blackkatmagic:

Okay so I saw the strong/political Hinata prompt and I had to write something for it. I hope you don’t mind my sending it to you? 

His father has just died, and he is furious. Hinata can see it in the way his fists clench as her father walks by, the way his jaw tightens when an elder praises his progress, the way he refuses to look at her. It really doesn’t surprise her that he steps too far out of line and pays the price.

Her father is crying. His brother marched to die in his place, now his nephews small body is cradled in shaking arms. The elder that activated the seal, that watched as her cousin writhed and screamed and bled and died, looks on impassively. He does not care.

Hinata is four years old. She cares. She will fix this.

So she trains. She takes to her lessons with cold fire burning in her body, the kind that hides in the embers, ready to blaze up and burn with the right breath of wind. She learns her characters, reads. Learns her katas, fights. Learns clan politics, plots.

Then Hanabi is born, and things have to change.

She cannot burn too bright, or the seal will be inked onto her sisters forehead. Her progress slows, plateaus, stops. She finds the line and toes it constantly, staying just good enough not to be a failure, but not great enough to be the heir of the Hyuuga clan.

The elders set a limit. If she cannot prove her capability by the time Hanabi reaches genin, then she will be branded in her sister’s place.

Hinata is eight years old. She has eight more to fix this.

She goes to Ino and Shikamaru, children still, but far more knowledgeable than her in general politics. They are bright, bright children, and she soaks in their light and makes it her own. She learns the law of Konoha, not just the laws of her clan. She discovers in what circumstances the former can overrule the latter. She begins to plan under their careful instruction.

Hinata is 12 years old. She has four more years. But, the seal.

Jiriaya of the Sanin is in town, and he is training Naruto. She knows he is a seal master, but she also knows he could never teach her, she is to young, and he is of too low a status for her clan to approve. Instead, she breaks into the apartment he is renting, left unlocked through confident complacency, and steals every book on sealing he owns. Then, remembering just how Naruto graduated, she masks her chakra, dons a henge, and breaks in to the Hokage’s private library.

Now hidden in a storage seal stuck to the bottom of her bed are 13 books on sealing. Most are far beyond her comprehension, but one appears to have been written to teach children. Complete with illustrations of stroke by stroke guides and easy to digest information, Uzumaki Kushina may just be the key to understanding the rest of her stolen goods. She wonders if this book was meant for Naruto, if this is his unknown mothers work, then she squashes the thought. She needs to be selfish.

Hinata is 16 years old. She has no more time.

The elders look down at her from their seats, contempt clear in their eyes. She is weak, a failure, an embarrassment to the clan, they believe. But she isn’t, and she will show them. Hanabi waits behind her, face hardened into something unreadable. Her sister lost her childhood too early, picking up the training and expectations that had slipped from Hinata’s shoulders when she sunk into mediocrity. She is here to see her elder sister branded, they all are.

That will not be happening.

From the storage seal inked onto her forearm, she draws out a single scroll. She clears her throat, begins to read.

“section 9 of the Konoha Clans Act, subsection 1; clans may govern persons of their clan according to their own existing clan laws, so long as a) the existing laws do not contradict any of the provisions set out in this act or; b) any future Acts passed by; i) the Hokage, or; ii) the Council of Clans. Subsection 2; any clan laws passed following the enactment of this act must not contradict Konoha laws of the relevant time.”

All eyes are focused on her now, confused. She is meant to be stating her case to remain heir, throwing her sister to the flames in her place. She is not meant to be quoting laws passed in the founders era.

“Section 17 of the Use and Regulation of Seals Act; no seal may be used to cause intentional pain or ill effects of any kind on any citizen of Konoha unless a) sanctioned by the Hokage, or; b) Torture and Interrogation requires such measures, or; c) the application of such a seal is done so voluntarily.”

The confusion is turning to anger, and she smiles. Finally. They see the threat she poses to their way of life, and they want her gone. They call to her father, demand she be branded for her insolence. But he is smiling, and he does not listen. he turns to her and asks what she would have them do.

She places the scroll on the table before him, revealing the seal she had been developing for the last year and a half. Carefully drawn and explained in the style of Uzumaki Kushina, it is unarguably a better option than the current seal. The control function has been removed, the pain inducer cancelled out, the only effect left the degradation of the eyes after death, and the addition of a trigger feature to combat live removal.

The elders are fuming and furious. Her sister is no longer unreadable, unreachable, but hovering behind her, uncertain. She reaches out her arm, and her sister ducks into the space she has made, understanding. Her useless sister was never useless. She was protecting her the entire time.

The Neji seal is put into use the next day, and Hinata is the first to don it. She wears the seal that bears her cousins name with pride, as does every other member of her clan. No longer a sign of servitude, the seal now stands for unity. All thanks to a little girl who loved her cousin, and lost him.