Toward the Sun
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but I own any Original Characters (oc's).
"Talking"
'Thinking'
AN: I've had this idea for a few months. It started out with me actually wanting to do a story only on Neji and his father, now it's pretty much a background check on the whole Hyuuga clan! This story mostly revolves around Hiashi and Hizashi, however canon characters also get a fair amount story time. There should be a tremendous amount of character and plot development in both time lines. Hope you enjoy!
*Post Chuunin Exam arc. Some aspects might not follow canon.
000oooo000
"You lost."
That statement had come up a lot around Neji for the last week.
"Why did you lose?"
While no one in the branch family-and actually many in the main family-would deliberately provoke him about his unexpected loss in the Chunin Exams, his youngest cousin Hanabi had no such qualms. To her credit, asking annoying questions was naturally expected of seven year old's. Since he hadn't answered her question yet, she had a viable excuse to keep asking.
She did have her nice points, and he still liked her more than Hinata, but now Neji was getting irritated with hearing the same thing over and over. He tried just walking away, but she would follow him until her father had to pull her away for training. Unfortunately Hiashi was not around to save him this time, he was stuck with her incessant questioning till who knows when.
She asked him again. "How could you lose?"
He ignored her.
"...Maybe instead I should just ask Uzumaki-san how he beat you. I'm sure he'd love telling it, with LOTS of detail."
Neji stopped. "Weren't you THERE?" he ground out trying to keep from yelling at her. While he didn't begrudge Naruto for winning, it didn't mean he was happy with losing.
"I saw how you lost, I just didn't understand how. He was down one moment, then you were and did not get back up. Tou-san said that you would win, you didn't."
"..." Neji was silent. He hadn't considered she was actually just trying to make sense of a situation that confused her.
"What's more, you just laid there and let him talk down to you. What up with that!"
"Watch your grammar!" he finally did say. It seems even those with proper upbringing we susceptible to the typical academy youngsters' lack of context.
"My grammar isn't the issue, it's that Tou-san was wrong about you."
"...Why don't you ask him about why he was wrong?"
"I won't!" Hanabi never questioned her father on anything. Ever.
"Your question will just have to go unanswered then, because I honestly don't know." Determination or no, he still believes he should have won.
"Fine," she huffed, "I'll just ask onee-san since the blond boy said he was fighting for her anyways."
"Good luck."
"Oh no, you're coming too!" and thus Hanabi began to drag him all over the compound looking for the one person he didn't want anything to do with so soon after the Chuunin exams.
000oooo000
'The Hyuuga clan library was actually pretty vast for a clan of mainly taijutsu users. Contrary to popular belief, they had actual jutsu- they just usually involved their kekkei genkai(1). It had two levels in a building between the two houses, the 'basement' being only accessible to the main branch. This is where Hinata was currently in her clans' archives digging through every technique that could possibly be a help to her.
She wasn't looking at them to learn, she either knew them or they were way above her level. What she was doing would hopefully result in a change in herself. Maybe if she could create her own technique...
She shook her head to keep from getting ahead of herself. As of now she had nothing to go by, and even if she did, no way to know how to start. Hinata sighed at the tediousness as she picked up another stack of jutsu scrolls and walked them up the stairs. Everything mostly went by the same principles, principles that weren't working for her. At least she found some that were of vague help.
She walked back down and began looking along the shelves of Hakke(2) jutsu. These were the most advanced techniques the juuken(3) had to offer. Maybe-
"HINATA-ONEE-SAN!"
"EEK!" Hinata nearly had a heart attack, but she managed not to pass out. Fainting was reserved for the unpredictable knucklehead she admires so much.
"H-Han-abi! You shou-dn't yell like that in the house..."
"Why? It's not like anyone is around to hear."
"I beg to differ." Neji commented dryly considering he was standing closest to Hanabi and had gotten the brunt of her exclamation.
Hanabi ignored him. "Onee-san why was that blond boy fighting for you in the Chuunin exams? Is he your boyfriend or something? That means you know how he won right?"
"NO! N-no he's not m-my b-b-b-boy-b-" She stopped realizing she'd never get out the word she so wished was true. "U-um, Na-Naruto-kun is just v-very strong, that's all."
"But how did he get strong enough to beat the first genius of our clan in over two hundred years? Even Tou-san said he should have won!"
"As grateful as I am for your support-" Neji began.
Hinata quickly saw where this conversation was going. Her younger sister idealized their father to a fault. She had a hard time when it came to recognizing his. Trying to let her down gently, she said "Tou-san can be wrong sometimes Hanabi. It doesn't happen often, but its possible."
"I feel the need to remind you that-" Neji was ignored.
"...What did you say?" Hanabi asked, her eyes narrowing though not making her a really threatening picture.
"We really shouldn't-" No one was listening to him today.
Hinata didn't want to start an argument with her sister but it was too late. She was not going to let this little mark on their father's character go. "He just made a small error in assuming who would win. In the ninja world nothing is ever definite."
"Even be down here-" He isn't because he's a branch member, Hanabi isn't because she's not a ninja yet, and Hinata wasn't considered to be at the level of the techniques surrounding them.
Hinata's calm tone did nothing but fuel her anger. "Father does not go around making wild assumptions! Your loss to Neji means nothing! In a spar I can't even beat him! How could some no-name, hokage-wannabe beat him!"
"Someone might hear yo-" Neji cut off seeing Hanabi settle into their families' traditional fighting stance. Now it was going too far. "This is neither the place nor time to settle your dispute. Hanabi-sama, if you two are going to fight you must use the dojo like everyone else and your father must be present, you know this already. You may receive your answer th-" The sound of footsteps falling closer to their location quieted them down.
"Well that's just great, now what?"
"We hide."*
"Neji-niisan." He looked over to Hinata who was pointing at a door at the far end of the room. Needing no further prompting than the footsteps coming down the stairs now, they all quickly hid themselves in the room behind that door. It was about the size of a broom closet packed with shelves of scrolls, books, and boxes. Needless to say that made for a very cramped space for three people to be in. Like the boxes, they were practically stacked on top of one another.
"Neji why did you drag me down here?"
"I did no such thing."
"If we're caught, that's the story I'm sticking with."
"Please do not joke like that Hanabi-sama." She was still too young to understand how negatively a main branch member would react to such an otherwise harmless joke.
"SHHHH!"
"..." Neji and Hanabi stared at the source of the offending noise that was now blushing from ear to ear in embarrassment.
The footsteps were still coming closer to them. Everyone was now holding their breaths, hoping that who ever it was would go away. There seemed to be some shuffling around for a moment and the sound of books being put back on a shelf, then all movement outside stopped. Time seemed to tick on endlessly when a shadow in the light coming through the doors' cracks appeared. They all prepared for the worst. Then as soon as the shadow came it disappeared and footsteps were again heard returning up the stairs.
"...Are they gone?" Hanabi asked, eager to get out and ease her numbing arms that were pressed awkwardly between a wall and Neji's backside.
"I think so." Hinata said, her ear pressed up against the door. She moved to open the door but the instant the knob turned they and everything in that little room fell out in a heap. Muttering their collective "ow's" they quietly began to untangle themselves from each other. Several things had fallen out of the closet with them.
"Let's get this mess cleaned up before anyone else comes down here." Neji stated. All previous issues already forgotten they began to pack things back in the closet.
Just as Hinata was putting up one of the boxes, a small purple book fell out from underneath by her foot. She picked it up. "Nani?" She asked quietly to herself. 'Why would a book be taped under a box instead of being put inside of it.'
"Onee-san hurry up, we're almost done over here!" Hanabi called from inside the closet.
Hinata quickly came over and put up the box she had been holding. However she kept the little purple book with her and hid it inside her jacket. She couldn't quite explain it, but she felt- almost drawn to it in a sense.
"Onee-san!"
At Hanabi's call from halfway up the stairs, she decided it would be best for her to continue her search for a style another day and climbed up to her waiting sister and cousin.
Definitions:
Kekkei Genkai: Bloodline limit
Hakke: Eight Divination Signs/Trigrams(English dub)
Juuken: Gentle Fist
How does one hide in a compound full of people that can see through walls? The byakugan obviously isn't banned from use inside the grounds-for training purposes you know. All the walls are made with chakra running through them as both a house defense mechanism and privacy securer. It causes a byakugan user to see nothing but a blur because the chakra is too dense with no network to channel it through. As for looking through everyone else's walls...well a few theories that came up concerning the creation of the Uchiha clan quickly quelled that issue.
AN: I know, I am way past my deadline. I needed the break from writing you don't even know how badly. If I had managed to keep that deadline I never would have been able to show my username on ff net again, it was so horrible. I am rewriting all the new stuff so you won't see an update for this story for awhile.
Things are going to be a kind of slow build up chapterwise, this is just a sort of prologue. I have new year's resolution to get this one done in 2011. I hope you all enjoy it and have a happy new year!