Hinata burst into the dojo, her mind quiet even as her chakra boiled beneath her skin. She forced herself to stop for a second and take in the scene while she caught her breath.
Only about half of the Elders were present, with some wary-looking Branch House members lining the walls of the dojo, but Hinata's attention was drawn to the very centre of the room.
Elder Hideki stood there, the same Elder who had been one of the two who had stormed her hospital room after her team's run-in with the Akatsuki, the very Elder whom she'd granted an extended hospital stay for a genjutsu-induced heart-attack.
Now he stood with an inkpot in one hand and a brush in the other, and the tip of the brush was- was pressed against Hanabi's forehead.
Worse yet, Hinata realised as her heart skipped a beat and her eyes catalogued everything she could see from her place at the door, there was a sealing matrix painted at Hanabi's feet, visibly keeping her from moving, judging by the way Hanabi's muscles were straining with the effort to get away.
For a moment, everything was still. The calm before the storm.
Then, Hinata's chakra raged.
She didn't allow herself time to think once she was noticed; she flashed to Hideki's side, a knife-hand to the forearm dislodging the inkpot from his hold, then she whirled on Hanabi. Hinata channelled more chakra to her foot and slammed it against the floor the way she'd seen Sakura do so many times during the War, if to a much lesser extent in her case, but it got the job done; the wooden panels of the dojo floor shattered beneath the blow, and so too did the sealing matrix. Hanabi stumbled, suddenly free, but Hinata was there, catching her sister and flash-stepping away from Hideki, putting distance between them even as she knew she needed to stay for the confrontation.
Hanabi stumbled again as they stopped, not used to Shunshin travel even for such short distances, and Hinata steadied her sister at the same time as she ran her thumb through the mess of ink on Hanabi's forehead, smearing the sealing calligraphy and disturbing whatever initial matrix Hideki had managed to put down. She laid her hand on Hanabi's shoulder and pulsed a quick kai through her system as well just in case, then urged Hanabi behind her, covering her with her own body to hide her from Hideki's sharp gaze.
"Hideki-san." Hinata murmured once the most pressing issues had been taken care of, her voice flat and quiet and trembling with the anger coursing like liquid fire through her veins. "What do you think you were doing?"
Hideki stepped to the side, away from what Hinata assumed was the puddle of spilled ink on the floor, and it was only then that Hinata realised that, in her anger, she had activated her dojutsu.
"When did you get back?" Hideki asked instead of answering her, and Hinata was too far in her own head to identify the note in his voice, but she saw the way his chakra jumped.
"Hideki-san." She repeated, her own voice sharper now even as she didn't so much as twitch from her defensive position. "What were you doing?"
"You seemed determined to take up your role as heir." Hideki replied at last, apparently recognising that it wasn't wise to ignore her question again. "Your sister will need to be sealed sooner or later."
"Only after I become Head." Hinata snapped back, then made a conscious effort to soften her voice and dull her words, turning off her Byakugan at the same time. "Not before."
When Hideki didn't deign that with a response, she asked the other pressing question: "Where is Father?"
"Your Father was called away on an urgent mission. He has the best dojutsu range in the Clan." Hideki informed her, then eyed her from head to toe, making something in Hinata's very being want to shrivel and hide. "Something you ought to work on if you wish to succeed him."
Hinata took a deep breath and pushed down her personal feelings on the matter, keeping her focus on the fact that Hanabi had almost been sealed and her Father wasn't even there. "Who approved Hanabi's sealing, then?"
Hideki scoffed, but didn't answer.
"Nobody." A Branch House Elder murmured finally, and when Hinata's gaze snapped to him, she found his eyebrows raised, an odd expression on his face as he studied her right back before he shrugged lightly. "But Hideki's Main House, so nobody could disapprove."
And then, while Hinata registered the words, the man gasped and stumbled, grasping blindly for the wall to keep himself from falling even as Hinata saw his knees buck and his face twist with pain.
She looked around frantically, knowing, in the back of her mind, what could have caused this reaction from the Elder but refusing to believe it, and found Hideki's eyes focused unerringly on the Branch House member, his lips twisted down into a cruel grimace.
Hinata saw red, and her hold on her chakra escaped her, along with her Killing Intent.
"Stop." she commanded, and a pained gasp from Hanabi forced her to try to focus and reign in her chakra and narrow her Killing Intent on Hideki alone, something else that Haku had taight her in their fortnight in Kumo, unable to believe what she had just witnessed.
"You are an Elder. Your role is to advise." She told the man coldly as he clutched at his chest and panted heavily, and Hinata finally straightened from her defensive crouch and took a slow step forward. "What you tried to do is treason against the Clan."
Hinata eased back on her Killing Intent and activated her Byakugan again, searching for the two hidden signatures she knew would be there.
There.
Both signatures by the front gate, one on the roof of the nearest house, camouflaged under genjutsu, the other hidden in the trunk of a nearby tree.
ANBU.
Hinata flared her chakra in the standard ANBU distress signal and saw both figures snap to attention, dropping their techniques at once. She cut the chakra to her dojutsu, knowing her goal had been accomplished, and settled for the wait, knowing it wouldn't be long.
In the few seconds she had to wait, Hideki had gotten his breathing back under control and straightened, just in time for the screen door to open, both ANBU agents taking a moment to survey the scene they have just arrived at before the one who had been hidden in the tree turned his attention unerringly to Hinata.
"What seems to be the emergency?" he asked, the voice-modulating seals of the mask giving his voice an eerie reverb, but, if anything, Hinata found it comforting.
"Elder Hideki nearly committed treason against the Clan in mine and my father's absence." She told the ANBU quietly, ignoring the way Hideki's chakra spiked in anger. "He also attacked another Clan member without provocation. Is there a place in the Village where he can be held until my Father's return?"
The two ANBU members exchanged a look before the one who had initially spoken replied; "There are temporary-hold cells in T&I."
Hinata felt the temperature in the dojo drop a good ten degrees, but she just inclined her head politely. "That is acceptable." She murmured, smiling tightly as she felt Hanabi's fingers creep up and wrap in the bottom of her jacket. "I would also appreciate if one of you could escort my sister and cousin to the Inuzuka compound."
This request got a verbal reaction.
"Think of the Clan's image, you foolish child!" She probably shouldn't have been surprised that it wasn't Hideki who spoke. Perhaps Hideki was merely the bravest of the Elders who disagreed with her position as heir apparent? "How will it look-?!"
"Please don't say anything more. I am-" Hinata whispered, closing her eyes briefly and seeking out Hanabi's hand, prying her sister's fingers from the hem of her jacket and moving them so they were holding hands instead, fingers intertwined. "ANBU-san, would one of you please be able to get Kagane Natsume from Psych?"
The ANBU who hadn't spoken yet nodded, extending a hand to Hanabi and Neji. "Come."
Hanabi trembled but obligingly stepped towards the ANBU, but when Hinata turned to look at Neji, she found him shaking his head. "I'm not leaving you here."
"Ah." Hideki murmured, speaking for the first time since the ANBU's arrival. "That's how you knew."
And then Neji cried out, his knees buckling beneath him, and Hinata saw red, having connected the dots much faster this time.
She was vaguely aware that Hanabi ran to Neji's side, but she didn't stay to watch her help Neji up. Instead, she flashed to directly in front of Hideki, gathered her chakra, and struck his stomach, jabbing all five of her fingers into the tenketsu surrounding his chakra core and wrenching the gates open.
She flashed back to Hanabi in time to see Hideki collapse to the floor, his chakra leaking out of him like water from a sieve.
Hinata had used the very move she'd told Haku she actively avoided in most fights, a move learnt on the frontlines, for the frontlines, one of the few things that had proven effective against the Zetsu clones.
Aside from the brutality with which it destroyed the victim's coils, Hinata usually avoided it because it involved getting too far into her opponent's guard, exposing her to just as much danger as it posed to the enemy.
But Hideki hadn't expected retaliation.
His guard had been lowered.
So Hinata gazed at his gasping, trembling form, watched as his chakra left him faster than even the most skilled field medic would've been able to replenish it.
If left unattended, Hideki would slip right past the shock brought on by rapid chakra drain and into chakra depletion, then, if he didn't receive immediate medical attention, he would die.
Feeling not much of anything at all, Hinata waited for someone to step in and stop the chakra bleed.
Nobody moved.
She didn't know how long she stood there, watching Hideki bleed out and irreparably damage his coils even if someone stepped in to help him, but she stood and watched until a new voice ripped her from her reverie.
"Hinata."
Hinata turned her head to where the voice had come from, relief slamming into her at the sight of Kagane-san. She Shunshined to the woman's side, watching the silent ANBU move to Hanabi's side and grab her and Neji by the shoulders, disappearing from the dojo a moment later.
At Kagane-san's light touch to her arm, Hinata turned her back on her Clan members and the now-still Hideki and stepped out of the dojo by the same door she'd ran through.
"Psych?" Kagane-san checked quietly, but Hinata shook her head.
Not yet. She had one more stop to make beforehand, even if her blood felt like it had turned to ice and her head was deathly silent.
One more stop.
Tsunade raised her gaze from the papers when her door opened, inwardly glad to be interrupted as it gave her a reason to postpone slogging through the financial writeup of the month.
She was less pleased when she found the Hyuuga genin who'd been in her office earlier that afternoon, a woman at her side whom Tsunade remembered as a hardass campaigner for mental health back when Dan had been involved with the hospital.
She was about to ask what the girl thought she was doing in her office again, especially without a formal summon, when she caught sight of the look on the Hyuuga's face.
Where earlier, there had been relief and a quiet pride when Tsunade had handed Team Eight their well-deserved chunin vests, now, the girl's face could've very well been carved from marble for how expressive it was.
Only her eyes showed what she was feeling, and Tsunade suddenly had an inkling as to what Kagane Natsume might've been doing at the girl's side. Indignation and a thirst for vengeance burned in the Hyuuga's eyes, her anger a quiet yet all-consuming inferno that Tsunade had no doubt would have burned everyone around her if the girl possessed even an ounce less self-control.
"Hyuuga." She greeted slowly, briefly glancing at Kagane, but the woman was comparably stone-faced to her presumed charge. "What can I do for you?"
"What would I need for my jounin promotion?" the girl asked quietly, her voice inflectionless and hollow.
The dead flatness to her voice and the lack of a respectful title was all the proof Tsunade needed that something had gone badly wrong in the few short hours since she'd last seen the girl.
Still-
"You only just got chunin today. Take a day to celebrate before you set yourself on impossible targets." She advised, eyeing the girl sharply. "Besides, those sorts of questions are normally taken to the Jounin Commander."
"I would like to avoid accusations of bias or favouritism." The Hyuuga replied, her voice chillingly even, and Tsunade had heard more life in the voices of her ANBU agents.
It was only then that she recalled Shikaku expressing a familiarity with the girl that perhaps even bordered on fondness, and Tsunade felt her eyebrow jump up at the fact that the Hyuuga's rumoured rationality hadn't waned despite whatever it was that had happened to her.
"Well, alright, hold on." And Tsunade stood, the fact that she'd handled the girl's folder earlier that afternoon meaning that she actually knew where it was in the maze of files and cabinets that Shizune usually handled for her.
The girl barely twitched, holding herself so still that Tsunade almost wanted to ask if she was breathing, but she supposed Kagane would've been keeping an eye on that. She returned to her desk leisurely, smacking the file down and flipping to the girl's mission count and notable comments.
"Let's see: one hundred and fifty-four D-Ranks, sixteen C-Ranks, one B-Rank, and an A-Rank while barely a year out of the Academy. Not bad."
It was actually much better than 'not bad', but she didn't think the kid cared about that at this point.
"There are many paths you can go down. If you're starting from zero, both tokubetsu and full jounin have the same mission requirement. You've actually met the D-Rank one already. C-Rank requirement is at fifty, and B-Rank at twenty-five. Assisted - or, in your case, accidental - A-Rank quota is at five, but they're more of a perk than a requirement."
She scanned over the added notes, notable ones from Hatake – who usually avoided any sort of admin like the plague - the Kumo judge panel – which was an accomplishment in and of itself – Shiranui, and Shikaku himself, all of which painted the girl as a competent if unconventional fighter, and all highlighted a nigh war-child mentality.
"You can choose to continue with only one specialisation, which will grant you the rank of tokubetsu if you pass. Otherwise, full jounin are also required to demonstrate high-level proficiency with elemental ninjutsu, as well as a degree of capability with gen and taijutsu, unless one of the other two are your designated field, in which case the weighing of that shifts. Then, when you meet the mission requirement and pass the basic skill assessment, there is the Jounin Spar." She paused, eyeing the girl consideringly, noting that she hadn't so much as twitched at the required mission count, nor the process. "You can also, within reason, skip some of the first two steps if enough jounin recommend you for the Spar. They cannot be members of your Clan and they have to be full jounin."
The girl seemed to consider that briefly, then asked the most unexpected question: "How many is 'enough'?"
Tsunade opened her mouth to reply, then closed it, not actually sure of the answer. Her eyes cut to Kagane, wondering if the woman had any input, and was not disappointed, if a bit miffed at the curl of a sardonic smirk in the corner of the other woman's mouth.
"Generally, Shikaku considers five recommendations to be enough to approve a candidate for a skill review." Kagane replied, and the Hyuuga nodded, thoughtful.
Tsunade couldn't resist anymore. "Hyuuga. What happened?"
"Clan matter, Hokage-sama." The girl shot back immediately, voice serene, as if her chakra wasn't a hollow void and her body so still as if it had been carved from marble. "It has been handled."
Tsunade wasn't sure she liked that answer. She liked it even less when the girl added: "I believe that agent Cat is outside your window with the full report."
In the time it took for Tsunade to turn to the indicated window and see the agent in question drop onto the outside windowsill, the Hyuuga and Kagane had disappeared, and it didn't occur to Tsunade until later that the little Hyuuga really shouldn't have known Cat's mask name.
Once Tsunade heard Cat's report, however, she gave in to the urge to swear, so loud and colourful that she was almost sure Cat cringed behind his mask.
"So she killed the Elder?" she checked, because that had been the only part Cat had been vague about.
"No, Tsunade-sama, he was still alive when she left." Cat replied, but there was something in his tone that didn't sit well with Tsunade.
"But?" She prompted, not used to the idea that her ANBU might withhold information.
"But Stag and I left before we ascertained whether anyone had saved him." Cat admitted, and though his tone was flat and his posture apologetic, Tsunade didn't detect any remorse in the man's chakra.
"So he could very well be dead if nobody stepped in to stop his chakra bleed?" she demanded, not sure what she was hoping to hear.
"...Yes, ma'am."
"Fucking fantastic." Technically, it would be classed as self-defence, and Tsunade doubted whether anybody harboured any particularly warm feelings for that particular Elder, but it didn't change the fact that a murder had occurred within Village walls.
"Check on the situation, then get a squad to guard the Hyuuga Compound and extras on the Inuzuka until Hiashi's return. After that, step away. I don't trust you to be objective." She ignored the way Cat's chakra roiled indignantly, too frustrated to care if she was being harsh, though she held up a hand before he could leave. "On second thought, tell Hound and Gecko that they're to stay away, too." And then, because she was slowly learning to expect the unexpected from the kid, she added, "Anyone else who might be invested in the kid?"
"Fox and Spider, ma'am." One of her guards murmured, not bothering to cancel the genjutsu hiding them from view so Tsunade ended up pinning her disbelieving look to the vague part of the wall she thought the voice came from.
"How the fuck does a preteen chunin have so many of my Black-Ops in her close circle?" She asked sharply, then waved off Cat when his chakra twitched. "I don't actually want to know. Go, Cat. And try to be discreet, I don't want Hiashi bitching at me when he gets back."
Tsume stared at the ANBU crouched on her windowsill, surprised that he'd kept his word.
Though she'd been willing to accept the two shell-shocked Hyuuga kids into her home when the ANBU had brought them to her doorstep, she'd been itching for an explanation that went beyond 'Clan emergency'. But the agent had merely signed 'later' in Chunin Standard and disappeared.
So Tsume had grumbled, ill-tempered, but had obligingly shown the Hyuuga kids to the guest room and told them to make themselves at home. She didn't need to know about the situation that required them to take refuge with her to recognise the fear in their eyes, and for all that she frequently and vehemently denied possessing any maternal instinct, it was instinct to help them get rid of that fear.
Kiba had been helpful, too; he'd taken one look at the Hyuuga kids and escorted them both to the kennels to play with the puppies, and Tsume resolved to lay off the kid for a little bit; he clearly had his heart in the right place.
Still, seeing the ANBU come back an hour after dropping the kids off with the explanation he'd promised was a welcome surprise.
"Well shit." She summarised after the ANBU's quick but thorough rundown of the latest Hyuuga Bullshit. "And Hinata? Where is she?"
"According to Stag and Cat's report, she admitted herself to Psych." The ANBU replied flatly, the voice modulating seals hiding whatever they felt about the fact from their voice.
"Voluntarily?" Tsume couldn't help but check, raising a dubious eyebrow.
People didn't choose to go to Psych unless they were barely hanging on. She remembered how thrown Shibi had been when his son had admitted himself, how guilty at not having realized the extent of Shino's struggles.
The ANBU shrugged, making Tsume snort at the unusually relaxed demeanour. "She called for Kagane Natsume while still at the Hyuuga Compound."
"Natsume is the kid's shrink?" Tsume whistled before she could stop herself, almost more shocked by this news than by the ANBU turning up on her doorstep with two terrified Hyuuga kids in tow. "Damn."
"Hokage-sama also called for a guard around your Compound." The ANBU added, and Tsume appreciated the heads up even though the news itself was far from reassuring.
"That bad?" she checked, wincing at the thought of how much the ANBU likely omitted from his rundown if the Godaime felt that extra ANBU watchers were necessary.
The ANBU shrugged again, and Tsume nodded, getting the message. Then a thought occurred to her, and she hoped against hope she wasn't the first person this had occurred to:
"Has someone informed Yuhi?"
Kurenai very rarely found herself genuinely angry.
Finding out from Kakashi that her student had killed an Elder and then proceeded to admit herself to Psych three hours after it happened did manage to get her there, however.
Half an hour later after getting the news from Kakashi, she was in Psych and through the visitor control, standing on the other side of the two-way mirror built into the room Hinata was occupying, Hinata's shrink beside her.
"Isn't this a bit co-dependent?" she asked absently, taking in how Yugao was sitting, pressed shoulder to thigh to Hinata's side, positioned between the girl and the door to the room in a way that Kurenai had no doubt was 100% intentional.
(She tried not to let the anger build at the realisation that Yugao had found out about Hinata's situation before her.)
"Hinata made Uzuki's suicide watch practically redundant." Kagane replied simply, scrawling something in the margins of a file she had open. "There's trust there."
"And you're not above exploiting it." Kurenai concluded, raising an eyebrow at the woman in a way she hoped wasn't too judgemental, but too angry to care.
Kagane didn't reply verbally but she sighed quietly, putting the file down and picking up a discarded clipboard instead and offering it to Kurenai.
"Sign this." She ordered simply and Kurenai took the clipboard on autopilot, not wanting to look away from the older woman.
"What is it?" she asked tightly, chancing a quick glance at what looked like a list of dozens of names, some she recognised, some completely foreign to her.
"Petition to the Godaime for the Academy sensei to undergo compulsory training in character assessment and psychoanalysis." Kagane explained flatly, and Kurenai took a moment to process the words before pinning the woman with a frown.
"Why?"
Kagane held out the file she'd discarded earlier, one that Kurenai now realised was familiar.
It was Hinata's Academy file.
Kagane flipped to the last page of the file and pointed to the part of 'additional comments' on the write-up of the final exam . Next to Umino's respectable three lines of commentary, Mizuki had left only two damning words:
'Too soft'.
Kurenai remembered reading the words herself when her then-potential students had passed their genin exam, remembered dismissing them immediately after what had happened with Mizuki on the night of the graduation exam became public knowledge among the higher ranks. She remembered Anko sneaking into her apartment and staring listlessly at the wall, remembered her friend's vicious self-doubt and quiet questioning of her ability to judge character, remembered the broken 'I thought we were friends' that still threatened to break Kurenai's heart when she thought too hard about it.
She wanted to punch Mizuki in the teeth for many reasons; his complete dismissal of her kunoichi student was but one of them.
She shook herself off and realised that Kagane was clearly waiting for her to comment, so Kurenai just hummed a questioning note, not sure how Mizuki's assholery tied into the overarching problem of the inaccurate profiles the Academy handed out.
"Hinata's soft the way the Uchiha is aggressive, the Uzumaki attention-seeking, or Shikaku's brat lazy." Kagane murmured, and there was something familiar in the undertone of the words, but Kurenai was more thrown by the genuine anger in the older woman's eyes when she finally met her gaze.
"The Uchiha seems aggressive because he's still grieving. He can't process the grief because nobody thought to let him move out of the house his family was slaughtered in. The Uzumaki isn't attention-seeking, he's attention deficit, and it took your teammate bringing him here for an evaluation for anyone to connect the dots. And most Nara actually aren't lazy, they're just severely understimulated."
"Hinata isn't soft." Kurenai agreed, following the explanation to its conclusion and accepting the pen to sign the petition, Kagane's words and the revelations they carried echoing in her mind.
She nearly fumbled her signature when the other woman laughed suddenly, a short, sharp sound, an odd glint in her eyes as she looked through the two-way mirror at Hinata and Yugao.
"Oh, no, she is." Kagane corrected, taking back the pen and tucking the clipboard under her arm. "But not soft like porcelain. Soft like clay, or silk."
Malleable. Durable. Kurenai translated, staring at the woman with wide eyes, shocked at the unexpectedly complimentary assessment of her student from Kagane Natsume, of all people.
"How many more signatures do you need?" Kurenai asked instead of commenting on the compliment, recognising that digging wasn't likely to be well-received.
"You're my ninetieth." Kagane divulged easily, and Kurenai wondered at the power the woman wielded to be able to sway so many people towards what would doubtless end up revolutionising the entire educational system.
Perhaps it was of no surprise that she had taken a liking to Hinata, for all that Kurenai hoped the woman was still ignorant to most of Hinata's plans.
(She had had her reservations when Kagane had been assigned as Hinata's shrink. Almost a year after her team's first foray into Psych, she wasn't sure whether her reservations have been dismissed, or justified.)
"Try T&I." Kurenai suggested in what she hoped was a neutral tone. "If there's anyone who's likely to be supportive of preventing kids from being judged too early, it's those whose character is judged everyday for simply doing their jobs."
"...Noted." Kagane replied, pinning Kurenai with a weighted look, but Kurenai didn't stay to try and unravel the intention behind it. Instead, she shook off the tension that interacting with Kagane always forced into her shoulders and pushed open the door to Hinata's room, managing a smile when Yugao brightened upon spotting her, though Hinata remained catatonic, there in body, but not in spirit.
Getting the news to step away from what had quickly been dubbed the 'Hyuuga Situation' around HQ had been one thing, but finding out why had had Yugao dashing across the Village and nearly muscling her way into Psych. She owed Hinata for what the girl had done for her after Hayate's death, and even if not, she'd grown to care about her of her own volition since being assigned as the girl's trainer almost a year ago. So she spent almost four full days at Hinata's side in Psyche, determined to sit with the girl however long it took for her to come back to herself.
Finally, the evening of the fourth day, Hinata twitched and curled into Yugao's side, a shuddering breath leaving her along with the tension that had riddled her frame since Yugao had first arrived to Psych.
"Welcome back." Yugao murmured, her own voice a little hoarse from disuse, and she rubbed comforting circles in Hinata's shoulder. "You ready to talk?"
There were a few minutes of silence when Hinata simply breathed, likely grounding herself in the present after such a prolonged dissociative episode, then the girl nodded against Yugao's neck.
"To me or Kagane?" Yugao pressed, lacing the fingers of her left hand with Hinata's and squeezing gently to soften her words a little.
"Is-" Hinata started, then broke off and cleared her throat, her voice rough. "Is she there?"
Beyond the door, someone's chakra flared, and Hinata sighed.
"Kagane-san then, probably. But-" she hesitated, squeezing Yugao's hand this time as she gathered her words. "Could you...stay?"
Not sure if she could manage words just then, Yugao simply squeezed her hand again, in acknowledgement or in thanks, she couldn't be sure. Only thing she was sure of was that she would do everything in her power to not betray the trust she was being shown.
The door to the room opened and Kagane stepped in, file in hand and face characteristically unreadable, though, bizarrely, Hinata only seemed to relax further at the sight of the woman.
"Hinata. Glad you're back." Kagane greeted, coming to a stop at the foot of Hinata's bed, barely acknowledging Yugao beyond a quick glance. "I've been briefed on what happened before my arrival to your Clan grounds. Now, do you have any ideas as to what prompted this reaction from you?"
Yugao tried not to show how much Kagane's business-like mien startled her, but she couldn't help eyeing the older woman sharply, secure in the knowledge that Hinata, tucked into her side as she was, couldn't see her face.
"I got...scared." Hinata admitted quietly, her voice far smaller than Yugao was used to hearing it, and Yugao tried her best to project calm the same way that Hinata had done to her all those weeks ago.
Kagane just hummed, though, and Yugao turned a disbelieving glare on the woman, but Hinata seemed to know what she wanted and sighed quietly.
"I don't like k-killing." she confessed, and Yugao could feel her curl into herself, as if expecting judgement or reprimand. When none came, she loosened up a little, but she was still speaking mostly into Yugao's shoulder. "But in that moment, with- my sister- and when they- Neji-!"
Hinata's chakra flared with anger suddenly, and in that split-second, wits potency was brutal and breath-taking before the girl took a deep breath and snuffed her signature out just as suddenly. "In that moment, I wanted to kill him."
Yugao winced, more than familiar with the urge, but Kagane remained stone-faced, merely jotting something down in the file.
"And that scared you?" She asked simply, as if they were discussing the weather and not Hinata's almost-breakdown.
"Yes."
Kagane hummed again, and Yugao couldn't help herself. She twisted, pulling away from Hinata a little so she could get the girl to meet her eyes when she spoke.
"That protectiveness, that's love." Yugao told her passionately, injecting as much warmth and reassurance as she could into her voice. "It's natural. It's nothing to be ashamed of."
"Thank you, Uzuki." Kagane snapped, tone making it clear that she wasn't appreciative of the interruption. "However, until you pass Psych certification for psychotherapists, do refrain from making such declarations, or I will have you removed."
Having said what she wanted and punctuating it with a sharp spike of ice-cold chakra right at Yugao's core, Kagane turned to Hinata.
"It's understandable the desire scared you. I would have been surprised if it hadn't, frankly." The woman stated, and Yugao felt Hinata's relief at that, but Kagane wasn't done.
"Your Clan has the same problem the Uchiha had, and it's been this way for decades." She continued, factual now, almost lecture-like. "You are taught to repress, to hide what you feel, to train yourselves not to feel to the point that you don't know how to process your emotions."
She pinned Hinata with a look that froze Yugao in place, and she wasn't even the intended recipient.
"You learnt that you're capable of killing on one of your first missions outside of the Village. Now you learnt that there are things which will drive you to want to kill, too." Kagane summarised, her words pointed. "Question is, are you going to give in to the impulse every time?"
"No." Hinata breathed, quiet but sure. "I don't want to."
More than that, she seemed terrified of the sheer possibility, if the way she was squeezing Yugao's hand was any indication.
Kagane nodded, seemingly satisfied. "Then we work on recognising your triggers and processing that desire in a healthy way."
"You make it sound so easy." The words slipped out before Yugao could quite bite them back, but she didn't regret voicing the thought even when Kagane shot her a flaying look.
"Hinata is already startlingly good at compartmentalizing." The woman replied flatly, though her tone told Yugao that any other person would've replaced 'startlingly' with 'worryingly'.
"She's mastered the mental disconnect between her hatred of killing and knowing that she's a shinobi and her Village will require it of her." Kagane continued, and Yugao felt Hinata curl further into her side, though the girl's chakra was calm, as if she had had this talk with Kagane before. "If there was something like a mental switch, she'd have it."
Kagane smiled then, sharp and humourless.
"But that switch was triggered in the Village, not on a mission, and against people who should be her family." She added, mercilessly thorough, and Hinata flinched against Yugao's side. "Tell me then, Uzuki, since you seem to have so much to say, how do you think she took it?"
Yugao stayed silent as the weight of the words sank into her. But, in the back of her mind, she did wonder whether Kurenai might be up for going Elder-hunting at some point.
Hiashi didn't enjoy being blindsided.
He had left the Village for the first time in months, a short yet urgent mission requiring his Byakugan's range, and when he came back, it was to the news that his daughter had made chunin in Kumo, that his Clan was now one Elder short, that said Elder had attempted to seal Hanabi, and that Hinata had been the one to kill him before she'd admitted herself to Psych and sent her sister and cousin to the Inuzuka.
The Godaime had asked him if he'd approved Hanabi's sealing before his departure. He'd said no.
He hadn't liked the look on Nara Shikaku's face at that admission.
So he'd focused on the problems he could fix himself, and stepped through the gates of the Inuzuka Compound, eyes scanning the vast open space in the hopes of spotting his daughters quickly and ending this farce before it had the chance to spiral any more.
He watched one of the gate guards return with Hinata in tow, and Hiashi fought the instinctive urge to frown at the unreadable expression on his daughter's face when she met his gaze. She came to a stop about ten feet from him and inclined her head in greeting, though she seemed more like a soldier waiting to be debriefed that a child greeting a parent.
"You need to quit this habit." Hiashi pointed out in lieu of a greeting, getting the tiniest of frowns in return as Hinata gazed back at him.
"Habit, Father?" She repeated quietly, puzzlement evident, and Hiashi fought the urge to scowl at having to elaborate.
"Of running to other Clans when you cannot deal with the consequences of your own actions." He replied bluntly, feeling the scowl he'd been repressing pull at his lips. "Of relying on their pity."
Hinata recoiled at the way he spat the last word, but then he watched as the puzzlement faded from her eyes and something almost sad replaced it.
"It is not pity, Father, but kindness." She corrected, still in that same soft voice, though there was no softness to her posture or expression as she held his gaze, and Hiashi wondered.
Then, Hinata's words registered properly and he scoffed dismissively. "Kindness has no place in the lives of shinobi."
If anything, the sadness in Hinata's eyes became more pronounced and her lips twitched into the smallest of smiles, but there was no joy in the expression.
"It saddens me that you think so." She murmured, and for once, Hiashi struggled to see his daughter for the child that she was. There was something broken in her eyes just then that weighed her words far more than her tender age should allow.
He brushed the thought off and pinned Hinata with a challenging look. "You disagree?" He asked idly, but anyone who knew him would realise that the question was only idle on the surface.
Hinata, though, either didn't see the warning or chose not to heed it.
"Yes." she said simply, and Hiashi didn't know what to reply to that.
They stood in silence for a beat, father and child as disparate, as separated as night and day, and Hiashi allowed himself the fleeting wish that his wife were present to help him navigate the canyon between him and his children. Then he smothered the thought and snuffed out the flicker of sentiment that threatened to bloom in his chest at the distance in his daughter's eyes and forced himself back on topic.
"It was a mistake to bring Hanabi here." He said instead, voicing the thought that felt safer, disapproval lacing his voice without conscious thought, simply a habit now when speaking with his eldest.
Hinata, though, stood firm, unflinching, and that was almost more baffling than the half-dozen Inuzuka that were watching him warily, as if waiting for the slightest misstep.
"I didn't feel it safe to leave her at the Compound." Hinata confessed, a thread of something almost bitter in her voice. "C-considering what almost happened in our absence."
That was probably the closest Hinata had ever come in outwardly disagreeing with him, and Hiashi felt a tide of irritation rise in him, but all he did was raise an eyebrow.
"But the Inuzuka were safe?" He challenged, catching a quiet growl from one of the nearby ninken, but he didn't hear the owner's reaction because Hinata spoke.
"Yes."
No hesitation, no regret, no apology in her eyes or posture. Hiashi took a moment to study his child, to study the rigid line of her spine, the tension in her shoulders, the blankness in her face, the emptiness in her chakra.
Hinata a year ago had been terrified of the slightest confrontation; she would never have dared to openly defy him like this.
This Hinata...Hiashi didn't know what she felt. She was as inscrutable to him as Hizashi's wife had been in her last moments.
Cursing Hinata for forcing this senseless sentimentality upon him, Hiashi regarded his daughter coldly and voiced the harsh truth he had long resigned himself to. "Your sister will have to be sealed if you succeed me."
"Yes." Hinata agreed, and this time, the flash of bitterness was unmistakeable. "But I am not Clan Head yet."
Hiashi felt his eyebrow climb higher on his forehead at the sheer nerve of the response, and Hinata seemed to realise she was treading on dangerous ground because her voice quietened when she added, "Burdening her with the seal now would be...unwise."
"Because she may yet take your place?" Hiashi asked coldly, voicing what the Elders refused to let him forget.
Hinata's promotion to chunin a year out of the Academy hadn't swayed the few naysayers that remained amongst the Clan about her suitability for the position of Clan Head.
But Hinata didn't rise to the bait, her temper always more even than Hanabi or Neji's, but instead, the look she pinned him with was sharper than glass and just as cold. "Because the seal is irreversible."
It seemed even Hinata recognised that her current position as heir-favourite was an uncertain one.
"Was that the only reason you reacted so viscerally to Hideki's attempt to seal her?" Hiashi checked, the question more of a personal curiosity than anything he had been ordered to ask.
Hinata took a deep breath, and it didn't escape Hiashi's notice how it shook on the exhale, but she didn't drop eye-contact, and when she spoke, her voice was steady. "No."
Hiashi studied her for a moment, but it seemed that in his inattention, Hinata had developed a politician's control over her expressions. Interesting.
"Hideki is dead." He pronounced flatly, testing that control, but the expected flinch at the news didn't come. "Do you regret your actions?"
No hesitation this time, Hinata's reply almost vicious in its certainty. "No."
Hiashi blinked, the reaction startled out of him by the uncharacteristic response, then sighed.
"I am pleased you're finally becoming a shinobi." He acknowledged, the jab pointed, and he knew Hinata understood that it wasn't really praise by the tightening around her mouth. "My only disappointment is that you seem to think that the Clan is your enemy."
"You've never treated her as a Hyuuga, much less your heir!" Hanabi's voice cut through the silence that fell at his words, the accusation all the more startling for the childish pitch it was delivered in. "How else is she supposed to treat you?!"
Hiashi's eyes cut to Hanabi where she stood in the door to the kennels, Neji panicked and fearful behind her, his wrist in both of Hanabi's hands and Hanabi visibly straining to keep his hand away from her mouth.
Hiashi opened his mouth, his shock giving way to anger, but another voice cut him off.
"Neji."
Hiashi wasn't the only one startled by Hinata's tone.
He had never heard that voice from his daughter before. He hadn't even known she was capable of producing something remotely like that cold, authoritative command. Despite his shock, Neji read the order in the words loud and clear and overpowered Hanabi, lifting her bodily and pulling her back inside the kennels, slamming the door behind them.
"She's young, Father, she misspoke." Hinata appealed, the ice in her voice replaced by something akin to desperation, the line of her shoulders growing visibly tenser, her eyes wide. "Forgive her."
"You ask for forgiveness for your sister but not for yourself?" Hiashi checked, distantly startled by the switch and needing to uncover the reasons behind the change in behaviour.
This Hinata was almost like the child she'd been in the Academy, and he hadn't realised how stark the change was until he had the comparison point.
"Yes." Hinata replied simply, once again without a shred of hesitation, but there was an emotion not unlike panic in her eyes.
But then, before Hiashi could comment, they were interrupted again, as a young woman Hiashi vaguely recognised walked up to Hinata, hand resting on her shoulder as she stopped at his daughter's side, but her eyes were focused on Hiashi.
"There is nothing she needs to be forgiven for." The girl snapped, her hand sliding from Hinata's shoulder to her back, out of Hiashi's line of sight, but he didn't miss the way the initial fear in Hinata's eyes at this new interruption turned into wide-eyed wonder at the touch. "Unless Hyuuga law is starkly different from all other major Clans, all supposed transgressions for which Hinata could plead forgiveness fall within the bounds of self-defense."
Hiashi let the words wash over him, but he kept his eyes on Hinata, and so he didn't miss the way the earlier wide-eyed wonder turned into awe when Hinata realised that the Inuzuka was defending her.
"This conversation does not concern you, Inuzuka-san." Hiashi brushed the kunoichi off, scowling at the girl. "Leave us."
"Leave my own compound?" the Inuzuka raised her eyebrow, and Hiashi heard the warning growls from the ninken and owners this time. "Be careful, Hyuuga-sama." the girl warned, and Hiashi wondered at the gall of the kunoichi telling him to be careful. "Hinata is a guest of our Clan. You, however, are not."
Hiashi felt irritation bubble up, but along with it was grudging appreciation of the Inuzuka's sheer nerve.
"You have twenty-four hours," he told Hinata, ignoring the Inuzuka for now, "to get your sister and cousin back to the Compound. We will come back to this conversation then."
When we won't be overheard by nosy dogs went unsaid, but judging by the indignation on two of the closest Inuzuka's faces, it was still heard loud and clear.
"Yes, Father." Hinata murmured, but it was a dismissal just as much as it was a show of deference.
Hiashi turned on his heel and made his way out of the Inuzuka Compound, letting the frown he'd been suppressing show once he was out of Hinata's line of sight.
The Main House Elders had denied it, but both of the ANBU reports that the Godaime had shown him when he'd come back and been briefed on the situation claimed that Hideki had been able to use the Caged Bird seal on Neji and a Branch Elder.
Something he should not have been able to do. That power belonged exclusively to the Clan Head.
Or it had belonged, apparently.
And then there was that look Hatake had given him once Hiashi had looked through the file on the autopsy that had been carried out on Hideki. There had been nothing unremarkable about Hideki's body except for one, odd seal on the back of his tongue: five parallel lines, with the first two being broken in the middle.
Hiashi hadn't recognised it.
Hatake had.
That seldom bode well.
Hinata felt a great tension leave her body once her Father left the Inuzuka grounds, and she would've likely fallen if it hadn't been for Hana's arm catching her around her waist and supporting her weight.
"You alright?" The older girl asked, eyes warm as they flickered over Hinata's face, though there was a concerned frown pulling at her brow.
"I am now." Hinata murmured, getting her feet back under her and managing a small smile. "Thank you, Hana-san. For now, and for before."
"Always, Hinata-chan." Hana grinned and winked, squeezing her hip briefly before she unwound her arm from around Hinata's waist. "And you can drop the honorific, you know? We don't really do that around here."
"You…may need to remind me of that a few more times." Hinata managed, pleased when Hana laughed, though she quickly sobered.
Her Father's visit and deadline had reminded her of something she'd been arguing with herself about since she'd been discharged from Psych, but she knew she couldn't delay much longer, not if she wanted to protect Hanabi and show Neji that she wouldn't follow in her Father's footsteps.
It was time to talk to Neji about her seal.