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...
"Hinata, daughter, are you unwell?"
The grogginess Hinata felt at that moment was shattered by the splitting headache which drove at her mind. Peering through half-closed eyes, Hinata looked at her father who was kneeling by her side. For the longest of moments she simply stared at Hiashi before the question why he was in her apartment came to mind. Had she left the door unlocked when she had made her way from Anko's room the previous day?
She could only imagine the state that she was in. "Father?" said Hinata softly as Hiashi placed the back of his palm against her forehead.
"Hmm, you aren't running a temperature but clearly this unkempt environment is wreaking havoc on your health," declared Hiashi as he stood up. "Fear not daughter, I shall send for a healer immediately and you can rest assured that I will be having a word with your landlord. If living in this environment has reduced your overall health to such a degree then it is unsafe to keep you here for longer than necessary. If needed I will take this up with the Hokage himself."
"Father," mumbled out Hinata in an act of attempted defiance. Given her current condition it came out mostly incoherent. She could only watch as the head of the Hyuga clan stormed out of her apartment and she knew that if a healer was to return then she would have to face some very severe punishments. Desperately she tried to push herself into some sort of position only for her hand to slip, causing her to collapse to the ground.
Perhaps if she returned to Anko the woman would have something on hand to help alleviate some of the pain she was in. Or, the more likely option, it would be somewhere she could hide while she tried to keep away from the healer that her father would send for.
Silently she prayed that Ino was suffering the same agony that she was at that time. She could only imagine if any of her clan members, those who could quite easily enter the mind, decided to try and get any information from Ino she doubted that the teenager would be able to keep any secrets hidden. Perhaps it would be best to suggest to her friend to try and keep away from her family for a little while. Or at least long enough for the previous night to be a distant memory and this day to be well and truly over.
...
Shino sat in the confines of his living room, drowning in the silence that surrounded him outside of the noise of his insects hard at work. His colony had been active since the minute he had been relocated, firstly scouting his own accommodation in regard to getting every detail down to the millimeter. While the rest of those who had been forced to move had found it suspicious at face value, Shino had gone to work trying to see whether or not there had been something uncertain in the four walls he was now living in.
His insects had scoured every scrap they could cover and had come up with nothing out of the ordinary. Shino had found that information strange in its own right. Hence he had sent his insects to scour some of the other rooms to see if there was anything nefarious to be found there. They too had come up empty, which in return had left Shino in a bit of confusion.
Surely the reason that they had all been moved into such a close proximity to one another hadn't been for the reasons given. So Shino had sent his insects to inspect the other rooms not occupied by those that he had gone to the academy with. Firstly they had gone to the room occupied by an older female, the woman whom Shino assumed was the Tokobetsu Jonin whom they were informed about the first day they were in their new accommodation. From what he had learnt from his insects, the woman didn't spend a great deal of time in her home but when she was, she spent a vast amount of time sleeping.
Somehow he came to the conclusion that they weren't there for her sake. Hence he had sent his insects to intrude the room of the landlord, Uzumaki Naruto. Shino hadn't been quite sure what to think of the person roughly the same age as him, given that he had not once seen hide nor hair of the Uzumaki. In that idea alone, there was a reason as to why he should send his insects off to try and garner some manner of information.
The problem was, his insects had been unable to source much information, primarily due to the fact that he had lost a vast number of his colony. It seemed that Uzumaki Naruto was heavy handed and accurate with a can of insect spray. To the untrained eye, Shino could understand Naruto's use on his insects, as much as it hurt him personally. He was the landlord of a large rental property and if there were insects roaming around in his line of sight, it made sense that he would want to get rid of them.
The issue in that though was that his insects had been instructed to remain out of sight as much as possible. Yet he had lost a good number of them while they had been in hiding. While Shino didn't know just how successful they had been in their infiltration, if they had been spotted there was nothing that he could have done and he would mourn their loss.
As odd as it sounded, the landlord was currently his number one suspect but he had nobody to truly discuss it with. Not because there weren't options aplenty, but outside of his team meeting together, he didn't particularly interact with any of the other Genin. Even if he was to do so, what would he say? Would they listen to them? He hadn't really interacted with many of them since their time at the academy so why would they give him the time of day now to discuss hypothetical theories on why their landlord was suspicious? He wished that he could consider asking his teammates for their input but he felt like Kiba's input would be already tainted, his comrade already having run afoul of the landlord already due to Akamaru's actions. Hinata meanwhile would be more level headed in her responses but given her recent activities he would have to bide his time before talking with her.
If he was to get any of the answers he was after, first he would have to rebuild relationships that had started to dwindle since the academy. It would be a long, strenuous task that could very well take weeks if not months. If he had to, as difficult as it sounded, make friends, then so be it. All in the name of discovery, he would interact with his peers, as painful as it would be.
...
"What's going on?" asked Kiba as Akamaru yapped away while scratching at the base of the door. "I've told you that if you need to go so badly just do it on the newspaper."
Akamaru growled at Kiba's comment before resuming his efforts, eventually causing Kiba to get up and open the door mumbling something incoherent in anger. When he saw what Akamaru had been trying to alert him to however, he beamed in joy as he grasped onto the nearby railing. "Oi! Everyone!" shouted Kiba as loud as he could in order to alert those who were currently in their rooms. "Team Seven's back!"
Akamaru barked happily as a number of doors opened up and their respective renters leapt out onto the ground floor to greet their fellow Genin. Even Anko, who had heard the shout, found herself stepping outside and leaning on the rail to look down to where the young Genin were located. You could always tell how successful a mission had been by the way in which the shinobi held themselves. Given that this was their first time on a multi day C-ranked mission, there was a possibility of something having gone wrong.
Given their posture, there was a distinct possibility that not all had gone according to plan.
That seemed to only be heightened by the fact that when Ino got close to the pink-haired Genin whom Anko hadn't personally met yet, the member of Team Seven effectively collapsed into Ino and Anko could hear the sobs from where she was standing. Yeah, something had definitely not gone to plan.
...
Naruto chuckled at the formal letter that he had been sent by the head of the Hyuga clan, Hiashi having made several accusations in regards to the living conditions that he was overseeing. He had heard from Anko what had actually happened and that had been backed up by Hinata, who had apologized profusely for bringing such hardship onto him.
Naruto had laughed it all off and had given Hinata a comforting hand on her shoulder to tell her that it was alright. Given how quickly Hinata's face had reddened he had momentarily wondered whether something was wrong with the young Hyuga. He would discuss it with Anko to try to make sure the woman didn't go out of her way to allow Hinata to have more than necessary.
Still, he could understand that Hinata didn't want to get in trouble with her father so he would invite the head of the Hyuga clan to come into his building and inspect it top to bottom if necessary. Hopefully when Hiashi scheduled such a thing it will have given Hinata enough time to come up with a reasonable explanation as to why she was so under the weather that particular day.
Naruto hoped that the truth wasn't the explanation given because that would bring more heat onto his longest standing resident more than anything else. On that note, he did have to tell Anko to go easy over the weekend. Last thing he needed was for her to influence any more of the Genin.
At least not yet.
...
Danzo,
As you may be aware, Team Seven came across some difficulties during our first assignment out of the village in the form of one of the Seven Swordsman of the Mist. The Demon of the Hidden Mist, Zabuza Momochi, proved to be a fearsome adversary and his accomplice was skilled in their own right.
After their defeat, I wished to gift you Zabuza's blade. Kakashi, in his admiration for his fallen foe, left the blade with his body and had I tried to retrieve it I may very well have been seen. In my report I will give you the location of where the sword currently lies if you wish to have another one of your agents retrieve it.
This coming weekend I have been invited to socialize with the rest of the tenants. Our landlord has offered to host a barbeque as a means of celebrating our return. The wording in that somehow caused me to become unnerved. I can't help but consider the fact that him celebrating for what seems such a mundane reason cannot be for nothing. The simple answer would be that he had previously had some former residents not return from their respective missions. I will not pry him for information because I fear that if that is indeed the case he will react negatively.
I can only imagine how he would feel having to remove the belongings and clean up the lodgings of somebody who didn't return. From my observations, Uzumaki Naruto is deeply withholding his emotions and while he shows a positive outlook he could very well be hiding a deep sadness.
For now though I must consider what best to bring for the barbeque this weekend. I hear that one can never go wrong when bringing potato salad but even if it isn't appreciated by a majority of my peers, I'm sure that Chouji will devour it regardless.
Sai.
...
