caged bird

by Lazydaily

Uploaded for TTS. Hinata back in time to the start of the series.

10. Chapter 10

Two and a half months after the invasion and two months after his chunin promotion, Shikamaru finally got more than a day or two of downtime between missions.

His mom had been asked to come out of her semi-retirement to take up shifts at the hospital, and Shikamaru wasn't sure when was the last time he'd seen his dad for longer than five minutes in passing had been.

He'd been placed on numerous teams since his promotion, sent on missions that rarely lasted longer than five days at a time, never straying too far from Konoha or the borders of the Land of Fire, which was reassuring, but it also meant that he came home from those missions with teammates-for-the-day, rather than any meaningful friendships. That, coupled with the fact that Asuma was still grieving, thus largely absent, Ino was in the hospital, and Choji was busy with the demolition and reconstruction unit that a lot of the Akimichi had been pulled into, Shikamaru was feeling almost…lonely.

So he was surprised when, on his first proper day off in over a week, as he was lying in his front yard and staring aimlessly at the cloudless sky, his dad came up to the house, Hinata of all people in tow.

"Look sharp, Shikamaru." His dad greeted, stopping by the front door and eyeing Shikamaru's sprawled out position with amusement, though his face was lined with the same permanent fatigue that Shikamaru himself was feeling. "We have guests."

"I can see that." Shikamaru frowned at his dad, arranging himself into a slightly more sat-up position. "Hey, Hinata. Good to see you."

Hinata nodded, raising one hand and twitching through unfamiliar signs, though not otherwise acknowledging his greeting. Pushing himself to his feet, Shikamaru frowned, glancing at his dad.

Apparently seeing his lack of recognition, Hinata also shot his dad a look then turned back to him, raising her other hand and trying again. Signing slower and two-handed this time, Shikamaru recognised one of the few nonessential signs he'd been able to learn since his promotion: 'likewise'.

"What's with the signing?" He asked as he followed his dad and Hinata into the house, trailing after the two of them with no small amount of curiosity.

"People process trauma differently." His dad replied simply, shooting him a sharp look when Hinata's back was turned. "At least now you'll have the motivation to actually learn Chunin Sign."

Shikamaru barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes, but he still scowled at his dad. "It wasn't lack of motivation so much as lack of time. I haven't been properly home for longer than a day or two at a time in weeks."

"I'm aware." His dad said simply, his face betraying nothing. "Mind showing Hinata the guestroom?"

Recognising that it was less a request and more a politely worded order, Shikamaru sighed but waved Hinata over, leading her up the stairs.

"I didn't realise you'd been released from the hospital." He started awkwardly as they made their way up, then had to stop and frown. His family's house wasn't exactly new; the floorboards were old, worn down, and the stairs creaked even for him, even though he had long-ago mapped out the quietest paths. So when he didn't hear the telltale creak of someone following him, he turned around, only to end up nearly tripping over Hinata and sending them both tumbling back down the stairs when he found her right behind him.

Alarmed, Hinata reached out as if to steady him, then snatched her hand back before she actually touched him, raising both hands instead so they were in his line of sight and signing a slow 'OK?'

"Yeah." Shikamaru huffed, turning back around and trying to ignore the burn of embarrassment on the back of his neck. "Sorry."

But he wasn't 'OK', because he'd just had a startling realisation: Hinata's steps didn't make a sound.

Pushing the thought aside until he could properly dissect it, he stopped by the door to the guest room and pushed it open, revealing a room almost like his own in layout, if a little smaller and missing any sort of personal touches except for the books and boxes of scrolls that lined every shelf.

"I'll get you new bedding and towels, but here it is. Bathroom's the second door down, then there's my room." he explained, not sure why he was feeling so awkward but hating every second of it. "If you need anything, just knock."

He turned to go back to the stairs, but a light touch on his elbow stopped him in his tracks. He half-turned back towards Hinata and found her holding the book he'd brought her when she'd been in the hospital, a small smile on her face.

(despite the book being held out to him, the first thing Shikamaru focused on were the finger-shaped bruises around Hinata's wrist)

Feeling the tips of his ears grow warm when he realised how long he'd made her wait while he studied the bruises, Shikamaru took the book back, wanting nothing more than to beat a hasty escape. But then he caught Hinata's hands twitch tellingly and he sighed and forced himself to wait patiently, despite every bone in his body urging him to bolt.

Raising both hands again and managing another tiny smile, Hinata signed a clear, unmistakeable 'thank you', then something he didn't recognise.

"It's no problem." He answered what he understood, figuring that even if he did ask for an explanation of the second part, he wouldn't get one from the girl. "I brought some books for Ino too, so I figured, since you wanted access to our library anyway…"

He trailed off, not sure what he was even saying anymore, then turned on his heel and took the stairs down as fast as he could, aware he was probably being rude but feeling too out of his element to care.

He heard the unmistakeable sound of the guestroom door shutting and let out a sigh of relief, then rounded on his dad.

"Dad, what the hell?" he half-whispered, half-hissed, gesturing vaguely at the stairs. "What gives?"

"'What gives' is you shooting your mouth off during the final stage even though we agreed to keep your 'training' with Hinata quiet." His dad shot back, more serious than Shikamaru recalled seeing him in a while. "Two Hyuuga Elders came to her hospital room calling her a traitor to the Clan and demanding she be disinherited for helping you. Providing her with a safe space to stay while the tensions die down was the least we should be offering."

Catching onto the 'least' part, Shikamaru paused, reading between the lines of what his dad wasn't saying. "Did they do anything?"

"Aggravated the situation, if anything." His dad sighed, reaching for a cigarette despite Shikamaru's judgemental eyebrow. "Hinata gave one of them a heart-attack and sent the other one to Psych."

"Good." Shikamaru smirked, but something in his dad's expression made him hesitate. "Not…good? But- it was self-defence, no? Like with me?"

"Clan Elders don't really care for nuance." His dad shrugged, moving to the window as he lit the cigarette, though Shikamaru still scrunched his nose up at the habit. "Attacking an Elder in self-defence or as another act of treason is still attacking an Elder in their books."

"So she's just going to…live here?" he asked, not sure how he felt about that. "Until you sort the Elders out?"

"There's not much anyone can do about the Elders, Shikamaru." His dad sighed, blowing smoke out the window, and Shikamaru scowled at the smell that still managed to reach him, making his dad huff a tired laugh. "And yeah, she will. At least until her sensei's out of the hospital and can take her in. Objections?"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, hoping his face conveyed how ridiculous he found the idea. Instead, he asked the more important question: "Do you have any books on Chunin Sign?"

"Shino."

Shino turned towards the entrance to his room in Psych, surprised to find Ebisu there, already closing the door behind him.

"Ebisu-san." He greeted quietly, putting aside his book and frowning up at the man. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see how you're doing." Ebisu replied evenly, moving over to stand by the window on the other side of the room. "Genin don't usually end up here, particularly long-term."

"Genin don't usually end up facing S-Ranks." Shino shot back, sharper than he'd intended, and immediately feeling guilty. "Sorry."

"Correction, genin don't usually end up surviving S-Ranks." Ebisu said, his voice still perfectly even, not sounding in the least offended, and Shino took a deep breath to steady himself and still the shakiness in his hands. "Why are you here, Shino?"

"I was useless." Shino spat before he could bite the words back, telling Ebisu what had taken his assigned shrink a week to get out of him. "Everything we'd worked on- useless."

"Do you know why I'm trusted with preparing jounin-hopefuls for the Jounin Exam despite being only a tokubetsu myself?" Ebisu asked suddenly, a propos nothing, not acknowledging Shino's outburst as he moved away from the window and perched on the sole armchair in the room, next to the small table with the pile of books Shino had amassed.

He didn't wait for Shino's answer.

"In my first Chunin Exams, my team came across five of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. To this day, I still don't know why they were there or how they got through the border security, but genin were always considered easy pickings to weaken other Villages during the War. The Chunin Exam was prime time to weed the ranks." Ebisu told him quietly, and Shino didn't dare interrupt. "Five Kiri jounin against three Konoha genin was not good odds. We'd have died if it weren't for Gai's dad."

"I remember feeling so acutely useless that I was paralysed when it came to the combat section. Felt like I'd forgotten everything I'd ever learned." Ebisu smiled humourlessly. "Afterwards, I swore I'd never be that helpless again so I tried to learn a little of everything. It consumed me so much that I didn't end up becoming chunin until I was seventeen."

Shino realised he was leaning forward, curious to hear where Ebisu's story was going, when he nearly ended up slipping off the bed. Hoping Ebisu was kind enough not to comment, he shuffled back until he could lean back against his pillows, crossing his legs and putting his hands in his lap.

"I'm versatile because that encounter stayed with me to the point that I wanted to be prepared for anything. I still want that, though not so obsessively." Ebisu sighed, stretching out his legs, before he pinned Shino with a look.

"My point is, I'm difficult to fight. I know it, I take pride in it. But when I met one of the Swordsmen that attacked us again in the field a few years ago, I couldn't even put a scratch on him." Ebisu's tone turned cold and bitter and self-deprecating, and Shino found the expression on his face to be intimately familiar. Then, the man sighed again and pinched the bridge of his nose, the heavy air around him lessening somewhat, and Shino felt like he could breathe again.

"Some shinobi are just monsters, Shino." He concluded quietly, sounding weary and jaded to the core. "And the best you can hope for when you come across them is to survive. So I don't think you were useless. In fact, I think you did rather well."

"I'm sorry." Shino offered, quiet but genuine. "And thank you."

Ebisu's lip quirked up, but he still looked bitter, despite his eyes being covered. "I didn't tell you what happened because I was looking for pity. I just wanted to tell you that everyone has missions they feel useless in, and everyone feels helpless from time to time. There will always be someone stronger than you."

"I know that." Shino bit out, not angry at Ebisu or anything specific, just at himself and his stupid brain. "But- Kiba can heal. He saved sensei's life. Sensei is a genjutsu mistress, but she can do so much more than that. And Hinata, no matter what happens, she always knows what to do. It's like she doesn't feel fear, or pain, and I-!"

Shino cut himself off, already feeling like he'd said too much.

"Your insects nearly killed you in your C-Rank, and on this mission you twisted your ankle and broke your arm." Ebisu finished for him, and Shino flinched. "However, unless you and Kiba-kun lied in your reports, you were also responsible for Hoshigaki Kisame leaving the encounter with your team sans an arm. And that's likely the most damage anyone's dealt to that man since he defected."

Shino's eyes widened at the news, and he itched for his glasses, but the Psych shinobi had taken anything sharp from his room after one of his episodes, and his sunglasses had had to go.

"You read our reports?" He asked haltingly, not sure whether he wanted anyone he knew to know what he'd written.

"It pays to have friends in the Missions Office." Ebisu smiled wryly. "But, my point is, you were far from useless on this mission. And a useless shinobi would not have spent years trying to find a way to host the rinkaichu in his body and succeeded when he's still a genin."

Shino was sure his face was showing his shock more clearly than if he'd vocalised it.

"I didn't realise you knew the distinction." Was what he ended up saying, his voice sounding far-away even to his ears.

"I don't wear these just as a fashion statement, Shino-kun." Ebisu huffed, pointing at his sunglasses which, for some reason, the Psych shinobi had allowed him to keep. "But when I read your and Kiba's report, I knew it couldn't have been anything other than rinkaichu."

"Who did you know?" Shino asked, aware that there had only ever been one family in his Clan that had hosted the rinkaichu.

Torune's family.

Ebisu smiled sadly and shook his head. "That's a conversation for safer circumstances."

Shino frowned, looking around the room, not seeing anyone apart from the two of them. "So you know what happened to Tor-"

Quicker than he could blink, Ebisu's hand was over his mouth, cutting him off mid-word.

"Remember when I was telling you about monsters?" he asked quietly, barely moving his mouth, keeping Shino between him and the one-way mirror onto the corridor. "There are some monsters you shouldn't even name."

Shino nodded mutely, trying to convey 'message received' and ignore how fast his heart was hammering. This close, he could see the small but unmistakable engraving of a beetle on the bridge of Ebisu's glasses, and he supposed he had his answer.

"Will you tell me who you knew?" he asked once Ebisu removed his hand, trying to keep his voice its usual deadpan but probably missing by a mile for anyone who knew him.

"One day." Ebisu promised, and Shino didn't press for a more concrete date, still shaking on the inside. "For now, let's focus on making a training plan to avoid you feeling so helpless again, hm?"

Shino sighed, then he smiled, small and barely-there but a smile nonetheless, and reached over for the notepad and the crayon he was allowed to have, ignoring the way his hand was trembling.

He was in Psych voluntarily. Nobody was keeping him there. He could leave at any point.

But he knew he'd feel much better leaving with a concrete plan for what to do to not end up in Psych anytime soon, and Ebisu was perfect for helping him work it out.

Kiba woke up slowly, dazed from the medicine the medics were pumping him with, and found concerningly large cleavage concerningly close to his face.

"-the hell?" he mumbled, raising a hand to rub at his eyes and pushing himself up, hearing the heart rate monitor he was permanently connected to pick up the pace.

When he glanced up, his heart audibly skipped a beat, then picked up again, because standing next to his bed and glaring at a tall man with a crazy mane of white hair was a woman who'd left the Village before he was even born, but she somehow looked not much older than she had in the photo in his medical textbook from the Second War.

He was aware that both of the adults were sniping at each other, but his ears were registering it as white noise, and the stress of the situation wasn't helped by the fact that both Ino and Sakura appeared to be out cold, not even twitching in their beds despite the raised voices.

Before he could think much more on it, he was pulling on his chakra, spooling it in like Kurenai had taught them, then releasing it like a whip in the direction of the shinobi pretending to be Senju Tsunade.

The genjutsu or henge or face-swapping technique the woman was using didn't so much as waver, but his actions had both adults cut off mid-word and turn to him in shock.

"Did you just- use a kai?" the Tsunade lookalike demanded, eyeing him sharply and exchanging a look with the white-haired man. "In your state? Are you a moron?"

"I was told to avoid stress." Kiba grouched, squinting first at the pretend-Senju then at the man. "And there are two unknowns, one of whom is an impostor in my room, and my roommates appear drugged to high heavens. Excuse me for exercising caution."

"'Unknowns'?" The woman huffed, turning to the clipboard at the foot of his bed. "I'll have you know I'm Senju Tsunade, brat, and if you ever pull a stunt like that again while in the hospital, I'll seal your chakra myself."

Kiba snorted at the claim, feeling even more on-edge than before. "No offense, lady, but nobody ages this gracefully."

At this, the white-haired man made a sound like a hastily-smothered laugh, and earned himself another glare from the Tsunade-pretender.

"At least this one knows who you are?" the man offered in a choked voice, then turned away, suddenly finding the window incredibly interesting.

"Since you seem to have missed the memo," The Tsunade lookalike snapped, rounding on Kiba and jabbing a thumb at her white-haired partner, "this idiot hunted me down to succeed sensei, and since I've stepped foot in the Village, I haven't had a single moment's peace! The hospital is in shambles, the field-medic programme is ash and dust, and the basic level of first-aid you receive in the Academy is worse now than it had been during the Second War! Too many things need fixing, and I'm not even officially Godaime yet."

"Wait." Kiba demanded, shaking off the drug-induced sluggishness to pin the white-haired man with a baffled look, recalling Sasuke's brief visit from a few days previous. "Are you the Pervert Sannin? Jiraiya?"

"I'll kill that brat." The apparent Jiraiya groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose, and Kiba reckoned he probably should've specified which brat he was referring to. "I am indeed the Sannin Jiraiya. And that is Tsunade, kid, so you might wanna 'exercise some more caution' to not get thrown out of the window."

Kiba took a moment to process that, then, finally registering what the woman had begun her explanation with, he turned back to her and frowned, somewhat annoyed.

"I probably 'missed the memo' because the nurses treat our room like we're leprous, in case you haven't noticed yet." He informed the blonde, feeling vindictively satisfied when she flinched. "They don't want to admit they can't heal us without a miracle."

"But there's nothing here that requires a miracle." Tsunade replied, frowning openly now as she pointed at Ino and Sakura. "That one needs a spinal reconstruction, and the pink one needs extensive rehabilitation, but it's nothing impossible."

"And ninety percent of the medics here don't have the chakra control for that." Kiba threw back, settling more comfortably against his pillows and keeping his eyes on the woman's hands. "They handle the scalpel that is medical chakra with all the subtlety of a bludgeon."

"I didn't know morphine made kids get poetic." Jiraiya muttered from where he was standing by the window, frowning at Kiba thoughtfully, but Kiba ignored him, his attention on the affronted expression on Tsunade's face.

"A word of advice, brat." She began, finally stepping properly to his bedside and laying her hand on his chest, letting her chakra wash over his without adjusting to his wavelength, and Kiba flinched, fully convinced that the careless action was intentional. "Don't criticise the medics until you can do better than them, are we understood?"

But then she stilled before Kiba could reply, and he felt her probing more deeply into his chakra core. "Wait, I know your chakra."

She glanced up at him in what seemed to be disbelief, then she scowled, suddenly angry.

"You're the fool responsible for Yuuhi's hack-job." She accused, and Kiba froze beneath her hands. "You really are a moron, huh? No sane medic should ever attempt organ reconstruction in the middle of a field mission!"

"What if it's the only thing that has any hope of keeping their teacher alive?" Kiba asked quietly, his voice shaking with anger, but knowing he was powerless to do anything to let it out. "What then?"

"Don't get smart with me." Tsunade snapped, withdrawing her chakra from his body. "Who's your supervisor in the programme? They should be fired."

"I'm not in the programme." Kiba replied, and Tsunade's anger and annoyance melted away at his words as if they were never there.

"What?" she checked quietly, studying him intently now, her eyes a little wider than before.

"I'm not in the medic programme." He repeated slowly, feeling his chakra roil beneath his skin. "I have an active genin team and I'm barely six months out of the Academy. They wouldn't let me join."

"How did you learn, then?" Tsunade demanded, and her anger seemed to have cooled into genuine curiosity, but Kiba's, in turn, was an uncontrollable inferno raging inside of him. "Even your batshit hack job would've required some skill and technical knowhow."

"My sister's a vet." Kiba explained, unwilling to give more detail than that, then he bared his teeth. "And desperation's a great motivator."

"You said the medics treat this room like you're leprous." Tsunade shot back, and Kiba was surprised at the non-sequitur, and even more surprised that she'd been listening enough to remember the words he'd used. "Did you mean to include yourself in that?"

"Ma'am," Kiba began, if only to see the way Tsunade's eye twitched at the title, "I have chakra scarring on my heart from the three Raiton jutsu that my teammate performed to restart it when it gave out from chakra depletion. Chakra scarring that no medic currently in this hospital dares talk about, much less touch to actually try and break down."

"Any idea why they don't dare touch it?" Tsunade asked, and Kiba had the absurd feeling that he was back to being on the receiving end of Iruka's pop-quiz.

Only he'd actually been scared of Iruka, but all he currently felt for the woman before him was contempt.

"Potentially because treating me would involve open-heart surgery and I'd either need a medic who could manually keep my heart beating while simultaneously breaking down the scar tissue, or two medics who can synchronise their chakra so perfectly to my own that one could keep my heart beating while the other would deal with the scarring." He explained, unable to fight back the way his lip curled bitterly when he added, "But, as I already said, chakra control's kinda missing around here."

Tsunade just stared at him, Jiraiya too, neither acknowledging his words, until Tsunade tilted her head, her voice finally losing the last of its antagonistic edge.

"Do you want to be a medic?" she asked evenly, her eyes boring into his, as if measuring his very soul. "A proper one, with a mentor and a sponsor in the programme?"

And- Kiba had an inkling as to what she was offering, but that was simply too absurd to consider, so he shook his head and opted for the truth.

"No, ma'am." He denied, and she might've calmed down, but that didn't mean his annoyance at her had cooled any, and making her eye twitch again was the most he could do about that just then. "I just want to know enough medical ninjutsu to keep my teammates alive."

Before she could open her mouth and likely sell him the spiel that the medic programme was the best place to do that, he added, "I'm an Inuzuka; hospital shifts would be hell for my nose. And I'm not interested in staying out of the combat, particularly since, if Sasuke's successful, my team's likely to inherit Team Seven's combat designation."

Tsunade studied him for a beat, both of them ignoring the way Jiraiya twitched at his last remark, then nodded.

"Alright." She accepted, surprisingly easily, then smiled, and it was similarly sharp to Kurenai's smiles, though nowhere near as bloodthirsty. "And you were wrong about there being no medic with the chakra control to do the procedure you described. There is one."

When he merely tilted his head, her smile gained some more teeth.

"Me."

"Yuuhi-san." Sasuke greeted cautiously as he entered the room he was directed to, surprised to find it only half-occupied. The red-eyed woman he was told to look for was there, as well as two others in the beds closer to the window, though neither of them looked awake. The other three beds were empty, and Sasuke didn't want to think about why that might have been, with the hospital at full capacity.

The red-eyed woman looked up from her book, raising an eyebrow at him, not bothering to hide her surprise.

"Uchiha-kun.'' She returned slowly, dog-earing her page and putting her book on her lap, studying him curiously. "What brings you here?"

"Sasuke is fine." Sasuke dismissed uncomfortably as he closed the door behind himself and stepped a bit further into the room, then promptly stilled, not sure whether he was allowed to actually come in. "I was told that your team fought- fought Uchiha Itachi."

"That we did." The woman agreed slowly, sending a measured glance at her roommates, though neither of them so much as twitched. "Though it might be better to say that we survived Itachi."

"I was also told-" Sasuke swallowed, wondering why this felt so hard, "that you- knew him."

This time, there was also suspicion in the woman's gaze as she met his eyes. "And who told you that?"

"Kiba said you were familiar with him. And that he recognised you." Sasuke explained quickly, for the first time since their conversation actually entertaining the thought that Kiba might've lied.

But the red-eyed woman sighed and gestured to the chair at her bedside, and Sasuke almost stumbled as he headed for it, his knees feeling weaker than when he'd come out of Psych after the Preliminaries, but. Things changed.

"I did indeed know Itachi, as more than just the Uchiha genius. Or I thought I did, anyway." Yuuhi admitted, and Sasuke frowned as he sat, hoping for more detail. Apparently seeing his expression, the woman huffed a short, humourless laugh. "He was on a team with a lot of my friends. They'd hang out at my apartment sometimes, in-between missions; I'd cook for them, gossip, the like."

The concept of his- of Itachi having friends outside of Shisui was baffling to Sasuke, but more so was the casual way Kiba's sensei was talking about him.

Since the- since that day, nobody had dared utter Itachi's name in Sasuke's vicinity, and here this woman was, casually reminiscing and admitting to having been friends with Itachi.

"And did you see the Itachi you knew when you fought him?" Slipped out before he could bite it back, preface it with an explanation, and he knew he'd miss-stepped the moment the previous ease morphed into something more analytical.

"Where are you going with this?" the woman asked, not quite sharply, but certainly pointedly.

"I met him on my latest mission. He fought me. Probably would've killed me if Raido-san hadn't intervened." Sasuke relayed, then took a deep breath. "I looked in his eyes and I didn't- I didn't see my brother."

Sasuke could see the exact moment the woman realised what he meant, and her sharp gaze softened, became more sympathetic, but luckily, she refrained from vocalising the pity he could see in her face.

"No." she sighed instead, her gaze growing far-away. "He was not the Itachi I knew."

They sat there in silence for a moment, then the woman glanced at him again, a challenge in her eyes now, and Sasuke felt like he'd been caught off-balance. "Is that all you wanted from me?"

Floundering, Sasuke wondered whether this was why Kiba had looked so entertained when Sasuke had voiced his plans to speak to his sensei. The woman was bed-bound and feminine, but her presence was as intense as Kakashi's. Maybe more so.

"No." Sasuke managed, squaring his shoulders where he sat. "I'd like to learn genjutsu. You're the genjutsu mistress."

"I also have my own students." Yuuhi shot back, frowning at him. "And, nothing personal here, Uchiha-kun, but I'm not going to let you copy years of my hard work with your Sharingan and call it yours."

"I'm not- I don't want that." Sasuke denied, frowning right back, wondering whether this was what Kakashi had tried to warn him about back before the Preliminaries. "My cousin, he always said we have to live our illusions. That the Sharingan is useful, but it shouldn't become a crutch. That-"

"I'm aware of Shisui's philosophy." the woman cut him off, and Sasuke almost bit his tongue, because, what? "But I wouldn't be able to teach you any of the techniques that were born out of it. If you want anything on that, you'd be better off asking Mitarashi Anko."

"Anko-san?" Sasuke echoed, wondering how his potential senpai was relevant to this conversation.

His reaction, however, prompted a raised eyebrow from the woman. "You're familiar?"

"I want to apprentice in Intelligence, I just need Kakashi to sign off on it, but he's being Kakashi." Sasuke explained while rolling his eyes, and the corner of Yuuhi's lips quirked up, as if that was all the explanation she needed. "Anko-san said that if I'm successful and qualify, she's 'claiming' me."

"Of course she did." the older kunoichi replied, also rolling her eyes, though it was far fonder than Sasuke's reaction to Kakashi's antics. "If you do become her student, and she likes you, you can ask about the things Shisui left her. Be aware she might stab you for asking, though."

Sasuke elected against asking why his cousin would have left a T&I operative any of his personal effects, and, particularly, if he was reading between the lines correctly, any of his jutsu notes.

Some things were better left unsaid.

"Will you help me?" he pressed instead, because he hadn't actually received a clear answer. "With non-Sharingan genjutsu?"

"Answer one question for me first." the woman replied, pinning him in place with that unnerving gaze. Distantly, Sasuke wondered whether the red eyes were part of the reason why his relatives used to warn him not to take it personally if people wouldn't make eye-contact with him. "Why genjutsu?"

Sasuke scowled, trying to put into words the many convoluted thought processes he'd had in Psych, after, and during the mission hunting for the Senju princess. Or how influential Raido-san had been in helping him untangle his thoughts about his Clan and his brother, for all that the man had come with them to keep teaching Naruto trap-setting.

"Naruto's obsessed with his traps, and Sakura's taken to the idea of learning poisons." He began, shaking off the shiver that threatened to crest when he remembered Sakura, Ino, and Kiba's expressions when Sakura had started talking about poisons the last time he'd gone to visit her. "I'm an Uchiha; I should be versatile. And the best way for us to be an effective team is if I take up genjutsu."

"'Effective'." Yuuhi echoed, staring at him intently. "Trap-setting, poisons, genjutsu." she stared at him silently for a few seconds, then sat back against her pillows, looking almost amused. "You want to become a sabotage squad."

Sasuke blinked, not having expected her to come to that conclusion so quickly, but- "Yeah."

She wasn't wrong.

None of the Rookies were the same people he'd graduated the Academy with, for all that it hadn't even been a year since graduation. Yuuhi's team alone was testament to that if Kiba were to be believed.

On his team, Sakura had grown bitter. She'd spent almost three months in the hospital, hoping that the magical healer who'd left the Village before she'd even been born would come back and allow her to be a ninja again. Sasuke himself, genius of the Uchiha and Rookie of the Year that he was, had had his arms broken and dreams of promotion destroyed by a genin who couldn't use anything other than taijutsu and couldn't externalise his chakra. Even Naruto, for all that he'd gotten to the final round and managed to avoid serious injury, even his unshakeable optimism hadn't escaped unscathed from the ordeal of the Chunin Exams. The idea of remaining a combat-specialising team under Kakashi didn't sit well with them anymore, particularly since it took the horror of the Exams for them to really become a team, and by then it had been too late to save whatever faith in Kakashi they may have had left.

Kakashi of the Sharingan may be untouchable, but that didn't make anyone under his command untouchable by association.

As the three of them had found out.

During his debrief in Intel – because, although they'd accomplished their mission and come back with Senju Tsunade in tow, they'd had to dodge Orochimaru yet again, and that meant concern for Village secrets and sleeper agents, so he and Naruto had spent two days answering progressively weirder questions in Intel – he'd had the chance to speak to Mitarashi Anko.

And, beyond enlightening him to the wealth of information Intel shinobi had access to, she'd let him in on the piece of information that nobody had thought to share with him despite the shitshow of the Exams and everything that followed : that genin teams can change specialisations.

Naruto, who'd been by his side the entire time, had pressed Mitarashi for more details, got a scroll to the face with all the different designations, then taken it - and Sasuke - straight to Sakura's room.

Sakura's expression when she'd been told the news, then when she'd trailed her fingers over the requirements for the different designations and landed on 'sabotage', had been the same one she'd used to look at him with.

Not that he'd seen that look since she'd landed in the hospital, but the awe, hope, and pure determination had been enough to confirm for him that it wasn't just Naruto who'd found something he'd be better suited to than straight-out combat.

Yuuhi's face went through a lot of emotions at his confirmation, but it settled on something that looked like she was torn between laughing and shaking him by the shoulders.

"Have you talked to Kakashi about it?" she asked, and her voice, though still maintaining its even tone, sounded somewhat strangled, which Sasuke blinked at.

"Haven't seen him since the dobe and I set off on the mission." He replied, shrugging to hopefully hide how bothered he was starting to be by that fact. "Sakura says he's avoiding us."

"Do me a favour." Yuuhi requested then, and she reached up to pinch the bridge of her nose. "Find Kakashi and talk to him. Recruit my kids to help you track him if you need to. But please, promise me you'll talk to him about this before you give my best friend a heart attack."

"Alright." Sasuke promised awkwardly, not sure how the woman expected him to be able to find a jounin who appeared determined to avoid him.

"If you're feeling a little mean," Yuuhi continued, as if reading his mind, "or Shino and Hinata are busy, you can also ask Asuma, Maito Gai, or Shiranui Genma for help. They're always down for ruining Kakashi's day. And when you find him, tell him I want to cash in my IOU."

Sasuke huffed, amused despite himself, and nodded, feeling a little more at ease.

"And if you brush up on your basics and want some initial guidance on non-Sharingan genjutsu, I recommend talking to Hinata." she added kindly, but Sasuke frowned, not following.

"Hyuuga Hinata?" He checked, flushing when Yuuhi's face clearly said 'do you know any other?', but- "But- she's a Hyuuga."

Yuuhi frowned, and Sasuke hadn't realised how open her countenance had been until it frosted over and she suddenly looked closed off and decidedly unapproachable.

"She's also shaping up to be the combat specialist on my team, so I advise you to avoid that tone if you speak to her, Uchiha-kun." She told him sharply, voice suddenly cold, and Sasuke winced. "Is there anything else you want from me?"

Sasuke stood, inclining his head. "No. Thank you for your time, Yuuhi-san."

He got all the way to the door before he paused, glancing back. "Have a quick recovery."

He didn't flee the room per se, but he definitely speed-walked out of the hospital. Then, once outside, he paused, wondering whether he wanted to bring Naruto's brand of chaos into what was already shaping up to be a nonsense-filled day.

Hinata did not attend Tsunade's inauguration.

Instead, she used the fact that most of the Village's able-bodied population would be out of their houses and snuck into the Hyuuga Compound from the back, bypassing the main gate, and walked to the empty library, stopping by her room to grab the chakra-paper scroll that no Byakugan could see through. She spent half an hour in the main library copying down all the information she could find on the Caged Bird Seal, then snuck into her father's personal library and copied down the exact pattern of the seal and any information she could find onto her scroll.

Then, she made sure she put everything back exactly where she found it, tucked her scroll into the inner pocket of her jacket, and left the Compound as quickly and inconspicuously as she could.

She'd had a lot of time to think over the last few weeks, partly about what would become of her team, and partly about how she was going to go about putting her promise to Neji into motion.

And then she'd found out from Shikaku that the next Chunin Exams were going to be hosted in Kumo and her team was all-but guaranteed to participate, and suddenly, the answer was right there.

She'd checked the scrolls Genma had brought her, consulted the Nara library, asked for permission to take a book out for the day, then headed over to Kurenai's hospital room with her notes and her books and her scrolls safely in her bag.

Kurenai had been bemused at Hinata's question about the Toad Sannin's habits and schedule, but when Hinata had signed 'seal-related', Kurenai's eyes had widened but her questions had, luckily, subsided.

Not that Hinata didn't trust her sensei, but Kurenai hadn't been alone in her hospital room.

Kurenai had told her to give her a week, but when Hinata had gone to visit her three days later, she already had a date and a time for Hinata's meeting with the Sannin.

Five days after Tsunade became the Godaime Hokage, Hinata made her way to the café Kurenai had indicated the day before and found Jiraiya already there.

Upon seeing her slide into the booth opposite him, Jiraiya immediately slapped a seal on the table between them, and Hinata felt more than saw the chakra disturbance around her.

"I know I have a certain reputation, but I'm not gonna go around trying to make it worse." He grumbled at her quizzical look, and Hinata had to fight the reflex to flush when she understood what he was referring to. "It's a seal for CIs. Makes your face and hair more forgettable."

'useful' she signed, choosing not to comment on the first part of his statement lest she embarrass herself further.

"Kakashi implied I should expect a woman." The Sannin frowned, not acknowledging her comment either, and he was staring at her intently, far more intensity in his gaze than she would've expected from a nickname like Ero-sennin.

'my sensei' Hinata signed, 'registration 0-1-0-8-8-1'

"That'd be the one." Jiraiya sighed, and the intimidating aura around him lessened somewhat. "What's with the signing?"

Hinata paused. Considered. Shrugged mentally, then signed, simply: 'traumatised'.

Jiraiya snorted, but nodded in apparent understanding, waving her off. "Alright, I get it. So, what do you want, kid?"

Slowly, Hinata reached into the inner pocket of her jacket and pulled out the chakra-infused paper that no dojutsu could see through she'd stolen from Shikaku's desk drawer and slid it across the table to the Sannin.

She knew what it said: she'd taken a good two hours the previous night to draft the message, so she knew precisely what it was that Jiraiya was reading.

My name is Hyuuga Hinata, the heiress to the Hyuuga Clan, his eyebrow jumped up after he scanned the first sentence, gaze briefly flickering to her face before it fell back to the paper, I plan to challenge my father for the position of Clan Head once I make jounin. Another unreadable glance. I then plan to abolish the Caged Bird seal.

Jiraiya had to read over the last sentence twice, but the moment comprehension dawned in his eyes, he set Hinata's message aflame and sent her an askance look.

"I could report you for treason, you realise." He said slowly, the quietest and most serious Hinata had ever heard him, and she couldn't help the small, bitter quirk to her lip.

'you wouldn't be the first' she signed simply, and some of Jiraiya's hostility melted away.

Instead, he reached over and slapped another seal onto the table between them, and this time, Hinata felt the quiet buzzing sound, not unlike Shino's kikaichu, that, if she recalled correctly, meant that their conversation was muted to outsiders.

Not that it mattered much in her case.

"Alright." Jiraiya took a deep breath, rubbing his forehead briefly before he pinned her with an assessing look. "Assuming that you actually manage to challenge daddy dearest," he paused briefly when Hinata flinched at the term, then resumed more slowly, measuring every word, "how would you go about abolishing a century of 'tradition'?"

The scorn he said the last word with surprised Hinata, but she also understood it; she herself had a rather complicated relationship with the concept of tradition.

Instead of trying to form a response with only Chunin Sign to rely on, she pulled out the scroll Genma had brought her when she'd asked for books on sealing and unfurled it on the table between them, pointing out the specific passage she'd circled with a pencil.

But Jiraiya's gaze, instead of following her finger, seemed glued to the scribbled notes in the margins. The writing was unfamiliar to her, but judging by the way the Sannin unconsciously reached out and traced his fingers over the writing, his expression almost reverent, it was more than familiar to him.

"Where did you get this?" he asked quietly, as if speaking any louder would shatter the moment or make the scroll disappear, and Hinata didn't see the harm in telling the truth: 's-h-i-r-a-n-u-i'.

"Ah, yeah." Jiraiya muttered, wryly amused now, and he looked at her again, his expression much more open than before, though no less thoughtful. "Kid must really like you."

Hinata felt briefly amused at the fact that Jiraiya was of an age where he considered Genma a 'kid', when the man was a proper adult even in the eyes of her technically-twenty-two self, but she shelved the thought when Jiraiya seemed to shake himself out of the melancholy and turned his attention back to the actual text, frowning at it.

"So what did you want to show me?"

Hinata tapped the passage on bodily autonomy again, having memorised what it said: if a shinobi finds themselves sealed, they are within their rights to unravel the seal by whatever means necessary.

Jiraiya laughed humourlessly as he scanned the text. "Yeah, except, unless it's changed since I learned of it, if a member of your Clan tries that, there's the whole torture element of the seal to consider."

Hinata winced at his wording, but he wasn't wrong.

Well, not about the seal, at least.

'not a member of my Clan' she signed slowly, because this was the correction she'd wanted, needed to make the moment she realised that Jiraiya was actually willing to listen to her. She waited as comprehension slowly dawned on Jiraiya's face, then added, just so there would be no misunderstandings: 'me'.

The Sannin stared at her for a few seconds, his face completely devoid of emotion, his chakra unreadable, and for the first time, Hinata understood how the man who Naruto had regularly called a pervert and a clown could have worked well on a team with Orochimaru.

"You want me," he said slowly, his voice completely blank, his face betraying nothing, his eyes never straying from Hinata's, "to put what is, at its core, a slavery seal, on you."

Undeterred and undaunted, Hinata nodded.

"Why?"

Hinata shuffled around the papers she'd pulled out until she found the one on intellectual property and tapped the passage she'd circled. There were only two words that were important in the text: public domain.

Jiraiya stared at the words, then at Hinata, then back to the paper, before he put his head in his hands and started laughing.

"And I thought Minato had been insane." He murmured, his face still hidden from Hinata's eyes, but at least it meant that he didn't see the way her eyes had widened at his words.

"I'm not making any promises." Jiraiya said as he straightened, meeting her gaze evenly, and Hinata nodded. This was already much more than she'd ever dared expected would come from this meeting, anything more would be a blessing. "Meet me here in a week, same time, and I'll tell you if what you're asking for is even possible."

Then, as she went to collect her papers, Jiraiya's hand hovered over her wrist, dwarfing her entire hand and effectively freezing her in place without even touching her. "And I'll hold onto these, thank you."

Hinata frowned, glancing from her papers, to the Sannin's stern expression, then nodded reluctantly, moving to slide out of her seat.

'thank you for your time' she signed hastily, inclining her head respectfully before she moved beyond the reach of the silencing seal, and Jiraiya sighed.

"Kid." He called, once again freezing her in her tracks without the need for a single jutsu. "This won't be easy." He frowned at her, his demeanour feeling more human now, and Hinata thought she saw a hint of concern and apprehension in his dark eyes. "Are you sure you want to go down this route?"

Sighing herself, Hinata allowed the small, bitter smile that she'd been repressing since she realised what she'd need to do to surface, meeting Jiraiya's gaze unflinchingly.

'i know' she signed, suddenly feeling beyond tired as the full weight of her survivor's guilt crashed into her, and she saw Jiraiya start at whatever he saw on her face, 'but it's worth it'.

Neji glanced down at Hanabi, the girl almost vibrating with excitement where she walked beside him, then turned back to the Nara Compound gates, hoping that they wouldn't be chased away the moment the guards spotted them and he wouldn't have to deal with an upset eight-year-old.

Things had been tense at the Hyuuga Compound, the news of the Elders' intervention at the hospital prompting mixed reactions from the Clan members, from what Neji could tell. He himself didn't know what to think, both at the idea of the intervention being necessary in the first place, or at the rumour that one of the Elders had ended up in the hospital with a heart attack, and another in the long-stay wing of Psych.

Hinata's absence at the Hyuuga Compound since she'd gotten discharged from the hospital was also rather telling.

Hanabi had been distraught, first by her sister's apparent injuries then by being forbidden from visiting her at the hospital afterwards. But, with their relationship somewhat on the mend since Hiashi had given Neji the letter from his father explaining the real reason behind his sacrifice, Hanabi had come to him a few weeks ago with the news that Hinata was allegedly staying at the Nara Compound and could they please go visit her?

So here they were, three weeks later, Neji having left his team's sparring session early to pick Hanabi up from the Academy and take her to hopefully see her sister for the first time in three months. He only hoped Hinata was actually at the Com-

"Nee-sama!"

Neji startled, looking around frantically, but Hanabi had bolted ahead, not a care for decorum or Clan customs, the only saving grace being that she stopped before the gate to the Nara Compound and didn't just charge right through.

After another few seconds of searching, Neji finally saw Hinata's navy hair among the Nara brown, his cousin also having startled at Hanabi's yell, and as he came closer, he noticed that she was sitting between to other Rookies, a couple of books and some snack-like food laid out on the blanket around them, but she was looking in their direction with clear shock writ on her face.

He watched as she stared at Hanabi for a second, her eyes wide and disbelieving, then how her gaze darted from Hanabi to Neji, now filled with no small degree of wonder, but also suspicion.

And then, she was suddenly there, no hand-seals or rustle of leaves to betray her movement, and Neji's hand twitched towards his kunai pouch but Hinata ignored him, focused instead on pulling Hanabi into a desperate embrace, wrapping her arms around her sister's shoulders and waist so tightly that Neji reckoned it must've hurt, but Hanabi only hugged back just as desperately.

Neji didn't know how long the two sisters stood there, but eventually, Hinata pulled away and wiped at her eyes, then turned to Neji and hesitantly inclined her head in a shallow bow.

Neji stared at the top of Hinata's head for a few seconds, not sure what to do and hating himself for hesitating. He scoffed and glanced away then rallied himself and stepped forward, extending a hand for Hinata to shake.

"I'm glad you've been discharged." He told her stiffly once she took his hand gently, hating the fact that the wonder was back in her eyes when he didn't shake her off or push her away when their hands made contact. "Hanabi-hime was worried."

Hinata smiled softly, shooting her sister a fond look that Hanabi flushed under, but Neji was more concerned by the fact that Hinata wasn't-

"She doesn't speak." An annoyingly familiar voice called out, and Neji half-turned to find his opponent from the final stage of the Chunin Exams ambling towards the gates, a thoughtful frown twisting his mouth. "Bad reaction to their latest mission. She uses Chunin Sign to communicate, so maybe read up before you put your foot in your mouth again."

And then Neji suddenly found himself grateful for having trained with Tenten as a teammate over the last year, because without the reflexes that the kunoichi had honed in him, the way the Nara threw a scroll at him would've brained him between the eyes. He scowled, snatching the scroll out of the air, though before he could look at the title, his eyes caught on Hinata's hands which were flashing through signs he couldn't decipher, though at the very least whatever she was saying succeeded in making the Nara scowl, the expression on his face nearing petulant.

"M'not apologising." He huffed, glaring at Neji briefly before he focused on Hinata. "You weren't here, you didn't hear how he was talking about you."

Neji felt himself blush, his memory of their battle a hazy one, but he recognised that he'd likely been far from kind in his assessment of Hinata's capacity as a kunoichi.

Hinata flashed through more signs and the Nara sighed, though he nodded obligingly and Hinata visibly brightened, raising her other hand to sign as well, slower and clearer this time, and the Nara turned to Hanabi, though his attention was still very much on Hinata's hands.

"She says she missed you and is glad to see you, and she's sorry she didn't think to let you know where she was." He informed Hanabi dryly, and Neji only then realised that the Nara was interpreting for Hinata. "She also says that she'd love to see you tomorrow and that yes, you can spar and get dango afterwards if you'd like."

Hanabi cheered, jumping towards Hinata to throw her arms around her waist and hug her again, and Neji watched as Hinata initially stiffened at the contact, then softened and returned the hug with such a fond expression on her face that Neji had to look away.

"As for you," the Nara continued, and Neji startled, turning back to him and guessing from the obvious change in tone that he was now the one being addressed, "read the scroll."

Neji blinked a few times, then scowled. "What?"

"You're a genius, aren't you?" Shikamaru taunted, getting another vaguely disapproving huff from Hinata, though he ignored this one. "Apparently she has a lot to tell you, so you need to get proficient in Chunin Sign and do it stat, Hyuuga."

"And how do you suggest I do that?" Neji demanded, squaring his shoulders and glaring back at Shikamaru, hating the Nara's posturing and unnecessary aggression.

"Read the scroll." Shikamaru repeated, then, apparently deeming the conversation too much of a bother, turned around and went back to the fat Akimichi and their blanket full of snacks.

Not sure who he hated more, Neji glanced down at the scroll in his hands, ready to throw it right back at the Nara and brain him this time, then paused.

Oh.

'A Beginner's Guide to Chunin Sign Language' stared back at him, and he stared at it for a few seconds, uncomprehending, then silently shoved it into his pocket and turned to Hanabi.

"Let's go, hime." He ordered, waiting until Hanabi extricated herself from yet another hug, though he could see she planned to argue with him so he cut her off before she could start. "You don't want to get an escort any time you leave the Compound again, do you?"

Clearly seeing the realistic threat for what it was, Hanabi sighed petulantly but pulled away from her sister, losing more and more of her childish demeanour the closer she came to Neji, until all that he could see as she stopped at his side was the child genius of the Hyuuga Main House, and not the eight-year-old Academy student excited to see her sister again she'd been over the last few minutes.

"I'll see you tomorrow, nee-sama." Hanabi bid, then turned away and started walking towards the Hyuuga Compound, stubbornly not glancing back.

Neji sighed, but he inclined his head at Hinata and meaningfully patted his jacket over the pocket in which he'd stashed the scroll. "Until tomorrow, Hinata-hime."

He didn't wait to see what Hinata's farewell would be, but the tiny smile she gifted him with before he turned away made him hope against hope that there may yet be a future in which they could get along.

But for now, he had a cousin to escort and a sign language to learn.

Jiraiya slipped into Tsunade's office at the Senju Compound, not surprised to find Tsunade and Nara Shikaku still poring over Village plans and details of the fallout from Orochimaru's invasion.

His entrance had the both of them glancing up, so Jiraiya didn't bother with a greeting.

"Are there ANBU around?" he asked instead, getting two negatives, one curious and one suspicious. "Good."

Then, taking a deep breath and falling into the chair opposite Tsunade's desk, he regarded Shikaku and Tsunade tiredly. "A Hyuuga genin came to me today, asking me to put the Clan's slavery seal on her."

Tsunade's face lost most of its colour. "What?"

"Yeah." Jiraiya sighed, rubbing his temples to try and stave off the headache he could feel building. "Main House, too."

When he opened his eyes, he found Tsunade and Shikaku staring at him intently, clearly waiting for more information. With a grunt, Jiraiya reached into his jacket and pulled out the papers the kid had shown him 'in support' of her insane request, spreading them out on Tsunade's desk, covering the Village plans and budget outlines the two had been studying before. "Gave me these, too."

"Did she say why she wanted the seal?" Tsunade checked, pulling some of the papers closer so she could see them better.

"To abolish the practice altogether." Jiraiya informed her dryly, drawing a startled glance from Tsunade and a look of dawning realisation from Shikaku, who had been studying the papers critically until his gaze landed on one of the scrolls.

"Hyuuga Hinata?" he asked in a slightly off voice, and Jiraiya heaved himself into a more sat-up position, levelling the Nara with a curious look.

"Yeah." He confirmed, because that was what the kid had introduced herself as. "How'd you know?"

"She's living with my family." Shikaku replied, earning a surprised look from Tsunade that he didn't see, focused as he was on the papers on the desk. He nudged the scroll on intellectual property rights, a wry smile quirking his lip. "This one is from my personal library."

"If the kid's living with you," Tsunade began, glancing from the spread of papers on her desk to Shikaku, a frown creasing her brow, "why go through the trouble of arranging a meeting with Jiraiya?"

"Went through her sensei, too." Jiraiya added, putting the pieces together now that he had some more information, "And Kakashi, to get me to even meet her. I don't know why she avoided you, but it was intentional."

"Shikaku?" Tsunade pressed when Shikaku quietened, but from the look in his eyes, they both knew he'd already reached some kind of conclusion.

"She's the Hyuuga heiress." Shikaku informed Tsunade tiredly, and Jiraiya cringed, reckoning by Tsunade's expression that that might've been an important bit of information to include in his summary.

"Explains that, then." Jiraiya sighed, pulling out the last of the papers – handwritten, and likely copied directly from Hiashi's library, with enough information on the Caged Bird seal for someone with Jiraiya's ability to reconstruct the seal.

"Is that-?" Tsunade asked, cutting herself off as she took in the diagram and neat, albeit rushed-looking writing describing the diagram and detailing the intricacies of the sealing process.

"Yeah." Jiraiya confirmed, having an inkling as to what she was going to ask, and fully understanding the mix of awe and apprehension on Tsunade's face. "Anyway, Shikaku? Your reason?"

Shikaku tore his gaze away from the handwritten diagram and straightened under their combined expectant gazes. "If I had to give a reason why she didn't go directly to me, despite, as you say, living under my roof and having much easier access to me than to Jiraiya-san, I'd say it was to give me plausible deniability."

Judging by Tsunade's face, Jiraiya was pretty sure he wasn't the only one sceptical of that assessment, and Shikaku sighed, pulling his hairband out and running his fingers through his hair in fatigue or frustration, or, more likely, a mix of the two.

"I'm not just the kage regent." He said quietly, eyes trained on the scroll from his personal library. "I'm also the Head of another Clan."

It wasn't boastful, it was a simple fact, and when Shikaku glanced up, first at Tsunade, then at Jiraiya, it was obvious he was only explaining for their benefit, having already accepted the conclusion he'd drawn as fact.

"If she'd come to me with plans of removing the Caged Bird seal - plans that, likely in the minds of many Hyuuga Elders would mean the weakening of the Hyuuga and interfering with their way of life - I'd have been complicit in the sabotage of another Clan." He summarised, visibly spelling it out for them, but Jiraiya still had one hang-up, which Tsunade appeared to share.

"Kid's twelve, Shikaku." She told him sharply, shooting Jiraiya a look which he nodded at, because yeah. "Don't you think you're giving her a little too much credit?"

"I don't think I am." Shikaku replied simply, not disrespectfully nor arrogantly, but still firmly. "It's not the first time she's demonstrated a degree of political awareness beyond her age. This-"

He shuffled the papers around, his gaze flickering from the scroll on intellectual property, to that on bodily autonomy of those sealed against their will, to one on sealing commission protocols, and those on half a dozen other topics Jiraiya wouldn't have even considered relevant, then back again, before it finally rose to meet first Tsunade's eyes, then Jiraiya's. "This isn't a spontaneous whim of a clueless child. This has been months in the making."

"Months?" Jiraiya repeated sceptically, refocusing on the papers. It had seemed like a well-researched collection once he'd looked at it in more detail, the kid likely wanting to cover all her bases, but- she was from a Noble Clan. They had all the resources at their fingertips, didn't they?

"My son's match-up for the final stage of the Chunin Exams was Hyuuga Neji. He asked Hinata for help in learning how to fight Hyuuga. She agreed." Shikaku smiled wryly, humourlessly. "It's part of the reason the Hyuuga Elders aren't too fond of her. But, in exchange for sparing, she asked for access to our Clan library."

"I doubt that would've been the first place she'd have looked." Tsunade said slowly, looking at the papers on her desk with new eyes.

"Precisely." Shikaku confirmed, taking the seat in the chair next to Jiraiya's, seemingly having said his piece.

"Alright." Tsunade summarised, and her tone was wooden, devoid of emotion, and Jiraiya was instantly on edge. "So we have a genin heir of a Noble Clan so intent on destroying a decades-old slavery seal she's willing to take it on herself. Is that right?"

Jiraiya glanced at Shikaku, who'd winced at the summary but tellingly didn't contradict it, then nodded slowly.

"With the diagram I should be able to remove the torture component, but…yes." Jiraiya said slowly, eyes on Tsunade's expression. "Question is, are you going to allow it?"

"You're the seal master." She shot back with a wry smile, though there was little actual humour in it. "If she commissions you, I have little say."

"Shikaku?" Jiraiya asked, and the Nara seemed surprised at being addressed, but he still frowned thoughtfully. "Do you think she can succeed?"

"It all depends on how she spins it, if she's found out." Shikaku mused, rubbing his eyes briefly, before he focused back on the papers still spread over Tsunade's desk. "If she can find a good enough justification for giving herself the seal, then-!"

Shikaku cut off suddenly, his eyes widening, then he hung his head and laughed, short and sharp but undeniably amused and pleased.

When he looked up again, meeting Tsunade's expectant eyes and Jiraiya's raised eyebrow, he smiled, slow and satisfied and proud.

"The seal's primary purpose was to protect the Byakugan from those who'd seek to steal it." He drawled, tapping his finger against the hand drawn diagram. "Her team's slated for the Chunin Exams in Kumo. There's your reason."

Jiraiya stared, turning the information over in his head, putting the pieces together, and when it all slotted into the full, big picture, he couldn't help but gape a little, exchanging a look with Tsunade.

"This…" he began, shuffling over the papers and putting them back in his inside pocket, leaving out only the hand-written scroll on the seal. "This might just work."

Tsunade sighed, and, as if Jiraiya's declaration had been what she'd been waiting for, she finally allowed herself to collapse in her own chair, putting her head in her hands.

"I fuckin' hate politics."

Shikaku headed home, worn out and with a million things on his mind. He had no energy to deal with any more issues today, content in the knowledge that the most pressing fires of the week had been put out, and the rest could wait until he'd had something to eat and more than two hours' sleep.

And then he paused at the gate to his house, catching sight of Shikamaru and Hinata playing shogi on the veranda.

He was no longer acting-kage, but that didn't mean that he could just shrug off the responsibilities he'd had over the past three months. Tsunade was still learning the inner workings of the Village, still catching up on all that she'd missed in the two decades that she'd been away, and in the chaos of power transitions and meetings with the ANBU and Chunin Commanders, he hadn't even managed to go home after Jiraiya's seal news two days previous.

So now, as he took in the concentrated frown on his son's face with fond eyes, he also allowed himself to properly study his son's friend, the realisation of how far the little Hyuuga could see and how much she was willing to put herself through granting him a new perspective.

The most – and simultaneously least – noticeable thing about Hinata was that the girl was like a ghost.

At first, he'd thought she simply had a weak presence, which didn't bode well for a future Clan Head, but would have been understandable for a child who'd grown up in the shadow of Hyuuga Hiashi's expectations.

She had come into the living room once or twice and nobody, not him, or Yoshino, or Shikamaru, had noticed until one of them caught sight of her from the corner of their eyes and jumped. Even if she used the kitchen, there would never be any sign of her there. No plate in the sink or ingredient out of place. She had also sat and watched him play against Shikamaru a couple of times, and her presence had been so unobtrusive that both of them had caught themselves forgetting that she was there.

And then, gradually, Shikaku had realised how much Hinata leaned into her weak presence.

Her mutism; the fact that her steps made no sound, no matter the terrain; her peculiar avoidance of throwing weapons when sparring; her thick, heavy clothing that didn't rustle.

The fact that even now, at home, in the Village, when Shikamaru's chakra was a merry flame of contentment, like a cat curled up by the fireplace, Hinata's was hollow. So tightly repressed that getting even a glancing impression of her mood was practically impossible for anyone who wasn't a sensor.

Soft, Shikamaru had called her when Shikaku had absently asked how the genin who'd broken their Clan's jutsu after a week of study had been in the Academy. Quiet. Ridiculously shy. Nice, though.

Soft, but she was the genin with the most confirmed kills to her name, more than Team Seven and Nine combined.

Quiet, but Shikaku had felt her chakra in the hospital when the Hyuuga Elders had come. The wave of rage that had swept like a shockwave from her room, followed by unadulterated, unfiltered loathing that had drawn Uzuki Yugao like a beacon to her room, only to find out that a bedbound genin had taken out two Elders with one genjutsu.

Shy, but a shy child wouldn't have found her way to a one-on-one meeting with a Sannin and shared her plans of what could easily be called revolution with a man she barely knew beyond legend.

"I- what?" Shikamaru suddenly asked, startling Shikaku out of his contemplation of their houseguest, his son's eyes wide and disbelieving as he stared at the board. "How?"

Shikaku stepped closer, having an inkling as to what was happening but needing to confirm it for himself. He ignored Hinata's curious glance, Shikamaru too focused on the board to pay him much attention as he stepped onto the veranda.

And indeed, one glance at the board proved his initial suspicion: Shikamaru's king was in check. But a longer look showed what likely had Shikamaru so shocked – his king wasn't just in check, but in checkmate.

Shikamaru lost.

Shikaku could see a smile on Hinata's face, sharper than anything he'd seen on her before, self-satisfied and proud, but when Shikamaru glanced up at her, she softened it, making it genial and open.

"How?" Shikamaru repeated, less accusatory this time and more genuinely curious, and Hinata hesitated, glancing at Shikaku briefly before she refocused on Shikamaru and signed the answer, damning as it was:

'you play like your dad'

And Shikaku could see the moment Shikamaru realised all the different times over the last few weeks that Hinata had been around and watched when they'd played together, not just shogi but chess and go and daifugo. Not participating or distracting, just there, watching while she read whatever book or scroll she had in hand, and Shikaku should've paid more attention to the seemingly innocent pastime.

"I'm predictable." Shikamaru realised with a start, meeting Hinata's gaze as if hoping she'd deny it. But Hinata just smiled, sympathy warring with satisfaction in her eyes, and nodded slowly.

Soft, quiet, shy.

It was the oldest trick in the book, and this girl was also Yuuhi's student.

When Shikamaru went back to frowning thoughtfully at the board, no doubt retracing all his moves in the game to find the proof to Hinata's claim, the little Hyuuga raised her gaze from the board and met Shikaku's own thoughtful one.

For a brief moment, she held the eye-contact, her expression never changing, her chakra never escaping her iron-fisted hold, but knowing what he knew now, Shikaku didn't need to be Inoichi to feel like he could read minds.

Underestimate me, Hinata's face seemed to say, staring at him fearlessly before she looked away and set about clearing the board once Shikamaru shuffled away, I'll make it easy for you.

As he huffed a laugh and went inside in search of something to eat, Shikaku wondered how many more similar traps Hinata had already set for others to fall into.

(He wondered whether he could ask to be there when Hiashi fell into his.)

Sakura stepped out of the hospital, Ino's hand in hers, Kiba and Akamaru a few paces ahead of them.

All three of them paused on the front steps as if on cue, taking a few seconds to let the setting autumn sun hit their skin, basking in the gentle warmth after months of being stuck in the same white walls and artificial light.

Her and Kiba could've been discharged a week earlier, but they chose to wait for Ino to get the all-clear, not wanting to leave her alone after so long together.

Sakura had been in the hospital almost four months. A week or two either way made little difference to her.

"Freedom, at last!" Kiba cheered, but even that was quieter than his Academy self would've been, more contained. He tilted his face to the sun, Akamaru barking quietly, seemingly also content, and Sakura noted that he was almost too big now for his perch on the top of Kiba's head. "How d'you wanna celebrate?"

Sakura glanced at Ino, relying on the same intuitive, wordless communication they'd been capable of back in the Academy, before declaring each other 'love-rivals' forced them to forget. She waited until Ino grinned and nodded, squeezing Sakura's hand in confirmation.

"Barbecue!" she called, pulling on Sakura gently to urge her along, and it took Sakura a second to find her feet.

Kiba did a double-take at the choice, visibly surprised despite the weeks they've spent together, then grinned back, waiting until Ino and Sakura caught up so he could fall into step with them.

"I was worried ya were gonna say sushi or- oh, hey, Genma-san!"

Sakura looked around, curious, because she didn't recognise the name nor did she see anyone around that Kiba could've been greeting, and she frowned, before-

"Hey, kid." a brown-haired man greeted, appearing suddenly at Kiba's side and making Ino and Sakura startle. He reached up to ruffle Kiba's hair fondly, Kiba pressing into the touch, and Sakura reasoned she knew who he'd been greeting, though how he spotted the man was still a mystery. "Finally been released?"

"Yuup! Even walked down the stairs on my own!" Kiba bragged, and Sakura wondered what her fresh-from-the-Academy self would've thought at an 'achievement' like that being something to celebrate.

Then again, unfortunately for her Academy self – or fortunately, depending on who she asked – the rose-tinted glasses she'd glued to her face and used to look at the world with had been forcefully ripped off and stomped on by the Snake Sannin. The three subsequent months she'd spent in the hospital as a result had been a further eye-opener to the seldom-discussed consequences of the shinobi lifestyle, and despite her angry helplessness at her state over the last few months, Sakura wasn't blind to the fact that she was one of the lucky ones in terms of her injuries.

"Proud of you." 'Genma-san' told Kiba evenly, dropping his hand from Kiba's hair to his shoulder and squeezing once, and Sakura's breath hitched.

The easy praise, the lack of mockery, the simple affection- she forced her gaze away from Kiba and the unknown shinobi and fought against the burn in her eyes and throat, pushing the bitterness that surged up to the back of her mind.

"Oh, right," Kiba exclaimed, either hearing Sakura's stuttered inhale or only just remembering they were heading somewhere before he'd stalled them, "Ino, Sakura, this is Shiranui Genma! Sensei recruited him to help me train after our disaster C-Rank; he's incredibly annoying to fight, and the best poisons master in the Village!" Kiba introduced, and Sakura felt more than saw Ino's interest spike, and she squeezed Ino's hand once, a wordless comfort and reassurance.

"Kiba-" the man sighed, looking almost embarrassed, but he was still amused, an easy-going smile twisting his lips.

"And Genma-san, this is Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura, my roommates over the last few weeks!" Kiba cut him off, bulldozing over whatever the man might have wanted to say, and Sakura huffed a quiet laugh, amused herself at the fact that for all that things changed, some stayed the same.

Genma snorted, whether at the flourish with which Kiba finished his introduction or the term 'roommates', but he nodded politely at her and Ino. "Pleasure. I'm glad to see you both walking."

And then, Sakura realised that she did recognise the man – he'd come to their room once or twice, bringing books or updates from people whose names Sakura didn't know, but Kiba clearly did, and leaving Kiba with visibly higher spirits and a smile on his face. She didn't realise the man had also taken note of Kiba's 'roommates' but she managed a smile, though it dropped when she heard Ino hum thoughtfully.

"I know you." Ino said slowly, and Sakura watched as she narrowed her eyes at the man, who, to his credit, weathered the treatment with that same simmering amusement, exchanging a curious glance with Kiba. "You've been by a few times asking for access to our greenhouse."

"Guilty as charged." Genma replied, absently scratching Akamaru's head when the ninken whined needily. "I use a lot of 'exotic' ingredients, and if I don't get to go to the plant's habitat in too long, I can't restock my poisons." He shrugged, though Sakura could tell it wasn't an easy thing to admit. "Your dad is very protective of his greenhouse, though."

"Not his greenhouse." Ino muttered, and Sakura could see the cogs turning behind her eyes, and from the look on his face, she knew Kiba could, too. "How about this: you teach us some basic poisons whenever you can spare the time, and I'll grant you supervised access to our greenhouse."

Genma blinked, staring at Ino oddly for a moment, before he huffed a laugh. "Who taught you to bargain, blondie? Ibiki?"

"If you agree," Kiba cut in, taking over from Ino before the blonde could reply, her lips pursed in annoyance, clearly taking slight offense to being compared to the scarred proctor from the first stage of the Exams, "you could teach us poisons on the days we usually train together. That way we're not takin' up more of your time."

Genma raised an eyebrow, though he didn't look as affronted as earlier. "Your nose is going to make poisons hell for you."

Sakura startled, not having considered that aspect of Kiba's Clan's partnership with ninken, but Kiba grinned, sharp and sly and unconcerned.

"Nah, I'm not gonna be eatin' poisons like these two, but I do want to learn how to treat them." Kiba explained, jabbing his thumb at Ino and Sakura. "Cause, statistically, the most common problem once you've been poisoned isn't the poison itself, but the lack of antidote. And, like, with my nose, if I knew the smells of different poisons or ingredients, I could probably speed up the poison identification and antidote-making process, you know?"

"It's still really weird to hear you talking about statistics and medical stuff." Ino observed, staring at Kiba oddly, and Sakura couldn't fight her snort, inwardly agreeing with Ino's comment.

"I'm full of surprises." Kiba drawled, drawing a laugh from Genma, who reached up and ruffled Kiba's hair fondly. "Plus, I watched Shino nearly die from poison so like, I have motivation aplenty."

"Alright, you don't need to guilt me." Genma huffed, rolling his eyes at Kiba, though he was smiling now. "I've been out of the Village more often than in it these last few weeks, but if it happens that we're all here at the same time and not busy, we can try this thing. Konoha could always use more poison users, and poison-savvy medics are few and far between."

"So we have a deal?" Ino asked shrewdly, though Sakura heard the slight tremble in her voice and squeezed her hand reassuringly.

"We have a deal." Genma confirmed, sounding tired but entertained, extending a hand for Ino to shake. Then, he smirked, and Sakura found herself looking at the same sharp and sly smile that had been on Kiba's face moments previous, and suddenly, the identity of Kiba's mysterious mentor figure he'd mentioned a few times during his stay in their hospital room was obvious. "Better tell your dad that you used his greenhouse as ransom."

Almost four months after Orochimaru's invasion, the rubble and ruin of a full-Village invasion was still visible on some of the streets. Most of the active jounin were on a very quick turnover mission rota, their services needed to shore up Konoha's economy and re-establish the Village's reputation as one of the big five after a hit as damaging as one of their own leading an invasion and killing their kage.

Kakashi, however, was on the hunt for entertainment.

Learning that Jiraiya was still in town was a promise of blissful reprieve from the suffocating boredom of being on forced leave. His shrink was apparently still concerned with his mental state after the Tsukiyomi, and Tsunade seemingly took Psych's evaluations more seriously than Sarutobi had.

But if Jiraiya was in town, then maybe Kakashi could wheedle some spoilers of the man's next release. Or annoy him enough to get a spar out of it. Both options sounded good just then.

Still, he paused in the door to Jiraiya's seldom-used apartment, surprised to get through the fuinjutsu matrix on the door only to find the man with an unexpected visitor.

He watched the Hyuuga girl startle when the door opened, lilac eyes cutting to him for only a split-second before she was wordlessly pulling off her headband and getting to her feet, slipping past him on her way out of the room. Then she took one step past him, two, then a Shunshin, swift and seal-less and beyond what he'd thought a genin would be capable of, and then she was gone.

Not fast enough for him not to register the tell-tale pattern on her forehead before she'd let her bangs down, however.

"Was that the Hyuuga heir?" he asked Jiraiya, watching curiously as the man hastily shut whatever notebook he'd had open and set about sealing away the inkstone and brushes. "With the Hyuuga juinjutsu?"

Jiraiya glared at him, but Kakashi ignored the quelling look and instead stepped inside, closing the door behind him and watching as the protective fuinjutsu he'd casually disarmed on his way in lit up the walls again.

"Tsunade and Shikaku-approved." Jiraiya shot back, tucking his notebook away between the inner folds of his robes. "You saw nothing."

"Why would the heir have the juinjutsu?" Kakashi pressed, because he might've only seen it for a split-second, but that pattern was unmistakeable. "Did Hiashi-?"

"It was the kid's idea." Jiraiya cut him off, shooting him a warning look. "And I repeat, you saw nothing, Hatake."

"The kid's idea to seal herself?" Kakashi demanded, crossing his arms and planting himself firmly before the door, though he doubted he'd actually be able to stop Jiraiya if the man decided he wanted to leave. Jiraiya was more than strong enough to manhandle him out of the way, if he so wished.

He knew he was likely stomping through the equivalent of a political minefield, but Jiraiya had been too fond of Minato to ever truly deny him after his sensei's death, and Kakashi wasn't above exploiting that tie. "Why?"

"That might be above your paygrade." Jiraiya warned, a valiant attempt at remaining strong in the face of Kakashi's nosiness and his own guilt.

"Come on, Jiraiya-sama." Kakashi drawled, abandoning his post by the door once he spied the first hints of weakness and letting himself drop into a sitting position on the other side of Jiraiya's kotatsu. "You always have the best gossip."

It seemed to be the wrong thing to say, because Jiraiya snorted and pushed away from the kotatsu, heading to the door Kakashi had abandoned and opening it while glaring at Kakashi meaningfully.

"For once, this actually has nothing to do with you, or any of your little students." He informed him curtly, raising an eyebrow and gesturing to the door, none of the usual hospitality in his mien. "Scram, Kakashi. And keep your mouth shut about this."

Naturally, Kakashi scrammed.

Scrammed all the way to Shikaku's office, now back in the Jounin HQ since Tsunade's inauguration, adamantly ignoring the 'do not disturb' genjutsu on the door. He was bored, his visit to Jiraiya only raising more questions but doing little to quell his boredom, and he had been reliably informed by his friends that he was a menace when bored.

Unfortunately for the rest of the Village, Asuma was still grieving, Kurenai was hospital-bound, and Gai was out on a mission, which meant that when Kakashi found the first interesting thing that caught his attention since the invasion, there was nobody to tell him 'no, drop it'.

(Or, as Genma had kindly summarised, all of his usual babysitters were occupied.)

He responsibly made sure the door was firmly closed behind him before he turned to Shikaku and raised an eyebrow.

"Any idea why the Hyuuga heiress has the Branch House juinjutsu?"

Shikaku startled, his pen sliding across the page and completely ruining his signature, and he glared at Kakashi, tired and exasperated and more than a little disapproving.

"Every day I wonder why Minato didn't see it fit to teach you subtlety." The man replied, and oh, ouch. Going for sensei's name right in the greeting? Kakashi had really stepped in it now.

"I'm plenty subtle." He defended lightly, dropping down in the chair opposite Shikaku's desk without invitation.

"No," the man snorted, closing his file and shoving it in the drawer of his desk, away from Kakashi's prying eyes. "Hound is subtle. You read porn in public and treat Village secrets like magpies treat shiny trinkets."

Kakashi blinked. He wouldn't have thought Shikaku capable of such vivid metaphors. But, more importantly- "I didn't know a genin was in on a Village secret."

Shikaku eyed him tiredly, irritation melting into deadpan blankness. "You're not going to drop it, are you?"

Kakashi didn't bother denying it. "My next stop is Kurenai's room."

"She might not know." Shikaku replied evenly, and, yeah, maybe it was a valid point, but-

"Hyuuga Compound, then." Kakashi shot back, and Shikaku sighed, yanking the hairtie out of his hair and rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Fine. I'm telling you once, and once only, so listen up."

Fifteen minutes later, Kakashi was staring at Shikaku and wondering whether he shouldn't have listened to Jiraiya and left this one be.

"She's gonna need your help, Kakashi." Shikaku concluded, and he appeared vindictively satisfied by Kakashi's stunned silence.

"I'm no revolutionary." Kakashi denied, because despite his many 'stick it to the big man' stunts and his association with Kurenai and Genma, he had somehow managed to avoid the reputation.

"No, not with that." Shikaku waved him off, and Kakashi absently wondered who the man thought would be better to help with restructuring the Hyuuga Clan from within. "With her jounin promotion."

Kakashi couldn't have helped his raised eyebrow even if he'd tried. "She's not even a chunin yet."

"She's as good as." Shikaku shot back. "Her team's promotion's only waiting for the opportune moment."

Kakashi considered the Jounin Commander for a moment, then sighed, putting the pieces together. "You're sending her team to Kumo."

It wasn't even a question, and judging by Shikaku's grimly resigned expression, the man knew it.

"A shinobi's purpose is to be useful." He replied flatly, sounding as if he was quoting someone else. "Her team hasn't been genin-level in a bit, and their show of strength in the Exams will be more useful to the Village than giving them that promotion now."

"That's cold." Kakashi observed, because it sounded much more like Danzo's philosophy than Shikaku's. "There are plenty of Hyuuga jounin who got to the rank without my help. What makes her special?"

"The time window." Shikaku replied dryly.

"What are we looking at?" Kakashi was almost intrigued at this point, because while Shikaku's explanation of the seal and the girl's plan for the juinjutsu had been mostly factual, speaking as he was now, the man actually sounded personally invested in this case.

"The next two years."

Kakashi whistled before he could catch himself, but he wasn't particularly impressed with the news. "I didn't think you were interested in breaking records."

"It's not that." Shikaku dismissed, and he pinched the bridge of his nose and hung his head. "The Hyuuga Clan inheritance is set at jounin."

Kakashi stared at the man for a second, then- "Kid wants to usurp Hiashi?"

"I was made to believe that a peaceful transition of power is out of the picture." Shikaku replied, looking far older than his forty years, and not for the first time, Kakashi was intimately glad that the position of regent had fallen to the Nara instead of him. "Knowing what the Hyuuga Elders are like and having gotten to know Hinata-chan better over the last few weeks, I'm inclined to agree."

"The Branch House won't care." Kakashi noted, because he wasn't the biggest fan of the Hyuuga Clan but he'd gotten to know some over the years. Mostly the ones with the shortest sticks up their asses, and those were few and far between. "What's one Main House Head over another?"

Shikaku didn't immediately reply, and Kakashi studied the man until the possible reasoning dawned on him. "You've got an in with the Branch House?"

"Neji. Hinata's cousin, Shikamaru's opponent in the finals." The man replied, meeting Kakashi's gaze and holding it, studying Kakashi just as surely as Kakashi was studying him. "They've…talked."

"And you're telling me a preteen has the political mind to plan this and pull it off?" Kakashi asked, eyebrow raised, his tone more doubtful than he'd intended, but he'd thought Nara were supposed to be rational.

"She beat Shikamaru at shogi." Was Shikaku's explanation, and Kakashi snorted before he could catch himself.

"No offense, Shikaku-san, but that doesn't mean anything." Kakashi understood Clan quirks, knew he had some himself that he carefully avoided talking about with anyone but Tsume, but basing a revolution off of a kid beating another kid at a boardgame was somewhat a stretch, even for his usual level of bullshittery.

"I know. But the kid also asked Kurenai to call in her IOU with you so that you could arrange a meeting with Jiraiya for her. She then proceeded to tell Jiraiya one-on-one of her plans, knowing she was risking being outed. Jiraiya, naturally, came straight to me and Tsunade."

Kakashi scrutinised the man, following the story to its logical conclusion, but Shikaku beat him to it.

"She went to Jiraiya before telling me, while living at my house, because she knew the political corner she'd have backed me into if she'd come to me directly." Shikaku concluded, and Kakashi supposed he had his answer to his earlier question.

"Genius?" he asked faux-lightly, wondering whether the Academy was genuinely that bad at profiling their students, or if the kid had intentionally stayed under the radar.

Considering she probably would've seen the Itachi Situation implode in real time, he wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be the latter.

"No." Shikaku snorted, waving a dismissive hand and shooting down Kakashi's disparaging contemplation of the Academy sensei's capabilities before it had the chance to crystallise into anything concrete. "Just...extremely dedicated to the long game."

"I'm gonna make my own impression." Kakashi declared, trying to assimilate everything he'd just been told. "And then I'll decide whether I want to take on a revolutionary of all things."

"Kid's traumatised, Kakashi." Shikaku warned him as he headed for the door, ignoring the second part of Kakashi's declaration, and Kakashi paused, tilting his head. "Mute. Be careful."

"I'm always careful." Kakashi shot back right before he closed the door behind himself, cutting off the sound of Shikaku's snort at his words.

He found the girl at a teahouse, having dango with Yugao of all people.

His once-subordinate wasn't looking great, but she was out in public rather than avoiding everyone or hounding Bear for suicide missions, and that was a definite improvement in his books, mental-health wise.

Kakashi watched as the kunoichi conversed, fingers twitching against the table in fairly advanced Chunin Sign while idly plucking at the leftover dango on the plate between them.

Little Hyuuga-chan didn't even need both hands for the signs, so either Shikaku had lied to him, or someone had suggested the sign language to the girl upon discovering her muteness and she turned out to be a very quick learner.

He saw the exact moment Yugao sensed him lurking because she tensed ever so slightly. But she was too good of a kunoichi to glance at him blatantly; instead, when she raised the hand that wasn't flicking through Chunin Sign to scratch at her cheek, her fingers twitched in ANBU code.

Mission?

Kakashi bit back a snort. Even if he were still her Captain, he wouldn't have allowed her out of the Village in her state, but it stung a little that she thought that a mission was the only thing he would ever seek her out for, especially considering what had happened to Hayate not three months previous.

But, more alarmingly, little Hyuuga-chan followed the twitch of Yugao's fingers with her eyes, tracing a line from Yugao's cheek to the gesture's likely recipient, and Kakashi suddenly found wide lilac eyes boring into his own for the second time that day.

...He just got made by a baby genin.

Granted, he wasn't actually trying to hide, perched on the low roof of the shop opposite the cafe the kunoichi were occupying, in full view of any passer-by, but.

But.

ANBU sign was intentionally coded into innocuous, casual gestures so that its usage in broad daylight wouldn't raise suspicion. There was no reason the little Hyuuga should've assumed Yugao was talking to someone.

Unless she recognized-?

But no. It was a fluke, clearly. He wasn't hiding, anyway.

Still, he got made.

Wondering whether Shikaku would consider this approach 'careful', he hopped off the roof and headed into the café.

Time to say hello!