Hai gaiz. Went to the ER. They couldn't do anything without a letter of reference, so I'm left to suffer for a bit longer. *sighs*

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I accepted the cup of hot tea with a bow of my head, and I pulled it close to me and looked down into its dark depths. I looked over at Kurenai, who was nursing her own cup of the same substance, and then over at the little Hinata with a more mature-looking sippy cup, and finally, at Hiashi who sat at the end of the table as calmly as ever. I kind of felt the desire to bounce in my seat a bit from excitement, but reined in the impulse, considering the serious atmosphere. Kurenai, however, gave me this look that told me that she knew exactly what I wanted to do and that I'd better not if I knew what was good for me. I was this close from sticking my tongue out and telling her to stuff it. Like a mature adult, though, I made sure to stave off that particular desire as well. It was really tempting, though.

Hitomi exchanged glances with her husband, and they seemed to silently communicate with one another. After a short while, she gave him a wonderfully beautiful, small smile, and he pretended not to notice. When Hinata tried to pull her cup closer to herself, Hiashi swiftly leaned over, ensured the top was secured properly, and then allowed his daughter to bring it towards her chest to sip from it. She drank quietly, which was way better than I could do with one of those stupid plastic things. It was a shame that a four-year-old was far more graceful than I was at any age. I blamed genetics on this one.

I took a sip from my own cup and promptly burned my tongue, my grimace jolting my entire body as I tried to pass off my slip as intentional.

It didn't work, by the way.

"You seem to be faring well," Hitomi observed, hiding a smile behind her hand. "The tea was at boiling temperature, if I need remind you."

The red-eyed woman to my right just gave me a bit of a smug smile and I passed her a glare. I ignored both women as I blew on the tea, hoping that I could somehow make it a bit cooler. Hitomi and Kurenai shared an annoying smile with one another before the former looked back at me. I could tell the moment jokes were finished with when the twinkle left her eyes and she folded her hands together on the tabletop. The whiteness of her irises stared straight at me, unyieldingly, as she took on a more serious countenance.

"Hotaru," she began softly. "It has since been approximately a week from when you finished the initial process of deep meditation. Over this time period, I have examined you to the best of my abilities concerning your psyche, mental capability, psychological constructs and thought processes, as well as the mannerisms in which you interact within both a semi-formal and informal environment. As the first patient of mine to ever survive past the prior step, I, admittedly, am unsure of how to judge your overall progress. Such matters are normally fairly convoluted, complicated, and deviously difficult under normal circumstances, but considering the method you underwent was, essentially, compacting months – possibly years – into a mere thirty-four hours, I am rather wary of how the situation may eventually break down for you."

Hitomi paused slightly, gave Hiashi another glance, and then turned her focus back onto me. She seemed conflicted for a moment, but gave the barest of shakes of head.

"I am torn with the option that I am about to present you, especially if you take into consideration that you do not have much of a choice in the matter."

At this, I couldn't help but frown. "What are you talking about?"

Kurenai, with a frown of her own, looked on without making a comment. Technically, the only reason she was even here was because she had played a large part in helping Hitomi with getting me to both admit to and conquer my own fears. Honestly, I'd never seen the woman look that haggard after using a genjutsu before. She's always been so unflappable, that the thought that she was just a regular woman who had trained really, really hard hadn't actually crossed my mind. Her last blast of genjutsu had both exhausted her chakra, body, and mind, and she slept like the dead for nearly three days. As I was in my subconscious or wherever for most of that time period, I hadn't actually known until I'd gotten out of my own little coma. Got to love those comas, man.

Hitomi gave me the most bitter smile I'd ever seen from her, replying, "It's befuddling, and perhaps I am simply out of practice, but I struggle to find anything distinctly wrong with you as of late."

My mouth worked to say something before coming out with, "Isn't that a good thing?"

"You were at the very edge, Hotaru," she said grimly. "I proclaimed it vocally when I was young, and I will declare it again now: children have no place on the battlefield. There is a very clear and defined reason for why the children of the village attend an academy for approximately seven years straight – perhaps five to six, minimally. Desensitization, behavioral understanding, basic psychology courses, application of general skills to be used in a real-life situation – these are the reasons children attend academy for so long. You were not adequately mentally prepared for what you were due to face, nor did you receive treatment in well enough time for it to not become such a fiasco."

She stopped speaking for a bit and then met my gaze unflinchingly. "The technique you survived should have you out of sorts, struggling to understand your true identity and everything that comes out of it. Instead, you walk around, laughing, joking, playing as if you were never under any kind of duress whatsoever. Keywords that set you off into an episode only last week should still have some sort of affect even now, and yet, you hardly even notice if I say words such as 'mission', 'training', or even 'Kumogakure', or 'Yugito'. You acknowledge them, but you do not react to them, and this greatly concerns me."

"Maybe I'm over them already," I suggested somewhat flippantly, and she narrowed her eyes.

"Impossible," came the quick shutdown. "You are not a machine. The brain does not just eject powerful triggers like that, and if it did, then that indicates an even bigger issue that neither of us were originally made aware of."

Hitomi's eyes narrowed slightly. "You said that you met a part of yourself, and merged with this personality?"

I'd given her a very hashed down version of what I'd gone through, though I left out the contents of the Secret Garden and who my other self was. The very thought bewildered her, and I swear she looked at me as if I was the craziest person she had ever met in her life. At first, she'd believed that perhaps I'd had some kind of bloodline all along, and why didn't my sister have it, and how could the Yamanakas have never noticed? When I'd bluntly denied even the remotest possibility of having anything special like that, that had perplexed her even further. After all, why did I have other people in my head? How insane was I? Did she really have the skill and technique to properly contend with this matter? Should she be requesting help outside of the clan? Why had a part of me split away and hidden in the back of my mind?

The woman hadn't quite known what to do with me at that point. I'd just told her it was probably a memory I hadn't wanted to remember and by 'confronting' it, I was able to 'acknowledge' it, and 'absolve' it. I made sure to use these exact words because that had been the entire point of going inward in the first place. Despite as much, Hitomi most certainly hadn't been very appreciative of the thought and had watched me like a hawk thereafter. She'd monitored my eating habits, my methods of basic training to get back into shape, more or less, my bedtime rituals, my time with Hinata, and whatever else came to her mind. The only place I'd been able to go on my own had been the restroom, and to take a bath. Quite personally, I don't know how she managed to keep track of everything so steadfastly – when she wasn't watching me, she'd been writing down one note after another in her, uh, journal, and putting a lot of papers into a binder. I'd, at times, woken up to the sound of her writing something down very quickly.

She was a demon. A demon who took her duties very seriously.

And right now, that demon was looking at me as if she were ready to pluck the answers straight from my mind via telepathy if I didn't give her more information to go off of. I could only shrug though – if I told her the truth about my situation, she really would think I was psycho and I'd never see the light of day again. I was just finally getting used to tanning my skin again. I was pale as fuck now.

"Yes, that's right," I sighed. Hitomi didn't look very impressed with my answer.

"I've never even heard of the like," she muttered to herself, looking horribly out of her element for once. "To be completely honest with you, Hotaru, I have analyzed every single aspect I could think of in concern to your current state, but I have come up with absolutely no plausible conclusions for your condition. It is as if you are suddenly an entirely new person, with a blank slate. It is the strangest thing..."

I chuckled hesitantly. She couldn't be more right, unless she actually went into my mind to see what the hell was going on. Hitomi clucked her tongue so gently that I could hardly hear it.

"As such, after consulting the Hokage, I have decided to attempt a different approach to the matter. Careful observation seems to yield little result, and so we will need to shift our focus and stimuli a bit."

That sounded somewhat worrying. I looked at Kurenai, but she seemed as puzzled as I did. Wonderful.

The Hyuuga matron took in a short breath. "Regardless, as of today, you are temporarily out of my immediate care. I would give my congratulations, but that might be a bit preemptive. I have received word that the Hokage wishes to speak to you personally in regards to future intentions, and so, you will need to show yourself before him this afternoon, around two, promptly."

She stood up after that and I stared at her blankly. "Wait, that's it? We're finished, just like that?"

" 'Finished' is too definite a term, I would say," Hitomi replied. "You are still technically under my psychiatric care, on record, but the Hokage wishes to determine his own evaluation of your progress, or even the possible lack of it. I will be present during your meeting with him, but we also require the presence of your sister, as well as Yuuhi-san, here."

There was an awkward pause and Kurenai stood gracefully, bowing low before rising again.

"I deeply thank you for your considerable hospitality," my sister's friend said softly.

I just stared. "Wait, what happens now then?"

Hitomi gave me a smile, though I couldn't read the meaning behind it. "Indeed, I, too, wonder that, myself. All will be made clear at the meeting, I am certain."

"So, I'm just...free to leave, now?"

"Correct," the woman told me. "You are...free, so to speak. Be certain to show up to the meeting accordingly."

My mind was blank as I listened to those words, and just as it clicked that I could leave and race around town at my own volition, Kurenai placed a heavy hand on my shoulder, locking me into place. Her expression assured me that she would be around to ensure I didn't do anything even remotely along the lines of what I'd inwardly planned for myself, and I barely stopped the sigh of sadness from escaping. Kurenai nodded her head slightly.

"She will be there. On time. Without any complications whatsoever, Hyuuga-sama."

Hitomi gave the slightest of nods back. "Good. Now, I have my own personal matter to discuss with the Hokage, so I must be leaving."

"We will not take up too much more of your time," Kurenai promised. "Let's go, Hotaru-chan."

I shrugged her hand off and waved goodbye to both of the adult Hyuugas, and gave the toddler a hug. She kind of ignored me in favor of drinking from her cup. That's okay, though. Juice was a very serious thing. All the power to the kid.

Hitomi walked the two of us to the compound gates, allowing another smile to grace her lips as we went out, up until the gates closed behind us. The two guards paid us little attention as we turned away again, and I instead marveled at the village around me. I hadn't seen it for well over a month now, and it was very easy to forget how big the world was when you were trapped behind four walls, just like the frog in the well. I gave one last glance back at the compound, but smiled when I realized that even though I wasn't marked as fully cured, this was a step in the right direction. Plus, this meant I could see my sister again.

The thought made me freeze. I could see Anko again. It'd been so long, and I wanted to be the first to tell her that I was recovering well. That meant I had to find her first. She had to be in the village, because otherwise, the Hokage wouldn't expect her to be there at the meeting today. Now, it was just a matter of finding her.

I took a step forward, and, as expected, Kurenai asked me where I was heading. I turned around, a grin on my face.

"Anko doesn't know I'm out yet. I'm going to surprise her."

Kurenai seemed amused by the idea. "I'm sure it will be a welcome one."

"Can you sense where she is?"

"One moment," she replied, her eyes closing as she scrunched her brow in concentration. "It seems like she's at home right now. Shall we head there then?"

I pumped my fist, silently telling the woman my answer. Kurenai chuckled at my enthusiasm and as soon as she gave the 'okay', I immediately dashed away, letting the thrill of running free take hold of me as I sped down street after street. Kurenai followed after me, just close enough that she could intervene if I got into trouble, but just far enough away that she wasn't hounding or pressuring me. I waved a greeting to every single person I saw, my happiness billowing up in my chest and exploding out in loud cheers every now and then. When the streets became too crowded, I hopped up to stick to the side of a building, and then hopped to the one across, and then flipped up onto the roof of the building opposite that. Stopping for a moment to appreciate the view of everything around me, I let bare a grin as I cackled gleefully.

Kurenai came up behind me and I forgot myself and quickly clung to her before patting her firm stomach and dancing around on the roof. Passing shinobi gave me looks of confusion and amusement at my antics, and my sister's friend just shook her head. I didn't care, though, because I was free. I hopped up and down and then all along the roof while Kurenai just watched me, my hands making seals just because I could.

What if I wanted to make this super gigantic fireball? I could do it, damn it!

What if I wanted to dash through the streets at full strength, speed seals off? I damn well could!

What if I just wanted to bounce around like a frog and roll around? Fuck, I could do that, too.

I could do anything. Anything. Anything.

Hah, I was free! Oh my gosh, free, free, free, free!

I cackled to myself some more as I rolled happily across the roof like a pig in puddle of mud. Kurenai cleared her throat.

"As happy as I am for you, there's nothing that says Anko's going to stay at home, you realize."

Oh, yeah! Anko!

I gave Kurenai a thumbs-up before jumping back up and racing across the roofs, my heart pounding and my blood flowing through my veins. I flipped and somersaulted across some roofs and backtracked a bit before doing it all over again. I slammed into more than one shinobi, but I just gave them a hug and continued forth, with Kurenai making apologies for me in my wake. When I was a mere five minutes' travel away, I muted my chakra output as much as I could, compressing it down into a little ball within me. Kurenai didn't say anything in regards to this and I continued jumping across roofs until the moment I reached the stairs leading up to our apartment complex. I think my grin threatening to crack apart my face entirely, but I didn't care. In two minutes, max, I was going to see my sister again.

"She's still in there, right?" I asked hurriedly, walking up the stairs.

Kurenai gave a 'hmm' of agreement. "It feels like she's sleeping though, if I'm reading her chakra signature correctly."

My grin transformed into a smirk. "Good. I'll surprise the living hell out of her."

When we reached the door, I gestured for Kurenai to follow after me, and she, quite quickly, refused.

"If I go in there," she started, "we'll never make the meeting on time."

"What? That's not true."

"You always make me cook for you two. And then we always have to play some kind of game, or you make me help you with something you're studying."

"How could you say that? We love you."

Her eyebrow raised a bit, questioningly, and I corrected myself. "Okay, she loves you. I love your food."

"I believe I'll stay out here, thank you very much. Don't take too long."

As I placed my hand on the door handle, I worried for a moment about the key that I didn't actually have, and if I had to somehow sneak into my own home, that was not going to look good, but all these worries went away when the door came open when I turned the handle as a test. I stared at it with some confusion – Anko was normally too anal to leave anything to chance – and it seemed that Kurenai agreed with me, judging from her expression. For a moment, I thought she might change her mind, but she just gestured that I be quick about waking the woman up. I flipped a sign indicating that I understood, and slipped as quietly into the apartment as I possibly could.

I was fairly rusty when I thought about it, but I was grateful that my body remembered Yugito's lessons because my mind certainly hadn't. It was dark inside of the apartment – the curtains were closed on the living room window, and that made me frown a bit. Anko didn't much prefer the darkness – she survived in it, and it yielded to every one of her abilities, but she didn't personally take much pleasure from it. There was also this awkward reek in the air that I hadn't smelt for years. It was odd. Keeping that in mind, though, I crept through the living room, wishing my eyes would adjust to the darkness a bit faster. When I reached the hallway leading to her room, I took in a deep breath and slid over to in front of her bedroom door. It wasn't closed fully. My lips molded into a full-blown smirk.

Slamming a hand against the door to throw it open with a bang, – because explosions are beautiful, hmm – I shouted,

"I'm back, bi–... Whoa."

My gaze focused on the small tower in front of me as I stared at its length, before I shifted to the side all the way to a pair of wide eyes staring at me. I stared back with some disbelief at the naked man laying over the covers on my sister's bed, a frown etched onto my face. I saw the barest of movement as my sister – good God, she was naked – popped her head up to look up at what had disturbed her peace. I guess that since her, uh, partner, hadn't reacted to any kind of threat, she didn't feel the need to be more alert. When her blurry and tired eyes found me, though, her face paled dramatically as she gaped at me, her expression morphing to one of both mortification and horrification.

"The hell?" I muttered to myself as Kurenai burst into the hallway. What I'd smelt earlier must have been the musk of sex. No wonder I couldn't place it. Hadn't smelt that since...well, since.

"Hotaru-chan, I felt your chakra fluctuate wildly, so I –," she quickly blasted out before coming to an abrupt stop as she noticed what I was staring so attentively at.

Anko, who was still as white as a sheet, turned away when her friend caught sight of her. The guy made as if to get under the covers, but my sister's eyes closed as she whispered,

"Get out."

At first, I thought she meant Kurenai and me, and hey, it kind of was wrong of us to gape at their naked selves as if they were some kind of exhibit, but when Anko glared at the man next to her, the guy flinched back. She pointed at the door as she rose from her bed and he narrowed his eyes.

"Why do I have to leave? They're the ones that just barged in – that kid and the lady."

"That kid is my sister, and you're leaving because I told you to get the hell out."

"Oh, what, I did you good last night and this is how you repay me? Ungrateful bitch."

Anko glared at him, and if looks alone could kill, he'd be in the Shinigami's stomach twice or thrice over. Just as she was about to lay in on him, I waved my hands to catch her attention, and consequently, his.

"Whoa, now. Anko, it's cool. Get your groove on. But, you know, I'd think you had better taste than this guy. I mean, have you even see that thing he's so proud to call a –"

Kurenai clapped her hands over both my mouth and my eyes, muffling my words and pulling me back out of the room. The muscles in her hands tightened and I hissed in pain before hearing,

"Enough. Anko. Two o'clock. Hokage office. I'll take care of Hotaru."

"Kurenai, wait..."

Kurenai pushed me away from the room, and I doubled back just long enough to shout out, "And next time, try febreezing the damn place, huh?" before the woman dragged me out of hallway and into the living room. I stumbled after her a bit until she threw me out into the corridor outside of the apartment and slammed the door behind her. Her eyes were bitingly cold as she gazed down at me. She then turned away, murmuring,

"We'll spend the rest of our time waiting at my apartment."

Her hand fell onto my head, and I had enough time to wonder what she was about to do when I felt a fluctuation of chakra and my environment immediately changed to that of a small, cozy apartment with a lovely view of the wall of the building next door. Kurenai walked away from me and sank into her couch cushions, a sigh escaping her lips. She then leaned forward and rested her face in her hands. I gave her a cursory glance before holding up two fingers and measuring.

"What are you doing?" she asked me irritably.

I gave her a quick smile. "I just feel like Anko could've done way better than him. I mean, did you see how tiny he was?"

Her glare was venomous. "How could you possibly know enough for comparative purposes?"

I just chuckled, but she was hardly amused by the notion. She turned away and glared at the front door instead. "I'm going to kill her. Slowly."

"Hey, I was kidding," I said, growing worried by her plummeting mood. "Anko's never done that kind of stuff when I'm around, before. Remember, she had no way of knowing I'd pop up. I rather think it's pretty healthy for her to have sex every now and –"

"Enough about sex!" Kurenai demanded harshly. "We are not discussing that, and you're too young to concern yourself with it anyway."

"Methinks you're a bit lacking in that department," I joked. "Azuma not performing up to snuff?"

I shut my mouth very quickly when her chakra fluctuated wildly and I felt a wave of killing intent direct itself right at me. I backed away, my hands held up placatingly. I saw a flash of her white teeth before she cleared her throat and the killing intent slowly dissipated. She let out a heavy sigh and stood up, running a hand through her black tresses.

"Are you hungry?" she asked warily, looking away from me.

Appreciation swept through me. "You're going to cook me something? Meat something, please!"

Kurenai snorted. "Of course. Providing I have any, that is."

I plopped down on the couch, laying down completely with my hands behind my head. I heard the refrigerator door open and close softly and looked away from the ceiling towards her in the kitchen. Kurenai opened a package of some kind of meat – meat! – and laid it out on what I assumed to be a cutting board.

"You know," I began, raising my voice enough that she'd hear, "I don't think I've ever been to your place before."

The knife never stopped slicing. "You haven't. Anko wouldn't have allowed it."

"Wonder why."

She didn't answer, focusing instead on her task in front of her. I rolled onto my side on the couch, staring at her back as she worked. My eyes narrowed slightly.

"Are you mad at her?"

Kurenai stopped slicing and I saw her raise her chin before shaking her head slightly. "Not really. I want to be, but she couldn't have known what was going to happen I suppose. No one's perfect, and she isn't immune to making mistakes herself."

I watched her some more before finally asking, "Why did you say Anko wouldn't have allowed me to come over?"

"She was mad at me for some time," Kurenai responded slowly. "For teaching you that genjutsu technique."

"Kakashi taught me the Chidori, so I don't really see the problem. You should've seen how pissed off she was at him when she found out."

The sound of Kurenai putting the knife down echoed throughout the space. She bent down and pulled out a skillet from one of the lower cupboards and placed it onto the gas range. I heard the clicking of gas as it alit with fire when she turned it on, and then the soft crackling of the meat when she slid it into the pan. Turning away, she began to chop something else she'd gotten out of the refrigerator.

"I confessed," she murmured, so softly I could barely hear her. "About what I'd done to you."

My head tilted as I struggled to remember what she'd done. "Oh, the treating-me-like-I'm-a-threat thing? I thought we were beyond that."

"No," she replied. "Just as you told me you would never forget, I never quite managed the feat either. When she approached me, angrily, about having taught you that technique, I found I couldn't hold my tongue any longer. I wanted her to know what I'd felt, what I'd done. I'd also wanted a sense of peace, of closure, and to know if she'd ever felt anything about you like I had, or if I'd simply been too suspicious. As you can probably imagine, Anko didn't take the news particularly well."

Kurenai looked away from her cutting board, at something I couldn't see. "She shut me out, completely. Perhaps I'd underestimated the bond of your relationship, or maybe I'd just gone too far on an innocent child, but whatever the case, she chose to leave my company. She actually never spoke to me again until after you'd, well, the day of the incident."

"Hm," I muttered. "But, you are two are okay again now, though, right?"

"For better or worse," she explained, "Anko truly does not have many people she can trust implicitly. Her life, she can entrust to any of our fellow ninja, but her true personality? Her inner demons, conflicts, desires, wants... She wouldn't ever allow anyone the key to accessing the lock to those. You are probably the only one, in the entire world, who she would ever allow to see that part of herself. In any case, though, while we may never reach the level of trust we had before I, admittedly, screwed myself over, I am still the one person she trusts enough to allow the title of 'friend'. It will take some time to repair the damage I have wrought."

I sat up entirely. "That's not right. She needs you – you understand her completely. There are a lot of things she won't let me understand about her. I'll talk to Anko, clear this entire thing up."

"Don't," Kurenai said sharply as she turned to look at me. "I made this mess. I will clean it up."

"Fine," I conceded. "But, as far as I'm concerned, if you keep cooking for me all of the time, I might feel inclined to finally forget this little issue."

"I'll keep that in mind," she said dryly.

Laughing, I fell back against the couch again. "How much you want to bet that when she comes into the meeting, she's going to look guilty as all hell?"

"I'm not taking that bet," Kurenai said with a wry grin. "Come, mademoiselle. Your lunch is served."

I stood in between a very silent older sister and a slightly annoyed aunt-like figure. Hitomi stood in front of us, her torso leaning down in a very deep bow. Her hair, secured into a long ponytail, fell along her shoulder and swept back as she stood back up at attention. I think I was more shocked than anything else to see her in combat gear, as I had never seen the woman out of her kimono wear...ever. Her hitai-ate gleamed from its location on her forehead, and she spared me a small glance – and grin from my gaping expression – before turning back to the Hokage.

"Hokage-sama," Hitomi began. "Might I ask if you have had the opportunity to read my report just yet?"

Sarutobi Hiruzen gave a short nod. "I did, indeed. From your analysis, I gather that you feel you can no longer provide any further assistance towards young Hotaru-kun's recovery?"

"Correct, Hokage-sama," the woman said in a crystal clear voice. "Not only is she the first to survive this far for that particular technique, but she does not exhibit in any way, shape, or form, the expected behavioral patterns of someone who contracted PTSD as she did. Perhaps, were she older, I might understand it somewhat, but given her age, I cannot, in good faith, say that I believe her to be fully recovered, regardless of what she may say, or how she may act. Due to my incapability to further assess her, however, I felt that your suggestion would show more merit."

"Of course," the man said, turning his attention to me. "Mitarashi Hotaru. Come forward."

I walked ahead, coming in line with Hitomi as I bowed deeply. "Sir."

"You have been absent from your duties for quite some time, and not at all from any fault of your own. It has come to my attention that you suffered from tragedy that befell you during your first mission. However, according to Hyuuga-sama, you seem to have managed to heal in leaps and bounds, though the circumstances involving that recovery are circumspect. Could you tell me how you feel you are?"

A frown crossed my face. "I feel fine. Better than ever."

Hitomi gave me a look, but I wasn't sure what else I could say. I really did feel great, after all.

"I see. And if I asked you to go undercover again in another infiltration mission right here and now?"

"I'd plead for a manner in which to deliver information and receive it better," I replied with a bit of dryness. Lack of information over what the hell I'd been doing had not helped my mental stability whatsoever.

Hiruzen regarded me with an unidentifiable expression. "Do you believe yourself ready for another mission?"

"I'd...like to think so, sir."

He harrumphed and clasped his hands together on his desktop. "You are currently a chuunin."

That hadn't been a question, and I nodded hesitantly. The Hokage stared straight at me without hesitance.

"You have yet to attend a mission at that rank. Do you believe you deserve it?"

That almost made me scowl. He was not taking away that rank from me. Ugly as it was, I'd earned that fucking vest, damn it. The only reason I hadn't made good on it yet was because I'd been labeled clinically insane and locked up for a month or so. That had been a rough fucking month, too.

"Yes," I nearly growled, only holding in the temptation just barely. "I do, sir."

"Hm, I find myself not completely convinced," the Hokage murmured, upping my level of ire. "I should think I'd like to test that ability firsthand."

The thought made me pause. "What, I have to fight you, you mean?"

I felt the stares of every person in the room before Hiruzen let out a chuckle. "Confident, aren't we?"

My hackles rose and I almost crossed my arms over my chest defensively. "Well, you said 'firsthand', so I thought you might have meant..."

"I meant, I intend to assign you a mission," the man declared before pointedly looking at Hitomi and Kurenai. "You two, I will talk to you in a moment. For now, please leave the room while I discuss with the Mitarashi siblings their mission."

I saw Hitomi bow and I assumed Kurenai did the same as they murmured "Hokage-sama". I heard the doors close behind us and turned my full attention towards the Hokage. Anko joined my side silently, close enough to show protectiveness, but far enough away to demonstrate her nervousness regarding what happened earlier. I really just wanted to tell her I didn't give a damn whether she slept around. She was fine. It was the guys that would be receiving a visit from me if they pulled any kind of shit. Like that guy who'd called her a bitch earlier. I was going to hunt the bastard down.

"Special Jounin Mitarashi Anko, Chuunin Mitarashi Hotaru, I am hereby assigning you a very important mission regarding information that needs to reach Suna as quickly as manageable. I need you to leave promptly tomorrow morning."

I must have seemed confused, because he asked if I had any questions. "Just one. Why send us if you need information delivered fast? I don't even know the shunshin yet, and there are several more higher-ranked personnel that would be better suited to the mission, I'd think. Hell, my sister could reach there way faster than I'll ever manage."

The Hokage nodded slowly. "A good question. Most of my higher-ranked men, and women, are still on the front lines, so while I would prefer to send them, I do not currently have that option. And, while I say this information is important, it is not of immediate urgency, though it needs to get there within a week, at the latest. I will not say what it involves, but it does need to reach the Kazekage's hands as soon as possible."

I tilted my head and Hiruzen frowned at me. "This is also a suitable test for whether you are up to the task of assuming missions once again. Should you perform well, and Hyuuga-sama gives her letter of approval, then you will be reassigned onto the active shinobi roster. Any further questions?"

"Is it just my sister and me?"

"No," the Hokage admitted. "There will be one more in attendance with you – a jounin. He will meet you at the gate come morning."

"Huh," I murmured. "Okay."

He smiled at me. "If you've no further questions to ask, then I must ask you to leave me be. I have other important tasks to attend to, if you don't mind."

Anko and I nodded, and just as we bowed and made our way to leave the room, I heard the Hokage say,

"Just a moment, Anko-kun. A word, if you would."

Anko paused, and after nodding for me to go ahead, walked back to stand in front of the Hokage's desk. I gave the two one last glance before pulling open the door and letting it shut behind me. Hitomi's gaze found me immediately and she offered me a small smile. I crossed my arms over my chest.

"You planned this," I accused without any heat.

"I quite plainly told you I had," she said with a smile, not missing a single beat. "I should think you'd be happy with the assignment."

I openly scowled at her, and it was at that moment that Anko came back out, her expression closed off and her expression heavily shadowed. She caught Kurenai's gaze before nodding first at Hitomi.

"Hyuuga-sama, the Hokage is ready for you now."

Hitomi smiled to show her appreciation and walked past my sister into the room. Anko looked again at Kurenai, the latter of which just sighing and telling her to go ahead. The shadows in my sister's eyes never let up though as she and I made our way back home. She didn't say a single word to me throughout the entire trip, and the one time that I'd attempted to hold her hand in a show of solidarity, she'd flinched so badly that I let go, startled from her reaction. I didn't bother trying to do anything after that.

When we got home, the first thing I noticed, besides my exhaustion, was the blatant smell of potpourri or some scent reminiscent of it. It was so strong, I felt like gagging, but due to how tense Anko had gotten the moment we'd come inside, I chose to act like I didn't even smell it. She quietly asked me if I was hungry, – the first words I'd heard from her since the thing earlier – and I shook my head 'no'. Whatever Kurenai had fed me was still holding me hours later. All I kind of wanted to do was sleep in my own bed. When I'd said this, Anko had gone completely silent and slowly nodded her agreement. I walked towards the hallway, but turned back at the last minute.

"There's nothing wrong with satisfying yourself, you know."

She never bothered to meet my gaze, instead sitting on the couch solemnly. I watched her for a while before sighing and heading to my room. On the bright side of things, I had a mission together with my sister! That had to be worth something, right?

Yep. Yeeeeeeeeep. Question: What would you do if you walked in on your sibling like that? I think that if I weren't shocked, like Hotaru, I'd laugh my ass off.