New world

Hinata was not a warrior by nature. However, we rarely get what we want from life, and Hinata was no different. Being born as heiress of shinobi clan, guaranteed that she had no other choice in life, other than to become a kunoichi. Even the freedom to choose different paths within the kunoichi lifestyle, was mostly taken from her.

She didn't enjoy combat, and didn't have any strong talents when it came to it. Only through hard work and determination she managed to keep her more talented peers within sight. Never able to walk next to them, but stubbornly refusing to let them get too far ahead.

As she aged, matured and gained confidence, she dared to take small steps outside of the path set for her by her birth right. Modifying the traditional Juken to better work with her flexibility and lack of power, developing variations of the clan techniques, even delving into elemental jutsu.

It allowed Hinata to match, and at times overtake her peers. For the first time in her life, she could see the backs of the cream of the crop of their generation, the true geniuses. Neji, Sasuke, Sakura and most importantly, - Naruto.

Then the war happened, redefining the alliances, traditions and the known history itself. The death toll was staggering, well over half of the shinobi in the Alliance perished. Many that Hinata knew personally and shared deep connection with, but they prevailed.

Naruto achieved his dream, and became the Hokage, while Hinata achieved hers - becoming his wife. Soon thereafter, they had two beautiful children: Boruto and Himawari. Taking care of the children took all of Hinata's time, so she retired from the active shinobi duty, while passing the clan heir title to her younger sister. For a time, the world was perfect. Hinata just wished that Naruto had more time for his children.

(*H*)

Then another pair of Otsutsuki showed up. They were even stronger than Kaguya, and only through generous helping of pure luck, they managed to defeat them. This was a wakeup call for the Alliance. In the euphoria of Kaguya's defeat, they forgot, that she was but a single member of big and strong clan.

Knowing, that more of the Otsutsuki members will be on their way, the Alliance pooled their resources together to prepare. Even Hinata resumed her training, and when her children grew up a bit, joined with the hospital. This was something that Hinata enjoyed, and was decently talented in.

With the addition of her perfect chakra control, that surpassed even Sakura's, as well as aid of her Byakugan, she quickly moved through the ranks. It took her only 10 years to become the Head of Konoha Hospital, Sakura decided to focus more on her fighting abilities of late.

It was at this time, that Hinata noticed that she was not aging as fast as her peers. Only Naruto with his Uzumaki vitality, as well as benefits of being a Sage was not showing white hair or age lines yet. It took few years of research to determine the reason.

The fault lay with her Twin Lion Fists jutsu. In her youth, it was developed to refill her comparatively small chakra reserves. The jutsu lived up to her expectations, and became her go to jutsu when faced with strong opponents. Not only was it able to absorb their chakra, weakening them while refilling her own reserves, she could also use it to cause damage, block, and even drain the opponents' jutsu. Perfect all-rounder, if not overly strong in any particular area.

Now she discovered, that the chakra was not the only thing her jutsu stole. It was also stealing the lifeforce of her opponents, giving it to Hinata. Even when used for solo training, she drained it from the environment around her. The effects became apparent, if used for prolonged amounts of time on the same training ground. She seen the effects the jutsu caused in her youth, but miscategorised the damage as caused by the heat emitted by it.

Every medic's goal is to prolong and improve the quality of life of their patients. Being one of the best medics in Elemental Nations, Hinata knew this first hand. Now, faced with the prospects of outliving all of her closest people, she jumped into medical research with renewed vigour.

(*H*)

When the next pair of the Otsutsuki came, the Elemental Nations were better prepared. Even with better training, less dangerous missions and access to much greater library of jutsus, only 1 in 1000 shinobi could achieve S-rank. That was not nearly enough to fight the invaders. Everyone in S-rank and below, were tasked with either evacuation, or damage mitigation duty. Only those who pushed way above S-rank were tasked with handling the threat directly.

There were 2 ranks of those people, Support and Defenders. Hinata was one of the 15 people in Support. They all were strong enough not to get killed in a single exchange with the enemy, but would surely lose when fighting directly.

They only attacked if an opening presented itself, or they had significant advantage in numbers, at least 10 to 1, or the enemy needed to be distracted and delayed, to give main fighting forces time to recover or arrive. They also were tasked with extraction, support and healing of the main fighters, as necessary, but otherwise avoided combat.

The Defenders were those, who were tasked with confronting members of Otsutsuki Clan directly. They were expected to be able to take on invaders one on one, and come up on top, or at least be equally matched. For the third confrontation, there were 4 Defenders.

Despite the newest pair of Otsutsuki being the strongest they faced so far, the significant numbers advantage, as well as decades long preparation led to a decisive victory for the Shinobi Alliance. There were number of areas for improvement, but overall, they were very happy with the results and continued the training programs.

(*H*)

Over the following decades, there was much progress within Elemental Nations. The political situation stable, with no conflicts and wars in over 50 years. With a common, powerful enemy in Otsutsuki, much of the old disputes and grudges were dropped. With reduced violence and secrecy, the chakra saw wider and wider use by the civilian population.

The radio was now used for long distance communication, news, music, and recently there was even introduction of television. The medical field seen the biggest progress, where Hinata was now unquestionably the leader. These days, outside of accidents and combat, it was rare for people to die before their 100th birthday.

The Elemental Nations were experiencing the Golden Age. It lasted until the 4th attack by the Otsutsuki. This time, rather than sending a pair of their members, they came in force. With well over 1000 of them showing up at once. At first, there was still hope that they were clones, or some weird jutsu. When the combat starter, it became clear, they were all legit.

It was a slaughter. With just 50 shinobi of Support rank, and 10 Defenders, the Allied Nations stood no chance. Hinata just recently moved to the Defenders rank, and was considered the weakest member.

While she was not the fastest on her feet, when it came to close combat, no one could match her speed or taijutsu. However, she lacked strong enough technique for a killing strike. Therefore, her role was to deliver series of powerful Juken strikes, that momentary stunned and slowed down her enemies. While not enough to kill or even cause permanent damage, it gave others opportunity to nail her opponents with killing blows.

Being overrun by numbers, Support members didn't last even a minute. The Defenders had an easier time, having far superior teamwork to their opponents. However, it was not nearly enough to offset the numerical advantage of their enemies.

Sasuke was the first one to fall. Due to number of stupid decisions in his youth, he shortened his lifespan significantly. Normally, it would have been a miracle for him to live past his 50th birthday. However, careful care provided by his wife, one of the best medics that Elemental Nations ever seen, helped significantly. Combined with numerous breakthroughs in field of medicine over the decades, allowed him to live to the current age of 93, and even still participate in the battle of this magnitude.

Sakura followed him soon thereafter. Partially due to being distraught by his passing, and partially due to the plentiful use of the Seal of Thousand Rebirths over the years. Even with the relatively good health for their age, and enormous chakra reserves, they simply were not able to maintain this pace of battle for more than a few minutes at a time anymore.

The younger members of the Defenders were picked off one by one over the following few minutes. Only interventions from Naruto saved Hinata on few occasions, when more than one member attacked her at a time. Even Naruto was now starting to show grey hairs, but clearly still had many decades in front of him, if not for the current situation.

Hinata still didn't age much from her early twenties, even though she avoided using her Twin Lion Heads near others in the last 50 years. At the current rate of aging, she was looking at many hundred years of life ahead of her. However, it was moot point in this situation, with only her and Naruto remaining, while they managed to kill only 20 of the 1000+ attacking Otsutsuki.

Seeing Naruto being overwhelmed, and knowing their end was near, Hinata decided to take as many Otsutsuki members out with them as she could. For over 70 years now, she had been working on a powerful, mid to long range attack jutsu. Something that she was severely lacking in, and what kept her back even now.

There were two versions of Bijudamas: one that was an explosive projectile; another, that was a directed beam of destruction. The first one had benefit of scaling, as it was only limited by the amount of chakra you put into it. However, the projectile was somewhat slow, allowing enemies time to escape, and the explosion was omnidirectional, which made it efficient against an army, but very wasteful against a single opponent.

Hinata was more interested in the second version of it. Where the Bijudama was swallowed, triggered, and its explosive power directed in a single direction. It was much harder to dodge and did more damage for the chakra provided. However, even Biju could only scale it so much, any bigger, and they would explode from the inside out.

Clearly, Hinata couldn't swallow and explosive ball of chakra without ending up in pieces. Instead, she created a chakra shell between her hands, the size of bowling ball, and detonated the chakra ball within it. While Hinata learned to emulate all stages of the technique, there were still many issues to solve. She could only reliably use an A-ranked version of it, anything bigger was hard to control, and often ended with need for self-healing, or even ending up in a hospital room.

Now, there was no need for control, just to make blast as big as possible. Seeing Naruto being pierced by 3 different opponents, she put her arms together, instantly creating a dark blue ball of chakra in between. Pumping nearly all of her remaining chakra into it, which was well over 100 times more than she ever dared to use, she detonated the chakra within.

Holding the explosion contained for as long as she could, she allowed it to build its power for more powerful result. As the shell crumbled between her hands, she was startled. Instead of being blasted apart, with everyone nearby within a good radius, she got sucked into the ball, before her world went dark.

(*H*)

When Hinata awoke, the first thing she noticed was the deep tiredness in her bones. It was common for cases of severe chakra exhaustion. Sitting up carefully, she noticed numerous other pains all over her body, associated with bruises and cuts she received in battle. Looking around, she could only see sand as far as eye could see in any direction.

Because of chakra exhaustion, she didn't dare activate the Byakugan and make things worse. Cleaning and wrapping up all of her cuts with bandages, she started to dig into a side of sand dune she was on. It took only a few minutes to get to the hardened sand, that didn't immediately cover what she dug. The digging of the temporary shelter was very menial work, allowing her time to reflect and remember the battle.

The death of Naruto, both of their children, along with grand and grand-grandchildren hit her hard. However, she was an experienced shinobi, who lost many close friends and family over the years. Therefore, kept it all under control, until she was safe. It took her only an hour to dig up a rudimental shelter. Once inside, she grabbed some water and meal from her mission scroll. Laying down on a sleeping bag to recover, she allowed silent tears to run in mourning.

When she woke 10 hours later, according to her internal clock, she reassessed her state. Frowning in concern, she realised that she barely recovered any of her chakra. Even with the chakra exhaustion, she should have recovered about 5% of her full reserves by now. Poking outside her shelter, she frowned again, it was just early dawn, not night as she expected.

Along with lack of Moon in the sky, as well as unusually cold temperature for the desert in the Land of Wind for this time of the year, led her to believe that she was no longer in Elemental Nations. From what she remembered from the end of the battle, Hinata deduced, that she somehow poked a hole in the space time and got transported to another dimension.

Ever since the fight with Kaguya, all those years ago, the knowledge about existence of other dimensions was confirmed. Sasuke could even travel between a few, but it strained his eyes and chakra, so Sakura forbit him from using that ability outside of life-or-death situations. Those dimensions he had been to and talked about, were not a very hospitable places to travel to.

At least, Otsutsukis have not followed her here. This gave her some hope, not that it was much comfort to her at this moment. They talked with Naruto a lot about life and death, as early death was ever present possibility for any shinobi. They agreed, that if one of them was to perish, while the other survived, they will go on with their life, and make the most out of it.

Now, that it was no longer just hypothetical scenario, it was harder to swallow. Still, they both promised each other, and they didn't go back on their promises, it was their Nindo. Deciding that the area she was in was safe enough, Hinata grabbed some more food and water, before going back to sleep.

(*H*)

Few days later, her chakra was still nowhere near recovered. While normally she could recover 100% of her chakra in a day, she was recovering less than 1% a day here. Part of it was due to chakra exhaustion, which slowed down the chakra generation for about two weeks, but even without it, she didn't think she would be recovering more than 1% a day in this place.

She had her suspicions about the cause, but it was time to confirm them. She didn't exactly pack for a long mission, so her supplies were nearly gone. Activating her Byakugan with the minimum amount of chakra she could, she looked around. Confirming, that this dimension was devoid of any chakra in the environment. While she was in this dimension, she would have to only rely on the chakra that her body was generating.

Sighing, she pushed her Byakugan to their limit and looked around. Hinata had the longest range of vision of any Hyuga by a long shot, and in this chakra devoid environment, it seems to go even further. Deactivating her eyes, to preserve chakra, she packed and ran in the direction of minuscule sized oasis at the edge of her range.

It was nothing more than a small puddle of water, but it was the only non-sand thing she could see in 300 kilometres radius. Without using chakra, it took her 10 hours to traverse the distance. Activating her Byakugan, she spotted two more puddles about 150 degrees apart 250 and 300 kilometres away.

Choosing the one that was further away, due to it being slightly bigger, she spent another 10 hours getting to it. Being tired from travelling all day, and not wanting to stress her chakra system any more today, she dug another shelter nearby and went to sleep.

Next day was spent in much the same way. Whatever this place was, it had distinct scarcity of water, and she haven't seen anything alive yet, which started to worry her. It was in the middle of the third day, that she finally saw much bigger oasis with some greenery, and some people 200 kilometres away.

What she saw of them so far, didn't leave her feeling very enthusiastic about approaching them. She decided to stay the day at her current place, and travel to the oasis in the morning.

Early next morning, she travelled to the big oasis. It was few kilometres across and didn't have any open sources of water. The ground, however, was clearly water logged, with all of the grass and trees growing here. In the middle of the oasis stood a decently sized pyramid, with number of small houses around it. In front of the pyramid, maybe 300 meters away, stood a metallic looking arch on a podium, perhaps some sort of cultural monument.

All in all, the village had maybe 250 people living in it. Most of the population were clearly living in extreme poverty, with the leader and his guards doing much better. From what she saw, the poor people were not treated very well either. It looked like they were either prisoners or slaves. Hinata wanted to interfere, but she didn't know all the fact yet, so for now she just observed them from the shadows.

When the dawn started, she grabbed some samples of all of the wild plants, some tree saplings and samples of crops from the farms. Lastly, she caught a wild rabbit and collected some firewood, before retreating from the oasis to her old camp, 200 kilometres away.

Once at the camp, she set up about cooking the rabbit. Her food supplies ended the other day, so she was quite hungry. While the rabbit was cooking, she used 20% of chakra she recovered today, to convert it into permanent water.

It took significantly more chakra to create water, instead of manipulating existing water, or to draw water from the atmosphere. However, the planet clearly could use more water, even if it was just a few cubic meters of it. It was much more water than the puddle contained, but majority of it got absorbed by the ground, leading to only slight increase of the puddle size.

After that, she went about planting the plants she collected some distance from the water, using the rabbit guts as fertiliser. By the time her food was ready, it was late night.

Next day, she stayed at her camp to tend to her greenery, making sure it took to the new area. As there was not much more to do, she spent her time thinking about her current situation, and deciding how to proceed. The main issue was that she didn't know the language, that people here used. It was also a very small settlement, making it impossible for her to blend in with the locals.

The supplies, even at the big oasis were very limited. She didn't know, if she should stay here, or try to search for another settlement. Considering the scarcity of life she witnessed across over 1500 kilometres journey, she was not very optimistic about finding another settlement until she recovered. Even then, she didn't expect it to be much bigger than this one.

In the end, she decided to stay around, until she recovered. Every couple of days, she travelled to the village. Staying in the shadows, she observed the locals, trying to learn their language and deduct more about them. On the way back, she would grab more greenery to add to her steadily growing oasis as well as something to keep her fed for a few days.

(*H*)

It was 5 weeks later, that she saw a villager and a guard leave the oasis, seemingly going into the desert. Hinata was curious where they were going, and a little worried, as she couldn't see anything in the direction they were moving. Deciding to shadow them, she followed them from the distance.

It was on the second day, that the civilian woman collapsed onto the sand. The male guard forced her to carry all of their provisions, except of his staff, and didn't allow her to drink any of their water. Even before they left, it was clear that the woman was malnourished, it was no wonder that she didn't last long. After the man failed to wake her up, he took all of their supplies and left her in the sand.

Once he was good distance away, Hinata approached the woman, and found her exhausted and dehydrated, but alive. Using one of her medical stasis scrolls, Hinata sealed the woman into it. It was one of the more recent inventions in the Elemental Nations, which allowed safe carry of highly injured people, with no risks of them dying or aggravating their injuries.

It took 7 more days, for the man to succumb to the harsh environment. Picking him up into another seal on the same scroll, Hinata made her way back to the main oasis. Grabbing some food for herself and her 'guests', as well as more greenery to plant, she left to her own oasis.

The once small puddle, not even a meter across, was now a small lake, 10 meters across. Another 50 meters from its banks, there were plots of sparce greenery planted. It would take years for the grasses to cover the land, and 10+ years for the sapling to become trees of any use. Interestingly enough, the trees here were not the ones common to deserts back in Elemental Nations, but those seen in temperate climates.

Unsealing her guests in a stone hut, she constructed few hundred meters from the lake, she gave them both some water and ran diagnostics jutsu. The woman was as she expected. Exhausted, malnourished, dehydrated. The man had all of the same symptoms, other than malnourishment, but there was also some sort of pouch in his abdomen.

Inside it, there was some sort of fish, snake, bug, worm, thing? She never encountered something like that before, but decided to ignore it for now, as it clearly didn't affect the man negatively. Medic in her wanted to study it in details, and also squealed at the opportunity to study her own chakra exhaustion in chakra free environment.

However, the shinobi in her was annoyed, even now, she only had 20% of her maximum chakra reserves recovered. It seems, even chakra exhaustion was slower to pass in this environment. What should have passed in 2 weeks, was only now starting to abate after 6 weeks. Sighing, she left her guests to recover, put some food to slowly cook, and went to plant the newest batch of greenery.

Later, she heard a voice shouting at her. Looking to her side, she saw the man she rescued standing few meters away from her, pointing his staff at her. Hinata raised an eyebrow at him, surprised that he was already up. She turned back to finish planting the sapling, then stood up and looked at the man.

"Hello, my name is Hinata, who are you?" she asked. The man continued to shout something and point his staff at her with a threat. Not impressed with her guest, she tried simpler introduction.

"Hinata" she pointed at herself, then indicated at him. Doing it a few times, to make sure he understood. However, he didn't seem to want the dialogue. He continued to shout at her, and then the tip of the staff started to spark before a slow projectile flew just half a meter to her left. Watching the projectile, Hinata saw it explode when it touched the surface of the lake behind her.

It was very similar it looks and power to the projectiles from Katon Housenka no Jutsu, but with a dash of lighting mixed in with the fire. Turning back to the man, Hinata raised unimpressed eyebrow at him. Then tried to start introduction again.

Seeing the man ready to fire the staff at her, and not wanting him to hit any of her plants, she closed the distance in a blink of an eye. A lighting fast poke to the shoulder disabled his dominant arm, then unpowered palm strike sent him skipping the sand, while her other hand caught his falling staff.

Looking at the man, who was having hard time recovering from such light hit, Hinata shook her head and turned her attention to the staff. It was interesting how it could produce such projectiles, without using chakra. Repeating the actions of the man, Hinata pointed the staff at a sand dune to her right and pressed the trigger. Watching the projectile, she pressed the trigger a few more times, trying to judge the firing rate and the accuracy of the weapon.

As far as civilian weapons went in Elemental Nations, it was quite impressive, but nothing compared to shinobi weapons. Turning back to the man, who unsteadily stood on his feet, holding the shoulder of his disabled hand, watching her warily, she tried the introduction once more.

This time she was rewarded with a reply "Delek".

"See, it was not that hard" she told him with a smile. "Now back to bed, you are still recovering" she said with practiced medic voice, pointing back to the stone hut. As they walked, the man kept giving her wary glances, which she ignored.

Once inside the hut she pointed him to the stone cup and bucked in corner on a table. "Drink" she told him, placing the staff against the wall in same place as last time. Rolling eyes at his confused look, she showed him motion of drinking. He warily approached the table, took the cup and filled it with water before uncertainly presenting it to her. Sighing in exasperation at the ridiculousness of not being able to communicate, she indicated for him to drink. He was the one who was dehydrated, honestly!

Once he drank it, she indicated for him to lay down. Then started to scan him again. Seeing her hands light up green, he stiffed and seem to have forgot to breath. Hinata was impressed at his speed of recovery, while not on the same level as Naruto's, it was much faster than normal. Another good night of sleep, and he would be fine. There were no broken bones or cracks from the fall, but he still would have a nasty bruise from where she hit him. She decided to leave it as a lesson.

Giving him indication to stay down, she went to check on the woman. Once done, she made her drink some water, before leaving to check on their supper. The sun was just now starting to go down. It was another interesting thing about this planet, the days here seem to last around 28 hours.

It took another hour for the supper to be ready. Meanwhile, Hinata finished planting new plants and watched the sunset. Once it was ready, she went to get the man, who was lying in exact position she left him in, looking at her warily. Indicating for him to go outside, she kneeled near the woman, and woke her up with a small chakra jolt.

The startled woman looked around in fear, before focusing on Hinata. Plastering a friendly smile on her face, she indicated at herself and said "Hinata", then indicated to the woman to introduce herself. It took only a few tries before the woman responded with barely audible "Elen". Satisfied with the answer, Hinata indicated for her to get up.

Getting the bucked with water, as well as couple of stone plates, cups and wooden chopsticks, she left the hut with Elen following her warily. Once Elen seen Derek, she stiffed and dropped her eyes to the ground. Hinata ignored both, and went about dividing food between the plates. Looking at the duo, who were quietly whispering something, she called "Derek, here, Elen here" she pointed where each of them to sit.

Once they sat, she gave each of them a plate with food, cup of water and chopsticks. Taking one of each for herself, she sat, said "Itadakimasu" and started to eat her portion. Minutes later, she noticed that they haven't started and were confusedly watching her. Indicating for to get started, she was privy to watching in amusement as they tried to eat with chopsticks. Clearly, they have never used chopsticks before.

Sighing in exasperation, she put her plate to a side, took their chopsticks from them and spent next few minutes modifying them with a help of kunai into the utensils she saw used in their village. Getting a thankful smile from the woman, when she presented them with the rough approximation, she went back to her own plate. If they wanted better ones, they could make them themselves, she was a healer, not a babysitter.

Once the silent dinner was over, Hinata washed her plate and chopstick using water from the bucket. Her guests following her actions, with the man clearly struggling with the task. Looking at her stone hut, she didn't particularly want to share it with 2 locals, who didn't wash in days.

Walking towards it, she indicated them to stay back, went through few hand seals and concentrated. Connecting to the bedrock under the sand, she started to mould it and soon thereafter, it flowed all the way to the surface and started to take the shape of the 2 similar huts to her own. It took only few minutes, but now there were 3 nearly identical stone huts with shared walls.

Next, a stone barrel raised in front of Hinata, as well as 2 more stone buckets. Letting the stone go, she used few more hand seals, put her hands over the barrel, palms facing each other. Concentrated, and soon a ball of water started to form between her palms, growing as she brought her hands apart. When she judged it being big enough, she let the ball of water drop, and fill the barrel.

Picking up the empty buckets, she turned to her stunned guests. Thrusting one into the hands of the woman, she indicated to the house left of her own "Elen" she said. Doing the same with the male, while pointing to the right house. She picked up the original bucket and refilled its water from the barrel. Showing the guests that the water in the barrel was for drinking, then left to her own house. Picking up the straw she used to lay down her guests, she delivered a handful to each of the houses for them to sleep on and turned in for the night.

(*H*)

Over the next few months, Hinata learned some of the language the locals were speaking, as well as other interesting information. Like that ring monument being some sort of transportation device, that could take people and items to different planets. The talks about Gods were concerning, given Hinata's experience with Otsutsuki.

Having rudimental understanding of language also helped her with her scouting mission to the village and learning a lot about the society. Interestingly enough, neither Elen or Delek, could read or write. However, there were some writings on the walls in the pyramid. From what she understood, only some rare Jaffa could read, usually those close to the 'Gods'.

Obviously, the 'Gods' could read, write and use all of the technology. Well, the last one was more described as being result of their godly powers, but Hinata could read between the lines. As she had feared, the civilians were slaves, and apparently that was very common in this galaxy. Hinata wished to free them, but at this moment, she struggled to provide for the 3 of them, much less a few hundreds, or millions if she were to use the gates to go to the more populated systems.

On the positive note, she finally recovered her full chakra reserves. Allowing her to use 100% of her daily recovery rate to produce significantly more water, up to 100 cubic meters per day. This allowed the once small lake to grow to be 70 meters across. The grounds surrounding the lake were also better water-logged now, reducing the need to regularly water the plants.

Even more importantly, in this time they collected the first harvest. It was far from impressive, since Hinata didn't want to tax already strained community by stealing lots of their crops. However, now that they replanted it all, the next harvest would be much more substantial. Meanwhile, they were mostly surviving on the diet of wild plants meshed with help of medical ninjutsu into digestible and healthy enough sustenance. It was not very tasty, but it was necessary evil in their situation.

Rabbit stew was a rare treat, as their population was very low and the firewood for cooking was very limited. Even with thousands of saplings planted, none of them reached above knee high yet, so wood was going to be a constant struggle for years to come.

Soon after the harvest, was a common period to send the tax payments to the higher standing Goa'uld. Therefore, Hinata stalked the village more than normal, and managed to witness the event. It was interesting to see, but also disturbing. In addition to part of their crops, it looked like some of the slaves were also send over. Hinata didn't dare to try to enter the gates, but made sure to remember how it was activated and which symbols were pressed.

Meanwhile, she continued to learn the language and prepare to receive more people, while Elen and reluctant Delek were tending to the plants. Hinata also made both of them practice with the staff weapon, making sure that they both could at least shot the static targets somewhat accurately. Despite everything, Hinata was enjoying her time here. There was just something very satisfying about seeing her little oasis growing. Bringing life to this previously dead place.

(*H*)

It was finally time to do something about the slavery on this planet. It took 6 months, but the second harvest was finished, and the payments were yet to be done. Hinata had no intentions of letting the transaction go through. Not only was it valuable food better used to feed the locals, but she didn't want any more people sent off world, outside of her current reach.

According to her companions, the payments need to be met every harvest. Which meant once a year for most worlds, but since they were in equatorial region with 2 harvests per year, they had to pay twice. Probably some sort of punishment to the ruling Goa'uld of this world. It was why he sent Elen and Delek into the desert.

Every couple of years, he sent scouts to find more oases, to expand his base of operation and income. True enough, after searching the sands near the village, Hinate was able to recover 31 staff weapons that were still in good shape. It was sad to see, but there was nothing she could do for those people, they were long dead.

From what she understood, not all the food and people sent over were taxes, some were exchanged for items and minerals not available on this world. Granted, her guests were not privy to all of the information of the Goa'uld, but that was general word of the mouth of villagers for generations now, which made sense to Hinata.

In the middle of the night, Hinata snuck into the village and performed a series of hand seals, casting a sleeping genjutu over the area. Few who were not yet asleep, soon succumbed to it. She tested it earlier on her companions, and while more challenging to use on people without chakra network, it was possible.

Over the next few hours, she moved all of the people, and stripped the place of anything of value, even wooden doors from the houses, rope and bucked from the well, and gold from the walls of the temple. Her Byakugan made sure, even the hidden places were raided, leaving the village barren. The most valuable and fragile looking things were sealed into a scroll. Space in it was limited, so most of the stuff and people were placed onto a stone platform just outside of the oasis, that she created earlier.

Giving the village last look over with her Byakugan, she made some hand seals, concentrated, and the stone platform arose from the ground, flying in the direction of her oasis. It took close to ten hours to reach it, as she couldn't go too fast, or people and things would start flying off, blown away by the wind. She learned the self-flying trick from Gaara many years ago.

Landing the platform in front of wide eyed Delek and Elen, she just rolled her eyes. People here were too easily impressed. She didn't even use anything really flashy yet. Not that she would, without cause. She didn't want to wait on her chakra to recover for months again. Turning around to the rows of sleeping people, she cancelled the genjutsu, and watched as they started to wake up and look around in confusion and fear.

"Welcome, welcome to the Lake City" she greeted loudly, gathering attention to herself. It was by no means city yet, but she was hoping it would grow over time into one.

Moments later, the Goa'uld pushed his way in front of the crowd. "Who dares to attack God Cyrus?" he asked with self-importance, his eyes glowing yellow.

"My name is Hinata, I am in charge here. There are no Gods in Lake City. There are no Slaves in Lake City. Humans, Jaffa, Goa'uld are all equal here" she announced. Making people look around uncertainly.

"Capture that fool" ordered Cyrus.

Seeing the number of Jaffa following the order, she sighed, then in a blink of an eye, she closed the distance. In less than 3 seconds, all 12 of them were on the ground, with Hinata standing eye to eye with the self-proclaimed God, who took a step back in alarm, as did number of other people nearby.

"Listen here, Cyrus. I am not fan of self-proclaimed Gods, or those who mistreat and enslave others. You still have your freedom and life, so I suggest you behave, or I may change my mind about giving you either" she threatened.

Her message didn't seem to penetrate his skull and he attacked her with fast, for civilian, strikes. Ducking under the haymaker, she delivered number of fast, light Juken strikes, paralysing him and making him drop to the ground like a bag of potatoes.

Hearing the crackling of staff weapons, she turned to pair of Jaffa warriors, who picked them from the pile on the platform, and were pointing them at her. Aware of the civilians behind her, rather than dodge, Hinata formed pair of small Lion Head Fists around her arms and intercepted the projectiles. Closing the distance to the warriors, she delivered unpowered palm strikes to both of them, making them fly away, skipping the sand.

Ducking an attack from behind, she stuck her elbow into man's abdomen, making him drop to the ground. In the same movement she spun around and delivered a Juken poke to another attacker's neck.

Turning to the standing villagers, who moved a few more steps back, she surveyed the crowd for a moment, making many of them very nervous. "Anyone else wants to fight?" she asked.

No one made any movements in the next few moments, except for the 17 downed men and women, who were softly moaning in pain. She hit them harder than she hit Delek when they met, knowing now that Jaffa and Goa'uld were tougher than civilians. However, she made sure not to knock any of them out, so they could learn the lesson faster, and she didn't have to educate them again.

Spotting few Jaffa who didn't join the fight, Hinata remembered their faces. They were either smarter about attacking her after the initial display, or less fanatical followers of Cyrus.

"Good. Behind me to your right, you can see numerous empty houses, choose the one you like, and move in. Around you are all of your belongings, you have rest of today to move into the house of your choosing. If you have questions, you can ask myself, Elen or Delek. I am sure you recognise them" she indicated the two behind her.

Turning to her two companions, she gave them their own instructions. "You two will help me move the staff weapons to the armoury, and their harvests to the food storage warehouse."

While most people started to look around the platform, trying to locate their measly possessions, few went to help the downed Goa'uld and Jaffa. "Leave them. They will be fine in a few hours" she commanded.

It was interesting to see the startled expressions on people face, when they saw lake for the first time. It was not visible from stone platform they arrived on, hidden by a sand dune. Most of them never seen any significant body of water.

(*H*)

Integration of so many new people was not easy. Goa'uld proved in particularly difficult, with many Jaffa and some villagers following him blindly. Hinata had been forced to imprison him for 3 days, when he assaulted Delek on the second day.

A week later, the tax collectors arrived to find empty village. They instantly went on guard, and sent some Jaffa to scout the temple and the village. Finding nothing, they left and have yet to return.

When Hinata returned to her oasis, she was faced with full blown revolt by the Goa'uld, most of his Jaffa and maybe 50 villagers, who took advantage of her absence. It took less than 5 minutes for Hinata to restore order. As no one was serious hurt, and there was no significant damage to the oasis, she let it slide lightly.

Cyrus got 30 days of imprisonment for that stunt. Those who helped him with weapons, which was pretty much just Jaffa, got a week imprisonment. Few villagers, who participated fists swinging, got a 3-day confinement. All of the others involved were subjected to some harsh words.

Maybe two weeks after the tax collectors left, another Goa'uld came with his Jaffa and Slaves to resettle the abandoned village. It was not that unexpected, but Hinata didn't expect it to happen so soon. There was no way she could host another 200 people right now.

Much like with her original guests, Hinata had everyone work on replanting the fields and taking care of the saplings, grasses and recently added rabbit enclosure. The Goa'uld and Jaffa were strongly resistant to the idea, but a few light Juken strikes, as encouragement, worked wonders.

She also had all the villagers use firing range to learn to fire the staff weapons. With such low population and such numerous, powerful enemies, it was important that everyone knew how to use the weapons. Even if they were overwhelmed and enslaved again, they at least will have an option of overpowering their guards and use the weapons to aid in their escape.

It was also important to establish that everyone was equal, and have them work side by side, to erase the culture of segmentation and subjugation. Many actively resisted the changes, but Hinata hoped that over time, changes will stick.

Only one of the Jaffa, who was not a fanatical supporter of Cyrus, knew some basic reading and writing. It took time, but Hinata was able to persuade him to teach it. She had spent lots of time observing villagers, back when they were slaves, and since they were relocated. Picking up a few of the brighter and curiouser ones, she had them join her in learning the Goa'uld reading and writing.

However, the lifetime of malnourishment, suppression and punishments for any sort of initiative didn't go unnoticed. Even the brighter people were struggling to grasp the skills. It didn't help that they didn't have any books, paper, ink or other easy ways to learn. They were quite literally learning to read and write drawing in the sand.

As Hinata learned and grasped the language better, she started to create stone tablets with the basic concepts written on them. It helped significantly, as now people could associate the specific words or concepts with an actual physical object, which they could always glance at as reminder.

Second 'defecting' Jaffa, who knew some reading and writing, was also very helpful. While most of their knowledge overlapped, with some disagreements about how some words were written, they also had small subsections of language, that only one of them knew.

Food preparations were another big challenge. The biggest trees in their oasis were only waist high, and Hinata couldn't raid the original oasis for firewood, without causing significant problems for the new villagers. Each citizen of Lake City was given a small bowl of grains every day, to do with as they will. However, there was only one technological cooking device, that was liberated from the pyramid and used to cook food for the Cyrus in the past.

It was not nearly big enough to cook for everyone, even if used 28 hours a day. Therefore, Hinata has been forced to construct two rows of stone ovens, that were positioned back-to-back. Below and between the ovens space was filled with packed sand, and below them was an empty space. Every morning, Hinata blew a Katon jutsu into the empty space, at temperature just shy of melting the sand.

It took around 10 minutes to provide enough heat for the oven, then she covered the opening with a stone slab to keep the heat in. After that, it took an hour for the heat to start seeping into the oven space. Around 20 minutes later, the space in the ovens was hot enough to cook for 2 hours. Any additional cooking needs were to be done on the Goa'uld cooking device.

Only two of the villagers knew how to use it, and were some of the more fanatical believers into Cyrus divinity, as they were trusted to cook for him. Once more, it took lots of efforts from Hinata to ensure that the device was not monopolised by them, and to encourage other people to use the device.

Speaking of the Goa'uld. As Hinata was powering up the ovens, she sensed an attack coming from behind. In the very last moment, she let the jutsu go and shifted to the right. Watching the worm, snake, bug, fish thingy fly through the space she occupied a moment ago. As it landed onto the hot sand, it started to sizzle, roll around and emit ungodly shriek.

Lucky for it, it didn't go too far into the furnace, and rolled in the right direction to exit. Once it was out of the oven, it continued to roll for a while in the cold sand, with easily visible burns on its body. Turning her eyes away from the worm, Hinata looked behind her, to see the Cyrus body lying in the sand. Going over to it, she ran a diagnostics jutsu to find him dead.

Concentrating, she started to heal the damage the worm did to the body while exiting. As she worked, she sensed the worm launching at her again. Not impressed by its abilities to learn, Hinata snapped her arm behind her without even looking. Sending the worm flying away from her, to land limb in the sand.

When the damaged tissue was repaired, Hinata used some water to leach many toxins from the man's bloodstream. Another minute was spent to fix any damage the toxins did, then she jolted his heart with an electric shock from her fingers, until it started beating. Putting her hands at either side of the man's head, she started to work on fixing the damage, as well as bringing the consciousness out from the very deep corner it had been pushed into.

It took a minute, but the man's eyes tiredly opened with look of pain and confusion. "Rest" said satisfied Hinata, pressing her finger to his forehead, putting him to sleep. Looking at the gathered crowd, she spotted a pair of Jaffa that were less troublesome. "Delek and Adam, please take this man to Cyrus's house to recover" she commanded them.

"Cyrus, I presume?" she turned to the worm, that was weakly moving in the sand. "I must admit, I was not sure if the worm was separate intelligent entity, or just a symbiote, used by some humans to strengthen themselves. Thank you for clarifying it for me" she told him.

Running diagnostics jutsu over the worm, she found its biology fascinating, unlike anything she seen in Elemental Nations. However, one thing stood out to her, it was clearly an aquatic creature, and it was now suffocating in the air. Grabbing a stone bucket nearby, she filled it with water and put Cyrus into it. It took only a minute for it to seemingly catch its breath.

"Goa'uld Cyrus. For attempted murder of your previous host, as well as for attempting to take on another intelligent host, I hereby sentenced you to 55 years in prison" she told him. Making a few hand seals, she made the bucket grow a mesh of stone bars over the top. Ensured that Cyrus will not go anywhere for now, she went back to heating up the ovens. Excitement made people hungry.

Now that their city had its first long term prisoner, Hinata couldn't just keep him contained in his own home with some stone bars, like she did before. Therefore, after breakfast, she moved to a plot of land some distance away from people homes, and started to build a dedicated prison facility.

It was split into two areas. One, dedicated to Human and Jaffa prisoners. Another, to aquatic Goa'uld prisoners. It had only 10 cells of each type, with some common areas to stretch their feet or fins as it was. For now, it was more than sufficient, and if needed, there was enough room to expand the facility. With just one prisoner, there was no need for guards, or to prevent the zealots from visiting their worm lord. Already more and more people were turning away from Cyrus. It was only matter of time, until he would be powerless in the Lake City.

(*H*)

Hinata had been very satisfied about the progress in the Lake City. The people seem happier than ever, and even the local economy was starting to take off.

There was no official currency, and no real materials or technology to make some, so the grains people got daily were used for bartering. The amounts each person got, was just enough to keep them fed. It was more than villagers were used to from their time as slaves, but not so much for Jaffa. When you also consider that Jaffa didn't know how to cook, it made for some unhappy warriors for a time.

However, hunger is a great teacher, and when the Juken discouraged them from bulling the villagers, they started to smarten up. Some started to learn to cook, others, traded their grains for the smaller amount of prepared food from the villagers. Seeing lack of discouragement, for mostly under the table deals, they started to do them more openly.

Eventually, some villagers approached Hinata about getting some of the beans and cotton from the storage. Which Hinata was happy to trade them for grains. The rabbits were also up for purchase, but were quite expensive, as they didn't have big enough population of them in the enclosure yet.

Trying to encourage the good behaviours, Hinata paid the Jaffa language teaches in grain for their lessons, which was one of the main reasons for the second learned Jaffa 'defection'. Those who could prove that they could read and write Goa'uld language, also got more grains in their daily allowance. This encouraged more people to attend language lessons. Another way to get more 'currency' was to prove your proficiency with staff weapons, which was retested monthly, to ensure people didn't get rusty.

All in all, progress was being made, even if Hinata still worried a lot about their future. Their food supplies were not secure yet, they were only one bad harvest, or burned field away from famine. This was why Hinata had been pushing for expanding the farm areas, even if it required extensive irrigation. The lake had already filled the whole area that Hinata initially designated for it, and was over 100 meters across.

For now, they had been digging some channels for water to fill, to irrigate the surrounding areas. It was working so far, but Hinata knew, that there was only so much water she could generate in a day. They would hit the maximum coverage area soon, and was looking for potential solutions. There were some underground water reservoirs, that were sources of the small water puddles on the surface, that she observed.

If there was a crack in the stone, and sufficient amount of pressure from the ground above, then the water was squeezed through the crack to the surface. Much like an enormous pimple. However, that water was quite deep underground, and there was not enough of it to be sustainable. Any solution, that required the use of chakra, no matter how little, was not sustainable. She was not all powerful, especially in this dimension.

(*H*)

Her little city was just stabilizing, but it was time to throw the balance into disarray once more. The new harvest had been collected, and it was time to liberate the new batch of people. Much like the last time, she came in the middle of the night, and put them all to sleep, before stripping the village of anything of value.

When she landed back at Lake City, it was before astonished eyes of numerous citizens. Now, that she had a good amount of semi loyal people of her own, it was no longer necessary to put on a show of power, like the last time.

"Pick up all of the weapons, and take them to the armoury. Place the cooking device near ours, and take the food to the food storage warehouse" she commanded her people. If they wanted to gawk, they could at least be helpful. It took a few trips, but soon thereafter, all of her instructions were complete. Only then did she wake up the new citizens.

"Welcome, welcome to the Lake City" she greeted the new arrivals. Turning their attention to her and the citizens standing behind her.

"Who dares to attack God Nanus?" asked the Goa'uld, making Hinata roll her eyes. She had a feeling, that this was going to be common situation, when dealing with his kind.

"My name is Hinata, I am in charge here. We do not have Gods, or Slaves in Lake City. Goa'uld, Jaffa and Humans are all given equal opportunities to make something worthwhile out of their life" she told them.

"You would defy the Gods?" he asked with a threat, eyes glowing.

"Speaking off Goa'uld. It is forbidden to take on intelligent host within my lands. You can take on any wild, or personally owned animal as a host, or live in the lake and waterways of the city" she told him.

"I would not be disrespected so. Arrest that shol'va" he ordered his Jaffa.

Hinata sighed, and then spend next few seconds disabling every Jaffa who moved to follow the orders. Turning to the alarmed Goa'uld, she looked straight into his eyes.

"If you do not release the host willingly, I would remove you by force, and put you in prison for a year" she threatened.

When he refused, she proceeded to do just that. She knocked out the host and the symbiote with well placed, light Juken strikes. She didn't want for it to cause any serious damage to the host, like Cyrus done. Once she removed the worm into a bucket, she turned to her own people.

"Take this man to one of the empty houses", she indicated to the host. "And put Goa'uld Nanus, into a cell next to Goa'uld Cyrus, I am sure they will have much to talk about." Turning to the new arrivals, she surveyed their fearful stances for a moment.

"Behind me, there are number of empty houses. Around you are all of your possessions. You have rest of today, to move into any empty house you want. If you have any questions, you can ask myself, or any of the people behind me" she told them and left.

It was time for her to fire the ovens anyway. At least, the food situation was getting better. Even with expanded payoff to number of people who demonstrated their proficiency in reading, writing, or staff weapon firing, the stockpile of food was healthy. All thanks to the irrigation and planting much more food, that their population needed during last season.

(*H*)

When tax collectors came, they found the place deserted once more. Much like the last time, it didn't take long for another batch of people to show up. Amusingly, they had nearly 50 Jaffa this time, rather than previous 20-25. This put more pressure on the villagers, but the Goa'uld proved that they could at least plan somewhat, and brought more food with them this time.

Week before the harvest, another batch of Jaffa showed up. These ones, laid the trap around the gate. Hinata had good time watching them bored out of their minds, waiting for her to show up. Not that it made any difference. None of them knew what happened, until they woke up on the stone platform at the outskirt of the Lake City.

The Goa'uld Termak proven to be slightly smarter, than the other two. After the usual show of power, he reluctantly, but willingly, surrendered his host. However, a week later, he possessed his Lo'taur and with the help of nearly 20 of his Jaffa, fled the oasis.

He clearly recognised that he was no match for Hinata, so tried to escape with the information. Too bad he left in the wrong direction, and Hinata was aware of their plan the whole time. As they did it all quietly, without causing harm to others or to property, she let them have their fun. She also thought it would be good lesson for the zealot Lo'taur to see, what her God really was, and how much her devotion meant to him.

It took two weeks to pick up the last of the dehydrated runners. Because of the way they went about their escape, Hinata was very lenient on them. The Goa'uld got 5 years in prison, for taking on an intelligent host, even if the host was willing. Wishes of a young woman, who spent her whole life being brainwashed for that moment, didn't really count for much in Hinata's book.

The Jaffa and the woman all got only a month of prison. For aiding Goa'uld in breaking the law, and stealing the weapons from the armoury. That warranted the expansion of the land side of the prison, as well as hiring of 2 guards and 2 cooks for a month. However, there was no shortage of people who wished to earn more grain on a side. The economy was expanding, and now people were also starting to trade handmade clothes, there were few small food stalls, and even some experimental drinks were starting to show up.

There was also a small health clinic, controlled by the previous host of Cyrus, man named Juath. Hinata had taught him some first aid, and they now had a single Healing Device, liberated from the Goa'uld Nanus. Much like with education and fighting, healing was another activity that would earn you some extra grains.

(*H*)

Hinata couldn't believe, that it was two years since she got to this dimension. Time flies when you are busy. The Lake City has been doing great, with over 700 citizens, it was approaching the size, when it really could be called City. However, they already reached the maximum expansion size to their farming areas. While still producing more food that they consumed, it was not by that much.

Another influx of villagers, and that would be it, until they found better access to water. Hinata had scouted for thousands of kilometres around, but couldn't find any other oases, or significant bodies of water. They may have to use the Chappa'ai gates to find another planet to relocate to, find trading partners, or take over some better planet from Goa'uld.

While all of her people could handle staff weapons, most of them were not warriors, and even her Jaffa were only marginally better than their counterparts. They also had only around 150 staff weapons, so the amount of power they could project was minimal.

They were not a threat, even to a minor Goa'uld. From what she understood, the planet they were on – Lucene, was an exception, to the general size of populations each Goa'uld controlled. Even minor Goa'uld planets had populations in tens of thousands. Lucene also didn't have any working mines or known deposits of Naquadah, or less valuable minerals.

Reading between the lines, this was a token world. Making Goa'uld who owned it seem powerful on paper, but actually kept them weak, with little to no way to move forward. Given to the Goa'uld, who were too useful to kill, but too dangerous to be given any real power. Or simply as humiliation tool, against Goa'uld that earned their overlord's ire.