A/N – More tiger summons, because that's what we're here for, as a society.

Hinata sat in the courtyard of the Hikaru Tetsu temple, early in the morning. The severe seiza she was sitting in was something she had grown unused to after her departure from the Hyūga Clan, and had to reacquaint herself with in Zenchōdō. The breeze flowing through the place, sweetened from the variety of flowering trees planted throughout the courtyard, set her at ease.

It had been 3 months since she had come to Zenchōdō, and so far, all she had done was a lot of meditation (along with some sealwork, but it was mostly meditation).

One day, a month into said meditation, when everyone was taking a break to have a nap in the sun, she had run out of patience and asked Isao what the point of all this was (she did not have the guts to take it up with Shiori herself, who was idly playing with little Kitaro, letting him try to catch her tail and moving it out of the way at the last second).

He had told her that many jutsu would be open to her only after she was bonded to a specific summon. She would still be able to summon others, but this one summon would be, for all intents and purposes, her main summon.

And to bond with one, she needed to meditate. To find the summon that would fit her best, she would need to know herself the best.

Which is why she was here.

In front of her was a grey stone lantern in the shape of a roaring tiger, the eyes fitted with black stones and the fangs fitted with red gems which coloured and refracted the light shining through them.

"Keep your focus on the light before you," Shiori's voice droned in her ear. She was seated behind Hinata, off to the side and close to a natural pond with water that glimmered blue and green. Her tail rhythmically swept through the water, and flicked water onto Hinata. "Reach deep inside yourself. Know yourself as your mother knew you when she birthed you. Know yourself as Kami knew you when they made you."

Hinata stared into the light, blinking slowly at intervals (the first time she had done this, she had been terrified of closing her eyes and messing up, which ended up with her eyes being so strained that she could not use her Byakugan for a day).

She breathed deeply, cataloguing what she smelled. Magnolia, jasmine, and lilac. She breathed in again, and let it go without focusing on it.

It took a few minutes of Shiori talking her through the process, before Hinata felt herself reach that place of near weightlessness, where everything had equal and no importance.

"State your name."

"Yūhi Hinata." Hinata heard her voice say from outside her body.

"Why are you here, Yūhi Hinata?"

"I am here to learn." Hinata answered. The centre of her forehead felt warm. She was idly aware that in any other circumstance, she would have been worried about the seal. But she could not bring herself to be so at the moment.

"What will you do with what you learn?"

Well, that was the question, wasn't it?

The last time they had done this, Hinata had worried so much about what the correct answer would be that she immediately snapped out of her meditation. Shiori and Isao had been very understanding about it, saying that it was not unexpected and that she would get better eventually (Kitaro, sweetheart that he was, had let her cuddle him tight), but it had taken weeks to shake the feeling of failure off of herself.

In the following weeks, in between learning Tora seals, Hinata had agonized over what the answer could be.

Was it to fight for her Village? She did not really care for conflict, and the summons could not care less about that either. Their only affiliation to Konoha was through her.

To fight their battles? They were doing well by themselves, they didn't need Hinata to do anything for them.

Hinata had tried to surreptitiously find out what the answer was, asking questions where she could. Many simply said to look towards her heart. Shiori chuckled and Isao accused her of looking for an easy answer (the sting was taken out by the obvious joking tone he had employed).

Hinata considered the question.

She didn't want to fight. She was a shinobi, yes, but it was mostly due to spite. The Hyūga disowned her because they thought she wouldn't be a good shinobi, and so she had to prove them wrong. Hinata was sure that, in another life, where her former clan was not the way it was, she would have chosen to be a civilian.

She looked deeper into herself.

What did she want?

She wanted to be helpful. She wanted to be able to help the people who needed her.

She wanted people to be safe. Her friends and family, people she knew and would come to know in the future.

Safe to be happy, safe to be themselves. Safe to love and be loved.

She had her answer.

"I want to be helpful, to those around me." Hinata murmured, the silence around her calming but conspicuous. "I want to be safety, for those who need it."

The fangs of the tiger lantern shone bright, red and amber and a little bit of green.

Hinata felt a brush against her back and grinned.

It worked.

She did not know how, but it worked.

"It is done." Shiori's voice pulled her out of her meditation, the satisfaction she was emanating hard to ignore.

Hinata blinked a few times to reorient herself in reality, and turned around.

'Katsumi-chan!'

The tiger behind her was one she had summoned before, once or twice during the war (summoning Isao took too much chakra, and Hinata did not want to be out of commission after one summoning), but she was not very well acquainted with her.

They had only had a bare bones talk about their respective skillsets to be able to fight effectively. But if Hinata was remembering correctly, Katsumi did have the sharpest eyes among the summons.

She was similar in looks to what one would expect from an ordinary tiger. Orange fur, with black stripes. She had seals shaved into them like every other summon Hinata had seen. The only difference was that her eyes were an almost poisonous green. She wore a collar of the same metal that all the others wore, chains dangling from it in loops.

Hinata stood up as Katsumi bowed to her, and bowed back.

"Hello, Hinata-san." Katsumi greeted her. "I am Katsumi. It has been decreed that I shall be your bonded."

Hinata blinked a little in uncertainty. The words sounded... ritualistic... which was not good, since she had no idea what she was supposed to say back.

Hinata shot a quick glance at Shiori. She was entirely unhelpful, simply staring at both of them with a subtly pleased eye-squint. Isao had planted himself next to her, sometime during her meditation, but he didn't offer any advice either.

'What now...?'

Hinata looked at Katsumi's patient gaze, and tried to slap together some appropriate words.

"I am Yūhi Hinata. It would be an honour to be bonded to you, Katsumi-san." Hinata declared, then, almost as an afterthought, added, "I hope our bond shall be a credit to us both."

Shiori gave a growl that did not sound dissatisfied, so Hinata was going to assume that she did okay.

"The bond shall be sealed tomorrow." Shiori announced decisively, and gestured for everyone to return back inside.

_

'This is not how I expected this to happen.'

Hinata was laying down on a futon, her face resting on her arms. Said face was also burning red, a little because of the heat from the many candles strewn across the room, but mostly because she was naked from the waist up.

'At least Isao-san is not here'

She tapped her fingers on the futon as she waited.

To her understanding, the way this would happen was that first Katsumi would draw the combined seal on her back, guided by Shiori. Then, after the seal was finished, Hinata would shave the second part of said seal into one of Katsumi's stripes.

What were the seals supposed to be?

She did not have the faintest idea.

Shiori simply told her that she would feel it in her soul.

Personally, she thought these non-answers were becoming a worrying pattern.

"The seals that connect you are extremely important." Shiori intoned from the corner of the room. "Katsumi-chan, Hinata-san, center yourselves as you draw and accept the seals. They will not only determine what you do, they will determine your success in the jutsu you attempt."

'Way to take the pressure off...'

Hinata fell back into a meditative state, her head sinking further onto her arms.

"Begin when you are ready."

Hinata took a deep breath. Somehow, she knew when Katsumi was ready.

Hinata felt a cold sensation moving across her back, and tried to hold back a shiver.

There was a diamond, she was sure of that. It felt like it took over a good part of her back, from between her shoulder blades to just above her rear.

Lines moved up her sides. Four times, but she couldn't tell entirely what the actual shape they created was.

The cold from the ink spread across the rest of her back, and she couldn't tell what the actual seals were.

It felt as though she had been there for hours, even though logically she knew that she must have been there for no more than 20 minutes.

The cold of the ink faded away as the seal took root. Hinata felt a tug somewhere deep within her, as if a line was being held taut.

"Hinata-san, it is your turn."

Hinata got up, mildly dizzy from the sweet incense perfuming the air. She sat in a seiza, and grabbed the shaving blade off to the side.

Katsumi laid down before her, presenting a stripe on her flank that did not contain seals.

Hinata focused on the stripe, and tried to figure out what she wanted to go there.

Over the next half-an-hour, Hinata shaved seals into Katsumi's flank, as they came to her. Courage, cooperation, farsightedness. Clarity, for when Hinata was confused. A seal to grant her ease of use in regards to lightning chakra, among many more for many other uses.

Hinata slowly came out of her meditation. She first noticed the candles burning low, not entirely out, but close. Then she noticed the softness below her moving.

Hinata lazily moved her head, and saw a couple of round ears a little bit further.

'Oh!'

She was resting on Katsumi.

Katsumi was laying on her side, and her deep breaths indicated her restfulness. Slow as molasses, Hinata got back up and looked for her samue to cover herself.

She did a little inner examination of herself.

The tug was no longer insistent, although the line was there.

'How do I – '

Hinata managed to tug on the line, and heard Katsumi growl sleepily.

'Is that the bond?'

She received something that felt like an agreement.

"Katsumi-chan," Hinata asked hesitantly, still a little sleepy. "Was that... you?"

Katsumi growled again, blinking sleep-filled eyes open.

Shiori entered from a door to the side as Hinata tied her samue close. She came over to them, sniffing at them a little as she looked them over.

"The bonding has succeeded." Shiori declared and moved back. "We shall begin the next stage of your training three days from now. You will use that time to explore the bond and familiarise yourself with it."

"Understood, Shuryō-sama."

"Yes, Shiori-sama."

A/N – 'Hikaru Tetsu' is bad Google translate for 'Luminous Iron' (all made-up terms throughout the fic are bad Google translate unless stated otherwise).

Me, one edit in: Okay, this chapter won't need much. I just need to change a few words, here and there, polish it a little.

Me, three edits in: Hinata's here in the summer, what aromatic flowers bloom in the summer!?