A.N: Some people asked about Aoi's fight, so here it is. It was edited out last chapter for the sake of flow, but since I'm going back in time to explain things anyway I might as well include it.
Mei Terumi, when she first appeared (well into part II of the manga, about three or four years from this point in the story) had only recently been made Mizukage. So here I'm assuming she isn't it yet, and therefore Mist is still a mess and the Bloodline Purges haven't stopped. I may be wrong, but roll with it for me.
Thank you for the reviews :) I appreciate each of them.
What Doesn't Kill You
Chapter Twenty-Five
[Lucky: 1. Apparently being successful due to chance rather than one's own efforts. 2. Occurring by chance; fortuitious.]
Aoi had disposed of the Mist kunoichi with relative ease. It was only a matter of avoiding all her long-range ninjutsu and getting close; she hadn't been as proficient with taijutsu as the first man Aoi had killed.
Pink was another matter entirely. Neji was exhausted, and there was blood coming out of a deep gash on his cheek. All three ninja crouched low in fighting stance, waiting for the first move.
Aoi closed the distance separating them with a high kick. Pink blocked it with his forearm, grabbed her leg and threw it up, attempting to flip her over. Aoi placed both hands on the ground and kicked her second leg up, pushing him into Neji's open-handed strike combo on his other side. Pink swat most of them aside, simultaneously jumping over Aoi's legs that had come back around to sweep his ankles. Aoi sprung upright and aimed a three-fingered stab at his throat, but he bent backwards to dodge it, twisting around to evade Neji's finishing kick at the same time. He then rolled away and disappeared into the mist, fresh as a rose, while the two Genin were panting.
"My village isn't going to be happy about Konoha interfering in their affairs," he mused, his voice echoing from all sides, making it impossible to tell where it was coming from.
The Genin immediately moved into a stance back to back. "Where is he?" Aoi hissed.
"In front of you," Neji whispered. "I blocked his right subclavian tenketsu, that side is weak. But he's kneading chakra on his left side, watch out."
"Not that I mind," Pink's disembodied voice continued, "but I do mind about my friend." The mist surrounding them started spinning, forming a vortex that converged a few meters in front of Aoi and became liquid water that covered Pink's arms like gloves. "Playtime's over, kiddos. Sorry." He made a sweeping motion and twin whips of water extended out, covering the distance separating them in a fraction of a second. Aoi ducked under while Neji flipped over them. The water whips scraped against the rock behind them, carving two thick lines across it, before shortening back to Pink's arms.
Wow. That's pretty cool. She'd seen the technique once, in the Konoha training grounds, except Ebisu hadn't been able to put a dent on a wooden post, much less a rock.
Then they had to jump away as he spun them over his head once and extended them again.
For Aoi, whose long-ranged jutsu was similar in form, it was plain that Pink's right whip was weaker, the screwed up tenketsu making it harder for him to manipulate it. Neji exploited that weakness, hitting it with Gentle Fist strikes to block it and doing his best to evade the other. But the guy was very good. The way he moved was elegant and powerful, varying the whips' length, thickness and direction with sweeping motions of his arms, and Aoi couldn't help feeling some professional admiration. Little by little, he pushed Neji towards the earth wall, aiming to corner him where he wouldn't be able to dodge.
It gave Aoi an idea. She rummaged in the stolen pouch. Come on, tell me you have some at least. Yes! She quickly tied the wire around two kunai, spun them, gauging force and distance, before letting them fly towards the wall. They impaled neatly some meters above the two fighters.
She made the three handseals, pouring all her remaining chakra into the technique. Blue lightning sped along the wire and impacted on the wall with a sound like a thunderclap.
In the elemental nature wheel, lightning shattered earth. And that was exactly what it did now: shatter. Cracks grew out from the kunai like a spiderweb, spreading all along the wall's surface. Aoi twisted her grip on the wire and pulled.
A huge chunk of rock crumbled and fell on the two shapes below, making the ground shake and lifting up a cloud of dust.
When the avalanche was over and the air cleared, Neji stood in a small circle free of rubble. He was doubled over and panting, drops of sweat tracing lines over the dirt on his face. "Are you insane?" he snapped, pupil-less eyes narrowed in her direction. "You could have killed me!"
Aoi shrugged as she scanned the fallen rocks for their opponent. "You had the Byakugan to see it coming and Revolving Heaven to block it. I thought you'd be fine."
Neji glared, but whatever he was about to say was cut off by a woman's strangled sob and a cry of "Aris!"
They both snapped their heads to the other side of the wall, now made visible thanks to Aoi's stunt. "Finish up here," Neji spat, before crossing over the rubble towards the noise.
Aoi finally found what she was looking for: the upper half of a torso under a big rock. She approached and knelt down, placing a hand on Pink's throat. He chuckled, the blood oozing out of his mouth dampening his mask.
"The lower half of your body is crushed," she announced softly. "You wouldn't make it anyway."
There was a moment of stillness while she stared into the eyes of the man she was going to kill. Doing it in cold blood wasn't the same. He'd just been fulfilling his duty like any other ninja. It wasn't his fault his target had been civilians.
He grinned crookedly. "Wimping out at the last moment?"
She set her mouth in a grim line and sliced his neck.
"Aoi, where the fuck are you? Aris got his arm blown off!"
Tenten and Lee looked back where the other fights had been going on. "Looks like it's over," she observed. They glanced at the two enemy ninja. Neither side had sustained significant injuries, for now, and Tenten didn't think there was need for more bloodshed. "I suggest you take your comrades and leave."
Shikaku surveyed the landscape, trying to discern how the battle had gone. The air was still abuzz with chakra, so it couldn't have ended too long ago, but there were no corpses. He didn't know whether that was a good or a bad thing.
Later, he'd be saddened that his Genin had experienced a battlefield so young. At the time he was more concerned as to whether they were alive.
Gai had already taken off towards where the faint trail of chakra got lost among the rocks. They found the camp an hour later, off to the side of the road, hidden by rocky formations. Shikaku was so distraught he only remembered to avoid their perimeter traps at the last second. Gai barreled straight through and by the time the Nara reached them he was already standing gravely next to Aoi, who was crouched by a blonde figure lying on the ground.
Shikaku's heart sank. "Report."
The mine was a huge square pit dug into the earth, like an inverted pyramid. There were wagons full of black and grey rocks everywhere, and people covered in grime holding shovels. The air was dusty and smelled of smoke. There were white tents set up on the edges of the pit, forming a circle around it like sentinels.
Inside one of the smaller tents Lee rummaged through his clothes and produced a scroll. Shikaku took it, examined it, nodded to himself and handed it to the millionaire sitting opposite them.
Mitsuko twirled her hair nervously. She'd always disliked ninja, but this man in front of her unnerved her even more. His neutral expression, the calculating glint in his eye and the two scars on the side of his face made her uneasy. She tried to hide it, though. She didn't want to seem scared.
"If you're looking for a safe place to stay, you could come back to Konoha with us," Shikaku proposed.
Mitsuko wasn't stupid. "You jus' want our bloodline."
The man's eyes softened, somewhat. "It's a very useful gift you have," he admitted. "But Konoha will never force you to use it. You could continue your life as a civilian if you so chose. No one will demand or expect anything from you, and you'll be protected from the people who want to kill you."
He sounded sincere. "And you don't want nothing in exchange?" she questioned, dubious.
"We will benefit eventually," Shikaku answered honestly. "Even if you don't become ninja for Konoha yourselves, some of your descendants probably will. If anything, you being in our village means you're not working for the other nations against us." He looked at her seriously. "And if you leave and are attacked again, my students' efforts will have been for nothing."
Mitsuko lowered her gaze. These people had protected her and Ichi with their lives, even though they had nothing to do with them, and she didn't think they'd lie now - they could have just taken them by force if they'd wanted to, but instead they were actually offering them a choice. Offering a safe haven. It would be extremely ungrateful, not to mention stupid, for her to reject this opportunity.
Maybe, she thought, remembering the blonde boy that had sacrificed his arm to save her life, ninja weren't so bad. Maybe she could trust them, just this once.
Aoi had a stroke of inspiration just as they left Haran and couldn't stop thinking about her idea for the whole duration of the journey.
Had anyone ever tried to quantify chakra?
She realized that she had actually already done it. She'd measured chakra output as voltage in the Zap no Jutsu experiment. But that had been chakra that was transformed into electricity, equivalent to measuring the volume of water when chakra was transformed into water. Not a measure of chakra itself in its native form.
What was its form? Was it matter, particles, or just energy, or did it behave as both, like light? Ugh, confusing. The theory of relativity and quantum physics weren't subjects she knew much about, and now she'd never have the chance to study them. Knowing chakra, it will disregard those rules as well anyway.
Every ninja could "tell" when they were running low on chakra, and the Hyuga could actually observe it. But she hadn't read about any fixed unit of chakra - all books said "about twice the chakra required for a standard clone" or "equal to the chakra needed to perform this or that basic jutsu." That was tragically inaccurate. Naruto's chakra requirement, at the beginning at least, was about five times as large as anyone else's due to his poor chakra control.
There was no absolute unit.
Wow. That was pretty mind-blowing. Ninja had been using chakra for what, centuries? Millenia? And no one had tried to measure it?
What unit could she use? Maybe a newton - the amount of force needed to give a mass of one kilogram an acceleration of one meter per second. Or a calorie - the amount of energy needed to... something... To raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree celsius.
I think I'll make up my own unit, she decided. I'll name it Chris.
One chris: the amount of raw chakra produced by... I need to choose an organism... in one minute.
My god, this is gonna be revolutionary. I could actually measure chakra, calculate the exact requirement of every jutsu in existence and the efficiency of every ninja in executing them.
A part of her mind was already making a list of materials.
Chakra-conductive metal. Hinata. Yin and Yang stones...
After nearly a week of travel (they were slowed down by an unconscious and arm-less Aris and the civilians) they reached the gates of Konoha. Aoi took a moment to admire the colorful buildings, the enormous trees and the Hokage monument in the distance. Despite having experienced its darker, grimmer side, Konoha was still the closest thing she had to a home.
Shikaku, who was carrying Aris on his back, turned towards them. "I'm taking Aris to hospital. Mitsuko and Ichi, come with me. The rest of you are dismissed until it's time to report to the Hokage."
"Great!" Gai exclaimed. "Shall we do some training until then?"
In the background, Neji sighed and Tenten groaned.
"Of course, Sensei!" A tsunami wouldn't succeed in dampening Lee's enthusiasm - a petty mission or a weeks of travel on the road didn't even moisten it. "Aoi-san, would you like to join us?"
"She has other commitments," an icy voice interrupted.
The entire party fell silent and, as one, faced the new arrivals. The man who'd spoken had long brown hair and the pale eyes and proud demeanor of the Hyuga. He looked to be in his thirties, faint creases visible on the sides of his nose. The three women standing behind him were almost identical, both in appearance and posture. All of them had their foreheads covered - Branch house members, most likely. And they didn't seem friendly, not that Hyuga had a wide repertoire of friendly expressions. Right now it was something between indifference, disapproval and irritation. Aoi noticed Neji stiffening out of the corner of her eye.
"We have orders to escort you to the Hyuga compound," the man continued in the same clipped tone. "Immediately."
Aoi stared him down. She did not like where this situation was going. At all. She wasn't the only one.
"Whose orders, Haruko-san?" Shikaku questioned, purposefully calling him by name.
The man didn't look away from Aoi but acknowledged him with a small nod. "Shikaku-sama. This is a matter between Aoi Momoru and the Hyuga clan. Please, do not interfere."
Shikaku shifted Aris's weight on his back and looked at the hospital, then back at Aoi. Clans had a certain jurisdiction in Konoha, a separate set of laws and rules stemming from their right not to share their clan techniques when the village was first founded. No Konoha ninja and certainly not the head of another clan (except for the Hokage) could involve themselves when the sacred phrase 'clan matters' was invoked.
He seemed curious, though, and maybe slightly concerned. "She is due to report to the Hokage in four hours." It sounded like a warning.
Haruko didn't reply. With a last look over his shoulder, Shikaku left for the hospital, and one by one the group dispersed. Daichi, after some trepidation, followed in the same direction as his sensei. Neji remained where he was, and when the Hyuga moved to encircle Aoi he took a spot in the formation to her left.
"What is this about," she asked.
"I don't know," he replied, keeping his gaze forwards.
The Hyuga compound was almost a village of its own in the outskirts of Konoha. Separated from the surrounding neighborhoods by a circular wall, like the Uchiha, but unlike the Uchiha it was by their own choice. Inside the compound there was a second wall that segregated the inner ring, where the Main house resided, from the outer ring, where the Branch houses lived. Even in the outer ring the buildings were elegant and well-cared for; and the gardens were paved with stone paths and decorated with fountains and Sakura trees. The place was surreally peaceful.
They crossed the second wall and headed straight to the house sitting at the very center of the compound like an undefeated king watching over its land. Though it was sort of anticlimactic when the whole party had to stop and take their shoes off before entering it.
There really wasn't much Aoi could do but follow. She couldn't exactly flee, though she was having trouble suppressing the urge. The feeling of apprehension grew as they went deeper inside the house to finally stop outside a paneled door decorated with pictures of pink petals.
"We've brought Aoi Momoru," the man at the front of their procession announced.
"Come in," a voice called from inside.
Haruko slid the panel aside and walked into the room.
Aoi didn't know what she'd been expecting, but coming face to face with Hiashi Hyuga wasn't it. He sat behind a desk on the far side of the room, staring at her through pale, hard eyes, the picture of haughty nobility. Aoi glanced down at the papers neatly arranged on the desk and blanched. She recognized them. They were the copies of the Hyuga documents that Hinata had made for her.
The Branch house members moved to take positions around the room, two of the women staying by the door as if to make sure she didn't escape.
"You must have been proud of breaching our clan's security and acquiring these copies." Hiashi spoke clearly and succinctly, irritation simmering under the surface of his calm tone. "Do you know what the punishment is for such an offense?"
Her mind was whirring. How had they found them? When?
"Because you have acted specifically against one of the clans of Konoha, and not Konoha itself, the punishment, Momoru, is decided by the clan. Fortunately for you, these documents aren't very dangerous or revealing," he continued. "If they'd been, I wouldn't hesitate in executing you myself."
The atmosphere of the room shifted as the Branch house members stared at her incredulously. Obviously they hadn't known why she'd been summoned, but now they tensed, preparing for a fight. Neji's eyebrows were furrowed in confusion and anger.
A wave of nausea climbed up her throat when she thought of all the research on the Byakugan she had in her appartment. If they'd found that, she didn't think she'd be breathing now.
"What were you hoping to achieve with these copies? Have you sold them to another nation? Answer truthfully. Your life depends on it," Hiashi announced darkly.
"What proof do you have that they're mine?" Her throat was dry and her voice trembled a little, but she didn't look away.
Hiashi's eyes narrowed. "Ah, yes. Not only do you steal from our archives, but you do it by coercing one of the younger members into acting against the clan," he enunciated slowly. "Thank you for reminding me. Don't worry, your friend will be disciplined."
So it was Hinata's fault. Had she confessed to her father? Aoi didn't think even Hinata could be so stupid. Though how they'd found out was kinda irrelevant now, it didn't help her get out of the situation. But what could she say? She couldn't lie; one of the lessons they'd been taught in Root was that Hyuga were very perceptive. Anything but the truth would make them even more suspicious.
Aoi took a deep breath, preparing herself to speak, but three soft knocks at the door interrupted her. "Father?"
Hiashi tensed. "What are you doing here, Hinata?"
"I- I just," Hinata stuttered, sliding the door open and standing awkwardly outside the room, shifting her weight from foot to foot nervously, as if she couldn't quite work up the courage to step in without permission, "I just wanted t-t-to say something."
Aoi didn't even look at her.
If it was possible Hiashi's gaze hardened; and he stared at Hinata with more displeasure and disgust than he had Aoi. "You have been even more stupid in this matter than I thought you capable of. What you have done was extremely dangerous and brings shame to the clan. Get out of my sight. Now." His eyes moved to Aoi. "As for you, I'll hand you over to Interrogation before demanding your expulsion from Konoha's ninja ranks. Until then we will retain you under custody inside the compound."
Aoi paled. Interrogation? A Yamanaka inside her brain would be a total disaster!
Hinata gasped in dismay. "F-father!" It was very soft, but easily heard in the silence of the room.
"Get out, Hinata. I don't want to hear anything from you."
Despite herself, Aoi started panicking. The window to escape was getting increasingly smaller. Even if she explained about her research, it wouldn't excuse the fact that she had done something illegal.
After a moment of defeated fumbling, Hinata squared her shoulders and took a step inside the room. "Father, I received my hitai-ate yesterday," she announced, drawing everyone's attention. "I-I'm a ninja." She looked like she would rather be anywhere but inside that room, and yet wouldn't let herself back out. "I am responsible for my own actions. Whatever p-p-p-punishment you give Aoi-chan must be given t-to me as we-we-well." She took a few more steps to stand next to Aoi, tightening her fists at her sides in an effort to stop herself from fiddling.
Hiashi looked like he hadn't thought of that. To be honest Aoi had forgotten about the girl's graduation too, and the fact that yes, Hinata was an adult in the eyes of the law now.
"I-in reality, I was th-the one who asked for Aoi's assistance," Hinata bravely ploughed on. "It was my idea t-t-to research chakra natures. She didn't want to, but I forced her. She's also helped me improve my taijutsu," she concluded with slightly more conviction. "I won't let you hurt her. She's been helping me for years."
It seemed like her father didn't believe her. Aoi was quite incredulous too. "Your taijutsu is mediocre," he sentenced.
Hinata lifted her chin defiantly. "In my class o-only Uchiha Sasuke has graduated with a higher taijutsu score th-than me," she revealed, "We're always p-paired for sparring and I win against him sometimes."
Even Aoi was impressed. Partly by Hinata's improvement, and partly by the way she'd phrased her argument: putting a lie and something that seemed like a lie together, and when the second was proven true, the first seemed true as well. Had she done it consciously? Hinata was a jewel in the rough.
"I am responsible," she finished. "Not Aoi-chan. I-I won't let you punish her on my account."
Aoi would be lying if she said she wasn't astounded. Or tremendously relieved. Once she got over the shock she stared back at Hiashi, Hinata taking a slightly defensive posture as if ready to jump in between her father and her friend. "Our research isn't related to the Hyuga clan in particular but to all ninja," Aoi decided to keep pushing, now that the clan head was listening. "We only thought using your family trees would be a good idea because they're so detailed." A bit of ego-stroking wouldn't hurt either.
Hiashi considered for a second before giving in to the curiosity slowly permeating his irritation. "And what research is that?"
Two exhausting hours later Aoi walked out of the compound with her head still firmly attached to her shoulders, unable to believe her luck. She had a meeting scheduled with Hiashi Hyuga the following morning. He'd been extremely interested and pleased to find out the Byakugan could predict chakra natures, and was interested in hearing about her other theories and projects.
"That was really brave, Hinata. You saved me." The words were almost mandatory, after what the girl had accomplished. Aoi truly had not expected anyone to put themselves in the line of fire for her like that; throughout her life she'd been used and betrayed, not unselfishly helped. But really, she shouldn't have been surprised. She'd known Hinata was kind and brave in her own way. It made her feel guilty, because her initial motive for approaching the Hyuga heir had been selfish, and over the years she had consistently used the friendship for her own means.
I would have done the same thing, had our roles been reversed, she acknowledged. But because she genuinely cared for Hinata, or because Hinata was too invaluable to lose as an ally?
I suppose, after this, there's really no question. I genuinely want Hinata to succeed. For herself, not for me. She deserves some recognition.
Aoi looked up at the sky and sighed.
They sat on their bench by the marketplace, eating ice cream and watching the sunset like before Aoi graduated. Hinata was blushing and fiddling with the zipper of her coat. "Well, I knew they wouldn't really p-p-punish me. I'm st-till the clan head's daughter and it would look very bad. And I-I didn't want you to..." she trailed off.
Aoi nodded distractedly. "Still, impressive. And this way, you have also gained your father's attention, and I a possible sponsor." She still couldn't get over that, but she recognized them when she saw them. "We were very lucky this time."