AN.
OH SHIT. WHO IS THIS BITCH, FULFILLING HIS PROMISES FOR ONCE?!
3/3
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto AND the lyrics to the song The Greatest Show
WARNINGS: EDITING MISTAKES MAYBE.
"Oh? Is that so? That's good, that's good, you're on the road to recovery," Tokina's clinical psychologist nodded in approval, tapping his clipboard. She smiled at him, letting herself relax in the sofa that he bought with his own money after she complained about it for the umpteenth time. Taizo called it complaining, Tokina called it a friendly suggestion. She stroked one of his cats, a cute orange tabby that she dubbed "Whiskers", scratching it behind its ear. "Honestly, snake-chan, I don't even know why I still put up with you. This is so inappropriate." Taizo complained, sighing.
Tokina wagged an amused finger at him, "Well, the Hokage doesn't seem to care. Besides, your cats are probably my only incentive to see your ugly mug."
Taizo smacked her head with his clipboard, "Behave, you little—"
"Insulting and harming your patients? What kind of doctor are you, furball?" Tokina chuckled, rubbing the part of her head Taizo hit. It was all in good nature.
When she learned that Taizo traded his forehead protector for a doctor's license during her time of…absence…she pulled every heartstring Hiruzen had just so she could have him as a therapist. Using the skills of manipulation that Orochimaru taught to her, it was fairly easy to crack Hiruzen's battle-hardened heart. After a few sessions, Taizo and Tokina snuck out to go find Soma and have a little reunion that went well.
They liked the separate paths they walked in and none of them suggested to reform Team Soma.
The retired cat-nin smirked at her, "Whatever you say, snake-chan. I get paid by the hour so you can do whatever the hell you want." He wrote something on his clipboard before shooing Tokina away. Tokina scratched behind Whiskers' ear and gently pushed the cat off. She bid her therapist goodbye before walking out of the room.
"Oh, and Tokina?" Taizo stopped the Hyūga before she could open the room, "I'm speaking to you as a friend and not your doctor—which I shouldn't have to because I'm breaking every rule in the book but whatever—"
Tokina rolled her eyes "What is it Taizo?"
"Right," He regained his train of thought, "You should ease up on this Obito kid. He's only doing what he thinks is right."
Which is exactly how he gets killed in the first place,
Tokina could have crushed the doorknob if it wasn't for her self-restraint. She didn't say another word, opening the door gently and closing it with the same force. Taizo sighed at his old-friend's hard headedness.
Obito arrived at the training grounds at his usual time.
Late,
Kakashi didn't even bother to give him the time of day while Minato just sighed. He looked around for his best friend who was still pissed off at him. It's been a day after their first C-rank. Obito already apologized profusely but it seemed that wasn't enough to rouse forgiveness off of the Hyūga.
"Hey, where's Kina-chan?" He asked around his team, Kakashi continued to ignore him while Minato looked up thoughtfully. "I believe she's with her mother. Apparently there's something going on the Yuki Compound and the Hyūgas have been invited to come over."
"Ah, Akane-san has been talking about that for some time, now that I think about it." Obito scratched his head and laughed it off. "I guess I just wasn't paying enough attention."
"I thought you were a good listener." Minato nudged his student. "You squat around her house and don't even listen to Tokina-chan's mom? How disgraceful."
"Sh-shut up!" a flushed Obito pointed at Minato accusingly "You say that but you can barely string three sentences together when you're with Kushina-san, much less give her your ear!"
Before Minato could argue with his own student, Kakashi interrupted them with a harsh sigh and steered the subject to a more mature one. This is what he gets for relying on Tokina's silencing genjutsu so much. "The Yuki Clan, huh? Isn't there a group that wants them gone?"
Obito nodded, "Y-yeah, it was all around the papers. They think that they're just some spies that are taking advantage of the Hyūgas' hospitality." The Uchiha felt a grin creep around his face before nudging Kakashi's arm with his elbow. "Oh? Is the Silver-Haired Ice King finally growing a heart?"
"Maybe you should grow a brain first," Kakashi gave Obito the most frigid of side-glares. The two had another stare-off before Minato cleared his throat to gain their attention and stop a disaster from happening.
"Without Tokina-chan, we aren't eligible to take any missions for now." Minato smirked at how Obito practically deflated. "But I wasn't planning on doing that, anyway. Since your first C-rank mission was a success; I'm going to treat you guys to a fancy restaurant!"
Before Obito had a chance to "whoop", Kakashi raised his brow. "How is that C-rank a success? It was a trap to kill you, sensei."
"But it didn't kill me! And that's all that matters!"
Kakashi sighed at the impetuousness of his beloved teacher. He couldn't tell whether Obito or Kushina was corrupting him.
It was probably a combined effort.
"Yeah! Let's go!"
"Tokina-chan, are you ready yet?" Her mom called from the living room. Akane huffed at how vain her daughter could be sometimes. She usually took an hour in a good day inside their bathroom. Normally, Akane didn't mind since her daughter was smarter than to just assume that Akane wouldn't use the bathroom so the young Hyūga had to schedule her facial routine every morning and adhere to a strict time.
But for some reason, she was taking too long.
Akane was tempted to use her Byakugan before Tokuma tugged on her long sleeves. "Mom, why is onee-chan taking too long?"
She was about to answer her child's answer via her Byakugan before Tokina confirmed that she was almost done with a distracted noise. Akane shook her head, sadly realizing that she probably inherited her meticulous trait from her after she creased out Tokuma's formal yukata.
Little did the pair know, the reason was far from being vain.
Tokina clutched the edge of the sink, muddling the gasps of her breath and throwing all her pain into a butterfly to subdue it but alas, it was unbearable.
It felt like her skull was being crushed, her legs were being grinded, her eyes being burned.
She slowly kneeled on the bathroom floor, covering her mouth to mask her panting from her family, summoning more butterflies to apply a comfort genjutsu on herself. Slowly, the bathroom was filled with the insects, trying to calm their summoner.
"Contract..."
Contract?!
The pain disappeared as quickly as the word appeared in her head. Tokina slumped and sat down on the cold tiles, catching her breath. Her body felt like it had been through the wringer. She didn't know what the hell happened but she sure will investigate after her affairs.
What the hell did Orochimaru do to her?
Was it even Orochimaru?
She shook her head, dusted off her very expensive rental kimono and opened the bathroom door not before wiping the sweat from her forehead with a napkin.
"Sorry! I had to use the bathroom." She lied through her teeth with an apologetic smile. "It would be embarrassing to pee in the middle of the inauguration ceremony!"
Tokuma nodded wisely, "Very embarrassing. That's why I peed while taking a shower!"
Akane repressed the urge to smack the one and only tactless, unhygienic Hyūga Tokuma at the back of his head. Tokuma rolled her eyes at her little brother's antics. "Okay, Kuma-kun. We'll need to talk to Obito and what he's been teaching you."
"Hey!"
"Boy am I stuffed!" Obito let out a totally inappropriate moan that made some housewives glare at him as they walked. "We need to go there again someday, this time with Kina-chan and Kushina-san."
"Easy for you to say," Minato sulked, clutching his too-light-for-comfort froggy wallet that Jiraiya had given him when he signed the toad contract. "I thought you would have shown more self-restraint. I didn't expect you to order half of the menu!"
"Hey! It was your treat, sensei!" Obito threw the accusation back to Minato "You of all people should know, sensei, that growing boys need their food!"
Minato scoffed before flaring at Kakashi, who looked absolutely smug. "What's your excuse?"
Kakashi, who also ordered half of the menu to not lose to Obito, shrugged and gave him a blasé look "What do you mean, sensei?"
Minato hung his head low "So much for that date with Kushina." He sighed "I was so looking forward to it."
Obito chuckled at his sensei's suffering, a trait he was slowly inheriting out of sheer spite thanks to that same kind-hearted sensei enjoying their weekly torture—he meant training—sessions. Before he could poke his sensei's ego any further, a man bumped hid shoulder, causing him to stumble and fall.
"H-hey!" Obito glared at the dickhead that didn't even have the courtesy to apologize. The man did stumble but didn't even give Obito a second glance. The man regained his balance and continued running. Something swiped his cheek that he only felt around his hand, usually to be tied by a kunai or shuriken.
Was that...sealing paper? The Uchiha tried catching the man but he was too fast, and after a matter of few seconds, he was lost in the crowd.
Huh, that should be normal. They were in war after all so people with materials that run around in the market place are a common occurrence around this time of month. Hell, he is one of those errand boys thanks to many tedious D-rank missions.
...but something didn't sit right in his stomach.
Obito stood up; Minato put his hand on the Uchiha's hair that he couldn't maintain for his life. "Honestly, some people these days." He ruffled it "Are you okay, Obito?"
When the Uchiha didn't respond, Minato instead looked onwards at the direction his student was staring at.
"Tsk, what's the hold up this time?" Kakashi huffed behind Obito.
Obito clutched his hand into a fist before bolting after the man without further explanation. "Hey! Wait up!"
"Oi! Obito! Wait!" Minato called out,
Kakashi clicked his tongue and cursed before following suite.
The two higher ranked shinobi easily caught up. "Obito, calm down, he just pushed you!" Minato tried to negotiate while dodging the crowd with ease.
"It's not that!" Obito rushed out, "I just have a bad feeling about that man, alright?" Obito put more chakra behind his leaps and went to the roofs. Minato sighed and Kakashi questioned why he was even following that idiot before jumping next to him.
"Where could he be..." Obito strained his eyes.
Minato tapped the Uchiha's shoulder, successfully getting his attention. Minato eyed Obito warily before letting out a tired sigh. "If I get in trouble, this is on your head, okay?" Minato scratched the back of his neck with a sheepish smile. "I'm kinda broke thanks to you guys so I need all the missions we can get."
Obito nodded, "Of course!"
"This is so going to look bad in my record." Minato grumbled before pointing towards the Yuki Compound "I sense him there,"
Obito paused, "Amazing, sensei! You can sense people you only just met?"
Minato shook his head, "Not really, but..." He focused in the chakra that the blonde jonin could compare to a fire lit up with gasoline that had a strong intent in burning everything to the ground. "Let's just say that man has an interesting chakra signature and leave it at that."
The Yuki compound was crowded with the Yuki Clan and select members of the Hyūga Clan, all wearing formal wear as they listened to the speech of the newly inaugurated Yuki Clan head. It signified Konoha formally welcoming them in her arms, and acknowledging them as one of her children and not a refugee. The Yuki Clan has already given all information they could give regarding Kiri and the trained shinobi among them have begun reinstating themselves.
One of the select few is Hyūga Akane and her children Hyūga Tokina and Hyūga Tokuma, quietly listening to the speech.
Konoha needed all the troops they can get. With Kiri joining forces with Iwa and Kumo's involvement in trying to kill one of their most promising teams, it seemed like the whole shinobi world was against them.
However, a trait often shared among shinobi is paranoia. Paranoia that held suspicion, and it times like these, suspicion turned into distrust and quickly violence.
So it was expected that there were certain groups of people in Konoha that didn't appreciate a whole new clan appearing in their midst, especially one from an enemy village.
Hiro, the leader of the anti-Yuki movement, was prepared to risk his life to prevent these new squatters into Konoha's midst.
His troops surrounded the Yuki Compound, ready to bring the infrastructure down with paper bombs and other forms of explosives.
Sadly, there were Hyūgas inside the building, a faithful clan that served Konoha well but what were a few casualities caught in the fire compared to their entire village freezing over. The Hyūga Clan provided for the Yuki Clan. They were sympathizers. They were a necessary casualty.
"The Hokage is a fool." Hiro clutched the paper bomb, in front of the compound that seemed to be emanating cold air within it. He tapped his earpiece, activating it.
No turning back,
"Are you ready to ensure that our beloved village will be safe from these vermin?"
"Yes, Hiro-san!" A chorus of answers resounded through his earpiece. He smirked, tying the paper bomb to the kunai. By blasting five specific parts of the giant compound, the whole building will come crashing down, crushing the Yuki if they even managed to survive five powerful blasts. And if that hadn't killed them, the others will make sure to.
"On my mark,"
Hiro readied his kunai,
"three…"
He aimed, steadying his hand.
"two…"
He pulled back his arm,
"o—"
Instead of the kunai connecting to the wooden post, he felt a first connect to his face.
"STOP RIGHT THERE!" A high pitched voice sounded right after he punched him square in the jaw.
The impact caused him to fall down the roof. Before he lost consciousness, he heard the voices of his team. "H-Hiro-san? Everyone! Fire-"
He heard a stream of curses and other sounds of confrontation before he fainted.
Obito immediately ran inside the Yuki Compound, having full faith that the other two would take care of the outside. The usually quiet and cold compound was unusually hot and noisy; fists meeting fists, whirls of metal and ice breaking resounding throughout the compound. Turning to a hallway, he was greeted with a kunai between his eyes that was only inches from his forehead. The Yuki Clan member (or what he assumed is a Yuki Clan member, judging by how the kunai had a frozen tip) sneered at Obito. "Who are you?"
"Never mind that! Where is Kina-chan?!" Obito demanded, the Yuki not appreciating his tone in the slightest.
"I don't know a "Kina"." A high pitched scream was heard at the distance. The man flinched and glared at Obito, sheathing his kunai.
"Leave now before run out of patience, kid." The brunette sneered at him, turning around and running to the scream.
Obito, apparently deaf, followed the man.
"Ice Release: Ten Thousand Ice Petals!"
The air cooled. Obito spotted the man jumping away from the end of the hallway, a handseal ready. His breath turned into frozen vapor as the temperature dropped rapidly, the walls turning to ice as a gust of fully wind whirled, with ice shards accompanying them. What Obito guessed was the intruder screamed as he was impaled by the multitude of ice shards.
"Nami, are you alright?" The man ran to the now unconscious girl, who was bleeding profusely. Obito ran to him, the man glaring and readied another set of handseals.
"Hey! Old-man, I have a first-aid kit right here. Just let me help." Obito urged the not-so-old-man who was now in a defensive stance.
"And how will I know you actually do want to help?"
Obito tutted at the man's pride. He was about to raise a few logical points AKA her probably going to die if he continued his pointless arguing before he caught a familiar pair of eyes.
"Kuma-kun?!" Obito called the scared looking Hyūga toddler. He had cuts and bruises all over his face and looked genuinely terrified.
"O-obito-san!" The toddler ran to him, ignoring the warnings of the Yuki Clan member that seemed to be close with him. "Tokuma-san! Wait" the man tries to stop him. Tokuma shrugged the man's arm off before the kid wrapped his arms around Obito's waist.
"O-obito-san! You gotta help! O-onee-chan!" He rushed out.
"Woah! Woah! Tokuma-kun calm down." Obito comforted the obviously distressed child. He suddenly thanked all the times they had to babysit, even if Tokina forced them to sleep using her genjutsu. "Where's your sister at?"
"Sh-she's at the courtyard, fending off the bad guys!" The child wailed. "They killed Seto-san an-and Yumi-chan!" He shook his head, as if knowing that he was rambling. "Go! Please!"
"Don't worry, Kuma-kun!" He gave a reassuring grin to the child. "I'll help your sister. Stay with this man and don't go anywhere without him, okay?" Obito motioned to the Yuki who was bandaging the woman with what little he had. Obito threw his first-aid pack at him, which the man caught. Obito grinned down on Tokuma and gently pushed him to the Yuki Clan member.
"Take care of him...?"
"Kazuhito," he supplied, "I'll take care of Tokuma. Go."
Obito nodded and fought through to the courtyard.
He dodged a body that crashed through the wall. Obito peeked through the hole.
Tokina was surrounded with the terrorists with even more bodies surrounding her. There were butterflies fluttering around the field while two giant sharp-scaled snakes protruded from her back. He knew that the snakes came from her back since her normally well-kept kimono was torn at her back, what's left of the clothing was kept by her obi. Obito's eyes widened at the scales that covered Tokina's cheeks.
That's new.
She dodged a kunai to her face while the snake in her left struck at the terrorist, crushing his head with its jaws while Tokina continued striking them with her fingers, incapacitating them with her Jyūken. She ducked another blow to her head and rolled away from an array of kunai before retaliating with Hidden Shadow Snake Hands, catching the man that threw the kunai and using the snakes to slam him against multiple people.
Obito shook his head to snap himself out of his revere.
He was here to help, not watch.
"Kina-chan!" Obito called out,
She immediately turned to him, surprise filling out her already semi-scale filled face before narrowing her eyes and throwing a senbon at him. Obito flinched, expecting anything except that. The howl of pain that deafened him reminded him that, "oh yeah, this is a battlefield and that there might be tons of people sneaking behind my back." He turned around, seeing some no-named terrorist clutch his eye in pain. He drew his kunai and stabbed him in his nearest vital and shuddered at the "squelch" it made. After that little scene, he jumped to Tokina.
"What happened?" He asked a little worried for his blood-soaked friend. "And where's Akane-san."
Tokina let out a hitched sigh. "An anti-Yuki-clan group that forgot the Hyūgas supported the Yuki thought it would be a good time to attack with both clans in one area." She frowned, as if the attack only bringing her mild annoyance. She shook her head. "Never mind, the Hyūgas and the Yukis are taking care of it. Have you seen Tokuma?" She asked urgently, grabbing Obito by the shoulders. He stared at his best-friend's Byakugan, expecting a flared lavender iris only to be greeted with a slit iris of the same color.
That must be a neat party trick.
"I let him stay behind with a Yuki Clan member named Kazuhito." Obito hoped that was the right answer. Tokina sighed in relief, muttering gibberish that sounded like "Teynk Gawd" but he couldn't tell. Maybe it was just the screaming and groaning in the background. Obito raised an eyebrow. "Couldn't you use your Byakugan to locate him?"
Tokina pressed her lips together and looked away, "My eyes have been aching a lot and I don't know why. I can only see through what's in front of me instead of the usual one kilometer."
"Anyway, you should go with Tokuma, Obito. You'll be much safer there." She turned around and almost left if it wasn't for the said Uchiha grabbing her wrist with an annoyed and very offended huff.
"If you didn't notice, Kina-chan, and I'm pretty sure you did with those eyes of yours, I'm also a ninja." He glared at Tokina's side-eye "I passed the test and everything. I trained with you and Bakashi. I took on twelve ninjas! If you think I'm letting you go butterflies a-blazing you got another thing coming."
Tokina let a sound of frustration from the back of her throat, "Why are you so difficult?" She tutted, "This isn't even your fight, and besides, why are you even here?"
"I'm going to be Hokage, and it's the Hokage's job to help people, whether they like it or not!" Obito pressed on, much to Tokina's visible annoyance.
And the snakes on her back striking and hissing at him, clearly displayed how aggravated the girl was.
He should ask her about that some time.
His newfound tact and common sense told him that time isn't now.
That would be pushing his already pushed-to-the-edge luck with how Tokina was glaring at him. And how her dragon-snakes were snapping at him. And how her fists clenched and unclenched. And...
Well, she didn't like the idea but what can she do?
Put him in a genjutsu, give his unconscious body to Kazuhito and book it?
He swatted a butterfly that seemed to be fluttering too close to him for his own comfort.
"Not today, Miss Go-To-Sleep," he replied cockily.
Tokina raised an eyebrow.
Obito's eyes widened and punted a snake that slithered around his leg; it's fangs seconds away from his leg.
"Wow, okay, I thought we were above that?" It was the Uchiha's turn to hiss at the scale-covered girl. "We're wasting time here, Kina-chan." Obito tapped his foot impatiently. "And I know that you know that the minute I wake up, I'll just go back into the fray."
Tokina's eye twitched before groaning with a complacent "Fine," before turning around and running back into the Yuki Compound. Obito smirked and followed his friend cheerfully.
Obito dodges a particularly nasty volley of kunai headed towards his way. He threw a shuriken at where he guessed the perp threw his knife at and thought how kind of fucked up it was when he whooped when he heard a disgusting "squelch" followed by a "screech" and a subsequent "thud."
He was going to prove to his friend that he can pull his weight around! He isn't some helpless genin learning how to change diapers! Well, he was a genin but he wasn't helpless! Dammit, he's going to be Hokage for fuck's sake! They, Minato and Co., should treat him like it. Look, he wasn't asking for much, just a little bit of trust and recognition here and there.
Obito's ego-boosting rant session was interrupted when his friend literally crumpled screamed in pain. Panic flooded his system, looking around for the enemy that caused it. He ran to Tokina and out a hand on her shoulder, the snakes that were connected to her lied motionless on the floor as she screamed and clutched her eyes.
She yelled out more gibberish that sounded like "Four fawks sayk! Awf awl da tayms may ays desayds to be fawlty, eet chows da taym ay could day fraum incawpitant terrorists!"
"Tokina!" He crouched in front of his friend, trying to pull out her hands so he could inspect the damage. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing!" She screamed, telling how much exactly her "nothings" meant right now. "Jus-AUGH!" Tokina rolled around the floor, an image he would have thoroughly enjoyed (not sadistically, of course) if it wasn't for her screaming and his worry for his friend.
Obito stood up; common sense telling him that loud scream should attract some attention, friendly or otherwise. He readied a kunai in his left and a shuriken in his right. "Don't worry, Tokina, I'll protect you." The black eyed boy clutched his kunai with newfound resolve.
He'll make sure of it.
You know, it'd be really convenient if his Sharingan just magically awakened right now.
Sadly, despite what the Uchiha mangas say, real life doesn't work that way.
"KONOHA POLICE FORCE! STAND DOWN OR BE PUT DOWN!" A familiar, authorities and stuck-up voice demanded. The voice practically oozed "we are better than you in every way so just follow our orders".
Yep, definitely an Uchiha.
"Fugaku-san!" Obito called to his stuck-up uncle that he wasn't particularly fond of. To be fair, he wasn't fond of most of his clan-mates often being compared to certain prodigies that he had the pleasure of being a teammate, one of them being a Hyūga so that meant even more antagonizing. Not that he minded, Tokina was a friend and he has a thick skin.
It can get annoying at times though, especially when it comes from an adult.
"Obito?" Fugaku called from the other end of the hall. He stout adult immediately appeared before him, assessing the scene under a second. "I'll ask questions later. For now, I'll escort you outside with your friend."
He didn't even have time to answer. One second he was about to argue with the head of the Uchiha Clan and was ready to be disowned and thrown in jail for it, the next he was with various Yuki Clan members and a few Hyūga members. Before he could give Fugaku a piece of his mind, the man body flickered away, presumably back into the fray.
So much for proving himself,
He eyed his now unconscious friend, staring at how the snakes receded from her shoulder blades, the scales doing the same thing. Now, to someone who just saw her right now, it would look like she's been through a really tough fight.
Which she probably has but there was nothing Tokina couldn't anyway. I'd only he could say the same about himself.
Tokina woke up absolutely not happy at all.
Her eyes burned, her body felt like it's been grinded in the worst context, and she, above all, wanted to punch Obito for his stubbornness.
But, with this dextrose plugged in her arm, it seems like those plans wasn't going to happen anytime soon.
Oh, and, ironically since one of her best friends was in the medic-corps, her knowing how to use medical-ninjutsu, and her mom a doctor after serving her term as a ninja as per Hyūga law, she hates hospitals.
Now that she thinks about it, the Hyūgas are kind of like Koreans in a sense. Both need to serve their country regardless of aspiration and body structure and are strict in their laws. Not to mention the visuals in the Eight Triagrams: 64 Palms Jutsu. Maybe Kishimoto was scared of cultural appropriation?
Oh, there she goes again with the old world. She tried so hard to not reminisce about it but she can't help miss the peaceful days.
She sighed, irritated by the feeling of a needle inside her. Tokina wanted nothing more than to rip it out.
Gently, of course,
Ugh, she couldn't even stare at it for so long.
At least her eyes didn't hurt so much.
Using her Byakugan to find if her family left her some stuff in her little part of the hospital, summoned a snake to open and retrieve a trashy romance novel she was reading for some time. It wasn't that she was lazy (she would be if there wasn't always the sense of perpetual dread and paranoia, let's be honest) but she didn't want to move her left hand with the needle in her.
So purposefully distracting herself with a book would be a great idea. The groggy Hyūga opened up the book, memorizing the page since she didn't have the time to make her own bookmark, and continued where she left off.
He pushed himself to her. Was this really happening? Was this all a dream? She didn't know. He was all she could think of.
"Hana-chan, I...I..."
This was really happening! She thought with gusto. All the dreamy sighs and the fantasies and the dreams! They were finally happening but not as dreams but as reality!
"What is it Kuzo-kun?"
He held my hand in this cold night. Just us, no wars, no bad people, just two of us. In love and in together and he's finally going to say it.
"Hana-chan I love-"
"TOKINA! YOU'RE AWAKE!"
The patient that didn't need the extra stress and heartache let out a girly and very undignified and unprofessional shriek of surprise that was supposed to be a repressed, fangirlish squeal since her OTP was canon. She threw the hardbound novel at the son of a two-pound bitch that seemed like he or she didn't pass kindergarten to learn that they needed to knock before entering any sort of room by complete accident.
If it was on purpose, she would have thrown something far more venomous.
And lethal,
It seemed that the inept female dog was Obito accompanied with Rin, Tokuma and her mom, Akane.
Now, the two doctors were fussing about Obito's brand new lump in the middle of his forehead. That is why they give ninjas forehead protectors.
"I told you to knock before entering!" Rin nagged the dazed Uchiha who still held her trashy romance novel between his hands.
Obito let out a string of words that made absolutely no sense to the audience inside the room. Rin huffed and lightly "bonked" the top of Obito's head with her knuckles, which seemed to give Obito his sliver of coherency back, if he had any to begin with. Tokina thoroughly doubted if the Uchiha had any semblance of self-preservation in his golden heart and very breakable bones.
"Onee-chan!" Tokuma wailed and wrapped his pudgy arms around her torso after doing a cute toddler jump to reach her bed. "I was so worried!"
Tokina smiled down on her brother and patted his back, letting out apologies that only he could hear.
"We were all worried, Tokuma-kun." Rin ruffled his hair.
"I would say sorry but I don't really know what happened to me." Tokina sheepishly confessed. "I remember being very angry at Obito then nothing. Did I have a stroke?"
Obit mumbled to himself aside, "I said I was sorry..." Tokina deemed his pity party unworthy of her attention for now.
Rin shook her head, before dipping it with shame. "Well...sort of? You showed symptoms of severe chakra exhaustion even though you only used half of it." The younger doctor gave a sharp look to Obito and doubtlessly motioned to Tokuma. Obito gave Rin a nod.
"Hey, Kuma-kun, wanna get presents for your Onee-chan? I have some extra cash from our last mission." He bribed the toddler. The two boys left, Obito closing the door behind him to let the "adults" speak.
At least the boy was finally using the tact she beat into him.
Tokina raised an eyebrow before turning her head to her mom. Akane, the refined woman that was shaped through hardships and aged beautifully, did an uncharacteristic shrug, blinking her Byakugan as if she just turned on a light while casually sipping her coffee. She stepped closer to her bed and poked a specific part of her abdomen.
"There seems to be a blockage of some sorts around here," Akane then proceeded to trace the line up to her head, circling around her eyes, "Right now, something is blocking your chakra. You have been so careful with your chakra before, so it must be new to you to use that much chakra. Further inspection shows that there is a stream, albeit small, of the blocked out chakra that is going to your eyes."
"...am I going to be alright?" Tokina gulped, feeling like some sad damsel stuck in the hospital in some badly written drama that only airs after 7:00pm.
Rin gave a look at the senior doctor before letting out a lengthy breath, "We don't know. That blocked out chakra looks normal but with Akane's eyes it seems to have an 80:20 ratio of Spiritual Chakra and Physical Chakra respectively."
Akane took a sip of what wad otherwise known as a doctor's life essence before continuing her lengthy explanation. "We did not see it before since it was very unnoticeable, like a pathway in a dark street that did not have any streetlights. I suggested to the board to seal the strange chakra since this is such a new phenomenon. We would not know the effects of your body since it is slowly being accepted into your eyes and body. I do not want to risk my daughter being subjected into a medical-lab experiment."
…Too late for that.
Tokina assessed her mother, and it didn't take long to dub her eyebags unflattering and her accompanying slouching. The notion of her daughter being admitted after a terrorist attack that Akane could have prevented already wracked her brain, now she had to deal with this new ailment that Tokina had since birth, according to more experienced doctors and chakra specialists!
"We agreed that we would not do anything without your consent, Tokina-chan." Akane huffed and leaned on the wall. "You have two options, ignore it and come for regular visits or let me seal it and come for regular visits."
The young Hyūga repressed the urge to groan. Like she didn't have to tolerate a white room before. At least Taizo's room had cats and did not have the lingering smell of antiseptic and the perpetual mix of hope and despair the air had.
She didn't want to bother her mother further and opted not telling her about the eye pains. It wasn't a disgusting sense of having a martyr complex. She'd rather eat dirt than sacrifice her well-being for someone who isn't in the list. Besides, the eye pains are a trivial matter compared to this.
However, she did not want to have the burden of having rounds of clutching her eyes, screaming and rolling around the floor in pain.
She remembered that memory well.
It wouldn't do her face justice.
"Just seal it up," the patient opted. "I don't want to deal with this."
Akane nodded, still not believing that the day came when she was finally going to deliver the hardest, most painful Jyūken strike to her own daughter.
Faith really is cruel.
The board didn't question why Hyūga Tokina had to stay another day. They gave one glance to Akane and discussed alternative ways to send in more medical-ninjas out for war.
After three days, the first being her admission, the second day was her sleeping and the third was her waking up, learning the news and then "sleeping" again, life began crawling back into normalcy.
Well, as normal it can get. The jail was overcrowded with the terrorists. Konoha was absolutely restless thanks to this. The Yuki Clan is now in the process of rebuilding and mourning, the Hyūga helping them, not out of political formality but because the Yuki did defend some of the Hyūga's own. At least there was some progress.
It has been officially a week after their first C-Rank and the Tokina still hasn't talked to Obito.
Well, she did. She was, after all, a professional. It was curt replies.
"Hey, Kina-chan!" Obito greeted her as usual, running up to her, dodging the morning crowd with ease.
Tokina nodded at him and gave him a small smile. "Uchiha-san,"
Said Uchiha boy immediately deflated.
"You can't seriously still be mad at me. It's been a week!" The boy moaned out,
"I don't know what you're talking about, Uchiha-san."
Obito muttered the name of his chosen, almighty absentee father figure. "Okay, I've been stupid! I shouldn't poke my head into other people's buisness! Is that what you want to hear?"
Tokina let out a tired sigh and turned to Obito when they reached the training grounds. It seemed the other two weren't here yet. They were alone, perfect for a confrontation. She might as well nip this problem in the bud now. "I want you to think about yourself before others." Tokina interrupted him during his string of apologies and probably empty promises.
"You mean be self-cantered?" Obito blurted out.
Tokina looked visibly irritated but years of dealing with shitty group mates that refused to help her in her college thesis honed her patience. "I mean just have a wee-bit sense of self-preservation."
Obito rolled his eyes and quietly muttered, "I have self-preservation." which Tokina heard. She turned jumped in front of the Uchiha and reached for his hand and held it up to him, her Byakugan activated. He winced at the suddenness of the action. She pointed at a scratch mark on the surface of his hand.
"Where did you get this?" Tokina prodded, glaring the truth out of Obito, giving him a look that dared him to lie in front of her face.
"I helped some granny get her kitten that was stuck in a tree, okay? No big deal," Obito looked away. When Tokina raised his hand and rolled up the sleeves of his jacket, Obito cringed away.
"Your whole arm is covered in scratches." Her face was inches from his and traced a scar he hid with Rin's ointment. "This isn't a cat scratch mark. This is a scar you get from a Konoha-issue kunai. It isn't just a 'graze from practice'." Tokina let his arm go and moved away, tapping her foot impatiently, Byakugan probably still prodding his body.
Strange, he was sure he wore clothes this morning. Why did he feel so naked?
Obito looked away from the shorter girl. You know, in manga, the shorter girls were the cute when they get angry. Like hamsters or kittens.
Maybe it was the Hyūga in her, the possibility of her summoning snakes or the butterflies that were fluttering around him menacingly, yes butterflies fluttering menacingly around him, but Tokina did not look cute at all.
"...a genin that wasn't in our batch was bullying academy students."
"There's an even deeper scar by your chest. It's new, longer than a kunai. If I can guess, it's Konoha-standard katana."
Obito inwardly despaired. He thought the ointment would completely erase it from his body! This is what he gets for forgetting to apply it every morning. "...he also had a katana."
"And judging by the badly masked bruise on your left eye, you're new pair of goggles and a lot more cuts that I won't even bother mentioning, you lost." She accurately guessed,
Obito let out an annoyed huff. "So what? Don't help people in need? Well sorry for having a moral compass that isn't broken." He testily replied.
Tokina's gaze softened, "Don't go into fights you can't win." She summarized, "You can't exactly lead Konoha if your dead, Obutto."
The Uchiha turned a shade pink before crossing his arms and turning around, steadily picking up the shards of his ego and remaining masculinity. "I guess,"
Tokina smirked up at him and lightly punched his shoulder, "Sermon finished," she jibed. "I can't be your right hand if both of your hands are buried six feet under."
"Kina-chan, that is so fucked up." Obito deadpanned. "Besides, with my newfound self-preservation, I'm sure my lifespan lengthened a few years."
The pair chuckled, Tokina putting more effort into the action. Now that was fucked up.
Hatake Kakashi kept most of his curiosities to himself. To avoid confrontation and needless banter, he usually stalked the one he was curious about. He didn't want the whole "aw, you do care!" response he'll probably get once he tries to satisfy it. It was Kushina's fault why he was like this. Albeit not noticeable, he was curious about most things.
The extent of Obito's idiocy, why Nohara Rin still deemed him an eligible lover when he wanted nothing to do with her, Kushina-san's addiction to ramen and Minato-sensei's new jutsu that he refused to share the details of. The first was unsolvable, the second he was still confused about, the third he refused to question since that would threaten his life and the fourth he will find out soon.
Very…very soon.
However, this month was the things inside Tokina's genjutsu. Usually, it was some bad memory (she assured him she wouldn't pull the "dead father card" on him) a strange labyrinth that was either monochrome, filled with flowers and monstrous cotton balls that looked like they were painted on or a black and red polka-dotted room with falling pills and a lot of sweets. He was already curious about the choice of scenery but pegged it for her unusual mind.
However, during training, the new atmosphere was clearer than her previous genjutsu.
Woah-ooah!
Kakashi braved through the dark, stopping at the sudden sound of feet thumping in rhythm.
It was one of these genjutsu.
The thumping and cheering become louder and louder before silencing itself.
Ladies and gents, this is the moment you've waited for
Woah-ooah!
Been searching in the dark, your sweat soaking through the floor
Woah-ooah!
And buried in your bones there's an ache that you can't ignore
Taking your breath, stealing your mind
And all that was real is left behind
He ignored the blaring of the audience, the strange gibberish that seemed to be talking as if his speech was meant to be a song. Kakashi drew his short blade as he continued walking through the darkness. A spotlight blared through his eyes, making him wince but not falter.
Don't fight it; it's coming for you, running at ya
It's only this moment, don't care what comes after
Your fever dream, can't you see it getting closer
Just surrender 'cause you feel the feeling taking over
It's fire, its freedom, its flooding open
A preacher in the pulpit and you'll find devotion
There's something breaking at the brick of every wall, its holding
All that you know
So tell me do you wanna go?
Few minutes later he was running from animals he only saw in books, people in skimpy and foreign clothes swinging from rope, stars, fire, a lady with a beard, a small man riding a horse and other oddities that he couldn't efficiently describe in a sentence.
Unlike her other illusions, it felt so real.
Where it's covered in all the colored lights
Where the runaways are running the night
Impossible comes true, it's taking over you
Oh, this is the greatest show
We light it up, we won't come down
And the sun can't stop us now
Watching it come true, it's taking over you
Oh, this is the greatest show!
After slicing the head of a man in a flamboyant tuxedo and a hat too big to be comfortable and not a pain to wear, the audience, animals and the other things he couldn't possibly describe faded away.
He spent too long in that fantasy, judging by how the Hyūga smirked at him while the boas tightened their coil around the scowling boy. Not that she could tell since his face was covered by a mask, or maybe she can since she's so damned perceptive.
Following that incident, he wanted to know what inspired her illusion.
...and he had to admit he was lost in the music a few moments more he cared to admit.
He, Hatake Kakashi, will never admit to stalking. No, he justified the action as observing and taking notes. So that's what he did.
He observed Tokina.
He read the trashy romance novels she read,
Ate the chocolate she ate (even though he wasn't a fan of chocolate in the first place)
Discretely went to the same places she went to see what could have inspired such an illusion.
Kakashi weighed his options with an aura of indifference, his face showing nothing of his inner turmoil. He could swallow his pride and push aside his stubbornness and ask her or he could not admit his failure in information gathering and continued to stalk her. He opted the latter for five whole weeks before growing impatient, his curiosity outweighing his pride for once.
They weren't exactly in friendly terms, so it was especially hard on him to be the one to initiate the conversation. The two sat across each other in Training Ground 3, waiting for their blonde teacher who promised to be earlier than expected but isn't showing and the Uchiha boy that just promised to attend on time.
Kakashi just went for it. "How did you come up with that genjutsu."
Tokina's head shot-up at the incredibly strange tone of Kakashi's voice. Was that...a tone that didn't contain any hostility? That was a big shocker for her. A few minutes of silence passed them, Tokina using that moment to gather her bearings since Kakashi never talked, much less engaged in small-talk. Before the more awkwardly-social teen could take back what he said, Tokina spoke up.
"Which one?" She indulged the Hatake, tilting her head slightly before leaning back on her tree.
"The..." Kakashi thought briefly of how he could describe that mindfuck in one sentence. "...the one with the strangely clothed people suspending from a non-existant ceiling."
Tokina raised an eyebrow, smirked and chuckled, "Ah, The Greatest Showman."
Kakashi must have missed his weekly ear cleaning since even his ears did not pick up a single word Tokina uttered.
"What?"
"The Greatest Showman," Tokina amended and gave him a small grin, "With the audience, the circus, the elephants and the lions and the strange people suspending from the ceiling." She overly supplied, "What about it?"
"What inspired it?"
Tokina wasn't used to this "prodding" Kakashi in front of her but it was a nice change from the sullen boy that she was getting used to. "I have an overactive imagination." She shrugged. Picking up Kakashi's body language, telling her that he wasn't the least satisfied with her answer, she sighed and let butterflies escape her sleeves. Guiding Akinosuke in her memories, she began weaving The Greatest Showman as a genjutsu, using the butterflies to perfect her memory of it.
This action which Kakashi's brain registered as "hostile" was not appreciated by the least. Tokina rolled her eyes, "You want to know what inspired this, right? Well I'll show you."
Next thing he knew, Kakashi was sitting in a velvet seat in the dark. The air conditioner was whining in the background with faceless people murmuring around him. Tokina was right next to him in the strange seat.
"I have a lot of stories in my head," she confessed, "I'm too lazy to write them so I like picturing them with genjutsu."
The darkness couldn't let Kakashi read the Hyūga girl's expression. He didn't let himself relax. The white screen boomed in colors, showing them of what seemed to be video recording of Tokina's exact genjutsu but it was too dark to see. There was a text for him to read near the bottom of the screen, something he quickly identified as kanji. It wasn't exactly Tokina's genjutsu. First, there was a giant strange monument which the kanji identified as 20th Century Fox.
Whatever that was,
And then a person shooting an arrow at him?
It was a mess.
But the song, (with a translation!) was there.
Then the strange man was doing poses behind a bleacher.
Ladies and gents', this is the moment you've all been waiting for.
When the "movie" (that is what Tokina called it) was over, the two blinked awake. Tokina was stretching and was proud of her for holding a genjutsu for maybe about an hour and might possibly be forty-five minutes (with a lot of help from her butterfly summons). Kakashi stood up and stretched his rigid muscles as well, relishing the cracking sounds it made, still remaining silent. Minato and Obito was still nowhere to be found.
"So there, The Greatest Showman." Tokina shrugged nonchalantly as if the array of lights and the great music which he can finally appreciate thanks to the translation given to him by Tokina was something to shrug at.
"...why show that to me?"
She raised an eyebrow "You asked? Besides, I tried showing the stories to the others. Tokuma, my baby brother, is only interested in the pictures rather than the story. Obito can't pay attention long enough and usually sleeps through it and Rin is too busy. Also, you read books so you of all people should appreciate a good plot." Tokina confessed with a hint of melancholy in her voice.
That was strange.
Why was she sad?
"So, what did you think?"
Kakashi chose to ask the most important question of all. "...why do they randomly burst into a song and dance?"
"Besides that,"
"...do you have any more?" He gave her a nonchalant side-eye.
Tokina held her arms and began reminiscing times in the cinema before chuckling. "More musicals? Sure I do."
Kakashi seemed like he wanted to say something before she chuckled and rolled her eyes. "Want me to show them to you? It won't be trouble. Just notify me a head of time. This took a lot of chakra."
Kakashi shrugged and played it cool. "We'll see." before disappearing to God-knows-where.
Tokina giggled aside herself. She never imagined Kakashi as a musical fan. That little thought solidified itself as a fact when he heard him humming the tune of "Never Enough"
AN.
So while I was writing this chapter (because there is no transistion between the last chapter and the next chapter) I was listening to the Greatest Showman Album in Spotify and was thinking how can I get Tokina and Kakashi closer because wow they are so frigid together.
And then I paid close attention to the lyrics of The Greatest Show and thought "Wow, is this not a genjutsu?"
Also Kakashi singing musicals gives me life
If you think that Tokina vs Obito ends there, sweetie think again.
THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE A TIME SKIP, WHENEVER THAT IS
My computer is broken so I can't edit willy-nilly and I am using my dad's computer without his consent because if I ask him to he'll go break my ear about how I don't take care of my computer and I do not want to deal with that.
BECAUSE OF THAT, I will be posting chapters in THIS format. Long chapters because I don't know when I'll be able to post next since my life as a Grade 11 student will start at monday :D
It might be next week or next year for fuck's sake. That or I learn how to use Fanfiction dot net's app in editing.
That's an entire can of worms I do not want to open.
Anyway, enjoy life :)