A small reprieve

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Hinata didn't really know what she was doing at the moment. When she had left the Hyuga compound it had seemed so obvious: if she wanted help this was where she had a chance to get it. But now her determination faltered as she stared at the Hokage's secretary.

"G-gomen, I shouldn't be here."

Hinata turned around to leave, but the secretary had spotted her helpless look. Before Hinata had realized it the woman had made her way towards her and stopped her by putting a hand on her shoulder. She bend forward a bit to be on eye level with Hinata and smiled at the twelve year old girl.

"Don't worry, Hyuga-san. The Hokage cares for all his children and will surely try to help you, no matter what bothers you."

She knew that the old Hokage was especially interested in the well being of future Shinobi and Hinata wasn't exactly known to her as someone who would bother the village leader.

"I-I don't think..."

But before Hinata could protest further the secretary dragged her through the great wooden doors into the Hokage office, where the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi was currently signing a few papers while smoking his pipe. The old man looked up from his desk and looked questioningly at the girl before him, while his secretary simply left the room. He knew that Hinata was extremely shy, which gave her huge problems both in the academy and within her clan and her approaching him could not mean a good thing.

"Hinata! This is a surprise. What brings you here, child?"

Hinata stared at the old man in surprise. She had only met him briefly a few times while accompanying her father. She had never imagined he would know her by name.

"I - I..."

This was when Hinata's remaining strength left her and she broke down in tears. She didn't realize at first when the old man put his arms around her or that the piece of cloth she was crying into were the Hokage's robes. Under normal circumstances she would have been completely embarrassed about those things, but she was mentally too exhausted. It took the old Hokage half an hour to calm down Hinata enough so that she could tell him what had happened.

It turned out that Hinata had refused to kill a young demon during her clan's demon hunter training. Her position among the Hyuga had been problematic before as she was looked down upon as being weak and not determined enough to do what was needed. This 'failure' had been the final straw for Hiashi Hyuga, her father, to decide to marry her off to a lord in the Fire Country capital. Even worse, the man she was supposed to marry was ten years older than her and known as being unforgiving and cruel.

After a bit more careful prodding, the old Hokage managed to get Hinata to tell him the rest of the story. She had actually expected to be subjected to such a fate, because her sister was a far better candidate for the position as clan head than her. But she had hoped to become a ninja before that happened and see a bit of the world during missions. She even admitted that travelling around with a team and being free from her family and obligations as the clan heads daughter for a while was one of her biggest dreams. After hearing the whole story the old Hokage had a contemplative look on his face while he continued to smoke his pipe. Hinata had mostly regained her composure and sat in front of him with a defeated look on her face.

"This is quite a problem indeed. Hinata, I believe you know a bit about the clan laws, so you should be aware that my possibilities to influence clan politics are quite limited."

Hinata nodded sadly.

"Of course there are certain exceptions. As Hokage I can draw you into a honorary position among the ninja forces to give you a special mission and there is a certain mission I could assign you to. Actually I was thinking about whom to give this mission to and you would fit nicely."

"W-what kind of mission is this Hokage-sama?"

"I think I need to start at the beginning so that you know exactly what this is all about. You do know about all the kinds of demon summoning from the Academy?"

"O-of course Hokage-sama. There is the timed summon like your demon apes or master Jiraiya's toads, who assist the summoner for a brief time. A s-skilled summoner can even perform multiple summonings simultaneously with this kind of c-contract. Then there is the partial summon. The demon is able to walk the human realm without any time limit, but he is bound strongly to his summoner and a part of the demon's power remains in the demon realm."

"Yes and as you know there is a limitation to both of them."

Hinata nodded.

"T-the strength of the summoned demon is restricted by the strength of his summoner i-in one way or another."

"Yes. In addition to that once the contract is void, for example because of the death of the summoner, the demon is sent back to the demon realm. And that brings us to the last type: the full summoning. The demon is no longer bound to a summoner, he is free to walk the the human realm with all of its power. Of course this kind of summon is the hardest and most dangerous. It is almost impossible to summon one of the more powerful demons completely into the human realm and even harder to somehow control them. But on the other hand there is nothing more valuable than a fully summoned demon, who is loyal to a ninja village."

"W-why is this important Hokage-sama?"

"I am thinking about having you form a contract with a demon."

Hinata gasped.

"B-but Hokage-sama! My family are demon hunters. They would never allow that!"

The old Hokage nodded. The different views among the clans of how to handle demons had always put a strain on the village's peace.

"Yes, under normal circumstances this would be correct. But in this special case I don't think even the Hyuga will object once the contract is formed."

Hinata just stared at the old Hokage. Hiruzen opened a drawer in his desk, pulled out a few scrolls and stashed them inside his robes.

"Come with me, Hinata. I will tell you the rest on the way."

Hinata followed Hiruzen out of the wooden doors of his office, past the desk of his secretary and on to the great stairway of the Hokage Tower.

"Now let me tell you about a very important clan of Konoha Shinobi: The Namikaze. During most of their history the Namikaze clan consisted of two sides. One part of the clan lived normally here in Konoha. The other part ... are demons that live in the demon realm."

"L-like your ape-demons, Hokage-sama?"

"Not quite. The demons from the Namikaze clan use at least mostly human appearances and adhere to human rules and customs. Unfortunately the human side of the clan found its end with Minato, the Fourth Hokage."

"H-he must have been a-an amazing man. M-many people still mourn his loss."

"Well it is quite unfortunate that he can not directly assist Konoha anymore, but in contrast to public knowledge Minato Namikaze is not dead. He is just trapped in the demon realm."

"B-but then we should be able t-to free him and bring him back to Konoha."

"That would be true if Minato was human. However since he is a demon that is not possible."

"H-he is a d-demon?"

"Yes. This brings me back to the summoning types for demons. Due to the fact that Minato is very powerful, a full summoning is basically impossible and we haven't found a way to partially summon him or another member of his family by normal means."

Hinata nodded. Some demons were naturally resistant or susceptible to some types of summoning.

"As I said it is impossible to summon one of the more powerful Namikaze. Minato is most likely forever lost to us. However he has a son, Naruto, and like all other Namikaze before him his family wants him to live in the human world and protect Konoha for as long as possible."

Hinata stared at the old Hokage as she realized what the old Hokage was getting at.

"I think you realize where I am going with this, Hinata. I would like you to be Naruto's contract partner."

Hinata stared at her feet.

"I-I don't think I am qualified enough to take on such an important task. Y-you should ask one of your jounin to form a contract with the son of the Fourth Hokage, Hokage-sama."

"To be honest I normally would do that, but due to the very special type of summoning contract required, I need someone of Naruto's age for that."

"Then y-you should give this honor to one of my stronger classmates, Hokage-sama."

The Hokage smiled at her.

"Hinata, the contract partner has to be a girl and I know that you could easily beat any of your female classmates in a spar."

Hinata stared questioningly at the Hokage, wondering what kind of contract this was. The Hokage quickly continued.

"Let me tell you more about the contract. This is a very special summon type, which is only used by the Namikaze, I think. It works only for the younger members of the clan and only while they are not too powerful. If we go along with this, you will form a partial summoning contract with Naruto. This will allow Naruto to walk the human realm until he either finds a new partner for his partial summon or his final contract partner. As you can see this task will not last forever, but it should give you enough time to finish the academy and spend a few months, maybe even years in ninja duty. However, once Naruto does form a contract with anyone else, I won't be able to protect you from your clan any longer."

Hinata nodded sadly, but getting a bit more time was exactly what she had asked for. Her determination to accept the old Hokage's offer grew and she was sure that the Hokage was right in thinking that her family would not interfere. The Hyuga respected Minato Namikaze greatly and Hinata was sure that they wouldn't dare to go against his son.

"W-what is the final contract partner?"

"Finding Naruto's final contract partner is the goal of your mission, Hinata. Once Naruto finds this person he will form a very special contract with her, which will allow her to fully summon him to the human realm once. This person will be bound to Naruto forever and will be something like his soulmate. In contrast to almost all other known kinds of full summonings, this special type doesn't require a single sacrifice and would give Konoha access to a fully summoned and loyal demon. Therefore this is an SS-ranked mission."

Hinata nodded, while staring at the Hokage with wide eyes.

"So will you go along with this, Hinata?"

"I-I w-would be honored. Hokage-sama."

Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded.

"Very well. But there is one thing I need you to promise me, Hinata."

"O-of course."

"The Namikaze value their honor and take great pride in helping others. If Naruto learns about your problems, he may attempt to make you his final contract partner to help you permanently, even though you are not suitable. Therefore I need you to promise that you won't tell him."

Hinata nodded.

"I-I promise, Hokage-sama."

"Good. Of course there is a chance that you are indeed a suitable partner for Naruto, but the chances of that being the case are very slim. I need you to keep that in mind."

"I will."

The old Hokage nodded.

"We are finally here."

During their conversation they had made their way deep into the basement of the Hokage tower and stood before a large metallic door. Hiruzen put his hand on top of the middle of the door, where a small seal could be seen on the metal. The large doors swung open immediately.

In front of them was a long corridor with strange metal plates along each wall. The metal plates were decorated and laced with seals, but in the center of each plate was a simple smooth metal surface that had the outlines of a door.

"W-what are these things Hokage-sama?"

"These are pathways to different places in the demon realm."

"S-so we use one of them t-to summon Naruto?"

The Third Hokage shook his head and Hinata wondered what they would do instead. He stopped right in front one of the 'doors' and went through several hand seals. Hinata gasped when she saw chakra travel from the old man into the 'door' even without activating her Byakugan. For the chakra to be visible like that the amount had to be incredibly high. Then a blinding light appeared on the metal plate and its outlines matched the outline of the 'door'. The old Hokage breathed a sigh of relief.

"I am getting too old for this. Come now, Hinata."

He grabbed Hinata's hand and led her right into the blinding light.