(A/N: This is the twenty-ninth Microsoft word page of Snake's Legacy! Do you think I should have longer chapters and update at the same pace, or shorter chapters and update more quickly? Let me know what you think by hitting that nice blue-ish button at the bottom of the screen. Come on, it needs some love! XD R&R onegai!)
Chapter 5: History
"When did Snake-sama come to Konoha?" Sasuke asked, attempting to keep the conversation flowing and gather information about his captor.
"About four years after you left." Sakura informed him shortly, beginning to check the injured ANBU apprentice for any further injury.
"How did she gain Naruto's trust so easily?"
"I don't know. I wasn't there when she arrived in his office the first time. Naruto-koi told me she arrived in a mask that covered the bottom half of her face, almost like Kakashi-sensei's, and she wore sunglasses, even inside. After he told me this, I told him that I thought this made her look suspicious, but Naruto-koi told me that he trusted her right from the start. I wish I knew why."
"Do you suspect anything about her?" He was curious, despite his outwardly uncaring demeanor.
"No, not after seeing how much my husband trusts her. If I wasn't certain of our love, I'd be jealous that he seems so attached to a woman whose name no one knows, but I'm not. I trust Naruto-koi, and I trust Snake-sama.
"You know, that's the only important thing about this village that he knows that I don't: her name. I don't know her real name. No one does, except Naruto-koi. She was made ANBU a few days after she arrived. She hasn't once shown anyone here her face. Except Naruto-koi. Snake-sama worked her way through the ANBU ranks very quickly. She was named as an ANBU leader one year after her arrival."
After a few minutes of silence, Sasuke asked another question. Might as well stay out of character now, since he had already started it, and he was curious about the former Hyuuga heiress. "When did Hinata die?"
"So Snake-sama told you about her." Sasuke nodded, after all, Hinata had been one of the rookie nine. He was curious. "Well, she was proclaimed dead twelve years after you left, a few days before Snake-sama arrived."
"How many?"
"Around a week or two, I think. I can't be sure though; it was a long time ago."
"How did Snake-sama meet Hinata?"
"She said she and Hinata-chan had met on one of Hinata's missions. I asked Shino-kun and Kiba-kun if they knew Snake-sama, but they didn't. They said Hinata-chan disappeared during the night during a lot of their missions. They had always wondered why. I figured she probably used to sneak away to meet Snake-sama. She must've thought that Shino-kun and Kiba-kun would have seen a foreign ninja as a threat and not given her time to explain before attacking.
"Snake-sama also said that Hinata-chan had told her a lot about her daughter, and that she said if anything were to happen to her, her daughter had no one to stay with. Snake-sama said that she promised Hinata-chan that she would come to the village and become a Konoha ninja so she could stay and help Snake-chan. She said she promised Hinata-chan that she would adopt Snake-chan if anything ever happened to her."
"And she did. She came here and adopted Snake-chan and became a Konoha ninja? And the Hokage let her? Sounds a bit farfetched to me." Sasuke sputtered skeptically. "She could have been a missing nin, or an Akatsuki member for all he knew."
"It's happened more than once. That kind of thing is rare, but not unheard of. Hinata loved her daughter so much that she made plans for her to be able to survive if anything ever happened to her. As for her possibly being a missing or S-class nin, that's the same thing I told Naruto-koi."
Sasuke pondered this new information for a few moments. "What is Snake-chan's real name? Everyone just calls her Snake-chan; no one calls her by her name."
"She prefers that name to her real one when she's wearing her mask. Even though everyone knows who she is, she likes to imitate Snake-sama. She really admires her."
"So what is her name?"
"Hikari. Hyuuga Hikari."
"Hyuuga Hikari? Does anyone know who her father is?"
"Naruto and Snake-sama do. Naruto told me once that they knew, but he wouldn't tell me who it was. Because it was Hinata-chan, though, I figure it doesn't really matter. She's probably just protecting her daughter and the father from the wrath of the Hyuuga." She smiled, remembering the innocence that always shone in Hinata's eyes. She continued her scan of Snake-chan's body, slowly moving her chakra-covered hands along the sleeping body.
"Snake-sama knows, then?" Sasuke narrowed his eyes, remembering their conversation about the girl from earlier.
"Of course. Snake-sama knows more about Hinata-chan and Snake-chan than anyone I've met before. Probably even more than all us rookie nine combined." Sakura shook her head, marveling at the masked ninja.
"I wonder how she knows Snake-chan's father. The woman told me she didn't have a clue about his identity." His gaze swung over to the unconscious child lying on the hospital bed, wondering if the child was lying as well.
"That's odd of her to lie. I don't think anyone's ever caught her in the act before. But, I think Hinata-chan trusted Snake-sama more than anyone she had ever met in the village before."
"Why do you think that was?" He knew she had loved Naruto for a long time, but Naruto couldn't be her father. Could he?
"Because she didn't have to see Snake-sama every day. She only saw her when she went on missions. And if Snake-sama was mad, then she would have time to get over it, or just not show up at all. Hinata-chan must've felt she could trust Snake-sama because they were so alike. I've heard a bit about Snake-sama's childhood, and it's not pretty. She was a lot like Hinata-chan."
Snake walked back into the room. She looked frightening. Her mask was still covered in blood and her clothes were also covered with the crimson substance. Sakura jumped slightly when she walked in. "Oh! Snake-sama! I didn't recognize you at first." She said, slightly unnerved by the woman's gory appearance and the fact that she still had not cleaned up.
"Aa. It's me." She looked over at her apprentice. She was stirring. "Uzumaki-sama, Snake-chan is waking."
Sakura returned her eyes to her work of analyzing her for internal wounds. "Are you feeling okay, Snake-chan? Lie still so that I can finish my examination, and then I'll check your vitals again."
"Hai, but my head is killing me. What happened?"
"You were attacked by ninja from Otogakure. Snake-sama tells me you held your own in the fight for a while. She said you took out five of them before you were knocked unconscious."
"One of them hit you in the head with the hilt of a katana before I could stop them." Snake added quietly.
"Snake-sama, gomen ne! I tried my hardest." The apprentice cried, worried that she would be upset at her for not being able to take them all on at once.
"Don't worry, you did great. They were ninja nearer to your level than I'm comfortable with, and you had to fight them by yourself. You fought off five of them before you were knocked out. That was good work." Though her voice was emotionless, Hikari could tell she was proud.
"Demo, you had to get involved and get rid of the rest of them, didn't you?"
"Aa, as you can tell by the blood, but it's been such a long time since I've had to fight anyone for real. It was fun." Snake once again looked slightly manic with her posture and the blood covered mask on her face. "As soon as Uzumaki-sama looks over you to make sure you don't have any major injuries, we'll go home, and you can rest."
"Hai." Sakura continued to look the girl over, making sure the hospital didn't need to keep her over night. She found no reason to make her stay. "It's safe for her to go home. Just make sure she doesn't take part in any dangerous missions for the next two to three days. You on the other hand…" She trailed off upon seeing the woman's self-bandaged shoulder. It was not a poorly done job, but blood was already beginning to seep through the dressing.
"I could heal that if you would like me to. It needs attention either way." The pink haired medic indicated.
"Aa." Snake agreed to the healing, simply because she had to be at her top performance level if she wanted to be able to challenge the Uchiha at any given time and still win.
The cherry-blossom haired Uzumaki gently unwrapped the bandages and began to use her healing chakra to close and cleanse the bloody wound. Walking to the cabinet in the room, she pulled out more bandages and began to re-wrap the now-healed wound, just in case.
When she was finished, Snake motioned to Sasuke and Hikari to follow her out the door. "Arigatou." She uttered to the medic as they left the hospital.
On their way back to the Uchiha Mansion, Sasuke realized something that he had previously thought nothing about. "Snake-sama, why haven't I seen any Hyuugas?"
"When Hinata-chan died, Neji-san was to become the heir because Hanabi was too young at the time to be declared such. He, like Hinata-chan, went on a mission and did not return. His body was found five days after he was to return. Hanabi-san was too young to become leader. They were going to wait until she was older to replace their leader, but Hiashi-san died three years before she was eligible to become leader.
"The Hyuugas did not agree on the next heir, so they disbanded. Most moved away from Konoha, and now live just outside the walls. Some live under the rule of the now-of-age Hanabi-san, others live under other Hyuugas, whom they like more."
"Wasn't Hinata of age to become leader when she was eighteen?"
"Iie. They changed the law. The heir has to be twenty-five years old. Neji-san was twenty-six, but Hanabi-san was only twenty. She was twenty-two when her father died. Hinata-chan died four years ago."
His thoughts trailed off, wondering why Hinata took a mission from which she knew she wouldn't return. "People around here seem to respect you a lot. How did you gain their respect so quickly?" Sasuke wanted to hear the answer from her lips, to be sure it was true.
"Easily. I gained the Hokage's trust, he made me ANBU, I rose in rank, and within a year I was leader. People admire a person with power who shows no hostility or any inclination to betray Konoha. It's amazing that they trust me more than they trust you, but very understandable."
"I would trust Snake-sama with my life." Hikari added her opinion, truthfully telling Sasuke that she trusted someone whose name she did not know.
"Even though you don't know who she is?" Sasuke stressed this lack of knowledge.
"I don't need to know her name to know I can trust her."
Six months later
Sasuke and Hikari were at the market looking for food to restock the Uchiha Mansion. The Uchiha Avenger and two snakes had been living there for some time. Sasuke didn't mind the company of the ever-silent snake very much, but Hikari was much easier to live with than he thought she would be when they had first met. They agreed with each other on many subjects, such as training methods, foods, and proper care for weaponry.
The more time he spent calmly around the village, the more freedom Snake gave him. They now had their own rooms, though Snake's was connected to his, just in case he decided to betray them. The three had gotten closer, though neither Sasuke nor Snake were willing to admit it. She had begun to call him by his first name, instead of his last, reasoning that if they were living together, they might as well be more respectful. Even if it was only slightly.
Today, she had given him permission to go to the market with only Hikari as supervision. Either she trusted him, her apprentice, the both of them, or she had something she felt was more important to do. Neither could decide which it was, and they were conversing over this fact. Hikari thought she trusted both of them, but Sasuke thought she had something more important to do.
Hikari and Sasuke finished shopping and were now on their way home. "You're kidding right, Sasuke? Snake-sama believes that there's nothing more important than her job. There isn't anything she would do that would be more important to her!"
Just as Sasuke was about to reply, they ran into a ninja, or more accurately, he ran into them. He looked vaguely familiar to Sasuke, but he could not place who this ninja was. "Where is Snake-sama? I need to speak to her without delay." He directed, looking around frantically, assuming that she was around because the Uchiha was.
"Snake-sama is back at the Uchiha Mansion." Sasuke said, leading Hikari and the other ninja back to his home.
He looked strangely at Sasuke. "I thought she was supposed to be watching over you for two years?"
"She is, but because he has been well behaved for the past six months, she has allowed him to leave the Mansion with only me as his observer." The apprentice proudly proclaimed.
The ninja looked to her with a smile. "You've done well, Snake-chan."
She merely smiled and told him they were on their way home, so he could follow them. The two picked up their pace to match his.
When the three arrived, Snake was waiting at the door for her charges. "What's the rush? I didn't know you were back in town, Kankurou-san." She greeted them, wondering what the Suna emissary needed with her or the Uchiha.
"Hai. Naruto sent me to find you Snake-sama. Said I was being a lazy bum and he would tell Gaara about it if I didn't." Kankurou mumbled, trailing off.
"What does Hokage-sama need?" She asked, instantly alert. There hadn't been any recent Oto attacks, but that was still a possibility.
"All he said was that he requests your presence in his office immediately."
(A/N: If you need me to explain what any of the Japanese words mean, please let me know and I'll start putting the definitions at the end of the chapters. I'm gonna go watch another episode of Full Metal Alchemist now. Ja ne!
Edit: I'm sorry! I just realized today that I made the mistake of typing Hiraku instead of Hikari. Snake-chan's name was originally Hiraku, but it was hard to type, so I changed it to Hikari. When I went back, I guess I overlooked changing that one. Again, sorry, but I've fixed it now.)