AN: Chapter 13 is here! This month has been busy. I've officially moved to my new city and thankfully managed to land a job within my first week and a half here. That process has been hectic, but my first day was today. It was not particularly fun and I cannot say I'm looking forward to tomorrow. Only because I have to wake up so early 4 AM for the next three days… just gotta get through this training stuff so I can have my actual schedule. Being without money sucks though, so I'll endure.

In other news, I wish all who celebrate it a belated Happy Thanksgiving. Mine was wonderful and I even ended it with a nice iPad Air. I hope all of you had an amazing holiday and I'm quite thankful to have all of you as readers. Love hearing from you guys and hope to have you around moving forward.

Now then, let us get on with the show. Enjoy.

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XXX

Troubles of the Heart

Hinata was not ashamed to say she was bawling as she clung to Naruto, telling him how glad she was that he was okay and that he'd defeated Madara. She didn't see the smallest of frowns at her mentioning the man's defeat, too preoccupied with her tears and his words.

"You're not hurt, are you? We still aren't sure we made it in time to stop all the affects of the Infinite Tsukuyomi," Naruto asked, his eyes roving over her form. Hinata blushed prettily at his concern and shook her head.

"I am fine," she hiccuped, wiping the tears from her eyes with her sleeve. "It was just a long dream…" Naruto breathed a sigh of relief at that. And it was then Hinata took in his face fully. He looked a little… older. Not so much in the way of his face having changed, but it was his eyes. Something about them was different. And his hair. It seemed slightly longer? For others, it was doubtful they would take notice to such minute changes, but Hinata had spent many of her living years gazing at the man before her. She would notice such things.

How long have we been in the Infinite Tsukuyomi? A month? Three? Was Madara so strong as to evade his defeat for that long? The prospect of such a thing didn't surprise her.

"How long were we trapped for, Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked, pulling away from the man but keeping hold of his hands. She did not want to be apart from him yet.

"Just a few hours… why?"

"Your hair is longer…" she replied. Hinata watched as Naruto blinked. Then she saw something in his eyes. A nervousness? Fear? She couldn't place the look exactly, but she felt her guess was correct. Why would he look that way? It was then that she heard someone yell out his name angrily. They both whipped their heads off to Hinata's right. Approaching them was a woman tall in stature, garbed in strange clothes the likes of which Hinata had never seen. Her hair was a greyish white. And she had no Hitai-ate. Hinata doubted she lost it.

The woman's looks were exotic and unlike anyone she'd seen from any of the Elemental Nations. She was no Shinobi. She did not carry herself as such. And the next words out of her mouth confirmed Hinata's suspicions, because she could not understand the woman in the slightest.

"What do you think you are doing with this woman? Are you not dating miss Xiao Long?! You men are so!—" Hinata could not imagine how to force her tongue to make some of the sounds this woman made. Granted, she assumed she could find a way to imitate her through the Byakugan and some close observation, the fact remained this woman was clearly a foreigner. And Hinata was sure Naruto must know her language somehow. She was speaking to him too rapidly for him to not have a grasp of it. A firm grasp.

"Winter, you don't understand!" Naruto replied, proving Hinata correct. And she wondered again about what happened while she was within that illusion. One does not learn a language in a few hours.

But first, Hinata had to know: who was this woman? And why was she so angry at Naruto?

Yang was at a loss. She could fully admit that. What was she supposed to do here? Storm up to her boyfriend and yell? Cry? Demand he step away from the woman he was hugging? Yang sighed. No, as much as she wanted to do such, she knew she could not. Yang heard Naruto say that woman's name.

The desperation; the fear and the longing. It was all there, fresh off his tongue. He likely hadn't even realized how he sounded. It was laughable, really. How one man could be so dense and so endearing at the same time. And so hurtful. Still, Yang pushed her feelings of the moment aside, as hard as that may be. She knew a day such as this was always going to come. He was going to go home eventually, after all. The only surprise was that Yang was here with him.

As Yang watched Winter furiously approach her boyfriend, she knew she couldn't very well continue to stand here looking like a kicked puppy. She had a choice now. She could let Naruto go… or she could go with the plan she'd been mulling over since Weiss admitted to liking her man. Ultimately, she hadn't given it much thought. She'd doubted the probability of it, but this was a little different. That much was clear. Compared to this Hinata, Yang was well aware she was on the back-foot now. No more time to think her little strategy over. She had to act.

Taking a deep breath, she took sure steps over to the quickly worsening argument. If nothing else, she needed to assert herself ahead of the elder Schnee. This was between herself and Naruto after all, not Winter. She was thankful Weiss's sister seemed to care so much though.

"Winter, stop. It's okay," Yang called. That was not exactly true of course but she needn't know that.

"What? How can you be alright with this?" Winter replied, confused. Yang noted Naruto seemed bewildered himself.

"Naruto told me about her. And we always knew he was gonna be going home at some point. I just didn't expect to be here with him when he did. This reunion was always going to happen. She means a lot to him. I just wasn't sure of how much." Yang responded.

"Can you just let Yang and I talk, Winter? This doesn't concern you." Yang watched Winter round on her boyfriend, steely-eyed and defiant, but Naruto wasn't one to back down. The two stared each other down as tense seconds ticked by. Then Winter huffed and walked back over to Weiss. Yang was okay with that. The woman was better off putting her attentions on comforting her sister.

"So this is her? Hinata?" Yang asked. The woman in Naruto's arms reacted immediately, looking her way with a bit of surprise on her face. She didn't need Naruto's confirmation at this point. Not that she'd asked the question seriously in the first place.

"Yeah… Yang—" She rose a hand to stop him from speaking. She really didn't want to hear him try to explain. There was nothing he could say, and he wasn't at fault anyway. Really, who could have expected this?

"It's okay. I don't need you to explain anything. She technically has always had first dibs… but right now, I'm still your girlfriend, Naruto. And I'm not just going to give you up." Yang grinned. She watched as Naruto scratched his cheek and chuckled.

"I can't say I'm surprised. How do you wanna go about this?" Naruto asked. Yang let her eyes slide over to Hinata. The young woman was looking more and more confused by the moment. With a hum, Yang stepped forward, lifted herself to the tips of her toes, and kissed Naruto on his cheek, making sure to catch the corner of his mouth. Yang felt him tense and could honestly feel Hinata do the same. She knew it was a tad mean—kissing him in front of her like that—but she had to show that Naruto wasn't single.

"We'll talk about it later. Take care of your business." Yang said. And then she walked away.

"Naruto-kun… who was that?" Hinata asked. Hurt and anger brimmed up inside her, but she held it down tightly. Hinata made sure to keep her face as even as possible. Jumping to conclusions would not be fair to him and she had to concede the fact that the two of them were not even a couple. Still… she thought they'd had an understanding. She hoped she wasn't wrong.

"Ah… she—"

"Naruto!" Sasuke interrupted, landing next to the blonde near silently. He and Hinata turned to him and were met with the raven-haired teens signature scowling expression.

"What's up?" Naruto asked.

"The Kage's have called for us," Sasuke all but spat, "Kakashi's informed them we have pressing news. Sakura and some other medic-nin are tending to them. Said they should rest up before getting this report, but they won't listen and want a rundown of everything that's happened."

Naruto should have known this would be the case. The Kage didn't tend to be too patient about information reaching their ears. Hinata understood as well, though that didn't mean she had to like it. She did not want to be interrupted right now. Regardless, duties were duties, and a summons was a summons. Naruto couldn't refuse.

"Yeah… alright. Be there in a second. Bringing Hinata with me though." Naruto replied. Sasuke grunted back and turned away from them.

"Come on then." He was gone a moment later and another moment after that Hinata and Naruto followed. Hinata found herself incapable of keeping up with them. They were fast—faster than when she'd last seen them, in fact. It was a further indicator for her that something about how long they'd been trapped in the infinite Tsukuyomi didn't add up with the time Naruto had given her.

Naruto grabbed her hand, and she felt the warmth of his touch spread from her palm up her arms. Or was that just her flushing? The latter was more likely, but no one else needed to know that. Just as she got her reddened cheeks under control, Naruto turned to her and grinned, setting her cheeks ablaze once more despite her efforts.

"Don't want you to fall behind." Naruto said. Hinata felt her heart flutter. He does not even realize how effortlessly charming he can be, she thought.

"Thank you, Naruto-kun." Offering him a smile of her own, the rest of their trek after that was spent in a somewhat comfortable silence, though each of them knew they felt a tad nervous in each other's presence. It was silly really, but young love often was.

"Glad you two could join us," Tsunade greeted as Sakura busied herself with healing her master. Sasuke, Naruto, and Hinata landed before the gathered Kage and medic-nin with practiced ease.

"You should be resting, Tsunade-baachan," Naruto replied. It earned him a scowl from her, but little else.

"And I will. As soon as you give all of us a rundown of what happened," Tsunade replied.

"Okay, okay… We will. Geez… pushier than Ya… wait. Who's watching Yang and the others?" Naruto questioned, rounding on his team.

"I left a clone," Sasuke snorted, "Don't worry. Your little girlfriend is just fine." Tsunade rose a brow and Hinata squeezed Naruto's hand tighter. For his part, Naruto merely wanted to knock some teeth out of Sasuke's mouth. He could have kept his mouth shut, but no.

"Whatever… asshole," Naruto huffed. He turned back to Tsunade, her brow still up as if waiting for him to elaborate on what was just said. He chose to follow orders for once instead. "Madara was killed after he cast the infinite tsukuyomi." What followed after Naruto's declaration was a rundown of Kaguya's rebirth, Obito's change of heart, his sacrifice, his final gift to Kakashi, and then team seven's triumph over the rabbit goddess.

To say the Kage's were shocked would be an understatement, but it only went to prove one of the fundamental rules of being a shinobi: always look underneath the underneath. Personally, Hinata doubted any amount of digging from them could have uncovered this plot. It began thousands of years before their birth, after all. Regardless, she doubted any of them would ever skimp on thorough investigations after this.

"And then you came to wake us?" Gaara asked. Naruto opened his mouth, but hesitated.

"No. That was the plan, but dispelling the infinite tsukuyomi required both Naruto and Sasuke… and the two of them came to blows following Kaguya's defeat," Kakashi answered. Hinata felt Naruto's imperceptible flinch if one was not physically touching him as Tsunade narrowed her eyes and whipped them to Sasuke himself.

The last Uchiha stood defiantly before them, arms crossed and unconcerned. She understood why he was, as well. After hearing their tale just now, it was clear Sasuke stood leagues above the Kage. And he knew it. His only concern in combat were the likes of Madara, Naruto, and the Otsutsuki. He had nothing to fear from them.

"And why was that?" Tsunade demanded.

"He planned—" Kakashi was cut off by Naruto.

"We still had unfinished business. That's between me and him, Baa-chan. We'll settle it." Tsunade's scowl only deepened at Naruto's words. He was clearly hiding something.

"If it wasn't settled, why are we awake?" Tsunade asked.

"During our battle, my Amenotejikara had some sort of untoward interaction with his six paths chakra. Our two most powerful attacks clashed, and the result was the two of us breaking through dimensional barriers and landing in an unknown, inhabited world," Sasuke replied. The tale they spun next was almost unbelievable to Hinata. Almost. They were shinobi after all.

Still, monsters of darkness, an immortal witch, and humans without chakra—replaced by something called aura—was a hard pill to swallow. And then they mentioned the two Otsutsuki. That set everyone on edge. Immediately the Kage's wanted to know their ETA and were already informing their aides to inform their other trusted advisors that the war was not quite over yet. This was only a reprieve.

As the Raikage mumbled something about restocking their supplies and Tsunade tried to stand despite Sakura's protests, Hinata was beginning to have a full picture painted for her. That woman from earlier was Naruto's girlfriend. Her fears had been confirmed. Reluctantly, even as it pained her to do so, Hinata slipped her hand free of Naruto's and turned away from him.

"Hinata?" he queried. She did not dare turn around, however. She did not want him to see her face.

"I am going to check on my team. I want to make sure they're okay and let the rest of our graduating class know about the new developments." She replied, and before he could say anything further, she was already jumping away. Hinata heard him call her name once more but didn't stop. She couldn't face him right now. Not like this.

As much as it hurt her, Naruto deserved to have her congratulate him. Not cry in his face. She would do that on her own.

Yang busied herself with the ridiculously large, but cute dog before her. Baby-talking it with "who's and good boy" and "you are" as she rubbed his belly and gave him scratches all over. Akamaru—as Sasuke had informed her—was large enough to eat Zwei in two bites, she was sure. He was no less of a cutie, though. Akamaru's master stood close by, conversing with Sasuke, and looking over at her and her companions every so often.

Yang was sure Sasuke was informing the other shinobi of their origins, though she wondered why Kiba—again, as Sasuke had informed her—looked so uncomfortable around the man. He wasn't awake to know Sasuke had tried to kill the Kage and Naruto, at least she didn't think so. Is there more to this story than they'd let on?

Logically, she knew there must be. It isn't as though Naruto and Sasuke had said much about themselves. Sasuke was especially tight-lipped, not that she ever expected anything less. Yang had known from the moment she'd gotten a good look at them in the doorway of her room in the infirmary that Naruto was the warmer of the two. She could just see it in their faces.

"His comrades do not seem that comfortable around him," Cinder commented. Yang found the statement ironic. Just a little. She couldn't say she felt that safe around Cinder either.

"It's very likely Sasuke has wronged them all before considering killing their world leaders," Winter replied as she and Weiss walked closer to to them. Yang paid her teammate closer attention now. To say she looked happy wouldn't be accurate, but she didn't look as upset as she did earlier. Yang didn't think she'd looked that bothered when she told Weiss she was dating Naruto.

Was it less hurtful when it was her? Because they were friends? Or maybe it was something more… Yang shook her head. She let that thought drop. It wasn't important right now. Ultimately, Yang was just happy that Weiss was doing a little better now.

"It is likely, though I wouldn't want to believe it. Sasuke hasn't been that bad…" Cinder responded.

"Agreed," Weiss said, "but the ferocity he showed when arguing with Naruto… he is capable of horrible things. They were fighting to the death and his own admission of why says it all. I don't doubt where his heart is, but his methods are questionable."

Yang didn't miss how Winter scowled at the mere mention of Naruto's name. She hoped this wouldn't continue to be a problem. Winter could potentially get in the way of her plans. Just as she considered this, Akamaru moved from under her touch and she wondered if she'd messed up and stopped giving him his head pats. And then, as she looked up to see where he went off to, she saw her: Hinata.

The lavender-eyed woman landed next to her hooded teammate. Yang quickly realized her eyes seemed a tad puffy and red. Did Naruto explain? I didn't want her to cry. Yang needed to talk to her. The question was, how could she do it? They didn't understand each other at all.

Yang sighed. Life's been way too complicated lately…

Salem slumped against the wall of one of her many hideaways. It was damp and cold. A droplet of water plopped against her head. It's chill seeped past Salem's hair and into her scalp. The cold was biting, yet it did not detract from the burning sting of her throat.

Something about the power the Otsutsuki exude interfered with her natural regeneration. This is the main reason Salem truly believed them to be gods. To be able to disturb the curse of the twin brothers placed upon her was all the proof she needed. And it made her sick.

She needed to get in touch with Hazel and Arthur. Her inner circle needed to be tightened up. They were too scattered now. With Cinder's betrayal, Tyrian's death, and two gods running around, it was time for them to lay low. She didn't know how long she would need to disappear, but she certainly couldn't afford to be caught now.

Salem needed to figure out how to kill gods before she allowed herself to be found.

"Next time I will not allow anyone to control me…"

XXX

Shorter chapter I know, but as stated in the above AN, this month has been quite busy. I hope the chapter's to everyone's liking though. Hinata is now fully aware of Yang's place in Naruto's life while the Kage are planning their preparations for the new threat before them. Meanwhile, Salem is planning on killing a god. How will this all turn out I wonder?

If there are any questions you all have, feel free to leave a review. If you want some sort of more in-depth discussion, then go ahead join the discord. Peace out.

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