As always, Naruto belongs to Kishimoto. Author Note: Comments seem to be taking the ending different than I intended, so I've gone ahead and made it clearer.

The air was cool against her sweat-dripped skin as the afternoon sun taunted her in the bright blue sky. Hair stuck to her neck uncomfortably, which only made Hinata wonder how Neji could stand having his hair so long all these years. Hers was only to her shoulders and already her face and neck felt twice as hot. She'd put it in a short pony tail a couple times, but it felt weird; she was too used to short hair.

Shaking off the discomfort and the way her limbs burned inside, Hinata refocused on the buildup of chakra. Her arms stung from the quick release she had to resist, evening it out through her stubborn torso, which continued to defy all her efforts. Her legs welcomed the increase, but each time the chakra hurried down to her feet, forcing her to pull it up again. Hinata always had a knack for fine manipulation, but with this brute force adaptation she felt like a seamstress who'd been asked to build a house. The two skills were not compatible.

Once her chakra was strong and tingling with anticipated escape, Hinata began her rotation. That was the simple part; balance was never a problem with her. Expelling the chakra was another story. Even as it began, Hinata could see the holes in the glow of the kaiten, more ribbon than shield. Her chest and abdomen were still unprotected, while her hands glowed bright. She compensated for the awkward force enough not to fall, but that was the only success she had.

"Dammit."

Neji chuckled lightly from his place nearby. "Don't let Grandpa catch you swearing."

"I'll try again," Hinata said, ignoring Neji's comment.

"Stop. You can do it as many times as you want, but it won't change anything right now."

Defiance filled her glare. "I'll get used to releasing the chakra from my body eventually."

"That's not the problem," Neji insisted. "Even if you get your torso to release the chakra evenly, your inner coils system isn't producing enough chakra to complete the kaiten. It's not a matter of training; you just have to wait for your inner coils to mature more."

"You were able to do it at my age."

"And you know our inner coils systems are different, but just because yours is weaker than mine now doesn't mean it won't get stronger in a few years." Neji closed the distance and brushed back the hair sticking to her cheek. "It's wonderful you want to learn, but there's only so much your body will let you do. Don't worry about kaiten right now, and focus on the sixty-four. It's more delicate."

Hinata scoffed and she could see the regret on Neji's face the minute he said it.

"That's not what I meant and you know it. The sixty-four takes more precision and control—things you're skilled in."

Hinata plopped down onto the grass and ran her fingers through the tacky green blades. "I'm sick of being delicate."

"I'm not saying give up, just give your body time and try again in a year. Your inner coils will be stronger then."

"Fine." Hinata knew Neji was right—he was rarely wrong— but she still seethed inside at her own deficiency. She'd spent so long believing she couldn't do things he could, and now that she was resolved to try, he was telling her not to. She didn't want to wait a year only to be told her inner coils still weren't strong enough. How long was she supposed to simply piddle around hoping her body changed?

Neji waited a few more minutes for her to say something else before picking up his bag to leave. "I have to go meet my team. Work on the sixty-four, and I'll practice with you next week."

"I'll see you then," she said, trying very hard not to take out all her frustrations on him.

It wasn't his fault her chakra couldn't support the kaiten, not that he understood what that felt like anyway to sympathize. It just frustrated her that she was the only one that seemed stuck. She knew she was better than before she became a genin, but it felt like nothing compared to the rest of her friends. Naruto had improved to match the best in their class; heck, Lee was practically on par with Neji and he couldn't even use ninjustu or genjutsu.

Hinata shoved off the ground, kicking it softly as she headed back to the compound. "Bet Neji wouldn't tell Lee to just wait for his body to get stronger. Not that Lee would listen to him if he did."

Hinata stopped, her mind working through a connection that hadn't quite coalesced. Lee didn't wait to get stronger. He used weights to train his muscles. The inner coils system wasn't something that could be trained like a muscle, but jyuuken itself was a way to manipulate it and the seal was a form of suppression. Could there be a way to "weigh down" her coils system the way Lee weighted his muscles?

Hinata didn't wait to question whether it was possible or if she was capable of doing it if it were. She'd resolved to do better so she was going to one way or another. She ran back to the compound. A few of her mother's books addressed chakra manipulation and suppression, but not enough for what Hinata was going to need. She needed more detailed examples and techniques. Offering little more than a hasty wave to the twins on duty, Hinata hurried to her grandmother's home. If anyone had the information she needed, it would be the leading healer of the clan.

"Hinata," Yumi called happily as Hinata unceremoniously burst through the door. She pulled the young girl into a warm hug and kissed the top of her head. "What brings you here?"

"I'm working on something with chakra suppression. I was hoping you had books I could borrow. "

Yumi nodded and headed back into her library, which doubled as a small treatment room. "What exactly are you needing?"

"I'm not sure," Hinata said, not wholly lying and hoping that kept the deception from her face. "I want to do some research before I get too far."

Whether she believed Hinata or not, Yumi seemed satisfied enough by the answer. "Well, we use a bit of chakra suppression during delicate surgeries or to counteract techniques that may have dangerous side effects on the body. I have some basic information, as well as more involved texts. What would you like?"

"Everything. I want to have a compete idea before trying anything."

"All right." Yumi ran her fingers across the spines of her books until certain titles caught her eye. Soon enough a small collection of books and scrolls was growing in Hinata's arms. Once she'd gone through her entire collection, Yumi pointed to two of the books. "These will focus the most on chakra suppression, but they could be difficult for you to understand. Start with the scrolls to get a stronger background knowledge before you try them. And, of course, if you have any questions you can come to me."

Yumi's eyes softened as she looked down on her granddaughter. She tucked the almost dry strands of hair behind Hinata's ear, sliding her fingers to the edge and lingering a moment longer than necessary. Hinata noticed Yumi had been doing that a lot more since she'd started growing her hair out. At first Yumi would follow by saying how much Hinata looked like her mother, but now she simply smiled with a happy melancholy clouding her gaze.

"Thank you, Grandma. I'll bring these back when I'm done."

Waving goodbye, Hinata ran back to her study and went to work. Training with Yumi had prepared her to read through the medical books with relative ease, though it still took weeks of careful study to put the hazy idea of weighting her inner coils system into a plausible action. All her free time was dedicated to it. Suppressing her chakra was possible, but all her books only showed her how to do it as an active, temporary technique. She needed something lasting, that could be applied and maintained outside of her concentration. She needed a sealing tag, which none of her books talked about.

After several more days of futile effort, Hinata conceded she needed more information and she knew where to get it. It was rare for anyone to break the rule of using byakugan in the compound not for training; Hinata herself had never broken it. This day was different. She couldn't be caught.

Once a week Hyobe enjoyed walking to the restaurant district and taking lunch at a small cafe that served a green tea cake he indulged in. Despite knowing this took approximately an hour from the time he left the compound to his return, Hinata activated byakugan and memorized the location of every person in the main house, plotting her route with extreme caution. There would only be certain places along the way to double check that no one was nearby. Deactivating it again, Hinata grabbed one of her mother's gardening books and headed into the hall as calmly as she could.

Every footstep felt like an explosion ready to expose her deception should someone turn down the long hall that led to her grandfather's study. The emptiness pressed down on her greater than any weight until breathing felt like an arduous effort to make. No one passed her though; she'd timed it well, and after checking one last time, Hinata carefully snuck into Hyobe's study.

Safely away from anyone who could accidentally come upon her, the heaviness eased enough for her to breathe again. She hurried to the large trunk near the wall and lifted the lid. She'd swore the day she was first brought here that she'd never use the invisible seals on her arms that could cause her family pain, but only that could open the hidden compartment on the top of the trunk. The moment her fingers brushed the underside of the lid, markings on the wood glowed with green chakra, infected with power she didn't want, and a small hatch popped open. She reached in, carefully pulling the sealed scroll from its home, and closed the hatch again. Within seconds, the chakra faded away as if she'd never been there at all.

Even now, when she'd come to some kind of understanding of the horrible acts she would have to do as heir, when her family had found peace together again, merely holding the scroll that held the secrets of the Hyuuga's seal made her skin crawl. It had to be used—she knew this—but it separated her from everything she wanted to be.

That didn't matter, though. There was no other book or scroll that could teach her the intricacies of manipulating the inner coils in the forms of seals better than what was inside that generations old scroll. Every detail was documented and laid out to be taught. If she could bring that knowledge together with what she learned of chakra suppression, she would do it.

Opening her mother's book, Hinata placed the scroll in the hollowed out center of the pages. Hyobe had once said she would have to be its protector. Now those same seals he'd used to hide the scroll glowed on the cover of the book as she closed it. There were few things she cherished more than this book; no one would take it from her, and now, no one but the her and Hyobe could open it.

She wanted this. The weight was hers to bear now.

A white pup, who was getting far too big to still be called a pup, bounded across the short grass, his tail wagging happily at Hinata's arrival. Though he was now the size of a large breed dog, he still had the floppy, fluffy appearance of the puppy who used to hide in Kiba's jacket. Kneeling down, she scratched her way down Akamaru's back, which elicited a content rumble.

"Akamaru, did you grow again overnight? I swear you're bigger than yesterday."

Akamaru barked a loud, deep sound that almost made her miss his high-pitched yapping. Behind him, Kiba sent his usual glare at Akamaru for failing to be ninja-like.

"Yeah, Mom says he'll probably keep growing, too. His paws are too big to stay that size."

"How much bigger can he get?" Hinata asked. He was already pretty big. Only Tsume's companion was bigger than Akamaru at the moment.

Kiba sighed and kicked back onto his heel. "Won't know till he stops growing."

"It's too bad you can't wear him as a hat anymore."

"He was never a hat!" Kiba screamed at Shino, who ignored him in favor of joining Hinata and Akamaru.

Kurenai rolled her eyes at the two boys. "Now now, you two. That's enough. We have training to get to."

"Actually, Kurenai-sensei," Hinata started, her voice getting quieter as she attempted to talk, "I have a request."

Kurenai nodded for Hinata to continue, so she pulled her bag around and pulled out a small stack of paper seals. "My inner coils system isn't strong enough to produce a kaiten. I was thinking about how Lee trained his muscles by using weights, so I thought I could try and use these to do the same for my coils system."

"What are they?" Kurenai asked, picking up one of the seals to examine it. Her voice was merely curious, but Hinata could see the concern in her gaze. Messing with the chakra system wasn't something people normally did.

"Chakra suppressors. Placed properly on my body it will reduce the amount of chakra I'm able to use, the way weights would slow someone down. I hope that eventually my body will get used to wearing them, and then when I take them off I'll have enough chakra to produce a kaiten. I don't know if it will work, but I want to at least try. It just means that for a while I'm going to be a lot weaker."

Hinata looked at each of her teammates in turn, the unasked question hanging in the air. She'd never do anything to jeopardize the team or mission, but this was something she felt she needed to do and she wanted their support.

"What happens if we enter a situation where we need you at full strength?" Kurenai continued, not shutting her down, but not simply saying yes either. She had more than Hinata to be concerned with.

"All of them are connected. I've made it so that if I remove a specific one, the rest will burn off. My chakra should immediately be restored."

"Well, what do you two think? Can you handle taking on a bit more work for a while?"

"Hell yeah! Me and Akamaru can carry the whole team if we have to," Kiba yelled without hesitation, only to quickly wave his hands in front of him. "Not that we don't need you, Hinata. Of course we do. The team wouldn't be the same without you."

Kiba's nervous ramblings were cut short by two large, furry legs dangling over his face. Shino had picked up Akamaru during Kiba's fluster and draped the big dog over Kiba's head. Two legs over his face, and two digging into his shoulders in order to keep his balance. A toothy canine smile on Akamaru's muzzle, now staring at Kiba, silenced his master.

"Stick with the dog," Shino commented blandly before turning to Hinata. "We'll help you."

"Thank you," Hinata said, feeling their support like a warm blanket surrounding her.

Kiba finally shirked Akamaru from his head and grinned. "Yeah, it will be great when you can use kaiten. Hey, will doing this let you learn that attack your aunt used on us in the chuunin exam? You need to learn that one, too."

Hinata laughed. "Hopefully, I'll have enough chakra for that, too."

"Heh, that'll make our team really awesome."

"There is one more thing, Kurenai-sensei. I need help putting them on." She pulled a map of the coils system out and showed it to Kurenai, her face a bit redder as her instructor saw where the seals needed to be placed.

In order to evenly suppress the chakra and maintain it at a low level, the seals had to be situated in precise locations over where chakra naturally clustered in the body. Several were in more intimate areas. Besides being female, Kurenai had already pretty much seen Hinata in the most undress of anyone in the village. That at least made it slightly less mortifying asking her to help. Slightly.

Not that that same reasoning worked for the rest of her team. The three of them never directly talked about that awful day of modesty training, but every once in a while when circumstances brought the memory back, an awkwardness fell around them.

Hinata settled a cold stare reserved solely for any mention or passing thought of that day on the two boys. "You two go into the woods. And if you peek," she paused and looked down at Akamaru, "bite them."

Any other time Kiba baulked at someone, even one of them, ordering Akamaru around—he was his ninja dog—but Kiba simply scratched his nose to avoid meeting her eyes, while beside him Shino's ears turned a soft shade of pink. Kurenai laughed as she always did, leaving Hinata to wonder if she enjoyed their pain.

"We'll just go head into the woods for a while," Kiba muttered, though he still snuck a couple glances back before hitting the tree line. As smart as he could be in battle, Kiba was sometimes an idiot.

After checking and then double checking with byakugan, Hinata quickly stripped down to her underwear. She wanted to get this done as quickly as possible. The first few seals were placed in silence as Kurenai carefully studied Hinata's drawing to ensure proper placement. Soon enough though, Hinata could see the curiosity growing on her face.

"It seems to me someone like your grandmother would be more suited to placing these seals. Or at least a Hyuuga who could see the inner coils system. Does anyone in the clan know you're doing this?"

"No," she admitted, keeping her gaze on the thin blades of grass swaying in the mild breeze. "Everyone keeps telling me to just wait for my chakra to increase, but none of them would wait if it was them. They'd do something, but they're used to me not being strong. They're used to telling me I'll get better in time. I'm tired of waiting to get stronger."

"Why not tell them that?" Kurenai asked, waiting patiently for the answer as a seal placed between Hinata's breasts silenced the young girl.

It was easier to talk once Kurenai moved to her back. "Because they'll look at me like they always do. They're supportive, but I can see it in their faces: they don't want me to get my hopes up. I don't want them to know until I can prove I did it. I want to finally do something right the first time."

Kurenai didn't have a chance to respond when a bellowing scream sounded from the woods. "I wasn't looking!"

Kiba.

What seriousness was left between the two fell apart in a round of laughter from Kurenai and terrified panic from Hinata, which left her entire body bright red. Kurenai placed the last seal that had to be covered by clothes and let Hinata quickly get dressed.

"If this is what you need, we'll help you, but don't push yourself hoping it will work. If there's no improvement, we find another way."

Hinata nodded. Kurenai always knew how to make her goals realistic without ruining them.

"So then, if I'm reading this correctly, the last seal is above your hairline."

"Yes, I thought if you shaved off just the section at the back of my neck to place the seal, the rest of my hair should cover it.

"Then I'd better be very careful," Kurenai said, pulling out a kunai. "So should you, if you don't want them to know."

"I wi—"

Another scream from the wood interrupted them, and both women stated at each other surprised. That wasn't Kiba.

Now Hinata was mortified. She pulled her hair around to cover her face as best she could. "Shino, too?"

"Our puppy is bad influence on him."