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Act Three: Running Through the Shadows
(A year and a half after the Uchiha Massacre…)
Hinata cried—which caused her father to hit her again, even harder.
"You pathetic weakling—Hyuga don't shed tears! Your sister Hanabi is ten times the fighter you are! Even that branch cadet Neji is stronger than you!" Hiashi shouted, Byakugan activated.
"You must be the weakest Hyuga that ever lived—you can't even USE your Byakugan! You are a disgrace to the Clan, the Village, and you are a disgrace to your mother's memory. Get out of my sight now. I don't want to see you again without your Byakugan."
Unable to control herself, Hinata turned and ran with all she had—through the door, out of the building, and she tried to go back to her room. When a set of guards tried to ask where she was going—one of them even standing directly in her path—she didn't slow down, she just kept running and went right through him.
She kept running, phasing through people, objects, and even her own bedroom wall as she jumped onto her bed, sobbing into her pillow.
At first, she had simply wanted to get away from her father, but after a few minutes, she realized that she couldn't remember opening the door to her bedroom. For some reason, she thought she'd gone right through her wall.
"Don't be silly, of course you didn't run through the wall. You simply opened and closed the door like normal, but didn't notice it." That's what she tried telling herself, at any rate.
But in her heart, Hinata knew that it wasn't true. Getting up, he placed her hand on the wall and pushed.
Nothing happened. Then, she tried to actually go through it, like before, and her hand phased into the wall completely. Horrified, she pulled away and fell against her bed, barely holding in a scream.
Struggling to calm herself down, Hinata tried to think. For some reason, she was able to—looking for a suitable word, she settled on 'phase'—phase through solid objects, and even people. But she still had a physical body, so she wasn't some kind of ghost…
Putting on some clothes (she didn't care what at the moment), Hinata tried walking through her wall again—and succeeded.
Putting up a hood to avoid being recognized, Hinata simply walked down the street, trying to make some sense out of what was happening to her. She wasn't even paying attention to where she was going.
She kept phasing through walls, going from street to street in a straight line. She absentmindedly wondered why the Earth's gravity hadn't caused her to phase through solid ground beyond any hope of control. Perhaps she couldn't phase through the ground?
Kneeling down and putting her hand to the street, she phased without a problem.
"Maybe I'm immune to gravity like that…" she decided.
Shrugging, she realized that Hiashi would be even more furious than before when he found out how suddenly she'd left. Looking for him, she was shocked to find that she could now see in all directions for a good fifty feet or so.
She couldn't help but laugh bitterly at the irony: NOW she could her Byakugan, when she barely even cared anymore. She calmly continued home, trying to avoid phasing as much as possible. No one bothered stopping her.
Once she'd returned to her room, Hinata began contemplating her situation. She still wasn't sure what was happening to her body that enabled her to phase through solid objects, but she realized that if her father found out about it, he would do everything in his power to use it as an advantage—he'd be even worse than he already was.
Hinata decided that the best thing she could do at the moment was to keep her ability a secret… but telling Hiashi about her Byakugan might not be a bad idea.
Getting up, she activated her eyes, checking to see if she was alone. None of the other Hyuga had their Byakugan active at the moment, and there wasn't anyone around for a good forty feet or so. Smirking a little, she phased through her door and walked straight towards where she knew her father to be.
Suddenly, she stopped—why on Earth was she still calling him her father?! He may have contributed half the genetic matter required for her to exist, but that was about it. From now on, this man would have to earn her respect.
Keeping her Byakugan active, she walked silently until she was about ten feet behind Hiashi; she'd somehow snuck up on him.
Putting as much contempt as she could into her voice, Hinata said, "All right Hiashi, I have my Byakugan. You can stop throwing temper tantrums about having a completely spineless and powerless daughter now. Although… you're pretty emotional for a Hyuga. Almost like a commoner, if you know what I mean."
Hinata was treading water, and she knew it, but Hiashi's face was almost priceless when he turned around to find that his daughter did indeed have her Byakugan activated, and even more so when she asked, "What—you never seen a girl before? Otherwise, quit staring at me you pompous bag of air."
Snarling, Hiashi picked her up and slammed her against the wall, demanding, "WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!?!"
Smiling, she said, "You heard me—unless you're going deaf, of course. I called a pompous bag of air, you overgrown toddler."
Putting her back onto the floor, he said, "If you were not my daughter, I would kill you right now."
Shrugging and leaning against the wall, Hinata said, "Well based on that beating you gave me a couple of hours ago, I'd be willing to bet that you'd happily kill me anyway."
Turning her back on him, but keeping her Bloodline in effect, she said, "Hiashi, I used to respect you—even through all the abuse, both physical and verbal… I loved you. But now, I'm through with letting you walk all over me like before. If you want my respect, you will have to earn it—a concept that, as a Hyuga noble, I'm sure you've never heard of."
When she turned the corner and was out of his sight, she phased through a wall.
Later, she reflected that she moved like a cat in the shadows.
"Cat… shadows… shadow… cat… Shadowcat? I like it."
(And there you have it; Hinata has now become Shadowcat! I sort of struggled with this near the end. Oh, and if anybody's pissed off at me because of what happened at the start of the chapter…. I won't know unless you review, will I?)
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Change
Act Four: Unwilling Rogue
(Three and a half years after the Uchiha Massacre—OR, six months before the present…)
Sakura Haruno was on her first date with a fourteen-year old named Karido Ushigonei (just a name I made up off the top of my head that kinda/sorta sounds like Japanese—don't know if it means anything…), and they were currently walking down an alley when Karido moved in for a kiss.
Lightly holding him back, Sakura said, "Sorry Karido-kun, but I don't kiss on first dates."
His green eyes narrowed with repressed fury as he asked, "Is that so? I think you can make an exception tonight."
He maliciously slammed her into a building wall and started kissing her—when suddenly, he screamed.
Sakura could feel him getting weaker, so she pushed him off and kicked him in the groin, before suddenly beating him senseless. She couldn't understand why she was so violent, but instead of calming down as she hit him, Sakura just got angrier, and started feeling pain as well.
Suddenly, she saw herself through HIS eyes, and partially realized what was happening: somehow, she was absorbing his feelings—his very mind—by touching him. Horrified, she ran away, memories not her own still running through her head. Fleeing down the street, she absorbed thoughts and memories of other people as she bumped into them.
After she got home, she burst through the door, ran to her room, and hid herself in a corner, virtually in convulsions of fear and confusion. "Sakura, what's wrong?!" she heard her mother yell.
As she entered the room and tried reaching to her daughter, Sakura flinched away and shouted "DON'T TOUCH ME!!!" Taken aback, her mother asked, "Sakura, what on Earth is wrong? Did that boy do anything to you?!"
Sakura replied, "I don't know! I remember things that never happened to me! I-I-I hurt him without meaning to! He-he tried to make a move on me, b-but I was scared and suddenly, it was like I was inside his head, and I started hitting him harder and angrier than I'd ever hit anyone before… and I think I somehow took part of his mind when I was touching him—and I don't want it to happen to you too!"
Her confusion and worry increasing, Lua (just picked a name on the spot, you understand) touched Sakura's forehead, only to feel a rather peculiar sensation. She felt herself getting weaker—growing tired. Sakura's eyes flashed open as she pushed her mother away, saying, "Please—don't touch me! I don't want you to get hurt, but I can't stop it!"
Putting on a glove, Lua's face revealed heartbreak as she tried again, and this time felt no ill effects. "See honey? It's only skin-to-skin; it's not quite as horrible as we feared."
Sakura hugged her mother, trying to avoid as much skin contact as possible. But in the back of her mind, she couldn't help feeling that from then on, she had to make as little contact with other people—not just skin contact, but of any kind at all. She'd have to close herself off from the world to keep from hurting people—whether she wanted to, or not.
Sakura Haruno found herself as an unwilling Rogue.
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The next morning, Lua shook her daughter awake. Opening her eyes, Sakura asked, "Mom… what's happening? Are we going somewhere?"
"Yes sweetie. Last night, after you went to sleep, I asked Sandaime-sama what might be happening to you—if maybe we had some sort of bloodline, or if you were sick, or anything. He told me that he couldn't know until I took you to the Hospital for a blood test. I had originally planned to take you anyway, but this involves you too. It's your body, and I feel that you should make the decision."
Still somewhat discombobulated, Sakura shook her head to try and finish waking up. She said, "If what's happening to me can be fixed or controlled, then yes, I want the blood test." Dressing herself in black slacks, a dark grey long-sleeved shirt, and black slip-on shoes (like moccasins), Sakura found and put on a pair of dark sunglasses. She wasn't certain why, but she wanted to stay hidden as much as possible.
Leaving the house alone, Sakura tried to keep from touching people whenever possible. Stopping at a clothing store on the way, Sakura bought a pair of dark green gloves and put them on as soon as they were paid for. Continuing on to the Hospital, Sakura said, "I think I have a blood test today. Where do I go for it?"
The receptionist asked, "Name?"
"Sakura Haruno."
"I see. Go to room 307, and you'll find the Hokage's personal doctor waiting on you."
Inwardly shocked that she'd be tested by the Hokage's personal physician, Sakura realized that her mother must've been far more worried than Sakura had believed.
Going into the room, she saw a kind-looking man with entirely black eyes—including the sclera. There was no color anywhere on his body. It was all black or white; there were no shades of gray. His voice was rather silk-like as he said, "Please do not be alarmed. My name is Sui no Jakyo… my father was a priest of a demigod-like demon named Jashin, and my mother was from the Land of Water, hence the name. Even though it means 'Water Heathen', I am actually a rather pleasant person to be around, or so Sandaime-sama often tells me."
Sitting down in a chair, Sakura said, "Whatever you do, just don't touch my bare skin. It's nothing personal—I can't control it. When people touch me with their bare skin, they get hurt."
Putting on some latex gloves, Sui no Jakyo replied, "Yes, Sandaime-sama told me it had something to with that. I am simply going to extract a bit of blood, and see if I can find any type of abnormalities—such as infection, or perhaps markers that would indicate a bloodline. I have also been asked to map your genetic structure, or as much as I can, at any rate."
Confused, Sakura asked, "Why would you need to map my genetics?"
Amiably, the medic merely told her, "Well, it could be that this is genetic, but not necessarily a bloodline. It could be a recessive trait that for some reason obtained spontaneous dominance. For all I know, it could be any number of things. I won't know without a sample, though."
Nodding, Sakura exposed enough of her arm—up to her elbow—so that Jak, as his friends called him, could pad the site with a disinfectant, insert a needle and extract enough blood to fill a vial to be used for the testing, and then add another disinfectant bandage.
Smiling warmly, Jak said, "Now that I have the sample, it will take a couple of days or so to finish the testing. Until then, you're free to go."
Standing up in shock, Sakura asked, "But what if it's some kind of disease?! Other people could get it too, couldn't they?!"
Waving away her concerns, Jak answered, "I don't think so. Even if this is the result of some sort of pathogen, neither your mother nor I seem to have contracted it, so I doubt that whatever you have is in any way infectious… except perhaps by a blood transfusion or something to that effect. You probably don't have anything to worry about, but if it really puts your mind at ease, then I won't stop you from putting yourself under quarantine in here."
Shrugging, Jak then turned to his desk and began preparations for the various types of examinations he needed to do.
Slightly comforted that her condition didn't seem infectious, Sakura decided that she should go to the park and kill some time.
Little did she know that once she arrived, Sakura would encounter a kindred spirit.
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(Hinata has become the Shadowcat and Sakura is now—or rather, is on the path to becoming—Rogue. I won't go into Sakura's 'kindred spirit' just yet—saving that for later—but I said I'd have three people transformed in this chapter, and it's three people I'll have; ON TO ROUND THREE, FOLKS!!)
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Change
Act Three: The Child Assassin
Tenten's day of training had been even more harshly grueling than usual—Lee was still testing his Glider and other tricks, but hadn't been able to beat Neji again, since he no longer had the element of surprise. Granted, he'd come really, REALLY close that time he showed up with the 'Razor Bats' added to his Pumpkin Bombs (Tenten called them Pumpkin Bombs because they were bombs that looked like pumpkins. Strangely, Neji didn't seem to grasp this concept, as he always called them 'The Orange Balls of Death').
Tenten was so exhausted that she practically fell down right after she made it through the door. Her father, reading his newspaper in the next room asked, "Let me guess—either Neji can hit harder and longer with his Eight Trigrams, or Lee cooked up a new batch of Pumpkin Bombs. Which was it?"
Tenten said, "Actually… both. Lee made a bomb that explodes into a bunch of little bombs THEN explodes, and Neji can do Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms. Dad, you've got to help me—I swear, I'm falling behind those two!"
Grimacing at the thought of those 'Multi-Bombs', or whatever Lee wanted to call them, Masamune replied, "I've been waiting for you to say that. Tenten, it's clear that between Neji's natural genius—although he's an asshole, the way you describe him—and Lee's uncanny affinity for mechanics and chemicals, you need an edge to stay in the game. And I know just the thing for you. Tenten, have I ever told you the story of our ancestor Elektra?"
"No, I don't think so." Picking herself off the ground through force of will and subsequently plopping down in the comfiest chair she could find, she asked, "Just who exactly was Elektra?"
Her father, whose full name was Sengo Masamune, began the tale.
"Five hundred years ago, a being of immeasurable power known as the Beyonder created rift in the fabric of space-time, causing the walls between dimensions to fail. A number of other-dimensional people came were stranded on our world, and eventually settled here. One of them was a legendary assassin by the name of Elektra. She was a master of nearly every weapon known to man, and had supernatural powers. She could see the future, to an extent, and at times she could even bring back the dead. She also could sense the exact location of the people around her.
"One of our ancestors fell in love with Elektra, and that was the recorded beginning of our clan. We have kept scrolls detailing her methods and her abilities—if you don't want to fall behind your teammates, Tenten, I can begin training you in the ways of the Hand."
Determined to keep up with her teammates, Tenten agreed.
Sengo got up and said, "It will take years to fully master it, and it won't be easy… not at all. For the next month, I will not be your father, but your teacher, your teacher, and your worst nightmare. Do you still think you can handle it?"
Grinning, Tenten said, "Well then, Masamune-sensei… I wouldn't have it any other way."
For the next month, she continually trained under her father in using various weapons. She was already proficient with various throwing weapons such as kunai and shuriken, but was somewhat weak with close-ranged equipment such as swords, axes, and other tools.
But after a bit of experimenting, Tenten found that her favorite weapon was the sai. Much like a kunai knife, it could be used both for close-combat AND as a throwing weapon, but was much better for either purpose. She also discovered that she sort of liked the color red.
Her father had taught her to become a true Weapons Specialist, and a number of other things: meditation, how to focus her spiritual energy independently of her chakra, and the theories of low-level energy projection.
Returning to her team, Neji almost had a heart attack seeing Tenten. She'd let her hair down, was wearing dark pants, and a vaguely Western-style sleeveless shirt (Think of how Elektra looks near the end of the Daredevil movie).
Long story short, she looked like a real femme fatale.
Pulling out a sai and twirling it around in her hand, Tenten asked, "So… what'd I miss?"
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FINALLY!!!! This was a REAL pain in the ass to finish. Naruto, Sasuke, Lee, Hinata, Sakura, and Tenten have now been changed. Kiba, Shino, Shikamaru, and Ino will happen during the Chunin Exams, whereas Choji, Yakumo, and Neji will occur on mission before the Exam. In the next chapter, I will finally introduce 'Team Psycho', and with it, Electro!!!
Meta-Z (my preferred nickname on this site)