"My girl, how do you feel?" her father asks with dark sorrowful eyes, one of his large, battle-hardened hands on top of her head.
"I'm getting better, father," she answers quietly.
She hears him sigh before he moves then sits down beside her on the engawa, both of them now looking at the small man-made pond where her late mother's precious colorful koi fishes are swimming without a care in the world.
After a long while of heavy silence, she turns her head a bit to look at him and observe his face and expression.
Like most Uchihas, Tajima is a very handsome man with blue-black hair and intense dark eyes. When her mother was still alive, there'd been a light in his eyes and he'd been quick to smile and laugh. When she died, her father changed and aged drastically. His hair and his eyes are still dark as night but deep creases have found their way on his forehead, tear troughs appeared on his cheeks and there are now lines around his mouth that's almost always curled downwards. And with two of his little boys dead, he looks even older, gaunter and anguished. Not even the most recent clash with the some of the Senju men had been capable of lessening his grief.
He hasn't been at home when she woke up and the days following due to an important mission from a daimyo from the Land of Rivers—one that involved men of the Senju as the opposing party's shinobi guards. Still so mad with what happened to Kiyoshi and Kenji, her father took the mission himself with a few men of their clan to grab at the chance to retaliate. From what she heard, the mission had been a success and her father has successfully paid the Senju Clan with the blood of their relatives unfortunate enough to have come across him.
"I owe you an apology, daughter, just as I do…did your departed brothers. I haven't been much of a father these past years…ever since your mother died. You, on the other hand, have shown great fortitude and admirable patience, acting so very mature for your age and shouldering some of the duties I should have handled—like ensuring your brothers, especially the little ones, get the emotional support, attention and advice they need. I am thankful for what you've done and sorry you were pushed to do them."
She searches for words to say but they elude her so she simply looks him in the eye and nods before turning her head to gaze at the pond once more.
She feels awkward at the situation. Yes, in some place in her heart, she still holds a space for him, holds affection for him—for this man she now calls father. But the return of even more memories makes everything so complicated.
She feels as if she's drowning in a dark lake and she doesn't know which is up or down, left or right. She feels as if…as if she's standing on a mountaintop and all she sees are faint blurs and all she hears are distant echoes. Everything just feels so…distant.
"Your eyes," she hears him continue, "How do they feel? Are they giving you trouble?"
She forces herself to relax and forget about her memories for the time being then answers, "The right one is better. I'm able to switch it off now and return to my normal eyes. It still throbs from time to time and would sometimes activate on its own but…it's getting better. The left one…I can't control it so I…I temporarily blocked some of my tenketsu and avoid the constant chakra drain."
It's an absolute shock, getting the mangekyou right away and the tenseigan to boot. She had expected to activate the sharingan at some point due to the stories she heard of the events during her birth but did not anticipate to get either of the two she has in her possession now.
Remembering Sasuke's past explanations about the sharingan though, it makes sense. The return of her memories accompanied with all her losses must have triggered its activation and caused it to instantly evolve to mangekyou.
Over the last few days, she explored her new eye abilities and made a few discoveries.
One thing she discovered was that she still has byakugan in her right eye. Another was that she also has the three-tomoe stage sharingan. The only difference is in the amount of chakra. For example, if she increases her normal eye chakra flow by 25%, she activates her byakugan. If she adds another 25%, she activates a three-tomoe sharingan. Add just a little more and it turns to a mangekyou.
As for her mangekyou ability, like Sasuke and their children told her in the past, it's instinctive and normally based on the event that triggered it. Her lacking speed and her failure to reach and save her younger brothers in time has caused her to get a mangekyou based on speed—a teleportation one—and it's somehow tied to her byakugan range. She can teleport as far as her byakugan can see. She doesn't have full control of it yet. She'll still need more time to truly master it.
The tenseigan is a lot harder to control. She's only ever seen it used a few times in the past by Toneri Ootsutsuki. She knows it has its own chakra mode. She knows it has attractive and repulsive forces. She knows it can give the user control over truth-seeking balls. She knows it can control a huge golem and the moon. But with only one tenseigan, she doesn't know if all those abilities apply, though if Sasuke's rinnegan was an indication, it's a huge possibility.
One of the things she discovered on her own is that it has an even longer range than the byakugan. But the amount of chakra it requires to keep it active is too much, even greater than the mangekyou's and it's very taxing on her still fairly small reservoir so she's not that eager to explore it yet.
The good thing is, with the byakugan, she can view her entire chakra network. With just a few taps, she is able to close off some of her tenketsu, helping her in deactivating both eyes when necessary.
"Good," she hears her father respond. He turns and looks at her with solemn eyes before he continues, "I can help you with the three-tomoe sharingan but…the other forms…I really don't do much as your father, hm? I can't even help you with your eyes."
"It…it really is alright, Father. It's not your fault that my eyes are so different. I'll be fine. I'll try to figure it out on my own. If I need help, I'll let you or Nii-san and Izuna-nii know," she tells him gently.
He gives her a small, sad smile, "Aa. There's really nothing else to do but to explore it on your own. But I am confident you'll succeed. You've got a smart head on top of your shoulders, princess."
"Thank you, Father," she says while looking down.
"I am leaving for another mission tomorrow—an escort mission involving a noble from the Land of Tea. It seems I will have another opportunity to avenge your brothers," he says with a satisfied gleam in his dark eyes.
"Father," Hinata trails off and grits her teeth in helplessness and frustration.
She knows Zetsu plays a role in the conflict between the Senju and the Uchiha. But she cannot tell anyone yet. She cannot share her full knowledge yet. She's still in a child's body with powers just acquired and not yet mastered.
More than that, her father and Senju Butsuma has a grudge against each other so strong that sharing what she knows now might just complicate things further—perhaps even jeopardize Madara and Hashirama's future decision of making peace.
Also, with the death of her brothers so recent, her father's rage has not abated yet. She's not going to put it past even Uchiha Tajima, her own father, to use her as a tool to get an advantage over his most hated enemy. Power corrupts after all. It twists men into unrecognizable versions of themselves. And knowledge of the future is one of the most dangerous powers of all. She cannot use her full knowledge yet, only her words for now.
"You don't approve," he voices his observation.
"All this violence, all this killing, this cycle of hatred and vengeance. When will it end?" she asks tiredly.
"When the Senju are all dead and rotting on the ground," he answers her with a hardened look on his face, his chakra suddenly leaking out, aggressive.
She sees Madara and Izuna approach from the corner of her eyes. They must have sensed their father's chakra and came to find out what's happening but she ignores them, focusing instead on the man she calls father.
"So you'll slaughter all of them—even the helpless women, the infirm old men, the innocent little children, even the babes? You'll kill all of them? And when you stand on the ground littered with their bones and soaked with their blood, you'll call it duty? You'll call it victory? You'll call it peace?" she asks with some anger leaking in her voice.
His face twists in anger and grief, "And what would you have me do, hm? Make peace with our enemies?"
"Is that not how peace is made, Father? With your enemies—not with your friends."
"You would have me break bread with the people whose hands are coated with the blood of my father? My brothers? Your little brothers?" he snarls lowly, eyes showing his rage.
"As you would break bread with them with hands coated with the blood of their fathers, their brothers, their families and loved ones," she throws back at him before calming herself and looking at him with pleading eyes, "Don't you see? Had there been peace, Kiyoshi and Kenji would still be alive today. This—It all has to stop and soon. How many more children have to die because of grown men baying for blood and vengeance for the dead? Are the living not worth more than those who have already left this world? Is the future not more important than the past?"
He breathes deep and closes his eyes, "I understand everything you're saying. I do. But you don't know Senju Butsuma."
"No, I don't know Senju Butsuma. I never even met him," she agrees softly, "But I do know he's also a clan leader, a father. Thus I know that whatever action he commits, it is done to protect his clan, to protect his children, their future. And in that, you both are the same."
His face twists into a scowl, no doubt unhappy at being compared and called similar to his rival and mortal enemy. He gets up fluidly and before turning away, says, "I will seek peace. But only over Senju Butsuma's cold and rotting body. Only then and not before."