"Yes sir," said Ko. "First, you wanted to teach him responsibility. Second, you wanted him to connect that not everyone in the clan is suited for the role of front line combatant and can actually be more of use in a support role. Third, you intended to step in personally before things got completely out of hand - but the current business with Kiri's trade arrangement with Kawa has caused you to devote more attention to that."
"Yes, well, so tell me what happened that brought things to this state of affairs," said Hizashi.
Ko Hyuga paused, biting his lip as he considered how best to put this. "Neji first started with the laundry detail."
flashback:
"Ahhhhhhhh!" yelled Hinata. "Nooooo! Stop!"
"What?" asked Neji, opening the laundry door and thinking this was not an auspicious sign.
A wall of foam began oozing out of the laundry room.
Neji considered the white foam briefly and then closed the door again. "Perhaps the laundry is more complicated than you are ready for. Perhaps the kitchen would work better."
present:
"She put in too much soap powder?" asked Hizashi.
"She was too small to reach the top of the washing machine, so she pulled a stepladder out and climbed to the top with the clothes and a box of laundry detergent," said Ko. "She managed to get the clothes into the machine after several tries, but then fell inside with the box of detergent while the machine was in the pre-soak."
"I see," said Hizashi.
Ko handed a photograph over to his lord.
"Her legs are sticking up out of the machine and kicking," noted Hizashi.
"I pulled her out before she could drown, though it was difficult to do so while remaining hidden to both her and your son," said Ko. "Fortunately, due to the amount of foam, her error provided its own cover."
"They're eight, even if my son shows every sign of being a genius at the clan techniques, their chakra reserves are not going to be sufficient for prolonged use of the Byakugan," noted Hizashi. Seeing past such things would be easy with their kekkei genkai, excepting that point. "So, did the cooking go any better?"
"Well..." hedged Ko.
flashback:
It wasn't an earth-shattering kaboom, but it was a plate-destroying crash. The problem was that it was the fourth such sound to emanate from the kitchen.
The head cook, an elderly woman who was somewhat heavyset, came out and knelt before the young heir.
"You want me to transfer Hinata to another area," said Neji.
"As the young lord has wisely foreseen," said the cook.
"Can't you have her do something less fragile?" asked Neji.
"She's too small to carry things, requires a stepstool to man any of the pots - and then things just naturally seem to go wrong around her. She's got a nervous twitch developing too, and that is contributing to her clumsiness."
There was the sound of a young girl yelping, a pot clanging, and a loud splashing noise.
"Maybe as a guard?" asked Neji.
"My lord, she's eight years old," pointed out the cook. "She is not going to make an effective combatant against adults."
"True," said Neji, thinking of the last time she'd sparred with him. "Her Jyuuken skills are not going to intimidate anything larger than a mouse. Maybe courier duty?"
present:
"How bad was the damage?" asked Hizashi.
"She wasn't burned, but I'm told she smelled of ramen for the rest of the day," said Ko.
Hizashi sighed. "Courier duty?"
"She tried," pointed out Ko. "However she ran into trouble because she is normally very quiet and the counters of the places she was to deliver to are higher than she is tall."
Hizashi took the next photo, which was of a counter in the Hokage's office. A tiny hand clutching an envelope could be seen waving on the other side of that countertop. "So, she basically took much longer than she should have."
"At which point Neji lost his temper with her when he caught her in the streets," said Ko.
flashback
The little girl bowed her head repeatedly. "Gomen nasai, gomen nasai, gomen nasai!"
Neji found her bowing and apologizing and CRYING to be even more irritating. "You are a complete and utter failure! You will never change and always stay a failure! Worse - you're making ME look bad because I'm supposed to find a place for you!"
"Gomen nasai!" said the girl, repeatedly bowing again.
"Geez, little rough ain't ya?!" asked a voice.
"You," said Neji recognizing the boy that everyone disliked. An idea occurred to him. "You're concerned for her? Fine! She's yours! Hinata, you are now this boy's maid. Go serve him!"
"W-w-w-w-What?!" squeaked Hinata.
"Huh?" asked the blonde boy.
"She is useless, a failure," declared Neji. "Which fits being given to someone who is useless and a failure like you."
"WHAT?!" asked the blonde boy. "I'll show you! You won't be able to dismiss us so easily!"
"Hah! Like a failure like you can show ME anything," said Neji, scoffing as he turned and walked away.
present:
Hizashi massaged his forehead.
"Yes, that was pretty much my reaction," admitted Ko.
"So what did the two do?" asked Hizashi finally.
"Hinata followed the boy to Training Ground #3," answered Ko. "They worked on kunai, sparred, went to the boy's home and made arrangements to meet tomorrow for additional practice. Hinata also declared war on the boy's apartment. Apparently she used her Byakugan to check out the place and pronounced it 'barely habitable' and that she'd deal with it tomorrow."
Hizashi stopped massaging his forehead. "So - the boy basically understood his 'maid' to mean that Hinata would help him study?"
"Apparently," said Ko, his tone of voice indicating his disapproval of the boy in question - but professional enough to report without trying to put a particular spin on events.
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(Posted Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:16)
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