Being able to see your surroundings so thoroughly, so completely, makes it feel a lot smaller than it really is.
Nagi finally leaves the Hyuuga compound, bandages wrapped around her forehead.
It's loud.
"Noisy..." She slides close to her father.
"Isn't it?
With her short vantage point, the diverse combination of colors -so different from the Hyuuga compound that prefers monochromatic aesthetic-, the conversations flowing over the background din, the screaming and squealing children, she has to try very, very hard to stop the urge to activate her Byakugan as a way to 'zone out'.
It wasn't as if her other senses are affected by her enhanced sight, but it'll be easier to tune out the incomprehensible babble if she has something else to take in the world around her with.
Guessing what she's thinking, Hizashi's palm comes down to her face.
"It's not good to be overly dependant on the Byakugan."
"Mmhm."
"This way."
She follows behind him to a produce stall. They're in what she secretly refers to as the Uzumaki compound turned into downtown. It has the main market and most of the entertainment point of the village. She'd seen a karaoke and an arcade.
The place is huge, Konoha is huge, so she can't see its entirety from the Hyuuga compound with her current range.
"Neh, Tou-san," she begins in a conspiratory tone, "If I grow my bangs so that they can't see my eyes, can I use my Byakugan then?"
"It's not the issue of making others uncomfortable. It's you becoming overly attached to it. It's not good for a shinobi to only be able to use one weapon." He holds her hands in his to keep her from wandering around as she gawk at a toy shop.
In other words, if it ever came to it that someone plucks out her eyeballs she should still be able to fight or at least remain calm. She can imagine a lot of dojutsu users going hysterical if they loose their eyes.
Meanwhile, the Uchiha are swapping eyes like candy.
Nagi looks down at her palm and brings it to her eye level. She makes a mock claw and bend her wrist, imagining it...
Honestly, how can they just do it seemingly so effortlessly. Like unscrewing light bulbs. And it's still almost always in working condition.
Are dojutsu designed to be easily popped out of its sockets? Like an evolution thing. Maybe so much people do it that the eyes got tired and figured to just make it easier for everyone involved.
"... what are you doing?" Hizashi looks at her flatly.
"Nothing. Tou-san can we go there after? There's a doll I really want." She says, pointing at a luxury shop. She's been eyeing it since forever even before her Recollection.
He glance at the toy house and nods, "Behave."
She bobs her head, inadvertently spotting something in the corner of her eyes.
Ninja. On the rooftops.
She'd watched them too, and she'd always mused that with so many of them hopping around, even if their footsteps are silent, they would still be bothersome for the civilians below.
Turns out, even when she tries, she can only glimpse the occasional inexperienced genin.
She figures it must be an unspoken etiquette in a ninja village, between its ninja and civilians.
Something like keeping into the shadows when doing something ninja-y to be considerate of the other citizens going about their days.
The amalgam of the loud and bright surroundings together with shinobi flitting about in the corner of your eyes would be really annoying.
Of course, there are also the ninja she can spot among the crowds with their specific fashion, some even carrying weapons, somehow easily blending in with the unperturbed civilians.
Rather than that...
A red and white uchiwa mon.
The in-village police peacemaker/disciplinary. A pair of preteens standing by an ice cream parlor have a wide berth around them. And they don't seem all too happy about it.
That is, in a very Uchiha way.
The Hyuuga and Uchiha level of expressiveness seem to be all too similar though there's a distinction in the temperament she can only pin down now because of the current venue, unlike when she'd only been watching them from afar.
It's like an undercurrent of a bubbling brook and dying embers.
The Uchihas disappear in a blur and the space seem to breath a sigh of relief.
She briefly contemplates if they will be even more similar if the political circumstances are different.
"Here you go. Is that all, sir?" Hizashi nods, accepting the bag of vegetables.
Nagi silently walks behind him, a hand in the hem of his kimono as she turns her head around to catch everything.
Most of the ingredients the Hyuuga clan buy in bulk and distribute to the members themselves. As a rich clan, there's no lack of resources.
The rest of the afternoon is spent strolling around, gawking at the butchers they pass by, gazing through glass windows of a kimono shop, an ocular clinic with cases of contact lenses, and spending an inordinate amount of time dragging the older Hyuuga around a weapons shop with an incessant train of 'what is this? And this? And that?' while the clerk watch her father in sympathy. Hizashi bought her some toys, like a kendama, a beigoma, a very colourful taketombo, a daruma otoshi, and they finish the day with him giving her the doll she mentioned earlier.
It's her first time out of the compound, it's a special occasion and her father is more lenient with her, so she milks it for all its worth.
They go back home hand in hand.
His hand is warm.
She wants to keep that warmth.
XxXxXx
Breakfast is onigiri. Lunch is tempura. Dinner is udon.
Okonomiyaki for breakfast. Lunch is sushi. They snack on mochi and melon pan. Dinner is ramen.
One week. Two weeks. Three weeks. Four.
A month. Then two.
It all pass her by happily.
She almost thought... hoped, that maybe...
No luck.
XxXxXx
It will be her second time meeting Hinata.
She's still as adorable as the last time she saw her.
Nagi stares at her from beside their respective fathers in confusion.
Somehow... she's being meek.
In her celebration, Hinata was quiet, but not shy. She smiled and greeted everyone. Not very social, but polite, and she hadn't seemed to have a problem looking people in the eye unlike now where her faint iris are glued to the floorboards.
... Of course.
Having already met her and forming an opinion of the heiress, even if she has the memories of shy thirteen year old Hinata, it somehow didn't really register.
The kidnapping really affected her.
Understandable.
Actually, before the Kumo incidents, adults often tell the children about being kidnapped too, implying all the horrible things that might be done to them. Their own version of 'be careful of strangers' story.
So in hindsight, Hinata probably has a lot to pull on for nightmare materials.
It certainly gave the clan a scare at the time, she thinks.
After all, a Kumo ninja being able to sneak into a literal clan of Byakugan users. It just made the clan a joke for the next decade. The elders must've been stressed.
Suffice to say, no one makes mention of such bedtime stories around the heiress anymore.
"Greetings Hiashi-sama, Hinata-sama." Nagi echoes her father.
This isn't the first time Hizashi has attended Hinata after the Incident, but it's the first time he brought Nagi with her.
Hiashi's eyes flickered to her wrapped forehead.
"Hinata, this is your Hizashi-ojisan's daughter, your cousin. We will start with me as your opponent, and then your Nagi-neesan will be your sparring partner from now on." The unmarked clone of her father says,
Nagi mentally inhaled sharply.
She... doesn't think she approves of being called sister by Hinata.
Not that she thinks she has a choice in this of course. She can hardly refuse the head of the clan and she can't bring herself to say such in a roundabout way and end up sounding like some pandering subject of an emperor from ancient dramas.
She holds her blank expression.
Hinata blinks up at her father and then quickly glances at the girl she has just been instructed to call sister.
Nagi spies at her own father to see what his opinion is on the matter.
... none, of course.
None that she can discern in that perfected poker face.
It feels like Hiashi is offering some kind of branch and Hizashi just walks past it pretending that the other is just a tree.
"Nagi-neesama."
Nagi twitches.
He said 'nee-san'! Nee-san!
Why did you go straight to 'nee-sama'?!
"Hinata-sama, please, you are putting my daughter in a difficult position, simply address her-."
"We shall start now Hinata."
And the tree ignores the scissors the gardener brings, growing still so haphazardly despite it.