"Father."
Hiashi stepped into his Father's study, closing the door behind himself and hoping against hope that his suspicions would be proven wrong.
"Hiashi." His father replied, his eyebrow rising even as he reflexively closed the notebook he'd been writing in when Hiashi entered. "This is a surprise."
Hiashi kept his expression carefully neutral, "Is it?"
Was it really so surprising he wished to speak to his father?
As if sensing that Hiashi hadn't come for idle chatter, Hotaru's earlier faux-curious expression melted away, leaving only tired suspicion. "What do you need, Hiashi?"
"I need you to tell me you were manipulated."
Hiashi cursed inwardly, not having wanted to reveal his cards quite so soon, but the reality of what he was here to ask was too crushing to bear any longer.
"Tell me that he threatened you. Coerced you." he urged,pleaded, his usual pride abandoned as he met his father's gaze. "Tell me it wasn't a conscious choice."
Hotaru merely studied him for a beat, then sighed, though his expression didn't change. "You found the scroll, then."
A musing observation, almost like he wasdisappointedby the development, but the fear he should've felt at Hiashi knowing what he now knew was absent from his father's eyes and posture.
"I can tell you what you want to hear." Hotaru continued evenly, not seeming in the least perturbed by Hiashi's demands. "OrI can tell you the truth."
Hiashi had been right.
[oh, how he wished he had been wrong]
"Why did you do it?" he managed past the lump in his throat, unable to process a reality in which his father was a traitor to his Clan, with the blood of their clansmen on his hands. "Children, Father."
Instead of growing defensive, Hotaru's expression twisted with disgust at Hiashi's reminder. "I had thought only Hizashi was this soft, but it seems I failed with you both."
At the derisive utterance of his brother's name, Hiashi's earlier despair turned to fury.
"Hizashi was the best out of us all." He snapped, only barely restraining his Killing Intent, but his father waved him off.
"He was soft and weak; he'd have brought the Clan to its knees, and you would'velethim." Hotaru accused, and Hiashi's heart skipped a beat.
When he apparently remained silent for a moment too long, processing the implications of his father having perceived Hizashi as athreatto the Clan, Hotaru spoke up; "Is that all you needed from me?"
Far from it.
"Jiraiya implied that you did something to Hinata." Hiashi interjected, not ready to be dismissed just yet, for once not bothering with politeness and formality. He met his father's gaze, hoping that, at least in this, he would prove him wrong. "Did you?"
"Do you have a more concrete accusation?" Hotaru shot back, a mocking tilt to his lips now, his expression still not showing even a hint of fear. "Or are you taking anybody's word against mine, now?"
Hiashi fought the urge to grit his teeth, knowing that he couldn't allow himself to be baited. That was how Hizashi used to be able to win a good half of their spars, even after Hiashi had become Head: Hiashi's temper had always been worse, always quicker to ignite, faster to react to perceived provocation.
And that, in his brother's words, always made himsloppy.
"There is only one thing that you could've done that Jiraiya could've found out about." He told his father evenly, projecting a calm that he didn't feel, then shook his head. "But that had been a threat, it wasn't- it never should've-!"
"It wouldn't have been a very good threat if I hadn't been prepared to follow through." Hotaru cut him off, his smile almost pitying now, and Hiashi froze.
His ears were ringing. His face felt numb.
"You…you sealed the seal-keys into her?" he finally managed to choke out, his voice sounding foreign, far away. "When?"
Hotaru didn't hesitate. "When she was still a newborn."
Hiashi's world turned upside-down.
"Why?!" he burst out, gripping the front of his father's yukata and pulling him to his feet, shoving the man's back against the wall as he shouted in his face: "I did what you wanted! I renounced Hizashi's views, I had another child, I became likeyou!Why did you do it?!"
Hotaru met his gaze, not a hint of remorse or regret in his eyes. "I didn't trust your resolve."
Hiashi let go of his father's yukata abruptly and backed away, feeling sick to his stomach.
"How many seals." He asked dispassionately, the words catching in his throat.
"All the ones Hideki had held at the time." Hotaru replied quietly, fixing the folds of his yukata but not moving to go back to his seat. "Ninety-two."
Hiashi had to steady himself on a nearby bookshelf, closing his eyes against the powerful wave of regret that slammed into him.
"On a newborn?" his voice broke at the end, a humiliating show of weakness, but his father's depravity occupied too much of his attention for him to care. "Her chakra network-"
"That had been…unintentional." Hotaru admitted, the closest he had come to an apology since Hiashi had cornered him. "But she seems to have found ways around it."
That is not the point!Hiashi wished to scream, but he had learned the lesson of letting his emotions get the better of him when dealing with his father and took a breath instead.
"I advise you to settle your affairs." He said tonelessly, looking anywhere but at Hotaru.
At least until the man snorted dismissively.
"You're naïve if you think you can touch me, son." Hotaru replied, finally reclaiming his seat at the desk, his back to Hiashi, an insult and a dismissal in one single move. "You're isolated. Your peers shun you for allowing the separation of the Houses to continue, the few allies you had are either scattered or dead, and even your children have found support outside of you."
Hotaru laughed then, a short, savagely amused chuckle. "Frankly,Hinataright now has more political power than you do."
Hiashi stared at his father's back, feeling his world slowly collapse around that I am, all that I've done, I did because of you.
"You planned this." he whispered, realisation crashing into him with all the gentleness of a thunderbolt.
A year ago, Hiashi would've never dreamed of accusing his father of something like this. A month ago, he would have hesitated, too many inconsistencies in his Clan's recent history for him to allow to slide, too many question marks all pointing to his father, yet still, too many unknowns. A week ago, he would have wondered how to confront a man who embodied everything Hiashi had ever aspired to as a shinobi.
An hour ago, Hiashi had sent a Shadow Clone into Hinata's empty room and left the scroll he'd found and the vial with Hotaru's blood on his daughter's bookshelf, knowing by now the importance of leaving trails for others to follow.
There was one thing Hotaru had been right about; Hinata's support network in the Village far exceeded Hiashi's own.
"Planned? No." Hotaru dismissed, jerking Hiashi out of his thoughts as he finally turned around to face him once more. "But you are exactly where I would've wanted you to be, that is true."
Then, Hotaru smiled, small and snide andmean. "I told you, son. Hizashi had always been the more dangerous one out of the two of you."
Hizashi had always been moreeverything,Hiashi wanted to correct. More honourable, more determined, more dedicated. If Hiashi had had their father as an idol to aspire to as a shinobi, Hizashi should've been his idol to aspire to as aperson.
Instead, it seemed that his eldest had taken that upon herself.
"I don't want to be your enemy, Father." He finally said, the words as heavy as his heart. "But I can't just look away again."
Not this time.
"Hiashi." Hotaru called, drawing Hiashi's gaze onto himself, and the earlier mocking light was gone. Hotaru's expression was serious now, as if he only just realised that Hiashi wasn't going to be cowed, wasn't going to be persuaded to back down, to let this go. "If you confront Danzo, you will lose."
Hiashi took a deep breath.
It had been one thing to suspect, to have the initials written out in the scroll, to have the knowledge that he was dealing with someone his father had considered a close friend all his life and knowing that there were only a couple of people in the world who had ever been afforded that questionable honour.
It was another thing entirely to have it put so frankly.
Hiashi managed a weak smile and met his father's gaze for what could very well be the last time.
"Then you have a choice to make, don't you, Father?"
"Hinata-san."
Hinata didn't jump, but only just, having kept her senses spread wide from the moment they had left their accommodation. Kiba and Shino, however, were a lot more violent in their reactions to Haku's sudden appearance.
"God, man! Wear a bell!" Kiba exclaimed, one hand flying to his heart while the other flew to the scruff of Akamaru's neck, holding the nindog back. "I thought Hinata was sneaky butyou'renot human!"
Shino, though he too had jumped, snorted at Kiba's words. "Hinata is like this too, she just doesn't scent-block around you."
"…Huh." Kiba mused thoughtfully, regarding Shino curiously as he visibly went over his memories. "You're right."
Then, he turned and grinned at Hinata, flashing her a thumbs-up. "Thanks!"
Before Hinata could reply, Haku cleared his throat, and though he looked distantly amused at their antics, there was an odd sense of urgency to his expression, something Hinata hadn't seen on him before.
"I apologise for startling you." he murmured, just as soft-spoken as he had been in Kumo, and Hinata saw the moment both Kiba and Shino relaxed unconsciously. "Hinata-san, would you be willing to accompany me for a bit?"
Hinata blinked, not having expected Haku to be so blunt. She didn't have any plans for the day beyond spending some time with her teammates and potentially working some more on the seal design Shino had inquired about before they'd left Konoha, his wording vague enough to worry, but Hinata had let it go when he promised to tell her should his suspicion prove right.
She blinked back to the present and nodded, offering Haku a slight smile.
"O-of course." She agreed, flushing at the obvious delay even as she stepped closer to the Kiri-nin before she addressed Kiba and Shino. "I'll see you back at the accommodation?"
She found Kiba watching her steadily when she glanced back, but his expression was oddly unreadable when Hinata met his gaze. Then, he grinned, sharper now, and when he spoke, his eyes were on Haku. "You better."
When Shino just nodded, echoing the sentiment of Kiba's words if not the words themselves, Hinata waved her teammates goodbye and turned to Haku, gesturing for the boy to lead them wherever he wanted to go. Haku smiled, then offered her his arm, and Hinata took it with only slight embarrassment, allowing Haku to lead her through the streets of Kiri, then up to the viewpoint on one of the jagged cliffs that separated Kirigakure from the ocean.
Haku led her to the edge of the cliff and sat down, which Hinata mirrored, and when she finally settled, the setting was almost the same as that day when they had first talked, only this time, the sprawling skyline before them was Kiri, not Kumo.
"How are you, Haku-san?" Hinata asked, turning so she could shoot the boy a small smile, which grew when Haku mirrored it.
"I'm well, thank you. I am…really glad I joined the medic programme, so thank you also for motivating me to do so." he replied, but Hinata shook her head.
"You need not thank me; it was you who made the ultimate decision."
"Regardless." Haku allowed, his smile dropping slightly. "I also wished to apologise for ambushing you at the gates. I hope my…untoward display did not cause you any undue hardship with my comrades. Or your squad."
"Please don't apologise." Hinata murmured, twisting until Haku met her gaze. "I actually wanted to thank you for that. I hadn't been feelingrightsince we'd left Konoha, and your- 'untoward display'…grounded me."
Haku blinked, looking both baffled and grateful. "It comforted you?"
"Yes." Hinata confirmed, fighting the urge to cry at Haku's dumbfounded expression. "I am…a bad shinobi, in that regard."
"…I find it simultaneously comforting and disturbing how similar our experiences are with shinobi norms." Haku announced, and Hinata huffed a startled laugh, nodding in agreement. "What of your life? I know that there are not many personal things we can share over letter, but I promise you that I will not spread what you tell me in confidence."
Hinata considered the other boy thoughtfully, weighing up how much she could reasonably share. On one hand, Haku had grown up as a missing-nin, and even now, his allegiance belonged to a Village which, while not outright enemies, was still hostile to Konoha and her shinobi. There was nothing to say that Haku would keep his word, or that, should the tentative friendship between them sour, he wouldn't go and parrot everything Hinata had told him to people who could andwoulduse that knowledge to cause Konoha harm.
On the other hand, she trusted Haku, far more than she knew she should or could justify. There was just something...safein the boy, something she only ever really felt around Kurenai or Genma, and, at times, her teammates.
"I have been fighting to change my Clan from within since my promotion to genin." She finally confessed, feeling the weight of Haku's undivided attention on her. "It has been…a slow process."
"Change it how?" Haku inquired, and when Hinata's face twisted, he carefully raised a hand and, after glancing at her to make sure it would be welcome, laid it on her upper arm, a silent comfort.
Hinata took a breath, wondering where the lines truly lay. "Are you familiar with the Caged Bird seal?"
At Haku's wordless headshake, she smiled sadly and began her story.
After his three hour debrief with Koharu the previous day, Jiraiya was not looking forward to theotherunpleasant conversation he had to have.
"Kid." He called, touching down on top of the high cliff he'd tracked the Hyuuga to, bemused to find her so far from the Village and her teammates.
He immediately had to duck out of the way oftwosenbon and shot the girl – and Momochi's apprentice, imagine that – an unimpressed look.
He got two sets of suspicious stares, neither of the teens relaxing, and he couldn't help his raised eyebrow when the Hyuuga wordlessly activated her Byakugan, glancing over him briefly before deactivating it.
"S-sorry, Jiraiya-sama." She finally murmured, straightening from her defensive posture, the Kiri-nin following suit, albeit much slower.
(God, but Jiraiya would have to talk to her aboutthat,too, wouldn't he?)
"We need to talk about your upcoming fight." He lied, meeting the Hyuuga's gaze squarely and simultaneously dismissing the Kiri-nin as a threat.
"The fight is in three days." Momochi's pet assassin pointed out, not quite openly suspicious, his words were far too bland for that, but far from the Hyuuga's easy trust.
"And she's facing one of your best jounin." Jiraiya replied flatly, crossing his arms in front of his chest and staring the kid down, daring him to argue.
"It's okay, Haku-san." Hinata soothed, laying a hand on the boy's upper arm and drawing the Kiri-nin's full attention onto herself, the boy going as far as to physically turn away from Jiraiya. "I'll see you tomorrow?"
Inwardly, Jiraiya nearly laughed at the brat's blatantcheek. He had done the same to the kid moments earlier, that was true, but he was aSannin. The Kiri-nin's blatant dismissal ofhimas a threat was definitely a calculated slight.
Then again, it was perhaps unfair of him to expect self-preservation from a kid who had been raised byMomochi Zabuza.
"Of course. I'll find you after my shift." The Kiri-nin assured, smiling at the Hyuuga, who didn't seem in the least perturbed by the implication that he would be able to find her no matter where she was in the Village.
Then, the Kiri-nin glanced at Jiraiya and something in his eyes hardened, his gaze suddenly nowhere near as warm as it had been when directed at the Hyuuga.
"Here," he called, gaze still briefly on Jiraiya before it settled back on Hinata, and Jiraiya watched as the kid held out a hand and-
-made a…mirror?
It was palm-sized, if that, and glittered in the dappled light that valiantly tried to burst through the permanent clouds that hung over Kirigakure.
"Take this. If you ever need any…helparound the Village, just tap it with some chakra." The Kiri-nin urged, holding the mirror out for the Hyuuga to take, and Jiraiya watched with growing consternation as the girl reached out and carefully grabbed hold of the mirror, too trusting by half.
And then-
"Won't it melt?"
Jiraiya's world ground to a halt.
It restarted a moment later with a rapid-fire of three startling realisations:
Number one, the Kiri kid wasn't just Momochi's apprentice. He was also, judging by what Jiraiya had just heard and witnessed, anIce-Release user.
Jiraiya hadn't realised there were any of themleft.
Number two, the kid hadintentionallyallowed Jiraiya to see him use the technique, there was no doubt about that. Which meant that the Hyuuga's little friend was far more politically-savvy and shrewd than Jiraiya had given him credit for, and that didn't bode well for the future of this friendship if Jiraiya were to report his findings.
And number three, most damning of all: the Hyuuga hadknown. She hadn't required a single second of clarification, had recognised the mirror for what it really was, and appeared nonplussed at the reveal of its abilities.
Jiraiya had seen the files from the Hyuuga's brief stay in T after she'd voluntarily chosen to help the Kiri-nin.
There hadn't been a single mention of her little 'friend' being an Ice-Release wielder.
"Not while you're within the Village walls." The Kiri brat explained, his words even and factual, not a hint of arrogance to them, as if they didn't imply a trulyinsanerange and control over his technique.
And the little Hyuuga just pocketed the physical manifestation of the fact that Kiri-nin were simplynot right in the head,not a single comment about the need for such a safeguard in the first place.
If anything, she lookedrelieved.
Then, the Kiri kid turned to Jiraiya, and his expression, while far from particularly warm or emotive before, visibly iced over once more.
"It can't transmit audio, and I can't use it to spy. Its function is more like a tracking chip, but one which Hinata-san would have to activate herself." He told Jiraiya evenly, correctly guessing at the direction Jiraiya's thoughts had headed in.
Then, he smiled, sharp and mean andviciousfor just the briefest fraction of a second, and added, "Or like the bug Hinata-san's teammate has planted in her hair."
Dread pooled in Jiraiya's stomach, both at the supposed insect's verypresenceon the Hyuuga's person and at the fact that the kid had noticed anAburame insect in the Hyuuga's hairandcorrectly guessed at its function.
"Ah, s-sorry." The girl murmured, looking bizarrelyshyall of a sudden,almost embarrassed as she explained, casual as could be: "Shino-kun is a little overprotective."
No other comment, not one of disgust at having a bug in her hair, nor one of alarm at her teammate planting atracker beetleon her in the first place. If one were to go by the Hyuuga's words, planting a tracking insect on one's teammate was something completely benign,cuteeven.
Thatwasn't a normal reaction, either.
But the Kiri-nin just smiled, producing his own copy of the palm-sized mirror and tucking it into the folds of his kimono, right over his heart, a statement if Jiraiya ever saw one. Then, he smiled, and if his previous smile had been sharp, this one was a razor's edge.
"No such thing asoverprotective in Chigiri." He replied, then pulled the girl into a warm hug, meeting Jiraiya's eyes over her shoulder, his gaze weighted. "Until tomorrow, Hinata-san."
Then, he pulled away, directed a smile at the Hyuuga, and placed a hand on her shoulder, squeezing lightly, before pushing her gently in Jiraiya's direction.
Jiraiya didn't give the Hyuuga time to return the farewell – the moment she was within arms' reach, he grabbed her arm andShunshin'edto the corridor of their accommodation, unsealing the door with his free hand and pushing the girl through, then sealing it behind him.
Once in the space that was the closest they would get to privacy for the duration of their stay in Kiri, Jiraiya pointed at his eyes and then at the ceiling, and luckily, the kid got the wordless order immediately, activating her Byakugan between one blink and the next.
'no watchers'she signed, using Chunin Sign this time, a stark difference to the coded gestures she had used with Shiranui a few nights before.
He had never been ANBU, never learned their language, but he knew enough about the existence of the Code to be able to recognise it as such.
(…which wasanotherthing he'd have to talk to the kid .)
Jiraiya debated slapping down a silencing tag, but he had no doubt that they were being watchedsomehow,even if it wasn't in the same way as during the night. Trying to keep the Kiri-nin from listening would just further solidify their belief that there was something of value to listento.
The best Jiraiya could do was try to keep his language as vague as possible.
"Let's look at that anchor of yours." He announced, heading towards the kotatsu in the middle of the room and gesturing for the kid to follow. "I take it you didn't test it?"
The girl's expression turned aghast when he glanced back at her, the earlier fear at the mention of the anchor morphing into disgust, andthatreaction told him everything he needed to know aboutthat.
"Well, better get comfortable." He announced, aiming for cheer, and laid one of his hands palm-up on the table between them, closing his eyes when the girl obligingly placed her own tiny hand into his. "We'll be here a while."
It took nearly an hour, but finally-
"That's fuckingvile." Jiraiya cursed, pulling away from the kid's chakra system and pushing to his feet, needing to work off the storm of emotions raging within him while he cursed the Hyuuga Clan to kingdom come in his mind.
"J-Jiraiya-sama?" the girl choked out, staring up at him from where she remained seated at the kotatsu, and the resignation in her eyesrankled.
She already knew what he was going to say.
"You said this was sealed into you as a newborn?" Jiraiya checked, falling heavily back into his seat and trying to regain some composure.
"That's what Osamu and Atsumu-san said, yes." The Hyuuga confirmed, growing quieter by the minute.
"There's almost a hundred seals keyed into your chakra network." Jiraiya muttered disparagingly, feeling sick to his stomach. "It-fuck, kid. That's too heavy to put on a newborn, any goddamn seal master would know that."
The girl flinched, but she didn't appear surprised by his assessment, and he couldn't help but wonder how much of her situation 'Osamu and Atsumu' had already told her.
"The long and short of it is that your chakra network has been forced to developaroundthe seal-keys." He explained, not wanting to leave it to chance. The kid needed to know.
...Particularly since she would soon have to choose between her revolution and her future as a kunoichi.
"'Anchor' really is an apt term." he carried on, snorting humourlessly. "This shit has been weighing down your core for years; right now, as a result, your reserves are maybe sixty percent of what they should be for a kunoichi of your age and background."
Another flinch, accompanied by a flash of anger this time, but Jiraiya was momentarily struck by another thought: "How on earth did you make chunin?"
The girl blinked, seemingly startled by the non-sequitur, then slowly explained her team's time in Kumo, and the more Jiraiya heard, the more he had to actively fight a bubble of hysterical laughter from escaping him.
Jyuuken – famously the least chakra-intensive style of the Noble Clans – coupled with genjutsu, Shunshin, and the Academy Three. The girl had made chunin on her first try, and none of the actual techniques she had used were higher than D-Rank.
And the Kumo-nin had been none-the-wiser.
The kid has learnt to fight like Sakumo, like Kakashi at his meanest, all because she was unconsciously compensating for a disability she hadn't even been aware shehaduntil two weeks ago.
[And the worst thing was that Jiraiya would likely never see what she could achieve at full capacity.]
It seemed that the girl was thinking along similar lines, because the next question out of her mouth nearly broke his composure: "Can- If I remove the seals of the Branch members, will my reserves fix themselves?"
Jiraiya sighed, then pinned the girl with the most serious, sympathetic look he could manage.
"If you remove the seals of the Branch members you're linked to,at best,you will give yourself chakra scarring so extensive, it'll make your current reserves feelgenerous." He told her quietly, needing her to understand the severity of her situation. "There are benefits to sealing newborns. Their chakra networks are malleable, adaptable. The problem appears if you try toremovea seal that had been planted so young a little later in life."
The girl was silent for almost five minutes, but Jiraiya could tell she was thinking over his words, weighing up pros and cons. But even knowing second-hand that the kid was, occasionally, prone to bouts of insanity, Jiraiya would've never been able to predict her next words:
"S-so, if a jinchuuriki's-?"
"Don'tfinish that sentence." Jiraiya cut her off, giving in and slapping a silencing tag on the kotatsu between them. "While the idea of someone finding a way to- toremove a bijuu from their hostis almost as horrifying ashowyour mind made that leap, yes, should the bijuu be removed, the host would beveryunlikely to survive."
He paused, adamantlynotthinking about blond hair and blue eyes and feeling bile rise up his throat regardless. "Thanks for the nightmares, kid."
"I'm sorry, Jiraiya-sama." The girl had the grace to apologise, but Jiraiya snorted, shaking off the mental image of Naruto as still and cold as Minato and Kushina had been the last time Jiraiya had seen them.
"What for?" he asked instead, giving in to the tired, bitter laugh that had been building. "The nightmares, or the fact that you're going to try to remove the seals anyway?"
At the girl's startled glance, Jiraiya huffed, suddenly feeling all of his fifty-odd years. "I know that look, kid. Like I said, I am not going to tell you how to run your revolution. I just want you to be aware of what you're getting into."
The girl just stared at him for a few seconds, her face perfectly blank, her chakra so stifled Jiraiya would've struggled to say there was a person in front of him if he wasn't looking right at her, andthatwas something to explore. Later, though, in the Village, when he could recruit actual sensors or call on Sage Mode without worrying about who might see.
Finally, the Hyuuga nodded, letting out an exhausted sigh and breaking Jiraiya out of his thoughts.
"I'm aware." She murmured, but there was a hard, stubborn glint in her eyes, and Jiraiya knew that the awareness wouldn't change anything. "But my clansmen deserve their freedom."
Goddamn self-sacrificing brats.
"More than you deserve to be a kunoichi?" he couldn't help but ask, wishing he'd had a similar conversation with Minato before the Nine-Tails' attack.
"There are remarkable shinobi who can't externalise their chakra." The girl informed him, but she didn't sound as confident as she had moments previous. "It- it wouldn't be the end."
(Oh, this was going tohurt.)
"Kid. Hinata." Jiraiya began, correcting himself half-way through, needing to drive his next words home. "If you remove the seal-keys, we're not talking about not being able to externalise chakra. We're talking about tearing out something that has become integral to the very core of your chakra reserves, to the way your wholebodyfunctions. It'd result in chronic pain atbest, if not paralysis while your body adjusted to function without the parasite that is the seal-keys."
As he was speaking, the Hyuuga grew paler, and Jiraiya would have felt bad for scaring her quite so badly, if not for the fact that it was now clear that shehadn'tbeen aware of the extent of her condition.
But then that same hard edge returned to her eyes, and she broke eye-contact, looking to the side. "I promise I will talk to Tsunade-sama before I do anything."
No, you won' wanted to retort, because he knew that look, he knew the type of person that the Hyuuga was slowly becoming and he cursed the fact that he always ended up watching the brightest flames burn themselves out.
Still, he took a breath and let the thought go. The Hyuuga wasn'this,wasn't his team, his family, or his responsibility.
So he let it go.
"I guess that's good enough." He huffed, aiming for his usual good-natured tone and not sure how close he got. "Second thing, then."
And he pinned the kid with the full weight of his gaze, gratified when the girl froze. "How the fuck do you know ANBU Code?"
The girl's eyes snapped to his, wide and panicked, and Jiraiya could almost see her mind working to try and figure out how she'd been caught.
He decided to spare her the headache.
"Kid. I was in the room that night. Shiranui wouldn't have looked so panicked at me seeing it if it had been just any random code. So. How did you learn it?"
If possible, the girl's eyes only widened further, but Jiraiya was growing suspicious of her continued silence, so he added; "And I would like the truth. Consider that I am the only thing that stands between you and another stay in T , and this time, even Kagane wouldn't be able to get you out."
His words had the opposite reaction to what he'd intended.
"Kagane-san got me out?" the Hyuuga echoed, seeming almost more shocked by this than she had been by Jiraiya calling her out for using a code she had no right to know, and Jiraiya had a startling realisation.
"You have no idea of the political power your shrink holds, do you?" he asked, and when the girl only continued to stare at him, eyes wide and uncomprehending, he elaborated. "Kagane was going on about mental health before Tsunade becameTsunade. She, the hime, and Dan had a whole plan to revolutionize the Village healthcare system."
Talking about that time of their lives almost didn't hurt anymore, yet Jiraiya still found himself wishing for a bottle, becausealmost.
Seemingly sensing that there was more that Jiraiya wasn't saying, the girl softened her voice and whispered a tense, "What happened?"
But Jiraiya was thirty years too old to let someone treat him like he wasfragile.
He snorted. "Dan died, Tsunade left, and Kagane built Psych."
The Hyuuga blinked, visibly startled, then; "Built?"
Jiraiya almost wanted to laugh at the fact thatthatwas what she chose to focus on.
"Not alone, mind you, but not with a lot of support, either." He explained, then shrugged, shooting the Hyuuga a wry grin. "The whole institution is a lot younger than you might think."
Then, he shook himself off, growing serious once more, "Anyway, don't distract me. How do you know the Code?"
The girl jumped, clearly not over the bombshell he'd dropped on her and not prepared for him to continue grilling her on her use of ANBU Code.
Jiraiya decided that he really didn't like that thoughtful glint in her eyes.
"I will tell you." she declared after almost a minute had passed, looking the most serious he'd ever seen her. "But I can't tell youhere."
Jiraiya blinked, momentarily thrown off. "What do you need?"
And the girl had the nerve to meet his gaze and announce simply: "A blood room."
Jiraiya threw his head back, a startled, sharp bark of a laugh escaping when he calmed and realised that the girl hadn't once looked away from him, his stomach dropped.
"Kid." He muttered, aghast and disbelieving. When the girl still didn't look away, didn't evenblink,he dropped his head into his hands. "Fuck, you're serious."
"Alright." He huffed, almost unable to believe he was agreeing, butfuck,he really didn't want to have to throw the kid into a cell. "Alright. I'll get you a blood room. But just know that if you lie to me, it's a one-way ticket to the deepest cells in T ."
The girl took a deep breath, released it slowly, then nodded decisively. "I know."
Jiraiya just stared at her for a beat, wondering whyheof all people had to be cursed with genius kids.
"The second favour that you asked for." He switched topics before his brain could go down the well-worn path ofwhat could've been if Orochimaru hadn't defected."What was it?"
The Hyuuga frowned briefly, then brightened, as if she had forgotten she had asked for the favour. She dipped her hand into her pouch and produced a battered notebook, flipping to a page about half-way through and holding it out to Jiraiya to take. "D-do you think this will work?"
Jiraiya glanced briefly at the page, then did a double-take at the detailed diagrams that stared back at him and settled in to study the kid's work more thoroughly.
Three minutes later, he finally looked away from the page and back at the kid, finding her already looking back at him, her expression perfectly blank once more.
"I- this is advanced stuff." Jiraiya managed, not sure what to think about what he'd just seen.
The girl frowned, tilting her head. "Is it?"
The worst thing was that she wasn't being facetious, and she wasn't fishing for compliments. Jiraiya knew what that looked like, but the girl seemed genuinely surprised.
After all, why shouldn't she be?
The Uzushio sealmasters were dead. There was nobody to pass on the knowledge of fuinjutsu beyond the standardised, commercial explosive tags or sealing scrolls. It was no wonder the kid hadn't realised the sheerinsanityof what she was attempting.
Plus, she hadMinato'sjournals. And Minato always used to speak and write about fuinjutsu like he assumed that everybody else had the same innate understanding of sealing that he did, often not understanding why those around him struggled to follow his impassioned rambles.
With those two facts, and the kid's sheerballsJiraiya had already been aware of, perhaps it truly wasn't surprising that she had decided to try her hand at a concept that would've normally requiredyearsof study with a master before being allowed to eventhinkof such a thing.
"Let's put it like this: fuinjutsu can go horribly wrongeven whenyou know what you're doing. Did you know what you were doing when you drew this?" Jiraiya asked, arching an eyebrow at the Hyuuga and pointing at the hand-drawn diagrams. "How did you come up with it?"
The girl frowned thoughtfully, but nothing could've prepared Jiraiya for the words that came out of her mouth: "I tried to imitate the Nara Shadow Possession technique."
Jiraiya blinked. Stared for a few seconds. Blinked again.
"…Right."
He was going to havewordswith Shikaku.
"Yes, it will work, but the paralysing element won't be as stable as that of the Nara technique." He told her finally, closing the notebook and handing it back to her. "Depending on how used the target will be to being cut off from their chakra, it might wear off after a few minutes, maybe even seconds."
"That's fine." The girl replied, regarding Jiraiya thoughtfully as she tucked her notebook back into her pouch. "There's always poison."
"Never say that again with such an innocent face." Jiraiya ordered, more than aware that he was already going to have nightmares after this conversation. "Now, let's actually talk about your fight."
He pinned the girl with a look and shot her a sharp grin, asking the question that they all wanted to know the answer to since they'd set out from Konoha:
"Got any plans for how to deal with an opponent who's been a jounin longer than you've been alive?"
Ao respected Mei.
He found her overly emotional and at times childish, but he respected that she – a wielder of two kekkei genkai – had not only survived her predecessor's reign, but also risen to kageship out of the chaos his death had wrought.
Which meant that when Mei told him that the Hyuuga chunin Momochi's brat had taken a liking to was asking for his eye, Ao hadn't immediately walked out of her office.
No, he had waited. And Mei had met his gaze and smiled meanly even as her assistant had been writing some nonsense pretty words to send back to the Hokage.
"Tell me everything you remember about how she fights." She had ordered, her voice soft, her smile sharper than the edge of a knife. "We are going to negate every feasible advantage she might hope to have."
"So you are not planning on giving it back?" he had inquired, curious despite the answer being all-but spelled out for him.
Mei had snorted, once again reminding Ao that the occasional moments when she abandoned the obnoxious façade of excessive femininity were the moments when his respect for her was the highest.
"You are a hell of a shinobi even without the Byakugan." She told him bluntly, and Ao had nodded at the praise, even though he doubted it had been intended as such. "But it doesn't change the fact that your eye is aVillageasset. And I am not in the habit of handing out Village assets to baby Leaf chunin just because theyasked nicely."
And Ao had nodded, then done as ordered, because even if he had found it insulting that the Mizukage thought he needed the physical advantage, he could understand the logic of taking every step necessary to protect aVillage asset.
Yet, as he watched the light go out of the Hyuuga's eyes as the chakra barrier went up around them, any hopes she might have had about using the terrain to her advantage or using the element of surprise viciously dashed, Ao understood.
Mei's point hadn't been to give him an advantage in thephysicalfight.
It had been to win the psychological battle before the Konoha-nin even realised she was playing.
And she hadsucceeded.
In the first ten minutes of the battle, the fight was almost embarrassingly one-sided. The Hyuuga was on the defensive the whole time; her reach was inferior to his, her speed too, and without any rocks or trees within the chakra barrier that made up their battlefield, there was nothing to hide behind, nothing to misdirect his gaze with.
The only thing he had to hand to the Hyuuga was that she was annoyingly good at dodging.
And then, when Ao was beginning to wonder when the girl would tire, something changed. The Hyuuga activated her dojutsu and, instead of twisting out of the way at the very last second, she started fighting back, flashing out of the place where Ao was going to strike and into his blindspots, her own hands quick on the unprotected tenketsu, forcing Ao to activate his own Byakugan.
When the girl flashed again, four times in quick succession, the Shunshin so fast that an afterimage of her chakra-system remained in his periphery for a split-second, Ao froze.
He had only ever faced one shinobi who used the Shunshin to its full potential, who had turned the technique into an artform, so much so that the last time Ao had come across him, he had ordered his squad to retreat rather than risk a fight.
But the girl couldn't-
Ao hissed when his split-second of inattention allowed the girl to hit the nerve in his left shoulder, numbing his sword-arm. He glared, more annoyed with himself than the child, and transferred the sword to his right arm, putting more effort into ending the fight sooner rather than later.
His next few strikes were more ruthless as a result, the girl taking a few hits despite her rapid-fire dodging, and when he swung at her open right side, he didn't expect for her to let the swordconnect.
But instead of cleaving her in two, Ao's sword gotblocked. As he went to reverse his grip, the girl dropped beneath his extended arm and struck his knee, and Ao cursed at the jolt that went through the joint and up to his hip. He struck out with the hilt of the sword instead and he heard the crunch of bone as the girl's ribs gave way before she Shunshin'ed away, clearly realising that being within Ao's guard was dangerous.
Forher.
What followed was a show in the girl taking strategic hits, taking advantage of Ao's reduced mobility as much as she could, yet with every minute that passed it became clearer and clearer that, despite the Clan she represented, Ao's opponent was not a taijutsu-specialising shinobi.
Through it all, the only thing Ao had underestimated was the girl's pain tolerance.
A normal shinobi her age would retreat after their forearm was snapped, but she pushedthroughinstead of away, and Ao hadn't been prepared for the two senbon she stuck into his inner thigh.
Right into his femoral vein.
He kicked out with his other leg, aggravating his jarred knee further, but his strike got the girl right in the stomach and the few seconds it took for her to put herself back together allowed him the time to rip the senbon out of his thigh and throw them away, relieved that the Hyuuga had missed the nerve cluster she seemed to have been aiming for.
In the game of keep-away that followed, the girl began to slow, her physical state finally catching up with her.
Then, Ao's knee buckled.
As he hit the ground, he turned wide eyes on the Hyuuga, momentarily stumped. Slowly, he fell backwards, his body no longer able to support him, but even as his control over his limbs receded, his consciousness remained.
He made eye-contact with the frozen Hyuuga, and realisation finally dawned on him as to the real goal the senbon had needles – the only real, clean hit she had on him – must have been poisoned.
Ao narrowed his eyes. He would bide his time; paralytics were seldom long-lasting. But if it turned out that the child would pose a threat, he had a fail-safe.
He just never imagined needing to use it against a chuninLeaf-nin.
Three days after her talk with Jiraiya, Hinata stared down at Ao's paralysed form, her mind oddly quiet.
The man hadn't gone down easily.
Not that she had expected him to, but the reality of the fight had proven that even her bleak assessment of her chances had beenoptimistic.
Jiraiya had been right; Ao's years of experience in the field had prevented him from falling for Hinata's usual tricks, negating whatever advantage she had hoped to gain with the element of surprise, and the chakra barrier that limited their battlefield and protected the spectators from harm had also significantly reduced Hinata's options.
While she had panicked about the less-than-ideal setting for their fight, Ao had dominated in the first few minutes of their battle, and Hinata had had to settle for split-second opportunities and strategic sacrifices if she hoped to be able to walk away in one piece.
The moment the chakra barrier had closed around them, the goal of recovering the stolen Byakugan became a secondary objective,survivalrising to the forefront.
In the entirety of their fight, Ao had stumbled only three times:
The first had been when Hinata had used her combination of rapid-fire Shunshin with the Academy Three, his brief startle at whatever he had seen with his Byakugan allowing her to land the first of only three real hits she would get in their entire fight.
The second had been when she'd chosen to allow his sword to hit her right side, Kurenai's gilet living up to its job of 'stopping sharp things from going where they shouldn't', and in the split-second Ao had needed to reverse his grip on his sword, Hinata had struck his left knee, jarring the joint painfully.
But Ao had recovered far quicker than she had hoped, and when his sword didn't succeed at cutting through Hinata's side, he reversed his grip and hit her with the handle, forcing Hinata to backpedal and create distance between them to recover even as she felt her ribs crack.
The final time had been when Hinata had taken another strategic hit, unable to get close enough to the man otherwise, his strength and reach far outmatching hers, his Byakugan only augmenting his already developed taijutsu style, rather than serving as its foundation.
Hinata had lost the use of her left arm, the bone snapping under Ao's chakra-charged hit, but with her right, she'd been able to stab her last paralytic-doused senbon right into Ao's thigh.
She'd earned a harsh kick to her gut that had nearly made her vomit, but her mark had been made. Afterwards, all she had to do was survive long enough for the paralytic to kick in, and Ao to go down.
It had taken nearly three minutes.
Hinata had taken an earth spike to the side and nearly lost her head in that time, but finally, Ao's knee hit the ground, then the other, and then he'd crumpled, the toxin finally taking effect.
As she breathed heavily and tried to get her heartrate under control, her ribs and sidescreamingin agony at the constant jostling, Hinata allowed only one thought to penetrate the fog of panic: she won.
She was shaking, bleeding, and exhausted, but she won.
She could stop.
Sheshouldstop.
Yet the longer she stared at Ao's stolen Byakugan, the more the anger she'd felt since the man had removed his eyepatch grew.
She felt it curl around her heart and warm her from the inside, and the more she tried to tell herself that she ought to stop, the less convincing the words became.
Couldshe stop? Did she have any guarantee that the Mizukage would uphold her end of the bargain? Could she really afford to stopnow?
No.
She could not.
Moving almost before she made the decision to move, Hinata dug in her pouch with her right hand and pulled out her sealing scroll. She unfurled it on her thigh and glanced away only to locate the seal she needed, never letting herself forget that Ao was there, not trusting the toxin to hold him indefinitely.
Once she'd found the seal, she pressed her bloodied hand to the page and, with the tiniest trickle of chakra, unsealed the jar of saline Kiba had handed her before they'd left the Village.
The flames of anger that licked at her heart and crackled in her ears didn't stop once she had the jar out. If anything, they only grew, because panic had entered Ao's mismatched eyes, as if he only then registered that Hinata could pose athreatto him.
Hinata took a quiet, calming breath, and met his gaze.
"I hope it was worth it." She murmured on the exhale, her words even and cold despite the all-consuming inferno that raged in her mind.
She searched within herself for the final time, but she found no remorse or regret about what she was about to do, only vindictive satisfaction.
Mind made, Hinata unscrewed the jar.
Then, with a final, steadying breath, she plunged her fingers into Ao's eye socket andpulled.
Jiraiya didn't bother hiding his wince at thesquelchthat accompanied the Hyuuga reclaiming the stolen Byakugan.
It had been a little eerie, how the girl's body had been so perfectly still while her chakra hadraged, anger and indignation and cloying, heart-stoppingfeareach warring for dominance, the Hyuuga's injuries seemingly affecting her ability to hide her emotions from her chakra signature the way she normally did.
Instead, they shone through in a violent kaleidoscope, each one more potent than Jiraiya had thought the child capable of, the intensity almost worrying.
It wasn't that he'd thought the Hyuugaunfeeling, but he never would've assumed that the quiet, calm, polite girl who'd charmed not just Shiranui but alsoNara Shikaku, of all people, would be capable of such fiery, all-consumingrage.
Shiranui looked shell-shocked when Jiraiya glanced at him, his eyes wide as he watched the Hyuuga methodically drop the Byakugan into the saline solution and screw the lid on the jar, her expression blank despite the way her fingers were stained with blood past the second knuckle, and Jiraiya felt a pang of sympathy for the man.
Ifhefound the Hyuuga's behaviour uncharacteristic, he could only imagine how it must've felt for someone who knew theteamas well as Shiranui seemed to.
Speaking of the team, Jiraiya chanced a glance at the two boys, but to his surprise, they appeared…nonplussed. Almostamused,even, and Jiraiya had the oddest sense that the Inuzuka had handed the Aburamemoney.
"Judging by your reaction, I'm assuming this…behaviour is outside of the norm for little Hyuuga-chan?"
Jiraiya tried hard not to startle visibly, having forgotten that they weren'taloneto watch the fight. He slanted the Mizukage a glance, offering her his trademark grin that was only a shade away from a leer.
"Can't really say." He replied with a carefree shrug, wrapping the Toad Sage persona around himself like a comfortable jacket. "Only met the kid twice before this mission."
Technically not even a lie.
But the Mizukage didn't lose interest the way he'd expected her to – if anything, a mix of amusement and curiosity lit up her eyes.
"And yet you meditated together." She mused, and Jiraiya set his jaw to make sure his grin didn't drop. "Perhaps in Konohagakure it's different, but here, that's quite an…intimate pastime."
He had known that they would be heavily monitored. He shouldn't have been surprised to receive confirmation of the fact. He just hadn't expected that the Mizukage would be soupfrontabout it.
"But it's probably for the best that you're not too close to little Hyuuga-chan." the woman hummed, turning back to the battle.
"What do you mean by that?" Jiraiya asked, sharper than he'd intended, and the Mizukage's eyes sparkled with mirth, forcing Jiraiya to gentle his tone when he pressed, "Mizukage-sama?"
"Ao got his dojutsu in the era of my dear predecessor." She began, a non-sequitur that Jiraiya tried not to let frustrate him. "I'm not sure how much a Konoha-nin might now about the subject, but Yagura wasn't the biggest fan of dojutsu, stolen or otherwise. And Ao had no Clan to protect him, no brother to sacrifice."
She paused briefly, ignoring the way Jiraiya froze, and instead watched absently as Hinata moved to seal the jar into her storage scroll.
"It's a pity she let her anger consume her like that." she remarked, and from her tone, Jiraiya would've almost thought shemeant it."Ao's earrings really do have some brilliant sealwork. I'm sure even you would agree, Jiraiya-san, seeing as they're Uzushio-made."
Then, the Mizukage turned to him, and her grin was all teeth, sharp and vicious. "Shame that they can get a little…explosive."
Jiraiya didn't need to be a genius to know what she meant.
"Hinata!"
The girl startled, snapping out of whatever daze she'd fallen into, and Jiraiya saw those unnerving eyes widen as they fell on whatever was happening with Ao's seals.
But her chakra was almost completely gone, teetering on the edge of chakra exhaustion as she was, and Jiraiya could tell that she was too injured to get to her feet without assistance.
It was too late.
[as the explosion swallowed the ground within the seal-barrier, the only thing that gave Jiraiya even the slightest shred of hope for the Hyuuga's survival was the split-second flash of pure chakra right where the girl had been.]
When Hinata woke up, the first thing that she registered was that her skin felt weirdly…tight.
The second was that her head waspounding,the back of it throbbing even though whatever it was resting on was oddly soft.
The third was that there was a warm, heavy weight over her arms and legs, and when she focused on the sensation, her legs tingled with pins and needles.
The final realisation was that shecouldn't move.
She heard the heart monitor pick up, heard the commotion around her bed and felt the stabbing pain of raised voices on her already aching head, but even with all that stimulus, shecouldn't open her eyes.
"Kid, kid! Stop panicking, you're not paralysed or blind,stop fighting the breathing tube,goddamnit!"
…That was Tsunade's voice.
Hinata gagged as whatever was in her throat was removed, panting wetly and nearly choking on the water that was held up to her lips. She slowly got her body under control and drank greedily, only then realising how thirsty she was.
Hinata…didn't remember Tsunade being in Mist.
"You're not in Mist." Tsunade's voice corrected, sharp and sudden. "I'mcertainlynot in Mist. You're in Konoha. You've been in Konoha for two weeks, in fact."
Hinata froze, but Tsunade continued, undeterred. "You had a proper first-class carriage in the gullet of one of Jiraiya's summons."
That…Hinata had no memory of that.
"What…happened?" she forced out past chapped lips, the sound of her own voice only magnifying the pounding in her head.
"What do you remember?" Tsunade shot back, and Hinata scowled, getting a snort from the woman as she tried to wrangle her expression under control.
"Mist. I was fighting Ao." Hinata recalled, trying to stretch her memory as far back as she could despite the pain. "And then- his earrings…did something. Exploded?"
"Yeah, his earrings exploded." Tsunade confirmed, and there was a weird edge to her words, something Hinata would've otherwise tried to pick apart butcouldn't,her thoughts too scattered, the pain in her head drowning out all other sensations. "And you were hit by that explosion at point-blank range. Whatever chakra trick you pulled at the end meant that you were brought back with second and third-degree burns, instead of in a matchbox as a pile of ashes, so well done on that."
Chakra trick?
Ah.
Hinata had tried the Kaiten. But chakra exhausted as she had been, and never having actually perfected the technique after that first session with her Father, it had been a fool's hope.
"How- how bad?" she choked out, the fact that Tsunade still hadn't removed whatever was covering her eyes not escaping her notice.
"Well, the good news is that you covered your face with your arm, so that would otherwise have been the worst to heal." Tsunade began, and she laid a gentle hand over Hinata's thigh, though the contact still stung even over the layers of bandages and blankets that separated them. "The bad news is that everythingelsetook the brunt of the explosion, so moving is going to be a slow process, and you'll need a few weeks to build back to full mobility."
A fewweeks.
Hinata's heart kicked up, the heart monitor reflecting her increased anxiety with the jump in the frequency of beeps, but Hinata didn't care. She didn't have that sort oftime.
"Then there's the concussion you got when the shockwave of the explosion sent you head-first into the barrier. Did you know that you were so chakra-exhausted, you'd stopped unconsciously reinforcing your muscles and bones? You cracked your skull, kid."
So the barrier had remained standing even when Ao had ignited the explosive tag. Good. At least that meant that Kiba and Shino should be safe, but Hinata had to ask-
"My teammates?"
"Both in one piece. Had to be chased out of here by Tsume, in fact." Tsuande confirmed, her voice softening somewhat when she added, "They refused to leave your side for three days."
Then, the hand on her thigh spasmed briefly, and Tsunade's words were flatter when she continued, "Uzuki and your sister were spared Tsume's wrath, though."
Hinata's mind ground to a halt. "Hanabi?"
"Is just outside." Tsunade replied her unspoken question, then sighed, and when she removed her hand from Hinata's thigh, there was a sound as if she'd taken a seat at her bedside, her voice suddenly much closer when she said; "Kid- Hinata. I'm going to take off your blindfold. Take your time to adjust to the light, don't rush it."
When Tsunade did just that, Hinata kept her eyes closed, letting herself adjust to the artificial light first with her eyes closed, then by degrees, until she could just about open her eyes without squinting, though the pain in head never went away.
"With me?" Tsunade checked, hand falling to Hinata's forehead when Hinata winced after nodding, and a moment later, her headache was gone.
Suddenly able to think far more clearly, Hinata pushed; "Why is Hanabi here?"
Tsunade sighed, but offered an explanation readily enough. "She's been staying with the Inuzuka."
Hinata's stomach dropped. "What happened?"
Tsunade hesitated, and Hinata almost thought she imagined the Godaime's whispered 'like a bandaid', but the words that followed jarred her to her core.
"Three weeks ago, there was an attempt on Hyuuga Hiashi's life. He's been in a coma since."
Hinata froze, but Tsunade continued, her expression apologetic, but her words harsh.
"Two and a half weeks ago, your grandfather became the de facto Head of the Hyuuga Clan."
Hinata felt bile rise up her throat, but Tsunade wasn't done.
"Two weeks ago, your sister challenged him for the position. She lost, obviously. Her and your cousin were promptly disinherited and kicked out of the Compound."
Disinherited?!
"What did Neji do?" she whispered, hoping against hope it wasn't anything drastic.
"From his account, your cousin intervened before your sister could be punished more severely." Tsunade explained, lip twisting in distaste, but Hinata had stopped paying attention to the woman.
Punished. Grandfather would havepunishedHanabi. Punished severely enough thatNejihad felt the need to step in.
"Kid." Tsunade's voice snapped her out of her thoughts, and Hinata didn't know what her face was doing, but the Senju looked oddlyconcerned."Save the Killing Intent for when you can actually do something with it."
Hinata blinked, startled, then took stock of herself, realising that shewasactually leaking Killing Intent into the room.
She took a breath to try and calm herself. It didn't help. She counted down from ten and tried again, and was only marginally less angry, just about managing to wrangle her KI under control.
"How secure is this room?" she asked, her voice trembling. With fury, fear, helplessness- she didn't know. Yet her head was quiet, her eyes dry, her hands still, even as her chakra raged beneath her skin.
Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "Very."
Hinata took another breath and let it out slowly. "My Father suspected Grandfather of something. He had me draw his blood to open a scroll before we left for Mist."
To Tsunade's credit, she didn't even hesitate. "Did you see the scroll?"
"No."
"I…have a suspicion as to what might have been in it." Tsunade told her after a beat, a frown creasing her brow as she regarded Hinata seriously. "And if I'm right, then you finding that scroll has just become imperative."
Then, Tsunade sighed explosively, raising her hands to her head and rubbing her temples, her fingers glowing green. "I amsotired of old men with power complexes."
Hinata blinked at the comment, distantly amused, even though she was still too angry to fully appreciate Tsunade's slip-up. "…Tsunade-sama?"
"Sorry." Tsunade huffed, straightening up and pinning Hinata with a serious look. "Here's what's going to happen. I'm going to heal as much of your scarring as I reasonably can in one sitting, but don't get your hopes up. Then, you're going to work through physical . No cutting corners. Then, and only then, when you're discharged, you're going to go andfind. That. Scroll."
Hinata nodded, not missing the urgency of the situation, but Tsunade softened briefly, laying a surprisingly gentle hand on Hinata's wrist.
"Hinata. If there was any kind of foul play with your father, youcannotpresent yourself as an enemy to your grandfather." She told her seriously, and Hinata froze beneath her touch. "Your cousin heavily implied that your grandfather doesn't have a particularly high opinion of you, but hedoesn'tconsider you a threat."
Hinata swallowed, but she couldn't say that she was surprised by her grandfather's assessment of her. Tsunade, however, looked grim, but vindictive.
"Lean into that." she ordered, the look in her eyes sharp and dangerous. "Use it. Lull him into a false sense of security. You cannot do anything about his Headship right now, and I cannot legally do anything about suspected foul play without cold, hard proof, but once we have it?"
She smiled, a slow, sly thing, and Hinata of the Senju Princess scared her far more than the side that could destroy mountains with a pinky finger.
"Do you understand?" Tsunade checked, and Hinata could do little more than nod.
"Yes, Tsunade-sama."
"I am sorry that I couldn't wake you with better news." Tsunade smiled sadly, surprising Hinata, before she pushed to her feet and asked; "That said, would you like to see your sister?"
"Yes." Hinata breathed, not having realised that was an option but now needing it desperately. "Please."
Tsunade had barely managed to pull the door open before Hanabi was barrelling in through the gap, climbing onto the bed, and all-but throwing herself at Hinata.
The pain of her sister landing on her burnt body wasexcruciating.
But Hinata didn't let Tsunade pull Hanabi away despite the woman's loud curse and attempts to do just that.
Yes, Hanabi was causing her pain, but Hanabi was alsoinpain, her tiny frame wracked with rough, gasping sobs, interspersed with occasional choked apologies. Hinata could only imagine what her sister had gone through emotionally in the last month; she wasn't about to deny Hanabi the much-needed comfort.
Tsunade threat to remove Hanabi by force if she didn't get off of Hinatadidmanage to make the girl shuffle until she was curled into Hinata's side instead of fully on her, at least. But Hinata would be lying if she said she wasn't warmed by the fact that Hanabi only cuddled closer the moment she was reassured that she wasn't causing Hinata pain, making no move to get off the bed or pretend that she hadn't been crying.
"Ssh, it's okay to cry." Hinata soothed, tilting her head and kissing the top of Hanabi's head, the extent of the movement that was available to her. She wanted nothing more than to pull her sister into an embrace and shut the rest of the world out for a bit, but her arms and legs were still immobilised, and she had a feeling things would only get more complicated from here on out. "It's okay, Hanabi-chan. It'll be alright."
She finished the promise in the privacy of her mind, the thought unexpectedly vicious and vindictive:
I'll make it so.