As always Naruto belongs to Kishimoto.

"Hinata, focus on what you're doing," Hizashi reprimanded as he waited for his niece to right herself again.

"Yes, Uncle Hizashi."

Now five, Hinata had shown improvement over the two years since Hiashi's death. Perhaps not to the extent the clan council wished to see in the heir to the clan, but Hizashi was beginning to find the potential lurking there. It was simply a matter of figuring out how best to coax it out, he realized.

As much as he loathed to admit it (and which he wouldn't admit in their presence), the twins had come up with an advantageous way to improve Hinata's endurance and stamina. Swimming was one of the few areas that Hinata took to with ease, most likely for the very reasons that had prompted the boys to steal her away to the branch house in the first place. (Of course, after Naomi's punishment they never dared do that again. Not without express permission, at least.)

Unfortunately, Hinata didn't respond as well to traditional training methods. Even one on one sessions tended to intimidate her when she worked with an adult. Put her with children though, and the timid girl relaxed. Despite being more advanced than her, by allowing Neji to join some of her practices gave Hizashi the chance to focus on her deficiencies without causing her to shrink away from him.

Neji's absence in the last few weeks was most likely to blame for the sudden decline in her performance. The last two years Neji had been a constant presence and support in Hinata's life, but now he was old enough to attend the academy. They tried to explain to Hinata that Neji needed to attend the academy so that he could one day become a shinobi for the village, that it would be the same as the twins and he'd only be gone during the day; however, the first week he was away Hizashi could still see the confusion in his young niece. Neji did his best to compensate once he came home, but while he was in school Hinata appeared lost most of the time.

As she did then, looking toward the house as if her cousin would come out at any moment. It wasn't that Hizashi didn't sympathize with Hinata, but her soft-heartedness and dependence needed to be curbed early. She was going to be clan head one day and that meant far more than she realized. Empathy was a worthy trait (and perhaps needed more in the clan head than was seen in the past), but if she remained so frail of heart how would she handle sealing the branch family? Hizashi couldn't imagine the girl before him being able to calmly take Neji's child from him to be sealed as Hiashi had taken Neji from Hizashi himself. They were harsh realities, but ones she would have to face when the time came.

"Hinata, let's take a break," Hizashi conceded. She wasn't mentally in the spar. He ushered his niece to the porch where their tea from earlier waited. It had cooled during their spar, but it was a welcome relief from the afternoon heat. Hinata didn't drink though. Instead she merely gazed into the half-empty cup with a forlorn expression on her tired face.

"Uncle Hizashi, why can't I go to the academy with Neji-niisan?" she asked.

"We've gone over this, Hinata," Hizashi began again, doing his best to keep the exasperation from his voice. "You're the heir to the clan, so all your schooling will be done here to prepare you for leading the clan one day. If you went to the academy your education will be lacking, and there's much for you to learn before you come of age."

"But what if I went to the academy and here? I'll work really hard, promise."

Hizashi sighed and placed a gentle hand on her head, slowly stroking her sweat-laden bangs from her face. "I'm sorry, Hinata."

"But I miss Neji-niisan," she pleaded.

"Even if you went to the academy, you'd have to wait till next year when you're old enough and then you won't be in the same class as Neji. You'd be by yourself."

"Then if it's better here, why can't Neji-niisan stay home?" Her pout was threatening to break into tears, but she held it in for now. That, if nothing else, spoke of her improvement. A year before she wouldn't have had that much self-control.

"Hinata, come here," Hizashi called, pulling the young girl from her seat to stand before him. He gently lifted her chin so that she was force to look at him. "Even though we live here you need to remember that Neji, Aunt Naomi, and I are branch family. That means the life you're going to have and the life Neji's going to have are going to be very different. You won't always get to be together like you used to. Neji's going to become a shinobi for the village. His duty will be to Konoha. Your duty is to the clan."

"But if you're branch and you're here why can't Neji-niisan stay, too?" she mumbled, trying her best not to look him directly in the eyes.

"When your father was alive I was a shinobi, too," he explained, "and when you're old enough to take over, I'll be one again. The Hyuuga is a strong clan, and it needs a strong leader, but it only needs one leader. That'll be you, Hinata. The rest of us are here to support you, but that's all we can be. Do you understand?"

"It's not fair," she wheezed, a few tears finally breaking free and rolling down her cheeks.

"You're right, it's not fair, but it's the clan."

Handing Hinata her tea again, Hizashi wiped the tear from her face and waited for her to steady herself. They still had her training to finish.

"And sensei said I did better than everyone else on the test today," Neji beamed to Naomi as she filled his bowl with rice.

"That's wonderful, Neji" Hizashi praised, "But this is only the beginning. We expect you to keep this up."

"I will!"

Naomi had conceded the cooking duties to the servants when she moved into the main house, but still insisted it be presented as a shared family meal. While it was Hizashi's job to groom Hinata into a clan head, Naomi decided long ago that it would be her job to remind Hinata it was all right to be a child. And there was no better way to make children feel at ease than a casual family meal.

Naomi passed a bowl over for Neji to give to Hinata, though her smile was still on her son. "How are you getting along with the other children? Made any friends yet?"

Neji scrunched up his nose. "Kinda, but a lot seem freaked out by my eyes still."

Naomi and Hizashi shared a knowing smirk as they each remembered their academy days. "You'll get used to that," Hizashi assured him.

"Why are they freaked out?" Hinata asked innocently.

"Cause no one else has white eyes in my class," Neji explained.

"Why not?" Hinata scrunched her nose up in confusion, a habit she'd picked up from Neji. Whenever she did it, it reminded Naomi the two were most definitely cousins.

"Only Hyuugas have white eyes," Hizashi reminded his young niece, "and if they've never met a Hyuuga, it can be strange to some people."

A part of Naomi stalled at Hinata's ignorance to the village outside the compound. Judging by the way Hizashi avoided her gaze, he knew it too. Hinata's isolation in the compound was a sore subject between the two of them.

"Osamu-kun and Isamu-kun said they'd teach me how to do a replacement jutsu before sensei does," Neji excitedly returned to the topic of his day as if the conversation had never diverted. "That way I'll be able to do it the best in the class."

"Your chakra might not be strong enough yet to support a replacement jutsu," Hizashi warned, though the pride was obvious in his eyes.

"Then I'll make my chakra stronger," Neji declared, making both his parents smile.

"Can I learn, too?" Hinata piped in with an admiring gaze on her cousin.

Hizashi shook his head and the little girl's smile disappeared. "Hinata, your chakra definitely isn't strong enough to support a replacement jutsu, yet. There's a reason the academy teaches these jutsu in a specific order. In a couple years you'll start learning those."

Hinata slumped down into a pout and started shoveling rice in to cover up her disappointment. All it did was make her look like the rice had gone sour in her mouth.

The nagging feeling clawing at the back of Naomi's mind got stronger the more she looked on Hinata's frustration. She was far too isolated, and now that Neji was gone during the day she'd lost her only steady connection to anyone other than her servants and teachers. It wasn't fair to her. Naomi understood the council and her husband's fears now that she was the only member of the main family left unsealed, there were expectations of her, but keeping her safe in the compound deprived her of experiences that could benefit her when she became clan head.

A much as he tried to hide it, Naomi caught the marked aversion her husband's gaze took to avoid catching her eye. Either he was thinking the same thing and didn't want to admit it, or she was showing her disapproval more plainly than she meant to. She hoped it was the former.

After dinner (and sufficient time had passed), Naomi took the children to the pond in the branch house to play for a while. It did Hinata's self-esteem good to come and swim when she was discouraged, especially now that she was beginning to beat Neji when they raced.

Naomi knew it was going to be hard when the day came to move back to the branch house. Not that she cared about the servants or the luxuries they received in the main house, but (as hard as it would've been to believe before Hiashi died) Naomi cared for Hinata as if she were her own daughter. To have to leave her, even if only to the branch house, was going to be heart-breaking. All the more reason to ensure she grew up in a way that would stop history from repeating itself. The last thing Naomi wanted was for Neji and Hinata to become as distant and frigid to one another as Hiashi and Hizashi had been.

By the time they finished playing at the pond, the children were fussy with exhaustion and only complained a little when they were bathed and put to bed. Of course, Neji complained a little more that he didn't get to stay up later now that he was in the academy. (What a handful she was going have with him when he was older.)

With the children asleep, Naomi checked on the last of the house activities and reviewed the schedules for the following day before retiring to her room. Being wife to the clan head bore a surprising resemblance to head butler. She didn't exactly work on the nitty-gritty functions of the main house, but everything came to her for approval. And when guests came over, anything from menus to place settings to seating arrangements were her domain. It was enough to give her a headache sometimes (and want to burn down the entire house others).

She retrieved a small paperback book from atop her dresser to wait for Hizashi to come to bed. It was a frivolous story, and perhaps a little on the scandalous side, but after spending the day in propriety and strict conduct, Naomi enjoyed an improper, fluffy story now and then. The kidnapped main character was just about to find out what her handsome, tormented, half-naked captor had planned for her when Hizashi finally made it in for the night. (That left the good parts for tomorrow, she thought ruefully.)

"Are the days getting longer or am I getting older?" Hizashi asked as he sunk down next to his wife on the futon.

"The days must be getting longer," Naomi answered, planting a chaste kiss on his neck. "You aren't allowed to get older, because if you get older that means I'm getting older and having a son old enough to be in the academy is as old as I'm willing to be."

"Good to know it's not me," he joked back. Stealing the book from her hands, Hizashi pulled her close and returned her kiss with one that suddenly made losing the good parts of her story more bearable. There were advantages to the bedroom: proper decorum wasn't allowed in.

Naomi pushed back, but not so far as to leave his embrace. "Before you get too ahead of yourself, we need to talk about Hinata."

"Did something happen after dinner?" he asked, a hint of worry seeping into his voice.

"No, this is about what I was thinking about at dinner," she answered and received a disgruntled sigh in return. Hizashi released his wife and, like earlier, refused to look at her. "I think she should go to the academy next year," she demanded.

"Naomi–"

"Don't Naomi me," she huffed before his voice got too patronizing. "I'm serious about this, Hizashi. She's too isolated here. Look at dinner tonight. She was all but begging to be with other children, and she has no real idea of life outside the compound."

"She doesn't want other children, she wants Neji," Hizashi insisted.

"All the more reason to send her to the academy. Let her meet other children and realize that her world doesn't have to be Neji and the twins. If she makes friends it'll be easier for her to let go of her dependence on Neji."

Hizashi pinched the bridge of his nose, a sign to Naomi that his frustration was close to the surface. "She has too much to learn here for the clan. She can learn how to fight at the academy, but it won't teach her how to be the head of the clan."

Naomi didn't want to bring out this argument, but he wasn't leaving her many options. "If Hiashi was alive she'd go."

Hizashi leveled his gaze on her, not glaring, but even and firm. "If Hiashi was alive she would be expected to take over at eighteen."

"Eighteen?" That took Naomi back. "I thought you convinced them to wait until she was twenty-one."

Hizashi forced the aggravation from his body in a deep, exhausted sigh. "They agreed to consider it, and after considering it they rejected my suggestion. They want the main family restored as soon as possible. To them it's not a matter of when she's ready, she has to be ready by then."

"But you've done fine as clan head. It won't hurt to give her a little more time. To have her own life."

"The clan is her life," he said with quiet resignation. Naomi turned away and Hizashi pulled her close to comfort her. "Naomi, I might've been born main family, but the moment they sealed me I became branch in their eyes. I'm only a temporary substitute. They've got this foolish idea that once Hinata's clan head things will somehow be back to the way it was when Hiashi was alive. As if she's a living spite to the Raikage. They're expecting me to make her into that, but she's still behind for her age. It's going to be difficult enough to get her where she needs to be without her going academy."

Naomi understood his argument, but she wasn't ready to back down just yet. "How is keeping her trapped in the compound her entire life going to benefit her when she becomes clan head? Do you really want the first serious interactions she has with non-Hyuugas to be when she's making decisions for the clan? She needs to learn how people view the clan and how to talk to people who don't have to respect her simply because she's main family, and she needs to learn it now, while she's growing up."

"She's not going to be isolated her entire life," Hizashi defended. "We'll teach her what she needs to know."

She reached out and wrapped a loving arm around his shoulders to remind him that despite her opposition she was still on his side. They both wanted what was best for Hinata, and Naomi knew her husband didn't disagree with her. He just needed a reason to justify doing what he wanted for her that was more important than the time constraint Hinata was put under.

"You can't teach her how to get along with non-clan. She needs to get out there and do it. The clan may be her life, but she needs to understand that the clan is a part of the village. She needs to gain an appreciation and loyalty to the village, and she'll never get that hidden away here. That's why the clan head goes to the academy even though they can't become a genin. She can't want to protect the village and the clan in it if she only ever sees it from the clan's perspective."

"She can't learn it here?" he questioned not for confirmation but affirmation. Naomi felt it in the way her held her hand, he wanted to believe her.

She kissed him on the cheek again, lingering and lovingly. "If you try to teach her, it will always be clouded by the clan. To be a good clan head, to make decisions with others in the village, she has understand their position. What good will she be to us if she's too rigid about the clan to work with the Hokage when he comes to her?"

"Now that," Hizashi paused, silently working through the options left to him, "I wonder if that would buy me another year or two?"

"Even if it doesn't, she still needs to go," Naomi pressed. "Just because they make her clan head doesn't mean you can't still help her."

Hizashi shook his head and an old pain that she couldn't touch filled his pale eyes. "It's not going to be the same once she takes over. We'll officially be branch again. You don't know how being clan head changes the way you see people."

"It didn't change you," she offered.

"I'm only Hinata's regent," he said more bitterly than she'd heard in the last two years. Naomi rested her head against his shoulder and gently stroked his arm. She knew the cause of his pain but had no idea how to comfort it, or if now that Hiashi was dead it could ever be resolved.

"Hinata doesn't see us as branch or main," she offered in a soft voice. "All she cares about is that we're her family now and that doesn't have to change. Not if we raise her right. Isn't that why your father wanted us to take her in? To fix the mistakes he made?"

He rested his hand over hers and took a deep breath. "Change the way the head sees the clan and you change the way the clan sees itself. Do you actually think such a thing's possible?"

Naomi scoffed. "With two people as stubborn as us raising her? You put your mind to it and that little girl will always look up to you, branch and all."

Hizashi laughed the first genuinely happy sound she heard from him since he entered the room. Turning, he pulled her into his lap and kissed her playfully on the neck. "I wouldn't have been able to do this without you."

"Probably not," she joked, "but what man could without a woman behind him." Hizashi silenced her once and for all that night, but Naomi didn't mind. Living the good part of her book was always better than reading it.