The chunin exams were an absolute disaster. I was almost eleven when they happened, and (thank whatever deity rules this world) Kushina-sensei hadn't put us forwards for it because we weren't 'meshing well as a unit.'

"We are," Anko hissed draping her arm over my shoulders and glaring pointedly at Hiro-kun.

His parents had been furious since Juzo's punishment after his blatant attack on not only my life but the life of my team.

Hiro-kun included.

However, his mother seemed to think the punishment was not severe enough after her son had been put in the firing line, his father thought it was too severe because how could Juzo-sama have known that the mission had already been completed?

The system wasn't complicated, the moment a mission was reported complete the mission was removed from the lists so Juzo-sama must have put it back in.

It was only good fortune that meant we had gotten the mission, well good fortune for Juzo-sama less so for us.

He had been house bound since the incident, and it didn't look like he'd be released anytime soon so some of the family had become quite abashed.

"Really," I cooed down at Neji who was snuggled in a blanket in my arms "what did they expect attacked one of the main families closest relatives?"

Neji peered up at me with big innocent lavender eyes, eyes that almost matched my own. My hair was no longer caramel, but a deep dark brown that during night could pass for black. My eyes were more violet than my relatives but generally I looked like every other Hyuuga.

Didn't stop the hate, just meant I was the Hyuuga freak instead of the Hyuuga bastard.

Hizashi was mourning, he adored Neji but he had lost the love if his life and Neji was only two months old and needed a female figure.

If Hizashi needed some time then myself or Maya would look after Neji. It wasn't often though, I'd only been asked twice and Maya once because Hizashi was so dedicated to his son.

"Neji is so like you it's scary." Hiro-kun had hissed when he had seen me with him and I glared.

"Never, ever speak about my nephew in such a hateful tone ever again," I snarled and even Anko looked taken aback "and I'm glad he's like me, maybe he wont be as hateful as you."

Anko grinned and ruffled my hair like she always did when she was particularly proud of something I'd done, maybe because Kushina-sensei did the same thing.

"You don't get it do you?" Hiro-kun asked, sagging as he practically dropped himself onto the floor to sit.

I frowned, and carefully manoeuvred so I was sat down across from him with Neji gurgling happily at the strange movements before Anko joined us both on the Hyuuga floor.

"You never did tell me…" I muttered thinking back "why do they hate me?"

Hiro-kun looked at the floor as he spoke, not daring to meet my eyes.

"Rei didn't die in childbirth, neither did your mother." He muttered and I almost dropped Neji.

"Come again?" Anko demanded her fists clenched.

"It's not a curse exactly…but sometimes when a child is born premature, like you and Neji-"

Neji had been almost two months premature and even now he was a tiny little thing, but I knew he'd grow because he was a strong baby and he was surrounded by happy loving people.

"-the child has an special instinctive chakra, it sucks up the chakra around them to keep them alive-"

"Are you saying," Anko asked slowly "that in order to save themselves, Sho-chan and Neji sucked up their mothers chakras and…killed them?"

Hiro-kun finally looked away from the floor and gave the slightest of nods.

"Rei became ill soon after didn't she?" I asked and Hiro-kun nodded again.

"That's why I got ill, my mother was ill before I was born then I fell ill afterwards with the same thing," I was slowly connecting the dots in my head "when my mother died, it pretty much killed father and it was a huge knock to the family right? That's why nobody likes me, I killed mother and father."

Anko clearly wanted to clap me over the back of the head, but Neji's gurgling reminded her that this would be a bad idea. I cooed down at him, well, this certainly explained a lot.

Normally the sons take over the family but because my uncles had died young my mother became head of house, and married one of her close cousins in order to keep the bloodline pure. Things had become less stressed about that since we had no cousins to marry to but the family had admired both my mother and father.

"Never had a better head." One of the Hyuuga elders had told me once before resuming his usual tirade about my stances and such.

"The doctors told your mother to end the pregnancy, you were killing her before you'd even been born but your mother was stubborn, refused to let you go."

I nodded and looked at Neji, I worried about favouring him in the future because of this unlikely link we had. Did this mean in another world, in the world I had watched on screens and read in books, that my mother had terminated the pregnancy? Had I simply not been born?

"Why are you so foul about it then?" Anko demanded as she waggled her fingers over Neji's face.

Nobody could resist an infant.

"My mum and yours were seconds cousins, they were really close before…you know." Hiro-kun sighed slumping even further down, it looked like he wanted to melt into the floor but didn't know how.

I wonder if earth jutsu covered that, could be handy to learn in case of a bad situation.

"So she hates me for killing her friend." I clarified as Hizashi came walking down the corridor to collect Neji.

I stood and smiled at him as he reached for his son. Neji squealed in delight when he saw his father and Hizashi's face lost years of stress and worry when he smiled down at him. This was when it was best, when Hizashi could still see his wife but also see the future too.

"He's going to be a great ninja." I told him and he blinked up at me smiling.

"Thank you imouto, maybe one day you will teach him." He suggested with a laugh and I shrugged my shoulders.

"In the springtime of youth, anything could happen." I told him and Anko stood as we watched him go.

"Did you just quote Gai?"


That night there was an all village alert, and our entire team was pulled into action because of Orochimaru's attack on the chunin exam. Kushina-sensei had called us to the Hokage's tower-come-office along with Minato-sensei's team to keep guard over several of the leaf's prized possessions.

I saw a large scroll full of forbidden jutsu's, actually I saw hundreds of them and wondered what glorious skills you could learn from them. I also reckoned that most of them weren't even forbidden anymore, when had someone last been over these things? The kage bunshin was a jounin level technique but it wasn't forbidden like we had all been lead to believe at the start of Naruto's adventure.

Orochimaru wouldn't come here, I knew he wouldn't. He had already ruined the chunin exams, kidnapped twelve (not ten this time) aspiring genin and now he was just sticking around to gloat.

How many of these belonged to the Hyuuga's? How many secrets could I learn with a well-forged signature? What could I learn that could help everyone else?

Those kinds of thoughts are dangerous, I told myself, craving power is never good no matter what reason you want it for. I remembered something I once read on the internet 'every antagonist is the protagonist of their own world'.

Obito was a prime example of this but I put that particular thought to rest, I had almost fifteen years before he even appeared and more than enough time to prepare for the worst, and the best.

"We should go out." Anko decided, quite suddenly and I rolled my eyes at her.

Blunt as ever, some things just never changed.

"We're on a mission?" Asuma grunted from his post beside the door with Gai, whilst Anko was stood in the centre of the room and the rest of us (me, Kakashi and Hiro-kun) were positioned by the windows.

I watched an explosion with mild disinterest, I doubted Orochimaru was even here anymore which meant that several of his grunts were meeting bloody ends. Kakashi had a similar expression but his was way cooler than mine I can assure you.

My reflection looked tired, even though by Hyuuga standards the bags under my eyes were barely there because of the paleness of my skin I looked absolutely exhausted. Kushina-sensei's workouts were making me stronger and killing me at the same time.

"Not now," she hissed "after all of this is over. We should all just go out and enjoy ourselves."

It wasn't, in my mind, a bad idea. The only people I'd hung out with were Anko and Hiro-kun, and my family and even though I loved them all dearly I really needed to interact with my generation more.

I had very few cousins my age, older and younger cousins I had plenty but most were either too old to care for my company or too young to provide any stimulating conversation. A group like this, of these people, now that would be fun.

Gai and Asuma both looked like they were going to protest when surprisingly, Kakashi voiced his opinion about it.

"Sounds like a plan."

We all stopped and stared for a second, before Anko hastily made plans for us all to meet up in two weeks when all the hype would have died down, at least everyone hoped it would have by then but during a war there were always problems.

Two weeks flashed by, and thus it was upon us.

Was I nervous? Well, maybe just a little.

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