In A Time Where Kunoichi Didn't Exist
Hinata looked up at the large house, shocked to see that it looked like a typical mansion, owned by prissy, older women. It had two stories, large windows, and humongous doors (well, everything is humongous to someone who's only eight). It was painted white, though in some places, the paint was starting to flake off. It had a large garden, full of millions of different types of flowers from roses to simple daffodils.
"Well, Hinata-chan, we're here," Naoko said, using the suffix 'chan' since she wasn't in front of Hinata's father.
"Right," Hinata said with a slight nod, nervousness beginning to take over. Naoko pushed the doorbell's button, waiting for someone to answer the door.
An older woman answered the door after a few moments, and she gave a small bow before turning to Hinata. "You must be Hyuuga Hinata-san. Please, come in," she bade, her voice laced with stuffy polite and formalness.
"Have fun, and behave, Hinata-san," Naoko said, using "san" since she was in front of someone who she needed to make a good impression on.
"Hai, Naoko-baa-chan," Hinata said with a smile before turning to the older woman.
"This way, please, Hyuuga-san," the older woman said stiffly before turning her back and, with perfect posture, walking forward through the long yet homey hallway.
As soon as the door closed, the woman's genjutsu faded away to reveal a woman with long, black hair and astonishingly red eyes.
"So, Hinata-chan, think I convinced your nanny?" Kurenai asked with a smirk.
"… Kurenai… sensei?" Hinata asked slowly, recognizing her voice as the one who had told her about "Kunoichi".
"Hey, you're good at observations. Maybe you'll do well in genjutsu or medic-nin… No, actually, I think you should specialize in scouting, considering you have the Byakugan… Well, let's worry about who you'll be taught under later. It's time for you to meet the other girls and Tsunade-sama," Kurenai decided firmly.
"'Kay…" Hinata said, slightly confused at what Kurenai was talking about.
"You'll have to meet Tsunade before the girls—she's doing some research in this room. You can't miss her—as soon as you walk in, she'll notice you and tell you to get over there so she can get a look at you and see if you're worth joining "Kunoichi"… Not that she's ever turned anyone down before, but she still likes looking at the new recruits," Kurenai said, nodding along at certain points, as if agreeing with herself. "Well, she's just beyond this door—good lucky," Kurenai said, feigning a dark, concerned voice before opening the door for Hinata.
Hinata walked forward, glancing around for anyone who could possibly be Tsunade. Books surrounded her, all piled high on bookshelves. Hinata nearly forgot about meeting Tsunade in the thought of the thrill of searching through the ancient scrolls and learning more than she could by sneaking information from her family's scrolls.
"Hinata-chan, I presume?" came the voice of the oldest member and founder of Kunoichi, Tsunade.
"H-hai…" Hinata replied, suddenly taken over by fear, shock, and self-doubt.
"I see. Well, come along, then," Tsunade said, walking away from Hinata. Hinata was shocked to see that the woman before her, the 'founder' of Kunoichi, was a twenty-year-old blond-haired, blue-eyed beauty. Hinata shook her head to herself, reminding herself that Kurenai used… what did she call it? a genjutsu? to hide her usual appearance.
Hinata was expecting at any moment for Tsunade to turn around and throw her out for stuttering just by saying "Hai"—after all, it wasn't a very complex answer.
"Hinata-chan, you'll have to loosen up if you're going to learn anything. All you were doing is meeting me—I trust Kurenai's opinion. Besides, if I decide later on that you're not worth the path of the shinobi, I can easily erase your memory and have you unconsciously feign amnesia. But it won't come to that, more than likely," Tsunade said reassuringly.
Hinata shivered to herself, knowing that Tsunade was most definitely not bluffing about erasing her memory. She followed Tsunade down a few bare hallways before opening up a door and leading Hinata inside. 'Second door on the right of the third hallway from the door…' Hinata memorized to herself as she walked in the door.
The room was large and in the shape of a circle. Inside, there were four girls being supervised by a young woman and a pig. The woman was tall, extremely skinny and strict-looking. Her hair was abnormally long and held back by a high ponytail. Shizune quickly introduced Hinata to the three girls, simply motioning to the girls and giving their names.
Tenten Ama vaguely looked like a panda to Hinata, for she wore two identical, black buns on the top of her head, and her clothes were obviously from a different region. Her overall appearance was cute, yet overall foreign.
Ino Yamanaka was extremely thin—almost anorexic thin, but not quite—with blond hair that went just a little past her shoulders. Her clothing looked very nice and expensive, and was obviously from a special designer. Her eyes were a light blue, and, surprisingly enough, she seemed to have no pupils. Hinata was tempted to ask if she had a bloodline limit like she did, but she decided it was a little personal.
The last girl, Sakura Haruno, looked the strangest, yet prettiest, of all. She had short, shoulder length pink hair, which was pushed back with a red ribbon. Other than her pink hair, two more physical traits stuck out—her large forehead and her startling emerald eyes.
"Okay, the first step is working together is to get to know each other. I'm going to point to each of you, and you're going to give a brief introduction of yourself, including your name, hobby, likes, dislikes and why you want to be a kunoichi. Tenten-chan, you start," Tsunade commanded.
"My name is Ama Tenten, and my hobby is learning about weapons and their uses. I like weapons and I dislike my brothers, since they have the option to be a shinobi and learn about weapons legally, but they only have interest in jutsu. I want to be a kunoichi so that I can give other generations of girls the option to become what they really want to be," Tenten said briefly. Shizune and Tsunade both nodded in approval. Tsunade turned to Hinata, signaling for her to start.
"My name is Hyuuga Hinata. My hobby is learning jutsus and working on improving my form and Byakugan. I like my family, the jutsus I've learned, and my storybook. I hate the fact that women aren't allowed to be Hokage, and my reason for becoming a kunoichi…" Hinata began, trailing off, wondering if the others would think it was silly.
"Go on," Shizune said comfortingly.
"Is to become Hokage, or to help someone who is against anti-kunoichi laws become Hokage," Hinata finished, expecting sarcasm or cynicism from the other girls.
They simply nodded and smiled, which both warmed Hinata and relaxed her.
"Okay, you next," Tsunade commanded, pointing to Ino.
"My name is Yamanaka Ino. My hobby is arranging flowers and learning my family's secret jutsu behind my father's back. I like flowers, a certain person, and mind jutsu. I dislike that I can't see a certain person, and I hate Miss Huge Forehead over there. The reason I became a kunoichi is to work on my family's secret jutsu, to hopefully impress my certain person, and to show up forehead," Ino concluded.
Tsunade and Shizune exchanged a glance and a frown before Tsunade turned to Sakura, expecting a similar report.
"My name is Haruno Sakura, and my hobby is reading and perfecting jutsu. I like a certain person and gathering information. I dislike that the certain person is to busy to see me, and I loathe Ino-pig. The reason I became a kunoichi is so that I wouldn't lose to Ino-pig, to impress that person, and to gather more information," Sakura announced.
Once again, Tsunade and Shizune shared a look that plainly said, "We need to do something about these two."
"You two—we need to talk to you—" Shizune began, attempting to use her tactic of taking the girls into the hallway, but Tsunade had another idea.
"You think that being a shinobi is all about impressing guys and showing each up? Well, I have news for you! That sort of thing will always come last! The life of your comrades depends on you two having a clear enough mind, without petty arguments over a guy!" Tsunade yelled, causing both the girls to shy away.
"But, Tsunade-sama…" Shizune began.
"Don't," Tsunade commanded, before turning back to Ino and Sakura. "Sakura, you'll be working in the medic-nin area, and Ino, you'll be working with genjutsu," she commanded, making sure they wouldn't pick the same field because of their rivalry. "Hinata-chan, Tenten-chan, which fields will you be working in?"
"Weapons management," Tenten said automatically.
"Jutsu learning," Hinata decided after a few moments of thought.
Tsunade sighed. Jutsu learning was the broadest and largest class—they learned tons of different types of jutsu, and it usually required individual treatment, due to the different paces of everyone. And, of course, it wasn't clear-cut that you could only go to that class—if you were mainly genjutsu, it was perfectly acceptable to visit on a medical day to learn regeneration or basic first aid. And, of course, jutsu learning, strength, and weapons management were the main ones that got visited on—people trying to perfect their secondary skills. It was rather unusual to pick the side ones as a main 'course' (the term course being used lightly), but yet Tenten and Hinata had done just that.
"Well, the courses you four have just decided—or been decided on—taking will be your main courses. You can learn from the other courses if you so wish, but it isn't necessary—though it is very helpful. You have to attend at least most of the main course classes—there's a schedule on the door there—but attending all of them isn't needed. You must attend most of the Friday sleepovers, because that's when we do basic training as a team and such. Now, I think we'll start off with a basic teamwork exercise. Kurenai!" Tsunade yelled, bellowing for Kurenai.
"Hai, Tsunade-sama?" Kurenai asked, opening the door and rushing in.
Tsunade leaned over to Kurenai's ears and began whispering instructions to Kurenai. Shizune, realizing that the four girls were attempting to hear what was being said, quickly put a sound barrier around the two of them, for which Tsunade acknowledged by nodding at Shizune while still talking to Kurenai. After they finished, Kurenai took out a piece of paper and jotted down a few things on it.
"Pick a number, one through four," Tsunade commanded, turning to Sakura.
"3," Sakura decided, and Tsunade turned to Ino as well.
"4," Ino said.
"1," Tenten picked.
"2," Hinata said, choosing the only available number.
Kurenai turned the sheet around, only to reveal that it said:
1 + 2
3 + 4
"Well, in this exercise, it looks like Ino and Sakura are paired up, and Tenten and Hinata are paired up. You will be playing a simple game of capture the flag—whoever gets the flag from their other opponent and makes it back to base first, wins. To the 'garden'," Tsunade commanded, leading the girls down yet another few hallways and into a small room.
"Um…" Tenten began.
"No one fight this. Kurenai, initiate genjutsu," Tsunade commanded, and Kurenai nodded.
Kurenai formed a seal and said aloud, "Forest-type scenario, scenery genjutsu!"
Suddenly, the area around Sakura, Ino, Tenten, and Hinata changed. They were surrounded by forest, and their teams were apart from each other. In Tenten's hand was a red flag, and, all the way on the other side of the forest, Ino held a blue flag.
Kurenai's face appeared to each team, and it informed, "The base is at the middle of this forest. As soon as you touch it with both your flag and the other team's flag, your team wins. Oh, and the loser has to do fifty pushups," Kurenai added, deciding a little motivation was needed.
As soon as she disappeared, Tenten turned to Hinata. "What is this Byakugan of yours?"
"It… allows me to see farther than most people can…" Hinata explained, not truly knowing how to explain it.
"Can you use it to find those two?" Tenten asked.
"Probably…" Hinata said, deciding not to give a definite yes.
"Try it. I have an idea," Tenten said.
Hinata performed the seal for the Byakugan, only to see distorted images, which put enough strain on her eyes to make her fall to her knees and release the jutsu.
"I… can't do it in… here…" Hinata gasped out, shocked by what had happened.
"And I don't have my weapons… seems like they don't want us to have any advantage over the others at all. We have to beat them by strategizing," Tenten decided.
"Wow… you're so smart…" Hinata commented, amazed at how easily Tenten was taking charge and showing how much she knew.
"Nah, just slightly more experienced than you. I have wars and stuff with my brothers, and when you fight… er, play… with shinobi, you pick up a few things. Let's go," Tenten commanded, motioning for Hinata to follow her.
"So, how are we going to do this?" Hinata asked.
"Keep moving until you see 'em," Tenten replied with a smirk, before setting off at a run, Hinata following just behind her.
On the other side of the forest, Ino and Sakura were… being Ino and Sakura.
"Ino-pig, I say we have to hide and wait for them!" Sakura yelled, annoyed that Ino wasn't even considering her idea.
"Baka! What's behind that forehead, a whole lot of hot air? We need to start looking for them before they get to us! Your forehead would give us away if we tried hiding anyways!" Ino huffed.
"Ch, you have no sense of strategizing whatsoever! They'll be expecting us to look for them! We need to wait and sneak attack them when they aren't expecting us!" Sakura threw back.
And so, their arguing continued, the two of them consistently arguing about which strategy to use.
Eventually, their arguing turned into a mindless argument over Sasuke.
"Sasuke will be mine, Ino-pig!"
"Not if your forehead absorbs him!"
Thus, it was not a difficult task for Hinata and Tenten to sneak up on the two preoccupied, boy-obsessed, competitive girls, steal their flag, and make it to the base before they Ino or Sakura could steal it back.
----
Tsunade stood over Sakura and Ino, who were both working on their one hundred pushups. "I hope you two learned your lesson," Tsunade said in a somewhat singsong voice.
Sakura and Ino simultaneously fell to the ground, gasping and panting. Their arms were sore, and they still had at least twenty more to go. "What… lesson…" Ino panted out.
"Teamwork is important. I had the punishment added to help hammer it into your brains—if you don't use teamwork, and instead fight with your comrades, you could lose the battle, maybe even the war or your lives. Keep that in mind," Tsunade said smugly, turning to walk away.
"Wait! You… you put us… together on purpose… didn't you?" Sakura demanded from the ground.
Tsunade was slightly shocked by her speculation, but simply sighed and smirked. "Ah, your perceptive. Yes, I told Kurenai to write down two numbered pairs, and if the pairs she used didn't end up with you and Ino paired together, she should use a genjutsu to force you four to think you are paired up.
"But don't get cocky because you got that right. A shinobi—male or female—who has their heads up in the clouds shall only complete their missions if they ride the coattails of their comrades, which can bring the entire team down. Sakura, Ino—remember that," Tsunade said coldly before walking away.
"Well, you four ready to eat?" Shizune asked, attempting to change the mood.
----
The rest of the day went smoothly. Tsunade had Ino, Sakura, Hinata and Tenten go to different instructors to begin learning in their category. By the end of the day, Tenten had a better handle on the basic shinobi instruments, Hinata learned the Henge, Sakura had started on her medical training, and Ino was starting to learn the basics of genjutsu. Sakura and Ino didn't get very far, and, in the long run, though Tenten and Hinata had completely done something, they hadn't gotten far at all, either.
But they didn't realize that, for Tsunade, Shizune, Kurenai, and Tenten's teacher, Anko, had said they did well for their first day.
Surprisingly enough to Ino, Sakura, Hinata and Tenten, there were about fifty members of Kunoichi, all from Konoha. And, according to Tsunade, the Sand was even allied with them, and one of their very talented Genin kunoichi visited every now and then.
The four of them slept together in the same room, all laid out on tatami mats with a large blanket covering the four of them. Ino and Sakura laid on opposite ends so they wouldn't argue—Tenten and Hinata had insisted—and none of them could sleep.
"Hey, Tenten?" Hinata asked tentatively, making sure she was still awake.
"Yeah?" Tenten replied.
"… Tell me about your family," Hinata half-asked, half-told.
"Well, I have three older brothers, Itsuki, Shirai, and Haitani. The youngest brother, Haitani, is in the Academy, but the other two are Genin. My dad owns a blacksmith, and he often teaches mom and me about the weapons he makes. My brothers, however, have no interest whatsoever in weapons—they're all about jutsu and battle tactics, even though they were raised practically breathing weapons. Because of that, I guess my mom and dad pity me a little, because they spend a lot of time showing me weapons. I bet if I told them this was the secret organization "Kunoichi", they'd be proud. But… I don't want them to get in trouble 'cause of me," Tenten admitted.
"Wow. Your family spends a lot of time together, huh?" Hinata asked softly.
"Yeah… all the time. They're the most important people to me, even though the Itsuki and Shirai are starting to go on missions and stuff, so they are starting to get arrogant and uppity," Tenten said with a smirk, chuckling to herself.
"My family… really loves each other, and my brother is my most important person—he knows about me being a kunoichi—but… We don't get to spend a lot of time with each other, because my dad is so busy with clan stuff, my little sister is being "raised", and Neji-nii is always training and studying to lead the Hyuuga clan… So… it gets lonely sometimes at home…"
"My dad is constantly away at missions, and my mom is always busy with the flower shop," Ino said with a sigh.
"My dad… isn't around. My mom is constantly working because she has no one else to support me. I hardly see her, and when I do, she's overprotective and bossy with me," Sakura described.
"How do you think your dad will react if he knew you were a kunoichi?" Tenten asked, turning to Hinata.
"… He'd probably force me to become a 'real' lady and use his connections to avoid me from getting executed," Hinata decided.
"My dad would pretend to freak, but secretly be proud. My mom—she'd just freak," Ino said with a laugh.
"My mom would die of a heart attack," Sakura said, chuckling at the image.
"Do you think we'll ever be able to do real ninja missions?" Tenten asked to all three of the others, her curiosity showing more and more vibrantly with each passing question.
"We'll find a way," Ino said comfortingly, not quite sure how to say, "More than likely, no".
A/N: Yes. I gave Tenten brothers. And the manga or anime never mentioned Sakura having a father, though it did have her mother pestering her or something...Temari will be introduced soon, and I'll probably end up doing a detailed time skip because I can't write four years in detail, and then later on, I'll have to do another time skip, because I can't have a 12-year-old Hokage.
Though that would be kind of awesome. XD
Anyways, review please, and continue reading!
