As always, Naruto belongs to Kishimoto.
Hinata twirled the crumb-laden stick into her green tea, letting the lingering sugar dissolve into the semi-bitter liquid. The sweet scents in the air mingled with the spicy barbeque down the road and the savory meats cooking in the restaurant next door. All together the aroma was making her hungry for something more than the sweet dumplings she'd been munching on for the last hour. Across the table, enjoying the breeze under the shade of the umbrella, Kurenai raised a hand to cover up a yawn.
"Kurenai-sensei, I thought we were meeting at ten? It's nearly eleven now."
Kurenai took a drink and waved off Hinata's comment. "You can never trust him to be on time, that's why we're meeting here. We might as well enjoy the wait."
"Then why didn't we arrive late to begin with?"
"And have him arrive on time?" Kurenai gasped. "If I did that, I'd lose all authority to righteously condemn his tardiness."
Hinata sighed and set the now cleaned stick aside. She didn't even know who he was. The only thing Kurenai told her before bringing her out was that she found someone who could discreetly teach her more about sealing. Hinata hadn't mentioned wanting to change the seal to Kurenai—only Neji knew that for good reasons—but her evasiveness about asking for help must have hinted to her instructor that not everything was what she revealed.
A few minutes later, Hinata sensed someone stop beside their table. Kurenai ignored him for a moment to finish drinking her tea, then glanced up with the same expression she gave Kiba when she caught him trying to hit on girls in the middle of a mission. "You're late."
"Ah, you see, I was on my way here when I saw an old lady . . ."
"Of course you did," Kurenai interrupted, though Hinata could tell she was having trouble keeping the smile from her face.
Kakashi scratched at the back of his head and grinned, at least that's what he seemed to do beneath the mask. Of anyone Kurenai could have gotten, Hinata wasn't expecting him. He was one of the most skilled shinobi in Konoha, and, from what she'd heard, he hadn't worked as an instructor since Naruto and Sasuke left. Sure all of the jounin instructors seemed to know each other fairy well, but it was still hard to imagine Kurenai had talked him into helping her, especially since he was probably busier now that he wasn't in charge of a team.
Kakashi eyed the table around them. "Did you bring it?"
Kurenai grabbed a plastic bag from the floor and set it on the empty chair next to her. "Make-Out Paradise, as promised. You know, if you didn't take them everywhere with you, you wouldn't need to constantly get new copies."
"Great literature should never be limited." Kakashi quickly pulled out a book with a crude drawing of a man chasing a woman across the cover. There was a certain glee in his eye as he opened the novel and began to scan the pages. Well, that explained how Kurenai convinced him to help her on his day off, though Hinata wasn't sure what to make of his choice of bribery materials.
"I wouldn't call what Jiraiya writes great literature," Kurenai mumbled.
"Right then," he said, snapping the book closed and stowing it away in his pack. "Shall we get started?"
"Indeed." Kurenai stood up and tossed her payment on the table. "On that note, I'll leave you to it."
Smiling in farewell to her instructor, Hinata waited for an indication of what to do. Normally she didn't discuss shinobi techniques over tea and dumplings, but with so little of Kakashi's face visible, it was difficult to get a strong read on the man. The mask hid many of the tiny markers she'd been taught to look for and the only showing eye offered nothing more than indifference.
Her seat vacated, Kakashi took Kurenai's place across the table. "Well now, if I'm going to teach you more about sealing techniques, I need to know what you can do. Kurenai mentioned chakra sealing."
Getting right to it, then. Hinata nodded and retrieved a couple of her suppression tags from her pocket. She had a feeling she'd need to show an example of her skills. "I made these to suppress my chakra. It's helped strengthen my inner coils system, like weights do for muscles. I can also adjust how much chakra it suppresses."
Kakashi examined the seal and the indifference in his eye suddenly narrowed to curiosity. "How do you use it?"
"I have tags like that placed over specific tenketsu throughout the coils system. One alone can suppress an area of the body, but since I might need to remove them quickly, I connected them all to a single tag." She turned in her chair and lifted her hair so Kakashi could see the tag at the base of her skull. "When I remove that one, the rest burn away to immediately restore my chakra flow."
"And you created this with no other training expect basic sealing?" Though his voice remained casual, skepticism began seeping into his gaze.
Hinata lowered her gaze to the table and took a sip of her tea to delay answering. This was where things got muddled. Yes, a shinobi of Kakashi's level could certainly keep secrets, and no doubt had a handful he could never speak of, but this was clan matters. It was ingrained in her not to talk about it except to those she trusted, and even her team didn't know her true intension. How much did she reveal—could she reveal—without compromising the seal?
"My grandmother is the clan's best healer. She taught me basic medical jutsu while I was growing up and loaned me the research for chakra suppression," she explained, dancing around the truth. "My training with byakugan and other forms of sealing also helped." Hinata tried her best to make that last sentence sound natural, but it came out in a rush nonetheless.
"Other forms?" Kakashi's voice seemed to tilt with his head, shifting to sound both curious and bored at the same time.
Hinata glanced around instinctively, just in case someone from the clan was nearby and to see how close the nearest eavesdropper could be. "I have been taught about cursed seals." A cursed seal, to be more specific.
Kakashi looked up, his gaze turning to signify recalling memories. "At the chuunin exam—"
"Yes, that would be the one," she interrupted. It was rude, and a part of her felt bad acting so brash with someone of Kakashi's caliber, but Hinata couldn't stand talking about it to someone who, for all intents and purposes, was a stranger. Especially being in public! Even with Neji, who let her use the seal on him to learn more, didn't pry too far other than to ask if she'd made progress. Besides, she really didn't want to be reminded that her grandfather had used the seal on Naomi.
"I see." His eye scrutinized her but soon returned to his standard state of casual disinterest. If only she could see more of his face, maybe she could guess at his thoughts, but he was strangely adept at keeping her from reading him.
"What is it you want to learn? Something beyond chakra sealing?" he asked, dropping the subject entirely.
"Actually, I'd like to learn how to make a fatal seal non-fatal."
If Kakashi was surprised by her request, he didn't show it and his voice remained idly bored. "That depends on the seal, but most counters can be adjusted to many different seals depending on what type it is: chakra, physical, cursed. I can show you advanced countering seals."
"That's incredibly interesting," Hinata replied honestly—she hadn't thought about looking into countering seals before, an oversight she'd look into later, "but that's not what I meant. I want to make a seal I use to no longer be lethal, not a seal used on me. I want to maintain the essence of the seal while removing the fatal component."
She was walking a tightrope with the information she provided. It was probably enough for him to figure out what seal she was referring to, as noted in the way his eye widened and his relaxed posture shifted, but it wasn't enough to expose anything he might not already know about the caged bird seal. Hyobe's demonstration during the chuunin exams no doubt had all the jounin instructors knowing just what pain the seal could cause.
"That . . . would depend on the seal's construction," Kakashi said, drawing out the sentence as if he could sense the reluctance in her. Considering who he was, he probably did. When she stayed quiet, he continued. "If you have a specific seal in mind, I would need to see it."
Hinata sighed, a dejected, tired sound that made her whole body fall a little with it. She knew it was going to come to this. Learning about seals was one thing, wanting to restructure the core of a cursed seal was another. That required not only knowledge she didn't have, but an understanding of the seal itself, which she couldn't give. The more she tried, the more it felt like changing the seal was a fruitless endeavor. She just couldn't trust anyone.
"Of course, but I can't do that," Hinata said, not meeting his eye staring down at her. "I would be interested in learning about the counter seals you mentioned, though." Better to not completely waste his time, and maybe she'd learn something that she could try applying later on. Maybe.
Kakashi remained quiet, observing her in an unnerving way only those with far more experience could manage. He didn't have Kurenai's maternal nature to temper that seriousness with compassion, though. Without warning, Kakashi stood up, pulled out his book, and headed down the street. "Follow me."
Hinata hurried to put down enough money to cover her bill and ran after Kakashi, who didn't bother to look up from his book long enough to check if she was behind him. Did she offend him somehow? "Where are we going?"
While his concentration remained enraptured by the book, his free hand waved her to continue. She wanted to ask again, but the longer they walked in silence, the ruder it felt to interrupt his reading—odd as that sounded. Hinata sorely missed Kurenai's methods of teaching.
They finally stopped outside a multi-floor apartment building with red sloped roofs protecting each level. Finally putting his book away, Kakashi jumped to the top balcony and led her through an unlocked window to a small kitchen/dining room. Hinata had to wave off a cloud of dust disturbed by their entrance. It didn't look like anyone had lived in the small apartment for some time. Besides the layers of dust coating the sparse furniture, the air was thick and musty and nothing in the room felt personal. No pictures or knick knacks or personality at all to hint at the occupant's identity.
"I should clean this place up," Kakashi drawled as his gaze wandered over the room.
"Where are we?" Hinata asked as she followed him to a small bedroom at the end of the hall.
"This is Naruto's apartment," he explained.
"Naruto-kun's?" Hinata took in the room with new eyes. "This is where he lived?"
Could this really be Naruto's? It would explain the ramen poster, the only item in the entire apartment that seemed personalized. This wasn't a home; this was a place to exist, to sleep and eat and leave for more friendly realms. Hinata always knew Naruto wasn't fond of going home, and now it made sense. She wouldn't want to come back to this lifeless place either.
"I'm surprised you've never been here?" Kakashi said. In the corner of her eye, she could see him watching her reaction, but Hinata was too absorbed in the reality of this barren room to pay attention properly. No one should have to grow up like this.
"Naruto-kun never liked talking about his life when we were younger. I see why now," she mumbled the last sentence. "Didn't anyone take care of him?"
"Not as well as they should have," Kakashi admitted. "But he turned out interesting in the end."
She tried to imagine the Naruto she remembered as a child coming back to this blank, empty place every night. It was wrong. This wasn't a home. Hinata was still getting used to allowing herself to be angry without condition, but standing in this place made it easier. What decent person could imagine a child growing up like this and not feel any empathy?
"Why did you bring me here?" she asked to distract herself from the swirl of sorrow, pity, and anger that Naruto's "home" conjured in her.
"For that." Kakashi pointed to a dresser against the wall behind her.
Atop the wood dresser were a couple odds and ends leftover from before Naruto left, but in clear view remained two picture frames in terrible need of cleaning. Hinata picked up the closer of the two and wiped the face of the glass off with her sleeve. Four faces, not all of them happy, were captured in perfect time. Kakashi and Sakura grinned for the camera while Naruto glared at his would-be rival, who chose to stare off into the distance rather than acknowledge Naruto. It brought a smile to her lips; Hinata had a similar photo of her own team when they were first formed.
She looked up at Kakashi for an explanation and he motioned to the second frame. As simple as the first, the plain wooden frame was caked with a thicker layer of dust than the first. When she brushed this one off, her eyes widened as she stared down at the two happy children in the picture. "I can't believe he still has this."
"Hinata! Come on. Come on." A seven-year-old Naruto pushed past a group of giggling children in the training yard to grab her hand."Iruka-sensei's almost done. If we don't hurry, we won't get one."
Too late to protest, she hurried along behind as he dragged her across the yard. Naruto had gotten used to not being so obvious of their friendship when they were where the village could see, but today was a special occasion, and it was nice not being the only one without friends clambering around Iruka.
The village was still suffering the wake of the Uchiha massacre, and even with Sasuke still gone, classes had been tense for weeks. It was Iruka's idea to bring in the camera to try and cheer up the children, and it was working spectacularly. For a short while everyone remembered what they had with them. Friends laughing and smiling, posing for the camera to immortalize the bonds between them.
The rest of the class had quickly hoarded Iruka's attention when he first began taking pictures, but now that the other groups had their fun and the throng had spread out across the yard, Naruto spirited her up to their teacher.
"Iruka-sensei! Iruka-sensei!" Naruto called out until Iruka paid him attention. "Take ours next."
Iruka grinned and rubbed the bridge of his nose where a scar marked his face. "You don't have to scream, Naruto. I'll take everyone's picture who wants it, including you two. Go ahead and stand together."
Straightening her jacket first, Hinata clasped her hands in front of her and waited for the picture to be taken. She hadn't had many taken before and never with someone outside her family. It was kind of fun.
"Whatchya doing?" Naruto asked, his face scrunching up the way it usually did when clan habits confused him. "That's not how you take a picture. It has to be big and fun!"
He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and leaned in close to her face. His toothy smile grew and grew until his cheeks were so high his eyes closed. The expression was so silly Hinata couldn't help but laugh.
"Come on, Hinata!" Naruto threw out his arm in a faux-fighting stance and turned his over-exaggerated smile to the camera. How could Hinata refuse that? With mimicked expressions on them both, Iruka took the picture.
As hard as it was, childhood seemed like so much simpler a time. There were no secrets or politics to worry about, and a smile from a friend could make your entire day. Turning the frame over, Hinata slid the back out and pulled out the picture. There were two, actually. The exact same picture, except one had a kid's mangled scrawl written across the back: For Hinata when I'm hokage.
He actually kept it.
Iruka approached the desk where Hinata waited for Naruto to return with his instant ramen. "Here you go, Hinata, the pictures for you and Naruto. Make sure he gets his."
"I will," she replied with childish mirth. Once he was gone, she greedily opened the envelope and took in the friendship frozen in time. A friendship she couldn't let her family know about. . . . A photo she couldn't keep. The longer she looked at the picture, the further the muscles in her face pulled down.
"Hey, Hinata, what'd Iruka want?" Naruto set his instant ramen down before flopping into the chair next to her. When he saw her frown, Naruto leaned in concerned. "What's wrong?"
She slid the two pictures across the table. "I can't keep it. If Aunt Naomi or Uncle Hizashi found it, they'd make sure we couldn't be friends anymore."
A familiar expression subdued Naruto's normally boisterous nature, the kind she saw whenever adults whispered when he was nearby. She wished it wasn't true, but it was. She couldn't hide it anywhere that someone in the clan wouldn't come near.
"I'll keep it." Determination and defiance burned in Naruto's blue eyes. He grabbed her pen, flipped one of the pictures over, and scribbled on the back. "I'll keep it for you until I'm hokage. Then I'll be so awesome, they won't be able to keep us from being friends."
He held up the photo so she could read it, and a smile as bright as the one in the picture shined back at him. "Thanks, Naruto-kun."
Hinata replaced the picture and frame-back before setting it on the dresser again. As much as it made her happy to remember again, she still had no idea why Kakashi brought her here. "I don't understand. Why did you want me to see this?"
For the first time in their meeting, something more than curiosity or indifference was in his gaze. It was softer, akin to regret but not quite. With only a quarter of his face to work with, the emotions were too muddled to read clearly. "Naruto always believed things would get better. His stubborn, single-minded goal of becoming hokage helped, but so did that. Knowing he had a friend gave him hope."
"It did?" She always thought Naruto did that for her. He made everyone outside the clan seem less frightening.
Kakashi nodded. "So consider my silence thanks."
Silence? Did he bring her here so she'd trust him? Hinata looked at the photo of Naruto's team again and wondered what that regret-like emotion in Kakashi really was. What was he willing to do for his team, scattered as it was? Hinata knew what Kurenai would do for hers, but to trust an out-of-claner . . . . If she never trusted anyone, she'd never change the seal.
"The caged bird seal is used to seal byakugan upon death. It is vital to the clan's protection, but it also connects to the brain stem, which gives it the ability to cause pain or death," she said before thoughts of duty and clan secrets worked their way back to the surface. She pulled back her sleeve and activated the chakra within the main family's seal to reveal lines of green beneath her skin. "This is forced into the coils system when placing the seal."
The status quo had to be changed, and that wasn't going to happen without help. She couldn't let him see the scroll or give him all the details, but some information, enough for him to understand what she wanted to do, might be enough. "I want to remove its lethality without compromising its purpose. The problem is the part that destroys byakugan is connected by the same pathways that allow it to kill. No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to separate the two functions without ruining the seal."
"Perhaps that's the problem," Kakashi replied, unfazed by her sudden cooperation. "Cursed seals aren't like other seals that can be manipulated to serve a new function. They're created with a purpose in mind. In order to change that purpose, you'll probably need to create an entirely new seal, not alter the one you have."
Create a new seal? Hinata had always hoped to be able to alter the present one to remove the lethality of it; she had no idea how to go about creating an entirely new seal. Understanding the mechanics and understanding how to create it from scratch were two very different concepts. A cursed seal was also far more complicated than creating her chakra suppression seals.
"How would I even begin to create a new cursed seal? I don't imagine there's a manual for that."
"No, most advanced techniques don't come with manuals. That would make things more convenient if they did. But you have the present seal to work off of, and a strong foundation in sealing techniques will be useful." Kakashi cocked his head to the side. "You have a decent knowledge so far, especially in chakra sealing. With some advanced training in other forms, including countering cursed seals, you might have the skill needed to craft one of your own."
"Would you be willing to teach me?" Hinata asked with more trepidation than she meant to. This seemed like far more effort than he'd probably agreed to for the price of one book.
The cloth covering his face stretched into the silhouette of a smile and his entire demeanor became approachable. "Well . . . I do miss having a team of adorable genin hanging on my every word."
"I am technically a genin still."
"So you are," he drawled out. "I have one question for you first. Why do you want to change the seal, besides the fact it can kill?"
At least that was a question she could answer. "There are a lot of problems the clan hides from the village to keep up the appearance of the noble family. I can't fix them all, but I know that nothing will get better so long as the clan fears itself. That's not how families should be. Families should take care of each other."
That sort-of-regret returned to his eye, but was quickly smothered by a happy expression. "That is a very good reason. We probably shouldn't begin here, though. Follow me." He headed back to the window they entered through, only to pause. "Oh, and tell Kurenai this will cost her Make-Out Violence, too. I'm tired of reading with shuriken holes in it."
"Of course," Hinata sighed. He really needed better bribery materials.