Kakashi wasn't expecting to arrive at Team Seven's training grounds and find his students sitting in a circle with a distantly familiar chunin coaching them through fuinjutsu calligraphy, of all things.
Upon a more thorough assessment, he realised that while Sasuke's lines were picture-perfect to the model Umino had laid out to them, Naruto's predictably wobbly but far less so than Kakashi would've expected considering the boy's Academy grades, Sakura's seal was drawn less like she was tracing a picture and more like she actually understood how each element connected and intersected, which-
Hm.
His musing was cut short when Sasuke and Umino glanced up at him, one with a guarded expression, the other with undisguised displeasure.
"It's ten thirty." Umino scolded him, a frown twisting his face and pulling at the scar over his nose, but Naruto waved him off, and unlike with Sakura or Sasuke, Kakashi had a feeling that Naruto wasn't being cruel intentionally. Still, he couldn't tell whether his blasé 'it's okay, Iruka-sensei, Kaka-sensei often gets here at noon, so he's actually early today!' hurt more or less than a similar comment would have coming from the other two.
Iruka stared for a second, clearly aghast, but Sakura finished her seal just then and interrupted before the Academy teacher could voice his thoughts about Kakashi's tardiness.
"Before you ask, sensei," Sakura began, clearly addressing Kakashi even though her attention was still on her seal tag, and he watched, somewhat amused, as she flapped a hand so the ink would dry faster, "Iruka-sensei is here to tell you what we learn at the Academy, since we realised you might not know."
"That's right." Iruka confirmed, shaking himself off and pushing to his feet, pinning Kakashi with a sharp look. "Let's go, Hatake-san. Let's touch base, hm?"
But before he walked over to Kakashi, he paused by the genin and appraised their sealwork. "Naruto, good job with the proportions but work on keeping your lines neater. Sasuke, perfect linework, now see if you can figure out what the components do. And Sakura-" Iruka grinned, a hint of mischief in his eyes that made Kakashi realise why Naruto liked the man so much, "amazing. Now try to adjust the intensity, how about that? Just don't blow up your teammates, please."
"No promises, sensei." Sakura mumbled, but there was a pleased slant to her mouth and a focus in her eyes Kakashi hadn't seen in a while.
His contemplation of his students was cut short when Umino turned on him, and the earlier easy-going expression was nowhere to be found. "Let's go, Hatake-san."
Kakashi stifled a sigh, but went willingly. After the conversation Genma had made him witness, he realised that avoiding his students wasn't the way to go if they were serious about requalifying as a sabotage squad.
After all, while ANBU was theoretically anonymous, Kakashi reasoned that it wouldn't be long before someone let slip that he'd once been the Captain of the most infamous sabotage squad that ANBU had ever seen.
He wasn't sure he was ready for how his students would react to that news, however.
Their journey to Kumo took five days.
Along with her team, there were two additional teams composed of career genin, two men who Kurenai had informed them were the impartial jounin who would be assessing their performance and advising the Godaime whether they deserved the promotion, and a man Hinata had never seen before with auburn hair and amber eyes that was apparently the Psych representative.
He'd joined them outside of the Main Gates, dressed like Kagane-san, his expression perfectly bland, and one of the other genin had taken one look at the man and groaned.
"Psych, really?" he'd huffed, looking displeased. "You're gonna watch us too?"
The Psych shinobi didn't acknowledge the words beyond tilting his head with a vaguely amused expression that reminded Hinata inexplicably of Sai, but he'd kept pace with them easily enough. She wanted to ask Kiba why the teen kept shooting the man odd looks as they ran, but there was little opportunity to speak without the risk of being overheard as they made their way to Kumogakure.
As they ran, Hinata had to remind herself not to rub her eyes, the itch of the contacts novel and uncomfortable while she got used to them. Kurenai had had her don the coloured contacts even before they met with the teams that would be taking part in the Exams with them, her sensei's explanation citing both, Hinata's need to familiarise herself with their feel, and the security risk of the other genin accidentally outing her as a Hyuuga.
It was easier to meet them as simply Hinata, since without her Byakugan, the standard robes most of her clansmen favoured, and the signature hairstyle, her identity as a Hyuuga wasn't exactly obvious.
Eventually, it became clear that, much like the Village Hidden in the Leaves was, in fact, hidden amongst the leaves of the forests that made up the Land of Fire, Hidden Cloud also earned its name fairly. When the snow of the Land of Frost refused to melt even after they crossed the border into the Land of Lightning, Hinata wondered whether the other genin accompanying them had forgotten, by virtue of no longer having genin sensei to remind them, that Konoha's unusually fair and hospitable climate wasn't the standard among the Shinobi Nations.
Still, she kept her observations to herself and buried her nose further in the collar of her jacket, following her team up the seemingly endless incline, the winds picking up the further up the mountain they got.
And then, a checkpoint.
Carved into the wall of the mountain was a guard post, and Hinata froze at the gruff 'state your purpose!' that came from the rock.
"Team Eight, representatives of Konohagakure's contingent, here on the Raikage's invitation to partake in the Chunin Exams." Kurenai replied smoothly, keeping her hands visible. "I have our papers and identification in my bag. May I take them out?"
"Slowly." The voice agreed, and Hinata watched as a man melted out from the rockface, a good ten feet from where the guard post was located. He approached once Kurenai held out the papers, eyes on the remaining members of their entourage before they scanned over the paperwork.
"Yuhi Kurenai, Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino, and Hinata of the Leaf." The man read out, and another Kumo-nin melted from the rockface, clipboard in hand, and he offered a curt nod of approval when the first shinobi turned to him. "You may proceed. The Exam starts tomorrow, so Nii-sama will show you to the contestants' lodgings."
And then, the guard post opened up, showing a narrow tunnel carved through the mountain, the passage so long that Hinata could not see any light at the other end. She shared an anxious glance with Kiba and Shino, but when Kurenai set off towards the tunnel, her posture loose and confident, they had no choice but to follow, though Hinata still felt her heart pick up a pace when the passage closed behind them, cutting them off from the rest of the Konoha squads.
They walked for what could have been five minutes or thirty seconds, the walls illuminated by gemstones that looked like they had been infused with chakra and emitted a soft blue light, making the tunnel just bright enough to save them from tripping over each other. And then, the wall ahead of them opened, the sudden light almost blinding when compared to the near-dark of the tunnel, and a blond kunoichi stood at the other end, headband partially obscured by her fringe.
"Greetings, Konoha-nin. I am Nii Yugito. I will show you to where you will be staying for the next few weeks." She greeted, her voice low and even, and but Hinata could see an easy confidence radiate from the woman, not unlike how it did with Shikaku.
"Thank you for your guidance." Kurenai replied, inclining her head respectfully when she emerged from the tunnel, and Hinata hastened to follow, elbowing Kiba lightly when she heard him growl low in his throat as he stepped out of the tunnel and laid his eyes on their escort. "I am Yuhi Kurenai and this is my team."
"My pleasure." Their guide replied, not quite dryly, but lacking any distinct warmth to her words, then turned on her heel. "Please follow."
Still, Hinata couldn't help but look around in awe. It looked as if the mountain they had been climbing had been hollowed out on the inside to make room for the sprawling Village that spread before them now.
The tunnel led them out onto what would've otherwise been a balcony, if not for the fact that there were dozens of similarly fenced-off platforms as far as the eye could see. Towers of rock and glass jutted out from below them, some tens of metres below their platform, others stretching up so high that their tops disappeared amid the low-hanging clouds.
"They carved a Village in a mountain." Kiba breathed, looking around with a similarly awed expression, a grin stretching over his lips, "Cool."
"The Raikage and Tsuchikage rarely ever see eye-to-eye." Their guide offered, her expression softening a little at Kiba's comment. Kiba, though, was wide-eyed as he smacked a hand over his mouth and nose and pushed Akamaru back into his jacket when the ninken freed his snout from Kiba's collar to snap his teeth. "But, if nothing else, at least they agree on the subject of natural defences."
"It's very impressive." Kurenai agreed, shooting Kiba a sharp look, but it faded when Kiba shuddered, his hair standing on end, his hand still over his face, the other fighting to keep Akamaru contained. "Kiba?"
"Is he alright?" Yugito inquired, frowning when Kiba growled again, the sound audible even with his hand over his mouth.
"I'm- really sorry." Kiba managed, and Hinata scanned over what she could see of his face, but Kiba didn't look hurt, just deeply uncomfortable. "It's nothing personal, but- Akamaru, cut it out!"
Shino caught the nindog when he wriggled out of Kiba's hold, and Hinata sighed in relief when Shino expertly squashed Akamaru to his chest, one hand supporting the ninken's body, the other clamped firmly over his jaw and nose like a muzzle.
"I'm really sorry," Kiba tried again, voice muffled as he didn't move his hand from his mouth, "but you smell really strongly of cat."
Yugito blinked, seemingly as surprised at the observation as Kurenai and Hinata felt, then the corner of the kunoichi's lips quirked up, amusement dancing in her dark eyes.
"Ah. You're the Inuzuka." She breathed, the dawning realisation mixed with almost reluctant amusement. "My apologies. This is probably Atsui's attempt at being funny."
Kiba frowned, not following, and Yugito huffed something that may have once been a laugh and inclined her head. "I am the jinchuuriki of the Two-Tails. My partner, Matatabi, is a cat spirit."
Partner. Hinata's mind got stuck on that word for a moment, her eyes widening in surprise. Even after the war, she didn't think that Naruto had reached the level of friendship with the Kyuubi to refer to the bijuu as a partner.
"Come here," Kurenai beckoned to Kiba, and when he obeyed, she laid her hand over his nose, and Hinata felt a pressure change as if her ears had popped, "better?"
"Much, thank you, sensei." Kiba breathed, visible relief in his posture as he shot Kurenai an easy smile. Then, he sobered and turned to their guide. "I'm really sorry again, Nii-san, I didn't mean you or Matatabi-san any offense by my reaction" he apologised, inclining his head politely and missing the flash of surprise that passed through Yugito's eyes. "I just wasn't expecting, ah-"
"It's…alright." The Kumo kunoichi cut him off, something like wonder and pleasure in her expression before it disappeared under her professional mask. "Thank you for the apology, Inuzuka-kun. We appreciate it."
Hinata didn't miss the 'we', nor, she supposed, casting a glance at her team, did any of them. She couldn't quite bite back the small, proud smile that pulled at her lips at Kiba's easy charisma that never failed to impress her when it showed itself.
But, she mused, she shouldn't be surprised at the fact that Kiba understood Yugito's situation so quickly; if anybody could, she reckoned that a member of a Clan so closely bonded with ninken that Kiba and Akamaru could understand each other the same way she could understand Kiba, would be the one.
She kept her chakra locked down tight, but, once Yugito turned her back on them and began once again leading them to their accommodation, Hinata reached out and wrapped her fingers around Kiba's wrist, squeezing gently. When he glanced at her, surprise and curiosity in his gaze, she smiled, hoping to infuse the expression with all the pride and awe she was feeling.
After a moment, Kiba smiled back, twice as bright as before, and pulled his arm out of her hold only to catch her hand and squeeze back. She saw him eye Shino briefly, mischief clear on his face, then reach out. Shino initially flinched away from the contact, but Kurenai laid a hand on his shoulder and Shino sighed, long-suffering and resigned, and obligingly offered his hand and allowed Kiba to grab onto it.
Perhaps it was childish, but Hinata felt better with them so visibly connected, a united front in more ways than just in their agreement to be there, in these exams. When Yugito glanced back at them to check they were following, her eyebrow ticked up at the sight they made, but Hinata thought she saw the kunoichi's eyes soften the slightest just before she turned back around.
Eventually, Yugito stopped in front of a looming building so tall that its top floors disappeared among the clouds. "This is where the first stage of the Exams will be held. Please be here tomorrow, at ten in the morning, on the fifth floor if you wish to take part."
At their acknowledgement, she moved on, and the next time they stopped was in front of a shorter building, a good ten minutes away from what Hinata hesitantly pegged as the centre of the Village. Yugito let them to the third floor, stopping in front of the door at the end of the corridor before she pulled out a key and opened it for them.
They went in, and as Yugito spoke to Kurenai, Hinata looked around the space curiously.
It seemed that they had been assigned an apartment for their lodging, the space surprisingly large and bright, all the walls painted pure white save for one, which was the clear blue of a cloudless sky. The longest wall of the room, directly opposite the door, was taken up entirely by windows almost as tall as Hinata herself, offering them a beautiful panoramic view of the jagged skyline of Kumogakure.
The room itself appeared to hold everything but the bathrooms, with a living area in the centre, a small kitchen and dining nook on one end of the room, and four bedrolls laid out on the opposite end. There were two other small doors tucked into the opposite corner to the kitchen that Hinata assumed led to the bathroom, and she couldn't help but be shocked by their hosts' hospitality to offer them such a large, luxurious space for the duration of the Exams.
"-there is a canteen on the ground floor that you are welcome to make use of. Otherwise, if you find yourself lacking anything, just speak to the guards at the entrance to the building." Yugito finished, and Hinata startled inwardly, snapping back to full focus.
"Thank you for your help and hospitality, Nii-san. I suppose we will see you around." Kurenai replied, offering their guide a small smile, far from her usual brightness but much more than the guarded expressions she'd offered earlier.
With a nod of acknowledgement, Yugito let herself out, leaving the key to the apartment on the shelf by the door.
"Well," Kiba began after letting Akamaru down so the nindog could familiarise himself with their new accommodation, the beginnings of a grin pulling at his lips, "they definitely know how to make an impression."
That night, as they settled down in the bedrolls, Hinata waited until her teammates' chakra and breathing evened out with sleep, the steady beating of raindrops against the windows lulling them to sleep.
Then, once even Kurenai's signature lost its edge of high-alertness, she pushed herself into a sitting position and crossed her legs.
She was too anxious to sleep, the nerves that she'd been able to repress for the duration of their journey to Kumo combined with the pressure that came once they actually stepped into the Village proper finally breaking free of her iron grasp.
Hinata tried to take deep breaths and ground herself, stretching out her chakra and coiling it back in the way Neji had taught her in her original timeline, hoping the rhythmic, repetitive task would calm her galloping heart. But even as she sunk into the feel of her chakra and let the rain and her teammates' breathing guide the rhythm of her motions, her mind refused to quiet, bombarding her instead with all the worst-case scenarios of what might happen if she slipped up.
If she forgot her contacts. If someone let slip her surname. If she used her dojutsu. If she forgot herself and used Jyuuken in the combat portion she was almost positive would constitute at least part of the Exams. If someone saw her seal. If, if, if-
Kumo had been willing to try to acquire the Byakugan in Konoha. There was no reason they wouldn't be even more daring on home soil.
There was a sudden loud noise and Hinata jumped, pushing away the thought as her attention snapped to the windows, trying to find the source of what had startled her. It took her far longer than she cared to admit to realise that the earlier rain had turned into hail that now hammered relentlessly against the glass. The fact that the noise broke through her concentration only proved to her how shallow her meditation had been, how on-edge she still remained despite her attempts at calm.
Then, as she contemplated the windows, she realised with a jolt how vulnerable their accommodation made them. The glass that had initially added to the modern appeal of the apartment now made it seem like a gilded cage instead of the refuge Hinata had hoped for. She couldn't see anybody outside without turning on her dojutsu, but that didn't mean that nobody was there. The multi-story nature of the Kumo infrastructure lent itself more than well to hidden watchers.
And, Hinata thought, a shiver crawling down her spine at the realisation, with the windows taking up the longest wall of the apartment, there was nowhere to hide.
Feeling her breathing pick up in pace and volume, Hinata was grateful for Akamaru's wet snout pressing into her bare thigh, but even the nindog's presence wasn't enough to quell the panic rising within her. She scanned the room, glancing between the windows and the living space, hoping to find something, anything that might be able to hide her, if only superficially.
Her frantic gaze landed on the dining table on the other end of the room, one side of it pushed up against the far wall, the other against the wall with the windows, and her heart leapt at the prospect of shelter. Still, she didn't move, the last traces of sober thought telling her to be reasonable and try to settle down, to use the breathing techniques Kagane-san had coached her through, to not let her anxiety control her.
Then, the sky outside lit up with lightning and a loud crack of thunder ripped through the quiet of the night not two seconds later, and Hinata was moving before she even registered the decision.
Unwilling to stand up and reveal herself (to whom? her mind demanded, but it wasn't a question Hinata had an answer for) she grabbed her blanket and crawled on her hands and knees to the other end of the room. She pulled out a chair, careful not to let the legs scrape against the floor in fear of waking her teammates, then crawled underneath the table, bundling and bunching up her blanket until she had a makeshift nest.
Her heart was still racing, her breathing ragged, and the tips of her fingers were numb with anxiety, but with her back pressed against the wall, her position in the corner allowing her to keep an eye on the front door and her teammates' slumbering forms, while the table above kept her out of view of the window, Hinata finally felt herself relax, her muscles aching when the tension finally left them.
Akamaru whined when another bolt of lightning lit up the sky, and Hinata hummed quietly, lifting her arm in open invitation, which the nindog took with another quiet whimper at the thunder that followed. The adolescent ninken curled up against her front, seeking comfort from her just as much as Hinata soaked in comfort from him, and together, they settled in for the night.
"-nata. Hey, Hinata, time to wake up."
Hinata felt herself wake slowly, which was a luxury she could rarely indulge in, but her eyes felt heavy and the voice calling her name was quiet enough that she didn't feel alarmed enough to snap to alertness like she normally would out in the field.
She hummed, pushing herself to sit up, twitching when a hand suddenly landed on her head, but its presence was explained when she sat up straighter and heard a thump, and instead of her head hitting whatever hard object was above her, the hand absorbed most of the impact.
"Kiba?" She mumbled, opening her eyes slowly, a little confused when she realised she was on the floor and Kiba was crouching a few inches away, and that it was his hand that had prevented her head from smashing into- the underside of a table? "Is everything alright?"
"Oh, yeah, all's good, sensei just said to wake you so we could go to breakfast!" Kiba grinned, slowly removing his hand from her head and letting it drop on his bent knee, though he kept both his hands within Hinata's line of sight. "And hey, you didn't stab me this time!"
Feeling a small smile tug at her lips at the observation, Hinata lifted a shoulder in a tired shrug. "You didn't startle me this time."
"See, I'm learning!" Kiba boasted, though Hinata could see that, for all that he was genuinely pleased, the boasting was more for her amusement. She nodded, managing a quiet 'you are' before she lifted a hand to stifle an enormous yawn that made her jaw crack.
Kiba snickered, either because he heard it crack or simply at the somewhat uncharacteristic action, and she blinked at him, curious as to what he was waiting for. Kiba, seemingly reading her mind, tilted his head, his grin dimming a little, a note of concern flashing through his eyes.
"I heard it was stormin' last night." He pointed out, a propos nothing, and Hinata sat up as much as she could while still under the table, more cautious now. "Were you keeping Akamaru company? Or was it the other way 'round?"
As memories of last night trickled back in, Hinata noted that the out was there, and she loved Kiba in that moment for offering it.
She could shrug it off, say that she'd woken up in the middle of the night and realised that Akamaru had been having a hard time with the storm so she'd gone to comfort him.
She could say that.
She realised quickly, however, that she didn't want to.
Hinata shot a glance at Kurenai, surprised to find her sensei already looking back, a similarly worried expression on her face as she found on Kiba's. Upon reading the question in Hinata's eyes and apparently correctly guessing its origin, Kurenai nodded imperceptibly, offering her a small, encouraging smile.
"The other way around." Hinata confessed on a sigh, prompting Kiba's eyes to widen a little, likely surprised that she chose not to take the out. He shuffled to the side when Hinata gestured that she'd like to get out from under the table, her neck twinging uncomfortably. She extricated herself from the nest of blanket and shuffled out, though she made no move to stand up once she could sit up properly, merely crossed her legs and leaned back against the wall, welcoming the cool stone against her heated back. "Is it safe, sensei?"
"Nothing that rings any alarm bells, but mind your volume just in case." Kurenai replied, and Hinata wondered at the lines of tension at the corners of her sensei's eyes. She shook the thought off, making a mental note to ask later, and focused on Kiba, gesturing for Shino to come over as well.
"The peace treaty between Konoha and Kumo was signed on my third birthday." She began once Shino had sat down beside Kiba, the Aburame's hand settling almost automatically on Akamaru's nape. "But before the Kumo delegation left, the head shinobi tried to acquire the Byakugan by kidnapping me."
She'd been semi prepared for it, so Kiba's startled, incredulous what?! didn't shock her as much as it might have. She could also pick up the change in volume of the buzzing of Shino's kikaichu, so despite her teammate's face remaining impassive, she knew he was comparably alarmed to Kiba.
"He didn't succeed." She assured them, somewhat unnecessarily. "I s-stalled him, and my Father caught up to us and killed him."
"Did Kumo retaliate?" Shino asked quietly into the silence that fell when Hinata paused to collect her thoughts, and Hinata shook her head. "Why? I don't suppose they would take too kindly to their head diplomat being killed, even if the fault lay with them."
Hinata smiled sadly at the emergence of Shino's verbal tick, its absence these last few months all the more apparent for its sudden appearance.
"They demanded my Father's head." She explained quietly, gaze falling to Akamaru's content expression, the nindog almost dozing under Shino's careful fingers. "If Konoha had refused, Kumo could've declared another war, and the Village couldn't afford that. They agreed."
"I thought Hyuuga Hiashi is still alive." Shino murmured, and Hinata could feel his confusion even with his eyes covered.
"He is. Because my Father had a twin brother. My uncle, Neji-nii-san's father. They sent him instead."
Kiba's eyes were wide and Hinata could tell that he was indignant even before he opened his mouth; "How is that any better?!"
Hinata took a deep breath, met Kurenai's gaze to check in, then let it out and looked from Kiba, to Shino, then back again.
"Because my uncle bore this." She replied, raising a hand to her forehead to push up her fringe and reveal the mint-green seal on her skin. "It's a seal given to every member of the Branch House. It…" She swallowed, trying to clear the lump in her throat to little success, her shame like a physical weight pressing her down. "It allows certain members of the Main House to- to keep the Branch House in line, and it destroys the Byakugan at death. Because Kumo got my uncle, they never got their hands on our dojutsu."
Hinata tried not to let the tremble in her hands show as she lowered them from her forehead and waited for her teammates to process what she'd dropped on them.
She'd been shocked by the realisation she'd had on their way to Kumo; that Kiba and Shino didn't know Neji in this timeline. Because of the distance that had been between her and Neji until their original Chunin Exams, she'd never introduced him to her team as a genin, and this time around, with the mission that had taken them out of the Village for the Exams, they had simply never crossed paths, nor heard her cousin's story during his fight with Shikamaru.
It therefore fell on her to tell them her Clan's history, and she wasn't going to dishonour her uncle or cousin by skipping over just how horrifying that history was.
"If the seal is only for the Branch House," Shino began quietly, picking up on the one thing Hinata would've rather they had let slide, "then why do you have it?"
"Because I asked Jiraiya-sama to put it on me." Hinata admitted, wincing at the way Kiba's neck cracked when he jerked his head up to look at her, as if waiting for her to take the words back. "When I learned where the next Exams would be held. And..." she hesitated, shooting another look at Kurenai, but her sensei was looking out the window now, a pained expression on her face. "And because, in the long run, it makes it easier for me to get rid of it altogether when I take over from my Father."
"What I don't understand," Kiba started quietly, his voice uncharacteristically soft in the way that Hinata had learnt to be wary of in her previous life, "is why you're only telling us this now. When we're already here, in Kumo. And why you agreed to come here in the first place!"
"Kiba-" Hinata tried, but Kiba didn't seem inclined to listen to any explanations she might offer, bulldozing right over her interjection.
"They tried to kidnap you!" he all-but shouted, staring at her with wild eyes, "Why are you tryin' to brush it off like it's no big deal?! We're supposed to be a team, to support each other!"
"It was a long time ago." Hinata replied, wincing immediately when the words left her mouth. Not only had she misspoken, since here, it had been barely eight years since the Hyuuga Affair, not almost twenty like in her mind, but also because she caught how Kiba recoiled at her dismissal of his care, as if she'd physically slapped him with her words. "And I don't want to live in fear."
Kurenai twitched at that, staring at Hinata as if she'd said something far more revealing than she felt she had, and Hinata wondered what part of her admission had prompted that expression on her sensei's face.
"That doesn't mean you have to trivialise it." Shino interjected quietly while Kiba continued to stare at her in horrified contemplation, and Hinata was momentarily thrown by the intensity behind the Aburame's words. "Is that the reason for the contacts? And why you didn't use your family name in your paperwork?"
Hinata nodded, and with that, the tension seemed to crack, though Kiba was still unusually withdrawn when Hinata got up to get ready for the day. Fifteen minutes later, they set off, heading to the dining hall that had been pointed out to them the previous evening.
Upon walking in, Hinata was surprised to find the hall unexpectedly empty - or, emptier than she had expected it to be. Another thing became quickly apparent upon further assessment: hardly anyone was actually eating from the hot food counters, most of the shinobi in the canteen sticking to fresh fruit or rations they must've brought with them.
"Why is nobody eating?" Kiba whispered to Kurenai, and Hinata was relieved he'd finally learnt the value of modulating volume.
"Probably worried about poison." Kurenai replied in her usual voice, steering them towards a six-seater table near the door, and Hinata was relieved that they didn't have to walk all the way through the hall.
"Do they really think Kumo would poison a buffet their own shinobi are eating at?" Kiba asked, frowning, and Hinata hadn't even noticed that any Kumo-nin were in the hall with them, but a closer look revealed at least two Kumo teams gathered towards the back of the room.
"Some prejudices are hard to shake." Kurenai said simply, shrugging a shoulder. "Plus, what many people forget is that while Suna is famous for its venomous fauna, Kumo holds a similar reputation for its flora, so it's not even that much of a hardship for them to source poison."
Kiba seemed to think that over for a few seconds, then shrugged, shooting them a sharp grin when they settled at the table. "Alright, gimme a moment and I'll do some recon."
And then he wandered off towards the hot food counters, drawing a few less-than-friendly glances and confused looks when he started cheerfully picking a bit of everything to put on his plate.
Hinata took a deep breath in the silence that fell around them as they waited for Kiba to return, trying to ignore the itching feeling on the back of her neck that told her they were being watched.
"Well, they went all out." Kiba grinned when he returned, almost falling into his seat, his plate stacked with food. "They eat heavy here. There's a lotta meat an' cheese an' potato in the hot dishes, though there's also somethin' that I think is porridge, plus a lot of fruit and nuts in the cold food section."
"Nothing smells wonky though!" he assured them, shovelling a forkful of what looked like potato, sausage, and beans in tomato sauce into his mouth. To Hinata's great relief, he chewed and swallowed before he continued speaking. "Besides, a lot of the poisons that are most effective when ingested would've been killed by the heat needed to prepare the hot food."
"Everything on your plate is safe?" Kurenai checked, smiling at Kiba's assessment and reaching out a hand to ruffle his hair before she too pushed away from the table and stood up, casting another look over the spread on Kiba's plate.
"Yup!" Kiba confirmed easily. "I don't smell anything except deliciousness on this!"
Hinata, having chosen a seat that gave her a view of the door, caught the way one Kumo shinobi twitched as he headed out, shooting their table a glance from the corner of his eye, though he didn't fully turn.
"We owe Genma-san a fruit basket after this." Shino observed dryly as he watched Kiba gorge himself on Kumo cuisine without a care in the world with an almost scientific fascination. "He saved us from a fortnight of rations-only diet."
"Here, here!" Kiba grinned, either ignorant of or not caring about the tomato sauce on his chin as he raised his bread roll in a mockery of a toast.
Laughing quietly, Hinata stood when she caught sight of Kurenai coming back and headed to the buffet to pick out her own food. They owed Genma so much more than just Kiba's poison-identifying ability, and if they survived these exams, Hinata was going to make sure Genma, Yugao, and Ebisu all knew it.
For now, though, she had breakfast to gather and an exam to pass.
The first stage of the Exams was a written exam. The actual contents weren't too hard, though they contained many cultural questions that Hinata felt were skewed in favour of the competing Kumo-nin.
The cultural questions were mostly mixed, but the way the history questions were phrased made it clear that Kumo was pushing a very specific narrative. A narrative that not everybody was willing to accept.
"This is bullshit!" An Ame kunoichi stood up, slamming her hands against the table much like Naruto once had, but unlike his childish overconfidence, this girl was older, and she was furious, her chakra cold and cloying as it rolled off her in vicious waves. "How dare you blame the smaller Nations for their geography?! We didn't ask to be the battlefields of your pissing matches!"
"If you don't like the questions, Ame-nin, you are free to withdraw." The proctor drawled from the front of the room, not acknowledging the accusation. "Your team will not be affected."
"Fuck you." The kunoichi hissed, but she kicked her chair back and stormed out of the room, ripping her exam in half and dropping the paper on the floor before the door slammed behind her.
A boy stood up when the door slammed, a rebreather covering his mouth and jaw, and also ripped his exam, though he left his on the table as he followed what Hinata assumed to be his teammate out of the room.
"And you?" The proctor asked, turning unerringly to the third member of the Ame team, though they had been assigned seemingly random seats. "Are you staying?"
"I knew the Five Nations are trash." The kunoichi replied, the rebreather modifying her voice into something that sent shivers down Hinata's spine. "I just thought you'd be more subtle in your propaganda and victim-blaming. But, no matter." Hinata couldn't see the girl, but she wouldn't have been surprised if the girl had shrugged at that, "Somebody has to win this, so I'm staying, thanks."
"Well, that's as good a segue into the final rule of this exam as any." The proctor announced, something mean flashing through his eyes. "As a team of three, you all have a different set of fifty questions, and your team needs seventy-five points altogether to pass." Hinata paled, not sure of their odds with this news. "However, you're in Kumo, not Konoha. You do not need all three teammates to compete in the next stage."
Murmurs erupted at that, and the smile on the proctor's face could almost have been called bloodthirsty.
"If you think that you have a greater chance of completing the Exams on your own, you can declare yourself as an independent participant. You will only need thirty points to pass, and as compensation, you will also be gifted ten points that will go towards your score in this section."
The murmurs grew louder, but Hinata couldn't help but frown, struggling to figure out what Kumo gained from this allowance.
"Alright, say I wanna do this by myself." A Suna kunoichi three seats to Hinata's left raised her hand, eyebrow almost at her hairline. "What next?"
"Thank you, participant Yumei. You will receive an additional 10 points to whatever you score." The proctor checked their clipboard, eyes flashing with an expression that could only be described as sadistic joy. "Participant Minami and Katsuki from Sunagakure's Team E, please leave the room. You are hereby disqualified from these Exams."
"Now wait a second-!" 'Yumei' demanded, rising to her feet, eyes wide. "Nobody mentioned-!"
"How else could you have become an independent participant?" The proctor demanded, calm now, his earlier schadenfreude carefully hidden. "What else could you have been compensated for?"
The two Suna-nin slowly shuffled out, KI leaking from them as they walked past Hinata's row and Hinata winced, but she suddenly understood the reason behind Kumo's ploy.
Particularly when seven more people raised their hands, eliminating their teammates to improve their own chances of getting through. Sixteen participants eliminated by their own teammates. Not only did that greatly boost the immediate odds of those left, but Hinata had a worrying thought that the teams which have been sabotaged from within wouldn't stay teams for long after the Exams were over.
The Kumo organisers wanted to encourage infighting. To weaken other teams not just in the Exams, but in the long-term, too.
Hinata was…horrified, but a part of her couldn't help but be impressed at the cold-blooded manipulation.
Still, she kept her hands down, and content with the knowledge that, with her team, she didn't have anything to worry about.
It was a good thought.
Out of the fifty-seven teams that had started the first stage, twenty-nine full teams got through to the second stage, plus eleven 'independent participants'. The others either rhadn't amassed enough points to pass, or, in the case of the Ame team, chose to leave.
Hinata exchanged a look with Kiba and Shino as they stood before the entrance to the cave that had been assigned to them. The instructions seemed…too simple. Although Konoha's second stage had also been 'get through this _', only in Konoha, it had been 'forest', not 'cave system', the name 'Forest of Death' had clued even the foreign participants into the fact that the second stage wouldn't exactly be a walk in a park.
This cave system, however, looked normal. Almost indistinguishable on the outside from the tunnel they had entered the Village through. If the proctor could be trusted, it was a standard fracture cave, barely a kilometre long, and they had half an hour to get through it.
'Easy' the proctor had called it when he'd given them the go-ahead, starting their time, 'nothing to worry about'.
"I don't trust him." Kiba muttered as most of the teams around them disappeared into their assigned caves, though a few seemed to hang back like them. "It seems too easy."
"Agreed." Shino murmured, stepping closer, though he kept his eyes on the mouth of the cave. "Hinata. If we cover you, can you take a look at the cave?"
Hinata blinked, processing, then the realisation of what, precisely, Shino was asking for dawned, and she flinched. But she could see the logic in the plan, so she nodded and crouched, despite how much the idea of using her Byakugan made her anxiety spike.
As one, Kiba and Shino shifted to stand at her sides, the motion natural but also carefully calculated so they perfectly covered her temples with their bodies, hiding the tell-tale veins of the Byakugan from view. Inhaling carefully, Hinata concentrated, and, after imagining that she was also exhaling her anxiety, activated her dojutsu.
The cave was bright.
The opalescent crystals that lined the walls and provided illumination in the tunnels seemed to be made of chakra, some half-way to fading, others almost painfully bright. But what drew Hinata's attention more than the curious brightness of the stones were the bodies hidden in the alcoves of their cave.
Wherever the main cave splintered off, a fork in the path or a dead-end, Hinata saw shinobi waiting, their chakra brimming with anticipation.
"It's a trap." She murmured, quiet so only Kiba and Shino heard, trying not to move her lips too much. "There are three teams of three waiting in the cave. One about fifty metres in, one about a hundred metres further, and another one at the very edge of my range."
"I knew it." Kiba huffed, sounding a mix of exasperated and anxious. "What do we do?"
"While I believe in our combat ability, I don't know anything about the structural integrity of these tunnels." Shino replied.
As if to prove his point, there was a loud rumbling sound and the cave four tunnels to the right of theirs shuddered before the ceiling partially blocked the entrance.
"…Well." Shino mused after a beat, eyebrow ticking up and the corner of his mouth quirking in obvious amusement, while Kiba openly snorted. "I stand by what I said."
"Okay, so we try to avoid a full-on fight." Kiba agreed, still snickering quietly. "Ideas on how we do that?"
Both boys turned to Hinata at the question, and she realised she'd been quiet for too long. She startled at the sudden attention, then frowned thoughtfully, running through her team's abilities and the restrictions they'd agreed to, and-
"Kiba, do you have any airborne poison?" she asked quietly, the beginnings of a plan coming together in her mind, though she wasn't sure whether her teammates would accept it. It'd be …mean. Almost cruel, if it worked.
Kiba made a noise of assent and dug through his pack, pulling out a handful of baubles that looked like small smoke-bombs.
"You have something." Shino guessed, his gaze trained on Hinata, and she tried not to fidget.
"It's- an idea." She agreed, and at Kiba's expectant hum, she quietly explained. "They're waiting in alcoves. If we mask our approach, we could send in Shino's kikaichu to disorient the teams and maybe drain some of their chakra, then Kiba could throw in his poison, and I could use an Earth Wall to close the alcove off from the rest of the cave."
When she said it out loud, it sounded almost stupidly simple.
It took a few more seconds for the boys to realise that it would also be verging on cruel.
"That's-" Kiba began, an odd expression on his face as he considered her, and Hinata wasn't sure if the glint in his eyes was surprise or fear, "that's, uh, one way to do it, for sure."
"Twenty minutes!" The proctor called, his voice booming oddly, and Hinata startled, not having realised that a third of their time had already passed.
"Probably the best way we have." Shino replied to Kiba's comment, and his tone at least hadn't changed upon hearing Hinata's plan, though it was a cold comfort. "It minimises the chance of open engagement, which we were aiming for. And our task is only to get through the cave, so if we're quick about neutralising them, we can run the rest of the way to avoid the risk of them chasing after us."
Kiba shuddered at Shino's summary, but when Hinata glanced at him, he seemed determined, playing absently with the poison baubles in his hand.
"Alright." He agreed quietly, meeting first Shino's, then Hinata's gazes head-on. "Let's do this."
In the end, it worked almost too well, and Hinata had been relieved to fold herself into Kurenai's waiting arms as soon as the officials on the other end of the tunnel told them they'd passed the second stage.
"Any injuries I should know of?" Kurenai asked them lightly, absently rubbing Hinata's back while her other hand combed through Kiba's hair.
"None." Shino reported quietly, pressing against Kurenai's other side and getting a quick shoulder-squeeze from their sensei, before her hand went back to Kiba. "We didn't openly engage with the sabotage teams."
"Oh?" Kurenai said, eyebrow rising, though there was only curiosity in her voice. "Explain?"
Shino did, and Kurenai grinned proudly at their strategy, not a hint of judgement or concern in her expression.
"Good job. Kumo's playing to every advantage their shinobi could have, so well done for spotting the potential danger of full-on fighting in a cave when you don't know Rock Release."
At their shocked faces, Kurenai laughed outright. "That's how they chose the sabotage teams. Even if the caves collapsed around them, they'd still survive, but you wouldn't have. And I much prefer the three of you alive."
"We do too, sensei." Kiba assured her, pulling away from under her hand and shooting her a brilliant grin. "Any chance your reward for us for not-dying is gonna involve food?"
"Do you always think with your stomach?" Shino grouched, but even Hinata could tell his heart wasn't in the taunt. It seemed that Kiba could, too, because he merely stuck his tongue out and turned to Kurenai, expectant.
"As a matter of fact, I was planning on it." Kurenai announced, not bothering to hide her amusement, and Hinata forced herself to pull away from the embrace, feeling a bit more grounded already. "I spoke to Nii-san while you went for the written exam, and she had some recommendations."
"Yes!" Kiba cheered, throwing his fist up and startling Akamaru from where the nindog had begun to doze against Kiba's shin, and Hinata watched as the ninken huffed and shuffled over to Shino, ignoring Kiba's betrayed 'traitor!'
"Inside. Voice." Shino hissed, balling up a fist and bonking Kiba over the head, a stark contrast to Kurenai's gentle petting, and Hinata had to hastily smother a laugh at Kiba's floored expression.
"Sensei-!" Kiba whined, but Kurenai just sighed and laid a hand on each of the boys shoulders and pushed, prompting them into motion.
"Tomorrow." Kurenai assured them as the four of them fell into an easy formation without conscious thought. "You'll have all the opportunity to fight tomorrow. Today, how about we just relax, hm?"
Hinata sighed with relief and bent down to scoop Akamaru into her arms, pressing the dog against her chest and nuzzling the top of his head, getting happy snuffles in return.
Relax. She could do that. Probably needed to do that, if she was being honest with herself, and she knew Kurenai knew it.
Not for the first time, she found herself grateful that her team had been so much quicker to fall into their old dynamic this time, even if some elements were different than in her first life. She had never been able to fully relax at the Hyuuga Compound, always feeling like she was being judged just for existing, and even her room that she'd grown up in never quite succeeded at feeling homely.
But her team- her team was home.
As that realisation sunk in, Hinata felt the tension she'd been holding since they'd left their accommodation slowly leak out, and by the time they reached the first restaurant, she was almost boneless, dropping onto the bench with none of her usual grace, her anxieties helpless against the powerful realisation:
She was home.