Iwashi had been looking forward to a good, uncomplicated piss-up.
It wasn't often all of his friends were in the Village at the same time, and even rarer still when the more introverted of them could be swayed to going out. And since he'd lost his arm and retired from active duty, Iwashi had more time to indulge and more reasons than most to like a stiff drink.
Still, managing to get Genma, Raido, Aoba, Anko,andIzumo and Kotetsu to agree to go out was one of the most exhausting things Iwashi had done in months, and he was looking forward to his well-deserved drink.
Until Genma suddenly froze right as they were about to head into their favourite bar, a frown marring his brow as he squinted at the shadows in the mouth of the alleyway they had just passed.
Iwashi glanced at Genma curiously, catching a similar baffled look on Anko's face, but then Genma was breaking away from the group and carefully walking over to the darkest part of the shadows, his gait not unlike if he were approaching a spooked animal.
"Hinata?" Genma asked quietly, crouching about three feet away from the wall, and the mass of shadows twitched and morphed into a curled-up figure of a girl who looked up at the call of her name, lilac eyes dazed and red-rimmed and her face ashen.
It took another few seconds for Iwashi to realise that he recognised the girl.
Genma sighed almost like he'd known whom he'd find, and Iwashi had the sinking suspicion that the three feet of distance between Genma and the girl were not forGenma'ssake.
"You good, princess?" Genma asked quietly, and Iwashi didn't miss the way Anko and Aoba both twitched at the nickname.
And the Hyuuga, looking less and less like a disembodied mass of shadows by the minute, took a breath that shuddered on the exhale and shook her head slowly. "N-not really."
Genma's face softened at that and he shuffled forward slowly, still crouched, then carefully raised his arm until he could rest his hand on the crown of the Hyuuga's head, and the way the girl immediately relaxed under the touch was almost comical.
"When's the last time you properly slept?" Genma inquired softly instead of remarking on the girl's complete flouting of social norms, and the Hyuuga hummed tiredly.
"Not sure." she murmured, her eyes fluttering shut before she visibly forced them open and frowned. "At Shikamaru's, probably."
Genma huffed, letting his hand drop from the girl's head to her knee, and the concern in his voice was obvious when he asked, "How can I help?"
"That's Kurenai's kid."Iwashi heard Anko mutter behind him, and a quick glance over his shoulder informed him that the comment had been aimed at Izumo, who hummed curiously.
"Can I stay with you? Please?"the Hyuuga replied, drawing Iwashi's attention back to the disparate pair of one of his closest friends and the teenaged Hyuuga Head.
"We were just going to have some drinks." Genma replied, glancing at their group for a second before focusing back on the girl. "Would you like to sit with us?"
Iwashi heard Anko make an affronted noise at that, but he had a feeling that the girl was about two seconds away from passing out in the alleyway, so he couldn't begrudge Genma the offer, no matter the complications the presence of the Hyuuga Head introduced to his plans for the night.
"I-If it's not an imposition." the Hyuuga replied, her voice barely audible, her blinks growing slower by the minute. "I'll be quiet, I promise."
Genma's face did something complicated at that but he covered it by pushing to his feet and holding out a hand to the Hyuuga, steadying her when she wobbled.
Wordlessly, they headed into the bar, Genma practically shielding the Hyuuga from sight with his body, then ushering her into the booth seat closest to the wall and sliding in beside her.
"Your usual?" Raido checked, and Genma nodded gratefully before turning back to the Hyuuga, and Iwashi slid into the booth opposite them, trusting one of their friends to get his drink.
Turns out that forced retirement from the field had its perks.
"Have you been to Psych recently?"Genma checked quietly, and the Hyuuga huffed, but the exasperation was tinged with fondness.
"Three days ago."she replied, and Genma'sand?expression was loud enough that the Hyuuga caught it despite her obvious exhaustion. "Kagane-san said it's stress."
"I'm glad to see you made up."Genma remarked neutrally, and the girl hummed, closing her eyes and tilting her head so it could rest against the wall.
"She knows me well."she murmured, and Genma frowned briefly before he seemed to accept the non-explanation at face-value and turned away, effortlessly striking up a conversation with Izumo about the latest release of some author they both liked.
It was calm for a few minutes and Iwashi let the din of the bar wash over him, feeling the stress of the last few days gradually begin to ebb away.
At least until Anko slammed four jugs of beer onto their table, and three things happened in quick succession:
The Hyuuga startled, eyes snapping open, and the hand that she'd had on the table dropped to her belt. Then, Genma was moving too, his own hand darting out and catching the Hyuuga's wrist before she could release the senbon she'd grabbed, his other hand snatching the needle from her fingers with concerning ease.
"Jumpy little thing, aintcha!" Anko chortled, sliding into the booth on Iwashi's side and grinning at the Hyuuga, and Iwashi watched Aoba groan and pinch the bridge of his nose, frustration evident despite his omnipresent sunglasses.
"That's theHyuuga Clan Head, dear, not one of your brats." he informed Anko drily, and Iwashi had the oddest impression that it wasn't the first time he'd said that.
But Anko, as could be expected, wasn't listening, her eyes on the Hyuuga's left hand and the crumpled piece of paper peeking out from between her fingers that Iwashi only just noticed.
"What's that in your hand?"she asked, and Iwashi watched Genma slowly release the Hyuuga's wrist and tuck the senbon he'd seized from her back into her pouch.
"...A letter." the Hyuuga replied slowly, still visibly tired despite the tension that now riddled her shoulders and the wary way she was watching Anko's every move.
Anko grinned upon noticing the scrutiny, sharp and shark-like. "From your Kiri beau?"
"Friend." the Hyuuga corrected tightly, and even the low light of the bar couldn't hide the pink dusting the bridge of her nose nor the muscle that jumped in her jaw. "My Kirifriend,Mitarashi-san."
Anko bared her teeth in the way she used when she wanted to discomfit, and Iwashi saw Kotetsu shudder from the corner of his eye, having seen that expression enough times to know that nothing good ever came from it.
"That's no way to treat afriend'scorrespondence." Anko chastised mockingly, and Iwashi, catching the way Genma's eye twitched, wondered whether he hadn't made a mistake by trying to combine his friend groups.
Then he realised that the Hyuuga's exhaustion was very quickly being replaced byirritation.
"By all means." the girl bit out, the words clipped and curt, releasing her white-knuckled grip on the crumpled piece of paper and all-but throwing it at Anko, who practically jumped on it.
Genma sighed, then smiled when the Hyuuga sagged back against the seat with a huff, the fight seemingly going out of her, and Iwashi watched, torn between disturbed and endeared as the girl shifted until she could prop her head on Genma's shoulder instead of the wall, and, once comfortable, settled in to watch Anko straighten out the paper she'd thrown.
Following the Hyuuga's lead, Iwashi glanced back at Anko, and though he wasn't sure what he would see, he wasn't prepared for Anko's cocky expression to turn into one of shock the moment her eyes landed on the page.
"Fuck."she breathed, eyes flickering over whatever was written on the page the Hyuuga had tossed her, though she collected herself after only a few seconds, glancing up at the girl, then at Genma, then at Iwashi and Kotetsu before she revealed; "It's an entry from the Kiri Bingo book."
That managed to draw even Raido and Aoba's attention, but it was Genma who blinked, turning his head to glance at the Hyuuga curiously as he asked, far calmer than Iwashi personally thought the situation deserved; "How did your friend sneak that past the censors?"
"It was sealed into his actual letter." the Hyuuga sighed, sounding half-asleep where her head rested against Genma's shoulders, her eyes fully closed, "Very small matrix."
Before Genma could reply, Kotetsu spoke up from where he'd been squinting at the page over Anko's shoulder. "She killed a Kiri war veteran?"
"No." Raido corrected, either taking pity on the Hyuuga, or on Genma, who'd grown pale at the reveal of what had landed the Hyuuga in Chigiri's book. "His protective seal work was faulty, backfired on him."
Genma groaned, rising a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose then exchanging an unreadable look with Raido. "Kiri is trying to save face."
"And we can't correct the revisionism because that would be seen as admitting that we're desperate enough after the Invasion to seek allies inChigiri." Raido confirmed, also frowning now, and Iwashi glanced between the two tokujo in bafflement, aware that he was missing parts of their conversation but unsurewhatit was he was missing.
"It could be worse." Kotetsu offered, ever the optimist, pointing at something on the page. "They have her listed as chunin."
"Thatisworse." Anko rebutted, and though she hadn't seemed to follow Genma and Raido's conversation either, she still looked concerned as she frowned at the page. "High bounty but low rank makes for easy pickings."
Privately, Iwashi reasoned she could've phrased that a little less bluntly because Genma looked like he was a step away from throwing up in his empty glass, but the Hyuuga seemed enviably calm.
...Because she was asleep.
"Kid's asleep." Iwashi muttered, not realising that he hadn't spoken since Anko had set the beers down until Genma's head snapped to him as if the tokujo had forgotten he was there.
"...Damn." Aoba whistled, glancing at Genma with a raised eyebrow and a shit-eating grin. "Either kid was barely holding on when you found her, or she trusts you way more than she should."
"A mix of both." Genma shrugged glibly, and that, it seemed, was that.
Some three hours later, with Anko and Aoba well and truly past the point of being able to take even one more drink, Genma set to trying to wake Hinata while Izumo and Raido took over the task of herding their respective friends out of the bar and onto the street.
"Come on, princess, time to get up." Genma muttered, using the arm Hinata wasn't resting on to lightly pat her cheek.
Hinata mumbled something, her eyes fluttering tiredly, and Genma began the process of maneouvring the girl out of the booth and onto her feet, though he quickly realised that 'responsive' did not mean 'awake' in Hinata's case, and had to wrap an arm around her shoulders to keep the Hyuuga on her feet.
"Where do you want to go?" he asked once they stepped out of the bar and got a vague hum in response, Hinata's cheek and nose squished against his ribs. "Come again?"
Hinata peeled her face away from his shirt long enough to say, "Inuzuka." before she let her cheek drop against Genma's side once again.
"Inuzuka Compound?" Genma checked to be sure, trying for neutral and missing by a mile, though he was certain that Hinata was too exhausted to notice.
"Mmm." the girl hummed, and though she still wasn't quite awake, at least she was responsive. "Safe."
"Alright." Genma agreed, realising that he probably shouldn't take Hinata at her word in her current state, but then again, those kids needed to fix their relationship, and if him taking Hinata's sleep-deprived request at face-value would be what was needed to get them there, then he would deal with the consequences as and when they came. "This was fun, thanks Iwashi."
"Uh-huh." Iwashi scoffed, snagging Kotetsu's belt-loop to keep him from running off. "Next time,you'reorganising."
"Can do." Genma agreed with a grin, more than aware that Raido would stab him in his sleep if he made him spend more than one evening a year in close-quarters with Anko. "See you around, gotta make sure this one makes it back safe!"
He turned off the main street, Hinata in tow, and was almost out of earshot when Anko snickered and called a mocking, "Whipped!" at his back.
Genma had no qualms against sticking his middle finger up over his shoulder, drawing laughs from his friends and curses from Anko, and though he grinned, Genma refused to turn around, most of his attention on the girl pressed to his side.
Once he rounded another corner, he let his grin drop, staring down at the top of Hinata's head concernedly as he trailed his fingers over the folded-up Bingo book page in his pocket.
Despite Anko's bleak assessment of the high-bounty, low-rank combo that Kiri had gone for and the fact that nobody sane wanted to be in another Nation's Bingo book, much less Kiri's, Genma was more concerned by thebackof the page. He was familiar with the previous editions of the Kiri Bingo b ook, he knew the 'H' pages well:Hatake Kakashi, Heiji, Hisame, Hōki, Hoshigaki now,Hyuuga Hinata.
Except the back of Hinata's page did not have 'Hoshigaki Kisame'on it, butHō either the Tailless Tailed Beast had finally gotten got, or another of the Swordsmen had come home.
Neither of the options boded particularly well. Both meant that he was overdue a meeting with Ibiki.
But first, he had a sleep-deprived teenager to escort, and a hangover to prevent. Updating Village intel could wait until morning.