A/N – Still don't own Naruto. Again, any ideas or constructive criticism would be really helpful. I'm not good at fighting scenes so I have to thank my daughter, Laurelflower for her help Thanks, honey.

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Two pairs of eyes peered into the darkness, one pair was vivid amber. The other had no pupils and were an ice blue. "What do you see, Hiashi?" asked Tsunade.

"There are two guards and a summon snake seal at each entrance. None should pose too great a threat to us, but we really need to make sure to go undetected, eliminating the guards before they alert anyone of our presence. We don't know the full extent of Kabuto's resources here and we may be able to buy Konoha more time." Hiashi said with his eyes full of concern.

Tsunade understood that he was thinking about his daughter in particular and more than that, Hiashi loved Konoha; would protect it at any price. She wanted to reassure him and since it was her nature to be provocative, she purred "I was Hokage, after all, Hiashi" as she began hand signals and bit her thumb, wiping the blood forming a seal signal on the ground. An army of small slugs began their journey to the various entrances of the compound. Tsunade began the hand signs again.

"Suppress your chakra, Hiashi, and follow me, I'll need you before this is over."

Hiashi took her hand, though it did not look like hers as he prayed for her safety and told her, "Tsunade, I will be near you at all times." Their eyes met with that knowing look of the Shinobi. That unspoken knowledge their mission may or may not meet success and that one or both of them may not return to their home either way.

"If I fall, Tsunade, you know what to do to preserve the Byakugan, so…." He began.

"Shut up, Hiashi, you're pissing me off" Tsunade said with a wink, "Besides, I haven't won a bet in ages." With that, she headed for the western gate.

"I hardly mind your temper at all, Tsunade when you have your usual look" he spoke towards the spot she had been standing. While Hiashi's marriage he been arranged, he was fortunate enough to have fallen deeply in love with his betrothed. His lovers had been few, particularly for the leader of a main village family. Hiashi was a man of power and potency as well as wisdom. No one who ever met him ever forgot him. How strange it was that one of his more memorable kisses was shared with a woman who could not recall it. It had been intense, and he had felt that legendary strength of hers, barely bridled. Oh yes, that kiss would go down in his memoirs as one of his personal favorites.

Add to that the huge amount of respect he had for her and the sacrifices she was making right now, partly because of the threats made against the Hyuga and his daughter. Hiashi prayed for the safety of two special women.

Following Tsunade at a distance, Hiashi drew on the nature of the Hyuga, making his footfalls silent, heel to toe with perfect balance and fluidity. Hyuga were superbly suited to missions of stealth, such silent creatures were they.

Tsunade walked with confidence up to the gate and adjusting her glasses, she spoke in a voice not her own "Idiots! Could a herd of elephants come to my gate without either of you even noticing?" Her hands began to glow a cold blue color. The icy flames surrounded her hands, engulfing her extremities.

"Fools, you will be disciplined for allowing a trespasser to come without alarming me, strictly disciplined!"

The younger guard cowered in fear, hoping his "master" would relent. The older one noticed a slight difference in Lord Kabuto, something slightly feminine that raised his alarm. He dug a kunai out of his back pocket and threw it at the imposter posing as his master.

'Hmm, better than I expected, he found me out sooner than I'd hoped'. Though Tsunade.

"You are the fool! Lord Kabuto monitors pretty much every move we make, but he never comes around here. He says it brings back memories he wants to forget."

Without warning, Tsunade punched the gate, smashing it to powder. While doing this, she released the transformation jutsu, returning to her original form.

"You're right, I'm not Kabuto. Before this is over, you will wish that I was" stated Tsunade as she cracked her knuckles and started walking towards the two guards menacingly.

Hiashi noticed what was happening from a distance. He wasn't particularly alarmed because of his trust in Tsunade's abilities. He knew these two were no match for Tsunade. Suddenly, he saw a snake begin to materialize and he considered stepping in. Then he shook his head, if it gets bad, I'll intervene.

The snake lunged at Tsunade with its fangs dripping poison but she easily dodged it, leaping to the side and up on top of a pillar that still stood after her demolition job. Tsunade leaped and flipped in mid-air right in front of the older of the two guards. She threw a lethal punch at him, sending him flying towards the snake, who batted him away with his tail sending him flying into the younger guard. Both crashed into the wall and crumpled to the ground.

Tsunade whipped her head around, looking for the snake. It appeared behind her suddenly and had her wrapped in it's crushing embrace with her arms at her sides. She was trapped. She tried to push chakra out to her arms and hands to get out of its grasp, but that only made the serpent's grip tighter. Tsunade could feel her heart hammering against her chest as she looked up at the snakes widening maw that threatened to consume her. "Shit, I can't go like this!" Tsunade spat out.

Suddenly, the snake began to shake violently and it whipped around trying to find the source of it's troubles. It could not move like it wanted and that was making it very angry. It's grip on Tsunade failed and she leaped to a safe distance as it thrashed around, wanting to bite anything that it could get to. Problem was, that movement impulses were being directly incorrectly inside it's body, making it's fight ineffective. Tsunade hit the snake like a sledgehammer with chakra streaming all around her hands and it disappeared in a puff of smoke.

With the snake's mass gone, Hiashi became visible to her. His Byakugan was still activated as he was trying to get any information he could about their next target area. His face became twisted in fear and rage as he told her "Kabuto has a made an exact replica of the Hyuga compound inside there."

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Hyuga Hinata represented quite a lot to Kabuto. First, she was of the Leaf Village and though he had not lived there in many years, though he had betrayed his home and was now considered an enemy, he clung to anything to do with the Konoha. Going back for the Chuunin exams to gather information was always something that Kabuto enjoyed. Each time he could successfully walk among the leaf villagers without being immediately found out was a matter of pride for him about his ability to conceal himself and blend in. More than that, those times afforded him precious moments of normalcy. Even a brief pretense of his former self was worth great risk to Kabuto. It was in those moments such as the one in which he had administered healing to Hyuga Hinata from behind his fake ANBU mask that he could best imagine his own fate before all the betrayals, the lies and deceptions.

He would probably have been an ANBU Captain for a time and then went on to be a well respected medical Jounin who was active in training the new Genin, somewhat like the famous "Copy Ninja". He would be in many Bingo Books, but not for evil doings. Perhaps he would have married and known the love of a woman, someone like the lovely Kurenai. Maybe he would have remained a highly sought after bachelor for many years, having brief interludes with the many lovely kunoichi of the Leaf Village, in time, perhaps marrying someone much younger, like the sweet Hinata. No matter, this would become his new reality. Orochimaru had designs on the Sharigan, but that group's character was too flawed and the fire element did not suit him as well as the water element more central to the Hyuga kekkei genkai.

Kabuto was growing impatient, he had sent word to Kisame the day before and he should have arrived by now.

Feeling the familiar mental tug, Kabuto fought it down. Incompetent buffoon, Let me out! Orochimaru was trying to force his way to the surface. Kabuto could feel his head pounding with the typical headache he usually got from the tug of war with his former master.

Serving Orochimaru during his life had been hell for Kabuto. Of course, there had been allure of the man's genius and the prestige of being the right-hand man to a member of the Legendary Sannin, but his master had ultimately been insane.

Kabuto did regret his decision to house what was left of the Snake Lord. With his own self-healing abilities, Kabuto had never been faced with a body that didn't work and he did not have the vanity to avoid the aging process.

Feeling irritable from his struggles with Orochimaru's remains, Kabuto barked at a servant as she passed by the room "Have Deidara meet me in the gardens for tea in five minutes and prepare his provisions. He will be going on a mission."

As Kabuto entered the gardens, he felt satisfaction at the detail. After Deidara left, he would continue his study and preparation for his long prepared for Hyuga prize.