Disclaimer: I own Naruto. Kidding! That's just my meds for schizophrenia talking. I'm lying of course...I can't afford medication...But seriously though 3/4 of me cannot claim any rights to Naruto.
Thank You's: Misfit7x10, Blackraven615, Hinata lover, Anotamous, HeartBrokenHinata, and DuchessOfDarkness. Thank you for your reviews you made me giddy with happyness after I crashed from my 3 day study-thon. I hate college. It seriously sucks bunnies. Any way, to reply to Anotamous' review: You're right, I was thinking about it, and we really don't know anything about how Hanabi would act. She is kind of just a blank slate. So I guess she's not suffering from OOC-ness just creative license.
Note: Everything has purpose...Reviews make the Red Bull go down...
Warning: Potty-Lauguage Alert for this chapter (more so than usual)...
Part Four: Carousal
She tipped the bottle, liquid sliding passed her taste buds to burn a new trail down the back of her throat before pooling heavily in her stomach. The smell of alcohol was overpowering, making her seemingly more dizzy from the fumes than the actual sake.
Hanabi leaned back in the soft leather chair, loving how the cool cow skin felt against her bare arms; molding into the contours of her backside and shoulders. She could just imagine what her sister would say. Hinata would stand in front of her, hands on hips, hair pulled up into a severe bun common to the schoolmarm attitude she would be bitching with.
'I'm disappointed in you, Hanabi. A girl your age should not be drinking.' She would tsk waving a pointed finger.
"Yeah, well you're not here to stop me. Are you?" The young Hyuuga murmured aloud into the dark expanse of the office room. She liked the dark. It was comforting, secure; like a blanket of night there to fold you up in it's soothing celestial arms. But it wasn't until today that she realized she hated the color grey. She loathed it with a fiery passion.
They buried Hinata under grey skies, surrounded by grey gravestones, in an above ground concrete-grey coffin. All those who attended wore black, highlighted by the ashen grey of their skin.
Hyuuga eyes. Hyuuga robes. Hyuuga roses.
Grey.
She hated grey.
It was after the first sip of sake that she decided that once she became the Head of the clan, she was going to paint the entire Hyuuga complex a bubble gum pink. Elder's permission or no. Ironically she got the color palette from the reaction her father had to Sakura's hair at the funeral. To say he was offended by the kunoichi's natural locks would've been an understatement. He would've thrown her out of the procession had Tsunade not threatened to cut off the Hyuuga supply of dango's. That of course had that bat-shit crazy woman, Anko Mitarashi, snickering durning the eulogy earning her a warning glance from the Hokage, herself.
It was like a joke to them. Her sister was gone and all they could do was muffle giggles during her funeral.
Gone...
She still couldn't grasp the concept, the reality that Hinata would not be there when she got home tonight...If she went home tonight. Hinata wouldn't be up with the sun tomorrow morning to tend her gardens. She wouldn't be found in her Herb shed humming some nonsensical tune while she concocted a new healing paste. Her sister's laughter wouldn't fill the hollow corridor's on those Wednesday afternoon's she spent playing with the Branch House children.
She was gone. And Hanabi was left to pick up the pieces of a fractured home. Whether Hiashi realized it tomorrow or a few decades down the road, he would see that Hinata was the only light of solace in the dreary halls of the Hyuuga compound.
The overhead fluorescent lights of the office flickered to life above her. Hanabi winced as she looked up from the desk and narrowed her opal eye's at the blond leaning against the door frame, her arms crossed making the cleavage of her chest more prominent.
"Aren't you a little young to be drinking?"
"I'm 13."
"Tch. I cracked my first bottle at the ripe age of 11." Topaz eyes gazed beyond the window, lost in sweet reverie. Hanabi snorted.
"Hypocrite."
"Mind who you're talking to, Hyuuga brat."
"Excuse me. Hypocrite-sama."
"Smart-ass."
Tsunade moved through the door, closing it firmly behind her. She threw the kaki overcoat she wore on the two-person couch pushed up against the adjacent wall. "Besides, times were different back then." She walked over to the dusty file cabinet sitting in the northeast corner of the room and kicked the side. A small wooden panel at the bottom of the cabinet fell back revealing a cubby hole stacked full with clean shot glasses and a single bottle of whiskey. "Peace wound it's way through Konoha's streets and citizen's hearts. The wars were out of sight and out of mind..." Hanabi shook her head.
"Yeah, and since then we've discovered such rare commodities like fire and the wheel." Tsunade narrowed her eyes at the Hyuuga as she walked across the open expanse of the carpeted floor. "Don't look at me with that tone of voice." Hanabi slurred heavily before taking another swig from the bottle in her hand. The Hokage lifted a brow as she reached across the stacks of papers littering the desk top for the sake.
"That's it, no more alcohol for you, kid. Now get your feet off my desk and your ass out of my chair." Hanabi clutched the bottle to her chest like a toddler with a new toy as she rolled the chair back a couple feet. She shifted in the leather pulling her legs up and under to settle indian style. Tsunade flopped down dejectedly in one of the less comfortable chairs sitting square in front of the desk. She set the shot glass down and began pouring her first -of many- drinks she had strategically planned tonight.
"What are you doing?" The chestnut haired chuunin asked, eyeing the Hokage suspiciously. Said Hokage threw back the shot slamming the glass down to refill it.
"Activate that Byakugan you Hyuuga ass' are famous for and you figure it out." She slammed the empty glass down again eager to begin her third.
"Smart-ass." Hanabi mockingly mumbled under her breath, taking in another swill.
"I've heard tell that it's not healthy to drink alone." Tsunade stated a little slower, shooting Hanabi a glance over the rim of her shot. Hanabi snorted, idly tracing the patterns that decorated the glossy finish of the sake bottle.
"Who told you that crock of shit?"
"Your sister." Hanabi dropped her hand, her dull eyes going to the large bay window that took up almost the entire south wall.
"I hate her."
--FlashBack--
"I know you're there, Hanabi." Hinata spoke quietly over her shoulder to the shadowed corner of the room. "You can come out now." She stated before turning back to her research.
"I saw you with him last night." The younger Hyuuga stated blankly as she melted into form, stepping out onto the wooden floor of the small Herb shack. The air was heavy with the smell of spices and dried components that hung from the ceiling beams in withered clumps.
"I know. He sensed you." The blue-haired heiress opened another thick book sitting at her elbow, skimming down a wordy page before reaching for yet another book to the left of her. The entire table top was piled high with mounds of crumpled paper and literature.
"Is he the reason why you've been slacking even more so during our spars?" Hinata distractedly hummed in response, so Hanabi pressed on. "I've never questioned why you pull your punches. You have since we were little. But lately, it seems I'd get more of a workout challenging a fence post rather than you. You better start doing something or father wil-"
"Place the 'Caged Bird Seal' on me?" Hinata dropped her pen, turning in her chair to face her younger sister. The elder leaned back against the lip of the table and crossed her arms. She gave Hanabi a wistful smile. " It's too late for that Hanabi. By the council's order, the date has been set."
"What? When!?" Hanabi stepped forward and grabbed her sister's hands.
"My birthday." Hinata stated looking out the small window, the sun had reached it's pinnacle, signaling she was late, yet again, for her meeting with Tsunade. If she didn't know any better, she'd swear that Kakashi was her biological father. The thought sent a strange shiver of repulsion down her spine.
"Bu-"
"December 27th, Hanabi. When I turn 19, I will be forced to take the Branch House seal, therefore making you heiress of the Hyuuga clan."
"They can't." The younger sister declared. Hinata let our a sardonic chuckle, pulling her hands out of Hanabi's sweaty grasp.
"They can, and they will." She turned back to her books, picking up the discarded pen.
"And you're just going to let them? You're not going to fight them on this?" Hanabi shook her head in exasperation. "You can't just let them do that, Hinata! Show them how strong you've become."
"It's too late for that." Hinata murmured, her opal eyes lingering on a particularly interesting bit of information in the book the Hokage had generously provided her to aid in the research.
"No it's not! We'll fight." Hinata turned back around and stared amusedly at her pacing sibling. Hanabi's brow was scrunched in thought, her finger tapping her lips in contemplation before raking the hand across her scalp. "Really fight. You won't hold back or anything! And once you kick my ass-"
"Language." Hinata chided, tucking a lock of indigo hair behind her ear. Hanabi waved her off, continuing her thoughts.
"Once you kick my butt, they'll have no choice but to leave you alone and let me..." She trailed off solemnly. "Oh..."
"Exactly, Hanabi. Let you take the cursed seal? That is unacceptable." Hinata swiveled back to her books, one of which caught Hanabi's wondering eye's.
"What are you doing with the Aburame's bo-"
"Shouldn't you be meeting your team for your mission today?" The medic nin asked subtly slipping the book in question under various papers and out of sight. A pregnant pause fell on the pair, only the sound of Hinata's incessant chicken scratching breaking the monotony of silence.
"Will you at least tell me good-bye?" The younger Hyuuga asked softly, gazing forlornly at her sister's pale hands flipping through page after page. Hinata shook her head, without facing her sister,
"Hanabi, I'm not going anywhe-"
"Just promise me that you'll say good-bye...Please..." Hinata froze mid writing and slowly faced her sister. She locked her lavender hued eyes in the pressing stare, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips.
"I promise."
--End of FlashBack--
"...hate her."
"What?" Hanabi blinked, the sound of Tsunade's thick voice pulling her out of the past.
"I said," The Hokage rolled her eyes, "That you don't hate her. And she said that girls your age shouldn't cuss."
"Hn."
"Kami, I hate that answer! You sound just li..." Hanabi blocked out the rest of Tsunade's ranting as she pulled her knees to her chest, settling her head back against the pillowy comfort of the chair. She closed her eyes, letting her alcohol laden lids close for a small moment of reprieve.
So tired was the young Hyuuga, that she didn't hear the click of the door or the pair of approaching footsteps. Her ear's barely registered the exchange of whispered voices just outside the confines of her hazy mind.
"You...her drink!?"
"She wouldn't...give up...damned bottle!"
"Hn...should make...she gets home..."
"I'll carry...to the Hyuuga..."
"Don't...caught..."
"We got...office...didn't we?"
"Watch your tone-"
"Shh! She's waking up."
Hanabi moaned, her head pounding against the shell of her skull in agonizing pulsations. She felt familiar arms encircle her waist, the scent of mint and roses making her nose twitch. Her eye's slit open as the weightless euphoria of being carried registered; blurry orbs blinking rapidly to the fuzzy kaleidoscope of blue and lavender.
"H-Hinata?"
End Part Four:
A/N: Not much to say. Just that it there should be only one more chapter, and maybe an epilog. Yeah, I like the idea of an epilog. Review what you think. I love to hear feed back and such!
Oh and if you are confused, the next chapter should clear everything up...hopefully.
Feed back is the food of the Gods...