Disclaimer: No. Own.
AN: This will be a series of stories circulating around the next generation of Team Seven. No flames will be tolerated, pairings undecided, and open to reviews…
When I was born, my clan was stunned into silence for a whole hour. At least, that was what my mother had told me.
Mother was the head of our family, Hyuuga Hinata. Both she and my father, the genius of the clan, Hyuuga Neji, posses the Byakugan. The clan was so proud when mother became pregnant. With parents like these, the elders said, we will not be surprised if the next heir was born with Byakugan activated.
Well, their expectations were a little off.
Okay, a LOT off.
After many days of reasoning, experimenting, gawking, and crying, the medics announced that yes, my pupils were real, my eyes really were green, and I had no superpowers in my eyeballs whatsoever. Father, as Mother recalls, had an unhinged jaw that had to be force back into its proper place and then bounded for several days.
Questions then aroused. Is the child really a Hyuuga? Guilty finger pointed at mother, and some rash conclusion may have been made if not for Father's defense. He had known Mother as a child and knew that her loyal and gentle personality would allow no such thing. But without the Byakugan I could not be announced heir. This caused quite a commotion within the clan. When mother had inherited, she dropped the walls between the main and branch families, and now there was no place to dump me. In the end, the council decided to wait for another child, all the while glaring daggers at me, a baby which frankly, did nothing to them.
My parents tried their best to comfort me. Mother told me that my emerald eyes were unique and pretty. Father trained me in different forms of techniques long before others, in my clan or out. They shielded me at an early age from the suspicions and insults, and Mother, between governing the clan and taking missions as a jounin, taught me some handy moves, which I perfected during the spare time that the other children in my clan spent developing their Byakugan.
When I was five, Mother became pregnant again. This time everyone was uptight and tense. By the time the baby was delivered and pronounced the official heir, the elders even permitted a celebration in its cause. I was six, and was about to enter the academy that fall. Mother and Father could not make it to the entering ceremony. Of course, that didn't disappoint me. They were very important, after all.
But the next few years were a blow to me.
I was one of the top students in the academy, except for this one Uchiha kid. At school, I made a few friends, including a very lazy boy called Nara Shiro. His mother was a Sand-nin called Temari. The son of the Rokudaime Hokage, Uzumaki Rio, also hanged out with me. He was a prankster, though, and got on Sakura-sensei's nerves all the time. Sakura-sensei was actually his mother, I think. A couple of other children from the Hyuuga also attended the Academy, but they were so anti-social and quiet I did not bother to even talk with them.
At home, though, things went from good to sour. I liked my brother Raikimaru, but as he began to grow, Father spent more time teaching him than me. At first I didn't mind. It was only fair, because I had already gotten my share of lessons. But then Mother had to get involved with more affairs. Me, the first-born, was cast aside. When I think about it, it really wasn't their fault. I was a waste of space, someone with the Hyuuga name who did not belong with their pupil-less eyes and stony attitude. I was too open and easy-going, too different with my greens and my head full of pure blue hair. I was more or less average, and too interested in kenjutsu and art to be healthy. I didn't even look like my family, except for my angled and elegant features, taken from Father, and the blue taken from Mother's blue-black hair.
When I was eight, I requested a kenjutsu trainer. Mother, apologetically, agreed. She wanted to make up a little for what she owed me. So I met my teacher, a cold teenager with raven-colored hair and purple eyes that promised me a lot of hard work. He was from a clan in Konoha that specialized in sword art. He was a jounin and the genius of that clan. Kenshin was the clan name. Sword-heart. His name was Gami.
I don't think Gami liked me at all during the first few weeks. He had no reason to. He was teaching his clan's secrets to an outsider, because his family was on the verge of destruction and the job paid well. I was angry, but then thought better of it and bowed my head, swallowed my pride, and allowed glares to burn the top of my head off while I whirled swords three or four times my weight.
When I was eleven, though, his attitude changed. I had worked tirelessly and without complaint. By the time he had taught me the fifth level of the Kenshin's Dragon style Wild Cut, we were friends, at least, sort of. I didn't act like the spoiled brat he expected, and he opened up, a little. Soon, I spent less and less time at home. Gami-sensei paid way more attention to me. I got the consent of Gami-sensei, and asked Mother and Father whether I can become a member of the Kenshin clan instead. I was still a little naïve. My clan didn't need me, I didn't look like I belonged anyway, and Gami needed an apprentice so his family techniques would live on.
My parents were shocked, but the elders readily agreed. They already had an heir. Raikimaru wasn't too sad either. We didn't talk all that much anyways. He was growing to be the prefect image of Father, cold and powerful and already starting the gentle-fist techniques, even though he was only five. The day I officially left the clan, nobody cried. Father patted me on the head and told me what a shame it was that the others could not see my skills and power. I told him Gami-sensei did. Mother hugged me for the first time in years and wished me luck. She tied my hair up with a silk green hair-tie, and gently renamed me Kairiki Kenshin.
Gami came to my graduation ceremony later that year.
I didn't see my parents.