I'm continuing to try to step outside my usual nejiten humour stories by bringing this little fic on how I imagine Hizashi would be narrating events after his death in a very overall type of way. I hope you like it XD Please R&R!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
It's a funny thing being dead, all your old grievances just suddenly become so pointless and being able to see the bigger picture allows you to see things you never noticed before. I like to watch and observe. You don't actually know what goes on through a living person's mind but you would be surprised how much you learn merely from observation. When I had lived, I wasn't as observant as I should have been ironically despite having the Byakugan which should have allowed me to see everything. Now I like to see how my brother is, how his daughters continue to grow and most of all I like to watch Neji grow up. He has become such a fine young man, and it isn't just the paternal pride talking.
You're probably wondering why did I give my life to save my brother who had everything while I had nothing? Why did I leave behind my son Neji to fend for himself at such a young age? Why sacrifice myself for the sake of the Main House? There is never a clear answer for these type of questions and I could give you a long list of reasons why. But long story short, it was the right thing to do.
I still think the Branch House system of protecting the Byakugan is flawed. My sacrifice wasn't so much to protect the Clan but to protect my twin brother. I owed him my life, from ever since I was born. If it wasn't for him, I would not have even gotten the chance to live my life and have Neji. I was merely repaying him the favour.
You see, twins are usually considered bad luck so when we were born, the midwife was going to separate us so that she could kill me quietly as was the usual practice. I would then have never been spoken of again. But Hiashi had somehow managed to grip my hand so tightly in his that we couldn't be separated so my life was spared. When we grew up together, we did everything together. We could practically read each others mind and finished each others sentences constantly.
As we grew older and Hiashi was being groomed to become the Head of the Clan, I did feel a lot of jealousy. We had both started off as equals in terms of ability but mine were neglected whilst his were nurtured. While alive, it had always struck me as cursed luck that Hiashi just happened to be born a few minutes before I was. Bad luck, destiny, fate, chance; you name it, I blamed it. Being branded with the cursed seal was the final peg that drove us apart definitely. For a long time I resented him for having all the prestige whereas I was demoted to being a lowly Branch House member. Looking back now, I can see that it was misplaced; Hiashi loved me as much as I had loved him when we were young and it had not been his wish that I was to become a Branch House member. It had been the Clan that had torn us apart as brothers in order to protect itself. Besides, chance is random and if whatever doesn't kill you it makes you stronger. I guess it was a kind of blessing in disguise because my circumstances made me determined to prove to everyone that I was just as good as Hiashi in everyway, so I pushed myself a great deal more than I would have otherwise.
I gave up my life for him because I could see that he had wanted to protect everyone that he loved by paying the demands by the Hidden Cloud Ninja. By dying. At first I had assumed that he and the elders would order me to pay the price for his actions but Hiashi had insisted otherwise. That had got me thinking about how I really felt about my brother and it did make me realise that once I stripped away all the resentment that had built up ever since I became a Branch House member, I still loved him dearly. We were of the same blood and shared our mother's womb together. When we had been children we had been so close, one could have considered us halves of one whole.
I had worried about how this would impact Neji, especially after my death when I watched him slowly take on the earlier hatred I had had for the Main house. The only time I actually began regretting my decision to sacrifice my life for my brother's was during Neji's first chuunin exams until he was defeated by the kyuubi boy. I had faith in him nonetheless, he was such a bright beautiful child I knew that he would survive and become stronger and better from all this.
Hinata, on the other hand, was delicate and shy. She needed her father or else she would have just been crushed by the harsh upbringing of the Hyuuga Clan. Besides, she was much too young to lead the Clan as the Head at the time. I felt sorry for her for a long time, watching her try her hardest to make Hiashi proud and failing quite a few times. Their relationship is improving though, I am glad.
Nowadays I am content to watch Neji grow up as well as my brother and his family. I watch Hiashi often struggle with the guilt that he should have died instead of me. He only lets his cold façade drop when he is alone visiting my memorial. It is at those times I wish I could embrace him and talk to him. I see him working tirelessly to change the two house system of our clan and quietly note the gradual improvement of his daughter Hinata.
I watch Hinata often falter in her self-confidence but I see how hard she works so that her father will recognise her as a worthy ninja. She is truly the most gentle, loving soul and is as oblivious to the crush her Inuzuka team mate has on her as the kyuubi boy is to her own crush.
Most of all I like to watch Neji and his team mates. If I had been alive at the time Neji was first assigned his genin team I would have been as horrified as he was that he had been landed with the Green Beast, his protégé and the seemingly sadistic panda girl with a fascination for anything sharp or pointy who turned out not to be that sadistic after all. Now I am just amused by their antics and their influence is slowly rubbing off on him whether he likes it or not. It also amuses me to no end that my son, Neji, with his Byakugan, is entirely blind to the fact that his female team mate is as besotted with him as he is with her.
When you die, you become an observer and you notice so many little things that you never noticed while you were alive. Like the care that Hinata puts into making the green tea she shares with Neji and Hiashi after their training and the care Neji takes in secretly sharpening Tenten's weapons for her. For now, I will continue to watch and speculate when my son will finally crack under the influence of his hormones and tell Tenten how he really feels about her. I've lived my life without regrets. For now I am more than happy to content myself with watching over my loved ones.