Harbinger

by tigerowl

Naruto's friendship with his teammates Gaara and Haku is put to the test as they prepare to deal with the threat of the Akatsuki. The secrets Jiraiya has kept come to a head, and Naruto must shoulder the responsibility of protecting much more than the Leaf Village. Continuation of Forlorn. AU NaruHina, GaaSaku, NejiTen, ObiRin, OCs *Taoism, Self-Indulgent World Building, longfic

37. Go!

Note: Reader, I think your imagination is awesome. It is internalizing words, characters, and ideas, then creating scenes in your brain…30FPS animation, super HD lookin' shiz. The conclusion of the Chunin Exam 2.0 is here. Hells yeah the music sets the tone.

Chapter Soundtrack: "On Right Now" by YOOK!E feat. Samuel Thomas &

"Go" by Grimes feat. Blood Diamonds

Chapter 37: Go!

Wow, was the temperature perfect today! No breeze. No heat. The faint aroma of peonies blooming around the feet of the Toad Statues was sublime. It was an ideal day for meditation.

Naruto would tell anyone who asked him about it that meditating to gather Natural Energy was a boring and stiff task…but he would also admit he was starting to like it. It was the serenity of the mountain, the bright scents and sounds, the bliss that filtered down to the tiniest components of his cells…

It was a feeble description, but Naruto might claim it made him feel happy. He felt connected. He felt connected to Jiraiya, who, like him, was treated as a beloved child and student by resident toads. Naruto felt connected to his father, Minato, who was long dead and gone…but still felt like he was lingering on the sunny mountain as a pupil.

The stretching, vast feeling was reaching like open arms inside of him. Naruto felt the tingle— the many small heartbeats blinking and lighting the valley in all directions. Slowly, gently, he let their energy mingle with his own.

Shoot. He was fidgeting.

What a way to ruin great progress, his brain lamented. Naruto took a moment to snap back to awareness in his own body, and noticed that his cupped hands in his lap were twitching. He cracked an eye to look down at them. His index fingers were pressing together…as if he was worried about something.

'What…the heck?' He pooched his lips and wondered what this odd rebellion was. Just a moment ago he had been at total peace, harmonizing with all life in the valley…

Naruto opened his eyes and uncrossed his legs to stretch. He called out to Fukasaku, "Hey Pa! I came really close this time! Everything felt right."

The toad was working on a nonogram booklet to pass the time, relaxing in the grass nearby the Toad Oil Pool, "Oh? If that's so then why are you talking, Naruto-boy? I don't see Sage markings on your face."

"I dunno. My hands felt weird."

Fukasaku looked up from his booklet at him, "Weird?"

"Yeah."

"Were you turning to stone?"

"No, no. Nothing like that." Naruto assured him, "It felt like…my hands were full of water."

The toad rubbed at his fluffed, old-man eyebrows, "Weird. That is the word for it."

"What? That doesn't usually happen during training?" Naruto asked. He yawned and stretched again.

"No. During Sage Training I have never heard of or experienced the sensation of…holding water." Fukasaku confirmed, "Do you feel like you can continue?"

"Yup. I feel great." Naruto nodded and returned to his cross-legged position, relaxing, "I don't think I'll slip up and turn into a statue, but keep an eye on me, okay?"

"Of course, child! Give it another hour or so, and then we'll break for lunch."

With a deep breath, Naruto shut his eyes and pushed all thought out of his head.

---

In Konoha, the intermission prior to the Semi-Final match was dwindling down to its last few minutes. On the viewing balcony, the Leaf finalist genin were discussing the pros and cons of surrendering to Huo.

"No offense," Ino gave her friends a preamble, pointing to Lee and Tenten, "But the both of you have been beaten silly. You have body parts falling off."

"Okay. We know. Leave Lee alone— he can only spectate anyway." Tenten could not gesture to the saran-wrapped ice pack on Lee's back…her arm was in a sling.

"Pff." Ino brushed hair from her face and shook her head at Tenten, "You aren't any better off, Old Lady. Can you even move that arm?"

"Let's find out." Tenten slipped her arm free and tested her range of motion, "Hmm…it feels fine for now…"

Sakura reached to carefully lower Tenten's arm and inspect her shoulder, "Good. I'm glad to hear it. But the first thing Huo is going to do is punch your shoulder out of its socket again if you fight him."

Lee grimaced at the floor, appalled by the thought.

"True." Tenten conceded, "And I can't use Susumajin against him."

This statement seemed to come as a surprise to her peers. Though they were aware of the black jian's chakra-sucking consequence, they were about ready to endorse the risky method against their enemy.

"You could probably win if you used it." Kiba touched on the subject, seated beside Akamaru on the floor, "If it starts to hurt bystanders, Shikamaru will just disqualify you."

"That alone is reason enough to not use it." Shino disagreed.

"No. You don't understand." Tenten took a deep breath and informed them, "It won't touch his chakra. His is the same as mine."

A hush fell among her peers and they stared at her. Lee, Hinata, and Sakura, who were already aware of Tenten's ancestry, just gave each other mournful looks.

"You're related to that guy?" Chouji was aghast.

"Distantly. My clan doesn't exist anymore…so he's a leftover much in the way that I am." She clarified, "The point is…I can't use a weapon he wants to get his hands on. If he took it away from me…I don't know if he has a way to bind a contract with it. If he does, then we'd have an international security crisis with Iwagakure on our hands. The Hokage would lose it…"

"Then forget that idea." Kiba concurred.

"Want to borrow some poison?" Ino suggested jokingly, "I have no idea if it would do anything to him, but maybe it's worth a try!"

"Oh!" Sakura liked that idea and added to it, "I can hide Katsuyu on you so she can heal you! She can slip down your shirt where no one will see."

"Guys." Tenten smiled wanly at them, "I'm not going to cheat. It isn't worth it."

"You have not had enough time to fully recover your chakra…and Huo has." Lee warned her, "Perhaps some help from our friends would benefit you."

"Lee, I can't." She shook her head, "And yeah…I am seriously lacking chakra. He won't be."

"Want to borrow a dog?" Kiba snickered at her.

Shino had let a Kikaichu insect land on Tenten's cheek, as if to suggest the same thing. She sighed at them and slid the sash of Hok from her shoulder. She handed the jian to Lee, and he looked superbly confused.

"I am going to forfeit." Tenten stated with finality, "But I am also going to talk to him and see what he wants. Maybe I can negotiate something."

Her friends clamored loudly in disagreement and alarm.

"He will not cooperate, Tenten." Lee's voice pressed as he hovered beside her, "No matter what you say to him, Huo is not going to relent…or he will make a demand that you cannot in good conscience fulfill!"

"He's obviously trash. Just remember what he did to Tama!" Sakura added, "He can't be reasoned with. You can't trust him even if you think you've worked something out!"

"Maybe not. And maybe he'll tell me something that the proctor of the Exam isn't supposed to know." Tenten glanced up at a wall clock, noting a few minutes remained, "I'm not exactly an expert at steering a conversation, but maybe I can get him to incriminate himself. Shikamaru can disqualify him if he admits to cheating or blurts out some other egotistical remark."

"Go with that." Sakura condoned the level-headed idea, "If he tries to attack you anyway…we'll be close by to intervene. We should wait downstairs by the arena entryway just in case."

"Yeah. Can't take any chances…" Kiba stood and brushed his pants off.

It was about time to go. Descending the stairs with her entire group of friends was a strange but bracing experience. Every last one of them filed into the corridor on the first floor, lining the walls as they wished Tenten well. She thanked them and passed through the archway into the arena. Lee stood at the doorway after she had gone, clutching Hok in his hands worriedly.

Shikamaru waited at the arena's center and spoke into his radio, asking for the loudspeaker system to be rebooted again. An earlier announcement had failed to be broadcasted about the closure of betting windows. He wanted his comments at the Semi-Final to come in crystal clear. When Tenten arrived and stopped a few paces away from him, he quirked an eyebrow at her.

"You don't exactly look like a grand champion." He muttered teasingly.

"That's because I'm not." She assured him, "Is something wrong with the speakers again?"

"They'll be up in two minutes. What's up? Do you want to say something off the record? Now is the time to do it." Shikamaru confirmed.

"Sort of." She watched as Huo crossed the tattered ground with a swagger in his gait.

When he finally came to a stop across from Tenten and Shikamaru, Huo's gaze trolled up and down Tenten's form. He then snickered in Hanwen, Where is that shabby old jian you keep on your back?

With a friend. She replied, signaling to Shikamaru from the corner of her eye that she might need more than two minutes. He got it.

I see. You obviously don't need a piece of rubbish like that…when you can summon something much better. He tilted his head at her, Do you intend to use Susumajin in this match?

I was chastised for using something that can hurt innocent people in this stadium, Tenten answered, So I do not plan to use it again.

You're a liar. Huo accused her, That isn't the reason. You didn't give any thought to those people in your first match, and you would disregard them again if you were desperate… The corners of his mouth curled up, It is because you know who I am. And I know who you are. That is why you won't call it.

No. I don't know who you are. I don't know why you are doing this. Tenten clicked her teeth angrily and spat, I've done nothing to provoke you! You can take your threats and posturing back to Hidden Rock!

Is that what you want? He shut his eyes and exhaled, Of course I will leave, if you wish it, Tian-Tian. My lady. "Our leader." Our shining jewel. And I will tell you who I am. Huo's sharp, narrow eyes snapped open, I am your replacement.

Tenten's face twisted as she tried to convert the words in her head, wondering if she understood him.

You no longer hold any stake in our clan. The Main line has been deposed. The Branch is the Main, now. My Lord Bihokokuni has transcended his low birth and proven himself worthy, and exterminated you wretched elitists. You are not the only ones who can wield our people's treasures. I will become the new head and rebuild. I will take Susumajin and Hiyumi as you offer them to me with your head bowed in respect.

I don't kowtow for anyone who is complicit in murdering his own flesh and blood. She stood straighter and looked him in the eye when she said it.

Huo smiled at her, They did.

Her face dropped a little, and an uncertain swirling feeling settled in her gut, Who did?

The prince. And your mother. They dropped to their knees and pleaded with Lord Bihokokuni. How do you think he so cleanly severed their heads? They weren't standing! So too shall you bow in apology and acknowledge me.

Tenten was losing her composure. She kept her jaw squared as her eyes moistened at the memory. How could he have known that? If he was aware that Leaf had recovered her parents' bodies decapitated, there must have been truth to his claims.

We have been instructed to rewrite…to overwrite our history…that we come from a heathen woman who disrespected the great shinobi of old and adopted the Tao before Ninshu. I will write you out of our story, Tian-Tian. Whether or not you give me what I ask for…whether or not you bow today, or on a cold night after years of hiding and fleeing from me. Your head will also be my Lord's keepsake.

You aren't a Genin. Tenten spoke to make a bid for information, and also to avoid Huo's hideous words, Is your Sensei in on this? Is she also a filthy, usurping murderer?

Huo referred to the Jounin Sensei of his team, the kunoichi named Sekieima, She is only Qin and Ga-Fen's Sensei. To me, she is a prisoner.

That detail was unsettling, but probably valuable. Tenten attempted negotiation, We have nothing to settle here, today. You are standing in the heart of my village. Nothing that you do will go unpunished. If you really want to challenge me, let's settle it in the future. Then you can have what you want.

My Lord said you would say that. Daughters always want to bargain. They always want to plot their escape and make a mockery of their adversaries. You are no disciple of our school, and your ignorance will be everlasting. Your past life disparaged Lord Indra and cursed our clan ever since. We will right your wrong.

Tenten had a prompt comeback for him, You are out of your mind! None of that is real! Don't you realize you've just been brainwashed by some cultist, rogue ninja? He made it up! Tenten insisted, shouting, Bi is using you to get the things he wants. That man killed my parents, and he will spill your blood without thinking twice about it.

My Lord Bihokokuni is a true disciple. He told me that your family knew the truth. The prince was always aware. The dirty Sa Gou people called our patron Tasaisha, but he is Lord Indra, the custodian of Ninjutsu and true strength, and we seek penance for betraying him.

Shikamaru motioned to Tenten, getting her attention, "You done? Loudspeakers are on. I can start the match."

"No, don't." Tenten was gulping air and trying to breathe, "I forfeit. I refuse to fight."

Shikamaru nodded to her and seemed heartened by her decision. Huo, however, was not done pontificating and threatening Tenten.

Don't try to delay this, you witch! I will make it so you are never born again. He was bristling, his hands fisted at his sides.

You are crazy. Tenten informed him, And you are being used. I don't have to fight you. It would be an insult to my honorable parents.

Shikamaru announced Tenten's forfeiture and made Huo the winner. Huo gnashed his teeth at her furiously. She turned her back and walked towards the exit of the arena, listening as the zealot called after her, I will kill them all! No matter where you go or who defends you, their grief and agony is my utmost priority.

Tenten covered her ears and jogged forward, relieved that Lee met her half-way and guided her inside the building.

"It's done! It's over." Sakura soothed as she crowded in with the rest of the group, encircling Tenten as she hyperventilated, "He was talking to you a lot! Did he tell you something we can use against him?"

She could not form words. Shock had settled in and silenced her. For a while, Tenten tuned out the speculation and concerned rumbling of her friends as they group-hugged. She felt Lee right behind her, protective, and wondered if he'd overheard any of it. Hinata was pressed into her side and patting her back to pacify her. Gradually, the huddle dissolved and Tenten cleared her throat several times. Ino passed her a water bottle and she chugged it.

"Okay. He is crazy." Tenten took a deep breath and elaborated, "He has some bizarre vendetta against me because of…storybook…characters? I don't know. He is clearly not based in reality. And what's worse is that he admitted he is holding his Jounin Sensei hostage…meaning she isn't actually his sensei."

"How can he be allowed to compete if he isn't a certified Genin?" Sakura was astounded, "There can't be that many bureaucratic loopholes in Konoha!"

"Well, I think he is a Genin, but he never bothered to apply for promotions even when he could. It seems purposeful now." Tenten capped the empty water bottle and crushed it in her hand, "Not that I want to go into detail about it, but he knows how my parents were killed. That has to count against him somehow."

"Yeah, I'm thinking it should." Kiba growled in disbelief, "How could someone like him know about that?"

"Because he works for the man that did it." Tenten replied evenly, "And I don't think Iwagakure is dealing with a disgraced, on-the-run war criminal like Dintei Bi anymore. The Tsuchikage would probably agree after hearing all this that there is a prison cell somewhere with Huo's name on it."

"Great. That's just what we needed, right?" Ino brightened, "He is out of this Tournament. Thank God."

Shortly after that, Shikamaru located them in the concourse hallway and conversed with them. Judging by reactions he got from administrators on his two-way radio, Huo's advancement to the Final Round was getting mixed reviews. Tsunade and her VIP seating companions agreed that it was wise of Tenten to avoid confrontation. The on-staff security team also radioed down to Shikamaru confirming that they would be watching Huo's movements in the building. One of their officers did "not like" Huo's verbal altercation and indignant reaction to his forfeiture-win. They wanted to ensure he was not in violation of Exam policies or intending to harm anyone.

Administrators and old-fogey misanthropes on the voting panel, however, seemed to think Huo entering the Final Round heralded doomsday. It was unthinkable. How could a ninja from Iwagakure, the grimy pebble under Konoha's boot, have submitted a contender to shame the Chunin Exam so? A Leaf Genin had to prevail. The Daimyo of the Land of Fire, and other political leaders in nearby nations would certainly take note if Leaf was beaten on its own turf by a former enemy.

Conversely, a few on the panel believed it was a wonderful revenue-booster, at least for now. Let the silly, half-bald Iwa Genin fight, they said. Let him win uncontested. Whatever. Money was money. Reputation could be rebuilt after the fact. Besides, what did anyone expect from kunoichi being the only contenders in the Semi-Final and Final matches? A loss was guaranteed. Kunoichi were not dependable. Huo had a clear advantage, and many gamblers were heaping Ryo onto his odds.

Shikamaru sighed, "We are almost done with this day. I need a bath when I go home." He looked around at his haggard, frazzled peers and thought, "We all need a bath."

With encouragement from Lee, Tenten relayed the disturbing information she had gleaned from Huo. Shikamaru listened to her with a stone face and nodded occasionally.

"Do you think that's enough to get him in trouble?" She asked.

"Should be. The bit about his 'Jounin Sensei' is very concerning. Also, the fact that he knows about how your parents died could suggest a Privacy Violation for the Exam. Contenders can use information like that to intimidate one another. It isn't permitted." Shikamaru rubbed his chin, "And, once again, he was threatening your life and everyone associated with you. I'm not going to overlook what he admitted just because he said it in another fucking language. That dumbass."

"Thank you." Tenten breathed softly. Shikamaru clapped her bad shoulder and she howled in pain. Extremely contrite, Shikamaru apologized for his forgetfulness and then spared an urgent glance to Ino and Chouji before going to speak with the Hokage face-to-face.

"Let's get your sling back on." Sakura suggested, and headed for the stairs with Tenten beside her, "We have another thirty minutes to wait before they make announcements. Maybe it won't take the panel that long to penalize Huo."

"Hopefully not." Tenten began to smile, "And then you know what that means?"

Sakura laughed and they both turned back to regard Hinata as she climbed the steps behind them. She blinked in puzzled innocence at them.

"That makes Hinata the champion!" Sakura squealed, "Ha! Are you having a great day or what, Hinata-chan?"

"Hey that's right!" Kiba started cracking up. Shino quietly appreciated the happy turn of events, and Ino, Chouji, and Lee were also jovial that their friend had triumphed in spite of a difficult Tournament. The group celebrated at their viewing balcony. Sakura immobilized Tenten's arm once more and wondered aloud what Tama, Neji, and Sato would think of Hinata's dog day in the sun.

They settled down and relaxed, Chouji returned to the concession lobby for snack orders, and Tenten took Hok back from Lee with a small smile.

"Would you mind escorting me to the hospital?" She asked him sheepishly, "I'm tired. I just want to sit around and talk to Neji. Staying in this stadium is making me sick."

"Yes. You must want to get your mind off of it." Lee understood, "Of course! I will deliver you safely and then return for celebratory festivities!"

"But don't overdo it, Lee. You officially have a bad back."

She bid her friends farewell for the time being and set out with Lee. On the way down the stairwell, they heard the echoes of their friends cheering and making up a chant for Hinata.

---

Gai found them at the exit of the concession lobby, where the stadium's atrium fed into stone steps, and then on to one of the busy main streets of Konoha. He still seemed somber about Tama's injury, but joy was inching into his features as he commended Tenten and Lee for making him so very proud. Neji had too, of course. They could tell him that when they got to the hospital. Their team would celebrate over dinner as soon as Neji was well again— sensei's treat.

Gai added, "It is best, Tenten, that you do not approach Huo again. You were correct in avoiding him." He rubbed his chin and peered down the corridor, "Kakashi told me that he and other Jounin were going to stand before the panel and listen to Shikamaru's comments. I also wish to hear council members deliberate Huo's falsifications."

Lee said he would hurry back so he could get the full scoop. They carried on out of the building and uptown a few blocks. After making a right turn into the automatic doors of the hospital lobby, a receptionist took one look at them and sighed dramatically.

"Chunin Exam?" The receptionist looked down his nose at Tenten and Lee.

"Yes." Lee confirmed, "We are here to see Hyuga Neji."

The receptionist was surprised, "Huh? Aren't you both going to be admitted? You're injured."

"We're fine." Tenten sniffed impatiently.

"I'm going to have to ask you to fill out intake sheets—"

"No. We want to see our teammate." Tenten pushed the clipboard back over the desk counter, "Which room is he in?"

"I am not allowing visitors into a recovering patient's room. Most especially not some rude Genin who just hobbled away from the Exam..." The receptionist was dishing back attitude. He and Tenten had a staredown until Tenten backed up and grumbled.

Lee courteously filled out the intake sheet for her, as he was still able-handed. Tenten sighed and told him he could return to the stadium.

"You do not want me to wait here with you?" Lee wondered.

"Nah. You said you wanted to participate in the merriment. I just need a break from it all." Tenten assured him, "It's alright, Lee. Go ahead. You can come find me later."

He gave her a careful side-hug before departing. Tenten handed the clipboard back to the snooty receptionist and was admitted by a much friendlier nurse. Her vitals were taken, she answered the questions, and Tenten finally relented as she was brought to a patient recovery room upstairs. The only other occupant in the multi-patient room was a middle-aged man asleep in a bed. The nurse filled out a white board on the wall with Tenten's details. The kunoichi sat on a bed and scowled at the board as the nurse moved on for her rounds.

'I'm not just going to sit here like an invalid.' She held a hand sign and produced a Shadow Clone. Tenten smiled to herself. The clone Transformed into the likeness of the nurse who had cooed at her and settled her down. Tenten sent it downstairs to steal a glance at the patient intake sheets and find Neji's room number. 'There. Maybe I should look for Sato and Tama's rooms later too…'

She sat there in boredom and listened to her gurgling stomach. 'Hm. I'm getting kind of hungry now…' Tenten padded silently over to the sleeping patient's food tray, pilfering a pear and an unopened cup of yogurt. She ate in silence for a while, disliking the sterile smell of the ward and how curtains were drawn to block sunlight. She zoned out and stared at long shadows on the floor.

Then, a thought popped into her head courtesy of her disguised Shadow Clone. It dissolved and transmitted its knowledge to her. Neji was in room 240. Good. Tenten hopped up with her half-eaten pear and navigated down the hospital hallway, finding her way up a stairwell to the next floor. It was very helpful that no on-shift nurses or doctors paid her any mind, too busy to acknowledge the errant kunoichi.

She poked her nose into the open doorway of Neji's room and looked in. Tenten sighed in relief. He was napping, propped up on pillows in bed— stitched, bandaged, hospital clothes, thin cotton blanket, monitor hookup— the works. She toed over to the uncomfortable, reedy armchair beside the bed and sat down. Tenten continued eating and did nothing to announce her presence. After a few minutes, Neji cracked an eye open and rolled it to look at who his visitor was.

There was a wonderful, sincere moment in which no words were spoken but the booping sounds of the heart monitor ticked up in frequency. Tenten watched Neji's face slowly pinken as he also realized how obvious his reaction to her was. Annoyed, he ripped the stupid thing off of his finger and tossed it. The monitor went quiet. Tenten grinned at him.

"Are you the winner?" His voice was scratchy.

"Nope! I gave up in the Semi-Final. Huo wanted to kill me so I decided to forfeit." Tenten was honest, still watching Neji's face as he processed the news.

She added, "Gai-sensei said he's proud of all of us. He's looking forward to a team celebration."

"Dinner? Like usual, I suppose."

"And no alcohol." Tenten thoughtfully amended, "For Lee, at least."

Neji nodded tiredly. She bit into her pear again and chewed.

"The Semi-Final." He sounded impressed by how far she had gotten, "Who did you defeat in Round Two?"

"Sakura."

"Ah." He shut his eyes and thought a bit more, "How far did Lee get?"

"He got to Round Two. Hinata beat him. Lee has a back injury from his first match that messed with him." Tenten smiled and set aside her sheathed sword on a bedside table, "Hinata is the champion today. Huo will be disqualified for what he told me before our match."

"Hinata-? What he told you-? He…" Neji was flummoxed, "Hinata will be the uncontested champion?"

"Yes."

"What did Huo say?" Neji pressed.

"He…" Tenten's chin drooped and she stopped eating, "He said a lot of things. We spoke in Hanwen, so when it got personal…Shikamaru didn't really understand it. I told him afterward."

Neji was looking at her with an expression that demanded the details.

She gulped and tried to recount what had happened, "Huo admitted he wanted both Sasagainu clan weapons I have. He wanted to cut my head off and give it to his…his Shifu. He said. The same rogue ninja who beheaded my parents, Dintei Bi. Huo knew all about that…and it really bothered me."

Staring in shock with flecks of anger hardening his features, Neji was all ears as Tenten spoke. He never knew how her parents had been killed, but now he understood why she never wanted to talk about it.

"Huo told me about…how he and Bi were replacing the Main line of the clan. They wanted to rewrite our history. They are repenting for something that my ancestors did…that was offensive to the Branch line's idol. Some kind of…splintering of beliefs. Two ideologies. But…but it all sounded so fake…like some kind of cult." Tenten shook her head and pressed her good hand into her eye, halting a tear, "He said some…pretty horrible stuff. Huo is definitely crazy…but I believe him when he says he wants to kill everyone I care about."

The room was quiet while Neji stared and digested what she'd said. Tenten sniffled until she dried up again, not too keen on revealing her puffy eyes. She never liked to display her weak side to Neji, even now when he was much better at accepting it. She hid it on reflex.

"Also," She cleared her throat, "Huo said that his Jounin Sensei is his prisoner. So she isn't exactly an accomplice in the crazy stuff he's doing. Shikamaru said he would take it up with the panel. The violation of privacy too…those were big offenses."

"I really want to…" Neji trailed off and stopped himself from replying. He turned his head away from her and looked at the wall, visibly angry.

"What?" Tenten peeped.

Neji broke his silence, "I want to kill him. For making you upset, for hurting you deeply even without fighting you…someone like him drives me to such thoughts. I hate him. More than anything." He let out a breath to ease up a bit, "I would give anything to have a chance to make Huo feel small. To prove how wrong he is."

Neji turned back to look at her and saw Tenten hiding her face again with her arm.

"Show me." His voice was softer.

She shook her head tiredly and rubbed at her eyes with her sleeve. Her subconscious had a weird mechanism in place, at least where Neji was concerned. She did not show grief or worry or any of those wimpy emotions. When she first got to know him, he only valued the people who commanded his respect. As a result, Tenten made a point to only reveal parts of herself that were respectable in his eyes. She did not quite grasp yet how different things were from those days.

He kind of got the gist of why she couldn't do it. Her feelings were no longer a mystery to him.

"The things that hurt you do not cheapen you. They aren't something you need to hide from me." Neji took a shot at appealing to that soft side she pretended not to have, "I want to feel your pain with you."

Tenten sucked in a breath that got stuck on a hiccup. Whoa. Had she heard that right? Yup. Pretty sure she did. Neji said that. The hiccups intensified. Tenten lowered her arm and set the pear down on the empty food tray of a rolling cart. She shuffled over to Neji and climbed up into the space beside him, not sorry about getting dirt from her clothes all over the linens. It did not seem to hurt his bandaged side at all when she curled into him, resting her forehead against his neck. Neji felt her chest and shoulders tremble, but she remained silent. He had enough range of motion to snake an arm around her, closing his eyes again and willing his exhaustion away so he could focus on this. It was important.

"You know, I…" Her voice was thick and wobbly, "I never liked sharing my pain. Not since they died. It became an inconvenience. If you…" Tenten wetted her lips and went on, "If you had learned about it then…back when you had so much pain of your own… I had no idea how you would take it. The last thing I ever wanted to do was make you feel worse than you already did."

"You never made me feel worse." Neji chided.

"Right. Because I made a point of including you in everything and socially rehabilitating you…when you didn't throw a fit or reject it. I never shared anything personal." Tenten's arm slipped out of its sling and her fingers fiddled with his hospital shirt, "I just kind of assumed…that was the best way to help you. I felt what you felt, because it was easier than feeling my own loss. I wanted you to believe I was on your side."

That was a surprisingly bitter pill to swallow. Here he was channeling his new powers of empathy and asking to feel her pain with her…and Neji had to acknowledge what Tenten was saying. That when she was 12 years old and freshly orphaned, then promoted to a Genin team…she had been feeling for him since that time.

Oh, how stupid he had been then— so inextricably caught up in clan politics and advancement…he couldn't even see that a person had been listening to him so intently. To reach past the grimacing, arguing, fighting, and his posturing for the Main House; past his reputation as a prodigy, past his pushiness and selfishness…Tenten had identified the feelings he had suppressed and misunderstood.

Perhaps on a very subtle wavelength, he had detected what Tenten was doing for him when he was younger. He had felt a very strong but unclassified bond with her. He had enjoyed devoting huge blocks of time to training with her. He had been mortified and furious when Tenten told him he was wrong, and that Hinata deserved the accolades and prestige of the Main House, when Neji had once thought they were in competition for it. She was on his side. He didn't want her to support anyone else.

But he had never actually returned that favor. He just made things harder for her, overlooking and squandering that benevolence… She had always seemed fine. Carefree. Burden-less. Neji had since learned that some people made themselves seem that way in order to accommodate others first.

In hindsight, boy oh boy was he bad at this. How had he existed without recognizing the needs and feelings of other human beings? Neji was absolutely perplexed. How had anyone been able to put up with him?

He felt wetness on his neck where he supposed Tenten had been crying, but she was too afraid to show it. Neji reached for the opposite side table with his free arm and pulled back a box of tissues. Before he could get one for her, Tenten had plucked several out herself and muttered apologies to him. He made a point of not getting impatient with her flighty evasion. He had a feeling she just needed to be reassured.

"You could have told me." Neji imagined out loud, and then he waited for her to finish blowing her nose. When she was tucked into him again he went on, "If you had told me about what happened to you— to your family…when I had first met you…I may not have said much. But I would have let it dwell on my thoughts every day. I would have thought about it every night before I slept. I would have thought less about my own exaggerated hardships." Neji concluded, "I may not have known how to help you, when we were younger. But I hope…that if you had confided in me…I would have contemplated about finding the way to do it. I hope I would have found the way to show you that I am on your side too."

She made a small sound in response to his thoughts and remained bunched up. It was the sound of a sob. Then her snuffling petered off and she inhaled again, her chest rumbling with phlegm, and Tenten stuffed tissues under her eyes. She calmed down completely after a few minutes.

"Are you feeling alright?" He asked.

"Yeah." Tenten rolled up the spent tissues and crammed them in her arm sling for the time being, "Sorry about that."

"Don't be."

"I shouldn't—"

"If I had been the one crying, you wouldn't have minded it. Why should I?"

"You. Cry?" Tenten was flabbergasted.

"Not at this age, but…" He sighed and admitted, "When I lost my father…I had tantrums for weeks. Hinata-sama can tell you. It took an incredible amount of cajoling from my relatives to get me out of my room to eat and function those days."

"You were sad." She understood, "And he was the only person you had. It must have been awful to say goodbye."

"Father was the only parent I had, but I was never alone. I was fortunate." Neji acknowledged, "I've been well looked after."

Tenten raised her face up to look at him and listen. Her complexion had evened out again. Her eyes were slightly less red.

"I do have…a reasonable amount of luck." Neji supposed, tipping his head back to relax, "Considering that someone could see past my flaws and pretenses…and tell me that I've got it together." He was looking up at the ceiling, but Tenten noticed his mouth curve into a smile.

"Well…you do. It took a while, but you do." She granted him that, "I mean…is that luck?"

"Is it? It feels like it is." He noted loftily, "And that same someone told me that I have turned out better than what she ever dared to hope for."

"No one told you that." Tenten protested quietly in embarrassment.

"I can assure you someone did. This person also told me I am the greatest." Neji stopped and thought, "Though that is debatable."

In a better mood, she rested her head gently on his shoulder and started to smirk impishly, "No, that one isn't debatable. You can have that one."

"I found it highly subjective."

"Just take the damn compliment." Tenten sniffed.

"I will, if you take care not interrupt me like you did before my match," Neji advised. He adjusted his sitting position to be face-to-face with her, watching her pupils dilate as she looked at him, "You have done something to me that you can't undo, that I won't let you undo."

The gypsum hue of his eyes had traces of lavender and grey in them. Maybe she was staring too hard. She couldn't help it. Her brain was a willing captive.

"I had no talent for seeing the good in others. I had little practical experience with feeling joy. Now I can see it everywhere. Now I feel happy in any moment I stop to reflect. Because you devoted the time to educate, criticize, and cherish me, these things now come easily to me."

She was too parched to swallow properly.

"I suggest that you…get accustomed to me staying by your side. Every day." He slowed down to kiss her mouth and had no idea that Tenten feared her chest might explode into fiery pieces. He spoke again, "You should get comfortable sharing both the pleasant and unpleasant things you feel with me. I am too curious now. I want to know those things." She was sputtering softly when they kissed again, and then Neji said, "I want you."

Unintentionally, Tenten flailed a hand and knocked the tissue box to the tile floor with a clatter. This was a bit too much for her to handle. Earlier she had thought she could absorb whatever mushy sentiments Neji beset her with, but oh ho ho her blood pressure and live-wire erogenous zones said otherwise.

And the other issue was that there was a polite knock on the door frame to announce a visitor's presence. They snapped apart from another kiss with what? we-were-not-doing-anything facial expressions. At the door they saw the same cat-masked ANBU agent that Tsunade had once ordered to keep them separated.

"Tenzo." Neji greeted, surprised.

"The name's Yamato, today." The man chuckled and removed his mask, giving a soft "Phew!" They stared in shock at the gesture.

"I'm off duty for now. Yugao-san took over." Tenzo, or Yamato, gave an amused look to Tenten who was still perched on the bed beside Neji, "She couldn't stop talking about you, Tenten."

"Oh!" Tenten's voice was high-pitched and working through the fact that even members of ANBU were invested in them.

"You both had some very interesting matches today!" Yamato remarked as he took a seat on a physician's rolling stool, resting his elbows on the countertop behind him, "It is good to see you two together for a change. I didn't like keeping you apart."

"Thanks." Tenten was warming up to him, "We didn't like being apart."

"I can see that." Yamato said, indicating their close proximity. With that, Tenten slipped down and back into the uncomfortable guest chair. Yamato shared a recollection with the kunoichi, "Yeah. This brings back memories! Neji was very hostile when I first met him. We had a confrontation in your apartment building."

This was the first she had heard of a confrontation in her building. Tenten pursed her mouth and looked at Neji, who seemed annoyed but also resigned to Yamato's storytelling. Inquisitive, she asked, "Neji came to my building?"

"He sure did. I read him his rights and everything outside…and then he jumped into someone's open flat window. So did I, unfortunately." The off-duty ANBU veteran muttered and rubbed the back of his head, "Neji ran upstairs to get to you and I barely headed him off at the pass."

"You don't say?" She was side-eye smirking at Neji, thrilled.

"Yes. There was even a brief skirmish! With an old woman. Then I pulled Neji out of the third floor window with a Wood Clone. Had you answered your door for him, I would have arrested him in front of you." Yamato nodded to himself sagely, "He caused me so much trouble."

"You were at my door?" Tenten looked at her boyfriend, mildly smug.

"No."

"My report says you were." Yamato corrected him.

"I stopped by." Was all that Neji would admit to.

"It was tricky keeping up with two yearning youths. Like something out of those novels Kakashi reads." Yamato rubbed his mask on his pant leg to clean a spot of concession food gunk off of it.

"Hey, don't patronize!" Tenten didn't like that assessment, "It's nothing like that!"

"Well, maybe you aren't as obnoxious as fiction, I'll give you that. Truly, I do respect you. I respected your father too." Yamato assured her.

She blinked and considered it, "You were in Black Ops with him?"

"Oh yes, when I was a new inductee and Kakashi was first whipping me into shape, Takaharu was a Captain I got to know and I liked him very much. He brought delicious food to the break room." Yamato remembered fondly, "You can follow in his footsteps, Tenten. You made that plain to me today."

"Pffff. I'm sorry. Were you actually watching my matches?" Skeptically, she pointed out her arm in a sling, "Dad was tough. I'm falling to pieces." Tenten stood from her seat and excused herself, "Uh, whoa, I waited too long. I watched too many matches… Excuse me!" She left the recovery room and went to the restroom across the hall.

"I wonder why she didn't accept my endorsement?" Yamato was stumped.

"She's like that." Neji informed him, "She is highly suspicious of endorsements."

"Hmm." Yamato smiled at him, "It seems she is. And Neji, I must say, I have never seen anyone fall into the sky the way you did in your match. Isn't Kakashi's nephew something?"

"He is something. Foolish."

Yamato cracked up.

"Perhaps I should have used jutsu I had been withholding." Neji reflected on how he had held back and been pummeled, "I was not investing my full strength in that match. I thought it was best to conserve techniques to face Huo."

"A wise decision, really. Even if it didn't work out." Yamato agreed with him, "I can only imagine what the Torture and Intel Corps will ask Huo at his post-Exam interview. I know Ibiki is itching to get at him."

"May he languish and rot in their cells." Neji's comment was serrated.

"Had Huo not been a factor in this Exam, this Tournament would have been yours for the taking. That I am sure of. Your team was dominant and well-equipped. I enjoyed watching your matches! Sai was quite excited by them as well. He intends to spend more time with you soon, while off duty…" Yamato leaned back again, chipper, "My, my…you all grew so much in so little time."

"Soon, the Hokage will come to depend on us more. We do not want to disappoint her." Neji extended an olive branch, remembering how Tenzo/Yamato had asked him to put faith in Tsunade when it had been difficult to do so.

"Yes. That's the attitude Leaf ninja need. The Hokage's strength does not come from just her abilities…it is the will and service of the ninja who support her that empower her." Yamato mused contently.

Finally, Neji agreed with that statement.

"So…" Yamato transitioned carefully, "How long has that been going on?"

"How long has what been going on?" Neji didn't get it.

"The kissing and embracing. You put on quite the show for me before you realized I had stopped by."

The Hyuga heir's face flat-lined in humiliation. He did not offer a comment.

"Now, now, I won't tease you. Those feelings are important. You may need her support more than anyone else's in the world. I wish I had the good fortune to meet someone like that, but so far my search has turned up empty. Give thanks each day for your irreplaceable someone!" Yamato recommended.

Neji nodded. Yes. Gratitude. He couldn't forget that it would have been a very simple matter for Tenten to not acknowledge or desire him at all. Many shinobi lived busy, career-fueled lives without so much of a hint of romance or true companionship.

"I am just surprised that your relationship is as advanced as it is. I could be mistaken, but I was under the impression that the noblest clans of Konoha don't allow informal courtships." Yamato explained, "Did the Hyuga sanction it for you? For them to consider her a serious future prospect of yours has heavy political implications."

"It's not." Neji enlightened him, "It isn't approved at all. My clan is not aware."

"Oooh." Yamato gave him a wary look, "Be cautious."

Pouting, Neji took a moment to think about what he had given no thought to previously. At some point, if he sincerely wished to keep Tenten as a lifelong companion, he was going to have to make a case for it with the Elders of the Main House. Since that was an immense headache waiting to happen, Neji had automatically pushed the idea to the farthest corners of his mind.

"...I did not think that far ahead." Neji admitted, "But I do know that I won't let her get away, and I won't allow anyone else to have her."

"Maybe that conviction is all you need…" Yamato pondered, "And a decent bribe to grease the hands of the old patriarchs of the Hyuga."

"If you know what would suffice in appeasing them, tell my uncle and I immediately. We still have no idea what satisfies them."

Yamato gave him a wry, knowing smile. He may have said something uncouth in reply, but he stopped himself. A few moments of quiet passed before Yamato turned his head left and right.

"Tenten's been gone for a while. Did she fall in?" He jested.

"Her arm is injured. It may be challenging for her to use the restroom on her own." Neji guessed.

"Ah. That could be it."

Shortly after that, Tenten returned. She appeared a bit disgruntled, "Ugh. What did I miss?"

"Nothing." Neji and Yamato said it in unison, and so she instantly realized it meant something.

"O-kaaay." Tenten dropped into the reedy seat and picked up her pear again to eat, "Well I had a scare in the bathroom. I looked in the mirror. What a nightmare…"

---

Leaf Genin Finalists had organized in a small gathering on the floor of their viewing area. They were seated in a circle and stuffing themselves with fried dough, icy treats, meat on sticks, and other concession delights. They took turns commending each other and toasting to Hinata's ascension to Tournament Champion.

"If your dad throws a party for you at the Hyuga estate, can we go to celebrate too?" Sakura wondered of her friend.

Hinata was giggling, "I would want you there! I wouldn't let anyone stop you at the gate!"

"Oh, Gaara has to come! Oh my gosh it'll be so much fun."

"Shika too!" Ino was cackling, "He's going to need to let loose after the day he's had."

"We'll have to tuck him into bed later." Chouji predicted.

"Be careful with that invite or the Hokage will show up." Kiba warned jokingly, "And she will drink all of your clan's liquor before you can lock it up safe!"

They were all roaring and guffawing, with the exception of Shino. His mirth was much quieter.

Abruptly, a large, swirling cloud of smoke erupted on the balcony just behind the ring of Genin. Akamaru startled and fell over into Kiba's lap. Lee also reared back and knocked over Mo-Ye from where the jian was leaned against the wall. The youngsters beheld a gaggle of arguing Jounin that had showed up.

A hush fell over the Genin as the shouting of the Jounin allayed. Kakashi was concluding strong words with a veteran kunoichi the Genin had never seen before. She was middle-aged and had wild, graying hair, and a sharp but comely face. Her Jounin vest was unzipped over layered tanks and fishnets. She held a finger up to Kakashi and turned to address the Genin.

"Hello children," She greeted, "I am Sarutobi Kakima. Today I was appointed as a moderator for Exam decisions and I was just now unfairly booted from the panel for calling another panel member a two-faced, sissy swinefucker."

"You should have held your tongue, Kakima." Asuma gruffed at his sister-in-law.

Kakashi was cupping his forehead in disappointment.

"You heard what they were saying. You heard the bias and treason as loudly as I did." Kakima insisted, "Forgive me for negating all of our reasonable and well-thought out recommendations to the council. They weren't going to listen to us anyway."

"We could have played our hand more carefully." Kurenai reminded her, "Your husband was doing well with his persuasion."

"Buh! Netsuke was sitting and nodding too much. Even Asuma wanted him to raise hell."

"I did not." Asuma denied it.

Gai and Genma insisted that Shikamaru's testimony of Semi-Final violations were misconstrued by panel members and thrown out before consideration. The Hokage should intervene. No. Forget it. The Hokage should cancel everything. Except that millions upon millions of Ryo were now flowing freely into Hidden Leaf and how? How were they supposed to cut the cord with so much hanging in the balance?

"Who does that old Shimura turd think he is?" Hayate sniffed, standing shoulder to shoulder with his wife, "He told Yugao she was exaggerating the danger that her Security team reported. I don't see his fucking Root security force watching matches, do you?"

"Screaming about it here won't change any minds." Kakashi stated evenly, "It's over. They ruled disqualification out."

"WHAT? Ruled it out?" Sakura hollered at the top of her lungs, snapping the Jounin out of their closed circuit of bickering.

The Genin were devastated.

"Wait!" Lee stood up, frantic, "Shikamaru submitted his opinions to the panel! Tenten told him what happened!"

"He did, Lee." Gai confirmed it gravely, "A panel member argued that Tenten made all of it up."

"No." Ino's face was aflame with fury, "No. No. No. How do they get to say that? How can they make a snap judgement? They weren't standing down there!"

"Shikamaru did not have a recording of the verbal exchange Huo and Tenten had. Furthermore, it was in a language that Shikamaru and other administrators do not understand." Asuma sighed heavily, "'Course, it's not that hard to find someone who can translate Hanwen on short notice. But the lack of a recorded conversation means that they can think whatever the hell they want. Ignorance is bliss."

"Ignorance will get Genin killed today." Yugao was also bristling.

"Elder Tatesono is incorrigible!" Kakima howled, "How can he advocate for a shameless, immoral delinquent to advance purely for monetary gain? I will refer him to the Corruption Committee and daimyo so fast his head will spin!"

"He was rubbing shoulders with Danzo too much. They allowed this." Hayate observed.

"The point is," Kakashi interrupted again, "Huo will be permitted to fight in the Final Round. We can't celebrate yet. We need to be smart and coast to the finish." He turned to Kurenai, "The floor is yours now."

Wilted, Kurenai stepped forward and extended a hand to Hinata, pulling her to her feet.

"I feel that you have been robbed of a limelight that would have displayed your beauty and kindness in the way it deserved to be seen by everyone in this stadium. It was yours. Forgive us for failing in our appeal." She wrapped her arms around her student and leaned back, giving her a stern look, "I will hold this day in contempt for the rest of my life."

"You mustn't, Sensei." Hinata shook her head modestly, "It isn't your fault. I don't need publicity to feel accomplished."

"I know you don't, but I wanted it for you so badly." Kurenai furrowed her brow and smiled, "Now forgive me for asking you to surrender. I treasure your life and future. Please do not risk your well-being against an unscrupulous competitor, Hinata."

"I won't." Hinata agreed.

"Good. Shino…" Kurenai extended her arm and gestured for him to join them. He got in on the hug, "I am sorry. I could not be more proud of what you both did today. I understand Sato's pain and frustration, even if he was out of line with his actions. You all did marvelously."

They were heartened, "Thank you, Kurenai-sensei."

"Well, guess we should stand by and make sure that Iwa crook doesn't try to pull anything." Genma proposed, "Come on, you old fucks. Let's go stare menacingly." By old fucks he meant his Jounin peers. Kakima, the most senior, took offense and smacked the back of Genma's head. They departed and left Asuma, Gai, Kurenai, and Kakashi with their student brood.

Chouji handed Asuma a wrapped curry-bread treat and his Sensei accepted it, biting anxiously into the snack. Ino sighed and moped beside them.

"When the Tournament's over, can we gang up on Huo and rip him to pieces?" Kiba asked optimistically.

Kakashi snickered, "I'm afraid you'll have to get in line. Torture and Intel Corps requested an 'interview' with Huo, which the Hokage granted, and they always get first pick. Kakima was brandishing her connections to the Anti-Corruption Committee, and they may be number two on the list…so…give it a few weeks."

"Nah, I can't. I need my rage to be fresh if I'm going to hurt him." Kiba vigorously patted Akamaru to try and relax.

"It's not fair." Sakura protested, "It should be clear to the decision panel that Huo doesn't deserve any kind of recognition. He isn't representative of the qualities the Exam wants to promote!"

"I know, kiddo." Kakashi rubbed his neck, wound tight, "But many councils and decision-making bodies in this village, and pretty much everywhere else, are always stacked with self-serving, rhetoric-spewing demagogues who make it their business to get the final say."

"Tsunade-shishou should just punch them."

"She's done it before...long ago." Kakashi chuckled, "But that was the one and only time she could— she punched Jiraiya out of the auditorium of the Sealing Corps council meeting. He said something to her she disagreed with."

"Ah, well…I guess they won't condone that kind of behavior from a Hokage."

"No. The daimyo could replace her with a new candidate if she did." Kakashi imagined, "And that's the last thing we need— another rat race for leadership while we have enemies hoping to prey on weakness."

They stopped talking and looked to Gai at the top of the stairs, where he was speaking with someone unseen a few steps down in the stairwell. He turned back to the group and announced, "Hinata-chan, Ko-san asked for you to go to the first floor assembly room in the concourse. Your father wishes to speak with you."

"O-Oh…" Hinata handed a cinnamon roll back to Lee when he offered her one. It would not be appropriate to eat nervously while having an audience with her father. She excused herself from her friends and team, then hurried down the stairs.

She had forgotten that her father had been watching, and that he too may have been excited to see her get so close to the end. How unfortunate that he had to get used to being disappointed by her constant stumbling before the finish line…

'I just hope that I did enough today…to please him. I hope that he can see that I have grown and tried to become strong.' Hinata thought to herself. On the first floor, she got confused because she had no idea where the assembly room was. She stopped to ask on duty concourse guards for directions. She then set out down the leftward hall that wrapped around the circumference of the building, connecting to most upper level stairwells.

She glanced at a portable bi-fold sign and saw she had reached her destination. She ducked into the room and found her father there waiting all by himself. His hands were tucked into the sleeves of his overcoat and he was frowning. Hinata shriveled sadly after noting his expression.

"Hinata," He paused before going on to ask, "What do you think I want you to do?"

"I…" Her eyes nearly crossed because both continuing and forfeiting seemed like impossible options when she thought of her father.

Hiashi gazed at her for a long while before the lines near his mouth became more pronounced, and his face was shadowed with worry.

"You don't have to do anything to prove yourself to me." He informed her, "You did that long ago."

"But Father I know that you want—"

"There is nothing that I want…more than your safety." Hiashi confirmed, "I cannot ask you to do anything simply because it would reassure me or gratify me. All I can do is tell you what I feel. In the end, what you think is the sole foundation of your decisions and actions."

"I will always consider what you have to say." She was shuffling and fidgeting in front of him.

"I know you will, but I have been wrong about many things in the past. I would prefer it if you don't weigh my opinions against your own too heavily." Hiashi advised her, "If I had…let my thoughts and feelings affect all of your life choices at the last Exam…I would have left you bereft of opportunities and dignity. I would have forsaken you in an unacceptable way…because of the pompous opinions of our elders." He rested a hand on her arm and closed his eyes, "You are not a bit player for our clan. You are my child. Your life was a gift to me. I regret that there was ever a time…I dared to forget that."

"…u-um…" Her lip trembled. He did not fuss when she leaned her head into his chest, remembering that she hadn't done such a thing since she was a toddler. He held the back of her head, as if nostalgic for the short time she had been small and still needed him.

"Risking yourself for vanity seems like something that a Hyuga would do, and many people in this building may expect such a thing." Hiashi speculated, "But we do not lower ourselves to fight unprincipled adversaries. And our clan should prize its wisdom more than its repute. Let this foe stand alone and friendless in front of crowds, and then leave him to the damp chill of Leaf's dungeons. That is where he belongs."

"Yes, Father." She nodded and took a step back, smiling slightly.

He held her cheek in his hand and wore a pained expression, "There are some days when I think…that if your mother were still alive and you stood beside her…I wouldn't be able to tell you apart." He chuckled to himself, "It feels like she never left me."

Hinata patted his hand understandingly, "She didn't."

"Azumi promised me she never would. She also extracted many promises from me, before the end…and I should do better to keep those vows." Hiashi decided, "Hm. Despite all that's happened, there is still reason to celebrate. I will arrange an event with the clan later. But for now…" He rested his forehead against hers briefly, "Go."

Braced by her father's support, Hinata ventured out into the hall again to return to the building's concourse. There was still time. She did not quite know what to do with herself.

Naturally, Hinata found her way back to a vendor of cinnamon rolls and ordered one. She continued on through the lobby while eating. 'If Naruto-kun were here he would want to stop at that noodle vendor at the end. It looked and smelled wonderful!' She let herself dally and daydream to relax. It would be a little intimidating to stand out in the arena again and hand victory away to Huo, but at least then it would be over. 'Oh, Hanabi would love those fruits on sticks, the shapes are so cute!'

At the central corridor past the off-limits turnstiles, Hinata noticed Sai speaking to a Tide Village ninja. Sai was nodding and telling the young man something, and then pointed him to a stairwell. His Tide acquaintance thanked him and took off running.

That sight…maybe it wasn't so unusual. She finished her roll and licked the sugar from her fingertips. Hinata stopped in the restroom to wash the stickiness from her hands. She soaped up thoroughly and rinsed. She paused at the sink and frowned, then recalling her earlier episode in the bathroom. 'Could it…?' She almost didn't do it. Then she gulped, looked down, and cupped her hands under the tap.

What a wonder! The strange reflection was still there. 'Should I have brought this up to Father? No…I wouldn't want to alarm him by saying strange things. Not today, at least…' Hinata was acutely intrigued. She made faces at the horned man's reflection, tossed her head side to side to shake her hair, and watched as "his" white locks flipped and furled like her own. Nervous, she laughed at what she was seeing. Did anyone else in the world have this problem? A disjointed reflection?

'If I am not crazy…maybe other people could see it too? If I showed them?' Hinata dropped water in the sink and turned the tap off, looking into the wall mirror, 'I know I have seen him before…whoever he is. Would I be able to see him if I…?' She pursed her lips and decided what the heck, try everything! After several moments of concentration with her Byakugan, and many deep breaths, she searched with a wider, stronger field of vision. A-aaaaand…Nothing.

She pushed further, heightened to the level of the Misago Byakugan and then she did perceive something surprising. Hinata saw no strange reflection in the mirror and paid no mind to the vast, internal workings and minutiae of the stadium…but her blood limit detected her own chakra. There was a peculiarity she had not noticed before. An inner, glowing energy…. But it was his. It was hers. It was as if he was standing inside of her. 'Whoever you are…um…well…have you always been around?' She wondered,'What is your name?' She was snapped out of it.

Hinata rested her eyes when announcements broadcasted over loudspeakers, requesting the presence of Final Round competitors. She prodded her forehead and frowned, hoping she wasn't going to sprout horns. For now, she had no explanation of what or who her "reflection buddy" was. It would have to wait until later.

Her mind wandered again on the way out of the restroom and through the corridor. She remembered the mission to the Star Village, enjoying her time with that team, the thrill of flying, and the terror of struggling against S-Class nukenin. Hinata passed beneath the archway and into the arena. She recalled having fun at the hot springs with her kunoichi companions. She nearly bubbled over with laughter while remembering the Pre-Tournament festival and all the fun she and her friends had. Hinata crossed the dirt floor of the stadium to where Shikamaru stood alone, waiting for Huo to appear.

She thought of what Sato and Shino had told her earlier that day, in the wake of Tama's match. The injustice of it maddened her. There had been no chance to redeem their friend who had fought so bravely. Had Naruto witnessed what befell Tama, he would not have thought twice about breaking the rules to retaliate against Huo. Rather, Hinata was fairly convinced he would do such a thing. 'Naruto cares more about all of our friends than promotions and pageantry. I know that I do too! I became like him. I can champion others. I can face danger. I can be myself.'

Shikamaru cleared his throat beside her. Hinata looked up and furrowed her brow, seeing Huo in profile as if he had no interest in facing her fully upon his arrival. He was picking at his teeth with his pinky finger. That kind of behavior was obviously ticking off Shikamaru.

It got under her skin too.

'And I don't think that I can forgive…this person. That I can fear this person. I don't. All that I really feel is…' Hinata widened her eyes and inhaled, taken aback that she was feeling true, unfettered anger for the first time. She better understood Sato's ambush on Huo. She understood why the Jounin had been shouting and railing after the panel's decision. It turned out that she too, like many of her Hyuga kin, had hot blood that demanded redress for such a wrongdoing.

Shikamaru was trying to get her attention as she stared straight ahead.

"Hinata." He cleared his throat again, as if trying to give a prompt.

Hinata kept staring. Huo had noticed and turned to face her, inspecting her.

Concerned, Shikamaru tried to nudge her along to forfeiture, "Before I begin the Final Match…"

"I changed my mind." Hinata told him simply, "I want to fight him."

The proctor's blood ran ice-cold, upset that his shirt microphone had been on (to shut up panel complaints) and it broadcasted that the Hyuga kunoichi was going to try her luck against the foreign finalist. Shikamaru grabbed Hinata roughly by the arm, as if to pull her away. He shut the stupid fucking microphone off, because screw the panel, and he had a muttering conversation with Hinata to get to the bottom of her insane choice.

"I was told by four Jounin that you were not going to compete."

"Well they were mistaken." Hinata told him shortly. She had adopted one of Hanabi's disrespectful tones.

"You have to quit. I'm not gonna let you fight." Shikamaru hissed.

"Shikamaru-kun…I don't wish to upset you. But if you continue to stall the Hokage will be very cross."

"The Hokage doesn't want you to fight either." He kept his voice down, but knew Huo could probably hear them.

"I don't care. If I need to surrender, I will." Hinata decided.

"This is fucking crazy. You took a crazy pill." He accused her, at wit's end.

"Please don't worry—"

"Hinata, I have to worry about you. Even if I call a time out and you are ready to forfeit, that piece of shit," Shikamaru referred to Huo testily, "Will more than likely attack you because he can, and because I may not be able to stop him."

A crackle of impatient what's the hold up? questions sounded over Shikamaru's two-way radio.

"You will not have to step in. He won't be able to surprise me." Hinata determined confidently, "I am not fighting alone today."

"The heck does that mean-?" Shikamaru lifted his radio testily to tell the blabbing elder or councilman or whoever to hold on to their horses. He gave a long, severe look to Hinata before giving up, "Alright. I have heard from the Hokage you can do some extraordinary things now."

Hinata nodded to confirm she was all about extraordinary these days.

"Pull out all the stops. If you need me, do the Lee-thumbs-up." Shikamaru advised her. He stepped away to turn to Huo, asking if he was ready.

Incredulously, Huo confirmed, yeah, sure, he was ready. He was unsure if it was a joke or not.

"Begin!" Hating himself, Shikamaru began the match and darted away.

Huo stood there and Hinata evaluated him with her Byakugan, composing herself into a neat and tidy Gentle Fist stance.

"You can't be serious." Huo's voice was flat with disbelief.

In the distance, Hinata heard the frightened, pleading cries of her friends from their lookout.

She took a single step to the right and adjusted the position of her arms, aligning them perfectly for an Air Palm if he charged. The sound of spectators was drowned out in her ears. She only heard a soft, whining laugh of amazement escape Huo.

He canted his head to observe her like she was some lost school child, his sinuous smile widening, "You want to fight me? Are you upset that your precious ones crumpled up like cowards? Little girl who helps old men on the street…who follows her big brother and big sister around…!" Huo started laughing wildly and held the stitch in his side, "Think I didn't see how you all dote on each other…? Heh heh…think that you standing there…means I won't find them?" He was teary-eyed and laboring to catch his breath, he had laughed so hard.

"That I won't find them asleep when the moon is high…? That I saw each and every last one of you…I watched today to be sure it was no contest." Huo straightened up, overwhelmingly cavalier, "I thrive in shadow. The dark is my sword. Do you plan to stay awake each night forever?"

"You won't threaten us anymore-!" She was not precisely sure when he had kicked her in the side of the head. Hinata tumbled sideways and sprang up, trying to calculate how he had closed the distance.

Her Byakugan was an indispensable resource, as Huo weaved and dashed around her without any of the restraint he had used against Tama in their match. Hinata's blocks and defensive combinations were quick and precise, but he was marching her around in retreat, directing her where he wanted her to go. Much in the way Lee had, Huo had no difficulty folding Hinata's arm up like an accordion during a traditional Jyukken strike. He turned to wallop her with a round kick, but Hinata employed her invented Gentle Step to use a rabbity jump off of his thigh, returning her own kick to his chin. Huo hacked as his head snapped back. They fell away from each other before closing in again.

Her brain was an orchestral conductor in fast-forward, directing her hands and feet simultaneously, white matter kindling, rapidly firing off commands through nerves and synapses. She could not afford a single millisecond of distraction. Huo ducked and whirled at her with untamed Wushu, trying to bat her fingers and hands aside when she became too predictable. Every few seconds she had to reinvent her strikes. It helped when she had been able to sneak a Shadow Clone behind him and it swept his legs out from under him. He looked startled when he fell. With a war cry, Hinata bashed him in the stomach with merciless Jyukken, contacting the transparent Chakra Barrier that had once impeded Tama.

Huo somersaulted backwards and mule-kicked up into the face of the Shadow Clone, destroying it. She rushed at him, forcing her steps and stomps to direct his movements for a change. He bent his neck away from her pinpoint Jyukken jabs, swaying side to side, trading nasty elbow blows and knuckle punches for her elegant slaps and pokes.

To Shikamaru's great consternation, the audience was going just as crazy as Hinata had become. He was going to need ear plugs.

Psychology played a part in the unlikely moment in which Huo made a mistake— his Wushu punch for her neck was caught and pinched in her hand, something Hinata had learned from Lee, and she pulled down and twisted his arm painfully to lock him. He sucked wind in fright. Huo had automatically assumed that this kunoichi was not a competent or creative opponent. She looked dainty and gentle. As his barrier halted a powerful Jyukken stab that followed, Huo reconsidered his lax attitude that reflected in his fighting performance. He assessed and then freed himself from that derisory mind set.

Hinata was following up with a kick that he blocked with his own, and Huo snaked his free arm around her locking arm, winding around it like a vine. With her weight shifted, he easily tripped her and threw her to the ground, kicking sand in her face. Hinata screeched and rolled away like a log, pained, still able to detect him with her blood limit as Huo made hand signs.

"Doton: Shattering Canyon!" He sprang airily to the side as the ground cracked apart and violently submerged, Hinata narrowly avoiding a plunge into the new earth feature. The ground raised up and was hurled at her in fragments with follow-up jutsu, and Hinata did not dare employ her Water Release for fear of strengthening Huo's Earth Techniques.

Eyes tearing, she made leaps and dashes to close the distance, avoiding the obstacles he had conjured. Combining her chase with a Shadow Clone allowed Hinata to steer Huo into a clearer, less rocky area, but Huo took that opportunity to smash a boulder with his heel while simultaneously performing a jutsu. It modified the stone chips into hyper-dense carbon shards, and fired them en masse at his opponent. The attack shredded her clone, and Hinata plunged herself into a Rotation at the last possible moment to protect herself.

When Huo rushed forward with a snarl to attempt close-quarters combat again, Hinata was not shy about signaling for five Shadow Clones to bolt from their hiding spots in debris and ambush him. Her heart pounded in anticipation as several simultaneous 64-point attacks struck Huo's barrier, and she did notice two or three of his tenketsu close in spite of his protection. 'It may not last long! His shield! I know that I can get through it!' She was emboldened. Hinata rushed in to assist her assault team, overwhelming Huo as he maintained a Wushu defense.

He shouted something in Hanwen, greatly irked, and then back-hand sprung away from the encirclement of Hinatas and drew a small utility scroll off of his belt, out of sight beneath his long shirt.

"You seek to make things difficult for me." Huo snapped the parchment open and applied a dot of blood to summon a tool, "But I can make it much more difficult for you."

In the split second Hinata witnessed Huo summon a dao sword, he rushed with an unprecedented amount of speed and Wushu flexibility before she had finished blinking. The first Shadow Clone that was too close succumbed to a high-powered kick in the chin, and in a leaping turn Huo knocked a second clone away, dropping into a low crouch as he turned the dao and his wrist gracefully, bisecting a third clone with shocking ease. He was a marvel. The torque and force of limbs harmoniously jabbing with his sword, a single cutting edge cleaved through clones as if they were softened butter. Hinata backed away before Huo's final, circular low sweep-kick along the ground that paralleled the arc of his sword, dispelling all clones in a putter of smoke.

Then he bore down on her with the weapon, dipping low, twisting his joints and limbs for maximum thrust as he swung at her. Hinata frantically used another Rotation to defend herself.

Huo reeled back as the force of her chakra trang'd off of his blade. He sank low again, resting the dao along his arm as he gathered energy and tapped into the Fènghuáng Tao Art, glowing with its aura. Hinata paused only for a moment before recognizing renewed danger, and with a heaving gasp for air she initiated another Rotation just before he exploded forward with speed. Huo circled around her, a blur of luminous green, blue, and orange energy, and then horizontally swung his dao with as much force as he could muster. The blow vibrated the dome of chakra around Hinata before bashing through, terminating the Rotation and hurling the kunoichi far across the span of the arena. A chorus of disbelieving banter reverberated among the audience.

From her place in the dirt, Hinata was gladdened that Huo took a long moment to gloat at his successful breach of her defense. She laid face-down and discreetly pressed a healing hand to the gash on her shoulder, 'Much like how I plan to break his defense, Huo wants to break mine first. If I can get rid of his sword he shouldn't be able to do that again!' Moderately recuperated, Hinata hopped to her feet and spun with Gentle Step, watching with her Byakugan as Huo charged again. A perfectly formed, full-power Air Palm sailed across the clearing and crashed into him. Huo fell back, striking the ground, and she astutely marked the flickering of his Phoenix Art as it was dismissed to not needlessly drain his reserves.

And then Hinata saw it— Huo sank into the ground in the stretch of shadow cast by the pile of overturned stones. He melted into it as if he were sinking into a pool of water, disappearing into the surface completely. He was gone, entirely gone for a whole moment, and her Byakugan was on high alert when Huo reappeared, exiting from a shadow several paces to her left. 'He moves through shadows! So that is how he closes the gap between himself and an opponent!' She forced pin-point, sharp chakra into the tips of her cupped hands, bending chakra that was strong enough to block Huo's sword strikes as he savagely struck at her, as if trying to chop a tree down.

"This trend of Leaf bimboes fighting battles they can't win— it's tacky and demeaning." Huo brought his face close to Hinata's, spittle flying, pressing his dao into the lit, blue chakra wall of her Divine Protection. "While more pathetic than the men, at least the kunoichi have a touch more courage!" He kicked her knee to bend her leg, but Hinata reacted capably and angled her hands to cut with precise chakra, severing the steel of Huo's dao. The top portion of the blade whistled through air and dropped to the ground, leaving him with a sword hilt and a few centimeters of clipped dao.

Enraged, he hurled his broken weapon aside and gave chase, closer to the arena's wall, and had his Wushu neutralized by her spinning, complete sphere of Divine Protection. Hinata felt reassured that he lacked the strength to break through it with just his bare hands. He would have to expend more energy to injure her. As surely as the sun rose, Huo did tap into his Phoenix Tao Art again, bolstering his strength with its aura…and with great momentum and force he tripped over Hinata as she purposefully fell flat to the ground and scissor-kicked Huo's legs to knock him akimbo.

He lined up ideally with the wall, stutter-stepping to catch himself, and while his back was turned Hinata smashed him with a second formidable vacuum wave as she rose up. Huo was crushed into the stone and plaster face-first, his aura flickering, and Hinata charged at him with a hot-blooded shout.

By then his Tao chakra barrier had been spent, and it only lingered to defend his vulnerable chakra points for a heartbeat before vanishing. Hinata felt the seizing and withering of tenketsu under her fingertips. Then, before she could close 64 points as she had envisioned, Huo had slipped away into an underfoot shadow to escape. Her pointed fingers gouged fearsome holes in the wall when she missed. Hinata spun around and searched with her Kekkei Genkai, desperate to locate him. The balance between Huo's offense and defense seemed to swing too far in the favor of one or the other. As he was more concerned with dealing damage, his own defenses had diminished. 'He will keep trying to get away from me if he is leaving his body vulnerable…'

Hinata pursued the retreating Iwa nin across the arena, not minding Shikamaru as he anxiously hovered off to the side. She fired another Air Palm at Huo, watching as he ducked beneath it into a shadow, and exited beside her— his ring of Tao Arts illuminated for a major technique. Crazy-eyed and teeth bared, Huo wrapped a hand around her wrist and held his free hand flat in a symbol of Confrontation.

She distinctly felt a shift, a shudder of unusual energy, but could not describe the disparity of Yang particles being ejected away from Huo, leaving only Yin energy behind. And the pull of it expanded their shadows on the ground at their feet, stretching wide, rising up with three-dimensionality, and enveloped them in a large dome of pitch black.

The Shadow Trap terrified Shikamaru as it had swallowed both competitors and hidden them from sight, and there was only a dark dome for spectators to contemplate.

Shikamaru ran up to the strange spectacle of a technique and rested his hand on it, feeling the unbalanced composition, surprised that something overloaded with Yin Energy took a physical form. "This can't…how…? I thought Yang is what builds physical properties…" He pounded on it with a fist. Sturdy. Oh that was not good. He could not see through it and was unable to budge it. Shikamaru backed up and held a hand sign for his Shadow Bind, prodding at the dome with his own Yin manipulation. 'Is this even chakra doing this?' It did not exactly feel like it.

Beads of sweat streaked down the sides of his face as he gradually realized that he was feeding the dome with his tendril of shadow. Quickly, Shikamaru withdrew his technique and pulled the two-way radio from his pocket.

"Hokage-sama, this is officially a timeout, but I reserve the right to call this whole thing off. This goddamn dome is impenetrable. Over." He waited worriedly as the radio crackled before Tsunade's response.

"I'll be right down." She assured him.

He also received communications from Gaara, Yugao, and an auxiliary radio that Kakima was likely sharing with Kakashi's group. Frustrated, Shikamaru switched the channel to call the decision panel, expecting Elder Tatesono to answer him when he asked for assistance. Shimura Danzo's voice fizzled back to him instead.

"Nara-san, what is the nature of the issue? That jutsu is opaque and will obstruct your judgements."

"No kidding." Shikamaru bit his tongue so he wouldn't get too sassy at the unconcerned Foundation director, "Do you have anyone who is familiar with Yin or Yang Release? That's the nature of the problem. I need someone to look at it. Over."

Danzo also volunteered to inspect it.

Within minutes, most radio holders had gathered in the arena to evaluate the anomaly and tried to dispel it. What a rare intermission it was to have a congregation of high-ranking ninja examining an impervious Shadow Dome. Shikamaru was disconcerted to see Tsunade and Gaara's combined efforts to crush or puncture the dome yielded no change. For good measure, Tsunade punched it a second time. She stepped away and stopped beside Gaara, sighing and rubbing her fist.

"This defies what typifies Yin Release jutsu: they are intangible, visionary, complex techniques…not a physical manifestation…" Tsunade cocked her hip and folded her arms, staring straight ahead at the dome, "And whatever Huo is doing in there…he doesn't want Hinata to have any help whatsoever."

"He was tiring." Gaara pointed out, "He opened his defense carelessly more than once."

"Maybe so, but now he has this." Tsunade pointed her thumb at the black vault.

Tsunade turned to Danzo, who was a few meters away from Kakashi and his posse of panicked Jounin. The old man pressed the pad of his thumb to the dome, frowning and feeling around. He whacked at it with his cane and a spiral of Wind Nature chakra gusted off of the obstacle ineffectively. Danzo muttered to himself before crossing over to the Hokage.

"I applied a Yin-Counter-Seal." He informed her, "On the opposite side, Kakima-san and Kakashi-san also applied their own. All three were utterly inadequate and it seems…this dome is not responding to Sealing Counters." He rubbed his chin in bafflement, "Has there ever been a technique that did not recalibrate its light and dark properties immediately after such an intervention?"

"I am not the one to ask." Tsunade was tense, pushing past the gathering that was starting to flock to her, distressed and helpless. She lightly patted Kakashi's arm as he struggled to tamper with the dome. "Kakashi."

"Hokage-sama."

"Counter Sealing seems to be…" She growled furiously and trailed off, "It is never not effective. What is the meaning of this?"

"It's a Tao Art." Kakashi explained quietly, "This isn't something we can deconstruct with Ninjutsu."

"Then what do you suggest?"

"I have no suggestions. Only another Tao Art could break it down. "

"Then where do I find a Tao Art Counter?" The Hokage sniffed.

"You don't." Kakashi's shoulders sagged as he admitted it, "No one in this village alive today can use them."

"That…is not the answer I was looking for." She walked on, heels crunching on gravel, and motioned for him to follow her. They reunited with the small forum of concerned veterans and on-hand experts.

Many were sparing sympathetic looks to several Hyuga clan members who had descended and were agitatedly striking the dome, peering with their Blood Limits to discover that not even the Byakugan could see past the dense dark. Hyuga Hanabi had also arrived at the scene and was shrilly screaming her sister's name as she lashed out at the dome, over and over until Hyuga Hideyasu picked her up. She protested and thrashed as he escorted her away to reduce the histrionics.

As other Hyuga clansmen dejectedly joined conferencing veterans and responders, Hiashi stood alone, patting his hands along the dome.

"Someone should tell him." Kakashi recommended, looking from Tsunade and Gaara to Kurenai, who was wringing her hands apprehensively, "This match wasn't supposed to take place. He's going to want to blame someone if anything happens."

"She will be fine." Kurenai asserted severely.

"I know we want to believe that—" Kakashi stopped speaking when she bumped shoulders with him, hurrying over to a gaggle of Sarutobi clan ninja. Kakima and Asuma crossed the area towards Hiashi, following behind Sarutobi Netsuke, the de facto leader of their clan and conspicuously clean-shaven veteran. Shikamaru also joined the group who seemed to have some kind of idea of how to respond. Netsuke waved a hand at Konohamaru dismissively as his son showed up for a piece of the action, and Ebisu-sensei graciously led the boy away before he was entangled in the drama.

Netsuke looked from his brother and Kurenai, who were boring holes into his head with their gazes…and then to his mumbling, right-hand-woman wife, Kakima. She was snickering and speaking quietly in patchwork Nihongo-Hanwen to Wong Leung, who Netsuke had delivered out from the audience.

"Can you ask him if he can bring it down?" Netsuke asked her, "It got around the radio-com grapevine that he understands Tao Arts."

"Don't get your hopes up." Kakima sighed and spoke to the old man, Wong, can you or your grandkid…? "Uh…can you disengage…" She had to improvise words she did not know, This technique? The bubble?

I doubt it. He replied honestly, Let me have a look, Lady Monkey.

Wong Leung tottered up to the black structure, and Hiashi stepped aside to give him space for an examination. He analyzed it with finger pokes and a good sniff of the nose. The old man clapped his hands, bent at the knees, and then palm-slapped the dome with a cry. He grumbled to himself when nothing happened. Kakima stopped beside him, expecting an update.

I never was any good at these spells. Wong Leung confessed, That is why I was not taken as a disciple of a Tao Master when I was young…though I had desperately wanted to be trained. I lack enough cultivation qi...

So you can't break it? Kakima confirmed.

I am sorry, Lady Monkey. I am just…not strong enough to trifle with so much Dark Qi. Wong watched forlornly as she crossed back to Netsuke to confirm their fears. He then looked to Hiashi, who had his curled fist and forehead pressed to the dome, his eyes closed, as if his thoughts alone could bring it down.

"Your daughter." Wong Leung pointed out the obvious in Nihongo, getting Hiashi's attention, "Can hear."

"What?" Hiashi raised his eyebrows at him, "Yes, of course she can. I regret that we are meeting under these dreadful circumstances, good elder. I know that you have done a great deal for my nephew, Neji."

Wong nodded, "Neji…done much for me…and grandson too."

Hiashi chuckled faintly, surprised that even in this, one of the lowest moments of his life, there was a touch of grace in it.

"Your daughter…can't see. Can't see out." Wong Leung went on to explain his point as best he could, "But…she will hear." He tapped his finger against the dome, "She needs to hear…not alone."

"Ah." Hiashi understood Wong's meaning, "Thank you."

Wong then had an epiphany, deciding that he should pass the suggestion along to Kakima, who could confirm to other good souls in the Leaf Village to shout and communicate their feelings to the trapped she-ninja. He hurried back to his Lady Monkey friend.

From her position, Tsunade wondered if maybe the Head of the Hyuga clan was losing his mind when he started shouting and telling his daughter to blow a hole through Huo's chest.

---

As soon as Hinata had been absorbed into the dark Tao Art, things calmed.

Huo walked away from her casually and shook out his arms and legs, rolling his neck to relax. She stared in shock, wondering if she was imagining the sudden ceasefire. He stood below the center of the dark canopy, the dimness obscuring his facial features. Huo adjusted his rumpled clothes and then tended to his messy braid. Guardedly, Hinata stood near the wall of the dome, discouraged that she could not see beyond it with her Byakugan.

"Don't bother." Huo told her, presuming that she was searching for an exit.

"W-What is this?" She demanded.

"Welcome to Limbo. It is the small rift in our reality that allows Tao-Gifted or Sighted to Shadow Step. Think of it as the underbelly of our dimension. All of the things you can't touch…the intangible. The vast." He explained in boredom, "In here, I do not need to use Shadow Step against you. I have the most strength here, in shadow. Anything you do will be useless."

"I can do more than you realize." Hinata warned him in a chirp.

"Perhaps." Huo settled down in seated squat. He folded his hands and shut his eyes. Hinata realized he was trying to replenish his strength. He was resting.

She very clearly heard the hollering of Hanabi, who may have been just beyond the wall of the dome. Hinata swallowed, considering that she could try to delay any further fighting and wait for outside assistance. Belatedly, she remembered that there may not be a way for her comrades to intervene against a Tao Art. She narrowed her eyes and examined Huo.

"What is it that you want?" Hinata asked.

He opened a monolid eye and replied, "To kill you."

"Why?"

"Because she cares for you. When all of you are gone, she will give in more easily." He shut his eyes and smiled to himself, "You know nothing about hunting games, you silly pearl. Sheltered jewels like you have no need to kill and prevail over your competitors."

"I have killed before." It was a feeble threat, even with her hands poised, drawing nearer to him to spring for an attack, "It was not a game. I didn't enjoy it. It was terrible and frightening."

"Everyone enjoys the act…or if not the act, the result. If it isn't the euphoria or excitement that satisfies you…then the relief of safety will." Huo dismissed her lily-livered objection, "Apparently it isn't your sport. Soon, that isn't going to matter."

There was a rustle of her footsteps over the ground, and the cry of Hiashi's voice, urging her to strike. Hinata pounced in the gloom, prepared to jab Huo's heart with merciless Jyukken…and he reached up a hand to halt her arm. She caught his free hand before he could retaliate and stand. And then…he felt a bit foolish for underestimating her bloodthirst or desperation, as he felt the Shadow Clone she had snuck behind him cutting into his neck with a glowing, pin-point needle of chakra. Huo howled angrily and twisted himself, snapping out his leg, knocking the clone over, and Hinata was tossed and she rolled in the dirt, in the dark. Huo jumped up and swiped the blood away from his throat.

He formed hand seals, and Hinata coordinated a timely Air Palm with her Shadow Clone, hoping to catch him from two angles. Huo leapt and corkscrewed in the air to avoid the vacuum waves, snarling, and completed preparations for his superlative Ninjutsu, "Inton: Limbo Fire!" He took a deep breath and exhaled thin line of flame that was attracted to the black awning above them, igniting the interior of the dome with wisped, pale green fire. The savage heat prickled her skin and forced her closer to the center of the space. Hinata's Shadow Clone had a brief struggle against Huo, putting up with his Wushu until he pulled down an orb of fire at will from the burning shade above them.

He burned the clone's face until it was destroyed, departing in smoke. Hinata's only sensible option was to work in the safe space she had, keeping the crazed Iwa nin at a distance with ranged vacuum waves. Delighted, Huo leapt with a spinning kick to launch spheres of jade flame at her. Hinata reacted automatically, using a Rotation to protect herself…and quickly realized it could not keep harm at bay. She felt her hair, skin, and clothes burning as if she were standing prone. Panic had a brief war with sensibility inside her mind, fearing a painful death…and up from the deep stillness of her consciousness she finally felt a droplet. A tear rolling down her cheek. The thought relieved her.

Hinata plunged her Water Nature into her Rotation, effectively absorbing the volatile Fire Nature. Not to be cowed, Huo roared and spent tremendous chakra trying to incinerate her, getting in close to direct the flames with Wushu.

She could hear encouragements from her father outside; hear him citing their lessons— how Hanabi and he were both Water Natures just as she was. A proud family inheritance. Use it. Fight. 'Use what he taught me!' She clashed with all of her strength, battering Huo with slaps that crashed over him, wet and thundering like a waterfall. Though his jutsu leeched off of the energy of his Tao Art, is was tapering off in the presence of her prevailing Nature. Her clothes were burning. Her skin was raw and pink from burns. It was a duel in an oven…and no longer dark. Before exhaustion crept up inescapably on her, Hinata poured the last of her concentration into the Misago Byakugan, hoping to see the way out.

The swirling pattern of the dome…the interchange of energy was questionable and unstable. She could see it plainly then— the absence of Yang when all chakra preferred a balance of light and dark… 'His Tao Art will expire!' A final push could do it, could destabilize the terrible, hellish prison tied to his stamina. With a sound that travelled up from her toes, screeching ferociously, Hinata channeled more than a drop; she channeled a river that she pictured in her mind and felt in her veins, funneling it through her chakra and into a single vacuum wave that Huo could not hide or duck away from.

He blinked as his fire was devoured, almost as if a lion's head crested an ocean wave…and he was swept away, half-aware of the crumbling of the dark dome. Huo was flung out of it by the force of Hinata's last ditch technique. Out in the day-lit world again, it appeared as if the ocean had surged up in the stadium. Huo scrambled to safety and gulped down air.

---

Hiashi heard a piercing, warlike shriek. A tingle of intuition warned him to retreat, and he did so as he motioned for other baffled Leaf ninja to do the same. Some did not react as quickly as they could have— a calamitous, crashing flood broke out of the dome as it cascaded into nothingness, expired, and the waves swept the Hokage, Kazekage, and several others away, flattening them against the stadium's walls in a violent rush of water.

The Sarutobi bunch and their elderly friend were safe in the stands, watching from a distance. Kakashi and other Jounin checked in with Tsunade as the water technique abated at the arena's edge, "Are you alright, Hokage-sama?"

She batted them away, aggravated, "Do I not look alright?" She brushed a sopping wet strand of hair from her face and tried to neaten herself, her vanity Genjutsu still in effect, "That was unexpected and rude."

"Thank goodness it happened!" Kurenai was thrilled.

Shikamaru was forced away from Hinata and Huo's game of tag as another wave artificially created a churning sea in the arena. He flagged the stragglers down and shouted for them to move up to the observation deck. All did as he directed, flabbergasted that Hinata had wrestled away control from her opponent. The water receded and spilled into open passageways in the stadium, drying out the arena again.

For a time, Hinata had chased Huo with Twin Lion Fists, hoping to use the last ounce of her strength to flatten him into the dirt. There was no telling if cowardice or the hope of outlasting her prompted Huo to flee in and out of shadows with his Shadow Step. He had less gusto for fighting, with his chakra dwindling so. As it stood, Hinata also was scrounging around the dredges of her reserves to attack him.

Huo found a hiding place in a crevasse, although there was no hiding from her Blood Limit. Hinata stood still, oxygenating and shaking, the truth dawning on her. She had no chakra left that she could spend. She was badly burned. Hinata might call it a glass half full for her to survive Huo's fiendish technique…and then be too winded to knock him unconscious at the finale.

She stared ahead, her mouth quivering sadly as she observed lovely celestial shapes transcending the threads of the world's reality…transparent pictograms and symbols, distant and near all at once. There would be no use in employing the Misago Byakugan when she could barely stand. She felt that her legs would give out soon.

Maybe she was punch drunk? Hinata was seeing less of the stadium's arena and more of a…sprawling green lawn. Also, it felt like she had just taken a big slurp of miso soup. She was rather hungry.

'What am I—?' Her thoughts crashed into a traffic jam of sensory input. Her consciousness was staying put, but it was also trying to jump ship again.

And Naruto was not so surprised this time.

Whoa! Hinata? He laughed out loud, elated by her arrival. She felt him setting aside his lunch bowl. Naruto was seated on the porch of a house. Back again already! How'd it go? What're ya up to-?

NARUTO.

He nearly fell backwards she thought at him so hard.

Please! I need you here! I need to borrow some chakra…or at least one very good punch. She requested, May I—?

Not that her asking permission to borrow his consciousness and chakra reserves mattered. Instantly, the young man found he was no longer seated outside of Fukasaku and Shima's house enjoying a lunch break. She had commandeered his intangible faculties, placing Naruto smack in the middle of a bedraggled-looking Konoha Sports Stadium.

Holy shit! I was going to tell you to take what you need…but uh…I guess I'm here now. Naruto found it quite convenient that he communicated directly to her head, no speech required. The body he was in— her body, he noted— was about to topple over and take a long nap. But a second wind had come to Hinata as the unfathomable reservoir of his chakra bolstered her, letting her perk up and stand straighter. Ow! What hurts so much?

"I was burned." She muttered to herself, rubbing her arms down with a healing light, "This will help me feel a little better…thank you!"

Sure, no problem. Wait. Burned? What's going on?

"Look there." Hinata waited for Naruto to realize he too was seeing through her Byakugan, spying the gutless Iwa nin hiding in a ditch, trying to gather some energy.

Huh. Is he like missing some hair or something?

"Naruto…that is my Final Match opponent, Huo. He's hurt so many people today; threatened to kill us…mocked and tormented us…" She explained on the way, navigating towards Huo's shelter, "He can move through shadows with Shadow Step! He will be difficult to catch."

That so…? No. He won't be difficult to catch. Naruto corrected her, I can catch anything now.

"Naruto—"

Yeesh, he looks exhausted. You and I aren't! It might take me a second to get used to…seeing everything with the Byakugan. And understand whatever jutsu that jerk uses—

"Wushu! Tao Arts-!"

Yup. Got it. He had no idea what those terms meant, Gonna have to see for myself… Let's smoke him out of his fox hole!

Wide-eyed, Hinata drew her lips into a thin line as she allowed Naruto to take over for a moment, forming the hand seal for a Shadow Clone with her hands. A bevy of smoke clouds formed and dispersed, stuffing the arena full of Hinata-doppelgangers.

From his place on the lookout, Shikamaru swore loudly at the miracle he was witnessing. He would estimate that Hinata was about to collapse from chakra exhaustion…and then she pulled out a Mass Shadow Clone Jutsu from her hat of tricks. Now he'd seen it all.

A lone Shadow Clone dove down into the ditch like a paratrooper, confronting Huo. Meanwhile, Naruto was steering Hinata and accidentally thwarting her brain-mandated motor functions. She was chastising him gently for the hassle. Mostly, he was enamored of the dozens of beautiful, albeit singed clones of his girlfriend standing by in the stadium.

…Hinata.

She felt her mouth hanging open— his doing. She clapped her hands over her face and tried to get the grip that Naruto just couldn't seem to get.

Hinata! You grew your hair out! It's way longer than I thought-! Whoa. What's this-? What are you wearing? He lifted her arms, turning her head to gander at the lavender ensemble, I could just…

"Naruto, please! I need your help with finishing this match!" She squealed bashfully. She was flattered that he was reeling over her appearance.

I could just drop dead you are so gorgeous. How about—?

Her brain shoved him away from the controls, leaping as Huo burst from his hiding place, scattering stones and earth, and lunged through the dense throng of clones. The look on the Iwa nin's face was skeptical. This massive crowd of kunoichi was certainly fake. It was only after he had Wushu punched, locked, and smashed a dozen Shadow Clones before Huo realized he was not trapped in a Genjutsu. Every single last bunshin was real, and they were attacking more carefully, calculating his reactions and tailoring their combinations to him.

He ducked under two Air Palms before a third struck him, hurling him sideways, and Huo bellowed in frustration. He thrashed a hand at Hinata while kicking a clone in the mouth, "How are you doing this, wench? You depleted everything you had to escape me!"

"Obviously not, baldbrow!" Hinata retorted and then blanched at her words. Naruto was talking. She wrestled that feature back for a moment.

Ah, well, that made Huo even angrier. He slipped from place to place with Shadow Step, methodically avoiding Shadow Clones and picking them off individually as he flitted to safety.

He's a slippery sucker, isn't he? Naruto was thrilled, sky-high, brimming with her adrenaline. I'm gonna try something that's more my style. Whatever you're doing— that attacking with Air-Hands-thingy— try getting a clone or two do that and move him closer to us!

"What are we-?" She decided not to question it. Hinata motioned for nearby Shadow Clones to approach in a pincer movement where Huo was exiting from a shadow on the arena floor.

She charged with another pack of clones on her left and right, watching in amusement as it panned out like clockwork. Huo avoided the Air Palms and Shadow Stepped toward the offending clones, picking the both of them off.

He never, ever expected the head-butt.

Huo's eyes crossed, air crushed out of him as he was flung back into the fist of another kunoichi clone…and the clone punched him like a truck, upward, and its comrade clones kicked the grandstander simultaneously into the air. Huo's head was terribly rattled as he soared through open air, hearing an unusual cry with each hit, "Hy-uu-ga-!" Then, a clone's somersaulting heel drop came from above, "Hinata Barrage!"

Huo cracked a front tooth when he hit the ground mouth-first. Distressed and bloodied, Huo sunk down into the safety of a shadow to steal away.

"That worked!" Hinata was riveted, "We can coordinate something like that again!"

Heck yeah, he ain't so tough! Doesn't look like anyone is on his side today!

"No one was." Hinata confirmed, "I believed I wasn't fighting alone today. I believed it!"

You better believe it girl! Whoa— what's he doing now? Naruto inquired as Huo's Phoenix Tao Art aura flared to life on the far side of the arena, He's all glowy.

"Naruto, that's the Tao Art that empowers him! He won't be able to hold it for very long…" She passed along the facts, "His Wushu, um, Taijutsu is much stronger when he uses that technique."

For emphasis, Huo was laying waste to Hinata's army of Shadow Clones. Naruto frowned in disapproval with Hinata's face.

A team of Shadow Clones wizened up and spread out, hurling themselves into Rotations to preserve themselves. This instance, however, clued Huo into who the originator was. Closing the gap between them, he plowed into Hinata with a Phoenix Aura wing, flinging her across the arena with a guttural snarl.

On the cross-stadium flight, Naruto reached out with one of Hinata's hands and planted a Jutsu Formula, brushing it from her finger and onto the dirt floor. They tucked and rolled to come to a safe stop.

"What was that, Naruto? On my hand?"

My formula. We might need it, if he's going to be all tough-nut and crazy at us. He brushed Hinata's clothes of dirt and stammered when he accidentally touched her chest. That faux pas was overlooked when Huo came charging again, weaving away from the last infantry of seven Shadow Clones.

"What does the formula do?" Hinata asked, breathing heavily, joining her clones in distracting Huo, hoping to open his now very-strict defense.

We can jump to it with Flying Thunder God. That'll get him. We'll plant a big one right on his ugly mug!

Covertly, while being terrorized by Huo's fire-breathing and rampant Wushu, Hinata let Naruto apply his small formula seals throughout the arena. Her head was nearly kicked off her shoulders by a flying Phoenix Kick, but Naruto retreated to let Hinata's instincts take over, and she defended against the attack with a Divine Protection wall. Two Shadow Clones dashed to her aid and blasted Huo away with vacuum waves, skid marks scoring the diameter of the stadium as he ingrained his feet.

Shoot that's cool! You've worked on some rad jutsu, Hinata!

Her clones were throttled, finally outdone by Huo's aura and quick Shadow Step. Naruto borrowed control again, apologizing, and asked Hinata to take a few deep breaths and act as a sentinel while he sensed around her chakra paths and got a feel for shape manipulation.

We're both right-handed, yeah? Well it doesn't matter; I'll get this going… Naruto was responsible for Hinata sticking her tongue out of her mouth in concentration, and also spinning the start of the Rasengan in the palm of her hand. She kept track of Huo with her Byakugan, watching him stalk and dash through shadows like a beast, making his approach toward her again— a single target.

'Naruto, how can I use the Rasengan without missing him? He might-!'

Hey beautiful, we're not letting him come to us, we're gonna jump to him! See him hopping? Always through shadows right? If we stand over here in this sunny patch…he's gonna pop out of that big 'ol shadow from that rock pile in front of us. Predictable schmuck.

'We put a seal there?'

Yeah, I feel it. I mean, we rolled around and marked a lot of spots, but that's one of them. We can always try another position if this one doesn't work out. He weighed her hand down with a condensed, metric ton of chakra, But if that guy can keep walking after this…well damn. Even Ero-sensei needs a while to get over a hit from Big Ball Rasengan. That old fart.

In a blink, Huo disappeared. Hinata felt her heart fluttering in her ribcage, frightful.

Don't worry! Pound that asshole's freaking face in with this! You do the honors. I'll just flash for ya!

"Naruto…" Her voice was warbling.

You already won, look at that chump! He doesn't want to accept it. He's too proud to give up, so he'd prefer to learn the hard way. Hey! There he goes…

Huo indeed flung himself out of the quarry's shadow, airborne in a leap, aglow with his Tao Art. Guided by an intuitive motion, Naruto indicated she should turn, and Hinata spun and built momentum as if she were attacking someone behind her. Instantly, she was repositioned, following through with the motion. Courtesy of Naruto's remarkable flash of speed, Hinata realized she was abruptly teleported behind Huo. And to vent some pent up aggression, Hinata righteously let out a howl as she slammed the swirling ball of energy into the brute, "Rasengan!"

'Oh…' It did far more damage than she expected it to.

Huo's inertia was an enigma of physics, velocity changing hazardously, crushing him down into the earthen floor in a crater that most meteorites could not boast after striking the planet. His Phoenix Tao Art flickered out like the final wheeze of a basement lightbulb. Debris scattered everywhere in a dusty plume, and Hinata shut her eyes and mouth to avoid eating dirt, still able to track Huo with the Byakugan. By the look of it, he had several broken bones…and a few of his fingers were not at their correct angles. In that moment, he had not been attempting to defend himself at all. Now, Huo was clinging to consciousness by a thin thread, groaning in pain.

Still skipping with momentum, Hinata back-flipped to correct herself and stuck the landing. In that instant of peace, Naruto was tickled by errant hair displaced on her nose, and he blew it aside playfully.

Wow, I cannot wait to run my hands through this hair! Oh. Duh. He carded her fingers through it.

'Naruto!' Hinata could hear his internal chortling. She looked back at Huo, shocked that he had some semblance of willpower to sneak off through a shadow again, 'He's trying to get away!'

Yeah, like that's gonna happen with his leg all busted up like it is! Get 'em!

Hinata bounded after Huo, ignoring the deafening ovation in the stadium, and with a Gentle Step flourish she whirled, knocking Huo's injured leg with her foot. He yelped and buckled, in too sunny a spot to flee, and Hinata bore down on him with a 64-point strike. Naruto noted the tiny, pinhead-sized tenketsu along Huo's chakra pathways, the internal injuries that the Rasengan had inflicted on Huo, and the pounding, terrified heartbeat in Huo's chest as his Wushu hand locks were molasses-slow compared to Hinata's tried and true Hyuga conclusion.

His front row seat of the motions, the breathing, the strikes, the footwork, the light and lithe body that bombarded the cowering Iwa nin, knocking him back and back again until he was spread-eagle on the ground…Naruto was educated by the experience. Was she ever amazing, 'I am so happy I got to be here with you…I've missed you so much! We kicked ass! Though you did most of the legwork before I got here…' His girlfriend. His darling…

Hinata— Naruto startled, his vision compromised as he began to see a stretch of green lawn ahead of him once more, surrounded by sights and scents of the Toad Valley. He called out to her with his mind as the connection wore out, trying to hold on to that fiber from her Kekkei Genkai. But the technique was spent, and her concentration had wavered, and so it dropped Naruto off to leave him safely on the lush mountain in his own body.

Hinata stood shivering and did not lower her arm as she stared down at Huo. He was crumpled up, unconscious.

When she felt a hand touch her shoulder, Hinata spooked with a squeak. Shikamaru gave her a dubious look and asked if she was all in one piece, definitely alive, and what in the blazes had he just seen?

She stuttered in an attempt to explain, but trailed off tiredly. Shikamaru kneeled down beside Huo to determine the extent of his ass-beating. With his shirt mic off, he lifted his radio to give a cheerful report to several anxious parties.

Every single ache and sting came flooding back, making Hinata wince and shrug her shoulders, bracing her legs in the hope she would not tip over. Curiously, most of her burns had healed, but a few other nicks and sprains remained. She shut her eyes and tried to breathe, noting Naruto's absence. 'Naruto-kun…I'm sorry that I couldn't keep you here longer. If only for a few more moments of talking…that would've been nice.' She sighed heavily, 'I always feel as if you are there for me in every way…in everything I do! And you were! You helped me achieve something important for our village and our friends!'

Hinata batted her lips, thirsty, and then gave Shikamaru a strange look as he ceremoniously took her hand and raised her arm high. She balked at him as he made a new announcement, "Per the review of the Leaf Village's decision panel and my calling, the winner of the Final Round Match and champion of the annual Chunin Selection Exam Tournament is Hyuga Hinata!"

She was grateful that Shikamaru braced her back when she nearly stumbled, jarred by the cheering and fanfare of the stadium's spectators. She shyly peeked around the circumference of the arena, unaccustomed to the public eye and pure mayhem of tournament attendees fussing over or lauding the last match of the Exam. She felt a fidget coming on. Not long after Shikamaru's calling, medic-nin assembled under the watch of the Security force to extricate Huo from the arena. At about the same time, Hinata turned about and was frontally mashed into Sakura, smothered by the hugs of friends as Shino, Lee, Ino, Chouji, and Kiba arrived to blare congratulations.

"You fibber!" Sakura was holding her head, teary-eyed and grinning, "You said you weren't going to fight! Don't you realize how dangerous that was?"

"Of course!" Hinata could not speak over the din of her friends, Shikamaru included.

"What was that? At the end! Holy—!"

"Truly an incredible match, Hinata-sama!"

"You should have seen how distraught the Jounin were when that Shadow Dome went up!"

"—that coward…"

"How the heck did you learn how to do that?"

"Angel-face exterior, badass interior." That one was Ino.

"N-No, I just did what any of us would have tried to do!" Hinata tried to downplay it.

The huddle loosened up and gave the champion some space, quieting down when the Village Leaders came forward to acknowledge Hinata. Tsunade looked as if she were still drying off after being splashed. She rested her hands on Hinata, going over a few noticeable injuries with a healing light. "Young lady, your actions during the match were much too reckless for me to label that good judgement. I hope you know that you didn't have to go so far to be recognized." The Hokage admonished her, "While you were trapped, half of your clan was down here and about ready to howl at the sky in a panic."

"I did not mean to worry or upset anyone. I…um, it was that I…" Hinata folded her hands and said, "I knew I could do it."

"Hmm." Tsunade tilted her head towards Gaara, "What do you think, Kazekage-sama?"

"I think you should welcome her into your service as your newest Chunin." Gaara recommended warmly.

Teasingly, Tsunade smiled and determined, "Well, if the Kazekage is convinced…allow me to confer Chunin Rank upon you here, Hinata. In view of all those who watched you today, no one can dispute your aptitude."

"T-Thank you, Tsunade-sama." She peeped.

"Also." The Hokage lowered her voice and leaned in near Hinata's ear, "You're going to need to explain a few things for me tomorrow."

"I understand-!"

Tsunade was patting her shoulder again, barking grievances at the group of Jounin who were crossing over to join the rabble. Hinata gladly accepted a hug from Gaara afterward as he told her, "Some of your talents…seemed very familiar to me."

"On my own I wouldn't be able to use—"

"You don't have to validate what happened. We both know that Naruto did not want to miss out on this Exam." Gaara assured her, "He can't help himself, obviously."

She giggled at the notion and then graciously accepted compliments from Natsuhi the Hoshikage and Tazuna the Bridge Builder. The frenzy of people and felicitations dragged for a while before Hinata notified Sakura of her intention to slip away for air. Handily, she slinked off and through a concourse passageway before members of the decision panel arrived to offer their stiff sentiments. That segment of interior corridor was not yet bustling, and Hanabi easily found her sister there. She seized Hinata in a running hug.

"Oh! Careful! I'm feeling weak now." Hinata informed her, "Hanabi, I—"

"You scared me." Hanabi squished her sister's cheeks, adding, "You scared Dad! Everyone! And then you were cracking out of the black thing and— Water Release! And those jutsu! How did you use them?"

"I can tell you all about it later. At home…just the two of us, if that's what you would like." Hinata pried Hanabi's hands from her face and squeezed them, "I could hear you calling to me."

"…yeah." Her sister's eyebrows sloped, still a touch unnerved.

"Thank you."

Hanabi sniffed and waved off the sentiment, "Ah, what good did it do anyway? We just made ourselves look like screaming lunatics in public. Our clan Elders are going to be thrilled."

"Aren't they always?" They reveled in their hug for a bit longer before Hinata notified her, "I want to go ahead to tell Neji-niisan! Can you find Father and everyone else who would like to stop by the hospital?"

"Sure. Dad's been looking around for that old Master Neji-niisan trains with. He said he wants to thank him. Pft." Hanabi shrugged, "I'll tell him."

They parted and set out in opposite directions. Hinata scooted off, ahead of the crowds that were beginning to trickle out of the building to exits. She followed the Main Avenue uptown, jogging only part of the way before she slowed to save her strength. Hinata smiled to herself as she trotted through automatic doors, imagining what her big brother and big sister would have to say. Then she was stopped at the front desk by a gruff secretary.

"Chunin Exam?" The clerk drawled.

"Yes. I want to visit a patient." She nodded politely.

"Sorry, but it looks like you need to be admitted. You're pretty banged up."

Hinata's default smile wavered, "I'm only here to visit right now. I would rather rest at home."

The secretary leaned forward to get a whiff of her clothes, "Were you lit on fire or something? Come on now, you'll need medical—" He trailed off, intimidated by the stare of her Byakugan as Hinata leaned over the counter herself, veins bristling at the corners of her eyes.

"I am here for a visit." She repeated.

"R-Right. Which patient?" He squawked.

"Hyuga Neji."

"Ah. Just a second…" The secretary skimmed down the list, "He is on the second floor in room 240. Please note that visiting hours wrap up at 10:00PM—" Hinata walked away before he completed his routine chattering.

She carried on down the hallway, hoping she didn't look too worse for the wear. A few nurses did double-takes at her as she walked by. On the second floor, Hinata stopped in a restroom to examine herself and was taken aback by the smudges on her face, her knotted hair…and the tatters and tears on her outfit, somewhat charred and not at all as presentable as she had looked that morning. Hinata splashed her face at a sink and rubbed the dirt off; a rudimentary fix.

Out in the hallway within the east wing of the hospital, it was tranquil and had fewer roaming nurses. Hinata felt she could get away with racing down the final stretch, counting off room numbers. Then, she excitedly burst into room 240 with an announcement, "I did it!"

Sleepy, surprised yelps sounded as Hinata stood in the doorway and saw that she had loudly awoken Neji, and curled up beside him, Tenten sat up in alarm and blinked her eyes rapidly. They calmed down and regarded Hinata, noting the time on the wall clock.

"Oh! Were you resting? I'm sorry!" Hinata held up her hands apologetically.

"No, it can wait, get over here." Tenten demanded, stretching out her questionable arm to the girl. Hinata walked up to the side of the bed and moved into the hug gladly, "It looks to me like you didn't surrender…and that is just so…"

"I know, Onee-san, it was impulsive to fight Huo."

Neji also sat up. He did it carelessly and banged the top of his head on the extended arm of the vitals monitor beside the bed. He groaned and pressed a hand to the new lump.

"Impulsive is not the term I would use when discussing Huo. We planned all day about how to deal with him!" Tenten reprimanded Hinata before doing a 180, and softly asked, "But you're okay?"

"I'm fine! I won!"

Her bed-tousled elders made sounds of jubilant triumph and worried astonishment. They were a bit grabby too. They sandwiched her in a hug, sighing. Neji muttered a scolding at his cousin, shocked and relieved, "We did most everything we could to make it so you wouldn't have to face him…don't be so rash, in the future."

"I won't, Onii-san." She moved to sit on the edge of the bed.

Tenten lifted a strand of Hinata's hair and passed it under her nostrils, "Whoa. Were you burned? You're definitely going to have to trim these ends…"

"Yes, Huo did his very best to light me on fire while I was cornered by a Tao Art." Hinata nodded as she recalled it, "But it empowered my Water Release."

"Thank goodness." Tenten patted her and grinned, "I guess if you were able to waterlog me, it couldn't be any more difficult to drown his sorry ass."

"It wasn't that hard at all!"

Neji asked at length, "Is that how you defeated him?"

"I…well…not exactly."

They gave her long, wordless, expectant looks.

"Um…" Hinata poked her fingers together shyly, "Recently, I've learned that when I use the Misago Byakugan…it allows me to overlap my consciousness with someone else's. Sometimes."

"We have heard about that." Neji granted.

"Today I…borrowed someone else's consciousness. And chakra…and jutsu."

"Aaah..." Tenten smiled and waggled her eyebrows at Hinata knowingly, "We girls were talking about that earlier!"

"Well I don't want to discuss it here— at home would be better-!" Hinata chirped.

Neji did not quite get it. Borrowed chakra and jutsu? Whose? How he lamented not being there to watch Hinata's match.

Then, a loud crash outside caught their attention. Hinata lightly hopped up from the bed, wondering what the source of the rabble was coming from the hallway. As she curiously, cautiously poked her face out of room 240, she saw that Sakura, Shino, and the rest of their friends were approaching Neji's room. They looked just as confused by the echoing racket as Hinata did.

"Hey Hinata, do you hear that?' Sakura walked up to her, frowning in thought, "Hospitals don't allow excessive noise. A floor manager will come up here and rip them a new one…"

"I don't know. I just heard it now." Hinata toddled a bit further down the white tile corridor, and then turned right onto the perpendicular hallway. Tenten had also joined the group to investigate. She nagged at Neji when he tiredly loped after them, recommending he rest before indulging his wish to move around.

Hinata halted and witnessed a disturbing altercation about six rooms ahead of them. She did not have to use her Byakugan to know that one of the intensive care unit rooms down the way was assigned to Tama. That was because Maito Ken had bodily dragged Sato out of the room and tossed him. Repeatedly, Sato had gotten up and tried to return to Tama's side. Hinata covered her mouth anxiously as she watched Tama's father rough up her already injured teammate. Her friends stood rooted in shock beside her.

Ken was seething, speaking in low tones to Sato, "Go back to your room, I said."

"—I feel fine, please just let me stay-!"

Ken's hand fisted in Sato's pale, checkered hospital shirt, "Boy: I don't care if your wounds hurt you or not. I don't care about anything you want right now. You are not welcome to stand with my family as we grieve my daughter's pain, which I hold you accountable for. She was never meant to be a ninja."

"I just wanted her to follow the dreams you wouldn't let her—" Sato's teeth sunk into his lip as Ken cuffed him in the face.

"Do you see her chasing dreams now?" Ken was simmering at the idea, "Do you think you'll see Tama pursue anything now that she'll never walk again? Are you going to enjoy being married to my daughter when she will now require more care and assistance than ever? Pity. Obligation. Those aren't the things that should bind you to her. My dream for my daughter was to see her live well."

Weak and distraught, Sato held onto the man's arm with two hands, sinking to the floor, "I know. I know that's what you wanted."

Ken looked down on him, his thick brows furrowed, "I had my reasons for stopping her. My daughter and my brother share that foolish ambition…share their adoration for my father. And do you know what became of Maito Dai? Well, do you?"

Sato whimpered in affirmation, but Ken spoke over him with a scornful narrative, "My father wasted his whole life never getting ahead. He embarrassed me and my brother over and over. He was the eternal Genin. Endlessly naïve and optimistic; he poured all of his free time into training with our family's Inner Gates specialty…"

Ken grabbed Sato's wrists and forced him to let go, "My father wasted time on those things…instead of caring for us and my mother. He clucked his tongue at me when I said I didn't want to be a ninja. While Gai flunked his Academy entrance exams and strained himself to become a shinobi, I educated myself, ran a business, put food on the table, and provided for my family so that a roof stayed over our heads. My father didn't care that we lost our first home— he said that there is a bright side to everything."

Ken roared in Sato's face, "There isn't a bright side to being a ninja. To being gormless and unprepared. To being STUPID. It only guarantees you one thing. Hardship. My father died by overexerting himself with Gates, the same way my brother Gai wants to die— the same way my daughter wants to die!"

Tears sluiced down Sato's cheeks. He stared at Ken's face, listening intently, unaware of the onlookers behind him at the end of the hall.

"How am I supposed to believe you can take care of Tama, if you let her run full speed ahead towards her own demise?" Ken sneered, "In how many ways will you forsake her, now that she is no longer able-bodied? Do you realize how much you owe her?"

"I do. It's all I think about now." Sato confirmed in a gravelly voice, "But I will take care of her no matter what. Anything and everything she needs, I'll provide. I know it's hard for you to do, since you've watched me grow up directionless and ignorant, without much family of my own…but please entrust Tama to me. I want her to live well too."

Sato prostrated himself on the floor, folding and bowing his head in respect, "Ken, please accept my apology for everything. Please try to trust me. From this day forward, know that I dedicate everything I do to giving Tama a happy life."

"If you had told me such a thing before her injury," Ken lowered his voice to admit, "I just might've thought you could do that."

Maito Ken brusquely stepped over Sato and strode down the hallway, past the accumulation of Sato's shinobi peers, and scoffed softly to himself as he proceeded towards the men's restroom.

Shell-shocked, Sato looked at the closed door of room 271, where Tama was unconscious in bed and hooked up to various machines. He imagined that if he went back into the room, Tama's mother Miako and her brother would have no qualms with letting him stay. But Sato was trembling as he slowly heaved himself to his feet, crushed by Ken's edict and ridicule of the ninja-trained portion of his family. Of his concrete, never-ending mistrust of Sato, and that his daughter would forever be saddled with burdens and misfortune.

Moreover, it did not feel good to hear the patter of footfalls come up from behind him, nor did listening to the coos of sympathy from his teammates and friends…who had witnessed most of the quarrel. Sato wiped his eyes on his sleeve, not answering as Hinata and Shino asked him questions and touched him gently. It was hard to breathe through his congested nose, and he was still sore all over from his Exam match. At least his physical troubles did not hurt nearly as much as the emotional wreckage did. Sato was too ashamed to even look at his friends.

"Sato-kun, do you want to tell us-?" Hinata's hand slipped off of his shoulder as Sato fled.

She fretted and did not follow as Sato ambled dizzily down the hall, having lost track of where his recovery room was. He seemingly did not care anymore. He wandered off to rue the events of the last few days, and how he had caused almost all of those hardships.

Shino nudged Hinata's fidgeting hand, getting her attention.

"I will look after him and tell him about the Tournament." Shino advised her, "There is no doubt that your clan will wish to celebrate your accomplishment. You should recover at home and spend time with our friends."

"But I don't want to exclude Sato-kun." She murmured.

"Give me until this evening. Though he won't be in high-spirits, I will bring him by later." Shino decided he could negotiate such a thing, "No matter how he feels, he won't be able to resist honoring your victory."

---

After the Final Match of the Tournament and giving a tongue-lashing to the obtuse decision panel of the Exam, Tsunade shepherded Tazuna, Natsuhi, and Gaara along. Tazuna was annoyed that he would have to locate his grandson Inari and his retainer, Menma, who was also MIA. He vaguely remembered, "They said they'd meet with me on the steps outside on the ground level…"

Morino Ibiki caught Tsunade on the first floor, asking her to sign a hastily-whipped-up magistrate affidavit that would be sent to the Tsuchikage, providing details on Sasagainu Huo's arrest, investigation, and soon to be extradition back to Iwagakure. The man stalked off after that, ready to direct Intelligence Officers on how to get Huo to squeal.

"He looks like a barrel of fun, that guy." Tazuna estimated. Tough and scarred ninja were always alright in his book.

"Not the kind of fun you'd want to have," Tsunade warned him, "But if you break any laws in my village today, Tazuna, I can send you down to Ibiki's office so you can get better acquainted."

Tazuna passed on the offer.

On the ground floor, Natsuhi longingly walked past vendors that were still selling food. She had forgotten to eat while watching the matches. Tsunade grinned at her and took the woman's arm, assuring her they were going to the best izakaya in Leaf. She had a perpetual tab open at that establishment. She'd pay for the meals and booze.

As the village leader gaggle passed beneath the grand entrance of the stadium, exiting out onto steps, Gaara noticed Matsuri below on the promenade. He raised a hand to get her attention and then quickly dropped it, his voice catching in his throat. Gaara's companions noticed this and followed his gaze curiously.

"Isn't that your retainer?" Natsuhi asked Tazuna.

"Yep. That's Menma. Didn't do much of his job at all today, considering how he went off on a stroll to find yakitori and never came back!" The old man groused, "So much for paying for protection. I'm garnishing that wage."

"You need a court order before you can garnish someone's wage. Believe me, I've looked into it." Tsunade simpered, "Besides, you've had three Kage beside you all day long. You were never at any point unsafe."

"Righto, I kind of did have the safest seat in the house." Tazuna supposed, "Guess I just miss having my kids around. Menma and Inari go everywhere with me these days."

Speaking of the devil, Inari bounded up the steps toward his grandfather, raising his hands in a warding gesture. It stopped the leaders in their tracks. Visitors pouring out of the stadium parted in a crowd to move around the group.

"Grandpa! Uh, just wait here for a second…before we get Menma." Inari was trying to run defense.

"Why?"

"Uh—"

"Kid, I'm hungry, and the generous, buxom Hokage offered to buy us a meal and liquor. I want to get a move on." The grandfather sniped.

While the two prattled on, Gaara tried not to notice his student making conversation with her Tide Village crush. It was by far more amicable than past encounters, and, in Gaara's opinion, Menma was unschooled in terms of personal space boundaries. He needed to put at least another ten centimeters between himself and Matsuri.

"Oh so that's what it is-!" Tazuna lifted his hand, gesturing at the sight of Menma bending and Matsuri rising on tip-toe to meet in a kiss, "My guard has been out fraternizing with competitors." He turned to Gaara, "Ain't that kid of yours too young to date?"

"Yes." He confirmed.

"It's quite cute, actually." Natsuhi offered her two-cents, crossing her arms behind her back girlishly.

"Eh." Tsunade shrugged.

"That's not a date. Or whatever. That's just how people greet each other these days." Inari tried to write it off.

"You sure as hell don't see me greeting anyone like that." Tsunade disagreed.

"Er…the Tide Village is just trying to strengthen inter-village bonds with the Sand Village." Inari suggested feebly.

"Yeah, we've been making decent progress with that." Tazuna noted, "So, Gaara, do ya want a Tide Village ambassador to report to your office monthly?"

"No."

"Too bad. You just got a new ambassador." Tazuna declared, gesturing again, "I'll send Menma to you with my invoices, project reports, matters requiring attention, and dirty gossip on the first of each month."

"No, you will not." Gaara had to unclench his teeth to speak, "Send a messenger hawk— seagull." He amended, "Send whatever. But don't send him."

"Aw, come on." Inari protested.

"Menma can come to the Star Village, when you're ready to discuss trade agreements in the future, Tazuna-san." Natsuhi offered sweetly, "I'm looking forward to that business!"

"Yeah, pretty lady, and we look forward to those deals too. I've got a project team interested in developing aviation vehicles."

"Can we not talk business until after we are seated at the pub?" Tsunade suggested, carrying on down the stairs. The group followed after her.

Gaara nearly blew a gasket when Matsuri and Menma united with the group on the promenade, and Menma bowed respectfully to him as if he didn't just see the former ragamuffin plant one on his student's lips. Oh. And even better! Now Matsuri was spouting nonsense about how much she looked forward to visiting the Tide Village again.

On the way to the izakaya, Gaara thought he had a good counterpoint in that the Sand Village Training program was in its final stages. Once all of the administrative clutter was settled, mission routines established, and the local lords and daimyo were presented with the option to hire Tide ninja, Sand would withdraw completely from the village.

"But Temari-sama told me that she bought a bungalow down there." Matsuri notified him, "She said I could stay in it with her on our time off and visit the beach."

Gaara's eyes nearly rolled back into his head.

Tazuna scratched his mustache, "Oh, you didn't hear about that? She got a good price. I talked to the seller for her."

"That would be something I'd like to buy, someday." Natsuhi sighed.

"That makes two of us." Tsunade echoed.

"No." Gaara countered again, back at Matsuri, "You'll be too busy to go to the Tide Village now that you're a Chunin—"

"I'm a Chunin?" Matsuri screamed.

Menma winced. She had gotten him directly in the ear drums.

"Yes." Gaara grumbled, "And I will be assigning you many missions. You will be very…very busy."

"Oh sensei, thank you!" She squeezed his arm happily, walking alongside him, "I promise I'll do my best."

"I know you will."

Tsunade blew a raspberry as she watched the giddiness. Hopefully Sakura would not hang on her like that when she got the news.

"Congrats, Matsuri!" Inari laughed and high-fived her.

Natsuhi was giggling.

Once they arrived at the izakaya, Tsunade was given her preferred table and their orders were quickly taken. Because Tsunade was an altruistic soul, she ordered Gaara a pour from a rare bottle of Chichibu whisky.

"Just so you know," She muttered to him, "That glass costs one thousand Ryo per. You're welcome."

He dropped his head back and sighed heavily. He didn't even drink.

Then, Menma did something unexpected and addressed the Kazekage, "Gaara-sama."

Surprised, Gaara sat properly again and looked at the Tide nin seated across from him. Matsuri was sitting stock-still with her hands pressed into her lap.

"I think that maybe you got the wrong impression about me." Menma was direct, "When we met, it was during a stressful time, and reparations to the village required a lot of funding, time, and energy from you. Also, I had just freed myself of the clan that had abused me and stopped them from taking those children." His eyes flickered over to the other adults, who were listening in, "And the time after that, you saw that Matsuri was upset with me."

Matsuri shook her head timidly, "Menma, you don't need to bring that up—"

"Someone I worked with had a bad habit about lying to store management and customers, and made up something about me." Menma explained, "But Matsuri believed it was true, when she was told. It caused a misunderstanding."

Gaara only blinked once while listening to him.

"I hope that you don't think that I…would ever lead Matsuri on…or that I would take advantage of my new home or any of the friends that I've made. They are the most precious things that I have." Menma prodded at the condensation on the glass of water in front of him, "For most of my life, I've been alone. The times during which I was not alone, I was often in bad company. This is the first time in my life I've ever been allowed to care about something…and been strong enough to fight for it."

A waitress came by and set down beverages on the table. Gaara eyed the whisky in front of him before resting his gaze on Menma again.

"So you care about Matsuri?" He asked rigidly, "And you would be willing to fight for her sake?"

Tsunade discreetly mouthed at Gaara to remain calm.

"Yes, I do and I always would." Menma said with a straight face.

Natsuhi, Tazuna, and Inari formed a chorus of swooning and teasing banter. Matsuri tucked her head down a little, hoping she would magically camouflage herself and go unseen.

"Hm." The corner of Gaara's mouth tugged down. He was considering what Menma said.

"The truth is…I also have you to thank for my new life." Menma added, "If you had not taken on Matsuri as a student…and then assigned her to help train ninja in the Tide Village…I would probably still be a captive of the Shin clan." He turned and smiled at the girl sitting beside him, "Matsuri saved me. She saved many people that day. I've never met anyone like her before."

"He really is a total sap for her." Inari confirmed in a hiss from his end seat. Tazuna shushed him.

Tsunade rested an elbow on the table and held her chin in her palm, watching for Gaara's reaction. She was often curious about how he responded to intricate social stimuli. Though she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was a dependable partner for Sakura, sometimes Tsunade wondered how Gaara's student and family members fared in his interactions.

Gaara shut his eyes for a moment, breathing deep, and seemed to make up his mind. He lifted the whisky glass and held it out towards Menma, indicating with subtle face signals that Menma do the same. Uncertainly, Menma held up his water glass.

"To Hidden Sand's new ambassador from Shiogakure." Gaara tapped his glass to Menma's in a toast, noticing the boy's eyes light up with delighted surprise, "May our villages forge many bonds and enjoy mutual prosperity."

"Now you're talkin'." Tazuna also tapped his glass to theirs. Natsuhi, Matsuri, and Inari gladly toasted with their beverages.

Tsunade lazily clinked her sake cup in with the group's, "Kanpai, you turkeys."

---

The afternoon was characterized by brief interactions between Chunin Exam Finalists and their families, who also received well-wishes from their Jounin Sensei.

The Akimichi and Yamanaka clans were inclined to celebrate Chouji and Ino's performances (going on the assumption they'd been promoted) but did not organize anything on account of most everyone planning to party at the Hyuga estate. They advised their children to attend that function because the Hyuga clan rarely permitted outside party goers to their lavish events. Their families would have their own congratulatory festivities in the coming days.

And by sunset, with lanterns hung in the yards of the stately Hyuga house, a mish-mash of Hyuga clansmen and other Leaf inhabitants assembled to pay respect to Hinata and her peers.

It had taken some convincing of hospital staff, but Neji had been released to his family so that he would not miss out on the revelry. He sat on the engawa of the house while convalescing, watching nearby festivities. He was a little dizzy from pain medication, but had quite an appetite. He sent Lee to the hot-tray tables twice to fetch food for him. Tenten migrated between Neji and other attendees, socializing and joking around with them as she passed through crowds and lines for refreshments.

Hinata was being harried by a jovial mob, with many Branch members fawning over her. She had overheard a few wary accusations that she had used jutsu suspiciously reminiscent of those the Fourth Hokage had employed during the last war, but no one pushed the matter. Her father shooed those conspiracies away. As it was, the Main House elders were going to be looking for an explanation in the morning about whether or not their eyes had deceived them.

While Lee was not tending to Neji, he took time to walk his grandfather around and introduce him to curious party goers. Wong Leung, though not fluent in Nihongo, was happier than usual being engaged by Leaf Villagers he did not normally get recognition from. He was also quite popular with the Sarutobi attendees, including Konohamaru and his parents, who had taken quite a shine to him. Lee was thrilled. After a while, Hanabi and Konohamaru began badgering each other; their usual pastime.

Shikamaru and his teammates sat beside Neji on the porch to eat and occasionally tease the bandage-swathed prodigy. He took the jests in good humor. Kiba and Sakura had wrestled in between Hinata and her admirers, finally getting the chance to converse with her and maybe get some buzz on where the hell that Rasengan had come from.

Tsunade and Gaara showed up after a while. Gaara had brought his own guests: his student and some Tide Village dilettantes. Hyuga clansmen were curious about the Hoshikage, and were asking for a demonstration of Star Village jutsu. Natsuhi assured them she would show off a technique or two only after a glass of wine and some dessert.

Most Leaf Jounin present were well-behaved, but Asuma and his brother Netsuke had been goaded by Hyuga Hideyasu into accepting a challenge to a drinking game. Apparently, Hideyasu and a few Branch members were legendary at "flip cup." Netsuke claimed it was a bold faced lie. Grudgingly, Kurenai and Kakima were pulled into the drinking game, as it was team-based.

Gai and Kakashi were embroiled in some strange contest of Janken combined with a push-ups race and downing shots. Fascinated, Tsunade and Gaara sat down to watch. When Sakura passed by, she shook her head in embarrassment at the sight.

Shino had showed up with Sato as he had promised, though his friend was dressed down in a t-shirt and joggers. Hinata navigated her way over to her teammates at the edge of the yard and then hugged Sato, careful not to irritate his injuries. He sighed and squeezed her, muttering an apology, "I'm sorry I've been so dumb. I didn't want you to see what Tama's dad…had to say…"

"It was an accident. We just wanted to know if you were okay." Hinata leaned back to look at Sato, "I wish you hadn't fought Neji-niisan."

"Looking back, I wish I hadn't either. I should have just stayed with Tama." Sato agreed.

Concerned, Hinata pressed a finger to the cut on Sato's lip and sealed it shut with the Palm Healing Jutsu. He laughed softly and thanked her.

"Congratulations, Sunshine. No one deserves to be a star more than you." Sato told her, exchanging an agreeing glance with Shino, "Naruto would have gone nuts watching your match today."

With a small smile, she cupped her hand and whispered, "He did see it!"

"Yo, what?" Sato leaned in and lowered his voice, "Is he here? Oh crap that's great, we could like pants Gaara in front of everyone—"

"No, no, I mean that I overlaid his consciousness with mine during my match. I ran out of chakra and I needed some help." She explained quickly, "And you mustn't do something like that to Gaara-kun!"

"You're right. It'd be funnier if Gaara helped me pants Naruto." Sato decided.

While Hinata tittered at the idea, Shino advised Sato to stop thinking about removing people's trousers for comedic effect. They asked if it was alright to help themselves to some of the food and Hinata tagged along with them, also peckish.

Later, Wong Leung set out for home because he had a long bedtime routine and wanted to read the newspaper. After seeing him off, Lee and Tenten took their spots beside Neji as Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji shifted over, while conversing with Fujita light-heartedly.

"I didn't know the Hyuga clan played drinking games." Tenten remarked to her boyfriend, amused, "Ino told me that the Yamanaka clan does stuff like that every weekend."

"My clan does not play often." Neji noted, "But they play hard."

"The Sarutobi clan appears to be losing." Lee rested his chin on his fist, watching interestedly.

"Fujita's dad is really good at it." Tenten pointed out, "That must be his fifth or sixth turn and he flips cups perfectly on the first try."

"He's going to need a new liver." Neji muttered.

Later that evening the Sarutobi clan guests were sent home, plastered, with Konohamaru tugging his elders along in a chain of hand-holding and burping. Several sober Branch members proceeded to clean up tables and leftovers, and Hideyasu's team retreated into the house to retch over toilets in various bathrooms.

While playing Koi-Koi with Hanabi on the porch, Fujita held his hand of Hanafuda cards and bid his father goodnight as Kayato lugged Hideyasu into a sliding door. She nearly dropped him, vacillating between laughing at her loaded husband and griping at him for overdoing it. Eventually, she got him inside and shut the door behind her.

The Leaf Finalists bid their friends goodnight and set out, congratulating Hinata one last time before leaving. Sato travelled to the hospital rather than returning home, intending to wait by Tama's side all night.

Lee and Tenten sent Neji to bed and promised to find him first thing in the morning. No guarantee that Gai-sensei would show up, though. He and Kakashi had wandered off in a drunken embrace, and Tenten did not think it was wise to find out where they'd ended up. They too went home after respectfully bidding the Hokage good evening, even though Tsunade was passed out on the porch of the house, her face pressed into a support pillar. Thankfully, Shizune found her and had assistance transporting the Hokage and Hoshikage to their residences.

The Tide Village group and Matsuri had long since vacated to turn in for the night. Sakura was the last to depart after hugging Hinata goodbye, and she caught up with Gaara at the gate of the compound before falling into step with him.

"Mom and Dad are waiting up for me. I said I would go home after the party and let them praise me and feed me sweets." Sakura folded and rubbed her arms, surprised by the night's chill.

Gaara circled an arm around Sakura to warm her as they hiked down a fence-lined street, "Good. I imagine they were very proud while watching your matches. I will walk you home."

"Thank you." She touched her head to his shoulder happily, "I see that you had lots of fun today."

"Most of it was fun."

"Tsunade-shishou overindulged."

"She overindulged before we went to the party." Gaara sniffed.

"Yeah…and you know…" Sakura pulled him to a stop to sniff her boyfriend's neck, "You smell like you've been drinking too."

"I am sound of mind and respect my limits." Gaara protested, "Your master bought me whisky at our early dinner."

"Oh! It kind of…makes you smell good." Rosy-cheeked, Sakura shook her head and continued ahead, darting under a street lamp.

When she asked him what he was doing later, Gaara matter-of-factly told her that if he had the patience, he would wash his face and shut the lights off in his flat before falling asleep. Even if he looked "with it," he was desperately trying not to curl up on a park bench and pass out like a hobo.

"Should I come over later?" She asked in a lilting voice. They turned onto her street. Gaara gave her a lofty, considerate look.

"No." He smiled slowly at her, "You should stay home and rest."

"Aw, but I'm still pretty energetic—"

"I would be useless to you tonight." He asserted, "But I am here for one more day."

"Ah, and you won't be preoccupied with anything?" Out in front of her house, Sakura climbed the steps as slowly as she could.

"Matsuri will be distracted with friends tomorrow, and the other village leaders will be recuperating. I know that Tsunade will not want to address any of her appointments in the morning, even though she'll have to."

Sakura nodded, "Yeah, she's bound to get a late start. Tomorrow is going to be a by-the-skin-of-her-teeth kind of day for Shishou."

"Then she may not need you for many tasks."

"No. I haven't even been added back onto the hospital's work schedule yet. We Chunin can take it easy until we are officially assigned missions." She smiled at Gaara as he waited on the step below her, "So…I'll come find you tomorrow."

He shut his eyes and relished a soft kiss from her. He listened when Sakura added, "And I'll make up a convincing excuse as to where I'll be tomorrow night for Mom and Dad."

"Please do." Gaara held her face and kissed her again.

They nearly jumped in the air in startlement when Kizashi threw the door open behind Sakura, and he and Mebuki were animatedly cheering. Gaara just barely managed to compose himself and politely turn down their offerings of tea, sake, ice pops or umeboshi and just generally staying up all night singing Sakura's praises.

Back at his flat, Gaara, like most everyone else that night, had a deep and dreamless sleep.

---

When Naruto had come back to his senses earlier that day, he was surprised to find that he was standing in the middle of Fukasaku and Shima's lawn. His feet were spread and arms were arranged in a Gentle Fist pose that evoked the end of an attack.

Jiraiya had only witnessed part of Naruto's remote-controlled motions, glancing out the window of the toad's home. "Hey! Stretching your legs or something?" He called out to his student, but Naruto did not seem to hear him.

Shima recommended that Jiraiya leave Naruto in peace to finish his lunch, "He and Pa are going to get right back to meditation once he finishes."

"I dunno…" Jiraiya scratched his chin and watched the boy from the window, "He's acting bizarre."

"Jiraiya-boy, you act much stranger on a daily basis."

"Nah, I mean he's jumping around and thrashing. Looks like some kind of fit…" The man pushed up from the tatami mats to exit the house, "Be right back, Ma."

By the time he tapped Naruto's shoulder, he had snapped out of it. He turned to give Jiraiya a mystified, googly-eyed look, then lowered his arms to stand normally.

"They need to stop feeding us poisonous insects, I'm telling you—" Jiraiya groused, making an assumption, "I don't want you hallucinating the day away, kid."

"Whoa. Ero-sensei, I wasn't hallucinating or anything like that." Naruto waved his hands and crossed back to the porch, "Hinata needed help at the Chunin Exam final! She kind of just…confiscated my brain and chakra for a bit."

"Confiscated." Jiraiya spun around to look at Naruto as he chugged his cooled-off soup, "As in, you were in her body?"

"Yeah!"

"Fighting?"

"Yeah it was crazy! I could feel her wounds and stuff like that." Naruto patted his shoulder, where he remembered a gash Hinata had hastily healed, "And I was like-! Using Jyukken and I could see chakra points— I saw things the way she did, it was totally—!"

Jiraiya gave him a light shake, "Kid. That kind of oversharing can expose you, you know. She didn't feel the Nine-Tailed Fox, did she?"

"I'm pretty sure Hinata was way too distracted to take a tour of my chakra." Naruto shrugged off his concerns, "Oh man, we knocked teeth outta that guy's head! Hah!"

"So I gather that she won that match?" Jiraiya settled down on the porch, somewhat pleased.

Naruto clacked his empty bowl down on the porch, "I think so! That jerk didn't go down easily. He tried to crawl away after we hit him with Rasengan."

"Oh jeez." Jiraiya dropped his face into his palm, "You used that in someone else's body?"

"Er…" Naruto stopped to consider the implications of using an array of jutsu that might get Hinata questioned after the fact, "Well…you know, we had to improvise a few things here and there."

"You didn't use the Hiraishin, did you?" He was frowning.

"Just once." Naruto nearly spilled his tea cup when Jiraiya wapped the back of his head, "Hey! I know. I didn't consider what it would look like at the time."

"People are going to think she's the second coming of the Fourth!" Jiraiya rumbled, frustrated, "Naruto, you can't recklessly use those jutsu in public situations. It can stir up negative sentiments from the Third Shinobi War. And you want to drag Hinata into it, of all people-?"

"No one's going to bother her, come on! They'll call it a fluke or a mirage or something." He sipped his tea again.

"Don't participate in that kind of gimmick again, you hear me? Discretion is key." Jiraiya held up his pinched fingers to emphasize his point, "If you're going to assist her in a fight, try to be subtle about it!"

"I get it already. Can't go back and change what we did…and…" Naruto suddenly had a far-off look on his face, "Hinata was so beautiful."

"I bet—"

Pulling at Jiraiya's tunic sleeve, Naruto lightly shoved his teacher and had a conniption, "You don't understand! When I was there, she felt light as a feather— not at all like how my body feels when I run around and move. She was bouncy." He and Jiraiya made uncomfortable eye contact at the mentioning of the word, "And Hinata was kind of banged up and hurt, but she was wearing this awesome— I don't know what it was. It was a purple, yukata-looking thing. Oh! And her hair was so long and shiny I just had to touch it—"

"That so-?"

"I can't believe I kind of forgot what her face looked like. Well, I didn't forget. But she looks different! Like a lady in those fine art portraits; and her eyes were huge with fluffy lashes-!"

"Kid—"

"And I was freaking out! I didn't want to make it weird." Naruto made a yipping sound, shutting his eyes as he remembered, "I really don't think I can handle it. That she's beautiful spiritually and physically. It's like if I can't touch her I'm going to self-destruct. I'm going to die here, just-! You'll walk by the Toad Oil Pool later and I'll be dead because I want to be with her so bad-!"

Jiraiya was snapping his fingers in front of Naruto's face, "You are blowing a fuse, Naruto—"

"I didn't mean to! I just accidentally touched her there when she was covered in dirt and—"

The man clapped a hand over Naruto's mouth, announcing, "Normally I can handle the extolling of a gorgeous babe and her effect on a man…but you need to cancel the rocket-launch. You hear me? Take the ten you're at and bring it down to a two, alright?"

Removing his hand, Jiraiya regarded Naruto as he took a few calming breaths.

"Phew." The young man exhaled, "How'd she do that to me?"

"Get used to it." Jiraiya gruffed, "Now…if you're done eating and ululating, I'd like to ask you to take it slow and steady when you meditate for the rest of the day. Can you do that?"

"Yeah." Naruto stood and dusted his pants off, "Sorry about that."

"It's alright, kiddo. Just relax and concentrate on Natural Energy. The mail came in a little while ago, so tonight you can read your correspondence." Jiraiya picked up the dishes to bring them inside, "Work hard."

As he was told, Naruto returned to the Toad Oil Pool and found Fukasaku working on the same book of nonograms. The toad patted him down with oil before returning to his puzzles. For the rest of the afternoon, Fukasaku was alarmed by how Naruto fluctuated between fidgeting and rapidly transforming into a toad statue, drawing on far too much natural energy. He was very out of sorts.

An hour before sunset, Fukasaku rapped his cane on the stone steps to get Naruto's attention, "My word, this day's training took a nosedive this afternoon! Let's turn in for the evening, Naruto-boy."

Slightly miffed by his performance, Naruto returned to the house with the Toad Sage.

Over dinner, Jiraiya clarified for Fukasaku and Shima what had distracted Naruto. It grated on Naruto's nerves as they so clinically discussed Hinata's technique, and Naruto's evident inability to cope with the physicality of having his consciousness sojourn in a woman's body.

After the meal, Naruto retired to his room and tried not to be irritated. 'I don't need them to poke fun at me. Nothing like that has ever happened to me before!' He flopped over onto floor cushions and unwound a scroll that had been delivered to the Toad Valley. It was a reply from Haku.

'Ah, good, it's about time he got back to me…' Naruto spread it flat on the floor and propped his head up to read.

Naruto, maybe I should tell you that I was shocked when I read your letter discussing the identity of your parents. I was for a moment! But, it does make sense to me that you are the child of the Fourth Hokage. In some ways it may seem terribly obvious who you are. With respect to Jiraiya-sensei's guardianship of you, the techniques you've learned, and simple family resemblance, some people could likely guess! It only makes me wonder why friends of the Fourth and your mother did not take responsibility to foster you when you were a baby. You mentioned that Jiraiya-sensei had Leaf's state care take custody of you, when he was battling alcoholism. Surely there were friends of the Hokage who would have preferred looking after you themselves?

I don't say that to condescend or hurt you. I am genuinely surprised that no one came forward. Perhaps a political element was in play, or such people were discouraged or marginalized for volunteering to raise you? It's all speculation, at this point. Over all, it must feel very good to know who you are and where you come from. Sometimes that feeling can be as daunting as it is comforting. During my travels, I have come across evidence that suggests I am a descendent of the Yuki Clan. Unfortunately, that is the only lead I have so far, aside from a nukenin of the Water Country being a former member of that clan…it may not be wise to approach a criminal simply to ask about my heritage. Although, I've already done that by contacting Zabuza.

"Hmm." Naruto drummed his fingers on the tatami mats, engrossed by the idea of Haku closing in on his clan.

So far, no one I have spoken to knows where to find the Yuki clan, as they are highly elusive. With that goal being inaccessible due to a lack of information, I've also gone about collecting information about potential Akatsuki activity in the Water Country.

I fear that they may have control over the Mist Village, based on what Zabuza and rebel ninja have to say. Rumors purport that the Akatsuki are using the current Mizukage as a figurehead, and could also be targeting him because he is a jinchuriki. Such an operation would also explain the stratocracy that's pervading Kirigakure, tasking Black Ops and Hunter commanders with eliminating Mist's "rebels," or those who may be aware of the Akatsuki using the Mizukage as a puppet. I wanted to warn you, Gaara, and Jiraiya-sensei about this. It may be in Gaara's best interest to send Black Ops and Recon forces close to Mist, to see what they can glean from the area. I know Tsunade-sama may not have the resources at the moment to do a sweep with Leaf's forces.

The only other news I have is something that I ask you not to share with Gaara.

Naruto blinked down at the parchment, awed that Haku would tell him a secret that was meant to be kept from Gaara. He would be a good sport about it and humor the request, but Naruto was itching for a scandal as he read on.

Temari has been communicating with me again. She does not write to me often, but I am glad that she is no longer completely closed off from me.

"Oh boy…" Naruto groaned out loud.

The only topics she discusses are the Sand Village and Tide Village, or Gaara, Kankuro, and her acquaintances. She never tells me anything about herself, or how she's feeling. I know that I've specifically asked her such things, but Temari has made a point to not talk about her life or ambitions. It's frustrating. I think I may have gotten my hopes up too much, when I started to receive responses from her. Things will never be the same. I know that I've broken her trust. Maybe there is nothing I can ever do to rebuild it. Anything that I put in writing will sound cheap and disingenuous. I have thought about visiting her in person in the Tide Village, to make my feelings clear.

"Aw jeez! Do you hear yourself?" Naruto muttered as he read, "And Ero-sensei was telling me to take it from a 10 down to a 2…it's going to go so wrong if you see her face to face, I just know it."

I find that it isn't so hard missing the Chunin Exam, which I know will be concluded in the next few days. Missing you and Gaara, and all of our friends weighs much heavier on me. I've kept busy, work part time, study Medical Jutsu, and train with Zabuza when I can…but I've come to realize that none of these things are what I want to do with the rest of my life. It took some time for me to discover what means the most to me. And after spending time with and looking after the children of a friend, I've realized that I enjoy that the most. I would prefer a simple home life to anything else. I want children of my own.

Quietly, Naruto re-read the line and was highly aware that he too had come to such a realization not too long ago. Though Naruto had never distinctly pictured such a thing for his friend, now that he related to the feeling on such a personal level, it made sense.

It seems to me that children ask the most important questions. Some of the things that Katsu, Hotaru, and Nagisa say are so profound that it startles me. When in the presence of jaded adults and roughened nukenin, whose words and feelings seem so shallow in comparison. The children argue less, since I've taught them to listen to each other. They emulate me when I do chores or assist Hiroshi-san. When they learn something new, they are eager to share their knowledge with everyone in town. Small things like those make me happiest.

I think you'll understand how I feel about it better than anyone, Naruto. That is the future I see for myself, someday. I look forward to hearing more about your time on Mount Myoboku, and if you learn anything more about your parents and their history, if you're willing to share it. Please give Jiraiya-sensei my best, and pass along those details about the Akatsuki. May Sage Training give you as little grief as possible, and success be within your reach.

Wishing you well,

Haku

Sighing, Naruto set the letter aside and rested his chin on a floor cushion, wrapping his arms around the pillow. 'I can see it now.' Naruto thought to himself. Haku had always been the "mother hen" type for most of his life. He was domestic, organized, mild-mannered, and great with children. Though he may not have grown up realizing what he truly wanted, Haku had eventually found his calling. All while hobnobbing around with a dangerous nukenin…

Naruto laid there for a while as the night's dark stretched into the room. He went to the cupboard and pulled out the futon, set it up, and tossed his blanket and pillow onto it. Naruto snapped the light off and then rolled onto the cloud-like mat.

'Come to think of it, Gaara wrote me that weird letter while he was staying in Leaf for a month.' Naruto remembered, 'He was complaining about paint color in the apartment and saying the new furniture all has to have…light tones…' The concept seemed so frivolous, 'Then when he was done venting about home decorating, Gaara wrote about using Mirin to deglaze pans. I'm assuming that has something to do with cooking, but I had no idea what the heck any of that meant!'

He flattened out on his back and pulled up his blanket, chuckling wildly, 'Holy shit. Gaara's a total homebody too! All he and Haku really want to do is get cozy and stuff! And if I'm honest…' Naruto shut his eyes and smiled to himself, 'I want that too. Nothing will ever be better…than going back home each day to see my family. A family that I make.'

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Note: Some folks did not make it home to their beds from the Hyuga clan's party. They crashed on park benches overnight. Yes, they are okay. Just a little odorous.

Chapter 38: Bends in the Road

Bonus Soundtrack: "Pink + White" by Frank Ocean