DISCLAIMER: The characters and places here portrayed all belong to Mr. Masashi Kishimoto. I do not have possession of them nor it is my intention to get any kind of profit with them, the creation of this literary work has only and exclusively recreational purposes. Thank you
Author's note: So…here's a funny story. I wrote this piece for the last NejiHina week (2017) and I thought I had posted it on Tumblr but somehow, it didn't appear there. And that was for the better, for it needed some serious editing, which I (think I) did. However, I decided to post it only after posting chapter 5 of The Tutor (if you're into smut, go check ;D), because…guilt.
Now, this may seem familiar to the one Kalira69 (do check her account! Fantastic author!) wrote for the same event, and in a way, it is, but I swear, Kali, I'm not a copy cat! I swear it on my broken dreams' grave!
Glossary
Furoshiki: Traditional Japanese wrapping art using a piece of fabric
Gomenasai: A formal apology
Hitai-atte: head protector
Kintsukuroi: (golden repair) Japanese traditional art that consists in repairing objects, mostly of porcelain. It embraces the damage in it by embellishing it with gold
Oka-chan: mom
Onegai (shimasu): please
Ottou-san: father
Sumi masen: a not so formal apology
Wakari mashita: understood
Kinstukuroi
The Hyuuga clan used to be like the remaining pieces of some broken porcelain antique, all of them part of what once was the same object, but they were not a unit anymore and neither have they functioned as one in a long time. They just held pilled in one spot, waiting for someone to pick them up, and ultimately face one of only two possible destinies: to be thrown into the garbage, or…
The Land of Iron was famous for its versatile techniques on metal and visited for many reasons linked to it by people from all around the world
"Excuse me, but Kintsukuroi is for pottery, not for dolls" responded the owner of the most successful business on this particular technique in the whole town
"Well, then I'll look for someone else to do it, thank you" the stranger calmly said, turning over, ready to exit the local
"There is no someone else!" the man reacted proud and tall "we are the best in the village. If someone can do it, it's us, but" he stopped, remembering the hundreds of pieces inside the bag he had seen "these two are wrecked nearly to dust. It will be pricey and it will take many months, even more than a year"
"I'm patient and I came prepared for your highest price"
Once, there were two dolls, one of a shinobi and one of a geisha, a gift from Hyuuga Hizashi to his niece, on her third birthday. They really weren't the finest work, even Hizashi didn't think too highly of them, but for some reason, little Hinata favored them the moment they reached her tiny hands, amongst all of her other more valuable and finer expensive presents.
For years she giggled and sang, raising them into the air and making them dance together; she invented a thousand stories of how the brave warrior rescued the fair damsel in that time, running around the Hyuuga compound, ignorant of the misery that her house held. She dreamed of growing to be beautiful like the geisha, and strong like the shinobi
At the age of eight, her father took the dolls away "you should worry about getting stronger, instead of playing like a little girl" the inflexible man said to her that day.
She begged long and hard that she could have them back, promising to keep them only as an ornament. She finally succeeded after two months of daily insisting. She received the dolls from her father and immediately placed them in the main shelf of her room, happy to have them back, even though she couldn't touch them anymore
One day she returned to her room from training with her father, and her silent friends weren't in their place; she desperately looked for them everywhere. She found what she was looking for in the front yard, held in her cousin Neji's hands
"Ne-n-neji-nii-san, onegai *give back the dolls to me" she asked with the little courage she possessed
"Life is not one of your fantasies, and it will never be, so you might as well grow up" he spat to her before smashing them into the ground, delighted in her reddened face and the trail of her tears. She didn't yell, nor accuse him, she didn't make any questions… she didn't make any sound at all; she just cried in silence and waited until he left her
She picked up all the pieces as soon as she was left alone, almost conferring to each tiny piece a specific happy memory, a part from her. Instead of discarding them for good, she buried them in the nearest ground to her room
The resentment of his cousin had started long ago, and several years later it almost collected Hinata's life; because just like hers, his life had been tainted by the chaos of their disrupted family.
He would've never guessed that shortly after the almost irreversible incident, life would present an opportunity for them to heal ancient wounds. And Hinata was the one to reach and grab it with small trembling hands, getting closer to him as if he'd never intended wrong to her.
It took some time for her to bring down his resistance, but little by little, in the course of ten years, a friendship was born between them. And they found strength in it. And he realized they both were stronger than hate and fear, than resentment and guilt, stronger than their personal and inherited tragedies.
At one point, he felt that their bond was stronger than the war they had to go through and almost tore them apart. That is how she won more than his respect
After Hinata's father died due to his war injuries, Hanabi, her younger sister and the chosen to succeed her father with the leadership of the clan did the unthinkable and rejected her place as heir to yield it to her beloved sister
The elders reluctantly claimed Hinata as their new leader, looking for a real leader to marry her and save them from her soft head and warm heart, but she refused every suitor; contrary to the whole clan belief, she turned out to be as firm as a mountain
"How is the repairing going?" asked the stranger six months after the commission
"The repair is doing mostly well, but there are missing pieces, other pieces are just too little or fragile to resist the procedure and they have to be removed. I hope this is not too much of an inconvenient" explained the artisan gingerly
"It is not, get rid of useless pieces as you judge it necessary, I'm confident in your work"
"Wakari mashita*"
Neji couldn't still believe the story of how, one day, a servant opened the door to the hall where Hinata gathered with the elders and members of the Souke to receive yet another complaint about her methods as the head of the clan, to find all the lords spread on the floor, unconscious, and her, drinking a cup of the same tea she gave to all of them, impassive to the mess around her, almost ignorant of their misery.
She didn't kill them as such, but none of them were able to live by themselves ever again. The secret of the torturing seal was sealed in their damaged brains and unspeaking mouths. No one ever saw a scroll about or a single clue to how to inflict pain through the seal, ever again.
"They're almost done; they just need a replacement for the lost pieces. Which material would you like me to use?"
"This one, this one is perfect, and one more thing…"
After that, Hinata gave the cursed mark to every member of the Souke, including herself and her sister, who had absolute faith in her big sister, even on her most radical methods; she marked every forehead responsible for perpetuating the unfairness of having brothers and sisters living in slavery, so they would never forget.
It was so bizarre for Neji to watch the once proud lords and ladies of the clan walk so belittled, so full of shame, hiding their whole faces within the curtains of their always long hair, and all the members of the bouke acting freely and full of joy, while Hinata got rid of her fringes and showed off her new marks to the whole world, walking tall and full of confidence like never before, as if she didn't fear vengeance.
One night, after having a bath, like he always did as soon as he returned home from a mission, Neji was untangling his wet hair in front of the mirror when he realized he had stopped staring at his forehead for over a month. He used to watch it every day, in fear, disgust, sadness, guilt, resentment, void… inevitably.
At that moment he decided two things, he would shut down any plan of vengeance on his cousin before it was even conceived, and he would stop using the hitai-ate* on his forehead.
"Hinata-sama, may I speak to you?" he asked that very night. It was late, but he felt like that couldn't wait
"Hai, Neji-nii-san, what is it?" she answered kind and gentle, interrupting the last of her paperwork at her desk
"I need to ask your permission to stay in the compound and watch over you and the clan, and most especially, I want to observe the former Souke members" he firmly stated
"Do you have any suspects on them?" she asked, without a trace of insecurity in her frown
"No, but it is important to notice any early sign of discontent before anything happens"
Hinata softly laughed beneath her hand "I don't think they're too content with losing privileges…but" she got serious "nii-san, you're the right hand of Hokage-sama, I can't ask you to stay locked in here now that you are free to do whatever you want"
"What I want to do is to help change this clan too, that's why I'm asking to do this. Kakashi-sama has Shikamaru, he will be all right. But I want to protect you, Hinata….sama"
"Neji-nii-san" she blushed "Arigatou"
Just as he expected, there were some treason attempts, but all of them controlled easily thanks to his brilliant mind and eyes sharp as a laser, and also to the union of the entire clan, conducted with her determination and love
Nearly two years after such revolution, a package was delivered at the Hyuuga compound
"Hinata-sama, I have something for you" he announced with the sweetest and most innocent smile somebody had ever seen on his face
"For me?" Hinata asked stopping her gardening. She was more surprised by his attitude than by the fact that he had a gift for her. Neji extended the package of the size of a shoe box, enveloped in white and lavender colored furoshiki *. After wiping the dust off her hands with her handkerchief, she received it gingerly and full of curiosity. They went to sit on the garden bench, and carefully she opened the beautiful envelope and the wooden box in it; as she removed the top, her eyes filled with tears. Inside the box, laid the dolls from her most early childhood that she had buried next to her room in wrecked pieces. They were beautiful, even more than when she received them for the first time. Golden veins traced their features on faces, necks, and hands. Their attires were exactly as she remembered, the geisha with her beautiful coiffure and her kimono, green with cherry blossoms, clean and perfect; the shinobi with his blue costume and wooden armour in his chest, arms, and legs, as if nothing ever happened through them; they both had pieces of jade embedded in different places; but they shared the ornament of their foreheads, also a piece of jade
Unable to help it, Hinata broke into tears. Neji patiently waited by her side while she liberated her mixed and overwhelming feeling, which took several minutes
"How did you know?" she asked once she was more calmed
"That day I..." he started, wringing the fabric of his pants on both fists, his head lowered and his jaw trembling in hesitation "I... saw you bury them in the garden… after I did that terrible thing. Hinata-sama…" he bent in the ground "gomenasai*"
"Neji, there's nothing to forgive" she said to him, bending in the ground in front of him "Arigatou, you have no idea what this means to me"
"It's me who should thank you. You had changed so many things in my life"
"Oh, Neji, what I did was just…"
"I'm not talking about the clan, although I will be forever thankful for that as well"
She stared at him in confusion
"You changed my life with your kindness, every time you refused to push me away from you despite all of my offenses"
She took his face in her hands and kissed his lips briefly. A brief, spontaneous, and natural moment, very Hyuuga unlikely "Sumi-masen*! Neji, I didn't mean…!" she got terrified of her own deed and rushedly rose to run away.
He held her hand before she could escape "Hinata..."
"Otou-san, why do Oka-chan's* dolls have golden wrinkles?" a little Hyuuga boy asked his father, staring at the two strange objects at his parents' bedroom shelf
"To remember that once they were shattered, but the effort that brought all the pieces together again, made them precious, invaluable" replied Neji affectionately
"But I don't get it, why weren't they thrown away?"
"Because sometimes, things are worth restoring, Noboru-chan" Hinata answered as she entered the room to join her husband and son "No matter how long and hard it takes. Don't you think they are beautiful?"
"Yes" Neji said