Hyugas and Meetings

"Look it's that boy." A civilian's parent had said.

"What's he doing in front of the school?" another had asked.

"Hurry up! Don't make eye contact." Another parent warned.

'Do they think that I can't hear them or something?' I thought cynically as I waited for Sakura in front of the school. The reason being that if Iruka or any of the other teachers caught me handing Sakura the salves they would immediately think that it's a prank and they wouldn't use the salves. But in hindsight I'd be willing to risk it if it meant staying away from these Kami damn civilian ASSHOLES! I get it you don't like me just shut up about it! Thankfully however a head of pink hair appeared out of the crowd to end my suffering "Hey Sakura! Over here!" I said loudly

Sakura sighed as she walked over "Do you have to be so loud?"

"No but I need to make a scene for a second." I said.

"Wait what do you mean you're going to make a..."

"Hello Sakura my friend" I yelled as I handed her the bag "here take this gift and lets go meet with our other friends!" I grabbed her hand and led her into the academy.

"Care to explain what all that was about?" Sakura hissed.

I however was snickering at the faces those bastards made "I'm not sure if you noticed but I'm not exactly the most... liked person in the village."

"Yeah I've been meaning to ask about that. My mom's been going on about how your trying to corrupt me or something." Sakura said.

I snorted "Well that's hardly the case, but I really have no clue why they hate me. I do know that they've been trying to keep me isolated since before I could remember. So I decided I should rub the fact that I have friends in their faces."

"you're really spiteful aren't you?" Sakura said.

"It's a gift." I shrugged.

Sakura still had no idea how she had been roped into this. Just a week ago she would have been hanging out with Ino laughing as she complained about Shikamaru's laziness or told her about the latest gossip, and declining Naruto's latest attempt to date her. But now her best friend was on her way to becoming as infamous of a prankster as Naruto who had no longer expressed any intreast in her (Thank Kami for that) and the two of them had joined the greatest prankster group in Konoha. 'It's not all bad though' Sakura thought. Without Naruto constantly asking her out Sakura learned he was generally a pretty good guy. Kiba was alright too a bit louder than Naruto but he and Ino seemed to get along fine. Sakura didn't really know Hinata that well but she seemed nice enough. Shino was a bit weird but still alright. Shikamaru was every bit as lazy as Ino had said he was but he and Choji were pretty cool as well and were probably the only reason she's still sane.

Right now however Sakura was in the middle of what Naruto had called Operation Blackboard. Sakura had handed out all of the salves except for the Mizuki's. Convincing some of the teachers to take it had been difficult Iruka-Sensei and Ago-Sensei had been easy enough but when it came to some of the teachers she didn't know it had become more difficult. When she finally did get to Mizuki sensei however her hands were subtly shaking and her palms were sweaty "Mizuki-Sensei... um I'd like to appologize for ditching on Friday." she said as she held out the salve "So I made some homemade salves to make up for it.

Mizuki gave Sakura a fake smile "Oh it's fine it isn't like you skipped any of my classes." he said.

Sakura squirmed nervously "Umm well I worked really hard on it..."

Mizuki sighed "Fine I'll take it." he said snatching up the salve. "Now head off to class I don't have all day."

Sakura bowed politely "Yes Mizuki-sensei" she then scurried off to the classroom not wanting to accidentally blow her cover.

When Sakura had arrived at the classroom she let out a sigh of relief. "Never make me do that again" she said.

"So I'm guessing it went well." I asked.

"Yeah but your plan has one big flaw." Shikamaru yawned "How are you going to make Mizuki-sensei use the salve?"

My mind blanked "Uhhhhhhhh"

Sakura glared at me "Did you not think that far ahead!?" She yelled.

"Hypothetically what would you do if I said no?" I asked.

Before she could answer Iruka sensei had entered the classroom to start the day.

Mizuki couldn't stand children they were loud, annoying, and incredibly whiny. The brats at the academy were either to sheltered or to cocky to become actual ninja, and that was before Lord Orochimaru had him limit their education. It wasn't like the world would have been missing out on much anyway. The civilian students were so useless that they make cannon fodder look like Jonin ninja, the clan kids were either cocky (Sasuke), stupid (Kiba), lazy (Shikamaru), or some other degree of useless.

So when a pink haired civilian had given him one of her homemade salves he had every intention of tossing the gift. That was until he had met up with Iruka right before his class started. "Hey Mizuki" he had greeted happily "have you tried Sakura's salve yet? It feels incredible."

Mizuki sighed at his friend a civilian couldn't make a proper salve. However the temptation was there and it only grew as he heard more and more good things about the girls salves from the other teachers until finally he couldn't take it any longer and his curiosity got the best of him. He opened his desk drawer and took out the salve.

I didn't quite know what to expect when Mizuki had walked into class that morning but it certainly wasn't this. "Pfff" Mizuki was completely covered in red bumps. Most of the class was confused by Mizuki's appearance while the eight of us who knew what was going had a very different reaction "Pffff" Shino was smirking under his coat, while poor Hinata looked both horrified by what she had done and on the verge of laughter like the rest of us.

"Hello class today were going to do something different." Mizuki deadpanned "Today I'll be educating you all on the proper way to make salves."

And that was the straw that broke the camels back. "PHAHAHAHAHA!" Our group of eight burst out in laughter.

"Oh Kami what did you guys do to him?" Sakura wheezed.

"I-it was-wasn't much." Hinata said "It w-was only a b-bit of po-poison ivy."

"That's what you put in there!" Mizuki yelled furiously.

"Don't get too upset Mizuki sensei" I said innocently "it was my first time making them I really thought it was a good idea. But look on the bright side. Yours was the only one that was poisonous believe it."

"I don't believe it!" Mizuki yelled.

"It was a tragic accident." Shino said "We'll make sure not to make the same mistake again."

At this point most of the class had clued in to what was going on and had begun laughing as well. "Were all amateurs when it comes to herbalism so mixing up the plants is a pretty reasonable mistake." Ino added.

"And none of the other teachers seem to be in your condition so I guess you're just unlucky." Shikamaru added.

Mizuki looked like he was ready to strangle all of us after that.

See what'd I tell ya!" Shisui laughed from the trees "These kids are pranking masterminds!"

"What I find more amazing is that Naruto had roped in all the major clan members except for Sasuke in on this." Itachi said.

"you're missing the point" Shisui sighed "Fine then let's talk about boring things then how do you think they'll do as ninja?"

"Based on just one prank?" Itachi asked.

"What is that something a prodigy like you can't handle?" Shisui teased.

"Hn, fine" Itachi said "Uzumaki seems to be the ringleader of the group. If I had to guess he's the one who makes the plans." Itachi then pointed to Shikamaru "While he is the brains the one that makes sure the plans actually work. The Akimichi and the Inuzuka would be the brawn. While the Yamanaka and Aburame would be used for surveillance. The Hyuga could also be a front liner, and the civilian could be anything really."

"You never cease to amaze me." Shisui sighed.

"What I really want to know is how Uzumaki managed to roundup so many people." Itachi said.

"It was actually kinda simple." Shisui said "He made friends with Shino about a week ago then he and his usual group of the Akimichi, Nara, and Inuzuka went out to prank a clothing store. The Yamanaka and civilian tagged along and the Hyuga has had a crush on him for a while."

"Interesting" Itachi said.

Mizuki had tried to put us in detention again but Iruka had stepped in to stop him. Since none of the other teachers were harmed by the salves he believed us when we told him it was all an accident. "I really can't believe we got away with that." Sakura said relieved at lunch that day.

"Yeah I don't want to know how pissed ma would be if I got detention twice in less than a week." Kiba said.

"More or less pissed than Yoshino?" I asked.

"Ohh that's a tough one." Choji said.

"Less." Ino answered confidently.

"All of you are dead to me." Shikamaru deadpanned.

"D-do you th-think we we-went to far?" Hinata asked guiltily.

"Pssh no" I snorted "bastard just got what he deserved."

"By the way..." Sakura said nervously "Ami didn't come to school today... you guys didn't do anything to bad right?"

The group shared a look "She got exactly what she deserved." They answered in sync.

"You know I'm suddenly a lot less curious as to what they did." I muttered.

Hinata nodded her head in agreement before turning to me "Ah Na-Naruto fa-father wanted m-me to te-tell you th-that he wan-wanted to per-personally th-thank you for th-the gift."

"Gift what gift?" I asked "Ohhh wait do you mean the leftovers?" Hinata nodded and I sighed "Jeez do you Hyuga's really have to be so formal? I mean I'll go but you guys don't have to make such a big deal outta nothing."

"Ohhh did I hear that right?" Ino asked "you're already going to meet her dad? Man Naruto you work fast."

"Ino you know that's not what I said." I told her irritably.

But the blond had cast me a mischievous smirk as she went to spread the news. "She's going to learn to regret this."

"I regret this and I'm not even the one in trouble." Sakura muttered.

"Y-you're n-not go-going to d-do anything too b-bad to-right Naruto?" Hinata asked.

I blinked "No, I want revenge but I'm not going to cause any long lasting damage to get it."

"You won't be receiving any of my bugs for your prank." Shino informed me "Why, because it would be rude to use them against our friends."

"That's cool I can't rely on you for all my pranks anyways." I shrugged "On a completely unrelated note do any of you know where I could find a Cannon, some water balloons, about a gallon of glue, and the angriest cat in the world?"

"I really don't want to know what you're going to do with those." Sakura sighed. Everyone else nodded their heads in agreement.

When I had arrived at the Hyuga compound after school that day I was met with open arms and trays of cookies. That is what I want to say, in reality however I was met by the standard stoic Hyuga gatekeeper. "Halt! What is your business here?"

"Uhhh... I'm here to see Hinata's dad? She told me that he wanted to see me."

He looked at a list "Oh right Uzumaki." He spat "head on in, but don't you even think about causing trouble."

"No pro~mises" I sang as I strolled into the compound. Once agian I was blown away the Hyuga compound was freely a sight to behold. All of the houses were made in a traditional Japanese style and besides some of the branch family members who were clearly unhappy about serving the main family the whole place was like a giant suburban town.

Some of the younger clan members were running about while their parents either ninja or civilian were keeping an eye on them. Some of the elderly clan members were playing shoji, and a very angry Neji had stomped towards me. How did I know it was Neji? It was actually really easy especially when the first words out of his mouth were "You are not fated to be here, leave immediately."

He started to push me out of the compound but I wasn't budging. "You now I was expecting a warmer welcome than this." I deadpanned "Especially when you were the ones who invited me here."

Neji sneered "Nonsense what would the main branch want with a nobody like you? No you are fated to be nobody."

My eyebrow twitched 'He's only said two sentences and he's already mentioned fate twice.' "Well I guess that you're fated to show me where the main house is since I don't know."

Neji scoffed "I already told you that you aren't welcome here."

"You know I think that I hate you." I said emotionlessly.

"Feelings mutual" Neji growled as he tried to push me out of the compound "Now leave Damn it!"

"Okay I'll leave" I shrugged causing Neji to sigh in relief, to his ire however instead of me leaving the compound like he wanted I had started to wander about some more.

"I thought you said you'd leave!" Neji hissed.

"I am, I'm leaving the part of the compound you reside in, now my presence won't bother you."

"Were you even listening to me?!" Neji yelled.

"Oh hey Hinata!" I called when I saw the shy heiress.

"Don't ignore me!" Neji yelled.

"Oh he-hello Na-Naruto" Hinata said trying to be as formal as possible "fat-father's waiting for y-you."

"Wait you mean that this, this nobody was actually invited here?" Neji asked "But why? He's just some random guy! He was fated to be unimportant!"

"That makes three" I deadpanned "how many times a day does he saw the word fate?"

"I-I do-don't know?" Hinata said uncertainly "a lot?"

"That's what I had thought," I sighed "anyway could you take me to your dad? The fatalist over here doesn't want to."

"Hmph" Neji scoffed "Fine perhaps you're a tad bit more important than I gave you credit for. But you're still fated to be a nobody."

'That's four' "You really need help." I said "Have you tried going to a psychiatrist?"

"I'm not insane!" Neji snapped.

"W-we al-already tried t-to make hi-him see one." Hinata explained "I-it didn't end well."

"Don't tell him that!" Neji hissed.

I however was writing down everything she was saying "No please go on I insist."

"And you! Stop writing that down!"

Neji had ditched us as soon as we arrived at the Main house, but not before saying one last thing. "I don't know what Hiashi wants with you, but remember that you're fated to be a nobody."

"And that makes 34" I sighed "he really is the worst kind of person."

"H-he isn't th-that bad." Hinata defended.

"Lets just agree to disagree on that one." I said "Besides I doubt that your dad's going to want to wait for much longer."

Hinata nodded in agreement and led me to a large meeting room "F-father sh-should be in he-here."

"Alright I'll be right back" I said as I strolled into the room. In the center was a large table Hiashi was at one side and I sat across from him. "Hello Hyuga sir."

Hiashi nodded "Uzumaki" he returned "First I'd like to thank you for your gift."

"Don't worry about it" I said dismissively "I had some extra and I wasn't going to eat em."

Hiashi nodded "I'm sure you're aware that wasn't the only reason I called you here correct."

"I figured" I sighed "then what am I here for? I don't remember having pranked your clan before so..."

"No it's not because of anything like that." He assured me "Well I'll be blunt you've made friends with members of each of the big clans in Konoha except for the Uchiha."

"Yeah well Sasuke isn't really one for conversation anyways." I shrugged "And I don't speak Uchihaneese yet and 'Hn' isn't really the greatest conversation starter."

"Ha! For all those Uchiha boast they are still amateurs when it comes to casual conversation." Hiashi said "Anyways I don't know if you're aware of this or not but you're becoming somewhat of a big deal amount the clans."

I blinked "What?"

Hiashi nodded "You see recently there was a clan meeting..."

Yesterday

Hiashi's face was stoic as he sat in the large meeting room with the other clan heads. To his left was Tsume Inuzuka and to his right was Shibi Aburame. Also at the table we're Shikoku Nara, Inochi Yamanaka, Choza Akimichi, Fugaku Uchiha, Danzō Shimura, and of course the Third Hokage. Surprisingly before the Hokage could begin speaking Shikaku had stood up. "Excuse me Hokage-sama but there's something I'd wish to bring up before the meeting officially starts."

"Proceed" Hiruzen said.

Shikaku nodded "It has recently come to my attention that the academy has been compromised." That had startled everyone in the room.

"And why do you think that?" Danzō had asked.

"Well it was first brought up when Shikamaru had informed me that Mizuki had left out a key point during Genjutsu lessons..."

"So what?" Danzō sneered "It was a simple mistake nothing to fret about."

Shikaku nodded "That would be true if that had been the only case." Shikaku took out a stack of papers "Yoshino keeps all of Shikamaru's tests in a folder at home she had spent the day going through them and found something... interesting to say the least." Shikaku handed out a pile of tests and act of the clan heads took one Hiashi's was a chart of elemental natures and their strengths and weaknesses. Everything seemed correct Fire beat wind, wind beat lightning, lightning beat earth, earth beat water, and water beat fire.

However the chart was then changed to fire beat wind, wind beat lightning, lightning beat water, water beat earth, and earth beat fire. Next to him Shibi's eyebrows furrowed and Tsume growled next to him "Mizuki you idiot" Danzō muttered so softly even Tsume couldn't hear him.

"As you can see some of the correct answers are wrong and some of the wrong answers are right." Shikaku continued.

"And all of the ones that are marked wrong are given somewhat realistic reasonings as well." Inoichi added.

"Not to mention that some of these questions would make no sense to an Academy student." Tsume growled "It makes me so mad because now I don't know if Kiba's bad grades are because he's an idiot or because of this kind of stuff."

Fugaku nodded in agreement "It is very concerning, if someone's been rigging the scores they can somewhat manipulate who's the dead last, and who's the rookie of the year."

"Or the top Kunochi, they can also make it so skilled students are kicked out while the hopeless ones remain." Choza added.

Shibi spoke up next "Well at least there's some good news. Why, because the only tests I have found are for ninjutsu and genjutsu."

Shikaku nodded "The other classes are all correct."

Tsume let out a sigh of relief "Oh thank Kami. Just thinking that Ago would abandon the pack makes my blood boil."

Hiruzen cleared his throat "Well I say that just to be safe we have all the academy teachers go to T and I. Inoichi how long until you and your clan can go through the academy's staff."

"We should be ready by tomorrow..." Inochi started but he was interupted by Danzō who was very unhappy about this situation.

'I need more time' he thought 'if they use Mind Walk on that dumb ass Mizuki now they'll learn about ROOT. I need at least a day or two so his death looks more like subside than a murder.' "We might be dealing with a spy from another village. If that's the case than they might have bugs planted among the students as well."

Hiashi nodded "We shouldn't it. If they are impersonating students than I'd rather deal with this mess in the present than a blood bath in the future.

Inoichi frowned "It'll take a few extra days but we should have it ready by Monday."

"Then it's decided" Hiruzen said "Come Monday we'll do a full sweep of the academy."

Flashback End

"When I asked Shikaku why he had gone so deep into this he had told me his wife wanted to do something for you." Hiashi said "It seems like you have a knack for making allies."

"Two words for ya Dumb Luck" I said "I have no clue why'd they'd do this. I'm not complaining mind you I'll get em a fruit basket or something when I next head over there."

"I'm going to warn you however you also have a knack for making powerful enemies." Hiashi warned.

"Oh really?" I asked "Who did I piss off this time?" 'Please be Danzō, please be Danzō!"

"Fugaku Uchiha, he doesn't seem to like you very much." 'Or what's inside of you since he calls the damn fox the source of his misery.' "And just between the two of us Fugaku is the most spiteful person I know. Damn bastard beats me in a sparring match one time and he holds it over my head for the rest of my life."

"Speaking of things that you shouldn't be telling me why in the world did you tell me about that council meeting anyways?"

"Well you see Naruto during that meeting I learned something." Hiashi answered "I learned that the Nara clan seems to like you. Meanwhile the Hyuga clan while not as bad as the Uchiha aren't as social as we should be. Because of that we aren't allies with any of the main clans in Konoha. So despite what the elders say if we want our clan to strive were going to need to build bridges with the other clans and even though some of our..." Hiashi frowned as he saw a branch house member serving a member of the main house "traditions are somewhat of a turn away I believe it's still possible."

'A bit of a turnoff is an understatement' I thought dryly 'you literally turn them into your slaves.'

"That's where you come in." Hiashi continued "Of course you won't need to do much since you and Hinata already seem to be friendly with each other. So I'm going to have Hinata ask you to come to the compound every once and a while, and once or twice you'll ask if your other friends want to come."

"You'll be building relations through the clan heirs." I realized "Alright then you can count me in. To be honest I'd probably do this by accident if you hadn't asked me to."

"Then it's official" Hiashi said reaching his hand out.

"Pleasure doing business with you." I replied as I shook his hand.