Beneath the Underneath: Pale Ambitions
"Aojiroi Shabaki"
Chapter One: Secret
- Zoney -
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-XHinata is currently 17, almost 18. Team 7 is all 18.
Hinata brushed the sweat away with an air of perfect Hyuuga indifference. But in reality, she was far from being indifferent. In the village of Konoha, she was known to be the kindest and the shyest of all the ninjas. But that still wasn't her true form.
Hinata was a prodigy, one that didn't have the stupidness to show it.
Unlike her usual fickle, indecisive nature in front of her teammates, her mind was unusually calm and sharp. She knew her opinions, and she knew what her beliefs were. Simply put, her beliefs didn't match those of the Hyuuga family. Hiashi, her father, was a practical man. He wasn't particularly caring or supportive of his clan- he was merely proud. And Hinata knew what all proud men of the Hyuuga clan wanted.
More power. More influence in Konoha. All the elders seemed to look at the younger generation as something to use to their advantage. A way to get what they wanted.
Hinata had already decided that she didn't want to be part of the Hyuuga power struggle. Even though she was the legal heiress to the Hyuuga title, she managed to give that title to Hanabi, the younger sister who relished in 'defeating' Hinata and basking in the pride of Hiashi's praises. It would be the perfect part for Hanabi.
Hinata knew that she was perfectly capable of defeating Hanabi easily. But that would draw her in as a perfect candidate to stay as the legal heiress, and Hinata wanted none of that.
A life that was spent dutifully doting upon the elders and marrying unwilling for some convenient deal repulsed Hinata. She was determined in her own way to get out of it. And she was smart enough to do it. Without letting a word of her plan slip her lips, she began her plan at a young age. She purposely withdrew her chakra and abilities from battles to keep a low profile, she also adopted a shy and timid state. But secretly, she trained; knowing one day it would be wise to know how to defend herself. Nearly everyone had been fooled by it. She would have to keep it up until she reached 18, a single year from how, the age that she could leave the Hyuugas if she wished. Since she was not the heir to their clan, she doubted that they would pose a resistance to her request at all. They would probably feel eased that she had decided to cut her ties with the Hyuuga.
Hinata brushed some more sweat from her defined features. Even though she was barely ruffled from the family spar with Hanabi, she was still tired from the tremendous effort of keeping down her increasing powerful chakra. However, in the long run, all this only proved to strengthen her control, and add to her chakra reserves.
With Byakugan, she effortlessly noticed Hiashi frown at her loss and smile at the ecstatic Hanabi, who was cheering at her 34th win against Hinata. Hinata's mental fire blazed at this, angrily wrapping around this knowledge. Hanabi's skills were no better than the average Hyuuga's. Hiashi's praises and Hanabi's conceited nature made her attacks far too confident: striking for wide, offensive hits and leaving absolutely no defense. Hinata counted exactly 11 times that she could have ended Hanabi's life with a well-placed Juuken.
She allowed Hanabi to at best tap her arms and legs, but never a vital. For all of Hiashi's supposed genius, he was pretty dense to crow over Hanabi's 'victory' when Hinata sported no more than two mild bruises that would fade before the day was done.
"I won Father, I won!" she cried excitedly. "This means that I'm the rightful heiress, right Father?"
He smiled down at her. "Of course, you were going to be the heir even if she managed to land a hit on you." He lifted his eyes to Hinata while Hanabi giggled quietly. "Hinata. I'm disappointed in you. You're a disgrace to the Hyuuga Clan."
Hinata mentally shrugged. He didn't really say anything she didn't already know. But she kept up her façade. "I-I'm sorry," she murmured, bowing her head in a shameful manner, "I'll try harder next time."
Hiashi nodded, having accepted her newest apology. "I would expect so." He replied coldly. "Come, Hanabi." With a regal swish of his white robes, he slandered off, Hanabi walking in his wake, already learning how to strut like an arrogant Hyuuga would.
Hinata waited for them to completely leave her Byakugan range of vision. Then slowly, she allowed all her tremendous chakra energy to flow normally again. She sighed in relief, finally allowing herself a break from the exhausting task of suppressing chakra for the majority of the day.
She then brought her fingers to Naruto's signature position: 4 fingers, 2 for each hand, crossed. "Kage Bunshin…" she muttered slowly. An exact clone poof-ed into existence next to her. They were exactly alike, down to the last hair, thanks to Hinata's excellent chakra control. Since Kage Bunshin divides the chakra evenly, her clone still had a little too much to be believable by the household. Making her clone do a complex jutsu, the chakra level ebbed down to the right amount. Satisfied, Hinata sent her clone on ahead to stay in the Hyuuga Mansion. She herself would spend a night in the forest. It was too hard to keep her chakra under control while asleep.
She settled comfortably against the branches of an ancient tree. Just a year more… just one more year, and she could take off, reveal herself as who she truly was, and bask in the freedom she knew the branch members of her clan couldn't hope to receive. She felt extremely sorry for Neji, her prestigious elder cousin. He might have had a chance to escape as well, but he lacked tact to lay low. He was too prideful as well, and not afraid to show his prowess. Unfortunately, that was his downfall.
She clenched her hand into a fist. She would bear through the final year. She had too.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-XShe awoke the next morning from the fact that her clone was prodding her with a 6-foot long stick. She giggled at her clone's silliness, and rose gracefully to her feet, brushing leaves from her jacket. The clone grinned, and poofed off.
Hinata smiled widely at the day, and stretched eagerly. Feeling refreshed, she decided that she would go meet up with the rest of her friends to do a couple missions. She was currently a Chuunin. Normally, she would have stayed a Genin to stay undetected, but she couldn't bear the fact that her friends were going to move on without her. It still sent giggles through her when she recalled Hiashi's recoiling face. The fool had been so shocked. Even though her abilities were most possibly the level of an advanced ANBU, she liked her ninja status: it was a nice, simple life. But that was going to change the minute she was free from the clutches of the Hyuugas.
She entered the Hokage's Office swiftly, closing the door with a small tick. Tsunade smiled warmly at her before immersing herself into her calculations.
"Hinata, I know I shouldn't burden you with this, but do you mind doing a B mission with Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura? They're supposed to do a scouting mission near Suna. Its strange, since there's an abnormal amount of traps laid there. They'll need someone with an experienced Byakugan to avoid the traps. I would ask Neji, but he's off on an ANBU mission."
Hinata blushed prettily at the mention of Naruto. "O-Of course, Tsunade-sama." She stammered. Her mental consciousness rolled its eyes at her façade, bothered with her timid actions.
"Its set." Said Tsunade with an air of smugness. "They'll be here soo-"
With a large, resolute, bang, the door burst open, heralding the sight of a figure dressed in orange. "You! Granny Tsunade! When can you stop giving those puny B-ranked missions? We're all ready for an 'A'!"
Hinata blushed again, mentally cursing her red face. She liked Naruto as a friend, she was sure, but whenever he was around, she somehow managed to be red as a tomato.
"Naruto…" said Tsunade in a dangerously low voice. "You will refrain from questioning my judgment-"
"Yeah, yeah," he said with a yawn. The rest of his team soon appeared behind him, the members from the original team 7, Sakura and Sasuke, who had returned from the clutches of Orochimaru in one piece.
"Hello, Hinata!" the rosette said, waving. "Did Tsunade-sama tell you about the mission yet?"
Hinata shook her head. "No, Sakura-san, all she said was that it was a scouting mission."
Tsunade nodded in conformation, popping a dango insatiably into her mouth. "Its simple, you'll just need to look for signs of war approaching in the Land of Water. They seemed restless recently, and we recently received information that they're starting to train their ninjas." she put down a dango, folded her arms and gave them a square look. "However, they've set numerous traps around their boarder, and it seems like they don't want anyone prying into their land. It just adds to the effect that they're preparing for war. However, we need to be sure of the fact. It would be humiliating if we were so worried over a false alarm."
The scouting team nodded, each reflecting on how they planned to approach.
"Dismissed," Tsunade said, resuming her consumption of eating her dangos. "Return alive, you're more useful that way."
Grumbling, Naruto folded his arms at Tsunade's last statement. "The old hag…" he muttered under his breath. Unfortunately for him, Tsunade heard. Eye twitching, she flung her plate of dango at him.
"Scram!"
Shocked at her violent display of anger, Hinata gulped and fled out the door along with the rest of the group, each sprayed with dango sauce.
Once in the safe confines of the outdoors, Sakura grimaced at her ruined red outfit. "Let's change before we go," she said, grumbling all the while.
Hinata rolled her eyes. "Ano… I'll wait for you at the gate." She said, trying her best to act timid. She decided that she didn't need to stutter anymore, since her years of acting shy should have left a fixed impression on them.
"But Hinata-chan, aren't you-" Sakura's eyes widened. Tsunade's well-placed throw didn't spill a single drop of sauce on the shy ninja's head.
Hinata smiled gently at her. "Tsunade-sama missed," she said, innocent as ever. In reality, she used a tiny amount of well-used chakra to deflect the little spurts of sauce. It was a reflexive reaction.
"Whoa!" said Naruto, staring hard at her, "Hinata-chan, you're not wet at all!"
Hinata bowed her head, "Well, I was standing a bit far away…"
"She used chakra to deflect every single drop that headed toward her, couldn't you notice, dobe?"
Hinata swallowed. 'Stupid Uchiha!' her mental voice said, enraged. "No, how could I have done that?" she asked, trying hard to look confused. "It would take Sakura's chakra control to deflect such tiny and numerous droplets."
Sasuke looked at her strangely, before lapsing into silence. Much to Hinata's chagrin, he didn't have a speck of dark sauce on him either. So why did everyone ask her?
"Whatever," she said uncharacteristically. Hinata never said whatever, "Can we please hurry and start on the mission?" She tried to keep the annoyance out of her voice. But honestly, why were they getting so worked up about a little bit of sauce? Well, that's Sakura for you.
Naruto and Sakura left, promising to be back as soon as possible, but knowing Sakura, she would spend at least half and hour deciding what her 'Sasuke-kun' would like. And knowing Sasuke, her efforts were going to be in failure. Hinata felt kinda sorry for the rosette girl, to have the center of her attentions push her away.
She couldn't resist a glare at Sasuke, who looked fairly amused. "Let's go." She said curtly, abandoning her demure demeanor for those two words. She could of sworn she heard him chuckle. But that couldn't be right. Uchihas don't chuckle.
They arrived at the gate in silence. Hinata dropped her travel pack next to her as she sat down, leaned against the post, and closed her eyes, taking in all the sounds and smells of her village. Sasuke leaned against the opposite post, hands plunged in pockets and deep in thought, no doubt trying to figure out how to tackle the mission.
Hinata wondered at a stray thought that entered her mind. Why did Tsunade make up this group? Sure, it was the original team 7 and herself, but technically, they were different ranks now. Naruto a Jonin, Sasuke an ANBU captain, Sakura a Medic-nin, and herself a Chuunin. To be frank, it was a strange combo. All in all, it seemed that Tsunade suspected trouble, to have such a wide variety of ninjas present. Hinata's brow furrowed. Most possibly, what she was supposed to do right now, was an A rank. She suspected that
Tsunade marked it a B to prevent her, the Chuunin, from being too afraid to do anything outside of the C missions Chuunins generally do. Looks like she made her false impression too well.
She was cut out of her thoughts when Sasuke spoke. "Hyuuga. What happened back there? You straight out lied to them."
Hinata squirmed uneasily. Curse his abilities. She wondered how to answer. "Oh… that? I thought that it would raise unnecessary questions if I told them I used chakra to block the sauce." She said half-truthfully as she made a point of glaring at his figure. He was annoying.
Hinata wondered what the other girls saw in him. He was as cold as an ice cube, and didn't really seem to care about how other people felt. Oh, sure, he looked good, but what kind of a quality was that? Oh he was smart too, but socially, he was as dense as fog… or so Hinata thought. She didn't really know Sasuke well. She preferred Naruto's big-heartedness, and fine qualities.
He raised his brow. "Unnecessary questions, Hyuuga? Explain."
Hinata stood up. And glared. A full, angry, annoyed glare. "I really don't think I need to explain anything, Uchiha. You need to change that attitude. Just because you ask, it doesn't mean everyone will turn into an open book, just waiting for you to read them."
He smirked. "And whatever happened to your stutter?"
"O-Oh, my s-s-s-stutter? Why, I never lost my s-stutter!" she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Did you really think that I'd stutter all my life?"
He chuckled. "As a matter of fact, I think I did."
Hinata treated it as an insult, but quickly calmed herself, mentally berating herself for letting lose her true self and forgetting that she wanted people to think that she was a weak and timid girl.
"U-Uh, s-sorry, Uchiha-san," she said, trying to revert herself back into her timid self, "I don't know what came over me." She bowed her head.
She suddenly picked up her lavender travel pack before Sasuke could say anything. "U-Uchiha-san, They're here. We s-should leave now."
He 'hn'ed, and glanced over his shoulder to confirm. Yep. Sakura and Naruto fell into step next to Sasuke and Hinata. Sakura shot Hinata a look, clearly asking if anything happened between her and Sasuke. Hinata just shrugged, and pressed foreword. As she expected, Sakura tried subtly to make herself look better. Only the dense Sasuke wouldn't notice that she was desperately trying to get his attention. She groaned, the sooner she could finish this confounded mission, the sooner she could get back.