So I took a little longer then I should have to get this chapter out. But given all that I have been through personally, it's hard to think about chapters. Well less gibber and more chapter. And as is the case with me getting thought to print, I forgot last chapter, or first for that matter, to detail the Void Nin symbol. The Void symbol is a simple set of three rings getting smaller with a dot in the center. Think Rinnegan on a headband. For ninja that belong to villages other then just the Void it has their home village's symbol has the Void symbol in the center.
Tales of the Void- Chapter 03- Returning home.
2 years later: Small town in the Fire country.
Hinata sat on the roof of the inn that she and her two companions were staying at watching the night sky. Her mind replayed the time she had spent with Naruto and Jiraiya. Two years of traveling had an amazing effect on her. She had advanced in her skills, learned more of her troublesome bloodline, and even taught an apparently annoying cat a lesson or two. Though she still kept the secret of her identity, Naruto had come close to guessing a few times.
Sighing she jumped down to resume her nightly prowling. 'Just a few more days before we get back to Konoha. I hope the others are ready to accept my new self.'
A quiet voice spoke up to her from inside her head. 'Well your personality hasn't changed much since then. Though even I will admit you have gotten a lot less timid.'
'Is that supposed to be an insult or a compliment, Nibi?' She just shook her head. The cat demon could be her best friend, or worst enemy. All depended on the beast's mood. She did give it the credit of her losing her younger fears. A few times both she and Naruto had to fight and even kill ninja and others who had wanted to kill them. She had even learned to talk normally and without a huge blush when around Naruto.
'Call it what you wish. Just remember that the Kyuubi's brat is going to freak out if you aren't in the room in the morning again. Remember last time? The punk was nearly ready to go on a killing spree. While I rather like his protective streak, I fear the Kyuubi's will is affecting him.'
Nodding to herself at hearing its word she recalled the training over their demon powers. Obtaining her own wasn't too hard as her body was pretty much the Nibi's to begin with. Naruto, however, had taken it poorly. At two tails he became uncontrollable. Three and he started burning everything around him, including himself. When the fourth came out he would lose control so much he even tried to kill her and Jiraiya. She bore large scars on her back from when he first tried unleashing four tails.
Following the familiar scent of the woman who had given her this path, she made her way out the edge of the small town. Looking out to the large fields and sparse but enormous trees littering about, she spotted her target. Siren stood leaning against a tree smiling at her.
"About time to return to the village I see."
"Yes. So what will I do? Keeping my identity a secret will be kind of hard. Konoha is crawling with ANBU and others just waiting to spot anyone suspicious. Even if I beg there will be little ability for their new Hokage to believe who I am." She hung her head at this. So close to home, yet a home that would no longer welcome her.
"Remember what Yugito showed you back at the lair before you left for this mission? You can use it to return to that room anytime. It belongs to you two after all." Siren said as she smiled and looked toward the town.
"You're reading my mind again aren't you?" Hinata glared at her. Did she ever stop the jutsu? Hinata's faith in the effectiveness of the Siren Crystal feigned extremely quickly after multiple encounters with Siren's mind reading abilities.
"Only a little bit. There is a lot more to do now that you've mastered your powers." Siren pulled a small scroll from the blood red kimono she was wearing. "This is the details of your next mission. It will start once you and the others have gotten to Konoha. Be swift about it though. The mission itself is sensitive and may be undoable if you wait to long in the village."
Nodding and opening the scroll to get a quick look over the details she noticed something odd. "It says I'll be working with the Ichibi. Isn't that the demon Naruto defeated two years ago?"
"Defeat never means death for a Bijuu. They are eternal as the earth itself. Trust me on that one, their chakra never runs out," she added with a small sigh before turning to walk away from the young ninja.
"Lady Siren, one last thing! What do I do about the ANBU and others? What if my friends see my face? I really only think Naruto or Kiba would be fooled by me saying it's a common look." Hinata couldn't help the slight bit of disappointment with knowing that was the exact excuse she had used every time he brought up her looking like herself.
"I leave that to you. By now you have no reason to really hold back that knowledge. Now that you have control over your powers, better then Yugito sometimes, you're fully ready to let them in on things. I'm sure Naruto wouldn't mind," she couldn't stop the sly wink at that last line.
"That's sure to go over well. Fake my death for two and a half years only to show up stronger then ever."
"When you've seen what I have, that is little to be surprised about." With that she faded away before Hinata could get another statement out. Shaking her head she quickly hurried back to the town's inn before Naruto or Jiraiya could wake up and catch her.
3 Days Later: Gates of Konoha
Nervousness wasn't really something new to her. Rather it was the reason for the nervousness that was new to her. Walking to the village with her two companions and watching the gates to the city getting bigger with every step. The feeling that an ANBU ambush was around every tree just kept getting higher and higher.
Jiraiya looked to the two teenagers. "Feel good to be home?"
"Ya, you bet it does. I wonder how everyone else has been getting along without me around." Naruto responded ever confident.
"I don't really know how I can really call the village my home anymore, Sensei. I may be a Leaf Void Nin but I'm still not really one of them anymore."
Naruto glanced over to her and at the headband she had worn over her neck to mask the seal on her neck. They had first noticed it when they were cleaning it. The normal rings of a Void headband had a small Leaf Nin symbol embedded in the center of them. It hadn't been long after that when Hinata let him in on her past as a Leaf ninja, to some extent. It still bugged him about her identity. He knew most of the girls in the village who would be about her age and a ninja. Yet no matter how hard he thought, he couldn't remember ever meeting her before they set out together.
"Well me and the others can just make it feel like a home for you then!" Naruto let out tossing his arm over her shoulders. He had learned quickly, when holding a woman in such a way, be wary of your hands. Last time he didn't he was out for a week and sore for a month.
A light blush forming on her cheeks from the gesture she just let out a small laugh. "Keep that up and the girls you know might get jealous of me."
"Meh. I can take them on any day, not that I'd want to though. A few of them can be rather…hostile." Memories of the weapons storm he witnessed Ten Ten pull out during the chunin exams and the numerous knockout blows Sakura had given him in the past came rushing in at that.
Hinata shook her head as the same memories came up. Had she had the confidence then she did now, she might have intervened and tried to take his affection then. As things between them stood she had already gotten close enough to leave her mark. It was setting the hook she couldn't bring herself to do.
Before she said anything else, Naruto took off rushing up to the top of the gate and looking over the city letting out a loud yell about being home. Hinata and Jiraiya both laughed and kept walking into the village, the guards giving her a quick glance before Jiraiya said she was with them.
"They sure do trust you thoroughly don't they."
"That's what being one of the top ninja in the world grants you. Even though I've swore my allegiance with the Leaf, I could enter any village I wanted without much trouble."
Looking around the city she noticed little had actually changed. The buildings looked a little newer and some of the smaller shops had expanded slightly. But most of the city was just as it was when she left for the exams.
Naruto hopped down to join the others as they continued along. "Heh, now that is how you make an entrance."
"Only if you want to be spotted by every single person who might want your head." Hinata said poking him in the shoulder. "Didn't you learn anything about stealthy entrances while we were training?"
"Ah but that's for if your not wanting to be found. I've got tons of friends I want to go see." A small part of her hoped he also included the pseudo her that had fallen in battle years earlier.
"Hey Naruto! About time you made it back," came a call from a pink haired girl walking up to them.
"Hmm, wait Sakura? Man its good to see you again!" He let out his trademark smile. Sakura nodding and smiling back at him before looking to Hinata.
"You find a new friend along the way?"
"Kind of. We ran into her right as we left. This is Yuki. She's a Leaf Void ninja." Hinata looked to Sakura and bowed lightly hoping she didn't notice who she was.
Sakura took the story and looked the girl over. Something just wasn't right. "Hey Yuki, mind coming over here for a second?" she said pointing to a nearby alley.
Her fears only rose at that. "Umm ok I guess." she said following behind Sakura.
Getting to the alley, Sakura looked around quickly before turning back to her. "Hinata do you know how long we've had to keep this charade going on!"
Surprise and fear both sparked into her. "I-I don't know who your talking about."
"You don't need to cover it up. Siren put a genjutsu on most of the city when the exams were over. Naruto was pretty much the only one not able to snap himself out of it. The rest of us know all about you going missing but we just went along as if we were affected too."
She just looked down at the street. She had hoped to try to not cause any trouble and just slip back in as her new self. The thought that her old self was being waited on didn't seem possible. "What about my family? Do they think I just ran away?"
"No. When she cast the genjutsu she told Lady Tsunade about the mission you were sent on by the Third. Though why you would let her know you were a spy kind of doesn't make sense."
"Because the Void don't have any secrets. If you ask her a question she can't side talk out of you will get the whole truth from her."
"So I can just ask you exactly what the hell happened at the exams and you would let me know?"
"Which part?"
"Let's start with when you were taken away."
Hinata took off her headband and pointed to the seal on her neck. "I ate a demon chakra seed. It has the ability to turn its user into a host at the cost of their life and freedom. We become a member of the Void and serve Lady Siren, but we also get the power to survive things we otherwise wouldn't have."
"Neji was really trying to kill you wasn't he!"
"Almost did. I think I had a few more minutes before the chakra supply to my heart would have stopped."
"Well at least you're back now. Kiba and Shino haven't been much of a team since I had to take your place." Hinata just raised her eyebrow at that. "Both my teammates were gone and one of theirs was M.I.A. Seemed like a good way to solve the team issues."
Hinata let out a small giggle. "Makes me want to go say hi to them and see how Akamaru has grown. But that would probably be a bad idea."
"Why? I'd say they would like to know their friend is back."
"Well Akamaru is like most dogs. He really hates cats. And after our encounters with Tora…"
Memories of the mission commonly dubbed "Hellcat released" came back to her. "I know where you're going with that part. I don't know who I feel worse for, the lady or that cat."
"That's not the whole issue. The reason I look different is this isn't my body. It's the Nibi's."
Sakura blinked at that. "The Nibi's? Bijuu don't have human bodies."
"They all do actually. I'm one of the rare ones that pretty much work in the opposite way others do. This is the demons body and I have control of it. Luckily the Nibi used my original body as the base so I kept my bloodline."
"Well that adds a new ring of things to worry about doesn't it. I wonder if the Kyuubi has a body walking around somewhere."
"She does every now and then. But she doesn't ever get to use it." It wasn't till after she had said it that Hinata released her mistake.
"What! You mean it's still alive!" Sakura yelled just barely able to keep her voice from reaching too far.
Hinata frantically tried to calm her down. "All nine are in some way. But all are also either dormant or sealed in some manner to where they can't hurt anyone."
The explanation didn't sit well with her. "Let me take a guess. The ones who have them inside them are Void Nin."
"Ichibi, Nibi, Yonbi, and Hachibi are Void. Kyuubi's holder still doesn't know anything about the others really. Only that he is one of us and hunted just as much as the rest of us."
"I feel like I'm getting into something I shouldn't be.
"Only a small bit. Fate has a habit of being a real bitch sometimes. You probably would have been dragged in at some time anyway." Hinata said trying her best to keep Naruto's secret safe.
"Still sounds like something is off about all of this."
"I can't really tell much more. It isn't my right to tell someone else's secrets when it comes to stuff like this."
"A spy saying she can't reveal secrets?"
Hinata smirked and winked at her. "We all have our little demons to hide. Like how I know for a fact Naruto learned way too much from that sensei of ours."
Sakura looked back to Naruto, who was currently chatting with Konohamaru. "Don't tell me he joined the pervert's side after making the Sexy Jutsu just to fight them."
"That or he really was trying to figure out who I was thinking I was wearing a mask or something." With that Hinata blushed brightly and started walking over to the boys.
Sakura, however, was more then ticked off over hearing that and rushed over to deliver a quick punch to Naruto. Hinata just smiled and laughed as Sakura began to tell him off about being a pervert when Jiraiya turned to her.
"How did you know that the two of them were talking about new forms of the Sexy Jutsu?"
Hinata pointed to her ears. "A cat's hearing after all. Though I'm surprised my misdirection worked so perfectly."
Jiraiya looked back to his primary pupil getting beat on by the pink haired girl. "Something tells me he might have been expecting that response from her.""Well it is the response most of my gender gives you after all. It's only natural that he would get used to it too."
"Well either way it's about time we got to Tsunade's office before she starts getting worried."Naruto hearing the Hokage's name looked toward the tower in the center of the city. "Ya time to show what I've learned in two years." he said earning him a glare from Sakura.
"You had better have learned something other then perverted jutsu this time around Naruto."Naruto just sent a shallow glare at her before starting on a rant about all the different "elite" training methods he and Hinata had been through as the group walked toward the tower.
Chapter End
Ok that's it for this chapter. Again, sorry many times over for the years of lateness. I really need to work on my procrastination. That or get a winning lottery ticket.