Sensuality From The Stars

A Hinata x Kiba Fanfiction

Alrighty, so this story is again moving categorizations. I'm changing it to a KibaNata story, because why not, it's a popular pairing and Hinata does go with Kiba in this one. Though the story is classified KibaHina we all know it's a bit more spread out than that. Before anyone asks, there will be no ChouzaKaku. Right now I'm trying to get back into all the projects I so neglectfully left unmessed with on . Zenith is getting more work to it and my pet project is going well.

A warning to all of you straightedge readers. If you haven't noticed, Drugs are going to be a commonly recurring element. For one reason or another this fic will include Opium, Cannabis, Tobacco, Alcohol and all that other stuff. Not sayin do it but it's gonna be in this and they might. If you have a problem with it and haven't already obviously stopped reading because of it, Stop reading here. The "Drug Talk" Isn't going to stop here. That's why my fics are rated M, normally no matter what.

{HR}

Chapter Seven: Crystallization, Realization, Replication

Two months more since Chouji had felt that last feeling of humanity, so far away. Gradually he seemed to be forgetting his life as a human, the fine details of it all; the smell of Ichiraku Ramen, the joy of reading a book in the park, the thrill of ninja missions. They were slowly wiping themselves clean from his mind, all of these old memories. Already his pads were black with Star Cast. He was no master but he had grow to surpass his peers. They no longer faced away from him in the smithing lessons. He kept up with them, twenty levels down from before, where truer metals like Titanium and Gold were alloyed with Star Cast to better the sheen and purity, density and chakra absorption. His paws shone with a reflective glow he didn't know human hands could reproduce. But they weren't human hands now, were they? They had started becoming paws in his time here.

It was strange. As the days went by and Chouji's hands took a beating, his flesh was staining black up his arms, like Kawari's. He had never thought a process, any process, could change human physiology as this was but the swelling, the burning processes. All of this had started to compact Chouji's hand. His fingers were thicker and his palms were growing larger. His thickening nails were blackening on the tips of his fingers. He was definitely changing to a bear, not just emulating the style and life of which. "As you learn at first you will change gradually," Kawari had told him only when his palms had just stated to blacken. "Then the bear within you will grow restless.

"All humans have the potential to form into bears," She had told him, "But, due to living so long outside of proper flesh, you must harden your body back to the shape it wants you to want it to be. Eventually the process will start going more rapidly. You will start visibly changing from day to day. Your skin will blacken and your hair will white." And already the tips of his mane were frosting over. "It is a scary process but it rewards those who finish the path tenfold and more."

"Today." Kawari whispered in his ear as he rose in the morning chill, "We will start you doing something new, Little Cub."

Later that morning Chouji stood sleepily under a tall ceiling that somehow snowed down on him. "Today we teach you the beginnings of the Polar Katas. In a time ago you would have learned these Katas and still kept your humanity but now you must learn them as we do, as a child would learn to walk. Thus so..." The ground under Chouji reached up around his ankles, pulling him into the icy stone, "We will break your legs." Chouji's mind raced in shock. Were they really going to cripple him?

He struggled to get away but Kawari only advanced. The ground snatched up at his arms and pinned him to the ground. Chouji roared in fright, anger. Why were they doing this? "It is a mother's love that compels us to hurt those we care for, oft times." Kawari said, her smile fading as she stood above Chouji, staring into the universe. "A baby bird is forcibly thrown from the nest. If they do not fly they will perish." Kawari leaned down to Chouji's legs, running a finger up and down the left one. "Children of the Polar Clan are similarly put in this dangerous position with the Polar Katas, which have been handed down since the Beast Man, the Founder of this Clan. Normally we don't have to break their legs. They learn it growing up.

"However, your legs are so used to walking like a human they must be broken and retrained." Chouji squirmed, looked at his legs one last time. Kawari placed a hand around his right ankle. Goodbye beloved right...

A snap and Chouji passed out.

He woke, his legs on fire. He moaned and groaned and struggled to hold his legs in his stone slab of a bed, atop furs that didn't help soften the pain at all. It was so painful. He felt his legs gently, trying to hold back the pain. They were so kinked, knotted up and broken in so many places. How would he ever walk again?

You must simply stand and walk that motherly voice whispered. It was Kawari, Chouji had learned quite the while ago. That's how the bird flies. That's how the bear learns his first Kata. You have seen them for days. Why not use them? But Kawari wasn't near and Chouji, no matter how often he tried, couldn't ever stop thinking of a soft, warm figure surrounding him when he heard her voice, the softest voice he had ever heard, like being born into his mother's arms so peacefully.

He gradually slid from his bed, intense pain wracking his every strand of hair. He stood shakily on broken legs, face planting a few times. Each time he hit the cold stone floor that voice would echo in his mind, Just get back up, Little one. Soon you will know what bears are. Soon you will know what you are. And he would struggle again to a stand and start the very first vestiges of the ancient Practice Kata. They wouldn't work yet as they should but he would learn them nonetheless. His legs would heal. Bear didn't suffer crippled limbs so easily as this...

And for five days nobody knocked on the door or fed him or came to him to see if he was alright. In fact, he never saw Kawari once the entire five days he was learning again to walk. At the end, Kawari opened the door to their room and came in. Chouji's eyes were closed, his senses open. The room was frostier than normal. His frozen legs dragged on the floor, just precise enough to stir the polar energies of the room enough to notice. The lower half of his mane of crimson was white as snow and the frost was gradually climbing. He hadn't left the room or smithed for a week yet his hands... the steady change from human hand to hyper-articulate paw was accelerating. Somehow he could tell that his form, however, was not the almighty test. His appearance wouldn't matter as much as the steps that came after his integration into the culture. What concerned him more; He didn't hunger or thirst at all.

"Do your legs feel better?" She asked. As he swept in his practice form he signaled positive to her from his hands. "Very good, Little Cub." She praised him. "You are growing so well." He would have smiled. He felt pride for his achievements. He felt like a child that had done well... and to her he must have been one. This realization brought Chouji back to his proper place. She was his doting mother figure while he was still on the scale of the cubs. Until he would be considered an adolescent, which was decided differently than just age to the bears, she would be his mother; the only light in this harsh reality that he was alone, entirely. But she was a mother, not a sister or a lover.

The presence of her in this doting fashion was a constant reminder to his adult male brain that he wasn't worth notice in the Polar Clan. He was a passing novelty to the other bears. Oh look, a human trying to become a bear... Sure they'd had Kawari's type and this system for ages, entire eons of civilization where humanity just didn't come. Chouji was the fourth person ever to contact the bears, and he had done so through Kuma-Oumono; the almighty Bear King who spoke with the voice of all bear clans and especially the highest order; The Polar Clan. The only way to get in was to contact direct and if you had contracted even one bear aside from a polar bear, one summon at all, the way was barred to you. The Polar Clan does not welcome those with alternate preferences. None of the individuals who had joined had ever done so as Chouji had either. Kawari spoke to him, "But you must learn to feel your legs lest they freeze you down. Many a young bear dies from this cold. It starts at the legs and goes up. By the time you notice you're already dead."

Chouji stopped mid-step. Kawari moved behind him and put her hand on his leg. The pain was terrifying, Chouji growled. "Don't be a baby, now, cub." Kawari said with a giggle. She swung her legs in tandem with his for an hour, her hands moving the same path. He watched her and she watched him, though it was more direct from him. She told him what to do and what not to do. He had still never known how a blind one such as her could teach him and understand the flash language of bear paws or pound out such spectacular pieces without the means with which to see her handiwork. But she did not see with her eyes. She saw with everything else, including something Chouji guessed was unique even among the Polar Clan... Unique to those born blind.

After two more days a full week had gone by. Chouji sat in his room on the bed as a bear would sit. Large legs sitting in half lotus, as was most natural for a bear to sit. His legs crooked but slowly coming to what they wanted to be. His arms were black now, completely. His hair had made no progress but his feet were gradually darkening. They were widening and becoming thicker, taller. His hands were practically paws, minus fur, minus the size of it all. "Beast Man was human originally." Kawari reminded him as he meditated. "He bound himself to winter and trained bears to pound metal ore into shapes, their first true step to sapience. Slowly he became a bearlike man and slew the Archaic bears, which helped him to further his transformation. He devoured their souls, what bears he defeated, and those massive souls powered him, allowed him to capture winter's most ferocious essence in the body of a single woman made of snow, whom he called Yuki-Onna. She gained flesh of blue afterward and bore his daughter, the Snow Child. When she shed her mortal flesh one day and became the first snowflakes to fall upon the world the Beast Man lamented and cut his love free from her body of blue flesh, seeing his wife's desire to live apart from him in their daughter. She became again the raging blizzards of Hyōga Sanmyaku and The Beast Man wandered off into the blizzards to be with her and their child again."

Chouji had researched this but every time Kawari told it to him he liked it. "How do your legs feel?" Chouji signed positive. He didn't feel them anymore, his legs. He knew their status but could cease caring. "Very good, Little Cub. You have been so long away from your friends, though, that they may have grown restless without you, another friend. You must go to them, your new peers and fellow students. You have much practice to do and less time than any proper bear would stand for.

And when she brought him to his new "classroom" he found friend was another word, in Hyōga Sanmyaku, that didn't necessarily mean what you might have thought. These cubs were bigger. This class was for the Polar Katas, for fighting in the true polar method, as adolescents learned. Something told Chouji that four years would certainly not be enough... but he had to do it nonetheless...

In The Jungle Country

Naruto organized around the site of the new village. People had come far and wide to assist in Konoha's plight. Intelligence had reported Hinata was taking over, more or less. The stir Naruto had caused two months before only proved to put her and the council further into control. The civilians were helpless without authority. Hinata had taken her father's example. She was that authority now. The rest of the Council seemed to just step aside for her at this point. She really had taken over.

Meanwhile Shikaku and Chouza continued their lives as young Sadhu. Naruto would come to them now and again to ask advice. The would stir wisdom up from... somewhere, and he would go away. Chouza was thinning out, though both their hair was steadily growing back. Shikaku's hair was a long stubble now. He rubbed ash in his hair now after every bowl. The otherwise black strands were stained gray from all the ashes. Chouza's red mane was already growing back nicely, dreading properly, as he would have wanted. It grew significantly faster than Shikaku's but who was really keeping track? They smoked, day in, day out. Shikaku had chosen to take on Hatha Yoga. Chouza chose "Buddha's Palm Tai Chi."

Presently Chouza ran his open hands along some unseen line and Shikaku had contorted himself into something vaguely resembling a pretzel. People came from far and wide not only because of the new village in he making, of which nobody quite had a name for yet, but for the Holy Men that had started there. Some people were snide about it; disrespectful, perhaps even slanderous, saying the two men were just putting on a show in this troubled time. These accusations didn't phase the men. More often than not, however, the people who came for Shikaku and Chouza were there for guidance or learning. The two young Sadhu were drawing people to the cause only by existing. Everything they received they gave away and everything they needed, if they felt someone else needed it more, they gave it to them instead.

It was dangerous, the path of Sadhu. They could feel it, as their minds connected to a higher plane they could start to feel their bodies slowly slipping away into destruction, suffering, death as life portrays it. It was so soon and already they were aware of it. Were they remembering or were they hallucinating, Shikaku had asked Chouza more than once. Chouza just shook his head with a smile every time. "Are the two so different?" he would ask back. They were getting coherent flashes every now and then; nothing serious or important but very real nonetheless.

Naruto stepped up to the two of them. Neither moved. "Why me?" he asked, conflict in his voice.

Chouza was the one to answer him. "Isn't it what you wanted?"

"Yes," he answered. "But now I don't."

"Then that is why." The former Akimichi answered, "As long as you wanted it you couldn't have it, but as soon as you relinquish your desire for it you will attain it, or at least be content until it comes to you."

Naruto looked at the ground. The village's colors had been decided as black and green, which Naruto was garbed in as the Kage of the new village. The straw hat of the Kage on his head. "Sit with us..." Shikaku muttered, disentangling a leg from behind his head and loading his chillum. "Relax a moment, Kage-Sama."

Naruto hesitantly sat. They handed him the chillum. He reluctantly smoked it. "Third used to smoke too." Chouza said, still doing his Tai Chi. "Gave him a hole new point of view. Allowed him better crystal ball gazing."

Naruto coughed and Shikaku chuckled quietly. He'd learned how better to smoke with Chouza in these past couple months. Those large clouds Chouza was training him for still eluded him but there was progress, of this he could tell. Naruto couldn't hold nor hit well. "I'm trying to work all of this.." Naruto said slowly. "But it's so much. It's tiring."

Chouza rumbled in thought as Shikaku smoked with Naruto, his hands gently waving through the air. "Stop worrying about what isn't." Shikaku said with a grin, "If you can, do."

Naruto opened his mouth to say something but Ino's voice reached their ears before he could speak. "Uzumaki-Sama!" She called to him from a ways away. Shikaku's smile grew and he made a noise of contentedness. Naruto swore under his breath. "Why's she gotta call me that?" he mumbled, "Why can't she just keep calling me Naruto like before?"

Ino stepped up and looked at Chouza and Shikaku. She had grown a bit of contempt for them as of late. They had simply stopped. Nobody was told when they shaved their hair, claimed asceticism, so forth. But they had done it nonetheless. She believed, it was clear to see, that Chouza and Shikaku had very tangible material attachments in this world, an that they had no business leaving it all behind to stretch and smoke. She was still also very sore about her father, whom Hinata had put into intensive care, who was still in Konoha taken care of by the enemy. "You need to come back to the Council Room, Uzumaki-sama. The Aburame have come as an entire Clan." She said, her eyes never leaving Shikaku or Chouza. "There are things to talk about. You shouldn't be out here, wasting your time with smelly men..." The directivity in her eyes was very clear.

Naruto sighed and gave a longing look to the blanket they sat on before stepping away. "I think she dislikes us, brother." Chouza said, having never opened his eyes or ceased his Tai Chi.

"In time she'll learn what's up." Shikaku sad calmly, lighting a cigarette. He lifted his body from the ground with a hand and unbent himself, straightening out and contorting a different way, one leg behind his head and the other supporting him. He formed mudras in both hands, standing.

"In time we'll have a guest who will join us." Chouza said, changing his form subtly.

"I think it's time we make a move ourselves..." Shikaku said quietly

Chouza stopped his form. "Hmm... Maybe. Don't let them say we never helped out after our vows." Shikaku grinned. They collected their things, ritually extinguished the Dhuni and disappeared.

Ino came back later, only to find them gone, heart flame extinguished. She huffed angrily at this. She had come, for once, for advice. She didn't now what to do about any of this and she had needed to talk to them specifically about it... How was she to handle this place without them? There was nobody here who was really her friend or family. She was so alone. Naruto was the new Kage, Shikamaru and Chouji's fathers had become Sadhu Holy Men or whatever. Her mother was in Konoha at their flower shop, unable to leave, her Father was near death, her teammates, gone; one near death right next to her dad and the other having renounced ever even being a human in the first place. He would never speak to her again. He would never speak...

How was she to live any longer, with so much taken from her in the world? She fell to her knees and pounded the earth, she screamed and cried and hit the ground and... She was gone

In Konohagakure No Sato

"So wait... you mean we just have to start walking... and eventually we get there?" Shikaku's voice asked in the distance.

"Ya, guess that's how it worked." Chouza responded as they neared the gate.

"Holy Hell..." Shikaku's voice droned a bit, though still pleased. "This is really the way to get around. Don't know why I hadn't thought of it before."

"Really is the cheapest and safest way to travel." Only hours before they had left the Jungle Country, some countries away past both Sand and Earth Country and all the others. Naruto had made it in a day because he had been Kyuubi. Lee made it in a day because he could just run that fast. Both had been exhausted. It was many days journey if not more. Chouza and Shikaku didn't have to walk long, just so long as they walked. Or so it seemed.

As they reached the gate and came into the opening, which had been closed to the width of two horses abreast, they were stopped. Two ninja came up to them, both masked. The two young Sadhu smiled. "Who are you and what business do you have in Konohagakure No Sato?" the taller asked.

"Just two old men traveling the path of the Dharma." Chouza spoke for Shikaku. Without their previous, splendorous hair they weren't easily recognized. Chouza's slacking torso flesh was marred so heavily by tattoos that nobody would just look at his cheeks and see him for who he really was. Neither had been seen so bare of clothing in public of Konoha... ever. This would be easy if they could just get in.

The guards looked them up and down, checked a list. "Konoha is experiencing personal unrest right now. We are not letting any travelers into the city. What are your names"

"We have been traveling a long road, my friend." Shikaku cut in. "All we need is to have of food and drink for our wasting bodies. Please, if for only a night, let us stay in this village. We mean no harm." Chouza said a prayer and formed a mudra, thumping his walking stick on the ground ominously.

The guard seemed unsure. He checked his papers again, then looked them up and down. "What are your names?" He asked again.

Chouza's mantras raised in volume; deeper and longer. His staff thumped to the sound of his prayer. "What do names mean in the path to enlightenment, Sir?" Shikaku asked with a smile, half lidded and red eyed. "We follow in the footsteps of divinity. For we only have so long to live we embrace our coming deaths with grace. We hope only to be comfortable and wise in our ending times."

They stepped closer to the guard that had the papers. The supporting guard looked unsure of quite what to do as well. Chouza's prayer, Shikaku's preaching. Eventually... they let them pass. People caved under so much faith being forced into their face, especially when they're just trying to do their job as these guards had been. Shikaku and Chouza chuckled quietly as they walked away from the gate into the village. They asked some civilians for alms for a time. They walked around, seeing the village again for what it was, what it had become. It hadn't changed on the outside. People still went along the daily grind. But there was no life in it anymore. They stopped into Ichiraku Ramen. The proprietor didn't even have the thought to look at their faces. His eyes, as well as his daughter's, were on the entry, careful for anyone who would be suspicious. Anyone who would look to be starting trouble.

After a brief meal with the last of their coins Shikaku stood and walked out. Chouza stayed for a moment, looking to Ayame as her father ducked into the back room. "Young woman," Chouza sad with a sweet sort of smile as he loaded his pipe, "You know what's happening. If you feel you ever need to get away..." Chouza dropped two pieces of paper on the table, each with a small letter on them. "Just hold one in your hand and start walking. You will reach salvation safely. The other is for your father as thanks for the wonderful meal. I am afraid we must be away."

Ayame was frozen stiff as he walked out. Maybe she noticed him. Maybe not... Shikaku was waiting some ways off. He leaned on his cane as Chouza lit his pipe, the green buds burning away to milky smoke in his lungs. "We should find our friend." Shikaku nodded.

They went to the hospital, giving blessings and prayers and willing themselves seen but unrecognized. Surprisingly, so long as they pictured themselves unnoticed, they were. They walked past his room. Two beds: One Nara Shikamaru, One Yamanaka Inoichi. "Looking better, I see, old friend." Shikaku said with a smile.

"Your son's not half bad either..." Chouza chuckled stonily. "So now?"

"A moment." the Elder Nara requested. "The peace is so nice right now."

"Indeed..." Chouza agreed.

Meanwhile

Hanabi walked to the Aburame compound. She had healed from Naruto's reaction to the Lavender Glow. How had that happened, she wondered. But it was no time to loom on other things. Shino had been warming up to her slowly, definitely. It was a good time to start hinting at just what had been going on. She trusted Shino now, understood him well enough to see the outcomes. It wouldn't be too long until he would be convincing the Aburame of their intentions. They had been talking more meaningfully as of late. Shino had bee becoming more open by leaps and bounds. Some minutes of the several hours she would spend with him when she visited, she even suspected he trusted her as well. How well she had been the actress. How much this had paid off. Kiba and Hinata had told her that she was doing better than they could have, praising her every time she reported.

But There Always Comes A Time In An Actor's Career Where They Get Shown Up By A Better Actor...

There was something off about the compound today. As Hanabi walked in there was a distinct difference, something she couldn't have not been keenly aware of. The bugs were... nowhere. Of course she never directly saw them previous times but the aura, the very presence of so many bugs had always alerted Hanabi to it all. Today, however, there was no bug presence. For the first time since she had learned "lead-sight penetration" Hanabi used her Byakugan outside the private apartment. Veins bulged from beside her eyes. She set it low and the world spun into colors. Inside the lead selectively blacked out things. She had to use chakra to push that limit and train it. Out here where there was no lead to block her sight she had to work constantly jut to keep her senses from being completely overloaded. She had become so well developed in her Byakugan it had started to become a bother to her at a whim.

So she focused it to the Aburame compound. Everyone was gone. There were no bugs, no people, no fresh food or filled refrigerators, no electricity running and no tubs filled and occupied. Nobody was on the toilet, nobody was in bed... All save one Aburame paired with a mass of Kikaichu in the center of the compound. It was clearly Shino.

She walked to him quickly. She found him in the grand room at the heart of the compound, sitting on a couch, staring at the floor through his sunglasses. "What happened, Hanabi-san?" He asked as she stepped in the room. Hanabi hesitated she slid into fighting stance. Shino continued, "I don't want to fight you, Hanabi-san." he said simply, "I just want peace. If it weren't for my Kikaichu I would be yet another man on a table in the hospital and you did it knowing that it was a possibility."

Hanabi sighed. "I did. I did it all so you would follow the wisdom of the Lavender Glow. You still can..."

Shino stood and shook his head. He lifted a large gourd from the couch. It was full of Kikaichu. Shino must have just gotten it, for Hanabi hadn't ever seen it. "I'm sorry to say my kindness to you after our first time was an act..." Hanabi was taken aback. Was he serious? "My Kikaichu tell me what is wrong. They told me you were a poison to me but I trusted them to take care of me and they did. All those times I did it so I could figure it all out, so you would have time to come out and tell me..."

"I meant no harm, Shino-san." Hanabi tried to cover herself

Shino wasn't having it. "It was a marvelous play but unfortunately both of us were actors without an audience." Shino turned away from her and took a step, "I'm leaving to where my clan is now." He said simply.

"Shino-san, don't go!" Hanabi said as he turned away. "What about us talking and all the ground we covered?"

"An act..." Shino said. Then he disappeared.

Hanabi couldn't see him... it had been a clone... Now another man she could have saved had gotten away...

She went to the apartment, sat in the place Chouji's bed had been. They had destroyed it, Hinata and Kiba. They didn't want to be reminded of it. Hanabi had broken into tears. That smell that she treasured so well... how would she remember it now? She had cried and begged for them to undo what had been done but it was well too late by the time Hanabi found out. She probed the world outside, everywhere, all things. She wanted to find him, Akimichi Chouji. Earth Country, Water Country, River Country, Fire Country, Snow Country... none of the above or anywhere else Hanabi knew to look.

Hinata was behind her. "You let Shino go..." She wasn't pleased. Hanabi nodded. "You let the entire compound go?" Hanabi could hear anger in Hinata's voice. She'd never heard that from her sister. She kept her eyes closed. She could see her but Hinata was not someone she wanted to look at right then. She nodded.

Kiba came in through the door, "Hinata!" He spoke, rushing into he apartment as Hinata shook with anger next to her younger sister, "Let's not get rash here. Hanabi-chan couldn't help it. She didn't know."

"Why didn't she know?" Hinata asked.

"Well come on, Aburame's a slippery bunch, right?" Kiba was trying to make it better than it was, much better. Hanabi wanted nothing to do with it anymore.

"How could she not be watching them!" Hinata cried out into the apartment. "We have the byakugan. She should have just been watching them daily! Why have you been staying down here in this lead lined box when you should have been watching Shino?" Hinata's fists shook at her sides. She was so close. Hanabi needed no wall of lead to see Hinata's emotions welling up within her.

"Why couldn't you, Onee-Sama?" Hanabi asked simply, her eyes closed as she scanned the world.

"I have had my eyes on many others..." Hinata said, her hands reached to Hanabi and pulled her off the floor by the shirt. "And all I asked you to do was keep track of Aburame Shino! It shouldn't have been too hard!" Kiba stepped toward Hinata but she looked back at him. He froze in place, unsure. Hanabi still hadn't opened her eyes. "Do you know how important Aburame was to us?" She asked seriously, "We can only go so far with me at head of Hyuuga and Kiba at Inuzuka, recruiting. With Aburame on our side we could have taken all of Konoha and just sorted out the rest in due order."

Hanabi said nothing. Hinata shook her. "Does none of this make sense to you, Hanabi?" She screamed in her sister's face, "Do you know what happens to us if we fail all of this? WE ALL DIE! THEY WILL KILL US ALL!"

"Stop it Hinata!" Kiba called but Hinata pointed a fingertip at him and sent him flying against the far wall with a string of lightning.

"Do you see what you have become, Onee-Sama?" Hanabi asked blandly, quietly, so only her and Hinata would hear it. She hung limp in Hinata's arms but looked up at her, eyes open now. "What have you made yourself into?" She asked, "Father asked us... What would mother say?" Hinata paused. Hanabi closed her eyes again, fleeing back into the crisper-than-life byakugan vision. It hurt less that way at least...

First Hinata's body welled with confusion, then anger, disappointment, anger again, (This emotion lingered beyond all the others) joy was brief, instant, but then, immediately, the final swelling of rage.

The world went white...

"You want to do another service for the Lavender Glow, right?" Her older sister's voice echoed in her unconscious mind.

"Of course... Onee-Sama... I would do anything for the Lavender Stone..."

In Konoha Proper

Jigoku Bo-n Dagonet stood in front of Chouza and Shikaku. Inoichi lay over Chouza's shoulder and Shikamaru in his father's arms. "That all ya came the get?" He asked with a grin.

Chouza looked to Shikaku and smiled softly. "You or me, old friend?"

Shikaku handed Shikamaru off to Chouza. "You be off, my brother. Tell Inoichi what's what when you get back."

"Don't take too long." Chouza smiled as he walked forward toward Dag.

And walked right past. "Do you know who you're working for, Dago-san?" Shikaku asked him, sitting down, Dagonet doing the same.

Dagonet nodded. "The good of the people..."

Shikaku started smoking. "Do you know who I am, and my friend?"

"No..." He answered solemnly

"That was my son and a good friend of mine." Dagonet's face screwed up for a second, then it dawned on him. "Now he sees it." Shikaku grinned, "Your eyes are closed to the possibilities. Come with us, please. You have nothing worth protecting here."

Dagonet hesitated. "How do 'ah know?" He asked in his heavy accent.

"You don't." Shikaku said simply, "Unless you do." Dagonet raised an eyebrow. "Don't let Hiashi's death be in vain, Jigoku Bo-n Dagonet. Just trust your gut. Something's not right here and you want to find it out. We know..."

Dagonet paused. Shikaku stood. The wind blew. "When you want, start walking. You'll find us." Shikaku was gone.

In The Jungle Country

"I just can't stop appreciating just how useful this whole thing is." Shikaku said as they came back to the site of their Dhuni. Shikamaru was in Shikaku's arms again. Inoichi in Chouza's. "It's like, Just do it. And I'm like, Okay. And it just happens."

"Just gotta do it." Chouza confirmed.

"Who knew." Shikaku joked.

Naruto stood past the Dhuni, a frown upon his lips. "You traveled to Konoha..." He said blandly.

"Oh ya. Brought a couple guests as well." Chouza said. "They are recovering but they will be fine."

"Where is Ino-chan?" Naruto asked.

Chouza and Shikaku pointed at the ground. No they didn't really know but that was where she was. Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"Well don't stare at us, start digging." Shikaku said as he and Chouza wandered toward the village proper.

Naruto was, to say the least, distraught. Ino was in the ground? Start digging? Had they played this trick? Couldn't be, they had gone to Konoha! That was more than a week of fast journeying though. Nothing made sense anymore. Hinata was the bad guy, Chouza and Shikaku were holy men, Chouji had renounced humanity. Ino was in the ground?

So he dug! He would dig for his life if what they said was true. And as he dug, strangely, nobody came to help him. Chouza and Shikaku didn't return. He dug futilely at the dirt, feet in for hours. Something cut his hands, sharp and hard. He dug around it. It made a shape, a big crystal column. Another; a third and fourth. And inside Ino floated intangibly.

And Ino had once thought Naruto was strange... What the hell was going on?

Naruto punched at the crystals the imprisoned the blond, scratched, bit and kicked at it. Eventually a cracking noise came. Naruto paused, then went to kick it once more but no sooner did he go in for the kick did the crystals recede away from him, into Yamanaka Ino.

And she opened her eyes and looked at Naruto. The dull blue orbs they used to be had gained a sheen of some sort. Her hair, though still blond, seemed to sparkle a bit more. Her fair skin had a glow to it that he hadn't seen before.

"Young love, huh?" Shikaku joked from some hundred yards away.

"Oh ya." Chouza agreed. "She'll like her new gifts."

"Diamond are a girl's best friend, right?" Shikaku laughed

"Flowers are better." Chouza said, presenting his friend a large, deep blue bud. He smiled and packed it into a pipe.

"They do run a shop." Shikaku said.

Back In Konohagakure No Sato

"Yamanaka Inoichi and Nara Shikamaru have been taken?" Hinata asked one of her officials. They nodded. "This must not be allowed to spread. Where was Jigoku Bo-n Dagonet?"

"He seems to have gone missing, Hinata-sama." She swore inwardly. What had she become indeed?

She found herself in her bed sooner than expected, toying with the Lavender Stone. Why didn't it speak to her as much anymore? Why couldn't it tell her how to fix her problems anymore. She stared into the glow for a time and then, suddenly, something hit her mind. He presence of more, looming just beyond the sky. It would only be a few days. The first would fall tonight... And when they fell they would be found one way or the other! All would sort itself out, as the Lavender Glow stated!

Hinata was filled with joy. Nara Shikamaru and Yamanaka Inoichi were gone, the Aburame as well... But they now had reinforcements, People who would make themselves known in the months to come as believing supremely in the Lavender Glow. They would understand the heat, the urge. They would help unify everyone.

She sat up and held the stone between her two hands, slowly parting them. She didn't know why but... The stone stayed between her hands, floating serenely. She was beginning to feel it more all of the sudden; the calls, the urges, the commands in her own mind. Hanabi, poor sweet Hanabi.. she was so misguided. Hinata had been rash, as Kiba had warned her against. But Hanabi would come around. She was a good girl, indeed. Hinata needed only make Hanabi remember how much she loved her.

Even if it killed her.

Elsewhere

Hanabi lay in the mud, in the rain. Her body ached, her head pounded.

"Go out and throw yourself to the ground, Little Sister. Meditate on what we have been given and what we may do to return our favor to the Lavender Glow" Hinata had ordered her

And so, because it was the word of the Lavender Glow through her sister, which could not be denied, Hanabi was rolling in the mud, her mind a twist of emotions. There was nobody around; Hanabi had slipped far from the village, invisible. The Lavender Glow pulled at her mind; playing with it, toying with her thoughts all the time! It was so wise and yet Hanabi's mind couldn't take it. It felt like her brain would melt.

She couldn't get Chouji out of her mind. Chouji wouldn't stop shaking his head, so disapproving. "Stop it! Stop It!" She cried into the mud, pulling at her raven locks in pain, eyes full of tears. "I don't want this anymore! Give me my beloved back! Take this burden from my hands!"

A thump. She looked up. A stone, lavender. It captivated her. She reached for it and an edge drew blood. There was no hesitation. Hanabi pulled it to her bosom, ignoring the cut on her hand, the lavender illness that spread up her arm for hours painfully. Her mind warped. She stared into the dimples of the lavender stone, leering into it's glow. A small smile twisted onto her lips. "I love you, Chouji-sama." She whispered into the stone, "I will forever serve you, Chouji-sama. Please... take me back."

…,...

Hours later Hanabi knocked gently on her sister's door. Hinata opened it and looked at Hanabi, soaked and muddy with a rock in her hand and a smile about her face, twisted into place like a mad woman. The taint of the Lavender glow had crawled near up her entire arm, which twitched uncontrollably as it held the Lavender Stone. Hinata hadn't seen a reaction quite this intense. "O-Onee-S-Sama..." Hanabi spoke, as though trying to translate her thoughts from a different language first. "I've.. thought about what you said. I've found the answer!"

Hinata smiled and opened her door, letting her sister in. Hanabi embraced her. "The L-Lavender Stone t-told me it would be okay..." Hanabi stuttered into Hinata's chest, her hand dripping blood on the floor.

Hinata only just processed the negativity behind this entire situation. Hanabi's mind was breaking. This was all getting to be too much for her. And worse yet the Stone picked her specifically. She was pricked, the blood on Hinata's own floor proved it. The lavender infection that would fade in a day marred her entire arm. And Hinata only had it cover her hand... Hinata couldn't turn this down. It was a request from On High. The Lavender Glow demanded it. "I am sorry for bothering you... Onee-Sama." Hanabi muttered into Hinata's breasts. "I'm... going to go sleep now..."

And Hanabi wondered off. Hinata sighed in worry as she did. After some time, secure in the Hyuuga Head's quarters where the Byakugan couldn't reach but could reach out of, Hinata spied on her sister. Subtly at first, just the wing, the hall... the room. Inside... Was this really Hanabi's room? Was this Hanabi?

Hinata's Byakugan was well practiced, perhaps as much as Neji's. But she had never been given a chakra signal like this. Hanabi's chakra burst out in all directions from within, leaking out. The energy came from her eyes, same as Hinata's eyes but much more... was powerful the right word? Hinata didn't even know what this would be called. She'd never seen it in another Hyuuga, and she could even look at herself. The little dot of lavender in the middle was the stone but from her little sister's eyes was a barely secured network of pure energy trying to push out. Hinata had seen her sister through her Byakugan days before. Something was changing drastically. Little did she know that Hanabi's byakugan had far surpassed hers...

"Because... right now... Onee-Sama is watching me..." Hanabi said to the stone she rolled it about the bed next to her. She was coming to know what this power was, her eyes. She couldn't turn it off anymore. Her eyes just saw. The only way to stop it was to run to the apartment or sleep. Under all the lead Hanabi could at least block everything out. Even now the room where Byakugan normally couldn't reach into, where the head of the Head Family could sit in peace from the prying eyes of the Hyuuga. It was so tiring how she saw even while asleep, though at least sleep could quiet the overload. What was happening to her mind? "I love you... Chouji-Sama..." She muttered to the stone, eyes all alight on it. "But I can't have you here... Because right now... Onee-Sama is Watching me..." She could see Hinata watching her, Kiba smelling the air a couple miles away, hundreds of Hyuuga eyes pointed all sorts of directions, Dosso and Vagabond in the forest calling their packs to join together to make a huge, super-pack.

At one point she swore she saw Naruto and Chouza and Shikaku. Shikamaru, Rock Lee and Ino. But Akimichi Chouji was not with his father. Why was she even looking. She forgot the location immediately. Slowly the pane of glass was bending and cracking. Was it too hot in there? Did she put a window too big in a place too small? Was someone at the door? Did it all need to be opened up and cleared out? Hanabi grinned in dumbfounded ecstasy for the night, her eyes never leaving the stone, her mind never leaving her own delusions... She saw everything and, as she processed more and more, everything started making less and less sense.

And in Hyōga Sanmyaku Chouji awoken in a cold sweat with a fright, a deep growl in the bottom of his throat. Kawari woke next to him, groggy for the first time he had ever seen. "Go back to sleep, Little Cub. Do not worry yourself for the progress of your friends. They will do what is done..." Her words were partly mashed up from her being half asleep but Chouji understood the enough. He wiped the tears from his eyes and nodded, laying back down and letting her arm lace around his body again.

{HR}