Despite the establishment of Hidden Villages bringing them in close proximity, and as a result encouraging interaction and even romance, intermarriage between clans remains somewhat of a rare occurrence. Most clans choose to have their members marry within established clan social traditions, taking landless civilians as husbands/wives, or both. In the Land of Fire, for example, the Uchiha clan has a well-documented marriage law within its family that prevents males from taking non-Uchihas for wives; Uchiha women, however, may marry whomever they wish, Uchiha or otherwise. […] A similar rule exists amongst the Yuuhi clan, though reversed: it is believed that the Yuuhi clan proclivity for genjutsu is passed on by the father, and therefore females must marry other Yuuhi for the clan lineage to be preserved. This restriction is absent for Yuuhi males.

[…] One clan that stands out amongst all others in terms of marriage law is the Hyuuga. While other clans have evolved systems of law regarding the admission of non-clan members into their clans for the purpose of marriage, almost exclusively for the preservation of bloodlines, the Hyuuga clan stands apart in that it seems to have developed a form of functional incest, where no two members of the clan are not related to each other. This seems to have been facilitated by the establishment of a Main family and a Branch family, the members of which are usually never closer than first or second cousins. Hyuuga clan members are customarily assigned a spouse from an opposite family when they come of age; should a marriage be requested between two members of the same family, however, the clan genealogy must be consulted, so as to prevent too much similarity in blood. […] The reason for this somewhat militant form of marriage law is thought to be a particularly aggressive form of bloodline preservation; certainly, there are no recorded instances of non-Hyuuga/Hyuuga marriages in any sort of written history, but even then, there are no birth records nor medical documentation of half-Hyuuga offspring, unlike other well-established clans, such as the Uchiha, who keep track of children born out of wedlock or extramarital affairs, regardless of whether or not the child develops a Sharingan later in life.

[…] Of course, given how relatively young Hidden Villages are, it remains to be seen whether these social customs will evolve with time, or will remain in place due to necessity.

- Excerpts from an anthropological report detailing marriage laws across the greater continent; 65 BU

ACT 12

LOST

Chapter 103 - Cockroach Wasp

Takeru was the one that answered the door, when the Hyuuga messenger came, the evening after the tournament. This wasn't exactly his choice, but given that his mother was taking a nap, exhausted, on the couch, and everyone else in the family seemed to be either emotionally compromised or Nadeshiko, this became his responsibility.

"Excuse me, but are Uchiha Sasuke and Uchiha Hajime at home?" the messenger asked. He was dressed in a teal kimono, with the sleeves and hem pulled up with white strips of cloth. A runner's clothes.

Takeru's eyebrows shifted. "They are home, but I doubt they're up to receiving any visitors at this particular moment."

"I'm not here to visit," the Hyuuga replied. "They have been summoned by the head of my clan to go speak with her. It's very urgent."

"How urgent," Takeru replied.

"I don't think that's for either of us to decide," the Hyuuga said, his already-flat expression turning sour. "All I know is that the head of my clan has requested an audience with them this evening and I'm to collect them."

"Awfully last-minute," Takeru said.

A subtle, dry huff. "Are they not at home?"

Takeru sighed. "Let me go look. But don't blame me if they don't want to go with you."

"Neither of them have a choice in the matter. She's requested to see them tonight. May I remind you, Uchiha, that she is the head of our clan? She holds a fair amount of power in this city and will likely take more… forceful measures if I'm not enough."

Takeru scoffed. "Fine, whatever. Just wait a moment." He went down the hallway, to his father's room first, and slid the door open slightly.

Sasuke was laying on his back, on the bed. The lights were off.

"Father."

Sasuke didn't respond, but his eyes glimmered red in the darkness where he turned his head.

"There's a messenger from the Hyuuga clan to see us. He says the head of his clan wants to meet with you tonight. And he means tonight."

"Why."

"I have no idea. Then again, that Hyuuga clan leader isn't the most reasonable woman, I hear." Takeru leaned against the door, slightly. "Do you suppose you should see what she wants before she declares war on our house?"

Sasuke grumbled. "Should say what she wants if it's so urgent."

"Not everyone is as eloquent as you, Father. Do you need some time to prepare?"

"I'll be right out." Sasuke began to sit up, so Takeru closed the door and began upstairs, and to the door at the end of the hallway.

Hajime was sitting upright on his bed, reading, with Karai curled up against his chest. She was asleep, and breathing lightly.

"Oh, how cute," Takeru said, his voice curling with unfitting sugar.

"What do you want, Takeru." Hajime kept his voice soft.

"You and Father have been summoned for an audience with the Hyuuga clan head tonight, and there's someone to get you."

Hajime paused. "What for?"

"Hell if I know. You must have done something to piss them off. Either way, it sounded pretty urgent."

Hajime swallowed, setting his mouth into a firm, neutral expression.

(His guard against the exponential increase in his heart rate.)

He put the book down on his bedside table, and carefully picked himself out from under Karai, leaving her asleep on top of the covers.

Takeru watched him from the top of the stairs as Hajime entered the foyer. Sasuke was putting on his shoes, and his expression only wrinkled when he saw Hajime reaching for his boots as well.

"Where are you going," he asked.

"…with you? Weren't we both summoned?" Hajime said.

"I wasn't aware."

"Our clan head desires to speak with both of you, so," the Hyuuga said.

Hajime glanced annoyedly up at Takeru, who snickered with his hand over his mouth.

"Fine. Let's get this over with," Sasuke said.

The three of them left, without any further words.

They walked in a line, heads facing backs. Their steps were slow, and measured.

(The Hyuuga messenger felt uncomfortable and ill at ease. He knew that the clan head was prone to irrational, and sometimes violent, whims. And the suddenness of this request was not a good sign.)

(Sasuke felt annoyed, and suspicious.)

(Hajime felt terrified.)

The entire way over, all Hajime could think of was a reason why the Hyuuga clan would want to talk to him and his father, but not his mother.

It had to have been about Ninako, it had to, it had to have been, they must have found out…

…but why would they bring his father into this? And, again, not his mother? Surely both parents would be involved if it were a matter of them being together.

Maybe it was something else.

He hoped it was something else.

He would give anything for it to be something else.

Anything.

There was no relief; they walked on, closer and closer, their shadows forming columns to the east. The sun was just beginning to set over the trees and traditional residences of the area. It was a radiant, yellow-orange sunset, like the glow of burning buildings in the distance.

The gate of the Hyuuga compound loomed like a gallows, when they reached it.

They went through. The messenger led them through the maze of houses into one of the many sliding-door buildings, where they took off their shoes and were instructed to wait.

Seconds passed like minutes passed like hours.

Hajime kept his fingers folded tightly into his palms. His nails made white indentations into the skin.

Sasuke blinked slowly, saying nothing, doing nothing.

And they were called in.

The meeting room was a great, tatami-floored thing. Framed calligraphy hung on the back wall: the kanji read "Forever Pure" and "Lineage of the Sun." It was bare, otherwise, and smelled very clean.

At the center sat Hyuuga Hanabi, the head of the clan. Her kimono was firmly-fitted, and the color of charcoal, of ashes.

Hajime immediately feared her. He had heard enough about her from Ninako to dislike her, but actually seeing her up close was like the difference between reading about a wolf and staring one down in the middle of the forest.

Like Ninako had told him, there was absolutely no kindness in her eyes.

Her sister Hinata was with her, at her right side. She had her hands in her lap, and her moon-like eyes were downcast.

To Hanabi's left, however, was Ninako's father, a man named Neji. Hajime had met him enough times to recognize him; Ninako had introduced him, once, when they ran into each other at a festival. He had his forehead covered, just like his daughter, and his expression was severe.

Hajime got a horrible feeling in his stomach.

Oh, no, this was going to be about her, wasn't it. He tried not to wince; he couldn't show anything, couldn't betray anything.

Ninako herself wasn't in the room with them, though.

But if she wasn't, then why was Hajime there? Why her father?

But before Hajime's thoughts could explode out of his mouth, his father spoke.

"I expect you'll tell me why you've called me here on such short notice, Hyuuga."

Hanabi, like his father, dispensed with formalities and got right to the point. "I trust you are aware of the relationship that your son, Uchiha Hajime, has with one of our Branch members, Hyuuga Ninako?"

"I know that they're on a team together. So far as I know, that is the extent of their relationship." And Sasuke's eyes slid sideways, with those words, slicing into Hajime's already-twisted stomach,

"Hm." Hanabi tight expression did not change. "Then I assume it will come as a surprise to you that their relationship has gone well beyond that of a working one."

Sasuke's eyebrows lowered further, and Hajime, now praying for death with each passing second, could see his hands tightening on his knees.

"Is that so," he said. "Well, I personally do not approve of anything beyond friendship, and I expect that your clan feels the same, Hyuuga."

Hajime resisted every urge to close his eyes, but he kept them fixed on the floor instead. He could feel his father's glare on him, anyways.

Ninako, Ninako, he was so sorry, Ninako.

"Is that really all you wanted to tell me, however?" Sasuke continued. "Because I don't feel it's exactly important enough for me to be dragged away from my family for the sake of terminating a silly little relationship between children."

Hajime saw something shift in his peripheral vision, and he glanced up to see that Hinata's head had lowered further, and Ninako's father was trembling with what appeared to be anger.

"Well, Uchiha Sasuke, things tend to get fairly serious when these… silly little relationships produce children."

The silence seemed to stretch like skin pulled from underneath a fingernail.

"…what exactly are you saying, Hyuuga," Sasuke finally said.

"Hyuuga Ninako is pregnant, Uchiha Sasuke. And your son, Hajime, is responsible for her condition. I thought to meet with you about what is to be done about it, seeing as you are the head of your clan."

Sasuke was silent for far too long.

"I was not aware of this," he finally said.

And neither was Hajime.

Her clan had found out about them.

Because she was… pregnant?

That was what all this was about?

"I didn't expect you to," Hanabi replied, coolly. "I don't believe that this makes any difference, however. Whether or not you are prepared for it, our mutual problem must be dealt with."

Why hadn't she told him?

"One of our options is for your family to take responsibility," Hanabi continued. "It will go into Konoha's records as a motherless Uchiha; my clan cannot and will not acknowledge its existence in any way, shape, or form, otherwise."

Was this why she had hesitated?

"In addition, Hyuuga Ninako will be forbidden from working with, meeting, or even contacting your son, if that is any consolation, Uchiha Sasuke," Hanabi said. "We want to ensure that there are no further accidents."

Was this why she had even wanted to elope in the first place?

To run away?

To keep this from happening?

"And what if I refuse to take in this… thing." Sasuke's disgust was rough and plain in his throat.

"We'll have it killed, of course," Hanabi replied. Her lip curled, slightly. "My clan tries to prevent… mistakes like this from coming into existence. We are very good at getting rid of them when we fail."

Hajime felt like his heart had exploded, blood leaking into his chest and tightening where it dried.

"Then why are you even asking me about this," Sasuke said. "I think the solution is obvious here."

Oh Ninako, why hadn't she said anything?!

Hajime's fingers ached, begging to bury themselves in his hairline, to seize his father, to seize Hyuuga Hanabi, and demand to know why he had no say in what was to become of his own…

…his…

…his child.

(The fact hit him bluntly, there.)

He… he had a child…!

But Hajime was still, locked into place by ceremony and the sheer force of personality that both his father and Hanabi possessed.

And Hanabi spoke again, her face tightening. "Hyuuga law requires that, in… certain circumstances, with regard to situations such as ours, that I must confer with the head of the non-Hyuuga parent's clan to discuss the possibility of adoption as a method of disposal. This has nothing to do with the fact that Uchiha Hajime happens to be your son, Uchiha Sasuke, but simply-"

"He is not my son."

And Sasuke stood up, turned around, and left.

Leaving Hajime alone.

For a while, Hajime was still.

His brain struggling, and failing, to process the last few minutes, and everything within it.

He started to hyperventilate.

The three Hyuuga across from him stared. None of them seemed comfortable.

Ninako's father was taut with rage; Hinata seemed almost on the verge of tears.

And Hanabi, whose distance and calmness had remained untouched the entire time, had a crack of sympathy in her mouth.

"Puh-please don't… don't decide anything yet, I, I have to… go speak with my father, excuse me…!"

And Hajime stumbled to his feet and ran out of the room, his throat dry and his heart galloping.

He found his father barely outside of the Hyuuga gate, storming away at a furious walking pace.

Hajime managed to catch up. "DAD! Dad, WAIT!"

Sasuke said nothing.

"Dad, where are you GOING? Come BACK!"

"Don't talk to me." Sasuke's hands were swinging, violently, at his sides.

"No, Dad—Dad, seriously, please, let me explain!"

"There's nothing for you to explain."

Hajime attempted to dash ahead of him, but Sasuke just pushed him aside.

"Dad, I—I honestly had no idea that this had even—I never meant for this to happen, I—Dad, stop, stop and just—DAD, LOOK at me!"

But Sasuke continued walking on, his body resisting every weak cling, every attempted step ahead of him.

"When we get home, you are packing your things, and you are getting out of my house. I don't care where you go."

His voice was low, and quiet, and very, very dangerous.

Hajime's breaths became even shallower, even more frenzied.

"What? Dad, no, you can't be serious, you—please, Dad, I had no idea, you have to just—DAMN it Dad, will you just LOOK at me, PLEASE!"

Hajime grabbed Sasuke's shoulder, every scrap of strength concentrated in his hand.

And Sasuke turned around, his eyes spinning, the terrifying atom-fractal of his Mangekyou whirling across his pupils.

"Don't. Touch me."

Hajime couldn't breathe. His heart was beating so fast he could feel it in his hands.

"You are filth. And what you have done is a betrayal of everything I have worked for, everything I have sacrificed so that my clan might survive. You aren't fit to even speak to me. Just looking at you disgusts me…"

And Sasuke turned around, and kept walking.

The hand that had touched Sasuke's shoulder almost felt like it was burning.

Not from any technique or illusion, no.

From rage.

Years and years of learning how to distance himself from this man, from all the pain he inflicted on Hajime, on everyone around him, so that anger would not poison his mind and his reasoning and his mood.

Well, there it was.

When Hajime next ran forward, it was to punch Sasuke square in the face.

He missed, of course. But that didn't stop Sasuke from returning the favor.

Their fight continued well away from the Hyuuga compound, and into the more residential areas of Konoha.

Lightning crackled from within the dust clouds, fists connected with skin and bruised, fire blossomed and burned.

The brawl left behind a trail of blood.

Most of it was Hajime's. Without his brush and ink he wasn't much of a match for Sasuke.

Bystanders screamed and ducked out of the way, patting out the fires that were left behind and calling for help as the tangle of destruction moved down the streets, the men chasing and grabbing and throwing each other further and further.

By the time chuunin guards made it to the longest-lasting scene of the fight, Sasuke had tired of the bullshit, and disappeared, leaving Hajime disheveled and bleeding.

Of course, he resisted detainment. "No, I can't—I can't answer your questions, I have to go home, I have to—damn it, let me go, I can't!"

With a desperate clutch of energy in his hands, Hajime formed the signs for a flash bang, and threw the orb of chakra to the ground for the temporary cover of blindness it would provide.

He had to get home.

He ran so fast that his muscles screamed, but he ignored them.

His mother and Sasuke were already yelling at each other when Hajime made it to the gate.

And there was a pile of Hajime's clothes and possessions on the front step.

They had been thrown from the door.

Oh, hell.

Ino was stumbling down the stairs when Hajime entered the foyer. "Hajime! There you are—what in the world is going on?"

Hajime was still struggling to catch his breath, leaning against the foyer closet, his chest dry and crackling. His mouth stung from a split lip.

Ino came closer, and her cold hands touched his face. "Oh, no, you're bleeding—Hajime, please, what happened, your father just came home and he's furious and he says it's to do with you but he won't say why-"

A tumble of books went thumping down the stairs. Sasuke had kicked them out of his way; he was carrying another armful of Hajime's clothes.

"Mom, I'm… Mom, I'm so sorry…" Hajime's head hurt too much.

"Get the fuck out of my way." Sasuke pushed his way between them, and threw the clothes out the door. Black shirts and pants crumpled into heaps on the ground.

"Sasuke, PLEASE, what is going on here?" Ino pulled on his shirt to try and stop him, before he could go back up the stairs. "What did Hajime DO?"

Sasuke wheeled around. "What did he do? What did he DO?!" His voice was roughening. "This worthless piece of shit went behind my back and undermined everything I've ever WORKED FOR. Oh, not only was he sleeping with his teammates, but he got that Hyuuga PREGNANT."

"That Hyuuga…?" Ino's voice got very quiet, and she pressed her knuckles against her lips. "Oh, Hajime, you don't mean that Ninako is…?"

And Sasuke, who had begun up the stairs again, muttering in frustration, turned back around.

"You knew about this."

Ino immediately covered her mouth. She shook her head.

But Sasuke was coming back down the stairs again. "You KNEW about this!"

Ino was waving her hands in front of her, in a feeble attempt to keep him back. But he still came.

"I, I, I didn't know that she had gotten pregnant, but-!"

Sasuke shoved her against a wall, by her shoulder. "BUT YOU KNEW ABOUT THIS. YOU KNEW THAT HE WAS WITH THAT GIRL!"

Ino's eyes were glassy with fear. "Y-yes! Yes, I knew!"

Sasuke let go of her shoulder, snarling, and stormed back up the stairs again. Ino clutched her injury for a moment, sucking in her breath, before following him.

Hajime, succumbing to his emotional and physical exhaustion, slumped against the closet door, and listened.

"Sasuke, please, stop! Calm down!"

"Calm down? Calm DOWN?" Sasuke scoffed, then inhaled, deeply, to shout, "How the HELL am I supposed to CALM DOWN?! My clan has been VIOLATED!"

"Your clan?" Ino said. "Hajime is my son too, Sasuke!"

"Your child, maybe. But not mine." From the sound of it, Sasuke was ripping ink paintings off of Hajime's bedroom walls. "He's not my son any more."

(Karai had long since abandoned the room, Sasuke shouting her out of it upon his arrival home. She'd taken refuge with Nadeshiko, and was pressed up against her, shivering and crying on her bed.)

(Nadeshiko couldn't bring herself to hold her sister, though, too afraid she'd squeeze too hard in return.)

"Oh shut UP." Ino's voice began to snap. "I'm not going to let you disown your oldest son, Sasuke!"

"Oh, really?" His tone sharpened. "Because, Ino, last I checked, you weren't head of the Uchiha clan. I make the decisions for this house."

Sasuke began back down the hallway, past Inou's room, back down the stairs.

(Inou was hiding at his desk, wondering why his eyes were leaking with tears, hearing all of this.)

"I am the head of this clan."

He was a quarter down the stairs now.

"I decide how things are run in this house."

Halfway, now.

"And I declare that Hajime is no longer an Uchiha, and must therefore leave."

He threw the scrolls out the door and brushed his hands against each other after the act.

"TAKERU!" he barked.

The door to the living room slid open, and Takeru peeked out.

(He'd been listening. Of course.)

(And relishing every moment.)

"Yes, Father?" The remains of a smile were still smeared across his face.

"You are now my heir. I always felt you were more deserving of it, anyways," he added, with a cold glance at Hajime, who was still crumpled against the foyer closet.

But before Takeru could respond, there was Ino.

"YOU CAN'T DO THAT, SASUKE."

Sasuke sighed. "Ino, I have told you before." He sounded merely annoyed, now. "I run this clan, I decide things."

Ino was coming down the stairs, shaking her head. "No, Sasuke. No. You can't do that. Takeru can't be your heir."

"Give me one good reason why." Sasuke had his arms crossed.

And Ino walked right up to him, her shoulders squared, her head pushed forward. "Because he isn't your son."

Everything fell silent.

"…what are you talking about." There was no annoyance present in Sasuke's voice, not any more.

"Oh, what do you think. You mean you never noticed?" Ino said. She laughed, though it was laugh more of bitter disbelief than anything. "Sasuke, after Hajime was born you wouldn't even LOOK at me, much less TOUCH me. I had to go to fucking SHIKAMARU for comfort. He at least made me feel somewhat wanted! And even THEN!"

"…what are you talking about?" Sasuke's face was creased, troubled, confused.

"Are you serious? Takeru isn't YOUR CHILD, Sasuke, he's Shikamaru's! Are you really that stupid?!" Ino's arms flew downward, her face wincing afterwards from the pain in her shoulder. But, still, she continued on. "You honestly haven't suspected anything? For nineteen years, you never even questioned it? He looks nothing LIKE you, for fuck's sake!"

Sasuke blinked a few times, recoiling.

(This was the first time in over twenty years of marriage that he had ever seen his wife truly angry.)

(There were decades of paranoia and fear in that voice, and they pierced his veins and paralyzed him.)

(The things she was saying only made it worse.)

"Takeru. Can't. Be. Your. Heir." Ino's mouth curled with each word. "And I know… you wouldn't choose Karai, or… or her sister." She was starting to run out of breath, and her sentences shivered. "So… let's be rational here. Let's just… calm down and talk this over."

But Sasuke didn't answer, despite her raised hands, dangerously close to his arms. He was looking around, now, his eyes spinning, faces flashing through his mind.

He saw Hajime, by the closet, his head barely raised to look at him. And the boy was very much his son: they had the same angular eyes, and narrow, handsome features. Inou, in Sasuke's memory, was the same; he lacked Hajime's high, Yamanaka cheekbones, and looked even more like his father than his older brother did. And though Karai's features were starting to soften with femininity, she looked so very much like Sasuke, when he was her age.

And with her mother's thick eyelashes, Nadeshiko looked like…

No.

And besides, with her hair loose and grown long, as it was, the illusion of resemblance was gone.

But then he looked at Takeru.

Takeru, whose eyes were small and narrow, whose face was just a little too wide.

Takeru, his bright one, his most beloved.

Did not look like Sasuke at all.

An illusion of resemblance.

Sasuke ripped his eyes away from the boy, standing in the hall with a broken, bewildered expression that he was obviously trying to hide.

And he left the house.

Ino stood, trembling, alone, in the foyer, for a moment, before she took a deep breath in and straightened her back.

"Hajime," she said, approaching her son with a hand on his shoulder and another on his head, "go outside and get your things, and pack whatever isn't dirty into a bag. I'll help your sister."

"What…?" Hajime said.

"Just do as I say, all right?" Ino said. "Everything's going to be okay."

She went up the stairs, and Hajime, in a delicate, half-alive manner, began to gather his rejected possessions from the front yard.

Ino went to Nadeshiko's room next. "Nadeshiko, go help your little brother pack, and then get your own things. We're going to Grandpa's house."

Karai was trying, poorly, to wipe away her tears and compose herself. "Wh-why are we doin' that, Mom…"

"We're just going to stay there for a little while, it'll be fine," Ino replied. "Come on, Karai, I'll help you." She reached out a hand, and Karai took it.

But as Ino ushered Karai into her room, she felt a tap on her shoulder.

Takeru was standing behind her, his face amateurishly molded into a casual expression of mere curiosity.

"Mother, those… things you said to Father. They weren't… true, were they?"

Ino's expression hardened. "Just pack your things, Takeru," she replied, and went into Karai's room.

And Takeru was left alone.