Summary:
The eyes of the Hyuuga are as cold and glittering as the iced-over snowflakes. Are the minds, the hearts, the souls any different? [AU] [Hinted SasuHina] [Non-Chronological Linked Drabbles]
General Disclaimer For The Entire Story:
I don't own Naruto. If I did, I'd have drawn out a very helpfully annotated map of where everything is in Konoha. If there are little-used canon!characters, there should be little-mentioned canon!places, so fanfiction authors can use those like they elaborate on the L-UCC. The cover picture isn't mine, either.
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(rainy rookwing regrets remembered)
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[Age -3]
"It's raining."
"…"
"Rather nice. Peaceful. Soothing. We don't really get much of this kind of rain in Konoha."
"…?"
"As in, the cool, small-force rain that pitter-patters on rooftops and is lovely to look at when you're on a shielded porch and leaves everything looking refreshed and clean and sharp afterwards. Usually we get the misty, humid sort of drizzle that frizzes hair and clings to skin and blurs vision, or the thunderous storms that drum like they're going to go right through the ceiling and never end without toppling over at least one great tree and drowning all the shallower gutters."
"… poetic."
"Me? Oh, not really. I just tend to ramble. Bad habit of mine. Ah, who knows? Maybe I'll have a daughter the same way, and we can ramble together about nonsense and nothings."
"… you're never nonsense."
"Hah! I am, I am. You're too forgiving towards my faults, Ashi-kun. I ramble about everything and I dither over purchases and I read more than I move and I still have sloppy handwriting and I've killed every plant that I've touched and I'd boil water dry given the opportunity and I can't stomach tea and with this body of mine I suppose I have more time than I want to fix those faults-"
"…"
"…"
"…?"
"… Aa. Sorry about… that. It's just- nevermind. Forget about that."
"… if you want."
"Thank you, Ashi-kun. See? This is what I love about you. You always listen. Not that it's hard with your lack of speech, but I've often found that it's easier to be a good talker than it is to be a good listener."
"… you're welcome."
"Humble as ever. Well, anyway…"
"…"
"Nothing to say?"
"… no."
"Really?"
"… yes. Your voice is pleasant to hear."
"Oh, you charmer. Hm, let's see, what's happened lately? Oh, Ren asked me out."
"The Uchiha?"
"Yes, you know, the one with the silver clips and the twin sister."
"Did you accept?"
"Kami no. It's also not really like I had a chance to. He heard my latest diagnosis and… took a mission on that day."
"… I'm glad."
"You're glad that I was humiliatingly ditched from a date offer?"
"If he was put off by your illness, then he would not have been a good significant other to you later on."
"… I guess. Agh, you're right as always, Ashi-kun. I shouldn't have snapped at you. It's just that- that- I'm tired of always being seen as that poor little sick girl, y'know? I had- I have my own life, too. I'm 27, I'm a Jounin, I'm a damn good kunoichi and I'm a Bukijutsu master! I have worth as my own person, and I'm not just defined by this-"
Kaaw, heeak, kuh, uh, uh.
"You're coughing up spit."
"So, a-" Kiaaawgh. "-and?"
"It's pink spit. You're coughing up blood and spit, Hitomi-san. This is serious."
"… hasn't it always been serious?"
"You need to go to the hospital, Hitomi-san."
"… I already went. Didn't you hear me? Uchiha Ren heard my latest diagnosis and decided he'd rather not date a dying girl. A dying girl. That's what I am now, in three simple words. Words, words, words… words build the world, words tear down society. All comes down to words."
"Hitomi-san, you're going into shock. Really, you must go to the hospital and let the healers help you."
"They can't. Tsunade-hime herself said it; they can't help me. Rare disease, and all that. Fifteen recorded cases in history, eight of them in Konohagakure. Recessive gene. I'm the last of my family, whose only apparent ability was to pass down bucketfuls of 'rare recessive genes'. And now I'm dying and I can't fix that, Hiashi. I can't fix that, they can't fix that, they say they'll need at least fifteen more years of study to figure out which of my recessive genes are the ones causing the problem, and that's not even halfway to a solution."
"…"
"Nothing to say to that? Kami, Ashi-Ashi, what am I supposed to do? Fifteen more years until there's even a hope. I'm lucky if I make it ten more years. I'm 27 and I'm a Jounin and I'm a damn good kunoichi and I'm a Bukijutsu master but none of that means anything if they have to take me off the roster in a year because of this thrice-cursed disease! Because then I'm out of a job and I'm out of income and who'd want to date a broke dying girl? Who'd want to marry a dying girl? You know me, Ashi-kun, we've been Genin and Chuunin and Jounin together. I've never put much faith in marriage, but kami I wanted children and a husband and have that family I never got the chance to know! Maybe that's a bit self-pitying of myself, but what's the point of having a family if you're going to die before your lover and you'll never see your kids grow up?"
"I'd marry you, Hitomi-san."
"… I- I don't need a pity date, Hiashi! Stop joking!"
Splash, splash, shwoooooomp!
Hyuuga Hiashi stood under a large white umbrella, watching his Genin teammate and best friend and crush storm angrily away from him, stomping furiously in the puddles as she ran-fled to her apartment building, pretending she wasn't crying burning tears that mixed into the rain.
She looked awfully small, stumbling in the rain she so dearly loved, short black hair dulled by worry and thin arms and long legs and unhealthily pale skin, flushed rosy with feverish emotion, tugging her rapidly-sodden mauve jacket closer to her slender water-slicked figure, sturdy wrists and strong shoulders and weakening muscle mass-
And those heliotrope eyes bright under thick jackdaw lashes.
But I wasn't joking, Hitomi.
He never joked about Hitomi.
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Years later, Hiashi stares straight into those heliotrope eyes calmly blinking rookwing spiderwebs, and forces himself not to see Hitomi.
Hinata asks, "Is something the matter, Otou-sama?"
"No… No, it is fine, daughter. Return to your meal."
It is easier to look at Hanabi, with her energy and vivacity, her eyes as bright as Hitomi, but rimmed with cinnamon curls.
It is easier to look at a copy of Hitomi at her best, just colored differently enough, than it is to look at an alien copy of Hitomi, identical in appearance and still so not her.
The alien copy who he alienated.
It is easier, and Hyuuga Hiashi is not someone you would accuse of always taking the easy route, but in this case, he does.
(If he closes his eyes, he can envision Hitomi crying the rain, crying for her and for him and for their children, feathers snipped by Hyuuga chains.
They are not sealed, but not all cages are physical, or immediately seen.
The worst are the ones imprinted from birth, the ones not regarded as them.
The ones the prisoners can't tell are prisons.
Where the wardens as as much locked as the inmates.)
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Hiashi + Hitomi =
HiHi
Hinata + Hanabi =
HiHi Spawn
And that's how their family goes, folks.
Also known as, that one chapter where Hinata's mother is given characterization of sorts.
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-Reviews are appreciated. I'd write something witty here, but this is my second post today for this story, so I'm out of ideas.-
