Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Note: So I can see that pre-traumatized, kid Neji resembles Naruto. But do not fret, it was somewhat intended. Neji, right now, is a kid, like two years old. Also he does not act this way around other members of the Hyuuga clan, especially with Hiashi. Don't worry easy, affectionate relationship Neji and Hitomi will be explained/explored. Unless you deduced the reason why. I am not good at mystery/thriller. My bad. Neji will develop to his liken canon character of the series. one day, but today is not the day!
Also more background for Oc!Hina-chan! More development for her. Too. I think. And shit is about to go down! At least in a way. I need to ease into this all sneaky like. Ya know. Ninja like.
Also, also I know Hizashi is just hanging in the background. He will come into play more often as the story progresses. Right now he is letting his son take the reigns in escorting Hina-Hina. Giving Neji experience with his destined role.
Think positive thought, readers. We don't want a Wrackspurt infestation.
Yamanaka Flowers
In front of a pastel yellow building lined with mahogany wood, I stand. Still hand-in-hand with the concerned brown-haired boy beside me. Still in company of the boy's father. I watched, detached, when okaa-san gilded with purpose into the open mahogany archway of the flower shop. The wind disturbing the stillness of the bright and healthy rooted plants in ceramic pots, placed in front of the shop. Another swing and I resembled that of a human in consciousness.
Feeling the air feather across my skin and cooling my heated covered hand, I breathe more life within me. The fresh, clean air filled with naturally floral scents rushed through my nose and filled my lungs. I can breathe. I can think.
"Are you better now Hina-chan? Everyone was really scared about you, really really scared." A tightening grip of a warm, sweaty hand with a wavering childish voice brought my gaze to sharpen and focus to its creator.
Misty, near-identical eyes looked into mine. A lip usually fixed upward filled with confidence and joy, now quivering, tilted downwards towards the earthen dirt ground. The familiar feeling of guilt is injected in my veins. While the poisonous guilt courses through my blood, a cold rotting shadow fills the cracks in my head. I make home with the shadows. I act and lie. As usually. I ignore how my blood begins to rush and burn with guilt.
A soft squeeze of my interlocked hand, my face morphs from a detached confusion into a shy, overwhelmed girl. I speak with a voices that matches, "Gomen Neji-kun, I did not mean to scare you. I was suddenly overwhelmed. Please, gomen." Slipping my heated hand from his, I gave a bow.
Straightening back up, I see a scrunched and reddening face of worry, embarrassment, and childish pride. " Ah Hina-chan, I wasn't that scared just... I wasn't scared. But tou-san and Hitomi-san were scared. I wasn't though, really, I can't be.' By the end his voice softened to a whisper. His face angled towards the ground and his hands clenched by his sides, tight and hard.
Bringing his right arm up he wipes his eyes, angles his face filled only with worry towards me, and continues to speak. His voice barely above a whisper, "So don't do that again Hina-chan. Okay? I gotta protect you and...' His words trailed off as he stared towards the ground again. A re-tightening of his hands, the wind picked up. His voice carried with it, but no words were heard.
Soft, near silent steps reached my straining ears. A soft hand appeared, being placed gently upon the boy's tense shoulders. The action elicited Neji to look towards his tou-san. Silent communication passed between them and whatever was received caused the boy to loosen and brighten slowly. The older man's grip loosened, but never fell. The boy then looked at me, creating two steps towards me. As the distance shortens his hand seeks mine. Warm and affectionate.
"Your my cousin Hina-chan and I gotta protect you." A firm squeeze from his hand as his white eyes pointer at mine.
Eyes that held such readable emotion. Another squeeze, a wider smile and he lets go. Encrypted information was sent directly into my gaze, mimicking what was done to him a few moments ago. Perhaps countless time before that. I did not understand his encryption. I did not own his cipher's key. I did not understand the coded familial affection, I do not think I ever will. But, still I try to decode what was written with eyes in silence. I blank. I can read his emotions clearly, but I cannot understand what is written with them, what is written between the lines. I do not know what message poetically lies in his gaze. It is a puzzle that no logic or inexperience can penetrate. He continues to stare, as if he knows I do not understand.
A hushed feminine voice broke my useless attempts of breaking an impossible code. From the mahogany archway emerges my okaa-san with a tall man. The tall man is distinct by his long-straight ash-blonde hair, held on top of his skull in a ponytail accompanied with the same hued spikes. A black cloth is tied around his forehead, with Konohagakure's symbol, like the guards that shadow the door of my room. This man is a soldier, shinobi. His pupil-less blue eyes scan me and my accompaniment. The man's face is the picture of soft concern, yet my hackles raise pointed and sharp. His intense, calculating gaze falls and stays on me. I keep the playing my created part.
I feel pricked and cut open, as if all my secrets, everything I am, is study, examined, and coldly picked apart to bring an accurate assessment and profile of my character. This feeling is accompanied by a strong urge to camouflage my fur and feathers and scales to an impenetrable act. The will to survive awakens within me. My gut twists in action, stamping the feeling that he knows I am more than what I seem.
My past shelf shakes off the burns of cowardice. My past self takes the jagged crown. In burnt bloody hands, the kingdom turns into freezing shadows. The shadowy tendrils consumes everything in an inky black with a sheen of ice forming from within. My present self becomes chained and frozen.
He slowly comes towards me, his smile softening in a play of concern before he bends down on one knee towards my height. A mastered craftsmen in the art of deception. I know and see because I had been as well, perfectly mastered craftsmen in the old world. A top predator, a keen, sharp, and useful weapon, I was used endlessly for it.
Like me he is a predator. Like me he knows.
A predator always know another one. Always.
"Hello Hinata-chan. My name is Yamanaka Inoichi, pleased to meet you."
Watch out for Chameleon, for she hides in plain sight, she can become you, now she is you. Watch out for Chameleon for you will never know you are dead and gone. Watch out, little insects, her tongue can twist and turn in all ways as you become slowly poisoned. She can enter your mind through acted words or sharp knifes. You'll spill your blood and guts and you will do it willingly. Watch out she belongs to us, The Royal Regime.
