AN: Fuck canon, Neji is still alive. Also, would like to see someone take the conversation as an outline, and turn it into an actual fic.
Hyuga Coup?
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"Did you see Hinata at the wedding yesterday?" Ino asked. "How could she possibly be so happy? I know I'd be pissed if the man I loved, who I thought loved me back just suddenly married my sister. I'm surpried that Neji isn't just as angry."
"Neji and Hinata are so happy, because she is a devious little brat, who also has a little sister who loves and idolizes her, and hates what the elders did to her oneechan." Anko replied.
"It doesn't hurt that she befriended Moegi at some point, and started idolizing Naruto after the whole Toneri thing." Tenten added.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Sakura asked.
"The Hyuuga Elders, being the assholes they are, told Hinata that she couldn't be the Clan Head and be with Naruto." Tenten explained. "Hinata was all set to tell them where to shove their edict, and marry him anyway, but Neji reminded her that Hanabi didn't have the support in the clan needed to make the changes that Hinata wanted to enact. So, Hinata and Neji devised a plan that would make use of the crush Hanabi had developed on Naruto, to both get what they all wanted, and get back at the Elders for screwing with her life."
"I don't understand."
"Well, as the Hyuuga clan head has traditionally been a patriarchal role, the few times that there have been female heads, they have not been allowed to marry, to preserve their spot as leader." Tenten replied. "Some feared that any husband would be able to use the clan laws to usurp her position, especially if she married outside the clan."
"Okay, that makes some sense, I guess." Sakura replied. It was screwed up, but she could see the logic behind it.
"So Hinata is not allowed to marry, so she can stay in charge." Ino said. "What does that have to do with being happy that her sister stole her boyfriend."
"While Hinata is not allowed to marry, she still needs an heir to give her title to." Tenten explained smirking. "While all parties are allowed to decline politely, female heads are allowed to take a lover from within the clan, hopefully someone not too closely related, to father her children."
"Thanks to some loopholes the elders allowed a couple hundred years ago, since the blond gaki is married to her little sister, that means he's technically eligible for the talent pool, even if Hanabi has officialy married out of the clan." Anko said, grinning lecherously. "So princess gets to have her clan head cake, and get eaten by her foxy boytoy."
"That doesn't make any sense." Ino said, scrunching their face, while Sakura's eyes widened as she understood exactly what was being said.
"The clan bylaws say that she's allowed to pick a member of their family as a lover and to father her children. So long as he meets the criteria of being distantly related enough not to cause genetic complications, and is a consenting adult, she can pick anyone she wants." Sakura said, hinting to no avail.
"Naruto is her brother-in-law so he counts as family, he and Hanabi are certainly consenting, and there are definitely no worries about them being closely related." Tenten said. "And since they've allowed it before, there is precedent for her to also be allowed to do so."
"Oh my god, I never knew Hinata could be so downright devious." Tenten just shook her head. Hinata was very good at projecting innocent and wholesome, but she was a very competent ninja, and deception was their bread and butter.
"I bet the Elders were pissed." Ino said.
"Oh yeah, but they're going to be even more pissed before long." Tenten said. "That was just the first stage, and Hanabi's wedding marked the last staging point to prevent what comes next."
"What does come next?" Ino asked. "And are you sure we should be talking about it?"
"At this point, the plan has progressed too far, and there are too many high profile people in place for them to try anything that wouldn't see them all imprisoned or executed for treason."
"Okay, now I really need to know what's going on."
"Well to start, one of the elders who always supported her, was also particularly fond of her mother. Since Hinata reminds him so much of her, she was able to convince him to bequeath his eyes to Naruto when he passes."
"Never knew Hinata had it in her."
"Well, it wasn't particularly hard to convince him to be honest." Tenten said, grinning. "She just had to remind him about how much the village and Hyuuga in particular owed Naruto."
"I mean, I know about the Akatsuki attack and the war, but mow much could there be?" Ino asked.
"Well, first and foremost is the Kyuubi attack." Anko said.
"But he was a baby."
"Yeah, a baby who was literally the only person Yondaime's seal could be used on." Sakura spoke. "According the Tsunade-sama, Uzumaki are literally the only ones naturally predisposed to housing the Kyuubi."
"But didn't both Obito and Madara do it during the war?" Ino asked.
"I mean, sure, an Uchiha doped up on Hashirama genes could probably do it, but the Uzumaki are the only ones that don't need an exentuating circumstance to do it."
"Well, stuffing the fox back into his mother might have been an option." Anko smirked at the shocked looks. "What, you didn't know that his mother was a Jinchuuriki too? Anyway, given the way the fox was yanked out, her seal was far too damaged to stuff the fox back into her."
"I can guarantee you that he wouldn't have been treated like trash if people had known that." Sakura added.
Anko nodded and continued. "Then there was exposing Mizuki as a traitor, though that was classified to all hell until Naruto's Kyuubi secret came out."
"Then, despite the narrative being pushed that it was Sasuke, Naruto took out Gaara, a Jinchuuriki who'd gone full biju mode during that Chuunin exam invastion. Everyone knows at least the broad strokes of the Akatsuki attack on Konoha, the 4th Shinobi War and him saving the planet from Toneri."
"As for the Hyuuga in particular, almost all his life, he's been Hinata's inspiration to improve as a ninja." Tenten smirked, remembering a couple of Neji's rants about just how strong Hinata could have become with Naruto's influence if he and his uncle hadn't been emotionally sabotaging her the whole time. "He therapy jutsu'd Neji into being less of a dick, to the point he started treating Hinata like family and started helping train her. It worked so well, that even Hiashi became less of a cold hearted prick. He even managed to somehow save Neji's life with the Kyuubi's chakra. Then on top of that, he rescued Hinata from Toneri, and even convinced the young man to return Hanabi's eyes."
"Hinata is remarkably well informed." Ino remarked. Learning from her father, she understood what kind of effect that kind of pure facts, information dump could have on a person.
"Well, she was there for about half of it, and thoroughly interrogated anyone who was there for the things she missed."
"Yeah, I guess if she brought all of that up, it wouldn't have been a hard sell."
"No, convincing the elder was easy, in the end the hardest sell had been to Naruto." Tenten rolled her eyes. "Say what you want, but that boy is loyal to a fault. It eventually took Hinata...convincing, him of the benefits of going along with their plan."
"If you ask me, if it hadn't been for the fact that Naruto genuinely got along with Hanabi, and that he'd been able to get to know her from all the time she spent with that little flock of his that he took on, I don't think he'd have done it." Sakura said, amazed at how much they'd kept secret, when she'd been brought in on the plan just a couple weeks prior. "Hell, he'd still secretly dated her for almost three years before he was willing to marry her."
"And in the end, I still had to take Hanabi over to his apartment, and we both had to convince him to stop being stubborn about it." Hinata said, interrupting their conversation. "Why do you think Naruto spent almost their entire engagement pouring over the Hyuuga clan laws and the details of our family's seal."
"How close is Naruto to releasing the caged birds?" Tenten asked.
"He's already replaced the seal on one of the elder members of the Branch house who doesn't have much time left." Damn it if she didn't hate using that label. "If his seal works, which I'm sure it will, that will give us the support of the entire clan, and certain Elders and Main House members will be the only opposition. With the newly freed members, we will have the power to overthrow them, and begin removing the Clan laws and rules that have kept our family so divided. If it becomes necessary, they will be branded with the old seal, and relegated to the Branch house."
Sakura and Ino just started in shock at Hinata.
'Apparently they still hadn't told me everything that was going on.' Sakura thought to herself
"But that's not even the best part." Tenten added as Neji joined them.
"There's more?"
"Well, there is the fact that the Caged Bird is a bastardization of an Uzumaki seal." Neji mentioned. "Naruto thinks he can create a seal that will protect any Byakugan removed from a Hyuuga, while leaving out the control aspects of the former."
"I knew he'd gotten really good with seals, but I didn't know he'd gotten that good." Sakura admitted shocked, forgetting that Naruto was an Uzumaki, and it was a thing.
"That is pretty cool, but the best part is that she eventually plans to appoint Neji as her replacement, and leave to be with Naruto and her sister." Tenten gushed as Neji shook his head. He was still unable to believe Hiashi was letting Hinata get away with everything.
"Before you ask, no there won't be any group stuff involving my sister and I." Hinata said, smirking at the question that she knew Ino was going to ask.
Not like there was any the first time, what with Shadow Clones involved. She was there to give her blessing, and be there for moral support; not that Hanabi needed it once Naruto got her going. They hadn't even noticed that she'd adjourned to Naruto's tub with her own Naruto clone, and she wasn't even sure Naruto had realized he'd subconsiously created it.
"I'm more shocked that you're willing to share." Ino asked.
"It's not like it's all that difficult when you're sharing a man who can abuse Shadow Clones the way that Naruto-kun can." Hinata replied. "Especially when he can create clones that can take more damage than most Jounin. Considering how durable they are, about the only thing that separates them from an actual person is the fact that they can be dispelled."
"She's not wrong." Tenten interjected. "Naruto can create clones so strong and sturdy now, that it would require damage that's instantly fatal to someone like Lee to dispurse. Found that out during our last spar."
"Oh?"
"He sent a couple of clones at me as a distraction," Tenten started. "-I stabbed one and then turned to deal with the other. When I got clocked in the back of the head with the ring of the kunai I stabbed the first clone with, I realized what happened."
"How do you know it wasn't a different clone?"
"There was blood on the tip, and the clone was bleeding." Tenten said. "And I know it wasn't the real Naruto, because the clone grabbed me, said Bunshin Bakuha, and dispursed itself."
"That baka." Sakura growled, getting some amused looks. "I thought he was just taunting me into attacking, but during a spar a couple months ago, he told me that he could leave a Shadow Clone to beat me, and I'd never even notice."
"While he probably could, you're on the short list of people he wouldn't do that to." Hinata revealed. "He knows that your team, myself, Neji and Lee have reached a point where we don't have too many sparring partners that we can truly relax and cut loose with."
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AN: As you can see, I am not dead. I also wanted to put something out for Naruto's birthday since it's been so long.