3 3: Downpour Of Luck

Himiko Hyuga was tired.

As she gazed out of the kitchen window at the unsurprising rain which the land where she was hiding was named after, she couldn't help but sigh. Surprisingly, her current situation was actually an improvement over the last couple of years since she first tried for a child with her husband, Ryoku.

She knew it wasn't his fault. Not really. Not after the horrors Danzo Shimura comitted to make Ryoku's birth possible. It was why she rescued him from the Root and how they fell in love while fleeing Konoha in the first place after all.

But she had to admit, after the third stillbirth, her emotions were almost crushed into nothingness by that point. Three times they had tried to concieve a child. And every time it would die before it was even born. No matter how much she tried to use medical Ninjutsu to keep it alive, no matter how much Ryoku tried to dredge up one of his dozens of twisted and fused Kekkei Genkai out of his broken chakra core to try and help somehow, nothing worked. It seemed as if his genetics were simply too broken, too artificial to produce a living child.

That was until this final try. The years of trying to carry Ryoku's broken children had drained her strength to the point that she would struggle to beat even a genin in battle anymore. And she could see plainly with her Byakugan that this would be her last shot before her reproductive organs just totally shut down. But... it was working this time!

Neither of them knew why but this time she had made it all the way to 9 months, and the child was still alive. Heck, forget merely alive, this child looked to be in perfect health! At least as far as her Byakugan could see.

There was only one child, unfortunately. She had been hoping to have at least two ever since her older sister back in the Hyuga compound had given birth to her twins, Hiashi and Hizashi. But at this point she was more than happy to settle for just one after multiple years of zeroes.

She heard the door open up behind her as her husband came back in from the rain, bags of food weighing down his arms. She smiled at that. Her newfound weakness brought her closer to his own low level of strength and she had developed a new level of appreciation for the effort he'd been putting in to help her.

"Welcome back, Ryoku. Has our favourite Amegakure weather been treating you well?"

Poor Ryoku looked up at her from where he was putting away the food, looking very much like a soaking wet puppy from her perspective. He had been barely 16 when she met him and it had only been 4 years since then after all. He wasn't noticeably younger than her, but she couldn't help but always see him as a bit of a child.

"The weather is the same as always, Himiko. Miserable."

"Oh don't be like that Ryoku, it clears up every once in a while!"

"Yeah once a month maybe..."

"Hmm, what's got you in such a bad mood, dear?"

Ryoku stood up and turned his head slightly away from her.

"I'm just nervous. That's all."

"What? Worried that you'll actually have to be a dad this time when our daughter is finally born?" She smirked at him as she said that.

To an outsider this exchange might have looked almost hostile from the amount of snark she was throwing at him, but he didn't mind. Emotions were something that still mostly confused him. Root Anbu conditioning would do that to a person, even if it only lasted for one or two years and was never completed.

"...Yes. Yes, I'm nervous that I have to be a dad."

"Oh my, I wasn't expecting you to just say it out loud."

"Well it's just you here. You're the person I feel safest with, so I can say it out loud here."

"Heh, you'll have to make room in that exclusive list for one more soon you know."

They chatted for a little while longer before Himiko decided to check herself with her Byakugan again. She did this multiple times a day, just to keep an eye on things.

And this time she noticed something different. Movement. More specifically, everything in there was starting to move.

"Uh... Ryoku? Ryoku I think it might be time..." She spoke, causing him to stumble as he lifted the bags from the table.

"H-Huh?! But your water hasn't even broken yet!"

"I just checked with my Byakugan, I think it's coming, now!"

Her calm and confident facade she had put up to stop both herself and Ryoku from panicking was starting to crumble. This was it, after all. It had caught them off guard and they thought they would've had more time to prepare themselves. They didn't even have a room set up for the birth yet!

As much as Ryoku wanted to stay by her side as she slowly, carefully made her way to the bedroom, he knew he needed to rush if he wanted to get the village's head doctor, who was an old retired medic-nin, back to their house in time to help. If this was two years ago Himiko could've handled it all herself with her own medical skills, but with her current weakness there was no way she would be able to focus through the pain so they would absolutely need help to get this done properly.

Ryoku completed the run to the local clinic in record time. The old head doctor was, ironically, a significantly faster runner than Ryoku was, due to actually being able to control his chakra. Ryoku's had been much too volatile to use for anything other than exploding his own body, and his chakra core had burned down to almost nothing after his awakening failed all those years ago. The doctor had made it back to the family home almost a full minute before Ryoku did, and in the time he was gone Himiko's water had indeed broken. Thankfully she had the sense to place a sealing scroll in front of her, so none of the gross liquid got on their bed.

Over the next 36 hours Ryoku and the good Doctor Iyashi worked around the clock to make sure she was comfortable. The doctor had to make several trips back to keep operating his clinic for the villagers during that time, so it was mostly just Ryoku and Himiko until the final hour, when the doctor determined that it would be best for him to stay with them past that point.

Much screaming later and Ryoku suffering from a slightly crushed hand when Himiko gripped it too hard in the final stages of the delivery, and their daughter was finally born. There was a heart-stopping moment when she didn't cry immediately after being born, but the doctor confirmed without a shadow of a doubt that she was just breathing quietly. Unusual for any newborn, but at this point they would accept any reality if it included their daughter surviving.

* * *

Hours later, it was now almost midnight of the day the baby was born. The child was sleeping peacefully wrapped in a warm towel, held gently in Himiko's arms. Ryoku was getting ready for bed next to them when Himiko spoke up.

"Hey... Ryoku?"

"Yeah, Himiko?"

"Have you come up with any names?"

Ryoku froze mid-way through putting on his pyjamas and stared at her.

"...I thought that was your job."

"It was?"

"Yeah, I don't know anything about names so I assumed you would be doing it."

"My family is too particular about names starting with 'Hi' or 'Ne' and I don't want it to be too obvious that she's a Hyuga child, much less one from the main branch. So I was hoping you would come up with a non-Hyuga name for her."

"Uh... ok how about uuuh... ssssss... Sakura?"

"Ugh, no, too girly"

"But she is a girl..."

"That may be so, but I'd rather hope that she would grow up to be a bit more serious than that. I do like the thought of a name starting with "S" though!"

"Alright, alright. How about... Seika? I think it means summer, right? It's summer right now..."

"Hmm... too basic! But the general construction of the name is nice... Sei... Ssss..... Seija? Yeah, that sounds good!"

"Does it? I'm not sure-"

"Too bad! I think it suits her!"

And with Himiko's declaration, Seija Hyuga was born in a small house in a village in the Land of Rain.