Hinata walked with some difficulty around the kitchen under the watchful eye of her husband. She was happy to stretch her legs, but she understood his concern. Their test was interrupted by a knock on the door, and it opened without a call to answer.
"Coming in, be dressed," Hanabi called, looking into the kitchen. "Oh, good." She grinned.
"Hanabi-chan" Hinata was excited to see her sister but also flustered and thrown off by the comment. Had she caught them in the past?!
The grin on Sasuke's face said yes. She turned red.
"How are you doing? You're walking." Her sister's hair no longer ran past her shoulders lose like she remembered it was a bob with the side tucked behind her ears. Un-Hyuga, she carried a basket in front of her swollen belly.
"You're pregnant!" Hinata squeaked, feeling faint. Sasuke quickly guided her to a chair.
"I forgot to mention that." He said honestly.
Hanabi rubbed a hand over the top of her belly. "He's growing rather fast. I'm going to have stretch marks worse than Kurenai did." She set the basket on the table, plopped in a chair, and put on a more serious face. "How are you two doing?"
"I'm healing alright, but..." She frowned, looking at Sasuke, who placed a hand on her back.
"She does not remember anything. I'm sure it's hard to wake up and find that everyone hates you for decisions you can't remember making." She nodded in agreement.
"He's telling me about us anyway." She gave a slight smile.
"It's not a happy story." He reminded her.
"I still like it." She reassured him.
"I guess I should be filling you in as well. How far are you in your story?" Hanabi piped up.
"Engagement, right after she knocked her teammate out for telling her being with me would make her a baby maker." He answered bluntly.
"Sasuke." She frowned. They were still her team, even if they were upset and mean.
"Oh, good, a perfect place for me to start." She grinned. "Mind if I steal her for lunch." She picked up the basket and waved it as it was her intention all along.
"Mind if I tag along. She still needs the chair, and you shouldn't be pushing her." Sasuke nodded toward the swelled mass.
"Sure, I'm sure you want to hear this too."
Hanabi had had enough of her damned council. She hid in her sister's bedroom until she came home.
"Hanabi-chan?" Hinata woke her by brushing her hair from her face. "You're in here again?"
"You're home late," Hanabi mumbled, rubbing her eyes looking at the clock. "Your boyfriend needs to let you sleep more."
"That's not funny." She pouted.
"Is it true Neji-san found a hickey." She grinned.
"No!" She squeaked. "It was a mark from training." She defended with red cheeks.
"What kind of training." She giggled as she had a pillow lightly tossed at her. That's when she noticed it. "Is that a ring!" She caught her sister's hand before she could pull back. "He didn't!"
Hinata shrank, unable to lie.
"Did he speak with father?" Hinata shook her head shyly but with a smile. Hanabi knew well that she, too, would instead be asked than the traditional route of her father being consulted. "Is he going to?"
"I hope not, I mean, he said he would, but I think he knows that we can't." She quickly took her hand back. "Right now is not the best time with all that is going on."
Hanabi frowned. "Yeah… I guess so." Hanabi had come to rely on her sister's soft kindness and level-headed decisions after she realized what the clan had been trying to do to them. She did not believe her sister was weak and unless she just didn't want what they wanted. She was soft-spoken and pacifistic.
She had developed quicker and learned faster than her elder sister because she was pushed to do so and told she could be, as her sister was neglected and told she couldn't.
They both knew that Hinata would never be truly accepted as head, but Hanabi would be damned if she would let something like this happen again, and she wasn't going to let her sister be sealed like her uncle and cousin. It was an apparent split and cause for hostility, and she would have to find a way around it. They were family, not slaves.
Hinata had taught her that, and she refused to take her next, and if they ever wanted heirs out of her, they would have to agree.
"I had another meeting today. They aren't listening to me. How can they say they will follow me if they won't even listen." Hanabi whined, flopping on her sister.
"I'm not worth making this fuss." Hinata cooed.
"Don't say that!" She threw herself up, glaring at her sister's face. "You are, and I'm not the only one who thinks so!"
Hinata flinched back and frowned, piercing her lips together. "How about… possibility if you are their only option finally they will find it easier to listen."
Hanabi wrinkled her nose in confusion.
"If I step down, before the date, they will force me to. I can renounce my heirship entirely instead of stepping aside. I'll give you my blessing publicly before I even speak to the council..."
"If they brand you, it will be a disgrace!" Hanabi jumped, taking her sister's shoulders.
"What… I was simply hoping it would just give you more credibility with abolishing the seal laws as they are now." She shrank at her enthusiasm.
"No. That's perfect. I could make them monsters! They can't brand or blind you!" She cheered. "Neji-san is a perfect example, and uncle, he was a twin by mere minutes. If I threaten public exposure, especially with the threat of blinding."
"That's dangerous." Hinata tried.
"Do you honestly think they are going to let you marry an Uchiha if you are branded?" Hanabi pointed out quickly.
Hinata closed her mouth and frowned, looking down.
"You would have to give him up… have you told him." Hanabi deflated.
She shook her head, fingering over the ring. "I hadn't expected the proposal at all and..." Tears filled her eyes. "I was hoping if we never made it official by the government and had no children and stayed quiet, they would turn a blind eye like they are now."
Hanabi felt her tears from and hugged her elder sister. She clung to her burying her face in her shoulder and silently letting the tears she had not been able to let fall until now.
Sasuke laid his head back and interrupted. "Of course, I was an idiot and didn't realize that they were just ignoring it or that this was all going on."
"Oh, no. You had to go to father to announce you were getting married." Hanabi rolled her eyes.
"This sounds… bad." Hinata whimpered.
Sasuke crossed his arm, matching the cold glare Hiashi Hyuga was giving him.
"You're asking for my daughter's hand?" He asked with a raise of his perfect eyebrow.
"No, as a courtesy, I am telling you I already have it." He told him bluntly. "And if you try to stop her, you will find yourself against the remaining Uchiha who has birthrights to all the secrets left that my family left behind. If I go deep, what will I find?" He threatened coldly. "Rival clans always have dirt on each other."
The Hyuga head glared darkly at him. Sasuke had been stared down by far worse. He would have to be cackling and have a few zombie test bodies in the basement to even make him bat an eye.
"You are overstepping your authority as heir to your clan." He warned low.
"You mean head. I am of age, and Itachi is dead." He corrected through his teeth.
"You have no clan to lead. You intend to make a new one using my useless daughter. If you want strong children, I can offer a far more impressive Hyuga woman." Sasuke couldn't believe the prick said that with a straight face.
Sasuke slammed his hands down on the man's desk, not even making him flinch, but there was darkening to his eyes. "I'm not after children and certainly wouldn't want them with whatever cow you had in mind. I already have Hinata, I came, because she would prefer I am civil with you people. I, however, believe that I should have already gone looking for something to hold over your pompous heads after I heard what you say to her." He growled, barely holding his temper. "You'll let her make her choice without interference or added pressure. Those are your options, any weaseling, keeping her from me, or undercuts, and I will murder your reputation."
"Like you did your brother." The old man said coldly.
Sasuke lowered his body and his voice. "Just like my brother, right to the end."
Hiashi frowned as his jab had not hit. Sasuke gave a final dark stare before pushing off the table. "I want nothing from you, no dowry, no promises, just her. Offer anything, and you will insult me. Just stay out of her way."
Hinata covered her mouth. "You threatened father?"
"He had an absolute fit afterward and destroyed his training post." Hinata found it hard to see her father ever violent. Out of all the abuses over the years, she had suffered, he never lost his temper to be physical.
"I didn't know how hard the threat hit as I was unaware of what I would find upon looking into the remaining Uchiha sealed records. Your clan had been hiding some dark things." He rolled his shoulders. "Having it has kept us relatively safe from the clan since our marriage."
"So I am unbranded because of… political blackmail and freely married because of… political blackmail" She wasn't sure how she felt about that but, she must have been okay with her sister and husband's actions… right?
"If you want to put it like that." He shrugged.
"As far as the village knows, you stepped down to marry outside of the family and were disowned only on the grounds you refused your birthright. That is a pretty story revolving around you and gives the clan a still somewhat dumb but viable reason to politically disown you without backlash. However, their price, our little secret, is they can not brand you. The village thinks I simply have that power, but we know I can barely keep my children unbranded." Hanabi laid out.
"How is that going?" Sasuke asked with a frown.
Hanabi rubbed over her belly. "With the new changes I have proposed, the seals are forbidden to be used to cause pain or destroy the brain. The brand still serves a purpose I can not deny. It protects the Byakugan from being plucked out and used against the village or studied, so the likelihood I will be able to abolish it in my generation without coming up with an alternative is rather unlikely. Especially since my secret researcher has lost her memory." They both looked to Hinata.
"I was researching alternative seals?" Hinata wondered. It sounds like a good cause but could that even be done.
Hanabi nodded. "You weren't on some breakthrough or anything, so don't be too upset."
Hinata sighed. The information just never stopped, and she couldn't keep up with it all. She rubbed her temple.
"I think that is enough for one day," Sasuke said, recognizing her discomfort.