"That's quite the story Lady Hinata '' the aged voice of the Third spoke, after taking a moment to gather himself.
When his jonin commander strolled in with an intrigued look in his eyes he knew something was gonna happen especially when the Hyuga Heir popped out from behind Shikaku.
The following story was a wild one, to know that the little girl before him has so much knowledge and such a weight on her shoulders.
The girl only spoke of a single timeline that she knows and she stated that she doesn't think she has done anything to affect the events to come just yet, she felt, quite bravely, that she should go to people who could help make a firm plan of action.
He, as a hokage, is grateful for the loyalty that she has to the village. He can see that it's more towards the few she cares for, but that's what the will of fire is, fighting for those you love.
As an aged grandfather he feels pity for the young child to have to deal with so much and be tasked with such a daunting mission.
"What do you suggest we do?" He asks watching as surprise enters her face.
"You want my opinion?" He can't help but chuckle at the innocent bewilderment.
"Of course, you are the one that has the most knowledge of what could happen. What do you think we should do?"
"What would you think is most prevalent right now?" He is genuinely curious about the girl's thoughts.
She only told him a generic overview, when she hinted at knowing of the massacre being an inside job he had to unwillingly believe her, the only reason he isn't detaining her is because he can see the fondness of the elder Nara and he can trust the man's judgment.
"Well, I'm not sure if we could stop the Konoha invasion, I'm sorry Sandaime, this may sound callous but the invasion is essential..," she pauses likely waiting for retribution
realizing they're letting her say her whole point she continues "…for ironically strengthening our relationship with the sand, well more like getting them indebted to us."
"So I propose we prepare for it like…shinobi, we strengthen our security, but only in the shadows, we need to keep a front of being vulnerable..." she pauses, unsure.
"You mean like Hiding in plain sight?" The Genius offers.
"Yes!"
"Oh! speaking of, lord hokage!"
"I know just a solution that will allow us to both gain an ally in Kiri and while gaining a substantial amount of money. that'll allow us to take the time to strengthen our forces in secret"
"Oh, how's that girly?" The hokage lets Shikaku take the lead knowing she's more comfortable talking to the man.
"The wave mission that you sent Naruto-Kun on, the man who hired the team is a bridge builder who is currently constructing a bridge between his village and the mainland to better their merchant" she knows they already, or at least the hokage knows this.
"The man he needs protection from is a tyrant-like money monger by the name of Gato…"
"…I was thinking you could send team eight as back up for seam seven, while having a underline mission of gaining both the alliance from the swordsman Zabuza in lieu of providing them with the efficient amount of money he would need to supply the rumored revolution lead by a Mei Terumi." She pauses to gauge their reaction.
"How much money does this Gato have?" The Jonin commander asks.
"I'm not sure." She admits.
"The specifics of how much the man has isn't really solid, but I do think it is a substantial amount, and a good relationship with Kiri would make up for the potential flop, as even without our intervention the future Mizukaga will accomplish it"
"We would just be speeding it up while indebting them to us, I see it as a win/win" Hinata ends.
Hiruzen stares at the determined eyes of the genin, he can't help but feel a string of fondness. He knows the money isn't necessary, while Konoha isn't at its peak they could pull back on mission enough to focus on strengthening the forces.
"Hinata, I think we can do that" he watches as her eyes light up, he continues before she can say anything else.
"Now you go home and let us handle the bigger problems, I promise to keep you informed, so you aren't walking blindly into a new situation." The aged hokage doesn't want the child to have to deal with the dreadful conversation involving what has to be done with Danzo.
Has he really been so lenient with his former teammate?
———————
Standing next to the gates of Konoha Hinata waits for her team to arrive. If she's honest, she is anxious to get there before Zabuza and Haku are dead.
She hopes-
'No' she needs to focus on more important things.
"Hello, Shino-san" Hinata says, sensing him, getting a greeting back as they wait for their sensei and last teammate.
She marvels at her senor ability, and wonders if that's part of the reason she has such a massive Byakugan range, she has strengthened her byakugan to be 20 km instead of her canon 10km at the start of the series, which was also her ending range when-
She blushes as the images of three beautiful children pop into her mind from the little tidbits of Boruto she did watch.
"Hinata, are you thinking of Naruto again?" She feels the blush rise at Kiba's teasing.
She Jabs the boy's ribs in one of his chakra points in retaliation, and because she is embarrassed that she got sidetracked again.
"When did you get here?" She can't help but ask.
"We've been here, Hinata-Chan" the voice of Kurenai-Sensei makes her squeak before spinning to the amused red eyes.
"Hai, sensei!" She shouts before marching out of the gates.
"Hinata we haven't even checked out!" The yell of Kiba enters Kurenai's ears, causing a smile to appear as the two speed off. she knows Hinata go off to far.
"Thank you for staying Shino-kun"
"Hai" the boy states simply as he watches them run off while his bugs idly slip out into the air.
She can't help but think the journey won't take long if she pushes her kiddos to their limit, unlike Kakashi they aren't limited to a civilian pace.
———-
Within two days of a steady Genin speed, since Kurenai didn't want to over exert them while on a mission, the gap between their destinations have shrunk and they've arrived at the edge of Wave country.
Hinata watches as their Sensei haggles for a boat ride to the island, they could walk across the water, having been taught the basics of chakra control by their respective clans, but it's a daunting distance, the range just escapes her sensory, which she is proud to say os double her byakugan range when passive.
That reminds her to start practicing her protective trigrams, maybe she should modify the technique, when she saw herself doing it back…before.
The fine control it took was underrated, she honestly feels if she had the drive for it she could be a better medic than Sakura will potentially be, but she also realizes she doesn't have the stomach to do it.
Plus she doesn't have the time, she has a world to save.
"Alright Team, this is Fuji-san, the kind man who has offered his boat." Kurenai broke her out of her thoughts.
"Apparently there has been an increase of bandit attacks, so we are in exchange going to escort his goods into town, alright"
"Hai!" All three shout.
"Please take care of us" Hinata adds not seeing the frazzled look the man gives her at the polite treatment.
"Man, I hope I don't get wet!" The whine of Kiba makes her turn to the dog boy, watching as he peers over the edge of the dock as they finish loading the boat with goods.
"I thought that was a cat thing, did Tora infect you?" She can't help but jab as she bypasses him to set three crates down.
"Oh, har har…pearl eyes" Kiba snides back lamely as he watches her carry so much.
"What the hell! Since when did you have monster strength?" He can't help but ask.
"Oh, well father has been insisting that I get stronger and I read that Shinobi tend to augment their bodies with their chakra to increase their stamina, strength, and senses."
"I personally call it the three S's." She can see the dull look in his eyes at her words. She knows he's not stupid just more like Naruto in hands on type of learning.
"Augment?" Kiba asks
"Increases" she offers.
"Ooh!"
"Mom said our clan's bodies do that naturally" he scratches his head in a lazy drawl.
"Really, you know that makes sense"
"Shino, Does your clan deal with any type of augmentation?" Not wanting him to feel left out.
Hinata has been training herself to use chakra passively in her muscles, she honestly loves having the cheat of being able to watch how chakra is supposed to go and flow.
She can't wait to gaze at Lady Tsunade, wondering how her coils look with her fine control.
If she were a better person she would feel a little cheap at stealing Sakura's thunder, at least in the strength department, but her resolve to make the pink haired girl even stronger than she was.
Girl power and all that.
"Yes we do it, but in a different way. Why? Because we augment our bugs with our chakra which in turn gives us an instinctual knowledge on their behaviors." Shino states as he puts the last crate in.
"That's…cool" Kiba tries.
"…"
"What!"
"What'd I do!?" Kiba whines at the deadpan look from his two teammates.
———
"Two miles out, there's a group hidden in the foliage waiting for us" she states having sensed them when her sensory range started to touch land, she immediately activated her byakugan when their signatures registered.
"Good job Hinata-chan, don't worry I've already placed a genjutsu, they think we are heading to the opposite dock" Kurenai reassures her team, especially Kiba who is tense at the mention of potential threats.
"Shino- can your bugs reverse the remaining distance?" She hears Kurenai ask, since they are aways from the shore.
"Hai sensei" shino responds.
"Good I want you to send out a few to track them, so hinata doesn't have to waste chakra on her eyes"
Kurenai stops her from opening her mouth. "I know your ability to sense them without your eyes. I want you to not get reliant on the byakugan, try honing your rang with your sensory I know you have a wide range but sometimes the more vast your sensory the more you'll miss if you don't know how to regulate it"
"Alright sensei," she deactivated her eyes, wincing as she felt like she was looking through a needle.
"Thank god, the veins were creeping me ou-ow!" She may or may not have smacked Kiba in the head.
They eventually reach the dock and hinata focuses on minimizing her sensory range she mentally condenses it into a 3 km radius marveling at all the tiny details she had missed, she can sense everything, unlike her eyes she doesn't have a blind spot, she feels a grin spread as the insects riddled with Shino's chakra enter her sensory.
"Shino-san?" She asks as the beetle lands on his finger, Kurenai and Kiba dealing with Fuji's stuff while they keep watch as she more so than Shino, excel in surveillance, while Kiba excels in tracking, which isn't necessary right at the moment. Shino being the middle ground that can do both, with various effects.
"My Beatles have told me the men have figured out that they were under genjutsu." Shino starts answering her question.
"According to this one in particular, there are shinobi amongst the group, by the estimates of their chakra they seem to be of Chunin level. They seem to be heading towards us, they will arrive in about 15minutes." She can feel a trepidation enter here, the fear of not being goo-
'No' she's not that meek little girl anymore.
Flaring her chakra in the code that will alert the other two, she watches as Kurenai speaks to the merchant, and turns to Kiba before they both start towards shino and him.
"You ready?" She asks Shino
"Believe it" she feels a lip quirk at Naruto's words being used by such a quiet person.
"I take it, they're on their way?" She hears Kurenai ask as Kibaand her reach them.
"Hai!" Both shino and her state when the other half of their team finally got to them.
"Ah man! I can't wait to pound in some faces" Kiba says with childish bloodlust.
———
Hinata ducks under a swing of a fit barely putting any effort in it as the person is just a bandit, she is absently mesmerized by how fine tuned her senses are with her range condensed.
She can sense the minicule movement of their bodies based on their chakra, admittedly they are civilians so it's not that good for scaling its improvement, it's why she's waiting for the chunin chakra to try and take advantage of them being bombarded with all the bandits.
She swiftly jabs one of the men trying to hit her in his center tenketsu, knocking him unconscious, she pushes his body into the unsuspecting person behind him before kicking behind her heel meeting a temple causing the person to go flying into the ground.
Her leg still in the air behind her she grabs the fist aiming towards her face before bringing her knees into the man's arms snapping the bone, the fist in her grip tearing out as the man wails and backs up.
She turns to the others who've backed up behind them she can see her teammates fighting their own respective people, shino has the poor men scrambling on the ground as the beatles drain their meager chakra. Kiba has his lot running from his fang over fang.
she can see why the technique is intimidating with the drill-like visage they make as they spin rapidly.
No wonder they are running away.
She has to dodge as one throws a rock of all things, making her turn towards them, they flinch as the gleam in her eyes.
She's wanted to test out the protection trigrams maybe this will be her chanc-
Thump!
Thump!
She turns to see the chunin signatures drop onto the ground with their sensei standing on the tree they previously occupied.
The men who were starting to throw rocks at her look between their leaders and the little girl who was beating their ass and back, before looking into the red eyes of Kurenai whatever the woman did makes them scream and start running.
She was very surprised at how anticlimactic this was.
They agreed to take on the bandits while Kurenai would find and eliminate the bigger threats, she was curious to see how well she would stand up to multiple appointments, even if they weren't amounting to much.
"T-thank you" Fuji the merchant who hired us says as he comes out of his hiding area.
"It's no problem" Kiba says as he walks over to Hinata for some healing cream as he got kicked by some of the weapons, he swears all the ones with weapons came after him.
"We are Konoha Shinobi" is all Hinata says on that.
"Kurenai-sensei, do you know how long it is in the village?" Shino starts.
"Why, because I don't have as much stamina as my fellow teammates, and I need time to assess my colony"
"We've only got a couple miles isn't that right Fuji-san"
The man in question frantically nods, "yes! Let's go! I can't wait to see everyone's reaction when we bring the food…" the man suddenly wilts
"What about gato? He's gonna be mad that they will ha-"
"Fuji-man you don't worry about it, you have an Inuzuka protecting you!" Kiba states in a good guy pose.
'Him and Naruto are so similar' Hinata thinks fondly.
"Hai, Fuji-san we won't let Gato take the food from the villagers, besides we aren't alone here"
"That's right, konoha actually has a team station here for the bridge builder…" Kurenai starts playing that she doesn't know the man's name.
"Oh! So that's where Tazuna went off to" Fuji says his personality pulling a 180 as he hops into the carriage riding seat.
"Well if what you say is true, and from what I've seen. I think we are in good hand"
Just as he's about to push the load forward the old man turns towards Shino "Ninja-san would you like to lay on the cart? I heard you might be more exhausted, and I know our slow pace won't help any."
"Thank you, but I must stay vigilant-"
"Shino it's okay"
"It's only a couple miles," Kurenai shakes her head at that.
"Shino-kun it's okay you've done well I don't sense anyone and if it will make you feel better hinata can stop her training to widen her range?"
"…no sensei i'll lay, why? I don't want to hinder Hinata's training, and my kikaichu is saying I need rest" he ends almost sheepishly.
Hinata gives the boy who has a hard time showing emotions a genuine smile as he settles into the back of the merchandise, with Kurenai taking the back and Kiba and her on either side.
The soft neigh of the horse signals the start of a change coming.
A/n:
So I'm sorry I suck at fight scenes.
I promise not every situation will go as smoothly I just wanted to get to the wave mission.
Will she succeed in saving Zabuza and Haku? Will she be able to settle an alliance with them in lieu of the future mizukage?
How does naruto react to seeing Hinata especially after having the precious person talk with Haku(the one in the woods)
Should I save The Third?
