"I hate our team." moaned Sasuke as he and Naruto waited for the targets of his ire. They'd arrived first today at their usual meeting place. Once everyone was here, they'd continue their routine and get another mission they wouldn't do.
"It's not so bad." Naruto claimed.
"Anko told us to study up on techniques to resist interrogations." Sasuke pointed out. "You know she's going to put our skills to the test."
"It's not uncommon training to give ninja." Naruto countered, trying not to let his own apprehension at that thought show.
"Forget that whole idiots have to stick together thing you have going with sensei." Sasuke said, changing the subject, "Even you can't have anything good to say about Hinata."
"Well, sure she's a little weird." Naruto admitted. "But I don't think she's really that bad a person."
Sasuke scoffed at his words. "A little weird. That's something of an understatement. And just to remind you, I believe the word she used to describe her opinion of you was 'loathe'."
"She just doesn't know us very well." Naruto said defensively. He could certainly see why Sasuke would feel so negatively about Hinata. But seeing as they were likely to be working together for a while, Naruto thought he should try to play peacemaker.
"If we give her a chance and show her that were good people, I'm sure she'll come around eventually." Naruto argued.
"If you give her a chance, the only thing you're likely to find is that she'll use it to stick a knife in your back." Sasuke declared, refusing to be swayed.
It looked like he would have to wait if he wanted to try again to convince Sasuke, as he spotted the subject of their debate approaching them now. Hinata arrived, and stood a short distance away from them, bringing an uncomfortable silence to the area as they waited for their sensei. She wasn't usually late, but today they were waiting half an hour before she arrived.
"Glad you guys finally showed up." Anko called out cheerfully. Her words succeeded in getting under his skin, but for once, Naruto held his tongue, refusing to give her the pleasure of showing it.
When it became clear that no one was going to contradict her, she shrugged and led them inside the building and up to the desk where Fugaku and Iruka were waiting, as usual.
"Welcome." Fugaku greeted them. "For today's missions we have a few options. You can find a missing cat, deliver some groceries, babysit ..."
"Enough with that garbage!" Anko yelled out, cutting off the Hokage. "My team needs a real mission."
Iruka looked like he was choking on something in response to her outburst, but Fugaku wasn't phased.
"And what brought this on?" Fugaku asked. "It's not like you've been doing the missions I assigned you in the first place."
Naruto saw Sasuke smirking at her having been caught, but was worried himself. Was Fugaku going to make them do D class missions now?
"Which one if those little worms squealed?" Anko demanded to know.
"None of them informed me." Fugaku replied. "I've simply been keeping an eye on you. My wife has been quite vocal lately about her concerns regarding you. Still, if you promise to actually do it, I have a C class mission I could let you do."
"C isn't all that much better than D." Anko complained. "But if it interests me I'll consider it."
"Well then, for all our sakes, let's hope it does." Fugaku bantered. "I don't think our next client would appreciate your recent methods."
Returning to business, he began to explain the mission. "We have received a report that illegal human trafficking is taking place in a town in the Southeastern corner of the country. We've been hired by the Fire Daimyo to put an end to this practice and bring those responsible to justice."
"Far from ideal, but I suppose it will do." Anko said, taking the mission report and reading it over. "Well team, gather enough supplies for a few days and meet me by the gate in two hours."
******
"What are you two doing back so soon?" their mom asked.
"We're getting ready for a C class mission." Naruto answered excitedly. "We're going to be out of the village for a few days."
"C class?" she asked, looking worried at the thought. "Should you really be doing one so soon?"
"Itachi was doing more dangerous missions than this, when he was younger than we are." Sasuke pointed out.
"I know." their mom replied. "But that doesn't make me worry any less. Just promise me you'll be careful."
"We will." Sasuke assured her.
"And don't just pack food." she scolded Naruto, who was already going through the cabinets and stuffing a backpack full of anything that caught his eye. "Make sure to bring enough clean clothes too."
"I will." Naruto responded mechanically but continued going through the food.
"And you still haven't promised me you'd be careful, Naruto." she added.
"I promise. Don't worry so much." complied Naruto.
"Then good luck on your mission." their mom encouraged them. "I'm proud of you boys."
******
They arrived at their meeting place to find Hinata already there. And they were waiting less than a minute before Anko showed up.
"I have got to teach you three how to use a storage seal." she called out upon seeing the large amount of equipment each of the Genin were carrying. "What sort of a ninja walks around with that much junk? Just give them to me for now and I'll take care of it. It's embarrassing just to be seen with you."
She quickly sealed Hinata and Sasuke's equipment into scrolls, but had to wait on Naruto who was rifling through his backpack.
"Hold on a second. Just let me grab something to snack on." he requested.
He quickly pulled out a large bag of chips before handing off everything else to Anko who sealed it. Opening his chips he was about to start eating when the bag was snatched from him by his sensei.
"Hey! Those are mine." he protested.
"Consider it payment for sealing your stuff so you don't have to lug it around." she told him without a trace of sympathy.
Naruto had more snacks, but they were all sealed now, and he doubted Anko would be kind enough to let him get them out. He had to think fast if he wanted anything to eat before they stopped for a meal. Luckily, thinking on his feet was a skill he considered himself something of an expert on, and he had just the plan. This was sure to work.
"Are you sure you should be eating that?" Naruto asked, trying his best to sound genuinely concerned. "You look like you've been putting on a little weight lately."
In a flash she was right next to him slamming her fist into the top of his head.
"I'll have you know I'm in the best shape of my life." Anko insisted. "I'm not at all worried about eating these."
She then took a chip and chewed it vigorously, as if that would, somehow, better prove her point. But then she tossed the rest of the bag off to the side, spilling its contents and proving that his words had gotten to her.
"What did you do that for?" Naruto demanded of her.
"I didn't like them." she answered simply.
"Then why didn't you let me have the rest?" Naruto snarled back.
"Because I don't like you either." she replied sharply.
******
The first day of their mission had been uneventful and they'd made good time. They were going to camp along the roadside for the night, but should arrive at their destination early the next day. Hinata certainly hadn't expected a mission like this today, but it was just what she needed.
She ate dinner quickly, then immediately retired to her tent. Then she waited. Listening to the rest of her team talk only continued to make her tenser as she thought over what she planned to do. Eventually, they did all turn in as well, but still she waited. Long enough to give them more than enough time to fall asleep.
Finally, satisfied she'd waited long enough, Hinata got up and left her tent. As stealthily as she could, she made her way to Naruto's tent and entered it. Upon doing so she was startled to see that her teammate was awake and standing in his tent.
"You can't sleep either, Hinata?" he asked her. "It's my first time out of the village and I'm just too excited to fall asleep."
"I heard you up and came to see what you were up to." she lied hoping he would believe that.
"I'm not up to anything." he protested, I just can't sleep.
"Then what's that?" Hinata asked him while pointing to the opposite end of the tent and trying to sound as suspicious as possible.
"What's what?" Naruto asked turning around in an attempt to figure out what she was referring to.
But that was the opening she was looking for, so she slipped out the knife she'd been hiding in her sleeve. Swiftly, she stabbed it into Naruto's back with enough force to bury it up to the hilt and throw him face first into the floor of his tent. Her mind froze for a second in the shock of what she'd just done. She'd never killed anyone before. A sudden pang of guilt surged up but she quickly shook it off. He'd deserved what he got.
Looking over her work she silently berated herself for not hitting his heart. The tension of the moment must have made her target the first place she could rather than aiming for a vital area. But that wouldn't matter. It was coated in a very strong poison, and he should be dead in seconds if he wasn't already.
The poison was a favorite of Iwa assassins, and had not been easy for her to obtain. Now she just needed to make sure there was no evidence linking this to her. Reaching out to begin wiping fingerprints off the hilt of the knife she had held, she jerked back in surprise when a red aura sprang up around the boy who should be dead.
The knife was then expelled from his body as if of its own accord, and the wound was closing up behind it. As if that wasn't enough, he was actually getting to his feet! He was going to kill her! What could she do to someone who could not only survive that, but heal it in seconds?
Panicking, she fled from the tent and continued running at top speed into the woods near their campsite. She was hoping she could lose him before he recovered enough to chase her. So on she ran, like a coward. She should have tried to finish him off. Maybe she could have done something before he'd fully recovered.
Hinata had promised herself she'd never be the weak, scared, little girl she used to be. Even her father had noticed her change and had slowly switched from insults to encouragement. But the first time she faced any real danger, she'd shown her true colors once again.
But she had to calm down. She'd messed up, but she couldn't run. Even if she got away, she knew there would be repercussions. She needed to head back and accept responsibility for her actions. If she did, maybe she'd be the only one to suffer for her failure.
Turning around, Hinata quickly made her way back to her tent and waited for someone to come for her. She heard voices shortly after she'd returned.
"So what was with the whole Kyuubi chakra thing?" Anko called out from the direction of Naruto's tent. It looked like it was really over. Naruto had definitely recovered if she was asking him so calmly.
"It was nothing, just a bad dream." Naruto replied.
A bad dream? Had the healing process somehow destroyed his memories of the event? No, even if that were true, he had the knife still in his tent and a hole in the back of his shirt. Even if he couldn't remember who had attacked him, why wouldn't he mention it? Did he not trust their sensei?
She continued waiting in her tent for Naruto to do something, but after twenty minutes, she just couldn't take it anymore. She was going to find out what he was thinking.
******
Naruto saw Hinata enter his tent for the second time that night.
"I hope you haven't come back to try again." he quipped, but sincerely meant the words, despite the light tone in which he'd given them.
"Why haven't you told anyone?" Hinata asked. Considering she was the was one who had tried to kill him, he thought it was odd that she looked more nervous that he felt.
It was a good question though, letting an attempted assassin go free wasn't considered normal behavior. "I wanted to hear from you why you did it." he told her. "There must be some reason you thought it was necessary. I don't think you'd just do it under the pay of some other country or anything like that."
"You expect me to believe that?" Hinata asked angrily. "I think I see what you're doing. You're just trying to trick me into trusting you. There must be something you want from me. I can't believe you'd stoop so low. And to think that back when we were in the academy together, I used to ..."
Hinata's words trailed off as she pressed her two pointer fingers together and looked down at them as if they were the most fascinating thing she'd ever seen. And was she blushing?
"Used to what?" Naruto asked, curious about her strange behavior. His words snapped her out it and she once again resumed glaring at him, looking even angrier than before.
"That's not important!" she snapped at him, as if she hadn't been the one to bring it up herself. "Just know that I won't fall for your ploys. And don't think that just because you can now have me killed at any time, that it'll give you any hold over me."
Then she stormed out of his tent. She certainly was a weird girl. He had no idea what to make of that whole conversation. And despite what he'd told her, he wasn't letting her go simply to hear why she did it. He knew that his decision was stupid. You didn't just let someone who tried to kill you roam free.
Especially one who was going to constantly be so close to you if they ever decided to try again. He had lived, but it had been a closer call than it probably looked to her. He'd barely been able to resist loosing consciousness long enough to call upon the Kyuubi's chakra to heal him.
But he just couldn't bring himself to turn her in. If Sasuke ever found out she actually had stuck a knife in his back, he'd never hear the end of it. He was willing to risk her trying again to avoid that fate.
******
As eventful as the night had been, Naruto had somehow managed to get some sleep. Not nearly enough, and he was not at all happy when Sasuke had come to wake him in the morning. Somehow Hinata didn't appear tired at all, which annoyed him a bit. But hopefully she was just better at hiding her state.
Actually, he wondered ... briefly accessing some of the Kyuubi's chakra, he felt his mind clear and come to full wakefulness. Releasing it, he remained just as alert, apparently having 'healed' his lack of sleep.
"What was that about?" Anko asked him.
"Better than coffee." he replied cheerfully, now back to his normal energetic self.
Their trip remained uneventful, and they soon came to the small town they were supposed to investigate.
"So, where do we start?" Naruto asked.
"We'll just ask around." Anko answered, walking up to a random villager who was out on the streets that morning.
"Who runs the slaving business around here?" she asked him.
"I don't know what you've heard," he replied curtly, "but there is no slaving business around here."
Anko grabbed the man's shirt and easily lifted him off the ground with one arm, then addressed him a second time. "Look, you can tell me, and maybe this guy will find out and kill you later. Or you can refuse to tell me and I'll definitely kill you right now."
"If it's about slaves, everything goes through Tarou." he spilled out. "Just turn right on that road up there and it's a large house at the end of the street."
"That wasn't so hard now was it?" she asked releasing the man. He quickly scurried off and was soon out of sight. Naruto thought the scene had been amusing. He wished he could intimidate so easily, but no one seemed to take a kid seriously. At least not until he transformed.
"Let's go finish this mission." Anko ordered. The four of them followed the directions they'd received and soon arrived at the house. Large was certainly a description that fit, as the white building could almost be described as a mansion. The town wasn't very big, and most of it seemed pretty run down, so a building of this size, that seemed very well taken care of, kind of stuck out.
"So how do you want to go about investigating this place?" Sasuke asked.
"We don't need to investigate." Anko responded. "That man was too terrified of me to lie."
Walking up the steps, Anko quickly opened the door and went inside. The rest of her team scurried after her to see what was happening.
"Are you Tarou?" she asked as they were heading inside.
Inside was a very large, well furnished room. A man in a suit sat at a very fancy desk on the other side of the room, surrounded by half a dozen thugs. The most shocking part of the room, however, was the more than a dozen cages filled with humans ranging in ages from children to young adults.
"Yes I am." the suit wearing man replied. "You here to sell those kids? I'll give you a good price for them."
"As tempting as that is, I'm actually here to shut you down." she responded calmly.
The seven men in the room burst into laughter at that remark. This continued until one of the loudest guards suddenly found himself unable to continue, as his windpipe became obstructed by a kunai that had just appeared in his throat.
"You'll pay for that!" Tarou yelled upon realizing what had happened. The rest of the men brandished their weapons and prepared to attack. But they didn't get to do much as Anko swept through them finishing them off with little real effort. Then she turned on Tarou in order to finish things.
"Wait!" Naruto yelled. "Don't kill him!"
"Why not?" Anko asked, not looking happy at being interrupted. "We were ordered to end the slave trade. So let's kill him and then we can go home."
Hinata just looked at him suspiciously. Knowing her, she'd probably come to the conclusion he was somehow working with the man or something.
"But what about all the slaves he's already sold?" Naruto asked, desperate to convince her. "He's the only one with info on the buyers."
"Yes I'll tell you everything you want to know! Just don't kill me!" Tarou pleaded, frantically groveling on the floor.
"And we need to figure out what to do with these captives." Naruto added. "Some of them are just kids."
"I can help with that." one of the men in the cages told them. "I'm an investigator under the employ of the Fire Daimyo. I was sent to look into some rumors of this sort of thing going on in the area. Tarou discovered me snooping, and when I refused to be bought out, I was imprisoned. I'm just glad that my failure to report led to you being hired. I can see to it that those who have families are reunited with them, and make sure the rest are taken care of."
"Fine." Anko said. "Tell us where the keys are and write up everything you know. But be quick about it, I'm not known for my patience."
"Thank you! You won't regret this." Tarou called out. Grabbing a key ring from his pocket he tossed it to Anko before running to his desk and rifling through papers. He began stacking some on his desk writing notes on a few as he went. Meanwhile, Anko had given the keys to Sasuke, who was going around releasing everyone from their cages.
"That's everything I know!" Tarou called out.
"Good." Anko answered then walked over to him and snapped his neck, smiling all the while."
"What?" she asked in response to Naruto's accusing look. "He said that was everything he knows. And human trafficking is subject to the death penalty. It doesn't make sense to transport him back just to have him killed there instead of here."
"Shouldn't you have let us handle this and only helped if we needed it?" Naruto asked accusingly. "How else are we going to improve?"
"This was the first real action I've had since taking on you brats." Anko answered. "You really think I was going to let you have all the fun?"
While that was going on, Sasuke finished releasing all the captives, and the youngest ones were swarming around Anko.
"Thank you so much nee-san!"
"I'll never forget this!"
"That was so awesome!"
The youngest, a little girl of about six or seven was simply hugging Anko's leg and sobbing.
"Hey! Back off!" Anko called out, seeming flustered by the attention. "I'm scarier than those man were. I just killed seven people for crying out loud. Shouldn't you be terrified of me or something?"
Her words didn't discourage them as she continued to be mauled by grateful children. "Help!" she called out pleadingly to her team.
Sasuke just snickered and Naruto wasn't about to aid her in this either.
******
Anko had finally extracted herself, and the four of them had begun their journey home. It was a boring trip so far, and they'd stopped to camp for the night. Naruto was sitting in his tent, once again having trouble sleeping. But with what had happened last night, that wasn't too surprising. He told himself it was foolish, but he kept almost expecting to look up and see Hinata in his tent again.
It turned out to not be as foolish as he'd thought, as when he looked up upon hearing a noise, there she was.
"You really need to stop this habit of yours." Naruto joked.
"What was with you pretending to care about the slaves?" Hinata asked accusingly. "I already told you I'm not going to fall for your nice guy act."
"It wasn't an act!" Naruto insisted. He just didn't know how to reason with this girl.
"You really think I'll believe you're some sort of a humanitarian after all the Uchiha clan has done?" she asked, making her disbelief very clear.
"Look I understand you hate the Uchiha Clan." Naruto told her. "But I really don't have any idea what you're talking about. Just think about it. They wanted to take me in and convince me to work with them. So why would they have told me any of their darkest secrets?"
"I still don't know what you want, but I'll humor you." Hinata replied, not sounding at all swayed by his words. "As long as we're pretending, I'll start at the beginning and tell you that I have a younger sister named Hanabi."
Naruto hadn't known that, but simply nodded for her to go on. He was afraid anything he said might set her off again, and he was finally getting something out of his teammate.
Thankfully she continued. "On the night the Uchiha Clan took over she was abducted, along with many other children from various clans in Konoha. Whenever one of the clans protested their actions too strongly, the hostages were used as examples."
Naruto sat stunned. She couldn't be claiming what he thought she was claiming. Could she?
"My father was particular stubborn, and Hanabi was forced to suffer for it numerous times." Hinata paused to wipe some moisture from her eyes having become very emotional in the telling.
Her face then turned from sorrow back to anger. "And they were brutal. They always showed off their handiwork too. They seemed to take particular joy from making me see the results of their torture."
"Do you have any idea how many times I had to see my little sister beaten, bruised, and bloody?" she demanded of him. "Sometimes I could hardly believe she was alive. Each time I saw her she was covered in more scars from cuts, burns, and whatever else they did her. Not even her face was spared."
If she had told him this a few years ago, he'd have jumped up and joined her in her condemnation. But now he didn't want to hear this, he didn't want to think about it. His wishes weren't considered as she pressed on.
"Despite it all, my father never stopped resisting." she informed him. "Never stopped trying to convince the other clans to refuse Uchiha rule. That is, up until they started parading you around. Seeing they had a loyal follower with access to the Kyuubi's power seemed to drain his will to resist."
She paused a second considering. "I suppose I should almost thank you for that, as it did stop my sister's suffering. But I'd already sworn that I would grow stronger, and do everything I could to make them pay. If you were dead, maybe everyone could finally be convinced to rebel."
Naruto wanted to call her a liar. To scream out that what she said couldn't be true. The Uchiha Clan had given him everything he had. He wanted her to just be making this all up in some plot to turn him against them.
But looking at her now, and having heard her emotion throughout her tale, he just couldn't imagine her deceiving him about this.
"I believe you." he told her softly. Then firming his voice he continued. "And I promise you I'll do what I can to get the hostages freed."
Her eyes widened at his response, but quickly narrowed again. "That's easy to say. But if you want me to believe you, you'll have to actually do something about it."
"Still," she added, "I will admit it's at least possible that Fugaku has just been manipulating you, and you're innocent of everything. Highly unlikely, but possible. However, if I find out this is just some plot of yours, and you're just toying with me ... I'll kill you."
"If that happens, you'd better do a better job than last time." Naruto quipped, not able to resist the joke despite the mood.
"I will." she vowed, no hint of humor in her response.
******
Hinata sat in her tent, contemplating things. She didn't know what had possessed her to say all of that to Naruto. Probably the same thing that made her almost happy to hear he believed her. That wanted to believe his promise in return. That simply desired him to still be the same bright, cheerful, confident boy who never gave up or let anything keep him down. The one that in only a short month at the academy, had won her admiration for being the type of person she wanted to be.
But she knew she had to bury that part of her deeply. She couldn't afford to let it cloud her judgment. To prevent her from doing what was necessary for her clan and Konoha. To stop her from finishing what she started and killing Naruto.
But why was she finding it so much harder to convince herself that was necessary this time around?
******
"No." Fugaku stated. "I won't allow it."
"We've already agreed that a war would be a great way to sway opinion in your favor." Danzo argued. "A decisive victory will make a hero out of you among the populace."
"I know all this." Fugaku retorted. "But Suna is our ally. It won't reflect well upon me to betray them. There are other nations to war with."
"I can easily make it appear they were negotiating with other nations for an alliance against us." Danzo insisted. "Our attack would just be a preemptive strike to prevent that. And Suna is the weakest of the great powers at this time. It's important that we have a clear and swift victory."
"The upcoming Chuunin Exams in Suna will make a great cover to sneak in some agents as well." he added. "The fools were actually eager to host the exam and show they were still relevant. Why anyone would agree to allow foreign shinobi access to their city is beyond me."
"I still forbid it." Fugaku declared with finality. "It's simply too great a risk of backfiring. If they could ever prove we'd simply made up the evidence, we'd be right back to clans openly resisting our authority."
"I will start this war whether you approve of it or not." Danzo threatened. "I suggest you make proper preparations for it."
Fugaku locked gazes with Danzo as if in a battle of wills. But it was Fugaku who backed down.
"Fine." he conceded. "But if we're going to use your plan, I suggest encouraging our new rookie teams to participate in the exam. There are a number of members of prominent clans among them. Their relatives might have more motivation to put in their best effort if they were in the middle of the war."
"I'm glad your mind is as sharp as ever once pointed in the right direction. I'll see to it right away."
******
I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter now that things are moving a bit. I don't think I need to preview much about the next chapter, as I should have just made it pretty clear what I'm planning.
Naruto has now been forced to face some facts about the Uchiha Clan, but how will he react to it? And why am I asking my readers when I'm the only one who knows?
SPOILER WARNING – I don't want to give away anything too drastic about my plot in advance, but this next part will spoil more than I usually do. So consider yourself warned.
There will be a time when Naruto is going to have to make a choice about whether or not to support the Uchiha Clan. I believe many of you will have figured that out already. I hope that by the time that happens, I will have been able to properly portray how this will be a difficult decision for Naruto.
Until then, I'd love to hear how my readers feel on the issue. Which way do you hope he'll choose? I've already decided and won't change my mind because you want me to. But I'd be interested to see how many people would prefer each option.
