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It was a disaster that joint mission, both their teams were split apart (far, far away from their senseis) and now there he was, heavilly wounded, pratically in his elder twin lap as he desperatelly tried to stop the bleeding (he could have saved himself, but he didn't have chakra for it and he was so tired) and it's kinda sad that it's the first time he's been this close to his brother in a long time... (months ago his brother tried, obliviously asking what happened to them, why his own brother wouldn't look him in the eye)
"At least he deserves the truth" Hizashi decides. So, with his face pratically buried in his brother's chest, voice all but a whisper, he starts telling his tale. He tells of being forced to live alone at the borders of the clan territory (the elders decision, a decoy for the heir) of being isolated from his peers (it's easy to pretend it's the heir that they can openlly sneer at) of the times where he had his meager possessions stollen (sensei opened for his team separate savings accounts in secrecy so he could keep his money safe and away from snot nosed main branch kids that ressent the heir) of the times where they served less food for him or tampered with it (so many nights hungry or sick of poisoning, sensei gave his team cooking lessons thankfully) of how life trully is for those with a seal on their foreheads, of how the elders can do anything to them and as long as they are careful that the younger generetion of the main branch doen't catch them in the act (nobody will tell, they can be killed with a simple seal, so everyone has to fend for themselves) of having his own seal activated for their amusement at least three times a week (when he fainted during training and woke up pain-free he his worried told sensei it was a bad migraine and he just looked blankly at Hizashi, but he started being brutal to anyone that so much as scratched his team during missions "I protect what's mine" he said when questioned by the Hokage strategically close to a passing Hyuuga elder. They stopped after that fearing the snake Sannin's wrath) and before he closes his eyes for what feels like the last time, he tells his now petrified brother of moments when he saw a few elders and adults sneaking out of alleys and isolated buildings with smug and satisfied expressions leaving behind broken boys and girls, their last shred of innocence lost... (he doesn't tell about the time where almost the same happened to him when he was nine, if mother- no, not mother, Kaoru-sama- hadn't come to fetch him for training with his brother, they would have done the same to him. He would take that to his grave) them, when he feels like he can't hold on anymore, he close his eyes and let go hearing faintly his brothers's pleas for him to "please don't go"...
xxxxxxx
He didn't expect to wake up...
Body sluggish, he looks around, taking note that he was not in the hospital but instead in a very familiar room that he stays in wherever he's too tired to get to the compound. Sensei said he was always welcome there and didn't coment when he moved most of his personal belongings there slowly...
"Three months." Hizashi startled slightly at the voice, quickly finding the source as his sensei leaning at the doorway (he looks tired) "You have been asleep for three months. We almost didn't reach you on time. If we didn't have a emergency blood transfusion you would have died there you brat..." Hizashi felt like he didn't even have to ask who the donor was, it felt like the answer would be obvious.
"This is not the hospital..." was all he could think to say at the moment to avoid a conversation that he knew he would have to have later.
"Of course not, that would be foolish with all those assassination attempts!" hissed Orochimaru, while storming into the room.
"Wha-" was all he could say before exploding into dry, painfull coughs.
Orochimaru reached into the bedside table and grabbed a previouslly unnoticed jar of water and pours a glass that he helps his student drink before he continues, hissing (Hizashi knows he's only hissing to hide his worry so he takes to offense) “Did you really think your dumb brother would do nothing after learning the truth?! That he would just, what, sit like a good mindless clan heir and, I-i don’t know, twiddle his thumbs?!" It's really evident how much this is affecting his normally stoic sensei by the way he stuttered and by how he started fussing around him, fluffing pillows, messing with the medical paraphernalia (that he failed to notice, again)
"W-what happened?!" rasped Hizashi
"What happened, you say, a lot happened in the THREE MONTH COMA that you were in, you brat! First, we thought that your brother was in shock that would be normal in that situation but NO! As soon that he noticed that you were stable, he started plotting how to take out his own clan! He somehow made Mikoto give him a seal that serves as an alert signal for at least half of the Uchiha Police, stole the scroll that allow the main branch to activate the seals and made a fucking bonfire with it, and then he hid himself, don't ask me how, until he saw an elder dragging a fifteen year old girl into a shed, caught him when he was about to take her clothes off, activated the alert signal and had him arrested. When the old codger noticed what happened he tried to activate the girl's seal and it didn't work. AND THEM, when the rest of the clan came to see what was happening, he threw the remains of the scroll at your parents feet, cut his hair with a kunai like a freaking samurai, threw it too for good measure and said that if the clan refuses to change them they better find a new heir!"
Hizashi could only stare, gaping like a fish, as his flustered sensei kept pacing around the room and continuing his tale: he told how the Uchiha's took the elder to T&I, how the branch members took it as a cue to point out the other elders and adults that were abusive and those with children ran away to friends houses to keep them safe, how the Yamanaka's entered the accused and accuser's mind to find more abusers and information, how they had to move Hizashi to his house when someone of the main branch tried to break into the hospital room (it was his parents, they tried to find him to see if he was okay, they didn't know) and that Hiashi refused to let them see him because "You failed as our parents when you let the elders separate us and put that THING on his head!" and that it was Hizashi’s decision if he would talk to them when he woke up (there were assassination attempts, but there was only a disguised ANBU on the bed) and they gave willingly the scroll that explained how to make the seal to Jiraya...
"Tsunade had a hissy fit because i didn't tell her what was happening to you, but how could i tell her knowing she would storm into the compound as soon as she found out? They would kill you! Why did she think i insisted she trained you herself when you became chunnin? I wanted you AWAY from the compound!" Orochimaru propped him up so he was reclined on the bed and, using a hand mirror showed him his now seal-free forehead...
His eyes started to water and he felt Orochimaru sitting beside him on the bed and soon he was pulled in a conforting and familiar embrace.
"You'll have to talk to your brother, properly, when he gets back. And before you ask, Kushina took the other room. She said that if i could house a student i could house two. She's been sharing it with Mikoto and Tsume at least five days a week. Your brother and Shibi are using the couches but as soon as the medical paraphernalia is gone, expect them to come here. I now have four clan heirs and a Jinchuuriki pratically living here, their clans checking on them and pratically waltzing on my house you brat you better be grateful, but at least they bring food... your brother started learning healing techniques, by the way, said he didn't want to get in a situation like that ever again..." but Hizashi was not listening anymore: he fell asleep is his sensei's embrace...