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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(the future is in technology, some say)

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[Age 18]

[Futuristic!AU]

Timestamp- 19:12:55

Year 3673

Undisclosed Location

The Democratic Meritocracy of Yreif-Sevael, Under the Glorious Reign of the 5th Appointed

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The glow of dimmed golden light shone indoors on a small room, wallpapered in a neutral textured beige, and empty of all except:

-a hand-designed wooden 'honeycomb-style' cabinet, each circle-compartment a glass-covered individual 'locker', whose cover can be slid aside with a brass knob, that was beside-

-a person perched in a comfy high-backed swiveling chair, wearing a porcelain-esque mask that faintly pulsed out white light from the rune-like tracery (a tracery which vaguely outlined a minimalist wildcat of some sort) of safety-locks and other technology babble, straight in front of-

-a tastefully structured stainless steel table, bearing masses of neatly organized wires and monitors and sound systems and receivers and security-feed (old-fashioned tech sometimes was the best choice) and all the manner of half-finished scrapmetal projects, but most importantly it held-

-a stylish metallic bronze holo-disc inter-connector, open and humming, the same pulsing rune-like designs crawling over the cover. (Both sides of the cover.)

Slim, knuckle-scarred, callused fingers blurred rapidly over the holo-disc's projected smooth chrome 'keys' with the familiarity and ease of long practice, the dove-gray stripes of paint on the nails glimmering as they went down and up between what was essentially illusionary 'linked' air, the fair skin stretching over bones and flesh and blood becoming even paler.

[Enter: nations5united . hub

nations5united . hub has been accessed.

Loading...]

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A pitch-black background popped up, split off into five perfectly equal portions, thinly rimmed with a fiery red, a dusty brown, a bright yellow, a transculent-seeming gray-white, and a pleasant blue.

(You could tell it was a high-quality, fairly specialized holo-disc; the graphics weren't see-through, and didn't glitch when you used the touch-swipe holo-interface.)

In the middle of the background, large white characters, in a suitably aesthetically-appealing font, were laid out in a seemingly nonsense order.

Those same fingers reached into silky black hair (bordering on a very dark midnight blue), pulled out a silver key-shaped ornamental hairpin, and positioned the glass faux-emerald in front of the inactive cam-eye embedded into sleek disc's upwards-facing side.

From the cam-eye abruptly emitted a lackluster green laser-like light, locking onto the faux-emerald.

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[Key Submitted.

Key Status: Active.

Scanning access permission...]

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The laser-like light washed over the faux-emerald in an outwards-going-inwards series of progressively smaller spirals, shining past the glass covering, and briefly revealing the circular computer-chip underneath, hundreds of unique tiny white lines etched on the fittingly emerald-colored chip.

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[Key Seal Found.

Key Seal: Active.

Access Permission: Granted, A-Rank Jounin.

Classified Information: S-Rank and SS-Rank.

Manual Password: Enter Below.

{xxxxxxxxxxxx}]

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Replacing the hairpin to it's former place in presiding over the glossy bun, long hands once more flashed over the 'keyboard'.

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[{8-12/27-DRIVE}

Validating Password...

Manual Password: Validated.

Security Questions:

1. Hobby-

{avoiding questions}

2. Food-

{is good}

3. Life Job-

{don't die}

4. ANBU have a-

{Guy Fawkes mask}

5. AI-

{are just asking for it}

6. CAN. YOU. HACK. IT?

{Yes, if it's a mission.}

Validating Answers...

Answers Validated.

Last Step?]

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Move the mouse, click the red-rimmed section, section expands to swallow up the entire screen.

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[Access Unlocked.

Loading willoffire . konoha...]

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Readable black words now scrolled across the homepage, followed by a the pitch-black background being swapped for a strange white map, crisp black lines sprawling across it's expanse in order to connect the color-coded dots, which linked to different pages/chatrooms, and had to be hovered over in order to reveal their titles.

Thicker sepia lines cordoned off certain dots and lines to create uniquely named sections, their names showing up as colored subtitles somewhere in their section.

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[willoffire . konoha has been loaded.

Welcome back to Konohagakure, Agent #012612

Profile Briefing:

Name: Hyuuga, Hinata

Name Status: Private/Locked

Codename: Ocelot, Gen. 5

Emergency Lock-Out Code: 4-18-9-22-5

Rank: A, Jounin

Classifications:

-Primary Taijutsu 'Force' Enforcer/Front-liner

-Primary Tracker 'Search' Capture/Destroy

-Primary Tactician 'Plan' On-Mission/Off-Mission

-Cleared for Squad Leader

-Secondary Fuuinjutsu 'Hack' Coder/Decoder

-Secondary Genjutsu 'Persuasion' Ambush/Support

-Secondary Ninjutsu 'Chakra-Gifted' Ambush/Support

-Secondary Iryojutsu 'Heal' Support

-Tertiary Bukijutsu 'Weaponry' Unlisted

(major specializations listed; list all?)

Active Relations: Hiashi Hyuuga*, Neji Hyuuga, Hanabi Hyuuga**, ... (direct relations listed; list all?)

* = Clan Head

** = in-training/E-Rank/Academy Student

Active Comrades: Shino Aburame, Kiba Inuzuka, Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, Kurenai Yuuhi, Sakura Haruno, Neji Hyuuga, ... (several listed; list all?)]

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Hinata clicked the [x] button for the login profile overview, and accessed her Inbox, whose scarlet 'Alert' flag was digitally raised.

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[2 new messages.

Subject: New Mission

From: Lady Tsunade

(Open)

Olleh, Hinata. You have a new mission.

It's tomorrow, early in the morning, so rest up and pack for an A-rank.

All it is is a string of high-B low-A Konoha missing-nin to be terminated, really.

You're team leader, expect to take at least a month, and the targets were tracked all over the place, so some may have ventured over the borders.

Use your best judgement regarding those; tensions have been heating up between the Organizations again, although we should at least be able to count on the Suna Organization as an ally.

Kiba Inuzuka's your close-combat and brute force, Shino Aburame's your long-distance strategics, and you'll be mid- to long-range with your offensive/defensive 'Eight Trigrams'.

We're all bulking up on missions to prepare for the possibility of another battle, or even worse, a war.

Hopefully the Above-Grounders don't get into it.

The last thing we need is a bunch of overpowered civvies to start hauling out the laser cannons and plasma guns and nukes.

Plans for that have progressed, however.

Soon the Organizations should be back to the way they were.

-Tsunade Senju, 50th Konoha-Selected

P.S. Ignore that last security question, please. Naruto, that idiot, has been goofing off on duty while reinforcing our defenses again. That's what happens when you've got a bored Fuuinjutsu genius in a world where seals are equitable to coding. I have no idea how he managed to mimic an official security question answersheet and send it to everyone without anyone noticing the difference, but when get my hands on him...

P.P.S. If you see him, tell me immediately. He's supposedly on an undercover intelligence mission and hacking effort, but he's got a backlog of 8 reports to send.

P.P.P.S. And have I ever told you how you'r my favorite for being sensible and sane and never failing to locate a certain blond idiot-genius for me? Because you are. I totally did not just say the same thing to Sakura a week ago. Or to Tenten two weeks ago. Yup.

P.P.P.P.S. But seriously, you are, and that decision has nothing to do with that deliciously divine bottle of sake you managed to scrounge up for my birthday three days ago. Do you know how hard sake is to find in today's world? Practically no one makes it anymore! Although wine's not too bad, and vodka packs a nice punch, and I suppose if worse came to worst even that 'beer' swill would suffice...

(Close) (Save to: ?) (Delete to Trash?) ('Send' Disabled) ('Forward' Disabled) ('Send Reply' Disabled)]

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She sighed, a soft, shallow exhale of breath and stifled smiling.

Lady Tsunade had definitely been typing drunk again; probably dictating drunk, actually, since the words seemed too correctly spelled to be the work of a drunk Lady Tsunade.


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To be continued.

'Olleh' is a greeting in that universe.

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-Review.-