t a difference a year can make! When Hiashi looked back at the previous year, he was astounded by the progress that both Haran and Hinata made. He had anticipated that Haran would need at least a year and a half to catch up to Hinata, in terms of skills with the jyuken, but was surprised when his only son caught up with his eldest daughter in one year. Both twins could were skilled in the art of the gentle fist, and had far superior taijutsu to any academy student. Both had the ninjutsu skills necessary to pass the gennin exam at any moment, and both were very smart for their age. In terms of skills that the clan would find useful, Hinata, despite her quiet nature and thirst to please everyone, showed signs of being a very strong diplomat. It was the very nature that the council had reprimanded her for that drove her to end conflicts so that both parties were sated. It was because of this nature that she hid her true proficiency in the jyuken, so that her sister wouldn’t be branded with the bunke juinjutsu.
Haran had found his strengths in jyuken and in his clan's history. Jyuken offered him something that he could be good at and receive recognition in, while clan history was used to often help his sister in her mock negotiations, as well as further his own research into the reasons his father left him to the fate of being a demon container. But it wasn't just his own clan, but the other clans that had won fame throughout the ninja villages, like the Aburame, Uchiha, and Kaguya to name a few. Haran's memory was excellent when it came to recalling facts and especially laws. He had met his youngest sister, Hanabi twice, she was very young and couldn’t participate in the rigorous training that her older sibling were required to do.
Hanabi had just turned two in March, which was when Haran had first been introduced to his other sister. Hanabi didn’t have any of the physical characteristics of the twins, from her dark black hair and features that took after their father, while the twins took after their mother. Hanabi was growing quickly, like any child, and would begin learning jyuken in a year’s time. Unfortunately, Hanabi’s birthday, also marked the day that Haran’s mother, Hyuuga Sora fell into a coma and began to waste away. Haran was very depressed when he saw the state his mother was in. Who wouldn’t be, to see their mother slowly wasting away, her muscles dying, her body becoming smaller, despite the best treatments of the doctors.
In most maters, the duo of Haran and Hinata acted like...well...twins. Their Jyuken was on par with one another, with Haran holding the edge in one on one matches due to his stamina. But things like height, favorite colors and other such matters, they were nearly identical. Even at school, they were able to act like twins, right under the noses of their class mates and teachers.
The only sign that something was different in the lives of either of the two, at least outwardly, was that Hinata suddenly developed a ‘crush’ on ‘Uzumaki Naruto’. This was obviously a ploy to allow Hinata to be around her brother without garnering too much suspicion, even if it did become some what of a joke among the kunoichi of her class. Speaking of kunoichi, two certain girls were in the middle of a heated argument.
“No way Ino-pig! I saw him first!”
“Did not, forehead girl, I did!”
“No you didn’t! He’s mine all the way!”
“Hah! Like he’d go out with someone who’s forehead is as big as yours!”
This conversation wasn’t unusual to any villager or shinobi that passed the fighting duo of Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino. Their battles over the affections of Uchiha Sasuke were legendary, and this type of rivalry hadn’t been seen before between kunoichi of their age. Yep, this line of arguing would go one for blocks as the two walked down the road toward the Yamanaka flower shop.
However, today, the fight would change. Today, the duo would find a new boy to hero worship.
Sakura wouldn’t normally be hanging around with Ino, but her parents had ‘volunteered’ the pink haired girl to help around the flower shop to ‘teach her the value of hard work’.
‘I would rather be taught the value of hard work from a loud crazy guy wearing green spandex, than work with Ino-pig!’ Sakura ranted inside her mind.
‘I hope Sakura gets over that stuck up, cold Uchiha.’ Ino lamented. She didn’t really care for the kid, she thought he was too cold and had something shoved up his butt. She was only pretending to like him, so that Sakura could gain some confidence. If Ino was her competition, it would be easier than if it were other girls. Of course, every girl in Konoha was after Sasuke, well everyone but Hinata, but still, with Ino as her main competition, Sakura was able to be more confident around other people.
The two girls were sitting behind the counter of the shop, they weren’t allowed to handle the register, but they would go help people, or fetch flowers from the back if Ino’s parents needed anything. Ino’s father, Inoichi was out on a mission, but was expected back in a day or two, and Ino’s mother was upstairs when the door opened, and the bells attached to it jingled.
“Welcome to Yamanaka Flowers, can I help you?” Ino asked, without looking at the customer.
“Not right now, I’m just looking.” The customer replied. His voice was young, and Ino thought that he sounded about her age, but she didn’t recognize the voice.
‘Must be a civilian.’ She thought, looking up long enough to see the back of the boy’s head, which was a dark purplish.
For a while there was silence, as the new comer just walked around and looked at the various arrangements of flowers, while the two girls, ignored him in favor of doing homework (Sakura) or reading (Ino).
“I think I’ll take these.” The boy said, and placed a pot filled with white Bleeding Hearts.
“I’ll go get your mom, Ino.” Sakura murmured as she ran upstairs to fetch the blonde women.
Barely looking up at the flowers, Ino quickly asked “What do you want those for, anyway?”
“There, for my mom…she’s in the hospital.” The boy responded with a slight hint of sadness creeping into his voice, as Ino’s mom descended from the stairs.
“You know they’re slightly toxic, you need to be careful when you handle them.” Ino warned.
“Ino, that was unnecessary, he’s been coming here for the past three months to buy these flowers for his mom, I’m sure he knows about them by now!” Her mom scolded her and Ino had the decency to blush a slight crimson at the reprimand.
Sakura looked at the boy from her position at the bottom of the stair well. He had dark hair, but instead of dark eyes like one might suspect his were a light blue, that bordered on nearly transparent. He looked rather cute in her opinion, his eyes and hair contrasting with each other, and his slightly tanned skin spoke of the amount of time he spent outside.
‘Wait, I did not just think that this kid was cute! Sasuke-kun is cute, this kid is…well he’s…I mean…ok, so he might be cute, but not as much as Sasuke! Wait, I meant Sasuke-kun!’ Sakura’s inner monologue wasn’t noticed by anyone as she stared at the newcomer.
Ino finally looked up at the customer, and was floored. This kid wasn’t cute, he was hot! Well, as hot as a seven year old can be. His hair clashed with his eye color in a way that screamed ‘FAKE’ but it was so small that it didn’t seem like it. He was a bit on the skinny side, but just underneath the black shirt he wore, she could make out the faint indention of muscles that screamed ‘SHINOBI’ to the trained eye.
She hadn’t noticed that the boy had paid and was leaving the store, until her mother wished him a good day. Whipping her head around, Ino blurted out the first (sane) thing that came to her mind.
“Hey, what is your name?” She spoke rapidly, as if trying to cover something up.
The boy in question just turned around and locked eyes with her, before giving his reply.
“Haran.” He said before quickly disappearing out of the shop.
Haran’s less than adequate response to Ino’s question, left the blond dumbfounded, and gave Sakura some decent ammunition on her friend for their next argument over Sasuke.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
After his escape from the flower shop, Haran quickly made his way towards the hospital, via the rooftops of the neighboring houses and businesses. He entered the hospital and nodded at the receptionist who has accustomed to seeing the boy enter around this time every week. She wasn’t sure where he went, as every attempt to follow him was unsuccessful, but she didn’t really care too much. If someone was in the hospital, then their friends and family had every right to see them.
Haran walked to his mother’s room, before making sure that no one was around and double checked with a quick scan using his byakugan. Satisfied that no one would see him enter, he opened the door and entered, but didn’t drop the henge he had over his eyes until the door was fully closed.
Hyuuga Sora lay in the bed, in the exact same position as the last time he had visited. Her dark bluish black hair was long and pooled around her waist. Placing this weeks offering next to the last one, which was looking a bit dry, he took a chair and sat next to his mother. After a bit of silence, Haran took his mom’s left hand and placed his inside it, wondering what his mother’s touch would feel like if there were life behind it.
For a long time he didn’t say anything, he just held onto his mother as if the world would end if he let go.
“Tou-san said that Nee-chan and I were ready to start learning more advanced forms…I…I think you’d be really proud of Nee-chan, she’s been getting better and better all the time, and not just at fighting…something tells me you wouldn’t like that too much…she’s amazing at the political stuff…she beats me every time. Tou-san says I have this thing, where I always have to be right, so I don’t make as good as a negotiator…he’s right, I think.”
Things went silent again, Haran just looked at the floor or out the window, he didn’t dare look at his mother’s face. His mother was renown throughout the clan as a fearsome fighter, but an even more feared seal mistress. She had been working on a way to remove the branch family seal, but that information was very restricted, even to the wife of the clan head. It didn’t help that she was born into the branch family either. If one looked at the face of the comatose women, they would be easily able to see the faint mark of the seal, still visible on her forehead, even today. The seal was removed when she married Hiashi, but the imprint remained.
Giving into his urges, Haran finally looked at his mother’s face. Her pale skin nearly hid the long since healed scars from the seals removal, but if you knew where to look they were as plain as day. Tears began to well up in Haran’s eyes, as he looked at his mother’s face, a face that he had deprived both his sisters of.
It was two years ago, on March 27th, that the distrust and general hatred of the villagers boiled over. It was a day that was so unassuming that no one thought to be on the look out for ‘Naruto’s’ health, not even the boy himself. It started out a bit rough, he had woken up a bit late and was running as fast as he could through the town to make it to the orphanage he live at until he was given his current apartment by the Sandaime. He turned the corner to take a short cut towards the building, when suddenly, he was tripped up by the leg of a store owner, one who had always over charged him for what little he wanted or could afford to buy. As he slid along the ground, Naruto felt various scrapes and cuts form on his body, as small rocks and pebbles dug into his young skin. But the pain he felt from those would be minimal compared what was just around the bend. The force of his momentum sent his body skidding directly into the side of a neighboring stand. This bump startled the cart that the vendor was transporting his wares in and sent the animals still attached into a frenzy. The beasts bucked into the air and pulled forward, only for their reigns to pull them in the opposite direction, right towards Naruto.
He heard the commotion and tried to get up and move out of the way, but the trip he had taken tweaked his ankle, and moving was difficult. He was forced to try and crawl away, but was only partially successful. The wheels of the cart rolled directly over his legs, breaking the young boy’s femur in half.
It is said that the femur is the most painful bone to break, because when the bone snaps, the muscles of the leg are so strong, that they contract and force the bones to grate against each other as they rocket in opposite directions, tearing muscle and connective tissue in the process.
Naruto was quickly rushed to the hospital by one of the newer vendors in the area, where he was placed in a room and given some pain killers, while his bones were pulled back into position. It must have been a busy day for the hospital, because after his legs had been straightened back out and set, he was moved into a room next to a recovering Hyuuga Sora.
It was this experience, seeing her son laid out with two broken legs because of the village, that had sent her into her catatonic state, Haran was sure of it. He blamed himself for causing this situation and no one could convince him other wise. Of course, no one else knew about his theory, but he wasn’t planning on telling anyone soon.
Wiping the tears from his eyes, Haran once more donned his disguise and left his mother’s side.
“I’m sorry that you have to see me like this all the time.” He said, standing at the door, “but until my sisters are out of harm’s reach, you will have to see me like this. But one day, I will drop this accursed mask and I know that on that day, you will wake back up…to see your family…and me.” The last two words were added as an after statement, but he wanted them to be true none the less.
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Chapter notes: (A/N: Thanks for the support of my last couple chapters! I really appreciate the reviews you send me, and I hope you will keep them coming. This chapter was a bit difficult to get out, but I hope you like it, I decided (after a long and hard debate which was decided by a coin flip) to keep Haran’s mother alive, as she will move the main sub plot along much better. I don’t normally do this, but I’m going to give you guys a teaser/general idea of where this story will go.
By the time this story reaches the Naruto II arc, most of the action will be about the Hyuuga family and their various problems, with a bit of ninja action thrown in. I’m hoping to make this a deeper fic rather than a fighting one.
That’s just a heads up; it won’t be for a while. I hope everyone has a good holiday season, no matter which holiday it is.)