I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, I'm just a fan I enjoyed the anime but I love the fanfics even more, they made me fall for the whole franchise.

Chapter 67

Hinata Hyūga, Heiress to the proud Hyūga clan stood in a grassy setting with a soft breeze blowing her hair back. She took a breath in before letting another out. Her arms were raised above her head with her left leg in front of her right. Her body was tense though to the naked eye it was the most relaxed posture a man could achieve.

"Haaa!" Hinata swung her arms down, the blade in her two-hand grip slicing through the air cleanly before stopping in front of her left foot facing diagonally down. Hinata's right leg moved forward with her hand movements, she bent her slid her right back to strengthen her attack and place herself in a ready stance to strike again, bending her left leg at a 90-degree angle to complete the first of her many self-taught katas.

"……..Haaaa!" Hinata breathe out to clear her mind and twisted her hand over her head before swinging down again with great force. The blade cut through the air as Hinata's left leg moved forward her knee facing the hilt of her blade.

'It has only been a week.' The hyūga heiress thought to distract herself while she sprung on her left foot and did an upward swipe to rise into the air. Hinata landed on her feet and slid her left leg wide performing a turn in her position to perform a leg sweep, blade still in hand.

'Father can be sly when he wants to be.' Hinata refrained from shaking her head in exasperation and stood up with a turn that started with her body contorted and her blade sticking out like a deadly top. She twisted 5 times and stood back straight taking a relaxing breath in and then out.

'I miss him.' Hinata thought facing the sky, she heard some clapping and found herself frowning. The Hyūga heiress let her blade slink back into her seal before turning around to face her audience. She sensed in her audience was Hiashi Hyūga, Hanabi Hyūga, Toneri Ōtsutsuki, and his father.

"That was awesome Onee-Sama!" Little Hanabi said excitedly while running up to her big sister with an Orange towel in both her little hands. Hinata smiled down at her sister when she handed her the towel before she wiped away the sweat on her brow.

"Thank you Hanabi-Chan." Hinata said sweetly which had her little sister smiling brightly feeling very proud of herself.

"Your daughter handles the blade very well Hiashi-San, you should be proud." The Ōtsutsuki elder said with a grandfatherly smile on his wrinkled face while approaching Hinata with his son.

"I am proud." Hiashi told the man but his eyes trailed to his daughter who he was happy to have with them at home this morning and every other morning for the past week. Hinata sighed, feeling her father's emotions of guilt surface when he said those words.

"Thank you for the kind words Ōtsutsuki-Sama." Hinata said with a kind bow in the direction of the Ōtsutsuki head.

"You will make somebody a lucky man one day." Toneri said with a charming smile that Hinata did not see. She felt his smug, his feelings of triumph, and his bad intentions that she couldn't place.

"I do plan on making Naruto-Kun very happy someday." Hinata fired back, and Toneri's emotions immediately registered jealousy at her words. "I will go freshen up, I have training with Itachi sensei in an hour." Hinata bowed again before trying to walk away. She felt Hanabi place her small hand in her grasp and Hinata smiled, not everything was bad.

"Can I bathe with you Onee-Sama, please?" Hanabi asked and begged with her big lavender eyes that Hinata couldn't see but she still fell for its cuteness somehow so she nodded. The Hyūga Heiresses walked past their audience and made their way to the main house that Hinata still remembered quite well even after 6 years.

"I will escort you, wonderful ladies, inside." Toneri said following them, both girls sighed and Hanabi frowned.

"Onee-Sama has a boyfriend and he left me in charge of her protection." Hanabi revealed while glaring up at Toneri who only smiled innocently at the little girl as they walked towards the backyard door leading inside the traditional Japanese mansion.

"If I was her boyfriend I would trust her." Toneri said trying to twist things but Hanabi scoffed being the very brash type and a big Naruhina fan she wasn't about to fall for that.

"It's you he doesn't trust." Hanabi replied sternly, Hinata decided not to talk and instead went to push the sliding door open.

"Let me Byakugan princess." Toneri quickly said placing his hand on Hinata's that was on the door handle and bringing his face close to hers, both blind to their surroundings. Hinata sighed and pulled her hand away from the door handle and let Toneri open the door for her.

"My lady." Toneri said opening the door for the two girls to walk in.

"I will be welcome to inform you Toneri-Baka that she is Naruto-Sama's lady." Hanabi corrected after Hinata had walked in. Her voice spoke of a bland texture of sarcasm dazzled with a reality check and stirred with a huff.

"Hugh!" Hanabi looked forward and ran after Hinata who was speed walking in embarrassment at the words coming out of her little sister's mouth. Toneri's eye twitched and he frowned before walking in as well closing the sliding door behind him. The Ōtsutsuki clan heir used the moment to lock gazes with his father and give him a meaningful stare.

Hiashi Hyūga has wanted his daughter back home for the past 5 years but she would not return. In the hospital he made a deal with her, he believed her when she said Naruto did not kill her grandfather, and he too believed it. Naruto did amputate Hisashi's father's arm, and that was still something worth punishment.

Hinata explained to her father why Naruto did what he did and that it was not his fault. Hiashi kept a straight face and rubbed his eyes when he heard his daughter saying the nine-tailed fox was involved like she already knew.

The clan head took a seat on the available chair when he heard she had known for months. The Hyūga head was willing to not press charges against the blonde for attacking a Hyūga elder without personal provocation only if Hinata agreed to move back home.

When Hinata looked back at Naruto he only smiled at her and waited for her judgment. She couldn't even wonder about what he thought because all she could register in his feelings was his love for her. Hinata accepted, and a week later here she was.

Hinata got to her childhood room's front door and took a breath in and another out. She placed her hand on the handle to slide it open and felt like a stranger intruding. Hinata felt a hand get placed on top of her own and she quickly picked up on Hanabi's presence, she got distracted.

"Is everything alright Onee-sama?" Hanabi asked her big sister looking as sad as could be. She wanted her little sister to love her too, she wanted to have 'girl talks' with her. Her friend at school has a big sister who always does her hair while they had 'girl talks' she said it's their bonding ritual.

"Everything is fine Hana-Chan" Hinata replied with a beautiful smile that had Hanabi smiling without her protests.

"Let's have girl talks!" Hanabi shouted excitedly when she suddenly had a great idea.

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"AGHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

"Shut up!" Ibiki told his prisoner before punching him square in the face, busting his lip open in the process. "Do you think we don't know who you are Kabuto Yakushi?" Ibiki raised his hands and brought them down, piercing Kabuto's seated and restrained form in the thighs with the kunai in his hands.

"W-why are y-you doing this?" Kabuto cried profusely, voice breaking, face battered and swollen looking bloodier than the day he was born. Ibiki did not have patience for the spy in front of him, Orochimaru had plucked out his eye and now he wore an eyepatch, the man was full of fury.

"What is Orochimaru planning!?" The head torturer demanded. He punched Kabuto a second later when he saw him about to speak. Why? Kabuto did not know. "Your sentence must start with Orochimaru is." Ibiki demanded sending Kabuto a backhanded slap that was as hard as it sounded.

"Orochimaru Is…..I don't work for him." Kabuto lied so convincingly that he could have fooled any other person. Ibiki scoffed and pulled out a folder from his trench coat.

"Kabuto Yakushi, age 20, occupation 'Genin of Konohagaru and Medic-Nin. Ninja Registration number 01214, graduated the academy at age 10 showing great potential yada yada." Ibiki threw the folder away and turned back to the Genin bending to place his hands on the Kunai sticking out of the bespectacled boy's thighs and twisting it a full 360 degrees.

"AGHHHHH!!!" Kabuto screamed out in pain breathing raggedly as blood began to leak from his now-open wounds.

"All that talent has gone in the wind, do you take me for an Idiot traitor!" Ibiki yanked the Kunais from Kabuto's thighs and stabbed them on Kabuto's shoulder disks, punching another pair of holes into the young man.

"You left the hidden leaf village a total of four times in the past months on 'research' purposes." Another slap. "Word around the block is nobody knows you personally." Ibiki frowned and stepped back to inspect the boy in front of him.

Kabuto was a mess, a literal flesh bag of bruises, Ibiki Morino is a man you do not want to meet in a torture chamber on a normal day, but word around the workplace is that his become overbearing, strict, controlling, menacing and furious. A group of his repeat offenders has already begun calling him Director Fury behind his back.

Kabuto sat limply on the metallic chair he found himself strapped to in locks and chains, his face was facing up at the gray ceiling and the lone lightbulb hanging from it. Kabuto's great hair was the first to go, Ibiki likes giving people a nice head shave before any torture sessions, in that time he 'tries' to make you see the easy way by asking you random questions about your life.

Kabuto's head dropped to face down limply, his crown revealing the number '432' carved into the flesh with something barely sharp and spiky. His naked body looked battered and bloody with his legs chained to the floor. Kabuto coughed out blood and looked up at Ibiki with begging, afraid eyes that spoke of innocence and Ibiki grunted.

"I will see you in 3 hours." Ibiki said walking out of the room and closing it behind him. Kabuto waited for the door to close before he smirked. He tried to shake his shoulders in his restraints feeling no pain from the Kunais stuck to his shoulder disks.

"For someone like me, blocking out my pain receptors is child's play." Kabuto mumbled softly before doing a self-diagnosis. "He definitely outdid all my last captors on his first attempt." Kabuto mused and went around repairing the damage done to his body. Just a little so he doesn't give away his ability or they will be convinced of his treachery.

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"Good morning Hinata-Chan." Itachi greeted his female genin in training ground 3 located close to a lake. Hinata stood ready to learn and Itachi nodded, ready to teach.

"Good morning Itachi-sensei." Hinata replied with a very stoic expression and voice. Itachi stopped himself from sighing.

The Hyūga heiress was still angry at him for the event now called 'False Alert'. Itachi was understandable enough to see her side with emotions but he also looked at it with logic. Besides, Naruto was up and moving again after a full night's sleep, the excessive brutality of the Jōnin in that case amounted to nothing life-threatening.

"Have you progressed on your nature transformation?" Itachi asked, jumping to the lesson at hand, deciding to give Hinata time to cool off. Hinata shook her head no and Itachi frowned not understanding why she would struggle.

"I have been a little distracted Itachi-Sensei." Hinata revealed but did not expand on the explanation.

"I understand you miss Naruto-Kun Hinata-Chan but we only have 3 weeks left before the finals I am sure everybody is training hard, you should too." Itachi gave his student some motivational words to swallow and Hinata accepted them with a grain of salt.

"I will do my best." She simply replied, making Itachi sigh.

"Move on to the lake and try to make a disturbance in a controlled manner with your chakra." Itachi instructed easily and Hinata nodded moving toward said lake and getting on her knees in front of it.

Hinata took a deep breath in and another out before placing both her palms on the lake's surface. Water is gentle and formless, it has no shape but with enough force, it can be blunt enough to break bones and with enough concentration sharp enough to cut through stones

"WHEN I KILL YOU, I WILL BREAK HIM!' Hinata remembered and bared her teeth, concentrating harder. She had to be able to protect herself. She now knew that Naruto thought he had no life without her in it and when she thought about it she realized she is the person Naruto has spent the most time of his life with.

"If I lose and die, I will be failing him, I will be hurting him." Hinata mumbled subconsciously activating her Byakugan in the process. Hinata saw a transparent chakra running through the waters. She tried to mix her purple chakra inside and combine it with the translucent chakra before she could make it her own.

The blind Hyūga's chakra entered the lake slowly, she knew she could not stretch her chakra throughout the whole lake so she decided to start small creating a circle of influence in the lake. Hinata thought of her chakra as a pebble and let it drop, her chakra fused with the water and it caused a ripple in the lake's surface.

'Denser.' She thought condensing her chakra more, this time when the chakra fused with the lake a bigger ripple was made. 'faster' She thought, increasing the constancy of her chakra outputs. Her little section of the lake began to rise and fall violently while she stared straight at it.

Hinata was Watching everything that was occurring in such great detail that she could see how her chakra fused with the lake's Chakra and give it intent.

'Nature transformation. My Chakra nature aligns with water, so there is nothing forced when fusing with the actual element.' Hinata Noted and stopped her exercise, taking a breath in while watching the water settle down and her chakra expand outward, getting drowned in the lake with Kage-level chakra reserves.

'Shape manipulation. Controlling the element will be difficult because I lack experience.' Hinata placed her palms on the lake's surface again and repeated her exercise finding it easier to repeat.

Water as an element is first and foremost obedient, it will take any shape to compensate for space but is also evasive in the sense that you cannot grab onto it. To manipulate something like water, you would need to place it inside a container.

'The water will take the shape of the container.' Hinata deduced and glared at the lake before sinking the tips of her index fingers inside. The disturbance in her circle of influence calmed to leave the training ground silent once more. Hinata began shaping her chakra first, manipulating its shape into a container of her choosing and filling it with water.

Itachi nodded in pride at his female student, she figured it out quicker than he expected. Now was the time to see what she would do. Itachi had his Sharingan active to assess his student's chakra control and whether she was doing the right thing.

"Slowly, slowly, slowly." Hinata mumbled finding herself smiling when she remembered the person who used to tell her to slow down a little and breathe. Hinata raised her index fingers slowly from the lake, pulling out a thin translucent line of water connected to her fingertips. It snapped a second later, and Hinata still smiled.

"Good job Hinata-Chan, continue for another 2 hours and then we will spar before you head home." Itachi instructed and Hinata nodded from her kneeling position in front of the lake and repeated the first step of her chakra control exercise of Nature transformation and Shape Manipulation.

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"You. Come over here." Neji growled and looked to his left. Toneri stood there in front of Neji's home, in all his almighty glory. Neji moved toward Toneri and just stood there waiting for the taller teen to speak.

"Yes, Ōtsutsuki-Sama." Neji droned out with clear bitterness in his eyes that his voice did not carry. Toneri told him he was only allowed to address him as Ōtsutsuki-Sama because peasants did not deserve to speak his name or something egotistical like that.

"Open this door, I have a task for you seeing as you are scared of this Naruto Uzumaki fodder character." Toneri said in condensation toward Neji Hyūga. The branch member simply walked around his blackmailer and opened the door and let him step in first.

Neji removed his sandals before entering, but he spied Toneri had not removed his sandals when he entered. Neji refrained from acting brash, it is what led him to the situation he now found himself in.

'I should have thought things through first.' Neji thought not the least bit guilty about killing his grandfather. In Neji's eyes, the man was a tormenter and he deserved a thousand more stabs for what he put him and his father through, the Hyūga prodigy felt no regret.

"I want you to take Hanabi out of the house for a few hours tomorrow." Toneri ordered, deciding to stay standing. The house was bland and lifeless. Neji only had a futon that was folded up in a corner and nothing else.

"I am not a babysitter, I have training tomorrow." Neji replied with a natural deadpan in his voice that he didn't have to try too hard to accomplish.

"Hahaha, a peasant wanting strength." Toneri mocked laughing as only a noble could. "What are you training for? Cannot you see that you are weak and worthless?" Toneri rhetorically asked before turning to leave the house.

"Tomorrow at 7 am sharp, be there with a way to encourage her to leave." Toneri instructed and waited for Neji who went and opened the door for the Ōtsutsuki clan heir who stepped out.

"Why do Hinata-Sama's troubles follow me around, is that my fate?" Neji thought out loud closing the door with a click.

Authors Notes

Concentrating on Hime today, don't know who I will concentrate on next chapter. I guess we will all have to see

Yeah...