An idea I had. A bit controversial probably...For the hyugacest promptlist02 #46: irony
Title: the One Dream
Summery: And Hiashi thought
this is it. My destiny. NejiHina
Rating: PG13
Hiashi once dreamed as a child of silent steady footsteps, strong resilient strength, gentle kind words, soft tender touch, and a peaceful loving gaze. Two sets of footsteps walking side by side as they worked towards one goal. Two pair of hands in deceptively frail stances, power beneath the surface. Two set of eyes, pearl white, clear and perceptive leading the Clan towards one vision.
She was slight, smaller than Him, lips in a soft smile, the light in her eyes clear. Long dark hair wavering in the wind as the blue skies reflected from behind her. She was beautiful in ways he could not describe.
He was tall, proud, and commanding. His stance casual, the strength clear, and his eyes powerful. He stood next to Her, sight focused on the tiniest movements. He bared the resemblance of Hiashi as he would be in years to come.
She took 3 steps forward and turned back to face Him, smiling hesitantly and her love illuminating her from within. He stepped forward and caught her outstretched hand, gaze intent, and pulled her willing body towards him.
Hiashi shared his dream with Hizashi and his twin was eagerly enraptured. They smiled at their shared secrets that no matter what distance that their Father tried to put between them, would never be able to take away. Years passed and the One Dream fades into oblivion as favoritism, tradition, and the divide between the Main and Branch houses tear Hiashi and Hizashi part.
In the darkest years of his teenage life, when he questions the morals of the Clan, he meets her. She is small, slim figured, soft spoken, and passes by him in the Main House. The One Dream from long ago rises with fuzzy edges and hazy details. She is younger then his 18 years by 4, but her fragile body and ethereal features speak of great beauty to be gained. Her long, blue tinted hair is piled up elegantly on her head and in her hands she holds a potted flower.
Hiashi courts her with a careful, previously unknown obsession. Hizashi watches him with a dark gaze but is silent. She is overwhelmed by his attention and is flattered by his unrelenting regard over the years as she grows. When she comes of age they are betrothed and then married. He shines with an inner light as they exchange the vows, he looks at her in marvel and he thinks: this is it. My destiny.
But years as the Hyuuga Head roughen him and weather her. She who had been raised for freedom is now constrained and it wears her down. She wishes to heal but is taught to fight. She wishes to fly but is tied down. Hizashi watches it all with a grim gaze as the weight of the Hyuuga traditions breaks her. Hiashi is appointed Clan Head and holds onto her hand, eyes proud as hers drop to the ground. Hizashi tightens his hold on his own wife's hand, intertwine their fingers, and vows to make sure it won't happen to her.
Hiashi waits for his heir as time passes. He is slightly bitter that Hizashi receives a son before him but then she becomes with child and all thoughts disappear. He is eager, watchful, and an attentive father-to-be. When she bears a daughter, there is only a moment of doubt, before he lifts his heir into his arms and proclaims her to be the one to follow his footsteps.
She is weak and tired from childbirth but names her Hinata, the one in the sun.
She is small and frail in the first years of her life, and the Clan watches over her indulgently. She, who is a mix of her proud father and soft mother, inheriting the long black hair, gleaming blue tints in the sun. Hiashi does not push her training, instead allowing himself to place his desires first and the Clan second for the first time in many years, slipping away from his duties to spend time with his family. He is a besotted father and an attentive husband, they have fallen long ago into formality, but now his child clings to him and his wife smiles brightly at his presence, and the fairytale of their love story is once again revived in the gossips. Many allude to the time years in future when Hinata shall yearn for her own story as great and romantic as her parents'.
But it does not last. When Hinata's third birthday approaches, he and Hizashi decide that it is time for their children to meet. And with the meeting comes duty, as Neji receives his Seal, and tragedy, as Hiashi in a burst of emotional outrage kills the interloper who dares to attack his family. Demands are made from the other village; the Leaf is weak from the devastation of the Nine Tails and the recovery of the political slide from the loss of the Yondaime Hokage.
In an emotionally crippling move to all of the Head family, Hizashi gives himself over in the place of his twin brother. Hiashi losses his brother, the wife of the Clan Head losses her only confident, and Neji losses his father. It embitters all of them, and Hinata grows in the bitterness left behind in the shadow of a man who died for his family.
Hiashi cannot bear to be in the company of his daughter, who was the origin of the sacrifice, overlong. He turns to his wife for solace, but she who was once shining is now dimmed and does not know how to comfort him. Neji's pain turns into anger and the easiest target becomes the one who the Main House can barely stand to look at.
Hinata limps through her days, blue and black, until her sorrowful mother heals her once, and the child takes in active interest in the art which takes her pain away. Hiashi searches aimlessly for a commitment that will not require him to face his grief, and returns time and time again to his wife who is broken by the weight of her duties and no longer fights. He remembers vaguely the One Dream and wishes for someone to stand beside him and support him as he leads the Clan. His wife becomes with child and the prospect of a new beginning is welcome in the time of grief, and Hanabi becomes so much easier to be around than Hinata. Hiashi focuses on being able to return to his second child in the interminable hours in which he trains his heir, her face always reminding him of the absence of his twin. His wife focuses on filling her days with her baby and allows Hanabi to become the center of her life, to bring the light back into her duty-bound days.
Hinata and Neji meet again and again in the Main grounds, Branch grounds, outside the complex, in the Academy fields. Hinata limps away after each encounter but at least Neji never looks right through her. Hanabi is barely on the fringes of his sight as he focuses all his anger, bitterness, pain, and attention on Hinata.
Years pass and the two become Genin, Chuunin, then Jounin with plenty of significant steps in-between. Neji is angry, then bitter, then hurt and apologetic, and lastly protective. Hinata slowly uncurls her spine and grows her short hair long. His bloodline is the most powerful in generations, her eyes perceive more than anyone else, and together they pledge to change the Clan ways.
Hinata's step becomes strong and steady. Neji's power becomes tempered and resilient. Her eyes stare straight ahead to the future. His sight is large and widespread, capturing all fallacies. She is quiet but strong. He is silent and powerful. They walk step by step together towards a single vision.
The children become adults and although Hanabi has no Seal, there was never true question about who would inherit the Clan Head position. Neji's choice of leader for his power is clear. Hanabi watches pensively as her cousin Neji, who is said to be the most powerful Byakugan user in centuries, stare at her soft-spoken older sister like she is the strongest person of all.
It is decades, and a lifetime, later from when the One Dream was dreamt but one afternoon Hiashi looks up into the sunlight without prejudice and truly sees. His daughter and his nephew are going to change the Clan, for the better or worse he does not know. He watches them walk towards the entrance of the Clan complex from a way, returning from a morning outing. The Clan has recently announced their betrothal formally. He stands behind a pillar, hidden in the distance of a different entrance.
He sees the sunlight reflect off of Hinata's hair, the late spring breeze lifting the strands, tinting it blue as the skies behind her. Her lips are curled in a soft smile and her gaze warm as she walks steadily next to Neji.
Neji has become an intense man and the air around him is pensive. His shoulders are relaxed but no one could mistake him as being careless or off guard. His eyes are faced ahead but as one with the Byakugan, one does not need to turn his head to See.
She turns to him and he does the same. The breeze blows loose strands of hair past Hinata's face and Neji reaches out gently to trace the outline of her forehead to cheek and tuck the wayward strands back. Hinata flushes and murmurs an expression of gratitude. Neji's voice rumbles indistinguishably. Hinata looks up from beneath her lashes and smiles brightly.
She walks a few steps forward towards the compound before realizing that Neji has not followed. She turns back to him and he extends a palm face heavenward towards her. She does not pause, simply sets her hand in his and allows him to pull her to him. He gathers her in his arms, and she wraps her around him, and they are content.
A hand squeezes Hiashi's heart. The Clan had not known that the two were so close; they had merely thought Hinata and Neji regarded each other in a positive light and would perform their duty, but this was only a good surprise where the issue was concerned. But that is not why there is an anger and a feeling of betrayal barely leashed within Hiashi.
He sees them and the One Dream. It becomes clear that it had never been about Hiashi at all, but about Hinata and Neji. Hinata who grew up to take after her mother but was strong and thrived in the face of adversity while her mother broke under the weight of the Hyuuga name. Neji who resembles Hizashi who looks like Hiashi and has trained and manifested the most powerful Byakugan anyone has ever seen. Neji who chose to support Hinata when all thought she was weak and Hinata who refused to stay down as she was struck again and again.
Their light and their feelings were bright within them and it refused to be denied and dimmed. Their potential, Hinata's they were only starting to see and Neji's that seemed limitless as he broke Clan expectations again and again, was undefined. Their vision so clear as they worked together towards a single, brilliant goal only the two of them could see.
Hiashi wants to scream and rage and break through the layers of rigid formality and obligations that had become his life for so long. He wants to grab hold of Neji's shoulders and shout this was supposed to be mine! He wants to gather Hinata up in his arms tightly, lock them in a place where no one else could find them, and stay with her forever. He wants to roar and shriek and cry and laugh and say this wasn't meant to be. This was supposed to be MY destiny!
But life changes, and flows, and conquers, and breaks, and it always moves on. There is nothing he could do but tremble at the realization of all that was in front of him and hold himself together as he came apart at the seams as Hinata and Neji passes by and enter the compound leaning against each other.
. : End Dream: .