Ch. 45 Restless
Naruto, Hinata, and Isaribi didn't find anyone else for the rest of the day they had to fight off. When it came time to stop for the night, Hinata found them an open area they could climb into underneath the roots of a large tree. Naruto took the first watch, allowing Hinata and Isaribi to get some sleep. Also his many bloodlines should be enough to counter the efforts of any last-minute attackers. Now, hours later, it was time for a shift change.
Both girls woke up, tested for any genjutsus that may have been used in their sleep by someone, and Naruto came inside so one could take his place. "Okay girls, who's next?" He asked.
"How about Hinata?" Isaribi asked.
Said girl gave her teammate a dour look. "And why should I?"
"Because it's still dark out. With your eyes you'd have an advantage over me, who can't see that well in the dark." The purple-haired girl explained.
The pale-eyed girl didn't look like she bought it. "If you can see underwater I'm sure you can handle the low-light vision of night."
"Yeah but we're in dangerous territory here so we need to used the best advantage we got. Like your eyes." Isaribi replied. 'Why is she getting so defensive all of a sudden? This isn't like her, but I know it's not someone under a henge.'
"You just want some time to sleep next to Naru-kun!" Hinata said with no small amount of hostility.
"It would happen later whether or not you took this watch or the next so what's the problem?"
"Calm down girls." Naruto said, only to get an annoyed look from Hinata.
"I can't Naru-kun because she's trying to get into your sleeping bag with you when my back's turned and get closer to you right under my nose! How am I supposed to be okay with that?"
"Do you think I'm going to do anything more with her tonight than sleep in the same area?" He asked.
"No, but she will." Hinata answered with a pointed look at the swimming enthusiast.
"Hey, as one of his girls, one chosen by both of you I might add, I have a right to be friendly with him too you know." Isaribi commented.
"Only when I approve and right now I don't!"
"And what if he does?" Isaribi asked.
"It's my choice what happens between my future husband and other girls and I say hands off until further notice!" Hinata declared.
"Wood Style: Treehugger Jutsu." Naruto called out with their attention diverted. Instantly many branches came out of the tree base, each with a hand at the end, and all grabbed ahold of the two girls.
"What the-?" They asked as the felt their arms and legs and even the sides of their torsos grabbed by the wooden hands and lifted off the ground. They both put up a bit of a struggle but the hands just tightened their grips. "What gives Naru-kun?" Hinata asked, more surprised than anything right then.
"You two need a time out. Especially you, Hinata." He answered, trying not to look mad but clearly not looking happy either.
She now gave him her full attention and a shocked expression. 'Naru-kun doesn't use my full name unless he really needs my attention. What's wrong? Did I upset him?'
Seeing they were listening, Naruto said more. "We're in enemy territory now. The enemy is outside these walls, we don't need to turn against each other like this. Especially over something like this."
He then looked right at Hinata, his sad gaze making her heart ache. "Hinata, lately you've been acting a bit... possessive of me. I know I promised that you'd be my real wife, but you're not acting like the girl I fell for. You're acting like... you're a little kid being told to share their favorite toy when they don't want to. And I'm that toy."
'He's got a point.' Isaribi said to herself, afraid to voice any thoughts right then since this was mostly between the two of them.
Hinata didn't say a word so Naruto continued. "The girl I fell for wasn't a possessive person who regarded me as if I was wearing a sign that said 'Property of Hinata - Hands off until further notice'. The girl I fell for wouldn't keep me on a short leash like I'm going to run away first chance I get. The girl I fell for... would instead trust me."
"I... I do trust you Naru-kun." Hinata countered with a few tears being released. "It's just... how am I supposed to be special to you when I'm just one out of nine?"
He took a step closer to her. "Do you really think I'd treat you like you're just another girl to me?"
"But you said you'd treat all the others as good as you'd treat me." She added. "How will I be different than them if I don't reinforce the fact that I'm the alpha girl of the group?"
Naruto sighed. "You don't have to prove anything to them Hina-chan. Isaribi-chan and the others already know you're the 'alpha girl' so to speak and from what I've seen they're not trying to take that away from you. Isaribi-chan was just stating a fact moments ago. At this time of night you do have a visual advantage over her. And even if she did try to sleep right next to me, it's not like I couldn't tell her no or we'd do anything intimate if I did allow her to stay."
"He's right you know." Isaribi told Hinata.
Naruto made it so the ensnaring tree arms lowered Hinata a bit to allow more leveled eye contact between the two. He then got closer so he could wipe away her tears. "Hinata, I don't want to lose you, but... if you keep acting like this, then I'm afraid we won't work out."
Hinata could actually feel her heart start to break. Tears practically poured out of her eyes. "No Naru-kun, anything but that! I love you, I can't bare to lose you like this! Please let me keep being your girlfriend!"
"I love you too Hina-chan. But you need to learn to share me. I'm sorry, but that's our situation. I need to be with girls that can get along with each other, not fight over who gets more time and whose turn it is to touch me." He told her, a few tears in his own eyes. "You know I need to treat the others really good too. Would it be fair to them if I didn't? It doesn't mean you won't be as special to me anymore. But it's my choice when to spend time with the other girls, not just yours. I would let you know when I do, but I'm not going to be some boy-toy that girls have to schedule time for."
"If I may..." Isaribi said, catching both of their attentions for a minute. "Hinata-chan, maybe with all the time and effort you've be using to ensure your status among us girls, that very thing seems to have been hurting your status to him. Think about that."
Hinata did. 'Is it true? Have I started becoming some kind of territorial jerk? I... I just wanted to be the most important one in Naru-kun's heart, and I didn't want the other girls to try to compete with me for that.'
Isaribi took this opportunity to continue her point. "Hinata-chan, I know you're the more important of us all to him. Hell, if he didn't need multiple girls you'd still be the only girl he'd think of looking at. I know that, we all know that. But we accept that. We can't take your place, but we are entitled to have our own places in his heart too and some girlfriend-privileges if we're really going to make this thing work. You can't keep his heart to yourself anymore. The other eight of us are going to be the mothers of his children too so we'll deserve to be treated with some love too. Besides, no matter how much he cares for us all, you're the only one amongst us in this that will wear a ring. If that's not enough of a message for his feelings for you, maybe you shouldn't be the one he puts that ring on."
The former Hyuuga hung her head and openly weeping. "Naru-kun, I'm so sorry. I've been such a bitch, haven't I?"
Naruto released the wood jutsu on them both, turned off his kekkei genkai, and hugged his best friend. It made her cry more and cling to him with all her might. "No you haven't. You've just been afraid. Just promise me you won't try to become some kind of girlfriend-zilla like that again."
She relaxed but didn't let go. "I won't, I promise."
Isaribi smiled. "I guess I'll take the next watch after all so you two can work out anything else in private."
Hinata turned to look at her other teammate. "No, you're right. My skills are better suited for this time then yours are like you said. I'll go. You and Naru-kun get some rest for a bit." Naruto then kissed her forehead and she kissed his cheek. After that she separated herself from him and went outside the tree, taking a post in the foliage to avoid being seen. 'I need to show Naru-kun I can trust him to be with the others when I'm not around. I shouldn't worry, because even if I'm just one of nine, I'm Number One of nine.'
She activated her byakugan to be on the lookout, and saw Isaribi and Naruto starting to sleep only a meter apart from each other. The purple-haired girl clearly wanted to cuddle up with the disguised blonde, but he appeared to be resisting for now, going so far as to face away from her despite the potential rudeness in the act. Hinata strangely felt relived and saddened by this. 'I'm glad I have nothing to worry about, but maybe next time I'll tell them it's okay. I don't want Naru-kun afraid of my reactions after all.'
Even as she told herself this, Hinata was repeatedly clenching and unclenching her fists.
In another part of the Forest of Death, Team 7 of Konoha was resting for the night as well. They chose to sleep in the branches of a large tree rather than under it. Right now it was Sasuke's turn to stand watch for nocturnal enemy activity. The dark-eyed emo was doing his duty, but he had other things on his mind at the same time as well.
'Maybe I made a mistake entering this exam, just to test myself.' He told himself woefully. 'I mean, I'm probably the only one here who doesn't know how good they really are. Damn the council for exaggerating my skills. What if I got myself in a situation where I could die because I didn't know my true strengths?' He then felt a pang of self-loathing and self-pity, but he ignored it. 'It's all their fault and Kakashi's fault for making me believe that. They should have known better. Yeah, it's all their fault. If they hadn't done that, I'd still have my sharingan.'
He sighed internally and scanned the area again before turning around to see what was behind him. 'In that case I don't know who I should be angrier at. The one who took my sharingan from me, or the ones who set my life up with their own gain in mind. If I never lost my doujutsu, I'd still have all the privileges and status I took for granted, but I'd still be an ignorant pawn of a greedy government that only let me think I was on top.'
That thought triggered a new train of thought that made his whole body jerk in shock for a moment and his eyes widen at the mere prospect of it. 'Wait. Does that mean I should be... grateful to the jerk that took my kekkei genkai from me? Is it better to be privileged yet ignorant, or humbled yet aware of the truth? I... don't think I like either.'
While Sasuke pondered his options, his kunoichi teammate was doing the same thing in her sleep. Sakura, once adamant in her decision to pursue her goal, was now torn between two choices to make. She could either continue to pursue Sasuke, her odds greatly increased without any other rival to compete against now, or ditch him and find someone else to take an interest in, like her aunt told her to.
'Sasuke-kun needs help and a caring friend in these hard times for him. But when I tried to be he wasn't interested. But I've always tried that and never thought about any other boy... because Obasan always told me he was the only one worth thinking about. I even ended my friendship with Ino so I could get Sasuke-kun like Obasan told me to do. She said we would have to fight over him someday anyway so it would have been better to not have that kind of bond to interfere with my chance of victory. But now Ino's not interested, which makes me the best option for Sasuke-kun but he's just being more distant.'
Her mind continued to ramble as she shifted from sleeping on her left side to her right. 'If Sasuke-kun warms up to me, then I'll get what I wanted, even though I won't have the rich high life I expected to. It's not like I can't cope with a regular budget; I've been doing that all my life with Obasan. But being with someone rich and powerful was my dream too. I just always assumed Sasuke-kun would have that too and could never possibly lose it. Now that he has... I don't know which goal is more important. I want to be with Sasuke-kun, but I also want to be wealthy and not have to work all my life just to live under a budget. Which do I choose to pursue the most?'
In her dreams Sakura heard two voices, neither of them Inner Sakura. The first was the voice of Sasuke, who said "I'm an Uchiha dammit! The elite of the elite of the elite! Even the richest daimyo isn't as important as the poorest Uchiha! You really want to throw me away when the odds are almost entirely in your favor?" The second was the voice of her aunt Natsumi, who said "He's nothing but an empty wallet and a limp dick now! Men are supposed to spoil women rotten and now he can't so what good is he to you? Ditch him and find some other clan heir to swoon over! Don't piss away your chance to bag a loaded wallet!"
The internal yelling was starting to give the pinkette a headache. It was understandable, as those two and their ideals had pretty much been the only two she had ever really listened to and considered important enough to follow. Sure, she obeyed the hokage and academy teachers when they gave orders, but to Sakura, the true power-figures were and always had been Sasuke and Natsumi. But now that the two sides no longer said the same thing, she felt torn between them.
Kiba meanwhile just drooled and smiled as he slept.
Back with Hinata, her eyes were peeled for any threat. Her byakugan revealed several nocturnal animals going about their business and some rival shinobi moving within her range, fortunately not towards herself. Fortunately all these things kept her focus off her sleeping teammates.
While the byakugan was indeed a doujutsu that gave it's user a large range of vision, like all kekkei genkai there were a few facts about it's use that no one without it could understand. One such fact was that the wielder couldn't truly see everything around themselves like others claimed. If the eye truly allowed someone to see EVERYTHING within it's large range simultaneously, as most assumed it did, the visual part of the wielder's brain would probably self-destruct from sensory overload. To prevent this, the wielder basically had a visual focal point that was free to move around to anywhere within range, with everything else being a sort of large range of peripheral vision. Sort of like something a normal-eyed person would see on the edge of their visual scope; seen but not actually looked at.
So even though Hinata didn't have to move her eyes or head to see something new, she still had to move the focus of her vision around, as if she was moving her eyes or head instead, to check for danger. Fortunately she could do it quickly for the odds of something slipping by while her focus was elsewhere was slim to none. Another good point was that there was also a permanent secondary focal point always positioned in front of themselves, so when byakugan-wielders were on the move they could look around themselves without sacrificing quality sight for what was in front of them.
'There's some bats, an owl, three Iwa genin resting, a team of Taki nin running towards the center of the forest, another team of-wait! Is that...? Oh crap.' Hinata thought to herself as she kept watch then saw something she didn't like.
Moving quickly, Hinata got out of the tree limbs and ducked inside the underground den. She was already aware of Isaribi spooning Naruto from behind and was still somewhat annoyed by it, but right now she had a bigger concern. "Naru-kun, wake up!" She loudly whispered in his ear. He stirred but didn't look like he was waking up. "Wake up! We've got trouble!"
"Whattizit?" He asked in a dazed slur.
"A Konoha team is heading our way. And this one has a Hyuuga in it!"
That jolted Naruto to full awareness. He could see the problem right away. If Hinata's byakugan saw this genin and could tell they were a Hyuuga, and was this worried about it, it could only mean one thing: The Hyuuga saw her too and could see a foreign ninja had their bloodline.
Since Isaribi was still asleep, Naruto just hoisted her onto his back. "Let's go then." Hinata nodded and both left their hideout, immediately heading for the branches to jump thru.
Hinata reactivated her doujutsu. "He's still on our tail. He definitely sees me and isn't looking happy. He's accompanied by a girl with some scrolls in her pockets and a guy in a green jumpsuit and a rather small chakra system."
"How do we lose him?" Naruto asked.
"What about if you use your Unbloodline to make me no longer have the byakugan for a time? Long enough to throw them off?" Hinata suggested.
"No good. Konoha's already on a witch-hunt for anyone with the Unbloodline. If they see that, it's like painting a big bulls-eye on our team." Naruto countered.
"Damn, you're right. How about Gravity Control?"
"Good enough for me. Hang on." Naruto told her, only to get her to clamp onto him on his front side. 'I didn't mean literally, but I won't complain.' Naruto then activated his Gravity Control kekkei genkai, briefly worried what that showed the pursuing Hyuuga, and took to the air with his teammates in tow.
The Hyuuga chasing them stopped in his tracks, and his teammates soon did too to ask what was wrong. His response: "I must be more tired than I thought. I could have sworn I just saw them fly away like birds."
