DISCLAIMER: The world of Naruto is not mine. However, since many of TV Tokyo's characters are now dead, the characters are. Except Naruto and Hinata so far. Get ready for a really freaky ending to this chapter, and then next chapter a fight scene! Enjoy, and don't forget to leave a review!

NARUTO: THE HYUUGA INTRIGUE

Chapter 4- Secrets and Tears

Naruto, the Hokage, sat behind his desk facing Tears, of the Assassin Squad Oni. An uncomfortable silence fell across the room, and one could see the sun setting through the windows/doors to the balcony of the office. They were cracked open a bit, and one could hear the sounds of a still bustling city. People passing by, talking, walking, thinking about anyone but the Hokage.

"Hinata has informed me of something she saw in your chakra while she was using her Byakugan. Do you want to tell me what she found, or should I tell you?"

"Three separate chakras," Tears conceded, "Two very large ones and my own."

"I would like to show you something, Tears." Naruto stood up, and got in front of his desk. "Don't be alarmed, I'm not THAT much of a pervert." He reached down and began pulling up his long robe. Tears watched as he slowly drew up the garment, revealing white pants underneath the cloak, and stopping when the cloak exposed the large black seal left by the fourth Hokage's spell. He let the robe drop again. "I know that you and I are similar in some way." He said. "People who have been used as living seals are always treated as outcasts and all have a sad story. Let me tell you mine." He told her of how he had the chakra of the Ninetails sealed within him 72 years ago, and his whole life story until he became Hokage.

Since she was interested, Naruto also told Tears the story of Gaara of the Sand, another person who had been made into a living weapon by having an incarnate of Sand sealed with him. Like Naruto, Gaara regained sanity when people accepted him and also later became the Kazekage, a position which he still held. He and Naruto had become friends, although there was still a rivalry between the proud peoples of Wind and Fire.

"Now," concluded Naruto, "I would like to hear YOUR story."

"Alright then." Said Tears, "But please don't judge me. This was all a very long time ago." Naruto nodded, and Tears began her tale.

"Ten years ago, I was the daughter of a matriarch of a small village in the middle of nowhere in the west, in a little strip of a country nestled in between the Country of Wind and the Country of Earth. So isolated was this village that it had all of its own unique traditions and way of the Ninja, a vestige from a long ago time before the Shan realized how useless our village was. My two older sisters, twins, both possessed a genius for ninjutsu. They traveled far away to the Hidden Village of Sand to be trained. However, when they came back, they contracted a disease. Normally, it is survivable in our village, but my sisters had lost their immunity to it because of how long they had been away.

"As they lay there dying, twenty years old each and in the prime of their lives, my mother could not bear to see their incredible genius go to waste. She couldn't bear losing her two greatest daughters. My mother must have gone insane, because she decided to use an ancient and arcane spell that locked the soul of one person into the body of another, taking with it all the knowledge and power it had. Unlike your fourth hokage's spell, my mother's spell was considered heresy because it could be done without any damage to anyone, no price to pay for playing with life and death. Though my sisters begged and pleaded for my mother not to do it, she wouldn't listen. She chained me and my sisters to the wall of the castle dungeon, and performed the spell.

"Power surged through me, and the voices of my sisters echoed in my head. I was acting so strangely that I couldn't even go outside anymore. For a few years I was locked in the castle, going mad, seeing no-one but my mother, as my powers grew exponentially. Finally, I don't remember exactly what happened but somehow someone had spotted the marks on me, and leaked it out into town that my mother had used a forbidden spell on me. My mother wasn't able to deny it for very long, as the rumors spread and grew to be even more unbelievable than they already were. To some I had become a giant monster, to others I had been rendered comatose, to still others I performed arcane rituals on corpses in the graveyard at night. To this day I suspect that not all of the more ridiculous rumors are false, because I have no idea who I was then. I don't even remember my own name."

Here, Tears began to sob a bit. She continued.

"So, the rumors spread and caused dissent among the town. A group of men invaded the castle and apprehended my mother. She was given an unfair public trial in which I wasn't even allowed to testify, and sentenced to be burned at the stake, as was prescribed for necromancers. It was then that I snapped back to reality. I had to try to think rationally. So as my mother was tied to the stake and the fire was lit, I summoned a great thunderstorm to douse the fire. However, the village mages used magic to keep the fire going. As I became more and more frustrated, the storm became more and more intense, but still the fire would not go out. Suddenly, the fire surged, and my mother began to scream as the flames seared her flesh."

Tears began to cry uncontrollably. Naruto had to fight an urge to comfort her. A minute passed and she pulled herself together.

"Then I snapped. The power surged so great within me that my sisters' chakra leaked out of me and took the form of shadow replications, something that happens naturally for some reason when I get very angry. Together, we made a thirty seal spell that summoned a storm so big that it caused draughts all over the area for months. As my mother burned at the stake, a massive lightning storm scorched every living soul in the city, and turned every building into rubble. Any that escaped I hunted down and killed with my kunai."

Here, Tears began to cry uncontrollably again. Naruto offered a tissue and Tears accepted. After a minute, the crying abated, and she continued.

"That's pretty much it. After that happened, I snapped back to reality again and tried to put the pieces together again but I couldn't. I didn't need Ninja training because I had the skills, strength, and memories of both my ninja genius sisters. There was nothing to do except find work for myself doing the only thing I knew how to do. For seven or eight years I've been a freelance ninja. I worked for the Wind, the Waterfall, even the Lightning, as well as some screwed up Daimyos and businessmen."

"So you have three chakras, instead of two like me?" Naruto asked.

"That's right." Tears said, pulling together and going back to her old quiet self. There was so much more to be said, but little time to say it.

"Well, I liked talking to you," Naruto told Tears, "but I have to send you along. Can't keep your friends waiting, eh?"

"No, I guess not." She conceded.

"You can talk to me about this anytime," Naruto assured her, "if the ANBU aren't helpful enough you can come to me, okay?"

Tears was glad that Naruto had a soft spot for her. "Thank you for that, Hokage-sama," Tears said, bowing, "I'm glad I have someone to be open with."

"Now, my guards will forcefully eject you and your friends." Naruto boasted, smiling devilishly. The two laughed, and Tears left the room.

While Naruto and Tears were having their chat, the three guys were outside waiting. Blood was getting rather impatient because of the long talk that the Hokage and Tears were having.

"What are they doing in there, telling their life stories?" Blood wondered aloud. "What's taking so long?"

"What, you jealous?" Asked Toil, one fuzzy eyebrow raised.

"No way, man," denied Blood, "just want to make that show at six."

"He's jealous." Sweat confirmed.

"Very jealous." Toil agreed.

"Come on guys," Blood whined, "you're like little kids."

"Jealous, jealous, jealous," Toil teased in a singsong voice, "You're so jealous."

"Stop it, alright?" Blood was getting serious. The valves in his hands began to leak as they often did when Blood was getting mad.

"Come on, Blood," goaded Sweat, "We all know you have a huge crush on Tears. We see the way you always defend her when we pick on her but pick on her yourself, the way you're always trying to do stuff for her, always finding a way to stare into those big blue eyes, the way you always wince when you hear her crying at night."

Blood had to concede or else he would get in a fight he couldn't finish. "Okay guys, you got me."

"Look, man," Toil patted Blood's shoulder, "Do either of you have any idea of how old Naruto and his wife are?"

"I'd say he's in his fifties," Sweat guessed, "and his wife's in her sixties."

"I'll second that." Blood agreed.

"You're wrong." Toil said grinning, "They're both seventy two."

"WHOA!" exclaimed Blood.

"NO WAY!" exclaimed Sweat at the same time.

"It's true." Toil smiled smugly and leaned back against the wall. "So what would a guy that old be doing with Tears? Don't worry. Besides, he loves Hinata. A love formed by time is stronger than one formed by attraction. Remember that, Blood. That was what Lee-sensei told me about love."

There was a long pause. Blood stared down at the floor, rubbing his hand over his head. He needed to shave it soon before it started making his Mohawk look stupid. He made sure the spikes were still straight. He hadn't thought for an instant about an attraction between Tears and the Hokage. He just wished she would talk to him like she was talking to the Hokage. He was near the door, he could hear voices, they were talking. This was a girl that before this never had said more than a sentence to any of the other Oni over the course of three months as far as he knew.

Just then, Hinata came walking slowly down the hall, taking small steps. She was wearing a pink kimono with beautiful yellow flowers printed on it. It suddenly struck Blood how lovely she was for a woman old enough to be his grandmother. It wasn't an attraction, just the feeling he got when he looked at a sunset, or at a songbird, or a beautiful landscape painting. As he watched her come closer and closer, he thought about spending his life with someone, watching them grow old along with him. He wasn't even thinking of Tears, just an elderly woman in a kimono, and him in a robe, sitting by the fire and drinking tea. It was such a beautiful moment, Blood wanted to relish it forever.

"Excuse me," squeaked Hinata as she passed, touching her hands together at the fingertips. Her hands still looked young.

"Hinata-san," Blood addressed her.

"Yes?" she responded, stopping and turning her head to face Blood.

"What does it feel like to be with someone for as long as you and Naruto-sama have been together?"

Hinata blushed and turned her head away. "I…" she stuttered, and then she turned around to face Blood. "That's the sweetest question, I have ever been asked, Blood-kun, but I… I'm afraid I don't know how to answer it right now." She smiled, and somehow Blood could see her as a twelve year old girl, smiling at Naruto. She began to leave.

"Another thing, Hinata-san," Blood asked, "please tell me what strange thing you saw when you used Byakugan on Tears."

Hinata smiled. This time it was a coy smile that seemed a bit out of character for her. "You will have to ask her about that," said Hinata, turning around again and walking away, "She will probably answer your question this time."

Then Blood realized something. "How did you know…"

"When I used my Byakugan, I noticed that you restrained the guard heading for Tears, instead of either of your other team-mates, whom you knew better and were in a better position to defend."

Blood turned around to look at the other two ninja, both were just as shocked as he was. When he looked back, Hinata was gone. There was a long pause.

"Okay," said Sweat, "that was just damned weird."

As soon as the words came out of his mouth, the door opened, and out came Tears still chucking. Everyone gave her the most penetrating stare. It was the most awkward moment Tears had ever experienced. "What, was I that long?" she asked.

"Oh, no, no, no. Not at all." Everyone else said, starting at slightly different points.

"Cool," Said Tears. "let's talk."