[Naruto] Things that could have happened had Hizashi been the older son - 5
Title: Things that could have happened had Hizashi been the older son (or: a cage is a cage is a curse, dammit.)
Author: runespoor7
Rating: PG-13
Summary: series of unrelated drabbles/ficlets. So far, drabbles include various flavours of implied Neji-Hina-Naru combinations , but it's really Hyuuga-centered gen with occasional cameos of other characters.
Notes: I'm a wimp, thus I even write AUs of my AUs.
previous bunks of drabbles: 1 2 3 4
8. chuunin exam - take 3
A glance to Lee informed Tenten that she hadn't imagined the noise. Swiftly, she picked her katana up from its resting place next to her, muffling the sound of the blade sliding out of its sheath in the grass. Lee was already on his feet, shoulders taut, waiting for Neji's signal.
But instead of designating where the enemy was coming from, with the jerk of his chin that made him look both brisk and stoic, Neji only motioned them to halt.
"Stay put."
Tenten exchanged a look with Lee, but they knew better than to question Neji's order. Even his genjutsu, which was his weakest ability, was the best of the team's; unlike Lee, he wasn't tempted to fight by himself without letting the team know about it; and the Byakugan's sensorial input was valuable. There was a reason why Team Gai was by far the most competent and professional of all the genin teams in Konoha.
Neji stood up - unfolded, Tenten thought, vaguely wishing she'd been that elegant when she was at the Academy.
"You can come out, the three of you," he called in a clear voice.
Three genins slowly came into the clearing. One of them - Inuzuka, Tenten identified by the puppy sitting on his head - sent an ugly glare Neji's way. Konoha genins. Rookies, even.
Tenten put her katana back on the grass and crouched again on her tree stump, though she didn't let go of the weapon. Lee's position relaxed.
One of the genins was walking slightly before the others. It was a girl, with short blue-black hair and the most practical-looking, non-seductive parka Tenten had ever seen. More importantly - eyes. Hyuuga.
"Neji-sama," the girl intoned.
Tenten couldn't repress a start. Sama? She wasn't the only one surprised, judging by the Inuzuka's gaping. She quickly glanced at Neji (Neji-sama?) but he looked as composed as ever. As if it was normal, expected.
Tenten felt a jolt of guilt or unease. Of course she knew Neji was the Hyuuga heir, and the Hyuuga was the premier clan of Konoha, but neither she nor Lee had ever called Neji by any honorific… Maybe it was because they weren't from shinobi clans; but even back at the Academy, it had been that way too.
The Hyuuga girl was bowing a few meters away from Neji.
Not just a drawn-out nod; she was bowing at the neck too.
Her other teammate, the one with the sunglasses and the high-collared jacket - Aburame? - shifted. The Inuzuka looked as ill-at-ease as Tenten felt, and Lee - Lee had actually taken a few steps back, away from Neji.
"Hinata," he answered.
There was a pause Tenten imagined should have been filled by congratulations they'd made it this far and confirmations that they were alright.
He regarded her for a moment, with a remote expression Tenten couldn't remember him ever taking, almost distracted. It was like she - the girl, Hinata - wasn't there.
The silence of the Forest hung heavily upon the group.
Tenten found herself wishing for an attack. She realised she was gripping the hilt of her katana too tight, and she forced herself to relax. There was no reason to be uneasy. None at all.
Please let the Inuzuka blurt out something. Anything.
Finally Neji spoke up again. Tenten almost stopped breathing again when she saw the girl - Hinata - straightening, because it meant that - she'd kept her head bowed until then. Even then, her eyelids were still lowered.
"My team needs a Sky scroll. What is yours?"
No comprehending, Tenten stared at him. She could read nothing on his face. Not because it was closed-off, but because he looked so normal.
The girl's shoulders hunched, but that was her only reaction.
"Sky, Neji-sama."
Tenten watched with horrified eyes as she put her hand in her pouch and retrieved the scroll, before taking the few steps that separated her from Tenten's teammate and handed the precious scroll to him.
The heir to the Hyuuga took it and put it in his own pouch, next to his team's Earth scroll.
The spell broke.
Amidst the surrounding chaos, silent and motionless like black-and-white engravings against the coloured blur of a movie, only the two of them were looking as though what they had done was the normal, expected thing.
Tenten closed her eyes and refused to think about anything - about betrayal and powerlessness and loyalty. But she still felt the tears forming.
8. chuunin exam - take 3 alternate version
"My team needs a Sky scroll. What is yours?"
Kiba stared dumbly at the older genin, blinking a few times as he tried to wrap his mind around the question. Where did that come from? They were supposed to defend their scroll, like hell they were going to go around and answering people's questions about it!
Not that Kiba thought the older team was going to fight them for it - they were Konoha genins, and Hinata and that stuck-up jerk were family - but there might be people listening in. Some enemies couldn't be detected by the Byakugan; who'd ever suspect an ant crawling up your leg? Not Kiba if he hadn't met Shino, that was for sure.
He was huffing with indignation when he saw Hinata's small form hunching under the other's watchful gaze.
And then lightning struck him.
Hinata called him Neji-sama. Hinata was a Hyuuga.
Kiba frantically searched through his memory for anything, anything that might let him understand what was going on, cursing himself when he found nothing, nothing.
Nothing in more than a year with Hinata, nothing in a year spent trying to surprise a laugh out of her, nothing when he tried to get her to stop training, you're hurting yourself, not a word to explain why sometimes she had to leave early or to miss a day of training, nothing but the vague, all-purpose knowledge that it was 'Hyuuga stuff'.
And that had been enough, and he'd never pried - even when he wanted to, and occasionally he had wanted to, like the time they'd planned for a dinner in town with Kurenai-sensei and Hinata had excused herself just the day before - because usually he didn't think to see anything special about it, just clan stuff; and when he wanted to protest he never even broached the subject when she was there, because she'd just look down, looking sad, and Shino never did, of course he didn't, and Kurenai-sensei never did either, and Kiba knew if she let Hinata's absences go unquestioned there had to be a good reason.
She might not have a choice.
The thought was halfway there, rising like bile in his throat, when Hinata's soft voice answered.
"E-earth, Neji-sama." She stumbled a little on the first word.
She might get in serious trouble if she lied.
Hinata was the one carrying the scroll; Kiba remembered her picking it up and placing it in her pouch. It was Sky.
It was lucky that Kiba was too shocked to hear Hinata actually - answer, even if he'd understood she couldn't do otherwise, because then he didn't start, as he surely would have if he'd caught on before. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Shino start a little, almost nothing, and he was pretty sure he'd only been able to see that much because they'd been teammates for a year.
The Hyuuga heir gazed at Hinata a few seconds more; instinctively, Kiba tensed up.
If he called her a liar, if he insisted, then Konoha genin or not, and Hinata's family or not, Kiba was ripping him a new one.
She had made her choice, and Kiba'd stick with it no matter what. Akamaru let out a grumble of acquiescence. Peripherally Kiba was aware of the jerk's teammates, but neither of them looked like they wanted to get involved in any of this. If anything, they were looking more horrified than Kiba himself.
But he didn't. Instead, he merely shrugged, before turning to face the general direction of his teammates. It was as if the thought didn't even cross his mind she might not be telling the truth. As soon as he did, Hinata sagged - like a puppet whose master had let go of the strings.
"I h-hope you find the scroll you're looking for soon enough, Neji-sama," Hinata continued, almost startling Kiba out of his skin.
What was she doing?! He wanted to gesture frantically at her to drop it already, don't push your luck, he'll get suspicious.
Amazingly enough, he didn't even spare a glance her way while he was scattering the tell-tale signs a genin team had rested in the clearing.
"Hm."
It was like Hinata had ceased to exist now Neji wasn't looking at her anymore.
Kiba bristled. He didn't say anything; he didn't trust himself to keep control of his temper - not enough to keep the altercation from turning into a fight, and not enough to keep his wits to him if he was fighting Neji; he couldn't endanger the team's chances, and he couldn't attract the guy's attention back to Hinata.
Hinata slowly turned back; her head was lowered. Kiba and Shino fell into step next to her as she walked toward the bushes through which they'd come into the clearing. From behind him only came the sounds of Neji's putting things away. From the sounds of it, his teammates were still frozen on the spot.
That was a conversation he wouldn't have been looking forward, he thought, but then he couldn't imagine being in a team with that Hyuuga asshole at all without trying to kill him.
They walked through the forest on foot for a few more minutes, Kiba was too distracted, busily replaying the scene in his mind, to pay much attention.
"You could have got into trouble."
Kiba was shaken out of his thoughts by Shino's abrupt statement. His teammate was as unreadable as ever behind his sunglasses. Kiba looked at Hinata, awaiting her answer as well, honestly curious as to why she'd have taken such a risk, against her own - family wasn't a word he'd use about the Hyuuga anymore.
Now he'd seen the enslavement in the Hyuuga, his imagination was more than happy to fill in the blanks - which he'd already have known, his conscience said, if he'd been a better friend.
Not that he wasn't grateful she hadn't given the heir their scroll, course not, but… she'd gone against her clan. And from what he'd heard his mother grip about, things he hadn't understood at the time, the only more dangerous thing Hinata could have done was going against the village.
"I know," she said.
She was a little pale, but Kiba had never seen her looking that determined.
8. chuunin exam - take 3 alternate version continued
As he was tidying the remains of their camp, Neji didn't pay attention to his teammates. It wasn't that he was ignoring them, precisely; he was just focusing on his thought process.
"My team needs a Sky scroll. What is yours?"
Retrospectively, Neji wasn't sure what had come over him, to begin by stating the nature of his team's scroll. It had been a split-second impulse; one he wasn't sure what his father would think about should he know about it.
(The thought completely failed to cross Neji's mind that the only person from whom Hizashi would be likely to hear about this incident was him.)
He hadn't missed Hinata's uneasiness either; a part of him was insisting it was shame. She'd spoken after her initial answer as well, and it had sounded like an apology.
(He didn't imagine it may have been a promise.)
But that didn't matter. What mattered was that they still had to find a Sky scroll, since Hinata's team was also in the possession of an Earth scroll.
(Unless she'd lied, Neji acknowledged in the darkest, deepest part of his mind, the part that worked so deep so well-hidden that was as if he didn't even know what was going on there, the part that held all the unHyuuga-heir thoughts and feelings Neji would have honestly sworn he didn't have.
Unless she'd lied.
He hoped she had.)
Author: runespoor7
Rating: PG-13
Summary: series of unrelated drabbles/ficlets. So far, drabbles include various flavours of implied Neji-Hina-Naru combinations , but it's really Hyuuga-centered gen with occasional cameos of other characters.
Notes: I'm a wimp, thus I even write AUs of my AUs.
previous bunks of drabbles: 1 2 3 4
8. chuunin exam - take 3
A glance to Lee informed Tenten that she hadn't imagined the noise. Swiftly, she picked her katana up from its resting place next to her, muffling the sound of the blade sliding out of its sheath in the grass. Lee was already on his feet, shoulders taut, waiting for Neji's signal.
But instead of designating where the enemy was coming from, with the jerk of his chin that made him look both brisk and stoic, Neji only motioned them to halt.
"Stay put."
Tenten exchanged a look with Lee, but they knew better than to question Neji's order. Even his genjutsu, which was his weakest ability, was the best of the team's; unlike Lee, he wasn't tempted to fight by himself without letting the team know about it; and the Byakugan's sensorial input was valuable. There was a reason why Team Gai was by far the most competent and professional of all the genin teams in Konoha.
Neji stood up - unfolded, Tenten thought, vaguely wishing she'd been that elegant when she was at the Academy.
"You can come out, the three of you," he called in a clear voice.
Three genins slowly came into the clearing. One of them - Inuzuka, Tenten identified by the puppy sitting on his head - sent an ugly glare Neji's way. Konoha genins. Rookies, even.
Tenten put her katana back on the grass and crouched again on her tree stump, though she didn't let go of the weapon. Lee's position relaxed.
One of the genins was walking slightly before the others. It was a girl, with short blue-black hair and the most practical-looking, non-seductive parka Tenten had ever seen. More importantly - eyes. Hyuuga.
"Neji-sama," the girl intoned.
Tenten couldn't repress a start. Sama? She wasn't the only one surprised, judging by the Inuzuka's gaping. She quickly glanced at Neji (Neji-sama?) but he looked as composed as ever. As if it was normal, expected.
Tenten felt a jolt of guilt or unease. Of course she knew Neji was the Hyuuga heir, and the Hyuuga was the premier clan of Konoha, but neither she nor Lee had ever called Neji by any honorific… Maybe it was because they weren't from shinobi clans; but even back at the Academy, it had been that way too.
The Hyuuga girl was bowing a few meters away from Neji.
Not just a drawn-out nod; she was bowing at the neck too.
Her other teammate, the one with the sunglasses and the high-collared jacket - Aburame? - shifted. The Inuzuka looked as ill-at-ease as Tenten felt, and Lee - Lee had actually taken a few steps back, away from Neji.
"Hinata," he answered.
There was a pause Tenten imagined should have been filled by congratulations they'd made it this far and confirmations that they were alright.
He regarded her for a moment, with a remote expression Tenten couldn't remember him ever taking, almost distracted. It was like she - the girl, Hinata - wasn't there.
The silence of the Forest hung heavily upon the group.
Tenten found herself wishing for an attack. She realised she was gripping the hilt of her katana too tight, and she forced herself to relax. There was no reason to be uneasy. None at all.
Please let the Inuzuka blurt out something. Anything.
Finally Neji spoke up again. Tenten almost stopped breathing again when she saw the girl - Hinata - straightening, because it meant that - she'd kept her head bowed until then. Even then, her eyelids were still lowered.
"My team needs a Sky scroll. What is yours?"
No comprehending, Tenten stared at him. She could read nothing on his face. Not because it was closed-off, but because he looked so normal.
The girl's shoulders hunched, but that was her only reaction.
"Sky, Neji-sama."
Tenten watched with horrified eyes as she put her hand in her pouch and retrieved the scroll, before taking the few steps that separated her from Tenten's teammate and handed the precious scroll to him.
The heir to the Hyuuga took it and put it in his own pouch, next to his team's Earth scroll.
The spell broke.
Amidst the surrounding chaos, silent and motionless like black-and-white engravings against the coloured blur of a movie, only the two of them were looking as though what they had done was the normal, expected thing.
Tenten closed her eyes and refused to think about anything - about betrayal and powerlessness and loyalty. But she still felt the tears forming.
8. chuunin exam - take 3 alternate version
"My team needs a Sky scroll. What is yours?"
Kiba stared dumbly at the older genin, blinking a few times as he tried to wrap his mind around the question. Where did that come from? They were supposed to defend their scroll, like hell they were going to go around and answering people's questions about it!
Not that Kiba thought the older team was going to fight them for it - they were Konoha genins, and Hinata and that stuck-up jerk were family - but there might be people listening in. Some enemies couldn't be detected by the Byakugan; who'd ever suspect an ant crawling up your leg? Not Kiba if he hadn't met Shino, that was for sure.
He was huffing with indignation when he saw Hinata's small form hunching under the other's watchful gaze.
And then lightning struck him.
Hinata called him Neji-sama. Hinata was a Hyuuga.
Kiba frantically searched through his memory for anything, anything that might let him understand what was going on, cursing himself when he found nothing, nothing.
Nothing in more than a year with Hinata, nothing in a year spent trying to surprise a laugh out of her, nothing when he tried to get her to stop training, you're hurting yourself, not a word to explain why sometimes she had to leave early or to miss a day of training, nothing but the vague, all-purpose knowledge that it was 'Hyuuga stuff'.
And that had been enough, and he'd never pried - even when he wanted to, and occasionally he had wanted to, like the time they'd planned for a dinner in town with Kurenai-sensei and Hinata had excused herself just the day before - because usually he didn't think to see anything special about it, just clan stuff; and when he wanted to protest he never even broached the subject when she was there, because she'd just look down, looking sad, and Shino never did, of course he didn't, and Kurenai-sensei never did either, and Kiba knew if she let Hinata's absences go unquestioned there had to be a good reason.
She might not have a choice.
The thought was halfway there, rising like bile in his throat, when Hinata's soft voice answered.
"E-earth, Neji-sama." She stumbled a little on the first word.
She might get in serious trouble if she lied.
Hinata was the one carrying the scroll; Kiba remembered her picking it up and placing it in her pouch. It was Sky.
It was lucky that Kiba was too shocked to hear Hinata actually - answer, even if he'd understood she couldn't do otherwise, because then he didn't start, as he surely would have if he'd caught on before. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Shino start a little, almost nothing, and he was pretty sure he'd only been able to see that much because they'd been teammates for a year.
The Hyuuga heir gazed at Hinata a few seconds more; instinctively, Kiba tensed up.
If he called her a liar, if he insisted, then Konoha genin or not, and Hinata's family or not, Kiba was ripping him a new one.
She had made her choice, and Kiba'd stick with it no matter what. Akamaru let out a grumble of acquiescence. Peripherally Kiba was aware of the jerk's teammates, but neither of them looked like they wanted to get involved in any of this. If anything, they were looking more horrified than Kiba himself.
But he didn't. Instead, he merely shrugged, before turning to face the general direction of his teammates. It was as if the thought didn't even cross his mind she might not be telling the truth. As soon as he did, Hinata sagged - like a puppet whose master had let go of the strings.
"I h-hope you find the scroll you're looking for soon enough, Neji-sama," Hinata continued, almost startling Kiba out of his skin.
What was she doing?! He wanted to gesture frantically at her to drop it already, don't push your luck, he'll get suspicious.
Amazingly enough, he didn't even spare a glance her way while he was scattering the tell-tale signs a genin team had rested in the clearing.
"Hm."
It was like Hinata had ceased to exist now Neji wasn't looking at her anymore.
Kiba bristled. He didn't say anything; he didn't trust himself to keep control of his temper - not enough to keep the altercation from turning into a fight, and not enough to keep his wits to him if he was fighting Neji; he couldn't endanger the team's chances, and he couldn't attract the guy's attention back to Hinata.
Hinata slowly turned back; her head was lowered. Kiba and Shino fell into step next to her as she walked toward the bushes through which they'd come into the clearing. From behind him only came the sounds of Neji's putting things away. From the sounds of it, his teammates were still frozen on the spot.
That was a conversation he wouldn't have been looking forward, he thought, but then he couldn't imagine being in a team with that Hyuuga asshole at all without trying to kill him.
They walked through the forest on foot for a few more minutes, Kiba was too distracted, busily replaying the scene in his mind, to pay much attention.
"You could have got into trouble."
Kiba was shaken out of his thoughts by Shino's abrupt statement. His teammate was as unreadable as ever behind his sunglasses. Kiba looked at Hinata, awaiting her answer as well, honestly curious as to why she'd have taken such a risk, against her own - family wasn't a word he'd use about the Hyuuga anymore.
Now he'd seen the enslavement in the Hyuuga, his imagination was more than happy to fill in the blanks - which he'd already have known, his conscience said, if he'd been a better friend.
Not that he wasn't grateful she hadn't given the heir their scroll, course not, but… she'd gone against her clan. And from what he'd heard his mother grip about, things he hadn't understood at the time, the only more dangerous thing Hinata could have done was going against the village.
"I know," she said.
She was a little pale, but Kiba had never seen her looking that determined.
8. chuunin exam - take 3 alternate version continued
As he was tidying the remains of their camp, Neji didn't pay attention to his teammates. It wasn't that he was ignoring them, precisely; he was just focusing on his thought process.
"My team needs a Sky scroll. What is yours?"
Retrospectively, Neji wasn't sure what had come over him, to begin by stating the nature of his team's scroll. It had been a split-second impulse; one he wasn't sure what his father would think about should he know about it.
(The thought completely failed to cross Neji's mind that the only person from whom Hizashi would be likely to hear about this incident was him.)
He hadn't missed Hinata's uneasiness either; a part of him was insisting it was shame. She'd spoken after her initial answer as well, and it had sounded like an apology.
(He didn't imagine it may have been a promise.)
But that didn't matter. What mattered was that they still had to find a Sky scroll, since Hinata's team was also in the possession of an Earth scroll.
(Unless she'd lied, Neji acknowledged in the darkest, deepest part of his mind, the part that worked so deep so well-hidden that was as if he didn't even know what was going on there, the part that held all the unHyuuga-heir thoughts and feelings Neji would have honestly sworn he didn't have.
Unless she'd lied.
He hoped she had.)