A/N: I thought this quick story up while exploring ideas for a separate Naruto fic I'm working on. I can see this story continuing beyond where it ends here, but that will have to tell itself some other day. For now, this will suffice. Plays fast and loose with the canon; if you enjoy it, please let me know. Thanks.

Hyuuga
by Kaj-Nrig

Chapter 1

It was only after Neji nearly killed Hinata that he learned she was to be his wife one day. The Hyuuga elders gathered the same night as the Chuunin exam battle to discuss the future of the clan amidst the all too predictable outcome of the fight, and in order to quell the growing sense of resentment from the branch family, Hiashi agreed to a marriage between the former heiress and the branch family's prodigy. Such an arrangement would have no bearing on the order of succession - Hanabi would remain the heir to the clan leadership, with Hinata to follow in the face of unforeseen circumstances - and would meanwhile afford the branch family more sway in intra-clan politics.

The Hyuuga clan overall would keep its greatest strengths within and loyal to the family. There would be no repeat of the disastrous Uchiha affair. When Neji learned of this, sitting seiza two tea trays away from his uncle and future father-in-law, his resentment for Hinata and her father only increased tenfold. "You're a coward," he told the Hyuuga leader bluntly inside the main house's dining room.

"You can think whatever you want of me," Hiashi countered as he calmly sipped at his tea. "But perhaps you should apply some of your genius to the situation, my nephew. This arrangement brings you one step closer to ridding yourself of the caste that has hung over your head and stifled your destiny your entire life, all ten years of it."

"Thirteen," Neji corrected him petulantly, but Hiashi could see the gears already churning in his head. "So you want me to trade one predetermined life for another?"

"Is marrying my daughter such a curse?" Hiashi held up one hand to forestall Neji's hasty and no doubt fiery response. "The decision has been made. The marriage will take place on the anniversary of our clan's founding the year after Hinata's sixteenth birthday. You have until then to accept this path we've set for you, or to change it by force of will. For now, the matter is concluded."

Neji stared blankly at the cup of tea Hiashi offered him then. "I'll never marry that weakling," he hissed at the amber liquid. Hiashi sighed and placed the cup down in front of Neji, then took a moment to compose himself.

"You will come to see, sooner or later, that even the gentlest river is capable of eroding mountains," Hiashi said as he poured himself a cup of tea. "You tried to murder my eldest daughter in front of me, future son-in-law. Her strength is the only thing keeping her alive and me from striking you dead here and now, the branch family and the marriage be damned. Drink." Hiashi raised his cup to his lips, and Neji, despite his seething rage, followed the man's lead. With a nod that signified the end of the conversation, Hiashi got up and made for the door.

When Hinata woke, she saw, to her surprise, Neji sitting on the floor in the far corner of the hospital room, his head bobbing up and down as he fought sleep. Her quiet squeak of alarm was enough to snap him out of his reverie, and they met eyes. Hinata's hands gripped the sheets tightly of their own accord, and she tried her best to fight past the panic quickly rising up through her gut. The last time she had seen him was at the Chuunin exams when he was mercilessly beating her insides into a pulp.

"What do you want?" she wanted to ask, but her mouth refused to open. She remembered the look of unbridled rage on his face, and the longer this silence dragged on the more that look seemed to overtake his features again. What was making him so angry?

A phantom pain blossomed in her chest where he had struck her, and she tasted something bitter in her mouth. The bedside ECG machine began to beep distressingly quickly; Hinata could only hope that a nurse would take notice soon and come save her.

The whine of the ECG seemed to trigger something other than the mounting rage in her cousin, and he looked from it to her with something almost like panic and concern before realization struck and he quickly undid the nearby window latch and hopped out just as a nurse barreled through the door. Hinata tried to take deep breaths, tried to get her emotions under control, but the pain in her chest was too much, too constricting. She coughed and something viscous slipped out her mouth to stain her sheets red.

"Am I going to die?" she asked the nurse before everything suddenly went black. When Hinata woke again, several days had passed and there was no Neji around to trigger a panic attack like before. She took that with great relief, but a part of her mourned quietly. Was she fated to always fear her niisan now?

Kiba, Shino, and Kurenai-sensei visited her shortly thereafter; they had somehow beaten even her family to the hospital despite being contacted second. By the time they finally left, her room had filled with members of the Hyuuga clan and several of the genin teams from the Chuunin exams. Even Gai-sensei's team showed up, bandaged and beaten from their losses and missing Neji. After a touching if awkward apology for Neji's actions where Lee nearly rebroke his leg in the process of joining Tenten in a formal kowtow, Hinata wished both of them speedy recoveries and the best of luck at next year's exams. Finally, she inquired about her cousin.

"What he did was wrong," Tenten said with open animosity. "I don't care why he did what he did. His reasons stink and I don't care about the clan politics that motivated him–it's bullshit, no offense–" this she said to Hiashi, who didn't deign to respond "–but he shouldn't have done that and I told him as much before I stopped talking to him."

"You did what? Oh, no..." Hinata gasped.

Lee laughed in solidarity with Tenten, jovially if somewhat nervously. "I know you're his family, Hinata-san, but we also grew up with him, and he is our friend and teammate. We know a thing or two about getting through that thick skull of his."

To that, Hinata could only offer a bemused "Oh..." Despite herself, the thought of Neji being ostracized by his closest friends only caused her greater sadness.

"I can already see it kicking in," Tenten chided with a pinch of Hinata's cheek. "You care too much about people, Hinata. Don't worry your cute little head. Trust me, we know what we're doing."

"Okay," she relented before a thought struck her. "Will you be visiting again?"

After a moment, the three of them turned to Gai-sensei, who pondered the question loudly. Finally, with an emphatic nod and a wide grin, he said, "Until such a day that the sun of youth shines within you again, we shall visit no less than once every three days!"

"Just once a week would be lovely, Gai-sensei," Hinata said nervously.

"Then once a week it shall be!" he roared.

Hinata nodded pleased. "When you do, will you please bring Neji? I'd like to see him again."

"Even though he's the reason you're here?" Tenten asked skeptically. Hinata nodded, and they traded farewells before Team Gai left, leaving only Hinata's father Hiashi and younger sister Hanabi.

"'Tousan wanted to wait 'til everyone's gone before telling you," Hanabi blurted. Hinata looked expectantly to her father, who took his time pacing about the room.

"You must be tired from all the excitement today," he said.

"Yes, but it was very nice to see so many people. I do hope Lee-san makes a full recovery."

"Yes."

"Otousan?" Hinata prodded gently. "Is something the matter?"

"What do you think of Neji?" he finally said at length.

"Neji-niisan?" Hinata repeated. "I... I'm not quite sure what you mean, otousan. I'm sorry."

Hiashi said nothing, which only confused Hinata more. She looked to Hanabi, who was clearly growing impatient; her left foot tapped silently on the floor.

"Hanabi?"

Hanabi shook her head almost violently. "'Tousan made me promise not to say anything."

"Otousan?" Hinata noticed idly that the ECG machine monitoring her vitals had sped up slightly.

Finally, Hiashi sighed. "I spoke with the branch family after your loss to Neji. We came to the conclusion that we must keep such strength of his caliber within the main family's bloodline. To that end, you will be marrying him on the anniversary of the clan's founding after your sixteenth birthday."

Something went cold and numb inside Hinata as her father spoke. Her eyes refused to focus, and her mind went blank except for an occasional flicker of orange and blond. She wanted to say... something. She wasn't wholly sure on the what or why of her response, but she knew it had to do with the lump of ice in her stomach right now. She managed to mutter, "Oh," and followed it up with, "Why sixteen?"

"What?" Hiashi said. Clearly, her father had expected a different response; she could see the rigidity setting into his jaw, the tightening of his shoulders.

"Why sixteen?" she asked again.

"I've worked too hard to accommodate your timidity all these years, Hinata. I will not have you entertaining ideas of undermining me on this."

"I wasn't trying to–" she began before the strength of her father's words bowled her over and she hung her head, fighting against tears. What had she said, done, to give him the impression she wanted to undermine him? "I'm sorry, otousan," she tried to explain. "I only meant–"

"The decision has been made, Hinata."

"Yes, otousan." Hinata could feel Hanabi looking at her, witnessing her humiliation, and it took all of her self-control to not simply pull the sheets up and pretend the whole world didn't exist.

The matter settled enough for him, Hiashi made his way to the door, and Hanabi followed. "Focus on your recovery for now. We'll talk more when you get better," he said, the tone of his voice so markedly different from just moments ago - soft instead of sharp, nurturing instead of demanding - that Hinata could scarcely believe they issued from the same man. Such was life with her father.

"Yes, otousan," she answered deflatedly, and did not watch them as they left. The nurses checked on her soon thereafter; once they too left and Hinata was reasonably certain of her privacy, she wept openly into her blankets, repeating Naruto's name again and again.