AN: Yeah, this sort of came out of nowhere; usually, i ruminate on a prompt like this for a few weeks before it goes anywhere, but I was putting this down less than a day after it occurred to me. Would definitely like to see it continued, but I don't really know where i'd go from here.

They said it was a training accident, a 'freak tragedy' that had sprayed flames across Hanabi's face. Couldn't be helped, they had said with a shake of their heads, as though that made things better.

Her sister was blind.

The fire hadn't been especially hot, but it had caught Hanabi right in the face, straight in the eyes. The flames had left wounds that not even the best healer in the world could repair.

Her sister was blind.

It was almost obscene to think about, the worst injury any Hyuuga could receive. Better to lose a leg than an eye; better to lose your hearing, your voice, your hands rather than your sight. A Hyuuga's sight was their life; even a cripple could become a sentry, a scout, with the mighty Byakugan to aid them.

But a blind Hyuuga...was useless, worse than useless. A drain on the clan and the village, taking much and returning nothing.

Her sister was blind, and her father was furious. It could be hard to tell, sometimes, but Hizashi really was an excellent leader for the Hyuuga clan. Always stiff with that infamous Hyuuga pride, but honest and honorable and never willing to let a debt go unsettled.

He was talking furiously at the doctors, at the clan elders, at anyone who would listen, and as much as he tried to maintain the traditional Hyuuga detachment, cracks could be seen. She had never seen her father this angry before, and every man who dared to talk to him did so with caution and care.

Her sister was blind. Hanabi's future was over, and with it went the future of the clan. She wasn't stupid; nervous and scared, yes, but she knew how the rest of the clan felt about her. She knew that everyone liked to sneer at her when her back was turned, that her father could barely stand to look at her, that even Hanabi was embarrassed to be seen with her. Hinata understood that she was weak, a laughingstock; she was certainly not fit to rule the clan, and they would all rebel if she tried.

Her sister, though, was different. Hanabi was so brave, so talented and clever, a real prodigy in every way. The clan admired her, both the main house and the branch house, and would have eagerly accepted her as clan head...at least, before. But they would never accept a blind leader.

Her sister was blind, and there was nothing that Hinata could do to fix this. No healer could repair the byakugan, and no replacement could possibly be found. To steal the eyes of another Hyuuga, even from the dead, would be a blasphemy. Not even the clan head could demand such a thing, not even for a daughter.

Maybe, if someone volunteered, something could be done, but that would never happen. No Hyuuga would ever agree to give up their eyes, their sight, the mighty power that was the heritage of her clan. No true Hyuuga would even contemplate such a thing…

No one…

...she wasn't stupid. She was soft and frail, hesitant and scared, no better than the gutter trash who filled Konoha's alleys. She knew so, with every scornful look her father shot her, with every sour look that Hanabi favored her with. Nobody in the clan liked her, let alone loved her, and that didn't matter in the slightest because Hanabi was her sister, and Hinata loved her very much.

So, in the end it looked like she was going to be no true Hyuuga after all.

"I'll do it," Hinata declared, her voice miraculously free of stuttering.

Hizashi merely shot her an irritated look. "If you cannot contribute something useful," he snapped, "then please leave, now. We are too busy for-"

A loud complaint drew him back into the continuing argument before she can try again. She had to raise her voice, but her stupid, stupid stutter crept in so that it was all she could do to shout, "I'll, uh, i'll give her m-my eyes!"

This time the room stopped dead, and half it's occupants turned to stare at her with incredulous eyes. The other half were staring at her too, only their attention came in the form of the bulging veins of an activated Byakugan.

Even her father stared at her, his pale white eyes wide with disbelief.

After a long, long moment, one of the less dismissive courtiers stepped forward, with a condescending smile. "It is very noble of you to offer like that, Hinata-sama, but this is not the time for grand declarations. We will find a solution, don't you worry, so why don't you go and keep your sister company-"

"I-I mean it." Her voice was small, her words were clumsy, and it felt like every stare was another thousand pounds laid atop her head, so that it was a struggle to stand straight beneath their attention.

Behind that all, though, was certainty, the sheer blinding knowledge that this was the right thing to do. She licked her lips. "I-I am too weak to lead the Hyuuga," she admitted. "I know I'll never be strong enough, good enough, but Hanabi…she is more worthy of these eyes than I will ever be."

Hizashi stepped forward, his eyes blazing and his mouth open to shout, but for the first time in her life Hinata managed to cut her father off. "I am sorry, Otou-san," she stammered with a hasty bow. "I know that only the most sh-shameful of Hyuuga would e-ever say such a thing, and I do not mean to dishonor you, but…" She licked her lips. "I w-was never going to b-be good enough for you, Otou-san. Better to have at least one useful d-daughter, instead of two w-worthless ones."

Her father was staring at her like he had never seen her before, his fury backlit by a less familiar emotion, and for a moment she was afraid that he really would begin to shout! Her father never shouted. How shameful was she, that she had driven him to such straights?

Then the whispers started. They were too quiet to be polite, too quiet for Hinata to hear, but her father turned back with his thunderous expression and was quickly engulfed by the chattering crowd. She caught the occasional distant word, phrases like '-not the worst plan' or 'a noble sacrifice'. One especially brave (or foolish) courtier even dared to congratulate her father on 'raising an excellent spare'.

Then the elders took charge, and the idle mob of speculation was quickly focused into something more useful. The talk continued for a good long, while she stood off to one side in nervous anticipation.

Then her father emerged from the scrum with an expression returned to its normal implacability, his arms folded across his chest. "Enough," he barked. Instantly, the crowd fell silent, and she felt awe again at the sheer power of his commands. A dozen highly-placed members of the main branch family, a half-dozen elders of both branches, and not one of them dared disobey Hizashi.

"Leave us," he commanded, and the room bowed as one to him, before they began to file out of the room in silence. She nearly followed them, her head down in disappointment, before her father stopped her. "Not you."

"Y-yes, Otou-San," she murmured, waiting in silence until the rest of the room had emptied itself. Normally, she could at least guess at her father's feelings, but this time his face was too still, his eyes too hard. She could not tell if he glared at her from anger or disgust, and she could feel herself start to tremble at the thought. Her father had never hit her before, but she had never disappointed him so badly either.

"Do you understand what your sacrifice would mean," he said, his voice as blank as his face.

"I-it'd mean you'd have a daughter to be proud of ag-"

"Your career would be over," he cut in. "Your goals, your dreams, everything you hope to accomplish, it would all be over. Everything, my daughter, even the things you think I don't know about."

Hinata felt her heart rise like a balloon as she realized the truth; what her father was hiding was not anger, it was worry! How amazing! How gratifying to realize that she was still valuable enough to be worth worrying over.

But that was neither here nor there.

"I w-will be okay, Otou-san," she stammered, inclining her head to thank him for his concern. "Th-there are many blind ninja in Konoha."

It was only a mild exaggeration. There were many ninja who had been blinded mid-mission, but had still accomplished their task; there were more semi-retired veterans who ran simple missions that didn't require a working pair of eyes.

There were even a few shinobi who had mastered the use of their other senses so well that they truly had no need for sight anymore.

There were not, to her knowledge, any shinobi who had managed to make a career for themselves without eyes, without sight.

Perhaps she would be the first. Perhaps not. It didn't really matter either way; certainly, nobody besides her would care. And Hanabi would be alright, so that was the important thing.

Hizashi stared at her, almost seeing through her, even though his Byakugan remained inactive. He reached out to her, and for a moment she could not tell if he intended to give her a blow, or a pat to the head.

Then he sank down to one knee, and his outstretched arm was suddenly pulling her into an embrace, and for the first time in years Hinata was safe and warm and home. For the first time, in longer than she remembered, she felt her father's arms around her and knew that she was safe from harm, safe from the world.

"You do not have to do this," he murmured into her hair, his voice almost too soft to hear. "We shall find another way."

"I want to do this," she whispered back, leaning into his touch. She did not whisper the words that were in her heart.

I want to do something, to make you proud of me.

Hizashi was the most powerful man in the clan, one of the most powerful men in the village, but here and now his hands were more tied than anyone's.

'The clan must come first.'

It was their oldest law, older than the village, older than the gentle fist style, older even than the Hyuuga name.

'The clan must come first.'

Long ago, when their gifts had only made them targets, when every nobleman and clan head wanted a 'pretty white-eyed child', banding together had been the only thing to save them. They had forged a community under impossible pressures, welded together by the promise that they would always put the whole above the self.

And nobody was more bound by that promise than the clan head.

'The clan must come first.'

The clan needed strong leadership, a firm hand, a wise and ruthless teacher...the clan needed many things, and one of them was a worthy heir. He had tried to turn Hinata into someone worthy of the clan, of leadership. She had fallen short, and he wondered if the fault was hers...or his.

It was not a welcome thought.

Hanabi, though, had met and exceeded every test, every trial; she was strong and fast, clever and insightful, patient but ruthless. She did not hesitate, did not stutter or falter…

The choice was obvious, and not even the accident had changed that. The elders, the clan, they all agreed; Hanabi was the proper heir. Any steps to ensure her well being and growth were to be taken, at all costs.

No matter how much he wanted to refuse…

The problem was that Hinata had volunteered. Nobody, not even the elders, could have asked her to give up her eyes; it would be an obscenity, a crime against everything the clan had been made for.

But she had offered, and he could not refuse. If he tried, he would be deposed, his daughters removed from his care, and it would all happen anyway.

Worse yet, he would not be in position to protect them afterwards, to keep the clan from using them up, and throwing them away.

It was an inescapable trap, and he cursed the gods for leading him to this as he watched the surgeons begin their work.

He would have preferred the Konoha hospital, which boasted equipment his clan could never match, but the elders had been firm. This was to be a private affair; with luck, no more than a handful would ever know what had happened here. And, in fairness, what the clan doctors lacked in equipment, they more than made up for in expertise; not even the Uchiha had been able to match the Hyuga's mastery of the eyes.

He refused to look away from his daughters where they lay atop the operating tables, even when he heard the whisper of cloth and wood, and the sound of measured footsteps. "Report."

"Hileil Carrowitz is dead. He was found hanging in his cell after admitting to practicing unsafe fire jutsu in the clan's training grounds. The investigators have proclaimed it a suicide."

Unsurprising. Anyone who could fund a scheme to attack the clan, could also ensure that any loose ends were cut.

It would not be enough to save them.

"Find out who he was working for."

"At once, Hyuuga-san."

AN: Really nervous about how I portrayed Hinata in this scene; Hizashi was easy, by comparison, but it's hard to tell if I hit the fine line between 'horrible self-confidence and self worth' and 'moaning worm filled with self-pity'. Am also not sure if this qualifies as wangst.

I will say (off the record) that Hinata is sorta making a lot of false assumptions here. Her father is absolutely gaga over her (which I hope I portrayed faithfully), he just has absolutely. No. Idea. How. To show it. In this particular head cannon, his whole attitude of 'you are not worthy' is basically his attempt to inspire her to work harder and improve herself.
Because, you know, children always do their best work when they're sad, lonely, and they think their parents will never approve of them.
The Hyuuga got issues, man.