A/N: Wow, this is one long chapter. Enjoy it.
Pairings: The same as last chapter TTTT
On with the story XD
Hyuuga Hiashi was not exactly a tall man (1), but he didn't need height to intimidate. His pale skin, a long with his white-ish eyes, made the impression he was made of ice. And his usually expressionless face didn't help with it. He was the perfect stereotype of a Hyuuga, and so, if someone had seen him smiling warmly at a kid, they'd have thought the world was going to end. Luckily (2), the only people present when he did so were the kid and his daughter.
"Thank you." The man said simply. After all, even if his attempts to help Hinata were useless, it had been the boy's chakra that had woken him up. And at least he tried.
He crouched to hug his daughter, who was crying silently.
"Otou-san…" she said softly, between sobs. Hiashi frowned, and patted her head. "Don't worry, Hinata. Everything's ok now." The poor girl had been so scared…
"Em…Hinata's dad-san…" Naruto said timidly, pointing at the body that lay on the ground. It was the first time he had ever used a respectful honorific on someone; somehow, he felt this man deserved respect.
Hiashi cursed. He could see that the man was still alive, breathing. When he had attacked the guy with the Jyuuken, Byakugan activated, the kid's chakra had blinded him in such a way, that he had missed a vital point in the kidnapper's neck and ended up only knocking him unconscious.
He walked over to where the body was, and kicked it, making it turn, revealing that the kidnapper was wearing a mask. But he already knew who hid behind it(3). It was no secret that the Cloud really wanted to obtain the secrets of their Kekkei Genkai(4), but it was a bit unnerving to think that they'd betray their recently-made alliance with Konoha and start a war just for it.
"H-Hiashi-kun? What happened here?" A beautiful woman who seemingly appeared from nowhere asked. Her skin was pale, and her hair was long and black, but it was easily noticeable that she wasn't a Hyuuga, for she lacked the eyes all the clan members had. Her belly was round and big, probably because she was expecting a baby. Behind her, two very confused guards stood.
"Oka-san!" Hinata cried and ran to where the woman was, and hugged her knees.
Hiashi gave his wife a sad smile. "I'll explain later, Hina-chan, ok?" He said as he jumped on top of the roof with the kidnapper's body on his hands. "I have to take this guy to the Hokage's office. Meanwhile, would you mind taking care of the little hero over there?" He said, pointing at Naruto, who looked at his sides to see if he was talking about him. After watching all that people arrive, he felt he didn't really fit into all of this…
Hina nodded, and without asking anymore questions, took Naruto's hands and dragged him into the house.
The white haired man couldn't help but staring at the woman sleeping in his knees. Seeing Mitarashi Anko so peaceful was truly an interesting sight. And she looks so…beautiful…He shook his head. Stupid thoughts…
Hatake Kakashi had lost all his precious persons in the past, one by one. But, unlike others that had passed through the same he had, he didn't try to avoid warming up to people; instead, he was always eager to make new friends, and he never tried to hide his feelings. He knew since a long time ago that Anko and Naruto had crawled a way into his heart; they were now his precious people.
However, at first, he had been sure that being with two Obito-look-alikes would have killed him of sadness, but after a while, he discovered that, even if Anko and Naruto shared his dead team-mate's personality in some ways, he was the one who resembled Obito the most in that sense. He always arrived late, he always used lame excuses, he was irresponsible, he was cheery (in his own way)...and he refused to abandon his team mates for the sake of a mission. It had impressed him that the Uchiha had had such a big effect on him.
After realising that, he had gladly embraced the company of the psycho and the hyperactive little blonde.
But now that he thought about it, it wasn't like he had had any choice. He chuckled.
Hiashi's wife had suggested that they should go to sleep, but both kids were too nervous to feel tired (5), having been affected deeply by the recent events. So instead, they just sat quietly on the floor, waiting for the Hyuuga clan head to return, doing nothing. That is, until Hina's curiosity made her attack the poor Naruto with questions, after thanking him for "saving" Hinata (6), ranging from everything to…well, everything.
The blonde boy scratched the back of his head. "Eh…I guess that at the orphanage." He said looking at the roof, thoughtful, after he had been asked where he lived.
"T-the orphanage?!" Hina repeated horrified, almost screaming.
The black haired woman inhaled deeply. Her husband had told her many times that she was as dramatic as a human being could be, but she had always ignored him. She was no fool; she knew the kid was the container of the whatever-tailed demon fox, and that the villagers hated him for that. Before, she had even been tempted to believe what they said about him, but Hiashi had "enlightened" her. But she never expected for the boy to live in the orphanage, she was sure he'd have a family or something…her husband teased her for being too innocent sometimes too.
And that's when she understood. Of course! No family would want a demon to be inside their child. The Yondaime probably sealed the Kyuubi in a poor orphan! Mean Hokage, mean! But logical. But still mean! Just imagine that poor creature, wandering alone in the dark streets, with no one to take care of him! She would have hugged the boy right there if he had not been confused enough already.
Meawhile, Naruto was looking at the woman as if she was insane, which, from his point of view, was a fact. She had suddenly started making weird facial expressions, lost in her own little world, and then she stared at him in a way that made him think she thought he was the cutest thing ever born. Creepy…
"Do you have any familiars? Someone who takes care of you?" asked Hina.
Naruto nodded, grinning. "Anko-nee-chan and Kakashi-onii-san!"
The black haired woman's face twisted with happiness. So he was not alone in the world! She was blissfully unaware of Naruto's stare.
"And what…?" Hina was interrupted by a weird, deep sound that apparently came from nowhere. "W-what was that?"
"If what you tell me is true…" The Sandaime slowly said. "Then the Cloud has a lot of explaining to do." Hiashi nodded. He dropped the Kumo nin's body unceremoniously on the Hokage's desk.
Sarutobi raised an eyebrow. "I see he's still alive." He got up from his chair and started examining Gashir. "What did he do? Promise you all the gold in the world or what? You usually kill the intruders without thinking, Hiashi." The old man said, smirking.
The Hyuuga sighed. "How can you joke at a time like this, Hokage-sama? This could start a war…"
The Sandaime smiled. "I'm not joking." He started smoking from his pipe. "We should talk with the other Cloud Ninja staying in the village about this."
As if summoned by thought, an ANBU wearing a bird mask dropped from the roof, saluted the Hokage, nodded and jumped out of the window, so fast that it was almost funny for Hiashi. I wonder how they do that…His thoughts were interrupted when he felt something poke his arm. He looked up to see the Hokage handing him a dish while smiling.
"Want some cookies?" Hiashi's eyebrow twitched dangerously.
"So…I guess you want something to eat right?" Hina said, giggling softly. Naruto scratched the back of his head, laughing nervously. His stomach had grumbled, quite loudly, many times. "I hope you like the Hyuuga clan's traditional food, it's delicious! We have a lot of it in the kitchen. I'll be right back."
Naruto tipped his head to the left. Eh? The woman had disappeared in a flash of light. Uh…
"Ano…Naruto-kun…" The blonde boy heard a small voice at his right side. He turned and saw Hinata, fidgeting her fingers nervously. "Oh hey Hinata!" He had completely forgotten that his friend had been present in the conversation he had had with her mom. She had been so silent; he didn't notice her…it wasn't like she was very talkative, anyways. "What is it?"
Hinata avoided his glance, uncomfortable. A light blush had settled down on her cheeks. "Thank you…"
Naruto grinned, even though he was a bit confused. "You're welcome!" Why was everyone thanking him? The only thing he had done had been running after that cloudy-guy.
"Here, hope you enjoy it!" Hina said, appearing suddenly, a dish full of…something grey-white in it in her hands. Naruto jumped slightly. When did she…?
"Thank you very much!" he shouted when she handed him the dish. "Itadakimasu!" He picked up two chopsticks, and started eating.
"So? How is it?" Asked Hina, expectant, looking at the blonde kid. Naruto raised his head, his face expressionless. "It tastes like…" Death and despair, the suffering of the human race! The Apocalypse! "…chicken." He lied, trying to fake a smile. The woman had been very kind with him; He just couldn't tell her that the food…sucked…
Hina smiled. "Liar. I know it tastes like dog poop." Naruto stared at her dumbfounded. "The food of the Hyuuga's is considered one of the worst; Many times in the past, wars have been fought because people thought they were trying to poison them. Of course, don't ever tell a Hyuuga this or your head will be cut in a matter of seconds." Naruto kept staring at her. "Hiashi always tell me I am a bad influence for Hinata-chan! But I am not! Just because I defy the laws of this clan doesn't mean I…" Rant. Rant. Rant.
This lady was really weird.
The ANBU returned several minutes later. "Hokage-sama." He said. The Sandaime straightened. "What did they say?"
The ANBU shook his head. "One screamed "blasphemy!" and ran away from the village. I guess he went to tell the Raikage what happened."
Hiashi frowned. "And the others?"
"They said the same." The ANBU said. "It seems they're expecting the Raikage to come, Hokage-sama…"
"Actually-"A voice that came from the corner of the room said. "A messenger from Kumogakure arrived a few minutes ago. He said the Raikage WILL BE arriving in a week or less to Konoha." The dark figure took some steps ahead, revealing he was another ANBU.
Hiashi's eyes widened. How can be that possible? The Cloud village is at least at 4 days of non-stop travelling! There's no way that ninja already arrived there!
The Hokage, as if he had the ability of reading his thoughts, answered. "They have a message-delivery system, using thunders as some kind of codified language."
The Hyuuga nodded. Quite intelligent, but it had its obvious flaws. A messenger could be easily spotted and killed using that system. Konoha's was simpler, but also safer: A hawk. Or was it a falcon?
"The Raikage himself is coming…" muttered the Sandaime. Somehow, he felt as if Kumogakure had planned all of this. "I think we should be making the preparations…for when he arrives." He smirked. "I don't think it's going to be a nice meeting."
Hina smiled at the two sleeping figures. She had carried the kids to Hinata's room, after using her incredibly-awesome non-stop talking powers to make them surrender to slumber. Hm…I wonder where did I leave that mattress…She looked around. Oh! There it is!...wait, how's that I left it in Hinata's closet?Meh, it doesn't matter anyway…
She took the mattress, extended it on the floor, and put Naruto in it. Just when she was about to cover him with a blanket, she felt someone staring at her and turned… …to find herself looking into two beautiful, moon-like eyes…
"Hina-chan…" Hiashi said, with a frown on his face. "The Raikage's coming." The woman shook her head to get out of her daze. "Raikage? What's that? Is it eatable?" The Hyuuga sighed. Why did everyone have to be so…unserious?
"I'll explain it later…" He looked at the blonde boy sleeping. "Hokage-sama said he'd contact his protectors. They'll probably be here tomorrow in the morning."
Hina nodded. "You were right about him…he's really nice. I don't see why the villagers think he's the demon…hey, wait! You still owe me the explanation about what happened with that guy and Naruto and Hinata or whatever!"
Hiashi sighed again. Why did he fell in love with her again? She was so…un-Hyuuga. He smiled at his own "joke". "First, let's go somewhere else; I don't want to wake up the kids."
In the first hours of the morning…
"Welcome back to the world of the living, Anko!" A cheery/lazy voice said.
Said woman grunted. "Get lost, Kakashi…"
"I'd be glad to do so, Anko, but you see…for now, I can't." The white-haired man chuckled. "Remember what happened?"
The black haired woman opened her eyes slowly. "Uh…" She found herself inside Kakashi's room in the hospital. Oh yeah. The thing with Naruto.
"Naruto's in the Hyuuga compound. I think you should go and pick him up."
"Why's he there?" Anko asked, lifting an eyebrow. Kakashi explained the whole story. When he finished, the black haired woman broke the room's only window with a kick and jumped out of it, without saying a word.
"Impatient, are we…" The white-haired man muttered, amused. Stretching, he stood up and started picking up his stuff. He had lied to Anko; He was already completely healed (well, almost). He just didn't want her to kill him for thinking he had done something to her while she was sleeping. He chuckled. It seems chuckling became a new habit for me. He chuckled again as he exited the room at a turtle-like speed. He had already made his decision.
"If you don't let me in…I will cut your balls and make you eat 'em! And then I'll cut every extremity of your body, slowly and painfully! Yes, that one included! And then I'll…" Anko had arrived at the Hyuuga mansion in a question of minutes. She had planned to simply enter, thank whoever took care of Naruto, pick up Naruto, and bye bye, but this asshole of a guard didn't let her!
"Ma'am, n-no one is p-permitted to enter unless a member of the clan says it." Said the poor guy, who was no older than 14 or 15, traumatized by the visions of what the psychotic black haired woman threatened to do if didn't let her in.
"Oh yeah? Well then, I'll have t-" She was interrupted by the arrival of a pale, black haired woman apparently pregnant. She probably wasn't a Hyuuga, for her eyes were not white.
"H-Hina-sama…" The guard said, bowing deeply. The woman ignored him.
"Are you Naruto-kun's sister?" She asked. "Em…well, not by blood but yeah…" She was cut off when the woman suddenly hugged her. "W-what the…?"
"He's such a good boy! I'm glad someone as kind hearted as you decided to take care of him!" Anko stared at her, her expression confused, and her eyebrow twitching. "Eh…well…thank you but…" She stopped. At first, taking care of Naruto had been a mission given to her and Kakashi by the Hokage, but in the end, they had forgotten it was a mission. They got too close to the blonde kid…
"He's playing in the garden; Want to enter?" The woman said with a smile. Anko nodded, smiling too. This woman reminded her…of her mother…
Hideo smirked. Even if he saw absolutely nothing, he could sense the kids' happiness as they ran around him, playing a game that the non-Hyuuga one had invented. It consisted in running around while trying to escape from him. At first, he thought the boy was cruel, and was mocking his incapacity by thinking of something like that, but when he realized the kid, like Hinata and Neji, was simply too young to truly understand the pain that being blind was, he had eagerly started to chase them, trying to catch them.
"Here, Hideo-nii-chan!" screamed the boy, laughing. The other two emulated his action.
"I'll get one of you someday, just wait!" He said, laughing too. Ah, how he had missed playing with other children when he was younger… "Naruto!" A woman's voice said. It sounded worried.
"Nee-chan!" was the kid's cheerful response. "Ah, I see you've got some new friends." The woman said, with a hint of pride in her voice. "No, not new! Hinata was already my friend, remember?"
"Oh! So you are Hinata! It's a pleasure to meet you!" A weird, cracking sound made the blind Hyuuga think someone was either being hugged or being horribly killed.
"H-hello…"
"And this is Neji! He is my new friend!"
"Oh no, don't bow at me! It's a pleasure to meet you too!" Hideo sighed. Sometimes he hated being blind. He could only guess what was happening, as he heard more cracking sounds.
"Thank you very much for taking care of Naruto-chan!"
"Oh, it was a pleasure! He's truly a good kid!" The blind one recognized Hiashi's wife's voice. This time there were no cracking sounds.
And then he realized something. Was it his impression or...he had been completely ignored?
Kakashi arrived just right in time to see Anko jump out of the Hyuuga compound with a very happy Uzumaki Naruto. He smirked under his mask, as his muscles flexed, preparing. In the last second, he jumped, and, with an incredible precision, poked Anko in the middle of her ribs. She, like always, yelped, and let go of Naruto, but Kakashi was there to stop the blonde kid from falling.
"K-Kakashi! You asshole! Why did you…hey, weren't you supposed to still be in the hospital?"
The white-haired man simply shrugged. "The Hokage needs you for a mission." He lied, without answering to her question. He needed some time alone with Naruto. Anko cursed, but headed to the Hokage tower, jumping through the roofs, waving. "See ya Naruto-chan! Bye Kakashi!"
The white-haired man sighed. Was he really such a good liar, or was she really so easy to trick?
"Kakashi-onii-san! Guess what happened today!" Naruto said, basically shining with happiness. "I made a new friend!"
"Oh really?" Kakashi smiled. "That's nice Naruto."
The blonde boy grinned, and started talking, and talking, and talking, without noticing where they were going.
"Onii-san…isn't this your apartment?" Asked a confused Naruto when they reached their destination.
"Yes, it is." Was the man's simple answer.
"Why are we here?" asked the kid again. Kakashi turned around slowly, with a smile on his face. "Because, from now on, you'll live with me, Naruto."
The next week had gone flying for Naruto. Half of the time he was either playing in the Hyuuga compound with Hinata and Neji or playing in the park with Kiba and, again, Hinata. And if he wasn't doing any, well, he was with Kakashi, usually slacking off or training, in a weird, passive way. (According to Kakashi, staring at the birds would increase your stamina…) And that's why he didn't notice the villagers' troubled expression, or the changes that were being made in the village, nor the huge amount of foreign ninja that were arriving. (7)
And then the day of the arrival of the Raikage came. A reunion was then made in the Hokage tower; basically all the adult ninja population went. Gladly, the place was as spacious as it could be, and it could contain everyone in it, including the hundreds of Kumo nin that were the "Raikage's personal bodyguards".
For a villager, it may seem exaggerated, but for a ninja, it was the most logical thing to do: A Kage was the most important member of the village; few had been the times a Kage had went out of its "reign", and when it did, it had to be protected as much as possible.
"Sarutobi, how could you?" Kokuzoku(8)(9) said with fake anger. The Raikage was a man to be feared: He was over 6'6 tall, his skin seemed as hard as a wall, and had quite a big number of scars in his body. His hair was of a blue-ish color, while his eyes, strangely enough, red, made the impression that you were looking into Hell's entrance. "We made an alliance, and you kill one my ambassadors?"
The Sandaime sighed. "He tried to kidnap a Hyuuga, Kokuzoku-san," The Hokage said calmly, even though inside, he was smirking. In the end, it'd be useful that he had made the ANBU he sent to tell to what happened to the other Kumo Nin think Gashir was actually dead. "The Clan Head, Hiashi, had to kill him instantly."
"You lie!" The Raikage shouted, this time sounding angrier. But in fact, he barely could control himself not to jump of happiness: If Sarutobi wanted to stop a war he'd have to give him what he wanted. "He had no orders of doing so, and he probably didn't want to do it on his own! I'm sure you tricked him!"
The Sandaime sighed again. He was sure even a rock would notice he was trying to take advantage of the situation.
"Then what do you suggest we should do, Kokuzoku-san?"
The Raikage's mouth turned into a little, almost invisible smile. "I could declare war to your village for this, Sarutobi…unless…" He adopted a thoughtful pose. "Unless you give me what I want…"
"And what do you want?" Kokuzoku's expression turned sadistic. "The body of Hyuuga Hiashi." He paused. "The body of Hyuuga Hiashi, and the Kyuubi container."
Meanings/Notes: (1): 5'9, 1'75 to be exact ;D
(2): From his point of view
(3): Oh, did he see it with the Byakugan or…?
(4): Bloodline limit
(5): One of the reasons why she didn't ask them what happened; Plus, they're only four! xD
(6): A logical conclusion.
(7): Not that he would have had noticed it in normal circumstances anyway XD
(8): Kokuzoku: Betrayer. What? I like to play with Kishimoto's funny name meanings. Example: Kakashi: Scarecrow.
(9): Who, as you probably already guessed, is the Raikage. A/N: Holy shiez! The longest chapter evur. If I don't get at least 15 reviews for this one, I'll stop writing! XD So review, my readers! Review! Liked my weird humour? XD Liked the cliffhanger? I hope you liked how Hina's(Hinata's mom) personality was. I certainly didn't think of her being a Hyuuga-like lady; I wanted her to be the opposite of Hiashi XD. I based her character on my own mother Anyway, yeah…hope you enjoyed it!
