𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐀 𝐇𝐘𝐔𝐆𝐀 𝐓𝐖𝐈𝐍

Team Ino-Shika-Nara-Cho Finds Out

Last time:

"Now that that's done," Iruka said, clapping his hands together, "all that you have to do today is come back here at noon to meet your new senseis. You're all dismissed!"

Now:

"All right, Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, follow me, we're going to be eating together," Hanara said as soon as Iruka left, "I don't care what you do when we're eating but we are eating together, got it," Hanara asked, glaring at them.

"Y-Yes ma'am," Ino and Choji chorused while Shikamaru merely nodded. Ugh, that Nara was too lazy.

"Good," she said before changing her tone to a more happy one, "Anyone have any idea where to go?"

"Oh! We can go to the back of the flower shop," Ino said grabbing Choji and Shikamaru's hands, "Come on!"

Hanara sighed and ran after Ino. Yamanaka Flowers was quite close by, Hanara didn't understand why Ino felt the need to run when they could save their energy for meeting Asuma. When Hanara caught up to Ino, she was already at the door.

"Welcome to Yamanaka Flowers!" Ino exclaimed, pulling the door open.

"It's just like I remember," Hanara said, smiling softly as everyone walked in.

"You've been here before? I don't remember." Ino said. Even Shikamaru and Choji seemed interested. I never told them about my situation with the Hyuga clan and they never asked which is also why they never realized that I would have come here to place flowers on Hizashi's grave.

I decided to tell them the truth, "My father passed away and I used to come by here to buy flowers for his grave. I stopped when I started to grow my own."

You could practically see the confusion on Choji and Shikamaru's faces.

"But we've seen your father at the academy, Hanara," Choji said, remembering the time I pointed him out when he asked.

"I know you-" Hanara got cut off by a beautiful woman that looked like a black-haired, green-eyed, older version of Ino, who was coming out of a room that said 'Employees Only'.

"Hanara? Is that you?"

"Yamanaka-sama," she said, bowing, Shikamaru and Choji copying her.

"Shikamaru, Choji, Hanara, I've told you, call me Asa," Asa Yamanaka exclaimed.

"Mom, you know Hanara?" Ino asked.

"Yes, she used to come here every Tuesday for 2 years," the elder Yamanaka said, "Each week it was one of three flowers: red carnations, daffodils, or pink roses. It was quite cute seeing a 3-year-old buying flowers. I remember I used to put them in your hair remember?"

"I'm sorry I never came by." Hanara apologized.

"It's okay, I know you must have been busy with the Academy and all. Speaking of which, what are you doing here Ino? Aren't you meant to be at the Academy?"

"No, Iruka-Sensei dismissed us after announcing our teams and said to come back in an hour so I brought my team here so that we could get to know each other more. Can we go to the back?"

"Oh! This is your team? Of course you can go to the back! Do you need anything?"

"No Mom, we all brought our lunches, see ya!" Ino said, motioning us to follow her to the back entrance of the shop.

We walked out until we saw a field full of beautiful plants and medical herbs.

"This is where we get all our plants and flowers," Ino said, "We can eat our lunch here."

"Fine by me," Hanara said, taking out her lunch, "Say, Ino-"

She got cut off by Choji, "No wait, I'm confused Hanara, Asa said that you came by when you were 3 but Shikamaru and I saw your dad when you were 9."

Hanara's eyes widened, 'Damn it. I hoped they wouldn't notice. I mean yeah sure Shikamaru would but he would wait until I told him because it would be too "troublesome" to ask. To tell or not to tell the truth... hmm. They would find out anyway and according to what I remember they were all good people... I can't keep it bottled up like Neji either, that would turn me into a mean person... I guess I'll tell them then.'

Hanara sighed, she hoped that the boys wouldn't take it too personally, "I wasn't lying. My father died but at the same time, my father was there that day." They all opened their mouths to protest but before they could, Hanara continued, "One thing that you should know before I continue is that the Hyuga Clan has an elaborate system in place to choose the clan head. They have a main family and a branch family, but if the clan head has more than one child, the other children get cast off into the branch family. The reason, or well the reason I was told, is that we need to protect the byakugan, our kekkei genkai, which is why my eyes look so weird. The way our clan thought was best was to place a cursed seal on all the branch members' foreheads when the clan heir turns 3 so that their byakugans would be sealed away when they died. However, the reason that the main family doesn't put it on themselves is that the seal is also used to torture the branch members to keep them in check."

Here everyone gasped.

"Um, Hana, I appreciate the lesson but what does this have to do with you Father?" Ino asked.

"I'm getting to it, you just need context," Hanara responded before returning to her story, "Anyway, biologically I'm Hinata-sama's younger twin so you can guess what happened to me when I was 3."

"They put the seal on you," Shikamaru said, staring at Hanara in horror.

"Yeah. You ever wonder why I have bandages under my bangs? But that's not the worst of it, the same thing happened to Hizashi Hyuga, my biological Father's younger twin, and Neji Hyuga, my biological cousin. After my amazing Father put the seal on me, he practically disowned me. He said he was no longer my Father, Hinata-sama was no longer my sister, and my Mother -who is now dead by the way- was no longer my Mother. I never got to meet my sister, Hanabi, when she was born because Hiashi-sama thought that Hinata was too weak to lead the clan and was having trouble deciding between them. Luckily, Hizashi was kind enough to offer me a home, otherwise, I would have had to take care of myself in a random deserted house in the compound. Hizashi became a new Father to me, he treated me better than Hiashi-sama ever did. Anyway, the night of my third birthday someone tried to kidnap Hinata. Hiashi-sama killed him and it turned out he was the Head Cloud nin. That made the Cloud upset and they demanded Hiashi-sama's life. They said that they wouldn't sign the peace treaty otherwise. But obviously, Hiashi-sama is still alive so who did we send? My Father, Hiashi-sama's identical twin, Hizashi Hyuga." Hanara ended the story.