A/N: Well, it's been a little over a year since I started reading fanfiction again, and I'm so glad I resumed reading these stories! They all hold a special place in my heart and inspire me to become an even better writer! I hope you have all seen this growth in my story, and I hope you are all satisfied with this chapter! Things will start picking up from here on out, so there won't be much time for NaruHina development as in previous chapters! But that means more suspense, and in the next few chapters, expect some actual fighting and a bit more spy-action going on!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything like that. Definitely not. If I did, things would be way, way different, and I wouldn't be writing fanfiction to appease my NaruHina needs.
Night
~Chapter X~
Hinata sighed as she finished her breakfast. Sorami was going to have another meeting about the mission, so she and Naruto had woken up earlier than usual in order to get to work on time.
It had been several days since their talk about Sorami's past, but it had left a lot more questions with the girl than answers.
Sorami had a bloodline, of that there was no doubt. What exactly her 'Golden Eyes' did, however, was something Sorami had neglected to mention. It had to be useful on missions, and it had to he well-known enough for people to covet it, or else there wouldn't have been an attempted kidnapping on Sorami.
Being heir to the Hyuuga clan, Hinata had been expected to memorize all the clans of her village, past or present. Hinata had an extensive knowledge of the clans of her village, ranging from the Akimichi clan to her very own clan. There was scarcely a clan she didn't know of. That being the case, there were also few kekkeigenkai that the girl didn't know of, as long as such kekkeigenkai existed within Konoha.
These 'Golden Eyes' that Sorami possessed, however, were kekkeigenkai that Hinata had never heard of. Hinata had been schooled by her very own father on the subject of ocular kekkeigenkai, and had learned the history of the deceased Rinnegan, of the barely-surviving Sharingan, and of her own thriving Byakugan.
That left Hinata with only two conclusions to draw: either there was a clan with ocular power residing in the village that her father didn't know of, or Sorami's kekkeigenkai had originated from a different village. The former seemed highly improbable to Hinata; all the clans in the village were represented on the village council-even the Nara's, who would rather not be wrapped up in the politics of the village, attended the monthly meetings. The latter, however, raised even more questions. If Sorami's bloodline was from another village, then was Sorami also from another village? If so, which one?
Hinata sighed again. These were questions that had been running around her head for the past few days, but she hadn't asked any of them. Perhaps today she would...
Naruto slammed the refrigerator shut. "Aaaaah! Sorami-San doesn't have anything besides grapes to eat!" he cried as he plopped down beside Hinata at the table and splayed his arms across it.
"If you actually looked, Naruto-chan, you'd see that there is stuff behind the grapes," a voice said.
Sorami walked to the fridge and opened it wide, grabbed the bag of grapes and made a huge gesture that seemed to say 'look, there it is, I told you so'.
"S-S-Sorami-San..." Hinata said, and then pointed.
Sorami actually looked in the fridge this time and, to her surprise, found that it was indeed empty. A small 'oh' was all that escaped her mouth.
Naruto cracked up. "You need to go shopping, Sorami-San!" he laughed. Even Hinata was giggling a bit.
Sorami glared at him and, quick as a flash, had opened the bag of grapes and plucked a handful. Before Naruto had time to stop laughing, Sorami had thrown five grapes at Hinata, and the remainder at Naruto.
The former's reaction sorely disappointed the woman; Hinata only managed to catch three of the grapes, the other ones hitting her on her shoulder and stomach.
Naruto's reaction, on the other hand, downright scared Sorami. Granted, he hadn't been given much time to recover from his laughter, but even a genin fresh from the academy would have at least dodged half of the grapes.
Naruto hadn't even managed that, and was paying for it as he choked on a grape that had soared into his open mouth. Hinata hurriedly began thumping him on the back, blushing furiously, and the grape shot out of his mouth like a torpedo after several furious coughs.
Sorami watched the grape as it arced through the air and landed on the ground, bouncing until it rolled to a stop.
"What the hell..." she murmured as she looked back at the two; Naruto was wheezing, rubbing his throat, while Hinata patted him gently on the back.
"What was that for?" asked Naruto, glaring at Sorami.
Sorami frowned. "You two need to constantly be on alert," she said. "If those grapes had been kunai or shuriken, Naruto, Hinata-chan would be severely- if not fatally- wounded, and you would be dead! You can't be like this! What if I had been Orochimaru's agent, and I had disguised myself in order to kill you? You can't ever let your guard down in a village like this!" Her voice had risen to a yell, and she was panting by the time she finished. She could feel the startled eyes of the two before her. After several gulps of air, she sat down and closed her eyes, trying to regain composure.
"Sorry," she said. "But you really do need to keep your guards up. I can't lose you two. I just... Can't."
Hinata's hand reached out to touch the trembling hand of Sorami. Before the girl knew what she was doing, she felt her mouth forming words, words that surprised the girl, seeming too courageous for her to speak. "We won't let that happen, Sorami-San. We'll train and from now on, we won't let our guards down. Naruto-kun and I won't fail this mission. I swear. And I never go back on my word."
Naruto felt a smile appear on his lips. He had never seen Hinata this determined before, and he saw that determination transform the girl into a strong woman. And he liked that. She needed some more self-confidence. And it made Naruto proud that their shared nindo was what gave her that strength.
"Yeah. I promise, too," Naruto said, walking towards Hinata and standing next to her. "And neither of us goes back on our words. Cuz that's our shinobi way."
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Sorami closed the door behind her and performed her standard jutsu that would alert her to any attempted break-ins. In a town like this, one could never have too much security. Had Sorami the time, she would have set up a much more elaborate jutsu that would probably involve a genjutsu and several capturing jutsu, tracking jutsu, and perhaps even some exploding kunai. But, as it was, Sorami needed to maintain her cover, and that meant that she only had time to set up a few barriers and a simple alerting-jutsu.
Once that was completed, Sorami walked in the direction of her work. It was a simple business, but it required much more energy than Naruto's and Hinata's jobs at the bakery. After all, not only was she lifting heavy materials such as wood and stone all say, but there was also the fact that she worked alongside a possible suspect who just happened to look exactly like the man who had kidnapped her and murdered her teammates. Though Sorami knew that Naruto and Hinata certainly had a difficult job. Hers was simply more taxing than theirs.
Sorami yawned when she was two blocks away from her work. Though she would have loved to hop along rooftops in order to reach her destination that much faster, her cover required her to refrain from such activity. After all, a normal civilian wasn't able to do that.
Of course, Sorami was fairly certain that Akira knew she was no normal citizen. After all, she had reacted to his appearance rather abnormally. And two ninja-rogue ninja from Suna, no less-were staying with her. If that didn't make her suspicious, nothing did. And it was for these reasons that Sorami had several fatigue lines across her face as she entered the building where she worked.
I need to find out more about Akira. He knows too much about us, and we know so little about him... Sorami thought. Though Naruto and Hinata had not settled in as inconspicuously as Sorami had wanted, it was time to up the surveillance. They were on a mission, after all, and they had only a total of six months to complete it. And quite a bit of time had been allotted to the settling in of those two. It was enough time lost. Time to get to work.
Sorami wandered towards the back entrance, where a wagon was already being loaded up with building materials; or, in this case, rebuilding materials. It was this company that mended most of the town, and provided most construction. Still, most of the work the employees found themselves doing was reconstruction, fixing whatever had been broken during the clan fights.
Sorami began to help loading the wagon, picking up a few bags and a bucket of paint. Her eyes roamed the faces of the workers around her, scanning for one face in particular...
After she deposited her load, Sorami had become very worried. He's not here, she thought. Where could he be?.
A tap on her shoulder caused her to jump, and she quickly turned around, only to be met with a cold stare as ice-blue eyes locked onto her own eyes.
"Sorami-San," said the man. His gaze suddenly turned brighter, though Sorami was barely able to repress a shudder. "I was hoping to catch you before we left for the first job..."
Sorami smiled-she forced herself to keep up her cover. "Really? I'm sorry I was later than usual-my nephew didn't clean up after breakfast, so I had to hurry and put up the dishes. Luckily, his girlfriend is much more responsible, so I managed to get here with a few minutes to spare. Would you like to talk now, or should it wait till another time?" she asked, inwardly cringing. She had been late because of the lecture she gave to the kids about not being able to dodge grapes, and has forgotten to prepare an alibi. That was the best you could come up with? she cried to herself. Dishes?
The man nodded. He seemed to readily accept her excuse, though Sorami knew that behind those piercing blue eyes, he could have been tearing her excuse apart for holes. "I think... We should talk about it now," he said. "But I think it needs to be a bit more private." With that, he turned on his heels and walked out of earshot of the wagon, stopping beneath the shadow of the building.
Sorami followed, though alarms were clanging in her head. She stopped in front of him, making sure she was in plain sight of the wagon, out of the building's shadow. She trusted this man to not harm her about as much as she trusted Tsunade-sama to stop gambling.
"Yes?" she asked.
The man seemed to be thinking about his words. With his face hidden in the shadow, the emotions flickering across his face were blurred, and though Sorami saw pained expressions flash across his features, they were hidden enough so that she couldn't discern whether they were heartfelt or not.
"I... I'm not sure how to tell you this... I still haven't really... I still don't know if I believe it yet..." he said, crossing his arms. He looked for all the world like a man who was suffering greatly. "I only found out this morning, and only because I happened to be walking behind the cleaning corps..."
Sorami suddenly felt like a pile of lead had been dropped on her stomach. The cleaning corps were always combing the streets to pick up the bodies of the dead. But the only reason he would be telling her this...
The man took a deep breath. "I know he was close to you. So that's why I'm telling you... Because the corps never identify the bodies. So... So..."
Sorami swallowed, growing a sickly color. No, she thought. No, no! He was my only lead, he was the only source of information I had on-
Akira finally met her eyes again, his cold gaze suddenly abandoning all the emotions he had expressed just seconds before. They were calculating eyes, not the eyes of a distraught man-the eyes of a killer, of a ninja.
"Matsuda Oozora is dead."
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Naruto frowned. "But, Mr Hayate, you can't leave! How are we supposed to make all the bread without your help?" he asked. Though it may have sounded like the boy was trying to flatter the baker, it wasn't so. Naruto was merely asking how in the world he and Hinata, the pair of whom could barely bake a loaf of bread without burning it, were supposed to run the bakery without the help of the master-baker.
In truth, Hinata knew that she actually could bake a loaf of bread without burning it; she had, however, been making sure that Naruto never burnt the bakery down (he has come close on several occasions, though.) Thus, while Naruto was worried about how the pair would prevent the bread from burning, Hinata was worried about how she would prevent the entire bakery from burning.
However, both of them were also aware of the fact that Mr. Hayate's absence from work the following week meant only one thing: he would be taking one of his monthly excursions outside the village. And both ninja had a feeling that, this time, he would have a quiet companion or two, maybe even three, trailing silently through the shadows behind him.
Mr Hayate smiled. "Oh, don't worry, Haruto-kun. I have plenty of work for you and Miyako-chan. You two will be baking enough bread for the week. Besides, there won't be many customers," he said.
Hinata blinked. "W-why won't th-th-there be many customers, s-s-sir?" she asked curiously. After all, though the store rarely became crowded, there was a steady flow of customers arriving and leaving throughout the day.
Mr. Hayate frowned, his face darkening. "That's right. You're new here, so you wouldn't know... Your aunt might not know, either," he said.
At this, both Naruto and Hinata were listening, and listening intently. Whether or not the man was lying was uncertain, but if what he was saying was indeed truth, then there was something happening next week that Sorami didn't know about-and that could prove fatal.
"Next week is the Clan Gathering," he said, something slipping into his voice that made his words sound like venom. Hinata had heard hatred such as this before, though it had come from a very different mouth, and had been directed at her and the Main Branch. Her cousin Neji had hated her for a long time, and so Hinata immediately recognized the emotion that had crept into Mr. Hayate's voice.
From the narrowing of Naruto's eyes, Hinata knew that he too had recognized the hatred in the older baker's voice. Of course he would have, she mentally chided herself. She had seen the glances of the villagers around her, heard the dark mutterings of her fellow citizens as they passed the boy. She knew that Naruto-kun was no stranger to hate. She mentally kicked herself for not having the courage to stand up for him, for still lacking the courage to stand with him when he felt that gaze from villagers...
"Ahh, and, umm... What happens at a Clan Gathering?" Naruto asked.
Hinata's eyebrows raised. Oh, she thought, mentally kicking herself again. Naruto-kun w-wouldn't know about th-the workings of c-c-clans. Hinata opened her mouth to explain.
It was a good thing that Mr. Hayate beat her to it-after all, she was simply a rogue ninja from Suna. Had she displayed her knowledge of the inner workings of clans, she would have blown her cover- normal ninja did not know quite so much about Clan Gatherings as she did.
"It's where the Amaya and Jinrai slaughter eachother officially and publicly, calling it a Demonstration," the baker spat.
Okay, so maybe Clan Gatherings in this village were a bit different than the ones back in Konoha. Hinata had never been to a Gathering where any clan member had died, much less been slaughtered. Demonstrations in Konoha were simply that-clans would elect various up-and-coming ninja to represent them, and these ninja would demonstrate their skills. It wasn't anything bloody at all-the young ninja didn't even fight each other when they demonstrated their skills!
"W-what?" Naruto cried.
Mr. Hayate shook his head and regained a bit of composure, though when he spoke, his voice still trembled slightly from suppressed rage. "Well, obviously they don't kill anyone while the Clan Gathering is in session. It's a formal matter-some kind of tradition among clans states that no one dies at a Clan Gathering. But it's essentially the same, because once the Gathering ends, the winners take the defeated participants and kill them." At this, the man lost his composure again, anger spilling into his words. "And no one, not a single person, tries to stop them!"
Hinata hadn't realized that she had a hand over her mouth until she had removed it. Clan Gatherings weren't meant to kill people-only to display the strength of the various Clans. W-what is wrong w-with this village? she wondered in horror.
Naruto's brow was furrowed. "Wait, what?" he asked. "What do you mean, the winners? Is a Clan Gathering some kind of contest?"
Mr. Hayate stared at the boy, his eyes seeming to bore into the boy's skin. Naruto fidgeted under the gaze, and Hinata slid next to him, hoping her presence would make the boy less uncomfortable.
Finally, Mr. Hayate spoke. "You could put it that way," he mused. The man seemed to have finally calmed down, and he sat down in a chair behind the counter before continuing. "At a Clan Gathering, the Clans of a village come together and hold matches to showcase the young talent of the Clan. But the Clans here have warped it from a simple display of ability to a- to use your word, Haruto-contest that determines which Clan is stronger. And the losers of the contest are killed by the victors."
Hinat watched Naruto's expressions change, from curiosity to disgust to outright horror. She was sure that her own face has registered those very same emotions when she had realized the truth a few minutes before.
Naruto shook his head. "Man, and I thought Suna was bad..."
Hinata wasn't sure whether to be proud of the fact that Naruto had remembered their cover, but she decided that, while she was indeed proud of him, now was not the time to express it.
Mr Hayate suddenly grew thoughtful. "Say, you two are, err, retired ninja, right?" he asked.
Naruto and Hinata glanced at eachother. Neither was sure how to react. It was Hinata who responded first.
There was no sense in pretending he was wrong. After all, the man already knew that they were ninja, though how he knew of it she couldn't fathom to guess. At least the man had pretended to be oblivious to their supposed status as "rogue" ninja.
"Y-yes, s-s-sir," she said.
"What do you think of the Clans here?" he asked.
Hinata knew that they were treading dangerous territory, and that one false slip of the tongue could send their covers plummeting into th depths of oblivion. After all, this man was one of the primary suspects for being one of Orochimaru's spies.
Unfortunately, she was not sure if Naruto knew this, because he was already answering.
"I think these Clans have issues. They don't care about leaving kids dead on the streets-they don't even bother to pick up the bodies and give them a proper burial-not even their own friends! The Clans in our village were never like that!" Naruto said.
Mr. Hayate nodded. "So, what you're saying is that it definitely needs to change, right?" he asked in guarded tones, though Hinata thought she saw a spark of enthusiasm in the baker's eyes.
"Yeah, definitely," Naruto nodded.
A grin broke over Mr. Hayate's face. "Well, then I wonder if I couldn't interest you two in joining me tomorrow outside the hot springs to... discuss this matter in greater detail."
Hinata gasped. There was no way she would have thought that such a thing was possible. Even as she nodded, she couldn't wrap her mind around it.
She watched in a daze as Naruto agrees hesitantly to the baker's offer, only having decided to agree after seeing Hinata's nod. Though it was obvious the boy didn't know what he was agreeing to, Hinata couldn't bring her mind to believe what she thought she had heard.
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When Mr. Hayate bid them goodnight, and the doors closed behind them, Hinata swerved to face Naruto, her hair flipping into her face and her eyes gleaming behind their contacts.
"H-H-Haruto-kun," she said in a voice only loud enough for him to hear. "D-do you kn-know what just h-h-happened?" she asked
Naruto scratched his head. Even though she knew only he could hear her, she was still using his alias. It bothered him, for some reason-he wanted her to say his real name, bot his fake name. But the boy knew that she was right to use his alias, so he sighed and decided to use hers as well.
"No, Miyako-chan," he replied with the same volume. "I have absolutely no idea why we're meeting at the hot springs, or what he meant by 'discuss the matter'-"
Suddenly he felt a small form tackle him, and he staggered back several steps before regaining his balance. He was met with Hinata's face, her cheeks flushed and excitement lighting up her features as she hugged him.
"N-Naruto-kun," she said, beaming. Naruto would years later swear that beams of sunlight actually radiated from her, as happy as she was. "It means that there's a rebellion!"
~End Chapter X~
Author's Comments: All right! Another cliffy ending! Man, I sure am mean! I don't update for months and weeks, and then I post a chapter, and it's stuffed with good stuff, but it's short, AND I leave you guys with a cliffhanger! Oh, well. Blame it on my failure at consistency: by the way, I returned to writing after reading several fanfictions, and so my writing changed a bit, as I was influenced by them. I hope it's not too drastic a change!
I am constantly writing this story, and so I also see how much my writing has evolved. I write about 2-5 chapters ahead of what I post. I'm currently working on Chapter 12 (it's a pretty good one, you guys!) and even though it's only 2 chapters later, my writing has already improved by dramatic levels. I can't tell you how much it pleases me to see that my writing has evolved so much! Thank you all for your support!
I probably won't update for awhile again. I really suggest following this story if you want to read it to the end-my updates are much too sporadic for you to simply catch it on the front page of NaruHina fics one day.
Oh yea. I STILL NEED A BETA!