mundane task as this, didn't he care about possible eye damage? His cheeks seemed a little thin, strange indents near his eyes almost making him look tired. She might have thought his body was poorly fed by that, then Hanabi saw the man pull up his right sleeve. Hand putting the kunai slowly into a hidden pocket in the sleeve, she stared in surprise at the muscle she saw there. Well developed, some light scars, and the skin seemed a little strained. Like it wasn't meant to hold that much inside. As he finished putting the blade back in its pocket, she caught a better glimpse of the hand. Purple nail polish, calluses from some harsh work, and the skin looked a lot more loose than the rest of him. Why would his palms look normal, and the rest of him look like his skin was barely enough to cover his body? This Uchiha was a colection of mysteries.
The man stared at her, and muttered, "I'd suggest you stay in here, child. Unless of course you 'want' to look outside, and risk being slain in the chaos."
Before Hanabi could get herself steady enough to 'kneel', a new crash made her fall to her butt. For a few seconds, she thought the resounding rumble was going on longer than that noise's echo, then she noticed the man walk off like nothing had happened. Staring at her hands, seeing them trembling, the Hyuuga heiress made a realization. She was...shaking? It wasn't cold, so that didn't make sense! A 'normal' person would react like that in fear, and a Hyuuga can't become afraid...the Hyuuga clan never showed fear...right?
As if to prove it to herself, she unsteadily got to her feet and adjusted her pajama's, trying to walk with some 'dignity' back to her bed. Strange, her pants seemed a little more...heavy than before. Warmer than before. Feh, probably had something to do with...oh no. Had she possibly...had the stress of having someone hold her life in his hands...
Looking down, she squinted at her pajama bottoms. They weren't as...white as they were before. A little...brownish, really. Gulping, hand moving shakily to her waist, she stuck it in her pants, feeling something not-quite-solid, and shot the hand out with a jolt as everything added up.
Feet giving out on her again, Hanabi landed face first into the floor. Wincing at the impact, she stared at the hand. Brown gunk stuck to her fingers, warm, and 'certainly' wasn't chocolate. Feeling the need to verbalize her numbing thoughts, she whispered, "I can't believe it. I'm supposed to be part of the Hyuuga Head family. How can an heiress from such 'noble' backgrounds 'sully' herself with...with...I don't even know 'what' to call it! This is 'rediculous'! I know the basic forms of Jyuuken, memorized the positioning of the chakra system, and can describe in 'detail' the full four-hundred year history of the Hyuuga clan! All that, and I do not 'know' the 'name' for a 'simple' bodily 'function'?! And what made me 'stutter' earlier?! Is the idea of death all that scary that I degenerated into something 'Hinata' does?! This is entirely TOO HUMILIATING! Not even that FAILURE would sink THIS LOW! NOT EVEN HINATA LOSES CONTROL OF HER BLADDER!"
Breathing hard, she waited a few moments for someone to yell that this was reprehensible behavior for a Hyuuga heiress...and received silence. No sounds to tell of a distant battle, no handler coming to check on her, nothing. For the first time she could remember, the mansion was quiet as the grave, and she felt...alone. Truly isolated.
Shaking again, not even questioning her fear, Hanabi weakly muttered to herself, "I don't understand, what's happening? Why would they go after Hinata when I was right 'here'? That man had the kunai to my throat, and could have left the building with a Byakugan capable, unmarked Hyuuga. It doesn't make 'sense'. Going through this much trouble, assaulting the most 'powerful' clan in Konoha, why search for the 'failure' Hyuuga when they could have just grabbed 'me' and finished a lot quicker? If they wanted some of the scrolls, or other items the clan's been entrusted with protecting, why search for 'people' when this entire floor has such things scattered all over?"
The quiet was starting to make her already jarred nerves crack. If the fighting was going on elsewhere in the mansion, there'd be at 'least' the subtle cracking sound of strained wood, or wind blowing through the window. Absolute silence was...foreign to her. No annoying bugs, no footsteps, no conversation just outside her door, like she had turned deaf. Taking her right hand and digging her left hand's short nails in, she began to scratch, the sensation keeping her from breaking down in tears. Assuring her that this wasn't some elaborate illusion, that she was still in the Hyuuga manor, and someone should come in to check her soon. The intruders wouldn't last, they were outnumbered and overmatched. Not even an Uchiha could beat a well trained Hyuuga...right?
Suddenly she remembered one of the Chunin exam matches: Uzumaki Naruto against Hyuuga Neji. An 'orphan', concidered to be a classless roughian, with no family history or bloodlines, defeated the 'genious' of the Hyuuga clan. That blond had won even though he had 'less' than five months of mission experience, when Neji had 'fourteen'. Was the inborn Hyuuga strength...exaggerated? Was Hinata really 'worth' something, and all the talk of being a 'failure' a blindness to a truth? That 'Hyuuga' were still 'human', and barely different from anyone else? Than why did they generally treat 'all' non-Hyuuga's like lower beings and not be repremanded? Some gained the respect of the clan, but that respect made them called 'almost Hyuuga'. There were too many questions that needed to be answered, and she couldn't deal with them all at once.
Eyes starting to feel moist, the usually proud child whimpered. "Anyone, any 'thing', help me. What's going on, shouldn't the ANBU be coming in to stop this? Hasn't the Hyuuga clan done enough over the years to earn some 'basic' respect? Doesn't the fact that we've lasted longer than the Fire Nation itself earn at least a 'little' admiration?"
At that moment, the death-like silence was broken by metal clangs and wood creaking. Crawling slowly to the door, opening it, Hanabi's mind almost shut down completely. There was her father, Hiashi, the Head of the Hyuuga clan, clashing with a blue skinned man holding a weird sword. Two details made it especially shocking: the Hyuuga leader was radiating fury when 'he' lectured calm composures no matter 'what', and was fighting with a 'wakizashi' without his 'Byakugan' activated! Sure, she knew he used to be an ANBU, and probably caught some non-Hyuuga technuiques over the years. Yet it didn't change the fact that the very 'symbol' of the Hyuuga was fighting like some 'commoner', and was...actually more impressive because of it!
Something sparked in her mind, something that felt far too close what she heard Hinata say some time after her first week in the shinobi academy. Quietly, she whispered, "To make a name for oneself? To be known for...what 'I' do, not what my ancestors did or my position requires? Go...beyond the clan, and find my own...way? Hinata tried, and has become an embarassment to the Hyuuga in every area...is she 'better' than me for having 'tried'? For having the initial courage to look for her own way? Is that what the guards meant when they said I was mindless? The fact that I never tried?"
For some strange reason, Hanabi felt that silence would have been a better answer than clanging steel...
