Hello!
It has been a long time since I've written anything, and this is the first Naruto story I'm publishing here. Be gentle with reviews? Also, as a small warning... I first started this story over two years ago. I have a few more chapters ready-ish, but it will probably take me long time to update.
The point of view changes between chapters from one character to another.
Disclaimer: I do not own this series
HINATA, IN THE EVENING
Hinata checked her surroundings for guards. Her byakugan eyes turning, she scanned every direction within the radius of two hundred meters. At her eleven o'clock, behind a building, she saw a man wearing the guard outfit. He was also scanning. His gaze turned in her direction and Hinata did not wait for confirmation.
She deactivated her byakugan and fled to the sewers.
The guard managed to track her for about fifteen abrupt changes in direction, but then lost her and returned to surface. Thank goodness the byakugan doesn't see very well in pitch-black darkness, Hinata thought to herself. That was why she had deactivated hers before descending to the sewers. It wouldn't have helped her in the maze, and the guard might have been able to sense her chakra flare and follow it.
The exiled Hyuuga stretched out her arms and touched the wall. She, like all of the exiles, had almost the entire sewer system memorized. The wall she was currently touching was just under the marketplace, and if she followed it for a while and then turned right, she would arrive at a safe location to resurface. Or that was her hope. She hadn't known real safety for several years now.
Upon arriving at the manhole she wanted to go through, Hinata activated her bloodline again. Around herself, she could see nothing. Above the ground, she saw houses with closed curtains, streetlamps lighting up to keep roads lit a little longer before the curfews, and most importantly, she saw no guards.
Hinata exited the sewers in a flash and hid herself behind a couple of trash cans to do a more thorough search of the area. Still finding no guards, she tugged the scarf she had around her face further up and started running. From one shelter to another. From behind one object to behind another. Constantly checking her surroundings again and again.
Eventually the girl arrived at her destination. Checking her surroundings once more, and finding no one near her, she pulled open a door leading to the building she had had her back against, entered fast, and shut the door as quietly as she could.
"Hello, Hinako-chan", a voice greeted her from the back of the small pharmacy. Hinako was Hinata's (quite obvious) alias, because who knew who might be listening in on them. Not that it really mattered what name was used - if the shopkeeper was seen with Hinata, she would be arrested immediately anyway, if not executed on the spot. Using the alias was almost a joke between them.
"Hey, Sakura-san." The pink-haired girl emerged from the storage room, carrying around a large box labelled "BANDAGES".
"The usual? Do you need anything added?" Sakura asked, pulling a stuffed plastic bag out of the box. Hinata shook her head.
"No major injuries this time. Also, a guard saw me two hours ago, so I should leave as soon as I can."
"Right. Here you go." The former medic-nin said and handed the bag over. Hinata thanked her and put the bag under her arm. "Give everyone my best", Sakura commented as Hinata turned to leave.
"I will. They send their thanks for the last time, and this one also." Then Hinata vanished to the night.
-exile-
Hinata was in the sewers again, travelling towards the edge of the city. This was always the most dangerous part of the trip. The guards - and even worse, the anbu - knew the exiles frequently moved across the borders, and they had seen her today. They would be expecting her. She would have to be even stealthier than usually; the walls of Konoha were very closely guards, and rigged with traps.
At times like this, Hinata truly missed those days when the Gates could be opened without authorization from the Hokage. Slipping past the guards would have been easier if the gates were sometimes left open, like in the old days...
...But then again, in the old days, anbu patrols went much further than the village gates, and the rebel community would have to be a lot further away from Konoha than it was now. Perhaps this was the best; after all, the reason the gates were guarded so thoroughly was because it was known that parts of the Konoha forest belonged to the exiles.
Reaching the wall, Hinata activated her byakugan again. There was a guard tower right above her, and she could see that neither of the two guards in it had the byakugan. Hinata turned off her bloodline and used a genjutsu to blend in with the colour of the wall. Then she concentrated chakra to her feet and ran up the wall in an instant, so that she was directly below the floor of the tower. She then carefully crawled past the tower, her back just below the window of it, obscured from sight unless one of the guards leant through the window. Luckily, they didn't.
Once past the wall, the Hyuuga let herself drop freely towards the ground before halting her fall by grabbing the wall with chakra just before impact. Now she was directly below the tower, on the other side. Turning off her genjutsu, she walked along the wall to the north, and then dashed off to the forest. The guards didn't notice her.
-exile-
The rebel hideout was a large underground compound, first found by Itachi Uchiha when the Third Hokage had just been overthrown. Who had created its halls and rooms was unknown, though most exiles believed that Itachi had definitely known about it beforehand; otherwise he couldn't have found it so fast after the coup. The Uchiha himself refused to comment, which of course only made it more interesting. The rumours had it that the compound had once been used by an underground society from Konoha who wished to overthrow the Hokage.
...Well, no matter what the past might have been, now the compound was definitely being used by an underground society intent on overthrowing the current Hokage. Ironic as that was.
As Hinata reached one of the secret entrances, she dialed a long series of passwords and key numbers to get through the doors. Once inside, she put down her bag, held up her arms and let the rebel guards frisk search her for weapons and explosives. Finding none, the guards stepped aside and let her report to the council member on duty.
Hinata went to the desk and found it occupied by a man hiding most of his face under a mask and a forehead protector. She smiled as the man lifted his only visible eye to her.
"Ah, Hinata-chan! Welcome back." Hinata bowed.
"Hello, Kakashi-san." Kakashi gave her an eye-crinkling smile and suddenly, after a long day of anxiety and stress, Hinata felt like home.
"How went the mission? Did you get the supplies?" Kakashi asked. Hinata held out the bag in response.
"I was seen by a guard once, but otherwise everything went well. Also, Sakura sends her regards." Kakashi went through the bag and then smiled again.
"I hope you remembered to give her our thanks."
"I did." Kakashi nodded.
"I'll send these to the healers. Good work, Hinata." Hinata knew she had been dismissed, so she smiled, bowed again and turned to go to her quarters. She would have loved to stay and chat with the man, as they were friends, but right now Kakashi-san was her superior on duty and it would have been improper of her to stay.
-exile-
In the cramped space of the exile hideout, Hinata was considered one of the lucky ones as she only had to share her room with two others: Ino Yamanaka and Tenten.
Ino Yamanaka was a bouncy, energetic girl whose father had nearly been killed in the coup, and remained in the medical ward of the hideout, paralyzed from waist down. Hinata had known Ino - only by name, they hadn't been close - since they'd been little ninja academy students.
When the Third Hokage and his council was assassinated, Ino's father, Inoichi, had been the only one to make it out of the room alive, although just barely (another council member had survived by being absent).
Ino had been there that day with Inoichi. Hinata sometimes wondered if Inoichi's need to protect his daughter had been what got him out of there alive - after all, Ino would also have been executed if he hadn't rescued her. After they had escaped the tower, Inoichi was hit by a nearly lethal attack, and Ino had to drag him to safety. She had managed to flee the disaster zone the village had turned into, dragging her father to the forest. Itachi Uchiha had found them there and offered them shelter.
Hinata's other roommate, Tenten, had suffered very little in the actual coup. She had stayed in the village, somewhat clueless of what was going on, until the new Hokage had announced that all young genin from civilian families would lose their ninja status. This was what had happened to Sakura; she had been forced to forfeit her career as a kunoichi, and was now a pharmacist.
Tenten, being a genin from a family of blacksmiths, would also have had to turn her back on her chosen career for good. This had been too much for her; she had dreamed her whole life of rising to fame as a powerful kunoichi. She had escaped the village and come to the exiles, asking to join them. Back then, the rebel community was still a mess with no leaders to guide them and no guards to enforce their rules, so joining had been much easier. Now, years later, she would have had to go through a long trial period to be allowed in.
The reason Hinata, Tenten and Ino were allowed to live in their room with just the three of them (the room had capacity for four) was that they were among the most hard-working members of the whole rebel movement.
Ino was a master spy; with her family techniques, she could possess villagers and ninjas, and using their bodies, she gathered information by walking around, snooping through documents and talking to people.
Tenten, on the other hand, had her family's blacksmithing skills: she knew how to make nearly any weapon in the books and how to use them as well. She made weapons, trained others to use them and, most importantly for her, took part in regular missions - that had been, after all, what she had wanted from life when she joined the exiles.
And Hinata... Well, Hinata was the only Hyuuga the exiles had. With the whole village guarded by so many watchful byakugans, sending regular ninja in was dangerous, and only the most skilled exiles were sent there on missions. They had lost more than one ninja after they had been caught by the guards who could locate them even through solid objects. This made Hinata a natural choice for small in-Konoha missions, since she had the same ability as the guards. In fact, hers was greater; coming from the main Hyuuga line, she could see a greater distance than most of the branch family members working as guards.
-exile-
On her way to her room, Hinata came across Rock Lee, a ridiculously energetic young ninja who had once been teamed up with Tenten and one of Hinata's family members. Before the coup, of course.
"Hinata-chan! Did the mission go well?" Lee asked very excitedly, mock-saluting Hinata.
"Lee-kun." Hinata bowed to him a little in greeting and smiled. "It went well. I was seen by a guard once, but otherwise everything went smoothly."
"How was the lovely Sakura-san doing?" Lee had always had a kind of an obvious secret crush on Sakura.
"She seems to be well. She sent her regards to everyone." Lee smiled happily and blushed a bit.
"I am happy to hear that! I'm still jealous of you, though! I would like to go see her myself but I can't seem to get the clearance to start working on in-Konoha missions. I failed the test for the third time yesterday." His face fell dramatically at the last two sentences.
Hinata would never say it out loud, but she approved whole-heartedly of the decision to keep Lee out of Konoha. The youth didn't seem to understand the meaning of subtlety, or even speaking quietly.
"I'm sure you will pass it soon. You just need to concentrate very hard next time." Hinata hoped she didn't come off as patronising. Of course, such worry was wasted on Lee.
"YOU'RE RIGHT, MY FRIEND! NEXT TIME, I SHALL DEFINITELY PASS! NOW, AS A PUNISHMENT, I WILL GO TO THE TRAINING GROUNDS TO RUN THREE HUNDRED LAPS AROUND THE FIELD! BYE, HINATA-CHAN!" Lee roared and dashed off towards the exit.
"Bye, Lee-kun..." Hinata tried to say, but he was already gone. Well, with Lee, this kind of thing was routine. The girl turned around to keep moving, but was stopped in her tracks by an intimidating figure.
Itachi Uchiha. The founder and unofficial leader of the exile community.
"U-U-Uchiha-san! Good evening." Hinata stammered and bowed so low that her hair was hanging past her knees.
"Hinata-san. Good evening to you as well." Itachi nodded in her direction. The Hyuuga straightened her posture, anxious, but Itachi was already walking away. Hinata breathed a sigh of relief. She had always been terribly intimidated by Itachi, and felt that he didn't approve of her.
Well, it wasn't like he didn't have a reason to disapprove of her... Hinata had once been the heiress to the Hyuuga family, and she had still somehow managed to stay completely clueless to the fact that her own father was involved in a plot to assassinate the Third Hokage and take over Konoha.
With a sigh, Hinata marched on towards her room, her mood dampened.
-exile-
A/N: I would love some constructive criticism. Thank you for reading!