Title: Changing It To Fit
Chapter: 7
A/N: Slightly shorter than my usual chapters, but I'm on a role actually. I just feel like this is a good place to halt this chapter and would like to get it out before 6am. I'll start on 8 and hopefully post it by Tuesday though I make no promises. Not beta'd, not really proofread, I'm too tired to care atm so this will have to do. Review please, if only to tell me you hate it. Reviews make me post faster, annoying begging for them be damned.
Hinata signed her waver calmly. It wasn't uncommon to have to sign something like this in the ninja world, they'd all had to sign one when they became ninja in the first place. Though the job came with free medical care at least; otherwise most ninja would be up to their eyeballs in debt over medical things. Ninja training alone could rack up a bill of several hundred when you lived under a regiment like Lee and Gai did.
The wavers were signed with a few grumbles and complaints, but once they were all handed in the snake woman known as Anko told them to go to a gate and receive a scroll. The rules were explained, and she wished them all a mocking good luck. They were then pointed to their gates and given the go ahead to enter the Forest of Death. Hinata wondered if things would play out the same this time...
On the third day Hinata and her team made it through to the Tower with two scrolls. She had seen no sign of Naruto and Team 7 which worried her. She couldn't recall the day or time that Orochimaru had attacked Sasuke, but she knew it was in the second part of the Exams. Naruto had said everything had worked out fine, but in later years he remembered that day regretfully as the day it all went bad. It was the day that Orochimaru got his fangs into Sasuke and the turning point in Sasuke's life that made him turn traitor. Hinata hoped that his friendship with them would help him through this point if things still happened as they had.
Her musings were interrupted as a flurry of conversation permeated the canteen where food was served in the Tower; another team had come in and they looked much the worse for the wear. Hinata rose from her place by Shino and Kiba to investigate. She activated her Byakugan to guide her towards the new arrivals, being able to see chakra through walls came in handy it would seem.
"...eak tried to bite him, Kakashi-sensei." Naruto was saying as she entered the room, "Oh, hey Hinata-chan!"
Hinata smiled at Naruto while inside she was wondering if what she had heard meant that Orochimaru had marked his vessel again, "How was the Forest Naruto-kun?"
"It was great! We got to fight some giant snakes and this Grass-nin tried to bite Sasuke-teme. I kicked him away and he me on the foot instead, it was really weird! I felt really dizzy for a second before I guess I passed out. I woke up when Sakura-chan and Sasuke-teme were fighting off some Sound-nin and apparently I went a little weird and chased them away I guess. I don't really remember much of it but Sakura said she could see a haze of chakra around my body and I broke one of boys' arms easily after he tried to attack me. I want to find him and see if he's all right, she says it was pretty bad..." he trailed off, realizing he was babbling.
Hinata had stiffened when she heard that Naruto had been bitten, she would have to investigate the mark later under the pretense of seeing if he was alright. Even if he had been given the seal, hopefully the Kyuubi's influence would be enough to keep it in check or neutralize it all together.
"That's an interesting story Naruto-kun, could I see where he bit you? You applied a healing jutsu to it right?" she asked, expecting that he had forgotten.
"Eheh, I kinda forgot I guess." he said sheepishly, taking off his tattered sandal to show her the top of his foot where there was a faint tomoe mark. There was something off about it compared to the one she had seen on Anko and as had been described to her. It had four marks and was a crimson color that she associated with the Kyuubi's chakra.
"Interesting," she mumbled to herself.
Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke had been looking on in silence for the duration of their conversation but Kakashi chose that moment to intervene.
"What do you say we get you to a medic, eh Naruto?" he mumbled from his place in his book.
The mark still had puncture wounds around it, apparently the Kyuubi's healing wasn't working on them. Perhaps there was a poison in it that the demon hadn't encountered before? Hinata took a look at it with her Eyes and found that there was a mild poison surrounding the area but it shouldn't have effected Naruto's remarkable healing rate...she shook her head and performed a minor poison leaching jutsu and said, "No need, sir. I can't see anything wrong with his chakra. All I saw was a minor poison that apparently wasn't spreading or doing much of anything else."
Kakashi nodded, but insisted that he go talk with Naruto alone. Hinata nodded and turned to face Sasuke as the two left, "So Sasuke-kun, what happened while Naruto was unconscious?"
Sasuke shrugged and told her that nothing much had happened, he had had to carry the 'dobe's sorry ass' across the Forest to a safe place to sleep for a while. The strange Grass-nin had left them alone after staring at Naruto for a few moments and smirking. He and Sakura had set up a schedule for taking watch and he had gone out and gotten a few scrolls from especially weak teams. Naruto had been out for a day and they had two sets of scrolls when the Sound-nins attacked. Sakura held them off for a while, but Sasuke had been off on one of his scroll hunts and by the time he'd gotten back Naruto had already pretty much ripped someone's arms from their body. Sakura, who's hair was noticeably shorter, explained that she had been holding off the Sound-nins with some help from fellow Leaf-nins when Naruto had suddenly woken up to see her hair (which she had cut off to escape one of the enemy that had a hold on it) and ask who'd done it to her. She pointed and he leaped, it was over before she could really process much, "but he was surrounded by a visible, angry, red chakra that looked like flames."
Hinata mulled this over in her head and decided that whatever the Cursed Seal was doing, it was being either thwarted by the Kyuubi or the beast was using it to its and perhaps Naruto's advantage. She would monitor the movements of the chakra around the Shiki Fujin for the next few days to make sure the demon wasn't attempting to escape.
"Thanks for telling me this, Sasuke-kun, Sakura-san. I'm glad you all made it through." she said before leaving the room to see where Kakashi had taken Naruto.
"Ah, Kakashi-kun. I see you have sealed up my mark on the boy." Orochimaru sneered manically.
Kakashi tensed, finished with the sealing and no where near top form to fight off an enemy such as the snake-sannin. His hand inched towards his kunai pouch as he turned and kept his face impassive, "Of course I did, you expected for us to leave your taint unchecked in our village, traitor?"
The man laughed, "Of course not Kakashi-kun. Tell Sarutobi-sensei that if he cancels the Exams he will...regret it."
"Oh? What can one man, no matter your power or status, do to a village such as the Leaf?" Kakashi glared.
"You would be surprised..." the snake-like man whispered, his voice trailing off as he disappeared.
Kakashi cursed, where were the ANBU who were supposed to be guarding this room?!
"HYUUGA HINATA VS. HYUUGA NEJI" the board displayed.
Hinata grimaced, should she lose like last time? This time she knew she was far superior to her young cousin. Though he was older than her by a year or so, she had the skills and memory of someone twice his age and she could wipe the floor with him in Jyuuken and other forms of taijutsu, but the fight between him and Naruto in the finals had knocked her favorite cousin out of his 'fate' funk and she didn't see an easy alternative to that fight. Hinata sighed and resigned herself to a beating...if slightly less than last time.
"UZUMAKI NARUTO VS. INUZUKA KIBA"
A beaten, but conscious Hinata grinned at her teammate, he gaped for a moment, not used to such blatant displays of amusement from her. Then he grinned back and flashed her a thumbs up, thinking she was acknowledging he would win hands down. She was really grinning because she remembered the story he had told her in the future, complaining about Naruto's 'methods' for disguising his scent. Accidental or not.