Chapter two, dedicated to LadySaturnGirl. :)
Warnings: Profanity, Alternate storyline.
Hinata looked around the room and saw Hanabi, Itachi and Sasuke, all looking unfazed, like she did. She was glad her nervousness wasn't showing through.
Now I know why we're here...
"So I guess you've all gathered why you're here?" said Tsunade, slightly tipsy and slurring her words a little. Hinata quickly used her bloodline limit and saw, not one, but three empty bottles of sake under Tsunade's desk.
The four nodded, and murmured "dojutsu". Hinata was thinking that this wasn't going to go down well.
Tsunade turned around to look at a clipboard on her desk, and then turned around again to look at them, almost falling over with the momentum of her little pirouette.
Hinata snickered a little to herself - Tsunade was really smashed, and when that happened, things always got a little . . . entertaining.
"Boys," she called out, "come here and explain your discoveries to them."
Shisui Uchiha and Neji Hyuuga walked out of the office adjoining Tsunade's, and smiled at the four.
"Neji, you start." said Shisui, looking warily at Tsunade as he sensed the stench of alcohol on her breath.
"If you all don't know why you're here, it's because of you bloodline limit - the Sharingan or the Byakugan. Shisui and I are were on a mission together last month, and we discovered certain things about our eyes which could be very useful to Konoha. Shisui, shall we demonstrate the first technique?"
Shisui walked over and the pair activated their bloodline limits, and then Neji spoke.
"Through training, it is possible to use the Sharigan's techniques with the Byakugan, and vice versa. So, Hinata, could you please step here, and write a word on this piece of paper please, making sure Shisui can't see what you're writing?'
What? Me? No fucking way.
Hinata walked to the desk, and grabbed the piece of paper and the pen Neji offered to her. She put the paper on the desk, and cupped her hand against the paper so Shisui couldn't see, and wrote 'rectangle' on the sheet. She passed it to Neji, who was glaring daggers at her, and he folded it in half and then put it under Tsunade's clipboard.
Hinata walked back into her place in line, desperately wish she could just fade out of existence. She didn't want to be here at all.
Shisui made two handseals, looked at the clipboard, and then uttered "rectangle." Tsunade looked at her, and asked if that was right, and Hinata nodded.
How did he know? How is this possible?
"Great," said Neji, "with these techniques, Konoha's special techniques can be spread between the Uchiha and Hyuuga clans. This way, the clans will be united, and there will be several teams formed with special combined bloodline techniques. It will be a new age of power for Konoha!"
What? No! This isn't right. Things have to stay the way they are, we can't become so powerful, though Hinata, what if we start a war? No, this is horrible. Utterly horrible.
"I want you all to meet at the gates at sunrise tomorrow morning. You will all be training together in a remote location, as some of the techniques," Tsunade paused, "are quite destructive. There is food and beds provided, you will only need to take clothing and other personal items. You will be gone for three weeks. Dismissed."
Hinata ran all the way to the Sanctuary, horror ripping through her.
This was exactly what could start another war, she thought, panicking. What is going through Tsunade's head? This is catastrophic! No, no, no. This has to be a bad dream. It just has to be.
She sat down on a rock, warm from the sunshine, in the middle of her garden. The cherry-blossom tree above her was about to bloom, it was that time of year, and the water around her rock was still.
'Still water runs deep' - how true, she thought, you never know what's on someone's mind, you never know how badly they could backstab you, or betray you.
She got up, crouching at first to ease the strain on her knees - she was still young and fit, but training made her joints ache - and she slowly rose, steadying herself so she wouldn't fall into the water.
When she was in the confines of her room, she remembered that she need to pack for dojutsu training, for a whole fucking three weeks. She yanked open her drawer, and pulled out two black shirts, and then two black pairs of three-quarter pants and put the neat piles of clothing on her bed, which, of course, was made (because Hinata does what she's told, she's a good girl. . .).
She grabbed two mesh singlets to go underneath her training outfits, and dropped them on her bed as well, and then shut the drawer and pulled out another drawer. She grabbed the appropriate undergarments, and then shut the drawer and opened the cupboard where she hung her dresses and kimono. Two printed cotton dresses were slid of their coathangers, and laid on the bed too.
Finally, Hinata gathered her toiletries, and packed all the items into a canvas backpack.
She was supposedly ready to go, but mentally, she never would be.
She would never go and train there if she had a choice - she had to stick with her facade until the very end, the 'mercy killing' that she counts on.
The backpack was put on the wooden floor near her door, next to her sandals, and she sighed as she lay upon her bed and stared at the ceiling. She was thinking so much it was making her feel more depressed and anxious every second.
After she'd had a little accidental nap, and being woken by her mother calling her to dinner, she trudged out to the kitchen, seeing Hanabi and her father seated at the table, fervently discussing something. Her mother was pouring the contents of a rather large saucepan into four bowls. The steam rose up from them in little spirals, little whirls - her description made her remember Naruto, and she tried to suppress her anger with herself at the whole Naruto/Sasuke dilemma.
Why do I have to feel like this?
"Hinata, can you get you and Hanabi's bowls for me? My hands are full." her mother said, as she walked over to the table and put a bowl in front of Hiashi, who looked at and thanked her, and then turned back to talking with Hanabi. Her mother sat down and listened to Hiashi and Hanabi. Hinata brought the bowls over and placed one in front of Hanabi, and then took her places and asked if they were going to start eating.
After a couple of minutes of silence, except for the sounds of soup being consumed, Hiashi broke the monotony when he looked at Hinata.
"Hanabi and I have been talking, and I think it would be best if Hanabi was made head of clan when I die instead of you. Do you understand why?" he asked, like it was nothing more important than the weather.
Hinata didn't know if she was relieved or sad about this, but she was as angry as a bull seeing red. How can they just go ahead and exclude about things as important as this? she thought miserably.
"Yes father, I understand why." said Hinata, cutting her losses and pretending it wasn't a big deal.
Why? Because Hanabi is always better than me, always gets to train with Father, never has to put up with Neji, never has to be afraid of being confident, afraid of being herself.
Hinata felt the most sorry for her mother, the one who was always passed over, even though she had a huge right to know about this. Hinata was her daughter too, after all. She had to cook and clean up after everyone, and never got a "thanks" and was almost never told "I love you". Hinata had to start showing her mother how much she loved her, how much she appreciated her. She wasted all of that love on her father-
who stabs her in the back
-who never seemed to really appreciate it. If Hinata would take the time to make her mother a cup of tea, and tell her to sit down and relax, it'd would make her mum feel so happy. Her mother never loved anyone more than Hinata and Hanabi, they were her 'darlings', and she would go to the ends of the earth for them. Hinata would do the same for her mother . . . she just needed to show it more.
And I will from now on, she thought.
Later that night, when Hinata couldn't sleep, and was staring at the ceiling again and fretting about tomorrow and the dojutsu training and, well . . . she was worried about everything. She really wanted to be herself, she was so sick of being push-over Hinata, spineless Hinata. She wanted to be brave, confident, reserved, full of logic . . . she wanted to be like Sasuke.
Sleep didn't come easy, but it did somehow, and Hinata closed her tired eyes, not knowing what tomorrow would bring, just like everyone else.
A/N: You may be wondering why I brought Shisui back to life. Reason: he was never dead. The Uchiha Clan Massacre never happened in this story.
Yeah, so if there's any mistakes, please review and tell me, as constructive criticism is just awesome (and helps you improve, may I add). :D