Hinata is fourteen by the time she finally accepts that she's never going to have the Sharingan. By then Haruki has had hers for a year. Hinata takes pride in the easy way her and her sister heal the rift between them now that, as auntie Akane might say, she finally got her head out of her ass.
It had been hard, probably the most difficult thing Hinata had ever managed.
The twins find out only one of them will ever get the Sharingan from uncle Naoya, who had heard the information from uncle Makoto, her grandfather's best friend before he passed, one of three living shinobi of his generation, and one of the few elders that doesn't put a pinched look on any of her aunts faces.
It had all been very complicated to a seven year old Hinata, to whom restricted lines were a complete fairy tale. It was the go to answer of why the Uchiha's had lineages, and didn't typically marry outside of them. Restricted lineages, bloodlines that set limits on who could inherit the Sharingan in the following children, were supposed to have long disappeared.
The truth was that they had learned to hide by mixing in with the non-Sharingan activating portion of the clan. Hinata's mother hadn't even been a Kunochi, but her father had a Sharingan-he was from the Susano, one of the main lines, so theoretically each twin had only ever had a fifty percent chance of inheriting Sharingan activating genes in the first place. But her mothers bloodline made that more complicated, according to uncle Makoto-thanks to her grandfather, her mothers restricted lines only exception was set to twins. And even then, only one twin could ever activate it. Or rather-one twin had a hundred percent guarantee of activating their bloodline, and the other had the exact garante that they wouldn't.
Ironically, if Haruki, who had activated her Sharingan, ever had children with a fellow Sharingan warrior, then only any set of twins she had would be subject to the restriction. For Hinata, only a set of twins would guarantee one of the children could activate the clan's doujutsu.
The rest of them would have no chance. If her mother had survived the assasination that killed her and Hinata's unborn younger brother-Hinata's grandmother on her fathers side would have loathed her for tainting her bloodline even more than she already did-it was almost true with the existence of her restricted bloodline after the fact.
Her real grandmother couldn't have known the truth of her grandfathers lineage at the time, or she would have never dared wed her precious daughter to the Susano line-lineages expected all of their children to activate the Sharingan, it was what kept their bloodlines above those in the clan who couldn't expect the same of their children.
There was a reason restricted bloodlines where thought to have disappeared-it didn't exactly make one popular in the marriage market to know only certain types of potential progeny could inherit the Sharingan. At least her uncle Akio and aunt Cho didn't seem to care at all-for them, the clan's vaunted bloodline had never been something to concern themselves with. They would just want their new born son, Takeshi-possibly the cutest child in the world, to be happy and healthy. Knowledge of their families tainted bloodline didn't seem to bother anyone else in her family at all.
Truthfully, it wasn't so bad not to have a Sharingan these days, now that Auntie Akane existed to show the world at large that even Uchihas without the Sharingan could still be the most dangerous shinobi in any room-but it would never be considered a plus.
Hinata had asked her mom, the one that had raised her and had originally also been her aunt, if that was why she'd all but wed another woman and choose never to have biological children of her own. Her mom had laughed, cupping her cheek with easy affection and saying that if she'd never met aunt Emiko then she wouldn't have gotten married at all.
Aunt Emiko was really her mother in the same way her mom was, but her parents' relationship was something that mostly functioned by staying unspoken. The majority of the clan still thought Aunt Emiko married to uncle Naoya, and even considered her barren. Those closer to her family knew better and accepted the relationship-while those who had chosen to be the enemies of the causes her families championed and had figured it out couldn't prove a thing. Uncle Naoya kept a fully stocked closet in her parents bedroom just in case. No matter how much power her family had in the clan, there were certain sensibilities that they stepped lightly around.
Auntie Akane promised that it wouldn't be forever-but auntie Akane was a big proponent on playing their cards when they'd do their best good and fully admitted that she was waiting until a same sex couple from one of the main lineages was outed first, so that her mom and aunt Emiko could then come out in public support of them. She didn't quite understand her aunts reasoning-but one only had to look at the current state of the clan and the village that was coming together under her influence to accept that her aunt knew what she was talking about.
Sometimes Hinata hated that her family operated more like the Damiyos court than a no name family without even a Sharingan lineage that they should have been. But that was a world where auntie Akane was never even born, and one where Hinata and Haruki would have been sent to be raised in an orphan home by her fathers awful bride Mitsuki.
Hinata hated Mitsuki.
She didn't even interact with her two little sisters, or her only new born brother, solely because she refused to have anything to do with that woman.
When her father first gave over her guardianship of her and her sister-Hinata hadn't really understood what was going on. Her memories were of seeing her father less and less and the other side of her family more and more. By the time she was fully sensible and understood that how often her father came to see them was a secret, Hinata was also intelligent enough to pinpoint the reason.
The classical evil stepmother, Misuki.
From what Hinata understood, her fathers family had always looked down on her mothers. Hinata even understood the reasons, like not being part of a lineage, which wasn't exactly a unique attitude to have among the Uchiha. Even with uncle Naoya being the clan's best weapons wielder and a Sharingan warrior both-and auntie Akanes former position as the intended of the clan head. No one had actually expected auntie Akane to live long enough to claim the status of matriarch-and no weapon would ever be as valued as the Sharingan. Uncle Naoya could trace his bloodline back to the Amaterasu, but he had refused to abandon their family in order to join them, and so most people had simply thought her oldest uncle an idiot with no political savvy.
The attitudes had changed with time, but by the time the Susano began sniffing around her and Haruki, neither twin wanted anything to do with their fathers lineage.
So Hinata had grown up calling her other mom Aunt Emiko like she called her actual aunt Akane and pretending her parents weren't together and that her father ignored her and her sister in favor of his new family.
Of course then her Aunts engagement was canceled, and the true enemy of the Senju and Uchiha was uncovered by Auntie Akane. In the months and years that followed, with the creation of the village and the ever growing connections with new clans, her family had fully emerged as one with political connections and power. Even more than the named Lineages in some cases. Even though their clan head was married now, and it remained mostly unspoken-Auntie Akane had more power in the clan than his wife, and not just because the redhead was from another clan.
Auntie Akane liked Kana, so her family acted accordingly-but there had been a lot of unhappy grumbling about the main line marrying entirely outside the clan, happily ignoring that uncle Akira was right there and perfectly able to marry within the clan. Just because of his crippled status, most of the clan was happy to forget about him.
Technically, Uncle Akira wasn't actually her uncle. But he was Auntie Akanes' little brother in all the ways that mattered, and as always-in their family, Auntie Akanes' opinions were the family opinions. So Uncle Akira had been family for as long as Hinata could remember. He'd always acted the part, he was the one to gift her and Haruki their first blunted practice kunai-a gift he'd made himself. He was always around to help her work her way around a problem, and if she hadn't had him to confide her feelings of resentment towards her twin it would have probably taken Hinata ten years to get over her lack of Sharingan instead of the one it had actually taken.
He'd even moved in at some point, without any announcement-she'd only figured it out because he always seemed to be there at breakfast and had taken it upon himself to ensure aunt Cho made it to dinner when she got too caught up in work. He also spent a lot of time taking care of baby Takeshi. No one had really acknowledge that uncle Akira had stopped going home to the Amaterasu, and Hinata would have suspected he'd developed a relationship with uncle Naoya like her mother had with aunt Emiko-except that her uncle had long explained that he had never experienced the desire for a partner when her and Haruki had tried to figure out why her uncle had no one of his own.
But Uncle Akira was family, and family stayed together, so Hinata was sure everyone was happy to have him. It was especially nice because her grandmothers and uncle Akios relationship had soured, and uncle Akira was one of the only ones who could run interference without it breaking out in an argument or someone storming off before they said unkind things they couldn't take back.
No one would explain why-something about how he'd grown up and not understanding the way her grandmother had raised him now that he had nightmares of raising his own child the same way. The only reason Hinata even knew that much was from blatantly spying on aunt Cho and aunt Emiko, the only non-ninja members of her family that were foolish enough to have discussions they didn't want to be overheard in a house full of shinobi. Her grandmother was an impenetrable wall on the subject.
The tension at home was driving the twins insane.
Haruki had taken to taking more missions that took her far from the village-but it rubbed Hinata the wrong way to leave when things weren't set to rights. Uncle Akira and aunt Cho were doing their best to handle the situation, of course-but the obvious solution was to just bring it up to aunty Akane.
She understood why they hadn't of course, it was family policy to hide anything they could resolve by themselves from her auntie Akane, her youngest aunt had enough on her plate with the clan and the village-she'd drop everything the moment she thought her family needed her instead, and her family knew enough of what was going on to know neither the clan or the village could quite afford that.
The only reason Hinata was thinking about it was that it had started when aunt Cho got pregnant, and had only grown worse since. She hadn't understood why they didn't resolve the problem-and then kind of resented it when her mom had explained it was the same reason no one had taken her to task over her troubles with Haruki.
Sometimes-no one was in the right, and no one was exactly in the wrong. Or sometimes those wrongs existed for reasons no one would want to blame that person for at all. It was especially true of hurt feelings, so long as no one was being malicious or cruel, her family would only intervene to keep it that way, and hope things settled on their own.
Hinata was being something of a hypocrite, especially on the other side of feuding family members and feeling so helpless and sad, incapable of keeping her family from hurting. And worse still-hurting each other. All she could do was hope someone would have a moment of understanding that would take them to a better place the way she had.
Like most shinobi-she distracted herself with training.
As a child, Hinata had wanted to be Auntie Akane. As had Haruki. The first time Hinata could remember being properly jealous of her twin was when she'd managed the great fire ball an entire week before Hinata had.
The only reason she hadn't grown particularly bitter about how much better Haruki was at both fire manipulation and taijutsu was that Uncle Akio had taken her aside and taught her wire tricks and a lightning jutsu that came much easier to Hinata. Everyone had strengths, just as everyone had weaknesses. Haruki couldn't make the Lightning Jutsu work for her at all.
These days her twin was a well known monster with fire Jutsu and her favorite weapon, the staff-young as she was. Hinata's own strengths were not as flashy, both her wire specialty and genjutsu required subtlety, after all-but she was good enough with both that she was happily welcomed in any squad as an asset.
It wasn't something Hinata would admit to anyone else-but it had helped so much to watch Haruki fail to learn auntie Akanes signature Jutsu, no matter how much their aunt had tried to teach her. There seemed to be limits to most people's fire manipulation, after all-unless you were auntie Akane. Hinata had watched her aunt make a fire no warmer than a nice bath in an effort to teach Haruki-and that had been the exercise that had stumped her stubborn twin enough to finally make her give up.
Haruki was one of the best fire Jutsu specialists in the clan regardless-and then her twin had gained her Sharingan.
Hinata took full responsibility for how cold and mean spirited she had been to her sister in the wake of that. It was part of why Haruki had found it easy to forgive her-she hadn't denied how ugly a side of her she'd shown her twin, and being twins-Haruki had always been the one to understand her best of all. Harukis sympathy and understanding was half the reason it had taken Hinata so long to let the bitterness and jealousy go. Irrational as her feelings had been regardless-it had felt even worse that Haruki didn't even have the decency to be a terrible person actually worthy of her scorn.
But those feelings were finally behind her, and now a days all she really wanted to do was the best for her clan in any capacity she could be of use, and for her family to find their way back to the sweet warm place they had been in while Hinata was growing up.
Especially now that their family was expanding. Even auntie Akane, busy enough her feet barely touched the ground, had found someone for herself. Takeshi was young, so his parents wanted to wait a few more years before trying for a brother or sister. But it was only a matter of time-she even thought that if Uncle Akira found anyone for himself she'd simply move in with the rest of the family.
It was after a wonderful training session where she'd finally found a work around for a new wire trick that had been giving her trouble that Hinata came home to find uncle Naoya waiting for her.
"Hurry up," her uncle had said, running off-curt in a way he usually wasn't, especially not with the twins. It made her chase him immediately-finding herself outside of the shrine where the Uchiha clan made its announcements for the clan at large these days. She wasn't the only one. There were plenty of shinobi gathered around an old woman. It took Hinata a moment to place her-but she was of the cat summoning lineage.
"I don't have much time left," the old, gray haired woman announced, she was clearly a former Kunochi, as the left side of her face was scarred with pockmarks, her spine was straight, even if Hinata was sure she wasn't the only warrior who had noticed the way her legs trembled with what must of been pain.
Everyone went silent-respectful of the warrior and what was to come, Hinata didn't need much time to put it together. It had happened once before, with the crow contract-Hinata had been too young to go, but the clan had spoken of nothing else for weeks afterwards.
Summons largely stuck to their lineages, but it wasn't unheard of for a lineage to die out. Before the tie with the clan was completely severed, the last member that could summon would do so in order to let the Summon animal pick a new partner or two. Depending on how much influence and pull the partner had with the summon in question. It was expected for the summoner to do their best and try to convince the summons to find as many other Uchiha as worthy of the contract. Legend told of a man who had managed to pass on a contract to five other Uchiha-although the clan argued viciously over whether it was the cat or crow summons that treated with their clan that had been so generous.
The old woman, Fusa, the last of the cat summoners of Hinata was remembering her lineage correctly, had had two sons-neither of which had made it to see Konoha, or had left her any grandchildren. If the clan had still been at war when her last son had died she wouldn't have had such a long grace period for passing on the contract.
"This is Sekitan," Fusa continued, pointing at a black cat with a splash of white on its nose, and then gestures to another that was midnight black, " And this is Kuroi. They have both graciously agreed to select a summoner to sign the contract."
The crowd, mostly shinobi, and lineage ones still-of course they had gotten information ahead of time and chose their best representatives, went still in anticipation. It was the kind of thing Auntie Akane hated the most-pure nepotism. Those in power gaining more through negligible effort when those at the bottom of their clan didn't even have a chance at the opportunity.
Those like her, a non lineage Kunochi without their kekkei genkai, might just be lucky enough to have a senior warrior in the know, like her Uncle Naoya, inform them in time. But of course, there weren't many like her at all.
It didn't seem to matter, as the cats trotted forward, completely unhurried and taking their time to examine their potential partners.
When Sekitan-the cat with the splash of white on its nose stood before her, Hinata felt genuinely nauseous just from nerves. So she couldn't quite believe it when the cat met her eyes and asked for her name.
"H-Hinata Uchiha," She'd barely managed to stutter out.
"Hinata," Sekitan had repeated, "I chose you as my summoner.
It felt a little bit like a genjutsu was being cast on someone else and Hinata was just observing the effects. She saw herself tremble and babble her agreement and gratitude. Saw the crowd part for her the same way they had for the Uchiha Kuroi had chosen.
But she still didn't quite believe it even as she was signing the cat contract and biting her thumb to draw blood had hurt.
X
Look at that-Hinata finally has a reason of her very own to feel special. Also she can now be the head of her very own lineage cuz her kids are expected to sign the Cat contract. I bet no one saw that coming, like I bet none of y'all thought about restricted bloodlines, huh? I like the idea that thousands of years of selective clan breeding for Sharingan optimization had results that were not net positive as well as the existence of the lineages where the breeding did work as intended.
Also way back when I wrote Aikos chapter someone was like Aiko is our asexual icon, and it made me laugh and think close but no cigar-Naoya was secretly our Asexual Icon all along! As for wether Akira has succeeded or is simply shooting his shot, I'll let your fertile imaginations decide ;)
I had a great time writing this chapter, and even with the family unhappiness-this was still a relatively light and happy chapter. This is the last one for a bit because this fic is still largely war is hell, and as always I like to warn y'all ahead of time that y'all may not be my biggest fans for the next chapter headed your way.