Chapter 6: The Byakugan Master's Charge

-Later-

"I am wise like an owl. I am clever like a fox. I am fast like the wind. I am strong like the mountain.

"I am steady like the river. I am gentle like the breeze. I am warm like the sunlight. I am grounded like a tree.

"I am wise like an owl. I am clever like a fox. I am fast like the wind. I am strong like the mountain.

"I am steady like the river. I am gentle like the breeze. I am warm like the sunlight. I am grounded like a tree."

Usagi chanted it over and over to herself. It was her mantra, the words she spoke constantly during her training. She struck the training pole again and again, trying to put as much energy into each hit as she could. Still, each time she pulled back she seemed to have more energy than before. She pounded the post mercilessly, ignoring the pain from her bleeding hands as she hit first one side, then the other, refusing to stop or slow down. She had to keep going. If she didn't keep moving, didn't keep expending energy . . . if she slowed down for just a moment, gave it time to build up . . . she couldn't do it. Her body felt like it was struggling to break free of its skin. Her heart was pounding as though she were about to die. Her breathing was desperate as she tried to suck as much cool air into her lungs as possible. Her body felt so hot, so jumpy, so determined to go in two different directions at once. It was this feeling, this overdose of adrenaline, that had made it so impossible to sleep. She had tried to lay still in bed but her muscles refused to relax, tensing and flexing, clenching painfully and only releasing for a split second before they again began to move of their own accord. At last she couldn't take it anymore. She'd had to leave her bed, climb out her window and come here to train . . . and this was the reason. This overflow of chakra flooding through her body like a wildfire.

"I am wise like and owl," she panted, hitting the post again and again, "I am clever like a fox, I am fast like . . ."

"A rabbit?" someone cut her off from behind. She was so absorbed the overload of chakra and her brutal pummeling of the pole that the voice seemed almost to be part of her subconscious, only half heard and even less comprehended. It was only when a pair of strong hands clasped around her shoulders and pulled her away from her training that she realized who was standing behind her.

"Let me go Uncle Neji!" she growled, trying to pull away. He calmly held her still, turning her to face him in the dark.

"A little late for training isn't it, little rabbit?" he inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Why do you care?" Usagi demanded, still thrashing about in his hold. His grip on her shoulders was stopping her from blowing off the energy building up inside her. She wanted him to let go, to let her do as she liked, do what she needed to do to get rid of this pounding urge to move. Couldn't he tell she was in pain?

"Because I care about you, Usagi," he sighed, kneeling down so that he was face to face with the child. She glared at him. Her struggles had stopped but now her whole body shook with rage.

"Liar!" she spat, "The only reason you care about me is because my father's the Hokage! If it wasn't for him you wouldn't care what happened to me!"

Neji narrowed his pale eyes a little as his gaze became more focused."That isn't true, little rabbit. Your mother is, after all, my cousin. She and I were very close in our youth. We still are . . ."

"Liar!" Usagi repeated, screaming now, "You were cruel to her when you were kids! You almost killed her during the first Chuunin Exam you took together! You hated her!"

"I was once jealous of her, that's true little rabbit," Neji tried to explain, "but we overcame that. There are no longer any bitter feelings between us."

"Then why didn't you help her?" Usagi challenged angrily, her eyes swimming with unshed tears. "When Hiashi disowned her, why didn't you help her? Why didn't you say something, speak for her, fight for her?"

"There was nothing I could do, little . . ."

But Usagi cut him off again. "And when he decided she was strong enough after all and tried to force her to return to the clan after she'd become and elite jonin and made it on her own! Where were you then?"

For a moment Neji tried to think of something to make her understand. Then he just sighed again. The look in her eyes said it all. She would not believe anything he said to her.

At last he gave up on trying to get anything through to her and released her shoulders, instead grabbing one of her small hands and examining the bloody wounds. "Here," he said, pulling a roll of bandages from his sleeve and unrolling some to wrap around her hand, "let me help you."

"I don't need your help!" she insisted, pulling her hand away and turning back to the wooden post. "Besides, I'm not done with my training yet!" The feeling of being completely overwhelmed by chakra was mostly gone now, but her body still hummed with excess energy.

Neji frowned. "You need to be in bed, little rabbit," he insisted, grasping her shoulder gently and turning her to face him again, "I'll bandage these, then take you home."

"Don't call me little rabbit!" she snarled, trying to break free even as he took hold of her wrist and began trying to wrap her hand in the bandages.

Neji sighed. He'd been wondering when she'd notice that.

"Don't touch me!" she shrieked, and her foot made contact with his shin. Neji grunted and dropped her hand a moment to clutch at his injured leg, but it only took a second for Usagi to dart away from him, leaping into a nearby tree and streaking back towards the Hokage Tower in great bounds. Neji gave a final sigh. At least she was heading home.

-Later-

Usagi soared in through one of the tower's many windows and, not having bothered to see where she was jumping to, found herself in the area that served as a living room for her family. It was a large open space, a sofa and two chairs facing the large fireplace, but other than that the only thing in it were rugs and the pictures lining the walls.

There were a great many pictures, Naruto was fond of having a reminder of each and every member of his extended adoptive family. There were pictures of all of Usagi's various "Aunts" and "Uncles," all the people Naruto had grown up with and had thus sort of adopted as a large collection of brothers and sisters.

There was a picture of Squad 7, Kakashi lording over Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura as genin. There was a picture of Ino and Sakura at the flower shop, smiling and waving as Lee walked by.

There was one of the "dead lasts," Naruto, Shikamaru, Kiba and Choji, lounging lazily on a hill the day after they'd all become jonin.

There was one of Naruto, Sasuke and Gaara at Ichiraku, all having abandoned their Kage attire to spend an evening as three old friends and determinedly ignoring the ANBU from three villages in the background.

There was one of a reluctant looking Shino, who looked rather like he was being forced into the frame by Kiba and Hinata pushing him from behind.

There was one of Gaara, Kankuro and Temari, all clustered around Temari's son when he'd been only a few months old.

One of Sakura, standing in a grove of cherry trees wrapped in Lee's arms, and one of Hinata beaming like a child as she rode on Naruto's back.

There was one of Tenten, face shining like the sun since someone, Naruto actually, had persuaded Neji to put his arm around her for the sake of the picture.

There was even one of all fifteen of them crowded into the same frame, everyone grinning, laughing, pushing each other, and in general being a rowdy group of friends.

Usagi turned to the space over the fireplace. This stretch of wall held three pictures in a great triangle, and they were Usagi's favorite. The one at the very top was of the Fourth Hokage, Naruto's father and Usagi's grandfather, the same robes Naruto wore now fluttering around him as he gazed down at the village. The bottom left one was of Naruto himself on the day he had become the First Golden Hokage, gazing down at the village in much the same manner, with his friends, no his family, clustered around him. The last one was of Naruto and Hinata, Usagi and Mizu standing in front of them, the perfect family.

Usagi stared up at the pictures of her father and grandfather. How much had they both sacrificed in service of the village? How many times had they both proved that they did not care about the wealth or the title, but about the village itself? And yet still there were people like Neji, only interested in what could be gained from the position. He was the head of his clan, and that power alone worried her about how his ambition had already hurt the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Usagi's hands balled into fists at her sides.

"I'm not going to let someone so greedy leech off my family!" Usagi promised the three pictures in front of her. "I will not let him use my family, or the people of this village, as stepping stones for his own gain! After my father I will become Hokage, and I will not let anyone who doesn't truly care about this village hold power in it!"

"Well spoken, little one," said a voice from somewhere behind her. Usagi whirled around to see her Uncle Sasuke leaning casually against wall behind her, hidden in shadows. He pushed off from the wall and walked quietly across the room to stand beside her, looking at the pictures above the hearth. "As I remember your father was very fond of making such declarations when he was young," he turned slightly to smile down at her, "though he usually preferred to have more of an audience."

Sasuke and Usagi stared up at the pictures on the wall in silence. A few moments passed and neither of them said anything, as though they were both more interested in the three generations depicted before them than each other. At last Usagi glanced up at her uncle. She, of course, knew how he had come to be the Kage of the Village Hidden in the Sound when he had grown up in the Hidden Leaf Village, but his defection was not something Usagi much cared about. He cared about her family, and though for a time his judgment had been clouded by hatred for his brother, he had eventually remembered who his true family was, embracing them enough to let them go into battle with him when he faced Itachi for the very last time, and emerged victorious. Naruto was Sasuke's brother, more so than Itachi had ever been, and as such Sasuke was a member of Usagi's family, her uncle, whether they shared blood or not.

"Neji means well, you know," Sasuke said quietly after a moment, not taking his eyes off the pictures in front of him.

Usagi just snorted. "Oh please," she snarled, "his seal's been removed, he's the head of his clan, the use of the seal has become illegal, the system of head and branch families has been abolished, and its all thanks to my father. He has everything, and yet still he's sniffing around me and my family, wondering what else he can get out of us."

Sasuke shook his head. "That isn't it all all, Usagi, really. He really does want what's best for you, this is his way of trying to repay all the kindness your parents have done him."

Usagi stuck up her nose. "I don't believe that," she replied disdainfully, "he's always poking his nose into my business, no matter what I'm doing he always has to interfere. He's just trying to look like he's watching over me, that's all."

Sasuke gave the little girl next to him an appraising look. He almost seemed as though he was sizing her up, wondering how much to tell her, or how much she already knew. "If you knew the whole story little one, you'd understand."

Usagi scoffed, "Fat chance."