𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐀 𝐇𝐘𝐔𝐆𝐀 𝐓𝐖𝐈𝐍

Finding A New Home

"Sorry for making you wait, Hikaru-san," Hanara said as she met Hikaru in the living room.

"It's okay. I imagine you both are going through a lot right now."

"No, no. We are not going through anything at all! Life's been an amazing thing right now." Hanara muttered sarcastically under her breath.

'Just a few more years, Hana,' Hanara attempted to mentally soothe herself, 'A few more years and you can use all the sarcasm you want.'

"I'm going to have to tell you quite a few things right now so if you were planning on meeting a few friends," Hikaru looked at Neji here and Hanara couldn't help but take slight offence. She may be just three but it doesn't mean she couldn't have any friends. Granted, she doesn't have any but she could. "You will have to cut them. First, Hiashi-sama feels that you should know the reasoning behind Hizashi-sama's death."

Here Hikaru decided to pause and Hanara took this as an opportunity to pull Neji onto a couch that was opposite to Hikaru.

"W-What was it, Hikaru-san?" Neji asked.

"You remember Hinata-sama's kidnapping, do you not?"

'Remember it? I was fucking hyperventilating because of it!' Hanara thought.

"Uh... yes, I do," Neji replied, thrown off by the sudden topic change.

"Hiashi-sama had killed the kidnapper, causing a lot of problems for the Leaf because of the Leaf-Cloud alliance that was just signed."

"Why would that cause us problems? It's pretty clear that the Cloud nin were the ones who broke the alliance, not us," Neji exclaimed.

"The Cloud nin must have found a way to use it against us. Politics can be pretty weird." Hanara replied.

"Oh."

"Hanara-san is quite right," Hikaru said, "The Cloud ninja found a way to make us seem guilty, I don't know all the details so I can't say how. They were demanding Hiashi-sama's head, they wanted a life for a life. However, because Hiashi-sama doesn't have the Curse Seal, the byakugan could have gotten into the Cloud's hands. Therefore, to protect the byakugan, Hiashi-sama sent Hizashi-sama to the Cloud ninja... and then, he was killed."

Hanara, seeing Neji's anger, held his hand in an attempt to lessen his anger. Now was not the place for Neji to lose his temper and shout many impolite things - for lack of a better word - about the Main House.

Realizing that the children weren't going to comment, Hikaru went on, "The next thing Hiashi-sama wanted us to discuss was your living situation, you can't be living all alone and you are far too young to be working for Hiashi-sama so, hearing this, I went to Hiashi-sama and asked if you could live with me. He agreed on the condition that once one of you was enrolled in the academy, you would be back in this house and would take care of yourselves. If you don't want that, you could keep living by yourself, there's only about another year until Neji-san goes anyway."

Right. It was mid-September now, Neji had just turned 5 two months ago, on July 3rd. Hanara was honestly surprised that this Leaf-Kumo thing had taken so long, seeing as her birthday was way back in December, on the 27th.

Hanara turned to Neji and once he nodded, she said, "Thank you Hikaru-san, it's very nice of you to offer to take in two children, especially since you have quite a lot of work. I know that Hiashi-sama can be quite demanding at times."

Hikaru gave her another weird look- probably because of her language- before shaking his head and responding, "I have known you since you were just a baby, it would be wrong of me to not give you a home."

"Not everyone thinks that way, Hikaru," Hanara responded, trying and failing to keep the bitterness out of her voice.

"Yes, it's very kind of you to offer your home to us, Hikaru-san," Neji said, finally calm enough to talk without yelling.

"Thank you," Hikaru said, smiling, "before I leave, I need to tell you 2 more things. The first is that tonight is the last day Hiashi-sama will allow you to stay here. Tomorrow, he will send in 2 people to pack your things and move them into my home. The second-"

"WHAT!" That was surprisingly the outraged cry of Neji. The usually calm, polite, happy, child was now fuming, "They can't force us out of our own home with just a day's warning!"

Hanara glared at Neji and snarled, or well, did the three-year-old equivalent, "They've done worse, remember Neji?"

That succeeded in silencing Neji, allowing Hikaru to continue, "The second thing is that Hizashi-sama's funeral will be next week. It will be a short thing, with only his direct relatives. So in short, only one speech, which will be made by my mother, and Hiashi-sama, Hinata-sama, Yuki-sama, you, and Neji-san. Hiashi-sama might invite Hizashi's teammates but that will probably be the list.

"Okay, thank you Hikaru-kun," Hanara responded.

"It's no problem," Hikaru smiled, not missing the new honorific, "I'll be going now."

The next day:

Hanara was startled awake due to the sound of her doorbell ringing. 'Is it time already?' Hanara thought. It was because she then heard the door opening -probably by Neji- and Hikaru's voice being added to the soft sounds Hanara was hearing in the house. Resigning herself to the fact that she couldn't go back to sleep, Hanara slowly got off her bed and made her way to the washroom.

Once she was finished, Hanara walked into her room only to see that nearly everything that she would need (minus the furniture) was packed away. Everything minus a set of clothes, which she put on before rushing downstairs.

"Good, you're here. Now, we need to get going, my mom is excited to meet you." Hikaru said to Hanara.

"Oh, right. Thank you for doing this Hikaru-kun." Neji said

"It's no problem. Now come on." Hikaru replied as he slipped on his sandals and opened the door.

"Right," Hanara said as she and Neji copied Hikaru and followed him out the door.

The two children watched as Hikaru locked the door ("Where did he even get the key???") and followed him as he made his way to his home. They both looked back at the house, watching it get further and further away until it was out of sight.