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Intermission
2 of the third month
Two days after Naruto began to live in our House, the Regent passed a new law to the Council. The only reason I even heard about it was because my father expressed his vehement disapproval. Martial law has been instigated and all negotiations with the Akatsuki were to cease immediately. The Key, as the Leader of the Akatsuki called it, was not to be looked for, and no attempt may be made to even discover what it is. Father is furious, as now there is a curfew for all citizens of the Konoha City-state, no matter how high up the ladder you are. He was nearly man-handled by a few very short-sighted and stupid Royal Guards, but he managed to wave his low Security Number at them, and that managed to get them off his tail. But the drive home was very tense. I could feel the anger coming off him like heat. When Naruto found out, he of course laughed himself hoarse.
Speaking of Naruto, in two short days, he all ready explored and memorized the entire House. Aside for the Restricted Areas, he's made a mental map of the place. I think he is very fond of the Inner Garden, which is really just a half acre of green in an enclosed courtyard on my wing of the House. It's a grassy hill, a small pond, and a large, ancient and twisted oak digging its roots down through the hill's crown and into the pond's edge. It's not even really a garden like the large one my father loves, with no proper flowers, or rock gardens. Just the pond, the hill, and the tree. Perhaps it is the view he enjoys. If you should climb the tree, you would find yourself looking out over the roofs of the House and onto the surrounding fields, the rolling green hills of my father's land. I found him napping in the branches twenty minutes ago when I called him for lunch. Surprisingly, he does not look at all peaceful when he sleeps. His body is tense, his mouth is set, and his eyebrows furrow. There's a passion in him even when he rests.
15 of the third month
There was a call to meeting today by the Shinobi. The sub-mand always gives me a splitting headache, and mentioned to Naruto he was very lucky not to have one installed yet. He, however, was far too excited about sneaking out of the House to pay me or Neji much attention. It's as if that boy craves nothing from life but freedom. It's like he eats and drinks the stuff. Sporting a smug grin, he was sworn into secrecy and was welcomed into our pact. Ino and Sakura flustered him by pecking him on the cheeks, and Kiba started wrestling him to the ground and gave him a noogie. Boys.
The Eye made an appearance through holo, and congratulated him as well. He also gave him a training schedule and assigned Neji in instructing him in the Hyuuga's martial art. Considering the fact that our way of fighting is so reliant on the Byakugan, and the fact that it's really a family tradition and shouldn't be taught to 'blonde smart-alecks with no intelligence', my cousin was understandably furious. The Eye...does not care. He continued on and spoke to Naruto about another instructor, one whom we are not familiar with, whom he named as simply The Arm. Understandably, this caused a commotion, as it hinted that our group was bigger than we had supposed. Naruto seems to be a catalyst for the unknown's insurgence. We returned home and went to sleep, all with much on our minds. Well, I know much is on my mind at least.
20 of the fifth month
Neji is quite intolerable as of late. With much fury and grudging assent, he has begun to train Naruto. And now, he has taken it as an excuse to thrash to ever-living daylights out of him. My cousin is angry and upset, and I can even understand why, but why take it out on Naruto? I admire Naruto's persistence in the matter, anyway. No matter how often he is knocked about, he stands and listens without quarrel to Neji's overblown expectations of him and strives to do so. I had to take Naruto to the clinic earlier, with a broken rib. He heals uncommonly fast, so my pain was not great and drawn out. But during training sessions, I feel so miserable, as if I'm being beaten with a bat. No marks appear on my skin, but I can feel every blow and its ache afterward. Every rock as he falls and palm-strike. The first few days, I became violently ill, but now, I've grown accustomed to watching the fights and at least anticipating where it will hurt.
I've decided to help train Naruto. I'm as well-versed in our art as any other Hyuuga, and better. We train under the tree in the Inner Garden, and I am slowly coming to realize the beauty of the place. Before, I thought it underdeveloped, a lazy gardener's forgotten mistake. But there is a peace there. Nothing from the House can be heard and the way the wind plays in the branches of the oak and rustles in the cattails of the pond is soothing to me. The sunlight there seems strong and warm, like a heavy blanket on a cold night. It is there I seem to spend more and more of my time. And coincidentally, this means I spend a great deal of time with Naruto. I rarely speak much, and our conversations are always rather one-sided, with his talking of his House and the many things he enjoyed there, with the talk of his training and some new technique taught to him by Neji's grudging hand, with talk of his thoughts on the latest, more suppressing law the Regent has put forth. It seems every week our Immortal Leader gives us harsher laws. Perhaps he fears Akatsuki activity, and is trying to limit them through limiting his people. I fear it is not working. Naruto generally zones out if I try to talk politics, but anything else, he'll listen with moderate attention. But since he often listens with his eyes closed, face to the sun, he'll doze off and then awaken randomly with a shout. It's jarring and amusing all at once.
Naruto would do well to learn our art quickly, else I might go mad. I can feel that mark on my neck, and stare at it often in the mirror. The Kyuubi has fingered me for some reason, and now I am all but a slave to his cruel joke. So fervently do I hope that the monster does not torture his host as he does me. Naruto does not deserve it.
4 of the eighth month
Naruto, and he alone, was called away to a remote section of country near the Wall, where he is to spend the next two weeks training with the ambiguous Arm. He snuck away almost without telling me. He ran into me as I came into the kitchen, nearly smashed his sack full of food into me, and smirked, telling me in one breath that he was to train with The Arm and would be away. He left not half an hour later. It is suddenly very quiet in the House.
Of other matters, the Akatsuki have destroyed another building, this one a Royal Guard headquarters, demanding The Key again. Again, the Regent's edict was to do nothing but to try and capture the renegades. No talks were to be had, no trying to look for the Key. They, of course, were far too smart to leave traces in the destruction, but the people are beginning to grow restless beneath the onslaught of curfew and the rough-handling and wrongful deaths of three citizens by skittish and aggressive Royal Guards. The Royal Guard Leader, Kakashi, tried to assuage people's fears and the guards were imprisoned and executed for their use of fatal force on innocents, but it did little or nothing for people who all ready have it set in their minds that the Royal Guards are out to kill them. The fear is spreading in Konoha, and it is almost tangible. People no longer walk the streets, no longer enjoy a coffee at the local café, and no longer leave their homes except for work and necessities. Indeed, even the Royal Guards are fidgety and worried. Many of their comrades and officers had been crushed by the collapsing headquarters, and everyone knew someone who died. They walk about, yelling and brandishing their weapons with hollow and sleepless eyes.
The Council are running themselves ragged as well. My Father comes home every night, exhausted, his regal air stripped from his body. He speaks to me of the how all ideas of trying to see what Akatsuki wants is shot down by the Regent and how there is constant back-stabbing in the companies of the Council. He speaks of fear and the knowledge that a traitor sits among them every day. All investigate each other as quietly as possible, and sometimes, they are found out. There is yelling, there is fear, there is fury, and no one knows what to do. Tsunade has her hands full with reviving Delphi, and the Uchiha House only sends a proxy now, in Sasuke's stead. I know the reason for that.
Among the Shinobi, the Eye is increasing our activity. We have begun to actively gather intelligence on all underground organizations in the City and are constantly training. He expects something, no doubt. But he is not afraid, and I cannot fathom why. There is still a lax behavior about him, as if this is simply what must be done and what will come, will come. There is no sense of urgency about him, but about us, there is. Sasuke and Neji are training like a mad-men and hardly ever leave the simulation rooms. Sakura is spreading herself thin in training, intelligence gathering, and medical studies. Ino and Shikamaru are grinding themselves into the cracks of the City, infiltrating the organizations that don't see light. Kiba and I have been poring over books to find any precedence of a Key, or any hint of what the Akatsuki might want. And atop all that, I can feel Naruto, wherever he is, tearing himself apart with whatever new technique he is learning. These are trying times.
19 of the eighth month
He's come back! Naruto's come back! I don't think I truly realized just how much I missed his company and voice. I can't stop smiling. Despite all the trying times and the furious training, it's like a weight's come off my shoulders. My hands are shaking and I have to stuff them into my pockets to stop them.
We went out to the Inner Garden, and he spoke little of anything but his training. He would not speak of his teacher, however, but showed me what he'd learned. In two short weeks, he's developed something incredibly powerful. It's as if he's compacted massive amounts of swirling chakra into a ball the size of his fist. It tears things apart like cyclone.
Afterwards, we simply sat beneath the tree, he munching on his lip thoughtfully, I letting my own thoughts run away from me. Suddenly, he turned to me and simply stared. So often, it seems as if he looks right though me, as if I were made of crystal and he could see whatever was behind me. But he truly looked at me this evening. Then, as suddenly as he'd begun to stare, he stopped, and shut his eyes to doze in that late afternoon sun. I left him there, breathing deeply in slumber, and for once, he wasn't tense. He was simply asleep.
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Seriously, folks, you make me so depressed with the 'no-review'ing. Do you wanna see a guy cry? Look, look, giant tears of sorrow. ;-; Le weep!
Sub-Mand: Short for a sub-mandibular phone implant. A paper-thin organic/inorganic fusion of silicate and the host's tissue, it uses body chemicals to charge from its position on the surface of the mandible. It uses bone conduction to communicate and the Konoha dome to bounce its signals off of. It works almost like a short-wave AM frequency, but with a very specific, encrypted digital channel and a far more powerful, multi-dimensional quantum signal to attain greater distances with sharper clarity. Their highly expensive and mostly used for undercover stake-outs and top-secret communications among the Royal Guards.
The time leap would have seemed very stilted and oddly arranged if I'd just continued the story and had to explain everything that'd happened over the gap. So, I've decided to do Hinata Diary Excerpts. XD This may seem tired and worn-out, but it's effective in that it communicates exactly what I want it to. Besides, she seems like the one who's always watching stuff, and analyzing it in her head. So, yeah.
There'll probably be another two chapters of this. They're not hard to write, so they'll come easy, since I have a fairly clear idea of what I want to happen in the time between the main story parts.
-Raz