Quick warning ...one segment has a dark tale included.
Still own nothing of Naruto ...
o.O.o.O.o.O
Lord Hyuuga Hiashi was having a long day. His run-in with his daughter earlier this afternoon had left him feeling uneasy. As if his life no longer fit anymore. It had all started with Kameyo's visit. No, it had started earlier than that. With Hanabi.
The Hyuuga clan leader scowled as he walked through the village, thinking. He rarely went into town for dinner, but tonight he had just felt the need to get out of the house. Hanabi was trying hard and he should be pleased with her progress. But. He'd watched his young heir train with his nephew and ...and he'd felt a pang of jealousy.
Neither Hinata nor Hanabi could match his nephew in sheer skill and ability. Jealousy was new to him. He was the clan leader, after all. The first born. His twin brother had been deemed 'lesser' and branch family for an accident of birth order. He'd never questioned it before. Fate had made him first born, and that's the way destiny worked.
Yet lately he'd been questioning the very concept of 'fate'. He'd watched Neji battle a much weaker opponent several years ago, sure of an easy victory. He and Neji had both been shocked when Naruto had pulled off an upset win. Now, as he watched his nephew grow into a competent and skillful young leader, he wondered at the vagaries of life. Was it fate? Or did you make your own fate? Why couldn't Neji have been his son? Was fate laughing at him?
Frowning, Hiashi stopped and looked into one of the many bars along the street. He'd always disdained public drinking except for when entertaining guests. Yet, inside it looked so warm and welcoming. The glow of conversation and comfortable acceptance no matter what your problems seemed to call out to him tonight.
Despite his better judgment, Hiashi walked inside. Blinking at the change in lighting, Hiashi paused just past the threshold.
"We don't often see you in this part of town." The voice was gruff but jovial.
"Often? Try never." This voice was gravel, and with a slow drawl of a man who'd been drinking.
Turning toward the bar, Hiashi saw three men looking curiously over at him. Akimichi Choza nodded at him with a sake warmed smile. Nara Shikaku sat beside him and waved one hand in greeting. Yamanaka Inoichi went so far as to turn and tell the man in the chair next to them to "get lost." Then patted the now empty bar stool.
"It must be something troublesome to bring you out here." Nara intoned, calling for another round. Hiashi was a bit surprised that they'd included him in the bar order.
"Do I look that bad?" He asked, surprising himself as he sat down next to the trio.
All three men nodded. Hiashi grimaced. "Daughters." Was all he managed to say.
"AH! Finally, someone who understands!" Inoichi perked up and saluted Hiashi with his fresh sake cup. "Daughters are much more trouble than sons, I keep trying to tell these two, but they don't understand."
"Sons are hard too." Choza groused. "Eating you out of house and home."
"Chasing girls." Nara whined. "And catching them."
Inoichi sighed. "Try being the father to one of the girls they chase. And catch."
Hiashi raised a brow, and his sake in silent agreement.
"But I didn't think Lady Hinata would be the type to cause you trouble." Inoichi nodded at the other man.
"Neither did I." Hiashi moaned. "I thought it was just her, but is your daughter the same way? One day she's a child doing exactly as she should and the next day ..."
"The next day you don't know what hit you." Inoichi nodded. "I thought I was in control of my family, but looking back on it, I don't think I ever was."
"Wait!" Choza stood and stared out the window, everyone followed suit. "Is that a shaggy white horse running down the street?"
"No." Inoichi sighed and sat back down, ordering another bottle of sake. "That's Akamaru, Kiba's nin-dog companion."
"Was that a purple shirt he had in his mouth?" Nara shook his head in sympathy.
Inoichi nodded and drank deeply.
"Isn't that Ino chasing him?" Hiashi asked, his eyes wide.
"Yep." Choza took a drink himself. "And it looks like she's wearing a man's shirt."
Inoichi hunched over his drink looking a bit crazed.
"And isn't that Kiba running after them?" Hiashi asked appalled.
Nara looked. "Seems he's lost a shirt somewhere along the way."
Inoichi's head dropped lower and he reached for the bottle again.
Hiashi turned to stare at all three men. "Aren't you going to do anything about this?"
Inoichi shook his head. "A little late for that now, and what would be the point? The last time I tried to stop anything my wife kicked me out of the house for a week. She said I was overreacting and that I needed to learn how to trust."
Overreacting? Hiashi would have killed the young man if that had been his daughter.
"Besides. The wedding is only two months away. She will still be able to fit in her dress if anything happens."
"That's so wrong." Hiashi was shocked and not a little appalled.
"Nah. I'm hoping for a grandson." Inoichi looked up at Hiashi.
"Yep. It's all he's been able to talk about since the betrothal." Choza nodded. "An heir."
Hiashi sat back down, his mind reeling. "An heir. But wouldn't the child be Tsume's heir?"
Inoichi shook his head as he explained. "The Inuzuka's are matriarchal. Hana's the heir. Tsume even agreed to a form of Muko-iri with Kiba."
Hiashi picked up his cup, the sake burning pleasantly as he drank deeply. "So, in effect, Kiba becomes your son?"
"For a year and a day." Nara smiled and patted Hiashi familiarly on the back. Maybe it was the sake, or maybe it was the ease of the company, but Hiashi didn't take offense. "And after that Ino becomes an Inuzuka."
"But how does that benefit you?" Hiashi asked, looking confused.
"I have no sons, as you know." Inoichi waited for Hiashi to nod before he continued. "If I die before Ino has a chance to give me an heir, then her position would be under threat from the outlying families. But with Kiba as my legal son, even after Ino converts into an Inuzuka, then he is my heir. And if they have a son, then that child would become my heir."
"Tsume doesn't object?" Hiashi couldn't fathom the idea. Fate had left Inoichi without a male heir, just like him, and yet the man wasn't accepting his fate. He was fighting back.
"Matriarchal clan, remember?" Choza laughed. "Kiba and Ino's daughters are in line for the Inuzukas, but only if Hana doesn't produce a daughter of her own. Any son of Ino's would be a Yamanaka since Kiba will hold both names legally. And there is even the possibility of passing on Inoichi's family jutsus. It's confusing, but it actually works."
Hiashi sat back and ordered a round for all them. The other men smiled at him. Hiashi's mind was reeling. Inoichi was without a male heir. He was without a male heir. Inoichi had not accepted what fate had offered him. So why was he?
o.O.o.O.o.O
Temari sat back and sighed happily, sipping her wine as she watched her brothers relax after the fine meal.
"That was actually good, Temari." Kankuro groaned, stretching his arms overhead as he yawned.
"Tsk. Don't be so mean, not after you were so sweet earlier." Temari chided him without heat.
"Sweet?" Gaara asked, his interest piqued. Unlike his siblings, he was drinking tea. Alcohol was not something that mixed well with being the vessel of Shukaku.
"Speaking of sweet things," Kankuro changed the subject, not wanting to discuss his gift to Temari earlier. "Where's Nara tonight?"
"Running errands for Tsunade." Temari grumbled, looking pouty. "She's given him the month off after the wedding, but I swear she's trying to run him into the ground while she still has him on the job."
"So. What's this about Kankuro being sweet?" Gaara was not one to be so easily turned.
"Speaking of sweet things," Kankuro tried again. "Temari, did you know that Gaara is ticklish?"
Gaara scowled even as he blushed. Temari's eyes got big as she stared open-mouthed at her youngest brother. "You tickled Gaara?"
"Nah. Not me. I'm not so brave. It was Inuzuka Hana." Kankuro laughed and sipped at his own glass of wine.
Gaara stared daggers at the puppeteer. "The old me would have killed you for that."
"The old you would never have found out he was ticklish in the first place." Kankuro grinned and winked. "No one would have gotten close enough."
Temari was opening and closing her mouth, her mind still misty over the idea of anyone tickling Gaara. Much less a woman. Then she shook her head. "Wait. I thought you told me she was chasing Baki?"
Temari missed the tightening of Gaara's shoulders, but Kankuro didn't. Damn. He should have just admitted to being nice and not tried to change the subject.
"She is chasing Baki. Thinks he'd be good husband material." Gaara's voice was without inflection.
Temari choked on her wine. "Has she met the bastard?"
Kankuro forced a smile, trying to lighten the mood somehow. "Aw Temari. I thought you liked him."
"Sure. As a shinobi and a sensei. But his idea of a 'proper' woman is downright archaic." Temari groused as she shook her head. "And he's gay."
Kankuro sat up and stared at his sister. "No he's not. Gaara said the same thing earlier. I don't know where you two have come up with something like that."
Temari shook her head again, trying to clear her thoughts. "From you!"
Kankuro groaned and turned to stare at one and then the other. They stared right back. "Gaara said that too, right before he was called away to meet with the Hokage. I still don't get what you mean."
Gaara looked at Temari who shrugged at him. So Temari sat up and put her wine glass down, then looked hard at Kankuro. "Don't you remember, that time you followed Baki?"
Gaara piped up. "I was nine, you were ten. You'd been bugging Baki about how to seduce women and he was giving you stupid answers to try and shut you up."
Kankuro paled. This was not a good memory.
Temari watched the color drain from her brother's face. "You were pale then too. You came back shaking and all upset."
"Threw up on Temari." Gaara reminded him. "She beat the stuffing out of you for it too."
Temari winced. "Sorry about that."
Kankuro nodded, but didn't speak.
"You were green around the edges and you were saying stuff that didn't make sense. But one thing you did manage to get out was that you didn't know two men could do those sorts of things together." Temari's voice was gentle as she reached out awkwardly to pat his arm.
"Then you stopped training or doing anything for two weeks. You couldn't even look a male in the eye for a while." Gaara said, not as gently, but still with some sympathy. "I didn't understand, but made Temari tell me."
"And don't think I've forgotten how you got me to tell you." Temari hurumphed.
Gaara winced. "Yah. Sorry about that."
Temari and Kankuro both took a moment to stare at Gaara. He'd changed so much in just a few short years. An apology. Huh.
"So. If you didn't witness Baki being gay. What did you see?" Temari asked, supremely curious now.
Gaara nodded, he wanted to know too.
Kankuro swallowed the rest of his wine and then poured himself another glass. "You really don't need to know. He's not gay. But trust me, you don't want to know."
"I order you to tell us." Gaara told him.
Temari grinned. "It's useful having him be the Kazekage."
Kankuro whined and pouted and tried to talk them out of it, but they wouldn't listen. "Tsk. Fine then." But he couldn't seem to make himself strart.
"Go on." Gaara prodded.
Kankuro sighed and stared down at his hands. "Well, you know the start. I was curious about sex and how to get a woman. Baki was the most approachable adult I knew. I couldn't ask Father."
Father. Not Dad. Temari's expression hardened. He'd never been anything to them but a cold presence now and again. She nodded to Kankuro to show she understood so far.
"But he wasn't being very forthcoming. Said I was too young and to go concentrate on my training instead." Kankuro paused then gave a rueful grin. "As you know, that didn't go over real well for me."
Gaara nodded this time. When you told Kankuro 'no', he'd always tried to find a way around it.
The puppeteer continued, his tone laced with melancholy. "One night, Baki was acting a bit strange, trying to get away from our training early. I jumped to the conclusion he was going to meet a woman. So I followed him."
Both of his siblings nodded, this much they knew.
"He wasn't."
The silence stretched out between the three of them as Kankuro tried to organize his thoughts.
"Do you remember when that wagon load of peddlers came through?"
"Which time?" Temari asked, a bit startled at the change in direction.
"The one where they didn't have anything to sell. They'd been attacked on the way to Suna and were pretty badly beaten up."
Gaara shook his head. He didn't remember.
Temari thought hard, "I thiiink so. Didn't the peddler have that pretty daughter?"
"Son." Kankuro told her brusquely. "He was a pretty son. Looked like a girl though. And I taunted him about it every day for about a week."
Gaara nodded. "Yah. I remember now. He was pretty weak, looked about ready to cry every time you came near. I'm ashamed to say that it all amused me at the time. But then they left."
Temari nodded, lost as to where this was heading.
"They left. He didn't." Kankuro told them, his eyes looking sad. Father replaced their wares and had their wounds tended and sent them on their way. Their son stayed behind."
"I never knew that." Temari said quietly.
"No one did." Kankuro grumbled, pouring himself another glass of wine. "There was this man. He had ...strange tastes. I followed Baki and he met with this man at a small inn. I found a hiding place outside and watched through the window. It was open and I could hear pretty much everything."
Temari was no longer sure she wanted to know, but the words were pouring out of her brother now.
"He had information to sell, but he didn't want money. Baki opened the door and the peddler's son was brought inside. It was them that I saw. When I realized what was about to happen, I tried to shimmy back down the tree. But I got caught."
Temari's breath hissed out slowly.
"By Father."
Gaara winced.
Kankuro sighed. "He said that if I was old enough to want to know, then I was old enough to stand witness."
"He made you watch two men have sex?" Temari goggled. That wasn't right, even for their cold bastard of a father.
"No. He brought me into the room with them and made me watch as one man degraded and humiliated and tortured that young man. It wasn't sex. That had nothing to do with sex. It was awful. I tried to turn away, but father wouldn't let me. Baki even tried to get him to send me away, but he wouldn't listen. And I think the man they were trying to get information from was turned on by the whole thing of me watching him."
"Sick bastards." Gaara said slowly, sitting back.
Temari nodded.
"Then he killed him. Strangled him as he ...well, you get the idea. It was the most horrible thing I'd ever seen. Then the man gave father the information. Then Baki slit the man's throat. Father was pissed at that. Said he should have let him live and gotten more information from him later. Baki just stared at him."
"So that's why you were so sick." Temari whispered. Shuddering at what he'd been forced to witness.
"Baki was pretty good about it later. Father came up to me after about two weeks and said how pleased he was with the reports he was getting about my training."
Gaara shook his head. "But you didn't train for those two weeks. You were sick in bed, that I do remember."
"Baki lied to father. Covered for me. It made me want to do better for him, so I really started training hard after that."
Kankuro reached for the wine bottle, frowning to find it empty. He thought about getting another one, but decided it wasn't worth the effort. "I'm going to take a walk, clear some of the alcohol from my system."
"I'll go with you," Temari offered. "You can walk me back to my apartment."
With that the three said their goodbyes and chatted aimlessly, ignoring the revelations that had just been made.
Gaara sighed as he watched the door close behind them. He had a lot to think about. Baki. The man was a mystery to him even though he'd known him literally all his life. It still made his head swim to think about Baki NOT being gay. He chuckled as he turned to stare out the window at the night sky. He was tired, but sleep wasn't on his agenda for tonight. Not after Kankuro's little tale.
Gaara had known that their father had been distant and cold to each of them as they grew up. But he'd actually thought he was the only one that had been so adversely affected by the Kazekage. He'd been the one that his father had infused with the sand demon. And he was the one that their father had tried to have killed after all. Now he was starting to realize that he wasn't his father's only victim.
The knock on the door startled him out of his thoughts. He watched with mild interest as Baki opened the door. He shouldn't be surprised. After all, the man was staying with he and Kankuro while here in the Leaf village.
"Kazekage-sama?" Baki bowed formally.
Gaara watched, his expression neutral. Yet he was wondering at the formality of the greeting.
"I have some new information for you. But before I deliver it to you, I have to admit that I have lied to you."
Gaara's eyes widened. "Really? It seems to be a pattern for you, lying to the Kazekage."
Baki looked confused, but marched onward. "I know you didn't want me to step out as bait to draw out our traitors."
Gaara's eyes narrowed dangerously on his man.
o.O.o.O.o.O
Neji arrived back at his home, a small house within the clan compound. It wasn't very large, but it suited his needs. He yawned as he opened the door, then stopped cold.
It was all gone. Everything. The room was completely bare. He activated the byakugan, but could find no trace of anyone still around. Or any furniture or clothing in any of his rooms.
He looked at the doors and windows, but found no evidence of force being used. Neji sighed. This had happened to him once before. After his father had been killed, sacrificing himself to save his brother Hiashi, the elder council had moved him to this house. They'd been gentle as they explained that another Hyuuga branch family needed the extra space. They'd been nice enough about it, but after his father died, nothing they could have said would have made it any easier.
Yet Neji had grown to love his little house. He'd even made the mistake, it seemed, of thinking of it as his. Now where was he to go? Unsure, he headed for the main house.
Neji walked into a very strange scene. Hiashi was sitting on the front steps to the main house. And he was singing. Off key.
"Ah there you are, son." Hiashi grinned.
Neji blinked. Son? "Greetings Uncle Hiashi." He said carefully, unsure of what was going on.
"No, no, no. As of tomorrow, as soon as I can get the village council and the Hokage to sign off on it, you will be my heir. Son."
Well hell, the man was drunk. Neji scowled. "That's not funny, Uncle Hiashi."
"No. You're right. You aren't my son. You're my nephew. I'm not trying to take my brother's place, perish the thought. But you will be my heir. I've even moved you into the main house!"
Neji sighed as Hiashi stood up triumphantly, and promptly passed out.
o.O.o.O.o.O
Like I said, a dark twist ...or at least a bad memory. As always, please REVIEW!