Chapter Four
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
A/N: Edited – 2012 October 09
Hanabi Hyuuga hated to lose. It was a recent personal revelation to her after her defeat at the hands of her cousin Neji Hyuuga during the Chuunin exams. She was no longer warded at the hospital, but was now back home at the Hyuuga manor. The Gentle Fist style of fighting was not showy and dealt damage mostly to internal organs and the chakra network, so Hanabi's wounds were not about to shock and awe anyone with their graphic description of violence or anything of the sort. As it were, she simply looked like she had been stung by a few hornets with fading red and blue spots on her body, but of course it hurt a lot more than that - a hit from a Byakugan wielder feels like someone is ripping apart your skin, tendons and chakra channels. And of course she had a lot more wounds that were not visible and would take a lot longer to heal. She was the sole heir to the Hyuuga clan of the Byakugan. She was the youngest person to become a genin since Kakashi Hatake and she was the only female to do that. Hanabi Hyuuga was nine years old and she was entered into the Chuunin exams under her sensei, Kurenai and with her teammates Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame. She was the best and everyone expected her to make Chuunin, yet things did not go as planned.
When Hanabi saw that she had to fight her cousin, Neji, she thought that that computer was on bull; there was no way that her match was random. Neji was her cousin, but to be honest she didn't know much about him except that his father was dead and that every time he looked at her he looked at her with naked hatred. She suspected that he didn't like her.
"I did not think that I would be fighting you, Hanabi-sama." Neji said as both he and his cousin stepped up to the centre of the wide room to fight each other in the tower located in the Forest of Death.
"Neji nii-san, I did not think that I would be fighting you either."
"Please begin the match." Genma said and Hanabi was slightly surprised that the man had not passed out from that strenuous speech. Genma looked like he was on his last breath. However, Hanabi's thoughts on Genma's imminent death were soon interrupted by Neji.
"Before we fight, let me warn you about one thing, Hanabi-sama. Give up, because you will lose."
Hanabi almost turned around to see if Neji was talking to someone else because he could never be talking to her.
"What?"
"I said that you should give up. Granted that you are a member of the Main house and I am a Branch member and also granted that you are one of the youngest Genin since the long ago days of Kakashi-sensei –" Somewhere Kakashi was muttering that he wasn't that old, "– but I will defeat you."
There was a silence that followed. It was the 'yes, you heard correctly; take a moment to think that over and let those that are watching comment on that statement' silence. Hanabi looked at Neji and was almost positive now that he didn't like her. But her overriding thought was of course that Neji was insane. It was obvious that she was better than him. She looked at Neji and thought that he didn't look like someone that would monologue; that was for those Sound nin. But then she supposed that she really didn't know much about Neji to begin with. Hanabi was not one to waste precious time with unnecessary talk, so she politely ignored Neji's psychological bait and lapsed into the Gentle Fist fighting style. She slid her left foot forward and extended her left hand with her palm facing outward, while she pushed back her right leg, bending it slightly and turning her foot thirty degrees to the right. Her right arm was pulled back and bent at the elbow, palm facing outward.
"Byakugan." She muttered as she saw Neji mimic her style.
Things started to go wrong almost from the beginning. His violence caught her by surprise. His hits were faster and more vicious than she expected forcing her to be more on the defensive and when she finally had an opening for a hit, he proved too nimble and she missed the shot. Hanabi realized with startling clarity that she was going to lose.
Hanabi pulled back in an attempt to put some distance between her and Neji and in an effort to re-evaluate her strategy, but Neji was relentless. He realized that she was on the defensive and gave her no opportunity to break her position. With terrifying speed he slapped Hanabi on her arms and on the side of her face; a hit that was meant for her neck, but she raised her head up just in time to avoid having her jugular sliced by chakra and ending up in acute cardiac arrest because of the lack of oxygen going to her heart from her brain. He was trying to kill her! If his hit had succeeded she would have lapsed into cardiac arrest and been dead in a minute. But just because he missed his intended target didn't mean that Neji's hit was inconsequential. Hanabi couldn't feel the right side of her face. She had no idea that her mouth was drooping a bit to the right and that her right eye was closing down a bit. She looked like she had a mild stroke. But that was nothing because what really concerned her was that Neji had nicked the chakra network of veins that snaked around her eyes and fed her Byakugan ability. It was just a nick, but it was enough for her to see a bit blurred in that eye. Hanabi realized much too late that she completely misjudged Neji's ability. She jumped back, giving a distance of three jumps between them, a distance of thirty feet.
"You have underestimated me, Hanabi-sama. You considered me as someone of no importance, no Hanabi-sama? You have viewed me as a lowly Branch member, no Hanabi-sama?"
Hanabi looked at Neji and refused to get caught in his useless harangue. She was not one to waste time with unnecessary talk. Neji could monologue all day if he wanted; Hanabi came to fight. She moved quickly. She was fast and it was one of the things that she was known for. Neji had time to realize that she was coming towards him, but he just about had time to register that she was aiming a hit at his heart. He just barely sidestepped and the lash ended up hitting the other side of his chest. It missed his heart, but it hurt like he just got jump-kicked in the chest with lightening, feeling like his chest was being shredded apart with fire. Now he was on the defensive. But Hanabi was off kilter because of Neji's initial winning and it showed in her performance. She was known for her deadly precision, but she was losing it. Her aims were always just off the target and Neji capitalized on Hanabi's vulnerability. He blocked a series of her shots while simultaneously hitting her with chakra in her tenketsu every time she aimed at him. In a move that surprised her, he grabbed her left hand and rolled up the sleeves. Hanabi paused and her eyes opened wide in alarm when she saw the red polka dot marks on her left arm. Neji had stopped the flow of chakra in her left arm and she hadn't even had the chance to notice! Capitalizing on her shock, Neji slammed his palm into his cousin's chest sending her flying ten feet backwards.
Hanabi was disoriented. For a few seconds she could not move. She was feeling nauseous and there was pain shooting up and down her left arm and she was having trouble breathing. He had given her a heart attack! Dimly she heard Neji going on about how she underestimated him because she devalued the Branch members and that her arrogance is what had her in her current position. He was talking some nonsense about how it was her destiny to be in this position because of her dismissive conceit and blah blah blah. She had to get up if only to get Neji to shut up. With one last surge of energy she threw herself up, feeling dizzy and almost collapsing as the pain in her chest took her breath away and she coughed up blood. The blood was from the hit that had managed to hit her left lung as well. As if in a distant dream she heard someone chastising Neji for "taking advantage of a nine year old girl." It was Naruto of all people. She couldn't remember ever even speaking to him. Why on earth would he be championing her? She was no underdog.
"The unfortunate thing is that despite your defeat at my hands, Hanabi-sama, you will continue on in your arrogantly dismissive way. Even with your Main House Byakugan, you are blind. I suppose that that is because people cannot change."
Hanabi struggled to her feet and was amazed that she was still alive. There were waves of pain radiating from her chest of the likes that she had never felt before. She felt like she was using less oxygen than everyone else, but every breath she took made the pain in her chest more excruciating. There was a dull and throbbing pain in her left hand and of course she couldn't feel the right side of her face. She coughed up blood again. When she coughed she felt like she was going to throw up her entire rib cage; it was that painful.
"Neki-nii-sthan?" She garbled and she realized that she could hardly speak because of the numbness of the right side of her face. She tried again. "Ne-ji. Nii. San." She sounded out every word.
He looked up questioningly.
"Shut. Up."
She saw him racing towards her with killing intent marring his beautiful white eyes and if Hanabi could have smirked at that moment she would have. She saw the Jounin stop him and then she passed out unhappily for she had lost.
That was about four months ago and Hanabi had spent most of the time convalescing at home. She wasn't as bad as Lee and she also did not get his kind of sympathy probably because he was in danger of losing his career as a ninja, but more so because Hanabi was not the most likeable person and she knew it. She was mostly quiet, only speaking when she felt it more than necessary. But that wasn't to say that she was shy. No, Hanabi radiated confidence and capability and usually let her skills do the talking for her. This should have meant that she would have gotten on well with her man-of-few-words teammate, Shino, but it was not the case as Shino found her unnecessarily indifferent to the importance of her teammates. And she definitely did not get along with her cocky other teammate, Kiba, who was annoyed by her quiet overconfidence. They visited her only once during her convalescence and then they stayed for three minutes and twenty-four seconds before they begged off lying about something or the other that they had to do. Kurenai stopped only long enough to ask after Hanabi's health and let it be known through her unsaid words and pointed looks that Hanabi had only herself to blame for her current predicament. Her father did not say much either, except that she could probably start back training in about four months.
Almost six months had passed and she was training again. She went on small missions with her teammates, she came home and trained again. Nothing much had changed as far as Hanabi was concerned, but her father apparently thought differently.
"Your hits are getting sloppy. Your aim is off. You've been distracted ever since you returned to duty." Hiashi said to his daughter one morning. It was more than five months after the Chuunin exams. Sasuke had left the village months now and Naruto had gone on his training with the Sannin about a couple weeks after that. The Hyuuga compound was quiet as most of the maids and other clan members had yet to wake. Hiashi had found his daughter training in the dark hours of 4 o'clock in the morning, her Byakugan activated with the veins around her eyes raised like vicious vipers. When she heard his voice Hanabi deactivated her Byakugan and bowed deeply. Hiashi stood on the veranda and looked at his tiny ten year old daughter. She had celebrated her tenth birthday in the hospital.
"Neji is a changed man because of his defeat at the hands of that obnoxious, blond boy at the final of the Chuunin exams."
Oh he's changed alright, Hanabi thought idly of the dental surgery Neji had to get after Naruto broke his jaw with that upper-cut, but she said nothing, instead only rising from her bow, but keeping her eyes trained respectfully on the ground.
"The boy convinced him to look at things differently in terms of the way that he views this clan and his life in general. Neji tried to show the blond brat that fate cannot be fought and that someone who is weak will always remain weak, but the child was unwilling to accept this mindset, arguing that Neji, for all his belief in fate, had not accepted his own destiny. The brat suggested that if a failure like himself could change his destiny, then a genius like Neji could too."
Hanabi again did not respond. She had heard this story already and her father knew she had.
"I know that you're mad that you lost," Hiashi said and Hanabi assumed that when he said 'mad' he meant 'unreasonably vindictive'. "But you should not let your mind be troubled with what you should have done or should not have done."
Hanabi said nothing, but her father already knew what she was thinking.
"I know that you are thinking that I of all people should not talk."
Hanabi wondered whether she really needed to be here for the conversation since her father seemed so adept at anticipating her every sentence. Surprisingly he missed that cynical thought, though whether it was accidentally or selectively intentionally she would never know.
"You should not be discouraged by your failure. Every failure points out to us the shortcomings or the errors that we make that we should now choose to carefully avoid."
That would explain a lot about her father's actions towards her, Hanabi thought. Suddenly, because of her upcoming mission, she had a curious desire to know her father's version of what happened to her sister and mother overtook her. It was so strange to want to know all of a sudden. She had never had the inkling before. She had heard the briefest of what happened from bits and pieces of overhearing the maids talking, but otherwise it seemed almost a taboo topic.
"What really happened to Okaa-san and Hinata nee-san?"
Hiashi was taken aback by the question but he supposed that it had to come at some point in time. With resignation he decided to tell her.
"Your sister was only five years old when she was kidnapped. You were just a babes in arms at four months old. She was kidnapped by Kumo nin, who wanted the Byakugan eyes. She was on her way to the academy when they kidnapped her. It was to be her first day of school and she was scared. I wanted to send her off to school myself, but your mother said that I was spoiling her which was true. I was spoiling her, probably to make up for the fact that I was so hard on her with her training. She was so shy. She was always very timid around people. But nevertheless I acquiesced to your mother's wishes and I did not see Hinata off to school that day. I let one of the maids drop her off instead.
"After the end of another conflict between Kumogakure and Konohagakure, the villages decided to formally end the constant fighting. A Head Ninja was sent to Konoha to sign a peace treaty. I'm not sure whether he came here with the intention of kidnapping Hinata or whether he capitalized on a presented opportunity. Nevertheless, it was almost too easy to kidnap Hinata that day."
Hanabi said nothing, only listening intently. Hiashi spoke, but his mind was not here. He seemed to be reliving those days.
"It was easy to track the Kumo ninja, but he was fast and he had a headstart on me, but I caught up to him easily in Kumo. I had my rage and my fear propelling me. I ran non-stop for three days until I finally caught up with him in the mountain areas of Kumo. When I saw him with Hinata tied up and looking like she was about to pass out from exhaustion and fear I...I killed him." His voice had only a slight tremor, but his face was impassive.
"We were still deep in Kumo's mountainous forests. Hinata needed medical attention. She was weak. We were both very weak, but her chakra was very low, but I couldn't trust to get her medical attention in Kumo while her eyes were so exposed. I placed a seal on her –"
"You placed the Caged Bird Seal on her!"
"No. I placed another seal on her that suppressed her Byakugan but the effect of it was that it would alter her vision, gradually getting worse until she would eventually go blind and she would lose the Byakugan forever."
"What! Why on earth would you do something like that...Father?" Hanabi added, belatedly remembering her manners.
"Her eyes needed to be protected while we were both vulnerable in enemy territory. I could never put the Caged Bird Seal on my daughter, the eldest member of the Main Hyuuga clan. You know that the Caged Bird Seal can only be removed upon death. I did what I had to do for Hinata's safety and for the safety of the clan. And besides, the seal was only to last until we reached the relative safety of Konoha."
"Oh, so the seal was temporary?"
"The seal lasts and strengthens as time goes on. It would take years; probably about ten to twelve years for the seal to complete suppress the Byakugan and render the sealed completely blind. Despite its temporary nature she would be rendered useless by enemy ninja because she would not be able to activate her Byakugan or even see properly for that matter. I am the only person capable of removing that seal because only I know seals necessary to deactivate the seals."
Hanabi looked at her father as if seeing him differently for the first time. It was dark but the whiteness of his eyes almost glowed dangerously and she was reminded of seeing an animal in the bushes once – a lurking and dangerous beast. She knew her father was skilled and dangerous, but she had no idea that he was that skilled and dangerous.
"Kumo is a funny place. It's located in the Land of Lightning. Rain always falls there. The place resembles varying shades of grey and the weather is something that their residents could talk about for hours on end. When the rain started pouring down I was not surprised. The weather had been looking miserable from the moment I had entered Kumo. The sky was black and the winds were fierce. I should have taken more notice of the weather, but I didn't; my mind was focused on retrieving Hinata. When the rain started to fall and cause flash flooding, Hinata started to panic – she didn't like large bodies of water."
So nee-san did not like people or water, Hanabi thought; maybe Hinata was on the wrong planet.
"The winds were ripping apart trees and causing landslides in the mountainous forests. Landslides are similar to avalanches in the sense that anything could trigger them and they can materialize without warning. It took us by surprise. The soil suddenly came looser, the trees that I was using to shelter easily slipping in the melting mud like butter in a hot pan. My footing slipped when the earth shifted like that and Hinata and I came tumbling down into the path of the landslide, going wherever the earth wanted us to. We tumbled off a precipice and landed into a swollen and raging river. My grip on her separated. I saw when she hit her head on the rock. I saw when she went under. In the strong current of the river I couldn't reach her. I saw her die, but I was too far away to do anything. The current of the river..."
Hiashi's eyes were burning. Hanabi suddenly wished that he would tell her no more, but he continued.
"I practically dragged the river with my Byakugan to find her, but I couldn't. I returned home distraught and ashamed to tell your mother that I had failed. To add insult to injury, Kumo demanded payment for the ninja that I killed. The elders decided that it would be best if Hizashi was sacrificed instead. When I tried to refuse, Hizashi disabled me with a single blow. He then explained that he was not doing this to preserve the Hyuuga's structure, but to protect my life, to prevent war, and to choose his own fate for the first time in his life. Before going to his death, Hizashi asked me to tell Neji of his reason for his decision, regretting that he had shown Neji his bitterness in life. I mistakenly took too long to let Neji know the reason behind his father's death. I suppose I was waiting for him to be more receptive. I suppose another reason that I was absent-minded with my nephew was that your mother was hobbled by the grief of your sister's death and had recently committed suicide."
"I have a lot of regrets, Hanabi. I should have been a better ninja, a better father, a better husband. You have suffered because of my inability to come to terms with my failures."
Hanabi didn't particularly see herself as 'suffering', but she had no intention of correcting her father.
"I have trained you harder, to be more skilled for your age as an attempt to make you more than capable so that you'd be a strong leader for the clan. I have stressed the importance of confidence and skill and now you are arrogant and dismissive, even to your own family and teammates. In an attempt to keep myself from further being hurt I have been somewhat cold towards you, now you are cold to the point of being heartless. Your mother's selfish suicide has impacted you even though you were just a baby and now you are selfish and inconsiderate. I was glad that you were defeated by Neji. I was hoping that you would have learnt something from your defeat."
Maybe I need a good hit to the head from Naruto the way Neji got it, Hanabi coldly thought. Hanabi was looking at his daughter and could not tell what she was thinking. Her mind was blank and most likely her heart was too.
"I am speaking to you because old fears have risen within me to torment me again as you have this mission to Kumo. I know that you are quite capable of taking care of yourself, but I thought that you should know that I regret the way that things turned out between us."
"You do not have to worry about me, Father. I am fine. I am very fine." Hanabi attempted a smile but it did not come out quite right. Hiashi noted a lost cause when he saw one. He had failed Hinata and now he had failed Hanabi too.
"Good luck on your mission to Kumo." He said and strode off into the house leaving Hanabi alone in the training grounds surrounded by darkness.
Hanabi sighed. She was similar to her father in many respects – skilled and for the most part in charge of her emotions. But she did not want to end up like him, filled with regrets about the loss of loved ones. She was happy that he had kept her at an emotional distance all these years. She was glad that she had no mother or sister to care about. Those things just got in the way of her duty of being a ninja. Isn't that what they taught at the Academy, that a ninja's emotions should always take a backseat to the mission at hand? She was glad that she had no mother or elder sister. The truth was that she didn't care about anyone and she couldn't bring herself to care about anyone. Family only served to complicate things and she had a mission to go on in Kumo. Hanabi had no time to think about family that died a million years ago in a river in Kumo.