Konnichiwa konnichiwa, Planeshunter desu!
Can't think of anything to say today, so… Have I mentioned how your reviews validate my existence? Sorry, sorry, had to try.
Now that the blatant suck up is done, Mystic Eyes of Reincarnation 始まります!
Chapter 36: Condescending Fool
Sasuke-kun was being a prick about sparring with her. That she could understand, he was very competitive and she was a potential opponent during the finals. She couldn't blame him for not knowing chances of them actually fighting each other were rather slim. What she could blame him for was the way he'd somehow rubbed off Naruto-kun and now he too refused to spar with her.
She attacks the lunchbox, holding back the bitterness and urge to pout to sideways glance at him. At some point Kakashi realized what she was trying to accomplish with the daily lunchboxes and got into the habit of disappearing around half an hour somewhere to eat his own. She appreciates it, but her results weren't as good as she would've hoped at first, that with her ending up considered rival. Between the pressures of the exam and whatever that ugly seal was doing to his mind, it was unlikely Sasuke would open up to her.
Not that she hadn't tried anyway, even if her results so far had been negligible. Ideally, she would find someone she could subtly push into deliver lunch boxes in her stead, but the options were limited and consisted mainly of raging fangirls and overly confrontational male pre-teens, so she'll have to do.
-"Say, Sasuke-kun… do you see me as a leader?"
Sasuke stops eating to look at her, a brow arching questioningly. Damn Uchiha eloquence, she'd love to not have to make the conversation by herself for once. Specially because she's not really sure what she's trying to get at.
-"I have noticed, Naruto-kun and you listen to me when I have something to say but… that's different from taking the reins of the team, isn't it?"
Sasuke studies her silently and she can see the cogwheels of his mind turning. He's always been a hard one to read, but Hinata has some idea what he's thinking about. Namely how she's never tried to take the reins of the team, and weighting that knowledge against this sudden question. In that very Uchiha way, he won't mention that, not directly. He'll keep thinking about it and state whatever conclusion he reaches.
-"You found the best way to work with us" -He finally states, slowly- "that takes a leader."
-"I think there's a writing from the Shodaime somewhere with his thoughts about the Uchiha clan after Madara left the village, bitterly complaining about herding cats and whatnot." -Sasuke smirks at that, no doubt taking it as praise- "And Naruto-kun is… Naruto-kun."
-"Like trying to cage a storm."
She nods, sharing a knowing smile with him (well, she smiles, he smirks).
-"I'm doing my best to someday become a worthy clan leader, and Father seems to think it's enough" -She more or less knows where she's getting at by now- "But when I see a true leader in action..."
-"Pulling everyone around him on his plans?"
She nods
-"Making you think you can leave everything to him in spite of your better judgement?"
-"And somehow managing to pull it off."
She can see the cogwheels on Sasuke's mind turning again and, with a bit of luck, drawing parallels with himself.
After a while, Hinata is ready to say something, even if just to keep the conversation going, but Sasuke surprises her speaking himself.
-"There's no use trying to compare with him." -He says. The tone is begrudging, but there's some underlying… fondness- "The idiot is something else."
-"We mere clan heirs will have to do our best."
-"Un."
They finish their lunch in silence, but it's a contemplative silence, very different from the tense or frustrated silence Sasuke is lately in, or the brooding silence that's become his second nature with time. When they finishes and she gets ready to leave, he breaks the silence again.
-"Hinata."
-"Yes, Sasuke-kun?"
-"Say, I'm learning about ruling a clan from my family scrolls, but it gets a bit dull working on all that written theory..."
He trails off, invitation clear. Hinata inwardly rolls her eyes at the difficulty boys have to actually go and ask something, but takes pity of him.
-"Would you like to meet sometimes and talk about it? After the exams, of course. I'm sure we can learn from one each other."
He nods and turns away.
-"And Hinata" -He says again after a couple of steps- "Bring the idiot, he could use some basics."
She doesn't answer, because there's nothing to say. Except maybe 'who's this Sasuke-kun and what have I done so right?'. It was this all he needed? A chance to not obsess about power? No, this isn't over yet. Her thoughts sober, remembering there's many more trials in the boy's way.
But they're down the good path.
Leaving Sasuke behind, Hinata takes the road up towards Yakumo's manor, a bit annoyed about the distance and wondering why the girl didn't want to move back to her clan's main residence, specially with all the bad memories tied to that place.
Her reflections end quickly though, as she finds a lazy figure lazily waiting for her. Hands on his pockets and back propped against a tree, Shikamaru gives the impression of someone who has studied his own position over and over, refining the way to lean on something with the absolute minimum effort involved.
-"Yo."
-"Shikamaru-kun" -Heavens, even his greetings are lazy- "What a pleasant meeting."
-"It's been two weeks" -He answers, lifting an incredulous brow- "Chasing you around has been troublesome, but beating around the bush it's even more."
Well, there goes her hope he would find making her keep her word too troublesome.
-"Can we at least find somewhere a bit more private?"
He nods to that, nonchalantly falling into step behind her, even if it only takes him the first intersection to arch brows again. He has probably noticed already they aren't going to the Hyuuga Compound. That reaffirms her resolve to have him on his side or, at the very least, neutral. Trying to pass anything off on him would be a veritable headache.
They leave the pathway leading to Yakumo's manor to get through the first trees of the grove, hopefully too early for Shikamaru to make any assumption. There were a lot of things ahead and he had all the reasons to assume she brought him here just for the sake of talking.
They finally stop in a small clearing around a collapsed old tree.
-"I'm surprised you didn't take me to Hyuuga grounds."
-"That wouldn't be very fair, wouldn't it?" -She gives her best smile, the purpose of this never was to intimidate him into anything- "Just somewhere we won't be interrupted by random passersby. I take Shikamaru-kun is familiar with my clan's bloodline?"
His nod conveyed confirmation, understanding and permission. And laziness. She sent chakra to her eyes, activating the [Byakugan] without the use of seals, not really a brag, more like a calculated declaration of trust in an 'I prefer people not knowing I can do this, but I'll trust you this once' way. After making a show of checking the environment and getting confirmation from Kurama that indeed nobody was paying them undue attention, she gets to the matter at hand.
-"By now you should know why I asked you to wait two weeks?"
-"A special jounin was attacked and nearly killed the other day, even now he's in suspended animation and unfit to present any kind of testimony" -He hasn't lost his composure at all, but his gaze is accusatory- "I can't figure out how a loyal Konoha-nin could know about that and fail to prevent it."
-"Maybe that hypothetical loyal Konoha-nin had their hypothetical hands tied with something else" -Shikamaru rolls his eyes at the exaggerated mystery, but she's having fun- "Something prevented too well for anyone to figure out? It's also worth noting that whoever wanted the special jounin dead didn't quite manage."
Shikamaru keeps silent for a moment, and if she knows he's preparing a bluff, that's only thanks to all her years of experience with him.
-"Something to do with a supposedly unused training ground turning out completely trashed in the morning?"
She knew Shikamaru well enough to see it was a bluff, but that he was sure enough to risk it was a telling by itself. To Shikamaru she was a potential hostile so he couldn't afford losing footing with a false assumption. She can't help a proud smile. This lazy boy was the brains of the Konoha 12, and what a nice brain he turned out to be!
-"In the end the only reason for a loyal Konoha-nin to act alone I can think of" -She answers instead- "Would be lack of credibility."
-"Troublesome..."
-"I don't think this is over, Shikamaru-kun" -She turns to leave- "Probably the Hokage should get ready for a full scale invasion during the finals or something."
Her still active [Byakugan] picks the way Shikamaru reacts behind her. His eyes widening for a moment before he apparently remembers she can still see him, and then he sighs, realizing it'll fall upon him to find a way to warn the Hokage.
-"Troublesome…"
He complains again, in a considerably more emotional tone.
Hinata's relationship with Father had taken a strange turn since the night of the revelations, as she was now technically his superior but only the two of them knew. Not to mention he still was her father and it felt odd to try and treat him differently in any way. Judging for his clumsy attempts, he didn't feel any comfortable doing it either. Still there was many things she felt grateful at Father for.
For once, he had barely required any coaxing before agreeing to tip the Hokage about the incoming invasion, even if he had insisted that she didn't involve herself personally in the matter and resorted to the Elders' contacts to pass the message. She figured the warnings she had asked Shikamaru to convey would be more believable if they came from more than one source, and Father's insistence made sense, as the involvement of a twelve years old, genin or not, would actually diminish their credibility.
Probably would warrant undue attention to her too. With all the things she had in mind, keeping a reasonably low profile sometimes slipped her mind, but one thing was beating the crap out of a recognised genius (they were shinobi, after all, showing hidden strength wasn't that surprising) and a very different thing was to show impossible foreknowledge. That was the kind of attention that made you wake up in a dissection table.
What he had done too, and Hinata would never thank him enough for, was clearing her evenings from any clan training duty whatsoever under the pretext of strengthening ties with the Kurama clan. The elders weren't aware of the [Tenseigan] yet and needed an excuse, even if it was probably just a matter of time, so they've been led to believe she was after their lands. Father knew enough to suspect her real relationship with Yakumo was something completely different though. That he'd facilitate their relationship on his own volition spoke volumes of how he was taking the revelations about the reincarnating eyes.
What she wasn't very thankful about was the way both things combined, as now she didn't had any excuse to avoid Yakumo's telling off her changing plans yet once again.
-"You said tipping the Hokage about the invasion would only make Orochimaru more careful and maybe postpone his attack until a moment we couldn't predict. It was a sound plan we had and now you go and compromise it like that? What are you thinking?"
Hinata holds back a sigh, for all Yakumo was good fun when she was on the mood, she still took things seriously enough to take offense when her accomplice changed plans without consulting her. And she was basically right, but there were reasons why she had done it.
-"I was thinking Hayate Gekko can wake up for his comma at any time and go running to the Hokage with what he heard."
-"No, I'm willing to bet you weren't thinking" -She smiles sheepishly at her friend's rightful wrath- "That was your own fault anyway, and something else you screwed the plan for without asking."
-"Come on, Yakumo-chan! You can expect me just let him die in front of my eyes!"
-"Of course not! That's why I didn't say anything! But now you're using it as an excuse to justify everything else and that's beneath you. So snap out of your stupidity before you do something even dumber!"
That let her blinking in incredulity. She was… being stupid? It was hard to believe that something she had felt so strongly for could be so. As much as she saw Yakumo as a friend, she was still the older one by far and something inside dismissed her concerns far too easily.
She had simply seen a better way to do things. And really, given the chance to keep the Third Hokage alive she would, even if just for Naruto-kun's sake. At best the incident would urge him to find a replacement, finally putting the hat on Tsunade's head without anyone dying. At worst…
Seriously, with the prospect they had, could it really get any worse?
Busy placating her friend, she misses the way Toneri-kun shakes his head in resignation.
-"I you knew, hime" -He says- "If only you knew…"
Yikes, talk about foreboding…
Now, as you probably noticed, the title of this chapter refers to the conversation between Hinata and Yakumo. I mean, it doesn't have much transcendence in the story as a whole, but I find it important. Even when Hinata is probably right and she most likely can talk Yakumo into seeing things her way, she isn't even trying. Dismissing your friends' thoughts and worries simply because 'you know better' is one of the worst things you can do in my own personal scale of morality. I can't stand condescending fools.
Funny, few people are as humble as Hinata, and yet this is technically Pride and feels totally believable… Sneaky, sneaky sins, you're never too careful.