Chapter 4

The blonde ANBU stared off into the distance. His mind plagued by what he had done. Kami-sama, when would the guilt end? It had been weeks since it had transpired- yet here he was more afflicted than ever before.

Perhaps it was because Sasuke was gone for who knows how long. He had no one to distract.

Taking a long drag from the cigarette that balanced between his index and middle finger, Naruto closed his eyes and leaned against the massive rock behind him. He let out the smoke slowly from his pursed lips as he rose.

No more hiding. He had to face her.

Brushing off the sand from his dark pants, he stepped on the fallen cigarette and set out on his mission. The only sign of his unease were the clenched fists shaking in the pockets of his pants.

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Hinata walked briskly back to the village. She didn't know why Sasuke was acting as he was, but honestly she didn't really care. Everyone had problems but that gave him no right to act as he was. It irked her how easily he jabbed at her seal mark.

Kami-sama, how unaware can someone be- everyone knew why the Hyuugas were sealed, especially after their first chunnin exam.

Yes, she relinquished her position as Leader of the Hyuuga, but not because she didn't think she was qualified. She had been training vigorously for the last year, and had even obtained the approval of Neji and her grandfather, a feat in and of itself. She did what she did because she wanted to respect the wishes of her father- it meant more to her to have him happy, even in the afterlife, than to lead.

Besides it was not as if it was a wish of hers to lead, she was slightly relieved to be rid of the pressure. She always feared never living up to her father's standards.

It didn't matter anymore. She was not about to let Sasuke Uchiha belittle her. She had enough of that to last a lifetime.

She strode determinately, with her chin pointed upwards and walked toward as a group of women sitting together on the side of the dirt road.

She smiled warmly and then took a deep breath.

"I realize that is a very tough time for you and that you may still be mourning those lost. But I am here to help you. I noticed only a small number of food items being sold, where do you get most of your products?"

A gaunt elderly woman with two side incisors missing on her upper palate stared up at her and responded harshly, "What food? Look at us; does it look like we eat?"

The crowd of women started murmuring. Hinata could hear bits and pieces of, "idiotic girl, what does she understand?", "everyone's half dead and she asks where we get food," and "this is what we paid for?"

A young girl around Hinata's age spoke up, "We used to grow most of our produce, but after the fire…"

Hinata nodded in understanding. It was an agricultural village so no fields meant no money and no food. She walked away from the group of females and towards the fields. The women watched her warily as she left, shaking their heads with disgust and annoyance.

It took her a while to get to the fields, but it was hard to miss. She was met with dried, burnt leaves everywhere. There was no green to be seen anywhere. Bending down, she grabbed some dirt and felt the texture of it; it was dry but not sandy. There was still some moisture left in it.

It was salvageable.

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The women watched warily as Hinata made five Kage no Bunshins. Each Hinata copy was equipped with a tool or the other ranging from rakes and shovels to brooms and water buckets.

The copies set to work. Some raked away the debris of the burnt plants; others brought water to and from the river while Hinata loosened the dirt from the areas that were cleaned by her bunshins.

The fields were by no means small in size. They were more than half the size of the entire village. Perspiration leaked down the forehead of the former Heiress and she dug the hoe into the dirt.

She had been working for a while and was nearly spent. One by one her bunshins were poofing away. She didn't have enough chakra left to distribute to all of them. She was left with only two, one who brought water to the deeply dehydrated soil and the other who was cleaning away dead leaves.

She raised her head and eyed the sun. It was only midday, around two in the afternoon. She had been out in the sun for the last four hours, if she didn't get out soon she would fall ill from a heat-stroke. But she didn't want to leave, she needed to keep going.

Turning to the side, she noticed the woman sitting idly watching her.

Why weren't they helping? This was their village- they should want to make it better. Clenching her jaw, she walked towards the women.

"Ahem…" she interrupted while wiping her brow with the sleeve of her shirt.

The women looked up dully.

"I could use some help in the fields." Looking through the group of women, she tried making eye contact but the women just looked at each other and shook their heads.

The elderly woman from before spoke up, it seemed she was the unofficial leader, "Why? We clean the fields and then what? There are no seeds. You think we are that lazy to not replant if we could? We are not stupid girl." She sneered at Hinata and looked away.

Hinata was taken aback by the hatred that exuded from the flock. Why did they hate her so much? She was here to help them. She had nothing to do with the raid. Okay so she overlooked the fact that there was nothing to replant- that was no reason to condemn her. At least she was trying.

"Look I am just trying to help. What do you want me to do?"

The woman snorted, "You're the hired help and you're asking us what to do? Hmph, some help we bought. I told that old man we should have bought seeds, but no he bought you two instead. Stupid man bought us our death."

"You can rant all you want, but that is not going to help matters," Hinata snapped rudely.

"Oh like you are helping matters. What is it you expect from us? You want us to prostrate before you as that old geezer had? Should we honor you for coming to our poor help? Or should we thank you for not sending help during the week while we were under attack?! If it weren't for your lack of help, we would still have our husbands right now! We sent calls for help to everyone- but when did you arrive? After it was all over!" yelled a middle-aged woman heatedly as she flailed her arms madly.

The other women embraced the raving woman, and ran comforting strokes down her back trying to soothe her. They shushed her and walked her away from the fields. A few women remained and shot glares at the violet-haired Jounin.

Hinata watched stunned.

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Sasuke was exhausted. He didn't know where his so called partner ran off to. He was slightly regretful of his attack on her, but he hated how she questioned his hard work as soon as she saw him.

It reminded him too much of Itachi. Itachi was not one to lavish praises. He always saw fault in everything Sasuke did. Given his recurrent nightmares, her doing the same to him just caused him to snap.

About a hundred fallen trees littered the forest floor. He had to now transport them back to the village. What a pain in the ass.

The cold season was nearing and these people were living in the streets or shacks that offered no comfort. They needed homes, and they needed them now.

A silver blade glimmered in the sunlight and it cut through a white callused thumb. Making seals, the ebony haired ANBU slammed his palm on the ground and summoned Nanda the Great Snake.

White smoke dispersed throughout the forest and in its wake stood a sixty food high cobra snake, half of which was still coiled.

"Sssssstttt. You called Sssasssuke?"

"Hai, I need you to help me moves those trees."

Sasuke watched as Nanda turned to survey the forest floor. Nanda was not an easy summon. He hated to do anything that was not important. It would take a lot of coercing for Sasuke to get Nanda to do as he wished.

"Ssssstttt. Why sssshould I?"

Sasuke prepped himself for the battle of wits that would soon commence.


A/N: Read and Review please. All criticisms welcomed.