Truth Well Hidden

Hinata's Duty

"Okaa-sama!"

A beautiful woman with zinzolin hair doubled over, sprays of blood emerging from her parted lips as she coughed painfully. Her expression was strained as she did her best to keep up her reassuring smile to her daughter, a pretty girl with navy blue hair that made a stark contrast with her white eyes that were tinged with the smallest traces of lilac. Said daughter was the one who had cried out in horror. The pair had been enjoying their meal together when the elder of the pair of Hyūga began coughing up blood. She was heavily pregnant, only able to bend slightly her swollen abdomen restricting her movement. The woman had been perfectly fine before, not showing any signs of illness until after she was halfway through the meal. That in itself had caused both females to narrow their eyes in suspicion as they examined the food given to them.

"I'm alright, Hina-chan. Just... bring the doctor here," her mother, Hisana said to not worry her daughter.

Hinata was only five at this point, but the young Hyūga heiress was an intelligent child and had been trained since she was born to take over the clan as the head. However, she cared most for her mother and would probably be glad if the elders of the Hyūga clan council were to die. The old fools have been trying to convince Hisana to abort the child in her womb as it was displaying itself to possess much less chakra than Hinata had while she was in her mother's womb. They had found it pointless since the backup heir of their clan has to be at least close in power to the actual heir for them to consider it. They would also have preferred for the child to have been male, but sadly -- to the council members, at least -- the child had been confirmed to be female.

Hisana had snapped at them, only leading to the idiots throwing a hissy fit about it before they tried to sway Hiashi to their side. The man held considerable power over the woman, considering that he was the clan head as well as her husband, but the man did not even acknowledge their attempts. That had infuriated the group, who had proceeded to take on more drastic measures.

Hinata nodded, dashing off in the direction where she knew where the medical centre in the compound was. She returned barely ten minutes later with the doctor, an amazing feat for one as young as herself. She watched impatiently as the doctor did a quick scan of her mother's body before an expression of dread settled onto his features.

"What is it?" Hisana asked quietly, hoping against hope that the doctor was just overreacting.

"You have a chronic disease, Hisana-sama. I cannot seem to identify it either. The symptoms seem to have appeared all of a sudden, though. There are no signs of prolonged deterioration of your health," the medic explained, sounding rather puzzled by his own diagnosis.

When both members of the main branch urged him to continue, he stated with carefully maintained composure while looking down, "I do not wish to say this, but the only way for Hisana-sama to survive is for the child growing in her womb to be aborted immediately. The disease is going to kill her otherwise."

"Please tell me this is a dream," Hisana whispered disbelievingly, her eyes swimming with hurt.

"Okaa-sama," Hinata murmured as a tear leaked from one of her eyes, "I'd wish so too, but it isn't to be."

Hiashi, fetched by a nurse that Hinata had informed while she had been in the process of bringing the doctor to her mother, barged into the room and knelt before his wife. His usual stoic demeanour was forgotten, tossed away to the side like a toy that a child had tired of. He did not bother to conceal his worry as he cupped the hands of his beloved in his own.

"What happened, Hisana? I heard that you felt unwell," Hiashi questioned, his eyes widening as he noticed the blood splattered on Hisana's delicate palm.