Summery: Second Set of hyugacest drabbles. For kaorien. Sort of rough.
Rating: PG13
Theme Set Beta 1/5
051. Childhood
It lingers between them like a ghost they ignore. The memory of their first meeting, the single day of happiness that was untainted. And then it was spoiled, mere hours later, when Hizashi goes down screaming and clutching his head.
A day so short and so long ago, but it is there nonetheless, the memory of a single day where they had both been obliviously happy in each other's company. It's the perpetual elephant in a tutu dancing in the corner of their vision through the years as Neji knocks Hinata down again and again; then, it was an object of hatred. Now, as Neji walks next to her and tries to make up for his cruelty, it is a thing of awkward mention and bitter regret.
052. Fathers
He sees the Haruno's out at the market shopping and watches as the accountant brush a hand soothingly into his daughter's pink hair. The Nara shadow walker is lazy and walks in the street with a constant slouch of flippantly, his son walking almost identically next to him. The Yamanaka's blonde hair swings in the wind and he is as annoying as he is loud when he is boasting of his daughter's accomplishments. When Hinata passes the genin test after graduation to become a team under the most specialized illusionist Konoha has had in generations, there is speculation rampant in what makes this group so special to the be second ever genin team to be apprenticed to Kurenai, after a 4 year gap of failing previously talented and well respected clan member combos.
Hizashi would have been so proud, but Hiashi can't bring himself to put his prides into words at all and only walks away.
053. Beating hearts
Sometimes Hinata wonders if they realize how easy it is to kill and that is why she is so scared. The chakra points never shined so bright as the one slightly off centre from the heart. She sees where all the lines connect in a knot. One touch, one push of the Gentle Fist, even just one touch of her fingertip, and the internal chakra circulation would stop; the system collapsing into itself, the heart freezing then expanding and exploding, and the body would give up. She wonders why the human form is so complicated but so fragile, and why no one ever protects themselves because their stances are strong but they always leave themselves open for that final ending strike.
She wavers as she evades her Father's strikes and lurches back from the hits, she scans the body for the other weaknesses her instructors are always telling her, but her eyes are always drawn back to the shining point just off from the beating organ that keeps them all alive.
Her Father barks at her to be focused, to find the charka system points, and to stop staring at dead zones. Hinata once again jumps back, then into the fight, and wonders if it is called a dead zone because that is what they will be when someone hits that spot, but she can't force herself to strike, even when her Father is always open, to find out. Instead she scans her eyes for other points and tries to dim the light from her Sight of that main point and the other shining marks where her Father has said where no attacks were available.
054. Pain
The first time she breaks her leg, the pain is sharp and constant and it burns, but she grits her teeth and endures it. The first time she breaks her knuckles from a moment of incorrect fist hold, she readjusts her hand and tries again. The first time her chakra rebels and tries to take her from inside out, she bits her lip until it bleeds and fights back. The next time her family turns and walks away breaking her heart, she keeps silent and keeps moving.
She is already used to the pain.
055. Inappropriate
They are engaged but the wedding date is not until a month later. When they had first proposed the idea of the betrothal, Neji had stiffened and Hinata had gone pale. But that was three years ago and now as the Clan hurries about trying to finish the preparations for the long awaited day, the adults turned a blind eye and vision to the scene in the back of the House as Hanabi beats down Neji with a pillow, forcing him out of the room, and screeching at the top of her lungs: he is a man! What did he think he was doing! It was Hinata's room! He had to get out, get out, get out! Her sister wasn't some floozy he could just visit whenever he felt like it! He has to wait the month before he is allowed to sleep in the same room with Hinata!
Hiashi winces as Hanabi reaches a particular high note, and almost feels pity for his nephew if it weren't for the bubbling pride for Hanabi. Obviously Neji was in the wrong. They were going to give Hinata to him for the rest of their lives together, he can wait the damn month!
No, that was not his used-to-be-unknown insanely overprotective father instincts that he had been acting on for the past few months.
056. Teasing
" So," Naruto said as he stuck a lollipop into his mouth, walking down the street next to Neji, " you were one of those kids who did the 'I pick on you because I like you' routine eh?"
Neji sent him a dark look. " One word: Sasuke."
Naruto bit down hard and his candy shattered inside his mouth. He ignored his aching teeth. " You have a point there. I'll shut up now."
057. Whither Flower(s)
When the winter settles in and her garden no longer blooms in the chill, there are books and papers all around the small tool shed she had claimed as her own. Neji picks up a volume absently while he waits and lets it fall open to the page with a pressed white lily. He gently traces the petal edges. He remembers giving it to her a month ago.
058. Eyes
For as long as she can remember, she has never found someone with the same eyes as her. Her family and doctors thought it was the result due to her early birth by two months, that she had not finished developing in the womb, but she had never had problems with her sight. Her classmates and neighbourhood children thought it was unique and quite cool that her eyes were white.
She lived her life with that fact that it her eyes were different, some even said her vision was superior, but it had never caused her too much trouble. When she moved from the countryside to go to high school in Tokyo, she was remarked upon but never to the point she couldn't handle the speculation, until the day she was walking to school and she looked up to see her eyes staring back at her in his face.
059. Mothers
Hyuuga Nanae had been a submissive wife and a mother second. She was a traditional girl brought up in the old ways a male dominant culture. She had wanted to protest but had not believed she had the power to change anything when her husband split her twins apart into two Houses.
Hyuuga Akari was not a tough woman. She had been the youngest sibling of four and the only girl in a family of a minor noble name. When she married Hizashi, it was seen as step up from her station. She had not been brought up to fight but when her husband had abandoned her and their son selfishly for the love of his twin and Clan, she pushed and pulled and found a strength in herself she had never thought possible. Because her son had lost his father, but she'll be damned before he'll grow up loveless.
Hyuuga Honi had been a bright happy child, the beloved child of her family. Her parents and her older brother had doted upon her. Her childhood was made up of laughter and days frolicking happily in the sun. The Hyuuga Main House was damp and depressive, there were many rules and restrictive protocols. She was too high in station to maintain her old friendships and too weak in skills for the Clan to actively take an interest in her training. In the following years she lived for her husband and the thought of her children. When the Clan rejected her firstborn and tried to turn her two daughters against each other, it crushed her spirit and she withdrew into herself.
Hyuuga Hinata was young, weak, and shy. She had no obvious exceptional mastery of the Gentle Fist like her cousin Neji, nor the seemingly raw potential of her sister. Her eyes were down cast, her footsteps silent, shoulders usually slumped in her teenage years, but she left medical creams on her younger sisters desk at the end of a hard day, brushed the girl's hair in time for formal attendances, allowed the second daughter to be a child in an ninja's upbringing, hummed her soft songs to sleep, and held the smaller girl in her arms when the world caved in. The rest of her Clan easily overlooked her small form but she was the only mother Hanabi had ever known.
060. Death
She stands at the edge of a cliff, eyes gazing far into the distance silently. The wind sweeps up from below and takes towards the east; away from the setting sun and her raggedly cut ends of hair are lifted up. The sky is a mix of purples and oranges, bright and solemn at the end of the day. She lifts her clenched fist forward and the wind sweeps at the long strands of luminous blue hair, pulling it back and forth in circles.
She lets it go, four longs years worth of growth. The wind catches it and she watches, as it is swept past the edge and falling towards the sea. She shifts her body away and takes one last look towards the horizon before she moves on.
. : TBC : .
