Chapter 8
Previously: It is near the end of the "timeskip", shortly before Naruto Part 2 begins. As the last step of her training under Tsunade, Sakura learned the super-secret reincarnation jutsu. In Tsunade's case, it messed up her life but granted super strength. In Sakura's case she remembered her previous life as someone named "Saotome Ranma." Sakura has now trained herself to use some of Ranma's techniques, but she encountered a problem: ki is not chakra, and gaining ki may have messed up her chakra. Her second problem: a new viewpoint has helped her realize that she's been truly rotten to Naruto. He's not her love, but he was supposed to be her friend. So she's set out to help Hinata and Naruto get together. That requires convincing the Hyuga clan that they should listen to her, which requires either a clan on her side, or some power or offer that can't be ignored. So Sakura used ki and Anything Goes martial arts, and trounced Neji in front of the Hyuga clan elders. Unfortunately, they didn't respond with admiration and respect. They made dire mutterings among themselves and sent her away while they thought about things. Ominously, they kept Hinata behind.
oOoOoOoOo
I still wasn't talking to Mom, even if she had a point. Now that I'd beaten Neji, the way I'd promised to do, I figured I could ask Tsunade-same about what was involved in forming a new clan. Even if I'd finished most of my training, I was still her apprentice. I decided to check in, in the morning.
My room isn't that big, but it's up on the second floor and it has a great view of the monuments. I left the window open for the breeze, and settled in for a well deserved rest. The day has been exhausting, both physically and mentally.
I had just started my favorite dream. Sasuke had trained up, all buff and graceful. I'd found him just after he finished with the last of his foes (which was some dream combination of Itachi and Orochimaru). "I've finished the task assigned to me," Sasuke managed to croak out, coughing up blood. "The Hokage's last wish – is complete. I only wish the cost hadn't been … so high."
"Oh, Sasuke!" I wailed, flinging my body over his. "You can't die!"
"The only thing that could save me now is (cough) pure, undiluted love…"
"Then take mine!" I scream, hugging him for all I was worth.
There are all sorts of variants of this dream. In some I'm giving him regular medical care, in some it's a transfusion of my life force. Speaking as a top medic-nin, I know how to give a chakra donation, but not an infusion of "life force." In any case, the cure always works, and Sasuke is too grateful for words. We quickly fall to kissing… and more racy things.
Soon we were rolling back and forth, while stones and kunai began to impact the ground around us.
"Oh, Sasuke!" I moaned.
We rolled over so that I was on top. A rock landed where our heads had just rested.
"Sasuke, where'd that rock come from?"
"Who cares?" He asked, finally revealing his tender side. "My final mission is to capture you!"
His hands began to work their way up me in very interesting ways. On impulse, I rolled back, pulling him up on top.
Another rock landed where we'd been. I ignored it, since he was now on top.
"You have me at your mercy!" I pointed out, beginning to smolder in anticipation.
"Oh, Sakura!" he called, tenderly. "Sakura, Sakura, Sakura!"
The rocks were flying in earnest now, a whole bucket load of them. It was getting harder to dodge them, particularly with Sasuke on top of me like that.
"Sakura! SAKURA!"
"Look, do you mind?" In irritation, I grabbed one of the stones and flung it back.
"SAKURA!"
Now I was really angry. I sat up, yelling, "Give me a break! I'm trying to sleep—" My crusty eyes recognized my bedroom. "—with someone."
I blinked. Hanging precariously outside my window was Hinata. Also, my bed was full of pebbles. Mostly around my pillow.
"Uh… Hinata? What are you doing outside my window in the middle of the night?"
"Trying to wake you up!" she half whispered, half hissed.
I yawned and scratched my arm pit. "Why didn't you just come in? Window's open."
"I used the byakugan," she whispered, "and I spotted the traps you set. Let's see, the low-yield explosive tag next to a vial of who-knows-what…"
I nodded. "Right. Mycotoxic spores. Keeps well, and I've built up an immunity. Good stuff."
"…and there was the alarm seal…"
I stifled another yawn. "Had to learn to set and disable those for the Hokage's medium-secure records."
"…and finally, there were the microwire lacings."
I nodded fuzzily. "We call it 'cheese slicer' in the hospital. Doesn't work as sutures – it cuts right through flesh. Which is good sometimes. Man, wire techniques are great, aren't they?"
"And that's why I didn't come in the open window!" Her hiss sounded a bit irritated for some reason. "So I've been pelting you with pebbles for five minutes, but you kept rolling out of the way, until you finally tossed one back and hit me in the forehead, while you were asleep, and I have nowhere to go, and no place I can sleep, and I'm afraid they're going to find me, and I'm still hanging on to the wall outside your window!"
That woke me up. I quickly moved over to the window and undid my precautions. "I'm sorry, Hinata. Sometimes I don't wake up so quickly." Particularly when I'm in the middle of a good dream.
I helped her in and then re-set the window.
"Why don't you lock your window?"
I rolled my eyes. "Hinata! We're ninja! Like a window latch is really going to stop anyone. Besides, I like the breeze. And I kind of need the overkill, since, like I said, I don't wake up so quickly."
"How'd you dodge the pebbles in your sleep."
"You remember the previous life I told you about? Training. It's all leaking through."
"How do you train someone to dodge pebbles in their sleep?"
"Well," I reminisced, "you have to start with a young child, before their habits are settled. That always seemed to be key on Oyaji's list – young, helpless child. You start with five days of total sleep deprivation. Then you let the subject sleep, but drop pine cones on them. If a pine cone hits, they get woken up, even if you have to use shouting and kicking to wake them. You gradually move up the list, just like you'd expect – pine cones, rocks, big rocks, throwing knives, arrows, starving weasels, rabid wolves. You know, pretty straightforward. I got so that I could sleep through about anything other than breakfast. That or a bucket of cold water."
She stared at me like there was something wrong. "Your father trained you this way? While you were a little kid?"
"Well, yeah, but it was a fundamental art of our school. It was a secret, ancient technique known as The Snorlax Sleeps Deep."
"Your father was a loon."
One of my problems was that, as Sakura, I had grown up with a normal life, dealing with people and understanding social interaction. Sure, I was learning to be a killer ninja, but that was totally normal compared to Ranma's life.
"Hmmm, maybe he was a little insane…"
Then I put together some more clues.
"Wait a minute… ancient technique? Snorlax was a Pokémon! How could—? The old man lied to me! Again!"
Hinata gave the demure giggle that was more familiar to me than the irritation I'd seen earlier.
"Sorry," I realized, "you came here for a reason, didn't you?"
She sighed and nodded. "Well, you were just talking about irritating fathers…"
"Something happen? At…" I looked at the clock, "three in the morning?"
She sighed again. This was the Hinata I thought I knew. Sighing, giggling to herself, too shy to speak.
"You have to understand about the clan compound. You guessed a lot of it already."
"All I guessed was about Neji seeing through my clothes."
"Yeah. Well, it's like that in the compound. You grow up knowing that everyone can see everything. Imagine growing up in a house that was really made out of glass, and the only clothes you had were the thinnest, most transparent gauze. And you could see everything that everyone did everywhere – in the bathroom, and the bedroom, and everywhere."
I gulped. "Whoa – I see what you mean! It must have been terrible!"
She shrugged. "I guess. It actually seems pretty normal to me. I think everyone else in the world is nuts. Some of us, Hyuga I mean, have a hard time figuring out things like modesty and privacy. And it tends to upset people if you drop your clothes in public, or just casually tell them why they were so constipated a few minutes ago, and what they should eat instead."
"Yeah… I can see – I mean understand – that."
"And it's just as bad with privacy and conversations, since everyone can overhear you."
That confused me. "What do you mean? There's no such thing as Hyuga ears."
She gave me a bland look that seemed to question my intelligence. "I learned to lip read before I was four, and I was about average. Hanabi learned by age three."
It was too dark outside for my brain to be able to figure out all the implications of that. "So, you see everything, hear every conversation, and, uh…"
She nodded, apparently thinking I understood. "Exactly. So if someone wants to have a private conversation, they either have to go far outside the compound, or they have to do it in the middle of the night, when most everyone is asleep."
"Like… at three AM," I finally figured out.
"Right. Only, I was expecting that, so I watched."
"You spied on your clan elders, while they discussed the demonstration we gave?"
Hinata blinked as if she was missing the point. "I'm a Hyuga."
"Right. Of course. Well? What did they say?"
"It turns out, they weren't so concerned about you beating Neji. That was just sort of the admission price to get anyone to pay attention to you." She finally pulled out the chair at my small desk and sat down. I was already sitting on my bed.
"Okay. So tell me already!"
"Some thought that we had to own your technique, but the only way to control it was to adopt you into the clan – by force, if necessary. They'd give you the Caged Bird seal, and everything would be fine."
I gulped. "Doesn't the Caged Bird sort of make you … a slave to anyone from the main branch?"
"Uh huh. A couple of elders didn't think that went far enough. They wanted to seal me, too, for showing you any of the Heavenly Spin moves. Then there would be no problem making Hanabi the heir."
I realized that she was trembling as she revealed all of this.
"Meanwhile, there was another elder who thought you could be dangerous, if angered. He wanted to help you create a companion clan, just as you'd suggested. But two more elders jumped on that. They decided that it would be best if it looked like we were allowing a companion clan, but that Hyuga should have agents inside from the beginning. That way, Hyuga would control the old clan, as always, but also control a new clan. In addition to double votes in council, they'd have a puppet clan they could use for all sorts of useful manipulations of other Konoha factions – stuff they'd never dare to try with the main clan."
I waited, breathless.
"The arguments went on for a while, before finally it came down to the question of whether you could really beat Neji or not. If you could, particularly after only a week of familiarization with our style, it argued that you might be too powerful and dangerous to be controlled, and no advantage was worth the risk. The argument had come down to 'puppet clan' vs. 'too dangerous'. That's when Father spoke to me."
I boggled. "Didn't you say he was in the council meeting?"
"He was. But we can talk to each other. The main line family, at least. I'm not sure if the branch has figured out this trick."
She held her hand in a fairly normal position, but two fingers were folded in against the thumb.
"This means, 'Father.' At least, that's the signal for my generation. Whenever my hands are in this shape, when I am speaking, it is said directly to Father. Remember that he doesn't have to look in my direction, and I can be behind walls, and under the cover of my blankets.
"So with his hands virtually shouting 'Hinata', he moved his lips in a silent whisper and asked me, 'Awake?' And I answered, 'Yes.' And he told me to leave, right that moment. He wanted two weeks to work on things, but he wanted me safe and out of the way for those two weeks, until things settle down."
She sighed and folded her hands in her lap. "And so… I'm here. Where else can I go at three AM?"
By that point, my eyes were goggling and my mouth gaping like a fish out of water. "I—I—I had no idea that your clan – the politics – I mean, we hear about spying and espionage in the academy but this—"
Hinata nodded. "The Hyuga have no masters in espionage. Just as the Uchiha had no masters at combat. For them to see a technique is to make it their own. For us, to be within range of the byakugan, it to know, to see, to eavesdrop, to spot secrets. We don't even need to be facing in the proper direction."
"But…" I began to get scared. "Surely these are high clan secrets! Can you tell me? Have they been watching us? Am I going to get killed for knowing this?"
Hinata activated her eyes for just a moment, shifting her head minutely. "No Hyuga is within range. As for the secrets – most Konoha jonin have figured it out. You're the Hokage's apprentice. Besides, you've already worked with me learning some of the patterns to the Heavenly Spin. Already I have taught and you have learned enough to mark us both for death, in the eyes of some elders. And lastly…"
She closed her terrible eyes and last, facing down at her clenched hands.
"Yes?"
"You gave me hope. If there is any chance of us forming a clan together, I want you to know the truth about me."
"The same way I told you about my past life," I realized.
"Exactly."
I stood up and went to hug her. Despite the brave front, she was trembling like she had the world's worst case of the pneumonia.
I wrapped my arms around her, holding her and stroking her head.
"It'll be okay. Stay here for the night. Tomorrow I'll see Tsunade-sama and get some assignment from her that will keep us out of the village for a couple of weeks. Do you trust your father?"
"I don't know!"
"Well, I guess this is the sort of thing we need to expect, when we poke into clan politics. But you've got the byakugan, and some really amazing strength. I've got more than a few surprises, and some friends in really high places. We'll get through this. Okay?"
She tentatively put her arms around me. "Okay."
I went to my dresser. "Here's a clean nightgown. You can squeeze into bed with me tonight."
"Together?"
"You ever share your bed with a sister?"
That brought such a wistful look to her face. "Not since a long, long time ago."
"Well, it'll be like that again. I think. I never had any sisters."
"Okay," she agreed again.
I could tell that her story about lack of privacy was the truth. For such an incredibly shy girl, she didn't any hesitation in peeling out of her clothes. I handed her the nightgown, which fit reasonably well. Despite the fact that she was two or three sizes larger than me, up top. And her hips were wider. And her waist was narrower. And while I wasn't nearly so self-conscious about my forehead these days, I knew she had a cuter face than mine.
Life just isn't fair, is it?
I was reminded of myself in girl form, trying on Akane's clothes in a previous life. "The bust and hips are too tight," I'd said, "and the waist is too loose." Then Akane had clobbered me with a mallet. Looking at Hinata in my nightgown, for the first time in my life I understood Akane.
At least I still had pink hair. Some people found that attractive.
Hey, you take what you can get.
I snuggled into bed with Hinata, pulling the covers up over both of us. It wasn't really wide enough, so we ended up spooning, her in front.
I whispered in her ear, "Hinata, this feels oddly nice. You know, I do want to make a clan with you. And I do like snuggling with you. But – no offense – as I fall asleep, I'm going to pretend that you're a boy."
She gave the merest hint of a giggle. I wasn't sure, but I thought, as we drifted to sleep that I heard her whisper a single word.
"Naruto…"
oOoOoOoOo
Sasuke was kissing me, but the dream turned into a nightmare. He had bad breath!
"Sasuke! Ew, brush your teeth!"
He looked sullen. "I have Uchiha mouth. All Uchiha smell like this."
"Tell me you're joking," I begged. "You smell like methyl trichloride!"
He grabbed me and pulled me close. "Kiss me!" he ordered.
And that's when my Ranma side came forward. "Kiss a guy? No way!"
But Sasuke wouldn't take no for an answer. He pressed won on me, crushing his lips over mine until I couldn't breathe and I was gasping, choking, gagging…
All at once I was awake, struggling against the fume-soaked pillow pressed over me. I reached out, grabbing the hairy arms that pressed that pillow down. Some man was suffocating me! I grabbed his wrists, but I couldn't get any leverage, and my head was already reeling. All I could do was to shove him away, as hard as I could.
Arms and pillow both flew away, ending with a crash in the ceiling above me. Bits of plaster rained down on me. There was a man shoved into my ceiling! Up to about the mid-chest, if I was any judge of it. Another figure looked down at me in surprise, his glossy white ceramic mask painted like a sheep. He was pressing a pillow into the bed next to me.
It took a moment to figure that out. My brain was still fuzzy.
"Hinata!"
I grabbed the guy by the arm and yanked him sideways, as desperately as I could.
He screamed, and went flying out my window. The window shattered, and some chunks were taken out of the wall, too, where the guy's head and foot had exceeded the dimensions of the window frame.
"What the hell?" I asked, groggily.
I pulled the pillow off of Hinata, who began gasping in heaving lungfulls of breath.
The hair on the back of my neck went ZING! and I spun in time to see a quartet of kunai flying in to impale me in the back. Good old Danger Sense! Faster than I could think to act, I caught them.
I spotted the guy, sticking to the exterior wall of our house and peeking in around the corner. He had a spider mask. But it was the watcher on the opposite building that really upset me. He was in an octopus mask. It wasn't the mask, it was, "Four ANBU? They sent four ANBU after us? What's the matter with you people? Can't a girl get some sleep?"
And I sent the kunai back at them, hard.
Only, I was still groggy from whatever it was in the pillow. I didn't miss my targets, but I forgot to adjust the strength of my throw. Even for the guy across the street, I hit him in the chest. Only… the kunai didn't lodge in his chest. Both erupted out the back of his body, hitting the brick chimney behind him. Which was shattered. The kunai finally lodged (sunk to the ring) in a wall on the next street over.
"Oops."
Damn, four ANBU, and it was only… 4:30 AM?
I almost didn't regret killing those idiots. Interrupting my beauty sleep!
"Come on, Hinata, time to skip town."
She was still having trouble breathing, and my medical training belatedly kicked in. Being careful to mold the physical and spiritual energies outside my body, I cast the healing jutsu, drawing the poison back through the tissue of her lungs.
"Yecccch. It is methyl trichloride. No one's used that junk in a couple generations. What were they thinking of?"
Now that Hinata was breathing normally again, I turned it around and pulled the gunk out of my lungs, too.
"What happened?" the lavender-eyed girl demanded.
"Either one of your council friends jumped the gun, or they've come to an agreement earlier than we thought. That was an assassination squad – four ANBU."
"What?!"
I looked at the guy smushed into my ceiling. The blood was starting to drip onto my bed.
"I sort of accidentally took care of three of them." I peered out the window, spotting both splatters on the road below. "No, make it all four. A clean sweep. That gives us a couple extra minutes of head start."
I looked over at Hinata. She was on her side, levered up on one arm, but still reluctant to move forward through the increasing trickle of blood.
"Oh, hell," I said.
"What?" She was newly alarmed.
"I wish I looked even half that good. And it's my nightgown, too."
The too-tight outfit did nothing to diminish Hinata's charms. That goofball Naruto was a luckier boy than he knew. But just let Sasuke's eyes stray…
Hiss! The bitch is dead meat! She better stay away from my Sasuke-kun!
Well, fortunately Hinata didn't possess a telepathy jutsu.
"Come on," I urged, pulling the blankets back. "Time to dress. It'll be a couple of hours before the Hokage gets in, but since I'm her apprentice, we can wait in her tower. Even ANBU wouldn't dare stage a hit there."
oOoOoOoOo
"Assassins?" Tsunade demanded.
"Hyuga assassins," Hinata clarified. With an apologetic look to me, she explained, "I looked through their masks. They all had the caged bird seal, and in death, it destroyed their eyes."
I gulped.
Tsunade, on the other hand, gave a mild chuckle. "You though ninja work was difficult? Hell, politics is cutthroat in a normal city. In a hidden village where half the schemers have their own teams of private assassins? What did you expect?"
She couldn't be saying what I thought she was saying. "But… I read the news! I listen to the rumors! I've never heard—"
"Of course not!" Tsunade slammed her hands on her desk. "You think shinobi politicians are amateurs? The first hokage had a problem with his original council. They were deadlocked over issues that were absolutely stupid, and because of that, he couldn't finish building the new hidden village. All the problems vanished when about half the council suddenly came down with Seki's Sickness, and tragically died."
I nodded. "I remember studying that. It's a good thing it's not very contagious…" My eyes opened wide. "You aren't saying—! The first Hokage—?"
Looking at Hinata, the Hokage said, "If you really want to form a new clan, you're going to have to eliminate that naïve streak she has, and fast. There's a reason the Hokage has a constant ANBU guard, and there's a reason I can't just eliminate the council when they get in my way."
She rose to move to one of her cabinets where she sorted through scrolls. She set aside several and presented them to Hinata.
"Here are some histories of early clans. Study up on them. They're instructive."
Hinata unrolled the originals, grabbed some blank scrolls, and used a quick scroll copy jutsu. Ever since I was a student, I've loved watching the way the most intricate writing and seals get duplicated on the copied scroll.
Meanwhile, Tsunade-sama turned to me and noted, "Obviously, Hinata's going to have to be your strategist. You can be both muscle and medic. How are you doing in chakra control these days?"
I grimaced. "I'm still a bit messed up. I can do simple healing jutsus. I have no problem with a chakra scalpel. I drew out poison, an hour ago. But the more complex jutsus… still need some work."
My teacher nodded decisively. "Take the time. I want you back to full mastery before you return to the village."
Hinata and I stared at each other. Return to the village?
She handed us each a small stack of bills. "Here's enough ryo for you to pick up supplies – don't stop in town, get them on the road. Hinata, you have study assignments; so do you, Sakura. Your leader already has the mission briefing. If you treat her nice, maybe she'll help you train, or even teach you some new jutsus."
We blinked, as Tsunade pulled the signal cord hanging behind her desk.
"Mission…?" Hinata ventured, tentatively.
Just then, the office door was smashed open.
"I'm Mitarashi Anko, and I'm ready to go!"
END of CHAPTER 8 and ARC 1
oOoOoOoOo
Author's notes:
And thus ends ARC ONE. Yeah, I know, there are major unresolved issues (the whole clan thing, details of what exactly ki is, and how it relates to chakra). However, the new Sakura is now solidly established and has pretty well merged with her Ranma memories and abilities.
ARC TWO will let her shine for a bit and give us a chance at some adventure. The story will be a bit lighter (three girls on a mission). Maybe, with luck, there will be some character development between Sakura and Hinata. A few other secrets may be learned.
Next chapter: Akno reveals a threat to all Konoha ninja!
