For Love

by Arcane Azmadi

The cycle of vengeance continued unabated. Naruto's mistake led inexorably to his doom, leaving Hinata alone. But on the night of the Blood Moon, she finds herself sent to a place and time painfully familiar to her. Gifted with a second chance, Hinata struggles to rewrite fate to save herself, her lover, and the entire world. Peggy Sue fic.

2. Chapter 2 - Hope for the Past

FOR LOVE.

Disclaimer: You say I can't write? Well... you fight like a cow!

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Chapter 2: Hope for the Past

Hinata groaned as she was roused into wakefulness, forcing her eyes open to the bright morning light beaming through the open window of her room. The kindly, wrinkled face of Chizuru blurred into focus leaning over her as the old woman shook her gently by the shoulder. "Wakey wakey, Hinata-sama! You can't sleep in today, you have a lot ahead of you."

Rubbing her bleary eyes, Hinata forced herself to sit upright and smiled weakly at the old nursemaid. "Ah, good morning Chizuru-san. I'm sorry about sleeping in, I'm afraid I didn't sleep very well last night." In truth she had barely gotten as much as an hour of sleep; once she had grasped the enormity of her situation she had lain awake all night with her mind frantically pondering the possibilities, only collapsing into slumber when her child's body could not sustain her through her fatigue any longer.

Chizuru clucked sympathetically. "Ah, that nightmare you had kept you awake did it? Poor dear, I've had nights like that myself." She helped Hinata to her feet then went over to the wardrobe in the corner and began picking out a yukata for her young mistress to wear. "Still, the day goes on whether we are ready for it or not, so it's best to put on a smile and do our best, wouldn't you say Hinata-sama?" She turned and beamed an encouraging smile at Hinata.

The once-more-young girl couldn't help sincerely returning the smile to Chizuru. She'd almost forgotten how cheerful the old woman was, how she always tried to make Hinata smile whenever she'd been feeling down. She'd truly missed her in the years since she'd quietly passed away in her sleep one night when Hinata was seven. With Chizuru's help she quickly dressed, neatly brushed her short hair, and headed out towards the dining room, to have breakfast with her father for the first time in over four years.

The thought of being able to see her father again was finally enough to distract her from her preoccupation with her new situation. When Hinata, Naruto and the small group of friends they'd been able to trust had deserted Konaha and escaped Shimura Danzo's tyrannical attempt to seize control of its shattered remnants following Pain's devastating attack and Tsunade's death, Hiashi had remained behind to fulfill his responsibilities to the remaining members of the Hyuuga clan. While he'd tacitly given his elder daughter his blessing to take part in their group's desperate mission to defeat Uchiha Madara and Akatsuki, Hinata knew her father had secretly believed it to be suicide mission and was already mourning her as lost even as they'd said their farewells. Forced to go off the grid, Hinata (and Neji, who had accompanied them) had never seen any member of their family again, and when she had heard of the Hyuuga clan's annihilation after the remaining members of Akatsuki, led by Madara, had attacked and destroyed what was left of Konoha, she knew she never would. As far as she'd believed, following Neji's death she and her unborn child would be the last of the Hyuuga clan.

Now that she was apparently back in her own past again, the question of how to relate to her father was suddenly of pivotal importance. Among the thousand questions that had whirled around in her head for hours last night, this one was the most immediate. Hinata had pondered whether to come clean with him and tell him everything, before dismissing that as foolishness- Hyuuga Hiashi had always been a serious, pragmatic and (to be completely honest) unimaginative man, and the idea that he would listen to his five-year old daughter tell him a fable about her really being the twenty-year old pregnant lover of the village pariah-turned-hero, sent fifteen years back in time into her own childhood body after the destruction of the world by a supposedly long-dead madman was so absurd as to be laughable. So with that off the table, Hinata was left with the choices of trying to replicate her original childhood as closely as she could recall it to avoid making unexpected changes to the timeline, or attempting to use the experience she'd gained from fifteen hard, bitter years of struggle to try and do better.

It was no choice at all, really. But that then raised the next question- where should she begin?

Padding silently into the dining room, Hinata caught her breath at the sight of her father already sitting in his normal position at the head of the room, his breakfast untouched in front of him. Hyuuga Hiashi had always insisted on the entire family dining together whenever possible, letting the knowledge that she was making everyone wait serve as a strong deterrent against tardiness or idleness while Hinata was growing up. Hinata had been trying to brace herself for the sight of her father again, but her preparations had been in vain against the rush of feelings that surged through her as she entered his presence for the first time in years.

But if the sight of her father had moved her, that was nothing compared to what she felt when she saw the two people seated to his left. To those who didn't know better, it looked like the Hyuuga clan head had decided to eat breakfast in the company of one of his own shadow clones, so similar was he to the man sitting beside him, the only difference between them being the second man's plainer clothing and the Leaf forehead protector on his forehead that Hiashi himself rarely if ever wore any more. But those who knew them could tell Hyuuga Hizashi apart from his older twin brother with a single look. It wasn't just the extra lines that had prematurely marred Hiashi's face from the stresses of running the clan, especially since the death of his beloved wife Hotaru. Hizashi carried himself differently from his brother, unobtrusive where Hiashi stood out, silent where Hiashi would always make himself heard, almost like his brother's shadow given solid form. Hinata could barely remember her uncle, but she still remembered the smoldering resentment her father had once sensed within his brother in the branch family that had caused him to use the Caged Bird Seal to punish Hizashi before the eyes of both of their children.

It was when she laid eyes on Neji, seated on the tatami beside his father, that her eyes widened. Her father she had been expecting and she hadn't been too surprised to see her long-dead uncle, but Neji gazed back at her as she entered the room with guileless white eyes that stared out from beneath his bare, unmarked brow. The last time she had seen her cousin alive back in what she supposed she should now call her "old life", he and Tenten had struck out from the rest of their group together on their own, disguised as Naruto and herself, in a desperate attempt to lead their pursuers away from the others. They'd succeeded in drawing Akatsuki off and making them lose the group's trail for quite some time, but Hinata had wept in Naruto's arms for an entire day when they'd received word that the two of them had died fighting Hoshigaki Kisame and Yakushi Kabuto somewhere near the border of the Country of Waves.

Now as she stared at her cousin sitting beside his long-dead father, his forehead unmarred by the seal that would poison his life with bitterness for eight long years until his battle with Uzumaki Naruto, it took all of Hinata's self-control to keep her eyes from flooding with tears.

Hiashi frowned. "Hinata, what are you standing there for? Come and sit down so we can begin."

The girl blinked, realising that she'd been wool-gathering. "Um, I'm sorry, Father." She hastily crossed the room to kneel down on the zabuton cushion at her father's right side, sitting in the seiza fashion she'd mastered from years of practice. She felt a momentary pang as she did so- as miraculous as this chance to see her father and Neji again was, she couldn't help feeling a wistful longing. If she'd only been sent back a year further into her childhood, this place by her father's side would still have been occupied by her mother.

Still, as Chizuru-san took her own place halfway down the hall and the assembled Hyuuga clan finally picked up their chopsticks and began to eat, Hinata rejoiced internally at the true scope of the opportunity that had been laid before her. When she'd been contemplating her new situation in the early hours of the morning, she'd been more concerned with the possibility of averting the greater catastrophes that had befallen Konoha and the rest of the ninja world in the wake of Madara's campaign to reunite the Tailed Beasts, and at the very least preventing her and Naruto's eventual capture, his death and the completion of the Moon's Eye Plan. But looking across at her cousin as he cheerfully scooped rice from his bowl into his mouth, Hinata made a decision: she would stop Neji from being branded with the Caged Bird Seal, and she would prevent the events that had led to his Hizashi's death, leaving him an orphaned ward of the uncle he'd -fairly or not- blamed for the tragedy.

"Hinata." The girl jumped as her father addessed her. The clan head was frowning. "Is something the matter? You haven't touched your food."

Guiltily, Hinata realised her attention had wandered again. "Um, no Father. I'm sorry. I was just thinking about something." Hastily she picked up her bowl and chopsticks and delicately lifted some rice up to her mouth.

Hiashi nodded. "Good. You have much to do today. After breakfast you have to go and be measured for the new birthday kimono you will wear tomorrow."

Hinata's heart froze. Tomorrow?! Her birthday, the day Neji would be taken and branded with the Caged Bird Seal, was tomorrow? As her mind raced, she realised that added up perfectly with her theory- only the day before Akatsuki had caught up with the two of them, Naruto had joked about what a perfect present it would be if their child was born on her own birthday, which at the time had been less than a week off. For obvious reasons she'd forgotten about it after being captured, but the night of the eclipse had indeed been only two days before her birthday.

Her heart sank as the implications of this struck her. If she was going to save Neji from the curse of the Caged Bird Seal she had only a single day to do so. She'd assumed she had weeks, even months to work out the best course of action to take, to work towards turning her father away from the cruel traditions of the Hyuuga clan, but time was impossibly short.

She noticed her father glaring at her sternly and hastily resumed eating before he chided her again. Internally, though, doubt was already beginning to erode the optimism her new life had offered her. Would she even get the chance to make a difference this time around?

oooOOOooo

Hinata had no time to ponder her dilemma once breakfast was completed. Chizuru took her out to be measured for her kimono as soon as the meal concluded. Walking the streets of Konoha with her small hand clasped in the old kunoichi's weathered one, Hinata couldn't help but stare around her in wonder. Just as with her father, she hadn't seen the village in almost four years, ever since Pain had flattened it with his devastating gravity powers and she had fled the ruins with Naruto and their little group. She'd forgotten -or perhaps had never before realised- how much happiness there was in the everyday bustle of the normal citizens of Konoha going about their business. Looking upon the same scenery she'd already seen as a child, seeing it now through eyes that had already witnessed four years of battle, death and loss gave her a new insight into how precious the daily life she was seeing around her really was.

Chizuru led her to a small but expensive-looking and exclusive shop on the main street of Konoha, only a short way from the Hokage's tower. The owner, a dignified woman almost as old as Chizuru herself, measured the dimensions of Hinata's child body stoically and silently, lifting Hinata's arms to measure her inseam and stretching her tape measure across the girl's slender shoulders. Hinata barely paid any attention- while a new kimono may have been an exciting thing when she had actually been five years old, now she had more important things to worry about. The gears in her head turned constantly as her body stood motionless, trying to get her thoughts organised into some kind of plan. With less than a day until Neji would be taken and branded with the Caged Bird Seal, how could she possibly overturn a tradition that had persisted in the Hyuuga clan for generations in time to save him?

Eventually the measurements were complete and Chizuru took Hinata's hand to lead her home again as the seamstress began work; the kimono would be delivered to the Hyuuga manor by the next morning. By that stage, Hinata was a nervous wreck. Try as she might, she couldn't think of anything she could say to her father that would persuade him to spare Neji from the cruelty of the Seal. Back in her past life she'd always dreamed of doing away with the barbaric tradition when she had succeeded her father as head of the clan and Naruto had become Hokage, but that chance had never come before the end. If she hadn't been able to stop it when she'd been a young woman, how could she do so as a helpless child?

By the time she'd finished eating her lunch, the growing feeling of helplessness made Hinata feel like crying in frustration. The hope she'd felt as she grasped her new situation had only made the reality that she had no real chance of saving Neji even worse. If she'd had a bit more time, even as much as a week, she might have been able to think of something, but with so little time available to her she was drawing a total blank.

Left with nothing to do after her midday meal, Hinata retired to her room to rest. At a loose end, she stood at her window and stared out at the grounds of the Hyuuga manor. As short as she was it admittedly wasn't much of a view, the high wall around the compound blocked off most of Konoha and the sakura tree in the garden was not currently in bloom, but at least there was a gentle breeze blowing through to caress her face. There was a sick hollow feeling tugging at the pit of her stomach. Her thoughts were chasing themselves around the inside of her head like a dog chasing its own tail, spinning wildly but going nowhere, until her skull started to ache.

Turning away from the garden, Hinata, slumped down on the tatami, leaning back against the wall below the window. She felt like just giving up. If I can't even save Neji-niisan, how am I supposed to save Hizashi-ojisan? How am I supposed to save Naruto-kun? It's hopeless... Her head dropped until her face was buried in her knees and she felt tears spring to the corner of her eyes.

"Naruto-kun, don't you... ever think this war of ours is... impossible?"

"Things are never hopeless, Hinata, no matter how impossible they may seem."

Hinata's breath caught in her chest as the memory of that distant conversation suddenly came back to her.

"You remember when you leaped in between me and Pain, Hinata?"

"Of... of course! How could I ever forget?"

" Yeah, that was the most awesome thing you ever did. And you're a really awesome person, Hinata."

"Naruto-kun..."

"Of course, it was completely impossible for you to defeat him."

"Oh..."

"But that's not important. Because you knew that even before you started to move. You told me that you weren't afraid to die for me. And even though it was impossible, you saved me anyway. Your love was what saved me, what saved us all."

"Oh Naruto-kun, I..."

"So you see, it doesn't matter how impossible things seem, Hinata. As long as we do everything we can, as long as we never give up, things are never hopeless."

"You're right, Naruto-kun."

"Hinata..."

"Naruto-kun... ah..."

Hinata blushed happily as she remembered what had followed after that -the two of them had shared that conversation while lying together in the same futon one evening- but at the same time she took a deep breath and rose to her feet.

She needed to talk to her father.

oooOOOooo

Hyuuga Hiashi looked up from his work with a frown. The last thing he'd been expecting at this time of the day was his daughter (Hinata of course, Hanabi was still too young to even talk) to be kneeling outside the door of his room, requesting to speak with him. He placed his brush down on his desk next to the letter he was writing (a request to the Hokage suggesting that Hyuuga academy students be allowed to take taijutsu lessons with a specially-assigned Hyuuga instructor instead of the rest of their classmates) and turned his body around on the zabuton to face the door. "Very well, Hinata. Come in and sit down."

Hinata bowed politely, entered the room and slid the fusama shut behind her. Hiashi raised a thin eyebrow curiously. Her absolute formal politeness was admirable -she'd apparently absorbed her lessons on proper formal behavior and etiquette even better than he'd expected- but not entirely necessary for a simple conversation between a father and his five year old daughter. Hinata crossed the room, kneeled politely opposite him and looked into his eyes, waiting for him to speak.

The silence lasted for several seconds before Hiashi broke it. "What is it you need to talk to me about, Hinata?" he asked.

"Father," the girl said, her voice clear, "I wanted to ask you about the Caged Bird Seal."

The head of the Hyuuga clan blinked in surprise; the question was so unexpected that a less-disciplined man's jaw would have dropped. "The... Hinata, why do you know about the Caged Bird Seal?"

His daughter seemed to hesitate before answering. "I... saw a member of the branch family take off his forehead protector after a sparring session the other day and saw the seal on his forehead. I asked Chizuru-san what it was for and she told me what it did."

Hiashi frowned. "So you know what the seal is for. So what is it you want to talk to me about, then?"

Hinata squirmed on the zabuton. "Father... I know what the seal does. But I don't understand why we need it."

"It's simple enough." The clan leader pursed his lips. "We cannot risk the Byakugan falling into the hands of any enemies, but neither can we shirk our responsibilities to Konoha by refusing to risk ourselves in the line of duty. So the members of the branch family bear the seal to ensure that when they die their eyes are sealed away, and it is their responsibility to protect the members of the main family who do not bear the seal."

"But Father, if it's only about protecting the Byakugan, why don't all member of the clan have the seal? And why can the main family use the seal to hurt the branch family members? That's cruel!"

Hiashi stared at her, utterly astonished. As soon as the outburst had escaped her lips, Hinata's pale eyes flickered away from his face, darting all around the room and a blush spread across her face. For the first time in years, he struggled to find the words he needed. He opened his mouth, but before he could speak his daughter met his eyes again. "Father, I don't understand why the branch family are treated like slaves of the main family. Aren't they members of the Hyuuga clan, just like us? Why does even someone as young as Neji-niisan have to be branded? What makes him less than me, other than who his father is?" The girl visibly squirmed, her face twisting like she was being forced to drink bitter medicine before she finally managed to get the words out. "And Father... please forgive for saying this, but... why is Hizashi-ojisan completely subordinate to you when the two of you are exactly the same, aside from you being born a few minutes before him? I just... don't understand."

As soon as she'd finished her outburst, Hinata dropped her white eyes to the floor in front of her as if she couldn't believe what she'd just said. Hiashi could barely believe it either. Too astonished to even be angry at his daughter for her temerity, the Hyuuga clan head could do nothing except sit and consider her words.

Of course, the question was not new. When the twins had been children, they had both asked the same thing of the former clan head, their own father Hyuuga Hikaru, on the day Hizashi had been taken to be branded with the Seal. Hiashi even remembered demanding he also be branded with the same seal so that he and his twin could remain identical. But his father had refused. What had his explanation been again?

That was it. "Hiashi, we cannot cast aside the traditions that have defined our family so easily iust because we personally may disagree with them. It is these traditions that have protected our family through the generations and preserved the power of our bloodline." Yes, now he remembered. "Hinata, the Caged Bird Seal and the division of the main and branch families has protected our family for generations, ensuring that the Byakugan, the source of our power, has remained our secret alone. You cannot pick and choose which aspects of tradition you will follow and which you will not, for that undermines the entire system. We follow this tradition because it works, because this is what we have always done. I can no more defy it than I could defy an order from the Hokage. You must understand that I do not disagree with you about the cruelty of the Seal- I was similarly bothered when my brother was branded and I was not. But it must be done."

"But Father-" Hinata began.

"Enough!" Hiashi had been astonished, even impressed, by his five-year-old daughter's understanding and reasoning, far beyond what anyone would expect from a child of her age, but this wasn't a debate- Hinata had asked him a question, he had provided her with the answer, and that was the end of it. "Your compassion does you credit, Hinata, but if this is about Neji, then I am sorry but he will receive the Seal. The discussion is over." He frowned suddenly. "I was not aware you and Neji were particularly close already, Hinata."

As Hiashi looked at Hinata more closely, he received another surprise. His daughter's body was trembling, as if she were trying to contain an explosion. It was so subtle that most people wouldn't notice, but even aside from the powers granted to them by the Byakugan the Hyuuga had keener vision than most. "He is my family, Father," she answered, her voice carefully measured. "Of course I care for him."

Now Hiashi began to grow angry. The implied rebuke stung. Did Hinata think he cared nothing for the branch family members under him, including his own brother? But she was still a child, despite this unexpected show of maturity so he reigned in his temper with the self-control that came from years of practice. "That will be all, Hinata," he said curtly. "I have things I must attend to now. You may depart."

For a split-second he almost thought Hinata was going to defy him and continue to argue, but instead she bowed formally, her head reaching down to the tatami matting. "Yes, Father. Thank you for you time." Smoothly rising to her feet, she turned and left the room, closing the fusama behind her.

Hyuuga Hiashi turned back to his letter and picked up his brush, but found himself unable to concentrate on his work.

oooOOOooo

Frustration filled her tiny body and Hinata clenched her fists tightly as she fought down the instinct to cry. She'd given it her best shot, but her father had not listened.

Well that wasn't entirely true; he'd at least listened, but had refused to be swayed. It was what Hinata had expected before she had gone in to see him, but she'd had to make the effort at least. In all honesty, she'd done somewhat better than she'd anticipated- she'd half-expected her father to refuse to even hear her and angrily dismiss her as soon as she'd dared question the Hyuuga family tradition. She'd never had the courage to discuss the seal with her father back in her old life and had been quite surprised to hear his own views on the topic.

Still, it hadn't been enough. Tomorrow, Neji would be branded.

Tomorrow?

'Tomorrow' was not 'now'.

Yes, he would branded- unless she did something about it,

oooOOOooo

Hyuuga Neji was taking a moment to relax by the side of the ornamental koi pond in the garden when he sensed someone approaching from behind him. He'd finished his training session with his father only fifteen minutes ago and was getting his breath back, so he doubted it was his father again. He tossed the last crust from the sandwich that had been his post-workout snack into the pond (where it was immediately snatched up by the largest carp) and pushed himself up to his feet, brushing grass off his pants as he turned to face the visitor.

To his surprise, it was the tiny figure of clan head Hiashi's daughter approaching him- Hinata. His father was the clan head's younger brother, so that made the girl his... cousin? But his father and his uncle were twins, weren't they? So did that make Hinata his half-sister or something? The few times they'd spoken she'd called him "Neji-niisan" so did she think he was her brother, or was it just a formality? His father had told him that Hinata was the heir to the clan, so she was technically more important than him, but...

His rambling contemplations were interrupted when Hinata stopped in front of him, staring nervously at her feet. When she spoke, her voice was quieter and even more uncertain than usual. "Um, Neji-niisan?" There it was again! "I need to talk to you... urgently. If that's OK with you?"

He blinked in surprise. "Uh, sure Hinata...sama." He was always a bit fuzzy on where he stood with honourifics, but it was better to play it safe. "What is it?"

The tiny girl fidgeted awkwardly for a moment before the words all spilled out of her in a rush. "Um... tomorrow on my birthday my father and the clan elders are going to take you and put a seal on your head called the Caged Bird Seal, just like your father and the other branch family members have on their heads, and its going to force you to serve the main family members like me until you die whether you want to or not, and then when you die it's going to seal up your Byakugan and the main family members can use it to hurt you if you don't do what they say, and I don't want them to do that to you because it's not right! And, and, and I went and asked my father not to do it but he said it has to be done even though he doesn't like it either so they're going to put it on you tomorrow unless we do something!" She broke off, breathing heavily.

Neji boggled at her. His father always told him that he was very smart for his age, but he'd only caught about one word in three. He tried to string the words he had caught together into a coherent picture. "So..." he began hesitantly, "the Hyuuga clan elders and your father... are going to do something bad to me tomorrow?"

Hinata swallowed nervously, catching her breath. "Y-yes. All the members of the branch family receive the Caged Bird Seal on their foreheads. It causes their Byakugan to vanish when they die, to keep the enemies of Konoha from stealing it, and it also lets any main family member hurt them any time they like. It's a horrible thing to do, but Father says it's necessary."

That was a lot easier to understand. Neji considered his little cousin's words for a second, trying to get his head around what she'd just told him. He frowned. "I don't like the sound of that. But you said my father has the seal as well?"

Hinata shuddered, as if recalling a horrible memory. "That's right. Have you ever seen him without his forehead protector on? The blue thing on his head is the seal."

Neji couldn't recall if he ever actually had seen his father bare-headed before, but he decided to just take Hinata's word for it. "Oh. OK. Thanks for letting me know, I guess." He couldn't help but wonder why she'd come to tell him this.

The heir to the clan shook her head furiously, causing her neat bob of black hair to float around her head like a dark cloud. "No, you don't understand, Neji-niisan. I don't want you to be branded with the Seal. You need to run away from home until I can convince Father to spare you."

Neji stared at his cousin as if she'd started barking at him like a dog. "Uh... run away? But... I can't run away from home. Where would I go? I... you can't be serious, Hinata-sama!"

Hinata stared at him pleadingly and Neji was shocked to see tears forming in the corners of her white eyes. "No, I mean it, Neji-niisan, you need to get out of here and hide somewhere for at least a few days. Uh, do you have any friends who can hide you? Maybe you can camp out in the woods somewhere, it'll take them at least a while to find you. We... we can take some food from the kitchen to keep you going. And, and-"

Neji cut her off. This conversation was starting to freak him out. "Uh, no Hinata-sama, I think I'd better stay here. No matter what the elders are going to do, I'm sure Father wouldn't let them do anything too bad to me." That's right, his Father would never let anything bad happen to him.

"Please, Neji-niisan!" To Neji's absolute shock the tears overflowed from Hinata's eyes and streamed down her cute cheeks. His cousin stepped right up close to him and her hands reached out to grab him by his shirt, pulling her tear-wet face right up to his. "Your father doesn't want this to happen to you either, but he can't do anything about it! Please, you have to run!" She looked down and Neji realised she was trembling. "If... if you run away, I... I'll go with you!"

That was too much. Neji pulled out of Hinata's weak grip and stepped back, averting his face from her tear-streaked one. "Um, I'm sorry Hinata-sama, I... just realised I have to go. Father is looking for me." Ignoring her plaintive protests he dodged past her and ran for the house. For a moment was terrified that she was going to chase him, but when he cast a last quick glance behind him just before he turned out of sight past the shoji panel he saw her standing right where he'd left her, facing away from the house and sobbing into her hands.

With an awful twisting feeling in his gut, Neji went looking for his father. He found him easily enough, still in the clan dojo where he'd last seen him after their training session together, meditating silently in the corner. The young boy timidly crept up to his father, hesitant to disrupt the calming silence of the otherwise empty room, but burning with the need for reassurance. "Um... excuse me Father...?"

Hyuuga Hizashi's Byakugan eyes opened at the sound of his son's voice and he smiled as he turned his head to look at Neji. "Hmm? What is it, Neji? Would you like to practice some more before dinner?"

The boy squirmed in front of his parent, unsure of how to begin. "Um... no, Father, I... need to ask you something. You see, H-Hinata-sama just came to talk to me just now and..."

Hizashi didn't interrupt his son as the entire story of Neji's meeting with his little cousin spilled out of him, although his face grew grave. When the boy had finished and was looking at him expectantly he sighed. "Neji, sit down here please." Once the boy had settled himself on the hardwood floor in front of him, he lifted his hands behind his head, undid the ties of his forehead protector and removed it, revealing a blue manji-shaped mark on his brow. Neji's white eyes went wide. "Neji... I'm afraid that what Hinata-sama told you is actually completely correct. We of the branch family have always been marked with the Caged Bird Seal in order to serve our purpose as the guardians of the main family. And yes, it will seal away our Byakugan on our death, and can be used by members of the main family to punish us if we rebel. And although I would wish you to be free of it, it will be laid upon you tomorrow, on the date of Hinata-sama's fifth birthday, to mark you as subordinate to her, the family heir of your generation."

Neji stared at his father in horror as Hizashi continued. "I confess that I should have told you about the seal before now myself, but... I could not bear it. Forgive me my cowardice, Neji, but I didn't want to burden you with the knowledge any earlier than necessary." He frowned. "It astonishes me that Hinata-sama took it upon herself to do so, or even that she is aware of the seal already at her age. You said she wanted you to run away... so she could convince my brother to spare you?"

Neji nodded. "That's right, Father. She was desperate to make me get away. She even said she'd run away with me if she had to."

Hizashi's thin eyebrows shot up in undisguised surprise. "She said what?!" He ruminated on the thought for a moment. "What a... strange thing for the heir of the Hyuuga clan to say. The amount of trouble she would cause if she suddenly went missing would be..." His voice trailed off and Neji stared at his father in fascination as he lost himself in thought.

Shaking his head, Hizashi leaned forward and looked into his son's eyes. "Neji, listen to me. Every person has a destiny assigned to them at birth that they cannot escape from. Your fate and mine, as members of the branch family, is to serve and protect the main family- you are meant to follow Hinata-sama as I followed my brother before you. I have often questioned and cursed this fate, but I cannot fight it. You did the right thing by not attempting to run away as she wanted." Neji smiled weakly at his father's reassurance, but he couldn't keep his face from falling. Hizashi wasn't finished. "But Neji, remember this: I don't know yet whether or not Hinata-sama will prove to be a strong leader for our clan when she eventually succeeds my brother, but I am certain that she will deserve your protection. Her compassion and kindness, how much she cares for you and others below her, shows that she has at least the potential to be a good leader." Father and son locked their white eyes and Neji hung on Hizashi's every word. "If she is strong, then serve her faithfully. If she is weak, then lend her your strength. Because a leader who loves their people as much as that is one you must protect. She will care for you, and you must repay that kindness with your loyalty. Do you understand, Neji?"

Neji's eyes were as wide as saucers as he absorbed his father's words and nodded vigorously. "Yes Father. I understand."

oooOOOooo

Hinata managed to wipe away her tears before anyone else saw them, but the feelings of misery and frustration weren't so easy to erase. She'd done everything she could think of short of outright kidnapping Neji and hiding him and she hadn't managed to change anything. Tomorrow, despite her best efforts, Neji would receive the Caged Bird Seal that would set him on the path of bitterness and resentment against the main family that would take him years to escape.

She got through the rest of the afternoon practically on autopilot, dispiritedly avoiding the company of others. At dinner she focused entirely on her meal, not meeting the eyes of any of the other family members, although she could feel Neji looking at her oddly. After bathing and returning to her bedroom, Chizuru tucked her into her futon and she was left alone in the dark with her thoughts.

She lay in the darkness, staring at the ceiling blankly. Her young body was tired after a long and disappointing day, especially with the disrupted sleep she'd had the previous night, and all she wanted to do at the end of it was to lose herself in slumber, but for some reason it refused to take her. She felt oddly uncomfortable lying in her futon and squirmed from side to side, trying to find a better position to lie in, but it felt like something was missing.

No, it wasn't something that she was missing. It was someone.

From the first time she and Naruto had become lovers when they were eighteen, up until their capture by Akatsuki, she had never slept alone. Even before that first tender night, there had been times where the two of them had chastely shared a bedroll, huddling together for warmth from the cold or comfort from the fear. Her and Naruto had never been apart even once. The night of the blood moon, where she'd lain awake and watched through the bars as the darkness had bled, was the first time in almost two years that she had been without him, and she had been too traumatised by his impending death and her dread over their child's future to even try to sleep. When she had passed out and awoken back in her past, she'd been too distracted by her situation to think about it, only blacking out again when fatigue had been too much to resist.

Now she was lying in the futon she'd slept in for her entire childhood, trying to find some rest, she realised how truly lonely it was sleeping alone.

Pushing back the bedclothes, Hinata pushed herself to her feet and staggered across to the window of her room and pushed the shutters open. With the eclipse behind them, the full moon was starting to wane, but still lit up the clear skies above Konoha. Hinata stared up at the starry sky, her heart aching. Naruto was out there, somewhere, right at this moment. She couldn't recall whether he was still living at the orphanage with the other parentless children, or whether he'd already been relocated to the solitary apartment where he'd lived alone for years with almost no-one to watch over him- when he had told her about his childhood he'd been vague on the details, and she hadn't pressed him to recall such a sad part of his life any more than he wanted to.

For a moment she was seized by a mad compulsion to leap through the window and go to look for him, right now, just to see him. She missed him so much it was like a blade in her heart. She actually had her hand on the window sill, about to vault over it out into the night garden when she caught herself. Even if the idea hadn't been completely insane, Naruto didn't even know her at this stage of their lives. They weren't even due to meet for another year, just after they'd both started at the academy, when he'd saved her from being harassed by a gang of bullies.

The Naruto she'd known and loved was dead. To the Naruto of this time, she was just a stranger.

As her eyes filled with tears, her hand unthinkingly brushed against her belly, a habit that had become second nature to her during the later months of her pregnancy every time anxiety had come upon her, only to grope at the empty space left by her child's absence. That was another thing she'd lost, this time undoubtedly forever. Even if she and Naruto grew as close again as they had during her first life, there was no way the same child would be conceived a second time, unless she replayed their lives perfectly all the way to their tragic conclusion. Their child had never been born, and never would be.

Hinata crawled back into her futon, curled up into a ball and cried herself to sleep.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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AFTERWORD:

As with my first fic, The Secret Songs of the Ninja, I've been writing several chapters of For Love in advance before publishing my first. It really is remarkable how much easier I find it to write on my tablet when out of the home instead of sitting in front of my desktop, getting constantly distracted by online nonsense and games (I had wireless on my tablet, but discontinued it because the costs were ridiculous, and I don't have any games I can play offline installed on it either), despite the incredible awkwardness of the Polaris Office interface (although getting a bluetooth keyboard helped). Maybe I should transfer all my writing to my tablet and just start going on long pointless day trips around the city rail line?

I hope you're enjoying the story. Although it's a NaruHina fic to the core, there's a lot more to it than just the two of them, so it'll be a while before we get to any of what you might traditionally consider 'NaruHina content' between them. As you've probably noticed, these opening chapters have more to do with Hinata's childhood and family- as a child, that's the extent of what she can influence. Fortunately, those are some of the most important aspects of Hinata's character, so it promises to be interesting. At least in my opinion anyway.

If you recall, I mentioned in the chapter 1 afterword that I was mostly following canon as closely as I can. A few minor differences show up here. Foremost among these is moving Hinata's age forward a bit; in the manga, these events took place around Hinata's third birthday, which I just found plain ridiculous. Also the flashback to when Neji was taken to be branded also seemed to imply that this was the first time Neji had even seen Hinata before, which considering they're cousins who both live in the same household is even more ridiculous, so obviously I scrapped that and gave them an established relationship. Other details about life among the Hyuuga family aren't exactly non-canon as such, but obviously I had to make up a whole bunch of stuff to fill in the gaps (for example, we know almost nothing about Hinata's mother and absolutely nothing about Neji's).

NEXT TIME.

Although Hinata has failed to save Neji from the seal, she has already begun to change things. But can she change enough to make a real difference and spare her family from the tragedies that lie ahead? And can she draw on the power of her future to change her past? The real battle is only just beginning in chapter 3 of For Love, 'Struggle for Acceptance'.

Arcane Azmadi, 2017.