Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters. I only own Hotaru and Inomi.
Hope you guys enjoy :)
Yamanaka Inomi had this rather interesting habit of hers in which she somehow manages to put herself into the most troublesome situations, as her teammate would say, and barely make it out alive.
Like that one time one of her paper bombs detonated during a reconnaissance mission and alerted forty enemy shinobi of her team's location. Or when she put pink color dye in Inoichi's shampoo and he almost murdered her.
But this one really took the cake, sparkling candles and sprinkles included.
She was pregnant. And the father? A shinobi from Kumogakure, the hidden village formerly at war with her own as of five weeks ago. The war may have technically ended, but hatred and resentment still lingered. The slightest misstep could plunge them back into war.
She quite literally screwed herself over.
She blamed his annoyingly pretty teal eyes and sun-tanned, olive complexion, both a rarity amongst the porcelain skin tones and dark eyes of Konoha. She blamed his disarming smile and his starlight hair. Most of all she blamed herself for her weakness to anything and apparently anyone that shined and glowed.
She supposed he reminded her of the white hydrangeas in her garden. She spent countless nights sitting on her back porch and watching rays of moonlight catching on the petals, illuminating the whole garden with its radiance. It was a routine that began after her mother died. The hydrangeas were the last thing she planted before the sickness took her away, little by little and then all at once.
She laid her hand on her flat stomach and made an oath to her unborn child. A promise to protect, to cherish and to shield her baby from the horrors of the world. Consequences be damned.
o.O.o
When the clan elders inquire about the father's identity, she lies.
Or rather she doesn't tell the whole truth. A bastard child of an enemy shinobi, even a former enemy, causes discord and enmity and stirs feelings of hatred and distrust. Nothing she wants for her child.
But a simple civilian from outside the village isn't so much of a problem. Despite claiming otherwise, shinobi tend to disregard civilian opinions if they conflict with their own. Believing physical prowess and skills equates worth and standing, civilians are seen as the bottom of the food chain. So, taking a child from an unknown civilian doesn't create tension because one only has a voice when they have the power to back it up.
The elders believe her, she's never given them a reason to distrust her word, but the disappointment is palpable. The clan head, her father, wouldn't look her in the eye when he calls the meeting to an end and the sting of his disapproval bites at her. She steels her nerves and walks away with as much dignity as she could muster.
As a little girl, she always strived for her father's approval and attention, but it was never easily attained. But she's lived twenty years without it, so she figures she can go without it for just a little bit longer.
o.O.o
Teal eyes look into her own and Inomi's heart stutters.
Her daughter comes into the world with so much life and color. She's pure and untainted by the ugliness in the world and Inomi knows there is nothing she wouldn't give to preserve her innocence.
"You look so much like your daddy." She says as she gently runs a hand through the starlight-colored hair that she still finds alluring after all this time. She gets a toothless smile in return and she feels like she's finally done something right.
"Hotaru." She names her.
Her little firefly.
o.O.o
The sound of frantic footsteps approached the kitchen and Inomi turned around to see watery teal eyes. Her daughter's dress had patches of dirt staining the blue fabric and Hotaru was cradling something in her hands.
Inomi rushed to her daughter, kneeling so they were at eye-level. Brushing the piece of snowy-colored hair that fell out of her braid back behind her ear, Inomi wiped a fallen tear with her thumb.
"What's wrong, sweetheart?"
Hotaru sniffled and slowly revealed a baby bird cradled in her tiny hands. The feathers were coated in dirt and one wing was bent unnaturally.
"She fell from her home in the tree and hurt herself. I - I couldn't just leave her there." Her voice trembled.
Izumi hesitates with her response. For the briefest of moments, she thinks of diminishing the innate sweetness Hotaru possesses through conditioning and lectures, as her father did with her. Such frailty and compassion would only hinder and devastate Hotaru in the future, it would be more efficient to get rid of it as soon as possible.
But Inomi is selfish, she's always been. She doesn't want to bear the weight of ruining her daughter's innocence, of being the cause of the light fading from Hotaru's eyes. So she delays the inevitable and leaves the burden for someone else.
"My sweet darling, of course you couldn't have." And for four weeks they take care of the sweet creature until the bones strengthened and the movement of wings have reobtained their natural elegance.
They release her at sunrise and the bird tweets and twitters in the cloudless sky. Inomi looks at the sweet smile on her daughter's face and she doesn't regret anything.
o.O.o
Hi there! This idea has been running through my mind for ages and it demanded to be written. I hope you guys enjoyed it so far! Can you guess who Hotaru is related to?
P.S. My motivation to write the next chapter is directly proportional to the amount of feedback I get ;)