"What the hell is this?"

"The tool, it's blueprint," Hinata explained, words soft but loud in his ears. As if they were echoing from within his skull, or off the walls of this small office. It was almost like a pleasant humming under her words now that she was calm. Sasuki was still tense, still keeping her back in the corner and eyes on the spectre.

Though a couple steps were dared in order to get a closer look at the parchment in his hands.

"How do you even read this thing…I…why the fuck does it have a crank?" he asked, his eyes squinting as he stared at the strange mess of small writing and strangely shaded drawings. Would Karu accept this? Would she even be able to read it?

"Yeah, this looks like the maker's personal notes," she said, letting out a long, lingering sigh. "He certainly didn't make it concerned about anyone elses ability to read it. Still, it's worth taking," she locked eyes with Naruto, who immediately began rolling it up. Then she took two steps back into the corner and looked at Hinata. Naruto gritted his teeth.

"So, it looks like Hanabi will need to testify then, can you come with her?"

"I can't not come with her. She is my anchor, my purpose, my will," she explained, poorly.

"Uhh… So then surely you can just make sure she stays safe while we all go into town together!" he tried. "We're just going to the mayor's house; it's probably the safest place in Ironhold! She could even ride a giant there! Would she get a kick out of that, or would it just scare her more?" he prattled off uncertainly as Hinata continued to stare blankly. That concerned, fretful look that he was coming to understand as her default expression. Still, her words offered some hope.

"If you can convince her," she agreed, or warned. Leading them once again through the maze of a house without so much as footsteps to announce her motion. Her sister wasn't far. Which meant there wasn't much time to think or to even truly understand the implications of her words. Though even Naruto got the jist of it when he strolled through a doorway and heard a new voice.

"Hinata? HINATA! HINATA!" the young girl cried, only calming the slightest bit when her back was to the wall and the view of her soundly obscured by the spirit of her sister, who closed in quickly to stand guard between the two groups. It was easy to see the familial resemblance, though the girl couldn't have been older than thirteen. Their eyes were identical, and her face only just a smidge narrower around the chin. It would be hard to tell the two apart for one not familiar with them, if not for that chocolate brown hair and the stark difference in height.

"Hello, i-it's okay, we don't want to hurt you," Naruto began, when the silence began to linger and Sasuki stayed silent. "We uh… we just need to take you to town so we can have a little talk with the lawkeepers here. You're not in any trouble or anything, though, uh….. I don't know if your sister told you, but that bad man who was gonna marry her died!"

She gasped sharply, but not in a good way.

FUCK!

"Y-you… you're gonna burn me alive?" she muttered.

"What? No!"

"Your NOT gonna burn me alive or- or hang me or-"

"-No!" he dared cut her off. "No, by the void, why would you even be worried about that?" he pressed gently, sparing a glance up to Hinata, asking for help or guidance or information or something! She only glanced away.

"I've been living here alone with a ghost for… for I don't know how long!" Hanabi sobbed. "T-they don't think I'm a witch or corrupted or something?"

"I haven't heard anything of the sort uh…." he said, sparing a glance at Sasuki, whose eyes finally seemed to soften some.

"Nobody outside this house is going to hurt you, legally or otherwise," she promised, capturing the young girls attention. "Even if they do decide to we won't let them. I sincerely doubt there's enough patrolmen in a boony town like Ironhold to fight an armored giant, especially on orders to sieze and kill a cute little girl," she tried to be cheery at the last words, even smiling akwardly.

"…Hinata?"

"I trust them. Him," the specter clarified, sparing a questioning glance at Naruto.

"Y-yeah no, Sasuki's telling the truth. We wouldn't let them kill a kid even if they decided to, and I really, really doubt they will!" he even clasped his hands together like in prayer, latching in on the hope they were finally making progress. "Although your dad… uh…."

"I don't care about him!" she spat, even as her throat seemed to close in at the claim, tightening the words as her eyes watered. "H-he killed Hinata! I mean, he m-might as well have. I… I HATE HIM!"

"That's…. good?" he tried, suddenly quite glad to be an orphan. The silence lingered through the stuffy room. Perhaps thirty seconds before the poor child got her head together and continued, looking at Sasuki and making no effort to hide her fear.

"But what about Hinata? Th-they're going to make her leave, aren't they?"

Naruto hadn't even thought of that.

Judging by the way her lips pursed at the question, Sasuki had.

"We could just tell them we killed her after the trial, can't we? Is there any harm in keeping her here? Hell, it'd be an easy way to make sure Hanabi stays safe when we're out on business, if anything," he proposed, concerned by the lack of enthusiasm on his raven's face. "Though if we gotta move her, Karin would take her in I bet. She's a necromancer; if anyone can accommodate a ghost, she can!"

"Necromancers study flesh Naruto, controlling and reanimating a corpse. Souls are about the farthest possible thing from their area of expertise," she replied bluntly. "Though we would probably have to move her, surely at least one of the branch family would notice and nark if she stayed here,"

"Well, she'd probably still take her in for us. Karin doesn't seem like the sort to scare easily, plus I mean, she mentioned liking girls and Hinata's gorgeous," he thought out loud, not noticing the blunder in his words until Sasuki's eyes narrowed dissaprovingly. Still, she didn't dispute the point. She only turned her onyx eyes from his awkward grin back to the child.

"Would that satisfy you? If she moved just a few days away, you could even live out there with there if you'd like! It'd be like a storybook princess, living in a big tower in beautiful forest surrounded by nature," and shitloads of feral, cannibalistic monsters. It was a weak idea. Not even considering that she'd offered it without the necromancer's approval. Though, in her defense, Naruto had been just as bad, and in either case, he was probably right if he thought the firey orc blood would mind company. The bigger issue was keeping some highborn girl happy deep in the woods.

"I could stay hidden, watch over you and our home from the shadows, show my visage only to you," Hinata offered her sister tenderly.

"You can! Why didn't you say so? Problem solved; we'll just say that we killed her!" he practically laughed out.

Sasuki sighed.

"We'd have to be damn mindful of what company we brought back here," she complained. "You would have to be extremely careful not to be seen,"

"But it could work?" he pressed optimistically.

"Could. I'll go along with the halfassed lie if it's the only thing they'll accept," she agreed, waving a hand idly at the two sisters without looking at them.

"I-I just don't want her to go," Hanabi piped up almost apologetically. "She's all I have left!"

Her voice cracked again at that, tears spilling over her eyes as she tried not to sob.

"Suppose we're all staying here then," Sasuki relented.

She said nothing else, but Naruto smiled at the miniscule deepening of her frown. She wasn't as heartless as she wanted him to think, certainly not as cold as the face she showed the world. This became yet more evident when Hinata vanished and her scared sister quickly flew behind his raven, quickly claiming her as a new guardian while watching him wearily. Sasuki took her hand without complaint.

The soft patter of their feet on wood was the only sound as they left the house. The young girl found a coat that was probably worth more than the shack he lived in and didn't even actually own. It was a lovely stark white with a fox head connected to the hood, fluffy and soft-looking, with some smooth fabric on the inside that might have been silk or velvet. At least her leather snow boots looked relatively normal.

Naruto smiled at the tender site of his raven casually retaking the hand of the adorable little girl in her snowsuit, and finally, they strolled out of that cursed mansion!

Mission accomplished!

"Where the hell do you think your going you little ingrate!?" the voice wasn't loud. Not much louder than his own speaking voice even, but the whole world seemed to shake at it. Mostly because of the fearful flinching in all the branch family, but still. "You're really leaving with this commonborn filth and their pet monster?" Hiashi finished.

His eyes showed nothing but fury and disdain as he shouted. Hanabi huddled further behind Sasuki, craning in on herself and beginning to shake slightly. A deep, growing sense of dread began filling all of them, like the manor they'd left was a rising monster just behind their back. At least Sakura didn't seem afraid, immediately coming to rejoin her companions, cudel held carelessly in one hand.

Hanabi tried to speak.

"I… t-tell town what-"

"-THE HELL YOU ARE!" the man said, interrupting the struggled start of a sentence and making his daughter cower once more. "You ungrateful little shit! I put clothes on your back, food on your plate, asked nothing in return besides basic obedience! You're going to stain the Hyuuga name with this scandal? Haven't you hurt our family enough? You, who killed your mother to enter this world!"

"I think that's enough," Naruto bit, drawing the man's eyes in only a fraction of a second. It felt like the world was about to explode, like a hurricane was roaring inside the building behind him and going to burst out of it any second to kill everything! It felt risky to even speak again, or any louder, for fear of setting it off himself!

"Do you not know who I am? You think I can't have you thrown in chains? killed?! I am goddamn Hiashi Hyuuga first of my name; you fools are nothing!" he turned his gaze back to Hanabi, even more heated as he leaned into his hollering. "YOU-"

The words were cut off sharply as he took flight.

Sakura's cudgel had moved faster than anyone's eyes could follow; Hiashi had to have flown at least ten yards before he hit the ground! Then he bounced and tumbled and hit it about seven more times. It was like the whole world became muted. The servants and even the guards just stared in stunned disbelief. Naruto barely registered the apathetic words of the giant.

"How about that? He bounced just like a normal man,"

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Thanks for reading!

I have a surprise planned for the end of this story, and that's just a few more chapters away!