I do not own Naruto
Ponies
Blaire unconsciously rubbed her forehead as she sat in the window seat, reading a book. The seal didn't actually cause her any physical pain, but just the knowledge that it was there was enough to make it bother her. She was bursting with questions about the mark, but Neji had been called out on an emergency mission early that morning and had had to leave before she got the chance to ask him even one.
And he'll probably be gone for at least a day. Uh! This is so stupid!
The six-year-old shut her book with a snap and sat up, suddenly filled with restless energy. Blaire was alone in the nursery, her mother still at their lodgings with Hizashi. Tam should arrive soon, with or without Anni Blaire did not know. Normally she enjoyed the peace that came when she had the nursery to herself, but today was different. She would take any distraction to divert her attention from her forehead, even her blond, over-energetic cousin.
Blaire sat there for five more minutes, her foot-swinging becoming more and more ferocious. Eventually, she was slamming the back of her heel so loudly against the seat that she didn't even hear the hurried footsteps coming from out in the hall. The door banged open and Blaire's hyperactive cousin came bounding through the door.
"BLAIRE! BLAIRE! GUESS WHAT? GUESS WHAT?" He ran up to her and started jumping up and down.
Blaire's sensible, white eyes followed her cousin's progress as he went up, down, up, down, in a circle, up, down, up, down…
"What?" She asked in a sarcastic voice.
"TOMORROW'S MY BIRTHDAY! MY BIRTHDAY! YEAH! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? I'M GONNA BE FIVE!" He landed and shoved eight fingers in front of Blaire's face. "FIVE!!!"
Blaire looked at him with a completely straight face. Then she raised her own hand and put down three of his fingers. Tam looked at his hands, obviously confused at her actions. But then he noticed the bandages around his cousin's head.
"Hey! Why do you have bandages on your head?"
Blaire sighed. Should I tell him? Does he even know about the seal? Wait…I didn't even know about the seal myself until yesterday. There's no way he knows.
"Did you get hurt?"
"No…bu-." Before Blaire could finish her answer, he had leaned forward and untied the knot. The white cloth fell into the girl's lap. Tam's white eyes widened.
"What's that?" He asked in a hushed voice. The green of the seal seemed to glow on Blaire's pale forehead.
Blaire decided she would have to tell him something. "I'm not really sure, but I think that it has something to do with the different branches."
Tam looked at her closely, eyes sliding into suspicious slits. "Nah, I don't think so. Being in different branches only says where you live, right? It doesn't do anything else."
Blaire sighed at how naïve the heir to the main family was. Iimagine. He's gonna be in charge of the whole family one day. She imagined. Oh God.
Tam looked at the seal for another second, then his eyes returned to their normal shape. "Oh well. I think it looks cool! I want one!"
Blaire rolled her eyes. "You can't have one, Tam. Like I said, they're only for branch members."
Tam furrowed his brow and stuck out his bottom lip. "But I want one!" He folded his arms. "I'm gonna go ask Mamma." And on that note, he turned on his heel and marched purposely out of the room.
"You're not gonna find her!" Blaire rolled her eyes and stood up. I wonder if he knows that Lady Hinata is out on a mission? Oh well. He'll figure it out eventually.
As Blaire had thought, Tam was unable to find his mother, or his father, or his grandpa, or anyone else who he could have asked. He returned to Blaire after an hour of looking and the two of them amused themselves for the rest of the day.
When Blaire told him, "I told you so", Tam replied with a defiant, "I'll ask for one tomorrow. So there." Followed by a raspberry.
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The next day was Tam's birthday banquet. All of the family was to attend. It was not optional. Tenten spent the morning getting Blaire's, Hizashi's, and her own clothes ready and getting everybody clean (Neji took care of his own clothes and his personal hygiene). She gave the children a bath, the dressed them both.
Blaire's shoulder length brown hair was combed out and then put in a bun at the base of her neck. Blaire, normally a tomboy, had to use all of her self-control to conceal her excitement about wearing her best kimono. It was dark purple in color, with small, silver lotus blossoms embroidered on it. Hizashi was dressed in a small, golden robe embroidered with scarlet cranes. Blaire squealed when she saw how adorable her brother looked in it. Tenten wore a dark green kimono embroidered with gold fans. She even took down her two buns and let her hair hang loose, just brushing her shoulders. As the three started off towards the banquet hall, Neji joined them, wearing the traditional Hyuga robes. Both Blaire and Hizashi still wore their bandages.
When they arrived at the hall, they took their seats as the head of the branch family. Blaire saw Hinata and Naruto, seated to the right of Lord Hiashi. Anni was seated on Hinata's lap, looking absolutely adorable in her diminutive sky-blue kimono. Hinata wore a dark blue one. On Hinata's other side sat her sister Hanabi, wearing an olive green kimono and looking rather bored. On Lord Hiashi's left, seated at the head of the table, was Tam who was practically jumping up and down in his seat with excitement. When everyone was seated, Lord Hiashi stood.
"My family, both the main household," he nodded to Naruto and Hinata, "And the branch families," He nodded to Neji and Tenten, "I welcome you. Tonight, we are here to honor a very special person."
Tam was about to explode with excitement.
"This person is important to both parts of the family, for one day he will be the head. Today, my daughter Hinata's son, Tam, turns five."
Tam could hold it in no longer. He jumped from his seat and yelled, "YEAH! TODAY'S MY BIRTHDAY! YOU GOT IT! MY BIRTHDAY! YEAH!"
Lord Hiashi put a hand on Tam's head and firmly pushed him back in his seat. "Now, we shall all celebrate, as one family, this special day." At the last word, servants came pouring in, loaded with exquisite dishes of food. First came bowls of salad and many different types of soup, followed by dish upon dish of different noodles, which was then preceded by a dozen different meat dishes. After all of this came,
"RAMEN! ALRIGHT!" Father and son yelled at the same time as five huge pots of steaming ramen were brought into the room, each being held by three struggling servers.
After an hour, Blaire thought she was at her capacity. She slid down in her seat, too full to move, when the doors to the kitchen burst open and the head cook entered, pushing the biggest cake Blaire had ever seen in her life on a little cart. She looked at it, open mouthed, as it made its way down the long table towards the speechless boy at the end.
Everyone dug into the splendid cake except for Neji. The prodigy did not particularly like sweets, plus he was somewhat confused, something that did not happen often. Neji was somewhat surprised at the lavishness of the celebration. He remembered nothing like this for any of Hinata's birthday celebrations, or any of Hanabi's. I wonder if Naruto had anything to do with this. For the Hyuga clan had undergone many changes since Naruto had become a member of the family.
For one thing, the branch and the main families interacted on a daily basis instead of only on formal occasions. There was now a combined nursery for both branch babies, and main house babies, and the main household members were no longer allowed to speak down to the branch members. So far Naruto was making excellent progress at fulfilling the vow he made after beating Neji in the Chunin exams. But the thing that had first inspired Naruto to change the Hyuga clan had not yet been changed, and that was the cursed seal. The same seal that had just been branded onto his children's foreheads. Neji guessed that Naruto had not known of Hiashi's actions, for the blond jonin would never have let that happen.
Neji's thoughts were interrupted by Hiashi calling for attention once again.
"Now, my friends, we would like to-." Hiashi stopped and looked down at Tam, who was tugging franticly on his sleeve.
"Grandpa! Grandpa!"
"Yes, Tam?"
"Is this the part where you give me my presents?"
"Yes, Tam, it is."
"Well, remember when I told you I wanted a pony for my birthday?" Tam was now standing in his chair, looking at his grandpa with urgent eyes.
"Yes," Hiashi said slowly. "Why?"
"Well, I changed my mind. I don't want a pony."
"You don't?" Hiashi asked, more than a little surprised (for the last three weeks, all Tam could talk about was his new pony). "Then what do you want?"
Tam pointed at his forehead and said, "I want one of those green marks on my forehead, just like Blaire's!"
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Sorry for the delay on this chapter. I'm so close to finishing my other story, so I had to write that first. Anyway. I have decided to stick with the curse mark storyline for a while. I was just gonna continue on with other stuff, but then 's review made me want to continue. Thank you so much! She gave me the idea for Tam's desire for a curse mark, so I just took it from there. Thank you again, !
Now, about the story. I didn't really like how whiney Tam was, but that's just how five year olds are. Or at least, how this five year old is. I tried to make Blaire sarcastic, because I felt that that was how she was supposed to be. When I thought of her, that's how she was: a self-sufficient, sarcastic, peace-maker, loving older sister, very smart, tomboy with Hyuga eyes and short brown hair. She and Tam are two of my favorite children to write about.
Anyway, thank you for all of those who reviewed. I love you all! I'll update as soon as I can, but I'm probably not gonna have that much time. ONLY 14 DAYS OF SCHOOL LEFT! YAHOO! Well, I'm off. Oh, don't forget to review, review, review! (please?)