As much as Hinata dreaded the conversation, she found herself outside the door of the room the Inuzuka had granted Neji not an hour after her confrontation with her Father. Her heart was in her throat as she waited for a response to her knock, yet she was wholly unprepared for the door to suddenly spring open, a visibly-frustrated Neji on the other side.

"Neji-nii-san." She forced herself to say before she lost her nerve, "C-can we talk?"

Neji stared at her for a moment, an inscrutable expression on his face, before he wordlessly stepped aside and let her into the room, closing the door behind her.

Not sure what to do with herself now that her main goal of 'not being immediately kicked out' had been achieved, Hinata perched herself on the edge of the chair by the window, hands folded in her lap. She couldn't even say that she was surprised to find Neji still standing when she looked back up, arms crossed over his chest and expression expectant, for all that he still hadn't said anything.

"I'm sorry." She whispered, the apology coming easier than what she had initially come to talk to Neji about, "for how I talked to you when Father was here. I didn't mean to be so harsh."

It was only after the words fell from her mouth that she realised how much her treatment of Neji when her Father had been present had been weighing on her, and she found herself reflexively relaxing once the weight was off.

"It's fine." Neji brushed her off, though if Hinata were to go by his chakra, she'd say he was surprised. "I should've kept better control of Hanabi."

They lapsed into silence at that, Hinata not seeing much of a way nor much of a point to disagree, and she didn't want Neji to suddenly remember that they weren't really on speaking terms.

"Congratulations." Neji said after the silence began to get uncomfortable even for Hinata. When she glanced at Neji in bafflement, he huffed but elaborated. "On your promotion."

"Oh." Hinata murmured, having completely forgotten about the fact that she was no longer a genin. "Thank you."

"You're not happy?" Neji asked, something sharp yet curious in his tone, and Hinata tried not to grimace.

"It's... I haven't really thought about that." She admitted honestly, aware that it was an odd thing to say even before Neji's expression morphed into something that verged on disbelieving.

There was silence again, until Neji finally huffed incredulously and lost some of the tension that had clung to his frame, moving further into the room until he could sit on the edge of his bed, still maintaining a reasonable distance between the two of them, but far more open than he had been when he'd found her on the other side of his door.

"I thought it was selfish of you, you know." He said suddenly, and Hinata couldn't hold back her instinctive 'huh?', completely thrown by the non-sequitur.

"Going to Kumo for the Exams," Neji elaborated, his gaze on his clenched hands, and Hinata could see his knuckles turn white as he spoke, "despite knowing what I- what the Clan- what you were risking by even stepping foot into that cursed Village."

"I-!" she tried, but Neji cut her off, still not looking at her.

"But then I talked to your Inuzuka teammate." He said, as if she hadn't spoken. "Or, he picked a fight, and things were said."

Unbidden, Hinata felt a smile pull at her lips, small and barely-there, but fond nonetheless.

"He said that you wore contacts. Didn't use your Byakugan, didn't fight with the Jyuuken at all. Said that you didn't even use your Clan name." Neji listed, and Hinata had no idea what he was heading towards. "You killed Hideki with a forbidden technique, a Hyuuga forbidden technique. But you made chunin in Kumo without using the Jyuuken a single time."

He finally looked up at her, and Hinata wasn't prepared for the mix of confusion and betrayal that she found on his face. "How did you become a shinobi when I wasn't paying attention?"

Hinata blinked.

There was anguish in Neji's tone, actual, genuine pain instead of just teenage jealousy or his usual icy dismissal of anything related to her abilities, and Hinata had no idea what to do about it.

No idea where it stemmed from.

She settled for as close to honesty as she could get: "I found a goal."

Neji scoffed, sharp and disdainful. "Must have been some goal."

Hinata took a deep breath and threw caution to the wind.

"I want to become jounin and challenge my Father for the position of Clan Head." She told him quickly, not letting herself lose steam even when Neji's head snapped up. "And once I'm Head, I'm going to get rid of the Caged Bird seal."

Silence again, but this time, it was tense. Charged. Like Neji was waiting for the other shoe to drop, or for Hinata's teammates to pop out of the closet and announce that Hinata was pulling a prank.

When nothing happened for other a minute, Neji sighed deeply.

"What you're saying is treason." He said quietly, voice more serious than Hinata had ever heard it, his eyes boring into hers. "I could have you disinherited."

"You could." Hinata agreed simply, more than aware of the possibility. She still hadn't fully ruled out that Neji wouldn't do it, after all.

But her response had the opposite effect on Neji than she expected; he grew frustrated. "Why are you so calm?!"

But now that she'd found it, Hinata's calm was difficult to shake. "There are worse things."

"What happened to you?!" Neji demanded, sounding concerned now instead of simply angry. "How long have you been planning this?"

Hinata smiled slightly, absently wondering how Neji would react if she'd said 'since I woke up twelve years in the past after surviving a war', "Since my Academy Graduation."

That, at least, seemed to calm Neji down. Or, completely steal the wind from his sails, because he stilled in a way Hinata rarely associated with anything good.

"It's been over a year." Neji said numbly, staring at her wide-eyed, as if he was seeing her for the first time, and she could see his mind working, likely reframing everything he had learnt about her since then. Then, swallowing audibly, he asked the question Hinata had been simultaneously expecting and dreading. "Have you made any progress?"

Wordlessly, Hinata raised her fringe.

All trace of Neji's expression disappeared.

"Who did it." He demanded breathlessly, though the words were too flat to be a question. "Hinata." He prodded when she stayed silent for too long, growing progressively more agitated. "Tell me who did it!"

"I did." Hinata replied, dropping her fringe and laying her hand lightly on Neji's wrist to settle him. "I asked Jiraiya-sama to do it."

But Neji ripped his arm out from beneath her hand, getting on his feet and staring at her in horror. "What is wrong with you?!"

"It's not the same seal you have." Hinata explained, trying not to let Neji's tone hurt. "I copied the design from Father's study and commissioned Jiraiya-sama to remake it, but without the torture component."

Neji blinked, absorbing the information, some of his anger easing, but it didn't make any understanding bloom in his eyes. "Why would you put it on yourself?!"

"There are laws surrounding seals. I asked Genma-san for some books and borrowed some from Shikaku-san's library." Hinata explained vaguely, not too keen to get into the process of 'public domain' and legal loopholes she'd bargained on nobody knowing just then. "And my Exams were in Kumo."

But Neji seemed hung up on the name she'd said.

"Genma?" he asked, an odd stress on the name. "Shiranui Genma?"

"You know him?" Hinata asked, not sure why she was surprised by Neji recognising the name, nor why she felt a brief flash of jealousy at the fact that Neji recognised the name.

"He was Gai-sensei's genin teammate." Neji replied, and something in Hinata relaxed. "He was also one of the Yondaime's guards, was taught sealing by the Yondaime himself, and is said to have inherited some of his tools."

Hinata couldn't help but stare for a moment, the extent of her own ignorance slowly sinking in. He was primarily a bodyguard, she suddenly remembered Kurenai saying all the way back when she'd first introduced her friends to Hinata's team. Her sensei just hadn't said whose bodyguard he had been. "…Oh."

"Wait. How did you get access to the Nara Head's library?" Neji demanded, and Hinata realised that she would have rather gone back to talking about Genma, especially when Neji's eyes widened as understanding dawned. "That's why you helped his son for the Chunin Exams."

"Shikamaru is also my friend." Hinata felt the need to defend, though she could admit in her mind that, at the time of the third stage of the Exams, Shikamaru hadn't yet held that title. "But yes. That had been the main motivation."

For a moment, Neji just stared at her.

Then, he covered the distance between them and dropped down to his knees before Hinata, taking her hands into his own. "We will talk about this together, later. For now, you need to promise to do something for me."

And Hinata, shocked speechless by the earnestness in Neji's voice and expression, could only nod mutely, stunned.

"When you talk to Uncle tomorrow, you need to lie."

And when Hinata shook off her shock and tuned back in to hear Neji's justification, she couldn't help the wave of relief that washed over her like a tsunami.

Still holding hands, heads together, and voices hushed, Hinata and Neji planned.

Kurenai wasn't expecting the summon to Tsunade's office barely a week after her team's promotion. Though the genin messenger hadn't said it was urgent, her curiosity had won out, and she found herself knocking on the door less than an hour after receiving the message.

Finding Inoichi already in the office was even more of a surprise, however.

"Yuhi, there you are." Was Tsunade's greeting, and Kurenai's curiosity skyrocketed. The woman didn't exactly sound angry, but she seemed far from pleased with her, for some reason. "Ever since I promoted them, your kids have been a source of one headache after another for me."

Kurenai blinked, startled. "…I'm sorry?"

"You should be." Tsunade huffed, pulling some documents out that Kurenai was too far away to read without using chakra. "Your Aburame has put a form on my desk requesting an official apprenticeship with Hagane and Kamizuki in bukijutsu. I don't know what paper-pushing shinobi he's friends with, but I didn't even know this form existed until it appeared on my desk and I had to send Shizune on a wild goose chase through the Archives."

Since Tsunade didn't actually seem to be looking for an answer, Kurenai decided to spare Ebisu, since she had no doubt that it had been him who had given the form to Shino.

"Your Inuzuka has requested to be assigned a mission to Suna." Tsunade continued, glaring at yet another paper placed haphazardly on the edge of her desk. "I've got jounin who have asked to not be sent anywhere near Wind, and your kid requested an in-Village mission." Then Tsunade picked up a different piece of paper, a ripped envelope with neat writing on the front. "And your Hyuuga has had this addressed to her."

Kurenai tried to catch a glimpse of the writing, but to no avail.

"It's a letter from Mist." Tsunade explained at last, and Kurenai's heart skipped a beat. "From Momochi Zabuza's apprentice, to be precise." The blonde continued, before a sardonic smirk twisted her lips. "And you know what it says? That he wants to be pen-pals with your Hyuuga."

"…I'm sure that if there was anything related to Village secrets in the letter, or any hint of him attempting to turn Hinata, then it would've been picked up by Intel." Kurenai hazarded, having a vague inkling as to who the letter might be from. "And if my kids had developed any anarchical leanings during the Exams, then I'm pretty certain that it would've been mentioned in the report the Psych shinobi who accompanied us to Kumo gave you."

Both Tsunade and Inoichi stilled, the former eyeing her oddly.

"What Psych shinobi?" Tsunade demanded, and the first alarm bells went off in Kurenai's mind.

"Auburn hair, amber eyes? Maybe in his late teens?" Kurenai described, glancing at Inoichi for support, but her occasional-senpai only stared back blankly. "He didn't really say much, but he did admit he was Psych when asked."

"Yuhi." Tsunade met her eyes, her expression and voice the most serious they've been since Kurenai walked in. "I didn't send any Psych shinobi to accompany you."

Kurenai felt as if a bucket of cold water had been tipped over her head.

"Did he give you his name?" Inoichi asked, and Kurenai was grateful for something else to focus on than the potential breach in Village security they may have just discovered and her team's role straight in the middle of it.

But then, when she thought about it, Inoichi's question wasn't any more reassuring, because- "…No."

"Would you be willing to sit with a sketch artist?" Inoichi pressed, and Kurenai took a steadying breath and shook her head.

"You can use the Mind-Walk on me, senpai." She countered Inoichi's suggestion, appreciating Inoichi's offer but knowing that Village security was more important than her comfort. She tried to shoot Inoichi a smile, but it might've turned out to be more of a grimace, she couldn't be sure. "I trust you."

Inoichi knew better than to second-guess her, and he slowly made his way over, reaching out a hand and telegraphing his movements all the way until his fingers touched her forehead. Kurenai did her best to recall every detail she could of the Psych shinobi who'd accompanied them and felt Inoichi recoil as if burned the moment the image crystallised.

"That's not possible." The Yamanaka Head denied, but Kurenai knew it was an instinctive response more than an accusation, because Inoichi's eyes were wide and scared.

"Inoichi?" Tsunade demanded, drawing Kurenai's attention back to the woman and shaking Inoichi out of whatever spell he'd fallen under.

"Last time I saw the man in Kurenai's memories, he was leaving for his genin team's first C-Rank." Inoichi told the two of them woodenly. "But he never came back from that mission."

When only silence greeted his words, Inoichi sighed, suddenly appearing every one of his forty years. "His name is Yamanaka Fu. You can find it on the Memorial Stone."

"I fucking hate this job." Tsunade snapped, grabbing a sake cup and throwing it at the wall so hard it made a dent before shattering, and Kurenai didn't even think the woman had used chakra for the throw. "Yuhi, get Shikaku in here. Take the letter for your Hyuuga. It doesn't look like I'll have the time to grill her myself anytime soon, so just tell her that she has to go by Intel if she wants to write back."

Taking the dismissal for what it was, Kurenai grabbed the letter and got out of the Hokage's office, a ball of dread making itself known at the bottom of her stomach.

There'd been a spy with them for their entire time in Kumo.

Because what could a presumed-dead shinobi that neither Psych nor the Hokage herself had authorised be doing, tagging along with a group of genin for the Chunin Exams, if not spying?

The important question now was: who'd sent him? And what did he see?

"Father." Hinata greeted politely, slipping into Hiashi's study and closing the door behind her, adamantly not thinking of what she'd been doing the last time she'd been in the room.

"Hinata." Hiashi replied, actually glancing at her before indicating the seat before his desk. "Sit."

When Hinata obliged, they lapsed into silence, studying each other wordlessly.

"I will not punish Hanabi for her actions against me yesterday." Hiashi announced at last, his eyes intent on Hinata's face, monitoring her reaction. Hinata made sure to give none. "While her anger was misplaced and her accusations rash, but she raised an interesting point."

"What do you see when you look at me?"

"I see the Head of my Clan." Hinata replied quietly, and she almost thought that she caught a flicker of something in Hiashi's gaze when there wasn't more forthcoming.

"I see." Hiashi replied after a beat, and his expression became inscrutable once more. "A new Elder will have to be named after what you did to Hideki. Any insights?"

"…I would recommend choosing somebody from the Branch House." Hinata offered, not missing the way her Father's attention sharpened. "They do not have parity amongst the Elders; I would not wish for them to become…discontented with the imbalance."

"You fear a coup?" Hiashi asked sharply, and Hinata couldn't get a read on his reaction. "We have a safeguard for that."

Hinata barely repressed a disgusted shudder once Hiashi's meaning registered. "The threat of torture is not a safeguard."

Though her words were quiet, Hiashi's reaction was anything but.

"You have never been outwardly critical of the seal before." He observed, his eyes sharp as they regarded her, his mouth twisted down in confusion or displeasure, Hinata couldn't tell. "What changed?"

Taking a breath, Hinata raised her fringe for the second time in less than a day.

For a second, Hiashi's chakra vanished.

Then, it exploded out of him in a wave of Killing Intent so potent that even Hinata's instinctive kai didn't save her from immediate, the heart-stopping fear her Father's KI inspired.

"…Hideki?" Hiashi asked after a few seconds, and Hinata let her fringe drop and forced herself to nod, as per what she had worked out with Neji.

"Yes, Father."

"When I asked you yesterday if the seal being irreversible was the only reason you reacted so viscerally to Hanabi's sealing and you said no." Hiashi recalled, his eyes ever so slightly wider than normal. "Was this why?"

Swallowing to wet her suddenly dry throat, Hinata nodded once more. "Yes, Father."

"Why didn't you come to me with this?!" Hiashi demanded suddenly, rising from his seat and slapping his hands against his desk, his expression angry once more, and Hinata thought she detected a hint of something almost fragile in his eyes. "I would have dealt with-!"

But Hiashi must've caught something on her face because he cut himself off and sat back down, taking a few deep breaths, his expression inscrutable once more.

"I do not agree with your worldview, and I would rid you of your sentiment if I could." He began quietly, his words more measured again. "But, Hinata, you are my child and heir. This transgression would not have gone unpunished, had you told me."

"I am not ashamed of the seal." Hinata felt the need to correct, for she had no idea what to do with anything else that her Father had just said. "It…made me feel safer, in Kumo." She admitted, and this, too, was not a lie.

"But I was afraid, because…Hideki should not have been able to torture Neji, or the Branch Elder." She finished quietly, making it a statement instead of a question, but her Father still answered.

"No." he agreed, voice just as quiet as her own. "He shouldn't have."

"Do you know if…he was acting alone?" Hinata found herself asking, wondering when Hiashi would remember that she was barely thirteen and her position as his heir apparent was an unstable one.

"I am in the process of finding out." Hiashi informed, then his expression smoothed out. "Regardless, it is not your business for the time being."

Having expected a similar dismissal, Hinata nodded, preparing to stand up. "Understood."

"Hinata." Hiashi's voice stopped her in her tracks, and she glanced up at her Father only to see him frowning at her. "How did you make it out of Kumogakure?"

Hinata blinked, realised belatedly what Hiashi was actually asking, then located her contacts and put them in.

"Ah." Hiashi murmured when they made eye-contact, holding her blue-eyed gaze for an extended moment before he looked away. "Congratulations. But do not settle."

"I am aiming for jounin." Escaped her before she could bite it back, and this time, there was no denying the flicker of surprise that flashed through Hiashi's eyes.

"I was not aware you had rank ambitions." He replied, and once, that statement would have hurt, but now, Hinata merely met her Father's gaze once more.

"I am your heir." She simply stated, and Hiashi blinked once.

"You are. For now." He admitted, then cleared his throat and looked away. "A month from now, meet me in the dojo. I will teach you some Clan techniques which will help you maintain that position."

Trying not to let her own surprise show, Hinata simply nodded. "Yes, Father."

Then, she took her leave.

Hinata tried to keep a hold of her emotions as she made her way out of the Compound, her hands shaking and her heart beating fast enough that the tips of her fingers were tingling. She passed through the main gate out of the Compound and turned into one of the smaller side streets and nearly drove her poisoned senbon into Kakashi's liver if not for the hand he managed to secure around her wrist just in time.

"Twitchy as ever, I see." Kakashi murmured, releasing her wrists once she nodded at him, though, to Hinata's surprise, he merely fell into step with her, signature book in one hand, the other in returning to his pocket.

For a while, Hinata basked in the silence, taking advantage of the moment of peace and the security of having Kakashi at her side to get her heart rate under control and release some of the nerves that have clung to her for the last day.

"Did you talk to your team, Hatake-san?" she finally asked, when it seemed like Kakashi was content to walk beside her like a silent shadow.

"You're becoming too much like Kurenai." The man huffed, much to her confusion, but he tilted his head to look down at her obligingly. "Yes, I talked to the brats about sabotage." He confirmed, then his focus on her grew heavy. "But I haven't talked to you yet about how you knew that I was famous in sabotage."

Hinata's mind stalled briefly, but she managed a light shrug.

"It made sense given your skillset." She dismissed quietly, and Kakashi laughed lightly.

"I don't believe you." He denied, but it wasn't accusative, his tone sounding almost entertained. Then, he added something that made Hinata's blood run cold, her earlier peace forgotten. "You see, there are some things that don't make sense about you, Hyuuga-chan."

"E-Excuse me?" she managed, only just catching herself from stopping in the middle of the street in her shock at Kakashi's directness.

"For one, you're scent-blocking." The Copy-nin pointed out, and Hinata fought every instinct that demanded she stop scent-blocking right then and there when she realised that he was right.

"At least you don't have Sasuke's reflexes." Kakashi commented teasingly, though now Hinata was no longer sure whether he was actually teasing or simply trying to put her at ease. "It took me a while to notice because you don't block around your team."

"It'd be rude." Escaped Hinata before she even thought twice about her words, having sat through Kiba and Hana's numerous complaints in both of her timelines about fellow comrades unintentionally handicapping them.

"Do you know that the Hatake are rumoured to be descended from wolf spirits?" Kakashi asked, seemingly a propos nothing, throwing Hinata for yet another loop. "I have almost as good a nose as an Inuzuka."

Having an inkling as to what he was referring to, Hinata decided to ask: "Would you like me to stop blocking?"

"No." Kakashi huffed, more amused now. "For me, it's easier on my head if there are fewer scents around."

Once more unsure of what it was he wanted, Hinata frowned, and Kakashi, catching her expression, surprised her by actually elaborating. "Scent-blocking is an advanced skill, and it's one that's only taught in very specific fields of the shinobi career."

Hinata couldn't disagree, but she stayed silent, hoping Kakashi would get around to an actual question.

"I went through the ANBU Archives looking for you." Was what he said instead, and this time, Hinata didn't manage to catch her instinctive reaction; she jerked her head up and pinned Kakashi with a disbelieving look.

Kakashi of the Sharingan he may have been, famous both in and out of ANBU he may have been, but the ANBU Archives were practically sacred. Nobody could just go through them when the fancy struck them.

"Ah. So you do know that's not something I should be admitting to. Interesting." By the way he said 'interesting', Hinata felt as if she'd failed some kind of test. "Who're you going to tell?"

Although Hinata was in a state of shock, the way Kakashi asked that final question, as if he expected her to tell someone, shook her out of it slightly. She didn't need to think about her answer.

"Nobody." She replied quietly, glad when her voice didn't shake despite the renewed tremble she could feel in her hands.

"A lot of the adult figures in your life also happen to be my friends, and they would absolutely believe you if you said I'd done it, if that's what you're worried about." Kakashi pointed out, and Hinata wasn't sure if she wanted to laugh or cry. "So? Who you telling first?"

Unable to quite get her words out, Hinata merely shook her head, closing her eyes briefly and searching for a trace of her earlier calm.

"Come on, Hyuuga-chan. You're not going to threaten me even a little? Ask why I did it?" Kakashi pushed, and Hinata…well.

Hinata respected him, admired him, even, had given her life in exchange for his, but she had never claimed to understand the man.

"You know something far more damaging about me, Hatake-san." She managed at last, balling her hands into fists so tight she could feel her nails break the skin of her palms. "Threatening you would be…unwise."

Kakashi studied her for a few seconds, both of them still determinedly walking forward, even though Hinata had no idea where they were going, or even if either of them had any specific destination in mind.

"I did it because you scent-block, you stifle your chakra in-Village, and you don't make a sound when you walk, no matter the terrain." Kakashi murmured, and Hinata had a horrifying moment of realisation that the same things that made her a good shinobi simultaneously made her a bad genin.

"Some of that I would have been able to chalk up to leaning into your weak presence, or the side-effect of your upbringing." Kakashi acknowledged, and Hinata tried not to read too much into what he meant by her 'upbringing'.

"But you also know the ANBU emergency signals, and you recognise at least some ANBU Sign. These are things you should have no business knowing without a tattoo on your arm." He looked down at her then, and there was no trace of humour in his gaze. "So I went to look for your records."

Hinata hadn't been so tense when she was talking with her Father, but what Kakashi was implying had the potential to have much greater consequences on her personally than her Father learning of her plans for the Caged Bird seal.

"I didn't find any." Kakashi continued, supposedly taking her silence as permission to carry on. "So then I thought: how else could you have learnt it? Nobody who's ANBU would've taught you, no matter how close you might be to them when they're not behind the mask. So you had to have picked it up yourself. But how?"

Hinata didn't like where Kakashi was heading with his speech.

"I asked Kurenai and Yugao, you know. Neither of them admitted to teaching you how to scent-block, or mute your steps." Kakashi told her idly, and Hinata should've guessed that Kakashi would be familiar enough with her closest role models to be able to ask them about her. It was just her luck. "And then I realised that your dojutsu can see through walls. And because of what happened to you ten years ago, there's a permanent ANBU guard around your compound."

Hinata's breath caught. Could Kakashi really have thought up an explanation by himself to explain her supposed suspicion, one she would never have even thought to conjure up?

It couldn't be that easy, could it?

"But it didn't make sense." Kakashi continued, and Hinata briefly wondered whether she had ever heard him speak for so long before. "Surely a child with this much comprehension ability would've made waves at the Academy, been pushed up a year or three."

He glanced down at her, visible eye crinkling in a smile but Hinata had no idea whether it was a genuine one or not. "But my kids said you practically didn't speak at school, always upper middle of the rankings, but never straying any higher or lower, hiding amongst the fellow comfortably-average students."

She didn't dare say anything, merely keeping her gaze on Kakashi's and concentrating on putting one foot steadily in front of the other.

"And then it finally clicked." Kakashi huffed, and he looked away at long last, gazing ahead. "What would a genius from a Noble Clan do, in the wake of Itachi's downfall?" he asked rhetorically, and Hinata finally had an idea as to what he might say. As to what she would have done if she were indeed a genius, and not a twenty-two-year-old war veteran who'd found herself flung back in time.

"They would hide."

Hinata couldn't help the sigh of relief that escaped her at Kakashi's summary, beyond grateful that Kakashi's own paranoia had explained away her own suspicion.

"In plain sight." Kakashi added. "Or, in your case, in the shadow of your Clan Head classmates, your desperate to prove himself cousin, your loudmouth teammate, and your groomed-from-birth younger sister."

Hinata tried not to let her offence at Kakashi's description of Kiba and Hanabi show, but she couldn't help the slightly defensive demand that escaped her. "W-Where are you g-going with this?"

And Kakashi finally stopped and turned to face her fully, and it was only then that Hinata realised that they had long since left the main streets of the Village, and she could not sense nor hear anybody around them.

Kakashi's face, when she met his gaze, was the most serious Hinata had seen him in this life.

"Who are you hiding from, Hinata?"

Kakashi watched the girl's face carefully, but where earlier, there had been relief, now, there was nothing.

She'd grown pale as a sheet, though, and if he'd thought that her chakra had been stifled earlier, now, it was practically a void. If not for the fact that he was looking right at her, Kakashi would have been hard-pressed to say that there was anybody in front of him right then.

"Nobody." She whispered finally, her eyes on Kakashi's eyebrow, and Kakashi wanted to believe her, he really did. He wanted to believe that she was just an intelligent, unexpectedly competent, traumatised little girl.

But he hadn't survived this long by being naïve.

"Hinata." He pressed, and the girl's eyes flashed briefly to meet his gaze before she shook her head.

"I'm not- you know, Hatake-san. I really c-can't say it-!" she defended, but Kakashi had stopped listening.

'I can't say it', she'd said. And he knew that she probably meant Hiashi, meant that she couldn't say out loud that she was hiding plans of revolution from her Father, but his mouth moved before his brain registered the likely logical explanation:

"Stick out your tongue."

And Hinata, instead of being offended, horrified, or embarrassed at his objectively deranged request, raised both her hands so her palms were facing him, her eyes panicked, and blurted out a damning-

"I don't have it!"

And Kakashi moved before he thought it through, stepping into the girl's space and batting her hands away, fingers of one hand gripping Hinata's chin tightly and pulling down so he could reach into her mouth with his other hand and pull out her tongue.

No seal.

His brain registered what his eyes were seeing but it took him a moment to process what it meant.

But in that moment, it seemed that Hinata got over her shock and finally reacted to the blatant infringement on her personal space, and the same hand that he'd batted away earlier came back and drove a fist into his gut.

Shock more than pain made him loosen his grip and the moment he was no longer clutching her chin, she flash-stepped away from him.

Kakashi had a split-second to catch the betrayed look in startled lilac eyes before the girl disappeared, not so much as a leaf or a cloud of smoke to show she'd ever been there to begin with.

Well, shit.

"I have good news and bad news."

Shikaku looked up from his work with a sigh, automatically activating the silencing seals around his office in the Jounin HQ, well aware that Kakashi rarely sought him out for anything banal.

"The bad news is that you still haven't learned to knock, Kakashi." He grouched, putting the report he'd been reading aside and waving the Copy-nin over to the chair in front of his desk. "Out with it."

"The good news is that little Hyuuga-chan doesn't have the ROOT seal." Kakashi declared, sprawling out in one of the chairs, even though Shikaku had never thought it was possible to sprawl in those chairs.

He blinked, then pinned the jounin with a dark look. "And how, pray tell, did you find that out?"

"I stuck my fingers in her mouth." Kakashi replied bluntly. "But, more importantly-!"

"Please tell me that that's the bad news." Shikaku interrupted, raising a hand to cover his eyes in despair, hoping that Kakashi had at least had the common sense to not do it on a crowded street.

"No. The bad news is that she knew what the ROOT seal was."

Shikaku froze. Then, he slowly lowered his hand and met Kakashi's gaze, not surprised to find any trace of humour gone from the Copy-nin's expression. "Tell me everything."

For once, Kakashi obeyed without hesitation, recounting his interaction with Hinata with more grace and tact than he normally used for his official mission reports, and Shikaku was both grateful that Kakashi was taking the situation seriously, and concerned that Kakashi was taking the situation so seriously.

A serious Kakashi could be dangerous, and no matter how much he would deny it if confronted outright, Shikaku could tell that the Copy-nin had grown fond of the little Hyuuga revolutionary.

"Right." Shikaku sighed when Kakashi was done, then pinned the man with a flat look. "Step away. The last thing we need is for Elder Shimura to catch wind of the fact that we're sniffing around."

Kakashi's mouth twisted beneath his mask and Shikaku could tell that he wasn't happy with the order, but he nodded sharply regardless.

And then, because it was a detail he couldn't let go of, Shikaku asked softly, the idea almost painful: "Did you really think she was ROOT?"

And then it was Kakashi who sighed, a frown pulling at the visible parts of his brow, and met Shikaku's gaze head-on.

"I thought she was ANBU." He admitted quietly, seemingly not seeing anything wrong with assuming that a preteen could be part of the Black Ops.

"There were too many coincidences, and it would have made sense. A practically non-existent presence, a perfectly average Academy performance, a cousin who's a recognised genius of the Branch House, a younger sister who's been groomed since birth to take over as Head despite being the second-born. If someone had brought her into the ranks after the Massacre, even under the pretext of keeping an eye on the other future Head of a Noble Clan to prevent another Itachi, she could have been trained up on the side, taught to hide and fade into the background, and nobody would have been any the wiser until she slipped back into the ranks after graduating."

"You've given this thought." Shikaku commented faux-idly, trying to process his experience of the living proof that Hatake Kakashi wasn't just a genius on a battlefield.

Kakashi shrugged. "I don't like riddles."

"So when the Archives proved that she wasn't ANBU, ROOT was the next best guess?" Shikaku hazarded, able to guess at Kakashi's thought process now that he had some actual explanation to support the seemingly absurd claim.

"Same reasoning, just different organisation doing the snatching." Kakashi shrugged, mouth twisted beneath the mask.

Shikaku sighed, shelving the lecture on tact for another time. "You said Hiashi didn't recognise the ROOT seal?"

"He's not a good enough actor to hide a reaction like that, and he's too proud of his honour to lie to Tsunade's face." Kakashi declared, and try as he might, Shikaku couldn't argue with his assessment of the Hyuuga Clan Head. "However that Elder had come into possession of the ROOT seal, it wasn't with Hiashi's knowledge or approval."

"Which means that either ROOT had gained control of a Hyuuga Elder, or that Hyuuga Hideki had been voluntarily conspiring with ROOT and agreed to take on the seal for…whatever reason." Shikaku concluded, not sure which option sounded worse.

"I have…a few theories, but since you told me to step away, I won't share them." Kakashi shot back, only slightly snidely, and Shikaku huffed tiredly.

"Sometimes I feel like you enjoy being difficult." He told the Copy-nin dryly.

"It's one of my few joys in life." Kakashi replied, tone just as dry, and he seemed about to say something else but was interrupted by a knock on the door.

Shikaku exchanged a look with Kakashi and cancelled the silencing seals, calling for the person to enter, though he was not at all prepared to see Shikamaru on the other side of the door.

"Hi dad." His son greeted, one hand on the door, the other in his pocket, his posture slouched, even though his eyes were sharp as they took in Kakashi's presence in Shikaku's office. "I was asked to give this to you."

And so saying, Shikamaru walked into the room, not bothering to greet Kakashi as he handed Shikaku a plain piece of paper and turned back around. "Inoichi-oji said dinner's at their house tomorrow, and Mom gave Ino permission to throw out your cigarettes if you're late."

Shikaku didn't even have time to reply to Shikamaru's announcement before his son was raising a hand in a lazy wave and shutting the door behind himself, leaving just as abruptly as he'd entered and throwing him and Kakashi into a tense silence.

"Respected Jounin Commander receives an important communique from his son that consists of a…plain piece of paper?" Kakashi asked lightly, tone humorous once more, but Shikaku was too busy rubbing the paper between his fingers curiously, because-

He threw up the silencing seals at once.

"It's my plain piece of paper." He realised, huffing an exhausted, only slightly disbelieving laugh. "Or rather, my chakra paper. That's also been sealed, it looks like."

Wondering whether he was going to get out of it with the full set of fingers still attached, Shikaku laid the paper flat on the table and pressed the pad of his pointer finger to the page, channelling just the barest bit of chakra into the paper.

An elegant, familiar handwriting bloomed beneath his finger, and he snatched the paper up to keep it from Kakashi's prying eye and scanned the text that he'd just revealed, wondering what could've required this degree of secrecy from the Hyuuga heiress.

Three lines in, he had his answer.

I am sorry to involve you, but I believe you have known more than you've let on for a while now. Thank you for keeping my confidence. I appreciate it more than you can imagine.

In any case, your chances of seeing the Sage soon are greater than mine, so in the event that he asks about it, please tell him that my Father now knows about the existence of my seal, but not the true reason behind it. After consulting with my cousin, I told Father that it had been the late Elder who had put it on me once he found out where I would be going. The dead cannot defend themselves, after all, and after the recent incident, it would not be too unexpected for him to have tried the same with me, too.

I am not proud of the lie, but it does make some things easier.

I kindly request that you burn this message after reading.

Your sincerely,

Shikaku bit back an incredulous laugh at the bloodied fingerprint beneath the sign-off, scanning the text once again to commit it to memory before he offered the paper to Kakashi, knowing Kakashi well enough to be able to tell that the jounin was almost vibrating in place with curiosity.

Kakashi read over it once, twice, then scoffed and set the paper ablaze with a wordless, localised Katon, and when Shikaku met his gaze, he was greeted by a raised eyebrow that nearly screamed 'I told you so'.

"Do you understand my reasons now?" the Copy-nin asked tiredly, and for once, the same tiredness that Shikaku felt was palpable in his voice. "What genin writes like that?"

"You did." Shikaku pointed out, deciding that reminding Kakashi that Hinata had made chunin could wait for a less pressing time.

Kakashi barked a laugh, loud and startled and bitter. "You don't want me as a comparison point, Shikaku, and you know it. Little Hyuuga-chan won't survive long if you use me as a reference."

Shikaku didn't say anything, pulling the report he'd been reading earlier back out, aware that Kakashi, as much as he hated to admit it, was correct.

"Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Kakashi. But step away now." He murmured, not needing to look at Kakashi to know that the jounin was far from pleased at the dismissal.

"So you're not going to do anything about Danzo and the Elder? About ROOT still clearly functioning?" he demanded, sharper than he'd spoken all this time, and Shikaku raised his gaze from the report to shoot Kakashi an unimpressed look.

"Who says we're not?" he asked lightly, raising a challenging eyebrow at Kakashi and getting a slow blink in response as the man processed the pronoun change and likely went over the last few minutes of their exchange in his head.

"…Keep me in the loop." Kakashi replied after a beat, pushing to his feet and heading for the door. "If Danzo's head rolls, I want front-row seats."

"Don't be morbid." Shikaku threw at Kakashi's back, deactivating the silencing seals at the same time as Kakashi pulled open the door. "Stay alive, Kakashi."

Because if Danzo's head were to roll, Kakashi would be instrumental to getting them there.

Hinata couldn't sleep.

The anxiety of her meeting with Neji hadn't abated any before she had to go and talk to her Father, and though both conversations had gone better than she had ever dared to hope, the unexpected conversation with Kakashi had completely upset any semblance of calm she may have regained.

Plus, what happened at the dojo barely a week previous had thoroughly shaken her ability to feel calm in the Compound.

Before she could second-guess the instinct, Hinata slipped out of bed, slid her slippers on, and made her way out of her room and across the hall to Hanabi's, making sure to make as little noise as possible.

She crept into Hanabi's room, sliding the door closed behind her, and let herself just stand there for a second and take in the steady rise and fall of Hanabi's chest beneath the thin comforter.

Unlike Hinata, Hanabi was still able to relax fully when she slept, sprawled out over most of the bed, limbs akimbo, mouth agape, the one habit from childhood she'd not been forced to eradicate.

Smiling at the picture before her, Hinata made her way to Hanabi's bedside and perched on the very edge of the bed, hand rising instinctively to clear Hanabi's hair from her face, smoothing it back gently.

"Hina-nee?" Hanabi murmured, and Hinata's hand stilled as her heart skipped a beat.

She hadn't heard that name from Hanabi's lips in decades. Not since her sister had been four back in her first life, before Hiashi had overheard her and categorically forbid her from using the affectionate term again.

"Yes." Hinata managed past the lump in her throat, letting her hand just rest gently on Hanabi's forehead. "Sorry for waking you, Hanabi-chan."

"You okay?" Hanabi mumbled, eyes already slipping shut despite the girl's best efforts to keep them open.

"Yes. I just couldn't sleep." Hinata admitted, running her fingers gently through Hanabi's hair. "I'll let you sleep, though."

But before she could stand up, Hanabi's hand shot out from beneath the mess of blankets and wrapped around her wrist.

"Nee-chan," she whispered, and Hinata hadn't heard that name in years, either, "can I have a hug?"

Any thoughts Hinata may have had about going back to her room were immediately wiped away, and she had to swallow multiple times to clear the lump from her throat. "Of course."

She only got up when Hanabi pulled away the edge of her blanket, clearly intending for Hinata to sleep beneath the comforter with her, and Hinata didn't let herself think twice. She shuffled over and gathered Hanabi in her arms, settling so she was also laying down, and Hanabi wasted no time in wrapping her arm around Hinata's waist and snuggling in close, letting out a shuddering breath against Hinata's shoulder.

It was only then that Hinata realised that she'd been severely touch-starved in her first life, even after joining Team Eight. It had taken her team far longer to gel and become close enough to share casual touches the first time around, and though Kurenai had been more affectionate with them than the other sensei, she had still been nowhere near as affectionate as the current Kurenai was with them.

Not to mention that Hinata now also had Genma and Yugao and Hana in her circle, all of whom were free with their physical affection and gave out hugs and head-pats so frequently that Hinata had stopped noticing them.

Hanabi had none of that.

Nor did Neji.

Suddenly, Hinata wondered how much of Hanabi's standoffishness in her first life had been down to precisely this: broken familial bonds and no physical contact beyond that aimed to hurt.

Wrapping her arms tighter around Hanabi's shoulders, Hinata pressed a kiss to the top of her sister's head and resolved to do better this time around.

And to find Yugao first thing in the morning. Hinata was not usually a violent person, but just then, she could have torn her way through a whole battalion of White Zetsu without a moment's hesitation, and only Yugao stood a chance of withstanding that level of destructiveness from her.

But that would come tomorrow.

Because for now, she had her sister in her arms and a renewed relationship with her cousin, and, for a moment, all was well.