SS010

As he wasn't sure how to refuse the position of a Custodian after he had already accepted it, at least not without offending Hiashi and the elders of the Hyuga Clan, Seikun passed the first three days as the Hyuga Clan Compound in a kind of disjointed stupor.

Fortunately, there weren't too many expectations placed on Seikun as a mere provisional Custodian. His main duties consisted of assisting Hinata, Hanabi, and Neji with their morning and afternoon training, which typically took place between eight and eleven-thirty AM. After that, he was largely allowed to roam and do as he pleased until 3:30 PM, albeit only within the confines of his room and the areas unrestricted to members of the branch family and servants.

What bothered Seikun the most was that he didn't have much time to speak or interact casually with Hinata. She spent lunch and most of the early afternoon receiving private lessons to prepare her for taking over her father's position as leader of the Hyuga Clan. This meant that other than when they were training or sparring, Seikun only ever encountered Hinata when they were in the bath...

Most troubling of all, though it wasn't particularly bothersome, was that Seikun was made to spend a fair amount of time with Hanabi. From 3:30 PM to dinner, which was typically around 7, he was escorted to her room in the main house to assist with her studies. Then, while she ate with her family, he joined the other servants and maids in a concealed dining room near the back of the kitchen, eating his own dinner in oppressive silence while he waited to be called to perform his final duty before retiring to his quarters: tending to the youngest member of the Hyuga in the bath.

As he had two younger sisters he was forced to help care for in his past life, Seikun wasn't too bothered with helping a young girl bathe. He had also been made to share baths with the children back at the orphanage, so the only thing that made it awkward was his and Hinata's awareness of each other. She knew he liked her, and Seikun was positive her father was aware of it as well. Thus, the entire time he was tending to Hanabi, Seiken felt like his every action, hand movement, and even the subtle changes in his expression were being carefully scrutinized to see if he was worthy of the position he was gradually being forced into...

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Waking on the morning of New Year's Eve, Seikun was surprised to realize his head and body felt like lead and that he was running a high fever. The antiquated building his room was in lacked insulation and central heating, so the temperature within his room had plummeted to -17°C due to a cold snap that brought nearly ten inches of snow. Thus, with cold air tending to creep along the ground and floor, Seikun's body heat had been sapped by the chill, leaving his hands and feet feeling frozen while his core and head felt heavy and warm.

'How the hell does someone get sick in a dream...?' Seikun lamented, a pained groan emanating from his throat as he forced himself to rise and cross his legs. Circulating his Chakra allowed him to purge the chill from his body, but he needed medicine or time to overcome his fever.

Fortunately for Seikun, Hiashi had given him the day off as celebrating the New Year was a fairly important tradition within the village, one where people reminisced on the past and prayed for the future. This typically meant visiting the graves of deceased loved ones, receiving blessings at a local shrine, and listening to a speech given by the Hokage, so unless they were away on missions, even active-duty Ninja were given the day to relax and reflect.

With no relatives to mourn, as he shared the same birthday as Naruto and never had a chance to form an attachment to his parents, Seikun rolled up his futon and decided to pass the early morning circulating his Chakra and expanding his maximum capacity. His current reserves were much greater than they were outside, but he was still nowhere near the level of a Tailed Beast. His physique was also lacking compared to his initial expectations, being roughly the same as it was outside, so if he slacked off even a little, it wouldn't be long before someone like Neji humbled him. The little fucker could already land hits on him, and he would only get faster with time...

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"Do you see...?" asked Hiashi, seated atop a raised cushion with Hinata sitting in seiza before him.

"Yes..." responded Hinata, her head lowered and eyes seemingly staring at the floor when, in reality, she was observing Seikun sitting in his room, training hard even on his day off.

"That is the resolve it takes to grasp one's desires and become a great Ninja..." explained Hiashi, his expression and tone stern, but compared to how he spoke to her in the past, Hinata found it exceedingly gentle.

"..."

Though she had experienced for herself the boons of training, Hinata, staring at Seikun's serene yet determined countenance, couldn't help feeling that she could never match his...passion. She barely understood what it meant to love someone other than her family, so while she was certain he would never harm her, Hinata felt pressured by the amount of effort Seikun was making to be more than just her friend...

"I will remind you of what we discussed previously," said Hiashi, the veins around his eyes retracting. "If you revert to your old ways and fail to meet the expectations placed upon you, I will present you to that boy and have him work tirelessly for the benefit of our clan. Your only other option is to become strong and competent enough to decide not just your fate but the fate of that boy, Hanabi, and our clan as a whole. That is what it means to be the heiress of an ancient and noble clan like the Hyuga..."

Deactivating her own Byakugan, Hinata hung her head even further, her eyes revealing a mix of confusion, hurt, and fear. She didn't want things to return to how they were, and she knew that if she didn't fulfill her duty as heiress, the burden would invariably be shifted to her younger sister. That was the last thing she wanted, so after a moment of hesitation, she, once again, nodded her head and affirmed, "I will do my best..."

"And I will be proud of you for it..." appended Hiashi, implicitly suggesting that if she didn't give it her all, he would be even more disappointed in her than he had been previously. After all, she had already demonstrated that she could improve. All she lacked now was the mentality of someone who was predestined to lead others...

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After a full day of meditation training and calisthenics, only stopping to eat and relieve himself, Seikun was deliberating between simply going to bed or asking one of the Hyuga branch clan members if there were times they were allowed to use the bath. He had only ever entered with Hinata and her family until then, so he had yet to learn the rules for its general usage.

"Seikun, it's me..." came the faint voice of Hinata, emanating from the opposite side of the sliding bamboo partition that served as the door to his room.

'Oh, come on...' thought Seikun, a cramped smile adorning his face as he thought Hinata was there to inform him that they were about to enter the bath and that he needed to be present.

Rubbing his face to ease the tension in his cheeks, Seikun made his way over and slid the bamboo door open, revealing an impassive, stone-faced version of Hinata he had only seen a few times before.

"Is something the matter...?" asked Seikun, feeling confused and a little concerned.

"Are you intending to make me speak to you while standing in the hall...?" countered Hianta, compelling Seikun to step aside as she stepped into his room and passed her gaze over its interior.

Feeling even more confused, Seikun slid the door closed behind Hinata and nervously scratched the back of his head. It was obvious something had occurred, but as he had spent the whole day inside, he couldn't even guess what it was.

Leaving Seikun at a loss, Hinata turned to him and remarked, "I believe you have something for me..."

Realizing she must be referring to the present he had yet to hand over for lack of a suitable opportunity, Seikun exhaled a sigh through his nose and retrieved it from his bag. Throughout the retrieval process, Hinata stood in the same spot and just stared at him, so he was starting to feel a little creeped out and tense as he presented the neatly wrapped box, explaining, "I had wanted to give it to you on your birthday, but...yeah..."

Accepting the box without breaking her silence, Hinata did her best to maintain her stone-faced expression, but she began to falter when she saw what Seikun had prepared for her. Jewelry was incredibly expensive as it was, but she could tell at a glance that it had been modified, not by a professional, but through painstaking effort...

"Go ahead. Try opening it..." said Seikun, his expression and tone soft as he saw Hinata scrunch her face and tear up despite her efforts to appear cool and composed.

Shaking her head, Hinata's words contradicted her actions as she held the pendant to her chest and said, "You...you shouldn't have gotten me something so expensive. You know we're not in that kind of relationship, Seikun..."

"Then feel free to hate me or toss it away..." responded Seikun, doing his best to sound like he was joking but failing to conceal the pain in his tone. He was well aware that he and Hinata weren't in the kind of relationship where it was appropriate to gift her jewelry, but as selfish and juvenile as it was, he didn't want to leave room for Naruto or someone else to deny him the happiness he had missed out on by taking things slow and trying to be her friend...

"Seikun..." muttered Hinata, tears forming in the corners of her moistened eyes as she squeezed the pendant tighter. For a moment, Seikun thought she was going to apologize, but just as he adopted a faint smile and was about to reinforce that he was joking, she abruptly contracted her body in a way that prevented him from seeing her face as she shouted, "I'm sorry, Seikun, but I just don't feel the same! So, please just pack your things and leave! I...I...I can't stand you being here any longer...!"

Finished with what she had to say, Hinata turned and ran out of the room, leaving a stunned Seikun staring blankly at the door she had left open. He could tell she hadn't meant what she said, but that didn't make her words any less jarring. 

'Is she doing this to protect me...?' Seikun asked himself, memories of the past few days resurfacing in his mind. He had undoubtedly been under a lot of pressure, but that didn't mean he was the only one feeling stressed. Rather, as she was worried about him on top of her many other concerns, Hinata was presumably feeling even greater pressure...

'I fucked up...' Seikun concluded, closing his eyes and reaching up to his forehead with his right hand, running it down his face as a gesture of self-soothing. If he had refused Hiashi's decision or at least asked Hinata how she felt about him being there, they could have shared the burden or not have had to endure it at all.

'I really...really fucked up...' affirmed Seikun, lowering his hand and staring at the ceiling. He could easily imagine Hinata changing seats in class and deliberately avoiding him to reinforce what she had said, and since she would be doing it to protect him, any actions he took to change her mind were almost certain to backfire...

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