Woot! Here it is! ^_^ I'd like to thank all of those who reviewed. Nice to know people are still tuned in to this ;o

Chapter Twelve

Hanabi silently and stealthily crept back on to the estate. As she made her way around the branch family quarters, she realized her absence went unnoticed. Any branch family members she came across either avoided looking at her or sent her glares. However, when she entered the main family compound, she received nods and small greetings from those who thought they were 'superior' to the branch family. She fixed a scowl to her face and ignored them.

As she walked lazily through the house, she realized most of the elders and servants and branch family representatives, who were there earlier, were now absent. She figured they were probably in a meeting with her father. She sighed. It wasn't like she was really worried about the trial, because if push came to shove, she could just invoke the Third Hyuga Act, which would, in case she was proven guilty, halt all trial proceedings until the title match took place. The only problem with this was that if she lost the match she would be at the mercy of Hinata. And since Hinata had the branch family in her bosom, they'd be expecting her to dish out a cruel punishment to Hanabi as retribution for killing the assassin.

Speaking of Hinata, she wondered if she had anything to do with this whole assassination thing. Hanabi turned on her heel and headed towards Hinata's room. Hanabi found it strange that no one was casting eyes at her sister. Then again, everyone thought Hinata was a generous gentle soul. The fools, Hanabi thought.

As she made her way towards her sister's room, she noticed the door was cracked open a sliver.

Hanabi placed her palm on the door and pushed it open "Hinaaaaaaaaaaaa……ta?" She faltered at the sight before her. Oh Wow, Hanabi thought. So here was her saintly sister pushed up against the wall, hair mustered, skin flush, with one leg wrapped around some guy's back, arms wrapped tightly around his neck and she was so passionately sucking face that she nor her 'buddy' noticed Hanabi. The fact that the two of them here missing a few items of clothing only made Hanabi deduced that they were about to do something naughty.

Hanabi stayed in the doorway unnoticed as the guy buried his head in the Hinata's neck causing her to throw back her head and moan rather loudly. A malicious grin broke out on Hanabi's face.

"Whoa, any louder and people might think you're in pain." Hanabi stated with a smirk on her face.

Hinata eyes flew open in shock. "Hanabi!" She pushed her self away from her lover and quickly donned her robe, which was pooled around her feet.

"Hanabi!" Hinata said, out of breath, "How dare you enter my room without announcing yourself. I could have you punished for that!"

"Actually dear sister," Hanabi started, in a bored drawl, "you door was never closed. It was crack open. How was I supposed to know that you were entertaining somebody in here?"

Hinata looked lost for words. She was getting so angry that her breath came out in ragged pants. "Get out of my room!"

It was then that Hanabi noticed the guy was avoiding looking in her direction. She completely ignored her sister's demands and tried to catch a glimpse of his face. But every time she came close to him, he'd move away from her, or deliberately turn his head in the other direction. All she could see was a mass of black hair in a style she would say resembled the back of a small chicken.

Darting underneath Hinata's reach, Hanabi managed to grab a hold of the guy. She was about to turn him around when Hinata grabbed her by the back of her robes and flung her forcefully out of her room.

Hinata glared at her sister. "You will speak of none of this." Hanabi snorted and quickly kicked Hinata in her shin and fled down the hall, into the safe confines of her own room. She locked her door and laughed maliciously. She wondered if Hinata realized her byakugan was on. She doubted it though, she only had it on for second or two, just enough to glimpse the guy's face.

Hanabi smirked as she smoothed out her robe. She now had something to blackmail Hinata with. She'd been surprised to find out that it was not Kiba, however, she couldn't put a name to the guy's face though she was sure she'd seen him before. Pushing him and Hinata out of her mind, Hanabi quietly snuck back out of her room and made a beeline for the library. Hopefully, she'd be able to find something in there that would help her case.

***

Naruto walked through the main business square in Konoha in the disguise of an old maid. It was the disguise he always used when leaving his home to go to his other house. Because he was becoming so famous, he figured he needed two houses. His first house was an expansive structure located in the heart of the main business square. This house served as a decoy for the media. In fact any person who resided in the business square was famous in some way. And because of this, the square was frequented by media vultures waiting outside at all hours of the night, salivating, just to snap a picture of a celebrity.

Naruto was smart enough to build his second house in the heart of the slums, the last place any media affiliated person would think to look for him. And while he was in his house in the slums, he had a shadow clone walking about in his house in the square. Occasionally the clone would come outside to empty the garbage or wave at people, just to give the guise that he really was there.

Thus, every morning, Naruto would walk to his decoy house in the guise of an old maid who worked for Naruto. Sure enough, most of his friends knew about his little plan to escape the media, but only Tsunade and Shizune, well and Hanabi now, knew where he truly lived. Oh, and Kakashi too. Till this day, Naruto still couldn't figure out how Kakshi found out.

Naruto, playing his disguise well, hobble through the square with the gait of an old woman. Many people hailed him and made way for him to pass. If it was one thing he learned from playing and old person is that the elderly received automatic respect for everything. They were allowed to skip lines, and got preferential treatment to everybody else, even the most famous of celebrities. Naruto smiled wryly at himself; he'd often abused this privilege. In fact, whenever he went to pay bills or do business in the square, he went in the guise of the old maid. He kept telling himself that one of these days he'd get caught.

Naruto hobbled up the steps towards his decoy house. He ignored the flashes of light as media vultures took pictures of him as he opened the door. 'Naruto's maid arriving to work as usual' would be the caption of this picture in tomorrow's tabloid paper. He chuckled to himself.

As soon as he closed the door his clone appeared in front of him. While he made his way to the kitchen, the clone briefed him on what all activities happened during the night; he didn't miss much. He vanished his clone and dispelled his disguise.

Naruto glanced at the clock. He still had about two hours to go before Hanabi's little trial thingy started. Since he'd thought up a good argument for her while he was walking here, he pretty much had nothing left to do. Grabbing, a bottle of juice out of the fridge, he waddled to the living room and switched on the T.V. Just in time to catch the beginning of Ino's show.

You see, when Ino wasn't on a mission or on an assignment from Tsunade, or helping out with her parent's flower shop, she was an anchorwoman on everyone's favourite tabloid channel, Konoha Entertainment. K.E. was the channel the general public watched when they wanted the scoop and scandals of their favourite celebrities. Naruto could remember several times when Ino had tried to get him to do something scandalous, so she could dramatically announce it to the public. Naruto chuckled. Though he had to say, Ino had the face and the voice for it. He turned up the volume as Ino began her show.

Gooooooood Afternoon Konoha, this is your ever favourite and beautiful anchorwoman, Ino Yamanaka speaking. *she grinned brightly* Now, I know all of you are wondering who's gonna be our celebrity highlight for today, well, let me tell you, it's no other than our favourite hokage-hopeful, and unpredictable ninja, Naruto Uzumaki.

Naruto smirked as a picture of him flashed on the screen. He wondered what Ino thought up this time.

Now, since Naruto's fame began to spread through Konoha, everyone's been trying to catch him in some scandalous activity…*her grin got even wider*…well, our Mr. Good Deeds has been good until now. *she now wore a wicked grin.*

It was almost as if she was smirking at Naruto herself. Naruto merely quirked his eye at the screen. They'd tried to pin him down in some scandalous activity before, but it didn't work. He doubted it'd work this time.

We, at K.E. have manage to get our greedy little paws on a certain item that would prove to all that Naruto Uzumaki, is as scandalous as they come. Now, I know you all are like, what is she talking about? But, I tell you, it is very compromising. *she chuckled* Now everyone thought that Naruto's love interest was the unyielding Sakura Haruno, the general director of the main hospital, however, this picture proves us very wrong!!!!!!

An intimate picture of Naruto and Hanabi flashed on the screen, and Naruto spat the juice out of his mouth. It was a picture of him and Hanabi when they first met – when she'd fallen on him out of the tree. Her hair was cascading round her head so her face wasn't visible. And she hadn't worn her Hyuga robes that night so she would still remain anonymous. But it was clear that she was on top of Naruto in the picture. It wouldn't have been a bad picture if they were standing next to each other, but they were in such an intimate position that people would mistake them for lovers. But weren't they? Well, they had the potential to become lovers. Oh My Gosh, Naruto thought. He was so screwed over. At least Hanabi was safe. There thousands upon thousands of girls with black hair in Konoha.

Oh yeah! That's Naruto alright. The question is who is this femme fatale that has our Naruto in her little clutches? We would love to know. Wouldn't you also like to know how long this 'affair' has been going on? Can you imagine if this chick turned out to be someone important? Or is it a mistress? Oh wow, wouldn't that be scandalously scandalous? Join us next week at this same time, and we just might have some answers for you. *she smiled dazzlingly* This was brought to you buy….

Naruto shut off the T.V. He wondered if Hanabi saw that. He figured she'd be serious, seeing as her title match was coming up and all. He could already imagine having to implore all his creativity in devising ways to avoid and evade the media.

The show hadn't even been over three minutes yet and he could already hear the tabloids ringing his doorbell and pounding on his door. As he thought about it, he let out a frustrated yell. There was only one person who was there at the time who could've taken that picture. Naruto gathered himself together. He was going to have a little 'session' with Kakashi. But first, he'd have to duck out the media. Oh well, he thought, time for the old lady disguise again.

***

Hinata paced a path in the floor of her room whilst muttering expletives quietly to her self.

"Oh wow, I never knew you had such a potty mouth" her lover teased. Hinata snatch a pillow off her bed and threw it at him in retaliation. The guy caught it and chuckled. "Don't get mad at me. I told you to come to my place but no, you were so sure that we wouldn't be disturbed,"

Hinata sent him a glare. And he smiled wryly at her. The guy glided up behind her and passionately embraced her. He buried his face in her hair and placed a kiss at the nape of her neck. Swaying with her in the gentle breeze that was blowing through an open window, he said, "You know, I could take care of her if you want me to…"

Hinata leaned into the embrace and her anger disappeared. She thought for a moment. "No," she stated, "I'll do it myself. I know exactly how to deal with her,"

Her lover released her and pouted. "You never let me do anything for you…" her lover whined while twirling her around.

Hinata stared into his flawless face and a smirk formed on her face. "Really? I was thinking that I let you do a lot most of the time. You did a lot last week, especially last week,"

Her lover blushed and Hinata grinned. "I mean besides that, you always do stuff yourself. I want to help." Her lover said, moving away from her to dress himself.

Hinata thought for a quick second. He had wanted to help her for some time now, but she didn't really want to involve him. But, she knew if she kept denying his help, he'd do something to help her anyway. And that was what she was afraid of. He could jeopardize her whole plan. Thus she had to think of a way to keep hi occupied, while making him believe he was helping her out. Or maybe, he really could help her out. She was unsure what the clan's next move would be due to this whole assassination attempt on Hanabi. After the whole trial was over and the branch family was satisfied, people would start pointing fingers at her. And she'd be clouded with suspicion seeing that Hanabi was her opponent, and she would be the only one to benefit if something were to happen to Hanabi.

"Well," Hinata started, "if you want to help so badly, you could find out who sent those assassins. That would be a great help."

Her lover merely raised an eye. "I thought you didn't care about that?"

"As much as I don't want to, I do care." Hinata said truthfully. "Regardless of our differences, Hanabi still is my sister. And as much as I like to berate her, I'd miss her if she died. Well, that and I'd be crowded in suspicion seeing that I'm contesting her for clan leader."

"Uh-huh," her lover said, figuring out her reasoning behind her request. "I see, killing two birds with one stone. If you could present the person who hired the assassin to the main family, you'd be a little in their favour. Or if you could prove that there was no assassin, and Hanabi simply murdered him, the branch family would definitely be in your family. Smart," he nodded his head at her in approval.

"As always, you're quick to everything." Hinata said, smiling at him. She placed a kiss on his cheek. "Now get out of here, and try not to get catch by the guards. I've work to do. I'll come by you in a day or two to see what you've come up with."

Her lover bowed to her in a mock gesture. "As you wish you my lady," He hopped out the window and vanished in a blur of black.

Hinata smiled. Now that he was pursuing that avenue it left her time to devote a lot of attention to Hanabi. She cursed herself for leaving her door unlocked. Well, that's what she got for being impatient. Now, she had to find a new card to hold over Hanabi's head until her lover found out who hired the assassin.

Hinata hummed a tune to herself while she made her way to the library for some quiet reading and planning. She was pleased with herself. Her plan was working after all: occupy Hanabi with some guy so that she'd be too distracted to focus on her campaign for clan leader. It was working well, if she must say so herself. It was a pity that the guy had to be Naruto. The elder council was enamoured with the hokage, and anyone who had the hokage in their back pocket would be in the council's favour. And since Naruto was the hokage's heart, anyone who had Naruto ultimately had the hokage. That was the only drawback with Hanabi pursuing Naruto. But, it was something Hinata could easily fix.

Hinata smiled and greeted the few servants and old heads she passed on her way to the library. She was going to look for some Hyuga law that would save Hanabi in case she was guilty of her supposed crime. Why was she going to do this? For appearances and promotional reasons of course. Wouldn't she look good if she played the concerned sister looking out for her little sister's well being? Yep, of course she would.

Hinata chuckled to herself. Soon, she'd have this whole clan wrapped around her little finger, whether they liked it or not.

End of Chapter

Whoo! More plots! Yep, this is turning out to be a plot-tastic story, lawl. Yep, I betcha you didn't think I was gonna update before Christmas came rolling around ;p ha!.

Yep, I was inspired by my friend's imaginary friend, Rudolph the talking biscuit. XD

I know you're all wondering who this guy is Hinata's lovin, XD, lol. Well, I don't know yet, well I have a clue but I'm not to sure it should be him.

Now, I might update for X-mas, I dunno, we'll see. If I do, its gonna be a side story. Yep, yeah, I feel accomplished. So, praise to Rudolph the talking biscuit, whooo!

Review please, it gives me somewhat inspiration to finish faster, yeah…uh-huh. Lawlz ;p I also wanna know if anyone else found that whole 'passionately embracing' thing hilarious. I know I did, I mean come on, what in the world is a passionate embrace? Lawl, I kill me sometimes XD, Think about it…its funny ;p

Anywhoo, thanks for all the previous reviews and thanks so far for all your input ^_^

Shippu Jinraikyaku