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Chapter 4: Her.

Hinata leaned back and allowed the peaceful atmosphere to overtake her. The sweet sounds of birds chirping, insects buzzing and a light breeze picking up her hair lulled her head to touch down on the soft grass beneath her.

"So relaxing…"

"Hinata-chan, are you tired?"

Her half-closed eyes widened again as she turned her head to the side, finding the sweet face of the girl she'd been hoping to see again for years. Rather than cry out in excitement at her finally-fulfilled wish of getting to see Homura-chan after six long years, Hinata simply smiled.

"Not tired, just… content."

The older girl sat down beside her, legs crossed and chin leaning on one of her palms as she tilted her head to look at Hinata. "It's been a while hasn't it? You've grown up a lot since I last saw you Hinata, won't be long until you're a woman."

Hinata shrugged, even as a light blush dusted across her cheeks. She pulled her kimono-sleeved arms up to go under and cushion her head, thus giving her a better view of her dear friend. "You've grown up a lot too, what happened to the cute blushing 8 year-old nerd who left me when I was 6?"

"She went through a harsh reality and came back a little wiser."

"Whoa, sounds pretty deep for what I thought was going to be light conversation."

Homura flicked her long hair back and sighed, expression cool but demure. Hinata couldn't help but stare at her, for gone were the red-framed glasses and two thick plaits that she remembered, to be replaced by a shiny mane of straight locks and her large, half-lidded violet eyes uncovered to the world. Her school-uniform had changed to from a dark blazer and red-plaid skirt to cream-coloured blazer, white blouse and dark pleated mini-skirt with dark thigh-high socks and shiny black shoes.

Right now Homura looked every bit the two years older than Hinata that she was and the Hyuuga girl didn't know how to feel about that. It was probably best to ignore it anyway.

The two girls sat side-by-side and talked about everything they'd been doing for the last six years. And it was like nothing had ever changed, especially when Hinata teased her and she reverted back to the cute blushing girl that she remembered as her true nature surfaced above the glamour.

"So Hinata-chan, do you still like that Uzumaki boy or have you turned to the Uchiha kid that you saved three months ago?"

"Well I… huh?!" Her face had never taken on such a shade of red before and Homura laughed in delight. Hinata was blushing in front of her! She'd never-before seen the occurrence with her own eyes and it was very amusing to the Akemi girl.

"I… ummm, don't like… Sasuke-san."

"So it's still Naruto-kuuun huh?" Hinata had covered her face in embarrassment but could still feel the smirk Homura was giving her. "Have you tried asking him on a date?"

"No. He likes Sakura-san and always asks her for dates, even though she rejects him because she loves Sasuke-san. I… am irrelevant."

"Irrelevant you say?" Homura debated on telling her about the way she'd seen Sasuke looking at the Hyuuga girl, but in the end decided not to. "Your feelings towards people are usually very apparent, in my opinion anyway. How could he not have picked up that you like him?"

"Well umm, he's… a little… dense."

Homura shook her head in pity at the poor girl. "There's a reason I never really bothered with boys. Oh well, we're still just kids and you've got plenty of time to just tell him."

"Yeah, I suppose…"

Homura stood up and dusted the back of her skirt of any stray pieces of grass and dirt. "You wanna go find a witch and kill her with me?"

Hinata sat up again, looking at the Akemi girl with a confused expression. "Homura-chan, this is a dream right?"

"Well… we're in your mindscape right now. I don't think I've ever explained all of this to you have I?"

She sat back down and settled in to tell her story. "Magical girls all share a connection that starts with Kyubey, our spirit-guide and the universal deity who chooses those girl with the purest hearts and souls to fight the witches who were born of dark deeds. Very, very rarely, something happens in a magical-girl transformation that gives them special powers."

Hinata was sitting up now, listening to the story with rapt attention. She'd always wondered how they'd met, Homura-chan had been a part of her for what felt like since birth and she'd never thought to question it.

"You know that I have the power to manipulate time right?"

"Yeah." Hinata nodded. "And you've recently discovered you can manipulate things with your staff?" Yet another nod. "There's no other way I can explain how we got those powers other than they were gifts, a mutation of our magic that gave us an advantage over other magical girls. The result of our mutations was a connection between the two of us that spanned across universes. It was how I found you, and how I found a very good friend of mine named Madoka who I occasionally visit on the edge of my universe. She gave me another gift that allowed me to visit you in your dreams."

"Madoka? Where is she now?"

Homura smiled. "She's all around us. We found out a terrible secret about the magical-girls so she made a wish that turned her into a deity. Thanks to her all the magical-girls and our universe was saved, but she isn't human anymore. She became a part of everything."

Hinata blinked once, twice. "Oh… okay."

"I've met you in some very different timelines to this current one. I can't tell you anything about the future, but let's just say… things weren't so pretty in the other timelines I knew you." Homura shivered, shaking her head to rid herself of the other harsh realities.

Hinata instinctively knew not to ask what happened in the other timelines, because obviously it didn't go well or else Homura-chan wouldn't be here now. Instead she shrugged off everything Homura-chan had explained for now, just thankful that she'd come back as the two girls hurried off to fight some witches.

Hinata hugged her friend from the side as they left her mindscape. "I'm so glad you came back Homura-chan."

"Glad to be back Hinata."

...

"Come on sensei! I wanna do another mission!"

Naruto tried his best to grab onto his sensei's flak jacket and tug at it to reiterate his statement, but came up with thin air as the jounin body-flickered to the other side of Sakura and Sasuke who now took up the space between Naruto and Kakashi.

"We've already done two today, relax Naruto." Kakashi rolled his eyes and scratched the back of his silver, gravity-defying spikes, wishing he didn't have to go to the hokage's office and report.

"I don't want to relax! At least we should get some training in!"

Sakura sighed alongside Kakashi and brought her fist up to punch her blonde teammate across the arm.

"OWW!"

"Shut up for a sec and stop complaining baka!"

"But… Sakura-chan…"

'So annoying…'

"I don't need to be here Kakashi-sensei." Sasuke said, glaring at his teammates and looking pointedly at Kakashi, who shrugged. "Suit yourself, we're having dinner together afterwards."

"Not hungry." He walked off in the opposite direction.

Sakura pouted, staring at the back of Sasuke who'd walked away from them. She wished Sasuke-kun would call her chan the way Naruto did. Naruto also followed the Uchiha's back with a glare. 'Hmph, teme. Probably going home to gloat to his mirror or something.'

The dark-haired Uchiha broke away from his team and turned the corner, fully planning to go home. He almost bumped into a girl on turning, but she'd swayed to the side and avoided any collision with him, keeping her head low so that her dark-blue bangs covered most of her face.

"Sorry, excuse me."

"Hn."

He thought nothing of it at first, just a passing occurrence in his life, completely forgettable.

But something about the incident stuck with him and he couldn't help thinking about her as he continued his path home. The soft lilt to the girl's voice… unique shade of dark-blue her hair was. He'd glanced down and saw her hands, pale and small, so familiar…

"Hyuuga!"

Sasuke turned around and sprinted back the way he'd come. Turning back around the corner, he only just managed to catch the tail-end of a hooded beige jacket and he ran forward to grab the girl's shoulder.

"You!" He spun her around and stared into the face of the girl he remembered in his dreams. Huge, moon-like white eyes with a hint of lavender stared back at him in shock. "Umm… Uchiha-s-san…"

"You've got some explaining to do." He pulled her into the empty side-alley of the street and pushed her against the wall, hands gripping each of her shoulders. "Uchiha-san, w-what are you d-doing…" Hinata kept her expression blank and unknowing, struggling to keep her eyes locked with his in a show of honesty. His shirt-sleeves rode up a little and her eyes travelled up the smooth skin of his left forearm.

Hinata took a sharp intake of breath. Etched across the pale skin of his lower shoulder was a small tattoo in black ink, that of a strange design of a sun. Her eyes widened as she caught where his gaze was set, at the spot just above her collar-bones. Her necklace had slipped out from underneath her jacket and the smaller version of her soul-gem was now on display. The gold casing was in the same shape of an intricate-looking sun that his tattoo was.

"That pendant you have, it was part of a sword that you gave to me that night I… we, defeated the witch."

"Hmm… I guess… you caught me."

Hinata stood up from her crouching position and crossed her arms over her chest, sighing as she walked off and waving him over to follow her. "Come. You have some questions that need answering don't you?"

...

Sometime later found the two kids sitting comfortably across from each-other on neighbouring boulders near a waterfall that trickled into a bubbling spring. It was Hinata's favourite spot deep in the forest that only she knew about, before anyways. It more than did as a private place where they could talk.

'She's not telling me everything.' Sasuke thought privately as he listened to the explanation Hinata was giving her. Magical girls? Spirit-guides? Travelling across universes? This girl had to be crazy. But then again, she'd already shown him some of the unbelievable things three months ago when they'd fought a witch that he'd apparently created. What mattered to Sasuke most was that this new potential source of power had just been created, for it was a power way beyond the scope of what they knew in their relatively tiny piece of the world. If given the opportunity, Sasuke would take advantage of the power, and use it to help him in his goal of catching up to his brother and being able to defeat him.

"That's all there is to it Sasuke-san. I mixed some of my chakra, and… magic, into you and it seems to have resulted in an unintended connection between us."

One of his eyebrows raised slightly in surprise. "How will this affect me?"

"Well… it shouldn't affect you at all." Hinata shrugged, "I really have no idea. For now, carry on with your life. And if you could… just ignore me the next time we see each other, like you've always done." She stood up again and jumped off into the treetops without another word, leaving Sasuke to think about everything he'd just been told.

...

"Hey Hinata-chan!"

Kyubey managed to catch up to her just before she reached her house. After glancing to the side once, Hinata looked ahead again. "Kyubey, haven't seen you in a while."

"You've really been clearing away the witches, business is slow."

They made it to the compound and headed inside, passing through the quiet hallways. Several branch-house members walked by and bowed slightly as she went, to which she returned the courtesy. It always felt very tense however, when the elders who didn't like her caught sight of her as she passed. Gozu glared at her, sitting inside the dojo whose doorway she tiptoed by as the elders commenced one of their many meetings with her father. Only when she reached her bedroom and closed the door did Hinata breathe again.

Kyubey jumped onto his favourite spot on top of her dresser and curled up in a furry little ball, watching her pack her bag. "It was a little surprising, but since the shinobi have been so busy lately, and another team dropped out suddenly, we were the only other team free for an overnight mission keeping an eye out for enemies in one of the watch-towers outside the walls of the village. It's a C-rank, can you believe it? Only three months into being a genin and we've already gotten our first C-rank mission!"

"Wow! So you're camping outside of the village?"

"Yes." Hinata carefully chose and put in things she thought she'd need, extra clothing and underwear, water-flask and several kunai that she hoped she wouldn't have to use. In the side-pocket of her medium-sized backpack there was a small blade that she would probably use for cooking and a first-aid kit, also a useful resource. Add several ration-bars and her sleeping-bag tied over the top of the pack and she was ready to go.

...

An hour later and she'd met up with her team as they headed outside of the village. Kurenai-sensei led the group while Kiba and Akamaru took the rear, with Hinata and Shino in the middle. They were only a metre apart so it was a very subtle diamond-formation, nevertheless it was effective for tracking and combat, where the most-skilled shinobi, Kurenai, was in front in case they needed to face an opponent head-on while the tracking and sensory-specialised dojutsu-using genin were spaced out around her and the second best fighter Kiba was ready to eliminate enemies coming from behind.

"Hinata, I'd like you to scan our immediate surroundings every 20 minutes with your byakugan. Shino, if you could have your kikaichu spread out long-range and Kiba, you know to keep your senses and instincts on guard, you're my first back-up in a combat situation."

"Hai sensei!" All three genin replied at once and immediately set themselves to their individual tasks. Kurenai grinned, earlier she'd sat in a bar with the other two jounin whose teams had passed, Asuma-kun and Kakashi-senpai, and they'd shared tales of training mishaps and general observations of the next generation of shinobi.

Things weren't looking too bad, with seven of the nine genin that passed being heirs to the biggest clans in Konoha, one of them being the last sane Uchiha, considered the prodigy of their generation. Among the geniuses were the Nara, Aburame, and Uchiha, while the powerhouses were the Inuzuka, Akimichi and apparently the Uzumaki-boy whose true strength was shown simply in his persistence and determination. There was the Haruno, a quiet, hard-working girl who was neither spectacular nor mediocre, the Yamanaka, another hard-working girl who showed great potential with her mind-control dojutsu and finally Hinata-chan, who never seemed to stick out in any aspect but completed the tasks set before her quietly and efficiently. Kurenai felt she was holding back from showing her true strength for reasons unknown, and constantly thought on ways she could get the shy Hyuuga to come out of her shell. Though she refused to show anyone up, preferring to encourage and help others, there was just something about Hinata Hyuuga. Maybe it was the way she did things like they were effortless, yet she never drew attention to the fact that she had no trouble with her jutsu control or use, her strength, speed and agility at levels well-above average. Each time Kurenai gave her a new skill to learn she quietly came back the next day and demonstrated her use of it, the jounin looked on in amazement while shaking her head in disbelief. Yet Hinata still held herself in a way that showed she didn't believe how amazing, or adorable for that matter, that she was. Kurenai vowed to change that one day, and make Hinata become the confident kunoichi she truly was.

So-far, the teams levelled out with eachother power-wise, with the prodigy Uchiha and second in class Haruno being in the same team as the dead-last Uzumaki, while the other genin varied above or below the expected average in terms of skills and intelligence. Where Kurenai had won out was with the teamwork and coordination of her genin.

Training was the easiest thing in the world considering she had three charges who didn't argue or fight with eachother. She'd never heard a single complaint or negative feeling towards them, even Kiba who came from a clan known to be rough-housers with rambunctious natures. Part of her troop was Shino, the kind of kid who swore by cold, hard logic and long-winded explanations and reasoning, and as an Aburame relied mainly on his kikaichu bugs during battle. That didn't mean he couldn't fight on his own, no, Shino was proficient in all aspects of being a shinobi. His astute knowledge in the medical-field deemed him trainable as the team's medic, though Kurenai didn't have the healing touch herself so it would be up to one of the medic-nins, maybe Kiba's sister Hana would take time off of her job as a veterinarian to teach the boy.

Then there was the quiet, gentle Hinata who worked hard and well both on her own and as part of a team. While the secretive nature of hers bugged Kurenai a lot, being the more assertive type herself, it would be useful in an espionage mission where they needed to be sneaky. She would be best-suited for missions involving information gathering, going undercover and gaining intelligence, not to say that she wouldn't hold her own in combat, but evasion wasn't a common skill and the more shinobi with qualities like hers the better.

To round off the team there was Kiba, a rather large boy for his age, but maybe it was the heavy fur-coat that smelt faintly of canine. All three of them wore heavy coats, making them larger than they truly were, but Shino was also very tall and held himself like an observant scarecrow, and Hinata still very obviously was a girl of small stature beneath the clothes that hid the shape of her body. Kiba however was almost a man, with powerful, developed muscles that did as much damage as they threatened, though he still held the childlike mind-set of a 12 year-old. He held a combination of strength and speed that even Kurenai found formidable. And with a little more training from Tsume on working out their clan's famous fist-over-fang technique that would heavily involve little Akamaru, the cute but vicious puppy who filled the last spot in their little group nicely.

Hinata's peaceful-nature a worked well in calming down the rowdy Inuzuka, and along with Shino's clear-headed thinking Kiba was always shown true light while he himself gave the two incentive to speak up and be more assertive, more outgoing.

No, she'd apparently gotten the easiest team to work with and felt blessed all the more, considering her initial nerves taking on the hefty duty of minding genin when she'd only gained her rank as jounin two years ago. What Team 8 needed to focus most on was strengthening themselves physically, developing their dojutsu and broadening their skill-set, all of which were things that would come with time, training and her help.

...

"Sensei, my kikaichu detect the presence of four people approaching from the treetops. I believe it's a team of shinobi from the village."

Kiba stuck his nose higher up in the air and breathed in deeply while Hinata activated her byakugan. "I smell ramen and… apples." Kiba knew who those particular scents belonged to, obviously the ramen was Uzumaki while the apple was Haruno's shampoo, both being scents he'd had to sit with in the academy for the last seven years. Uchiha had never had much of a scent, unless the hatred and darkness he always reeked of counted, and then there was the unfamiliar and almost invisible trace of their sensei that he couldn't analyse.

"It's Naruto-kun's team."

Hinata beat him to the conclusion, turning off her byakugan with a light blush staining her cheeks.

"I wonder why they're here…" Team 8 stopped at the top of the treetops and allowed Team 7 to catch up with them.

"Hey guys!" Naruto came to a halt (more like tumbled into a heap) in front of Kurenai-sensei, who crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Uzumaki-san, mind explaining why you're here?"

"Well umm… uhhh…"

Naruto gaped at the beautiful woman before him, standing tall and elegant with big, ruby-red eyes and long, dark, wavy hair that framed her porcelain face. Her outfit composed mostly of bandages, red and black fabric and a flak-jacket hugged her curvaceous figure nicely.

It wasn't really that he was attracted to her (she had to be like 23, gross!) but he'd never talked to a girl, or woman, before who hadn't immediately physically assaulted him after. He decided to shake his head and take a step back from the other team, tapping his foot as he looked away and waited for his team nervously.

"What a strange kid…" Kurenai shook her head as Team 7 managed to arrive at just the right moment to break the awkward air.

"Baka! You broke our formation!" Sakura rushed at Naruto and tried to punch him but he was too quick and jumped across the treetops, pulling the nearest body in front of him who just happened to be Hinata.

'She won't hit me with Hinata in the way!'

'He's touching me! He's…' Hinata felt herself going woozy, the only thing keeping her standing was the firm grip Naruto had on her shoulders as he peeked over her shoulder.

"Dobe, let go of her and get back over here with your team."

The voice of the Uchiha grabbed everyone's attention and stopped Sakura in her tracks. Even Kakashi looked surprised, dropping the orange book he had down and finally giving the increasingly frustrated Kurenai the information she wanted. Hinata snapped back into coherency and moved aside as the Uchiha and Uzumaki faced each other, the air tension rising between them. "You okay Hinata?"

Everyone's eyes widened in surprise. 'What the… do they know each other?' Naruto wondered, looking from the blushing Hyuuga to the somewhat miffed and embarrassed-looking Uchiha. Meanwhile the two males on Hinata's team had gathered around her protectively while Sakura rushed over to Sasuke's side. Inner-Sakura was raging at this new, possible rival for Sasuke's affection. She tried to stop the bubbling feelings of jealousy and betrayal towards Hinata-chan, who'd always been such a sweet, shy and kind girl and most importantly was utterly uninterested in the object of Sakura's affections unlike Ino-pig and every other girl from the academy.

"Of course I'm fine Uchiha, get over yourself."

Everyone there gasped in shock and awe. Hinata had let slip her cover and let out a barely audible squeak, before recomposing her face to its usual shy, reserved expression. "I meant… I'm okay, thank you for worrying Uchiha-san."

"Hinata, how… do you know Sasuke?" Kiba asked, his eyes darting suspiciously between the two. "Umm… well…"

"Isn't it obvious? Their clans are, or were, the two biggest and most powerful in the village. They must have met on several occasions before this and developed some form of a rapport right?" Shino shifted his shaded glasses, tilting his head towards the Hyuuga girl. Hinata nodded quickly, grateful for the explanation. She could feel the weight of Shino's calculating gaze as he continued to make his own conclusions about the situation. It was at this point that the jounin finally decided to defuse the situation. Kakashi cleared his throat and stepped forward.

"Yo Kurenai, you're heading to the East watch-tower right?"

She nodded, frowning. "What of it?"

"We were sent to take on the mission and bring you back because it's a C-rank and your team doesn't have the necessary experience just yet."

"Oh really?" Kurenai's face had darkened to a point that warned Kakashi to tread on his words carefully, lest he be caught in a genjutsu featuring his own personal hell. "And you think your team does?" Kakashi gave his famous eye-smile and backed away behind Sakura.

"I don't think it's because the hokage doubts your team's capability! I've had my rank longer than you and have more experience with these kinds of missions."

'She won't hit me with Sakura in the way!'

"Maybe we can do the mission together, at least let Team 7 stay the night so I can make sure you know what you're doing as… as your senior!" Kakashi felt the air around him growing hazy and gulped. The ground was covered in hundreds of writhing snakes, all reminiscent of a particularly horrible memory of a buxom kunoichi he'd had a thing with a while back. "No, please not that…"

Kurenai shook her head, clicking her tongue lightly as she cracked her knuckles menacingly while eyeing the jounin she'd always had to call senpai before finally gaining the same rank as him. "Well I guess our teams will be spending a little time together then, won't that be fun?"

...