Characters: Hiashi, Hinata, Kō, Hanabi, Neji, Naruto (mentioned)
Summary: "You did what?" Hiashi exclaimed sadly, understanding what he wished he could not. Meanwhile, Hinata only looked away, biting her lip.
Pairings: onesided NaruHina
Author's Note: This takes place after the Pein Invasion arc, after Hiashi and Hanabi have returned to Konoha.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

The village was now a strange, foreign place to Hiashi, one where he kept a tense hand on Hanabi's shoulder at all times, and eyes alert even if the Byakugan was not activated.

A sea of sepulchral tents, white and flapping in a cold breeze, met his eyes, tents that seemed to rise like mushrooms out of the ground after a long rain. How much something could change in the simple week it took to travel to a nearby town to gather supplies.

Of course, Hiashi knew of everything that had happened, of the destruction that had been wrought over Konohagakure while he had been away.

He knew everything.

Except of how his elder daughter had nearly been killed during the battle.

-0-

"Hiashi-sama." With the clatter of a cane falling to the ground, Kō dropped to his knees in the grass with surprising alacrity for a man with a broken leg. The way he clenched his teeth informed Hiashi that Kō was in a considerable amount of pain, but still the Hyuuga Branch member knelt in a bow.

They were standing outside of what now passed for a hospital in Konoha—a gathering of large white tents connected by rope. Neji had been there to, and when Hiashi and Hanabi arrived the latter was immediately handed off to her cousin's care. Neji and Hanabi had quickly retreated back towards the camp that the Hyuuga had made. Hiashi mused that he was going to have to get someone to point out where that was, later.

Everything seemed so different, with no buildings. Hiashi knows that he would have been able to find his way home easily in the old days, probably blindfolded as well. But now… Now everything was strange to him. This didn't feel like Konoha anymore.

"Kō." Hiashi's voice was curt but not overtly threatening. "Would you mind telling me exactly what has happened to my daughter?"

Kō's face flushed with dark color, creating an odd effect considering his mop of fair hair (Kō was one of a small number of Hyuuga—including Neji, Hanabi and Hinata herself—who had a mother outside of the clan, accounting for his fair hair), though it was barely visible considering the darkness of the twilight. "Hiashi-sama, I… What I mean to say is…"

Hiashi's eyes narrowed. "Yes?"

The young Hyuuga—he was barely more than a boy, as Hiashi remembered; only twenty-two, if he recalled correctly—was practically squirming now, not only out of fear but out of shame at having failed to protect Hinata; Hiashi had appointed him her protector with the knowledge in mind that Kō was one of the few members of the Hyuuga Branch House truly fond of Hinata, and did not just claim allegiance to her out of grudging loyalty to her father.

"I was injured in the fighting—my leg was broken, Hiashi-sama—and she…" Kō spread his hands helplessly. "She, Hinata-sama, joined the thick of the fighting. I beg your forgiveness… I… I could not stop her."

The Hyuuga clan head found himself eyeing Kō intently; Hiashi had just come to a disturbing realization. "Kō?" Hiashi's voice was both tired and slightly snappish. "Are you under the impression that I am about to hurt you?"

The fact that Kō didn't answer made his thoughts perfectly clear, and Hiashi found himself restraining a sigh. He could count on one hand the number of times he had ever activated the Branch Seal of any Hyuuga, and never without severe provocation.

Hiashi shook his head wearily and waved him back to his feet, looking Kō directly in the eye with an even stare devoid of both threat and anger. "Kō… You have nothing to fear from me. Your leg was broken; it's still broken, as I can see. There was nothing you could have done."

Staring beyond Kō, a brief flash of the Byakugan was all Hiashi needed to know that Hinata was in the tent whose entrance Kō was blocking. A heavy hand rested on Kō's shoulder. "Go home. My guard will suffice for tonight."

Kō was all clumsiness reaching for his cane and bowing out as well as he could with his broken leg. Though he was fond of Hinata, he valued his health too much to risk angering his clan head.

A single hand went forward to push back the tent flap.

-0-

Contrary to the claims of (several) others, Hyuuga Hiashi did in fact love his eldest child. He rarely let it show, and even when he did it was in such ambiguous displays that they could hardly be made out to be anything.

He just didn't know what to do with her.

She was weaker than her cousin, roughly on par now with her sister. Hiashi knew he should have been able to expect better of her but Hinata, it seemed, just wasn't cut out for the life of a kunoichi. She would have to get used to it though; every able-bodied member of a shinobi clan was required by law to become a shinobi whether they liked it or not. Hinata was no exception. Hiashi pushed her hard, in training and into the Academy, even when he knew that Hinata would never amount to a great deal.

He could not lie. He had few hopes for his eldest daughter.

Hinata was just… too gentle for the lifestyle of a kunoichi. She had too much of her mother in her, a tender-hearted medic, and not nearly enough of the ruthlessness that should have been passed down to her from her father's side. Hiashi could see that in her, clear as the light of day shining down to highlight her lustrous hair.

But somehow, Hiashi couldn't bring himself to snuff out that gentleness in her. He pushed Hinata away, handed her off to Yuuhi Kurenai and others, called her weak because in honesty, that was what she was when it came to the affairs of battle and ruthlessness. Hinata needed to learn one very simple lesson: one who can not survive in the shadows, deprived of light, will never thrive anywhere.

Hinata could perhaps thrive as a gentle girl in Kurenai's care; she would never do so within the confines of the Hyuuga walls.

And as she grew, Hiashi was forced to come to grips with an uncomfortable fact. Hinata, who was weak, was also strong. Her strength was an intangible thing, impossible to really detect or know, but it was there, and it shined with the force of the sun suddenly uncovered from its veil of clouds to bring light to the dark places.

Now, Hiashi stood in another dark place, blocking out the little light from the outside as he stood at the mouth of the medical tent Hinata had been placed in.

She was alone, and the lamp had been doused, a fact Hiashi soon remedied, kneeling and drawing the nearby matchbook to give some light to the tent. If he ended up with grass stains on his clothing later, he would not care.

Hinata was resting on a pallet with the sheets drawn up about her and tangled around her slight frame; a white arm laid across her stomach. Long black hair fanned out around her. For a moment, she looked exactly as her mother had, when she was still alive, but Hiashi soon banished those thoughts from his mind.

If he started drawing connections between Hinata and Akahana again, that would only make this so much harder.

He said nothing. Hiashi supposed he could wait until Hinata awoke.

And he didn't have to wait long.

Large, pale lavender eyes flickered open blearily—Hiashi could see the film on them, the work, no doubt, of myriad antibiotics, painkillers and possibly even sedatives—when the light hit her, and Hinata stared at him for a moment, before realizing who he was.

"Otousama, I…" Though Hinata no longer stuttered, she still spoke only in barely audible whispers, but the words carried all too well to Hiashi's ears.

Next, of course, Hinata, attempted, with difficulty, to disentangle herself from her sheets so she could bow, and Hiashi stopped her when he saw the obvious pain she was in with a hand to her shoulder, gently pushing her back down into the sheets. "No, no need for that, Hinata."

She nodded, sucking in a deep breath, throat fluttering like a small bird flapping its snowy wings. "Yes, Otousama."

"I understand that you were injured during the Akatsuki's invasion." This was the only way Hiashi could think of asking her how she had been injured; he didn't know how to be gentle in this, his voice still stern, any attempts at softening it clumsy, obviously so. Hinata probably couldn't even notice.

Again, Hinata nodded, as though answering the interrogation of a police officer. "Yes, Otousama."

Apparently, that was all she had the ability to say.

Hiashi nodded in the sort of manner as though to say that this explained everything. It didn't. "And how did this happen, Hinata?" If he was more brusque than he intended, Hiashi knew it was too late to take the tone back.

Again came the flapping of white wings in Hinata's throat, now coupled with a tremulous singing coming from deep in her chest as her breathing became harder and less even. The look in her huge, pale eyes as she stared at her father was one of commingled fear and despair.

This, Hiashi knew, could not be a good sign. He felt the foreboding deep in his chest, sickening in his stomach. "Hinata?" Voice now was taut, and tense. "I want you to tell me. How were you injured?"

With a face as white as snow and a voice that faltered over every word as a crippled man would on stairs, she told him.

"You did what?" Hiashi exclaimed sadly, understanding now what he wished he could not. Understanding everything now.

Hinata only looked away, turning on her pallet so she stared at the far wall, near the tent flap. She was biting her lip, a habit from her early girlhood. Long, dark hair obscured her face.

Hiashi had suspected at the strength in his weak daughter. But now, he realized, he had underestimated the power of the flow of the river of that strength. That monstrous, despairing strength.

She had attacked a seemingly invincible shinobi. Charged him, with no hope of survival.

All for the Uzumaki boy.

A boy she loved, Hiashi knew. He was not blind to these things; he watched the world around him. Hinata was not exactly what anyone could call subtle when it came to her feelings for others. Especially not for Uzumaki Naruto.

She, essentially, tried to commit suicide on the battlefield. Hiashi squeezed his eyes shut. All for the Uzumaki boy.

All for a boy who neither loved nor appreciated her, as far as Hiashi could tell. All for a boy who saw her for a few moments from time to time, spoke to her, and then promptly forgot she existed.

But this, Hiashi knew, was what it was to be truly infected with love. To sacrifice her life, or at least try to, for another, without second thought to whether any of it would turn out alright. Those in love were ready to cast their lives away like ashes in the wind at any moment. He would have done the same for her mother.

And all for nothing, since Uzumaki Naruto was incapable of loving her, especially not in the way she deserved.

Hiashi shook his head wearily, and Hinata bit her lip, facing him again, and stared tremulously up at him, expecting anger. Expecting coldness. It was what she had gotten without cease during her childhood, or so she thought.

But really, Hiashi had simply never had any idea of what to do with her.

And he still didn't.

Tonight, Hiashi would indulge in no display of anger. He only stared down at his daughter, and put a hand to her forehead, brushing away the stray hairs. "We're all mad, aren't we?" he asked almost absently, more to the empty air than his daughter.

Hinata knew that, but she answered anyway. "Yes, Otousama." It seemed this really was all she was capable of saying when not under duress.

He'd always been mad for not seeing how strong she was when not chained by her weakness. Mad and blind. Maybe, if Hiashi had seen it sooner, and behaved accordingly, some of this could have been avoided.

Hiashi would always wonder if he could have saved Hinata from the madness of trying to throw her life away for a boy who didn't love her.

But love was one infection that could never be truly cured.

And he was neither too mad nor too blind to know this.

Anyone could see it.

Everyone could see it.

Even all the mad men who sat in high places and called themselves "better".

He'd always been one of them. Maybe, with all the "Yes, Otousama"'s running through his ears, Hiashi mused, it was time to stop.

Time to try and save his daughter.

"Get some sleep, Hinata."

"Yes, Otousama."

He'd start in the morning, when the light would again give him some path to follow.