Naruto spread some of the ointment that Hinata had given to him onto one of his cuts and watched as the wound immediately closed. "It works really well-ttebayo! This medicine!" He exclaimed. Beside him, Koharu giggled, knowing that while the medicine was helpful, it wasn't the true reason for Naruto's extreme healing speed. He put the lid back on as Sakura gaped at him, bug-eyed in shock from the speed at which he had healed. "Here!" He said as held the container out to Sakura, "Do you want to use it too, Sakura-chan?" Sakura looked at the medicine like she was scared of it and Koharu struggled not to laugh out loud.
As the medical team carried Kiba and Akamaru out, Hinata hurried down the stairs and approached them. "U-Um..." The team stopped and Kiba looked up at her in surprise. Still seeming nervous, she held up a second jar of the medicine, "T-This is... Ointment for your wounds, for you, Kiba-kun and Akamaru too."
Kiba chuckled and winked at her. "Rather than worrying about others, it's about time you worried about yourself!"
"Kiba-kun..."
"There are only six people left..." Kiba explained, "You, Chouji, Neji, Lee, one Sound guy, and the Sand guy." He opened his eye and hardened his expression, "Listen, Hinata... If you pull that guy from the Sand, withdraw immediately. And there's one more too. Do the same if you get Neji. Withdraw immediately. That guy will be hard on you. He will destroy you."
"There's no way I'm going to let that happen, Kiba-san." Koharu said as she came down the stairs to stand behind Hinata and offered a smile, "I've known those two for way longer than you, so just leave them to me." She hardened her gaze slightly, "Neji knows it too."
"Well then, let's announce the next match." Hayate said as Kiba was carried out. This caught everyone's attention. Hinata turned and looked at the board with worry. When it beeped, she instantly froze with fear and began to tremble. Koharu didn't even have to ask to know that the board had just placed Hinata up against Neji. She touched her friend's shoulder to snap her out of her mini-heart attack.
"It's okay." She said firmly as Hinata looked at her. "Remember the training that we did before the exams started. You can do this, Hinata-chan." She hugged her gently, "You can become stronger." She released Hinata from the hug and began to head back up the stairs. As Neji passed by her on the way, she stopped and spoke quietly so that only he would hear. "If you take things too far, Neji, I guarantee you'll regret it."
"Hmph." Neji said softly, "You think you can beat me like you did when were kids? How do you know I haven't grown stronger than you by now?"
"I'm capable of using far more than just Juuken these days, and... Simply put, I've faced far more dangerous people than the likes of you." She continued up the stairs silently as Neji glared at her back.
The two Hyuuga stood and faced each other in the arena. "I never thought that I would have a fight with you... Lady Hinata." Neji remarked. Koharu immediately tightened her grip on the railing when she heard him speak.
"Neji-niisan..." Hinata said softly.
"Niisan?!" Sakura asked in surprise.
"Are those two siblings?" Fuushin asked.
"Not literally siblings, even though their chakra makes them feel like there are." Koharu replied, "They're cousins."
"Those two are descended from one of the oldest and most noble families in Konoha, the Hyuga Clan." Kakashi explained further. "Their relationship... well, the best way to describe it is that of the Head Family and Branch Family."
"Head Family and Branch Family?" Chino asked in confusion.
"Yes. Hinata-san is from the head family of the Hyuuga Clan." Lee explained, "In other words, a person from the main household and Neji is from a branch family, that is descended from that family."
"In other words, it's a fight between relatives." Sakura said. "It must be uneasy for both of them..."
"Yes..." Lee replied, "But..."
"What?" Sakura asked.
"I've heard that since long ago, there've been various incidents between the head family and branch family, and now their relationship isn't on very good terms."
Koharu snorted, "That's putting it way too lightly."
"What do you mean?" Sakura asked her.
Koharu's gaze saddened and her head dropped slightly, "The relationship between them is far more complicated than Lee-san has made it sound."
"Why is there so much tension?" Chino asked.
"I don't know the details." Lee replied, "But... the so-called 'noble Ninja clans' like the Uchiha and Hyuuga have special techniques and abilities that run in the family."
"That's called a Kekkei Genkai, Lee-san." Koharu said with a roll of her eyes, "Close to half the people in this room have one. Neji, Hinata-chan, Sasuke, Chino-neechan, Fuushin-niichan, Gaara, and I were all born with them."
"Ehh..." Sakura said with interest. "But then, why are only Sasuke-kun and those two from well known families?"
"It's because both of their clans carry doujutsu in their bloodlines." Koharu replied, "Marrying outside of the clan is rare in these cases, as marrying another clan member helps to preserve the purity of their abilities and also prevents it from becoming common place in other clans. Doujutsu like ours are exceptionally rare and powerful, so their bloodlines are closely guarded. It was the same with my clan shortly before its disappearance during the third war, as well as with Chino-neechan's clan many years ago."
"Right." Lee said with a nod, "It seems that the Hyuuga household laid down rules for communicating those techniques, but... It seems that there are many rules that favor the head family..."
"Huh?" Sakura said.
"And there have been various incidents between the head family and branch family due to those rules." Lee added.
"Why?" Sasuke asked.
"In order to prevent the Byakugan from falling into enemy hands..." Koharu answered quietly, and Sasuke noticed a faint trembling in the girl's lip.
"So... this is a confrontation billed as a clash of fate..." Sakura remarked.
Hinata stood there before Neji, subconsciously clasping her hands in front of her and looking at the ground as Neji stared at her intensely.
"Oh, it's gonna begin." Kakashi said.
"Well then, please start the match." Hayate told the two. Neji responded by immediately moving his feet into a stance that was all too familiar to Koharu.
"Just one thing before we square off against each other in the match..." The boy began as he stared at his younger cousin. "I should advise you, Lady Hinata." At this Hinata looked up. "Withdraw!" He told her firmly. Koharu's grip tightened further, her knuckles turning white as Neji continued. "After all, you are not suited to be a shinobi! You're too kind. You wish for harmony and avoid conflict, you're open to going with the thinking of others. And..."
Suddenly Koharu slammed her hands on the railing, her eyes blazing with anger, "You shut up, Neji!" She exclaimed furiously, "You think you know how the world works, but you don't know anything at all! Kindness is not akin to weakness! I've seen even the kindest of people become incredible shinobi for the sake of protecting what's precious to them!" Sasuke noticed that Koharu was now biting her lip in an attempt to stop it from trembling. Her eyes were glistening, but she was clearly unwilling to let the tears fall. "Have you forgotten the condition I gave to you when you were in the Academy?! It's obvious you haven't apologized to her, so don't think you have the right to speak to her!"
Neji looked up at her in annoyance. "Fine. Then I'll speak to you. Lady Hinata has no confidence in herself. She's a always feeling inferior... That's why she thought it'd be a good idea to stay a Genin. However, you can't register for the Chuunin Exam without three members... So she couldn't turn it down when Kiba and the other proposed it, and... the truth is, she entered the exam reluctantly. Am I wrong?!"
"Y-You are wrong...!" Hinata managed, "You're wrong... I... I only... I wanted to change that about myself... So I proposed it myself..."
"Don't presume to always know everything about other people, you idiot!" Koharu yelled, "And for goodness sake's, his name is Aburame Shino! He's from a noble clan just like you, you arrogant...!"
"N-Neechan's snapped...!" Naruto whimpered from where he'd taken to ducking behind Sasuke.
Hinata was looking away from Neji, her lip quivering, and Neji glared at her.
"Lady Hinata... As I thought, she is a spoiled one of the head family." He said to Koharu. "People can never change!" Hinata gasped, her eyes widening in shock. "A failure will always be a failure... That personality and strength won't change." Koharu's eyes were wide and to Sakura and Sasuke's surprise, the tears finally began to flow down her cheeks as Naruto began to tremble with rage. "Since people don't change, differences exist among them... and expressions like 'elite' and 'failure' are born. Everyone judges and are judged based on the value of their face and brain, ability and body type, good and bad points of their personalities. People have to suffer and live within the means of the elements they cannot change. Just like the fact that I'm from a branch family and she's from the head family, these things can't change."
The tears began to fall down Koharu's cheeks faster. "You don't know anything..." She said quietly.
"I've seen through everything with this Byakugan." Neji continued, not hearing the blue-haired girl. "That's why I understand! She's just talking tough. She's really thinking that she'd like to run away from this place..."
"Th-that's wrong...!" Hinata insisted more firmly than before. "I really..."
"Byakugan?" Sakura asked, turning to Kakashi.
"It's said that if you trace the Uchiha Clan's history, the clan's ability has its source in the Hyūga clan." Kakashi replied, "The Byakugan is the Kekkei Genkai of the Hyūga Clan, a doujutsu similar to the Sharingan... However, with the ability of insight alone... it gets the better of the Sharingan."
Hinata was visibly trembling, her breath shaking as Neji activated his Byakugan. She whimpered as he stared at her for several seconds before speaking again.
"My eyes can't be deceived!" He declared, causing Hinata to gasp, "Just now, from my pressure, her line of sight was pushed to the upper left. This is the sign that she's recalling her past experience... her bitter past. And soon after that, her line of sight moved to the bottom right... This is the sign that she's imagining physical and mental suffering. In other words... she's picturing her old self, and from all of her experiences up until now, she's imagining the result of this battle... the image of her losing!" Hinata gasped again and Naruto clenched the jar of medicine she had given him.
"Hey, are you okay?" Fuushin asked as he noticed Koharu trembling violently where she stood.
"Even the act of propping her arms in front of her body..." Neji continued, "It's a gesture that means she wants to build a wall between us and keep distant. And that reflects her mind. That she doesn't want any more of her deepest feelings to be raided... Because everything I've just said is right on the mark, right? Furthermore..." Naruto's grip on the jar tightened even further. "Laying a finger on her lips, that too, is a self-familiarizing act which represents a sense of panic. It represents a defense instinct—she wants to alleviate the tension and unease. In other words, deep in her heart, she knows it's true, doesn't she? That changing herself is something she absolutely can't—"
"She can!" Naruto suddenly bellowed. Neji looked over his shoulder at him in annoyance, and Hinata suddenly calmed down a little as she looked up at him. "You don't have the privilege of deciding what a person is like, stupid!" The blond exclaimed angrily. "Give it to him, Hinata!"
Everyone except for Koharu stared at him shock. For her part, Koharu seemed to temporarily snap out of her own panic attack as she turned toward her brother, and then faced the arena again. "I believe I told you to shut up, Neji." She said firmly, "Acting all arrogant and thinking you know everything! Fine then! I'll show you what true insight is! The truth is that you have an inferiority complex that is far more severe than Hinata-chan's. You're the one who's truly weak. You try to hide your insecurities about being 'from a branch family' by acting tough! Just who do you think you're fooling? Furthermore, you think yourself superior to others because of your visual prowess and natural talent, yet, you're frustrated that that 'superiority' isn't fully acknowledged because of your position in the clan! Furthermore, a person who is able to admit their faults and try to overcome them is a hundred times stronger than somebody who just acts all high and mighty!" Her glare hardened, "When it comes to your feelings, there's nothing that these cursed eyes of mine can't see! And people most certainly can change, because I know for a fact that you used to be very kind yourself! You're way more spoiled than she is! You think you know all about how the world works, but you don't have a clue how the world works because you've always had the luxury of living in safety! You don't know what it's like to have to constantly travel from place to place, just to survive, knowing that if you stop and stay anywhere for very long, you might be killed. You've never experienced being enslaved because you have a Kekkei Genkai or being forced to battle others in what might as well be a slave trading game! You sure as heck weren't the one who had multiple targets on your back in the forsaken forest outside just because of your lineage, and you didn't have to deal with a dangerous lunatic of a shinobi to boot! And the way you flaunt your power, it's quite obvious that—" Suddenly Koharu's eyes widened as something was stabbed into her neck, and she passed out into the arms of Sasuke.
"What did you do to her?!" Chino exclaimed in alarm.
"Relax, she gave me that senbon." Sasuke said as he pulled the needle in question out, "It's coated in a light sedative. She told me to use it to knock her out if it seemed like old memories were getting to be too much for her. She thought I'd probably be able to tell best."
"Why the heck would she leave that to you?" Fuushin asked.
"Would you have trusted Naruto to do it?" Sasuke asked as he laid Koharu on the floor to rest. "Sakura doesn't know her well enough and you guys don't know enough about her past."
"He's got a point." Chino admitted.
"Hinata!" Naruto suddenly yelled, ignorant of his sister's current state. "Don't just take it! Argue back-ttebayo! I'm getting irritated watching this!" Hinata looked at Naruto, and then slowly looked at the ground, her expression unreadable even to Neji, but it was clear to all that she had stopped trembling. After a moment, she lifted her head and met Neji's eyes with a firm stare of her own.
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Meanwhile, although the sedative was relatively short-term, Koharu had begun to dream. It was the side-effect of using a sedative made from refined Kotaro, as even her chakra network was not immune to things like direct physical attacks or drugs. Currently in a state similar to being under genjutsu, she began to dream about her past.
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"Team 2, your first mission as Genin will be to babysit two young children." The Third Hokage said to the three Genin standing in front of him.
"What? Babysitting?" Izumo Tenma complained, "How is that a mission for shinobi?"
"Don't be so hasty!" The Hokage warned, "Every Genin team I've assigned to babysit these children has failed!"
"Seriously?" Inari Shinko asked nervously, "Just how bad are these kids?"
Hiruzen exhaled some smoke from his pipe, "It's not so much that they're ill-behaved, but the little girl has powerful sensory abilities and has outright refused every babysitter ever assigned to her and her brother." He opened his eyes and looked at the squad, which also consisted of a seven-year-old Uchiha Itachi and the group's instructor, Minazuki Yuuki. "Allow me to explain. The children you are to be watching are Mayonaka Koharu, and her foster brother, Uzumaki Naruto. Koharu's father, Mayonaka Shinji, who is also Naruto's guardian, is the current head of the medical corps, and works at the hospital almost every day. On most days, they are watched by either Koharu's godmother, Tsunade, or Naruto's godfather, Jiraiya."
"Those are quite prestigious people to have as godparents!" Shinko said in wide-eyed astonishment.
"However, there are some days, like today, where neither of those two are available." Hiruzen continued, "On such days, it becomes necessary to assign a Genin team to babysit them. But as I said, Koharu is extremely discerning and prone to outright rejecting any Genin we send. However, Naruto and Koharu are roughly six months apart in age, and Itachi's younger brother Sasuke is right between them, so I am hoping that she will accept Itachi. That Shinko only moved here sometime after Naruto's birth may also prove helpful."
"But what are we to do if she accepts Itachi and Shinko and rejects Tenma and myself?" Yuuki asked with a raised brow.
"If that happens, simply guard their home and leave the actual childcare to Itachi and Shinko." The Third replied, "Itachi has enough experience from watching Sasuke to handle it."
"Guard it from what exactly?" Tenma asked, "Runaway pipsqueaks?"
"It's not that." Itachi said, speaking for the first time since they came in the room. "Koharu-chan awakened to her clan's Kekkei Genkai at an incredibly young age, and her Kekkei Genkai is also rather rare. That makes her a high level target for kidnappers."
Hiruzen nodded in confirmation, "In general, we try to prevent information about her abilities from leaking outside the village, but there's always a risk of an attempted kidnapping. Your assignment is not only to babysit the children, but also to protect them during Shinji's absence." He didn't need to explain to Itachi, Tenma, and Yuuki that that also meant protecting Naruto, the jinchuuriki of the Nine Tails, from abduction as well. For her part, Shinko was unaware of the boy's status, which was why the Third was actually making a point not to say it.
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"Ugh, I do not want to have to babysit those two creepy kids." Tenma groaned as they made their way to the house in question.
"Tenma-san, if you're thinking that way, Koharu-chan is going to kick you out for sure. She can sense what people are feeling." Itachi said bluntly.
"That's exactly why she's creepy!" Tenma replied.
"Oh come on." Said Shinko, "So what if she's got some sort of weird power? She's still a little girl and little kids are adorable!"
"Not these little kids..."
"Tenma..." Yuuki said with a warning tone, and the boy shut up. The Jonin then looked up at the house they had come to. "This is it."
"Huh? Didn't this used to be Lord Fourth's house?" Tenma asked.
"Shinji-san's house was destroyed by the Kyuubi, so the village decided to let him live here since it was still standing." Itachi explained, purposefully leaving out the fact that the house would've technically been Naruto's anyway. He wasn't sure how many people in the village knew that Naruto was the son of the Fourth Hokage like he did. The four shinobi climbed up the steps leading to the front door, only for Mayonaka Shinji to open it before Yuuki had a chance to knock.
"Sorry, but come on in." The medic said as he walked inside, "I'm running late, so we need to make this as brief as possible." Yuuki shut the door and the four of them followed the man into the living room to see two toddlers playing on a blanket.
"Aww!" Shinko cooed. "Look at them! They're super adorable!"
Hearing the voice, Koharu turned her little head in their direction before standing up and toddling over to the group.
"Koharu, sweetie, these are going to be your babysitters today." Shinji said plaintively, "Itachi, Shinko, Tenma, and Yuuki-san."
Itachi knelt down to Koharu's level, "Good morning, Koharu-chan. I'm Itachi. You probably don't remember, but we've met before." He said as he placed a hand on her head. To his surprise, the child immediately latched onto him.
"Tachi... Kind..." She managed. Itachi smiled and stroked her little ponytail.
"Oh my gosh, could she be any cuter?!" Shinko exclaimed, causing Tenma to wince as she bent over to have her face level with Koharu's. The little girl turned toward her and Shinko gasped, "Her eyes are beautiful!" She exclaimed, suddenly picking the little girl up and spinning her around, "I think I'm in love!" Koharu giggled and Itachi straightened up.
"This is Shinko-san." He told Koharu. He looked down at Naruto as the little boy toddled over to him and peered up at him curiously. Shinko gasped and set Koharu down as she knelt at Naruto's level.
"Oh my gosh, he has beautiful blue eyes too!" She exclaimed, setting Koharu down and picking up Naruto instead to cuddle him. "How could anybody think these two are anything less than precious?!" She asked while tickling Naruto. The little blond laughed.
"Neechan, Neechan!" He exclaimed happily.
"Well what do you think, Koharu?" Shinji asked hopefully, smiling as his daughter latched onto Itachi again and snuggled against his chest.
"Tachi kind. Tachi warm. Shinko silly but Shinko nice."
"Well I guess that means we've got the job then." Yuuki said.
"No!" Koharu suddenly declared, detaching herself from Itachi. "Out!" She pointed toward the door. "Tenma, Yuuki, out!" She insisted again, attempting to turn them toward the door and not really caring who was who.
"So much for that." Tenma remarked.
"Not again..." Shinji groaned in exasperation.
"It's okay." Yuuki assured him, "Lord Hokage saw this coming. Tenma and I will just stand guard outside."
Shinji nodded, "I have seals placed on the inside of the house to prevent Koharu and I from sensing everything within a one-kilometer radius, so she won't even know you're there."
Tenma rolled his eyes, thinking once again that these kids were creepy as he walked outside with his teacher.
"Now then, let me give you two the rundown." Shinji began as he turned to Itachi and Shinko, "They've already had breakfast and there are bentos in the fridge for them. I should be home in time to cook dinner. There are also food pills in the kitchen. You need to give one to Koharu every hour on the hour. Otherwise, she'll pass out from chakra depletion due to the constant use of her Shinjitsugan, and that's not good for her body. They both take a nap in the afternoon. Do not let Naruto eat any of the food pills or he'll be bouncing off the walls. He's got more than enough chakra and energy as it is. Lunch is at noon, nap is at two. You're welcome to take them out to play if you want. In fact, it's better to let Naruto run around at least a little, or he'll never go down for his nap. Koharu is completely toilet trained. Naruto is almost there, but I still have him in trainers."
"Understood." Itachi said with a nod.
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A few months later, Team 2 arrived at the Mayonaka home once again, this time with Itachi's friend Shisui in tow, along with an excited young Sasuke.
"Sorry for the all-nighter this time around." Shinji said as the group came in, "I couldn't get out of this shift and both Lord Jiraiya and Lady Tsunade are away on missions."
"It's no problem." Itachi assured him as he set Sasuke down, his little brother quickly toddling off to play with the other two, "Okaasan actually seemed strangely happy that we were going to be gone overnight."
At that, Shinji chuckled, "Well, you know the drill by now. Although you'll have to make dinner for yourselves and them, I'm afraid I didn't have time. Koharu." He began as he turned toward his daughter, causing her to turn her head towards him, "Shisui-san and Team 2 are going to be here all night tonight, so that means that you can't kick Yuuki and Tenma out."
Koharu pouted, but acknowledged her father's instructions.
"Okay!" Shinko began cheerfully once Shinji had left, "Why don't you make dinner, Itachi? You're the best at cooking."
"Are you nuts?!" Tenma exclaimed, "If he cooks, who's going to keep an eye on the little monsters?! Ow!" He exclaimed, feeling something collide with the side of his head. He looked down to see that the object in question was a plastic shuriken. He bent down and picked up the toy. "All right, which one of them threw this?" He glared at the three toddlers and Koharu stuck her tongue out at him.
Shinko sweat-dropped, "She has surprisingly good aim for a kid who can't see..."
"That's why I've been saying she's creepy...Ow!" Tenma exclaimed again as another shuriken hit his head.
"Koharu-chan, stop throwing things at Tenma-san." Itachi scolded. Koharu crossed her arms and pouted, but didn't disobey.
"Well then who do you think should cook?" Shinko demanded with her hands on her hips, "It's obviously not going to be you!"
"You should, obviously." Tenma remarked, "You're the girl."
"What?!" Shinko shrieked in rage.
"Koharu-chan..." Itachi began in a warning voice when he noticed the child preparing to throw another toy shuriken at Tenma. Koharu dropped the toy and pouted again.
"I'll cook." Shusui interrupted, "Itachi and Shinko-chan can watch the kids. Tenma... maybe you should leave the room before Koharu-chan turns you into her practice dummy for taijutsu."
Tenma grumbled and walked out of the living room.
The night proceeded relatively quietly from there. Normally, Itachi could easily manage Koharu and Naruto on his own, but the addition of Sasuke easily turned things into a two or three person job. This was especially true because Koharu was unusually clingy toward the boy that night, Sasuke was always clingy toward Itachi, and then the fact that putting Naruto and Sasuke together in the same room meant that they were either squabbling or wreaking havoc together. Either way, stuff was getting wrecked. Even with the addition of Shisui, it was all that Team 2 could handle. Especially given that Koharu still wouldn't allow Tenma and Yuuki to come anywhere near her.
Bath time had been interesting. Putting Naruto and Sasuke in the same tub had resulted in both Itachi and Shisui getting soaked, and Shinko hadn't faired much better. She swore that Koharu was trying to practice water style despite being barely three years of age.
Given Koharu's extreme dislike of them, Tenma and Yuuki were forced to sleep in the living room. Her abnormal clinginess toward Itachi and Shisui (Shinji has mentioned that she became anxious whenever they went out recently) had also resulted in a peculiar arrangement of Koharu sleeping next to Itachi, Itachi being in between Koharu and Sasuke, Sasuke being in between Itachi and Shisui, Shisui being between Sasuke and Naruto, and Naruto sleeping between Shisui and Shinko with Shinko on the end, all in Shinji's room since Koharu's had been too small.
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Koharu awoke in the middle of the night, her senses having been alerted to an unknown presence. A creature she did not recognize was sitting in the room, a little ways from where she was sleeping. Curious, the little girl carefully got up, her feet padding quietly as she approached the unknown animal, wondering what it was and how it had gotten into the room in the first place.
"Koharu-chan?" Itachi called softly. Despite being used to the amount of movement that Sasuke usually made while sleeping (his brother was currently lying sideways with his head by Shisui's stomach), the young shinobi had woken instantly when Koharu had gotten up. However, her small body was currently blocking him from seeing the animal. She inclined her head slightly to indicate that she had heard him. "What are you doing?"
Koharu pointed at the small creature. "What that?" She asked, her speech still slightly lacking in terms of grammar.
"What's what?" Itachi asked as he carefully got up.
Suddenly the creature's head dashed toward Koharu. She instinctively stepped back, pulling her hand back towards her body, but its mouth latched onto her wrist and she screamed as she felt her skin being pierced.
"Koharu-chan!" Itachi exclaimed, dashing forward and catching the girl as she collapsed, having lost consciousness almost instantly. Dangling from her wrist was a small white snake.
Shisui was there in an instant to help Itachi, carefully pulling the snake off of Koharu's wrist and stabbing a kunai through its head.
"She's been bitten!" Itachi exclaimed urgently, even though that was pretty much obvious.
"How did this thing even get in the house?" Shisui asked with concern. Suddenly, the nearby window was shattered. Both boys reacted instantly, shielding Koharu from the flying shards with their bodies and then looking up to see who was there. Yellow eyes gleamed as they locked onto the two young boys and the unconscious toddler in Itachi's arms.
"Well, I wasn't expecting that you would be here too, Shisui-kun." Orochimaru practically hissed.
"What's the meaning of this, Orochimaru?!" Shisui demanded, helping Itachi to support Koharu as they both prepared to protect her.
"Itachi! Shinko!" Yuuki's voice came from the hall.
"Yuuki-sensei!" Shinko called fearfully, holding on to the squirming Sasuke and Naruto, who were both trying to get to their respective siblings.
Orochimaru frowned, "It seems it won't be possible for me to accomplish my goal without someone raising the alarm... Which means it will be more difficult to escape with a child in tow… Sarutobi-sensei will be relentless in his attempts to get her back." With that, the Snake Sannin vanished as quickly as he'd come.
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Koharu gasped as she awoke, the long forgotten memory now fresh in her mind. Where had that come from?
She no longer cared as her senses locked onto Hinata. It appeared that the Jonin had stepped in to stop the match, but Koharu hardly cared about that as she instantly appeared beside Hinata and caught the girl when she collapsed into a coughing fit. "Hinata-chan!" She exclaimed, carefully lying the girl on the ground.
Naruto, Lee, and Sakura all jumped down. "Hinata!" Naruto called.
"Hinata-san!" Sakura practically screamed.
Hinata looked at Naruto with glazed eyes. "Naruto-kun..."
"Yeah." Naruto said with a smile and a nod.
"I..." Hinata's voice faded, and Naruto leaned closer to hear what she was trying to say. Koharu leaned forward and began working to heal the girl.
"Hey you, failure." Neji said to Naruto, and the blond looked over at him. "I have two pieces of advice for you." The brunette said. "First, if you intend to call yourself a shinobi, stop that revolting cheering of yours. And the second... a failure will always be a failure. No matter what, that won't change."
Naruto tensed and then stood up. "Want to test that out?" He asked Neji. Neji smirked, but Koharu unexpectedly reached out and caught her brother by the ankle.
"Don't even think about, Naruto! Trust me, there is nothing I would love more than crush Neji into the ground right now, but all fighting must take place in an official match. If you pick a fight here and now, you may get disqualified, and then you'll lose the chance to prove that Neji is an idiot. Now both of you, shut up! You're making it hard for me to focus."
Naruto scowled, but turned away from Neji.
Suddenly, Hinata coughed and then stopped breathing, and everyone's eyes widened in alarm. Koharu pulled her hands away from her friend and unzipped her jacket. The flow of Hinata's chakra was all over the place, but Koharu was more concerned with something else as she felt Hinata's neck for a pulse and placed a hand on her chest. "Ventricular Fibrillation!" She exclaimed. Quickly, she straightened up and wove several kata with her hands before they sparked with lightning. "Raiton! Inochi no denryuu no jutsu! Ichidan!" She presses her electrified hands to Hinata's chest. The girl jolted slightly, and then Koharu placed her fingers on her neck again. She sighed in relief, carefully pulling Hinata's jacket off and tossing it aside so it was out of her way. "Kurenai-sensei, Sakura-chan, please help me!" She said, pulling a scroll from her waist pouch and unfurling it. She immediately summoned the first item it contained, a bag valve mask, and held it out to Kurenai. "We need to get her breathing again. I'll handle the compressions. Use that to force air into her lungs."
"Right." Kurenai replied as she immediately placed the mask on Hinata's face.
"Sakura-chan, hold the mask down on Hinata-chan's face to ensure the air makes it to her lungs." Koharu instructed.
"You carry things like this around with you?" Sakura asked incredulously as she knelt beside Hinata's head and did as Koharu had told her.
"I'm a field medic. I never know what procedures I might have to perform in the middle of nowhere. And a BVM is more sanitary than mouth-to-mouth." The blue-haired girl replied while she began the chest compressions, Kurenai following her rhythm with the BVM. When Hinata was breathing properly again, Koharu took a deep breath, focusing intently on her friend for a moment, before suddenly pressing several of the girl's chakra points in rapid succession. She sighed in relief as she saw Hinata's chakra flow stabilize a little. "No questions!" She told Kakashi before he could even ask what she had sensed he was about to say. She held her hands over Hinata as the green glow formed around them. As the medics from the medical corps came in, she turned her head toward them, glaring sternly. "Back off! Nobody moves her until I say so!" When they opened their mouths to protest, she quickly cut them off. "Do not argue with me! I've been practicing field medicine since I was eight-years-old, and unless you've suddenly developed the ability to see her chakra, you cannot give her better treatment than I can!" She sighed, analyzing Hinata's chakra. "There's so much damage... this is going to take forever to..." Suddenly, her eyes widened, "That's it!" She held up her hands in a sign. "Shinjitsugan!" Concentrating her chakra, she expanded her range from one kilometer to five kilometers before locking onto the chakra signature she was looking for. "Found her!" She quickly retracted her range and turned her head toward the Hokage. "Uzumaki Karin of the Hidden Grass is still in the forest, twenty degrees northwest of this tower, 3.5 kilometers away. Please have her brought here immediately!"
"Anko." Hiruzen said.
"Right." The woman responded, disappearing in a puff of smoke.
Koharu shoved a food pill into her mouth and chewed it as she continued her treatment of Hinata. "Whatever it was you wanted to ask me earlier, Kakashi-sensei, you can ask me now."
"I thought the Shinjitsugan couldn't detect tenketsu like the Byakugan." Kakashi said in curiosity.
"Under normal circumstances, it can't." Koharu confirmed, "However, Neji's pinpoint attacks resulted in small pockets of inflammation on her skin caused by irritation stemming from the blockage of her tenketsu, making it possible for me to target them in order to restore her chakra network's ability to function normally. Now it's a matter of healing the damage to her internal organs. Fortunately, we were able to resuscitate her quickly."
"What would've happened if we hadn't?" Sakura asked.
"That depends on what you mean." Koharu replied. "If I hadn't succeeded at all, simply put, she'd have died. However, even a delay could have held serious consequences. Since I was able to help her almost immediately, the likelihood of side effects is relatively low."
"Side effects?" Shikamaru asked, "Like what?"
"Well… for example, she could've lost her vision entirely." Koharu said, "That's what happened to me. The reason why I was born blind is because my mother was attacked on the night I was born, and by the time I was pulled from her womb, I had already gone into ventricular fibrillation. At that time, the Fourth Hokage saved me using a similar method to what I just used. To be honest, it was a somewhat desperate move. The slightest error in judgment could've sealed my fate. Frankly speaking, if it had been anybody except for Lord Fourth, I probably would not be here right now. The jutsu that I just used is slightly more refined than what Lord Fourth did back then. Strictly speaking, he didn't use a jutsu, he only channeled lightning chakra from his body to mine, which required precise control and judgement on his behalf. My jutsu requires the same level of control, but takes the guess work out of things. All the same, it's considered an S-Rank jutsu. The only other person currently capable of performing it is Lady Tsunade." She sighed and pulled her hands away from Hinata again. "She's stable enough to be moved. I'd like to continue treating her somewhere more private. Being right here is holding up the exams." She glared over at the medics who were still standing by, "Let me make this clear; I am not relinquishing her treatment to you. You will move her to another room for me to continue and then get out of my way."
"Y-Yes…" The two medics agreed as they rushed over to place Hinata on a stretcher so they could move her. As they did, Koharu turned her head, glaring daggers at Neji, her killing intent far surpassing what his had been earlier.
"If we weren't in the middle of these exams and I didn't have more pressing matters to attend to, I would be dealing with you here and now, Neji. Consider yourself lucky that I can't."
Naruto watched with horror as Hinata was carried out of the room with Koharu—and Sasuke, for some reason—following. "Hinata..." He said quietly. He knelt down and dipped his fingers in her blood that was on the ground before turning around and holding his dripping fist out at Neji in what was obviously a silent challenge. "I swear I'll win!" He proclaimed.
Yeah, okay, because I didn't want to have to basically copy yet another battle from the manga/anime, I kind of skipped over Hinata and Neji's battle to show a little bit of Koharu's past instead. The matter of being babysat by Team 2 when she, Naruto, and Sasuke were really little is something that Koharu had forgotten about up until this point due to infantile amnesia. The side-effects of the Kotaro caused them to surface. Also, I realize that obviously Koharu wouldn't be able to remember stuff that she was either not there for or passed out during, but hey, Itachi's genjutsu to share his memories with Sasuke somehow included things that happened when he (Itachi) wasn't present, so what the heck?
Also, as much as she hates Neji right now (her killing intent is starting to concern the Jonin), Koharu actually would prefer for Naruto to pummel him, because she knows that nobody will benefit from her clobbering Neji, since she is also a prodigy, but also knows that it would be a different story if her brother, "the failure", were to pulverize him instead.