Shikaku stepped into the hospital's urgent care wing and didn't even need anyone to direct him to the walking dead that appeared to be Team 8's genin.
Or, rather, the only one that was still standing, the little Hyuuga that had helped Shikamaru prepare for the final stage. Only now she was covered in blood and grime and looked like she really should've been in Psych instead of barely keeping her balance in the hospital's waiting area, standing in the corner of the room with a whining ninken puppy on her shoulder and haunted, bloodshot eyes.
Kotetsu, standing a few feet to the girl's left and eyeing her worriedly, spotted him as soon as he walked in, and the chunin muttered something to Hinata before he walked briskly over to Shikaku, his uniform stained with blood at the shoulder and hip, though at least it didn't seem to be his.
"You got a report for me?" Shikaku greeted, not sure he was liking the fact that Hagane actually looked serious for once.
"Not as such, Shikaku-sama." The gate-guard replied, but the usual accompanying sheepish gesture that Shikaku would've expected was nowhere to be seen. "Kid's mute, haven't been able to get anything from her."
"Her teammates?" Shikaku tried, wondering whether this is what the genin messenger had meant by 'more or less'.
"Inuzuka and Kurenai are in critical condition, and the Aburame headed off to Psych as soon as he signed in at the Gates. Izumo went after him cause the kid didn't look great, and I took the rest here." Kotetsu explained, and Shikaku sighed, then started walking towards Hinata, keeping his pace slow and his body language as unthreatening as possible.
It didn't seem to be enough, because the ninken on the Hyuuga's shoulder switched from whining to growling as soon as Shikaku got within five feet of the girl, and those dead, empty eyes rose to meet his.
"Hinata-chan." Shikaku greeted, feeling Kotetsu startle at his side at the address, but keeping his attention firmly on the genin. "Glad to see you made it back."
The nature of their return was still up in the air, but the sheer fact that all four members of Team Eight were back in the Village after being written off as MIA was an accomplishment in and of itself.
He got the shallowest of shallow nods at his words, and the girl winced, as if even that miniscule movement hurt. Glancing briefly at Kotetsu, Shikaku flicked through Chunin Sign with his right hand: 'medical check-up?'
Kotetsu shook his head, grimacing slightly as he rubbed at the bandage over his nose with one hand while the one at his side flickered through a response; 'no. attacked a nurse.'
Shikaku raised an eyebrow, wondering about the level of dissociation he was likely currently witnessing from the genin when he caught movement from Hinata in his peripheral vision. He turned to face her fully, catching the last few twitches of her fingers against her elbow, and though he recognised the motion, he needed to be sure.
"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" He requested, eyes on the hands with which Hinata was clutching her elbows, and this time, the twitches of her right hand's fingers were impossible to miss, as slow as they were: 'assumed enemy. sorry.'
"Oh." Kotetsu breathed, staring at the girl with a mix of surprise and wariness. "I didn't even think to try Chunin Sign with her."
"It's not taught at the Academy, assuming she wouldn't know it was a fair assumption to make." Shikaku dismissed, focusing back on Hinata. "Do you feel up to answering a few questions?"
Another slow nod, and another wince, but Shikaku could push the guilt at interrogating the girl in the state she was in to the back of his mind until he got the answers he needed.
"It has been almost two months since your team set out on a mission that shouldn't have taken more than a fortnight. What delayed you?" he asked sharply, catching another slanted glance from Kotetsu at the change, though Hinata didn't even seem to register his tone.
'missing-nin' came the slow, dreaded reply.
"Could you identify them? Country, jutsu, appearance?" Shikaku pressed, exchanging a brief, weighted look with Kotetsu.
There were a lot of missing-nin out there. For starters, Hinata's answer to his question could explain whether he needed to bump their mission's rank up a letter. Or two.
'Jounin. Earth' Hinata signed, swallowing hard, her eyes on the floor even as her fingers continued to move. 'Water' another pause, longer this time. 'Fire'.
Shikaku very carefully avoided reacting outwardly at the list, and he hoped Kotetsu had gotten better at controlling his expressions in the last few months.
"Do you know how to use a Bingo Book?" he asked Hinata instead, already reaching into his pocket even before he got another tiny nod in confirmation.
He handed the book over and watched her flip through to the section on jounin with a curious surety, though he couldn't think of a situation where a genin would've had the time to become so familiar with layout of the Bingo Book, and he doubted Kurenai would've been quite so militant with the kids.
Then, he stilled as Hinata flipped the book around and showed them the double-page spread on Iwa's head-hunter squad, two jounin and a chunin that have been around since before Minato became a ghost story for Iwa-nin.
"They still alive?" Kotetsu asked when Shikaku simply stared, and Hinata slowly turned the book back towards herself and signed an affirmative.
That meant that a fresh genin team had somehow manage to evade one of Iwa's best tracking squads, and Shikaku reckoned that he was probably overdue a long talk with Yuuhi.
But then Hinata was back to flicking through the pages, and the next shinobi she showed them had Shikaku sucking in a started breath.
Hoshigaki Kisame stared back at him from the page, the Bingo Book entry picture complete with sharpened teeth and the bloodthirsty smile that Shikaku could personally confirm as accurate. Hoshigaki was almost singlehandedly responsible for the sleepless night Shikaku had endured poring over Village defenses with the ANBU Commander. The Kiri-nin had somehow made his way through the Village unimpeded despite being far from inconspicuous; they couldn't afford such obvious weaknesses in the system, especially so soon after a full-scale invasion.
He also desperately needed the written report of how three genin and a ninken had made it out of an encounter with Kiri's Tailless Tailed Beast, alive, on his desk yesterday.
But then, Hinata showed them the last page, and Shikaku's stomach sank. He should've expected it, a part of his mind had been warning him that it was the likely conclusion as soon as he saw Kisame's face, but seeing Uchiha Itachi's chunin promotion photo staring back at him still felt like a punch to the gut.
He had no idea how Team Eight had managed to escape with their lives. The genin messenger's response of 'more or less' was starting to sound like a miracle.
"I will need a written report as soon as you feel up to providing one." He informed the girl, watching as she blinked slowly at him, her expression seeming far-away. "But for now, I think it would be better to have you checked out by the medics. You're home, your team is safe. You did well, Hinata-chan."
The girl blinked again, slower still, and this time, her eyes didn't open fully. The Bingo Book slipped from her loose grip and hit the floor with a quiet thud, and then Hinata's legs folded under her too. She would have hit the ground if Kotetsu hadn't caught her, and his alarmed shout had one of the attending medics hurry over to them, though his voice was steady and calm as he greeted Shikaku and instructed Kotetsu on how to hold Hinata up.
When the medic's hand fell on Hinata's sternum, however, the calm mask shattered and he cursed, barking orders and dropping his clipboard onto the floor to get both hands on Hinata's body. Through the flurry of medics that descended on the girl and the curses that were falling from their lips, Shikaku realised that the fact that the girl was still standing was a miracle in and of itself.
When the medics carted Hinata away on a stretcher, the ninken puppy managing to squish itself between the girl's legs and evading every medic that tried to remove it, Shikaku turned to Kotetsu.
The chunin looked pale, staring after the genin with wide eyes, and when he saw Shikaku looking, he swallowed, looking guilty.
"I-I didn't realise. Sorry, Shikaku-sama." He apologised, guilt and anxiety and still the slightest bit of awe marring his face.
Shikaku took a deep breath, then let it out slowly.
"Neither did I." he confessed simply, then bent to pick up his dropped Bingo Book, which he tucked back into his jacket pocket. Then, he turned on his heel and headed for the double door out of the hospital's waiting area. "Tell the medics to let me know when she'll be up for writing that report."
And then he left, because, really, on the scale of the crises he had to deal with today, this was more along the 'miracle' side of the spectrum.
Ino had never given Kiba much thought.
Even when paralysed in bed in the hospital, her old Academy classmates rarely crossed her mind. The medics had allowed Sakura's bed to be brought into her room, both of them likely to be in the hospital long-term, and Ino didn't know whether the medics had actually caved to her requests (demands) or whether they were that desperate for more rooms in the hospital after the invasion.
The point was, the result was the same.
Her and Sakura were able to share a room, both unable to move from their respective beds after the events of the second round of the Exams, sometimes managing conversation, sometimes ending with Ino half-listening while Sakura read out loud whatever book she'd managed to get her sensei or the nurses to bring her.
The point was, Ino hadn't thought of Kiba beyond the occasional passing thought since the Academy.
He was loud, obnoxious, and almost comparable to Naruto on the annoyingness scale, the only thing that differentiated them was that Kiba at least had some sort of an idea about the ninja world and Clan hierarchy.
The first notable thing about him had been his team's C-Rank, weeks before any of the other Rookies would get their C-Ranks.
The second had been the news that Team 8 was not going to be participating in the Chunin Exams.
The third had been Shikamaru, in the rare few times he's managed to visit Ino in the hospital since the invasion and his promotion. He'd come in about a month after the invasion, not just tired but visibly rattled, and it had taken her and Sakura fifteen minutes of pushing and prodding to get him to open up.
"Hinata- Hinata's team." Shikamaru had rasped, not meeting either of their eyes, his hands balled into fists. "They've been declared MIA."
Neither Ino nor Sakura had known what to say to that.
And then, two weeks after that, Kiba had been wheeled into their hospital room, pale and weak, looking deeply unconscious.
"His records say he was in your Academy class." The nurse who'd wheeled his bed in had told them, looking tired and harried but trying to manage a smile for them. "He's going to be here a while, too, and we thought it might be better if he has some familiar company when he wakes up."
"Um," Sakura had managed, trying to sit up more but wincing and giving up half-way, "but he's…a boy?"
"They've got the privacy screens, Sakura." Ino had grouched, rolling her eyes at the rare instance where Sakura's civilian upbringing reared its head. "Aren't Naruto and Sasuke boys, too?"
At the mention of her teammates, Sakura had quietened, and the nurse shot Ino a grateful look.
"What happened to him?" Ino had asked in turn, eyeing what little she could see of Kiba critically. "That you can tell us?" she added after she noticed the nurse looking somewhat uncomfortable.
"Bad chakra depletion and damage to his heart tissue." The nurse explained vaguely, Ino got the sense that they were barely grazing the tip of the iceberg.
"Can he be cured?" she'd pressed, her own helplessness at her predicament having long turned to anger then cooled into a festering bitterness, and there was the flash of guilt she'd been looking for.
"By a miracle. Or Senju Tsunade." The nurse admitted, the smile slipping off her face, and Ino could see a similar bitter helplessness reflected in the woman's eyes.
"So, like us, then." She'd concluded flatly, and Sakura let out a quiet sound that would've once been a sob, but the nurse had just nodded quietly and took her leave.
Still, when Kiba actually woke up, over a week after being brought in to their room, and Ino got to hear the full story of what had happened on Team Eight's latest mission when Shikaku-oji had been called in for the report, Ino wondered whether forced retirement from active duty wouldn't be a kinder fate.
She also wondered what kind of mental scars having to manually and repeatedly restart your teammate's heart might leave. Team Eight probably had the worst luck out of the Rookies, but they were either stronger mentally than the rest of their peers, or they'd had some serious help with learning how to compartmentalise.
"So," She asked once the adults had cleared out of the room and Kiba was left staring at the ceiling, looking far more exhausted than a simple report should've left him, "medic-nin?"
Kiba scoffed, tired and wry and winded yet still somewhat amused.
"That's the goal, yeah." He replied breathlessly, though Ino couldn't hear any of his usual cockiness in the words. "If I live long enough."
Ino snorted before she could stop herself, and even Sakura huffed a quiet, resigned laugh. Three of them, barely genin, from all three of the Rookie teams, in the hospital long-term with the nurses tiptoeing around the fact that they were unlikely to ever go back to active duty.
Lovely.
"Do you know anything about mithridatism?" Sakura asked once they'd settled, glancing briefly at Ino, but Ino's attention was on Kiba and the thoughtful, feral grin that split his face.
"Not so much myself, no." he admitted easily, pushing himself up on the pillows so he could look between the two of them, and Ino was jealous of his ability to do so. "But I have a feeling that's about to change."
Ino had not given much thought to Kiba since the Academy. She hadn't much liked him at the Academy either.
But this version of Kiba? This slightly unhinged, able-to-read-between-the-lines, apparently competent Kiba?
This Kiba she could learn to like.
When Hinata woke up, it felt like she was breaking the surface of water after being under for a long time. She sat up, not even registering the pull in her muscles, too busy taking small, gasping breaths that did little to keep the panic at bay as she tried to take in her surroundings.
Hospital.
Her head was pounding, but beyond the stiffness of her muscles and the grim taste in her mouth, she couldn't feel any other injuries, which meant she'd been unconscious for a while.
How long? Where was Kiba? Shino? Sensei?
She heard the door to her room open and she snapped her head in the direction, though her gaze was unfocused, her breaths still wheezing, her hands shaking.
"Hey, Hinata, easy, breathe." The figure who'd entered instructed, coming nearer but not near enough to crowd her, which she was distantly grateful for. "You're in the hospital in Konoha, I'm Shiranui Genma, you're safe, your teammates and sensei are alive. Now come on, breathe with me."
Your teammates and sensei are alive.
As if that were the magic phrase needed to release the vice from around her ribs, she suddenly found it much easier to follow Genma's instructions and breathe.
"There we go." Genma sighed some time later, getting up from the chair at her bedside to place the book he'd brought on the table on the other side of her bed. "Glad to see you're awake. Have you been seen by the nurses yet?"
Hinata shook her head and Genma hummed neutrally, seemingly content to let her watch him as he arranged the vases on her bedside table and placed the book he'd brought on top of another one already there, the title something she vaguely recognised but couldn't quite place.
"The bouquet is from your Aburame teammate, the wildflowers are from Hana, and the book is from Shikaku's kid, I believe." Genma explained lightly, tapping each item in turn, and Hinata was glad he was filling the silence, because she didn't feel able to. "Yugao wanted to check on you but she's going through a lot herself at the moment, but Ebisu sends his regards."
Slowly, Hinata raised her right hand and signed a rough 'thank you'.
"It's no problem." Genma waved her off, moving so he was standing at the foot of her bed and gripping the railing lightly. "How are you feeling?"
Hinata paused as she thought about the answer; 'dazed' was what she finally settled on, and Genma nodded understandingly.
"You came in with severe chakra exhaustion, several broken ribs, internal bleeding, and a pretty bad concussion. I'm not surprised."
Hinata blinked at the extent of her injuries, then considered her hands and general recollection of the mission. 'paper and a pen?' she signed, and it was Genma's turn to blink, tilting his head at her quizzically. 'report.'
"Shikaku will understand if you take a few more days." Genma told her, probably aiming for sympathetic, but he must've seen something on her face because he sighed and dug into his pocket, producing a pen. "I'll go see if I can steal some paper from the nurses."
In other circumstances, Hinata may have smiled, but she felt…empty.
Genma settled into the chair at her bedside when he came back with a notepad, a casual 'I'm heading to the Tower anyway, I can drop your report off with Shikaku on the way' as explanation, which Hinata chose not to read into.
She didn't know how long she sat there writing, trying to remember everything that had happened to her team since they left the Village while being mindful of filtering out the questionable parts, like her breaking Itachi's genjutsu. When she felt like she'd finally finished, she brought her finger to her mouth and bit through the skin on her index finger, waiting till the blood welled up, then pressing her finger like a seal at the bottom of the page.
"Smart." Genma commented, waiting while Hinata folded the paper. When she finally handed it over, he tucked it into the inner pocket of his vest and saluted her teasingly. "Rest up, heal, and I'll try to visit in a few days if I'm still in the Village, or get Yugao to. Do you need anything while you're here?"
Hinata considered the question, aware that Genma was unlikely to be able to step into the Hyuuga Compound.
But, a thought had taken root in her mind when she'd been walking to the Village with Shino, her mind unable to handle the anxiety of not knowing whether her teammates would make it to the hospital, and that same thought swept over her now that she had a member of the Yondaime's guard asking her whether she wanted anything.
'book' she signed slowly, 'on sealing'.
"A book on sealing?" Genma echoed, one eyebrow hiking up, though his tone was far from judgemental. Instead, he looked…thoughtful, and quietly proud. "I'll see what I have around."
Then, he let his hand rest gently on the top of her head, not ruffling her hair but just resting on it, before he headed for the door, no more words needing to be exchanged between them, her report tucked safely in his pocket.
In the safety of her mind, Hinata smiled. She was grateful to Kurenai in this timeline for giving them their mentors. While she wouldn't go as far as calling Genma or Yugao her friends, the contact she had with them was still more than she had in her first life.
And anything she could get outside of her Clan was a blessing she would never take for granted.
The next time Hinata woke up was because a nurse came to change out her IV. She blinked awake, no clue how much time had passed since she'd seen Genma, and more than a little surprised to have woken at the nurse's quiet motions and unobtrusive procedure, then tried to get her sluggish brain to focus.
And that was when she felt the presence that was the more likely reason behind what had woken her up, two stormy chakra signatures heading unerringly for her room.
A few seconds later, the door to her room opened unceremoniously, not so much as a perfunctory knock to announce the visitors, and Elder Osamu and Elder Hideki stepped into the room, both not even trying to hide their disdain for its occupants.
"Hinata." Hideki greeted, scowling at her like she was scum on the sole of his sandal. "While your weakness and incompetence are no longer surprising," he began, glancing around the room meaningfully, "imagine how displeased your father was to learn you're a traitor, too."
Hinata blinked, startled and intimidated and feeling the beginnings of panic clawing up her throat.
"What's the matter?" Osamu demanded stonily, his countenance icy, his expression blank. "Have you got nothing to say for yourself?"
"She's mute, Hyuuga-san." The nurse that had been changing her IV intervened, glancing at the Elders with a frown and ignoring Hinata's tiny abortive gestures. "Until we can get someone from Psych to see her, she's unlikely to be able to speak to you."
"No Yamanaka is going to enter her mind." Hideki boomed, disapproval and distaste audible in his tone and visible on his face. "This is the Hyuuga heiress, not some disturbed degenerate."
"Leave the room." Osamu added, not even glancing at the nurse, his attention on the flowers on Hinata's bedside table. "This is a Clan matter."
The nurse frowned, then turned to Hinata with a reassuring smile and patted her shin lightly. "I'll be right outside that door, sweetheart, just press the button if you need anything, hm?"
And suddenly, Hinata realised how Sakura had grown the spine of steel she'd acquired even before the War, despite barely leaving the hospital between the ages of thirteen and sixteen. She nodded mutely at the nurse, trying for a smile but likely failing, though the woman still looked pleased.
Once the door closed behind the nurse, Hideki dropped all pretence of amity.
"You taught the Nara heir our weaknesses. He'd have never been able to match your cousin without your betrayal. You sabotaged your own Clan; what have you got to say for yourself?" he demanded sharply, and Hinata shrank back against the cushions, trying to make sense of the onslaught of information, but her brain felt sluggish.
Shikamaru won against Neji? He told people that we'd been training together? The Elders were at the Arena?
"Not only did you sabotage your Clan, but it sounds like you sabotaged your Village, too." Osamu drawled, glaring openly now. "Is it true that you came across Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame?"
Slowly, Hinata nodded.
"And you didn't think it more prudent to run ahead and inform your Village of the incoming threat?" he pressed, his very presence making Hinata feel breathless. "Instead of damning it for that useless wench you call a sensei and some mutt?"
Hinata's blood ran cold, and her heart skipped a beat.
"Yuuhi Kurenai only got to jounin because the Sandaime's son is soft on her." Hideki scoffed, glaring at the window. "She has no value as a kunoichi nor as a woman. The information about the two missing-nin heading for the Village was far more valuable than her life, yet you chose to save her."
"Poor choice." Osamu drawled, and Hinata felt sick.
Her ears were ringing, and her head felt like it was underwater. She'd known, peripherally, that Kurenai wasn't the most fond of her Clan. She'd realised her Father wasn't fond of Kurenai, either.
But she never thought anybody in her Clan would be so stupid as to imply that Hinata should've left Kurenai to die.
"Listen when we are talking to you, child." Hideki hissed, grabbing her wrist painfully and wrenching her out of her thoughts. He pulled so hard that Hinata overbalanced and nearly fell off her bed, saving herself only barely by swinging her legs down, her feet colliding roughly with the hospital linoleum and sending a shockwave of dull pain up her unused joints.
Hideki's fingers were still around her wrist.
Her head went eerily quiet.
Then, feeling as if a dam had burst, she felt a wave of anger so potent it was almost overwhelming slam into her, and she sprang into motion.
She ripped her wrist out of Hideki's hold and flashed through the seals for the genjutsu Kurenai had had her use on the Iwa-nin, twisting the last seal into something with teeth. She channelled all her will, all her anger, all her helplessness and bitterness into the illusion, and let it rip through the Elders' minds with none of the care and gentleness she used when practicing with Kurenai.
Osamu stumbled, reaching out blindly for the wall to support himself, while Hideki's knees buckled and he hit the floor, his gaze far away and unseeing, his hands reaching for Hinata so she scrambled out of reach and clambered backwards onto her bed, kicking the duvet aside in case she needed to escape again.
Then, the door to her hospital room burst open, though it was caught before it could smash against the wall, and Hinata was treated to the sight of Yugao standing in the doorframe, the nurse from before to her side and Shikaku at her back.
Yugao stalked into the room, stepping over Hideki and not so much as pausing to glance at Osamu, not pausing at all, in fact, until she grabbed the rail at the foot of Hinata's bed and wheeled it closer to the window, not caring at all for the mess she made of the bedside table and medicine cabinet. Instead, she pushed Hinata's bed against the wall with the window, and put her own body between Hinata and the Elders, though they didn't seem to be moving.
Wordlessly, Hinata reached out, finding the hand that was holding onto the bedsheets with a white-knuckled grip and laying her own over it, trying to offer some wordless comfort to the clearly distressed kunoichi.
Yugao startled, glancing away from the Elders for the first time since she'd stormed into the room, turning her gaze first to the hand Hinata had resting over hers, then to Hinata's face.
Hinata sucked in a quiet breath; Yugao looked destroyed.
Her skin was pale and sallow, her eyes bloodshot, the skin under them purpling and swollen from lack of sleep, her hair a mess, and the usual sharp humour absent from her face.
She looked like she'd been to hell and back. But mostly, she looked like she'd been grieving.
And then chose to storm Hinata's hospital room like her personal knight in shining armour.
"Shit," the nurse murmured, and Hinata tuned back in and realised that the woman had knelt by Hideki's side and was running a green-glowing hand over his chest, "this one's had a heart-attack. Iwade!"
Another nurse came into the room, taking in the collapsed Elders and rearranged furniture, doing a double-take at Shikaku, then finally focusing on Hinata's nurse. "Get me a stretcher? And call someone from Psych, the other one doesn't look good either."
Nobody spoke while other nurses came and went, wheeling Hideki out of the room and grabbing oxygen masks and clipboards. A Yamanaka came at one point, his eyes falling on the catatonic Osamu, one pale eyebrow hiking up at what he saw. But he just sighed and got the man to his feet, then, with a hand on Osamu's shoulder, disappeared from the room in a swift Shunshin.
When the room was finally empty, bar Hinata, Yugao, Shikaku, and Hinata's original nurse, Shikaku finally spoke.
"I came to ask you some questions about your report, but I feel like this takes precedence." He announced, glancing from Hinata to the still-tense Yugao. "Stand down, Uzuki."
Yugao bared her teeth and did not relax.
Shikaku, wisely, didn't comment.
"They accused her of treason against the Clan, Shikaku-sama." The nurse – Hinata should really make a point of learning her name – informed quietly when nobody spoke, glancing worriedly at Hinata. "Insulted her, too."
Something complicated flashed over Shikaku's face then. "Because you helped Shikamaru?"
Hinata nodded slowly.
(She wondered whether the expression in Shikaku's eyes was guilt.)
"Anything else?" Shikaku pressed, and he looked concerned as he added, "Breathe, Hinata."
And Hinata realised, over the pounding in her head and the frantic beating of her heart, that she was hyperventilating.
'they said-' she signed, and her hand shook so much she had to cut herself off. She turned her other hand, the one she still had over Yugao's, and laced their fingers together, squeezing tightly, both for comfort and to ground herself. She felt tears rise to her eyes when Yugao wordlessly squeezed back, almost too tightly for comfort, but Hinata could understand. When her hand stopped shaking, she continued; 'intel more important than sensei. better to have left sensei to die'
Yugao stilled, then squeezed her fingers even harder, but Shikaku sighed.
"Nobody who knows the full report will ever blame you for bringing your teammates back." He told her quietly, "What you and Shino did was brave and dangerous, but it was not treason. Considering the state you were in, I'm not even sure you'd have been able to beat Itachi to the Village even if you had chosen to run ahead and warn us."
"However," Shikaku continued when Hinata didn't react to his words, and Yugao didn't seem keen on abandoning the defensive position she'd claimed, "until the tensions within your Clan die down, I'd like to offer you to stay with my family once you're dismissed from the hospital."
When Hinata blinked, startled, Shikaku smiled humourlessly. "You helping my son is part of the reason why your Clan is angry with you. The least I can do is help you in turn."
'no catch?' Hinata couldn't help but ask, and she saw the moment some light returned to Yugao's eyes, a hint of the old good humour that seemed to have been buried under layers of grief and bitterness.
"No catch." Shikaku confirmed, sounding tired but wryly amused, though luckily not offended. "Come to the Tower when you're dismissed and I'll take you home. I'm pretty sure Shikamaru will be glad to have you around, too."
Slowly, Hinata nodded, and Shikaku finally relaxed, and it was only then that she realised how tense he'd been.
"I'll ask Psych to send your shrink to see you. No matter how justified, let's not make a habit of attacking Clan Elders, hm?" and so saying, he turned on his heel and left, Hinata's nurse following him out.
When it was only her and Yugao left in the room, Hinata tugged on the hand she was holding and gestured for the older kunoichi to actually sit on her bed. Almost lethargically, Yugao complied, though she still looked tense, eyeing the door every so often.
'thank you, senpai' Hinata signed once she had Yugao's attention on her, too tired to try for a smile. 'are you alright?'
Yugao sighed, her breath trembling on the exhale, and leaned back against the wall, closing her eyes. 'my fiancé was killed' she signed, the movement slow and weary, though she seemed relieved to not be expected to speak.
Hinata sucked in a quiet breath, feeling as if she'd been punched.
Instead of offering meaningless platitudes or apologies, she shuffled over on the bed, telegraphing her movements all the while. When she was sure she wouldn't get stabbed with one of Yugao's many weapons, she let herself slowly lean against the older kunoichi's side until she could rest her head on Yugao's shoulder, where she promptly went boneless.
She never let go of Yugao's hand, and Yugao never chased her away.
Instead, they sat in silence, soaking up the wordless comfort of simple companionship, until Hinata, the adrenaline finally wearing off, fell asleep.
Kurenai didn't even have an hour to herself to get her bearings after she woke up before Shikaku was in her hospital room.
"Kurenai. How are you feeling?" the man asked, sitting wearily on the uncomfortable plastic chair at her bedside, and Kurenai had an inkling that this wouldn't be a short conversation.
"I don't even know how I should be feeling. Nobody's told me anything." She managed hoarsely, reaching for the water at her bedside table to soothe her throat. "Can you catch me up on what I missed?"
Shikaku sighed, adjusting his position on the chair, but surprisingly proceeded to do as she asked.
Finding out that Hiruzen was dead hurt, not necessarily because of her own ties to the man but because Shikaku was rather tellingly not mentioning Asuma.
Finding out Itachi had reached the Village almost a week before her team and had sent Kakashi to the hospital was somehow worse, though.
"My kids?" she asked at last, because that was another thing Shikaku had been careful not to mention.
"They'll live." The man assured her, a measure of relief in his gaze. "Every last one of them."
"Okay. Okay." Kurenai breathed out and allowed herself to melt at the relief that washed through her at the news.
Then, she grew serious again and pinned Shikaku with a look. "Now tell me how they'll live. I've been on too many missions to not know the difference between 'they'll live' and 'they're fine'."
Shikaku sighed again, but he apparently wanted something from her because he obliged.
(What he told her almost made Kurenai wish he hadn't, though.)
"Your Aburame admitted himself to Psych before he even went by the hospital." Shikaku began flatly. "They had to get a medic to him there because he refused to leave. He has yet to be discharged."
"How long has it been?" Kurenai asked, almost afraid of the answer. From the state of her muscles and the gown she'd been dressed in, she had a vague inkling that she's been in the hospital for a while, but-
"Almost a month since the day your team walked through the gates."
"Fuck." Kurenai swore, closing her eyes for a moment. A month of her being completely unconscious, and that's without counting however long her kids had had to fend for themselves after their battle with Hoshigaki. She took a deep breath and pushed the guilt that surged up to the back of her mind and steeled herself. "Okay, that's Shino. Kiba?"
"Severe chakra depletion. He bled himself dry trying to keep you from bleeding out. Medics say he went below 1% in his reserves." Shikaku relayed bluntly.
Kurenai blinked, absorbing that.
"He should be dead." She said slowly, feeling disconnected from her feelings and body even as she knew her words to be true. "We were all the way in the Land of Rivers, still miles from the border of Fire."
She stared at Shikaku until he slowly nodded and elaborated.
"Your Hyuuga gave him a chakra transfusion." Kurenai paled, mouth opening, but Shikaku clearly thought the fact deserved to be hammered in some more and he cut her off before she could speak.
"Allow me to reiterate. Your genin performed a war-time field chakra transfusion despite already suffering from chakra exhaustion herself. Then manually restarted the Inuzuka's heart every time it gave out on the way back to the Village, which, according to the medics, was at least three times."
For a second, Kurenai just stared, and Shikaku was kind enough to give her the time to absorb it.
"He has scarring on his heart tissue from the Lightning jutsu Hinata used to do it, and he'll need Tsunade's help if he ever wants to be able to do anything more than walk up the stairs without getting a heart attack, but he'll live." Shikaku concluded finally, when almost a minute passed between them in complete silence.
"And-" Kurenai swallowed, not sure if her luck wasn't about to run out. "And Hinata-chan?"
"Hasn't said a word since they got back. Kagane's citing trauma, but she's not a Yamanaka and it's difficult to diagnose someone who won't talk. Shikamaru's been trying to keep her company when he's free, but he's busy." Shikaku explained, and there was something in his tone that didn't sit well with her.
"What are you not telling me?" Kurenai asked shrewdly, aware she was probably being more than a little rude but unable to care about it just then, because Shikaku was saying a lot of words but he was not actually saying much of anything at all about Hinata's state.
"I forget you trained in T&I sometimes." Shikaku smiled wryly, but there was little humour in the expression, and Kurenai didn't let the comment distract her from her goal. "Hinata-chan's been living in my Compound since the hospital released her."
"What?" Kurenai asked quietly, feeling wary. "Why?"
"Hyuuga Elders stormed her hospital room calling her a traitor to the Clan for telling Shikamaru how to beat their dojutsu for his match with Neji."
"Did she tell him how to do that?" Kurenai asked carefully, because she'd known Hinata had been training with Asuma's student before their mission, but she'd thought the girl was more careful than what Shikaku was implying.
"No, but that nuance doesn't matter to the Elders." Shikaku shot back, and Kurenai startled slightly at his tone. That was far from the genial neutrality the Nara Head usually exhibited to other Clans, and she couldn't help but wonder when he'd grown to care about her student. "They wanted her sealed and disinherited, and they went as far as to try and forcibly remove her from the hospital."
"Did the nurses interfere?" Kurenai asked, because she'd had experience with Hyuuga Elders on a warpath, and knew that a bed-bound Hinata was unlikely to have been able to defend herself.
"They didn't need to. Though I do find it funny that you taught a genin a genjutsu strong enough to send a Hyuuga Elder straight to Psych." Shikaku replied, a mean little smirk curling his lips.
Kurenai paused, considering both Shikaku's words and his delivery, and, oh, it was undeniable that Shikaku was happy with the Elders' predicament; there was more schadenfreude in his expression than she'd seen from the man in a good few years.
"The other one suffered a heart attack right there in her hospital room. He'll recover, but he's not happy with your student."
Kurenai took a moment to absorb everything, then-
"Fucking Hyuuga Clan." She scoffed, then asked the question that had been plaguing her since Shikaku told her about Shino's Psych admission. "Has Psych cleared her after the Tsukiyomi then?"
Shikaku's face lost the slight smile it had gained after her comment, and if Kurenai had had the presence of mind to feel fear, she might have felt it just then at the Nara's aura.
"The Tsukiyomi?" He checked, eyebrows almost at his hairline, his posture carefully still, his body-language betraying nothing. "She went under Itachi's torture genjutsu?"
"You're telling me Kagane didn't notice?" Kurenai answered his question with one of her own, more than a little disbelieving herself.
"What I'm telling you," Shikaku said, and his voice was sharp and cold, a drastic contrast to the usual lazy drawl, "is that there's nothing about the way Hinata acts that suggests she went through the same genjutsu that took Kakashi out of commission for days."
"I felt him activate the technique, Shikaku." Kurenai argued, not sure what she was feeling but aware that it wasn't anything good. "My genin went under seventy-two hours of physical and psychological torture and you're saying she's fine?"
They stared at each other for a few seconds, trying to work out how a genin could come out of an event like that unscathed, then Shikaku hung his head and cursed, loud and ugly and vicious.
"Fucking Hyuuga Clan."
Any mirth Kurenai might've felt at getting Shikaku to swear, and at another Clan at that, was swiftly dispelled by Shikaku's next words.
The Jounin Commander – and regent Hokage, if she was reading the clues right – ran his hands down his face, took a deep breath, visibly reigned his temper back under control and regarded her coolly.
"Yuuhi." He called, and Kurenai was immediately on-guard by the sudden switch back to her surname. "By mine and the new Chunin Commander's standards, your kids could have gotten a field promotion the moment they walked through the gates."
"But?" Kurenai checked, tense and wary, because she could feel the word coming even if Shikaku wasn't saying it.
"But times are uncertain, and it's likely we'll need a show of strength in the Kumo Exams." Shikaku declared, not dropping her gaze as he delivered the news.
Kurenai took a moment to parse through that non-sequitur, then glared at Shikaku flatly when it clicked.
"So you want my kids to keep taking chunin-level missions but you don't want to give them the recognition of a promotion." She concluded flatly, feeling anger and bitter disappointment stir in her gut.
Shikaku's face went blank, his eyes cold and tone curt.
"I understand you're stressed and protective of your students, but dial down the attitude a notch." He told her sharply. "You're not the only one stuck with a shitty situation, and you'll be bed-bound for a while yet. Not promoting them means that your students get to stay together instead of being separated and getting sent with nameless teams on back-to-back missions to keep up the illusion of strength."
Kurenai paused, because the way Shikaku said that last part sounded a bit too much like he was speaking from experience. She considered him, considered what she knew about the man, what could have caused the undercurrent of bitterness in his voice- oh.
"Your son got promoted, didn't he?" Kurenai asked quietly, and Shikaku looked like he wanted to wince, confirming her guess. "I'm sorry, Shikaku-sama."
"Don't do that." Shikaku ordered, glancing away even as the corner of his mouth curled down. "Don't defer to me when you don't mean it, I can tell you don't agree with my decision."
Kurenai kept her mouth shut, because, well. She didn't agree, he was right, and she knew better than to defend herself when he'd already seen through her act.
"What's the verdict?" she asked instead after a few seconds went by, hoping that the unsubtle change of subject would be enough to get the man out of whatever mental spiral he seemed to have fallen down.
"You and your Inuzuka are hospital bound for the foreseeable future. Without Tsunade, the medics are hesitant to let your student out of bed, much less out of the hospital." Shikaku informed her, some of that bitterness abating slightly as he glanced back at her. "You lost a considerable amount of blood and a good chunk of your abdomen. The Inuzuka did a good hack job in the field to patch you up, but he's not even a qualified med-nin. A lot of what he did to keep your insides on the inside had to be undone once they got you to the hospital, and that set your recovery back about a month on top of whatever else you'll need."
Kurenai barely fought back a wince at the prospect of such an extended hospital stay, but she wisely kept her mouth shut and allowed Shikaku to finish.
"If Psych manages to put your Aburame back to working order, him and Hinata will probably be pawned off as fillers for other teams until you and the Inuzuka recover. I'll try my best to keep them together if that happens, but don't expect miracles."
"Permission to speak freely?" Kurenai requested, and Shikaku's raised eyebrow seemed to say 'haven't you been doing it already?' but he still nodded obligingly. "This fucking sucks."
Shikaku snorted, the sound seemingly shocked out of him, and he lost some of the tension in his shoulders.
"Yeah. Yeah it does." He agreed dryly, eyeing her briefly before he pushed himself to his feet. "I'll send Asuma your way if I see him around."
"Thank you, Shikaku-sama." Kurenai replied, and this time, the honorific was genuine and they both knew it.
It didn't mean she wouldn't be sneaking out of her hospital bed to see for herself that her kids would live, but it was a start.