Chapter 4

"So then, if they say that, couldn't you just dispute it, saying that it's your duty to have strong children?" Kyoko said.

"Yes, but then there's the point that is always brought up. The Hyuuga are the strongest." Hinata, who was sitting across from her, sighed.

"People are stubborn, aren't they?" Kyoko said wryly.

"Hai." Hinata agreed.

Naruto was sitting with them in the carriage today, doing his best to keep up. "Wait, why are you talking about that stuff?" Naruto asked, attempting to have things clarified.

"We're talking about marriage outside of the clan. Coincidentally, this is a hotly debated topic at court as well" Kyoko replied, untangling a bunch of brightly colored silk threads.

"Shouldn't people just marry for love?" Naruto asked, playing with a bright green thread that fell from Kyoko's lap onto his leg.

"They should. But some people have too big of a stick up their ass about the purity of bloodlines. It's manipulative bull, but frighteningly common." Kyoko said. "Give me that, Green is not your color" she added, taking back the piece of green.

"Okay… why do they care about that?"

"Because Kekkei Genkai or familial traits, or the lack of them, tends to make people feel superior in many cases. They are different, and they are special" Hinata explained, trying to keep the princess from repeating her lengthy rant about "so-called bloodline purity"

"Hand me that red thread, please, Hinata" Kyoko said absentmindedly, apparently not paying attention to anything but her silks.

Hinata handed her a long, bright red cord, which Kyoko looked at carefully. "Maybe it's not long enough." Kyoko said, feigning worry. "Here, Let me see. Hinata, give me your hand" she smiled.

As Hinata offered a pale hand, Kyoko tied the red cord around her pinky finger. Then she demanded "Naruto, give me your hand too." He offered his right hand. "Your left one, please." He offered the other, puzzled. She tied the thread around his pinky as well, and then giggled. "Good. It is long enough." Then she removed it from their fingers.

Hinata eyed the princess carefully as she teased the cord apart, making two skinny cords of the same length. Kyoko gave an innocent smile. "Where were we?"

"Bloodline purity." Naruto responded.

"Right. Anyways, as I said, the Hyuuga pride would think that way" she guided the conversation gently, and tied three different colored silks onto the end of half of the red cord. Then she stuck a safety pin through the knot, pinned it to one of the heavier stuffed cows and started to braid the colors around the red thread.

"But… why is it better to marry outside of the family?" Naruto asked. Kyoko rolled her eyes as the conversation started all over again.

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Sakura sighed and looked at the younger princess, who had uttered barely a word on the journey. She seemed to be sinking into a depression. Choji had been constantly trying to distract her from her from whatever was worrying her, though his attempts didn't seem to be working. It was the prospect that Choji felt some sort of attraction to the younger girl that Sakura had called Naruto over to discuss, out of earshot of the subjects.

"I'm going to get out and circle the perimeter. Routine check" Sakura said, not able to stand another minute of silence. She climbed out of the carriage as it was still moving.

There was a moment of awkward silence between the two. Then Choji said "Nyoko, the-"

"Call me by my real name, please." The princess asked. "I mean, you have to call me Nyoko around the others, but when it's just us…"

"Okay, Kin'akairo" Choji replied, willingly.

"Aka" she said. "Aka is fine."

"Okay, Aka." Choji smiled. She returned it weakly.

"She doesn't know how lucky she is. Sakura-chan, that is." she said. "To be that free… to be able to defend herself and the people around her, it must be awesome."

"It must be nice at court too, Kyoko-hime seems to be happy enough to go back" Choji pointed out.

She stuck out her tongue in reply. "No way. I would love to be able to be a ninja. Otto-san's little sister lived with him in Konoha and went to the academy. She became a Jonin and stuff, but when Otto-san and Kaa-san" she made a face "moved back to the capital and court, she had to go too. She taught me a few things, swordsmanship, Katon, and stuff like that, but Kaa-san cut off my training when I was twelve."

"How good are you?" Choji asked curiously.

"I've been trained by an elite, if retired, Jonin all my life. I'm at chuunin level, power wise, but I'd probably be a genin. I don't have what it takes to lead missions." She shrugged.

"That's impressive" Choji said. The princess let a small smile slip. He grinned in return.

"I'd love to live in Konoha… but I'd have to be married to a councilor of it's affairs, and the two choices are my little brother and my Otto-san. There are parts of the capital that I love, but I won't be able to see them once we're shuttered up again" Aka sighed.

"You're going to be the Daimyo's sister-in-law. Won't they let up on you?" Choji asked, puzzled.

"Nope. It'll be worse. Everything I do will reflect on Nee-chan. So, essentially, we're both screwed." The princess slouched. Then she drew back the hanging that covered the carriage window. Sunlight flooded the small space.

"I think you'll do fine, Aka" Choji replied.

"That's nice to say, but I am an obstinate lily, and an odd one. All the other people will resent me." The princess said. "Even if I pretend to be normal, and polite, I will still be the stubborn Yamayuri." She turned her face away from the sunlight.

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That night they made it to a near-derelict temple. The monk welcomed them with gusto and provided all of them with rooms and beds for the night. The princesses and Kunoichi were all sleeping in the same room, with the normal guard of samurai and the shinobi taking shifts at guard duties.

Hinata helped prepare the futons with some apprehension. Something wasn't right about this place. There was something fishy about the monk. He was old, and it didn't seem possible that he was capable of living alone, but he was the only person she could detect. There was also the fact that though the temple itself was falling apart, the monk seemed well fed and acquainted with wealth. She shared her reasoning with Sakura, who agreed something might be up, and Naruto and Choji. Naruto seemed unwilling to believe that such a nice old guy was up to something, but had agreed to the shift idea.

Hinata did a quick check of the building with her Byakugan. Nothing seemed out of place. Still, she couldn't shake her bad feeling.

Kyoko appeared beside her. "Ryou for your thoughts?"

"It's nothing." Hinata smiled, but in a distracted way.

"Alright." Kyoko shrugged. "I'm going to go get more food."

Hinata bit her lip. "Kyo, it might not be safe…" she said hesitantly.

"Oh, don't worry. I'm immune to most poisons. I've been building up my immunity since I was little" Kyoko grinned wryly.

"Oh." Hinata sighed, relieved.

"There wouldn't be anything wrong with the accommodations, would there?" Kyoko asked in a low voice.

"Of course not" Hinata replied.

"I'm not stupid, Hinata. There are five spies in the ranks of my samurai, each working for a different person." Kyoko recited a list of names "Make sure that none of them are left on guard tonight"

"Why do you keep them around if you know?" Hinata asked, a little shocked.

"Make a note of this, it's better to have a known spy in your ranks passing misinformation to whoever is paying them than to not know who's spying on you" Kyoko shrugged. "And because they are mostly good men, with the tendency to get a little drunk, but good men with families. Plus I know that Xiāo is capable of handling all five of them" Kyoko grinned, naming the only female guard in the ranks.

"I hadn't thought about it that way" Hinata said. Kyoko gave a crooked grin.

"It's been dead useful more than once. Anyways, I wouldn't worry about them."

"Alright" Hinata replied warily.

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Hinata rolled over again. She heard noises below. After discerning that she was not hearing normal night sounds, and further more that who ever was talking had no business doing so at a quarter to four in the morning, she made the hand signs to activate her Byakugan.

She located the speakers and started to lip read. It was the monk and a samurai who hadn't been named on Kyoko's list of spies, talking in a hidden room.

"Himemiya is not pleased by the arrangement." The monk said. "She wishes you to 'cut the ties' between them"

"It was easy enough to do so in the mountains, where no one except me brought fresh news, but now it will be harder to turn the princess against the heir apparent. It can be done, but it is a very difficult job" the samurai said.

"And you'll be paid accordingly." The monk replied wearily. "You had better be worth it. And do it without a scandal on the heir apparent's part"

"Of course, sir" the samurai replied with a grin. "It would hardly do for Himemiya to trouble herself with arranging a marriage to another heir apparent. I'll get rid of the Suimei brat, of that you can be sure"

Hinata bit her lip as the man walked out of the room. She turned over again. The samurai was supposed to be on guard duty now. She couldn't afford to go back to sleep.

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"You look tired, Hinata." Kyoko commented the next morning.

Hinata smiled weakly. She meant to go to back to sleep after the guards changed shifts again, but she had ended up barely getting any sleep at all.

"Kyo, there's something I need to tell you" Hinata said quietly. Kyoko caught her meaning and ushered her over to a corner.

"What's up?"

"There's another spy" Hinata said urgently. "Who you don't know about. Kikkusuke. He was talking with the monk last night."

"Did he say who he was working for?" Kyoko asked.

"He only referred to his benefactor as 'Himemiya' only" Hinata said.

"Right. Figures that bitch would pull this." Kyoko said, shaking her head. "'Himemiya', 'Princess', was engaged to the heir apparent before me… Well, it's more to say that I broke them up. Anyways, that's not the point. The point is that she wants me safely out of the way. This does not surprise me." Kyoko shrugged. "Tell the others about the spies. And about that conversation. Also alert Xiāo. She'll tell everyone who needs to know within the ranks."

"Hai. I suggest that we leave as soon as possible" Hinata added.

"Point well taken. I'll give the orders." Kyoko nodded.

Within the half hour they were ready to depart, while the head monk nervously exclaimed that they were welcome to stay as long as they liked.

"Thank you, gracious sir, but we must press onwards." Kyoko said, for the first time every inch the princess. "I give you my blessings, and I will remember your kindness when I am married." She said with a benevolent smile.

As soon as they were on the way, she muttered "Pompous impotent bastard" and grinned wickedly at Hinata. Then she took out her cord work from the day before and started to work on it again.

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By then end of that day's journey, they were only two days from reaching the capital. It would have taken less time to go by a main road, but the group of shinobi had decided that it was probably safer to go by a back roads route, to make it easier to deal with any betrayals.

As camp was being set up, two teenaged boys dressed in the black robes of the first rank waltzed across the camp and to the carriage that Kyoko rode in. None of the samurai made any fuss over this, so none of the Konoha nin did either, chalking it up to one more weird thing about Kyoko.

Inside the carriage, Kyoko untied the knotted letter and unfolded it. She read, snorting slightly. "Dear gods above, Fuyuzora, is this really the best you can do? Give me a break. Ah well, two points for effort."

Hinata, who was in the carriage guarding her, asked "What is it?"

"It's a love letter. 'Even the wind that rustles the leaves of the reeds is with me longer on it's lonely vigil.' Good god he's trite. Well, I suppose he's not the heir apparent just to sit around and write poetry." Kyoko shrugged.

"What's he like?"

"Huh?"

"The Heir apparent"

Kyoko smiled "Fuyuzora? Well, He's an idiot."

Hinata stopped.

"He's a good man, and he'll never be anyone's puppet, and he can't be bribed, and he wants what's best for the people, but he's a complete and utter idiot. I love him and I've waited for him for years and years- I never thought that we'd ever be together- but he's still an idiot" Kyoko admitted.

"My mom was friends with his mom, and we grew up together, but he never really noticed me that much, in- in that way. I was always waiting for him, and he never realized it… until it was almost too late. So I never thought that there was any possibility. But he's still, for all that, an idiot" Kyoko said. "What I was trying to say earlier was… just don't give up on Naruto. Know that he's an idiot, but accept him, all of him, and never give up. Because it's worth it" Kyoko smiled.

It hadn't occurred to Hinata that Kyoko might be trying to teach her something when she'd called Naruto an idiot. She'd thought that she was trying to discourage her, like so many others did.

"Arigauto." Hinata said.

"And I believe that he will definitely be Hokage" she added. She smiled widely.

"You haven't even seen him do anything" Hinata asked, perplexed.

"I don't need to see him fight. He's obviously trying to learn stuff whenever he listens to our conversations. He has spirit, and from what I've guessed about him, he wants to be Hokage for good reason. He has an excellent teacher, and…" Kyoko stopped "Well, Hinata believes in him, and from what I can see, she has good judgment." And smiled widely.

Hinata smiled. Kyoko stuck out her tongue. "Plus it makes a nice parallel." A lot of them, actually. "You two will make Konoha a place that I will definitely return to"

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… I didn't know how to end this…

Anyways, I am very sorry that it took me WAY over deadline to get this finished… Our power went out, and then my muse died on me… I'm inspired now, though. I'm planning on updating again on the fifteenth… dies of exhaustion