Disclaimer: Naruto and all affiliated characters belong to Kishimoto Masashi. This story is written without permission and for personal/fan/nonprofit entertainment purposes only.
Child of Heaven
Chapter 1
The night Hyuuga Hinata was born was the coldest in any of the clan member's memory. It rained sheets of ice upon Konoha and many feared another natural disaster had embraced their village, much too soon after the Kyuubi attack. Deep within the Hyuuga compound Lady Hyuuga finally held her precious daughter in her arms. Her pregnancy had been filled with complications, she had been on bed rest forever it seemed, but her beautiful girl was with her now. She only wished her blurred vision would clear so she could see her baby's sweet features.
"Hinata..." Lady Hyuuga whispered.
"Hyuuga-sama?" Hyuuga Mariko, midwife of the Hyuuga, asked gently.
"Her name..." Lady Hyuuga answered after closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, "Her name is Hinata".
"Yes Hyuuga-sama, I will inform my Lord" Mariko whispered as she pulled the many layers of kimono over her mistress to protect her from the cold.
Exhausted yet joyful, Lady Hyuuga put her daughter to her breast and fell into a dreamless sleep lulled by the whispering of the midwife and her apprentice.
Hyuuga Hiashi had waited outside of his wife's chambers for hours. On the outside he was the perfect leader, no trace of worry marred his brow, but inside was a mass of turmoil. He had watched this pregnancy slowly steal the life from his beloved wife.
Watched as she hunched over in pain.
Watched as she grew more and more tired every day.
Watched as she lay in bed unable to move unless it was to use the bathroom or bathe.
Watched as she bled.
The old midwife Mariko had told him that pregnancy was often just as hard on the husband because they could only offer support and for a man like Hiashi, who was a man of action, it was unbearable. He felt he could do nothing.
He had been in a meeting with the council when a messenger had rushed in with the disturbing news that his wife had suffered a seizure while in the hot springs bathing.
Had it not been for her handmaidens she would have drowned.
Had it not been for his iron self control he would have already killed that worthless midwife Mariko.
She had said taking warm baths in the Hyuuga hot springs would help circulation and lessen the pain Lady Hyuuga was in, but she could not linger otherwise it could hurt the baby.
Hiashi could only admit to himself that if it wasn't for the council constant harping for an heir he would have told his wife to abort this pregnancy. So when he met Mariko outside his wife's chambers there was no hesitation as he activated her curse seal. He didn't hold it for very long, just a moment or so. Just enough to give her an inkling of what could happen to her.
As she lay on the floor gasping for air, struggling to kowtow before her lord, he knelt down and whispered "If she doesn't live through this neither shall you, now get in there and do your duty."
Hyuuga Mariko was terrified the moment Hyuuga Hinata came into this world.
Her Hair... Mariko thought as she cleaned the babe, activating her Byakugan, while her apprentice Masuyo saw to the needs of the new mother. This child...
"Master is something amiss?" asked Masuyo quietly; not wanting to be overheard by Lady Hyuuga after Mariko gave the now swaddled baby to the new mother. She had caught the moment of fear in Mariko's eyes before her master could hide it beneath the cool facade that all Hyuuga bore. She had also seen the strange coloring of the newest Hyuuga and assumed, with a heavy heart, that their Lady had lain with another man.
Assumed that her Master's fear was from her responsibility to tell Lord Hyuuga.
But as her Master's whispered instructions reached her ears and the comprehension of what was said registered Masuyo realized two very important things.
Lady Hyuuga would never cheat on her husband. She and Lady Hyuuga had been somewhat friends, as much as they could be considering she was from the branch family and her Lady was the main family Matriarch. Masuyo and many of the other branded ladies had always joked good naturedly that Lady Hyuuga was the epitome of Good Wife, Wise Mother.
She just needed a child to be called the latter.
So Masuyo was ashamed of herself for thinking her Lady was capable of such deceit.
The other realization made her chest ache, her throat constrict, and brought tears to her cream colored eyes.
Both Lady Hyuuga and Master Mariko would die tonight.
Hyuuga Hizashi had never seen his brother in such a state. He knew no one else would be able to see it, not even the sharply trained eyes of other Hyuuga, but Hiashi was his brother and he knew his body language just as he knew his own.
The slight strain in his brother's eyes, the way his jaw was set, the way his hands were positioned just so, even the straightness of his back was off.
Never did he think the day would come that his brother was beside himself with worry.
He also never thought his brother would become so besotted with a wife through arranged marriage.
So as he sat across his sibling, who was dead set on not moving an inch, waiting for news of his sister-in-law Hizashi struggled with the bitterness that had come and gone throughout his life. Of course his brother, the Clan Head, the Main house Patriarch, would marry a woman through arranged marriage and fall deeply in love.
Not that he was not fond of his own wife. Hisano was pretty and patient but she was also an insufferable gossip. He could not blame her. Most branch women became only genin before they were relieved from active duty to take their place as servants in the Hyuuga household, but this was not the case with Hisano. She excelled not only in the family dojutsu Jyuken, but also in genjutsu and the medical arts. Therefore she was allowed to remain a ninja until her marriage was arranged and by then she was a Jonin. The taste of freedom missions provided had left her longing for the life she once had. Unlike Hizashi, who took his lot in life with ever ebbing and abating bitterness, Hisano took every bit of information she could get her hands on and shared it with any of the other branch members who would listen. He could not come home from a mission or a council meeting and confide in her like a husband should. Everything he said would have made the rounds through the branch house before the next nightfall. He knew this made her feel like she had apart in village and clan affairs. He also knew that she and many of the other branch ladies needed this gossip to help them with their feelings of frustration, weakness and jealousy. To talk about the Main House behind the closed doors of the Branch house gave them the illusion that they had some control of their own lives.
Hizashi knew better.
The Main House was in complete control of the Branch House. They let the branch ladies twitter about like gossiping hens because it kept them busy, kept them complacent. If they should gossip outside of the house of Hyuuga, why they could just activate the curse seal and teach them a lesson.
Gossip was a good way to keep the Branch house isolated from the rest of the village.
His wife was an unknowing puppet in the intrigue that was the House of Hyuuga.
Yes, he was fond of his wife, but who could love a puppet.
The sound of a shoji door sliding open drew him from his thoughts as the Midwife Mariko appeared. Slowly she made her way to her lord, every step seemed careful and hesitant.
Like she was walking to her execution Hizashi thought.
Mariko knelt before her lord, bending forward she touched her head to the ground for 3 seconds before rising.
Hiashi studied her carefully then motioned her to speak.
"Hyuuga-sama your wife fares well at this moment and has given your child a name, but the child..." Mariko started, hesitant to speak the words. She took a deep breath, raised her head and looked directly into her lord's eyes." Your daughter was touched by the veil upon entering this world. She is a Child of Heaven."
Hizashi was shocked. A child like this had not been born to the Branch house in over one hundred years. That she would be born now and into the Main House...
Hizashi's thought process was cut short by the sound of Mariko screaming, blood streaming from her eyes, nose and ears. Hands clenched like ridged spiders to her temples messing her tidy white hair. The putrid green seal on her forehead shining in wicked triumph as it melted her brain.
But Mariko's was not the only screaming he heard. A baby was screaming. Not the normal crying of a baby who is hungry or wet. Hizashi had heard crying like that from his son Neji for most of this last year. No, this sound was of a baby that was in pain. He never thought he would hear something more horrible than the screams of a Hyuuga dying from the cursed seal. This sound made him rush into Lady Hyuuga's room thinking some awful horror to be occurring in there.
Inside he saw Masuyo holding the screaming newborn terror etched on her young face as she stared down at Lady Hyuuga. Hizashi at first couldn't comprehend or maybe his mind refused to see.
Lady Hyuuga's skin, although always pale, was like parchment, sunken in and seemingly brittle. Her hair normally a thick beautiful brown had dulled and looked thinned.
He watched, while the baby screamed in agony and Masuyo's frightened whimpers filled the room, as Lady Hyuuga's skin deteriorated showing muscle then muscle to bone.
Then bone to dust.
Hizashi had watched Lady Hyuuga's body decay to nothing in less than a minute.
At this point Masuyo had pressed herself against the wall, tears streaming down her face, her screams adding to the symphony of madness this night had become.
He had heard the stories, what he once believed to be myths, of what happens to the mothers who bore a child of heaven. But this...
No he couldn't think of this now. He didn't want to think of this now.
"Masuyo-san, calm down!" Hizashi hissed as he strode to her side. But Masuyo didn't hear him over her own screams. Only after a sharp pain to the side of her face did she stop and realize that the Branch Family Head was talking.
"...-should have been prepared for this! Didn't Mariko-san teach you anything?" Hizashi knew he was being harsh, how could anyone be prepared for what they just saw, but he needed Masuyo to be coherent and he knew Mariko would not have walked to her death without giving Masuyo guidance on what she was to do.
Masuyo took a deep shuddering breath, focusing on Hizashi's face, the look of terror still in her eyes, then nodded to show she was listening.
"Take the child to my wife and stay there. Tell her nothing of what you saw here tonight." Hizashi whispered to her ear as he led her out of the room, past Mariko's twitching and finally silent body. Past the Clan Head who refused to look up from Mariko, still holding the seal, not a trace of emotion on his face. Only when he got to the sliding door that lead outside did he remember the ice storm. "Cover the baby and keep her close to your body..."He trailed off as he slid open the door.
The ice storm was gone.
Not just gone, he thought as he walked under the veranda to the courtyard to gaze at the clear sky. It was like it never was. The ground wasn't even wet.
Had it not been for the tearing of the shoji doors that faced the winds wrath earlier Hizashi would have never thought such a storm ever happened.
It was a beautiful December night. The kind Konoha was used to.
"Am I crazy? Is this really happening?" Masuyo muttered to herself as she started to rock back and forth. Her breaths leaving quick little puffs condensation in the cold air.
"Masuyo-san!" Hizashi said, gaining the attention of the midwife's apprentice.
Clarity finally shown in Masuyo's eyes as she nodded and rushed off to Hizashi's quarters.
Hesitant to go back inside to his brother, Hizashi looked to the now clear sky, the beautiful cosmos shining brighter than usual.
All his life he had wished he had been born first. Always contemplating in the "what if" and comparing himself to his twin constantly. Fighting ability, chakra control, opponent analysis, intellect, diplomacy. If not for his curse seal he would trump Hiashi in all aspects needed in a clan head.
But he was not born first and tonight's events proved to him more than ever that he should have been.
He was better than his brother. He fathered a healthy son, Neji, who as soon as he could walk was executing perfect kicks and mimicking his father's hand signs, his small eyes shining with intelligence unheard of for one his age.
Neji already had the markings of a prodigy.
Neji would make the perfect heir.
His brother was the Clan leader, but his daughter was a Child of Heaven and even if no one believed in such things anymore...
A Child of Heaven was a Hyuuga but a Child of Heaven was not a Hyuuga.
A burning ambition filled Hizashi's calculating mind and with only a twinge of guilt he realized he could use this situation to benefit his son.
He would make sure Neji never felt the bitterness that consumed him for so long.
Hizashi knew that Masuyo would probably tell his wife everything that took place, his warning all but forgotten in her shock.
And for once he didn't mind his wife's gossiping ways.
It had been a busy day for Hisano. Lady Hyuuga's unexpected seizure and consequential labor had sent the household into an uproar of worry and speculation.
Would Lady Hyuuga be alright? Would the baby be alright? What will the Clan leader do if they are not? Will the child be a boy or a girl? What will they name the child?
Hisano heard these questions and more like them all day. Not that she was irritated with such talk. She was irritated that many of the servants would completely halt their duties to discuss the fate of the Main House "Royalty". She had to constantly reprimand and make sure everyone was doing what they were supposed, telling them that they could talk and work. She would not rest, and in turn no one else would rest, until the entire compound was up to Hyuuga standard. Perfect.
Hisano was an elitist, of course being a Hyuuga it was almost a requirement. All Hyuuga were elite, but Hisano was better than elite. So when her engagement was announced to Hizashi no one was surprised. And with her marriage came privileges.
Private quarters were one. Growing up Hisano had slept in the quarters allotted to the branch house which was a large common room where everyone slept in rows. Everyone went to bed at the same time and awoke at the same time, folding and packing away futon, and afterwards polishing the floors on which they slept before beginning the daily chores.
She almost swooned when she discovered they had their own bath.
Power was another, well as much power as a female branch member could have. She was the supervisor for all the branch servants. It was her duty to make sure the household ran smoothly. When Lady Hyuuga needed something to be done or planned it was Hisano she summoned, which drew the envy of many.
But the best part of being married to the Branch House Head was information.
Hizashi often accompanied his brother to village council meetings and was the only Branch member allowed present in Hyuuga council meetings. She was always the first to know anything of worth and she benevolently shared her information with branch members who cared of such things. So when questions were flying left and right today Hisano, somewhat smugly, told her subordinates that as soon as she heard something she would let them know.
So after a long day, and after coaxing Neji to sleep, Hisano decided to wait for her husband to arrive home with a scroll and a cup of tea.
Hours passed and the Ice storm outside finally seemed to stop when she was disrupted from her reading by someone's frantic knocking at her door.
"Hisano-dono, Hisano-dono please answer!" said the person on the other side who turned out to be the midwife's young apprentice Masuyo.
"Masuyo-chan, what is it?" Hisano asked as she ushered Masuyo inside, then seeing the small babe bundled in her arms, "What has happened?"
"Oh Hisano-dono, Lady Hyuuga is gone! And Master Mariko is d-dead" Masuyo said tearfully, "Hizashi-sama bade me to come here with the child..."
"What do you mean Lady Hyuuga is gone?" Hisano gently asked, leading Masuyo to sit at the low table and pouring her a cup of tea.
"She was there and then..."Masuyo whispered, eyes unfocused, her mind replaying the event she had witnessed, "and then she was just gone."
Taken aback by Masuyo's vagueness, Hisano took the sleeping babe from the traumatized teenager, giving Masuyo a moment to collect herself before she pressed her with more questions and giving herself a chance to examine the next leader of the Hyuuga.
"Indigo...?" Hisano whispered in shock as she pulled the blanket away from the baby's face, revealing a soft crown of dark blue hair and facial features that greatly resembled her mother. Hisano's voice seemed to pull the baby away from sleep for as soon as she spoke the child whimpered, her mouth pursed, searching for her mother's breast, eyes tinged with a shade of lavender slowly opening to give Hisano another shock.
"Her eyes!" Hisano exclaimed, "She is a-"
"A Child of Heaven..." Masuyo said quietly, barely overheard by the child's growing cries.
Hisano pulled the edge of her yukata to the side and offered the little one her breast. She had been chosen before hand to be the child's nursemaid in the event that the hard pregnancy Lady Hyuuga had gone through would affect her milk, and since Neji had recently been weaned she was the most sensible choice. Now it would seem she would need to be more than this child's nursemaid.
When she was a child living in the Branch House the old men and women were fond of telling legends of great Hyuuga warriors of the past before bedtime, so the children of the Hyuuga could dream of the great things they can help their family accomplish one day. But on certain occasions, usually when there was a storm or if it was unbearably cold or creepy, they would speak of the Children of Heaven. Before the Shinobi World Wars. Before the Hyuuga negotiated a land agreement with the other clans so Konoha could be built. Before the Samurai occupied the Land of Iron and became isolationists. In a time when Ninja clans were the secret vassals of Samurai and Samurai were warring over land and the right to be Daimyo. In a time where superstition and lore ruled over common sense, the Children of Heaven were blessed with the Shinsei na Byakugan when born from being touched by the Veil separating the living world from the spirit world. The Divine Seeing Eye was said to be the most powerful version of the Byakugan, so powerful it was able to pierce through dimensional folds, allowing the Blessed One to see wayward spirits, demons, ghosts, anything and everything. Nothing could hide from this all Seeing Eye.
But this power came at a great cost. The Children of Heaven had abundant amounts of spiritual energy (Yin) but hardly any physical energy (Yang) and due to this imbalance could not use Chakra rendering Jyuken useless to them. And so, even though they were born into the most powerful of ninja clans, the Children of Heaven could never become Ninja. Instead they became monks and priestesses, going where they were needed, decreed by the gods to help all.
A Child of Heaven was a Hyuuga but a Child of Heaven was not a Hyuuga.
Sachiriku the Demon Slayer, Ayano the Dream Walker, The Twins of Yomi: Hiroku and Hiroshi, Shiko the Living God, and Yuzuki the Oracle were among her favorite tales of the Children of Heaven.
And therein lies the problem, Hisano thought, gazing at the child slowly falling asleep at her breast.
Tales, legends, fables, fiction.Most believed these stories were contrived by Hyuuga of old to mask when child was born without the ability to mold Chakra or, even worse, when a child was born stark raving mad, hearing voices and seeing apparitions.
Yet Hisano knew that these stories had some truth to them. As a child she was both intelligent and inquisitive, so she searched the Hyuuga archives for any information on the so called Children of Heaven. And while there was no proof that they were indeed touched by gods, many believed they were. It was even written that the first Fire Daimyo would not make a decision without consulting the first Child of Heaven Yuzuki the Oracle.
So it was safe to assume that even though this child would be an outcast in her own family, to the masses of the uneducated outside world she would still be seen as a servant of the gods.
Whether it was true or not.
"Masuyo-chan, what instructions did Mariko-san give you?" Hisano asked, hoping the shocked teenager had gathered herself enough to answer.
Masuyo was silent for a moment, the sight of Lady Hyuuga's death still repeating slowly in her head.
"In the morning I am to go to the Naka Shrine..."
"The shrine of the Uchiha!" Hisano interrupted in shock, but Masuyo kept talking as if she didn't hear her.
"... and bring the old monk Ayumu-san to see the child..." Masuyo trailed off, retreating back to the depths of her mind.
Ayumu! That batty old monk! Hisano thought with disdain. Ayumu was a disgraced Hyuuga that was said to be the descendent of Ayano the Dream Walker. Years ago when the Hiashi-sama's grandfather had just become clan head there was some sort of altercation between them. Ayumu was cast out of the Hyuuga for being so disrespectful, but being a monk instead of a ninja his life was spared. Afterwards he went to the Uchiha, who then commissioned him for the care of their sacred Naka Shrine.
Seeing as he was the last Hyuuga monk alive the child would most likely be put into his care when she was old enough to be trained.
If that old bastard could get over his anger at the Hyuuga to care.
And if he did this child would have many chances to travel around the world making many connections to grateful (if not ignorant) people, creating a network of information that would surpass anything she could have imagined creating being a branch house member.
Of course, it would be years before she could utilize this child to her full potential.
It would be worth it though, Hisano thought, wondering how powerful being connected to this child could make her.
And so, Hisano decided that she would act in place of this blessed one's mother. She would raise her as Neji's sister, and become a nurturing provider, someone in which she could share all of her problems and lead her in the direction of greatness.
"Masuyo-chan, what is the child's name?" Hisano asked, staring at the child that would be her key to the outside world.
"Hinata..." Masuyo whispered, not knowing at the time that it would be the last word she would ever speak, for in the morning she would try to speak the truth of Lady Hyuuga's fate.
Years later it was said that she was so traumatized by the death of Mariko and Lady Hyuuga that she went mad biting clean through her tongue, hands becoming that of a carrion crow as she gouged out her eyes.