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Summoner-nin

Part Three: Team Kage

Chapter Nine

Shikamaru did not voice his suspicions the next day… or the next… or a week later, a month – several months. Instead, he slowly incorporated himself into her group – a small "Hey, Hinata" in the mornings – every now and then sitting with her and Shino on their bench at recess – once in a while cloud gazing together when the tulips and crocuses began to bloom behind their bench – occasionally joining them at her desk for lunch, bringing Chouji along with him (they had had to push another desk to hers in order to accommodate their growing numbers, but no one complained).

At first, Kiba had eyed them with mistrust, protective of his Pack. He hadn't understood the sudden encroachment on his territory or why the Nara continued to do so, and had been rather rude to both the Nara and Akimichi. It wasn't until Shino, who had decided to intervene, reminded Kiba that Shikamaru had known Hinata longer than they had did he decide to heel, reluctantly and with a sour expression. But he had stopped… sort of.

In a way, Kiba's doubt had not unfounded. Shikamaru, Hinata could hypothesize on her own, had only decided to entreat upon their group because she was somehow involved with his father. He had not said his theory aloud and she did not encourage him to do so, but they both had understood that the silence between them was a confirmation of his suspicions. It hadn't take them long to notice how much they enjoyed each other's company and, after all these months she had been absent, the warm silence from their years of knowing each other was something they were familiar with and found comfort in.

Their silence bound them together.

"We have one more week before summer holidays." Kiba smirked, pushing back on his chair until he was balancing on two legs. "What'cha wanna do for summer, guys?"

Choji munched on the last of his lunch and Shikamaru craned his head back to look at the clouds from the classroom windows. Shino followed this silence by wrapping his empty bento up and putting it away.

Usually Shikamaru and Choji had lunch with them once or twice a week, preferring their own quiet duo most of the time, but that day Hinata had brought her homemade oatmeal cookies and Choji, of course, could never resist homemade oatmeal cookies. Kiba, similarly, took advantage of their larger group to plan for summer. What he intended for them to do at eight-years-old was beyond them.

Kiba straightened and let his chair back down to the ground. "Seriously, guys? Nothing?" And here he looked to Hinata expectantly.

She only smiled and shrugged. She had several plans, most of them involving her garden, and she wasn't sure her friends would be interested in helping (much less allowed in the Hyuga Compound).

"We usually go to the beach during the summer," Choji voiced through the cookie he was chewing. "Shikamaru's family, Ino's, and mine."

Kiba blinked and even Hinata was surprised.

"Really?" Kiba asked. "The beach?"

"Troublesome," Shikamaru mumbled

But it was Choji who answered the Inuzuka, "Yeah. It's a tradition of sorts with the Ino-Shika-Cho team."

"Tradition?" Hinata quipped. She knew all about traditions.

"Our fathers are friends," Choji continued with a smile. "Going to the beach is what we do every summer."

"Wow," Hinata gaped.

Taking note of her enthusiasm, Shino asked, "Do you wish to go, Hinata?"

Hinata startled at the idea. "Me?"

"Yeah!" Kiba pumped his fist in the air, Akamaru giving a bark. "Let's all go!"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, but did well to keep his thoughts to himself.

"W-We can't impose on Shikamaru and Ch-Choji's f-families," Hinata said worriedly, sinking down in her seat. Fortunately the class was already used to Kiba's sudden exuberant exclamations and thought nothing of it when their corner of the room got particularly loud. "A-And we don't kn-know I-Ino… very well…"

Kiba deflated then, Akamaru lying on the floor with a disheartened whine.

"We can schedule our own excursion to the beach," Shino told her with a small smile hidden behind his collar.

"Yeah!" Kiba exclaimed, Akamaru jumping up immediately while wagging his tail.

"I'm sure you guys can come with us if we ask our parents," Choji voiced.

"Even better!" Kiba said with a grin, his fangs sharp and glinting.

"I-I don't know…" Hinata said quietly, not meeting their eyes.

"We have plenty of time to plan," Shikamaru spoke, finally turning from the windows to face the group. "We don't have to know now."

"I'd rather now…" Kiba muttered under his breath.

Hinata met Shikamaru in the eye and smiled gratefully. She would hate to intrude on the Ino-Shika-Cho families and couldn't even come up for a way to ask her father to go to the beach. He would never approve of it.

"Plenty of time," Shino echoed Shikamaru, and he and the Nara nodded.

Hinata didn't notice when there came several voices screeching from the classroom door followed soon after by a certain Uchiha returning from the washroom, hands in his pocket and grousing at his fangirls. This was a typical occurrence for their class, even normal. That one day when the Uchiha had been too sick to come to school had been the quietest school day of their entire lives… and it had been eerie and irregular and almost bordering on creepy. Needless to say, when the Uchiha was sick, the whole class felt it.

She looked from Sasuke to the blue sky outside. It was already beginning to feel like summer, the temperature rising and the sun hanging in the sky for longer periods… Summer… She closed her eyes and could hear the birds outside… Summer… When the temperature rose to almost choking standards and the sun dripping in the sky bleeding red…

Like the Sharingan.

"Hinata?" Kiba called out.

She opened her eyes and saw her friends eyeing her warily.

"Are you alright?" Choji asked, concerned enough to put down his bag of chips.

She blushed and nodded. "Hm. Yes, I'm alright. I just can't wait for recess."

They accepted her answer, Shino nodding and Kiba returning to voicing his plans for the summer.

Summer…

She looked to the sky again and wondered if the lilies would be ready in time…

xxx

They were not going to be ready. Two weeks into her summer holiday and the lilies were not ready. She absentmindedly brushed her thumb against a white bud and silently lamented over this season's lilies. They had never bloomed so late before, or so small. The Genin the Hokage had assigned to prepare her garden over the winter had… not done what she would have done. Her garden was not as fruitful as the year before.

Hinata withdrew her hand from the lilies and moved on to the roses. The Bees hummed after her, blotting at the fragile stigmas in hopes of pollinating for future blooms. Tora was lying by the Koi pond, mumbling irritatingly when one of the Fish blew a stream of water from its mouth to spray at the unsuspecting Spider near the Tiger's whiskers. Above, several Robins flew about and rested on the branches of the nearest sakura tree; Hummingbirds flitting about the pink blossoms.

Carefully uprooting several peony bulbs from a ridiculously large bush, Hinata waited patiently for the Mole to dig a good hole in the earth before replanting the peonies a little farther apart, giving them more room to grow. A Bee landed on her shoulder as she pressed the dirt gently around the peony roots, and she nearly let out a giggle when the insect Summon kissed her.

"Have you healed, mistress?" the Bee buzzed.

"Yes, Hachi," Hinata assured the Queen Bee, even if her upper arm still itched. The Bee stings from her mission a week ago had not yet disappeared. Acquiring the Bee Summon had been treacherous.

"My nut!" A Squirrel by the maple tree promptly yanked a walnut from a squirrel.

Hinata cleared her throat and the Squirrel immediately jostled and looked to her. A soft glance from her and the Squirrel relented and handed the walnut back to the squirrel, who promptly took the nut and fled.

She turned to the lilacs next, brushing the grass and dirt from her pants. It was strange, she thought as she cradled a cluster of the purple blossoms, how she was surrounded by so many friends… but feel so lonely.

They were not Shino or Kiba.

The Mice and the Bees were not Shikamaru or Choji.

Her hands fell from the lilacs.

She felt almost out-of-place. Back in the Hyuga Compound, she felt stifled. Away from her sensei, she felt abandoned. Without her school friends, she felt like she had to act older than she really was. She hadn't known how many masks she had been wearing until school let out – she had never got to be a child until she was with Shino and Kiba. With her sensei, she was a child. But with Shino and Kiba… she was an equal.

She missed them, she noted for the hundredth time that summer. It had only been two weeks thus far, and six more to go. She could not imagine herself lasting any longer without their company.

"Mistress," Kinshou, the Mouse Queen, squeaked from underneath a blueberry bush. "Someone comes!"

Hinata slowly straightened as the Squirrels ran off, the Robins flew away, the Moles dug deeper… only to quietly unsummon themselves far, far away from the Hyuga Compound.

Just as the Bees and Hummingbirds whizzed off, Kinshou slipping back into the Hyuga Main House, a Hyuga maid stopped at one of the many doors going out into the Main House garden.

"Hinata-sama." The maid bowed for formality sake. "The Hokage summons you."

Hinata smiled. "Thank you."

The maid left silently as Hinata slipped her gardening gloves off and went to get changed.

It was to be another mission.

xxx

This was a precarious mission, taking them to the border of the Land of the Wind, somehow bypassing through the security of the Land of Rivers. Equipped with both an Inuzuka and an Aburame, Team Kage had moved swiftly and quietly through the land. There had been little trouble, stopping on several occasions to instruct Zero on how to mask her chakra (a detailed lecture from Three) and hide her scent (Four's very strict lesson).

Fortunately, once they were in the Land of the Wind, they moved north, the opposite direction of Suna. Although the Fire Daimyo was in good terms with the Wind's, there was some chafing between Konoha and Suna. Zero didn't understand the politics very well (although her father had been giving her history scrolls to read), but One did not explain any more than necessary. Zero understood that if she wanted to know, then she would have to self-study.

As they neared the area of their target, Zero activated her bloodline limit, the desert a colour of hot chakra and the land beneath them all grainy and distorted. The sand was easier to penetrate than hard earth, the dry fragments giving way to her Byakugan like thick, gritty liquid. The only downside to sand was the heat – was the sun on the desert. The task was even more daunting when they did not know where, exactly, their target was – or even if it existed.

Team Kage zipped through the dry ocean, their feet threatening to slip and sink if not for their chakra keeping them stable. Zero did not want to say it, but she was getting tired and hot and running out of patience. How the Hokage had talked her father in giving her up for a week was unbeknownst to her, but she would die of shame if she returned to Konoha empty handed. Moreover, the desert was this flat plain with nowhere to hide. There were no shadows or crevices, no caves or bushes – it was just flat and for a group of ninja who were on a top secret mission… It did not bode well.

Her eyes literally burned as she searched, almost frantically, for the evidence of their target – anything. Perhaps a block of stone. Perhaps a bent precipice. Perhaps a doorway threatening to cave. Anything. Anything to get away from the sun and the heat and the no water…

"We should rest," Four said, even as they continued to skim the wary ground of the desert.

Two glanced at Zero, which only made Zero even more frustrated, and One said nothing. With Three's included silence, Four did not say more.

Zero's Byakugan stretched as far as she could below them, but nothing-

She slid to a stop, kicking up sand and dust and heat waves, and felt a shiver crawl up her arms at what she had just seen. She momentarily withdrew her bloodline limit to gather her nerves together. What she had just seen… Slippery. Slimy. Too many legs.

"Zero," One acknowledged, a direct address to her.

She shook her head. "I think… I saw a large i-insect?"

"What did it look like?" Three enquired passively, his kikaichu swarming around his sleeves.

"Like our target," she answered, remembering the picture the Hokage had shown her days ago.

Even with his mask over his face, Team Kage could tell that One was frowning. He looked to the sun's position in the sky and said, "Perhaps we should find an oasis."

"Or perhaps," Three stalled, "we are near our target."

Zero pressed her lips together as Two nodded.

"I can't smell anything," Four said. "It's too hot and dusty to get a good scent."

"No," Four Point Two said, startling Zero. She had not heard the nin-dog speak in a while, knowing that he liked to play dumb. "But I can taste… something in the air."

Three nodded. "I feel something irregular as well."

"Zero?" One called.

Zero closed her eyes and tried to feel for something different… but couldn't. She had yet to perfect her ability to sense Summons, but certainly Three's kikaichu and Four Point Two had been exposed to them long enough to tell the difference.

"We should continue searching then," Two said. "There's still hours until the end of the day."

Zero called forth the Byakugan again and they set forth silently. It wasn't long until she saw another underground insect… and then another… and then-

She fell, exhausted, the heat getting to her – her uniform clinging to her from the sweat. She was near tears and her throat was as dry as… well, the desert. Two took the cue and promptly fell to the ground as well as Four Point Two stood over Zero to act as, however uselessly, shade.

"I really think we should rest now." Four felt it right to point this out rather pointedly, almost snidely.

One sighed, "Troublesome."

"I will search for an oasis," Three volunteered as his kikaichu began to fly from his sleeves in search of water.

Zero, having caught her breath by now, stopped him. "N-No. We found it."

Team Kage stilled, and then they looked to her.

"Below us," Zero informed, climbing back onto her feet. "Several metres down. It's deep, but I saw ruins and… lots of scorpions."

One, the only one Earth sensitive ninja on their team, began to dig directly below him without delay.

"Summoning Jutsu: Bouhatei," Zero breathed, and the Mole King appeared to assist the shadow-nin.

"Here, drink," Four commanded.

Zero lifted her mask just enough take several precious gulps of water from the canteen before stoppering it. She then laid there and closed her eyes, letting the oppressive heat press against her as she tried to catch a nap. She needed a moment to recuperate her chakra.

"Mistress," Bouhatei called out, his snout twitching in the dry environment, his almost non-existent eyes shaded with a pair of sunglasses against the Land of Wind's sun. Zero had warned him earlier of this excursion. "We have found the crypt. There are a lot of scorpions though."

Another shiver crawled over Zero, and she really didn't want to think about it. Instead, she silently rose, along with Two, and jumped into the hole to land haphazardly beside One. Her limbs were too tired.

"Traps? Obstructions? Enemies?" One listed patiently.

"Byakugan," Zero whispered and looked into the stone crypt.

It was ancient, the stone door held up in a jumbled fashion by two cracked columns with pictograms carved along surface. As she peered into the old tomb, she saw further pictograms decorating the inner walls and a sarcophagus in at the very end. In front of the sarcophagus was a golden chest, bedecked in gems and paints, and inside was the scroll they had been looking for.

As for traps, many had been disabled by grave robbers long ago. Obstructions: merely a fallen column in front of the door that was, fortunately, on their side of the door and not within the crypt. Enemies…

She pulled back and almost jumped.

"S-Scorpions," Zero stammered, wanting to be brave, but honestly jostled. "Th-There is a large gr-group of them inside."

One nodded and told her stand back as he unblocked the front door. Zero didn't want to, but she squeaked when he and Two pushed the entrance opened and-

Zero scrambled out of the hole when a wave of scorpions spilled forth from the entrance and washed into the hole, drowning One and Two in spindle-legs and pinching pincers. She was glad that she had unsummoned the Mole earlier.

Above the hole, Zero waited alongside Three, Four and Four Point Two with bated breath. Finally, after a long moment, One and Two sprang forth from the hole and One filled the hole back in. Neither looked hurt or as creeped out as Zero had thought they'd be.

"Got it," Two said smugly, tossing the gold chest into Zero's arms.

It was heavier than Zero had suspected and she nearly fell at the its weight.

"Can't open it though," Two voiced with an agitated bite.

Zero shifted the chest in her arms and placed it down on the ground. Four Point Two closed in and took a sniff, only to shake his head in warning. Understanding, Zero drew out a kunai and buried it deep into the chest and tried to pry it open.

"Maybe we should melt it!" Two suggested, snarky.

"We may damage the scroll inside," Four nixed the idea.

"If there is a scroll inside," One said. "Looks like the crypt's been robbed for a while now."

"Then why leave the chest?" Tsume enquired.

Zero bit on her lower lip as she used all her strength to try to spring the chest's lid open, but it did not budge. Growling, she pulled her kunai out and sat back, trying to see if there was a lock. None. No lock. She looked to Kuromaru, who seemed as clueless as she was. Instead, he nudged her chin as if to say that it was alright.

"There seems to be a Sealing Jutsu on the chest," Three noted, several kikaichu crawling over the box to take weight on it.

"Can you see what's inside the chest, Zero?" Four asked.

Zero nodded. "It's the Summoning Scroll."

Two tsked and crossed her arms, impatient.

"Perhaps we should carry it back and let the Hokage take a look at it," Three suggested.

The three adults began to discuss this as Zero placed her fingers between the slit of the lid and chest and tried to open it. Her Byakugan was activated and, really, it was so close, but for some reason the chest won't budge!

"Zero?" Four called out.

Startled, Zero dropped the chest and then hissed when her thumb caught a sharp corner and a cut was made.

"Zero!" Two was immediately at her side, a pink bandaid with cupcakes in hand.

But they all stopped when the chest pulsed – once – and then disintegrated into sand.

"Shit!" Four cursed.

Just as quickly, Four Point Two pawed at the sand and they all gave a sigh of relief to find the Summoning Scroll whole and intact.

"I believe that the chest responded to Zero's blood," Three theorized.

"Ah," One agreed as Four Point Two unrolled the scroll. "Because she's the Summoner-nin."

"Heh," Four breathed. "You never know what you'll find on the inside, eh?"

Zero, with her wounded thumb, hesitantly signed the scroll.

She could now summon the Scorpions, however icky and strange they were.

xxx

Exhausted, tired and brittle, Team Kage returned to Konoha just as the sun slipped off the horizon and the moon was rising steadily. A week. They had been away for a week and it had been one of the most arduous missions they had been on yet. With the sudden change of environment – from the temperate Land of Fire to the oven Land of Wind – it felt like they had pulled their bodies inside out.

Zero, glad that Konoha's summers were not like that of Suna's, carefully slipped through the shadows of her village alongside her team. She had her Byakugan on to scout ahead, almost expertly avoiding passing civilians and the eyes of the ninjas on guard duty that night.

She slid her eyesight across the market, through the market, and was felt "home" settle back in her bones. She had forgotten how weary long missions were, or even how free it sometimes felt to be away from the Hyuga Compound. However, she admitted, there really was nothing like home.

She stumbled to a stop when she heard a cry coming from an alleyway.

"Zero?" Four called for her.

Zero didn't speak, thinking perhaps she was mistaken-

There!

She heard another cry!

"Stop-"

But One's command was lost on Zero once she recognized the chakra signature. Blue like the sky. Blue like the ocean. Blue like his eyes. And she did not stop to think – to contemplate – only to move, instinctively, to his aid, her heart pumping loud and hard against her ribs-

She was there in a flash, standing between him and a group of drunken men.

She glanced back behind her, without turning her head, to make sure that he was safe-

Red. Red like blood. Red like the sinking sun. Red coiled in his stomach.

It was not him, but… him?

Zero wanted to turn around to make sure, to see if he was alright or whether he had been invaded by another foreign chakra.

"Move, nnninijaaa," one of the drunken men slurred.

"Look out!" Naruto cried when one of the men moved to strike.

One. Two. Three. Three strikes and the three men promptly fell to the ground unconscious. Zero had not been brutal, par say, but she didn't make it easy for the civilians either.

"Wow," Naruto gushed from behind her.

Zero did not move, noting Team Kage at the other end of the alleyway in the shadows and unseeing. They disapproved of her actions, but she found that, for the first time in her life, she didn't care. More than once now, she had seen how Naruto had been treated in the village, and she had been obstructed from helping him because of her Hyuga status, because of the adults, because of her ignorant peers…

She did not feel that it was wrong to help him for once in her life.

Zero drew a quiet sigh and stepped over the unconscious civilians towards the exit of the alleyway.

"W-Wait!" Naruto scrambled to his feet, bruised in several places and unsteady from fear and fatigue. "Wh-Who are you?"

Zero, in her black coat and white mask, did not reply as she left in a blink of an eye, joining Team Kage in their journey to the Hokage's Office. She did not make any excuses to her teammates, but Four Point Two did not her accelerated heartbeat and Zero, herself, was more than a little aware of the heat on her cheeks.

It had been the closest she had ever been to him.

xxx

The lilies had bloomed in her week of absence. They were now large and full and beautiful. White and flawless. Hinata smiled to herself as she clipped several stalks for her basket, remembering the night before. Naruto, she was saddened to note, had been hurt, but she was glad she had been able to save him in some sort of way. She didn't understand why everyone in the village was so against him. He had done no wrong (besides his pranks… BUT THEY WERE HARMLESS), and he was nothing but joy and sunshine.

Sunshine…

She peered up at the sun from behind her bangs and clipped another lily for her collection.

"Onee-sama." Hanabi stepped into the garden, tilting her head curiously. "Are we to visit oka-sama again?"

Hinata smiled softly as she placed the last lily in her basket. With a shake of her head, she said, "Not today. However, I must visit someone myself today."

Hanabi frowned, her face melding into something… less mechanic than what Hinata remembered it being months ago. A moment later and Hanabi's features returned to her blank form and she nodded. "Be careful, onee-sama."

Hinata laughed softly. Long ago her sister wouldn't have known what to say, but now she was telling her to be careful… trying to be affectionate. Patting her sister on the head fondly, Hinata spoke her farewell and left the Hyuga Compound for the other end of Konoha.

She was without her guards. She was without hesitancy. She merely continued her walk, her heart growing heavy with each advancing step. The sun was high in the sky, a beacon of life… but it had the undertone of red. Red like that chaotic foreign chakra in Naruto's body. Red like that trail of blood from his mouth. Red like that night when he took his last breath…

She closed her eyes and bent her head back, letting the sun bleed through her eyelids.

"Pr-Promis-se me th-that you w-will b-be str-strong. B-Be br-brave, a-and know th-that I am proud of y-you."

"Hai, sensei," she whispered as she entered the graveyard, her knuckles white over the basket of lilies.

She passed several graves and halted abruptly when she saw him there. She frowned, confused. Of all her visits throughout these years, she had never crossed his path. She chided herself then. It was not that he had been avoiding her, but that she had been avoiding him. She was late, she realized, in her visit this year simply because the lilies had bloomed late that summer.

She took a courageous breath and sauntered on, her steps suddenly loud against the grass and weeds. He did not turn to acknowledge her, nor did he seem to notice her, not even when she knelt by her late sensei and placed the white lilies before his grave, solemn and quiet.

She remained on her knees. He remained standing. She knew he was watching her as she patiently brushed the dirt and grime from her late sensei's – his father's – tombstone. He did not know, but Ryujin was wrapped around her wrist like a bracelet, remembering his old masters alongside her.

A lukewarm wind blew by, rustling his uneven hair and her bangs, but still they made no indication of moving. She did not know him well. He did not know her well. They did not know each other at all. She had not spoken to him when his father rushed her into their family compound to have tea with his mother. He had not spoken to her when her late sensei placed a fond hand on her head as her late sensei's wife hugged her like a daughter. She had been too attached to his father. He had gladly attached himself to his brother.

They did not know each other at all.

Finally, after a long moment of silence, Sasuke Uchiha – the Avenger – turned to leave.

"He's mine," were his parting words.

She knew who he meant. The Murderer. She could not possibly forget.

"Not if I find him first," she whispered, but his chakra signature was already long gone.

xxx

The sun set. The sun rose. It was like the Sharingan, bleeding red, swirling, swirling, swirling – hypnotizing – promising life, but death in the heat of the desert. The summer went on and Hinata had been surprised to find her friends at her doorstep one morning. Shino and Kiba, Shikamaru and Choji, they had wanted to visit the beach together, much to her suppressed glee. And when she turned to her father, who gave the boys one look, she was nearly bursting with happiness when he nodded and let her go.

She did not question. She only went.

And the days of summer passed by and she was once again an equal among friends – no oppressive family, no spoiling sensei – just friends.

School came all too soon, but Hinata had nothing to complain about, only looking forward to it as the sun rose and set.

xxx

On another note: Kuromaru talks? Thank you, Narutopedia, but I am sort of late in the game, aren't I? I hope it wasn't too awkward?

the point