"Tadaima."
"Okaeri, tou-san!"
Nagi is there to greet him immediately as Hizashi slides off his sandals in the genkan.
Hizashi ruffles her hair, staring into a pair of Byakugan, "I thought that by now you'd have gotten tired of it."
"He~h? Is that possible, Tou-san?" She trails after him as he heads to the kitchen.
"Of course. The Byakugan is amazing, truly, but just like everything, one will get bored of it eventually."
Nagi watch him walk around their kitchen, taking things out from the pantry to prepare dinner.
She suppose that did happen to her too.
Watching the village is fun, but without context, to a four year old child it's all incomprehensible.
Now though, it's like watching a series of slice of life whenever people she knows enter her steadily increasing range (extremely slow but steady, thanks to her constant use). Which is not as often as she'd like, but she deals.
There's a giant solace of empty under the Konoha tunnels used for evacuations, branching out to some areas on the surface where people regularly disappear to.
"What's for dinner, Tou-san?" She clamber up the stool.
"What do you want?"
"Um..." It's not the first time she'd ask him and he returns the question. Somehow still, she never do think of her response ahead of time.
Routine that will be gone in a few weeks.
Maybe even days.
"Tonkatsu."
"Alright then." He takes some more ingredients from the refrigerator, "When it starts to hurt stop the chakra flow."
Nagi blinks, the veins on her temples easing.
She proper her head on her hands. He sets a glass of water in front of her.
"Then how do I get better at it, Tou-san?"
"Slowly." He says factually, turning on the tap and holding the ingredients under it, "Like how we train. The more you do it, the easier it gets, and then you can take on even more complicated techniques. You can't bulldoze through it, you have to steadily hone and develop your chakra pathways through time. As Hyuuga, our sharpest blade should always be our bodies. Everything needs to be at its best condition from the muscles to our reflexes."
Basically, to weaponize every atom.
Living weapons.
It sounds cool, in theory, if a bit 'brainwash'-y sounding.
But who gets to wield it?
She takes the cup and peer at the still water, reflecting back a blob of dark hair. Nagi takes a sip.
It'd probably seem selfish and concerning to claim that she wants to only belong to herself.
In another world, that will be a given, if a bit cliche to declare it, but here... a ninja never belongs to themselves.
Wether it's an ideal, another person, a place, they have to live and die for something else.
Because death is too close for people in this world, and it's too sad to die for nothing.
Nothing to fight for, nothing to get stronger for, nothing to live for, and nothing to die for.
She... can't bring herself to say that she'd die for the clan. She can fight for it. For Hinata-sama, as she'd been told she will since forever.
But to die for it...
To live for it?
"But you don't have to worry about that right now." Hizashi glances at her, "As it is, your progress is already beyond that expected of your age."
She perk up, and despite herself, excitedly lean over the table, "Then Tou-san, can I attend the academy?"
"... Yes, actually. Once you get the seal, you will be able to travel out of the compound and, if you truly want it, it'll be easy enough to convince the Elders to allow you into the academy young." Then, muttering in a way that probably meant she's not supposed to understand, he says, "With those two Uchiha prodigies, they'd be happy enough to admit as much Hyuuga in the hopes to top them."
Nagi isn't one for scheming. She can plan, solve problems one by one, and she thinks she's doing good with the tactical scenarios her father gives her at times. But scheming for long term, constantly taking in variables to alter and modify her words and actions to cope with the ripples every little unsaid word can set off, predicting the emotions, logic, and reasons of people and the actions that come off it.
She isn't confident she can manage that without eventually collapsing. Or, just manage it.
Nagi would prefer dealing with things in as straightforward a manner as much as possible.
Hence, the named Proverbial Power Ladder.
(PPL?)
There's of course the academy. An academy student. Then a genin. Then chunin. B-rank ninja. A-rank ninja. So on, and so forth.
She needs to be able to stand level with demigods like future Naruto and Sasuke if she wants to survive all of that and protect the people she'll one day grow to want to protect.
Nagi isn't delusional.
She knows she'll get attached eventually, will grow to like someone, or, simply, just not want to have to stand by when someone is in need in front of her.
It's just human nature and she's not heartless.
And also, you can do anything you want if you're strong.
No one can make you do anything if you're strong.
Funny how zealous she's suddenly become of her previously self-evident freedom, with the very real possibility of having that stripped away looming over her head.
XxXxXx
"Tou-san, are we going to see Hinata-sama?"
"No. She still needs to rest so she can't attend the sealing ceremony."
What a pity. Last time Nagi saw her, she was really cute.
Hair so dark it reflected the light in a way that gleamed eggplant purple. Her eyes had been so wide and soft, a shade of blue-grey that made it more silver than anything.
It seems cheesy, but she's so pretty little Nagi's first thoughts had been that she was the personification of everything good in the night; the soft quiet of having tea with Tou-san while he looks over papers, watching the koi in the pond over the wooden bridge, the chill that makes her want to dance off her energy.
... okay, so she's maybe trying to distract herself, but it's no less true.
Her heart is beating so loudly in her chest she can almost swear it'll break through her ribs and proceed to run off into the forest. Her hands are sweating, and her stomach is doing twists and turns it really should stop doing now because it doesn't bode well for her kimono.
She clings to her flimsy plan that is her weak gamble for her continued freedom.
What if she fails?
What if she succeeds but they realize? What if- what if-
She might even implicate her father if something goes wrong
She doesn't know any jutsu other than her Byakugan, she doesn't know the theory or practice behind channelling chakra around in her body other than the one in the show, but she's a girl and a thousand other things could be different too-
Nagi and Neji- that's right, how did that even happen? Where in this world did something branch out that her gender changed- that shouldn't have any relevance to the fate or stability of this world, does it have something to do with the position her parents-
Stop.
Stopping right there.
"Nagi."
"Yes?!"
Hizashi cocks an eyebrow, his lips quirking in amusement. She feels herself flush in embarrassment.
"Dont be nervous."
Why shouldn't she?
She knows it'll hurt.
Nagi nods and tries to center herself for her slapdash plan.
They are in front of a low single room building, the inside concealed behind thick amado doors.
Byakugan.
There are only the two of them in the immediate area of the semi-isolated shrine. In the edge of the branch family compound, there were three other older kids waiting their turn to be sealed. As she thought, she really will be the first one up as the daughter of the head's twin brother.
Her focus then snapped to a main family elder making a beeline towards the shrine. Her hands twist her sleeves.
She can hear her heart beating.
"Hizashi-dono, is this Nagi-chan? She looks like you."
"Hiroto-sama." Hizashi greets stoically.
Nagi echoes him appropriately.
Hiroto... doesn't look evil.
Which, she knows logically, because what even is an evil look and also because all the Hyuuga above a certain age seems to have lost their emotions somewhere along the way.
But this man, there's something also gentle about him.
Which... doesn't really change anything. She's not going to automatically trust him with her life -hello, ninja-, but it's still weird for some reason.
Nagi stiffens in shock.
-Oh.
These people see her as family.
A child. Their child.
Maybe even a baby.
Hiroto gestured to the shrine with a faint uplift of the corners of his mouth, "Lets go, Nagi-chan."
And when did she stop thinking of them as such.
She nods silently, biting the inside of her cheek as she follows him after one last glance at her father.
Hizashi gives her an encouraging nod.