Chapter 18 - Future

"Hyah!" Hinata yelled, spinning around and bringing Mikazuki dangerously close to Hayate's side with a slash as she rotated around him.

The clang of steel rang out as Hayate brought his sword down to block her attack, and he was raising his to strike, when he felt a ribbon wrap around his wrist and jerked it, causing him to lose his balance.

He noticed Hinata using the timing of his stumble to kick out at his ankles, trying to knock him off his feet, and he jumped. Dodging the kick, he landed and gripped the ribbon, yanking it and bringing Hinata flying in the air towards him.

Hinata attempted to use her momentum and turn it into a flying kick of sorts, but her world turned upside down and she realized that she was now hanging upside down, Hayate holding her in the air by her ankle.

"Damnit! Not again…" Hinata grumbled, swinging in the air. "This damned ribbon is going to get me killed in a fight!"

"Language." Hayate said, looking down at her. "You just need to make sure you don't give your opponent an opportunity to grip it. When you're able to manipulate chakra through it, you'll be able to break it off in a worst case scenario as well."

Hinata just crossed her arms and looked up at the upside down man. "And in the meantime? I'm serious here, it's a liability."

Hayate sighed, setting her back down. "In the meantime, you practice. If you're really that worried, buy a clip for it or something so you can take it off if you need too."

Hinata opened up her eyes wide, as if a world full of new possibilities was now open to her. "I can, can't I?"

She had finally been allowed to carry the actual Mikazuki. She had been training with the bokken now for two years and had put in a lot of painstaking effort to get to this point.

Hinata was finally ten years old, two years into the academy and Hayate was going to be starting his ANBU training in a month, after the new term began. Hinata had grown a bit over 2 years, but she was still small for her age, only growing about 5cm, making her 130cm tall.

Her biggest growth, however, had been in her capabilities. She had spent most of the time training her kenjutsu, bringing it up to a respectable level for a genin. Since Hayate was going to be gone for 6 months, he wanted to focus her training on things only he could teach.

Her taijutsu had increased as well, she was almost up to 64 palms in the eight trigrams, but she hit a roadblock that her father told her was because she lacked the physical strength and speed. "It will come in time. You should be proud of your progress already." He had told her.

As for the academy, Iruka had taught them a few more general skill ninjutsu, such as Nawanuke no Jutsu, which allowed them to escape from different forms of restraint as long as they could form a hand seal. They also learned the Kakuremino no Jutsu, which allowed them to use a piece of cloth to disguise themselves by blending into the environment, and several other basic genjutsu that Hayate had already taught her.

After laying the foundation of teaching them the hand seals and theory behind those jutsu, he essentially told them to spend the rest of their time at the academy mastering them. He then moved on to basic ninjutsu theory, history, and chakra control in his ninjutsu classes.

Her skill using senbon had come a long way too. She was now pretty accurate in her throws, not accurate enough to hit the tiny acupuncture spots, or tenketsu, but she could hit vitals well enough. She now spent a lot of the time during shurikenjutsu practice reading anatomy books and memorizing important spots of the human body and what the results of shoving a needle in them would be.

The control over her chakra and byakugan had increased as well, and she was now able to both walk on water and see through people's clothing. She didn't do that of course, but she could if she wanted too. 'This is a dangerous power I wield…' She thought to herself the day she mastered the ability to control her byakugan.

She was going to use it once to see Kakashi's face under his mask, but stopped right before she did. Right as she was going to, she felt a premonition that something horrible would happen if anyone was to see his face, so she shuddered and resisted the urge to peek.

"Come on." Hayate said. "Let's go again. Watch your footstep and ribbon control this time."

"Ughh." Hinata groaned due to her bruised ribs, as she lifted herself off the ground and took a stance.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

"Congratulations." Jiraiya said, looking at the man in front of him. "Due to the recommendations of over half the council, and several other jōnin, we've decided to promote you. You should be proud, being a jōnin at 18 years of age isn't something just anyone can pull off."

"Thank you Hokage-sama." Kō said, bowing politely.

Kō had just finished reporting an A-rank mission he had been apart of and was both surprised and delighted at the news of reaching jōnin.

'Hinata-hime, it seems my efforts have been fruitful!' Kō thought to himself.

"Alright, you're free to go. Good work Kō-kun." Jiraiya watched the man turn to leave the room. "Oh wait, one last thing." Jiraiya spoke up. "Let Izumi-chan know I said congratulations for making chūnin. Her performance at the chūnin exam was exemplary."

"I will." Kō said nodding.

Kō and Izumi had been dating for over a year now, ever since she had turned 16. She had just become a chūnin a couple of months ago at the most recent exam. Unfortunately Kō had been away on a mission at the time, so he wasn't there to watch.

After Kō left, Jiraiya turned back to his paperwork.

"A month huh? It seems I should start figuring out what I'm going to teach her…" He scratched his chin. "Ehhh, I'll think of something."

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

"Oneesan?" Hanabi asked, turning around to look at Hinata who seemed to be deep in thought.

"Hm? Oh, sorry Hanabi-chan." Hinata smiled at the girl and went back to scrubbing her back. Hinata had just finished her training a little bit ago and Hanabi had wanted to bathe together. What type of older sister would she be to refuse?

Hanabi had really grown up in two years though. Besides her hair, which she liked to let grow out, Hanabi looked very similar to Hinata. 'Except the face is slightly different. I have okaasan's face, she resembles otousan more.'

"Whatcha thinking about?" Hanabi asked.

"Just how big you've gotten!" Hinata laughed, tickling Hanabi's sides, causing the girl to fall down in a fit of giggles and soap bubbles. "Alright, rinse yourself off, I'm getting in the tub for a soak, god only knows I need it."

"Rough training?" Hanabi looked at her older sister. 'She's always so tired…'

"Yeah, this one particularly. Shishou didn't go easy on me all today. He's trying to prepare me for when he's gone for 6 months." Hinata said, sinking into the tub and letting out a sigh of relief, the hot water working its miracle on her sore muscles.

"Hokage-sama will be teaching you then right!? I'm so jealous!" Hanabi said, jumping in the tub and splashing Hinata with water.

"Hey! Knock it off!" Hinata said, splashing her back. "Don't be jealous, besides I'm not letting that old man anywhere near you."

"Why not?" Hanabi tilted her head.

"Because he's a… Because I'm not." Hinata leaned back and closed her eyes. "I'll tell you when you're older."

"Hmmm, fine." Hanabi relented. "What's he going to be teaching you anyway?"

"No idea. He's known for the sage mode, but that requires the toad or snake clan to teach you I believe. I'm not signing a contract with either of them, so it won't be that. Maybe some fire release ninjutsu? Who knows.."

"I thought you still weren't able to shape chakra into flames? How can he teach you fire release?" Hanabi asked with a smirk.

"Shush you! I'm getting close! I think.." Hinata groaned. "I'd work more on it but I'm still trying to learn that damned shunshin that shishou showed me two years ago. If I hear one more person tell me it's only a D-rank ninjutsu I might actually snap and kill them."

"That might be hard." Hanabi said with a shit eating grin. "They'd probably be able to run away, you know, with you not being able to use shunshin to keep up with them."

"That's it brat!" Hinata lunged forward and tackled Hanabi, tickling her.

The bathroom was soon full of laughter as Hanabi tried to escape Hinata's clutches.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

The sun crept up in the early morning, shining through the window and illuminating Hinata's sleeping face.

"Mmm.." She mumbled and flipped over, hiding her face. "Damn sun.. go away."

She laid there for a few more minutes before realizing she wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep. 'Ugh, curse my routine schedule.' She wiped the dirt from her eyes and fumbled her way out of bed in an entirely ungraceful manner. She stared hatefully out of the window for a moment, cursing the sun to an early death.

'Alright, what's on the docket for today?' She thought, as she pulled on her running clothes. 'I'm meeting Sasuke and Izumi later… Oh, right I also have to write that report on the history of Konohagakure for Iwashi's history class… ugh I should have started that ages ago.'

"Okay!" Hinata clapped her cheeks. "Let's do this!" She jumped out her window and began her stretches.

"Took you long enough." Hanabi said, already dressed and standing outside.

Hanabi had started going on morning runs with Hinata about a year ago. She couldn't keep up with Hinata, but she didn't mind. Hinata would slow down and talk to her for a bit every time she lapped her little sister.

"Not everyone gets to go to bed early like you Hanabi-chan. Just wait a few years when your training starts branching out and you have 8 different things to practice every day."

"Hmm? Well you asked for it yourself didn't you? I mean otousan warned you many times about taking on too much." She said, stretching backwards. "But you just had to ignore him. Now look at you, getting 4 hours of sleep a night on average. You have the same circles under your eyes that Hayate-san has."

"Such is the curse of being a genius…" Hinata said, sticking out her tongue.

"Yeah, ok." Hanabi rolled her eyes. "But seriously oneesan, you need some rest."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll get some ok? I'll go to bed early tonight or something." Hinata tried to placate her.

"Liar." Hanabi said. "I'm starting my run, catch me if you can."

Hinata started her run at a leisurely pace, intending to slowly speed up over time. Hinata activated her byakugan as she ran as well. She had started doing this during her runs to practice using it for extended periods of time, and to increase the range as much as possible. She was already able to use it up to 75 meters, which she was extremely proud of.

As she used her byakugan, she noticed Kō in the distance running towards her.

"Yo Kō!" She called out as he approached.

"Good morning Hinata-hime." Kō greeted, falling into a pace beside her.

"How was your mission? You got back yesterday right?' Hinata asked.

"I did. It was a success." Kō said. "I was also promoted to jōnin yesterday as well."

"What!?" Hinata stopped in her tracks. "Really?"

"Yes, Hinata-hime." Kō grinned. "It seems my efforts have finally paid off. I should be able to stay in the village for the meantime. This means I can re enter your service."

"Congratulations!" Hinata hugged him. "I bet Izumi is excited as well right?"

"She was, I told her last night when I saw her." Kō said, a blush on his face.

"Oh ho, last night huh?" Hinata smirked, turning to start her run again. "I'm going to meet up with her and Sasuke a bit later, you want to come?"

"Mhm. She already invited me." He said, ignoring her teasing.

"Good! Ah, you should get her a gift if you haven't yet."

"A gift?" Kō asked, confused.

"For congratulating her on making chūnin! It's a big deal right? Speaking of which, I got you something a while ago for when you made it to jōnin. I can finally give it to you now!"

"Hinata-hime you really didn't need to do that."

"I wanted to! I think you'll like it too." Hinata smiled triumphantly thinking about the present she got him over a year ago.

"A present huh..? What should I get her?"

"She'd like anything you got her, Izumi is like that. Though something personal would be nice. No more hints! Figure it out yourself."

Kō looked lost in thought for a moment before nodding. "Alright… I'll take my leave here then Hinata-hime."

"See ya Kō. Congrats again!" She called after him as he left.

"That will keep him busy for a while." She said to herself as she ran.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

"Izumi~!" Hinata shouted, running to give said girl a hug.

Izumi had grown quite a bit taller over two years, easily picking up Hinata to spin her around in a big hug. Izumi had just gotten back from a mission the other day as well which was why Hinata had decided to get everyone together.

Kō and Izumi had been away from the village so often that it was getting hard to hang out with either one of them. She knew that it was something that couldn't be avoided, but she also missed her friends. Sometime over the course of knowing her, Hinata had started seeing Izumi as almost a big sister of sorts. Izumi just had that oneesan vibe about her.

"Hey Hinata!" Izumi laughed. "How are you? It's been a few weeks, you look tired."

"I'm good! And I wish people would stop telling me that. Otousan joked that I looked like shishou's younger sister since we both have rings under our eyes." Hinata said, grumpily.

Izumi took a step back to inspect her, a smile slowly growing on her lips. "Now that you mention it.."

"Oh not you too.. You're supposed to be on my side."

"I am, I am!" said Izumi, trying not to laugh.

Hinata heard steps coming in their direction and turned to look. Sasuke was coming to where they were all standing outside of Izumi's house. Izumi had moved out of his house a few months ago, after Kō had started coming around. It was too awkward for all of the parties involved.

"Hey." Sasuke greeted them.

"Now we're just waiting on Kō and we should be good to go!" Hinata said with a smile.

They were going out to lunch in order to catch up and hang out. The three of them waited around chatting for a while before Kō showed up. When he got there, they all left to head out towards the market square, heading towards one of the Akimichi's restaurants.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

"How are you doing Sasuke? You were really quiet during lunch." Hinata asked him as they were walking back towards the Uchiha compound.

They had finished eating lunch together and Kō and Izumi had decided to stay behind and spend some time alone together. Kō had really surprised Hinata with the gift he had gotten for Izumi. He had bought them matching necklaces. Hers had the Hyūga clan symbol hanging from it on a little charm and his had the Uchiha's symbol. Hinata didn't know he could be that cute and was immensely proud of him. 'My little Kō is all grown up.' she thought when she saw the gift and Izumi jumping into his arms with a happy squeal.

"I've just been thinking about things." Sasuke said without looking over to her.

"Oh? What kind of things."

"I'm not getting stronger fast enough. I'll never catch up to Itachi at this rate." He said, balling his hand up into a fist.

Hinata snorted.

"What?" He asked, turning to look at her for the first time since leaving the other two.

"We're only 10. We have time. Confronting him now, or 5 years from now isn't going to make a difference. Instead of worrying about how you're going to confront him, think about what you're going to do when you confront him. What do you want to get out of it?" Hinata asked, holding her hands behind her back as she walked.

"Want I want to get from it?" Sasuke asked more to himself than her. He frowned as he thought about it.

"Sure." Hinata said. "Do you want an apology? Do you want a fight? Do you want revenge? There's a lot of possibilities."

Sasuke was silent for a while before finally saying: "I want answers. I want to hear his reasoning and what he could say to justify killing our entire clan. Everyone said it was for my sake.. But if that's the reason then.."

Hinata noticed his hand was shaking, and reached out and took it in hers, uncurling his fingers. "Then we'll get answers." She said smiling.

"We?" He asked, taking his hand back and raising an eyebrow.

"We're friends right? You don't have to do everything alone, you know." Hinata skipped ahead a bit and left him a few steps behind.

He was watching her back, frowning. 'Friends…' He thought to himself. He never really had a friend. Even when he was young, he was always busy chasing after Itachi who always seemed so much further ahead of him. Even spending so much time training together with Hinata he hadn't really thought of her as a friend. She was just someone that helped him hone his skills.

"Friends…" He mumbled to himself, looking at the hand she had grabbed.

"You say something?" Hinata asked, turning around to look at him and tilting her head.

"No." He said, shaking his head slowly. He realized though a bit later, he wasn't frowning anymore.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

A month soon passed by and Hinata found herself once again walking towards the academy.

'Shishou should be starting his ANBU training today, which means I should expect a visit from Jiraiya sometime soon. I really do wonder what he's going to teach me though. Oh well, whatever he tries to teach me I'm sure will be useful. Besides, this will be a good chance to convince him to start teaching Naruto. He still hasn't done anything with him.'

Hinata was lost in her thoughts and wasn't paying attention to anything around her until she felt a finger poking her in the chest.

"I was talking to you!" Ino said, standing in front of her. "Geez, what were you thinking about so hard? Your brow is all furrowed. You're gonna get wrinkles."

"I'm going to get wrinkles, I'm too young." Hinata said, waving away Ino's finger. "I'm sorry about that though, I'm starting training with Jiraiya soon, I was thinking about that and didn't hear you talking."

"Jiraiya… Wait! The Hokage!?" Ino all but screamed. "You're going to be training with him!?"

"Ah.." Hinata just realized what she had said. She hadn't told anyone yet, outside of her immediate circle of her family, Kō, Izumi, and Sasuke. The latter of which mumbled something about "not falling behind" and then sulked for half a day.

"Err, yeah… My shishou is gonna be away for 6 months, so Jiraiya said he'd take over my training." Hinata explained, trying to brush it aside as not a big deal. Obviously that wasn't working though because Ino started talking louder.

"You're so lucky! I wish I was going to get training from the Hokage!" Other people had started looking at the two of them with interest as she spoke.

"Shhh!" Hinata tried to get her to be quiet. This was the main thing about Ino that drove her crazy. The girl got loud when she was excited.

"Oh no, you don't get to drop a bomb like that and then shush me!" Ino said, putting her hands on her hips. "Give me the details!"

"I really don't know anything else!" Hinata said, pleading with her. "Really! He's just going to be supervising my training, that's it!"

Ino squinted at her trying to detect any hint of a lie. "Fine." She eventually capitulated.

"Forehead's gonna freak when she hears about this though." Ino said casually, walking next to Hinata.

That was something that happened last year. Apparently the two of them had gotten in some dumb fight or something and started calling each other "pig" and "forehead". Hinata just shook her head when she first heard them, apparently some things just don't change.

They walked into the classroom together, and Hinata had been planning to go sit next to Ino and Sakura like she had for the past two years, but was almost floored when she heard a voice call out to her.

"Hinata, here." Sasuke said, kicking a chair out for her to sit in.

Sasuke had sat alone at his own table since, like, the second week of school when the other students decided he was too unapproachable. Hinata just looked at him shocked.

"I'm sorry?" She asked, dumbly.

"It's a chair, you sit in it." Sasuke said simply, looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

'Is.. Is Sasuke making a joke? Did he just make a joke?' Hinata had so many thoughts racing through her head. 'What's happening right now? Is this about what I said a month ago about us being friends? If that's it, does that mean he only now realized we were friends? What did he think I was before, a training dummy!?'

"Ah… sure.." Hinata looked dumbly at the chair before moving to sit in it. "Sorry, Ino-chan… It Looks like I'm sitting here today."

Ino looked even more shocked than Hinata. 'Oh yeah, there's something going on there.' She thought to herself as she walked over to a dumbfounded Sakura.

'Aghhh!' Hinata screamed in her head. 'Now everyone's going to get the wrong idea, and I'm never going to get a moment of peace. Ino will make sure of that. Damn you Sasuke and not being good in social situations! I know you didn't mean anything by it and it wouldn't have even crossed your mind, but everyone else doesn't think like you do!' Hinata was bemoaning her fate in her head as she sat at the table, trying to ignore the holes being burned into her back by the other students.

"Good.. Good morning Sasuke.." Hinata greeted him.

Sasuke just looked at her. "You're acting strange."

'That's your fault! Idiot!'

"Ah, sorry, it's nothing." Hinata said weakly.

"Mm. Good morning, then." Sasuke said simply, turning to look out the window without saying anything else.

Hinata almost cried tears of joy when Iruka walked in and broke the awkward atmosphere.

"Good morning everyone!" He said in his usual, way-to-cheerful for the early hours of the morning, voice.

"I hope you all had a good break and are ready to get back to work!"

There was a smattering of different unenthusiastic replies from the class.

"Ah! Sorry I'm late Iruka-sensei!" Said Naruto as he ran into the room. "I got held up on the way here by cat that got stuck in a tree!"

A few students chuckled, as Iruka frowned a bit. "I'm glad you're helping out where you can, but please try to get here on time in the future, Naruto-kun."

"Sure, sure. Will do Iruka-sensei." Naruto said calmly, before noticing Hinata sitting next to Sasuke. "Ah!" He pointed. "Why are you sitting with him!?"

'Don't ask me that!' Hinata internally cursed Naruto and his 18 generations.

"We're friends." Sasuke said, as if it was obvious. "Now go sit down, you're holding up the class idiot."

"You're the idiot!" Naruto replied.

"Take your seat please, Naruto-kun." Iruka said, holding his head in his hand.

'You and me both, Iruka, you and me both.' Hinata thought.

"Fine, but I'm sitting here then." Naruto said, sitting down in the seat on the other side of Hinata.

"Tch." Sasuke said under his breath, looking away from the nuisance.

'This is my life now, isn't it?' Hinata wanted to cry but had no tears.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

The day passed exactly as Hinata expected, with her getting weird looks from everyone.

She got ambushed by Ino and Sakura after they finished classes.

"Ok, what's going on between you two!?" Ino said, pulling her off to the side.

"Nothing! We're just friends!" Hinata explained for the 10th time that day.

"That didn't look like nothing!" Said Sakura.

"Forehead's right, that was definitely something." Ino pointed out. "In two years, he's never done something like and now right after break he asks you to sit with him? I don't believe you."

"Look, it doesn't matter what you believe!" Hinata was losing her patience with them.

"I'm watching you." Ino squinted at her, relenting. "I'm going to figure it out."

"Watch all you want! It's nothing." Hinata turned to leave, only to see something that made groan.

"Yo, chibi-chan!" Jiraiya grinned. "You ready to train?"

The other students had stopped to gawk at the Hokage that was standing casually in the hallway.

"Train?"

"Hinata's getting trained by the Hokage?"

"What's happening?"

"He came personally to pick up Hinata for training."

"What!?"

The students all started talking together at the same time. Rumors would be spreading within the hour and Hinata was not mentally prepared to deal with that shit.

'So it's going to be one of those weeks.' She lamented.

"Fine, but we're leaving. Now!" She said through gritted teeth, marching past Jiraiya.

Jiraiya just watched her storm out of the building with a confused look on her face.

"Did I do something?" He asked Ino in a whisper.

"No, she's been acting weird all day." Ino replied. "I think she needs more sleep."

"Hm." Jiraiya shrugged before walking to chase after his new student.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

"Alright!" Jiraiya said, rounding on Hinata when they arrived at training ground 7. "First of all, I want to see everything you know. Every jutsu and all the skills you've picked up since you've started training. We'll stay here all evening if we have to."

Hinata sighed. "Fine."

She then chose to start from the beginning and run through her taijutsu abilities in a spar with him as he adjusted his strength to her level.