Heya,
This chapter came out in a bit of a rush, since I'm getting ready to go on vacation...
I did not plan this out accordingly.
Regardless, I hope you enjoy it. Leave me your thoughts, yada-yada-yada. You know how this goes.
Hanabi didn't know what to make of her sister, as of late. Hinata's return from her mission had spelled a sliver of relief for her, its solace sputtered swiftly by the spectacle that had been hers and Hiashi's spat.
Since then, her elder sister had become a puzzle- her newfound focus, razor-sharp in its intensity, stood so far at odds with the softness the girl was oft-known for. Within the compound walls, she remained as quiet as ever; yet now, where her presence had been a mouse, skittering between crevices and jumping at every sound and imaginary shadow that would impose on her- now, she seemed a ghost. She haunted the compound in sparse bouts, unapologetically taking or doing as she wished seemingly without concern or thought- almost in a daze.
Hiashi seemed as much at a loss as anyone else within the household. Their father, so huge and overbearing, now at times seemed quelled, himself, by the specter that her sister had assumed. Once, Hiashi would speak so brazenly, words measured once and only for his own sake. Now, the man shuffled blindly in an armed minefield, for reasons that the youngest still could not fully fathom.
Hanabi wanted to feel joy for Hinata. To see her dear sister finally doing so well, crushing their joint training lessons and pushing even cousin Neji to a sweating, sputtering mess in their spars should have been a welcome change from what once was, when their cousin would beat her down with a killer's graze while their father chipped and grinded at her sibling's every imperfection- cut her down until she'd curl in on herself, and seem every bit as small as the mice she so mimicked.
But it was different now; now, Hiashi seemed almost proud of his eldest daughter; he watched with a swollen chest as her movements became water; Hanabi could swear even that she had once seen a faint upturn of his lips, as Hinata crashed over Neji.
But as far as the youngest was concerned, it was not his victory to be had, and though Hinata had not lashed out against their father again since the day she had returned, it was in the little things she didn't say that carved her own feelings out in blood.
All denizens within the compound had surely felt the swell of the tension within the household, for while Hiashi's pride and interest in Hinata seemed to grow by the day, so-too did his impatience with the steadfastness of her apathy in him.
"So are you and father just not speaking anymore?" Hanabi glanced up at her sister, who languidly peeled her focus from the frosted cinnamon bun she'd stuffed halfway in her mouth.
It sparked a half-snicker from the youngest.
If father could see her now, he'd faint at his supposed heiress' lack of decorum. But Hanabi was glad to see it, if only to affirm to herself that Hinata's act at home was just that, and that her dear sister had not truly been replaced by some phantom who had simply donned her skin.
Hinata took her time in polishing off her treat, only then offering her sister a shaky smile. "I don't… I don't think father and I- we've never really been on speaking terms?" Her response came as a half-question that didn't really answer Hanabi's own at all. The latter blinked owlishly, and Hinata let out a cheap giggle, as if remembering to. "It's like- Most of the time, he just talks at me, and I just nod or shake my head." As if in example, she shook her own head, a dry smile scraping the canvas of her face.
The younger of the two pouted. "Yeah, but you don't even do that, anymore!"
Hinata could only shrug and shake her head again, her long front bangs scraping loosely across her collarbone. Wordlessly, she plucked another one of those buns from her bag and near-swallowed the thing whole.
Ugh.
"God, do you even chew? You're just shoveling them down like a ninja pelican- how can you even eat so many of those!?" Hanabi eyed her sister with something close to morbid interest. She had already lost count of how many of those things her sister had shamelessly cast into the empty pit she called a stomach. She lost the battle with herself to refrain from poking at her sister's belly.
"A-ah, well…" Hinata glanced away, a flash of embarrassment smoothing over quickly into something painstakingly serene as she gently warded the other girl off. "They're very good." Gesturing at the bag, the invitation in her posture was clear. "Leave the honeyed ones, please; those are for Naruto-kun…"
He loved sweets nearly as much as she did, and It was the least she could do for him, with all of the time he'd been trying to find for her, as of late. Her boyfriend seemed remiss to backslide in that regard, in the wake of her breakdown at his home, and while she was pained -and a bit embarrassed- to let him fight against his schedule for her sake- well, she had to admit that she appreciated the effort.
Hanabi only scoffed. "That guy again? What's so special about him anyways?"
Sure, he was pretty… But were boys even supposed to be pretty? And why were his teeth so sharp? He had four arms now- how did people even grow arms? Was he some kind of ninja cyborg? Oh, and he was annoying, making so many dumb jokes all the time!
Though, she supposed he was really nice.
"Oh whatever," Hanabi grumbled, plucking one of the honeyed buns- Hinata's challenging stare was all it took for her to nervously course correct, replacing it wordlessly with a frosted one.
A sniff. It smelled overwhelmingly sweet.
She tasted it and grimaced.
Yeah, unbearably so!
"Father won't like it if he finds out you're gorging so much on these…" Hanabi missed the subtle twitch that her nagging evoked from her sister. "And I don't really think he likes that Leper guy very much either-"
"I don't care," Hinata's tongue was a shard that cut right across her; Hanabi snapped shut with a muted yelp, the younger sister staring at her eldest with wide-eyes. "If father has a problem with what I eat or who I date-"
He should have done a better job…
Hinata sighed, holding that one back. "That's his problem alone."
"O-oh…" Their conversation spasmed to a halt, staked dead by Hinata's uncharacteristic edge. For a painfully long couple of moments, both sisters said little else, until Hanabi could no longer take the silence and jumped to apologize. "I-I didn't mean to nag- I mean, I wasn't gonna tell on you or anything, I swear-"
"I know. It's alright." Hinata's smile was splintered glass, but the embrace she wrapped around her little sister felt as warm as ever. "I know, Hanabi-chan."
Her little sister blushed, peering up at her.
She supposed it wasn't all bad. Her sister hugged her more these days, often fiercely, like she needed them as much as Hanabi craved them. Even if it sometimes felt like an afterthought; even if her smiles felt so cheap nowadays, like her mind wanted to dance, but her heart had forgotten the moves.
Worry followed that thought. "Are you-" Hanabi shifted uneasily under her sister's curious gaze. Hinata frowned and Hanabi ducked her head a bit. "Er- it's just- you're smiling right now, so why do I feel like you're so sad, lately?"
Hinata froze, her smile crystalizing and creeping until her entire figure seemed statuesque. "A-ah…" The corners of her grin tugged downward, and with it, her entire body seemed to collapse in on itself. "I've been getting that question a lot lately, huh?"
And she felt no closer to answering it either.
"I don't- it's nothing." Hinata shook her head, refusing to let her sister capture her gaze. "I'm fine… I'll be fine."
There was no point in troubling her kid sister in such a way…
Hanabi didn't respond for a moment, merely smoldering at her sister for several long, uncomfortable moments. Then she scowled. "Tch, figures… You never let me help you."
Startled by the girl's sudden mood change- "Er- wha-?" Hinata mumbled, dumbly.
"You always do this," Hanabi groused. "You act like everything's fine even though it's not."
Memories of her sister's habits only frustrated her further. "You never let me speak up for you when father is mad." Her eyes narrowed further. "And you always used to throw our sparring matches so that father would punish you instead of me. You've been doing the same with cousin Neji too! Father may pretend not to notice, but I notice! Cousin Neji does too, I bet!"
"I-I'm not-"
"Don't lie!" Hanabi's glare bordered on caustic as she chastised her sister, who could now hardly meet the accusation in her stare. "You always do this," She insisted further. "You act like you're some martyr or something, 'cuz you don't want people to worry about you. But that's not fair! I want to worry about you! Why won't you let me help you?" The youth let out a hiccup. "You never let anybody help you…"
"Oh…" Hinata's shock at the girl's outburst melted into a somber frown, the young heiress fumbling in place for a moment before finally shrugging. "Sorry…"
It was lame, but what else could she say? What was she supposed to do? Her sister didn't understand; it wouldn't be fair to expect her to understand, nor to burden her with such heaviness.
"Sorry," Hinata repeated, this time little more than a whisper.
"I- I just-" Hanabi sniffed a bit, curling in on herself. Her eyes pricked with moisture, and she dragged her fist roughly across her eyes, suddenly feeling a bit foolish. "I don't know. It just doesn't feel very good, 'cuz you're suffering all by yourself. That doesn't feel right at all! I just want to help, or- or if not me, at least know you've got somebody to share your burdens with."
Her words felt familiar- almost painfully so; Hinata could feel Naruto's weight on her back, the smell of pomegranates in her lungs as she demanded the very same thing.
"I-I just want to help you, is all… So please, let me share some of your burden."
God, was she a hypocrite? Was this the birth of 'Hypocrite Hinata'?
… She didn't think she liked that very much.
"I don't-" Hinata swallowed lead, her chest warming uncomfortably as she searched her heart. "I'm afraid…"
Hanabi jumped to attention, now listening intently. "Of what? What are you afraid of?"
A lot of things… But she wasn't sure she was quite ready to talk about all of that. But maybe she could at least do this much- "I saw-" Hinata shuddered a bit, an obituary of scars and bruises that had long healed, except not really- they ached with the memory of that man's savagery. Her flesh rankled with memories of gray-blue spines that ripped into her flesh. She shut her eyes; twin glowers of scarlet dissected her and deemed her wanting. "I saw some very- um, some very scary things on my mission…"
Hanabi tugged at her sleeve, leaning her head on her sister's shoulder in what she hoped felt supportive. "Even scarier than father?"
That got a true laugh out of Hinata. But it felt alien- just that bit sharper than she remembered. "Mhm…"
Even just a few weeks ago, her father had been the sole source of her terror. The way he seemed to just tower over her; the way his byakugan would cut right into her, down to the bone; how he would unravel her- peel her apart and expose all of her frailties with such scorn.
Now though, it all felt like some cheap joke. Now, he wasn't even on the list, compared to the things she'd seen.
Hinata shrugged. "I saw a lot of people die. I nearly died too."
And there really was no soft way to put that; even still, she winced a bit at her sister's tiny gasp. "I fought a monst- a man who was-" A steadying breath. "He beat me within an inch of my life… He had this smile that was-" Sharp and carefree, almost like Naruto's. And yet, so unalike. His lacked the same warmth and kindness behind it that made Naruto's so addicting to her. In its place instead was a sigil of violence. Just the thought of it, and she was suffocating in an ocean of her own blood.
Hinata shrugged again. "It was the scariest thing I ever experienced. And now, I just-"
What else could she say, that her nightmares plagued her most nights with that encounter?
That that particular shade of blue still made her jump?
That she'd nearly screamed when Naruto had shown her the fragments of his weapon that Jiraiya had recovered- or that just the thought of his clone tinkering with them in the other room made her skin crawl and had her heart thumping so hard in her chest that she could feel her pulse in her ears?
That Kurenai sensei's glare soaked her tongue in vomit, not because of anything her beloved sensei had ever done, but solely because her eyes just happened to be a close shade to the devil- a creature who played with her boyfriend like an ant under a magnifying glass, and tortured his own flesh as if that were normal?
Or what of Tanzaku? The horror-stricken faces of man, women- hell, children and pets too as they fled and died; the hopelessness that sank deeper still inside her gut as they committed to the recovery effort, following trails of gore that always led proudly to still-leaking corpses; the stomach-churning odor of bile and ichor rotting in her lungs as she and Naruto narrowly escaped the jaws of Orochimaru's experiment…
The fact that one man was capable of such evil-
Hinata shook her head.
She wasn't ready to talk about all of that. She didn't think she could without crumbling to dust and scattering with the wind. Not to Hanabi; not to Kurenai-sensei or her team; not even to Naruto, who had been there by her side throughout it all- fought and bled, same as her, and who now fought still to burden himself further for their sake.
She just- she needed time. For what, she wasn't sure… She didn't know if she was just hoping to magically improve- or maybe she just needed it to dull a bit, and be a little less scary to talk about.
Or maybe what was truly scary was the worry she'd see in peoples' eyes if she did try to talk about it. The guilt that had pierced her navel and twisted the knife just at that mere question:
"What do you need from me?"
Nothing. She had everything she needed. She shouldn't be so ungrateful, as to burden Naruto or anyone else with that- not when they were all suffering too, and so much more than she was. What right did she have to cry, when so many people had lost their homes and loved ones to Orochimaru's depravity?
She was just a bystander. She was- well, she didn't know…
But one thing was for sure.
Hinata chuckled a bit bitterly, even as her baby sister's eyes remained all but bugged out of her head.
"After all of that, father isn't so scary to me anymore."
"O-okay then…" Hanabi trailed off for a moment, not sure what to say at all, but unwilling to leave the conversation so soon- not when she had been the one to ask in the first place. "Well- erm, if you're still here, then that means you won, right?"
… Huh?
Hinata tilted her head in askance, so Hanabi hastened to continue. "Er- b-because you're strong, and Leper-san was with you too, right? He's strong too! And your sensei is supposed to be really strong, right? So even if it was hard, and even though you're not okay now… I guess you will be okay, because you've got such amazing people by your side… Er- right?" Hinata could only stare at her, and feeling self-conscious, Hanabi began to ramble further. "Well it's like- maybe you feel like you're a burden, but I know that I don't think so! And your friends really seem to love you… I think it'd make them really happy if you came to them for help, is all..."
"Ah…" Hinata slowly averted her eyes, fidgeting a bit. Hanabi didn't know if anything she had said had had an impact. But more than anything, she was just glad Hinata had at least let her try.
"I guess it's just- that's how I feel, is all…"
"Thank you, Hanabi-chan." Her elder sister's whisper was feather light.
"Erm- yeah… Always."
Naruto had learned swiftly that there was no rightplace to choose as a starting point for treasury. It was all a damned mess, and- "Whoever organized all of this should be shot," Naruto grumbled, sifting through the myriad mess. "With a sword… That fires other, smaller swords."
"Er- yeah, haha…" Sakura chuckled awkwardly, kneeling down beside him to look over the pile had started on.
It was the first set of words he had offered her, from the very moment he'd come to collect her and walk her to the site. She had tried thrice to lead a conversation, with negligible results each time; Sakura wasn't keen to let the opportunity go to waste. "Have you done this a lot?"
The boy's head bobbed slightly, deft fingers dancing from page to page as he memorized and calculated from the litany of records between them. Sakura never would have guessed this to be the boy who had failed their exams twice in a row. "Hidden villages don't really deal in strict paper money. Amongst civvies, it's basically just a promise of value that merchants use for standard trading." A thought. "But I guess it ain't as valuable to military powers since we gauge value differently, ya know? Auntie says money is just a social construct, or something like that."
"So how do military powers gauge value then?" Sakura's interest moved her to ask. Iruka-sensei had obviously discussed commerce and economics in the academy, but never had he spoken of it so pragmatically.
Naruto shrugged. "Major powers like Konoha calc our total value based off redeemable assets. Favors, deeds, territory over profitable land and such. Like this-" He raised a desiccated document, its yellowed edges and musty stink belying its age. "Here's an old marriage contract between some schmucks from Konoha and the Sand village. In it, they hashed out some equal rights agreement to some oasis close to the border; it's one of our village's favorite places for diplomatic meetings, 'cuz it's essentially shared grounds."
Sakura grimaced, staring into the page. The inky splotches that remained of its obliterated scrawl forged a sea of half-formed sentences that, with his added context, made her skin itch. "Marriage contracts are used as currency?"
"Sometimes…" Talking about this- it was easier; it was a welcome distraction from other, less savory business that both knew was stalking their tails, but neither quite knew how to broach, even if both knew that she wanted to. "It's not so much about the marriage itself, so much as the stuff that is promised around the contract. Like for another example-" He un-creased another document, holding this one between the very tips of his index and middle fingers as if the page itself was infected. This one, he had spent much of his first day hunting for. His blood boiled a bit, just looking at the damned thing.
"What's that?"
"This would be the marriage contract that joined Uzushiogakure and Konohagakure through the union of Hashirama Senju and Mito Uzumaki." Mito's disgust with that notion clammored over itself to set upon the veil that lay between them; her nails prodded dragged lightly the wall, a thousand and one of her angry thoughts sparking like a lit fuse on his tongue.
Some part of her had to be honest with herself- that she had fallen for Hashirama's charms. Not just tolerated him, but adored him- at least for a time…
But that adoration had withered with age, as the first Kyuubi jinchuriki grew older and more bitter by the burdens her husband had foisted onto her before dying young with his work unfinished. There was no doubt in her- his mind that Hashirama had been incredible. His overwhelming strength was rivaled only by his sheer kindness.
But that man had also been arrogant- supremely so. So sure in his powers, and in his capacity to reign the whole world in for his dream. He'd been so utterly unconcerned with the consequences of his actions- no future thought or consideration for the ones who would shoulder his burdens down the line, for as earnest as he was, Hashirama had never once considered that he could ever lose or fail.
Naruto fought a losing battle against the sneer that seized his face, refocusing on Sakura's awestruck expression as she spoke.
"I remember Iruka-sensei telling us about that." It was common history, the bond that the Uzumaki and their respective village had shared with Konoha. "You know, I think it's really cool that people like you got to adopt their name. It's a really sweet way to honor our fallen allies, don't you think?"
Naruto frowned, a question on his lips. But Kushina's own thoughts swept his own in their arms, supplanting him with the missing pieces.
"After the fall of Uzu, Hiruzen held a big ceremony for us." Her expression twisted into something painful. "I remember when he asked Auntie Mito and I- or well, more like told us that was how it was going to go. He signed a bill, making Uzumaki one of a few default names for orphans or those lacking family names within the village. I guess his thinking was that he'd hide any remaining Uzumaki in plain sight by diluting our name amongst common folk."
Oh, that was-
Naruto fought to remain placid, the throbbing in his temple pulsing in sync with the skull-rattling 'bangs' of Mito's fury against the veil.
A crack.
"Ever the pragmatist, huh, Saru?"
Sakura tilted her head a bit, not quite hearing the mumbled words. "What was that? H-hey, are you alright-" She yelped, skipping back a bit as the sheet in Naruto's hand began to crackle violently. Then- "Hey!" She shouted in alarm as the thing crumpled to ash in a shower of purplish sparks. "You dummy! That was a priceless piece of history!"
"It's just a copy, girl." Naruto muttered back, his tone distantly severe. Hatred lay crystalized in his gaze, its light reflected twice in his mismatched eyes. Sakura's blood iced as that light found her. Mito- Naruto ignored the child, scraping the remnant ash off her- his hands; all four sets of hands and fingers twitched with a silent urge to throttle something, and eager to occupy them, they began hunting quickly after another document to file. "All of the files in here are mere copies for review; the real deal wouldn't be left in the hands of a pair of grunts to handle."
"Hey, cool it."
Even if it had been real, the details of that contract were long-null. Konoha had broken their terms when they left Uzu to die, and there was no Uzu left to honor even the spirit of- what, the ghost of an arrangement?
"Still-" Sakura's own irritation took a downward tilt, simmering into concern as she observed the tenseness in her teammate's posture. "Um, are you okay?" She raised a hand to prod at his shoulder, but seemed to think better of it as she sensed the building heat on his person. "Hey, you're acting a little weird. Um- I'm sorry if I upset you somehow; I just thought you would've been really thrilled to be allowed the name of such important historical figures and-"
"Allowed my name?" She hissed, the audible clicking of chain clamoring beneath flesh. It echoed with the song of hostility, 'clanging' off the corners of the hollow room and surrounding the pinkette on all sides. A faint touch of steam started to simmer away from scalding-hot flesh; violet, crackling smoke slipped from underneath her curling lips. "Watch your tongue, girl! I'm not some damn pretender!"
H-hey!" Sakura yelped, scooting back further as her teammate's heat continued to rise. Several more pages at their feet began to spark and crumble. "What's gotten into you!?"
"Ma'akiine lo-qi, X'omaa/Steady your spirit, my heart." Kushina's warning this time was firm, cutting right through the fog. He seized the moment, cramming a lid on their anger and letting it simmer again.
"Breathe."
He did so, slowly centering himself until the moment had passed and he was sure it was only him, once more. "M-my bad…" He tried to let it lie with that, but Sakura refused.
"No! No-no-no-no-no! We need to talk about that!" Sakura insisted, pacing forward by one step. She glanced down at the ashes at his feet and gulped, before closing the distance to grab one of his still-twitching hands. "What was that about? Are you okay? What happened?"
Naruto blinked, slowly. "What?"
"Tell me what happened!" She ordered, this time far more firmly. "I thought you were gonna burn the whole place down!"
Naruto cut his gaze away from her, engraving the details of the ceiling into his head. "I wasn't given my name. I didn't adopt shit," He hissed, almost petulantly. "It's mine. I am an Uzumaki… One of the last, believe it."
"O-oh…" Sakura's eyes steadily widened, replaying that admission twice more before it finally 'clicked'. "Oh… Oh!" Her eyes darted up to his hair, and the crimson lengths of his braids were the final piece of the puzzle that sparked her response. "Oh, I'm so sorry!" It was odd- uncomfortable, even, to see Sakura suddenly bow so deeply, and to him of all people. "I didn't mean to insult you like that, I swear!"
"Er-?" It was a far cry from when she used to punch him upside the head or call him annoying. A welcome change, but still supremely uncomfortable, to have another person prostrate themselves to him. "D-don't make it weird." Naruto could not even hold the girl's gaze, as she was. "It's whatever- I shouldn't lose my cool over something like that. Er- sorry for scaring you." He did not elaborate further, trying to move past the topic with at least some grace.
Silence swelled between the pair, a bubble that Sakura seemed eager to breach, yet too afraid to burst.
Naruto really wished he were anywhere else at the moment.
"I- I wanted to say-" Sakura started hesitantly.
"Please don't." Naruto shook his head, a ghost of a breath leveling the dust around them. "Let's just get this shit sorted, already."
"H-hold on, please," Sakura insisted, bowing once more. She wiped at her face with her sleeve, and Naruto tensed with discomfort as he realized that she had started to cry. "I really need to say this, a-and-" She sniffled." And I swear- if you want me to shut up after this I swear I'll leave you alone after this," She all but begged. "You deserve to know- I know you're still mad, 'cuz I didn't come to see you when you were-"
Naruto sighed. "I'm not mad about that anymore," He cut across her again, his own frustration ripe in his tone. "You don't get it at all…"
"Then explain it to me!" Sakura jumped upright, brushing the dust off herself. She stared her teammate down, still-glistening eyes swimming in a solution of worry and anxiety. Yet, Naruto saw her resolve behind even that, and knew that she would not be denied.. "Please! I wasn't ready to hear it back then, and I know I said a bunch of insensitive stuff that hurt your feelings. But I'm ready now, and I want to know, because I do care!"
"Sakura-"
"You guys aren't going to get any better if you just keep ducking her, Naruto." Kushina's advice froze the next words on his tongue. "Your feelings aren't something you can just stuff in a sack and beat to death; killing your heart doesn't make you strong. You have a chance here to speak your mind… Take it."
"...Sakura, you called me a threat," Naruto hissed. Just the word alone- it carved long and slow in his heart. But he tried to remain composed as he continued. "You said 'I didn't know if you were safe'; you talked about me like I was a rabid dog."
Sakura clutched at her elbow, the entirety of her posture closing inward at the accusation. "I-"
Naruto hardly even heard her, now that he was on a roll. "Then, as if to rub salt in the wound, when Sasuke lost his shit and set fire to his room, you shrugged that shit off like it never happened!"
"S-Sasuke-kun didn't mean to do that; you know he'd never-" Then she stopped, his point dawning on her all at once. "Oh…"
"Oh." Naruto merely shook his head. "I get it, alright? You like Sasuke. I ain't expecting you to treat me like your crush. But you've always treated me like shit. Always! And-" Naruto could not even look at her; he tore his eyes away, both prosthetic arms curling around his torso for support. "Just as I thought maybe we were starting to get along, you left me high and dry while I was fighting for my life in a hospital bed. And I can forgive that… I forgave Sasuke, and I even forgave Kakashi…"
Well… Sort've.
"But you- you called me a threat." That word again, he spat it at her like a curse, for that was exactly what it was to him.
How often he'd heard that one, or some approximation from people in this village. Just its sound took him back to the days when he truly had no one. When his only companion in life had been a dumb bird that hadn't lasted a month, or a rickety old swing set that no one used because the village-monster had infected it.
Because that's what he was, to so many of them- even still.
A threat.
A disease.
A monster.
Something to be cleansed- controlled or killed, or barring those, ignored or avoided at all costs…
Sakura may not have known what she was saying, but it didn't make it hurt any less.
"That's what I am to you, huh?." A harsh laugh bubbled in his chest, scalding all the way up. "So what then- when shit goes down and you need someone to bail you out, I can bust my ass for you- run myself ragged and slave away for you guys- sacrifice and be sacrificed for your sake, right!? But when I need someone to return the favor and give a damn- when I'm lonely and hurting, then it's back to business as usual, huh? All I am is a fucking threat!?
"Naruto…" Sakura whispered, shame plastering its lines to her face.
He didn't even know if he was speaking only to Sakura anymore, really. His hands spasmed and his cranium inflamed with memories, hundred fold: Distrustful eyes watched his every move as he and his clones slaved away to rebuild peoples' houses; The sour-faced village elders, grasping blindly for any and every reason to reject Hiruzen's order and deny him his promotion…
Or what of the myriad betrayals he'd grown wise to, done by the hands of Hiruzen, himself?
His fury died down, spending itself with that tirade until all that remained was a dull ache in its place. He took a long, shaky breath.
"You only started noticing when Sasuke went and called you on your shit; you only started feeling bad when he started avoiding you and Kakashi over it; that tells me exactly where your priorities lie. You don't give a shit about me. And y'know what, that's fine. I'm fine… But please stop pretending that you do."
"That's-" Sakura stopped, clamping her jaw shut and forcing herself to really listen to what he had said. "And you're okay with that? Because I'm not."
Naruto blinked, twice. "What?"
"What?"
"I- Sakura floundered in place for a moment, limbs flailing and lips moving but making no sound. "Y-you're right. I don't show you as much care as I should. I need to treat you better. I-I want to treat you better!" She hiccupped, fingers digging at the hem of her dress. "Maybe I'm- no, I'm definitely a terrible friend; I know that, 'cuz the same thing happened with Ino-pig, back when we were kids. I was a terrible friend to her, and I didn't appreciate what I had, even though she'd done so much for me. Now, it's the same with you; I'm such a bad friend that I let you think that I don't care about you but I-" Her gaze hardened a bit, and Sakura stomped her foot, leaning so far into Naruto's personal space that he had to rear back a bit. "But I want to be better! I don't want to be the type of girl who shoves all of her friends away! So please, I know it sounds stupid, and I know I'm being annoying, but please just show me how I can be a better friend to you!"
…What?
"Er- yeah, no. I definitely did not have this on my bingo table for this evening." Kushina shrugged. "What about you, Kumoko? Let me see yours."
She inspected the sheet she'd laid at the creature's feet, her face scrunching up in disgust at the caustic pool of pink that it had proudly drooled through the thing. "Very good, dear."
Her son drew a long, groaning breath. 'Please stop taking bets on my relationship troubles with the magic metal spider.'
"You asked me to socialize her, so I'm socializing her. Quit complaining."
Sakura continued to fidget, slowly losing steam in the face of Naruto's silence.
"Erm-"
That got him to refocus on her.
"I get it, Sakura…" Naruto huffed. "Apology accepted."
Because what the hell else was he supposed to say to all of that?
"Er- look, can we change the subject? I'm getting uncomfortable."
"O-okay…" Sharing a bit in his anxiety, Sakura forced out the first words that came to her. "I- I like your hair? It's really pretty."
Heh, smooth... Naruto snorted, fingering one of the long front braids. "Thanks…"
Stubbornly, Sakura refused to be denied. "I didn't know you knew how to do hair like that. Or did Hinata do it for you?"
Or maybe Ino. The two had seemed surprisingly friendly the other day, much to her own surprise.
"It was me," he breathed, not quite exasperated, but nonetheless spent, and still unwilling to entertain the girl anymore than was absolutely necessary.
"Er- well, it's -um… It's very pretty…" She shifted, her own fingers inching up against her whims to play with a loose strand of her own pink locks. "I never could manage styles like that, since my hands are clumsy and my hair is so much thinner. A-and since I cut it, I can't do as much with it anymore." Then something hopeful erupted in her posture for just a split second. "H-hey, I know! Would you maybe want to-" Then it was gone again, her confidence dashed to the wind as Naruto glared at her, knowing her incoming request, and exasperation meeting her halfway. "N-nevermind…"
"Oh for god's sake, Naruto. Throw the girl a damned bone, will you? This is getting painful to watch."
Naruto's eye twitched, temptation whispering its honeyed goading for him to curse Sakura and Kushina both.
"Look, I'm not gonna pretend like I don't know where you're coming from. But I know better than anybody else how much you care; remember, I'm in your head as much as you are mine, ya know?" Kushina prodded at her temple, and Naruto twitched just a little more, feeling the gesture on his own end. "You wouldn't have comforted her in the hospital if you didn't worry for her. You wouldn't have done your hair and changed your style if you didn't care about her feelings. You're angry at her, and you don't trust her- but darling, you do care."
He wasn't really sure that he wanted to care…
"But you do, and we're just gonna have to roll with the punches, X'omaa… Look, we can't change the past, and I ain't asking you to just forget how she treated you. She's got a long way to go before you guys can be friends. But she's trying, dear… Just give her a chance to do right by you, alright? And if she spits in your face again, we'll feed her to the turbo spider." The spider's delighted hiss was all the confirmation that the redhead needed. "See? Kumoko's on board! Give her a chance, darling."
Oh for the love of- Fine! "Help me get these records straight. If our report gets done quick enough-" He let off a truly defeated sigh. "I guess I'll braid your hair for you."
"R-really!?" Jade eyes sparkled with the brand of victory. "Yeah! Yeah, sure!"
"Why are we here?" Tayuya's petulant demand was met with a twitching eye, courtesy of her blonde escort. Her leg bounced with clear anxiety as she sat perched atop a plastic-layered recliner. The bright, unicolored lighting of the hospital's ceiling lamps were far too piercing, for her tastes.
Naruto resisted to sigh, manifesting tolerance for the iron grip she'd laid claim to his arm. "Like I told you earlier when I came to get you, and not even ten minutes ago as well, Auntie wants to go over your blood test with us."
"Yeah, sure-" Tayuya spoke with deliberate, insulting slowness, eyes flicking back and forth. "But why?"
Kabuto had never deigned to consult with her regarding any of her health-related details. She had simply assumed that information was for Medical Ninja to know, and no one else. If the Slug was calling on her a talk, face-to-face-
"Hoo boy." Kushina winced at the sudden wave of negativity, coming from the girl. "You might wanna distract her." Her direction was met with a barely perceptible nod.
"Well, in civilized society-" Naruto began, mocking Tayuya's overly slow tone by speaking even slower. "-Where people drink clean water and don't shit in mud holes or kiss their first cousins, patients are usually legally entitled to their medical information."
"Okay first of all, fuck you." Tayuya's fist twitched with a silent fantasy of punching him, but she mastered it, wary of suffering another set of bruised or broken knuckles like the last time she'd done it. "Second of all, what would I even do with that information? I don't know shit about dick when it comes to you guys' white-mage bullshit."
"Well, in civilized society-" Naruto repeated, leaning just slightly apart when this time Tayuya did punch him, cursing as her knuckles popped uncomfortably, but thankfully didn't break this time. "You're welcome."
"Thanks for not breaking my fucking hand, Mr. Sissy Brick-Shithouse."
"That's Sir Sissy Brick of the ancient and noble House Shithouse to you, wench." Naruto offered a toothy grin, and she couldn't help but meet him halfway with a humorous half-grimmace. "Anyways, here in Konoha, our ninja academy demands at least one credit worth of basic medical learning- er, which usually covers basic first aid and diagnostics. That's typically enough to get the gist of whatever the doc is talking about."
"Heh! No wonder you leaf sissies are such fragile little tots; you pussies are out here spending valuable training time learning how to kiss each other's boo-boos instead." Tayuya chuckled, prodding at the boy's ribs with her elbow.
Naruto eyed his companion with a deadpan look. "You broke your knuckles on me because you punch like an old lady with scoliosis, and whined about it for hours."
"And you mix chemical X in with your daily estrogen injections! But unlike you, I don't judge, because I'm not a bigot!"
"Bullshit."
Naruto snickered. "But you are flat."
Her eye twitched as her escort once again needled her over that mild insecurity. "Yeah, yeah. You're so clever; way to go after low hanging fruit for like- the umpteenth time, dickhead."
"I doubt you'd know much about low-hanging fruit, Washboard."
"... I'm doing to find and fuck your dad, so I can birth him a child that he won't abandon."
Kushina twitched. "I'll kill her."
'Not if I kill her first.' Outwardly, Naruto only shrugged. "Dad's dead."
"Aha!" Tayuya's face split sideways, the face of victory plastered front and center. She thrust an accusing finger into his face. "That explains the cross-dressing, you fatherless skank!" A thought, then- "Also my condolences."
"Your condolences are well-received-" Naruto's own ever-present grin sharpened just a bit. "But will not stop me from punching you when you least expect it.
"Aw…" Yeah… She supposed she'd earned that one.
Their attention was pulled from one another by the sharp rap of heeled footfalls. Then the door cracked open, and Tsunade's pretty features poked their way in from around the frame of the thing, a faux glower present.
"Both of you shut up. I could hear you both yapping from the damn stairs." Tsunade was as blunt as ever as she entered the room, trying to gently nudge the door aside with her foot. It swung all the way, slamming audibly into the wall on the other side and leaving a second, matching indent in the surface. "Shit!" Reeling herself back to face Naruto and a giggling Tayuya- "You too, huh?"
Naruto's grin gave way to a rather fierce scowl. "Yep." Their shared deadpan was the final straw for Tayuya, whose giggles quickly devolved into outright cackles. She shook Naruto bodily as she did so, pointing at the matching scowl of Tsunade's.
"You guys suck!" One of her hands snapped up to cup her mouth, feigning to stifle her obviously forced giggles and failing miserably. "What, were you built out of fucking box springs? Just push the door, idiot- ow!" She hissed as Tsunade came down on the back of her head with a manila folder. "It was just a joke, you old, decrepit-" A second slap came swiftly after, prompting the girl to cover herself. "I'll be good."
"Your test results came back," Tsunade uttered, her harsh stoicism in the moment cutting right through the mood. "It's no laughing matter, girl."
"O-oh…" Tayuya sobered up instantly, looking between the two of them with a morose smile. "So- uh… How long do I've got, then?"
Tsunade's hard expression cracked just a bit. "Pardon?"
"I ain't soft, granny. I can read between the lines well enough to get the hint. How long do I've got before I kick the bucket- ow!" She scowled as the folder once again came down on her head. "Stop hitting me!"
"You're not dying, dumbass!" Honestly, this girl was more of a pain than Naruto, himself!
"Wha- I-" Tayuya's agape expression quickly deformed, anger taking its place. "Then what the hell is going on? Just tell me what's up and stop smacking my head 'fore I get even dumber, you old shit!"
"We're related," Naruto cut through the antics immediately, his earlier grin a mere shadow of itself, now. "Isn't that right, Auntie?"
"Er- what?" Tayuya looked at Naruto, tilting her head and simply staring, waiting for the punchline. "W-wait, that was a joke, wasn't it?"
"'Fraid not, cousin-kisser."
"Piss off!"
"Cut it out!" Tsunade barked, both youths falling meek at her more earnest show of exasperation. Rubbing at her temples, she sighed. "I'm almost certain, yeah." She did not leave room for discussion, swiftly shutting the door and locking it. Tayuya gulped as she spotted the faint curl of kanji, winding around the frame of the door thrice before fading. "I'm going to give it to you straight, so don't interrupt me." Tayuya nodded, hesitantly, so Tsunade continued. "Your DNA is fucked. Whatever insidious shit that Orochimaru's curse mark has done to your body has written over entire swathes of your genetic code. It's such a mess that I couldn't even tell you were human; kid, the reason it took so long for me to get back to you is because I had to run this half-a-dozen times before I was sure I wasn't losing my damn mind.
Tayuya's mouth parted, a silent string of questions tumbling out and flopping uselessly into her lap. She licked her lips, choking out a rough wheeze as she struggled to find her words. "Bu-but wait- er, how does that- why do you think we're related, from that?"
"Because it's not about what the seal did, but what it didn't do, that had me interested. According to what little we currently do know about that seal on your neck, it slowly overwrites your genetic material the more you use it." Her eyes narrowed. "I had a hunch, based on what you reported about his body transfer jutsu... I compared your blood sample to your teammates; then compared that to Special Jonin Anko Mitarashi, who also possesses a cursed mark; then again with Sasuke Uchiha… What do you think I found?
Tayuya tried to answer that, but all that came out was- "Same?"
"Same." Tsunade nodded. "I suspect that the mark overwrites the 'useless' parts of your genetic material to make you a better match for that guy."
"Oh…" He had been raising them for- for- "Pigs for slaughter." Tayuya wanted to be angry. She tried to raise her voice- to scream, like she desperately wanted to do. But all that came was a fragile little squeak that sounded as small and pathetic as she really felt in that moment. "We were just- we were just a bunch of skin suits to him."
"Yes…" Tsunade looked uncomfortable, for this was twice now that she'd had to deliver terrible news to this poor girl. She chanced a subtle glance toward Naruto, eyes flicking between the two with meaning, and the boy obliged, tentatively wrapping a comforting arm around the older girl's shoulder.
Then, a high pitched laugh finally wrung from Tayuya; loud and shrill, it ripped from her lungs with a lilt of hysteria. "H-holy shit! T-that's… That's- that's so fucked!" She ducked her head down into her hands, her laugh twisting into a muted wail. "Jirobo died for that cocksucker, and we weren't anything more than his fucken backups- that's all we ever were to him, huh?" By the end of her rant, much of her emotion had bled out. "That's so fucked…" She repeated, hollowly.
Naruto and Tsunade both shuffled awkwardly, not knowing what else other than to agree.
Orochimaru was a monster who needed to be put down.
"There's one more thing though." Tsunade muttered after a moment; she stepped forward, reaching forth to cup a shell shocked Tayuya's chin. "I compared samples again and found a common thread that all of the other victims aside from you followed: They all were subject to a varying degree of corruption that seemed consistent with how often they reported themselves to have used the mark's power. Yet, of all of your teammates who you came with, your body was the least- well, corrupted, I guess I may as well call it. This is odd, since according to you, you had the mark longest out of all, save for Anko Mitarashi, herself."
"Tch… So I'm a freak then." Tayuya muttered, seeming unsure of how else to take it.
"In a sense." Tsunade allowed; she and Naruto both snorted in tune. "Naruto and I have both suspected for some time now that you were one of ours, but now I know for certain, because I suspect that I know exactly why you are the outlier here." She tilted Tayuya's head, staring uncomfortably long into the girl's eyes. Her gaze was tender though, in a way Tayuya had never seen in the woman. "Because there's already something else in you, trying to undo its effects."
"So I was right, then." Tsunade released Tayuya's chin, allowing both to look toward Naruto, who had spoken. "I was second-guessing myself for a bit, 'cuz you weren't showing any signs of having it. But now I think I know why." His eyes hardened, resolute. "Orochimaru's mark needs to come off, ASAP…"
"Wait, wait! Hold on!" Tayuya tried to interrupt, the repeated shocks finally showing their toll. Her breaths quickened, frantic. "What the hell do you mean 'there's something else'? Don't just gloss over that shit- what do you mean by that!?"
"Not yet," Tsunade discouraged her, gently, but firmly. "I want to tell you, but not until we can be sure that it's safe." Looking to Naruto, Tsunade's order was firm. "Drop everything you're doing. We need that seal off, yesterday." Then to Tayuya- "As soon as it's removed, we'll answer your questions, I promise; until then, I need you to cooperate with Naruto as best you can to get that thing off your neck."
Tayuya let off a shaky scoff. "Y-you think I don't know that shit?" Her fingers clutched over the sealed mark, its steady ache persistent even through the binds that had been placed. "But you assholes owe me answers as soon as it's off."
Naruto nodded, barely hearing the girl.
"I guess we just do what we can, yeah?" Kakashi's words came to him again, the faintest embers of something hopeful stirring in his chest again.
Do what you can, huh?
He nodded, resolutely. This was something that only he could do. A way to help Tayuya and her friends; to help Sasuke…
And if he could give Orochimaru the finger while he was at it?
"Guess you'll be my plus one for the time being, huh?" He eyed the redhead, willing her to sense the budding resolve in his heart. "We're grabbing your shit and moving you into my place. You're not to leave my sight until that thing is off."
"Er- a bit forward, much?" Tayuya half-joked. "What about the others? Arms and the Twins?"
Naruto nodded. "Theirs come off as soon as I've got your sorted.
Kushina hummed, thoughtfully. "If we can conquer his older marks, it could serve as a model for how we tackle Sasuke's. Forget just sealing it, we Uzumaki are nothing if not ambitious!"
Yeah. It wasn't much, but it was something. A spark of hope, and a new goal to shoot right after, instead of just loitering around and playing cleanup. For the first time in what felt like days, Naruto's grin stretched wide and true across his face. "Orochimaru spent his life's work making these things, right? I'll crush it in a month."
The sun had long-fallen when Hinata finally returned to the Hyuga compound for the evening. She had stopped by briefly to drop Hanabi off at home, earlier; though, Hinata still wasn't at all keen to spend any more time than was necessary in the presence of her father.
Instead, she'd spent the evening training. Her rotation was still a bit sloppy in a few places, which Kurenai-sensei had been far too quick to point out.
"I'll wake up early tomorrow to work on it some more," She mumbled to herself, stepping past the late-shift guards with an absent nod for the pair. "Quicker startup- reduce end lag." She thought on it some more. "Practice changing the radius post-casting."
All things Hiashi had shown himself to be capable of and more. She wouldn't be able to consider the technique mastered until hers was at least up to that standard. After that, she'd double down on refining it further using the core principles of the rasengan… She wondered if she could do the reverse as well- use the heavenly rotation's principles to expand the projectile she'd been working on, post-launch?
"Hinata-sama?" Hinata startled out of her thoughts, peering up past her bangs to match gazes with Neji. He was seated on the steps to their compound, right ahead of the entrance. When her cousin fully registered her arrival, he rose, pacing two steps forward and bowing. "Good evening."
It was odd, seeing her cousin bow so earnestly, these days. She remembered only recently, when his face would twist with scorn as he jerked his body in a mere perversion of the motions. Shaking herself free of those thoughts, she returned the gesture. "Good evening…"
He rose to his full height, and Hinata had to incline her head a bit to match him as he approached, some marvelous hesitancy in his gesture. "I-" Neji froze for a moment, shifting awkwardly. Hinata shifted in turn, her own discomfort boosted immediately by the uncanny nerves of the normally stoic boy. "A word, if you would indulge me?"
Had he been waiting at the steps all this time for her? Hinata leaned around him, eyeing the steps that her cousin had first risen from. "How long have you been waiting for me?"
"Ah, not long."
A lie. Hinata did not challenge him on it though, merely inclining her head. "What did you need?"
Regardless of their issues, Neji had been nothing but courteous to her, as of late. The least she could do would be to humor his request.
Or maybe she was still every bit as soft as her father had so often demeaned her for.
She shook that thought free, centering her thoughts on Neji, whose lips were moving as he strode past her.
"Somewhere private, then."
He walked out the gates that she had just entered through, and Hinata strangled down a sigh.
She supposed her bed could wait a bit longer, then.
Hinata fell in step with Neji, taking care to match the gait of his longer legs. She said nothing, but her anxiety must have bled into her posture, for it did not take long for Neji to begin rambling.
"Hinata-sama, Hanabi-sama has expressed her worry for you- in confidence, that is."
Hinata bit back a groan. She couldn't exactly blame her younger sister; though, that didn't make it any less frustrating to have the girl meddling as she was.
"In… In confidence, you say?" She mumbled, halfheartedly. "What does that mean to you?"
"I mean that she has spoken only to me on this matter." Neji held his gaze forward, his footsteps steady. Were an outsider to look in, she almost wondered if they'd see the years of baggage that piled between them. "You are not well… She sees it; I see it. I'm sure Hiashi-sama sees it as well."
Yeah, right…
Hinata refrained from scoffing, but it was difficult. "I'm sure he does," She instead tried, diplomatically. Neji snorted humorously, and she realized with a blush just how sarcastic she must have sounded.
"I am not here to speak to you on behalf of Hiashi-sama. I speak only for myself." He gnawed at his lip- a nervous trait that she remembered, but had never really seen in him until late. "And whatever capacity that Hanabi-sama has offered me." Hinata said nothing, so Neji continued. "You are not well," He repeated. "I promise that I would not presume to judge you; I merely wish to help."
"I'm fine." Hinata almost didn't recognize the sound of her own voice. There was a cold 'snap' to her tongue that made even Neji twitch a bit. "I'm fine," She said again, this time with a more deliberate softness. "You and Hanabi-chan don't need to worry about me."
"With all due respect, I'd appreciate it if you didn't lie to me." Neji matched her earlier harshness with just a lilt of his own.
"You lied to me earlier," Hinata bit back, that forced gentleness peeling away bit by bit. "When you said you had not been waiting long."
Hypocrite… Wow, they really were related!
Neji at least had the grace to appear sheepish. "M-my apologies."
With the wind taken swiftly out of his sails, he fell silent for another moment. But the reprieve was not long, as he chased after his next angle. "I believe the reason Hanabi-sama came to me specifically is because she understands something about the two of us that neither have considered." His heiress rolled her gaze his way, the faintest touch of a glower beginning to build.
"And… And that is?"
"You don't care very much for my opinion." Neji laughed, to Hinata's shock. It was the first time in such a long time that she had heard that sound; truly, she had even wondered if he could. If only for that reason, Hinata felt her own giggles bubble up; tiny pearls of laughter spilled over into her cupped fingers, a new bid of peace warming the tension between the pair.
"N-no, I- um… I suppose I don't." She was surprised that she didn't feel very bad about admitting that. "Sorry," She tried to lie. But then she aborted it with a solemn shake of her head. "I- I suppose that was a lie as well."
"I'm not offended. It's the least that I deserve," Neji admitted with a humbling plainness. "Hinata-sama, I do not at all presume to be a confidant of any sort for you. I knew well when you rejected my apology-"
"I did not reject it," Hinata cut in. "I didn't know what to do with it…"
"Apples and oranges," He muttered back. "And please do not interrupt me; you know how I hate that."
This time, Hinata did not try to apologize, for their apparent truce seemed to demand honesty.
"Regardless of how you view it, I knew well that I had done irreparable damage to our potential as family…" Neji's shoulders half-rose, then slumped- a mere parody of its presumed gesture. "I accept full responsibility for that. I will never blame you for not wanting anything to do with me."
She really wished he'd get to his point. Though, not even 'Bold Hinata' seemed quite so inundated with moxie as to challenge him in such a way. Even still, Neji seemed to read her impatience in her posture.
"Right… Regardless of that, I owe you a debt. As Naruto Uzumaki warned me back then, it was by your grace that he left me intact during our battle; it was your care, to whatever capacity that may be, that pushed him to show me kindness. That kindness allowed me to see my errors, and though the road remains perilous, I am proud to say that I am committed to changing for the better." He looked like he wanted to say more. Hinata didn't doubt it; Neji loved to monologue… Thankfully though, he seemed to catch himself with little more than an awkward cough.
"I owe you a debt," He repeated, resolutely. "And I intend to repay that debt however I can."
She wasn't exactly sure she wanted him to owe her anything. But Hinata could not deny that she was curious. "And what are you trying to say with all of this, Neji?"
He hesitated for only a moment, then finally came to a stop. Hinata followed suit, casting her vision around with curious eyes.
One of the village's dedicated training grounds. It was stung all throughout with the bite of steel; kunai and shuriken galore pierced the grounds, littering trees, grass, and posts with equal parts precision and abandon. She glanced elsewhere, noting the heavily worn and splintered tree branches- clear signs of repeated attacks.
"This is training area thirteen; it is my team's preferred meeting place" Neji pointed after the sea of metal. "Tenten can get a bit carried away with her target practice." Then, he gestured toward several discarded weights that had blended in with the weapons. Then again at the damaged trees. "Lee and Gai-sensei are freaks where it comes to pure physical effort… I don't hate it though."
There was something fond in his words that drew Hinata's gaze back to him. "Why did you bring me here?"
Neji did not answer her immediately, merely staring warmly at the scene for a time. "Before Uzumaki set my head straight, I had a lot of pent up emotions… Rage, grief-" He glanced her way, his eyes melting with a new emotion. "Guilt… I kept them buried, because that's what Hiashi-sama always taught us to do. But what my team has shown me is that it's alright to just let go, from time to time… But I see you following that same path as I was, now; I know from experience that it will not end well." Now, he sighed. "I already know that you will not confide in me… I have long-since tarnished any chance at being a confidant or friend to you… So I would instead offer to you the same thing that my team always offered me, back before I myself knew how to be a friend to them, and when my demons threatened to get the better of me.
Hinata frowned as he strode ahead a bit more, suddenly stopping on a dime to face her. She suspected that she already knew exactly where this was going. "And that is?"
Now, Neji grinned widely, his fingers clenching and unclenching with anticipation. "A good, messy fight between equals."
That's the chapter
I'm still not exactly satisfied that I'm done covering everything now that the dust has settled. Again, I wrapped this up in a rush I gotta be out the door soon, but I also didn't wanna leave y'all without a chapter for another 2 weeks or so after I said last chapter that the next wouldn't take too long. Regardless, I'd say we've covered enough that I can reasonably start working toward the next arc. Expect some final bits sprinkled throughout the next chapter (which will likely be a bit, 'cuz vacation) before we'll be heading on in full swing.
Now one final question for y'all before I head out:
Who wants to see Hinata whoop Neji's ass?