After sipping plain porridge and changing into ceremonial robes, Hinata clung closely to Hiashi's side, struggling to match her father's stride without falling too far behind.
The rain continued its soft, relentless patter from the sky. Soon, the two wound their way from the main family's grand residence to the branch family's quarters. As Hinata stepped into this area, the faint melancholy of the main house grew oppressively heavy. Passing by bowing branch family members, Hinata was led by her father to stand before a closed door.
Hiashi knocked lightly and said in his stern voice, "Neji, I'm coming in." Without waiting for a response, he slid the door open and stepped into the room, thick with the scent of incense, ahead of Hinata.
The sound of wind and rain mingled with the creak of their footsteps on the wooden floor. No reply came to Hiashi's announcement, and the shrine-like atmosphere made Hinata clutch her robes tighter.
She was afraid—until her eyes fell on a small figure kneeling before the altar. Only then did she realize another presence in the dim room.
"Brother Neji…" Hinata's hesitant greeting broke the silence between the three, but her kindness was met with none in return. The small figure, like a lifeless puppet, remained still and silent, ignoring Hinata and her father as if they didn't exist.
Hiashi frowned slightly, but upon seeing the photo behind the incense burner, he fell silent. He wasn't one for comfort or reassurance. As clan leader, he understood Neji's resentment toward him and Hinata. Reprimand Neji for his attitude? Hizashi, Neji's father, had first protected Hinata's safety and then died in Hiashi's place to appease the Cloud ninja's unreasonable demands. Hiashi's conscience wouldn't let him scold Neji for his rudeness.
Neji, though a branch family member, was still his kin.
Hiashi guided Hinata to kneel before the altar, lighting an incense stick and placing it in her hands. Though he said nothing, Hinata understood what her father wanted. She held the incense, bowed respectfully, and stood to place it in the burner before the photo of her uncle, whose face mirrored her father's.
When Hinata stepped back after offering the incense, silence still hung between the three. Hiashi sighed inwardly, turning to leave. But Hinata, seeing Neji's tear-streaked face, felt a pang of unease urging her to act.
Her intuition told her Neji's father hadn't died in battle—and that it was likely tied to her.
I must do something for Brother Neji, her heart urged. Swallowing her innate timidity and resisting the urge to flee with her father, Hinata summoned unprecedented courage and spoke loudly to her cousin.
"Brother Neji, do you want to become a great ninja like Uncle Hizashi?"
Perhaps startled by Hinata's uncharacteristic boldness, both Hiashi and Neji turned their gazes to her flushed face. Hiashi paid it little mind, but Hinata saw it—a flicker of disdain in Neji's dull eyes. As he began to turn away, Hinata, suppressing her urge to run, pressed on.
"Wasn't Uncle Hizashi a great ninja?"
"My father was a great ninja," Neji replied, his voice cold.
Hinata stopped there. Seeing a spark of emotion—displeasure—on Neji's puppet-like face, she felt he'd regained some life. She decided to leave the rest to Neji, who had always been far more capable than her. Bowing, she hurried to her father's side. As she closed the door, she left Neji, deep in thought, in the dim room. With her father, she set off back to the main house.
Halfway there, Hiashi could no longer contain himself. If not for the blood ties assuring him this was his daughter, he might have suspected an imposter using a transformation jutsu. This was not the timid Hinata from before her coma.
"Hinata, why do you think your Uncle Hizashi was a great ninja?"
"Father, didn't you say Uncle Hizashi died in battle? For a ninja, dying to protect the Leaf and our clan—isn't that great? Oh, Father, can I know who Uncle Hizashi fought against?"
"The Cloud ninja," Hiashi answered.
His daughter's newfound boldness, free of her usual timidity, reassured Hiashi this was indeed his child. Dismissing the irrational fear of an imposter, he felt a wave of pride. He attributed her change to the trauma of her near-kidnapping and coma—she had "grown up."
His doubts eased, Hiashi thought of Kakashi, the genius, and the countless children sent to die in past wars. Is my daughter, too, shaped by this era of war?
After revealing the Cloud ninja as the "culprit," a new question arose in Hiashi's mind.
"Hinata, now that you know it was the Cloud ninja, what will you do?"
"For now, I'll become an even greater ninja than Uncle Hizashi," Hinata declared.
Her free hand touched her chin in thought. The conclusion to grow stronger surged irresistibly from her heart. Though the dream's details had faded, its fear lingered in her soul. At three years old, Hinata knew little, but as the heiress of a ninja clan and a near-kidnapping victim, her young heart burned with anger toward the Cloud ninja who caused Hizashi's death and turned Neji into a "puppet."
Once I'm a greater ninja than Uncle Hizashi, I'll teach those ninja a lesson.
"Hah, greater than Hizashi?" Hiashi chuckled. "Hinata, in my opinion, no Hyuga in recent years has surpassed him—not the elders, not even me."
Perhaps because they were alone, or because Hinata's growth stirred him, Hiashi, who always hid his emotions behind a stern mask, revealed his true feelings to his daughter. Hizashi, who sacrificed himself for the clan and village, was far greater than Hiashi, the clan leader who merely survived.
"In the entire Leaf, only a handful—perhaps the Hokage included—could be considered greater than Hizashi."
"Then… then I'll become Hokage first!" Hinata exclaimed.
Her childish words stunned Hiashi. He stopped walking, staring at his daughter's earnest face, braver than ever before her coma. He saw the seriousness in her small features.
"Alright," he said. "I'll wait to see my Hinata become the first Hyuga to claim the title of Hokage."
And so, the seed of ambition—to seek strength—was planted.