When Hinata is thirteen, she wakes up to pain and voices. The pain she understands very quickly – she has lost her chance to become a chunin this year, and nearly died at the hands of her cousin in the process (and it is this second piece of knowledge that hurts most, because she has always known he hates her (but she had never realized how deeply)). The voices it takes her a bit longer to understand, swimming out of an anesthetic haze as she is, and even once the words make sense, their meaning is strange, confusing.

"-ne of your concern, Inuzuka."

"Bullshit, Hiashi, that is bullshit," snarls the voice that can only be Tsume, "And I'm not staying out of it anymore just because of 'clan affairs'! You have a week, Hiashi, one week, and if I don't see a change by that time, so help me, I will appeal to the Hokage; we will put fangs on her cheeks, and she will be an Inuzuka, and you will never touch her again."

"…you would never succeed," it's her father speaking, and the automatic flinch his voice causes brings more pain than usual because of her wounds (though, there is something unfamiliar in his voice, she can't-), "And even if you did, the Hyuuga elders would never accept it. All you would do is restart the clan wars, after decades of peace, for stealing the Byakugan."

"Oh please, we could care less about your precious bloodline," Tsume sneers, "You think we even want that, that we wouldn't take her even if you sealed her eyes and ability to pass them on? You think we aren't willing to go to war for the sake of one little sub? I think you don't know very much about my clan, Hyuuga!"

Hinata manages to crack an eye open in time to see a third person, Shibi Aburame, Shino's father, step forward to put a hand on Tsume's bristling shoulder, his face turned towards Hinata's father.

"Don't think to take this lightly, Hyuuga-san," he says with the same quiet firmness his son is learning, "Your clan is powerful, respected, valued… but it is not well-liked, and it is not large. The Uchiha were far more numerous, but they were not well-liked either, and who mourns them for more than their eyes now that they are dead? Should it come to it, the Aburame clan will side with the Inuzuka."

"Yeah, just see how far a popularity contest gets you in this, Hiashi!" Tsume speaks up again with terrifying glee, "I might not come from a noble clan like you two, but the Inuzuka are many, and we know everyone somehow or other! And I know for a fact that we get along better with the Akimichi than you do. They'll side with us, and they'll bring the Naras and the Yamanakas with them!"

"No."

The word is quiet – it's barely a word at all, more of a cough from her abused lungs, but it might as well have been screamed for how suddenly the adults' attention is now on her. Sitting up hurts, even with whatever they've given her for the pain, but she has fought her cousin, and, even though she lost, she has found that she is still stronger than she had believed. She sits up and she faces them.

"No," she repeats, as firmly as she can, "We- we're ninja of Konohagakure. We protect the village. And- I'm not worth i-"

"That is wrong." These words are also quiet, but Hiashi Hyuuga can make quiet as loud as a whip crack. For once, however, a look other than disappointment or annoyance crosses his face when she falls silent at his interruption, a shadow she cannot name as he steps around Tsume (ignoring her indignant snarl), and comes to stand by Hinata's bed, "You are wrong," he says, staring down at her with eyes she has never learned to read, "As I have been wrong. The Inuzuka is correct – you are very much worth fighting for."

It feels like something in Hinata breaks when she hears this, a sharp crack deep inside, as though one of the stones of doubt and fear she carries in her stomach has broken in two… "No," it is barely a whisper, but still she is saying it, "I'm not. Not if it breaks the village. Not if it hurts the people- I am a kunoichi of Konoha," she stares up at her father, at Tsume and Shibi, willing them to understand, wishing she could say this with dry eyes. "I love my village. I don't want to see it hurt because of me."

The three adults are silent for a moment, perhaps waiting to see if she will say more, but when it becomes clear she is finished, her father speaks again.

"The Hyuuga are wielders of the Gentle Fist style," he replies, "I should have seen sooner that gentleness outside of that is not the same as weakness. Blindness is intolerable among our clan, but that is what I have been, and in doing so I have caused more damage than I realized. I have been wrong." And he kneels by her bed, carefully pulls his hair away and tilts his head to show his neck, dropping his eyes before her. "I am sorry. And I will do better from now on."

OoOoOoOoO

Three years later, Hinata's relationship with her father is still imperfect, but also still improving (over a decade of problems and abuse take time to solve, even under Tsume Inuzuka's watchful eye). That the improvement is acceptably steady is a reassurance, but she still will not move back into the Hyuuga compound, no matter how much she knows he would like her to. Sometimes she gets the sense that her continued refusal on this matter makes him proud, and she doesn't quite know how to feel about that. It helps that Neji supports her choice with the same casual certainty he once used against her.

"The compound is like a cage for you," he says calmly when she asks why she has his support so thoroughly in this, "No one should have to live in a cage."

When Hinata was small, she had wished her cousin didn't hate her so much, that she could be more like him, that they could be allies.

She had never thought that they could be friends.

But somehow that is what they have become, in the wake of Neji's fight with Naruto, of her father's talk with Neji, of the awkward months after the exams and invasion were over of trying to figure out what they were to each other without hate and fear, doubt and 'destiny' standing between them. At seventeen, her cousin has truly become one of her 'precious people,' as Naruto would say, and the knowledge is still warm in her heart. Many subs her age would be upset if they noticed one of their dom relatives spying on them during a date, and perhaps in time the phenomena will become wearing. For now though, it is with a smile that she waves good-bye to Naruto, and then walks around the corner with a smile for the occupants behind it.

"Did you have a good time?"

Neji doesn't bother pretending he's doing something else, especially since he had spotted her spotting him earlier. "He needs to work on his awareness of his surroundings more," he states, "But otherwise… he seems to be treating you well, even if his tastes are… odd."

Hinata giggles and can't help fingering the new braided collar Naruto had made her – wild grass with fluffy seed-heads this time. It is a little strange looking, but she can't find it in herself to find fault with it, not when he makes a new one for each date they go on. (For the next one, she's planning to show him the patch of forest where she likes to gather violets (violets are good for braiding (while making Naruto a collar (even if he would likely wear it) feels… uncomfortable, a crown of them would look bold against his yellow hair))). "Thank-you. And thank-you for-"

"THERE you are!"

The familiar voice cuts in, followed shortly by Hanabi, who runs up to them, bracing her hands on her knees when she finally stops.

"That was… no fair," she pants, glaring at Neji through her hair, "No fair… hiring my genin team… so you could spy… without me!"

"As a member of the branch family, it's my duty to protect the main family," Neji replies without a lick of remorse.

"Not from… me!"

"You would have interfered, and your reconnaissance skills aren't good enough yet," he counters, "The objective was to observe, not ruin Hinata's date."

"He's still not good enough for her!" Hanabi shoots back, breath finally caught, only to find her head being forced back towards the street.

"Be respectful – Naruto has been key in saving the village on multiple occasions," Neji reprimands, "And he is behaving very politely towards your sister."

Hanabi squirms and manages to break Neji's hold, scowling at him, "I know all that! But he's still a genin! He has to be at least be a chunin before I accept him as worthy of Hinata!"

"Hinata is capable of making her own decisions."

"Hinata is a Hyuuga princess!"

Neji flashes her a quick smile over Hanabi's head, "More like dog hair princess."

There's no point in arguing that one – living with three Inuzuka and four ninken means that at least a light dusting of dog hair is pretty inevitable. After three years she doesn't mind and, more importantly, Neji knows she doesn't mind. That this is a perfectly acceptable thing to tease her about. In regards to her younger sister, though, "Don't tease her too much, Neji, she's only little."

"I AM ALMOST THIRTEEN!" Hanabi snaps with the indignation of those who aren't yet teenagers, but really wish they were, "And I'm going to be the next head of our clan and fix it so it's better, so I should get some respect, too!"

Many subs would be indignant at being so openly spied on during a date. Many in general would be offended at their boyfriend being deemed 'not good enough' in the eyes of their family.

Hinata is not most people. She is still adjusting to having a family that cares, that looks in on her out of concern and thinks she is worth the best that can be had. Maybe one day it will become confining, and, when that day comes, she will tell them, but for now?

For now, she would much rather tell them about her date.

(And defend her boyfriend a little, because it hadn't been his fault he wasn't been able to attend the last chunin exams.)

OoOoOoOoO

The four noble clans of Konoha (according to the internet): Hyuuga, Akimichi, Aburame, Uchiha.