the fire that rages within

okay, so, if you send ”six word story” to my inbox, i’ll pick a random one from the site and write a drabble/starter A FUCKING NOVEL for our characters based off of it

【 You are my sunshine, my only— 】   
                           —requested by hyuugaempathy

—Okay, so this was supposed to be a Hinamama and Honō-centric story with a side of SasuHina but apparently it’s a lot more than that. More SasuHina and Honō-centric being just there. This is so fucking late and out of my control because fuck the pages are long so i’m just gonna post this by two parts so please anticipate the second part.  (ಥ_ಥ);;

—-

She was weak and her body couldn’t handle it, his body couldn’t handle it. Sakura-san tells her it’s too dangerous for her to proceed with giving birth, but Hinata doesn’t want to care. She didn’t endure nine months just so her husband’s teammate and her friend could tell her she couldn’t give birth to her first child. But Sakura urges her to think otherwise. And she has.

Hinata’s mother had complications when she gave birth to Hinata. Hinata’s mother died when she gave birth to Hanabi. People say history repeats itself but Hinata wants none of it.

Half-jokingly, she blames it on Sasuke. She tells him with a thin-lipped grin, teeth grinding from the pain, “T-there’s a reason…the Uchiha and Hyuga…d-don’t mix.” Sasuke laughs of course. If he doesn’t, Hinata will never let him touch his child, and she is in a lot of pain.

                        “Find a way.” The raven-haired Uchiha tells his teammate, who shakes her had in frustration. She reiterates the problems with the proceeding with the procedure, the risks of her giving birth. She tells him about Hinata’s family—history repeats itself.

                        “Find a way.” His words were final. Like Hinata, he wants none of it as well. If Hinata was having problems, that would mean the child is too strong. History repeats itself—there is Itachi, and him, and her, and Hanabi. Strong children, coming from strong parents. Of course, there will be problems.

Hinata watches the pinkette drop her shoulders with a sigh, and then inhales deeply, nodding with a half-convinced conviction—"Okay. But if something goes wrong—"

                        “Save the child.” Hinata doesn’t hesitate. Sasuke’s eyebrows furrowed, in anger, in shock, in confusion, in hurt— who knows? But he nods to Sakura of his approval, and she hastily runs out of the emergency room.

—-

11 hours. And it took eleven hours to get their first child out from her uterus, safely, wholly. No causalities; just two miracles. 

Sasuke regards Sakura, “you’re a medical genius”, and she frowns, hitting his shoulder hard because he’s an asshole. And Hinata, who was breathing heavily from the unimaginable pain and indescribable fatigue she physically experienced, she laughs, between pants, between every short breath. And Sasuke kisses her forehead.

—-

“He’s b-beautiful,” Hinata almost chokes from the tears and joy of seeing and cradling her child.

Sasuke raises a brow, “He’s…tiny.” And that’s not what he really meant, because Sasuke as much as he is untactfully honest, he is quite inarticulate with words. But Hinata understands him. 

                                   How can a small child bring so much pain?

She giggles, and their son jerks his tiny fist, startled by the movement. But both parents hush and stare as the small one opens his mouth for a yawn, and goes back to sleep. And Sasuke was tempted to squeeze his cheeks but Hinata smacks his hand away.

Instead, they both stare at awe; their beautiful offspring who has caused so much problem for the both of them, and yet he quietly does something like a simple curl of his fingers and suddenly fills the cold room with his warm presence. Quiet but alive, like a candlelight.

                                  “Honō.” Sasuke whispers, poking the child’s open palm. The boy grabs his finger, squeezing it, and Hinata could sense Sasuke inflating like a balloon.

                                  “So…cheesy.” She remarks, but nods. “Honō it is.”

—-

                                  “Say Mama.” Hinata gently holds Honō’s tiny hands. The young boy stares at her with big, curious eyes, and Hinata slowly says again, “Ma-ma.”

Honō opens his mouth, but he doesn’t say anything. Hinata tries again, “Ma-ma. Say—Honō, dearest, say Mama. Maa-ma.”

But his eyes focuses on her making silly faces. Hinata gives up, and looks at the wall clock. ’ Sasuke should be home by now, but he’s late. ’ Hinata worries, because sometimes he comes home with bloodied clothes or a large wound on his abdomen and Hinata has to scold him not to take any more dangerous missions. ‘ Think about our son. ’

                                   "Stay here, sweetie.“ Hinata places Honō on the floor while she steps out of the room and into the kitchen. Because cooking always calms her down when she starts thinking of all the worst possible things that could have happened to her husband.

Honō tries to follow her but he pauses, head turning to the direction of soft but nimble steps. So he follows the sound of those footsteps. There is a tall-framed window next to their door. Through it, a cloaked figure stood behind and he knocks carefully, almost quietly. When no one answered, the man turns the doorknob, but it is locked.

Honō crawls towards the window, peeking up at the mysterious visitor, and he smiles widely. The man crouches down, tapping on the glass and mouthing words the young baby couldn’t understand. But Honō does.

                                  "Mmm…” He huffs, “Mm-ma…ma…Ma…M-ma! Ma…ma!”

Frightened, Hinata runs out of the kitchen because she thought her fears have been realized, not actually realizing her husband standing outside, with narrow grin, and their child who is calling her name repeatedly with a wide smile. And Hinata feels like she could melt through the floor.

—-

                                  “He doesn’t like me.” Sasuke tells her nonchalantly.

                                  “He does.” Hinata assures him, trying to pick up chunks of foods from their tiled, kitchen floor. “He just…a-awkward…with you.”

He crosses his arms; annoyance spread across his face as if someone had written it with sharpie. His fingers fiddle with the string of beads around his neck, something he had acquired from his constant journey.

                                   "It cannot be helped.“ He states.

                                  "Aren’t we important too?” She snaps.

He becomes quiet for a bit, and helps her clean up the mess their one-year-old son made. As they bodies approach each other, he suddenly leans his head on her shoulder, slowly sighing because it’s something that he has to do.

                                   "I have to keep you safe.“ He lifts his head to hers, their foreheads and nosetips touching. "From them.”

                                   "Just keep Honō  safe.“ She asks him. 

—-

Honō isn’t a genius. He is terribly slow. And too timid to try anything. He gets hurt easily, and cries quickly.

Her father looks at the three-year-old with disappointment, and she looks at him as if it would be their last meeting.

                                    "Ignore him.” Sasuke flips the page of the newspaper he’s reading. Honō is playing with the strings of his sweatpants.

                                    “I hate him.” She leans her head on his shoulder. She brings her hand to Honō’s head, ruffling and fixing his hair at the same time, and Honō keeps pushing it away because he wants to play with the strings of Sasuke’s sweatpants. “He doesn’t know what Honō is capable of.”

                                    “I don’t know what Honō is capable of. Will you hate me too?”

She finally giggles, hitting him on the shoulder. “You’re not my father.”

                                   "I am Honō’s though.“ He says the obvious, placing the folded paper on the coffee table beside them and craddling Honō into his arms. The child protests being held by him but Sasuke can be irritatingly persistent if he wants to. "What if he isn’t what we expected him to be?”

Hinata frowns, because Sasuke has this whole superior-inferiority complex that somehow extends to their only son and she doesn’t want that. She doesn’t want any heir-related business with her son. She wants him to experience the childhood his parents would have wanted to have when they were his age. No more shinobi, clan, or fathers interfering.

                                    “Then that’s your fault.” Hinata grabs Honō from him and the child calms down.

—-

                                    “Mom, look.” The small child squeaks behind. Turning, Hinata drops the dishes, shrieking.

Sasuke flies down the stairs, Sharingan activated, chokuto sparked with chidori, ready to kill intruders on the spot. But what he sees isn’t an intruder. It is only their five year old child, who managed to burn the plant.

Sasuke immediately extinguishes the flame while Hinata picks up Honō away from it.

                                    “How did this—” Red irises snap at Hinata, who only focused at Honō with wide eyes. Fearful eyes. He blinks, eyes back to its original state, and he makes an “Ah” sound of realization as he stabs his blade on the wooden floor, inwardly smiling to himself. Pride swelling in his chest because wow, that’s the first.

                                   "Blue fire, huh?“ 

—-

                                   ”No more fighting.“ Hinata scolds Honō for the fifteenth time.

He shakes his head, tears spilling out from his eyes but he holds an angry frown. "T-that’s not— I-I was t-trying to— They started it!”

                                   "It doesn’t matter who started it.“ Hinata places her hands on Honō, but he shrugs them off. That deeply hurts Hinata. She doesn’t know where this petulant attitude was coming from (she suspects it’s from Sasuke), but she crouches on his level instead and with a gentle tone she explains, "Fighting is wrong. It hurts people.”

                                   "T-they…they h-hurt me f-first…“ He tries to wipe his tears, but he flinches when his palm made contact with the purple bruise on his cheek.

Hinata hugs her son, kissing his forehead and patting his back to calm him down. "I know.” Her brows furrowed angrily, Byakugan focused on the three small boys who thought it was fun to hurt her baby.

                                    “And I’m going to talk to Aburame-san about it.”

—-

Hinata sits next to Sasuke, her expression growing worried. “What did Honō say to you?”

                                    “That I should stop accompanying him from school.” sighs Sasuke a frustrated groan, his hand just over his eyes. He knows he isn’t the best dad in the world, he is trying, but with Orochimaru’s experiments unleashed from their prisons, it was impossible to balance time at home and hunting down those failed subjects.

Hinata frowns, arms wrapping around his waist to comfort the Uchiha. Was it too late to tell her husband that their beloved son, their sweet, kind  and timid son who could never hurt a fly, who would greet his neighbors every morning and evening, who always share his snacks even when he himself was hungry, is being bullied by the other kids in the academy?

She has talked to Aburame about this but Shino tells her that it has all been taken care of, and those students of his are being appropriately dealt with for their intolerable behavior. And yet, nothing has changed or improved. Rather, it has gotten worse as the weeks go by.

At one point, Hinata asks Honō if he wants to go some place nice, with some calm scenery and animals to play with (because Honō loves animals), and Honō doesn’t hesitate to throw his bag away and pack his belongings. But of course, it was in the middle of the school year and she doesn’t want Honō to lag behind his studies. So she promises to take him during the summer break.

                                    “We should homeschool Honō if you’re that worried.” She suggests, and this was just wishful thinking, because when she was young, her father didn’t enroll her in the academy, taking up the responsibility of  training her himself. She, of course, didn’t meet up with his expectations, and Kurenai being the only mother figure in her life, took the initiative and enroll her in the academy where she can learn on her own pace. But now the academy has grown to be a dark place for Honō, and homeschooling him seems to be the best action to take.

Sasuke kisses her forehead, but he lets his lips rest on for a few moments. “I can’t teach him, you know. I’m not here all the time.”

                                    “Then I will—”

                                    “He doesn’t have your eyes.” He cuts her off, and Hinata pushes herself from his grasp. A bit insulted that she stands up from the couch, turning his back to him and walking towards their room. But she stops, eyes slightly glancing at the Uchiha.

                                    “—Gentle fist does not rely on whether you have the Byakugan or not. If anything, the Byakugan is an added benefit, something to enhance Gentle Fist. We’re known to be great masters of the technique because our kekkei genkai is unique to our clan only. But there are members in our clan, members who do not possess these eyes, that have mastered the technique. They are not perfectly precise in their attacks, and they have to be 100% aware of their surroundings, but the technique is not impossible. It only takes longer to become capable of it.”

Sasuke becomes silent, sinking into their couch and watching his wife storm off into their room. But he didn’t mean to tick her off like that—

Eyes snap to the entrance, a small figure emerges from the dark. Sasuke opens his mouth, “Honō—”

                                    “I-I don’t mind…b-being homeschooled…” He tells him. “I-I…rather not go t-to school, anymore…”

Sasuke sighs, waiting for Honō to continue explaining why, but he mums his lip, brushing past his father with a curt bow and dashing into his room. Sasuke sighs louder, this time, because Hinata and Honō was obviously hiding something, and he feels hurt to know that he doesn’t know what it was about.

—-

                                    “When will you return?” She doesn’t look at him. She looks at her seven-year-old, picking and dropping the pea on his food. Hinata pushes a bowl of meat to him, but he pushes it back, because he doesn’t seem interested in eating anymore.

                                     "…soon.“ He takes his time answering. Hinata frowns, gripping the chopsticks in her hands as if she was going to stab someone. Sasuke gives her this look, the kind that often annoys but calms her down, and she drops whatever weight she has been holding on her shoulders since his arrival.

                                    "You can’t…leave again.” She begs him to stay.

Sasuke picks up some vegetables off of Honō’s plate. He doesn’t even look at her or his son when he tells them, “Another family was killed by Orochimaru’s experiments.”

The table is quiet. Barely touching his food, Honō stands up and walks into his room. Sasuke doesn’t get angry when he rudely exits. However, he is glad that he has. It is…difficult to explain to Honō why he has, needs to do this.

                                     "It’s not your fault.“ Hinata places her hand on his shoulder, bending down her neck to give him a short kiss. "There are other ninjas…let them take care of it.”

Sasuke gives her a kiss as well, and when she starts to walk away, he grabs her wrist, bring her back closer to him. He leans his head on her stomach, as if to snuggle. He misses her a lot. He misses Honō a lot.

                                     "What they’re capable of…it’s not something ordinary ninjas can handle.“ His nose digs deeper into her thick sweater; he sounds as if he wanted to cry and give up—give in to the stress and the worry, let go of whatever he was clinging in the past. But he can’t. He is still tied to some, very dangerous elements in the Shinobi world, and he needs to cut them out as quickly as possible.

Tears finally spring out from her eyes, and with weakening knees she falls to the floor. Her fingers grip the edge of his shirt, pulling him down with her. "Honō n-needs you. I need you.”

He wraps his arms around her neck, rocking her back and forth to calm her down.

                                      “Which is why I have to go.”

—-

                                      “Happy Birthday, Honō.” With a glowing smile, she greets her eleven-year-old son happily. Honō, with his gentle but blank look on his face, closes his eyes for three seconds, and then finally blows his cake.

Eagerly, Hinata takes out the knife from the drawer and slices some pieces for the cake. Meanwhile, Honō sets up the plates for them to eat with. After he finished, he leans on the table, arms cross and sounds a bit tired with the frustrated sigh he made. And on his birthday too? Not on Hinata’s watch.

                                      “You remind me a certain glum.” Hinata laughs and so does Honō—it is true. As he grows up, Hinata realizes that he was starting to look more and more like Uchiha Sasuke. But with his awkward gestures, his kind face, and softer words made him seem so unlikable to the raven-haired man that unless you were looking through a microscope, you would have missed easily. Hinata places two slices of cake on Honō’s plate, and a half on hers (because you need to watch her diet now, Sakura says). He bites on a small piece, “So, what did you wish for?”

Honō flinches at her inquiry, and shyly smiles, eating a big piece before responding. “You know what it is.”

Hinata hums gleefuly, “Hmm. Is it…to win the heart of your teammate? Who was she again? Ebina-something?” She laughs when the boy shrinks in his stool, looking tinier as he was 8 years ago. “No, no, no—I’m serious. What did you wish for?”

Honō grips his pants, deciding whether to say or not. But he does.

                                       "I wished…Papa was home.“

Hinata bites the steel, and she blinks at Honō, surprised at his request. "Wasn’t he home last month?”

He holds out his hands, shaking, “I mean—I wish he was home more.”

Hinata sets her plate on the table, and looks at Honō with a solemn smile. “My love, you know why Papa can’t be home more.”

                                       "Because he’s trying to keep us safe, I know.“ He rolls his eyes annoyingly and Hinata giggles because, he looks so much more like the man she fell in love with. "I just— it’s a wish, you know? Can’t I be a little bit selfish for once?”

                                       "No, you’re right.“ Hinata nods, patting his head. "Even I wish Sasuke was here more often.”

Just then, the door slams and the sudden noise startles both Hinata and Honō, who almost dropped their forks. They turned their heads to their intruding entrant, and they literally drop their forks. Upon contact, the steel makes a chiming noise, along with cut-off gasps, and followed by Honō screaming in happiness and Hinata fighting back the tears from her eyes.

                                       "Your wish is granted.“ Sasuke smiles after five years.

—-

Hinata unties the string around her hair, dark strands cascade down her shoulders like waterfalls. Through her vanity mirror she peeks at the man behind her, trying his best to remove his sweater with one arm. She grins, "Why didn’t you say you were coming?”

                                       "I wanted to surprise both of you,“ He states, sounding awfully cheery from a moody grump like him. "Why? Does it bother you?”

Hinata shakes her head, hugging him from behind. “No—I just— I love you, okay?”

Surprised, Sasuke blinks and smiles, kissing her forehead. “As do I. How’s Honō?”

                                       "He’s fine as usual.“ Her fingers slide down his bare stomach, and Sasuke manages to catch it, rubbing the back of her palm with his thumb. "You should have seen him—every day he amazes  me. He even lost that bothersome attitude of yours.”

                                       "I’m flattered.“ He sarcastically tells her. He turns around, suddenly carrying her bridal-style and bringing her to their bed. "Mmm,” He moans, nose nuzzling behind her ear and Hinata pushes him away because it tickles. “I can’t wait to take you again and again and again.”

Hinata squeals, lightly hitting his collar because he's too close, too honest with her.But just as she was readying herself for him, his head drops to the mattress and he starts lightly snoring.

                                       “Ne, Sasuke, don’t tease me like this.” She grumbles under his weight, and she can hear him laughing very softly.

                                       “Travelling dragged out. Fatigued.” He apologizes. “Let’s do it in the morning, ‘kay?”

Hinata sighs, but pats his back, a certain, airy condescension in her voice. “I’ll wait for you, as usual.”

He stays silent for a few minutes and Hinata thinks he has finally fallen asleep. The former heiress manages to squeeze out of his weight and positions herself properly on the bed. Looking back at the sleeping man, her aloof expression contorts to a smile, and her hand reaches out to fix some strands on his hair. However, Sasuke’s only hand catches it and she flinches a bit, but his grip on her wrist has no pressure on it—it was as light as his voice was when he tells her this—

                                       “I’ve done it. I cut them all off.” He mumbles seriously to her; he still can’t manage to move his body and look at her. Something in Hinata pops, like a balloon inflated with all the worries and the frustration and the stress that comes with being the Uchiha’s wife. And she…doesn’t know how to take this information very well.

                                       “I’m just glad you’ve returned home.”

—-

A few moments before midnight, Hinata’s black lashes flutter like wings in the dark. She turns around to check on Sasuke—asleep, at peace. That is all that mattered. But will everything return to the way it was? She doesn’t believe so. And she no longer wants to cling to the moments where Sasuke should have been there for Honō, because Sasuke will be there for the rest of Honō’s life.

She sighs, unable to fall asleep, and silently blaming the Uchiha in the process. So her mind wanders off to her son.

With Sasuke’s absence, their small home had become quieter. Not that it wasn’t quiet already, because they were a quiet family. It was just his presence that made the household seem…emptier than usual. And with Honō being a young recluse, Hinata thinks that her small world had grown larger by the distance she bears with her two loved ones. This doesn’t include the estranged relationship she has with her father, because it was a bridge she burned for herself. But because they were her only family left, she felt even more alone than when she was a child.

Then there was this case with Honō and his transition from being a student in the academy to being her student. Not that Hinata was inexperienced with teaching. She was already a Jounin, and had once led a team on her own before having a family with Sasuke. So when she brought up this idea to Shino, he didn’t question nor protest of this arrangement. The young child will be under his mother’s wings for the time being, but he will still continue taking major exams in the academy. Since then, Honō had dramatically improved, and in his own terms as well. 

However, Hinata worries of this development. She doesn’t want Honō to become too dependent of her. So she tells Honō that before graduation, he’s gonna spend his last year in the academy, as a student of Inuzuka Kiba. And she trusts Kiba, because the guy knows how to handle kids and he has babysat Honō before to know what bothers him.

So her mind will rest with that. If Honō can survive his last year in the academy without involving himself into any trouble, then he can take care of himself as a ninja.

She breathes in relief, and her minds wander off to Honō again.

Only this time, she hears Sakura’s panicked voice ringing in her head—history repeats itself.

Hinata pulls out the pillow under her head and hugs it tightly, as if it were Honō. ‘ Why are these thoughts in my head again? ‘ Her anxiety begins building up in her stomach and she tries to push these vile feelings inside like she was trying to keep from vomiting. She insistently shakes her head, eyes tight shut, convincing herself that Sakura’s words meant no value to her. She lived through Honō’s birth, Honō grew up to be an okay child with a knack of setting things on fire, she has waited patiently for Sasuke’s eventual return after hunting down Orochimaru’s escaped experiments.

Everything was going to be good. Everything is good. She won’t ask for any more, just the safety and warmth of her family.

Then she snaps up from bed, her eyes wide open, motherly instincts sensing distress from her only child. Byakugan activated, she sees Honō’s room in flames. She wakes Sasuke up.