Negotiating a Contract

Hinata was slightly nervous as she waited patiently with Kurenai the next morning for Shikamaru to arrive. She realized that she was actually more worried about the role she was asking Shikamaru to play in all this than she was about announcing her decision to the council itself. Although she considered Shikamaru a good friend, the Hyuuga heiress recognized she was by no means as close to him as she was to her own teammates, Kiba and Shino. And yet, they did not possess the skills she was going to ask the young Nara man to draw on by presenting him with her dilemma with no preparation. She hoped he would forgive her afterwards.

There was a light knock at the door and Kurenai answered it and welcomed Shikamaru into her home. He looked at Hinata and smiled his famous half-grin and wished them both a good morning then added with his characteristic lack of enthusiasm, "So, Hinata, care to tell me what this is all about?"

The blood rushed to her face in a furious blush and Hinata felt light-headed. With her knees knocking together, she managed to stammer out, "P-p-please, Shikamaru, forgive me if I ask you to indulge me and wait just a little longer." She noted that the young man stood casually, his hands in the pockets of his jounin vest. He appeared to be in a far more relaxed pose than she felt with her own hands jammed into her own pockets at that moment.

Another half-smile and he shrugged, "Sure. Whatever." He yawned and turned to Kurenai, "How's the boy?"

"At preschool. As a matter of fact, you can see him this afternoon. He's been asking about you. You've been away on missions for quite a while now."

"Yeah, it's been a drag," he drawled.

"Shall we go then?" Kurenai asked. Hinata had informed her that their meeting was at nine this morning with Tsunade, Koharu and Homura. Even though the two younger people were now her equal in rank since they had both been made journin in the years since Asuma's death, she still felt somewhat like their teacher as she shepherded them out her front door.

The three made their way through the busy morning streets of Konoha. Vendors were doing a brisk business in the early sunshine. Shikamaru noted the blue of the sky and a few fluffy clouds on the horizon and commented that it was shaping up to be a nice day. He and Kurenai exchanged a few pleasantries about the weather and Konoha in general but their voices seemed tinny and far away to Hinata. Her heart was racing but it felt as if her feet were slowing each step they carried her closer to her Hokage's door.

They finally arrived and after a brief wait in an ante-room where an attendant politely offered them tea, Shizune opened the door to Tsunade's office and called for them. Filing in Hinata noted that Shikamaru's face didn't betray any surprise at all as he simply and quickly took in the faces of the people in the room. The attendees were precisely those whom Hinata had expected and whom she had informed Kurenai would probably be present - Tsunade and the council along with Shizune and Sakura.

If Shikamaru was curious, his face certainly did not show it, in fact he looked bored, almost as if it was everyday he was summoned in front of three of the most important senior people in Konoha. Then again, Hinata realized, perhaps he was used to it. The Nara family had always been very close to Tsunade. Not only was Nara-san her jounin commander, they seemed to be close friends as well. A fresh wave of nervousness passed through her at the thought that she might anger not just her friend but also a powerful family she might soon need as allies.

Tsunade was already seated at her desk, Shizune and Sakura slightly behind and to her right. The elders were seated to her left. That left Hinata and her small retinue to take the three seats positioned in the center of the room.

Tsunade looked at her and silently mouthed. It's okay. Breathe. With a start Hinata realized how tense she was and that she had in fact been holding her breath. She breathed out and saw Tsunade wink at her. Again she whispered. It's okay.

Hinata relaxed a little. But it was short-lived. Homura's sharp voice snapped her back to the reality of the situation.

"Hyuuga Hinata, we had an agreement that you would discuss this matter with only a single person outside this room. Have you already broken that agreement?"

"N-n-no, Homura-sama," Hinata replied, thankful for Kurenai's gentle touch at her elbow. She straightened in her chair. "S-s-shikamaru knows nothing of the request which was made of me. I n-n-needed only Kurenai-sensei's advice in arriving at my decision. And my decision is a qualified 'yes.'"

"Qualified?" Homura demanded.

"H-hai, Homura-sama," Hinata replied, gathering strength. "I have decided that my answer is yes and we may proceed provided certain conditions are met. Shikamaru is here to…negotiate on my behalf, if you agree. If not, then, I regret my answer is no."

Homura harrumphed. Koharu scowled and straightened in her chair but the scowl was quickly replaced by a smirk. Tsunade sipped her tea noisily to avoid laughing out loud at the looks of consternation on both their faces. None of them had expected such audacity from Hinata. Tsunade was intrigued to see how this would play out.

"Negotiate?" Koharu asked, leaning forward and taking control of the conversation away from Homura.

"Hai, Koharu-sama," Hinata responded politely, her hands now folded placidly in her lap. Negotiate. She was in familiar territory. As far back as she could remember she had been present at clan meetings where business was conducted. She had grown up nodding off to sleep next to one elderly aunt or another as a young child in the midst of transactions where financial deals were made and marriages were arranged both intra and inter clan. Her father may have disparaged her skills as a shinobi but he had dutifully seen to it that she was well versed in the business and political skills necessary to head their clan.

"Why Nara?" Koharu asked, her voice crisp but not unkind.

"This is a very complex problem that will span many years. I would hope we can all agree that Shikamaru has unparalleled skills in analyzing complexity and seeing multiple potential outcomes as well as setting up contingency plans. But if you do not agree to his presence then we must conclude this meeting. Shikamaru leaves here with no other information than what you and I have just exchanged. And I have kept my word."

Koharu considered briefly, smiled, then nodded. "Agreed. Go on."

"I have documented the request you made of me at our last meeting as well as some fundamentals necessary in order for a successful outcome of your rather obvious but unstated goal." Hinata produced a small scroll from her pocket and handed it to Shikamaru.

"And what is that rather obvious but unstated goal, Hinata? I thought we expressed it most clearly earlier?" Homura asked.

"Indeed. You expressed a portion of it very clearly, Homura-sama. However, only a portion. And in order to achieve the stated portion requires an … infrastructure, or the unstated portion. Without which, I become a perpetual target and this mission, as it were, will end in failure."

"Very well. Let's begin," Koharu said.

As Shikamaru turned his scroll over and broke the seal he drawled, "So since everyone agrees I'm now a participant in this meeting, would somebody mind telling me what the stated and unstated goals are?"

Hinata answered calmly while looking ahead at Koharu and Homura. "The original request was to produce a child with the ability to wield the Sharingan. The unstated request but which must follow logically from the first is to reestablish the Uchiha clan."

Although her gaze held steady on Koharu, Hinata possessed amazing peripheral vision even without activating her Byakugan. She had to suppress a grin as she saw Shikamaru cast a sidelong glance of astonishment her way. If he had been a cat, she would have imagined his ears pricking forward in interest. Well, she thought to herself, at least there were some things that surprised him.

He pored over the scroll in front of him. Finally he put it down and looked at her. "Hinata – are you sure about this?" he whispered.

"Yes, Shikamaru." Her soft voice matched his own. "I have researched both my clan and the village histories and outlined some of the historical legal precedents. Although there is no single circumstance that exactly matches this one, I believe there are enough examples to roughly match what needs to be done, which is, in short, restore the Uchiha clan."

"Not the legal precedents, Hinata!" he fairly hissed at her under his breath. "Are you sure about this? You. Do you know what you're doing to yourself?"

"I can assure you, Shikamaru, I understand much better than you do. You are Nara, not Hyuuga. It is you who perhaps cannot understand that an arranged marriage has always been my most likely fate, my destiny as Neji would say. Now, at least I get to have a greater deal of control in the matter."

"Well?" Koharu asked, interrupting them.

"Pardon me, Koharu-sama," Shikamaru addressed her. "As you know, this is the first I have seen of any of this. May I have as few moments to study the information she has prepared?"

"A few minutes," Koharu said curtly. "Meanwhile, why don't you fetch us some tea, Tsunade?"

Tsuande scowled at the old woman, annoyed at being treated as a serving girl and then sent Shizune to the outer room. She soon returned with the assistant bearing a tea service. As they were all served, Shikamaru was engrossed in the details Hinata had provided him. She had clearly been very thorough in her research but he could see a few weaknesses in her plan. One thing was certain, she had a firm grasp on the scope of what they were asking her to do. She couldn't just have an out of wedlock child, much less one conceived artificially, much less from the notorious Uchiha clan without splitting Hyuuga apart. And splitting Hyuuga apart would most likely cause a similar sized rift in the village itself.

The solution Hinata proposed was actually quite sound from a legal standpoint. Since the Uchiha clan had never been formally disbanded it existed in a sort of legal limbo. Sasuke as the sole remaining survivor still maintained the titular head of a clan that was in effect in suspended animation. The clan's lands, houses, buildings, bank accounts, and all other holdings had passed to him by inheritance laws at the death of all his other blood relatives. After eleven years, Konoha still remained in shock over the massacre and the topic had been so taboo that no one had yet undertaken the legal unwinding of Uchiha.

But the clan still existed. And was unable to produce an heir. The curious anachronism Hinata proposed was an ancient law that was still on the books more as oddity than something actually employed in the memory of anyone living. When a family was unable to produce an heir they could engage the services of a concubine. The concubine lived with the family as a member and did her wifely duties until such time as a child was born. The concubine was then paid for her services and dismissed and the child was raised as the new heir of the family.

Hinata proposed that the elders function in loco parentis, in the absence of Sasuke's parents, to negotiate a contract in effect purchasing her as a Uchiha concubine from Hyuuga.

Now that he had the gist of it, Shikamaru sipped his tea and gathered his thoughts. Yes there were weakness but the devil was in the details and could be overcome.

Hinata had one overriding stipulation. The child would be hers. Since there was no Uchiha family in which to leave the child she would be designated the guardian in charge of and responsible for him or her. She would in effect, remain employed by the Uchiha clan as the caregiver for the child until he or she reached adulthood and inherited all the clan's holdings. Hinata's written note made it very clear that this was a nonnegotiable point.

"All right," Shikamaru began. He highlighted her primary stipulation to which the elders agreed rather quickly. But next he surprised even Hinata herself when he specified that the entire Uchiha holdings should fall under her control as guardian. The two older people dissented but it did not take long for Shikamaru to convince them and everyone in the room that it was actually easier for the village to settle the Uchiha matter in one fell swoop.

Other weaknesses that he felt Hinata had not looked far enough ahead in addressing had to do with her own safety. They could keep this under wraps for a certain amount of time, but if the procedure was successful eventually biology would win out and Hinata would not be able to hide a pregnancy for the entire nine months. He asked for and got their agreement to rotate bodyguards for her. He specified their original classmates to begin with as well as Kakashi Hatake. Not sure how this would play out in the rest of the village he wanted to keep the initial group small that would be privy to the information. They needed enough to maintain an effective rotation but not enough to draw undue attention. He deliberately excluded Neji's team for the immediately obvious reasons that Neji was Hyuuga and thus a member of the group most likely to be pissed off by the whole affair.

That left only the matter of whom the elders would be purchasing Hinata's "services" from on behalf of Uchiha and for how much. Shikamaru got the elders to authorize a handsome value paid to Hiashi Hyuuga from Uchiha funds based on historical archives chronicling the practice in the past. He also recommended that they offer to enthusiastically and publicly support Hanabi's designation as the next head of the clan. That last part was difficult for him to recommend, he felt almost as if he were agreeing with Hiashi that Hinata would not be a suitable leader of the clan. But from a purely logical standpoint he had to admit that it would help to calm any offended sensibilities the man might have over the whole matter. It couldn't hurt for Hiashi to feel that the elders were now agreeing with him after resisting the idea of his bypassing Hinata for all these years. The irony was that it was Hinata herself who was orchestrating the deal and rather shrewdly at that.

Eventually all the i's were dotted and all the t's were crossed and the eight of them were witness to the agreement that Shikamaru struck on Hinata's behalf with the elders of the village of Konoha.

Walking out of the room Hinata was weak with relief and disbelief at what they had just accomplished. She was also slightly dreading having to face Shikamaru and apologize for what she had just put him through.

As the three cleared the door of the Hokage building and exited into the streets of Konoha she turned to him and bowed so deeply he was embarrassed. "Shikamaru-san, I cannot thank you enough for you assistance today. I am…ashamed that I had to put you through this but I knew I needed your expertise in seeing any flaws that I may have missed. Please forgive me for any embarrassment I may have caused you."

"Knock it off, Hinata," Shikamaru shrugged and laughed, wishing she would hurry up and rise from her formal bow. Being embarrassed was too much of a drag. When she finally did rise and meet his eyes he saw how worried she was that she had offended him.

"Nah, you didn't embarrass me," he reassured her. "I'm just wondering why I never asked you if you wanted to play Shogi before."