A strange new life. [Naruto]

[okashihime]

Hinata-chan was just so silly. Why name the clones? But it mattered not. I, Jutsu-chan, had the best training schedule of all the four of us. I got to train my control, I got to use cool jutsu. No extreme physical training for me.

One could argue that Seal-chan also had it good. I mean, the idea of finally breaking the space-time code left me giddy, but that was Seal-chan's work. Mine was to play ninja, use jutsu, push my control. All the awesome things about being a shinobi, right?

It didn't take me long to master the Rasengan after that first attempt at the Land of Waves. I used the jutsu as chakra control exercises, mostly because I had no idea how to explain to Kakashi-sensei how I knew about this one particular jutsu. Which was why I didn't plan to use it in front of anyone. At least, not until Naruto also learned it. After that, I could say I bribed the brat to teach me, like usual.

I held the ball of concentrated chakra on the palm of my open hand. One Rasengan wasn't difficult anymore. I looked at my other hand, tried to create a second Rasengan there. It didn't work that well. The first one wobbled and looked about to explode, the chakra holding my hair in place dispersed, the threads playing the koto broke, even the chakra holding me stuck at the ceiling wobbled and almost gave out.

I cut off the attempt at the second Rasengan. Perhaps I should take it easy? Two Rasengans while sitting on the ceiling, playing my koto with threads, holding my hair and clothes in place was a bit of a struggle. Giddy happiness bubbled inside my gut. If it was hard, it meant I had room to improve!

Besides my control, I trained using jutsu. For now, I was focused on Shushin no jutsu. I couldn't properly space-time yet, flickering around would have to do meanwhile. It massively increases the speed of movement in short bursts, and while I could already use the jutsu without seals, I could improve the efficiency and activation speed. That was my sole focus for the month.

The first few days felt like vacation time. I trained control, played a lot of music, zoom-zoomed around with shushin. I even went to restaurants and other places to practice being invisible. Clamp on my chakra, dim my presence, gather information, all the fun stuff.

Of course Hinata-chan had to go and make a mess of things. Communication with the shadow clones was interesting; not exactly telepathy, but I did get the impression Hinata-chan needed to see me, with some measure of urgency. I appreciated she didn't just unpop me and pop another me for this. I didn't want the ickiness Hinata-chan was cursed to endure for the rest of the day.

I left the café I was stealthing at. Flickered to a nearby rooftop. Pumped chakra on my feet and let loose.

Training field three wasn't far. It took me just a few minutes to arrive. Hinata-chan, the ever diligent girl, was training. There was another shinobi there, one I hadn't seen before. Hinata-chan didn't seem worried or even guarded against him. That was interesting. I approached the training girl.

"Original-chan, what is it?" I husked. Been also practicing lowering my pitch. I wanted that husky-sexy, and I was a clone, injuries didn't matter to me.

"New sensei, Yamato," Hinata-chan croaked out, "Kakashi-sensei brought him over."

I nodded. That was enough info. I knew about Yamato. Should have recognized those eyes and head protector. "Leave it to me." I husked again, to an amused grunt from Hinata-chan. Man, she looked so ruffled out, focused. That combined with her goth looks made her super charming. I wanted to give her a hug, but then there was all that sweat and grit. An involuntary shudder put an end to that idea. Yeah, no. Sorry, Hinata-chan.

I turned to Yamato. Walked closer. "Hi, Yamato-sensei. Hinata-chan, the original, is busy with physical training. I'm Jutsu-chan, shadow clone. Please take care of me!" I didn't use the husky voice on him. That was for future me to seduce pretty girls with, or when I got older. It just wouldn't work while I was a kid.

Yamato took it in stride. He just rolled with it like it was just another Tuesday. Earned a few brownie points from me. "Kakashi-san asked me to help you prepare for the third phase of the exams." Yamato started, "I planned a training retreat," he looked at Hinata-chan training behind us, "is this something you do often?"

I shook my head. "No, I just had too many things to train and not enough time. I don't think I'll keep this up after the chunin exam." I admitted freely. I still planned maybe popping out clones to do research or other time consuming tasks, but no ninja training bootcamp hell again.

"Right," Yamato said. "The things I can teach you are often best trained while away from the village."

The man made a seal, out from the ground popped a root. Coiled around itself. It had a surprising amount of chakra imbued.

"Did Kakashi-sensei tell you about the Forest of Death?"

"He did indeed."

That was fine. I mean, I decided to leave wood release for after the exam, mostly because I had no idea where to start and didn't want to spread myself too thin, at least not more than I already was. I nodded. "Shall we go?"

Yamato nodded, turned around, and led me to the village entrance. We stepped outside, into the forest. Was this a commune with nature thing? Was Yamato hip in disguise?

---

Seal-chan. That's what Hinata-chan named me. Such a silly name. It didn't seem to fit the importance of myself. My goal, my purpose, my raison d'être was to make our dreams come true. I was the one who would break time and space. I was the one who would take us to new heights! I mean, probably not me me, you know, being a clone and all, but another future version of me. It was all the same in the end.

Despite my dramatic words, I knew I lucked out between the four of us. With the new insights I gained because of Orochimaru, I had a good starting point. I took out a storage seal. Opened both earth and heaven scrolls from the Forest of Death. I might not be using cool jutsu all the time or training my control, or playing ninja, but I was more than giddy to finally give my dreams the time and effort they deserved.

...​

I'm Seal-chan, the tenth. Not the original one, and certainly not the last one. Things have gotten interesting in the past few days. The building stress of physical strain, and mental fatigue was something I hadn't considered. Concentrating became harder with each day I kept my hell training routine. But that's not here nor there. I was on a hunt: My prey? A silly sunshine boy.

His last known whereabouts were the hot-springs. It was time to corrupt Naruto again. I needed another example of space-time jutsu to confirm my findings, and what a better example than frog summoning? I found him by one of the springs, repetitively using the same jutsu, calling tadpole after tadpole. Nearby, the unmistakable shape of Jiraiya peeked into a crack in the wall. I was tempted to join Jiraiya, check out the girls on the other side, my cheeks burned at the thought, but now wasn't the time. Space-Time first.

I zeroed in on Naruto. Crouched by his side. Before he could summon another tadpole, I presented my bribe: The second cupcake in the special series. Will and Fire.

I pushed the cupcake to his hand. "Naruto-kun, teach me your summoning jutsu?"

Naruto looked really conflicted this time. "Hinata-chan, you need to sign a contract I don—"

I cut the silly boy off, placed a storage seal in his hand together with the cupcakes. Showed him my board. "No, silly. I don't want to summon the frogs, I just want you to teach me the hand-seals and how to mold my chakra."

Naruto scratched his head. Still looking confused. He repeated the words from Jiraiya, demonstrated the hand seals. I nodded. Gave him a high-five. Debated joining Jiraiya again. Shook my head, not the time. Went back to my research lab, aka, apartment.

…​

One thing became clear to me after studying the examples from space-time jutsu. Unless someone gave me the exact same jutsu the fourth used, with instructions and all, it would be easier to just create a new jutsu that did what I needed than learn space-time like the fourth. To that effect, I listed what exactly I wanted the jutsu to do:

1 - Create a seal that serves as a beacon. Ideally the beacon should also give a general idea of where it is. Other shinobi should not be able to tap into that beacon. For this one, I had an idea. Tie the beacon to the user's chakra signature. Considering all I knew, it was unique to each person.

2 - Put safety measures on the beacon, to prevent teleporting into walls or places I couldn't fit.

3 - The signal shouldn't be intrusive. Can't have a constant ping in my head all the time from the beacons.

4 - The actual summoning jutsu should be fast and easy to perform. Can't be called Black Flash if it takes more than an instant to teleport.

5 - Range, in the worst case scenario it should be tied to chakra cost. With more distant places costing more chakra.

6 - Chakra cost should be manageable. The jutsu is supposed to be spammable. Can't get tired after using it just a couple of times.

7 - The jutsu should not disorient the user. Makes no sense to teleport and arrive spilling my guts.

I guess it was time to change the world and conquer my dreams. I, Seal-chan the Tenth, would lay the foundations to our future awesomeness.

 

[okashihime]

It was three and a half weeks into my training regimen. Today was the last day of bootcamp hell mode.

Even my other clones looked dead on their feet. Jutsu-chan nodded, flickered away toward the village entrance. She'd meet with Yamato there like they'd done for the past weeks. Seal-chan dragged herself to the table with all the diagrams and notes and theories and prototypes, all but collapsing on the chair, head lolling. I was so close, yet so far away. I had the whole logic ready, but I couldn't figure out how to tie the beacon to my chakra signature, which in turn made it impossible to hone in on that same beacon.

The prototype version of the jutsu was the simplest version it could be: there were no safety measures, no awareness of the beacon's destination, no padding to avoid mishaps, it would take a monstrous amount of chakra, activation time was too long to be usable in battle. If I managed to finish the jutsu, refinement would come with more – possibly years of – research. But for now, I just needed to be able to teleport inside the sound four barrier. I glanced at the hunched form of my clone reading the notes on her desk. Even if the task seemed impossible, it was Seal-chan's work.

I shook my head. Pushed those complicated thoughts away. I had simpler concerns to worry about. I looked at my third clone: Research-chan sat on the bed cross legged, meditating, like all other versions had done since day one. It had been a faint hope, and while there was progress, it too would take years more to disentangle that.

I shambled out of the apartment. Activated my weight seals. My clones didn't need to suffer the added physical strain the whole day. My vision was a bit hazy, things started to blur together a few days ago. I was so tired. But I couldn't stop. I added just a little more to the weight seals. If I had the energy to complain, it meant I wasn't training hard enough.

From jogging to physical exertion, to explosive muscle conditioning, to taijutsu training. I tried to focus on my tasks. My eyes kept drooping, but I couldn't sleep. If I did, all clones would unpop and it would be a waste of my day.

…​

I hit the training dummy for I don't know how many times. Even in the haziness of exhaustion, I saw the flaw in my form. It wasn't even due to how tired I was. Whenever I performed this particular attack, my left hand went down, leaving a glaring opening. I learned that the hard way.

The same day Yamato-sensei came to recruit Jutsu-chan to his hip nature retreat, Kiba wandered in the training field looking for a place to train. I decided that a spar would help my training. Kiba returned the next day, and from there, the info leaked out. Sometimes Kiba came alone, other times he dragged more shinobi to spar. Ino and Sakura took to visiting, although they didn't join the training.

The sparring with other shinobi let me identify and fix flaws in my hodgepodge style, except this one that kept returning, no matter how much I tried. I hadn't found yet what was causing the problem. It wasn't a matter of my arm moving down. Something in my stance pulled my arm down on and if I didn't find the root cause, that flaw would stay there. Was it time to give up and ask for help? I'm sure Kakashi-sensei could help me understand what I was doing wrong.

I lifted my arm again. A selfish and dumb part of me didn't want to ask for help. I prepared to perform the attack again.

Information flooded my head. It was the same deluge of information when a clone dispersed. Jutsu just unpopped herself. It was a rollercoaster of memories and impressions and sensations, dwarfed by elation. That disrupted my control and the rest of my clones also unpopped. Even more stuff jammed itself in my head. Moments before the world turned to black, I smiled. Jutsu-chan did it.

---

I am Jutsu-chan, and let me tell you, Mokuton was busted. Super busted.

On our first day of training, Yamato-sensei went over things he could do. Need a chair? I got you. Need a stock? Worry not. Your house burned? Hold my ramen. Lost your key? My finger is my key!

It took me a while to 'connect with my nature spirit' or whatever, but once I did, learning the jutsu was easy. It needed a lot of control, which I had, it needed chakra, which I also had, even if I was just a quarter of my reserves. My control meant better efficacy, which should let me use more jutsu even with a smaller chakra pool. The result didn't match what I felt it should be. Something interfered whenever I tried to use wood chakra. It was like a barrier I needed to push past. It left me with no other choice but to pump even more chakra to use a mokuton jutsu. The end result was – despite my superior control and bigger reserves – I used way more chakra than Yamato for everything. I explained the situation to Yamato, but he was also at a loss as to why. I suspected it was, somehow, connected to the snake. Not knowing what those seals did was starting to piss me off really bad.

And Nature transformation was freaky. I mean, transforming my arm into wood? Yikes. Creepy. Better than transforming into snakes tho. I pitied Anko.

That wasn't important. Tiredness making my thoughts roam all over the place. I tried to focus on the present again.

Today was the last day of training. I was tired, exhausted, and needed to rest before the exam. It wouldn't do to burn myself out before the battle even started. I did what I could, even if I neglected my shushin no jutsu. I mastered a fair amount of new techniques. I even inherited Yamato's house building hobby. I mean, of course I would beg that one after I saw the man just pop a full house outta the ground. Wood clones, restraining techniques, chakra sealing techniques. I learned it all. Even if I couldn't use them freely. It cost too much chakra.

Another thing that became apparent pretty soon. My affinity to Mokuton was stronger than Yamato's. Which was paradoxical as to why my end result was worse than his. I had some thoughts on this. Perhaps because by the time Orochimaru made me, his process had improved? And since my problem was converting the chakra, maybe the seal in my heart somehow was interfering with the process?

But again, distracted, tired. My mind kept wandering when I should focus on the task at hand. This last jutsu was a bit iffy. A tracking jutsu. Yeah, I see what the old man was about. Restraining jutsu, chakra sealing jutsu, and now tracking jutsu. Was the old man preparing me to babysit Naruto? Did the old codger want me to marry the brat as well? Fucking fate.

"Hinata-san?" Yamato called. By the pitch of his voice, not for the first time.

I focused on him. He held a seed in his hand. Right, jutsu, training, focus.

I performed the seals: Tiger - Dog - Snake. Out of the earth popped another Hinata, this one a wood clone. Then, like the man explained, I twisted the clone, compressed and applied meaning. Wood Hinata, the short lived, shrunk and transformed into a seed. I held the thing, and even through the haze of exhaustion I felt it, in the back of my head. I knew where it was, how distant and more.

Yamato went on a lengthy explanation of what it did and didn't. "…and only the user can detect the transmissions. Not even other mokuton users can sense it."

I blinked, trying to parse the information. Damn brain fog. Then his words registered. Wait. Wait? Would it work? From the dregs of my mind I pulled all theory and prototype work for the teleport beacon. Seal-chan had been stuck forever in how to tie the beacon to us, and prevent others from noticing it. I think my hands started trembling more than they already were.

My voice shook a bit. The pain didn't even bother me. "How long does it last?"

Yamato's gaze was strange. "For as long as you keep it."

It wasn't perfect, I realized. It wasn't a permanent tracker, it was, after all, created from a wood clone, and even if it was solid wood, it still had the same limitations of a clone. But it was a solution for my problem, even if it was a temporary one.

I got up, couldn't stay still, needed to think some more and staying still caused brain fog. In my head, I reviewed Seal-Chan's Black Flash jutsu prototype. I knew it well enough that I didn't even need the papers anymore. I remade a few connections, adjusted the chakra path, integrated the inbuilt transmission from the seed.

"Hinata-san?"

I was lost in my mind. Yeah, it would work. I moved a few of the blocks around, taking into account the changes because of the wood chakra. That left one last issue: how to inscribe the transmission seal? I could make the seed larger, or a different shape. Then another realization hit me like Truck-kun. It was so obvious I wanted to slap myself. I already had a jutsu to use chakra to inscribe a seal instead of using ink.

I dispelled the seed. Summoned another clone. Transformed it into a wood kunai. Don't blame me, tired and Yondaime. Pushed my chakra, inscribed the modified beacon on the kunai. I held it there, I could feel the beacon.

I looked at Yamato. Yamato stared at me. I laughed. Might have danced. I certainly cheered.

"Yamato-sensei, you're the fucking best!" I called out, threw myself at the man in a hug. A hug I quickly released. I had more important things to do.

"What's this about?" The man asked, looking at my wood kunai and black lines of chakra from my imprinted seal.

I grinned. Threw the kunai away. It landed a few meters to the side, stuck to the ground. The beacon beckoned to me. Rá, look at me, making puns. I grinned wider, did the hand seal: Seal of Confrontation. I pushed the last of my chakra, honed on the Kunai. Stopped just before activating the jutsu. Didn't want Yamato to know it just yet. But one more push, and I'd teleport. I felt it in my guts.

It worked, it fucking worked! The jutsu was not combat ready. Probably wouldn't be for months or years. But it was enough to break the barrier.

"I gotta go!" I yelled, Hinata-chan needed to know this. I Jutsu-chan was the bestest, smartest clone! I did — without trying — what Seal-chan spent weeks struggling with. She was going to be so mad! Under the confused gaze from Yamato, I unpopped myself.

 

[okashihime]

I opened my eyes.

I was in a room of sorts. Light green walls, sterile smell, white curtains blocking the windows, a small cupboard by the side of the bed, a jar with flowers, a basket full of fruits on the cupboard, a chair by the bed, an Ino sitting on the chair. A smiling Ino sitting on the chair.

"Oh," I said, a bit dumbly. How did I get here? "Hi?" Pain laced my throat and I held back in the urge to cough.

"You're awake! Just in time too." Ino cheered. She wasn't in her shinobi gear, but casual clothes. She wore an orange shirt and black shorts, hair tied in a high ponytail. Cute.

My brain was still a bit mushy. I looked around, thankfully some caring soul put my comms board by the bed. I picked it up, wrote. "Time for?"

"The third exam!" Ino said. "It's in the afternoon, you've been asleep for days. The village is bustling with visitors. Even Naruto left already! He was here just a few hours ago. Training exhaustion as well." Ino gave me a look that I couldn't really understand. "Did you have to overdo it?"

Oh. Oooh, oh! Damn, it was today already? My plan was to stop a few days before the exam to rest, relax and prepare. Shit. Did I have time to prepare? I looked at the windows. The curtains blocked the view from outside. Couldn't tell what time it was. "What time is it?"

"It's still morning."

Relief flooded my body. I still had time. I needed to plant the beacons, prepare my survival kit, weapons and explosives. Stuff was about to hit the fan. It would be dangerous, but I was determined to do the best I could. I got up, looked at the light blue comfy shirt, white pajama trousers I wore. Urgh, where was my gear? Under Ino's curious gaze, I pulled the cupboard drawers and doors open. Neatly folded there was my black ninja outfit. Cleaned and ironed. Nice. I pulled off my shirt.

Ino squeaked. "I'll wait outside until you finish getting ready." Ducked out of the room. Closed the door.

I tilted my head in confusion. Shrugged. I wouldn't have minded her staying, we're both girls after all. Promptly, I took off the rest of the hospital wear and wore my usual black stuff. Stopped when it came down to the weight seals. Did I need them today? Unfortunately, I did. I still had trouble going all out, and the induced weight sensation helped more than caused troubles at this juncture. I guess goth era isn't ending anytime soon.

Once done, I looked myself over. Nothing out of place. I nodded, walked out of the room. Ino, like she promised, was there waiting for me. She looked me over as well, there was this mischievous smirk on her face. Her cheeks rosy. "No black lipstick and make-up today?"

I rolled my eyes. Wrote on my board. "Don't have them here. I'll prepare properly before the exam."

That got me chuckles, and an eye roll. Nice!

"I want to see the arena," I wrote. "Come with me?" I wasn't sure why I invited Ino. Was my lonely self rearing its ugly head again? All that it takes is one of my favorite female casts being nice to me?

Ino nodded, smiling. "Sure."

My stomach flipped, and the butterflies rebelled.

Before we left the hospital, the nurses fussed around me for my obvious over-exertion and training. They cast stern glances my way, clearly not happy with me. Or maybe worried for me. I wasn't sure. It took a different kind of person to work at a hospital, to care for others like that. It was an alien sentiment I couldn't understand. I signed the release papers, happy that in the village's eyes, I was an adult already. No need to hunt someone to check me out. Meanwhile, Ino chattered, gossiped. I listened. Her voice was pleasant.

Gods, I'm so easy.

The blonde pushed an errant strand of hair behind her ear. "No one had seen Sasuke since the preliminaries on the second exam." Urgh, why did she start with him? Was I jelly of Emosuke? " There are lots and lots of people arriving at the village to see the event." That was normal, showhorses. Meh. "Sakura visited Rock Lee several times, even left flowers for him." Really? Way to go Konoha's Green Beautiful Beast! "Shikamaru is more grumpy than usual, keeps complaining about why he has to fight one extra battle." That was so Shikamaru. I had to hold back a giggle. "Choji is stress eating more than usual. If he keeps eating like that, he won't ever get a girlfriend!" Poor Choji, not even his teammates understand him. "Naruto was seen loitering about the women's bath and resorts all month long."

I was surprised with Ino's gossip, I mean, information.

From the hospital, we jumped into Konoha's shinobi exclusive lanes, aka roofs, and set out toward the event arena. The place was big. It reminded me of stadiums before I came here.

"We go in?" Ino asked, looking at the entrance.

I shook my head. We're ninjas. Wrote: "No, I have a better idea." I walked to one of the straight pillars that led up, and just kept walking until I reached the top. Looked back, Ino followed my example. Once we reached the top, I turned right, and moved toward the viewer stands. My goal was the middle structure. I was certain the battle would happen there, on that rooftop. I ran over the circular wall, jumped over the middle structure, climbed the two layered roof and sat down at the top.

Ino did the same. I could see the question on her face. I couldn't tell her why I was here, so I did the next best thing. I searched through my depleted stores of seals, scrolled through empty seal after seal, panicked a bit when I couldn't find any. Ino smirked at my antics. Finally, I found one. I unpopped the pastries, spread them nearby. Looked at Ino, grinned in relief.

Ino rolled her eyes, sat down. Took a muffin. Ate a bit. Sighed. She looked happy, peaceful. Her eyes focused on the open view of the village, the greenery and exotic architecture, even if I think she didn't find it exotic, but familiar.

We ate in silent comfort. I had a lot on my mind. I was worried that even with all my effort, it wouldn't be enough. I had a plan. It wasn't a good plan, and I would have to deal with the consequences after, but I wanted to save the old man. I might need to come clean with some details I wanted to keep secret after I saved him, but I was almost sure he was on my corner and would help me. I hoped. I knew I was a bit silly and impressionable, but I don't think I was dumb. I knew some in the village didn't like me. It's been in their eyes all along. Not to the same point as Naruto. I wanted to believe Kakashi-sensei and the Third Hokage were my allies. Even if I wasn't happy with the old man for not giving me proper instructions and Kakashi for, potentially, train-blocking me.

I understood it well enough. I wasn't happy, but I understood. I could be a spy. I might be a spy and not even know it.

The bustling view of the village drew my attention again. The many strange houses, the people milling about, kids running, laughing and being brats. Despite everything, I liked this place. It felt like home. Imperfect, unfair, and not the utopia I dreamed it would be, but home nonetheless. I did what I could to prepare for the events to come, to change the world again, but now that the time was here, it felt wholly inadequate.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?"

I looked from the village to the blonde girl. Her eyes scanned the horizon, taking in all of the village. My eyes refused to leave her face. "Beautiful," I whispered. My ears burned a bit. I blamed teenage hormones. Definitively teenage hormones.

Still looking over the village, Ino asked. "Will you win?"

"Probably not." I wrote to her the truth. "I don't think I can beat Naruto."

"Huh?" Ino looked at the board, jerked back, looked at me, surprised. "What? You beat the crap out of Neji!"

I shrugged. Wrote more. "Naruto is strong. He always gets up. I don't have any way of stopping him without hurting him." That was a white lie. Yamato taught me how. I just wasn't willing to reveal that in front of a crowd, nor burn all my chakra in a fight that meant nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Ino's shoulder sagged, a frown on her face. "Shame."

The moment didn't last long. We finished eating. People started to arrive, trickling inside the arena. I got up, Ino did the same. I cleaned any mess from our impromptu picnic and left the roofs. First part of the preparations was over. Only a few hours until crushcrushcrush.

 

[okashihime]

I stood inside the arena by Naruto's side. The rest of the competing genin spread in the same line. The Sunagakure trio was to my right: I was shoulder to shoulder with Temari. Konoha's other genin were on the opposite side to Naruto. We all faced forward.

The three viewing areas in front of us were packed. Ninjas and normal people alike, gathered to see children fight and hurt each other, and maybe some cool jutsu. In the central structure, on the second floor, sat the old man Hokage and the Kazekage. Each with their shinobi escort. From my place down in the arena, I glared at the disguised Orochimaru. Or who I thought was Orochimaru.

By my side, Naruto kept looking left and right. Tiptoeing. Often looking at the arena's entrance.

Cool guy proctor, toothpick in his mouth, chastised Naruto. "Stop fidgeting, stand still and face forward, toward the guests. All of you are the stars of these finals."

I scanned the rows of people here to watch the show-horses exhibition, in a particular section of the central structure, where a group of black haired, white eyed people sat. I saw a young girl by Hiashi's side. She looked around seven years old. Face set in a serious mask. Black hair framing her young face. Was that Hanabi? A spark of something bloomed in my chest, almost like longing, dampened by Hanabi's glare that I could feel even from here. What were those Hyuga telling their children about me to cause such a reaction?

Old man Hokage stood, it was speech time. I turned off my brain. I took deep breaths, thought happy thoughts. On the stand, Sakura, Ino and Kiba sat near each other. Cloaked ninjas spread among the spectators, animal masks hidden beneath the hood. If things went the same as before, Kabuto was disguised as one of the ANBU. I tried to push my perception, feel the chakra around. If I found Kabuto, I could report him, or maybe try taking him out in the confusion. Blinding pain greeted my attempts. There were too many shinobi inside the arena for me to use the chakra perception.

"Please sit back and enjoy!" Old man Hokage called out at the end of his speech. Returned to his seat.

Proctor-san turned to us after the old man sat down. "Listen up, all of you. This is the last exam. The landscape may be different, but as in the second exam preliminaries, there's no rules. You fight until one of you dies or admits defeat." He looked at each of us. "Unless I determine that a clear winner has already been decided, in which case I'll stop the match before anyone is killed, understood?"

No one said anything. At least they didn't want to blatantly kill us young shinobi.

"All right—"

Naruto looked around again, raised his hand. Interrupted Proctor-san. "Sasuke isn't here yet. What happens if he doesn't arrive until his match starts?"

"He loses by forfeit." Proctor-san declared. He waited for a moment. No other question came his way. "First match Uzumaki Naruto versus Hinata. You two stay down here, the rest of you proceed to the waiting room outside the arena."

I walked a few meters away. Turned and faced Naruto. I came prepared. Embraced the goth. My stockings were black to match the rest of my statement outfit. Even my nails didn't escape the goth treatment. I took my stance. Naruto had given me a pretty strange look when I arrived earlier, probably because of all that black. Oh well, my fashion sense was worlds apart from his. Heh.

Naruto closed a fist, pointed in front of him, towards me. His eyes were determined, full of anticipation. "Win or lose." The brat called out.

Something twisted inside me. I got a bit emotional there. Damn cool Naruto moment. Shame I couldn't join him. Couldn't give my all. I was no bottomless well of chakra and stamina like Naruto, and my goal wasn't the chunin exam, but what came after. But still, I could play ball. I raised my fist as well. "Win or lose." I husked out.

"Now then, match one, begin!"

Naruto's hand moved faster than I expected. I pushed forward, pumping my legs full of chakra. The ground exploded with my acceleration. My fist sunk into Naruto's gut at the same time a dozen shadow clones popped all around me. Original Naruto grunted, flew away, coughed up a bit of blood. The clones, all holding exploding kunai, jumped at me. A suicide attack, the same he did against Kakashi.

Damn brat using my own tactics against me. I loved it! I dove inside the earth with Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu, left a bushin clone behind to trick Naruto. The arena shook with the force of the explosion. I popped out of the earth to find Naruto on me again. I was too used to finding the opponent by chakra when under earth, which I couldn't do at the moment, and Naruto knew I was prone to diving inside the earth to avoid things I couldn't block.

The punch hit me on the face. Stinging pain on my lips. The last month of training wasn't for nothing. I turned with the impact, feet lashing on a kick that smashed against Naruto's head. Much to his surprise. The impact jolted my leg, and Naruto turned to smoke. Shit, was he already using human wave attacks? I rolled in the air, fell back, flickered away. I couldn't stay still, not against the clone wave Naruto. I regretted suggesting that. I scanned the area. I was surrounded. And I had no idea which one was the real Naruto.

In that case.

Another group of clones rushed toward me. I jumped. The ground exploded with how much force I pushed on my legs. I soared, hands going inside my tools pouch. When I reached the apex of my jump, I threw my kunais, dozens of them, dozens of exploding ones. I saw it on all of Naruto's face the moment he realized he was screwed. The brat panicked.

That day, it rained explosions. It was beautiful.

I laughed. Flecks of blood escaping my mouth. Was that from the punch or from laughing? Explosions, fire, dirt, and debris flew up from my masterwork. The blast hit me while in the air. Unbalanced me. I fell down, almost splattered on the still dusting arena floor. In one single moment I had terraformed the place. Awesome.

There was silence for a moment, even the spectators having not expected this degree of violence. I scanned my surroundings again. No sign of Naruto or his clones anywhere. Had I exploded the brat? No way, right?

A fist broke the earth under me. Naruto, coated in red glowing evil chakra, punched me like he had something against me. Like I just tried to explode him to bits. Sunshine brat had no doton jutsu, and just brute forced his way from under the earth. He had this degree of control over Kurama's chakra already? What a cheat. Caught off guard, I couldn't move with the impact this time. I saw stars, my feet left the ground. Damned Naruto took no pity on me, clones popped all around. Three of them were by my side. Kicked me higher. Ugh, no way. I braced for the pain. Four clones punched me down. Another Naruto was ready to plaster me when I swapped positions with one of Naruto's own clones. I flickered away. Hid behind one fallen tree.

Shit, that was too close. My back hurt, I had trouble breathing. It hurt. Damn cool protag MC cheat. I wasn't jelly of Naruto. No way. I wanted no part of whatever powerup Naruto got at the cost of hosting the ninetails. Even if it was still bullshit. Not even one tail mode yet and he was already almost physically stronger than me.

Instead of fighting with himself like he did with Kakashi-sensei, he unpopped the clones. A red eyed Naruto turned, scanned the arena for my presence.

Something burned inside my chest. I wanted to go all out, to give the brat a fight he wouldn't forget, to carve my name, for the briefest of moments in the mind of those watching. I sighed. Squashed that feeling, threw it away. I left my hiding spot behind one of the fallen trees. Naruto's eyes zeroed on me instantly. I walked toward him, he walked towards me. I could have tried to hide, but well, time to give the audience a show, right?

"Win or lose." I murmured.

"Win or lose." Red-eyed Naruto grinned.

I pumped my body full of chakra. Flickered to his side. I punched his head. Unfortunately, unlike Neji who didn't react in time, Naruto was ready for me. His hand lashed out, grabbed onto my shirt. Damn brat held me there, punched me in the face. Again, and again. For each one punch Naruto threw, I hit him three or four times, but it was a losing battle. I didn't have Naruto's stamina. Each punch took a lot out of me. After the tenth hit, when I felt my ribs crack, my face swollen, and the pain in my stomach intensify, I decided it was enough. Instead of hitting Naruto, I caught his fist.

Naruto's face was bruised and swelling. I was sure my own wasn't better. Possibilities crawled inside my head: Turn my arm into wood, wrap wood around the brat, seal away the Kyuubi chakra. Summon wood clones, trap Naruto inside a barrier, trap Naruto inside an explosive barrier. Or explosions, always explosions.

It was, in the end, just a pipe dream. I knew only the theory about chakra sealing. Yamato explained and demonstrated it to me. I knew the hand seals. He never explicitly said it could be used to seal the jinchuriki, but what else would it be? Nature transformation wasn't my forte, it creeped me out too much to use at a moment's notice. Explosive barrier would work, but I didn't want to kill, or cripple the brat.

"I surrender." I gritted out, much to his confusion, and my own frustration.

"What?" Naruto asked. Released my shirt. His eyes that burned red turned baby blue.

Proctor guy appeared by our side. "Winner is Uzumaki Naruto," he declared.

 

[okashihime]

Naruto wasn't happy with me or with how the fight ended. Not one bit, if the glare he sent my way meant anything. I expected him to holler, to yell and cause a mess. He just glared. Silently. He was still silent when we left the arena and entered the corridor leading to the waiting area.

I didn't want to leave yet another thing to fester. I still felt guilty over the whole Sasuke situation, and it was just easier to talk with Naruto, for some reason. I wrote on my board, presented it to the brat. "Naruto-kun, something is wrong, haven't you noticed it?"

Naruto's glare worsened. He crossed his arms. "Noticed what?"

Well, good thing I wasn't really lying. "In the crowd up there, the amount of ANBU shinobi in disguise."

"An-what? What are you talking about?" Naruto asked, sounded interested.

I forgot Naruto didn't really know much about how the village operated, even after yelling that he was gonna be the Hokage left and right. I erased the previous message, wrote another. "Black ops shinobi, the Hokage secret police. They aren't supposed to be out and about. I think Orochimaru is going to attack again."

Naruto looked left and right, like Orochimaru would attack right now. "That freaky snake lady?"

"Yes." I got closer, showed him the next message. "I don't have the same stamina as you do Naruto-kun. I can't get up like you always do." I praised the brat, just a bit. No, I wasn't feeling guilty about not fighting him properly. "If we went all out, and Orochimaru attacked again…" I left the outcome unwritten.

Naruto furrowed his brow. "What should we do? Tell Kakashi-sensei? Where is Kakashi-sensei?"

I dismissed his idea. "Sensei is probably helping Sasuke train. We can only wait and see. Be alert, but don't let others realize you know, we don't want to scare the people watching and let the attackers know we know."

Naruto squinted his eyes, nodded.

"Let's go, or we'll miss the next fight." I turned around, ran up towards the waiting area. I hoped this would be enough to patch things up. If not, I would think of another way to appease the sunshine brat. Perhaps more cupcakes? I was already working on the third cupcake of the special series, this next one dedicated to Kakashi-sensei.

I crossed paths with the next two fighters, waved at them. I guess they delayed Sasuke's fight, fate or politics. Shikamaru looked bored and tired, Choji was still stress eating. They waved back. I kept running up. There was some hollering behind, something along the lines of "fight hard, but not too hard". Was that Naruto's attempt at subtlety? I shook my head, but a smile still crept onto my face.

Up another flight of stairs, across some corridors and doors until I arrived at the stands. I found part of the rookie 9 sitting on the left viewing area. Sakura, Ino, Kiba. Beast boy was the first to notice me.

"Hey, Hinata, here!" he waved, "there's two free spots here."

I waved back. Meandered across the other spectators. Some waved at me, probably recognizing me from the fight. I waved back. It was nice to be famous, at least for the fifteen minutes it would last. When I got to the seating arrangement, the free space wasn't near Ino, or Sakura, which was a shame.

Kiba pointed at my bruised face. Burst out laughing. "You got beat up by Naruto!"

Ino slapped Kiba's arm. Defended me. "You lost as well!"

Sakura didn't say anything, but she smiled. I dunno how people could say she was ugly. Maybe in the original story the big forehead could be a thing. Here? She looked like any other pretty girl. Even more with her long pink hair.

I sat down by Kiba, looked at him for permission. I got the eye roll from the boy. Did a small guts pose, petted Akamaru. Silly shinobi dog was so cute!

Naruto arrived soon after, sat by my side. There was a bit more teasing, but it soon ended. Down in the arena the proctor went about introducing the competitors. I noticed, from the start Shikamaru positioned himself closest to the growing shadow cast by the walls. Clever boy.

The match started without much fanfare. Choji didn't attack immediately, fled to the brighter side, away from the shadows. Being teammates, it was not a surprise Choji knew what Shikamaru planned for the fight.

I had no idea how this fight would go. It was a horrible match-up. On one side, Shikamaru had his cheat-like shadow bind and brains, but lacked stopping power. If Choji got close, he could bind the chubby boy, but I have no idea how he would end the fight, since I doubt that making Choji hit his head against the wall would work. On the other end, I wasn't sure about the exact details of Akimichi jutsu. I remember they got big, and Choji already demonstrated the wrecking ball version of that. Did he even have any way to attack from afar?

Choji started the fight by throwing kunai and shuriken, the standard ninja attack. Shikamaru avoided it with ease. It went on for a few minutes, with neither side doing much of anything, until the crowd got restless.

"Fight!" A hoarse voice sounded from my right. "What are you waiting for, fight?" It was a robust, sweating man. He held a crumpled piece of paper in his hand. That spurred others, and soon, there was a bigger clamor demanding the genin in the arena to fight.

Choji wasn't immune to crowd peer pressure. The boy looked more nervous with each yell from the crowd. His hands flashed on multiple seals, and big ball Choji appeared again.

That, at least, got the crowd happy again.

It wasn't a great move. Human cannonball Choji sped toward Shikamaru, throwing dirt and dust into the air. The moment he got close enough, Shikamaru's shadow connected to the fast moving ball. In a display of their group team-jutsu, Shikamaru directed the ball away from him, and into a wall. Choji crashed, the walls shook, dust billowed. When the commotion died, big ball Choji was still stuck to the wall. Soon after he released his jutsu, but wasn't in any condition to continue the fight. Proctor guy called out Shikamaru as the winner.

There were a few claps here and there. Shikamaru scowled, massaged his shoulder, prepared to leave. He didn't even get the chance to climb up to rest. After Choji was escorted out of the arena, proctor guy called the next competitor. Temari.

She got down on her flashy giant fan. This one got the crowd happy and yelling. She didn't even wait until proctor guy called the fight. She waved her giant fan, blew wind everywhere. Having already seen the shadow jutsu in action, she, too, kept from the shadowed area, which didn't save her. It went the same classic way: Shikamaru tricked the girl to flee from the flying kunai parachute, only to catch her by using the hole Naruto dug in his fight with me. Then, much to everyone's surprise except those who really knew him, Shikamaru surrendered, after having succeeded in his plot to catch the girl.

That got some cussing from everyone around. Naruto and Kiba hollered their displeasure. Sakura looked thoughtful. Ino scowled. At least Ino's scowling face was cute, but I might be biased.

"Why did he give up? Is he stupid or something?!" Naruto kept hollering. "That really makes me mad! I'm gonna go give him a lecture." Then the sunshine brat jumped into the arena. Pointed at Shikamaru. "Stupidhead!" Hollered again.

The comedy down in the arena didn't keep the crowd entertained forever. Everyone wanted a piece of the Uchiha genius, the top of the year rookie. It hadn't been five minutes when the crowd got restless again.

"What's up with the next fight? Where's Uchiha?"

The crowd wasn't disappointed for long. A whirlwind of leaves filled the center of the arena. Three shinobi stood there: Kakashi-sensei with his hands in his pockets and a cool man's pose. An older, cooler Uchiha, dressed in the clan's traditional dark blue with his hand on Emosuke's shoulder. Did Itachi help Sasuke train as well? And the most wanted boy Sasuke, who looked cocky, confident, dressed in a strange black singlet, left arm covered in bandages and dark bracelets.

By my side, Sakura looked smitten, Ino blushed.

That moment, I realized Sasuke had a very punchable face. I hoped Gaara did the punching for me.

 

[okashihime]

Proctor-san looked at Emosuke; there was a small smirk on his face. "Your name?"

Emosuke's eyes glinted, sharp. "Uchiha Sasuke."

Completely unaware of the mood, Naruto butted in. "Hey! You're real late huh? I was wondering if you got cold feet about fighting me."

To my immense surprise, Sasuke grinned. "Heh, chill out you big dork, I gotta beat someone else first." Sasuke's eyes were glued to the waiting area, to Gaara, most likely. He looked back at Naruto. "From that attitude, you won against Hinata?"

Naruto's face soured, before he grinned even wider. "And now I get to beat the crap outta you!"

While sunshine brat teased emosuke, Kakashi scratched the back of his head, looked at Shikamaru, Naruto and finally the proctor. "Don't tell me… Sasuke lost by forfeit?" He asked.

There was a bit more back and forth between sensei and the proctor. The gist of the talk was about the same. Politics postponed the match. No one wanted the Uchiha heir to lose without fighting. Itachi, who had been silent the whole time, touched Sasuke's forehead, then flickered away. Kakashi said a few more words, also left.

Proctor-san called Gaara out. "Gaara, come down."

At that point, Naruto and Shikamaru left the arena. The anticipation among the crowd and other shinobi was palpable. I knew I was missing something here. In the original story, Sasuke was famous for being the 'last' Uchiha, but that wasn't the case anymore, most of his clan was still alive. What was the reason for all this hullabaloo over his fight? Clan politics? Propaganda? I regretted not trying to learn more about the affairs of the village, something I probably should rectify as soon as possible.

Gaara arrived, faced off against Sasuke. Psycho boy Gaara looked possessed.

Kakashi-sensei arrived at the stands, waved at us. "Yo, guys. And you too Lee, Gai." He addressed the two other shinobi that had stopped to watch the match. Lee was still dressed in a hospital gown and walking with crutches. "Hinata-chan, I'm sorry I missed your match."

I nodded at the apology. Before sensei mentioned it, I wasn't even thinking about that, but now that he apologized, I did feel a bit miffed that he wasn't here to see my beautiful explosions, even if I never expected him to be here in the first place. Conversation sparked between the two jounin, but I didn't pay attention. Anticipation started to build ever since Gaara got down into the arena.

"Begin!" Proctor-san called out.

Instead of duking it out like a good shinobi should do, Gaara talked with himself. It looked creepy if one didn't know his conversation was with the one tail. "I'm sorry, but don't worry, this time I'm sure it'll be tasty." Sand billowed from the container on Gaara's back, floated around him.

Sasuke didn't seem keen on waiting. "Here I come," he announced, throwing shuriken at Gaara. The sand reacted, moved in front of Gaara, blocked the projectiles, transformed into a clone. Sasuke dashed closer, traded blows with the clone, dispersed it with a powerful punch, moved closer, ready to attack again. The sand reacted, erected a wall between Sasuke and Gaara, which seemed to be the opportunity Sasuke was waiting for. His speed rose, and while the sand blocked Gaara's vision, Sasuke's speed burst took him behind the sand nin.

The sand wasn't fast enough to prevent the punch to Gaara's face. The sand armor cracked and flaked, but didn't break.

Sasuke smirked. Stood straight, right hand in front of him, palm up. The famous come hither taunt. "Come!"

Gaara's cracked sand armor slowly mended itself. Gaara didn't say anything, didn't answer Sasuke's provocation, which seemed to piss off the Uchiha.

"If you're not going to come to me, I'll come to you!"

Sasuke's speed rose again. Before Gaara could react, Sasuke was at the sand-nin's back. Sasuke was fast, but I noticed, still not as fast as me when going all out. But it was enough. The sand couldn't keep up. Sasuke proceeded to methodically dismantle Gaara's protection.

This wasn't something Sasuke could keep for long. Just a few minutes into the fight he was already panting, and Gaara still had his sand armor. It made sense. Rock Lee was faster and stronger than Sasuke. If taijutsu were enough to defeat Gaara, he would have done it. Instead of attacking, Gaara did a hand seal, the sand forming into a circular barrier that surrounded him from all sides.

It was at this point that Naruto and Shikamaru arrived at the stands, panting and hollering. "Sensei, please stop the match, that guy isn't normal!"

In the arena, Sasuke tried to attack again, but this time, his attack wasn't enough to break the barrier. Spikes grew from the sand, cutting small nicks into Sasuke's cheek, legs and stomach. Sasuke's fist hit the sand blockage, his fist bled from the impact. That didn't seem to phase the Uchiha. Sasuke smirked, cleaned the blood from his face. Tried a few more attacks, using his boosted speed to avoid the spike retaliation. But nothing came close to even damaging the protection.

The hullabaloo behind us with Naruto hollering, Kakashi and Gai talking, didn't stop. Something about training, and the reason they were late. Sasuke dashed away, jumped and stopped midway the arena's walls. In a flash, he did the hand seals and lightning burst from his bandaged hand. The sound of a thousand birds shushing the whole arena.

Gai said something, sounded surprised. I had my whole focus on the viewer area around me, trying to see everything without looking at anything in particular.

Down in the arena, Sasuke, now boosted by the Chidori, was fast, faster than even I could move. He closed the gap in the blink of his red eyes, lightning coated hand piercing the sand shield.

Gaara cried out from inside the sand sphere. "Arggg, waaaah. Blood… I'm bleeeding!"

Sasuke grunted, tried to pull his hand still stuck inside the sphere out. He pulled and pulled, then blasted it with lightning when he couldn't remove it from the sand. With much effort, he pulled his hand free. And out with it came something else, it looked like some sand tentacle bug monster.

Bug monster tentacle thingy retreated inside the sand cocoon. The sphere dissolved to reveal a bleeding Gaara. At the same time, chakra built all around, and feathers fell from the sky. I felt the chakra sneaking inside my head, trying to put me to sleep. As always, It didn't work. My own chakra slurped the invading genjutsu, leaving me feeling like I wanted to eat something. From the second level stands, where the two Hokage were, a smoke bomb exploded. I got up, flooded my body with chakra, disabled my seals.

Giant serpents, with strange red colored fabric around their neck appeared in the distance. Even from here, I could see the giant monsters outside the village. They dove toward the walls, broke through it and spilled inside, destroying everything in their path. Anyone still awake in the stands was attacked by disguised Sunagakure and Otogakure shinobi, who until now pretended to watch the battle.

I flickered toward the stand railing. Couldn't afford to miss the opportunity to disrupt the Sound Four's barrier.

Movement caught my attention. Kankuro and Temari jumped inside the arena. When I wasn't looking, the Sand team jounin moved closer to Gaara, faced the proctor. With a few words from the jounin, they took the injured Gaara, leaped over the arena's walls, fled the place. Sasuke looked confused for a moment, until proctor talked with him. The Uchiha heir nodded, followed the Suna shinobi.

A blur of movement sped toward me. A wash of cold cruel intent pressed against me, but it was nothing compared to Orochimaru's or even Danzo's. I turned to face the enemy, barely had time to grab a kunai, before the shinobi was on me.

Everything then was a haze of movement. I parried, dodged, counter attacked. The enemy wasn't as fast as me, but they were more experienced. It felt like I was fighting three people at the same time. I ducked under a rock projectile aimed at my head, then flickered away from the sand clone behind me. I flickered forward, trying to end the fight with a sudden attack, but the shinobi expected that move, blocked my attack, retaliated with another of his.

On the stands, Kakashi flickered in front of Sakura, killed two attacking ninjas. Gai straight up punched a guy through the wall.

Burst of flames, wind-blades, stone lances, shuriken. Ninja killed ninja while normal people slept under Kabuto's genjutsu.

Up on the roof of the middle viewer stand, a purple barrier appeared. It covered most of the structure. Shit, now was the time and I couldn't let this fucker derail all my plans. The ninja attacking me was relentless. I threw a normal explosive tag at him, out popped three shadow clones. Clone one and clone two picked up the attack, giving me some breathing room.

I cast my mind to the beacon I left there earlier in the day while I flir— had a picnic with Ino. A lone wood clone turned beacon. A chance to change the world again.

The third clone extended her hands. I gave Suicide Clone-chan the bomb. You see, I had no intention of getting close to Orochimaru who could disable me with a look, or any of the previous Hokage, who were by all intents and purposes literal gods of shinobi. I wasn't arrogant enough to think I could actually influence that fight. I was liable to make things worse for the Third if I went there, because I'm sure the old man would try to protect me at the cost of his own safety. No, my plan was just to explode one of the sound four. Without one of them, the barrier integrity would be compromised and the ANBU could do their job and join the fight, protect the Third.

I would need to explain later how I knew to leave a teleport beacon there, but that was a concern for the future. I concentrated on my newly developed jutsu, pushed my mind toward the beacon. I connected to it, It was still there. I looked at Suicide Clone-chan, saluted her sacrifice.

Before Suicide-chan could teleport, an explosion at the roofs shook me and the whole arena.

In the central viewing stands, the purple barrier bulged and contorted, breaking like glass before fading from view. Every manner of roots, tree branches, explosions, water and more cascaded from the roof. Hit the still sleeping people on the stands. The beacon faded from my mind before clone-chan could use it.

I stood frozen, watching things spiral out of control. What just happened?

 

[okashihime]

The screams of the dying crowd hit me first, then a thrown kunai, and the explosion from an exploding tag. Like a moron, me and my clones stopped to watch the rooftop in the middle of an active battlefield, of course the enemy took the opportunity to attack. The kunai punctured my arm, the tag took out my clones, fire and shrapnels pierced my skin, sent pain into my body. I fell back, hit a wall. White filled my vision. Pain dominated my mind.

Even through the haze of pain, I saw things on top of the central viewing area had become even more frantic. Detonations and the impact of S-rank jutsu used by S-rank shinobi shook the whole arena again and again. Tore chunks out of the surrounding.

I got up, pulled the kunai from my arm, prayed to any god out there that it wasn't poisoned. Drank an antidote, just to be sure. I looked around for my enemy. My clones had dispersed, and the shinobi who attacked me was dead already. Near the dead enemy, another Konoha's shinobi fighting two Oto-nins. Right, gotta get my shit together. I looked at the stands again. I couldn't see Naruto, Sakura, Shikamaru or Shino. Did Kakashi send them after Sasuke like he did in canon?

This was uncharted territory for me. Things changed, even if I had not personally intervened. Why? Fate-kun had been insistent on keeping things as close to canon as possible. I didn't know if this was a better outcome. I would reflect on that later, right now I had to do what a shinobi had to do. A quick glance showed that most of the shinobi ignored the civilians, often fighting around the sleeping people while Konoha's shinobi tried to force the enemies away. Kakashi-sensei and Gai were nowhere around, same as most of the ANBU. None of the Konoha's shinobi fighting near me were people I knew, which decided things: I was armed and dressed in my custom shinobi gear, most people saw me fight in the first match. I was a target. Staying near the civilians would only cause more trouble for them. I turned from the stands, flickered down toward the arena.

The battle still waged there.

I pumped my body full of chakra, flickered behind an enemy. Stabbed their back with my special exploding kunai, or that is what I tried. By this point, I guessed all the weak shinobi had either died or retreated already. The Suna shinobi whirled, deflected my attack. His hands blurred, and the earth beneath me shook. An earth spike lanced up toward me. With a burst of speed that would leave Emosuke jelly, something I wouldn't have been able to do before hell month training, I dodged, moved behind the Suna-nin. I threw a kunai as a distraction. While the shinobi blocked my attack, four paper seals flew from my hands, lodged around the poor bastard.

I flickered back, watched the barrier sprang into existence. The four tags that created the barrier exploded. The enclosed detonation exploded the enemy into little chunks. It was gory, but oh so beautiful.

From the corner of my eye, I saw another Otogakure shinobi running toward the other side of the arena, almost as if fleeing. They passed nearby me. I reacted on instinct, threw an exploding kunai. The kunoichi moved fast, changing direction abruptly, evading the explosion. She was a pink haired, slender woman, wearing a black shirt under a tan tunic with short sleeves. The tunic had a modified yin-yang symbol on the hem, it was all white with no black part. She wore black arm-warmers, black skin-tight shorts, traditional black shinobi sandals with calf-length leg warmers covered by bandages, and a purple, rope-like belt tied in an inverted bow around her waist.

Something in my brain squealed at that image. I'm certain she was someone from the story, but I couldn't put a name to the person.

The woman narrowed her eyes, jaw tightened. I flickered forward, ready to also explode the woman. It didn't happen. The kunoichi fled with a burst of chakra and speed that surprised me. I chased. Pink-chan evaded my throw kunai, shuriken wasn't enough to stop her, every burst of speed from my side was matched with another by hers. Her chakra kept getting higher and higher.

Pink-chan carried a tube-like thing, which turned out to be a flute. Even while fleeing and evading me, the kunoichi had the time to play her flute. The resulting melody was a tune that carried a discordant, chilling vibrato that creeped me out. Even more when chakra tendrils crawled inside my head. Fortunately, aside from Orochimaru, it didn't seem any other person could put me in a genjutsu. My own chakra surged, slurped the invading technique.

I still needed to understand why this happened, and actively learn how to defend against genjutsu. But right now, the woman looked away, maybe sure I was trapped under her jutsu. Sucks to be her. I flickered forward, punched her in the guts. Or I thought I had. Somehow, the woman reacted even faster than before. Not only that, black lightning like tattoo marks covered most of her body. Her chakra surged, about double of what she already had. Wasn't this the cursed seal? Shit!

Pink-chan punched me away. Hard and painful. I flew back, crashed against the floor. That's what I get for always underestimating the enemy. I got up, looked around. Things had calmed down somewhat. I heard no other sounds from the rooftops, only the devastation of the battle, the broken building, the path of destruction. A lot of bodies, invading ninjas or not, lay strum around the arena and the stands.

A new voice I didn't know called out. "Tayuya, we're leaving."

On the other side of the arena, across from proctor-san, Kakashi-sensei and Gai-sensei stood a trio of shinobi. The jounin commander from Gaara team, a shinobi dressed like Konoha's ANBU and another, dressed in the same way as Pink-chan, or Tayuya. The man had light blue hair, and another head stuck at his back? Trippy.

"Fuck off." Tayuya spat back.

A softer voice answered. One I had heard before. It was the shinobi dressed as ANBU. "The mission is a failure. Orochimaru is dead. We're retreating."

Orochimaru's dead? How? I mean, yes! He's dead! But how? I looked toward the rooftop.

"All you ended up doing was watching, Kabuto." Kakashi accused.

"So you knew." Kabuto said. He took his mask and hood, revealed his face.

"What's the plan?" The Suna jounin asked.

"We leave." Kabuto declared.

"Running away from me again?" Kakashi taunted.

"For now, yes." Kabuto admitted. "I don't want to show you my jutsu so you can copy them. Even if it seems you haven't fully mastered that eye."

There was a tense moment of silence. It broke when Tayuya cursed, before joining back with the other three. "Fucking hell."

"Well then." Kabuto said. Smoke exploded from their location and when it cleared, none of the four were in sight anymore.

Before I could think things through, I flickered up toward the Hokage battle. With Kabuto gone, the genjutsu he used to keep people asleep dispersed, and now the civilians started to panic, yell and cry. The rooftop was a maze of roots and branches. A few ANBU shinobi were around.

Standing over Orochimaru's dead body were a few shinobi of note: The third Hokage, dressed for battle in his black ninja gear. A tall, muscular monkey, dressed in shinobi gear, with long flowing white hair, the Third summon's: Enma the monkey king. A dark haired man dressed in white kimono. Like he had eyes in the back of his head, he turned at my approach, looked at me with his white eyes. The Hyuga guy looked a lot like Hiashi, but the lack of open hostility in his eyes told me it was uncle Hizashi instead. Hizashi gave me an almost invisible nod.

What? Wasn't he mad I almost killed Neji?

His action attracted the attention of other shinobi. A couple of ANBU nearby turned and looked at me as well. One particular ANBU had a mask with a red inverted triangle in the forehead, with lines from the border of the mask to the eyes. Red wave patterns on the side. It resembled a bird beak, like a hawk. The mask wasn't the problem. What scared the crap out of me was the red eyes that watched from behind it. Like a four point shuriken.

It was just a brief glance, but one that shook me to the core. Wasn't that Shisui?

More and more shinobi arrived. The third didn't seem to be in a good shape. But I also didn't see any sword wounds on his back. The ANBU I was pretty sure was Shisui leaned closer to the Third, whispered something. The old man nodded, turned to face me.

There, on his torso, a strange spiral seal, which reminded me a lot of Naruto's own jinchuriki seal. The mark of the Shinigami. My face fell. In the end, none of my meddling changed the outcome. The old man died. Even if he was still alive.

 

[okashihime]

Old man Hokage smiled, waved. Turned back to talk with all the assembled shinobi.

I didn't stay there. I couldn't stay there. There was nothing for me to do or see. Not with all those people up there. The noise from the viewer stands had grown a lot in the moments I was woolgathering up here. With one last regretful look at the God of Shinobi, and a glance at Orochimaru's dead body, I left.

From the roofs I flickered to the stands. My first priority was to make sure Ino— I mean— the people I knew were safe. A brief look around still revealed none of my teammates. I moved closer to the blonde, popped out my board, wrote. "Are you hurt?"

Ino was still disoriented. She looked around, eyes wide and slack jawed. "Hinata? What happened?"

"The village got attacked, Sunagakure and Otogakure."

"Shit! I slept through it all?"

I nodded, patted her head. She didn't even react to my gesture. I guess the situation was that bad.

"Mom!" Ino jumped up, started to run, stopped a few paces later. Turned to me. Eyes went even wider. "Are you okay? You're bleeding!"

I waved her off, the injury wasn't as bad as it looked. "Go check your family. And stay safe." I wrote.

Ino looked at the direction she was headed to, then back to me. "Come with me?"

I looked around. There was a lot I could do to help here. I needed to find Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura. I should, by all means, stay here to help. I turned to Ino, nodded. She gave me a small, tight smile. She ran toward her house. I followed, feeling just a bit guilty.

---

Thankfully, Ino's family was safe. The brunt of the attack was far enough from her house that no one there was in danger, even if many nearby places were damaged. Even late at night, people walked about in a state of shock, like they couldn't believe it really happened.

After making sure Ino's family and employees were safe, I didn't stay there. For a moment I considered if I should search for Naruto and Sasuke, but dismissed the idea. It wouldn't be hard to find the place where a giant toad and a sand monster fought, but I was hours too late to be involved in that. I left to help in the village however I could.

Most of the damage happened near the walls, where the giant snakes broke through. Houses and stores and lots of dead civilians. It didn't help that, to fight the giant snakes, someone summoned giant toads. Their battle wrecked even more damage to the surrounding area. Most of what I could do was grunt work. Carry debris, help people to dig personal things or mementos from the rubble. Rescue trapped pets and toys from under the destruction.

It was late at night. I was exhausted.

I jumped down from Konoha's highway, entered my apartment. My shoulder slumped. Now that I was alone and with nothing to occupy my mind, the results of the day caught up with me. In the end, all that effort was for naught. Thwarted by my own meddling. I never even considered Shisui could intervene in the fight. I could even guess what happened. A shudder took over my body. I didn't like looking at the mangekyo sharingan. For all the story lauded Shisui as one super duper good guy, enough fanfic jaded me to what could be accomplished when everyone's mind was at your beck and call.

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were at the hospital. By the looks of it, they fought Gaara. Beat back the one tail. Sakura was hurt badly, Naruto was mostly chakra exhausted, and Sasuke looked sick.

The news soon spread around the village. The third Hokage died due to injuries in the attack. The news reflected on the people's faces. Kids crying, old men in despair. Even the consummate gossip grandmas whispered without fervor. I sat against the wall, pulled and grabbed my own head. I hated this feeling. Like I could have done more. Changed things for the better. As it stood, I made things worse. Konoha as a whole might have endured the attack better, and we stopped Orochimaru. But the village lost a lot of reputation since a lot of visitors died in the attack. I didn't know how many, but a lot of civilians and dignitaries were caught in the attack when the barrier broke. I had no idea how that would affect things in the long term.

In the original story, most of the spectators never got hurt, and Konoha could pretend nothing bad happened, while abusing their remaining jounin and stronger shinobi to complete the missions and show a strong face, even if that was far from the truth. But now? I don't know how things would play out.

There was one good point about this whole situation. Orochimaru was dead. But the man was a snake. I could only hope his soul got sealed away by the Third. Shame Kabuto had escaped. I'd prefer if Kabuto died instead.

I took my diary, the one with the timeline encoded in the form of a silly story. The events on the Land of waves, followed by the exams and crushcrushcrush. The next one on my list, if things were still the same, was the search for Tsunade and Sasuke leaving to join Orochimaru. With Orochimaru dead, would Sasuke still do it? After that was a long list of filler missions from the TV version of the story, the so hated filler episodes. Would they also happen here? What about the many movies?

After that was the timeskip.

I didn't consider it before. There was no fade to black and plot returning three years later when Naruto arrived back at Konoha. What would happen to me? To Sasuke? To Sakura?

A slithering sound caught my attention. I tensed, looked about. I felt no chakra that wasn't there a moment before. The noise came again, this time louder. From beneath the door, a brown snake sneaked inside the apartment. I froze up, trying my best to remain unseen.

Fucking no. Was that Orochimaru? Was this some possession shit? Did that many shinobi really let the murderhobo disguise as a snake and flee?

The snake's tongue flickered, it turned toward me. Slithered closer. I jumped out, away from it. Took a kunai, threw at the snake. Against all odds, I hit the thing. But instead of piercing the snake's scales, the clang was like metal hitting metal. The kunai flew away, the snake remained unhurt.

To my utter bafflement, the snake didn't attack. Instead, it changed shape. The scaled form transformed into the deadly metal blade of Orochimaru's sword. Oh, shit. The sword could do that. There was that time, when Orochimaru stabbed Sai, it did that. But why was the sword here?

I stared at the sword, that, like any sword, didn't stare back. It just stayed there, on the ground, threatening me without doing anything. I didn't know what to do. Was that thing safe? Would it still follow me if I left the apartment? Could I even leave the apartment?

Seconds turned to minutes. The sword didn't transform back into a snake. I didn't have the courage to approach it. The sheer tension of it all faded, somewhat. It was hard to keep tense when the sword wasn't doing anything and exhaustion weighed on my mind. To leave the apartment, I had two choices. Go past the sword, out the front door. Go past the sword toward the bedroom and out of the window. None of those choices were great.

I didn't feel any chakra or anything that said Orochimaru was hidden inside that sword. I didn't even know if that was possible. I don't think the man ever possessed any inanimate object in canon. But the sword clearly wasn't inanimate. Or was it?

I took a step closer, then another when nothing changed. I flickered past the thing, threw the door open, burst outside. I took the highway, ran further away. My mind raced. What could I do here, who could I seek out? The Hokage tower? I didn't want to go there, not after failing to save the old man. Kakashi-sensei? Where would I find him? Yamato? I also didn't have any way of contacting the jounin.

My steps led me to the hospital again. I passed by Sasuke's room, a brief glance inside and I saw his mother sitting by the sleeping boy's bed. I didn't go in. Sasuke never talked about family, never invited us to visit. Didn't seem right to butt in right now. I kept going down the corridor, entered Naruto's room. I hadn't brought any flowers, or fresh fruits. The room was empty save for the sleeping brat. I pulled a chair from near the bed, sat down.

The stress of the whole day came crashing down. The third was dead. I failed. It started with a scowl, then my throat closed up. I tried to imagine good things, happy things. None came to mind. To disguise the tears, I leaned forward, laid my face on my arms, used the bed as support. I don't remember when I fell asleep.

 

[okashihime]

I snapped awake and ready to battle. My hands went to my waist pouch, looking for my kunai. The chair tumbled behind me, crashed with a loud bang. On the bed in front of me, Naruto stirred, rolled to the side, mumbled something I couldn't understand, drooled on the mattress, kept sleeping.

I took deep breaths through the nose, exhaled slowly. I had the worst nightmare ever. Even if I couldn't recall it now. Something about snakes and swords and stuff. I shuddered at the thought. I took more deep breaths. It felt like Orochimaru was hidden in the shadows, waiting for me to lower my guard.

"Hinata-chan." Kakashi-sensei's voice sounded from behind me. I was glad I didn't normally talk, or I would have yelled high and embarrassing. Even so, I still jumped, and turned toward the voice. Lazy Kakashi looked even more tired than usual. His jounin uniform still had marks of battle, and his eyes were even more dead than normal. He looked at the fallen chair, the bed and the sleeping Naruto. "Trouble sleeping?"

I shook my head. Wiped away a bit of drool with the back of my hand. Cleaned the crust from my eyes. Cool guy Kakashi waited until I composed myself. What a chad. When I was done, I popped my board. "Something at my apartment last night. Didn't know where else to go."

Bless the man, his first question wasn't about what happened. "Are you hurt?"

I felt all fuzzy and warm at the question, even if a nagging voice in the back of my mind whispered this was manipulation 101. I looked at my wounds, noticed most had already scabbed over and now looked weeks old. I shook my head. Wrote more. "A snake, which transformed into a sword. It scared me. I left the apartment and came here."

Kakashi-sensei nodded, looked me over. "I'll check it out. Wait until I come back."

I nodded. Wasn't planning on going anywhere near anything belonging to Orochimaru. No sir, thank you sir. Kakashi left after that. I wasn't sure what to do now. Naruto was still asleep, and I didn't want to wake him. I stepped outside, looked about. Sasuke's door was closed. Didn't seem worth checking it again. The embarrassing comments from his mother last time still caused my cheeks to burn when I remembered it. I meandered about, asked a passing nurse where I could find Sakura-chan's room.

My steps took me there. I stood in front of the door, hesitated just for a moment, knocked.

An older female voice answered. "Come in."

I opened the door a smidgen, peeked inside. Sakura's mom sat by the side of the bed. Sakura was still sleeping or unconscious, didn't know which. The woman smiled at me, waved me inside. I sat down by the bed. Looked at Haruno Mebuki.

"She's going to be okay." The woman said, sounded like she was trying to convince herself. "She's sedated, but not in any danger." Mebuki looked away, said in a tired voice. "Not anymore."

I placed a hand on the woman's shoulder. Gave her a nod when she looked at me. She smiled. We didn't talk after that, just sat in silence, watching over the sleeping Sakura.

---

Kakashi didn't return until a few hours later. He found me in the hospital cafeteria grabbing something to eat. He sat at the same table as me. "There was nothing at your house when I got there."

I nodded, that made sense. If the sword, snake – whatever – could move, I didn't think it would stay there for no reason. I shoveled food down my gullet while my threads wrote the question. "What do we do?"

"Did it attack you?" Sensei asked. I shook my head. He nodded. "Keep your vigilance, get away from it if you see it again. Find me, or any other jounin, report it again."

Kakashi didn't tell me the sword belonged to Orochimaru. Was he afraid that me knowing that would change how I felt about it? I didn't know. The sword coming to me was troublesome, even more so if people started thinking – even more – that I had some sort of relationship with Orochimaru. Thank god the fucker was dead. I just needed to make sure he stayed dead.

In the afternoon of the second day, I was called to make my report. Even with the village mourning and adjusting after the attack, ninjas still did ninja things. I walked inside the tower, greeted Secretary-chan. Her shoulders were tense, black lines under her red tinged eyes. Did someone close to her die in the attack? We never really talked about her family, or anything personal aside from my concoctions and food experiments. I thought of the young woman as a friend, my first real connection in this world, but I knew nothing about her.

Secretary-chan's voice sounded tired. "Hinata-chan."

I walked up to her desk, then around it. Opened my arms, inviting her for a hug. There was a moment of hesitation, then I saw her composure break. She fell into my arms, held me tight. Face pressed against my neck, not enough to muffle the pained sobs. We're breaking several of the shinobi's rules, but I really didn't care at this point. I wasn't an emotionless machine, never have been. I didn't mind corrupting Secretary-chan. Without words, the only thing I could do was hold the woman while she sobbed her woes away.

Someone else entered the tower. A shinobi I didn't know. He stopped, disapproving eyes on us. He opened his mouth. I glared at him, the kind of I'll-kill-you-if-you-say-something glare. The man took the hint, closed his mouth, shook his head, walked away.

Gently, I stroke Secretary-chan's back. My horrible human-being side couldn't help but notice that even looking distraught, tired, and crying, the woman still smelled nice. Jasmin and something fruity. The pragmatic side noted that she'd made a horrible infiltration kunoichi with such a distinct scent.

The moment with Secretary-chan didn't last long. It couldn't, really. I was here to make a report. But it gave me ideas. Maybe I could invite her to hang out? Something other than our brief encounters at the tower. I've been thinking of trying new concoctions. My new creation was an attempt at crème brûlée. I even learned a d-rank fire release jutsu to burn the cream just before serving it: the presentation was as important as the taste, after all. I wanted Ino to be the first one to taste it, but well, it was for a good cause.

I gave the older girl a peck on the cheeks. She gave me a small smile back.

"Go on up," she said after wiping away the tears. "They're waiting for you."

I looked at the stairs leading up, then at Secretary-chan again. I gave her another hug, then left my two last seals for the woman. One with a thermos and tea, another with sweets. I hoped it would make her day just a bit better. Then I fled up the stairs.

It was strange to see the tower in such disarray. In all the times I came here before, there was always this sense of calm urgency. Like every ninja had an important task they needed to attend to. Now, most just looked tired, and beaten up. A lot of the ninjas still wore battle scarred vests. It seems none of them had slept after the attack. I knocked at the indicated door, entered when called.

A chunin looked up from behind a mountain of papers. "Name?"

I popped my board, wrote: "Hinata."

Chunin-san took a notebook from his mountain of paper, flipped a few pages. Looked back at me, then at the notebook again. "You're late." He said, but continued without giving me a chance to say anything in response. "Just wait there a moment, someone will come to take your report."

I nodded at that. Looked about. There was nowhere to sit. I leaned against the wall. I don't think this guy deserved my good impression's pastries kit, he didn't leave a good impression. Not that I had one to give, even if I wanted. My supplies were utterly depleted. Minutes passed with the only sound being the man's writing. About ten minutes later, the door opened.

In entered a shinobi I knew. Long ash blond hair, with a spiky top ending in a ponytail. A sharp jaw, light green eyes, same as Ino's. Protector wore over his forehead. Standard flak jacket over a black outfit, with a long black overcoat on top of it all.

I bowed to the man. He nodded back.

"I'll take it from here." Ino's dad said to the chunin, who nodded in response. "Follow me, Hinata-chan." Inoichi said to me, then instead of leading me up or to another room, we took the stairs down. And down we went until I was certain we were underground. Shit.

 

[okashihime]

Down stairs, corridors with sturdy bare stone walls, and dungeon-like passages I followed Inoichi. Was this where they kept captured enemy ninjas? I didn't know. Probably not. I don't think they would keep dangerous enemies so close to the administrative center of the village. Why was I here? We crossed paths with a few other shinobi, all dressed in the same oppressive black attire Ibiki wore during the first phase of the chunin exam. It was all very sus. I think I was in a spot of trouble.

We stopped in front of a heavy wooden door. Inoichi pushed it open, looked at me.

I shrugged. It wasn't like I could refuse. I stepped inside. Soft white walls, two opposite couches and a small center table. Warm light above illuminated the room. No windows or any other door. Chakra bundles across the wall to the right side of the door. An observation room? I didn't follow protocol. I sat down before being invited to.

Inoichi followed me inside, closed the door after him. Sat down on the other couch.

"Thank you for looking after Ino during the attack." Inoichi gave me a sort of half seated bow. "I'm glad she has such good friends."

That wasn't what I had been expecting. For a moment, I thought the man would put me in shackles, throw me into a dank, dark little room, accuse me of some conspiracy or another. Exile me. Did they exile shinobi? I didn't think so. I popped my board out. Wrote my question. "Am I in trouble?" I guess being direct wouldn't hurt.

"No, it's—" A knock at the door interrupted the man. "Just a moment," he said. Got up, went to the door. On the other side, a kunoichi with dark hair held a bunch of papers. She offered them up. Inoichi took them. "Thank you." He said. The woman bowed, left. The door closed again. Inoichi returned to the couch, sat down. Placed the papers on the table. "Tell me about yesterday's events?"

This wasn't how normally I made my reports, but I guessed the situation was strange enough with the attack and the Hokage's death. I recounted the things I remembered. Seeing the ANBU shinobi among the crowd, suspecting something could happen during the matches, not going all out against Naruto to save my chakra and stamina. I told him what I remembered about the ninjas I fought. The conversation between Kabuto, Kakashi and the shinobi from sand, which I still didn't know the name of. I described my fight with Tayuya, her jutsus, speed, actions. I told him about going up the roof, seeing Orochimaru's body. Leaving and helping Ino reach her house. The other parts after that I left out, at least until the part about the sword. I recounted the events, about Kakashi's suggestion and lastly my arrival here.

Mid all my talking, chakra tendrils tried to crawl inside my head. My own chakra slurped them all, and left me hungry, stomach rumbling. Inoichi twitched the first time it happened, but not the second, third, or tenth.

"On your report about the events of the Forest of Death," Inoichi said after I finished writing, "You mentioned Orochimaru put you under a genjutsu," he took a few of the papers from the pile in the table, read it. From the other side, I caught glimpses of the words. They were written in a code I couldn't read. Damn, I wanted to know what they said, and break the code. I mean, deciphering things was cool. "Yet Hatake Kakashi mentioned in his analysis of your team your resilience regarding genjutsu. Can you elaborate on that?"

They wanted to know why the attempts to get into my head didn't work? I remember feeling something similar soon after I told Kakashi-sensei about the 'dreams' when I was younger. Was that Inoichi? It happened a few more times over the years, but until now, with the man trying to read my mind to my face, I never connected the dots. Did I want to tell them why it didn't work on me? Not really. It wasn't anything I had active control over. If I talked about it, I might find someone to help me understand, but given my track record with people teaching me stuff, it was bound to be more trouble than it was worth.

I shrugged. Wrote my answer. "It just doesn't work on me. I can always tell when someone tries to put me in a genjutsu." Except Orochimaru.

Inoichi nodded, looked at his papers again. "Tell me about the events in the Chunin exam."

I recounted what I remembered. Meeting Kankuro, Temari and Gaara a week before the exams started. I wrote about Kabuto and my suspicions at the time. About Orochimaru attacking us, team ten's help, Sasuke's strange behavior and the fight after I woke up.

Inoichi kept asking questions about older and older events. The tendrils never stopped trying to get into my head. Each time with a different approach or intensity. "Tell me about your training methods. Kakashi's analysis puts you as the strongest genin of your year, even if Sasuke scored higher on academy ranking."

That was new to me. Did sensei really think that? Warm fuzzy feelings spread in my chest. I took my board, was about to write, but stopped. Instead of describing all my training methods, I wrote something Kakashi told me a few months ago. "Clan secrets." I showed the man my board.

He gave me an unimpressed look. Yeah, I did agree with him. What clan? But as Kakashi-sensei said, those were my 'secret' training methods. I didn't have to share it if I didn't want to. And I didn't want to explain how I came up with that methodology. Couldn't say I copied from fanfics I liked, could I?

Inoichi didn't push. "Tell me about the dreams you told 'Wolf-san' when you were five."

That was a big jump. I guess he wasn't interested in my years in the academy. I tilted my head. Inoichi didn't talk about the S-rank mission first. That was my code with Kakashi-sensei. Those were his instructions to me. Never talk about it to anyone, but if someone wanted to talk, they'd mention the S-rank mission first. "I don't know what you are talking about." I wrote.

The page flip stopped mid gesture. Ino's father looked up from his papers to me. "I work for the intelligence division. I have access to all the reports. There's no need to keep that information secret."

To make my point, I erased my message, wrote the same thing again. "I don't know what you are talking about." Even if he was from the intelligence division, he didn't know the code. I wasn't about to ignore the mission Kakashi-sensei gave me when I was five.

Inoichi placed the papers down, rifled through the others, picked a different one. "I've been having dreams." He read out loud. "In my dreams, I'm not myself. But someone called Orochimaru." He placed the paper down, took another. "This is a report made by Wolf-San of the ANBU." Inoichi looked at me. "Signs of stress, higher heart rate, frequent deep breaths, constant fidgeting, avoids eye contact." He looked at me. "You know what those point out to?"

I knew. I learned about it at the academy. Kunoichi lessons talked a lot about reading body language. A ninja needed to know when they were being lied to. Those were the most common things to look out for. But why now? It's been seven years already. Was it because the Third was dead? Couldn't they even wait until his corpse cooled down?

You think I lied. I was about to write, but realized the trick. The man wanted me to admit to knowing about the dreams by going at it from another angle. I shrugged, there was nothing I could say here, even if my reaction gave a lot away.

Like he had read my mind, but probably just interpreted my body reactions, the man spoke again. "I know you lied then, and that you are lying now. It isn't smart to lie." He put the papers down. Looked at me. His voice was emotionless, cold. "Tell me about your dreams."

 

[okashihime]

We stared at each other for what felt like an eternity but wasn't more than just a few seconds. I wrote on my board again. "I don't know what you are talking about." No secret code, no talking.

Inoichi pushed back into his couch, looked between me and the papers. "Must we make this unpleasant?"

What kind of Danzo bullshit was this? I would have expected this sort of behavior had the man still roamed Konoha's darkness, but he was gone. For years. Why now?

I kept my eyes fixed on the man, all the academy training coming back. Don't show fear, don't show vulnerability. You must be strong at all times or the enemy will use any opportunity you give to dig deeper. The need to think of Ino's father as an enemy hackled me, but these were the circumstances. Being tortured, if that was what the man implied, would suck. Real bad. I don't think I had a strong will and pretty much would break fast. But disobeying the mission was also out of the question. The only thing I could think of was to escape. I don't think Konoha's ninja knew about my prototype flying thunder god jutsu yet, or the beacon I left at the apartment. Should I be happy I never got to use the new jutsu to save the Third?

I liked Konoha. The place wasn't perfect, or fair, but it was home. If they tried to torture information out of me, I'd escape, look for Kakashi-sensei. He would clear things up, I hope. If not, well, I didn't know what to do. Evil Hinata route? Where would I even go? Do an Itachi routine and join Akatsuki as a spy? Hunt Danzo? I erased the words on my board, wrote the same thing for the fourth time. "I don't know what you are talking about."

Inoichi leaned back. Stared at me for very long seconds. Then he gave me a small curt nod. The harshness on his face softened, he smiled a small smile. "That will be all then, Hinata-chan." His tone was casual, not like the seriousness of the previous conversation. "Come by the shop tomorrow before the ceremony," he said while organizing the papers, "Ino said she wanted to go with friends."

I wiped my board. My movements were a bit wild. My words came all sharp and without the care I usually took to write them. "What was this all about?"

The damn man actually chuckled. So bewildered I was I didn't even dodge when he leaned over the table and ruffled my hair. "You'll learn soon enough," he said, winked. "Now, let me escort you to the entrance, we wouldn't want you to get lost down here, would we?"

I was still bewildered and confused when Inoichi ushered me out of the Tower. Secretary-chan gave me a bemused smile, which I reciprocated out of instinct. Then I was out, alone and with no idea of what to do or what just happened. I shrugged. Pushed all that away. I was fine, if confused. It was time to go home. If I was to visit Ino's house tomorrow, I needed to prepare gifts. And ever since the chunin exams started, my store of pastries and sweets had dwindled dangerously low, as in, I had none left. I couldn't let that continue. It was time to binge cook and replace my essential supplies.

The rest of the day I spent wondering about what that interrogation had been about, cooking stuff, and thinking what new cupcake from the special series I should work on next. I was thinking of one inspired by the coolest ninja ever, Kakashi-sensei.

And I did not make any plans to escape in case they tried to imprison me. Not at all. This was home. Some people might not like me, but that didn't mean I was in danger, right? Right?

---

The following day, I dressed in a ceremonial outfit. All black. Didn't even remove the collars, black mascara or lipstick. It fit right in with the new clothes. It was the Third's funeral. I had a good reason to play the goth stereotype. I packed my gifts and offerings. Left the apartment. Fortunately, the snake sword didn't show up again. That was a load off my shoulders, even if something else nagged at the back of my mind: Do you prefer to be in the room with a snake you can see or with one you can't?

Konoha's highway was full of black dressed ninjas today. Most moving toward the Tower. I dropped in front of the Yamanaka flower shop, noticed the unusual frenzy of activity. Everyone wanted flowers today. I stepped inside, a busy worker recognized me, waved me toward the inner rooms without me saying anything. I bowed in thanks, stepped deep into the Yamanaka sanctuary.

Ino wore the same ceremonial outfit, hair tied on a severe chignon. Her face was serious, drawn in. Even the small smile she gave wasn't enough to push away the air of sadness. I approached, fan-girl-chan plus loneliness demanded I offered best girl Ino a hug. The teen rolled her eyes, an exasperated smile on her face. She hugged me back. Fierce, tight, too short lasting.

Still holding my shoulders, Ino spoke. "How are you?"

There wasn't much I could say here. Should I tell her Inoichi scared the crap out of me yesterday? It didn't feel like something I should talk about. Tell her about the freaky sword? Nope, not a chance. Confess I was a transmigrated selfish person? Not a chance 2x. Tell her she was the best girl and I wanted to snog her in real life and not in my imagination? Where did that one come from?

I shook my head. Ino nodded, released my shoulders, led me deeper inside. I waved at Ino's mom. Half glared at Inoichi, who just chuckled. I offered them some of the sweets and cupcakes I worked on the previous afternoon, much to Ino's delight.

Things after that moved fast. I followed the family to the ceremony. We stood in line on top of the tower, just below the Hokage monument. Rain poured down on us. Ninja stood straight, serious faces under the rain, paying respect to our deceased leader. No one said anything, no one showed any emotion. Except for Konohamaru, who balled his eyes out. Naruto was also here, banged up and bandaged, wearing the protector around his neck. Sasuke stood with the rest of the Uchiha. He had a few bandages I could see, and still looked sick. I saw Itachi, Sasuke's mother, an older shinobi with short hair. Shisui? I wasn't sure, his eyes weren't red this time. Nearby I saw the Hyuga clan, all glaring my way. The clan head and his twin. Hiashi and Hizashi. Neji and Hanabi. Another assortment of black haired, white eyed people. I really wanted to know what kind of things were spread about me to cause this amount of hate.

The ceremony was a strange thing. We stood there, silent and alert. Paying respects. There was no speech or any show of overt affection, just a few minutes of silence. Some ninjas deposited flowers over the memorial, others left small tokens. A picture, a kunai, a talisman, a tag seal. I left the Will and Fire Special Series Cupcake.

It was Naruto who broke the silence. "Why do people risk their life for the sake of others?"

"There's no reason to do it. People just do things like that because of the bonds forged, because they have things they have to protect." Iruka-sensei's voice sounded out in response. There was a lot condensed in his response. The bonds of friendship formed during life and death missions. Bonds of family, bonds of love, bonds of loyalty.

"Yeah, I think I'm starting to get that now." Naruto muttered. "But it's too painful to die, too."

To my utter surprise, Sasuke was the one who interjected. "Don't worry, you'll understand eventually."

"Hey!" Naruto protested. "Gimme some credit, I understand!"

The ceremony didn't last long after that. Ninjas dispersed, went about rebuilding their lives and village. I was about to follow Ino when Kakashi-sensei waved me over. I stopped, looked at the waiting blonde, looked at sensei. Popped my board. "Sensei wants to talk with me, I'll see you later?"

Ino nodded, waved goodbye, left with her family. Inoichi gave me a nod. Ino's mom waved. I turned toward sensei, who stood with Yamato and another shinobi that looked like an older version of Shikamaru. Nara Shikaku? What was this about?

 

[okashihime]

I didn't have time to write anything when I approached the jounin commander. Nara Shikaku addressed me and the other two gathered shinobis as soon as I got closer.

"You're here, please follow me." Shikaku turned around, moved off the terrace and inside the tower. With a quick glance and nod towards me, Kakashi followed. Yamato did the same. With no choice, and my curiosity picked, I followed the jounin commander as well.

We went down, thankfully not underground, but into an absolute mess of a room a few floors away from the top floor. There was a huge map hung on the wall, scrolls and papers littered everywhere. The room was large, with desks scattered around, serious faced ninja reading, writing or in one's case looking inside a small aquarium? Wild. We crossed the place, going to a door on the other side. It opened to a smaller office, still filled to the brim with paper, scrolls and a few personal details: two picture frames on the desk, a dark haired woman and a young Shikamaru. Even with all the chaos, the room had a feeling of organization to it. It was chaotic, but controlled.

Shikaku went behind the desk, sat down, his gaze briefly going to the pictures before he picked up a sheet of parchment. "Please, have a seat."

I noticed Kakashi and Yamato didn't sit. I didn't either. I popped my board. "Thank you sir, but I'll stand." I wasn't sure about the formality of things, but I was sure there was no harm in calling the jounin commander sir.

The man nodded, still reading the paper. "It's abrupt, but we're sending you on a mission." Shikaku said without preamble. I tilted my head, not sure where this was going. "We found critical intel that can lead us to one of Orochimaru's labs, and given your past record with him and your abilities," Shikaku looked from the paper to Yamato, "the jounin leading this mission requested your assistance."

Yamato nodded when I looked at him. Kakashi-sensei put his hand on my shoulder, gave it a comforting squeeze.

"It's a dangerous mission, and given the recent developments, we lack the manpower to send a full search party." Shikaku took another paper, read from it as well. "We are sending a jounin," he nodded to Yamato again, "And three chunin to investigate this lead. Your objective is to acquire as much information on Orochimaru's as possible, as well disable or capture any high importance target you may find. Any questions?"

It was dumb, and I already knew what was happening here, but an inner squealing fangirl-sama demanded I ask the question. It all made so much sense now. I wrote. "I'm not a chunin?"

Shikaku nodded, like he had expected it. "In the absence of an appointed Hokage, the jounin commander may give a field promotion when necessary." He put the paper down. "Your performance on the chunin exam was exemplary, and you passed Inoichi's test about keeping village secrets."

I knew it! That whole situation smelled so bad it could only be a test! Damn I was glad I didn't cave because Inoichi scared the crap out of me. I gave a mental fist pump, all the while my inner Fan-Girl danced and jumped and laughed.

"Your detailed reports of the situation, and crucial information gathering, the decision to save strength in the match to be at peak shape for a possible attack was noted. You have the recommendations of three jounin, and the Hokage's endorsement." The man stopped, looked away. Returned his gaze to me. "Sarutobi Hiruzen's last request before he passed away."

I blinked, blinked a few more times, sand got in my eyes, somehow. All the euphoria of the promotion died. My throat felt heavy and full. I was glad that no one expected me to speak. I felt even worse about not managing to save the old man. I nodded. Thought a bit, wrote another question. "Who are the other two chunin?"

"Hayase and Sai."

I tilted my head. The first name meant nothing to me. I had no idea who Hayase was, but the second one on the other hand. Wasn't it a bit too early for Sai to appear? I remember he was only introduced on shippuden. He was three years early. I cut that line of thought. This wasn't a tv show. I gave Shikaku another nod.

The jounin commander continued his briefing. "You'll leave tomorrow at dawn. You have the rest of the day to make your preparations. This is a secret A-rank mission, and you're not allowed to share this information with any of your friends or teammates. The mission is expected to take up to three months, so prepare accordingly."

I opened my mouth, closed it shut again. Damn, I needed to talk with Sasuke, and Ino, and Secretary-chan, and Naruto. With all the confusion, and rush for the exams, I never had the time to talk with Sasuke about the attack on the forest. But orders where orders. I would entrust Naruto to deliver stuff for my friends for me. I wrote on my board. "Understood."

"That's all," Shikaku said, picking up another paper. "Congratulations on your promotion, and I apologize for the lack of ceremony. The situation didn't allow for it."

I gave a slight bow to the jounin commander.

After that, we left the office, crossed the busy intelligence hall? Gallery? Floor? I had no idea what to call it. Climbed down the stairs. For once, Secretary-chan wasn't in the reception. It was another ninja who I had never seen before. I waved to the man, he nodded back.

Outside, Yamato was the first to speak. "I still have things I need to prepare. Meet me here tomorrow at dawn, Hinata-san." The man nodded to me. He shared a glance with Kakashi, flickered away.

I turned to sensei, thinking how I could ask the question in my mind. Decided being direct was the best choice. I popped my board again, erased the previous words, wrote more. "Sensei, now tell me what is really going on." I showed Kakashi the message.

Cool lazy ninja chuckled, gave me one of his crescent eye smiles. "I told them you wouldn't be fooled." Kakashi looked about. "Follow me, let's get something to eat and talk somewhere private."

I followed sensei into Konoha's highway. We crossed the administrative district into the commercial area. Dropped down in front of an out of the way alley. Kakashi knocked at one door that had no markings or any indications what was inside. A young woman opened it. She was elegant, but still serious. "Please, come in sir." She said, nodded.

I held back my question. What was this place? Was Kakashi-sensei taking me somewhere illegal? We entered a darkened bar-esque room. It wasn't a bar, more like a private diner? I don't know. I have never seen a place like this. There were several booths, most separated by walls with curtains at the front to prevent others from looking in.

"We'll take one of the back rooms." Kakashi-sensei said. The woman nodded, led us inside, past the booths and to a room at the back of the place. We entered what looked a lot like a private dining area. Weird.

"Should I take your orders now, or come back later?" The woman bowed.

Kakashi-sensei looked at me. I shrugged. I didn't know the place. "Bring us two servings of the house special."

With one last bow, the woman left, leaving me alone with Kakashi. He sat down, gestured for me to follow. I did as requested.

Kakashi, like me, didn't seem to like beating around the bush. "Some of the Elders in the council want you interrogated for any information regarding Orochimaru. And with Lord Third dead, there's no one to stop them."

That made some sense. I knew the council of elders didn't like me. I blamed Danzo for that. Even after all these years. I wrote. "Is the mission busy work to keep me away?"

Kakashi-sensei shook his head. "It's a real, time-sensitive mission. But it also serves to take you away from the village until a new Hokage can be appointed."

"Will the new Hokage look favorably on my situation?"

"That's our hope." Kakashi admitted eying the food. His tone didn't give me a lot of confidence, but I knew the next Hokage would be Tsunade, and she was also cool, and pretty, and possessing a very distinct pair of characters.

"Who is being considered for the position?" I asked back.

Before Kakashi could answer, we were interrupted. The woman returned with food, another attendant, a young man dressed in formal ceremony clothing brought the drinks. The food was something like a hot pot. I saw a few ingredients I recognized there: Hard boiled eggs, dipped into an inviting brown broth. Daikon radish, konjac and an assortment of small balls that, going by the smell, were most likely some type of fish cake. There were, of course, more ingredients. Small pieces of potato, thin sliced cabbage and even noodles. It wasn't a ramen, at least not in the sense I was used to, but it smelled so good.

The servers bowed after delivering the food, and Kakashi finally answered my question.

"You don't need to worry about that, my cute chunin." Sensei said, patted my head.

I did blush a bit this time. Thank god the lighting was dim and my rosy cheeks wouldn't show. It was nice being called a chunin, even if I think the promotion was fishy. "Do I need to wear that awful flak jacket now that I'm a chunin?" I asked sensei to disguise my embarrassment.

---

Full ARC name: Search for the Snake Hideout.
Alternative ARC name: The Honey Badger Contract.

 

[okashihime]

Thankfully, the flak jacket wasn't mandatory. Konoha wasn't as strict as other villages with its dress code. Shinobis could usually dress in their clan clothes or anything that took their fancy in their day to day lives, or even during missions. At least outside official events. I knew some shinobis used the jacket even outside normal "working hours". Take Kakashi-sensei for example: Never seen him wear casual attire. I'm guessing if there was any war out there, everyone would be required to wear the full shinobi regalia. The jacket, pants, shoes, belt pouches. The important thing was: My ninja statement outfit was safe! No need to add the jacket that would clash so much with my carefully prepared looks.

We ate the food, which was delicious, and there was this awkward moment where Sensei tried to small talk, I guess my embarrassment showed, because he soon gave up on the attempt. Soon after, I fled the hidden restaurant? Bar? Well, I ran away from the hidden place. I didn't have much time left and had so many things I needed to prepare.

My first priority was to seal a good number of cupcakes, sweets and pastries. They were my secret weapons. I wasn't leaving home without them. Problem was, I didn't have enough time to bake everything I needed in a single afternoon. I'm ashamed to admit, but I resorted to the lazy's man way out. I purchased a lot of other – inferior quality – sweets, and stored them in my usual first impression packages and other routine seals. I kept the ones I baked by myself for the important moments.

After that, my supply of explosives, the special ones. Anything Orochimaru related deserved my good explosives. Not all of it of course, I didn't think I would need hundreds, just a few dozen of the buggers was enough. Explosives set, I made sure my koto was in good shape, sealed and stored. Important stuff dealt with, it was finally time to check my other tools, clothes and normal everyday necessities.

My preparations took a good part of the afternoon. I hadn't finished everything, when the sun approached the horizon. Before it got dark, I went hunting for Naruto. No idea where the goofball was, but the Ichiruka Ramen was a good starting bet. To no one's surprise, that's where I found the brat. I got in, bowed to the owner. Gestured that I wanted one bowl of ramen. I sat down by Naruto's side. He had his face hidden by a ramen bowl.

The small food stall didn't have many customers at this time, but the ambient smell was amazing. The booth had this comfy atmosphere that made you want to sit down and grab a bite. My stomach agreed. It growled like an enraged beast. The shop owner's daughter heard it, she grinned. My ears burned. I popped my good impression kit v1.3, offered it to her. Her small grin turned into a full blown smile. Totally worth it.

Not long after, I also had my face hidden behind the bowl. Noisily slurping down tasty noodles.

Naruto finished eating, placed the bowl down. Still without looking my way, patted his belly. "Hiyaaa. That's what I needed." The brat burped. Muttered. "Missing only Hinata-chan's cupcake."

Surreptitiously, I sneaked one cupcake toward Naruto.

"Old ma—" Naruto started, but saw the cupcake. "Lucky!" The brat yelled. Took the sweet, glomped it down.

I facepalmed. Naruto wasn't stupid, but he could be so dumb at times. What if that was poisoned? That gave me a wicked idea. Laxative cupcakes. That would teach him to check his food before eating. But that was for the future.

While Naruto devoured his cupcake, I finished slurping my ramen. I placed my bowl on the counter-top, then same as Naruto, patted my belly. That was awesome. I felt a burp coming, but I wasn't as crass as Naruto. Or better yet, the seal wouldn't let me be as crass as Naruto. I burped. It made no sound.

I popped my board, something the owner and his daughter were already accustomed to. "Naruto, I need a favor from you." I slid the board toward Naruto, who still hadn't noticed me.

"Wha— Hinata-chan!" Naruto yelled again. Looking at the board, then at me, and at the cupcake crumbs scattered all around him. "When did you get here?"

I shook my head, pointed at the board.

Naruto tilted his head. "What do you need?"

I erased my previous message. "I've been requested for a mission outside the village. I need you to do two things for me." I showed him the board. When Naruto nodded, I erased the text, wrote more. "First, I need you to be gentle with Sasuke. Remember that time after Wave? When he was all pissy and brooding?" Naruto nodded sagely after reading. "He might behave strangely as well. Just be there and be his friend."

Naruto scratched his head, shrugged. I got the impression it meant: "I'm already his friend."

"Second, I need you to deliver letters, for err, a lot of people."

Naruto tilted his head to the other side. I took the prepared envelopes. I penned a message to each person, along with the seals. Naruto took the envelopes, looked at the names. Found his not long after shuffling through. "What is this Hinata-chan?"

I shook my head again. Wrote more. "Don't worry, just open it when you get home. I've put a few cupcake seals for you there. Can you deliver the rest for me?"

Naruto squinted at one particular envelope. This one was pink, fancy and bigger than the others. "Shijmi? Who is that?"

I giggled. Of course Naruto wouldn't remember her. "Tora's owner."

A few weeks after our team was not available for missions, Madam Shijmi sent me a letter, proposing a deal: She offered a lot of money for regular sweets deliveries. Her letter had enough seals to cover at least the three months the mission was supposed to last. I wanted to make sure I wouldn't break our agreement by staying away for too long.

"Ahhh, the fat lady!" Naruto hollered.

I rolled my eyes. What a brat.

Naruto looked at the pile of correspondence, scratched the side of his head. "But Hinata-chan, if we're going on a mission, how will I deliver it?"

I sighed. "No, Naruto-kun. It's not a team seven mission. I've been requested by another jounin."

It took a moment for Naruto to understand what I wrote, but when he did, his face fell. "But!" He looked devastated. I almost expected him to burst into tears.

I patted his shoulder. Tried to explain the reality of things. "Many shinobi died protecting the village. We have a shortage of people, we might not be able to work as a full team for a while." I even threw him a bone. "You might also be leaving on a mission soon."

Having done my part with Naruto, I returned home. I needed to talk with Sasuke, but somehow, it always wasn't the right time. First was the lack of privacy in the second phase, then Kakashi stealing Sasuke away for training. That and the attack and all the chaos that followed. Now, the dust hadn't even settled yet and I had to leave the village because some old codger wanted me dead or worse.

Things weren't that bad. Sasuke had mellowed out over the months after joining the team. He didn't even try to burn my hair anymore during spars. He and Naruto also became good friends. Without Itachi to put Sasuke into a genjutsu and flame his obsession, and with Orochimaru gone, I was confident Sasuke wouldn't defect. Where would he go? His family was here. If he wanted to get stronger, he just needed to talk with Itachi and Shisui.

The feeling that I was missing something nagged at the back of my mind. I stopped, cast my mind inwards, trying to remember what I had forgotten. A few minutes later I sighed. This was annoying. I felt like those dense anime protagonists that knew they needed to do something before too late, but always kept pushing it away until disaster struck.

Should I seek Sasuke out? The memory of the boy's outburst came back to my mind. I shook my head. No, there was no hurry. Sasuke was safe. Distance and time would help him. And help me.

 

[okashihime]

One might think I had trouble sleeping the night before an important mission. And well, they would be right. I couldn't sleep that night. I turned and tossed in bed for a few hours before I gave up on sleeping and went to bake more pastries. The lack of my ultimate weapons, or the new mission wasn't what kept me awake. It was everything else. I've been so focused and worried about Konoha's Crush that I never stopped to think about what would come next. No, not what would come next, but what would I do next.

There were a lot of things to consider. Going after Orochimaru's lab was a stroke of luck, at least for me. I had some things I needed to confirm before I could plan my next steps. Had Kabuto already learned the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu? My assumption was that he only learned that from Orochimaru after Konoha's Cruch, since before that, Kabuto wasn't following the snake all around. Another assumption was that Orochimaru taught Kabuto that jutsu because he couldn't use his arms, after they were sealed by the shinigami.

My primary goal then, I decided after taking another batch of cupcakes from the oven, was to learn what Kabuto knew and kill him if possible. Scour anything Orochimaru related for any clues about the seals in my body and the Impure Resurrection Jutsu.

Talking about the snake, at least one of Orochimaru's eyes – the one I saw after Sasuke burned the disguise in half of the snake's face in the Forest of Death – was a byakugan. It stood to reason that it was my eye, since I never heard anything else about any other Hyuga going missing or dying. Given how much of a diva the whole clan was, they wouldn't not make a fuss about such a thing happening.

What happened to that? With Hizashi standing over Orochimaru's dead body like a lioness reclaiming her stolen cub, I was sure that trying to get anywhere closer wouldn't end well. Or maybe I was just projecting and people would just let me waltz in and pluck eyes from a dead body.

A shudder ran through me and I almost let a batch of sweets fall. If nature transformation already made me feel icky, the thought of plucking eyes out of bodies and plopping them on my own head made me nauseous. How would that even work? It wasn't like I was attached to byakugan or anything. Sure, I think it looked cool. White eyes rulz, it was also useful. All around vision? Sign me in. But I never had those eyes. Yes, intellectually I knew they belonged to Hinata, and that I was Hinata. But I never had them, so to speak. I never even thought about it most of the time.

Even so, I was curious to know what happened. Was the Hyuga clan now in possession of a pair of twice orphaned eyes? Would someone tell me anything if I asked? I pushed those thoughts aside. I looked at the baked treasures on every surface of my small kitchen. I looked through the window and noticed the sky brightening. Right, no time to woolgather. I sealed my secret weapons, took a shower, put on a clean outfit, got all my prepared things, left to start my mission.

I met Yamato in front of the Tower at dawn. Despite not being late, I was the last to arrive. Yamato was out of his shinobi uniform, head protector and any other trait that could identify him as a ninja. By his side, a taller boy, with spiky black hair, wearing a grayish blue sweater and jeans. He carried a bag on his back and no other discernible ninja gear. The other ninja, cadaver pale Sai, wore the same style of clothing I remembered from the show: Black sort-of-jacket that left his midriff exposed, black pants, black open toed shoes. The only difference being the lack of a forehead protector. He also had a bag at his back. I wasn't good at judging people's age by their face, but Hayase looked closer to nineteen, while Sai looked about a few years older than me.

Anger, or maybe jealousy bubbled inside my gut. I glared at the pale boy. He was another one I never liked from the original show. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath. I didn't know him. I needed to stop judging people like the characters portrayed on the show. And things have changed. Danzo was gone. There was no need to think that Sai was the same emotionless person from the original story.

"Is that the last member of this mission?" An emotionless voice broke my introspection. I looked up, Sai stared at Yamato. "She looks weak. Is she even a chunin? And what are those clothes, wasn't this an important mission?"

This fucker! Here I was, trying to convince myself to be nice and there he was putting me down. What's wrong with him?

The other shinobi, Hayase, raised both hands, smiled. "Now, stop it, Sai. We talked about this, you shouldn't say whatever comes to mind."

Sai nodded, but didn't look away. Still looked at me with those emotionless eyes. Then he smiled, a small one, a fake one, one that didn't reach his eyes. Creepy.

Hayase turned to me. "You're Hinata, right?" I nodded, still annoyed at Sai. "Nice to meet you," the older chunin beamed. "I remember you from the first phase, you did get all seven questions right."

I blinked. What was he on about?

"You don't remember?" Hayase scratched his head. I shook mine. "I was a plant during the exam so people could copy the correct answers from me. I was also the one who created the questions."

Really? I don't remember seeing him at all, but then again, I was distracted with the test, and didn't pay any attention to the other shinobi in the room. I popped my board out, to a raised eyebrow from Hayase and more stares from Sai. "Those questions were interesting. The cipher one was my favorite." I wrote. Showed him the board.

Hayase took my idiosyncrasies in stride. "It was, wasn't it? I took a liking to encryption after my stay in the intelligence department. You have no idea how many other ways to encrypt data they have. On that one question, I used the Hashirama principle…"

Hayase kept on geeking about the questions he created and all the theoretical knowledge involved. I felt fan-girl-chan wake up. This was right up her alley. Was he talking about something chunin related? I never heard about the workings of higher ranked ninja in the village. And with my promotion being out of ordinary, I had no idea what was the normal course of action here. I erased my board, started to write again when Yamato interrupted us.

The man had been silent, watching our banter, but guess it was mission time now. "We'll have time to discuss other details later. Is everyone ready?"

I looked at my temporary team members, noted again the attire they wore. Took off my forehead protector, my shinobi tool pouches, and stuffed it inside my bag. I was still in goth mode, but again, my normal clothes didn't really look like a ninja uniform. After one last check, to make sure nothing in me screamed 'ninja', I nodded. Sai and Hayase also nodded.

Yamato clapped. "Great. Our mission is a dangerous one, but it is an opportunity we cannot let pass." Yamato taichou looked at Sai. "Sai, you'll be responsible for scouting. Hayase, you'll be in charge of intelligence and analysis. Hinata, I want you to keep an eye for anything that might escape Sai's perception or try to approach us in disguise. After we leave the village, we're not ninjas, just traveling companions."

Sai looked at the group again, then at Yamato. "And what is our mission?"

Yamato nodded, like he expected the question. "We receive information about one of Orochimaru's hideouts. Our mission is to find the place, infiltrate, and gather all data we can about Orochimaru's plans, experiments and anything else related to him."

I saw a flicker of something on Sai's face.

Hayase took a step back. "Really? Isn't it dangerous? Why are they sending a bunch of chunin and a genin on this mission?" He looked at me by the end of the question.

Yamato nodded again. The man didn't seem bothered by Hayase questioning the mission. "Hinata was promoted to chunin by the jounin commander. Due to the attack, the village cannot spare any other shinobi for this mission."

Hayase tilted his head, looked deep in thought for a moment. "Shouldn't we stay here and help the village then?"

Yamato shook his head. "The potential intel we might gather is too important. With Orochimaru's death, we cannot let that information fall on the wrong hands. It could spell disaster if any of the other villages manages to get the info before us."

"Are the other villages moving?"

I looked at Sai, who just asked that question. What was he talking about?

Yamato sighed. "The situation with Kumogakure is still tense. There have been some skirmishes in the Land of Hot Waters, and given our current situation, it's expected they will attack again. Maybe even start another war."

Kumogakure? What were they talking about? I remember hearing during my academy days about increased hostilities, but that was it, just rumors and hearsay. Nothing I heard made it seem the situation was that complicated, or urgent, or even tense, and it was years ago.

Hayase grabbed his hair. "Shit."

I looked at my board. There was so much I wanted to ask right now. From the looks of things, genin were pretty much excluded from any important information regarding the village inner workings. I had no idea the situation was this bad. It also felt like everything was my fault. I remember some of the rumors, the bad relationship with Kumogakure started because of the so-called Hyuga affair. Turned worse because the whole Kumo delegation was killed, and the Raikage blamed Konoha for it. And now, I failed to save the third, leaving the village in even worse waters.

I saved the whole Uchiha clan, removed the poison that Danzo was, but still things turned sour. In a way, Konoha should be on better standing, but given Yamato's face and disposition, it looked like the man believed war was inevitable and just around the corner.

I agreed wholeheartedly with Hayase. Shit.

 

[okashihime]

Snake Hideout Search mission, or the Honey Badger trip, as I was calling it, took us away from Konoha.

The Land of Rice Fields wasn't as far away as the Land of Waves, if we only counted the direct distance from Konoha to the border. The expectation was to reach the border in less than a week, because we'd be traveling like normal people. I wasn't sure on the whys of that decision. Instead of guessing and stumbling, I decided it was best just to ask the question to the intelligence officer in our team, aka Hayase.

I took out my board, wrote my question. "Hayase, why are we taking the long path instead of rushing to the place? I thought this was a time-sensitive mission."

Hayase's eyes gleaned, like he just found someone to nerd something he was passionate about. "Ah, I understand your confusion, you just got promoted." He shook his head, but soon kept talking. "It is impossible to root all spies from other villages from Konoha. Based on the circumstances, I'm guessing this is some smokescreen. Others will pay even more attention to any shinobi leaving current events. Even if our destination is suspect, given we are going to where we suspect Orochimaru settled down, our team isn't rushing, which is the same as saying it is not a priority mission."

I blinked at that convoluted logic. But wouldn't people see through that bluff?

Maybe reading my mind, Hayase continued. "I'm certain a few other teams were dispatched before us, and more will be dispatched after, some to urgent missions, others not in a hurry at all." Spiky hair bobbing with the movement of his head, the chunin turned to me. "If you were a spy and saw several teams leaving the village, some with some seemingly urgent mission, others not worried for time at all, who would you spend more resources to track?"

I had no answer. The way Hayase explained, felt too simplistic. A bluff that would be easy to see through, but maybe that was just the tip of the iceberg. From his reaction, I was pretty sure he dumbed down his explanation. I didn't get the sense of contempt or even the feeling he was looking down on me, just that he believed I didn't have enough information to understand the whole concept, thus the dumbing down of the explanation.

Besides that, our traveling plans were simple. Our group assumed the guise of a traveling family, plus a friend. Given the age difference, my disguise was Yamato's daughter, which somewhat made me a bit sour at the whole situation: Yamato didn't have any dad energy.

Hayase was my cousin. Sai, a friend of Hayase, who joined us for a bit of travel. The trip's destination was to visit Hayase's parents in the daimyo court city, which's name I didn't know about, nor where it was. That suited me just fine. If anyone asked, I could just say dad forced me to travel, and I didn't care where we were going. Perfect spoiled girl behavior.

There was one last check up before we left. Yamato approached me looking over my things. "Hinata-san, you need to pack a normal traveling bag. Your disguise will be suspicious if you're not carrying anything on an extended trip."

I didn't refuse. The man was right. I hadn't considered that. A cumbersome bag would be annoying, but I can deal with it. I got used to packing light. The weight didn't bother me, it was how big and hard it was to handle the whole thing that was the problem.

The first day of travel ended without any surprises by the time the sun settled behind the horizon. Sai was in charge of cooking, while Hayase and I gathered wood for the fire, which we deposited near Sai's cooking pot. While we waited, I tried to recall everything I remembered from the show about the political landscape of the shinobi world, but it had been years. The finer details were lost on me. I remembered only the broad strokes.

Five great shinobi villages, and a huge number of small hidden villages. Villages were always in a state of cold war with each other, aside from Suna, which had a non-aggression pact with Konoha, a pact they broke by allying with Oto and attacking during the chunin exam. If I remember right, they'd blame everything on Orochimaru and surrender without a fight, which would somehow strengthen the relationship between both villages. More so when Gaara became the new Kazekage. At least that was the script in the original story. No idea how the One Tail situation was resolved. I should have interrogated Naruto about that.

The other great villages resented Konoha, and for good reason: Konoha had a lot of missing S-Rank ninjas roaming about and causing trouble. Before being ousted, Danzo worked from the shadows to cause trouble to other villages and keep Konoha's status as the strongest. I knew some of the small villages often allied themselves with the great villages for protection, but I wasn't aware of any political alliance regarding them, or which village they were allied with.

I took my spare board from the bag. Since we were pretending to be normal traveling companions, I couldn't just pop out my usual board. No fuinjutsu for me. It was a bit of trouble to pick up the pen and eraser all the time, but it was how it was. After writing my question, I showed the board to Yamato.

"Yamato, what is the current political situation between the villages?"

Yamato read the question, but didn't answer it himself. He looked at the other older chunin in our team. "Hayase?"

Hayase's eyes shone. He took a deep breath, a smile on his face, and promptly disgorged the information. "The current political situation remains tense. There's movements from Kumo, as well as Iwa. There's speculation that those two might ally against us."

I nodded, simple enough to understand.

"We had a non aggression pact with Suna, which they broke in the recent attack. That leaves only Kiri as a neutral party. Kiri is currently busy with their own civil problems. They shouldn't interfere for the time being." Hayase looked about, to make sure his audience was paying attention. "In the worst case scenario, we might see a three village alliance against us in the near future. Realistically speaking, our intelligence agents don't believe Sand will join any conflict. They suffered heavy losses, and lost their leader. With the Kazekage gone, they have no known shinobi that could assume the position for the time being."

If things still went the same as the original story, Gaara would become the new Kazekage. The boy was already freakishly strong, add the one tail to the mix and you had a literal S-Rank shinobi there. That brought another thought to mind. I never asked Naruto what happened in his fight with Gaara. The group that went after Gaara returned banged up and hurt, but still alive. Did it happen the same as canon? And by that logic, was Naruto a S-Rank shinobi as well?

I imagined the brat's entry in the bingo book: Loudmouth, dumb, naive, likes ramen, annoying as hell, a pacifist at heart. Is also the nine tails host.

I snickered at my own silly ideas. By my side Hayase glanced at me. I schooled my face, stopped giggling. The chunin continued with his political lesson.

"— it's expected that if Iwagakure attacks, they will do so by invading the Land of Grass. They currently have an alliance with the Land of Waterfall. Grass has a good trading relationship with us. Because of that, it becomes the best avenue of attack to reach Konoha, damaging our relationship with the smaller villages at the same time. If we can't protect our allies our credibility will be like sand on the wind."

I cast my mind again to my own knowledge. Between Wind and Fire, there was the Land of Rivers, Akatsuki's hideout. Grass, sat between Fire and Earth, could become a battlefield with Iwakagure, Land of Whirlpools was already being invaded by Land of Bears, as a front for Kumogakure. Things didn't look good when put in that light.

"— which makes this mission even more important." I put my own ideas away, and looked again at Hayase. "If Kumo or Iwa learn about the hideout and manage to get there before us, they might learn a lot about Konoha. You need to remember that Orochimaru was a student of Lord Third. The potential information he has on the village is too valuable to leave out for others to find."

By our side, Yamato finally joined the conversation. "The mission is important, but be careful. We don't know what awaits us there. Other villages shouldn't know about this operation, we are not expecting any interference from them, but keep your wits sharp."

I wanted to facepalm. Had Yamato never heard about fate flags? Why was the man tempting fate like that?

The discussion didn't continue for long. Sai finished his cooking, served bowls of hot food to us. I looked at the thing he handed me. It was a hot bowl of something, that's for sure. It smelled alright, but there was no care at all for the presentation: the vegetables were cut in a haphazardly manner, the pieces of meat looked burnt. Not sure how a soup could have burnt meat. The broth was hazy and viscous, not at all like a nice thick soup broth.

Was this thing even safe to eat? I wasn't brave enough to try. I looked at my companions.

Sai gulped down his food, and his face betrayed nothing. I didn't know if he enjoyed it or not. Yamato ate a mouthful, stopped for a moment after, methodically eating the rest. Hayase, however, took one bite, and his face turned wan. He placed the bowl down. Ran away from the campsite. From not that far, I heard his raul-ing noises.

I looked at my bowl. Placed it down, untouched. I took my board. "Sai is forbidden from cooking from now on." I wrote. Yamato nodded, sighed, his shoulders sagged. Was that relief?

 

[okashihime]

Due to the nature of our mission, there would be no training for the foreseeable future. I was very conflicted about that. Pre Crushcrushcrush was an intense month of improving both myself and my techniques. The days of walking, talking, and not improving felt off, like I was wasting my time. I still felt guilty of my failure to save the old man, and the lack of concrete improvements only made that worse. Or maybe I was a masochist and enjoyed physical and mental suffering. The jury was still out on that one.

Not that we had that much time. On the first days of walking Yamato set a hard pace. A whole day of walking wasn't hard for a trained shinobi, but walking, pretending to be someone else, while constantly paying attention to your surroundings wasn't easy. Come night, I was exhausted. Not to the same point as the hell month training, but still drained. Then we had to set up camp, cook food, and prepare things for the next day.

Once the team gathered, Yamato started what I called an infodump meeting. "Hayase, can you update the whole team on Konoha's current political scenario?"

Hayase lit up with interest. Gave a sharp nod and started talking.

It was interesting, but also boring. It was hard to keep attention after a day of travel and mental concentration. My bed roll called my name. Whispered tempting promises. Hayase's droning voice made it even harder to pay attention.

Days of travel went by.

I think after the second day Yamato noticed my restlessness. Our strategy meetings after the second day turned into impromptu lessons about intelligence gathering, infiltration and politics. We talked about ways to use our techniques, discussed scenarios and possible outcomes. Fan-girl-chan had the time of her life. Even if boring Sai still annoyed me with his lack of enthusiasm and direct responses.

There was no clear indicator we left the Land of Fire, but after close to a week of travel, when we arrived at a small village, the difference was impossible to miss. The architecture, the style of buildings, the colors, not to mention the rolling plains of rice fields. Not that it really changed anything we saw: The place looked like a horror movie ghost town.

Decrepit wooden houses, broken doors, burnt walls. If this was a western village, I would even expect a dust devil rolling around. The wind coming from the village carried the stench of carrion and rot.

Yamato raised his hand. We stopped. He moved his fingers, gave us orders. Sai, Hinata, scout.

I gave it a mental 'hell yeah'. Time to put all my sneaky shinobi skills to the test! Giddy excitement threatened to make me act stupid. But I was sure I kept the excitement out of my face. And body. The swaying was just me getting ready to go all out. Yamato's knowing look was just a figment of my imagination.

By this point, this kind of thing should have already become routine and not trigger fan-girl-chan, but much to my continued happiness, it still did. I held my happy dancing, but the smile still snaked into my face. I crouched down, performed hand seals, placed both hands on the ground. I didn't really need to, but doing so looked cool. I used two jutsu. Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu and Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.

Sai took his paintbrush, I don't know where from, drew some sort of bird, let it fly soon after. Sai was still uncool, but his jutsu was awesome.

Something I never considered popped in my mind: Was I betraying team seven by getting my ninja fix with another team? No, that was stupid, and silly. I pushed that thought out.

Clone-chan didn't take long to unpop herself. I braced against the rush of memories and impressions. Reported once I parsed through the information. Raised a hand, fingers signing the code: No chakra presence nearby.

Sai's report came soon after. "No one inside the village"

Yamato nodded, gesturing to us to get into formation. He took point moving toward the village, while Hayase covered our backs. Sai and I flanked the two, keeping an eye out for any threat.

The village was worse than I thought at first. The cloying smell of decay and rot didn't prepare us for the scene we found. Bodies, old and young, men and women, torn to shreds. There were signs of fighting: a corpse held a pitchfork, another had a wood spear. It didn't seem like the work of a shinobi. Not with the state the bodies were left in. Looked like an animal attack.

Our brief inspection revealed what we already knew. No survivors. Not even the children were spared. The tracks and other details we found made no sense. Whatever the attacker was, it seems to be a heavy humanoid, given the indentations left by its passing. There were different weapon marks on the corpses and buildings but also claw marks and looked like teeth marks. We left the village untouched. A part of me wanted to stop and give those people a decent burial, but that wasn't our mission, and we didn't have time.

A few minutes away from the destroyed village, Yamato finally broke his silence. "We avoid any other small community and go straight to the nearest trading town."

Our team nodded. I understood his reasoning. If there was something out there killing isolated places, we would have better luck going straight to a bigger city. We increased our pace, and raised our vigilance. The surrounding woods took a different tone. Where it once was idyllic and a bit boring, now the rolling plains of rice felt oppressive, ominous. I thought back on the things I'd seen. None of the wound marks on the corpses looked like injuries from any shinobi weapon I was familiar with. It was what I thought a rampaging beast's attack might look like. A rampaging beast that also had access to strange weapons, claws and teeth. The more I thought about it, the more it looked like something really big and strong just pulled people apart, or split them with a heavy blade. Like a kid pulling off the wings and legs of an insect.

That night, we didn't sleep, nor did we light a fire. Hayase was the first to question that decision. "Why? Normal travelers don't camp in the dark."

Yamato looked around. "Too risky."

Hayase opened his mouth again, maybe to argue. Yamato just stared at the chunin, huge black eyes framed by darkness. Inner me wanted to fangirl at finally seeing the man's ultimate weapon to control Naruto, but I couldn't. Hayase soon looked away, shivered like it was cold. Didn't complain again.

That killed any other further complaint. Given the circumstances, Yamato didn't even mind when I popped a few cupcakes after an awful cold dinner. I kept vigil the entire night. Cast my senses as far as I could, trying to feel any chakra presence nearby.

I don't know if it was my imagination, but it felt like something was watching me from the dark. I had no basis for why I thought that. There was no noise, no chakra presence, not even the sound of night animals. But the nagging sensation of being watched persisted the whole night.

Aside from that, the only thing out of normal was a distant roar of some unknown animal. It was so low and distant I wasn't even sure it wasn't my imagination. It also seems I wasn't the only one keeping an eye on the surroundings. It wasn't Sai's watch schedule, but he still sent a few chakra birds flying out. That earned him a few points. I guess he was also worried about being attacked at night.

The next day, we pressed hard on our journey, while still trying to keep a normal travelers' appearance. I was feeling a bit tired, but again, it was nothing compared to the hell month. I could endure a few more days without sleep, even more when I circulated my chakra. Something I started doing more and more in that month of training. It left me feeling energized and ready.

It was the start of the afternoon when Sai reported. "There's a town, just ahead."

Yamato nodded. "Good job, Sai." He turned to the rest of us. "Remember, we are travelers, don't draw unnecessary attention. Hinata, you are with me. Hayase and Sai, you two stick together. Don't wander alone, be discreet when trying to find out more about our goal."

Tasks decided and orders given, we crossed the remaining distance until we found a walled town, with locked and barred gates. Peeking from above the wall, a rough voice hailed us. "Who goes there? State your business!"

 

[okashihime]

"Who goes there? State your business!"

Yamato took a step forward, hands raised, palms open and towards the voice at the walls. "We're travelers on the way to the capital. We seek home and hearth for the night."

I assumed right at that time my disguised persona of a distracted daughter dragged on a trip she didn't want to go. I looked out, towards the rice fields. Crossed my arms, huffed in annoyance. Kept sneaking glares at 'dad' for dragging me on this trip. But inside I was so giddy about visiting other places in Naruto's world that I had to hold in my smile.

I kept an ear out for the important bits of the conversation, but I tuned out most of it. There were too many other interesting things to pay attention to. The walls, the people, the accents, the smells. In my mind, my lack of attention was justified. I was gathering information, learning about the place. I wasn't behaving like a country bumpkin traveling to interesting places for the first time. Nope, not at all. I was just paying extra attention to my information gathering mission.

Yamato went back and forth answering questions from the guy at the wall's and introducing our group. He patted my head, when introducing me. My hand moved without my consent, swatting the appendage away, much to the man at the wall's amusement.

"What news do you bring?" The same rough voice asked. He wasn't outright hostile.

Yamato stopped, considering. Hayase answered in his stead. He took a step closer. "We had to camp in the wilds for the past two nights!" His voice had a bit of a whine to it. I wasn't sure if it was fake. "Last village we passed was attacked by some beast or something, no one survived."

Hushed whispers and muttered swearing broke out from the other side of the wall. While only one person asked questions so far, the amount of voices suggested there was a crowd on the other side. I focused on my chakra sense, but no one other than us had any bundle of chakra. Civilians?

The wooden gates creaked open while I pondered that question. On the other side, a group of disheveled people armed with hoes, sickles, a shovel and an assortment of wooden sticks that didn't look like weapons. There was one individual holding a rusty katana. If the lack of chakra to my senses wasn't confirmation enough, a single glance at the crowd cleared any remaining doubt.

A hairy man, holding a sickle called us out. It was the same gruff voice. "Come in, quickly."

We entered the town. The gate closed behind us. Hands gripped farming tools-turned-weapons harder. Another farmer approached us, the one holding the sole real weapon among the lot, the rusted katana. "Come with me," he said to Yamato. "The town mayor will want to speak with you."

Yamato looked at us. Blinked the secret shinobi message. Play along.

I followed 'dad' through the town. We passed by several skittish looking people. Some looked at us with wide eyes, others glared. A burly man even tried to step in our way, fists closed, teeth gritted. The katana wielding farmer took two quick steps toward the man. They stared at each other for a few moments before the burly man retreated with a scowl.

We were led deeper into town. It wasn't big, at least not to what my modern sensibilities would say big, but the main street had a number of stores and other places for markets and street vendors. I knew now why this was considered a trading town. I saw a lot of places that looked like medieval Japanese versions of hotels, as well as white powdered, kimono-wearing ladies and a few men, trying to entice people to enter.

Our escort took us to one of the biggest buildings in the town's center. We entered a foyer, and Yamato was ushered toward one big double door passage. I tried to follow, but a hand barred my path.

The gruff farmer looked at me, then to Yamato. "This is not a conversation for children, especially girls."

I played my part. Crossed my arms. That was some medieval discrimination bullshit at its finest. And like any entitled teenager, I made my displeasure known by glaring, pouting and then looking away.

Yamato — the no-dad-energy — captain turned to us. "Hayase, you keep Hinata company. You can go see the sights, but don't go too far. Sai, you can come with me or join your friend."

Sai joined Yamato. Feeling left out, and babysat by Hayase, I left the house to explore the city. The bigger boy scratched his head, looking unsure himself. He turned to me. "Should we explore the market?"

I nodded. That was fine with me. I'm sure Yamato would report anything important later if needed. Right now, we could start our own investigation and information gathering operation.

The Honey Badger was on the hunt for the snake's lair.

"…"

That was so bad. Delete, delete, delete. I needed better ways to think about the mission. But the situation was an unexpected opportunity. In the past month of hell training, Research-chan spent all day, every day, trying to map and understand the seals in my body. It was a time bomb I needed to solve sooner rather than later. The problem was, aside from that one blueprint for the bone seals the creep shoved into my head, I had no other information.

That whole month of carefully probing every part of my body with chakra wielded interesting results. I learned that it was the seal on my bones that was responsible for my enhanced physical strength. The whole circulating chakra thingy? Hogwash I don't even want to remember I came up with. Assumptions over assumptions based on faulty anime logic. I still circulated chakra because it felt therapeutic, and made me feel better, but now I knew that as long as the seal was on my bones, I'd grow stronger with time. This wasn't an effect that I would lose if I removed the seal, on the contrary, it had permanently made my body stronger.

It was my own protagonist's cheat. The longer I live, the stronger I'd become. This whole thing reinforced my bones, muscles, and overall made me healthier and more resistant. At the cost of being a time bomb Orochimaru could pop anytime he wanted. Case in point, the seal was still trying to kill me. Damned snake never gave me a lock to disable the seal, just suppress it. I guess his real reason was to force me to seek him out when it turned out I couldn't stop the timed bomb. But now the snake was dead, and I my hope was to find anything useful in its lair.

… I really needed to stop the badger references. I was the future Black Flash dammit, not the future Black Badger.

Case was, I wanted to find Oro's base. Maybe if I was lucky, some part of his research survived and I could start disabling the bad part of the seals. However, I wanted to keep the good parts. The thought of getting stronger with the passage of time was something that made me giddy with anticipation. I don't know what the limit of that was, but stronger was stronger. Imagine if I could rival Tsunade on brute strength in a few years?

I still needed to learn about the other seals: The heart, the eyes. I had a few theories. My educated guess was that the seal on my heart was the one responsible for eating all the foreign chakra entering my body. Maybe it was a defense mechanism Orochimaru added to prevent others from meddling with the seals? Only the effect now was to make me resistant to external influences. It didn't work on Orochimaru because, being his own work, it recognized the chakra signature and offered no protection at all. That was also what made me bad at mokuton. Maybe the seal was incomplete, or parts of it aren't working as intended, which in turn forced me to use way more chakra than needed.

It was a far fetched theory, but I had no other ideas. I shook my head. Pushing the distractions away. I've been following Hayase almost on instinct. The older chunin talked to a few of the locals. Even attracted a bit of attention from some older folk. I scanned around, found a group of kids huddled together looking at us, then discussing furiously among themselves.

I didn't think I would learn anything new by following Hayase like a pup. I pulled at his shirt, gestured to the group of kids when he looked my way. Well, I guess it was time to meet the local kids.

 

[okashihime]

Years of partial isolation and unusual communication methods left me at a loss on how to approach the local kids. Did they know how to read? Should I just approach, write on my board and demand they tell me all the rumors around? The things adults thought kids wouldn't know or understand?

I looked between the kids and the boring conversation Hayase was a part of. Considered if I should really approach the locals.

Why was I hesitating? When did I become this timid?

I steeled my resolve. Tapped Hayase's arm. Pointed at the kids when he looked. Got a nod from the chunin. I got this. It was just a bunch of kids. I was a strong, independent kunoichi. I knew how to interact with people, I knew how to charm people. I knew how to extract information from people. It was a class subject in the third year of the academy. My grades were almost top of the class on that one. I can do this. No backwater peasant would scare me into timidness.

…

I approached the group of huddled kids. It drew some attention, but it wasn't until I was right by their side that they became aware of my presence. I flipped the board I had been carrying under my arm, and under the curious gaze of the small crowd, I wrote. "Hello! I'm Hinata. Is there anything fun to do around here?"

The gathered kids were what you would expect from a small town. The boys had an assortment of gray, browns and earthen tones: loose-fitting coats and pants, simple sandals made of straw. One of the five boys also wore those socks with separated toes, tabi. Another one barefooted. The barefooted one was also the biggest of the lot, with worse looking clothes, a crooked nose, and a nasty smile. The leering grin she shot my way earned him the name of Jerkface.

Among the small crowd of boys, there were two girls. One was as thin as a bean pole, tall and long faced. Sun tanned skin, pockmarked with acne and smeared with a few spots of dirt. The second girl looked younger than me, maybe nine or ten, dressed in fancy looking and colored clothes. She wore the full regalia: a light pink kimono, the skirt-like hakama, the wide sash over the kimono, the toed socks and wooden sandals.

It wasn't a surprise when the gathered kids turned to the smaller, better dressed girl and stared at her. The younger girl looked around, wide eyes, almost as if looking for an escape route. She stammered her way through reading what I wrote. Poor girl.

That had been normal enough. A bit of back and forth later, and off we went to another area, towards the place the kids usually gathered. It was a few streets away from the main trading area, in the more run down and old looking parts of the town. None of the other adults paid us any attention. I guess that no one cared what the brats were up to, as long as no one left the town's protective walls.

Our destination was something like an abandoned hut, maybe a shed, I wasn't sure. Medieval Japanese architecture wasn't my forte. For all its stylized charm, Konoha looked more like a modern city when compared to these rural villages. I was eager to dive into all the gossip and rumors and other info kids were wont to know. My surprise then, when two 'factions' among the gathered crowd, started bickering to see who would 'get' the 'new girl'.

Worse yet, the small kid, which everyone called Linlin got thrown into the mess, by virtue of being the only one among the brats that could read. Her scared demeanor and wide frantic eyes wasn't what pissed me off, however. The big barefooted jerk, that I refused to learn the name of, by virtue of being the tallest — and probably oldest of the lot — kept trying to declare me 'his new girl'. Dirty arm trying to snake around my waist, ignoring all the times I pushed it off me, or walked away from him. Worse yet, he kept staring at my face, breathing noxious fumes at me.

I don't know where the idea came from when I decided to talk with the locals. In my mind, I'd approach the kids, insta-join their clique, be told all the secrets and rumors regarding the boring adults and town news. Well, that wasn't what happened. Although it started simple enough.

I closed my eyes. Took deep breaths. Regretted immediately. A shudder started from my toes up to my neck, stomach roiling in disgust. Don't even know why I was even nervous before coming here to meet them. Dumb brats will be dumb brats.

Jerkface tried to put his arm around my waist again and I had enough of this bullshit. I stepped around him, kicked his legs. Kicked him on the sides while he fell. Might have put a bit more force than necessary. Jerkface cried out, curling into a fetal position, hands holding his side where I kicked him. The arguing stopped immediately. I looked at the wide eyed and open mouthed brats, already regretting my lack of restraint. The kid was annoying, but I could have just left, no need to hurt the brat. I was supposed to act like a normal kid, dammit.

Linlin, however, looked at me with stars in her eyes. Interesting.

Nothing for it. I walked forward, grabbed poor Linlin's hand, and gently pulled her away from the stunned kids, back toward the town's center. Pulling her away from the group might be even worse for her, but I wasn't willing to leave the girl behind. What if Jerkface decided to take revenge or something silly like that? And her reaction was strange. Not everyone got excited when a potential ninja did ninja things.

Linlin didn't resist. It'd be pretty embarrassing if she did. She was more than eager to follow. Her hand gripped mine and didn't want to let go. Even after I tried to release it a few times. We had just gone past the earshot of the other kinds when the supposedly timid girl opened the floodgates.

"You're like Sasame-chan, right? She is like you as well. So fast! I couldn't even see you move, how did you do it? So cool."

I glanced at Linlin. If before I thought I saw stars in her eyes, now it was whole galaxies. Sasame, that name sounded familiar, even if I couldn't place it. The kid didn't seem to notice my confusion.

"She's like, super strong as well, and not afraid to boss that big bully around." Her face fell, and her voice lost a bit of fervor. "He's been so annoying ever since they left."

My kunoichi-y senses tingled. I knelt in front of Linlin, tugged at her hands gently, coaching her to release me. When I was free, I took my board, wrote on it. "Where did they go?" I didn't know yet who 'they' were, but I was about to find out.

"Sasame-chan wouldn't tell me." The girl pouted. Kicked at the ground. Looked away. "Clan secrets."

Instead of taking Linlin back into the market proper, I took a turn toward one small park-like area I'd seen when moving with the other brats. There was this charming wooden bench made from a fallen tree, and a few other rustic looking tables. I sat, and Linlin did the same. I considered what to do. After thinking about it for a bit, I wrote on my board.

"You promise to keep this a secret?"

The girl nodded. Head bobbing up and down so fast I could barely keep with her movements. It was kinda cute.

I took one of my mini seals from the pouch on my skirt waistband. Under the kid's curious gaze, I placed it on the table and my finger on the center of the seal. There was a puff of smoke, a gasp from the kid, and out popped an assortment of cupcakes, sweets, and pastries. As well as a thermos with tea. The surprised squeal from Linlin when she saw the sweets brought a smile to my face.

I took my board again, wrote for the girl. "Eat, and tell me everything about Sasame-chan."

 

[okashihime]

This one was released back in Oct 31.

---

If I could make a sound, I'm pretty sure someone would say I was cackling like an evil witch. I couldn't help it. My masterpiece sat there, just in front of me.

It was perfect. Beautiful.

I threw my head back, silent-cackled again. Clawed fingers up. The classic crazy villain pose.

It took a while until I regained my bearings. I wiped an errant tear away. Damn, that was embarrassing. Laughing until you cry. I closed my eyes. Deep breaths helped me take control of myself. When I calmed down, I looked over the perfection on my kitchen table.

Small rectangular forms. Chocolate, wine red, sun yellow and sky blue. Colored caramel sprinkled with powdered sugar. An urge to laugh almost overcame me again, but I held back. With trembling hands, I took one candy. Took a sniff. Debated if I should risk a bite. Shook my head. Not worth it.

I gathered my magnum opus, taking care to not jostle the candy too much. With careful and deliberate movements, everything went into the container I had prepared. With one final longing glance, I sealed it. I placed it on the stack, with the rest of the explosive candies. On the left, was the other normal candy I prepared for tomorrow's academy exercise. A sigh of contentment escaped me.

The inspiration hit me after I finished baking the candy for the event. I already had exploding cupcakes, but what about exploding candy? The idea was perfect! Of course, I wasn't crazy. This one, different from the cupcakes, wasn't a real explosive. It was just explosive. I mean, if everything worked like I planned, it would expand and burst out, splashing sugary syrup everywhere. Not to mention the extra effects. I really wanted to test those.

A loud knock at the door interrupted my musings. "Hinata-chan!" The sunshine brat called out. Why was he here? Did something happen? Why was he banging on my door in the middle of the night? "Hinata-chan, we'll be late for the training mission."

I blinked a few times. Looked at the clock on the wall. Seven and half in the morning. Looked to the window and toward the sky. Overcast, dark clouds, but definitely morning. Shit, I was going to be late. How did time pass so fast?

The banging on my door sounded again. "Hinata-chan? Are you still sleeping?"

Without waiting, I turned around, ran. I was at the door before Naruto could rattle it again. Pulled it open. The brat had his hand raised, ready to cause even more fuss. He looked at his hand, the door, then at me. His cheeks turned pink, he looked away. I looked down. Last night, inspiration struck when I was preparing to sleep. I was still in my pajamas. I rolled my eyes. Brats will be brats.

Without waiting for anything, I grabbed Naruto, pulled him inside the apartment. Before he could say anything, out popped my board. "Naruto-kun, I overslept. There's a stack of seals on my kitchen table. Can you gather them for me?" I showed him the board.

Naruto tilted his head. Nodded. He turned, but before he left I grabbed his arm. He looked at me again. I went to write again on the board. "The stack on the left. Leave the ones in the center there."

Naruto read it again, scratched his head. Shrugged, nodded.

After that, I bolted for my bedroom. Had to take a shower and get out of my pajamas. Today was a special day.

---

I looked at my reflection in the mirror: Soft round face, fair skin, big black eyes, snake pupil in one of my eyes. Hair was done in a half bob cut, with the left side shaved. Shaved by virtue of necessity. Emosuke had, once again, tried to burn off my face for no reason. The gall of the brat. What was he? Depressed or something?

The face on the mirror reflected my annoyance with Emosuke. Or annoyance with all else. I mean, how could I compete with the clan kids at this rate? The three basic academy jutsu? That was just unfair. Stupid village rules and clan favoritism.

But enough moping about, today I had grand things planned. It was the last day of the tenth month. That meant Halloween! Not that anyone in Konoha even knew what Halloween was. There were a few civilian festivals in the village, mostly centered around one holiday or another. There were even a few spirit themed festivals, with the lanterns and all. But that wasn't what I wanted. I wanted — no, I needed — a good trick-or-treat Halloween day.

Unfortunately, there was no way I could organize a trick-or-treat day. The context just wasn't there. Young shinobi in training disguising as spiritual creatures and knocking on other people's doors asking for candies? Yeah, not happening. Which was why, after badgering Iruka-sensei for a long while, I managed to wear down the man and convinced him to accept one of my plans.

This whole situation, of course, was disguised as an academy exercise. Which was why I went on a cooking spree yesterday. I baked a lot of candies. Iruka-sensei agreed to hide the candies and set us to find them. It wasn't trick-or-treat, but candy treasure hunt on Halloween would suffice.

"Hinata-chan, we're gonna be late!" Naruto yelled again. "I can't be late today. Today is the day I defeat Sasuke!"

I rolled my eyes again. Sunshine brat and Emosuke rivalry was annoying as always. But Naruto was right. With one last look at the mirror, I left my bedroom. Naruto was already at the door, waiting. He handed me the stack of seals. I gave him a smile. Ushered him out. Closed the door. Academy waited for no one.

---

Damn Iruka-sensei. That man was evil.

Ragged breaths escaped me. I was sprawled on one of the training forests, sweat dripping from my forehead. I guess his idea of treasure hunting was to set other shinobi to hunt us while we tried to find the package. This was supposed to be fun treasure-hunting. Not to flee for my life and find treasure. But it was fun, nonetheless. Between Henge, Kawarimi and Bushin no jutsu, I think I did well. Behind me, the kunoichi in charge of catching me was also breathing heavily. Even if she wasn't as exhausted as I was. Our eyes met. I gave her a big smile. She smiled back.

If I just looked at this from another angle, wasn't this just a game of tag mixed with capture the flag?

"Good job." The kunoichi said after a moment. "You gave me a good workout."

I did a small victory dance. The kunoichi chuckled.

That wasn't to say I managed to complete the exercise. The girl was relentless. I couldn't shake her off, and nothing I did was enough to get past her and toward the goal. Time ran out before I managed to get past her. Which was fine.

We returned to the entrance of the training forest. The rest of the class was already there. It seems I was the last to return. Kunoichi-chan gave me a wave. She looked at Iruka-sensei and Mizuki. They exchanged nods. She left.

From near sensei, Emosuke sneered. From his self satisfied smile, I'm guessing he was the first to complete the training. Naruto was there as well, hand behind his head, hollering something or another. I guess he also managed to reach the goal.

The other students seemed fine. None of them looked as ragged as I felt.

Iruka-sensei cleared his throat. "Good job. Everyone did very well on today's exercise— "

Mizuki cut Iruka-sensei mid speech, eyes toward me. "Even those who didn't manage to complete their goal."

Iruka-sensei coughed. "Yes, even those who didn't manage to get to the goal. But everyone put in the effort. Congratulations."

Some of the kids cheered.

Iruka-sensei held up the container of colorful candies I had made. My eyes widened. I recognized it. It was the wrong ones — the experimental ones. I reached for my board, scribbled as fast as I could. Kiba shouldered past me, reaching for his prize.

"Second place isn't so bad," he grinned, picked up a bright blue candy. Next to him, Shino accepted a yellow one, while Sasuke examined a wine-red piece with his usual brooding persona.

I looked at Naruto, who was rubbing his neck. Our eyes met. He looked at my board, the message I scribbled there. Realization dawned on his face. His mouth formed a perfect 'O'.

But it was too late.

The first explosion came from Kiba. The blue candy expanded in his mouth like a balloon before bursting with a soft pop. A cloud of sugar powder erupted, coating his hair in a spectacular array of bright colors. The edible glitter sparkling with a rainbow shine under the sparse sunlight. Akamaru barked, licked Kiba's face. Barked again, tail wagging fast.

"What the—" Shino started, but never finished. His sun yellow candy burst next, and suddenly the air was filled with the excited buzzing of his kikaichu. Oh no, insects and sugar.

But the best—or worst—was Sasuke. He had just taken a tentative bite of the wine-red candy when it exploded in a shower of crystalline sugar. The Uchiha heir stood there, frozen. Powder settled on his face and hair. Then a stray beam of sunlight broke through the clouds, and Sasuke sparkled.

The class fan girl's squeals of delight could probably be heard in Suna.

But that wasn't the end. The rest of the candies on Iruka-sensei's hand exploded. Syrup and powdered sugar, and all those other things mixed into my experimental candies covered the rest of the class.

Mizuki bellowed, face red with fury. "What is th—" He stopped mid-sentence, having accidentally inhaled some of the airborne candy powder. His next words came out in squeaky high pitch: "What is this?"

The entire class fell silent. Even Sasuke stopped trying to wipe off the sparkles.

"When I find out who's responsible, they'll clean the Academy for a week!" Mizuki continued, looking mortified, his voice even higher.

I erased the warning I had written on my board, started to write an explanation. Wasn't sure if Mizuki would accept this was just a misunderstanding, but Naruto jumped forward, hands behind his head and wearing his biggest grin.

"Got you all good, dattebayo!" he declared. "This is my best prank ever!"

There was another moment of silence. The whole class yelled. "NARUTO!!!" He ran. The class ran after him.

---

Later that night, I went to visit the brat. Even made sure to buy his favorite ramen. I looked at Naruto. He slurped his food. Gave me me a thumbs up, "Your pranks are way better than mine, Hinata-chan!"

I rolled my eyes, but couldn't hide my grin. Next time, better make sure Naruto wasn't anywhere near my experiments... or maybe not.

After all, Sasuke did look much better with a bit of sparkle.

 

[okashihime]

Between mouthfuls of cupcakes, pudding, and sweets induced squealing, Linlin spilled all her secrets. Which didn't amounted to much more than what her questions had already revealed. This Sasame was an older girl — or perhaps my age, given the way Linlin tended to exaggerate everything related to this girl. She was this awesome ninja, capable of beating anyone — or maybe just bullying the normal annoying kids. She could fly between trees and hide in plain sight — pretty normal for a trained shinobi. Sasame-chan belonged to this family of legendary ninjas — maybe just a small town shinobi clan?

In the end, what I learned was that Sasame was a two meters tall girl, unrealistically super strong, with a penchant to bully normal kids when they were being annoying, and that all of her family — a hidden shinobi family — were legendary people that lived somewhere close but obviously hidden. All in all, the only thing I was certain of was that this Sasame was a girl, and she had orange hair.

Even so, the kid was cute. I mean, it was pretty funny how much she went gaga for the sweets, like she never ate any before. Not even her forehead escaped. Not sure how she managed to splash pudding there. It was like the kid was on fire. She ran, she yelled, she even puppy eyed me into playing tag.

"Please? No one plays with me anymore, ever since Sasame-chan left months ago." From running and yelling to on verge of tears in seconds. I was sure the kid was yanking my chains, but I didn't have the heart to deny it. So I played. Tag, hide and seek, ken-ken-pa, Nawatobi — No idea where she got the rope from. I might have gotten too much into playing. The sun started to dip behind the mountains in the distance, Linlin began yawning. I felt a bit ashamed of enjoying it that much. Crazy good ninja I was. This was just an act. I was just doing my part.

I might not have learned much, but I learned some things. There was a shinobi family in this town. A lot of them disappeared months ago, the remaining fled or might be hiding from Orochimaru, or perhaps working with Orochimaru. I'd report that to Yamato.

I patted the kid's head, she leaned into my hand. Still not sure why people liked doing that to me. She yawned again. I took my board again. "It's getting late, should I take you home?" I poked the girl after I finished writing.

Linlin eyed me with sleepy eyes, nodded. Her movements were slow, like she was almost asleep already, which surprised me. She yawned once more, then raised her arms to me. The sacred gesture of kids everywhere begging to be carried. I rolled my eyes, stowed my board, extended my arms to the girl.

Linlin moved closer, draped her arms around my neck. Gently, I coached the girl until I was carrying her piggyback style. It was a bit awkward because, even though she was young, she wasn't small. Carrying her took some adjusting, more because I didn't want people to see how easy it was to carry her.

Under sleepy instructions, and a few gentle shakes to keep Linlin awake, we arrived at her house. Not one bit surprised to learn she lived in the same place as the town's headman. If my history lessons didn't fail me, the correct term was shoya, or nanushi depending on the region, but I was going to call it what it was: the mayor's house. Was Linlin the man's daughter? That would explain the nice clothes and why she knew how to read. I stepped forward, the guards at the door already moving toward me. At the same time, the gates opened and out stepped Yamato, Sai and a portly man, followed by a gamut of servants.

We looked at one another for a moment, when the portly man laughed, and patted his belly. "Oh my, it seems someone took care of finding my runaway daughter."

There was this moment of quiet, where I think the man expected me to say something. I looked at Yamato, held back an eye roll, shrugged. What did he expect me to do here? Drop the kid to take my board?

"Apologizes, sir." Yamato finally intervened. "My daughter hasn't been able to speak since her mother passed away." I nodded. Looked at the portly man, then at the sleeping girl.

The mayor took it in stride, looked behind him, yelled for someone. "Come and get Linlin."

Out of the gates power walked a young woman, dressed in simple but clean clothes. She approached, gave me a small bow. Took Linlin from my hands with a small fond smile on her face. Gave me a nod before disappearing inside the house with the sleeping kid. I walked to Yamato's side, pretending I wasn't paying attention to everything around while the "adults" talked. And talk they did. I got only the last dregs of their conversation, but the fatso kept asking about the destroyed village we saw on our way here.

It still took a few minutes until Yamato managed to ditch the man. Together we left to meet Hayase, with one of the mayor's servants accompanying us. We arrived at the agreed place to find the chunin was already there.

Yamato looked at us after we were reunited. "The mayor was kind enough to provide us a place to sleep and someone to lead us there." He indicated the man that had been following us all the while. "The day was long and we best rest for tomorrow's journey."

Hayase nodded, Sai shrugged. I think I missed something there. That was out of character even for Yamato. 'Dad' turned to the man in question. After a brief exchange of words, the servant led us away.

The place the man guided us to stay for the night wasn't far from the town center, or the mayor's house. It wasn't exactly a dilapidated house, but it was clear the place hadn't been maintained for a while. The door stood ajar, the front lawn was infested with weed and vines and other types of vegetation you didn't see on a cared for house. He didn't follow us inside. The servant bowed and left after delivering us.

The inside of the house wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Even if the outside wasn't in good condition or cleaned in a while. The interior was clean-ish, with just a fine layer of dust sprinkled over the furniture and floor.

While the boys looked around, I went searching for lamps to light and fend off the night's darkness. The house wasn't bad, all things considered. I wasn't sure what Yamato said to the portly man to warrant such treatment or accommodations. I was pretty sure no random travelers were escorted to a house where they can rest for the night. Had Yamato paid for any of this? Did he come to some sort of agreement with the mayor? In the end, it was kind of funny, because I was sure that if it wasn't because of our disguises, Yamato could conjure a better, and cleaner, house for us to rest for the night. The things we ninja did to keep on our disguises.

Shaking my head at the useless thoughts, I got to work. After a cursory examination of the place, I plotted how to do it in my mind, then moved back to the entrance. The rest of the team was still there, looking around, and talking in low voices. Bunch of lazybones.

I took my board, wrote things. "Hayase, you go back into the market, see if you can find any merchant still there. Buy fresh vegetables and meat, if you can."

Hayase scratched his head, looked at Yamato, but when the jounin didn't say anything he shrugged. "Anything in particular?"

I thought about it for a bit. "No mystery meat?" Hayase scratched his head again, nodded, left the house. I looked at my next victim: even after days, I couldn't put away my dislike for Sai Everytime I looked at the boy, annoyance bubbled in my chest. I wasn't sure what his deal was, but he didn't seem to like me either. It was in the way his dead eyes kept following me. Or the veiled contempt in his voice. Or it was just my imagination because I didn't like him. My bias toward the fictional character I disliked.

Mulling over things, I wrote on my board. "Sai, can you check the bedrooms and clear some of the dust?"

Sai didn't agree, or disagreed. His emotionless eyes stared just for a fraction too long, smiled without feelings never reaching his eyes. He turned round, moved inside the house.

The last one was Yamato. I didn't want to order him around, but since he hadn't said anything, I kept with my original plan. "Yamato, can you clean the living room? Meanwhile, I'll clean the kitchen and get started on dinner."

The jounin smiled, nodded, then started on his task.

I turned around and went to do my part as well. Had to clean things off before Hayase returned. I wasn't sure yet what to cook for dinner, that would depend on what Hayase managed to find, but I'm sure it would be better than anything we could come up with on the road. My stomach rumbled. I thought back on the day. Linlin kept mentioning this Sasame-chan, and given everything, it seems she and her family left the town a few months back. Had they really left? Maybe there was an answer there that I wasn't seeing.

 

[okashihime]

Hayase managed to find eggs, a chicken, potatoes, cabbage, and rice. I won't say dinner was the best affair out there, but it was decent. The team sat in the living room around the table with the food spread over it. Egg fried rice, chicken with potato, stir fried cabbage. I still wish I had packed more than salt.

While we devoured dinner, we talked and talked. On the surface, we're discussing the day of travel, the food, how our day was in the city, all that boring travel talk. Meanwhile, we also talked using Konoha's standard coded language to convey actual information.

Between bites of rice and chicken, Yamato ordered through a coded hand movement. "Hayase, report."

Hayase, eating a mouthful of rice, replied "Trade all but ended with nearby towns and villages. People are too scared to leave the walls. Rumors of a man-eating monster outside the walls started a few days ago. There's something most people are too afraid to talk about with a stranger. They might have been threatened by someone. I was followed to the market and back, but didn't see anyone that wanted to attack."

He looked bored on the outside, but the signs were all there. The way his mouth kept curving up in almost a smile, the movement of his fingers, just a bit faster than necessary for the message he wanted to convey, the gleam in his eyes, his posture, just slightly forward in anticipation. Our eyes met, I held back the smile. Another one that understood how coded messages were cool! I gave him a thumbs up, barely containing my anticipation at my turn to report.

My turn was next. "Hinata, report." Coded Yamato.

"There was a shinobi clan in the town. I don't know what the clan's name is, but they left, or moved out a few months ago. I couldn't find where their base of operations was, but according to what I managed to find, while the clan had a base of operations inside the town, a shop or bar, most of the clan lived somewhere outside the town."

Yamato nodded, ate another bite, turned to Sai. "Report."

"The mayor has someone watching the house, and as Hayase said, followed him to the market and back. They don't look like trained shinobi."

When Sai didn't code anything else, Yamato moved on with his own report. "The mayor seems to be up to something, but I don't think it is anything related to our own mission. The attacks started a few days back, like you already reported, and while he didn't say specifically, he complained about people that were supposed to protect the town leaving for no reason. Overall, the man seems more interested in the state of things outside, and his own fortune." Still eating, he turned to Hayase, coded the next question. "What are your thoughts on the situation, Hayase?"

Hayase sucked on a chicken thigh bone. "There's not enough information for an accurate assessment. Normal people are used to feeling threatened, which can be explained if Orochimaru took over the Land of Rice Fields. The shinobi clan leaving might be related to that: They either fled because of Orochimaru, or tried to put up a fight and were wiped out. This monster might be something out of Orochimaru's lab. The timing is too coincidental to what we expected from his operations. The remaining troops from Konoha's attack might have fled here, released the monster as a distraction, maybe for any other number of reasons, or the creature broke out of whatever prison it was in when no one came back to check on it."

While out loud Sai talked about the Mayor's house and city in general, he coded a different message. "What if we go looking for this hidden shinobi family? They might know about Orochimaru's lab's whereabouts, and have vital information we can use."

Yamato considered. Out loud, he spoke about the food they ate at the mayor's house and how quaint the town was. Meanwhile, his code spoke of something else. "We cannot risk it at this moment. We don't know this shinobi clan's disposition, and if possible, I still want to maintain secrecy over our presence here. Going after this monster is a gamble, but one that might not alert others to our presence."

All around the table, we nodded at Taichou's decision. I shuffled, uncomfortable. Remembered how I lost my cool, almost beat up that bully, and let Linlin see the storage seals. Even if that led to learning useful information, it was a huge mistake that a competent kunoichi shouldn't make.

Yamato nodded, eating the last of his dinner. "Good work everyone. We'll go after this monster attacking the nearby villages tomorrow. If Hayase's conjecture is right, following its trail might lead us to the hideout. I'll take the first watch, followed by Sai, Hayase and Hinata." He stopped, placed his chopsticks down. Spoke out-loud. "Thank you for the meal, Hinata-chan. It was delicious."

Hayase didn't miss the opportunity. "Thank you for the meal, Hinata-chan!"

I scratched my cheek. Pretended my face wasn't burning in a whole different type of embarrassment.

---

Waking up to someone shaking your shoulder was never pleasant. I wasn't one to sleep until noon, but years of living alone and making my own routine and keeping my own hours made me grumpy in the dark hours before dawn.

In front of me, Hayase yawned, waved his hand, then crawled inside his sleeping bag.

The four of us had set up our sleeping bags in the living room. Hayase and Sai wanted to sleep in the bedrooms, but I argued that it was a risk factor when we didn't need to risk being separated. Now, I know, I did send Sai to clean those bedrooms, but I never claimed I wasn't petty, and that my dislike for the show version of Sai wasn't influencing my decision making. Thankfully, no one called me on that. The decision to not split apart was always a good one.

I yawned again. Cleaned crust from my eyes, wiped away a bit of drool with the back of my hand. Still on sleep mode, I got to my morning ablutions.

It always surprised me the mix of modern commodities and charming medieval customs the world of Naruto had. I finish cleaning my mouth, spit out the mint flavored mixture, put away my toothbrush. All this while, I keep my senses honed on the outside.

Ready for the day. I step through the room with my sleeping teammates. A quick look and I move on. Nothing here to see, aside from Yamato sleeping like he was in a coffin, with his back on top of the sleeping bag, instead of sleeping inside it. He even kept his hands clasped over his chest. I think he does that on purpose. Creepy.

Checking the other rooms in the house didn't reveal anything, which was expected. I would have sensed chakra if there was someone hiding there. It was good practice to not get complacent, just because I could sense chakra. Done with the inside of the house, I did a tour of the outside.

The town was as quiet as a graveyard. In the darkest hour of the day, just before dawn, it had a sinister look, and I all but expected the town destroying monster to jump on me. Nothing of the sort happened. The place was quiet, only the cold wind breaking the silence.

My steps almost faltered midway my patrol route. There it was again, that feeling of being observed. I focused on the sounds of the night, or the lack thereof. The only thing I could hear was the wind and rustling of leaves. Night animals, insects and the many noises you usually hear were not there anymore. I didn't remember when they had stopped. For all my focus, I hadn't been paying attention to sounds disappearing.

Like the other times this happened, nothing jumped at me. There was no sound, no presence, no chakra, nothing. I wasn't going to report it again. I reported the first three times. The rest of the team went on full alert, and we spent hours scouring the surroundings trying to find what was the cause. Cadaver pale Sai dismissed me as being paranoid and over reacting, Hayase was on the fence about the whole thing. Yamato took me seriously and didn't dismiss my concerns. But each time I raised the alarm, it disrupted the whole team, and at this point, I was starting to believe annoying Sai might be right on some level. Maybe I was just paranoid.

The sensation of being watched disappeared when the sun showed up on the horizon and the voices and buzz from the waking town heralded a new day. I wasn't sure if going monster hunting was a good thing, but I was itching to do some cool ninja stuff. I mean, infiltration mission was cool and all, but it had been a while since I trained or even used my jutsu. A smile crept on my face. My fingers twitched in anticipation. You can't blame a girl for feeling anxious because she's been separated from her explosions for too long.

 

[okashihime]

Before we left town, we visited the mayor again. I think it was a courtesy visit rather than an obligation on our part. Maybe Yamato didn't want to burn bridges if we somehow needed to come back here. I didn't mind either way. While waiting for the 'grown ups' to talk the important talk, I took the opportunity to meet Linlin again. Pat her head, leave more pastries for the girl. These ones I popped out of their seal before we even left the house we slept in. No need to give even more people more information about us.

It shouldn't have been a surprise that after the girl learned I was leaving, she clammed up. Her face flashed with a lot of expressions too quickly to parse. She looked down, and her shoulders began to shake. I didn't hear a single sound from her. What was I expecting? From everything I saw, she didn't fit with the other kids, and her only friend, this Sasame-chan, left without even saying goodbye months ago. I knelt in front of the silent sobbing girl. Wrapped my arms around her. She grabbed my clothes, sobbed harder.

We stayed like that until the same woman from yesterday came looking for me. "Your father is waiting for you."

I patted Linlin's head. Took my board, thought about what to write. I didn't want to lie, but I didn't want to make any promises I couldn't keep either. After I wrote my message, I guided the girl's face to read from the board. "I'll come back to visit if I can. If I find Sasame-chan, I'll tell her to visit too."

Linlin looked at me with those big, sad, tear filled eyes. She nodded, lips quivering.

Urgh, I always thought I was bad with children, but this was too much. Lilin looked like a sad puppy. I closed my eyes. Exhaled, my whole body releasing tension I didn't even know was there. I patted the puppy's head. I didn't dare to look. That girl was way too adept at puppy eyeing others. I couldn't risk it.

After that, I took my leave. No reason to keep this awkward moment longer than it needed to be. It left me thinking about a similar situation that happened in the Land of Waves, where Tsunami also went all emotional on me when I was leaving. No, I didn't get emotional. Not then, not now. I just got a bit of dust in my eyes. That's all.

I met with the rest of the team outside. We were ready to leave. Yamato said a few last words to the mayor and off we went into the sunset. No, of course not. It wasn't even noon yet. Officially, our destination was Daimyo city, same as yesterday, this being just one more stop in our journey to visit family. But again, that was just our disguise. What we wanted was to search the surrounding areas for any clue about this monster in the hopes it would lead us to Orochimaru's hideout.

We kept on the road for a few hours. Sai's ink birds flying overhead to make sure no one followed us. When we were distant enough from the town, we left the road and ventured into the surrounding wilderness. The area around the trading town was surrounded by farming communities and rice fields. Our goal was one of the nearby forests. Hayase pointed out during the strategy meeting the previous day that any hideout wouldn't be in the open or in a rice field. There were also the details from the monster attack: all the information happened near this one particular patch of forest. It was still a huge area to search, but it was a lead nonetheless.

I sealed away my backpack. Took out my ninja tools. I cast a Henge no Jutsu to change how I look. My ninja outfit was just too distinct to keep wearing when I didn't want to be recognized. Which was a bummer. A thought I might mull over later. A small, rebel voice in the back of my head yelled that I should dress like a proper ninja. I ignored it—for now. That voice didn't know what it was talking about. I don't think this kind of disguise would fool a competent shinobi, but every little detail helped. The others did the same.

With preparations finished, we ran, dashed, hopped between tree branches.

Hayase did a midair flip, flying for a moment upside down. Instantly, it reminded me of that iconic image of Naruto doing the same in the tv show. I had no idea what sort of tactical advantage that provided, if any, but it looked cool as heck. I wanted to do it too. Laugh, and cheer, and yell. Being a ninja was awesome. I didn't though. This was a serious mission.

The fun didn't last long. With the speed we traveled, it didn't take us long to arrive at our destination. It was one of the areas Hayase pointed from the rumors and hints gathered in the town.

Yamato looked at the tall, foreboding trees. Scanned the horizon, then looked at us. "Hayase, you and Hinata explore the west side. Sai and I will explore the east." When we didn't ask any questions, he continued. "Be careful. We don't know what is happening here, what we want is information and the location of Orochimaru's hideout. If you encounter this creature that is scaring the nearby villages, retreat and regroup."

I saluted. Hayase nodded.

Yamato wasn't finished. "Sai, send one of your ink birds with them. We'll use that as a way to communicate between teams if needed."

A few moments later, a black inky bird flew above me and Hayase. The older chunin looked my way. After a brief nod, he ran into the forest and I followed.

It might have been because of my biased expectations, but this place looked weird. Huge towering trees with canopy that blocked most of the sunlight. The forest had this foreboding atmosphere that made me think of horror movies. Worse yet was the silence: no skittering sound of bugs, chirping of birds or neigh of animals. Even the rustling wind sounded muted to my own ears. That didn't stop us. Deeper into the creepy forest we went in search of a monster, maybe a hideout of a worse monster, or even a missing orange-haired kunoichi.

I concentrated on sensing any chakra around me.

One of the things I've neglected over the years of being a shinobi was this chakra sensing ability. I mean, there was always something more urgent to train for the immediate crisis at hand. More so when chakra sensing started to — around a lot of strong shinobi gathered in one place — be a distraction instead of something I could use. Now, I tried to push my senses as far as I could, cursing my earlier self for neglecting this ability. Even if I had no idea how to train it. No academy class covered it. I never tried to broach the subject with Kakashi-sensei. I knew sensor ninjas existed, at least I knew they existed in the original show, but it wasn't something I had easy access to. Maybe when I was back at Konoha, I could bug Kakashi-Sensei to teach more about chakra sensing.

With thoughts of new training methods in mind, I jumped from the branch I was perched on, landing by Hayase's side. His brow was furrowed, fingers touching a particular spot on the ground.

I took out my board, wrote my question. "Did you find anything?"

Hayase looked up, then shook his head. "Not sure. See here?" He pointed at a patch of soil near the base of the tree. I saw dirt, dry branches, decaying leaves, shrubs and all those things you see in forests. "It looks like someone hid something here, but it was removed some time ago."

No matter how much I looked, I had no idea how Hayase reached that conclusion. Shinobi academy taught basic tracking, mostly in the form of games, but nothing that let me see whatever this clue was.

Hayase shook his head, got up. "I can't say for certain, it was some time ago, weeks, maybe months. Let's keep looking."

I didn't want to look that incompetent, I nodded my agreement and off we went again searching for a needle in a haystack.

Minutes turned into hours. Hayase pointed out more of those spots he was certain were used in the past, but even with those spots, we couldn't pinpoint what they were used for, or even if it had any link to Orochimaru's hideout. It was a good lead that there was something to find here, but not where to find said something.

I did find other clues. Not that it took any super ninja tracking skills on my part. Not when the clue was a motherfucking uprooted tree, used like a baseball bat to bat other trees away. At least that was what it looked like to me.

We were still looking around for any other information when the ink bird nearby us screeched, soon followed by Sai's voice. "We're under attack. Please follow the bird."

We didn't have time to send a message back. The bird took off flying southeast, Hayase hot on its heels. I grabbed an exploding kunai, dashed after Hayase. I didn't really care if anything happened to annoying Sai. He could take a beating, it would serve him right. But Yamato was Kakashi-Sensei's friend and my part time teacher. Couldn't leave him hanging for no good reason.

 

[okashihime]

Tree hopping was, at least for me, one of those quintessential ninja staples. I mean, who doesn't remember those moments of Naruto jumping from tree to tree, and the image of those same trees blurring past? Or that impression of movement, in which most ninjas didn't really hop from one tree to the next, but threw themselves, like a toss from a slingshot, with turning in the air and landing with an impact and all. I didn't have it in me to do that, even if envy burned inside me at seeing Hayase do just so.

He threw himself from one branch to another, flipping upside down before landing on the next branch.

My thoughts didn't stay in ninja hopping for long. In the distance, roars of an unknown creature, and the sounds of battle, took all of my attention.

The sounds weren't anything I could place. It didn't sound human, not any animal I knew. The place of battle wasn't even hard to find. Not with huge branches popping out into the sky. Yamato was going all out. Which didn't bode well. Yamato was a strong jounin. He had the experience, the techniques, and his kekkei genkai. From what I knew of the man, he preferred small scale attacks. His mokuton lent well to restraining enemies, and if he was forced to bring out the big guns, then whatever he was fighting wasn't anything easy to deal with.

Hayase sped up, a muttered curse under his breath. "Shit."

I understood his sentiment. I didn't know what enemies we were facing, but I could at least plan. For some reason, Yamato didn't want me using Mokuton. The first day of our mission, he called me out away from the others.

"Hinata-san," the man started in his serious voice, big black eyes staring at me. "Unless it's an emergency, please avoid using your Mokuton jutsu." I tilted my head, unsure of why. "It drains too much of your chakra." Yamato had explained.

That was a few days ago. It smelled of hogwash for me, but I wasn't about to disobey. I could see the advantage of keeping my abilities secret. I don't think it was widespread knowledge yet, even in Konoha, that I had the same ability as the first Hokage, even if it left me gimped in the chakra department.

Mid-jump, I picked up several kunai. Tied explosive tags around them. With a few others, I wrapped with my Kekkai Hōjin tags, the non explosive version. Our mission was to gather information, I would try to capture instead of kill — another howl cut the afternoon air, a distant explosion sent a plume of smoke up to the sky — even if I didn't think whatever was roaring like that was human enough to be interrogated.

We arrived at a scene of chaos straight out of a demented nightmare.

Fighting against Yamato and Sai's ink animals was something that might once have been a human. It had legs, arms, heads. I counted three legs, seven arms and five heads. The amalgamation of what once was a human was tall. Two of me on top of each other might not be as tall as the thing. Two normal sized arms protrude from the front. It held a huge fuma shuriken. Another arm, protruding from the shoulder, was almost as long as the creature was tall. It was bulging, muscular and held a sword that wouldn't be out of place in the hands of some berserker anime characters. Another hand had claws like fingers. Other hands held kunai, shuriken and wires.

The creature had one head in what might have once been its chest. The face looked like an enraged man in his early forties. Black hair, prominent tear troughs. Somehow, that head still had a red bandanna around its forehead. The head on the right shoulder was of a young woman with long black hair. The woman's face resembled those evil spirit faces. The mouth, too large for the face, the eyes all white. The hair moved like it was alive, clumps forming into what looked like spears and spikes, lashing at everything nearby.

The back of the creature bulged, in a way that made me think of an even worse Hunchback of Notre-dame. There were heads at the creature's back, screaming as if in pain. Two were female: one had short green hair, while the other a mane of orange. A pang of something uncomfortable hit me in the chest. Linlin's crying face intruded in my thoughts. The last head was of a male in his twenties, with purple hair.

The creature's stomach had a huge mouth, with serrated teeth.

Yamato-One was crouched, hands on the ground, face serious. Yamato-Two dashed in and out in a frantic battle with the enemy. A third Yamato was near Sai, wrapped by blue strands of hair coming from the enemy. Wood and roots and branches tried to tie down the enemy to no avail.

Sai sat down, leaned against a tree. Hands on his stomach, blood pooling out of a wound. The other hand on a scroll laid on the ground. Around the battlefield, a group of ink tigers harassed and distracted the monstrosity.

In the moments I stood there gawking at the scene, the living black hair pierced through Yamato3. In a puff of smoke, Yamato-Three transformed into wood. A mokuton clone. But the clone's defeat left Sai vulnerable to enemy attack.

The ink tigers leapt in the hair's path, protecting Sai, but the situation wasn't sustainable.

The many combat scenarios Yamato had us discussing in our strategy meeting at nights came to my mind. None of them covered this exact situation, but I knew what was expected of me. In team seven, my usual role was one of support and control. Sasuke and Naruto were good at engaging the enemy head on, and improvising mid fight and abusing opportunities to turn any fight in our favor. My role there was to distract, create opportunities, reinforce them when needed. In this mission, my role was similar. Create distractions and opportunities, set up traps, precision strikes whenever possible.

With a single glance at Hayase, who gave a brief nod, I prepared to engage. My hands flashed with a Tiger seal. I pushed my chakra in the necessary pathways. By my side, in a puff of smoke, out popped two shadow clones. Without waiting, I dug into my pouch, share some of my tools.

Clone-chan 1, newly dubbed Distraction-chan, took the smoke bombs and explosives. Clone-chan 2, aka Seal-chan, took my prepared barrier kunais, among other supplies, gave me a grave nod. I took out some of my special explosive seals. Giddy excitement bubbling in my gut. It was finally time to explode things! Err, no, it was time to save our teammates and do cool ninja stuff.

I glanced at Distraction and Seal-chan. Both had this silly, goofy grin on their faces. Feet boobing, body coiled, like they were trying not to move. I shook my head. My clones could be so silly. They didn't have my amazing self control. With one last nod the clones flicked and operation Explode stuff… err Rescue Annoying Sai officially started.

 

[okashihime]

The battle didn't wait for deliberations on my part. The preparations, even if it took little to no time, was time the enemy used. Without Yamato-Three to provide protection, Sai was left vulnerable to the creature's living hair. Yamato-One tried to compensate, creating even more roots and branches, but the chimera's huge Guts sword swung like a kid's toy was more than enough to cut off the attempt. Yamato-Two was still busy keeping the other arms busy. I understood it very well, if that thing started to toss shurikens and kunais on top of everything Sai was done for.

Distraction-Chan took to her task with gusto. She leapt into action, explosive kunais soon followed by smoke bombs. It still wasn't any of my special supply—Sai and Yamato were too close for that— but the explosion impact, followed by choking clouds of smoke, served to distract and obscure the creature's view. Meanwhile Seal-chan flitted around the battlefield, placing barrier kunais around the enemy.

The enemy response was a howl. Many overlapping voices screaming in what sounded like pure agony. It reverberated through the air, made my skin crawl. From inside the cloud of smoke, I heard something cutting through the air, then wood breaking and splintering.

Hayase moved, hands flashing with seals. Globules of water shot towards and into the smoke. I knew that jutsu. It was the same Zabuza used after tricking me to leave that drunkard bridge-builder from the Waves defenseless. A shudder of phantom pain spiked on my shoulder. Damn that man, how was the missing-nin and Haku doing? Had they managed to reach an agreement?

I shook my head. Had my part to play. I didn't think getting close and personal with the enemy was the way to go. I wasn't afraid of getting injured, but I also wasn't the best in close quarters combat. I'd leave that for Yamato. No, my goal was to provide distractions and bail the team out if needed. My hands flashed into seals: Tiger, dog, snake. My chakra, already divided between three, myself and the clones, tanked.

Manipulating the wood clone jutsu to create the transmission seed wasn't easy. The way Yamato taught me was to create a clone, then morph the clone into a seed. I did similar, but instead of allowing the clone to form, I twisted it into a wooden kunai, used Shikoku Fūin to imprint the beacon into the formed hardwood.

A kunai wasn't a mandatory shape for my Kuro Raikou no Jutsu (Early access, alpha version v0.1). I could very well have used a shuriken, a katana, a frisbee or anything else, but if I was going to style myself after the Yondaime and his overpowered jutsu, I would god damn well use a kunai. Fangirl-sama demanded it, sue me. I didn't throw it, however. Yamato's orders were still clear in my mind. Mokuton was a last resort measure, and the situation didn't call for it yet. Even if I really wanted to use my jutsu. I mean, I needed to start my own legend at some point, right? Right?

Another roar took me back to the now. I stashed the wooden kunai; a secret weapon should remain secret, even if I really wanted to use it and be awesome.

More explosions followed. Smoke already dispersing. Most of Sai's ink summons were gone, the boy was paler, not sure how that was even possible. Hayase kept harassing the enemy with water bullets, but hadn't had the opportunity to extract the injured Sai. I threw exploding kunais. Had to explo– I mean, help with the battle.

The battle was a blur of chaos, frantic attacks and defense. It was hard for me to keep track of everything that was happening, which cost me a bit of initiative. I shook my head, now wasn't the time to reflect on that. If I couldn't keep track of everything at the same time, I just needed to focus on what I could do. I dashed in towards the enemy. I held a single kunai. It was a calculated risk, but one I was willing to take.

Meanwhile, the enemy wasn't idle. Roots and branches snared the creature to the ground, preventing it from moving. The huge sword moved faster than the eye could see, each time it did, it cut the roots ensnaring itself, even if more kept growing to trap it back. Meanwhile, the living hair changed focus. It left Sai alone, changing targets to Yamato-Two. At the same time, the hands in the chest threw the fuma shuriken at Distraction-Chan. Other hands threw kunais and shurikens at everyone around.

I moved out of the way, my clone ducked down, Hayase conjured a water shield; Sai's ink animals jumped in the path of the incoming projectiles. Yamato-One raised a small wooden barricade to block the thrown weapons.

That barrier seemed to be the opening the monster was waiting for. It threw, not a kunai or shuriken, but the Guts sword the oversized arm was weaving around like it was a children's toy. Yamato-One, now hidden behind the wall, had his vision blocked and didn't dodge.

A scream tore out of my mouth. "Look out!" I tasted blood, felt the pain.

It happened too fast. The sword pierced the barrier like it wasn't even there. Impaling the hidden Yamato behind it. At the same time, Seal-chan unpopped herself. A deluge of information, and where she'd placed the barrier flooded my mind, the communication between her and Yamato-Two. Distraction-Chan moved in, close and personal, holding a single kunai.

I knew what came next. Distraction-chan's eyes were wide and manic, the smile unhinged. I flickered in front of Sai, hands flashing, forcing my still in progress and unnamed jutsu into play. A clear, force-like barrier sprang to life. The world shook, turned white, thunderous noise hit me. More information flooded my mind. The explosion impact hit the barrier and the barrier broke like it was glass. It hit me too, threw me like a rag doll. I didn't resist, I moved with the impact, twisting in the air, and positioning myself above the injured Sai.

The ringing in my ears told me I would suffer for a while. A quick glance showed me that Sai, still alive, was now unconscious. A disheveled Hayase popped nearby. He said something. I shook my head, pointed to my ears. He nodded, walked closer, knelt, took Sai in his arms and fled.

I turned my attention back to the still ongoing battle. Yamato, two of them now, double tagged the enemy, herding it toward the area Seal-chan prepared.

Blood poured from the enemy's many injuries. Patches of skin were burned and cracked. One of the heads, the one with green hair had stopped screaming, it was now a listless dead face. Some of the creature's arms were missing. Even hurt like that, the monster hadn't stopped.

Yamato's hand, clone or not I couldn't say, flashed into seals and a huge closed fist sprang out of the ground. Without the sword in hand, the chimera couldn't cut the wood and prevent the attack. Like a practiced boxer delivering a left hook, it hit the enemy, throwing it back— and into the trap Seal-chan prepared. A shade of a smile came unbidden to my face. I don't know if my heart was beating faster because of the anticipation or the battle.

The result was a bit anticlimactic, in a way. When the enemy crossed the perimeter, the barrier came to life. The explosion tags set in each of the corners were of my special supply. There was a muted thump and thunder, one I could feel on my bones. The barrier held, which I guess would make it worse for whatever would be trapped inside.

When I was sure the explosion payload had ended and the barrier wasn't going to break, I moved closer, another kunai in hand. Yamato and his clone also approached.

It took a while for the dust to clear inside the trap. When it did, there were only unmoving, partially charred corpses. Five of them. One, I noticed, looked like a young girl, maybe my age, or a bit older. The bits of hair that had survived the explosion was orange.

Linlin's smiling, sparkling eyes, gushing about her amazing older ninja sister came to mind. "Shit." I cursed. I didn't even mind the pain and blood in my mouth. It felt deserved.

 

[okashihime]

Yamato and I stood side by side, watching the results of the trap. My eyes were still glued to the corpse of the orange haired girl. A theory had started to brew in my head ever since I saw her, about the rumors and words spoken by the town's people regarding the elusive shinobi family living nearby, and their sudden disappearance.

Linlin's sad frown talking about how her cool older ninja sister disappeared a few months back without warning. Information gathered by Hayase indicated that most of this shinobi family had gone missing. There was also another thing nagging at me. This whole trip felt strangely familiar to me. Like an old memory that wanted to come to life. Like something important I was forgetting.

The silence stretched for what felt like minutes, but wasn't more than a few moments.

"Good job, Hinata-san. You did well. Kakashi would be proud."

I blinked, tore my eyes away from the corpses, stared at the jounin. My mind was still reeling from everything, not able to make sense of his words. More on reflex than conscious thought, I gave him a thumbs up.

Yamato's hand flashed into the seals. Out of the earth, another Yamato popped out. Both original and clone's big black eyes bore into me, until the original looked away, toward where Hayase had fled, then back at me. "I'll go check on Sai. See what you can learn from our enemies meanwhile. I'll leave a clone here to protect you."

The clone nodded, flickering away after a few moments.

I looked at the Yamato, where the clone had been, at the corpses, back at Yamato again. My mind still insisted on not working like it should, and the sick feeling in my gut wasn't going away. After a while, I nodded.

Yamato opened his mouth, like he wanted to say something, then shook his head, looked away, back at me. "If anything happens, blast something nearby. I'll hear and come as fast as I can. I don't think we need to worry about being stealthy anymore." After one last long look, Yamato left.

Those words at any other time would have made me super giddy. No, I'm lying, they still made me giddy. Being praised by a canon famous jounin was like a dream come true, but the uncomfortable feeling in my stomach dulled the moment. My eyes somehow returned to the orange haired, burned body. Why was that? These weren't the first people I killed. I killed that chunin in the land of waves, I killed more genin in the forest of death, I killed people during Konoha's Crush. That wasn't to say I enjoyed killing. On the contrary, I didn't feel anything at all.

At Waves, I was giddy but not about the killing, it was because defeating that enemy meant protecting my teammates and the client and completing the mission. In the forest of death, the sound-nins I killed never even crossed my mind, I wasn't of sound mind at that time. The invading ninjas that attacked during the exam were the enemy, and it was my duty to protect the village, the civilians and myself. I never felt any pleasure or satisfaction in the act of killing itself, nor did I ever felt guilty. So, why now?

I shook my head. I had my orders, I could dwell on the whys of things later. My hands flashed with seals, out popped a shadow clone. This one, I named Investigation-Chan. It could have been my impression, but my clone looked ragged. Her eyes looked troubled, mouth in a strange frown. She gave me a curt nod, turned away and toward the place we had to investigate. I took a deep breath, shook my head, followed Investigation-Chan.

Inspecting dead bodies for clues wasn't what I would consider good shinobi fun, it was kinda creepy, if I was honest with myself. There were a few things I noticed. First, and strangely enough, most of the corpses were still wearing clothes. I should have guessed as much, given the center head had still been wearing a bandanna when we found the creature. The other part was their skin; now in death, apart from the charred and burned parts, they were fair and normal human looking, not like the red tinged and rough skin from before, when the chimera was still alive. At the time, it somehow made me think of the second stage of the cursed seal transformation.

That was a possibility, right? I couldn't discard that option. Perhaps Orochimaru captured people to experiment with his cursed seal, and now that the host of the seal was dead, the effect that kept them merged ended, and the bodies separated. I made a mental note of that possibility. I wouldn't be able to clearly state the effects of the cursed seal to Yamato— I wasn't supposed to know any of it— but pointing out the obvious without saying 'cursed seal' would also work.

Maybe that was something I could confirm, the seal, I mean.

With morbid curiosity, I searched the dead bodies for a seal-like tattoo. A few minutes later, I gave up. Unless I undressed the dead people to search beneath their almost destroyed clothing, there was no mark that I could identify as a cursed seal. There was a lot I could put up with in the name of being a good shinobi. Undressing dead bodies was a bit too much though.

Another strand of thought distracted me from my musings. Had these people also been enhanced with seals inside their body? For a brief moment, I imagined myself strapping bodies to a bloodied table, cutting them open to inspect their bones and heart.

I… might need help. What were these strange thoughts? I shook the gruesome idea away. I wanted to know about the seals, but again, defiling bodies wasn't the solution. I wanted to be free of Orochimaru's traps, not become him.

From the bigger guy with the bandanna, I retrieved some parchments hidden in the pockets of his clothing. It was, unfortunately, written in a cipher I didn't know. I stored that away for later, and kept on my gruesome work.

Investigation-Chan was by my side, also looking at the dead shinobi family. The investigation was enough to confirm these people were part of the missing shinobi family we heard about in the trading town. We found enough to be certain of that: Clan symbols, small notes and other personal things all pointed to that conclusion.

My clone looked from the corpses to me, walked closer. I looked at her, still distracted with my thoughts and what I needed to report. Investigation-Chan stopped in front of me, close, invading my personal space. Was it an invasion of personal space if the other person was still me? She put her arms around me and pulled me into a tight hug.

I froze for a moment, then relaxed. My arms found their way around Investigation-Chan, pulled her closer. It was nice. She smelled of moist earth and explosions. I didn't even remember how long it was since someone hugged me like that. We stayed there for a while, more than appropriate, until Investigation-Chan pulled away. She pressed her own forehead to mine, then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Memories, information and impressions flooded my mind. I took a deep breath, trying to organize my thoughts. There was something I needed to confirm.

My hand found its way toward my storage pouches, and to a particular seal. I took out my timeline diary. The one I wrote when I was five, just after arriving in this world. It seemed so long ago. Most of my memories of the original show were fuzzy and distant. I still remembered the important parts, but the smaller details were not so easy to remember anymore, and for some reason, it had been a while since I last consulted my notes.

In a puff of smoke, my old story book popped out of the seal. I opened it, read the pages. The story book was a childish account of Little Chef Camilla's adventures to learn all the recipes in the world. In my storybook, the first main dish was Camilla's first foray into the cooking arts, trying to combine Orange, Lemon and Strawberry into a delicious pie with the help of a spirit mentor, a chibi wolf-like spirit, that was a complete tsuntsun. For this main dish, Camilla had to travel to distant islands, only to be waylaid by brigands and a bridge defending troll. Don't judge me too much, please. Orange represented Naruto, Lemon was Sasuke, Strawberry Sakura, while the mentor spirit was Kakashi-sensei.

The thing is that, at the time, I was confident that just a few mentions of the elements of the plot of the original story would be enough to make me remember everything. Yet, years later, the things I wrote barely made sense to me. Oh, I still knew the broad strokes. Land of Waves, Exams, Crushcrushcrush, Search for Tsunade, Sasuke Recovery mission, Timeskip, Kazekage Rescue Mission and more. I flipped a few pages ahead. Stopped on a particular story, marked as a side dish.

Camilla's search for all recipes took her to a rice farm, where a perverted frog helped her find the evil snake that had lured her prized Lemon away. To make the travel acceptable, she took Orange and Strawberry, in the hopes of finding Lemon and guilt tripping him into returning to the fruit basket.

It was hogwash, of course. Side dish was my way of saying this wasn't story canon, but part of the dreaded TV show filler episodes. In this one, Jiraiya, the perverted frog, took Naruto and Sakura to the land of rice in the search of Orochimaru's hideout. The problem was that I was a bit of a snob Naruto fan. To me, the comics were the true canon, with the TV show being a so-so adaptation, while the fillers were trash that shouldn't be watched, or even exist— even if I did watch that one about unmasking Kakasi-sensei. Don't blame me, it was fun.

But back to the topic. I remember now, I never really watched that series of episodes, but I've seen the images, and read the synopses. The Fuma clan, Orochimaru's hideout, a monster created and left behind, a confrontation with Kabuto. Was Kabuto still hiding here?

The story book went again into the seal. I hid it with my other things. I needed to consider the original story and how my meddling had changed things. I had been putting it off for far too long. What were my plans to deal with Akatsuki? Deal with Danzo? How was I going to change the world again? But now wasn't the time. I hated raising flags, but I would do it as soon as I was back at home.

I looked around, Yamato's clone was nowhere to be seen. I turned away and toward where my teammates had moved to. There was a report to make, and a hideout to find, a Kabuto to hunt down. With a bit of luck, the coded notes would have that information.

 

[okashihime]

It didn't take long to find the rest of my team. Sai was still out cold, sides cleaned and bandaged. Next to him, Yamato and Hayase talked. They looked alert, but not worried. My arrival didn't go unnoticed. The jounin waved me over.

"Welcome back Hinata-san, how did the investigation go?"

Out of the armband popped my communication's board. I don't really think I had to keep it hidden anymore. I wrote down part of my report. "Victims confirmed to be the missing shinobi family from the town." I took out the clan symbols and notes and personal items that confirmed that idea. "My current theory is this family decided to fight against Orochimaru, and in turn, were experimented on."

Hayase's eyes were glued to the items I presented, but then he looked at me. "How did you arrive at that result?"

I tilted my head. For someone so smart, Hayase did ask silly questions. I shrugged, wrote on my board. "They were turned into monsters. I don't think anyone would have signed up for that."

Hayase nodded. "That is a fair assumption."

"Anything else of interest?" Yamato brought us back to topic.

From inside the pouch, I took the parchment with the coded message. "I found this, I couldn't decipher it, however."

The chunin's eyes sparkled. He leaned forward, eyes intense. "Can I see it?"

Good thing he asked. Hayase was the reason I brought those papers. I remember him geeking about ciphers and codes. Papers exchanged hands. Eyes sparkled with even more interest. Hayase soon took out a notebook and pen and started scribbling and mumbling, lost to the world.

The impetus to join was there. I wanted nothing more to help, learn more about this kind of stuff. It was right up Fangirl-sama's alley. I shook my head, there was more stuff to do. I turned around, left Hayase lost to the world. My steps took me back to the corpses. Yamato had followed me, thankfully in silence.

When we arrived at the location, I wasn't sure how to do this. Options flashed into my mind. Use barriers, explosions, or even doton jutsu to open up a hole in the ground. I shook my head. Somehow, I didn't want to. Didn't feel like the right thing to do. I thought about the many tools I had stored in my seals. My hands searched for one in particular. Out popped a spade and I got up to dig.

Yamato watched for a moment, before creating a spade out of mokuton. In silence, we dug.

It didn't take long. No more than an hour later we were finished. We were stronger than normal people, and we had more stamina. I jumped out of the burial hole we dug. After that, it was moving the corpses inside. Conventional methods would have demanded me to take these corpses back to Konoha if possible. They were unknown shinobis, there were lots of secrets one could learn from how the enemy trained and how their body developed. Thankfully, Yamato didn't give the order to store the bodies in seals for transportation. He didn't even question me when I decided to bury them. I think that somehow, he understood how I felt.

Body after body went into the hole, and soft earth created an eternal roof over them. What was up with me and being all emotional and poetic? Finishing all that, I knelt by the grave. My hands flashed with seals. My chakra tanked, but I didn't mind. Out of the earth popped a stone tablet. I took a kunai, carved words. Got up, bowed.

There wasn't much I could do other than that. I wasn't about to swear revenge for a group of people I didn't know. More than that, Orochimaru was already dead. I wasn't discounting that the man had a way to come back to life, not when most of the evil people in this world did, one way or another. No, my motives were more selfish than that. I think now, when I have to face Linlin again, I would be able to tell her that I at least paid my respects to her amazing shinobi sister. Even if I was the reason said sister was now dead.

I took a deep breath. I pushed those self-destroying thoughts away. It wasn't my fault. I wasn't the one to turn them into monsters. A hand patted my head. My mood was so morose I didn't even duck out of the way. I might have leaned into the touch, just a bit.

"You did well, Hinata-san. I'm proud of you."

Warmth bubbled inside my chest. I blinked away some invisible dust that got into my eyes. I don't know why his words affected me like that. A part of my mind, the cynical one, pointed out that this was nothing more than manipulation 101. They knew what made me tick, and weren't shy about pushing my buttons. I threw that thought away. The world moved based on manipulations, intentional or otherwise.

There would be a time, maybe in the near future, where I would need to decide if this kind of thing should continue. But now was not the time.

We stood there in silence for a few more minutes. Out popped my board. I hesitated, but wrote down my question. "Do you think we could have saved them?"

Yamato looked from the board to the grave. The silence lasted for a while more, but then he sighed. "Maybe. If we knew beforehand, if we had managed to capture them, if we could have taken them back to the village. But that is a moot point now. The only thing we can do is try to do better in the future."

I nodded. That was a fair answer. One that I knew before asking the question. I guess I just wanted to hear someone else tell me that it was okay.

We met up with Hayase soon after. The chunin was still lost in his own mind, trying to decipher the note. That was fine. That skill set was one of the reasons he was on his mission. We moved somewhat away from the battle site, until we found a small clearing surrounded by huge trees. Yamato threw a group of prepared tags in a square, then summoned a house for us using Mokuton: Shichūka no Jutsu. I knew the tags created a barrier that made it hard, if not impossible, for someone else to find the house.

Now that the need for secrecy was over, it was nice to get back to the Yamato's camping standard. I knew the house. Back at the hell-month training, Yamato had created a house just like this one, where we often camped to talk about strategy, discuss theory or just rest. It felt almost as familiar as my own apartment, even if it was a brand new house. Yamato usually created the same layout, for some reason.

I nodded at Yamato in thanks, ignored Hayase who was still lost in his own obsession and hadn't even seen the house spring out of the ground. We ventured inside, Yamato carrying Sai to one of the bed rooms. I went straight toward the kitchen. I wanted a decent meal. No more cold dinners and eating dry travel rations.

---

I cooked, we ate, Sai still slept, Hayase was still not with us.

I took this time to work on my still unnamed barrier jutsu. I had managed to use it before that explosion, even if the barrier didn't hold up like I wanted. But it was progress. I think that after that trial run, I could at least name it. What would be a good name for a jutsu like that? My musings on possible names were interrupted by a shout from Hayase.

"I got it!" The chunin yelled, a fist closed, pointed at the sky. "I broke the code!"

That got our attention. Yamato soon returned from the bedroom where he'd been keeping vigil over the still unconscious Sai. I moved closer as well, keen on learning if those notes had any useful information.

Yamato's stoic voice congratulated the chunin. "That is amazing work. Did you learn anything useful?"

Hayase beamed. Shook the original note. "Better than that, the note was a secret communication of the Fuma clan. They were using a mix of the Hashirama principle with two other sets of encryption to hide the message. It took me a while to break it. You see, I don't think I would have managed if not by—"

Yamato coughed, interrupting the tirade.

Hayase scratched his head, looked embarrassed. "Right, sorry. The note is a secret communication of the Fuma clan detailing a plan to attack Orochimaru's hideout. It has information about where the place is."

"Good job Hayase. I doubt anyone else would've managed it in such a small time frame." Yamato praised the chunin again.

I nodded, gave him a small punch in the shoulder, then a thumbs up and a smile when he looked my way. Hayase looked happier than I ever saw him. I even forgot my gloomy mood as well. It felt good, knowing that finally we had a conclusive clue. From there, I took out the area map we got from the town, and using the clues provided, Hayase was able to pinpoint the area the hideout was located in. It still wasn't the definitive location, but better than we had before.

"You guys did well. Make sure to rest and prepare for tomorrow, we don't know what we'll find there."

I nodded. Gave the map one last look. With luck, tomorrow we'd find the place. With even more luck I would find information to help me up with my seals. Or if fate smiled on us, we'd find Kabuto. I won't lie here. I was hoping for the last one. Somehow, I wanted to blame, maybe punch someone, and Kabuto was the perfect target.

 

[okashihime]

I followed hot on Yamato's heels.

It was a few days after the chimera battle and the two of us moved through the trees in search of the damnable hideout. Hayase stayed behind at camp, keeping Sai's company. Due to his injury, Sai wasn't in any condition to join, which left us with a few options: retreat, wait or press on.

Option one wasn't really an option. No way I wanted to have that black mark on my perfect completion record. I wasn't about to abandon the mission just because someone got hurt, and it wasn't because of my dislike for Sai. I wasn't going to lie and say I liked the boy. At this point, I could just shrug and accept that. I don't think I was ever going to be friends with him, but I respected him as a shinobi. His condition wasn't critical, he wasn't in any risk of dying. What he needed was time to recover. Abandoning the mission because of a non critical injury was out of the question. It was nice of Yamato to bring up the option, however, even if no one, Sai included, considered that a choice.

The second option was to wait. Like I said, Sai needed only time to recover. Thankfully, the injury wasn't laced with poison, nor had it hit any vital organs. Given a couple of weeks, maybe less, Sai would be in top condition again, ready to face even more dangerous enemies for the glory of Konoha!

Third option was to split the team. If anyone out there ever played TRPG to any length of time, they would know that option was also known as the party killer prelude. Splitting the party was tantamount to summoning death flags. Several of them, all at once.

A mix of second and third option was the agreed upon path forward. Hayase would stay behind at the hidden camp to protect Sai and hold down the fort. Yamato and I, on the other hand, would scout for the hideout location. The clues we got from the deceased members of the Fuma clan was enough to point us in the right direction, even if we still didn't have a precise location. It was a huge area to search, but at least we didn't need to scour the whole forest anymore.

Up ahead, Yamato jumped on a tall tree branch, but instead of jumping ahead, he stopped. Raised one hand, palm open. I jumped closer, stopped by his side.

Ahead of us, in the distance, inside a clearing by the base of the giant trees, a stair led down inside the earth. The walls were constructed of a purple tinted stone. The roof tiles above were created of a deeper shade of the same hue. At the bottom, a doorless threshold. Above it, two crimson snakes coiled, painted on either side of a grated vent. Fitting for a snake.

Yamato was silent, but his hands conveyed the new orders. "Careful, scout, investigate."

We had discussed what to do when we found the place. Yamato wasn't keen on taking any unnecessary risks, not while half of the team was still at the camp, but we couldn't also just leave without gathering any information, which was the reason the two of us were here. He had wood clones, I could use shadow ones. We were the ultimate—danger free— scouting duo. With a silent nod, my hands flashed with seals. Out popped a shadow clone.

By my side, growing out of the tree, a Yamato clone appeared. My clone, Scout-chan, saluted, flickered away to do scout things. Yamato-clone nodded, merged with the tree and disappeared.

I took out a few seals, slapped them around us. These weren't mine, but supplies provided by the village. They muted our presence, helped us hide.

---

There wasn't much to do while Scout-chan did her job. While we waited, Yamato was on guard duty. I sat cross legged, a number of parchments scribbled with my prototype jutsu, pondering about clone techniques, and how to use them efficiently.

One of the biggest differences between shadow and wood clones were how durable wood clones were. Mokuton clones didn't disappear after taking a hard impact, and the clone shared the chakra pool of the original, instead of splitting chakra like shadow clones. Wood clones, however, were not as independent. They were akin to an extension of the shinobi, which made them tricky to use in battle. One needed good multitasking abilities or the clone wouldn't perform up to standard.

Shadow clones on the other hand, were completely independent. They didn't depend on the shinobi for directions or orders. They worked like a functional copy of the ninja who summoned them. Which I think, was one of the reasons some people didn't use the jutsu. I remember reading somewhere that Orochimaru used shadow clones only once, then never again after his own clone tried to kill him. Had that really happened or was it just my imagination playing tricks on me?

Wood clones also had an intrinsic connection to their creator, a function which Yamato exploited to create the transmission seed's tracking method. It was that particular characteristic that I incorporated on my alpha version of thunder god jutsu. In the time-frame I had before the exam, I wasn't able to tie the beacon to me and make the jutsu usable. The innate transmission from the wood clone solved that problem, and created another. Right now, any beacon I created was a temporary one.

What I was trying, while Scout-chan labored to find any traps, was to identify and isolate the aspect of the wood clone that provided this innate connection. When I managed that, I'd be able to create a permanent beacon. That would move my jutsu from alpha to beta version, with future changes being quality of life improvements.

A silent chuckle escaped me. It was at times like this I wished I still had a Byakugan. Observing the chakra flow and how it behaved while someone used the jutsu could potentially help isolate the parts I needed.

I stopped, tilted my head, looked up from the parchments toward the direction I thought Konoha would be. Could I do it? I wasn't that attached to the idea of a Byakugan, but I also couldn't deny how useful it would be. No one else told me what happened to Orochimaru's eyes after he was defeated.

Out popped my board. I considered the question. I guessed it cost nothing to ask. I wrote, waved to get Yamato's attention. Showed him the words after his attention was on me. "Yamato-taicho, do you know what happened to Orochimaru's eyes?"

Yamato's gaze bore into my soul, or maybe that was just the effect those huge eyes had. It was hard to know what the man was thinking when he stared unblinking at me like that. The silence stretched, and for a while, I thought he wouldn't answer. Then he looked away, sighed.

"After his defeat, the Hyuga clan reclaimed the one Byakugan eye from Orochimaru's corpse."

I erased the words, wrote some more. "One eye? Not two?"

Yamato nodded. "Only his left eye was a Byakugan."

Another stray thought intruded on my head. They wouldn't have, would they? It was so far-fetched that it might even be true. I erased the words on my board, considered this ridiculous idea, wrote another question. "Is the true reason we are searching for Orochimaru's hideout an attempt to find and recover the second eye?"

I could see it. The divas from the Hyuga clan threatening something dumb in case the second eye wasn't returned. I mean, they threatened civil war when I was kidnapped, and I'm sure they weren't happy with the Old-man after he stopped Hiashi from killing me. Huh, weird.

Yamato sighed again, shoulders slumping. "Yes, but also no."

For some reason, Yamato went quiet after that. Was he really going to drop that bomb and then say nothing else? I moved to erase my question and write another, when a raised hand from the jounin stopped me.

"You have to understand the political situation in the village is a powder-keg waiting to blow. The council wanted Lord Jiraiya to take the position of fifth Hokage, him being one of the three illustrious sannin and disciple of the third. Jiraiya refused."

I nodded. That made sense. It was why, in the original story, Jiraiya took Naruto on a trip to find Tsunade, to convince the woman to return, and to keep Naruto safe from the Akatsuki.

Yamato didn't stop his explanation. "In the wake of that, the Hyuga clan started to pressure the council to appoint Hyuga Hizashi as the new Hokage. One of their main claims was the village's inability to protect Konoha's clan bloodlines. Danzo stole sharingan eyes, Orochimaru experiments with the first Hokage cells and your kidnapping among other attempts from outside agents."

Wasn't that a bit of a master plan from the Hyuga clan? I mean, I knew about the family seal on the branch family. Wasn't that just placing a puppet Hokage for the main family? I wasn't sure why they didn't push for Hiashi instead. That one didn't make sense to me. More importantly, wasn't I screwed if one of them became Hokage?

"The problem is, while the Hyuga are powerful as a clan, none of their members are at the same level of strength as Lord Third, or Jiraiya, and a strong leader is needed to prevent the other villages from declaring an all out war against Konoha. Killing Orochimaru helped, losing Lord Third didn't."

I nodded, digesting that information.

"The chances are slim, but if we manage to recover the last eye, that could be used to dismiss the Hyuga main claim to the position."

Huh, in the end, I thought myself smart for realizing the mission was more than they told me, but I was also way off the mark. The full scope of the mission made sense, but a nasty feeling brewed in my gut.

What about me? Was I supposed to just hand over my eye, if we ever found it?

Why was I even getting angry over this? Wasn't I just thinking I didn't care for that damn eye?

 

[okashihime]

That revelation distracted me enough that I couldn't concentrate on deciphering the wood clone details for the rest of our vigil. I knew there was more happening behind the scenes. If the Hyuga was making a play for the Hokage position, I was sure the other shinobi families wouldn't let this opportunity pass. Another clan came to mind that could also use this opportunity: the Uchihas'.


I didn't know much about them even after many years. They controlled the police force. They were ridiculously strong. Emotions ran hot on that clan. They already wanted to try a coup before. I wasn't sure what the clan political situation was at the moment. Danzo, I think, was the one in the original story oppressing the clan to the point of rebellion. Itachi's father was the one more vocal about fighting back. Itachi was a pacifist at heart, and Shisui was willing to use a genjutsu on his own clan to prevent civil war.


Itachi was now the Uchiha's clan leader. Shisui was a member of the ANBU.


That particular branch of secret ninjas was the last one I would expect to cause trouble to the village. They operated directly under the Hokage.


A deluge of information flooding my mind put a stop to any political consideration. I pushed thoughts about the shinobi family, Hokage's succession and stolen eyes out of my mind. Scout-chan finished her job and unpopped herself.


There was a lot to parse through, but also, not that much actionable intel. Scout-chan found many things to report: hidden traps, places where paper seals were placed, battle scars and trails. From the looks of it, this hideout used a similar technique to Yamato's house jutsu, only that those seals had faded and not been replaced in a while. Perhaps there was no one still keeping the hideout operating?


I organized the information, saluted in Scout-chan's last known direction. She would be missed. Then I turned and went looking for Yamato.


I found him talking to his clone. Yamato-clone's report was similar to Scout-chan. None of them entered the hideout, and there was no evidence that anyone, apart from a big heavy humanoid creature with claws and a big sword, went in or out recently. When the clone was done, I wrote my report. Yamato was patient enough to wait until I wrote everything my clone found out. When I was finished, the man was scratching his chin.


"All the information points to that no one is currently inside the place, aside from the creature we defeated a few days ago. It might be worth moving our camp here, that way Hayase can keep an eye at the entrance while Sai is still recovering from his injuries."


I gave Yamato a thumbs up. Easier than writing down a response. With one last look toward the hideout entrance, we left.


Things moved fast after that. When we returned, Yamato explained the plan. Hayase took charge of carrying Sai. The house went puff, and we hurried toward the new camp location. All in all, it took hours to relocate, reorganize and prepare the new camp. Night had already fallen when we finished setting things up again.


This close to the enemy's place, I wasn't about to relax security. Even if the house was hidden under Yamato's seals, a bit more protection wouldn't go amiss. My hands flashed again, out popped two clones. Sentry-chan the First and Second saluted, then moved out to keep watch. I popped out my apron and went to make sure my domain was in order, and to prepare food. After today's revelation I wanted to eat something special. I had a feeling tomorrow wouldn't be a good day. Better make sure to keep spirits up before delving into a madman's house.

---

Yamato and I had already explored part of the hideout complex. Much to my disappointment, the places explored were devoid of life, even if not of danger. It was all a bit sus. The complex had no power, and signs of being abandoned in haste. I think I knew the reason for that. It was big, had several arms and heads and was deadly.


What had the people from Oto done after fleeing from Konoha? Where was the sound four. Wasn't Kimimaro supposed to be here in this hideout? At least, that was the impression I got when querying my brain for memories. At this point, I wasn't certain anymore, but the main beats of the story were still somewhat clear to me. In the Sasuke recovery mission, egged on by Kabuto, Kimimaro left his treatment to help bring Emosuke to Orochimaru. This place didn't match my expectations.


We had managed to find what seemed to be a vault of sorts. One still locked and trapped. If Kabuto had returned here after fleeing Konoha, he hadn't managed to access that place as well.


Trying to open the vault was going to take a lot of time. Which was why I convinced Yamato-taicho to let me explore on my own. I could use my clones to help with the traps and stay safe, we've done it a few days already while exploring. And I was never alone on my own anyway.


Crouched down in the dark tunnel, I studied the walls, floor and ceiling. This was one of the passages where the chimera hadn't gone through. When we first entered the place, it became obvious that most of the traps were sprung on what I've been calling the prison path. If we followed the obvious destruction, we had a relatively clear path from the entrance to the cells. I reckon that's where they'd been keeping the creature until it broke free.


The cells were… not a good place.


Small, rough stone cubicles, with a single opening barred by thick metal doors. A small slit on the metal door let me see the interior. It reminded me of those solitary confinement cells in the before. The whole prison stank of decay and shit. A single peek inside the cells was enough for me. I'd leave identifying the bodies to the others. I was, after all, a young impressionable kunoichi. I wasn't averse to playing the child card to avoid that particular duty.


The cells all fed into this one corridor that led to an underground arena. The arena's floor was full of crusted and dried blood.


The sequence of events in my mind was like this: After days without anyone to keep maintenance in place, the chimera escaped. It tore a path toward the exit, springing most of the traps in its way. Once outside, the creature attacked nearby settlements, but often returned to the hideout for one reason or another.


I think the passage I was casing at the moment led to the labs. I had already found what seemed to be a dormitory, a common area, and storage. There were a few more passages to explore. Yamato was on the other side of the complex, trying to break past one particular nasty trap. He was sure it was a vault of sorts. If we were lucky, most of the information we wanted was stored there.


The dark corridor I was in now didn't seem trapped. No strange markings on the walls, no fissures on the ground, no wires or strange devices. I summoned Decoy-chan, the Eleventh. She glared at me, gave me the finger, but did her duty. She strode toward the door, and when nothing happened, pulled it open.


Somehow, I was expecting an explosion, maybe poison, or something more insidious.


Decoy-chan peeked inside and froze. Without looking back, she unpopped herself. I was right. This tunnel led into the labs. The room was large, partially hidden in darkness. In the middle of the room, an operation table, with a corpse on top of it. On the walls, rolls of vat tubes, filled with green goop. Human shaped silhouettes barely visible inside said goop.


I closed my eyes. Tried to stop my trembling hands. I knew there was a chance to find more experiments. I had avoided thinking about it until now. I had hoped there would be no mad-lab here.

---

Spoiler: AN

Started playing with AI drawings again.
Behold, hell-month, goth edition:

https://i.ibb.co/0t1ntSp/00020-1446186405.png

https://i.ibb.co/YpFT2NT/00021-3988241731.png

https://i.ibb.co/Sspk03j/00030-1051965520.png

 

[okashihime]

In my seven years of living my best ninja life, I tried my damnedest to never think about that first day and what it really meant. Unfortunately, this wasn't a case of "trauma begone!", it was a severe case of "trauma be repressed!". This attitude had already bitten me in the behind once: I could barely function in the brief fight against Orochimaru in the Forest of Death. There, I was subjected to the role of kunoichi in distress, and Emosuke had to save me, much to my chagrin.

Now, here I was, trying my hardest to enter the lab. Only, my body wouldn't obey me.

There was this quake that hit me every time I tried to take a step forward, and this unseen marathon I ran that took my breath away, leaving me gasping, not to mention the invisible booze I drank. That was the only explanation of why the world spun around me.

I closed my eyes. Tried to recenter myself. Took one, or maybe ten deep breaths. Opened my eyes, took a step toward the door. I whimpered, but pushed forward. The part of me that was the original Hinata stirred, wailed in my mind, distressed. Weird, why now? She'd been quiet for years.

It wasn't easy, but I think I did my best here. Quakes, marathons and booze didn't stop me. I crossed the door, looked inside the room. The light I carried illuminated part of the lab, and the many vat tubes lining the walls. Near the door, there was one of those antiquated computers, like those eighties' looking DOS based machines: big and bulky and utterly useless.

I approached the table, peeked at the corpse. It was a young woman, face covered in seal inscribed fabric, black hair spilling from behind the cloth. Given her proportions, she looked around my age, maybe a couple of years older. All of her body was inscribed, the lines moving from the skin to the table and beyond. Some of those symbols were familiar. I didn't know what they meant, but I recognized Orochimaru's sealwork. I had, after all, a prime example etched on my own bones.

My gaze inevitably found its way to the rolls of vat tubes. They continued down the room, further into the darkness where the light wasn't enough to illuminate them. It was macabre, like those silly drawings of monkeys turning humans representing evolution. The vat nearest the door contained an embryo. The further deeper into the room, the more developed the person inside. From embryo to an unformed baby, to a small toddler, to a young girl and more.

It was surreal seeing the same girl in various stages of growth. The same round, soft face, black hair, button nose. It was evident the girl inside the vat was dead. There was no power in the whole complex. There was no movement from the person inside the tube. The green goop wasn't all that clear anymore, patches of red and brown mixed with the green.

I refocused on my task, or I tried. It was really hard to think. The small, quiet voice I always thought of as the original Hinata was neither small nor quiet anymore. I could barely hear my own thoughts amid all her screaming.

Turning, I took a step toward the computer. If I could make that thing work, I might get information regarding the experiments. I moved, but there was something wrong with the world. It tilted and hit me on the face with the ground. I blinked, surprised. My throat really hurt. I closed my eyes. My head buzzed.

The screaming hadn't stopped.

---

Yamato pushed his chakra yet again to form another wood clone. The vault was proving harder than anticipated to open. The main door was rigged with so many traps that he didn't dare try bypassing it. If destruction was their main goal, he wouldn't have hesitated to force the door open, but the situation was too delicate for the brute force approach. Which left him no other choice than to burn his chakra and clones trying to find a weak point around the vault.

It was slow, draining work.

All in all, things were going well. Apart from Sai's injury, there was no other surprise. Right now, Hayase and Sai were outside, keeping vigil over the hideout entrance, while he and Hinata explored the place with the help of clones.

Yamato had to give it to the girl. Using clones for recon and infiltration was a textbook example of clone usage. Using them as disposable trap detection tools was something else. Which worried him now that he had more time to think about the situation.

Wood clones were like automaton puppets. They could function at low levels without input, or controlled directly making them a copy all but indistinguishable from the original. Shadow clones on the other hand, were independent copies. From how Hinata talked about it, there was no communication between them, but she received the clone's memories and impressions after it dispersed.

That Hinata was willing to send a copy of herself to die in traps, and didn't show any sign of being uncomfortable with the pain and trauma of dying was deeply disturbing. There was no mention of any destructive behavior on her dossier, aside from the almost masochistic levels of training. Most took that as a good sign: more training meant stronger shinobis. But was that indication that something was wrong with the girl? Yamato had tried to remedy that excess on this mission. Forbade all excessive training, gave the stealthy nature of their mission as an excuse.

It hadn't worked like he expected. Not a day after, Hinata showed signs of stress. He turned things around, relying on Kakashi's advice to keep the girl centered. Strategy meetings and formal, structured shinobi communication. The result was better than he had hoped for.

By all accounts, she didn't show any symptoms of being affected by her past. Which didn't make sense. Even Yamato, some two decades later, wasn't unmoved exploring those secret labs when he was with ROOT, then ANBU.

Yamato maneuvered the clone closer, going for the same fault-line in the rock he found early. With luck, he could use that to bypass the traps.

A noise in the back of his head stopped him. He heard someone panting. Yamato riffled through the sōshinki he left with his team. Hayase was talking with Sai about some code or another. That boy really liked his ciphers. Sai sat quietly, pretending to listen. Yamato shook his head. Another of Danzo's victims. A good thing they managed to find the boy before he was taken by ROOT. No, the noise that caught his attention was from Hinata. Which was why it was so strange.

The girl was like a wraith. She rarely spoke; her clones being the ones that often talked most. Most of the time, even things like breathing or panting were muted by the seal inside her throat.

Yamato concentrated on the transmission seed, feeling for the situation on her side of the hideout.

Hinata was walking down a corridor. She seemed out of breath, but not in danger or being attacked.

He pushed the connection to the back of his mind again. Yamato took no pride in spying on Hinata, but orders were orders, even if the real reason he did it was to make sure the girl was safe, otherwise he wouldn't have let her explore alone. He knew the girl was strong, but he wasn't about to let her face Orochimaru's traps without support. She was under his care, no matter what the council thought about her.

His clone, who had stayed unmoving while Yamato checked things, started to move again. He concentrated on the earth around the clone. Doton: Iwagakure no Jutsu wasn't his favorite jutsu, even if it was extremely useful. Finger pointed toward the faultline, he urged the clone's finger to transform into wood, questing for an opening.

There was a whimper, then a low wail, which soon turned into hoarse screaming in the back of his mind.

Yamato bolted up, concern spiking. The attempt to enter the vault was discarded. His hands flashed with seals: Ram, Dog, Rat, Bird. The tunneling technique wasn't meant to be used on walls, but all of the hideout's walls were carved from stone. He opened a straight tunnel toward where Hinata was.

The noise coming from her hadn't stopped, if anything, she screamed even louder. A quick peek through the link didn't show what was the problem. She was in a huge room, there was no one attacking her.

It took four more jutsu to finish the path. By now, Yamato didn't need his transmission seed to hear the girl. He burst inside the room, kunai in hand, ready to fight for his life and protect his charge.

Yet, there were no enemies.

The room was large, a laboratory. Hinata was on the ground, holding her head, screaming. There was an operation table in the middle of the room, with a surprisingly familiar corpse on top of it. Yamato's eyes scanned the room, looking for enemies, then he saw the vat tubes.

And the girl inside it.

And Hinata's dead face, from toddler to adult.

 

[okashihime]

I stared at the wooden ceiling of Yamato's mobile home base. I was on my bed, tucked in comfy warm blankets. That had been a nice touch from the stoic jounin. My evaluation of him had to change a bit. I once thought he had no dad energy, but now I knew the truth: he just had hidden dad energy.

Time had been hard to keep up with. I wasn't about to lie and say I didn't remember anything. There was no timely loss of sanity this time for me. No passing out and dealing with dreams, no merciful oblivion of unconsciousness. I was all too aware that some part of my mind couldn't deal with what we found in the lab. That same part refused to let me forget.

My throat was a stinging, agonising mess, that not even my enhanced regeneration had been able to keep up with. Not when I screamed for hours, until I couldn't anymore. After that, I just hadn't the will to move. Yamato carried me out of the Hideout, tucked me in bed. I didn't resist, even if the screaming hadn't stopped.

I did, however, hear Yamato's explanation of the situation to Sai and Hayase.

He was kind enough to fudge the truth. I wasn't having a mental breakdown, no, in his version of events I had fallen prey to an insidious trap when trying to enter the labs. For that reason, that wing the hideout was off-limits for now. Too dangerous to explore alone. My guess was that Yamato wanted to keep the others away from learning about the clones.

It was a good plan. That was a disaster waiting to happen.

Was that Orochimaru's plans here? An army of cloned Hyuga? Somehow, that didn't seem to fit my idea of the murder-hobo. He was evil, not burdened by morals or sentimentality, he didn't mind killing, nor did he mind bringing back the dead. He didn't mind using people, then discarding them. But an army of clones? Maybe I was jumping the gun here.

How long had it been since I was placed on this bed? I considered getting up, but just wasn't feeling up to it. My eyes were dry, and stung every time I tried to blink. My stomach roiled. It felt like I was about to spill it at any time.

There was a cup and wooden jug of water by the bed, a bowl of some soup I couldn't identify. I really wanted a sip of water, but the cup was too far away. The effort to get up and take it didn't seem worth the hassle of getting out of the bed.

While I contemplated what I should do, the door to my bedroom opened. Yamato walked in, holding a bowl. He walked to my bed, removed the old bowl, placed the new one there. Steam billowed out from the container, the smell of veggies and cooked meat reached me.

My stomach protested. I looked away.

"Hinata-san?" Yamato called out.

I didn't answer. If I tried to talk, I'd start screaming again. Probably. And I was too tired to talk, really. I just wanted to sleep. Not that I was feeling sleepy. Yamato stayed for a moment longer, tried to talk a few more times, but in the end, he left me alone. Which I was glad for.

This state of events couldn't keep going. I knew that. I was on a mission, and I didn't want to mess things up so much we had to abandon our orders and return. More than that, I needed to go back inside that lab. Whatever else were Orochimaru's plans for the place, I couldn't let go of the opportunity to learn more about the man's seals. I still had one active seal trying to kill me. It hadn't caused me any problem yet, but I wasn't about to leave a primed bomb inside my body.

Which brought me back to what I had to do. But first, I somehow had to deal with my other self.

In all these years, there was this part of me that reacted to things and I often thought about that part as the original Hinata. I had no idea if that was true, or if it was just a representation of all the things I was suppressing. In the end, it didn't matter right now. That other side of me was in a constant state of panic, which took all my will power to appease. Seeing other cloned me's in that lab freaked the shit out of me.

Worse were the questions it raised. Was I the original Hinata? Was I just another clone?

I didn't think I was a clone of the original. I had memories from even before being kidnapped. There was this gap, between being taken at age of three, and waking up at age of five. But I knew those memories weren't gone, just suppressed. Part of those came again to the front of my mind after Orochimaru's attack in the Forest of Death. Back then, I thought it was a genjutsu, but what if it wasn't? What if being subjected to Orochimaru's killing intent was the trigger that unsuppressed and brought those memories back?

What if that first day when Kakashi-sensei rescued me wasn't when I first woke up in this world?

All of those questions were important, but not urgent. Right now, I had to find peace with myself. I tried to go about it in the most simple way I could.

Did I care if I was a clone? Honestly, I didn't. It didn't change anything for me. I was still myself. If one really thought about it, wasn't the act of conception just an organic way of creating a copy of two other people, mixing their genes? Framed like that, being a vat grown clone wasn't something that bothered me. Everyone was just a copy of two other people. Being a copy of Hinata also wasn't bad. She was, after all, my second favorite female character in the show. I loved her. She only lost to best girl Ino.

Did I care about the clones in the lab? Yes, I did. But mostly, I was sad and angry, frustrated? Not about them being created, but at the loss of life, and the despair of it all. It seemed that, when the complex lost power, the clones drowned inside their container, never even given the chance to live. That, above all else, filled me with so much angst I wanted to kill someone. Someone called Orochimaru. Maybe someone called Kabuto, or Danzo. Those fuckers.

Given this new development, was I going to give up on my ninja life? I remember the Third asking me this when I was five. At the time, I had the option to put all that away and just be a civilian. I don't think it would have worked, not with all that I knew now. Danzo wouldn't have left me alone. The Hyuga clan probably wouldn't either. But more than that, I couldn't see myself living a normal life anymore. No, I wasn't ready to hang my kunai and become a normal girl. I still wanted to do more awesome ninja stuff.

How was I going to solve this problem, then?

I ignored all the world shattering, mind-boggling and trauma inducing revelations and questions. Put away my anger, and resignation, and sadness at the loss of life. I –very reluctantly– shelved my burning need to be a good shinobi and obey my orders. In the end, what did I want right now?

Unburdened by all those thoughts, the answer was simple, and sad.

I just wanted someone to hold me.

With difficulty, I climbed to a sitting position. While I was there, I stretched toward the small table by the bed, took the cup and sipped the water. It hurt going down, but that was fine. I placed the cup down again, settled once more on the bed.

It was ironic that my solution in the end involved clones, when this whole mess also started with clones. My hands flashed, my chakra churned. In front of me, there was another me. Round face, black eyes, black circle under her eyes, face pale and wan.

This time, I didn't change her name. No cute, endearing nicknames today. Today, we faced the truth. "Hinata-chan," I whispered.

My other self nodded. Tears welled in her eyes.

I scuttled closer, pulled her on a tight hug. She placed her arms around me, trembled at the contact, or maybe I shuddered, I wasn't sure anymore. We didn't talk, there was no need to. We went from sitting down to laying on the bed, still clinging to each other. I wasn't sure how to convince myself everything was alright, even if I knew it wasn't. At some point, I started to shower her face with small kisses. Her forehead, eyelids, cheeks, nose, chin. It wasn't the passion-filled kind. I just couldn't think of any other way of saying what I needed to say.

There was this old adage, actions speak louder than words. I just wanted me to understand that I still loved myself.

At some point, not sure when, we fell asleep. I had a nice dream.