Haruka (春花)

When Hiashi returned he found his pregnant wife cuddling the life out of the redhead. Said redhead is currently trying to wriggle her way out of his wife's grasp. His wife looked up and said, "Hiashi, she looks just like her, it's adorable!" He turns an eye towards his daughter and is amused to find her staring at the other two with a look of jealousy, though he doubts she even knows what she's feeling.

"Do you wish your Kaa-chan was doing that with you?" To his surprise his daughter shook her head and said, "No Otou-sama, I wish I could do that with Haruka, but she's stronger than me and always breaks free." That wasn't the answer he had been expecting but if possible he finds himself even more amused with that answer. Her mother had always tried to do the same with Kushina when they were younger. They really are like their mothers.

"Hinata, I've decided to postpone your lessons until Haruka-san leaves. Be sure to enjoy your time with her."

"Freedom!" Cries Haruka triumphantly as she manages to finally break free of Hikari's grasp. Only for Hinata to immediately leap at the opportunity and grab Haruka, while pouting at her mother.

"Kaa-chan she's mine. You already have Otou-sama." Well that was certainly enough to make the only man go slack jawed. Hikari on the other hand bursts out laughing. Haruka was lost, is it funny for them to be friends? Why would she not be able to be friends with Hinata's mom either?

***

A few weeks had passed since then and Haruka had to admit, they've been amazing. She got a new place to stay thanks to the purple haired woman in the kitty mask. It's so much bigger than her room at the orphanage. There's so much space to run around and she even had Hinata-chan sleep over a few times, with Ko's supervision. She even has plans tonight for Hinata-chan to sleep over after some dude with clouds or something comes to the village. She's supposed to be over at 8 pm

Of course that's not all, she turned five two weeks ago and for the first time she got presents. Her favorite is the brush Hinata-chan gave her. She was also given a cool frog wallet by some white haired circus performer, at least that's what she thought his dance was for. She likes it but for some reason she can't help but think she'd prefer a rabbit wallet, or maybe a tree? What would a tree wallet even look like? Speaking of trees, she planted some flowers (she knows they're not trees but they are plants and that's close enough for her) on her balcony. The balcony is so cool she can see the entire village from there. She got a few more gifts, mostly from people she doesn't know. She's currently staring at one, it's hanging on her wall, ticking quietly, this one was from one of the animal people, specifically one with spiky white hair, or is it silver? The ticking thing, a clock she thinks it's called, said the time is 7:55 pm, she can feel her excitement bubbling. Hinata-chan will be here soon.

Minutes pass and she excitedly turns towards the door Hinata-chan is always on right on time so she should be here any second now. Okay so maybe she's running late, she should be here any minute now. She looks towards the clock, finally taking her eyes off the door, 8:30. When did that happen? Does Hinata-chan not want to see her? 9 pm, she's still not here. Haruka can feel the tears starting to prickle her eyes. She's crying now, it's 10pm and Hinata-chan still isn't here. Even that one time she was sick Ko had arrived early to tell her.

She lays in bed, angry and confused and more than anything sad. Closing her eyes she just wants this day to be over.

Haru-ch… Hel… Tou… Kaa… anyone plea… 

Haruka shoots up out of bed, her heart beating wildly. Was that a nightmare? She looks at the clock, it's only 10:30. It was odd it sounded like Hinata-chan was speaking to her, but Hinata-chan never showed up. Maybe she's waiting outside for her? Haruka quickly gets up and checks. No one. Maybe she is waiting at the playground they usually play at, Haruka had made that mistake before so maybe Hinata-chan did too? No, no one is there. What about the forest near it? Nothing.

For some reason her heart is still beating like crazy, she can't get the idea of Hinata-chan being in danger out of her head. A voice echoes through her head. It's odd, like she can understand what it's saying yet at the same time she can't. Like it's too far off at the moment for her to hear, but she can tell it's talking. It wants her to sit as still as she can. She's not very good at that but she'll try it.

When she opens her eyes the next thing seems odd, like she is in the water but can move normally. Like there is something, she can't describe it, flowing all around her. It's in this flow she notices something. While most things near her feel like fire, off in the distance, something feels like lightning. And it's with something else, not someone else, It feels kind of like. Hinata-chan!

She rushes towards those two feelings as fast as she can, the world seems to go by faster than she's ever noticed before. She is still pretty sure she's visible unlike those super fast animal people but she knows she's faster. She's unsure of how long it takes but she approaches the two feelings. A huge man, maybe he's part giant, is holding a sack. Did the sack move? The man turned, and said something but she couldn't seem to recognize it. She's so focused on the bag. It moved again and in that moment she felt it. Hinata-chan is in that bag!

"Hey you jerk, let Hinata-chan out of that bag!" She said while pointing a finger at the man.

He snorted and said, "Yeah whatever you little red eyed freak." She gives him a confused look.

"Red eyes? You should get your eyes checked, my eyes are golden. Or maybe you just never learned colors, were you too dumb?" The taunt is fairly childish, and the man rolls his eyes. Seeing it didn't work she tried something different. "Hiashi-sama, Hinata-chan's in the bag!" She would normally never call him sama, but she figures it'll sell it better. It did. The man whirls behind him afraid to be attacked from behind by the head of the Hyuuga clan. There was no one there. His shoulder lightens suddenly and he immediately knows he's been had.

The Uzumaki lets Hinata out of the bag and removes her gag. The first thing Hinata said is, "Haruka-chan did you always have red eyes?" The heiress was confused, she could have sworn Haruka-chan had golden eyes. But the entirety of both eyes are red, with a darker red in the pupils, even the skin around it has turned red. And her hair seems to be standing up oddly, even though it's normally very smooth. Her eyes widen however and she screams, "Haruka-chan look out." And then something even stranger happened, as Haruka-chan turned her eyes and hair seemed to return to normal. She gets kicked in the head and is sent flying away from Hinata.

"That was a neat trick, kid, but don't think you're going to get me again. Hell just for that I'll kill you. But first, I'll make you regret saving the girl, how would you like to see your friend lose her legs?"

He wasn't really going to cut off the girl's legs, not when he can't get her healed, they do need her to breed the Byakugan in the cloud village, and having her bleed out is not conducive to that. Regardless he pulls out a kunai and holds it up to the heiress.

"No, don't hurt her!" Haruka cries out, as she shakily stands, spitting out the blood that is building in her mouth.

He may not intend to cut off her legs, but simply stabbing them will be enough to both torment the other girl, and make sure she can't run. "Too late for that." The kunai descend. He knew no more.

"No, don't hurt her!" Hiashi had arrived just on time to hear that cry, but not even a second later the words of an adult male said "Too late for that." He burst into the clearing right at that moment.