By the end of the week, Naruto had run completely out of things to do.

More combat was technically possible, but it was no longer really considered that likely. Besides, he was really sick of stabbing people and was plenty happy doing less of that for the time being.

He had wanted to be a ninja because he had wanted to be Hokage. Now that he'd gotten field experience, he found himself wondering if he still wanted to be Hokage. Did he still want to be a ninja even? Even if he got over his whole thing with the blood, he didn't like the politicking that he knew had gone down behind the scenes. He didn't like the fact that how much he could help others depended on some old men arguing about how useful it was to the village.

Kakashi-sensei had sighed when Naruto mentioned this to him and said: "I don't either, but Konoha is my home. I want to protect the people precious to me, and I have to trust that the village elders want that too."

Naruto didn't know about that. He'd been pretty sick and tired of the village elders and the way they acted when it came to orphans and how much you charged them for rent. Not to mention that he'd lived alone for a lot of years with only a lady coming by to check in on him once in a while. It'd been lonely as hell.

But well, it wasn't all bad either. He could only afford pretty cheap stuff but he could afford it. He wasn't going hungry, he could get all his training gear, and yeah even though getting new clothes was pretty expensive he still had plenty of clothes. It could be worse, he supposed, and he knew that in other villages it was a lot worse.

But that didn't make it good, so even though Naruto didn't really distrust the village elders, he wasn't sure he believed in them that much either.

Naruto tried to put it out of his mind when he went down to visit the prisoners with Hinata that weekend. It was an ugly, drizzly kind of day that made everything unpleasant and damp instead of clean and refreshed.

"Hey there, Ume-chan," said a woman, waving from the low-security area. "No medicine today, eh? Who's the boy?"

"Eriko-san," said Hinata, bowing shallowly to the woman. "T-this is my teammate, Naruto. I am h-here to process your release p-paperwork."

"Ehhh, but we just got comfortable here," said Eriko, waving at another woman who was waking up out of a nap. "Hey Chie you hear this? They're letting us outta here."

"But I just got comfortable," Chie complained. She sat up and cracked her neck. "Seriously though, what took so long?"

"T-the soldier who, um, t-transgressed against you had to be found first," said Hinata. She pulled a thin scroll from out of a bag slung across one shoulder. "Lord Hayashi authorized your r-release after determining his guilt."

"Maa, well, fair enough I guess," said Eriko. She crossed her legs as Hinata unrolled the scroll and took her hand, then pricked her thumb with a thin needle. The drop of blood that welled up was enough for the small seal inscribed on the bottom of the scroll. "He get punished yet?"

Hinata shook her head. "I b-believe not. I believe it will be s-some time before any news."

Eriko snorted. "Fair enough. So tell me about your teammate."

"Ah, t-there isn't that much to t-tell," said Hinata. She pricked Chie's thumb too. "He is m-my escort for today while I d-do my rounds."

"Yeah? What's he gonna do if someone gets grabby?" Chie asked skeptically, looking Naruto over.

Naruto scowled. It was true that he was a little scrawny but that didn't mean he couldn't fight.

"Naruto-kun is very strong," said Hinata with a smile. "He punches above his w-weight."

"That so? Well he won't mind comin' round the teahouse and arm-wrestling one of our bouncers then, right?" Chie said. "Me and Eriko owe you for the conversation, after all."

"That w-would be lovely," said Hinata with another small bow before undoing their bindings. "N-Naruto will escort you t-to the gates."

Four clones popped into existence, prompting several raised eyebrows and a low whistle from Chie.

"Well, we'll see you around sometime, Ume-chan," said Eriko as she heaved herself to her feet. "You be good to her now, Ramen-kun, you hear?"

"Ramen-kun?" Naruto asked, befuddled as Chie and Eriko left. The two of them turned and began walking towards the castle stockade.

"N-naruto is a kind of r-ramen topping, isn't it?" Hinata asked.

"Oh, I guess it is. Still, what kind of nickname is that?"

Hinata giggled. "Y-you eat enough ramen for it, Naruto-kun."

Naruto made a vague retching noise. "It's so lame though. Yours is way cuter."

The smile that Hinata-chan made was a little strained, but Naruto was glad to see it. The last few days had been hard for the two of them, but Naruto had been coping better. Maybe it was because of his shadow clones? The technique made his memories of the battle feel like a flipbook of one hundred and one ways to kill people, and everything kind of blurred together now. He guessed it was a little true what they said about gory manga—seeing lots of violence definitely desensitized you to it.

Then again, a manga couldn't really compare to the things Naruto had seen, and if he had to guess that was probably Hinata's problem. Rich clan girl that she was, Naruto bet that she didn't read that many gory horror manga, assuming she even was interested. Not that the gory manga really helped that much, but well.

Honestly now that he was thinking about it, Naruto was pretty sure the manga didn't have anything to do with it, and he just was way desensitized compared to Hinata-chan. He didn't really know why, but it was the sort of thing his therapist had told him not to worry too much about and just remember to mention it next session.

He held back a sigh and looked over at Hinata-chan out of the corner of his eye. He really wanted to give her a hug, or even just hold her hand, but that wouldn't work for them, not right now. It had been hard finding the time and place lately for them to spend time together alone, and there wasn't any chance that he could do anything with her openly. Despite his reputation, Naruto knew that there were some things he really couldn't get away with. The troublemaking, delinquent orphan had no business holding hands with the heir of Konoha's greatest clan.

Though on that topic: "I'm thinking about registering my clan officially," Naruto said quietly, taking care not to advertise the idea by speaking too loudly.

Hinata blinked and looked over at Naruto in surprise. "Already?"

"Yeah, I know they say to wait until you hit chunin or whatever, but I already live on my own and it's not like I'm starting a family right now," said Naruto, shrugging with his hands still in his pockets. "So it's just me, which makes it easy to deal with logistically, and I think I might have a good enough combat record that people will take me at least half seriously, you know?"

Naruto waited for Hinata to react. Maybe it was kind of stupid—it'd be pretty typical for him to jump too fast into something. But if that was true, Hinata-chan would say so.

"It s-seems possible," said Hinata after a moment's thought. "Who will sponsor you?"

"Probably Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said. "He's a one-man clan too, did you know?"

Hinata nodded. "The Hatake Clan used to be very prominent."

"Really?"

"Y-yes. The clan histories s-say that the Hyuuga u-used to fight alongside them f-frequently."

"What happened to them?" Naruto asked.

Hinata's face turned sad. "They died."

Naruto swallowed and looked away. "Oh."

"Y-you should learn m-more about the clans, if you intend to r-register yourself," Hinata said as they began to approach the stockade. "I am sure S-sensei will help."

"Yeah, that's a good call," said Naruto. He and Hinata paused at the entrance to the stockades as they were ID-checked and cleared to enter.

Low-security ninja had been separated out from low-security civilians as early as possible in the fighting. Uniformly, these ninja were those who had submitted to a Yamanaka Mind-walker and found to no longer harbor any desire to fight and were unlikely to change their minds about it. Naruto wasn't sure how Hinata felt about it, but he found himself wondering how much of that submission was voluntary.

Well, the odds were that if they had fought it, they probably were likely to try and start something too, so, it was probably fine?

Naruto hung back as Hinata visited each cell in the stockades, speaking briefly and delivering a letter to each of the prisoners. Apparently, they were all being offered some kind of deal to defect to Konoha. He supposed that made sense: Kakashi-sensei had said, back when they were supposed to be guarding Fumiyo, that Konoha was low on manpower. More ninja was always useful, even if you were a little wary of their allegiances. Other villages probably couldn't handle the risk, but Konoha probably could. It was perilously hard to hide your true intentions from a member of the Yamanaka clan, and it sounded like all of the deals included a period of surveillance and regular appointment to have your mind read. If you had no harmful intent, you would be fine, right?

Naruto shivered. The idea honestly gave him the creeps, but, well, if it kept Konoha safe…

"Hyuuga-san."

"Ebihara-san," said Hinata, bowing in the doorway to a kunoichi their age. "H-how are you doing?"

Ebihara—Naruto didn't know her given name—took a deep breath and forced a smile onto her face. "I am well. Thank you for your concern."

Naruto held back a snort and crossed his arms, looking away. She was obviously terrified and probably spent each day with her mind skittering along the edge of the worst sorts of places her imagination could take her. It was probably lonely, being cooped up in here. Each cell of the stockade could only hold the one prisoner, after all, and with ninja for guards it wasn't even the case that she could talk to any of the other prisoners.

"Y-you will recall that earlier w-we were discussing the terms of your i-immigration to Konoha," Hinata said as she knelt into seiza in front of Ebihara. "I have w-with me the official documentation of those terms. Are you r-ready to make a decision?"

Ebihara licked her lips. "Can… can I see the documentation?"

"Of course," said Hinata. She pulled out a scroll and a piece of paper, unrolling the first after handing the paper to Ebihara. "As you can see, y-you are reading an exact c-copy of the official document."

Ebihara's eyes flicked between the paper and the scroll before she nodded to herself. She read silently, worrying at her lip.

"What is this about a sponsoring family?" Ebihara asked. "I thought…"

"Immigrating shinobi are assigned t-to a sponsor for security purposes," Hinata said, almost reciting. "Your release from confinement h-hinges upon finding a sponsoring f-family first."

"But I don't know anyone in Konoha," said Ebihara. "How am I supposed to get a sponsor?"

"The sponsor can be found at any t-time," Hinata said soothingly. "There are s-several minor clans that have traditionally provided r-room and board in these circumstances. It may t-take a little more time to finalize your immigration, b-but it will happen."

Ebihara looked down at the ground she was sitting on, mouth drawn into a thin, bitter line, before she rolled up the paper copy of her paperwork and tucked it into her clothes.

"I don't have a choice, do I?" Ebihara asked. "Fine then, I accept the terms. At least it's something."

Hinata bowed and rolled the scroll back up. "Very good. I will be sure to c-convey your response to my commander."

Ebihara returned the bow. "Thank you."

Naruto watched silently as Hinata got up and left the cell. Ebihara looked miserable, almost despairing.

"Naruto-kun."

Naruto glanced up. Hinata was looking at him. He looked back at Ebihara once and grit his teeth, then shut the cell door and locked it. She wasn't his problem. He didn't need to bother caring about Ebihara more than making sure she got her meals on time. Right?

Something unpleasant roiled in Naruto's gut. He felt like he should care, even though everyone always said that he wasn't supposed to and didn't need to, at least not beyond his orders and his duties as a ninja.

But what kind of Hokage didn't bother caring about enemy prisoners? It had always been Konoha policy, ever since the First Hokage, that enemy prisoners would at least be given a modicum of mercy. Other villages called Konoha soft-hearted and really, genuinely didn't care about enemy prisoners. If someone from Rock or Cloud managed to take you prisoner, it meant that you either died or were… used.

That meant a lot of things. It meant a lot of really bad things. Hinata-chan wouldn't ever get sent on missions where being captured was a possibility.

Maybe it was a weakness of his. Naruto just needed to toughen up. There was plenty of time to work on it right? He was still pretty young, still a genin…

Hinata taking his hand and pulling him aside roused Naruto from his thoughts.

"Hinata-chan?"

"Naruto-kun," Hinata said quietly. "The last prisoner, um… I n-need to tell you something about him."

"What is it?"

"Ah… he is… he is t-the apprentice of Z-Zabuza," Hinata said. She took a breath. "I—I don't t-think it's good for you t-two to meet. He's…"

Naruto frowned. "Are you saying you want me to stay behind?"

Hinata paused, then nodded. "He's n-not dangerous, so…"

Naruto shifted his weight from foot to foot and grimaced, biting back his instinctive refusal. Hinata-chan had been making her rounds regularly the last few days and he should trust his fellow ninja to know what they were doing. But…

"Alright," Naruto sighed, shoving his hands roughly into his pockets. "Here, uh, lemme give you the key."

He watched as Hinata-chan disappeared down the hallway. The bag on her shoulder slipped a little and she hiked it back up before stopping in front of the last cell. She turned to give Naruto a reassuring smile, then turned back to unlock the cell door. Naruto huffed and turned away to lean on the wall as the door closed. His eyes fell to the ground, wandering between scattered bits of detritus in a futile attempt to distract himself.

A tapping noise intruded. Naruto looked up, tensing before he made himself relax. It was probably just a mouse. He took a step towards the cells and the tapping stopped. Had he scared it? Maybe it was actually one of the prisoners trying to escape. He couldn't hear anything now, which was suspicious, but…

No, no, he was being stupid.

Naruto slouched and returned to his spot on the wall. He glanced down at the door Hinata-chan had gone through, then the opposite way. The chunin guarding the stockade were way better than he was at detecting trouble. If anything bad happened—

The tapping was back. Naruto frowned. Where was it coming from? It had to be close by. It wasn't metallic, so it probably wasn't someone trying to escape, so—

He caught motion out of the corner of his eye and looked down at his right foot. The tapping stopped. Experimentally, Naruto lifted his foot and set it back down again.

The tapping had been his foot the whole time.

Naruto huffed again. How annoying. He turned his back on the end of the hall, folding his arms determinedly, but that just made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He strained his chakra sense to try and feel Hinata-chan's presence, but all he got was a vague glowing sensation. Naruto really needed to get Sayaka to help him. Or Kakashi-sensei. Ugh.

His gaze flitted right, then left, then right again where it focused on the door to Ebihara's cell.

"Hey."

Ebihara looked up at Naruto through the cell bars.

"H-hello?" she asked cautiously.

"You like ramen?" Naruto asked. Ebihara looked back at him like he was insane.

"I—I guess?"

"Ramen's my favorite food," Naruto said. He scuffed the floor underneath his shoes. "I like miso ramen with chashu and wakame. Ir—my sensei makes me add carrots and radish if we're eating together, which is fine I guess. Do you have a favorite ramen flavor?"

Ebihara licked her lips. "…Miso's nice."

"Yeah? You have miso ramen where you come from? Where are you from anyway?"

"Um, I was born in Hidden Mist," Ebihara said, "but I grew up on the run in the Land of Water."

Naruto glanced up at Ebihara through the bars and accidentally met her eyes. As girls went, she wasn't too remarkable. Easily, one would imagine, missed in a bustling street or fading into the background of a busy teahouse.

"Did your parents run from Kiri?"

"Yes. They got caught on the losing side of the last civil war."

"I guess not enough cash to make it down to Konoha?"

Ebihara smiled unkindly. "My father was killed by a Konoha jounin. I was raised by my mother before she died of fever."

Nice.

"I guess this isn't the best arrangement for you then," Naruto said.

"No," said Ebihara. She looked down at her hands.

It wasn't as if there were any other options though. Taking up arms against the daimyo had always been dealt with through execution. There wasn't really any point surrendering if you were a ninja and had participated in open rebellion.

"Did you get a chance to learn from your parents before they died?"

"A bit."

"What sort of things did they teach you?"

"Escape and evasion mostly," said Ebihara. "Some taijutsu. Memorization drills."

"The basics."

"Yes."

Naruto leaned against the cell door. "I never knew my parents. The matron said they were probably killed when the demon fox attacked Konoha, but nobody really knows. Lots of missing records, you know?"

Ebihara shrugged. "Alright."

"How'd you end up working for Gato?"

"Everybody works for Gato sometime or another. He's got the most jobs, that's just how it is."

"You work alone? I'm guessing no."

Ebihara frowned at Naruto. "Why are you asking me so many questions? I already told your intel people all of this."

Naruto shrugged. "Just curious I guess. Bored too."

Ebihara looked up at him silently and blinked.

The door at the end of the hall clanked again. Naruto glanced at Ebihara one last time before drawing away.

"I'm done," said Hinata. She took a deep breath and wiped at her eyes.

"What's wrong?" asked Naruto.

"I'll t-tell you later," Hinata replied. She took a breath, then swallowed. "Let's go."

Naruto frowned and stepped forward anxiously. "Are you sure? Do I need—"

"Later, Naruto-kun," Hinata said. She pushed the key back to him. "W-we need to t-turn this back in. C-come on."


"There's nothing to be done about it," Kakashi said. He set down a small pot of tea onto the table in the barracks room that Team Seven was staying in. "If Haku isn't willing to accept the terms of resettlement, then he's just another insurrectionist criminal."

Hinata folded over a square of origami paper along the diagonal in the first step to making a paper crane. "I u-understand. But…"

"It's the best that we can do, Hinata," Kakashi said heavily. He set down two small teacups, rough but functional, and sat down across from Hinata while the tea steeped. "For now, at least."

Hinata moved her hands in silence, making the folds and creasing the paper until she could place a single crane down on the table next to the teapot.

"It is n-not right," she said with a sigh. "He is a k-kind person who w-wanted the best for p-people close to h-him. To k-kill him because of that is…"

"It is the path we walk," Kakashi said. "We take the same risk and reap the same rewards should we fail in our missions. It is well to remember that the people we fight are not that different from us, but we cannot let mercy prevent us from doing the right thing for the future."

"The future?"

"We cannot trust other nations or other villages to look out for us," Kakashi said. He seemed to sag, tiredly maybe, as if suddenly weighed down by decades of weariness. "In the last war… well, you know the history. You especially know what villages like Cloud will do."

Hinata bit her lip and looked down at the ground. She knew that very well.

"I w-wish that this w-wouldn't happen," she said sadly. "It is n-not a very n-ninja-like thing to s-say, but I s-still wish it."

"Without war, fewer people would die needlessly and parents wouldn't need to bury their children," Kakashi agreed. He sighed, and reached out to begin pouring the tea. "There is no way to stop wars without drowning the world in an ocean of blood. War will not stop unless there is nobody left to wage it. So, then, does the shinobi find themselves called to their duty again and again."

Hinata took one of the cups and took a sip. The characteristic bitterness of poorer-quality tea, harvested from thick and overgrown bushes but much cheaper as a consequence, made her grimace. The smell of toasted rice grains, used to make a supply of tea last longer, helped mask the bitterness a little, but the taste still made her shiver.

She swallowed anyway, then took another sip of tea. The second sip was considerably easier to get down. Not the pleasant sort of drink she would have savored in the Hyuuga compound, but still drinkable. And, well, it helped her feel a little better. Tea was good for that.

"I p-promised to tell Naruto about w-what happened," Hinata said. "He was w-worried."

"That's good," said Kakashi. "I think Naruto would feel the same as you. Do you remember how upset he was about how little action we had taken against Gato?"

Hinata nodded. She took another drink from her cup, and reached the bottom of the cup. "Maybe, w-when we are older, we can try to h-help more. Try to… find a w-way to make war happen l-less often."

Kakashi smiled. His cup had mysteriously emptied while they were talking. "That's a good idea. I'm not sure how much I can help you, since I grew up in war. Maybe, when you get older, you and Naruto can teach me about things like that."

Hinata pressed her lips together in a tight frown. Even if she only counted the shinobi world wars, there hadn't been two full decades of peace in living memory. Years of peace were inevitably spent preparing for years of war. Children were born, grew, went to the Academy, became genin…

As it stood, Hinata doubted she'd ever have the chance to teach Kakashi anything.

"There is still time to think about it," Kakashi said. He sat a little straighter and gave Hinata an encouraging smile. "Talk to your teammates—to Naruto. I'm sure they have thoughts that will help clarify your own."

Hinata thought that sounded wise to her. Her thoughts were too disorganized to act on, too unguided to have any meaning. She needed understanding, and for that she needed time. That was in short supply, as it always was for ninja, but war wasn't here yet, and even if it came it would eventually depart.

As long as she stayed determined, and alive, then one day, maybe, she really could teach Kakashi something.