Summary:

Some people don't ask questions because they want to hear answers; they ask questions because they want to hear questions. What are you? [AU] [Hinted SasuHina] [Non-Chronological Linked Drabbles]

General Disclaimer For The Entire Story:

I don't own Naruto. If I did, I would've done a reprint of Part I with cleaned-up art, and I would've filled in the glaring plot holes evident in some chapters. Oh, and the cover picture isn't mine, either. Should I change it? (Does anybody actually read this disclaimer?)


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(faith in a messiah is what starts a religion)

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[Age 15]

"Yes! Ah-hah! I finally beat you, Hina-chan! Aren't you proud, huh? Aren't you happy?"

Naruto is 16 now, lively and full of life, bouncing around the training ground with those same beautiful eyes untarnished, not bothered by the bruises and closed tenketsu and rapidly hissing-shut wounds.

Hinata is glad of that.

She has, in the past few years, begun the process of finding and expressing her gratitude more clearly.

Right now, she is...

She is glad that Naruto's spirit had been undampened by his journey, undepressed by the 3 years without the Uchiha.

But it has just struck her how different he is now, despite the similarities she mentioned before, and walking through those gates, Hinata realized that Naruto didn't need her.

It is, perhaps, rather arrogant of her to believe that Naruto ever needed her in the first place, but she likes (liked) to believe nevertheless that Naruto had at least appreciated her company when they were younger.

Younger...

Hanabi is 10 now, two years from graduating the Academy, from being a Genin.

She wonders what kind of a world will Hanabi be graduating into.

She does not doubt Hanabi, not too much, because of course Hinata had tutored Hanabi herself, and she takes heart in knowing that Hanabi is rather strong in her own right.

With the Uchiha still running around, and Orochimaru on the loose, and all those rumors of S-class ninja planning something, tensions are on the rise.

Hanabi is rather strong in her own right; is that 'rather strong' strong enough to forge through a war, in this generation of power and prophecy?

(The Hyuuga are lauded to have descended from a divine line of seer-gifted kami and soul-strong dragons.

Who knows how true that is, but in the recesses of the Hyuuga secret-secret-locked library [that Hinata had gone searching for one day in a fit of ennui and curiosity], there is a scroll pinned to the wall.

It is pristine, far more pristine than it should be, not showing a flake of it's age.

On the scroll, there are no words, only a depiction of two vaguely humanoid creatures facing off, undetailed blobs of white and black, with a gray moon as the backdrop.

When she turned on her Byakugan to look at the scroll once more, Hinata was understandably startled to readfeeltaste the chakra signatures somehow imbued into the picture.

One, from the moon, is cold and bizarrely alien to her senses in every way, shifting and causing instinctive shivers if she gazes upon it too long.

The other two, one from each creature, are unnervingly familiar.

Even now, she remembers the faint echo of those chakra signatures entwined with Naruto and the Uchiha's.

If that isn't a prophecy, she'd stab her own eyes.)

So, she is glad of all that, because that means Naruto should survive the possible (definite upcoming) war.

At the same time...

She is...

She is...

"Hey, what's wrong, Hina-chan? You look all... all sad and stuff. Are you okay? Do I need to punch someone for you? 'Cause I'd totally do it, y'know."

Now Naruto's close to her face with his beautiful (beautiful eternal precious old old old ancient) eyes staring worriedly close to her own Byakugan'd ones.

Even now even now even now she can seefeeltastesmellhear his warm caring vast blue-red-purple chakra and it's echoechoechoechoooooooo of that scroll-scribe signature and it- it- it-

She's great with words, not great with putting feelsoulheartmindtangle emotions into words.

That's Naruto's shtick.

And she's distracted again, blanking out, thinking too much far too much overload stop stop stop don't focus on that echoechoecho that echo is wrong old past it's time-

(maybe there's a grain of truth in that seer-kami soul-dragon ancestor myth)

"I'm happy for you, Naruto. It's good to see you've progressed so far. No, you don't need to punch someone for me, and yes, I know that you would do it," she forces out, glad (grateful gratitude grasping) her Byakugan'd eyes aren't readable.

He senses something is wrong, anyway, since he's Naruto and he's like that.

Hands (larger than her own now, no doubt) grip her shoulders firmly, and he draws back to stare at her intensely.

"What's wrong? Something's wrong. I know something's wrong. Is it about me winning?"

There's that charisma and trustmetrustmetrustme song of his chakra, compelling her to spill forth her soul, and it's good in a way, it's great in a way, it lightens her heart-

(Or it's supposed to but it doesn't it just makes her feel guiltier feel worse feel tense and pent-up like she wants to cry laugh kill sleep.)

She tells him anyway, half-mad and overwhelmed and shutting off her Byakugan to shut off that echoechoechooooooing link that's disorienting her in ways she never knew.

"It's not- it's yes- it's about you winning. You winning means I'm no longer stronger than you, which is good for you I guess, though this spar wasn't with killing blows, because you're the one going after the Uchiha, but I don't know, it just makes me feel strange, like I taught you and I taught the Uchiha and I suppose I always sparred more with him and I never really lost to him, but now he's stronger than you or else you would've dragged him back ages ago, and that means he's automatically stronger than me, which I suppose I've always known since he's trained with Orochimaru and that messed-up sage-seal, but-"

Hinata cut herself off.

She was rambling, and she never rambled, only maybe sometimes in her head, and kami this echo-focus-ignore must be doing more than she thought.

Tempted to shake her head in an attempt to get the afterimagefeeltastesentecho out, she instead glimpsed Naruto's reaction.

His hands gripped tighter, and his eyes are steadier than she's ever seen them.

"Hina-nee, I swear by the graves of my Clan and the hours you've used on me that I will get Sasuke back."

But that's not the problem.

She doesn't know what the problem is.

(leftbehindirrelevantclingscrapeholdtight)

She doesn't know what her problem is.

(irelevantleftbehindunneededdestroywipe)

Because she doesn't know what the/her problem is, and she just really wants to get away from Naruto to properly clear her head, she smiles as strongly as she can.

"I have faith in you, Naruto."

(She goes home and meditates and takes a long bath and a long nap. The next day she has adjusted to Naruto's ocean-world of chakra, and is back to her composed self.

Hinata very steadfastly prohibits herself from trying to pick out the echo anymore, and she avoids looking at the scroll with her Byakugan the next time she goes to the secret-secret-locked library to scour the shelves for new jutsu ideas.)


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Destiny is a messy thing.

Reincarnation?

More so.

Also known as, the inevitable hysterical mental breakdown, caused by the 'all-seeing' part of the Byakugan.

Repressing so many core impulses and emotions and her initial gentle nature has consequences.

Then again, every ninja has issues.

They're ninjas.

Pretty self-explanatory.

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-Review.-