[RP Thread] The Final Sealing [Open to Hyuuga]

[hyuuga_hinaji]

[For your listening pleasure~ In the Sun] The morning of his sealing left a bad taste in Hinaji's mouth. He sat in his room, the sky still dark. He wasn't to receive the seal until the sun rose, a new life beginning with the kiss of light to the sky, and he hadn't been able to sleep at all. His thoughts kept racing and stopping, his mind a

Comments

[hyuuga_hiashiko]

She had been able to avoid this day for many years, but not even the Head of the Hyuuga could avoid Fate forever. Hiashiko rose an hour before the appointed time in order to prepare herself. She dressed in the same white-and-silver kimono she had worn months ago, when her eldest child had been demoted and her youngest put in his place.

When Hiashiko was ready, she left her rooms and made her way down the halls to the Sealing Room. Typically, a common sealing would have required only the Head and a few Elders, but this one was different. The child of the Head was being sealed--the eldest child--and as such, it would be quite the spectacle.

Hiashiko glided through the small clusters of Elders and Main Family memebers already waiting outside the room. It was her right to enter first, and she did so, the others flocking in behind her. As the seconds passed, the room filled to near capacity.

Hanabi would arrive soon, followed shortly by his brother. Her Heir would play a significant part in this ceremony; Hiashiko knew he wouldn't disappoint him. He had solemnly taken the small pouch of ashes the day before, and he wouldn't forget them.

She waited, smooth-faced, serene, the embodiment of what a Hyuuga should be.

[white_sky_eyes]

Like his brother, Hanabi hadn't gotten any sleep, and he knew the two of them were in the same situation because he'd repeatedly used his Byakugan to check up on Hinaji all through the night.

He'd been worried. But all Hinaji had done was lie there. Not doing a thing.

Typical.

He'd silently come up behind Hinaji en route to the Sealing Room. The two of them were almost there now, not a word exchanged as they made their way through the dark compound. The pouch of ceremonial ashes his mother had asked him to take was occupying one of Hanabi's hands, but the other was just limp at his side.

He should be doing something. He should be protecting his brother. He should...

"Hinaji..."

He should say something, at least.

"...niisan..."

Hanabi gave it up and looked down. There wasn't anything he could say.

[hyuuga_hinaji]

Stuck in his own little world, he barely heard his brother's soft voice behind him. Pausing his steady march towards his sealing, Hinaji turned to look back at Hanabi, frowning slightly. Why was he looking down? The heir shouldn't ever look at the ground...right?

"...Hanabi."

Things were still strange between them, although the rift that had separated them (made in part because of Hinaji's belief there already was one) had shortened, but it would take a long time for them to be close. If they ever were.

But still, it was nice to be able to talk, even if it was strained. And under less than ideal circumstances.

"...Good morning." Somehow, even standing before the doors to the Sealing Room, the words weren't hollow or bitter.

[white_sky_eyes]

"It's really not," Hanabi answered, almost exasperated with his brother's kindness. His sacrificial nature. He was so different to all the others in the clan and Hanabi realized it more and more every time something like this happened.

But there still wasn't anything to say. Hanabi had his part to play in this, and for just that second as he looked at Hinaji's face he understood that his elder brother could never do what he was about to.

In some warped but obvious way Hanabi wondered if it all wasn't more merciful this way. But, of course, mercy didn't come into this. They were Hyuuga and nothing else.

"I... You don't have to forgive me for this," he said, looking his brother in the face for a moment before turning away sharply and preceeding his brother's arrival into the Sealing Room.

[hyuuga_hinaji]

"There's nothing to forgive," he said softly, watching his brother's back before following him into the room, taking a deep breath and hoping he would be strong enough for this. Hoped he hadn't just lied.

But seeing all the Elders and prominent members of the Main House, his mother standing in the center of them all, he wasn't sure how he found the nerve to step into the center of the room and look straight at Hiashiko.

Words weren't really needed.

[hyuuga_hiashiko]

Hiashiko had really tried not to think about how Hinaji would arrive this dawn. But now, when he looked at her--really and truly looked at her, without any prompting of her own--she felt a small surge of something.

Pride.

He had never been the sort of strength she needed him to be. Yet in the moment where she was going to reject him, he was what she had hoped he would be all these years.

Fate, it seemed, really did enjoy these sorts of ironies.

Hanabi was by her side, the little pouch of ashes in his hand. She kept her silence for another moment, drawing the attention to herself as they all waited for her to speak.

"This morning," she began, "another member of this family will be dedicated to the protection of our bloodline." The words were part of the tradition, along with the ashes, and there would be no deviations from it today, even if it was her child. "We thank him for accepting this burden and express to him our confidence that he will serve faithfully, even unto death."

[white_sky_eyes]

Lips pressed into a pale line, Hanabi held himself very still at attention as his mother spoke. He just looked at his brother's pale face and waited until it was his turn to take part in this... ceremony.

Even unto death. Well that was rich, Hinaji wasn't going to die so long as Hanabi had anything to say about it. Which he did because he was the Heir now. He'd take care of his brother, he'd make up for what he was about to help the clan do.

His mother's words hung for a slow moment in the air, and Hanabi stepped forward. The pouch of ashes in his hand seemed to weigh a ton.

It was time for Hinaji to kneel down so the seal could be marked on... and then made real.

[hyuuga_hinaji]

The words were only sound to him, passing through the air around him. Throughout the speech his eyes never left his mother, and only when Hanabi stepped forward did Hinaji finally react.

Kneeling slowly, he was surprised to find he wasn't shaking. Perhaps he was too numb, or perhaps he'd actually come to terms with this. He wasn't sure, and he didn't have the capacity to wonder about it. There would be no point to, anyway.

The ashes were cool against his skin, almost soothing compared to the burning heat he was waiting to sear into his skin next.

[hyuuga_hiashiko]

She watched Hanabi as he confidently marked the seal in gray ashes on Hinaji's forehead. She watched Hinaji as he knelt, composed, outwardly unafraid.

They were her sons. And in this instant, she felt that connection as she never had before. They were hers. Both of them.

"...a role as your son, I would hope, Hiashiko-sama." Yuuhi's words coming now were an irritant. "...I am Hinaji's instructor. I'm supposed to be his superior officer.

"Not his mother."

Hiashiko stepped forward to her place when Hanabi moved aside. She examined the seal inscribed in ashes, and then looked down into her eldest son's eyes.

Perhaps it was too late to be Hinaji's mother. She wouldn't blame him if that were the case. Her own twin had changed with the seal, and they had been close before that. And in all honesty, Hiashiko knew the likelihood of her being the sort of mother Hinaji needed was remote.

But she could try.

There were no words that would comfort him at this point in time, none that she could offer against the pain. The best she could manage would be to finish this quickly.

Her hands came together, flashing through one seal after another. A sickly green chakra flared around her hands, licking at the sleeves of her kimono. Hiashiko reached out and pressed a glowing fingertip to the center of the ashes.

[hyuuga_hinaji]

The pain was intense, more than he had ever imagined it could be. And he tried not to scream, he did, but it hurt, so much, and he could hear himself yelling as the seal was burned into his forehead, chakra coursing through him.

Even when she pulled her hand away, the seal complete, the burning did not lessen. Just smoldered and spread, changing everything about who he was.

He was a Branch House member now. He could never be the same.

Eventually, throat raw, his cries died down and he fought the urge to curl up into a ball. It had been shameful enough that he'd screamed; he didn't want to look even less in the eyes of everyone present.

But then they was moving, the ceremony over, and soon it was just him, his mother, and his brother. He stood carefully, nearly fell, and stood again. It was hard to see, his vision blurry and dark, but he bowed slowly to his mother. And then he was turning to leave, leaving with Hanabi to go lie down before he could go find Kiba and Hoshino.

He didn't look back.