Chapter :8

Meeting with Hiashi

Eventually the time at the hotsprings had to come to an end. It was an awkward trip to the changing rooms for both Gohan and Hinata, both going to, and inside of them. Gohan received many jealous glares on the boys' side mainly for his "unusually developped" body. And Hinata for her part from the girls for her attention she received from Gohan. But eventually they managed to push themselves through it and they found themselves outside the hotsprings.

They unfortunately had to find themselves coincidentally walking along the same path back, which wasn't really coincidental since they both had to get back to the same home since Gohan was staying at the Hyugas. They walked in silence, not wanting to bring up the unfortunate situation they'd had to endure back at the hotsprings with each other, both parties being too shy and too respectful of the other to do that. But then they were pretty shortly joined by an unexpected third party in the form of a running and yelling Naruto Uzumaki.

"Hey guys! Wait up!" yelled out Naruto as he came running and waving at them from behind. Both Gohan and Hinata turned around in surprise thinking the same thing. 'Naruto!?' they both thought.

Naruto caught up with them. "Hey guys, what are you doing walking together?" asked Naruto.

"I live with the Hyugas remember? I have to take this path to get home and since Hinata lives there too, I guess I have no choice but to escort her home." responded Gohan, annoyed at having to explain himself on something so simple.

"Oh yeah, I still can't believe how you can stand being around those sticks in the mud. No offense Hinata." replied Naruto, crossing his arms and his face looking like it was in a pout, or more like he was trying to look thoughtful.

"N-None taken N-N-Naruto." responded Hinata, refering to his somewhat insultive assertion of her clan. Which to be honest they really could generally be some real sticks in the mud, and even a few ones seemed to be ones that were for 24 hour a day in her opinion, so she let it slide. "Ah, they're not that bad Naruto. But I guess I know what you mean." said Gohan.

"Yeah, hey listen, sorry about what happened back there. I mean, with all those guys glaring at you like that. I mean I didn't want for things to go south like that." apologized Naruto. "Eh, it's okay, it wasn't your fault." replied Gohan, trying to play it off but you could still tell that it had bothered him deeply.

"Ehhh, those guys were just jealous. They just wish that THEY could look like that. You shouldn't have to feel sorry for yourself in any way." said Naruto, shrugging it off with a big fat foxy grin of his.

"You know? I guess you're right. I guess it was still at least a little fun. It was a fun idea that just went south. I guess I'll still be using hotsprings from now on anyway. But you're definitely more fun to be around then with the Hyugas. I think I'd be more happy living with you then I would the Hyugas." said Gohan. Naruto sort blushed from the compliments of his friend and scratched the back of his head as was typical of him.

"Well, if anytime you want to, I could have you back at my apartment again in no time. It would be fun to have you around again." offered Naruto.

"Well thanks, I'll keep that in mind." said Gohan. They then waved each other off and went their seperate ways of going home.

But as he walked off, Gohan started to think back on what Naruto had just said and also about the whole situation with the Hyugas. His mind was reminded about the whole situation within the Hyugas and how uncomfortable he was around them.

He was now seriously considering Naruto's offer and his mind was working overtime on the pro and cons and weighing the options involved.

He stayed silent the whole trip and Hinata didn't disturb him. She figured that if he looked like he was thinking hard on something then he probably was. And if he was thinking that hard on something then she probably shouldn't disturb him and it probably wasn't something that was any of her business anyway. So she left him alone to his thoughts as they made their way home.

As soon as they arrived at the Hyuga compound, Gohan immediately asked to see Lord Hiashi Hyuga. Now Hinata wasn't sure why Gohan wanted to see her father nor did she know quite what to make out of it. She wondered why but she didn't question it, whatever he had planned. But she decided just to leave him to his own business and so she just made her way back to her room.

Gohan soon found himself sitting on a cushion at a table with Hiashi himself in one of Hiashi's own private rooms where no one could overhear their conversation. "So, you wished to have an audience with me? Now you have it. What do you wish to talk to me about?" asked Hiashi in a neutral tone, though one that promoted more friendliness then officialness.

"Well sir, I came here to talk to you about a couple of things." respectfully answered Gohan. "Very well, go on." responded Hiashi, his impassive face betraying nothing.

"Well first off I came to inform you of my decision that I'm no longer going to be staying with the Hyugas and that I'm going to be staying with Naruto at his apartment instead." explained Gohan, all the time saying it in a calm political voice. A look of surprise and maybe even some mild indignity crossed Hiashi's face.

"What? But why? Has our accommodations not been satisfactory for your needs? Was our hospitality not good enough for someone of your high standing?" questioned Hiashi, clearly confused as to this sudden turn of events.

"No! No, nothing like that. In fact your accommodations were great and if anything I felt very welcomed by your hospitalty." quickly rebuked Gohan, swipping his hands in front of himself in a defensive fashion.

"Then why did you decide to switch from us, one of the most prominent and respectable Houses in the village, for accommodations of substantially more "ill repute"?" asked Hiashi, trying to re-phrase the terms of Naruto's apartment and standing as politely as he could.

"While your accommodations have been great and everything, but I was never one for the fancy things. I'm much more happy with the simple things. I may have a fancy title, but I'm still just the country boy that grew up in a small house in the woods. Naruto is a nice guy and fun to be around and I feel it would be more fun to stay with him then I would if I stayed with you. No offense but you guys are kinda stiff for my tastes. It's not a question of accommodations, it's just personnal preference. Surely you can understand that can't you?" explained Gohan.

"Yes, yes I think I do understand." Hiashi said, his face softening at the humble honesty he saw in Gohan's eyes.

"Good, then you can still count on me giving glowing reviews of your establishment to whatever officials that might need to know." offered Gohan with a genuine smile. Hiashi gave a small smile at that.

"Thank you my boy. Though it may still be unwaranted and undeserved in your own eyes, but this gesture is truly the work of a truly kindhearted young man and both I and my clan are truly thankful for it. And although you may be leaving on less then ideal circumstances, you still have my personnal approval and blessings to leave as such." said Hiashi and politely bowed.

"Thank you sir. But there's something else I want to talk to you about?" switched Gohan, his expression getting more serious.

"And that is?" egged on Hiashi, his own expression getting serious as he saw that whatever Gohan wanted to discuss that it would be something serious.

"I feel that the way you treat your daughter is wrong." said Gohan, eyeing Hiashi dangerously as he knew what he was talking about.

Hiashi's expression turned to a frown. This clearly had struck a nerve and he was displeased with it. "Excuse me? But by what right do you have business telling me how I should treat my daughter." immediately countered Hiashi almost angrily.

"Sir, like her I've also gone through brutal training under a harsh and brutal teacher. I'm also an heir to a prominent family. And like her, I've also faced self-confidence issues in the past. So I think that I'm just about the only one who's entitled to an opinion on this matter. And I think that as an official and prestigious guest of this house, but also more importantly, as a moral person who's morally concerned. I feel it's my obligation to speak out on this. So you see I do have my business on this." informed Gohan.

"*sigh* Very well, I guess I'll listen to you." said Hiashi, even though he thought that Gohan's rights for argument as given his position were flimsy at best, but decided to humour him as he did have something of a point that his position was at least worth listening to so he decided to let him speak on his point and make his case anyway.

Gohan could tell that from the look on his face Hiashi was displeased about the subject matter. But that he was allowing him to speak, and make no mistake about it, he was only allowing him to speak, because if he had wanted, Hiashi could've easily dismissed him on rights alone. But Gohan was going to take it.

"Well, first off I think that your attitude towards her isn't right. For instance, when you were remarking on her her skills and appraising her performance during the exihibition match, that from your tone of voice I saw you were being far too disapproving of her. It was almost to the point of being harsh and cruel." shot Gohan.

"In case you didn't notice, but we live in a world of ninja surrounded by constant danger and I have to prepare her for the worst. I'm training her in the ways of the ninja and in the Gentle Fist. There's not exactly room for niceties in such an enviroment. I love my daughter so I have to be hard on her in order to make her learn and prepare her for the worst. And you should have no say in how we train in our way in the Hyuga style." countered Hiashi.

"Yes, that much is true, but if you recall I said earlier that I too had to deal with hard training with harsh and disapproving words from my sensei so I can understand where you think you're coming from. In fact my training could even be considered harder than what your putting Hinata through. When I was merely four and a half years old I was taken in for my first training under a man named Piccolo. We had a year to prepare for a brutal oncoming enemy and my then nascent powers were needed. He was hard and even brutal with me at times. For the first leg of the training he dropped me off in the wilderness and made me survive on my own against wild beasts for several months. Then after that the next stage of the training was fighting and sparring with him full contact every day for the rest of the year. He was a harsh and grumpy man so his criticisms were harsh and brutal at times. Like he would say 'Too slow! You're way too sloppy!' or 'You're nothing but a whiny spoiled brat.' and then punish me by either beating me up or throwing me off a cliff or something. His methods were probably far too demanding of a child like myself at the time." explained Gohan, reminiscing of his training under Piccolo.

'Amazing, when he said hard training he wasn't kidding. It sounds hard to imagine surviving such absurd training.' thought Hiashi, his lips looking like a fish as he sweatdropped.

"But what your doing is just wrong! The way you address her and the tone of your voice you show you have no faith, no trust or belief in her and leave her with no praise at all." said Gohan, eyeing him harshly.

Hiashi returned with a hard gaze of his own. "In case you didn't notice but I am teaching her the Gentle Fist. A teacher must always look for the flaws in their students in order for them to grow stronger. If only she had more confidence in herself and were stronger then I would praise her as often." returned Hiashi.

"And that's your problem... You don't see that your the one who's causing her to lose self-confidence in herself. How can you expect someone to grow in confidence and become strong if you don't have confidence in them? It's not the strength that feeds the confidence as you seem to think it is, but the confidence that helps feed the strength. You think that you daughter is weak? Well I'll tell what makes her weak more that anything, it's your disapproval of her. You took away her confidence first by being too hard and showing on confidence in her and feeding it. How can anyone be confident when their parents show confidence in them? It might be fine when it's just you teacher but when it's your father too? Then you have a problem." explained Gohan.

At that, Hiashi's eyes grew big as he came to the stunning realization. 'It's true! It's true! What have I been doing!?' screamed out Hiashi in his head as he realized what he'd been doing wrong all these years.

"My teacher might have been harsh but he always showed faith in me and that I would become stronger. He always made to galvanize my determination and built up my confidence with saying things like "Get up! You're being way too sloppy you can defend much better that that!" or "If I'm too strong for you then just get stronger than me." But with you, all you do is scoff at her and pick at only her flaws." continued Gohan, not realizing that Hiashi already looked half-way despondent over the verbal chewing out that Gohan had just done.

"No more... You don't have to say anymore. I realise now what I've been doing wrong all these years. But you have to realize that have no choice in the matter. I have three children that I have to take care of including Neji and I have to make time for all of them. The situation between them is what it is. I have no control of that. I love my daughters both very much as is Neji. I knew what I was doing, in the back of my mind I Knew it. I knew it was wrong and I hated it but I had to go along with it anyway. But what could I have done differently?" Hiashi asked, more to himself then to Gohan.

"Well first off you could've helped her more. You saw that she needed extra help. If you have someone who's more in need of training than the rest then you give them that help so they can catch up and everyone can be stronger together." said Gohan.

"But it's not so easy. How can I do as you say when they are looking to me to do what is expected for the clan?" asked Hiashi, looking like he was questioning his own nature.

"Your the Clan Head aren't you? If you say your going to praise your daughter then who's going to stop you? If anybody doesn't like it, then tough. Just try to tell her what she needs to be doing to get stronger. In my experience teaching is not just about pointing out what's wrong all the time. It's also about telling them what they can do right and that they can do so. It's about pointing them in the right direction. Why don't you try starting to correct her mistakes by telling her what to do right? I'm sure you'll see marked improvement." suggested Gohan.

At that point Hiashi lifted his head up and looked like he had the answer of life. He was soooooo totally thankful to Gohan for showing him how to fix things. "Y-Young man, I don't know what to say... except, thank you. You are very much wise beyond your years and that it will be a terrible shame to lose you." said Hiashi as he bowed his head in both farewell and gratitude.

At that point Gohan bowed back in respectful return and then stood up and made to leave. "No thanks necessary. Doing the right thing is reward enough for me. It was a kind pleasure staying at your house. But now I must make my leave. But before I leave, there's one more thing that I want to address. Earlier I spoke to Neji and both he and I would be very much interested in a sparring match between us sometime. I was wondering if would it be possible for you to arrange it for us sometime even though I'll be staying outside of the Hyuga House?" suggested Gohan as he looked back from the doorway.

"It would be my honor to arrange such a match. Please farewell." answered Hiashi. Then both he and Gohan exchanged curteous bows and then he left.

Gohan quickly packed his things and then made his farewells to both Hinata and Neji. Although she was sad to see him go, Hinata was understanding about why he was leaving. Neji for his part just gave him a respectful send off and that was it.

The next thing Gohan knew, he was standing in front of the doorway of Naruto's apartment with his travel bags with him. When Naruto answered the door he was slightly surprised to see who it was. "You've got room for one more?" Gohan jokingly quipped.

Naruto for his part responded with a shit-eating grin as he understood where Gohan was going with this. "You sure bet I do!" was his response. And that was it, Gohan now lived with Naruto.


Author's Thoughts: So Gohan FINALLY has words with Hiashi. Now don't get me wrong, often Hiashi gets a bum wrap in some fics I find for the way he treats Hinata. Some go as far as portraying as an evil aristocrating jerk or worse! But that's their prerogative, I understand that.

But for my money, I believe he's closer somewhere down the middle. And I wanted to portray a man stern enough to get away with what he did, but caring enough to realize when a mistake is done he has to correct it. I see it as just a father WRONGLY but surely trying to teach his daughter as best as he could. It's just that I think his methods actually backfired on him and made her more insecure rather than stronger. I think that's what it is, the Hyuga Clan was expecting male heirs and so Hiashi figured he could train his daughters as such. But he couldn't accommodate for the sensibilities of a girl and that's why it backfired. I'm not trying to be sexist, it's just a fact that female sensibilities tend to be different than those of males, and vice-versa. No right or wrong, just the way things are.

And things were just set up in this way prior and he would have really have had no idea of what to do otherwise in training method even if he'd truly realized that what he was doing was fundamentally wrong. And with his attitude about it and with what the people around him were no doubt saying, I think he thinks that Hinata is the problem and not him. So he acts the way he acts for that reason. It's only now that someone who he can tell him what he's doing wrong can he tell.

This conversation was a long time in my head and I had a long time writer's block for this scene and the significance of it. I couldn't quite figure exactly Hiashi's attitude for certain moments and I ended up moving on to other parts of DBZ AP series for a while. But I got over it and just went with it as best as I saw how. I hope you appreciated and enjoyed it.