Foreword:
In case you are wondering - yes, you are supposed to be slightly confused. There are supposed to be unanswered questions and peculiarities that provoke investigation. I try to keep enough information present in the story for everyone to figure out what is going on before it's explained - but those of you working from the anime (particularly the dub) are admitedly at a disadvantage. It is generally safe to assume that everything has a deeper meaning and tie-in.
Part of what irritates me about Kishimoto's work on Naruto is that he introduces far too many concepts by just dropping it your lap with few hints to ease the plot into it. "Surprise! It's a tree! Now here's a monologue with two chapters of flashbacks to explain how that makes sense."
I will try to avoid doing that. The goal is that any 'revelation' should have been there all along, just waiting for someone to assemble the pieces.
I must break back in here to give a... I believe the popular term is 'shout out' to Dominator046:
I appreciate such a detailed and thought out review. I would contend, though, that much of the imagery is an expression of your own mind. If I did anything - it was to trigger your vast imagination.
My mother's side of the family was gifted with folk tales and telling all varieties of stories around the fire at family reunions (we had camp-outs for reunions). I think the art of story-telling in folk-tale and in novel forms are very similar. It wasn't important to give exacting detail or even very descriptive recountings. Through simple actions, shifts in tone, and key expressions - a line of 'dots' was created for the audience to connect with.
Novels limit the interaction but expand the scope of the scene. Dialogue can be more fully and naturally explored while also allowing for more scenes and perspectives.
Of course, it also helps that I had a total of three typing classes over the course of schooling. It was a required course for me in the beginning of sixth grade (waaaay back in 2000 - and I had a keyboard nazi for an instructor - took the delete key off of the keyboard and force us to use blinders). Then I moved to a new school district, and thought that if I took the keyboarding/computer applications course in middle school, I would be able to go onto bigger and better things in High School without having to take another keyboarding course.
And the joke was on me. So I had to take yet another keyboarding course. For a total of three.
I type almost faster than I can think - so I can churn out 2000 words in an hour without realizing it. As such - most of these stories are somewhat raw, much of the content being a first or arguably second draft. I've gravitated away from writing stories down before typing them, but I might return to it - particularly to get around writer's block. There is just something different about the process of writing when it is done by hand - sometimes it produces better results, other times it seems to lack the same effect.
Either way - I appreciate your review.
Well - I appreciate everyone's reviews - and I admit I am horrible about being sociable with readers; but I did think that your reivew in particular merited a direct public response.
Now for my Jedi Mind Trick: This is the page-break you've been looking for.
Chapter 4: Seal
He roared through the skies, held aloft by the swirling mass of natural chakra around him. A streak of green shot ahead of him, striking the small mountain falling from the sky. The streak blossomed into a massive shockwave, vaporizing a large portion of the rock. A few smaller meteors trailing in its wake punched through the thinning veil of energy. He maneuvered between them, dashing, weaving, clawing against the very fabric of the sky.
He could sense it ahead of him, his goal. He streaked nearly straight down, dipping and rising over the roots of the tree that sprang forth, starving for the conduit of chakra. A plateu, his destination, overlooked the forest of erupting roots. The dragon slammed against the side, clawing in a slithering motion up the side of the plateu; a predator pursuing its prey.
The sage vaulted over the summit, feeling that he had arrived at just the right moment as a set of needles embedded themselves in the dragon's cloak of chakra.
"Welcome, Beloved." The woman's long, silver hair billowed behind the pale stare of her Byakugan. "I was just disciplining our son for desecrating my sanctuary."
The chakra around the Sage settled, retreating from the visible world. "Hagoromo," His voice held back unspeakable rage. "Have you not learned anything?"
"Father - I was only..." The young man scrambled to his feet, the multiple rings in his eyes focused on the ground.
The sage growled a sigh. "Such is your nature." The sage never once took his eyes off of the woman in front of him. "I will tell you that you are walking a path that leads only to suffering, but you always have been the type to learn things the hard way." The boy began to sputter a response, but the Sage held up his hand. "You'll learn. You're doing it the hard way, but you'll learn." He assured the boy he knew to be his son.
"Oh, Beloved." The woman almost sang. "You know that to be untrue." She stretched her arms out. "Even now, half of them dream of conquest and war. Even after the power of the Fruit could be used to end their ability to war against each other - they began to turn their daggers toward the one who protected them."
"Kaguya... You and I both know you are not whole." He kept himself between the pacing woman and his son.
"And just what is the difference?" She leered at him. "I have endured so much... And ALL of the indignant bastards only seek to take what is rightfully mine!" The Sage almost swore he saw a tear in her eye - an echo of what was lost - a ghost of what truly bound her to the planet. "These cretons want to kill?" She pointed to the overgrown pods encasing most of the world's human population. "Then I'll have them kill the self-righteous fools of my homeland!" Her eyes were wild for a brief moment before returning to an emotionless neturality.
God... How he wished he could comfort her. But destiny, it appeared, would not permit him such simple luxuries. He kept his body agled on her. He needed a bit more time. "And what, then? Will we be left alone with the murderer of our friends and family?"
The woman's brow perked before narrowing. "I don't understand how choosing between the murderer who spared you and the murderers who have yet to betray you is much of a dilema."
The Sage straightened. "Perhaps it is time to fulfil a new destiny." He walked closer to the woman. "For a thousand years, let us be together." He walked within an arm length of her, spreading his arms slightly. "You can finally have everything you want."
Honestly, the Sage thought he would feel a bit more. Sure, there was a sharp pain, but some kind of shock or adrenaline must have blunted it pretty quick. He looked down at the hand through his heart. "Did you think-" She stopped.
Symbols crawled out from the gaping wound. "We both knew this would happen." He said, musing at the blood coating his lips. It made them unusually slippery. "I gave you my word." He gasped. "Even if it takes a thousand years, I will dry your tears and bring laughter to your lips."
A second sensation drew his attention to his beloved's chest. One of Hagoromo's rods impaled him through the right lung bfore puncturing her through the heart and lay embedded in a stone tablet. Some things never changed.
Kaguya laughed, splotches of red falling across her white kimono. "Hagoromo... Did you really think you outfoxed your father?"
The world faded into darkness with a heart-rending smile on his symbol-ridden face. A thousand years of death awaited.
The blonde woke with a start.
Naruto shifted his eyes around, seeing his own tent. "Damn these weird visions." He said, aloud. "Why do they have to feel so real?"
The lady with the Byakugan, the one his visions called Kaguya... Somehow, he felt bad for her. He really didn't know what to make of the vision, at all. Was this woman real? ... And Hagoromo... His eyes held the Rinnegan and he used an ability similar to Pain.
Naruto scrubbed his head with a growl. Or maybe he was insane.
Then it hit him. "Hinata mentioned a guy named Hagoromo in her dream..." Was his mind just playing tricks on him - playing off of her dream?
He groaned, pulling himself out of bed. First a shower. Then breakfast... His stomach groweld.
First breakfast, then a shower. He tossed his shower kit back toward the corner of the tent. He simply threw on an undershirt and ducked out of his tent. The sun was cresting over the distant hills, and he took a moment to squint at it through the pastel clouds. He needed to talk to Hinata about this dream... Vision... Whatever it was.
He turned, heading for the meal tent a few dozen meters away. It didn't take long for him to run into familiar faces.
"Nara Narcelepsy" A voice sang. "GET THE HELL OUT OF BED!" Naruto cringed, looking toward the scene.
Which turned out to be quite comical. He turned just in time to see Ino duck into a tent. "Damnit, Shikamaru!" She cursed from inside the tent. "We only have a couple. Days. Off." She grunted with sounds of sliding. "And you are. NOT. Sleeping. It. Away." The girl heaved; dragging the notorious Nara, packaged comfortably in his bedroll, out into daylight. Choji sat off to the side, an amused grin on his face.
Naruto shook his head with a laugh, walking toward the trio. "Alright... Sheesh." Shikamaru could be heard as he rolled over. "I'll get dressed as soon as you drag me back in so that I can."
The buxom blonde simply perked an eyebrow at him, placing her hands on her hips. Naruto stood on the edge of the disagreement, content to observe his friends through an unyielding contest of disobedience.
It was Ino who finally compromised, huffing as she ducked inside Shikamaru's tent. "Here." She growled as she emerged. A wad of billowing cloth sailed through the air and landed atop the Nara's head.
"I'm naked under here, you know." Shikamaru grumbled.
"You're a genius." She dismissed with a wave of the hand, walking toward Naruto. "You'll figure it out." She stopped next to Choji. "Or maybe you could just give the Hero of the Leaf a show."
Shikamaru grumbled, pulling the clothes from his face as he began to writhe within his bedroll.
"Good morning, Naruto" Choji turned, a warm smile on his face. "How have you been, lately?"
"'Morning guys." The blonde yawned. He thought about how to actually answer the question. "I've gotten a lot to think about lately, but okay for the most part. I was just going to grab some breakfast." He motioned toward the spaceous tent ahead.
"Great!" Ino seemed to second-guess her outburst. "If you don't mind waiting on Princess Pineapple, we'll join you." She glared back around at the Nara, worming his way into his pants.
"Sure, that sounds alright." Naruto smiled. Seeing his friends like this reminded him of when Team Seven used to be together. For a long time, it used to hurt; seeing something so reminiscent of what he lost. It would hurt to see others so happy when he was so miserable. He knew it was unreasonable, but a part of him felt as if they were mocking him.
Of course, they weren't. With time, he came to hold to moments like these. This is what he would work himself to the bone for - so that his friends could snipe and snark at each other in fun; that they never had to mourn the loss of their precious people and continue to make new memories with them.
"Hey, Naruto." Shikamaru said as they sat down to the table. "You have been pretty quiet this whole time."
"I've just been... Thinking." Naruto said. He had barely noticed the trip through the line, much less the walk to the tent.
"Really?" Choji said between bites. "What about?" He downed a piece of melon.
"Just how great it is to have a team." The blonde admitted.
"Speaking of teams..." Ino started, a devious smile crept across her face. "I hear you and Hinata have been spending a lot of time together."
Naruto felt a bit of heat rise to his cheeks. "Well... I never would have thought she was so amazing to be around." He sighed "I mean - I didn't think she would be horrible to be around... But I guess I never expected her to be so ..." He couldn't think of a word. He always found himself listening when she spoke. He always found himself watching her when she was around. She always got the cutest pout on her face when she made a mistake or was frustrated. Even the worst pain imaginable was worth it to see her smile.
"-ruto. Hey, Naruto." Choji stirred the bowl of Ramen in front of Naruto. "You just kind of stopped."
"Oh." Naruto honestly had no idea how to behave. "Sorry. I guess I kind of zoned out, there."
"Are you feeling okay?" Choji eyed him suspiciously. "A Ninja can't think on Ramen, alone, Naruto."
"Not everything has to do with food, Choji." Shikamaru yawned.
"Perhaps not." The well fed young man held his chopsticks in contemplation. "But everything can be solved with food."
Ino sighed. "It's a shame not everyone knows how to cook." She narroed an eyebrow. "So, tell me." Ino paused. "What prompted all of this special attention for Hinata?"
Naruto paused for a moment. "I don't know what you mean by special..." Of course it was special; time with any of his friends was special.
"The way I hear it." Choji interrupted from behind a bowl full of rice. "Hinata gave a blazing confession of love when she stood in front of Pain." He set the bowl down. "Sorry, I guess I should have put that more tactfully."
Naruto felt Ino's eyes burning a hole into his mind. He had no doubt that she would do anything it took to know if that was the truth... And being a Yamanaka, that meant giving in to the temptation to use forbidden, mind-shattering jutsu surrounded by legends of terror. There were some things about that memory that he didn't want to think about, much less talk about. Bu... There were others...
"She really was pretty amazing!" Naruto felt the excitement rise in his voice, remembering how she acted with such confidence. "I really did think I was a gonner - and then out of nowhere - Hinata shows up and blasts a hole in the ground where Pain was standing!"
Ino simply stared at him with a smile he couldn't place. "Wow, it sounds like she was pretty determined." There was a tone in her voice, again, that Naruto couldn't place.
Not that it mattered. "Huh..." a thought occurred to him. "Now that I think about it... She said that she would not let him hurt me anymore." He ran through the events again in his mind. "He didn't even land a punch on me after that." He wasn't quite sure what to do with that revelation, but it seemed significant, somehow; so he shelved it. "She said that I was the one who showed her how to never give up and to show others kindness even through hardship. That's why she wasn't afraid to..." He trailed off.
He could still see the trickle of blood from under the broken clay. Losing Jiraiya hurt in a way he couldn't describe. He was sure it would have been a different kind of pain if he actually saw it happen. But there was something that hit deeper. Jiraiya had been strong, independent. As had Haku and Zabuza. They lost their lives doing a job they had sworn to do to protect those precious to them.
Sure, Hinata was strong, and she had sworn to do much the same thing... But... There was something about losing Hinata that made him feel as if he'd lost everything. He could not source anything specific about that feeling - it wasn't like the feeling of losing Sasuke, where he could point to things that made Sasuke important to him.
"...oing it again." Ino interrupted his thoughts. "Are you sure you're okay?" She perked an eyebrow at him.
"Yeah... Just remembering some things." He looked down at what remained of his food. Far more than he usually left, and he was not hungry in the slightest. "I think I am going to go take a shower."
"Alright... Well just be careful. If you fall any harder, you just might break the sound-barrier." Ino waved in a playful manner.
Uzumaki just quirked his brow as he stood. "Uh, I'm standing, right?" A thought hit him. "I'm not in another Genjutsu, am I?" He passed a skeptical eye across his surroundings.
"Good grief." Shikamaru laughed.
"Well, that is one way to look at it." Ino giggled, twirling some clear noodles on her plate. "And only Hinata can release you from it."
Naruto was flabbergasted. "But why would she do such a thing? Wait... What kind of genjutsu is it?"
Shikamaru just curled into himself, undoubtedly his way of hiding hysterical laughter. A quick glance toward Ino revealed her laughter had been replaced by a devilish grin.
"Don't mind them." Choji stacked a newly empty bowl into the old empty one. "Just go take your shower."
Hinata turned back around to view the distant Leaf Village. Even more than three kilometers from the village's edge, the sounds of construction could be heard as dull clanks and thuds stretched across the air. She turned back around. Her destination lay not too far ahead.
The area was thick with cedar trees. It was an ancient area of the forest and legends were told of vengeful spirits who lived inside the trees. Perhaps more interesting were the tales of shamans who, up until a few hundred years ago, used to pass through the area. According to one ancient account, those shaman traced their lineage back to those who tended the tree housing the oldest and most powerful of the tree spirits.
She took a few moments to study the reddened, flaky bark of the cedar trees. If there were spirits in these trees, they were currently laying low. Not that Hinata was going to complain about it. Still, unlike many, she wasn't one to assume people hundreds of years ago were somehow incapable of analytical thought. Something started the legends.
Satisfied that the trees posed no immediate danger, she pushed through the overgrown trail. An old shack lay ahead, built beside an old cave. A small stream babbled across a rocky bed as it stretched down the far hills. Hinata pushed through the door, "Pardon the intrusion, Tenten." She said.
The young woman looked up from a small table. "No problem." She turned around and startled Hinata with a hug. "I was about to go blow that useless, frustrating piece of garbage up, anyway."
Hinata peered over her friend's shoulder at the set of seals she had been working on. "You normally don't get that frustrated." Hinata soothed.
"I know." Tenten huffed, turning to point at the seal. "These things can be amazingly simple, in the case of a standard storage seal." She pointed to scribblings on the walls, "Or a neatly compressed, highly intricate form that the final product obscures." She paced to the other side of the room. "It has been sort of a white elephant for a long time... The sealing arts are all but gone."
Hinata was not sure she completely understood. "But... We use seals all the time..."
"Simple storage scrolls and elemental seals are widespread... But who actually understands them?" She pulled out one of her scrolls. "These are just copies. Most of the seals we use today are what has been passed down in a coloring book that continually has pages torn out of it when the actual art of painting has been lost."
Tenten palmed her forehead. "Now that the village and all of its ancient seals have been obliterated, we can't ignore that white elephant, anymore. Anyone who is vaguely familiar with sealing jutsu is feeling the pressure to restore the art."
Hinata hated feeling helpless. Sealing jutsu wasn't her strong point. The Hyuuga would occasionally use a storage seal, but the only seal given much attention was the Curse Seal... Or Caged Bird Seal, different people called it different things for understandable reasons. Then an odd thought occurred to her. "Do you think Naruto knows much about sealing jutsu?"
Tenten scoffed. "Hinata... The guy isn't exactly known for being a serious study."
"I know," She sighed. Though she would argue that art didn't necessarily come from studying. "But he does have..." Tenten just stared blankly at her. "The fox..."
"That's right!" Tenten perked up. "Even if he doesn't know it, I'm sure he knows someone who does." Hinata suddenly felt Tenten grab her hand and start dragging her out the door. "We're going to find your boy."
Sometimes, Hinata mused, Naruto and Tenten could be quite similar.
The blonde squinted into the blinding light reflected into his eyes. He much preferred normal showers. He hefted the bag, pointing its silver lined surface away from him. Granted, they were better than a cold shower, but he never would have imagined just how effective the morning sun was at turning water into boiling torture.
He nabbed an empty bag from a nearby pile, and began dumping half of his bag into the empty bag. It didn't take him long to figure out this trick, but the first time in the shower left him with blisters. He took a moment to fill the bags the rest of the way with cool water. Now he had twice the showering water at temperature below the melting point of flesh!
The shower stalls were ... Well... They were temporary, and it showed. He hung his bags up on the hook and allowed himself to briefly indulge in a bask under warm water. He moved his feet carefully across the bare wood floor. He swore to all things holy that if he got one more splinter, he would invent a planet-sized Rasengan just to obliterate this abominable terror of a structure.
The shower went better than expected. No splinters. He had a full bag just for rinsing and enjoying warm water. The shack didn't spontaneosly collapse, life was good.
He dried off with his towel and a new problem surfaced. "Well, I'm an idiot." He sighed. He forgot to bring a set of fresh clothes. He could throw on his old clothes, but he could practically smell them from where they sat. A brief debate settled it. He'd simply cloak his offensive parts in the towel and make a quick dash to the safety of his tent. He wouldn't be the first, and he could always play it off as a prank of some kind.
Fully prepared to dash across the camp to his tent, Naruto pushed open the door... And met a pair of lavender eyes that assumed the size of ramen bowls.
Instinct took over and he retreated back into the shower room commons, closing the door.
"Oh, for the love of- She has the Byakugan, it's nothing she hasn't seen before." He heard Tenten shout. Naruto briefly chastized himself - he was supposed to play it off as a prank.
"T-Tenten!" Hinata squeaked.
"What? I gave up on having any kind of dignity around Neji." The older kunoichi deadpanned.
"That's not... I wouldn't..." The Hyuuga stammered.
"Hey, I wasn't the one who led us here." Tenten quipped.
Naruto heard an awkward squawking noise amidst the silence. "Okay..." He started, turning toward the closed door. "I forgot my clothes - I just need to go back to my tent."
"We're the only ones around." He heard Tenten's voice shift. "It's not like you're naked or anything."
"Alright, fine." He grumbled. Sure, it was somewhat humiliating, but now that he knew what he was dealing with on the other side of the door... He slid it open, squinting against the sun as he stepped through. He was just about to dash off to the tent when he noticed how Hinata's face was the most intense shade of red he could imagine as he caught her glance away.
Somehow, that look set his heart pounding in his chest... Why, pray tell, would Hinata place him under a genjutsu?
Danzo set the report down on his desk with a sigh. The investigation into the Uchiha compound, itself, returned little but a few nondescript references. It was following up on those references where things got... Disturbing.
Symbols were traced back to the Uzumaki and Senju clans, names tied in with legends of gods, prophecies of those gods returning with the power of the Sharingan. There were even some writings that claimed the Sharingan could become the legendary Rinnegan. Normally, he would have written it off as typical Uchiha boasting.
However, a man wielding the Rinnegan did just make a crater out of the village. Then there was the Hyuuga girl's reaction to viewing the tablet. None of the Hyuuga he assigned to the investigation unit reported adverse reactions, but it could be the seal placed on the branch members. Regardless, the tablet brought into question the Sharingan, Rinnegan, and Byakugan - and that was a disturbing number of coincidences.
He looked over at the dark haired man sitting in the room. "Shikaku, I would greatly appreciate if you would take over the investigation of these... Whatever these are." He extended the report to the Nara head.
"Hmm..." The Nara mused over the report for a few minutes. "How fitting, the Uchiha had a secret monument to people who wielded Earth-shattering power."
"Initially, I was going to put together the chunin exam candidates from four years ago with some of the newly graduated genin to train in large team tactics. The invasion of Pain has illustrated how poorly our three man cells operate with other three man cells." Danzo stroked his chin.
The Nara's brow quirked. "Yes, a deployment to the ruins of The Village Hidden in the Eddies would be a suitable compounding of goals." He paused. "Do you suspect there are things there that only a living Uzumaki could recover?"
"It is hard to say. My operatives have not been very successful in recovering much of anything useful from the Uzu islands." The interim Hokage had to admit. "I just have a feeling that it is a better alternative than keeping him squandered away, here. Not to mention, our operatives have managed to identify the man who executed the attack on the village was of Uzumaki descent."
"And he had the Rinnegan." Shikaku narowed his brow. "My gut tells me that there is someone out there who is a lot farther along in understanding all of this than we are."
"And whoever it is has some long strings to pull from." Danzo concluded.
"My thoughts, exactly." Nara studied where the tent met the ground. "Look for an excuse to call a meeting of the Kage."
Danzo took a moment to figure on Shikaku's angle. He was always known for having multiple purposes stacked atop each move he made. Undoubtedly, someone with the resources to pull the strings of Pain and the Akatsuki would require monumental effort to identify, let alone combat. But there was another angle to this that Shikaku was playing. "Sacrificing generals is just the kind of strategic savagery I would expect from you, Shikaku."
The Nara simply nodded. "The greatest illusion is that the Kage is the king."
"So long as I seat this office, I will accept the risk." If it would give the nations strings to follow, then a meeting between the Kage would be worth it even if all Kage were lost.
"It is unfortunate that many truths will be lost to history." Shikaku adopted a distant look.
"All ninja, even Kage, are tools. Even the best and most well kept of tools will be sacrificed in the line of work." It was a philosophy Danzo embraced. While he didn't deny that ninja were also humans and all that implied - the job of a ninja was utilitarian.
"Very well." Shikaku nodded. "I will see to it that Tsunade remains incapacitated until a point when a meeting of the Kage is underway, or such a meeting is deemed an unrealistic goal."
Danzo laughed. "I suspected as much."
Shikaku shrugged. "Make sure you include security and extraction operations into the routines of that deployment. You never know just how pear shaped things are going to go."
"Sealing jutsu?" Naruto tilted his head at her, shadows from the overhead branches playing across his features.
"That unpredictableness of yours wouldn't happen to have any nuggets of information hidden away in that head of yours, would it?" Tenten shifted. She couldn't help but imagine smacking him upside the head multiple times as literal nuggets scattered out of his hears.
"Not really. There is that scroll the Toads have that deals with the Kyuubi... But I don't really understand how it works." The blonde's voice dropped.
"Wait... A scroll about the seal used for the Fox?" Tenten's felt her eyes light up. Scrolls always had interesting and useful stuff.
"Yeah. Freaked the hell out of me when they forced it down my throat." The blonde shivered. "Felt like I was swallowing a tree for weeks afterward."
Tenten, honestly, didn't know how to react to that. Probably something she had to be there to understand. "Uh... Would you mind if I took a look at it?"
"Uh..." the blonde seemed troubled. "I'm not quite sure. I think something happened to it when I swallowed it."
"But... Why would you eat a scroll?" Hinata shifted to look at Naruto.
"I don't know. The pervert and the toads were talking about stuff and then the toad leapt into my throat." He scrambled his hair.
"So was it a frog or a scroll?" Just what in the hell was the notorious knucklehead trying to say? Tenten was beginning to doubt he had any idea what seals were.
Naruto simply growled, biting his thumb. He placed his hand on the ground and the characters for a summoning stretched from his blood. A toad roughly the size of Akamaru sprang out from the smoke. Its figure was oddly distorted, its abdomen elongated.
"Ah, so I can still summon you." The blonde mused.
The toad looked around. "I did not imagine you would seek to alter the seal so soon." Tenten felt her brow perk. She was still skeptical, but this was more promising than throat-toads.
"Uh, well; my friend, Tenten, was curious about sealing jutsu and I really only have the one you do." The blonde motioned in Tenten's direction.
The toad met her skeptical look with one of his own. "Naruto," The toad began "Do you have any clue what could happen to you if the details of your seal were to be known by the wrong people?"
"Hey!" Tenten felt herself protest before realizing.
"Tenten is one of my friends." Naruto insisted.
The toad sighed. "Knowledge can be extracted." It gave Tenten a second look. "But darned if you aren't her spitting image."
"I'm whose image?" Tenten was used to being something of an outlier.
It seemed to contemplate for a moment, doing a double-take at Hinata. "Well I'll be damned... That elder is something else." The toad stood on two legs, its abdomen extending, revealing a large scroll encasing its body. "Very well. The rest I leave to you." The parchment shot out from the scroll, suspended in mid air.
The seal was simple, yet incredibly intricate. It was, also, unlike any other seal she had seen. Most seals were arranged in sprawling circular patterns twith rigid struts forming bridges and spokes. This seal was constructed as interlinked geometric structures vaguely reminiscent of-
"The Bagua..." Hinata spoke just above a whisper as she stood, walking up to the scroll.
Naruto perked forward. "Do you see something, Hinata?"
"It's the Eight Trigrams." She moved her hands across the scroll. She pointed to the spiral in the middle. "The spark of Taiji and Wuji forming Yin and Yang." She moved her hands to the radiating symbols "The Sixiang; Taiyin, Shaoyin, Taiyang, Shaoyang" Her hands migrated to the triangular arrangements. "And the Eight Trigrams illustrated as triangular compositions of Yin and Yang..." Then she stepped back. "Moon." She pointed to the circular spiral. "Stars." She pointed to the triangles. "Sun." She pointed to the square in the corner. "The writing is in the place of where Thunder should be, the element of division and splitting."
"Wow, I didn't know you knew about sealing jutsu, Hinata." Naruto walked over.
Hinata shook her head. "I have never studied it. These are all part of traditional symbols of the Hyuuga used for just about everything."
"I thought it looked similar to something Neji would have." Tenten admitted. "But the Fourth Hokage used this seal, didn't he?" She moved closer to the seal. The small characters that formed the seal looked more similar to what was traditionally used for sealing jutsu. They were just arranged in a way she'd never seen, before.
"Yeah - but Dad never mentioned Hyuuga." Naruto scratched his head.
Tenten stopped and looked at the blonde. "Who?" Hinata, for her part, could have had a rainbow spilling out of her mouth.
"Oh... Yeah - when I almost unleashed the Kyuubi, the Fourth showed up in my mind and fixed the seal." He scratched the back of his head.
"And... He's your father?" Tenten's mind was reeling. What a fucking day!
"That's what he said. And, I guess, I somehow kind of knew." Naruto gave a goofy smile.
"Alright." Tenten took a moment. So the dolt was actually the son of the legendary Fourth Hokage - the legend who sealed away a demon inside said dolt... Using a seal unconventionally designed around Hyuuga themes. "I'm ... Going to have to think about this for a bit."
Hiashi felt a tingling ... Anticipation? Excitement? He wasn't quite sure where to place the emotion as he looked at the old scroll. It took a lot of digging through archives, the disheveled evidence thereof spraled around him in the form of stacks of books, piles of scrolls, and a few old artifacts.
The tides of time worked to obscure all truths. Even the most immaculately preserved records of granite were burried in the shifting sands of human memory. But even as the tides of time worked to obscure, the threads of existence persisted to tie everything together for those with the diligents to work through the tangles, span the frays, and slip through the stretches.
It was ironic how important the trivial was. An old children's story, all but lost to time, could carry with it hidden origins and past events so beyond comprehension they were lost to the assumption of absurdity. And that is what Hiashi had before him. One of the oldest linguistic works the Hyuuga had to their name - a recounting of an old story the author heard while growing up.
Of course, the city he mentioned existed in no archeological records. The family name he spoke of did not exist in any records. Scholars long before Hiashi wrote the work off as a completely fictitious work - an amusing one, but fictitious none the less.
Hiashi would have agreed, except for the fact that it told the tale of a tree and princess who sealed herself away from the world. For the Uzumaki boy and his daughter to have visions vaguely similar... This was a work only referenced in old academia, and an obscure piece even then.
The events played over in his mind. The conversation he overheard, the legend of the box containing the cursed seal - which broke during the Kyuubi attack about six months into his wife's pregnancy with Hinata - and the tie-in to this ancient work deemed a fiction. Hiashi had to admit he was truthfully scared of what he would find in this old tale. Uzumaki's story could only be described as apocalyptic in nature, and for things of that era to be surfacing, now...
It fit the vision of their destiny all too well.
Hiashi carefully began unrolling the scroll. "May we all find the strength to meet our destiny, and have the wisdom to decide it justly."
Hinata felt the stupid grin plastered across her face, and it made her smile even more awkwardly. So, Naruto did get to meet his father - and it happened to be the Hokage he seemed to look up to the most. The emotions roiling through her stomach were overwhelming. They'd been wrong - all of those who insisted he was a nobody, a nothing - the'd been so horribly wrong ... Yet even after finding out, Naruto, the kind soul he was, did not rush to smear it in the face of those who caused him so much grief.
It was a testament to the man he'd become - he built the respect he had amongst the people. He did not need to ride on on his father's reputation. But most of all, he got to meet his father - a person he could not even form a vision of beforehand. Her body began to move on its own, her eyes fixated on the orange of Naruto's jacket. The patch of fabric swelled to consume her vision, and a need she was not even aware of was filled as she reveled in feeling his body against hers.
Naruto let out a surprised grunt. "Hinata?" He questioned as she felt his arms close comfortingly around her back.
"I'm ... I'm just glad you finally got to know." She squeezed. He'd spent so much time alone with only a name and a burden.
"I..." He seemed to give up on forming a response and simply returned her squeeze.
The sound of Tenten clearing her throat broke both of them from their moment. "The Lady Leaf hotel just opened if you two need a room, or something."
"What's wrong with here?" Hinata almost felt as if the baritone in Naruto's chest was massaging her. Though she felt her cheeks at Naruto's naive response.
Tenten narroed a brow at the blonde. "I suppose you are the student of the legendary pervert, after all."
Hinata felt Naruto shift with a large breath. "What do you mean by that?"
"What do you mean by suggesting doing that here?" Tenten shot back.
Hinata almost had to laugh at the unfolding scene. "Excuse me," the toad-scroll croaked. "I do not believe my summoner's intentions are or were at all perverted."
"What the hell is everyone talking about?" Naruto looked back and forth.
"If my services are no longer required, I will be returning, now." The toad rolled itself shut and collapsed.
Naruto instantly tensed, and Hinata felt an odd sensation as he burried his face just below her shoulder. "No! Not again!"
"N-Naruto!?" The Hyuuga tried to look past the blonde patch of hair almost in her eyes.
The blonde muffled a plea, "Don't let him jump down my throat again!" He peered over her shoulder at the toad, mouth pressed against her.
Hinata stretched to look at the toad, its mouth turned into a frown of what Hinata could only percieve as concern. "Please take care of him." The toad disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Naruto stretched out and away from Hinata's shoulder, pulling his lower eyelid at where the frog had been standing. "No more throat climbing for you!"
Tenten scoffed. "Okay... Well, whatever. Tell Neji that I accept his invitation, Hinata. I've got some work to do, now." She turned and began walking away. "Oh, and thanks for the help, Naruto." She turned back around. "But hurt Hinata in any way and I'll cut you." She held a kunai out, threateningly.
Naruto held a contorted look of confusion on his face. "What is with everyone?"
Hinata sighed. "They are just confused, Naruto."
"Well then they should stop confusing me." He looked around. "But, since we're at the training grounds, anyway - do you want to train?"
Hinata didn't have to think about it very hard. After their last sparring match, she had been looking forward to another. There was something... Liberating ... About being aggressive toward Naruto. Then there were his shadow clones... While they looked like people - they were simply projections of Naruto. She could actually enjoy defeating them, an experience she didn't really have otherwise.
"Alright." She agreed. "But only if you're in that sage mode." She was curious to see the ability play out with her Byakugan again. It had looked spectacular when he was fighting Pain.
Shikaku made his way toward the Hyuuga compound. It was not often Hiashi requested his presence. The Hyuuga head tended to just invite himself wherever his interests took him. The man must be particularly troubled by something.
A younger branch member greeted him at the edge of the compound. "Welcome, Lord Nara. Lord Hiashi is anxiously awaiting you. Please follow me."
He followed after the younger man, glad for the guidance. The Hyuuga compound was a maze that perhaps only made sense to those who could see through walls. In either case, it was sure to infuriate intruders.
The branch Hyuuga stopped at a sliding door. "Lord Hiashi, Lord Nara to see you."
The door slid open. Shikaku noticed a peculiarly distant, even haunted look on Hiashi's face as he stepped through. "Ah, good. Thankyou."
The branch member nodded before departing. Shikaku looked the elder Hyuuga in the eye. "You look as if you are plagued by a poltergeist. What is going on?"
"I wish it were merely that." Hiashi said, turning. "Come. I will show you." Shikaku followed silently as the Hyuuga led him even deeper into the compound. The silent walk was eerily purposed, passing by numerous sections of identical hallway, turn after turn; staircase after staircase. Finally, Hiashi opened the door to what could only be described as an archive.
"I didn't know you did your homework without reading glasses, these days." Shikaku quipped.
Hiashi ignored the jab at humor, completely, striding to a scroll left sitting atop a reading table. "I am curious what you make of this." The Hyuuga offered a seat a the table.
Shikaku sat, giving the whole situation a skeptical look. What, pray tell, could his old friend have found to cause him such grief? "Alright..." He carefully opened the scroll and began to read.
At first, the story sounded like any other legend of take-your-pick... But then there was a particular account regarding a young man with eyes consisting of contentric circles. It was there that Shikaku began to think he was reading an autobiography instead of a work of fantasy fiction.
There were sages who worshipped trees and directed the currents of nature - notable since there was something about a tree going bat-shit crazy and wreaking havoc. Then there was a description of a final battle. Stones fell from the sky as the moon shone blood red behind a towering tree that was draining the very life from the planet.
The fact that this story mentioned what could only be described as the Rinnegan made this story 'troublesome.'
"Well." He said. "That is delightfully apocalyptic." Then the other factors processed. Hinata was recently involved with the tablet found in the Uchiha compound. Shikaku did not like, at all, how credible this was becoming.
"It gets better." Hiashi seemed to be studying him carefully. "I overheard my daughter and Uzumaki talking in the hospital. She spoke of a strange dream, and one of his clones returned to him with an additional memory attached." There was no mention of visions in the report. That would have been nice to know. "The one Uzumaki described was of a war involving a large tree and a box handed to a man with the Byakugan."
"That could just be..." Shikaku stopped at what Hiashi produced.
"These are the fragments of a box secretly passed down to each Hyuuga head." Hiashi set the array of clay pieces out on the table. "The box shattered during the Kyuubi attack when my wife grabbed it before we evaccuated. It was then that one of the nine tails struck the compound and shattered the box in her hands."
"Three months before Hinata was born..." Shikaku mused as he analyzed the fragments. Six months ago, he would have laughed this all off as Hiashi going senile. He always joked with the man that all of the word searches would finally do him in, especially once Hiashi began searching through the array of word-searches to add a third dimension to his amusement, finding words that were not really part of the word search.
But then one man showed up and blew the village to smitherines with other worldly powers. He just so happened to have a set of eyes that were considered a myth until he destroyed the village with them.
Planet-destroying tree myths that tie into a Hyuuga girl's visions and an Uzumaki boy's clone-memory were icing on the damned cake. Damn that stone tablet. He could be watching clouds, ignorantly blown away in the end of the world. But the past just had to taunt the present.
"Troublesome." Was all he managed, turning another fragment over.
Kurenai sighed as she walked. Though it was more like a waddle, hence the sigh. She never would get used to the awkwardness of pregnancy. On one hand, she was overjoyed at the idea of raising another life, at the feeling of nurturing and protecting something so fragile and precious. On the other hand, it could best be described as hell.
Crying without warning, cravings without reason, and even completely bizarre sexual urges compounded with continual discomfort and punishing bouts of feeling sick without being sick. All of it was part of the experience broadly described as 'pregnancy.'
She would normally journey out to one of the training grounds. It helped to get away from the bustling of the village in the refuges of the forest. Occasionally it was fun to test the instincts of new genin graduates with mild genjutsu. The quality had been dropping, unfortunately. She was able to convince a bunch of 14 year old kids that it had gone from broad daylight to pitch-black night-time in the blink of an eye.
Too many of the academy graduates operated on the assumption that what can't be seen can't hurt you... Which is downright suicidal in the world of ninjas. Even Naruto had a grasp of this concept despite the fact that he never cared to be not-seen. The boy was less of a ninja and more of an unstopable force of nature.
She approached a training ground that had a number Kurenai didn't care to pay attention to. At some point they all boild down to one set of clearings that looked eerily similar to every other set of clearings. It wasn't like anyone signed up to use a specific field, or anything. Kurenai briefly wondered if the training ground numbering was official, or just some dogma that had existed long enough that everyone followed it.
Movement in the field caught her eye. Naruto immediately stood out, squared off firmly with ... Hinata? Kurenai double-checked to make sure it was, indeed, her student. It had been a while since Kurenai and Hinata spoke. After Pain's attack, she'd gone to see her student... And immediately noticed Hinata was dealing with some form of depression. That she had so boldly placed herself in front of Pain was something of a surprise... But, at the same time, it made sense - seeing as Naruto was at stake.
Apparently, something had changed since she last saw Hinata. The young Hyuuga actually made the first move, sliding in at an angle to strike in a circular motion about Naurto. The confidence in Hinata's motions was palpable, and Kurenai couldn't help but feel her heart swell for her student. Whatever the blonde did, it made her comfortable enough to act without fear of judgment.
The blonde countered, intercepting each strike with the palm of his hand. Kurenai felt her face mirror Hinata's for a moment. One did not simply block the Gentle Fist. Hinata retreated backward. "That energy you're using. What is it?" The girl's voice pierced the clearing.
"The toads taught it to me." Naruto replied. "I can only do it when in sage mode. They call it Frog Kumite."
Hinata replied with an empty-palm strike that managed to stagger the blonde a bit. "Like that?"
"Wow!" Naruto gasped. "That is pretty cool! ... But I don't think it's the same thing. It felt similar, though." Kurenai could only surmise that the blonde could feel chakra while in that sage mode of his. But some sage ability related to the Hyuuga?
The blonde formed two clones, each charging the Hyuuga as he formed a Rasengan in each hand.
Hinata angled into one clone, exchanging a few quick blows before she broke away, opposite of the clone's momentum. The other clone leapt high and Hinata flipped backwards, clearing the clone's impact by a healthy margin. The two teens began to increase their speed. The Hyuuga danced under the first clone's strike in a blur.
The original Naruto saw the opportunity and charged with both Rasengan extended. Kurenai marveled at how quickly he closed the distance, even Kakashi would have been pressed to react.
Hinata had just repelled the second clone when the first had redoubled its efforts to coincide with Naruto's charge. The Hyuuga snapped into a spin - Kurenai recognized it as the Kaiten - Palm Revolving Heaven. Except a full dome never formed. Naruto's clone was sent spiralling and his Rasengans slammed into the partially formed wall of energy just as Hinata flipped out of the line of his charge.
Kurenai couldn't supress the thought that Hinata never intended or needed to fully form the technique.
Suddenly, a Naruto wielding Rasengans dropped into place where the first clone had been standing, and the blonde resumed his charge. Kurenai briefly noted the first clone in the background dropping into place where the original Naruto had been. The realization that the blonde had somehow layered a substitution jutsu into the shadow clone technique hit her right about the same time Hinata slammed her hands into Naruto's rasengans.
The result was unexpected. Both rasengans dissipated with barely a protest and Hinata was left holding both of Naruto's hands in her own. Did Hinata- "You're going to have to do better than that!" She smiled, sweeping at the boy's legs. . . . She did?
Kurenai couldn't figure if the resulting heap of teenagers on the ground was due to Hinata's inexperience with grappling, or if her student had developed a devious streak in her. It was comical to watch the two stumble over each other and fall, either way. The fact that neither of them were scrambling to get up was absolutely adorable.
"We know you're there, Kurenai-Sensei." She heard Naruto call. While it wasn't entirely what Kurenai expected, it was getting more difficult for the blonde to surprise her. Naruto was his own self-contained explanation for things.
"That was an interesting fight, you two." Kurenai smiled as she approached the two.
"I know! Especially how she countered my Rasengan!" Naruto snapped up to his feet, extending a hand to Hinata. "How did you do that?"
The girl took his hand. "I... I don't know. I just did what felt natural. I can't describe it... It was like I wasn't doing anything."
Kurenai churned the thought in her mind for a moment. Obviously - the girl was doing something. While Naruto arguably could never truly train using the extent of his abilities, Hinata was certainly showing more prowess than she'd demonstrated before.
"Hmm..." Naruto's 'thinking' face gave the impression of much effort. "I think I know what you mean." Kurenai felt her brow perk as Hinata's expression shifted to a curious slant. "To collect nature chakra for sage mode, I have to do nothing... Or ... I can't even do nothing, I can't do anything."
Of course. That explained it. "Naruto... That doesn't make any sense." Kurenai protested.
The blonde ruffled his hair. "It's..." He dropped his hands. "It's like looking into a pond. If you want to find something on the bottom, you have to get out of the lake - or you end up splashing and stirring everything up so that you can't hope to see."
That made a bit more sense, but going about it had to be easier said than done. "Interesting." She afforded. Hinata seemed to be studying blades of grass. The normal tone of her skin meant that she was lost deep in thought. Hinata would be considered a genius if she made her thoughts known more frequently, the Jonin knew well. It also didn't help that much of her knowledge pertained to things the Hyuuga deemed important.
It was curious... The girl understood, well, the mechanics of most jutsu and even genjutsu. She never used them. Not even a simple substitution. It borderlined on suicide, given the Hyuuga bias for close quarters confrontation. Hinata took more interest in Genjutsu, but mostly in being able to defeat those genjutsu. Of all the people she had placed under genjutsu - Hinata was by far the most difficult to delude.
More curious was her ability to break others out of Genjutsu. Even exceptionally powerful genjutsu designed to counter an outside attempt to break it simply dispersed. At first, Kurenai thought Hinata was using some sort of Gentle Fist art on the chakra points - but it quickly became obvious that striking tenketsu was not required.
Hinata played shy and ignorant when questioned about it - but she had to realize and had to know what she was doing. At first, Kurenai had received it as an insult; as if Hinata thought she was above discussion. But, over time, it became apparent that the girl just didn't want to talk about it, and possibly even felt ashamed of it. Given how the Hyuuga fawned over Hanabi - it wouldn't surprise Kurenai if they shunned talents outside of physical combat.
Which, apparently, the girl had been holding back on. Or newly discovered. Kurenai had given up figuring out Hinata much like she'd given up on being surprised by Naruto.
Naruto shifted her direction. "Hey, Kurenai-Sensei?"
"Yes?"
"You're a Genjutsu expert, right?" The blonde almost pounced.
A few random ideas popped into her head of where this conversation would go, but Kurenai just settled on taking the bait. "I have been called one, yes."
"Are..." He looked over at Hinata. "Are there genjutsu that only one person can break?" He the eyes that met her were full of confusion.
Hinata snapped her eyes from the grass, bouncing between the two. For her part, Kurenai was amused. "And where did you get this idea?"
"Well..." He paused. "Ino said that I was under a genjutsu, and only one person could break it."
Kurenai felt the smile pull at the corners of her mouth, and she squashed it with a vengeance. This was just too adorable not to capitalize on. "And I suppose you think my student did this to you?"
Hinata squeaked. "W-What!?"
The blonde just lowered his head.
"Hinata," She turned to her student with a wink. "What have I told you about using that genjutsu on people?"
"B-But - I wouldn't! I don't even know any genjutsu!" The Hyuuga protested.
"Well, if you won't cooperate, I'll just have to tell Naruto how to break the genjutsu, then." This was just too much fun, and the Hyuuga's blank expression of shock was all the evidence to prove it.
"You will!?" Naruto jogged over to the Jonin.
"I will." There was one form of genjutsu Hinata had yet to be able to see through, and Kurenai used it to project her voice directly into Naruto's ear as she leaned down next to it.
Hinata's Byakugan flared. "S-Sensei... What are you telling him!?" The Hyuuga began to run toward the two.
No sooner had Kurenai finished informing the blonde did he lurch back. "Are you sure there's really a genjutsu?"
Kurenai nodded. "It's a genjutsu all kunoichi have."
Hinata stopped short, and Kurenai wondered if she was catching on.
Naruto looked back at Hinata, then met Kurenai's eyes. "B-But she'll kill me. There's no other way?"
"I'm afraid not, Naruto. It's a cruel, cruel genjutsu." Kurenai feigned a grimmace.
"What did you tell him to do, Sensei?" The look on the girl's face was sheer terror. "If... If it hurts him I won't forgive you!"
So much for the student trusting the teacher. There again, she had just been willing to die defending the blonde - if there was one thing to send her over the edge... "Calm down, Hinata." Kurenai reassured. "He will be fine once he breaks out of the genjutsu."
"Are you sure, Kurenai?" Naruto had backed up beside Hinata. "I mean... This is Hinata."
You're the one who brought up the question... Kurenai thought. Though it was cute that he seemed to be taking her side. "Alright - suit yourself." She sighed. "Just remember how I told you to break it."
"What did she tell you to do?" Hinata looked sideways.
The blonde's cheeks turned a shade of red rivaling the brilliance of his hair. "Uh... It's best if I not say."
A sudden sensation caused Kurenai to jump. "Oh," She gasped. "I guess I deserved that."
"What happened?" Naruto tilted his head.
"He kicked." The Jonin patted her stomach.
"Oh, neat!" The blonde stepped forward before lurching to a stop. "C-Can I feel?"
Hanabi angled through the maze of halls in the Huuga compound. The look on her father's face when he saw the report she wrote on Hyuuga traditions said it all. In that moment, she felt she understood how her sister felt. Had she known, then, perhaps she would not have tried so hard, so early.
But she would not withdraw like Hinata did. Hanabi tried - offering to spar more with her sister, trying to get her to the point where she could feel the joy of pleasing Hiashi. But her sister remained isolated and withdrawn. She'd spent time with the old midwives, learning of plants, flowers; of old tales and arts that only existed in the echoes of history.
Hanabi liked to take the boar by the snout, as they say. She wasn't stupid, just more brazen and aggressive. If it was worth doing, it was worth throwing yourself into it and showing it that you were in control. And that is just what she planned to do. There was an archive full of historical texts and she planned to show history just who would know it.
She didn't quite expect to see a scroll laid open on the table for her, though. She set the odd clay fragments aside as she set herself up at the table. The scroll appeared very old - and where better to learn about history than old things?
Notes:
I struggled with portions of this chapter, especially imagery. I also had to keep myself from spelling out the whole story of the origins of the ninja world. I like to think I'm getting you all to exercise your analytical thinking skills. Though I'm sure a lot of you already have this figured out. Shout-outs to all who want to postulate on what is going on in the reviews section.
Also, on an amusing note, as I was writing the final scene with Hanabi - "Firework" came on over the radio here in HyVee. I just thought it an interesting coincidence. For those who do not get it - Hanabi's name translates to "Firework." - Hinata is "A Place in the Sun"
And, yes, if you all review the depictions of the key to the Kyuubi's seal - you'll see precisely what I make reference to - and find it in agreement with depictions of Shinto and Taoist cosmology.