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When the Days Are Gone
Interlude: Hiashi
Hyuuga are steel, impervious to pain.
"I am leaving now, father."
Hiashi looked up from the scrolls splayed out across his desk. Standing in the doorway of his office was his eldest, so quiet that he barely noted her presence. Hinata fidgeted beneath his gaze, most likely because she knew that he did not like to be interrupted.
Today, she would be embarking on a routine C-rank mission, her very last assignment as a kunoichi of Konoha. Perhaps it should've been celebrated, but the Hyuuga were never the kind for such trivial frivolities. Besides, Hiashi thought, Hinata would not see this as something to toast to, even if she was leaving behind her life as a shinobi for something far greater.
Over the year, Hinata had worked diligently to change herself, but in the end, it wasn't enough. It would never be enough. Not for the Hyuuga council, and certainly not for him. She would always be too weak, too soft to be anything but an average shinobi. While she was his precious daughter, he did not have faith that she could lead the Hyuuga clan to greatness.
Hinata knew this as well.
He could see it in her eyes each time she failed at executing a kata as well as her sister, five years her junior, did. Better than anyone, Hinata understood her own weakness. That alone made him proud of her. It took real wisdom to understand one's place in the world. After all, she did sign the contract from Kumo entirely on her volition, without any prompting from him or the council.
He had expected her to cry, to protest. Sure enough, Hanabi would've done so – but not Hinata. No, Hinata had sat quietly throughout the entire negotiation with the raikage, face completely devoid of any emotion. At the end, she was handed the scroll, a simple thing wrapped with red twine. Hinata received it, head bowed, assuming position of utmost respect as it was pressed into her hands.
There were no tears.
She didn't fight.
She understood that this was best.
At the time, Hiashi had been half-expecting her to return with an unsigned contract. Fearfully, he waited, hoping that that Uzumaki boy would not find his daughter and speak nonsense to her that would convince her to neglect her duties. Minato's son always had a bad habit of making his daughter forget her place. Yet to his surprise, Hinata marched into his office the morning after, not necessarily confident, but sure, and set the scroll down before him.
"You have honored the Hyuuga," he had said as he examined the scroll - at the bottom of it was her signature in small, neat characters. Hinata didn't seem flattered, but tired. He understood that she was troubled by the arrangement and had let her walk away without much discussion.
Perhaps Hinata was not strong in the way that the Hyuuga needed, but Hiashi knew that she was strong in her own way indeed. A will of cold steel ran through her, as it did through all Hyuuga, steel that was tempered by duty and honor and family. Not even the Uzumaki boy could change that.
But Hiashi would never tell her that.
Kindness did not come easily to him, if it did at all.
Hiashi, son of former clan head, Hyuuga Hanamoto, was raised believing that affection led to weakness. A theory that was proven correct when his second cousin and late wife, Hyuuga Himawari, showered their eldest with affection, thus crippling Hinata as a shinobi. Yet, Hiashi could not bring himself to blame her. Himawari was, after all, the first person to genuinely care about him, even if their marriage had been arranged.
On their wedding night, still in her white silk kimono, she peppered his face with kisses and told him silly jokes until he finally cracked a smile. All in spite of being utter strangers bound only to the same family by blood and name. All in spite of his reputation as a cold and strict man. She had pushed through his walls, held his hand, and let him know that their love could be from the duty that the Hyuuga had placed on them. Himawari was never the ideal Hyuuga, and her daughter followed her path, but he would not have had it any other way.
However, while Himawari had been a gentle and kind woman, traits that his eldest had obviously inherited, the difference between the two was drastic. Himawari had held her high, whilst Hinata tried to bury hers beneath the ground.
So, to reverse the effects of Himawari's coddling of their eldest, Hiashi treated Hinata as his father had treated him - brutally, steadily, and with an intent to batter metal into a hard-edged sword.
Needless to say, it didn't work.
Yet he tried, with the hope that Hinata would someday understand that greatness belonged to those willing to take it.
"Father," said Hinata timidly.
Hiashi realized that he had lost himself to his thoughts. His gaze refocused on Hinata and a sense of nostalgia filled him. She looked so much like his wife that it stung. Quickly, he pushed it away and donned the hard, unfeeling mask that was far more comfortable.
"Daughter," he said simply, "do not die before your wedding."
Then, she did something odd. She looked at him as she had never done before; her usual look of fearful respect had been replaced with a certain sort of sadness. It worried him. Just as he was about to comment on it, Hinata nodded.
"Of course, fa-father," she said quietly before bowing out.
She disappeared from the doorway, and he could hear her footsteps fading down the hallway.
Hiashi returned to his paperwork, refusing to pay Hinata's behavior any more mind.
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That night, he dreamed of when Hinata was a little girl, back when her gentle ways were endearing and not pathetic. They stood in a field of sunflowers, his daughters' namesake, as she offered him a silly flower crown. Cicadas sung in the branches of the nearby trees, a sound he normally detested, but decided it was tolerable for one afternoon. A summer wind brushed against them, making his yukata flutter.
No, he thought. This wasn't a dream, but a memory. One of his fondest.
"Father, I m-made this for you!" Hinata said with a toothy smile. She was three year old, and pretty, and amazing with large white eyes that reflected the blue sky. However, no matter how much she made his heart melt, he was not putting on that crown.
Behind him, his late wife giggled.
"Take it, dear," came Himwari's soft voice. "I'm sure that it will look beautiful on you."
When he turned back to pin his wife with a blank stare, all that lay behind him was darkness.
"Himawari?" he asked to the darkness, but no one replied. He turned back to his daughter only to find the same plane of fathomless black. Panic began to grow in him as he frantically looked around. "Hinata?"
No answer.
"Hinata!?"
He woke up, drenched in sweat.
Now, Hyuuga Hiashi did not believe in omens.
Only people who were too weak to take hold of their own fate believed in superstition. So when the morning came, he chose to ignore the dream of his dead wife and daughter being swallowed by the darkness and instead chalked it all up to stress. After all, he was in the middle of negotiating the greatest treaty Konoha had ever seen.
That was enough to strain even his nerves.
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The next day, two men stood in his office with grim faces.
Hiashi vaguely recognized them as Konoha-nin, but no further than that. At first, he had refused their entrance to the compound, but one of the servants relayed that the men were here on the direct orders of the rokudaime. Hiashi acquiesced their request. Now here they stood, taking up his precious time with whatever that half-wit of a hokage had to say.
"Speak," commanded Hiashi. The quicker he got them out, the quicker he could resume his work. As father of the bride, it was up to Hiashi to pay for the wedding. However, weddings between two figures of such importance was expensive, and while the Hyuuga were the wealthiest clan in the village, even they had been drained from the recent war. Attempting to find funding was proving harder than he had imagined.
The two men looked at each other. They were both non-descript, with medium build and brown hair. Then, he remembered the one with the bandage over his nose as Hagane Kotetsu, a chuunin who was more of a lackey to the new hokage than an actual shinobi. Hiashi didn't miss when they shared a gaze, communicating something they were not willing to say aloud. Not a moment later, Hagane bowed deeply and said:
"Hyuuga-sama, your daughter, Hyuuga Hinata, valiantly gave her life for the honor of Konoha. It is my responsibility . . ."
Hiashi didn't hear anything the man said next.
What.
It was all droning in his ears, a deep buzzing that reminded him of the cicadas in his dream.
Vaguely, he understood that his daughter was dead. That was what they were telling him.
Yet . . .
She had been standing before him not even a day before.
Yet . . .
She was dead.
He understood that she had left yesterday and would now never be coming back. He understood all of it. But still, he couldn't anchor himself in his emotions, couldn't accept any of this. It didn't feel tangible. This was another dream.
None of his rationalizations helped to relieve the black lump that had suddenly settled in his stomach.
From the corner of his eye he could see a bird sitting outside his office window. It was yellow, and bright, and . . . Hinata was dead. His daughter was dead.
"How did my daughter die?" Hiashi asked abruptly, cutting off Hagane's speech. "Tell me."
Hiashi kept face. He was still, calm, and collected as the two nin shared yet another look. Even without his byakugan he could tell they were reluctant to share the story. He wasn't even sure he wanted them to. Perhaps he could continue his day, forgetting that he had just been told that Hinata was no longer a part of this life.
It wasn't real.
All the possible outcomes as to what could have happened to his daughter filtered through his head, but he refused to succumb. He needed to know.
"Tell me," he reiterated.
"We can't," said Hagane.
"You will."
Silence hung in the air, thick with animosity, mostly on his part.
"I am sorry, Hyuuga-sama, but there are still details that we're not able to reveal at the moment. All I can tell you was that it was no accident."
Indignation flared in his chest, but he fought it down yet again. "You would come into my home, inform me that my daughter, my first born, has died, and not reveal the scum who has taken her life?"
"Hyuuga-sama, for the sake of capturing your daughter's killer, we cannot reveal any information-"
"Get out," said Hiashi. "Leave and tell your hokage that I will arrive at the tower before the day is to end."
Hagane stiffened, "Hyuuga-sama, now is not the time to be rash. Rokudaime-sama is not the one to blame-"
"I will not say it again. Leave on your own, or leave unconscious. Those are your options."
"Let's go, Kotetsu," said the other nin, tugging at his friend. Hagane looked as though he wanted to relent, but the glare Hiashi settled on him quickly changed his mind. Soon enough, they were both exiting the room, leaving as grim-faced as they had entered.
He didn't know what he was thinking, or how he should feel, only that something deep within him was missing terribly.
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AN: I've decided to update every Wednesday! Yay!
I just got back to work, and lemme tell you, my job is incredibly hectic. I would've gotten this chapter out sooner, but I've been doing training from eight in the morning all the way to nine at night. I try to get in some writing during my breaks, but I usually end up taking a nap. Sorry! I hope you enjoy this chapter.