Higanbana by Bibliophile Anya
Summary:
Red Spider Lilies are bright summer flowers associated with final goodbyes, and legend has it that these flowers grow wherever people part ways for good. In old writings, Higanbana is said to guide the dead through samsara, the cycle of rebirth.
I will make sure that no one of mine would need my namesake to guide their way. SI as Hinata's older twin sister with Tenseigan.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything nor am I making profit from anything.
Higanbana
Death is strange. It's the end of everything that you have known, yet it's a beginning as aptly said by a wise old man.
But nobody said anything about how difficult that beginning would be. How everything would change. How one would yearn for the simplest of things only to feel that hollow emptiness when the dreadful realisation sets in.
I never asked for this, I doubt anyone would if they understood the stakes, the repercussions.
I would rather have been given a blank slate, without the memories of a lifetime putting the burden of Atlas over my shoulders.
The loss never goes away. It dulls, sure. It gets hidden by new memories, but at the core it remains, lingering, never fading. This made empathizing with Sasuke all the more easier. Life and death both love irony, it seems.
My life wasn't really eventful, I was a pretty normal girl as far as things went. My death, perhaps unusual; albeit in the grand scheme of things it was not something that would have stood out.
So in short I died. Do I remember how? Yes, of course I do. But like I said, that isn't anyone's business.
Let's just say I won't wish it on my worst enemies. Or perhaps I would, considering this world.
But I digress.
I don't particularly remember being in the womb, except for that one moment; the unnatural rage, the evil that consumed everywhere, the chill that came with the end of life. It felt that I would burn at the unnatural frost of death that overpowered the scorching heat of the evil miasma.
I think I broke few of my new mother's ribs that day.
I remember a few things, when I was in my 'incubation' period. My twin Hinata, being the most important. She was a constant source of comfort, she gave off a feeling of home. Which is ludicrous to think about. Considering this world would never be my home, but as I grew it became something close. Home away from home, maybe.
Yes, it was deliberate. I mentioned incubation period referring to myself as a parasite.
Because that's what I was, I wasn't supposed to be here. An unnatural abomination.
Reincarnation. I would be a liar if I said that it's not a concept I thought upon. I did, often. Whenever I thought about death, life soon followed, but never like this. A new chance meant a restart, not this halfway struggle between the grief of loss and determination to not waste this dubious gift.
What an interesting name I have been given. Higanbana, a mouthful. Grand name, of course, nothing but the best for the heiress of the Hyuuga Clan. After all I was the elder twin.
My mother had mused gently to me, the reason of naming me for that particular flower.
She said it in that weird dialect, an ancient tongue comprising of an indistinguishable mix of the languages primarily compromised of the ones spoken in, what I had known as the Asian subcontinent. I would know, I had been born there, in a life long lost.
This body's mother was a gentle creature, but that spine of steel was unmistakable. I could see who the future Hinata took after.
She loved to speak to us, never talking to us in baby speak; speaking softly and clearly. About Konoha, about the Hyuuga Clan, about this world.
I listened raptly. I know Hinata did too. Naturally, though she understood far less than I did. I knew my fair share of prominent Asian languages, I could make out half of what Hitomi Hyuuga spoke about. Though putting them in the right context was a touch and go.
She always gathered us both in her arms, hugging us tenderly with so much love that I almost wanted to break down in tears. I held myself still, exerting all my motor control on my baby limbs, determined to not ruin these stolen moments that only the moon was privy too.
One such memorable incident was when Hiashi Hyuuga returned to see his lady wife sprawled on the futon like a commoner holding their twin daughters in an attempt to lull them to sleep.
I thought he would disapprove but he merely approached her from behind and enclosed all of us in a tight bear hug.
A delightful surprise indeed.
Ruminating was all I did in my first year of life, other than observing my surroundings. I was also a keen listener.
Hitomi was a wealth of knowledge. She told us a lot of things, events, people, clans. She would have made a fantastic researcher, her world view was astonishing especially considering how she was raised, being brain washed by propaganda in a military dictatorship. She was also a marvelous philosopher.
She would have been definitely considered a weird mother, in the before. After all who talked to a pair of babies about the baby development differences in the world? About the different clans? About how our gender both aided and hindered us?
Hitomi Hyuuga, that's who.
She told us about how the maturity levels, the understanding of children, the variation of the baby development charts, especially factoring the clans. The Uchiha clan for instance was prone to popping out prodigies. She had grinned at us mischievously as Hinata crawled towards her curiously and I tilted my head, curls flopping.
She laughed wholeheartedly tugging my messy curls which had been carried on in this life.
Hinata and I looked pretty similar, being twins. I had the same hair and eye colour, and similar features, though the differences were already visible. I had a beauty mark over my upper lip, my eyes were almond shaped as compared to her doe wide ones but most of all? The thing that caused Hiashi Hyuuga to look at me in bewilderment and made our mother laugh that beautiful laugh of hers? I had a head full of poofy curls. I cannot believe the curse of my riot of curls carried over to this life.
I lamented over the fact that I couldn't even get the trademark silky hair of Hyuuga. Well they were silky but... Weren't eyes supposed to be the windows of the soul?
Hitomi was still chuckling at me as I pouted at her.
She giggled, "Ah you are such a smart baby! Higan-chan, I do not know why you dislike your hair so, it's one of your unique features. Hiashi-sama loves them too, despite his surprise at their appearance. And look at Hinata!"
She cooed as Hinata crawled beside me, situating herself in Hitomi's lap and gently tangled her fingers in my hair.
She had dexterous fingers due to all the exercises Hitomi had incorporated since our birth in the mundane day to day activities. Ninjas were sneaky beings made of habit, I'd learned.
I have never felt more at ease, here in Hitomi's lap with Hinata snuggled close to me, one of her chubby fists entangled in my curls.
Hitomi smirked that expression strange on her face as she spoke conspiringly, "Do you know that Okaa-san had a horrible crush on one of the Uchihas in her class?"
One look at my judging expression she burst into full blown laughter, "Oh my, look at that face! Hiashi-sama would be proud. I was never a fan girl you know. But there is something about those Uchihas... There was something about them that was striking. All consuming, pulling."
I looked at her with a raised eyebrow. At my unimpressed expression she pouted and Hinata squealed as Hitomi's face lit with mischief. I watched her warily and rightfully so as it soon devolved into a tickle fest.
Apparently, the Uchiha clan was as super powered as was depicted in the fictional world I once saw.
I had always thought that while I understood the fascination with the Uchiha males, their features were, or more prominently their colour palette was pretty normal, fair, dark haired and dark eyed. But later I would come to bite my words, after I saw them here it wouldn't be a wonder they had a hoard of fans.
Every clan was very prominently different. Don't get me started on the features. The way Hitomi described as if it's the norm for her but for me? It was nothing short of fantastical.
Such a strange varied mix, of animals, of vibrant colours, of features, I wonder what chakra did exactly to make those pigments? I couldn't just classify a race either. Hitomi and Hiashi did not look like the stereotypical Japanese people from before even if I ignore their eyes, mixed racial was the closest thing I could compare them too. Especially considering that the language they spoke was obviously not Japanese but a mix of a lot of different ones.
Hitomi spoke about the clans. She picked a different one every night, comparing them to Hyuugas, which I came to understand, were the definition of normal for her. No surprise there, she was born as a Main Branch member.
She told me how Inuzuka children developed their sense of hearing and smell first as apposed to the eyes that developed first in the doujutsu wielding clans like the Hyuuga and Uchiha.
So the olfactory and auditory cortex in the temporal lobe developed faster in Inuzukas whereas the Occipital lobe developed first in Hyuugas and Uchihas, I had mused in one of those sleepless nights.
While that was true to an extent, I forgot to consider the most differentiating aspect, chakra. Chakra network was like another system entirely, flowing throughout the body much like another circulatory system made up of energy.
And her words were true, my eyesight even without the Byakugan was a sight to behold, pun intended. I could see clearly, too clearly infact, I had thought at the tender age of few months. Unlike normal babies in my previous world, I could see everything with pinpoint accuracy by six months. Children of each clan developed differently. I know now, it was due to a mix of chakra and the doujutsu I inherited. Though, I hadn't activated the Byakugan yet.
Hitomi continued her tales.
She told us how there once existed a great clan called the Uzumaki that were full of vitality and lived long lives, they were physically very strong and their chakra reserves were humongous.
She extrapolated about the nearly faded Senjus who had remarkably potent chakra, being the sister clan of the Uzumaki.
These were apparently the two sides of the same coin much like and unlike the Hyuuga and Uchiha.
She wondered about the reality bending ability of the Uchiha, of how they could mimic the strongest jutsus with the aid of their famed eyes, likewise she spoke smugly about the all seeing eyes of the Hyuuga that could pick out the faintest traces of trails, our unmatched keen eyesight.
She spoke of how we were known for our cold logic and rationality as apposed to our emotional and intense Uchiha counterparts, a fact I found strange considering how in a world long gone by I had seen first hand from the rose tinted lenses of a screen about the portrayal of that clan, they were the epitome of stoicism; at least from the point of view of others.
Of course knowing what I did, it was obvious that the real Uchihas were anything but cold, infact they burned with a fury and passion of a thousand burning suns but to know Hitomi was well aware of it... It was apparent that my current mother had looking underneath the underneath down to an art form.
She warned me not to underestimate the trio that consisted of the Ino-Shika-Cho, the famed alliance going strong since even before the Warring Clans Era.
She talked about the strange symbiosis that the Aburame shared with their kikaichu.
She told a lot, but I could make sense of only half of it.
It was one of those days, when Hitomi felt wistful. When she mothered us more, which I find highly improbable as she had always been open with her love.
The burden that was inadvertently placed on my shoulders in lieu of my birth.
She had sighed at the difficulties I'd face being a female heiress.
It seems that this world had a strange dichotomy of gender differentiation, nothing as apparent as what I had seen through a screen, what with the bad female characterization running rampant if one excuses the exceptional ones.
From what I could make out of Hitomi's words, this society was sexist but at the same time not. For instance, female and male heirs had equal rights. But at the same time females were held under more scrutiny. They were also respected more, considered a gift.
For what, one would wonder. For being able to bear children. Lauded for their ability for bringing new lives in the world rather than only extinguishing the existing ones. And wasn't that a grim thought process.
A weird sense of chivalry, I thought though I was soon dissuaded as Hitomi cautioned, that it was different everywhere. The other villages weren't as kind, apparently.
For once I would ask for something that did not have repercussions, but unfortunately life doesn't work that way. And as I had experienced neither does death.
I wondered, how did the Villages differ? Like the continents had differed?
Hinata was fast asleep and times like these I just stared at the sky from beyond the open shoji doors.
As I scrutinized the way sun set and rose, I found that something was amiss.
It took me an embarrassingly long while to figure out that the time zone too, differed. The moon was as vibrant as the sun, perhaps even more so and the days and nights? Twice in length. That means the duration of the day and the night I had known in the before, had doubled.
One thing was for sure, we weren't Homo sapiens sapiens anymore. We had evolved. Or perhaps, this was a different world; parallel universe where the hereditary evolution of humans followed an entirely different roadmap. But I wonder what about the time before Kaguya encountered the God tree?
And if I had a hysterical breakdown over the fantastical tales of Gods and Superpowers, well I don't see how it's anyone's business but mine...
Slowly but surely I was getting accustomed to this life. After all the most astonishing power of the human mind, wasn't it the ability to adapt, the tenacity to not break under the most duress?
I had adapted slowly, not without a few hiccups, but I would like to think I had done so remarkably.
I had gotten very attached to Hitomi Hyuuga. While no one else would be my Mama, I would call her Okaa-san, that's the least I could do for the woman who showered her weird baby with every ounce of affection she could.
My twin was my solace. A gentle baby, she wasn't fussy even as a babe. Sleeping beside her, her tiny palm enclosing my finger as she breathed softly, soothed me into the land of dreams as opposed to the realm of nightmares.
And so I drifted into the land of sweet memories of a life long gone by, not for the first time and certainly not for the last, as tiny chubby fingers kept me anchored to my new reality.
Author's Note:
pin. it/ t42jKaI
Image credits
My exams are going on... But this has been a long time coming. Worry not I stress wrote it in about a span of a week. Today is Sunday anyway so I decided to upload it.
Be forewarned its a slow burn, and this one has a lot of world building and I still haven't seen the anime. At most I promise a monthly update, if I do update more frequently that means I got suckered in Naruto.
Higanbana has a lot of connotations behind the name, you will see. And yes she will have a Tenseigan. No that's not overpowered, consider Naruto and Sasuke and Kakashi in Team 7, its the opposite, she needs Tenseigan to keep up with them. And that power development is also going to be slow.
Yes, Sasuke and her will be a couple, but like I said slow burn! There are going to be at least 10 chapters before the formation of Team 7 and yes she will be the Kunoichi of Team 7.
Stay safe and healthy.
-Anya.