Disclaimer: Let's go with that.
Chapter Three: Façade
--
The sunlight coming thought the window was to bright for that early in the morning and Neji's hand came up to cover his eyes in protest. "Five more minutes," he groaned, rolling over to his side.
"Neji," Hinata's sweet voice whispered in his ear. "It is time to get up. No protesting."
"But Hinata," he moaned, his hand coming up around her neck, pulling her down for a long kiss which she didn't try to break. Eventually he pulled back. "You are a dream." He said sadly, taking in the fact she wore a blue and white kimono and had her hair piled on top of her head in a style she would have never worn it in.
"Maybe I am, but it is still a good dream, is it not?" She smiled gently, brushing her fingers over his cheek, her nails painted a pale pink.
"Yes," he answered, grabbing her hand and kissing each finger. "Hinata, where are you?" He asked softly. "I have been searching forever. Kiba has been threatening to tan my hide if I don't find you. He probably still will even when I do find you," he chuckled, rolling into a sitting position.
"I'm sure he will," she responded, pulling her hand out of his grip and walking over to the window. "Neji, you need to let go of me. I am content where I am, I am happy. Please stop looking for me. Continue in your life without me."
"I can't." He said, standing and going over to her. "I can't live without you. You are the drug that I am addicted to." He wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his face in her hair. "Without her I would die."
She was silent for several minutes. "Maybe I do not wish to be found."
He stiffened. "Hinata," he said, spinning her so she faced him. "Why are you doing this? Why have you left me?"
"It is my wish. I am a burden to the clan. It is easier to disappear than to face the hardships." She sighed, looking away.
"Hinata has always been strong, she has never backed away from hardship, in fact she thrives when faced with difficulty." He argued, taking her hand into his own and noticing for the first time that it was ice cold. "Adversity suits her."
"Maybe the Hinata we know are different people. The one I know freezes in terror at the slightest sign of violence." She gave a humorless chuckle. "The one I know cannot face this world without someone holding her hand and telling her where to go. Perhaps that is why you and she get along so well. You can lead her to places that she can never dream of going. Promise me something," she whispered.
"Anything," he replied, confusion in his voice.
"You sell your soul for so little." She said sadly, her hand coming into contact with his cheek and slowly melting away. "Promise me that if you ever find the other Hinata, that you will always be kind to her and accept what has happened."
"What are you talking about?" He questioned, but it was too late, the apparition had already dissolved into nothingness.
--
He awoke with a jolt, tear tracks streaming down his face. "Hinata," he whispered, his hands reaching out to where he had last seen Hinata's apparition. "Please come back to me. I need you," he sighed, burying his face in his hands. "Please come home."
He sat there like that for several moments before he stood and went to the door of his room, not taking the time to change out of his night clothes. "Mother?" He called, walking down the hallway to where his mother and the other women of the branch house prepared the meals.
"I am here, Neji." Hyuga Hanae called, turning from the table where she sat with her younger sister, Hanko. "What is it?" She asked as she saw that her normally well groomed son was still in his night clothes and hadn't done anything with his long hair.
Neji glanced at his aunt and her young son that clung to her side.
"Come, Haji," Hanko took her son's hand in hers as she stood and walked to the door. "We need to check on the oven."
"Neji-niisan looks silly," Haji giggled as he disappeared out the door with his mother.
"What is it, Neji?" Hanae asked softly as she finished rolling the herbs in her hands and tied them together. "Is it another nightmare?"
Neji let out a long sigh, and then sat down next to her. "It wasn't exactly a nightmare; it was more a… vision of what could have been."
"Hinata-sama is the one that abandoned her clan; I do not see why you have dreams about her." Hanae said, brushing off her hands as she stood and pulled more herbs out of a box sitting by the door. "Or is it because you were forced by your uncle to watch our weak heiress?"
"Hinata is not weak." Neji growled, glaring at his mother, suddenly irritated with her mention of his uncle and her calling Hinata weak. "Aren't mothers supposed to comfort their sons?"
"I did not know that you felt so strongly about it," Hanae sighed, sitting down next to her son. "Neji, I understand that it was your duty to protect her, but now she is gone. Hanabi-sama is who you should be worrying about now." Hanae sighed again. "Alas that we were born into the branch house where not even mothers are allowed to raise their children and comfort them. The main house rules us all."
"But does not Fate rule us all?" Neji questioned.
"Yes, she does," Hanae replied, placing her hand on her son's shoulder. "Remotely."
"Then she is a cruel, uncaring mistress." Neji hissed, standing.
"Neji, I know that you love Hinata-sama. I have ignored that fact for so long, but now she is gone and you are having hallucinations of her." Hanae stood and faced her son. "I know you came to me looking for comfort, but I can not give it to you. You are now the servant of Hanabi-sama. If you speak Hinata-sama's name in her presence…"
"I am aware of that, Mother," he said sarcastically, turning to go out the door but Hanae caught her son's arm.
"Neji," she said with great sadness. "You have gone through so much in your short life, your branding then your father's death only days apart, your duty as the protector of our heiress, the failed attempt at a coup in your name only days after your birth… Neji, please do not turn into a bitter man. Your father would not wish for such a thing."
"I know, Mother," Neji whispered, closing his eyes. "I know my place. I will serve Hanabi-sama."
Hanae gave him a sad smile. "Then do your duty and always remember: I am here for you."
"Yes," Neji's eyes opened. "Always." He nodded his head in her direction then went out the door, passing his aunt and young cousin as he went.
"Neji-niichan!" Haji giggled, running over to the Hyuga genius and giving him a hug.
"Haji." Neji ruffled the boy's hair. "How is training going?"
"Neji," Hanko sighed unhappily.
"Great!" Haji exclaimed, not catching the look his mother and cousin exchanged. "Dad will be back soon and then everything will be good!"
"I'm happy," Neji said, messing up the boy's hair again. "Keep working hard and one day you will be a ninja that everyone will fear."
"'K!" The boy's grin took over his face as he pulled on his mother's arm. "We need to train more, mom!"
"Yes, Haji," Hanko gave her nephew another discontented before pulling her son away, the unspoken words hanging in the air like a thick cloud.
"Poor aunt Hanko," Neji said sarcastically while he shook his head as he went back to his room. "She's pushing herself into a corner by not telling Haji what happened to his father. Foolish woman." He said, pulling out the yukata that he was forced to wear while serving Hanabi. He crinkled his nose at the sight of the blue and green fabric all the while thinking that Hinata had never forced him to wear something so hideous. "Hinata was smart. She never forced anyone to do something they wouldn't like."
Making a face at the robe, he wandered out of his room to one of the five branch house washrooms that nearly seventy-five people used on any given day. Several of the older members of the house where there getting ready for a long day's work in the Hyuga's rice paddies, some with grumbles, others with resigned smiles. They greeted him as he entered, though none of them tried to make conversation with him, his status as the Head's personal body guard driving almost all the members of the branch house to ignore him or act fearfully in his presence.
A resigned smile came to his lips as he remembered Hinata telling the old men off-the only time she ever did anything like that-all because she had seen the way he was treated. Another smile came to his face as he quickly striped and got into the shower, the cold water raining down on his head enough to cover the tears that always sprang to his eyes when he thought about what life was like when Hinata still there.
"But she's gone." He sighed as finished his shower and quickly dried off, the hideous yukata hanging off his lanky form as he walked over to the small mirror over the sink and brushed out his hair. "If only we could have Hiromi-sama's mirror here." He sighed. "It's huge."
"But she's Hyuga-sama's mother," a mysterious sounding voice said from beside him. "You can't steal the mirror. You'd be punished, even if you are the chosen one."
"Haha, very funny," Neji growled, punching the other man in the stomach.
"Hey! What was that for?" The man wrapped his arms around his midsection the glared at Neji. "You are way too violent. Especially at your friend. Ha. I'm probably your only friend if this is the way you treat your nakama."
"Ha. I don't remember you becoming my nakama," Neji said, the vein in his temple pulsing. "I'm ten times better at everything. Hanashi can never live up to me." He muttered, gathering up his shower supplies.
"Yeah? Well Hanashi-kun thinks that Neji-kun thinks to highly of himself. Maybe that is why he has no other friends." Hanashi stuck out his tongue and blew raspberries. "Neji-kun's an idiot. Hey! Maybe I can teach Momoji-kun to say that!" Hanashi stroked his chin thoughtfully.
"Momoji is a monkey." Neji sighed, finishing binding his hair like all branch servant where required and spun on his heal, heading for the door. "And stop addressing me as a little boy! I'm older than you."
"Momoji is an extremely cute monkey!" Hanashi exclaimed, running after the Hyuga genius. "Besides, you are only three weeks older! I can address you as I like!"
"Why are you being so loud in the morning?" Neji asked as Hanashi caught up.
"Well, for one thing, it is almost ten in the morning, and for another, I am being sent away." Hanashi responded with a shrug.
"Sent away?" Neji repeated in disbelief, stopping in the middle of the hallway. "Where?"
"To the Settlement." Hanashi said a wry smile on his face.
"Why? What is there?" Neji frowned, racking his brain for anything he had heard on the Settlement.
"Supposedly it is an exclusive all boys club that you need a personal invite to join. It has many lovely lady friends and a private beach." Hanashi said sarcastically.
"Ha, ha, very funny." Neji growled, seriously contemplating whether or not to punch the man again.
"It's near Mie." Hanashi replied with a sigh. "This is the first time since my parents' deaths that the clan has shown more than a passing interest in me, Neji. I can't just let this opportunity pass me by."
"But I've never heard of this place, this Settlement. And you say that it is near Mie? That's a three day journey from here. If you get into trouble, how will I save you?" Neji gave a long suffering sigh. "Do you want to do this?"
"Neji," Hanashi said, gripping his friend's arm. "I am twenty-years-old. I am doomed to forty more years as a ninja and then twenty more years as a worker in the rice paddies. I'm not as lucky as you in the fact you are the cousin of the head; her personal bodyguard. If I don't take this opportunity now, I don't ever see another coming in its place."
"Hanashi," Neji said, truly at loss for words. "If this is what you want…"
"It is." Hanashi said firmly.
"Then I can pull some strings and get you some good food for the journey." Neji laughed.
"Great," Hanashi moaned. "It'll probably give me a stomach ache."
--
Birds chirping and someone singing in a sweet soprano was what Hinata heard as she slowly regained consciousness.
'I know that song,' she thought as her fingers brushed over the blanket that covered her. 'Coarse, but warm. Where am I?'
"I am home, mother!" A male voice called from across the room.
'Across the room? No, there are rice paper doors.' Her hand came up to feel the cool paper stretched over a wooden frame. 'This isn't the Hyuga compound, so where am I? I passed out and I thought that someone had picked me up.' She sat up slowly, trailing her fingers over the four walls of the room. 'It is very small in here.'
"Do you think that she will ever wake up?" The male voice asked again.
"I do not know," the voice that had been singing replied. "She was very finely dressed, making me believe that she was running away from a rich family. Perhaps the shock of having to do something on her own has thrown her system into shock."
"Mother, you make it sound like she will break at the slightest work. You know Suzume and how she is, so why would this girl be any different?"
"Suzume-sama has the blood of this earth in her. That girl is probably from the capital, running away from an arrange marriage. She hasn't woken even once since she got here." The woman's voice got closer and closer, the screeching of the paper door's opening filling Hinata's ears so she couldn't hear the next comment.
"Nah," the male voice replied. "She looks like she has some back bone."
"A chicken's back bone."
"No, maybe the back bone of a fish…"
"Um," Hinata said, not able to listen to their comments on her anymore.
"You are awake, are you?" The woman asked, pressing her hand to Hinata's forehead.
"Where am I? Who are you?" Hinata tried to get to her feet, but was pushed back down on the futon.
"You are in the farming community of Mie. My name is Kusagi Yoriko." The woman replied, reaching for a ladle full of water. "Drink. You must be thirsty. You where out almost a week."
"A week?" Hinata croaked, once again trying to rise and once again she was pushed back down.
"Yes. You know my name now, what is yours?" Yoriko asked.
"Hinata." She said softly, sipping the water slowly.
"Do you have a last name?" The male voice that had been silent till then asked.
"Just Hinata," the indigo haired girl sighed.
"Huh. Well, my name is Minoru. Kusagi Minoru. What are you doing here? Are you some spy?"
"Spy," Hinata repeated, lowering her head. "What would I spy on?"
"The bastard Hyuga have taken over most of the land around here and call it their 'Settlement.' And the Daimyo doesn't care! Are you a Hyuga? You have those eyes." Minoru grabbed her chin. "Look at me when I speak to you!"
"I am sorry," Hinata whispered, doing her best to look at where she thought he was.
"Minoru," Yoriko said suddenly. "Stop."
"Not until I discover the Hyuga's plot!" Minoru growled.
"Minoru, she is blind. Even if she is a Hyuga, I doubt that they have any use for her." Yoriko gently took Hinata's hand into her own. "Tell me, child. Where is your family?"
"They, they," Hinata lowered her head as Minoru's hand dropped. "I don't have a family. I am all alone."
"I see. Then you will become a member of our family!" Yoriko laughed. "I've always wanted a daughter!"
"Mother!" Minoru yelled.
"Oh, hush, Minoru. If Hinata-chan says that she doesn't have a family then she is welcome in ours." Yoriko said with a glare at her son.
"Mother, you would have our land taken away and leave us with nothing?" Minoru growled as Hinata started laughing. "What?!" He spun and glared at the indigo haired girl as she continued to laugh.
"I don't think that I've ever been called Hinata-chan in such a light voice," she sighed. "They never would have called me that," she whispered, her father's face appearing in her mind. With another sigh, she sat the ladle on the futon and rose. "I understand your concerns. I will be leaving as soon as you can direct me to where my bag is."
"Minoru, look what you have done!" Yoriko growled, rising and taking Hinata's arm. "You do not have to leave, child. You are our guest, and Minoru will remember that."
"I don't…" Hinata started but was cut off.
"Hinata-chan, you must wish to bathe. A week was spent, laying there in that bed. You must feel, well, pardon my bluntness, nasty." Yoriko muttered. "Your speech patterns are high class so I offer an apology if I offended you. I am just a farmer's wife, not a lady."
"You didn't offend me, Yoriko-san, but I cannot impose on you any longer." Hinata whispered.
"Nonsense! You will stay here with us until the end of your days, if that is your wish." Yoriko gave a tug on her arm. "This way to the bath house," she said in a sing-song voice.
"If you say so," Hinata replied, already making plans to leave after the family was asleep.
--
Neji stood outside the office of the Hyuga head, annoyed once again that he was Hanabi's personal slave. His hands gripped the polished wood of the tray laden with what would have been Hanabi's lunch if he had been allowed into the room an hour ago.
"Why the heck am I still standing here?" He asked, the urge to abandon his duty to Hanabi and go to the training grounds coming over him. "I should. Hanabi won't miss me…" He muttered to himself, studying the tray of food.
"But you will get in big trouble because you left." Hanabi muttered back as she opened her office door.
The Hyuga genius sighed deeply. "I know."
"Is that lunch?" The Hyuga head asked, crinkling her nose at the sight of cold miso soup.
"It was an hour ago." Neji replied dryly.
"You know, if you weren't my favorite servant, I wouldn't allow you to talk like that." Hanabi's response was said in a sickeningly sweet voice.
"I don't remember becoming a servant." Neji said.
"Really?" Hanabi looked him over. "Put the tray on my desk." She said with authority.
"Yes, Hanabi-sama," Neji said, his mother's warning coming to his mind. He entered the office that he had never really been in before Hanabi's rise to power, the allure of the room lost on him. He set the tray down with a plunk, intending to leave right away but was stopped by Hanabi.
"Sit," she said, gazing at him through thick lashes as she sat down. "Entertain me while I eat."
"What would you like me to do?" He asked dryly.
"Entertain," she responded as she picked up her spoon and took a bite. "Sit. You are making me feel conspicuous."
"I cannot sing, I cannot dance, and I do not make speeches… How would you like me to entertain you?" He asked with a raised brow as he knelt.
"Then tell me of a mission that you have been on. Some place far away from here and has good action." Hanabi set down the spoon and gazed at him thoughtfully.
"I have been to the Sand, I fought Akatsuki, I returned to Konoha." He said in a challenging voice.
"Oh? Good. Now," she said, gathering up loose papers, "Tell me about the relationship you had with my sister."
He looked up with a start. "Hanabi-sama, I do not know what you are talking about?"
"I know that you and she had a relationship that many in the clan considered improper. I wish to hear your side." Hanabi said, stacking the papers in a neat stack. "Did you love her?"
"Hanabi-sama, I cannot speak of someone that is not here to defend herself."
"Oh? You are willing to talk about her with your mother." Hanabi replied, her eyes dark.
"I see," Neji said coolly, his aunt's face floating into his vision. "I was her servant, just as I am Hanabi-sama's. There was never anything improper between us."
"Liar." Hanabi stood and walked over to him, her eye afire. "I know that there was something between you. Tell me now what it was!"
"Hinata-sama showed me kindness. It was only natural that I would return the favor." He said, ignoring the murderous look in her eyes.
"Then you do not miss her?" Hanabi asked, letting her fingers trail down his cheek.
"Is she coming back?" He responded.
There was dead silence for several seconds then a loud slap was heard.
"How dare you?" Hanabi hissed. "You accuse me of doing away with my own sister? She is like my mother! The only mother that I have ever know!"
Neji sat there gazing into eyes so much like his own, full of hate and longing, his gut clenching when he thought of Hinata's eyes and how she never had such emotions in her own pearly orbs, only kindness and devotion to a clan that had turned their back on her.
"Well, branch house? What do you say?"
"Forgive me," he bowed his head. "I spoke out of turn. Punish me as you see fit."
"I see," she said in a disappointed voice. "You are easy, Neji. Too easy to manipulate, too easy to make you do the bidding of your mistress." Her fingers cupped themselves under his chin again. "Too easy to take as one's own," she whispered as her lips came down over his, her knees pressing against his hips as she settled into his lap.
He sat there for several long seconds as Hanabi tried to make his lips part, a deep sense of betrayal penetrating his gut. 'I am sorry, Hinata.' His heart cried out.
"You aren't much fun," Hanabi complained as she pulled back. "Even Hajiro knows how to do naughtier things."
"I would ask what the son of councilman that is only fifteen is doing with the Head who herself is fourteen," Neji whispered sadly.
His words where rewarded with another slap. "You dare insult me?" She growled.
"No, I only point out the truth."
"Hum, the truth. The Hyuga don't know how to be truthful. It is something that they have never mastered," she whispered in his ear as she stood. "The truth," she laughed. "The truth is that I have saved myself for Neji-niisan. He will be mine, and I will be his."
Neji's eyes widened. "Hanabi-sama! You are only fourteen! I am twenty."
"So? My father was almost fifteen years older than my mother. She was only just sixteen on her wedding night." Hanabi cocked her head to one side. "Are you saying that you won't take such an opportunity when it is offered to you? You could be the father of the next head."
"I think I should leave, Hanabi-sama." He said as he stood. "I have other jobs to be doing."
"Neji," Hanabi said as he opened the door. "If you do not do what I want you to do, I will tell everyone how you forced me to the ground and ripped the delicate kimono off my frail form, taking away the gift meant for my husband." She raised her hand to eye level and studied her fingernails. "I will give you time to think over this choice, but I know that you will do the right thing in the end."
Neji gazed at his younger cousin, a deep hatred that he thought long buried coming to the surface. Words sprung to the tip of his tongue about how he had done what she was suggesting with her older sister almost every night before Hinata's disappearance, his mouth opening to scream out the fact he had asked Hinata to be his wife and she had accepted.
"You may leave," Hanabi's voice cut through his thoughts.
"Yes, Hanabi-sama," he bowed, an image of his fingers around her neck telling him that he needed to leave that instant before he did something he would regret. He made it into the hallway and closed the door behind him with a click, his hand making a fist over his heart. "Hinata, I am so sorry, but Hanabi has given me not choice. I have to do what she wishes."
--
"Oh," Hinata complained as her foot came into contact with something hard. Her hands clamped themselves over her mouth as she listened to the breathing patterns of the men and woman sleeping in the house, trying to judge if any of them had awoken with her cry.
"You are pathetic, Hinata, simply pathetic." She whispered to herself, the chastising comments repeating themselves in her mind as she silently made her way to the door. "Door, door, door," she chanted to herself, the ruff fabric of the blanket that had been on her bed catching in the calluses on her hands. "I only need to find my water bottles." She whispered as she held the makeshift bag to her chest.
She stumbled into the small kitchen with what she knew were loud footsteps; she could only hope that the Kusagi didn't wake at the noise. She paused in her search to listen and when she was content that the family that had taken such loving care of her was asleep, she opened every cupboard and drawer that she could find. Her hands came into contact with many dishes and cups, but not the bottles she was so desperate for.
"Where are they?" She said hopelessly, tears starting to streak down her face as her escape plan slowly shattered around her.
"Where are whom?" Minoru's bored voice asked from behind her.
"Minoru-kun!" She gasped as she spun and tried to find him.
"Where are you going, Hinata-chan?" Yoriko asked sadly.
"Leaving so soon?" Jiro's gruff voice asked.
"Please," Hinata cried. "I need to leave."
"Why?" Yoriko asked, walking over to the girl and wrapping her arms around Hinata's shoulders. "Where will you go?"
"I don't know, I just need to leave," Hinata sobbed.
"Your family, what about them?" Yoriko wiped the tears from Hinata's cheeks. "Do they miss you? Are they worried about you? Are you going back to them?"
"What family?" Hinata whispered. "They don't want me. My father would rather have my younger sister. Ha. He probably wants my cousin more than he wants me. What am I to him? I am blind. He can't use a blind girl."
"Your family truly wishes to let you go? They are fools if they can't see the beautiful young woman behind the sightless eyes. Does all your family feel this way? Do none of them want you?" Yoriko brushed a tress of blue hair behind the girl's ear. "Surely someone wants you."
Neji's face flashed through Hinata's mind, his eyes reflecting all the passion that he had shown her every night, all the love his heart held reserved for her and no one else. "No," she swallowed hard. "He is better off without me." She said so softly that Yoriko couldn't hear her. "I am of no use to them." She said louder. "The only thing that I am good for now is maybe marrying and producing a child so my father's line doesn't end."
"Such a horrid family you belong to, Hinata-chan," Jiro took a step forward and placed his hand on her shoulder. "You are welcome to stay with ours as long as you wish. You can join our family and forget if that is your choice."
"I don't know how to answer." Hinata clenched her hands together as tightly as she could. "You barely know me, yet you want me to be a member of your family. My father would call you foolish."
"Well, I always knew that I was a fool, so have such a beautiful woman tell me so only makes my heart ache a little," Jiro said in a light tone but there was something more under his words. "I would say that your father is the true fool."
"Maybe," Hinata whispered a sudden overwhelming need to belong coming over her. "You want me in your family despite the fact you only know my name and the fact my family has abandoned me?"
"Yes," Yoriko said hugging the girl closer.
"Yes," Jiro said the grin on his face evident in his voice.
"Well," Minoru started. "It doesn't matter what I want, does it? I'm already in the minority. Might as well say yes myself."
"See? With out Minoru's ineloquent words, we have voted that you should be a member of the Kusagi family. You can even use our last name if it makes you feel better." Yoriko murmured. "Welcome to our family, Hinata."
--
Neji stood by the window staring thoughtlessly at the full moon slowly rising over the compound, the feeling that Hinata had slipped out of his grip driving him nearly insane.
"Hinata, where have you gone and what are you trying to do? Will you ever come back to me?" He whispered to the moon as the door to his room opened.
"Neji." The single word echoed eerily across the room, the command in the voice undeniable.
"Yes, Hanabi-sama. I am coming." He responded, glancing up at the moon with one last prayer in his heart; the wish to see Hinata, one last time and tell her how sorry he was.
--
Next Chapter is called Fated, weeks have past since Hinata woke in the home of the Kusagi and found the family she had always been looking for while Neji finds something important that Hinata left behind.