Hamono dropped lightly from her perch in a tree, hair fluttering like a dark banner. "He's in," she whispered, just loudly enough for the others to hear. They nodded, looking shaken. "I still don't get why I couldn't have gone instead." Hanami wasn't usually one to complain, but she felt cheated of excitement. "I mean, I actually havethe Byakugan, not some freaky-assed thing that looks like a disease!" It was a rare occurrence for her Hyuuga calm to calm. "I mean… urrrrrg!" she growled and made a throttling motion with her hands, giant scroll strapped across her back. "If he dies I'll kill him."
"Hanami…" Hamono said warningly. "Keep your cool. You know they may not have fully accepted you as a true Byakugan user." Hanami brushed her bangs out of her face to glare with both eyes at her sister; one dark brown like their brother's, one pearly.
"You don't have to remind me," she spat, voice dripping poison. "Just shut up and make sure you don't fall off of that high horse you're on."
"Please, let's calm down," Yuuta suggested, his insects becoming restless at the tension in the air. "Haruki obviously he could handle this. He is a gifted shinobi. What has happened to his eyes is unnatural¸ but not totally unheard of."
"Yeah," Miho said, wiping sweaty palm off on her short, dark green skirt. "Similar things have happened to those who possess the blood of a blood-line, but no blood-limit. They're called Narazumono Genkai, Rogue-Limit. The power for the blood-limit is there but its flow has been diverted from forming into the kekkei genkai, instead warping under the presence of unstable chakra that can be caused by strong emotions."
"So… could that happen to me?" Namiki squeaked, blue eyes wide. Miho shook her head, her blonde ponytail flicking side to side.
"It's extremely rare, and there are only one or two accounts of it in any great detail. It makes the user mentally unstable and can be triggered to reckless acts of violence."
"Aw man, Haruki," Koga muttered. Jun whined, licking Koga's chin. "That's got to suck."
"We just can't be around for that, then," Asuka said forcibly, winding her fighting chain around her fists. Kazuki nodded, feeding Haruki-bunny a slice of carrot.
"It's not pretty when the normal kekkei genkai get roused," Izumi said soberly, fluffing up her blonde bangs. "I grew up surrounded by savage fighters. We can hardly distinguish blood-limit from normal state in my family. The wild cat is very much a part of us, even if we don't have the blood-limit. I don't want to be anywhere nearby when Hyuuga-kun blows his top with a rogue blood-limit."
They all exchanged glances. "If he goes rogue, there's no turning back." The genin and two jounin stared at Miho, unblinking. She looked cowed. "So, he'll destroy us and himself if no one…" she trailed off.
"We can't just… he's not a rabid animal!" Namiki started, outraged. Hanami put a gentle hand on her shoulder. Harsh reality came more easily to shinobi children than civilians. In ways, it was better, but in others, it was responsible for so much lost innocence. Hamono stepped forward, face a cold mask.
"He is my little brother," She said quietly, hands twitching as she unconsciously gathered chakra to her palms. "I will do it… in mercy."
Megumi didn't like hospitals. Who did? So as soon as he could he got out of there. Of course, he was under house arrest -for his own safety of course-, but it didn't really matter when you lived in mansion like the Uzumaki family.
It felt sooooo good to train again. To work out the kinks and to get back his strength. Nothing was better than beating the tar out of a wooden dummy with nothing but your bare fists.
And yet something was missing.
He felt lazy and icky, all safe at home while his friends could be fighting for their lives and his father prepared the defense of Konoha. He felt the occasional feather-light brush of chakra: Hinata was doing constant scans to make sure he stayed put and didn't do anything rash. He sank his chakra-laden fist into the dummy, blowing it apart. He grimaced as bits of stuffing descended like snow. He had to learn control. He hadn't really used his chakra in so long, he was getting rusty. But he wasn't helping anybody, really, by helping himself. So he set out to do what he hated to do the most: reading.
The Hokage Residence also served as the archives for Konohagakure. Official reports, ancient scrolls, anything under the sun that could ever have been loosely classified as "important". He scratched the spot on his shoulder-blade where the seal had been before he broke it with chakra. It itched abominably, but it didn't really hurt and the irritation was well worth the freedom.
He went through thousands of scrolls, scanning their contents with his Byakugan without even bothering to open them. They were all official records about the crops grown in years past and babies born to which families. He puffed out his cheeks and sighed with frustration, sitting down on the floor to think, eyebrows furrowed.
If I were a scroll filled with something actually interesting that might help this situation, where would I be? He pondered. Police Station archives? No, just more official stuff, and this is completely UNofficial. Library? Hah. I'm not going in there. Mom wouldn't let me go there without a guard and I just CAN'T have a guard. Hyuuga Clan Estate? That's more like it.
It was but the work of a moment to get permission to go, but Hinata insisted on going with him. It was every boy's dream to have his mother go everywhere with him, even to the clan's ancestral home. He couldn't have been assigned a watcher that wasn't a Hyuuga, as the watcher wouldn't be able to go inside the estate boundaries.
He slipped away from Hinata as soon as they got inside the boundaries. She would know where he went, anyway, with the Byakugan. He made a bee-line straight for the smaller building that held the archives.
When most people think of archives, they think of rows of shelves packed with dusty old tomes that each weighed about the same as a young elephant. There would probably be mouse turds on the shelves because no one bothered to clean in there. Mayhap spider-webs in every place imaginable. But the Hyuuga family archives were nothing of the sort. Sure, there were shelves filled with ancient scrolls and the like, but there were also antique weapons mounted the walls or in glass cases. Each was neatly labeled with an identification card.
Megumi spent a few minutes drooling over a huge three-bladed scythe. Wouldn't he look bad-assed with that in hand! But he didn't dare wield it. He'd heard the history and felt weird knowing that the owner had been buried alive on Nara Clan property. Wait…. Something in his mind clicked. He squinted closely at the card beneath the mounted pike. It was in a hand-writing he recognized as his Uncle Shika's.
Collected on – there was the date - by Nara Shikamaru. Scythe belonging to one HIDAN, member of the AKATSUKI. Weapon believed to be extremely dangerous, A-Class item.
He remembered very little of his history lessons involving actual people (unless they were about people he knew or was related to, like the Fourth Hokage) but the name "Akatsuki" was familiar. He perused the scrolls, going to the section of records about twenty years ago and older. He scanned them with his Byakugan but found the handwriting cramped and tiny. He scowled and started taking down scrolls. He would have to do it the old-fashioned way.
Author's note: Ugh. Sorry this chapter is SO lame. I just finished reading Fruits Basket and you know what? NEVER READ SHOUJO MANGA WHEN WRITING FANFICTION FOR A SHOUNEN MANGA. It seriously messes things up.
This story keeps changing. I'm really not sure where this will end up. There's going to be some sort of climactic battle, of course, but the main villain keeps changing. Hikaru, Kurai's evil twin? Orochimaru? Jashin-sama? Has Hidan finally escaped from his earthy prison? IS IT THE AKATSUKI!?!?? Or someone entirely new? –ponders- Ugh, such a pain the ass, un.
NOTE: All author's notes were typed when the chapter they correspond to was written.