Happy birthday to the kindest, most sincere and most beautiful woman, my favourite anime character of all time and the goddess, Mrs. Hinata Uzumaki!

Hinata is an inspiration. It's easy to identify with her struggles, her inner conflicts, her insecurities and its awe inspiring to see how she overcame them all. Yes, she needed the inspiration of Naruto to do that, but we all need inspiration to one extent or another, don't we?

Also, needless to say, it's not just Naruto that has inspired her, she has inspired our favourite goofy whiskered blonde all the time as well. With her conviction, with her soothing words of encouragement as well as her support. Naruto and Hinata are incomplete without each other and only together have they been able to achieve anything. Hinata is the leader of Naruto's private life, the sun that shines on him and keeps him warm. She may not be a leader in public, but without her support, Naruto wouldn't have made it. She is the very first follower of his ninja way, but in private, he's her devotee. Well….I can go on and on about this.

And once again, these fics are all our tribute to her anyways.

So, Mrs. Uzumaki, your humble fans RaNK001 and GBAboy313 wish you a very happy birthday. Thank you for being an inspiration.

A/N: And we're back! With the latest chapter of One Year Early. Well, nothing much going on here though. Everyone's favourite birthday girl is recovering from her injuries after all. So this chapter is also unfortunately conversations for the most part. Though we will be setting the stage for a bit of a major arc which will be coming soon. Once again, I thank you all for supporting and appreciating our work. Without further ado, let's get on with the chapter. Happy reading!

CHAPTER 23: BACK TO ACTION

*Kusagakure*

The red-haired woman touched the sickly young girl's hands.

The father straightened his glasses. And this was when he noticed that the woman he came to looked almost deathly sick herself. How was she supposed to be the exceptional healer when she was in such dire health herself.

Cough* "Your daughter is indeed very sick and requires urgent treatment, Sanju-san." The woman said.

The spectacled man nodded. "I am aware. But I have visited many renowned doctors and they all have given up hope on her. The only ones I was yet to visit were you and Senju Tsunade, and we all know she refuses to treat anyone anymore."

"I see…" The sickly redheaded woman said and then went on to cough again.

"Do you think you can treat my daughter?" The man asked.

The woman let out a deep breath. She looked very exhausted.

This was when a girl came to the room, a girl, a few years short of the age of the one that was being checked. "Here… have some water, mom." The redheaded girl said.

"*Cough* Thank you, Karin…" The woman said softly.

"…Mom…" Karin looked sadly at her mother and then at the ones that were visiting her, a sickly girl and a worried father.

"…This illness…it seems genetic…" The healer woman began speaking. And the girl's father got to attention. He had heard other doctors say the same thing before saying there was nothing, they could do about it.

"…I don't know…how much I can do, but I will try…" The woman said.

The father's eyes lit up. He was so excited that he grabbed the woman's hands. "You think there is hope!?" He asked with almost teary eyes.

"…To be frank Amado-san…I don't think I have much longer in this world. I know well that my body is failing…But when it comes to saving an innocent child…I will still do all I can…and in my homeland-it was ingrained into us to never stop believing, to never stop hoping." The woman smiled and then rolled up her sleeve.

"Akebi-chan…" She said softly. "I need you to bite me…" She said softly.

The girl looked at her with a confused face. So did her father. And it was then that he noticed, all those bite marks on her skin. Her skin had become so pale that it was almost scary. But still, her smile and expression were radiating hope and life. How was such a contrast even possible. "Don't worry about me…I am used to this…and think of it as some bitter medicine, okay?" The woman insisted, in a kind tone.

Akebi did as she was asked to and bit on the woman's hand.

She held on to that hand with her teeth for a while. Amado could notice that his daughter's skin looked significantly healthier and her face seemed to actively relax in a way that he hadn't seen in a long time.

But he became a bit unsettled when he was the redheaded healer's face. She was looking exhausted. She was taking deep breaths. One or two coughs included. And he saw how her daughter was just standing there, looking at her mother with a worried expression.

"How are you feeling now, Akebi-chan?" The woman asked.

The girl closed her eyes. "I feel better…much better than I can remember. I…I don't feel any more aches!" She said happily.

Amado's eyes behind his glasses widened. The serious man that he was, he couldn't express the elation and joy he felt in any proper way. This was the first time, someone had made Akebi feel better.

Then the redhead spoke again. "My chakra should have reinvigorated her immune system and reinforced its capabilities for the time being. She shouldn't feel pain like had been suffering under. She won't require further treatment for at least five years. After that, a normal doctor would be able to attend to her so she won't be in a fatal risk any more. You can rest easy, Sanju-san." The doctor said with a smile.

"I…I…I don't know how I can thank you…doctor…" Amado said with a sincere bow.

The woman smiled. "No need Mr. Amado. Seeing innocent children relieved of their pain and happy, it makes me really happy as well. You can say that it is the only thing that keeps me hopeful, that and my little angel, Karin."

"If you don't mind, I would like to talk to you alone for a bit." Amado requested, allowing himself to get serious.

The woman nodded. "Karin-chan." She again called her daughter, who had gone in at some point. The girl came back. "Take Akebi-chan to our backyard, show her the banyan trees."

"Okay, mom. Come on!" The girl cheerfully took Akebi by her hand and the girl followed, happily, since she was feeling better after so long.

She could play with the other kids now.

Once the kids were gone, the adults faced each other.

"What did you want to speak about, Amado-san?" The woman asked.

"When you were treating Akebi, you said something about not having long to live. Does it have anything to do with how you treat patients? By having them bite on your skin? I noticed that you were uneasy at that time." Amado questioned.

The woman smiled, tiredly. "You have sharp eyes, Amado-san. Indeed, that is the reason. I am certain that you are a well-informed man. Considering my peculiar hair, can you tell where I am from?" She asked.

"…Uzushio…from the Uzumaki clan…" Amado answered.

The woman nodded. "We are famous for our powerful chakra, strong vitality, and fuinjutsu prowess; and many Uzumaki have different special abilities, instead of a certain standardized Bloodline Limit. My special ability is the ability to heal by having someone bite into my skin…but Uzumaki chakra and life force have their limits." The woman said sadly. "However, this village that gave me refuge upon the destruction of my homeland, doesn't seem to realize that."

"Your powers are being abused beyond limits." Amado concluded.

The woman nodded with a sad expression. "Even my body can only take so much, but when they realized how much more effective my healing was compared to their medics, everybody in this village began using me for everything, a simple scratch to a life-threatening injury. Day in and day out. Even an Uzumaki body is still a human body, not something divine. My lifeforce is drained considerably. I don't think I will be able to live for another year…"

"Why don't you run away?" Amado asked.

The woman shook her head sadly. "I am no shinobi. They may have enrolled Karin-chan into their academy, I can tell that they are training her to take my place rather than teaching her to be a capable ninja, since they also know that soon I will pass away as well. Unfortunately, I can't outrun ninja. I am sure that you would also be aware that many other shinobi villages consider the Uzumaki to be some sort of prized catch. If I run from here, I will be caught either by Kusa or some other village, who upon realizing my abilities will use me and even my daughter the same way Kusa uses us."

"What of Konoha? They will surely take care of you and Karin?" Amado asked.

"I do think they will be better than the rest, but Konoha is far. And how can I make sure to contact a Konoha ninja? I don't know any. And my contacts with ninja from outside is heavily monitored. I don't think they will allow me to get in touch with any foreign shinobi, especially one from Konoha. Amado-san, I am not worried about myself as much as I am about Karin. She is so young, but since their ninja already realize that I am at the end of my usefulness to them, they have already started exploiting Karin, not caring a single bit about her young age. I am just too powerless to fight back and protect my daughter or run away…" Tears were already falling from the Uzumaki doctor's eyes. "I am sorry, Amado-san. I got carried away and told you about my pain. Don't worry yourself about me, please. I don't want you or Akebi-chan to get into any trouble." She said humbly.

Amado smirked. "But I don't think I can just let it go. You saved my daughter's life, and I can't just rest easy knowing there's a way to repay that debt." The spectacled man said with a serious tone.

"But…I can tell that you are not a ninja yourself." The doctor protested.

Amado nodded. "I might not be one, but I have…let's say some connections. I can let the word slip to the toad sannin Jiraiya's ears that there are two pure blooded Uzumaki in Kusa and that Kusa is concealing their existence and harshly exploiting them." Amado said smirking. The Uzumaki looked at him with wide eyes, but didn't say anything aloud. Taking her silence for a nod, Amado nodded as well.

"Well then, I think I will remain a guest of Kusagakure for a little longer to let my daughter have a bit of rest before moving on."

*Konohagakure*

It had been two months since that mission involving the trapmaster from Kagero and his 'treasure hunt' game.

Pant* *Pant* The lavender eyed girl came to a stop.

"Yay! Hina-chan! We were able to run 5 laps around the village! We moved it up another lap within a week! It's amazing! Dattebayo." Hinata's whisker marked boyfriend cheered.

"Yosh! Hinata-san's flames of youth burn strong and bright!" The boy with the bowl haircut complimented.

Two weeks after the mission involving Genno was over, Tsunade gave Hinata permission to jog and sprint, but with lots of care and caution to be taken.

It was during this time that the lovely couple had made good friends with Lee, Maito Gai's protégé and a 'genius of hard work' in his own declaration.

Lee helped them devise a recovery training regimen for Hinata. Shikaku was very anxious about Lee advising something borderline crazy which could jeopardize the Hyuuga girl's still recovering leg. But surprisingly enough, he came up with a very reasonable and safe regimen.

He also helped the two in being able to get on their hands and run upon them as well. Though Naruto and Hinata were still pretty amateurish in that regard. Regardless, it definitely was a helpful training for strengthening the hands.

Lee and his sensei, whom Naruto immediately dubbed 'Bushy brows sensei', Gai advised Hinata some good stretching exercises to help with the leg's recovery. Lee led the two of them on short jogs and runs. With a cautious and slow increase in running laps. In any case, a shinobi and someone as determined and stubborn as Hinata's recovery regimen was going to be faster and more stressful than that of a normal person, for obvious reasons. She was determined to get back on training and make up for all the time she had lost. She hadn't done jyuuken practice in months. She really needed to de-rust and start catching up.

It was within this time that she was allowed to channel chakra through her previously fractured leg and train.

Having been forced to separate from the Hyuuga compound, Hinata didn't have a sparring partner to hone her jyuuken with. She had indeed taught Naruto all the jyuuken moves that she knew that didn't require the usage of the Byakugan and he had worked hard upon it throughout the time as she was recovering, so he proved to be a great sparring partner. Lee came when he had time. He was not a jyuuken user, but with all his spars with Neji in his team, he had extensive experience about dealing with Jyuuken and he could definitely help someone train with it and give pointers. That all proved extremely helpful.

Hinata also practiced the lightning balls jutsu that she had learned during the mission to Taki. She also learnt some other lighting release techniques.

The 'Lightning Release: Lightning Rat Violent Quake' was a jutsu much similar to the lightning balls technique that was Hinata's first properly mastered ninjutsu. Here instead of generating spheres of lightning, she was to generate disks of lightning chakra and these had to ability to home on the opponent. It required slightly greater focus and chakra control, something she had no trouble with, so she got the jutsu down in a reasonable level.

It was during this time that Shikaku also informed her about 'Lightning Release: Overdrive' a technique to increase the speed of the electric signals travelling between the brain and the muscles to increase the speed of bodily movements. For a Hyuuga, this could be used to improve the speed of their jyuuken providing them with speeds equivalent to that with two or three inner gates open, depending on the mastery and stamina of the user. But it was a limited boost-something to be used to overwhelm an opponent and quickly finish a fight. Hinata decided to master this one once her recovery was really complete. She kept honing her jyuuken. She was already good enough with 32-palms. So, she began practicing 64-palms.
She knew that Neji had already mastered that one.
Hinata had promised to beat him in a fight.
Hinata had no intention of being left behind.

And meanwhile, she was also practicing that technique, her defensive 64-palms, that she had been practicing under the waterfall that night.

Point of note, our favourite blonde boy was yet to admit to her that he had followed her and had seen her practice under the waterfall that night.

And with that, we have a brief summary of Hinata's recovery till this point. She was now allowed to train, run, and do pretty much everything as a ninja.

All that remained was doing some missions.

*Back to present time*

"*Pant* T-thank you, N-Naruto. And you too Lee-kun. Y-your assistance w-was invaluable. As were y-your inputs about Neji-nii-san's training and y-your e-experience w-with jyuuken." Hinata said humbly as she caught hold of her breathing after the laps that they had done around Konoha. The three of them had been training together for the last month. They started from one lap and now they were at ten. Of course, Lee could keep going. But oh well…

Both Hinata and Naruto had challenged Neji. They knew if they were to catch up, then they had to match Lee in training and hard work, since Lee was (according to their sensei) equal to Neji in taijutsu. So, catch up with Lee, catch up with Neji. Surpass Lee, surpass Neji. Straight and simple. As if Lee was just going to let them catch up and surpass him without making it difficult!? Ha! No.

No freaking way in hell.

And so, the recovery efforts went on. It was not going to be long before Hinata would be free to do missions.

*Land of Honey*

The Daimyo walked back and forth in his office. Cold sweat could be seen running through his forehead.

Knock* "Come in!" The daimyo ordered and an aide hurriedly got in and bowed.

"Any news?" The feudal lord asked expectantly.

The man before him hung his head. "I am extremely sorry my lord. There is still no news of Lady Kayo and her delegation. Our search parties have returned empty handed. And we still have not heard the news of her reaching her destination."

"How could she just disappear!? Was the entire route searched!?"

"Yes sir."

"And there are still no demands of ransom or anything of that sort?" The Daimyo demanded. This was after all not just any delegation. It was his own wife that was leading it.

"I am extremely sorry sir. There is simply no news." The aide answered.

The Daimyo sighed. "I don't understand! How can they just vanish into thin air?!" The man slammed his hand on a nearby table.

"If I may sir, capabilities of shinobi and their jutsus are beyond the understanding of normal people like us. If there are any ninja involved in this, that could possibly explain it."

"Shinobi!?" The daimyo questioned. "But we don't even have any kind of dispute with any nation that have shinobi. Major or minor. Why should they even bother!?"

"There are mercenary ninja outfits too, my lord, and many of them have earned a place of infamy. If paid enough, they can be put to any task without the ethics restrictions a Hidden Village might put in place." The aide answered. A reasonable possibility. But the daimyo could not really think of any of his rivals really who hated him enough to take such a step. However, in politics, there were always a lot of unknowns. The daimyo thought hard.

And then we went over to his desk and began hurriedly writing a letter.

Once he had put his signature and seal. He folded the letter into a scroll and handed it to the aide. "If there is any ninja activity in all of this, we have to get some ninjas to see through this as well. Send this to Konoha, to the Hokage."

The aide bowed. "Understood my Lord." And the man rushed to carry out the task.

Through the services of the shinobi postmen, the letter would reach Hiruzen, the Hokage within 2 days.

*Hokage office, 2 days later*

Hiruzen was going through some files.

Nothing really important, but the regular stuff. Shikaku was also looking over some documents himself. It was when one of the aides came in and handed over a letter to Hiruzen.

"This just arrived from the Land of Honey, it has the Daimyo's seal on it, Hokage-sama." The aide stated.

Hiruzen nodded as he accepted the letter and the aide left.

The wizened Hokage carefully opened the letter and read through.

"Hmm…this is indeed from the Daimyo of the Land of Honey. Huh? Now that's really a problem."

"What's the matter, Hokage-sama?" Shikaku asked.

"Well, the daimyo of the Land of Honey writes that his wife, Lady Kayo, was travelling with a delegation to her paternal home in the Land of Bean Jam has been missing since 5 days ago. No signs of her or her delegation along the route. No sign of any of their belongings, nor any demands of ransom. He states that if I believe there could be any involvement of ninja behind this, then his request is to dispatch our own shinobi and get to the bottom of this." Hiruzen summarized.

"Well, the daimyo's wife would indeed be an important target and would be worth a very high ransom. It is indeed possible for ninja to be hired to kidnap her or even kill her." The head Nara replied.

"Yes, it's a possibility, Shikaku. Since Hinata-chan has been completely healed and is now fit to do missions, why don't you and your team take this one. Investigate the matter. However, if you see signs that powerful players are involved, get backup before engaging." Hiruzen suggested.

Shikaku thought for a moment. "Well, any mission can immediately spiral out of control. But, the possibility of risk appears to be low. Team-6 will take this mission, Hokage-sama." Shikaku affirmed.

"Excellent. In that case, due to the urgency of the matter, I suggest that you make haste."

"Hai, Hokage-sama. I am leaving to get the kids." The head jonin gave a bow and then vanished in a body flicker.

A/N: And done! So yeah the stage for the next two arcs. The immediate next arc, is well, it's not much…just something to setup the one after it and allow for an important character to make an appearance. I hope you all had a nice read. Once again, thank you all for your continued love and support.

Cheers and peace.

RaNK001 out.