Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Hinata smiled.

She ignored the shouts around her, ignored the burning pain blooming in her chest, ignored the numbness quickly spreading down her arms.

She’d done her job; she’d protected her Hokage.

The assassins that had burst into Kakashi-sama’s office when her team had come to report would not succeed – she’d made sure of that.

Her vision had grown fuzzy when she wasn’t paying attention and she could no longer feel her arms or legs and- oh. She didn’t remember sitting down, why was she suddenly on the floor? And what was that dark stain on the floor below her?

She blinked, trying to clear the stubborn black dots from the corners of her eyes and lifted her head – why was it so heavy? – to look around the room. Kakashi-sama looked quietly horrified, and she had no idea why – had she done something? Or was he upset at her for falling over in his office?

Then, two grey blurs blocked her vision of her Hokage and she lifted her gaze to a familiar face, but- why was Kiba crying? Kiba never cried. She could vaguely see his mouth move but she couldn’t hear any words; her ears were ringing and her head felt like she’d drunk too much. Was that why she’d fallen down? Had they been-?

She lost her train of thought.

Then, the second grey blur next to her shifted and she caught sight of what must’ve been Kakashi-sama behind them, though at this point he was little more than a silver smudge to her eyes save for the two points of red on his face where his eyes had been. Suddenly, an oppressive force filled the room and Hinata saw a black – orb? spiral? everything was a blur at this point – form, obscuring her view of the man once again.

Her hearing came back just as suddenly as it had disappeared, but she suddenly wished it hadn't. 

“-can’t die, not like t-this, NOT LIKE THIS!”

Is that what was happening?

That made sense, somewhat.

Would she see Neji again? That would be nice. She could apologise to him, properly this time. For everything.

The thought made her want to smile, but she’d long since lost control of her muscles. She thought she managed to close her eyes, or maybe her vision had finally faded, but she felt oddly calm when the oppressive darkness swallowed her down.

When she opened her eyes, there was a hand coming towards her, far too fast to do anything other than hurt, and Hinata reacted.

She’d never been the fastest, but being on a team with Kiba and Akamaru and then the war had honed her speed to somewhat above-average. It was that speed she used now to slip under the palm-strike, fingers of her right hand snapping up to jab the tenketsu in the attacker’s wrist to numb it, while in her left hand she gathered the chakra for the Vacuum Palm and let her hand fly forward, releasing her chakra as her elbow straightened and ignoring the unexpected burn in her coils.

Her attacker staggered back, putting distance between them, but he was not blown off his feet like she’d intended and Hinata frowned, bending her knees to dart forward again, and then-

“-Hinata!”

The commanding tone snapped her out of her battle-calm and she froze, finally gathering herself enough to look around and realising that a near-suffocating silence had fallen around the training grounds she was in.

Wait.

Training grounds?

Fully snapping to awareness, she took the time to actually look around. The man who’d shouted was-

-her grandfather?

(familiar lilac eyes, for once not shadowed by deep frown lines, peered up at her from a pile of rubble, the sharp, stern gaze blank and unseeing after Pein’s Assault, dead, dead, dead-!)

Her eyes tracked the rest of the people gathered at the edges of the sparring field – her trainer (killed in Orochimaru’s invasion), one of the Clan’s Elders (killed in the war), her sister’s trainer, Hanabi, and-!

Neji.

Her cousin was alive, young and beautiful and frowning and alive, his eyes wide and trained not on her, but on her opponent, what looked an awful lot like fear etched on his face. When Hinata finally made herself follow Neji’s gaze and look at her attacker, she didn’t see Zetsu, or Obito, or an enemy-nin, but her Father.

Hiashi was looking at her rather than through her for the first time in years, and while the expression on his face was unreadable, he couldn’t quite control the way his eyes had widened in surprise. Hinata’s gaze trailed down, to where her Father’s hand was splayed over his chest, where the brunt of her Vacuum Palm had likely struck him, and she had a horrified moment where she wondered whether she’d broken any of his ribs.

The thought was quickly dismissed in favour of another realisation:

She’d tried to kill her Father.

Oh, god.

She couldn’t deal with this – she could feel her breaths begin to quicken, could feel her head beginning to swim, the dread and fear of retribution settling like a stone in her stomach, and she- she had to get out.

Not pausing to so much as bow, Hinata turned tail and ran.

Her feet took her to Team Eight’s old training ground without much conscious input from her brain, her frazzled mind drawing comfort from the memories of her genin days and the proximity to the Inuzuka Compound. She remembered days when gruelling training sessions with Kurenai would end with them all piling into Kiba’s house for dinner, then ending up more dog than human with all the dog hair that stuck to their muddied clothes, yet Hinata always felt like she’d never laughed as hard as she had when she was with her team, in Tsume-obasan’s home.

She stumbled at the memory of Kiba’s grief when the woman had been lost to them after a Tailed Beast Ball had taken out her encampment, and Hinata let herself collapse against one of the trees on the bank of the river Akamaru had often jumped into after their training sessions, her whole body shaking.

She was drenched in sweat, her lungs and legs burning, as if unused to such exertion, and her breaths were more pants than anything else, though whether from the run or the panic still coursing through her veins, she wasn’t sure.

The fear she’d felt at almost killing her Father had been pushed aside in favour of a much more pressing worry – Neji had been alive.

What had previously been elation at the thought turned to dread; she’d watched him die. He shouldn’t be alive, no matter how much she may have wished for that to be the case.

He’d looked young, too. Much younger than he had when he’d- when he’d died, and he was still wearing his beige shirt, which she hadn’t seen him wear in years. And Hanabi, for all that she’d barely glimpsed her sister, had seemed tiny. Far smaller than the teenage chunin from Hinata’s memories.

Morbidly curious and more than a little scared, Hinata stretched out her own hand.

Small.

Very few scars. Small, short fingers. Even her callouses weren’t as pronounced as she remembered, for all that she rarely wielded the standard weapons the way most shinobi did. Hesitating only slightly, Hinata took a deep, shuddering breath, and brought that same hand to the back of her neck and slowly slid up.

Instead of the heavy curtain of hair she’d expected, she found short-shorn hair at her nape, then the edges of the choppy bowl-cut she favoured in her pre-genin years. Shaking fingers danced from the back of her head to her temple and curled around one of the twin longer strands that hid her ears and framed her face.

She tugged sharply.

The pain did nothing.

Holding her breath, Hinata brought herself to her hands and knees and slowly crawled to the edge of the river, then peered down into the water.

The face that stared back at her was undeniably younger than the face she remembered.

Perhaps, even more tellingly, there was no hitai-ate around her neck.

Hoping against hope, Hinata brought her shaking hands into the seal Kurenai had drilled into them almost religiously, once upon a time.

“Kai.” She murmured, cutting off then rerouting her chakra nigh-instinctively.

Nothing changed.

Shifting her fingers slightly, Hinata tried a different seal.

“Byakugan!”

The vibrant greens and muted browns of the forest around her faded in favour of the bright blue glow of chakra, and though her range seemed far reduced to what she last remembered, probably less than thirty metres in radius, it was still enough to determine that the scene before her hadn’t changed in the slightest.

This, whatever this was, was real.

Cancelling her Byakugan, Hinata let herself tip over from where she was still haphazardly leaning over the riverbank until she was lying on the grass and could turn onto her back and stare at the pink-and-orange sky in wonder.

Judging by the size and state of her body and rather telling lack of headband, she was about to finish the Academy. That would make her about a decade older mentally than her current body.

She lifted a hand again, marvelling at the unblemished skin of her knuckles, the lack of scars on the insides of her wrists, and the ring that marked her as the heiress to the Hyuuga on her middle finger.

A ring which, if her time estimate was correct, would pass to Hanabi in a matter of days.

As much as she loved her sister, she couldn’t allow that to happen again. Her willingness to lose that duel the first time had stemmed less from the desire not to hurt her sister and more from the desire for their Father to shift his vicious, unrelenting focus away from her, she could admit that now. She’d been pre-Kurenai’s love, pre-Kiba’s self-assurance, pre-Shino’s quiet confidence, and most importantly, pre-realisation that the world was so much bigger than her Father’s approval.

This time was different.

If this world was really real, if she had truly gotten the chance at a do-over, if this wasn’t merely another hyper-realistic Tsukiyomi, she would do better.

She remembered a war.

She remembered dying.

Her Father’s disapproval, no matter how all-consuming, couldn’t compare to the horror of witnessing half of the shinobi population get destroyed. To witnessing her peers fight a goddess. To watching her cousin die for her.

She owed Neji, her Neji, to get rid of the Caged Bird seal.

Hanabi, for all that she loved her sister, would never do it. She had absorbed too much of their grandfather’s teachings once, never really lost the Main Branch mentality.

Hinata let her hand drop to her face, covering her eyes, and took a deep breath. She let it out slowly, steadying herself at the same time, and thinking over just what her decision meant.

She’d have to become Head of the Hyuuga Clan.

“Uh, are you alright?”

Hinata stifled a shriek, pulling her hand away from her eyes and scrambling into a sitting position, then looking around at who had spoken, only to find three very large dogs very close to her face.

Three very familiar very large dogs.

She tried to calm her wildly beating heart and looked beyond the Haimaru brothers, at Inuzuka Hana, and couldn’t help the instinctive tiny smile that tugged at her lips with all the memories seeing the older girl brought forth.

“Not really, Inuzuka-san.” She said, the words escaping her before her brain quite caught up with her mouth, but Hana and Tsume-obasan had always stressed honesty above all else, and Hinata had taken that lesson to heart. “But thank you for asking.”

Hana barked a laugh, visibly startled, and grinned at her, crouching a few metres away.

“Love the honesty, kid.” She commented, and Hinata felt her face heat up in embarrassment at the same time as warmth bloomed in her chest. “Anything I can help with?”

Hinata considered the other girl, smiling to herself at that easy kindness, the complete lack of hesitation to help someone, even a complete stranger.

“What do you think about tradition, Inuzuka-san?” she asked quietly, hand falling to the ring around her middle finger. Once again, the words slipped out of her without her conscious input, but Hana had been someone she’d admired, whose opinion, despite how rarely it was offered, she’d valued.

Hana blinked, surprised.

“Depends on the tradition.” She admitted, studying Hinata with unabashed curiosity. “But my family isn’t generally big on them.”

Hinata nodded, having learned as much over the years. Then, something cold was pressing against her shin, and she startled, having forgotten about the Haimaru brothers. She held out her hand so it was more easily accessible for all three dogs, letting them sniff her if they wanted.

“Hello.” She greeted politely, having learned that even if the Inuzuka ninken couldn’t speak human language, they still understood. “My name is Hinata. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Ah, sorry, you’ve guessed the surname, but I’m Hana.” Hana introduced herself, somewhat sheepish, and Hinata offered the other girl a small smile, feeling it grow when one of the dogs sniffed then licked the palm of her hand.

“It’s no problem, you-”

“-Hinata.”

Hinata felt herself freeze, the smile fading from her face, and immediately, all three brothers’ hackles rose, but Hinata knew that voice.

“O-Otou-sama.” She greeted, shocked not just because someone had come looking for her, but because it was her Father who had come.

Hiashi emerged from the treeline, ever-present frown between his brows, and he took in the scene with a displeased look in his eyes.

“Hyuuga-sama!” Hana called, startled, dipping into a quick bow, apparently not having connected ‘Hyuuga girl’ to ‘Hyuuga heir’. Then, to the still-growling triplets, she hissed, “Cut it out!”

Her Father’s gaze swept over Hana, barely brushing her ninken; “Inuzuka-san.” He returned briefly, then his eyes fell to Hinata, clearly dismissing Hana as a threat, and his gaze hardened. “Come.”

Hinata scrambled to her feet, nearly stepping on one of the Haimaru brothers’ paws in the process. She froze at the ninken’s startled whine, then dropped straight back down to make sure he was okay, her heart in her throat at the thought of hurting one of Hana’s dogs, even accidentally.

When she was sure she hadn’t trodden on any paws, she straightened back up and turned towards her Father, dropping her gaze as she headed over to his side, missing the surprised but appreciative glance Hana shot at her back.

Her Father turned on his heel and started walking, and she hastened to follow, half a step behind him out of habit more than anything else. They walked in silence for a few minutes, and Hinata was fully expecting that to continue, but the man surprised her.

“The technique you used today.” he began, his voice quiet and inflectionless. “I wasn’t aware you knew it.”

“I have been training, Otou-sama.” She replied after a slight pause to gather herself, comparably quiet, still not able to look her Father in the eyes, despite everything.

Hiashi didn’t reply, not even a hum of acknowledgement, but after another few minutes of silence, he suddenly stopped, and she almost crashed into him with how suddenly he stopped walking.

“The Elders have been arguing in favour of making your sister the Clan heir.” He said evenly, his gaze boring into her with such intensity she could feel it. “Before today, I was going to allow it.”

Hinata swallowed, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Then, she summoned all the courage within her and raised her eyes to meet her Father’s.

For the first time in years, something akin to approval passed through the man’s steely eyes.

“Hanabi has always been your superior in confidence and ability, despite her inferior age.” Her Father stated, and it was just that to him – a fact. “But she has never used Killing Intent.”

Hinata froze, having a sinking feeling that she might know what the man was going to say.

“Before tonight, I didn’t think you capable of it.” He admitted, and there was curiosity in his gaze now, albeit well-hidden. “But for the first time in your life, you fought me like a shinobi would.”

Hinata didn’t say anything – she hadn’t been aware she had used Killing Intent, but she chose to keep silent and wait her Father out. If he wanted to know something, he would demand it. Right now, it seemed like he was…testing her.

Apparently sensing that she wasn’t going to explain herself or otherwise react to his observation, Hiashi’s gaze grew cold once more.

“You have your Graduation tomorrow.” He informed her, and Hinata blinked. “Failure is not an option.”

Hinata shivered, both at the tone her Father used and at the minimal expectations of her, if he felt like that was a reminder she needed. When he merely watched her, she nodded to show she understood.

“Afterwards, you will fight Hanabi.” He announced. “The fight will decide which of you will be heir.”

Oh.

Hinata didn’t say anything, not sure what to say. She had made her mind up already about how that spar would go this time around, and while many things around her seemed to have changed, her nindo had not: I will never go back on my word.

She nodded again, and her Father frowned, but didn’t comment. Then, he turned and resumed walking in the direction of the Compound, and Hinata resumed her place at his side, half a step behind, content to spend the rest of the journey in silence.

The gate guards seemed surprised when they approached the gates to the Compound but allowed them entry without any comment, and Hinata took the familiar path to her old room after bidding her Father a quiet goodnight. She waited until the door to her bedroom closed behind her, granting her relative privacy, then sighed and slid down it, hanging her head between her bent knees.

For all intents and purposes, she was twelve years old again, not twenty-two. Not even a genin yet.

She…wasn’t sure how to feel about that. 

(later, she told herself, we'll deal with this later.)

Still, she heaved herself to her feet and set to washing up; it would not do to be late to her own Graduation ceremony, after all.

When Hinata awoke, it was with a stifled gasp and the sudden snap to full awareness honed over months spent on the battlefield. Byakugan sprang to her eyes with nary a thought, though the unexpectedly painful tug at her chakra coils snapped her out of the sudden battle-readiness. She froze, Byakugan focusing on the source of the noise that had woken her up.

A bird.

A simple robin chirping on her windowsill, occasionally tapping its beak against the glass.

Not Zetsu, not an assassin, not an ANBU with another secret mission.

Just...a bird.

Hinata fell back on her futon, shaking off the last traces of her battle-focus, and let the Byakugan fade, trying to calm her wildly beating heart. The memories of the previous day came flooding back, as did the dream she’d had of her death, and the phantom pain of having a wind-edged katana rip through her chest wasn’t a pleasant experience.

She got up after another few seconds, aware that falling back asleep was going to be impossible with how wide-awake she currently felt. She sighed, heading over to her dresser and getting dressed almost mechanically: chest bindings, mesh undershirt, cotton t-shirt, then her old cream jacket of her genin days, the thick material still just as comforting as it had been the first time around, a steady barrier between her and the world.

She’d have to see if she could find a similar one in a darker colour – she remembered having spent far too many hours scrubbing blood and grass stains out of the light material.

She slipped out of her room, careful of waking Hanabi who was just across the hall, and padded to the kitchen, moving through the sleeping house like a ghost. While being awake before the dawn wasn’t anything unusual for shinobi, Hinata as a child had loved to sleep, and was notorious for getting up far later than was proper.

If anybody did ask, she could definitely blame it on nerves. At least nobody would question that from her.

She made herself a modest breakfast, ate without tasting much, and washed the dishes, putting them back in their place after she’d dried them.

Then, she paused.

The clock on the wall in the kitchen claimed it was barely past five in the morning. Another four hours before she’d need to be at the Academy, and since sleep was out of the question, Hinata wasn’t sure what she should do with herself.

The tugging she’d felt at her coils when she’d used Byakugan without seals, or when she’d performed the Vacuum Palm the day before, worried her. Having grown up learning how to inflict trauma on another’s chakra coils, or where to strike to be debilitating, or how to overload someone’s network to disable them for life, the thought that she could unconsciously damage her own coils because she didn't know her own body’s limits terrified her.

It would be wise, she decided, to test that out before her spar with Hanabi this afternoon.

She arrived to the Academy a little tired, but with a much better grasp of her chakra control and the size of her coils. What she had forgotten, due to the events of the previous afternoon and her early start this morning, was what being back at the Academy entailed.

She was woefully unprepared for the sight of the old Rookie 9.

They were so young.

Young, and free of stress and grief and pain. Ino and Sakura were squabbling over something, the volume far louder than necessary, their tones shrill and arrogant in the way grieving, post-war Ino had rarely managed. The sight of Shikamaru without a cigarette in his mouth and sans the permanent frown between his brows sent a lance of pain through her, as did seeing of Sasuke sitting by himself by the window, studiously ignoring everything and everyone else.

Seeing Kiba and Shino – on opposite ends of the classroom, but there nonetheless, boys who had managed to become closer than family and helped her build herself into someone who could stand alongside them rather than cower uselessly behind – simultaneously broke and mended her heart back together.

And Naruto.

Oh, Naruto.

He was there, unmissable not just because of his orange ensemble, but because she would have been able to pick him out of the crowd even if he was wearing shinobi-appropriate colours. To her relief, beyond the brief stab of pain at the memory of her Naruto, and his clumsy, cautious attempts at trying to talk to her and navigating the almost-dating-but-not-quite stage of their relationship, the crush she remembered from her Academy days was little more than a vaguely melancholy impression in the back of her mind.

For all that she’d loved Naruto, she’d also idolised him. And while the boy she was now seeing would grow to become a hero, at this point, he was…just a boy.

Just a young, lonely boy, starved for love and recognition.

Taking a deep breath, Hinata tried to get herself together enough to make her feet start moving again. She bypassed her old seat, a row behind Naruto’s, in favour of heading for the back of the class, slipping quietly into the seat three to the left of Shikamaru’s.

(while her reaction could've been worse, it would be wise to avoid having to look at her old comrades' faces as much as possible)

Content, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the pebble she’d picked up from the riverbank on Team Eight’s old training grounds this morning. Settling her hands on her lap beneath the desk, she set to trying to move the pebble around her wrist with her chakra as she waited for Iruka-sensei to show up, having learnt this morning that her control over her chakra, while comfortably above-average on the backdrop of her Academy class, was far from that of her old self.

If she wasn’t careful, that discrepancy could prove fatal.

“Got tired of watching the back of Naruto’s head?”

It took her a few seconds to realise that somebody had spoken to her, and a couple of seconds more to process the content of the question. When she did, however, she lost control over her chakra and turned to her right, her eyes wide with surprise when she met Shikamaru’s gaze, finding the Nara boy already looking at her.

Hinata didn’t have anything against Shikamaru personally; he was a genius, that much was without a doubt, and he was from a respected Clan. Kiba and Shino, though, had disliked him; Kiba, forever blunt and saying what he thought and felt, hated the Naras penchant for never being straightforward with their thoughts, and he’d been clear in his opinion that Shikamaru was arrogant. Shino, while usually perfectly easy-going, had never quite forgiven Shikamaru for forgetting about him during the Sasuke Retrieval mission. Hinata had been surprised to find that Shino could nurse a grudge for years, but by that point, she’d bore it with fondness more than anything else.

Unfortunately for Shikamaru, as much as she may have wanted to remain objective in her dealings with the Nara, some of that bias might have rubbed off on her over the years.

(it was the only explanation she had for what came out of her mouth next)

“Got tired of pretending not to pay attention?” she asked quietly, her tone polite, but Shikamaru’s eyes widened nonetheless.

It seemed like she’d given an answer he hadn’t expected, and a part of Hinata relished being able to surprise the genius strategist.

She let the eye-contact drop in favour of focusing her attention on the pebble in her lap, wrapping her chakra around it again. She could feel Shikamaru’s eyes on her person for the next few minutes, though he kept his mouth shut.

“Hyuuga Hinata!”

Hinata startled sometime later, having fallen into what she realised was an almost meditative doze, her chakra still wrapped around the pebble and moving it almost lazily around her wrist.

“Good luck, Shikamaru-san.” She murmured to the boy, who’d returned his head to its usual position, pillowed on his folded arms, and she thought she heard a grunt in response, though she didn’t stay long enough to confirm.

Pushing to her feet, she smiled at Iruka-sensei and followed him into the test room.

Ten minutes later, she walked out of the Academy building with her headband tied around her neck, tighter than she’d originally worn it, the metal plating snug against her throat. Predictably, nobody was waiting for her outside, but Hinata didn’t mind.

She was a genin now, the first step on her path to holding up her promise to Neji.

She didn’t really want to head back to the compound, because it would mean putting into motion the second step, and she knew her victory would reflect badly on Hanabi. Perhaps put even more distance between them than existed Hinata’s first life.

She set off in the direction of her favourite bakery, deciding that she could afford to treat herself before she made the first future-altering decision of this life.

Hiashi watched his daughters face off against one another, feeling somewhat conflicted.

Hinata had always been too soft for a Hyuuga, took too much after her late mother in that sense. Too kind, too forgiving, too emotional. Hanabi was much more like him, colder and sharper than her sister, even at her tender age.

(neither of them had anything on Neji, but his brother’s son was Hiashi’s greatest shame)

It was why Hiashi didn’t fight the Clan Elders when they suggested naming Hanabi his heir.

But his spar with his eldest the previous day had planted a seed of doubt that refused to die. Because Hinata had looked at him like he was an enemy in that moment, the set to her mouth firm and unforgiving, and she’d moved with far more speed than he’d thought her capable of.

(He hadn’t expected the Vacuum Palm, and the Clan’s medic had looked at him with poorly hidden surprise when he’d walked in after the fight with badly bruised ribs.)

Watching them now, circling each other, he wondered what would prevail: Hinata’s softness and reluctance to hurt her sister, or the unexpected flash of viciousness he’d witnessed yesterday. It was she who would be most affected by this spar should she lose; she’d be disinherited, meanwhile Hanabi would merely remain as the second in line to the Clan Head position, at least until Hinata had children of her own.

At Hatsuo’s impatient grunt, his daughters sprang at each other, Byakugan bulging and fingers tinged blue with chakra. It became immediately apparent that Hinata wasn’t fighting to lose – more importantly, she was actually fighting. In the years since Hanabi had become a capable enough child to pose a challenge for her sister, Hinata had merely dodged, doing the least harm to the younger she could without risking punishment from the trainers or Hiashi himself.

Hinata still wasn’t going for the most obvious attack spots, still visibly unwilling to hurt Hanabi, but also unwilling to just stand still and let Hanabi hit her.

And then, about three minutes into the bout, Hiashi caught that same look from yesterday in Hinata’s eyes. He watched as she pretended that Hanabi’s palm strike to her chin connected and followed the movement, throwing her hands over her head and dropping into a backwards handspring, but as she swung her legs over and landed in a crouch, she didn’t straighten back up.

Instead, she mouthed ‘forgive me’ and-

-blurred.

Hiashi leaned forward slightly because that was undoubtedly a shunshin.

Over a pathetically short distance, and he felt the protest Hinata’s chakra coils gave at the lack of seals, but he couldn’t deny the effectiveness as Hinata reappeared behind Hanabi, hands already flying for the back of her sister’s neck.

Hanabi fell, and there was still undeniable gentleness in the way Hinata caught her and lowered her the rest of the way to the ground, but when Hinata straightened, she looked straight at him.

That, too, was new.

“It seems,” he said after another few seconds, where father and daughter stared at each other dispassionately, not a hint of love or sentiment in either of their eyes, “that you shall maintain your place as my heir.”

For now, he added mentally, because he had no doubt that the Elders would renew their campaign to have Hanabi take over as soon as enough time elapsed for such a move to not seem as if it was questioning his authority.

Hinata nodded once, an acknowledgement, then bowed her head respectfully, though she did not bow fully.

Still, she waited, and Hiashi almost sighed.

“Dismissed.” He ordered, and only then did Hinata allow the tension to bleed from her shoulders. “And take your sister to the infirmary as you go.”

“Yes, Father.”

And Hinata walked away.

“Team Eight: Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba. Your sensei is Yuhi Kurenai.”

Though she’d expected them, the words were what she needed to lose the last of the tension that had clung to her since landing in this new time.

She didn’t verbally acknowledge the assignment, unlike Kiba, but allowed herself to sit more comfortably in her seat in the back row.

“You seem relieved.”

The fact that Shikamaru was willingly talking to her was still odd to her, especially as she hadn’t had much in the way of interaction with the boy since after Orochimaru’s invasion in her first life. Still-

“You seem resigned, Shikamaru-san.” She replied, careful not to move her mouth too much when she spoke because Iruka-sensei had the eyes of a hawk and for all that she’d faced down Pein and a literal goddess, her sensei’s disapproval still registered as scary.

She made sure to turn just enough to shoot Shikamaru a small smile when she was sure Iruka wasn’t looking.

“I’ve known who’d be on my team since I joined the Academy.” Shikamaru shot back, and Hinata allowed him the point, at least until he added, not quite snidely, but definitely not kindly: “Is parroting my syntax the only way you can speak without a stutter?”

A feeling not unlike having a bucket of freezing water dumped over her head came over her at the Nara’s words, and Hinata felt her facial muscles respond in kind, any traces of the smile she’d given him vanishing.

Shikamaru didn’t look away throughout, and she noticed that he was more careful about controlling his expression this time, but Hinata was done.

Maybe Kiba had been onto something.

Hinata controlled whatever was on her face in the way she’d been taught since she was a toddler – a shinobi must never show emotion, and a Hyuuga must never falter – and kept her chakra tightly coiled beneath her skin, then turned her attention back to Iruka-sensei, studiously ignoring Shikamaru.

Her hand sought out the pebble she’d been manipulating the previous day, and her chakra latched onto it almost without conscious input.

“Team Eight?” a familiar, though not here, not yet, voice called out, an unquantifiable amount of time later, and Hinata snapped back to alertness, eyes almost filling with tears upon falling on Kurenai’s familiar figure.

She stood, and the woman’s eyes landed on her, softening as they did, a small smile lighting her face.

“Come with me, please.”

Hinata did.

Chapter Text

Kurenai surveyed her potential genin team, her mind running through the information she’d memorised from their files as she took in each of the children she might be responsible for over the next few months.

So far, it seemed mostly correct – the Inuzuka boy was visibly bouncing where he sat, his ninken puppy snoozing on his head, but it seemed the boy hadn’t reached the limit of his patience yet and was, for now, at least, keeping quiet.

The Aburame was…really hard to read, if she was being honest, because she could barely see an inch of his face, but he appeared quietly expectant, if she had to guess.

The Hyuuga girl was the only slight surprise, because she was looking straight at Kurenai with a slight smile on her face, rather than cowering behind the boys and avoiding eye-contact whenever Kurenai tried to catch her gaze, like her file had implied she was likely to do.

She seemed almost…content, to be where she was.

“Good morning, Team Eight.” Kurenai greeted, shelving her musings for the time being and smiling at the children before her. “My name is Yuhi Kurenai. Should you pass my test, I will be your genin sensei for the foreseeable future. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Good morning, Kurenai-san.” The supposedly shy Hyuuga replied, her voice quiet, but with no sign of the stutter that had been highlighted in her file. Kurenai also mentally commended the girl for the honorific because, well. She wasn’t their sensei yet.

Speaking of-

“Wait, test?! We just did a test!” The Inuzuka protested, waking up his ninken partner judging by the puppy’s quiet, unhappy whine. “Why do we need another one?!”

“To check compatibility with the jounin sensei.” The Aburame replied before Kurenai could give the pre-prepared spiel about how the Academy Three are not enough to survive in the ‘real world’. “Did your family not tell you?”

Kurenai wasn’t sure what Kiba heard in the question – or perhaps what he smelled from the other boy – but both he and his ninken growled at Shino, heckles rising.

“Keep my family outta your mouth, man.” He snarled, and the way his lips pulled back showed far sharper canines than a normal person would possess.

“I was merely-”

“-pressing Kiba-san’s buttons to see how he’d react.” The Hyuuga cut in, still quiet, though she managed to catch both boys’ attention, judging by the way their heads snapped to her, seemingly having forgotten she was there.

Kurenai wasn’t sure what Shino thought about the quiet chastising – because it was undoubtedly that, despite how softly it was spoken – and Kiba took a split-second to preen and bare his teeth at his Aburame teammate, before a thought seemed to occur to him.

“Wait, didn’t you have a stutter?” he demanded, and Kurenai barely stifled a sigh at the bluntness. She was about to tell the boy off for his blunder when she saw how much Hinata shrank back at the question, but Shino spoke before she could.

“The test, sensei?” he asked, or she thought he asked, seeing as there was almost no inflection to his words.

Kurenai studied Kiba and Hinata for a beat longer, noting the way the Inuzuka boy seemed to have realised he’d misspoken if the way he was cringing and trying to catch Hinata’s eye was any indication, then sighed.

“I think I’d like you all to introduce yourselves first, before I give you the test.” She decided, somewhat wryly.

She’d forgotten that ‘emotional maturity’ and ‘twelve-year-olds’ rarely went together in the same sentence.

“Could you introduce yourself first?” Shino asked, and Kurenai tried not to take offense at the directness of the request. “Why? Because it would be helpful for us to have a guideline for our own introductions and likely save some time, enabling us to do your ‘test’ all the sooner.”

Kiba snickered, and the look in his eyes was mean.

“D’you always talk with yourself?” he teased, and it wasn’t snide, not yet, but it was aimed to hurt. “Sensei didn’t even ask for an explanation!”

“Thank you, Kiba.” Kurenai interjected firmly, shooting the boy a flat look when he jumped and turned to look at her. “As for your request, Shino, of course I can go first.”

Hinata, who’d been quiet since Kiba’s question about her stutter, finally perked up and focused all of her attention on Kurenai.

“My name is Yuhi Kurenai. I’m a jounin, as you may have guessed, and I specialise in genjutsu and traps. My goal for this team, should you pass, is to help you become the best people and shinobi you can be. My personal goal, or dream, really, is for the world to not have need for shinobi.”

“There’s a difference between a goal and a dream?” Kiba asked, and Kurenai bit back a sigh.

“Yes.” Hinata spoke, surprising Kurenai, moreso by the sad, far-away expression that came over the girl’s face than the fact that she spoke.

Despite Kiba clearly wanting her to elaborate, Hinata didn’t say anything more on the matter.

“Alright." Kurenai sighed, turning to the Aburame. "Shino?”

“My name is Aburame Shino. I specialise in mid-to-long range combat and my Clan’s techniques. My kikaichu can absorb chakra and track or search for targets. My goal is to survive to take over the Clan from my father. My dream…My dream is to get my brother back.”

Kurenai studied the boy for a moment, thrown by the unexpected dream, and she could see Kiba and Hinata doing the same, the former looking somewhat uneasy while the girl's face had smoothed of all expression, the look in her eyes cold.

“Kiba?” Kurenai asked after a few seconds, and Kiba jumped, startled, before he plastered a grin on his face.

“Inuzuka Kiba! Akamaru and I specialise in my Clan’s technique and perform wicked combo attacks and track over large distances! So, uh, mid-range, I guess? My goal is to take over the vet clinic from Hana-nee, and I, uh, don’t really have a dream yet!” he declared, and Kurenai was pleasantly surprised at the honesty and the goal itself.

“Your Academy sensei didn’t mention that you have med-nin aspirations.” She mused, studying the boy and the way he seemed a mix of pleased at her interest and somewhat sheepish.

“Cause ‘m not a med-nin yet. Nee-san says my chakra control’s crap at the moment, so I’ve gotta work on that before she’ll let me actually do any of the medic stuff, but chakra control’s boring.” Kiba explained, his tone bordering on whiny, and Kurenai had to bite back a smile.

For Inuzuka, especially ones with Kiba’s apparent degree of hyperactivity, chakra control exercises would indeed be hell.

“Alright, I’ll try and see if we can make it more engaging.” She promised, and Kiba grinned, an oddly determined look coming over his face instead of the earlier annoyance, no doubt having remembered that there’s still a test he has to pass. “As I said, I’m a genjutsu mistress, so I had to work on my control almost as much as the med-nin. Hinata could probably help, too, considering her specialisation.”

Upon mentioning the last member of her potential team, Kurenai turned to the only girl and smiled, beckoning her to start.

“H-Hyuuga Hinata.” The girl began, and both Kiba and Shino seemed to relax upon hearing the tiny stutter. “I specialise in taijutsu. My dojutsu allows me to track chakra signatures and detect chakra activity. I can also, um, perform some small-scale elemental ninjutsu.”

Kurenai blinked, surprised, both at the fact that the Academy had somehow missed that, and at the fact that the admission came from a Hyuuga.  

But Hinata wasn’t done.

“My dream is to change the Hyuuga Clan. To do that, I need to become a jounin.” she dropped her gaze to her hands, her voice growing quieter, and Kurenai felt her eyebrow climb up her forehead when she noticed the pebble the girl was twirling around her hand.

Without touching it.

“So I suppose that’s my goal.” Hinata finished quietly, then took a deep breath and looked up.

“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you all.” Kurenai said after a beat, gifting the children before her with another small smile. “As you may have realised if you were paying attention, we were put together as a tracking and capture oriented squad.”

She waited for the reaction to her announcement and got three nods of varying enthusiasm in confirmation.

So they had figured it out. Good start.

“Because of that, your job, your test, to see if you’re fit to be on this team, is to find me. You have until sundown.”

And then, using the technique that had won her the Jounin Spar, Kurenai cast an area-effect illusion and allowed herself to melt into the ground, masking her chakra at the same time, and headed for the café her and Asuma had agreed on to wait their kids out.

“Wha- she disappeared!” Kiba exclaimed, jumping to his feet, Akamaru whining at being disturbed yet again, and Hinata itched to pick the puppy off Kiba’s head and play with him like she’d done before.

“Genjutsu.” Shino declared, snapping her out of her thoughts, also getting to his feet. “And perhaps shunshin?”

“Earth manipulation.” Hinata corrected before she could catch herself, and both boys turned to look at her curiously. “I, um, felt her go underground.” She lied, because neither Kiba nor Shino knew her well enough yet to know that she was awful at sensing, and she couldn’t exactly say that she knew the technique Kurenai-sensei had used because she’d been her student for ten years.

“Whatever it was, neither me or Akamaru managed to catch her scent, so I got no idea where she went.” Kiba scowled, crossing his arms over his chest and turning expectantly to her and Shino.

“I hadn’t placed a kikaichu on sensei yet. Why? I’ve been told to ask for consent before doing so, and I haven’t had the chance to ask for it.” Shino confessed, and Hinata couldn’t help the wave of fondness that surged over her, even as Kiba wrinkled his nose.

“Gross, man. Bit creepy, too.”

“But useful.” Hinata cut in, mind flashing through the dozens of situations where Shino’s kikaichu had proven instrumental to completing the mission or saving their lives.

“And you?” Kiba asked, instead of commenting on her defence of Shino’s bugs. “You said you can track chakra. Can you track sensei?”

Hinata shook her head. “My range is less than fifty metres in radius. And I didn’t have my Byakugan activated when sensei disappeared.”

“Great, so we’ve got nothing.” Kiba grumbled, throwing his hands up in the air.

“You recognised sensei on sight.” Shino pointed out quietly, and Hinata belatedly realised he was speaking to her. “When she walked into the class.”

Hinata blinked, surprised that Shino had noticed that, and cursing herself for her inattentiveness. First, she forgot about her stutter, in front of first Shikamaru and then her team, now with this?

There was a reason, beyond her recognisable appearance, that she was never made to run undercover missions before.

“My cousin took the same Jounin Exams as Kurenai-san.” She managed after a beat, settling for a partial truth instead of a complete lie.

Tokuma had taken the same exams as Kurenai, only she didn’t technically know that yet. In her first timeline, after she was disinherited, he’d caught her briefly on her way out of the Compound and gave the most comfort she’d ever received from any of her clansmen:

Yuhi is a competent kunoichi. You could learn a lot from her, Hinata-sama.

It was only after she’d finally asked Kurenai, some months later, that she learned just how Tokuma had come by that assessment.

His spar with Kurenai was the reason he, despite having the best Byakugan in the Clan, was only a tokubetsu, and Kurenai was a full-fledged jounin.

“Have you got any insights as to where she might have gone?” Shino pressed, apparently accepting her explanation, though Kiba didn’t seem placated, staring at her oddly, and Hinata was about to shake her head when she paused, because, well-

“You do!” Kiba exclaimed, startling her, and Hinata was on her feet before she quite realised she’d gotten up, launching the pebble she’d been fiddling with at Kiba’s head as if it were a kunai and he an enemy.

“Woah!” Kiba yelped, just managing to duck out of the way of the projectile, and he turned to her with wide eyes. “Hell you so jumpy for?!”

“Because you do not seem to grasp the concept of appropriate volume and a good shinobi is always vigilant.” Shino all-but snapped, and though his volume remained the same, Kiba must’ve detected that the other boy’s patience was wearing thin because he didn’t verbalise his retort, settling for an irritated growl that nonetheless conveyed his feelings perfectly.

“Hinata-san,” Shino turned to her after a beat, and his voice was calmer, his chakra quieter, “any insights you may have as to sensei’s location will be helpful.”

“T-there’s a café.” She managed, eyes trained on the dent the pebble had made in the tree it had hit, a solid ten metres behind Kiba. Her heart was beating in double-time, her mind flashing through every possible scenario of what could’ve happened if Kiba hadn’t dodged.

She’d come from a war, but her teammates here were fresh genin. She was a fresh genin.

If she wasn’t more careful, she’d get them killed.

“What about the café?” Kiba prompted, snapping her out of her horrified contemplation of the tree, and Hinata jumped, turning her gaze to the Inuzuka and belatedly remembering she’d been in the middle of a sentence.

“I think I saw sensei there…once.” She finished quietly, avoiding eye-contact with either boy because her heart was still beating too fast and there was an acrid burn of guilt in the back of her throat.

“Seeing as it’s currently the best lead we have,” Shino spoke up after they were all silent for a few seconds too long, “I suggest you lead the way.”

They did find Kurenai, hidden in a tiny alcove at the back of the main room of the café, but by the time they stepped through the door, Kiba and Akamaru were certain Kurenai was in there, so they weren’t discouraged after not spotting her immediately.

Hinata had to admit, Kurenai and Asuma-san’s shocked faces upon her team’s arrival less than half an hour after Kurenai had disappeared on them had been funny.

“Seems like we’ll have to take a rain-check on that catch-up.” Asuma commented idly, his eyes sweeping almost lazily over Hinata and her team, though Hinata knew better than to be fooled by the seemingly-bored expression.

The Shikamaru she remembered had been a testament to his teacher just as much as he had been the product of his Clan – Sarutobi Asuma was not a man she wanted to underestimate.

“Seems like it.” Kurenai agreed absently, though her eyes were sharp as they flickered over her newly-confirmed students. “Well, congratulations, Team Eight. You passed my test.”

“Hell yeah!” Kiba cheered, throwing his fist up, then immediately quietened when Shino drove an elbow into his unprotected ribs and more than one patron of the café startled and made to grab a weapon.

“Appropriate. Volume.” Shino hissed, cutting off Kiba’s protests before they could be voiced. “Or do you wish to actually die this time?”

From the way both Kurenai and Asuma’s gazes sharpened at Shino’s wording, Hinata knew she’d have to explain her reaction at some point.

“How did you find me?” Kurenai asked, apparently unable to fight her curiosity. “I genuinely thought it would take you much longer.”

But she still thought they’d manage to do it. Hinata couldn’t help but smile, touched by the fact that her sensei had had faith in her team even before they were an actual team.

“Hinata said she’d seen you here before, and then when we came in, Akamaru ‘n I could smell you!” Kiba explained, apparently recovered from his annoyance at being on the receiving end of Shino’s pointy elbow.

Kurenai’s eyebrow rose even higher on her forehead, but it was Asuma who spoke, his gaze far from disinterested now and trained on Hinata.

“Your sensei’s jounin promotion is rather recent. And you’re a tad too young to recognise her from other fields.” He pointed out, and Hinata could tell, even without looking, that Kiba didn’t know what he was alluding to.

‘You had no reason to take note of Kurenai’ which, to Hinata’s ears, was rather rude to say, though Kurenai herself appeared more exasperated than insulted.

When Kurenai also turned to look at her, less intense than Asuma but no less curious, Hinata settled for another half-truth, the guilt at lying so frequently a small but unshakeable weight on her shoulders.

“Tokuma is my second cousin.” She murmured, and though Asuma’s expression didn’t clear any, Kurenai’s eyes widened marginally, then a flicker of guilt passed over her face.

“Ah.” Was all she said on the matter, smiling wryly. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. That was admittedly my nastiest genjutsu.”

Hinata smiled, aiming for comforting but likely landing on something too faint to offer any real reassurance. “He doesn’t begrudge you the victory, sensei.”

Kurenai looked surprised for the briefest of moments, then offered her a tentative smile.

“Thank you.” she acknowledged, then focused her attention on all of them. “Come to the training ground we were at today at eight tomorrow for our first team training.”

Hinata knew she wasn’t the only one who felt proud after Kurenai’s words, though Shino’s face was mostly covered and Kiba seemed to have learned the lesson of not being loud around shinobi, or Shino’s elbow was pointier than Hinata remembered.

She smiled.

Team Eight was back.

Over the following week, the rose-tinted glasses she’d unconsciously donned when thinking of her genin days were shattered.

Repeatedly.

And rather brutally.

She’d forgotten, what with growing up, with the trauma of Orochimaru’s invasion, of Pein’s assault, of the war, that they hadn’t started out as the paragon of teamwork.

She’d been too shy, Kiba too blunt, Shino too unused to people and Kurenai, despite her best efforts, too new at dealing with children and being a direct superior, that it wasn’t until the Chunin Exams that they’d really clicked.

Now that she wasn’t paralysed by her shyness, she was noticing everything a lot more – noticing the petty fights between Kiba and Shino, Shino’s complete cluelessness at how to interact with his peers, Kiba’s much simpler, more animalistic understanding of the world that she’d just…ignored the first time around, and Kurenai’s endearing, well-intentioned, but, with the gift of hindsight, rather clumsy attempts at getting them to work together.

[the fact that her sensei was currently barely five years older than her was something she actively avoided thinking about]

Over the week they’ve been a team, they fell into a routine – a D-Rank a day, many ‘teamwork building’ activities, and Kurenai’s sneaky inclusion of ‘tracking practice’. Then, at the end of that first week, Kurenai deviated from the routine and uttered the words Hinata had been dreading.

“I’d like you to spar with each other now.”

Her and Kiba’s spar had been fun.

He was quicker than her right now, but she was more flexible, more stable, so in the first few minutes, they were reasonably well-matched, though Hinata refused to use her Byakugan no matter how much Kiba frowned at her for it.

She was managing just fine without it – she could hit the less debilitating tenketsu with her eyes closed, at this point.

Still, she let Kiba win, because when it came down to it, when Kiba used Fang over Fang, she couldn’t bring herself to hurt Akamaru.

Her spar with Shino, however, was much worse.

Because it never became a spar.

When she drew close for a taijutsu sequence, she felt a small but unmistakeable pull on her chakra, a tell-tale sign Shino’s kikaichu had latched on.

“Please don’t take my chakra.” She murmured, striking at Shino’s centre of balance as she concentrated, disrupting her chakra like she would to break a genjutsu and seeing as well as feeling a handful of kikaichu fall off of her, stunned.

Shino frowned, then darted away and stretched his arms towards her in a much-too-familiar pose.

A second later, a veritable cloud of kikaichu flew towards her, and this time, the loss of chakra was immediate and impossible to miss.

Her irritation at the blatant dismissal of her wishes was overshadowed by her sudden panic.

No, no, no, not my chakra, have to protect, have to fight-!

And then, it wasn’t Shino, it wasn’t her teammate and one of her closest friends, it wasn’t a twelve-year-old boy that was before her.

It was one of Pein’s Paths, it was Zetsu, it was Obito, it was Kaguya, it was an enemy.

Hinata closed her eyes.

When she opened them, they were bulging with the Byakugan, and she was standing on the surface of the stream running through their training grounds.

“Mizu Hari.”

Kurenai fell into the seat opposite Asuma, back at the café her team had found her in a week before, a sigh escaping her as she let herself finally relax.

“That's a big sigh.” Asuma observed, his eyes amused as he sipped his tea, and Kurenai gathered enough energy to shoot him a glare.

"Either the Academy has gotten even worse at profiling its students since we were there, or my kids are fantastic actors who've been pulling the longest practical joke in Village history on the instructors." She grumbled, arranging herself into a somewhat more presentable position.

"That sounds promising. Here," Asuma mused, pushing a steaming cup of tea towards her, "looks like you'll need it."

"I'll need something stronger than tea, Asuma." Kurenai threw back tiredly, but still picked up the cup with a small smile.

"We'll get to that later. Now, vent." He all-but ordered, and Kurenai paused, because no matter how tempting the idea was, she had to ask-

"Are you sure? We're not going to get many opportunities to just relax like this for a while yet. You sure you want me to dump on you?"

Asuma waved her off, then gestured at the waitress for more tea. "I have a feeling I'll need to complain about my kids soon, so I'll get my money's worth, don't worry. Now, come on, you got me curious. What's your kids' deal?"

Kurenai sipped her tea, getting her thoughts in order and trying to figure out what her biggest problems were.

"I was given profiles of a brash, arrogant Inuzuka and two quiet, smart kids. Aburame-kun would've been presumed mute if not for what Clan he’s from, and Hyuuga-chan got an F in positivity. I didn't know it was possible to get an F in that, but she did."

Asuma chuckled, nodding. "Alright, sounds like a potential pain to get them motivated and working together, but nothing drastic. What's the issue?"

"Kiba-kun isn't arrogant at all – he's a bit cocky, but he's also an Inuzuka; they're not exactly quiet.” She complained, half-frustrated, half-baffled. “And he had no issue with getting a female sensei, which I was warned might be an issue."

"The Inuzuka are matriarchal, aren't they?"

"No," Kurenai scoffed, sipping her tea before it got cold, "I thought so too, but that was too sumple, apparently. Turns out the potential alphas beat the shit out of each other and whoever wins becomes Clan Head. Tsume-san just happened to be the one who won."

When Asuma blinked at her, visibly surprised, she laughed shortly. "I asked Hana-chan if she thought her brother would be difficult with me being a woman."

"And?"

Kurenai shot him a look. "It's not polite to repeat what she said in civilized conversation."

"Alright, and the other two?" Asuma asked, voice a little choked, and Kurenai could tell he was barely holding back laughter.

"Shino-kun is shaping up to be the arrogant one. He completely ignored Hinata-chan's request before their spar. Lost a good chunk of his colony as a result."

This time, Asuma simply stared for a few seconds. "Alright, I’ll bite. How does a genin destroy an Aburame colony?"

Kurenai put her cup down for a second, then met Asuma’s gaze.

"With water needles." She said simply.

"...damn." Asuma whistled, then blinked. “Wait. A Hyuuga using elemental manipulation?”

“Mmhm.” Kurenai hummed, picking up her tea again. “Hyuuga heiress, at that. According to her, though, ‘tradition is predictable’.”

Bafflingly, Asuma started to laugh.

“You got a revolutionary.”

Predictably, after Hinata's spar with Shino, Kurenai changed her tune.

“Alright, boys. Hinata-chan can water-walk, you two need to catch up.”

Naturally, Kiba and Shino took to it with all the determination of stubborn twelve-year-old boys itching to beat a 'rival' - though perhaps that was more Kiba's motivation than Shino's. Nevertheless, they mastered tree-walking in a matter of days, water-walking in a little under a week. While they were doing that, Hinata worked on the size of her reserves through the C-Rank water jutsu Kurenai had found for her. Once all three members of Team Eight were capable of the tree-running Konoha was famed for and could also run and fight on water, their potential missions immediately expanded to include C-Ranks, which was, well. 

Less than ideal, if she was being honest.

If Hinata's memory served, Team Eight’s first C-Rank didn’t happen until three months after their genin test.

Now, she was staring at a C-Ranked mission scroll and a client barely a month after graduating the Academy.

And Hinata had no idea what to expect.

The consequence of competence.

Chapter Text

Team 8's first C-Rank went off without a hitch.

As did their second.

And their third.

Before Hinata knew it, she’d been genin – again – for three months.

According to Kurenai, they were becoming the favoured genin team amongst the mission office shinobi because their clients never complained, often praising them, in fact, because Kiba and Shino could somehow put their little rivalry aside to act professional when they had to. Kurenai also made sure that their written reports were legible and delivered on time, which also endeared them to the admin shinobi when compared to Kakashi's team, for example.

That sense of confidence, and Hinata didn't want to call it a false sense of confidence, because she couldn't deny that they had earned it, was perhaps why their fourth mission ended the way it did.

Or why it came as such a shock to her.

They were sent on a run to one of the border outposts, tasked with delivering a scroll from the outpost to Konoha. They didn’t encounter any trouble on the way to the outpost, picked up the scroll without any issue, and were ready to run back to Konoha and try to complete their mission in four days instead of the projected seven.

On their way back, Kiba requested a bathroom break for Akamaru, a request which Kurenai had readily granted seeing as they were a few kilometres away from the outpost, set to make good time, and safely within the borders of the Land of Fire.

Or so they thought.

As soon as Kiba’s feet touched the ground when he landed, the earth rose up and snagged his leg all the way up to his knee, and then there was a sickening crunch as the bones broke under the pressure.

Kiba didn’t even have the time to scream, a quiet, punched-out whine leaving his lips at the sudden pain, and then there was pandemonium.

Kurenai leapt to the ground, blocking the wakizashi heading for Kiba’s jugular from one of the Iwa-nin and lashing out with a kick to derail the path of a kunai. Shino had dropped to a lower branch too, his kikaichu heading towards another Iwa-nin, but Hinata activated her Byakugan and sought out Akamaru instead.

The puppy ninken had leapt off Kiba’s head and into the bushes as soon as Kiba had landed, and Hinata jumped down to the ground, fished Akamaru out from the shrubbery and leapt back into the trees, hiding behind one of the thicker trunks.

She rifled through her pack and pulled out the scroll they were charged with delivering, since she guessed that was the only reason a group of Iwa-nin would dare attack them within their borders, and pushed it between the dog’s teeth.

“Hide.” She mouthed, then concentrated and wove a simple notice-me-not genjutsu around Akamaru’s tiny body, one Kurenai had taught her before her second Chunin Exams. It wouldn’t fool skilled shinobi, but between Akamaru’s size and the unexpectedness of a ninken, she reckoned he had the biggest chance out of the five of them of escaping unseen.

When Akamaru – with a quick, desperate glance at Kiba – obediently turned tail and disappeared, Hinata took a deep breath and steadied her nerves.

She never liked bloodshed. She hated violence. She abhorred killing unnecessarily.

But. She was a kunoichi.

And the macabre beauty of the Byakugan, she mused absently, feeling almost separate from her body, was that it never looked violent. But her opponents were just as dead from a simple chakra-charged palm-strike to the heart as they would be from Kiba and Akamaru levelling half the forest in their Fang-over-Fang.

Feeling the cool detachment of battle-calm settle over her, she jumped into the fray.

Most of the enemy-nin were intent on Kurenai where she stood defending Kiba as she was the only one out of them who stood to pose any real danger, and also because Kurenai’s seeming unwillingness to abandon her trapped student made her an easy target.

Landing quietly, chakra cushioning her feet even as she gathered chakra to her hands and calmed her breath, she struck.

The first two shinobi Hinata killed didn’t even see her.

The third one did, though, and she had a split-second to throw herself into a roll to avoid the earth spike that would’ve likely disembowelled her. She rolled to her feet and kept her knees bent, driving her palm forward in the Vacuum Palm as soon as she regained her balance and ignoring the burn in her coils at the wordless, sealless execution.

When the man staggered, dazed but not dead, because she wasn’t capable of killing with that technique yet, how could she have forgotten-?! she abandoned all decorum, palmed a kunai and jumped on him, stabbing forward gracelessly instead, managing to cut his throat, but not enough.

Her momentum took them both down and her opponent’s back hit the ground, though his knee came up and caught her side in a reflexive - and successful - attempt to throw her off. Hinata wheezed, the impact knocking the breath out of her and sending her tumbling a few metres away. She coughed, pushed off the ground and jumped, sticking her feet to the nearby tree a moment before the ground erupted with more earth spikes. When the spikes stabilised, she shifted her centre of balance, adjusted her grip on the kunai, and pushed off the trunk, launching herself at the man again.

He hadn’t managed to stand up yet when she barrelled into him, pushing him down and locking his legs down with her knees, then stabbed down again, with more conviction this time, aiming for his eye. When the tip of her knife met its target, she pumped chakra into her arm and forced the blade down and through, and the man’s scream died in his throat, though not before he managed to drive his own knife deep into her thigh with his free hand.

Hinata felt the pain, felt her vision white out for a moment, felt the nausea rise up her throat, then she was on her feet again as soon as she was sure he was dead and she wouldn't puke, Jyuuken lighting up her hands, because her Byakugan had caught the moment Shino got a sword shoved through his abdomen.

She blurred in a Shunshin that made her dizzy when she landed, leaving Kurenai on the ground to protect Kiba and take down the two Iwa-nin still-standing.

As soon as her feet touched the branch Shino was standing on, landing behind his opponent, she lashed out with a side-kick, intent on knocking the man off the branch rather than into Shino.

But he must’ve either sensed or heard her land because he turned just enough to catch her foot, wrenching it round until something in her ankle crunched, and Hinata hissed in pain, tears springing to her eyes.

But, a thought registered through the fog of pain, she was still in motion, her momentum not fully lost, and he was still holding her foot.

Not thinking much, Hinata dropped so her hands were supporting her weight on the branch, twisted her hips, and kicked out with her other leg, managing to strike the Iwa-nin hard in the jaw with her heel.

He released her ankle and the hilt of the sword he’d stabbed Shino with, and Hinata had a split-second to get her feet under her and realise that she now had the man’s full attention on her.

Which was better than it being on Shino, but not great.

“Little bitch.” The man snarled, spitting what she guessed was blood, and then he was striking out, forearms and fists enforced with a thick layer of chakra.

Hinata managed to dodge the first punch at her face but overestimated her flexibility in this body and didn’t fully succeed in twisting out of the way of the follow-up strike to her ribs.

The thick layer of chakra must have been a layer of rock, because the fist hit her ribs - again - and it hit so hard her vision blacked out for a moment and she coughed, tasting metal on the back of her tongue. If not for her Byakugan, she wouldn’t have been able to see at all through the tears in her eyes, but she could see the man’s heart, the main concentration of his chakra, easily enough.

She stepped closer, using her smaller size to duck into his guard, barely twisted so reflexive the rock-leaden swipe at her head ended up clipping her left shoulder instead, sending a jolt of numbing pain down her arm, and took the final leap until she was firmly within the man’s guard.

Then, she drew her working arm back, hand flexed and fingers straight, cursed her shorter reach and threw herself at him to cover the last few centimetres, driving her palm as well as what remained of her chakra at the man’s heart.

He wheezed, headbutting her in the face before he staggered, and fell off the branch, impacting the ground beneath with a soft thud.

Hinata blinked, her Byakugan fading at the shock of pain in her nose, the forest around them regaining its greens-and-browns instead of the monochrome of her Byakugan vision, and she realised that she’d landed on her hands and knees, her shoulder and thigh screaming. She swayed, suddenly dizzy, but before she could fall off the branch too, there was a thigh against her side, warm and sticky, and a trembling hand on her shoulder.

“I’ve got you.” Kurenai rasped, and when Hinata craned her neck to look up at her sensei, she blinked at the purpling, hand-shaped bruise around the woman’s throat. Kiba was slung over her back, face pinched with pain but his eyes were staring at her with a look she couldn’t quite read in her current state.

“Sensei-” Shino wheezed, and Hinata’s head snapped to him so fast her vision swam and she felt nauseous, only just remembering Shino’s state.

One of the lenses of his glasses had been cracked, and what she could see of his eye was wide and scared, and Hinata was once again reminded that her teammates were twelve-year-old boys.

Gods, this was their first real taste of battle, wasn’t it?

“Hinata,” Kurenai called her name, even as she moved around her to get to Shino, “can you stand?”

Hinata blinked back the black splotches from her vision, waiting until they were simply in her periphery, then focused on her body.

Her thigh was pulsing rather insistently and unpleasantly, her ankle throbbed, her ribs hurt with every wet, rattling breath, not helped by her suddenly numb nose, and her left arm was still unresponsive. Still, she stuck herself to the branch with chakra and pushed slowly to her feet-

-ow.

Pain shot through her leg, radiating from her thigh, to her hip, then back down again to the tips of her toes, but it eventually settled back into the cold-hot pulsing of before.

“…Yes.” She confirmed belatedly, rather unnecessarily seeing as she was already standing, glancing up at Kurenai who was watching her intently even as she was pulling out strips of bandage and gauze and what looked like a small bottle of antiseptic from her kit.

“I need you to seal up the bodies.” Kurenai told her evenly, her eyes on her face even as she passed the medical supplies to Kiba, who looked ashen-faced and pained, but still conscious, and started pulling out scrolls from her jounin vest. The scrolls were small and thin, no thicker than Hinata’s thumb, and red-edged, and Hinata recognised them on sight, though not from this life.

“Can you do that?” Kurenai asked, holding the scrolls out to her, though it was clear it wasn’t a question and Hinata found herself nodding before she fully registered it. “Good. I need to patch up Shino, then we’re going back to the outpost.”

That caught Hinata’s attention and she glanced up at her sensei, feeling like she should be…something.

“What about the mission?” she asked quietly, her eyes flickering from Kiba’s blood-covered sandal and pants-leg to Shino all-but slumped against the tree, the sword he’d been stabbed with still sticking out from his stomach, what she could see of his skin was pale and clammy and greenish and he was panting too quick to be just shock-

“I think Shino’s been poisoned.” She murmured, mostly to herself, and Kurenai shot her a sharp look before she turned briefly to Shino, then back to her.

“Focus, Hinata.” She ordered, and Hinata jumped, immediately wincing when the movement jarred her shoulder and ribs. “Do you still have the mission scroll?”

“I gave it to Akamaru.” Hinata replied, and Kurenai’s frown grew more severe.

“And where’s Akamaru?” She asked sharply, looking around, and even Kiba roused himself long enough to frown at her.

“I told him to hide.” Hinata relayed, trying to assess whether she had enough chakra to try activating her Byakugan again.

“Kiba.”

Kiba startled at the tone but seemed to guess what Kurenai wanted because he whistled sharply, a note Hinata hadn’t heard him produce in this life yet and she closed her eyes against the onslaught of memories from before.

After what felt like a few seconds, though Hinata had no way of knowing how much time had actually elapsed, there was the sound of quiet shuffling and a muffled bark, and Kurenai glanced up at one of the branches on a tree next to them in surprise. She slanted Hinata with an odd look, then raised the hand not holding the scrolls to her chest, fingers curled in the Ram seal and flexed her chakra.

Akamaru appeared once the genjutsu was released, looking muddy and dishevelled, but uninjured, his jaws still clamped securely around the scroll Hinata had given him.

“Good job, Akamaru.” Kurenai praised, then turned back to Hinata, holding out the body scrolls once again with an expectant look.

Hinata took them, blinking slowly, then waited until Kurenai turned around to focus on Shino before she allowed herself to drop to the ground and set to work.

Back at the outpost, in a room which was clearly a tiny mess hall rather than an infirmary, but which was the only one where tables and cloth could be spared to act as gurneys for three genin in varying states of injury, Kurenai waited for the closest thing to a medic the station could offer to leave and close the door before she allowed herself to slide down the wall and put her head between her knees.

She was aware that the only reason she was still keeping even a semblance of composure despite feeling like she was a step away from a full-blown episode was because two of her three kids still needed immediate medical attention, lest her stint as a genin sensei end with one of the shortest terms in Konoha’s history.

Her shrink was going to have her hands full when they got back, she could feel it.

Iwa-nin. Iwa chunin within Konoha’s borders. They’d clearly waited for them to pick up the missive before attacking, and that required knowledge of far more than just where their outpost was located.

The worst thing was, she thought chillingly, that their presence within the Land of Fire could be anything from an outright declaration of war to an internal security breach the levels of which the Konohagakure hadn’t seen since Orochimaru, probably.

And her kids had been caught right in the middle of it.

She’d planned on getting them a simple mission after they got back, something to deal with bandits or one of the lowest-level hunter-nin missions to let them get some tracking practice as well as their first kills out of the way in a more controlled environment. In a way she could be there for them to support them in the immediate aftermath, the way no-one had been there for her.

Killing in theory was one thing, but killing in practice was another, and if they continued on the path of getting C-Rank after C-Rank when the rest of their peers were still painting fences, it was inevitable they’d eventually have to kill.

Doing it in a semi-controlled setting, with support readily available afterwards, would’ve been ideal.

In the end, even the best laid plans fall, and the option to choose the time and place for her students to take their next big step of their shinobi careers was taken out of her hands.

Once they’d fallen into what, in retrospect, was a very effective ambush, she’d been too busy protecting Kiba and trying not to get killed herself to pay too much attention to her surroundings, but she was still peripherally aware of her other students.

But even with only peripheral awareness, it hadn’t escaped her notice that Shino had frozen when his kikaichu had actually succeeded in doing what they were bred to do and the Iwa-nin he’d sicced them on had dropped to the ground, little more than a bloodied pile of bones and fabric. It was because he’d taken too long to shake off that shock that he failed to notice the shinobi sneaking up the tree, and Shino, for all that he was solidly average for a genin, was not a taijutsu shinobi.

Kurenai resolved to talk to his father about mitigating that and swore to send all three of her students to Psych as soon as she made sure they wouldn’t die before making it back to the Village.

Kiba too, for all that he’d been injured the quickest and trapped for the entirety of the battle, though he’d refused to be helpless, hadn’t been able to move past the actual kill quick enough.

With Akamaru nowhere to be found, Kiba had taken to alternating between trying to dodge as much as he could with half his leg caught in the dirt and lobbing his kunai and shuriken at the shinobi surrounding them, with mixed results. Still, the small distraction had offered miniscule windows of opportunity for Kurenai to capitalise on in her quest to keep her kids alive, and outnumbered ten-to-three, those would have to do.

But, eventually, one of Kiba’s kunai, thrown with more force than Kurenai had thought him capable of, though it could’ve also been a result of mounting helplessness in the face of unfavourable odds, had not just reached its target but proved lethal, burying itself hilt-deep in the eye-socket of one of the Iwa-nin Kurenai had managed to snag in her genjutsu.

Kiba hadn’t noticed immediately, shifting his focus to the nin who’d come at him with a sword, but when Kurenai had twisted around to meet the man with more stable block than Kiba’s sloppy kunai, he’d turned around, ready to resume his earlier task of real-life target practice.

And frozen.

And, despite Kurenai’s breathless warning, he had been too slow to dodge the rock-plated kick to his side from one of the other nin, and he’d crumpled to the ground, wheezing and coughing blood. Kurenai’s sword-wielding opponent slipped past her hasty guard, and she had a split-second to stick out her leg and catch the sword that would’ve beheaded Kiba in her thigh, her reinforced leggings slowing the blade’s momentum enough that while it didn’t sever her leg, it carved a good inch-deep gouge into the flesh and muscle of her thigh, sending searing pain through the limb.

Hinata’s absence had been conspicuous, in those first few seconds, and Kurenai had a fleeting, bitter thought that the Academy profiles had actually been right and the girl had fled.

And then, just as suddenly as she’d disappeared, Hinata had reappeared, though Kurenai didn’t notice her immediately.

She did, however, notice that the outer ring of the five still standing Iwa-nin of the eight who had initially surrounded her thinned out slightly in the few seconds it took her to shift her balance, palm a kunai, and stab down towards the groin of Kiba’s would-be executioner.

The man had cursed, stumbled back, only succeeding in making Kurenai’s kunai dig deeper into his femoral artery, and glanced momentarily at the back of the group, no doubt wary at suddenly being one of three left standing.

Kurenai had grit her teeth, put her full weight on the leg with a sword sticking out of it, and drove her other foot hard into the man’s stomach.

Combined with the way he was rapidly bleeding out, she didn’t think he’d be getting up soon.

“Kiba.” She gritted out, bending down to yank him to his feet and out of the way of an earth spike that would’ve rendered her effort to prevent a beheading moot, and Kiba had whined when his leg and side were jostled, likely only aggravating the injuries further, but Kurenai was at the ‘strategic sacrifices’ stage of combat.

And then, Shino had screamed, and Kurenai’s focus had shifted to his standoff up in the branches, her heart skipping a beat despite the adrenaline in her system at the sight of the sword sticking out of her student’s abdomen.

But then, Hinata was there, a Shunshin Kurenai didn’t recall the girl ever using before taking her to Shino’s branch and his opponent.

“Sorry, Kiba.” Kurenai murmured, more to herself than the boy, and then she flashed through the seals for the genjutsu that had won her the Jounin Spar against Tokuma.

When the remaining two Iwa-nin plus Kiba cried out at the mix of vertigo and tinnitus her genjutsu caused, Kurenai abandoned her post at Kiba’s side long enough to rip the sword from her thigh, ignoring the alarming amount of blood that sprayed out for the moment, and clumsily reversed her grip on the weapon to flash between the staggering Iwa-nin and cut their throats.

A quick, desperate glance around the clearing showed only bodies, and Kurenai bent down to begin the process of freeing up Kiba’s leg, adamantly not thinking about the damage that lay beneath the bloodied bandage and pants’ leg.

And then, once she’d hefted most of Kiba’s weight on her back, the boy whining under his breath the whole time, a soft, pained, continuous sound that threatened to make Kurenai cry on principle, a soft thud reached her ears, and her gaze jerked from the Iwa-nin who’d toppled off Shino’s branch and hit the ground, unmoving, to her remaining students.

She was flashing to the branch and pressing her injured thigh against Hinata’s side, steadying the girl, before she’d fully registered what she was doing.

The girl looked a mess, blood streaming from her nose and lips and her clothes dusty and bloodied, but she was the only one of her teammates still able to move, and Kurenai pushed the guilt of forcing a preteen genin to push through pain and go seal up enemy corpses to the back of her mind.

Hinata looked banged up, but she’d live. Shino, judging by the blood staining his jacket despite the sword still being in him and the greenish tint to the visible parts of his face, might not.

“What about the mission?” came Hinata’s quiet voice, and Kurenai paused where she’d been fishing out bandages and antiseptic to shoot the girl a quelling look, though she seemed to miss it completely, her empty gaze trained on Shino’s abdomen.

“I think Shino’s been poisoned.” She mumbled, and Kurenai adamantly refused to think about what sort of upbringing would lead a fresh genin to be able to recognise signs of acute poisoning on an Aburame.

Finding out that Hinata hadn’t deserted, but had instead had the presence of mind to pass the scroll the Iwa-nin were likely after to Akamaru, ensuring that, even if they failed, the mission wouldn’t, hadn’t been a pleasant realisation.

Instead of feeling proud or reassured, Kurenai resolved herself to hunt down the girl’s Academy teachers and shake them, and have a conversation with Hyuuga Hiashi, one she wasn’t sure she would survive, but couldn’t put off any longer.

Hinata was a child of peace time.

There were a few reasons that could explain her quick, violent reactions to sudden movements or her high pain tolerance, and none of them painted the Hyuuga Head in a particularly favourable light.

Learning from the bemused acting med-nin that she’d asked Hinata to carry Shino back to the outpost while the girl had had a kunai stuck in her femur, bruised ribs, and was teetering dangerously close to chakra exhaustion had made the guilt she’d pushed back to the back of her mind in the heat of battle surge up again.

All three of her kids were sleeping, either exhausted or unconscious, the fact that their ‘beds’ were dining tables with sheets thrown over them not inhibiting them in the slightest.

Kurenai should probably be sleeping too, or she should at least let someone take a look at the gash in her thigh, but she wasn’t sure she wouldn’t break down the moment she let her students out of sight.

Shino had passed out from the fever, whether brought on by infection or whatever poison was in his system – the sword he’d been stabbed with was clean, Kurenai had checked, but the symptoms he was exhibiting were undeniably those of poisoning. Kiba had dropped off too, even before they’d arrived to the outpost, and Kurenai had had to help Hinata pull the boy off her back. And Hinata had remained conscious the longest, suffering through the process of getting the kunai pulled out of her leg with gritted teeth and screwed-shut eyes, but no tears.

The acting med-nin had washed her wound out with antiseptic and bound it tightly, nodded at the girl, then at Kurenai, and took his leave along with his two teammates.

“How long,” Hinata had mumbled, staring up at the ceiling dazedly, lines of pain in her young face that made Kurenai regret, “until the reinforcements get here?”

“Kosuke-san said they’re about three hours out, provided they don’t get derailed.” Kurenai relayed in an equally quiet, hoarse voice, adamantly not thinking of the rock-plated hand that had done its best to crush her trachea earlier today.

“You should try to get some sleep.” She advised after a beat, because Hinata looked like she was fighting a losing battle with her eyelids. “I promise I’ll wake you if anything changes.”

Hinata hadn’t replied to that, though she’d obligingly closed her eyes, and though even when her chakra evened out with sleep, the room wasn’t quiet. Shino was gasping short, shallow breaths lifting his chest in a manner that was only coldly reassuring, because at least it meant he wasn’t dead yet. Kiba was still whining, a low, constant sound, and Akamaru, curled up on the boy’s chest despite the medic’s exasperation was echoing the whine, and the combined sound was doing its best to rip out Kurenai’s heart. Hinata, too, was sweating, and her breaths were raspy and wet, and Kurenai had been an active kunoichi long enough to know that that sound wasn’t good.

So, with her head between her knees, Kurenai tried to take a deep breath and let the tears fall, because nobody had warned her about the helplessness.

The responsibility, yes, the babysitting, yes, the fact that no one ever stops being a jounin-sensei, yes – she’d been warned about all that. But the fact that her kids – by virtue of being kids – could die on her? Could get hit by something that she would be able to brush off, but for them would end in hospitalisation at best?

No-one had said anything about that.

She didn’t know how long she sat there, tears falling freely and making her cheeks and neck sting where she’d been cut up, but eventually, there was a quiet knock on the door, and Kurenai looked up, tears long-dry but her red eyes doubtless still red-rimmed.

“Yuuhi-san?” a kunoichi asked, familiar red Clan markings on her face. “I heard you’re in need of transport.”

Clearing her throat, Kurenai pushed to her feet from the sitting position she’d fallen into, stumbling at the combination of headrush and the piercing pain that shot up her thigh. “Y-yes.” She managed, using the wall she was leaning against to steady herself before she straightened. “Yes, thank you, Inuzuka-san.”

“Ayumi. How do you wanna do it?” the woman – Ayumi – asked, sending Kiba’s unconscious form a measured glance, and Kurenai absently wondered whether they were related. “Kaimaru could probably carry one of them, but they’d need to be conscious.”

Kurenai blinked, not following, and Ayumi snorted and jerked her chin at-

-at the enormous black dog who must’ve slunk into the room after her, and was currently rumbling quietly at Akamaru.

“Ah.” Kurenai murmured, inwardly shaking herself off whatever stupor she’d fallen into. “In that case, Hinata’s probably safest.”

Ayumi made a gesture as if to tell her to get to it, and Kurenai frowned absently at the woman and stepped towards Hinata, lightly shaking her shoulder.

She didn’t expect to have to catch the girl’s wrist a split-second later, stopping her fingers barely an inch short of gouging out her eyes.

“Good reflexes.” Ayumi praised from the side, though whether it was directed at her or Hinata, Kurenai couldn’t tell.

Instead, she focused on her student, waiting for the girl to focus and for the glint of recognition to pass through the somewhat unsettling lilac eyes.

“…Sorry, sensei.” Hinata muttered quietly, and it was genuine but tired and dazed. She tried to sit up, breath wheezing in her chest then coming out in a rough, rattling cough, and when she removed her hand from her mouth, it came away splattered with blood.

Kurenai froze, but Hinata merely blinked and wiped her hand off on her pants, swinging her legs slowly over the edge of the table, gaze falling on Ayumi and her ninken.

“Inuzuka-san.” She inclined her head, then glanced at Kurenai. “The reinforcements?”

“Transport.” Ayumi replied, gesturing at her ninken. “Hop on, kiddo, you look like the only one conscious enough to hold on.”

“Would that be alright with you?” Hinata checked quietly, and Kurenai was about to tell the girl that now was not the moment to be shy, but when she turned to Hinata, the Hyuuga wasn’t talking to Ayumi, but to her ninken.

Dog and owner looked a bit thrown, then Ayumi grinned and Kaimaru gave the dog-equivalent of a nod, fangs bared in what Kurenai hesitantly pegged as a grin.

“Yes.” The dog rumbled in a surprisingly deep voice and walked closer to Hinata when the girl slowly pushed to her feet, making it easier for her to get on. “Askin’s appreciated, though.”

“What he said.” Ayumi nodded, then turned to Kurenai. “You alright if I take Tsume’s pup?”

Kurenai nodded, moving to gently pick up Shino, though not before pulling off the no-longer-cold strips of cloth from his chest, armpits, and lower stomach, a valiant attempt by the medic to bring down his temperature. She threw Shino’s jacket around him and did up the first two clasps so it covered him, draped more like a poncho than a jacket, then hefted him in a bridal carry, waiting until Ayumi did the same to Kiba.

“Alright.” She announced, pushing the pain in her leg and back to the dark recesses of her mind and throwing away the key. “Let’s go.”

Asuma sighed as he slipped into the hospital room three days after the team currently occupying it had arrived, taking in the four beds and assorted machines attached to three of the four occupants.

“’Just an easy C-Rank’, she said.” He murmured, mindful of the sleeping teens, heading over to Kurenai’s bed and brandishing the paper bag with powdered rice cakes like an offering when the woman glanced at him briefly. “’We’ll be back in a week’, she said.”

“Technically, we were back in a week.” She rasped, wincing, and Asuma wordlessly handed her the glass of water from her bedside table. “Though it is officially a B-Rank now.”

“So I heard.” He sighed, pulling two scrolls from his pocket and holding them out to her. “Bounties. One’s for you, one’s for your Hyuuga.”

At Kurenai’s slow blink, he elaborated. “Two of the chunin that were credited to her had bounties. Your one was the jounin.”

"S'why the bastard wouldn't just lie down an die, I guess." She sighed, absently gesturing for him to put them on the bedside table, and Asuma found himself feeling morbidly amused.

“Knife to the groin though? Ouch.”

Kurenai huffed, though she looked reluctantly entertained, and Asuma felt quietly accomplished. “He deserved it.”

“Better him than you, definitely.” Asuma agreed idly, and Kurenai snorted. She then shuffled a little over to the edge of the bed, wincing as she settled again, at which point she sent him a quietly expectant look.

It was his turn to sigh, though he obligingly shrugged off his flak jacket, draping it on the uncomfortable hospital chair, and toed off his sandals. “You sure? I don’t wanna accidentally make you worse.”

“I’m fine.” Kurenai dismissed with a huff, though when he paused before climbing onto the bed, shooting her a slightly incredulous look, she added a grudging, “Physically.”

“Mm.” Asuma hummed, managing to fold himself into the narrow hospital bed next to her, wrapping a careful arm around Kurenai’s slight shoulders and gently pulling her into his side.

It was a tight squeeze with two full-grown adults on one small hospital bed, but Asuma could tell it was less about comfort and more about being comforted for Kurenai. “How you holding up?”

“Probably gonna get sent to Psych once I’m discharged.” Kurenai mumbled into his shoulder, and it was only now, with his arm wrapped tightly around her, that Asuma could feel the fine tremors rippling through her. “Almost failed the mission and they nearly died.”

“But you didn’t, and they didn’t.” Asuma countered, just as quietly, squeezing her shoulder briefly. “You got them back home, they’ll heal. Don’t borrow trouble.”

Kurenai scoffed, but even to his ears it sounded unsteady and a little wet.

They lapsed into silence, content to just listen to the quiet, steady beeping of the assorted machinery keeping Kurenai’s students alive.

“I’m probably going to do something inadvisable when Psych’s done with me.” Kurenai sighed an undeterminable length of time later. At his quiet, inquiring hum, she explained. “’m gonna kick the hornet’s nest and ask Hyuuga Hiashi why his daughter exhibits behaviour consistent with victims of child abuse.”

Asuma stilled, his thumb briefly freezing in its absent stroking of Kurenai’s shoulder.

“That bad?” he asked lightly, keeping his tone carefully neutral. When Kurenai just nodded, hair tickling his throat, he sighed. “Alright. I’ll start planning your funeral.”

Kurenai snorted, which meant she knew precisely what he was referring to: Clans don’t like outsiders messing with their ways.

“Konoha teams are treated like family, and I’m his daughter’s sensei. Not to mention who our sensei had been.” Kurenai huffed, fishing out a rice cake and brandishing it like one would a knife. “Maybe I’m an outsider, but I have a right to know.”

“Maybe don’t put it like that when you talk to him.” Asuma advised quietly, biting back an entertained snort. “I don’t want to actually have to plan your funeral.”

Silence fell between them once again, though it was comfortable, and Asuma felt no need to break it until an idle thought struck him a few minutes later.

“The other two a concern?”

“Once they heal? Only in that Shino needs to brush up on his close combat and Kiba needs to get better at actually using his nose.” Kurenai sighed, sagging even further against his side, her voice a little more sluggish than before. “And I’ll probably need to drill into them that even the Land of Fire isn’t fully ‘safe’.”

Asuma winced.

“Haven’t had that talk since we were genin.”

“Mmh. Not really looking forward to it.” Kurenai mumbled, and Asuma carefully shuffled so she was lying down more instead of sitting up. “That was during the War, too.”

Asuma…didn’t want to think about how his team would react to a similar talk, but it was probably a good idea to ask for a C-Rank for them, too.

“Worried ‘bout Hinata too.” Kurenai added, and Asuma reckoned she was fighting a losing battle with her eyelids. “Didn’t seem phased by the killing. Was calm. Too high pain tolerance for a kid.”

“People react differently.” Asuma agreed, which Kurenai would probably know even better than him, given her brief stint in Psych when they were chunin. “And the Hyuuga aren’t generally known for processing emotions in a healthy manner.”

Kurenai snorted, though it was tired and humourless. “I need a drink.”

“As soon as the medics and shrinks say it’s okay.” He promised her, though he wasn’t even certain she was awake anymore. “I’d offer to treat, but you’d drink me out of house and home.”

Silence answered him, and Asuma sighed, settling in more comfortably against the pillows and resigning himself to a night spent in a hospital bed.

Hinata…wasn’t in a great state when she woke up.

Her head hurt, her leg was pulsing, though no longer burning like before, and she seemed to have regained feeling in her left arm but her ribs still felt tender, her chest aching any time she tried to take a deeper breath.

Alive, though.

A glance to her left showed that Kiba and Shino were in the beds next to her, hooked up to various machines and looking very…small against the stark white sheets.

Sighing, she tried to slowly push herself into a more sat-up position, pausing when every one of her muscles protested rather vehemently. She reached under her shirt and began peeling off the heart monitor leads, then carefully and pulling out the IV needle until she could turn and carefully drop her legs over the side of the bed.

“I don’t think you should be moving yet.” A quiet voice reached her, and she glanced over at- sensei? No, sensei’s bed, and the male figure squished alongside sensei’s sleeping form.

A familiar male figure.

“Asuma-se-san.” She greeted quietly, her throat feeling scraped raw to the point she winced and reached for the jug of water at her bedside. “How have you been?”

“Better than you, it seems.” Asuma replied, and he was sitting too far from the patch of moonlight that spilled into the hospital room from the window for her to be able to gauge his expression. “Want me to call a nurse?”

“No, thank you.” Hinata denied, then took a steadying breath which rattled in her chest and failed to feel like enough, then slowly, carefully pushed to her feet, holding onto the side of the bed for support.

Her vision blacked out for a second, a mix of headrush and a fresh wave of pain from her thigh, but she rode it out and limped towards the clipboard at the foot of her bed instead, holding onto the railing all the while.

She scanned through the information on the sheet, frowning at the list of her injuries. Had she really gotten that badly beat up? The kunai in her thigh had managed to scratch her bone, and one of her ribs had apparently pierced a small hole in her lung, which was why she was having trouble breathing any deeper than small, shallow inhalations.

And that was ignoring the other scrapes and bruises and near chakra exhaustion, but she dropped the clipboard and set on her limping trajectory towards Kiba’s bed to do the same.

“If you’d asked, I could’ve told you.” Asuma informed her idly when she finally stopped by Kurenai’s bed, studying her sensei’s sheet with mounting concern. “Your Aburame teammate needs the most specialised treatment, and the Inuzuka will be in a cast for a few weeks. You’re all hospital-bound for at least a month, too.”

Hinata nodded, letting sensei’s clipboard go, and looked up to find Asuma already studying her.

“Here.” The man said after a beat, reaching for a small scroll on sensei’s bedside table and holding it out to her. “Your bounty.”

Hinata took the scroll numbly, not bothering to unroll it, knowing she’d likely find a small annotation informing her of the extra funds that would be transferred to her account once the appropriate paperwork was processed. She was far more preoccupied with the considering glint in Asuma’s eyes, and the way Kurenai was all-but curled into him, not even appearing to stir despite the conversation around her.

She’d known they became lovers sometime before the Akatsuki fiasco, but she hadn’t realised the depth of the friendship that apparently formed the foundation of that relationship.

“…Thank you.” she murmured belatedly, far too late for the pause to not be awkward, and nodded at the man before she slowly started the trek back to her bed, feeling uncomfortably breathless and wrung out even after less than a hundred steps around the room.

“How are you feeling?” Asuma asked once she’d settled on the bed, and Hinata blinked, not having expected for their conversation to continue. Apparently taking her pause as confusion, he elaborated. “About your kills? It was your first, wasn’t it?”

Hinata sighed quietly, staring up at the ceiling as she mulled the question over.

“It was scary.” She said at last, because it was true. No matter that she’d survived a War, being in this body, small and frail and without the reserves or the control over her chakra she’d been used to, had made a group of chunin feel terrifying, and not least because she knew Kiba and Shino didn’t have the same combat experience as the Team 8 of her memories.

“I didn’t enjoy killing them.” She added, because it was what he was probably asking about, wasn’t it? “But I don’t regret it.”

Asuma didn’t comment further, and Hinata allowed herself to relax against the pillows, trying to ignore the tightness in her chest.

Was it her fault? She wondered absently, focusing on the steady beeping of the machines attached to her teammates. If she hadn’t lost her temper with Shino in that spar, if she hadn’t used her water needles and revealed she could walk on water, would they be here?

No, they wouldn’t. And she knew that.

They didn’t have this mission in her first life, didn’t even have a C-Rank until after Team Seven had been sent on theirs and Kiba had demanded one for them, too. They hadn’t gotten this seriously injured, especially not all three of them at once, until a few months after their Chunin Exams, after Orochimaru’s invasion, after gelling a bit more as a team.

Gods, it was her fault, wasn’t it? Her fault that Kiba’s leg was broken, that Shino’s kikaichu had nearly killed him after getting crushed when he’d gotten hit by a taijutsu-specialising Iwa-nin. She’d known Shino freshly post-Academy wasn’t much of a taijutsu shinobi yet she hadn’t mentioned anything, had allowed him to nearly die-!

“-id! Kid! Breathe!” her shoulder was grabbed, and it was the work of instinct to jab her fingers into the pressure point in the inner wrist, and the fingers on her spasmed and released with a curse.

“Are you an idiot?” came a voice, though Hinata didn’t think it was directed at her but she couldn’t be sure, was too busy wheezing and dry-sobbing at the stabbing pain in her chest.

“Rei, you shouldn’t be moving-!”

“-Like hell-!”

And then, there were arms manoeuvring her into a sitting position and a chest pressed against her back, an arm wrapping around her shoulders, hand splaying protectively over her sternum, pushing her until she could feel the steady rise and fall of the chest behind her.

“Hinata. Match my breathing. Come on, in, out, good girl. Slower now. Again, you’re doing great.” The voice kept up the quiet stream of instructions until Hinata could take semi-even breaths and her head was less cloudy, though her eyes and throat still burned.

“I-I’m sorry.” She sobbed, having calmed down from- from a panic attack only to burst into tears, turning her head so she could hide her face in the crook of Kurenai’s elbow. “I-I’m-! My f-fault, I’m s-sorry-!”

“What’s your fault?” Kurenai asked quietly, the hand that hadn’t been pressed against her sternum moving to her hair, smoothing it back from her forehead in a soothing rhythm. “Why are you sorry?”

“My f-fault- I- water walking- if I hadn’t-!” Hinata cut off on a sob, and she felt Kurenai sigh where the woman’s chest was still pressed against her back, and then the hand in her hair disappeared, and Hinata barely had a chance to whine at the loss before she was being moved again, the arm around her shoulders repositioning while another slipped under her knees, and then she was being picked up off the bed and placed instead in Kurenai’s lap when her sensei parked herself unceremoniously in the uncomfortable hospital chair.

“W-we wouldn’t b-be here-!” she shuddered, twisting so she could bury her face more comfortably in Kurenai’s neck and not even caring that she was an adult and should’ve long outgrown this childish need for comfort. “T-they’d- wouldn’t be hurt!”

“I’m getting someone from Psych.” Asuma’s voice drifted over to her, barely audible over the sound of her tears. “For both of you.”

Hinata felt the vibration of Kurenai’s voice, but she was too out of it to register what was said until the woman called her name again, resuming the repetitive petting of her hair.

“Hinata,” Kurenai called again, and her voice was colder than Hinata was used to, though the hands on her skin were gentle and warm.

“I will find whoever is responsible for your mindset, and I will hold them responsible, I promise.” She crooned, and if Hinata had been more in control of herself, she might’ve shivered at the cold sensation that crept down her spine at Kurenai’s tone. “In the meantime, I can tell you that it is absolutely not your fault. Being from an established Clan has clear advantages, but it also has drawbacks, and some of those drawbacks make themselves known quicker than others.”

Hinata shuddered, because she wasn’t sure whether ‘hosting poisonous insects under one’s skin’ could be called a Clan drawback, but she wasn’t about to disagree with Kurenai when the woman felt like she was one hair away from shattering herself.

“All I can tell you is that, from my perspective? You did everything you were supposed to. You fought the enemy, you carried Kiba to the outpost even when you were injured yourself, you made sure the mission wouldn’t be compromised by sending Akamaru away. I know chunin twice your age who would’ve been less clear-headed in that situation, so don’t you for even a second feel like you didn’t do enough, do you understand?”

Hinata just nodded, the action somewhat restricted by the fact that her face was still hidden in Kurenai’s throat.

“Hinata.” Kurenai called, tone a little more authoritative. “Do you understand?”

“I-I understand, sensei.” She promised, and Kurenai sighed, releasing the tension Hinata hadn’t even realised she’d been holding.

“Good.” Kurenai sighed, her hand returning to its gentle petting of Hinata’s hair. “Now, sleep.”

And Hinata, feeling the genjutsu creeping at the edges of her senses but too exhausted to fight it, allowed herself to succumb to its pull.

She slept.

Chapter Text

Hinata sighed.

It had been a week since they got to the hospital, and she’d spent the last four days going over the mission with Kagane-san from Psych. Luckily not a Yamanaka, which had made her relax somewhat, but Kagane-san was still quite stern and determined to make Hinata get to the bottom of her feelings about the mission when she came to the hospital for their sessions.

A part of her hated to admit it, because a voice in her head not unlike her Father’s told her it was the same as admitting weakness, but she felt a little bit better after every session.

On the fifth day of their hospital stay, Shino had finally woken up. He’d been shaken and even quieter than before, and without his glasses, it was undeniable how scared he looked. How young.

When the nurse was done checking Shino’s vitals, Kurenai had stood from her bed, perched herself on the chair by Shino’s bedside, and slapped a seal on the floor between them.

She’d spent almost an hour talking to Shino, though whatever the seal was, it seemed to be what Kagane-san used for her conversations with Hinata, because it muffled the sounds of Kurenai and Shino’s conversation until Hinata couldn’t have made out the individual words if she’d tried.

Afterwards, Shino had seemed…if not settled, then at least calmer, though he still didn’t speak once Kurenai peeled the seal off and returned to her own bed.

“Man,” Kiba sighed, collapsing back against the pillows two days later, moments after his own shrink had left their hospital room, “what a mess.”

Kurenai had been discharged earlier that morning, and from the grim expression on their sensei’s face and the disgruntled complaining of the nurse that had discharged her, Hinata had the suspicion that instead of home, Kurenai’s next stop was going to be Psych. Probably for longer than just a passing visit.

Hinata…didn’t envy her.

“Never thought we’d get so injured so fast.” Kiba huffed, when neither Hinata nor Shino rushed to comment on his earlier assessment.

“I’m sorry.” Hinata sighed, shrinking back slightly against her pillows and trying to focus back on the scroll on genjutsu Kurenai had lent her before she’d left.

She almost missed the way Kiba blinked owlishly at her apology.

“Why’re you sorry?” he asked, forever blunt, though he sounded genuinely baffled rather than mean. “S’not like it’s your fault.”

Hinata smiled, small and unbearably fond, and dropped her chin to hide it, feeling a familiar warm curl of belonging settle in her bones.

At least until Shino spoke.

“In her mind, I think it is.” He said quietly, staring woodenly at the ceiling, not reacting in the slightest when Kiba startled and turned to him, eyebrows raised incredulously. “We only got our first C-Rank because we could water-walk.”

And we only learnt that because of her, went unsaid, but Hinata knew even Kiba heard it.

Hinata froze, trying desperately to remind herself of Kurenai and Kagane-san’s assurances that it wasn’t her fault, that bad missions happened, that her pushing her teammates to develop new skills faster would only benefit them in the long run-!

“That’s dumb.” Kiba blurted, snapping Hinata out of her spiral as his words made her choke on a laugh, startling her just as much as him. “I mean-!” he tried to backpedal, cheeks tinging pink with embarrassment, and Shino sighed.

“As always, your skill at expressing yourself astounds me.” Shino mused dryly, a trace of the sarcasm Hinata hadn’t heard since she’d last spoken with her Shino in his voice, and her next giggle caught in her throat, blocked by the lump that had formed there at the realisation.

“Lay off, man.” Kiba grumbled after shooting Hinata a concerned look, turning to shoot Shino the stink-eye. “Just ‘cause we’re injured don’t mean I won’t kick your ass.”

“I’m terrified.” Shino drawled, not looking away from the ceiling. “Truly.”

Kiba bared his teeth, but unlike the first few weeks, it wasn’t antagonistic. More…simply teasing, and something in Hinata relaxed.

“Hey, Hinata.” Kiba called next, and she obligingly lifted her eyes from the scroll she was reading, though she hadn’t registered a single word from the text over the last few minutes. “It’s honestly not your fault. Also, since we’re gonna be stuck here for at least another few days, can you…teach me somethin’ for chakra control?”

Hinata blinked, completely thrown by the question. Not the content, because she’d paid attention when Kiba had voiced wanting to take over the clinic, but that he’d asked her.

“I mean, uh, you were messin’ with a pebble or something in our first week, right?” Kiba continued, apparently taking her momentary shock as confusion. “I asked Hana-nee and she said that was chakra control, so, uh, could you show me how to do that?”

“…Of course.” She managed after a beat, and she could see how Kiba relaxed. “T-though you’ll have to build up to a pebble. I recommend starting with something l-lighter, like a button o-or a piece of string.”

Kiba nodded attentively, and before long, Hinata found herself quietly coaching him through a modified leaf-sticking exercise, biting back a smile when Kiba eyed her and Shino briefly, as if waiting for them to protest, then ripped off the button from his pillowcase. It was almost cute, that he hesitated before such a small act of vandalism considering the profession they were training for, and Hinata had to once again remind herself that Kiba was twelve. They’re twelve.

“Hinata.” Shino murmured some time later, when Kiba was well and truly immersed in his chakra exercise.

Hinata turned away from trying to make her own button go above her elbow, and found Shino already looking at her, an unreadable expression on his face.

“I’m…sorry.” He said after a beat, and Hinata stilled, not sure she’d heard correctly. “In our spar, that first week, I…didn’t listen. I didn’t realise how helpless being without chakra could feel for you.”

“I- thank you, Shino.” She smiled, biting back the instinctive ‘it’s okay’. Kagane-san should be proud. “I’m sorry for destroying your colony.”

Shino’s lip quirked, not quite amused, but a much more positive reaction than she was expecting from him at this stage.

“Tou-san said it was a lesson.” He said quietly, turning his gaze back to the ceiling. “A study in arrogance and preconceptions.”

“Your father sounds wise.” Hinata replied, for lack of anything else to say.

“He is.” Shino agreed, and his smile turned a touch more genuine, almost fond. Then he seemed to steel himself, before he asked; “When I’m discharged, would you be…willing to help me with my taijutsu?”

Hinata blinked again, absently wondering whether Kiba and Shino had agreed on some sort of pact to blindside her.

“I’d be honoured, Shino.” She told him honestly, dropping her eyes back to the scroll in her lap, content with the silence that fell around them afterwards.

Three days later, she was woken up by what sounded like an excited cheer, followed immediately by angry shushing.

“Ssh! Idiot! I had to smuggle him in, do you want the nurses to take him away?!”

Hinata cracked her eyes open and pushed herself into a slightly more sat-up position, squinting blearily first at the window, then at the commotion. She was surprised to find that the sun had well and truly risen, and a quick glance at the wall clock showed that it was much closer to nine than the early morning she’d suspected based on how groggy she felt.

“Kiba. Hana-san.” She managed hoarsely, clearing her throat immediately after, embarrassed at the state of her voice. “Good morning.”

Hana turned away from Kiba – whose attention was firmly on Akamaru, the ninken puppy happily licking his face, and ah, yes, that made more sense – and blinked at Hinata, then smiled.

“Hinata-chan!” She greeted happily, then grimaced, eyeing Hinata apologetically. “Sorry, was that too familiar? And I’m sorry if you got in trouble because of me before.”

“N-no, no, it’s fine.” Hinata hastened to reassure, then frowned, not sure what the older girl was referring to.

Until she remembered their first meeting in this timeline.

Ah.

“It wasn’t because of you, don’t worry.” She assured the girl, feeling touched that she’d remembered their first interaction.

“Glad to hear it.” Hana smiled, then laughed at Kiba’s disgruntled squawk when Akamaru burrowed under his pyjama top.

“Wait, wait,” Kiba ordered, seemingly giving up on trying to extract Akamaru from under his shirt, eyeing his sister oddly, “you two know each other?”

“We’ve met.” Hana replied glibly, shooting Kiba an imperious look, though Hinata could tell it was teasing. Then, Hana reached out and ruffled Kiba’s hair, making an even bigger mess of the bird’s nest that was already on his head. “Mom’s mad at you, by the way. It’s been three months, puppy.”

“I toldya to stop calling me that!” Kiba whined, all but pouting at Hana, then seemingly registered the rest of her words. “Wait, what- why?!”

Hana rolled her eyes, sighing dramatically, and Akamaru also whoofed something that sounded almost amused from under Kiba’s shirt. “You ever planning to introduce your team to us, doofus?”

Kiba blinked, then stared first at Hinata, who met his gaze evenly, curious what Kiba would do, then turned to Shino, who still seemed to be asleep. Then-

“Ah, crap.”

Hana laughed.

“Damn right.” She shot back, then turned to Hinata, shooting her an entertained smile, which Hinata mirrored, albeit smaller. “Hinata-chan, as soon as the three of you are officially discharged, we’d like it if you and Shino could come for dinner. I’d hoped my idiot brother would have enough sense to invite you himself, but it seems I’d hoped for too much.” 

“I’d love to, Hana-san.” She replied honestly, because dinner at the Inuzuka house had been one of her favourite post-mission traditions, once upon a time.

“Great!” Hana grinned, punching Kiba’s shoulder lightly, then turned towards the door. “I gotta run – courier mission – so take care, and don’t let Kiba do anything stupid!”

“Oi!” Kiba crowed, but Hana was already out the door, though they could hear her laughter down the corridor.

“Sorry for that.” Kiba apologised awkwardly, turning to Hinata, but she shook her head, still smiling.

“Your sister seems lovely, Kiba.” She told him honestly, watching amusedly as the pink tint returned to his cheeks and Akamaru snuffled.

Kiba mumbled something vaguely affirmative and shot her a grateful look, and Hinata felt their first tentative overtures at friendship and camaraderie solidify into something more. Something like last time.

A week later, their peaceful, predictable routine – Kiba working on his chakra control, Shino learning katas from a scroll Asuma had found for him, and Hinata learning more genjutsu – was interrupted by the door to their hospital room almost slamming open.

“Sensei, these intel gathering exercises are getting tedious, can’t you-?”

Hinata blinked at Shikamaru, watching somewhat bemusedly as the Nara cut himself off mid-word, taking in their hospital room with sharp eyes, though he was undeniably surprised once he noticed its occupants. His gaze landed on Asuma, the only one not in a hospital bed, perched instead on the one comfortable chair available in the room, and the man was watching Shikamaru right back, eyebrow raised.

Kurenai had been coming in to see them at least twice a day since she’d been discharged from Psych four days previous, but she’d needed to ‘run an errand’ today, so she’d passed the questionable honour of watching over them on to Asuma.

“You wanted something, Shikamaru?” Asuma prompted idly when Shikamaru looked like he’d forgotten that he was in the middle of speaking when he’d come in, and Shikamaru’s eyes snapped away from Kiba’s cast and focused back on his teacher.

“Ino was being annoying and kept asking what could’ve made you cancel training on such short notice.” Shikamaru drawled, closing the door behind himself and leaning back against it, frowning at Asuma. “Wouldn’t stop nagging until we agreed to look for you.”

“Man, I’d get smacked if I talked about Hinata like that.” Kiba mused from his hospital bed, shooting Shikamaru a not-particularly-friendly look, and his words drew a sigh from Asuma.

At the mention of her name, though, Shikamaru turned to her, visibly took in her lack of obvious bandages or casts, and his frown deepened.

“Why are you here?” he asked bluntly, gaze flickering from her face to the scroll in her lap curiously. “You don’t look injured.”

Kiba laughed suddenly, though his attention was on Shino when he next spoke, completely ignoring Shikamaru.

“And you shit on me for my ability to express myself.” He grinned at the Aburame, sharp canines on clear display, and he was still adamantly ignoring Shikamaru.

“That’s true.” Shino agreed, and he glanced away from his scroll to eye Kiba evenly. “When I’m sure it’s not the drugs speaking, I might even apologise.” He mused, drawing a snort from Kiba.

Shikamaru made an odd noise, something between curiosity and indignation, and Shino turned to him, his expression perfectly blank and measured. “That was rude of you, Nara-san.”

Hinata watched as Shikamaru’s shoulders went up infinitesimally at the rebuke, his posture turning defensive, his mouth twisting down at the corners. He glanced at Asuma, as if to see whether the man would disagree or come to his aid, but Asuma merely met his gaze, seemingly content to see where this interaction would go.

Shikamaru then surprised her by turning to her, eyebrow raised, and Hinata realised that he was waiting for her thoughts, too.

“It was rather presumptuous.” She said quietly, and when she saw how Shikamaru’s frown deepened, she added by way of explanation, “Not all injuries or disabilities are visible, Shikamaru-san.”

Shikamaru’s scowl faded slightly, becoming more contemplative. He eyed her briefly, then walked up to the end of her bed, taking a moment to study the clipboard attached to it. Hinata felt a flicker of irritation at the invasion of privacy, not sure whether she was bothered by the fact that he didn’t ask her for permission or that he didn’t simply take her word for it, but she tamped down on it when Shikamaru’s eyes widened the more he read.

When he was done, he let her clipboard go and glanced up at her, an odd expression in his eyes as he studied her.

Hinata stayed silent, waiting to see what Shikamaru would do. After a few seconds, the teen cleared his throat and turned to Asuma. “Is training definitely cancelled?”

When Asuma nodded, explaining briefly that Kurenai had asked him to watch over her team, Shikamaru turned on his heel and stalked out of the room, though at least he didn’t slam the door that time.

Hinata had been content to settle back into her pillows and her reading, amused and a little wry at the realisation that no matter the timeline, her teammates would always dislike the Nara heir.

Then, he surprised her when he came back a little over an hour after he left, a bouquet of flowers in one hand, a plastic bag clutched in another, and a wooden box under his arm.

“Here,” he offered, giving the bag – the contents of which Hinata suspected to be snacks by the rustling – to Shino, “from Chouji.”

Then, he grabbed the empty vase from Kiba’s bedside, filled it with some water from the Inuzuka’s pitcher much to Kiba’s visible annoyance, and threw the flowers into the vase.

And he proceeded to surprise Hinata again by carrying the flowers to her bedside.

“From Ino.” He said by way of explanation, and then finally laid the wooden box on her bed, meeting her eyes at last. “Do you play shogi?”

Hinata nodded, though- "I haven’t played in a while.” she felt the need to point out.

She was unsure where this was going, but Shikamaru just smiled, suddenly looking almost boyish with the pleased slant to his mouth, and then carefully patted the blanket by her feet, raising an eyebrow. When she nodded again, reckoning she knew what he was asking, he let go of the shogi set and clambered onto the end of the bed, leaving a full metre between her feet and where he sat.

And then, looking the most unsure of himself since he walked in, he hesitated before actually opening the box, as if something only just occurred to him. “…Do you want to play?”

And Hinata, amused despite herself, smiled softly.

“I do.” When Shikamaru busied himself with taking out and setting up the board, Hinata finally put the pieces together and realised what this fumbling display was likely about. Stifling a sigh, she shook her head and glanced at Shikamaru briefly, feeling warm, though also more than a little exasperated.

Taking care to keep her voice quiet enough that neither Shino nor Kiba would overhear, she added, “Apology accepted, Shikamaru-san.”

She politely didn’t comment on the way Shikamaru froze at her words, then smiled, small but genuine, and began to quickly explain the rules. Hinata took as deep a breath as she could without it rattling in her chest and relaxed as well.

This might be fun.

“I’m pretty sure I left you with three kids.” Kurenai grunted right after she fell into a seat next to Asuma and smacked the Intel seal down, muting their conversation for genin ears.

“One of them is mine.” Asuma revealed, looking long-suffering as he watched his student play with Hinata. “Dunno whose the other one is.”

They both quietly watched the nameless, dark-haired, mask-covered teen watch Shino sleep. His eyes and forehead were covered by a black cloth mask, the glasses built into the reinforced fabric, and Kurenai could barely sense his chakra, much less gleam anything from it or his posture. The teen must’ve felt them looking though, because his shoulders tensed minutely, and then he was gone, out through the open window without so much as a seal or some smoke to betray him.

“You never said your Hyuuga is good at strategy.” Asuma mused after a few seconds, when both of them unanimously decided against commenting on the unknown shinobi’s abrupt departure. He looked like an Aburame; that said everything they needed to know.

Kurenai blinked tiredly, turning to eye Asuma blankly. “She is?”

Asuma sighed, exasperated, flicking her a look.

“I distinctly recall telling you that Shikamaru’s a genius even on the backdrop of his Clan.” He told her dryly, meeting her gaze with a small grin playing around his lips. “I usually lose after about an hour. They’ve been at it for over two.”

Kurenai hummed, turning back to her – ironically enough – most troublesome student. Hinata looked calm and at peace, an interesting contrast to the frown on Shikamaru’s face as he glared at the board. Kurenai doubted he would actually lose, but judging by the fact that Asuma had repeatedly bemoaned his student’s arrogance, she was willing to bet the kid hadn’t actually expected to find a challenge in the girl.

“You pissed off the Hyuuga yet?” Asuma asked idly after another few seconds, and Kurenai snorted.

“Not yet.” She denied, glancing at Asuma from the corner of her eye and seeing the moment the man noticed her expression by how he stilled. “Hunted down my kids’ Academy teachers, though. Only one of them even noticed Hinata’s CPTSD or Kiba’s learning difficulties. The others just said ‘shy’ and ‘stupid’, in not so many words, obviously.”

“Are they still alive?” Asuma asked flatly, and Kurenai grinned, aware that it showed too many teeth to count as a smile.

“Alive, sure, though I’m not sure if ‘well’.” She divulged, cracking her neck absently. “I might have dropped a note with Iwana-sensei about their complete lack of special awareness and professionalism.”

Asuma groaned, though he sounded entertained when he mumbled ‘those poor bastards’.

“Alright, let’s leave the kids to it.” Kurenai decided, pushing to her feet to stretch properly. She’d ran around a lot today, and her thigh was adamant on reminding her of the fact that it had had a sword stuck through it a fortnight ago. “I need a drink. And let’s grab Kakashi, too. Judging by the gossip in HQ, he probably needs one too.”

“Naruto’s team had their C-Rank recently.” Shikamaru said when they were done with the final game, a contemplative look in his eyes.

They’d played three games, and it was now dark outside. Though Hinata hadn’t won a single one, she’d had fun, and Shikamaru was a challenge. She reckoned she could have probably won the last game if she’d put in a bit more effort, but she also didn’t want Shikamaru to suspect her of anything, much less get curious.

Having a curious genius on her case sounded like asking for trouble.

“Oh?” She asked, stifling a yawn as she glanced briefly at Kiba and Shino, noting absently that both of them were deeply asleep. “I hope it went well.”

“They didn’t complete it.” Shikamaru informed her, watching her oddly. “Their client lied about the rank.”

Hinata blinked, trying to work through that.

“They came back?” she asked slowly, unsure whether her time estimate was right and Shikamaru was talking about the infamous Wave mission. Unsure whether she wanted to be right.

“Yeah, yesterday.” Shikamaru confirmed, still watching her expression. “Ino said that they ran into two Kiri missing-nin right outside of Konoha. Their sensei pressed the client afterwards and ordered they all come back to the Village when it turned out it wasn’t a simple escort. Dropped the client and the missing-nin they managed to capture in T&I.”

“Kakashi-sa- um, Hatake-san? Really?” she stumbled over the title, Shikamaru obviously not missing the slip up, though she doubted he knew what caused it. “I didn’t think he’d be the type to abandon a mission.”

Shikamaru shrugged, absently starting to pack up the board.

“I asked tou-san, and he said it’s probably because of your team, in part.” He told her, and Hinata stilled. “Bad info isn’t supposed to happen this often, and especially not on genin C-Ranks. Your team almost died.”

Hinata flinched, not needing the reminder, and she glanced at Kiba and Shino again, needing to reassure herself that they were still fine, still breathing, still alive, but it wasn't enough, Shikamaru's words like a mantra in her head.

Your team almost died.

(your fault, yourfault, yourfault-!)

She could feel her heart rate pick up, beating furiously in her chest, and she was absently glad that she wasn’t connected to the heart monitor anymore. Her breath was coming in quicker too, wheezing quietly in her chest, her head felt fuzzy, like she was underwater, while the tips of her fingers had grown numb.

“Hinata? Hey, Hinata!” Shikamaru exclaimed, reaching for her shoulder, (just like the Iwa-nin had-!) and Hinata was reacting before she quite realised what she was doing.

Her hand snapped out, fingers wrapping around Shikamaru’s wrist in a bruising grip before his hand could make contact with her skin. She twisted sharply, no doubt painfully, and jabbed her finger into the pressure point on the inner wrist.

Shikamaru’s wrist popped in her grip and he hissed, wrenching it out of her hand and staring at her in shock.

“What the hell?!” he demanded, startled and accusative, his other hand cradling his wrist to his chest, his eyes wide.

Hinata stared at him, then at his reddening wrist, and her head was quiet now, though she was still breathing too fast, her wheezing breaths the only sound in the otherwise silent room.

She wasn’t sure what she was feeling. She wasn’t sure she was feeling anything; her head was weirdly empty.

“I think you should leave now, Shikamaru-san.” She murmured, her voice quiet and even, inflectionless.

Shikamaru stared at her for a beat, his eyes flickering over her face, then he slid off the bed and headed for the door wordlessly, leaving his shogi set on her bed without a care and not so much as a glance back at her over his shoulder.

Hinata gave herself another few minutes for her heart to calm down, then slid off the bed too, though she headed for the window instead of the door. Her chakra and her leg were better now; walking down the wall of the hospital wouldn’t be a problem.

Firming her resolve, her head still strangely quiet, Hinata did just that and slowly, leisurely, headed to Psych.

Kagane-san should know what to do.

Another fortnight later, they were all officially discharged from the hospital.

In theory, Hinata and Kiba could’ve been discharged earlier, but Hinata’s Psych adventures, plus Kiba’s Inuzuka-ness, meant that the nurses preferred to keep them within their line of sight, rather than risk discharging them early and letting them accidentally make the injury worse during the healing process.

Kurenai had led them all to Yakiniku, a treat after living on hospital food for a month, and when they were done, she took them to their training grounds, stopping off by the Inuzuka compound so that Kiba could pick up Akamaru.

They all sat by the stream, Akamaru stretching out in the sunlight, making himself comfortable on Kiba’s discarded jacket. Hinata and Shino were still very much advised to avoid strenuous cardiovascular exercise, but it was nice to be out of the hospital and almost back to normal.

“You’ve been my genin for four months.” Kurenai began, looking at each of them fondly, though there was a weight in her gaze now that hadn’t been there before, and Hinata regretted. “I’m sorry that a quarter of that time was spent in the hospital.”

“Not your fault, sensei.” Kiba shot back easily, beating Hinata to the reassurance, and he smiled at Kurenai when she blinked at him, surprised. “I mean, it sucks that it happened, but I don’t think any of us blame you.”

“…Thank you, Kiba.” Kurenai replied, looking a little thrown, but the smile she shot the three of them when Hinata and Shino nodded in confirmation to Kiba’s words was genuine.

“My point, however, is that because of that mission, the misinformation that led to it, and your extended hospital stay, I don’t particularly care about what the other teams are doing, mission or training-wise.” Her smile gained a slightly wry, self-deprecating edge, and Hinata sat up straighter at the change. “You’re mine, and I am invested in your wellbeing now, and I will do everything in my power to help you and protect you. And, right now, that means bending some rules.”

“Sensei?” Hinata checked, a little worried now, because Kurenai hadn’t ever been a stickler for the rules, but neither had she ever outright told them she was going to break them.

“In two months, Konoha is going to be hosting the Chunin Exams.” Kurenai told them bluntly, watching them intently. “There are three stages, usually, and one of them is always a combat stage.”

Hinata turned away from Kurenai at the small sound that came from Shino at the words, and she noticed out of the corner of her eye that Kiba had paled a little beneath his tan.

Kurenai didn’t look surprised. In fact, she seemed almost like she’d expected the reaction.

“With a full month of rigorous training, I can get you back to where you were physically before the mission. If you wanted to incorporate the things you were studying in the hospital into your fighting styles, I’d say we’d need another month on top of that.” Kurenai paused, meeting each of their gazes. “But only you can get yourselves ready for combat mentally.”

“What are you saying, sensei?” Shino asked at last, when Kurenai looked like she didn’t plan on elaborating.

“All three members need to sign the liability waiver for the team to be allowed to participate.” Kurenai told them seriously, holding out a vaguely familiar piece of paper. “I am not going to tell you if you should or shouldn’t take part, that is your decision. If you do decide to participate now, then I will still support you, and do my best to prepare you. But know that these exams happen every five or six months, so there is always next time.”

And so saying, she fell silent, wordlessly telling them that it was up to them now.

Hinata glanced from Kiba to Shino and back again, then resumed fiddling with her senbon, twirling it between her fingers. Back at the hospital, Kurenai had called out her tick of twiddling her fingers, and also noticed her habit with the pebble, but instead of discouraging such an obvious nervous tell, she told her to use it to train her dexterity, and offered the senbon as the tool of choice.

So here Hinata was, twirling a senbon needle around her fingers as she waited for her teammates to decide their fate. She knew what she wanted to do, but she also knew that it was very unlikely she would get what she wanted.

And then, Shino spoke.

“Personally, I would prefer to wait until the next round.” He said, shocking Hinata and Kiba alike, if the way Kiba was gaping was any indication. “Why? I had not realised how lacking my taijutsu abilities were. I am…uncomfortable with the idea of combat before I work to improve my close-combat.”

Hinata blinked, then simply stared. Kiba cocked his head, and Hinata imagined that if he were a dog, his ears would be twitching, and she bit back a smile at the image.

“Never thought I’d say it,” Kiba mused, watching Shino intently, then turning to Hinata, seeming almost baffled, “but I agree.”

Looking almost surprised at the words, even though they came from his own mouth, Kiba elaborated. “I think I can get at least the Mystical Palm down in the next half-year. I’d feel a helluva lot better knowing that at least one of us can do some basic med-nin jutsu before we face any serious combat again.”

As one, Kiba and Shino turned to her, and Hinata smiled, relieved beyond measure, and she wondered whether it showed.

“I’m happy to wait, too.” She confessed, meeting her teammates’ eyes and smiling shyly. “I would like to work more on my speed and genjutsu. And I think it would benefit us to work more on team formations, so we don’t get split up as easily next time.”

She didn’t miss Kiba’s sigh of relief, nor the way the line of Shino’s shoulders relaxed at her words.

“So…” Kiba drawled, looking between them with a small, hesitant grin playing on his lips, “All in favour of ditching these exams say aye?”

“A-aye.” Hinata giggled, raising the hand not fiddling with a sharp needle to cover her mouth.

“This is moronic.” Shino quipped, seemingly unable to stop himself, then added a grudging; “But aye.”

“I’m proud of you.” Kurenai said when they dissolved into snickers, and the admission threw them enough that they stopped as if struck. “I personally happen to think that while courage is the mark of a good shinobi, wisdom and an awareness of one’s limits is the mark of a great one.”

When the three of them just stared at her, startled and a little embarrassed at the unexpected praise, she added, “And,” she hesitated, but barrelled through, shooting them an encouraging smile, “I really think that, if you do everything you’ve just said, you will fly through the next Chunin Exams without any issues, no matter where they will be held.”

“Thank you, sensei.” Shino and Hinata chorused, exchanging an – in Hinata’s case – amused glance.

Hinata – and the rest of her team too, it seemed – was content with the silence they lapsed into a few seconds later, and absently returned to fiddling with the senbon still in her hold, more to have something to do than because of any nerves this time.

“Oh, I nearly forgot!” Kiba exclaimed suddenly a few minutes later, and the senbon was out of Hinata’s hand and in the tree behind Kiba before she even realised she’d thrown it.

“Shit, you’re still twitchy!” Kiba merely laughed, having ducked out of the way of the needle just in time. Hinata was relieved, not just because she hadn’t hurt him, but also because he didn’t seem to have taken any offense at the fact that this was not the first time she’d thrown something at his head as if he were an enemy. “Sorry. Inside voice, I’ll try to remember.”

“We’ll work on that ‘twitchiness’ of yours too, Hinata, don’t think we won’t.” Kurenai promised her absently, and Hinata nodded gratefully, more than happy to do so. At least until Kurenai added, almost as an aside, “I heard about the Shikamaru incident, too. You’re lucky he didn’t choose to escalate that.”

“Aaaanyway,” Kiba drawled when Hinata hung her head, embarrassed and regretful, and his voice drew their attention back to him, “dinner’s at my house tonight! I genuinely think my mom will gut me if I don’t invite you now that we’re out of the hospital, so please come!”

“I don’t see why not.” Kurenai replied, smiling, making Shino shoot her a betrayed look, though his glasses hid most of it. “Do you need us to bring anything?”

“Nah, it’s fine.” Kiba waved their teacher off, grinning widely. “Just be by the compound gates in three hours, sensei!”

Then he turned to Hinata and Shino and wrinkled his nose, though he looked apologetic as he added, “And, uh, maybe shower before you come?” At Shino’s indignant huff and Hinata’s incredulous noise, he reached up and pinched his nose shut, sticking his tongue out at them. “You smell like the hospital. It’s icky.”

“Icky.” Shino parroted, disbelief radiating from his tone and the set of his shoulders, and Hinata could tell he was gearing up to take Kiba down. “Has anyone complained when you came to training smelling like wet mutt?”

The boys dissolved into a grappling match, making Kurenai sigh, while Hinata raised a hand to her mouth to stifle her laugh.

“Hinata.” Kurenai called quietly, drawing her attention. The woman was watching her intently, a question in the curve of her brow and concern in her eyes, though she hid it well. “Will you be alright going home? Your Clan would have been notified of your hospital stay but…you can always shower at mine, if you wish, and then we can go to Kiba’s together.”

Hinata stared at her sensei, wondering what had prompted the question. Ever since their mission, Kurenai has been sharper than she’d ever seen her; more cutting, jagged edges to her words and disposition, and far blunter than Hinata recalled her from her first try at genin life.

Then, what Kurenai was actually offering registered, and she paused, considering. There was undeniable appeal in the possibility of postponing seeing her Father again, not to mention the Elders who would doubtless have something to say about her prolonged hospital stay. Plus, she wasn’t sure whether she’d be allowed to leave the compound in time for dinner at Kiba’s once she made her presence known back home.

She met Kurenai’s gaze, the woman not having looked away from her while she was deliberating her options, and nodded.

“I’d appreciate that a lot, sensei.” She murmured, smiling hesitantly at Kurenai. “Thank you.”

“Let’s leave the boys to it.” Kurenai offered, not acknowledging her thanks beyond a small quirk to her lip, then turned on her heel, waiting for Hinata to follow.

Five hours later, Kurenai was dutifully drying the plates while Hana washed them, both of them having ignored Tsume’s grumblings that they should ‘park their asses down and relax and consider not being such neat-freaks in the future’.

“So,” Tsume began, faux-idly, and Kurenai turned her head just enough to see the woman enter the kitchen and lean against the doorframe, the dining area behind her conspicuously empty of preteens, “how’s my youngest headache doing?”

“Well.” Kurenai replied, accepting another bowl from Hana. “Seems really committed to improving his chakra control and making the medic programme now.”

“Hana can tutor him, since I’m sure his nose will make the hospital worse than T&I.” Tsume mused, absently pouring some food into the dog bowl by the counter.

“I was planning to give them time for individual skill work in the next few months anyway.” Kurenai offered, shooting Hana a small smile. “Shino and Hinata both have their own projects, too, so it wouldn’t be too difficult to fit into our schedules outside of mission work.”

Hana blinked, pausing before she handed Kurenai the next plate. “You’re not having them participate in the Chunin Exams?”

“I opened it up to them and they chose not to participate.” Kurenai replied easily, taking the plate from Hana’s lax grip. “I think we’re all shaken from the last mission; getting some more mission experience and improving their overall skill level will hopefully benefit them more in the long run than trying their hand at the Exams before they’re ready.”

“’We’re’ all shaken?” Tsume echoed, tilting her head at Kurenai. “You counting yourself among them?”

“Oh, definitely.” Kurenai huffed, though she didn’t elaborate. She’s already said more than enough on the matter to her shrink in the week she spent in Psych.

“Alright, last question.” Tsume said, watching her idly, her nose twitching. “Any reason your little Hyuuga is wound tighter than Kuromaru on bonfire night?”

“Reason? No.” Kurenai sighed, eyes back on the plate she was drying as she frowned. “Theories? Some. None particularly encouraging.”

“She’s quite personable.” Hana offered quietly, turning off the tap and accepting the dishcloth from Kurenai to dry her hands. “For a Hyuuga.”

“She’s also chock-full of triggers and a startle-reflex that would’ve put a pebble through Kiba’s skull in their first week as a team.” Kurenai drawled, accepting the towel back from Hana and hanging it on the cupboard handle, only then finally turning to face Tsume.

“Interesting to have her handle senbon instead of a stress ball, then.” Tsume commented dryly. “I know I complain about my brat a lot, but I don’t particularly want one of those senbon to hit somewhere actually damaging.”

“Ironically, she’s actually more careful with the senbon.” Kurenai grinned wryly, leaning back against the counter. “I think her brain recognises them more as a weapon than the pebbles and so knows it’s not something she should be throwing at her comrades.”

Mother and daughter both stared at her for a few seconds, then Tsume snorted.

“All I’m hearing is that you’re probably the most mentally stable jounin-sensei in this Village.” The woman laughed, and there was something almost approving in her eyes. “Not to mention the most ballsy.”

It was Kurenai’s turn to snort, and she eyed the older woman dryly. “Thanks.”

“Got any plans to get them back on their feet?” Tsume checked, leading her from the kitchen to the sitting room when she realised that all the dishes were washed and dried, while Hana busied herself with making tea.

Kurenai laughed when Tsume threw herself onto the sofa carelessly, unconcerned for all the cushions and dog hair her landing sent up.

“I’ve got a tea date with Hyuuga Hiashi tomorrow morning.” She divulged, settling into the big armchair on the other side of the coffee table with a little more restraint than Tsume and curling her legs under herself.

She smiled, sharp and wry, at Tsume’s start of surprise. “Then I’m meeting Aburame Shibi at noon, provided I survive the morning.”

“Hiashi’s not gonna like that.” Tsume warned, and Kuromaru huffed where he’d made himself comfortable on the floor by her feet.

“Don’t care.” Kurenai shrugged, accepting the mug of tea Hana handed her with a grateful nod. “I’ve got Psych’s reports, and Asuma can corroborate at least half of my accusations despite the fact he’s only known the kid a month.”

“You’ve got balls of steel, that’s for sure.” Tsume mused after a few seconds, and the expression in her eyes was far more contemplative than before. “Want me to call for a D-Rank tomorrow so the kids clean the kennel and walk the pups?”

“You’re a godsend, Tsume.” Kurenai sighed, letting her eyes slide shut and her head roll back against the headrest.

Tsume laughed, short and sharp and amused.

“I will be very upset if you let Hiashi eat you alive, Yuuhi, you’re fun.” She shot back, cracking her knuckles absently. “Want something stronger than tea while the night’s still young?”

Kurenai let her head loll to the side so she could look at Tsume, only then realising how tired she was, though she still grinned, slow and sly. “Thought you’d never ask.”

Tsume’s laughter rang out from the kitchen as she left to grab the alcohol, and Kurenai closed her eyes again, relaxing into the armchair.

She should probably be sober for meeting Hiashi tomorrow, but…

Nah.

Chapter Text

Hiashi watched the Yuuhi girl enter his tearoom, not rising from his seiza by the low table to greet her, merely inclining his head. If she cared about the subtle disrespect, she didn’t show it, bowing her head demurely and making her way over to the opposite side of the table to him, dressed in the standard jounin blues and flak jacket.

Less ornate than one would expect for a one-on-one meeting with a Clan Head, but an improvement to the excuse of a dress he’d glimpsed her in once or twice before.

“Hyuuga-sama, thank you for making the time for this meeting.” She greeted, folding into a seiza opposite him with far more grace than he would’ve expected of her outfit and rumoured disposition.

She bowed then, bending forward until her face was almost parallel to the table between them, hair falling like a curtain around her, and when she half-straightened, she glanced up at him through her lashes and he suddenly understood the origin of the grace in her movements and what sector she’d probably gotten her training from.

Except, instead of what could’ve, in another context, been a seductive look, the Yuuhi’s oddly familiar eyes were filled with thinly-veiled contempt, the smile twisting her red lips not reaching her eyes.

“I admit curiosity as to what you believe needs my attention so urgently.” Hiashi admitted, eyeing the woman evenly. “Particularly as my daughter spent the last month in the hospital.”

“It is precisely the circumstances around her hospitalisation that I wish to discuss with you, Hyuuga-sama.” Yuuhi confessed earnestly, and Hiashi fought the urge to scoff.

“My daughter’s incompetence is one of my personal failings, I agree, but since she graduated and was placed on a genin team, making sure she is not a burden falls within your realm of responsibilities, Yuuhi-san.”

The woman blinked, seemingly shocked at his rebuke, and then her lip curled downwards in what could barely avoid being called a scowl. “Forgive me, Hyuuga-sama, but I must disagree with your word choice. ‘Incompetence’? ‘Burden’? Hinata is one of the most competent genin I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.”

It was Hiashi’s turn to pause, because surely, the woman wasn’t implying that Hinata had learned how to be a shinobi in the three months she’d been under her tutelage prior to ending up in hospital.

“On our last mission, she comported herself with more sense and strategic thinking than some chunin I’ve worked with, not to mention that she took out four of the Iwa shinobi who had attacked us, two of whom had had bounties on their heads. Incompetent is about the last word I’d use to describe your daughter, Hyuuga-sama.” Yuuhi continued, staring at him as if she was genuinely baffled by his words.

Hiashi studied the woman for a few seconds, and he didn’t need the Byakugan to know that the veneer of deference and respect she’d shown at the start of their meeting was just that. Still, when he spoke, his voice remained even and inflectionless, though his tone was a touch sharper than before.

“Then I must admit that I do not understand what you could possibly want from me, Yuuhi-san.”

Yuuhi studied him right back, meeting his gaze freely, those eerily familiar eyes of hers so close to the Sharingan it was almost uncomfortable, before she spoke.

“I want to ask you something. And, actually, your assumption about the possible reasons I could have for wanting an audience with you are a good segue into the problem I'd like to address.” She frowned, not even pretending interest in her tea when Hiashi finally reached for his, and he made her wait until he’d finished his drink and put his cup down before he gestured for her to continue.

“On top of emotional maturity beyond her age and ability to remain rational in high-stress combat situations which I’ve already mentioned, Hinata exhibits some more worrying habits.” She began, eyes trained on his face, cataloguing his reactions. “She has very good aim and a dangerous startle reflex, which, when combined, is somewhat concerning for my other genin’s survival. Beyond being very quick to react to perceived dangers, she also unconsciously does perimeter sweeps and struggles to relax even when in-Village.”

Yuuhi paused then, giving him time to interrupt should he wish, but Hiashi stayed silent, not reacting to her words beyond a quiet thought given to the comment about Hinata’s supposedly excellent aim.

“A few years ago, such habits might have had her noted down as an experienced albeit young field-nin. But Hinata has been a genin for four months and she was born in times of peace. There is no reason for her to share the habits of war veterans and career shinobi.”

“What is your point, Yuuhi-san?” Hiashi asked when the woman fell silent, still quietly studying him, because it was evident that she was building up to something, but Hiashi was a busy man.

Clearly reading his impatience, Yuuhi smiled.

It wasn’t a nice smile.

“My point, Hiashi-sama, is whether you can tell me why Hinata has been diagnosed with severe CPTSD that predates her ever leaving the Village, as well as cripplingly low self-esteem despite being one of the most talented genin I’ve ever met?”

Hiashi stilled.

Diagnosed.

“Who did you allow near my heir to give you any such diagnosis?” He asked calmly, coldly, while inside, his chakra was urging him to activate his Byakugan and take out his frustration on the presumptuous wench before him, but he resisted.

For now.

“Three Psych therapists have worked with Hinata since she woke up after our return to the Village, though the majority of her sessions have been with Kagane Natsume, who is also the one to provide the official diagnosis. Before my audience with you, I also got independent confirmation from Sarutobi Asuma and Inuzuka Hana, and both of them can confirm that Hinata’s behaviour predated our mission.” Yuuhi explained calmly, sitting back on her heels, meeting his gaze without fear.

“You had no right.” Hiashi accused quietly, coiling his chakra tight and down, stifling his signature so the infuriating woman wouldn’t be able to read the anger he felt at the disrespect. “I did not consent to outsider involvement in my daughter’s recovery.”

“Luckily, you did not have to.” Yuuhi replied, and she wasn’t even bothering with politeness anymore. “Hinata is an adult in the eyes of the medical professionals and can make her own choices. And, as you helpfully pointed out at the start of our meeting, making sure she is not a burden, or burdened, as the case may be, falls within my realm of responsibilities.”

“I advise you to be very careful with your next words, Yuuhi-san.” Hiashi murmured, cold fury creeping at the edges of his consciousness, but the woman’s smile merely widened, more sharp teeth and vicious bloodlust than the earlier full lips and quiet grace.

There was a reason Hiashi always disliked non-Clan kunoichi.

“Thank you for your advice, Hyuuga-sama. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll heed it.” There was a slam as the woman slapped her hands to the surface of the table between them, a seal-tag appearing where one of her hands had been, and she rose up on her knees, putting her face closer to Hiashi’s, any pretence of respect abandoned.

“The only reason I’m not making a public scene out of this is because bruises are par the course for active shinobi. But if I ever, ever, find bruises on Hinata that she can’t explain away, or find a concerned note in her medical file, or if Kagane ever tells me precisely where and who Hinata’s CPTSD stems from, you can rest assured that I will hold you responsible.” She hissed, ruby eyes blazing almost as if they did contain the Sharingan, and Hiashi had a moment of dawning realisation at what the seal she’d likely stuck to his table might have been. “The Council of Clans during the Founding may have allowed your ancestors to keep their slave seal, but it’s been a century and times have changed since then. Luckily, even in a Village of ninja, people still frown at child abuse, Hyuuga-sama, so I want you to think long and hard about whether your Clan can take another blow like that after the scandal with Hizashi-sensei.”

And, suddenly, Hiashi knew why the red not-Sharingan had seemed familiar.

It had been almost two decades since, but Hizashi’s happiness when he’d received his genin team had only ever been eclipsed by the birth of his son. 'Yuuhi Kurenai, Sarutobi Asuma, Namiashi Raido. Team Six, nii-sama, my team!'

The woman – his brother’s old student – pushed to her feet, peeling off the silencing tag as she did, her tea untouched, her face familiar in its apathy and disdain if only because she wore the same expression his brother had the day Neji had been branded with the Caged Bird seal.

“Thank you for your time, Hyuuga-sama.” She bowed, exaggeratedly deep, though her eyes never left his. She didn’t take back any of her accusations, didn’t leak so much as a drop of Killing Intent, but her eyes assured him of the strength of her conviction and her complete lack of fear of any retribution from his side. “I’ll show myself out.”

She was gone not ten minutes after she’d arrived.

Hinata was on her way back from Kiba’s house, having taken a detour and walked Shino to the gates of his compound despite the latter’s assurances that he could make the journey himself, when she spotted a familiar ponytail a few meters down the street.

Kurenai’s comment from the previous day rang through her mind as if on cue: You’re lucky Shikamaru didn’t choose to escalate.

Sensei was right, of course: Hinata was lucky. Shikamaru would’ve been well within his rights to press charges or demand she be officially reprimanded for lashing out at him in the hospital, especially if she had actually managed to injure him.

She flash-stepped the few meters between her and the two Nara, and when she deemed herself close enough that she wouldn’t have to shout, she called out a quiet; ‘Nara-sama, Shikamaru-san!’ that nonetheless got their attention.

Father and son stopped and half-turned, glancing back, eyes searching until they landed on her with a small degree of surprise on both their faces, and Hinata momentarily wondered what she looked like to them.

She was still in yesterday’s clothes, parts of her covered in dog hair after their morning D-Rank cleaning the kennels. Her own hair was in a messy top-knot, the rest of it brushing her shoulders, and she was aware that the pink scar on her nose from their last mission was still stark against her pale skin, her appointments with the med-nin tasked with breaking down the scar tissue only half-way done.

Still, she told the self-conscious voice in her mind to shut up for the moment and bowed politely, first to Shikaku, then Shikamaru.

“I apologise for disturbing you.” she began once she straightened, squared her shoulders, and made herself meet Shikaku’s eyes. “My name is Hyuuga Hinata. I would like a m-moment of your time to apologise to your son, if you’d allow it.”

She felt proud of herself that her voice only shook one time during her introduction. She maintained eye-contact until Shikaku obligingly nodded and waved a hand in a vague gesture she hesitantly interpreted as ‘go-ahead’. Hinata took a deep breath and turned properly to Shikamaru, inclining her head again.

“I am sorry for hurting you, Shikamaru-san.” she said quietly, and the remorse in her voice wasn’t fake in the least. “I appreciate you t-taking the time to play shogi with me. I want to assure you that I did not mean to h-hurt you, and I am very sorry that I did. I am...still recovering after my team’s last mission, and am, um, working through certain triggers with those in charge of my recovery.”

She decided not to say ‘Psych’ because there was still, no matter Kurenai’s approach to it and the good they did, a certain stigma around the institution, but she knew from the glint in Shikaku’s eyes that he understood precisely who was charged with her recovery.

“That is the explanation, but I do not mean it as an excuse for my behaviour, as there is none. Please accept my sincere apology.” She added, and then, hoping against hope that there were no Hyuuga in the vicinity who could see her next move, she bowed 45° to Shikamaru, who made a distressed noise in the back of his throat.

“Wha- what the hell are you doing- get up- what are you- stand up, Hinata, oh my god.” Shikamaru stammered, visibly embarrassed, and Hinata slowly straightened up, shooting a quick glance at Shikaku, but the man was studying her oddly, appearing a mix of surprised and amused.

“She’s trying to apologise to you, brat.” Shikaku offered at last, gaze still on Hinata and his expression thoughtful. “Like you’re supposed to do in these situations.”

“We were classmates.” Shikamaru shot back, throwing his father a disgruntled glare before turning it on Hinata. “You didn’t need to do that.”

Hinata kept her opinion on that assertion to herself and merely waited, but when Shikamaru didn’t seem to realise she was waiting for him, she shot another glance at Shikaku, who sighed.

“Do you accept her apology?” he prompted his son, and Shikamaru blinked, then finally seemed to realise what, precisely, was going on.

“I-yeah. I accept your apology, Hinata.” He said, then paused, eyeing her strangely. “Even if I think this was a drag.”

Hinata blinked, a little bemused, then turned to Shikaku and bowed again, a little shallower. “I apologise to you, too, Nara-sama, for hurting your son and heir. I can only assure you that it did not come out of a desire to cause harm.”

Shikaku sighed again, but he didn’t seem angry.

“I thank you for your apology and hereby accept it.” He said, not quite the script, but closer to it than Shikamaru’s fumbled acceptance. “The Nara Clan is not going to be pressing any charges against you. The heiress to your Clan you may be, but you are only a genin, and going by what people are saying, you’ve had a rough couple of weeks. There is no ill will between me and mine and you, Hyuuga-chan.”

But not my Clan? Hinata wondered, but once again chose to keep her musings to herself.

“Thank you for your understanding, Nara-sama.” She murmured, inclining her head, then turned to offer Shikamaru a hesitant half-smile. “I meant it when I said I enjoyed playing with you, Shikamaru-san. I would like to do it again at some point, when our schedules permit.”

And then, when Shikamaru just stared at her, she turned to Shikaku for the final time, who, recognising her goodbye for what it was, inclined his head, effectively dismissing her. Hinata nodded back, gathered her chakra, and flash-stepped a block away until she was out of sight and hopefully out of their range, and proceeded to lean against the wall, breathing raggedly and feeling all her muscles unclench now that she was finally done with that social interaction.

God, but she hated her anxiety sometimes. She should not be shivering like a leaf and sweating more than she did after some workouts from a simple conversation.

Then, the realisation that while she may have survived the exchange with the Nara, she still had to go through the Hyuuga Compound hit, and Hinata suddenly had to bite back a whimper. It was barely noon – her chances of slipping into the Compound unnoticed were slim to none, and she knew that she had to at the very least greet her Father after a month in hospital.

(a month during which none of her Clan came to see her, a voice in her mind – the one that had survived having her chakra network burnt nigh-irreparably by her cousin, survived being disinherited, survived a War and the End-of-Times and a goddess and come out bitter and ambivalent about her ‘family’ – whispered, she didn’t owe them anything.)

Hinata pushed the thought to the back of her mind, forced it into a cage and threw away the key, then stood up straight, took a deep breath, and squared her shoulders.

She survived a War. She could survive Hiashi’s disappointment.

“Why did she do that?”

Ah.

Shikaku had been studying his son since the Hyuuga girl had left them – in a suitably impressive Shunshin for a fresh genin, mind – and Shikamaru had had a face like he’d bit into a lemon for most of the way back to their Compound, so Shikaku was glad he’d been right on the money as to the reason behind his son’s sour mood.

Keeping his posture loose and relaxed, Shikaku shrugged.

“Clan politics.” He offered, because Hyuuga. “Her shrink’s impact, likely.” He added, considering the subtle hints she’d dropped at just what sort of trigger Shikamaru had stomped on in the hospital. “And probably a part of your Hyuuga friend not wanting to burn whatever bridges there were between the two of you.”

“Could we have pressed charges?” Shikamaru asked, eyeing Shikaku oddly, and Shikaku hummed, noting with idle curiosity that Shikamaru didn’t argue the word ‘friend’.

“It would’ve been a bit of an overreaction, but yes. If she’d actually broken bone, I’d have suggested it to you.” He admitted, and Shikamaru frowned, apparently not liking his answer. “Causing harm to another Konoha shinobi outside of sparring is generally frowned upon, no matter the personal circumstances.”

“Is it true, then?” Shikamaru switched tracks instead of pursing the avenue of just what the girl was reportedly going through that Shikaku had conveniently left open for him. “That she killed four chunin?”

“That,” Shikaku huffed, shooting Shikamaru a frown, “is not for genin ears.”

“There are rumours, and Ino refuses to drop it.” Shikamaru grumbled, giving Shikaku the stink-eye. “You’re the Jounin Commander, can’t you just tell me?”

“And you’re on an intel-gathering team.” Shikaku shot back, unrelenting. “Learn how to gather intel on your own.”

Shikamaru grumbled, but he looked thoughtful, likely noticing that Shikaku hadn’t outright said no.

A few more minutes of silence passed between them, then Shikamaru asked; “Can you teach me about Clan customs again?”

Shikaku bit back a smirk.

Finally.

“Nee-sama.”

Hanabi, freshly seven – and god, but Hinata had missed her birthday, hadn’t she? – greeted, too old and ‘serious’ now to throw herself at Hinata in flying hugs and exuberant affection.

“Hanabi.” Hinata sighed, feeling suddenly old, despite only being in her early twenties mentally. “Tadaima.”

“Okaeri.” Hanabi replied immediately, slipping quietly into the room when Hinata didn’t chase her away, sliding the door closed behind her. “Otou-sama said you were in the hospital.”

“I was.” Hinata agreed, swallowing to wet her suddenly dry throat. “I apologise for missing your birthday, Hanabi-chan.”

“Can we celebrate now that you’re back?” Hanabi asked shyly, still a child in a way that Hinata didn’t remember her being from her first memories. She wondered how much her hurt at being disinherited had impacted her relationship with her sister.

Hinata bit back a sigh. She wanted nothing more than to draw herself a long bath, find herself some comfort food, and get into bed, but-

But.

Hanabi was…reaching out.

They could have a relationship untainted by one sister’s failure and the other’s genius.

“Of course we can.” She assured after what was apparently a few seconds too long, because Hanabi’s hesitant smile had slipped almost entirely off her face, replaced with the beginnings of a dejected expression. “Let me just grab a quick shower, okay? We had a D-Rank cleaning the Inuzuka kennels today and I would rather not smell of dog when we celebrate.”

Hanabi let out a startled giggle, then raised a hand to her mouth and stared at Hinata, seemingly baffled at the sound, and Hinata wanted to simultaneously laugh and cry.

“How would you like to celebrate?” Hinata asked instead, when she was sure her voice wouldn’t come out wet, and Hanabi looked a step away from pumping her fist in the air in victory.

“Dango!” she cheered, grinning when Hinata laughed quietly, then she stilled and tilted her head. “Then…can we spar? Hyogo-sensei has been teaching me some new kata.”

“It’ll have to be light, as I was only released from the hospital yesterday, but we can certainly try.” Hinata assured, resolving to not bring any of her pouches with her to avoid the risk of her putting a senbon through Hanabi’s eye should the girl startle her. “Maybe, since we’re sparring anyway, I can hold off on the shower for now. Lead the way, Hanabi-chan.”

Hanabi cheered quietly, then cut herself off the moment she slid Hinata’s door open, her smile fading to a dignified frown as she stepped out onto the corridor, mindful of the fact that they were Hiashi’s daughters and a sense of decorum was expected from them always.

No matter that Hanabi was seven and Hinata twelve, that they were children still, that Hanabi hadn’t been allowed toys in her room since she’d turned five, that Hiashi had only ever looked through Hinata until their spar before her Graduation Exam, her appearance too close to that of his late wife.

[There were times, late at night, when Hinata doubted her resolve to change the Hyuuga Clan. She doubted her conviction, her ability to beat her Father, the Branch Family’s ability to forgive and forget even in the unlikely scenario where all goes according to plan.

But there were other times, times when she looked at Neji, at her sister, at the little children, not yet sealed, running around the Compound, at the Branch House elders, some with cloth tied over missing eyes, others with faded Caged Bird seals on full display on their foreheads and secret, bitter smiles quirking their lips, and those were the times she knew that she would not stop until she reformed her Clan.]

She took the memory of Hanabi’s smile from that moment and tucked it close to her heart, knowing, deep down, that she’ll need it to buoy her onwards when the path she’d set out for herself gets tough.

(and knowing, even deeper down, that Hanabi hadn’t yet realised that, should Hinata succeed and become the Head of the Hyuuga Clan, her younger sister will end up getting sealed. Sealed like Neji, sealed like her life was never hers to begin with, always intended as protection, as insurance, for that of Hinata’s. Sealed like she never mattered, despite her genius.)

Hinata will bring the Hyuuga Clan to its knees before she allows that to happen.

Their first week back to team training, Kurenai had them running through kata and stretches, testing their mobility and reflexes with soft foam balls she threw at them as they went through the motions, then ending the day with slow, controlled spars.

Not for speed, or strength, or winning, but to visualise how the motions they practiced could change in actual combat, overlap, connect.

For that final stage, Kiba and Hinata had ended up with blindfolds after the first day, both more familiar with combat kata than Shino. Kiba’s had been thrown at him, Kurenai’s insistence that Kiba ‘focus on using his nose more’ ringing through the clearing, but Hinata had opted into it.

God knew she needed more spatial awareness, and she didn’t want to fall into the trap of over relying on her Byakugan in combat.

Ergo, blindfolds.

Then, after that first week, their schedule changed slightly – in the morning, Hinata, Kiba and Shino would meet, just the three of them, and run through chakra-less sparring, but with consistently increasing speed. Kurenai would come pick them up around ten in the morning, two or three D-Ranks in tow, then they’d grab lunch and return to ‘their’ training ground near the Inuzuka Compound, where Kurenai would give them time for their individual projects and assist however they needed her to.

All the while pelting them with low-level genjutsu they had to identify and break as soon as they felt them, Hinata felt the need to point out.

A challenge which, considering that Hinata wasn’t allowed to use her Byakugan, Kiba was more often than not buried nose-deep in a scroll on medical-ninjutsu, while Shino was trying to speedrun building four years’ worth of muscle memory when learning the basic combat taijutsu style Kurenai had found for him, was often far longer than they wanted to admit.

Kurenai, meanwhile, had taken Hinata aside that first day, and given her simultaneously the best and worst news of the month.

“You said you wished to improve your speed and genjutsu.” She’d began, a secret smile on her face. “And while I could give you weights and tell you to run circles around the field, I feel like there are better ways to use our time. Speed doesn’t have to be how fast you can run, after all.”

When Hinata had simply stared, not quite understanding where Kurenai had been going with her point, her sensei had grinned, all sharp teeth and schadenfreude.

“I planned on waiting until you make chunin to teach you, but you’re already capable of using it, so I feel somewhat less like I’m leading you to your death.” Kurenai had hefted a bag of colourful toy balls, and from the ground next to her, another Kurenai had emerged. “We’re going to get you so proficient in using the Shunshin that people won’t be able to tell that it’s the Shunshin. And we’re going to make sure that you can break all the genjutsu I throw at you before I teach you how to properly weave your own, not the preprepared, cookie-cutter nonsense they pass as genjutsu in the library. What do you say, Hinata?”

And Hinata, feeling warm and cared for and excited, had nodded, smiling back hesitantly.

Now, three weeks since getting discharged from the hospital, she wouldn’t say that she regretted agreeing to Kurenai’s insane plan, but she ached in places she didn’t know she could ache on a daily basis. Kurenai had to pretty much peel her off the grass by the end of the day, Hinata’s chakra reserves almost empty and her head spinning more times than not, the feel of illusionary spiders crawling over her body a phantom memory she could not quite shake.

At the beginning of the fourth week, Kurenai had Hinata spar with Shino. Only Hinata couldn’t fight back – she had to dodge out of the way using Shunshin, while Shino had to land as many hits on her as he could.

On the second day, about ten minutes into her spar with Shino, after having already spent an hour dodging Kurenai’s senbon – because yes, the foam balls had only been there at the beginning to give them all a false sense of security, and Kurenai was actually evil – Hinata tiredly twisted her chakra not into the shape for a Shunshin, but a replacement.

The sound of Shino striking a branch instead of her shoulder was satisfying, but almost moreso was the fact that Kurenai didn’t say anything.

And that was when Hinata realised that Kurenai had said she couldn’t fight back with taijutsu.

Ninjutsu, however, was apparently fair game.

Just to test the waters, Hinata formed a water clone and sent her to Shino’s blindspot, and when Shino moved to sweep her feet from under her, Hinata hopped up, only to have to replace herself with her clone when Shino suddenly burst up from his crouch, knife hand intent on her throat.

The strike took out her clone, but Shino didn’t lose his momentum, merely redirecting it to where Hinata had replaced to, and she Shunshined out of the way and to his other side, dropping a water clone, then flash-stepping again, until she had a clone on three of the four cardinal directions and she stood on the last one.

Kurenai was rather conspicuously silent.

Hinata smiled.

Judging by Shino’s tiny flinch, it was their sensei’s smile that they had all unconsciously adapted over the last three weeks, the one with too many teeth and the promise of retribution.

Hinata blurred.

Afte that day, Hinata started coming to their training grounds even earlier than before and set to practicing the Academy Three.

She remembered a day after the War, after they were back in Konoha and people had grieved and buried their loved ones and recovered as much as they could, when Kakashi’s upcoming appointment to Hokage was announced.

She had been one of the few who’d been in the Hokage Tower when Naruto and Sasuke had expressed their reaction to the news; Naruto in loud, mostly teasing complaining about Kakashi just being an ‘old man in disguise’ and clearly ‘more interested in his porn than Hokage-ship’ and how it should therefore go to him instead, and Sasuke in some quieter, albeit more serious and no less obvious doubts as to Kakashi’s suitability for the position of Hokage.

Kakashi, in what Hinata had later found out from others was par the course for his apparently particular brand of ‘pain in the ass’, had offered a spar.

Him against Sasuke and Naruto. Ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu – all but Sage Mode and Rinnegan was fair game.

And then he proceeded to - using Kiba's words - whoop his old students’ asses using the Academy Three and Chidori. The three jutsu every Academy graduate had access to, and a technique of his own creation.

Watching him fight like that, watching him humiliate Sasuke and Naruto with every hit they failed to land, Hinata had felt more awe at Kakashi’s mastery of E-Rank techniques than Naruto and Sasuke casually throwing around A and S-Ranks.  

Learning to fight using Shunshin, combining her Jyuuken with bursts of unexpected speed and the handful of elemental ninjutsu she'd learned, Hinata couldn’t help but wonder whether she could learn to fight like that.

So, she trained.

About five weeks after their discharge from hospital and a month before the first stage of the Chunin Exams was set to begin, Kurenai stood before her genin with three of her friends behind her and three owed favours lighter.

“Shino, you get Ebisu.” Kurenai gestured to Genma and Gai’s teammate, getting introductions out of the way at the same time. “He’s probably the most well-rounded shinobi I’ve ever encountered, and he was also on a genin team with Maito Gai, so his knowledge of taijutsu is beyond impressive by association alone.”

Genma snorted from her other side while Ebisu preened, and Shino inclined his head at her description before bowing a shade deeper to his new trainer, and even though she couldn't see his eyes, she knew he was scheming how to best take advantage of his new sparring partner.

“Kiba, you’ve been making progress in your med-ninjutsu but I hope you haven’t forgotten you’re a tracker. Genma’s also annoyingly well-rounded, but he was primarily a bodyguard, which means that he can-” as if on cue, Genma’s scent, chakra, and any sound he was making disappeared, and Kiba gaped, “do, well, that. Your task is to track him and tag him with a tail before sundown.”

Kurenai chucked Kiba the tail, a kid’s toy she’d nabbed from her civilian cousin’s house purely to see the look on Kiba’s face at the fake fur and his task. But then he grinned slowly and eyed Genma consideringly, and Genma waved back cheerfully, easy-going till his last breath.

“And Hinata, for you I got Yugao. Yugao is the person I personally hate sparring with the most. She’s a kenjutsu mistress, and she’s fast, resourceful, disproportionally fond of sharp things, and was trained by Kakashi, so she’s a bastard to fight.” Kurenai introduced, and Hinata listened intently while Yugao snorted.

“I’m really feeling the love, Yuu.” Yugao snarked, shooting Kurenai a fondly exasperated look.

“Nice to m-meet you, Yugao-san. I’ll be in your care.” Hinata greeted, bowing to the other kunoichi, before glancing at Kurenai. “Rules, sensei?”

And Kurenai grinned, feeling Hinata and Yugao shrink back a little, though Yugao likely moreso because she had run missions with Kurenai before and knew what that expression meant. Hinata and the boys had just realised that that was Kurenai’s ‘fuck about and find out’ grin.

“Survive.”

Sparring with Yugao was challenging.

Hinata didn’t know how Kurenai got three tokubetsu jounin to volunteer their time to train her, Kiba, and Shino three times a week, but she found herself grateful. Yugao was everything Kurenai had introduced her as and more, and when the other kunoichi had learned that Hinata a) wasn’t embarrased by losing, and b) was also somewhat proficient in elemental ninjutsu, the last of her hesitation had melted away and Hinata could tell that she stopped holding back.

Hinata had thrown her entire arsenal – considerably more varied than it had been when she’d died, but less developed in her Hyuuga techniques – at Yugao, multiple times a week for the last fortnight, but she had yet to win a single of their spars.

She’d come close when she’d first used her Shunshin in combination with her Jyuuken, but Yugao had merely whipped out her katana and demonstrated just how quickly she could swing that blade, and without a chakra shield around her limbs, Hinata would’ve gotten quartered if she hadn’t retreated.

The constant sparring also helped with getting Hinata used to her body once again, and she was now even more flexible than she’d been the first time around, and far stronger and faster.

And then, a week and a half before the first stage of the Chunin Exams was set to begin – Exams in which Team 8 would not be participating, and Hinata couldn’t help but feel relieved – something changed.

After a month of practicing the Academy Three to the point that she’d whittled them down to only one seal each, Hinata was sparring with Yugao, occasionally flaring her chakra to seallessly ‘kai’ and throw off one of Kurenai’s hundreds of genjutsu, not even giving the illusion enough time to build before she shook it off.

She’d been pressing Yugao with her Jyuuken though she’d kept her Byakugan off, having memorised enough tenketsu locations not to need it in a spar, a kunai in one hand and chakra sharpening the fingers of her other. Then Yugao swung with her katana and Hinata Shunshined back, spitting a water bullet at the other kunoichi and pulling up a Water Clone when Yugao slashed at the bullet with her sword and the subsequent spray momentarily obscured her view of Hinata’s hands.

Hinata launched the kunai she’d been holding into the air above Yugao and replaced with it, her clone catching the kunai and rushing Yugao while Hinata was already dropping, another knife in hand. But then Yugao’s sword hit clone-Hinata’s side and dispelled it, and Hinata knew Yugao realised the ruse. Instead of letting herself continue to fall, Hinata threw the kunai in her hand to the ground in Yugao’s blindspot, replacing with it again, knees bent to absorb her momentum. She kicked out at Yugao’s sword-hand, dislodging the katana from her grip, then turned sharply, her crouch putting her low enough to be well within Yugao’s guard, and she surged up, Jyuuken in one hand, motion intent on Yugao’s midsection-

-and then there was a searing pain in her right shoulder as Yugao startled, the tanto she’d frantically whipped out lodged firmly in Hinata’s trapezius, her right arm still extended towards Yugao’s central tenketsu.

There was a moment of silence as both of them froze, then a single drop of blood slid off Yugao’s blade and hit the ground, and it seemed to be what they needed to break the spell.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry Hinata!” Yugao apologised as she let go of the handle of her tanto as if burned, taking a step away from her and covering her mouth in horror.

Genma was suddenly next to them, as was Kurenai, and Genma’s hands glowed green as they carefully assessed the area of her shoulder Yugao’s tanto was still cutting into, and he frowned.

“Yeah, she needs the hospital. It’s not life-threatening, but it cut a bit too much of the muscle for me to feel comfortable healing it here.” He glanced at her briefly, face apologetic. “Sorry, kid.”

Hinata shook her head, finally dropping her arm, and the pain that came with jostling the sword in her shoulder made her wince. “Don’t worry, Genma-san. I-I’ll go to the hospital.”

“We’ll take her!” Kiba called, appearing at her side and pulling Shino with him. “I need a break from Ebisu anyway, guy’s a slavedriver. Let’s go, Hinata, and you better not remove that sword!”

Hinata, despite the situation, felt a smile pull on her lips as she fell into step between Kiba and Shino, letting Kiba’s chatter about 'how much of a dick Ebisu was to fight' and Shino’s acerbic grouching of ‘you’ve only had him for the day, I’ve had him a month, how do you think I feel’ fill her hears. Neither boy complained that she wasn’t really participating in the discussion, but when they got to the hospital, they both dutifully settled to wait with her in the waiting room of A&E, and Akamaru hopped down from Kiba’s head to curl up in her lap, offering silent comfort as Hinata carded her fingers through his fur.

She may have been sent back through time, but in this moment, she was home.

Back in the clearing, Yugao eyed Kurenai guiltily.

“Sorry, Yuu. She startled me; I didn’t expect her to do that.” She apologised, eyes trained on the patch of dirt Hinata’s blood had dripped on.

“To get in your guard, or to do it like Kakashi?” Genma asked, eyes on Kurenai even as his words were clearly intended for Yugao.

“…Both.” Yugao admitted quietly, and Genma snorted, but Kurenai just patted Yugao on the shoulder.

“It’s fine. Our resident medic and mother hen said she’ll live, and I trust him.” Kurenai assured, jabbing her thumb at Genma. “And Hinata’s only become more of a pest to fight since she started sparring with you, so I’m not surprised she got one over you.”

“I thought you were teaching her to fight like Uchiha Shisui.” Ebisu joined the conversation, pushing up his glasses. “Not Hatake-san.”

Kurenai shook her head, squeezing Yugao’s shoulder a final time before letting go. “I didn’t teach her that move.”

She let her words hang, getting an eyebrow raise from Ebisu and a thoughtful hum from Yugao.

Hinata's fighting style, when broken down to its core elements, was almost laughably simple, and not at all chakra intensive, which was their goal. They were a tracking team, yes, but out of the four of them, Hinata was the designated combat specialist, though Kurenai didn't think the girl had realised it yet. Her Jyuuken, her aim, and her agility and reflexes were her strengths; speed, strength, and ninjutsu less so. Having her repeatedly fight the boys, as well as Yugao, who was taller, stronger, and with a greater reach, had already done her wonders in the two months since they'd gotten discharged. Supplementing her speed by focusing on Shunshin instead of traditional methods had probably comforted the part of Hinata that still believed she was a coward, if Kagane were to be believed.

The fact that Hinata had seen the style she was developing, and thought to add the Academy Three into it wasn't that surprising, if you knew Hinata like Kurenai knew the girl and not just as the Hyuuga heiress. 

Kurenai's only wish was that she could be there to see the look on Kakashi's face if he ever sees Hinata fight and realises that her Hyuuga student, a genin who has never met him, at that, fights like him.

“Never thought I’d see a Hyuuga who chooses not to use Jyuuken.” Genma mused, staring thoughtfully at Kurenai and snapping her out of her thoughts. “Or an Aburame who invests time and effort into taijutsu. Or an Inuzuka willing to sit down and slog through reading on medical ninjutsu, of all things.” He eyed Kurenai up and down, smiling slyly. “Just what sort of monsters are you raising here, Yuu?”

Kurenai smiled, batting her eyelashes and tilting her head innocently at Genma who paled considerably at the sight, much to Kurenai and Yugao’s amusement.

“You know where the next Chunin Exams are gonna be held, Gen?” She asked lightly, the question entirely rhetorical, then let her smile and voice drop when she answered. “Kumo.”

Genma and Yugao stared at her for a few seconds, processing that, then-

“Fuck.”

Team Eight’s comforting routine of meet-do D-Ranks-spar-crash-repeat got broken three days before the start of the first stage of the Exams, almost two months after getting discharged from the hospital.

“We have a C-Rank.” Kurenai announced when she came to pick them up, carrying a single scroll instead of the usual two or three. “Escort to Hidden Grass. Pack for two weeks.”

Hinata exchanged glances with Kiba and Shino, eyes wide and anxiety clawing up her throat, which she saw reflected in the boys’ eyes. But then she turned to Kurenai, who looked grim but confident, and she forced herself to take a deep breath and assess the situation more rationally.

Frankly, she was surprised they got almost two months in-Village, but the sheer volume of D-Ranks they got through in that time might’ve spoken to their favour. Or the fact that Kurenai had looked like she’d burn the whole Village down if anyone had tried to push them to do anything before they were ready, in those first few weeks.

Now, though, Kurenai didn’t look worried. Calm and quietly expectant, yes, but not worried.

Hinata saw the moment that same realisation dawned on Kiba and Shino, and almost felt the anxiety wash off them. Releasing a sigh of relief, Hinata turned back to Kurenai and smiled encouragingly, at which Kurenai nodded.

“Meet at the gates in twenty minutes.” Kurenai announced, and right before they all split off, she called out. “For the record?”

When they all turned around to face her, Kurenai smiled. “I have the utmost confidence in all of you.”

Hinata blinked, and then, feeling as if she could walk on clouds, ran to the Hyuuga Compound. Despite the anxiety she was feeling not even five minutes ago, a part of her was almost excited to be getting out of the Village again. Not to mention that with Kurenai's words, all her lingering doubts and concerns were rather effectively forgotten.

(The fact that this mission would conveniently get her team out of the path of Gaara and Orochimaru was also a nice bonus, but she tried not to think about that.)

Chapter Text

Their mission went well.

Hinata was too tired to celebrate, but when the main gates of Konoha came into view twelve days to the day they left, she was not the only one who heaved a sigh of relief. They didn’t have to deal with anything harder than a small group of bandits, and even that was luckily on the way back so they completed the mission itself without issue, but Hinata was tired.

They got to the gates and Hinata could tell that Kiba was baffled by the increased scrutiny of their identity cards and mission scroll.

“Chunin Exams.” She mouthed, making recognition glint in Kiba’s eyes as he shot her a grateful thumbs-up.

(If things were the same as before, the higher-ups would’ve likely learned of Orochimaru’s presence in the Forest of Death by now. In light of that revelation, there was almost too little security.)

“Meet at ten at our training grounds tomorrow.” Kurenai told them, earning surprised looks from the three of them, which she smiled ruefully at. “I would normally give you the day off, but I'm almost sure we’re going to end up picking up the missions your peers would’ve otherwise taken, so I want you to be ready.”

“Okay, sensei.” Hinata agreed, managing a tired smile. “Rest well.”

They split off, and Hinata headed home, looking forward to a bath and an opportunity to sleep in tomorrow morning.

What she wasn’t expecting was to get ambushed upon stepping though the gates of the Hyuuga Compound, two Elders pinning her with expectant, subtly disdainful glances.

“We have learned that you are not participating in the Chunin Exams.” one of them, Hideki, if Hinata remembered correctly, began, sizing her up. “Your Father has decided we need to test your capacity as heir once again.”

“Am I to spar with Hanabi, then?” Hinata asked quietly, keeping her voice even and soft, not daring to meet the man’s eyes and stifling the sigh that wanted to escape her.

“No.” the other Elder replied, and the look in his eyes was mean when Hinata glanced at him. She didn’t remember this one’s name, but she did remember that he died in Orochimaru’s siege.

(Not long left, the little mean voice whispered in her mind, but she pushed the thought away.)

“You will be sparring with your Father.”

Hinata paled.

 The fact that Hinata wasn't participating in the Chunin Exams wasn't surprising, Neji thought. Nor was the fact that the Elders had a problem with that, considering her unfortunate position as heiress.

The fact that Hiashi decided to spar with her himself, however, was surprising.

Neji found himself on the outskirts of the small group of onlookers that had gathered to watch Hiashi humiliate his daughter, a sick sense of satisfaction warming his gut.

The difference in his and Hinata's fates boiled down to the minutes that separated their fathers' births; Hinata had done nothing to deserve her position in the Clan, and he was glad Hiashi was finally beginning to acknowledge that fact.

"Rules?" Hinata asked quietly as she took her place opposite the man, five meters between them where they stood on the training field.

She looked worn and tired, having apparently just come back from a mission, though Neji reasoned she didn’t have too long to wait till she could rest: Hiashi’s defeat of his daughter was destined to be swift and brutal.

"Try to land a hit." Hiashi replied stoically, his disposition telling everyone just how little he believed in Hinata succeeding in the challenge before her.

Instead of letting herself be baited or reacting outwardly to the mockery, Hinata simply nodded, mirroring Hiashi's stance, Byakugan bulging around her temples even as Hiashi kept his off, once again clearly dismissing his daughter as a threat, and Neji couldn’t help but silently agree.

He watched as Hiashi gestured for them to start, watched disinterestedly as Hinata took a steadying breath, letting it out slowly, her muscles oddly loose and relaxed-

-and then she was in Hiashi's guard before Neji even had a chance to blink, two fingers driving into the flesh of her Father's abdomen.

Neji stilled, and he felt the gathered onlookers collectively hold their breath.

As impossible as the notion seemed, there was no doubt to anyone's eyes that Hinata's strike had connected.

Neji activated his Byakugan with a thought, needing to confirm it for himself. While Hinata didn't hit Hiashi's chakra core, as she'd likely been aiming to, because Hiashi was still a jounin and had managed to twist millimeters out of the way at the last second, her jab had still connected, succeeding in blocking the tenketsu over Hiashi's liver, less than an inch from his central reserve.

 Slowly, Hinata drew back, straightening from her crouch, though she tellingly didn't dismiss her Byakugan nor recall the chakra from her fingers.

It's a fluke. Neji thought, staring at the blocked tenketsu over Hiashi's liver. It has to be.

"Does-" Hinata began, clearing her throat when her voice came out weak and quiet, and when she next spoke, she sounded surer of herself, though still just as quiet. "Does that count as a 'hit', Father?"

For the first time in his life, Neji saw Hiashi lose control.

His temples bulged with the Byakugan veins, and he was suddenly in motion, chakra snapping off of him as he struck, but Hinata managed to dodge, appearing inches to the left of her previous position, somehow twisting to be just out of the way of the strike that would've probably disabled her.

Once again, the discrepancy between Hiashi, a jounin and war veteran, and Hinata, a fresh genin, made itself apparent in the speed and viciousness of their movements. With Hiashi as enraged as he seemed, it would be lucky if Hinata only ended up in hospital, Neji thought grimly, somehow not as pleased by the realisation as he should be.

Hiashi turned, striking out with a kick, but Hinata was once again centimeters out of range, far quicker than she had ever been, far quicker than she had any right to be.

Neji frowned, concentrating on his cousin as she dodged another half-dozen of Hiashi's strikes by a hair's breadth. There was something about the way Hinata dodged, here one second and gone the next, almost no wasted motion and no obvious tensing of muscles to betray movement that felt familiar.

 After a few more seconds, it dawned on Neji that her movement felt familiar because it felt like he was watching himself fight Gai.

 Only Gai still fought back, a taijutsu master in every sense of the word, packing a punch that made Neji feel as if his tenketsu were blocked even though he knew the jounin had never and would never master the Jyuuken.

Hinata, being Hinata, seemed content with simply dodging Hiashi's strikes, and even that she was only barely managing now, having resorted to making strategic sacrifices for where to take the hits she couldn't fully dodge.

To compare her motion to Gai’s was ludicrous, Neji knew.

But it fit. 

"Fight me like a Hyuuga." Hiashi gritted out after a few more seconds, when he caught Hinata's headband in a glancing blow and made the hitai-ate slide off Hinata's hair and hit the ground a few meters behind her with the force of his strike. 

Neji thought he heard Hinata whisper "I am." but that would be foolish, and it wasn't like she could spare breath for conversation when she had to twist to slide left of the strike to her left shoulder then flash away again to dodge Hiashi's kick to her liver.

But when she reappeared, two feet to the left of Hiashi’s outstretched leg, Hiashi was ready, knife-hand heading unerringly for Hinata's neck. Neji thought he heard a quiet, startled gasp, then Hinata was suddenly meters away, stumbling on her landing, her hitai-ate clattering to the ground where she had stood milliseconds previous.

Replacement, Neji realized with a jolt, eyes on the headband Hinata had swapped with, but sealless?

But he didn't have time to think, because Hiashi was striking out, not bothering to cover the distance between him and his daughter, just stepping forward with a palm perpendicular to the ground and releasing a wave of pure, concentrated chakra whose whiplash made Neji wince even as far back as he stood.

Hinata was off-balance though, clearly exhausted, and unable to dodge. She just about managed to raise her arms over her face before the Vacuum Palm hit, and the crack of bone that followed the whoosh of chakra was as loud in the training field as the muffled scream Hinata let out.

Neji wasn’t sure which sound it was, maybe a combination of the two, but it seemed to finally snap Hiashi out of whatever trance he had fallen into.

The Hyuuga Head froze for a split-second before he slowly straightened out of his stance, his gaze trained on Hinata's now visibly broken forearm. Opposite him, Hinata did the same, slowly lowering her broken arm to her side and adamantly not meeting her Father's eyes.

Neji wasn't sure what was going to happen, and from the sudden silence in the field, nor was anyone else. But then, Hinata stepped forward and bent down, picking up her hitai-ate and stowing it in her pocket with her unbroken arm. Then, she bowed, first to Hiashi, then to the Elders gathered at the edges of the field and then-

-she turned her back on them all, and walked out of the Compound.

“Hinata!” One of the Elders barked, but Hinata continued walking.

No acknowledgement, no words, no tears, no reaction to the events of the last five minutes. Nothing beyond the split-second of rage that shone in her eyes when she’d straightened from her bow, before that, too, had been wiped clean.

Neji walked silently to his room when the group of onlookers quickly dispersed at Hiashi's quelling look, unable to purge his pathetic cousin from his mind. 

He had never seen Hiashi fight like that.

He wasn't sure if he- but no.

Hinata’s performance was a fluke.

It had to be.

Hinata walked alone to the hospital, her body on autopilot, her mind quiet. She sat patiently through the half-hour wait to be seen, then through the med-nin setting her arm, then through another half-hour for the cast to dry. She was vaguely aware that the medic was giving her a lecture to be careful with her cast for the next 48 hours while it set completely, but the words went in one ear and out the other, her mind empty.

Three hours since they arrived to the Village gates and two hours since her spar with her Father, Hinata walked out of the hospital, somewhat lost.

The thought of going back to her Compound made the quiet in her brain burn, a searing, white-hot pain that made her clench her eyes shut and set on a path to the opposite side of the Village, towards Team 8's training grounds, before she even consciously registered the decision.

When she arrived, she assessed the field flatly, wondering what to do. The medic had said to be careful with her arm, and she was still tired from their mission, wanting nothing more than a bath and a long nap, but she would sooner stay awake for the next few days than go back 'home'.

Still, just because she couldn't train taijutsu or do handseals didn't mean that she couldn't do anything useful, so Hinata walked to the bank of the stream on the edges of the training grounds and sat down, crossing her legs and falling into herself.

She steadied her breathing and set to visualising her reserves, concentrating on spooling and unspooling her chakra coils, taking stock of herself at the same time as she worked to expand their capacity. It was a meditation technique Neji had taught her after her second Chunin Exams, when the relationship between them became more like that of siblings than antagonists. Neji never said who had taught it to him, but Hinata had always suspected it had been his father, and she treasured the fact that Neji had trusted her enough to pass it to her, which made it a precious memory.

As she meditated, she lost her sense of time, her eyes closed and her breathing steady as she unconsciously matched her chakra flow to the stream she could hear but not see. And then-

"Hinata-chan?"

Hinata startled, losing control over her chakra and feeling it snap back into her coils uncomfortably. She blinked her eyes open, surprised to note that it was now dark, and, as if her body had been waiting for her brain to register the temperature change, she felt goosebumps break out on her uncovered arm and a shiver go down her spine.

She blinked again, wondering what had snapped her concentration, then looked around and found Hana standing some three meters from her, hand on one of the Haimaru's nose, as if physically keeping the ninken from coming any closer to her.

"...Hana-san." she greeted belatedly, her body feeling uncomfortably sluggish, her mind still quiet. Empty. "Good afternoon."

"Good evening." Hana corrected gently, frowning worriedly. "Night, even."

Hinata glanced up at the sky, but with the sun gone, she struggled to tell the exact time to either confirm or deny Hana's words.

"Hinata-chan, is everything alright?" Hana asked quietly, losing control of one of the Haimaru. The ninken seized the opportunity and trotted up to Hinata, nosing at her cheek, but she barely registered it. "What happened to your arm?"

Hinata glanced down at her arm, the white cast around it stark against the dark material of her pants, and the memories of the last few hours – particularly of the moment that had led to her predicament –threatened to overwhelm her as they came rushing back in.

"I..." she began, unsure what she was thinking or feeling, her hands steady, her mind blank. "I had a...disagreement...with my Father."

Hana's face flashed through many expressions in a matter of seconds, but what it settled on was sympathetic.

"Come on then, Hinata-chan." She urged, extending a hand to help Hinata to her feet.

Hinata took the hand with a slight delay and she didn't even feel the usual embarrassment when Hana had to steady her once she was up, her legs almost giving up on her due to being in the same position for - allegedly - multiple hours.

Hana didn't release her hand even once Hinata was able to stand by herself, merely whistled something to her ninken and started walking, the dogs shooting off ahead of them.

"W-Where are we going?" Hinata asked after a few seconds, having become alert enough to realise they were going in the opposite direction of the Hyuuga Compound.

"You're shivering, and you look like you haven't eaten in hours." Hana replied, though it wasn't really an answer. She was still holding Hinata's hand. "I'm taking you home."

"I-I couldn't possibly impose-!" Hinata began, her sense of propriety having finally returned, though not enough to motivate her to pull away from Hana's gentle hold. The other girl was warm, her hand a localised inferno to Hinata's chilled skin.

"Hinata-chan." Hana sighed, coming to a stop, and she turned fully to Hinata, laying her other hand on her shoulder and meeting her eyes. Her expression was serious, the earlier sympathy still there but overshadowed by something harder, something almost angry. "It's past three in the morning. You were alone, on the training grounds, with a broken arm and empty eyes and your chakra and scent so stifled that I wouldn't have noticed you if the Haimaru hadn't almost stumbled on you. If you think I'm leaving you alone after that, you need to think again."

It was only then that Hinata noticed what Hana was wearing - all black pants and a long-sleeved black top, grey chest armour overtop.

Her mask and the standard reinforced gloves to complete the ensemble were missing, but Hinata recognised the uniform for what it was.

Had owned her own pair of it once, even.

She hadn't known Hana had been ANBU, though.

She noticed the moment Hana realised she knew because the other girl frowned, though it was concerned again instead of angry. Before Hana could say anything though, Hinata forced her uncooperating facial muscles into something that could hopefully pass as a smile.

"Thank you, Hana-san. I'm really-" grateful, she meant to say, her sense of self slowly returning, but she found a lump in her throat when she tried to speak, and instead, what came out was a broken sob.

Then, she burst into tears.

Hana let go of her hand and Hinata made a concerned noise through her tears before she could stop herself, but then Hana was using the grip on her shoulder to pull her into her chest, wrapping both her arms around Hinata's shoulders in a tight hug.

It shouldn't have been comfortable - Hana's armour plate was pressing into Hinata's cheek, the other girl's long-sleeve reeked of sweat and iron up close, and Hinata's cast-covered arm was squished rather uncomfortably between them, but Hinata melted into the embrace regardless. She tilted her head so her cheek was less smushed, screwed her eyes shut, and reached up and around Hana, fisting her hand in the fabric above her chest armour and holding on for dear life as she cried.

And Hana just held her like that, letting her cry herself out, shushing her and making comforting noises, her chin propped on the top of Hinata's head, as if she hadn’t just come back from an ANBU mission to god-knew-where and wasn't exhausted and on her way home in the middle of the night.

An indeterminable amount of time later, Hinata finally pulled away, letting go of Hana's shirt to wipe at her face with her sleeve, propriety forgotten.

"I-I'm sor-!" she began, but Hana cut her off, putting a finger to her lips and shaking her head.

"Never apologise for having emotions." The other girl ordered, smiling softly to offset the stern tone even though the look in her eyes was dead serious. "Besides, I was relieved. You were a bit too blank to be healthy when I found you, Hinata-chan."

When Hinata just stared, feeling heat rise to her face, not sure if she was embarrassed or flustered, Hana dropped the finger she still had on Hinata's lips and grabbed her hand again, her smile growing a touch. "Now come on, we both need some food and a shower, I think."

And Hinata could do little but be tugged along, feeling an answering smile, albeit much smaller than Hana's, bloom on her face.

The next morning, far too early for her tastes, Hana fell into her seat at the table, raising a green-glowing hand to her forehead to quell the headache she could feel gathering from another night of not enough sleep.

“You look rough, kiddo.” Tsume greeted where she was setting the fish to broil and cutting vegetables by the stove. “Long night?”

Hana made a vaguely affirmative noise, not all too awake just yet, and almost spilled the tea her mother had set in front of her as she went to pour it, making the woman snort. They sat in companionable silence for a moment, Tsume bustling around their small kitchen while Hana worked on waking up fully, before Tsume spoke.  

“I know we're affiliated with ninken, but I didn't expect you to start bringing strays home.” She commented idly, and Hana forced herself into a slightly more sat-up position, frowning at her mother.

“Her father broke her arm, mom.” She said quietly, staring into her teacup. “I couldn’t just leave her.”

In her peripheral vision, she could see that Tsume had frozen for a split-second at the news, but when her mother next spoke, her words were perfectly casual, almost idle.

“She tell you that?” she asked, and Hana felt her frown deepen.

“Not in quite so many words, but yeah.”

Tsume sighed, an action so uncharacteristic Hana was instantly on-guard, watching her mother intently, tiredness forgotten.

“Hana, I know you're a bit of a bleeding heart and she’s Kiba’s teammate, but you better not go poking your nose into Hyuuga business.” Tsume warned, and Hana blinked, completely thrown, because-

“But, mom-!” She began, but Tsume cut her off, the expression on her face concerningly serious.

“No.” She said curtly. “No buts. I'm not saying this to be cruel or because I don't care about the kid, but because you're my kid.” Tsume told her flatly, her gaze unrelenting. “And the Hyuuga Clan can and will bury you, Hana.”

“They can try.” Hana huffed, but Tsume slammed her hand against the kitchen counter and shot her a sharp glare.

“No,” she snapped, “no, they can't, because they'll succeed.”

In that moment, Hana understood how her mother had made jounin at sixteen and successfully ousted their previous Head barely two years later. Hana has been ANBU for three years now, but Tsume’s aura was sharper and wilder than those of the ANBU trainers just then.

Hana didn’t dare disagree.

“Take that bravado and shove it where the sun don't shine because I won't lose my kid to your idiocy.” Tsume finished, then huffed, visibly trying to calm herself.

“You ever worked with Namiashi Raido?” She asked after a beat, the non-sequitur throwing Hana off enough to shake off her momentary fear. She nodded mutely. “Shiranui Genma?”

Hana was a bit slower to nod this time, because she had worked with Shiranui, only not as Shiranui but as Gecko. And while she didn’t doubt that Tsume knew she was ANBU, they never talked about it openly, and Hana wasn’t about to start now.

She simply nodded again, a bit surer.

“Do you know why they will never get higher than tokubetsu?” Tsume asked then, her voice hard, her eyes boring into Hana’s and forcing her to understand, “Why they will never have their own teams, never gain the respect that ‘full’ jounin get despite having the skills? Even though Raido is the best damn trap specialist the Village has seen in decades, and Genma’s the best poison master you can find this far north of Suna?”

Hana didn’t get the time to answer before Tsume continued, seemingly on a roll now.

“Do you know why Yuuhi only just got her jounin promotion despite her genjutsu having been on par with the Uchiha even back when there were still Uchiha around to compare her to?” she asked again, crossing the distance between where she stood against the counter to where Hana sat by the table, her face hard. “Or why the fucking Hokage's son had to leave the Village for a decade?”

Hana couldn’t find her voice to say ‘no’, just barely having enough strength to shake her head in the face of her mother’s presence.

Tsume knelt in front of her then, and Hana fought the urge to flinch even though she knew, logically, that her mother would never raise a hand on her.

There was something in Tsume’s face though, something that hinted at old wounds and even older heartbreak, and when Tsume next spoke, her words were quiet and flat.

“Because they made a little too much noise about Hizashi’s death, and the Hyuuga Clan almost buried them.” Tsume murmured, her voice all but a whisper. “And I will not have that happen to you. Are we understood?”

And Hana, despite the righteous anger that burned within her, could do little more than nod, cowed.

When Kiba came down for breakfast, he was surprisingly unbothered about finding Hinata at their kitchen table, more focused on rubbing sleep out of his eyes and eyeing the eggs on Hinata’s plate with interest.

“You made any of that for me?” He asked Hana through a yawn, and Hana smacked him with a spatula when he tried to peek around her to see what she was cooking.

“No. Lazy butts who get up at noon don’t get freebies!” Hana huffed, chasing Kiba away even as she grabbed a clean plate and began scooping the leftover rice onto it, grabbing a few more eggs to crack as she went.

“It’s not noon. And sensei gave us the morning to sleep in.” Kiba whined, falling into the chair opposite Hinata and reaching uncoordinatedly to pour himself some apple juice while he scowled at his sister’s back. “Not all of us are happy waking up at the ass-crack of dawn.”

“Watch your mouth.” Hana warned as she slid Kiba a plate of rice, veggies, the egg omelet she’d been making, and the salmon Tsume had prepared for them earlier, getting a grumbled ‘thanks’ which she staunchly ignored. “And some of us have responsibilities, not that you’d know much about that.”

Kiba groaned, clearly giving up trying to make words, and instead muttered a quick prayer and dug into his food with gusto.

“Hinata, hi, save me from getting nagged to death please.” He requested through a mouthful of omelet, and Hinata wrinkled her nose unconsciously, then had to bite her lip to keep from giggling when Hana smacked the back of Kiba’s head as she walked past.

“Chew your damn food, swallow, then talk!” Hana chastised, then glanced at the clock above the door and frowned. “I gotta go; don’t do anything stupid, and wash up before you leave or I’m telling mom.”

“Wait, before you go-!” Kiba called, and Hana obligingly paused, though she didn’t look happy to do so. “Was there a famous shinobi who used snakes?”

Hana stilled, slanting a glance at Hinata who met her gaze with wide eyes, knowing perfectly well who Kiba was talking about.

“Maybe.” Hana hedged. “Why ask?”

“I caught Naruto yesterday an’ he was sayin’ something about how his team fought a ‘crazy snake lady who turned out to be a dude’ in the Forest. Apparently it’s some big famous shinobi, but it could be Naruto just making shi- stuff up.” Kiba explained, catching himself on the swear even though Hinata reckoned Hana was a bit too out of it to call him out.

“The Sannin Orochimaru used snake summons.” Hana said carefully, each word measured, her tone not revealing anything, but Kiba didn’t seem to notice, his eyes growing wide.

“The Sannin? One of the Legendary Three?” Kiba checked, looking shocked for a second before he scoffed. “Yeah, no, Naruto was definitely bullshitting.”

Kiba’s back was to Hana so he didn’t see the silent sigh of relief she heaved at his dismissal, but Hinata had an uncomfortable realization as to what mission Hana had likely been coming back from the day before.

Hana was primarily a vet, yes, but she was also a med-nin and a tracker, and, as Hinata had discovered yesterday, ANBU. If any teams were being sent out to look for Orochimaru or to make sure he wasn’t still in-Village, Hinata was unfortunately rather certain that Hana would be on them.

Unable to help herself, she mouthed ‘be careful’ to Hana when Kiba turned his attention back to his plate, and Hana nodded, tried for a smile, then let herself out of the house.

“It was Orochimaru, wasn’t it?” Kiba asked suddenly, a frown twisting his mouth and the look in his eyes serious as he glanced at Hinata, and she startled even as she realized that he wasn’t actually asking. “I swore in front of her twice and she didn’t nag me about it.”

In another context, Hinata might’ve laughed at Kiba’s makeshift lie-detector, but as it was, she frowned right back at him.

“W-we can ask Kurenai-sensei.” She offered quietly, and Kiba nodded, sighed, and stood up, grabbing the dishes to begin washing up. Hinata stood too, silently moving till she could stand beside him and grabbed a dishcloth. It was awkward, trying to dry the dishes one-handed, but she managed, and Kiba seemed too deep in thought to laugh at her for the ones she struggled with.

“I’m sorry, I d-don’t know any more than you do.” She lied, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to reasonably explain anything she did know.

“It’s okay.” Kiba waved her off, frowning down at the pan he was scrubbing, and when he turned to look at her, the smile he shot her was smaller than his usual fanged grins, but no less genuine. “Thanks, Hinata.”

But when they got to their training grounds, Kurenai didn’t give them much time to ask questions, her eyes on Hinata’s cast.

“What happened?” She demanded, fully aware that Hinata didn’t have the injury the last time she’d seen her, less than twenty hours previous. “Hinata?”

“I-I-!” Hinata stuttered, startled by the intensity in Kurenai’s eyes. “I f-fell.”

The lie slipped out without conscious input, more out of habit than intent to deceive, and Kurenai’s expression, if possible, became even more unhappy. Kiba muttered something and scattered, heading over to Shino’s side at a pace that was just a touch too fast to be casual.

“We’ll need to work on that.” Kurenai muttered in response to Hinata’s lie, her words sounding more like she was talking to herself than to Hinata. Then, she crossed the distance between them and came to a stop less than a meter away from Hinata. “Now, I’ll ask one more time, so please think twice before you lie to me again.”

Hinata made a sound in the back of her throat, but Kurenai didn’t budge, nor did her serious glare shift into the more familiar kind gaze and warm smile.

“I’m asking not as your sensei, nor even as your friend, but as your commanding officer.” Kurenai told her sharply, and Hinata straightened unconsciously, unable to look away from Kurenai’s eyes. “What happened, Hinata?”

Hinata had a dojutsu that saw through illusions.

She’d also been getting pelted with genjutsu left and right and center almost every day for the last two months, so she knew it was not genjutsu that was responsible for what happened next, but Kurenai’s sheer aura.

Fully aware of the fact that Kiba and Shino were right there, Hinata took a deep breath and-

-told Kurenai precisely what had happened.

When she’d finished, ending vaguely on Hana finding her and taking her to the Inuzuka Compound, Kurenai’s face was flat and expressionless, her chakra cold.

“Alright. Thank you, Hinata.” She managed, though it looked like she had to remind herself that her voice needed inflection half-way through. “Boys, on me! Change of plans. Keep up!”

And then she shot off, away from their training ground and into the trees, and Hinata had the time to exchange a bewildered glance with Kiba and Shino before they all hastened to do just that.

By the time they came to a stop, they were on the other side of the Village, Asuma, Shikamaru, and Chouji staring at them in bafflement as they burst in on what was clearly team training.

“Asuma, hi, sorry, I need you to sit on the kids for a few hours, I’ve got an errand to run.” Kurenai greeted distractedly, but Hinata’s gaze was on her right hand, which was flashing through signs she couldn’t recognize, though Asuma seemed to, because he nodded almost before she was done speaking. “Kids, behave.”

And then she was gone, leaving them with Asuma and his two students.

“Well, that was sudden.” Asuma mused, drawing a snort from Shino, to all of their collective surprise.

“Ya both training for the exams?” Kiba asked Chouji and Shikamaru, appearing entirely unruffled by their sensei abandoning them as he ambled over to the other boys.

Shikamaru looked thoughtful and was apparently too slow answering the question, so Kiba turned his full attention to Chouji, who shook his head.

“Only Shikamaru. We’ve been helping him brainstorm.” The Akimichi replied quietly, then offered his beef jerky to Kiba, who took some with a grin.

Hinata startled when she blinked and Shikamaru was suddenly right in front of her, very much in her space. It took her a second more to realise that Asuma was now holding her wrist, while her working hand was wrapped tight around something thin and metallic.

A senbon.

A senbon that was aimed at Shikamaru’s throat.

“Oookay, there’s a lesson here.” Asuma said, trying to diffuse the situation while Hinata and Shikamaru both stared at each other, one shocked, the other disbelieving.

“Hinata, you’re in the Village. You could stand to relax.” Asuma said kindly, and Hinata shrunk back, chastised. But when he turned to Shikamaru, Asuma’s voice was harder. “And you need to stop thinking that it’s okay to startle shinobi just because they’re your peers. Or prepare yourself for them to retaliate. Think, Shikamaru, you’re meant to be good at that.”

“Yeah.” Shikamaru huffed, glancing at Hinata. “Sorry.”

“L-likewise.” Hinata managed, finally relaxing, which prompted Asuma to let go of her wrist.

To her – somewhat guilty – amusement, neither Kiba nor Shino looked away from Chouji, not appearing in the least surprised that she almost attacked Shikamaru.

Again.

“I need a favour.” Shikamaru said after a beat, drawing her attention back to him. “My opponent for the final stage is Hyuuga Neji. You’re a Hyuuga. Can you fight me?”

“Her arm is broken.” Shino pointed out before Hinata had a chance to reply, proving that her teammates were not ignorant to her conversation with Shikamaru, merely choosing not to engage.

Still, it took her a while to string together a coherent reply seeing as her brain was stuck on the fact that Shikamaru was now fighting Neji instead of Temari.

How could she not have thought of this? With Team Eight not even participating, it made sense that the matchups would be different. This shouldn’t be this shocking to her.

And yet.

“That’s fine, I don’t want an actual fight. I just need to see what works against Hyuuga.” Shikamaru dismissed, turning back to her, clearly waiting for her answer.

Hinata licked her lips, scrambling for a reply, trying to think of what Kurenai or Yugao might do in this situation.

“What-” she cleared her throat, making herself meet Shikamaru’s eyes, “What’s in it for me?”

Off to the side, Asuma let out a startled, hastily smothered laugh.

Shikamaru blinked at her, then turned to shoot his sensei a look, but Asuma waved him off, so he turned back to her and frowned. “Well, what would you want?”

It was Hinata’s turn to blink, because she didn’t think he’d actually oblige her, and she paused. What did she want?

Her end goal was still taking over the Hyuuga Clan from her father as soon as she could. For that, she needed jounin rank. Another step, either before or after that, was abolishing the Caged Bird seal.

To get rid of the seal, she needed some more in-depth knowledge of sealing to know what she was even working with. Knowledge the Konoha library likely either didn’t have, or kept locked behind rank-access that Hinata would have no chance of getting her hands on for at least a few more years.

And the Nara Clan-

“Your Clan has a library, d-doesn’t it?” She asked quietly, and in her periphery, she noticed Asuma still, his earlier mirth gone.

“Yeah.” Shikamaru confirmed, scrutinizing her. “It’s mostly medicinal, but it’s big enough to have a bit of everything. Why?”

“I’d like access to your Clan’s library.” Hinata explained, aiming for a smile. “Supervised is f-fine.”

“Then you’ll fight me?” Shikamaru checked, and when Hinata nodded, he frowned and held his hand out. “Done.”

Baffled, Hinata slowly shook his hand, then twitched when Shikamaru tugged on her arm. “Now come on, fight me.”

“I think this is the first time I’ve seen Shikamaru excited about sparring.” Asuma mused off to the side, getting a hum of agreement from Chouji.

“Kick his ass, Hinata!” Kiba cheered from Chouji’s other side, while Shino busied himself with stretching, apparently deciding that he’d still get in taijutsu practice even if Kurenai wasn’t there to oversee.

“I don’t, um, fight like most of my Clan.” Hinata confessed once they stood opposite each other, both waiting for the other to make the first move, Hiashi’s disdainful ‘fight me like a Hyuuga’ echoing in her mind.

“You’re a Hyuuga.” Shikamaru repeated. “That’s good enough for me.”

It probably wasn’t meant to be as dismissive as it sounded, but it was too close to the tone he’d used in the hospital, and something in Hinata snapped, encouraged by the mean voice in her head that cooed prove him wrong.

So, once she decided that they were both ready, she palmed a kunai in her good hand, flash-stepped to just behind Shikamaru, kicked out at the back of his leg so he fell to one knee and pressed the tip of the kunai against the back of his neck.

If he tried to straighten up, her knife would sever his vertebrae, and  she felt more than saw the moment Shikamaru realized that.

She didn’t say anything, and for a second, everything was still.

Then, Kiba started laughing.

“Serves you right, you arrogant so-mmpf!”

Hinata didn’t turn to look at who had cut Kiba off, but her bets were on Shino, if the way the corner of Shikamaru’s lips twitched meanly was any indication. He turned his head slowly, but Hinata didn’t remove her knife, letting it scrape along Shikamaru’s skin until the tip stopped just over his carotid artery, the threat still very apparent.

“Message received.” Shikamaru drawled, as close to an apology as she was likely to get. He looked at her from the corner of his eye, his expression unexpectedly serious. “Let me up?”

Wordlessly, Hinata pocketed her knife and stepped away, letting Shikamaru slowly get to his feet. She wasn’t sure she liked the thoughtful gleam in his eyes.

“Can you fight me how Neji would?” Shikamaru asked then, still with that contemplative expression on his face. “With the- you know-” he mimed jabbing two-fingered strikes into odd places in the air before him, and Hinata felt her lip twitch even as she sighed.

“Neji-nii-san knows a lot of techniques I will never master.” She said quietly, glancing away from Shikamaru at the wave of shame she couldn’t quite fight back, absently noting the way he tensed as he registered the honorific. “He’s a genius in Jyuuken, even on the backdrop of our Clan.”

“But?” Shikamaru prompted, and Hinata’s tiny smile turned a little melancholy as she glanced back at him.

“But he’s proud.” Hinata murmured, mind flashing back to Neji’s quiet recount of his fight with Kidomaru, the first moment he realized that he will meet people he will not be able to best with close-combat alone. “Long-range combat is not his forte, nor is elemental ninjutsu.”

“We’re genin.” Shikamaru pointed out, even as he considered her with wide eyes. “We’re not supposed to know elemental manipulation yet.”

Hinata just met his wide-eyed gaze with her own even one, feeling…not much of anything at all.

“Even so.” She sighed, then walked back to the position she’d been in at the start of their ‘spar’. “I can…try to fight you like he might, if you wish.”

“That’s all I ask.” Shikamaru replied, something…warmer? in his eyes now, an answering tiny smile curling the corner of his lips. Hinata took a moment to appreciate how much the expression softened his face, making him look far more approachable.  

Then, she blurred.

“Inoichi-senpai.” Kurenai greeted as she came to a stop by the man, having caught him in the lobby of Intelligence just as he was likely about to leave for his lunch break.

“Yuuhi-chan.” Inoichi replied, blinking slowly at her, the place where his pupils would otherwise be oddly dilated.

Definitely coming out of T&I, Kurenai mused, absently wondering whether they’d caught any of Orochimaru’s associates.

“Can I help you?” Inoichi asked, not unkindly, even as he glanced at the clock to try and figure out how much of his lunch break the question was likely to cost him.

“Yes, actually.” Kurenai smiled grimly, and Inoichi was suddenly consideringly more alert, eyeing her warily. “Whatever you, Shikaku-sama, and Chouza-sama are not-doing to get Hiashi in front of the Council of Clans, I need you to not-do it faster.”

Inoichi glanced at her sharply, but Kurenai was fresh out of fucks to give to care about the wordless reprimand. Instead, she concentrated on the memory of Hinata telling the story of what had happened to her arm, grabbed Inoichi’s wrist, and pulled his hand to her forehead, all-but glaring at him until he got the hint.

When Inoichi pulled away some minute and a half later, his expression was grim but resigned.

“It would be unwise to do anything while the current security situation is still ongoing.” He told her frankly, and Kurenai could tell he was trying to infuse his words with as much warning and authority as possible.

And yeah, Orochimaru still apparently rampaging around the Village was not great, she knew that, but-

“It would also be unwise to stall to the point where I would have no choice but to do something myself.” Kurenai replied, just as quietly, her words just as weighted. “Because I won’t be as clean or subtle as the three of you.”

“Don’t be hasty, Yuuhi-chan.” Inoichi chastised, glancing around subtly to see whether anyone was paying them any attention. “Think of your student.”

Kurenai laughed, short and startled.

“Oh, something tells me Hinata would be right there beside me if I ever decided to take Hiashi on.” She grinned at Inoichi, and she knew it wasn’t a nice expression. “She’s been spitting in the face of her Clan’s tradition since I got her. Asuma called her a revolutionary before he even properly met her.”

Inoichi studied her then, and Kurenai wondered what he saw.

“Be that as it may, I can’t help you.” He told her, his tone curt and final, but at the same time as he spoke those words, Kurenai heard his voice in her head; Have her sway the Branch House to her side. Inoichi maintained eye-contact and Kurenai fought hard not to twitch as he continued the dual-communication:

“Please excuse me now, I need to see my daughter. Be well, Yuuhi-chan.” It’ll minimize the fallout once Hiashi is out of the picture.

“Send my regards to Ino-chan.” Kurenai wished, holding Inoichi’s gaze as she nodded before she let the man walk past her. “I’ll see you around, senpai.”

She was about to head for Anko’s office for an overdue catch-up before Inoichi’s voice stopped her.

“Oh, Kurenai?” turning both at the sound of her name and the concerned tone it was said it, Kurenai glanced at him and was immediately on-guard when she noted that the concern in his voice had bled onto his face. “Check on Kakashi, if you could, and soon. I’d do so myself, but I really need to see Ino.”

She was nodding before he even fully finished speaking, sending a quick apology to Anko for postponing their catch-up yet again. She couldn’t think of many situations that would have put that expression on Inoichi’s face, so she reckoned Kakashi deserved priority in that moment.

And to think, she only ditched her kids to give the Ino-Shika-Cho an encouraging kick in the rear, and now she had to play therapist to a man who could potentially level the Village if he felt so inclined.

Lovely.

Forty-five minutes later found Kurenai in a bar, sliding into the booth opposite Kakashi, the man slumped against the table, a host of bottles around him.

“Go ‘way.” He muttered, twitching a finger as if to flip her off, but not moving aside from that.

“No.” Kurenai shot back, borrowing some of Kakashi’s own trademark cheer to inject into her voice as she stretched her legs under the table and made herself comfortable.

Kakashi didn’t often get like this, but when he did…it was never a quick process to get him out.

“Do you need a friend, or do you need Psych?” she asked evenly a few seconds later, when Kakashi didn’t react outwardly to her refusal to leave him to his wallowing.

“I’ve needed Psych since I was four.” Kakashi grumbled, shooting her the stink-eye when he noticed she was still there, and Kurenai barked a laugh.

“I’m not gonna argue with that.” She admitted, sending Kakashi a sharp grin and making his eye narrow on her.

He grabbed another bottle, taking an obnoxious drink through the fabric of his mask, but Kurenai just watched him, knowing that, eventually-

“Do you have nothing better to do?” Kakashi grumped, his entire being radiating ‘fuck-off’ louder than if he’d shouted it from the Hokage Mountain.

“Let’s see.” Kurenai pretended to think, stretching out her hand between them to count on her fingers. “I got back from a mission yesterday, did my Psych check-up already, was meant to have training but had an errand to run and left my kids with Asuma, should probably do grocery shopping but we’ll likely be away soon anyway so…” she put a finger down for every thing she listed, then grinned at Kakashi. “Hm, no.”

“Did you know?” Kakashi asked after a beat, and he suddenly seemed far less drunk than he’d been pretending to be seconds previous. When Kurenai hummed, asking him wordlessly to explain, he elaborated. “That the Chunin Exams would be such a shitshow?”

Kurenai bit back a sigh. So that’s what Kakashi’s mood was about. She should’ve figured.

“Know? No. What I knew was that my kids almost didn’t come back from their C-Rank.” She told him flatly, almost bluntly, but this version of Kakashi wouldn’t have taken a bullshit answer too well. “Shino’s Clan jutsu almost ended up killing him, Kiba got his leg crushed in an Earth jutsu, and Hinata killed four Iwa chunin without so much as flinching then almost died from a punctured lung.”

She waited until Kakashi nodded before she concluded, a weary sigh escaping her; “I wasn’t about to put them into another combat situation like that without letting them make an informed choice. So I told them when the Exams would be happening, asked if they felt ready for them, and they said no.”

“You make it sound so easy.” Kakashi sighed, sounding just as weary as her all of a sudden as he hung his head. “Orochimaru was in the Forest of Death.”

Kurenai didn’t say anything – she’d heard the moment she stepped into the Jounin HQ the day before.

“He went after Sasuke. He wanted the Sharingan.” Kakashi continued, his voice uncomfortably inflectionless. Despite herself, Kurenai frowned, because, well, that was rather obvious, wasn’t it? “But Sasuke hadn’t unlocked the Sharingan yet.”

…oh.

“Really?” she asked, unable to quite bite her tongue. “Not even after the Massa-?”

“He thought it was a bad dream.” Kakashi cut her off, and Kurenai subsided with a quiet ‘oh’. “Hyuuga Hitomi told me the chakra pathways to his eyes were all but closed.”

Kakashi’s face twisted with a pained grimace, the expression perfectly clear despite his mask. “When Orochimaru found out – fuck if I know how he knew – he thought Sasuke needed a- a push.”

Kurenai’s heart dropped, having a rather unpleasant inkling, courtesy of Anko, as to what the Snake Sannin might have deemed a sufficient push towards unlocking the Sharingan.

Kakashi took a deep breath, visibly steadied himself, then met her gaze.

“My civilian student is currently in the hospital, all her major bones shattered. Turns out Orochimaru still knows the value of team bonds, because he was successful in reactivating Sasuke’s Sharingan. Sakura just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong fucking time.”

Kurenai very carefully monitored her reaction to the words to make sure she did not wince.

“As for Sasuke,” Kakashi continued, his tone still that eerie blankness that made ANBU sound expressive, “when he failed to live up to expectation, Orochimaru broke both of his arms and called him a waste of space and a disgrace to the Uchiha Clan. Didn’t even give him the Curse Mark, just. Left.”

They sat in silence for a moment, then Kakashi affected his usual cheery tone, which, contrasted with how he’d been speaking before, only highlighted how fake the voice always was.

“So yeah, Sasuke is extra traumatized, Sakura may never be a ninja again, and Orochimaru destabilized Naruto’s seal before he sent his snakes to eat him, but hey, Sasuke has the Sharingan!”

The eye-smile at the end made Kurenai want to grab Kakashi by the shoulders and shake, but she held herself back.

“So they flunked out after the second stage, right?” She checked, because Kakashi’s account was horrific, but it didn’t seem enough for the man to still be in this state almost a week later. Kakashi was twenty years of trauma on legs, and somehow functioning regardless; few things got him down that kept him down. “Your team didn’t have the three members needed to compete in the combat part, right?”

Kakashi scoffed, his veneer of good humour melting away. “Sasuke is the Last Uchiha, and Naruto is Naruto. Rules didn’t matter; they had both scrolls and Sarutobi cited extenuating circumstances. Of course they were allowed to compete in the preliminaries.”

Kurenai felt white-hot rage slide down her spine, not just because the exception sounded more like a death sentence to Kakashi’s genin by the man’s account, but also at the blatant favouritism that the Village apparently wasn’t even pretending to hide anymore.  

She gave Kakashi another moment of silence, not pressing, just waiting for him to decide whether he wanted to tell her more or not.

“Sasuke lost to Rock Lee.” Kakashi sighed eventually, his voice regaining some life, but Kurenai wasn’t sure if that was for the better right then. “Gai’s mini-me. The shinobi who can’t use anything other than taijutsu, and Sasuke lost to him.”

A part of Kurenai wanted to remind Kakashi not to shit on the shinobi who could ‘only’ do techniques from a certain category, but she refrained.

For now.

“And your third student?” she asked instead, noting how the Uzumaki had been left out of Kakashi’s account apart from the brief mention about his seal.

“Naruto got through to the final stage, yeah.” Kakashi confirmed, eyeing her absently. “He’s facing the puppeteer who put Asuma’s Yamanaka in the hospital.”

“Ino?” Kurenai double-checked, racking her brain for any mention of the girl’s condition in the gossip around the Village. Suddenly, Inoichi’s almost frantic insistence to visit his daughter made sense, as did her absence from Asuma’s training field. “What happened?”

“Oldest trick in the book.” Kakashi explained. “Puppet made into the puppeteer’s likeness, the puppeteer swapped places with the puppet at the start of the battle, kid tried to mind-possess the puppet, missed, puppet reeled her in and snapped her spine.”

Kurenai took a second to absorb the implications of that, then-

“Fuck.”

“Yeah.” Kakashi sighed, and he luckily refrained from affecting the fake-cheer this time. “So I’ve got angry civilian parents calling me Friend-Killer again, smug Gai, and pissed off Elders breathing down my neck at failing to make sure their precious last Uchiha made it through to the exhibition round.”

Kurenai winced openly this time, wanting nothing more than to drag Kakashi into a hug, but she wasn’t sure she wouldn’t end up with a knife between her ribs for her efforts.

There was a reason she knew how to deal with Hinata’s trigger-happy startle reflex, after all.

She took a deep breath, then asked the question Kakashi had been skirting around ever since she’d sat opposite him, and, likely, since the third stage had ended.

“And you? How are you, Kakashi?” she checked, meeting his eye openly, trying to infuse as much ‘you don’t scare me and I’m not leaving’ into her gaze as she could. “You look like you haven’t slept in a week.”

Kakashi shook his head then, expression wry, and she could tell even without words that she’d hit the nail on the head.

“Okay, come on, we’re going.” She decided, ushering Kakashi out of his seat, grabbing his arm when he wobbled. When he was sufficiently vertical, she firmed her hold on his arm and transported them to the doorstep of her apartment.

“Fuck.” Kakashi cursed, stumbling to hold onto the doorframe, his glare petulant even as he took deep breaths through his nose. “Have care for my stomach. You ever vomited in a mask?”

“Gross.” Kurenai shot back, wrinkling her nose as she pushed the door open and pulled Kakashi inside, kicking it shut behind them. “Come on, ‘kashi.” 

She maneuvered them to her sofa, pushing Kakashi down on it as she rifled through her gifted poisons pack, pulling out a small, innocuous looking needle.

“What’s this?” Kakashi asked roughly, eyeing first the needle then her uncertainly.

“Promotion present from Genma.” Kurenai explained, holding the needle up for him to examine. “It’s a sedative. Will put you to sleep for a solid ten hours.”

She couldn’t do much for his civilian student, the Uchiha was likely in Psych already, and Kakashi had probably dumped the Uzumaki on the first jounin he could find that owed him a favour. What she could do for Kakashi was also rather limited, but she could at least do something about the bone-deep weariness threaded through his posture.

She pretended not to see how much Kakashi’s shoulders relaxed at the prospect of uninterrupted sleep, but knew that he wouldn’t be Kakashi if he gave in that easily. “And if my students come looking for me?”

“I’ll drop a note with Psych that in the unlikely event your Uchiha is discharged in the next twelve hours, he’s to come to me.” Kurenai assured him, already used to dealing with Kakashi’s peculiar, if seldom-seen brand of anxiety. “And I’ll find your Uzumaki student and tell him myself. Maybe even turn it into a tracking exercise for my kids. It’ll be fun.”

She grinned at Kakashi then, holding out the needle again, and he finally nodded, pulling up his sleeve and baring his wrist. Kurenai inserted the needle carefully, not quite as deftly as she’d seen Genma do it, but the man was Konoha’s resident poison specialist for a reason.

“You’re my favourite.” Kakashi muttered drowsily as he settled deeper into the cushions, yanking off his headband and pulling his mask down, his eyes already drooping. “I owe you.”

“Yeah, I want that in writing.” Kurenai snorted, pulling the threadbare blanket from the foot of the sofa over him as much as she could, unable to resist the impulse to ruffle his hair. “Sleep, idiot.”

She let herself out of her own apartment, circled by Psych to make good on her promise to Kakashi, then headed back to Asuma and her kids. She’d kept them waiting long enough, and she was looking forward to letting them loose on their unsuspecting peers.

Hinata wasn’t expecting Kurenai to come back four hours after she’d left them, particularly not with an unofficial tracking mission in tow. Especially not for that mission to involve tracking Naruto.

“Okay!” Kiba clapped, visibly excited, calling Hinata and Shino to him while Team Ten watched bemusedly. “What do we know about the target?”

“Garishly orange.” Was Shino’s input, and it drew a startled snort from Kiba and even Hinata had to stifle a giggle. “What? A blind man could spot him.”

“H-He’s often at Ichiraku’s.” Was Hinata’s contribution, because she was pretty sure that that part of Naruto’s habits stayed the same even in this timeline.

“Or the Akasen.” Kiba added, and Hinata shot him a baffled look. “What? Man doesn’t wash his clothes nearly often enough. I can tell where he’s been in the Village over the last week just by his tracksuit.”

“So we start at Ichiraku’s, and if we don’t find a trail, the Akasen. Let’s go.” Shino decided, and then they were moving, almost too fast to catch Asuma’s quiet ‘your kids are scary’ comment to Kurenai. Nor her quiet ‘you haven’t seen anything yet’ in response.

Hinata didn’t think she imagined the way both Kiba and Shino puffed up in pride at that.

When Shikamaru had envisioned how his day would go, he didn’t think he’d get dragged onto Team Eight’s impromptu Naruto-tracking mission, Chouji and their respective sensei in tow.

He also hadn’t expected to look at Team Eight, how they moved around each other, filled in for each other, walked through the Village in a loose but clearly defined formation, and feel envy.

Why them and not us? He thought as he glanced at Asuma where the man was walking beside Team Eight’s sensei, their hands at their sides and flickering through signs even as their mouths engaged in idle chatter, hiding secrets in plain sight. How did they become a team before us?

Watching Team Eight successfully locate Naruto half-way across the Village, watching Kiba rush up to the blond and bowl him over while Shino approached Naruto’s temporary sensei, a bespectacled man Chouji seemed to vaguely recognize, and greet him with more warmth than Shikamaru has ever seen from the Aburame and a familiarity they should not have, Shikamaru wondered whether Asuma had made the right choice putting them through these Exams.

When Team Eight’s sensei redirected their group to the Yamanaka flower shop, Naruto in tow after she gave the newly-named Ebisu the afternoon off, Shikamaru was baffled.

When they headed from the flower shop to the hospital and stepped into Ino’s hospital room, things made even less sense. As he watched bemusedly as Shino carefully put the flowers in the empty vase on the bedside table and arranged them with gentle hands while Hinata filled the attached get-better-soon note with picture-perfect calligraphy, Shikamaru’s body switched to auto-pilot.

When they repeated the process in Sakura’s room, setting the vase with the bouquet Team Eight had encouraged Naruto to pick out on the windowsill, a somber atmosphere in the room as each of the three read the clipboard attached to Sakura’s bed with a grief they should not understand much less feel, Shikamaru stopped thinking.

But the choice of ignorance was stolen from him during his fifth day of sparring with Hinata, this one on his Clan’s grounds, with his dad of all people watching from the side.

His chest hurt from the sixteen tenketsu Hinata had blocked, her arm still in a sling, even if the cast had been removed, but he felt pride as he managed to stretch out his shadow without seals to catch her feet in it, stilling her movements.

Withstand then counterattack, had been the advice he’d read between the lines of Hinata’s demonstration of the Hyuuga fighting style. She couldn’t tell him flat-out what the techniques relied on, couldn’t give him a scroll neatly explaining how to counter Hyuuga Jyuuken, but Shikamaru wasn’t a genius for nothing.

His chakra control would never be medic-worthy, but he figured out how to manually unblock the main tenketsu after his third day of sparring with Hinata.

But what he hadn’t expected was that the analysis of strengths and weaknesses would go both ways.

Which was how he hadn’t even considered the possibility of feeling a jerk in his chakra core, before his shadow released Hinata and snapped right back to him, like a rubber band stretched too tight.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Shikaku sit up straight, but Shikamaru’s eyes were on Hinata and the thoughtful expression on her face as she contemplated her now free feet.

“How did you do that.”

It was meant to be a question, but Shikamaru missed by a mile, his eyes wide as he stared at the girl before him, barely resisting the urge to send his dad a helpless look.

Hinata startled, glancing up at him in surprise, then seemed to realise just how disturbed Shikamaru and Shikaku were at her having apparently found a way to disrupt the Shadow Possession.

“I- uhm, well-” she hedged, clearly uncomfortable, before she squared her shoulders and started again, though Shikamaru had to strain to hear. “Your shadow is a conduit, right?”

Shikamaru blinked. It is?

“Shadow itself d-doesn’t have chakra. It’s not an element, so your technique h-has to be Yin Release.” That, at least, sounded familiar. “But my shadow i-is not a part of me, only connected to me. So y-you’d have to, uhm, use it as a conduit to connect to my chakra network instead, and that’s what stops my movement.”

“You are correct.” Shikaku confirmed, appearing at Shikamaru’s shoulder, his gaze heavy as it set on Hinata, and her shoulders hunched a little more. “But that analysis still doesn’t explain how you threw it off.”

“The c-c-connection goes both ways.” Hinata whispered, her gaze sliding past Shikamaru and Shikaku, off to the side, and she looked like she was preparing to- to get hit.

The realization seemed to dawn on Shikaku at the same time as it did Shikamaru, because he felt his dad’s intense presence lessen slightly.

“A-any shock to my chakra is f-felt by Shikamaru’s. Any shock to his disrupts t-the technique.” Hinata finished, her voice a little stronger than before, but still barely above a whisper.

Shikaku stilled, then relaxed with a quiet sigh.

“Kurenai’s student. Of course.” He muttered, and he almost seemed amused when Shikamaru glanced at him. “You used a kai on him?”

Hinata nodded, visibly forcing herself to meet Shikamaru’s gaze, but he could do little but continue to stare.

“Well, it’s not the first time people figured out that loophole.” Shikaku mused, watching Hinata carefully. “But I’ll have to ask that you do not go around sharing what you just discovered for all and sundry, Hyuuga-chan.”

For the first time since his dad appeared at Shikamaru’s shoulder, Hinata looked miffed, and she suddenly met Shikaku’s gaze head-on.

“W-With all due respect, Nara-sama,” she began, and Shikamaru almost startled, not having expected the tone from the girl, “Shikamaru-san has comparably damaging information on my Clan’s techniques. As long as he does not go around sharing what he now knows about its weaknesses, I promise to do the same. Otherwise,” Hinata took a deep breath, squared her shoulders again, and tilted her chin up, “o-otherwise, this is insurance.”

“…Alright.” Shikaku agreed after a beat, and Shikamaru barely fought the reflex to glance at him in disbelief. “Message received. Let’s head to the library now, hm? And Shikamaru, you better keep your mouth shut.”

“Yeah.” Shikamaru promised woodenly, still staring at Hinata, mind working overtime. “As long as you tell me whether the Hyuuga Clan has anything that can block chakra externally.”

When Hinata’s face crumpled a little and her aura told him that she likely regretted ever agreeing to help him, Shikamaru had his answer.

Kurenai’s approximation of how much in-Village time they’d have turned out to be almost too accurate. Hinata’s sling came off seven days since her injury, and on the eighth, they were in the Hokage’s office, Kiba’s hood clutched tightly in Kurenai’s hand, a grim look on her face. Hinata noted that even Iruka looked solemn as the chunin next to him handed them the scroll with the mission details, and when Kurenai unfurled it, scanning it quickly, she paled.

“Are you sure this is correctly ranked?” Kurenai asked quietly, rolling the scroll back up and pinning the chunin with a flat, disbelieving look.

“Take it up with admin if you have a problem.” The chunin drawled, glancing at Hinata’s team boredly. “Mission requires trackers. You’re it.”

“No shit.” Kurenai muttered under her breath, then inclined her head and led them all out of the mission room.

She didn’t stop until they were on their training grounds, at which point she finally took a deep breath and released the tension that had lined her shoulders since she’d opened the scroll.

“Sensei?” Shino checked quietly, his voice worried to those who knew him well enough to hear the undercurrent of concern. “What’s the mission?”

“We’re tracking two chunin defectors. Ryūgen Yatogo and Bekkō.” Kurenai told them curtly, frowning at the scroll. “They were last sighted near the border of Stone and Wind.”

“Chunin?” Kiba repeated, wide-eyed, glancing from Hinata to Shino then back to Kurenai. “We’re tracking chunin missing-nin?”

“Are we qualified?” Shino asked, and beyond the slight absurdity of Shino actually backing Kiba up, Hinata was more concerned by the obvious doubt in Shino’s voice.

“Is this because of Orochimaru?” Kiba demanded, staring at Kurenai as if hoping she’d deny it.

Kurenai looked torn, and she glanced at Hinata briefly, as if checking whether Hinata had anything to say. Hinata shook her head and tried for a reassuring smile, though she wasn’t sure how convincing it was.

Kurenai sighed and ran a hand down her face. “Fuck it.” She muttered, then faced the three of them properly.

“Yes, Kiba, it is likely because of Orochimaru.” She agreed, making Shino twitch. “We have a good track record and are a team uniquely built around tracking. I know it’s daunting, but I have faith in you.”

They stood there for a few seconds, absorbing that quiet declaration, then Kiba took a deep breath and slowly let it out, reaching out and plucking Akamaru off his head to hold the puppy in his arms.

“Alright.” He breathed, hugging Akamaru closer to his chest, and Hinata shifted so she could press her shoulder against Kiba’s in silent support, getting a weak smile in return. “What do we know about the target?”

“Not much, unfortunately.” Kurenai winced, holding out the scroll for Shino to scan. “Psych didn’t have anything on them that would suggest they would ever consider defecting. Both were career chunin, Bekkō was an Academy sensei who moved to Cryptography, while Yatogo worked in Archives. It’s…unlikely that they got their hands on anything sensitive, but the Village prefers to be safe rather than sort with these sorts of situations, particularly after what happened with Mizuki.”

“Is it a retrieval mission?” Hinata asked quietly, having read between the lines of what Kurenai was not saying. “Or- or d-disposal?”

Kiba froze next to her where their arms were still pressed together, and even Shino seemed tense.

Kurenai, however, just sighed.

“Retrieval is preferable.” She admitted, looking grim. “But if it comes down to disposal, I will handle it, so don’t worry, okay?”

Hinata took a moment to let the honesty behind Kurenai’s words settle in her bones, then nodded. “Okay, sensei.” She confirmed, surprised at how even her voice came out. “When do we leave?”

“Immediately, if possible.” Kurenai replied, shooting her the tiniest of grateful smiles before she turned to the boys. “It’s going to be about a week’s journey since we’ll have to go around Ame this time, and we don’t know where exactly on the border they were sighted. Pack for at least three weeks and meet at the gates in half an hour. Go!”

Hinata didn’t really remember the run back to her Compound, nor the packing process. She remembered slipping into Hanabi’s room to leave her little sister a note with an explanation of where she would be and a small doodle, then sneaking out through the back window and over the wall of the Compound, not too keen on heading down the main courtyard.

By the time she arrived at the gates with five minutes to spare, Shino and Kiba were already there, both looking a little steadier than before.

“When I was in the Academy,” Kiba muttered, absently petting Akamaru who was still clutched to his chest instead of on his usual perch on the top of Kiba’s head, “I thought I’d be excited for out of the Village missions. I thought they were so cool.”

“That makes sense.” Shino nodded, clearly surprising Kiba. “Why? It’s part of the indoctrination. If every pre-genin knew they might die on their first C-Rank, there wouldn’t be any genin.”

“It’s still freakin’ weird to hear you agree with me.” Kiba remarked, looking at Shino with a rather bewildered expression, before it melted into a wry grin. “But thanks.”

“It’s not bad to be nervous.” Hinata assured quietly, trying not to let her smile grow wry as she thought back to her first run at genin and how helpful that statement would’ve been for her genin self. “But we do have the most C-Ranks out of the R-Rookies, and are probably ahead of them in technical skills thanks to Genma-san, Ebisu-san, and Yugao-senpai’s help. We can do it.”

“I didn’t know you had an optimistic bone in your body, Hinata.” Kiba grinned, not as brightly as usual but clearly trying. “This is almost as weird as Shino saying I’m right.”

“I didn’t say you were right. I said your comment made sense.” Shino corrected waspishly, drawing a snort from Kiba. “Besides, sensei said she has faith in us.”

“Yeah.” Kiba sighed explosively and lost some of the tension in his shoulders, his grip on Akamaru growing less white-knuckled. “Yeah, she did. We got this.”

“Your confidence in me is touching.” Kurenai remarked as she walked up to them, a small smile playing around her lips even as her eyes remained serious. She stepped into the place in the huddle they had unconsciously left for her and met each of their gazes squarely.

“If I can promise you anything,” she began quietly, and Hinata wasn’t the only one who hung on her every word, “is that I will do everything in my power to make sure we all come back here in one piece. Understood?”

When they all voiced their assent, Kurenai tightened the straps of her backpack and stepped out of their circle.

“Let’s move!”

Two weeks to the day before the final stage of the Chunin Exams, Hinata glanced back at the Village as she ran out of the main gates, wondering what state she’d find it in upon her return.

Then, she pushed the thought back and fell into formation, trading glances with Kiba and Shino as she squared her shoulders.

For now, they had a job to do.

Chapter Text

"Kakashi.” Asuma greeted, slipping into Kurenai’s apartment and dropping onto the armchair he usually occupied when they hung out, bemused to find the other man still in Kurenai’s living room. “Teach your damn genin."

"I got him Ebisu.” Kakashi shot back, appearing determined to become one with the shitty, deformed cushions on Kurenai’s shitty, spring-ridden sofa.

According to Kurenai, he’d become like a housecat since she’d used Genma’s needle on him, popping in and out at random times but always returning to her sofa. If Gai were to be trusted, however, Kakashi hadn’t been back to his own apartment since the end of the Preliminaries, and that simply wouldn’t do.

“Ebisu wrangles jounin on the daily, he should be able to manage Naruto." Kakashi finished, not even bothering to glance at Asuma.

"Yeah, except the jounin respect Ebisu.” Asuma snorted, stretching out a foot so he could nudge Kakashi’s thigh with his toe, not above making himself into a nuisance. “Your Uzumaki wouldn't know the meaning of the word, much less how to apply it."

Kakashi finally pulled his arm from where it was covering his eyes and shot him a wary look. "What's he done?"

"Bitched, mostly.” Asuma informed him dryly. “Loudly and indiscriminately. Pissed off a fair few jounin with his tone, too."

"Goddamn it, Naruto." Kakashi sighed softly, but with feeling, and Asuma almost felt sorry for him. Almost. "Alright, yeah, I see your point."

Asuma gave him a moment, then, when Kakashi made no move to so much as sit up after his declaration, he nudged his thigh again and got swatted at. "You got a plan for the puppeteer?"

"My student knows the Shadow Clone technique." Kakashi replied in a tone that suggested a plan was unnecessary in light of that information, but Asuma scoffed. 

"So? A one trick pony's luck will eventually run out.” He said, then smiled wryly when he added, “Shikamaru found that out the hard way."

"You fought him?" Kakashi asked, and he almost sounded interested in the answer.

"No. Hinata-chan did." When Kakashi just blinked at him slowly, clearly not following, Asuma’s wry grin turned sharp. "Kurenai's Hyuuga. Hiashi's eldest. Y’know, the revolutionary."

"The shy kid beat your Nara?" Kakashi’s tone told him what the Hatake thought of that situation, and Asuma imagined Kurenai would be vindictively satisfied and more than a little proud if she were there with them.

He sent a mental apology to Shikamaru and boasted a little, because, hell, maybe he was proud of the little Hyuuga too, so what? Watching Shikaku stress-smoke a whole pack and finding out that a genin was responsible for putting him in such a state had been the highlight of his week.

"Not just beat. Found a way to break his Shadow Possession, too." He added, proud when his voice remained even, if a little bragging.

Kakashi’s eyes glinted thoughtfully, the Sharingan spinning lazily, a lazy sort of amusement radiating from him. "A genin?"

"Mmhm. Unfortunately, she's out of the Village as of this morning, so that trick is unlikely to work to knock some sense into your student.” Asuma replied, shrugging a shoulder absently. “So I suggest you actually teach your Uzumaki something to earn that promotion, ‘cause with the way he's acting, he's unlikely to endear himself to sponsors."

Kakashi finally pushed himself into a sitting position, only to squint at Asuma suspiciously. "You're unexpectedly invested."

Asuma’s laugh was sudden and seemed to startle them both.

"Oh, I couldn't care less about whether he wins. I just want the puppeteer to lose." His grin became smaller but far sharper than before, more feral.

Kakashi tilted his head, dog-like and visibly curious, and oh, it was a heady feeling, having all of the man’s focus on him like that.

Asuma supposed it was justified though; after all, out of the free of them, he was always the composed one. It didn’t mean he wasn’t just as fucked up as the other two, but he hid it better, while Kurenai and Kakashi were feral down to their bones, and showed it, too.

So now, as he grinned at Kakashi, slow and sly and with teeth like the serrated edge of a knife, it was almost liberating, and he laughed softly as Kakashi shifted closer unconsciously, red eye spinning a little faster.

"He snapped Ino's spine like it was a twig. In the Preliminaries.” Asuma murmured, his voice lower, quieter, like a secret. A promise. “If you hadn’t held me back, I’d have killed him right there.”

They sat there for a moment, and Kakashi seemed to almost revel in the KI Asuma had unconsciously began leaking as he thought of the Suna-kid.

Finally, realising that someone was bound to notice and report them if he didn’t get his shit together, Asuma shook himself off and wrangled his chakra under control, reminding himself not for the first time that getting even and starting an international incident wouldn’t make Ino magically better.

His KI lessening in intensity seemed to snap Kakashi out too because the man took a quiet breath and muttered a delayed, almost absentminded ‘poor kid’.

Then, Kakashi closed his eyes and stretched, groping around blindly until he located his forehead protector, which he promptly slid on and covered his Sharingan once more, features falling into their usual lazy slant.

Meanwhile, Asuma took the time to get his KI fully under control, inwardly scoffing at Kakashi’s complete lack of self-preservation. They both knew that Kakashi would’ve probably picked a fight with him just then, if Asuma hadn’t reeled himself back in time, because Kakashi was a goddamn adrenaline junkie and unapologetic about it.

"What to teach him, though?" Kakashi mused an undeterminable amount of time later, forcefully shifting them back to their earlier conversation topic as if nothing had happened. He opened his eye and stifled a yawn, no sign of the earlier rapt focus on his face, the lackadaisical mask back on. "Kid's got Kushina-nee's attention span and none of sensei's genius. And we've got two weeks."

"Choji called him a prankster." Asuma replied with that same casual air Kakashi was affecting, and it would’ve been hard to believe he’d been a step away from a murderous rampage not that long ago. "I've never known you to ignore an easy advantage, Kakashi."

"You want me to make him into a trap specialist?” Kakashi asked, sounding rather disbelieving even as he followed Asuma’s thought process flawlessly. “In two weeks? I’m good, but I’m not that good, ‘Suma."

"I'm sure Raido would be up for a challenge, if you’re feeling…lacking." Asuma offered, keeping his expression perfectly level and innocent even though they both knew his words were a blatant jab.

“Ha ha.” Kakashi shot back dryly, and Asuma thought the man was going to blow a raspberry at him. “You got a copy of the contract they signed to participate? I need to check whether they can prepare-!"

Before Kakashi could finish, Asuma pulled the folded-up contract from his pocket and threw it at Kakashi’s face, disappointed when the man caught it before it could smack him on the nose. Damn.

"Paragraph fifty-seven, clause three.” Asuma informed him flatly, having an inkling as to what Kakashi was likely after. When the man quickly flipped to the right section, scanned the page, then shot him a suspicious look, Asuma shrugged. “Shikamaru asked about the same thing yesterday. You’re not the only crafty asshole – sorry, genius – in the Village, Hatake."

“Yeah, yeah, rub it in.” Kakashi scoffed, though he pocketed the contract with a thoughtful expression, then stilled, eyeing Asuma suspiciously as if a thought had only just occurred to him. “...Was this an intervention?"

Busted.

"I've no idea what you mean.” Asuma bluffed, even though it most definitely had been. “I'm just looking out for my friend."

When Kakashi just stared at him, eyebrows raised and mouth curling upwards at the corner, clearly letting him know what he thought of that, Asuma snorted and gave in.

"And maybe making sure that my friend gets his ass out of my other friend's apartment.” He added, grinning at Kakashi’s indignant squawk as he pulled him to his feet and ushered him towards the door, throwing Kakashi’s mask at him, which he caught with annoying ease. “Honestly, man, this was getting a lil’ weird."

Kakashi's soft laughter followed them out of Kurenai's home, and Asuma patted himself on the back for a well-executed intervention, if he did say so himself.

(Then he got the hell out of dodge when he caught a glimpse of green and orange shooting towards them once they’d settled at the bar, because no matter how much he loved Kakashi, he was not about to allow himself to be in the vicinity when Gai was evoking genjutsu with his emotions alone and crying about Kakashi’s ‘coolness’.

His shrink was already dealing with a lot of weird shit from him, he wasn’t about to add more onto their plate if he could avoid it. Besides, he knew Gai would manage the last of the heavy lifting to get Kakashi back onto his feet. The man had stuck by Kakashi through more than either of them would ever speak of, and a relationship like that far outweighed the result of the Preliminaries.

Kakashi would be fine.

Gai would make sure of it.)

“Is it xenophobic to say I hate Iwa-nin?!”

At any other point, Hinata might’ve laughed or secretly rolled her eyes or exchanged a surprised glance with Shino or sensei. As it was, however, they had been running away from Iwa-nin for over two hours and were still running, with a team of two Iwa jounin and a chunin chasing them all the way through Hidden Stone.

The chunin they had been tracking as their original mission were killed as soon as the Iwa-nin sensed their presence.

Worse yet, two hours into the high-speed, high-adrenaline chase, Hinata could feel herself flagging.

Shunshin had enhanced her speed over short distances, but it had done nothing for her endurance. Having spent the last two – maybe three, she wasn’t sure anymore – hours running at full speed though, with the added anxiety of being chased looming over her, and the knowledge that this had not happened in her first time, her stamina – both physical as well as mental – was all-but used up.

“Sensei,” Shino huffed, his tone less dry than usual due to his panting breaths, and a part of Hinata felt relieved that she wasn’t the only one struggling physically, while another wondered whether their lacking stamina would prove to be their doom, “Kiba’s hit his head.”

“Fuck off, man!” Kiba grouched, the only one of the three of them not out of breath, though he kept glancing worriedly over his shoulder, and Hinata didn’t need to have her Byakugan on to know they were still being chased. Still, his anxiety didn’t stop Kiba from snarking back, “I’m literally studying to be a doctor!”

“I don’t see the relevance between your med-nin aspirations and you knowing what xenophobia is.” Shino replied, clearly choosing to focus on his banter with Kiba rather than on their pursuers and the fact that they were unlikely to be able to outrun them.

“You can’t allow your prejudices to get in the way when treatin’ patients!” Kiba snapped, glancing back over his shoulder again though this time throwing in a glare for Shino. “Different nations have different needs and biological profiles, so it’s important to interrogate any biases ya got to avoid medical discrimination and malpractice!”

Inwardly, Hinata wondered what her Kiba would have thought if he’d known that there would one day be a twelve-year-old version of him that would speak like Sakura.

Shino, apparently thinking along similar lines even though he had never met Tsunade’s-apprentice-Sakura, snorted tiredly. “Iruka-sensei would think you were a spy if you ever said that to him.”

“You’re not funny!” Kiba shot back, almost tripping over a jagged rock, Akamaru yelping from his perch in his jacket, but it was Kurenai who replied.

“Neither of you is funny,” she interrupted, her voice calm but icy, and Hinata felt Kiba and Shino recoil, “and if you don’t pipe down in the next ten seconds, I’ll have Genma drug you till you’re quacking like ducks when we get back to the Village, understood?”

Kiba and Akamaru whined, and Shino fell silent, all three of them appropriately cowed.

There was a brief moment of silence, and it was precisely in that moment when things went from bad to worse, because Shino stumbled.

Hinata activated her Byakugan and skidded to a stop just as Kurenai almost wrenched her arm out by yanking Shino to his feet and out of the path of a barrage of kunai, and the whoosh of kunai had Hinata realising that their pursuers were far closer than she’d hoped.

Then, her Byakugan caught a pool of chakra gathering underground right where Kurenai had stopped, and she was turning and spitting a Water Bullet at her sensei’s feet right as the ground rose up around Kurenai’s shin and knee, the same technique that had crushed Kiba’s leg not three months ago-

Hinata wrenched her mind off that train of thought, deciding that it was not the time to be thinking about all the ways that this mission could go wrong if she wanted to come out of it alive.

She forced herself to focus on the present, and this time, luckily, the water-logged earth didn’t manage to harden sufficiently, and Kurenai, startled both by the Water jutsu and the realisation of what had nearly happened, yanked Shino by the back of his jacket again and Shunshined them both a few dozen metres ahead, effectively dislodging the remaining dirt that clung to her leg, and Hinata breathed a sigh of relief.

Only for her breath to get caught in her throat on the exhale when she heard one of their pursuers shout “They have a Hyuuga!” with a confidence that spoke of a degree of familiarity with her Clan’s dojutsu that she didn’t want to think about.

Her heart then proceeded to skip a beat when she realised she was now far too close to their pursuers.

“Hinata, on me!” She heard Kurenai call, her sensei apparently noticing the same, and Hinata pulled on her waning reserves to execute her clumsiest but fastest Shunshin to date, covering the hundred-odd metres that separated her and Kurenai in three leaps.

She skidded to a stop by Kurenai’s side dazed and quietly terrified, and a glance at Shino showed her the result of his stumble – he was keeping his weight off his left foot, his mouth twisted in a pained grimace, his ankle likely sprained.

“Sensei!” Kiba called anxiously from a few meters ahead, and Hinata knew he could smell what she could now see with her Byakugan: their pursuers were less than two hundred metres from them, and gaining fast.

“Fuck. Fuck!” Kurenai swore, then swung Shino roughly onto her back and set off at a faster run than before, forcing Hinata to alternate between sprinting and Shunshin leaps to keep up.

“Kiba, all fours, shoot ahead and find us a cave or tunnel or something to hide in!” Kurenai ordered, and Kiba nodded jerkily then began rummaging in his pouch for his Clan pills. “Shino, put a tracker beetle on him and make sure you don’t lose his location!”

Hinata was only half paying attention as Kiba activated his Clan jutsu and dropped to all fours, his fingers lengthening to claws and his centre of balance shifting to allow for even faster leaps. She did notice when he shot off, though, Akamaru managing to keep pace with the help of the soldier pill Kiba had fed him, leaving Hinata once again alone with Kurenai and Shino.

“Hinata, remember the genjutsu I taught you last month?” Kurenai asked sharply, a frown pulling at her brows, her voice sharp and direct, none of the usual warmth in it, and Hinata managed a quiet ‘yes’, battle-calm blanketing her anxiety now that Kurenai had taken initiative to come up with a plan of action. “You’re going to let them come into your range and use it on the one with the least chakra.”

Hinata’s calm wavered for a moment and she almost missed a step on her next leap. “D-do you think it’s good enough-?”

“No.” Kurenai cut her off, and Hinata bit her tongue at the curt interruption, though she could understand the reason for it: they were slowing. Her own stamina was waning, and Kurenai, weighed as she was by Shino’s added weight, had also slowed down from the earlier mad dash.

(They didn’t know how far ahead Kiba was. They didn’t know if he would even manage to find someplace for them to hide. They didn’t know why the Iwa-nin were after them, only that they were, and had apparently planned to lure a Konoha team to Iwa from the beginning, having killed the two chunin Hinata’s team had been tasked with tracking the moment they felt their approach-!)

“No, it’s probably not.” Kurenai elaborated, and her voice sounded far away even as Hinata’s Byakugan could see her sensei’s chakra flex. “But your illusion doesn’t need to be good, it needs to be shocking. It needs to be unexpected enough to hopefully get them to at least hesitate.”

“Kiba stopped.” Shino reported quietly, voice pinched with pain and frustration. “About five miles ahead. Sensei, we can’t outrun them.”

“I know. Working on it.” Kurenai replied through gritted teeth, her expression tense, her chakra building. She bent down mid-leap, Shino still on her back, and swept a hand over the front of her sandals, releasing-

-seals?

There was a tiny wave of chakra and a change of pressure that made Hinata feel like her ears were going to pop, but she didn’t have much time to contemplate what her sensei had done because-

-“Hinata, any time now.” Kurenai ordered tersely and slowed down some more.

Hinata allowed herself to slow down too, no matter how much her mind was screaming at her to keep running, her desperate breaths drowning out the sounds of the outcroppings of jagged rock and the desert around them.

Finally, finally, her target came into her range.

Concentrating on the illusion even as she tried to pay attention to where she was putting her feet as she ran, she sped through the hand seals and allowed the ghost of the genjutsu to leave her, feeling it wrap around her target’s chakra coils and latch on.

Then, when her target screamed and the other two jounin slowed down in alarm, Kurenai released the network of chakra she’d been building up in a terrifying wave of intent. The scenery around them shifted before Hinata’s very eyes in a kaleidoscopic mirage of overlapping illusions and she felt Kurenai snag the back of her jacket and lift her off the ground with one arm then shoot off faster than Hinata had ever seen the woman move.

Ten minutes later, Kurenai skidded to a stop by a rock wall marked with Kiba’s chakra and unceremoniously let go of Hinata’s jacket, letting her drop to the ground, then scaled the rock. Hinata caught herself, ascertained that it was indeed Kiba waiting for them in the barely-visible crack in the rock wall twenty feet above ground, and called chakra to her shaking legs to follow her sensei.

It was only when she collapsed inside, the cave barely wide enough to stretch her legs out, that she realised that Kurenai’s reserves were all-but depleted. And from the way sensei was moving, that last dash through the forest had taken more than just her chakra to pull off.

“Sensei-!” Kiba began, likely noticing the same, his eyes wide and hands reaching out hesitantly, but Kurenai shifted Shino off her back and placed him next to Kiba instead, while she shuffled off to the mouth of the cave, fingers flying through seals.

“Can you heal Shino’s ankle?” Kurenai demanded curtly, clearly not sparing much thought for her own physical state, and Kiba, it seemed, knew better than to try and argue, merely setting to work getting Shino’s sandal off.

Hinata…wasn’t sure what to do.

She wasn’t injured, just shaken and exhausted. Her chakra was more than half-way depleted, so she pulled off her backpack carefully and dug out ration bars, handing one to Shino and placing another by Kiba’s knee, though she hesitated when she glanced at Kurenai. She decided against disturbing the woman in her self-assigned task of – if Hinata had to guess – hiding their cave from view, and simply pulled out her water bottle, offering some to Shino, then Kiba, who took it with a grateful nod.

About three minutes after they arrived, Kurenai finally shifted away from the mouth of the cave and slumped against the wall, covering her face with her hands.

“C-Ranks are cursed.” She mumbled, and Hinata wasn’t sure if she intended for them to hear her. “Fuckin’ mission desk.”

“Sensei?” Kiba tried again, and Hinata hated hearing him this quiet and subdued. He’d taken off his jacket in the meantime and bundled it up on his lap, propping Shino’s foot up on it so it was as elevated as it could be. “Your chakra is, like, really scary low. D’you wanna, uh, take a nap? Hinata has ration bars, so you could maybe, uh, eat…one?”

Hinata watched Kiba trail off when Kurenai pulled her hands down her face to reveal her eyes and pin him with the flattest look Hinata had ever seen the woman direct at any of them.

“Those were jounin-level Iwa-nin, Kiba.” She told him slowly, and Hinata saw Kiba shrink away a little at her tone. “If they find us when I’m ‘taking a nap’, we’re all dead.”

“If they catch up to us when you’re too chakra exhausted to fight them, we’re all dead anyway.” Shino replied quietly, his chin down, his eyes trained on his hands which he’d balled into fists so tight his knuckles had gone white.

Kurenai stared at Shino briefly, her face completely wiped of expression, then her eyes slanted Hinata.

And Hinata-

-she took a deep breath, steeled herself, then dug through her bag until she found the rations bar she’d been planning to give Kurenai earlier. Wordlessly, she held it out until Kurenai took it, and shuffled past her sensei, curling up as much as she could at the mouth of the cave, switching her Byakugan back on even as she felt the beginnings of a tension headache pulse at her temples.

“I’ll take first watch.” She offered quietly, not looking back at her sensei, though she could both see and feel the woman stare at her back for a few seconds.

Then, Kurenai huffed quietly, somewhere between angry and reluctantly amused, and bit into the rations bar. About half an hour after Hinata claimed her spot on ‘watch’, Kurenai’s chakra evened out with sleep, shallow though it was, and Hinata felt all three of them breathe a collective sigh of relief.

Kurenai gave them five hours rest, then, under the cover of night, they snuck out of their cave and headed for the Land of Rivers.

They had tracked their targets all the way through Stone and into the Land of Earth, then the team of Iwa-nin that had been pursuing them had chased them out of Earth, through Stone, and deep into the Land of Wind.

“They were herding us.” Kiba had told her quietly when Shino had taken over guard from her. Hinata had blinked at him, not following, not so much tired as mentally exhausted. “Towards the Wastelands. We’re maybe…a hundred miles off?”

Hinata had stilled at that, because while she’d noticed that they had been running west, but she hadn’t realised that they had ended up quite so far west.

The Wastelands, as the name aptly suggested, were a barren desert wasteland, rumoured to be the home of the terrifying flora and fauna that Suna’s poison masters used as ingredients for their poisons. Non-natives didn’t survive long there, no matter if civilian or shinobi.

Running back towards the Land of Rivers, she definitely noticed that they were much further west than she had ever ventured. It felt like they had run further just to get across the Land of Wind than they had from Konoha to Stone.

But Kurenai seemed to believe they would be able to find proper shelter in Hidden Valleys, so they pressed on, even though stopping in Hidden Valleys meant they would be taking the longer route back to Konoha.

Except they never reached Hidden Valleys.

Because once they passed into Land of Rivers and were about halfway between Suna and Konoha proper, they came across two figures Hinata had hoped to never meet in this life.

Two figures clad in black cloaks with blood red clouds.

No.

There were matches people waited for.

If the Uchiha had gotten through, Asuma was willing to bet people would have been betting serious money on his match.

Compared to the last Uchiha, or the Kazekage’s children, a match between a member of the Nara Clan and a member of the Hyuuga Branch House wasn’t anything spectacular. Shikamaru’s obvious lack of enthusiasm as he walked down the stairs into the arena also wasn’t helping endear him to the audiences.

But it couldn’t be denied that, when they clashed for the first time and Neji attacked with the Eight Trigrams, and Shikamaru appeared to, for all intents and purposes, shake the attack off, they caught the attention of those in the stands familiar with the annoyingness Hyuuga fighting style.

When Neji started angrily ranting about fate and the Branch House and destiny, some more shinobi tuned in.

When he heard Neji mention Hizashi-sensei, Asuma channelled chakra into his ears and paid attention to the conversation too instead of just the fight.

Then, Shikamaru seemed to decide that he wanted everyone else to pay attention too, and Asuma worried at the mean little smirk he could see on his student’s face.

A Shikamaru motivated enough to be mean was a dangerous Shikamaru.

He increased the chakra going to his eyes and ears.

"I'm gonna tell you something someone much smarter than you showed me recently." Shikamaru drawled as he once again shook off Neji’s Eight Trigrams, and his smirk stayed on even as he winced and kicked out to put more distance between them. "Tradition is strength, yeah, but tradition is also predictable. And you have a pattern, Hyuuga."

"You haven't fought me long enough to figure that out, no matter your apparent genius." Neji scoffed, and Asuma really didn’t envy Gai for having to deal with that attitude. "And no other Hyuuga would fight you knowing you are to face me."

Shikamaru didn’t say anything at that, and Neji, it seemed, read something in his face that Asuma couldn’t see, because the scowl on his face became even more hateful.

"Ah. I should’ve clarified; no other Hyuuga that could help you defeat me. You should know Hinata is my inferior in every way that matters. Even her Father has begun to acknowledge that she is not suited to her position of heir." Asuma sucked in a quiet breath and wondered what Hiashi thought of his nephew’s commentary. He’d gleamed from Kurenai that the man was far from World’s Best Dad, but the fact be somewhat of an open secret between a group of jounin was different to having it aired out for all of Konoha’s population who came to see the matches to hear.

Neji squared his shoulders and glared at Shikamaru as he finished his assessment of his cousin and Shikamaru’s chances of winning: "Defeating her means nothing. You will not beat me."

Surprisingly, Shikamaru snorted, loud enough that Asuma wouldn’t have needed the chakra in his ears to hear it.

"Defeating her? Hinata whooped my ass every time we sparred. And then the one time I thought I had her caught, she found a way to break my technique." Shikamaru admitted freely, and Asuma paused, wondering desperately if Shikaku was anywhere in the audiences and if anyone could be counted on to record the man’s reaction to his son’s declaration. "Somehow, I don't think you'll be that smart."

Shikamaru had to pause his speech to dodge Neji’s sudden attack, and Asuma winced in sympathy at the memory of the pain of blocked tenketsu, but Shikamaru seemed uncharacteristically determined to keep going despite it.

All of a sudden, Shikamaru’s mean little smirk grew, and he crouched. "My turn."

He brushed some dirt aside and something glinted metallically in the sunlight.

Ninja wire, Asuma realised suddenly, and he watched as Shikamaru dug it out from the dirt and tugged.

Dozens of kunai rained on Neji from all directions, coming from the tops of the trees around the edges of the arena, each blade heading unerringly for Neji's current position, and all through it, Asuma couldn’t help but think atta boy.  

He saw Neji's eyes widen even from as far in the stands as he sat, but then Neji spun and oh, what Asuma wouldn't have paid to see Hiashi's expression just then.

Because Neji, just like his father before him, had somehow managed to reverse-engineer the venerated Kaiten, at the tender age of thirteen, at that.

Asuma glanced at Shikamaru then, wondering how his student would combat the Hyuuga's ultimate defence, but if anything, Shikamaru looked satisfied. Like everything was going according to plan. And, if his suspicions as to Shikamaru’s strategy were correct, it probably was.

"One." he thought he saw Shikamaru mouth.

"That's cheating." Neji snapped when he stopped spinning, all of Shikamaru’s kunai successfully deflected.

"No, it's not." Shikamaru denied, grinning freely now. "The contract doesn't say anything about preparing the terrain beforehand. I checked with Morino-san, too. All's perfectly above-board."

Asuma let out a startled chuckle at Shikamaru’s sass, some of the jounin in the stands beside him sending him amused glances, though some looked a little miffed, likely not having ever entertained the notion of exploiting that particular loophole.

Then, his attention was drawn back to Shikamaru, because the Nara's smirk was back, his fingers in half a Ram seal.

"Think fast." Shikamaru warned sharply, and then the kunai scattered around Neji exploded.

Kunai with explosive tags. Asuma realised suddenly. He's trying to make the Hyuuga use the Kaiten.

"Two." Shikamaru mouthed again, and indeed, when the explosions began to subside, Neji was once again spinning.

And then, as Asuma watched Neji leak chakra like a sieve, it dawned on him.

The Kaiten releases chakra from every single tenketsu on the user's body. The chakra drain from one alone would be-!

Asuma had to bite back a startled laugh as he realised what Shikamaru was probably aiming for.

Bleed him dry, kiddo.

“We need to run.”

Kurenai had never heard that note of urgency in Hinata’s voice before, and as she glanced at her student, she did a double-take, because Hinata looked terrified.

Her eyes were wide and her grip on Kurenai’s sleeve was white-knuckled, and as she followed her gaze, Hinata’s eyes were trained on two shinobi clad in black cloaks and straw hats. It wouldn’t have been alarming, Kurenai thought, if not for the giant bandaged sword strapped to the back of one of the men. His appearance was mostly hidden, but he towered over his partner, and Kurenai also reckoned that there was only one country she knew that produced swords that emitted bloodlust.

“Kurenai-sensei.” Hinata demanded again, tugging on Kurenai’s sleeve, Kiba and Shino both staring at her in alarm, though their faces and postures were also writ with exhaustion. “We have to go.”

Then, the shorter figure turned their head slowly, their gaze coming to rest on Kurenai and her team, and Kurenai felt her stomach drop.

Because staring back at her was a boy she’d routinely cooked dinner for five years back, him and Kakashi and Yugao and Yamato all crowded into her tiny living room, all in varying stages of beaten-up.

Kurenai had known Yugao for years, stuck by Kakashi since genin-hood, and listened to Anko wax poetic about her and Yamato’s ‘trauma-bonding’ enough to feel like she knew the man far more than she ever wanted to even without speaking to him all too often: hiding the fact that her friends were ANBU and on a team together would’ve never worked on her. The fact that they were her friends also meant that she knew they didn’t take care of themselves nearly well enough. Having her fridge ransacked on short-notice was a small price to pay for the knowledge that Kakashi and Yugao would eat a warm meal before getting sent out again.

The fact that Kakashi and Yugao and Yamato came with a pint-sized, genius tagalong hadn’t been a problem: Kurenai had been dealing with Kakashi since before she even knew what trauma really was, much less how it manifested. She’d engaged the boy in conversation, wracked his brain on genjutsu, and did her best to make sure he knew that he could come to her even without his team there. She’d tried to be the sort of support drunk-Kakashi sometimes mourned never having after the Yondaime. She’d thought she could heal the boy at least a little from the horrors of ANBU and the suffocating expectations of his Clan.

And then the boy who liked matcha dango the most and hated all sort of red meat and kept his hair long because his mother liked it long and fed the street cats when he could spare the time to had slaughtered all of the Uchiha Clan and become an S-Ranked missing-nin overnight with seemingly no remorse.

So when Kurenai’s gaze met Uchiha Itachi’s on a no-name road to Hidden Valleys, saw the recognition in his eyes, and saw the crossed-out Kiri insignia on his partner’s headband, she could think of only one thing:

“Run.”

"Here's the thing," Shikamaru sighed as Neji panted for breath, the third Kaiten of the fight clearly taking its toll, while Shikamaru looked pained and tired but smug.

"No matter how impressive or flashy the tricks," the Nara continued, spinning a kunai idly on his finger, "at the end of the day, a one-trick pony is just that. And some day, you're going to come across someone who will be able to counter every last one of your tricks."

He caught his kunai and threw it at Neji's centre of balance, the Hyuuga having to throw himself bodily out of the way, though that unnatural Hyuuga grace saved him from the motion looking as uncoordinated as it should've been.

"What will you do then, Hyuuga?"

And then, not waiting for a reply, Shikamaru caught Neji.

Smirking lazily, the Nara started walking backwards, five feet, then ten, then twenty, only stopping when he was at the treeline and Neji was back in the centre of the arena.

And Shikamaru reached out towards one of the trees that lined the arena, Neji mirroring him, though the Hyuuga’s hand only touched empty space. Then, Shikamaru pulled and wrenched out one of the kunai that had lodged in the tree after being deflected by Neji's Kaiten.

The kunai which, if Asuma's memory served, was part of the set Shikamaru had tagged with explosive tags.

Shikamaru considered the weapon almost idly, then threw it at Neji's feet, and Asuma could see the exact moment Neji noticed the tag around the handle.

"Forfeit." Shikamaru offered, having quite literally pinned the Hyuuga in place.

Whispers broke out among the audience as those who couldn't see the explosive tag checked what grounds Shikamaru had for the demand.

But Neji remained silent.

"Your pride is not worth getting an explosive tag to the face at point-blank range." Shikamaru snapped, scowling at the other teen. "Forfeit, damn it."

Neji still did not speak.

"For fuck's sake." Asuma thought he heard Shikamaru mutter, then the Nara started walking towards the middle of the arena, Neji coming closer but also remaining firmly within range of the explosive tag while each stride they made towards each other shortened Shikamaru’s shadow and strengthened the Shadow Possession.

And then, when Shikamaru was about fifteen feet away from Neji, more visible to the public now, he turned to Genma.

"Hey, proctor-san." He called, and Genma obligingly flash-stepped closer, though still kept out of range of the explosive tag just in case Shikamaru changed his mind about exploding it.

"I refuse to kill this idiot. No matter how moronic he's being, he's still a Konoha-nin.” Shikamaru announced almost boredly, though he spared a glare for Neji as if personally affronted by the other teen’s stubbornness. “I forfeit."

Asuma let out the breath he didn't realise he'd been holding.

Then, he started laughing.

The uproar from the crowd once they processed Shikamaru's words drowned out his mirth, but Asuma couldn't have stopped himself even if everyone around could hear him.

One glance at Neji's startled, disbelieving expression as Shikamaru cancelled the Shadow Possession and walked over to pick up his kunai sent him straight back into hysterics.

Goddamn it, but he was proud of the brat.

And he couldn't wait to tell Kurenai.

Chapter Text

They ran, a boost of adrenaline from Kurenai’s frantic tone helping them find previously-untapped energy reserves.

Except, they had been running on their last legs for the better part of the day, and Hinata knew that the adrenaline would quickly run out, and once it did, they would really be in trouble.

Unfortunately – or fortunately – they never got to that stage.

After about five minutes of breakneck, desperate running, a sudden whooshing sound had Hinata turning around, only to find a massive wave of water chasing after them, too quick to outrun.

“Watch ou-!” She called, pushing more chakra into her feet, but just as she made to leap up, the wave caught up to her, sweeping her up mid-leap.

Hinata had a sudden, suspended moment of complete disorientation, not having any idea what was up and what was down. She gasped, an unconscious response brought on by the fear and disorientation having caught up to her, and ended up breathing in a mouthful of water.

She coughed, breathing in even more water in her desperate struggle for oxygen, then the wave slammed her into a tree, her back colliding with the trunk full-force, knocking the little breath she’d managed to win out of her.

She coughed again as the water slowly dispersed, her ribs aching with every desperate breath she drew, and summoned chakra to her hands and feet to try and claw her way onto the top of the surface and orient herself.

“What the hell?” Kiba wheezed from somewhere off to her right, and she could hear him coughing too, his voice hoarse. “Did one of them dump a whole river on us or somethin’?”

“It’s Hoshigaki Kisame.” Hinata managed breathlessly, trying to decide whether the chakra drain and headache were worth activating her Byakugan again to orient herself better. They were almost in the Land of Fire so the forest was denser, and Hinata’s chakra-sense still wasn’t good enough to locate her teammates without sight. “He’s called the Tailless Tailed Beast.”

“So he did dump a river on us.” Kiba snorted, reading between the lines, but there was no humour in his words.

“Well now,” a voice spoke, far too close to them for comfort, and Hinata jumped, startled, whipping her head around to find Hoshigaki and Sasuke’s brother about ten metres away from her, though Kurenai had positioned herself between the missing-nin and the rest of Hinata’s team, a final, desperate barrier between her genin and certain death.

“It’s not often I get recognised first, ‘specially not by a Leaf brat.” The Kiri-nin mused, sounding almost amused. Hinata pulled herself to a standing position, not comforted by the state of her coils nor how unsteady she felt on her feet. “Just for that, I’m almost tempted to let you go so you can keep spreadin’ my tales.”

Hinata heard Shino’s kikaichu buzz warningly in response to the words and Kiba growled, but she was more concerned by how they were all going to make it out of this altercation alive.

Those were two S-Rank missing-nin, and her team was two genin, a ninken puppy, her, and a genjutsu-specialising jounin.

When none of her team replied to the obvious taunt, the Kiri-nin sighed, as if disappointed, and his eyes turned to Kurenai, the light in them assessing.

“But it’s even rarer that Itachi-san personally recognises someone.” He added even as his companion remained silent at his side, wide-brimmed straw hat still on. “So, who’re you, kunoichi?”

Kurenai, instead of answering the Kiri-nin, seemed to speak directly to the Uchiha when she said: “Please. We don’t want any trouble. We just wanted to rest in Hidden Valleys, but we can be on our way.”

Hinata could feel Kiba’s surprise at Kurenai’s unusually demure tone, but Hinata could understand their sensei’s approach. Charging in head-first was not a favourable approach to their team for this fight. If the conflict could be avoided before it had the chance to become a conflict, Hinata would do anything to avoid it, particularly considering their already banged-up state.

Even if it meant pleading with missing-nin.

Wordlessly, Hinata activated her Byakugan, feeling the vice around her temples tighten almost immediately, but it was briefly overshadowed by the relief she felt at finally spotting Shino some three metres behind her.

Kisame would be the hardest to survive, and was probably the worst Akatsuki member match for her team. He had too much chakra for them to so much as make a dent in his reserves, even if all four of them bled themselves dry.

She’d known he was a chakra monster even before she activated her dojutsu, but now she had it confirmed by the way his chakra, even when mostly stifled, was almost blinding to her Byakugan.  

There was only one thing that they could do against such massive reserves.

Taking a deep breath, Hinata shifted carefully, moving away from the trunk with tiny steps and shuffling slowly backwards, keeping her gaze forward, trained on even the smallest of movements from their opponents.

The Kiri-nin laughed at Kurenai’s words, the sound cruelly amused, though his attention seemed focused on their sensei, much to Hinata’s advantage and relief.

“Unfortunately for you, Leaf-nin, we’re headed to Leaf, and we can’t afford to have you running off and blabbing of our arrival.” Hoshigaki chortled, even as he hefted his sword and grinned at Kurenai, all sharp teeth and bloodlust so thick Hinata felt like she would choke on it.

She pushed through it, taking another couple of tiny steps towards Shino until she could stretch her hand out and grab his wrist, letting the wide sleeve of his jacket hide her fingers.

“So regardless of whether you want trouble or not, trouble’s found ya.” The Kiri-nin concluded.

“Itachi-kun.” Kurenai urged the Uchiha more directly, and in any other situation, Hinata would’ve glanced at their sensei for the overly familiar address.

She hadn’t been aware there was history there.

As it was, she used the moment’s shock from the swordsman and let her pointer finger flicker lightly over Shino’s pulse, the only method of communication she could afford to risk.

Absorb chakra?

She felt Shino tense beneath her touch, but she wasn’t sure whether it was from her question or from Kurenai’s earnest, somewhat desperate, “They’re kids. Please.”

Hinata was keeping her gaze forward so she caught the moment something complicated passed over the swordsman’s face, a shadow and a flicker of what might have, in another situation, been guilt or regret, before it was gone just as quickly.

“Yeah, well.” he huffed, clearly answering for Itachi, and Hinata felt Shino’s responding flutter of sword? against the top of her hand, and stifled the relieved sigh that wanted to escape her at the fact that Shino had caught on. “It’s your Village’s fault for putting kids on frontlines. I thought Leaf’s s’posed to be better than that.”

Taking advantage of the fact that the swordsman’s attention was still firmly on Kurenai, Hinata tapped her finger over Shino’s wrist again: no; body. Steal chakra.

Shino nodded, and she squeezed his wrist once for courage, then removed her hand.

At Hoshigaki’s words, Kurenai snorted, visibly surprising the man, and, if Hinata was reading them well, her teammates as well.

“That’s just propaganda.” Kurenai dismissed, the words bitter and weighted, and another shadowed look passed briefly through the swordsman’s eyes.

“On that, kunoichi, we agree.” He replied, then he was suddenly in front of Hinata and Shino, swinging his sword in an arc that would’ve flattened them both.

Hinata had been tense and half-waiting for an attack since the wave that had swept them off their feet, so she pushed Shino to the side and flickered in her quickest Shunshin of the day, appearing two metres to the left of her previous position, but well out of the sword’s range.

“Fang over Fang!” she heard Kiba call, the Inuzuka seemingly having been comparably ready for an attack, and a split-second later, twin bullets were heading for Hoshigaki, making the swordsman laugh even as he swung his sword and knocked one of the bullets off-course, sending Kiba – no, Akamaru, the transformation breaking when the dog got hit – into a nearby tree.

Wondering whether joining the fray would be more of an advantage or a distraction, Hinata gathered chakra in her right hand and flickered to Hoshigaki’s side when he swung his sword again, striking out with her hand, intent on his main chakra coils.

But the man was unexpectedly agile for his size and bulk and he twisted out of the way, reversing the grip on his sword to bring it crashing down on Hinata, but she flickered again, appearing barely a meter to his left, trying to jab her fingers into his side this time.

She could hear, just barely, the buzz of Shino’s kikaichu when Hoshigaki’s sleeve swept too close to her face for comfort, the man’s elbow just barely missing her nose as she flickered again, thanking the stars for Kiba when her teammate zoomed at Hoshikagi again right as the man swung his sword wide, clearly trying to flatten her.

Shino was suddenly beside her, swarms of bugs emerging from his sleeves and heading for Hoshigaki from the side Kiba wasn’t covering, the colony so dense it seemed to block out light.  

Hoshigaki swung his sword wide, and Hinata heard Kiba whimper where he must’ve gotten hit, and some of the kikaichu dropped to the ground, hit by whatever was in the Kiri-nin’s sword, but the vast majority reached their target, settling on every visible patch of the swordsman’s skin and crawling beneath fabric as well to join the rest of their fray.

“Fuckin- enough of this!” the Kiri-nin cursed, flickering through four seals, then the water that had mostly sunk into the ground rose up in a grotesque, three-headed dragon, each of the heads intent on Hinata and her teammates. “I don’t like killing kids, but I’m makin’ exception.”

Before she gathered the presence of mind to get out of the way, Hinata was momentarily struck speechless by the fact that the Kiri-nin had reduced a technique she knew contained forty-four signs to four and modified it, all seemingly on the fly.

She had known, from Neji’s account, that her cousin had considered the clone of Hoshigaki, the one they had later found out contained only thirty percent of the chakra of the original, to be the strongest and most challenging shinobi Neji had ever had to fight.

It was not an opinion she had ever wanted to prove for herself. Chunin Team Gai, with Neji and Gai at jounin, had barely survived the clone whose only purpose had been to delay them.

Hinata’s genin team, barely six months post-Academy, was currently facing the man’s full form, Uchiha Itachi in tow, and they were clearly considered an annoyance to be dealt with.

(Not for the first time, Hinata wondered whether she hadn’t doomed them all by revealing her ability  and changing the course of their missions.)

Then, she was flickering away from the trajectory of the head aiming for her, one leap, two, three, five, until she was between Kurenai and Itachi, at which point she flashed through the signs for the only Earth jutsu she’d ever learned, taken straight from the Rokudaime’s arsenal, not that she’d used it in this life yet, and dropped underground.

She felt the impact of the dragon’s head hit the ground, felt the dirt around her grow heavier and colder as the water seeped into it, then she shuffled away from where she could still see Itachi and Kurenai with her Byakugan and pushed herself above-ground.

Before she could gather her wits and try to figure out whether her interruption had helped Kurenai or only distracted her, and before she could go back to make sure Kiba and Shino didn’t end up flattened by the Kiri-nin’s sword, her Byakugan caught Itachi’s flash-step to get closer to Kurenai and felt the minute increase of chakra in the pathways leading to his eyes.

No.

If Kurenai got caught in the Tsukiyomi, they would all die.

Not thinking much of what she was signing up for, only knowing that her team needed Kurenai awake and fighting, Hinata forced her chakra not into the Shunshin, but the kawarimi.

She blinked, reorienting herself, and found herself staring straight into Uchiha Itachi’s bloody Mangekyo.

“That was foolish.” A voice commented as Hinata opened her ‘eyes’.

The world she found herself in was so far from the one she had been wrenched from that she briefly wondered if she still had her Byakugan on, but no.

This is an illusion. She told herself, taking in the blood-red skies and monochrome world, then focused on the projection of Itachi in the mindscape of the Tsukiyomi. A potent one, but an illusion nonetheless.

“Maybe.” She agreed quietly, trying to test the strength of the bonds keeping her nailed to the cross and wincing as she felt it rip the flesh of her wrists and ankles.

This is an illusion. The pain isn’t real. It’s your expectation of pain that’s making it hurt.

“You won’t win just because you saved your teacher a few seconds.” Itachi spoke again, cutting through her thoughts like a knife, unforgiving in his sharpness, all the while coming closer to her. “I can trap multiple people in the Tsukiyomi at the same time.”

“The goal isn’t to w-win, Uchiha-san.” Hinata replied quietly, stumbling over the word as he suddenly stabbed her in the abdomen with the tanto he was holding.

It wasn’t something she was particularly happy to admit, but she was more than aware that her team wasn’t taking on the duty of the Twenty Platoons four years early. They weren’t going to try and capture Hoshigaki or Itachi, nor would their goal even be to eliminate them. No, Hinata knew that all four of them were thinking of one thing, and one thing only when it came to this fight.

Whether by the fact that he was in her mindscape or because she had learned how to interpret Neji’s expressions, she could feel Itachi’s confusion at her words. The pain of him stabbing her again, this time through her chest, likely piercing her lung, was excruciating. Still-

This is an illusion.

She could still breathe. It hurt, the area around the stab wound was burning, her abdomen was also screaming at the less-than-gentle way in which Itachi had removed the sword, but her lung wasn’t filling with blood and she wasn’t struggling to breathe.

So she smiled when Itachi ripped out the sword and stabbed her again, this time in the thigh, aware that, if this had been in the real world, she’d have passed out already from shock alone.

This is an illusion.

“The goal is to survive.” She informed him, quieter still, but Itachi’s projection didn’t react beyond the momentary hesitation before ripping the sword out and stabbing her through the liver.

“You will be dead weight once the seventy-two hours here are up.” He declared, voice cold and detached as he ripped out his sword again. “The Tsukiyomi has broken shinobi older and stronger than you. Your sacrifice will mean nothing.”

This is an illusion.

As her body screamed for her to get out, Hinata tried to remember Kurenai’s advice for dealing with invocative genjutsu. She remembered an explanation of how the brain was tied to the chakra network and needed chakra to survive just as much as it needed oxygen.

More importantly, she remembered the advice that a big enough disturbance in the victim’s chakra coils could disrupt most illusions.

Hinata took a deep breath and let it out slowly, taking strength from the fact that she could, despite what her injuries would have usually indicated, then focused on collecting her remaining chakra in her core.

This is an illusion, she reminded herself again when Itachi stabbed through her foot, and she felt herself bite through her tongue at the pain.

There was no blood in her mouth.

This is an illusion.

Her lungs still allowed her to draw in breath and her thought process wasn’t affected by blood loss. Those two factors worked against the realness of Itachi’s illusion even more than the monochromatic nature of Tsukiyomi’s landscape.

“What are you doing?” Itachi demanded, something sharper in his voice now, a change to the bland detachment, and Hinata wondered how much this projection of him understood what she was trying to do.

“This is a genjutsu.” She told him when he stabbed her again, but she was concentrating on her chakra so much that she couldn’t even pinpoint where he’d stabbed her, though she felt the imagined pain of the stab wound keenly. “It’s in my mind. It’s not real.”

“The fact that it’s in your mind does not make it any less real.” Itachi refuted, and Hinata almost wanted to open her eyes and look at him, because that seemed like a panicked-Shino answer rather than something she’d expect from a missing-nin of Uchiha Itachi’s calibre.

She knew, of course, that the teen before her wasn’t as guilty as Konoha painted him out to be.

She remembered the post-Massacre murmurs that had plagued the Hyuuga Compound for days after Itachi’d defection in her first life, but she’d been too young and ignorant to understand them at the time. But, combined with Sasuke’s warmongering before the Fourth War and the Godaime’s quiet shame when Itachi had been posthumously exonerated, Hinata had realised that there had been more to Itachi’s story than she’d been aware of.

Still, knowing that Itachi wasn’t entirely guilty did not mean that it was any easier to disconnect from the pain when Itachi stabbed her again, through her hand this time, nor to convince herself not to feel fear when he met her eyes.

This is an illusion. She reminded herself again, the mantra verging on desperate even as she kept taking deep, measured breaths, more to centre herself than because she needed to breathe on this plane.

“The Infinite Tsukiyomi felt real.” She managed, feeling the toll of the dozen or so stab wounds catch up to her. Her belief that this world wasn’t real was strengthened by the fact that she was still conscious, unlike how she would have been had this been happening out-there. “This feels like any other genjutsu, Uchiha-san, and that means it relies on will.”

“And you believe my will to be lacking?” Itachi’s projection asked archly, ripping out the sword from her hand, though no blood sprayed from the wound.

This is an illusion.

Hinata took a gamble.

“Yes.”

Even as she whispered the word, she found that there was no doubt in her heart about the truth to her words. She kept winding the chakra she’d gathered within herself into an ever-tighter ball while she met Itachi’s eyes again.

“I do.”

As if in response to her claim, the crimson sky above them cracked, black nothingness extending through the cracks. Feeling a stirring of hope that she had been right, Hinata focused on the chakra she’d been gathering in her coils and cut off its access to her brain.

Itachi’s projection had stopped stabbing her in favour of contemplating the crack in the sky, but as the ground he was standing on split as well, likely in response to Hinata’s desperation play, he turned back to her.

“You’ll kill yourself.” He observed, something…different in his voice now, but Hinata was too focused on fighting back against the instinct that demanded she release her chakra to properly analyse it.

The rip in the sky stretched lower, joining with the gouge in the ground, forming one enormous tear in the illusion, and, with a sound like a thunderclap, the cross Hinata was nailed to broke as well, the nails disappearing, letting her drop to the ground unscathed.

At the same time as her feet touched the ground, Hinata released her chakra with a breathless gasp, culminating in the most potent kai she’d ever pulled off.

The Tsukiyomi world shook, shuddered, then shattered.

Shino hated feeling helpless.

The first time he’d felt so helpless that even crying did not help had been when his mother had died, on a mission he hadn’t been allowed to know about, with teammates who weren’t allowed to talk about it with him. He’d been ‘too young’ then, not even an Academy student yet, so all he’d had to go off of was the fact that his mother came back home in a body scroll handed to his father by her masked teammates, and that his father’s kikaichu had been incandescent with rage and grief for days afterwards.

The second time had been with Torune, when his cousin –brother by then, at least in Shino’s eyes – had volunteered to go with the Councilman in his stead, never to be seen again. Shino dreamt, occasionally, that he could feel Torune next to him, always in his weakest moments, when he was sick or injured or unconscious, but he knew those were just dreams. He hasn’t seen hide nor hair of his cousin since he was taken away when Shino was seven; he knew Torune was as lost to him as his mother.

When he joined the Academy, he tried to actively avoid ever feeling like that again, and simply did not allow himself to care about his classmates. It wasn’t too hard considering he was too ‘weird’ or ‘quiet’ for most of his peers’ tastes anyway.

And then, his strategy of not-caring was proven to have been for naught when he got assigned his team. And he got shown just how much he had failed to not-care on his team’s third C-Rank.

But Shino tried to learn from that mission, branched out from just his Clan’s techniques, covered his blind spots by working on his taijutsu and broadening his range of techniques, patched up his faults with what he hoped came across as the same dogged determination that Hinata exhibited rather than the desperation it felt like.

He wouldn’t say he felt confident, but at least he didn’t feel lacking.

And for what?

Faced with the Kiri missing-nin blessed with more chakra than he’d ever seen a single person wield, and a sword that stole a good quarter of Kiba’s remaining chakra in one bite and ripped apart Kiba’s thigh when the Inuzuka had been a moment too slow in getting out of its range, Shino was right back where he’d started.

Helpless.

Kurenai-sensei was keeping the Uchiha busy, and Hinata was flitting between her battle and the Kiri-nin, but even to Shino’s eyes she was slower, taking longer to reorient herself with every Shunshin.

Shino focused back on the swordsman, wondering whether the situation was dire enough to justify a desperate play with Torune’s rinkaichu. His kikaichu had been stuck on the Kiri-nin since before the fighting began, yet there was almost no difference in the man’s chakra level; worse yet, Shino’s kikaichu were dying, glutted by the man’s chakra, faster than they could actually leach it from him enough for results to show or transfer it back to Shino. And all the while, the swordsman was throwing around high-level, high-destruction ninjutsu like it was nothing.

Tailless Tailed Beast, Hinata had called him. Shino hadn’t understood what could’ve justified the moniker when she’d said it, but he certainly understood now, even if he wished he didn’t.

His attention was pulled from the swordsman when Kurenai screamed, and he glanced at her battle with the Uchiha to find the man holding Hinata by the throat, her feet dangling off the ground.

“You’re good with that fighting style.” The Uchiha commented, and even the Kiri-nin was watching him from the corner of his eye, seeming almost surprised by his partner’s behaviour. “But what your teacher neglected to tell you was that she learned that style from my cousin. And you are not on his level yet, Hyuuga-chan.”

And Shino watched as the Uchiha swung his arm and threw Hinata into a nearby tree, her head colliding with the trunk with a wet thud, and Shino wrenched his attention to the swordsman, trying to move his thoughts away from worst-case scenarios.

As if the thud of Hinata’s skull hitting the tree was the gong to spur him into action, the swordsman turned back to him and Kiba with renewed viciousness, and Shino had a split-second to decide that, yes, the situation was indeed dire enough.

He’d been breeding Torune’s rinkaichu with his beetles since his cousin had been taken. The week before Graduation, he’d finally created a colony with the same toxic effects as Torune’s, yet ones that he could host in his body without dying of their poison.

He’d had almost a month to get used to them, to learn how to call on them as if they were his own, then asked to be infused with them before his team’s first C-Rank.

The poisoning he had suffered on their doomed third C-Rank had been because the part of Torune’s colony he hosted in his body had gotten crushed when he’d taken the beating from the taijutsu-specialising Iwa-nin.

It had nearly killed him.

And now, as he took off his glove and wondered how he’d get close enough to the swordsman to infect him with Torune’s poison without getting flattened, he was glad that Torune’s memory would hopefully be what gave his team a fighting chance.

“Kiba,” he rasped, taking off his other glove and stashing both carefully in his pocket, wiping the blood from his brow before it could dribble into his eye, “get me an opening. And, whatever you do, don’t touch me.”

Kiba was panting, bleeding, and limping, the entire left side of his pants soaked in blood. Akamaru, too, was barely moving, and Shino saw Kiba glance at the ninken, but whatever he’d seen on Shino’s face seemed to be enough for him to nod without asking any questions, throw one more worried glance at Akamaru, then shoot off to do as asked.

All four of them were on their last legs, while the Kiri-nin was unscathed, and the Uchiha didn’t have so much as a hair out of place.

If there was ever a time for desperate plays, it was now.

Kurenai knew why Hinata had done what she had.

She hated it, hated that Hinata felt like she had to do it, but she could understand the reason.

What she didn’t understand was how the girl had gotten up almost immediately after slumping down, even after Kurenai felt the genjutsu take.

She had heard enough horror stories about Uchiha dojutsu, and whatever monster evolution of it Itachi had acquired after defecting, to know that Hinata should not have been able to simply shrug it off.

And yet.

Then, she had no more time to think because she was once again engaging Itachi, trying to keep the teen away from her students after he’d held Hinata by the throat and thrown her like a ragdoll, and she had the sinking realisation that the gentle boy she’d once known was well and truly gone.

“What the fuck-?!”

Hearing that exclamation was rarely good on a battlefield, much less when it came from a man nicknamed the Tailless Tailed Beast before his age had reached double-digits.

Borrowing a move she’d seen Gai perform countless times, Kurenai spun around until she could kick at Itachi’s ankles, then, when the teen stumbled and Shunshined away, she turned to see what had prompted Hoshigaki to cry out as he had.

She found a purple mass quickly spreading over the swordsman’s arm, destroying both sleeve and flesh as it went. It was barely at the elbow so far, but Kurenai could see the rotting, burned flesh the mass of insects was leaving in its wake.

Unfortunately, she also saw the moment Hoshigaki realised what it meant for him, and witnessed the flash of rage and panic in his eyes, right as his gaze fell on Shino.

No.

The man swung his sword, one handed now, but more than strong enough to be able to heft the weapon around regardless of the handicap, his gaze furious and intent on the Aburame.

No .

Kurenai didn’t think; pulling the same move Hinata had pulled minutes previous, she substituted herself with Shino, knowing she was too far away and too low on chakra to do anything else.

She caught the momentary flash of surprise in the swordsman’s eyes when his target changed, but at that point, it was too late to redirect his momentum.

Kurenai saw the sword, saw the spray of blood as it connected with her side, then she saw no more.

Hinata’s scream caught in her throat.

Before Kurenai’s body even hit the ground, Hinata was in motion, flash-stepping to sensei’s side and catching the woman, her hands becoming immediately drenched with blood as they slid through the mess of cloth and ripped flesh in their search for purchase. Then, she was flash-stepping away, towards Kiba, not even caring that she’d turned her back on two S-Rank shinobi.

“Kiba,” she rasped, not even sure what she was asking for, but knowing that, out of all of them, Kiba had the most chance of fixing the missing part of Kurenai’s side, “please.”

She was peripherally aware of Hoshigaki cursing as he used a dagger to saw through his upper arm, likely to prevent whatever Shino had done from spreading to the rest of his body, but she was more focused on Kiba and Kurenai.

“Fuckin’- I’m goin’ to kill these brats, give me a sec, Itachi-san.” The man raged, but he was still focused on his arm. “Damnit. Think Kakuzu can reattach it?”

“You’ll have to ask.” The Uchiha replied, stoic even in the face of his partner’s injury, but Hinata’s eyes were glued to the way Kiba’s hands were shaking as he tried to cut away Kurenai’s shirt so he could get at her ruined side.

Or, the missing, jagged space where her side used to be.

“Let’s go, Kisame. They’re in no shape to chase after us, and killing a Leaf team will have more Leaf-nin up in Akatsuki’s business.” The Uchiha ordered, and Hinata heard the quiet poof of something being sealed away and the Hoshigaki grunting something vaguely affirmative.

“I don’t like leaving enemies alive behind me, Itachi-san.” The Hoshigaki grouched, and Hinata felt another wave of KI emanate from the man.

“You consider three injured genin to be your enemies?” Shino asked, and Hinata jerked her head around to stare disbelievingly at her teammate, unable to believe that Shino was goading their enemies.

“Brat.” The swordsman spat, and Shino suddenly flew past Hinata, smacking into a nearby rock arm-first, and Hinata was close enough to hear the snap of bone as well as Shino’s muffled scream of pain. “You have some nerve.”

“Let’s go.” The Uchiha repeated, and Hinata watched him turn away, dismissing her team as a threat.

Letting them live.

She watched as the swordsman huffed, hefted his sword, and, miraculously, followed after his partner.

“Oh, thank god.” Kiba whimpered beside her, and Hinata turned back to him just in time to see his hands finally light up green. A flickering, faltering green, but green nonetheless.

Unfortunately, she also caught sight of the full extent of Kurenai’s injury, and her breath caught.

“Yeah.” Kiba agreed, sounding breathless and a little dazed. “I’m not gonna be able to fix it all. I barely got the stupid fish to stop floppin’ around, haven’t even started on internal injuries.”

“You have the best chance out of all of us to make a difference for sensei.” Shino replied, his voice tight with pain, and Hinata nodded in agreement.

“C-can I help?” she asked quietly, worried by the visible tremble in Kiba’s hands as he tried to knit together the hole in Kurenai’s side.

“You don’t even have enough chakra to keep your Byakugan on.” Kiba dismissed, and Hinata blinked, only just realising that he was right. “Go help Shino set his arm if you wanna help.”

Somewhat chastised, Hinata went to do as told, trying to avoid thinking about the complete stillness of Kurenai’s body. Kiba wouldn’t be trying to heal her if she wasn’t still alive; they would be fine.

They would.

Wordlessly, she dug in her backpack for her bandages and offered some to Shino, along with a protein bar and her water bottle. She made sure to grab a bar for herself as well, because she hadn’t even noticed her Byakugan switching off, and she knew that, unlike the Sharingan, her dojutsu wasn’t particularly chakra-intensive.

The fact that she didn’t even notice she’d gotten so low on chakra as to not be able to sustain the Byakugan anymore would’ve been a lot more alarming in any other circumstances.

As it was, she simply ate her protein bar then set about splinting Shino’s arm with the branch he’d found. Chiselling down the sides of the branch so it would be at least somewhat flat made her aware of just how much her own hands were shaking.

And then, when Shino’s arm was more or less splinted and Hinata had eaten her bar and drank some water, Kiba suddenly swayed and slumped against Kurenai’s limp thigh, the green at his fingers flickering then dying out completely.

Hinata was on her feet and by Kiba’s side in seconds, falling to her knees next to him and frantically checking for his pulse. She found it, but it was weak, too barely-there for the amount of adrenaline and cortisol that should’ve still been coursing through Kiba’s veins-!

“Byakugan!” she called, praying that the chakra boost her protein bar and some rest had granted her would be enough chakra to keep her Byakugan on long enough to locate what could’ve made Kiba so weak.

What she saw once she rode out the wave of agony activating her dojutsu brought on was almost worse than Kurenai’s wound: Kiba’s chakra coils were nearly entirely empty, only the barest flicker of blue still wrapped around his heart and brain, but even that was fading fast.

“No, no, no-” she whispered, turning Kiba over so she could reach his abdomen, not sure whether she had enough chakra to even attempt a chakra transfer but knowing she was going to try one regardless.

Not for the first time, she cursed the fact that, unless their Clan made their own ones, genin weren’t allowed to buy and use the standard-issue soldier pills.

“What’s the matter? What happened?” Shino demanded, stumbling to his feet as well, but Hinata waved for him to stay away while as she placed her other hand over Kiba’s fifth gate.

She tried to take deep breaths to focus, but her ribs screamed, reminding her viciously of the fact that she’d been thrown into a tree twice over the course of the fight and almost certainly broke some ribs. Once she stopped heaving and no longer felt like crying, she took a slow, shallower breath and tried to and match her chakra frequency to that of Kiba’s to ease the transfer as much as possible.

“He depleted his chakra.” She told Shino quietly as she blocked out everything but Kiba’s chakra wavelength. “I’m fixing it.”

Hinata took a final, steadying breath, then slowly pushed half of her recovered chakra into Kiba’s core. This time, with fewer things requiring her immediate attention, she felt the chakra loss keenly, but she also knew they couldn’t linger no matter how much she currently wanted to curl up into a ball and cry.

“Can you carry sensei?” she asked Shino, her voice only shaking a little as she gestured to Kurenai’s prone form. The wound in the woman’s side wasn’t fully healed, still bleeding sluggishly, but Hinata had neither the blood replenishing pills nor the chakra control in this life to do anything about that. “We need to head for the Village.”

“Hidden Valleys?” Shino checked, and with one of his glasses’ lenses cracked, Hinata could clearly see the way his eyebrows furrowed at the idea.

“No.” Hinata shook her head, wincing at the pain in her neck and the wave of nausea that overcame her at the sudden motion. “K-Konoha.”

“We’re days away.” Shino pointed out, and Hinata hummed even as she cautiously bent down to try and heft Kiba onto her back. “And chakra exhausted.”

“I know. And I don’t know enough about our non-aggression treaties with Hidden Valleys to say what’s a good choice right now.” She admitted and glanced at Shino when she straightened, trying not to let her panic show on her face. “But I know I’ll feel better once we’re in the Land of Fire.”

Shino studied her for a few seconds, what she could see of his face lined with exhaustion, pain, and worry, then, finally, he nodded. “Can you help me get sensei on my back?”

Wordlessly, Hinata obliged, then, with a final sweep of her Byakugan to make sure they hadn’t garnered any watchers when they’d been stationary, she deactivated her dojutsu and set off in the direction of Konoha, Shino falling into step beside her.

Suddenly ,there was a quiet shuffle next to them before Akamaru emerged from a nearby shrub, dirty and bloody and limping but alive. Hinata sighed with relief and bent down as much as she could without dropping Kiba or aggravating her ribs, scooping the ninken onto her shoulders and letting it curl up in the gap between her shoulder and Kiba’s neck.

Then, they were off.

She lost count of how long they’d been walking, not able to spare the energy to run, weighed down with their teammates as they were, when Shino suddenly stilled, gesturing for her to stop as well.

“Enemies.” He rasped, his voice hoarse, the side of his jacket stained with Kurenai’s blood. They’d ran out of water some time ago and Hinata did not know the terrain enough to risk separating in search of a stream, nor could she really spare the chakra for a Water jutsu just then. “Hundred metres ahead. Group of four.”

Wordlessly, Hinata activated her Byakugan, the pounding in her temples almost knocking her off her feet with the pain, but once it passed, she swept the area Shino had indicated, trying to get an idea of their opponents.

“Genin team.” She decided, locating three smaller signatures and one jounin-sized. “Not Leaf.”

“Strategy?” Shino asked, an unsteady note in his voice, and Hinata glanced at him assessingly, Hoshigaki’s words echoing in her mind: I don’t like to leave enemies alive behind me.

Her stomach churned at the thought, but she knew they could not afford another fight.

“Surprise attack.” She replied, and saw Shino flinch at the words. “I-I’ll do it. But I might need your kikaichu for- after.”

It spoke to how exhausted the both of them were that Shino didn’t argue, and Hinata didn’t try to explain the sudden blankness in her voice.

She palmed a kunai instead and focused on her chakra coils, suppressing them as much as possible. Then, she untied her headband and stashed it in her pocket, before she slowly lowered Kiba and Akamaru to the ground, stretching out her back as she straightened and loosening her muscles as much as she could.

When she could not delay the move any longer, she let the Shunshin take her, covering half the distance between her and Shino and the unknown genin team in one leap. With her Byakugan, she could tell that they seemed to be settling in for the night, laying out bedrolls and stringing up hammocks and throwing up environmental genjutsu to hide their presence.

Unfortunately for them, genjutsu didn’t fool her eyes, nor Shino’s bugs.

Normally, she would have avoided confrontation at all cost, but with the state her and Shino were in, they would not be able to sneak around the camp without getting noticed by the jounin.

And that, they could simply not afford.

The genin team had to go.                                                                                                                              

With that thought in mind, Hinata let the battle-calm she hadn’t felt since their third C-Rank settle in her bones, easing her worry and guilt at what she was about to do, then went through the seals for a henge, picking a no-name Grass kunoichi she remembered from the War, then flickered the last fifty metres that separated her from the campsite.

She landed right behind the jounin, the hand holding onto her kunai with a white-knuckled grip already in motion, heading for the man’s throat. And right in time, too, because the man was mid-turn when she landed, his sword half-drawn, having apparently sensed her somehow, but Hinata was a split-second faster. Her kunai stabbed into the side of the man’s throat, piercing into his trachea but not through because she didn’t manage to shove her knife in deep enough before the jounin bent backwards, using his superior height to get out of her range. She let the kunai go and instead jabbed her palm directly into his chakra core, manually opening his sixth chakra gate, then followed with another strike to his heart.

If he didn’t go into cardiac arrest, bleed out, or asphyxiate from the wound to his throat, he’d leak chakra until he had none left and die anyway.

Then, as she debated between leaving the jounin or making sure he stayed down, she felt a sudden, sharp pain across her back. Jerking around, she realised that one of the genin had thrown a volley of shuriken at her when she’d attacked their sensei, and she’d been too focused on getting the jounin out of the picture to notice the attack, much less dodge.

But, as she turned around and let her Byakugan flicker out, having handled the worst threat, she finally took in the Kiri insignia across the genin’s headbands. They seemed to be younger than her team, the oldest maybe ten-years-old at most, but all three were baring their teeth at her, looking scared but ready for a fight despite having been caught when their guard had been down.  

“I don’t want to kill you.” Hinata told them quietly, half of her attention still on their dying teacher, not fully trusting that the jounin would actually stay down, even if he’d gone down easily enough. “Please don’t make me.”

“You killed our sensei!” The oldest one hissed, sword drawn and looking like she was almost angling for the fight. Hinata winced, realising that her words didn’t exactly line up with her actions, but they were still true. “That’s hardly benevolent.”

“Go back to your Village.” Hinata urged, even as she assessed their surroundings and the state of her chakra, knowing that, if it did come to a fight, she could still claw the upper hand, even without calling for Shino. Genin were, after all, generally bad when it came to recognising genjutsu. “Please.”

With an angry scream, the oldest of the three Kiri genin ran at her, sword raised, and Hinata almost wanted to sigh. Instead, she struck out with a Vacuum Palm, knocking the girl back into her other teammate, then flashed through the seals for the first combat-specific illusion Kurenai had taught her.

“Magen: Jubaku Satsu.” She murmured, giving the ‘ghost’ of the illusion a second to settle around the genin. She drew another kunai and stepped closer, focusing to make sure the illusion made it look like she was melting out of the tree above the genin, then her eyes happened to fall on the youngest of the three, and her knife stilled inches from the girl’s throat.

The girl was still trapped in the illusion, but Hinata’s gaze caught on her brown hair and her eyes, which, wide and scared as they currently were, were almost as pale as Hanabi’s.

Suddenly, Hinata felt sick for an entirely different reason than her earlier nausea.

To be ANBU was to have ice in one’s blood, to make decisions and sacrifices that were otherwise avoided at all cost. If Hinata had been wearing her mask just then, she wouldn’t have hesitated.

(She would have hated herself afterwards all the same, but she wouldn’t have hesitated.)

But she wasn’t ANBU, not here, not yet. Here, she was a genin, and as such, could afford to doubt, to hesitate, to lower her blade.

Because, well. Was she really about to kill children her sister’s age, all for the crime of being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Was she really so far gone?

As if that thought had been a bucket of cold water over her head, Hinata dropped her kunai and turned on her heel, flashing back to Shino’s side and trying to keep her stomach from rioting.

She needed four Shunshin trips to cover the distance that had only taken two the first time, her chakra all but spent. When she finally came to a stop, she let her henge drop and fell to her knees, dropping her forehead to the ground and fighting the urge to cover her head with her arms and cry.

“Hinata?” Shino asked, startled, his kikaichu buzzing agitatedly around them. “Is it done?”

“The j-jounin’s dead.” She reported breathlessly, knotting her fingers into her bangs and pulling harshly, trying to ground herself. “The genin are under genjutsu, but they’re alive.”

“Do you want me to…?” Shino trailed off, but Hinata shook her head – as much as she could with her hands still in her hair – and made a disagreeing sound.

“N-not a threat.” She managed through gasping breaths, only belatedly realising that she was hyperventilating. Her ribs hurt, her scalp hurt, her back hurt- she wanted Kurenai to be awake, to tell them what to do. Or she wanted her old body back, with her old reach, and one in which it wasn’t as easy to throw her around and hurt her. One in which her teammates weren’t literal children, but her peers. One in which she was rarely called on to make the important decisions.

She bust have stayed silent for a moment too long because Shino took off, likely to direct his bugs at the jounin’s body, and Hinata took the few seconds his absence granted her to try and get her breathing under control.

Only, once she wasn’t drowning out all other sound with her desperate gasps, she realised that Akamaru was whining, a constant, high, panicked sound as he nosed at Kiba’s throat. Hinata raised her head and shuffled over to Kiba’s side, gently pushing the ninken aside to be able to get to his partner’s neck. She didn’t find any obvious injury that could’ve had Akamaru so panicked, but when she went to press her fingers over Kiba’s pulse-point, her heart dropped.

Kiba’s pulse was gone.

Hinata scrabbled at Kiba’s shirt, not even caring as she tore the material and ripped one of her nails up when it caught on a zip; as soon as she had Kiba’s chest bare, she started on the emergency CPR Kurenai had had them learn in both of her timelines, trying to keep the panic at bay enough to accurately count her compressions and the seconds Kiba spent without a pulse. When she got to thirty compressions, she bent down over Kiba’s face, pinched his nose, and breathed into his mouth, once, twice, checking all the while to make sure his chest rose with each breath, then went back to the compressions.

Kiba’s heart still wasn’t picking up.

“What-?!” Shino had apparently returned, but Hinata didn’t have the time for an explanation.

“Take over.” She ordered, running through the signs for the localised Lightning jutsu Sakura had taught her once, though she wasn’t channelling chakra yet. She knew she didn’t have enough even for such a small-scale jutsu; she’d barely had enough chakra for the Shunshin, and that took almost nothing from her.

“I’m going to need some of your chakra.” She told Shino, trying to summon the medic voice Sakura had mastered during the war but missing by a mile.

“I don’t know how to do transfers.” Shino shot back before bending over to breathe into Kiba’s mouth.

“That’s fine.” Hinata dismissed, letting him finish the set before she replaced his hands with her right one, fingers spread in five points over Kiba’s heart. “Put your hand on mine and channel chakra.”

“I’ll burn you.” Shino warned, but did as asked.

“That’s fine.” Hinata repeated, then closed her eyes.

She ran through the seals, one handed this time, and slowly drew the chakra she’d need from Shino’s hand into hers. She could feel the strangeness of it, could feel the foreign wavelength cause burns on her skin as she drew it into her coils, but she blocked out the pain in favour of tracking the foreign chakra as it cycled through her arm, into her main reserves, then back again, before it settled. She repeated the process two more times, counting seconds all the while, then breathed out and pushed Shino’s hand away.

Finally, she channelled the chakra she’d leached from Shino and ran through the seals properly this time, letting her fingers light up with isolated bursts of controlled lightning. Then, one hand over the pulse point in Kiba’s throat, the other hand in position over Kiba’s heart, she let her fingers drop onto his chest.

Kiba’s back bowed, his whole body jerking under her touch, but when his back hit the grass again and Hinata scrambled to find his pulse point, she finally felt his pulse, weak and thready but there.

Two hundred and fourteen seconds.

From the moment she realised he didn’t have a pulse to the moment it came back. Just over three and a half minutes, and even then, Akamaru could have been whining longer, but she hadn’t realised because she’d been having a breakdown.

Kiba might end up with permanent brain damage because she couldn’t deal with a C-Rank mission.

Falling from her knees onto her bum, she crawled until she could sag against a nearby tree and finally gave into the urge to cry.

“We need a code.” Shino murmured an indeterminable amount of time later, his gaze unfocused as he stared off into the treeline, having pocketed his glasses sometime during their mad dash towards the Village.

“What?” Hinata asked wearily, rubbing the last of the tears from her eyes and trying to gather together enough energy to push herself to her feet.

“A code. For our team. The Uchiha recognised sensei after you called her name.”

Hinata blinked, absorbing that.

After a few seconds, she could visualise the exact moment Shino was referring to. Whatever reply she was going to give turned into ash on her tongue when it fully hit her that Shino was right.

By not knowing the connection between the Uchiha and their sensei and calling Kurenai’s name to get the woman’s attention, she’d inadvertently doomed them all.

Hinata felt as if her blood had turned to ice, her heart skipping a beat then picking up double-time. She couldn’t deal with that just then.

She tried to tell Shino that they needed to get a move-on, that they’d lingered too long, that the Kiri genin nearby were genin but could still break out of the genjutsu if given enough time to figure it out. But her tongue felt like lead and her heartbeat picked up when she opened her mouth to speak, panic wrapping its claws around her lungs until she felt like she couldn’t breathe.

Instead, she wordlessly rearranged Kiba until she could pick him up in a princess carry, her back still smarting from the shuriken the Kiri genin had thrown at her, and gestured at the forest stretching out endlessly before them.

She had to put Kiba down and help Shino heft Kurenai onto his back, having forgotten about Shino’s broken arm in her daze, but once they were both ready, Hinata cradled Kiba to her chest, her fingers finding the pulse-point on his wrist almost of their own accord while Akamaru found a spot on Kiba’s stomach.  

They set off, an uneasy silence falling between them, and Hinata prayed that they would not encounter any more complications.

(They didn’t. Not in the form of enemy-nin, at least. But Hinata had to use her Lightning jutsu two more times, and she couldn’t help but wonder whether she wasn’t simply prolonging the inevitable after the third time Kiba’s heart gave out on him.)

((Her fault.))

Shikaku wouldn’t say that he was having a good day.

His good days entailed staying home, spending time with his wife, maybe playing shogi or Go with Shikamaru, potentially going for a beer with Inoichi and Chouza. His good days entailed rest.

His good days usually didn’t entail being responsible for the entire Village because he got saddled with the position of acting kage. They rarely entailed having to tally up losses and argue with the Elders against promoting the Academy’s graduating class half a year early to make up for the chunk of the chunin forces lost to Orochimaru’s invasion. And they never entailed having to tell his son and his son’s sensei that, actually, the official grace period for MIA genin teams had officially run out a week ago, and so the chances of Team Eight ever coming back were slim to none.

He was in the middle of an informal debrief with the acting Chunin Commander when his not-so-good day turned a little less horrid.

“Shikaku-sama, sir!” a Genin Corps runner burst through the door, getting a stern glare from the acting Chunin Commander, though it wasn’t anywhere near what Shikaku knew Iwashi could dish out. They were all exhausted though, so perhaps it was to be expected that the man wasn’t as much of a hardass as Shikaku knew he could be. “Yuuhi’s team is back!”

It took Shikaku a moment to place the name, but when he did, he got to his feet, sending Iwashi a briefly apologetic look.

Yuuhi Kurenai’s team. Asuma’s friend’s team. Inoichi’s kouhai’s team. Shikamaru’s friend’s team.

The genin team that had been MIA for almost two months on a mission that should’ve taken two, maybe three weeks max.

Them coming back in any state that wasn’t a body bag was a miracle.

“Where are they? Missions’ office?” Shikaku demanded, throwing his jounin vest on and tying his hair back up as he headed for the door.

The genin messenger grimaced, looking almost apologetic. “Uh, the hospital, sir.”

Shikaku’s hopes plummeted as quickly as they had risen. “Alive?”

“More or less.”

That was never a good answer in Shikaku’s experience, but he couldn’t exactly refuse to attend the debrief. Especially if it meant that the Elders would get to the kids before him.

Giving himself one final check to make sure he was presentable, he sighed.

“Lead the way.”

Chapter Text

Shikaku stepped into the hospital’s urgent care wing and didn’t even need anyone to direct him to the walking dead that appeared to be Team 8’s genin.

Or, rather, the only one that was still standing, the little Hyuuga that had helped Shikamaru prepare for the final stage. Only now she was covered in blood and grime and looked like she really should’ve been in Psych instead of barely keeping her balance in the hospital’s waiting area, standing in the corner of the room with a whining ninken puppy on her shoulder and haunted, bloodshot eyes.

Kotetsu, standing a few feet to the girl’s left and eyeing her worriedly, spotted him as soon as he walked in, and the chunin muttered something to Hinata before he walked briskly over to Shikaku, his uniform stained with blood at the shoulder and hip, though at least it didn’t seem to be his.

“You got a report for me?” Shikaku greeted, not sure he was liking the fact that Hagane actually looked serious for once.

“Not as such, Shikaku-sama.” The gate-guard replied, but the usual accompanying sheepish gesture that Shikaku would’ve expected was nowhere to be seen. “Kid’s mute, haven’t been able to get anything from her."

"Her teammates?” Shikaku tried, wondering whether this is what the genin messenger had meant by ‘more or less’.

“Inuzuka and Kurenai are in critical condition, and the Aburame headed off to Psych as soon as he signed in at the Gates. Izumo went after him cause the kid didn’t look great, and I took the rest here.” Kotetsu explained, and Shikaku sighed, then started walking towards Hinata, keeping his pace slow and his body language as unthreatening as possible.

It didn’t seem to be enough, because the ninken on the Hyuuga’s shoulder switched from whining to growling as soon as Shikaku got within five feet of the girl, and those dead, empty eyes rose to meet his.

“Hinata-chan.” Shikaku greeted, feeling Kotetsu startle at his side at the address, but keeping his attention firmly on the genin. “Glad to see you made it back.”

The nature of their return was still up in the air, but the sheer fact that all four members of Team Eight were back in the Village after being written off as MIA was an accomplishment in and of itself.

He got the shallowest of shallow nods at his words, and the girl winced, as if even that miniscule movement hurt. Glancing briefly at Kotetsu, Shikaku flicked through Chunin Sign with his right hand: ‘medical check-up?’

Kotetsu shook his head, grimacing slightly as he rubbed at the bandage over his nose with one hand while the one at his side flickered through a response; ‘no. attacked a nurse.’

Shikaku raised an eyebrow, wondering about the level of dissociation he was likely currently witnessing from the genin when he caught movement from Hinata in his peripheral vision. He turned to face her fully, catching the last few twitches of her fingers against her elbow, and though he recognised the motion, he needed to be sure.

“I’m sorry, could you repeat that?” He requested, eyes on the hands with which Hinata was clutching her elbows, and this time, the twitches of her right hand’s fingers were impossible to miss, as slow as they were: ‘assumed enemy. sorry.’

“Oh.” Kotetsu breathed, staring at the girl with a mix of surprise and wariness. “I didn’t even think to try Chunin Sign with her.”

“It’s not taught at the Academy, assuming she wouldn’t know it was a fair assumption to make.” Shikaku dismissed, focusing back on Hinata. “Do you feel up to answering a few questions?”

Another slow nod, and another wince, but Shikaku could push the guilt at interrogating the girl in the state she was in to the back of his mind until he got the answers he needed.

“It has been almost two months since your team set out on a mission that shouldn’t have taken more than a fortnight. What delayed you?” he asked sharply, catching another slanted glance from Kotetsu at the change, though Hinata didn’t even seem to register his tone.

‘missing-nin’ came the slow, dreaded reply.

“Could you identify them? Country, jutsu, appearance?” Shikaku pressed, exchanging a brief, weighted look with Kotetsu.

There were a lot of missing-nin out there. For starters, Hinata’s answer to his question could explain whether he needed to bump their mission’s rank up a letter. Or two.

‘Jounin. Earth’ Hinata signed, swallowing hard, her eyes on the floor even as her fingers continued to move. ‘Water’ another pause, longer this time. ‘Fire’.

 Shikaku very carefully avoided reacting outwardly at the list, and he hoped Kotetsu had gotten better at controlling his expressions in the last few months.  

“Do you know how to use a Bingo Book?” he asked Hinata instead, already reaching into his pocket even before he got another tiny nod in confirmation.

He handed the book over and watched her flip through to the section on jounin with a curious surety, though he couldn’t think of a situation where a genin would’ve had the time to become so familiar with layout of the Bingo Book, and he doubted Kurenai would’ve been quite so militant with the kids.

Then, he stilled as Hinata flipped the book around and showed them the double-page spread on Iwa’s head-hunter squad, two jounin and a chunin that have been around since before Minato became a ghost story for Iwa-nin.

“They still alive?” Kotetsu asked when Shikaku simply stared, and Hinata slowly turned the book back towards herself and signed an affirmative.

That meant that a fresh genin team had somehow manage to evade one of Iwa’s best tracking squads, and Shikaku reckoned that he was probably overdue a long talk with Yuuhi.

But then Hinata was back to flicking through the pages, and the next shinobi she showed them had Shikaku sucking in a started breath.

Hoshigaki Kisame stared back at him from the page, the Bingo Book entry picture complete with sharpened teeth and the bloodthirsty smile that Shikaku could personally confirm as accurate. Hoshigaki was almost singlehandedly responsible for the sleepless night Shikaku had endured poring over Village defenses with the ANBU Commander. The Kiri-nin had somehow made his way through the Village unimpeded despite being far from inconspicuous; they couldn’t afford such obvious weaknesses in the system, especially so soon after a full-scale invasion.

He also desperately needed the written report of how three genin and a ninken had made it out of an encounter with Kiri’s Tailless Tailed Beast, alive, on his desk yesterday.

But then, Hinata showed them the last page, and Shikaku’s stomach sank. He should’ve expected it, a part of his mind had been warning him that it was the likely conclusion as soon as he saw Kisame’s face, but seeing Uchiha Itachi’s chunin promotion photo staring back at him still felt like a punch to the gut.

He had no idea how Team Eight had managed to escape with their lives. The genin messenger’s response of ‘more or less’ was starting to sound like a miracle.

“I will need a written report as soon as you feel up to providing one.” He informed the girl, watching as she blinked slowly at him, her expression seeming far-away. “But for now, I think it would be better to have you checked out by the medics. You’re home, your team is safe. You did well, Hinata-chan.”

The girl blinked again, slower still, and this time, her eyes didn’t open fully. The Bingo Book slipped from her loose grip and hit the floor with a quiet thud, and then Hinata’s legs folded under her too. She would have hit the ground if Kotetsu hadn’t caught her, and his alarmed shout had one of the attending medics hurry over to them, though his voice was steady and calm as he greeted Shikaku and instructed Kotetsu on how to hold Hinata up.

When the medic’s hand fell on Hinata’s sternum, however, the calm mask shattered and he cursed, barking orders and dropping his clipboard onto the floor to get both hands on Hinata’s body. Through the flurry of medics that descended on the girl and the curses that were falling from their lips, Shikaku realised that the fact that the girl was still standing was a miracle in and of itself.

When the medics carted Hinata away on a stretcher, the ninken puppy managing to squish itself between the girl’s legs and evading every medic that tried to remove it, Shikaku turned to Kotetsu.

The chunin looked pale, staring after the genin with wide eyes, and when he saw Shikaku looking, he swallowed, looking guilty.

“I-I didn’t realise. Sorry, Shikaku-sama.” He apologised, guilt and anxiety and still the slightest bit of awe marring his face.

Shikaku took a deep breath, then let it out slowly.

“Neither did I.” he confessed simply, then bent to pick up his dropped Bingo Book, which he tucked back into his jacket pocket. Then, he turned on his heel and headed for the double door out of the hospital’s waiting area. “Tell the medics to let me know when she’ll be up for writing that report.”

And then he left, because, really, on the scale of the crises he had to deal with today, this was more along the ‘miracle’ side of the spectrum.

Ino had never given Kiba much thought.

Even when paralysed in bed in the hospital, her old Academy classmates rarely crossed her mind. The medics had allowed Sakura’s bed to be brought into her room, both of them likely to be in the hospital long-term, and Ino didn’t know whether the medics had actually caved to her requests (demands) or whether they were that desperate for more rooms in the hospital after the invasion.

The point was, the result was the same.

Her and Sakura were able to share a room, both unable to move from their respective beds after the events of the second round of the Exams, sometimes managing conversation, sometimes ending with Ino half-listening while Sakura read out loud whatever book she’d managed to get her sensei or the nurses to bring her.

The point was, Ino hadn’t thought of Kiba beyond the occasional passing thought since the Academy.

He was loud, obnoxious, and almost comparable to Naruto on the annoyingness scale, the only thing that differentiated them was that Kiba at least had some sort of an idea about the ninja world and Clan hierarchy.

The first notable thing about him had been his team’s C-Rank, weeks before any of the other Rookies would get their C-Ranks.

The second had been the news that Team 8 was not going to be participating in the Chunin Exams.

The third had been Shikamaru, in the rare few times he’s managed to visit Ino in the hospital since the invasion and his promotion. He’d come in about a month after the invasion, not just tired but visibly rattled, and it had taken her and Sakura fifteen minutes of pushing and prodding to get him to open up.

“Hinata- Hinata’s team.” Shikamaru had rasped, not meeting either of their eyes, his hands balled into fists. “They’ve been declared MIA.”

Neither Ino nor Sakura had known what to say to that.

And then, two weeks after that, Kiba had been wheeled into their hospital room, pale and weak, looking deeply unconscious.

“His records say he was in your Academy class.” The nurse who’d wheeled his bed in had told them, looking tired and harried but trying to manage a smile for them. “He’s going to be here a while, too, and we thought it might be better if he has some familiar company when he wakes up.”

“Um,” Sakura had managed, trying to sit up more but wincing and giving up half-way, “but he’s…a boy?”

“They’ve got the privacy screens, Sakura.” Ino had grouched, rolling her eyes at the rare instance where Sakura’s civilian upbringing reared its head. “Aren’t Naruto and Sasuke boys, too?”

At the mention of her teammates, Sakura had quietened, and the nurse shot Ino a grateful look.

“What happened to him?” Ino had asked in turn, eyeing what little she could see of Kiba critically. “That you can tell us?” she added after she noticed the nurse looking somewhat uncomfortable.

“Bad chakra depletion and damage to his heart tissue.” The nurse explained vaguely, Ino got the sense that they were barely grazing the tip of the iceberg.

“Can he be cured?” she’d pressed, her own helplessness at her predicament having long turned to anger then cooled into a festering bitterness, and there was the flash of guilt she’d been looking for.

“By a miracle. Or Senju Tsunade.” The nurse admitted, the smile slipping off her face, and Ino could see a similar bitter helplessness reflected in the woman’s eyes.

“So, like us, then.” She’d concluded flatly, and Sakura let out a quiet sound that would’ve once been a sob, but the nurse had just nodded quietly and took her leave.

Still, when Kiba actually woke up, over a week after being brought in to their room, and Ino got to hear the full story of what had happened on Team Eight’s latest mission when Shikaku-oji had been called in for the report, Ino wondered whether forced retirement from active duty wouldn’t be a kinder fate.

She also wondered what kind of mental scars having to manually and repeatedly restart your teammate’s heart might leave. Team Eight probably had the worst luck out of the Rookies, but they were either stronger mentally than the rest of their peers, or they’d had some serious help with learning how to compartmentalise.

“So,” She asked once the adults had cleared out of the room and Kiba was left staring at the ceiling, looking far more exhausted than a simple report should’ve left him, “medic-nin?”

Kiba scoffed, tired and wry and winded yet still somewhat amused.

“That’s the goal, yeah.” He replied breathlessly, though Ino couldn’t hear any of his usual cockiness in the words. “If I live long enough.”

Ino snorted before she could stop herself, and even Sakura huffed a quiet, resigned laugh. Three of them, barely genin, from all three of the Rookie teams, in the hospital long-term with the nurses tiptoeing around the fact that they were unlikely to ever go back to active duty.

Lovely.

“Do you know anything about mithridatism?” Sakura asked once they’d settled, glancing briefly at Ino, but Ino’s attention was on Kiba and the thoughtful, feral grin that split his face.

“Not so much myself, no.” he admitted easily, pushing himself up on the pillows so he could look between the two of them, and Ino was jealous of his ability to do so. “But I have a feeling that’s about to change.”

Ino had not given much thought to Kiba since the Academy. She hadn’t much liked him at the Academy either.

But this version of Kiba? This slightly unhinged, able-to-read-between-the-lines, apparently competent Kiba?

This Kiba she could learn to like.

When Hinata woke up, it felt like she was breaking the surface of water after being under for a long time. She sat up, not even registering the pull in her muscles, too busy taking small, gasping breaths that did little to keep the panic at bay as she tried to take in her surroundings.

Hospital.

Her head was pounding, but beyond the stiffness of her muscles and the grim taste in her mouth, she couldn’t feel any other injuries, which meant she’d been unconscious for a while.

How long? Where was Kiba? Shino? Sensei?

She heard the door to her room open and she snapped her head in the direction, though her gaze was unfocused, her breaths still wheezing, her hands shaking.

“Hey, Hinata, easy, breathe.” The figure who’d entered instructed, coming nearer but not near enough to crowd her, which she was distantly grateful for. “You’re in the hospital in Konoha, I’m Shiranui Genma, you’re safe, your teammates and sensei are alive. Now come on, breathe with me.”

Your teammates and sensei are alive.

As if that were the magic phrase needed to release the vice from around her ribs, she suddenly found it much easier to follow Genma’s instructions and breathe.

“There we go.” Genma sighed some time later, getting up from the chair at her bedside to place the book he’d brought on the table on the other side of her bed. “Glad to see you’re awake. Have you been seen by the nurses yet?”

Hinata shook her head and Genma hummed neutrally, seemingly content to let her watch him as he arranged the vases on her bedside table and placed the book he’d brought on top of another one already there, the title something she vaguely recognised but couldn’t quite place.

“The bouquet is from your Aburame teammate, the wildflowers are from Hana, and the book is from Shikaku’s kid, I believe.” Genma explained lightly, tapping each item in turn, and Hinata was glad he was filling the silence, because she didn’t feel able to. “Yugao wanted to check on you but she’s going through a lot herself at the moment, but Ebisu sends his regards.”

Slowly, Hinata raised her right hand and signed a rough ‘thank you’.

“It’s no problem.” Genma waved her off, moving so he was standing at the foot of her bed and gripping the railing lightly. “How are you feeling?”

Hinata paused as she thought about the answer; ‘dazed’ was what she finally settled on, and Genma nodded understandingly.

“You came in with severe chakra exhaustion, several broken ribs, internal bleeding, and a pretty bad concussion. I’m not surprised.”

Hinata blinked at the extent of her injuries, then considered her hands and general recollection of the mission. ‘paper and a pen?’ she signed, and it was Genma’s turn to blink, tilting his head at her quizzically. ‘report.’

“Shikaku will understand if you take a few more days.” Genma told her, probably aiming for sympathetic, but he must’ve seen something on her face because he sighed and dug into his pocket, producing a pen. “I’ll go see if I can steal some paper from the nurses.”

In other circumstances, Hinata may have smiled, but she felt…empty.

Genma settled into the chair at her bedside when he came back with a notepad, a casual ‘I’m heading to the Tower anyway, I can drop your report off with Shikaku on the way’ as explanation, which Hinata chose not to read into.

She didn’t know how long she sat there writing, trying to remember everything that had happened to her team since they left the Village while being mindful of filtering out the questionable parts, like her breaking Itachi’s genjutsu. When she felt like she’d finally finished, she brought her finger to her mouth and bit through the skin on her index finger, waiting till the blood welled up, then pressing her finger like a seal at the bottom of the page.

“Smart.” Genma commented, waiting while Hinata folded the paper. When she finally handed it over, he tucked it into the inner pocket of his vest and saluted her teasingly.  “Rest up, heal, and I’ll try to visit in a few days if I’m still in the Village, or get Yugao to. Do you need anything while you’re here?”

Hinata considered the question, aware that Genma was unlikely to be able to step into the Hyuuga Compound.

But, a thought had taken root in her mind when she’d been walking to the Village with Shino, her mind unable to handle the anxiety of not knowing whether her teammates would make it to the hospital, and that same thought swept over her now that she had an adult she trusted asking her whether she wanted anything.

‘book’ she signed slowly, ‘on sealing’.

“A book on sealing?” Genma echoed, one eyebrow hiking up, though his tone was far from judgemental. Instead, he looked…thoughtful, and quietly proud. “I’ll see what I have around.”

Then, he let his hand rest gently on the top of her head, not ruffling her hair but just resting on it, before he headed for the door, no more words needing to be exchanged between them, her report tucked safely in his pocket.

In the safety of her mind, Hinata smiled. She was grateful to Kurenai in this timeline for giving them their mentors. While she wouldn’t go as far as calling Genma or Yugao her friends, the contact she had with them was still more than she had in her first life.

And anything she could get outside of her Clan was a blessing she would never take for granted.

The next time Hinata woke up was because a nurse came to change out her IV. She blinked awake, no clue how much time had passed since she'd seen Genma, and more than a little surprised to have woken at the nurse’s quiet motions and unobtrusive procedure, then tried to get her sluggish brain to focus.

And that was when she felt the presence that was the more likely reason behind what had woken her up, two stormy chakra signatures heading unerringly for her room.

A few seconds later, the door to her room opened unceremoniously, not so much as a perfunctory knock to announce the visitors, and Elder Asahi and Elder Hideki stepped into the room, both not even trying to hide their disdain for its occupants.

“Hinata.” Hideki greeted, scowling at her like she was scum on the sole of his sandal. “While your weakness and incompetence are no longer surprising,” he began, glancing around the room meaningfully, “imagine how displeased your father was to learn you’re a traitor, too.”

Hinata blinked, startled and intimidated and feeling the beginnings of panic clawing up her throat.

“What’s the matter?” Asahi demanded stonily, his countenance icy, his expression blank. “Have you got nothing to say for yourself?”

“She’s mute, Hyuuga-san.” The nurse that had been changing her IV intervened, glancing at the Elders with a frown and ignoring Hinata’s tiny abortive gestures. “Until we can get someone from Psych to see her, she’s unlikely to be able to speak to you.”

“No Yamanaka is going to enter her mind.” Hideki boomed, disapproval and distaste audible in his tone and visible on his face. “This is the Hyuuga heiress, not some disturbed degenerate.”

“Leave the room.” Asahi added, not even glancing at the nurse, his attention on the flowers on Hinata’s bedside table. “This is a Clan matter.”

The nurse frowned, then turned to Hinata with a reassuring smile and patted her shin lightly. “I’ll be right outside that door, sweetheart, just press the button if you need anything, hm?”

And suddenly, Hinata realised how Sakura had grown the spine of steel she’d acquired even before the War, despite barely leaving the hospital between the ages of thirteen and sixteen. She nodded mutely at the nurse, trying for a smile but likely failing, though the woman still looked pleased.

Once the door closed behind the nurse, Hideki dropped all pretence of amity.

“You taught the Nara heir our weaknesses. He’d have never been able to match your cousin without your betrayal. You sabotaged your own Clan; what have you got to say for yourself?” he demanded sharply, and Hinata shrank back against the cushions, trying to make sense of the onslaught of information, but her brain felt sluggish.

Shikamaru won against Neji? He told people that we’d been training together? The Elders were at the Arena?

“Not only did you sabotage your Clan, but it sounds like you sabotaged your Village, too.” Asahi drawled, glaring openly now. “Is it true that you came across Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame?”

Slowly, Hinata nodded.

“And you didn’t think it more prudent to run ahead and inform your Village of the incoming threat?” he pressed, his very presence making Hinata feel breathless. “Instead of damning it for that useless wench you call a sensei and some mutt?”

Hinata’s blood ran cold, and her heart skipped a beat.

“Yuuhi Kurenai only got to jounin because the Sandaime’s son is soft on her.” Hideki scoffed, glaring at the window. “She has no value as a kunoichi nor as a woman. The information about the two missing-nin heading for the Village was far more valuable than her life, yet you chose to save her.”

“Poor choice.” Asahi drawled, and Hinata felt sick.

Her ears were ringing, and her head felt like it was underwater. She’d known, peripherally, that Kurenai wasn’t the most fond of her Clan. She’d realised her Father wasn’t fond of Kurenai, either.

But she never thought anybody in her Clan would be so stupid as to imply that Hinata should’ve left Kurenai to die.

“Listen when we are talking to you, child.” Hideki hissed, grabbing her wrist painfully and wrenching her out of her thoughts. He pulled so hard that Hinata overbalanced and nearly fell off her bed, saving herself only barely by swinging her legs down, her feet colliding roughly with the hospital linoleum and sending a shockwave of dull pain up her unused joints.

Hideki's fingers were still around her wrist.

Her head went eerily quiet.

Then, feeling as if a dam had burst, she felt a wave of anger so potent it was almost overwhelming slam into her, and she sprang into motion.

She ripped her wrist out of Hideki’s hold and flashed through the seals for the genjutsu Kurenai had had her use on the Iwa-nin, twisting the last seal into something with teeth. She channelled all her will, all her anger, all her helplessness and bitterness into the illusion, and let it rip through the Elders’ minds with none of the care and gentleness she used when practicing with Kurenai.

Asahi stumbled, reaching out blindly for the wall to support himself, while Hideki’s knees buckled and he hit the floor, his gaze far away and unseeing, his hands reaching for Hinata so she scrambled out of reach and clambered backwards onto her bed, kicking the duvet aside in case she needed to escape again.

Then, the door to her hospital room burst open, though it was caught before it could smash against the wall, and Hinata was treated to the sight of Yugao standing in the doorframe, the nurse from before to her side and Shikaku at her back.

Yugao stalked into the room, stepping over Hideki and not so much as pausing to glance at Asahi, not pausing at all, in fact, until she grabbed the rail at the foot of Hinata’s bed and wheeled it closer to the window, not caring at all for the mess she made of the bedside table and medicine cabinet. Instead, she pushed Hinata’s bed against the wall with the window, and put her own body between Hinata and the Elders, though they didn’t seem to be moving.

Wordlessly, Hinata reached out, finding the hand that was holding onto the bedsheets with a white-knuckled grip and laying her own over it, trying to offer some wordless comfort to the clearly distressed kunoichi.

Yugao startled, glancing away from the Elders for the first time since she’d stormed into the room, turning her gaze first to the hand Hinata had resting over hers, then to Hinata’s face.

Hinata sucked in a quiet breath; Yugao looked destroyed.

Her skin was pale and sallow, her eyes bloodshot, the skin under them purpling and swollen from lack of sleep, her hair a mess, and the usual sharp humour absent from her face.

She looked like she'd been to hell and back. But mostly, she looked like she’d been grieving.  

And then chose to storm Hinata’s hospital room like her personal knight in shining armour.

“Shit,” the nurse murmured, and Hinata tuned back in and realised that the woman had knelt by Hideki’s side and was running a green-glowing hand over his chest, “this one’s had a heart-attack. Iwade!”

Another nurse came into the room, taking in the collapsed Elders and rearranged furniture, doing a double-take at Shikaku, then finally focusing on Hinata’s nurse. “Get me a stretcher? And call someone from Psych, the other one doesn’t look good either.”

Nobody spoke while other nurses came and went, wheeling Hideki out of the room and grabbing oxygen masks and clipboards. A Yamanaka came at one point, his eyes falling on the catatonic Asahi, one pale eyebrow hiking up at what he saw. But he just sighed and got the man to his feet, then, with a hand on Asahi's shoulder, disappeared from the room in a swift Shunshin.

When the room was finally empty, bar Hinata, Yugao, Shikaku, and Hinata’s original nurse, Shikaku finally spoke.

“I came to ask you some questions about your report, but I feel like this takes precedence.” He announced, glancing from Hinata to the still-tense Yugao. “Stand down, Uzuki.”

Yugao bared her teeth and did not relax.

Shikaku, wisely, didn’t comment.

“They accused her of treason against the Clan, Shikaku-sama.” The nurse – Hinata should really make a point of learning her name – informed quietly when nobody spoke, glancing worriedly at Hinata. “Insulted her, too.”

Something complicated flashed over Shikaku’s face then. “Because you helped Shikamaru?”

Hinata nodded slowly.

(She wondered whether the expression in Shikaku’s eyes was guilt.)

“Anything else?” Shikaku pressed, and he looked concerned as he added, “Breathe, Hinata.”

And Hinata realised, over the pounding in her head and the frantic beating of her heart, that she was hyperventilating.

‘they said-‘ she signed, and her hand shook so much she had to cut herself off. She turned her other hand, the one she still had over Yugao’s, and laced their fingers together, squeezing tightly, both for comfort and to ground herself. She felt tears rise to her eyes when Yugao wordlessly squeezed back, almost too tightly for comfort, but Hinata could understand. When her hand stopped shaking, she continued; ‘intel more important than sensei. better to have left sensei to die’

Yugao stilled, then squeezed her fingers even harder, but Shikaku sighed.

“Nobody who knows the full report will ever blame you for bringing your teammates back.” He told her quietly, “What you and Shino did was brave and dangerous, but it was not treason. Considering the state you were in, I’m not even sure you’d have been able to beat Itachi to the Village even if you had chosen to run ahead and warn us.”  

“However,” Shikaku continued when Hinata didn’t react to his words, and Yugao didn’t seem keen on abandoning the defensive position she’d claimed, “until the tensions within your Clan die down, I’d like to offer you to stay with my family once you’re dismissed from the hospital.”

When Hinata blinked, startled, Shikaku smiled humourlessly. “You helping my son is part of the reason why your Clan is angry with you. The least I can do is help you in turn.”

‘no catch?’ Hinata couldn’t help but ask, and she saw the moment some light returned to Yugao’s eyes, a hint of the old good humour that seemed to have been buried under layers of grief and bitterness.

“No catch.” Shikaku confirmed, sounding tired but wryly amused, though luckily not offended. “Come to the Tower when you’re dismissed and I’ll take you home. I’m pretty sure Shikamaru will be glad to have you around, too.”

Slowly, Hinata nodded, and Shikaku finally relaxed, and it was only then that she realised how tense he'd been. 

"I'll ask Psych to send your shrink to see you. No matter how justified, let's not make a habit of attacking Clan Elders, hm?" and so saying, he turned on his heel and left, Hinata's nurse following him out. 

When it was only her and Yugao left in the room, Hinata tugged on the hand she was holding and gestured for the older kunoichi to actually sit on her bed. Almost lethargically, Yugao complied, though she still looked tense, eyeing the door every so often. 

'thank you, senpai' Hinata signed once she had Yugao's attention on her, too tired to try for a smile. 'are you alright?'

Yugao sighed, her breath trembling on the exhale, and leaned back against the wall, closing her eyes. 'my fiancé was killed' she signed, the movement slow and weary, though she seemed relieved to not be expected to speak. 

Hinata sucked in a quiet breath, feeling as if she'd been punched.

Instead of offering meaningless platitudes or apologies, she shuffled over on the bed, telegraphing her movements all the while. When she was sure she wouldn't get stabbed with one of Yugao's many weapons, she let herself slowly lean against the older kunoichi's side until she could rest her head on Yugao's shoulder, where she promptly went boneless.

She never let go of Yugao's hand, and Yugao never chased her away. 

Instead, they sat in silence, soaking up the wordless comfort of simple companionship, until Hinata, the adrenaline finally wearing off, fell asleep. 

Kurenai didn’t even have an hour to herself to get her bearings after she woke up before Shikaku was in her hospital room.

“Kurenai. How are you feeling?” the man asked, sitting wearily on the uncomfortable plastic chair at her bedside, and Kurenai had an inkling that this wouldn’t be a short conversation.

“I don’t even know how I should be feeling. Nobody’s told me anything.” She managed hoarsely, reaching for the water at her bedside table to soothe her throat.  “Can you catch me up on what I missed?”

Shikaku sighed, adjusting his position on the chair, but surprisingly proceeded to do as she asked.

Finding out that Hiruzen was dead hurt, not necessarily because of her own ties to the man but because Shikaku was rather tellingly not mentioning Asuma.

Finding out Itachi had reached the Village almost a week before her team and had sent Kakashi to the hospital was somehow worse, though.

"My kids?" she asked at last, because that was another thing Shikaku had been careful not to mention.

"They'll live.” The man assured her, a measure of relief in his gaze. “Every last one of them." 

"Okay. Okay." Kurenai breathed out and allowed herself to melt at the relief that washed through her at the news.

Then, she grew serious again and pinned Shikaku with a look. "Now tell me how they'll live. I've been on too many missions to not know the difference between 'they'll live' and 'they're fine'."

Shikaku sighed again, but he apparently wanted something from her because he obliged.

(What he told her almost made Kurenai wish he hadn’t, though.)

"Your Aburame admitted himself to Psych before he even went by the hospital.” Shikaku began flatly. “They had to get a medic to him there because he refused to leave. He has yet to be discharged."

"How long has it been?" Kurenai asked, almost afraid of the answer. From the state of her muscles and the gown she’d been dressed in, she had a vague inkling that she’s been in the hospital for a while, but-

"Almost a month since the day your team walked through the gates."

"Fuck." Kurenai swore, closing her eyes for a moment. A month of her being completely unconscious, and that’s without counting however long her kids had had to fend for themselves after their battle with Hoshigaki. She took a deep breath and pushed the guilt that surged up to the back of her mind and steeled herself. "Okay, that’s Shino. Kiba?"

"Severe chakra depletion. He bled himself dry trying to keep you from bleeding out. Medics say he went below 1% in his reserves." Shikaku relayed bluntly.

Kurenai blinked, absorbing that.

"He should be dead.” She said slowly, feeling disconnected from her feelings and body even as she knew her words to be true. “We were all the way in the Land of Rivers, still miles from the border of Fire."

She stared at Shikaku until he slowly nodded and elaborated.

"Your Hyuuga gave him a chakra transfusion." Kurenai paled, mouth opening, but Shikaku clearly thought the fact deserved to be hammered in some more and he cut her off before she could speak.

"Allow me to reiterate. Your genin performed a war-time field chakra transfusion despite already suffering from chakra exhaustion herself. Then manually restarted the Inuzuka's heart every time it gave out on the way back to the Village, which, according to the medics, was at least three times."

For a second, Kurenai just stared, and Shikaku was kind enough to give her the time to absorb it.

"He has scarring on his heart tissue from the Lightning jutsu Hinata used to do it, and he'll need Tsunade's help if he ever wants to be able to do anything more than walk up the stairs without getting a heart attack, but he'll live." Shikaku concluded finally, when almost a minute passed between them in complete silence.

"And-” Kurenai swallowed, not sure if her luck wasn’t about to run out. “And Hinata-chan?"

"Hasn't said a word since they got back. Kagane's citing trauma, but she's not a Yamanaka and it's difficult to diagnose someone who won't talk. Shikamaru's been trying to keep her company when he's free, but he's busy." Shikaku explained, and there was something in his tone that didn’t sit well with her.

"What are you not telling me?" Kurenai asked shrewdly, aware she was probably being more than a little rude but unable to care about it just then, because Shikaku was saying a lot of words but he was not actually saying much of anything at all about Hinata’s state.

"I forget you trained in T&I sometimes." Shikaku smiled wryly, but there was little humour in the expression, and Kurenai didn’t let the comment distract her from her goal. "Hinata-chan's been living in my Compound since the hospital released her."

"What?" Kurenai asked quietly, feeling wary. “Why?”

"Hyuuga Elders stormed her hospital room calling her a traitor to the Clan for telling Shikamaru how to beat their dojutsu for his match with Neji."

"Did she tell him how to do that?" Kurenai asked carefully, because she’d known Hinata had been training with Asuma’s student before their mission, but she’d thought the girl was more careful than what Shikaku was implying.

"No, but that nuance doesn't matter to the Elders.” Shikaku shot back, and Kurenai startled slightly at his tone. That was far from the genial neutrality the Nara Head usually exhibited to other Clans, and she couldn’t help but wonder when he’d grown to care about her student. “They wanted her sealed and disinherited, and they went as far as to try and forcibly remove her from the hospital."

"Did the nurses interfere?" Kurenai asked, because she’d had experience with Hyuuga Elders on a warpath, and knew that a bed-bound Hinata was unlikely to have been able to defend herself.

"They didn’t need to. Though I do find it funny that you taught a genin a genjutsu strong enough to send a Hyuuga Elder straight to Psych." Shikaku replied, a mean little smirk curling his lips.

Kurenai paused, considering both Shikaku’s words and his delivery, and, oh, it was undeniable that Shikaku was happy with the Elders’ predicament; there was more schadenfreude in his expression than she’d seen from the man in a good few years.

"The other one suffered a heart attack right there in her hospital room. He'll recover, but he's not happy with your student."

Kurenai took a moment to absorb everything, then-

"Fucking Hyuuga Clan." She scoffed, then asked the question that had been plaguing her since Shikaku told her about Shino’s Psych admission. "Has Psych cleared her after the Tsukiyomi then?"

Shikaku's face lost the slight smile it had gained after her comment, and if Kurenai had had the presence of mind to feel fear, she might have felt it just then at the Nara's aura.

"The Tsukiyomi?” He checked, eyebrows almost at his hairline, his posture carefully still, his body-language betraying nothing. “She went under Itachi's torture genjutsu?"

"You're telling me Kagane didn't notice?" Kurenai answered his question with one of her own, more than a little disbelieving herself.

"What I'm telling you," Shikaku said, and his voice was sharp and cold, a drastic contrast to the usual lazy drawl, "is that there's nothing about the way Hinata acts that suggests she went through the same genjutsu that took Kakashi out of commission for days."

"I felt him activate the technique, Shikaku.” Kurenai argued, not sure what she was feeling but aware that it wasn’t anything good. “My genin went under seventy-two hours of physical and psychological torture and you're saying she's fine?"

They stared at each other for a few seconds, trying to work out how a genin could come out of an event like that unscathed, then Shikaku hung his head and cursed, loud and ugly and vicious.

"Fucking Hyuuga Clan."

Any mirth Kurenai might've felt at getting Shikaku to swear, and at another Clan at that, was swiftly dispelled by Shikaku's next words.

The Jounin Commander – and regent Hokage, if she was reading the clues right – ran his hands down his face, took a deep breath, visibly reigned his temper back under control and regarded her coolly.

"Yuuhi." He called, and Kurenai was immediately on-guard by the sudden switch back to her surname. “By mine and the new Chunin Commander's standards, your kids could have gotten a field promotion the moment they walked through the gates."

"But?" Kurenai checked, tense and wary, because she could feel the word coming even if Shikaku wasn’t saying it.

"But times are uncertain, and it's likely we'll need a show of strength in the Kumo Exams." Shikaku declared, not dropping her gaze as he delivered the news.

Kurenai took a moment to parse through that non-sequitur, then glared at Shikaku flatly when it clicked.

"So you want my kids to keep taking chunin-level missions but you don't want to give them the recognition of a promotion." She concluded flatly, feeling anger and bitter disappointment stir in her gut.

Shikaku’s face went blank, his eyes cold and tone curt.

"I understand you're stressed and protective of your students, but dial down the attitude a notch.” He told her sharply. “You're not the only one stuck with a shitty situation, and you'll be bed-bound for a while yet. Not promoting them means that your students get to stay together instead of being separated and getting sent with nameless teams on back-to-back missions to keep up the illusion of strength."

Kurenai paused, because the way Shikaku said that last part sounded a bit too much like he was speaking from experience. She considered him, considered what she knew about the man, what could have caused the undercurrent of bitterness in his voice- oh.

"Your son got promoted, didn't he?" Kurenai asked quietly, and Shikaku looked like he wanted to wince, confirming her guess. "I'm sorry, Shikaku-sama."

“Don’t do that.” Shikaku ordered, glancing away even as the corner of his mouth curled down. “Don't defer to me when you don't mean it, I can tell you don't agree with my decision.”

Kurenai kept her mouth shut, because, well. She didn’t agree, he was right, and she knew better than to defend herself when he’d already seen through her act.

“What's the verdict?” she asked instead after a few seconds went by, hoping that the unsubtle change of subject would be enough to get the man out of whatever mental spiral he seemed to have fallen down.

“You and your Inuzuka are hospital bound for the foreseeable future. Without Tsunade, the medics are hesitant to let your student out of bed, much less out of the hospital.” Shikaku informed her, some of that bitterness abating slightly as he glanced back at her. “You lost a considerable amount of blood and a good chunk of your abdomen. The Inuzuka did a good hack job in the field to patch you up, but he's not even a qualified med-nin. A lot of what he did to keep your insides on the inside had to be undone once they got you to the hospital, and that set your recovery back about a month on top of whatever else you'll need.”

Kurenai barely fought back a wince at the prospect of such an extended hospital stay, but she wisely kept her mouth shut and allowed Shikaku to finish.  

“If Psych manages to put your Aburame back to working order, him and Hinata will probably be pawned off as fillers for other teams until you and the Inuzuka recover. I'll try my best to keep them together if that happens, but don't expect miracles.”

“Permission to speak freely?” Kurenai requested, and Shikaku’s raised eyebrow seemed to say ‘haven’t you been doing it already?’ but he still nodded obligingly. “This fucking sucks.”

Shikaku snorted, the sound seemingly shocked out of him, and he lost some of the tension in his shoulders.

“Yeah. Yeah it does.” He agreed dryly, eyeing her briefly before he pushed himself to his feet. “I'll send Asuma your way if I see him around.”

“Thank you, Shikaku-sama.” Kurenai replied, and this time, the honorific was genuine and they both knew it.

It didn’t mean she wouldn’t be sneaking out of her hospital bed to see for herself that her kids would live, but it was a start.

Chapter Text

Two and a half months after the invasion and two months after his chunin promotion, Shikamaru finally got more than a day or two of downtime between missions.

His mom had been asked to come out of her semi-retirement to take up shifts at the hospital, and Shikamaru wasn’t sure when was the last time he’d seen his dad for longer than five minutes in passing had been.

He’d been placed on numerous teams since his promotion, sent on missions that rarely lasted longer than five days at a time, never straying too far from Konoha or the borders of the Land of Fire, which was reassuring, but it also meant that he came home from those missions with teammates-for-the-day, rather than any meaningful friendships. That, coupled with the fact that Asuma was still grieving, thus largely absent, Ino was in the hospital, and Choji was busy with the demolition and reconstruction unit that a lot of the Akimichi had been pulled into, Shikamaru was feeling almost…lonely.

So he was surprised when, on his first proper day off in over a week, as he was lying in his front yard and staring aimlessly at the cloudless sky, his dad came up to the house, Hinata of all people in tow.

“Look sharp, Shikamaru.” His dad greeted, stopping by the front door and eyeing Shikamaru’s sprawled out position with amusement, though his face was lined with the same permanent fatigue that Shikamaru himself was feeling. “We have guests.”

“I can see that.” Shikamaru frowned at his dad, arranging himself into a slightly more sat-up position. “Hey, Hinata. Good to see you.”

Hinata nodded, raising one hand and twitching through unfamiliar signs, though not otherwise acknowledging his greeting. Pushing himself to his feet, Shikamaru frowned, glancing at his dad.

Apparently seeing his lack of recognition, Hinata also shot his dad a look then turned back to him, raising her other hand and trying again. Signing slower and two-handed this time, Shikamaru recognised one of the few nonessential signs he’d been able to learn since his promotion: ‘likewise’.

“What’s with the signing?” He asked as he followed his dad and Hinata into the house, trailing after the two of them with no small amount of curiosity.

“People process trauma differently.” His dad replied simply, shooting him a sharp look when Hinata’s back was turned. “At least now you’ll have the motivation to actually learn Chunin Sign.”

Shikamaru barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes, but he still scowled at his dad. “It wasn’t lack of motivation so much as lack of time. I haven’t been properly home for longer than a day or two at a time in weeks.”

“I’m aware.” His dad said simply, his face betraying nothing. “Mind showing Hinata the guestroom?”

Recognising that it was less a request and more a politely worded order, Shikamaru sighed but waved Hinata over, leading her up the stairs.

“I didn’t realise you’d been released from the hospital.” He started awkwardly as they made their way up, then had to stop and frown. His family’s house wasn’t exactly new; the floorboards were old, worn down, and the stairs creaked even for him, even though he had long-ago mapped out the quietest paths. So when he didn't hear the telltale creak of someone following him, he turned around, only to end up nearly tripping over Hinata and sending them both tumbling back down the stairs when he found her right behind him.

Alarmed, Hinata reached out as if to steady him, then snatched her hand back before she actually touched him, raising both hands instead so they were in his line of sight and signing a slow ‘OK?’

“Yeah.” Shikamaru huffed, turning back around and trying to ignore the burn of embarrassment on the back of his neck. “Sorry.”

But he wasn't 'OK', because he'd just had a startling realisation: Hinata’s steps didn’t make a sound.

Pushing the thought aside until he could properly dissect it, he stopped by the door to the guest room and pushed it open, revealing a room almost like his own in layout, if a little smaller and missing any sort of personal touches except for the books and boxes of scrolls that lined every shelf.

“I’ll get you new bedding and towels, but here it is. Bathroom’s the second door down, then there’s my room.” he explained, not sure why he was feeling so awkward but hating every second of it. “If you need anything, just knock.”

He turned to go back to the stairs, but a light touch on his elbow stopped him in his tracks. He half-turned back towards Hinata and found her holding the book he’d brought her when she’d been in the hospital, a small smile on her face.

(despite the book being held out to him, the first thing Shikamaru focused on were the finger-shaped bruises around Hinata’s wrist)

Feeling the tips of his ears grow warm when he realised how long he’d made her wait while he studied the bruises, Shikamaru took the book back, wanting nothing more than to beat a hasty escape. But then he caught Hinata’s hands twitch tellingly and he sighed and forced himself to wait patiently, despite every bone in his body urging him to bolt.

Raising both hands again and managing another tiny smile, Hinata signed a clear, unmistakeable ‘thank you’, then something he didn’t recognise.

“It’s no problem.” He answered what he understood, figuring that even if he did ask for an explanation of the second part, he wouldn’t get one from the girl. “I brought some books for Ino too, so I figured, since you wanted access to our library anyway…”

He trailed off, not sure what he was even saying anymore, then turned on his heel and took the stairs down as fast as he could, aware he was probably being rude but feeling too out of his element to care.

He heard the unmistakeable sound of the guestroom door shutting and let out a sigh of relief, then rounded on his dad.

“Dad, what the hell?” he half-whispered, half-hissed, gesturing vaguely at the stairs. “What gives?”

“’What gives’ is you shooting your mouth off during the final stage even though we agreed to keep your ‘training’ with Hinata quiet.” His dad shot back, more serious than Shikamaru recalled seeing him in a while. “Two Hyuuga Elders came to her hospital room calling her a traitor to the Clan and demanding she be disinherited for helping you. Providing her with a safe space to stay while the tensions die down was the least we should be offering.”

Catching onto the ‘least’ part, Shikamaru paused, reading between the lines of what his dad wasn’t saying. “Did they do anything?”

“Aggravated the situation, if anything.” His dad sighed, reaching for a cigarette despite Shikamaru’s judgemental eyebrow. “Hinata gave one of them a heart-attack and sent the other one to Psych.”

“Good.” Shikamaru smirked, but something in his dad’s expression made him hesitate. “Not…good? But- it was self-defence, no? Like with me?”

“Clan Elders don’t really care for nuance.” His dad shrugged, moving to the window as he lit the cigarette, though Shikamaru still scrunched his nose up at the habit. “Attacking an Elder in self-defence or as another act of treason is still attacking an Elder in their books.”

“So she’s just going to…live here?” he asked, not sure how he felt about that. “Until you sort the Elders out?”

“There’s not much anyone can do about the Elders, Shikamaru.” His dad sighed, blowing smoke out the window, and Shikamaru scowled at the smell that still managed to reach him, making his dad huff a tired laugh. “And yeah, she will. At least until her sensei’s out of the hospital and can take her in. Objections?”

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, hoping his face conveyed how ridiculous he found the idea. Instead, he asked the more important question: “Do you have any books on Chunin Sign?”

“Shino.”

Shino turned towards the entrance to his room in Psych, surprised to find Ebisu there, already closing the door behind him.

“Ebisu-san.” He greeted quietly, putting aside his book and frowning up at the man. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to see how you’re doing.” Ebisu replied evenly, moving over to stand by the window on the other side of the room. “Genin don’t usually end up here, particularly long-term.”

“Genin don’t usually end up facing S-Ranks.” Shino shot back, sharper than he’d intended, and immediately feeling guilty. “Sorry.”

“Correction, genin don’t usually end up surviving S-Ranks.” Ebisu said, his voice still perfectly even, not sounding in the least offended, and Shino took a deep breath to steady himself and still the shakiness in his hands. “Why are you here, Shino?”

“I was useless.” Shino spat before he could bite the words back, telling Ebisu what had taken his assigned shrink a week to get out of him. “Everything we’d worked on- useless.”

“Do you know why I'm trusted with preparing jounin-hopefuls for the Jounin Exam despite being only a tokubetsu myself?” Ebisu asked suddenly, a propos nothing, not acknowledging Shino’s outburst as he moved away from the window and perched on the sole armchair in the room, next to the small table with the pile of books Shino had amassed.

He didn’t wait for Shino’s answer.

“In my first Chunin Exams, my team came across five of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. To this day, I still don’t know why they were there or how they got through the border security, but genin were always considered easy pickings to weaken other Villages during the War. The Chunin Exam was prime time to weed the ranks.” Ebisu told him quietly, and Shino didn’t dare interrupt. “Five Kiri jounin against three Konoha genin was not good odds. We'd have died if it weren't for Gai's dad.”

“I remember feeling so acutely useless that I was paralysed when it came to the combat section. Felt like I’d forgotten everything I’d ever learned.” Ebisu smiled humourlessly. “Afterwards, I swore I'd never be that helpless again so I tried to learn a little of everything. It consumed me so much that I didn’t end up becoming chunin until I was seventeen.”

Shino realised he was leaning forward, curious to hear where Ebisu’s story was going, when he nearly ended up slipping off the bed. Hoping Ebisu was kind enough not to comment, he shuffled back until he could lean back against his pillows, crossing his legs and putting his hands in his lap.

“I'm versatile because that encounter stayed with me to the point that I wanted to be prepared for anything. I still want that, though not so obsessively.” Ebisu sighed, stretching out his legs, before he pinned Shino with a look.

“My point is, I'm difficult to fight. I know it, I take pride in it. But when I met one of the Swordsmen that attacked us again in the field a few years ago, I couldn't even put a scratch on him.” Ebisu’s tone turned cold and bitter and self-deprecating, and Shino found the expression on his face to be intimately familiar. Then, the man sighed again and pinched the bridge of his nose, the heavy air around him lessening somewhat, and Shino felt like he could breathe again.

“Some shinobi are just monsters, Shino.” He concluded quietly, sounding weary and jaded to the core. “And the best you can hope for when you come across them is to survive. So I don’t think you were useless. In fact, I think you did rather well.”

“I’m sorry.” Shino offered, quiet but genuine. “And thank you.”

Ebisu’s lip quirked up, but he still looked bitter, despite his eyes being covered. “I didn’t tell you what happened because I was looking for pity. I just wanted to tell you that everyone has missions they feel useless in, and everyone feels helpless from time to time. There will always be someone stronger than you.”

“I know that.” Shino bit out, not angry at Ebisu or anything specific, just at himself and his stupid brain. “But- Kiba can heal. He saved sensei’s life. Sensei is a genjutsu mistress, but she can do so much more than that. And Hinata, no matter what happens, she always knows what to do. It’s like she doesn’t feel fear, or pain, and I-!”

Shino cut himself off, already feeling like he’d said too much.

“Your insects nearly killed you in your C-Rank, and on this mission you twisted your ankle and broke your arm.” Ebisu finished for him, and Shino flinched. “However, unless you and Kiba-kun lied in your reports, you were also responsible for Hoshigaki Kisame leaving the encounter with your team sans an arm. And that’s likely the most damage anyone’s dealt to that man since he defected.”

Shino’s eyes widened at the news, and he itched for his glasses, but the Psych shinobi had taken anything sharp from his room after one of his episodes, and his sunglasses had had to go.

“You read our reports?” He asked haltingly, not sure whether he wanted anyone he knew to know what he’d written.

“It pays to have friends in the Missions Office.” Ebisu smiled wryly. “But, my point is, you were far from useless on this mission. And a useless shinobi would not have spent years trying to find a way to host the rinkaichu in his body and succeeded when he’s still a genin.”

Shino was sure his face was showing his shock more clearly than if he’d vocalised it.

“I didn’t realise you knew the distinction.” Was what he ended up saying, his voice sounding far-away even to his ears.

“I don’t wear these just as a fashion statement, Shino-kun.” Ebisu huffed, pointing at his sunglasses which, for some reason, the Psych shinobi had allowed him to keep. “But when I read your and Kiba’s report, I knew it couldn’t have been anything other than rinkaichu.”

“Who did you know?” Shino asked, aware that there had only ever been one family in his Clan that had hosted the rinkaichu.

Torune’s family.

Ebisu smiled sadly and shook his head. “That’s a conversation for safer circumstances.”

Shino frowned, looking around the room, not seeing anyone apart from the two of them. “So you know what happened to Tor-”

Quicker than he could blink, Ebisu’s hand was over his mouth, cutting him off mid-word.

“Remember when I was telling you about monsters?” he asked quietly, barely moving his mouth, keeping Shino between him and the one-way mirror onto the corridor. “There are some monsters you shouldn’t even name.”

Shino nodded mutely, trying to convey ‘message received’ and ignore how fast his heart was hammering. This close, he could see the small but unmistakable engraving of a beetle on the bridge of Ebisu’s glasses, and he supposed he had his answer.

“Will you tell me who you knew?” he asked once Ebisu removed his hand, trying to keep his voice its usual deadpan but probably missing by a mile for anyone who knew him.

“One day.” Ebisu promised, and Shino didn’t press for a more concrete date, still shaking on the inside. “For now, let’s focus on making a training plan to avoid you feeling so helpless again, hm?”

Shino sighed, then he smiled, small and barely-there but a smile nonetheless, and reached over for the notepad and the crayon he was allowed to have, ignoring the way his hand was trembling.

He was in Psych voluntarily. Nobody was keeping him there. He could leave at any point.

But he knew he’d feel much better leaving with a concrete plan for what to do to not end up in Psych anytime soon, and Ebisu was perfect for helping him work it out.

Kiba woke up slowly, dazed from the medicine the medics were pumping him with, and found concerningly large cleavage concerningly close to his face.

“-the hell?” he mumbled, raising a hand to rub at his eyes and pushing himself up, hearing the heart rate monitor he was permanently connected to pick up the pace.

When he glanced up, his heart audibly skipped a beat, then picked up again, because standing next to his bed and glaring at a tall man with a crazy mane of white hair was a woman who’d left the Village before he was even born, but she somehow looked not much older than she had in the photo in his medical textbook from the Second War.

He was aware that both of the adults were sniping at each other, but his ears were registering it as white noise, and the stress of the situation wasn’t helped by the fact that both Ino and Sakura appeared to be out cold, not even twitching in their beds despite the raised voices.  

Before he could think much more on it, he was pulling on his chakra, spooling it in like Kurenai had taught them, then releasing it like a whip in the direction of the shinobi pretending to be Senju Tsunade.

The genjutsu or henge or face-swapping technique the woman was using didn’t so much as waver, but his actions had both adults cut off mid-word and turn to him in shock.

“Did you just- use a kai?” the Tsunade lookalike demanded, eyeing him sharply and exchanging a look with the white-haired man. “In your state? Are you a moron?”

“I was told to avoid stress.” Kiba grouched, squinting first at the pretend-Senju then at the man. “And there are two unknowns, one of whom is an impostor in my room, and my roommates appear drugged to high heavens. Excuse me for exercising caution.”

“’Unknowns’?” The woman huffed, turning to the clipboard at the foot of his bed. “I’ll have you know I’m Senju Tsunade, brat, and if you ever pull a stunt like that again while in the hospital, I’ll seal your chakra myself.”

Kiba snorted at the claim, feeling even more on-edge than before. “No offense, lady, but nobody ages this gracefully.”

At this, the white-haired man made a sound like a hastily-smothered laugh, and earned himself another glare from the Tsunade-pretender.

“At least this one knows who you are?” the man offered in a choked voice, then turned away, suddenly finding the window incredibly interesting.

“Since you seem to have missed the memo,” The Tsunade lookalike snapped, rounding on Kiba and jabbing a thumb at her white-haired partner, “this idiot hunted me down to succeed sensei, and since I’ve stepped foot in the Village, I haven’t had a single moment’s peace! The hospital is in shambles, the field-medic programme is ash and dust, and the basic level of first-aid you receive in the Academy is worse now than it had been during the Second War! Too many things need fixing, and I’m not even officially Godaime yet.”

“Wait.” Kiba demanded, shaking off the drug-induced sluggishness to pin the white-haired man with a baffled look, recalling Sasuke’s brief visit from a few days previous. “Are you the Pervert Sannin? Jiraiya?”

“I’ll kill that brat.” The apparent Jiraiya groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose, and Kiba reckoned he probably should’ve specified which brat he was referring to. “I am indeed the Sannin Jiraiya. And that is Tsunade, kid, so you might wanna ‘exercise some more caution’ to not get thrown out of the window.”

Kiba took a moment to process that, then, finally registering what the woman had begun her explanation with, he turned back to her and frowned, somewhat annoyed.

“I probably ‘missed the memo’ because the nurses treat our room like we’re leprous, in case you haven’t noticed yet.” He informed the blonde, feeling vindictively satisfied when she flinched. “They don’t want to admit they can’t heal us without a miracle.”

“But there’s nothing here that requires a miracle.” Tsunade replied, frowning openly now as she pointed at Ino and Sakura. “That one needs a spinal reconstruction, and the pink one needs extensive rehabilitation, but it’s nothing impossible.”

“And ninety percent of the medics here don’t have the chakra control for that.” Kiba threw back, settling more comfortably against his pillows and keeping his eyes on the woman’s hands. “They handle the scalpel that is medical chakra with all the subtlety of a bludgeon.”

“I didn’t know morphine made kids get poetic.” Jiraiya muttered from where he was standing by the window, frowning at Kiba thoughtfully, but Kiba ignored him, his attention on the affronted expression on Tsunade’s face.

“A word of advice, brat.” She began, finally stepping properly to his bedside and laying her hand on his chest, letting her chakra wash over his without adjusting to his wavelength, and Kiba flinched, fully convinced that the careless action was intentional. “Don’t criticise the medics until you can do better than them, are we understood?”

But then she stilled before Kiba could reply, and he felt her probing more deeply into his chakra core. “Wait, I know your chakra.”

She glanced up at him in what seemed to be disbelief, then she scowled, suddenly angry.

“You’re the fool responsible for Yuuhi’s hack-job.” She accused, and Kiba froze beneath her hands. “You really are a moron, huh? No sane medic should ever attempt organ reconstruction in the middle of a field mission!”

“What if it’s the only thing that has any hope of keeping their teacher alive?” Kiba asked quietly, his voice shaking with anger, but knowing he was powerless to do anything to let it out. “What then?”

“Don’t get smart with me.” Tsunade snapped, withdrawing her chakra from his body. “Who’s your supervisor in the programme? They should be fired.”

“I’m not in the programme.” Kiba replied, and Tsunade’s anger and annoyance melted away at his words as if they were never there.

“What?” she checked quietly, studying him intently now, her eyes a little wider than before.

“I’m not in the medic programme.” He repeated slowly, feeling his chakra roil beneath his skin. “I have an active genin team and I’m barely six months out of the Academy. They wouldn’t let me join.”

“How did you learn, then?” Tsunade demanded, and her anger seemed to have cooled into genuine curiosity, but Kiba’s, in turn, was an uncontrollable inferno raging inside of him. “Even your batshit hack job would’ve required some skill and technical knowhow.”

“My sister’s a vet.” Kiba explained, unwilling to give more detail than that, then he bared his teeth. “And desperation’s a great motivator.”

“You said the medics treat this room like you’re leprous.” Tsunade shot back, and Kiba was surprised at the non-sequitur, and even more surprised that she’d been listening enough to remember the words he’d used. “Did you mean to include yourself in that?”

“Ma’am,” Kiba began, if only to see the way Tsunade’s eye twitched at the title, “I have chakra scarring on my heart from the three Raiton jutsu that my teammate performed to restart it when it gave out from chakra depletion. Chakra scarring that no medic currently in this hospital dares talk about, much less touch to actually try and break down.”

“Any idea why they don’t dare touch it?” Tsunade asked, and Kiba had the absurd feeling that he was back to being on the receiving end of Iruka’s pop-quiz.

Only he’d actually been scared of Iruka, but all he currently felt for the woman before him was contempt.

“Potentially because treating me would involve open-heart surgery and I’d either need a medic who could manually keep my heart beating while simultaneously breaking down the scar tissue, or two medics who can synchronise their chakra so perfectly to my own that one could keep my heart beating while the other would deal with the scarring.” He explained, unable to fight back the way his lip curled bitterly when he added, “But, as I already said, chakra control’s kinda missing around here.”

Tsunade just stared at him, Jiraiya too, neither acknowledging his words, until Tsunade tilted her head, her voice finally losing the last of its antagonistic edge.

“Do you want to be a medic?” she asked evenly, her eyes boring into his, as if measuring his very soul. “A proper one, with a mentor and a sponsor in the programme?”

And- Kiba had an inkling as to what she was offering, but that was simply too absurd to consider, so he shook his head and opted for the truth.

“No, ma’am.” He denied, and she might’ve calmed down, but that didn’t mean his annoyance at her had cooled any, and making her eye twitch again was the most he could do about that just then. “I just want to know enough medical ninjutsu to keep my teammates alive.”

Before she could open her mouth and likely sell him the spiel that the medic programme was the best place to do that, he added, “I’m an Inuzuka; hospital shifts would be hell for my nose. And I’m not interested in staying out of the combat, particularly since, if Sasuke’s successful, my team’s likely to inherit Team Seven’s combat designation.”

Tsunade studied him for a beat, both of them ignoring the way Jiraiya twitched at his last remark, then nodded.

“Alright.” She accepted, surprisingly easily, then smiled, and it was similarly sharp to Kurenai’s smiles, though nowhere near as bloodthirsty. “And you were wrong about there being no medic with the chakra control to do the procedure you described. There is one.”

When he merely tilted his head, her smile gained some more teeth.

“Me.”

"Yuuhi-san." Sasuke greeted cautiously as he entered the room he was directed to, surprised to find it only half-occupied.  The red-eyed woman he was told to look for was there, as well as two others in the beds closer to the window, though neither of them looked awake. The other three beds were empty, and Sasuke didn't want to think about why that might have been, with the hospital at full capacity.

The red-eyed woman looked up from her book, raising an eyebrow at him, not bothering to hide her surprise.

"Uchiha-kun.'' She returned slowly, dog-earing her page and putting her book on her lap, studying him curiously. "What brings you here?"

"Sasuke is fine." Sasuke dismissed uncomfortably as he closed the door behind himself and stepped a bit further into the room, then promptly stilled, not sure whether he was allowed to actually come in. "I was told that your team fought- fought Uchiha Itachi."

"That we did." The woman agreed slowly, sending a measured glance at her roommates, though neither of them so much as twitched. "Though it might be better to say that we survived Itachi."

"I was also told-" Sasuke swallowed, wondering why this felt so hard, "that you- knew him."

This time, there was also suspicion in the woman's gaze as she met his eyes. "And who told you that?"

"Kiba said you were familiar with him. And that he recognised you." Sasuke explained quickly, for the first time since their conversation actually entertaining the thought that Kiba might've lied.

But the red-eyed woman sighed and gestured to the chair at her bedside, and Sasuke almost stumbled as he headed for it, his knees feeling weaker than when he'd come out of Psych after the Preliminaries, but. Things changed.

"I did indeed know Itachi, as more than just the Uchiha genius. Or I thought I did, anyway." Yuuhi admitted, and Sasuke frowned as he sat, hoping for more detail. Apparently seeing his expression, the woman huffed a short, humourless laugh. "He was on a team with a lot of my friends. They'd hang out at my apartment sometimes, in-between missions; I'd cook for them, gossip, the like."

The concept of his- of Itachi having friends outside of Shisui was baffling to Sasuke, but more so was the casual way Kiba's sensei was talking about him.

Since the- since that day, nobody had dared utter Itachi's name in Sasuke's vicinity, and here this woman was, casually reminiscing and admitting to having been friends with Itachi.

"And did you see the Itachi you knew when you fought him?" Slipped out before he could bite it back, preface it with an explanation, and he knew he'd miss-stepped the moment the previous ease morphed into something more analytical.

"Where are you going with this?" the woman asked, not quite sharply, but certainly pointedly.

"I met him on my latest mission. He fought me. Probably would've killed me if Raido-san hadn't intervened." Sasuke relayed, then took a deep breath. "I looked in his eyes and I didn't- I didn't see my brother."

Sasuke could see the exact moment the woman realised what he meant, and her sharp gaze softened, became more sympathetic, but luckily, she refrained from vocalising the pity he could see in her face. 

"No." she sighed instead, her gaze growing far-away. "He was not the Itachi I knew."

They sat there in silence for a moment, then the woman glanced at him again, a challenge in her eyes now, and Sasuke felt like he'd been caught off-balance. "Is that all you wanted from me?"

Floundering, Sasuke wondered whether this was why Kiba had looked so entertained when Sasuke had voiced his plans to speak to his sensei. The woman was bed-bound and feminine, but her presence was as intense as Kakashi's. Maybe more so.

"No." Sasuke managed, squaring his shoulders where he sat. "I'd like to learn genjutsu. You're the genjutsu mistress."

"I also have my own students." Yuuhi shot back, frowning at him. "And, nothing personal here, Uchiha-kun, but I'm not going to let you copy years of my hard work with your Sharingan and call it yours."

"I'm not- I don't want that." Sasuke denied, frowning right back, wondering whether this was what Kakashi had tried to warn him about back before the Preliminaries. "My cousin, he always said we have to live our illusions. That the Sharingan is useful, but it shouldn't become a crutch. That-"

"I'm aware of Shisui's philosophy." the woman cut him off, and Sasuke almost bit his tongue, because, what? "But I wouldn't be able to teach you any of the techniques that were born out of it. If you want anything on that, you'd be better off asking Mitarashi Anko."

"Anko-san?" Sasuke echoed, wondering how his potential senpai was relevant to this conversation.

His reaction, however, prompted a raised eyebrow from the woman. "You're familiar?"

"I want to apprentice in Intelligence, I just need Kakashi to sign off on it, but he's being Kakashi." Sasuke explained while rolling his eyes, and the corner of Yuuhi's lips quirked up, as if that was all the explanation she needed. "Anko-san said that if I'm successful and qualify, she's 'claiming' me."

"Of course she did." the older kunoichi replied, also rolling her eyes, though it was far fonder than Sasuke's reaction to Kakashi's antics. "If you do become her student, and she likes you, you can ask about the things Shisui left her. Be aware she might stab you for asking, though."

Sasuke elected against asking why his cousin would have left a T&I operative any of his personal effects, and, particularly, if he was reading between the lines correctly, any of his jutsu notes.

Some things were better left unsaid.

"Will you help me?" he pressed instead, because he hadn't actually received a clear answer. "With non-Sharingan genjutsu?"

"Answer one question for me first." the woman replied, pinning him in place with that unnerving gaze. Distantly, Sasuke wondered whether the red eyes were part of the reason why his relatives used to warn him not to take it personally if people wouldn't make eye-contact with him. "Why genjutsu?"

Sasuke scowled, trying to put into words the many convoluted thought processes he'd had in Psych, after, and during the mission hunting for the Senju princess. Or how influential Raido-san had been in helping him untangle his thoughts about his Clan and his brother, for all that the man had come with them to keep teaching Naruto trap-setting.

"Naruto's obsessed with his traps, and Sakura's taken to the idea of learning poisons." He began, shaking off the shiver that threatened to crest when he remembered Sakura, Ino, and Kiba's expressions when Sakura had started talking about poisons the last time he'd gone to visit her. "I'm an Uchiha; I should be versatile. And the best way for us to be an effective team is if I take up genjutsu."

"'Effective'." Yuuhi echoed, staring at him intently. "Trap-setting, poisons, genjutsu." she stared at him silently for a few seconds, then sat back against her pillows, looking almost amused. "You want to become a sabotage squad."

Sasuke blinked, not having expected her to come to that conclusion so quickly, but- "Yeah."

She wasn't wrong.

None of the Rookies were the same people he'd graduated the Academy with, for all that it hadn't even been a year since graduation. Yuuhi's team alone was testament to that if Kiba were to be believed. 

On his team, Sakura had grown bitter. She'd spent almost three months in the hospital, hoping that the magical healer who'd left the Village before she'd even been born would come back and allow her to be a ninja again. Sasuke himself, genius of the Uchiha and Rookie of the Year that he was, had had his arms broken and dreams of promotion destroyed by a genin who couldn't use anything other than taijutsu and couldn't externalise his chakra. Even Naruto, for all that he'd gotten to the final round and managed to avoid serious injury, even his unshakeable optimism hadn't escaped unscathed from the ordeal of the Chunin Exams. The idea of remaining a combat-specialising team under Kakashi didn't sit well with them anymore, particularly since it took the horror of the Exams for them to really become a team, and by then it had been too late to save whatever faith in Kakashi they may have had left.

Kakashi of the Sharingan may be untouchable, but that didn’t make anyone under his command untouchable by association.

As the three of them had found out.

During his debrief in Intel – because, although they’d accomplished their mission and come back with Senju Tsunade in tow, they’d had to dodge Orochimaru yet again, and that meant concern for Village secrets and sleeper agents, so he and Naruto had spent two days answering progressively weirder questions in Intel – he’d had the chance to speak to Mitarashi Anko.

And, beyond enlightening him to the wealth of information Intel shinobi had access to, she’d let him in on the piece of information that nobody had thought to share with him despite the shitshow of the Exams and everything that followed : that genin teams can change specialisations.

Naruto, who’d been by his side the entire time, had pressed Mitarashi for more details, got a scroll to the face with all the different designations, then taken it - and Sasuke - straight to Sakura's room.

Sakura's expression when she'd been told the news, then when she'd trailed her fingers over the requirements for the different designations and landed on 'sabotage', had been the same one she'd used to look at him with.

Not that he'd seen that look since she'd landed in the hospital, but the awe, hope, and pure determination had been enough to confirm for him that it wasn't just Naruto who'd found something he'd be better suited to than straight-out combat.

Yuuhi's face went through a lot of emotions at his confirmation, but it settled on something that looked like she was torn between laughing and shaking him by the shoulders.

"Have you talked to Kakashi about it?" she asked, and her voice, though still maintaining its even tone, sounded somewhat strangled, which Sasuke blinked at.

"Haven't seen him since the dobe and I set off on the mission." He replied, shrugging to hopefully hide how bothered he was starting to be by that fact. "Sakura says he's avoiding us."

"Do me a favour." Yuuhi requested then, and she reached up to pinch the bridge of her nose.  "Find Kakashi and talk to him. Recruit my kids to help you track him if you need to. But please, promise me you'll talk to him about this before you give my best friend a heart attack."

"Alright." Sasuke promised awkwardly, not sure how the woman expected him to be able to find a jounin who appeared determined to avoid him.

"If you're feeling a little mean," Yuuhi continued, as if reading his mind, "or Shino and Hinata are busy, you can also ask Asuma, Maito Gai, or Shiranui Genma for help. They're always down for ruining Kakashi's day. And when you find him, tell him I want to cash in my IOU."

Sasuke huffed, amused despite himself, and nodded, feeling a little more at ease.

"And if you brush up on your basics and want some initial guidance on non-Sharingan genjutsu, I recommend talking to Hinata." she added kindly, but Sasuke frowned, not following.

"Hyuuga Hinata?" He checked, flushing when Yuuhi's face clearly said 'do you know any other?', but- "But- she's a Hyuuga."

Yuuhi frowned, and Sasuke hadn't realised how open her countenance had been until it frosted over and she suddenly looked closed off and decidedly unapproachable.

"She's also shaping up to be the combat specialist on my team, so I advise you to avoid that tone if you speak to her, Uchiha-kun." She told him sharply, voice suddenly cold, and Sasuke winced. "Is there anything else you want from me?"

Sasuke stood, inclining his head. "No. Thank you for your time, Yuuhi-san."

He got all the way to the door before he paused, glancing back. "Have a quick recovery."

He didn't flee the room per se, but he definitely speed-walked out of the hospital. Then, once outside, he paused, wondering whether he wanted to bring Naruto's brand of chaos into what was already shaping up to be a nonsense-filled day.

Hinata did not attend Tsunade’s inauguration.

Instead, she used the fact that most of the Village’s able-bodied population would be out of their houses and snuck into the Hyuuga Compound from the back, bypassing the main gate, and walked to the empty library, stopping by her room to grab the chakra-paper scroll that no Byakugan could see through. She spent half an hour in the main library copying down all the information she could find on the Caged Bird Seal, then snuck into her father’s personal library and copied down the exact pattern of the seal and any information she could find onto her scroll.

Then, she made sure she put everything back exactly where she found it, tucked her scroll into the inner pocket of her jacket, and left the Compound as quickly and inconspicuously as she could.

She’d had a lot of time to think over the last few weeks, partly about what would become of her team, and partly about how she was going to go about putting her promise to Neji into motion.

And then she’d found out from Shikaku that the next Chunin Exams were going to be hosted in Kumo and her team was all-but guaranteed to participate, and suddenly, the answer was right there.

She’d checked the scrolls Genma had brought her, consulted the Nara library, asked for permission to take a book out for the day, then headed over to Kurenai’s hospital room with her notes and her books and her scrolls safely in her bag.

Kurenai had been bemused at Hinata’s question about the Toad Sannin’s habits and schedule, but when Hinata had signed ‘seal-related’, Kurenai’s eyes had widened but her questions had, luckily, subsided.

Not that Hinata didn’t trust her sensei, but Kurenai hadn’t been alone in her hospital room.

Kurenai had told her to give her a week, but when Hinata had gone to visit her three days later, she already had a date and a time for Hinata’s meeting with the Sannin.

Five days after Tsunade became the Godaime Hokage, Hinata made her way to the café Kurenai had indicated the day before and found Jiraiya already there.

Upon seeing her slide into the booth opposite him, Jiraiya immediately slapped a seal on the table between them, and Hinata felt more than saw the chakra disturbance around her.

“I know I have a certain reputation, but I’m not gonna go around trying to make it worse.” He grumbled at her quizzical look, and Hinata had to fight the reflex to flush when she understood what he was referring to. “It’s a seal for CIs. Makes your face and hair more forgettable.”

‘useful’ she signed, choosing not to comment on the first part of his statement lest she embarrass herself further.

“Kakashi implied I should expect a woman.” The Sannin frowned, not acknowledging her comment either, and he was staring at her intently, far more intensity in his gaze than she would’ve expected from a nickname like Ero-sennin.

‘my sensei’ Hinata signed, ‘registration 0-1-0-8-8-1’

“That’d be the one.” Jiraiya sighed, and the intimidating aura around him lessened somewhat. “What’s with the signing?”

Hinata paused. Considered. Shrugged mentally, then signed, simply: ‘traumatised’.

Jiraiya snorted, but nodded in apparent understanding, waving her off. “Alright, I get it. So, what do you want, kid?”

Slowly, Hinata reached into the inner pocket of her jacket and pulled out the chakra-infused paper that no dojutsu could see through she’d stolen from Shikaku’s desk drawer and slid it across the table to the Sannin.

She knew what it said: she’d taken a good two hours the previous night to draft the message, so she knew precisely what it was that Jiraiya was reading.

My name is Hyuuga Hinata, the heiress to the Hyuuga Clan, his eyebrow jumped up after he scanned the first sentence, gaze briefly flickering to her face before it fell back to the paper, I plan to challenge my father for the position of Clan Head once I make jounin. Another unreadable glance. I then plan to abolish the Caged Bird seal.

Jiraiya had to read over the last sentence twice, but the moment comprehension dawned in his eyes, he set Hinata’s message aflame and sent her an askance look.

“I could report you for treason, you realise.” He said slowly, the quietest and most serious Hinata had ever heard him, and she couldn’t help the small, bitter quirk to her lip.

‘you wouldn’t be the first’ she signed simply, and some of Jiraiya’s hostility melted away.

Instead, he reached over and slapped another seal onto the table between them, and this time, Hinata felt the quiet buzzing sound, not unlike Shino’s kikaichu, that, if she recalled correctly, meant that their conversation was muted to outsiders.

Not that it mattered much in her case.

“Alright.” Jiraiya took a deep breath, rubbing his forehead briefly before he pinned her with an assessing look. “Assuming that you actually manage to challenge daddy dearest,” he paused briefly when Hinata flinched at the term, then resumed more slowly, measuring every word, “how would you go about abolishing a century of ‘tradition’?”

The scorn he said the last word with surprised Hinata, but she also understood it; she herself had a rather complicated relationship with the concept of tradition.  

Instead of trying to form a response with only Chunin Sign to rely on, she pulled out the scroll Genma had brought her when she’d asked for books on sealing and unfurled it on the table between them, pointing out the specific passage she’d circled with a pencil.

But Jiraiya’s gaze, instead of following her finger, seemed glued to the scribbled notes in the margins. The writing was unfamiliar to her, but judging by the way the Sannin unconsciously reached out and traced his fingers over the writing, his expression almost reverent, it was more than familiar to him.

“Where did you get this?” he asked quietly, as if speaking any louder would shatter the moment or make the scroll disappear, and Hinata didn’t see the harm in telling the truth: ‘s-h-i-r-a-n-u-i’.

“Ah, yeah.” Jiraiya muttered, wryly amused now, and he looked at her again, his expression much more open than before, though no less thoughtful. “Kid must really like you.”

Hinata felt briefly amused at the fact that Jiraiya was of an age where he considered Genma a ‘kid’, when the man was a proper adult even in the eyes of her technically-twenty-two self, but she shelved the thought when Jiraiya seemed to shake himself out of the melancholy and turned his attention back to the actual text, frowning at it.

“So what did you want to show me?”

Hinata tapped the passage on bodily autonomy again, having memorised what it said: if a shinobi finds themselves sealed, they are within their rights to unravel the seal by whatever means necessary.

Jiraiya laughed humourlessly as he scanned the text. “Yeah, except, unless it’s changed since I learned of it, if a member of your Clan tries that, there’s the whole torture element of the seal to consider.”

Hinata winced at his wording, but he wasn’t wrong.

Well, not about the seal, at least.

‘not a member of my Clan’ she signed slowly, because this was the correction she’d wanted, needed to make the moment she realised that Jiraiya was actually willing to listen to her. She waited as comprehension slowly dawned on Jiraiya’s face, then added, just so there would be no misunderstandings: ‘me’.

The Sannin stared at her for a few seconds, his face completely devoid of emotion, his chakra unreadable, and for the first time, Hinata understood how the man who Naruto had regularly called a pervert and a clown could have worked well on a team with Orochimaru.

“You want me,” he said slowly, his voice completely blank, his face betraying nothing, his eyes never straying from Hinata’s, “to put what is, at its core, a slavery seal, on you.”

Undeterred and undaunted, Hinata nodded.

“Why?”

Hinata shuffled around the papers she’d pulled out until she found the one on intellectual property and tapped the passage she’d circled. There were only two words that were important in the text: public domain.  

Jiraiya stared at the words, then at Hinata, then back to the paper, before he put his head in his hands and started laughing.

“And I thought Minato had been insane.” He murmured, his face still hidden from Hinata’s eyes, but at least it meant that he didn’t see the way her eyes had widened at his words.

“I’m not making any promises.” Jiraiya said as he straightened, meeting her gaze evenly, and Hinata nodded. This was already much more than she’d ever dared expected would come from this meeting, anything more would be a blessing.  “Meet me here in a week, same time, and I’ll tell you if what you’re asking for is even possible.”

Then, as she went to collect her papers, Jiraiya’s hand hovered over her wrist, dwarfing her entire hand and effectively freezing her in place without even touching her. “And I’ll hold onto these, thank you.”

Hinata frowned, glancing from her papers, to the Sannin’s stern expression, then nodded reluctantly, moving to slide out of her seat.

‘thank you for your time’ she signed hastily, inclining her head respectfully before she moved beyond the reach of the silencing seal, and Jiraiya sighed.

“Kid.” He called, once again freezing her in her tracks without the need for a single jutsu. “This won’t be easy.” He frowned at her, his demeanour feeling more human now, and Hinata thought she saw a hint of concern and apprehension in his dark eyes. “Are you sure you want to go down this route?”

Sighing herself, Hinata allowed the small, bitter smile that she’d been repressing since she realised what she’d need to do to surface, meeting Jiraiya’s gaze unflinchingly.

‘i know’ she signed, suddenly feeling beyond tired as the full weight of her survivor’s guilt crashed into her, and she saw Jiraiya start at whatever he saw on her face, ‘but it’s worth it’.

Neji glanced down at Hanabi, the girl almost vibrating with excitement where she walked beside him, then turned back to the Nara Compound gates, hoping that they wouldn’t be chased away the moment the guards spotted them and he wouldn’t have to deal with an upset eight-year-old.

Things had been tense at the Hyuuga Compound, the news of the Elders’ intervention at the hospital prompting mixed reactions from the Clan members, from what Neji could tell. He himself didn’t know what to think, both at the idea of the intervention being necessary in the first place, or at the rumour that one of the Elders had ended up in the hospital with a heart attack, and another in the long-stay wing of Psych.

Hinata’s absence at the Hyuuga Compound since she’d gotten discharged from the hospital was also rather telling.

Hanabi had been distraught, first by her sister’s apparent injuries then by being forbidden from visiting her at the hospital afterwards. But, with their relationship somewhat on the mend since Hiashi had given Neji the letter from his father explaining the real reason behind his sacrifice, Hanabi had come to him a few weeks ago with the news that Hinata was allegedly staying at the Nara Compound and could they please go visit her?

So here they were, three weeks later, Neji having left his team’s sparring session early to pick Hanabi up from the Academy and take her to hopefully see her sister for the first time in three months. He only hoped Hinata was actually at the Com-

“Nee-sama!!!”

Neji startled, looking around frantically, but Hanabi had bolted ahead, not a care for decorum or Clan customs, the only saving grace being that she stopped before the gate to the Nara Compound and didn’t just charge right through.

After another few seconds of searching, Neji finally saw Hinata’s navy hair among the Nara brown, his cousin also having startled at Hanabi’s yell, and as he came closer, he noticed that she was sitting between to other Rookies, a couple of books and some snack-like food laid out on the blanket around them, but she was looking in their direction with clear shock writ on her face.

He watched as she stared at Hanabi for a second, her eyes wide and disbelieving, then how her gaze darted from Hanabi to Neji, now filled with no small degree of wonder, but also suspicion.

And then, she was suddenly there, no hand-seals or rustle of leaves to betray her movement, and Neji’s hand twitched towards his kunai pouch but Hinata ignored him, focused instead on pulling Hanabi into a desperate embrace, wrapping her arms around her sister’s shoulders and waist so tightly that Neji reckoned it must’ve hurt, but Hanabi only hugged back just as desperately.

Neji didn’t know how long the two sisters stood there, but eventually, Hinata pulled away and wiped at her eyes, then turned to Neji and hesitantly inclined her head in a shallow bow.

Neji stared at the top of Hinata’s head for a few seconds, not sure what to do and hating himself for hesitating. He scoffed and glanced away then rallied himself and stepped forward, extending a hand for Hinata to shake.

“I’m glad you’ve been discharged.” He told her stiffly once she took his hand gently, hating the fact that the wonder was back in her eyes when he didn’t shake her off or push her away when their hands made contact. “Hanabi-hime was worried.”

Hinata smiled softly, shooting her sister a fond look that Hanabi flushed under, but Neji was more concerned by the fact that Hinata wasn’t-

“She doesn’t speak.” An annoyingly familiar voice called out, and Neji half-turned to find his opponent from the final stage of the Chunin Exams ambling towards the gates, a thoughtful frown twisting his mouth. “Bad reaction to their latest mission. She uses Chunin Sign to communicate, so maybe read up before you put your foot in your mouth again.”

And then Neji suddenly found himself grateful for having trained with Tenten as a teammate over the last year, because without the reflexes that the kunoichi had honed in him, the way the Nara threw a scroll at him would’ve brained him between the eyes. He scowled, snatching the scroll out of the air, though before he could look at the title, his eyes caught on Hinata’s hands which were flashing through signs he couldn’t decipher, though at the very least whatever she was saying succeeded in making the Nara scowl, the expression on his face nearing petulant.

“M'not apologising.” He huffed, glaring at Neji briefly before he focused on Hinata. “You weren’t here, you didn’t hear how he was talking about you.”

Neji felt himself blush, his memory of their battle a hazy one, but he recognised that he’d likely been far from kind in his assessment of Hinata’s capacity as a kunoichi.

Hinata flashed through more signs and the Nara sighed, though he nodded obligingly and Hinata visibly brightened, raising her other hand to sign as well, slower and clearer this time, and the Nara turned to Hanabi, though his attention was still very much on Hinata’s hands.

“She says she missed you and is glad to see you, and she’s sorry she didn’t think to let you know where she was.” He informed Hanabi dryly, and Neji only then realised that the Nara was interpreting for Hinata. “She also says that she’d love to see you tomorrow and that yes, you can spar and get dango afterwards if you’d like.”

Hanabi cheered, jumping towards Hinata to throw her arms around her waist and hug her again, and Neji watched as Hinata initially stiffened at the contact, then softened and returned the hug with such a fond expression on her face that Neji had to look away.

“As for you,” the Nara continued, and Neji startled, turning back to him and guessing from the obvious change in tone that he was now the one being addressed, “read the scroll.”

Neji blinked a few times, then scowled. “What?”

“You’re a genius, aren’t you?” Shikamaru taunted, getting another vaguely disapproving huff from Hinata, though he ignored this one. “Apparently she has a lot to tell you, so you need to get proficient in Chunin Sign and do it stat, Hyuuga.”

“And how do you suggest I do that?” Neji demanded, squaring his shoulders and glaring back at Shikamaru, hating the Nara’s posturing and unnecessary aggression.

“Read the scroll.” Shikamaru repeated, then, apparently deeming the conversation too much of a bother, turned around and went back to the fat Akimichi and their blanket full of snacks.

Not sure who he hated more, Neji glanced down at the scroll in his hands, ready to throw it right back at the Nara and brain him this time, then paused.

Oh.

‘A Beginner’s Guide to Chunin Sign Language’ stared back at him, and he stared at it for a few seconds, uncomprehending, then silently shoved it into his pocket and turned to Hanabi.

“Let’s go, hime.” He ordered, waiting until Hanabi extricated herself from yet another hug, though he could see she planned to argue with him so he cut her off before she could start. “You don’t want to get an escort any time you leave the Compound again, do you?”

Clearly seeing the realistic threat for what it was, Hanabi sighed petulantly but pulled away from her sister, losing more and more of her childish demeanour the closer she came to Neji, until all that he could see as she stopped at his side was the child genius of the Hyuuga Main House, and not the eight-year-old Academy student excited to see her sister again she'd been over the last few minutes.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, nee-sama.” Hanabi bid, then turned away and started walking towards the Hyuuga Compound, stubbornly not glancing back.

Neji sighed, but he inclined his head at Hinata and meaningfully patted his jacket over the pocket in which he’d stashed the scroll. “Until tomorrow, Hinata-hime.”

He didn’t wait to see what Hinata’s farewell would be, but the tiny smile she gifted him with before he turned away made him hope against hope that there may yet be a future in which they could get along.

But for now, he had a cousin to escort and a sign language to learn.

Jiraiya slipped into Tsunade’s office at the Senju Compound, not surprised to find Tsunade and Nara Shikaku still poring over Village plans and details of the fallout from Orochimaru’s invasion.

His entrance had the both of them glancing up, so Jiraiya didn’t bother with a greeting.

“Are there ANBU around?” he asked instead, getting two negatives, one curious and one suspicious. “Good.”

Then, taking a deep breath and falling into the chair opposite Tsunade’s desk, he regarded Shikaku and Tsunade tiredly. “A Hyuuga genin came to me today, asking me to put the Clan’s slavery seal on her.”

Tsunade’s face lost most of its colour. “What?”

“Yeah.” Jiraiya sighed, rubbing his temples to try and stave off the headache he could feel building. “Main House, too.”

When he opened his eyes, he found Tsunade and Shikaku staring at him intently, clearly waiting for more information. With a grunt, Jiraiya reached into his jacket and pulled out the papers the kid had shown him ‘in support’ of her insane request, spreading them out on Tsunade’s desk, covering the Village plans and budget outlines the two had been studying before. “Gave me these, too.”

“Did she say why she wanted the seal?” Tsunade checked, pulling some of the papers closer so she could see them better.

“To abolish the practice altogether.” Jiraiya informed her dryly, drawing a startled glance from Tsunade and a look of dawning realisation from Shikaku, who had been studying the papers critically until his gaze landed on one of the scrolls.

“Hyuuga Hinata?” he asked in a slightly off voice, and Jiraiya heaved himself into a more sat-up position, levelling the Nara with a curious look.

“Yeah.” He confirmed, because that was what the kid had introduced herself as. “How’d you know?”

“She's living with my family.” Shikaku replied, earning a surprised look from Tsunade that he didn’t see, focused as he was on the papers on the desk. He nudged the scroll on intellectual property rights, a wry smile quirking his lip. “This one is from my personal library.”

“If the kid's living with you,” Tsunade began, glancing from the spread of papers on her desk to Shikaku, a frown creasing her brow, “why go through the trouble of arranging a meeting with Jiraiya?”

“Went through her sensei, too.” Jiraiya added, putting the pieces together now that he had some more information, “And Kakashi, to get me to even meet her. I don’t know why she avoided you, but it was intentional.”

“Shikaku?” Tsunade pressed when Shikaku quietened, but from the look in his eyes, they both knew he’d already reached some kind of conclusion.

“She’s the Hyuuga heiress.” Shikaku informed Tsunade tiredly, and Jiraiya cringed, reckoning by Tsunade’s expression that that might’ve been an important bit of information to include in his summary.

“Explains that, then.” Jiraiya sighed, pulling out the last of the papers – handwritten, and likely copied directly from Hiashi’s library, with enough information on the Caged Bird seal for someone with Jiraiya’s ability to reconstruct the seal.

“Is that-?” Tsunade asked, cutting herself off as she took in the diagram and neat, albeit rushed-looking writing describing the diagram and detailing the intricacies of the sealing process.

“Yeah.” Jiraiya confirmed, having an inkling as to what she was going to ask, and fully understanding the mix of awe and apprehension on Tsunade’s face. “Anyway, Shikaku? Your reason?”

Shikaku tore his gaze away from the handwritten diagram and straightened under their combined expectant gazes. “If I had to give a reason why she didn't go directly to me, despite, as you say, living under my roof and having much easier access to me than to Jiraiya-san, I'd say it was to give me plausible deniability.”

Judging by Tsunade’s face, Jiraiya was pretty sure he wasn’t the only one sceptical of that assessment, and Shikaku sighed, pulling his hairband out and running his fingers through his hair in fatigue or frustration, or, more likely, a mix of the two.

“I’m not just the kage regent.” He said quietly, eyes trained on the scroll from his personal library. “I'm also the Head of another Clan.”

It wasn’t boastful, it was a simple fact, and when Shikaku glanced up, first at Tsunade, then at Jiraiya, it was obvious he was only explaining for their benefit, having already accepted the conclusion he’d drawn as fact.

“If she’d come to me with plans of removing the Caged Bird seal - plans that, likely in the minds of many Hyuuga Elders would mean the weakening of the Hyuuga and interfering with their way of life - I'd have been complicit in the sabotage of another Clan.” He summarised, visibly spelling it out for them, but Jiraiya still had one hang-up, which Tsunade appeared to share.

“Kid's twelve, Shikaku.” She told him sharply, shooting Jiraiya a look which he nodded at, because yeah. “Don’t you think you're giving her a little too much credit?”

“I don't think I am.” Shikaku replied simply, not disrespectfully nor arrogantly, but still firmly. “It's not the first time she's demonstrated a degree of political awareness beyond her age. This-”

He shuffled the papers around, his gaze flickering from the scroll on intellectual property, to that on bodily autonomy of those sealed against their will, to one on sealing commission protocols, and those on half a dozen other topics Jiraiya wouldn’t have even considered relevant, then back again, before it finally rose to meet first Tsunade’s eyes, then Jiraiya’s. “This isn't a spontaneous whim of a clueless child. This has been months in the making.”

“Months?” Jiraiya repeated sceptically, refocusing on the papers. It had seemed like a well-researched collection once he’d looked at it in more detail, the kid likely wanting to cover all her bases, but- she was from a Noble Clan. They had all the resources at their fingertips, didn’t they?

“My son’s match-up for the final stage of the Chunin Exams was Hyuuga Neji. He asked Hinata for help in learning how to fight Hyuuga. She agreed.” Shikaku smiled wryly, humourlessly. “It's part of the reason the Hyuuga Elders aren't too fond of her. But, in exchange for sparing, she asked for access to our Clan library.”

“I doubt that would've been the first place she'd have looked.” Tsunade said slowly, looking at the papers on her desk with new eyes.

“Precisely.” Shikaku confirmed, taking the seat in the chair next to Jiraiya’s, seemingly having said his piece.

“Alright.” Tsunade summarised, and her tone was wooden, devoid of emotion, and Jiraiya was instantly on edge. “So we have a genin heir of a Noble Clan so intent on destroying a decades-old slavery seal she's willing to take it on herself. Is that right?”

Jiraiya glanced at Shikaku, who’d winced at the summary but tellingly didn’t contradict it, then nodded slowly.

“With the diagram I should be able to remove the torture component, but…yes.” Jiraiya said slowly, eyes on Tsunade’s expression. “Question is, are you going to allow it?”

“You're the seal master.” She shot back with a wry smile, though there was little actual humour in it. “If she commissions you, I have little say.”

“Shikaku?” Jiraiya asked, and the Nara seemed surprised at being addressed, but he still frowned thoughtfully. “Do you think she can succeed?”

“It all depends on how she spins it, if she’s found out.” Shikaku mused, rubbing his eyes briefly, before he focused back on the papers still spread over Tsunade’s desk. “If she can find a good enough justification for giving herself the seal, then-!”

Shikaku cut off suddenly, his eyes widening, then he hung his head and laughed, short and sharp but undeniably amused and pleased.

When he looked up again, meeting Tsunade’s expectant eyes and Jiraiya’s raised eyebrow, he smiled, slow and satisfied and proud.

“The seal’s primary purpose was to protect the Byakugan from those who’d seek to steal it.” He drawled, tapping his finger against the hand drawn diagram. “Her team’s slated for the Chunin Exams in Kumo. There’s your reason.”

Jiraiya stared, turning the information over in his head, putting the pieces together, and when it all slotted into the full, big picture, he couldn’t help but gape a little, exchanging a look with Tsunade.

“This…” he began, shuffling over the papers and putting them back in his inside pocket, leaving out only the hand-written scroll on the seal. “This might just work.”

Tsunade sighed, and, as if Jiraiya’s declaration had been what she’d been waiting for, she finally allowed herself to collapse in her own chair, putting her head in her hands.

"I fuckin’ hate politics.”

Shikaku headed home, worn out and with a million things on his mind. He had no energy to deal with any more issues today, content in the knowledge that the most pressing fires of the week had been put out, and the rest could wait until he’d had something to eat and more than two hours’ sleep.

And then he paused at the gate to his house, catching sight of Shikamaru and Hinata playing shogi on the veranda.

He was no longer acting-kage, but that didn’t mean that he could just shrug off the responsibilities he’d had over the past three months. Tsunade was still learning the inner workings of the Village, still catching up on all that she’d missed in the two decades that she’d been away, and in the chaos of power transitions and meetings with the ANBU and Chunin Commanders, he hadn’t even managed to go home after Jiraiya’s seal news two days previous.

So now, as he took in the concentrated frown on his son’s face with fond eyes, he also allowed himself to properly study his son’s friend, the realisation of how far the little Hyuuga could see and how much she was willing to put herself through granting him a new perspective.

The most – and simultaneously least – noticeable thing about Hinata was that the girl was like a ghost.

At first, he’d thought she simply had a weak presence, which didn’t bode well for a future Clan Head, but would have been understandable for a child who’d grown up in the shadow of Hyuuga Hiashi’s expectations.

She had come into the living room once or twice and nobody, not him, or Yoshino, or Shikamaru, had noticed until one of them caught sight of her from the corner of their eyes and jumped. Even if she used the kitchen, there would never be any sign of her there. No plate in the sink or ingredient out of place. She had also sat and watched him play against Shikamaru a couple of times, and her presence had been so unobtrusive that both of them had caught themselves forgetting that she was there.

And then, gradually, Shikaku had realised how much Hinata leaned into her weak presence.

Her mutism; the fact that her steps made no sound, no matter the terrain; her peculiar avoidance of throwing weapons when sparring; her thick, heavy clothing that didn’t rustle.

The fact that even now, at home, in the Village, when Shikamaru’s chakra was a merry flame of contentment, like a cat curled up by the fireplace, Hinata’s was hollow. So tightly repressed that getting even a glancing impression of her mood was practically impossible for anyone who wasn’t a sensor.

Soft, Shikamaru had called her when Shikaku had absently asked how the genin who’d broken their Clan’s jutsu after a week of study had been in the Academy. Quiet. Ridiculously shy. Nice, though.

Soft, but she was the genin with the most confirmed kills to her name, more than Team Seven and Nine combined.

Quiet, but Shikaku had felt her chakra in the hospital when the Hyuuga Elders had come. The wave of rage that had swept like a shockwave from her room, followed by unadulterated, unfiltered loathing that had drawn Uzuki Yugao like a beacon to her room, only to find out that a bedbound genin had taken out two Elders with one genjutsu.

Shy, but a shy child wouldn’t have found her way to a one-on-one meeting with a Sannin and shared her plans of what could easily be called revolution with a man she barely knew beyond legend.  

“I- what?” Shikamaru suddenly asked, startling Shikaku out of his contemplation of their houseguest, his son’s eyes wide and disbelieving as he stared at the board. “How?”

Shikaku stepped closer, having an inkling as to what was happening but needing to confirm it for himself. He ignored Hinata’s curious glance, Shikamaru too focused on the board to pay him much attention as he stepped onto the veranda.

And indeed, one glance at the board proved his initial suspicion: Shikamaru’s king was in check. But a longer look showed what likely had Shikamaru so shocked – his king wasn’t just in check, but in checkmate.

Shikamaru lost.

Shikaku could see a smile on Hinata’s face, sharper than anything he’d seen on her before, self-satisfied and proud, but when Shikamaru glanced up at her, she softened it, making it genial and open.

“How?” Shikamaru repeated, less accusatory this time and more genuinely curious, and Hinata hesitated, glancing at Shikaku briefly before she refocused on Shikamaru and signed the answer, damning as it was:

‘you play like your dad’

And Shikaku could see the moment Shikamaru realised all the different times over the last few weeks that Hinata had been around and watched when they’d played together, not just shogi but chess and go and daifugo. Not participating or distracting, just there, watching while she read whatever book or scroll she had in hand, and Shikaku should’ve paid more attention to the seemingly innocent pastime.

“I’m predictable.” Shikamaru realised with a start, meeting Hinata’s gaze as if hoping she’d deny it. But Hinata just smiled, sympathy warring with satisfaction in her eyes, and nodded slowly.

Soft, quiet, shy.

It was the oldest trick in the book, and this girl was also Yuuhi’s student.

When Shikamaru went back to frowning thoughtfully at the board, no doubt retracing all his moves in the game to find the proof to Hinata’s claim, the little Hyuuga raised her gaze from the board and met Shikaku’s own thoughtful one.

For a brief moment, she held the eye-contact, her expression never changing, her chakra never escaping her iron-fisted hold, but knowing what he knew now, Shikaku didn’t need to be Inoichi to feel like he could read minds.

Underestimate me, Hinata’s face seemed to say, staring at him fearlessly before she looked away and set about clearing the board once Shikamaru shuffled away, I’ll make it easy for you.

As he huffed a laugh and went inside in search of something to eat, Shikaku wondered how many more similar traps Hinata had already set for others to fall into.

(He wondered whether he could ask to be there when Hiashi fell into his.)

Sakura stepped out of the hospital, Ino’s hand in hers, Kiba and Akamaru a few paces ahead of them.

All three of them paused on the front steps as if on cue, taking a few seconds to let the setting autumn sun hit their skin, basking in the gentle warmth after months of being stuck in the same white walls and artificial light.

Her and Kiba could’ve been discharged a week earlier, but they chose to wait for Ino to get the all-clear, not wanting to leave her alone after so long together.

Sakura had been in the hospital almost four months. A week or two either way made little difference to her.

“Freedom, at last!” Kiba cheered, but even that was quieter than his Academy self would’ve been, more contained. He tilted his face to the sun, Akamaru barking quietly, seemingly also content, and Sakura noted that he was almost too big now for his perch on the top of Kiba’s head. “How d’you wanna celebrate?”

Sakura glanced at Ino, relying on the same intuitive, wordless communication they’d been capable of back in the Academy, before declaring each other ‘love-rivals’ forced them to forget. She waited until Ino grinned and nodded, squeezing Sakura’s hand in confirmation.

“Barbecue!” she called, pulling on Sakura gently to urge her along, and it took Sakura a second to find her feet.

Kiba did a double-take at the choice, visibly surprised despite the weeks they’ve spent together, then grinned back, waiting until Ino and Sakura caught up so he could fall into step with them.

“I was worried ya were gonna say sushi or- oh, hey, Genma-san!”

Sakura looked around, curious, because she didn’t recognise the name nor did she see anyone around that Kiba could’ve been greeting, and she frowned, before-

“Hey, kid.” a brown-haired man greeted, appearing suddenly at Kiba’s side and making Ino and Sakura startle. He reached up to ruffle Kiba’s hair fondly, Kiba pressing into the touch, and Sakura reasoned she knew who he’d been greeting, though how he spotted the man was still a mystery. “Finally been released?”

“Yuup! Even walked down the stairs on my own!” Kiba bragged, and Sakura wondered what her fresh-from-the-Academy self would’ve thought at an ‘achievement’ like that being something to celebrate.

Then again, unfortunately for her Academy self – or fortunately, depending on who she asked – the rose-tinted glasses she’d glued to her face and used to look at the world with had been forcefully ripped off and stomped on by the Snake Sannin. The three subsequent months she’d spent in the hospital as a result had been a further eye-opener to the seldom-discussed consequences of the shinobi lifestyle, and despite her angry helplessness at her state over the last few months, Sakura wasn’t blind to the fact that she was one of the lucky ones in terms of her injuries.

“Proud of you.” ‘Genma-san’ told Kiba evenly, dropping his hand from Kiba’s hair to his shoulder and squeezing once, and Sakura’s breath hitched.

The easy praise, the lack of mockery, the simple affection- she forced her gaze away from Kiba and the unknown shinobi and fought against the burn in her eyes and throat, pushing the bitterness that surged up to the back of her mind.

“Oh, right,” Kiba exclaimed, either hearing Sakura’s stuttered inhale or only just remembering they were heading somewhere before he’d stalled them, “Ino, Sakura, this is Shiranui Genma! Sensei recruited him to help me train after our disaster C-Rank; he’s incredibly annoying to fight, and the best poisons master in the Village!” Kiba introduced, and Sakura felt more than saw Ino’s interest spike, and she squeezed Ino’s hand once, a wordless comfort and reassurance.

“Kiba-” the man sighed, looking almost embarrassed, but he was still amused, an easy-going smile twisting his lips.

“And Genma-san, this is Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura, my roommates over the last few weeks!” Kiba cut him off, bulldozing over whatever the man might have wanted to say, and Sakura huffed a quiet laugh, amused herself at the fact that for all that things changed, some stayed the same.

Genma snorted, whether at the flourish with which Kiba finished his introduction or the term ‘roommates’, but he nodded politely at her and Ino. “Pleasure. I’m glad to see you both walking.”

And then, Sakura realised that she did recognise the man – he’d come to their room once or twice, bringing books or updates from people whose names Sakura didn’t know, but Kiba clearly did, and leaving Kiba with visibly higher spirits and a smile on his face. She didn’t realise the man had also taken note of Kiba’s ‘roommates’ but she managed a smile, though it dropped when she heard Ino hum thoughtfully.

“I know you.” Ino said slowly, and Sakura watched as she narrowed her eyes at the man, who, to his credit, weathered the treatment with that same simmering amusement, exchanging a curious glance with Kiba. “You’ve been by a few times asking for access to our greenhouse.”

“Guilty as charged.” Genma replied, absently scratching Akamaru’s head when the ninken whined needily. “I use a lot of ‘exotic’ ingredients, and if I don’t get to go to the plant’s habitat in too long, I can’t restock my poisons.” He shrugged, though Sakura could tell it wasn’t an easy thing to admit. “Your dad is very protective of his greenhouse, though.”

“Not his greenhouse.” Ino muttered, and Sakura could see the cogs turning behind her eyes, and from the look on his face, she knew Kiba could, too. “How about this: you teach us some basic poisons whenever you can spare the time, and I’ll grant you supervised access to our greenhouse.”

Genma blinked, staring at Ino oddly for a moment, before he huffed a laugh. “Who taught you to bargain, blondie? Ibiki?”

“If you agree,” Kiba cut in, taking over from Ino before the blonde could reply, her lips pursed in annoyance, clearly taking slight offense to being compared to the scarred proctor from the first stage of the Exams, “you could teach us poisons on the days we usually train together. That way we’re not takin’ up more of your time.”

Genma raised an eyebrow, though he didn’t look as affronted as earlier. “Your nose is going to make poisons hell for you.”

Sakura startled, not having considered that aspect of Kiba’s Clan’s partnership with ninken, but Kiba grinned, sharp and sly and unconcerned.

“Nah, I’m not gonna be eatin’ poisons like these two, but I do want to learn how to treat them.” Kiba explained, jabbing his thumb at Ino and Sakura. “Cause, statistically, the most common problem once you've been poisoned isn't the poison itself, but the lack of antidote. And, like, with my nose, if I knew the smells of different poisons or ingredients, I could probably speed up the poison identification and antidote-making process, you know?”

“It’s still really weird to hear you talking about statistics and medical stuff.” Ino observed, staring at Kiba oddly, and Sakura couldn’t fight her snort, inwardly agreeing with Ino’s comment.

“I’m full of surprises.” Kiba drawled, drawing a laugh from Genma, who reached up and ruffled Kiba’s hair fondly. “Plus, I watched Shino nearly die from poison so like, I have motivation aplenty.”

“Alright, you don’t need to guilt me.” Genma huffed, rolling his eyes at Kiba, though he was smiling now. “I’ve been out of the Village more often than in it these last few weeks, but if it happens that we’re all here at the same time and not busy, we can try this thing. Konoha could always use more poison users, and poison-savvy medics are few and far between.”

“So we have a deal?” Ino asked shrewdly, though Sakura heard the slight tremble in her voice and squeezed her hand reassuringly.

“We have a deal.” Genma confirmed, sounding tired but entertained, extending a hand for Ino to shake. Then, he smirked, and Sakura found herself looking at the same sharp and sly smile that had been on Kiba's face moments previous, and suddenly, the identity of Kiba's mysterious mentor figure he'd mentioned a few times during his stay in their hospital room was obvious. “Better tell your dad that you used his greenhouse as ransom.”

Almost four months after Orochimaru’s invasion, the rubble and ruin of a full-Village invasion was still visible on some of the streets. Most of the active jounin were on a very quick turnover mission rota, their services needed to shore up Konoha’s economy and re-establish the Village’s reputation as one of the big five after a hit as damaging as one of their own leading an invasion and killing their kage.

Kakashi, however, was on the hunt for entertainment.

Learning that Jiraiya was still in town was a promise of blissful reprieve from the suffocating boredom of being on forced leave. His shrink was apparently still concerned with his mental state after the Tsukiyomi, and Tsunade seemingly took Psych’s evaluations more seriously than Sarutobi had.

But if Jiraiya was in town, then maybe Kakashi could wheedle some spoilers of the man’s next release. Or annoy him enough to get a spar out of it. Both options sounded good just then.  

Still, he paused in the door to Jiraiya’s seldom-used apartment, surprised to get through the fuinjutsu matrix on the door only to find the man with an unexpected visitor.

He watched the Hyuuga girl startle when the door opened, lilac eyes cutting to him for only a split-second before she was wordlessly pulling off her headband and getting to her feet, slipping past him on her way out of the room. Then she took one step past him, two, then a Shunshin, swift and seal-less and beyond what he’d thought a genin would be capable of, and then she was gone.

Not fast enough for him not to register the tell-tale pattern on her forehead before she’d let her bangs down, however.

"Was that the Hyuuga heir?" he asked Jiraiya, watching curiously as the man hastily shut whatever notebook he’d had open and set about sealing away the inkstone and brushes. "With the Hyuuga juinjutsu?"

Jiraiya glared at him, but Kakashi ignored the quelling look and instead stepped inside, closing the door behind him and watching as the protective fuinjutsu he’d casually disarmed on his way in lit up the walls again.

"Tsunade and Shikaku-approved." Jiraiya shot back, tucking his notebook away between the inner folds of his robes. “You saw nothing.”

“Why would the heir have the juinjutsu?” Kakashi pressed, because he might’ve only seen it for a split-second, but that pattern was unmistakeable. “Did Hiashi-?”

“It was the kid's idea." Jiraiya cut him off, shooting him a warning look. “And I repeat, you saw nothing, Hatake.”

"The kid's idea to seal herself?" Kakashi demanded, crossing his arms and planting himself firmly before the door, though he doubted he’d actually be able to stop Jiraiya if the man decided he wanted to leave. Jiraiya was more than strong enough to manhandle him out of the way, if he so wished.

He knew he was likely stomping through the equivalent of a political minefield, but Jiraiya had been too fond of Minato to ever truly deny him after his sensei's death, and Kakashi wasn’t above exploiting that tie. "Why?"

"That might be above your paygrade." Jiraiya warned, a valiant attempt at remaining strong in the face of Kakashi’s nosiness and his own guilt.

"Come on, Jiraiya-sama." Kakashi drawled, abandoning his post by the door once he spied the first hints of weakness and letting himself drop into a sitting position on the other side of Jiraiya’s kotatsu. “You always have the best gossip.”

It seemed to be the wrong thing to say, because Jiraiya snorted and pushed away from the kotatsu, heading to the door Kakashi had abandoned and opening it while glaring at Kakashi meaningfully.

"For once, this actually has nothing to do with you, or any of your little students.” He informed him curtly, raising an eyebrow and gesturing to the door, none of the usual hospitality in his mien. “Scram, Kakashi. And keep your mouth shut about this."

Naturally, Kakashi scrammed.

Scrammed all the way to Shikaku’s office, now back in the Jounin HQ since Tsunade’s inauguration, adamantly ignoring the ‘do not disturb’ genjutsu on the door. He was bored, his visit to Jiraiya only raising more questions but doing little to quell his boredom, and he had been reliably informed by his friends that he was a menace when bored.

Unfortunately for the rest of the Village, Asuma was still grieving, Kurenai was hospital-bound, and Gai was out on a mission, which meant that when Kakashi found the first interesting thing that caught his attention since the invasion, there was nobody to tell him ‘no, drop it’.

(Or, as Genma had kindly summarised, all of his usual babysitters were occupied.)

He responsibly made sure the door was firmly closed behind him before he turned to Shikaku and raised an eyebrow.

“Any idea why the Hyuuga heiress has the Branch House juinjutsu?”

Shikaku startled, his pen sliding across the page and completely ruining his signature, and he glared at Kakashi, tired and exasperated and more than a little disapproving.

“Every day I wonder why Minato didn’t see it fit to teach you subtlety.” The man replied, and oh, ouch. Going for sensei’s name right in the greeting? Kakashi had really stepped in it now.

“I’m plenty subtle.” He defended lightly, dropping down in the chair opposite Shikaku’s desk without invitation.

“No,” the man snorted, closing his file and shoving it in the drawer of his desk, away from Kakashi’s prying eyes. “Hound is subtle. You read porn in public and treat Village secrets like magpies treat shiny trinkets.”

Kakashi blinked. He wouldn’t have thought Shikaku capable of such vivid metaphors. But, more importantly- “I didn’t know a genin was in on a Village secret.”

Shikaku eyed him tiredly, irritation melting into deadpan blankness. “You’re not going to drop it, are you?”

Kakashi didn’t bother denying it. “My next stop is Kurenai’s room.”

“She might not know.” Shikaku replied evenly, and, yeah, maybe it was a valid point, but-

“Hyuuga Compound, then.” Kakashi shot back, and Shikaku sighed, yanking the hairtie out of his hair and rubbing the bridge of his nose.

“Fine. I’m telling you once, and once only, so listen up.”

Fifteen minutes later, Kakashi was staring at Shikaku and wondering whether he shouldn’t have listened to Jiraiya and left this one be.

"She's gonna need your help, Kakashi." Shikaku concluded, and he appeared vindictively satisfied by Kakashi’s stunned silence.

“I'm no revolutionary.” Kakashi denied, because despite his many ‘stick it to the big man’ stunts and his association with Kurenai and Genma, he had somehow managed to avoid the reputation. 

“No, not with that.” Shikaku waved him off, and Kakashi absently wondered who the man thought would be better to help with restructuring the Hyuuga Clan from within. “With her jounin promotion.”

Kakashi couldn’t have helped his raised eyebrow even if he’d tried. “She's not even a chunin yet.”

“She’s as good as.” Shikaku shot back. “Her team’s promotion's only waiting for the opportune moment.”

Kakashi considered the Jounin Commander for a moment, then sighed, putting the pieces together. “You're sending her team to Kumo.”

It wasn’t even a question, and judging by Shikaku’s grimly resigned expression, the man knew it.

“A shinobi's purpose is to be useful.” He replied flatly, sounding as if he was quoting someone else. “Her team hasn’t been genin-level in a bit, and their show of strength in the Exams will be more useful to the Village than giving them that promotion now.”

“That's cold.” Kakashi observed, because it sounded much more like Danzo’s philosophy than Shikaku’s. “There are plenty of Hyuuga jounin who got to the rank without my help. What makes her special?”

“The time window.” Shikaku replied dryly.

“What are we looking at?” Kakashi was almost intrigued at this point, because while Shikaku’s explanation of the seal and the girl’s plan for the juinjutsu had been mostly factual, speaking as he was now, the man actually sounded personally invested in this case.

“The next two years.”

Kakashi whistled before he could catch himself, but he wasn’t particularly impressed with the news. “I didn't think you were interested in breaking records.”

“It's not that.” Shikaku dismissed, and he pinched the bridge of his nose and hung his head. “The Hyuuga Clan inheritance is set at jounin.”

Kakashi stared at the man for a second, then- “Kid wants to usurp Hiashi?”

“I was made to believe that a peaceful transition of power is out of the picture.” Shikaku replied, looking far older than his forty years, and not for the first time, Kakashi was intimately glad that the position of regent had fallen to the Nara instead of him. “Knowing what the Hyuuga Elders are like and having gotten to know Hinata-chan better over the last few weeks, I'm inclined to agree.”

“The Branch House won't care.” Kakashi noted, because he wasn’t the biggest fan of the Hyuuga Clan but he’d gotten to know some over the years. Mostly the ones with the shortest sticks up their asses, and those were few and far between. “What's one Main House Head over another?”

Shikaku didn’t immediately reply, and Kakashi studied the man until the possible reasoning dawned on him. "You've got an in with the Branch House?"

“Neji. Hinata's cousin, Shikamaru’s opponent in the finals.” The man replied, meeting Kakashi’s gaze and holding it, studying Kakashi just as surely as Kakashi was studying him. “They’ve…talked.”

“And you're telling me a preteen has the political mind to plan this and pull it off?” Kakashi asked, eyebrow raised, his tone more doubtful than he’d intended, but he’d thought Nara were supposed to be rational.

“She beat Shikamaru at shogi.” Was Shikaku’s explanation, and Kakashi snorted before he could catch himself.

“No offense, Shikaku-san, but that doesn't mean anything.” Kakashi understood Clan quirks, knew he had some himself that he carefully avoided talking about with anyone but Tsume, but basing a revolution off of a kid beating another kid at a boardgame was somewhat a stretch, even for his usual level of bullshittery.

“I know. But the kid also asked Kurenai to call in her IOU with you so that you could arrange a meeting with Jiraiya for her. She then proceeded to tell Jiraiya one-on-one of her plans, knowing she was risking being outed. Jiraiya, naturally, came straight to me and Tsunade.”

Kakashi scrutinised the man, following the story to its logical conclusion, but Shikaku beat him to it.

“She went to Jiraiya before telling me, while living at my house, because she knew the political corner she'd have backed me into if she'd come to me directly.” Shikaku concluded, and Kakashi supposed he had his answer to his earlier question.

“Genius?” he asked faux-lightly, wondering whether the Academy was genuinely that bad at profiling their students, or if the kid had intentionally stayed under the radar.

Considering she probably would’ve seen the Itachi Situation implode in real time, he wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out to be the latter.

“No.” Shikaku snorted, waving a dismissive hand and shooting down Kakashi’s disparaging contemplation of the Academy sensei’s capabilities before it had the chance to crystallise into anything concrete. “Just...extremely dedicated to the long game.”

“I'm gonna make my own impression.” Kakashi declared, trying to assimilate everything he’d just been told. “And then I'll decide whether I want to take on a revolutionary of all things.”

“Kid's traumatised, Kakashi.” Shikaku warned him as he headed for the door, ignoring the second part of Kakashi’s declaration, and Kakashi paused, tilting his head. “Mute. Be careful.”

“I’m always careful.” Kakashi shot back right before he closed the door behind himself, cutting off the sound of Shikaku’s snort at his words.

He found the girl at a teahouse, having dango with Yugao of all people.

His once-subordinate wasn't looking great, but she was out in public rather than avoiding everyone or hounding Bear for suicide missions, and that was a definite improvement in his books, mental-health wise.

Kakashi watched as the kunoichi conversed, fingers twitching against the table in fairly advanced Chunin Sign while idly plucking at the leftover dango on the plate between them.

Little Hyuuga-chan didn't even need both hands for the signs, so either Shikaku had lied to him, or someone had suggested the sign language to the girl upon discovering her muteness and she turned out to be a very quick learner.

He saw the exact moment Yugao sensed him lurking because she tensed ever so slightly. But she was too good of a kunoichi to glance at him blatantly; instead, when she raised the hand that wasn't flicking through Chunin Sign to scratch at her cheek, her fingers twitched in ANBU code.

Mission?

Kakashi bit back a snort. Even if he were still her Captain, he wouldn't have allowed her out of the Village in her state, but it stung a little that she thought that a mission was the only thing he would ever seek her out for, especially considering what had happened to Hayate not three months previous.

But, more alarmingly, little Hyuuga-chan followed the twitch of Yugao's fingers with her eyes, tracing a line from Yugao’s cheek to the gesture’s likely recipient, and Kakashi suddenly found wide lilac eyes boring into his own for the second time that day.

...He just got made by a baby genin.

Granted, he wasn't actually trying to hide, perched on the low roof of the shop opposite the cafe the kunoichi were occupying, in full view of any passer-by, but.

But.

ANBU sign was intentionally coded into innocuous, casual gestures so that its usage in broad daylight wouldn't raise suspicion. There was no reason the little Hyuuga should've assumed Yugao was talking to someone.

Unless she recognized-?

But no. It was a fluke, clearly. He wasn't hiding, anyway.

Still, he got made.

Wondering whether Shikaku would consider this approach ‘careful’, he hopped off the roof and headed into the café.

Time to say hello!

Chapter Text

Hinata wasn’t sure how to react to Kakashi walking into the café her and Yugao were sitting in, though it seemed like Yugao didn’t know how to react either, considering the way she was eyeing Kakashi suspiciously.

Seeing the man again, for the first time in this life, when the last memory of her previous life was dying to protect him wasn’t actually as…impactful as Hinata had thought it would be.

Either her psyche had already moved on from the circumstances of her death, or her mind recognised that the man she was seeing now was practically a different person to her Rokudaime.

Either way, she was glad she didn’t have to worry about trying to explain any potentially ‘weird’ reactions at the sight of the jounin she, for all intents and purposes, had no right to know personally right now.

“Yo.” Kakashi greeted, coming to a stop by their table, and Hinata bit back a smile at the familiar expression and inclined her head in a wordless greeting.

“Kakashi-san,” Yugao replied tensely, frowning at the man openly now, “hello.”

“What happened to the girl who called me senpai, hm?” Kakashi asked lightly, rapping his knuckles against their table and tilting his head at Yugao, eye-smile in place.

Yugao drew back at the question, and Hinata watched regretfully as her senpai’s walls went back up, whatever light and laughter she’d been able to draw into her face disappearing without a trace.

“She grew up.” Yugao shot back sharply, balling the hand she still had on the table into a fist so tight her knuckles turned white. “Anything we can help you with, Kakashi-san?”

When Kakashi hummed neutrally, Hinata reached out and touched her index finger to Yugao’s white knuckle and tapped it twice, prompting the kunoichi to relax her hand and shoot her a wry look.

“I’d actually like to speak with Hyuuga-chan, if you don’t mind.” Kakashi informed them after a beat, his tone not changing, as if he hadn’t noticed Yugao’s rude reply.

At the words, Hinata stilled, raising her gaze from Yugao’s hand to Kakashi’s face, certain that her expression reflected her surprise. She didn’t expect to find Kakashi already looking back at her but luckily, Yugao up spoke before the silence grew too awkward, giving Hinata the time she needed to remember how words worked.

“What for?” Yugao demanded, turning her hand so Hinata’s finger rested over her palm, and Hinata saw Kakashi’s eye track the motion, an eyebrow rising at the contact.

“Internal matter.” He brushed Yugao off, his tone light like he was talking about the weather. “Nothing dangerous or illegal. I’m not going to corrupt your little friend, Yugao-chan.”

“Don’t call me that,” Yugao hissed, her hand spasming shut and crushing Hinata’s finger. Yugao seemed to notice her wince of discomfort and released her grip, though her pinched expression didn’t fade. “…please.”

A silence fell between them, and Hinata sighed, having a suspicion as to the nature of the ‘internal matter’ Kakashi wanted to talk about and knowing that the man was unlikely to give up now that he’d gone through the trouble of seeking her out.

‘it’s okay, senpai’ she signed to Yugao with her free hand, shooting what she hoped was a reassuring smile at the other kunoichi, ‘i’ll see you tomorrow?’

It had become habit for her to ask that since she’d gotten out of the hospital. Most people wouldn’t think twice about the habit, because Yugao was an active kunoichi, so tomorrow was never guaranteed. But for Hinata, there was another reason: Yugao was also still grieving.

Though she was less volatile than she had been when she had appeared in Hinata’s hospital room after the altercation with the Elders, Hinata could tell that Yugao’s grief was still lurking just beneath her skin, waiting for the slightest trigger, the barest sign of weakness in her defences.

Grief was not a linear thing, as Hinata had learned from her own experience, and it manifested in different ways. If she’d had the opportunity to do so after Neji’s death, she’d have liked to hide away from the world, to grieve in peace, to lick her wounds and cry her heart out in solitude, not be forced to continue fighting as if nothing had happened.

Though her own grief had been quiet, whereas Yugao’s appeared as a vicious, violent, volatile thing, Hinata was intimately familiar with what hid beneath that anger.

Helplessness.

Neji had been killed by Madara and Obito, but Madara had been defeated and Obito had turned to their side and then died as well, so Hinata hadn’t had anyone to direct her anger at. Not just because the two immediate causes for her cousin’s death had died, but also because, despite being the literal trigger for the events of the War, some people still claimed Obito had been a hero at the end.

As if that erased all that he had done beforehand.

Yugao, she supposed, felt much the same. Her fiancé had been killed by unknowns even before the Invasion, but it was soon understood that they had been unknowns acting for Sand and Sound, which were now considered enemies of Konoha. Still, nobody cared to pursue the death of one man in the face of the death of the dozens that had been caused by the Invasion, and that left Yugao in a position Hinata understood intimately, though she could not explain how she understood.

(And Yugao was, if nothing else, incredibly devoted to her fiancé. And Hinata, selfishly, didn’t want to see whether that devotion would result in her senpai following her fiancé in death.)

So she made herself a fixture in Yugao’s routine since her release from the hospital. A single, tiny anchor that she prayed would nonetheless manage to withstand the storm of Yugao’s grief.

At her question, Yugao sighed, some of that fight and anguish leaving her, and smiled wryly.

“I’ll find you.” She promised, a knowing, weighted look in her eyes, and Hinata didn’t bother worrying whether her senpai had realised the reasoning behind her insistence to spend time together.

She wasn’t ashamed of trying to offer whatever support she could, nor of nominating herself as Yugao’s unofficial suicide-watch. She would much rather see the woman live long enough to heal and move on than throw herself mindlessly at danger, and if holding her to an appointment was the way to do it, then that was what she would do.

So she nodded and stood, shooting the woman one last, tiny smile, and waited for Kakashi to lead them out, which he did after one final look between her and Yugao.

She fell into step with Kakashi, though she kept herself a few inches behind, letting him lead the way. They walked in silence for some time, going from the busy main streets to the quieter side alleys, until the roads emptied to the point that only cats and the occasional merchant crossed their path.

“I wouldn’t have thought Yugao would be good company right now.” Kakashi mused after a good five minutes of silence, his hands in his pockets and his gaze on the road, though he glanced at Hinata from the corner of his eye. “How did you meet?”

Hinata stifled a sigh at the dig for information, though obligingly answered regardless. ‘sensei assigned us trainers. senpai was mine.’

“I didn’t realise dango doubled as training.” Kakashi replied, and though his tone was light, it was also phrased in a way that Hinata had no doubt was intended as bait. But she just tilted her head, not in the mood to explain herself unless asked outright.

Kakashi eyed her briefly and Hinata had no idea what he was thinking, but eventually, he sighed and dropped the eye-smile, his posture slumping even more, as if weighed down. When he next spoke, it was quieter, more serious than he’d been in the café, and Hinata made herself pay attention.

“Yugao has many people looking out for her. You don’t need to take her wellbeing onto yourself.”

Her suspicion that Kakashi had realised what she’d been doing was confirmed, but Hinata could only smile at the warning, surprised at the genuine concern that lurked beneath the seemingly chastising words.

‘it’s not obligation. i enjoy spending time with her.’ she signed, glancing over at Kakashi to make sure he saw the honesty in her gaze. Then, when he just hummed and continued walking, she couldn’t resist adding, ‘did you need anything, sir?’

Kakashi visibly twitched at the honorific she’d tacked on, and then the eye-smile was back and Hinata was biting back a sad sigh. The man really didn’t need the cloth mask to hide his face, considering how reflexively he hid his emotions, she mused.

“Kurenai calls your team her ‘kids’.” Kakashi announced, a propos nothing, shrugging a shoulder absently when Hinata frowned. “Figured I should make a point to meet my nieces and nephews.”

When Hinata just blinked, not sure how to respond to that, nor to the implication that Kakashi was apparently close enough friends with Kurenai to consider her a sister, he turned to face her fully, expression serious once more.

“Especially if they’re going to make the habit of hanging out with strange men who demand their time without so much as a question as to their identity, destination, or motives.” He held Hinata’s gaze, and she found herself momentarily frozen in place, her foot freezing inches above the ground between one step and the next. “You shouldn’t be so trusting, Hyuuga-chan.”

And then Kakashi turned away, and Hinata felt like she could breathe again, so she shook herself off and hurried forward to catch up, making sure Kakashi could see her hands when she signed a reply: ‘i know who you are. and senpai and sensei trust you.’

Kakashi huffed at that, raising an eyebrow at her. “Do you not care where we go, then? Or what I want?”

Hinata found herself shrugging uncomfortably, not sure how to reply to that. ‘the Village is my home.’ she signed slowly, hoping it explained why she wasn’t worried about their destination, then glanced at Kakashi consideringly, feeling a half-smile curl her lips, ‘and if you wish to tell me, then you will.’

Kakashi actually laughed at that, short and quiet and rough-sounding, but it was still a genuine laugh. “You really have been living with the Nara, hm?” he asked rhetorically, throwing Hinata off briefly, and she floundered, not sure how to reply.

But, before she really needed to, Kakashi sighed and there was suddenly a hand on her shoulder, whisking her away in a Shunshin before Hinata had the chance to react. As soon as her feet touched the ground once more, there was a senbon in her hand, but the hand had already let go of her shoulder and as Hinata whirled around, her mind registered that the hand had been Kakashi’s and she hesitated, torn between following through on the reflexive defensive action and recognising that the moment to do so had passed.

Kakashi just studied her quietly, then flickered through some signs of his own: ‘Say hello?’

And as Hinata frowned, not following, there was a crunch of leaves to her left and then-

“Hinata?”

The decision to cover the distance between her and Kurenai in a Shunshin and wrap her arms around her sensei in a hug was less a conscious decision and more the work of instinct. To Kurenai’s credit, her sensei barely tensed before returning the embrace, wrapping her own arms around Hinata’s shoulders and squeezing her to her body, a relieved sigh escaping her.

When Hinata pulled away from the hug, she belatedly realised that Kurenai wasn’t alone.

Uchiha Sasuke stood next to her sensei, a few paces behind and to the left, his eyes wider than usual as he glanced between Hinata, Kurenai and Kakashi, though when he noticed Hinata looking, he smoothed his expression, offering her a single nod of greeting, which Hinata returned.

She wanted to ask what he was doing with Kurenai of all people, but then again, she had just appeared out of nowhere with Kakashi, so perhaps it would be better to leave the curiosity be.

“We’re having genjutsu lessons.” Kurenai announced, apparently reading the silent question in Hinata’s eyes. “This training ground was marked as free to use, so that’s why I brought Sasuke here.”

“You weren’t the only one to do that.” Kakashi replied suddenly, and, as if on cue, Genma emerged from the treeline, Sakura, Ino, and Kiba on his heels.

Kiba barrelled forward, wrapping his arms around Hinata and trying to spin her around, startling a laugh out of her, then he released her and sidled over to Kurenai, curling into her side for a half-hug before he went back to Genma’s side.

Hinata and Kiba’s exuberant greeting of their sensei threw into stark contrast the fact that neither Sasuke nor Sakura had done any more than nod at Kakashi upon spotting him.

“Alright, assorted genin,” Kurenai addressed the newcomers, drawing Ino and Sakura’s eyes. “If you want a crash-course in genjutsu-breaking, now is the time.”

Being more than familiar on what Kurenai considered a ‘crash-course’, Hinata stayed away from the group that gathered in front of her sensei, keeping closer to Kakashi and Genma, Kiba following her.

“Not a fan of genjutsu?” Kakashi asked idly, drawing a snort from Kiba.

“Nah.” Her teammate replied, grinning as he stretched his arms over his head, “Not a fan of sensei’s methods of teaching it.” And, as if on cue, Kurenai caught Sakura, Sasuke, and Ino in a multi-layered illusion, not even needing hand-signs for the technique. “Though, I could probably do with a refresher.”

And he ambled away, leaving Hinata alone with Kakashi once more. But, before either of them could acknowledge the situation, Hinata sensed movement, and she was moving before her brain could fully process it or remember that there were literally three other jounin around her. Just then, logic was eclipsed by her senses, and they were screaming danger.

Kakashi wasn’t the only one to startle inwardly at Gai’s sudden appearance. But, through years of familiarity with the man’s ability to sneak up even on him, he had also forgotten, over years of hiding behind the ANBU mask and effecting the easy-going laziness, that some shinobi’s startle instinct manifested outwardly.

The little Hyuuga was twisting with a speed he hadn’t thought her capable of, metal glinting at her fingertips, and the expression on her face wasn’t that of a child jumping at a loud noise but a soldier preparing to eliminate a threat.

Fortunately, Gai had been trained by Kakashi’s own startle reflex when they’d been younger and also had over two decades’ experience with people coming at him with sharp things. He caught the girl’s wrist in a tight grip and sidestepped her momentum, effectively nullifying the danger of her sudden reaction.

"Quick reflexes!" He praised, unsurprisingly reacting to a genin trying to maim him with his regular good humour. "I have a feeling you would get along with my own kunoichi student!"

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't try to gouge my friends' eyes out, kiddo." Genma rebuked idly, suddenly at Gai's side and plucking the senbon neatly from the Hyuuga's frozen fingers. "I'm kinda fond of this one."

'sorry' the girl signed with the hand Gai wasn't holding, glancing between Gai and Genma anxiously, her face having grown even paler than before, 'startled'.

"No harm done." Genma waved her off, sticking the senbon he’d plucked from her between his teeth and prompting Gai to release her wrist with a blinding smile and a thumbs-up. "Wanna go help Kurenai bury your old classmates in genjutsu?"

The little Hyuuga offered a hesitant smile and nodded, inclining her head more deeply to Gai with a hastily-signed 'my apologies' at which Genma huffed. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder, squeezing briefly before he let go and rested his hand on the crown of her head, bending down so they were at eye level.

"Gai's not the type to hold a grudge, are you, Gai?" he explained, addressing Gai despite his eyes never leaving the girl's, and getting a vigorous headshake from the taijutsu user in response.

"Tenten has nearly stabbed me many a time!" Gai grinned, as if letting his genin almost hit him was a point of pride. "As my friend said earlier, no harm done, Hyuuga-chan!"

This time, the girl's smile was a little surer, and then she was gone, Genma's hand falling to his side when there was suddenly no genin head for it to rest on.

Then, Genma's gaze flickered to the side and caught Kakashi's, and Genma was suddenly next to him, pulling Gai along with him.

"That was an example of positive physical contact." Genma pointed out idly, senbon clicking against his teeth. "It's something kids need to grow up well."

Resisting the urge to leave a Shadow Clone in his place and ditch the oncoming social interaction, Kakashi hummed absently.

"I'm not exactly a cuddly teddy-bear." he replied, watching absently as the assorted genin slogged through the illusions that had been thrown at them.  

"And I'm a walking bioweapon." Genma shot back, rolling his eyes. "But I can give out a hug or two if a kid needs it."

"Good for you." Kakashi retorted dryly, surprised to find that Sakura was the first to blink back to lucidity, having succeeded at breaking through Kurenai's genjutsu.

"Your kids are literally touch-starved, Kakashi." Genma snapped, losing some of his signature affability at Kakashi's nonresponse. Kakashi raised an eyebrow, glancing at Genma briefly then back to Sakura, a retort on the tip of his tongue, but Genma cut him off. "Yes, Sakura too, before you ask."

When he properly turned to Genma, hoping his face conveyed his scepticism, Genma scowled. "Don't look so surprised. Hidden Village civilians may be more chill than the entirely civilian populations, but they don't really deal well with living under the same roof as trained assassins. Even if those assassins happen to be their children."

Kakashi let the words wash over him, watching as Sasuke broke through the last layer of whatever Kurenai had put them under, almost a full minute after Sakura.

"I want them to fight." he found himself saying almost unconsciously, watching as Kurenai translated whatever pointers the Hyuuga was offering Sasuke.

"Hinata-chan and the Uchiha?" Genma clarified, his feathers still a little ruffled if the bad-tempered huff he let out at Kakashi’s change of subject was any indication. "Why?"

"Call it a whim." Kakashi shrugged, not sure he was able to put his own jumbled thoughts into any sort of sensible order much less vocalise them, but he knew the desire was genuine.

“Well, go ask then.” Genma waved him off, and Kakashi levelled him with a bland look then let the whirl of Shunshin take him, covering the distance between him and his students in under three seconds.

However, when he presented his idea to his resident sourpuss and the Hyuuga revolutionary, he was presented with two blank faces, though Sasuke’s soon morphed into a grimace.

"I don't want to fight her.” he replied, throwing Kakashi off somewhat. “I'd rather learn about genjutsu." He elaborated, gesturing at Kurenai, and Kakashi watched with no small degree of bafflement as Sakura paused where she was explaining the technical intricacies of genjutsu-breaking to Ino and came to stand at Sasuke’s shoulder.

Sasuke glanced at her briefly, wordless communication passing between Kakashi’s two students, and if he was surprised at the fact that there was not a single trace of Sakura’s once-crush in her eyes as she gazed at the Uchiha, it was nothing compared to his surprise at what Sasuke did next.

Levelling Kakashi with a raised eyebrow and a challenge in his eyes, Sasuke asked: "Unless it's an order?"

And Kakashi had nothing to say to that.

"You can fight her yourself.” Kurenai interrupted the stare-down, not leaving her post next to Kiba, though she shot Kakashi a reassuring half-smile which eased a knot of tension in his shoulders he hadn’t even realised was there. He knew he was still going to get interrogated about what he'd been doing with her precious student the moment Kurenai could get him alone, but for now, Kurenai’s empathetic nature was winning over her potential annoyance at him. “Hinata could do with a challenge."

The little Hyuuga made a quiet noise at that, not quite a disagreement nor alarm, and Kurenai sighed, before she shot her a fondly exasperated look and placed a hand on the girl's shoulder, squeezing lightly. "There are three other jounin here who can and will step in if needed, but I want you to know that I have full confidence in you."

Kakashi knew it wasn’t intended as an indirect accusation at him for his inability to keep a spar genin-level without being an asshole about it, but the comment stung nonetheless. Still, it seemed to be what the Hyuuga needed to hear because she nodded and seemed to relax, then turned to Kakashi expectantly.

Kakashi turned on his heel and headed off to the centre of the clearing, creating distance between himself and the collection of fragile genin. He came to a stop once he reached the middle and turned around, the Hyuuga stopping a good ten feet from him, then gestured grandly.

"Ladies first."

And Kakashi settled in to wait, watching the Hyuuga take a few deep breaths. Her muscles were loose, a clear contrast to the tension that had gripped them when Kurenai had proposed she spar with Kakashi. Her posture was surprisingly relaxed despite the apprehension he could still see in her gaze, though he was absently surprised to note her eyes were still free of the Byakugan-

-Kakashi found himself stepping back, his reflexes screaming at him to move, and he missed the kunai swiping at his abdomen by a scant few inches, the genin suddenly right in his space. He thwacked the spine of his book hard against her wrist, making the girl to release the kunai she'd tried to disembowel him with, but she just caught it with her other hand and threw it away, not even trying to press her advantage.

Instead, when Kakashi kicked out with his foot, aiming for her centre of balance, she flashed away, appearing a few metres to his left. Interestingly enough, Kakashi did not see her use hand-seals for the movement, so either she was Lee-level fast, or she'd gotten Shunshin down to Shisui levels of-

His thought process was cut off as the girl sprang back at him, and he had to twist out of the way of a two-fingered Jyuuken coming for his chakra core. Still, Kakashi wasn't expecting the small water bullet that the girl spat at his hip from point-blank range and, more importantly, with no hand-signs.

Lashing out with his chakra, he latched onto a nearby broken branch and substituted, watching from the treeline as the water bullet drilled a fist-sized hole into the wood. He'd have been disabled on the spot if he'd let that hit him.

Hmm.

Then, no sooner did he manage to catch his balance on the branch he ended up on, he was substituting again, neatly avoiding the three blue-tinged senbon that came flying at his new location, but when he chanced a glance at the girl, her Byakugan was off.

Either she hadn't needed it to locate him, or she was turning it on and off as and when she needed it. The first was an interesting thought and raised the question of 'how?', while the latter was closer to the paranoid side of chakra conservation tactics. 

Alright. Maybe it was time to fight back.

Switching location again at the same time as he called up a Shadow Clone and sent it underground, Kakashi blew a medium-sized Fireball at the Hyuuga, curious to see what she'd do. There was a subtle sense of wrongness niggling at his senses and he flared his chakra, but it wasn’t a genjutsu, so he pushed it to the back of his mind and concentrated on the fight.

Again, the girl used that same high-speed displacement, which he was starting to suspect was, in fact, a sealless Shunshin instead of the Lee-level speed he'd initially thought. The more analytical part of his brain was telling him that the girl wasn't bending her knees nearly enough to produce the level of spring needed for the speed she was exhibiting.

Morbidly curious to see what she would do when the ground she was keeping to stopped being 'safe', Kakashi cheerfully commanded his clone to send a few earth spikes to the Hyuuga's new location.

Another few flashes, one, two, three, her temples bulging with the veins of Byakugan, and then the girl was on the opposite side of the field to the tree he was hiding out in, having managed to avoid getting skewered by his clone's earth spikes. He watched as she flashed again, closer to him but with seemingly no intent to come to him, then whipped around and struck out at the air in front of her with a palm hand.

Kakashi had a split second to feel somewhat baffled at the move, then he was hastily reaching for another branch as the tree he'd been hiding in exploded under his feet, blown to pieces by whatever technique the girl had used.

In the little genin's mind, coming at him with lethal force was apparently fair game.

Interesting.

Still in the tree, he watched as she switched the Byakugan off and faced him again. Kakashi threw a Wind technique at her this time, ignoring the protest his coils gave at the usage of a technique so opposed to his chakra nature. Wind would never be his best element, but even a C-Rank elemental jutsu should be enough to trouble a genin, especially since wind would be harder to dodge or outrun than fire and earth.

But the little Hyuuga simply reactivated her dojutsu and flashed outside of the technique's range, accidentally ending up much nearer to the location of Kakashi's clone that was still underground. It was the work of a second to direct his clone to use the headhunter technique and grab the Hyuuga’s ankle, much like he'd grabbed Sasuke's during Team Seven's bell test, deciding that he'd tested her enough.

He left his tree and flashed to the girl's blind spot, but instead of his clone dragging the Hyuuga underground, Kakashi himself was suddenly forced to jump away when the ground shook with an explosion. He felt his clone dispel, getting a split-second memory of the girl's ankle turning into a kunai with an activated explosive tag around it, the weird sense of wrongness returning along with the whiplash of the double-memory and the explosion, and the overload of sensation took a moment to shake off.

(how did Naruto spam clones in every fight without getting overwhelmed?)

And then Kakashi was whipping up a kunai of his own, slashing down at the hand that came straight for his chakra core and would've probably meant an end for his career as a shinobi if it had connected. He felt a flicker of guilt when he managed to draw blood, his blade cutting across the meat of the girl's palm, but the Hyuuga barely seemed to react, seemingly determined to press the opportunity of having managed to get into his guard, jabbing her other hand at Kakashi's elbow.

Kakashi felt a spasm go down his arm, from the place the girl had hit to the very tips of his fingers, and the shock of it made him drop his book and lash out with an instinctive kick, managing to clip the girl's side before she flashed away again.

Opening his mouth to call the spar, Kakashi instead ended up relying on wind again, elongating his fingers with wind-edged claws to cut apart the smaller water bullets that the girl shot at him, half a dozen now instead of the earlier one. In the water spray that followed, he didn't see the chakra-sharpened senbon the girl threw until one dug deep into the meat of thigh, too close to his groin for comfort.

He'd let a genin hit him.

Alright, that's enough.

The worst thing, Kakashi mused as he pushed the irritating sense of wrongness to the back of his mind and prepared to end the spar, was how methodically the girl was fighting.

He covered the distance between them as he thought, moving faster than he'd been moving during the spar, clearly startling the Hyuuga, and her reactive step back was second too slow to actually prevent him from getting within striking distance.

She wasn't using killing intent. She didn't radiate blind arrogance like Naruto had during Team Seven's bell test, wasn't glaring at him with the desperate need to prove herself against a jounin like Sasuke had and wasn't shaking like a leaf and trying to pretend that a single kunai would be enough to hold him off like Sakura had.

She wasn't even looking at him like he was an enemy. Just... an obstacle to overcome. A chore.

And yet, had Kakashi been a chunin, she might have sent him to the hospital, each of her close-range attacks deceptively dangerous.

He suddenly remembered Kurenai telling him that her kunoichi student had killed four Iwa chunin on Team Eight's first cursed C-Rank and barely batted an eye afterwards. He could see it, he reckoned, meeting focused lilac eyes with his own bullshit eye-smile and taking in the frown between the girl's brows and the flat line of her mouth.

He struck out, batting away the hand she instinctively raised to take advantage of his sudden proximity, catching her wrist and twisting it, using her forward momentum to wrench her arm behind her, pinning her wrist to the small of her back. He huffed a quiet laugh when she reacted to the restraint with a blind backwards kick and shifted out of the way so her heel barely clipped his thigh instead of smashing his kneecap like she so clearly intended for it to. He expected for her to recognise the end of the spar and subside, so he didn't react in time to her redirecting her motion and stomping her foot on his open toes. He bit back a curse and threw gentleness out of the window, reaching roughly for the girl's other arm and wrenching it to join her other captive wrist, hoping such a thorough restraint would serve to reinforce the message that she'd lost and it was time to relax.

And then he did curse when the fingertips of the Hyuuga's right hand suddenly started sparkling with lightning.

Acting on instinct and absently hoping Kurenai wasn't watching, Kakashi kicked out at the back of the girl's knees, making her legs fold and forcing her to the ground; as she was falling, he caught a wrist in each hand and twisted her arms more properly behind her, probably more forcefully than strictly necessary and rested his foot between her shoulder blades, preventing any sort of further motion.

Then, almost as an afterthought, he channelled chakra to the girl's right wrist and disrupted her concentration enough for the fledgling Lightning jutsu to fizzle out.

"I'm a Hatake." he found himself saying quietly, barely loud enough to be heard over her panting breaths, the admission not stinging as much as it once would have. "You picked the wrong element."

She nodded in acknowledgement of his words, though even as she was nodding, he felt her test the strength of the restraint he had her in and almost laughed again.

"Forfeit." he advised instead, pulling on her arms a little to reinforce his point.

There was a moment's pause, almost like she was considering the order, but then she sighed and sagged in his hold, all the fight leaving her, and she nodded again.

Kakashi took his foot off her back and released her wrists one at a time, letting her catch herself instead of face-planting into the dirt. He held out a hand to help her up, reasoning that he might've been rougher than necessary in that last bout, but the girl shook her head and got up by herself, inclining her head to him once she was steady on her feet.

'thank you' she signed, bowing properly, and before Kakashi could reply, she was reaching up, wiping her forehead tiredly, and he only just realised that she was practically dripping with sweat, her hands shaking with what he reckoned was leftover adrenaline.

Unfortunately for her, her move to wipe her face resulted in her pushing her fringe up, enough so as for her forehead to become visible, and Kakashi felt the moment Kurenai's chakra roared when the motion revealed the pale green seal on the girl's skin. 

The girl must've felt it too, because there was a moment's panic on her face, then she was gone, suddenly by Kurenai and Genma's side, a hand wrapped around each of the adults' wrists and seemingly keeping them in place.

Kakashi chanced a glance at the assorted genin, but it seemed that Gai had had the foresight to step in, keeping prying preteen eyes away from a Village secret and Kurenai losing her cool.

Deciding that it would probably be beneficial to his friends' continued wellbeing to calm down enough to hear the Hyuuga out, Kakashi flash-stepped over, stopping a few feet away from Kurenai, but keeping her, Genma, and the kid in his line of vision.

From this close, it was much easier to see the way Kurenai was shaking with anger, a look of horror mixed with fury on her face, her rage seemingly making her forget that she could just kawarimi out of her student's grip.

"-my choice!" the girl said hoarsely, her voice barely louder than Kakashi's speaking voice and decidedly not the shout she'd probably intended for it to be. Kakashi had no doubt that it was physically hurting her to speak after so long in silence, but he reckoned that if anything was able to break through whatever trauma had prompted her mutism, Kurenai starting a feud with the Hyuuga Clan over something that they hopefully didn't know yet was high on the list. "It was my choice!"

Kurenai stopped fighting against the grip the girl had on her wrist though it seemed the Hyuuga knew better than to relax, keeping her fingers clenched tight around Genma and Kurenai's arms and, if Kakashi's hunch was right, using chakra to stick her feet to the ground.

Still, he didn't expect the almost desperate look the girl shot him over Kurenai's shoulder, so at odds to the calm warrior she'd looked like when fighting him not minutes previous, and Kakashi was speaking up before the decision even fully registered.

"It's true." he said, stepping closer and drawing both Genma and Kurenai's eyes. "She asked Jiraiya to seal her."

"And how do you know that?" Genma demanded sharply, and Kakashi was surprised at the depth of concern in the brunet's eyes.

“I spoke with Shikaku.” Kakashi replied, noticing the way the girl’s shoulders tensed briefly, and Shikaku’s assertion that she’d kept him out of the loop intentionally was suddenly more than just conjecture.

“That’s why you wanted the meeting with Jiraiya.” Kurenai breathed, staring at the girl as if hoping she’d deny it. “I thought you were just curious. Or wanted to pick up another skill. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have-”

Kurenai cut herself off, but Kakashi had an inkling that they all knew what she was going to say; ‘I wouldn’t have organised it’.

“I-” the Hyuuga started, but her voice cracked and she winced, hand releasing Kurenai’s wrist and flying instinctively to her throat, and Kakashi has the fleeting thought that she was going to heal herself. But she just grabbed onto her throat for a second and swallowed, then dropped her hand and signed ‘i’m sorry.’

“You’re not.” Kurenai sighed, and Kakashi wondered how she could tell. Still, she didn’t look as angry as she had before the girl revealed that it had been her decision. Instead, now she just tired and resigned, and when she looked at Hinata, there was a rarely seen helplessness in her eyes. “Just- give me a reason?”

‘Kumo’ the Hyuuga signed immediately, and Kurenai’s eyes widened before she hung her head and went to pinch the bridge of her nose. But, before she completed the motion, she must’ve caught the same thing Kakashi did – the Hyuuga’s fingers twitched again, as if wanting to add something. Kurenai pinned the girl with an expectant glare until she finished the thought, though not without hesitating between the signs. ‘and-- public domain.’

Kurenai didn’t seem to understand the addition, but judging by his face, Genma did, because he paled and twitched.

“The scroll I gave you-” he began, and the Hyuuga nodded, quirking an almost sad smile at the man.

Kurenai switched the focus of her glare to Genma, and the brunet sighed, though clearly saw the wordless order to elaborate.

“If a seal is planted on an individual and they are within the means to, they can commission a sealmaster to remove it, after which, it becomes public domain.” He waited until the light of comprehension dawned in Kurenai’s eyes, then added, “Which is why Anko has been able to commission Jiraiya now that he’s back, but Yamato can’t get his-!”

Genma caught himself, clearly catching the warning glare Kakashi shot him, and he quickly switched tracks, turning to briefly frown at the Hyuuga before he addressed Kurenai again. “I’m guessing she put the seal on herself because of the whole torture element, and what could’ve happened if a Branch House member had tried the same trick and someone had found out. That right?”

He addressed the last question to the girl, and she nodded, finally releasing Genma’s wrist, looking relieved.

“I still don’t like it.” Kurenai declared, still frowning at the girl as Genma stepped forward with his hand glowing green, probably to heal her throat.

Despite her tone, Kakashi could see that – no matter how grudgingly – Kurenai recognised the logic in her student’s actions.

Still, she wouldn’t have been Kurenai if she had just given in like that.

“Next time you plan to pull a stunt like that, I want you to tell me beforehand.” She ordered, and Kakashi fought the urge to snort at the idea that she expected there to be a next time. “I don’t care about plausible deniability or whatever reasoning you had to not tell me immediately. Your Father already knows what I think of him, and I’m not scared of your Clan, Hinata.”

The girl nodded and opened her mouth to speak once Genma’s hand fell away from her throat, but Genma’s sound of alarm cut her off and Kakashi’s gaze snapped to whatever had caught the tokujo’s attention.

The part of his forearm that the Hyuuga had held onto to keep him from running off and starting a riot now bore a bloodied handprint, and Kakashi winced at the distant memory of his knife cutting into the flesh of the girl’s palm.

“What the hell did you do, Kakashi?” Genma demanded, snatching up the Hyuuga’s hand and turning it over, revealing a surprisingly deep, still sluggishly-bleeding gash that stretched across her palm, all the way from the webbed skin between her thumb and index finger to the crease of her wrist.

“I-it’s not his fault, Genma-san.” The Hyuuga denied before Kakashi could think of a reply that wasn’t callous or petty, and he did a slight doubletake at the girl coming to his defence.

“Was it his knife? Then it’s his fault.” Genma shot back pragmatically, calling up healing chakra with a concentrated frown and setting to closing the cut on the girl’s hand. “He could’ve cut a nerve, and then we’d have been due a hospital visit.”

“To be fair,” Kakashi began, because his foot was starting to throb unpleasantly, not enough to hurt, but enough to be irritating, “I think she broke my toe.”

He went to take a step to allow Genma to inspect said foot, but when he put weight on his left leg, it buckled under him. He just about caught himself on Kurenai’s shoulder and stared first at his foot, then at the Hyuuga girl in not-insignificant bafflement.

“And doused you with one of Kiba’s needles, it looks like.” Genma added, laughter in his voice, and he let go of the Hyuuga’s hand in favour of stepping over to Kakashi’s side and plucking the senbon he’d managed to forget about from his thigh. “How did you not notice this?”

“I thought only one of Rei’s kids was poisonous.” Kakashi shot back flatly, drawing a snort from Kurenai.

“Hinata.” She spoke, addressing the Hyuuga who, despite Kakashi’s acknowledgement that she’d gotten one over him – him, a jounin, with multiple flee-on-sight orders – didn’t seem inclined to gloat. Or speak at all, for that matter, even after having had her throat healed. “Kiba was talking about it earlier; dinner’s at the Inuzuka Compound tomorrow.”

The Hyuuga sighed, apparently seeing where Kurenai was heading, but Kurenai continued nonetheless, as if needing to drive the message home. “I think it’s about time you talked with Shino, don’t you?”

There was a flash of- fear, Kakashi was pretty sure, or at the very least, very apparent apprehension – at the notion, the girl’s shoulders going up before she seemed to forcefully relax and took a deep breath, the tension leaving her along with the exhale. “Yes, sensei.”

“Six, tomorrow. Then the day after, we’re resuming proper team training.” Kurenai added, softening slightly at the girl’s acknowledgement. She reached out, smoothing the Hyuuga’s fringe back down and tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear, the gesture shockingly-

-Kakashi wasn’t sure of the adjective. Familial? Maternal? Either way, it’s not like he would know what that looked like.

‘Shockingly tender for a field commander’, he finished mentally, but then again, Kurenai had always been tactile.

Still, the Hyuuga smiled and inclined her head, then turned to Kakashi, the smile dimming slightly.

“The senbon was tipped with lidocaine. The effects should fade in a few minutes.” She informed him quietly, gaze darting away briefly before she forced herself to meet his eye. “I apologise for not informing you earlier. I…didn’t expect it to hit you.”

And yet she had still thrown it, used a probably limited-supply weapon if it had indeed been a gift from her poison-practicing Inuzuka teammate. Had committed to and orchestrated a distraction in the form of the Water jutsu to hide an already difficult to spot weapon just on the off chance that it might connect.

‘Extremely dedicated to the long game’ Shikaku had called her.

Kakashi was starting to see that.

“Maa, no harm done.” He drawled, borrowing Genma’s expression from earlier in the day. Then, he did a double-take when the girl faced him fully and inclined her head.

“May I be dismissed, Hatake-san? I’d like to pick up my sister from the Academy.” She requested formally, causing Genma and Kurenai to pause in their quiet conversation and shoot her slightly baffled looks, but Kakashi-

-Kakashi had pulled the same shit on Minato, once upon a time, then on Jiraiya, then on his ANBU Captains; demure, obedient, deferential, all the while screaming underestimate me. Go on. See how it ends for you.

His first red flag had gone up when Shikaku had detailed a political power-play and informed him that it had been pulled off by a fresh genin.

His second had been finding the girl with Yugao of all people, grief-stricken and jagged around the edges as the kunoichi now was, yet his old subordinate still looking like she not just tolerated but enjoyed the Hyuuga’s presence.

His third was caused by the fact that his toe was still throbbing and he was only slowly regaining the feeling in his thigh.

Underestimating this particular genin was one of the last things on his mind.

Fuck, but he was going to have to do what Shikaku asked of him, wasn’t he?

“You may go, genin.” He replied, belatedly realising that the girl was still waiting for him to dismiss her. No sooner were the words out of his mouth did the girl disappear, not a leaf or a gust of wind to betray her.

Still somewhat baffled, he turned slowly to Genma and Kurenai, wondering how to word his thought process in a way that wasn’t going to get Kurenai jumping for his throat.

“Now, are you this thrown by the fact that Hinata-chan actually hit you,” Genma began, glee and schadenfreude brewing behind his eyes, and even Kurenai looked vindictively satisfied, though Kakashi didn’t know why, “or because she fights like you?”

Kakashi stilled.

Finally, that subtle, nagging sense of wrongness that he’d felt throughout the fight had a name.

The Shunshin, the seal-less, wordless casting, the penchant for kawarimi, the contained, stifled, yet nonetheless present viciousness, the insane choice to use lethal force in a spar-

But-

“-how the fuck-?”

Hanabi made her way out of the Academy, chatting absently with Hitomi about Midorima-sensei’s latest assignment, when her eyes fell on an unexpected sight.

She blinked, raising a hand to rub at her eye, but when she looked again, Hinata-nee was still there, a small smile on her face as she raised a hand in a tiny wave when she caught Hanabi’s eye.

Hanabi felt a grin split her face, completely ignoring what Hitomi was saying, and threw herself ahead.

“Nee-sama!” She called gleefully, not slowing her run even as she got closer and barrelling into Hinata, wrapping her arms around her sister’s shoulders. To her surprise, Hinata barely stumbled at the impact, catching Hanabi around the waist and lifting her off the ground in a hug and spinning them around. 

“Hello, Hanabi-chan.” Hinata greeted quietly once she set Hanabi back down, and there was a soft smile on her face and warmth in her eyes as she gazed down at Hanabi, but, more importantly-

“You can speak again!” Hanabi exclaimed, grabbing onto Hinata’s hand in her excitement, drawing a quiet laugh from her sister. “Now I won’t have to learn the sign language!”

“You still will, when you make chunin.” Hinata pointed out, and Hanabi puffed up with pride because Hinata had said ‘when’ not ‘if’. “But for now, I suppose you’re off the hook.”

Hanabi pumped her fist in victory, then felt her smile dim slightly. “Do we- do we have to go back to the Compound right away?”

Hinata’s face shuttered briefly, something cold passing through her eyes, and the expression sent shivers down Hanabi’s spine. But then her sister was back, smiling that same soft smile as she shook her head.

“We can do whatever you want, imouto.” Hinata replied, pulling on the hand Hanabi was still holding, but instead of pulling away, Hinata instead shifted her hold so they were properly holding hands. “Where would you like to go?”

“Dango!” Hanabi cheered immediately, but whatever she was going to say next was cut off by another voice.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this enthusiastic, Hanabi-chan.” Hitomi observed, having finally caught up, a tall brunet man at her side. “Nice to properly meet you, Hyuuga-san.”

“Likewise.” Hinata added slowly, gaze flickering between Hitomi and the adult at her side. “Your friend, Hanabi-chan?”

“Yeah, Yamanaka Hitomi.” Hanabi introduced, then squinted at the man next to her friend. “And Hitomi’s…parent?”

“Brother, actually.” The man grinned, “Yamanaka Tetsuya. Nice to officially meet the honorary Nara.”

“Nee-sama’s a Hyuuga.” Hanabi corrected reflexively, frowning at Hitomi’s brother. That was a weird thing to say, and the man had made Hinata lose her smile, so Hanabi was double-miffed.

“For now.” Weird-Tetsuya-san replied cryptically, putting a hand on Hitomi’s shoulder and pushing her along lightly. He raised the same hand in a lazy wave, his green eyes weirdly cat-like if not for the lack of pupil. “Well, catch ya later.”

From where she was still holding her hand, Hanabi felt the way Hinata twitched at the farewell. She sent her sister a concerned look, but Hinata’s gaze was focused, bizarrely, on Hitomi’s annoying-brother’s feet, a look of dawning realisation on her face.

“Nee-sama?” She prompted when the look didn’t fade even once Hitomi and her brother disappeared from sight, and Hinata startled, glancing down at her with wide eyes as if she’d forgotten Hanabi was there.

“I- sorry. Dango, yes?” she apologised distractedly, though slowly, her focus returned, and her smile, when she directed it at Hanabi, was warm and genuine.

Testing her luck, Hanabi tilted her head and pulled her best puppy-eyes, though according to Hitomi, she still had a way to go. “Can we spar after?”

Hinata huffed a quiet, tired laugh, but she nodded obligingly, letting Hanabi pull her along. “We can. It’s been a while.”

Almost giddy with happiness, Hanabi grinned, tugging Hinata along to her (their) favourite dango restaurant.

(Though she’d never admit it out loud, Hanabi thought the dango shop by the Academy did better dango than the one she was leading them to, but their favourite had something the closer one didn’t.

It was on the other side of the Village to the Hyuuga Compound.)

Hinata walked Hanabi to the gates of the Hyuuga Compound, then headed back towards the Nara grounds, deciding to give herself one more evening of peace. She’d have dinner with her team as an escape tomorrow, so she could leave in the morning, drop her things off in her room at the Hyuuga Compound, then go to train, and hopefully, she’d come back from dinner late enough that she’d miss the Elders’ lecture that she knew was coming.

She had dinner with the Nara, played a game of Go with Shikamaru, and had a good night’s sleep. Then, in the morning, she packed up her things and set about cleaning the guest room that had become her room over the month and a half that she’d stayed at Shikamaru’s house, determined to leave it spotless.

She was surprised when she found Shikaku in the living room as she came down the stairs, dozens of papers spread around him on the dining table, the man clearly having chosen to work from home for the day.

“Leaving so soon?” Shikaku asked when he noticed her, pushing up the glasses that had slid down his nose, and Hinata felt her lip quirk up at the remark. It sounded sarcastic, but she’d spent enough time around the Nara family to hear the undertone of genuine curiosity in the man’s voice.

“I’ve already exploited your hospitality.” She murmured, ducking her head in apology, and Shikaku sighed as he pushed away from the table and stood, leaning back against it instead.

“You can’t exploit something that was freely offered.” Shikaku replied, frowning lightly at her.

“If you say so.” Hinata allowed, pushing up the strap of her backpack. “Regardless, thank you for your kindness. I greatly appreciate you allowing me to stay at your home these last few weeks, Shikaku-san.”

“Kindness does not absolve me and mine from the fact that our actions put you at odds with your Clan.” Shikaku retorted, a somewhat alarming note of self-deprecation in his voice. “But you are welcome nonetheless.”

Not liking that tone on a man who had been nothing but kind to her over the last few weeks, Hinata smiled wryly, allowing a hint of bitterness to show.

“I have been at odds with my Clan long before Shikamaru asked me to train with him.” She confessed, but instead of relaxing or laughing, Shikaku just looked sad now, and Hinata was baffled.

“I wish it were not your burden to bear.” He sighed, and Hinata was thrown at the genuine regret in his voice.

“It isn't.” she corrected quietly, voicing the thoughts she hadn’t admitted to outside of the privacy of her mind. “The burden belongs to the Branch house. I chose to bear it.”

“So I am learning.” Shikaku agreed, and though he was smiling now, there was something not unlike wonder in his gaze. Maybe even confusion. “Yet for all my apparent genius, I still haven't been able to figure out why.”

Hinata studied the man, wondering whether to admit to the full extent of her motivations behind her drive to abolish the seal.

Finally, after what was probably a minute of silence, neither her nor Shikaku willing to give in, she sighed, a wry smile quirking her lip.

“It’s entirely selfish.” She murmured, drawing a raised eyebrow from Shikaku, his expression telling her that he disagreed with her assessment despite not yet knowing her full reasoning. “When I become Head, my sister will get sealed.”

Shikaku blinked, and Hinata wondered whether he had known the Hyuuga’s ‘there can only be one’ rule. Still, Hinata continued before he could cut in.

“Any children of hers, if she chooses to have any, will bear the seal. Any children of Neji’s will bear the seal. I love my sister and cousin too much to allow that to happen, Shikaku-san.”

For a moment, Shikaku just stared at her.

Then, finally, when Hinata was almost tempted to escape out the front door just to avoid the silence, he hung his head and laughed quietly.

“Your uncle would be proud of you.” he said simply, and Hinata startled, eyes widening, but Shikaku didn’t seem inclined to elaborate.

But Hinata could only stare, frozen in shock. She hadn’t thought of Uncle Hizashi since his death, but now, the claim, simple and sure, that he would be proud of her was threatening to bring tears to her eyes.

Shikaku, apparently understanding the reason for her silence, just tilted his head and stretched, his gaze idle once again when he focused back on her, the earlier attentiveness gone.

“Yoshino wanted me to tell you that you’re welcome to our house any time. And I’d like to officially invite you to the fortnightly dinners my Clan hosts with the Yamanaka and Akimichi.” He informed her lightly, glancing over his papers almost lazily, giving Hinata the time to compose herself. “Who knows, Shikamaru might actually socialise if you come.”

Startled at the claim, Hinata snorted, hand flying up to cover her mouth as she felt her cheeks warm. But Shikaku just smiled, pleased, and nodded at her. “So I fully expect to see you around, Hinata.”

Hinata nodded back, incapable of proper words, and headed for the door.

She caught sight of Shikamaru lounging by the treeline of the Nara forest, Chouji at his side, and the two looked so tranquil that Hinata decided against disturbing them, heading for the gates to the Clan grounds in silence.

She got within ten metres of the gates when Shikamaru seemed to melt out of the shadow cast by the guard post, eyebrow raised when he regarded her, the resemblance to his father in that moment almost startling.

“Leaving without a goodbye?” he asked idly, and Hinata finally understood why Kiba hadn’t gelled well with Shikamaru their first time. Much like with Shikaku, while on the surface Shikamaru’s words sounded pointed, almost sarcastic, Hinata now knew the boy enough to detect the hint of real hurt beneath, and the dichotomy was startling.

“You looked peaceful.” She replied apologetically, knowing how little opportunity Shikamaru had been getting to actually relax since his promotion. “I didn’t want to bother you.”

“You’re not a bother.” Shikamaru shot back, frowning at her, and Hinata didn’t bother pointing out that that wasn’t quite what she’d said, more surprised at the vehemence behind Shikamaru’s words. “Why are you going back if you clearly don’t want to?”

Hinata did a double-take, staring at Shikamaru wide-eyed, a hint of that familiar irritation she only ever felt around the Nara resurfacing. More mature than before or not, less sharp around the edges than before or not, Shikamaru was still far from tactful.

“Because I have responsibilities.” She retorted, sharper than she wanted, and Shikamaru seemed thrown at her tone, so she took a deep breath and wrestled with the irritation bubbling under her skin and reminded herself that Shikamaru was still just a twelve-year-old boy.

“Sorry.” She breathed, looking down to collect herself before she met Shikamaru’s gaze again. “But please be more careful with the assumptions you make.”

“…Alright.” Shikamaru replied after a beat, and while it wasn’t an apology, it was a much easier concession than Hinata had expected. “Don’t be a stranger, Hinata.”

“Alright.” Hinata echoed, feeling her irritation dissipate, and even managed to smile at the other boy. “I’ll see you soon.”

And then, before the exchange could get awkward, Hinata pulled on her chakra and left in a swift Shunshin, appearing a few dozen meters outside of the Nara grounds, well out of Shikamaru’s sight.

All in all, leaving the Nara Compound wasn’t as bad as she had feared.

Now to face her Clan.

"Hey, dad?" Shikamaru greeted, strolling into Shikaku's office in Jounin HQ, a bookbag over his shoulder and what looked like a history book in hand.

"Hmm?" Shikaku hummed, scanning through the last recommendations for Jounin promotions and wondering whether the ANBU Commander would grouch at him again for snatching potential recruits from right under the man's nose.

"Is Naruto the son of the Yondaime?" 

Shikaku's hand twitched so hard that he nearly ripped the page he'd been about to turn. 

"What makes you ask that?" He asked sharply, wondering whether he would be lucky enough that nobody would've overheard Shikamaru's question through the thin door. Activating the silencing seals would be as good as admitting Shikamaru was right, though Shikamaru didn't seem to realise the political minefield he'd jumped into with his question.

"Something Hinata said about assumptions." Shikamaru waved him off, and Shikaku was tempted to pinch the bridge of his nose in frustration. While he was glad that Hinata's presence had encouraged Shikamaru to actually use his intellect, the Hyuuga possessed a degree of subtlety and political acumen that Shikamaru had not yet learned. "And he looks a lot like the Yondaime did in his graduation photo."

Shikaku sighed, knowing that if Shikamaru had bothered to go through the Archives to get to Minato's graduation picture, there was likely a ton of other research that his son had done that he simply wasn't inclined to share.

"Yes, he is." Shikaku gave in with a sigh, pinning Shikamaru with a tired glare. "But don't go sharing that around. Anything else?"

"Is he also the Kyuubi jinchuuriki?" Shikamaru pressed, and Shikaku gave in and raised a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose, raising his other to rub at his temple and the tension headache he could feel building at the thought of the lecture he was going to have to give Shikamaru once he got home.

"Yes, he is." He repeated, then channelled all of his authority and presence as the Jounin Commander into his voice when he added, "Do not, under any circumstances, go spreading this information around. Understood?"

"Understood." Shikamaru returned easily, the gleam of satisfaction not leaving his eyes as he inclined his head. "Thanks, dad."

"Get out of my office." Shikaku huffed, no heat in his voice as he reached for an incident report template and began filling it out. "I'll see you at home."

Heeding the dismissal, Shikamaru turned on his heel and left, not even two minutes after he waltzed in and ruined Shikaku's perfectly good morning.

And while Shikaku was glad that his son was starting to reassess some of his assumptions, couldn't he have started with something less headache-inducing?

The dinner at Kiba’s house had been a welcome return to normalcy. And as much as Hinata hated to admit it, Kurenai had been right; her talk with Shino that happened before they even sat at the dinner table had indeed been long overdue.

She had suspected, when she allowed herself to think about it, that Shino had simply misspoken as a product of being exhausted, stressed, and terrified after their encounter with Itachi, but having it confirmed had felt like a weight off her shoulders that she hadn’t even realised she’d been carrying.

They returned to training regularly as a team, taking D-Ranks to help out with reconstruction efforts and a couple of short duration, close-to-the-Village C-Ranks to bring in the much-needed funds for the reconstruction efforts. Hinata also reckoned that Kurenai was a lot more affected by their last mission than she let on, because she refused to take the C-Ranks without another team or jounin accompanying them, and Tsunade was either a lot more accommodating than Hinata had realised, or her sensei was a lot more terrifying than they already suspected.

But an even more unexpected routine had established itself in her team’s first few weeks back on the mission roster. Back when Kurenai had first introduced her team to Yugao, Genma, and Ebisu,  Hinata had started the habit of coming to their training grounds around seven or eight in the morning to get in some individual training before the team session. Since she’d been dismissed from the hospital, Hinata had resumed the routine, but after the dinner at Kiba’s her routine had been interrupted by the most unlikely of individuals: Kakashi.

On random days, but only ever in the mornings, Kakashi would appear on her team’s training grounds and throw jutsu at her.

It had started by the man appearing from the treeline one morning, not long after Hinata herself had arrived at the training grounds. He’d regarded her critically and very bluntly and unapologetically announced: “The Byakugan won’t always save you, and you won’t always be able to dodge ninjutsu. What will you do then?”

And so Hinata had explained that, while she wanted to learn more elemental genjutsu, none of her immediate mentors would be of help, barring maybe Ebisu, but the man had very clearly taken Shino under his wing.

Kakashi had looked blank when she’d mentioned wanting to learn how to counterbalance ninjutsu, and almost peeved when she’d explained why she wasn’t able to.

And then, he had given her the cryptic advice of ‘watch my hands’ and proceeded to blow a Fireball at her.

A full-sized one.

At point-blank range.

From then on, Kakashi made a point of turning up in the early morning, sometimes for fifteen minutes, sometimes for half an hour, sometimes even more, and would direct a multitude of elemental ninjutsu at her. Never announcing his techniques, never calling out their names, never giving her so much as a word of warning as to what element he was going to use that day.

After the first two times, when Hinata realised that she wouldn’t be able to dodge a spray of half a dozen small Fireballs and called up the equivalent jutsu but using Water and felt Kakashi’s chakra hum with satisfaction, she also realised that he didn’t want her to dodge, but to counter his techniques.

And so it went on.

On the way back from a two-day C-Rank, Hinata stopped off at the library and refreshed her memory of which element countered which.

Then, she sought out techniques.

She got instruction for the Earth Wall from Genma, a D-Ranked Wind technique from Yugao, a simple Fireflower from Genma’s friend Aoba. After that, it was simply the matter of practice.

And then, about a month and a half after moving back to the Hyuuga Compound and around a month after the start of her weird routine with Kakashi, the whole of Team Seven approached her with the most bizarre of requests.

Genma dragged Kakashi to the roof of the shop on the opposite side of the street to the café the kids had headed into, their watchpoint granting them a perfect view of the genin’s booth. He pointed meaningfully at his ear, squeezing Kakashi’s arm warningly and waiting for the man to get the message and get on board with, essentially, spying on his genin.

Genma had a feeling that the subject of the conversation that was about to take place between Hinata and Team Seven wasn’t about to be pleasant for his friend, but if his hunch was right, it would be something Kakashi would need to hear sooner rather than later.

“Kiba said that you’ve been training with Kaka-sensei.” Minato’s son began, no subtlety to him despite Raido’s best efforts, though at least he’d substituted his obnoxious orange jumper for a green one paired with brown trousers.

“And learning from him.” Sasuke added, a note of bitterness in his voice, though it wasn’t anywhere near what Genma had gotten used to hearing from Sakura when the girl talked with Ino.

“And we just want to know,” Sakura took over, shooting her teammates a quelling look before she turned to Hinata with a slightly desperate expression, “how?”

“I don’t…understand?” Hinata replied, blinking at the surprisingly united front Team Seven was presenting, and Genma heard Kakashi sigh quietly.

“How did you get him to actually teach you?” Sakura demanded, forgoing subtlety, and oh, there was the bitterness Genma had grown to expect. He resisted the temptation to shoot Kakashi a look, letting him free his arm from his grip but keeping his hold on Kakashi’s belt loop just in case the man tried to pull a runner, tightening his grip when Sakura opened her mouth to add: “Everything he’s taught us, we had to practically fight him for. How did you ask for him to agree?”

That was definitely a flinch from Kakashi, but to the man’s credit, he hadn’t made any move as if to run away yet. Frowning, Genma found himself reconsidering his conclusion that Kakashi was intentionally ignoring his team’s needs.

Perhaps he simply didn’t know what they needed and didn’t know how to ask…?

“I didn’t ask.” Hinata replied quietly, and Genma was glad he could read the girl’s lips, because even augmenting his hearing with chakra as he was, her voice was still too quiet for him to catch every word. “He showed up when I was training a few days after our spar and said that I won’t always be able to rely on the Byakugan or outrun ninjutsu attacks.”

Genma didn’t bother hiding the way he rolled his eyes at that, shooting his friend a disbelieving look. The alternative to running away was ninjutsu counterbalancing, and that was a jounin-level skill.

Genin were seldom expected to produce ninjutsu, much less know how to counter it.

“I knew that.” Hinata continued, her eyes going momentarily distant, and Genma didn’t want to know what she was thinking. Going by Kurenai’s account of the kids’ encounter with Itachi and the Kiri-nin and the forest-levelling techniques they’d come across then, he doubted it was anything good. “But Kurenai-sensei is a genjutsu specialist, Yugao-senpai knows mostly Wind jutsu, and while Genma-san knows a bit of everything, he’s busy enough already. It made more sense for me to focus on what I could actually work on with my team, and I said as much.”

“Kakashi…volunteered to help you, then?” the Uchiha asked, a note of disbelief in his voice, the lack of honorific conspicuous.

“I…suppose?” Hinata hedged, looking at Sasuke oddly. “He shows up sometimes when I’m training and…throws ninjutsu at me.”

Genma turned the full force of his disbelieving expression on Kakashi at that, getting an awkward shrug in return.

“How do you learn, then?” Naruto asked with a frown, tilting his head at Hinata. “Raido-san always walks me through every new thing we do, and Sakura-chan says her poison guy talks a lot during their meetings.”

“Genma-san, Naruto.” Sakura corrected with an exasperated roll of her eyes, and Genma huffed a quiet laugh at the put-upon tone. “Kiba and Ino learn by doing, but I told him I like to have things explained beforehand, and he respects that.”

“You need to know what jutsu is coming to counterbalance it, but Kakashi doesn’t call out his techniques.” Sasuke added, his focus still on Hinata, seemingly ignoring his teammates’ back-and-forth. “It’s a valid question.”

“He lets me see his hand-signs.” Hinata informed the trio, and Genma stilled momentarily. “There are…patterns. Sequences I can learn to recognise.” Hinata’s gaze went distant again, and something wry and pained twisted her lip briefly before she added: “Few elite-level shinobi call out their techniques, Sasuke-san. The sooner I learn to stop relying on that, the better.”

“We’re genin.” Sakura pointed out, something horrified in her tone, and Genma reckoned she’d been spending too much time with him because that would’ve been his point as well. It didn’t seem like she planned to develop the argument, no other counterpoint forthcoming, and Hinata shrugged awkwardly in response.

“Not many of the enemies my team has faced have been genin-level.” She replied softly, a fact instead of a brag, and Genma winced, wondering when the girl had last seen her shrink.

That was a scarily utilitarian reaction to meeting enemies that outclassed her, not too dissimilar to Shino’s own hang-ups, if what he’d managed to pry from Ebisu was any indication.

“So you don’t know any better than us, then.” Sasuke concluded, exchanging a tired look with Sakura. “Great.”

“Know what?” Hinata asked, suspicion and confusion both evident in her tone.

“How to make him be a teacher.” The Uchiha spat, and Kakashi flinched again, prompting Genma to let go of his hold. If the man wanted to pull a runner now, he wouldn’t begrudge him. But, to his surprise, Kakashi stayed where he was.

“Have you considered just…talking to him?” Hinata asked slowly, looking between the members of Team Seven with a frown pulling at her brows. “Jounin don’t get taught how to teach. A lot of them are made sensei because of serious injury or a way to refamiliarize them with the Village after difficult field missions.”

Genma blinked, surprised at the astute observation and the fact that Hinata seemed aware of the fact that the position of sensei was hardly a desirable one among the active forces.

“Your and Ino’s sensei seem to know what to do.” Sakura huffed, still a bitter note in her voice, but Genma could practically hear the cogs in her mind turning, her big brain turning over the information Hinata was offering and likely filling in the gaps in what she hadn’t known.

Hinata laughed quietly at that, a deep fondness in her eyes that seemed misplaced on a child her age.

“I love Kurenai-sensei.” she confessed quietly, the admission falling from her lips freely and without a hint of hesitation. Kakashi twitched at Genma’s side, and Hinata paused briefly, then shook her head and continued. “She cares for us and protects us and, whenever she can’t help us herself, she gets us people who can. But she had no idea what to do with us at the beginning.”

“How’d she learn?” Naruto asked, blinking confusedly and tilting his head, and Genma distantly commended Raido for managing to impress the value of an ‘inside voice’ on the boy.

“Trial and error. Talking to us. Setting boundaries and expectations.” Hinata offered, shrugging at the end, and Genma found himself smiling sadly, simultaneously proud of Hinata for recognising that the adults around her were also figuring things out as they went and sad that she already had the maturity to realise that.

“You asked me how I learn from Kakashi-san.” Hinata sighed, speaking up again when none of Team Seven seemed to know how to reply to her earlier assessment. “And the truth is that I don’t know.”

“I am not his student. I don’t have any expectations of him.” She explained, her tone sharper now, as if urging Team Seven to listen. “Yet, he is trying to help, in the way he knows how, and it is my responsibility to make the most of anything he is able and willing to teach me.”

Genma glanced briefly at Kakashi, but the man was frozen, his visible eye wide.

Then, Sakura opened her mouth again, and Genma despaired inwardly, because what came out of the girl’s mouth brought on Flinch Number Three from Kakashi; “Trying to kill you with ninjutsu is not teaching.”

Hinata, however, looked almost insulted at the comment, though Genma reckoned none of the members of Team Seven knew her enough to notice; “He’d never kill me.”

“Then why’d you try to kill him?”

Genma blinked, startled, certain that his expression mirrored the absolute bafflement on Hinata’s as she turned to Sasuke.

“Excuse me?”

“When Yuhi-san was teaching us genjutsu. In that spar.” Sasuke elaborated, though he looked like he’d bitten into a lemon, clearly annoyed at having to explain himself. “Your hits could’ve been lethal. Why’d you fight like that?”

“Because I was fighting Kakashi-san.” Hinata explained, adding stress to Kakashi’s name that Genma understood intimately, but, it seemed, Kakashi’s genin didn’t.

“That’s not an answer.” The Uchiha huffed, Sakura nodding at his side.

But Hinata just sighed, pointing at something in Sasuke’s bag.

“Is that a Bingo Book?”

The Uchiha blinked, glancing from his bag back to Hinata, though he did obligingly pull it out. “Yeah. Mitarashi-san gave it to me to study.”

Hinata held out her hand wordlessly, waited until Sasuke bemusedly handed it over, then flipped through it with alarming familiarity and turned the book around so Team Seven could see.

Unsurprisingly, Genma felt Kakashi still when his own face stared back at him from the page.

There was a moment of silence as Kakashi’s genin took in the information on the page, and then- “He graduated the Academy at four?”

Hinata smiled, and it was more sad than anything else.

“For some jounin-sensei, a lot of time passes between when they were on a genin team to when they have to lead one.” She explained quietly, and at Genma’s side, Kakashi was tenser than a bowstring. “Talk to Kakashi-san. He’s one of the best jounin in the Village, and he was a genius even before he got his Sharingan. You could have a lot to learn from him when you go into Sabotage.”

Oh no.

Like hounds on a trail, all three members of Team Seven tensed.

“What do you mean by that.” Sasuke asked, but it was too flat to be a question.

Hinata looked taken-aback, glancing between the trio with increasingly wider eyes, seemingly only just realising that Team Seven didn’t know about Kakashi’s lesser-known specialisations. “Um…”

“Hinata. What did you mean by that.” Sakura repeated and there was urgency in her voice that seemed to startle Hinata.

“Does she know-?” Genma asked, trailing off and shooting Kakashi a thrown look, but Kakashi was frowning at the four genin, something unreadable on his face.

“I don’t know.” He replied honestly, and that was almost worse than a confirmation would’ve been.

“Your dojutsu.” Hinata explained, staring at Sasuke oddly. “It allows the user to copy any technique. Kakashi-san has had it for over a decade.”

It was…a reasonable explanation, all things considered, but Genma had a niggling suspicion that Hinata knew about Kakashi’s ANBU designation, somehow. That had been too pointed an observation for it to have been just about Kakashi’s Sharingan.

“He could’ve copied a lot of techniques.” Sasuke mused, exchanging a thoughtful look with Sakura, and even Naruto seemed considering. “Sabotage too.”

“So are you finally gonna admit that I was right?” Naruto demanded, though he sounded more satisfied than grumpy, grinning in a way that reminded Genma painfully of Kushina at her smuggest, and he could tell by Kakashi’s quiet breath that the other jounin noticed it too. “We do gotta talk to Kaka-sensei.”

“Shut up, Naruto.” Sakura and Sasuke chorused, but they, too, looked more amused than annoyed, and there was a thoughtful expression on Sakura’s face that Genma had learned to be cautious of.

“Thanks, Hinata.”

Hinata had been relieved to be able to slip out of the booth and escape from the bizarre conversation Team Seven had trapped her in, but she hadn’t expected to be followed as she made her way to the door.

“Hinata, wait up!”

She turned, shocked to find Naruto running after her, and the boy grinned as he skidded to a stop in front of her. Hinata had been surprised at the change from the characteristic orange to the much more shinobi-appropriate combination of green and brown, but now that she looked at him on his own, Naruto didn’t seem as…loud as he had as a genin in her first time, and not just because of his outfit.

"So, uh, this is gonna sound weird, I know, but, um, do you wanna get ramen with me?" Naruto asked, almost shyly, raising a hand to scratch at the back of his neck sheepishly, and Hinata froze.

She reckoned she probably stopped breathing, too.

It- He- But-

She shook her head, more to try and dislodge the thoughts than as a response. She only belatedly realised how it might look to Naruto and held up a hand to cut him off, trying to remember how to form words before his face fell any more.

In the end, all she managed was a rough, disbelieving "Why?" that sounded like it had been wrenched out from the deepest parts of her being.

"Oh, uh, cause I think you're cool!" Naruto exclaimed, apparently buoyed by the fact that she wasn't rejecting him outright.

Hinata though, was still firmly submerged in her disbelief-fuelled hysteria, and she felt like she was hearing Naruto's words from underwater.

"You barely know me." Slipped out before she could keep it in, keep it as a quiet thought that never left the bitter depths of her heart.

Naruto now had even less reason to know her or know of her than he did in her original timeline. There was no explanation for this. She didn't think Naruto cruel enough for this to be a prank, nor was there anyone else in the boy's vicinity that could have put him up to it when she looked around, but she distrusted so much.

"No! I mean, well, yeah, but I that's why I wanna get to know you!" Naruto explained, then grinned as if his logic was undeniable. "Plus, I know a lot about you, dattebayo!"

Hinata...stared.

She'd spent years fantasising about a moment like this, before. All the way from the Academy till the end of the War, wondering whether she had a chance, wishing, dreaming to be noticed.

But now that it had come, that it was within arms' reach of her, she felt...nothing.

'I think you're cool!' It was a compliment, undoubtedly so, and ten times more than what she'd heard from Naruto in her first life.

But it also threw into stark contrast two things: how childish the compliment was, and that Naruto, freshly thirteen, was a child.

And she had a decade's worth of growing up over him.

She'd noticed it in the Academy too, when she'd walked in for their test that first day, but now, it was almost easier. Easier to take a deep breath, and, with the exhale, let go of the last remnants of the crush she'd once harboured for the boy in front of her.

Naruto, apparently taking her silence as her angling for more information, launched into an animated explanation.

"Kiba said he's only alive because of you! And he might be annoying sometimes, but he's still my friend, so I'm glad you saved him!" He smiled then, something more vulnerable flashing through his eyes, and Hinata had a moment's realisation that nearly threatened to break her heart all over again:

Naruto was one of Kiba's friends. But for Naruto, Kiba might have been one of his only friends.

"Plus, Shikamaru called you smart! Smarter than him, even, I think!" Naruto continued, the earlier expression wiped clear from his eyes as if it had only been a trick of the light. "I've never heard Shikamaru compliment someone! So you must be really smart for him to do it in front of all the people at the arena!"

Hinata blinked, completely thrown.

Shikamaru thought she was smart?

“And you’re, like, really really pretty, so, uh, whaddaya say?” Naruto finished, suddenly bashful, and Hinata had a moment’s panic.

This had been Sakura’s role in her first life. The smart, pretty girl Naruto had kept hounding for dates despite the other girl only ever seeing him as a friend. Hinata couldn’t help but worry about what had changed to make Naruto shift that attention onto her.

And then, with a jolt that threatened to make her sick, she realised that she had been Naruto, once. ‘You barely know me’ she’d accused, but how much more had she really known about the boy when she’d decided he was her crush and inspiration?

“I’d like to get ramen with you.” She managed after far too long of a pause, though she held up a hand again when Naruto’s face lit up at her words. “But as friends, please.”

“Friends?” Naruto echoed and Hinata watched as his face dropped, but then he smiled and wiped his expression, nodding enthusiastically. “Friends, yeah, sure! Does, uh, tomorrow at nine suit you?”

Hinata frowned, trying to decide whether she could manage ramen before team training at ten, but decided that she didn’t want to disappoint Naruto anymore.

“It does. I’ll see you tomorrow, Naruto-kun.” And then, before she could start hating herself for the old honorific slipping out, or before she could see what Naruto’s reaction to it would be, she let the whirl of Shunshin take her away, getting her out of the conversation without any more awkwardness.

She landed in an alleyway on the other side of the road to the café, feeling hot all over as her heart started to race, her ears ringing as the absurdity of the situation started to set in. She stumbled on shaky legs till she could hide behind the dumpster, sliding with her back against the wall as her knees gave out.

She sat there for a second, staring sightlessly ahead as her heart raced and her breaths came in quick, desperate gasps. Over the ringing in her ears, she heard someone land at the entrance of the alleyway she was hiding in, clearly making an effort to announce themselves.

Hinata didn’t move, but she did twitch her fingers in greeting when Genma came into her view, the man taking one look at her and sighing quietly, crouching down a few feet in front of her so they could be on eye-level.

“You alright, kiddo?”

Hinata shook her head, trying desperately to draw breath still, tightening and loosening her grip on her knees to get some feeling back in her fingers which felt like they’d gone numb.

Genma simply sighed and shifted into a more comfortable crouch, heels fully on the ground as he settled in to wait until Hinata calmed down.

Finally, when her breathing had returned to normal and her ears stopped ringing, Hinata took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then tried to explain what had landed her in the alley.

"Have you ever-” she began, then had to pause and clear her throat when her voice cracked, “have you ever been noticed by someone you used to- to idolise?"

"Noticed?" Genma echoed, frowning and tilting his head thoughtfully. Then, comprehension dawned and he smiled, and when he spoke, there was laughter in his voice, though it didn’t sound malicious. "Oh, like asked out noticed?"

Hinata could feel her face heat up, but Genma just chuckled fondly, reaching out slowly until his hand rested on the top of her head in what was slowly becoming a familiar, comforting touch.

"Yeah, princess, I have." He admitted easily, then pinned her with a serious look. "You're wondering whether it was a prank?"

Hinata's head snapped up, nearly dislodging Genma's hand from her head.

She wasn't that transparent, was she?

But when she met his gaze, the look in Genma's eyes was knowing and tinged with sadness.

"That's the low self-esteem talking, kiddo." He sighed, smiling sadly. "You're impressive even for some adults, so no wonder your peers are taking notice."

Genma removed his hand from her head and pushed to his feet, and when Hinata glanced up at him, he held it out to help her up.

"Come on, let's go to the Inuzuka.” He offered, changing his expression into something more akin to his usual easy-going mien. “I haven't bothered Tsume in a while, and you look like you could do with petting some puppies."

Letting him haul her up, Hinata shook off the last of her panic attack and tried for a smile, once again eternally grateful for the extra support network she had in this life.

“By the way,” Genma began once they started walking in the direction of the Inuzuka Compound, “when did you realise Kakashi was there?”

Hinata hesitated and briefly considered lying or pretending ignorance, but it was Genma asking. And it wasn’t like anything she said to Team Seven was said specifically because she suspected Kakashi had been listening.

So she sighed and smiled sadly; “When I said that I love sensei.”

To her surprise, Genma just nodded, as if he’d expected something similar, though he didn’t comment beyond bumping her shoulder lightly. “Now come on, puppies await.”

Hinata’s original teen self’s dream came true the next morning: she had a full hour of chatting with Naruto over ramen.

Or, moreso listening to him talk about his many adventures and prank ideas, but it was still fun. Cathartic, almost, to listen to simple teen problems and drama, since Naruto didn’t seem to share in the bitterness of his teammates, though he surprisingly seemed to understand where they were coming from.

Learning that Naruto was being tutored regularly by another one of Genma and Kurenai’s friends had been a surprise, but then again, neither Kakashi nor Jiraiya had managed to instil the importance of shinobi-appropriate attire on the blond originally, so perhaps she should’ve expected that there was someone else influencing him this time. The green and brown combo was a welcome change to the loud orange she remembered, as was the discovery that Naruto now seemed to understand the concept of an ‘appropriate volume’, something that had taken Kiba a few weeks to grasp upon being assigned to Team Eight.

They parted amicably, heading to their respective training grounds with full stomachs, and Hinata was glad that Naruto didn’t once push her for a promise of a ‘next time’. She had a feeling it would be a while yet before she could spare the time for it again; Kurenai was looking more stressed with every passing day, and Hinata suspected that the day of their departure for Kumo was closer than any of them were prepared for.

Her theory was confirmed three days later when Kurenai held out packs of paper to the three of them as soon as she arrived at the training grounds.

“Consent forms.” She explained, sitting cross-legged on the ground with little fanfare and pulling her own folder open, raising an eyebrow until the three of them joined her on the ground. “We’re going to go through them, and if there’s anything you don’t like, we’re waiting until the next round.”

“Would we be allowed to wait?” Shino asked sceptically, flipping through the pages carefully. “I was under the impression that the Village needs our participation to shore up its reputation after the invasion.”

“I don’t think anyone in the Village is stupid enough to try and tell sensei ‘no’.” Kiba replied, swinging an arm around Shino’s shoulders, which Shino rather tellingly didn’t try to shrug off.

“Thank you, Kiba.” Kurenai replied, but she was smiling, more fond than offended, and Hinata found herself silently agreeing with Kiba’s assessment. “While your participation will certainly be useful tp the Village, if you choose not to participate, Tsunade-sama will probably give you a field promotion soon anyway.”

Hinata wasn’t the only one to startle at that, staring at Kurenai in confusion, and their sensei sighed, smile growing a little wry.

“This…might have been my mistake for not having you spar with your peers more.” Kurenai admitted slowly, and she seemed almost sheepish. “But you’re actually a bit too skilled for genin.”

“Huuuh?” Kiba demanded, exchanging baffled glances with Hinata and Shino, but all Hinata could do was shake her head, similarly confused. “But Genma-san regularly kick my butt in spars, and taijutsu isn’t even his specialisation!”

“Yes, Kiba,” Kurenai explained patiently, though she now seemed amused more than anything else, “but Genma is also a jounin. As are Yugao and Ebisu. I would’ve been somewhat alarmed if you were regularly winning spars against my friends.”

“So, because we’re used to fighting jounin, our perception of our real skill level is…skewed?” Shino posited hesitantly, staring at Kurenai as if waiting for her to deny it.

“Precisely.” Kurenai agreed, smiling softly. “Which is why I don’t think the Exams are going to cause you any trouble, but I want you to be comfortable with participating.”

In the end, all three of them signed the consent forms, though, with Kurenai’s permission, Hinata signed hers as ‘Hinata of the Leaf’. On her list of concerns, Kumo trying something during an event as public and well-known as the Chunin Exams was quite low, but she could still remember the heart-stopping fear that had gripped her when she realised the man carrying her wasn’t anyone familiar to her, for all that her attempted kidnapping had been almost two decades ago.

Kurenai had also taken her aside after she’d collected their consent forms and handed her a slim box that Hinata only vaguely recognised.

“It’s from Yugao.” Kurenai informed her quietly, prompting Hinata to shoot her a concerned look. “She was sent out on a mission yesterday, but asked me to pass it on before we get to Kumo. I probably shouldn’t be surprised that you think on a similar wavelength at this point. Go on, open it.”

Hinata obligingly slid the box open and nearly gasped at the contents: the sleek box contained dozens of individually packed, disposable contact lenses, all the colour of the clear-blue sky.

“I promise that I will not let Kumo even think of trying anything.” Kurenai swore quietly, and Hinata believed her sensei instantly. “But extra precaution never hurt.”

Hinata simply nodded, momentarily speechless, and tucked the box into the inner pocket of her jacket, managing a shaky smile for Kurenai.

From there on, their sessions became about drilling team formations and polishing off the individual skills they’d been working on since being charged from hospital.

And then, a week after signing the forms, they were off, one of three Konoha teams Tsunade had decided to send, though the members of the other two teams had a good decade over Hinata and her team at the least.

Surprisingly, Hinata found that she wasn’t nervous. Instead, she was – and she could barely believe it herself – almost excited.

One step closer to her goal.

Chapter Text

Kakashi wasn’t expecting to arrive at Team Seven’s training grounds and find his students sitting in a circle with a distantly familiar chunin coaching them through fuinjutsu calligraphy, of all things.

Upon a more thorough assessment, he realised that while Sasuke’s lines were picture-perfect to the model Umino had laid out to them, Naruto’s predictably wobbly but far less so than Kakashi would’ve expected considering the boy’s Academy grades, Sakura’s seal was drawn less like she was tracing a picture and more like she actually understood how each element connected and intersected, which-

Hm.

His musing was cut short when Sasuke and Umino glanced up at him, one with a guarded expression, the other with undisguised displeasure.

“It’s ten thirty.” Umino scolded him, a frown twisting his face and pulling at the scar over his nose, but Naruto waved him off, and unlike with Sakura or Sasuke, Kakashi had a feeling that Naruto wasn’t being cruel intentionally. Still, he couldn’t tell whether his blasé ‘it’s okay, Iruka-sensei, Kaka-sensei often gets here at noon, so he’s actually early today!’ hurt more or less than a similar comment would have coming from the other two.

Iruka stared for a second, clearly aghast, but Sakura finished her seal just then and interrupted before the Academy teacher could voice his thoughts about Kakashi’s tardiness.

“Before you ask, sensei,” Sakura began, clearly addressing Kakashi even though her attention was still on her seal tag, and he watched, somewhat amused, as she flapped a hand so the ink would dry faster, “Iruka-sensei is here to tell you what we learn at the Academy, since we realised you might not know.”

“That’s right.” Iruka confirmed, shaking himself off and pushing to his feet, pinning Kakashi with a sharp look. “Let’s go, Hatake-san. Let’s touch base, hm?”

But before he walked over to Kakashi, he paused by the genin and appraised their sealwork. “Naruto, good job with the proportions but work on keeping your lines neater. Sasuke, perfect linework, now see if you can figure out what the components do. And Sakura-” Iruka grinned, a hint of mischief in his eyes that made Kakashi realise why Naruto liked the man so much, “amazing. Now try to adjust the intensity, how about that? Just don’t blow up your teammates, please.”

“No promises, sensei.” Sakura mumbled, but there was a pleased slant to her mouth and a focus in her eyes Kakashi hadn’t seen in a while.

His contemplation of his students was cut short when Umino turned on him, and the earlier easy-going expression was nowhere to be found. “Let’s go, Hatake-san.”

Kakashi stifled a sigh, but went willingly. After the conversation Genma had made him witness, he realised that avoiding his students wasn’t the way to go if they were serious about requalifying as a sabotage squad.

After all, while ANBU was theoretically anonymous, Kakashi reasoned that it wouldn’t be long before someone let slip that he’d once been the Captain of the most infamous sabotage squad that ANBU had ever seen.

He wasn’t sure he was ready for how his students would react to that news, however.

Their journey to Kumo took five days.

Along with her team, there were two additional teams composed of career genin, two men who Kurenai had informed them were the impartial jounin who would be assessing their performance and advising the Godaime whether they deserved the promotion, and a man Hinata had never seen before with auburn hair and amber eyes that was apparently the Psych representative.

He’d joined them outside of the Main Gates, dressed like Kagane-san, his expression perfectly bland, and one of the other genin had taken one look at the man and groaned.

“Psych, really?” he’d huffed, looking displeased. “You’re gonna watch us too?”

The Psych shinobi didn’t acknowledge the words beyond tilting his head with a vaguely amused expression that reminded Hinata inexplicably of Sai, but he’d kept pace with them easily enough. She wanted to ask Kiba why the teen kept shooting the man odd looks as they ran, but there was little opportunity to speak without the risk of being overheard as they made their way to Kumogakure.

As they ran, Hinata had to remind herself not to rub her eyes, the itch of the contacts novel and uncomfortable while she got used to them. Kurenai had had her don the coloured contacts even before they met with the teams that would be taking part in the Exams with them, her sensei’s explanation citing both, Hinata’s need to familiarise herself with their feel, and the security risk of the other genin accidentally outing her as a Hyuuga.

It was easier to meet them as simply Hinata, since without her Byakugan, the standard robes most of her clansmen favoured, and the signature hairstyle, her identity as a Hyuuga wasn’t exactly obvious.

Eventually, it became clear that, much like the Village Hidden in the Leaves was, in fact, hidden amongst the leaves of the forests that made up the Land of Fire, Hidden Cloud also earned its name fairly. When the snow of the Land of Frost refused to melt even after they crossed the border into the Land of Lightning, Hinata wondered whether the other genin accompanying them had forgotten, by virtue of no longer having genin sensei to remind them, that Konoha’s unusually fair and hospitable climate wasn’t the standard among the Shinobi Nations.

Still, she kept her observations to herself and buried her nose further in the collar of her jacket, following her team up the seemingly endless incline, the winds picking up the further up the mountain they got.

And then, a checkpoint.

Carved into the wall of the mountain was a guard post, and Hinata froze at the gruff ‘state your purpose!’ that came from the rock.

“Team Eight, representatives of Konohagakure’s contingent, here on the Raikage’s invitation to partake in the Chunin Exams.” Kurenai replied smoothly, keeping her hands visible. “I have our papers and identification in my bag. May I take them out?”

“Slowly.” The voice agreed, and Hinata watched as a man melted out from the rockface, a good ten feet from where the guard post was located. He approached once Kurenai held out the papers, eyes on the remaining members of their entourage before they scanned over the paperwork.

“Yuhi Kurenai, Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino, and Hinata of the Leaf.” The man read out, and another Kumo-nin melted from the rockface, clipboard in hand, and he offered a curt nod of approval when the first shinobi turned to him. “You may proceed. The Exam starts tomorrow, so Nii-sama will show you to the contestants’ lodgings.”

And then, the guard post opened up, showing a narrow tunnel carved through the mountain, the passage so long that Hinata could not see any light at the other end. She shared an anxious glance with Kiba and Shino, but when Kurenai set off towards the tunnel, her posture loose and confident, they had no choice but to follow, though Hinata still felt her heart pick up a pace when the passage closed behind them, cutting them off from the rest of the Konoha squads.

They walked for what could have been five minutes or thirty seconds, the walls illuminated by gemstones that looked like they had been infused with chakra and emitted a soft blue light, making the tunnel just bright enough to save them from tripping over each other. And then, the wall ahead of them opened, the sudden light almost blinding when compared to the near-dark of the tunnel, and a blond kunoichi stood at the other end, headband partially obscured by her fringe.

“Greetings, Konoha-nin. I am Nii Yugito. I will show you to where you will be staying for the next few weeks.” She greeted, her voice low and even, and but Hinata could see an easy confidence radiate from the woman, not unlike how it did with Shikaku.

“Thank you for your guidance.” Kurenai replied, inclining her head respectfully when she emerged from the tunnel, and Hinata hastened to follow, elbowing Kiba lightly when she heard him growl low in his throat as he stepped out of the tunnel and laid his eyes on their escort. “I am Yuhi Kurenai and this is my team.”

“My pleasure.” Their guide replied, not quite dryly, but lacking any distinct warmth to her words, then turned on her heel. “Please follow.”

Still, Hinata couldn’t help but look around in awe. It looked as if the mountain they had been climbing had been hollowed out on the inside to make room for the sprawling Village that spread before them now.

The tunnel led them out onto what would’ve otherwise been a balcony, if not for the fact that there were dozens of similarly fenced-off platforms as far as the eye could see. Towers of rock and glass jutted out from below them, some tens of metres below their platform, others stretching up so high that their tops disappeared amid the low-hanging clouds.

“They carved a Village in a mountain.” Kiba breathed, looking around with a similarly awed expression, a grin stretching over his lips, “Cool.”

“The Raikage and Tsuchikage rarely ever see eye-to-eye.” Their guide offered, her expression softening a little at Kiba’s comment. Kiba, though, was wide-eyed as he smacked a hand over his mouth and nose and pushed Akamaru back into his jacket when the ninken freed his snout from Kiba’s collar to snap his teeth. “But, if nothing else, at least they agree on the subject of natural defences.”

“It’s very impressive.” Kurenai agreed, shooting Kiba a sharp look, but it faded when Kiba shuddered, his hair standing on end, his hand still over his face, the other fighting to keep Akamaru contained. “Kiba?”

“Is he alright?” Yugito inquired, frowning when Kiba growled again, the sound audible even with his hand over his mouth.

“I’m- really sorry.” Kiba managed, and Hinata scanned over what she could see of his face, but Kiba didn’t look hurt, just deeply uncomfortable. “It’s nothing personal, but- Akamaru, cut it out!”

Shino caught the nindog when he wriggled out of Kiba’s hold, and Hinata sighed in relief when Shino expertly squashed Akamaru to his chest, one hand supporting the ninken’s body, the other clamped firmly over his jaw and nose like a muzzle.

“I’m really sorry,” Kiba tried again, voice muffled as he didn’t move his hand from his mouth, “but you smell really strongly of cat.”

Yugito blinked, seemingly as surprised at the observation as Kurenai and Hinata felt, then the corner of the kunoichi’s lips quirked up, amusement dancing in her dark eyes.

“Ah. You’re the Inuzuka.” She breathed, the dawning realisation mixed with almost reluctant amusement. “My apologies. This is probably Atsui’s attempt at being funny.”

Kiba frowned, not following, and Yugito huffed something that may have once been a laugh and inclined her head. “I am the jinchuuriki of the Two-Tails. My partner, Matatabi, is a cat spirit.”

Partner. Hinata’s mind got stuck on that word for a moment, her eyes widening in surprise. Even after the war, she didn’t think that Naruto had reached the level of friendship with the Kyuubi to refer to the bijuu as a partner.

“Come here,” Kurenai beckoned to Kiba, and when he obeyed, she laid her hand over his nose, and Hinata felt a pressure change as if her ears had popped, “better?”

“Much, thank you, sensei.” Kiba breathed, visible relief in his posture as he shot Kurenai an easy smile. Then, he sobered and turned to their guide. “I’m really sorry again, Nii-san, I didn’t mean you or Matatabi-san any offense by my reaction” he apologised, inclining his head politely and missing the flash of surprise that passed through Yugito’s eyes. “I just wasn’t expecting, ah-”

“It’s…alright.” The Kumo kunoichi cut him off, something like wonder and pleasure in her expression before it disappeared under her professional mask. “Thank you for the apology, Inuzuka-kun. We appreciate it.”

Hinata didn’t miss the ‘we’, nor, she supposed, casting a glance at her team, did any of them. She couldn’t quite bite back the small, proud smile that pulled at her lips at Kiba’s easy charisma that never failed to impress her when it showed itself.

But, she mused, she shouldn’t be surprised at the fact that Kiba understood Yugito’s situation so quickly; if anybody could, she reckoned that a member of a Clan so closely bonded with ninken that Kiba and Akamaru could understand each other the same way she could understand Kiba, would be the one.

She kept her chakra locked down tight, but, once Yugito turned her back on them and began once again leading them to their accommodation, Hinata reached out and wrapped her fingers around Kiba’s wrist, squeezing gently. When he glanced at her, surprise and curiosity in his gaze, she smiled, hoping to infuse the expression with all the pride and awe she was feeling.

After a moment, Kiba smiled back, twice as bright as before, and pulled his arm out of her hold only to catch her hand and squeeze back. She saw him eye Shino briefly, mischief clear on his face, then reach out. Shino initially flinched away from the contact, but Kurenai laid a hand on his shoulder and Shino sighed, long-suffering and resigned, and obligingly offered his hand and allowed Kiba to grab onto it.  

Perhaps it was childish, but Hinata felt better with them so visibly connected, a united front in more ways than just in their agreement to be there, in these exams. When Yugito glanced back at them to check they were following, her eyebrow ticked up at the sight they made, but Hinata thought she saw the kunoichi’s eyes soften the slightest just before she turned back around.

Eventually, Yugito stopped in front of a looming building so tall that its top floors disappeared among the clouds. “This is where the first stage of the Exams will be held. Please be here tomorrow, at ten in the morning, on the fifth floor if you wish to take part.”

At their acknowledgement, she moved on, and the next time they stopped was in front of a shorter building, a good ten minutes away from what Hinata hesitantly pegged as the centre of the Village. Yugito let them to the third floor, stopping in front of the door at the end of the corridor before she pulled out a key and opened it for them.

They went in, and as Yugito spoke to Kurenai, Hinata looked around the space curiously.

It seemed that they had been assigned an apartment for their lodging, the space surprisingly large and bright, all the walls painted pure white save for one, which was the clear blue of a cloudless sky. The longest wall of the room, directly opposite the door, was taken up entirely by windows almost as tall as Hinata herself, offering them a beautiful panoramic view of the jagged skyline of Kumogakure.

The room itself appeared to hold everything but the bathrooms, with a living area in the centre, a small kitchen and dining nook on one end of the room, and four bedrolls laid out on the opposite end. There were two other small doors tucked into the opposite corner to the kitchen that Hinata assumed led to the bathroom, and she couldn’t help but be shocked by their hosts’ hospitality to offer them such a large, luxurious space for the duration of the Exams.

“-there is a canteen on the ground floor that you are welcome to make use of. Otherwise, if you find yourself lacking anything, just speak to the guards at the entrance to the building.” Yugito finished, and Hinata startled inwardly, snapping back to full focus.

“Thank you for your help and hospitality, Nii-san. I suppose we will see you around.” Kurenai replied, offering their guide a small smile, far from her usual brightness but much more than the guarded expressions she’d offered earlier.

With a nod of acknowledgement, Yugito let herself out, leaving the key to the apartment on the shelf by the door.

“Well,” Kiba began after letting Akamaru down so the nindog could familiarise himself with their new accommodation, the beginnings of a grin pulling at his lips, “they definitely know how to make an impression.”

That night, as they settled down in the bedrolls, Hinata waited until her teammates’ chakra and breathing evened out with sleep, the steady beating of raindrops against the windows lulling them to sleep.

Then, once even Kurenai’s signature lost its edge of high-alertness, she pushed herself into a sitting position and crossed her legs.

She was too anxious to sleep, the nerves that she’d been able to repress for the duration of their journey to Kumo combined with the pressure that came once they actually stepped into the Village proper finally breaking free of her iron grasp.

Hinata tried to take deep breaths and ground herself, stretching out her chakra and coiling it back in the way Neji had taught her in her original timeline, hoping the rhythmic, repetitive task would calm her galloping heart. But even as she sunk into the feel of her chakra and let the rain and her teammates’ breathing guide the rhythm of her motions, her mind refused to quiet, bombarding her instead with all the worst-case scenarios of what might happen if she slipped up.

If she forgot her contacts. If someone let slip her surname. If she used her dojutsu. If she forgot herself and used Jyuuken in the combat portion she was almost positive would constitute at least part of the Exams. If someone saw her seal. If, if, if-

Kumo had been willing to try to acquire the Byakugan in Konoha. There was no reason they wouldn’t be even more daring on home soil.

There was a sudden loud noise and Hinata jumped, pushing away the thought as her attention snapped to the windows, trying to find the source of what had startled her. It took her far longer than she cared to admit to realise that the earlier rain had turned into hail that now hammered relentlessly against the glass. The fact that the noise broke through her concentration only proved to her how shallow her meditation had been, how on-edge she still remained despite her attempts at calm.

Then, as she contemplated the windows, she realised with a jolt how vulnerable their accommodation made them. The glass that had initially added to the modern appeal of the apartment now made it seem like a gilded cage instead of the refuge Hinata had hoped for. She couldn’t see anybody outside without turning on her dojutsu, but that didn’t mean that nobody was there. The multi-story nature of the Kumo infrastructure lent itself more than well to hidden watchers.

And, Hinata thought, a shiver crawling down her spine at the realisation, with the windows taking up the longest wall of the apartment, there was nowhere to hide.

Feeling her breathing pick up in pace and volume, Hinata was grateful for Akamaru’s wet snout pressing into her bare thigh, but even the nindog’s presence wasn’t enough to quell the panic rising within her. She scanned the room, glancing between the windows and the living space, hoping to find something, anything that might be able to hide her, if only superficially.

Her frantic gaze landed on the dining table on the other end of the room, one side of it pushed up against the far wall, the other against the wall with the windows, and her heart leapt at the prospect of shelter. Still, she didn’t move, the last traces of sober thought telling her to be reasonable and try to settle down, to use the breathing techniques Kagane-san had coached her through, to not let her anxiety control her.

Then, the sky outside lit up with lightning and a loud crack of thunder ripped through the quiet of the night not two seconds later, and Hinata was moving before she even registered the decision.

Unwilling to stand up and reveal herself (to whom? her mind demanded, but it wasn’t a question Hinata had an answer for) she grabbed her blanket and crawled on her hands and knees to the other end of the room. She pulled out a chair, careful not to let the legs scrape against the floor in fear of waking her teammates, then crawled underneath the table, bundling and bunching up her blanket until she had a makeshift nest.

Her heart was still racing, her breathing ragged, and the tips of her fingers were numb with anxiety, but with her back pressed against the wall, her position in the corner allowing her to keep an eye on the front door and her teammates’ slumbering forms, while the table above kept her out of view of the window, Hinata finally felt herself relax, her muscles aching when the tension finally left them.

Akamaru whined when another bolt of lightning lit up the sky, and Hinata hummed quietly, lifting her arm in open invitation, which the nindog took with another quiet whimper at the thunder that followed. The adolescent ninken curled up against her front, seeking comfort from her just as much as Hinata soaked in comfort from him, and together, they settled in for the night.

"-nata. Hey, Hinata, time to wake up."

Hinata felt herself wake slowly, which was a luxury she could rarely indulge in, but her eyes felt heavy and the voice calling her name was quiet enough that she didn't feel alarmed enough to snap to alertness like she normally would out in the field.

She hummed, pushing herself to sit up, twitching when a hand suddenly landed on her head, but its presence was explained when she sat up straighter and heard a thump, and instead of her head hitting whatever hard object was above her, the hand absorbed most of the impact.

"Kiba?" She mumbled, opening her eyes slowly, a little confused when she realised she was on the floor and Kiba was crouching a few inches away, and that it was his hand that had prevented her head from smashing into- the underside of a table? "Is everything alright?"

"Oh, yeah, all's good, sensei just said to wake you so we could go to breakfast!" Kiba grinned, slowly removing his hand from her head and letting it drop on his bent knee, though he kept both his hands within Hinata's line of sight. "And hey, you didn't stab me this time!"

Feeling a small smile tug at her lips at the observation, Hinata lifted a shoulder in a tired shrug. "You didn't startle me this time."

"See, I'm learning!" Kiba boasted, though Hinata could see that, for all that he was genuinely pleased, the boasting was more for her amusement. She nodded, managing a quiet 'you are' before she lifted a hand to stifle an enormous yawn that made her jaw crack.

Kiba snickered, either because he heard it crack or simply at the somewhat uncharacteristic action, and she blinked at him, curious as to what he was waiting for. Kiba, seemingly reading her mind, tilted his head, his grin dimming a little, a note of concern flashing through his eyes.

"I heard it was stormin' last night." He pointed out, a propos nothing, and Hinata sat up as much as she could while still under the table, more cautious now. "Were you keeping Akamaru company? Or was it the other way 'round?"

As memories of last night trickled back in, Hinata noted that the out was there, and she loved Kiba in that moment for offering it.

She could shrug it off, say that she’d woken up in the middle of the night and realised that Akamaru had been having a hard time with the storm so she'd gone to comfort him.

She could say that.

She realised quickly, however, that she didn't want to.

Hinata shot a glance at Kurenai, surprised to find her sensei already looking back, a similarly worried expression on her face as she found on Kiba’s. Upon reading the question in Hinata's eyes and apparently correctly guessing its origin, Kurenai nodded imperceptibly, offering her a small, encouraging smile.

"The other way around." Hinata confessed on a sigh, prompting Kiba's eyes to widen a little, likely surprised that she chose not to take the out. He shuffled to the side when Hinata gestured that she’d like to get out from under the table, her neck twinging uncomfortably. She extricated herself from the nest of blanket and shuffled out, though she made no move to stand up once she could sit up properly, merely crossed her legs and leaned back against the wall, welcoming the cool stone against her heated back. "Is it safe, sensei?"

"Nothing that rings any alarm bells, but mind your volume just in case." Kurenai replied, and Hinata wondered at the lines of tension at the corners of her sensei's eyes. She shook the thought off, making a mental note to ask later, and focused on Kiba, gesturing for Shino to come over as well.

"The peace treaty between Konoha and Kumo was signed on my third birthday." She began once Shino had sat down beside Kiba, the Aburame's hand settling almost automatically on Akamaru's nape. "But before the Kumo delegation left, the head shinobi tried to acquire the Byakugan by kidnapping me."

She'd been semi prepared for it, so Kiba's startled, incredulous what?! didn't shock her as much as it might have. She could also pick up the change in volume of the buzzing of Shino's kikaichu, so despite her teammate's face remaining impassive, she knew he was comparably alarmed to Kiba.

"He didn't succeed." She assured them, somewhat unnecessarily. "I s-stalled him, and my Father caught up to us and killed him."

"Did Kumo retaliate?" Shino asked quietly into the silence that fell when Hinata paused to collect her thoughts, and Hinata shook her head. "Why? I don't suppose they would take too kindly to their head diplomat being killed, even if the fault lay with them."

Hinata smiled sadly at the emergence of Shino's verbal tick, its absence these last few months all the more apparent for its sudden appearance.

"They demanded my Father's head." She explained quietly, gaze falling to Akamaru's content expression, the nindog almost dozing under Shino's careful fingers. "If Konoha had refused, Kumo could’ve declared another war, and the Village couldn’t afford that. They agreed.”

“I thought Hyuuga Hiashi is still alive.” Shino murmured, and Hinata could feel his confusion even with his eyes covered.

“He is. Because my Father had a twin brother. My uncle, Neji-nii-san's father. They sent him instead."

Kiba's eyes were wide and Hinata could tell that he was indignant even before he opened his mouth; "How is that any better?!"

Hinata took a deep breath, met Kurenai's gaze to check in, then let it out and looked from Kiba, to Shino, then back again.

"Because my uncle bore this." She replied, raising a hand to her forehead to push up her fringe and reveal the mint-green seal on her skin. "It's a seal given to every member of the Branch House. It…” She swallowed, trying to clear the lump in her throat to little success, her shame like a physical weight pressing her down. “It allows certain members of the Main House to- to keep the Branch House in line, and it destroys the Byakugan at death. Because Kumo got my uncle, they never got their hands on our dojutsu."

Hinata tried not to let the tremble in her hands show as she lowered them from her forehead and waited for her teammates to process what she’d dropped on them.

She’d been shocked by the realisation she’d had on their way to Kumo; that Kiba and Shino didn't know Neji in this timeline. Because of the distance that had been between her and Neji until their original Chunin Exams, she’d never introduced him to her team as a genin, and this time around, with the mission that had taken them out of the Village for the Exams, they had simply never crossed paths, nor heard her cousin's story during his fight with Shikamaru.

It therefore fell on her to tell them her Clan’s history, and she wasn’t going to dishonour her uncle or cousin by skipping over just how horrifying that history was.

"If the seal is only for the Branch House," Shino began quietly, picking up on the one thing Hinata would've rather they had let slide, "then why do you have it?"

"Because I asked Jiraiya-sama to put it on me." Hinata admitted, wincing at the way Kiba's neck cracked when he jerked his head up to look at her, as if waiting for her to take the words back. "When I learned where the next Exams would be held. And..." she hesitated, shooting another look at Kurenai, but her sensei was looking out the window now, a pained expression on her face. "And because, in the long run, it makes it easier for me to get rid of it altogether when I take over from my Father."

"What I don't understand," Kiba started quietly, his voice uncharacteristically soft in the way that Hinata had learnt to be wary of in her previous life, "is why you're only telling us this now. When we're already here, in Kumo. And why you agreed to come here in the first place!"

"Kiba-" Hinata tried, but Kiba didn't seem inclined to listen to any explanations she might offer, bulldozing right over her interjection.

"They tried to kidnap you!” he all-but shouted, staring at her with wild eyes, “Why are you tryin' to brush it off like it's no big deal?! We’re supposed to be a team, to support each other!"

"It was a long time ago." Hinata replied, wincing immediately when the words left her mouth. Not only had she misspoken, since here, it had been barely eight years since the Hyuuga Affair, not almost twenty like in her mind, but also because she caught how Kiba recoiled at her dismissal of his care, as if she’d physically slapped him with her words. "And I don't want to live in fear."

Kurenai twitched at that, staring at Hinata as if she'd said something far more revealing than she felt she had, and Hinata wondered what part of her admission had prompted that expression on her sensei's face.

"That doesn't mean you have to trivialise it." Shino interjected quietly while Kiba continued to stare at her in horrified contemplation, and Hinata was momentarily thrown by the intensity behind the Aburame’s words. "Is that the reason for the contacts? And why you didn't use your family name in your paperwork?"

Hinata nodded, and with that, the tension seemed to crack, though Kiba was still unusually withdrawn when Hinata got up to get ready for the day. Fifteen minutes later, they set off, heading to the dining hall that had been pointed out to them the previous evening.

Upon walking in, Hinata was surprised to find the hall unexpectedly empty - or, emptier than she had expected it to be. Another thing became quickly apparent upon further assessment: hardly anyone was actually eating from the hot food counters, most of the shinobi in the canteen sticking to fresh fruit or rations they must've brought with them.

"Why is nobody eating?" Kiba whispered to Kurenai, and Hinata was relieved he'd finally learnt the value of modulating volume.

"Probably worried about poison." Kurenai replied in her usual voice, steering them towards a six-seater table near the door, and Hinata was relieved that they didn't have to walk all the way through the hall.

"Do they really think Kumo would poison a buffet their own shinobi are eating at?" Kiba asked, frowning, and Hinata hadn't even noticed that any Kumo-nin were in the hall with them, but a closer look revealed at least two Kumo teams gathered towards the back of the room.

"Some prejudices are hard to shake." Kurenai said simply, shrugging a shoulder. "Plus, what many people forget is that while Suna is famous for its venomous fauna, Kumo holds a similar reputation for its flora, so it's not even that much of a hardship for them to source poison." 

Kiba seemed to think that over for a few seconds, then shrugged, shooting them a sharp grin when they settled at the table. "Alright, gimme a moment and I'll do some recon."

And then he wandered off towards the hot food counters, drawing a few less-than-friendly glances and confused looks when he started cheerfully picking a bit of everything to put on his plate. 

Hinata took a deep breath in the silence that fell around them as they waited for Kiba to return, trying to ignore the itching feeling on the back of her neck that told her they were being watched.

"Well, they went all out." Kiba grinned when he returned, almost falling into his seat, his plate stacked with food. "They eat heavy here. There's a lotta meat an' cheese an' potato in the hot dishes, though there's also somethin' that I think is porridge, plus a lot of fruit and nuts in the cold food section."

"Nothing smells wonky though!" he assured them, shovelling a forkful of what looked like potato, sausage, and beans in tomato sauce into his mouth. To Hinata's great relief, he chewed and swallowed before he continued speaking. "Besides, a lot of the poisons that are most effective when ingested would've been killed by the heat needed to prepare the hot food."

"Everything on your plate is safe?" Kurenai checked, smiling at Kiba's assessment and reaching out a hand to ruffle his hair before she too pushed away from the table and stood up, casting another look over the spread on Kiba's plate.

"Yup!" Kiba confirmed easily. "I don't smell anything except deliciousness on this!"

Hinata, having chosen a seat that gave her a view of the door, caught the way one Kumo shinobi twitched as he headed out, shooting their table a glance from the corner of his eye, though he didn’t fully turn.

“We owe Genma-san a fruit basket after this.” Shino observed dryly as he watched Kiba gorge himself on Kumo cuisine without a care in the world with an almost scientific fascination. “He saved us from a fortnight of rations-only diet.”

“Here, here!” Kiba grinned, either ignorant of or not caring about the tomato sauce on his chin as he raised his bread roll in a mockery of a toast.

Laughing quietly, Hinata stood when she caught sight of Kurenai coming back and headed to the buffet to pick out her own food. They owed Genma so much more than just Kiba’s poison-identifying ability, and if they survived these exams, Hinata was going to make sure Genma, Yugao, and Ebisu all knew it.

For now, though, she had breakfast to gather and an exam to pass.

The first stage of the Exams was a written exam. The actual contents weren’t too hard, though they contained many cultural questions that Hinata felt were skewed in favour of the competing Kumo-nin.

The cultural questions were mostly mixed, but the way the history questions were phrased made it clear that Kumo was pushing a very specific narrative. A narrative that not everybody was willing to accept.

“This is bullshit!” An Ame kunoichi stood up, slamming her hands against the table much like Naruto once had, but unlike his childish overconfidence, this girl was older, and she was furious, her chakra cold and cloying as it rolled off her in vicious waves. “How dare you blame the smaller Nations for their geography?! We didn’t ask to be the battlefields of your pissing matches!”

“If you don’t like the questions, Ame-nin, you are free to withdraw.” The proctor drawled from the front of the room, not acknowledging the accusation. “Your team will not be affected.”

“Fuck you.” The kunoichi hissed, but she kicked her chair back and stormed out of the room, ripping her exam in half and dropping the paper on the floor before the door slammed behind her.

A boy stood up when the door slammed, a rebreather covering his mouth and jaw, and also ripped his exam, though he left his on the table as he followed what Hinata assumed to be his teammate out of the room.

“And you?” The proctor asked, turning unerringly to the third member of the Ame team, though they had been assigned seemingly random seats. “Are you staying?”

“I knew the Five Nations are trash.” The kunoichi replied, the rebreather modifying her voice into something that sent shivers down Hinata’s spine. “I just thought you’d be more subtle in your propaganda and victim-blaming. But, no matter.” Hinata couldn’t see the girl, but she wouldn’t have been surprised if the girl had shrugged at that, “Somebody has to win this, so I’m staying, thanks.”

“Well, that’s as good a segue into the final rule of this exam as any.” The proctor announced, something mean flashing through his eyes. “As a team of three, you all have a different set of fifty questions, and your team needs seventy-five points altogether to pass.” Hinata paled, not sure of their odds with this news. “However, you’re in Kumo, not Konoha. You do not need all three teammates to compete in the next stage.”

Murmurs erupted at that, and the smile on the proctor’s face could almost have been called bloodthirsty.

“If you think that you have a greater chance of completing the Exams on your own, you can declare yourself as an independent participant. You will only need thirty points to pass, and as compensation, you will also be gifted ten points that will go towards your score in this section.”

The murmurs grew louder, but Hinata couldn’t help but frown, struggling to figure out what Kumo gained from this allowance.

“Alright, say I wanna do this by myself.” A Suna kunoichi three seats to Hinata’s left raised her hand, eyebrow almost at her hairline. “What next?”

“Thank you, participant Yumei. You will receive an additional 10 points to whatever you score.” The proctor checked their clipboard, eyes flashing with an expression that could only be described as sadistic joy. “Participant Minami and Katsuki from Sunagakure’s Team E, please leave the room. You are hereby disqualified from these Exams.”

“Now wait a second-!” ‘Yumei’ demanded, rising to her feet, eyes wide. “Nobody mentioned-!”

“How else could you have become an independent participant?” The proctor demanded, calm now, his earlier schadenfreude carefully hidden. “What else could you have been compensated for?”

The two Suna-nin slowly shuffled out, KI leaking from them as they walked past Hinata’s row and Hinata winced, but she suddenly understood the reason behind Kumo’s ploy.

Particularly when seven more people raised their hands, eliminating their teammates to improve their own chances of getting through. Sixteen participants eliminated by their own teammates. Not only did that greatly boost the immediate odds of those left, but Hinata had a worrying thought that the teams which have been sabotaged from within wouldn’t stay teams for long after the Exams were over.

The Kumo organisers wanted to encourage infighting. To weaken other teams not just in the Exams, but in the long-term, too.

Hinata was…horrified, but a part of her couldn’t help but be impressed at the cold-blooded manipulation.

Still, she kept her hands down, and content with the knowledge that, with her team, she didn’t have anything to worry about.

It was a good thought.

Out of the fifty-seven teams that had started the first stage, twenty-nine full teams got through to the second stage, plus eleven ‘independent participants’. The others either rhadn’t amassed enough points to pass, or, in the case of the Ame team, chose to leave.

Hinata exchanged a look with Kiba and Shino as they stood before the entrance to the cave that had been assigned to them. The instructions seemed…too simple. Although Konoha’s second stage had also been ‘get through this ______’, only in Konoha, it had been ‘forest’, not ‘cave system’, the name ‘Forest of Death’ had clued even the foreign participants into the fact that the second stage wouldn’t exactly be a walk in a park.

This cave system, however, looked normal. Almost indistinguishable on the outside from the tunnel they had entered the Village through. If the proctor could be trusted, it was a standard fracture cave, barely a kilometre long, and they had half an hour to get through it.

‘Easy’ the proctor had called it when he’d given them the go-ahead, starting their time, ‘nothing to worry about’.

“I don’t trust him.” Kiba muttered as most of the teams around them disappeared into their assigned caves, though a few seemed to hang back like them. “It seems too easy.”

“Agreed.” Shino murmured, stepping closer, though he kept his eyes on the mouth of the cave. “Hinata. If we cover you, can you take a look at the cave?”

Hinata blinked, processing, then the realisation of what, precisely, Shino was asking for dawned, and she flinched. But she could see the logic in the plan, so she nodded and crouched, despite how much the idea of using her Byakugan made her anxiety spike.

As one, Kiba and Shino shifted to stand at her sides, the motion natural but also carefully calculated so they perfectly covered her temples with their bodies, hiding the tell-tale veins of the Byakugan from view. Inhaling carefully, Hinata concentrated, and, after imagining that she was also exhaling her anxiety, activated her dojutsu.

The cave was bright.

The opalescent crystals that lined the walls and provided illumination in the tunnels seemed to be made of chakra, some half-way to fading, others almost painfully bright. But what drew Hinata’s attention more than the curious brightness of the stones were the bodies hidden in the alcoves of their cave.

Wherever the main cave splintered off, a fork in the path or a dead-end, Hinata saw shinobi waiting, their chakra brimming with anticipation.

“It’s a trap.” She murmured, quiet so only Kiba and Shino heard, trying not to move her lips too much. “There are three teams of three waiting in the cave. One about fifty metres in, one about a hundred metres further, and another one at the very edge of my range.”

“I knew it.” Kiba huffed, sounding a mix of exasperated and anxious. “What do we do?”

“While I believe in our combat ability, I don’t know anything about the structural integrity of these tunnels.” Shino replied.

As if to prove his point, there was a loud rumbling sound and the cave four tunnels to the right of theirs shuddered before the ceiling partially blocked the entrance.

“…Well.” Shino mused after a beat, eyebrow ticking up and the corner of his mouth quirking in obvious amusement, while Kiba openly snorted. “I stand by what I said.”

“Okay, so we try to avoid a full-on fight.” Kiba agreed, still snickering quietly. “Ideas on how we do that?”

Both boys turned to Hinata at the question, and she realised she’d been quiet for too long. She startled at the sudden attention, then frowned thoughtfully, running through her team’s abilities and the restrictions they’d agreed to, and-

“Kiba, do you have any airborne poison?” she asked quietly, the beginnings of a plan coming together in her mind, though she wasn’t sure whether her teammates would accept it. It’d be …mean. Almost cruel, if it worked.

Kiba made a noise of assent and dug through his pack, pulling out a handful of baubles that looked like small smoke-bombs.

“You have something.” Shino guessed, his gaze trained on Hinata, and she tried not to fidget.

“It’s- an idea.” She agreed, and at Kiba’s expectant hum, she quietly explained. “They’re waiting in alcoves. If we mask our approach, we could send in Shino’s kikaichu to disorient the teams and maybe drain some of their chakra, then Kiba could throw in his poison, and I could use an Earth Wall to close the alcove off from the rest of the cave.”

When she said it out loud, it sounded almost stupidly simple.

It took a few more seconds for the boys to realise that it would also be verging on cruel.

“That’s-” Kiba began, an odd expression on his face as he considered her, and Hinata wasn’t sure if the glint in his eyes was surprise or fear, “that’s, uh, one way to do it, for sure.”

“Twenty minutes!” The proctor called, his voice booming oddly, and Hinata startled, not having realised that a third of their time had already passed.  

“Probably the best way we have.” Shino replied to Kiba’s comment, and his tone at least hadn’t changed upon hearing Hinata’s plan, though it was a cold comfort. “It minimises the chance of open engagement, which we were aiming for. And our task is only to get through the cave, so if we’re quick about neutralising them, we can run the rest of the way to avoid the risk of them chasing after us.”

Kiba shuddered at Shino’s summary, but when Hinata glanced at him, he seemed determined, playing absently with the poison baubles in his hand.

“Alright.” He agreed quietly, meeting first Shino’s, then Hinata’s gazes head-on. “Let’s do this.”

In the end, it worked almost too well, and Hinata had been relieved to fold herself into Kurenai’s waiting arms as soon as the officials on the other end of the tunnel told them they’d passed the second stage.

“Any injuries I should know of?” Kurenai asked them lightly, absently rubbing Hinata’s back while her other hand combed through Kiba’s hair.

“None.” Shino reported quietly, pressing against Kurenai’s other side and getting a quick shoulder-squeeze from their sensei, before her hand went back to Kiba. “We didn’t openly engage with the sabotage teams.”

“Oh?” Kurenai said, eyebrow rising, though there was only curiosity in her voice. “Explain?”

Shino did, and Kurenai grinned proudly at their strategy, not a hint of judgement or concern in her expression.

“Good job. Kumo’s playing to every advantage their shinobi could have, so well done for spotting the potential danger of full-on fighting in a cave when you don’t know Rock Release.”

At their shocked faces, Kurenai laughed outright. “That’s how they chose the sabotage teams. Even if the caves collapsed around them, they’d still survive, but you wouldn’t have. And I much prefer the three of you alive.”

“We do too, sensei.” Kiba assured her, pulling away from under her hand and shooting her a brilliant grin. “Any chance your reward for us for not-dying is gonna involve food?”

“Do you always think with your stomach?” Shino grouched, but even Hinata could tell his heart wasn’t in the taunt. It seemed that Kiba could, too, because he merely stuck his tongue out and turned to Kurenai, expectant.

“As a matter of fact, I was planning on it.” Kurenai announced, not bothering to hide her amusement, and Hinata forced herself to pull away from the embrace, feeling a bit more grounded already. “I spoke to Nii-san while you went for the written exam, and she had some recommendations.”  

“Yes!” Kiba cheered, throwing his fist up and startling Akamaru from where the nindog had begun to doze against Kiba’s shin, and Hinata watched as the ninken huffed and shuffled over to Shino, ignoring Kiba’s betrayed ‘traitor!’

“Inside. Voice.” Shino hissed, balling up a fist and bonking Kiba over the head, a stark contrast to Kurenai’s gentle petting, and Hinata had to hastily smother a laugh at Kiba’s floored expression.

"Sensei-!” Kiba whined, but Kurenai just sighed and laid a hand on each of the boys shoulders and pushed, prompting them into motion.

“Tomorrow.” Kurenai assured them as the four of them fell into an easy formation without conscious thought. “You’ll have all the opportunity to fight tomorrow. Today, how about we just relax, hm?”

Hinata sighed with relief and bent down to scoop Akamaru into her arms, pressing the dog against her chest and nuzzling the top of his head, getting happy snuffles in return.

Relax. She could do that. Probably needed to do that, if she was being honest with herself, and she knew Kurenai knew it.

Not for the first time, she found herself grateful that her team had been so much quicker to fall into their old dynamic this time, even if some elements were different than in her first life. She had never been able to fully relax at the Hyuuga Compound, always feeling like she was being judged just for existing, and even her room that she’d grown up in never quite succeeded at feeling homely.

But her team- her team was home. 

As that realisation sunk in, Hinata felt the tension she'd been holding since they'd left their accommodation slowly leak out, and by the time they reached the first restaurant, she was almost boneless, dropping onto the bench with none of her usual grace, her anxieties helpless against the powerful realisation:

She was home. 

Chapter Text

Their time to relax felt all too short for Hinata’s tastes, and less than a day after passing the second stage, they were being herded into an arena to begin the third stage.

Combat. Of course it was combat. And of course Kumo would be displeased with almost a third of the participants making it through.

Sighing, Hinata tuned in to listen to the speech announcing the rules of the preliminaries, and quickly found herself paling at the sudden burst of Killing Intent that followed the Kumo official’s words:

“To pass this stage and qualify for the final round, your team needs to earn thirty points.” The official drawled, his unimpressed gaze sweeping over the gathered crowd. “You get three points for an outright win, two for making your opponent withdraw, one for a draw, and zero for a loss.”

“What about those of us without teams?” someone called, drawing a few murmured words of support.

“Thirty. Points.” The official repeated dryly, gaze finding the speaker with ease. “Guess you should warm up, Iwa-nin.”

“They planned this from the beginning.” Kiba muttered to her and Shino, his voice a mix of fear and awe, and Hinata found herself appreciating Kiba’s newfound ability to be discreet.

“Yes.” Shino agreed, his gaze not leaving the official, and Hinata thought she could detect a hint of unease in his voice. “It is far from an honourable tactic, but this once, it works in our favour.”

“Yeah. I guess 10 wins between the three of us is doable.” Kiba nodded, though the frown marring his brow didn’t fade as he shivered. “I wouldn’t even dream of trying to reach that by myself.”

“If you lose or withdraw, you can fight again.” The official calls, raising his voice over the chatter his announcement had inspired. “Only permanent incapacitation or death should prevent you from fighting another battle after a loss.”

“What if there are no more opponents but we still don’t have enough points?” someone else called, and the smile the official shot them was mean and full of teeth.

“You advance automatically.”

Hinata stifled a shiver and focused on her team. “W-what’s our strategy?”

“They don’t seem to be interested in skill, just the result.” Shino observed, voice thoughtful, drawing a snort from Kiba.

“So quick and efficient instead of flashy?” the brunet summarised, sighing dramatically. “You two are gonna own this round.”

Quietly, Hinata reckoned that Kiba would be surprised at his own ability to be quick and efficient when pressed. Shino voiced her thoughts; “You’ve gotten better at efficiency recently.”

“Did you just- did you just compliment me?” Kiba did a double-take, his shock almost comical, and Hinata raised a hand to cover her mouth to stifle her laugh. “Hinata, you heard that, right? He just praised me!”

“You’re hearing things.” Shino shot back, moving with the crowd to the side-lines to wait for their matches, prompting Kiba to squawk and chase after him to continue their bickering.

At least until Shino was called on to fight in the second match.

He won in three minutes, his opponent dropping to the floor, almost completely drained of chakra.

Then it was Hinata’s turn.

Ao watched the only Konoha kunoichi walk over to the centre of the arena, his eyebrow flying up without conscious input at the comparison between the girl and her Hidden Stone opponent.

The Iwagakure kunoichi was kitted up in a way Ao would’ve expected to see were she headed to war, a sword looped through her belt, a fuuma shuriken on her back, and multiple pouches strapped to her thighs. The Konoha child, in contrast, barely seemed to have a single kunai pouch, her jacket the only protection from the elements and enemies alike.

Curiously, Ao noted that the girl's steps made no sound as she made her way to the designated starting spot, but her opponent didn't seem to notice or care.

"I'm goin' to grind ya to dust." the Iwa-nin sneered, baring her teeth and cracking her knuckles in a very poor display of intimidation tactics. The other kunoichi didn't deign the comment with a response. She could have been wearing a mask for all the emotion her face showed, her blue eyes almost unblinking as she stared at her opponent. "Oi, I'm talking to you, Leaf."

The referee called a start to the match just then, and the Iwa-nin didn't waste any time. With a grimace like she found the Leaf-nin to be worse than the scum on the sole of her shoe and a truly staggering waste of chakra that Ao felt even with his Byakugan off, she covered her hands and arms with a thick, unforgiving layer of jagged rock, apparently determined to keep her promise of reducing the Konoha-nin to dust.

And then, she made a mistake.

Whether as an opening move or as another intimidation tactic, she bent down to punch the ground, the force of the blow opening a small canyon between her and the Leaf-nin. And as she bent down, she dropped her gaze from her opponent to the ground.

Before Ao could even blink, the Konoha kunoichi was suddenly behind her opponent, having covered the twenty feet that separated her and the Iwa-nin in less than a second, needing neither hand-signs nor a technique name for the movement. While her Iwa opponent was straightening, having seemingly sensed something amiss, the Konoha-nin reached out and, viper-quick, pinched the back of the other girl's neck.

The Iwa-nin was falling forward, unconscious, before she even had a chance to fully straighten.

The Leaf-nin watched as her opponent smacked into the ground, the rock encasing her arms crumbling to pieces once the girl's grasp on her chakra slipped along with her consciousness, then turned to the referee.

"2 points to Team Eight of Konohagakure." the referee announced boredly, and the Leaf child nodded and took her leave, making her way back up the stairs to the Konoha contingent.

The whole fight hadn't even lasted a minute.

"That wasn't very sportsmanlike." Koushi-san commented when Hinata made her way to the Konoha sector, his words light but Hinata could hear the note of judgement in his voice.

She felt herself flush, not sure what to reply, suddenly questioning her decision to end the fight as quickly as she could, despite it being the strategy the three of them had agreed on. Before she could even think of what to reply, Kiba was suddenly next to her, swinging an arm around her shoulders and throwing a friendly grin at the man, though, by Hinata’s standards, it had too many teeth to be genuine.

"I'm sorry, I think missed the memo where they were giving out points for outstanding moral fibre." Kiba shot back at the man, and Hinata could hear the defensiveness in his voice clear as day.

Defensiveness for her.

"Kiba." Kurenai called sharply, likely hearing the same, though she didn’t move a muscle to pull Kiba away or do anything beyond shooting him a reproving glance.

Still, despite telling Kiba off, Kurenai also glared at the back of Koushi-san’s head, clearly equally disapproving of the man’s comment as Kiba himself was.

"Backing off, sensei." Kiba assured their teacher, pulling at Hinata until she started walking and leading them over towards where Shino stood, launching into an animated explanation of how cool he thought her fight had been.

It didn’t escape Hinata’s notice that Shino positioned himself between her and Koushi when they stopped beside him, nor that Kurenai shifted so she stood right behind them, watching their backs.

Suddenly, the less than friendly comment was the last thing on her mind, replaced instead with the almost overwhelming love she felt for her team.

Their next three matches were nothing out of the ordinary: Kiba won his first match, Shino drew his next one, both him and his opponent being chakra-absorbing types, and Hinata snuck another victory past a Suna-nin, copying Shikamaru’s tactic from their first Chunin Exams and casting an area-effect genjutsu that made the boy run head-first into the wall.

Kiba’s second match drew attention, less because of how it ended and more because of who it was against.

"You know the first thing I heard about you?” Kiba asked Kurotsuchi of Iwa, a girl Hinata vaguely recalled from the War as incredibly imposing and arrogant, though here, six years before Hinata originally met her, she was merely a girl. “Who your granddaddy is.”

Kurotsuchi scowled and tried to pin Kiba once more, but he twisted out of her hold and blew more purple powder her way, forcing her to Shunshin a safe distance away and lose her opening once more. Throughout the match, Kurotsuchi had been pushing Kiba’s defenses, pressing his buttons with her words and obvious targeting of Akamaru, but Kiba – much to Hinata’s surprise – had yet to lose his temper.

“The problem with that, for you, is that you're already someone, because of whose granddaughter you are. And you know the problem with people who think they're somebody, even when it's not deserved?” that was surprising, too, the stream of near-constant, idle chatter that Kiba kept up, his tone not changing despite Kurotsuchi’s progressively more acidic words. “They assume that everybody else is a nobody."

Three things happened in quick succession: Kiba threw something at Akamaru, then launched himself into the Human Bullet, forcing Kurotsuchi to relocate once more, though not before making the ground around Akamaru erupt in sharp Earth Spikes. Kiba landed, threw something else into Akamaru’s now human hands, and threw himself into the Bullet once more, twisting in such a way that forced Kurotsuchi closer to Akamaru than she had been before, though the kunoichi kept her back turned to the transformed ninken, her attention solely on her human opponent.

Kiba landed on all fours, out of breath but with a nigh-feral grin on his face, at the same time as Akamaru snuck up behind Kurotsuchi and stabbed a syringe into her neck.

Kurotsuchi’s hand flew to her neck and she struck out towards Akamaru, but she stumbled mid-motion, giving the nindog the time to create distance between them and transform back into his dog-form.

"Sweet dreams." Kiba wished cheerfully, waving mockingly as Kurotsuchi stumbled once more, then her legs folded under her and she hit the ground, unconscious.

“Three points to Team Eight of Konohagakure.” The proctor drawled.

Hinata’s third fight was the moment she realised her team wasn’t the only one somewhat ‘overqualified’ for the Exams.

Her opponent – Haku of the Mist – seemed to be about as happy as she was to be forced to fight. Though he looked feminine - Hinata heard more than a few quiet jeers about her and Haku’s respective appearance – his features soft, his hair long and well-kept, his outfit intended to obfuscate his gender, there was an expression in his eyes that told Hinata that Haku’s perceived softness was about as indicative of his ability on the battlefield as her own shyness.

Yet, when the proctor said ‘go’, both of their opening attacks were senbon.

When it became clear that long-distance attacks wouldn’t get them far, Hinata allowed herself to be drawn into close-combat, but instead of brute force, Haku met her modified Jyuuken with a bout of pinpoint strikes aimed at key organs and pressure points.

They clashed, and Hinata lost track of time in between trying to dodge Haku’s blows and not out herself as a Jyuuken user. By the time she tired enough slowed down so much that she needed to Shunshin to get out of Haku’s range, she was panting, sweat dripping down her face, her lungs burning.

It was only mildly comforting that Haku’s right arm was hanging limp, Hinata having managed to tap the nerve in his shoulder to numb it, because the teen seemed unperturbed by their fight, his breathing barely elevated.

Seeing the distance Hinata had put between them, Haku made as if to cover it and press his advantage, so Hinata threw her nastiest genjutsu at the boy, needing to buy herself some time to recover.

He stilled, his face losing the little colour it had had, and Hinata tried to take deep breaths and quell the shaking in her hands.

When fighting, she had always been able to either win the element of surprise, or been so completely outclassed that the fight had only been about survival.

She had never been so evenly matched.

She felt the moment Haku broke through the last layer of her illusion, but even if she hadn’t felt it, she wouldn’t have been able to miss the change in his disposition.

“I’m sorry.” The boy muttered, the words almost drowned out by the din of the voices of the other contestants, but Hinata heard him. A few seconds later, she understood precisely what the boy was apologising for, when a thick mist enveloped the arena, and ice mirrors emerged seemingly from within the mist, trapping her in their circle.

A moment later, Haku appeared on the surface of every mirror, his visage surrounding her, and this time, Hinata heard his murmured apology clearly.

It didn’t stop her from feeling the pain of two senbon needles suddenly embedding themselves in her shoulder, but she felt somewhat comforted by the fact that she couldn’t sense a shred of malicious intent from her opponent.

This was just a fight.

Hinata could forfeit, and her opponent would let her.

But she didn’t want to disappoint her teammates.

She dodged two needles, but one still hit her, and she felt her left shoulder go uncomfortably numb. She flashed, one-handed, through the signs for the simplest Fire jutsu she’d picked up from Kakashi, but the heat from the fire didn’t even cause the mirror to steam up, much less melt.

She ran through more seals, twisting so Haku’s senbon hit her already-numb arm, determined to leave herself at least one functioning hand for jutsu usage, and sent an Earth spike at the mirror to her right.

The mirror shattered, but before she could run through the sudden gap, another was created in its place, caging her in once more.

Hinata set her jaw and went to Shunshin, but the moment she would have crossed the barrier of the mirrors, hands grabbed her bodily by the shoulders and nigh-threw her back into the centre, the sudden stop to the Shunshin-motion leaving her dizzy and disoriented.

She flared her chakra while she tried to gather herself, uncertain of how Haku was accomplishing his feat of being in all the mirrors at once, but no genjutsu broke before her eyes.

More senbon dug into her skin, a punishment for every second she spent contemplating her next steps, but the pain from them barely registered beyond the growing numbness, caused by both, the nerves Haku was managing to hit with frankly staggering accuracy, and the speed at which he must have been moving to create the illusion of being everywhere at once.

Hinata chanced a look at the mist – even she could barely see through it enough to see Haku’s reflections; she was almost certain that her figure was nigh-invisible to the spectators.

But was being almost certain enough?

She took a deep breath, giving herself a moment to absorb the decision she’d reached: that it would have to be.

With the exhale, she threw caution to the wind and activated her Byakugan.

Tracking Haku now was still far from easy, his chakra signature moving from mirror to mirror fast enough that it seemed to smudge, but Hinata could be patient.

Because Haku, even moving as quickly as he was, had a visible pattern.

Hinata concentrated instead on dodging as many needles as she could, all the while dedicating most of her attention to tracking and analysing Haku’s movement.

And then, when her right arm was hanging limp, more needles than she could count protruded from her body, and she was forced to keep most of her weight on her right leg, her left long since numb, she found it.

There was one technique she could use, but it would be a gamble. The Twin Lion Fists was not a technique she used lightly, had only ever used it in life-or-death situations, but she needed to end this in one hit, because that was all she had left in her. If she let Haku drag out the match any more, she would be mostly useless for any matches after this one, and she couldn’t risk being the reason her team failed.

She called the chakra to her left hand, let the lion form around her fist and forearm, and flash-stepped to the next mirror Haku was heading to.

Her strike caught him mid-motion, his body half in the mirror, half out, and Hinata felt her technique connect, felt it suck most of the chakra out of Haku’s coils and recycle it, felt the strength of the hit knock the breath out of Haku’s lungs as he was sent flying, his body hitting the concrete with a wet thud, the momentum making him roll a few more metres before he finally stopped.

Hinata let her technique go and deactivated her dojutsu seconds before the mist began to dissipate and the ice mirrors began to melt, remembering where she was with a start.

She stepped through the gap between the dripping mirrors and slowly made her way over to Haku’s sprawled form, feeling a wave of guilt wash over her at the smear of blood left on the floor from where Haku had impacted the ground.

“Do you forfeit?” she asked quietly, meeting Haku’s dazed eyes evenly even though her legs were shaking, adrenaline wearing off and making her register the pain that came with still having dozens of needles in her body.

“Kill me.” Haku replied instead, his voice barely a whisper, an expression of complete devastation twisting his face, and Hinata felt her heart break at the plea. “I have failed. Kill me, please.”

Hinata stared at the boy, feeling beyond horrified. Then, she hung her head, feeling a rarely-felt anger rise within her, and sent a mental apology to Kiba and Shino.

“I will not.” She whispered, meeting Haku’s gaze briefly, her own expression resolute in the face of his pleading one, then turned to the proctor. “Declare a draw, please.” She requested, ignoring the jeers and whispers that broke out in the stands. “Neither I nor my opponent are capable of continuing.”

The proctor eyed her briefly, disdain curling his lip, an expression he didn’t even attempt to hide, before he nodded archly. “The match between Hinata of the Leaf and Haku of the Mist ends in a draw. Both teams shall be awarded one point.”

Hinata felt a tension she hadn’t realised had been weighing her down finally release and she sighed, then promptly lost whatever strength remained in her legs. She would’ve crashed into the ground right next to Haku if Kurenai hadn’t suddenly materialised beside her, catching her in a way reminiscent of Hinata’s first Chunin Exams and her fight against Neji, and Hinata had a moment to be grateful for this second chance at life, even if she still was no closer to understanding how it had come to be.

Then, she let herself slump into Kurenai and be carried back to her team. She allowed Kiba to fuss over her and pluck out the remaining needles from her body, let their lecture wash over her, her brain not registering the words, focusing instead on drawing comfort from the sounds, the familiar cadence of her friends’ voices, the simple fact of being cared for.

When her next match was called, almost an hour after her fight with Haku, Hinata felt a bit more awake. Not awake enough to fight, though, so she almost didn’t feel guilty for burying her Suna opponent in genjutsu until Hinata could walk up to her leisurely and pinch the back of her neck, ending the fight within a minute when the girl dropped to the ground at her feet.

When she walked back up to her team, Koushi-san’s offhand comment about Kurenai raising a wetworks squad almost didn’t make her flinch.

Almost.

After they were dismissed from the arena, Hinata wanted nothing more than to hide away from the world for a bit after the stress of the preliminaries. On the first day of their fortnight to prepare for the final round, she stayed at the apartment, resting and catching up on lost sleep when Kiba and Shino went out to train. On the second, when the boys took their rest day, she excused herself after dinner and headed for the steep staircase she’d seen hidden in the rocky cliff, hoping to find solitude at the top.

The long climb quietened her mind, the burn in her legs during the steep, endless stairs grounding her in the moment, the stabbing pain in her lungs for once nothing to do with anxiety or injury but simple physical exertion.

Once she reached the top, the stunning view of the rocky mountains of Kumo and the setting sun glinting off of the glass and metal that the Village was built of rendered her breathless for an entirely different reason.

She sat near the edge of the tallest cliff, close to one of the few puddles that still remained after the thunderstorm of the first night, the barest hint of chakra sticking her to the rock. The puddle wasn’t anything close to the river that ran through Konoha that she’d meditated by so many times, but it was enough. Extending her chakra and dipping it into the still water beside her, Hinata released the tension she’d been holding and settled into her meditation.

She didn’t know how much time passed before she sensed movement nearby, a startled sound accompanying a pulse of chakra as whoever had invaded her peace steadied themselves, but Hinata didn’t pause to think. She drew on the chakra she still had spread across the surface of the puddle, the water obeying her easily as she stretched it into the shape of a needle and launched it in the direction of the newcomer.

She opened her eyes only after she released the needle and was surprised to note her opponent from the preliminaries, Haku, with a palm-sized ice mirror at the height of his throat, Hinata’s water needle reduced to droplets against the reflexive surface.

(she ignored the realisation that, had he been one of her teammates or Academy peers, Haku would’ve likely already been dead)

“My apologies.” She managed, finally withdrawing her chakra from the puddle and only belatedly realising how cold it had gotten in the time she’d been meditating. “You startled me.”

“It is my fault.” Haku replied quietly, dropping control of his technique so it, too, turned into harmless water that splattered against the rock. “I apologise for disturbing you.”

“It’s alright.” Hinata murmured, studying Haku and finding the boy studying her right back. “It’s a public space.”

“Yet one that we both seem to have sought out to be alone.” Haku shot back with a small, wryly amused smile, and Hinata gave a light shrug.

“I wouldn’t mind your presence, Haku-san.” She offered, drawing a surprised look from the Mist-nin, before he smiled, the expression a touch warmer than before.

“Thank you, Hinata-san.” And so saying, the boy walked over, telegraphing his movements all the while, and settled a few metres to Hinata’s left, brown eyes sliding closed in a startling show of trust.

Not able to detect any ill-will from the teen beside her, Hinata slowly did the same, stretching her chakra over the puddle once more and falling back into her meditation.

“Hinata-san?” Haku called some time later, his voice quiet and soft, allowing Hinata to ignore its call if she so wished. Hinata blinked back to full awareness slowly, gently, finding her way back to her body with none of the alarm of earlier. “May I ask you something?”

She nodded, not seeing the harm, yet nothing could have prepared her for Haku’s next words: "Why didn't you kill me?"

Hinata’s heart stilled for a beat, then broke. The Mist-nin next to her sounded genuinely confused.

Taking a breath to steady herself, Hinata gave the only answer that came to mind: the truth. "The three points for the victory were not worth your life."

"I am a tool.” Haku shot back, his frown only deepening. “If I can be defeated so easily, then I am of no use to my master."

Hinata took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. She tried not to think of Neji, but the comparison was almost inescapable. "Your life has value beyond your use to somebody else, Haku-san."

"In your Village, that may be so. In mine, all that I am is thanks to Zabuza-san.” Haku replied, and his voice sounded tired and resigned, like he was stating a fact. “If I cannot be of use to him, then my life is of no use to the Village."

Hinata took a deep breath again, fighting against the anger that threatened to rise within her. Raging at the Village system would be an exercise in frustration, and raging at a foreign Village for weighing the value of human life in regard to its usefulness would be hypocritical, considering that Konoha was far from perfect.

Another breath.

"Are you happy?" she asked instead.

"Excuse me?" It was Haku’s turn to blink, visibly startled by the question, and he looked lost to Hinata’s eyes, like he wasn’t certain how to reply. But when Hinata refused to take it back, he frowned, expression thoughtful. "...It's all I've ever known. Serving Zabuza-san saved me from the streets and bloodline purges. I was happy for the opportunity to live."

"Zabuza...Momochi Zabuza?" Hinata checked, recognition sparkling in the back of her mind, though she’d only ever heard of the man as a sidenote.

"Yes.” Haku acknowledged, something surprisingly soft in his eyes considering who he was talking about. “The Godaime Mizukage withdrew her predecessor's kill-on-sight orders. With Gato’s money, Zabuza-san got back his Village and his jounin rank."

“And you were allowed to follow him?” When Haku nodded, Hinata tried for something resembling a smile. “Then I believe that your life has more worth than you think. If you have grown up with and were of use to a jounin as notorious as Momoichi-san, I think your Village would value your skill as a shinobi, too, not just a tool."

Haku frowned then, an expression Hinata was intimately familiar with flashing through his eyes. "A shinobi who couldn't even pass the Chunin Exams is not a shinobi."

Hinata smiled sadly at the edge of self-loathing in the other boy’s words, more than familiar with the feeling, but- there was something else she needed to point out. "You could've continued the preliminaries beyond our fight."

"Not if I didn't want to unequivocally out myself as a Yuki." Haku denied, and Hinata could tell there was something significant in the name he listed, but she didn’t know what it was. Haku, apparently seeing her incomprehension, elaborated, that loathing turned outwards now. "Before the Purges, back during the Third War, Kumo had hunted my Clan."

Hinata felt a flash of white-hot rage pass through her at the news and decided to take a gamble.

"I am...familiar with that." She confessed, raising a hand slowly, telegraphing her movements all the while, a part of her wondering if she wasn’t making a mistake.

She squashed it, not sensing any ill-will from the boy beside her, and took out her contact lens, ignoring the tremble in her hand.

 Haku’s startled intake of breath told her that, unlike her, he recognised the significance of what she was showing him, which was confirmed by his quiet murmur of ‘...Hyuuga’.

"Yes." She confirmed, carefully putting her contact lens back in and blinking at the discomfort of the action. "Kumo diplomats tried to kidnap me when I was a child. The Byakugan is...venerated here."

"That was how you located me." Haku breathed, the light of a sudden epiphany in his eyes. “During our match.”

"Yes.” Hinata confirmed, not seeing much point in lying. “Your mist masked your movements, but my dojutsu could see through it." She smiled wryly, reflecting back on what she’d been thinking during the match. "Our skillsets were...unfortunately matched."

Haku studied her for a beat, expression unreadable.

"You don't fight like the Hyuuga I have fought before." He observed, frowning thoughtfully now, and Hinata repressed a wince. Haku seemed to notice it anyway, because he elaborated, a tiny smile pulling at his lips. "It is not a bad thing. Your style reminds me of Silent Kill, in a way. And I think it speaks to your worth that you are formidable even without your Clan's signature technique. And far kinder."

"Thank you, Haku-san." Hinata managed, swallowing past the lump in her throat. In her experience, when people accused her of not fighting like a Hyuuga, it was rare that anything positive followed.

"You do not think it an insult." Haku mused, staring at her with wonder and no small amount of disbelief. At Hinata’s confused blink, he elaborated. "That I call you kind."

Hinata sighed, wondering how to phrase her reply in a way that did justice to her complicated feelings on the matter and also didn’t bare her soul to a boy who was still, despite his unexpected kindness, a stranger from another Village.

"I don't think kindness is synonymous with weakness." She explained at last, her voice coming out softer than she would’ve liked. “I would much rather be kind than cruel."

"We're shinobi." Haku pointed out, a weight behind the title as if he was parroting something that had been said to him.

"Yes.” Hinata agreed again, because that was unlikely to change for either of them anytime soon. “But I still think cruelty is a choice."

Haku hummed then, not deigning her claim with a verbal response.

For a moment, it was silent between them, and Hinata almost thought that the conversation was over. But Haku surprised her when he spoke again, his eyes on the sprawling Village below them, his voice subdued, like a confession.

"I don't enjoy killing. I do it when Zabuza-san needs me to, and I don't complain, but...I don't like it." He whispered, and Hinata wondered whether that was the first time he allowed himself to voice these thoughts. "I was told, repeatedly, that it's a failing of mine."

Hinata felt another wave of anger wash over her, no less potent despite Haku barely qualifying as an acquaintance.

She was more than familiar with those people.

"Is that why you use senbon?" she asked instead of pressing the subject, striving to keep her anger out of her voice lest Haku think it was directed at him, and absently wondering whether this was another similarity in their fighting styles they were unearthing.

"Is that why you use them?" Haku shot back, clearly thinking along similar lines, and Hinata barely caught the huff that threatened to escape her.

"Yes. In part." She admitted, gazing out over the Village to avoid Haku’s knowing gaze. “My Clan's fighting style means that I can stop a heart with a single touch and permanently destroy somebody's chakra network with another. I don’t…always want to fight like that."

"If I wished to, I could freeze my enemies' blood right in their veins.” Haku disclosed, and Hinata felt a shiver go down her spine at the admission, at the power it hinted at and the hollow tone it was said in. “I...rarely wish to."

They sat there like that for a few seconds, the words settling around them, their mutual admissions of what many would perceive as weakness simultaneously weighing them down and feeling like absolution.

"I don't think that's a failing." Hinata breathed after some time, ripping her eyes away from the quickly falling night to gaze at the Kiri-nin.

"Yes. I am beginning to realise that." Haku replied with a small, pleased smile, the lights of the Village reflected in his dark eyes. “I’ve never…been understood like this.” He admitted quietly, something complicated flickering across his face. “I would like to help you. Your opponent in the finals is...vicious. She has something of a reputation, and she will not hesitate to kill you, particularly after her defeat at your teammate’s hands."

Hinata frowned, shifting so she could face Haku properly, not sure what he meant.

"What are you offering?" she asked after a beat, when no further explanation seemed forthcoming from the teen.

"Help. In whatever form you'd like." He explained, no deception in his countenance, and Hinata just stared at him for a moment, processing the offer.

Koushi-san’s words about her team becoming a wetworks squad were still fresh in her mind, especially the fact that the man had used her fight as his example.

She’d always lacked presence, first due to her shyness, then because it was easier to hang back and observe, to let Kiba and Shino dig and provoke reactions then come to her for a summary of what she’d managed to gleam from the interaction. She’d learned to walk soundlessly in ANBU, after the war, Tetsuya taking great care in teaching her to stifle her presence to blend in with her surroundings for guard duty and regulate her breathing to not draw attention, teasingly calling her their team's little ghost girl when she eventually learned well enough to sneak up on him.

But she’d never thought about combining all those elements into a fighting style. At least, not until Haku’s offhand comment that her method reminded him of Silent Kill.

Putting all those parts together, her response seemed obvious.

"I'd like to disappear."

Kurenai rarely found herself blindsided.

As a genjutsu mistress, her specialisation required so much attention to detail that few things slipped past her notice even when off-duty. Most of her friends were also fantastic – and paranoid – shinobi, so even if she didn’t catch something, someone in her close circle was bound to.  

Unfortunately, this time, her friends were likely to be just as blinded to reality as her.

She had expected for her team to make it through the preliminaries, so she didn’t spend much time reflecting on the manner in which they had qualified.

Instead, her first hint to something being amiss came in the final stage. It began with Shino decimating his Kiri opponent with a mix of his kikaichu and Fire-release, forcing the Hozuki to keep liquifying lest the insects drain him of his chakra. When the Kiri-nin started to show signs of fatigue, resorting to physically dodging rather than liquifying, Shino brought out his rinkaichu and closed in with the sort of ruthless taijutsu Kurenai had only ever seen Ebisu employ.

The poisonous, flesh-eating insects tore through the flesh of the Kiri-nin’s left shoulder and upper arm – his sword-arm – before the Hozuki saw sense and forfeited with a curse.

Her second hint came when Kiba managed to keep pace for over ten minutes with a twenty-something Suna puppet mistress with a worrying penchant for poison. When the kunoichi finally got the drop on him, boasting of how he only had minutes before her poison took effect, Kiba sent a transformed Akamaru to keep the kunoichi busy while he crafted an antidote in the middle of the arena floor and chugged it the moment it was finished, not a shred of hesitation to his movements. Then, he’d thrown himself into the Human Bullet technique, thoroughly destroyed the kunoichi’s puppet, and proceeded to forfeit, though not before throwing up all over the shredded remains of the weapon that had seen the Suna-nin coast through the preliminaries.

Despite Kiba’s loss, Kurenai doubted that anyone saw the Suna kunoichi as the winner of that match.

Her third hint came when Hinata faced the Tsuchikage’s granddaughter, a kunoichi rumoured to possess the venerated Lava Release and vicious enough that she’d secured a position in the Bingo Books of her own merits at thirteen years old. And Kurenai’s own kunoichi student didn’t flinch when Kurotsuchi taunted her, or when the earth of the whole arena split into jagged spikes and she had to take to the air, or when her opponent blew a wave of fire at her while she was still in mid-air. Instead, Kurenai watched as Hinata crafted a wall of water from the remnants of the Hozuki’s jutsu that hadn’t yet soaked into the stone, which, when the techniques collided, shrouded the arena in mist.

Only the mist didn’t disperse when the Iwa-nin called out a Wind jutsu.

It didn’t even budge.

Instead, Hinata used what must have been Hidden in the Mist, and, when she finally dropped the jutsu, Kurotsuchi lay at her feet, unconscious, three senbon in the side of her neck, leaving little doubt in the minds of the spectators that a Konoha genin had just taken out the Tsuchikage’s granddaughter using Kirigakure’s Silent Kill.

Her fourth hint came with the realisation that none of the genin her team had faced in the final round were weak genin. In fact, she was pretty sure all three would’ve already been chunin-ranked in Konoha.

Yet her kids were still, somehow, unconceivably, better.

Kurenai remembered what she’d told them before they’d left for Kumo, that they were a little ‘too skilled’ for genin. She’d meant it purely in respect to their technical skills, a comment on the superiority over their peers that came from training regularly with jounin and getting assigned missions that jumped a rank more often than not.

What she’d failed to consider was just which jounin she’d exposed her kids to. And what sort of side-effects the missions they’d been assigned would have on their mentality.

She’d forgotten that, while Ebisu, for all that he, much like her, had steered clear of the shadow ranks, had also grown up navigating Gai’s physicality and Genma’s cunning. And while she’d hoped that he would gel well with Shino when she’d introduced them, she hadn’t realised how much of Ebisu’s particular brand of practical ruthlessness her student would end up absorbing through that acquaintance.

Similarly, while Yugao and Genma were strong jounin, they were also ANBU. And ANBU, as Kurenai had long since found out but had forgotten when introducing her kids to her friends, came with a certain mentality that those in the shadow ranks struggled to shake off even when not donning the mask.

(As was Kakashi, but Kurenai wasn’t quite ready to acknowledge whatever teaching Hinata had been receiving from her friend. Hinata’s style being similar to Kakashi’s was supposed to be a joke, something cute, something to maybe tease the man with. It was never supposed to be something that Kurenai would grow to worry about.)

But she couldn’t deny that her kids, while undeniably hers in their sensitivity to genjutsu and preference for quick, short fights, were also reflections of her friends:

Shino not hesitating to use his rinkaichu against a peer while demonstrating a solid grounding in all gen, tai, and ninjutsu was a testament to Ebisu’s influence. 

Kiba’s practicality on the field when crafting an antidote mid-fight, combined with his subsequent tactical retreat but only after rendering his opponent’s weapon all-but useless had Genma’s signature cunning all over it.

Hinata’s use of mist to hide her dojutsu and win against the tournament favourite in under two minutes, all without revealing anything more about herself than a basic proficiency with Water Release and Silent Kill, reeked of Yugao’s vicious practicality.

And Kurenai in the middle of it all, wondering how she’d forgotten that she’d had her kids for a year. How she’d forgotten that they weren’t green graduates anymore, that it was inevitable that they’d grow. She just hadn’t expected for them to grow right out of the ‘bumbling genin’ stage and straight into ‘shinobi’ within the year that she’d had them.

Looking at them now, standing shoulder to shoulder as they watched the last match of the final stage, quiet satisfaction and self-assuredness radiating from all three, Kurenai vowed to step up her own training when they got back to Konoha.

Her team’s chunin promotion was inevitable at this point, and, if anything, this exam had proven was that her kids might be able to take up Team Seven’s combat squad designation alongside their original tracking specialisation, but Kurenai wasn’t about to let them go without a fight.

She was their sensei. They were hers, the little possessive voice in her mind hissed, the product of her blood, sweat, and tears. Hers to look after and protect until she had no strength left in her, and she wasn’t going to let them go out into the world alone.

(Stifling a sigh, yet unable to fight the proud, vicious smile that quirked her lip as she walked over to stand beside Shino, she wondered whether Anko and Ibiki would be up for a repeat of bootcamp when she got home.)

Tsunade stared at the group in front of her, bemused.

She’d received the write-up of the kids’ fights from the two accompanying jounin, but looking at them now, she struggled to marry the vicious practicality of the shinobi within the report with the quietly expectant children standing before her desk.

“So,” she hedged, glancing between the three, studying their reactions intently, “do you think you deserve the promotion?”

Instead of the outburst she expected, or the enthusiastic retelling of their many successes that stared back at her from their files, the three genin remained silent, exchanging looks, before the Aburame spoke.

“We qualify for it.” The Aburame replied, voice quiet and even and inflectionless. “But merit is…subjective. It is, ultimately, your decision, Hokage-sama.”

Tsunade blinked, shooting an incredulous look at Yuhi, but the woman just smiled fondly at the back of her student’s head, not seeming in the least surprised.

“That’s not what I asked, kid.” Tsunade shot back, earning a single, one shouldered shrug at the words from the Aburame. “What if I decided to keep you as genin, hm? How would you feel?”

“I wouldn’t mind.” The Inuzuka grinned, picking up from his teammate with another shrug, hands in his pockets and his nindog at his feet. “I like my team.”

“And you, Hyuuga?” Tsunade pressed, turning to the thus-far silent kunoichi. “Anything to add?”

“I agree with my teammates.” The girl replied, her voice even quieter than the Aburame’s, but stronger, bolder. “But…regardless of merit, I think that the Village stands to benefit from our potential promotions.”

Tsuande paused, momentarily stumped, then shot a sharper glance at Yuhi, but the woman met her gaze evenly, once more completely unsurprised at the sheer ballsiness of her students.

“Bold claim.” Tsunade managed, making a show of pushing the reports and files around her desk as she processed the kid’s observation.

Hearing about the steel trap of a political mind hiding behind the quiet mien from Jiraiya and Shikaku had been one thing. Having the girl pinpoint the reason why Tsunade was even considering promoting any of their graduating class despite her distaste of child soldiers, however, was another entirely.

“But you’re not wrong.” She admitted at last, and, as if she’d been waiting for the cue, Shizune disappeared to the next room for a moment and came back with three chunin vests in her arms, coming to stand by Tsunade’s desk and offering Team Eight an encouraging smile.

“Team Eight, comprising Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba, under the tutelage of Yuhi Kurenai.” Tsunade read out, getting to her feet and planting her hands on her desk, taking in each of the brats with an assessing look.

While the Inuzuka was visibly excited, the leg his nindog was not leaning on bouncing anxiously where he stood, the other two met Tsunade’s gaze, calm as could be, and waited patiently.

Snorting, Tsunade grabbed the official scroll and lobbed it at Yuhi, then gestured for Shizune to hand the kids their flak jackets. “I hereby applaud your impressive performances at the Kumogakure Exams and award each of you the rank of chunin. Congratulations, go celebrate, and get the hell out of my office.”

Yuhi snorted at the last comment, her professional mask crumbling at last, and opened her arms wide, getting three hugs of varying exuberance from her students.

Then, perhaps catching the flicker of pain that shot through Tsunade at the scene, she ushered her kids out of the office with a final bow and let the door swing shut behind them.

Tsunade sighed explosively and set about gathering the recommendation papers and tucking them into the respective folders, then she held out the messy stack to Shizune who accepted them wordlessly and moved to file them away.

“Was it the right decision?” Tsunade asked quietly as she sank back into her office chair, prompting Shizune to pause, though her apprentice didn’t turn around when she spoke.

“I don’t think anyone can know that for sure, shishou.” Shizune said quietly, resuming her task of sorting the files. “But Hyuuga-chan was right. Although they’re young, their promotion benefits the Village, and that’s all anyone can ask you to worry about.”

Tsunade quirked a smile at the words, but even she was aware it probably landed closer to a wry grimace.

(At times like these, she found herself wishing that her team hadn’t fractured, that she still had Jiraiya and Orochimaru at her side for counsel and support. Orochimaru wouldn’t have hesitated or even thought twice about the promotions, wouldn’t have insisted on the kids going through the Exams in the first place, would’ve simply promoted the genin the moment he was informed that there were shortages in the forces and Team Eight ticked the basic requirements.

Nor would his vicious practicality have allowed him to spare a single second afterwards to wondering whether he hadn’t doomed the kids to the fate of cannon fodder.

She hated that she envied him.)

Hana sighed, dodging another ‘subtle’ attempt Daichi made at wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

“Sorry,” she repeated, pasting on a smile that felt more like a grimace, but she reckoned Daichi was too self-absorbed to notice, “I really can’t do dinner today.”

“What’s got you so busy, hm?” Daichi asked in that same smarmy tone that was half the reason she refused to spend time with the man one-on-one. “You never have time for anything fun.”

ANBU’s got me busy, Hana wanted to say, feeling a swell of bitter frustration, guard duty. Clinic duty. Clan responsibilities, take your damn pick.

But she settled on a smile that she hoped came across as sheepish rather than sarcastic, knowing that Daichi, career-chunin from Intelligence, would not care for the explanation of her responsibilities. “Oh, you know, medic rotas are crazy.”

“But you’re not on duty now, so why not?” Daichi pressed, not getting the hint regardless of how unsubtle it had been. In fact, he stepped closer, reaching out with one hand, clearly intent on Hana’s shoulder-

“Hana-sensei.” A voice called quietly, and Hana half-turned, the motion moving her shoulder out of Daichi's range, making his hand fall back to his side and a scowl twist his lips before he caught himself and wiped it away.

Hinata was suddenly there, at Hana’s side, and she slipped her arm through Hana’s, looking up at her with a cheerful smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “Are you ready to go?”

Hana stared at Hinata, momentarily startled, but the other girl met her gaze and held, her face open but expectant, not even pretending to acknowledge Daichi.

“Yeah.” Hana managed belatedly, realising that Hinata was offering her an out. “Yeah, I was just waiting for you. Let’s go train, hm?” she grinned, then turned to Daichi, managing her fakest apologetic smile yet. “Sorry, I promised Hinata-chan we’d train after my shift. Hope you have a good rest of your day!”

Then she tugged Hinata along, not waiting for Daichi's response, and didn’t let go until they were a good two blocks away.

“Thanks for the save.” She said breathlessly, letting Hinata separate their arms, the other girl’s fake smile melting off her face, though her eyes remained soft, her expression friendly as she gazed at Hana.

“Has he tried that before?” Hinata asked instead, a tiny frown pulling at her brows, voice concerned.

“Unfortunately yes.” Another voice replied, and Hana startled, not having sensed Tetsuya’s approach. “If he’d actually touched you, I’d have intervened, Hana-chan. Hyuuga-hime, hello again.”

“Tetsuya-san,” Hinata returned the greeting, prompting Hana to stare between her teammate and her brother’s friend with no small degree of bafflement, “hope you’ve been well.”

“You two know each other?” Hana couldn’t help but ask, raising a disbelieving eyebrow at Tetsuya.

“Our sisters are friends.” Her teammate explained, but his attention was on Hinata. “I didn’t think they let genin on infiltration missions.”

Hana frowned, not following the sudden non-sequitur, but it seemed Hinata understood the cryptic observation because her hand flew to her face, fingers stopping just shy of her eyes. “I forgot. Thank you, Tetsuya-san.”

Then she proceeded to take out her contacts, and Hana wondered how she hadn’t noticed until then that Hinata hadn’t been looking at her with the usual lilac of the Hyuuga’s pupilless eyes. She didn’t think it possible, but Hinata had somehow made the bright blue of the contacts look natural on her face, like her eyes had never been any other colour.

She glanced at her teammate, hoping for some more of an explanation on the familiarity between the two, but Tetsuya was useless. The man was hard to read on a good day, but now all Hana could glean from him was a hint of surprise and something almost pleased.

“Don’t mention it.” He waved the girl’s thanks off, green eyes watching as she stashed her contacts in a small case and tucked it back into her pouch. “Were you actually going to train, or-?”

“-Hinata-sama!”

Hinata jumped, and she wasn’t the only one, but Tetsuya’s hand on her wrist prevented the girl from gouging out the other Hyuuga teen’s eyes, Hinata’s fingers suspended mere inches from the other boy’s face.

“…Neji-nii-san?” Hinata managed, disbelief and fear tinging her voice, though she sent a nod of thanks to Tetsuya before she focused on her cousin, prompting the ANBU to release her wrist. “Are you alright?”

Because the boy was panting, Hana realised, gasping in desperate breaths, his face red, the look in his eyes panicked, though not because of Hinata’s reaction.

“It’s Hanabi.” The boy gasped, and Hana both saw and felt Hinata freeze. “The- The Elders are trying to seal her.”

There was a second of silence. Two.

Then a split-second roar of Killing Intent so potent that Hana almost couldn’t believe it came from Hinata-

-then the girl was gone, her cousin cursing as he gave chase.

Slowly, Hana turned to regard Tetsuya, a wordless understanding passing between them: uh-oh.

Chapter Text

Hinata burst into the dojo, her mind quiet even as her chakra boiled beneath her skin. She forced herself to stop for a second and take in the scene while she caught her breath.

Only about half of the Elders were present, with some wary-looking Branch House members lining the walls of the dojo, but Hinata’s attention was drawn to the very centre of the room.

Elder Hideki stood there, the same Elder who had been one of the two who had stormed her hospital room after her team’s run-in with the Akatsuki, the very Elder whom she’d granted an extended hospital stay for a genjutsu-induced heart-attack.

Now he stood with an inkpot in one hand and a brush in the other, and the tip of the brush was- was pressed against Hanabi’s forehead.

Worse yet, Hinata realised as her heart skipped a beat and her eyes catalogued everything she could see from her place at the door, there was a sealing matrix painted at Hanabi’s feet, visibly keeping her from moving, judging by the way Hanabi’s muscles were straining with the effort to get away.

For a moment, everything was still. The calm before the storm.

Then, Hinata’s chakra raged.

She didn’t allow herself time to think once she was noticed; she flashed to Hideki’s side, a knife-hand to the forearm dislodging the inkpot from his hold, then she whirled on Hanabi. Hinata channelled more chakra to her foot and slammed it against the floor the way she’d seen Sakura do so many times during the War, if to a much lesser extent in her case, but it got the job done; the wooden panels of the dojo floor shattered beneath the blow, and so too did the sealing matrix. Hanabi stumbled, suddenly free, but Hinata was there, catching her sister and flash-stepping away from Hideki, putting distance between them even as she knew she needed to stay for the confrontation.

Hanabi stumbled again as they stopped, not used to Shunshin travel even for such short distances, and Hinata steadied her sister at the same time as she ran her thumb through the mess of ink on Hanabi’s forehead, smearing the sealing calligraphy and disturbing whatever initial matrix Hideki had managed to put down. She laid her hand on Hanabi’s shoulder and pulsed a quick kai through her system as well just in case, then urged Hanabi behind her, covering her with her own body to hide her from Hideki’s sharp gaze.

“Hideki-san.” Hinata murmured once the most pressing issues had been taken care of, her voice flat and quiet and trembling with the anger coursing like liquid fire through her veins. “What do you think you were doing?”

Hideki stepped to the side, away from what Hinata assumed was the puddle of spilled ink on the floor, and it was only then that Hinata realised that, in her anger, she had activated her dojutsu.

“When did you get back?” Hideki asked instead of answering her, and Hinata was too far in her own head to identify the note in his voice, but she saw the way his chakra jumped.

“Hideki-san.” She repeated, her own voice sharper now even as she didn’t so much as twitch from her defensive position. “What were you doing?”

“You seemed determined to take up your role as heir.” Hideki replied at last, apparently recognising that it wasn’t wise to ignore her question again. “Your sister will need to be sealed sooner or later.”

“Only after I become Head.” Hinata snapped back, then made a conscious effort to soften her voice and dull her words, turning off her Byakugan at the same time. “Not before.”

When Hideki didn’t deign that with a response, she asked the other pressing question: “Where is Father?”

“Your Father was called away on an urgent mission. He has the best dojutsu range in the Clan.” Hideki informed her, then eyed her from head to toe, making something in Hinata’s very being want to shrivel and hide. “Something you ought to work on if you wish to succeed him.”

Hinata took a deep breath and pushed down her personal feelings on the matter, keeping her focus on the fact that Hanabi had almost been sealed and her Father wasn’t even there. “Who approved Hanabi's sealing, then?”

Hideki scoffed, but didn’t answer.

“Nobody.” A Branch House Elder murmured finally, and when Hinata’s gaze snapped to him, she found his eyebrows raised, an odd expression on his face as he studied her right back before he shrugged lightly. “But Hideki's Main House, so nobody could disapprove.” 

And then, while Hinata registered the words, the man gasped and stumbled, grasping blindly for the wall to keep himself from falling even as Hinata saw his knees buck and his face twist with pain.

She looked around frantically, knowing, in the back of her mind, what could have caused this reaction from the Elder but refusing to believe it, and found Hideki’s eyes focused unerringly on the Branch House member, his lips twisted down into a cruel grimace.

Hinata saw red, and her hold on her chakra escaped her, along with her Killing Intent.   

"Stop." she commanded, and a pained gasp from Hanabi forced her to try to focus and reign in her chakra and narrow her Killing Intent on Hideki alone, something else that Haku had taight her in their fortnight in Kumo, unable to believe what she had just witnessed.

“You are an Elder. Your role is to advise.” She told the man coldly as he clutched at his chest and panted heavily, and Hinata finally straightened from her defensive crouch and took a slow step forward. “What you tried to do is treason against the Clan.”

Hinata eased back on her Killing Intent and activated her Byakugan again, searching for the two hidden signatures she knew would be there.

There.

Both signatures by the front gate, one on the roof of the nearest house, camouflaged under genjutsu, the other hidden in the trunk of a nearby tree.

ANBU.

Hinata flared her chakra in the standard ANBU distress signal and saw both figures snap to attention, dropping their techniques at once. She cut the chakra to her dojutsu, knowing her goal had been accomplished, and settled for the wait, knowing it wouldn't be long.

In the few seconds she had to wait, Hideki had gotten his breathing back under control and straightened, just in time for the screen door to open, both ANBU agents taking a moment to survey the scene they have just arrived at before the one who had been hidden in the tree turned his attention unerringly to Hinata.

"What seems to be the emergency?" he asked, the voice-modulating seals of the mask giving his voice an eerie reverb, but, if anything, Hinata found it comforting.

"Elder Hideki nearly committed treason against the Clan in mine and my father's absence." She told the ANBU quietly, ignoring the way Hideki’s chakra spiked in anger. “He also attacked another Clan member without provocation. Is there a place in the Village where he can be held until my Father's return?”

The two ANBU members exchanged a look before the one who had initially spoken replied; “There are temporary-hold cells in T&I.”

Hinata felt the temperature in the dojo drop a good ten degrees, but she just inclined her head politely. “That is acceptable.” She murmured, smiling tightly as she felt Hanabi’s fingers creep up and wrap in the bottom of her jacket. “I would also appreciate if one of you could escort my sister and cousin to the Inuzuka compound.”

This request got a verbal reaction.

“Think of the Clan's image, you foolish child!” She probably shouldn’t have been surprised that it wasn’t Hideki who spoke. Perhaps Hideki was merely the bravest of the Elders who disagreed with her position as heir apparent? “How will it look-?!”

“Please don't say anything more. I am-” Hinata whispered, closing her eyes briefly and seeking out Hanabi’s hand, prying her sister’s fingers from the hem of her jacket and moving them so they were holding hands instead, fingers intertwined. “ANBU-san, would one of you please be able to get Kagane Natsume from Psych?”

The ANBU who hadn’t spoken yet nodded, extending a hand to Hanabi and Neji. “Come.”

Hanabi trembled but obligingly stepped towards the ANBU, but when Hinata turned to look at Neji, she found him shaking his head. “I'm not leaving you here.”

“Ah.” Hideki murmured, speaking for the first time since the ANBU’s arrival. “That's how you knew.”

And then Neji cried out, his knees buckling beneath him, and Hinata saw red, having connected the dots much faster this time.

She was vaguely aware that Hanabi ran to Neji's side, but she didn't stay to watch her help Neji up. Instead, she flashed to directly in front of Hideki, gathered her chakra, and struck his stomach, jabbing all five of her fingers into the tenketsu surrounding his chakra core and wrenching the gates open.

She flashed back to Hanabi in time to see Hideki collapse to the floor, his chakra leaking out of him like water from a sieve.

Hinata had used the very move she'd told Haku she actively avoided in most fights, a move learnt on the frontlines, for the frontlines, one of the few things that had proven effective against the Zetsu clones.

Aside from the brutality with which it destroyed the victim's coils, Hinata usually avoided it because it involved getting too far into her opponent's guard, exposing her to just as much danger as it posed to the enemy.

But Hideki hadn't expected retaliation.

His guard had been lowered.

So Hinata gazed at his gasping, trembling form, watched as his chakra left him faster than even the most skilled field medic would've been able to replenish it.

If left unattended, Hideki would slip right past the shock brought on by rapid chakra drain and into chakra depletion, then, if he didn't receive immediate medical attention, he would die.

Feeling not much of anything at all, Hinata waited for someone to step in and stop the chakra bleed.

Nobody moved.

She didn’t know how long she stood there, watching Hideki bleed out and irreparably damage his coils even if someone stepped in to help him, but she stood and watched until a new voice ripped her from her reverie.

"Hinata."

Hinata turned her head to where the voice had come from, relief slamming into her at the sight of Kagane-san. She Shunshined to the woman’s side, watching the silent ANBU move to Hanabi’s side and grab her and Neji by the shoulders, disappearing from the dojo a moment later.

At Kagane-san’s light touch to her arm, Hinata turned her back on her Clan members and the now-still Hideki and stepped out of the dojo by the same door she’d ran through.

“Psych?” Kagane-san checked quietly, but Hinata shook her head.

Not yet. She had one more stop to make beforehand, even if her blood felt like it had turned to ice and her head was deathly silent.

One more stop.

Tsunade raised her gaze from the papers when her door opened, inwardly glad to be interrupted as it gave her a reason to postpone slogging through the financial writeup of the month.

She was less pleased when she found the Hyuuga genin who'd been in her office earlier that afternoon, a woman at her side whom Tsunade remembered as a hardass campaigner for mental health back when Dan had been involved with the hospital.

She was about to ask what the girl thought she was doing in her office again, especially without a formal summon, when she caught sight of the look on the Hyuuga's face.

Where earlier, there had been relief and a quiet pride when Tsunade had handed Team Eight their well-deserved chunin vests, now, the girl's face could've very well been carved from marble for how expressive it was.

Only her eyes showed what she was feeling, and Tsunade suddenly had an inkling as to what Kagane Natsume might've been doing at the girl's side. Indignation and a thirst for vengeance burned in the Hyuuga's eyes, her anger a quiet yet all-consuming inferno that Tsunade had no doubt would have burned everyone around her if the girl possessed even an ounce less self-control.

"Hyuuga.” She greeted slowly, briefly glancing at Kagane, but the woman was comparably stone-faced to her presumed charge. “What can I do for you?"

"What would I need for my jounin promotion?" the girl asked quietly, her voice inflectionless and hollow.

The dead flatness to her voice and the lack of a respectful title was all the proof Tsunade needed that something had gone badly wrong in the few short hours since she’d last seen the girl.

Still-

"You only just got chunin today. Take a day to celebrate before you set yourself on impossible targets." She advised, eyeing the girl sharply. "Besides, those sorts of questions are normally taken to the Jounin Commander."

"I would like to avoid accusations of bias or favouritism." The Hyuuga replied, her voice chillingly even, and Tsunade had heard more life in the voices of her ANBU agents.

It was only then that she recalled Shikaku expressing a familiarity with the girl that perhaps even bordered on fondness, and Tsunade felt her eyebrow jump up at the fact that the Hyuuga's rumoured rationality hadn't waned despite whatever it was that had happened to her.

"Well, alright, hold on." And Tsunade stood, the fact that she'd handled the girl's folder earlier that afternoon meaning that she actually knew where it was in the maze of files and cabinets that Shizune usually handled for her.

The girl barely twitched, holding herself so still that Tsunade almost wanted to ask if she was breathing, but she supposed Kagane would've been keeping an eye on that. She returned to her desk leisurely, smacking the file down and flipping to the girl's mission count and notable comments.

"Let's see: one hundred and fifty-four D-Ranks, sixteen C-Ranks, one B-Rank, and an A-Rank while barely a year out of the Academy. Not bad."

It was actually much better than 'not bad', but she didn't think the kid cared about that at this point.

"There are many paths you can go down. If you're starting from zero, both tokubetsu and full jounin have the same mission requirement. You've actually met the D-Rank one already. C-Rank requirement is at fifty, and B-Rank at twenty-five. Assisted - or, in your case, accidental - A-Rank quota is at five, but they're more of a perk than a requirement."

She scanned over the added notes, notable ones from Hatake – who usually avoided any sort of admin like the plague - the Kumo judge panel – which was an accomplishment in and of itself – Shiranui, and Shikaku himself, all of which painted the girl as a competent if unconventional fighter, and all highlighted a nigh war-child mentality.

"You can choose to continue with only one specialisation, which will grant you the rank of tokubetsu if you pass. Otherwise, full jounin are also required to demonstrate high-level proficiency with elemental ninjutsu, as well as a degree of capability with gen and taijutsu, unless one of the other two are your designated field, in which case the weighing of that shifts. Then, when you meet the mission requirement and pass the basic skill assessment, there is the Jounin Spar.” She paused, eyeing the girl consideringly, noting that she hadn’t so much as twitched at the required mission count, nor the process. “You can also, within reason, skip some of the first two steps if enough jounin recommend you for the Spar. They cannot be members of your Clan and they have to be full jounin."

The girl seemed to consider that briefly, then asked the most unexpected question: “How many is 'enough'?"

Tsunade opened her mouth to reply, then closed it, not actually sure of the answer. Her eyes cut to Kagane, wondering if the woman had any input, and was not disappointed, if a bit miffed at the curl of a sardonic smirk in the corner of the other woman’s mouth.

"Generally, Shikaku considers five recommendations to be enough to approve a candidate for a skill review." Kagane replied, and the Hyuuga nodded, thoughtful.

Tsunade couldn’t resist anymore. "Hyuuga. What happened?"

"Clan matter, Hokage-sama.” The girl shot back immediately, voice serene, as if her chakra wasn’t a hollow void and her body so still as if it had been carved from marble. “It has been handled."

Tsunade wasn't sure she liked that answer. She liked it even less when the girl added: "I believe that agent Cat is outside your window with the full report."

In the time it took for Tsunade to turn to the indicated window and see the agent in question drop onto the outside windowsill, the Hyuuga and Kagane had disappeared, and it didn't occur to Tsunade until later that the little Hyuuga really shouldn't have known Cat's mask name.

Once Tsunade heard Cat's report, however, she gave in to the urge to swear, so loud and colourful that she was almost sure Cat cringed behind his mask.

"So she killed the Elder?" she checked, because that had been the only part Cat had been vague about.

"No, Tsunade-sama, he was still alive when she left." Cat replied, but there was something in his tone that didn't sit well with Tsunade.

"But?" She prompted, not used to the idea that her ANBU might withhold information.

"But Stag and I left before we ascertained whether anyone had saved him." Cat admitted, and though his tone was flat and his posture apologetic, Tsunade didn't detect any remorse in the man's chakra.

"So he could very well be dead if nobody stepped in to stop his chakra bleed?" she demanded, not sure what she was hoping to hear.

"...Yes, ma'am."

"Fucking fantastic." Technically, it would be classed as self-defence, and Tsunade doubted whether anybody harboured any particularly warm feelings for that particular Elder, but it didn’t change the fact that a murder had occurred within Village walls.

"Check on the situation, then get a squad to guard the Hyuuga Compound and extras on the Inuzuka until Hiashi’s return. After that, step away. I don't trust you to be objective." She ignored the way Cat's chakra roiled indignantly, too frustrated to care if she was being harsh, though she held up a hand before he could leave. "On second thought, tell Hound and Gecko that they're to stay away, too.” And then, because she was slowly learning to expect the unexpected from the kid, she added, “Anyone else who might be invested in the kid?"

"Fox and Spider, ma'am." One of her guards murmured, not bothering to cancel the genjutsu hiding them from view so Tsunade ended up pinning her disbelieving look to the vague part of the wall she thought the voice came from.

"How the fuck does a preteen chunin have so many of my Black-Ops in her close circle?" She asked sharply, then waved off Cat when his chakra twitched. "I don't actually want to know. Go, Cat. And try to be discreet, I don't want Hiashi bitching at me when he gets back."

Tsume stared at the ANBU crouched on her windowsill, surprised that he'd kept his word.

Though she'd been willing to accept the two shell-shocked Hyuuga kids into her home when the ANBU had brought them to her doorstep, she'd been itching for an explanation that went beyond ‘Clan emergency’. But the agent had merely signed ‘later’ in Chunin Standard and disappeared.

So Tsume had grumbled, ill-tempered, but had obligingly shown the Hyuuga kids to the guest room and told them to make themselves at home. She didn’t need to know about the situation that required them to take refuge with her to recognise the fear in their eyes, and for all that she frequently and vehemently denied possessing any maternal instinct, it was instinct to help them get rid of that fear.

Kiba had been helpful, too; he’d taken one look at the Hyuuga kids and escorted them both to the kennels to play with the puppies, and Tsume resolved to lay off the kid for a little bit; he clearly had his heart in the right place.

Still, seeing the ANBU come back an hour after dropping the kids off with the explanation he'd promised was a welcome surprise.

"Well shit." She summarised after the ANBU's quick but thorough rundown of the latest Hyuuga Bullshit. "And Hinata? Where is she?"

"According to Stag and Cat's report, she admitted herself to Psych." The ANBU replied flatly, the voice modulating seals hiding whatever they felt about the fact from their voice.

"Voluntarily?" Tsume couldn't help but check, raising a dubious eyebrow.

People didn't choose to go to Psych unless they were barely hanging on. She remembered how thrown Shibi had been when his son had admitted himself, how guilty at not having realized the extent of Shino's struggles. 

The ANBU shrugged, making Tsume snort at the unusually relaxed demeanour. "She called for Kagane Natsume while still at the Hyuuga Compound."

"Natsume is the kid's shrink?" Tsume whistled before she could stop herself, almost more shocked by this news than by the ANBU turning up on her doorstep with two terrified Hyuuga kids in tow. "Damn."

"Hokage-sama also called for a guard around your Compound." The ANBU added, and Tsume appreciated the heads up even though the news itself was far from reassuring.

"That bad?" she checked, wincing at the thought of how much the ANBU likely omitted from his rundown if the Godaime felt that extra ANBU watchers were necessary.

The ANBU shrugged again, and Tsume nodded, getting the message. Then a thought occurred to her, and she hoped against hope she wasn’t the first person this had occurred to:

"Has someone informed Yuhi?"

Kurenai very rarely found herself genuinely angry.

Finding out from Kakashi that her student had killed an Elder and then proceeded to admit herself to Psych three hours after it happened did manage to get her there, however.

Half an hour later after getting the news from Kakashi, she was in Psych and through the visitor control, standing on the other side of the two-way mirror built into the room Hinata was occupying, Hinata’s shrink beside her.

"Isn't this a bit co-dependent?" she asked absently, taking in how Yugao was sitting, pressed shoulder to thigh to Hinata's side, positioned between the girl and the door to the room in a way that Kurenai had no doubt was 100% intentional.

(She tried not to let the anger build at the realisation that Yugao had found out about Hinata’s situation before her.)

"Hinata made Uzuki's suicide watch practically redundant." Kagane replied simply, scrawling something in the margins of a file she had open. "There's trust there."

"And you're not above exploiting it." Kurenai concluded, raising an eyebrow at the woman in a way she hoped wasn’t too judgemental, but too angry to care.  

Kagane didn't reply verbally but she sighed quietly, putting the file down and picking up a discarded clipboard instead and offering it to Kurenai.

"Sign this." She ordered simply and Kurenai took the clipboard on autopilot, not wanting to look away from the older woman.

"What is it?" she asked tightly, chancing a quick glance at what looked like a list of dozens of names, some she recognised, some completely foreign to her.

"Petition to the Godaime for the Academy sensei to undergo compulsory training in character assessment and psychoanalysis." Kagane explained flatly, and Kurenai took a moment to process the words before pinning the woman with a frown.

"Why?"

Kagane held out the file she'd discarded earlier, one that Kurenai now realised was familiar.

It was Hinata's Academy file.

Kagane flipped to the last page of the file and pointed to the part of 'additional comments' on the write-up of the final exam . Next to Umino's respectable three lines of commentary, Mizuki had left only two damning words:

'Too soft'.

Kurenai remembered reading the words herself when her then-potential students had passed their genin exam, remembered dismissing them immediately after what had happened with Mizuki on the night of the graduation exam became public knowledge among the higher ranks. She remembered Anko sneaking into her apartment and staring listlessly at the wall, remembered her friend's vicious self-doubt and quiet questioning of her ability to judge character, remembered the broken 'I thought we were friends' that still threatened to break Kurenai's heart when she thought too hard about it.

She wanted to punch Mizuki in the teeth for many reasons; his complete dismissal of her kunoichi student was but one of them.

She shook herself off and realised that Kagane was clearly waiting for her to comment, so Kurenai just hummed a questioning note, not sure how Mizuki's assholery tied into the overarching problem of the inaccurate profiles the Academy handed out.

"Hinata's soft the way the Uchiha is aggressive, the Uzumaki attention-seeking, or Shikaku's brat lazy." Kagane murmured, and there was something familiar in the undertone of the words, but Kurenai was more thrown by the genuine anger in the older woman's eyes when she finally met her gaze.

"The Uchiha seems aggressive because he's still grieving. He can't process the grief because nobody thought to let him move out of the house his family was slaughtered in. The Uzumaki isn't attention-seeking, he's attention deficit, and it took your teammate bringing him here for an evaluation for anyone to connect the dots. And most Nara actually aren't lazy, they're just severely understimulated." 

"Hinata isn't soft." Kurenai agreed, following the explanation to its conclusion and accepting the pen to sign the petition, Kagane's words and the revelations they carried echoing in her mind.

She nearly fumbled her signature when the other woman laughed suddenly, a short, sharp sound, an odd glint in her eyes as she looked through the two-way mirror at Hinata and Yugao.

"Oh, no, she is." Kagane corrected, taking back the pen and tucking the clipboard under her arm. "But not soft like porcelain. Soft like clay, or silk."

Malleable. Durable. Kurenai translated, staring at the woman with wide eyes, shocked at the unexpectedly complimentary assessment of her student from Kagane Natsume, of all people.

"How many more signatures do you need?" Kurenai asked instead of commenting on the compliment, recognising that digging wasn't likely to be well-received.

"You're my ninetieth." Kagane divulged easily, and Kurenai wondered at the power the woman wielded to be able to sway so many people towards what would doubtless end up revolutionising the entire educational system.

Perhaps it was of no surprise that she had taken a liking to Hinata, for all that Kurenai hoped the woman was still ignorant to most of Hinata's plans.

(She had had her reservations when Kagane had been assigned as Hinata's shrink. Almost a year after her team's first foray into Psych, she wasn't sure whether her reservations have been dismissed, or justified.)

"Try T&I." Kurenai suggested in what she hoped was a neutral tone. "If there's anyone who's likely to be supportive of preventing kids from being judged too early, it's those whose character is judged everyday for simply doing their jobs."

"...Noted." Kagane replied, pinning Kurenai with a weighted look, but Kurenai didn't stay to try and unravel the intention behind it. Instead, she shook off the tension that interacting with Kagane always forced into her shoulders and pushed open the door to Hinata's room, managing a smile when Yugao brightened upon spotting her, though Hinata remained catatonic, there in body, but not in spirit.

Getting the news to step away from what had quickly been dubbed the ‘Hyuuga Situation’ around HQ had been one thing, but finding out why had had Yugao dashing across the Village and nearly muscling her way into Psych. She owed Hinata for what the girl had done for her after Hayate’s death, and even if not, she’d grown to care about her of her own volition since being assigned as the girl’s trainer almost a year ago. So she spent almost four full days at Hinata’s side in Psyche, determined to sit with the girl however long it took for her to come back to herself.

Finally, the evening of the fourth day, Hinata twitched and curled into Yugao’s side, a shuddering breath leaving her along with the tension that had riddled her frame since Yugao had first arrived to Psych.

“Welcome back.” Yugao murmured, her own voice a little hoarse from disuse, and she rubbed comforting circles in Hinata’s shoulder. "You ready to talk?"

There were a few minutes of silence when Hinata simply breathed, likely grounding herself in the present after such a prolonged dissociative episode, then the girl nodded against Yugao's neck.

"To me or Kagane?" Yugao pressed, lacing the fingers of her left hand with Hinata’s and squeezing gently to soften her words a little.

"Is-" Hinata started, then broke off and cleared her throat, her voice rough. "Is she there?"

Beyond the door, someone’s chakra flared, and Hinata sighed.

"Kagane-san then, probably. But-" she hesitated, squeezing Yugao's hand this time as she gathered her words. "Could you...stay?"

Not sure if she could manage words just then, Yugao simply squeezed her hand again, in acknowledgement or in thanks, she couldn't be sure. Only thing she was sure of was that she would do everything in her power to not betray the trust she was being shown.

The door to the room opened and Kagane stepped in, file in hand and face characteristically unreadable, though, bizarrely, Hinata only seemed to relax further at the sight of the woman.

"Hinata. Glad you're back." Kagane greeted, coming to a stop at the foot of Hinata's bed, barely acknowledging Yugao beyond a quick glance. "I've been briefed on what happened before my arrival to your Clan grounds. Now, do you have any ideas as to what prompted this reaction from you?"

Yugao tried not to show how much Kagane's business-like mien startled her, but she couldn't help eyeing the older woman sharply, secure in the knowledge that Hinata, tucked into her side as she was, couldn't see her face.

"I got...scared." Hinata admitted quietly, her voice far smaller than Yugao was used to hearing it, and Yugao tried her best to project calm the same way that Hinata had done to her all those weeks ago.

Kagane just hummed, though, and Yugao turned a disbelieving glare on the woman, but Hinata seemed to know what she wanted and sighed quietly.

"I don't like k-killing." she confessed, and Yugao could feel her curl into herself, as if expecting judgement or reprimand. When none came, she loosened up a little, but she was still speaking mostly into Yugao's shoulder. "But in that moment, with- my sister- and when they- Neji-!"

Hinata's chakra flared with anger suddenly, and in that split-second, wits potency was brutal and breath-taking before the girl took a deep breath and snuffed her signature out just as suddenly. "In that moment, I wanted to kill him."

Yugao winced, more than familiar with the urge, but Kagane remained stone-faced, merely jotting something down in the file.

"And that scared you?" She asked simply, as if they were discussing the weather and not Hinata's almost-breakdown.

"Yes."

Kagane hummed again, and Yugao couldn't help herself. She twisted, pulling away from Hinata a little so she could get the girl to meet her eyes when she spoke.

"That protectiveness, that's love." Yugao told her passionately, injecting as much warmth and reassurance as she could into her voice. "It's natural. It's nothing to be ashamed of."

"Thank you, Uzuki." Kagane snapped, tone making it clear that she wasn't appreciative of the interruption. "However, until you pass Psych certification for psychotherapists, do refrain from making such declarations, or I will have you removed."

Having said what she wanted and punctuating it with a sharp spike of ice-cold chakra right at Yugao's core, Kagane turned to Hinata.

"It's understandable the desire scared you. I would have been surprised if it hadn't, frankly." The woman stated, and Yugao felt Hinata's relief at that, but Kagane wasn't done.

"Your Clan has the same problem the Uchiha had, and it's been this way for decades." She continued, factual now, almost lecture-like. "You are taught to repress, to hide what you feel, to train yourselves not to feel to the point that you don't know how to process your emotions."

She pinned Hinata with a look that froze Yugao in place, and she wasn't even the intended recipient.

"You learnt that you're capable of killing on one of your first missions outside of the Village. Now you learnt that there are things which will drive you to want to kill, too." Kagane summarised, her words pointed. "Question is, are you going to give in to the impulse every time?"

"No." Hinata breathed, quiet but sure. "I don't want to."

More than that, she seemed terrified of the sheer possibility, if the way she was squeezing Yugao's hand was any indication.

Kagane nodded, seemingly satisfied. "Then we work on recognising your triggers and processing that desire in a healthy way."

"You make it sound so easy." The words slipped out before Yugao could quite bite them back, but she didn't regret voicing the thought even when Kagane shot her a flaying look.

"Hinata is already startlingly good at compartmentalizing." The woman replied flatly, though her tone told Yugao that any other person would’ve replaced ‘startlingly’ with ‘worryingly’.

"She's mastered the mental disconnect between her hatred of killing and knowing that she's a shinobi and her Village will require it of her.” Kagane continued, and Yugao felt Hinata curl further into her side, though the girl’s chakra was calm, as if she had had this talk with Kagane before. “If there was something like a mental switch, she'd have it."

Kagane smiled then, sharp and humourless.

"But that switch was triggered in the Village, not on a mission, and against people who should be her family." She added, mercilessly thorough, and Hinata flinched against Yugao’s side. “Tell me then, Uzuki, since you seem to have so much to say, how do you think she took it?”

Yugao stayed silent as the weight of the words sank into her. But, in the back of her mind, she did wonder whether Kurenai might be up for going Elder-hunting at some point.

Hiashi didn't enjoy being blindsided.

He had left the Village for the first time in months, a short yet urgent mission requiring his Byakugan's range, and when he came back, it was to the news that his daughter had made chunin in Kumo, that his Clan was now one Elder short, that said Elder had attempted to seal Hanabi, and that Hinata had been the one to kill him before she'd admitted herself to Psych and sent her sister and cousin to the Inuzuka.

The Godaime had asked him if he'd approved Hanabi's sealing before his departure. He'd said no.

He hadn't liked the look on Nara Shikaku's face at that admission.

So he'd focused on the problems he could fix himself, and stepped through the gates of the Inuzuka Compound, eyes scanning the vast open space in the hopes of spotting his daughters quickly and ending this farce before it had the chance to spiral any more.

He watched one of the gate guards return with Hinata in tow, and Hiashi fought the instinctive urge to frown at the unreadable expression on his daughter's face when she met his gaze. She came to a stop about ten feet from him and inclined her head in greeting, though she seemed more like a soldier waiting to be debriefed that a child greeting a parent.

"You need to quit this habit." Hiashi pointed out in lieu of a greeting, getting the tiniest of frowns in return as Hinata gazed back at him.

"Habit, Father?" She repeated quietly, puzzlement evident, and Hiashi fought the urge to scowl at having to elaborate.

"Of running to other Clans when you cannot deal with the consequences of your own actions." He replied bluntly, feeling the scowl he'd been repressing pull at his lips. "Of relying on their pity."

Hinata recoiled at the way he spat the last word, but then he watched as the puzzlement faded from her eyes and something almost sad replaced it.

"It is not pity, Father, but kindness." She corrected, still in that same soft voice, though there was no softness to her posture or expression as she held his gaze, and Hiashi wondered.

Then, Hinata's words registered properly and he scoffed dismissively. "Kindness has no place in the lives of shinobi."

If anything, the sadness in Hinata's eyes became more pronounced and her lips twitched into the smallest of smiles, but there was no joy in the expression.

"It saddens me that you think so." She murmured, and for once, Hiashi struggled to see his daughter for the child that she was. There was something broken in her eyes just then that weighed her words far more than her tender age should allow.

He brushed the thought off and pinned Hinata with a challenging look. "You disagree?" He asked idly, but anyone who knew him would realise that the question was only idle on the surface.

Hinata, though, either didn't see the warning or chose not to heed it.

"Yes." she said simply, and Hiashi didn't know what to reply to that.

They stood in silence for a beat, father and child as disparate, as separated as night and day, and Hiashi allowed himself the fleeting wish that his wife were present to help him navigate the canyon between him and his children. Then he smothered the thought and snuffed out the flicker of sentiment that threatened to bloom in his chest at the distance in his daughter's eyes and forced himself back on topic.

"It was a mistake to bring Hanabi here." He said instead, voicing the thought that felt safer, disapproval lacing his voice without conscious thought, simply a habit now when speaking with his eldest.

Hinata, though, stood firm, unflinching, and that was almost more baffling than the half-dozen Inuzuka that were watching him warily, as if waiting for the slightest misstep.

"I didn't feel it safe to leave her at the Compound." Hinata confessed, a thread of something almost bitter in her voice. "C-considering what almost happened in our absence."

That was probably the closest Hinata had ever come in outwardly disagreeing with him, and Hiashi felt a tide of irritation rise in him, but all he did was raise an eyebrow.

"But the Inuzuka were safe?" He challenged, catching a quiet growl from one of the nearby ninken, but he didn't hear the owner's reaction because Hinata spoke.

"Yes."

No hesitation, no regret, no apology in her eyes or posture. Hiashi took a moment to study his child, to study the rigid line of her spine, the tension in her shoulders, the blankness in her face, the emptiness in her chakra.

Hinata a year ago had been terrified of the slightest confrontation; she would never have dared to openly defy him like this.

This Hinata...Hiashi didn't know what she felt. She was as inscrutable to him as Hizashi's wife had been in her last moments.

Cursing Hinata for forcing this senseless sentimentality upon him, Hiashi regarded his daughter coldly and voiced the harsh truth he had long resigned himself to. "Your sister will have to be sealed if you succeed me."

"Yes." Hinata agreed, and this time, the flash of bitterness was unmistakeable. "But I am not Clan Head yet."

Hiashi felt his eyebrow climb higher on his forehead at the sheer nerve of the response, and Hinata seemed to realise she was treading on dangerous ground because her voice quietened when she added, "Burdening her with the seal now would be...unwise."

"Because she may yet take your place?" Hiashi asked coldly, voicing what the Elders refused to let him forget.

Hinata's promotion to chunin a year out of the Academy hadn't swayed the few naysayers that remained amongst the Clan about her suitability for the position of Clan Head.

But Hinata didn't rise to the bait, her temper always more even than Hanabi or Neji's, but instead, the look she pinned him with was sharper than glass and just as cold. "Because the seal is irreversible."

It seemed even Hinata recognised that her current position as heir-favourite was an uncertain one.

"Was that the only reason you reacted so viscerally to Hideki's attempt to seal her?" Hiashi checked, the question more of a personal curiosity than anything he had been ordered to ask.

Hinata took a deep breath, and it didn't escape Hiashi's notice how it shook on the exhale, but she didn't drop eye-contact, and when she spoke, her voice was steady. "No."

Hiashi studied her for a moment, but it seemed that in his inattention, Hinata had developed a politician's control over her expressions. Interesting.

"Hideki is dead." He pronounced flatly, testing that control, but the expected flinch at the news didn't come. "Do you regret your actions?"

No hesitation this time, Hinata's reply almost vicious in its certainty. "No."

Hiashi blinked, the reaction startled out of him by the uncharacteristic response, then sighed.

"I am pleased you're finally becoming a shinobi." He acknowledged, the jab pointed, and he knew Hinata understood that it wasn't really praise by the tightening around her mouth. "My only disappointment is that you seem to think that the Clan is your enemy."

"You've never treated her as a Hyuuga, much less your heir!" Hanabi's voice cut through the silence that fell at his words, the accusation all the more startling for the childish pitch it was delivered in. "How else is she supposed to treat you?!"

Hiashi's eyes cut to Hanabi where she stood in the door to the kennels, Neji panicked and fearful behind her, his wrist in both of Hanabi's hands and Hanabi visibly straining to keep his hand away from her mouth.

Hiashi opened his mouth, his shock giving way to anger, but another voice cut him off.

"Neji."

Hiashi wasn't the only one startled by Hinata's tone.

He had never heard that voice from his daughter before. He hadn't even known she was capable of producing something remotely like that cold, authoritative command. Despite his shock, Neji read the order in the words loud and clear and overpowered Hanabi, lifting her bodily and pulling her back inside the kennels, slamming the door behind them.

"She's young, Father, she misspoke." Hinata appealed, the ice in her voice replaced by something akin to desperation, the line of her shoulders growing visibly tenser, her eyes wide. "Forgive her."

"You ask for forgiveness for your sister but not for yourself?" Hiashi checked, distantly startled by the switch and needing to uncover the reasons behind the change in behaviour.

This Hinata was almost like the child she'd been in the Academy, and he hadn't realised how stark the change was until he had the comparison point.

"Yes." Hinata replied simply, once again without a shred of hesitation, but there was an emotion not unlike panic in her eyes.

But then, before Hiashi could comment, they were interrupted again, as a young woman Hiashi vaguely recognised walked up to Hinata, hand resting on her shoulder as she stopped at his daughter's side, but her eyes were focused on Hiashi.

"There is nothing she needs to be forgiven for." The girl snapped, her hand sliding from Hinata's shoulder to her back, out of Hiashi's line of sight, but he didn't miss the way the initial fear in Hinata's eyes at this new interruption turned into wide-eyed wonder at the touch. "Unless Hyuuga law is starkly different from all other major Clans, all supposed transgressions for which Hinata could plead forgiveness fall within the bounds of self-defense."

Hiashi let the words wash over him, but he kept his eyes on Hinata, and so he didn't miss the way the earlier wide-eyed wonder turned into awe when Hinata realised that the Inuzuka was defending her.

"This conversation does not concern you, Inuzuka-san." Hiashi brushed the kunoichi off, scowling at the girl. "Leave us."

"Leave my own compound?" the Inuzuka raised her eyebrow, and Hiashi heard the warning growls from the ninken and owners this time. "Be careful, Hyuuga-sama." the girl warned, and Hiashi wondered at the gall of the kunoichi telling him to be careful. "Hinata is a guest of our Clan. You, however, are not."

Hiashi felt irritation bubble up, but along with it was grudging appreciation of the Inuzuka's sheer nerve.

“You have twenty-four hours,” he told Hinata, ignoring the Inuzuka for now, “to get your sister and cousin back to the Compound. We will come back to this conversation then.”

When we won’t be overheard by nosy dogs went unsaid, but judging by the indignation on two of the closest Inuzuka’s faces, it was still heard loud and clear.

“Yes, Father.” Hinata murmured, but it was a dismissal just as much as it was a show of deference.

Hiashi turned on his heel and made his way out of the Inuzuka Compound, letting the frown he’d been suppressing show once he was out of Hinata’s line of sight.

The Main House Elders had denied it, but both of the ANBU reports that the Godaime had shown him when he’d come back and been briefed on the situation claimed that Hideki had been able to use the Caged Bird seal on Neji and a Branch Elder.

Something he should not have been able to do. That power belonged exclusively to the Clan Head.

Or it had belonged, apparently.

And then there was that look Hatake had given him once Hiashi had looked through the file on the autopsy that had been carried out on Hideki. There had been nothing unremarkable about Hideki’s body except for one, odd seal on the back of his tongue: five parallel lines, with the first two being broken in the middle.

Hiashi hadn’t recognised it.

Hatake had.

That seldom bode well.

Hinata felt a great tension leave her body once her Father left the Inuzuka grounds, and she would’ve likely fallen if it hadn’t been for Hana’s arm catching her around her waist and supporting her weight.

“You alright?” The older girl asked, eyes warm as they flickered over Hinata’s face, though there was a concerned frown pulling at her brow.

“I am now.” Hinata murmured, getting her feet back under her and managing a small smile. “Thank you, Hana-san. For now, and for before.”

“Always, Hinata-chan.” Hana grinned and winked, squeezing her hip briefly before she unwound her arm from around Hinata’s waist. “And you can drop the honorific, you know? We don’t really do that around here.”

“You…may need to remind me of that a few more times.” Hinata managed, pleased when Hana laughed, though she quickly sobered.

Her Father’s visit and deadline had reminded her of something she’d been arguing with herself about since she’d been discharged from Psych, but she knew she couldn’t delay much longer, not if she wanted to protect Hanabi and show Neji that she wouldn’t follow in her Father’s footsteps.

It was time to talk to Neji about her seal.

Chapter Text

As much as Hinata dreaded the conversation, she found herself outside the door of the room the Inuzuka had granted Neji not an hour after her confrontation with her Father. Her heart was in her throat as she waited for a response to her knock, yet she was wholly unprepared for the door to suddenly spring open, a visibly-frustrated Neji on the other side.

“Neji-nii-san.” She forced herself to say before she lost her nerve, “C-can we talk?”

Neji stared at her for a moment, an inscrutable expression on his face, before he wordlessly stepped aside and let her into the room, closing the door behind her.

Not sure what to do with herself now that her main goal of ‘not being immediately kicked out’ had been achieved, Hinata perched herself on the edge of the chair by the window, hands folded in her lap. She couldn’t even say that she was surprised to find Neji still standing when she looked back up, arms crossed over his chest and expression expectant, for all that he still hadn’t said anything.

“I’m sorry.” She whispered, the apology coming easier than what she had initially come to talk to Neji about, “for how I talked to you when Father was here. I didn’t mean to be so harsh.”

It was only after the words fell from her mouth that she realised how much her treatment of Neji when her Father had been present had been weighing on her, and she found herself reflexively relaxing once the weight was off.

“It’s fine.” Neji brushed her off, though if Hinata were to go by his chakra, she’d say he was surprised. “I should’ve kept better control of Hanabi.”

They lapsed into silence at that, Hinata not seeing much of a way nor much of a point to disagree, and she didn’t want Neji to suddenly remember that they weren’t really on speaking terms.

“Congratulations.” Neji said after the silence began to get uncomfortable even for Hinata. When she glanced at Neji in bafflement, he huffed but elaborated. “On your promotion.”

“Oh.” Hinata murmured, having completely forgotten about the fact that she was no longer a genin. “Thank you.”

“You’re not happy?” Neji asked, something sharp yet curious in his tone, and Hinata tried not to grimace.

“It’s... I haven’t really thought about that.” She admitted honestly, aware that it was an odd thing to say even before Neji’s expression morphed into something that verged on disbelieving.

There was silence again, until Neji finally huffed incredulously and lost some of the tension that had clung to his frame, moving further into the room until he could sit on the edge of his bed, still maintaining a reasonable distance between the two of them, but far more open than he had been when he’d found her on the other side of his door.

“I thought it was selfish of you, you know.” He said suddenly, and Hinata couldn’t hold back her instinctive ‘huh?’, completely thrown by the non-sequitur.

“Going to Kumo for the Exams,” Neji elaborated, his gaze on his clenched hands, and Hinata could see his knuckles turn white as he spoke, “despite knowing what I- what the Clan- what you were risking by even stepping foot into that cursed Village.”

“I-!” she tried, but Neji cut her off, still not looking at her.

“But then I talked to your Inuzuka teammate.” He said, as if she hadn’t spoken. “Or, he picked a fight, and things were said.”

Unbidden, Hinata felt a smile pull at her lips, small and barely-there, but fond nonetheless.

“He said that you wore contacts. Didn’t use your Byakugan, didn’t fight with the Jyuuken at all. Said that you didn’t even use your Clan name.” Neji listed, and Hinata had no idea what he was heading towards. “You killed Hideki with a forbidden technique, a Hyuuga forbidden technique. But you made chunin in Kumo without using the Jyuuken a single time.”

He finally looked up at her, and Hinata wasn’t prepared for the mix of confusion and betrayal that she found on his face. “How did you become a shinobi when I wasn’t paying attention?”

Hinata blinked.

There was anguish in Neji’s tone, actual, genuine pain instead of just teenage jealousy or his usual icy dismissal of anything related to her abilities, and Hinata had no idea what to do about it.

No idea where it stemmed from.

She settled for as close to honesty as she could get: “I found a goal.”

Neji scoffed, sharp and disdainful. “Must have been some goal.”

Hinata took a deep breath and threw caution to the wind.

“I want to become jounin and challenge my Father for the position of Clan Head.” She told him quickly, not letting herself lose steam even when Neji’s head snapped up. “And once I’m Head, I’m going to get rid of the Caged Bird seal.”

Silence again, but this time, it was tense. Charged. Like Neji was waiting for the other shoe to drop, or for Hinata’s teammates to pop out of the closet and announce that Hinata was pulling a prank.

When nothing happened for other a minute, Neji sighed deeply.

“What you’re saying is treason.” He said quietly, voice more serious than Hinata had ever heard it, his eyes boring into hers. “I could have you disinherited.”

“You could.” Hinata agreed simply, more than aware of the possibility. She still hadn’t fully ruled out that Neji wouldn’t do it, after all.

But her response had the opposite effect on Neji than she expected; he grew frustrated. “Why are you so calm?!”

But now that she’d found it, Hinata’s calm was difficult to shake. “There are worse things.”

“What happened to you?!” Neji demanded, sounding concerned now instead of simply angry. “How long have you been planning this?”

Hinata smiled slightly, absently wondering how Neji would react if she’d said ‘since I woke up twelve years in the past after surviving a war’, “Since my Academy Graduation.”

That, at least, seemed to calm Neji down. Or, completely steal the wind from his sails, because he stilled in a way Hinata rarely associated with anything good.

“It’s been over a year.” Neji said numbly, staring at her wide-eyed, as if he was seeing her for the first time, and she could see his mind working, likely reframing everything he had learnt about her since then. Then, swallowing audibly, he asked the question Hinata had been simultaneously expecting and dreading. “Have you made any progress?”

Wordlessly, Hinata raised her fringe.

All trace of Neji’s expression disappeared.

“Who did it.” He demanded breathlessly, though the words were too flat to be a question. “Hinata.” He prodded when she stayed silent for too long, growing progressively more agitated. “Tell me who did it!”

“I did.” Hinata replied, dropping her fringe and laying her hand lightly on Neji’s wrist to settle him. “I asked Jiraiya-sama to do it.”

But Neji ripped his arm out from beneath her hand, getting on his feet and staring at her in horror. “What is wrong with you?!”

“It’s not the same seal you have.” Hinata explained, trying not to let Neji’s tone hurt. “I copied the design from Father’s study and commissioned Jiraiya-sama to remake it, but without the torture component.”

Neji blinked, absorbing the information, some of his anger easing, but it didn’t make any understanding bloom in his eyes. “Why would you put it on yourself?!”

“There are laws surrounding seals. I asked Genma-san for some books and borrowed some from Shikaku-san’s library.” Hinata explained vaguely, not too keen to get into the process of ‘public domain’ and legal loopholes she’d bargained on nobody knowing just then. “And my Exams were in Kumo.”

But Neji seemed hung up on the name she’d said.

“Genma?” he asked, an odd stress on the name. “Shiranui Genma?”

“You know him?” Hinata asked, not sure why she was surprised by Neji recognising the name, nor why she felt a brief flash of jealousy at the fact that Neji recognised the name.

“He was Gai-sensei’s genin teammate.” Neji replied, and something in Hinata relaxed. “He was also one of the Yondaime’s guards, was taught sealing by the Yondaime himself, and is said to have inherited some of his tools.”

Hinata couldn’t help but stare for a moment, the extent of her own ignorance slowly sinking in. He was primarily a bodyguard, she suddenly remembered Kurenai saying all the way back when she’d first introduced her friends to Hinata’s team. Her sensei just hadn’t said whose bodyguard he had been. “…Oh.”

“Wait. How did you get access to the Nara Head’s library?” Neji demanded, and Hinata realised that she would have rather gone back to talking about Genma, especially when Neji’s eyes widened as understanding dawned. “That’s why you helped his son for the Chunin Exams.”

“Not solely.” Hinata felt the need to defend, though she could admit in her mind that, at the time of the third stage of the Exams, her feelings towards Shikamaru had been more along the lines of 'tolerance' than 'friendship'. “But yes. That had been the main motivation.”

For a moment, Neji just stared at her.

Then, he covered the distance between them and dropped down to his knees before Hinata, taking her hands into his own. “We will talk about this together, later. For now, you need to promise to do something for me.”

And Hinata, shocked speechless by the earnestness in Neji’s voice and expression, could only nod mutely, stunned.

“When you talk to Uncle tomorrow, you need to lie.”

And when Hinata shook off her shock and tuned back in to hear Neji’s justification, she couldn’t help the wave of relief that washed over her like a tsunami.

Still holding hands, heads together, and voices hushed, Hinata and Neji planned.

Kurenai wasn’t expecting the summon to Tsunade’s office barely a week after her team’s promotion. Though the genin messenger hadn’t said it was urgent, her curiosity had won out, and she found herself knocking on the door less than an hour after receiving the message.

Finding Inoichi already in the office was even more of a surprise, however.

“Yuhi, there you are.” Was Tsunade’s greeting, and Kurenai’s curiosity skyrocketed. The woman didn’t exactly sound angry, but she seemed far from pleased with her, for some reason. “Ever since I promoted them, your kids have been a source of one headache after another for me.”

Kurenai blinked, startled. “…I’m sorry?”

“You should be.” Tsunade huffed, pulling some documents out that Kurenai was too far away to read without using chakra. “Your Aburame has put a form on my desk requesting an official apprenticeship with Hagane and Kamizuki in bukijutsu. I don’t know what paper-pushing shinobi he’s friends with, but I didn’t even know this form existed until it appeared on my desk and I had to send Shizune on a wild goose chase through the Archives.”

Since Tsunade didn’t actually seem to be looking for an answer, Kurenai decided to spare Ebisu, since she had no doubt that it had been him who had given the form to Shino.

“Your Inuzuka has requested to be assigned a mission to Suna.” Tsunade continued, glaring at yet another paper placed haphazardly on the edge of her desk. “I’ve got jounin who have asked to not be sent anywhere near Wind, and your kid requested an in-Village mission.” Then Tsunade picked up a different piece of paper, a ripped envelope with neat writing on the front. “And your Hyuuga has had this addressed to her.”

Kurenai tried to catch a glimpse of the writing, but to no avail.

“It’s a letter from Mist.” Tsunade explained at last, and Kurenai’s heart skipped a beat. “From Momochi Zabuza’s apprentice, to be precise.” The blonde continued, before a sardonic smirk twisted her lips. “And you know what it says? That he wants to be pen-pals with your Hyuuga.”

“…I’m sure that if there was anything related to Village secrets in the letter, or any hint of him attempting to turn Hinata, then it would’ve been picked up by Intel.” Kurenai hazarded, having a vague inkling as to who the letter might be from. “And if my kids had developed any anarchical leanings during the Exams, then I’m pretty certain that it would’ve been mentioned in the report the Psych shinobi who accompanied us to Kumo gave you.”

Both Tsunade and Inoichi stilled, the former eyeing her oddly.

“What Psych shinobi?” Tsunade demanded, and the first alarm bells went off in Kurenai’s mind.

“Auburn hair, amber eyes? Maybe in his late teens?” Kurenai described, glancing at Inoichi for support, but her occasional-senpai only stared back blankly. “He didn’t really say much, but he did admit he was Psych when asked.”

“Yuhi.” Tsunade met her eyes, her expression and voice the most serious they’ve been since Kurenai walked in. “I didn’t send any Psych shinobi to accompany you.”

Kurenai felt as if a bucket of cold water had been tipped over her head.

“Did he give you his name?” Inoichi asked, and Kurenai was grateful for something else to focus on than the potential breach in Village security they may have just discovered and her team’s role straight in the middle of it.

But then, when she thought about it, Inoichi’s question wasn’t any more reassuring, because- “…No.”

“Would you be willing to sit with a sketch artist?” Inoichi pressed, and Kurenai took a steadying breath and shook her head.

“You can use the Mind-Walk on me, senpai.” She countered Inoichi’s suggestion, appreciating Inoichi’s offer but knowing that Village security was more important than her comfort. She tried to shoot Inoichi a smile, but it might’ve turned out to be more of a grimace, she couldn’t be sure. “I trust you.”

Inoichi knew better than to second-guess her, and he slowly made his way over, reaching out a hand and telegraphing his movements all the way until his fingers touched her forehead. Kurenai did her best to recall every detail she could of the Psych shinobi who’d accompanied them and felt Inoichi recoil as if burned the moment the image crystallised.

“That’s not possible.” The Yamanaka Head denied, but Kurenai knew it was an instinctive response more than an accusation, because Inoichi’s eyes were wide and scared.

“Inoichi?” Tsunade demanded, drawing Kurenai’s attention back to the woman and shaking Inoichi out of whatever spell he’d fallen under.

“Last time I saw the man in Kurenai’s memories, he was leaving for his genin team’s first C-Rank.” Inoichi told the two of them woodenly. “But he never came back from that mission.”

When only silence greeted his words, Inoichi sighed, suddenly appearing every one of his forty years. “His name is Yamanaka Fu. You can find it on the Memorial Stone."

“I fucking hate this job.” Tsunade snapped, grabbing a sake cup and throwing it at the wall so hard it made a dent before shattering, and Kurenai didn’t even think the woman had used chakra for the throw. “Yuhi, get Shikaku in here. Take the letter for your Hyuuga. It doesn’t look like I’ll have the time to grill her myself anytime soon, so just tell her that she has to go by Intel if she wants to write back.”

Taking the dismissal for what it was, Kurenai grabbed the letter and got out of the Hokage’s office, a ball of dread making itself known at the bottom of her stomach.

There’d been a spy with them for their entire time in Kumo.

Because what could a presumed-dead shinobi that neither Psych nor the Hokage herself had authorised be doing, tagging along with a group of genin for the Chunin Exams, if not spying?

The important question now was: who’d sent him? And what did he see?

“Father.” Hinata greeted politely, slipping into Hiashi’s study and closing the door behind her, adamantly not thinking of what she’d been doing the last time she’d been in the room.

“Hinata.” Hiashi replied, actually glancing at her before indicating the seat before his desk. “Sit.”

When Hinata obliged, they lapsed into silence, studying each other wordlessly.

“I will not punish Hanabi for her actions against me yesterday.” Hiashi announced at last, his eyes intent on Hinata’s face, monitoring her reaction. Hinata made sure to give none. “While her anger was misplaced and her accusations rash, but she raised an interesting point.”

“What do you see when you look at me?”

“I see the Head of my Clan.” Hinata replied quietly, and she almost thought that she caught a flicker of something in Hiashi’s gaze when there wasn’t more forthcoming.

“I see.” Hiashi replied after a beat, and his expression became inscrutable once more. “A new Elder will have to be named after what you did to Hideki. Any insights?”

“…I would recommend choosing somebody from the Branch House.” Hinata offered, not missing the way her Father’s attention sharpened. “They do not have parity amongst the Elders; I would not wish for them to become…discontented with the imbalance.”

“You fear a coup?” Hiashi asked sharply, and Hinata couldn’t get a read on his reaction. “We have a safeguard for that.”

Hinata barely repressed a disgusted shudder once Hiashi’s meaning registered. “The threat of torture is not a safeguard.”

Though her words were quiet, Hiashi’s reaction was anything but.

“You have never been outwardly critical of the seal before.” He observed, his eyes sharp as they regarded her, his mouth twisted down in confusion or displeasure, Hinata couldn’t tell. “What changed?”

Taking a breath, Hinata raised her fringe for the second time in less than a day.

For a second, Hiashi’s chakra vanished.

Then, it exploded out of him in a wave of Killing Intent so potent that even Hinata’s instinctive kai didn’t save her from immediate, the heart-stopping fear her Father’s KI inspired.

“…Hideki?” Hiashi asked after a few seconds, and Hinata let her fringe drop and forced herself to nod, as per what she had worked out with Neji.

“Yes, Father.”

“When I asked you yesterday if the seal being irreversible was the only reason you reacted so viscerally to Hanabi’s sealing and you said no.” Hiashi recalled, his eyes ever so slightly wider than normal. “Was this why?”

Swallowing to wet her suddenly dry throat, Hinata nodded once more. “Yes, Father.”

“Why didn’t you come to me with this?!” Hiashi demanded suddenly, rising from his seat and slapping his hands against his desk, his expression angry once more, and Hinata thought she detected a hint of something almost fragile in his eyes. “I would have dealt with-!”

But Hiashi must’ve caught something on her face because he cut himself off and sat back down, taking a few deep breaths, his expression inscrutable once more.

“I do not agree with your worldview, and I would rid you of your sentiment if I could.” He began quietly, his words more measured again. “But, Hinata, you are my child and heir. This transgression would not have gone unpunished, had you told me.”

“I am not ashamed of the seal.” Hinata felt the need to correct, for she had no idea what to do with anything else that her Father had just said. “It…made me feel safer, in Kumo.” She admitted, and this, too, was not a lie.

“But I was afraid, because…Hideki should not have been able to torture Neji, or the Branch Elder.” She finished quietly, making it a statement instead of a question, but her Father still answered.

“No.” he agreed, voice just as quiet as her own. “He shouldn’t have.”

“Do you know if…he was acting alone?” Hinata found herself asking, wondering when Hiashi would remember that she was barely thirteen and her position as his heir apparent was an unstable one.

“I am in the process of finding out.” Hiashi informed, then his expression smoothed out. “Regardless, it is not your business for the time being.”

Having expected a similar dismissal, Hinata nodded, preparing to stand up. “Understood.”

“Hinata.” Hiashi’s voice stopped her in her tracks, and she glanced up at her Father only to see him frowning at her. “How did you make it out of Kumogakure?”

Hinata blinked, realised belatedly what Hiashi was actually asking, then located her contacts and put them in.  

“Ah.” Hiashi murmured when they made eye-contact, holding her blue-eyed gaze for an extended moment before he looked away. “Congratulations. But do not settle.”

“I am aiming for jounin.” Escaped her before she could bite it back, and this time, there was no denying the flicker of surprise that flashed through Hiashi’s eyes.

“I was not aware you had rank ambitions.” He replied, and once, that statement would have hurt, but now, Hinata merely met her Father’s gaze once more.

“I am your heir.” She simply stated, and Hiashi blinked once.

“You are. For now.” He admitted, then cleared his throat and looked away. “A month from now, meet me in the dojo. I will teach you some Clan techniques which will help you maintain that position.”

Trying not to let her own surprise show, Hinata simply nodded. “Yes, Father.”

Then, she took her leave.

Hinata tried to keep a hold of her emotions as she made her way out of the Compound, her hands shaking and her heart beating fast enough that the tips of her fingers were tingling. She passed through the main gate out of the Compound and turned into one of the smaller side streets and nearly drove her poisoned senbon into Kakashi’s liver if not for the hand he managed to secure around her wrist just in time.

“Twitchy as ever, I see.” Kakashi murmured, releasing her wrists once she nodded at him, though, to Hinata’s surprise, he merely fell into step with her, signature book in one hand, the other in returning to his pocket.

For a while, Hinata basked in the silence, taking advantage of the moment of peace and the security of having Kakashi at her side to get her heart rate under control and release some of the nerves that have clung to her for the last day.

“Did you talk to your team, Hatake-san?” she finally asked, when it seemed like Kakashi was content to walk beside her like a silent shadow.

“You’re becoming too much like Kurenai.” The man huffed, much to her confusion, but he tilted his head to look down at her obligingly. “Yes, I talked to the brats about sabotage.” He confirmed, then his focus on her grew heavy. “But I haven’t talked to you yet about how you knew that I was famous in sabotage.”

Hinata’s mind stalled briefly, but she managed a light shrug.

“It made sense given your skillset.” She dismissed quietly, and Kakashi laughed lightly.

“I don’t believe you.” He denied, but it wasn’t accusative, his tone sounding almost entertained. Then, he added something that made Hinata’s blood run cold, her earlier peace forgotten. “You see, there are some things that don’t make sense about you, Hyuuga-chan.”

“E-Excuse me?” she managed, only just catching herself from stopping in the middle of the street in her shock at Kakashi’s directness.

“For one, you’re scent-blocking.” The Copy-nin pointed out, and Hinata fought every instinct that demanded she stop scent-blocking right then and there when she realised that he was right.

“At least you don’t have Sasuke’s reflexes.” Kakashi commented teasingly, though now Hinata was no longer sure whether he was actually teasing or simply trying to put her at ease. “It took me a while to notice because you don’t block around your team.”

“It’d be rude.” Escaped Hinata before she even thought twice about her words, having sat through Kiba and Hana’s numerous complaints in both of her timelines about fellow comrades unintentionally handicapping them.

“Do you know that the Hatake are rumoured to be descended from wolf spirits?” Kakashi asked, seemingly a propos nothing, throwing Hinata for yet another loop. “I have almost as good a nose as an Inuzuka.”

Having an inkling as to what he was referring to, Hinata decided to ask: “Would you like me to stop blocking?”

“No.” Kakashi huffed, more amused now. “For me, it’s easier on my head if there are fewer scents around.”

Once more unsure of what it was he wanted, Hinata frowned, and Kakashi, catching her expression, surprised her by actually elaborating. “Scent-blocking is an advanced skill, and it’s one that’s only taught in very specific fields of the shinobi career.”

Hinata couldn’t disagree, but she stayed silent, hoping Kakashi would get around to an actual question.

“I went through the ANBU Archives looking for you.” Was what he said instead, and this time, Hinata didn’t manage to catch her instinctive reaction; she jerked her head up and pinned Kakashi with a disbelieving look.

Kakashi of the Sharingan he may have been, famous both in and out of ANBU he may have been, but the ANBU Archives were practically sacred. Nobody could just go through them when the fancy struck them.

“Ah. So you do know that’s not something I should be admitting to. Interesting.” By the way he said ‘interesting’, Hinata felt as if she’d failed some kind of test. “Who’re you going to tell?”

Although Hinata was in a state of shock, the way Kakashi asked that final question, as if he expected her to tell someone, shook her out of it slightly. She didn’t need to think about her answer.  

“Nobody.” She replied quietly, glad when her voice didn’t shake despite the renewed tremble she could feel in her hands.

“A lot of the adult figures in your life also happen to be my friends, and they would absolutely believe you if you said I’d done it, if that’s what you’re worried about.” Kakashi pointed out, and Hinata wasn’t sure if she wanted to laugh or cry. “So? Who you telling first?”

Unable to quite get her words out, Hinata merely shook her head, closing her eyes briefly and searching for a trace of her earlier calm.

“Come on, Hyuuga-chan. You’re not going to threaten me even a little? Ask why I did it?” Kakashi pushed, and Hinata…well.

Hinata respected him, admired him, even, had given her life in exchange for his, but she had never claimed to understand the man.  

“You know something far more damaging about me, Hatake-san.” She managed at last, balling her hands into fists so tight she could feel her nails break the skin of her palms. “Threatening you would be…unwise.”

Kakashi studied her for a few seconds, both of them still determinedly walking forward, even though Hinata had no idea where they were going, or even if either of them had any specific destination in mind.

“I did it because you scent-block, you stifle your chakra in-Village, and you don’t make a sound when you walk, no matter the terrain.” Kakashi murmured, and Hinata had a horrifying moment of realisation that the same things that made her a good shinobi simultaneously made her a bad genin.

“Some of that I would have been able to chalk up to leaning into your weak presence, or the side-effect of your upbringing.” Kakashi acknowledged, and Hinata tried not to read too much into what he meant by her ‘upbringing’.

“But you also know the ANBU emergency signals, and you recognise at least some ANBU Sign. These are things you should have no business knowing without a tattoo on your arm.” He looked down at her then, and there was no trace of humour in his gaze. “So I went to look for your records.”

Hinata hadn’t been so tense when she was talking with her Father, but what Kakashi was implying had the potential to have much greater consequences on her personally than her Father learning of her plans for the Caged Bird seal.

“I didn’t find any.” Kakashi continued, supposedly taking her silence as permission to carry on. “So then I thought: how else could you have learnt it? Nobody who’s ANBU would’ve taught you, no matter how close you might be to them when they’re not behind the mask. So you had to have picked it up yourself. But how?”

Hinata didn’t like where Kakashi was heading with his speech.

“I asked Kurenai and Yugao, you know. Neither of them admitted to teaching you how to scent-block, or mute your steps.” Kakashi told her idly, and Hinata should’ve guessed that Kakashi would be familiar enough with her closest role models to be able to ask them about her. It was just her luck. “And then I realised that your dojutsu can see through walls. And because of what happened to you ten years ago, there’s a permanent ANBU guard around your compound.”

Hinata’s breath caught. Could Kakashi really have thought up an explanation by himself to explain her supposed suspicion, one she would never have even thought to conjure up?

It couldn’t be that easy, could it?

“But it didn’t make sense.” Kakashi continued, and Hinata briefly wondered whether she had ever heard him speak for so long before. “Surely a child with this much comprehension ability would’ve made waves at the Academy, been pushed up a year or three.”

He glanced down at her, visible eye crinkling in a smile but Hinata had no idea whether it was a genuine one or not. “But my kids said you practically didn’t speak at school, always upper middle of the rankings, but never straying any higher or lower, hiding amongst the fellow comfortably-average students.”

She didn’t dare say anything, merely keeping her gaze on Kakashi’s and concentrating on putting one foot steadily in front of the other.

“And then it finally clicked.” Kakashi huffed, and he looked away at long last, gazing ahead. “What would a genius from a Noble Clan do, in the wake of Itachi’s downfall?” he asked rhetorically, and Hinata finally had an idea as to what he might say. As to what she would have done if she were indeed a genius, and not a twenty-two-year-old war veteran who’d found herself flung back in time.

“They would hide.”

Hinata couldn’t help the sigh of relief that escaped her at Kakashi’s summary, beyond grateful that Kakashi’s own paranoia had explained away her own suspicion.

“In plain sight.” Kakashi added. “Or, in your case, in the shadow of your Clan Head classmates, your desperate to prove himself cousin, your loudmouth teammate, and your groomed-from-birth younger sister.”

Hinata tried not to let her offence at Kakashi’s description of Kiba and Hanabi show, but she couldn’t help the slightly defensive demand that escaped her. “W-Where are you g-going with this?”

And Kakashi finally stopped and turned to face her fully, and it was only then that Hinata realised that they had long since left the main streets of the Village, and she could not sense nor hear anybody around them.

Kakashi’s face, when she met his gaze, was the most serious Hinata had seen him in this life.

“Who are you hiding from, Hinata?”

Kakashi watched the girl’s face carefully, but where earlier, there had been relief, now, there was nothing.

She’d grown pale as a sheet, though, and if he’d thought that her chakra had been stifled earlier, now, it was practically a void. If not for the fact that he was looking right at her, Kakashi would have been hard-pressed to say that there was anybody in front of him right then.

“Nobody.” She whispered finally, her eyes on Kakashi’s eyebrow, and Kakashi wanted to believe her, he really did. He wanted to believe that she was just an intelligent, unexpectedly competent, traumatised little girl.

But he hadn’t survived this long by being naïve.

“Hinata.” He pressed, and the girl’s eyes flashed briefly to meet his gaze before she shook her head.

“I’m not- you know, Hatake-san. I really c-can’t say it-!” she defended, but Kakashi had stopped listening.

‘I can’t say it’, she’d said. And he knew that she probably meant Hiashi, meant that she couldn’t say out loud that she was hiding plans of revolution from her Father, but his mouth moved before his brain registered the likely logical explanation:

“Stick out your tongue.”

And Hinata, instead of being offended, horrified, or embarrassed at his objectively deranged request, raised both her hands so her palms were facing him, her eyes panicked, and blurted out a damning-

“I don’t have it!”

And Kakashi moved before he thought it through, stepping into the girl’s space and batting her hands away, fingers of one hand gripping Hinata’s chin tightly and pulling down so he could reach into her mouth with his other hand and pull out her tongue.

No seal.

His brain registered what his eyes were seeing but it took him a moment to process what it meant.

But in that moment, it seemed that Hinata got over her shock and finally reacted to the blatant infringement on her personal space, and the same hand that he’d batted away earlier came back and drove a fist into his gut.

Shock more than pain made him loosen his grip and the moment he was no longer clutching her chin, she flash-stepped away from him.

Kakashi had a split-second to catch the betrayed look in startled lilac eyes before the girl disappeared, not so much as a leaf or a cloud of smoke to show she’d ever been there to begin with.

Well, shit.

“I have good news and bad news.”

Shikaku looked up from his work with a sigh, automatically activating the silencing seals around his office in the Jounin HQ, well aware that Kakashi rarely sought him out for anything banal.

“The bad news is that you still haven’t learned to knock, Kakashi.” He grouched, putting the report he’d been reading aside and waving the Copy-nin over to the chair in front of his desk. “Out with it.”

“The good news is that little Hyuuga-chan doesn’t have the ROOT seal.” Kakashi declared, sprawling out in one of the chairs, even though Shikaku had never thought it was possible to sprawl in those chairs.

He blinked, then pinned the jounin with a dark look. “And how, pray tell, did you find that out?”

“I stuck my fingers in her mouth.” Kakashi replied bluntly. “But, more importantly-!”

“Please tell me that that’s the bad news.” Shikaku interrupted, raising a hand to cover his eyes in despair, hoping that Kakashi had at least had the common sense to not do it on a crowded street.

“No. The bad news is that she knew what the ROOT seal was.”

Shikaku froze. Then, he slowly lowered his hand and met Kakashi’s gaze, not surprised to find any trace of humour gone from the Copy-nin’s expression. “Tell me everything.”

For once, Kakashi obeyed without hesitation, recounting his interaction with Hinata with more grace and tact than he normally used for his official mission reports, and Shikaku was both grateful that Kakashi was taking the situation seriously, and concerned that Kakashi was taking the situation so seriously.

A serious Kakashi could be dangerous, and no matter how much he would deny it if confronted outright, Shikaku could tell that the Copy-nin had grown fond of the little Hyuuga revolutionary.

“Right.” Shikaku sighed when Kakashi was done, then pinned the man with a flat look. “Step away. The last thing we need is for Elder Shimura to catch wind of the fact that we’re sniffing around.”

Kakashi’s mouth twisted beneath his mask and Shikaku could tell that he wasn’t happy with the order, but he nodded sharply regardless.

And then, because it was a detail he couldn’t let go of, Shikaku asked softly, the idea almost painful: “Did you really think she was ROOT?”

And then it was Kakashi who sighed, a frown pulling at the visible parts of his brow, and met Shikaku’s gaze head-on.

“I thought she was ANBU.” He admitted quietly, seemingly not seeing anything wrong with assuming that a preteen could be part of the Black Ops.

“There were too many coincidences, and it would have made sense. A practically non-existent presence, a perfectly average Academy performance, a cousin who’s a recognised genius of the Branch House, a younger sister who’s been groomed since birth to take over as Head despite being the second-born. If someone had brought her into the ranks after the Massacre, even under the pretext of keeping an eye on the other future Head of a Noble Clan to prevent another Itachi, she could have been trained up on the side, taught to hide and fade into the background, and nobody would have been any the wiser until she slipped back into the ranks after graduating.”

“You’ve given this thought.” Shikaku commented faux-idly, trying to process his experience of the living proof that Hatake Kakashi wasn’t just a genius on a battlefield.

Kakashi shrugged. “I don’t like riddles.”

“So when the Archives proved that she wasn’t ANBU, ROOT was the next best guess?” Shikaku hazarded, able to guess at Kakashi’s thought process now that he had some actual explanation to support the seemingly absurd claim.

“Same reasoning, just different organisation doing the snatching.” Kakashi shrugged, mouth twisted beneath the mask.

Shikaku sighed, shelving the lecture on tact for another time. “You said Hiashi didn’t recognise the ROOT seal?”

“He’s not a good enough actor to hide a reaction like that, and he’s too proud of his honour to lie to Tsunade’s face.” Kakashi declared, and try as he might, Shikaku couldn’t argue with his assessment of the Hyuuga Clan Head. “However that Elder had come into possession of the ROOT seal, it wasn’t with Hiashi’s knowledge or approval.”

“Which means that either ROOT had gained control of a Hyuuga Elder, or that Hyuuga Hideki had been voluntarily conspiring with ROOT and agreed to take on the seal for…whatever reason.” Shikaku concluded, not sure which option sounded worse.

“I have…a few theories, but since you told me to step away, I won’t share them.” Kakashi shot back, only slightly snidely, and Shikaku huffed tiredly.

“Sometimes I feel like you enjoy being difficult.” He told the Copy-nin dryly.

“It’s one of my few joys in life.” Kakashi replied, tone just as dry, and he seemed about to say something else but was interrupted by a knock on the door.

Shikaku exchanged a look with Kakashi and cancelled the silencing seals, calling for the person to enter, though he was not at all prepared to see Shikamaru on the other side of the door.

“Hi dad.” His son greeted, one hand on the door, the other in his pocket, his posture slouched, even though his eyes were sharp as they took in Kakashi’s presence in Shikaku’s office. “I was asked to give this to you.”

And so saying, Shikamaru walked into the room, not bothering to greet Kakashi as he handed Shikaku a plain piece of paper and turned back around. “Inoichi-oji said dinner’s at their house tomorrow, and Mom gave Ino permission to throw out your cigarettes if you’re late.”

Shikaku didn’t even have time to reply to Shikamaru’s announcement before his son was raising a hand in a lazy wave and shutting the door behind himself, leaving just as abruptly as he’d entered and throwing him and Kakashi into a tense silence.

“Respected Jounin Commander receives an important communique from his son that consists of a…plain piece of paper?” Kakashi asked lightly, tone humorous once more, but Shikaku was too busy rubbing the paper between his fingers curiously, because-

He threw up the silencing seals at once.

“It’s my plain piece of paper.” He realised, huffing an exhausted, only slightly disbelieving laugh. “Or rather, my chakra paper. That’s also been sealed, it looks like.”

Wondering whether he was going to get out of it with the full set of fingers still attached, Shikaku laid the paper flat on the table and pressed the pad of his pointer finger to the page, channelling just the barest bit of chakra into the paper.

An elegant, familiar handwriting bloomed beneath his finger, and he snatched the paper up to keep it from Kakashi’s prying eye and scanned the text that he’d just revealed, wondering what could’ve required this degree of secrecy from the Hyuuga heiress.

Three lines in, he had his answer.

I am sorry to involve you, but I believe you have known more than you’ve let on for a while now. Thank you for keeping my confidence. I appreciate it more than you can imagine.

In any case, your chances of seeing the Sage soon are greater than mine, so in the event that he asks about it, please tell him that my Father now knows about the existence of my seal, but not the true reason behind it. After consulting with my cousin, I told Father that it had been the late Elder who had put it on me once he found out where I would be going. The dead cannot defend themselves, after all, and after the recent incident, it would not be too unexpected for him to have tried the same with me, too.

I am not proud of the lie, but it does make some things easier.

I kindly request that you burn this message after reading.

Your sincerely,

Shikaku bit back an incredulous laugh at the bloodied fingerprint beneath the sign-off, scanning the text once again to commit it to memory before he offered the paper to Kakashi, knowing Kakashi well enough to be able to tell that the jounin was almost vibrating in place with curiosity.

Kakashi read over it once, twice, then scoffed and set the paper ablaze with a wordless, localised Katon, and when Shikaku met his gaze, he was greeted by a raised eyebrow that nearly screamed ‘I told you so’.

“Do you understand my reasons now?” the Copy-nin asked tiredly, and for once, the same tiredness that Shikaku felt was palpable in his voice. “What genin writes like that?”

“You did.” Shikaku pointed out, deciding that reminding Kakashi that Hinata had made chunin could wait for a less pressing time.

Kakashi barked a laugh, loud and startled and bitter. “You don’t want me as a comparison point, Shikaku, and you know it. Little Hyuuga-chan won’t survive long if you use me as a reference.”

Shikaku didn’t say anything, pulling the report he’d been reading earlier back out, aware that Kakashi, as much as he hated to admit it, was correct.

“Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Kakashi. But step away now.” He murmured, not needing to look at Kakashi to know that the jounin was far from pleased at the dismissal.

“So you’re not going to do anything about Danzo and the Elder? About ROOT still clearly functioning?” he demanded, sharper than he’d spoken all this time, and Shikaku raised his gaze from the report to shoot Kakashi an unimpressed look.

“Who says we’re not?” he asked lightly, raising a challenging eyebrow at Kakashi and getting a slow blink in response as the man processed the pronoun change and likely went over the last few minutes of their exchange in his head.  

“…Keep me in the loop.” Kakashi replied after a beat, pushing to his feet and heading for the door. “If Danzo’s head rolls, I want front-row seats.”

“Don’t be morbid.” Shikaku threw at Kakashi’s back, deactivating the silencing seals at the same time as Kakashi pulled open the door. “Stay alive, Kakashi.”

Because if Danzo’s head were to roll, Kakashi would be instrumental to getting them there.

Hinata couldn’t sleep.

The anxiety of her meeting with Neji hadn’t abated any before she had to go and talk to her Father, and though both conversations had gone better than she had ever dared to hope, the unexpected conversation with Kakashi had completely upset any semblance of calm she may have regained.

Plus, what happened at the dojo barely a week previous had thoroughly shaken her ability to feel calm in the Compound.

Before she could second-guess the instinct, Hinata slipped out of bed, slid her slippers on, and made her way out of her room and across the hall to Hanabi’s, making sure to make as little noise as possible.

She crept into Hanabi’s room, sliding the door closed behind her, and let herself just stand there for a second and take in the steady rise and fall of Hanabi’s chest beneath the thin comforter.

Unlike Hinata, Hanabi was still able to relax fully when she slept, sprawled out over most of the bed, limbs akimbo, mouth agape, the one habit from childhood she’d not been forced to eradicate.

Smiling at the picture before her, Hinata made her way to Hanabi’s bedside and perched on the very edge of the bed, hand rising instinctively to clear Hanabi’s hair from her face, smoothing it back gently.

“Hina-nee?” Hanabi murmured, and Hinata’s hand stilled as her heart skipped a beat.

She hadn’t heard that name from Hanabi’s lips in decades. Not since her sister had been four back in her first life, before Hiashi had overheard her and categorically forbid her from using the affectionate term again.

“Yes.” Hinata managed past the lump in her throat, letting her hand just rest gently on Hanabi’s forehead. “Sorry for waking you, Hanabi-chan.”

“You okay?” Hanabi mumbled, eyes already slipping shut despite the girl’s best efforts to keep them open.

“Yes. I just couldn’t sleep.” Hinata admitted, running her fingers gently through Hanabi’s hair. “I’ll let you sleep, though.”

But before she could stand up, Hanabi’s hand shot out from beneath the mess of blankets and wrapped around her wrist.

“Nee-chan,” she whispered, and Hinata hadn’t heard that name in years, either, “can I have a hug?”

Any thoughts Hinata may have had about going back to her room were immediately wiped away, and she had to swallow multiple times to clear the lump from her throat. “Of course.”

She only got up when Hanabi pulled away the edge of her blanket, clearly intending for Hinata to sleep beneath the comforter with her, and Hinata didn’t let herself think twice. She shuffled over and gathered Hanabi in her arms, settling so she was also laying down, and Hanabi wasted no time in wrapping her arm around Hinata’s waist and snuggling in close, letting out a shuddering breath against Hinata’s shoulder.

It was only then that Hinata realised that she’d been severely touch-starved in her first life, even after joining Team Eight. It had taken her team far longer to gel and become close enough to share casual touches the first time around, and though Kurenai had been more affectionate with them than the other sensei, she had still been nowhere near as affectionate as the current Kurenai was with them. 

Not to mention that Hinata now also had Genma and Yugao and Hana in her circle, all of whom were free with their physical affection and gave out hugs and head-pats so frequently that Hinata had stopped noticing them.

Hanabi had none of that.

Nor did Neji.

Suddenly, Hinata wondered how much of Hanabi’s standoffishness in her first life had been down to precisely this: broken familial bonds and no physical contact beyond that aimed to hurt.

Wrapping her arms tighter around Hanabi’s shoulders, Hinata pressed a kiss to the top of her sister’s head and resolved to do better this time around.

And to find Yugao first thing in the morning. Hinata was not usually a violent person, but just then, she could have torn her way through a whole battalion of White Zetsu without a moment’s hesitation, and only Yugao stood a chance of withstanding that level of destructiveness from her.

But that would come tomorrow.

Because for now, she had her sister in her arms and a renewed relationship with her cousin, and, for a moment, all was well.

Chapter Text

The next morning, Hinata woke up before the sun had even come up. Moving as silently and smoothly as she could, she extricated herself from Hanabi’s hold and slipped out of her sister’s room and into her own, then got ready for a day of training.

She got dressed in the dark, grabbed a bag with a change of clothes and a bottle of water, and headed out for her team’s usual training grounds to warm up and do some individual training, for the first time in weeks not having to worry about someone seeing her train.

Then, once the sun had risen and she felt fully warmed-up, she set off to find Yugao.

The Byakugan was useful on missions, but within the Village, especially one as heavily populated as Konoha, Hinata relied far more on her familiarity with her friends and mentors than her dojutsu to find people. Even Kiba admitted to having difficulty locating people within Konoha so Hinata tried not to take it as a personal failing.

She was fairly proud of herself when locating Yugao only took her about half an hour, finding the kunoichi in the fourth place she looked: the hidden training grounds near the south entrance to the ANBU HQ.

She was less content when she realised that Yugao wasn’t alone.

Hinata felt a little dejected, but she should have realised Yugao was older, had a life of her own outside of the time she spent with Hinata and her team, and wouldn’t always be available. Sighing quietly and resigning herself to more individual training, Hinata was about to turn away and leave when every instinct in her body suddenly screamed for her to duck.

Not a second after she dropped into a crouch, three senbon lodged themselves in the tree to her left, at the perfect height to have hit her neck if she hadn’t ducked in time.

“This is not a place for genin, kid!” a voice called out, and Hinata had no doubt that it belonged to the person who had opted for the ‘attack first, ask questions later’ approach.

(she could understand it)

“Hinata!” Yugao called, finally spotting her once she straightened, and Hinata saw her senpai’s gaze flicker from Hinata’s wide eyes to the senbon lodged in the tree beside her, visibly making the connection as she immediately rounded on the kunoichi who’d thrown them. “Kami, really, Satsuki? If she had been a kid, you’d have knocked her out for hours!”

“I-It’s okay, senpai!” Hinata tried to diffuse the situation, stepping out of the trees and into the training grounds proper. “I’m sorry for interrupting, I’ll go-!”

“’Senpai’?” one of the other kunoichi echoed, a grin Hinata didn’t much like the sight of pulling at her lips. “You got yourself a gremlin, Uzu? You?”

She eyed Hinata with interest, then, faux-apologetically corrected, “Sorry, I meant genin.”

“Shut the hell up, Kimiko.” Yugao snapped back, though even Hinata could tell it wasn’t in real anger. She swallowed when Yugao gestured for her to come closer but obligingly forced her feet to move, grateful when Yugao moved to meet her half-way.

Hinata felt some of her anxiety recede when Yugao wrapped a protective arm around her shoulders, putting herself between Hinata and the other kunoichi when she bent down to speak directly to her.

“Did you need anything?” Yugao asked quietly, her eyes flickering over Hinata’s face concernedly, seemingly not paying any heed to the other kunoichi. “Everything alright at home?”

“I-” Hinata began, wondering why it was so hard to just say plainly what she had been after. “I wanted to spar. But I can just train, sorry for bothering y-!”

Yugao’s finger landed on her lips, cutting off the rest of her apology, though when she glanced at Yugao, the kunoichi didn’t look annoyed or upset. If anything, there was a seldom-seen spark of mischief in her eyes.

“Kimiko, feel like sparring with Hinata-chan?” Yugao called, but her eyes never left Hinata’s, visibly gauging her reaction to the idea.

“If you don’t mind that the kid will end up in hospital, then yeah, sure, why not, I could do with a break.” Kimiko replied lightly, her tone at odds with her words. She met Hinata’s gaze over Yugao’s shoulder and grinned, sharp and unapologetic. “I don’t believe in holding back.”

Yugao snorted quietly, but she waited for Hinata to nod before she released her, gesturing towards the more central part of the field where Kimiko was waiting.

“Do your worst.” She murmured with an encouraging grin, then turned to join the rest of the group Hinata had interrupted, while Hinata squared up against Kimiko.

Hinata took a deep, steadying breath, met Kimiko’s gaze, and let herself relax.

At least here, against a kunoichi who, if her guess was correct, was one of Yugao’s ANBU friends, she didn’t have to worry about accidentally killing her sparring partner.

And that was…liberating.

“Throwing a genin at an ANBU is a little mean, even for you.” Nara Yoshika muttered as she sidled up to Yugao to watch the spar between Kimiko and Hinata, and Yugao could feel the weight of Yoshika’s gaze on her, but she didn’t turn to meet it. “This wouldn’t happen to be the same Hyuuga genin who forced the Godaime to double the ANBU guard around the Hyuuga and Inuzuka Compounds, would it?”

“Hinata’s not a genin.” Yugao replied, knowing that Yoshika wasn’t really asking.

No matter how notable Hinata’s accomplishments over the past year, her and her team were still fresh chunin, and despite having some well-known names in their corner, she didn’t expect her ANBU friends to be paying attention to genin team gossip.

Which, for the purpose of curbing some of Kimiko’s arrogance and providing Hinata with sparring partners who she could go all-out against, worked out perfectly.

“Go!” she called finally, biting back a grin when Hinata immediately Shunshined into Kimiko’s blind spot, striking out with a kick to the back of Kimiko’s knees that the kunoichi only just managed to jump over, clearly not having expected such a quick attack.

Kimiko struck back as soon as her feet touched the ground, a vicious elbow strike that would’ve knocked Hinata clean out if the girl had stayed in place.

But Hinata had learned the hard way that staying in one place for too long was a bad idea, so Yugao wasn’t surprised when the girl reappeared to Kimiko’s right this time, fingers curled in the typical Jyuuken strike, though her Byakugan remained off.

Yugao watched as her teammate and Hinata fell into a lightning-quick bout of close-combat taijutsu, until Hinata seemed to realise the reason Yugao had thrown her at Kimiko: the woman was a taijutsu mistress through and through.

Hinata was a Hyuuga.

But she wasn’t just a Hyuuga.

Yugao watched as the girl created some distance between her and Kimiko then proceeded to throw a point-blank Wind jutsu at her opponent, and while Kimiko substituted to get out of the way, Hinata’s hands continued to run through seals.

Kimiko wasn’t idle, however, and she covered the distance separating her and Hinata in a flash, fist drawn back to strike, forcing the Hyuuga to relocate again.

And then, right as Hinata’s feet touched the ground twenty feet to Yugao’s left and once more in Kimiko’s blind-spot, Kimiko froze.

Hinata didn’t take her chances; she flash-stepped to just behind Kimiko and drew a kunai, holding it lightly to Kimiko’s neck, then laid her other hand on Kimiko’s shoulder blade and likely broke the kunoichi out of the genjutsu she’d trapped her in.

Kimiko flinched, and even as far back as she stood, Yugao could see the moment she noticed the knife at her throat and the fact that she’d just been beaten.

“Hyuuga genjutsu user?” Kimiko asked, and to Hinata’s credit, she immediately lowered the knife and stepped back, letting Kimiko turn around to face her. “Ain’t seen that yet.”

“My sensei is Yuhi Kurenai.” Hinata replied quietly, and Yugao felt Yoshika react to that particular titbit of information next to her.  

After all, Kurenai may not have ever been ANBU, but any non-Clan kunoichi who made it to jounin gained a degree of respect for accomplishing the feat.

And Kurenai herself was also fairly infamous in certain circles.

(Yugao wasn’t sure if she dreaded or looked forward to the day Hinata would find out)

Three hours after she’d interrupted Yugao’s training, Hinata was panting, more than a little cut up and bruised, and with muscles she hadn’t even known she had screaming at her.

While she had been in ANBU in her first life, having joined after the War, and she had been training with Yugao for the better part of eight months in this time, there was something to be said for training with a group of ANBU-level kunoichi, all with vastly different skillsets.

In short, Hinata was getting the workout of her life, and it was only mildly comforting that the other kunoichi weren’t beating her to zero.

Her one accomplishment was that she had managed to neutralise Yoshika’s Shadow Possession, and though it had caused quite a stir among the kunoichi the first time she’d broken herself out of the technique, they had respected her explanation that she promised not to share how she had done it, as per Shikaku’s request.

“I keep forgetting the kid’s a Hyuuga.” Satsuki cursed when Hinata closed the tenketsu in her right shoulder. “What kind of madman are you, Uzu, to make a Hyuuga diversify? They’re already terrifying.”

“That was all Hinata’s initiative.” Yugao shot back, her grin as sharp as her katana.

Hinata ducked her head to hopefully hide how her cheeks warmed at the obvious pride in Yugao’s voice. She had been relieved to find that her friendship with Yugao had translated well into the 3v3 they were now engaged in, to the point that she barely had to think about where Yugao would be, she just knew.

“I can’t believe Hinata-chan’s weapon of choice is senbon. Failing to educate your mini-me there, Uzu.” Kimiko tutted, and even as she dodged Yoshika’s kunai, Hinata still caught the moment Yugao rolled her eyes.

“We also train with Genma.” Yugao explained, and as one, Kimiko and Satsuki stilled, before twin, knowing grins broke out on their faces, and even Minami hitting Kimiko with a water bullet didn’t manage to dim the grin.

“Ah.” Satsuki muttered, as if she’d been awarded some great knowledge, then threw a Fireball point-blank at Minami in turn.

“Yeah, no, that explains it.” Kimiko laughed, swooping in to pull Hinata away from Yoshika and engage her in more lightning-fast taijutsu. And then, just as Hinata was settling into the push-and-pull of a close-combat bout, Kimiko met her eyes and grinned. “Shiranui’s pretty, isn’t he, Hyuuga-chan?”

And Hinata tripped.

She heard the other women start laughing, Kimiko’s comment and her subsequent reaction having been caught by all, but she wasn’t thinking about that just then: she was thinking about the fact that she couldn’t catch her balance, couldn’t see her opponent, couldn’t protect herself.

She felt more than saw Kimiko move to capitalise on her sudden advantage, and Hinata’s survival instincts kicked in, the spar ceasing to be just a spar.  

Before she could fully fall, Hinata Shunshined to just behind her opponent, caught herself on her hands and redirected her momentum, striking out with two low one-two kicks to the back of the woman’s legs and forcing her to drop to her knees.

Then, before the other kunoichi could react, Hinata was pushing off the ground and planting her foot on her opponent’s back at the same time as she reached for the other woman’s wrists and twisted, earning herself a sharp hiss of pain.

The enemy was stronger than her so she couldn’t hold both wrists in one hand, which meant that her options for incapacitation were-!

-but before she could summon the Lightning jutsu to her hands, Hinata’s entire body froze.

Startled out of her single-minded drive to take out the enemy before the enemy could take her out by the sudden stop to all motion, Hinata’s awareness slowly returned to her.

First, once the ringing in her ears went away, Hinata remembered where she was. Then, once she could hear beyond her own panting breaths, she realised that none of the other kunoichi she’d been sparring with were laughing anymore.

Then, once that realisation registered, Hinata felt her head move, chin tilting down, and she caught a glimpse of a thick band of shadow wrapping around her whole body, effectively restraining her.

It took a few more seconds of staring uncomprehendingly at the shadow for Hinata to realise that the other end wasn’t connected to Yoshiko.

“You good?”

She really shouldn’t have been surprised when Shikamaru came out of the treeline, leisurely approaching where she’d been sparring, though his shadow was still keeping her from moving.

“…Yes.” Hinata managed after a beat, belatedly realising that she probably would’ve – at the very least – disabled Kimiko with her Lightning jutsu if Shikamaru hadn’t caught her. The guilt hit fast and hard, and Hinata tried to ignore the way her breath shook on the exhale. “Thank you, Shikamaru.”

The Nara grunted in response, coming into Hinata’s line of sight, his eyes sharp as they watched her intently.

“I’m going to release your arms.” He announced after a beat, then, when Hinata didn’t protest, he proceeded to do just that, and Hinata felt her control of her hands and fingers return gradually.

When she didn’t move beyond letting out another shuddering breath, Shikamaru tilted his head. “You gonna let her go?”

Hinata jumped as if burned, only then remembering that she was still holding Kimiko’s arms, her foot planted on the woman’s back like she was a dog to be put down.

Feeling bile rise in her throat, Hinata released first one, then the other wrist, letting Kimiko catch herself on her hands instead of face-planting into the dirt.

“I’m so sorry, Kimiko-san.” She choked out, grateful when Shikamaru moved the shadow so she could lift her foot off the kunoichi’s back, letting the woman climb to her feet slowly.

“It happens.” Kimiko muttered once she’d straightened, turning so she could pin Hinata with a sharp look, the earlier good humour gone from her gaze. “When did you say you graduated?”

I didn’t, Hinata wanted to correct, ill-at-ease with the non-sequitur, but she kept her mouth shut. “Fourteen months ago.”

Kimiko didn’t outwardly react, but her words were damning all the same: “You could stand to be a little worse as a shinobi.” She advised, something like pity now in her eyes. “You might live longer.”

And then she turned and walked off to join the rest of the group Hinata had been sparring against, and Hinata caught a glimpse of the worry in Yugao’s eyes before her attention was once again drawn to Shikamaru.

“Think you can walk?” Shikamaru asked quietly, and Hinata didn’t want to think about what her face must have looked like just then to merit the note of obvious concern in the teen’s voice. Wordlessly, she shook her head, aware of the adrenaline and sheer panic still coursing through her body and making her legs feel shaky even with Shikamaru’s shadow still supporting most of her weight.

Shikamaru just nodded, as if having expected the answer, and turned away from the clearing, heading back between the trees, his shadow guiding Hinata to follow along at the same leisurely pace he had used before.

Only once they were hidden among the trees and a fair distance from the clearing did Shikamaru guide her to lean against a tree and eye her assessingly. “Heads up.”

And then Hinata felt the shadow recede fully and she sagged, her back scraping against the tree trunk as she slid to the ground, legs giving out. She put her head between her knees and took deep breaths in a desperate attempt to quell the panic still bubbling within her.

“Hey,” Shikamaru called, and there was a shift in the air, as if he’d moved, but Hinata didn’t lift her head to confirm, “she said it’s fine. Stop panicking.”

When that did little more than make Hinata bite her lip to quiet her heaving breaths, Shikamaru huffed. “Honestly, looking at that group, I doubt it’s the first time someone came at her with murderous intent. Those women looked scary.”

Hinata laughed wetly, the reaction startled out of her at Shikamaru’s words, and she lifted her head with a shuddering breath, the shame she should have felt at the tears in her eyes and her messy appearance oddly distant.

“There you are.” Shikamaru nodded once they made eye-contact, offering her a wan smile, and Hinata had been correct in her earlier guess that he’d moved to crouch before her. 

“How-” Hinata cleared her throat, not having expected her voice to come out so rough, “how did you know?”

She didn’t know how to explain what she meant, how to ask how Shikamaru had noticed something even she hadn’t realised at the time, but Shikamaru seemed to understand the vague question because he sighed, tapping his temple with one finger.

“You had the same look in your eyes as that time in the hospital.” He explained, and though his answer was also vague, and to her eyes, he looked a little uncomfortable all of a sudden, Hinata understood immediately what he was referring to.

The time you nearly broke my wrist because I triggered you.

She probably should’ve felt more ashamed, but in that moment, all Hinata felt was relief.

Relief that Shikamaru had noticed, had remembered, and had had the foresight to step in and act before she did something she would have regretted.

“Thank you.” She breathed, leaning back and letting her head thunk against the tree trunk, the dull pain grounding.

Shikamaru huffed a laugh, dropping his weight to his heels instead of perching on his toes, and tilted his head, a smirk curling at the corner of his lips. “You’re probably the first person to thank me for trapping them in Shadow Possession.”

And Hinata laughed quietly, eyes closing, able to appreciate the irony of the situation now that she was no longer hyperventilating, and let herself relax in the quiet comfort of Shikamaru’s presence.

“It felt different.” She mused after a few seconds, keeping her eyes closed as she thought back to the feeling of being caught with the tendril of shadow. “Your shadow. Did you modify it?”

“Thought about what you said about conduits when we were training for my fight with Neji.” Shikamaru admitted, and there was muted surprise in his voice, as if he hadn’t expected Hinata to notice the difference. “When you’re feeling up for it, I’d like to run it by you properly. See if you can break out of this one, too.”

Hinata smiled, hearing the wry humour in Shikamaru’s voice at the last part, then she opened her eyes a sliver as something occurred to her.

“What were you doing at the training ground?” she asked suddenly, noting that while she’d had her eyes closed, Shikamaru had shifted so he was sitting on the ground with his legs stretched out instead of crouching.

“I was looking for you, actually.” The brunet replied, and Hinata’s curiosity piqued. “After you gave me that note to hand to my dad yesterday, I found out Inoichi-oji is hosting another Ino-Shika-Cho dinner. Those dinners are always a drag and we haven’t played together since before you went to Kumo, so…”

He trailed off with a shrug, but when he met Hinata’s gaze and realised that she wasn’t following, he sighed exasperatedly. “I’m inviting you to the dinner, Hinata. I know dad gave you a standing invitation, so don’t start on the ‘imposing’ or ‘Clan-only’ nonsense, alright?”

And Hinata just looked at Shikamaru for a beat, another thought occurring to her belatedly, yet with all the subtlety of a thunderbolt at the realisation that she hadn’t even considered arguing the invitation.

Shikamaru had calmed her down. Had made her comfortable enough to close her eyes and drop her guard despite having been on the brink of a panic attack not minutes previous. Had made her laugh when she’d had tears in her eyes. Had spotted something she herself hadn’t even noticed, and acted accordingly, to her benefit.

There was a deeper realisation waiting just out of reach, or, perhaps more accurately, waiting for Hinata to actively reach for it.

So instead, Hinata redirected, gazing at Shikamaru thoughtfully: “Do you think I could bring Neji and Hanabi?”

Ino had suspected that the adults probably had ulterior motives for the spontaneous Ino-Shika-Cho dinner since the moment her dad casually suggested she ‘invite some friends’ over for the day.

Back at the Academy, before they’d fallen out, she used to have to beg her parents to allow her to invite Sakura to the dinners, and even then, her success-rate had been less than fifty percent.

So suddenly having her dad suggest she invite friends outside of their three Clans had set off alarm bells in Ino’s mind, though she’d only smiled at her dad and ran off to do just that.

But it took seeing dozens of people walk onto their Clan grounds, people Ino only vaguely recognised, such as Chouza-oji’s genin team, or her dad’s Intelligence co-workers, for her suspicion to become a nigh-certainty.

She was relieved when Sakura and Kiba arrived a few minutes ahead of the time she had told them, especially when she caught sight of Chouji and Shino walking a little behind them. Ino rushed through greetings, corralled her old classmates towards one of the more isolated outdoor tables, and ran inside to hand her mother the desert Sakura had brought and the bottle of some alcohol or other that Kiba claimed his mother had bullied him into taking.

“The adults are planning something.” Ino declared once she made herself comfortable at the table Sakura, Kiba, Shino and Chouji had settled around, keeping her voice low but urgent.

Chouji paused where he was telling Kiba something about a restaurant they both liked, shooting Ino a surprised look. “What makes you say that?”

“Think about it!” Ino urged, looking to Kiba and Sakura for support. “They never invite so many people to a random dinner in the middle of the week. Something’s up.”

She could see a small frown form on Sakura’s brow as she doubtless did a mental review of the previous Ino-Shika-Cho dinners she’d attended, but before she could say anything, a familiar voice rang out to their left.

“If something was up, telling all your little friends about it would be precisely the wrong thing to do, kiddo.”

Ino didn’t have to turn to know that it was Genma who had spoken, but she did regardless, spotting her sort-of-sensei with two other men she’d never seen at his side.

“I hate that you can still sneak up on me.” Kiba grouched to Genma, getting an amused huff from the man and a fond hair ruffle in lieu of greeting.

“Genma can sneak up on anyone, at pretty much any time he wants, kid.” One of Genma’s friends shot back, his dark sunglasses hiding his eyes from view, though Ino hazarded he was laughing at them. “Don’t take it personally.”

Ino shot the man a measured look, knowing from first-hand experience that Kiba has been able to sense Genma coming on more than one occasion, but she kept her mouth shut, watching Kiba instead. She didn’t miss the look the teen exchanged with Shino, but when he turned back to Genma’s friend, it was with a shrug and a cheerful grin that Ino would’ve once believed without a second’s hesitation.

“Thanks for the advice.” He replied lightly, grin bright but not big enough for his eyes to close the way they did when the expression was genuine.  “Anyway, Genma-san, is something up, or were you just doling out general wisdom?”

Ino resisted the urge to face-palm and she could see Sakura stifle a groan at the blunt question, but Genma just laughed.

“No idea.” He replied just as cheerfully, hand falling from Kiba’s hair to his shoulder and squeezing briefly. “I’m just here for the food.”

“…Alright.” Kiba accepted after a beat, seemingly having decided the answer to be truthful. “The chicken skewers smell amazing, by the way. Probably a good place to start if you want good food.”

Genma thanked him for the pointer and though he didn’t quite drag his friends away, Ino didn’t miss the way he pointed them in the direction of the outdoor food tables while he himself headed for the main house.

Curious.

“Why didn’t you correct that man?” Sakura asked as soon as Genma was far enough away that he was unlikely to be able to hear them without reinforcing his hearing. “I know for a fact you can sense Genma-san coming about half the time.”

And in testament to how much they had all grown since their Graduation, Kiba just shrugged.

“What would be the point?” he asked lightly, scratching absently at his cheek. “Let him think what he wants. Anyway, I find it hilarious that Shikamaru’s late.”

The change of subject was far from subtle, but right as Kiba finished speaking, Ino caught sight of Shikamaru’s characteristic ponytail and barely resisted the urge to gape. Sakura must’ve caught her reaction, however, because she followed her gaze to the side gate of the Compound and Ino watched as her eyebrows climbed up her forehead at the sight.

“Well. He’s here now.” Sakura murmured, watching as Shikamaru and Hinata and two other Hyuuga walked onto the Yamanaka grounds.

Ino raised her arm and waved until Shikamaru noticed her and adjusted course accordingly, and she was briefly annoyed that she was too far away to hear what he muttered to Hinata when he caught sight of their little group, prompting a ghost of a smile to appear on the Hyuuga’s face.

“You’re late!” she greeted when he finally reached their table, coming to a stop by Chouji’s shoulder while Kiba stood up to pull Hinata into an enthusiastic hug, the other two Hyuuga hanging back, as if unsure of their welcome.

“I’m not a tracker, and some people are hard to find.” Shikamaru shot back grouchily, drawing a snort from Shino.

“Training?” the Aburame asked, getting a nod in response once Kiba finally released Hinata from the embrace.

“With Yugao-san or Hana?” Kiba checked once he sat back in his seat and offered a cheerful wave to the youngest Hyuuga.   

“Yugao-san.” Hinata confirmed quietly, voice still as soft as Ino remembered, though the lack of a stutter and the hard look in her eyes was new.

“And half a dozen scary women.” Shikamaru added under his breath, drawing another blink-and-you’ll-miss-it smile from Hinata, but Ino barely paid attention, her eyes stuck on the three Hyuuga and the silent conversation Hinata appeared to be having with a boy Ino vaguely remembered from the Chunin Exams. She didn’t miss how the younger girl was half-hiding behind Hinata, though her eyes were scanning over Ino and her classmates with a level of intelligence Ino wouldn’t have expected from her age.

“Ino-san,” Hinata spoke suddenly, her voice still quiet but surprisingly effective at cutting off all conversation around their table, “I apologise for bringing extra guests without notice.”

Ino blinked, momentarily too baffled by the odd formality to speak, then gathered herself. “It’s not a problem! Are they your friends or family?”

“My cousin Neji and my sister Hanabi.” Hinata introduced, stepping aside slightly so her sister was more visible to the table at large, though Ino didn’t miss the comforting hand she laid on the girl’s lower back.

“Hi Hanabi-chan, hey asshole!” Kiba greeted cheerfully, and just like that, the sudden tension was broken. Hinata’s sister let out a startled snort of laughter at Kiba’s greeting, and Ino watched the girl as her hand flew to cover her mouth, her eyes wide and scared, if Ino was reading her right.

Scared of what, though?

But when nobody commented on the reaction, the girl relaxed in increments and eventually headed over to Kiba’s side when the Inuzuka scooted over and patted the bench next to him, while ‘Neji’ carefully sat himself down next to Sakura, looking like he half-expected to be chased off.

“Anyway, Hinata, don’t worry! There’s so many people here today, what’s two more?” Ino addressed her old classmate, realising Hinata still looked a little unsure of her welcome.

And then, before Hinata could reply, Shikamaru huffed and tugged on her elbow, pulling her back from the table.

“Told you it’d be fine.” He grouched, then turned towards the main house. “We’re going to get food. Anyone want anything?”

Ino barely listened as the others relayed their orders, her eyes wide and stuck on Shikamaru, barely resisting the urge to gape unattractively for the second time in as many minutes. Instead, she watched as Shikamaru and Hinata headed off, walking comfortably close to each other, arms brushing every other step, Shikamaru’s head bent slightly as they talked quietly.

To her side, Kiba snickered, his eyes on Shino.

“Told ya.” Kiba grinned, and Ino was surprised to see Shino incline his head in acknowledgment. “Do you think he’s realised yet?”

“Considering he makes you look tactful?” Shino replied, his arched eyebrow visible over the rim of his blackout glasses, “Doubtful.”

“Fuck you,” Kiba shot back, laughter in his voice instead of the offense Ino would’ve expected to hear back at the Academy, “but point.”

“Realised what?” Hinata’s cousin asked suddenly, and Ino turned to look at the admittedly pretty brunet. Hell, if he’d been in their year, she would’ve been hard-pressed to pick between him and Sasuke if asked who was better-looking, and that alone was enough to catch her attention.

“Wouldn’t you like to know, pretty-boy?” Kiba shot back, no heat to the words but sharper than he’d been talking to Shino, and Ino couldn’t help but wonder what the Hyuuga had done to Kiba to deserve the treatment.

Still when she caught Kiba’s eye and raised an eyebrow, Kiba grinned, sharp and mischievous, and Ino knew that she wouldn’t have any problems with getting Kiba to spill on what it was he’d noticed about Shikamaru.

“Aaaanyway,” Ino called, clapping her hands and drawing the attention of her friends once again, “what do you think the adults are planning?”

Inoichi knew the importance of plausible deniability. Throwing a dinner party and encouraging Shikaku and Chouza to invite anyone they got along with and could reasonably be expected to know was one way of engineering such plausible deniability amongst the part of Konoha’s shinobi population who, if his, Shikaku’s, and Chouza’s scheming were to be found out, could be asked for testimony.

After all, you can’t be scheming to expose an Elder if you’re busy playing host, no?

But in all his far-sighted plans, he had forgotten about one important detail:

“Your kid suspects something, Inoichi-san.”

Inoichi looked up from his hushed conversation with Chouza and Shikaku, meeting Shiranui Genma’s steady gaze and trying not to remember how scarily efficient the man had been during his brief stint in T&I before Minato had poached him to be a bodyguard.

When Ino had told him she was being tutored in poisons by ‘Genma-san’, Inoichi had been glad – the man was one of the best at what he did, and he had many successful apprenticeships to his name, both official and not.

But he had also been worried; for someone like him, Genma’s easy-going nature was more alarming than Kakashi’s obvious coping mechanisms. Genma had seen just as much war, perhaps even more than Kakashi by virtue of his lesser-known background and skillset, had had just as many people close to him die, whether by an enemy’s hand, or their own, yet he never let it show.

And Ino already hid things from him and her mother, Inoichi knew. He didn’t want her to start hiding the important things, too.

“On what basis?” he asked at last, aiming for idle curiosity but unsure how close he hit.

“The number of guests.” Genma replied simply, then tilted his head. “Anything in particular you want the people to witness?”

And Inoichi felt Shikaku snap to attention, either at the fact that Genma’s tone hadn’t changed, or at the startlingly apt inference of the purpose for this dinner, so Inoichi smiled placidly, aware it didn’t reach his eyes.

“Nothing out of the ordinary.”

“So a dinner like any other?” Genma confirmed, seemingly turning the idea over in his mind. “Alright. You got it.”

“Just like that?” Shikaku asked, apparently unable to help himself, far less used to Genma’s general disposition and easy-going nature than Inoichi and Chouza.

“Just like that.” Genma agreed, the line of his shoulders still loose, the ever-present senbon clacking against his teeth when he shifted it to the side and smiled. “Unless there’s something you want to tell me?”

Shikaku scrutinised Genma silently, but it was Chouza who spoke, smiling at his old student when Genma met his gaze.

“You’re close with the Hyuuga heir, aren’t you?”

Inoichi reasoned that it was only Genma’s familiarity with and trust in Chouza that prevented his guard from going up at the question, but there was a perceptible wariness in his eyes that hadn’t been there before when he replied; “Reasonably so.”

“Did you ever think she wasn’t a normal genin?” Shikaku asked then, taking over from Chouza, and now, the easy-going smile from before dimmed slightly.

“’Normal’ in what sense?” Genma checked, and though his tone still sounded like he was only asking about the weather, Inoichi knew better.

“Kakashi suspected Hyuuga-chan was ANBU, Genma-kun.” Chouza revealed, and at his words, the tension that Inoichi hadn’t even noticed build for all that he’d been watching Genma since the man walked up to them suddenly disappeared from the man’s shoulders.

“Kakashi’s an idiot, then.” He huffed, back to smiling, seeming oddly relieved at the news.

“You don’t agree?” Shikaku checked, his own voice perfectly bland, and Inoichi couldn’t help but wonder what his friend was thinking about the vastly different assessments of the little Hyuuga.

“Of course not.” Genma replied, seeming almost miffed to be asked twice.

“She knew about the seals. Both of them.” Shikaku revealed, but Genma didn’t blink. “Any reason you can think of that she could have for knowing about the other seal?”

“That depends.” Genma allowed, serious once more, but not concerned, at least not in the way that Shikaku told them Kakashi had been. “On what Ebisu told Shino, and what Shino then passed on to his teammates.”

“Why would Ebisu-?” Chouza began, but Genma cut him off.

“You need to talk to Shibi-sama, sensei.” He instructed, the old title only giving more urgency to his words. Then, he turned to Inoichi. “If this is at all related to Kurenai’s Psych-nin, he’ll be useful.”

“Is this the worst-kept secret among the ranks, or are you just particularly well-informed?” Shikaku asked then, and Inoichi stifled a startled laugh at his friend’s clearly disgruntled tone.

“I happen to count Kurenai, Kakashi, and Yamato amongst my closest circle, and Ebisu is my friend and genin teammate.” Genma replied, and when he put it like that, it made a startling amount of sense. “And in regards to Hinata; she’s a good fit for ANBU, I won’t deny that. Her whole team is. But she’s not ANBU yet, and Kurenai, Yugao, and myself will sooner fight Bear than allow them to be poached for the ranks before they’re good and ready to make that decision for themselves.”

Inoichi caught Shikaku’s gaze at that declaration, wondering if his friend was thinking the same thing.

And then, Inoichi watched as Genma stilled suddenly and turned, only to find the very Hyuuga they had been talking about mere inches behind him.

But the girl showed no indication of having heard them, merely inclining her head politely at Inoichi and Chouza and offering a small smile to Shikaku. Then, she ducked under the arm Genma had raised and gave the man a brief half-hug, visibly relaxing when Genma’s hand settled lightly on the crown of her head.

“Kiba wanted to send you a fruit basket.” The girl murmured in lieu of greeting, tilting her head slightly to meet Genma’s gaze, the non-sequitur making the man snort. “Would you mind?”

“Of course not.” He replied, suddenly much softer around the edges than he’d been while he’d been talking to Inoichi and his fellow Clan Heads. “Though I do gotta ask what I did to deserve it.”

And the girl shot Genma – a man more than twice her age and experience, and a man who she had no real reason to know, much less be this familiar with – an almost exasperated look, like she couldn’t quite believe he was asking.

“Everything, really.” The Hyuuga said quietly, an odd weight to the words and a sort of wistfulness on her face that should have looked out of place on a preteen. Should have. “But particularly for your help before Kumo.”

“Ah.” The single syllable seemed to encompass a lot, and Inoichi was aware that there was much he was missing from the interaction, yet he was fascinated regardless. “Well, I’m not one to turn down free food, but don’t feel obligated. It was a pleasure.”

The girl just hummed, contemplative, then stepped away, Genma’s hand slipping from her head easily and falling back to his side, though the soft edges remained.

“Thank you anyway.” She said, then her eyes swept over Genma’s body, as if only just seeing him. A small frown appeared between her brows as she took in the tokujo’s charcoal pants, burgundy sweater, and black turtleneck peeking out from beneath, and when she met Genma’s gaze again, there was worry in her eyes, though Inoichi had no idea what prompted it. “Take care, Genma-san.”

And then she was walking away with another nod at Inoichi and Chouza, her gaze lingering briefly on Shikaku but not addressing the Nara directly. Inoichi watched as she walked over to Shikamaru and took two plates stacked with food from the boy before they both walked out of the house and into the garden without so much as a backwards glance.

“Impossible kid.” Genma murmured quietly to himself, his hand absently rising to the collar of his turtleneck, before he seemed to realise that Inoichi’s attention was fully on him once more and he was all-business once more, the soft edges from before nowhere to be seen.

Inoichi studied the tokujo for another brief moment, then turned and met Shikaku’s gaze with a raised eyebrow, knowing from decades of friendship that Shikaku was more than likely already on the same page.

Kurenai had seemed like an obvious choice to bring into their operation, premature as it was, but she was also too close to the situation to be objective, and Inoichi had spoken with her shrink enough to know that, if it came down to it, the woman would always put her students first. Always.  

Kakashi, once he’d started taking his role as sensei more seriously and, according to Ino, also sporadically dolling out training to genin outside of his own team, initially seemed an even greater asset to have on their side in this, especially considering his background.

But Shikaku had declared Kakashi too unpredictable, too personally involved, to bring into their operation at such an early stage, dismissing the man with nothing more than an assurance that they were doing something, but not letting him in on anything more damning than that. 

But Shiranui Genma?

Genma was perfect.

“Come to my office tomorrow morning.” Shikaku instructed, looking away from Inoichi and meeting Genma’s gaze, proving that yes, even without Inoichi using his Clan’s hiden, they were on the same page. “I might have a job for you.”

Hiashi assessed the reaction to him naming Hyuuga Takao of the Branch House as Hideki’s replacement, feeling something that felt uncomfortably like worry niggling at the back of his mind, just waiting to be acknowledged and dissected.

(he also couldn’t help but wonder who he would’ve named prior to his conversation with Hinata, but that was neither here nor there)

His daughter’s advice – because it had undoubtedly been that, despite the manner in which it had been delivered – had rang in his head for the last two days, ripping away his choice of ignorance about the discontent within his own Clan.

Now, as he watched the reactions of his kin, the reasoning for that discontent was startlingly obvious.

The Branch House Elders were openly surprised at the nomination, and few bothered to hide it. The Main House Elders were more complex: while there was some surprise, one or two pleased nods, or general ambivalence, there was also clear disdain on two faces, and something that looked not unlike disappointment on another.

“Hiashi-sama,” Moroi, a Main House Elder since the times of Hiashi’s father, began, quickly smoothing his face of any disdain, “are you certain that’s the best course of action? I would advise-”

“-what I’m certain of,” Hiashi began, not bothering to even his voice or bite back his own irritation at being questioned, “is that your inaction allowed Hideki to nearly seal my daughter.”

Hiashi let go of his hold on his KI then, feeling it release like a shockwave across the dojo where the Elders always met, with him at the epicentre.

“And the only one to defend her had been Elder Junpei of the Branch House.” Hiashi continued, ignoring the way some of the Elders had stumbled under the force of his KI. “Frankly, I do not care much for you right now, Moroi-san, much less your advice.”

He reeled his Killing Intent back in, feeling cold satisfaction at the way Moroi breathed deeply in relief. He adamantly ignored the open surprise on the faces of the Branch Elders, aware that this display was outside of his usual behaviour, but the threat to Hanabi and the assault on Hinata had set his blood boiling.

He allowed himself one more out-of-character act, then swept out of the dojo, leaving the Elders to their meeting:

“If anything like that happens again, rest assured that I will make Hinata’s reaction to Hideki’s treason look like mercy.”

The weeks after the dinner at the Yamanaka Compound passed in a blur.

Hinata spent the days when she was not being sent on C-Ranks with mish-mash teams training with her team, playing with the puppies at the Inuzuka Compound, and training or playing with Hanabi, making sure to shower her sister with physical affection whenever they were away from prying eyes.

She couldn’t quite make up for the lost time, but hopefully Hanabi wouldn’t suffer as much from the lack of positive physical contact as she had the first time.

The news that Shino had officially apprenticed himself to a chunin duo renowned for their bukijutsu had been both surprising and not, as was the announcement that a week and a half after the dinner at the Yamanaka, Kiba got sent out with a specialised team for a month-long diplomatic mission. Hinata had been amused but grateful when he’d recounted – a little miffed, but with obvious relief – that Tsunade had sharply informed him that he was being sent there for his nose for poisons, but to keep his actual nose out of the diplomatic proceedings.

The Inuzuka were not particularly famed for their tact, even if Hana and Kiba had somewhat broken from the mould.

The most interesting of all, however, was what Kurenai had handed Hinata about a week after the dinner at Ino’s.  

“If you want to reply, you’ll have to stop by Intel. They’re a bit paranoid about Village secrets.” Was all her sensei had said, an unusually unreadable look on her face, but she didn’t look angry, so Hinata tried not to worry.

And then, once she had unfolded the letter – it didn’t escape her notice that the envelope itself had already been open – she understood why Kurenai had looked so serious.

Dear Hinata-san, the letter read:

I apologise if this is presumptuous of me since I realise that we never agreed to remain in contact. However, since coming back to Kiri, I find myself thinking back on our conversations more often than I’d care to admit. Thank you for opening my eyes to something I hadn’t realised was a problem in my perception of myself.

I know there will doubtless be limits to what you can share - even I am not able to write without censure - but how have you been? I hope your return home has been uneventful and your inevitable Chunin promotion rightfully celebrated.

Despite my poor performance against you, I have also been promoted and, in the spirit of pursuing my own interests, recently signed on for the medic programme at the hospital. I’m uncertain how my master feels about it, but I haven’t asked and he hasn’t volunteered any information.

Stay safe,
Haku

(P.S. what’s your favourite colour?)

At first, Hinata had laughed. Then, she’d cried, and had to tearfully explain to Kiba that it wasn’t anything Haku had said directly to or about her that made her cry, and that no, thank you, she didn’t need him to ask Akamaru to ‘do unspeakable things to the Mist-nin’s nether regions next time they see each other’.

She’d carefully refolded the letter and tucked it into the inner pocket of her jacket, resolving to write to Haku when she next had some time to kill.

Beyond the letter from Haku and her teammates pursuing their own areas of interest now that they had the freedom granted to do just that by the title of ‘chunin’, Hinata’s days after the dinner at the Yamanaka kept to a comfortable routine.

(She tried not to think about the fact that neither Yugao nor Kakashi had showed up during that time, a fact that clearly didn’t escape Kurenai’s notice, though her sensei was at least kind enough to not mention it out loud)

And then, it was suddenly a month since Hinata’s conversation with her Father, and when she came down for breakfast in her family’s wing of the Compound, she was surprised to find her Hiashi already sitting at the low table, dressed in training clothes and with two scrolls on the table beside him.

“Hinata. Good morning.” Her Father greeted, startling Hinata slightly, though she murmured her own greeting and set about putting together a quick breakfast.

“It’s been a month.” Hiashi announced once Hinata had finished eating, the meal having passed in silence, and Hinata nodded as she rose to clean up after herself.

“I am aware.” She replied softly, trying to understand what she might expect from her Father. “Do you have anything planned?”

Hiashi regarded her evenly, then rose from the table as soon as she was done drying the last plate.

“I believe,” he began as he approached the door that led to their family’s dojo, smaller than the other Compound ones, but far more private, “that it is time for you to learn the Kaiten.”

Hinata’s jaw dropped.

Haku-san,

It is not presumptuous at all, please don’t worry. I am glad and grateful you reached out; I too enjoyed our conversations.

I have been well, mostly. There was a…disagreement between myself and one of my Clan members, but, forgive me, I cannot explain any more than that over letter, beyond assuring you that the problem has since been handled. The conflict did, however, mean that my promotion was largely forgotten about, and I am glad for that. Big celebrations make me nervous.

Congratulations on your promotion and I assure you that it is deserved. Also, I am pleased you have signed up for the medic programme – I hope you will find healing as helpful and rewarding as my teammate.

I, too, am worried about one of my mentors, but I haven’t yet gathered the courage to go and talk to them about it. I accidentally reacted the way I did when you first approached me on the cliff and nearly hurt one of their friends. I’ve been told that I shouldn’t worry and that it was unlikely to have been the first time that had happened, but, well. I still worry.

My favourite colour is cerulean.

What’s your favourite food?

All the best,
Hinata

Chapter Text

Hiashi watched as Hinata followed him to the dojo, absently wondering whether he wasn’t making a mistake.

Hinata had become chunin, yes, in her first go at the Exams even, but she was far from heir-favourite.

But him teaching her the Kaiten would cement her as such, at least as far as his own opinion went in the eyes of the Elders.

Wordlessly, Hiashi activated his Byakugan and turned it on his daughter, disappointed but not surprised to find her reserves barely larger than Hanabi’s.

“Concentrate.” He began, cutting to the chase and noting bemusedly that Hinata’s focus had never once strayed from him, even when his own mind had wandered. “You’re going to-”

And then he cut himself off when he looked closer at Hinata’s chakra core and noticed what could’ve only been described as a false bottom to her main reserves.

“…You’re suppressing your chakra.” He observed flatly, and Hinata startled, then had the grace to look abashed.

“S-Sorry, Father.” She apologised, the dreaded stutter making a reappearance. “Habit.”

Hiashi tried not to think too hard about what sort of missions his daughter had been running for her to develop the habit of stifling her chakra even in-Village.

Then he couldn’t quite stop his eyebrow from climbing up his forehead when Hinata released her chakra and suddenly her reserves were larger than Neji’s.

“…You’ve been working on your reserves.” He stated, trying to keep the surprise out of his voice.

But Hinata had never been the boastful type, so her gaze skipped from his briefly before returning as she admitted; “I-I meditate.”

Hiashi didn’t say that passive meditation didn’t actually grow reserves– they both knew that. Which meant that whatever style of meditation Hinata now practised involved using her chakra in such a way as to nearly double the size of her reserves in the space of a year.

“Concentrate.” He repeated instead, going back to the original reason he’d called Hinata to the dojo and shelving any thoughts of his daughter’s progress for later. “You’re going to release chakra from every tenketsu in your body you can at the same time.”

Hinata nodded, a frown of concentration appearing between her brows, so Hiashi went on. “Most non-Hyuuga shinobi only ever master expelling chakra from their hands and feet. Our Clan is largely hailed for our chakra control, but even we are not born with the ability to expel chakra from every tenketsu. I want to see how much you need to work on your control before we start on the basics of Kaiten.”

Hinata nodded again, and when she realised that no more instruction was forthcoming, Hiashi felt her begin to release her chakra.

…And promptly realised that he really should’ve been paying more attention to just what sort of training his daughter had been doing.

Because on her first attempt at an exercise most jounin never mastered, she managed to release chakra from every tenketsu in her arms – from the tips of her fingers to her shoulders – and from her feet all the way up to the upper thighs. She didn’t manage to release anything from her torso and abdomen, but Hiashi had expected as much. What he hadn’t counted on was the girl succeeding activating the tenketsu in her throat, mouth, and cheeks.

“…Good.” Hiashi commented after a beat, and Hinata cut the chakra flow immediately, her face clear of pride or arrogance, merely showing idle curiosity and a hint of surprise at the praise.

Then, his own curiosity getting the better of him when he reached the inevitable conclusion to what he’d just witnessed, Hiashi added, “Have you been training in elemental ninjutsu?”

“Yes, Father.” Hinata replied simply, once again ignoring the opportunity to gloat at having snuck this development past him.

“Which?”

This time, Hinata was a little less sure in her answer, but Hiashi quickly understood why when she murmured, “Um…all?”

Hiashi kept his face carefully blank. “Since when?”

Hinata took what she probably thought was a discrete breath, released it slowly, then said; “Since I found out that the Chunin Exams my team would be attending were being held in Kumo.”

Suddenly, the admission, along with the reveal of having used contact lenses while in Kumo, clicked into place.

“You didn’t use the Jyuuken.” Hiashi said, and it was too flat to be a question, but Hinata answered regardless.

“No, Father.”

Hiashi frowned. “Did you use your Clan name?”

“No, Father.”

“And nobody found out?” Hiashi pressed, an uncomfortable feeling making itself knows in the pit of his stomach.

Hinata hesitated, just briefly, but with how closely Hiashi was watching her, he noticed. “Nobody from Kumo.”

Which meant that Hinata had not only successfully made chunin in Kumo, but also infiltrated the Village and left none the wiser as to her real identity. “…You’re wiser than I gave you credit for.”

There were more words he knew he probably ought to say, words he could almost hear Hizashi’s voice yelling in his head: Apologise! The voice demanded. She deserves it. Apologise, goddamnit.

But they just wouldn’t get past his throat, and Hinata’s open surprise at the acknowledgement he’d already given her didn’t help matters any.

“You’ll need to learn to control the tenketsu in your chest and abdomen before I can teach you the mechanics of the Kaiten.” Hiashi ordered, and Hinata’s face fell back into the unassuming mask of idle curiosity, though her eyes were marginally wider than before.

Hiashi forced himself to utter one more admission:

“But know that…this time last year, I didn’t think that I’d be teaching it to you at all.” He managed, then turned on his heel and walked out of the dojo.

You’ve come far, daughter.

Dear Hinata-san,

I am sorry that you had to deal with the conflict but I am glad that it has been resolved.

I hope it is not too forward to say this, but if we are ever in the same place again and circumstances allow it, I would be happy to go for a ‘small’ celebration with you. My own promotion also went un-celebrated, but through my own feelings of inadequacy more than anything else.

While it is true that most shinobi become used to the startle-reflexes of others, if you believe that apologising is the right thing to do, then it is worthwhile to apologise. For your own peace of mind, if nothing else.

My favourite food is onigiri. For how simple they are, yet how varied they can be. Yours?

Who would you be if you weren’t a shinobi?

Stay safe,
- Haku

“You!”

Kiba startled where he’d been perusing the food market, jumping to see a vaguely familiar teen stalking up to him, the cat-eared hood and purple makeup making Kiba have to bite his cheek to keep from laughing.

He wondered what Ino would have to say about the teen’s fashion sense.

“Are you the kid who fought Akari-senpai, counteracted her poison and vomited all over her puppet?!” the teen demanded, stopping about three feet from Kiba, a wild look in his eyes.

“I mean, I disabled the puppet first.” Kiba pointed out, wincing only slightly at the idea of his fight in Kumo becoming his legacy in Suna. “But yeah, that would be me. Who’s asking?”

Though, given that the kid had said Akari-senpai, Kiba had a pretty good idea. He reckoned he’d have been similarly outraged if he’d heard that some kid had managed to sneak up on Genma.

“Kankuro.” There was something familiar about the name, but where exactly he’d heard it from was escaping Kiba right then. “The same person who’s been trying to find an antidote to senpai’s poison since she started teaching me, so how the hell did you manage it?”

Ooh. There was more in Kankuro’s tone than just outrage, and Kiba narrowed his eyes, appraising the other teen carefully.

“Are you more annoyed that someone managed it, that I managed it, or that a Leaf-nin managed it?” he asked at last, and Kankuro huffed, though he looked reluctantly amused.

“A little bit of everything.” He admitted after a beat, and Kiba grinned.

“Oi, Akamaru!” he called suddenly, snickering inwardly at Kankuro’s startled twitch and the way the teen’s eyes grew wide when Akamaru left the shaded spot he’d been lounging in while Kiba strolled around the market and wandered over to where they were standing.

With the slow but steady growing he’d been doing since Kiba’s Graduation, Akamaru’s head was now comfortably at Kiba’s mid-thigh, far from the puppy he’d been a year ago. Outside of Konoha, where the population was used to ninken, Akamaru easily classified as a big dog, and Kiba noticed Kankuro’s immediate recognition of the fact.  

“I’m an Inuzuka.” Kiba divulged after a beat, grinning when Kankuro’s eyes snapped over to him from where he’d been eyeing Akamaru warily. “Inuzuka Kiba. My Clan’s had ninken partners for generations, so there’s been some trait transferral.”

He let that sink in for a few seconds, letting Kankuro puzzle over what ‘trait transferral’ could imply, before he carried on. “Which means that with a heightened sense of smell and a passing familiarity with common poisons and their ingredients, I can pretty much sniff out what I’ll need for the antidote. Does that answer your question?”

Kiba didn’t doubt that it did, especially since Kankuro looked briefly like he’d been struck by lightning, then his expression turned triumphant. “That’s why you’re here!”

Bingo.

“You’re sharp.” Kiba complimented, startling the other teen, then, when he knew he had the other’s attention, he grinned, wider and wilder than before, sharp canines on full display in a move that was only partly intended to intimidate. “Now, since I gave you the information you wanted, can you give me some information I’m after?”

And Kankuro froze for a second, then, seemingly realising that denying anything would be pointless, grumbled his acquiesce. “Fine. Turnaround’s fair play I guess.”

“Glad you agree.” Kiba cheered, then dug in his pocket and pulled out the list he’d been compiling whenever Genma grumbled about ingredients he was running out of and wasn’t able to restock, even with access to the Yamanaka greenhouses. He thrust the list at Kankuro, grin dimming to something more genuine. “I want these ingredients.”

He watched as Kankuro scanned the list, delighting in the way the other teen’s eyebrow was hiking higher and higher up his forehead the more he read. Then, when Kankuro finally looked up at him, mirth in his eyes, though also a hint of suspicion.

“Only a passing familiarity, you said?” he asked, and Kiba raised a hand and scratched the back of his neck, not even feigning repentance.

“I might have lied a little.”

Kankuro snorted, the reaction seemingly startled out of him, then, still holding Kiba’s list, gestured for him to come along. “Alright, let’s go, dog-boy.”

But Kiba snagged the other boy’s sleeve before he could get far and tugged him back, his grin turning into a frown as he regarded Kankuro seriously, the other teen’s guard visibly going back at the quick change of mood.

“I don’t think the dude in cat ears and makeup has any right to be calling me names.” Kiba told Kankuro honestly, perhaps sharper than deserved, but his mother, Hana, and Kurenai had taught him to stand his ground, so he planted his feet and stood.

And Kankuro, while initially taken aback, slowly grinned, pulling his sleeve out of Kiba’s grip though not turning around just yet. “Never said you can’t call me anything back.”

And Kiba barked a laugh, the reaction similarly startled out of him, and obligingly fell into step with the Suna-nin when he started walking again, patting Akamaru absently on the head to call his partner off, the situation resolved for now.

“Turnaround’s fair play, huh?” he mused, getting an agreeing hum from Kankuro.

This could be fun.

“Kid, you really should take a break, you don’t need to master everything immediately.” Kotetsu huffed when Shino refused to take the break they’d ordered, exchanging a concerned glance with Izumo.

“Respectfully, I know my limits.” Shino replied as he ran through another kata, twirling the practice bokken around his head. “I can keep going.”

“Maybe you can, but should you?” Izumo took over from Kotetsu, smoothing the feathers Kotetsu might have ruffled with ease of long practise. “There’s no need to burn yourself out.”

“I’m fine.” Shino insisted, but the dripping sweat and pissed pinch to his mouth, visible thanks to the trademark jacket having been long discarded, told a different story.

“Now you are, but what about when you need to run missions?” Kotetsu pushed, losing his patience a little at the teen’s refusal to see the full picture.

“There’s a reason I requested the apprenticeship through the official channels.” Shino shot back, not quite snidely, but losing some of that trademark Aburame cool. “I won’t be sent on any missions outside Konoha until we complete it.”

“You Village-bound yourself?” Kotetsu demanded, dodging the quelling elbow Izumo tried to jab into his side. “Why?”

“I need to catch up to my teammates.”

“Shino.” Izumo tried again, tone still patient, though finally showing an undercurrent of disbelief. “You’re an Aburame. That already makes you fucking terrifying.”

Kotetsu snorted, startled at Izumo actually cussing for once.

“More than that, you’re a taijutsu-specialising Aburame. That doesn’t happen.” Izumo continued, gaining steam now, and Kotetsu didn’t want to see the moment Izumo’s famous patience finally ran out, so he took over.

“And now you’re adding bukijutsu.” Kotetsu cut in when Izumo took a breath, giving his partner the opportunity to take a minute and remember which one of the two of them was usually the confrontational one. “Your teammates would have to be the freaking Sannin for you to need to do any ‘catching up’.”

Shino finally stopped, smacking the bokken into the ground so hard the tip buried itself in the dirt a few inches and freed his hands so he could reach up and pull his glasses off. Izumo and Kotetsu watched as he carefully wiped the lenses before slipping them into the pocket of his shirt, then pinned them both with a sharp, tired gaze that had no right to belong to a thirteen-year-old kid.

“Kiba is a poisons-specialising Inuzuka who taught himself medical ninjutsu and rejected the offer of an apprenticeship from the Godaime because he didn’t like her tone.” Shino explained cooly, the earlier annoyance nowhere in sight, his tone instead ringing with determination and cold resignation. “And Hinata regularly spars with Hatake Kakashi and survives.”

Izumo and Kotetsu exchanged a look.

They’d heard, of course they had, being friends with Genma and all, but to have it put so frankly…

“So, what do you wanna work on next?”

Hana was not liking the mission brief.

A five-man team was already sizeable for a locate-and-return type of mission, not to mention that sixty percent of said team was ANBU. From Tsunade’s explanation of what was being asked of them, the odds didn’t sound favourable to her team’s continued wellbeing, what with the last sighting being so close to Kiri territory, and worst of all, the Godaime refused to say why it was so important that they take the mission in the first place.

And then the door opened a smidge, just enough for a familiar figure to slip in, and Hana felt dread pool in her stomach.

“Am I late?” Hinata asked quietly as she closed the door behind herself, scanning the room with a far too perceptive gaze, though Hana didn’t miss the flash of apprehension in her eyes when the girl spotted Kakashi.

“No, you’re just on time.” The Godaime replied, gesturing Hinata further into the room. “You’ve been requested for this mission, but the brief wasn’t for preteen ears.”

“Requested by whom?” Mibuchi asked gruffly, eyeing Hinata appraisingly.

“Hatake, actually.” Tsunade responded, and Hana wasn’t the only one to start in surprise at the news.

“Respectfully, Kakashi-san, but surely there are other Hyuuga we could bring with us.” Mibuchi huffed, and for once, Hana didn’t actually disagree with the man.

“There are other Hyuuga.” Kakashi agreed, his voice mild as anything, then added, “But this Hyuuga can disappear, and we’ll need that where we’re going.”

At the disbelieving silence that greeted his words, Kakashi addressed Hinata directly for the first time since she walked in. “Go on, Hyuuga-chan. Show him.”

And then, right before Hana’s eyes and nose, after a moment’s hesitation, Hinata did just that. There one second, then gone the next, completely invisible, chakra stifled, and, most surprisingly, scent-less.

A shiver of unease ran up Hana’s spine, cresting at the nape of her neck – she knew only one other person capable of disappearing so completely, and Tetsuya, despite him and Hana being similar ages, had been ANBU back when Hana had still been an Academy student.

There was no way Hinata should’ve known how to do that.

“That’s enough.” Kakashi called, and, as if a switch had been flipped, Hinata reappeared, a few feet to the right of where she’d originally been standing.

Displacement, Hana realised with a start, or Shunshin, to disperse her smell as she disappeared.

She knew that, out of the gathered group, only her and Kakashi were particularly sensitive to smell, but that didn’t change the fact that Hinata had stifled her chakra, silenced her breathing, blocked her scent, used some sort of notice-me-not genjutsu and a Shunshin, all at the same time.

What Hinata had just done could have easily gotten her a Tokubetsu promotion, had they been at war-time.

She wondered if the girl realised.

“Does that explain Hinata’s presence here, Mibuchi?” Kakashi asked rhetorically, still mild, but Hana didn’t miss the fact that the question was performative at best.

“Yessir.” Mibuchi confirmed stiffly, seemingly also aware of the fact that Kakashi wasn’t going to be changing his mind on Hinata’s presence on the team.

“Now that that’s been handled,” Tsunade spoke, bringing their attention back to the fact that this was a mission briefing and they were still the Hokage’s office, “as I said earlier, your targets were last spotted around the borders between the Land of Fire, Land of Water, and Land of Whirlpools. Mission duration estimated at a week. Live capture preferable, but if worse comes to worst, they don’t need to be alive to be useful to the Yamanaka.”

Hana didn’t miss the way Hinata’s face smoothed out of all expression at that summary. She found it difficult just then to remember that the girl was the same age as Kiba; there was something older in Hinata’s eyes in that moment, a grim determination and steel in her gaze that told Hana that Mibuchi's doubts were unfounded.

“Questions?” Tsunade asked idly, and when silence greeted her words, she waved them out. “You leave ASAP.”

“Meet at the western gates in half an hour.” Was all Kakashi had to say to that, and as one, the team dispersed.

Hana only hoped that they would all get to come back to the office for the post-mission debrief.

Kakashi wasn’t blind, even though he frequently pretended not to see certain things, for various reasons.

And since the rather forceful wake-up call he’d gotten about his students courtesy of Genma and Iruka, he tried not to not-see things when they pertained to his subordinates, particularly if those subordinates happened to be half his age.

So he didn’t miss the fact that the little Hyuuga refused to make eye-contact with him. Didn’t miss the fact that she hardly spoke, unless it was to reply to something Hana had said to her. Didn’t miss the fact that she didn’t flag, didn’t stumble, didn’t complain, even when Kakashi made them run at top-speed through the night and only let them stop for two hours right before dawn. Didn’t miss the fact that she didn’t hesitate when he’d asked her to disappear again and assassinate two unaffiliated shinobi they’d heard talking about their targets.  

Most of all, he didn’t miss the fact that the girl didn’t so much as flinch when things inevitably went to shit.

If he hadn’t been so busy trying to protect Iwashi, who’d taken the brunt of the trap that had been sprang on them and, though he'd managed to remain conscious, was all-but useless in the battle that broke out immediately after, he’d have tried to pay more attention to how his other teammates were faring.

Mostly, he’d have wanted to see what a Hyuuga that fought like Uchiha Shisui could do in a melee battle.

As it was, he was peripherally aware of his teammates. Aware that Hana and the Haimaru had shot off after the two shinobi who’d tried to escape with their surviving target, the other one having been decapitated the moment they’d triggered the trap. Aware that Mibuchi wasn’t limiting his ninjutsu's range to be considerate of his teammates, trusting them to get the hell out of dodge whenever he broke out the large-scale techniques. Aware that Hinata still hadn’t released the genjutsu that hid her from view and was using the lethality of the Hyuuga Jyuuken to its full potential as she darted around the battlefield, finishing off the enemies her teammates had knocked down but hadn’t managed to kill.

And then, as quickly as it had began, it was over.

“Hinata. Perimeter.” Kakashi called, and the girl’s disembodied voice floated over to them from far closer than Kakashi had expected.

“No hostiles in the vicinity.”

“Hana?” he checked, getting a mild ‘on her way back with the other target secured’ in return.

“Good.” Kakashi nodded, still tense, not daring to relax just yet, then addressed the team at large, “Everyone alive?”

He got two grunts and a muttered affirmative, and some of the tension left his frame, though the resentment he felt towards Tsunade for not sending a medic with them stayed.

Now that the immediate hyper-focus of the battle was fading and he could have a proper look at Iwashi, the man wasn’t looking good. And his arm was likely unsalvageable.

Just then, a warning bark sounded and Hana burst from the treeline, their surviving target swung over her shoulder, unconscious from the looks of it. Hana herself looked roughed up and harrowed, but in one piece, and that was all Kakashi could hope for on missions like these.

“Frisk the bodies, seal the head. Hana, check on Iwashi, I’ll secure the target. Hinata, keep watch.” Kakashi ordered, falling into the flurry of movement his words caused with a single-minded focus.

A dozen unaffiliated shinobi this close to the Land of Fire wasn’t normal. That, and they had worked well together, covering for each other like a team, yet there was no distinctive technique or style they’d used that would’ve identified them as shinobi of a specific Village.

“Hatake-san.”

Kakashi startled, head jerking up even as his fingers twitched towards his pouch.

Hinata must’ve broken the genjutsu since he’d last looked because she stood before him now, visible and bloodied and with a growing bruise on her cheek, but conscious and whole.

And holding a boot-clad foot in her hands.

Her face was pale, but now Kakashi wondered whether it was due to the battle, or whatever it was that she’d discovered that she was now bringing to him.

“Found something?” he asked archly as he finished tying the unconscious man’s hands together with ninja wire and plastered a chakra-sealing tag on his forehead.

He studied the girl’s expression more closely and…was that fear in her eyes?

But not of him, he realised after a beat. Fear of whatever she’d found.

“What is it?” He demanded, sharper now, and Hinata extended the foot towards him, and, with the other hand – shaking, Kakashi noted with mounting concern – pointed at the spot where the toe of the boot had been ripped off.

There, on the naked, charred flesh, on the webbing between the big toe and the rest, small, but just about identifiable-

-lay the ROOT seal.

Kakashi froze.

Then, his body moving on autopilot, reacting to what it was seeing faster than his brain was processing the information, Kakashi reached for a sealing scroll, snatched the foot from Hinata’s loose hold, sealed it away, then shoved the scroll back into his pouch and activated the safety seal on that, too.

“Tell no-one.” He instructed Hinata sharply, his mind running a hundred miles a minute, trying desperately to make sense of what he'd just seen. “No-one, understand? Not until I tell you it’s safe.”

Speaking either to her shellshock or comprehension of the gravitas of the situation, the girl just nodded and turned away without a word, going back to the task he’d originally assigned her as if nothing had happened.

“Alright,” Kakashi called after he did a quick sweep of the battlefield and found nothing that would indicate that the dozen dead bodies on the ground were Konoha’s doing, “let’s head back to the Village. Hana, take point, Hinata, take the rear.”

And so they ran, taking a different route to the one they had taken out of the Village, running north along the border of Hidden Hot Water instead of straight back east in an attemot to lead any pursuers they may have picked up away from Konoha.

But two hours into their run, when Kakashi was just about to order for them to turn south, not having felt anyone following them, Hinata caught up to him, her expression oddly urgent.

“Hatake-san, requesting permission to assist an ally.”

Kakashi's focus sharpened at her wording, reading between the lines, and, though he already suspected what the answer would be, asked, “Is it a Konoha-nin?”

“...no."

“But it’s an ally?” he pressed, wondering what the Hyuuga was going to reveal next.

“Yes. A personal one." Clearly sensing that she wasn't winning herself any trust. "A…friend.”

Eye still narrowed contemplatively even as half his focus was on not-falling on his face, Kakashi pushed for more information. “How far?”

“About two kilometres north-west.”

He studied the girl as she spoke, noticing the straightness to her spine and the steel in her gaze. He had the oddest impression that the request for permission was a performance, that the girl had made her mind up and his word didn't actually matter to her.

Kakashi sighed.

Shikaku had warned him of a revolutionary, but nothing in the girl's file indicated that he'd have to watch for insubordination, too. “You may go, but I am not ordering the team to turn back to support you.”

Instead of taking it as the warning it so clearly was, the girl seemed to take it as permission, because she nodded with a curt 'understood', then blurred.

Kakashi let her get some distance, then left a Shadow Clone in his place in the team formation, and followed.

It quickly became apparent that once she’d gained his permission, Hinata had also gained a sense of urgency, because she had given up the steady pace she’d been running at for the last two hours for a dozen bursts of Shunshin that would’ve made her difficult to track if she hadn’t given Kakashi the vague direction.

Maybe that had been the point of the change, Kakashi mused, then pushed the thought aside. Hinata seemed determined to restructure the Hyuuga Clan. She wasn't defector-material.

Nevertheless, Kakashi followed, not making much of an effort to hide his presence from the girl, but she never once slowed until she reached her goal.

And then, as Kakashi finally caught up and stopped in the treeline, pulling up his forehead protector to reveal his Sharingan, an uncomfortable feeling made itself known in the bottom of his stomach when he noticed the forehead protectors of the battling shinobi.

Kumo and Kiri.

And the little Hyuuga had jumped straight into the battle without a moment’s pause, sliding into the Kiri-nin’s personal space and covering his back like it was second nature, like she’d done it a hundred times before, blocking a Kumo-nin’s sword with her bare hand and stopping his heart with the other.

Kakashi had a bad feeling about this fight, and that was before Hinata flashed to a branch only a few metres to his left, three Kiri genin in her arms, clearly aware of his presence for all that she didn’t even acknowledge him, and didn’t so much as pause before jumping back into the fray to assist her Ice-Release wielding friend.  

Kakashi regretted requesting the girl for this mission.

Not because of her behaviour, or even the choice to get into battle with Kumo-nin in defence of a Kiri-nin she had no reason to know, but because of what he will have to put her through once they get back to the Village.

Her and Kurenai both.

Hinata probably should’ve paused, should’ve thought more about her actions, should’ve evaluated pros and cons, should’ve at the very least acknowledged that Kakashi had decided to follow her.

But she didn’t.

Instead, she jumped into the battle, slid into Haku’s space, blocked the flat of a Kumo-nin’s blade with the palm of her hand and struck out with her other hand to stop the man's heart, letting him drop to the ground at her feet.

“Hinata-san,” Haku panted as he manoeuvred around a rock-covered fist and slapped a hand to another Kumo-nin’s shoulder, freezing and immobilising the joint, then blew a gust of wind into the man's face. “I have never been more glad to see anyone.”

“I saw your distress signal.” Hinata murmured back, weaving the completed form of the first original genjutsu Kurenai had taught her around two of the meanest-looking Kumo-nin and releasing it in a net of concentrated intent, along with two poison-dipped senbon Kiba had gifted her before he'd left.  “How can I help?”

Haku executed a complicated-looking taijutsu move and sent a Kumo kunoichi flying into one of the trees. “Do you remember what we talked about that first day on the cliff?”

Hinata remembered.

"If I wished to, I could freeze my enemies' blood right in their veins.”

She also noticed that Haku was flagging, his chakra reserves lower than they should’ve been, clearly drained from the fight and from maintaining the protective ice-dome around the genin under his protection. So, much like she had to Kiba after their fight with the Akatsuki, she pressed her hand to the middle of the other teen’s lower back, to the big chakra-point just above the tailbone, and adjusted her chakra as well as she could to his wavelength.

“A boost.” She murmured when she felt Haku tense beneath her hand, “To do what needs to be done.”

“You are far kinder than I deserve.” Haku replied, a weight behind his words that Hinata chose not to read in to. “Will you take the genin a safe distance away? I can’t afford distractions with this. I promise I won’t let you get hurt by my technique.”

Hinata chanced a glance at the ice dome that was keeping the genin from harm, startled to realise that she recognised one of the girls on the team. The girl that had reminded her of Hanabi, whose team she’d left alive after murdering their sensei, back when her and Shino were making their way back to Konoha after having miraculously survived the Akatsuki.

“On three?” she asked instead of contemplating that thought any further and felt more than saw Haku nod.  

“One,” Haku counted as he batted away a volley of shuriken with the flat of his tanto, “two,” Hinata lashed out with a kick and threw a Water Bullet when she saw one of the Kumo-nin make the signs for a Fire technique, using the resulting steam to hide the three kunai she threw at his groin, “three!”

Hinata jumped towards the genin just as Haku released his control over the dome. She grabbed all three children as well as she could and flash-stepped one-two-three to a branch not too far from where Kakashi was hiding, depositing the children there and bringing a finger to her lips even as with her other hand she wove a notice-me-not genjutsu over them.

She knew Kakashi must have noticed her or at the very least sensed where the genin had landed, but she didn’t let herself get anxious about it, hoping that Kakashi’s moral compass wouldn’t allow him to hurt the genin or allow them to get hurt even if they were not genin he was directly tasked with protecting.

Then, Hinata jumped right back down to where Haku was, feeling the temperature difference significantly as she touched down, though Haku kept his word and kept her out of the range of his technique.

Although Haku hadn’t mentioned it, after a few seconds it became clear to Hinata’s eyes that, while having their blood frozen in their veins was painful, it wasn’t immediately fatal to the Kumo-nin, particularly not for the two who seemed more stone than human, a thick coating of rock covering their skin.

Haku, even with the boost of chakra she’d given him, was pale in the face and panting, teetering on the edge of chakra exhaustion after pulling off this final technique, so Hinata weighed their options and decided to take matters into her own hands.

Summoning her Twin Lion Fists technique, she flashed to where the one of remaining Kumo-nin was still standing and drove her chakra-encased fist into the man’s chest. She didn’t wait around for him to fall, well-aware that the second Kumo-nin had noticed and was already moving; instead, she flashed again, meeting him half way, and drove her fist into his abdomen just as his rock-covered fist sank into her side.

Hinata coughed, her lips and lungs burning with the icy air of Haku’s technique, but she remained on her feet while the Kumo-nin toppled to the ground, his technique dispersing as he lost control of his chakra, the skin revealed by the crumbling rock beginning to turn black from the extreme cold.

Hinata waited a beat, but the clearing was finally still, the Kumo-nin dead or dying, but no longer a threat.

She deactivated her Byakugan and slowly turned to face Haku, an apology on the tip of her tongue-

-only to find herself being pulled into a rough hug, Haku’s hands cold even through the layers of her thick jacket, his hold around her shoulders tight and desperate, yet his embrace was solid, comforting.

“Thank you.” Haku whispered into her hair, his voice soft and thin but the gratitude in it genuine.

Not trusting her own voice just then, Hinata merely wrapped her own arms around the boy’s waist and squeezed briefly, wondering why she didn’t feel any discomfort in doing so.

She didn’t really know Haku, she hadn’t known him in her first life, she’d just witnessed him kill five Kumo-nin with one technique, yet she didn’t fear him. More than that, she felt safe, even though they were still in the middle of the battlefield, Haku’s genin and Kakashi mere feet away.

Kakashi.

Realising with a start that they weren’t alone, Hinata let go and stepped back, prompting Haku to do the same. The smile he directed at her when she dared meet his eyes was warm and grateful, and Hinata couldn’t stand it.

She took another step back.

“G-get back safe.” She managed, the only acknowledgement that Haku had spoken she was able to give.

Haku’s smile fell back into the placid, polite expression he’d donned when she’d first met him, and Hinata realised that he, too, had remembered that their friendship wasn’t a normal one.

Konoha and Kiri weren’t at war, but they weren’t allies.

Yet Hinata had just helped eliminate a small platoon of Kumo shinobi to save a Kiri team.

“Likewise.” Haku murmured, then, with a final glance that she didn’t dare meet, disappeared, and a moment later, Hinata felt the three genin’s chakra signatures disappear as well.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, glancing briefly at her hands. By the way her heart was still hammering in her chest, she felt like they should’ve been shaking, but they were still.

Scraped and bloodied, but without a single tremble in sight.

A moment later, she felt more than saw Kakashi touch down beside her.

There was a sigh, then she felt Kakashi touch the back of her neck, and a moment later, she stopped being able to feel her chakra.

“I want you to understand that I really don’t want to do this.” Kakashi told her when she rounded on him, alarmed, and if she was reading the look in his eyes right, he was genuinely apologetic. “But I have to take you in to T&I.”

Then, Hinata’s world went dark.

Chapter Text

When Hinata came to, she kept her eyes closed, taking a moment to get her bearings. 

The first thing she noticed was that she couldn’t feel her chakra, and felt her heart rate pick up in response. The second was that whatever room she was in was cool and damp, and the surface she was lying on was cold and hard, only a thin sheet separating her skin from what seemed to be a metal frame. 

With a start, she remembered the events of the final few seconds before she’d passed out – or been knocked out? – and she sat up in alarm. 

T&I. 

Her eyes snapped open and panic began to claw at her lungs and throat when she was greeted with the sight of stone walls, and only the cot she was lying on and a metal toilet and sink to furnish the room.

Or rather, cell. 

Because that was undeniably where she currently found herself: in a cell in Torture and Interrogation. 

Hinata was distantly aware that she’d began hyperventilating, her breathing the only sound in the otherwise silent cell, her heaving breaths echoing eerily off the stone walls. 

Only three walls were stone, she noted with the part of her mind that wasn’t panicking, the fourth taken up by floor-to-ceiling metal bars, leaving no doubt as to the fact that she was currently a prisoner. 

Hinata put her head between her knees and wove her fingers into her hair, pulling harshly in a desperate attempt to ground herself. She was too lightheaded to think, too terrified to objectively evaluate her situation and decide how much trouble she was going to be in if they brought in a Yamanaka. 

Or if they’d already brought one in while she’d been unconscious. 

“Hinata.”

Hinata jumped, startled, her hand automatically flying to her senbon holster, only to brush up against the fabric of her trousers, her weapons pouches gone.

Tense and defenceless, she let go of her hair and jerked her head up towards the voice, only to almost double over with relief at the sight that greeted her. 

“K-Kagane-san!” She breathed, the words almost a whimper, and pushed to her feet, swaying only slightly at the unexpected headrush the movement brought.

“Are you injured?” Kagane inquired, her sharp gaze missing little, and Hinata shook her head as she made her way towards the woman, stopping an arms’ length away from the metal bars. 

“O-only bruised.” she replied, though now that she was thinking about it, she realised that the place where she’d gotten hit by the Kumo-nin’s rock-covered fist was throbbing with a dull, constant pain. 

Probably more than bruised, but she couldn’t afford to think about it now. 

“How are you feeling?” Kagane probed instead, clearly deciding against questioning Hinata’s assessment of her state. 

Hinata bit her lip, wondering whether to lie or be honest, then took a deep breath. This was Kagane-san; Hinata hadn’t lied to the woman about her mental state yet, and she wasn’t about to start. 

“Scared.” she whispered, the admission falling from her lips like a confession, but Kagane merely nodded, no judgement in her gaze, instead looking as if she’d expected the answer.

Then: “Do you know why you’re here?”

“No.” Hinata replied honestly, because while she knew who’d likely brought her to T&I, she didn’t fully understand what she’d done to deserve it. “Should I?”

Kagane’s expression didn’t change, but Hinata got the oddest impression that the woman softened slightly. 

“When you decided to help the Kiri-nin.” Kagane began, her eyes never leaving Hinata’s face, cataloguing every reaction and microexpression. “Were you coerced by anyone? Threatened? Under genjutsu?”

“N-no!” Hinata denied, waving her hands in front of herself as if to dispel the sheer notion that she hadn’t acted out of her own free will. “Kagane-san, what-?”

“They need proof that you were of sound mind.” Kagane cut in, and Hinata shut her mouth with an audible snap. “I’m no Yamanaka, but you’ve been my patient for over a year. I know you, Hinata.”

Kagane met her gaze and, from the woman’s expression alone, Hinata had no delusions as to the severity of the situation. 

“They will take my word for it without the need for a Mind Walk.” Kagane reassured her, and Hinata swayed at the weight that came off her shoulders at the words. “But I need you to be completely honest with me.”

Hinata nodded wordlessly, too relieved to speak, and held Kagane’s gaze expectantly.

“The Kiri-nin.” Kagane began, and Hinata held her breath as she waited for the woman to finish. “Why did you help him?”

Hinata released the breath she’d been holding and took another one, deeper, letting it out slowly. 

“It was Haku.” she admitted when she was finally ready.

“Ah.” Kagane uttered, the single word encompassing multitudes, the corner of her lips quirking up wryly. “Of all the Kiri-nin...”

Hinata felt her own lips twitch, but her fear of her predicament kept her from fully sharing in the rare show of humour from her shrink. She took another deep breath, steadying herself, and elaborated, sharing with Kagane what she hadn’t admitted before.

“During the Exams, he told me Kumo used to hunt his Clan.” She whispered, dropping her gaze from Kagane’s and wrapping her arms around herself, not wanting the woman to see the wave of anger that washed over her at the memory. “The same way they hunted mine to get the Byakugan.”

Kagane was silent for a moment, then she sighed, but her voice, when she spoke, was inflectionless, factual. “You related to him.”

Hinata’s eyes jumped to Kagane’s then, needing to see what the woman was thinking, but Kagane’s poker face was better than Kurenai’s. 

“He uses senbon for the same reason I do.” Hinata said, her words almost pleading, needing Kagane to understand. “A-and- it was Kumo that attacked him-!”

“And even you’re not so nice as to not hold a grudge for something like that, I get it.” Kagane cut her off, though not unkindly. If anything, she seemed almost proud for a second, though she sobered quickly. “I can’t promise that there won’t be consequences from your decision, however.” 

When Hinata blinked, startled by the unexpected urgency in Kagane’s voice, the woman sighed again. 

“You aided a foreign-nin, Hinata.” She explained flatly, finally shedding a light as to why Hinata found herself in T&I. “Without explicit orders to do so.”

When Hinata just stared, processing the realisation that she wasn’t being imprisoned for her time-travel, Kagane smiled humourlessly, misunderstanding the reason for her bafflement. “Inter-Village individual friendships aren’t exactly common. But I guess you are part of the peace-time generation.”

Hinata let the words sit for a beat, basking in the relief she was still feeling, then refocused on the situation at hand. Even though helping Haku was much easier to explain than the fact that she’d lived once before, she was still in T&I.

Making eye-contact with Kagane, for once feeling entirely like the child she now looked like, she couldn’t help but ask, “Am I in trouble?”

This time, it was undeniable that Kagane softened slightly. 

“Many people are in your corner.” She told Hinata sagely, and the certainty in her voice was reassuring. Grounding. “But you might be called in for questioning at some point.”

Hinata didn’t want to ask, didn’t want to remind Kagane of the possibility, but she had to know. “And…the Yamanaka?”

Kagane smiled, and her expression was proud and smug. 

“Won’t be necessary.” She told Hinata curtly, and that was definitely satisfaction in her gaze. “You didn’t even think to lie to me.”

Naruto made his way down the corridor Mitarashi-san had indicated, doing his level best to repress a shiver. 

No matter how many times he walked through T&I with Sasuke, the place never stopped being creepy. And yes, he knew that was the point, shut up, Sasuke, but still. 

He let out a relieved sigh when he finally found the cell number Mitarashi-san had told him, though he stopped just out of sight.

Hinata was…meditating?

She didn’t look the way Sasuke had told him the prisoners Mitarashi-san had allowed him to see had looked. Though her clothes were stained and bloodied and she was sitting behind literal bars, her face and hands were completely clean, the skin pinkish, as if having been scrubbed raw, and the way her hair was pulled back for once allowed him to see the expression of utter tranquillity on her face. 

It was almost eerie. 

“Naruto-san?”

Naruto jumped, having missed the moment Hinata must’ve sensed him somehow, because when he refocused, he found Hinata looking back at him, her eyes wide with clear surprise and something that looked uncomfortably like apprehension. 

“Uh, hi Hinata!” Naruto managed, waving reflexively, Hinata’s gaze unnerving in its intensity. 

“What are you doing here?” Hinata asked, not losing any of that sharp-edged focus, and Naruto fought the urge to fidget, finding Hinata’s scrutiny almost as intimidating as Raido-san’s.

“Thought I’d come visit you!” Naruto explained, shooting the girl a grin he hoped was friendly instead of creepy. “Kaka-sensei said you might like some company and Mitarashi-san told me where to find you, so here I am!”

Hinata just stared at him for a beat, looking oddly like Sakura’s poisons guy just then with the utter stillness of her face and body. Then, she sighed, an almost reluctant-looking smile worming its way onto her face. 

“You’re very kind, Naruto-san.” she murmured, and Naruto felt himself flush. “How have you been?”

Naruto paused, eyeing Hinata carefully, then decided to just ask. “Do you actually want to know, or is this one of these questions old people ask to be polite?”

And Hinata laughed, the sound quiet though not unkind, and when she met Naruto’s gaze again, her eyes were warm. “I genuinely want to know. You’re a good storyteller.”

Naruto spluttered, feeling his cheeks heat, then crossed his legs and unceremoniously sat himself down by the barred wall, launching into a recount of what had happened in his life since the last time he’d seen Hinata.  

It was rare he had a captive audience, after all. And even rarer still when said audience was a very pretty girl who was actively listening to his every word.

Sasuke was walking with Anko to the cafeteria, having finally managed to drag the woman away from the reports on Sound sightings at the southern borders of the Land of Fire, when there was a commotion around the main entrance. 

The door to the lower level of T&I banged open and Team Eight’s sensei stalked through, looking like a woman on a warpath. 

Anko cursed quietly upon catching sight of Yuhi, eyes intent on the direction the other woman was heading in, then pulled Sasuke along, veering them off their path to the canteen. 

“Kurenai, stop!” she called, and Sasuke reckoned it was a testament to the friendship between the two women that Yuhi listened and slowed down long enough to allow them to catch up.

“You can’t see her.” Anko said the moment they were close enough that she didn’t have to shout, and Yuhi’s expression immediately soured. “You need to step away while you still can.”

“I can’t see my own student?'' Though the words were said calmly, Sasuke didn’t think he was imagining the undercurrent of threat in Yuhi’s voice, and Anko definitely didn’t miss it either. 

“She’s not your student anymore. She’s a chunin, she made her own decisions, and seeing her now will only make things worse for both of you.” Anko replied sharply, then seeming to realise that it was not what Yuhi wanted to hear, softened marginally, “Sorry, Rei, I-!” 

“Don’t.” Team Eight’s sensei cut Anko off, holding up her hand and screwing her eyes shut for a second before she let out a breath and shot Anko what seemed like an apologetic smile, though it was closer to a grimace. “I’m- trying to remember this is your job, and you’re just doing your job. Don’t make it harder.”

And Sasuke watched as whatever softness had been on Anko’s face vanished, a cool mask settling over her features, the expression in her eyes growing cold and flat. A mask more effective than the porcelain of the ANBU, and despite the earlier admission of friendship, Sasuke reckoned that Hinata’s sensei was currently too preoccupied with her own situation to notice Anko’s withdrawal. 

“Then let me offer some professional advice.” This time, Team Eight’s sensei flinched, some of her earlier anger abating as her gaze snapped to Anko’s face, but Sasuke knew it was too late.

“Those who were against giving you a promotion, much less a team, will use this against you. Hyuuga’s decision, on the backdrop of your past, particularly your actions after your sensei’s death, looks less like a spontaneous but well-intentioned choice of a kind kid and more like a soldier carefully groomed to eventually help her teacher commit treason.”

Sasuke twitched, fighting the instinct to turn and stare at Anko incredulously. It seemed ridiculous that someone could accuse Hinata of treason.

…Right?

“Walk away before someone here decides to shove you in a cell, too.” Anko concluded, her voice cold and hard and the very opposite of friendly.

And Team Eight’s sensei, a woman so dangerously feminine that Sasuke couldn’t help but think back to his own mother, cursed, a string of words so ugly and vicious falling from her mouth that Sasuke winced at the crude words before he could catch himself. 

But, with one final, betrayed look at Anko, the woman spun on her heel and stormed back towards the door, out of T&I, and Sasuke only noticed the tension that had gathered in Anko’s shoulders when it loosened once the door slammed shut behind Yuhi. 

He decided to give his senpai the time to collect herself, seeing as it looked like she had forgotten he was next to her, then, once Anko looked more like her usual self, Sasuke spoke. 

“Would someone have?” he asked, pretending not to see the way Anko’s hand twitched towards her hip at the sound of his voice. When she glanced at him, eyebrow raised, he elaborated with a huff; “Shoved her in a cell?”

“…Not out of their own will.” Anko replied after a beat, her gaze even more scrutinising than usual before she seemed to deem him worthy of the information. “But she is in a precarious position.”

She frowned then, staring at the door Team Eight’s sensei had slammed behind herself, then shook herself off and pinned Sasuke with a weighted look. “And that’s all you’re getting out of me.”

Sasuke, more than used to the fact that Anko occasionally clammed up on him at this point, simply nodded, wondering who he could recruit to help him figure out what Team Eight’s sensei had done in the past to put her in such a ‘precarious’ position. 

Then, another thought occurred to him, and it was Sasuke’s turn to frown as he mulled it over. 

“What’s that look on your face for?” 

Sasuke bit back a startled curse, not having realised that Anko was still watching him, and unlike Kakashi, who, even if he noticed his students’ moods, rarely commented, Anko had never let him get away with keeping his moods to himself. 

“Nothing.” He tried regardless, not willing to admit what his brain had jumped to. But when Anko’s eyebrow merely hiked up her forehead and her expression told him she wouldn’t be letting the subject drop anytime soon, Sasuke sighed. “I just- even now, I don’t think Kakashi would do that for us.” 

He didn’t think he needed to elaborate on what ‘that’ meant. Then, unable to quite hold back on the bitterness in his voice, he added: “He’s made it quite clear he never wanted students.”

Anko hummed, the same forced-neutral sound she usually adopted when the topic of Sasuke’s sensei came up. 

“Let me let you in on something I don’t think anyone’s told you yet.” She offered, turning so she was fully facing Sasuke and frowning down at him thoughtfully. “Hatake’s like a burr. Once he attaches himself, he’ll burn the world to the ground before he gives up on you.”

Sasuke twitched, not having expected that of all things to be a quality his senpai would attach to his sensei. 

Kakashi with attachments? Kakashi caring about other people beyond the official capacity of a senior officer? 

He’s learnt to trust Anko’s judgement, trust Anko, over the months she’s been his mentor in T&I, but that seemed…farfetched. 

Anko smiled at whatever she could see play out on his face, a tiny, sardonic quirk to her lip that was almost sad as she gazed at him. Then, she reached out, wrapping her hand around the nape of Sasuke’s neck and finally steering them both back towards the cafeteria, and Sasuke realised with a start that he’d forgotten that had been the plan before they were interrupted. 

“Not many people get that questionable honour, though.” Anko murmured, her gaze ahead, but her words undeniably for Sasuke’s benefit. “And fewer yet survive it. I wouldn’t take it personally.”

And Sasuke, albeit occasionally accused of harbouring slightly masochistic inclinations by the grief counsellor from Psych Anko had made him sign up with if decided he was serious about being her mentee, didn’t bother asking if Anko would ever do something like that for him. 

The warmth of her hand on his neck, her insistence on him seeing the grief counsellor in the first place, the fact that, even if she couldn’t tell him things directly sometimes, she always encouraged him to find the answer himself, and rewarded him when he succeeded – they all spoke for themselves. 

“I’m not.” Sasuke finally replied, aware that far too much time has passed between Anko’s comment and his response for it not to sound disjointed, but he knew Anko understood when she glanced down at him curiously. “Naruto has Raido-san and Iruka. Sakura has Shiranui, and the Godaime’s assistant, and the ANBU grandmas-”

Anko laughed, startled and genuine- 

“-I’m not sure the survivors of the first ever ANBU squad would take too kindly to being reduced to ‘ANBU grandmas’, Uchiha-!” 

“-and I have you.”

Anko’s laughter cut off abruptly, the hand she still had on Sasuke’s nape spasming briefly before it settled, but tellingly didn’t move. 

This time, it was Sasuke who kept his eyes ahead, feet moving with intention, keeping their momentum going even when Anko seemed like she wanted to stop and absorb the unexpected confession. 

Finally, when they were almost at the door to the canteen, Anko responded, her voice ever-so-slightly more choked up than before, but the grip of her hand on Sasuke’s neck warm and comforting. 

“…Brat.”

Tsunade watched the Hyuuga girl be led into her office, her hands cuffed in front of her in chakra restraints, her clothes rumpled and bloodied.

They hadn't let her change from mission gear.

But beyond a minute widening of her eyes as she took in the crowd gathered in Tsunade's office, the girl seemed mostly nonplussed, her posture lax and expression placid to the point where Tsunade couldn't tell if she was hiding whatever nerves she had at being brought before the Hokage, the Head of T&I, and the Nara and Yamanaka Clan Heads, or dissociating.

Tsunade didn't, however, miss the frown that made itself known on Kagane's face as the woman doubtless noticed what Tsunade herself was seeing. Her only comfort was that Kagane had been brought in to observe only, saving them from hearing the woman’s thoughts on her patient’s state. And given that Kagane was standing off to the side, hidden from view of the main door, Tsunade doubted the little Hyuuga even noticed her shrink's presence, given that she was currently deprived of her chakra sense and dojutsu.

"Hyuuga," Tsunade began, not seeing much point to delay any further once the Intel-nin who brought the girl in shut the door and left, "do you know why you're here?"

"No, Tsunade-sama." The girl replied quietly, but her voice, much like her posture, was calm and steady.

"Do you know why you've spent the last 48 hours in a holding cell?" Tsunade pressed, curious despite herself at the fact that the girl didn’t even hesitate. 

"No, Tsunade-sama."

"Not even a guess?"

The girl remained silent, and Tsunade reluctantly commended the Hyuuga for her discipline, even if she would’ve preferred Naruto’s brand of dealing with authority just then; the silence and stillness of the Hyuuga was disconcerting. Unnatural. 

"Can you explain, in your own words, the events following the completion of your main mission, on the journey back to the Village?" She asked instead, deciding to get down to business. 

"I was scanning the area with my Byakugan when I picked up a distress call from a familiar chakra signature. I requested to diverge from the route back to help out. The request was granted." The girl relayed evenly, sounding like she was reading from a pre-written report and not being questioned by the Hokage in front of her team captain, the Jounin Commander, the Head of Intelligence, and the Head of T&I.

"Your team leader's report reads 'go, but I am not ordering the team to support you'.” Tsunade quoted, staring at the report in question and wondering absently how Hatake had gotten as far as he had in his career with such awful penmanship. “Can you confirm that?"

"Yes."

"And you went regardless." It wasn’t a question and the girl seemed to know that, seeing as she remained silent. "That's some confidence in your abilities." 

This observation also went without comment from the Hyuuga, and at this point, Tsunade was beginning to get frustrated, so her tone was less factual when she next spoke. 

"Kiri is not an ally. You split off from your squad, all of whom were your seniors in age and rank, to aid an unknown shinobi from an unallied Village, who, up until recently, was a mercenary alongside Momochi Zabuza." She listed, voice sharp, then eyed the girl consideringly. "Objections to that summary?"

"No, ma'am." 

Tsunade repressed a twitch, belatedly remembering the only other brat who’d had the nerve to ‘ma’am’ her. Figures that they’d be teammates. 

"Do you know what your behaviour could be called?" She asked instead, not dropping her eyes from the Hyuuga, though the girl didn’t so much as twitch under the continued scrutiny. "Desertion. Treason, even. Anything to say to that?"

"No, ma'am."

Resisting the urge to grind her teeth, Tsunade picked up the letter that was responsible for three of the five headaches she’d had to heal so far that day. 

"This is the only reason it's not being called that." She told the Hyuga, letting her see the Kiri seal on the envelope. "This is a letter with an offer for a provisional military alliance between Konoha and Kiri, signed and sealed by the Fifth Mizukage herself."

She let the silence ring in the office for a moment, feeling Morino and Hatake’s shock at the announcement, Shikaku and Inoichi being the only ones she’d told about the letter beforehand. 

"Did you know the kid you saved had enough weight with the Mizukage to get us something like that? Had he said anything of the sort in his letters?" She asked, her tone sharp, her words demanding, but the Hyuuga shook her head again. 

Like Tsunade had known she would, even, because she’d personally combed through the copies Intel had made of the letters the girl had exchanged with the Kiri-nin in question, and they’d all been entirely devoid of any identifying details or sensitive information. 

But the girl still made a point of replying with a quiet, "No, ma’am."

"Then why did you help him?!" Tsunade couldn’t help but ask, the words ripped out of her, staring at the girl in a desperate attempt to understand her reasoning, unwilling to believe that what Kagane had written in her report could really be it.

The Hyuuga took a breath then, seeming to count five seconds, then let it out, and when she spoke next, it was to murmur, "Because Haku is my friend."

The silence that rang after this declaration was louder and more disbelieving than after Tsunade’s announcement of an unprecedented offer for an alliance with Kirigakure. 

"Do you hear how childish that sounds?" Morino demanded, his harsh, booming voice ripping mercilessly through the silence that had fallen in the office, and for the first time since she’d walked in, something other than placid acceptance flashed through the Hyuuga’s eyes.

Something that looked almost like anger. 

"Respectfully,” She began, and if she were anybody else, Tsunade was certain her tone would’ve been far from respectful, “but I am a child."

The disbelieving silence was replaced with a hot burst of shame when Tsunade realised that the girl was right. 

On the backdrop of the men gathered in the room, it was obvious that she wasn't smaller and slighter by virtue of being a woman, but because she was barely a teenager. 

And Tsunade had forgotten.

Judging by the slightly stricken faces of the gathered adults, she wasn't the only one. 

Kagane, when Tsunade glanced at her, looked almost smug, however, so Tsunade mentally retracted her assumption that everyone had forgotten the Hyuuga's actual age.

“There is one more thing.” Tsunade announced, electing to barrel on instead of dwell on the startling realisation that the girl single-handedly leading the revolution against the Hyuuga Main House has barely entered puberty. 

“The Mizukage claims that one of the genin you helped save through your intervention recognised your chakra. Said that about six months ago, you killed their jounin sensei, but left them under genjutsu and allowed them to escape.”

The girl paled, the first proper reaction she’d showed since stepping foot into Tsunade’s office, so Tsunade continued.

“The Mizukage has offered you a boon, of sorts, within reason, of course. Given that it’s the second time you’ve ‘helped her people’.” Tsuande hadn’t intended for her words to be so pointed, but she caught Shikaku’s sharp look from the corner of her eye and took a breath. “So, Hyuuga, is there anything you’d want?”

It was a trick question and everyone in the room knew it. There was nothing that the girl could reasonably ask of the Mizukage; the correct response here was to say ‘no, thank you’ and appreciate that she was getting off easy for something that the Elders had already tried to push Tsunade to strip the Hyuuga off her rank for. 

But then, after a few seconds of thought, the girl opened her mouth, and Tsunade went still. 

“The jounin sensei of the Kiri team in Kumo has a Byakugan eye.” The girl murmured, her words quiet and even, but the look in her eyes chilling Tsunade to the bone. “I would like him to return it.”

It felt as if the temperature in the room had dropped at least ten degrees, and it was suddenly so quiet that Tsunade could hear Shizune’s pen scritch across the page in the adjacent room, through the closed door. 

“I need you to be very, very careful with what you say next,” she began, pinning the Hyuuga with a weighed gaze, “but how do you know that?”

“I briefly used my dojutsu in the final round of the knockout stage.” the girl confessed, still so impossibly, infuriatingly calm. “The Byakugan is…recognisable.”

“...I’ll ask.” Tsunade finally agreed, not knowing what else to say. “But, Hyuuga, that is an insane request.” 

“Perhaps.” The girl allowed quietly, a telling concession all things considered, though her expression didn’t change. “But it is my request.”

At that, Tsunade had no choice but to laugh, short and sharp and snide. 

“Yeah, no, I’m never sending you on a diplomatic mission.” She huffed, the tension in the room breaking along with her composure. “Ibiki, take off her cuffs.”

When Ibiki belatedly moved to do just that, Tsunade allowed herself a few seconds to study the Hyuuga now that she wasn’t being cross-examined.

She had the uncomfortable suspicion that the girl was, in fact, dissociating, or at the very least suppressing whatever she was feeling to an unhealthy degree. She was too still, too calm; even Hatake had been more emotive than she had, for all that the man had a mask that covered three-quarters of his face. 

“Hyuuga.” Tsunade called when Ibiki was done, drawing the girl’s attention back to herself. “Individual inter-Village friendships are not common. Few in the Village would have been aware of the correspondence you’ve had going with the Kiri-nin prior to this incident. If you don’t want to develop a certain reputation, I’d be more careful with how you show your allegiance.”

The girl tensed, the reaction far more visible now that she’d relaxed briefly at being freed from the cuffs, but Tsunade barrelled on, merciless now, needing the girl to understand. 

“Hatake’s soft on you so I’m unsure of his objectivity in this, which is why I need you to know that if anyone else had been your captain, your actions would’ve been reported as unequivocal treason.” She paused, waiting for any objections from Hatake, but none came. “Do you understand?”

The girl met her gaze and held for a beat, something steely passing through her pale eyes, but eventually she nodded, offering a resolute, “Yes, ma’am.”

Huffing again at the title, Tsunade waved the girl off. “Alright, scram, and I better not see you here for at least a week.”

Some life finally returning to her, the girl nearly tripped over her feet in her haste to get out of the office, and only then seemed to notice Kagane’s presence in the room, if her miniscule pause was any indication. 

But she carried on with no visible acknowledgement of the other woman, opening the door and slipping out, stifling her chakra the moment she was past the threshold and letting a sealless Shunshin carry her away in a show of coordinated chakra-manipulation Tsunade was going to have to discuss with Yuhi at some point, because those were not baby-chunin level skills.

Tsunade let out a relieved sigh once the girl disappeared from sight, but it caught in her throat when Shiranui Genma slipped into the room right before the door closed behind the Hyuuga, melting out of the shadows in the way only the veteran ANBU seemed to be capable of. 

“Hokage-sama, good afternoon, I just have a quick question to Shikaku-san.” He greeted jovially, though when he turned to Shikaku, the good humour melted from his face. “I thought we had agreed to keep Hinata's presence in T&I on the down low.”

Tsunade didn’t miss the way Shikaku stood up straighter at that. “Yes. We did.”

“Then why is half the Village whispering about the Hyuuga heiress being a deserter?” 

Shiranui’s tone was idle, but at this point Tsunade knew better than to believe that tone. 

Then, the man’s words registered fully, and she stilled. “They're what.”

“The only people aware of the full extent of Hinata's situation are the ones in this room.” Shikaku replied, but he was alert now, serious in a way he hadn’t been when the Hyuuga was being interrogated. “T&I had been informed about the delicate nature of this case, and Kakashi claimed his teammates all agreed to camp out at his compound until given the all-clear. The options for who leaked the news are not plentiful.”

“Only four people in T&I have been made aware of the reasons behind Hyuuga’s presence in the holding cell, and I know for sure it's none of them.” Ibiki added, a finality to his words that drew everyone’s attention. 

“How can you be certain?” Kakashi asked, speaking for the first time since he’d stepped foot into the office, and the smile that stretched Ibiki’s face was far from pleasant. 

“One of them is Anko.”

Tsunade winced, having been made aware of Mitarashi’s particular background. She reckoned that Morino’s certainty was justified - if anybody in the Village would be willing to protect someone from being judged prematurely for associating with ‘the enemy’, it would be the woman whose credibility and career had been nearly destroyed by Orochimaru’s desertion. 

“Expand, then.” Shiranui suggested, and Tsunade wondered at who had cultivated the sharp mind she now glimpsed behind the usual lackadaisical facade. “Who actually knows about Hinata even knowing the Mist-in?”

Shikaku stilled.

"What?" Kakash demanded sharply, spotting the reaction at the same time Tsunade did.

“The signature on the T&I admission form.” Shikaku managed as he pushed away from the wall and headed to Tsunade’s desk, his voice sounding far-away, his mind likely already ten leagues ahead of the rest of the room. 

He began rifling through the paperwork this situation had already created, and when he found what he'd been looking for, he cursed and fell back onto the chair opposite Tsunade's desk, sighing and raising a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose.

Tsunade snatched the paper and pulled it towards herself, eyes scanning the document – an entry log of the Hyuuga’s arrival to and internment in T&I – until she came across what Shikaku had already figured out:

Signed by: Yamanaka Fuu

"...Oh, fuck."

"This is bigger than we realised." Shikaku announced after Hatake, Yamanaka, and Ibiki had all looked at the entry log, his voice slightly muffled as he ran his hand down his face. "Now it's not just someone actively sabotaging a Clan heiress, it's someone playing on Village-wide assumptions to sabotage and get away with it."

Shikaku straightened and ran his gaze over everyone in the room, sweeping over Kakashi, Ibiki, Inoichi, and Genma, then coming to rest on Tsunade. 

"Nobody blinked at this signature. Even I skipped right past it the first time I saw it.” He began, the corner of his lips twisting in a bitter smile. “Why?" 

"For the same reason nobody used to blink at Uchiha in the red-light district.” He continued, the earlier question entirely rhetorical. “Because they're probably with the police force. Why nobody blinks at Aburame loitering around the hospital's greenhouses. Because bugs. Why nobody blinks at Inuzuka having twice as many disorderly conduct complaints than the other Clans – ninken nature, rather than issues with anger management."

Shikaku sighed explosively, frustration evident. "We see Yamanaka on Psych or Intel or T&I documentation and we don't think twice."

"Those assumptions are systemic, though." Shiranui pointed out, the first one to dare break the silence after Shikaku’s declaration. 

"Yes.” Shikaku agreed, a humourless smile on his face. “And they're played to by someone really familiar with the system."

"But what does Shimura gain from sabotaging the Hyuuga kid's reputation?" Tsunade asked, standing up and moving so she was leaning back against her desk instead of sitting behind it, and crossing her arms at the startled glances the question got her. 

"What? I didn't approve for the general public to find out about this. Whoever did this clearly wasn't scared of going behind my back and me finding out about it, and there are not many people who are moronic enough to do that."

"It...depends." Shikaku offered after a beat, and Tsunade could tell he had an idea in the works, but was, for whatever reason, hesitant to put it out there. 

“On?” She pressed, not having any of the same reservations. 

“On how far back this goes.” Shikaku revealed, then, turning to Shiranui, added, “I spoke to Shibi.”

Turning to face Tsunade, Shikaku steepled his fingers and leaned back in his seat, meeting Tsunade’s eyes evenly. 

"When Shikamaru was born, Shibi already had a son. Then, a few years later, Shibi suddenly had two kids, the second one older than the first. Then, one day, the older one disappeared. Shibi never said why and we never asked because, well," Shikaku smiled sharply, though the expression was devoid of humour, "assumptions that any sort of asking wouldn't be welcome, because Aburame."

Kakashi huffed a quiet breath, a ghost of a laugh, if that, and Shikaku carried on, “But when I spoke with him last week, on Shiranui's advice, I asked.”

“Turns out the second child was the son of Shibi's clansman, Mifune, who had a unique version of their Clan's insect colonies. One he passed on to his only son.” Tsunade sucked in a quiet breath at that, having an inkling as to where Shikaku was going with this and dreading the thought.

“As you’ve probably guessed, ROOT somehow caught wind of this unusual colony, offered the man a spot in the ranks outright. He refused on the grounds that he had a young son to care for.” Shikaku smiled bitterly then, and Tsunade fought a shiver at the haunting expression. “Two months later, he and most of his team were KIA on a mission. The report cited ‘bad intel’. The only squad member who made it back admitted himself to Psych after, and when asked, said that, before he died, Mifune had requested for his body to be burned on the spot and for Shibi to take in his son.”

Shikaku allowed the room a moment to absorb the news, and Tsuande didn’t miss that only Shiranui appeared unaffected by the reveal. As if he’d already known that part of the story. 

“Who was the squad member?” Ibiki asked after a few seconds passed, and Tsunade frowned, not having considered the question but recognising its importance once it was asked. 

“Ebisu.” Shikaku replied, smiling ruefully now, and Tsunade didn’t miss Shiranui’s sad smile at the name. “He's been mentoring Shino, Shibi's son, since Kurenai introduced them. He was Genma’s genin teammate.”

Tsunade blinked at that, not having been aware of either of those particular tidbits, then frowned at Shikaku’s expression. "You're not done, are you?"

Shikaku had the grace to huff a regretful laugh and shake his head. “I wish.”

He sighed, then leaned forward again, and when he spoke, there was barely-suppressed anger in his voice. “Shibi said that, five years to the day Mifune was KIA, Shimura approached the son, Torune. The son who Shibi had taken in after his clansman’s death and treated like his own.”

“Fuck.” Tsunade hissed, eyes wide. “That's shameless.”

“Torune had been with Shino at the time and luckily had enough common sense to send his insects to inform Shibi of an intruder on Clan grounds. Shibi says Shimura offered ROOT to both kids, though pitched it specifically to Torune under the usual shtick of ‘think of all the good you could do’.” Shikaku ground his teeth, the only sign of anger he allowed himself, then continued. “Shibi refused, for the both of them. As Torune's legal guardian, he had that right.”

Nobody dared interrupt in the few seconds Shikaku took to get himself under control, and when he spoke next, his voice was steadier, though his words no less damning. “Well, Shibi thinks someone had to have gone to Torune when he was alone, because he disappeared a few days later, though there was no sign of struggle in his bedroom.”

“While that is horrifying to consider,” Ibiki uttered, the first one to recover from Shikaku’s reveal, “do enlighten the rest of the room as to how that ties in with ROOT sabotaging the Hyuuga kid’s reputation?”

“Because it begs the question of just how far back Danzo’s machinations extend.” Kagane spoke up for the first time, and Tsunade reckoned that if the situation had been less grave, the older woman would have delighted in the way Kakashi, Shikaku, Inoichi, Shiranui, and Ibiki jumped at the sound of her voice. 

“If we assume that the attempt to recruit Aburame Mifune and his son – Clan shinobi, with a special ability on top of their Clan’s hiden, one of whom with close ties to the Clan Head – was not an isolated event but merely one instance of a pattern of behaviour, we can look at all the other worrying or tragic events that happened around that time with a new perspective.” Kagane declared, and, watching her speak, Tsunade had an inkling as to who the Hyuuga might have learned her preternatural composure from. 

Curious.

“What are you saying?” Inoichi asked sharply, the only one in the room outside of Tsunade herself with the status to question Kagane outright, “That Elder Shimura would try to- to recruit people with special abilities, and when that didn’t work, he’d sabotage them?”

“Special, but not too special.” Kagane agreed, not seeming at all affronted by Inoichi’s tone. “Influential, but not obviously so. Isn’t that right, Shikaku?”

Tsunade watched as Shikaku twitched, and the focus shifted from Kagane to the Nara Head, though this time, nobody quite let themselves forget that the woman was there. Had been there from the start.

“There’s a difference between extrapolating and speculating.” Shikaku huffed, oddly uncomfortable now, and Tsunade wondered when the last time had been that somebody had arrived at the same conclusion as him, at the same time as he did. 

“Humour me.” Kagane requested blandly, and Tsunade had to admire the woman’s sheer nerve. 

“If we assume that it’s a pattern and not a one-off, we can look at other suspicious disappearances or shinobi who were declared missing or KIA in unusual circumstances.” Shikaku ground out, then let out a tense breath and met Tsunade’s gaze once more. 

“The Iburi Clan. The two dozen orphans who disappeared from the orphanage after the Nine-Tails’ attack. Hyuuga Hizashi. Uchiha Shisui. Hatake Sakumo. Chakra-sensitive civilian children who fail the Graduation test. There’s just- a lot.”

“My dad?” Kakashi asked brokenly, at the same time as Inoichi demanded “Why Hizashi?”

“Are you telling me Anko was right?” Ibiki demanded, and for the first time since Tsunade had been introduced to the man, he sounded almost scared. “She was insistent for months afterwards that there was no way Shisui would’ve killed himself. Are you saying she was right?”

“I don’t know.” Shikaku admitted brokenly, and that, more than anything, seemed to make everyone in the room fully grasp the severity of the situation. “This is why I said that there’s a difference between extrapolating and speculating, and why I’m wary of doing the latter.”

Tsunade sighed, finally uncrossing her arms and staring sightlessly at her hands. Was it possible that Hiruzen-sensei hadn’t been aware of ROOT’s machinations during his tenure? 

Worse yet, had he been aware of it and allowed it to continue regardless, out of some misconstrued fondness for his old friend? 

She didn’t know which option was worse, and she struggled to reconcile her sensei with the sort of man who’d allow the sort of cruelty ROOT seemed to be based on. But then again, she hadn’t spoken with Sarutobi-sensei for over two decades prior to succeeding him; he could’ve changed in that time. 

The Village certainly had.

“He has records.” Kakashi murmured at last, his voice far quieter than Tsunade was used to, sounding almost as if the words were causing him pain. “Danzo. He has records in his office of all the missions he ever ordered. If there’s anything about- about Shisui or anyone else that Danzo had targeted, it’d be there.”

“And you’re only telling us this now?” Tsunade demanded in the silence that fell, and Hatake had the grace to wince, though he did mutter a petulant ‘Shikaku told me to step away’ that Tsunade staunchly ignored. 

“Can you still get into ROOT HQ?” Shikaku asked sharply, clearly fighting his frustration with Kakashi for the sake of more concrete evidence.

“Not by myself, or at least not through the main entrances.” Kakashi replied, and at the odd looks the weird wording earned him, he shrugged uncomfortably. “I was never sealed.”

Shiranui sighed then, sounding resigned but resolute. “We’ll need Tenzo.”

“I don’t want to bring him into this.” Hatake denied, his frown obvious despite his mask. 

“That should be his decision.” Shiranui corrected sternly, meeting Hatake’s gaze head on, and Tsunade couldn’t hold back her raised eyebrow. “You owe him at least that.”

“Who is Tenzo?” She demanded when the two seemed to forget that they were in the middle of a meeting, and Shiranui huffed, breaking the staring contest with Hatake and turning to her obligingly.

“Tenzo is Yamato. He used to be a ROOT agent, was rescued by Kakashi on a mission-gone-wrong, then was reassigned to ANBU with ‘Kashi as his captain as means of ‘keeping an eye on him’.” He explained succinctly, and Tsunade’s other eyebrow joined its twin at the news.

“But with the dissolution of my ANBU team when I was made a sensei, he had to go back to ROOT.” Hatake added flatly, and though there was no detectable resentment in his voice, Tsunade couldn’t help but wonder why Sarutobi-sensei had retired a man who clearly had had no desire to leave the shadow ranks. “I haven’t seen him in over a year.”

“But you have a way to contact him?” She pressed, and Hatake paused, then nodded sharply.

 “...More or less.” He allowed, and that was good enough for Tsunade.

“Alright.” She sighed, then pointed decisively at the man. “Hatake. Contact your ROOT kid. Shiranui, make sure they’re not followed. Inoichi, I need you to go through your Clan’s MIA and KIA lists from around the time of the Kyuubi’s attack and cross-reference their names with the signatures on the sensitive Intel and T&I paperwork. For whatever reason, Danzo is not having them use aliases, so it’ll be tedious, but manageable. Ibiki, I’ll need you and Shikaku to brainstorm any reasonable charge we can call Danzo out of his lair for. I don’t care what it is, I need it to hold water so that he has to come here.”

“Respectfully, Tsunade-sama,” Shiranui began, and Tsunade arched an eyebrow at the address, “What about Hinata’s situation?”

Tsuande sighed at the reminder, but she knew that she’d already made up her mind. “I think the best way to diffuse it is to announce the alliance with Kiri.”

“Are you going to accept it?” Ibiki asked, sounding justifiably sceptical.

“It’s unprecedented, but if the military alliance is successful, a more thorough alliance could follow.” Tsunade explained, walking back around to her desk to begin drafting a letter to Jiraiya. She’d need his input for this. “And since Suna is down in the dumps after their invasion, we could do with an ally.”

“And you’re going to acknowledge Hinata’s part in it?” Shikaku queried, and it was only then, at the familiar address, that Tsunade recalled that the girl had lived under Shikaku’s roof for weeks, at one point.

“I almost don’t want to do it because of all the headaches the brat has given me, but she doesn’t deserve to be called a deserter.” Tsunade replied, frowning and crossing out half of what she’d already written. “Especially if I didn’t, and I actually left.”

“So we just gotta find a way to keep Hinata away from the worst of it before the news spreads.” Shiranui summarised, sounding relieved. “That’s doable.”

“It’s also already handled.” Shikaku cut in, and when Tsunade glanced up at him curiously, there was a tiny, satisfied smirk curling the corner of his lips. “I told my wife to intercept her on her way out of the Tower and take her to our Compound.” 

“Even you couldn’t have predicted that she’d get off scot-free.” Ibiki huffed, but he looked more curious than wary.

“Initially, no, but after reading Kakashi and Kagane’s reports? Beyond the optics of helping a foreign-nin, Hinata hadn’t actually committed any crime; Kakashi had allowed her to go, after all.” Shikaku shrugged, melting back into the chair, clearly deeming the official proceedings to be over. “And Kagane’s confirmation of Hinata’s reasoning proved that it wasn’t even insubordination on her behalf, just a justified decade-old grudge and- honestly? Sheer ballsiness.”

“So the Hyuuga’s handled, we’ve got a plan for ROOT, and we’ve got the bones for a military alliance with Kirigakure.” Tsunade summarised, ticking off the points as she listed them and shooting Hatake a measured look. “I gotta hand it to you, Hatake, barring Iwashi’s arm, this might be your most successful cock-up of a mission yet.”

“Ah, about that, Tsunade-sama,” Hatake replied, moving towards her desk for the first time since slipping into her office and unsealing a severed foot from his belt, “this belonged to one of the shinobi that attacked my team.”

Tsunade glanced from the charred stump of a foot to Hatake’s face a few times in disbelief, then her gaze caught on a smudge of ink by the webbing of the big toe.

“For clarification, yes, that is the ROOT seal.” Hatake had the gall to add, his tone not changing, and Tsunade froze once the words registered.

“...You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

“Hinata-chan!”

Hinata startled, turning towards the voice as she made her way out of the Hokage Tower, not having expected anyone to be waiting for her.

“Yoshino-san?” she murmured, too dazed from the exchange in the Hokage's office to manage a proper greeting.

“You look like a stiff breeze could knock you over!" Yoshino tutted as she came up to Hinata, her arms laden with shopping bags. "When’s the last time you had a good meal?”

Hinata hesitated, still not fully present, her words sounding far-away when she replied honestly: “...About a week.”

“Come to our house for dinner." Yoshino ordered, somehow managing to shift the bags around so she could hook her arm through Hinata's and begin tugging her along. "Come on, I’ve just finished shopping, I’ve got more than enough food to make a plate for you.”

Hinata tried to blink past the ringing in her head, some of her usual propriety returning to her, but not fast enough. “I really can’t impose on your hospitality again.”

“Nonsense." Yoshino denied, ostensibly handing Hinata one of her bags to keep her from running away. "I can lend you some clothes, you look like a shower could do you some good, and the guest room is always open for you.”

Recognising when she'd lost, Hinata tried for a smile. “Thank you, Yoshino-san. That’s very kind of you.” 

It was only after they lapsed into comfortable silence for a few minutes that another thought occured to Hinata. “Is…Is Shikamaru home?”

Yoshino’s smile dimmed slightly, and if Hinata had been more present, she would've noticed the way the woman's hold tightened on the shopping bags.

“He is…in a way.” She replied, and Hinata didn't like that caveat. “He’s been in the forest around our Clan grounds for the last two days. Hasn’t come out.”

Hinata didn't know how she reacted, but whatever it was, it had Yoshino sighing tiredly, a sad smile pulling at her lips. “He had a difficult mission.”

“Is he hurt?” Hinata inquired, a weight making itself known in her stomach.

“Not physically.” Yoshino answered, and the clarification didn't ease Hinata's worry in the slightest. “You can go see him after you eat, but don’t take it personally if he doesn’t engage.”

And so Hinata did just that.

She showered, scrubbed herself clean and tied her hair up when she couldn't find a brush, then dressed in the clothes Yoshino had laid out for her and headed downstairs, finding the dinner already waiting. She had a nice, quiet meal with the Nara matriarch, helped with the clean-up despite Yoshino's protests, then ventured into the forest on Yoshino's assurance that she had her explicit permission. 

Not sure where to begin, Hinata activated her Byakugan, though she almost recoiled at the sheer volume of chakra that radiated from the forest.

But- there. A chakra anomaly that had no place in a forest.

Yet, the closer Hinata got to the pool of chakra her Byakugan had picked out, the more her worry increased.

Because, as soon as she got visual, it became clear that Shikamaru was sitting right in the centre of the chakra anomaly she’d spotted with her dojutsu, but the chakra around him wasn’t chakra at all but shadow. 

A dark, sprawling mass of shadows, stretching out in a radius of at least three metres in every direction, with Shikamaru as the central point. 

More alarmingly, dead creatures littered the edges of the circle: squirrels, mice, birds, and other critters Hinata didn’t pause to identify lay around the perimeter, seemingly killed the moment they had tried to cross the threshold into Shikamaru’s circle of shadow. 

For a moment, Hinata was uncomfortably reminded of the Fifth Kazekage’s sand defence, but she squished the thought down. 

“Shikamaru?” She called quietly, trying not to startle the boy, but Shikamaru didn’t even twitch. 

He looked far too still, now that she was looking more closely - staring straight ahead, unblinking, his legs drawn to his chest and his arms wrapped loosely around his knees, chin propped up on a bent arm. 

He looked like he’d been there for hours.

Growing more concerned by the minute, Hinata flared her chakra, but received no reaction. Activating her Byakugan again, she sucked in a quiet breath when she looked closer at Shikamaru’s shadows and saw what she’d missed before: Shikamaru wasn’t the one sustaining them.

The forest was. 

It looked like the life force of the critters lost to the technique was what was keeping it going, and Shikamaru was merely the anchor for the jutsu. 

Still, in order to reach Shikamaru, she had to get closer. And there was only really one way to do that.

Considering everything she'd worked out about the Nara hiden, both with Shikamaru's help and from her own observations, Hinata studied the mass of shadows on the ground, wondering whether she wasn’t about to walk head-first to her very painful death.

Then, deciding that there really only was one way to find out, Hinata coated her feet and legs in chakra and stepped over the edge of the circle. 

Immediately, shadows rushed up her legs and immobilised her, and, since she was looking for it, she felt the moment they began to drain her chakra. 

It quickly became quite clear to her what fate had befallen the critters who'd dared approach the circle. 

But the shadows weren’t draining her chakra at a random rate, she noted after a few seconds; rather, her chakra was being drained at the same rate as she was supplying it to her feet and legs. Curious, she decreased the supply and noted that the drain on her reserves decreased proportionally. 

Interesting.

Hinata gave it a few more seconds, then, keeping her chakra wavelength constant and her movements slow and measured, tried to take a step. Immediately, her muscles protested and every inch of ground won felt like she was moving through molasses, but she did manage to pick up her left foot, the shadows never once detaching, and put it ahead of her right leg. 

She glanced at Shikamaru then and squeaked, nearly losing her balance, when she found the teen already looking back, his eyes shadowed and bloodshot, but looking at her, instead of sightlessly ahead. 

He didn’t say anything, just watched as she slowly repeated the process and, eventually, after almost three minutes, made her way over to the center of the circle. She hesitated once she was directly next to Shikamaru, only then entertaining the thought of whether she was actually welcome. 

But, just as she was just wondering whether she shouldn’t Shunshin out of the circle of shadows and go back to the house, she noticed Shikamaru’s eyes flicker to her face, then down to the ground, then back to meet her gaze in clear invitation. 

Relieved, but still moving slowly, Hinata lowered herself down, taking care to extend her chakra up to her waist as she sat down.

Then, she leaned back against the tree Shikamaru was leaning on and finally allowed herself to relax. But, as the tension finally drained out of her body, the stress of the mission, of waking up in a T&I cell, of being cross-examined by the Hokage herself, hit her full-force, and Hinata found herself choking back a sob. 

And then it was as if the floodgates had finally opened, and as the first tears fell, Hinata brought her hand up to cover her mouth and try to muffle the worst of her crying, but she couldn’t completely hold back the tears nor her desperate, heaving gasps as she tried to draw breath.

When she finally calmed down, her gasping sobs replaced by sporadic hiccups, she felt exhausted and drained, both physically and emotionally. 

“How did you know,” came a murmur from her right, and it took Hinata a moment to realise that the hoarse, ragged voice she was hearing belonged to Shikamaru, “that you could get through the shadow?”

Hinata sighed quietly and intentionally didn’t turn to look at the other teen, keeping her eyes resolutely ahead when she whispered back; “I didn’t.”

“...You’re crazy.” Shikamaru said after a few seconds of silence, but where there would’ve once been humour, there was only hollow exhaustion. 

Hinata hummed neutrally, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with the assessment, her own nerves feeling far too frayed and her cheeks still raw from her earlier tears. 

“You’re not gonna ask?” Shikamaru asked after another few minutes of silence passed peacefully between them, and Hinata bit back a sad smile as she leant her head back against the trunk and closed her eyes.

“Do you want me to?” She answered Shikamaru’s question with her own, keeping her voice quiet and unassuming, and the response was almost immediate. 

“No.”

“Then no.” she replied lightly, not taking Shikamaru’s sharp tone personally; she’d been where he was before, and the mere fact that he was allowing her close when he was this emotionally vulnerable already meant the world.  

They fell into another silence, this one so long that by the time Shikamaru next spoke, Hinata had fallen into a light doze. 

“The mission was to Wave.” Shikamaru whispered, and Hinata blinked back to alertness at the admission, though she didn’t otherwise acknowledge Shikamaru’s words for fear of making him change his mind on sharing. 

“There was a shipping magnate subjugating the whole village. Gato. The villagers tried to build a bridge to connect them to the mainland, but he was hiring unaffiliated shinobi to keep them in line.” Hinata frowned, the description of the situation in Wave striking a chord, though she didn’t remember why. 

“I got sent as part of the team whose job was to assess the extent of the abuses of power Gato was committing.” Shikamaru scoffed, the sound bitter and humorless. “What hadn’t made it into the briefing was that Orochimaru had killed Gato some time ago and replaced him and his hired muscle with his people.”

Hinata froze. 

That hadn’t happened in her time. 

“But there was something wrong with those shinobi. They weren’t fully human, and their chakra was- it felt evil.” She felt the way Shikamaru shuddered and pushed her shoulder into his gently, offering whatever comfort she could. “When they spotted us, they tore through everything in their path to get to us. Civilians. Children. Their own allies. My team.”

Shikamaru took a shaky breath, and his next words felt like they were ripped out of him. “I was the one who devised the strategy that ended up getting us made. I’m the reason seventy percent of my team didn’t make it back.”

“Were you team leader?” Hinata asked, not liking the self-loathing she could hear behind Shikamaru’s words. 

“No. But what does that have to do with-?”

“Your Clan is known for your intelligence, that’s true.” She cut Shikamaru off, gentle but firm. “And other shinobi take advantage of it on missions. But your team leader still approved your strategy. The responsibility is not solely yours to bear.”

“Whether it’s ‘solely mine’ or shared doesn’t matter, it doesn’t change the fact that they’re dead.” Shikamaru bit back, and Hinata hummed, reading between the lines of what was not being said.

“Is that all that’s bothering you?” she asked then, and Shikamaru rounded on her, his eyes wide, expression twisted with grief and disbelief.

“Is that all?!” he echoed, voice rising. “Did you seriously ask if my dead teammates are all that’s bothering me-?!”

“-Shikamaru.” Hinata cut in, not raising her voice, not raising to the bait, and Shikamaru deflated immediately, like her single utterance of his name was enough to steal all the wind from his sails.

“I hate you a little right now.” He muttered brokenly, and Hinata winced, but she determinedly waited him out.

Finally, after a few more minutes of silence, Shikamaru sighed explosively and seemed to give in, slouching and sliding his back down the trunk until his cheek ended up being smushed against Hinata’s shoulder, though he didn’t seem to mind it when he spoke:

“During the battle, the Sound-nin could break out of my Shadow Possession. Not the way you could, but with sheer brute force.”

Despite how violently he’d reacted to Hinata’s question not five minutes previous, Shikamaru’s voice was quiet and pained, and Hinata was more than familiar with the undercurrent of helplessness she detected in the boy’s words.

“I can strategise and predict how someone is going to act provided that their behaviour is logical.” Shikamaru carried on, and Hinata nodded, though she didn’t dare speak. “But the Sound shinobi we fought- they weren’t reacting like people, weren’t acting rationally. All of my strategies were useless against them, because I couldn’t think like them.”

Shikamaru paused for a second, then snorted, sharp and bitter. “I was useless.”

Then, before Hinata could interject and object to the self-deprecating declaration, Shikamaru carried on.

“And I remembered you telling me, when I was preparing to fight Neji,” he mumbled, and Hinata stilled, wondering what part of what she’d said had stuck with the Nara, “that long-range combat and elemental ninjutsu ‘weren’t your cousin’s forte’. As if it should’ve been. As if even genin should’ve known better than to focus on only one specialisation.”

Hinata winced, but Shikamaru clicked his tongue when she opened her mouth to speak, as if sensing she was about to interrupt.

“I’m not blaming you. I just didn’t understand it then.” He explained, and Hinata subsided, willing to allow Shikamaru the time to get whatever thoughts that were clearly plaguing him out of his system. “I thought of that saying ‘jack of all trades, master of none’.”

Shikamaru huffed, a shadow of his usual chuckle, the sound tired and jaded and threatening to bring tears to Hinata's eyes. “Half a year later, I remembered the rest of the goddamn proverb.”

‘But better than a master of one’

“I get it now, though.” Shikamaru laughed wetly, and though it saddened Hinata that he was crying, she was glad that he wasn’t trying to hide it from her. “Trust me, I get it.”

They lapsed into silence again while Shikamaru cried himself out and tried to get his breathing under control, but Hinata wasn’t prepared for the next question Shikamaru asked: “What do you think I should do?”

“S-Sorry?” she stuttered, startled, and Shikamaru huffed against her shoulder, though he sounded more like himself this time, more amused than bitter.

“You figured out the downside of tradition before anyone else.” He replied, and Hinata blinked owlishly, not quite following. “What would you do, if you were in my place?”

Oh.

She…had missed the moment she’d become someone whose opinion Shikamaru valued.

‘Shikamaru called you smart! Smarter than him, even, I think!’ she suddenly remembered Naruto saying all those months ago, but it was still unbelievably odd to see proof of it in person.

“...I’d go to Psych.” She offered after a far longer silence than the question required, but Shikamaru merely sighed, as if he’d expected something similar. “Then, I would talk to your sensei.”

“I’m a chunin.” Shikamaru refuted, and the way he spat the title told Hinata all she needed to know about Shikamaru’s feelings on his promotion.

“So am I.” She replied evenly, shifting till she could make eye-contact with the Nara, needing him to understand. “But, Shikamaru, we’re barely teenagers. You can ask the adults around you for help.”

Then, remembering Kurenai’s words from what felt like – and was – a lifetime ago, she managed a crooked smile as she added: “And, much like parents, sensei never stop being sensei.” 

Shikamaru held her gaze for a few seconds, then slid down until he was lying flat on his back on the ground and sighed. A frown twisted his brow for a second, then, with a feeling not unlike pulling the plug in a bath, the circle of shadows that had been around them all this time finally began to recede.

“How the hell are you so wise?” Shikamaru demanded tiredly, and Hinata couldn’t help her startled, bitter smile when the irony of the words registered.

Because this is not my first go at life, she itched to say, but even in her state, knew that it was not the right time for that reveal. Knew that it might never be 'the right time' for something like time-travel.

Instead, she sighed and slid until she was lying next to the Nara, eyes on the canopy above them even as, with the last dredges of her chakra, she wove the kindest genjutsu in her repertoire and tried not to think of the circumstances she’d first encountered it in.

“Go to sleep, Shikamaru.”

And, as the blanket of feathers the illusion brought with it fell around them, Shikamaru obeyed, and Hinata, drained both of chakra, and energy, followed.

Hinata stayed at the Nara Compound until noon of the next day, Shikamaru having insisted she sleep over when they’d both woken up in the middle of the night, the few hours of sleep they’d caught on the forest floor the most rest they’d been able to get in days.

So Hinata had reclaimed her guestroom, stayed for breakfast, tried to ignore Yoshino’s grateful glances, and offered to walk Shikamaru to the Psych building when he’d announced his intention to go, all the while trying not to wonder at how different her relationships were in this life when compared to before.

Yet, on the way to Psych, Hinata couldn’t completely ignore the whispers and side-glances some shinobi were sending her, and, judging by his wide-eyed state, neither could the Nara at her side.

“You’re responsible for an alliance with Kiri?” Shikamaru demanded after a particularly loud whisper reached them, and Hinata felt her face flush.

“No.” she denied, because that accusation was just preposterous. “The alliance was not my intention, and I had no hand in it. I just cared about helping my friend.”

“Your friend the Kiri-nin.” Shikamaru pointed out snidely, making Hinata recoil, but before she could respond, Shikamaru held up a hand, his expression frustrated and apologetic. “Sorry. That was- sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”