"Hanabi-chan."
Hanabi jumped, nearly dropping her the knife she was sharpening as she jerked her head up at the sound of her name.
"Nee-sama!" she cheered upon spotting Hinata in her doorway. Her sister looked much better than the last time Hanabi had seen her, dressed in a new flak jacket and with her hair up and her forehead bare, though there was somethingheavyaround her that gave Hanabi the creeps.
Despite her excited greeting, Hanabi stayed where she was, though she put down the kunai she'd been sharpening.
She hadn't seen Hinata in over two months, but Hinata had been in-Village. Her sister simply…hadn't had time for her. It had hurt.
Hinata seemed to realise that there was new distance between them, because the soft smile she'd been watching Hanabi with dimmed slightly.
"May I come in?" she asked politely, and Hanabi nodded, scrambling to put away the knife kit she'd received from Kiba for her birthday and make space in the small room. She wasn't prepared for Hinata to suddenly ask; "How are you?"
Hanabi blinked, her hands stilling as she turned around and shot Hinata an incredulous look.
Hitomi-chan had said that her uncle had said that Father had stepped down and made Hinata the Head of the Hyuuga.
Hanabi didn't have any friends who were Clan Heads, and since Hinata had made chunin, Hanabi's politics lessons had come to a sudden halt, so she hadn't been sure what Headship would involve for her sister. So she'd asked Tsume-obasan, and the woman had looked like she was in pain for a second before she'd sighed and said that Hinata had achieved something almost unprecedented and would likely be very, very busy for a while.
And she'd been right.
Hanabi hadn't seen her sister since Neji had taken her to the hospital, when Hinata's eyes had been covered and she'd been connected to more machines than Hanabi knew the names of.
Hinata's state had been…bad. Hanabi had gone to visit their father when he'd been in the hospital, but at least their father had only looked like he was sleeping. Hinata- Hanabi had only been able to handle one visit, and she'd spent most of it crying uncontrollably while cuddled into Hinata's side.
It had only been after that visit that Hanabi had found out what Hinata had actually done, andwhohad put her in the hospital. And it was only after Neji's seal had disappeared that Hanabi found out that, if Hinata hadn't done what she did,Hanabiwould have had to get the seal too once Hinata was named Clan Head.
She hadn't known how to feel about that.
So she had gone to Hitomi's house and sat silently on Hitomi's sofa while the girl read excerpts from the psychology textbook her weird brother had given her, and said weird brother chopped weird plants and dried roots on the floor and sorted them into small jars and pouches, the motions soothing in their repetitiveness.
That had been two months ago.
And now Hinata was here. Pretty and put-together and smiling softly like she always did. Hinata washere, in Hanabi's room at the Inuzuka's, because Hanabi had been thrown out of her childhood home by her grandfather and she hadn't known where else to go. Hinata washere, in Hanabi'ssafe place, acting like everything wasjust finewhen-
"You missed my birthday."
For a second, Hinata's face went completely blank, and the room seemed to grow cold. Then, once Hanabi shivered, Hinata's expression crumpled into something so sad that Hanabi felt immediately uncomfortable.
She never knew what Hinata was thinking - for all that she loved her sister, Hinata was a mystery. Hitomi-chan, in a put-on, exaggeratedly sagely voice, had said that Hinata was a student of the Shinobi Rules. Hitomi-chan's weird brother had snorted inelegantly and said she was simply a good ninja.
Hanabi didn't know what she thought, but she knew that seeing tears lining her sister's eyes felt like she was seeing something forbidden.
"I am-sosorry, imouto." Hinata apologised, her words coming out on a sigh, and she crumpled to her knees where she was standing, putting herself at eye-level with Hanabi even though she didn't move to breach the distance between them. "I didn't- I hadn't- I'm sorry."
"It's okay." Hanabi muttered, distinctly uncomfortable now and not sure what else to say, but Hinata shook her head.
"No, no, it's not. I should'veseen- I'm sorry." Hinata denied, though she cut herself off before she said something actually interesting, and Hanabi suddenly feltangry.
"How could you have seen?" she asked snidely, using the tone Hitomi-chan said she only used when she wanted her words tohurt."You haven't seenmein two and a half months!"
But instead of recoiling or retaliating, Hinata just hung her head, accepting the accusation with a quiet, "You're right. I'm sorry."
"Stop saying you're sorry!"
Hinata flinched, and as Hanabi panted to catch her breath, her larger-than-life sister suddenly seemed…awfully small.
"I don't know what to do." Hinata whispered, and when she looked up, there were tear-tracks on her face, and for a moment, Hanabi felt like she could reach out and touch, and Hinata would beHinata-neeagain. "I-I don't know how to fix this."
Hitomi-chan always said that adults made things so much more complicated than they needed to be, and Hanabi suddenly understood what her friend meant. Hinata wasn't old, wasn't a proper adult, but sheseemedold in that moment, and so it made sense that she would fall into the adults' silly habits.
"You don't need to fix anything." Hanabi told her, half-pleading, half-angry still, and her next words escaped her before she could bite them back. "Just- just beHinata-nee."
Hinata's head jerked at that, her eyes growing wide with disbelief, and Hanabi felt her traitorous lower lip quiver tellingly.
Quicker than she could blink, Hanabi found herself with her cheek pressed against Hinata's collarbone and Hinata's hand on the back of her head and around her shoulders, hugging her tightly.
Oh,Hanabi relaxed slowly, then shifted slightly so she could wrap her own arms around Hinata's waist and squeeze, feeling Hinata's breath shudder out of her,this is nice.
"I will always be your sister." Hinata whispered into her hair, pressing a kiss to the top of Hanabi's head afterwards as if to seal the promise. "I love you, Hanabi-chan."
"I love you too, nee-sama." Hanabi murmured, blinking the stupid tears out of her eyes and squeezing Hinata even tighter. Then, when she'd calmed down but realised that Hinata didn't seem to plan on letting her go anytime soon, she tried a hesitant; "Can we…can we celebrate my birthday now?"
Hinata pulled away at that, and her eyes were red-rimmed and her cheeks wet, but she was smiling as she looked at Hanabi. "What would you like to do?"
"Can we get barbecue?" Hanabi asked, testing her luck. "And dango?"
When Hinata just nodded, Hanabi went for broke.
"And then can we spar?" she pushed, trying to keep herself from bouncing in place in excitement. "Aomine-sensei only lets us do katas during class."
She'd grumbled the last part, but Hinata had stilled, a frown replacing her soft smile.
"No throwing weapons practice?" she asked lightly, and when Hanabi shook her head, she nodded decisively. "We'll do target practice, then."
"Nooo, nee-sam-" Hanabi begun to whine, but cut herself off at the look on Hinata's face. "Why do you look like that?"
Hinata jumped, wiping the severe frown that had been pulling at her brows from her face as she hummed a curious, "Hm?", but Hanabi wasn't buying it.
"You looked worried." she told Hinata bluntly, because she'd seen Hinata worried enough times to know what that looked like on her.
"Don't worry about it, Hanabi-chan." Hinata dismissed quietly, reaching out to brush Hanabi's hair out of her eyes. "It's probably nothing."
Hanabi frowned right back at her, but in the end, she had to let it go. Hinata had said 'probably' - if itwassomething, Hanabi would just ask her at some other time, and then she wouldn't let it go.
"Okay." she agreed grudgingly, and then decided that she should get something for being so gracious. "Can we go to Yakiniku Q?"
And Hinata laughed softly, the sound short and quiet, but a laugh nonetheless, and moved her hand to ruffle the hair she'd just smoothed back. "Of course."
As they walked down the main streets, Hanabi wondered at how easy it was for Hinata do just…disappear. Multiple times, her sister had to twist out of the way of civilians and shinobi alike, neither seeming to notice her as she walked.
"Is it a genjutsu?" Hanabi finally dared ask, frowning at Hinata after the fifth time she had to let go of her sister's hand for Hinata to dodge someone. "Can they not see you?"
"I've always had weak presence." Hinata replied quietly, and for a brief moment, Hanabi almost thought that she wouldshrug.
"Now now, if it wasjusta weak presence, they wouldn't have made you jounin, Hyuuga-sama." a voice called out of nowhere, and Hanabi had initially wanted to scream at the fact that Hitomi's weird brother had interrupted her time with her sister, but then the man's words actually registered and she gaped at Hinata.
"You made jounin?!" she screeched, not caring about her volume despite how Hinata cringed, though instead of chastising her, she turned to her left, and Hanabi jumped when Hitomi's weird brother suddenly appeared by Hinata's side.
"Tetsuya-san." her sister greeted calmly, as if she was used to the man popping up out of nowhere, though her voice was far colder than when she spoke with Hanabi. "Good afternoon."
"Ooh, trodden on a nerve, have I?" Hitomi's weird brother grinned, and Hanabi flushed at his nerve to tease Hinata like this. As if sensing her thoughts, Tetsuya turned to her, that same conspiratorial expression on his face as when he'd innocently suggested that Hitomi should poison her bullies. "It's okay, Hanabi-chan, your sister's not being evasive on purpose. No shinobi likes sharing the secrets that let them survive missions, it's a self-preservation thing."
Hinata huffed, but Hanabi was hopelessly lost.
"What are youtalkingabout?" she whined, fighting the urge to stomp her foot when Tetsuya just laughed.
"I think that's quite enough." Hinata murmured, her hand settling on Hanabi's shoulder and clamping almost to the point of pain, though her words were clearly meant for Hitomi's weird brother. "Were you heading somewhere, Tetsuya-san?"
"Mmhm, I was." Tetsuya hummed, his earlier grin fading slightly, and Hanabi suddenly felt a shiver of discomfort go down her spine. "And I think you know where."
Instead of reacting to the obvious provocation, Hinata just smiled tightly. "Safe hunting, then."
Hanabi didn't miss it only because she'd never looked away from Hitomi's weird brother, so she caught the exact moment the man's eyes widened in genuine shock before he covered it with another wide grin and a dry; "That's an oxymoron."
And Hinata- Hinata's liptwitched, hardly anything more than that, but Hitomi's weird brother laughed out loud, then disappeared without a trace between one blink and the next.
Hanabi stared at where the man had been mere seconds ago before turning to Hinata with an incredulous expression. "What was that?!"
"Apologies, Hanabi-chan." Hinata soothed, relaxing the tight grip she'd had on Hanabi's shoulder to run her fingers gently through Hanabi's loose hair. "But... he wasn't wrong."
Hanabi blinked, not sure what Hinata was referring to, then decided that there were far more important things that had come up in that conversation and she shot Hinata a mulish look. "You didn't tell me you got promoted."
Hinata sighed, though her fingers in Hanabi's hair stayed gentle as she steered them towards the Akimichi restaurant. "There were more important things to talk about."
"Like my stupid Academy drama?!" Hanabi demanded incredulously, and was rewarded with another lip twitch and a light tug to a lock of her hair.
"Yes." Hinata replied bluntly, and Hanabi huffed.
"You'reweird, nee-sama."
To her shock, Hinata just laughed.
The fact that Hinata was now not just a Clan Head but also a jounin didn't hit Hanabi until a masked ANBU appeared by their table at Yakiniku Q and she saw Hinata transform before her eyes.
Gone was her sister, with her soft smile and patient eyes and gentle touches. The girl that replaced her once the ANBU made themselves known shared Hinata's hair and eye-colour, but that was where the similarities ended.
The ANBU signed something, and Hinata nodded, her expression as blank as the ANBU's mask, then rattled off a nonsensical string of numbers that seemed to make sense to the ANBU, because they suddenly produced a scroll and handed it to Hinata with more one-handed signing.
Hinata's eyes widened as she took the proffered scroll and carefully tucked it into one of the many pockets of her flak jacket. The ANBU nodded then, seemingly having done what they had come to do, but Hinata spoke up before they could disappear.
"Cat-san-!" she called quietly, and the ANBU seemed to freeze mid-step, that eerie painted mask tilting slightly towards Hinata, who smiled slightly, though Hanabi noted that her eyes remained guarded even as she murmured, "Thank you for your help with Elder Hideki all those months ago."
'Cat' inclined their head jerkily, then disappeared, though Hanabi had felt the way their chakra hadjumpedin surprise at Hinata's words right before they vanished from sight.
The longer the ANBU stayed gone, the more of Hanabi's sister returned to Hinata's eyes, and the more the eerie, empty mask that had been on Hinata's face bled away.
And the more of the version of Hinata thatsheknew that returned, the more Hanabi realised that she was no longer sure which of the versions of her sister was therealone.