Dutiful Eyes
By Stormlock
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Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. (Insert a witty joke here if you like. Unless you did that the last three times, in which case I'm all out now.)
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AN/To my reviewers: One of the reviews brought up the subject of Hanabi. After checking the timeline, I came to the conclusion that she can't exist in this AU, since her father died over a year before she would have been born. A friend of mine also brought up to subject of Hinata's mother. I must confess, I'd pretty much forgotten about the fact that Hinata must have had a mother. I wanted to go with the excuse of her mother having died in the Kyuubi attack, but it turns out Hinata was born after Naruto by 2 months, so no dice there either. The manga is frustratingly vague about the mothers of the Hyuuga. For the purposes of the fic, I'm assuming Hinata's mother died within a year of having Hinata, and Hanabi would have been a step-sibling. I'm toying with the possibility of an original character of Hanabi's age as Hizashi's child instead (and possibly a boy instead of a girl) with the logic of Hizashi meeting the same woman Hiashi did. However, I haven't really thought of a good reason to put such a character in, and unless I do, I probably won't add the kid. Anyways, on with the fic; the first chapter with some combat.
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Kakashi was bored. Having set up his most humiliating traps in the test grounds the night before hand and having already held a 'contest' with Gai (Kakashi had given Gai the challenge of collecting flowers, and then won handily by walking into a flower shop once Gai was a half dozen blocks away) Kakashi was running out of things to do to amuse himself. He had his latest book to read, but he was planning on reading that during the test. The last three years he hadn't brought anything and it had gotten pretty dull. Of course, technically he should have been meeting his team twenty minutes ago, so really he did have something to do, but he was sure if he waited around and thought for a while longer, he'd think of some reason to put if off for at least another half hour.
As it turned out, Kakashi couldn't think of anything better to do, so he arrived a mere thirty minutes late in front of his famished genin team hopefuls. Noting that they didn't seem especially thrilled to see him, he decided to save the wonderful story about a child's missing cat he'd thought of for a day when they'd appreciate it more, and skip to the explanation of the bells test. Hinata looked angry at first, but then her expression slipped away into that odd blank look she so often wore. Neji didn't seem angry per-se, but certainly agitated by the news. Naruto looked angry and agitated at the explanation, probably both feeling unfairly tested and afraid of being ganged up on by the cousins. Overall, they were behaving exactly like he thought they would. How boring. . .
Hinata and Neji and ran off together at a right angle from the direction Naruto had, and before long they had all disappeared into the trees. Kakashi figured now was as good a time as any to bring out his book. After all, rookies like them might spend a whole hour trying to out wait each other or think of a plan. In any case, it's not like it would be fair if he spied on them and knew their plans in advance anyways. It certainly wouldn't be as interesting.
A short ways into the first 'interesting' scene (as Kakashi liked to call them) of the book, he noticed an energetic looking Naruto charging across the field from the opposite side of the clearing he had exited from. Before I even finished the first scene? Geez, for a pervert Jiraiya sure does take his time getting to the fun stuff in his books sometimes. Before Naruto had even gotten halfway from his cover to Kakashi's position Neji had ran up behind him and tackled him to the ground. A scuffle that lasted about 15 seconds ended with Naruto tied up on the ground not struggling quite as hard as he should have been swearing at Neji profusely. Neji was offering some dry apology about how he couldn't wait forever and it wasn't fair to let him hold Hinata back either. Oh yeah, the Hyuuga have some odd taijutsu style that cuts off chakra don't they? Probably not worth worrying about, no way a twelve year old is going to touch me. . .
Now Hinata was running out of the clearing behind Neji, who slowed down to let her catch up before they charged him together. I suppose that's technically teamwork, but they're obviously not ready if they're that willing to screw over a teammate. Makes me want to just end this now. They'll probably remember the point better if I drag this out and humiliate them a bit though. Besides, that might be fun too.
Shortly before the pair reached him, Hinata's hands flickered out for a moment and released a small swarm of smoke bombs, obscuring a relatively large portion of the clearing. Does she think they'll be able to follow the sound of the bells? That's awfully naive. "Byakugan!" The technique name spoken in stereo reminded him of who these two were. However, Kakashi decided that this was still far too simple a ploy to bother entertaining, and simply dashed out of the smoke screen. He was followed by Neji and Hinata and Hinata and Neji and Neji and Hinata. Well, at least they thought ahead somewhat. But a standard genin level bunshin can't even physically manipulate matter. At most they're simply minor distractions until I pick out the real ones. That task turned out to be disappointingly easy. The genin didn't even bother to tone down their skill while fighting him, so compared to their simple clones they fought ten times as well and were pitifully easy to pick out. The clone's fighting styles were so different from the real genin they might as well have been from another village. Several of the clones made phantom grabs for the bells in between the attacks he dodged by pure reflex without even thinking. Kakashi let their illusionary hands swish through the bells once just to prove his point to them.
He decided to finally put the book away so he could restrain one of the genin with one hand while he taunted the other. Hmm, which one. Neji would probably be more offended personally at being overwhelmed, but if I grab Hinata instead he's still probably the one to get angry the most. Hmm, he'll probably get the picture better if I force him to fail at protecting her rather than give him any illusions about having sacrificed himself so she could get away or some such nonsense. Kakashi's hand shot out and grabbed Hinata's arm, twisting it around so she'd be forced to her knees facing away from him, and pulling her other arm with it so she was completely helpless. Suddenly there was a puff of smoke and Kakashi realized he was actually holding Neji. Maybe I should have at least given them a closer look before trying to read again after I left the smoke. Neji's amused voice chipped into his thoughts again. "Only an amateur bodyguard would fail before even getting between the threat and his charge."Kakashi nearly laughed at Neji's tone. Was he trying to act cool while on his knees after being captured? "I'm sorry, were you trying to teach me something? I was just finishing off one of the more interesting parts of my book" Before that phrase finished registering in his brain, Neji switched focus towards twisting out of the way of Hinata's volley of shuriken. Kakashi didn't bother getting out of the way, instead opting to simply knock them out of the air with his bare free hand. Hinata tried to run around behind him while the bunshins (4 more of which had ran out of the smoke while she attacked) ran in irritating circles around them, but Kakashi just dragged Neji along with him like a rag doll and kept facing her. "You know, if this situation were real, he'd be a hostage right now." Hinata smirked at that. "Actually Kakashi-san, if this situation were real, Neji-kun would have lit you up like a stack of kindling with some explosive tags by now. There's no way he'd use any lesser force than that if we got in a real fight all alone with a jounin. You don't really understand him at all do you?" Kakashi didn't know what to say to that. Was he really holding a kid that serious about his job? If that's the case he needs to become much more skilled tactically, as well as learning to value all his teammates more. It's truly a waste for a drive that strong to be in someone that would pick a fight with one of his teammates. Even if Naruto is 'dead last'. "Bang!" Neji's uncharacteristically loud shout and a painful flare in his hand caused Kakashi to stop thinking about the kid and let go of Neji before jumping backwards. Neji was smiling.
Kakashi's hand was hurting, but not that badly. Neji hadn't even scored a proper tenketsu hit on him, his hand would work fine. Kakashi had mostly let go because he didn't feel like enduring any pain at all when he could simply knock the two of them out and end the exercise right there. Well, that and the pain had been distracting from his daydreaming, which was really the only thing interesting about a fight with two genin. (Some of the other jounin joked that Kakashi actually failed his students because they made the test too boring for him rather than any sort of teamwork principles.) Why the hell is Neji smiling anyways? Did he fool himself into thinking he crippled my hand? Kakashi looked back down at his hand and noticed two things at once. Naruto's voice coming from one of the Neji bunshins, and the bells absent from his waist next to his hand. "Ring-ring Kakashi-sensei!" The Neji bunshin that had been speaking with Naruto's voice vanished in a puff of smoke, through which Kakashi heard the two bells drop into Neji's outstretched palm.
Kakashi looked back across the clearing as another bunshin popped out of cover and cut the bindings that had been holding Naruto down the entire time. It gave a peace symbol to the rest of them before vanishing. As Naruto ran over to meet up with the rest of them Kakashi looked back at the two Hyuuga children with a lot more respect. "Well, you three certainly earned those two bells. I've never been outsmarted by a team of rookies before." Kakashi put on his serious face before leaning over and speaking in a more solemn tone. "So, who's getting the bells?" Neji simply tossed both of them to Naruto as he ran up, causing Kakashi to lift his visible eyebrow. "Hinata won't take away Naruto's chance to graduate, and I'm not going anywhere without Hinata, so Naruto is getting both of them. We'll just wait until next year and try again with a different teacher, we've got plenty of business to take care of in the mean time anyways. A ninja can never spend enough time training, after all." Neji's explanation seemed to lack any particularly grudging tone. It seemed he really didn't mind that much.
"I guess that makes sense. But, aren't you guys at least hungry? I'm still gonna tie you to stumps if you don't have a bell."
"Not really. Hinata keeps some jerky and dried fruit with her supplies, along with some other food to use as animal bait, so we had a little picnic while we met in the trees. Naruto's got the biggest appetite between us by far anyways."
Kakashi face palmed at that. Nobody else had ever thought to bring food with them in case they were hungry after the exercise, they always seemed to plan on just going home or eating out. Go figure that the royalty of Konoha would pack her team a lunch.
"So you two really don't care if you have to wait another year?"
Hinata flashed him a creepy fake smile. "Actually Kakashi-sensei, I find your methods of pitting teammates against each other to compete for limited chances to graduate entirely deplorable. So, I gave one of Naruto's clones my camera and asked him to write a report of the exercise. I'm going to give a copy of the report to both Hizashi and the Hokage. Did you get some good pictures Naruto?"
Naruto looked thrilled as he handed over the camera and his messy notes written on an expensive Hyuuga scroll. "Hell yeah! This thing's great, it zooms in so far I didn't even need to get very close. I got pictures of him fighting you guys, standing around while Neji attacked me, the stumps with ropes around them, his bells, those traps you pointed out, him reading that perverted book. . ."
Sweat forming on the exposed side of Kakashi's face indicated that he was beginning to regret his choice of examination. He was, in fact, wondering if they'd even believe him if he told them the real point of the exercise. He'd pretty much decided to pass them when he realized they hadn't betrayed Naruto after all, but things probably didn't seem that way from their viewpoint. The Hokage and some other jounins knew how he did his exam, but he doubted Hizashi knew.
"Umm, how about we pretend you guys somehow found a third bell and I just pass all three of you?"
Now Hinata had a creepy sugary voice to go along with her fake smile. "Why, that sounds like a great idea Kakashi-sensei! I'm glad you're so reasonable." Kakashi was beginning to suspect the charming Hyuuga heiress wasn't entirely unfamiliar with the whole blackmail process.
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That was a blast to write. I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did.