Chapter 144 - Raw Oyster
Hinata's double went to do her duty. She walked across the courtyard and back to the feast hall, where things had carried on as usual, as she expected. Tsuki the midwife she found chatting amicably with other women her age, unworried housewives.
"Tsuki-san?" she said. "I need your help."
Tsuki looked over her shoulder, ending a sentence, and smiled slightly. "Hinata-sama, what might I do for you?"
"I need you to attend to Ninako."
Her smile soured, and her companions held hands to their tightened mouths. "The one having the… half-breed?"
"Yes. I think she's in labor and I want you to assess her."
"Tch. Hinata-sama, you know as well as I do that childbirth takes time. The girl probably won't need me for hours. Can't it wait until the morning, at least?"
Her eyes narrowed. "Do not disobey me, Tsuki-san. When I ask for you to do your duty, you had best obey, regardless of your personal opinion."
The cluster of women huddled in closer, nervously, with Tsuki at the front. "W-Well, um… I'm only saying that, considering the festivities, Hinata-sama, that perhaps it's best to wait…"
"I doubt that Ninako's child will agree with you," she replied. "You will come with me immediately, and you will not leave until your job is done, Tsuki-san."
Tsuki looked uncomfortably back at her friends, who shied away visibly, one of them even batting a hand—"Go, already!"
"Fine," Tsuki said, and she cleared her throat. "Just give me time to gather my supplies and change into something more… practical."
"Quickly," she said, and she watched as Tsuki hustled away and out of the hall.
The double aimed to follow her, to make sure, but before she could leave, Neji caught her. "Hinata, is Ninako okay? What's wrong?"
"Neji…!" She paused, stopped. "She's… in labor, Neji."
"The baby's coming? Now?" She nodded. Neji looked over his shoulder, almost nervously. "Wait for me; I'm going to tell my wife, but I'm going with you."
"You want to be there…?"
"Of course I do…!" Neji made that over-the-shoulder glance again, agitated by his worry. "Please, just one moment…"
She nodded. "Of course. I'll wait for you."
Neji's wife decided, as expected, to stay behind. "I'll… say you had too much to drink and went to bed early, if anyone asks," she said, in seeing him off.
"Thank you, Hasami," Neji said, but she held up her hand.
"Please, just… go," she said. "Be with Ninako."
Tsuki the midwife had already arrived and set up her supplies, when Neji and the double returned. As soon as the double was dismissed, Hinata understood Neji's presence just a little more readily, and smiled kindly at him.
"Dad, what are you doing here…?" Ninako was still leaned up against Hinata's chest, one of her hands clenched into a kimono sleeve.
"I'm here to support you," Neji replied, simply. "I was with your mother when you were born, so it's only right that I be here for my grandchild as well."
Ninako's smile was pained, and she closed her eyes. "Thanks, Dad…"
Neji took his place beside her, and held her hand. "No need to thank me. It's what I'm here for."
The hours that passed after that were slow, and they were painful.
The midwife had determined that Ninako was indeed in labor, and dilating, but that the contractions—though rapid—were weak in comparison, and not doing their work in getting the baby out as well as they could have.
"It'll come out, don't worry," she explained, gruffly. "But we're going to be here awhile."
The pain intensified. Hinata and Neji took turns supporting Ninako as she rocked and winced through the contractions when they came, each of them only leaving her to change into simpler clothes, or to fetch water.
They distracted her, in their own ways. Hinata rubbed her back and stimulated chakra points to ease her pain, and Neji talked to her, mostly about her childhood, of better times than this. "Remember when you had the flu that one year, and you couldn't stop throwing up?"
"Mm…"
"And we brought you to the hospital, and you wanted me to sneak in your favorite book, but it was after visiting hours, so I… dressed up as a nurse to get it to you?"
Hinata chuckled politely, and Ninako leaned against her father's chest. "Yeah, I remember that…"
"Let's hope we don't ever have to do that again, okay?"
"I'll… try not to get sick any time soon, Dad," Ninako replied, a ghost of a smile on her face.
But before long, the pain grew so bad that talking could no longer help.
Ninako sat on her knees, bending into herself whenever her muscles tightened, burying her head into whoever's shoulder or chest was convenient. The midwife began to hang a thick, knotted rope from the rafters, the traditional support for when the time came.
Time stretched into the dark, early hours of the morning, starless and rotted-orange in color.
And just before sunrise, Ninako gasped sharply, her voice rising.
"Ah…! It hurts, it hurts…!" Her breathing grew rapid and shallow. "I-I think it's coming…!"
Tsuki, who'd been watching all this by her prepared towels and tools, got up and positioned herself in front of the girl. "You feel like you need to push?" she said, flatly. Ninako moaned in reply, her mouth tightly closed, and Tsuki sighed. "Pull yourself up and hold the rope, girl, and bear down when you feel like it."
"Here, Ninako, I'll help you…" Hinata, her eyes framed with tired wrinkles, put her arms under Ninako's arms, and pulled her up into a kneeling position. Ninako clutched the rope, desperately, to her chest.
"It, it hurts so much… I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die…" she said, her voice squeezing tight.
"It's okay, Ninako, you're okay," Hinata said softly, rubbing her shoulder. "It's almost over."
Ninako panted, and kept her eyes tightly closed, and pulled against the rope for comfort as the urge to bear down hit her, and she began to push.
Even here, things did not go quickly. At the end of every effort, Ninako gasped and whined for breath, and despite Hinata's encouragement and her father's gentle, now-silent presence, she began to sob.
"Wh-where's Hajime…?" she shuddered, in the tense space between pushes. "I, I want Hajime, he… he should be here…!"
"Ninako, shh, just focus on the baby right now…" Hinata said, quietly, urgently; she did not touch her niece, since by now Ninako tensed up severely at even soothing contact, and it wasn't helping anyone.
"I want Hajime…!" Ninako cried. "I, I want him here…!"
"He's not here, girl, now push again!" Tsuki said; she had her sleeves rolled up, and impatience creased her face.
(She saw the poisonous looks that Neji and Hinata shot at her in reply, but forgot about it in an instant, too preoccupied with the task at hand.)
"I can't, I can't do this…!" Tears were shining in thick tracks down the sides of Ninako's face. "I can't…!"
"Yes, you can, Ninako, you're almost there…" Hinata said.
Ninako's body curled into another contraction, and she screamed in absolute anguish. "Hajime…!"
And something fell out of her.
Hinata quickly moved to catch Ninako and support her as she fell away from the rope, and…
As the midwife pulled it towards her, it was apparent that whatever Ninako had given birth to, it did not look human.
There on the ground before them, not even attached to an umbilical cord, was a wet, sack-shaped lump of flesh, covered here and there with purple-blue veins. It was pale, and the color of white clay. And it was wriggling slightly.
Everyone present stared in horror.
And Ninako took a shuddering, fearful breath, seeing the "child" before her, what she had so desperately been told not to call a "thing", and she fainted.
"Ninako!" Hinata worked quickly at elevating the girl's head and fanning her face. "Ninako, wake up, open your eyes…!"
Neji, meanwhile, was trying to quell the uneasy, almost nauseous feeling in his stomach. His jaw was quivering, and the deepest impulses of his body were telling him to get away.
But he saw the midwife, her face set and disgusted, reach for her tools.
And she began lowering a pair of scissors, point-first, into the soft, wet flesh of the thing.
And a moment later, he had her wrist in his grasp, pulling the scissors away.
"That is my grandchild," he said, the words hot on his tongue, "and regardless of what it looks like, I am not going to let you do anything to it."
She jerked her hand away. "I'm not going to hurt the wretched thing," she replied, almost spitting. "It was born in a sac. This is typical of half-breeds. I need to cut it off."
Neji looked between her, his daughter and Hinata, and the thing on the floor. "You're certain of this?"
"This isn't the first creature I've seen delivered," she said, and pulled at his grip again. "Trust me."
Neji let go, and watched intently as the midwife brought the scissors down again, and dipped the blade into the flesh.
There was a great outpouring of clear liquid, instead of blood. And as she cut more away, the strange, alien shape almost seemed to transform into what was undeniably a human child, squirming and grabbing at the air like any other baby.
"Ninako, wake up…" Hinata resumed her urgent whispers. "Look, it's your baby…"
The midwife made quick and immediate work at fixing a clamp to the cord attached to the baby's stomach, and cutting it, and getting the child wrapped up in a blanket. Though obviously alive, it made not one sound.
"Since the placenta delivered along with the sac, I won't have to wait for the afterbirth," she said, her voice clipped, absolutely no care in her precise movements. "Fortunate for us."
And she got up, with the baby in her arms, and began to leave.
Neji stood and raced after her. "Where are you going?!"
She looked back at them, her expression plain beneath the loose hairs of her bun. "The baby needs to be taken to the Uchiha house, correct? It can't stay here."
"At least give her a little time with it!" Neji said.
"I can't give her that," Tsuki replied.
"Why not?!" Neji's voice was rising. "Surely the clan won't care if it stays here a few more minutes?"
The midwife's eyes darted to Hinata, who was still gently patting Ninako's face, who uncertainly nodded.
"It's not an… issue with the clan," she said. "It's for the girl's sake. If she bonds with it, it'll only worsen the darkness when it hits her, after we take it away. Both of you should understand this."
Neji's voice lessened. "You don't… know that for sure…"
"Tsuki-san, can't you at least wait until she's awake…?" Hinata said. "So she'll at least know what happened and can see you off…"
Tsuki adjusted the baby in her arms, her expression arguing with itself. "I suppose that's fair. But no sooner. Get her awake."
Hinata, with some difficulty, resumed her work at trying to make Ninako come around. And as she whispered and fanned and patted, Neji glowered at the midwife, who held the bundle in her arms as if it were a rotting fish.
Unable to take it any more, he said, "Let me take the child to the Uchihas."
"Excuse me?" she replied.
"I want to make sure it gets there safely."
Tsuki's uncomfortable expression widened. "I'll get it there safely," she said.
"You aren't its grandfather," Neji replied, pointedly. "Besides, I… want to be able to tell my daughter herself. And it'll save you the time."
"Tsuki-san, please," Hinata said, raising her voice away from Ninako.
Her grimace knotting her lips, Tsuki passed the bundle to Neji, and she immediately busied herself with bundling up the mess on the towels and getting it out of sight.
Neji could only barely look at the bundle; he'd seen, briefly, that the child at least looked human, with arms and legs and a head, but its face was only barely visible within the swaddling. It had pale skin, he could see at least, mottled and covered in uneven blotches of pink.
"Don't… don't give it to Hajime…" Ninako finally came to, her breathing still shallow.
"Ninako…!" Hinata pulled her further upright, supporting her. "Ninako, it's okay, the baby's fine…"
But the midwife didn't say anything, keeping to her work.
Ninako tried to pull away from Hinata, but her movements were weak and fragile. "Where is it…? Does he have it yet…?" she said, her voice breathy.
"I have it right here, Ninako," Neji said, softly.
Ninako's eyes were swollen and wet, and desperate. "Dad, don't give it to him…! I can't… I can't let you...!"
"Ninako, the baby's okay, your father's going to take it to Hajime's house now that you're awake…" Hinata hushed, trying to calmly restrain her.
But Ninako pulled away, and stumbled onto her hands and knees. "Daddy, please, don't take it away…!"
Neji swallowed, steeling himself, remembering Tsuki's words, remembering Hanabi and all the pain that the darkness had caused her, had caused his little girl, even now.
"Ninako, I promise, I'll… deliver it safely," he said. "It'll be okay."
"No, stop, you can't…!" Ninako was crying again, tears dripping off of her chin.
"I'm sorry, Ninako."
Neji left, and took the baby with him.
And he tried not to hear Ninako's sobbing intensify, the further he walked away from her room.
In the foyer, he put on his warmest coat, and tucked the bundled baby into the folds of his outer kimono, adding to the support of his arms, and he went out into the cold morning.
The sun had barely begun to rise; weak arms of light were stretching out over the eastern skyline, where the Uchiha house was. A pale dusting of snow had fallen all over everything, sometime in the night, and the wind picked up and scattered the loose flakes into glittering dust when it hit the light.
Neji could feel the weak squirming of the child against his skin, as he walked, and it made him move faster. It was cold out, and he did not want to linger.
The sky had turned silver by the time he made it to the front gate of the Uchiha house; he rang the doorbell, and he waited.
The strange daughter, Nadeshiko, answered him; she wore a bathrobe and a half-open expression.
"Get me Hajime, quickly," Neji said. Nadeshiko nodded, and ducked back in the house, beckoning him with her hand to do the same. But Neji only barely stepped into the foyer, feeling tenseness in his shoulders, his feet unsettled.
Hajime arrived with his mother moments later, carrying the panic of the abruptly-awoken with them. As soon as he saw Neji, his breath quickened.
"What is it, what happened?" he said.
Neji opened his coat, and held the baby out to him. "It was born this morning. I can't stay long."
"This morning-? Wait, how is Ninako?! Is she okay?" Hajime said.
"My daughter is fine. Now, take the child." Neji held his arms out further, stiffening his face.
"Hajime, take it," his mother whispered.
And Hajime, with tender reluctance, put the child into his own arms, and looked back at Neji, his dark eyes wide and lost.
"Good. Take care of it, now," Neji said, and he turned to leave.
"Y-you're not even going to tell me what she named it?" Hajime called out, behind him.
Neji stopped, but he didn't turn around. "She didn't. It's your child, now, not hers."
He had to close his eyes as he passed the gate, hearing the door close behind him. Had to take a few deep breaths.
There was nobody on the streets this early in the morning, save for a tall, cheerful man carrying a sleeping child that wished him a Happy New Year on the road home. Neji was thankful; if anyone were to see him in such a state of agitation, almost near to tears, he didn't know what he would do.
He was composed as he returned to the Hyuuga compound, and kept his head low as he returned to his house, and took off his coat.
He waited outside Ninako's room before entering, however. He could hear that his daughter was still crying.
When he finally opened the door, however long a time later, he found Hinata stroking Ninako's back again. Ninako was on her knees, her face in her hands, rocking back and forth. The midwife and any other evidence of the birth had completely disappeared.
"How did it go…?" Hinata said.
"He… took it in without question," Neji said. He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, Ninako, but I did what I had to do…"
Ninako gasped, a hiccup between sobs. "Wh-why did you… why did you give it to him, still, when it looked like that…?" She sniffed. "He's, he's never going to forgive me…"
"Forgive you…?" Neji said.
"Ninako, the baby was fine, nothing was wrong with it…" Hinata hushed.
"He has to, has to raise that… that thing all alone, and it's all my fault…" Ninako shuddered into another sob, rocking towards her knees. "Y-You couldn't even tell if it was a boy or a girl…"
And there, Neji realized a few things.
He realized that Ninako hadn't begged him, at the end of it all, to keep the baby with her because she wanted to raise it; she just didn't want the boy she loved to have to deal with the child she had created. She didn't want him to have to raise, what was in her eyes, a monster.
He realized that, seeing him leave, she had probably believed the baby to still be a misshapen lump of flesh.
He realized that, even seeing for himself that the child was formed normally, he hadn't even noticed whether it was male or female.
Neji got down on his knees beside Ninako, and he took her hands in his hands, pulling them gently away from her face.
"Ninako," he said, "you had a healthy child, and it's in the hands of people that are going to care for it no matter what. And I'm going to make sure of that. It's going to be okay."
Ninako just sob-gasped in response, tears falling onto her lap, and her fingers laced into Neji's.
So Neji pulled her in towards him, pressing her head against his heart, supporting her back with his arm, cradling her like an infant.
"It's going to be okay, Ninako," he said, quietly, rocking back and forth, stroking her forehead. "It's going to be okay."
He stayed with her this way, rocking her and holding her, until she had cried herself to sleep. His wife had long since arrived back home and gone to sleep, he could tell, and he and sent Hinata to get some rest in the room he'd prepared for her in his house, in the meantime.
And Neji made a vow, after he laid his daughter into her futon, keeping watch over her even as sleep deprivation gripped his head with hollow fingers.
If his daughter couldn't see her child, he would compensate. He would learn the child's name, whether it was her son or her daughter, and he would make sure that whomever she talked to Outside was able to tell her everything she wanted to know.
But in the weeks that passed after the birth, Ninako made it clear that she didn't want to know anything about her child.