Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto, etc. Borrowing for the purposes of entertainment, procrastination, and basically, escapism.

Warning: Possible spoilers.

Chapter 1: Fall Afternoon Discussions

The world was a mass of swirling colors...

Of verdant green.

Of serene blue.

Of earthy brown.

Of blinding white.

She disappeared into this world of shades and tints, coalesced with an existence that didn't need exactness, or greatness, or superiority. There, things weren't simply black or white—or magenta, or yellow, or cyan-the mixtures were free to just be, weren't judged by a lack of this pigment, that pigment... Because every color, regardless of shade, hue, tint was loved by at least someone.

Someones were pretty numerous in the real world. Not all of them may be living at the very moment, but they exist in past or in the future.

She existed, didn't she?

Of course, she did. Now, living... Living was quite another thing. A harder thing.

If she were a color, she started out as a very drab one. Nobody liked her, and she did her best to add intensity to her shade, a dash of cheerfulness, a streak of endurance, to change this. But see, it wasn't easy to change; she wasn't just made up of colors, after all.

Color was merely something one perceived, created by the absorption or reflection of light. And she... the beautiful, dangerous, superior she, was just a perception. She wasn't truth or lie absolutely, not either one or the other exclusively. Their image of her was simply incomplete.

No surprise. She had always lived in shades, as shades. That's why nobody knew who she was, just how she appeared... From this side, that side. Now at age twenty, then at age twelve. Mostly from a distance.

She herself always looked at Hyuuga Hinata with eyes shut; otherwise, she'd hate the color she'd see.

Hate was such a sad thing.

Right now, she couldn't quite see herself. She couldn't quite see past the turmoil of emotions. And the pain, the frustration... They were the worst.

Ah, no. They weren't.

Loneliness was.

But even loneliness did not make her happy about this new addition to her life. Technically, she wouldn't be alone anymore. For her own protection—and her clan's—she would be, starting from now, shadowed by her cousin, a lonely being himself.

Yes, as a matter of fact, she did notice that Hyuuga Neji was lonely, too, had noticed it years ago. The knowledge didn't really help her, because she knew he spent some portion of his time alone hating her.

Now, he'd have even more reason to hate her. He had just been saddled by a responsibility he didn't want in the first place, an outgrowth of the one he had always resented.

For the sake of the main family.

She could empathize with him. After all, her own life was for the main family—therefore for her village and country, too. She didn't like being the Hyuuga heir, hefting a responsibility too enormous for her slight frame, her slight character. They didn't like it either, but there wasn't much anybody can do to change the circumstances.

The only thing she could do was embrace her destiny. And seven years ago, when she received the mark of adulthood in her village, she decided to change herself—no, to transcend.

The first step to transcendence had always been acceptance of what was, what had to change, what could not be changed. She had accepted the unchangeable fact that she was indeed the Hyuuga heir and that certain things were expected from her ilk. She had changed over the years to fit the mold she needed to, but inside... Had she ever truly transcended her old self? Had she reached her goal? Truly?

Questions, questions. She couldn't answer them without sufficient data, and the collection and utilization of information was the way of the shinobi— its nature, its core. She had to wait and see. She had to wait for them to accept fact, too, wait for them to allow her the chance to test herself, see then and now objectively. To see if she was now worthy of the blinding white...

Sometimes, she wondered if the almost omniscient purity of the white of their eyes blinded them. Her. Because she couldn't see. She couldn't see anymore what she needed to change. She had changed, but she couldn't see where, how, how much exactly. She so wanted to see if she had gained something. Or lost..

No matter. Patience was a virtue. It was one of hers.

With a profound sigh, she let go of the anger—why yes, she was feeling angry, and she barely noticed it—she unfisted her hands and opened her eyes.

And stifled a scream.

Of serene blue...

"Hinata-chan! Good afternoon!"

"Na-naruto-kun!" she gasped, managing to breathe through the tight bunch of muscles that lodged itself in her throat. Shaking her head, she swallowed her heart back in place. "You startled me."

Him. Her friendship with him. That one was surely a gain.

"How are you this afternoon?" Overflowing with boyish charm, he grinned at her impishly, his sky-blue eyes twinkling. Ah, many of the village girls had fallen prey to that sweet, mischievous smile—much to the chagrin of their elders. And her... Well, she cherished the fact that she noticed it first. Not that the fact made her less vulnerable whenever he unleashed its full power.

"Y-you-" She faltered under that unfazed guilelessness. "You really did."

"I did, huh?"

His expression became thoughtful, and he squinted at her, absently scratching at the fine down on his cheeks. The sensation it gave her wasn't exactly discomfort, but akin to it... Intimidation? He did tower over her now-two years ago, he literally spurted an additional foot—but it wasn't that. Embarrassment, then? Because of this closeness? Because despite their height difference his nose was only a hand's width from hers?

"Ne, Hinata-chan," he suddenly spoke, still bent over her, arms akimbo. "How old are you?"

The question caught her off-guard. "Twenty." She blinked, then added, "Why do you ask?"

Silently, he brought up a hand and pointed up. She followed with her gaze, saw none above but the bright burst of colors of the dying leaves overhead, the mid-afternoon sun from beyond adding to their glow. Ostentatiously, he placed that finger on her forehead. Reflexively, she looked at his hand, looked at the red of his lifeblood through parts of his skin rendered translucent by sunlight.

"That," he said simply.

After a stymied moment, she deigned to speak up. "I don't understand, Naruto-kun."

Unexpectedly, he lightly pinched her bunched-up eyebrows. "Wrinkles, Hinata-chan," he explained seriously. "If you frown too much, you'd wrinkle like Tsunade-obaachan by the time you're twenty-two."

She blinked at him again, as he stood there nodding sagely, still wearing his signature thinking expression. Then, because she couldn't really help it, she blushed crimson and burst out laughing. She covered her mouth after the initial peal of laughter, but she had to clutch at her stomach because that didn't quite stop it.

"It's true," he said, pouting at her in mock hurt. "It must be true, after all those hours Sakura-chan spent ranting about the ones she's getting from scowling over notes."

Hinata was still laughing.

"Ne, Hinata-chan," he said when she started panting for breath. "You all right?"

"Y-yes," she answered with much effort. "Yes, I'm fine."

"No." He was serious again. Very. "I mean, are you all right?"

She stopped and looked at him half-surprised. Then she nodded firmly. "Yes," she repeated. "I'm fine."

"That's good." He grinned at her again.

With cheeks slightly red, she smiled back at him.

Naruto folded his arms over his head and turned away, slightly embarrassed. "That's... nice," he said, then rushed on. "Hey, let's sit somewhere, 'kay? I'm beat."

They called themselves the G9, team 7, 8, and 10 all together. It was a collective name that stemmed from when they were twelve-year-olds. Everybody was shocked when the senseis nominated all the fresh graduates for the chuunin qualification exams that year. Only one of them, Nara Shikamaru, actually became chuunin that first time, but all of them reached the final stages—something many people didn't expect.

The G9 had a special place in that particular area of the forest in Konahagakure where they go, singly or in groups, to train or simply to think. That day, Hinata didn't go there to train. Naruto must have noticed that outright. After all, she was just standing there in the middle of the forest, motionless, eyes shut. She wasn't even wearing her usual jounin attire, a getup that reminded one of Kurenai's, the woman whom Hinata admitted to idolizing several times. The plain white kimono she was wearing made her look like a wood sprite, he would say in his guileless way; she knew she looked more like a chilling apparition.

Anyway, that particular area in the forest, had a particular place where the gnarled roots of the trees made it just right to sit in. There was even one gentle old giant in whose woody flesh time had carved a snug seat that could easily squeeze two. Hinata herself, however, was actually more partial to sitting on the swing hanging from one of that tree's branches. It was Naruto who devised that five years ago. It was slightly lopsided, one of the ropes tied to the old rubber wheel a bit shorter than the other two.

But then, Naruto suddenly stopped.

"Ahahaha..." he said, scratching his head, as he turned to Hinata sheepishly. "I forgot about that."

"Forgot about what, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto made as if looking around for people who might hear him. "Ah, today is Sasuke's scheduled therapy session," he whispered to her.

"Therapy session?" repeated Hinata also whispering. "Sasuke-san? I'm sorry to hear that. I didn't realize all that happened was still plaguing him until now."

"Nah, don't worry about him. Sasuke's pretty all right now—well, as all right as Sasuke could be, you know? It's sort of like a maintenance thing. I think." Naruto was still whispering. "Anyhow, let's get out of here. You hungry?"

"Hmmm..." Hinata thought for a moment and realized her stomach had been grumbling for hours; she didn't eat lunch that day. "Yup. Ichiraku ramen?"

"I was hoping you'd say that."

They detoured and walked in companionable silence.

"Hinata-chan, I heard about what happened from Kiba," Naruto suddenly spoke.

She froze for a split second. There it was. She knew the topic was going to crop up sooner or later.

"But I didn't really get the details 'coz he was really evasive," he continued. "Soo..."

"Aa," she said finally, nodding. It was Naruto who was asking; that's okay. It wasn't just some curious person on the street, looking around for the newest scoop about another assassination attempt on the Hyuuga heir.

Then again, the clan had means of keeping their affairs their own. Maybe the general populace had no idea at all about what happened.

"We had an escort mission, last Tuesday," Hinata began. "We were to bring an escaped political prisoner to the Mist Country where she had pleaded asylum. We were attacked by the people the young woman was supposed to meet. Apparently, they were Mist nins. I saw them a long way off, but we had no choice but to meet their attack headlong. The plan was to proceed warily, to show them that we were aware of their presence, and to feign fear. We sprung their traps, and as planned, made a slashing attack meant to disable their ranks swiftly. Our original plan was to make a swift get away, us being disadvantaged in foreign territory with limited manpower and information. We weren't sure if we should pull out for fear of treachery or proceed to the capital city.

"Kazuma Ada, Yuu Shinosuke, Naga Yuuhi, Yukimura Blood-shanks: four A-class missing-nins. We decided to push through with the mission and made a run for the city. The team split up into two, one with the real young lady, the other with me using the henge no jutsu. Two came after us.

"Kiba-kun was using henge no jutsu to pose as me, Akamaru as him. I was using the Gentle-fist to beat of my attackers, though they concentrated first on Kiba-kun and Akamaru. Their chakra use became severely limited and they withdrew. The other two, I found with the Byakkugan, dead apparently by the hands of my teammates."

"Genjutsu?" asked Naruto. "You would have seen that."

"You're right. It wasn't genjutsu. They were able to induce a death-like state by consciously slowing their heart rates... and my eyes aren't the sharpest in the clan after all. Anyway, the four regrouped and went after me who was still in the client's form. Kiba-kun and Akamaru fought well. We could have escaped sooner, but..."

"Your chakra failed."

"Yes." Hinata turned to him with a slightly disturbed look. "It was cold and we were in high altitude. And I couldn't breathe well...and..."

"And Neji's damage on your body from that time."

"Y-yes. My heart wasn't strong enough. Kiba-kun's been blaming himself because I used my chakra to take out three with one attack—and maintaining henge through out. The fourth got mortally injured and then killed himself. Anyway, I think my heart stopped for a while and poor Kiba-kun and Akamaru were so worried... Maya, one of our other teammates, was a medic, though. She came back after the client was delivered to Mist soldiers."

"So those missing nins' target was you. They would have known you were shinobi during the first time they fought you, and not the client. But how were they able to recover from the Gentle fist attacks to regroup and attack again?"

"They had a medic with them who knew how to repair the damage—unfortunately, he was the one who killed himself and his body had been taken care of by the Mist Hunter nins."

"Hold on," he interrupted again. "That's not right. They call you the Touchless One for a reason. Your attacks don't bruise, so it's hard for the enemy to know or see where they've been hit."

"We think he just repaired the chakra points in vital areas, so the enemy could still fight albeit limitedly. The elders of the our clan believe that it was a politically motivated assassination. Somebody wanted to destabilize the relationship between The Land of Tree and Leaf and The Land of Mist. And somebody wanted the secrets of the Hyuuga..."

"And they think the whole thing about the client and the asylum thinggy were all set up to lure you into enemy territory?"

"My father does. They've decided I needed to be guarded. Neji-niisan would be my protector."

"Neji? He's ANBU, right?"

"Yes. The Hokage is allowing it. My death, or even injury, would affect the security of our village."

"That sucks huh? Being followed around all day. He hasn't started his new job yet?" Naruto glanced up the thinning trees briefly.

"Tomorrow."

"Weird. Ninja needing another ninja for protection. You're sort of a jounin yourself you know. I don't think you need a bodyguard."

"Thank you, Naruto-kun."

"Ne, Hinata-chan. I'm glad you're safe though. So maybe you can bear with Neji watching you all the time for a while, huh? Just to make sure?"

"If it'll make you worry less, Naruto-kun. Neji-niisan won't bother me."

"I'm not worried worried, you know? You can take care of yourself." He seemed almost shy when he said this and he rushed on again. "Oh yeah. Did they even ask Neji if he wanted to do this?"

Hinata smiled at him sadly. "They are not required to ask us."

Naruto looked as if he were about to apologize.

"Don't worry about it. I'm used to it. He is too."

"Yeah... but you don't have to like it, you know."

"I know." Hinata suddenly smiled. "Enough about that. I have a question, Naruto-kun."

"Question? Sure. Fire ahead."

"You said Sasuke-san had therapy? I just saw him sitting up a tree branch. Sakura-san was studying under it."

"Ahahaha!" Naruto scratched his head sheepishly. "That's the therapy part." He lowered his tone conspiratorially. "Sasuke's a pretty sick bastard, you know. He he he... He likes watching."

Hinata coughed delicately. "Um..."

"Yeah, I'm kidding, I'm kidding! But you know, Sakura-chan is studying to become a doctor. Maybe she'd cure Sasuke or something. But enough about that bastard! Let me tell you about the mission I just came from. And did I mention it's my first mission as jounin?"

Happily, Hinata listened to her friend's outrageous stories as they eventually reached the Ichiraku ramen stall. What Naruto-kun said about Sakura and Sasuke stuck in her mind though, even as her companion described the polka-dots on the daimyo's underwear in between mouthfuls of noodles.. Sakura didn't really need to become a doctor if only to be therapeutic, Hinata thought. See, Naruto wasn't one, and yet he was therapeutic for her, wasn't he?

Yes. Hyuuga Hinata was happy that cold autumn afternoon. That day, colors were just colors. Serene blue was just serene blue. She was just herself, and it was perfect that way.

In the first days of October, the reality of autumn hadn't quite made its mark, and the trees still stood with their colorful adornments. Particularly in Konohagakure no Sato, fall crept across Fire country like the lazy glow of reviving embers. Colors would blaze one at a time as in a stately parade, till eventually, the trees would stand in their glorious nakedness, ever dignified.

The starkness and glibness of winter was a far thing still. One could almost think of the recent days as those of the mild summer. The waning days still baked sweat from men, and many children, who spent blissful days of play and leisure, had skins like freshly-baked bread that reminded one of the sun's lordliness during the past season. But every now and then, nature reasserted herself. The wind blew, occasionally bearing hints of the cooler "ber" breaths. The animals were busy in their preparations. The ninja academy was open once again.

The tree of Team Gai was as healthy as ever, with its crown and limbs yellow under the retiring sun. Gold fluttered down like miraculous snow from the violently trembling tree. Underneath, leaning against the freckled slender trunk, sitting on the roots was the culprit, the goddess of the wood and hunt.

But then, then stray clouds came and blotted out the afternoon skies, and it was just a young woman sitting there, shaking so hard that the weapons hidden about her person jingled together like coins.

When she laughed, the whole of her laughed. Her eyes crinkled the way the wood of the practice dummy did when the shuriken's arm cleaved its surface, the chestnut of her eyes elusive under those lids, those lashes. From her stomach and concentric outwards—her chest, her head, her limbs—she undulated like a contained natural disaster. The pale rays of the shuttered sun danced on her, its dainty fingers momentarily transforming the dark brown of the braids coiled around her head into the rich tones of aged red wine.

The sound of her laughter reverberated in that little clearing in the western woods of Konohagakure no Sato. Such was her self possession—she could laugh without inhibition, could cry without shame. She was honest to herself, always, whether regarding her strengths or her weaknesses.

But really... Her disproportionate titillation was starting to annoy him.

"Let me get this straight," she finally said, panting from both laughter and the very effort she exerted to suppress her renegade giggles. "The elders are planning to set up a new sideline business, right? And their first victims are your cousin and that boy Uchiha? And the Copy Ninja Kakashi is their chief matchmaker?" Hapless, she dissolved into chuckles, pressing a knuckle against her closed lips to muffle out the sound.

"Aren't we here to train?" he asked blandly.

"No," clarified Tenten. "You are here to train. I'm here to find out about what made Gai-sensei so upset. And you told me Kakashi-sensei is leaving. And that..." She gasped in a colossal effort to control herself. "And that the elders are plotting to marry Hinata and Sasuke."

"Have you been watching those slapstick shows with Lee again? I sense a dramatic deterioration in your sense of your humor."

"It's just... so weird. Hinata and Sasuke. I mean, the next few generations of Hyuuga and Uchiha would have to be... mute." She snickered. "Seriously, though. That's hardly fair."

He snorted. "You finally noticed."

Tenten hugged her knees to her self and looked up at him seriously. "I didn't believe it at first, that they can decide that much about your lives. I can just imagine you getting paired with... with...somebody!" She giggled, then sighed. "I've been mean today. I couldn't stop laughing at Gai-sensei either. I saw him running top speed to the eastern gates. 'How dare you try to elude me you coward! Our manly contest has yet to be decided,' he was hollering. You know how sensei is."

"I told you the elders stopped him."

"But he already left. Gai-sensei dragged me with him to the gates and to the harbor. Kakashi was gone."

Neji considered this. "Maybe they've stopped with their ridiculous plan."

"You mean, the marriage thing? I heard about what happened to Hinata, by the way. How is she?"

"Well enough. I'll be guarding her from now on."

"You?" Tenten sounded half-surprised. But probably, she wasn't surprised at all, thought Neji. Sometimes, the woman had a little too much insight on him for comfort.

"For a while. When they marry her off, the duty would fall to her consort."

"Why Sasuke, anyway? After what happened five years ago..."

"Because he is Uchiha," Neji replied simply; his heart was not totally devoid of bitterness, even if his tone was. "He is a gifted shinobi by his own right. His fame is widespread and terrible. As if the Hyuuga cannot protect its own."

"I thought you resented this." She learned him without visibly studying. She absorbed too much of him, it irritated him sometimes, but he was not surprised.

"It can't be helped," he answered shortly. "A blind man defies Fate's handicap with his hearing and touch and smell, but he is never foolish enough to abandon his cane while braving the world."

Tenten leaned back and gazed at the golden afternoon skies through the gaps between the twining tree boughs. He couldn't tell what she was thinking when she thought that deeply, so he merely waited in silence.

Finally, she stood up. "I'm ready to throw stuff at you like old times," she informed him pertly.

Neji approving smirk was brief. And the fiery duel ensued, even as the golden leaves of Team Gai's tree continued to fall, oblivious.

4:39, 011005

O-o I posted it. Tomorrow morning, I'm sure I'll wake up and ask myselfwhether or notI've lost my mind.

Thanks to Seiyo and Midnightcrow for betareading. And the teaser of this fic is courtesy of Midnightcrow, too, the person who waited a year for this. (Here we go, alphareader. Sorry, I didn't wait till Yachiru's birthday. I might have lost my nerve by then.)

Oh yeah, my apologies to Tenten and Neji. -.-;; I cannot, try to remember as I might (and Google as I might), find the number of their team. I used the what I usually encounter in fanfics: "Team Gai."

Comments, complaints, etc. very welcome.