A/N: Many people own Naruto, but not me.
Something was wrong. She'd felt like this before, she thought, sometime long, long ago. It was a strange sense of weakness, or was it absence? Was she missing something? She didn't feel like it. Oh, every part of her felt like it had a hot needle piercing it, but she felt whole at least in the sense of being in one piece. Her body clearly took sadistic glee in telling her that.
Hitomi managed to force her eyes open. Her vision was still blurry, but she could make out enough familiar blobs to make an educated guess as to her location. I'm…in my bedroom? Given her current state, she'd expected to be in the hospital. Perhaps she'd only pinched a nerve or something. Or maybe someone had delivered a gentle fist strike into an important tenketsu during a spar. If she waited patiently and endured, everything might just go back to normal.
Except hadn't she been pregnant? She very much did not feel like it at the moment. While that could be explainable, when she looked down, she noted an extreme lack of any evidence of pregnancy.
A patch of red stirred at the foot of Hitomi's bed. She blinked until she managed to get her eyes to finally focus, and there in front of her she saw a small red fox.
It all came back to her at once: the revelation, the offer, the act. A shudder ran through despite the protest of her body. She vividly remembered the searing agony of the kyūbi's chakra coursing through her. Unsurprisingly, she only barely recalled witnessing him pull her child from her womb before she blacked out. That was at best a hazy flash of images rather than any true recollection. If she felt up to it, she would have laughed at the idea of missing her own child's birth.
"Kurama?" Hitomi said through her parched throat, her voice cracking.
The fox in question nodded and then gestured off to the right with his tail. Following it, Hitomi found her daughter asleep at her bedside, curled up atop a chair with a thin sheet that barely qualified as bedding. The poor girl looked like she'd barely slept in days.
Hitomi worked up the energy to gently stroke her daughter's hair without waking Hinata. As she did, she asked, "The baby?"
"A girl," Kurama replied. "Healthy enough to survive."
A soft sigh of relief escaped Hitomi. "Hiashi?"
Kurama shrugged. "Probably working himself to distraction."
This time Hitomi chuckled. That certainly sounded like her husband. It hurt a bit to laugh, however. Her parched throat demanded attention now that she knew everything important. "Water?"
Stretching as he rose, bones cracking, Kurama said, "I'll let your doctors know you're awake."
Hitomi parted her lips to tell him not to bother. Someone in this compound was surely watching over her already and would take care of that, but he had to know that too. If he wanted to step out for whatever reason, it wasn't really her place to stop him. Instead, she simply said, "Thank you."
In the few remaining moments before her medical team swamped her, Hitomi let her head roll to the side to better observe her beloved daughter – no, Hinata was her elder daughter now, wasn't she? Her eyes flicked to the door just long enough to catch Kurama's tail slip beyond her view before returning to Hinata.
What do I do now? Even before Kurama had pumped her full of his chakra, a large part of Hitomi hadn't dared to believe she would actually survive the night. She'd explained everything she knew about Kurama and his strange relationship with their daughter to Hiashi in her farewell letter to him, trusting him to decide what was best for Hinata, their clan, and Konoha as a whole. Hopefully, he would have prioritized in that order. But now the choice was once again hers.
So what did she do about the unexpectedly friendly demon fox freely wandering about her home, the one which she knew now was 'secretly' studying the sealing arts not out of a precocious child's curiosity but out of an earnest desire to free himself from his fleshy prison?
Hitomi twirled her thumb in little circles through Hinata's hair in worry. All of the gifts she'd returned with from the foxes now took on so much more meaning. They weren't some strange joke or prank. Well, the foxes might consider them as such, but she, kind, earnest little Hinata, no doubt took everything as seriously as someone her age could.
You knew all along, didn't you?
In hindsight, that was obvious.
Oh, what's to become of you, my little priestess?
Suddenly, the door slid open with a bit too much force, and a swam of medics entered the room. For now, she pushed such thoughts from her mind. She didn't need to decide anything right away. Kurama could wait.
After all, she had plenty of time.
When the room finally cleared out, the three people Hitomi actually wanted to see right now were finally allowed back into her room. Hiashi led, their newborn child asleep in his arms, and Hinata trailed along after him with her hand clutching the lower half of his kimono. Kurama was nowhere to be seen; Hitomi wasn't sure what to make of that.
Regardless, she was more than happy to accept her younger daughter into her arms. However many pillows that required to prop her up and however closely Hiashi hovered in case she needed help, it was worth the effort. Their new daughter was one of the most beautiful sights she'd ever had the pleasure to bear witness to. And to think that she might never have had the chance had things been different.
"She still needs a name," Hiashi said.
Without hesitation, Hitomi said, "Hanabi." She dearly hoped her little girl would grow past this difficult birth and overcome the clan's insufferable stoicism to become a proper little firecracker. Hinata would be the heart the clan needed to heal the divide between the main and branch families in ways Hiashi never could. If Hanabi could become the spark of life to then bring them together, so much the better.
"Do I not get a say in this?" Hiashi asked with a tone of amusement.
Hitomi only needed to say one word in response. She narrowed her eyes on him and said, "Hiyakuteki."
Despite his little huff of protest, Hiashi folded his arms together and knew he'd lost. He was officially not allowed to name anything in their marriage. Ever. Peeking over the bedside, Hinata tilted her head to the side in confusion, but she didn't need to know what tragic fate she'd narrowly avoided.
Hitomi turned a smile now onto her elder daughter. "Hinata, say hello to your little sister. Her name is Hanabi." She shifted as best as she could to let Hinata better see her new sister. Hiashi, of course, stepped in to help within moments, and Hitomi, already exhausted from what little she'd done since waking up, just sighed and let him get on with it.
Once Hinata had a short chance to get acquainted with her sister, Hitomi turned to ask her husband the one question that had been bothering her most. "Where is Ku – Naruto?"
If Hiashi thought anything of her slip, he made no mention of it now. He said instead, "I am uncertain," before noticing Hinata shyly pulling at his kimono. "Yes, daughter?"
"Um, Kurama went to speak with Inari."
Ah, yes, Hitomi had almost forgotten that she had personally led the charge to provide the kyūbi with a means of escape from nearly any situation via reverse summoning. That, as with many other things, she would need to take time to process in this strange new world where she'd fostered her distant uncle who also happened to be one of the most powerful spirits known to the world with a century-long grudge against Konoha.
Hitomi leaned back into her pillows with a small sigh. "Did he say when he would be back?" she asked. Time passed strangely with the spirits, but it would be nice to at least know when – if – he intended to return.
Hinata shook her head.
"Do you think you could go ask him?"
Hinata shifted in place for a few moments, staring at her feet. "I'll try," she eventually said. "Um, but I should change first."
While the fine kimono she wore looked fine for outdoor use to Hitomi, it only took a few moments to realize what she meant. She wanted to go to the spirit world dressed as a priestess. Because she was a priestess. And the foxes recognized that either in earnest or to poke fun at Kurama.
Hitomi pushed an indulgent smile onto her face long enough to send Hinata on her way. Once the pitter-patter of her feet faded, however, that forced smile fell into a thin line.
"Is something wrong?" Hiashi asked.
For a few moments, Hitomi parted her lips with the intent to explain everything. She wanted to. She should. Hiashi was her love, her husband, and her clan head. But how would she? Which side should she argue? Did she have the right after what Kurama had done for her? After what he'd done for and likely will do for Hinata?
She needed to get her thoughts in order before she upset the already shaken status quo.
And so Hitomi shook her head. "I'm alive. That's what matters. I hear you helped Naruto save me."
"Yes. And I hear you conspired with him and risked everything." The disappointment and hurt in even Hiashi's voice came across clearly.
Even so, Hitomi stood by her decision. "Be honest," she said. "Would you or anyone else have allowed us to go through with it had you known?"
Hiashi's face remained an emotionless mask, but he did at last sit at her bedside. The heaviness with which he did so gave away the truth, and he confessed, "Likely not. Yet had we known, you might not be in your current state."
"Maybe," Hitomi allowed. The doctors had informed her that although her chakra coils might recover somewhat over the next few years, she would never work as a ninja again even were she under Lady Tsunade's care. Worse, her Byakugan might be lost to her entirely. But she could still see, and move, and live; that would be enough. "Let's not drown ourselves in what-ifs. I'm alive, and I have a wonderful family to share that life with. I'm satisfied with how things are."
Hiashi offered a small nod to show his acceptance just before Hinata returned to the room dressed in the white kosode and red hakama a jorōgumo of all things had woven for her. Upon her entrance, she bowed lightly and said, "I'll be departing now, Mother, Father."
After first ensuring she had enough space, Hinata then worked up the nerve to bite her thumb hard enough to draw blood. Once she had, she concentrated intently to perform a flawless, if slow, execution of the summoning technique. Although she swayed on her feet afterward from the expenditure of chakra, she did successfully manage to summon a tiny fox. She asked it to ask someone to reverse summon her before sending it home. Not long later, she herself departed in a puff of smoke.
"Do you suppose she could have simply summoned the same fox twice instead?" Hitomi asked. It would have been much simpler to pass a message back and forth than to go to the foxes in person, if less adventurous. She had a feeling her elder daughter was developing a slight wanderlust despite her shyness.
Echoing his earlier response, Hiashi said, "Not likely. Soon, though. Her chakra reserves are growing unnaturally quickly."
That would be due to Kurama pushing his chakra into Hinata, no doubt. Her coils would have to expand and adapt to match the load placed upon them much as a jinchūriki's would, and her natural ability to generate and control chakra seemed to be keeping pace. Whatever they were doing, it was working. She wondered if Kurama would be willing to share the details. If it was replicable on a large scale, it would change much about how Konoha raised young ninja. It might even encourage the village to treat him with respect, which might in turn go a long way to getting him to leave them in peace.
"Worry not," Hiashi said. Having been lost in thought, it took Hitomi a few moments to understand his meaning even after he added, "I've monitored her well-being since learning of their unusual behavior. As far as I can tell, she's in perfect health."
That wasn't at all what Hitomi had been thinking about, but she offered her husband a smile anyway for being thoughtful. To Hanabi, she then said, "You hear that, my little firecracker? You're going to have a strong big sister to look up to and to protect you."
Of course, that strength seemed to be directed down a distinctly nontraditional route, and in a clan like the Hyūga, that would be a decidedly difficult journey for Hinata.
Hitomi needed rest to recover from her ordeal, despite how much she wished to get out of bed, and fell asleep again before Hinata returned from the foxes. She slept through the entire day, to her immense frustration, and next awoke in the middle of the night. As before, she found Hinata asleep at her bedside and Kurama, fully awake this time, perched atop one of the end posts at the foot of her bed staring out at the stars through her balcony door. She could confidently say she felt much better this time, if still a bit parched.
"Good evening, Kurama."
A flick of his tail and a perking of his ears let Hitomi know he'd heard her.
"Or should I call you Uncle Kurama?"
That received a somewhat greater response in the form of a snort. Kurama shifted atop his perch to face Hitomi now. "Do as you wish, Niece."
No. Being on the other side of that felt too strange. Maybe in time, that would change; maybe it wouldn't. For now, however, she thought it best not to broach the subject at all.
Besides, Hitomi had so many other, more important things on her mind. "Would you mind answering a few of my questions?"
"I reserve the right not to answer," Kurama replied.
That was good enough for now. "I know you're studying fūinjutsu, and in hindsight, I know you know I know. If you want…out, why don't you just kill yourself?" Historically speaking, the death of their jinchūriki had always released the great tailed beasts. It took some few years for them to remanifest a physical form, but to an immortal, that time hardly mattered.
"A few reasons," Kurama said. "For one, I'm as yet unsure how entangled my personality is with this body. An unclean severing might leave me as nothing more than an animalistic mass of chakra. Or stuck with this human biology tainting my thoughts for the rest of eternity."
When that proved to be the end of Kurama's explanation, Hitomi set the subject aside and moved on to her next question. "What do you intend to do if – when you get out?" She wouldn't try to pretend that he wouldn't find a path to freedom eventually. In his worst-case scenario, he went free the moment his mortal shell expired.
Kurama remained silent for a time not in a refusal to answer but with a thoughtful swish of his tail. Eventually, he replied, "I've not yet decided. To answer the question you really wanted to ask, I have no true interest in this miserable village beyond exterminating the Uchiha, and the world should thank me for that public service."
Hitomi resisted any more visible reaction than a deep breath to center herself. There was little love lost between their clans, but the Uchiha were still people and still loyal citizens. "Are they why you attacked Konoha?"
A smirk pulled at Kurama's lips as though Hitomi had just told a very great joke.
"I'll take that as a yes."
"Oh, indeed. Your Uchiha have quite the habit of abusing their gifts."
Catching the implication immediately, Hitomi's eyes narrowed. Everyone knew the story of Madara Uchiha using his Sharingan to force the kyūbi to fight the first hokage at his side. "Truly?" They would be an easy target to pin the blame on. Some in the village, she knew, already suspected them of being the true culprits behind the attack.
Kurama nodded. It was hard to read him in fox form, especially without her Byakugan, but Hitomi considered him at least sincere in that belief even if it turned out someone had deceived him or played with his memory.
"Do you have a name?"
This time, Kurama flicked his tail, a hesitant gesture for him in this instance, before replying with a simple, "No." After a few more moments, he added, "It was a man in a mask with one exposed Sharingan wearing a black cloak. That is as much as I can tell you. I am uncertain how much of this information your current hokage has."
Hitomi clicked her tongue. That was practically nothing to go on. Even making mention of it, if it wasn't seen as nothing more than a power play against the Hyūga's only true rival clan after the slow fall of the Senju and the sudden destruction of the Uzumaki, would lead to uncomfortable questions about how she'd learned of it so many years later. She'd have to sit on the information with the possible exception of letting Hiashi know.
But with that out of the way for now, Hitomi asked the most important question on her mind. "Why is Hinata acting as your priestess?"
"You could ask her yourself."
A small eep emanated from what Hitomi had thought was a peacefully resting child. Had she really been so diminished that she couldn't tell when her own daughter was asleep anymore?
Yes. Yes, she had.
And that was fine. It would just take some getting used to.
Hinata uncurled from her feigned sleep, still dressed as a priestess, and tapped her fingers together nervously. "I-I didn't mean to eavesdrop, Mother, but – but I didn't want t-to interrupt."
Hitomi heaved a sigh and gathered Hinata into her arms. It was her own fault, anyway. She shouldn't have been having this sort of conversation somewhere Hinata could have overheard to begin with. Once she'd settled enough to lose her stammer, Hitomi asked, "So?"
"Um…" With all the persistence of a five-year-old, Hinata thought back to those halcyon days of her youth with furrowed brows. "Um, well, you said Kurama is a spirit, so I gave him an offering."
"Her last cinnamon bun, I recall," Kurama provided.
Despite herself, a smile forced its way onto Hitomi's face. She recalled that moment now herself. That had been a weighty offering indeed.
Hinata nodded solemnly. "And then Kurama made me his high priestess."
To Kurama, Hitomi arched an eyebrow.
He, in turn, merely replied, "I've not had a priestess before that I'm aware of, so she got the job by default," as though this were a perfectly ordinary situation.
Hitomi pinched the bridge of her nose.
And of course, Hinata misunderstood her reaction and pulled at her sleeve to get her attention. "You can be a priestess, too," Hinata insisted before turning to Kurama and asking, "Can't she?"
Obviously far too amused, Kurama said, "I don't see why not."
"I will consider it," Hitomi replied evenly. She wouldn't, but such a noncommittal answer would best put Hinata off from any childish stubbornness on the subject. Or she hoped it would. Hinata, thankfully, was as unprone to tantrums as any child could be, but one never knew.
For now, however, Hitomi would simply enjoy spending time with her daughter and her…fox. Maybe she would find out what these two really got up to when alone together.
Spring was in the air. The sun was shining. The sakura trees were in full bloom. Best of all, Hitomi finally managed to convince everyone that she was fine and didn't need to be treated like a fragile flower. In her arms, she carried Hanabi, who she'd wrapped in blankets to fend off the light chill. At her left was Hiashi, and at her right was Hinata with Kurama lazily riding along atop her elder daughter's head.
Today was to be Hanabi's first hanami. A blanket had been laid out for them in the garden with a table and snacks already prepared. They each took a seat all together to enjoy a slow day as a family and to celebrate Hitomi's recovery. There was sake for her and Hiashi and perhaps a few too many sweets for Hinata. Kurama's tastes, whether in human or fox form, tended more toward the adult, but he made do with whatever Hinata offered to him. Hitomi certainly wasn't about to offer someone as biologically young as him sake no matter what tricks he tried, and the thought wouldn't even enter Hiashi's mind.
Eventually, Hinata grew restless and decided to show off her archery to her new sister. She ran off with permission to retrieve her bow and quiver, leaving the other four to amuse themselves until her return. With Hanabi in her arms, it struck Hitomi just how much Hinata had grown already. The years had flown by, and she wondered where the time went.
"Hinata will be off to the academy soon," Hitomi said as much to herself as anyone. It came with a strange mix of pride, loss, and happiness. Had this been what her own mother felt as she matured from a wide-eyed child to a grown woman? She was too young to have to deal with this yet. Her eyes fell to Hanabi, and she smiled. "You're not allowed to grow up, you hear me?"
Hanabi's mirrored smile Hitomi took for acceptance.
"I'll hold you to that, my little firecracker." Hitomi leaned to place a kiss upon her daughter's brow.
Somehow, Hanabi managed to wiggle an arm out of her blankets to grab Hitomi's nose instead.
Kurama snickered, and even Hiashi chuckled. The latter wryly observed, "You named her well, dear wife," before sipping from his sake.
Hitomi merely harrumphed as she tucked Hanabi back in. But, alas, she couldn't resist her daughter's cuteness and smiled once more before proceeding with the kiss she'd intended on earlier.
And then a thought struck Hitomi. "What about you, Naruto? Do you want to go to the academy?" She had assumed he would want to and had planned accordingly. Honestly, he hadn't really had a choice in the matter as a jinchūriki. Something would have been arranged for him even if it came down to attending openly in his human form.
But Kurama was another beast entirely.
"Not in any official capacity," he replied. "But I'll accompany and watch over Hinata. I assume that will satisfy all interested parties?"
Hitomi thought it would, but she turned to Hiashi for a second opinion. After a few moments' thought, he nodded. "The hokage may instruct your stand-in to fail his tests so that you may privately take makeup exams yourself, but there should be no other difficulties. The Inuzuka, at least, are allowed to bring their ninken. A similar exception can surely be made for Hinata."
Speaking of whom, Hinata at last returned with all of her equipment while one of the branch house members carried out a bulky bale target for her to aim at. Soon enough, Hinata had paced off to a considerable distance that, had Hitomi not known better, she would have doubted her daughter yet had the strength to clear with a single shot. Hinata waved to them, and she waved back encouragingly.
In a smooth, flowing motion, Hinata withdrew an arrow from her quiver, nocked her arrow, and drew it back. Not long ago, Hitomi could have watched her chakra both strengthen herself to provide the necessary power and spread into the bow itself to reinforce it. Someday, Hitomi was sure, she would find a way to empower her arrows with specialized ninjutsu.
Then Hinata released. The arrow flew forward at a blistering speed and embedded itself deep within the target.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
"Her aim is improving," Hiashi commented.
Indeed, the more Hinata practiced, the more accurate she became. She'd not yet hit the center of her target today, but she consistently came close.
"I only wish she showed such promise with the gentle fist."
Yes, that little detail could present complications in the future, but Hitomi was confident she and Hiashi could find a way to leverage Hinata's talents in a suitably appropriate way to mitigate the damage.
Hitomi felt a soft thump against her side and shifted her gaze from Hinata onto Kurama. He silently blew a tiny puff of flame from his mouth and then nodded pointedly at Hinata. She quirked an eyebrow back at him, but he just smacked her with his fluffy tail in silent insistence.
Well, I suppose there's no harm in it. "Hiashi, would you please show Hinata how to imbue a fire nature into her chakra?"
As expected, Hiashi perfectly mirrored Hitomi's initial reaction. "I could," he allowed. It would be a bit early to teach Hinata even the basics of nature transformations, but the Byakugan made learning new techniques without resorting to outright cheating like the Uchiha relatively simple. "Any particular reason why?"
Hitomi shrugged. "Just a thought," she said for now, purposefully mysterious, as she had no better answer.
And so, with no particular reason to decline, Hiashi rose and did as bidden. He had Hinata activate her Byakugan and taught her first by example and then by helping her mold her chakra correctly. It would take hours upon hours of dedicated practice to make the process instinctual, a necessary step for combat applications, but the first steps of that journey were easy to take.
While those two worked together a little ways off, Hitomi lowered her voice and asked, "What was that about?"
"I strongly suspect Hinata has either a fire or a water affinity."
"Ah. Because she struggles with the gentle fist?" Neither fire nor water would naturally incline Hinata to her birthright. The gentle fist used piercing strikes and varied between light movements and sturdy stances. The ideal Hyūga would have a lightning affinity, but wind and earth synergized nearly as well with the style. Even so, elemental affinities rarely expressed themselves so strongly in someone for them to matter before reaching into the realm of legends.
Before Hitomi could say as such, however, Kurama shook his head. "Just watch."
Curious now, Hitomi settled in to await whatever it was Kurama expected to see.
It wasn't a long wait.
Once Hinata had the basics down, Hiashi guided her in using fire-natured chakra with her bow. The result proved far more spectacular than the simple flaming arrow Hitomi had expected. No, the tip of the arrow erupted into a white flame so bright that it hurt to look at. Hinata released the arrow either on reflex or just to get it away from her and sent it flying far off target. It trailed a cone of white flame behind it until it slammed into the trunk of a tree and burned until it ran out of power, not fuel. The tree, as far as Hitomi could tell at a distance, was as unharmed as it could be for having an arrow embedded in it.
Hinata's panicked flight to hide from her bow behind her father's legs was somewhat less impressive but understandable.
"What," Hitomi said flatly, "was that?"
Kurama, without missing a beat, supplied the answer. "Purifying fire," he said casually. "It was either that or water. Inari supplied her with the proper tools, but I only recently realized he did so for reasons beyond simply thumbing his nose at me. Train her in the Light Release, and she'll be a terror to anything that hides in the dark."
That…could have potential. It would nicely fit Hinata into a niche but potentially very powerful and influential role in the village that no one currently occupied. A number of important and powerful ninjutsu used the Dark Release, and no hidden village really had a dedicated counterbalance against them. It might also equip Hinata to fight against jinchūriki, those who were intended to be a hidden village's ultimate living weapon.
But it would be no simple task. The Light Release wasn't well studied outside of the healing arts. She knew of a few seals that required light chakra to function, but she had no idea where she would find a seal master to learn from who wasn't already swamped with work. She vaguely recalled once running into a ninja who'd used some sort of binding ninjutsu with light-natured chakra, not that that helped her.
Wait. Don't the Akamichi use the Light Release for their clan ninjutsu? Prying secrets out of a clan was a nonstarter and monumentally rude, but if she only asked for instruction on the nature transformation itself, maybe she could find a way to convince them to help Hinata. Then again… She shifted her gaze from Hiashi apparently successfully comforting Hinata to Kurama.
The fox must have felt her gaze upon him, for he replied, "I can teach her to control fire. Light chakra…perhaps. One of the fox summons might be a better choice. I can ask around once she's ready. They adore her."
Hitomi chuckled. How valiant of him to suffer the foxes for Hinata's sake.
Kurama huffed and curled himself into a more comfortable position with his tail beneath his head. "Your husband will return with questions," he said dismissively. "You'd best decide quickly on how you want to answer them."
That was true, but Hitomi figured she could get away with just saying that her thoughts had turned to old tales of priestesses battling against demons. With Hinata dressed as she was, it would hardly be a difficult sell. She didn't know much more than what she'd seen anyway, so she wouldn't need to invent a story explaining a heretofore unmentioned large body of spiritual knowledge.
Hiashi, once he returned, gave Hitomi a look that said they would speak later. For now, she elected to tell one of her old tales of gods and monsters as they enjoyed the remainder of their hanami as a family. She had her baby in her arms, her husband to lean against, her elder daughter listening in rapt attention, and even her…uncle, she supposed, who helped in his own way.
Life was good.
A/N: The next chapter will probably be extremely short before we ship Hinata off to school and all the hijinks that await her there.
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