Chapter Five: Desire and Responsibility

Konohagakure no Sato (The Village Hidden in the Leaves), Fire Country
Uzumaki Hitomi sighed from her bed. Her father had always been overprotective, but with the recent attacks by the terrorists called Kurohi, it felt as though she was under house arrest. She was not allowed to leave often, and when she was, she was given an escort, usually ranked chuunin or higher. The way Hitomi saw it, this was a waste of a ninja's time; she was, after all, a chuunin herself. She frowned as she looked out her window at her younger brother, Tsubasa, training with their cousin, Tamaki.

Tamaki had always been close to the family, and not just for the blood he shared with them. He had been Hitomi's father's apprentice briefly before he had left to train in the mountains, he was a mentor to Tsubasa and had been for years, and—perhaps the most prominent bond—he was Hitomi's fiancé.

Hinata had never been valued very highly by the Hyuuga elders, even when she eventually became a capable kunoichi. They had set their sights on the younger heir long ago, and they were too stubborn to admit that they had perhaps misjudged Hiashi's eldest. When the young man, whom Tsunade had made it clear that she wanted to be the hokage when she stepped down, requested that he be allowed to marry Hinata, the elders had jumped at the chance to get one of their own as close to the hokage's office as possible.

The problem came when Hinata gave birth to a daughter, an Uzumaki by name, and that little girl had shown remarkable talent with her byakugan from a very young age. The elders wanted Hitomi back in the family, and they began looking for possible suitors within the clan. As it were, a baby boy had been born only a few weeks after Hitomi to Hyuuga Neji and his wife. It didn't take long before meetings were happening and deals were being made.

The terms of the contact stated that, should both Hitomi and Tamaki both agree to marry when they reached adulthood (as Naruto refused to force his daughter to do anything against her will), Hanabi and any heirs she should give birth to in the meantime would step down and the couple would take charge of the clan. The Caged Bird seal would also be abolished, as per Neji's demand for the contract.

Now nearly sixteen, Hitomi and Tamaki were getting close to the age at which they were expected to make a choice. Hitomi was willing to do anything for the good of Konoha, though, and she knew that with the Caged Bird seal on the line, Tamaki would agree to the wedding if for no other reason than to make his father happy.

She sighed and looked back out at Tamaki and Tsubasa's training session. It wasn't even that she didn't like Tamaki—she had no reason to; he was strong, and kind, and quite attractive—but he was like a brother to her. Being married to him would not be unpleasant, but when it came time to consummate the marriage, to produce heirs, things would be undeniably awkward.

"So how are things with that girl you like—what was her name, again?" asked Tamaki, easily side-stepping his young cousin's obvious lunge.

Tsubasa's face went redder than his russet hair, and the boy had to remind himself that he was in the middle of training to keep from tugging on his jacket—a nervous habit that he had developed at some point in his early childhood. In response, the genin mumbled, "Sango-chan."

"Sango, right!" Tamaki had known this, of course; he just liked to tease the boy. "Ai's little sister," he clarified unnecessarily. "How are things with her?"

"She likes Shihei. All the girls do."

Tamaki chuckled, "Strange that an Aburame got to be the class heartthrob, but I guess every clan gets a turn now and then—the Hyuugas more than others."

Tsubasa grimaced. He was half Hyuuga, right? How come he didn't inherit any of their talent or dignity, or good looks, for that matter? He was pasty without the elegance that seemed to accompany the skin tone in his relatives, with auburn hair partially passed down from his paternal grandmother, and pupil-less periwinkle eyes that he had only managed to activate once before when his life had depended on it. In this regard, he was only slightly less of a failure than Tamaki in the eyes of the Hyuuga elders.

Though Tamaki always held back when they trained, he still managed to knock Tsubasa to the ground. Standing over his cousin, Tamaki sighed. "Let's take a break," he suggested, holding out a hand to help Tsubasa up.

"Can I ask your advice on something?" When Tamaki raised a curious eyebrow, Tsubasa continued, "What should I do if my parents try to arrange a marriage for me, but I like someone else?"

"Why do you think I have advice to give on the subject? Besides, who would your father try to betroth you to?"

Tsubasa scrutinized his shoes. "The kazekage has a daughter that's a year younger than me," he mumbled. "He's been exchanging a lot of letters with the kazekage lately."

"There could be another Shinobi War coming, depending on how extensive this Kurohi group actually is. He could just be making sure that the villages remain allies throughout the ordeal," Tamaki reasoned. "And even if he was looking to engage you to the kazekage's daughter, he wouldn't force you to marry her. Your dad isn't that kind of man." Seeing his cousin visibly relax, Tamaki smirked, "And think about this: if you married the kazekage's daughter, you'd probably have red-haired kids; if you married Sango-chan, you might have pink-haired kids. Do you really want to risk that?"

"Jirou-kun has pink hair, and he does okay. And so does his older brother."

"Those Haruno boys have an advantage that makes them pretty immune to teasing—Ai's their sister, so they're used to it."

Tsubasa snickered as they entered the Uzumaki family's house. They were met by Hitomi in the foyer, and she raised a brow at her brother, who refused to tell her what he was laughing about.

"It doesn't matter," the elder Uzumaki waved the subject off before turning her attention to Tamaki. "I'd like to go to the festival tomorrow evening," she told him. "Will you accompany me?" She knew she'd need an escort, and Tamaki was the least restrictive of those who had been assigned the job in the past.

He shrugged, "That's fine. I was going to go, anyway." He looked to Tsubasa, "Are you planning on going, too?"

Tsubasa shook his head, "My team leaves for a mission tomorrow. We won't be back until Monday." The genin looked between the two chuunin, before he settled his attention on Tamaki once more. "Who were you going to go with?"

"My teammates," Tamaki answered. "And then we were going to meet up with Tai and Shippo a little later." Tamaki grinned at Hitomi, whose cheeks had gone red, "I'm glad you're going. It will even out our numbers so no one will feel left out."

Hitomi bowed suddenly and excused herself, running back up the stars and to her room. Down in the entryway, both boys heard her door close firmly, before Tsubasa gave Tamaki a questioning look and Tamaki only chuckled and went back outside.

"Two rooms, please," the sable-haired man requested.

The desk clerk, a middle-aged woman with greying brown ringlets, smiled sympathetically. "I'm sorry, we only have one room available," she told the man and woman on the other side of the desk. "With the festival, you'll be lucky if it isn't booked in the next few minutes—otherwise, I'd recommend another hotel to you."

Masayoshi glanced sidelong at his "partner," the blonde woman who he was told had been responsible for his mother's death. He wasn't sure why Nobu had chosen her for him to work with. He held no animosity toward the dying girl, but she was far from his favorite person, given the circumstances.

"Are you sick, dear?" the clerk asked, noting Mei's medical mask. "We have the best healer in the world right here in Konoha," she informed the two visitors. "Oh—but that might be why you're here! I shouldn't have assumed it was for the festival," the clerk continued to ramble on, but Masayoshi and Meiwaku were too busy having a silent conversation with their eyes to listen.

'We don't have much chance of getting two rooms anywhere else,' Masayoshi's expression seemed to say.

'The mission is more important that our comfort,' Mei's single nod agreed.

A quick glance at the clerk. 'Then I'll tell her we want the room?'

A shrug. 'I don't mind.'

Masayoshi interrupted the woman midsentence, "We'll share the one room then, thank you. We'll be checking out in two days."

"Oh, of course! Here's your room key. Have a nice stay!"

Masayoshi marched down the hall without another word, Mei in tow, until they came to their door, which Masayoshi unlocked and stood aside to let his partner in first. The two of them surveyed the room until both of their eyes fell on the single bed, and Masayoshi could have sworn he heard his ever-silent partner groan. Regardless of how they felt about it, however, they would make this work, because failure was not an option.

"Should we really be allowing this festival to go on in the midst of an outbreak of a foreign, incurable thus far, disease?" Sakura asked from her place, slouched into the hokage's chair. Said hokage was at the window, looking out over the village that he had sworn to protect.

"If this keeps us from doing the things we love, it's already killed us," he muttered. "The villagers know the risk, and I'm sure there will be a lot of people who choose to stay home tomorrow." Naruto looked at Sakura seriously, "How is a cure coming?"

"It would help if we could find where the infection comes from," Sakura admitted. "Most vaccines are made by injecting just a little bit of the dead virus, but this is mutating at such a speed that it's attacking at a different angle as soon as we figure out how stop whatever it's currently doing."

"I'm guessing Ai isn't infected?"

Sakura gave a relieved sigh, "No. And her teammates were clean, too. In fact, we tested everyone from that tracking team that came in contact with those two Kurohi members—even Chamaru. All clean."

Shikamaru entered the room with two tidy stacks of papers, then. "I took the liberty of going through your paperwork last night," he informed Naruto. "This pile is what you'll want to approve, this pile is what you'll want to deny, and this"—Shikamaru put a single manila folder between the two stacks—"is that thing."

Sakura furrowed her brows, "What thing? What, I'm not qualified to know?"

"Not this, Sakura-chan." Naruto grinned goofily at his almost-sister, but his tone was clear and to the point. No.

Sakura didn't argue. She knew that voice—that was Naruto's hokage voice, and it meant you weren't dealing with your childhood friend, you were dealing with your boss. All of the Konoha Twelve recognized this fact and had accepted it long ago. "I should probably get back to my research. I just wanted to report in," Sakura said, standing. "I'll talk to you later." With that, she left Naruto's office.

As soon as Saukra was out of the room, Naruto held up the manila envelope to indicate who he was talking about. "Summon her here."

Shikashi blew his bangs out of his eyes and glanced up at the sun, calculating the time. He should have known better than to arrive early. The festival had just barely started, and there were no more than ten people wandering around at the moment, leaving Shikashi bored and waiting for Ai and Tamaki to show up at the meeting spot they'd designated a few days beforehand. Mercifully, Hitomi was a stickler for punctuality, and she made sure she and Tamaki were on time.

The two pale-eyed cousins came around the corner at exactly four o'clock, and Hitomi bowed to the son of her father's adviser. "I hope you haven't been waiting long," she said politely.

Shikashi shrugged, "Only a couple minutes. We'll see how long we have to wait for Ai, though."

"Knowing her, she's probably still fussing with her hair," Tamaki predicted with a good-natured eye roll.

"Ye of little faith," came the Haruno girl's voice behind them, and they turned to find her standing there, arms crossed in indignation.

"Oh, Ai, you're early," was Shikashi's facetious reply, to which Ai only stuck her tongue out at him.

"Tai and Shippo will be here in about an hour," Tamaki told them, changing the subject before things could get ugly. "What do you want to do until then?"

"Well, I don't know about you three, but I'm getting hammered," Ai muttered, wandering off toward the concession area. Ai was the only one of the current group who was old enough to drink, the drinking age of shinobi being sixteen, regardless of their civilian counterparts being forced to wait until they were twenty. When a ninja was putting their life on the line for the village, and their life expectancy was only about thirty, it was only fair that they be treated as adults at a younger age than non-shinobi.

"Great," muttered Shikashi sarcastically. "Why did we make plans with her again?"

Tamaki kept his smile in place, "Because she is our teammate, and, whether you admit it or not, our friend."

Shikashi was unconvinced, "Mm-hm." He glanced at Ai's retreating back and sighed through his nose. "I should probably go with her. Keep her from doing anything stupid." The Nara didn't wait for a response before maneuvering through the growing crowd after her.

"Well, I guess it's just you and me," Tamaki grinned at Hitomi. "What would you like to do, Hitomi-hime?"

Shikashi grumbled for what seemed like the thousandth time that minute, and Ai sneered at him.

"You didn't have to follow me, and nothing's keeping you here now. Leave if you're bored," all but snarled before slamming her drink back and turning to glare at her self-appointed nanny. Her viridian eyes bore into his muddy brown ones stubbornly, but he only stared back passively. If he had learned anything from his father, it was to disengage when a woman wanted an argument—that was the only way to win. Shikashi knew from experience that Ai hated when he didn't counter. She saw it as him not taking her seriously, and it only served to fuel her anger, but at least she didn't get the satisfaction of getting a rise out of him.

"Every time you drink alone, you get yourself into trouble."

She snorted, "I do not."

"Remember when you had to pay for that wall? Not to mention the hospital bills…"

"The bastard deserved it. I told him I wasn't interested."

Shikashi pursed his lips as Ai's whiskey was refilled, and she downed it in only a few gulps. "You might want to slow down a little."

"Shut up, you know-it-all," she bit back. "I get enough of that crap from Shou." She was already starting to slur her words, Shikashi noted with some irritation. The last time they had done this, Ai had missed her curfew and been locked out of her house, so Shikashi had to take her to her brother and Suma's apartment for the night. Shou had not been amused, and made it clear that Ai was not allowed in his house after ten p.m. ever again—especially if she was in a drunken stupor.

There were so many things that Shikashi wanted to point out right then. So many ways he was right and she was wrong, but he kept his mouth shut and watched Ai pour drink after drink down her throat. He wondered if this was a learned behavior, or if being a medic was stressful enough to break one's mind, because Ai's mentor and mother had gone through a borderline-alcoholic phase when she was younger, and her mentor, Tsunade, had been a known drinker and gambler. He found the link between medical brilliance and alcoholism was a sort of chicken-or-egg question.

"You know what?" Ai asked suddenly, abruptly jolting Shikashi from his thoughts. By now, she had nearly accomplished her goal of being 'hammered.' "You know what?" she insisted.

Shikashi sighed, "What?"

"You don't make a big deal out of anyone else's love life but mine," she observed. "I think you're jealous."

"I think you're drunk."

Ai's inebriated sagely nod was little more than an awkward head-wobble to anyone who happened to be observing the conversation. "And you always change the subject when someone hits too close to home."

"Seriously, how many have you had?"

She shook her finger at him, smiling goofily. "See?"

"Fine. I make a big deal out of your love life because my dad was Shouichi's sensei, making him like a brother to me, which makes you like a sister to me, so I can't help but feel responsible for you."

"Sounds like you had to stretch it a little." Shikashi opened his mouth to argue, but Ai was off on something else. "You know, you were mean to me in the academy."

"I was not mean to you."

"Yeah, you were. You used to try to distract me during tests."

Shikashi rubbed his forming migraine. "I was only asking that you perform faster."

"Oh my gahd, you're so arrogant!"

"Keep your voice down, people are staring," Shikashi hissed, ducking his head so he wouldn't have to make eye contact with any of the other patrons.

Ai scowled, "Ain't you people got anything else to worry about? Piss off!" Everyone instantly averted their eyes, and Ai nudged Shikashi with a grin. "Fixed it."

"Can we please just leave already?" Shikashi froze when Ai plopped her head on his shoulder.

"Mmm," she muttered. "Carry me."

After walking around the festival grounds a few times, playing a few carnival games, Hitomi coming out of it with a stuffed fox and Tamaki with a lucky cat keychain, and sampling some of the treats that the vendors were peddling, Tamaki and Hitomi arrived back at the meeting place, where Tai, Shippo, and Shippo's canine companion, Midoriki were waiting. They decided to get some real dinner before the fireworks started.

They went to their usual hang out eatery, where they found the Akimichi siblings sharing tempura. The group of chuunin chose the table next to the siblings'. Slyly, Tamaki chose the seat beside Shippo, forcing Hitomi and Tai to sit side by side. They both blushed when they realized they'd be sitting next to each other.

"Good afternoon, Hitomi-san," Akimichi Inoe greeted his best friend from the academy's older sister. "How are you enjoying the festival?" he asked. Though naturally husky due to his genetics, Inoe was a studier of the Yamanka clan's hiden jutsu, and as such was considered the more 'attractive' of the Akimichi siblings. I didn't hurt that his mother had been kind enough to pass both her hair and eye color down to her son.

"Good afternoon," Hitomi nodded in return. "I'm enjoying myself quite a lot, thank you. Have you had a chance to get around the grounds yet?"

Inoe looked skyward, but grinned, "Not yet. Somebody is holding us up."

"We'll get around to the vendors before the night is done," Inoe's sister waved off his jab. "You think I'd pass up a change to get chocolate bananas or tomorokoshi? What else is the festival for, other than the food?"

"Oh, dear," Tamaki teased. "Somebody didn't pay any attention at all in history, did they?" He turned to Inoe, "Please tell me you know what this festival is about."

"The end of the Fourth Shinobi War?" Inoe guessed.

Hitomi nodded at the blond, "That's right, Inoe-kun. Twenty years ago, after Akatsuki was defeated, and the Shinobi Nations finally achieved peace between the countries, Konoha celebrated the return of their shinobi from the war, and mourned those lost. Now, every year, we hold this festival in honor of that first celebration."

"I still say the food is the most important part," Chou muttered as she finished the last of her tempura. "We hate to run off on you guys, but Inoe and I have a lot of stuff to do before the fireworks start."

The Akimichis paid for their meal and left, Inoe calling, "It was nice seeing you," back at them as he and Chou left the restaurant.

"How do you know those two so well?" asked Shippo of the pale-eyed cousins at her table.

Tamaki shrugged, "Inoe-kun and Tsubasa-kun were nearly inseparable when they were in the academy, and Chou-chan is on Hiru-sama's squad with him. I see her a lot at the Hyuuga compound when she comes to walk with him to training."

"It seems like the village is getting smaller and smaller. We're all connected one way or another," Shippo pointed out. "But I guess with clans being less particular about marriages and what-not, a lot of people end up being cousins, even if not by blood purely because all of our parents were so close growing up."

"That's true," agreed Tai. "So about Kurohi… What happened when your team fought them?" he asked Tamaki.

"Well, in short, they kicked our butts. If Anju-sensei, Ren-neesan, and Kubiwa-san hadn't been there, my teammates and I would be dead," Tamaki admitted. "Luckily, they got to us in time to scare off those two Kurohi and get us back to Konoha. Then the medics healed up Shikashi's arm, and put Ai on bed rest for a day. I was probably the worst off, but Ai managed to heal me on the field before she passed out."

"She really is something, huh?" Shippo murmured. "I mean, Ai's a pain in the ass, but she's on her way to being as good a medic as her mom."

Tai sighed, "It's too bad we can't all be looking at those kinds of prospects."

"You know what, though?" Tamaki said, "I'm actually really proud of myself and my accomplishments. It doesn't matter what the Hyuuga elders have to say."

"Good attitude to have," praised Shippo.

Dinner was finished in relative silence, and as the world outside the window was bathed in orange sunset, the four left the restaurant, Midoriki falling in step with Shippo as soon she the Inuzuka had set foot back outside the 'no dogs allowed' establishment. To reward Midoriki for her patience, Shippo gave her three leftover pieces of tempura. The evening saw a much thicker crowd, and it was becoming easier for them to accidentally lose each other.

They had found a good spot from which to watch the fireworks before Tamaki gasped. "I just remembered that I promised to bring Hiru-sama something back, since the elders wouldn't let him come here today."

"We can go find something for him," Tai offered, but Tamaki shook his head.

"I don't want to lose this spot," he reasoned. "I'll just go grab something. You guys stay here." Tamaki ducked into the crowed then, leaving no room for further discussion.

"I should probably find something for Kubiwa-niisan. Be right back," Shippo said before she also left, Midoriki faithfully at her side.

Left alone, Hitomi and Tai blushed and avoided eye contact. After a few minutes, Tai took a deep breath and attempted to converse with the beautiful girl standing beside him in the sea of people.

"Excited for the fireworks?" he asked.

Hitomi shrugged, "I do enjoy them, but I wish this day wasn't ending so soon."

"Why's that?"

"My father is so protective. I don't get to go out and have fun like this often."

Tai hummed, "Yeah, I noticed. You don't come along much when we all hang out as a group."

"I'd like to, but it is the way it is, I suppose."

"Yeah, but it'd be nice to see more of you." Tai jerked, realizing what he'd just said. "I mean we would like to see more of you! That is, I mean, we'd like to see you more often!" Noticing that people had begun staring, he dropped his gaze and sighed. "I'm just going to stop talking now."

Hitomi watched the side of his downtrodden face silently as the first firework went up. Biting her lip, she slowly lifter her hand until her fingers found his palm. He started, but after a shaky breath, he smiled and laced his fingers with hers.

Tamaki found a booth that was selling children's masks and folding paper fans. He looked over the masks for a moment before examining the fans. There were ones with flowers and dragons, ones with birds, and plain ones with the Hidden Leaf insignia as their only decoration.

"Can I get this mask, please?" asked a voice from beside Tamaki, and he stepped out of the way of the woman attempting to buy a brown wolf mask. "It looks like Chamaru, doesn't it?"

Tamaki looked up to find Shippo standing beside him, the wolf mask in her hands. "It does," he nodded. He then held up two fans, "Which of these should I get for Hiru-sama?"

"The one with the monkey, definitely."

Tamaki paid for the fan before tucking it away in his sleeve. He and Shippo then began their walk back to Tai and Hitomi in silence. It wasn't long, though, before Shippo finally spoke.

"Are we just not going to talk about this?"

Tamaki sighed, "I should have done things differently, I know. And running off to the mountains as soon as I told you about my engagement was cowardly."

"You can say that again."

"Before all that, though, I shouldn't have gotten involved with you." Tamaki frowned, "Us dating was a mistake."

"Are you saying that because of Hitomi-san, or is this actually about us? You never gave me the chance to say anything. You just sprung it on me and then you left."

"I'm sorry. But I felt it was only fair to let you get on with your life. I can't promise you a future, Shippo."

"Who said I expected a future promised to me? All I wanted was for my boyfriend to come back so I could give him this," without another word, Shippo took his face in her hands and kissed him. Above them, the fireworks popped and fizzed, but the two teens couldn't care less about the show.

Shikashi glanced over his shoulder at the fireworks which had just started. On his back, Ai rode piggyback, snoring and drooling on his shoulder. He grumbled. What a waste of a day. Why had he even bothered getting up at all that morning? The Nara finally got his teammate to her house, and set her on her feet at her doorstep, where she wobbled, but ultimately managed to stay standing.

"Good night, Ai," he said, turning to walk away, but the girl grabbed his sleeve and wouldn't let go. She forced him to face her.

"Did you ever believe in me?" she asked. "I know you thought you were better, but did you have any faith in my abilities at all?" Her mood had become melancholy quite suddenly, and Shikashi wasn't sure what to say. "Why does everyone look at me like I'm the villain?"

"Because you're ambitious, Ai," Shikashi answered. "They see Orochimaru in you, and it doesn't help that you're trying to recreate some of the techniques used by Yakushi Kabuto. History has shown us that ambition leads to destruction—just look at the Uchiha clan."

Ai smirked humorlessly, "That's right. I'm just like an Uchiha." She turned away, opening up her front door before giving Shikashi a look. "You want to stay the night?"

"Good night, Ai," was Shikashi's firm response and he turned on his heel and walked away.

A/N: More characters introduced in this one. We have:

Uzumaki Hitomi, 15, chuunin, the daughter of hokage Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Hinata.
Uzumaki Tsubasa, 12, genin, Hitomi's younger brother. He is on a team with Haruno Sana and her brother, Sanjirou ("Jirou").

Rock Tai, 16, chuunin, son of Rock Lee. He is on a team with Shippo.
Inuzuka Shippo, 16, chuunin, daughter of Inuzuka Kiba. Her name means tail.

Akimichi Chou, 13, genin, daughter of Akimichi Chouji and Yamanaka Ino. She is on a team with Hyuuga Hiruzen ("Hiru").
Akimichi Inoe, 12, genin, Chou's younger brother. He is on a team with Haruno Sango and Aburame Shihei.