Chapter 2

"You're involved with Uzumaki-san?" Neji asked as they walked through the streets of Konoha back towards the Hyuuga house.

"Yes," she said quietly, not so much because she was embarrassed as because the streets were so quiet at this time of night. All the houses had their curtains drawn and only the streetlights illuminated their way. Konoha was fast asleep, and Hinata didn't want to wake it.

Neji was silent for a while. He had known about his cousin's crush on the boy for quite a while; a person would have to be blind not to notice. However, it hadn't occurred to him that the two might actually develop a relationship during the time they were away. Teammates were teammates, comrades in arms, not someone to get involved with. Romance should be saved for when they were older and ready to settle down.

The eldest child of the branch family had spent many years of his life hating the head family only to find that his father had found his honor in dying to protect the clan. It had taken years of training with Hiashi and a great deal of growing up to understand the way things were. He still wished things were different, but he had found a purpose in the way things were. He was supposed to protect Hinata no matter what. That was what he had decided.

And he wasn't sure where his involvement was needed when it came to Hinata's dating the loudmouth ninja. He either needed to protect her from the boy or protect her from her father.

"Does he treat you well?" he asked solemnly.

There probably wasn't a question that Neji could have asked that would have shocked Hinata more. Why on earth was he asking her that?

"Um, yes, Neji-nii-san, he treats me very well," she replied.

Neji was impressed by the fact that Hinata was able to look him straight in the eyes while she said this. Normally, personal admissions of any kind were delivered to the ground about a foot in front of her feet. At least that was what would have been normal three years ago.

Her eyes slid forward again and they continued walking down the street. "Your father will not be pleased with you being involved with Uzumaki," he said, almost offhandedly.

Hinata nodded. "I know."

"You don't view your father's opinion as important."

There was a steely determination in her eyes when she looked back up at him. "Of course I consider his opinion important. He's my father. But I'm not going to let his opinion rule everything I do."

Her statement knocked Neji back a bit. He was beginning to think that what was normal for Hinata had changed a lot over the last three years.

They turned a corner and headed towards the front of the Hyuuga manor. She forced her breath to slow as they walked past the white wall of the estate, looking up at the green tile roof. They reached the gatehouse and Neji slid the door open, waiting until Hinata had passed through to close the door behind them. Removing her backpack, she sat down on one of the benches, undid the clips on her sandals and took of her coat. Stowing each in its proper spot, she stepped up into the house.

She was unsure if the house had changed at all in the last fifty years, but she was positive it hadn't changed in the last three. It was the same polished wood floor, the same white walls, the same large overhead beams. Backpack in hand, she wandered down the hallway, remembering the details. She stopped as she spotted her sister.

Peaking out from around the corner of one of the halls was Hanabi, long dark hair hanging down into her small, serious face. Hinata stopped and smiled at her. The girls had never been particularly close. It wasn't that they didn't get along, but once Hiashi had stopped training Hinata and sent her to the academy, all of his focus had shifted to Hanabi, and the girl had rarely left his side. Hinata had been dismissed as just another Hyuuga shinobi, and not a terribly good one at that, while Hanabi had become the prodigal daughter.

Hanabi was very quiet, very serious, and very good at taijutsu.

Hinata offered her a warm smile, but Hanabi simply stepped out from around the corner and offered her a small, "Onee-chan, it is good to see you again."

She fought to keep her smile from falling. "It is good to see you too, Hanabi-chan. You've grown a great deal since I saw you last."

The younger girl was taller, however she remained a little on the gaunt side with a tinge of a haunted look about her. She was twelve now, but she looked younger. She simply nodded in response, acknowledging the comment, but not really responding to it.

Hinata was about to try again at conversation, when her father stepped around the corner to stand behind Hanabi. "You have returned. Welcome home," he said in his low, monotone voice.

She dropped her bag to bow to Hiashi, face composed, spine straight. "It is good to be home Otousan," she responded formally.

"Put your bag in your room and come sit with me before you go to sleep," he said, turning to walk back down the hall.

Hinata sighed inwardly. It was nearly two in the morning and she had been hoping to postpone interacting much with her father until she was more rested. But what her father said was law, so she offered a soft "yes" and climbed the stairs to her room. It definitely hadn't changed a bit. Her low desk was still sitting in the corner across from the door with its little lamp. Her closet was behind that, and in the center of the opposite wall was a little dresser with a small jewelry box she had inherited from her mother. The last wall was made of doors that slid open to reveal the open courtyard below. It was rather austere, but it was the way things had always been.

For a moment she panicked, wondering where she was going to put all of the stuff she was bringing back from Sora's. She had clothes and jewelry, an entire boxful of scrolls, massive amounts of the dark and smoky tea from the west that she had grown to love. She had dishes and teapots and several pieces of art. There was no way that she could store them all in her room. She shouldn't have brought back so much, but she hadn't been able to resist when she knew she would probably never be visiting the west again.

Perhaps, depending on how big Naruto's house was, she would be able to store some of her things over there.

She dropped her bag into a corner and headed back downstairs.

Kneeling next to the door, she slid it open, stepped inside, and then knelt again to close it. Standing, she walked to where her father was seated, Neji off to one side. There was a cushion waiting for her across from her father and she gracefully lowered herself onto her knees, keeping her spine perfectly straight.

Her father stared at her for a long moment before speaking. "Did the mission go well?" her father asked.

"Yes, Otousan."

"Then you completed all of it successfully?"

She resisted wiping her hands on her pants. "Almost; there was one section we were unable to complete, but the training portion went well."

He gave her a look that clearly stated that he thought she was making excuses. "I trust that you have been practicing your Jyuuken?"

Hinata bit her lower lip and willed her lungs to fill with air. "Considering how basic my taijutsu skills were and that I had no one proficient in the style to teach me, Sora and I decided that it would be better for me to learn her style of fighting, Shina-To-Be, and adjust it to take advantage of my bloodline limit."

There was a deathly silence in the room. Nothing in the room moved, as if it had all been shocked into petrification.

"I see," her father said, his voice low and dark. "Hinata, do you understand your duties as heir to the Hyuuga clan?"

"Yes, Otousan," she said softly.

"Then you understand that you are responsible for the continuation of our clan, whose strength lies in a fighting style that you have abandoned."

"Otousan, with all due respect, I did not abandon Jyuuken. I saw an opportunity to increase my skills and I took it, fully intending to return and resume Jyuuken training." She maintained eye contact with her father the entire time, although she looked more like a deer in the headlights than a confident young woman.

Again, there was silence in the room. It was the first time anyone could remember Hinata contradicting her father, and even if her words were polite and her voice hesitant, it still shocked all of them, including Hinata. She had to keep reminding herself to breathe. "You need to think about what is best for the clan, not what is good for yourself," he said.

Hinata didn't understand how he could do this to her. How all of a sudden could he make her feel like a horrible, selfish failure when she had been trying so hard? She was trying to be the best heir she could be, but she wasn't sure what exactly that meant. She had her own ideas about where she wanted the clan to go, what she wanted it to become. But sitting there on her knees in front of her father, all those dreams seemed wrong, or at least misguided.

"You will stop training in this other style and concentrate on your Jyuuken," her father ordered.

"Yes, Otousan," she found herself saying, despite the fact that she loved her Shino-To-Be style and didn't know how she could give it up.

Suddenly Neji's voice rang out from the side of the room. "I am willing to take charge of Hinata-sama's training," he said.

Hinata looked over at him, startled. Neji was a natural at Jyuuken and years ahead of where she was, so it made some sense that he would train her. However, there was a risk that Hiashi was going to take it as an insult that a member of a branch family thought to train the heir of the house.

Fortunately, her father simply nodded. Apparently, she was already so low in his eyes that it didn't matter to him. "Start immediately," he said.

"Yes, sir," Neji replied with a slight bow.

"Good." He looked back at Hinata. "Do you have anything else you need to tell me?"

Hinata thought about the million stories she had, times she had succeeded, even triumphed. There was so much she wanted to share that it was virtually bursting out of her chest. But her father only wanted to know what she needed to tell him, important facts, not stories.

"Hokage-sama has requested that I participate in the upcoming jounin examination."

Her father's eyes formed into slits. "You are not yet a chuunin."

"I took a test in the west that Hokage-sama says counts as being equivalent. She wants me to at least participate in the fighting."

"No. We do not want a repeat of your chuunin exam," he said firmly.

"But Otousan, it is Hokage's orders and it won't be a repeat-"

"No," he cut her off with an icy tone. "I do not want the leaders of this village to watch you fight."

She closed her eyes and dropped her chin to her chest. He meant he didn't want the leaders of the village to watch her fail.

"I will go to talk to the Hokage tomorrow and have you removed from the testing group. Now, go to your room; you should get some sleep."

She wanted to fight, to press the issue and get him to at least give her a chance. He hadn't seen her fight in three years; he couldn't make a judgment on her fighting abilities when he hadn't seen her in so long.

But once again she found herself unable to take a stand. All of her confidence had drained out of her and without thinking she found herself standing, bowing to her father, and leaving the room to head up to her bedroom.

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Hinata couldn't sleep. She lay awake on her futon in the middle of her room, alternating between lying there with her eyes closed and staring at the ceiling. It was no use; she couldn't stop replaying what her father said in her head.

How was she supposed to move on from here? She didn't know how to hold it together, how to prove to her father that she wasn't someone who should be dismissed.

Sighing, she turned over to look at the clock. It was either way too late or way too early to get up, depending on how you looked at it. But, she didn't have anything else to do, so she rolled out of her futon, flipping her braid over her shoulder. She might as well unpack the little that she had brought with her and maybe go back over some of her notes. She clicked on the small lamp that sat on her desk and slid open her closet door to grab a floor cushion.

Picking up her bag, she started to unload items onto the top of her desk. She had her standard change of clothes, toiletries and blanket all packed towards the top for easy access during travel. But at the bottom of the bag were the things that she valued most and therefore did not want to risk leaving behind for a few weeks.

She was about to start unloading them when there was a soft knock on her door.

"Come in," she said quietly, not wanting to wake the rest of the house.

The door slid open a little and Hinata could see Hanabi's white eyes reflecting in the low light. The girl was wearing a black yukata, her feet bare, her hair hanging in her face, one section running down the side of her nose framing her eye. She looked like a dark ghost standing at the edge of the light.

"Hello," Hinata said in a soft voice, covering just how startled she was with a soft smile.

"I couldn't sleep and I saw your light on," Hanabi said solemnly.

Hinata gave her what she hoped was an encouraging smile. "I couldn't sleep either. Would you like to come in?"

Slowly, Hanabi pushed the door open a little wider and slid through the narrow opening. Closing it silently behind her, she waited while Hinata got up to pull another cushion out of the closet. Hanabi knelt carefully on the cushion, her legs tucked up underneath her.

Hanabi didn't say anything and Hinata didn't know quite what to do, so she carefully started to pull things out of her backpack. There were two leather-bound books, a couple of flat packages wrapped in cloth, a roll of soft dark leather tied with a leather thong, and something in a long slim case.

"What's all that?" Hanabi asked somberly.

Hinata looked up, startled. "These? Ummm, well…" she smiled lightly. "These are the things I thought were most important to have with me. Sora is sending the rest of my things later on, but these things I didn't want to be without."

Hanabi looked at her, puzzled. "What are they?"

"Well, these," she said unwrapping the flat package, "are pictures. There's me, Naruto, and Sora, our teacher." She handed her sister a small, framed picture of the three of them in their pajamas sitting on the kitchen counter. It was the first picture of the three of them they had ever taken together and was still one of her favorites. Next came a slightly larger one. "And then here is just Naruto and I a few years later." This one had been taken while they were living with the Kaze during something called the festival of colors. They both were both dressed up in the showy dress clothes of the west, him in a deep orange pants suit and her in a dark blue-green langha.

"And then of course," she said, handing her sister the last picture, "there's you, me, Otousan and Okaasan." It was one of the few they had of all four of them, taken just after Hanabi was born. It was a formal picture, although it didn't hold the rigidity that future family portraits would have. Hinata's mother was sitting in a chair, holding Hanabi in her arms with a slight smile on her face. Hinata, dressed in a small kimono, was standing next to her mother's knee, one small fist held to her mouth. Their father stood behind the chair with his hands on their mother's shoulders, looking fiercely into the camera. Growing up, both girls had spent hours looking at the picture, trying to remember a past they couldn't quite grasp.

Hanabi took in a halting breath and then looked back up at her sister. "And the other things?" she asked hesitantly.

Hinata handed her one of the books. "This is just another photo album. More pictures of the three of us. This," she said, tapping on the book, "is just full of notes." Very important notes, but notes nonetheless. It wasn't something she was willing to share with Hanabi yet.

The younger girl flipped through the pages of the photo album briefly before settling on a page. "Who's that?" she asked, pointing at a photo.

Hinata leaned over to look. "That's Sora again, same woman as the one in the pink bathrobe in the other picture, just a different hairstyle. She's generally kind of…ummm," she paused trying to find a polite way to describe Sora. "Fashion forward."

Hanabi looked at her incredulously. Hinata had to admit it wasn't one of Sora's better outfits. It was while she still had her candy cane hair and she was wearing her modified version of the Kaze uniform with a miniskirt instead of pants paired with a top that looked like it was just barely covering the bottoms of her breasts. And of course she had on her boots.

They stared at the photo for a few seconds longer before Hanabi closed the book and set it aside. Hinata reached and picked up the long skinny case.

"This," she said, opening the box and taking out the object inside, "Is a battle fan." She opened it in one hand with a sharp crack. "My friend Shivani gave it to me when I left the Kaze. The spokes are made out of steel, see?" Hinata turned the fan over, showing her sister the pointed metal strips that made up the body of the fan. "The tips would be poisoned and while the fan is open you can slice your opponent. Closed, the fan can be used to block or hit. Kaze ladies used to carry them to fancy dress parties so no one would know they were armed."

"Does it work?" Hanabi asked, clearly not impressed. She remembered the Suna nin who fought with a fan, but that one had been enormous. This looked like a regular folding fan.

"Well, I'm not very good with it, but Shivani is amazing. She fights with two, one in each hand, and the damage she can inflict is unbelievable. I'd never use them as anything other than a last resort though." Hinata closed the fan with a snap of her wrist and placed it back in its case. "Shivani sent a present for you too, but it's with the rest of my things that Sora is sending in a few days."

"Really?" Hanabi asked with wide eyes.

Hinata smiled. "She said you sounded sweet." Shivani also said that Hanabi would probably be jealous of all the cool things her older sister had done, but Hinata omitted that part. Shivani had a whole talk on why being a little sister sucked which she was apt to spew out at any second.

Hanabi showed almost no signs of hearing the compliment, but Hinata thought that she could detect a faint blush dusting her cheeks. "What's the roll of leather?" Hanabi asked, pointing.

With a smile, Hinata picked up the dark brown suede and carefully undid the tie. "The actual case Sora had made for me, but the important part is inside." She unrolled the leather and then flipped over the top flap. Hanabi gasped softly and Hinata smiled. "These are all of the hair sticks that Naruto has given me over the past year and half."

There were at least two-dozen pairs, made out of every possible material and in all the colors of the rainbow. They ranged from simple and practical to long and ornate. All in all they were staggeringly beautiful. Hinata smiled at them fondly. "He bought the first pair because I mentioned cutting my hair. Then I said I thought they were too nice for everyday use and he bought me more casual ones. By the time he finally worked up his courage to tell me that he liked my hair long, he'd already bought me a dozen pairs. After that, I think he just never got out of the habit."

"They're beautiful," Hanabi whispered softly running her fingers over the tops of the sticks. Other than their formal kimonos, neither she nor Hinata had grown up with pretty things to wear. The Hyuuga household was always rather austere, and their training clothes and everyday outfits were just about all the girls had.

Hinata smiled as her sister delicately brushed her long straight hair out of her eyes and looked longingly at the hair ornaments. "Do you want to try a pair?" she asked.

Hanabi looked up with wide eyes. "Could I?"

Her smile widened encouragingly as Hinata nodded. "Of course, just pick a pair."

It took several minutes of long study before Hanabi decided on a pair made of black lacquered wood topped with large red glass beads, flecked with gold and a few stands of gold beads dangling from the ends. Turning her sister around, Hinata grabbed her brush off the table and started to comb Hanabi's hair.

It amazed Hinata how much more at ease she was around Hanabi now. Her little sister had always been so much better at everything than she was that it was impossible not to be at least a little envious. They had never really functioned as sisters before, not in the traditional older sibling/younger sibling roles. But all of her time spent with Miki and the children of the Kaze, patching up Naruto's little gang of hellions, and hanging out with the other girls, made her feel more nurturing then she had before.

Hinata pulled Hanabi's hair back into a tail at the base of her neck, then twisted it up and tucked the end inside the twist. Holding it in place with one hand, she inserted one of the sticks with the other, pushing through the twist and then flipping it over and back through the hair next to Hanabi's scalp. Then she added the second one and then stood to grab a hand mirror out of her closet. Hanabi patted her hair nervously as Hinata returned and handed her the mirror over her shoulder.

Hanabi sighed softly as she looked at herself in the mirror and tilted her head so that she could see the deep red beads against her dark hair. It had been a long time since she put her hair up in anything other than a ponytail for training. She smiled at her reflection in the mirror as she touched the beads and then at the reflection of her sister over her shoulder.

"Would you like to try another pair?" Hinata asked with a smile.

"Sure," Hanabi said with a soft giggle. She turned back to look at the ornaments again.

The door to Hinata's room slid open. "What are you doing up so late?" their father asked from the doorway.

"Umm, neither of us could sleep, so-" Hanabi started.

"You have training tomorrow morning, Hanabi. You should be in bed." His voice was gentle but firm, leaving no room for arguments.

"Yes, Otousan," she said quietly, reaching up to pull the two hair sticks out, her hair tumbling back down into her face. "Thank you, Onee-chan," she said standing up and handing the sticks back to Hinata. She bowed formally to her sister and father and then scurried out the door, slipping out of Hinata's grasp.

"Please refrain from interfering with your sister's rest," Hiashi said calmly. "She is training very hard and needs her sleep."

"She saw my light was on and came in, Otousan, I-"

"Nevertheless, the responsible, intelligent thing to do would have been to send her back to bed. I would prefer if the bad habits you have acquired did not rub off on her." There was nothing harsh about his voice, but it cut her all the same. It was the patronizing voice he had used to speak to her since she was a toddler.

"Yes, Otousan" she said quietly.

He nodded his head at her and closed the door.

Hinata clutched the skirt of her yukata in her hands. She would not cry.

Jordan's Notes: A few more random facts.

1. The first fanfic I ever read was a lemon for Tenchi Muyo. (I had no idea what a fanfic OR a lemon was.)

2. I'm 6'3" and wear size 13 Men's shoes. (Big hands and big feet... means big shoes and big gloves. )

3. I attended a private school from Kindergarten to Third Grade.

4. I was born in Orange County, California.

5. I, by choice, never had sex while in high school.

6. I, also by choice, have never tried any illegal drugs, (including Marijuana).

7. The first time I ever had alcohol, it was completely legal despite the fact that I was 19, because I was in Tokyo, Japan.

8. I spent almost two years working as a freelance journalist in the video game industry and went to E3 (before it was changed) and the Tokyo Game Show.

9. I play the guitar, and own an Epiphone Les Paul.

10. I have only ever told one person who wasn't a family member I love them... (Before you ask, we're not together anymore...)

I think I'll probably add another 10 facts about me at the end of chapter 3. I think this is a good way to help bridge the gap between Wren as the author to me as the author. :)