The Girl Who Spun Through Time
Chapter 4
Hmm. More than lost. This could prove interesting.
For a minute or so, she considered killing him.
She could prevent so much with a single death. The Uchiha wouldn't be cut down in their compound, slaughtered to the man by their own heir. Naruto's teammate wouldn't grow up without parents… though he would probably miss his brother.
And she would become the person who had killed Itachi Uchiha. However much Hinata believed herself lesser, that title wouldn't be something to leave her.
But it was only a minute, because logic reasserted itself almost immediately.
This wasn't Itachi Uchiha, The Walking Genocide, one of the world's youngest S-Ranked killers, the man you weren't supposed to even consider approaching without a ten-to-one advantage.
This was Itachi Uchiha, respected Konoha ninja and heir to the Uchiha. He would be joining the ANBU in several months, even.
He wasn't even guilty of anything yet. As far as anyone knew, he was utterly devoted to the Leaf. If she attacked him, there would be consequences, even if she had the Hokage's ear.
And anyway, the Sandaime had told her father to leave Itachi to him. The same order applied to her.
Hinata bit her lip.
Why was he following her, though?
She was hesitant to say the answer was obvious. Her first thought had been that his family must have sent him.
But why would they? No one knew she was a new arrival: as far as the village was concerned, she was just another Hyuuga, one among many.
Who had just met with the Hokage, and somehow been involved in the incident with Kumo a day prior.
Perhaps he did have reason to watch her.
A team of brightly-colored genin wandered by, chattering loudly. She could see Itachi's eyes dart to them for a moment, before resettling on the entrance to the alley she'd stumbled into. He began to reposition.
Hinata slipped out the alley, keeping her Byakugan active. Itachi was moving along the rooftops, keeping her within his line of sight, but moving slowly enough to be practically unnoticeable. She never would have spotted him without her doujutsu.
She kept her focus on him as she moved through the crowds, her head down. If anyone cared about the veins pushing themselves out alongside her eyes, they didn't make it apparent, though she did get several strange looks.
She stopped at a crossroad, leaning against a store wall.
Where was she going?
The Hokage's office, maybe. She could wait there. The Hyuuga compound? Could she risk meeting herself again? Was there any harm in it?
Maybe she could go to the hospital. Some of her injuries were still bothering her.
Hinata's stomach growled, and she glanced down at it out of reflex.
She was hungry. Starving, even. She'd eaten once, twelve(?) hours ago, before Pain had arrived.
She didn't need to look up to know that the building she was leaning against was a teriyaki shop. Not her favorite food, but hardly the worst.
Hinata decided to get lunch.
"Miss, would you mind…"
"Hmm?" Hinata turned to the restaurant's owner, half of a beef teriyaki hanging from her mouth. She pulled the rest in as the clearly uncomfortable man finished his sentence.
"It's just, Hyuuga-sama… your eye-thing." He bent in apologetically, his voice falling into a whisper. "You're scaring away some of the customers."
Hinata blinked, scanning the building without turning her head. The man was right: no one was sitting next to her, probably due to her Byakugan, and everyone who was in the room was giving her uncomfortable glances.
They didn't know why she had her Doujutsu active, she realized. It must have looked like she was preparing for an attack.
She checked on Itachi again. He was still crouched on a nearby rooftop, watching the entrance of the building like a hawk. He hadn't followed her in.
"Oh!" she said. The whole thought process had taken barely a second. "I'm sorry!"
She allowed the Byakugan to deactivate, the veins fading away and leaving her pearl eyes relaxed. "Is that better?" She smiled.
The man gave her a short bow. "Much, Hyuuga-sama. Thank you for accommodating me. If you need anything, just ask."
"Of course," Hinata said demurely. The man gave another, slightly deeper bow, and left her to enjoy her meal.
The Hyuuga turned back to it, sighing. The world always seemed smaller when her eyes weren't 'on'. The wooden walls of the booth she was seated at seemed to press in on her.
"Mind if I join you?"
Hinata froze.
She turned her head just slightly to the right.
Itachi Uchiha was standing there. His head was almost level with hers: his diminutive height was never more apparent.
She didn't say anything, but that didn't stop him. He slipped over to the other side of the booth, sliding into the seat without a word.
They both watched each other for a moment in total silence. The sounds of the restaurant washed over them, ignored.
Hinata's mind whirled.
How had he done that? How could he possibly have known precisely when her Byakugan had deactivated, and moved with the speed to approach her in the two or three seconds afterwards?
Genjutsu? Clones? He was only ten years old. He shouldn't have been capable of something like that.
And he was still staring at her, entirely placid.
She straightened up, allowing her expression to grow colder, and attempted to affect the kind of Hyuuga nobility that her father and Hanabi emanated so effortlessly. Showing weakness to Itachi Uchiha struck her as a terrible idea.
"Why are you following me?" Hinata asked, her meal forgotten.
"Following you?" he asked. Itachi was younger than she had been when she'd graduated, but despite his age, his voice was completely composed, and it already held hints of the baritone it would eventually become.
Hinata frowned, tapping her temple and indicating her eyes. Itachi's expression didn't shift. He looked nothing but innocent.
"I'm not sure what you're talking about, ma'am," he said politely. "I was just going to turn a mission in. I didn't mean to follow you."
How he could say something so blatantly false so confidently after walking in and sitting down next to her was baffling.
"You shouldn't lie." Hinata leaned back, keeping her eyes on him. "You were watching me; you followed me in here. Did your family send you?"
Itachi's eyes narrowed, just very slightly, and his Sharingan activated. Three tomoe spiraled out, and the dull red sheen of his eyes was visible even in the brightly lit restaurant.
The temperature seemed to drop several degrees.
"You don't belong here," he said, colder than Hinata herself could ever have hoped to be.
She rocked back, her façade cracking.
"What?"
How could he know? Did his eyes see something that no one else could? Was something about her irrevocably alien to the past?
"I have memorized the faces of eighty percent of the village's ninja; I am currently working on the rest," Itachi said, echoing Hinata's motion and tapping his temple in reference to his own Doujutsu. "In particular, I have made sure to know the faces of the major clans: the Yamanaka, the Uchiha, the Aburame, the Inuzuka, the Akamichi, and Nara, the Sarutobi, and the Hyuuga."
He dropped his hand to the table, casually resting it. "And you are no Hyuuga. You look like several of them, but match none of them. Thus, you do not belong here."
Or maybe he was just hellishly observant.
"So you were following me?" Hinata asked.
"I saw you leave the Hokage's tower," Itachi said. "Why are you in the village? Who sent you?"
When had this become her interrogation?
"I am a Hyuuga," Hinata said.
"You have the Byakugan," Itachi conceded. "And it's clearly real: you were able to track me from a street away."
He frowned. "But I still have never seen you before. And you knew immediately that I was from a clan."
"I was… on a mission," Hinata lied. Poorly. She shouldn't have given away that she knew who he was. "I was reporting back to the Sandaime."
"You're lying." Itachi immediately called her on it. His face shifted slightly. "But only about being about on a mission."
Hinata's eyes widened minutely. She really couldn't hide anything from the Sharingan.
"You were meeting with the Hokage?" Itachi asked, and she nodded.
"Why?"
'To tell him that you're going to murder your whole family in a couple years,' was what Hinata wanted to say.
"I can't tell you," was what she did say.
Itachi stared right through her. "Clan secrets?" he asked.
"If you really are curious," Hinata said politely, glad that the conversation had shifted towards something less accusatory, "go ask the Hokage. It's up to him whether you should know anything."
Though the chances of the Sandaime actually giving Itachi any information were incredibly unlikely.
"Hmm." Itachi didn't frown, though he sounded like he wanted to. He stood up, slipping out of the booth as soundlessly as he'd entered it.
He turned to her, and bowed. "I'm sorry for taking your time, Hyuuga-san," he said, his voice as polite as ever. "Have a pleasant day."
And then he vanished in a puff of smoke.
'Kage Bunshin.'
Hinata activated her Byakugan on reflex, just in time to see the real Itachi slip away into Konoha's crowd. She deactivated her eyes with a sigh.
He hadn't acted threatening at all. In fact, he'd been unfailingly polite after his initial accusation. But talking to him had still been chilling. There had been something off: his words were measured unnaturally, especially for someone so young, and he'd seemed too relaxed.
Even as a child, Itachi Uchiha was an unusual one.
She looked back at her food. She wasn't really hungry anymore, but it would be terrible to waste it. Especially after the owner had insisted on her not paying.
Hinata shrugged, and went back to her meal.
She finished with a satisfied noise and left the restaurant, bowing to the owner on the way out. The man favored her with a grin, and made a vague invitation for her to return anytime.
It seemed somewhat surreal. For all she knew, the next time she saw him would be ten years from now. Or maybe her younger self would pass by this very place the next day.
It made her head spin. She almost stopped as she stepped out the door, leaning against the frame for a moment.
If she were here, and her younger self was as well… would there be two of them when she returned to her own time?
Her father had said the women to go before her had appeared, even though she hadn't been born due to circumstance. Hinata could only assume she'd prevented her own birth. At least there was no danger of that here.
But by consequence, would she come back to a Konoha with a second Hinata, one that was her own age?
She hoped not. That would be incredibly confusing.
Though, Hinata reflected, that Hinata would probably be very different. She would have an uncle, and hopefully a friendlier cousin.
And a father who knew that she would become a ninja. Not a great ninja, but a ninja nonetheless.
Perhaps that Hinata would be better off.
Perhaps-
"Hyuuga-sama?"
She started, turning towards the voice. An ANBU had approached her.
He stared at her through a sparsely decorated mask. It looked like an emaciated hyena. He was also wearing a thick grey cloak, non-descript even with his distinctive mask.
"Yes?" she almost stammered, pushing herself away from the door. Her side didn't hurt when she did it: it seemed she was finally starting to truly heal.
The ANBU inclined his head. "I have been sent to collect you," he said, his voice a hollow monotone. He sounded dead tired: Hinata supposed he might have just been on a patrol, though his cloak seemed clean.
"Collect me?" Hinata echoed. "By the Hokage?" The ANBU nodded.
"Alright then." The Hyuuga stepped into the street proper, leaving the door open behind her. "Which way?"
The ANBU silently turned away, striding down the street, and Hinata followed. Her leg didn't hurt as much anymore either. Maybe some food had done her more good than she'd thought.
They walked in utter silence for several minutes, threading their way through the dwindling crowds. The midday was coming an end, and the greater part of Konoha's foot traffic had vanished with it.
Hinata watched the back of the man's head with some confusion. He hadn't even tried to talk to her. ANBU were supposed to be stoic, but he went somewhere beyond that.
She activated her Byakugan for just a moment, taking a look at the face under the mask. The man was completely blank looking, staring straight ahead without a hint of emotion or inflection. Each of his steps was perfectly measured, the distance the same each time.
Hinata deactivated her eyes, internally worried for the ANBU. He looked like he could use a nap. Or five.
The man suddenly turned, walking towards the entrance of an alleyway.
Hinata frowned.
"We're not going the right way," she called out.
The man stopped, slowly turning his head towards her.
"Pardon?" he asked politely, his dead voice making the inquiry anything but a question.
"The Hokage's Tower," Hinata said, stepping forward. "It's in the northern part of the village: we're walking south. Where are we going?"
The ANBU paused for a moment, and then gestured at the alley.
Hinata walked up next to him, peering into the slice of darkness between the buildings. "What's in there?" she asked.
"A man who very dearly wishes to meet you," the ANBU said. Hinata looked at him, doubt clear in her eyes.
"Do not worry." The reassurance may have well have been silence for all the good it did. "Your father is watching us at this very moment, along with some of your clansmen. He would intervene if you were in danger, no?"
Hinata stared at the man for a moment. He was right about that, at least.
The ANBU didn't wait for an answer. He just moved into the alley, his walk as robotic as ever, and turned towards one of the darkened walls. Then, he paused. He was waiting for her to follow.
Hinata, her mouth twisting in worry, did just that.
The man promptly reached out and laid his hand on the wall.
There was a pause, a rumbling noise, and then a portion of the wall slid aside, revealing itself as a facade. Behind it was a complete darkness, so black that Hinata couldn't see more than three feet inside.
The ANBU unflinchingly walked into it, wordlessly expecting Hinata to follow.
She hesitated. Walking into a dark hallway after a masked stranger, while injured, was probably not the best idea.
But her father was watching her, and besides, Hinata found herself intensely curious about who could want to talk to her… and who had the influence to send an ANBU to 'collect' her.
She strode into the black after the masked man, and the wall slid closed behind her.
There were stairs. Stairs everywhere.
It was a labyrinth of them. A seemingly endless maze, spiralling out into the darkness in every direction.
Hinata and the masked man descended through them, deeper into the dark. The Hyuuga looked around in wonder: there was an entire world here, hidden beneath the village. A world of shadows, catwalks, and winding stairs. If she listened carefully, she could hear water far below, the sound of it sloshing echoing up to her, carried by metal and reflected by stone.
It was amazing. And also undeniably ominous. Hinata had never heard of this blackened undercity: what she was witnessing was no doubt a village secret.
Then again, at the moment she was most likely a village secret…
They reached the end of their stairwell, moving onto a wide catwalk, seemingly suspended by nothing at all. The man didn't shift his relentless pace, or turn toward her: he just moved down the metal road, and Hinata followed, not wanting to be left behind in the dark.
They reached a crossroad, and turned right, moving down a walkway that was just slightly narrower.
Then another crossroad. And another.
Hinata lost track of how many turns they'd made. It could have been anywhere between eight and twelve, and they all seemed to lead to the same place: the walls always seemed the same distance away, and the sound of water far below never changed in volume.
Finally, they came to a walkway that tapered itself out, becoming just wide enough for two people. It had no railings, though Hinata wasn't worried about falling: she wasn't nearly so weak anymore that gripping the metal beneath her with chakra was at all difficult.
At the end of the walkway was a door. It was a simple iron construction, with a blue finish and a polished knob. It seemed utterly unremarkable, just like her guide.
The man finally turned to her. It was the first time she'd seen his mask in at least ten minutes.
"Through there," he said, gesturing to the door. "He's waiting for you."
"Who?" Hinata asked.
The man didn't answer. Instead, he stepped backwards, melting into the deeper darkness behind him; there was nowhere for him to go, but nevertheless he vanished without a sound, lost to the shadows.
Hinata stared at where he'd been, and then looked at the iron door.
She swallowed, at stepped forward, reaching for the handle.
It opened soundlessly, swinging on well greased hinges.
A warm light spilled out. Hinata cocked her head, and then stepped through the door.
What she found on the other side was completely at odds with everything she'd seen so far.
It was a small room. A lamp burned gently in the corner, and there was a short wooden table in the center, a fine white teapot and twin cups laid out upon it. Two cushions sat on either side of the table.
Hinata blinked.
"Ah. You came."
It was a voice. Old, cracked, but almost soothing, with a velvet undertone. Like silk laid over gnarled wood.
She looked around, and found the owner of the voice.
An ancient man, standing in the corner of the room. He held a wooden cane in a tight grip in his left hand, leaning slightly on it. His face was covered in bandages, concealing his forehead and wrapping around to cover his right eye, and his right arm was hung in some sort of oversized sling, the collar of which came up over his neck.
"I'm glad," he said, stepping forward. He slowly limped himself over to the cushion farthest from Hinata, sinking down onto it with a deep, relaxed sigh. He laid the cane aside, clenching and unclenching his hand.
The bandaged man looked up at Hinata. "Won't you join me?" he asked, his visible eye crinkling.
"Who are you?" Hinata asked.
The man pursed his lips, and gestured slowly with his free hand.
Hinata walked over to the table, not taking her eyes off of the older man. Carefully, she sank to her knees on the cushion.
The man silently reached out for the teapot, and gently lifted it into the air with his sole hand. It didn't shake in the slightest as he gracefully poured Hinata a cup of steaming tea.
"There," he croaked, moving the pot back and pouring himself a cup. "Such things must be done carefully, you know."
"What do you mean?" Hinata asked, still watching him carefully.
"Well," the man said, with a hint of humor. "At my age, it can be difficult to do something as simple as pouring tea. I must stay in practice."
Hinata stared at him, reaching out for her tea. She cupped both her hands around it, appreciating the warmth.
"Who are you?" she asked again.
"Inquisitive, aren't you?" the man asked.
Hinata didn't answer. The man sighed.
"Very well. Straight to business, then?" he said.
He placed the teapot back down. It made a subtle clink on the table.
"My name is Danzo Shimura," Danzo said, his hand to his cup.
"Why was I taken here?" Hinata asked.
"Taken?" Danzo asked, his head rocking back slightly. "You weren't taken, were you? I insisted that you be invited."
"Your man said that he'd been sent to 'collect' me," Hinata said, shifting. Danzo lifted his tea to his mouth, taking a sip.
"Tssk." Danzo shook his head, setting his cup back down. "My apologies, Hyuuga-sama. I'll have to reprimand him: I'd never dreamed he'd be so brusque."
"That's... alright," Hinata said slowly. She lifted the tea to her mouth, subtly smelling it.
As far as she could tell, it was fine. And Danzo himself had just drank from the same pot.
Besides, what would he gain by poisoning her?
"Why have I been invited, Shimura-san?" she asked, sipping at her tea.
"I wanted to have a conversation with you, of course," Danzo said, his mouth crinkling into a gentle smile. "Hiruzen never comes to me fast enough anymore, you see."
Hinata hesitated, setting her cup back down. "The Hokage?" she asked.
"Oh yes," Danzo said, drinking some more of his tea. "He and I go very far back… though you probably wouldn't know much about that. It's not common knowledge."
"You're a friend of his?" Hinata probed.
"One of the oldest," Danzo confirmed. "It's why I make my home down here, you see."
"I… don't understand," Hinata said, reaching for her cup.
"Ah… it's an old rivalry," Danzo said casually. "Hiruzen is the Hokage, and I work beneath him.."
He chuckled. "In a somewhat literal sense, I suppose." Then, he composed himself again.
"Sarutobi is the trunk, the body of the tree that is Konoha… and I, the roots that support it. I remain below, in darkness, so that I can do what is necessary for the village's survival."
"Black-ops?" Hinata asked. "But I thought the ANBU-"
Danzo waved her off. "The ANBU, yes. It's an open agreement between myself and Hiruzen: he handles the running of the village, and I ensure that no one grows to threaten it, operating from the shadows."
"I see."
"So you do..." Danzo said, leaning back with a muffled crack from his back. "Well, to get to the point… You met with Hiruzen earlier. I know you are a new arrival in the village: I was unaware any Hyuuga were on long term missions outside the village, especially any so young."
He gave her an inquisitive look. "What were you meeting with him about?"
Hinata hesitated.
"You're the Hokage's friend?" she asked.
"Of course," Danzo affirmed. He leaned in. "Even now, your father is watching the both of us. I'm sure you can feel it. Trust me: anything that passes between us will be with his blessing."
Hinata took a deep breath.
"I'm a time traveler," she said.
Danzo blinked, leaning back. "Really," he breathed out.
Hinata nodded.
"From the past, or…"
"The future," Hinata confirmed.
"Amazing," Danzo said. He sounded like he really meant it.
"How could you possibly have done that?" the old man mused, his tea forgotten.
Hinata told him.
"How much did you tell him?"
Saying Hiashi looked grim would be an exaggeration, but he far from happy.
Hinata looked up at her father. The street seemed unusually warm, compared to the labyrinth of stairs she now knew was below her.
"Not everything," she said calmly.
That man may have been friendly, may have been the Hokage's friend... but he was not the Hokage.
Hiashi smirked. "Well done, my daughter."
Apparently, she had made the right decision.
He turned, and Hinata walked beside him.
"You acted well with Itachi, too," Hiashi said. "I'm sorry I couldn't stop him approaching you."
"It's fine, father," Hinata said. "Talking to him was… interesting." She paused. "Did he actually go to the Hokage?"
Hiashi paused, and Hinata stopped with him.
"He did," her father said flatly. Then, he chuckled.
"What happened?" Hinata asked.
"Oh, I think you'd best find that out yourself," her father said, resuming his walk. "How was your visit to the Jinchuuriki?"
This time, Hinata was the one who stopped.
Slowly, a smile spread across her face.
"It was… good. I'm glad I went," she declared. Her father smiled.
"I'm glad you feel that way, then," he said. He resumed walking once more, and Hinata had to jog for a moment to catch up to him. She didn't feel nearly as sore anymore.
"Where are we going?" she asked.
"The compound," Hiashi responded. Glancing at her. His smile was slipping away, but his eyes still held a hint of lightness.
"There's something you should see."
AN: Don't think I'll make a habit of this. This is just what happens when I give up a Saturday.
Unfortunately, I don't usually have that luxury.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Serendipity, out.