Chapter 1
The Treaty
POV Hiashi Hyuuga
***
Hiashi Hyuuga sat beside Neji and took a drink of the tea that had been brought for them. The training had gone well that day and Hiashi was satisfied with Neji’s hard work, though he would never show it.
As they sat there catching their breath, a servant approached from the front gate.
“Hiashi-sama,” He bowed low, “The Hokage has requested your presence.”
Hiashi sighed. I hope she doesn’t try to involve herself in clan affairs again. It’s not her business. He stood and looked at the man. “Tell her I will come now.” The man bowed again “Yes-sir”.
Hiashi moved away from Neji, leaving the young man sitting by himself.
***
“Come in.”
Hiashi opened the door to the Hokage’s office. Tsunade was sitting hunched over her paperwork with Shizune standing in the background.
“Thank you for coming on such short notice, Hiashi-san”.
Hiashi bowed his head slightly in response. “What is it you want, Tsunade-sama?”
Tsunade narrowed her eyes. There had been no direct threat in his words but he had let his distain for her slip through.
“We have made peace with the Village Hidden in the Sun.”
Hiashi blinked. He could see how this would be an advantage to Konoha. The Sun village was a very strong ninja village. But he could also see why Tsunade had called him here and he didn’t like her reason.
“We will not make peace with the Faura Clan. There is too much blood between us.”
Tsunade sighed. “Somehow I knew you would say that. I know that the Hyuugas have been pitted against the Fauras for centuries- even before the villages were established, you were great enemies. But you must see that a peace treaty between our villages will not work if a clan here still holds enmity towards them.”
She took a drink of her tea, offering him some as well. When he waved her offer away she said, “The treaty between us and Sun is very important. Although they are small, they are a strong ninja clan. If they joined forces with the other villages, their strength combined with others could cause serious damages. I would rather have them on our side. As Hokage it is my duty to do what I can to keep this village safe. I have decided that the Sun village will become our allies. This means that the Hyuuga clan must put aside past offences and make peace with the Faura clan.”
Hiashi clenched his teeth, his fists curled tight until his knuckles turned white. “How are we supposed to do this? They would never allow an ambassador to visit. And I would not trust them enough to send one. We have not had dealings with them since the second Hokage’s lifetime. We have kept a semblance of peace. Isn’t that enough?”
Tsunade shook her head slowly. “No. It’s not enough. If another war were to break out, I need you to be willing to fight alongside the Faura clan. At this point all you are doing is avoiding each other at all costs to avoid conflict. I need you to make an alliance with them that will last. The Faura clan realizes this and they are willing to send an ambassador.”
Hiashi snarled, “And have them kill us in our sleep? No. That is not the solution either.”
“I have already given them leave to come. They will be stationed away from the Hyuuga compound and will be constantly under ANBU guard. They will be here in one week.”
Hiashi’s eyes flashed with anger. “Fine. We will deal with these ambassadors. However, I will be sending Hinata and Hanabi away. I don’t want another kidnap attempt.”
Tsunade nodded, “Do what you will. But make peace with them, Hiashi. We cannot afford such a strong clan as the Faura to join with our enemies.”
Hiashi huffed acknowledgment and strode from the room. Before the door swung shut he heard Tsunade say to Shizune, “I need a drink.”
He rolled his eyes inwardly and strode out of the building back to the Hyuuga compound. He needed to call a meeting of the clan.
***
POV Neji
Neji opened his door after hearing a light knock. A servant was standing there looking at the floor.
Neji scowled. “What?” he snapped.
“A clan meeting has been called and your presence was requested, Neji-sama.” She said with a bow.
He kept his cold stare on her for a moment before closing the door without a word. Neji hated how the servants cowered around him. He knew he scared them, and often used it to his advantage to get them to leave him alone. Of course it meant he had to clean his own room, but since he wasn’t particularly messy anyway, he didn’t mind. They would do any real cleaning while he was gone on missions.
Now as he walked towards the Main house he wondered why he had been called to this meeting. Usually he wasn’t called unless it specifically pertained to his ninja abilities. It had been a while since he had had a good mission. Maybe Hiashi would have something for him to do.
When he went into the hall it appeared he was one of the last ones to arrive. Anymore and we wont all fit in here he thought. Hyuugas were lining the walls, it felt too crowded.
As he looked around he noticed that it was not only ninja who were gathered, but also the elders of the clan. Those who controlled the clan like a puppet on strings.
Neji’s eyes narrowed. Why would everyone be here? It must be big to instigate such a meeting.
Hiashi stood near the front of the room. He waited until even the quiet murmur had died into silence before he spoke. “The Hokage has just given us some news.”
Neji noticed the Elders were not overly attentive to what he was saying. In fact they were scanning those ninjas in the room who were older. They already know. He saw Hinata standing across the room from him.
“She has informed me that for the benefit of Konoha, we have formed an alliance with the Village hidden in the Sun. And we must make peace with the Faura Clan.”
It was as if a bomb had gone off. “What!” “They are our greatest enemies!” “Why must we treat with them?”
Neji had heard little of the Faura clan. He knew that they were enemies of the Hyuuga clan, but he did not know that it was this big of a deal. And the Village in the Sun sounded vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t place where he had heard it.
Hiashi held up his hand. “I understand your reaction for mine was the same. But as leader of Konoha she has signed an alliance with the Sun Village. The only thing that stands between Konoha and this strong alliance with the Sun is our fight with the Faura. I can see her reasoning for wanting peace between us. Neither side has ever truly gained victory over the other. It would be better for our clan to accept this and try to make peace.”
He seemed to despise the idea as much as he saw the reasoning behind it. “The Faura have sent an ambassador, at the request of the Hokage, and will arrive in one week. Then we will proceed to try to make peace between our clans. There is much that we have to do in that time to make ourselves safe and ready. You are dismissed.”
Neji pushed himself away from the wall as Hiashi and the elders left the room. The remaining ninja were clustering together as the wandered from the hall; speaking to each other about the astonishing news they had heard.
As Neji passed one group composed of some of the older ninja he heard, “The Faura? Do you think it possible to make peace with them?” “Well, I heard they had a new leader a few years ago. But I never thought it would be someone willing to make peace.” “I refuse to fight beside them. In our last battle half of our clan was destroyed.” “They had about the same losses though. Maybe it is time we gave up trying to defeat them. It seems as though it is not our fate to beat them, nor theirs to beat us.” “If that is the case then peace would be the best option.”
Neji headed towards the Hyuuga library. He hated being ignorant. He was going to see what he could find on the Faura Clan and their history with his own clan.
“Neji-niisan?”
He looked over to see Hinata standing a little ways away. He did not respond to her call but he raised his eyebrows in silent expectation.
She hesitated. Since his fight with Naruto he had been much nicer to her. He would even go so far as to say they were friends. Not close friends by a long shot, but he respected her and listened to her when she spoke.
“I was wondering where you were going, and if I could accompany you?” she raised her eyes to look at him. He gazed at her for a second, considering how much more comfortable he would be if he was alone in the library.
He nodded his head slightly and began moving again as she stepped in beside him. They were silent for a while, until Neji decided to enquire after her reasons for coming.
“Why did you want to come along?”
Hinata looked at him. “I thought you might know more about the Faura clan than I would; and if you didn’t you would head for the library to find out. Either way, I knew that you would learn somehow and I want to know as well.”
Neji smirked. She was so different from the person she had been before. She was seventeen now, and she had just become a Jounin. She no longer stuttered and blushed her way through sentences but had grown into a confident young woman. Last year she had even told Naruto she liked him.
He opened the sliding panel that led into the library and switched on the light. The massive room was filled with books from floor to ceiling. This place was one of the great prides of the Hyuuga clan. They moved forward among the shelves and began searching among the scrolls for any clan history that had to do with the Faura clan.
About an hour later they were both seated at the table in the center of the room. Scrolls were piled high around them and they were methodically looking through them all. They both found several references to the Village hidden in the Sun, and to the Faura clan, but they could find nothing about the clan itself. Most were references to battles, where many had been lost. There was no specific information on what the clan did that made them so formidable.
It was very late when Neji closed the last scroll in frustration. He put away another stack of scrolls and went back to the table to see Hinata bent over her last scroll. She was scanning the words quickly. Neji doubted she would find anything better than what he had found.
Neji picked up the scrolls that she had already finished looking through and went to put the back on the shelf. As he was stacking them up he found another scroll that he had missed before. He picked it up and opened it. It was written pretty recently, within the last thirty years or so. He decided to glance through it to see of it came up with anything useful.
Within the scroll he found more references to battles with the Faura, but once again nothing specific about their power. Near the very end of the scroll, when he was starting to loose patience, he found a line that said “We now hold a very delicate peace between us, the Hyuuga and Faura. After our last battle, both clans agreed to avoid open confrontation unless openly provoked by the other side. It would save many lives and give us a chance to rebuild our strength.”
Neji now understood why he had not heard much of the Faura clan, but those not too much older than him knew of them. Their clans had battled into a temporary checkmate and were at an unstable peace for years. Now with the change of leadership in the Faura clan, it seems like true peace is a plausible option.
Neji carried the scroll to where Hinata was still reading her last scroll.
“I found something interesting, though it is not what I wanted.” Hinata looked up at him with interest. He told her what he had learned about the delicate peace that had been established and the change of power.
She nodded. “Yes. That makes sense. With a change of power, the clan might be more inclined towards peace.”
She leaned back over the scroll.
Neji put the scroll away and was about to tell Hinata to give up for now, when her eyes went from skimming the page, to picking out every word.
“Did you find something?”
“Yes, I think so… This is the oldest scroll I have found where the Faura are mentioned. I believe I came across the record of their first encounter with us. It says something about the war and a great battle between nations. Then it says ‘Our great Hyuuga clan came across its most dangerous foe, the Faura. When we faced them in battle we were confident of our skills, and so had no doubts to our victory. But when three days of raging battle had brought no victory to either side our fight came to a stop as we fell back to regroup, which they had done as well. In analyzing them they would seem to be at first glance weaker, but they are just as strong. At first glance they are slower, but they are just as fast. It seems as though two unbeatable forces have met each other in the meeting of our clan and theirs. However we will not back down. We will not prove weaker than these shape-shifters.”
Neji and Hinata both stopped reading there. Hinata stared at the scroll and then glanced at Neji in confusion.
“Shape-shifters?”
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Chapter notes: I dont own Naruto
Chapter end notes: I hope you like. :)