Dreamcatcher

By Airyo

The Breakthrough - 2

"What are you doing?" The Head of the Branch family's voice cut through Hinata's concentration like a blade. She spun around, staring at Tsuru as the intimidating woman crossed her arms and scowled.

"I'm finishing up the dinner menu," Hinata explained. Tsuru scoffed and pointed to the door.

"Out."

"But I-" Hinata began to protest, but Tsuru leveled her with a glare.

"Out." At the confused hurt in Hinata's eyes, the older woman's stern expression softened. "You should be training. It was selfish of me to try to keep my best assistant, but I can't keep you from your duties any longer."

Hinata understood. It was kinder to kick out her rather than try to let her off gradually. But before she stepped out the door, she turned and bowed to Tsuru, who had kept a careful eye on her all through the years. She had learned her skills for organization and methodical problem solving here. Even if Tsuru was duty bound to the Hyuuga first and foremost, she had also been kinder than she could have been.

Hinata wondered if it was lingering guilt. Now that she reclaimed her memories, it wasn't hard to put the pieces together. Tsuru had told Hiyoshi about Kyokki's venture. And it was through Tsuru's reports Hiyoshi had worked out that Hinata knew the location of the sealing scroll.

But if Tsuru really had reported everything about Hinata and Kyokki dutifully, Hinata had no doubt Hiyoshi and Hikaru would have pried everything out of her mind years ago.

"Thank you, Tsuru-san." The woman's sharp features softened and she inclined her head once.

Hinata walked down the hall back to her room in a daze. Her entire world had wobbled off its axis. Yet in some ways, it seemed that nothing had changed at all. She had seen a glimpse of the underbelly of clan politics, had fought a beast spawned by it, yet, the glances she earned as she passed other Hyuuga were just as distant as before. There was a tinge of new respect in some of the gazes turned her way, but most slid over her. Yet another day in the Hyuuga complex.

The duality of it all was jarring.

While Hiyoshi's trial had been easy (Hinata had been surprised until she had glanced the not-smile on Itachi's face throughout the whole matter), the reek of all the consequences still hung in the air. A lifetime of ill opinions wasn't so easily dispersed when it had seeped into every crevice of their view of her. And she could hardly climb to the top of the Hokage Monument and scream out the implications of a secret she kept for over a decade.

Hinata wasn't sure what she had been expecting. Her new understanding with Hizashi was only that, an understanding with one person. The Head of the Hyuuga family still had the minds of an enormous and stubborn clan to contend with. Until she managed to find the scroll (and the Uchiha public library that no one bothered to curate was vast indeed), all she had was two less mouths to account for during her morning food orders.

And even that part of her routine was gone.

It was a relief when Hanabi poked her head in through the window to snidely inform her of Itachi's arrival.

"If your sister glares at me any longer, I fear I might combust," he told her when she made her way to the side gate he leaned against. Hinata bit her lip and tried not to laugh, because there was a hint of petulance in the great Uchiha Itachi's voice that no one else but her could detect. He was whining, the big baby. But even that had a purpose, and she felt the tension in her shoulders seep away. The only glare he acknowledged - found worth his time to acknowledge - was the glare of a protective little sister.

"I will ask her to schedule her glares in more convenient intervals," she murmured back, the picture of a demure young lady. But she threaded her fingers with his and squeezed in thanks. He returned the gesture, and feeling of it seemed to reach her heart.

"It is of no importance," he said bluntly, "as I care little for her opinion. I am wary only of your ire."

Hinata smiled and straightened, pulling herself tall with the poise befitting a clan heir, past or present. Because in the end, only the thoughts of her precious people mattered. Her realization of that was the only change necessary.