Author's Note: Edited and reposted on 4/23/2014. No changes to the plot, just some grammar and wording.

In a large cabin deep within the forest surrounding Mahora, a pale little girl dressed in a frilly black dress paced back and forth, her brows furrowed. Her bare feet slapped against the wooden floorboards in a slow but steady rhythm.

"What was that?" she asked herself quietly. Her waist-length blonde hair shimmered in the sunlight as she spun and began to pace towards the opposite wall. Her thoughts drifted back to the previous night. She tried not to dwell on her rather humiliating defeat at the hands of a ten-year-old prodigy, and instead cast her mind slightly further back, to the oddity she had noticed moments before the barrier restricting her powers had been restored, cutting her fight short...

"I wasn't supposed to be dwelling on that," she admonished herself as her mood began to sink.

She had sensed something back then. She wasn't sure what it was. It certainly wasn't something she had ever felt before. Still, the diminutive vampire knew it was important. After so many centuries of life—or unlife, as it were—she had seen so much of both worlds that it was no easy to stump her...and yet she was nonetheless completely baffled. It was a momentous occasion.

"Something happened last night," Evangeline A. K. McDowell murmured under her breath. "Some kind of power made itself known, a power that I have never felt before."

And yet, it seemed so familiar...

Bloodlines
Chapter 2: Adrift on the Current

"Hinata...?" Konoemon trailed off.

"Just Hinata," the girl clarified.

Konoemon raised one of his bushy eyebrows again, but only silence answered his questioning gaze. When it finally became clear to him that she was unwilling to elaborate, he nodded.

"Hinata, then," he confirmed. "Hinata-san, your presence here puts me in a rather...difficult position. As the Dean of Mahora Academy, it is my duty to not only see to the administration of the school, but also to ensure my students' safety. I do not know who you are. I do not know what kind of threat you may pose to my charges. I do not know whether you are dangerous or benign."

Neither do I, Hinata reflected. Though she had finally unscrambled her thoughts and memories, she still had no idea where she was, who the old man was, or even how much time had passed since she had been imprisoned. Judging by the size of the massive tree she could see outside...it had been a very long time. All she knew for sure was that she was completely at this man's mercy until he unlocked the shackles that kept her trapped in the bed.

For now, she supposed she would have to play nice. Even if he did release her, she still felt as weak as a kitten. She would decide later, after getting her strength back and learning as much as she could about this new world in which she had woken, whether to abide by the old man's wishes.

"Why did you automatically assume I would hurt someone?" she asked. "I don't know anyone here. I have no reason to."

"That may be true," the Dean conceded, an odd look in his eyes, "though I must be cautious, regardless."

"So... how much longer will I be chained to the bed?" Hinata asked as she tested her shackles once more. They still refused to give.

The bushy eyebrows shot up in apparent surprise. "Oh!" he abruptly exclaimed. "Did I forget to remove those?!"

As he bent towards one of her shackled wrists, Hinata gave him an incredulous stare. Did he really believe she was fooled by his "forgetful old man" persona? He reminded her far too much of Jiraya of the Sannin, an old man who wore the appearance of foolishness like a disguise to throw off his enemies (or to tick off his friends; she was never quite sure which). The Dean had a similar aura of false senility.

"Now, that's much better, isn't it?" he asked as the shackles fell away from her limbs. Hinata chose not to answer as she gingerly sat up, using her arms for support. She could feel her bones creaking as she swung her legs out over the side of the bed and let her feet fall to touch the floor. With far more effort than she would normally have needed to expend, she slowly stood up.

The old man nodded and turned to walk through the open doorway of the infirmary. Apparently he expected her to follow. Completely at a loss, she chose to do so, wondering whether her new-found freedom was the result of a genuine gesture of kindness, or simply a calculated risk.

"This is the main Administration Building of Mahora Academy. Most teachers and faculty have offices in here, though they don't all make use of them. Mahora is rather large, after all, so some teachers simply spend their office hours in their classrooms or the nearest staff lounge."

Konoemon paused for a moment, then continued to lead Hinata on a tour of the Administration Building. Finally, he stepped through a doorway into a very large office. Curious, Hinata stopped to read the nameplate next to the door.

Konoemon Konoe
Dean of Mahora

"Is that the new student?" a male voice asked.

Hinata blinked. "New student?" she echoed under her breath as she walked into the office. Dean Konoe was sitting behind his desk, stroking his long beard with a smile. In front of the desk stood a very tall, lanky man in a suit. His eyes regarded her through thin-rimmed spectacles as he ran a hand through his spiky, platinum-blond hair.

His dark eyes made contact with her own, and appeared shocked for a moment before he turned away. He looked at the Dean and raised an eyebrow in a silent question as the girl walked up to stand beside him. Konoemon knew what he was asking, and shook his head in response. He wasn't sure exactly why the girl's irises were such a pale, whitish color, but it certainly didn't seem like she was blind.

"This is Hinata," he said, wondering why she had refused to give more than her first name. "Hinata-san, this is Takamichi Takahata, one of our middle-school teachers. Anyway, through some rather extraordinary circumstances, Hinata has somehow ended up here at Mahora and may have to stay for a while. So I thought: why not have her play the part of a student until her situation is resolved?"

He watched Hinata's jaw drop and deliberately began to laugh in his most stereotypical old-man chortle. Her expression slowly morphed from utter shock to something more like resignation, just as he had hoped. The "old-man chortle" was his favorite tactic to convince people that he was off his rocker, which generally caused people to just go along with his odd decisions rather than raise objections. As always, it had worked beautifully.

"Sir, are you sure—" Takamichi began to ask.

"Very sure," Konoemon interrupted, his laughter fading fast. "She has nowhere to go, and owns nothing beyond the clothes she's wearing. She really does not have much of a choice but to stay here. Mahora Academy has a scholarship fun to support students who cannot afford tuition, but only current students are eligible. Therefore, the best solution is to make her a student."

"Wait just a damn second" Hinata exclaimed, "What makes you think I even want to stay here?"

"Do you have anywhere else to go?" the Dean asked. "I noticed you have no money among your possessions. You won't get very far without any funds. I am offering you the chance to live in comfort while you get your bearings and decide what to do next. Are you really going to refuse?"

Hinata opened her mouth to respond, but found she had nothing to say. He was right. While she didn't know what he might ask of her in return, it was still a very good offer.

"...Alright," she finally answered. "I guess I'll stay."

Takamichi gave Konoemon an odd look, but didn't comment on the old man's insistence that she stay. "I assume you called me here to take Hinata to the dorms?" he asked.

"Of course," Konoemon replied. "She will be sleeping in room 660, so just drop her off there. Oh, and please send in the students waiting outside, will you?"

Takamichi nodded and turned towards the open door. When he saw the three students waiting outside, he turned back and narrowed his eyes at the Dean, who smiled innocently as he watched the gears turn in the teacher's head. Takamichi eventually sighed and nodded, then turned back to the door and led Hinata outside, stopping for a moment to send the waiting students in.

"Tatsumiya-san, Sakurazaki-san, Nagase-san," Konoemon named the three students, "I have a small task for you three. Yes, Tatusmiya-san, you will be paid, though we'll need to discuss your rates if I must continue making use of your services for much longer. I'll go broke at this rate..."

"And these are the dorms," Takamichi explained as he gestured towards the building they were approaching. "The Middle School campus is just down the road, close enough that it should take you only a couple of minutes to run there."

"Run?" Hinata asked absently, her mind still somewhat in shock from the Dean's decision to enroll her as a student. She still wasn't sure if she should even stay in Mahora at all, or for how long, but she supposed there was no choice. Over the course of her tour of Mahora, she had learned that the world was very different from the one she had known. She wasn't sure how much time had passed, but she assumed it had been a very long time since then. Perhaps the offer to stay in Mahora was worth taking after all, if it gave her a chance to learn more about where she was and decide what to do next.

Takamichi smiled wryly. "Most of the students here tend to stay up a little too late on school nights. Then they often oversleep, so there's a mad rush in the morning to reach their respective classes on time."

Hinata nodded as she followed the teacher into the building. Teenage girls were everywhere, dashing through the halls and leaning out of doorways. Many waved cheerfully at the pair, though quite a few muttered inaudibly and almost shrank at the sight of them. It took Hinata a moment to realize that they were eyeing Takamichi nervously. When she overheard one of them mutter, "Death-Glasses," she almost laughed. Apparently he had a reputation.

When they entered a stairwell and began to climb, she brought up the subject herself:

"So...Death-Glasses?"

He chuckled ruefully. "I rarely go easy on students who break the rules, especially those who choose to instigate fights or bullying. It often takes a firm hand to stop a fight in progress, and since I am often the one who steps in to halt confrontations, it's earned me a few odd nicknames from the students."

"But still...Death-Glasses?" Hinata asked again. "Really?"

The teacher shrugged. "It's not as if I came up with the name," he defended himself, "but I don't really mind. They can call me whatever they like if it means they've learned to behave in front of me. Anyway," he abruptly turned and exited the stairwell, "this is the third-year floor. You'll be living with your classmates here."

"Will I have a roommate?" She had already seen into several rooms with open doors back on the first floor, all of which had two beds. When she saw Takamichi nod, her heart sank. "Really? You're just going to have me live with another student even though you have no idea who I am or what I am capable of?"

"Are you trying to convince me not to trust you?" Takamichi asked curiously as they traveled down the hallway.

"No, but I'm wondering why you and the Dean do," Hinata clarified. "Where I come from, people aren't so trusting of strangers. I don't think I've ever met anybody willing to put their trust in me so quickly. It's...different."

She waited silently as he considered his answer.

"I can't really say that I trust you just yet," he finally conceded as his eyes briefly met her own, then turned away, "but I don't think you pose a threat to my students, particularly to your roommate. She can take care of herself, if necessary." He turned his gaze back to her, their eyes meeting once more. A chill swept over Hinata as the warmth in his eyes fled. "I do hope she won't have to, though."

Hinata wasn't sure how to answer, and was still unnerved by the man's steely gaze, so the two walked in silence until the teacher stopped in front of a door much like all of the others lining the hallway. A bronze plate screwed into the wall next to the door labeled it as the entrance to room 660. Below it were two nameplates, though the second one was blank.

Takamichi knocked, and Hinata turned to look at the door. The two waited for a moment, until the door was opened and a dark-skinned face peered out. The room's occupant glanced at Hinata, then up at Takamichi. Though she didn't speak aloud, it took only a raised eyebrow to convey the question she wished to ask.

"Hinata-san, this is Zazie Rainyday," Takamichi introduced them. "Zazie, Hinata. Were you already told about—"

Zazie interrupted him with a silent nod. Takamichi nodded in return. "Very well," he continued before turning to face Hinata. "This is where I'll leave you, Hinata-san," he told her. "Class starts first thing tomorrow morning, at eight o'clock. Just follow Zazie-san's lead for now."

"What about—" Hinata started to say, feeling very much like she had lost all control over her life. Why had the Dean offered to enroll her, anyway? Why had she accepted? Why had she been placed in a class with students that were, judging by Zazie's appearance, at least two years younger than her?

"It's all been taken care of," the teacher cut her off before she could ask her question. "Have fun in class tomorrow!"

Then he was gone, and Hinata was left alone with her new roommate. She turned away from the open doorway to regard the strange girl. She couldn't decide if the oddest thing about her was her shoulder-length white hair, the odd markings on her face, or her amber eyes that seemed to have a golden sheen. And then there was the fact that she had not spoken a single word since opening the door.

Of course, Hinata realized that her new roommate was probably thinking similar thoughts about her own abnormally pale complexion and milky-white eyes. With a small, resigned sigh, she held out her hand.

"It's nice to meet you," she greeted hesitantly.

Zazie regarded her outstretched hand for a long moment before abruptly taking it in her own and shaking it twice. The girl nodded and let go of the hand, and although no words were spoken, Hinata somehow got the impression that Zazie would have said, "Likewise."

With their initial greeting finished, Zazie stepped around Hinata and closed the door. Hinata took a moment to look around the room. It was small, but still enough to comfortably serve two people. A bunk bed was set on the far side of the room, with its left side against the wall. There were two desks, one on either side of the bed, each one with a window above it. There were two sets of sliding doors on the right wall, presumably hiding two closets, with a large window directly across from them on the left wall. There was also a small circular table directly in the center of the room. It was very short, its surface less than two feet from the ground, with cushions instead of chairs surrounding it.

The table was so similar to those that had been used within the Hyuga clan's household that, in a way, it reminded her of home.

She distracted herself as fast as she could before following that thought to its inevitable conclusion.

"So, which bed is yours?" Hinata asked quickly. Zazie pointed to the bottom mattress on the bunk bed, then to the desk on the right side of the room and the closet nearest the bed. With a nod, Hinata decided to unpack...only to realize that she had none of her possessions with her. She had only the clothes she had been wearing when she was sealed away. Unfortunately, her hip pouch and kunai sheath, old relics from her time as a ninja, had not been sealed away with her.

Fortunately, it appeared the Dean had thought ahead. When she opened the closet to see what might be inside, she found numerous outfits that looked like school uniforms, as well as other assorted clothes in a variety of styles. They all appeared to be in her size, as well.

The woman she had seen upon waking up and eventually come in to tell her that her clothes had seriously needed a wash when Dean Konoe had brought her in. She supposed her measurements might have been taken when she was undressed. Hopefully it was the woman's doing, rather than the old man's. He was so reminiscent of Jiraya that she automatically assumed he was just as much of a pervert as well.

She turned away from the closet to find Zazie staring at her again. Their gazes met for a moment before Hinata looked away and moved to the desk to see that it had been stocked full as well, with blank paper, writing utensils, and various other supplies necessary for school.

Her roommate was disconcerting. The white-haired girl still hadn't spoken a single word aloud, and every time Hinata turned back towards her, Zazie was staring at her with an expression that Hinata couldn't decipher.

With a sigh, Hinata went back to her closet and pulled out a set of what appeared to be pajamas, then began to change into them. She felt Zazie's gaze on her the whole time and wondered why the other girl seemed so intrigued by her.

"So...you want us to spy on her?"

Dean Konoe shook his head in answer to Mana Tatsumiya's question. "Of course not. She is to be a student like you, after all. That would be a violation of her privacy. No, I just want you to keep an eye on her during your classes and whenever you might be nearby. No need to go out of the way. No need to report her every move, either, but if she does anything out of the ordinary..."

"Tell you as soon as possible," Setsuna Sakurazaki finished his sentence with a nod.

"It's passive observation that you want, then," Kaede Nagase clarified.

"Exactly," Konoemon responded. "She is a mysterious stranger who, according to all the records I have checked thus far, does not exist. That on its own would be enough to merit observation, but what little she has told us of her origins just creates more questions than it answers. I do not necessarily believe her to be a threat, but it is best to be sure. Now, if there is nothing else, you may go."

The three students nodded. Two of them turned and left immediately. Mana remained, causing Konoemon to sigh as he regarded her.

"About my fee—" she began.

"I will pay your usual rate this time," the Dean replied. "However, I think we should discuss your fees in the future. Perhaps...you could offer a discount of some kind since I am a repeat customer? You'll bankrupt me if this goes on."

"We'll work something out," Mana replied with a smile. Her smile widened to a grin when she left the office as she anticipated the windfall she would be receiving soon.

"Mercenaries," the old man grumbled in exasperation as the door closed behind her.

Hinata watched with awe as a huge mass of students sprinted towards the school building. It looked like a burgundy tidal wave as hundreds of students wearing the dark red uniform of Mahora Academy stampeded down the street.

Zazie had nudged her awake early that morning. The two of them had prepared for school at a leisurely pace but were still already eating a breakfast of cereal and toast around the time their fellow students were just beginning to wake up. They were already on their way to the school building by the time their classmates were getting dressed, and had arrived just in time to stop and watch the mad rush of middle-schoolers.

Zazie tugged on Hinata's arm, so she turned away from the spectacle and followed the white-haired girl into the building shortly before the horde arrived. Walking briskly up two flights of stairs, they made it to Class 3-A ahead of the crowd. Zazie went inside, followed by a number of sprinting students, while Hinata paused at the doorway, unsure about what to do next. Should she just walk in and sit down? Should she wait for the teacher?

Hinata shook her head at her folly. Before her defeat and imprisonment, she had been feared throughout the Elemental Countries. Her mere name had been enough to send even the most courageous opponents running for the hills. After her rampage through the warring Ninja Villages, the few who had witnessed her wrath and managed to escape alive would virtually wet their pants at the sight of her.

Now, here she was, dressed up as a schoolgirl (complete with a skirt far too short for her liking), shifting back and forth like a nervous little girl at the thought of walking into that classroom. It was ridiculous. It was also far too much like her old self for her liking. Her shyness was a part of her that she had never managed to change, an aspect of herself that she could never escape, even after everything she had done.

As a result of her inner turmoil, she completely missed the sight of a ten-year-old boy running into the classroom along with the older students. By the time her mind returned to the present, the hallway was empty. With a start, she turned towards the classroom and glanced inside. The students were still getting settled in their seats. At the front of the room stood a short little boy who was writing something on the chalkboard. She wondered about his presence until the boy turned and beckoned to her. With a shrug, she steeled herself and walked into the room, mentally berating herself for being so hesitant.

"This is Hinata," the little boy announced. "She's a new student who will be joining us in Class 3-A. Please make her feel welcome, okay?

Is this kid supposed to be a teacher?!

Hinata didn't have time to contemplate just how absurd that was before she saw the students leaping from their seats to crowd around her. A deluge of questions began. The cacophony of teenage voices washed over her as she tried to pick out what they were all saying. They kept speaking over each other, growing louder and louder in volume.

"Where are you from?" someone asked.

"Um...I lived in a small village out in the country before coming here," Hinata lied. Telling them she was from the past, as far as she could tell, probably wasn't the best idea.

"Are you living in the dorms?"

"Yes."

"Who's your roommate?"

"Uh, it's Za—"

"What's your bust size?"

Wait, what?

The rest of the class fell silent and stared at the girl who had asked, a redhead with a spiky ponytail that, somehow, reminded Hinata of someone she had once known. The girl was grinning and holding up a camera.

"What?" the girl asked when she noticed the rest of the students staring at her. She smiled innocently, though there was an odd gleam in her eyes. "Don't act like you're not curious. She looks even bigger than—"

"C-calm down," the child stuttered. His protest was, unfortunately for him, completely ignored.

"Everyone go back to your seats!" a student with long, blonde hair exclaimed. "Class has already started! You should not display such shameful behavior in front of our beloved Negi-sensei!"

Hinata breathed a sigh of relief as the students slowly began to obey. The child cleared his throat—apparently he really was their teacher—and spoke up in a slightly more authoritative voice:

"Anyway, Hinata-san, would you like to introduce yourself?" the child-teacher asked.

Hinata sighed. She hated public speaking. Even after so many years of practice, she was still uncomfortable with the thought of speaking in front of groups.

How pitiful is this? Is the monster who destroyed the Hidden Ninja Villages too nervous to stand up in front of a room of children?!

Sighing again, Hinata steeled herself and said, "I'm Hinata. I...I'm from a tiny little village in the middle of nowhere, as I said, so I'm still getting used to living in a place as big and busy as Mahora." It was half-true, at least. Lies were easier to remember when they contained a nugget of truth. How to lie believably was a lesson every ninja learned as a child. She continued, "I went to school when I was little, but I've been home-schooled the past few years, so this is all very new to me. Thank you for the warm welcome."

She bowed as the cacophony began again. Once again, the blonde student had to restore order when the teacher's pitiful attempt failed. Hinata tried not to roll her eyes and mostly succeeded. These students were even more energetic than her former classmates at Konoha's Ninja Academy...

Don't go there, she told herself. You're done crying for those you've lost.

"Please take a seat next to Zazie-san in the back," Negi told her. Hinata did so, ignoring the glances from her fellow students as she sat down next to her mercifully-quiet roommate. If this was what the rest of her class was usually like, she had really lucked out to be living with someone as sedate as Zazie.

"Now, I have an additional announcement to make," Negi continued. A wide, childish grin stretched across his face as he exclaimed, "Next week, Class 3-A will be going on a school field trip to Kyoto and Nara!"

The whole class cheered. Hinata almost raised her hand to ask what Kyoto and Nara were, but changed her mind and held her tongue. Everyone here seemed to know exactly what those places were, so calling attention to herself by admitting her ignorance.

I might as well treat this like a mission, she realized. It's been a while, but I should do what I always did back then. Blend in and gather information. I'm usually not so completely in the dark, though.

"There are a lot of people at our school, so the destination is always chosen from a list of exotic locations like Hawaii," the blonde student who had taken charge of the class earlier announced. She stood up and continued, "Since there are so many international students in our class, and Negi-sensei himself is in Japan for the first time, we decided upon a cultural trip to Kyoto and Nara."

After hearing the name yet again, Hinata briefly wondered whether Nara had anything to do with the Nara clan she had known so long ago. She remembered that Shikamaru's family had owned a large, forested area of land a fair distance from Konoha.

It was the first time she had seen any sort of link between the world she had known for most of her life and the new world in which she had just awoken. Since regaining consciousness in that infirmary, she had felt detached and adrift, not really part of this new world. She had gone along with the Dean's plans only because she had no idea what else to do. If she could find some clue, some tiny little hint of a connection...perhaps then she could regain some control over her life.

More loud shouts distracted her from her thoughts, and she looked up to see the teacher and the two smallest teenagers she had ever seen jumping up and down while cheering like little children.

"This is ridiculous," she muttered under her breath.

Evangeline watched the new student with narrowed eyes, ignoring the chaos that had overtaken the classroom after Negi's announcement. She knew there was something odd about the girl, something other than her strange white eyes. It could not be a coincidence that a new student showed up so soon after Evangeline had felt that strange, yet somewhat familiar presence. There was no way the two events could be completely unrelated.

She knew that Hinata was the source. That much was plain. Even now, she could just barely sense a hint of the very same aura of power, and it was coming from Hinata's direction. Now she just had to determine what that power was.

Perhaps I should tell the brat, or the Dean? she asked herself, though she shook her head a moment later. She was still feeling a little vindictive about her loss to Negi. It would be easier, not to mention much more entertaining, to just sit back and watch events unfold...