"Mama!"
A little girl with long black hair and mismatched eyes was running toward Hinata with her small hands stretched out. Hinata bent her knees and let the girl run into her open arms. Feeling tiny fingers clenching around the fabric of the shoulders of her shirt, Hinata closed her arms and lifted the fragile body from the ground. Day by day, the toddler became heavier, but Hinata still happily carried her daughter within her arms.
"Aiko-chan, your father will be angry when he notices you disappeared again," Hinata reprimanded softly as she started walking in the direction the little girl arrived from.
Aiko buried her face into Hinata's neck, her fingers hooking into lustrous hair.
Holding tightly onto the child in her arms, Hinata strolled deep into the forest that surrounded them. Following the trodden path, she headed toward the sound of weapons, blade clinking against blade. When the trees revealed a small clearing, she leaned against a wide trunk and placed a comforting kiss onto Aiko's velvety hair.
Her husband and two sons weren't holding back.
Both boys were panting heavily and one of them got down on one knee, gripping a kunai in his hand. The other one stood straight, holding his sword in a defensive position in front of his body. Even though his gaze was sharp and his posture seemed menacing despite being a child, the constant trembling of his legs betrayed him.
Between the two children stood Uchiha Sasuke with his sword drawn, the tip of the blade pointing at the neck of the wide-eyed boy kneeling down.
"You're dead," Sasuke commented in a flat tone and slid his sword into its holder attached to his waist.
The black-haired boy tightened his grip around the hilt of his sword and yelled, "Again!"
Sasuke shifted his eyes at him. "No, it's enough for today."
"No, please! We need to get stronger." The sword shook in the boy's hands, but he still leaned forward, getting ready to attack once more.
Sasuke's eyes bore into his son's dark gaze and even from the edge of the clearing Hinata could hear the austere undertone in his deep voice. "You can barely stand and Kosuke is on his knees already. There's no point in continuing."
"Father is right, Onii-san. I need to rest, I'm so sorry," Kosuke breathed out as he dropped the kunai from his hand and plopped down on the hard ground, his shoulders hunching forward.
With a grimace, Hiroki put his sword away. "We couldn't even get a scratch on him today."
Hinata watched from afar as her sons dejectedly gathered the kunais and shurikens they had used during training. With Aiko still clutching onto her neck, she waited until Sasuke sauntered next to them. He stroked Aiko's black hair tenderly, but the little girl pretended she didn't feel the affectionate strokes. Hinata turned to her side so Sasuke could better see Aiko's face, but the stubborn girl only buried her cheeks deeper into Hinata's shoulder.
"It's okay." A faint shadow of a smile twitched the corners of Sasuke's lips up as he gave Aiko a small peck on her head.
Patting on Aiko's back to comfort her, Hinata looked up at her husband who was a head taller than herself. "She's still afraid of you when you train the boys."
Sasuke nodded. "I know."
"Maybe if you didn't push the boys to their limits, she'd ease up."
"Hinata." Sasuke stared down at her and even though his expression remained stoic, the way he pronounced the name sounded gentle. "We've talked about this a lot. Going easy on them won't help them get stronger. You know that well enough."
The vague outline of a frown passed through Hinata's face. She wasn't fond of the idea of the harsh training Sasuke put Kosuke and Hiroki through, but deep down, she knew it was necessary. All three of the Uchiha children had a constant target on their backs—they had to learn how to look after each other even if they were still mere children.
The day when their parents wouldn't be able to protect them anymore would inevitably arrive.
Ever since Kosuke had joined Sasuke's training a few months ago when he turned seven, the main focus of the sessions was to force the two boys to cover each other's back. It was a total failure at first as Hiroki had been too used to training alone with his father. The fact that he had a hard time grasping the meaning of teamwork didn't help either.
However, with each session, the siblings' teamwork slowly evolved. Hiroki still occasionally complained about the need to watch his younger brother's movements, but his protests became more and more infrequent.
"Mom, is dinner ready? I'm so hungry. We didn't even eat lunch," Kosuke ran next to Hinata and looked up at her with sparkling eyes and a wide grin.
"Yes, I came to fetch you when I met this little one on the way." Hinata chuckled as she made a gesture with her head toward Aiko in her arms.
Kosuke tilted his head to the side as he inspected his terrified sister. "Did Father scare her again?"
"She's still too young to understand that your father wouldn't hurt you. She loves her two big brothers with all her heart and doesn't want them to get hurt by accident. Is that right, Aiko-chan?" Hinata pinched the girl's cheek playfully, stealing a low giggle out of her.
Kosuke reached up to touch Aiko's tiny legs. With a voice that sounded like a bird's chirping, he sang, "Aiko-chan, we're doing this to protect you. Don't worry."
Being a great opposite of the always too serious Hiroki, Kosuke brought sunshine and warmth into the dark and cold world they were living in.
Upon hearing her brother's jingling voice, Aiko came out of hiding and let go of Hinata's hair. She stared down at Kosuke for a bit before she gently kicked Hinata's waist, signaling she wanted to be put down. Hinata obliged and as soon as Aiko's feet reached the ground, she grabbed Kosuke's hand and dragged him toward their home, babbling about her toys.
Sasuke folded his arms and tried to hide the upward quirking of his lips, but Hinata still spotted the sliver of parental pride.
He cleared his throat when he noticed Hinata smiling at him. "She shouldn't wander alone."
"Mhm, she shouldn't," Hinata replied, her smile not faltering.
Sasuke blinked and looked away, causing Hinata to muffle a giggle threatening to escape her mouth.
They waited until Hiroki ambled up to them with each of his weapons neatly collected in his hands. He tried passing his parents without a word, but Sasuke reached out and poked him in the forehead with two fingers. Hiroki groaned in annoyance, massaging the spot with a pout, and Hinata couldn't hold back her laughter anymore.
The sound of her tinkling chortles flew far away beyond the trunks of the trees.
Hinata jolted up in the bed and looked around frantically, trying to locate her family, but all she was greeted with was an unfamiliar-looking room. Long, panic-filled seconds passed until she finally remembered where she was.
It was only a dream. No, dream wasn't the right word—it was a memory.
Upon snapping her head to the side to check on Naruto, only emptiness filled her vision. Smoothing out the wrinkled, cold bedsheet, Hinata figured she slept more than she should have.
"I have no time to waste," she mumbled to herself as she jumped out of bed and got dressed in random clothes she found in the dresser.
She rushed down the stairs so fast she almost slipped. Hurrying into the living room and voicing a good morning, she halted when her greeting was only met with silence. Blinking, she walked into the kitchen to prepare some breakfast, but when she reached for the fridge, she spotted a handwritten message under a magnet.
Boruto's out on a mission and I didn't want to wake you up, so I took Hima with me to the Hokage Tower. You can find us there. – Naruto
Hinata couldn't suppress a chuckle tearing from the back of her throat upon laying eyes on the lame sketch of Naruto's smiling face next to his name. She remembered that Naruto in her reality tried to learn fūinjutsu but gave up after only a week because of his horrible manual dexterity. She imagined it was the only thing Naruto had ever given up. It looked like her reality wasn't the only one where Naruto struggled with drawing.
After quickly frying some eggs to silence the growling of her stomach, she set out to find Naruto and Himawari in the Hokage Tower. Even though Hinata wasn't familiar with the new version of Konoha she had been dropped into, she couldn't miss the direction—the Hokage Tower stood proudly in the middle of the village.
During her walk, faces she had never seen kept greeting her. Judging by their clothing, they seemed to be civilians, but Hinata wasn't entirely sure. She politely greeted everyone back and gave thanks to all the existing gods that nobody stopped her for a chat.
Although, she couldn't shake off the ghastly feeling of someone's eyes boring into her back. She was tempted to activate her Byakugan to scan her surroundings to find the person that obviously followed her from a distance, but instead, she bit on her lower lip, trying to ignore it.
"Hinata!"
She ran out of luck.
Taking a deep breath, she sluggishly turned to face the owner of the voice. Cold goosebumps embellished her arms and her knees shook as though they could give out any minute, rendering her to be nothing but a pile of limbs in the dirt.
Nauseating glimpses of crimson blood smearing on red triangle-shaped tattoos twisted Hinata's stomach into a small ball of agitation.
"What's up with you? You look like you've seen a ghost."
Hinata wanted to scream into the confused, brown gaze that it was exactly the case, but swallowing a glob of saliva, she forced herself to smile. Concentrating on making her smile as genuine as possible helped her fight off the wetness stubbornly pooling under her eyes.
"Kiba."
He folded his arms and tilted his head to the side, arching a single eyebrow. "Huh? Kiba? Only Kiba? Are you angry with me or something?"
"Oh, no. Kiba-kun, I'm sorry." Hinata anchored herself onto her current spot, pushing back the urge of jumping into Kiba's arms and wrapping herself tightly around his body to make sure he was real, flesh and blood, and not just a cruel play of her mind.
"You're weird today, Hinata." Kiba furrowed his eyebrows as if he tried to solve a mystery, but his pointy irises quickly grew large when he looked behind Hinata. "Where's Himawari? She's always with you."
Playing with the hem of her shirt, Hinata stammered, "Oh, Naruto took her to the Hokage Tower. I slept in a bit."
Kiba gawked at her as if she was an extraterrestrial being. Hinata flinched under his stare, downcasting her eyes. She was itching to start fidgeting with her fingers, but she refrained. She hadn't done that involuntary stress-relieving motion for years and she didn't plan on starting ever again.
"Okay, who are you and what have you done to Hinata? You slept in, you let Naruto take Himawari to the Hokage Tower, you called me Kiba, but the worst, you called Naruto only Naruto," Kiba listed the oddities in her behavior while dramatically counting on his fingers.
Hinata couldn't help but blush in embarrassment. She wouldn't make a good spy—she was so untalented at the art of deception that she couldn't even impersonate herself.
"Thank goodness at least you're still blushing," Kiba sighed in relief, placing his hand onto his chest with another overdramatic gesture. Little did he know Hinata had long left behind her habit of constant flushing.
Hinata hugged herself as she mumbled, "I'm sorry. I had a small head injury and I lost some of my memories. I thought you've heard."
Kiba's eyes widened and Hinata briefly pondered if this version of the story was also a secret that was supposed to be told only to Boruto and Himawari. With an inner moan, she concluded they should've talked this through with Naruto.
"It's fairly common for shinobi. I'm fine, don't worry." Casually, she waved her hands in front of her face, hoping the gesture would ease the situation, but noticing Kiba's gaping mouth, she knew that she had failed miserably.
"But Hinata, you retired as a shinobi more than a decade ago. Did you forget that, too?"
Hinata's smile froze onto her face. Her counterpart being a retired shinobi didn't sit right with her. She couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that she had retired when her powers could be useful for the village. Even though this reality seemed to be a peaceful one, a crisis might arise anytime.
"Judging from your expression you did forget. Sucks, right?" Kiba wiggled his shoulders as he opened his arms as if saying that he was right all along. "I told you to think it through, but you said your family is more important and that you never wanted to become a shinobi anyway."
Hinata winced—Kiba didn't exaggerate, she never wanted to be a shinobi. However, because she was born as the heiress of one of the most respected clans of Konoha, she never had much choice. Even though she had never sensed the burning fire of determination inside herself, after the deaths of her many precious friends, she made a resolve that she'd do anything to protect the people that mattered the most to her.
She couldn't protect everyone though—she had lost too many friends and comrades during the years, but at least she could make a difference now. Hinata wasn't afraid of losing her own life anymore and she finally understood what drove Naruto all those years.
Suddenly, Hinata was dragged out of her thoughts by the sounds of aggressive barking.
Kiba turned around with a baffled expression as he uttered, "Akamaru, it's only Hinata."
Hinata's eyes flickered at the old dog growling behind Kiba. Akamaru's senses had always been exceptional and even his senior years couldn't dull these instincts. Hinata tilted her head to the side as she spotted a much smaller dog with red fur sitting calmly next to Akamaru.
"It's okay. Who's this other guy?" Hinata smiled as she crouched down and held her palms out to show the dogs that she wasn't a threat.
"Oh, right, you don't remember, I always forget. His name is Akemaru, he will be Akamaru's successor when the time comes."
Akamaru still didn't stop growling, but Akemaru sniffed Hinata's palm. After some furious sniffing, he licked them, accepting the offered friendship. Hinata happily patted his head and straightened up.
"At least he likes me," she commented, shifting her worried gaze at Akamaru.
Kiba rubbed the nape of his neck, shooting a sharp glare in Akamaru's direction. "Sorry about it. I don't know what got into him."
"No problem, really," Hinata smiled and dusted off her shorts. "It was nice chatting with you, Kiba-kun, but I must go to the Hokage Tower now. See you later."
Hinata swiftly waved Kiba goodbye before he could offer to escort her. Leaving her former teammate behind, she hurried toward the Hokage Tower. Kiba knew her too well to deceive him, so the best tactic was to run away.
Seeing all those long-lost, familiar faces squeezed Hinata's heart. She recognized them the moment she laid eyes upon their features but seeing them alive and a decade older than she had remembered sent her mind reeling.
Hinata wished she could meet someone who was actually alive in her reality because as of yet, she had only met ghosts and children that she didn't even know existed up until now. The world around her was filled with complete strangers.
Sinking into her own thoughts, Hinata was a bit surprised she had already reached her destination. Looking up at the closed door of the Hokage's office, she unsurely balanced her weight from one leg to the other. Breathing out deeply, she found the resolve to knock firmly on the hard, wooden door.
"Come in!" came Naruto's voice from the inside.
As Hinata pushed the door open, she gasped upon being greeted by a completely different office than she remembered. From the colors of the wall to the amount of furniture, everything had changed. The single wooden desk was nowhere to be found and she saw strange devices splattered across the small room.
Her eyes quickly found Himawari in one corner, quietly coloring one of her drawings. She lifted her gaze when Hinata entered and waved at her with a bright smile. Seeing a little girl coloring in the Hokage's office was a buoyant sight that could've never happened in Hinata's reality.
With a small smile, Hinata tore her gaze away from Himawari to look at Naruto, but she inhaled sharply when her eyes found someone else first.
"Hokage-sama!" she yelled in surprise but clasped her hand on her mouth a moment later. She had already messed everything up.
"I already told you, Hinata, you can just call… oh…" Naruto's grin froze onto his face when he followed Hinata's gaze and realized she wasn't addressing him. "Hima, why don't you show your drawing to Shizune? She should be around somewhere. What do you say?" Naruto smiled at his daughter.
"Okay." Himawari nodded with a grin still plastered across her face, and in a fraction of a second, she was already out of the office.
Instinctively, Hinata poked her head out to the corridor to see which way the little girl ran. Old habits die hard, and she had spent the last decade of her life monitoring her children to know where and with whom they were at all times.
Hinata sighed, reminding herself that such caution wasn't necessary here. She closed the door with shaky hands, waiting anxiously for someone to speak up after the horribly timed slip of her tongue.
Naruto folded his arms in his seat and chuckled. "Shikamaru? As Hokage? Really?"
"Hey, I would be very capable. However, it sure would be a drag," Shikamaru breathed out and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Shikamaru is my advisor. I've already told him what happened," Naruto explained as he leaned forward and propped his chin on his hands.
Shikamaru shoved his hands into the pocket of his trousers and ran his sharp gaze through Hinata. "Honestly, I didn't believe Naruto at first, but judging from your reaction, it might be the truth."
"It is the truth, unfortunately," Hinata found her voice and moved closer to the desk. She stared into Naruto's blue eyes as she asked, "Do you plan on telling someone else?"
Naruto stared back and even though he smiled, Hinata spotted an odd sparkle in his irises. "Only Sasuke, at least for now. I've sent a messenger bird to find him. If he's somewhere around the village, he will be here in a few days."
"Thank you," Hinata nodded and shrugged off the foreboding sensation crawling into her mind. "Do you have any idea how you can send me back?"
Shikamaru cleared his throat, drawing Hinata's attention to him. "First of all, we have to figure out how it's possible in the first place that you were sent here. To do that, we need all the information you remember. However, we should wait for Sasuke before you tell us anything. Waiting will also give you some time to collect your… memories." Shikamaru's tone was flat and emotionless, but the stiffened posture and the narrowing of his eyes sent a chill down Hinata's spine.
In a way, Hinata understood his suspicion even though it hurt to know that Shikamaru would expect her to have malicious intentions. Although, the Shikamaru of her memories wouldn't trust an explanation as crazy as the existence of alternate realities too easily either.
"I understand," she started, "but I would like to do some research in the meantime. The Hyuugas have an old book describing theories on the existence of alternate universes. I think it has valuable information."
Naruto's eyes flickered at Shikamaru for a brief second before he nodded. "Alright, I will ask Hanabi to search for it."
Upon the mention of her sister's name, Hinata sucked in a deep breath and blinked away the wetness blurring her eyesight.
"T-thank you," she stammered, trying to recollect her composure. "One more thing. I know I'm a retired shinobi here, but could you put me back on the roster, please? It could be months until I'm able to go back to my reality, so I don't want to sit around and wait. I need missions to distract myself."
Naruto and Shikamaru both stared at her motionless. The tense stillness that now was prevalent in the office reminded Hinata of those grueling few seconds before the slaughter on the battlefield starts.
She folded her arms, partly to shield herself from the unnerving looks they were giving her and partly to show that she was waiting for a response.
Shikamaru was the first to speak up, his voice not sounding curious at all despite posing a question. "What about Himawari?"
Hinata knitted her eyebrows in confusion. "What about her? She's already ten."
"She's only ten," Naruto commented, a deep wrinkle etching itself between his eyebrows.
Hinata blinked, not understanding the accusing undertone in Naruto's voice. Her younger son, Kosuke was no more than seven years old and after getting a good grasp of the Hyuuga's taijutsu technique, he joined his father's training sessions. Her older son, Hiroki who was the same age as Himawari, already wielded a sword almost as tall as himself.
Suddenly, Hinata saw her own standing in a different light—she came from a war-affected world, but this reality was peaceful. Parents here were no more than doting guiding lights instead of being on guard at all times to protect their children from a pointless death. Parents here only had to deal with their kids not wanting to go to school or staying out with their friends too late in the evening.
Parents in this reality did not feel the need to train mere children. Parents here did not spend time explaining to their kids why they can't go out without supervision. The children of this world were not capable of protecting themselves even before they learned how to read.
Running out of coloring pencils and not liking dinner must've been the biggest problems in Boruto and Himawari's life. They weren't hunted down like the Uchiha children.
Admitting that she needed to adapt to the concept of peace, Hinata bobbed her head in an apologetic bow. "You're right. But she will soon enroll in the academy, won't she?"
"She hasn't decided yet."
Naruto's casual answer widened Hinata's lavender irises. Himawari was a direct descendant of the main branch of the Hyuuga clan and the daughter of the Hokage—in Hinata's mind, she was destined to become a shinobi. If one was born into such circumstances, they couldn't choose their own path.
Biting in the inside of her cheeks, Hinata wondered if, after everything she had gone through, she became the type of person that her cousin, Neji had always hated.
"Besides, I don't think it'd be wise to let you out of the village, Hinata. I'm sorry, but we can't let you disappear from our sight," Shikamaru noted and Hinata lifted her gaze that had been fixated on her feet. "Moreover, I heard your chakra pathways got pretty messed up. You shouldn't push yourself for a while now."
A slight annoyance bubbled up in Hinata's spirit because under Shikamaru's penetrating glare, she couldn't get rid of the idea that the man was treating her as a suspicious impostor. "Alright, no missions then. I will just direct all my energy to the research. At home," she emphasized.
"Thank you," Naruto grinned at her, missing the hint of Hinata's discontent. "I will get the book for you as soon as possible. Hopefully, we will know more by the time Sasuke gets back."
"Yes. I think we're done here, then. I don't want to bother you any longer. I will take Himawari home. And sorry for sleeping in, it won't happen anymore."
Hinata bent forward to bow to Naruto, but suddenly, his offended voice asking her not to bow to him barged into her mind, causing the bowing motion to become a clumsy stumble. A pink blush tinting her face and her gaze fixated on the ground, she receded to the corridor.
Heaving a relieved sigh, she set out to find Himawari in the building. The task wasn't hard—Himawari's cheerful words floated out from a small office as a soothing melody.
Himawari slipped her small hand into Hinata's as they left the Hokage Tower. The little girl chirped all the way home, but Hinata couldn't concentrate—the ominous set of eyes boring holes into her back weighed her chest, making breathing difficult.
Hinata reached for the gate of the Uzumaki house when a popping sound accompanied by an airy touch brushing her skin prompted her to spin around. She pulled Himawari into a protecting embrace and activated her Byakugan, scanning her surroundings.
"Mama?" Himawari asked, her voice trembling with a mix of fear and puzzlement.
There was no one in their close proximity.
Hinata was wondering if she was going insane.