I thank my friend LexKixAss for letting me abscond her twins for my story. As always Naruto belongs to Kishimoto. Please review.
Hinata set aside the trowel and wrapped her gloved hand around a large clod of dirt from her garden. When she opened it stayed tightly pressed into a small ball in her hand and glistened with moisture, which told Hinata the ground wasn't yet ready to be planted. According to the gardeners, who were nice enough to let her work on the little garden on her own unless asked, if the dirt didn't fall apart easily she still had to wait to plant for the spring. Konoha didn't get severe winters often, but even during the mildest winters the ground still hardened and needed to rest.
Working in the garden always reminded Hinata of her mother and the few times she still remembered sitting by while her mother pulled weeds or picked the fresh herbs. Yumi promised to teach Hinata how to make the medicinal salves in her mother's books once the garden started to produce that season. It was probably the reason she was so anxious to start planting. Too bad winter wasn't letting go just yet.
She pulled off her gloves and sighed, staring at the ground as if it might suddenly dry out and be ready to plant if only she watched it long enough. It didn't, but she stayed out there a bit more anyway. She didn't really want to go back to the house. Naomi had taken Neji over to the branch house to visit with her parents for her mother's birthday, which meant if Hinata went back home it was either training with Hizashi or, if she was really unlucky, Hyobe would catch her and force her to study clan law with him. He was especially fervent with her since the little display in front of the council a couple months earlier. There was definitely a downside to growing up and understanding things.
She was a good five minutes into her 'avoid going home' boredom, which consisted of using the trowel to dig up and replace the same bit of earth over and over, when a familiar and very welcome voice called out behind her.
"Hinata-sama."
"Isamu-kun!" Hinata cried out, hurrying from her seat on the ground to run up and hug the young ninja. Since they'd been made genin almost eight months before, getting to see Isamu and Osamu was an uncommon occasion. Getting them both together was even harder to come by.
Isamu returned her hug and added a ruffle of her hair for good measure. "You barely got a solid look at me, how'd you know I'm Isamu? Don't tell me Aniki was right and I'm giving us away."
"I'm not telling," Hinata teased.
"No fair, we're supposed to be the mysteries here," he harrumphed, but the smirk on his face ruined all his disapproval. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and headed back to her garden. After one look at the sizable hole she'd been in the process of re-digging out, Isamu tugged on her short hair so Hinata was forced to look up at him. "Bored much?"
Hinata rolled her eyes in response. "Neji-niisan's off with Aunt Naomi, so I don't want to go home yet, and the ground's not ready to plant."
"Neji left you alone to the likes of Hizashi-sama and Hyobe-sama?" Isamu gasped. "How dare he? Well, I absolutely can't leave my favorite little lady to an afternoon like that. How about I steal you away for a late lunch in the village. My treat."
Hinata looked back toward the house. "Can you?"
Isamu chuckled a dark laugh that somehow didn't sound half as sinister without Osamu echoing. "The trick is to send a bunshin to inform them we're leaving while we walk out the compound honestly telling the guards that we've informed Hizashi-sama of our departure. That way, he can only get mad at us once we get back."
One quick seal and a poof of smoke later two identical Isamus popped down in front of Hinata's face. "So who's real?" they asked in unison, but the moment they finished the smile on the one on the left dropped like a stone in water.
Hinata reached out and rested a comforting hand on his arm. "Isamu-kun, are you okay?"
"It just isn't fun anymore," he said and turned to his clone. "Wait ten minutes so Hizashi-sama can't catch us if he doesn't like it."
The clone nodded as the real Isamu, still being held in Hinata's concerned grip, tugged her off toward the compound gate. Since the twins had been separated there was always something off when one came to visit alone. Before there was always an eternal optimism surrounding them; they exuded happiness all the time, which made it so easy to be happy around them. Lately though, it was more what Isamu showed right then. The smile was merely a half-hearted attempt.
At the gate he semi-honestly informed the guards that they'd informed Hizashi of their departure and he had permission (long ago from Naomi) to take Hinata out on his own. Hinata just stayed silently smiling at his side. She was a horrible liar. Luckily for her, Isamu was an expert even under the scrutiny of the skilled eyes of the Hyuugas. The guards didn't question it for a moment and released them to the village with little more than a 'take care of her' to Isamu.
It wasn't often that Hinata got to leave the compound without an escort. Isamu was technically her escort, but she didn't count him as one. Proper escorts would never let her wander down random streets so she could explore the village. Proper escorts took her where she was supposed to go and back without deviation. In other words, proper escorts were boring, and Isamu was anything but boring.
Though he wasn't entirely exciting today, either. He didn't stop her from meandering down a pathway she'd never seen before, which ended up wrapping their path to the commercial district halfway around the perimeter of the village, but it wasn't the same as with Osamu. He was subdued. Even when he carried her on his back across the rooftops to shorten their trip to the restaurants (another thing that made him far better than a proper escort), he hardly made a flourish of any of his jumps. Hinata might not have had Isamu's exceptional talent in reading people, but she could feel his false cheer masking a loneliness he wouldn't let show.
Landing at the top of the street where most of the best restaurants were now recovering from the lunch rush, Isamu lowered Hinata to the ground. "So, what're you craving, Hinata-sama? Remember, my treat."
"What's good?" she asked, eyeing all the different places to eat with curiosity.
"Arg," he moaned, "I forget how little they let you off the leash. Honestly, they want you to become independent, just so long as you do it with someone watching over you. We've got to get you out of the compound alone more often."
"Neji-niisan's trying to convince them to let us walk to the academy by ourselves," she offered in a hopeful voice.
"It's about time. You need to fight for that, Hinata-sama. It's time you got to act like a normal kid."
Hinata shrugged and repeated her least favorite mantra, "I'm the heir."
"Bull crap," Isamu snapped like a viper in the weeds, "you're not the only heir to a family in the village. The council's just freaking cause it's their own stupid rules messing everything up for the family and they don't want to admit it. And when people screw with your life you've got to fight to get back to the way it should be."
Hinata'd never heard Isamu sound so bitter or seen anger in him like that since the day they found out he and Osamu were on separate teams. She didn't know how to respond, but Isamu didn't give her a chance. He grabbed her hand and pulled her off down the street. "Come on, Hinata-sama. We'll get lunch and then we're going to do whatever you want and don't even think about what the council wants for one minute."
"Bu–but won't Uncle Hizashi get mad if we don't get back after lunch?" she stuttered as she hurried to keep up with his angry pace.
"You let me worry about Hizashi-sama. You just start thinking about something you've always wanted to do." Isamu looked back at Hinata and he stopped them in the middle of the road. The bitterness in his face softened into a weak smile as he took in her confusion. "Sorry, Hinata-sama, I shouldn't be taking out my frustrations on you. If you'd rather go back to the compound that's fine."
"Well," she drawled, fidgeting with her shirt hem, "maybe not right away."
Isamu smirked and playfully shoved her walking again. "That's my Hinata-sama. Come on. How's barbeque sound?"
"You mean, the kind that you get to cook on the table in front of you?" Hinata asked excitedly, forgetting his earlier unease now that the familiar smile was beaming on his face again. "I've always wanted to go to one of those."
"Then we have a winner." Isamu held out his hand this time and waited for her to reach out and place hers gently in it. When he pulled her close for a one-arm hug, it almost felt like the old Isamu back again.
He led her down to the other end of the road to the large yakiniku restaurant. It was quieter than any restaurant Hinata had been in before, but Isamu told her that was because it was between the lunch and dinner rush. The hostess quickly greeted them and showed them to a small, enclosed table in an emptyish area near the front windows so they could watch the people pass by as they ate. It was only the second time she'd been to a restaurant without Hizashi or Naomi and it made her feel more grown up, even if Isamu ordered everything for them.
"Isamu-kun, can I ask you something?" Hinata asked after the waitress brought them their drinks.
"Anything, Hinata-sama."
Hinata twirled her glass between her fingers and talked to the brown liquid inside. "You still miss Osamu-kun, don't you?"
The exuberance he'd worked to reclaim after his outburst earlier faded into the dulled wood of the table between them. For his eyes to look any more miserable Osamu would had to have died. He took a drink to stall his answer, but eventually Isamu looked back up to Hinata. There was no smile on his face.
"Everyone said it'd get better once we got to know our teams and started going on missions." He slumped back into his seat and scowled at the people walking outside. "They were wrong. Not that my teammates aren't nice, but I can't stand working with them. They complain all the time that I don't communicate well with them. They're the ones who don't understand the idea of subtlety. I mean, I'm not expecting Hyuuga insight, but come one it's like they don't know basic body language. And they just don't understand . . . and . . . I just . . ."
Isamu closed his eyes and sighed. "Yeah, I miss Aniki still. I know Aniki's having the same problem with his team. This isn't how we expected it would be. We can't seem to adjust no matter how much time passes."
"I'm sorry," Hinata murmured, not sure how else to comfort her friend. Isamu and Osamu had always been the ones to help cheer her up, so she was out of her element. But she wanted to help him if she could.
"Thanks, Hinata-sama," Isamu said, running a hand through his long hair and trying his best to smile. "Here I invite you out and I'm the one ruining the afternoon. I shouldn't be bothering you with all this."
Hinata shook her head and grinned as brightly as she could. "We're friends. You help me when I'm upset, so I want to help too."
"Unfortunately, this isn't something you can help me with, Hinata-sama, but thank you. Sometimes having someone who doesn't judge us for it is help enough." He lifted his glass over the steaming grill and she quickly raised her own to toast each other.
The waitress stopped by with the variety plate of meat cut and ready for the grill. Isamu thanked her and went ahead to start the grilling, placing a couple slices of pork and beef on the grill between them. The meat sizzled and smoke billowed up from the juices falling onto the hot coals.
Hinata waited for him to set aside the plate of meat before continuing. She wasn't sure she should press the subject any further, but considering his outburst before and the honesty in his eyes when he talked about his team, Hinata thought he'd wanted to talk to someone for a while. "Do you think it'll ever get better for you and Osamu-kun?"
"Now see, you need to remember what I told you earlier," Isamu said as he flipped the meat on the grill. "Sometimes when things are messed up you've got to work to fix them yourself. That's why Aniki and I harassed our senseis until they agreed to let us enter the chuunin exam coming up in a few months. They kept saying it was too soon, but Aniki and I can be pretty annoying when we want to be."
"How will that help?" Hinata asked. She leaned over the grill and sniffed the wonderful smell of salted, cooked meat. This was definitely a good way to eat.
"A Hyuuga can be assigned to the compound, but you have to be a chuunin to request it," Isamu explained. "Once we're chuunin, we're going to ask Hizashi-sama to let us come home permanently. Then at least we'll be able to work together again. We're determined to make chuunin."
He let her absorb the information as he divvied out the now ready meat and set a new batch on the grill to cook. Hinata wanted to be happy at the news. After all, if Isamu and Osamu were working in the compound then she'd get to see them way more than she did lately. That idea thrilled her since she'd missed seeing the twins, and she'd missed seeing them genuinely happy the way they only were when they were together. As much as she wanted to feel happy, Isamu's face stopped her. His smile was strained and she saw something in his gaze that she didn't understand: shame.
"Do you not want to come home?" she asked.
Isamu stared at her a moment in surprise and quickly shook off any lingering negativity in his face. The twins were just as good at hiding the truth when they wanted to as they were at reading it. Hinata had a feeling she wasn't meant to see the shame he felt.
"It's not that we don't want to come home, not if it means we get to work together again," he finally admitted after a long over-chewing of the beef strip he'd smothered in sauce. "We're just not looking forward to what everyone's going to be saying, or thinking loudly to be more precise."
"I don't understand," she said.
"The way they all talked about us –the potential– they're all going to think it's a waste. We don't care, not really, but that doesn't mean we're looking forward to seeing in on everyone's faces." Isamu poked at the sizzling meat quickly browning and refused to look at her. "Hinata-sama, will you think badly of us if we give up and come home?"
Hinata wasn't exactly sure what he meant by give up. They'd still be chuunin, only they'd work for Hizashi instead of the Hokage. What she was sure of though was that Isamu was asking a very important question for him. He'd never refused to look at her before, and despite all his efforts, she could see pain hidden in his avoiding gaze. She'd have been willing to give him whatever answer that would've made him happy again, but she had no idea what that was, so she told him the truth.
"It'll be great if I get to see you and Osamu-kun more often again, just so long as you're both happy again. It's not fun to see you both looking miserable every time you come by."
For the first time that afternoon a real smile, not strained or masking or melancholic but an honest smile warmed Isamu's face. He leaned over the steaming grill and waved Hinata close. When she was in reaching distance, Isamu bent down and placed a chaste kiss on her cheek. "Thank you, Hinata-sama. I needed to hear someone say that."
She nodded and sat back down. The steam from the grill had heated her whole face brighter than the Hokage's red hat and she downed the rest of her tea in one gulp to try and cool off. For some reason she felt like she'd been cooked, too.
Isamu snickered and pointed his chopsticks at her. "Be careful, Hinata-sama, or you might just find a boy who enjoys making you turn red like that."
"I–it was th–the grill," she stuttered, the flaming color reaching the tips of her ears the more she struggled to speak.
"Of course it was," he teased. As embarrassed as she felt, the genuinely relaxed laughter coming from Isamu calmed her. He was back to the Isamu she'd grown up with, so she stuck her tongue out at him in return. She wasn't exactly in a position to talk.
"You make it too easy, Hinata-sama. It'll definitely be nice to mess with you and Ne–" Isamu stopped mid-tease, his face dropping as he stared at something outside the window. "Crap."
"What's wrong?" Hinata asked. She'd just cheered him up, she didn't want it ruined already. Embarrassing or not, it'd felt good to cheer him up on all her own.
Isamu scowled again, this time at the aisle next to them that headed to the front door. "Our lunch just got cut short."
A boy Isamu's age with short black hair and fury in his brown eyes walked right up to their booth and slammed his hands down on the table. "You'd never know we have a Hyuuga on our team since it took us two hours to find one person," he seethed.
Isamu glared back evenly, popping a piece of pork into his mouth to make the frustrated boy wait even longer for his reply. "Oh, did we have training today?"
Now, the twins prided themselves in their ability to lie, but right then not only could Hinata see it, so could the enraged out-of-claner. If it was possible to pop your own eyes out from sheer force of will, this boy was trying it.
"You know damn well we had training," he hissed back. "It was your idea to take the chuunin exam so stop skipping training. You do realize part of the exam is team based. You need us." Isamu rolled his eyes.
Hinata had seen plenty of people fight before, few could create a colder or more intense atmosphere than two Hyuugas (especially if it was main versus branch), but to watch Isamu actively instigate a fight felt wrong. If this was how their team worked all the time it was no wonder Isamu wanted to come back to the clan.
The boy's hands fisted over the table as he struggled to resist a very obvious urge to punch Isamu. "Sensei's waiting. We're supposed to drag you back for training if we have to."
"Well, he going to have to wait a bit more," Isamu replied as he tossed some money on the table. "I have to take Hinata-sama back to the compound first."
The boy looked Hinata up and down skeptically. "I think she's old enough to walk home on her own."
"What you think really doesn't matter. Until she's back in the compound Hinata-sama is my responsibility," Isamu snapped, which surprised Hinata more than anything. The last time she saw Isamu act like this was the day they found out they were on separate teams and got into the fight with the other brancher boys.
His teammate shoved off the table in disgust. "I see, you only take responsibility when it's convenient for you."
"Don't try and understand Hyuuga matters," Isamu said, standing up so he no longer looked up at his teammate. To Hinata that was a sign he was getting too serious in the argument. Sitting and scoffing was one thing, but standing so his body was no longer in an inferior position was a loud cry this needed to stop. She pushed past Isamu's teammate to take Isamu's hand and more importantly separate the two before things got physical.
"Come on, Isamu-kun. Let's go home so you can meet up with your team," she said, pulling Isamu toward the door.
"All right, Hinata-sama," he agreed, his eyes not leaving his teammate until all three were out on the open street.
His teammate stayed a step behind them the whole way home, like a guard escorting a prisoner to jail. The tension between them was as strong as any between the main and branch families under active insult. Hinata'd always expected teams to just magically get along once they were put together by the way the adults would talk about their days as genin, but that fantasy was quickly deteriorating the longer they walked in that foul, uneasy silence.
The guards at the gate leveled a similarly disturbing glare on Isamu as they approached. The one on the right stepped up, his eyes on Isamu. "Hizashi-sama wants to see you and Hinata-sama."
"I'm sure he does," Isamu sighed.
"Sensei's waiting," his teammate interrupted. It was the first thing he'd said since they'd left the restaurant and it made Isamu's brow twitch.
Isamu continued talking to the guards as if there'd been no disruption. "My sensei's calling for me. Please go with Hinata-sama and tell Hizashi-sama that it was all my idea. I'll come by and see him as soon as I'm through with my team." The two guards eyes flashed so quickly to Isamu's teammate the boy didn't even notice. They nodded.
Isamu offered a somber grin to Hinata. "Sorry to cut the afternoon short, Hinata-sama. Thanks for listening."
She snatched his sleeve before he turned fully away. "Are you going to be okay?"
He watched her for a moment, then with hands fast as lightning Hinata's hair was sticking up and charged with enough static electricity to light the entire Hyuuga compound. "Don't you worry about me, Hinata-sama," Isamu joked, a full smile plastered across his mischievous face. "It'll be better soon enough."
It wasn't often that Hizashi was summoned to the Hokage's office, but unlike the last time this was no emergency messenger in the middle of the night. Hizashi counted that as a blessing already. He wasn't sure why he was being called, though. Normally when the Hokage needed him the reason was obvious or someone in the clan would have informed him of any incidents requiring the Hokage's attention. Today was out of the ordinary.
The Hokage's secretary showed Hizashi in without delay and from the looks of it he was the last of this little assembly to arrive. The clan head always knew each of the instructors supervising the Hyuuga genin by name. Since Hiashi's death, Hizashi knew them all by face as well. It was a necessary part of the added security of the compound. Standing near Sandaime's desk were two jounin instructors that upon seeing told him who, if not what, this meeting was about.
Sato Hikari was a twenty-four-year-old newly made jounin, and working with Osamu's team was her first long term assignment as a jounin. Ueda Kouta was older, in his early thirties and his years of battle experience showed on his face in scars and a multi-reconstructed nose. He was Isamu's instructor. Hizashi wasn't sure he wanted to know what the twins did at the chuunin exam in Iwagakure to warrant the Hokage's involvement.
"Hizashi, thank you for coming," Sandaime welcomed him, motioning for him to take a seat across from him. "I'm afraid I've come across a rather unexpected problem, and I wanted your opinion before I make my decision."
"Did something happen at Iwagakure I'm not aware of?" he asked as he nodded respectfully in refusal, choosing instead to stand behind the offered chair. Depending on what this was about, Hizashi preferred to remain on equal ground with the standing jounin.
"Nothing like that," Sandaime dismissed quickly, "the problem is more what to do with Osamu and Isamu now. They performed admirably at the chuunin exam and represented Konoha exceptionally well."
A small swell of relief ebbed throughout Hizashi's body. Knowing those boys, he could imagine what they might do if they weren't mindful of their surroundings. "I'm not certain what the problem is then, or at least one I can help you with," Hizashi admitted.
Sandaime nodded and Hizashi noted the uneasy glance that flashed over to their instructors. "As you know, Hizashi, being made chuunin is not solely a matter of battle prowess and skill. I always consult with the jounin instructors of potential chuunin to hear how they're progressing. After speaking with Osamu and Isamu's instructors though, I appear to be at an impasse. I've never had recommendations quite like this before. Are you aware of the reasons Osamu and Isamu insisted on taking the chuunin exam so soon?"
"I learned long ago not to ask why those two do most things," Hizashi answered to lighten the strained mood building between Sandaime and the twins' jounin instructors. It didn't work very well.
Kouta stepped up at the Hokage's silent request, his stern face showing no mirth or warmth at all. "The rest of my team overheard Isamu and his brother talking in Iwagakure. They intend to request a permanent post at the Hyuuga compound so that they can be together again."
"Which can't be requested until they're chuunin," Hizashi finished for them. He knew that the twins had been upset at being separated, but he'd never expected them to go so far as leave active duty. Their careers had barely begun.
"Indeed," Sandaime sighed. "That alone would convince me that they aren't ready to be chuunin, however their instructors have given me some rather unfortunate recommendations." Sandaime motioned to Hikari to come forward.
The young woman was far more sympathetic than Kouta. Hizashi saw the reluctance in her fair features and the shame of failure. "I don't think Osamu should be a shinobi." Kouta nodded in agreement.
"Isn't that overreacting a little?" Hizashi defended. The boys were difficult at times, but the potential was there.
"No," Kouta answered in a voice like iron nails, "after talking with Hikari, I'm certain of it. They're incapable of working in a team. It's not merely hogging the spotlight or thinking they're better than the team, if the other isn't there they refuse to work with anyone else. And whether they realize it or not, they continually sabotage the team's ability to function. At this point I don't believe they want to learn to acclimate."
"What's sad is if Osamu could work with others, his skills are chuunin worthy," Hikari added, the sorrow dragging her voice down. Unlike Kouta, she was blaming herself for Osamu's failure.
"As you can see these aren't the usual recommendations I receive," Sandaime said, releasing Kouta and Hikari to the return to the background. "I don't like the idea that such talent and potential would just be given up on, but I must take their teammates' well-being into account too. Based on everything I've heard I'm left with only two viable options. Either I keep them as genin and hope that they come to accept their teams in time, or I promote them to chuunin under the condition they're assigned to the Hyuuga compound."
"Those positions aren't normally permanent," Hizashi explained. "Usually they're given to those who have a reason to stay in the village, new parents or those recovering from injury. The few who're permanently at the compound either can't be on active duty anymore but don't want a desk job or have been chosen by the council to work for the clan. The rest of the positions are rotated through those on active duty but not on direct assignment. To put boys that young as a permanent assignment isn't something I would normally agree to."
Not to mention if they left active duty after only a year they might never be able to return to it. The missions taken during the team years were what built a shinobi's skill base for future assignments. Without that they'd lack the experience to advance anywhere in the village when they were older. Hizashi wasn't sure he was willing to destroy the Osamu and Isamu's careers so early even if it was what they wanted.
"They aren't ready to be apart," Kouta said from his place near the wall. There was no doubt or hesitation in his words. "Until they're willing to separate they shouldn't be on active duty. The more dangerous the missions, the greater the chance that their refusal to work with their team is going to get someone killed."
Whatever debate had been ruminating in Sandaime's aged eyes faded with Kouta's declaration. He'd made up his mind. Focusing on Hizashi, he asked, "Are you willing to allow Osamu and Isamu to come to the compound?"
To think such potential would be wasted because of their stubbornness. It was more than disappointing; it was a failure. But Hizashi trusted Sandaime's opinion. Reluctantly, he nodded. "If it's your judgment, then I'll agree and arrange for their training to continue as much as it can at the compound."
When Sandaime spoke next, he faced each of the three standing before him in turn and his voice was heavy with resignation, "It's unfortunate, but they'll be made chuunin."
Hizashi hoped the boys understood exactly what they'd done, because there was no coming back from this decision. They were Hyuuga now, nothing more.