Hinata still had her byakugan permanently active, and although she mostly used it to watch Tenten's progress with her bonds as Hinata and her team walked towards Konoha and the hospital for the second time that day, she still looked ahead as a simple matter of course.
Therefore, she was surprised by his presence long before she actually stood in front of him.
"Hinata," he said, his tone unreadable.
"Father," she replied respectfully, bowing to him, acutely aware of how she must look, ragged and bloodied, with a broken arm and covered in dirt. Nothing at all like the perfect Hyuga princess she knew he wanted.
Hiashi's face was neutral, showing neither pleasure nor disappointment. "I was watching your fight. When you finish getting that taken care of, we must speak."
"Yes, Father."
What more could she say?
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Neji woke when they entered his hospital room, opening his eyes and attempting to sit up before the stabbing pain in his belly made him abandon that idea. He hissed in sudden, startled pain as he turned to see Hinata walking his way, Naruto and Sasuke remaining on either side of the door, almost like guards.
"Hinata-sama," he gasped, noting the fresh white cast on her arm.
She nodded, then slid her hitai-ate up to her forehead, revealing her empty black eyes. "Neji. I have come for your answer. Will you stand by me as I take control of our family?"
He attempted to sit up again, this time more slowly, pushing himself upright with his hands. "Hinata-sama…" he repeated himself dumbly, trying to buy time to think as he stared at those dark sockets. "What happened to your eyes?" he asked, horrified.
"I made a choice," she replied without hesitation. "I could either remain pathetic and weak and alone, or I could give my pledge and be supported in turn."
Neji blinked. "What?" he asked, sounding kind of desperate. He didn't know what to make of her now. Her face was still, expressionless, all her emotions carefully masked. While a Hyuga would normally have no trouble reading expressions anyway, Hinata's eyes were featureless, with nothing in their inky void to indicate where she was looking or even if she'd turned them to look at something else. It screwed up his ability to predict her and it made him incredibly uncomfortable.
"I will explain if you accept," she countered, then her voice turned softer, more compassionate. "You are a sad, angry man, Cousin. I know how much you resent me. I know how much you hate my sister, and my father. I even know why." She sighed. "I cannot make the past go away, but I can offer you a stake in the future."
"I suppose the future is already written," he replied, sounding defeated. "You will lead our clan as you were destined to."
"We write the future with our every action, Neji. Only the past is unchangeable. What is it that you want?" Her eyes bored into him.
He swallowed, staring back at her. White eyes meeting black.
"I want to be free," he said slowly.
She looked down at him, looming over him from his bedside, her face unreadable. Finally, she spoke. "Free from what?"
He opened his mouth, and found that his answer stuck in his throat. He didn't say anything.
Hinata shook her head slowly. "You don't even know, do you?"
Neji just stared back helplessly. This was not how he'd imagined his day going.
Hinata sighed. "Fine. Be my support in the family, and when I am Head I will allow you to live outside our district. I will support your marriage to whomever you please, clanless, civilian, even Tenten if she'll have you. I won't even care if you marry Lee. I will never use the seal against you, and I have already promised to change how we use it. I will give you every freedom it is in my power to give. And when you figure out what it is that you really, truly want, I'll help you get that as well."
His gaze turned cold. "And why would you offer me such things? Does the main family bargain with a lowly branch cousin now?"
Hinata leaned in close. "If you choose to see it that way," she replied softly. "But I would have given you those things anyway." She reached out slowly, careful to appear nonthreatening, and touched his bandaged forehead gently. "Why? Because you are my cousin… my brother. Our fathers were identical in almost every way, yet we are so far apart. That isn't right. All I ever wanted when we were growing up was for you to forgive me."
Memories flooded him, of thousands of tiny little things that he would do to show his contempt for her as a person, as a wannabe ninja, and as a Hyuga. He thought of the emptiness he felt whenever he saw her and realized that she had been crying. Not satisfaction, not regret. Just… nothing. And he thought of the anger that surged through him when he realized she was stronger than she'd appeared.
"I…" He licked his lips. "I don't know that I can ever forgive you," he said honestly. "But I can try," he added suddenly, feeling compelled to not let his cousin down. "Do you hate me?" he asked in turn.
She tilted her head slightly, deliberately, considerately giving him a visual clue that she was thinking about the question.
"I don't know, I could," she replied. "I probably should. I might have, for a little while. But I don't think I will. I can't afford it." She shook her head. "Neji, you are the best of all of us. More than Hanabi, certainly more than I, you are the perfect Hyuga. You're more talented, more refined, smarter, faster, and stronger than I will ever be able to match. I realize that now. In truth, you should have been heir. It would make sense in almost every way. Our clan would prosper under your leadership."
He didn't know whether to be flattered that she acknowledged something he'd always secretly thought, or worried that she'd realized it.
She pressed on. "Yes, we would prosper under you. But under me…" She smiled grimly.
"We will conquer."
His eyes widened.
"I will expand our influence. Investments that will bring us wealth. Alliances that will bring us security. Secrets that will bring us power." She paused and turned, making a show of looking at Naruto. "The world is changing even as we speak, Neji," she continued, turning back to him. "I have been given eyes to see it, ears to hear it, and a voice to speak it."
"Are you crazy?"
She laughed softly. "I was told to expect disbelief. Fortunately, Naruto is here to offer you proof."
Naruto walked forward and smiled down at Neji, showing a lot of inhumanly sharp, white teeth. "You wonder what we're talking about with all these cryptic words. It's simple, really. The Fourth didn't kill the Kyubi no Kitsune. He sealed him into a baby. A little, blond headed baby." He stroked the whisker marks on his cheeks with one sharp fingernail, then reached lower. "You aren't the only one to bear a seal, Neji."
Neji watched in shock as Naruto pulled open his jacket, then pulled up the hem of his shirt and pushed down slightly on the waistband of his pants, revealing his stomach, and showing him the strange set of markings centered on his belly button.
It was a circle about three and a half inches across made of a series of sharp black characters, with more spidery characters radiating from it. However, his attention was most drawn to the central character. It was a five pointed star, a pentagram, with what appeared to be a tongue of flame that emerged from his navel.
"You speak of destiny as if you know what it means," Naruto said in a slightly amused tone of voice. "You want to know what's destined? I'll tell you what the fox has been whispering in my ears while I sleep." Naruto recovered the seal on his stomach. "It tells me that the tailed gods are waking up once more. Beings of legend, asleep for thousands of years, and they're waking up. Not all at once, not immediately, but inevitably. No one can stop them. Not you, not me, not even the Fourth Hokage. After winter comes spring, and after spring summer. That is destiny for you, Neji. I am the avatar of the most powerful of all the tailed gods, and I offer you a place in the new world. A place beside Hinata, beside Sasuke, and I.
"I like Konoha. It's my home, where I was born and raised. But threats loom all around us as the other tailed ones wake. We've already fought agents of the seven tailed bear." His teeth clicked together in a snap, as if he was biting one of them. "We killed them. We killed all of them who trespassed in my land." He sounded tremendously satisfied. "But there will be more, Neji. More enemies within and without. They will come whether you stand by me or stand against me. That, too, is destiny."
Neji didn't have his byakugan activated, but he could actually see the chakra wrapping around Naruto, forming a shroud that suggested rather than resembled that of a fox.
"The Kyubi nearly destroyed Konoha," he protested weakly.
"Forget what little you know about the Kyubi, the truth is far stranger," Naruto replied. "Still, know this… Agree to the bargain, Neji, and you will receive all the freedom any of us can possibly hope to achieve." His eyes flickered with heavy red chakra. "The freedom to choose, Neji. That's the only part of this that isn't destined. You can choose to be with us, or against us. That is freedom."
Neji shook his head in disbelief. "I don't believe you. You just want something out of me."
Naruto shrugged. "A bargain is a bargain, right? If I don't deliver, you don't have to deliver." He smiled a secretive, fox's grin. "This isn't some handshake deal, Neji. This is blood and power, blood for power, and it will give you things you never thought possible. There is a price, of course. There is always a price, but I don't think it's too much to pay. Just ask Sasuke. Ask Hinata."
He glanced at Sasuke, saw the trickle of blood weeping from his eyes, which he occasionally dabbed at with a black cloth. The Uchiha nodded. Looked at Hinata, and realized how she'd gotten her black eyes.
"It's worth it, Neji," she answered to his unspoken question. "I'm never alone now. Never helpless. To you, of all people, I would not ask Naruto to offer this if it was not fair."
He remained silent, looking from one to the other in turn. His cousin, sweet, shy and weak, now turned into someone he didn't know at all. The Uchiha, proud last member of a once noble clan, but who followed Naruto's lead without hesitation. And Naruto, enigmatic, grinning blond who claimed to have a demon sealed inside of him.
"Do it, Brother," she said softly. "Join me. Join us as we make our place in the new world. I think you'll be surprised at how much happiness you'll find." She smiled, her eyes crinkling up, and for the first time since she walked in the door, she seemed alive, and she took his hands, the hands he'd tried to kill her with only hours earlier, in her own.
She was the future leader of his clan. Perhaps, if Naruto was right, it wasn't his destiny, but it was his duty to follow her.
Never let it be said that Neji shirked in his duty.
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"That went well," Sasuke noted.
Naruto nodded, his chakra flaring and twisting like a bored cat. He hadn't been sure exactly what to do, but the little whisper in the back of his mind had taken over when he let it, and now Neji sported a bite mark on his shoulder that curiously did not look like human teeth. He wondered if it would fade as Hinata's and Sasuke's had.
Hinata said nothing, her face expressionless behind the blindfold of her hitai-ate.
The three of them sat on a wall running along one of the roads just out of sight of the hospital. Some of Naruto's clones were disguised and hidden here and there, watching for Tenten and Lee's return. They were running late, but Hinata had used her byakugan to find them limping wearily towards the hospital, with Lee all but being carried by Tenten. They'd get there soon enough.
The sun was going down, and all across Konoha the day job people were leaving work, often to go and buy things from the evening job people. The occasional medic or patient passed them, usually in small groups.
"I thought his eyes would turn black, but I guess it's different for everyone. And at least his veins didn't pop." Sasuke had been thinking about the power Naruto's chakra had given him, but where Hinata's eyes now did new and unusual things, he wasn't sure if what he had was the normal sharingan or an enhanced version. Just what did the white tomoe mean?
"My choushijiro didn't burst until I looked at the shoggoth," Hinata replied quietly. "Provided he doesn't stare at otherworldly monsters, he should be fine." Though she seemed focused inward, she actually watched Naruto closely, hiding her worry.
"I have a better idea of how much power a human can handle," Naruto added, his voice deep and growling. "Didn't want to, as you said, make him go pop." He smiled at the idea, looking at his hand as he held it up and flexed it, watching not only the play of corded muscles and the fingernails sharpened into claws, but how the heavy, red chakra outlining his hand followed his movements. "Hokage-sama warned that I could hurt you by giving too much of my chakra, that our summoning technique is wrong, but the more you do it, the more I wonder."
They looked at him.
"I don't think it's really the technique doing anything," he explained. "It feels more like all we have to do is ask, and it happens." Suddenly he seemed to draw in on himself, the chakra subsiding a little. "That's a little worrying, actually. I need to see if I can figure out anything about it. When Hokage-sama calls for me, I wonder if I should tell him about it." He shook his head.
"You should tell someone," Hinata offered. "Naruto… you're acting different. I think you've called up too much of your power."
"Hmmm," he replied. It came out as a growl.
"She's right," Sasuke added unexpectedly. "Your monster is showing."
Naruto twitched and froze, unmoving, while his chakra flared even more, lashing about angrily. It would have been visible even to people not chakra sensitive, and to his teammates it was as easy to see as a physical object.
However, neither of them flinched or otherwise backed away.
"You could be a little more circumspect, Sasuke-kun," Hinata said reproachfully.
Sasuke shrugged. "Why mince words? It's not like it bothers me, but it's the kind of thing he should hide."
Naruto shivered, realizing how far he'd gone, then nodded. "You're both right. I've got to do something about this before it gets out of hand." He made ten clones of himself, all of them with the same animalistic features he currently had. They immediately scattered, disguising themselves as they went. He finished it up by using another transformation on himself, effectively disguising himself as himself.
He blinked blue eyes and put his arm around Hinata's shoulders. "Wow. Even just pretending helps more than you'd think. Before, it was like I was swimming in power, and I kept thinking about fighting and sex and blood." His voice was no longer deep and growling, and was back to the higher pitch that was his normal tone.
Sasuke shrugged. "Sounds like my usual dreams."
Hinata quirked her lips slightly. "Mine, too."
Naruto stopped, took a breath, looked at them both, then chuckled slightly for a moment. When he'd stopped, he took a shaky breath and nodded at them both. "…thanks."
Sasuke shrugged as if it didn't matter, but inside he was well aware that they'd just dodged a kunai, even if he wasn't exactly sure how. There was something being offered there, but it would cost something he wasn't sure he wanted to pay.
Not now. Not when he'd finally discovered what it was like to not be alone anymore.
The worrying thing was, he was absolutely sure it would be offered once again.
"So…" Naruto began hesitantly, "anyway, now… Hinata, do you want to go see your father now, or later?"
Hinata stiffened slightly under his arm, surprised by the sudden change in topic. That was something she had to think about.
Naruto and Sasuke watched her in silence, blinking now and then, not moving even when a late evening dragonfly buzzed between them, on the way to some nighttime resting place. Ninjas were trained to wait unmoving, and even with his incredible energy level, Naruto found it easy to sit still. Even the playful fox knew how to wait and watch for prey.
Hinata shrugged slightly and scratched under her cast. Naruto had faked most of his injuries, at least until Lee sat on his chest and started punching his face, and the ones he'd gotten had largely healed by the time they got to the hospital. Sasuke had suffered little more than some bruises and a headache, and even that was fading. Only the injury to her arm, rebroken by a well placed punch, would linger.
All in all, she was fairly pleased with her performance that day. She'd beaten Neji, and while it was really more of a tie, she'd been the one to get up first. Then she'd fought and outmaneuvered Tenten, who was dangerous at range but no match for a Hyuga in close combat. And while there was no way she could have beaten Lee in a straight fight, especially with a broken arm, her Naruto given disguise and acting skills had made her the weapon that finally took him down without injury.
But… how would her father see it? She was strong, she was fast, she was skilled, all in ways far, far beyond what she'd been in the Academy. She knew that. But, again, the plan was to surprise him with it, and use that surprise to keep him off balance and win concessions.
The news that she hadn't been successful in fooling her father's eyes was not a pleasant surprise.
Actually, it was downright frightening.
Naruto understood all that, and read her doubt and fear without her having to say a word.
"Hey, we don't know how long he's known, just that he knows, right? He may have just found out today, somehow, while he watched the fight. Heard about Neji in the hospital, decided to watch you?" Naruto shrugged. "I mean, keeping secrets from you Hyuga is basically impossible, and we always knew that if he decided to watch us there was no way we'd ever be able to hide from him, or even know he was watching."
"It wasn't according to plan, though, right?" Sasuke asked.
Naruto sighed. "Well, that's just it. No, preferably, he wouldn't have noticed anything and the surprise would have been complete. But, there's an old saying that all too many people seem to forget these days.
"No plan survives contact with the enemy."
Sasuke blinked.
Naruto shrugged. "All I'm saying is, no matter how clever the plan is, unless you can actually see the future, you're not going to make a plan that works perfectly at every single little stage. Maybe if your opponent was freaking stupid and you knew everything about them, but let's face it, that's unrealistic. We're pretty smart, right? But we're going up against some people that are pretty smart in their own right. The only real thing you can do is make educated guesses, using all the information you can get, then adjust your plan accordingly. The best planners are the ones that change things on the fly, adjusting to the new situation to make sure you get an acceptable result. And what I'm saying here is, Hinata is right to be worried, because this matters, but she shouldn't be too worried, because there's still an excellent chance for a good outcome."
"I am simply… surprised, that is all," Hinata admitted. "I did not expect my father to show interest in me to the point he would spy on me."
"He caught Naruto leaving your room last night," Sasuke pointed out with some amusement. "Maybe that got his attention."
Naruto made a face. "Ugh, don't remind me. I mean, one minute you're on top of the world, disguised as a rock, and flying through the air out of your girlfriend's bedroom-"
Hinata smiled at being called his girlfriend.
"-and the next moment her father snatches you out of the air like you're a small and annoying fly. It's enough to make you rethink a few choices, let me tell you." Naruto shook his head ruefully.
Sasuke smirked. "Hn. Could have been worse."
Naruto blinked, as if Sasuke had just said something tremendously profound.
"You know what? You're right," he said in a wondering tone. "It could have been worse. It actually should have been worse." He paused, letting them think on that.
Hiashi, for all he seemed stern to the point of absurdity, hadn't freaked out when Naruto, the freak demon outcast, entered his home. He'd delivered a fairly stern warning about house rules, and then had his minions beat the living crap out of Naruto, but even to Naruto, it had seemed almost… jocular. Even when he and Sasuke had went to pick her up several days ago, he'd acted positively frosty when he'd asked them what they wanted. Then, when he found out they were there to get Hinata, he'd essentially said, 'okay' and walked away.
Could it be?
Did he actually know what was going on… and approve?
It would make sense in some ways. He'd always wanted Hinata to get strong, and it was Naruto, and Sasuke, who'd really helped her overcome her weakness.
Hinata's lips formed a small, hopeful, and slightly incredulous smile. She turned to Naruto.
He put an arm around her shoulders. "Hey, it makes sense. I can't account for him not tearing my spleen out through my nose in any other way."
"Hn," Sasuke said in a way that seriously implied internal chuckling at the idea that Naruto and Hinata had spent so much time trying to keep things secret from her father, who apparently knew anyway.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," Naruto grumbled. "Do you understand what we're up against? It's the ENTIRE HYUGA CLAN. They can like, see through walls and shit from across Konoha. If Hiashi wants to know something, he's going to find it out."
"Except for some of the sealed buildings," Hinata reminded them. "Like the Hokage tower." There were some buildings in Konoha, mostly government buildings like the Hokage tower or various ANBU division headquarters, as well as council members and clan leaders' homes that were sealed in the same way as Hinata's new forehead protector, so that a Hyuga could not look through them. It had the benefit of keeping prying white eyes out, but also made the building stand out in Konoha like a beacon.
"But can't you see through those?" Sasuke asked. "With that mangekyo byakugan of yours?"
She nodded. "That's true, I only found out today. We'll have to investigate. Carefully, of course."
"Of course."
"But… mangekyo?" she asked, looking at him.
"Remember, I told you about my brother, Itachi? And the Tsukkiyomi technique?"
They nodded. It had been in their first day together out of the hospital that they had started telling each other bits of their past.
"The mangekyo is the final stage of our eyes, and only a few Uchiha have ever gotten it," he explained.
"I see," Naruto said. "But, kaleidoscope? For Hinata? It's more like a… void. But not like an empty void, like you can see intelligence in there. There's no doubt she's watching."
"The abyss," Sasuke replied. "I was told once, after my family was killed, that if you stare into the abyss…"
"The abyss stares back at you," Naruto finished. "How appropriate. Shin'engan, abyssal eyes." He paused, as another thought hit him.
Sasuke and Hinata both focused on him as his entire demeanor changed.
He looked at them seriously, worry in his eyes. "I think I just figured something out. Remember how I told you that Ibiki-san knew about our plans?"
Sasuke's eyes widened a fraction, though Hinata had no visible reaction.
"Yeah. I think there's been some stuff going on that we haven't seen," he continued, his arm tensing around Hinata. "I mean, I'm used to Ibiki-san knowing more than he should. But I think that's the trap. I mean, why should he have known about that? He has ANBU ninja under his command, and they should be good enough to follow us without us knowing, except for one thing. Hinata always checks. Even ANBU can't hide from a Hyuga. How would they have keep track of us in that kind of situation?"
Hinata nodded. "The usual method, if you have the resources available for an official mission, is to put a Hyuga on the surveillance team."
"So someone, Ibiki-san, or more likely the Hokage, talked to your father, and they're keeping an eye on us," Naruto said with conviction. "After all, we are… who we are."
The daughter of Hiashi Hyuga, first in line to inherit it and all its power.
The sole remaining Uchiha, heir to techniques, land, wealth, and old glory.
And Naruto, container for a being of unimaginable power.
Placed under the command of Kakashi, the most powerful elite jounin in the village outside of the Hokage himself.
"Hn. You're right," Sasuke admitted. "I don't think nearly as much has been left to chance as I'd originally thought."
Naruto suddenly grabbed at his hair with both hands. "Arg! I hate mind games!"
Sasuke chuckled once and turned to Hinata. "So, you going to go talk to your father now?"
Hinata paused, looked down, then turned and looked at the two of them, her lips quirked up slightly. "You know, I think I will."
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Wow.
That was really the only word for it.
It was a lot like the first time I had ever used the byakugan. I was about four, which is pretty young for a Hyuga. You never forget your first time. It's like the world explodes around you, but in a good way. You can see everything. At first it almost seems colorless, like shades of grey. But then you realize that you can still pick out the red from the orange and the blue from the purple. It's just that there's so many other new colors to see, ones you don't have names for yet, and they overwhelm the old colors to the point that even the most vibrant shades are kind of plain.
Of course, the other reason you never forget your first time using the byakugan is that, for a branch member like me, they put the manji seal on our forehead a week later, and that hurts like a bitch.
You activate your blood limit for the first time, they give you a week to play around with it, and some special attention and training to make you feel special, then they sit you down and tell you a bunch of things about duty and responsibility you don't really understand, and you start getting really nervous without knowing why, and the next thing you know there's two elder branch members holding you down and one more tattooing your forehead.
Leaves an impression.
But this… this was alike and unlike that first moment, because it opened up another new dimension.
Time.
When I'd accepted and Naruto's eyes had blazed red with chakra and his lips parted to reveal fangs that wouldn't look out of place on a fierce animal, I could hear his deep, growling voice, which no longer came from his throat, but whispered directly into my head. Naruto sank his teeth into my shoulder and even as I fought to keep from screaming at the intense pain, I heard him asking me what I wanted.
I wanted to see destiny. I was tired of the uncertainty.
The voice laughed, said the choices that made the future were not yet made, and that uncertainty was all any of us had. My only gift would be the past.
Well, that and the absolutely immense burst of chakra that filled me up like an empty cup. I could feel the choushijiro, the veins that fed chakra and blood into our eyes, practically humming under the tension of carrying so much power.
It was, I will admit, quite a rush. I didn't even notice when they left, I was too busy staring at things.
At first, it was like I was surrounded by ghosts. I could see these dim, insubstantial flickers of people doing things all around me. I looked at my IV, because it was close, and I could see the outline of hands touching it. I focused on those hands and they became clearer, until I was watching a ghostly replay of the nurse who'd come in, set it up, and put the needle into my arm.
I wondered where she'd gotten it, and with the ease of a thought, I watched the past run in reverse, as the IV was taken down, carried out of the room, down the hall, the stand went in one place, the saline came from another. But as much as I wanted to follow the nurse back into the past, I couldn't follow her past the moment she had picked up the first part of the IV I had started staring at. Everything got really hazy and indistinct, like there was too much that had happened all mushed together to the point I couldn't focus on any given thing.
Strange. Apparently, I could only follow the past of objects I was physically looking at.
So I looked at something else. I stared at the door to the room for a while. It really didn't do much, just kind of hung there, and opened every now and then. Then I made the mistake of looking at the hospital bed I was laying in.
A lot of people had died in that thing over the years.
It was a little creepy, especially since I was laying in it and looking down at myself I saw the ghosts of a dozen people put on the bed to die, so I got up, took out the IV, and decided to look around elsewhere.
The cut on my stomach pulled at me painfully, but I could tell it was already closing up. The bite mark on my shoulder had already closed and turned into a little pink row of scars. No wonder Hinata-sama was able to shake off her injuries so fast.
I slowly walked out of my room and down the hall, looking all around me, and I realized that the hospital was a poor place to use a power like that. Too many people have walked the halls, too many hands have touched the walls. But at the same time, the hallway was empty. The past was mostly just more of the same. Hours upon hours where almost no one traveled through it, and the people that did were no more noteworthy than the people you see walking down hallways in the present time.
The past was… boring.
I even spent a while looking into the past of a janitor's closet, hoping to find something interesting. Body storage, a secret tryst between a nurse and a patient, something.
Nothing.
I always knew those tales were lies.
I could feel myself burning through chakra, so I decided to stop using the byakugan. But, unfortunately, I quickly found out that, like Hinata, I no longer had the ability. Some consequence of the demonic chakra flowing through my coils, I guess.
No matter. I reached up and very carefully targeted the tenketsu associated with the choushijiro, sealing them with quick taps. I accidentally sealed one tenketsu too many on my left, causing me to be blind in my left eye, but I remembered where the tenketsu was and opened it back up. Simple. I could see again, but the chakra flow that forced my bloodlimit to activate was blocked.
For a while I amused myself with the potential entertainment I might get from not telling Hinata-sama about the simple, simple solution.
And then Gai showed up.
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"She still in there?"
Sasuke knew Naruto was approaching, just by the fairly characteristic movement patterns, but he looked up, surprised by the sultry voice of Naruto's female form, which was actually deeper than his usual tone.
"Naruko?" he asked. "Yeah, she's still in there." He'd been waiting beside a road a few blocks from the Hyuga district, close enough to see if Hinata emerged from her house, but far enough that he didn't attract attention from any Hyuga guards. Naruto had left to get them something to eat, since Sasuke had eaten lightly before their fight and now had the Kyubi's chakra flowing through him, boosting his metabolism. Also, Sasuke strongly suspected Naruto had gotten antsy, and was suppressing his urge to actually storm the place and get Hinata back.
The blonde girl shrugged, setting her pigtails dancing. She was carrying a paper sack, which she opened and fished around inside before throwing a bread roll at Sasuke, who caught it.
"Anpan, right?" she replied. "That shop owner once threatened to tear off my balls and nail them over his door. Didn't think I'd give him the option this time."
Sasuke shook his head slightly and bit into the anpan, then licked the sweet red bean paste off his lips.
Naruko hopped up onto the wall beside him and bit into one as well, sitting the bag between them.
It was actually dark by then, but the streetlights were on and the moon was out, so it was easy enough for them to see. Naruto had a fox's night vision and Sasuke had the sharingan, so the darkness wasn't a problem.
"Still a girl?" Sasuke asked.
"Burning chakra. I made more clones, too." She ate another bite.
"So if you made more clones, why didn't you send one after the anpan?" he asked. "You love having minions."
Naruko's hand reached back and pulled on the back of her orange jacket, revealing the outlines of three long rods, actually, the three sheathes and hilts of her wakizashi. "Picked up the other two I ordered."
"Ah. Well, if you sit here like that, some girl is going to walk by and get the wrong idea."
"Saw Sakura having dinner with her parents, so the only one likely to matter is Ino, and that wouldn't matter much anyway. You already promised a date to Sakura."
Sasuke finished his anpan bun and reached for another. "Yeah, what's with that, anyway? Why do you want me to influence Sakura?"
Naruko shrugged. "I realize you don't much like her, but just because you don't like someone doesn't mean they can't be useful if you put a little effort into it. I used to not like you, and you're useful." She smiled sunnily at him.
He snorted. "Hn. But why Sakura? Why not Ino? Sakura is the weakest of our graduating class." He paused. "And she has the smallest…." He trailed off.
Naruko rolled her eyes. "You're taking the breast thing too far."
He gave her an innocent look. "What? I was talking about chakra reserves."
"Sure you were. But, look, she's cute, right?"
Sasuke raised his eyebrows. "You think she's cute, don't you. That's why you like her better than Ino."
Naruko blushed slightly. "Okay, ignore that."
Sasuke shook his head.
"Anyway, well, look at it this way. Sakura is safer than Ino. You're obviously not looking for a long term relationship. And if you just want sex, there are easier ways to get laid. Those are reasons not to be interested in Sakura or Ino, I admit. However, what you need, and this is an actual tool that, given who and what you are, you should have in your arsenal, is a pretty little arm decoration. A contact, someone who can be an old flame, a first girlfriend, that kind of thing. You're a leader, Sasuke. You need to start leading somewhere."
Sasuke raised one eyebrow. "You're such a romantic, Naruto."
She blushed again.
"And that still doesn't explain why Ino over Sakura." He frowned. "Actually, I think the pink hair is a little disturbing."
Naruko winced. "Yeah, okay, I admit, I probably should have thought about that, what with the whole Midori thing."
Sasuke visibly flinched.
"Anyway," Naruko said hurriedly. "Look at them. It's all about what they want from you that makes one safer than the other. Ino blonde, blue eyed, and has a pretty decent figure for her age. She's going to be smoking hot in a few years, but that's just it. She knows it. Ino flirts and plays and generally acts like boys are hers to be commanded, because, admittedly, she's right. Ino thinks she's the top girl, and she wants you because you're the top boy. In her mind, the top girl and the top boy belong together for symmetry's sake if nothing else, and getting you as a boyfriend will just confirm her opinion of herself. You'd have no hold over her, and the likelihood of her creating very public drama for one reason or another is pretty high, even if it's just because she's bored."
Sasuke shrugged. Naruto had clearly put more thought into it than he had ever bothered with.
"Now, look at Sakura," she continued. "Weakest in the class. Slowest in the class. But!" she added, holding up a finger, "not at all useless. Top scorer in knowledge and applied knowledge, she's just physically and emotionally weak. Malleable. Unlike Ino, she has a low opinion of herself. She wants you because it will elevate her own position and self image. Every bit of attention you pay to her makes her feel better, and that kind of thing is addictive. Sakura would do anything for you if you asked."
"You have such an idealistic view of love, don't you?"
"I'm right and you know it."
Sasuke glanced at his friend. "So what does Hinata want from you?"
Naruko nodded. "That's the first thing I asked myself after we really met. I thought a lot about it. Hinata is… was, actually, a wallflower, which was a tragic waste of potential. Hated herself. Lowest self image in the class, even lower than Sakura's. She had been told she was a failure so often she believed it, so when she saw me, the 'idiot', but one who never gave up, she admired that. Now, that wasn't exactly an accurate perception of things, but when I showed her how she could change herself, she took the chance."
She paused.
"The kind of courage… the kind of faith it takes to listen to this nobody kid no older than yourself who says that he can show you how to be better, when he's not even better himself…" Naruko trailed off.
"It scares you," Sasuke said quietly.
"No," Naruko denied, shaking her head hard enough to set her pigtails whipping back and forth. "It scares the shit out of me." She threw her hand out in the general direction of the Hyuga compound. "I mean, look at this. Yeah, I've got a pretty good idea of what makes people tick. I watch, I listen. I'm smart. I've put a lot of thought into the plan for Hinata to get the respect of her father. I believe in the plan, even. It's the same basic plan I'm following, since no one respected me in the academy, either. Get good in secret, surprise them, and impress them. Make them doubt their earlier perceptions of you so that you can get them to believe in you later."
Sasuke watched as she seemed to run out of steam, hanging her head and looking down at the half eaten anpan in her hand.
"This is it, Sasuke. Do or die. Did I just fuck up, and is Hinata now paying for it? I don't know. I'd give anything for the byakugan right now, just to know what's going on in there. So, in answer to your unspoken question, yes, right now, I am scared. It's like that fucking fight with Neji earlier today. We did all we can to prepare, and now it's up to her, and it's not that I don't believe in her, but I swear that if they do anything to hurt her, using nothing but pure will, I will rip this seal from my stomach, unleash the Kyubi, and watch this world burn."
"Aww," Sasuke said ironically. "That's the sweetest thing I've ever heard you say."
Naruko's shoulders slumped. "You suck, Sasuke."
He rubbed one of her shoulders for a second. "And you're incredibly fucked up in the head. Don't argue with what works."
She laughed once, then hung her head again.
"I hope you weren't expecting something inane like 'It'll be okay.'"
She laughed again. "No, no, I wasn't."
They sat in silence for several minutes, listening to the crickets chirp and watching the fireflies blink at each other. A slight breeze picked up, rustling the leaves in the tops of the trees, and moving the air on the ground just enough to dry their sweat.
"So why do you want me?" Sasuke asked suddenly.
"W-what?!" Naruko spluttered, startled.
He rolled his eyes. "Plans, idiot. Ino wants me as some sort of status symbol, Sakura wants me because she's pathetic and I'm not, and I already talked to Hinata. You've made various comments about your long term plans and things like that, but you've never actually said what they are. So, I say again. What do you want?"
She shrugged. "I want to be the Hokage."
He blinked, surprised.
They sat in silence for several more minutes. Finally, Sasuke shook his head.
"You're lying."
Naruko turned towards him and leaned back, putting one hand on the top of the wall to support her half reclined position. "And what makes you say that?" she asked, her voice carefully neutral.
He shrugged. "I know you. You like to hide things. You also like to fool people with surprising but plausible answers. I also know that you're unsuited to the job, and if I know it, you know it. You hate the spotlight, as much as you try to get in it. 'Look at me, dismiss me,' right? Being the Hokage is being on this tall pedestal with a big bright bull's-eye painted on you. You might as well be wearing an 'assassinate me' sign. You'd hate it. That's how I know you're lying. So, I ask one final time. What do you want." There was an edge to his voice, some small anger.
Naruko hastily sat up straight. "I wasn't planning on lying to you, Sasuke, I just wanted to see what you'd say to that. Don't be mad, alright?" she pleaded.
He made a soft grunt.
"That is my secret goal, and I've only told that to four other people. Ibiki-san, Kakashi-sensei, Hokage-sama, and Hinata. But what I'm about to tell you is even more secret, and I've only admitted it to Hinata. You'll be the second."
Sasuke nodded.
She looked him in the eye and softly told him.
"I'm going to be the Kage."
Sasuke rubbed his chin thoughtfully. The shadow. Something more secretive than the Hokage, probably more powerful, at least the way Naruto was envisioning it. Just the name and the way Naruto said it told him all he needed to know about it. Naruto wanted to be the power behind the throne, probably the power behind a lot of thrones and governments. The people follow their leaders, be it daimyo, lord, Kazekage, Hokage, Raikage, whatever, and in turn, Naruto wanted to have power over those leaders. It was ambitious to the point of insanity in most. In Naruto… it fit. It fit a lot better than being the Hokage.
"That'll be pretty bad ass if you pull it off," Sasuke admitted.
"I know, right?" she agreed brightly.
"Starting with Konoha."
"Exactly!" she agreed again. "That's what I want you for. I think you'd make a pretty good Hokage. Great lineage, powerful, every jutsu you've ever seen, and you're smart enough to pull off the bureaucratic shit. That's why having Sakura loyal to you would be so awesome. She's not much of a fighter, but she'd be excellent in an administrative position. It'd be great." A mischievous twinkle lit her eyes. "I'd be the Kage, and you could be my Ho."
Sasuke closed his eyes and resisted the urge to stab Naruto in the face. "That's horrible.
"Yeah…" she replied, sounding pleased with herself. "But it's not really that I'd be all trying to rule you or anything, I mean, that'd be stupid. It's just that you'd rule Konoha, and I'd kind of manage international relations. Stir up some tensions here and there so everyone has something fun to do, but really it's all scripted so that no one really gets screwed and we all get economically fat. Kinda like how we fake discord in the team, but really we're all working towards one goal. It makes a lot of sense when you think about it, and I'm kinda worried that maybe that sort of thing is already going on. I guess if it is I'll just knock off the guy in charge and take over or something."
"Hn. So, what if I don't want to be the Hokage?" he asked, arching one eyebrow.
Naruko seemed taken aback, as if she hadn't thought of that. "Well, uh, I guess I could try to get Hinata to do it. First female Hokage... that'd be kind of neat."
Sasuke's lips twitched infinitesimally. "But she's already your 'Ho'."
Naruko cringed. "Alright, alright, I shouldn't have said that, it was a stupid pun. Please don't hurt me with it anymore."
Sasuke laughed silently.
She rallied once more. "I mean, why wouldn't you want the position? You could have all the resources of Konoha at your disposal, and hunt your brother down like a dog." She got more excited.
"I mean, what was that crap that your brother told you? 'Run far and fast, do anything for power, don't get attached to anything, live in a disgraceful manner, and only then will you gain the power to defeat me,' or some ridiculous crap like that?"
Sasuke shook his head. "That's not exactly what he said-"
Naruko made a chopping motion with her hand. "But close enough right? Seriously, what the fuck is that shit? Sounds to me like he left you alive so you'd suffer more, then told you that ridiculous pack of lies to make sure that you would keep torturing yourself in his absence. If he's that bad ass, why did he run from Konoha? I'll tell you why. It's because if all of Konoha got together, he'd be one dead son of a bitch, no offense to your mother."
"None taken," Sasuke heard himself saying faintly.
"That's not how you do vengeance! I mean, damn. Even if somehow that did work and you killed him, you'd have destroyed your life in the process. I've never met your brother, but I have to admit, Sasuke, he is one S rank bastard for messing with your head like that. You want revenge? Live well. Friends, lovers, followers. Get as much of everything as you can handle. Enjoy yourself. Gain power, yeah. You've got a hell of a lot of talent as a ninja, obviously, but you know? Use money and influence and military might. Have your brother be a hunted man no matter where he's at. Everyone and the Mizukage chasing after him. And then they catch him, and he's brought before you in chains, a broken man, while you're kicked back in a nice chair, surrounded by loyal friends and followers, with a couple of beauties surrounding you-"
She paused and made two clones of herself, which immediately jumped down and knelt in front of Sasuke.
"Hokage-sama," they chorused in identical, sultry voices.
"And one of your ANBU makes him bow to you and you place your foot on the back of his neck, lean down, and say, 'Foolish little brother.'" She stopped again and grinned at him. "Now THAT is a revenge worth having."
Sasuke didn't smile, and Naruko soon lost hers, staring at him with increasing worry. The clones dispelled.
"Uh, Sasuke?" Honestly, she'd sort of expected more of a reaction.
He shook his head. "There's something I haven't told you, and I should. I owe it to you. It's something about our ultimate power, the final stage of the sharingan." He sighed, wondering if he was about to make a big freaking mistake. After several moments of thought, he nodded firmly to himself, convinced it was the right thing to do.
"In order to get the mangekyo sharingan… I have to kill my best friend."
Naruko closed her jaw with a click. "Oh. Well, that does complicate things a little, assuming you want the mangekyo sharingan and all." Inwardly, she reeled in shock.
Sasuke shrugged helplessly.
"How sure are you of that information?" she asked slowly and carefully. "Could it be another lie of your brother's?" Naruko hoped it was, anyway.
"I'm pretty sure," he admitted regretfully. "Itachi told me, yes, but he also told me of family scrolls that would confirm it, and I've seen them. Also, he didn't get his until after he'd killed his best friend, Shisui. That happened about three days before he murdered the rest of my family."
"That does complicate things," she said faintly.
"Annnnd there goes all that trust and teamwork," he said, his voice empty.
Naruko shrugged, then hesitated. Sasuke had basically just said he'd been planning on murdering her at some point to gain a more powerful bloodlimit. But… he was also telling her right then. You don't announce your murderous intentions before you kill.
And, Naruko had to admit, she'd entertained some pretty serious plots to kill Sasuke before, as well. Hinata had even nearly done it. And yet, here they were, sitting in the dark, eating anpan together. What's a plot to murder each other between friends?
"Ah, fuck it." She dispelled the transformation, reverting back to being a male. Naruto quickly drew a wakizashi with one hand and grabbed Sasuke's hand with the other, forcibly wrapping his fingers around the hilt, leaving the tip pointed at his throat. He actually leaned forward until it nearly touched, and it would only take a twitch to drive the blade through his throat.
His eyes, half hidden in the darkness, bored into Sasuke's own.
"Are you going to kill me?" he asked plainly.
Sasuke's eyes widened at his friend's actions. "No!" he cried, snatching his hand away.
Naruto nodded and resheathed the blade. "I can live with that. If you change your mind, well…"
"You'll be the first to know," Sasuke replied, still a little shocked.
Then they both realized that he'd basically said that Naruto's first warning that he'd decided otherwise was going to be a blade in the heart, and Sasuke shut up, feeling sort of awkward.
That killed the conversation, so they sat and waited for Hinata.
Naruto couldn't help but add something to that, though.
"Thanks, Sasuke," he said, a rueful smile on his lips.
"For telling you the truth?" he asked.
Naruto shook his head. "Nah, for saying I'm your best friend."
"Your priorities are screwed up, Naruto."
They waited some more. It was a pleasant night, though it had been a long day and Sasuke was really sort of wishing that Hinata would finally be allowed out.
"But," he said out loud, "If it was a real problem and not just some sort of grilling by her clan elders or something, she would probably call to you through the blood pact, and you'd know, and we'd rush in there and die trying."
"That's true," Naruto replied, sounding a lot happier. "It might also be some sort of test on us. How far would we go to support her? If that's the case, we just have to wait here until they're convinced we really mean it. I can do that."
"Or maybe they did Tea."
Naruto groaned. "We'll be here forever at that rate."
Abruptly, he sat up straighter as one of the clones he'd made and spread out as a perimeter watch dispelled. "OhshitSasukeherecomesGai-"
Maito Gai suddenly stood before them.
"-sensei," Naruto finished lamely.
They both jumped up and bowed deeply and respectfully to the incredibly powerful elite jounin who might be pretty angry at them.
Gai stared back, and his gaze was frosty.
Scratch that. He was pretty angry with them.
"Gai-sensei," Naruto said helplessly.
"Why did you feel the need to attack my other two students after Hinata-chan and Neji-kun had already had their differences?" he asked.
Naruto resisted the urge to wince. "Because we wanted to express our thanks for teaching us and our apology for disturbing the harmony of your team with Hyuga clan business."
"By attacking and beating my other students."
"Yes, Gai-sensei."
"And your reasoning that I would want that outcome was…?"
Naruto did wince. "Ah, Sensei, it was my idea, and it wasn't that I believed you wanted us to attack Tenten-kun and Lee-kun, so much as you wanted them to learn a lesson from our team. I did not expect you to invite us to train with you again after what we were regrettably forced to do to Neji by Hyuga clan politics, so I thought it would be a good idea to share the lessons we have learned with Tenten and Lee. It was not my intention to overstep my bounds, but I understood the aspects of betterment and teamwork that Lee and Tenten were having trouble grasping and did my best to help them understand in the time I had available."
A muscle in Gai's jaw flexed and jumped, as if he was resisting the urge to grit his teeth, or perhaps scream.
"So, Naruto-kun. You believed you had it all figured out. You figured out the things I wanted everyone to learn, and you acted on that knowledge."
"Yes, Gai-sensei," Naruto replied, his heart sinking. He'd fucked up somewhere, and now he was about to pay for it.
"And what weaknesses did you set out to fix in Lee?" Gai asked.
Naruto had no choice but to press on and be honest with the man.
"Lee-kun focused on improving his body to the exclusion of all else, trusting only in you to guide him on the battlefield. But at the same time, he yearned for what he perceived as the glory of ninjutsu. I could tell by his defensive reactions to my verbal prods that he had his doubts about your training. I did not believe you would lead him down an obviously dangerous and difficult path without a good reason, so I did my best to reinforce his faith in you and your teachings, and at the same time show him that he needed to rely more on his teammates to balance out his weakness in subterfuge and tactics. I used trickery and misdirection to harmlessly knock him out with a drug. If I'd beaten him in a straight up fight, he would have gotten the wrong message and would have spent even more time training in taijutsu, but that's not where he was weak. Lee needed to understand that, as ninjas, deception is our greatest skill, not ninjutsu."
Naruto cringed inwardly at the arrogance in his voice, but he'd been sure. Hell, he still was sure that those were Lee's weaknesses. But Gai still wasn't happy.
"Tenten?"
"Excellent skills, surprisingly well balanced despite her greatest strength being long range fighting. She's got all the right skills to be a leader, but lets herself be overshadowed by her flashier, more aggressive teammates. Lee does not think tactically enough to be a leader, and Neji doesn't think emotionally enough. Tenten is the balance between the two, but she's been relying on you and individual skills to make up for a lack of focused teamwork. I told her where her team was weak, showed her how it could be exploited, then showed her how my team worked so that we did not have those weaknesses."
"Naruto?"
Naruto opened his mouth to begin his comments on Neji, then his brain caught up to his ears and he paused.
"Err, yes, Gai-sensei?" he asked.
Gai looked down at him. "You were right about Lee and Tenten," he began, his voice deceptively mild. "Neji as well, I have no doubt. You are to be commended for your analytical skills. You were right, you were absolutely right. I did want Lee and Tenten to learn those lessons, though not necessarily in such a hurried fashion. Still, I have no doubt that they will benefit greatly from this event." Abruptly his voice lowered and the two genin shivered under the power of his glare. "However, what of you, Naruto? What lesson did I want you to learn? Have you learned it? What about Sasuke, here? Or Hinata? You're such a clever boy, Naruto. I'm sure you've already handled your team's lessons as well. I'd like to hear those summaries as well."
Naruto's mouth worked like a stranded fish. No sound came out. Honestly, it had never occurred to him that Gai had offered to train them to, you know, train them. They weren't his students.
Gai seemed to get bigger before their eyes, and both boys felt very small indeed. Gai opened his mouth to thunder…
…and then he put his hand over his face, and just stood there, covering his eyes, for several long minutes. What they didn't know was, inwardly, he was berating himself.
He understood. This wasn't their failure.
It was his.
No matter how smart they were, no matter how powerful, they were still just genin. Young, inexperienced genin, at that. Genin with tremendous promise and the learning curve of a jounin, but at the same time, they were not yet adults. It was Gai's responsibility as the teacher to spot misconceptions and mistakes, and fix them. He'd known, intellectually, at least, that Kakashi's students saw everything as 'us versus them', because for all of their lives it really had been them versus the world, but he hadn't let himself truly think about what that meant for their interactions.
His own students actually suffered from similar, though not necessarily as intense, feelings of persecution and failure. He'd done his best to give them a rock to lean on, someone they could always trust and rely on. He would never fail them, no matter what it took. And, slowly, he taught them how to be friends, because each of his students was too prickly to bond with each other at the beginning. He was their surrogate father, and they were brothers and sister.
Kakashi didn't work that way. He tossed them together, forced them to rely on each other to survive, and let them iron out their differences on their own, interfering just barely enough to keep them from murdering each other in the process. At the same time, Kakashi removed himself from the workings of the team, keeping himself distant and unreliable so they wouldn't turn to him. It worked, there was no denying that. His team was a well oiled machine, ready for the most dangerous missions imaginable. But they were a pack just like Kakashi's dogs, harmonious with each other, suspicious and hostile to outsiders. He'd made the mistake of treating them as he would his own students, and it was too late for that.
Gai had made a mistake, and at the moment, he had no idea how to fix it.
Naruto and Sasuke froze, waiting for what would happen next.
"Run." It was so soft, it came out quieter than a whisper.
"Gai-sensei?" Naruto asked hesitantly.
"Run," he said louder.
They ran.
He dropped his hand to his side and turned his face to the stars.
"Damn you, Kakashi," he whispered. "They were just children."
xxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxx
Naruto and Sasuke ran. At first, they ran pretty fast. Lacking any more direction than the order to run itself, they opted to start a loop around Konoha, following the well worn path where more than a few ninjas ran. It was pretty dark in places, under the trees, and there was a nasty uphill climb and an equally bad downhill section, because, unfortunately, around Konoha meant that they had to cross the Hokage mountain. Every half loop they made they used to run by the Hyuga district, still waiting for Hinata to come out.
It was hell. Not because of the run itself, which was easily doable for someone in peak physical condition, and with both of them still running on the Kyubi's chakra, they felt the kilometers flow by.
No, it was the sickening knowledge that Naruto had made a mistake. What was worse, it was a mistake he didn't really understand. He'd been right, so absolutely right… but it all got messed up anyway.
Naruto didn't like to think about what that could mean for Hinata.
It ate at him inside.
They made two and a half full circuits, which took over an hour, before they finally saw Hinata sitting on the wall beside the long since abandoned bag of anpan buns.
Naruto faltered.
Her clothes were mussed and dirty. Her hair was tangled. There was a leaf… no, a white orchid petal hanging from a few errant strands of hair, shining softly in the pale moonlight.
Her hitai-ate was still covering her eyes. Her forehead was clean and unmarked.
And she smiled.
She was quite possibly the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.
Then she said the greatest thing he'd ever heard.
"Your plan worked, Naruto-sama."