Chapter Text
one
who would ever want to be king?
“Now the old king is dead,
long live the king.”
- King Charles VI, previous King of France.
There’s a foreign literature once famous in Konohagakure that spoke of the concept of evil and its founding fathers.
It was almost like an old, historical philosophy of sorts and one of the most popular and titillating quotes taken from the literary book that subsequently took the entire village by storm — raises the possibility of one thing.
And it's that demons are made and humans learn from them.
But Hyuuga Hiashi, the current Clan Head of the remaining most powerful clan of Konohagakure, long time widower and father to two beautiful and intelligent daughters — feels compelled to disagree. Demons aren't made, they delightfully chose their way into a life of lies, debauchery and depravity. Humans don't learn from demons, they fall victim to their incessant, corruptible lies — and in return, become debauched, depraved and broken because of it. There's even a saying these days, that until the crawdads stop singing — evil will continue to run with the rivers of time.
And he supposes, the singing has never stopped because there's something depraved and evil in doing this to your eldest daughter now. In doing what he's about to do to his family by tonight.
Hiashi runs his fingers against the scroll in his right hand as he gracefully pads his feet away from the office of the Konoha Council, his gait calm and peaceful despite the storm brewing inside him like it knew of the ruination coming for the Hyuuga Main family if he ever decides to pull himself back from this and run away like a fucking coward.
“You washed your hands free of us once.” Hiashi mutters to himself. “And in return, the Spirits will now come to collect the consequences of that familial sin.”
I can protect you from myself, from the Clan, and from the politics — all my life. Hiashi bows as a few members of the Council Elders come home to an office he couldn't be any more glad to leave behind him. They barely even bowed back to him. But I cannot protect you from your judgment.
And the Council has made it final and binding. These elders may be human and they aren't demons and wastrels wearing the government’s title — but evil trails after wherever they go.
And not for the first time, I’ll allow myself to abide by their debauchery and filth. The scroll has never felt as heavy in his hands as it did now. This.
Is your judgment, Hyuuga Hinata.
𓇢𓆸
A hand slams on the unsharpened, dull shuriken laid on a pile of leaves on the forest ground — as a soft gasp of joyous laughter pulsates throughout the air not long after.
“I won.” Hyuuga Hinata laughs almost a little too breathlessly even as a heaving Sasuke falls right on top of her; with the shinobi making sure he isn't putting too much pressure of his weight on the kunoichi, settling most of it on the lone arm lounging on her right side instead. Hinata was quick to turn right back to face his handsome face — blissfully unaware of the closeness of both of their pressing bodies, of their lips and how his breath fans over the skin near her jaw from the adrenaline that's still coursing throughout their straining muscles and their attempts of inhibiting their chakra now. “I won, Sasuke-kun!”
Sasuke was narrowing his eyes at the shuriken just half an inch before them as if it's the next world war on all five nations of this world, panting for a while longer from the physical exertion before he mutters, “Barely.”
Hinata cocks her head knowingly as if to “wonder” as to what’s so barely about beating him in their game of tracking and hunting. He might have a good excuse for losing against a ninja who’s a thousand times weaker than him altogether.
“You won. Barely.” His dark eyes slowly trail their way to where soft lavender hues reflect from where her pupils should be, to the simplicity of her eyes and how irrevocably beautiful they are to him still to this day. The sides of his lips eventually curl into a small, unrepentant smirk. “Cheater.”
Ah. Hinata shakes her head, kindly disagreeing even as she barely fights through the smile that paints her fair face into something innocent and sweet. “That's not right to call the winner of our first The Loser Gets To Hunt for Dinner In the Forest game something awful when I just won against Uchiha Sasuke on my first try!”
Sasuke nearly chuckles at how happy Hinata truly looked as she forms a small fist in victory while her other hand sprang throughout the air in triumph — giggling in pure joy and glorious self-fulfillment. “I beat Sasuke-kun on my first try!”
“I let you win.” Sasuke eventually burrows his face on the curve of her neck in faux exhaustion, taking in the smell of lavender, lilies and the sweetness of her natural skin. Hinata's hand was quick to start playing with the ends of his dark hair around the back of his neck out of instinct then, still smiling and reeling in contentment from her victory.
Sasuke's a little “tired” after running through the forest for hours, trying to find one stupid weapon without using any of their dōjutsus or kekkei genkai — all while trying not to let the fact that he’s letting Hinata take the lead in tracking the shuriken a little too obvious. Irregardless, the more important thing now is—
“Not only have you been squatting in my family district for the last eight months, taking space in my damn house, hardly paying for my bills, and eating my groceries — but now you're making me hunt and cook for tonight's dinner too.” Sasuke grumbles against the warmth and familiarity of her body.
“That's true.” Hinata laughs gingerly, aware of this unfortunate fact as she runs her thumb against the hot skin on his neck in a more gentle, fond manner now. It's so rare for such a childish side of Sasuke to come out ever since they turned fifteen all those years ago — but after the night he opened his doors to his home for her all those months back, there's something about him showing another part of himself solely to Hinata, by and by, over the last few midnights that's making her feel invited and welcomed.
And if she were to be honest, she enjoys these moments of teasing with Sasuke the most. “Thank you for taking care of me, Uchiha-dono. I will always be very grateful for you and the kindness you’ve shown me on my most vulnerable nights. If it's not too much, please keep on taking care of me and I will also try my best.” Hinata laughs, playing along to their usual banter.
“You think being cute will work on me?” But he was smirking almost a little too haughtily right after.
“...u-um—?” Although as quick as it was for the highs of their quiet, personal moments to lift her spirits up, it was also as quick for Sasuke to immediately bring her back down the moment he deems it tempting or necessary. Slowly, she stops running her fingers all over him and subsequently removes her hands away from his body — Hinata tries to ignore the small pang in her chest that almost felt strange to her these last few months because of him. The same uncomfortable feeling he’s hauling right back to her now. “Are you making fun of me—”
Sasuke didn't let her finish her thought as he was quick to press his lips against the curve of her neck once more, mouthing his famous last words against her there (“the Hyuuga Princess is a colossal idiot”), and immediately grab the shuriken before throwing it against the tree right across from them.
“Idiot.” Sasuke snickers boyishly, as he lifts himself without so much of an effort or a waste of sweat before walking backwards from her. “The winner was supposed to mark a tree after grabbing the damn shuriken off of the leaves on the ground as the final task. You think trying to remind me of how adorable you were back when we were seven years old would distract me long enough?”
“Ano…Remind—you? Sasuke-kun, I don't understa—”
“‘Please keep on taking care of me and I will also try my best’,” Sasuke sighs, the grin on his sly mouth couldn't be any more attractive as it looks on him as of this moment. “That's what you told me after your father forced you to speak to me after I pushed you into our koi pond for taking the last candied apricot back then.”
“...” Hinata was aware — how Sasuke dodges mentioning his own family and his now deceased, cursed clan as he looks back on a past that's all long and gone. If it weren't for his sharp, exhaustive and definitive memory from his Sharingan, Hinata was sure none of the ninjas alive would even come to remember their families’ shared history, let alone celebrate it.
And she lets him get away with that, get away with dancing around on the topic of his own heavy history. With how she grew to familiarize herself with it over the course of their relationship, it's a topic worth saving for another day anyway; a time where Sasuke will deem her finally worthy to confide with about a past that was as desolate and ugly as the scars on the back of her hands, thighs and the sides of her hips — if such a day would even come. If it won't, then that's okay too, Hinata had always understood him irregardless if he even called for her to do so. “You were an idiot then and you're still an idiot now.” Everyone's favorite heartthrob shinobi says.
“Sasuke…” Hinata can't help but giggle even at the expense of herself while she gradually stands up. “Y-you know I can't have dinner with you tonight when I’m supposed to be spending the night in the headquarters of the Hyuuga Compound. I was only supposed to accompany you on this game while somehow hoping I would win in some unrealistic, strange, and almost suspicious way but—”
Hinata lifts a demure hand to hide her even more laughing lips, watching Sasuke throw her an accusing and definitely unrepentant look.
“In a fair way,” Hinata makes up for what she knows was the truth anyway. “But I only have so much time to spare—”
“You don't have to spend dinner with me.” Sasuke says, ultimately coming to a halt in his footsteps. His lips twitch into an even more genuine smirk before cocking his head to the side, his hand now comfortably tucked in the pocket of his trousers. “I’m only asking you to do one thing.”
“Mm? And what would that be Uchiha-dono?” Hinata blinks, slowly lowering her fist to press it against her chest.
“Cook with me.” Sasuke looked so amused, having to use his victory over her to push the ex-Heiress around so easily like this without even the need for feeling guilty.
“Mm.” Hinata hums again, slowly jutting her chin in the air as if to consider his proposition before eventually schooling her features into a more playful, docile manner. “It's a deal.”
I always loved taking care of Sasuke-san any way I could, irregardless of the reason or situation — whether it's because he’ll be coming home from a mission, training, or a spar with the future Hokage, I made a promise to myself I will never fail him when it comes to this. And cooking with him, spending more time with him before the sun falls and the moon arises — is definitely one way to do that. It was always in her nature to look after those who are closest to her heart, those who are the closest to her priorities in life. And I love how he felt comfortable enough with me to show a side of himself that even I had thought had long died throughout the years.
There's a hundred few reasons Hyuuga Hinata has grown to love Uchiha Sasuke over the last several months.
Tricking her and having her cook alone for him in the end definitely wasn't one of those reasons.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid Uchiha.” Hinata pouts as she continues slicing the tomatoes in Sasuke's sparse kitchen. The jerk merely snorted in his dining room chair and continued reading the scroll in his hands.
𓇢𓆸
The Head House of the Hyuuga Compound has always felt lifeless and cold to Hiashi since his late wife died. The lilies never smelled the same, the bed never felt as used and comfortable, the atmosphere never felt any less lonely and stiff.
When he lost Hinata a few weeks after she handed down her birthright as Heiress to her more capable and competent younger sister on Hanabi’s crowning ceremony — it only lost more of its life.
Seeing his eldest daughter back in these rooms again, however, Hiashi can almost feel the warmth and comforting presence his wife used to give off when she was alive. Hinata has the shape of her mother's eyes, after all — and right now, Hiashi can still see her in them.
“A marriage…with the last living Uchiha as a way of sparing myself from the Clan’s Caged Bird Seal.” And Hyuuga Hiashi can see her tear a piece of herself apart for the sake of family right all over again. “An arranged marriage…just to take pity on me and try to protect me from a juinjutsu that isn't even necessary—”
“Hinata.” Hiashi apprehended her coldy, entirely appearing unaffected to the ruination he knew he had set on her future. “It's either a marital union with a descendant from a dynasty of the Clan’s standards or lifetime imprisonment according to Hyuuga Clan traditions. You should have expected nothing else from your fate after what you did.”
“This is my punishment and I will humbly take accountability for it, Father — however, I don't see what’s the purpose of even trying to seal me into a cage when the Byakugan won't even be put to waste the moment I die since I have given up on any plans of—”
“Is that your concern right now? The future of putting to waste our kekkei genkai by refusing to bear children outside capable lovers instead of the weight of the responsibility that will lay on your shoulders when you eventually become the matriarch of what was once a dying clan? When you wed Uchiha Fugaku’s youngest son, bearing children to continue our bloodline for the sake of the Byakugan and the techniques of your husband's clan will be duty instead of something as selfish as personal desire. You have no choice, instead you have responsibility and the weight of your punishment because of your sin. So act like a Hyuuga instead of some rat from the streets, Hinata.”
“Please don't misunderstand me, Father, but I am more concerned about the future of the man you're going to cage because of me.” Hinata was never a woman who raises her voice in moments of trials and adversities, and she won't start now. But when there's a lack of conviction, there's a surplus of emotion. And Hinata has never felt beyond emotional about this.
Because not only are they going to hurt her all over again as if it's a part of family culture (when she would've been fine with that because it's only Hinata and she has experience with how this works, she has experience of handling trials and misery alone) but they're going to hurt a person who was supposed to be free of this. Uchiha Sasuke, despite his travels and aimless wandering around the world several lonely years ago, was never really free until he finally won it in the end through his own insatiable hurt, misery and sacrifice.
And now…they're going to take it all away just for the sake of the safety of some useless, pathetic ex-Heiress who can't even protect the childhood friend she has grown to care about these past few months. Once the Council signs an agreement and writes it on the scrolls, it will be a part of the Hyuuga Clan’s history books forever, after all. It's a binding seal that no ninja could ever go against unless they want to risk losing their rank in the system.
“This is the consequences of your abdication as the eldest Hyuuga from our family all those months back.” Hiashi reminds her for the last time, almost pitying the mother of his child as it feels like he's staring into his wife now. “These are the consequences of your abdication as clan royalty.”
But I had never wanted to be royalty. And even Neji-nii-san knew that. As Hinata takes in the reprimands of the Clan Head, the current patriarch of the current most powerful dynasty in Konoha — with grace and a lack of pride, her eyes accidentally trail through the line of books arranged in stacks inside the shelves behind him. Eventually she sees Hiashi's most favorite book on full display.
There’s a foreign literature once famous in Konohagakure that spoke of the concept of evil and its founding fathers — Hyuuga Hiashi was as immensely immersed by it now as he was with it two decades ago. Hinata doesn't remember much of it but she does remember the author’s final words right at the ending.
What use is it to be born of lavishness, privilege, and of monarchy when the price is immediately losing your own soul at your final breath? And if losing your own soul is what led you right in front of the gates of hell when you die…
…then who would ever want to be king? Who would ever want to be born from a lineage of the lost, the damned, and the prideful? Because there are no prideful souls in Heaven….
…and there are no humble souls in Hell. Your fate will be forever damned.
This.
Is your judgment, Hyuuga Hinata.