A/N: Ah! I'm so sorry this took so long! I've been finishing the summer term in Uni, gone through surgery, done a whole lot of gardening and… stuff. Real Life does get in the way a lot, huh? Well, anything is real, it can be argued, and so the distinction between fiction and factuality is but a construct – but we can argue existential philosophy elsewhere!
For now, I give you… the next chapter!
Chapter 7: In the Hands of the Clans
One of the things Naruto noticed about the folder in his hands was how much it had been censored.
The censoring was in regards to a single piece of information: the identity of his parents. But as that was a large portion of the concluding chapter of the report on him and his physiological state it was… oddly disorienting to see entire paragraphs and even pages consisting of more blacked over lines than readable words. Whenever his parents were mentioned elsewhere it was as Progenitor X, his mother by the use of the word 'her' in the subjective term, and Progenitor Y, his father, and as little else.
Still, what lay before him was obvious… and with a little help from Shizune and Kakashi, even he could understand what it was saying.
In the genes passed down by Progenitor Y the potential for this expression of power has lain dormant since birth. It would seem, by our investigations, that the presence of the Bijū has caused codename: Arctic Fox, to trigger this potential unwittingly. Thus we propose the commencing of the Hyōton Initiative posthaste. See further plans in Appendix 1 and possible future directives in Appendix 2.
But there were no appendixes… not that he had cared the first time he had read the damn thing through. The pictures, the pictures of organs and blood and skin and seal taken by a high definition camera meant to capture the dissection of captured enemy specimens, was of him. That was his own liver on that picture. That was his own heart.
"Huh" he frowned as he held up a picture of a darkly red lump that seemed to be in the midst of a thump when the image was taken, cocking his head to the side as he looked on that picture. "So this is what makes me live-attebayo. Sort of disgusting to look at, actually. Who knew?"
"Naruto-kun" Shizune, who was sitting next to him on the edge of his bed while Kakashi was standing mere feet away in his kitchenette, spoke softly, like a real big sister would. "Are you alright?"
"Do I look alright?" he turned to her and flashed her a grin, his blue eyes rubbed raw, bloodshot and more than a little crazed. "You've got to tell me, because I've no idea-ttebayo. I've been awake for… I don't even know no more".
"Your grammar is slipping" Kakashi noted as he made yet another cup of disgustingly cheap and foul-tasting instant coffee instead of the more common tea.
"I don't give a shite" Naruto looked back to Shizune, lifting a hand to his eyes to find it shaking like an aspen leaf. "How long…?"
"It's nearly dawn" she informed him. "And you haven't had a single sip of coffee-"
"Because it tastes like rubbish" Naruto muttered. "Especially with how Kakashi-sensei makes it".
"No one, not even with your stamina, can go on forever" she told him as if he didn't already know. "And learning this kind of thing… it can be tiresome".
"Learning that your obaachan is just the same as Orochimaru?" Naruto perked an eyebrow. "It doesn't make me tired. It pisses me the fuck off. She likes me – you think I don't notice the way she dotes on me? – so what kind of shite would she do to someone she didn't like as much? If Sakura-chan had a new Kekkei Genkai, or Bushy-brow, or Hinat-" he stopped dead in his words as the anger in him grew too much for civilised utterance. "If Hinata-chan had some new shite in her blood, what kind of thing would the old hag do to her?"
"Aren't you pissed off at her for what she did to you personally?" Even Kakashi was surprised. Even for Naruto this was a little too altruistic to be the same Naruto they had once known.
"I'd prefer it if she staggered the damn thing out and told me the fucking truth-attebayo" he grumbled. "That's what I'd fucking prefer, but I ain't getting that, am I?"
"Naruto, I was there and-" Kakashi spoke, but the look that rose to him from across the room made his words die in his breast. It was the hard, icy stare of blazing, burning blue that he had seen so long ago when his old sensei had fixed his gaze on those he did not approve of. Like father, like son… and blood would always tell.
"Where's the appendix?" he even sounded different as his eyes went to Shizune, and her hand, almost without her prompting, reached for her bag again, pulling out a small bundle of papers whose heading seemed to indicate they were the last and missing pieces to the puzzle.
"I thought it was best to ease you into it" her eyes were fixed on the floor as she handed the folder over while Kakashi too gave her a look. "It's… it's something else". And so Naruto scanned the first page in his hand, the words beneath the short introduction harrowing him down to his soul.
1.1.1: Commencement of Phase 2 of the Initiative. As the subject would be with 98 percent certainty a Kage-level shinobi upon awakening the Hyōton, their strength will need to be out to use right away. A show of force would be recommended, favourably towards Iwagakure or Kirigakure operatives. If the alliance with Sunagakure breaks down then they are a potential target as well. The subject would attack crops and the environment, causing starvation as the harvests are ruined, leading to mass defection and a great drop in morale. In such an occasion an encroachment and overtaking of currently disputed border regions can be readily done.
1.2.1: Commencement of Phase 3: Once the show of force in phase 2 has made our enemies dissuaded from attacking us we will need to maintain our strength. As artificially grown embryos or clones rarely, if ever, have any chakra potential whatsoever, the subject would have to sexually inseminate several succession candidate females (a list of which is included, see below). The application of insemination by force would be acceptable if necessary.
1.2.2: Once insemination is complete chakra would be extracted from the Bijū. This chakra, in small amounts, would then be made to come in contact with the chakra of eventual offspring in virto, ensuring by our now collected data the awakening of the potential within the offspring. The danger to the mothers, of course, is permissible: only a 20 percent chance of death onto exposure by the said demonic chakra. Embryos, meanwhile, would have a 50 percent chance of surviving to the point of birth. If a loss occurs, ergo miscarriage, the candidate mother that has lost the embryo will be put through the first step of phase 3 again until their efforts bears living fruit.
1.2.3: Any products of a successful birthing would be put under the banner of the subsidiary project "Frozen Roots" and raised away from Konoha in an underground facility. See the loyalty manipulation, propaganda insertion and mental indoctrination research conducted by Shimura researchers for the following procedures, documented in detail in the eventual case folders. Eventual inbreeding between these products of the program will ensure a higher concentration of the traits we are seeking. If the power fails to manifest by age 13, the candidates will be placed under observation in solitary confinement, and if no further sign is shown by age 20 they will be considered a failure and terminated. The usefulness of such failures as test subjects are disputable and questionable at best.
1.2.4: Captive kunoichi from hostile forces are included as candidates for phase 3 impregnation, as are all foreign kunoichi and civilian women by default. Female defectors from Konoha will be prioritised and continually put through phase 3 until the point of death. This will serve as their method of execution. Any-
No. He couldn't read this anymore.
Naruto pulled the folder away from his face, his breathing heavy, his hands shaking properly now, and in a rageful gesture he hurled the papers aside, scattering them against the wall beside his bed so that they scattered all over the floor of his flat. His tiredness from before was forgotten now, fully and utterly, as he out his hands to his head. No, he wasn't tired. In fact he was full of energy.
He wanted to go out and hit something. Or someone. Hit them harder than he had ever hit anything else ever before.
Ancestors help him, was this feeling in his heart how it was like to hate?
"The council got a modified report by all accounts" Shizune said slowly "one that did not include the postscript. As far as we can tell, only Kakashi-san, you and I are the ones that know of this outside of Tsunade".
"I heard her talking vaguely of breeding before" Kakashi added sombrely as he watched his student stew in his own torment. "It was just ideas, suggestions, and possible candidates for it. But it seems she included something Orochimaru suggested in his own reports and research on Kekkei Genkai maintenance. I didn't know myself until Shizune-san showed me the other day before we went to Gai's party".
"It's a monstrous suggestion" Shizune shook her head in clear revulsion. "Legalized rape, with every female civilian and foreign kunoichi an acceptable target outside of criminals and specially selected Konoha women? A whole mass of children brought up as brain-washed slaves meant to breed and kill each other like animals… no, not even beasts would be so disgusting".
"There's worse stuff in it" Kakashi noted "arguably. A couple on controlling you, actually, and how to kill you if you get unruly. It's all… suggestions, plans, concepts. I doubt very much of it is anything more than an attempt to see what options they have. Still, to even think of such solutions as viable-"
"Fuck up" Naruto growled like a wounded fox on its last leg, wanting to stick his fingers in his ears and scratch and pick and tear until blood came out and he couldn't hear any more of this ever again. "Just fuck up and stop talking!"
"Naruto-kun-" Shizune reached for him, but her jerked away, hurt burning in his eyes.
"Why did you show this to me, neesan?" he asked, sounding, for the first time in ages, like the child he actually was. "I… I didn't want to know. I mean I – I wanted to know, but not… not this".
"One possible plan had you establish a client village on Nanakusa Island inhabited only by female shinobi from all over the elemental nations" Kakashi wouldn't let up, mercilessly going on. "A beach-side harem, essentially. I'd prefer that one, personally… but without fighting, cut off from your dreams and your comrades facing Akatsuki I don't think you would".
"Kakashi-san" Shizune warned.
"Yet another was more economically viable. Tsunade would hire you out to clans and other villages like a breeding stallion in return for profit. After all: if power is matched then it might not as well exist at all, and if everyone had it" Kakashi pressed on as he watched his disciple curl in on himself in a rocking motion. "The Leaf would be rich, you'd get to sleep with all the noble lasses, and have plenty of children and comfort. But never be Hokage, never marry, and never have a real family-"
"Fuck up, sensei!" Naruto pleaded, the tears threatening to spill over from his already misting eyes. "Just stop it! Why won't you shut up? Why?!"
"Because you need to see" Kakashi spoke darkly and reached down as he placed himself before Naruto, reaching down to pick up a single paper from the folder: a list of names of women reduced to nothing but breeding stock. "This" Kakashi flicked the paper with his index finger so it made a small bang of a noise "this is what she'd reduce us to. Konoha, the spirit of the hallowed ancestors, our Will of Fire… this is what Tsunade, Danzō, Orochimaru – even Sasuke if he got the chance! – would make of it all. In their pursuit of safety and power, seeking to keep us strong, they would destroy all that we are".
"It's not the village that's broken, Naruto-kun" Shizune assured him in an almost motherly tone. "The Hokage before her… they are proof of that". She thought back to that one day when Kakashi had broken into her home and made her see the truth. "It's not the institutions that are faulty – it rarely is – but the people leading them".
"We need a new Hokage, Naruto" Kakashi crouched down before the boy and looked deep into his cerulean eyes. "You. We need you to become who you were always meant to be" he put the paper away and took his student's hand. "We need you to lead the Leaf to a better tomorrow".
"I-" a shiver went through him, and as he only had done a few times in his life he felt truly and utterly powerless. "What if I can't?" he asked softly. "What if-"
"Don't doubt yourself" Kakashi reprimanded. "I never have doubted you or your potential. I believe, with all my heart, that yours is the Mandate of Heaven. I believe in you".
"And so do I" Shizune laid a hand upon his shoulder.
"What do we do?" Naruto asked slowly then. "Where do we go from here?"
"For now we wait" Shizune seemed to take the lead, remembering Kakashi's hesitance against being in charge of things such as these. "There will be a meeting with the council today, and without knowing what they decide we will need to hold back. After that… we make alliances. We appeal to your friends. We bring the truth into light. And then we make sure we-" she stiffened, her hand shooting from Naruto's shoulder, a flinty sharpness in her stare as she looked out the window to the dawning sky over Konoha.
"ANBU" Kakashi noted, him sensing it as well. "Heading this way. Shizune-san – you should gather up the papers. Naruto and I'll go meet them. If they are after you, maybe we can buy you some time". Naruto, having served under Kakashi and knowing full well what tactic his sensei had in mind, summoned a clone by a simple command and a gesture, the carbon copy of Naruto nodding as he was ordered to stay by Shizune's side. Kakashi readied himself for battle as Naruto pulled on his signature orange tracksuit and strapped his shuriken and kunai holsters and pouches to his body in smooth and ready motion, every inch of him a warrior born. Silently he and Kakashi left his home in Shizune's hand, stepping out into the Konoha daylight.
"Where?" Naruto wondered as they, in seeming calm, made their way past his neighbours' doors and down onto the streets beyond his flat's apartment complex. Naruto, unlike many of his peers, was absolutely rubbish at sensing the chakra of others, and so trusted his sensei implicitly as the other secretly scanned the streets.
"On the rooftops to the left, just out of sight" Kakashi muttered from out of the corner of his mouth as not to arouse needless suspicion. "I sense their intent. They will approach us in three… two… one".
"Uzumaki-san, Kakashi-senpai" a group of ANBU, cloaked and masked and armed to the teeth, appeared before the two in a flash, and at least Kakashi had the presence of mind to appear surprised. "A hearing regarding your recent endeavours is taking place at the Hokage tower" their bird-masked leader spoke. "Your presence is required at once".
"Troublesome" Kakashi made his best Shikamaru impression while silently urging Naruto to do the same. "I'd like to spend my day reading porn instead, but hey, what're you gonna do? Come on, Naruto-kun".
"Sure" Naruto, on the other hand, had a hard time acting as if everything was fine as they followed the silent agents of the Hokage towards the not so distant tower, his thoughts dark. After all he had read, all he had found out during the last few hours… no, he wouldn't succumb to despair. He would be Hokage. He would be the best damn Hokage there ever was.
He swore it.
When they arrived at the tower they were not shown into the Hokage's office on the top floor but rather the council chambers on the first sublevel, and Kakashi and Naruto were not the only ones present at the hearing. Every single one of the Konoha 11 and their sensei, as well as Ebisu and the Konohamaru corps, were lined up in the centre of the chamber under the scrutinising stares of the clan heads and three representatives of the civilian assembly. In the long line Naruto saw uncertainty, resolve and even fear in the faces of his friends, and so he stepped up to one end of the line, placing himself next of Konohamaru and Hinata while, as one, everyone looked to him. He flashed them, particularly Konohamaru and his two young accomplices, a reassuring grin while, quietly and unnoticed by all but two, taking Hinata's hand.
Hinata could tell that there was a mood about him when he first walked in through the gilded double chamber doors, but that he was affecting the outward appearance of his usual jovial self as to make the rest of them feel better. That frightened her, but when she softly felt her fingers enveloped by rougher and stronger digits her eyes shot wide and her fears left her as a hint of a blush came into her cheeks. They were holding hands! Ah! It was sort of bad timing for such a thing, but still… Yes!
And in his seat at the council, Hyūga Hiashi's pale Byakugan eyes first widened in surprise then narrowed in a thoughtful expression, only to settle into a forcefully level state as he held back a victorious grin. Maybe…
"Well then" Shimura Danzō, as first speaker of the clans, sitting next to jōnin commander Nara Shikaku, civilian assembly chairman Haruno Kizashi and the stone-faced Hokage at the four head seats in the chamber, opened the inquiry. "Now that everyone subject to this hearing are in attendance, let it commence. Nara – as these people's military commander, the first query is yours".
"Ah" the Nara scoffed and looked to the papers that lay on the table before him, knowing, shrewd as he was, that he had been told far from everything. "Hatake-san" he asked Kakashi first, as he was the leader of the project "what do you believe is the goal of this 'Project Hyōton'?"
And as Kakashi opened his mouth began the seven most mentally gruelling yet boring hours of Naruto's life.
Meanwhile, back in Naruto's apartment Shimura Shizune was moving about, gathering the papers that had been thrown far and wide by the force of the boy resident's rage at her own pace. She could tell that the previously threatening presences of the ANBU were far away, leaving her in no panic yet still in a slow boil of hurry.
She needed to be out of there soon – or at least, she needed to hide the documents somewhere where only Naruto, she and Kakashi would think to look. After all, Naruto was infamously loud and brash and considered more than a little thick. The very idea of him hiding incriminating evidence in his flat seemed ridiculous, which made it the perfect place to hide just such documents. And she knew he would keep this secret. After all, she knew that he was very much stronger than anyone else and that he carried all their hopes on his shoulders now.
He would not falter under this burden. He would carry it stalwartly. He had to.
And even if she hadn't believed in him, she had no other choice now. She needed him to restore the village to the glorious thing it had been in the times of old, not stagnated as it had been under the later years of the near powerless Sandaime or as morally bankrupt as it had become under the leadership of the Godaime.
The older people of the village still remembered the five years during which Yondaime had been in power. They remembered the government initiatives and restoration projects, the competitions and the diplomatic and expansionist ventures. Yondaime had increased the village's status and wealth by uping the quota of missions undertaken and completed while still promoting peace between the nations, establishing trade connections with Kaminari no Kuni and the far distant Land of Snow. Research had been driven, skills and techniques promoted, the Academy curriculum changed and government stipends issued to any civilian parent who put their child through Shinobi education. His rule had been a golden age – a golden age that had ended in fire much too soon.
Shizune wanted to believe that Naruto could usher in that time again. After all, she knew who his father had been, and so did a select few in Konoha. She wanted to believe that he could set things right once again.
And as she gathered up the last of the papers she looked around the room, thinking that yes, he very might well be the one. He kept mementoes and pictures of friends and comrades at the most prominent places in the room, and despite the general mess he seemed to keep the flat clean and aired out. Even as young as he was he was self-sufficient, strong, ambitious and goal-minded – he could very well be the one.
But, she thought as she hid the folder in the bottom of a drawer filled with crumpled socks, will he rise to the challenge?
And that… that was the most important question of all.
As the ones on the floor of the hearing chamber weren't allowed to speak unless asked to after their interrogations had been heard and their testimonies given they could only listen in horror as the worst possible turn of events was decided upon.
"Then is the council in accord?" Danzō asked the Shinobi portion of the arbiters in the stands, having firmly verbally beaten down his opponents in their ranks. Hiashi had proven troublesome, arguing fiercely against the best course of action: binding the Asset called Uzumaki Naruto to the village using some of the Shimura loyalty seals, making him undergo long periods of physical examination, both internal and external, before putting him on observation and using him as the excellent weapon and breeding stock that he was. He would be disbarred from politics and offices of import, being too important for their village to be allowed to draw open attention to himself, but he would be permitted to take several civilian women or unaffiliated kunoichi as his mistresses and breed plenty of offspring under the Clan Restoration Act, his offspring being handled by the state until such a time that their abilities manifested.
That Hyūga Hiashi would oppose the motion was a given – his clan was insular and believed in the entitlement that clandom and blood line abilities gave, making him drive the motion that Naruto should be raised as a hero and not as the resource that he was. Danzō detested Hiashi, for despite the sometimes horrendous things he had done to increase the power and the wealth of the Shimura clan all throughout his life his clan would always be considered second-rate compared to the so called "noble" Hyūga.
A little less expected was the fact that while Nara and Akimichi remained undecided Yamanaka allied with the Hyūga in the motion, making Danzō's suggested course of action dangerously posed on uneven ground. If the Aburame joined that phalanx too then he would have to put the thing to a more involved vote which would take many more hours, if not days, as they hammered out the minute details of other motions until a course of true action could be decided. If they took the momentum away from him and gave the other clans allowance to make their voices heard then the Shimura would lose their chance to seize the advantage and increase their power further. He could not allow that.
So Danzō shattered the Yamanaka speaker, driving Inoichi to see the light, and together with his allied and vassal clans he peppered Hiashi with so many arguments against his suggestion that the man could do nothing but sit back and work through them one by one. Theirs was a tactic of dismissal, moving as quickly as one possibly could in politics. The allies of the Shimura knew that Danzō recognized his friends and would share in power gained once seized.
However, as Danzō spoke to finalise the motion and giving a vote, needing only a slim majority to pass it and all but certain of victory at that juncture, a wrench was thrown in the proverbial works as opposition came from an unexpected direction.
"No" Naruto interrupted firmly, to which all eyes in the chamber turned to him, startled by his suddenly loud and almost imperious tone. "I'm not doing this".
"Excuse me?" the Shimura clan head wondered. "Would you care to repeat that?"
"I'm not doing this" Naruto repeated as he was bid, taking a step to stand in front of the others in his line. "I'm not becoming someone's plaything-attebayo. I won't stay down and let others die fighting my fight against Akatsuki – like Smoker-taicho did! I won't be locked in! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and my dream is to become Hokage!"
And as the people around him stared at him, stunned, Danzō felt a shiver run down his back at the iron stare of that boy.
This lad… he was something else entirely.
"I am inclined to agree with him" Akimichi Chouza spoke in a low rumble as he shifted in his seat to the far right, and by that Danzō knew the battle was all but lost. If Akimichi gave voice then his vassal, much more influential than himself, would always support that voice in political matters.
"So am I" Nara Shikaku nodded at the words of his peer and friend. "Reluctant as we may be to see it, our village and our way of life is under siege by Akatsuki and the man that claims to be Uchiha Madara. Naruto is the best weapon we have against the enemies we currently face".
"He should be allowed to roam free" Inuzuka Tsume concurred, and with the voice of three major clans on Naruto's side of the argument swiftly swung in his favour. The situation was getting out of hand… Danzō could tell that the powerful Namikaze charisma had been passed along to the boy from his father along with the Kekkei Genkai that was tearing their village apart.
He needed things to come his way, but as Yamanaka and then Hyūga spoke against his motion that was a distant possibility at best. Was there any way to recover the headway he had possessed before?
Maybe…
"Perhaps you have the necessary strength of character to nurture this gift on your own" Danzō acted as if the boy had been pleading instead of stating dissentious intent and as if he had been merciful and gracious enough to listen. "I cannot say that I approve" but I know you've won this round, boy "but I've caught a glimpse of your will of fire. Understand that without the sanction of the council, the best we can do is terminate the program for the foreseeable future and remove you from the mission roster. This will ensure you have the proper possibility to unlock your potential without distractions. All in favour of this motion?"
The clans loyal to him did not dispute him, and the others agreed readily before any of the people out on the floor of the chamber had any idea of what was going on.
Kakashi was, as he walked out of the meeting after it had been ended behind Naruto, both relieved and distressed. "That could have been worse" he said to his student as he pulled him aside and made towards the far entrance.
"Why?" Naruto gripped his teacher's sleeve and held him back. "What's going on? What happened?"
"The council was swayed by your verbal badassery-"
"I don't think that's a real word" the blonde interrupted.
"It doesn't matter, does it? The council was swayed, but only a little. They're not locking you in… but they're not letting you outside either". As Naruto cocked his head to the side Kakashi understood that the boy certainly did not understand. "They're taking you off missions and put you under escort, but you're allowed to go free within Konoha".
"No missions?" he frowned. "But… but how am I supposed to pay the sodding bills? Buy ramen? Eat?!"
"You know, for one moment it's all 'I won't go back on my word-attebato'" Kakashi mocked Naruto's softer and a little more musical voice nasally. "But the next it's all 'Feed me!', and you proceed to powerslam everyone that stands between you and Ichiraku Ramen. It's quite a shift in tone, you know".
"You're one to talk about inconsistent tone with the way you've been going on lately, sensei" Naruto pointed out, but then shook his head and got back to the a little terrifying conditions that lay before him. "But… If I'm off the mission roster, what am I to do for money?"
"Moonlight as a social worker?" Kakashi suggested, but then, as a voice called from further down the tunnel for Naruto to wait up, an idea occurred to him.
"Yo!" Kiba greeted Naruto with a wave as he approached alongside an expressionless Shino and a slightly blushing Hinata. "So, what's up with that stuff before?"
"Well, at least you guys don't need to hang around my sorry arse no longer" he grinned at them, but to his slight… apprehension? Surprise? He had no idea of what to feel about the fact that none of them seemed very keen to be away from him.
Little did he know that Kiba and Hinata could feel that things were spiralling out of control, and wanted to stay by the little safety his presence seemed to offer, while Shino had gotten a long talking too by the matriarch of his clan the night before, informing him of his new duty: stay close to Uzumaki, and look for weaknesses in their allies.
"Hey, don't look like you just got barred from Ichiraku's!" Naruto exclaimed. "Come on! At least you lot still get to go on missions. I'm stuck in the village until… until those cantankerous old farts decide I get to go outside of it again-attebayo".
"You're allowed to get a job, right mate?" the Inuzuka asked as Akamaru walked up to sit panting on the ground beside them, his head buffing on Hinata as he tried to get her to pet him. "I mean, otherwise you'll be pretty strapped".
"Y-you could become a teacher, Naruto-kun" Hinata suggested while she scratched Akamaru behind the ears, electing a pleased grumble from the horse-sized dog.
"Dickless as a teacher?" Sai asked as he and Sakura joined the little gathering, Sakura greeting Kakashi even as the white-haired man in question quietly bid his leave and went to speak with a certain Urmino Shinobi. "The poor, poor children".
"Don't be such a massive buzzkill" Chouji went as his team too came to stand by Naruto and the others, Neji, Lee and Ten-Ten following shortly after. "Right, by the way – anyone feel like getting plastered? Me and these two" he jerked his thumb at Ino and Shikamaru "were heading down to the pub".
"What's the occasion?" Sakura wondered.
"Are you even of legal age?" Neji questioned from the side.
"Of course we are!" Ino shot back at the Hyūga heir. "We're all legally adults, right? Because we're shinobi, unless you forgot? And we were thinking of celebrating a job well done and Akatsuki scum well shredded by getting pissed".
"I could go for a drink or two" Kiba nodded, Hinata agreeing to come along too after she had fetched her handmaidens while Shino, Sai, Lee and Neji respectfully declined. "How about you, blondie?"
"I-" Naruto was about to say that he was underage, and that he needed to go training anyway, but thoughts of training led to thoughts of the Ice that lay suppressed within him and thoughts of that led to remembering what he had learnt that morning. "I say 'fucking aye'! I feel the need – the need for sake-attebayo!"
"That's the spirit, Naruto-kun!" Chouji exclaimed and laid an arm around Naruto's shoulder. "Let's get something to eat first, alright? Then, tonight, I shall show you the meaning of drinking deeply".
"If you're heading to a barbecue place, I'm on that shite like water on rock" Kiba followed after, followed in turn by a reluctantly sighing Shikamaru, the Nara busy making strategies in his head while the other boys said their peace and went about their intended business, leaving the girls on their own.
"Well, I need to go home and freshen up a bit first" Ino said to the other young women. "We're supposed to meet at O'Taku's at six. It's by that tepanyaki place on the corner of Rokutam and Tobirama Street that keeps open around the clock".
"Sweet" Ten-Ten nodded, and so did the other girls. Meanwhile, in the distance, Chouji could be heard saying something fateful to Naruto.
"Say, Naruto-kun… have you ever heard about a drink called Guinness?"
"Ah!" Naruto exclaimed as he put the glass down whilst making a face, his upper lip coated in white foam and a slightly bitter taste upon his lips. "Pissing blimey! It's like drinking an entire loaf of dark bread-attebayo!"
"Where the hell do you get this sort of stuff, Chouji?" Kiba wondered with a grimace while Akamaru happily slurped up the same dark ale from a bowl placed on the floor next to their wooden table. O'Taku's Pub and Bar was a fairly odd establishment in Konoha's business district, owned and operated by a strange foreign man with rounded eyes, freckled skin and hair the oddest shade of red anyone of them had ever seen who spoke their language oddly like he had only just learnt it. Most patrons were common workers from Konoha's logging for construction industry and a few of the younger Akimichi, which many of the more normal patrons would grumble about. After all, most shinobi would drink at the shinobi owned and operated establishments closer to the town centre rather than to muscle their way in amongst the civilians, and the fact that even thirteen year olds only had to flash their stupid headbands to be allowed in without being carded was another burr in their collective boots.
"It's some brew native Taku-san's homeland, I think, and I believe it's the drink of gods" Chouji speculated as he put their tall glasses aside and put the three bottles of sake he had bought at the centre of the table along with a dozen or so cups. "The time is… seven-fifty-two. The girls should be here any moment"
"Why do women have to be so troublesome and late?" Shikamaru grumbled.
"Showing up to a pup-crawl right on time is bad form, Shikamaru" the Akimichi lectured sternly. "As well as it is to do it without dressing up first. By the way: how does the blazer fit, Naruto-kun?"
"Like it isn't orange enough" came the mutter in response. Chouji had told them the plan was to start at one pub and subsequently work themselves towards Club HI, the biggest nightclub in Konoha, and that it would simply not do for them to go on such a venture without being dressed for the occasion. And the Akimichi were the biggest eaters, drinkers and partiers around – so they were bound to know plenty about fashion… or so Chouji had claimed. Therefore he had been in charge of that evening's dress code: black slacks and black leather shoes, polished to a shine, and black blazers kept open and arms rolled back to show off Kiba's tattoos, Naruto's smooth tan skin and the other two's fencing and knifing scars. The sole change they kept to their clothes between them were the colour of their shirts – Shikamaru got the Nara shadowy shade of grey on his shirt, buttoned all the way up to the neck, while Kiba got Inuzuka scarlet and Chouji got the Akimichi shade of rosewood red. Naruto's shirt was, naturally, orange, and unbuttoned a ways down to show his necklace, Shodaime's necklace, where it touched to his tan skin. But being the tallest of the boys yet not as stocky as Kiba or Chouji made it difficult to find a blazer that fit even reasonably well in the Akimichi wardrobes. "I look like a fucking ponce-attebayo".
He wished he was Akamaru. Akamaru didn't have to dress up for shit. No one ever put a stupid blazer on a dog.
"You know how many looks you've gotten from the civilian lasses at the table yonder?" Kiba drawled from his seat next to Naruto in their booth that was very much too big for just four people, indicating a table at the far side of the rustically furnished and traditionally decorated room. "A little older than us, but not too much. The redhead has been giving you the come hither-thing, you know? We should go over, maybe say 'charmed'-"
"Dude, just settle" Shikamaru groaned as he idly tapped the surface of the table before him, busting for a cigarette. Damn, he had started smoking as an homage to his sensei and after only six days he was addicted. Stupid troublesome drugs. "The girls will get here any minute, so if you're busting for female companionship-"
"Ah nae" Kiba waved dismissively. "I'm just weighing my options here, Nara. Besides, it's not like I've got any game in our little super-squad" he added a bitterly, and Chouji, being the perfect host he was, poured him a generous drink of sake in a cup and handed it to him. "Cheers mate" Kiba toasted the Akimichi and then drained his cup in a single draught. "Where was I? Oh, yeah – there're Ten-Ten, Sakura, Ino and Hinata in our age group, unless you count Neji and his luxurious hair. And Ten-Ten's got the hots for wonderboy Hyūga, Sakura is a lost cause – don't even get me started on that - and Hinata's head over heels in love with captain oblivious over here".
"Hm?" Naruto blinked as Kiba jerked a thumb his way.
"Spot on reaction, mate. Anyway; among us only Ino's completely unattached, and since I wouldn't mack on her tonight even if she begged me-"
"Why not?" Chouji asked, his brow creasing into a frown. "Something wrong with our teammate?"
"It's one of those troublesome Inuzuka dog-territorialism things" Shikamaru made a vague gesture to accompany his words. "He thinks we're going to be protective of her, or that one of us are after her, so he stays away from another pack's habitat – right?"
"You're dead on" Kiba nodded.
"Nothing but Ino and you are keeping you from getting your mack on with her, mate" Chouji shook his head a little sadly. "She can handle herself – hell, she probably pulls our sorry bums out of the fire most of the time – and she's… her personality is an acquired taste, one I don't want to acquire".
"She's loud, obnoxious, vapid and as shallow as a skinned man floating face-down in a koi pond" Shikamaru clarified. "You want to think some shapely buttocks excuses all that? The go ahead, and Godspeed you mad bastard".
"So you two aren't going to get your nark on if I try to mack on Ino-chan?" Kiba grinned a little savagely, to wit the both of them shrugged. "Sweet. Oi, blondie" he looked to Naruto "what about you and Hinata-chan?"
"Hm?" Naruto shook himself out of his silent ponderings to find the others waiting for an answer, and so decided to joke a little with them. "What? I wasn't listening, because you guys were boring me-attebayo".
"You certainly don't pull any punches" Shikamaru sighed and pulled a tooth-pick out of one pocket, shoving it towards his mouth and taking it between his lips like a substitute for his real cigarettes. "What's up with you and Hinata-san? Are you just 'it's complicated', or are you halfway to kids and mortgages?"
"Dunno" Naruto shrugged, and got long look for his honesty. "What? We don't even know each other that well-attebayo. I mean, we talked about it the other night, but we didn't have time to finish… talking".
"Talking" Kiba wondered "or talking?"
"Talking" Naruto assured with a roll of the eyes. Though they had almost been kissing… that had seemed to happen quite a few times with them, as if fate itself had something against the two of them actually getting past embarrassed conversations and blushing looks. "I… I've just got so much shite going on right now that's dangerous to be around, and… if I get with her, I can't just say 'thanks for last night' and jog on right out the door-attebayo".
"Commendable" Chouji noted "but pointless. Life's short for people like us, Naruto-kun. And if we don't just do what we want without our fears holding us back we'll end up like Asuma-sensei and Kurenai-sensei – one dead and one consigned to a life of regret".
"You should just seize the moment, man" Kiba pressed, as was his wont as president of the NaruHina fanclub. "'Cause tomorrow never comes again".
"I-" Naruto looked to each of them in turn, wondering how many litres of piss they were taking, until his eyes fell on Shikamaru.
"What've you got to lose at this point, you troublesome git?" was what the Nara asked, and so Naruto found no solace in his friends and was forced to be introspective to make sense of the chaos inside of him.
Meanwhile, at the bar, two older men were overhearing their discussion. "Naze kono koto de son'nani Igirisu no surangu wa arimasu ka?" the one man asked over his drink, shaking his head at the state of youth today.
"Shirimasen" the other answered with a shrug. "Eigo ga okashīdesu". They both failed to realise that language is an abstract, evolving and infinitely personal thing, and that everyone were given to translate or work their own habits into what they do, say, and write.
Also, their Japanese was shite.
Naruto was given a drink by Chouji and promptly sipped on it, deeply consigned to his deep thoughts. Hinata… she was pretty enough, he supposed. No, more than that: she was beautiful, fair - fantastically, mindbogglingly, paraecclesiastically gorgeous she was! And she was kind of awesome, having been one of his toughest opponents ever when he sparred with her the other day, yet she was kind, dedicated and humble, gentle and intelligent in the extreme. Perhaps… perhaps having a more permanent relationship with her wouldn't be so bad. He would be putting her in danger, but… what had she said again? "I'm a big girl" in such an innocently innuendo-laced tone? Maybe she could help him master his talents and… having her around wasn't so bad. She was certainly smarter than him, so she could surely help him-
"The girls are here!" Chouji exclaimed, throwing Naruto out of his ponderings, and he looked up - to have his breath taken away.
Sakura looked... Nice, he guessed? Her party clothes weren't very much different from her regular mode of dress, with a skirt and top in common reds and pinks and a jacket in red thrown over her slender shoulders. Ino wore the very same jacket in purple, and the fact that she and Sakura had seemed to dress alike to match in everything but colour made the contrast between their body types all the more jarring. Ten-Ten, of course, wore a mandarin dress in white with reddish brown flowers etched along the hem that flowed down around her knees, a kunai strapped to her thigh beneath the dress and her hitai-ite worn as a belt in Ino's fashion. Even the one of Hinata's handmaidens that had come along, Hiroko, the vapid one, had gotten herself spruced up - her lavender headband bindle with Hinata's personal crest on it held back her hair and covered her curse seal and the hitai-ite held her slender flowered dress tight and snug at the waist, showing that she had about as many curves as Sakura... At thirteen. All of them had make up on, all of them enhancing their cheeks and their eyes to some additional definition.
"Well, you lot are striking tonight" Kiba grinned and looked to the man beside him. "Right, Naruto?" Naruto didn't seem to hear, though, staring awed right ahead with an enraptured expression. "Dude?" Kiba waved his hand before the blonde's eyes but got no reaction. That was because Naruto was busy staring.
At her. Hinata.
She wore no make-up except for around her pale eyes, as if to make them even more striking and otherworldly, but it wasn't her face that drew Naruto's gaze but the way she was dressed. Gone was the frumpy sweater and the bulky clothes that hid her figure, replaced by a knee-length but long-sleeved women's yukata, her headband with the Konoha sigil on it used as an obi to tie it together. But that yukata was indigo blue as opposed to frumpy and grey and purple, the hems darker and the silk fabric pressed with ume blossom patterns as it flowed snugly over her skin and the very ample body that was hidden beneath. Her legs weren't bare but clothed in sheer black stockings, her feet slid into a pair of high-laced sandals, but Naruto wasn't looking at her feet, for the things the yukatta tight binding did to her cleavage was… in his own honest opinion… fantastic.
"Hello?" Kiba waved his hands before Naruto's face but got no further reaction. Which was to be expected, given the thoughts he was having.
Some distant and isolated part of Naruto's mind wondered if he had developed a complex about the female form, as he had never been breastfed by his mother… whoever that was. And since he had grown to maturity – relatively – under the most perverted man in their hemisphere his sexual norms might have been considered to be… warped. Verily, was the remainder of his mind so obsessed with ample cleavage because he was secretly longing for a mother-figure? While the small intellectual part of him mused on that Naruto was busy staring at the fish-net mesh clad bosom shown generously by the tying together of the yukatta, his mouth actually watering. He was disgusted with his own lechery, having suddenly turned into ero-sennin… but he couldn't look away.
"Oi, Naruto-kun!" Chouji poked him in the side, making his eyes break away from the heavenly visage of HInata's huge tracts of 'land' to stare wide of eye at the Akimichi. "Are you still with us?"
"Hm!" Naruto tried to speak, but as he opened his mouth no words came out, making him frown. "Hm! Tch hm!" He sighed exasperatedly and sunk back in his seat, putting to fingers in his mouth in an effort to make his lamed tongue move like it should again.
"Hinata-chan, you done the impossible!" Ino giggled to the Hyūga heiress whose face was currently taking on a distressingly scarlet colouring. "He can't say anything!"
"He's literally speechless!" Kiba snickered, and despite Naruto's pouting in the depths of the booth the others – excepting Hinata – were greatly amused at that. The young woman herself was idly fidgeting with her voluminous sleeves, feeling flustered and hot after having her beloved's gaze resting so intently at her. Dressing up like that… it was all Ino's idea. She said it had been to draw Naruto's gaze, but now it was actually drawn- "Alright, Hinata and… whatever your name was" Kiba looked to Hiroko, who was at best a tertiary character and at worst little more than literary set-dressing, as he climbed out of his seat. "You take that spot, yeah? Ino-chan sits next to me-"
"You wish, dog-face" Ino drawled and slid into the seat between Shikamaru and Chouji, laying her arms around the shoulders of her teammates. "I'm sitting with my boys".
"We're not your boys!" Chouji protested. "Are we, Shikamaru?"
"Yes, we are" Shikamaru sighed as Sakura and Ten-Ten took their seats on the edges while Hinata, a little hesitantly but also eagerly, took her seat next to Naruto, her handmaiden filling in after her.
"Drinks, anyone?" Chouji wondered and indicated the bottles and the cups he had gotten, to which he begun to pour for all of the five girls. "Ino, Sakura-chan, Ten-Ten-chan, Hinata-san and…" he looked to the last girl that was sitting next to Hinata. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name".
"Hiroko" the branch family Hyūga inclined her head with a smirk. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance. Normally I wouldn't be allowed to speak to anyone but Hinata-sama, but since I don't give a toss about the rules and the worry-wart isn't around to cramp my style" she shrugged and urged Chouji to pour her a healthy measure of sake. "Cheers".
"Cheers!" the others replied and drank, toasting their youth and putting the troubles of the day out of their minds. Or at least, Naruto tried to, but as he looked around the table he couldn't help but to think of things he had learnt that morning and the quite arduous tasks that lay before him – awake his Hyōton affinity, scheme against the Hokage to dethrone her, and perhaps most dreadful of all: get a job. But he knew which one of those three things he was prioritising.
Their nefarious plans, their sinister plots – Tsunade's, Danzō's all of them – they could not, would not, come to fruition. He staked his life on it. "From ancient grudge break to new mutiny" he muttered darkly below his breath as the others spoke to get to know each other. "Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean". He shook his head hard and stared at his sake cup, wondering where the hell that had come from.
"Naruto-kun" wondered a small voice from beside him, and he looked to find Hinata staring back at him with wide, pale and moon-like eyes. "Are you… are you alright?"
"Aye" he muttered and reached for his cup again before stopping himself. No… drinking away one's sorrows wasn't the right thing to do. "Nah, I don't think I am-attebayo".
"Is it about earlier today?" she wondered. "The council wasn't very fair, were they? I could speak with my father, perhaps have you put back on the roster-"
"Thanks, Hinata-chan" he smiled at her with what joy he could muster after a long and gruelling day. "But… I don't think I should be on the job right now. The old farts aren't exactly wrong, ya know? And I've things to do in the village". Dark words, dark deeds - It's not the institutions that are faulty but the people leading them. Shizune-neesan's words echoed in his brain.
You didn't go against the Hokage. That was the greatest and most paramount of combat directives in Konoha – the Hokage was above reproach and beyond critique by common footmen shinobi. He had never shown the holders of the office very much respect, but… to actually seeking to supplant the Hokage? Insurgency, rebellion – a revolution? Nothing short of a coup d'état; that was what Kakashi-sensei and Shizune-neesan had in mind. In a way it went against everything he stood for, but lingering in apathy and inaction would result in the very same defiance of his beliefs. What was he to do?
"You will figure it out" Hinata assured him and timidly reached for his hand, made insecure by her strange new clothes yet pressing on regardless. As her smooth palm landed atop his tan and callused knuckles he flinched and shot his eyes away, but something about her drew his gaze back to her. "I believe in you".
"Everyone keeps saying that" he replied and now reached for his cup proper, taking it in an unsteady hand. "'You'll figure it out', 'I'm sure you can do it', 'I believe in you'… forgive me if it starts to grate just a fucken' bit-attebayo".
"What's wrong, Naruto-kun?" She could tell he wasn't angry at her, but judging by his ready drinking and his dour tone something was very much amiss. "You can tell me… please".
"I" he looked into those pale eyes and saw nothing but warmth and affection, tenderness from a tender heart and a gentle soul forced to harden by a warrior's rearing. Was she really suited for a shinobi life? She was a brilliant fighter, but wasn't her true strength the kindness that lay in her heart? "I'll tell you… later. I just – I just need to figure things out on my own first".
"I see" she nodded reached for her sake cup, sipping the clear liquid within and taking her face away hastily, frowning. "Ugh…"
"You don't like it, Hinata-sama?"Hiroko questioned, and Hinata shook her head. "I know! I will get you something that tastes like cinnamon!" Before the young woman could protest her bodyguard climbed out of her seat and made a bee-line for the bar, trying to explain to the barkeep who spoke their language poorly what she was looking for.
"Well, she's dedicated" Kiba noted as he looked after her. "Oi, Hinata – you don't happen to know if she's single?" Akamaru raised his head from his bowl and gave his master a long look, as if silently communicating with him, to which Kiba stared back, rolled his eyes, shrugged and huffed and Akamaru seemed to sigh and lay his head back down again. "None's the worry" Kiba said to Hinata. "Forget I asked".
"Anyone else but me that thinks the fact that the two of them talk like that is weird?" Ino asked the people around the table, but only Shikamaru, Ten-Ten and Sakura agreed. "Really, bro?" she wondered at Chouji. "You think this is no big deal?"
"He talks to animals, I can increase the size of my body at will, Shikamaru bends shadows, Hinata sees all things beneath heaven and you-" he gave her a long look. "You can mess with people's minds, love. You can literally take a walk in people's darkest fears and reconstruct their fucking minds! I've no idea what the Yamanaka are hiding, but your secret clan techniques are potentially the most powerful of them all!"
"I wish I was part of a clan" Ten-Ten sighed as she leant on one hand and sipped her sake.
"No" Shikamaru muttered back darkly, giving her a long look. "Trust me – you really, really don't".
"What's up with you?" Sakura questioned him, and he rolled his eyes to land on her. "Is it just too troublesome to be a part of clan politics, or are you just too lazy – as usual?"
"No, because family life is fucked up beyond a doubt" he informed her shortly. "The Yamanaka, for example, are democratic, which means that every single damn member of the clan is a potential political enemy-"
"True, that" Ino nodded in confirmation.
"And the Akimichi base everything on ritual and wrestling and piety and… shit-"
"It's really complicated" Chouji informed the pink-haired girl. "I mean, the leader of the clan isn't just the chief party organizer, he's also the spiritual head. Spiritual, as in the old fashioned kind of priest where every cleric is also a sumo wrestler. Raiden's our patron god, and-"
"Dude, nobody cares" Shikamaru rolled his eyes at his friend "and it's beside the point. The Hyūga have the whole caste thing going on, with Kenjin, Sōke, Bunke and Senmin, and the whole mistresses and slave-seal thing and the bloodline stuff. But mine" he pressed his assurance at her "my clan is the most fucked up one of them all".
"How so?" Ten-Ten asked as Hiroko returned with a few shot glasses filled with amber liquid to the table, sliding in next to Hinata even when she flashed Kiba a slight smile. "What's so bad about being a Nara?"
"My uncle's the chief elector of the clan" Shikamaru said "and since he's got no kids and I have no siblings, and my only two cousins are girls, I'm the only eligible heir".
"Huh?" Sakura wondered and looked to Chouji.
"They work on a system of Tanistry" the Akimichi informed her. "Only one family within the clan can inherit the leadership, and women can neither inherit the clan nor pass on the inheritance to their children. Not only that, but if there's more than one boy in the central family there is a vote, cast by six-"
"Seven" Shikamaru corrected lazily.
"-Seven electors, one of which is the chief elector and meant to not vote unless it is to settle ties. Any man of the head family that isn't the leader is eligible – and Shikamaru's got all six votes at the moment".
"At least I did the last time the vote was held" Shikamaru added. "We do it on the first full moon every November. It's not very special since I'm the only possible candidate for the vote".
"But here's the kicker" Ino finished the little impromptu lecture. "The Nara first speaker – I mean clan leader, sorry, my own clan stuff kind of coloured that – anyway, that guy has to be like a deer. Do know anything about the mating habits of shika?"
"Wait a bloody second" Kiba stared at Shikamaru in a jealous fury. "Don't tell me-"
"Deer males have harems during the mating season" Shikamaru ignored the Inuzuka and rolled his eyes at it all with a sigh before he spoke with mock enthusiasm, for some reason mimicking Naruto's voice. "So not only do I have no siblings, I've got three mommies!"
"What?!" Sakura and Ten-Ten stared at him. "What the hell?!"
"Nara" Chouji seemed to toast "the most chauvinist clan in Konoha. No female inheritance, fully agnatic succession, bloody harems… It's a wonder Shikamaru and his dad are as normal as they are, considering, I say".
"How many?" Kiba asked, bright of eye and eager to know. "How many chicks do-?"
"No fewer than three, no more than nine, and all of them without any chance of divorce at all" Shikamaru sighed. "Women… just so troublesome… maybe if I make my uncle explode I can-"
"Whoa!" they all snapped their eyes to the sudden exclamation of Hinata, who had just let her class clatter against the table as she dropped it as her eyes grew teary and her face wine red. "What was that?" she peeped in a dry and strangled voice as she looked to her handmaiden.
"You wanted cinnamon liquor, so I got you some Fireball!" Hiroko grinned triumphantly.
"Are you alright, Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked and laid a hand on her back as if the slap her on the back if she choked. "Do you need some-?"
"Water?" she nodded with a strangled whisper, her whole mouth and throat burning like she had just swallowed a mouthful of sulphuric acid. "Yes, please, Naruto-kun".
"Suiton: Dashi no Jutsu" Naruto pulled one of the tall glasses from the side of the table that a waiter hadn't yet stealthily retrieved and pointed his finger down into it, sending a stream of water pouring from his finger, water so cold that the surface of the class immediately misted up as he filled it to the brim. "Here you go" he ended the technique and handed the glass to Hinata, who bowed over it in thanks before she drank deeply of it.
"'Pretext technique'?" Sakura arched an eyebrow at Naruto.
"'Broth technique'" he clarified the ambiguous word to them. "What?" he wondered at their long looks and rolling eyes. "I ran out of broth for ramen once and came up with it. Surprisingly handy-attebayo". He looked to Hinata again, concern in his eyes. "You alright, Hinata-chan?"
"It" she gulped down another deep swallow of chill water, the blonde beside her transfixed by the way her throat moved with each draught "it was quite strong. I- I believe I drained the glass. I'm sorry, Naruto-kun".
"No, it's quite alright, I'll just make you another" Naruto smiled at her and took the now empty glass away from her, their fingers brushing against each other temporarily as they did. Hinata felt as if she had gotten a shock that echoed through the whole of her body and Naruto felt himself blush at the touch while the others around the table sat oblivious while they resumed their own conversation.
"So you actually have to have three wives or more?" Ten-Ten questioned Shikamaru, pressing a query she hadn't been able to voice earlier. "What if you get married before you become clan leader?"
"I just have to get more wives" Shikamaru sighed. "Clan law, and otherwise… bad stuff happens. My da was more or less forced too by the electors – troublesome geezers – and one of my other moms has a ice-cream shop down in Suna to stay out of the way. The last lives openly with a Katō-"
"One of those Shimura-sniffing arseholes?" Kiba growled and looked like he had just swallowed something disgusting.
"You know, one of your kinsmen had the same reaction when my father mentioned it to him" Shikamaru mused curiously. "Do you have feud with them or something?"
"The Inuzuka feud with everyone" Ino snickered.
"No, we don't!" Kiba narrowed his eyes at the blonde.
"But you do feud a lot more than most other clans" Hiroko decided to join the conversation. "I've heard of that from… Tohide-kun? You know: Bunke from my clan, a year older than me, binds metal bands around his hands and specialises in Taijutsu-"
"Most of you look all the same to me" Kiba interrupted her. "I mean, you all got long hair, those weird eyes of yours, the same slender builds and the same smell of" he sniffed the air "green tea and water lilies. I can only tell Hinata apart because she looks like a curvy version of the onryō in Ringu".
"And that is why no one wants to be friends with the Inuzuka" Hiroko smiled at the three from team Shikamaru. "And there's no hungry ghost in Ringu. You're thinking of Ju-on 3".
"You know, I haven't seen that movie yet" Ten-Ten spoke up.
"Oh, you really should" Sakura urged her. "It'll scare the knickers off you! And there totally is an onryō in Ringu. It's called Sadako or something, right?"
"Horror movie night at the Akimichi compound next time we get out pay?" Chouji suggested. "We could see that one about the foxes and the stairs too, yeah? Since the Kyūbi attack it's been nearly impossible to find it in this town, but I managed to get ahold of it on a mission to Kaminari no Kuni".
"Isn't that the high school horror film from Mizu no Kuni?" Ino asked with a slight frown. "What's it called… Yeowoogyedam? Ah, Mizu language is hard".
"Well, it took a while for me to learn it too" Sakura commented, and the words echoed around the table as their conversation about film, culture and the frustrations of their young lives wore on. Naruto and Hinata, on the other hand, didn't join in, as Hinata was busy regaining her powers of speech after drinking the incredibly potent cinnamon whiskey, though she had to admit it was quite delicious. Naruto, on the other hand, was unknowingly acting a lot like his former teammate and was busy brooding.
Maybe he should just out and tell them about the Fox? After all, they were his friends and he trusted them, and it was bound to come up sooner or later, given how he was chased by Akatsuki who were after the Bijū and all the ones that harboured the demons within themselves. Perhaps they had figured it out for themselves… no. If they had, they would have treated him differently, and that was the true crux of the matter, was it not? If he told them then they would detest him and recoil from him like everyone else who knew always had done. If everyone knew, he would never become Hokage.
But…
Did he even want to become Hokage after all that he now knew?
It was hard brooding with his friends enjoying themselves around him, but somehow he managed to keep doing so for the next ten minutes before they decided to move on to bigger and better things, namely the place known as club HI.
Club HI was one of the alpha places to go to for the Shinobi of Konoha, a karaoke bar with many booths rendered completely soundproof and serviced by waiters with plenty of drinks and even smaller snacks and meals. Naruto, of course, had never been there. When he wanted to unwind he generally trained really hard or worked on his techniques or punched something until it broke, and the whole culture of sitting in a cramped room with a whole lot of people singing poor renditions of popular songs seemed nothing but strange and embarrassing to him at first.
'At first' being the key phrase. As it turned out singing was a lot of fun.
Chouji went first as the others settled down, Hinata unsteady after having two drinks of some of the most potent commercial liquor in the entirety of the country and having to be supported by attendant on the far side of the room from the Naruto sat himself in. Ino sat herself next to him, looking like she was musing something over while the Akimichi heir started some bombastic singing of a classical song that all of them had heard over the radio at least at one point or another and, as one, they could all agree that he was pretty crap at singing with his comparatively gravelly voice.
Even Naruto was forced to sing, after most of everyone else had gotten a turn. He
As he sat back down after he was done embarrassing himself and let Kiba take the spotlight he got them impression that Ino had something to say to him. "I've got something to say to you" she informed him thus while Kiba began wailing his way through a song called Highway Star, proving to them once and for all that dogs can't sing.
"What's up?" He wondered, frowning on seeing her severity. "Is something the matter?" Tiredly she sighed and nodded.
"My da and the clan... They want me to...pursue you". At his oblivious look she knew that she had explain it further. "They want the young women of the clan to... Befriend you. Seduce you and try to get you to-"
"Oh" he noted before true realisation hit him and his face was distorted in disgust and surprise. "Oh! That's... Nice, Ino. I'm flattered, but-"
"Are you pants-on-head retarded, mate?" she grunted and flicked his brow. "I don't like you in that way! The clan wants us to breed with you so that we can gain your Kekkei Genkai into our Hiden techniques!" Her look was steely as she regarded him and his darkening countenance. "Do you get it now?"
"Aye, I do" he replied slowly, and as she turned back he began to do his best Sasuke impression once again as he began to brood.
"I - I just thought you should know" she finished hesitantly. "I mean... I'm not cattle, and neither are you. We shouldn't be reduced to nothing but genes and biology, yeah? We're Shinobi, but we're people too, and we have a right to live our lives the way we want to".
"Whatever" he grumbled back, bright blue eyes uncharacteristically dark. "Just focus on Kiba's singing-attebayo".
"I just thought you should know; is all" she shrugged and went back to try and regain her previously good mood, leaving Naruto with his heavy thoughts.
Was that all what they wanted from him - his blood? Was he nothing more than a weapon in their hands, like Haku had thought he was? Was Ino? Was Hinata? This is what they would reduce us to! Kakashi-sensei's words rang in his ears. This village... They needed a new leader, lest all that they were, all that they believed in, would be lost. It wasn't enough to simply espouse the Will of Fire: A Hokage had to live it.
Was he strong enough to protect them all? After all this time.. Was he strong enough to reach out to his dream and take it by force?
He looked up at the others, to the friends around him that went about their swagger and downing their glasses of rice-wine down as they sang and hollered, he felt a smile creep onto his face.
For them, for Konoha, he would give anything. And for them he'd become the best damn Hokage there ever was.
So he joined in the festive mood and cheered and jested with Kiba as he stepped down from the mic and handed it over to Sakura, who sang something calmer and more classic about her namesake flower falling from the trees in early summer and lost love or whatever - he didn't really remember.
Because then it was Hinata's turn at the mic.
He was surprised at how daring she was, immediately settling on a song and taking the mic with gusto, but even more so when he heard the song that began to blast out of the speakers. He had expected something timid, something soft and fitting to her outward persona, but instead… She sang something played by a girl rock band called SCANDAL, and she knew the words and the rhythm perfectly, as if it was one of her favourite songs.
Her singing voice was surprisingly deep, more than a few pitches lower than her speaking voice, and bombastically explosive as if she had trained herself to sing using operatic techniques. The text too, she knew it by heart, as if the story of the song spoke to her on a personal level – a story about love that was unrequited, about a woman who was waiting for her lover to one day realise her true feelings for him and knock on the door to her heart. As she danced and sang and the others around them grooved to the rhythm of the beat Naruto couldn't help but stare haplessly at her. Was this who Hinata really was? So much power and energy and – and passion waiting to be released?
He was surprised at the turns his mind took as he regarded the way she moved her hips to the song, and tried to tell himself that he was simply being a pervert, but it wasn't working. She filled his mind with thoughts that weren't supposed to be there, and made his body yearn for her in a very literal way, forcing him to adjust the way he sat lest he be showered by cries of 'Pervert!'. And the lyrics, not simply her singing, struck him too – was this how she felt? Was he just being a bastard as he didn't see her true feelings? Was this what all of them had been going on about?
Bloody hell, it all made his head hurt like he had just gotten a half-formed Chidori to the skull.
"Your turn" when the song was over she staggered, sweaty and flushed and her sizeable chest heaving beneath her yukata, to stand before Naruto, but she was looking to Ino beside him and jerked hard with her head, making clear it was an order and not a request. As Ino rose the heiress took her place, sinking down in the seat next to Naruto, pressing her side against him as she looked up to meet his eyes. "What did you think?"
Her gaze was a little glazy, and her words unsteady from the strong liquor she had consumed earlier that night, but by the clarity of her intent he could tell she was by her full faculties still. "It's was awesome, that's what I think" he whistled softly as he followed a single pearl of crystalline sweat roll from the top of her throat to the hollow of her throat and into her cleavage after traversing the pale white skin between. He had to force himself – force! Was he as bad as ero-sennin now? – not to lean forwards and kiss that drop of sweat away.
"I like the band" she confided as Ino began on some pop diddy while the others cheered on. "I like the foreign bands better when it comes to the guitarwork and the pure music, but when it comes to lyrics nothing beats the native tongue. Don't you agree" she turned more fully towards him, some deep intention coming into her eyes "Naruto-kun?"
"A-aye, sure" he felt the heat radiate from her and felt his own body respond, every second that went by in such proximity to her making another reason not to simply give in to passion wink out of existence. "I like your singing voice, Hinata-chan. It's deeper than I thought it would be".
"Do you like me, Naruto-kun?" she pressed and pulled herself towards him, made forward and confident by the inhibition-lowering alcohol in her blood. "If you want, I can sing to you all the time. Every night" she bent close to him, her breath hot, humid and smelling of cinnamon on his ear "you could make me sing so loud".
"Hinata-sama-" Hiroko began to protest from across the small room as she became aware of her mistress's uncharacteristic behaviour, but Kiba gave her a hard look and shot out with his hand.
"Don't even think about it, lassie" he was almost growling. "I've been waiting for this moment for three sodding years, and you're letting it happen, capisce?" Meanwhile the last of the Uzumaki and the Hyūga heiress were oblivious to everything but themselves.
"Hinata-chan" Naruto stammered as she stared at him so intently that it almost made him a little scared, even after all the things he had seen and all the things he had defeated. "You're not acting like yourself-"
"But you won't see me otherwise" she protested in the same whisper. "Do you not like me? Am I too shy for you? Do you want me to wear slutty clothes and say I long for your-?"
"I do like you being shy" he cut her off before she said something she would regret, though he suspected that she had already done that. "But… I told you this. I've got so much shite going on I… I don't know what to do anymore".
"But I want this to happen" she confided, her thigh rising and laying across his own in a possessive gesture. "I'm a big gi- I'm a woman, Naruto-kun. I'm strong. I can handle everything".
"Except for liquor-attebayo" he muttered, to which she did something unthinkable: she raised her hand and poked his whiskered cheek hard. "Aow!"
"Don't be rude, Naruto-kun" she waged her finger but inches away from his eyes. "It's not nice. Don't make fun of me – I'm trying to bare myself here!" As soon she had said that she blushed brightly. "M-metaphorically, of course!"
"Right" he drawled in response. "Hinata, I'm… I might be doing some stuff in the future, some stuff you might think is bad if you don't know the full story-"
"Stuff that's the reason why you've bee acting like that Uchiha traitor scum all day?" she wondered.
"Don't call him that!" he narrowed his eyes at her. "He wanted to get strong enough to revenge his family and regain his honour and saw only one way to do that. That doesn't make him scum-!"
"Those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash" she told him, sliding fully onto his lap, straddling his legs so that her milky muscular thighs and longs legs were bared to his eyes. "Real shinobi don't go back on their word or betray their comrades. They don't leave behind their friends" she was leaning in close to him, her pale eyes staring into his blue ones "or the ones they hold dear".
"That's my Nindō" he gasped as he felt her come ever closer.
"Our" she corrected and laid her head slightly to the side so that one side of her neck was obfuscated by a fall of indigo-black hair that looked almost blue in the Technicolor light of the cramped room. "Naruto-kun…"
"Aye?" she was only an inch away now, her lips slightly pursed and glistening and so hellishly inviting. No! To hell with restraint! He surged forwards to take her lips on his – and was stopped by a resolute finger.
"Naruto" she was blushing, but still holding him away with a single finger as if to silence him firmly and make him listen intently. "I won't kiss you until you say you are my boyfriend… and mean it!"
"Hinata, I-" he found himself growling in frustration, his whole body tense, his heart hammering with the desire that raged through him and made him want to surrender sense to passion. "If I say this… I stand by my word-attebayo. If I say it, I'm in it for the long run".
"Fine by me" she assured him shortly, a slight smile coming onto her lips evens as her gaze burned with a flame to match his own. "Say it. I want you to".
"Hinata" he swallowed hard, words suddenly failing him "do you want to be my girlfriend – for real?"
"Yes" her smile broadened as she took her finger away and leaned in further towards him.
And then she kissed him.
… And so falls the curtain! Whoa!
A/N: Well, not a lot happened in this chapter – or, well, quite a lot, given if you count internal conflict, politicking and angsting one's way towards courage are "things" that happen. Personally, I don't. I can't wait for the more action packed chapters to come along, and they are just around the corner. Literally.
I've always been interested in this whole notion of "Clan Culture" which Kishimoto-sensei has imparted on Naruto, and so I decided to expand a little on it. The whole thing about the Shika-harem stuff? Just setting up future drama, and if you do not believe that Shika have harems then just google Japanese Deer.
Anyway, I've already explained why this chapter took so much comparative time. I've got like eight pages on material on the next chapter ready so I should hopefully be getting it out to you guys posthaste.
Cheerio for now, then! Read and Review, and DFTBA!
Wait a second... Something is coming! Oh no! It's a-
Omake: Konohamaru's and Moegi's discussion on language and British slang… Suu~ēden-go! (In Swedish!)
"Vet du" Konohamaru sat bredvid Moegi uppe på en av de delande murarna kring Konohagakure no Sato's största villaområde, en vitputsad tegelmur deras specifika säte som skymde ett av Fūmaseptens många delägda byggnader från de som skulle kunna tänka sig att blicka in där från grussväggen utanför. "Författaren ville först skriva all dialog i den här berättelsen på japanska".
"Allvarligt?" svarade Moegi med höjda ögonbryn. "Det låter bara... jobbigt. Omständigt, om inget annat". De satt och väntade på Udon och sensei Ebisu, då de hade kommit överens tillsammans om att träna Ninjutsu på obestämd ort, och de två ynglingarna spenderade sin tid i väntan med att dösnacka, leta efter former bland molnen och sparka med hälarna mot murens topp som redan innan de var födda hadde sett bättre dager.
"Författaren kom till samma slutsatts" sade Sarutobiarvingen med ett allvarligt och accentureande nickande. "Man skulle vara tvungen att förklara allting för läsarna-"
"Du menar den läsarkrets som är nästan uteslutande bestående av ostburgarinhalenrande amerikaner?" avbröt flickan gemytligt. "Måste man inte redan förklara allting för dem?"
"Var inte så jävlig" protesterade ninjaprinsen. "De Förenta Staterna är en isolerad nation med insulär politik och ofta reaktionärt kulturellt bildande. Under sådanna omständigheter skulle även du och jag också sky nya kulturella erfarenheter. Dessutom... Jag vet inte om sådanna utalanden är rassistiska, men det är väll nära nog på för att det inte ska göra någon skillnad".
"Så istället för att ha oss alla tala vårat modersmål så tvingar han oss att använda obskyr brittisk och irlänsk slang?" fortgick den rödhåriga jäntan. "That... It makes no sense!"
"Jo, det gör det" ifrågasattes det utalandet. "Tänk på att författaren, besservisser som han är, är mer brittisk än han är svensk eller japansk, oavsett ursprung och uppfostran. Och det är väll inte särskilt konstigt om han ser till att vi pratar på samma sätt som han och hans polare talar engelska, eller hur?"
"Men varför alla slangord? De andra på sidan använder väll inte så mycket-?"
"Skojar du med mig? Amerikanerna som skriver på FanFiction skapar saker som består till hälften av Amerikanska idiom, till hälften dålig grammatik och en fjärdedel urusel mattematik. Varför skulle inte våran författare för använda det språkbruk han använder i vanlig dager när han skriver? Varför skulle han inte få försöka göra språket och dialogerna mer naturaliga med slangord och svordommar?"
"Varför är du så benägen till att försvara honom?" undrade Moegi. "Du har ju sagt själv att han är ett riktigt rövål och att han aldrig ger dig någon tid i rampljuset. Jag har bara haft en enda replik i berättelsen än så länge-"
"Än så länge" påpekade Konohamaru, varpå Moegi lade huvudet på sned och öronen på skafft. "Den här berättelsen är långt ifrån färdig, och jag har manuset därhemma. Fick det hemskickat som del av mitt välkomstpaket när jag gick med i the NaruHina Alliance. Vet du hur mycket awesome saker vi kommer att göra?"
"Är det-" men hon hann inte tala till punkt, för frågan var retorisk.
"Riktigt, riktigt mycket" fortgick unge Sarutobi.
"Ugh" suckade Moegi och lade ansiktet i händerna. "Den här diskutionen är så jävla meta... fan, jag får migrän av det!"
"Du menar väll ändå huvudvärk?" log Konohamaru kaxit, varpå hans förbandskamrat gav honom en giftig blick. "Du får inte angikallisera svenskan". Helt plötsligt kom en tanke till honom, och han började skratta så hejdlöst att han rammlade av muren och slog ryggen i gruset på vägen nedanför.
"Har du äntligen fått fnatt?" undrade hon när hon hoppade ner efter honom och drog honom till stående igen. "Med tanke på hur hårt du tränat så var det bara en tidsfråga, antager jag-"
"Översätta!" sade han kvävt medan han förgäves försökte hämta andan. "De kommer att försöka översätta detta avsnittet med Google Translate, eller Babbelfish, eller Polygot! Inser du-" han föll offer för skrattet igen, och när Moegi insåg vad han menade så kunde hon inte låta bli att flina själv.
"Fy satan vad de kommer att ha bry med det!" fnittrade hon. "Åh, författaren kommer att få några riktigt stimulerande meddelanden om detta!"
"Precis!"
Och medan de unga tu skrattade sig förnöjda längs vägkanten forsatte berättelsen på annat håll.
