So, how have you all been my readers?

This chapter took me the longest to write. I thought about 3 roots to start this chapter and before I knew it a whole week has passed to start typing. And then I got caught up in binge reading My Hero Academia fics. I finished reading Torchbearer and Mightless. Two very good fic in MHA-verse. Finally I got my longest yet PM from ADVIN which prompted me to get into gear. So you have him to thank for the update. So ayway, let's start the chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. It belongs to Kishimoto-sensei.

OxoxO

When I planned to do something to change the people that will play a major role in the future, I chose 2 of my classmates to work on. Sasuke and Hinata.

Sasuke is for obvious reason. As whatever Itachi planned for Sasuke would be fucked up thoroughly when Orochimaru and later Tobi enters the picture if I don't do anything about. And by the time he kills the right person who ordered the Uchiha Massacre, he was too far gone into the dark side that no amount of tomato flavored cookies gonna bring him back to light. I will have to pay my arm to bring the bastard into light. I love my hands very much, thank you. I don't care if Sasuke loses his. He would be celebrating No-Nut-Teenage-Years anyway.

As for Hinata, it's because of her lack of confidence. At this point in cannon timeline, her self-doubt issue was monumental. I blame her clan for that. If by any chance, I could implant one of my qualities in her, I would implant my mentality to not give a fuck to the people who don't give a fuck about me. Since she came to me willingly and she needed help most, I did whatever I can. I spent time with her whenever she asked or I had nothing to do. At first, I encouraged her to talk about things she likes. Then I asked her opinion on matters that our group would discuss. Our group's outings, be it cooking doi or candy poker, brought her out of her shell little by little. Now a days, she isn't afraid of speaking her mind; slightly embarrassed maybe but not afraid. Our occasional spars and encouraging words boosted her confidence in her fighting abilities somewhat. And hours spent in staring contest between the two of us brought her uneasy at being in close proximity under control. All of it happened in last few weeks.

And now there is a chance that it all might come crashing down. There is no way I am gonna let that happen. But what do I do? I felt the weight of indecision on my shoulder as I looked at the Hyuga heiress. What do I say to her? What should I say to her?

Telling a girl that her loved one died is one thing. But giving her the bad- devastating- news while wearing his face? That's something I would never wish on someone who has even a little bit of humanity left. But what can I do? I would've told her sooner or later. Because every time I noticed her blush at seeing me, I felt like I was deceiving her and guilt ate away at me. And now that it's out in the open, it's my responsibility to console her. Well, no point in wasting time.

She was quietly sitting on her spot. I don't think she even noticed that others have gone home. She will have to return home soon too. Hiashi has withdrawn her curfew for the time being as working in our group will help her building good relation with other clan heirs and it will improve her standing in her clan. But he will have to be an utter bastard to know that his daughter hasn't returned home so late and not send someone to search for her. I would have to take her home before that.

I looked at the packet of chips Chouji gave me. Better put this to good use. Popping it open, I took one in my mouth. It had a spicy flavor. This would do. I strode forward to her and crouched down so that we are both at eye-level.

"Hinata," she raised her gaze as I called her name. "Say, aaaa." She was lost in thought. Now she is clueless as to why I am gesturing her to open her mouth. "Say, aaaa." I urged her again.

"Aaaa." I put a chip in her mouth as soon she opened it. Surprise crossed her face but she involuntarily munched on it nonetheless. That's good; now she is distracted from her depressing thought.

"You are wondering why I did that, aren't you?" she gave a nod at my question. "You needed a distraction from your thought."

"Why would you think that?"

"It's because you were thinking about Naruto." I stood up from my crouching position and moved to seat beside her. Looking at the few stars at night sky I continued, "When you lose someone, you think about him for a long time. It's only natural. You can't put him out of your mind. Every little thing reminds you of him. You think about all the things you wanted to do with him but didn't get the chance to. All the things you wanted to say to him but couldn't. They swarm your head and overwhelm you. As time goes on, it becomes easier to live with the pain." Taking a deep breath I looked at her. "However in this particular case, it will be harder for you to cope with your loss. Especially when you will be seeing this every day." I made a circle on the air in front of my face. "For split second, this face will make you think that Naruto is still here but then you will remember that no, he is not here. It's just his face, his body with a different person, a different soul, inside. And the worst part is, you will have to call him by the name of the person you admired since he can't go by his previous name."

"Then what do I do?" her eyes was started to water with unshed tears. "I feel like… there is a hole in my chest. A part of me wants to scream at you that I hate you and it's your fault that Naruto isn't here anymore. Another part says that it's not your fault, that you are a good person. I know you are a good person, otherwise you wouldn't have told us about yourself. I know everything you said is true, that you mean what you said about helping us to protect our family. But I don't know what to do. Naru- Rijuan, I am lost. You are so many years older than me. Can you..." a hiccup trembled through her small frame. "Can you tell me what I should do?"

Now, what can I tell her? Hold yourself together? Considering she is still composed to this degree, she is doing this great. Talk about it? She is doing this to some degree. But frankly, I am not the best person to give emotional support to someone. The losses I've felt in my childhood and trying to adopt a robot's way of thinking after reading too many sci-fi stories, and some philosophical articles, made sure of that. If it wasn't for aunt, uncle, my friends and specially my siblings, I might've become another Sheldon Cooper.

"Right now, you are conflicted about what you should think of the whole situation. I could tell you my way of handling loss but…" A long sigh escaped my mouth. "I am not really sure how much it would help. After all, our mindsets are different." And my loss-sensor has long been dulled. "I am not an expert in psychology but I know one thing about females. It's best for them to talk about their grief. I know you are an introvert person and you can't really talk to someone about this mess without them calling you mentally unfit but try it. The boys know about it now, so you can talk to them. You can talk to me about it if you feel like it and don't really want an answer, just need to be heard. Just don't bottle things up."

"How did you get over things like this?"

"My way of dealing with this kind of loss is to cry until I fall asleep, have long, good night sleep, wake up, let the leftover tear out and then concentrate on something new." And I advised my first generation friends this too. Mostly when one of them got rejected by their crush or got dumped. "It might sound cold but it helps." I looked heavenward as faces of my friends from back and family flashed through my mind. "It's still helping. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of night, after dreaming of my family or friends, about the life I was going to have. Some morning, I think 'who is the kid?' when I see this face in the mirror. Then I remember, this is my face now. And this is my life. A second chance; undesired but not unwelcomed." Lowering my gaze, I stood up from my seat. "Anyway, it's been a long hour. So let's take you home. Even though I have no problem staying here all night, I don't think your father will be happy if you stay here past your curfew." Turning my back to her, I crouched down. "Hop on."

"B-but I can walk."

"I know you can, honey. But you are emotionally drained. You wouldn't know where your feet is taking you before you hit your head on something."

She stood up from her spot and reluctantly took her place on my back. Unlike the time I body flickered both of us to the Academy from market district, she didn't wrap her hands around my front. Instead she simply placed her hands on my shoulders. After securing her legs with my arms, I stood up and started walking in Hyuga Estate's direction. I could've used body flicker jutsu to take her home quickly, but after an emotional episode like that I needed to walk, a long walk. And there was something I needed to talk to her about. But do I have to broach the subject right now? Well, the sooner the better. We will have to go through market district to reach her home. It's better to talk about it where there is no people to overhear.

"Hinata?" I started after few minutes of walking in silence.

"Yes?"

"I don't know if it's the right time to talk about this but I think the sooner you know about this the better." Taking deep breath I started. "First, can you tell me how long have you been experiencing the memory thing?"

"It started few days after you gave me your chakra."

"Does this happen often?"

"No. like I said, I just feel like there is something in my head that I should know about but they don't come to the front until I see or hear something that makes me fully remember them."

"Yeah, you said that before." So the package is already in her head. It's just unpacking little by little. So far only she only received memories. "Does it hurt when this happens?"

"Not very much. Sometimes it gives me a headache but it goes away after a moment." After a short pause, she asked, "Is it about your memories? You don't want me to have them?"

"Except for few things, I don't have anything against you having my memories of. I think I have made it clear that I am an open person. From my past, there isn't anything to hide actually. So I am not worried about that." I inhaled a short breath as I formulated next part of my answer. "What I am actually worried about is my personality being mixed with your psyche. Unlike with the matter with memories and emotions, I am not really sure if chakra can carry one person's qualities to another. In short, I don't want you to turn out like me."

"But- but why? I don't think you are a bad person."

"Thanks for the complement." I said with a chuckle. "But it's more than just good or bad. Overall, I might be a good person, but there is darkness inside me. True, every person- no matter how good they are- have at least a speck of darkness inside them. What worries me is that, if my bad qualities seeps into your system and you don't know how to keep it under control, it will change you for the worse." From the way she tensed at my explanation told me that she is already fearing the worst outcome. "So, if you wake up one morning and have a sudden urge to kill a certain kind of person, please talk to someone about it before doing it."

"Why would I want to kill people?"

"One time, I fancied the idea of becoming a serial killer." The gasp she let out said that she wasn't expecting me to wish something like this. "The only people I would've targeted would be corrupt politicians and clerics. One kind cause problem for general populace and the other take advantage of people's faith in them. Thankfully, it was just a passing fancy, so it went away after 2 or 3 days."

"If you don't want me to have your memories, you can take your chakra back. I wouldn't mind."

Her offer was sound and for me it would've been the most logical path to take. Which was why earlier I have scanned her from head to toe with my sensory jutsu before Shikamaru caught me in his shadow possession.

Yamanaka sensing technique was very handy. As Yamanaka clan's jutsu was basically spiritual in nature, like astral projection and possession combo, their sensory jutsu too is built on this foundation. It works on the principle that as chakra is mixture of spiritual energy and physical energy; as long as it remains in a person's body it contains a fragment of that person's consciousness. This particular jutsu perceives these fragments as lights of various colors.

From warging into cats, I know my aura color is a lighter shade of gray. When I scanned Hinata to find the presence of this color in her bright white, all I saw was few off-white spots. 'Now there is no way to extract that bit of chakra safely.' I thought to myself as my concentration wavered from being paralyzed by Shikamaru's shadow. So I deactivated my jutsu.

"It's impossible to remove my chakra from your system safely. It's done settling in in most parts." I said with a sigh. "If this came to my attention earlier then I could've extracted my chakra from your system as much as possible or I could've tried to convert it to your chakra. But after residing in your system for 2 months, almost all of it has settled in and merged with your chakra."

"Then what do I do? I don't want to… I don't…" she staggered to voice her concern. It's not hard to guess that she was afraid of offending me if she said she didn't want to become someone who fancied becoming a murderer.

"Relax. You can speak your mind with me. It's not very easy to offend me." I assured her. "You don't want to have my bad qualities and there is nothing wrong with it. Whatever worked for me, wouldn't work for you anyway.

"I am sorry."

"For what?" without waiting for her answer I continued. "It was ignorance on my part. That and I didn't know the right procedure to share chakra with others. If anything, I am the one who should say sorry." No shit. There is a possibility I am carrying future-potential serial killer who would one day snap from being bullied by bunch of stuck-up old geezer and kill them the same way I wanted to make my serial killing method. Tie them down inside a drum, then leave a water hose inside it and let it fill the drum up veeeery slowly. Torture and killing in one combo. And it will be all on me. "Any way, I want to thank you for staying my friend till now. Among our group, you have the most reason to not want to remain such. I know there is nothing I can do to make it up to you, but I will try my hardest to help you. So I need ask, will you allow me to help you? Will you ask me for help when you need?"

"You want to help me?"

"I like to help people who need it and among all my new friends, you need help the most."

"I am sorry for being a burden." I might not see it, but there was no doubt that if I give her 2 seconds she will start tearing up. I am not- in clear conscience- going to make her cry more than I already did.

"Hinata, don't think of yourself as a burden. You are a kind person who has great potential to become someone strong. If you keep thinking yourself as a burden, your potential will never be realized. Do you want that?"

"No." she replied in low voice as her hand moved from my shoulder to wipe any tear that gathered in her eyes.

"I can't hear you."

"No." a bit louder than before.

"Still can't hear you."

"NO. I DON'T WANT TO BE A BURDEN." This time half-yelling. That's better.

"I heard you loud and clear."

"I thought you were going pull Beethoven jokes."

"You know the Beethoven joke?" I was surprised. The only Beethoven joke I knew, I saw it in meme on facebook once.

"I just remembered it."

"If you remember any more jokes from memories, you have to tell me. Almost all of them became inside jokes only I understand." I said in happy voice. Right, crying solved; now onto the serious matter. "Anyway, can you guess why I want to help? Besides the obvious that is."

"Umm, I am not so sure."

"It's because of Danzo and the division in your clan." I already told about Danzo, so I elaborated the second cause. "To be truthful, the idea of a clan is somewhat foreign to me. The only thing I have similar from my culture is the large extended families with multiple generations of siblings, cousins and all other kind of relatives living together that could be found in rural areas in the past. However the division in your clan, main house and branch house, is what sets apart the Hyuga clan from anything I know about this kind of families. It wouldn't have felt so horrendous to me if the branch house Hyugas weren't slaves to the main house in all but name and didn't have to wear caged bird seal on their forehead. In my opinion, it's the worst family tradition I know of after Nikhai."

"Do you think Danzo would take advantage of this system?"

"Divide and conquer is the oldest trick in the book for politics and war and it still works. To Danzo's good fortune, Hyuga clan did the first part themselves. The few times I was around your clan estate, I've seen how branch house members look at their main house counterparts with contempt and hatred. It might not show in their faces when you look at them but you can feel it in your back when you turn around. This hatred has been there for centuries and it's increasing with every passing day. Despite this, there hasn't been any conflict. The Caged Bird Seal ensured main house's upper hand should a conflict arise. Branch house members fear the pain this seal can inflict on them and what could befall their family if they doesn't succeed in their endeavor. But what would happen if - hypothetically speaking- Danzo supply them a seal that can negate the curse mark's pain inflicting function? Or even better rebound the pain upon the one who activates the seal? Main house members might have upper hand skill-wise but their counterparts still outnumber them. I have been in this world for about 2 months and even I can see the holes in this system. Would it be very farfetched to think that a man who has been a shinobi longer than my father has been alive wouldn't have some ways to take advantage of it? What happens when both side of your clan in equal footing is anyone's guess."

"And since you are an outsider, you can't do anything to help if that happens."

"Even if I help it will worsen your standing in the clan for relying on an outsider." And then the bastard will offer me his aid to resolve this problem on the condition that I become his toy. "And that's why I need you to become strong so that you wouldn't have to rely on me if situation like this ever come to pass. So you see, I don't want you to become strong because I see you as a burden. It's more like teach a man how to fish and he will eat every day."

We lapsed into silence after for the remainder of our walk in Aburame estate. There wasn't anything more to talk about the current situation and what might come after. She is no doubt going to toss and turn in her bed for a long time tonight and few nights afterward.

My mood soured when we reached Market district. The bastards were glaring at us. Some of them were whispering behind our backs. Unfortunately I didn't have the special poncho with me and even if I had, I wouldn't wear it with Hinata on my back. A gentle girl like her shouldn't be associated with clothings with this kind of design. If she were RTN!Hinata then I wouldn't have cared.

"Um, Naruto?" so she wants to talk more. I would say that's an improvement from what I saw on the show. And it's going to distract me from glares and whispers. "Can you tell me about the practice of Nikhai? Were they from your past world?"

"It's actually the practice that created Nikhais and it was actually from my country." It wouldn't take a whole lot of time to tell her everything I knew about this accursed practice and the Hyuga estate weren't very far, only few blocks. So I started. "Few centuries ago, there was a family of big shot land owners called Bhuiya. For whatever reason one of their ancestor decided to start a practice no other rich families had at the time. In this tradition, any male Bhuiya would choose his first wife from a poor family and for her whole life she will be a servant to his second wife, who would usually come from a rich family."

"That's so wrong, and cruel."

"That's just the beginning. If the wife was treated badly, then her children suffered worse fate than their mother." I once watched a TV drama about the suffering of these children as struggle to find a foothold in the society for a better life. In the ends the protagonist dies and his sisters remained unmarried. Another time I watched a romance-tragedy where a young Bhuiya falls in love with a Nikhai woman. But when his family gets wind of it, they lock him up. Then they exile the woman's family from the village. "The woman from the poor family wouldn't be treated as a true wife even if she came into the picture first. She would be treated like just another servant and wouldn't get anything more than what a servant would be given. It sounds harsh but she would get 3 meals a day and good clothing to wear. That was more than what many of those women's fathers could afford. And when she births any child, that child wouldn't get anything either. He wouldn't get any money, an inch of land or even his father's family name. The Bhuiyas branded those off-springs and their descendants as Nikhai. And this stigma would ruin their lives forever. It's a good thing this practice was abandoned when our government at the time limited the amount of land a person or a family was allowed to own. Otherwise this foul practice would still be practiced and ruin more lives." In my eyes, this practice was more disgusting than Ottoman's fratricide tradition; at least Ottoman sultans didn't make their male relatives and their descendants' lives hell.

We reached the immediate block before Hyuga estate as I finished my tale. I let her down before the Hyuga guards at the gate could see her on my back. She shuffled on her feet few times. We bid each other good night and I made my way to my apartment. Tomorrow class in academy is going to be awkward among our group. I have to do something to break it.

"Ah, yes. Sasuke has to slave for 7 days. Why not start it tomorrow." Making the cross seal, I made a shadow clone and handed him money to buy the necessary things.

OxoxO

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Preview of next chapter

"You have yet to hear me lie and I am yet to need to lie."