Late that evening a small, stealthy figure slipped through the main Hyuuga clan house. The figure had chosen a good time, as most of the adults were gathered elsewhere for a clan meeting, leaving the building largely empty. While the guards protecting the compound perimeter were vigilant, this was one of the rare times the houses themselves were unguarded. Which was why the exact time clan meetings were held was such a closely guarded secret.
But Hinata Hyuuga knew about the meeting, even though her father had rather pointedly excused her from needing to attend. She knew why. Her father and the rest of the elders felt she was too weak to be the heir and were already grooming her sister to take her place. Not that Hinata disagreed with their assessment. She knew she was weak, which was why she chose this opportunity to slip into her father’s office.
For years Hinata had admired two of Konoha’s most disreputable ninja students. Ranma, who was looked down upon due to his strange bloodline and his mother’s… odd… training methods. Naruto, and orphan and prankster who seemed to provoke the ire of even those who were not victims of his pranks. Both had qualities that made them disapproved of by much of the village, yet also made them objects of adoration for the young Hyuuga. Both had a drive to succeed no matter what. Where others might have been put off by Ranma’s gender changing, Hinata found him cute in both forms. Where Naruto’s loud exuberance annoyed others, she admired his cheerfulness and energy.
But she had never had the nerve to follow up on her desire for either of them. She just knew that she was too weak to catch their interest. The only way she could achieve her dreams was to find some way to be strong. Already she had started looking beyond her clan’s techniques to find other ways to become stronger.
Unfortunately for her, her father would never allow one of his clan, even one who was a disappointment, to stoop to learning any ‘lesser’ styles. This was well known, and made it impossible to find anyone willing to tutor her in non-Hyuuga techniques. (Ranma would have, but Hinata was much too shy to ask him.) Frustrated in her initial plan, she took to heart her crushes’ “never give up” motto and turned the Hyuuga library upside-down looking for things to make her strong.
There wasn’t much. Non-Hyuuga techniques were disdained by the clan, and what little ended up in the library was an odd collection of mostly low-powered jutsus that had been recorded mainly for their non-combat usefulness. Hinata learned them anyway.
Her most important find was on the matter of seals. Seals were well-regarded by the clan, and the books in the library allowed Hinata to gain a very good basic understanding of their use, effects, and limitations. The information on actually creating seals wasn’t there (she guessed it was somewhere much more secure), but that could wait. She doubted she’d be able to learn to create them on her own anyway. In the meantime, her generous allowance let her become well-supplied with storage scrolls and explosive tags, and she was becoming quite ingenious in their use.
This evening, however, she had a different goal in mind. As always, Ranma and Naruto had shown her the way with their discussion this afternoon. Ranma had mastered techniques that were the talk of the village, and Naruto seemed determined to master them as well. She had heard the elders mention Ranma’s upcoming exhibition and how his techniques were said to be derived from a certain set of books.
Silently crossing her father’s empty office, she carefully opened a specially shielded cabinet. Inside, blocked from the sight of the Byakugan, were a number of items, but what garnered Hinata’s interest was a stack of orange books. Grinning in triumph, she quickly transferred the books to a storage scroll, before closing the cabinet and slipping out the way she came.
Ranma had studied these books to become stronger. She would do the same.
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(Posted Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:55)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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