Kakahina: 17
Shikahina: 25
Itahina: 24
Sasuhina: 12
Naruhina: 16
Harem: 8
Nejihina: 5
Gaahina: 10
Madahina: 2
Shisuihina: 1
Keep voting!!
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Hinata draws blood when her tiny fist collides with Akashi's face. It spurts out of his nose before there's a gut-wrenching crunch and his head whips to the side so violently it almost snaps out of place.
Her stomach churns uncomfortably at the sight of the disgusting red ooze on her knuckles but she's long become numb to the paralysing fear of it. She'd previously forced herself to woman up - if she wants to survive longer than a millisecond in a world like this.
"Ah! Akashi-san, I-"
Hiashi's advisor raises one hand while the other nurses his nosebleed. "No, no. Don't apologise." Eventually, he straightens and flashes an unconvincing smile. "That's a good technique. No one expects a Gentle Fist user to actually land a hit."
"Let's just say I had a little enlightening a couple days ago," the heiress cryptically says, relaxing out of her fighting stance.
She quickly ducks inside the dojo and returns with tissues for Akashi to clean himself up with.
"Let me look." She guides the man over to the step where he stumbles into a sitting position and allows Hinata to check out his nose. "It's broken," she declares, frowning. "Sorry, Akashi-san."
"Pah, I said don't apologize. I feel pathetic now."
There's a sliver of a smile on her lips and she raises her palms over his face, blue chakra engulfing his nose.
He shouldn't be impressed considering it's a naturally gifted talent in a clan that studies perfect chakra control, but he is. Regardless, the tiny heiress never fails to surprise him.
"Hinata-sama, you've really got to stop making Akashi-san bleed all over the place," comes an amused voice from a familiar Branch member. He's short for a nineteen-year-old and his hair is long, long, long down to his waist.
Akashi grumbles under his breath.
"What have I told you, Kumi-chan? It's Hinata. Just Hinata." She wants to try a new type of leadership. She wants to give her family a choice.
If they want to follow her, even when she puts herself on equal grounds as they, then so be it. And if they don't, then she's doing something wrong.
The male laughs and waves his hand haphazardly. "My mother looks forward to your next visit."
"As am I."
Akashi watches her interaction in amusement. Then, he lets out a low stifled grunt when Hinata suddenly clamps her little hands around his nose and snaps it back into place.
He feels the throbbing behind his eyes and in the front of his skull but soon, relief washes over him when Hinata counteracts the pain.
Kumi excuses himself, and Sayuri emerges from the kitchen. She announces that lunch is indeed served.
Hinata jumps to he feet immediately and bids Akashi farewell. He's dabbing the blood from his mouth and standing upright to his feet when she gives him a bow.
"Thank you for your time, Akashi-san! I look forward to tomorrow's lesson." Then she bolts off in the direction of her father's study.
"Lesson," Akashi mumbles to himself, unconvinced. There's no way she can call this a lesson.
Only a moment later does he see Hinata pulling Hiashi down the corridor with godly strength. Hiashi is hissing at his daughter to let go, but she won't listen. She gets her stubbornness from her mother.
"Tou-sama, you sit here with Hanabi and me!"
"Hinata, I really-"
"Tou-sama." Akashi can just imagine the stern look Hinata is giving the Hyuga clan leader "Naoki-san prepared this lunch for everyone, and everyone is you too." Well. Everyone who can make it.
The silence means Hiashi gives in to his daughter's demands.
A moment passes and then the sliding slams open, Hinata appears. Her eyes zero in on Akashi who is still prodding at his nose subconsciously and she sighs.
"Akashi-san, why are you taking so long?"
He chuckles and starts toward her. "My apologies for making you wait, Hinata-sama."
"Hinata," she corrects almost snappily and adds, "And don't apologize. I'm glad you're coming anyway."
The kitchen is packed so tight Akashi is unsure where to stand. He's never seen so many Hyuga in such a small space in his life. They all seem to be wary, but amused.
"Itadakimasu!" Hinata calls clapping her hands together.
Everyone repeats.
Tentative at first, they wait for the Main family to get their pick. But when Hinata glances around at them with confused watery eyes, they begin to pile their plates. A good strategy, nonetheless.
At age seven, it is safe to say Hinata has an influence- control that extends pass what she should have - and it's not just because of her title. If Akashi was anyone else, he wouldn't have noticed it- the way Hinata has everyone wrapped around her finger.
She's recognized not only as their upcoming leader, but a prodigy. Someone capable of change. She has long surpassed her father's deep-rooted expectations of her and continues to grow with no limits.
She should be both over the moon and humbled with her exceptional accomplishments, but why is that she looks so tired?
-Line Break-
Hinata is returning from a play date with Sasuke and Naruto when she bumps into the Third Hokage.
He's smoking like there's no tomorrow, overlooking the village from a tree. It's a peculiar sight to see one's village leader dangling from a branch, really.
"Hokage-sama, are you all right?"
He doesn't respond right away and slowly rolls his gaze down to her. The moonlight emphasizes the girl's lilac eyes and midnight blue hair. He wonders what parent would let their child out at this time of night but upon closer inspection, he realizes exactly who she is.
"Yes. I'm getting old, I don't want to die at my desk doing paperwork of all things," he says with a sigh. "Even Hokage need breaks too."
"There must be a lot of treacherous going-ons that we mustn't know about, huh," Hinata says tilting her head and folding her arms behind her back.
Lord Third's face is a blank canvas. If she's thrown him off guard, he doesn't show it.
He's silent for a while and then casts his gaze out over the village again. "Such is life," he insists. "The cycle of survival is inevitable."
He drops down from the branch, robes swooshing around him like tendrils of water. Hinata's head barely reaches his chest. She's a wee thing with quite the feisty streak.
"You'll come to realise the depths of which is leadership," he murmurs. "We make decisions based on love. Love for your family's well-being, love for your village. It may not ever be the easiest route taken, and people will get hurt. But in the end-"
"It's the right thing to do," she finishes with a dip of her head.
The Hokage smiles. "Exactly."
"My father often speaks of the morality that comes with leading a clan," Hinata admits. "And how sometimes, you can't help but pile a burden onto another instead of yourself - to save face and to get the dirty work done."
Hiruzen blinks.
"My father talks often of betrayal and deception. From birth I was trained to spot a lie from a mile away - I wield all seeing eyes. And with the detection of deceit, paranoia is mistaken for justice." She gets a coy smile and adds, "Within exception."
"I expect nothing less from a Hyuga."
"Expect nothing less from a shinobi," she corrects. Her eyes gleam.
That confirms it. The Hyuga heiress fights a battle with a double-edged sword. He isn't too sure to what extent her knowledge is limited to, however he isn't about to underestimate her. The Hyuga, he thinks, harbor more secrets than he's aware of.
He purses his lips and takes a long drag of his pipe. "Have you ever considered joining ANBU?"
She pauses to consider. "The thought has crossed my mind."
"You're an exceptionally intelligent and capable ninja, Hinata. With the strict discipline and set example by shinobi who possess experience that extend far past two wars even, you can become an extremely powerful protector of our village. I am sure Hiashi will have no qualms whatsoever."
Hinata's lips curl upwards. He's doing it, he really is. She takes a moment to assess his offer. If she does this and works her way to the top- no. It won't work, not with where she wants to head.
Politely, she bows. Hiruzen is surprised.
"Thank you for the suggestion, Hokage-sama. However, I prefer the idea of attending the academy," she says.
Academy? She's long surpassed the need for the academy. What can they teach her that she doesn't already know?
"There are people I wish to see again." As she says this, more so murmurs wistfully, she gets this soft puppy face look.
He inclines his head in understanding. He doesn't press her. If she's come as far as she has, there's no doubt about it that she can make her own choices, smartly.
If it's the academy she desires, then so be it.
"Ah! Ko-san will have my head if I'm late for my bath! Please excuse me Hokage-sama." Again, she bows and then in a flicker, she's gone.
The silence weighs down on his shoulders and he releases a light chuckle. He, too, better return to the office before his advisors lose the plot.
The next morning, he appears on Hiashi's doorstep with a pot of chamomile tea and a proposition.
-Line Break-
She packs light. She wraps a kunai pouch around her thigh and carries a tanto that Akashi didn't even know she could use on her back.
A single ANBU lands quietly in the estate and hands Hinata and Akashi a mask each.
It's the dead of night and Hinata doesn't utter a word. She squeezes her father's hand as a farewell and then follows behind Akashi up to the rooftops.
In the moonlight, she recognizes his silver sleek hair as the ANBU officer she's run into on multiple occasions.
They practically sail through the night, merging with the darkness like shadows, when she makes a quick detour.
"Hinata-sama," Akashi hisses quietly when she strays.
"Training Area 4 right?" How did she know? "I'll be there. Give me ten minutes. I just...have to see someone."
Akashi heaves a sigh because even if he wants to he can't force her to follow his rules. Maybe perhaps she'd listen to their leading captain, but he seems disinterested and continues on.
He'll wait for her.
As she said, she arrives in sight ten minutes later. There are two more ANBU to make up their exceptionally large team and one Hinata recognizes as Itachi.
He inclines his head her way as a sort of congratulations while the only other female on the team lets out a noise of shock.
"A child?" She shrieks in disbelief. "A child, taichou?"
"Yes," the Hatake replies.
"Wha...this is ridiculous! We shouldn't have a little girl, a child on this mission! What if she gets hurt?"
Hinata understands the woman's concerns.
"Hinata-sama won't get hurt," Akashi insists.
Anko's face twists further into ridicule. "Hinata-sa- Taichou, an heiress? Kami!"
"A child, Anko," Kakashi says serious, "Is far from what she truly is."
Hinata recognizes his use of what she'd told him in their previous encounter. Anko presses her lips together and she glowers.
"I don't support this."
"Your opinion is void. Now let's go."
Hinata follows Kakashi immediately as he begins to scale the large wall that protects Konoha. Hinata thought they would be some sort of adrenalin rush as she goes on her first mission since the war, and yet she's numb. She doesn't care.
Because there is worse to come, a worse enemy. This - all this - is child's play compared to the hell the future holds.
She recalls visiting her precious friends and gets a small smile on her lips.
Before she'd left, she'd spoken briefly with Neji. He was brimming with pride and had not a single worry that she would get hurt. He believed in her just as she him. He told her of a girl he'd met recently - his first proper friend that he's made on his own, Tenten. Hinata almost sobbed because Kami. Tenten.
Naruto was snoring and strewn all across his head. He could barely keep his eyes open. When Hinata said her goodbye and tucked him into bed, he'd accidentally called her mum. Mum. It was a simple slip of the tongue and he'd done it many a times to Mikoto so Hinata just giggled.
Sasuke was a light sleeper- no surprises there - and woke up the moment she appeared in his room he'd sat up. His face flushed and he grew embarrassed. Of what she wasn't entirely sure. She'd seen him and his dinosaur pajamas many times before. His main concern of her absence was; who was going to play dinosaurs with him? Itachi was away and Naruto just didn't play properly.
She feels her chest clench painfully and seizes it with her hand, fingers curling around the fabric tightly.
How long?
How long will that innocence last?
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So I was thinking of starting another Hina story, I want it to be a crossover. So should it be Pokèmon x Naruto crossover or AOT x Naruto crossover?