The day after his birthday, `Naruto' showed up at the academy with dark circles under his eyes. As well as he handled things in front of the Hokage, when he returned home to his apartment, he quickly broke down. His own father had cursed him to the life he was leading. The Hyuuga branch seal sounded like a dream after the pain the villager's ignorance had caused him. He had spent so much time brooding that the night slipped away and he hadn't slept at all, or had time to dye his hair. Furthermore, he still couldn't decide which would be worse, the branch family seal, or the Kyuubi. One thing he knew was that he wouldn't take both. Even if it meant never seeing his family, he wouldn't take the Hyuugabunkejuinjutsu.
Sitting in class, his attention turned to his sister. Hinata was sitting quietly, reading a book while ignoring the clamor of the classroom while waiting for the teacher to start class. He didn't know much about his sister, other than she was the heiress of the Hyuuga clan and was born a minute before he was. He knew she was quiet and shy, although he didn't know why, and he knew that there was another Hyuuga in the academy, one year above both of them. He quickly resolved himself to find out more about her…after he took a nice nap.
Hinata wasn't actually reading a book. Well, she was reading, but the book was just a cover. Instead of the normal pages, there was her new schedule for training with her father. Normally, she would train with her father only if he wasn't busy, and when he was, she would train with a branch family member or watch over her younger sister, Hanabi. The curious thing about her new schedule was that it involved learning things other than the jyuken taijutsu style that she was becoming used to. Space was set aside for specific techniques that would be needed for graduation as well as sealing. She knew the purpose behind the sealing exercises, the bunke juinjutsu. The thought of the seal brought back thoughts of her brother. If he had survived, he would have the seal placed on him to serve as her protector. But that didn't make any sense, it was the older sibling's responsibility to protect the younger, not the other way around. Suddenly, she felt as if someone was watching her. She quietly activated her byakugan by forming the required hand seals. She wasn't good enough to do it without them yet, a fact that the council members never forgot to mention when they observed her.
The culprit was none other than Uzumaki Naruto. She didn't know much about him, just that he was an orphan (which the teachers liked to point out) and that he was loud. But in the instance when she saw him through the black and white view of her blood limit, she saw sadness, anger, and uncertainty pass through his features. Another thing that she knew was that under no circumstance was Uzumaki Naruto uncertain. She resolved herself to find out what could make the boy feel that way…after she finished her training.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
As Naruto was leaving the academy he noticed that the Sandaime was waiting for him over by his favorite swing.
“Hello, Naruto-kun how was your day?” The old man asked
“Alright, I…didn't get much sleep last night, so…” he broke of, trying to stifle a yawn.
`It seems that he took it worse than it appeared.' Sarutobi thought, before putting an arm around the boy and leading him back to his office.
Hinata noticed the closeness of the duo and noted it to herself, before scampering back to the compound for her training. But when she arrived, she discovered that her father wasn't there.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Upon reaching Sarutobi's office, Naruto was shocked to discover Hyuuga Hiashi sitting down, as if waiting for them. The shock of seeing his father, and realizing that he would have to talk with him made him drop the Henge he had been using all day.
“O-Otousan!” He stammered, not sure what to do or say. He got the urge to both attack and flee from the man.
“Haran…I -I wish to apologize for my decision.” The son was astounded that his father would apologize. Sure, maybe someday, but not right off the bat. “I am sorry to say that I thought you would be better off the container of a demon than with the branch family seal. When I see the response of the villagers…not a day goes by that I don't second guess my decision. Will you ever be able to forgive me for separating you from your family?”
Naruto/Haran was speechless. He was having a rather hard time incorporating these dual personalities, and the fact that he had the head of `the strongest clan in Konoha' asking for his forgiveness was something that he wasn't used to in either role.
“Otousan…I-I just don't know… the Naruto part of me wants to desperately have a family, as does the Hyuuga part of me…but I don't know that I can forgive you…at least now. Perhaps later, but…I just don't know.”
That was about as good as Hiashi was expecting. He knew deep down that his son wasn't going to be able to forgive him immediately
“I understand. Please allow me to train you, in an attempt to make up for my error.” Haran couldn't believe his ears, his father was basically pleading to train him!
“Of course I'd like to get training! I don't know much about the Hyuuga fighting style, and even less about the byakugan.”
Hiashi smiled. There was still a chance for him to make up for the decision he made.
“I was going to train your sister today; however, I think it would be best if the two of you got reacquainted. If you want, that is.”
Haran just nodded his head before excusing himself to use the restroom before training.
“A word of advice, Hiashi-sama,” Sarutobi addressed the stoic man. “He has more energy than any shinobi I have ever known, so for a Hyuuga, he will seem extremely hyper. In short, he will run you ragged!” There was a smile on the old man's lips that showed how funny he thought the situation was.
Haran re-entered the room and fell into step behind Hiashi as he exited.
“Haran, it will not do to train inside the Hyuuga compound. If you are seen it will raise too many alarms. Go to training area forty-four. No one will see us there. I will go collect your sister.”
Haran nodded before leaping away toward the designated training area, the forest of death.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Hinata was walking through the garden of the Hyuuga estates, not concentrating on anything in particular, when her father's voice sounded from the entrance.
“Hinata, I'm sorry I wasn't here earlier, something important came up. Come with me, we will begin your training. I have selected a rather…familiar sparing partner for you.”
Hinata nodded her head and followed her father. She grimaced internally as she assumed that it would be her cousin Neji that she would be fighting. She could never beat him, no matter what she did. In retrospect, she would never be so happy to be wrong.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Hinata was confused. Her father had told her that he would train her, yet so far all they had done was walk out of the Hyuuga compound and head towards a seemingly random training area. She supposed the fact that they were sneaking around could be considered training, but something told her that it wasn't a part of an exercise.
The first thing that Hinata noticed when she entered the forest of death was how incredibly large everything seemed. She continued to follow her father, who had activated his byakugan, deeper into the forest until he stopped a few hundred meters in.
“I am impressed, that is very convincing for someone your age.”
Hinata was confused. Surely he hadn't been complimenting her, but…then who? There wasn't anyone around. She activated her byakugan and saw a dome of chakra, right where there had been a fallen tree trunk. Cutting off the chakra flow to her eyes she gazed at her father with an inquisitive look on her face.
“Otousan, what is that?” She asked staring at the tree trunk and simultaneously holding onto her father's hand.
“That is what you will see every time you see someone use a henge through your byakugan. Now if he would be so kind as to drop it, it is time you met your sparing partner.”
The illusion quickly disappeared revealing a boy with spiky dark hair and white/lavender eyes. He wore orange pants that were just like Naruto's along with a black shirt…and had the same hair style…but he was definitely a Hyuuga, the byakugan was enough proof.
“I'm afraid that it's time I come clean about something Hinata…Haran, he isn't dead…or missing…just hidden so that the council cannot find him. I made a choice when you were born to hide him, hide him so that the council couldn't force their seal onto him like they did your uncle and your cousin. The Yondaime hid him away under the guise of one of your classmates.”
`Niisan is…is alive? He's one of my classmates? He…oh dear its' “Naruto…I mean Haran-niisan!” The normally timid girl raced at, what could be considered `break-neck speed', at her long lost sibling before tackling him to the ground in a hug and crying.
“Nee-sama…I…I-“He was cut off by his sister's sobs.
After a few minutes, Hinata calmed down enough to speak normally. “You don't have to call me nee-sama, otouto; the council is always telling me how you would make a better heir than I.”
“That's a lie! I don't even know anything about using our blood limit. The scrolls that the Hokage gave me just covered the history of the different clans, nothing about using any techniques. Besides, I doubt they'd say that if they knew…”
Hiashi had stood their watching his offspring reacquaint themselves after six long years. The news that the clan council had been sabotaging his daughter's training came as a shock and he would find a way to correct that. He cleared his throat to break the silence.
“Hinata, I am sorry to hear that the council has been doing such things, I will work on a way to fix that. However, now is the time for training, so Hinata I want you to work on your forms, while I teach your brother how to activate his byakugan.”
Hinata nodded and walked over to the trunk her brother had been sitting on and began to practice as she watched through her byakugan as her brother attempted to awaken his own eyes.
“The Hokage tells me that you have already done the tree climbing exercise, is that correct?” Hiashi was trying to figure out the extent of his son's abilities.
“Hai and I've started on water walking, but haven't had too much time to work on that.”
“Tree walking will be sufficient control to activate the byakugan. To do so, you must channel increasing amounts of chakra into the area around your eyes. Your body will naturally move the chakra to the specific pathways, but you must start small! If you use too much chakra you will overload the pathways. Best case scenario you get a giant headache from blowing out the pathways around your eyes, making you useless to the clan. Worst case scenario, you blow out your eyes, making you worthless to the clan.”
Haran gulped; he never knew that activating his byakugan could result in the destruction of his eyes.
“The trick is to start very small, and slightly increase the amount of chakra until your eyes activate. As you become better at manipulating your chakra you can learn to activate your eyes without hand seals. Once you've activated your eyes for the first time, I will teach you the seals that will allow you to use just the correct amount to activate the byakugan.”
Haran took his time and followed his father's directions carefully and slowly. After a few minutes he was successful in activating his bloodline limit. The bulging veins around his eyes made the nondescript lavender stand out around his face. The sensation he received was amazing. He could see very far away, as if he were looking through binoculars. He could see the chakra pathways of his father and sister and for the briefest of seconds; he thought he could see the tenketsu on his sister's hand as she attacked her target.
“Very impressive…you were able to grasp the idea of that quickly. Now, let us begin the true training.”
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
A very tired Haran drug himself through the door of his apartment. He had worked himself into the ground trying to catch up to Hinata when it came to the jyuken. It sure was a demanding style, hardly any of the information he had read about it did it justice. One good thing was that the information that Sarutobi had given him on anatomy were extremely helpful by itself, and when combined with the jyuken just made closing tenketsu easier. It would be tough work, but Hyuuga Haran didn't know the meaning of the word quit. It was too bad that he was forced to keep up the identity of Uzumaki Naruto, but if it protected his neesan than it was worth it.
Hinata was just as happy and as tired as her brother. She wasn't such a failure after all! Her father had told her that for her age her jyuken was good. It might not be at her cousin's level, but then he was a year older. She was sad that Haran couldn't live with them, but she wouldn't force him to accept the branch seal just for her own gain. She could be with him during class and when they were training, as long as they were careful that no one spotted them. That night, both twins went to bed happier than they had been in years, looking forward to tomorrow.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
(A/N: WOW! I was surprised that so many of you liked this story. I figured that it would just sort of float behindMirage, but so many people reviewed and said they loved it. The idea just struck me, when I was thinking about ways to explain away Hinata's attraction to Naruto without it being love. Guess it struck a chord somewhere. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter, it is a bit smaller than I usually write, but 5-6 pages is about as long as the chapters will get for awhile. If you want you can suggest pairings, but right now it will be Haran/Ino. I just like that.Please review and I'll keep writing.)
