Dream Team (NaruHina)

#4 Apology

The prison was hell for the young boy. He didn't know how long he had been there, but he had counted the times, that some member of the civilian council had bribed the guards to look away while they had their fun with him. They had blindfolded him, so he didn't know, which of them came, but he knew, that five of the seven council members already had been in his cell. His body showed the signs; broken bones, cuts across his whiskered face, burn marks on his exposed skin and countless bruises from the many kicks and punches he had received. Quivering he prayed for the two days to finally be over, so that he could get out of this hell hole, even if it meant that he had to be exiled.

Suddenly he heard the telltale rustling of keys in front of his cell. He knew, what would come next. "Maybe you can take a break."

There were steps that went away from his cell. No doubt the guard.He readied himself for another session of torture as he heard quite steps approach him.

"What have they done to you, poor boy?" Naruto raised his head in surprise. He felt hands untie the bandage over his eyes and was even more surprised when the bandages fell and revealed Hiashi Hyuuga to be kneeling in front of him. The man had his ever stoic face, but Naruto could see a glimmer of shame and guilt behind these steeled eyes. Hiashi sat the young shinobi up and gave him a flask, filled with water.

"I am so sorry you had to endure this. Hinata has told me everything that happened. Again, I am so sorry, I let my emotions get the better of me. I will clear everything up as soon as I am able to."

Mustering all his strength Naruto spoke up: "Don't. It is of no use, if I was to stay here. The best you can do is to make sure, that they don't change my sentence to execution. These past few hours have shown me, that I can not stay in this village." He coughed in between sentences, sprinkling his lips with blood.

Hiashi was taken aback by this statement and the maturity behind it, but he thought how the childhood of the container of the Kyuubi wasn't a very easy one and that he had to grow up a lot earlier than he should have. He nodded and stood up. The least he could do was to honor the kids wishes, he just had to convince Hinata to lie to the council.

Thinking of Hinata brought Hiashi to another problem he was to face later that day; the Hyuuga council was growing more and more resentful at Hinata for not performing up to their standards. They were spoiled by Hiashi's nephew Neji, who had been a once in a year prodigy and they were using him as a standard to Hinata. The recent incident only strengthened their position and there were already calls for Hinata to be removed as the heir and for Hanabi, her sister, to be proclaimed heir in her stead.

Hiashi also knew, that there were only two ways for an heir to step down from that position. Hinata would either have to become a member of one of the branch families and consequently be marked with the caged bird curse seal, which Hiashi would never allow, or she would have to die and Hiashi would make damn sure, that nothing happened to his daughter, as long as he was still alive. This left him in a precarious situation. He knew, if the Hyuuga council would cast a vote to disown Hinata, that he would have to make a decision and he didn't like his choices one bit.

He sighed and snapped out of his thoughts, when he heard steps approach the cell he was standing in. Then he had an idea. Quickly he leaned down in front of Naruto.

"Would you take Hinata with you?", he asked with hushed voice.

"Why does she need to get away from the village?" Naruto answered, while Hiashi quickly blindfolded the young blonde.

"I can't explain it now. I will try to later. Would you do it?", he asked again. Naruto only nodded in confusion. Hiashi sighed in relief, maybe his daughter will have a good life, outside of this village if the council wishes her gone.

"The time is up." The guard had come back and waited for the Hyuuga to leave Naruto's cell.

"You will not let anyone get into that cell again, understood?" Hiashi pressed another bag of money into the hands of the guard who nodded with a smile. "Of course."

When Hiashi came back to the Hyuuga compound he was greeted with two of the council members, standing next to the entrance to the compound.

He sighed as he approached them: "Yes?"

"My lord, the council needs your attention."

"What is this about?"

"Your daughter."

Hiashi nodded with a frown and went towards the house, where the Hyuuga held their council meetings.

When he entered, he sat down on the head of the table, looking at the four people, that sat on the sides of the table, waiting for the other two to also sit down.

"Very well. Let's get on with this. What is your decision?" Hiashi looked at the faces of the council members and saw that they were hesitant to come forward with their proposition.

"We have talked about what had happened to your daughter. It was a horrible thing and we don't want to say that the monster has won against us, but we think, that this incident shows that Hinata is not fit to be the heir of our clan. We have decided that we will ask you to disown her and to put her in the branch family, so that Hanabi can be the new heir, maybe she will be better suited for it."

Hiashi grit his teeth. When the council said that the had 'decided to ask him' they were pretty much forcing him, since there was a Hyuuga-law, that stated that a unanimous decision from the council can not be overturned by the leader.

Knowing, that he had no other choice Hiashi nodded, before standing up and going to the door. "We will hold her initiation into the branch family in a week." He said as he stood in the door frame.