She is the youngest in her class (Natsu attends the orientation and she never looks in Hiruzen's direction), a large, rowdy bunch of five to six years old.
In general, civilian children and children from ninja families (not clan) are admitted into the academy at around five years old, while clan children enter at eight. They would be at around the same levels at that point, setting aside clan techniques and resources and such. They should have about the same grasp of the fundamentals, if maybe the clan kids have more opportunities to use it at home (they try to give them equal chance but doesn't quite manage).
There are about twenty students for every one of the three sections. She overhears that the numbers used to be much larger, about ten sections.
She is the only Hyuuga, and one of the two clan children in the batch.
It takes three days for her to move up grade two, which surprises no one because first grade mostly consists of physical conditioning anyways and she is a Hyuuga.
Physical conditioning literally started in the crib.
Second grade is the very basics of taijutsu, the fundamentals that will be the basis of their hand to hand combat.
Five months has passed since That Night (when she slept through her father's death- did they kill him, did Konoha ninja kill him or did he do it himself and then they sent him to Kumo, or did they send him to Kumo first-), she wakes up on a weekend feeling the most awake she has been since what seems like a very long time to her four years. She has not made friends with any of her previous classmates or her new ones.
Tokuma has left some onigiri on the table for her. He's on a camping/training trip, the note says. He's only five years older than her, though he has his mother, she's apparently a workaholic and rarely came home once Tokuma was tall enough to reach the counter with a stool.
She... hasn't thanked him yet, has she?
Nagi rubs at her eyes, a bit puffy, she might've cried herself to sleep, just a little bit.
They wait until she has eaten and bathed before she is summoned to the main family house.
She carefully doesn't drag her feet past the branch houses and then the main houses and then the head family house.
"Hiashi-sama, you called for me." She murmurs in greeting.
She'd scouted earlier. She isn't surprised by the gathering, or Hinata in the middle of the dojo, staring at her wide-eyed.
She hasn't looked at him since then, using her height as an excuse to keep her head straight and substitute his face for his legs.
It is Hikaru, father of Hiashi and Hizashi and her grandfather, that answers. She doesn't have enough information or interaction with him to feel either way about the person.
"As you seem to have recovered and in good condition now, you will resume sparring with Hinata."
"Yes, Hikaru-sama." She bows obediently, tone flat in a completely different way it had been the last time she spoke in front Hiashi. She was maintaining discipline then.
Even to her ears, she sounds lifeless.
Ah. This isn't good.
She shouldn't stay like this, she knows this, logically. Logic rarely ever applies to emotions.
As she usually is when inside the compound, she is wearing a simple black sleeveless shirt and pants, identical to the one Hinata is wearing now. She walks to the place across her cousin and falls in a stance.
Hinata is wavering.
... Lately, sparring has become more important to her than it has ever been.
The kids in the academy can't last even a second to her -not using the jyuuken obviously, because it's a taijutsu style that technically doesn't have non-lethal strikes it's prohibited-, most don't even know how to throw a punch. She's halfway into the third year curriculum. Punching, kicking, catching herself from a fall, she breezed past the second year. Rather than teaching, the third year teachers are testing her in her memory and depending on her sparring, comprehension, and basic shinobi weapons handling results, she might be kicked up straight to the grade five with the eight year olds. It's only been five days since she'd entered school, and today is her first weekend.
Her clansmen are all busy with their own things, but because of the series of tests, at least the teachers spar with her in school.
So, less so for Hinata's benefit, she forces a smile on her face.
"Please don't worry Hinata-sama, I am in perfect condition and won't fall short of your expectations."
Hinata flinch and she wonders if she said something wrong but it seems that Hinata was just surprised.
Hmm. Her voice is a bit hoarse, but nothing that drastically changes it. It just hasn't been used much.
"Y-yes, N-Nagi-neesama."
Nagi has just enough time to blink and look puzzled.
What happened since they saw each other?
Has Hinata's burgeoning shyness... actually become worse?
... Well, her hunched shoulders naturally straighten to the jyuuken stance so Nagi files that away for now.
"Begin."
There's a pause, because normally, it's Hinata's turn to attack first.
Hinata leaps at her.
She's improved since the last time, Nagi can tell immediately. She isn't surprised, Hinata is a quick learner. Nagi or someone else only has to point out a gap in her guard or a flaw in her attack and though she sometimes slips, she does remember and she does it less and less.
Rather than blocking her nth attack and making an opening straight to her chest as she often find use against Hinata, she slides back, swipes the younger girl's outstretched arm and steps to her unguarded side, striking from below. Her own weight and the force Nagi exerts, Hinata is sent flying on her back.
She lies blinking on the floor. Nagi waits for her to recover.
Hinata stands up on her own because it's not good etiquette to help her when they're in front of their clansmen like this. Or at least Nagi think so. She doesn't want to do absolutely anything that can affect Hinata's standing in the clan.
(And she can't summon the energy to offer anything.)
Nagi attacks, Hinata blocks and redirects and she falls on her back again.
The older girl patiently watch her push herself up, musing.
The principle of jyuuken, is that it's primarily a hand only martial art. There's no such thing as kicks in the katas. If she had to say, then kicks are an entirely different kata altogether learned from a young age to try and get a higher ground. She doesn't think she'd ever seen two Hyuuga sparring with either one throwing an axe kick or just a round house.
Personal learned fighting style are a different matter, but jyuuken is solid and precise. Far from inflexible, the jyuuken is split into two parts -at least in her mind.
Precise. When you hit open palm, one can't just do it on any part of the body. The body is littered with pressure points, which is a separate set of vulnerabilities from the tenketsu.
The Hyuuga katas are centred around that.
The 'primary' which they're learning, and then the advanced, which is only possible due to their Byakugan being able to see the tenketsu -since save for certain tenketsu, most move around, even just a little bit, from one person to another- that requires them to substitute the target from the pressure points for chakra points.
There's only one type of jyuuken attack, which are, for a lack of a better word, essentially pokes.
Then there's the rest of the parts that the katas consists of. Repulsion and redirection.
Even the blocks are measured movements done to disrupt the force in the attack. In theory, one doesn't need to move from one's position to defend.
Nagi can't even recall if she'd ever been taught to dodge.
Jyuuken is a taijutsu refined through the clan's generations, and though she can't vouch for the elders' claims of it being the pinnacle of taijutsu, from her knowledge and observations, it is quite fearsome.
She'd watched some Hyuuga jounin spar sometime ago with a non-Hyuuga, and it reminded her of a wall.
Nagi wants to move like that too one day. Even though it'd probably be a completely different kind of conversation when it comes to the battlefield.
Hinata and her engage again and she throws Hinata to the side.
Again Hinata rolls to her back.
It might be a bit stupid, but Nagi hits and beats in all the ways except for making Hinata faceplant. It's a weird sense of 'I don't want to hurt her too much'.
She's only three, and getting her down like that feels like going too far.
This goes on for hours, just hitting at each other as the clan watch.
Hinata goes down.
"Stop."
They bow, to each other then to their audience.
Hikaru nods at them, pleased, "Good. You both are well into the katas and I can see your strategy are good."
"Thank you, Hikaru-sama-"
"-oji-san." Hinata hiccups at her words as it clash with Nagi's.
Oh, honestly.
Though at least she hadn't dared to do so during their spar, Hinata is walking eggshells around her.
Which is endearing but also annoying.
Nagi doesn't react.
Hikaru says more things, mostly about Hinata, commenting on her decisions and such.
Really, contrary to how it was in the anime, Hinata's current position as heir is stable to the point that it's actually become like chains pinning her down to it.
Sure, she lost to Nagi, but what can one expect. She's older. And the clan isn't going to scorn the heiress just because she's not the clan genius.
Hinata, skillwise, isn't bad.
She's actually good.
She suppose complications will naturally occur later on when Hanabi is born.
Hiashi never said a word until the end.