A strange new life. [Naruto]

[okashihime]

"Congratulations! You've all passed the second exam." Iruka-sensei said after checking an old fashioned clock. "This calls for celebration, I wish I could take you out for ramen at Ichiraku—"

"Yes!" Naruto hollered, tackled his favorite teacher.

I smiled at the scene. Iruka-sensei went on and on about the Third's message on the wall. Heaven mind, earth body, train your weakness. It was all super interesting, and I made a mental note to research the meaning of that later. I just couldn't right now. I had just woken up a few hours back, but I was tired. With the confirmation the exam was over, adrenaline left me. I hadn't realized how tense I was. But there was one more thing I needed to do. While Iruka chattered about this and that, I collected the discarded Heaven and Earth scrolls. It was prime material for my dreams of flying god and Konoha's Black Flash. With the insights Orochimaru forced on me, I was sure it was only a matter of time until I deciphered the space-time logic.

Team seven passed the second exam, but the five days hadn't ended yet. According to Anko's rules, no one could leave before five days ended. It took us two days to arrive at the tower, which meant we had to wait three days until the test was over. Iruka-sensei led us inside. I glanced at Ino and waved her goodbye. Ino smiled, waved back. I sighed in relief. For a moment there, I thought it hadn't been a nightmare and I kissed Ino.

The place we headed to was some sort of open area. There was no real accommodation, not ones we could use. We've passed the exam, but we were still being tested. There was no food, water, or anything provided for us. We were confined with only the supplies we carried with us. It wasn't really a problem for our team. I had my seals with me, it would last more than three days, but I was curious how the other teams would deal with this situation.

A few teams were already inside the arena. The Suna trio. A team from Ame. A team from Taki. Iruka-sensei waved us goodbye, left after a few more words of wisdom. With nothing else to do, I moved to one of the walls, sat down with my back to it. Better keep an eye on our enemies. Naruto and Sasuke followed. Sasuke winced, hand went to his neck. Yeah, better talk about that soon.

"Hey guys," I said, talking out loud. I spoke when trying to snap Sasuke out of his cursed seal induced psychopathic episode, but I wasn't sure if it would work again. It did, but that same tearing sensation came once more. This time stronger. The taste of blood in my mouth felt stronger as well. My voice was raspy. More of a croak than a real voice. My throat hurt, like it wasn't supposed to make that sound.

Naruto gasped. "Hinata-chan. Your voice!"

I smiled at the brat. Nodded. "Hi Naruto-kun." I had an urge to cough I couldn't suppress. Covered my mouth with my hands. Coughed. The hands came out flecked with blood. Yeah, damn. Back to the board.

Sunshine brat cheered. Hug tackled me. I even saw a few tears in his eyes. I rolled my eyes. Patted his head. Dumb emotional children. I might have stealthily wiped a few tears away as well. Still hugging a crying Naruto, I looked at Sasuke. Took out my board. "Does it still hurt?"

Sasuke looked away, but nodded.

"Hurts when you use chakra?" I pressed. Sasuke didn't answer, but I saw him tensing up. "Be careful, please?" Guess I couldn't call him Emosuke anymore, not when I was seconds away from crying. Didn't even know why I wanted to cry. I blamed Naruto.

After the hug, Naruto got up, left to bug team ten. I saw my opportunity and even with my gut saying I shouldn't, I went for it. I waved Sasuke to follow me, led him away from the others. We stopped near the big statue in the open area.

I sat down, popped out my board. Considered how to broach the topic. "How are you, really?"

Sasuke's stare was more broody and intense than usual. His jaw was clenched, his hands balled into fists. "I would have killed them, if you didn't stop me." He muttered. "I still want to kill them." He looked away, breaking eye contact.

I never considered how Sasuke felt about the whole thing. I still didn't know why he was so obsessed with revenge, even if the boy had mellowed a lot after joining team seven. He was still broody and trying to act cool and distant, but he often bantered with Naruto, and did seem to like the sunshine brat.

My lack of response was some sort of trigger. Sasuke looked at me again. Scowled. "Why do you care?" His voice rose slightly. "I see how you look at me. You think I'm pathetic. You've done it from the first time you saw me when we were five."

I blinked. Sasuke's words slapping me in the face. Was that how I looked at him? I never liked Sasuke, if I was being honest. The reason I didn't was because I never liked his whole theme and style in the original story. The broody obsessed emo character that caused trouble for everyone, but because of plot armor, turned out to be the cool guy and most loved in the whole story. Yeah, I hated that. And I had been treating Sasuke with the same distaste.

Sasuke pressed. His eyes were harsher. "Why? You're just a clanless girl. Why can you be better than me? Why?" His eyes turned red, tomoe spinning. Black creepy tattoo crawled out from his neck, covering the lower part of his face.

I panicked. Didn't know what to do. I needed to snap him out of that mood. I hugged Sasuke. "I'm sorry." I croaked out. Ignored the taste of blood.

For a long while, Sasuke didn't react. I couldn't see his face, but I felt how tense he was, and his trembling. He exhaled and like a scared kid, put his hands around my waist.

I didn't know what to do. I kept Sasuke at bay, because I didn't want to deal with the whole emotional baggage he had. The only thing I could think of was that dealing with Sasuke just became more complicated. And we didn't even got to talk about the issue at hand, the cursed seal. I was a horrible person.

 

[okashihime]

Three days of waiting looked like a lot, but it really wasn't. We took shifts resting. I wasn't sure if the exam had really ended, or it was just another layer of deception. Nor did I want to be defenseless near all the other arriving teams.

In the end, I never talked with Sasuke about the cursed seal. After that embarrassing moment I hugged him, every time I tried to talk with him, it just felt like a mistake. His words kept replaying back on my head. I felt like a horrible person, even more so than usual. Was I friends with Naruto because he was the jinchuriki? Did I have a crush on Ino and Sakura because they were part of the original show? Was I fond of Kakashi-sensei because he was the coolest of Konoha's ninja? Everytime those thoughts haunted me, I pushed them away. I would obsess over that later, now wasn't the time.

I couldn't tell Sasuke about the seal directly. He was emo, not stupid. If I started to talk about the seal like I knew what it was, he would notice things didn't match up. I had no way of explaining how I knew things. And, honestly, I didn't want to delve into the emotional part of the attack in the forest. I didn't want to think about Orochimaru, nor talk about Sasuke's reactions, or remember waking up inside an experiment vat. He and I weren't friends like I was with Naruto. Was I really friends with Naruto? I pushed the thought away.

My considerations about Sasuke aside, it didn't mean we didn't socialize with the other teams during those three days. Ino's team was in a spot of trouble. They brought no food. I was more than happy to repay the favor. I also wanted to talk with Ino. Alone.

It didn't take much to accomplish that. Shikamaru and Choji avoided me like I was out to kill them, even if they still ate my pastries. I led Ino a fair distance away from the others. I sat down, took my bag out. Pulled my reserve seals. Ino looked expectantly at me. I popped a few of my best reserves: lemon pudding, mango mousse, cookies, cupcakes. Much to Ino's delight. I let the girl have her due.

"Ino, tell me what happened?" I wrote. Ino looked up, mouth full of mousse. I giggled. It was adorable. I caught the small tensing of her shoulders. The giggle died.

Ino stopped mid bite. "Are you sure?"

I nodded.

Ino looked away, put the mousse down. "We met team Gai. Tenten warned us about the danger."

What was she talking about? What danger?

Ino placed both hands on her laps, still not looking at me. "I found you protecting an unconscious Sasuke and Naruto. The–" a shudder interrupted her tale, but she soldiered on quickly. "The forest itself was alive, but I think you recognized me." She looked into my eyes, her face wan. "There were body parts scattered all around, the Otogakure team. When I took your hand, you regained your senses, and fell unconscious. We carried your team away from the clearing."

It turns out, it wasn't a nightmare. Ino said nothing about the kiss, for which I was glad. Fan-girl-delirious-chan making decisions that were, to quote Shikamaru, troublesome. But that was the least of my problems. From what Ino told me, the forest reacted with me. I killed three Otogakure shinobi, tore them to shreds, decorated the clearing with their dismembered remains.

Ino didn't know what that meant, or how the wood moved and reacted, but I knew. I should have suspected it. Fucking Orochimaru's experiment. What else aside from his hard on for dojutsu was the man famous for? All the human experimentation and grafting Senju cells into everything he could put his hands on. He really wanted wood release that much. I don't know why I never considered that. Why did I think the creep would only steal my eyes? Of course he did more. And now I had no idea what else he had done. Was it only the Senju cells? What about my eyes? Where did they come from? And that snake pupil?

The clues were all there all along, I just missed them. It didn't happen when I was younger, which might be why I ignored it, but my shoulder and hand healed fast in the Land of Waves mission. Even my cracked shoulder from the fight with Orochimaru didn't hurt anymore, I forgot about it. Wood manipulation and self-healing. Shit shit shit. What else had the snake done to me? Worse, wasn't I a prime candidate for possession? I even had my own bones carved with seals that let Orochimaru disable me whenever he wanted. Fuck fuck fuck. What do I do, what do I do?

A hand touched my shoulder.

I jerked back. Panic flickered a few meters away. Ino looked at me with wide eyes. Her hand extended in front of her. I looked away. I needed to be alone. I bowed deeply. "Thank you Yamanaka Ino. I owe you." I wrote. I fled after that. Panic settled in. I didn't know what to do.

Not that I had the chance to go into full panic mode. I was so out of it that I didn't notice it until arms wrapped around me, holding me tight. Ino's gentle voice sounded just by my ear. "It's over, you're safe."

A whole other type of panic crawled inside my mind. I don't know if I preferred the existential panic or the gay-panic. Shit, I was so screwed.

 

[okashihime]

In my post exam fatigue and general 'this speech from Iruka-sensei is boring', I missed the opportunity to report the forest's events to Iruka-sensei. Worse, there were no proctors inside the waiting area; I wasn't sure if I could leave to search for one. In the end, I decided I would report to Kakashi-sensei first opportunity I got.

I didn't want to leave the tower and risk failing the team. Konoha's jounin must already know Orochimaru was here by now, and if they weren't doing anything yet, a first hand account of the confrontation with the man wouldn't change much. The second part, the one about my thoughts and human experimentation and traitors, that one could wait. At least I hope it could.

Team Gai arrived just a day later. Tenten refused to look at me. Neji glared from afar. Rock Lee actually came over, talked to me, even if it didn't make any sense.

Rock Lee pointed at my face. "My springtime of youth will prevail. I'll defeat you!" After saying that, he bowed and left without giving me the chance to say anything. What a cool weirdo. There was a bit more comedy when team eight arrived.

Rock Lee looked a the newcomers, eyes going wide when he noticed them. He did a guts pose. Tenten facepalmed, sighed exasperated. "Here we go again."

Konoha's green beast walked to the newly arrived team eight. Stopped by the girl with pink hair and red sort-of-qipao.

"Hi, my name is Rock Lee, you are Sakura…" He trailed off for a bit. Sakura looked pretty spooked off. "Would you go out with me? I'll protect you with my life!" The boy winked, and gave Sakura a dazzling smile. I could see from here the sparkling teeth.

I did a small victory dance. Rock Lee was so cool!

"No… way… you're lame." Sakura-chan answered. But was that a light blush on her cheeks? Way to go Konoha's beautiful green wild beast!

On the last day of waiting, Kabuto's team joined the gathering. He looked at us, before looking away. Was that a flicker of annoyance on his face? I would have gone after the fucker in the forest if I had any confidence in killing him. He did try to ingratiate with our team soon after arriving, but his was the last passing team, and soon after they arrived, more people entered the arena, ending any attempt at socializing.

Ninjas flooded into the open area. All the team leaders, proctors and even the old man Hokage. We stood in lines with our teams. All waiting for the old man's wisdom. And wisdom he dispensed. Talked about the shinobi alliance, the purpose of the chunin exams, and the mini war between allied nations concept. On and on the old man went.

The logistics of it all didn't seem to make sense, that was what I always considered about the original story. The original show made it seem that promoting chunin happened only during the exams, and each exam promoted just a few ninja at time. The exam happened only two times a year. The numbers just didn't match. There was no way the hidden villages could keep the necessary number of ninjas by promoting less than ten shinobi per year. It was all bogus talk the old man wanted to push down our throat.

The chunin exam was, at least what I really thought it was, a publicity stunt: 'Here are our youngest and more talented ninja. Let us put them to the grinder to give them a chance to grow and show how our village is strong.' I didn't really remember all the political ramifications, and the story never went into detail about what happened to all other genin promoted out of the academy not put in a four man cell with a jounin. In the end, we were just prized horses to put on a show for an audience.

While I was lost in my own thoughts, a new shinobi interrupted the Third. He looked tired, heavy bags under his eyes, sickly looking skin. Introduced himself as Hayate.

"As Lord Hokage mentioned," Hayate said, "a number of honored guests will observe the battles of the third exam. We must make it intense, tight and fast moving. Anyway, we have to cut down the numbers. Anyone who doesn't feel like fighting now, walk away. Because the preliminaries start now."

Like usual, for the eighth time, Kabuto gave up. He used one lame excuse or another. I don't know how, with this many jounin and even the Hokage here, no one realized how fishy that was. Kabuto was the only one to give up. It still left a large number of participants.

Hayate didn't miss a beat. "Fights are as individuals, not teams, I forgot to mention. Feel free to leave without implicating your team."

There was some commotion, some manipulative parting words from Kabuto, but I doubted it had the desired effect, we hadn't had any contact with the man since the written test. Sasuke's hand pressed against his neck. I looked at him, and the boy looked away, nodded. I remembered the cringe in our conversation, but gave him a thumbs up anyway.

"Well then, let's begin." Hayate called out after a minute of no one else leaving. "We have twenty participants, that's ten bouts. The winners will move on to the third exam." He pointed at an electronic board up in the wall. "The first battle is between Uchiha Sasuke and Akado Yoroi."

"Uchiha Sasuke, Akado Yoroi, you've been selected to compete in the first bout, any objection?" Neither participant opposed.

The rest of the genin moved up to the stands while Sasuke and Yoroi, the other traitor from Kabuto's team, took the stage. The man looked in his twenties. Protector worn like a bandanna, cloth covering the mouth and black eyeglasses. Yeah, not suspicious at all. Kakashi-sensei approached Sasuke, they had a whispered conversation and Sasuke looked gloomy. Was that about the cursed seal?

The battle was a strange one. Sasuke wasn't in top shape. The battle started with the enemy throwing shuriken and delved into what looked more like a street brawl than ninja fight. No jutsu, no flashy movements, just punches, kicks, grapples and dodges.

Traitor Yoroi did something mid-fight however, because the struggling Sasuke struggled even more. Mid grapple, Yoroi's hand latched to Sasuke's head. Then I saw it. Sasuke's chakra dwindled, Yoroi's chakra increased. It reminded me a lot of when my own chakra ate genjutsu. Fuck, I had chakra absorption was well? I really wanted to run away and hide forever now.

Sasuke broke the grapple, kicked Yoroi away. It didn't last much longer than that.

Yoroi dashed in, hand primed for more chakra absorption. But now that Sasuke knew what the enemy was about, he proved to be the stronger and faster ninja. Sasuke's taijutsu was top notch, even if it wasn't as strong as Rock Lee, and if Sasuke hadn't copied the Beautiful Wild Green Beast movements. He attacked relentlessly. Yoroi had no chance and no other tool than his chakra absorption trick. The battle ended with Sasuke knocking the traitor ninja out.

Naruto of course had to give his two scents. "Hey Sasuke, you won but in such an uncool way."

Sasuke actually smirked. "Shut up, you clown."

I was glad both boys were on good terms again.

Kakashi-sensei had flickered to the arena, and after a brief talk, led Sasuke away. I guess now that he had won, Kakashi could finally deal with the cursed seal. I don't know why Anko added such a dumb rule to the exam.

The next battle was Shino against one of the Amegakure shinobi. The battle wasn't even interesting. The Ame ninja hadn't seen the bugs, and fainted after having his chakra sucked out of him. Yeah, Shino was one of those I really wouldn't want to fight against. No sir, thank you sir. Unless explosions were involved.

Third match was Kankuro against yet another traitor from team Kabuto. The traitor was one of those who could modify their body. Soon after the battle started, he dashed in, wrapped himself around Kankuro. Shame for him though, it wasn't Kankuro he wrapped himself around, but the doll. Kankuro had hidden himself as the big wrapped thing 'Kankuro' carried all around on his back. The proctor called the match soon after.

Kakashi returned soon after. "Sasuke is sleeping in the medical bay, you don't need to worry about him anymore." I noticed he seemed even more distant now, or distracted. Was that because of Orochimaru? I guess I was about to make his day even worse then. I leaned against the railing, pretending I was looking into the arena. My fingers tapped a soundless message. Report, intel, enemy, strong, important.

Fan-girl me squirmed a bit, even after all this time, secret communication and coded messages triggered her super hard. I had to hold in the smile, the grin, the happy dance. Kakashi-sensei patted my head, like I was an excitable little kid. The movement of his hand was another message. Understood.

Fourth match was Ino versus Sakura. I won't lie here. I was hoping Ino won.

The battle was a mess. Almost like a cat-fight. None of the girls used any jutsu; they just ducked it out like street thugs. At some point, Ino tried her mind control jutsu. She managed to even start the surrender, but loudmouth Kiba and Naruto yelling at Sakura to not surrender somehow helped the pink haired kunoichi to break the technique. It ended with both girls punching themselves unconscious. Much to my displeasure.

But the fight hadn't been angry, for lack of better words. I saw Sakura smiling, even Ino too. Would they become friends again? I sure hope so. Emosuke didn't deserve any of them.

Fifth bout was Tenten versus Temari. It was almost a massacre. Temari shut down Tenten hard. Temari ended the fight without suffering a single wound. Scary.

Sixth fight was Shikamaru versus another Ame shinobi. It wasn't exciting. Without knowing about the shadow jutsu, the kunoichi walked right into his trap and Shikamaru ended the fight by forcing the woman to bang her own head against the walls. It was cool-ish, but not exciting to watch.

Seventh fight was Loudmouth Kiba versus Loudmouth Naruto.

 

[okashihime]

Naruto and Kiba's fight wasn't bad. Kiba was a good fighter, and it was clear he had trained a lot. Unfortunately for him, so had Naruto.

Kiba did get Naruto at times with beast mode, transformation, and twin clones with Akamaru. But he never stood a chance. Naruto wouldn't stay down, and was better at combination attacks than Kiba. Naruto was also better at transformation, managing to fool Kiba even with the other's enhanced sense of smell. I did notice Naruto having trouble with his usual techniques, which was probably because of his messed up seal, but even so it wasn't enough to stop him.

In the end, Naruto had more stamina, had trained harder, and was used to fighting stronger and faster opponents. He used one of his many clone combinations to finish the battle. I cheered. He was becoming cool-ish. Still a brat though. Other shinobi present seemed to appreciate the effort. When Naruto came over, I even gave him a hug.

"Good job Naruto-kun. You really improved." Kakashi-sensei praised, much to Naruto's delight.

The electronic panel lit up again. Out popped two names: Hinata versus Hyuga Neji.

Eighth match was fate all over again. Fate or manipulation. I was sure some of the Hyuga higher up pulled strings to have Neji fight me. And I was sure the Hokage allowed it. Not that I cared or minded, even if I sounded petulant about it.

I high-fived Naruto, nodded to all other shinobi in my path, walked down to the arena where Neji already waited for me. I bowed to the proctor. Debated if he should receive my good impression package. After the fight, I decided.

From across the arena, Neji glared at me. I waved at him. He scowled. What was his problem?

"It's not personal." Neji said, although his glare said otherwise. It reminded me, just a bit, of how Orochimaru looked at us in the forest.

"Are you ready?" Hayate asked. I nodded. Took my stance. Neji did the same. He activated his byakugan, took the gentle fist stance: left palm open and in front of the body, right palm open and pointed down. Left feet in the same line as the left palm, body slightly to the side. His right leg was bandaged up, spots of blood on the fabric. Neji favored that side as well. It was a shame, I wanted to fight him at his best. Didn't want anyone saying I won because he was injured.

I took a few kunai. Some with exploding tags, others without, and one very special kunai. One I was sure Neji's byakugan would see. I didn't know if he would understand what it meant.

A small part of me – the almost forgotten part that was the original Hinata – was really afraid of fighting Neji. The gentle fist was dangerous and deadly. How do you fight someone who excels in taijutsu and will absolutely destroy you if you get close? The answer was simple, at least for me. Speed, speed and more speed. I was serious when I said I wanted to kick butts and take names. It was past time I started on the whole Black Flash thing. I didn't want to just defeat Neji. I wanted to make sure he understood he never stood a chance, hence the special kunai. It was a gamble for sure, but one that wasn't that risky, while the payoff could be immense.

"Start!" Hayato called out.

Unlike every overconfident person out there, Neji didn't dash in to attack at the start of the battle, even more with his injured leg. That wasn't how he did things. His gentle fist excelled at reacting to attacks, more than being the aggressor himself. Or at least this was how I thought he fought.

"You don't have that fuinjutsu seal to protect you here," Neji called out, white eyes staring into my soul, "you have no chance."

Fuinjutsu? That was what he thought it was? Good for me. It was time to start and to end this.

I threw my kunais. As expected, Neji reacted to the special one, more than the exploding ones. He didn't let it near him, he threw a shuriken and deflected the kunai far away from him. The weapon hit a wall and got stuck there. The remaining thrown weapons he dodged or avoided, the explosions not even bothering the strongest genin.

With Dreams of Black Flash in my mind, I pumped my body full of chakra. I had already disabled all my seals before even moving down to the arena. I moved. What does the ability to see all around him matter if Neji couldn't react in time? What did it matter that he could see meridians, block my chakra, if he couldn't match me in speed?

I was at his side. Neji's eyes were wide. He had started to turn when I hit him. And I hit him hard. Felt the bones in my hand creak. Even through the attack, Neji's hand lashed out, his chakra burning on his fingers, ready to disable my channels. Damn scary good reflexes. I flickered behind him. Roundhouse-kicked Neji away. He didn't react in time. I flickered above Neji, drop kicked him onto the ground. The boy hit the arena's floor, bounced up, coughed blood. I flickered to his side, kicked Neji higher. I flickered above him, smashed Neji onto the ground again.

On and on I went until someone grabbed me. I had my leg up, about to stomp Neji's head into the floor.

Hayate had his fingers pointed at my forehead. Kakashi held my leg. Gai had his arm around my neck. Even Kurenai was there, holding my arm.

"It's over, you won." Kakashi-sensei said. "Any more and you'll kill him." His stare was calm, not judgmental. I guess they really were bound to protect the precious Hyuga offspring. Politics. Bah.

I nodded. Kakashi released me, so did the others. I took my foot away. Bowed. Croaked out. "Thank you for stopping me sensei." My throat hurt, and I felt blood pooling in my mouth. Speaking was still a no go. I got a few raised eyebrows for that. A group of medic-nin hurried inside the arena. They checked Neji, rushed him away.

Time for the finale.

Clone-chan, who had just plummeted Neji half to death, unpopped herself. I, who had disguised myself as the special kunai, still stuck to the wall, released the transformation.

That caused a commotion alright. You see, I knew the byakugan could see chakra, but could it identify a shadow clone? From what I knew, no dojutsu out there could tell a shadow clone from the real thing. What about if I pretended to be a kunai? Could Neji tell the difference? I did transform before arriving at the arena. I was sure Neji would figure it out if I tried the transformation in front of him. But if I did outside his view? It would be just a kunai full of chakra. One he singled out at the start of the battle, deflected, and made sure it was out of the way. The original idea to do this wasn't really mine, but something I read so long ago. It got stuck in my mind for some reason.

I walked to the jounins that stopped me. Their stare was a bit intimidating. Time to salvage things. I popped my good impression kit to everyone. "Thank you for preventing me from committing a mistake." I wrote. I bowed again. Kakashi-sensei chuckled. Kurenai took my pastries with a smile. Hayate didn't seem to care one way or another. Gai looked at me like I had grown a third head. I turned around and fled.

I hadn't expected clone-chan to lose her cool like that during the fight. I wanted to defeat Neji, not kill him, maybe. I knew my clones tended to behave like they didn't need to care for the consequences, but even so. Dangerous. I might need to think more carefully next time I decide to use a clone like that.

I jogged toward Naruto enduring the stares. I ignored it all. I stopped in front of a smiling sunshine brat. Took a pose. Did a V for victory. "Easy!" I hoarsely yelled, to more blood inside my mouth. It made people look at me even funnier, but I was past caring about that. I didn't even mind the hug Naruto gave me.

 

[okashihime]

"Yosha!" Rock Lee pumped his fist again. Excitement bubbled inside him after watching Sasuke's fight. There were no two ways about it. He was the strongest genin in Konoha, even without ninjutsu or genjutsu. He would win this preliminaries, prove to Sakura-chan how strong he was, and ask her out again. The exuberance of youth would prevail!

Rock Lee looked around. Nearby, Gai-sensei and Kakashi-san watched the fights, commenting here and there. Rock Lee's eyes found Hinata. The girl leaned against the railing, a massive smile on her face, bobbing like a kid. Even more after Kakashi-san patted her head. A trickle of fear bubbled in his gut, but Rock Lee squashed it. He hoped to fight her in the preliminaries; Neji said it was a talisman seal she used, but Lee wasn't so sure.

---

Kurenai carried an unconscious Sakura back to the stands. A gentle smile on her face. She was proud of the girl. She had grown splendidly. Kurenai was sure Sakura could have won the match had she decided to use the new jutsu she learned over the last few months, but she also knew it was a matter of pride and friendship. Not just once, they talked about her crush on the Uchiha boy, which Sakura seemed to be growing out of, and her fight with Ino over that same crush, even if the girl was too proud to admit it.

Sakura's not being able to reach the finals was something she had expected. Kurenai entered her team because they needed the experience. Maybe sooner than predicted if international tensions kept escalating.

Kurenai was satisfied with the current results. Kiba was the only one from her squad still left to fight. He had a good chance of reaching the finals with Shino.

---

Gai shook his head, already ready to interfere with Tenten's match. It was a shame the pairing was so unfortunate. Any other, and Tenten probably would have a better chance, but the Suna girl countered Tenten at every step. He carried his pupil to the hospital and returned to the arena after settling her there. Just in time to see Naruto defeat Kiba.

He glanced at his rival. Naruto had trouble with chakra control, which was evident to anyone who knew how to look, but the jinchuriki host trained hard. Had his rival stopped being trendy and decided to train his squad properly? His thoughts were interrupted by Neji jumping down to the arena.

Gai glanced back at the higher stands where the Hokage observed the fights. He disagreed with this ploy. Neji was mum about the situation, but the Hyuga clan said something about Hinata that sparked a fury Gai never saw in his pupil before. Gai tried to appease Neji but couldn't discuss the girl's situation by the orders from the council. His hands were tied more than one way. Gai decided that if Neji went too far, he would intervene. To hell with any political backlash. If the Hyuga disagreed, they could complain to his face.

---

Neji glared at the impostor, the monster, the usurper. The thing that took Hinata's place. Every time he closed his eyes, he remembered his unc—father recounting the events and the implications. But it ended here. Neji couldn't do it in the forest; that formation prevented it, but here? There was no one to stop him. The Hokage wouldn't interfere, not again. And Neji would prove, once and for all, that he was the heir.

The thing on the other side of the arena waved. Neji scowled. Said whatever to distract it.

"Start!" The proctor called out.

Neji didn't rush in to attack. If the thing had one of those talismans to defend it in the forest, it might also have another here. Better make it come to him instead. "You don't have that fuinjutsu seal to protect you here," Neji taunted, focused on the thing's every movement, "you have no chance."

The impostor started with thrown weapons. One of those could be a problem. Neji had no idea what type of attack that was, but the amount of chakra inside that kunai was borderline madness. He deflected it away. It was safer that way. The rest was just child's play. It showed how untrained the girl was.

Then, the monster disappeared.

Neji's eyes widened. The thing appeared by his side, a punch already approaching his head. Neji didn't have time to dodge; he lashed out, aiming for a trade to hit the thing's meridians. He could take one blow. He would win in the end, like always.

Stars exploded in his head. White dominated all his vision. Neji couldn't breathe, couldn't move, couldn't think. He gasped, pulling in a much-needed breath, and tried to move. A soft voice and a gentle hand held him down.

"It's over. You are in the hospital, and you're safe."

Neji heard Gai-sensei's voice, but still, it made no sense. What happened? His body hurt; he couldn't open his eyes, move his arms, or move his legs.

---

Gaara, from the place where he fell after the attack, looked at the boy dressed in green across from him in the arena. Mother screamed in his head. She wanted blood. Gaara obliged. He wanted to kill them all. His fist closed in, and even through his jutsu, he felt the bones break and shatter. The agonized screaming joined with the joyful screams in his head. Yes, he would feed everyone's blood to mother.

Soon.

 

[okashihime]

The fight after mine was Gaara of the Desert versus Rock Lee.

I was very conflicted about this one. It was one of those moments in the original story that stayed with me for a long time. I never forgot this fight, it was still clear in my mind even after all those years. I wanted to kick Gai sensei in the nuts for giving a impressionable boy a suicide jutsu, but would I have done anything different?

I couldn't say. Probably not.

With bated breath, I watched a hardworking boy fight against a monster. The fight went about the same as I remembered. After an initial probing, Rock Lee removed the weighted ankle bands, dropped them from atop the statue. The whole tower shook. Wind billowed.

I cheered, couldn't help it. I based my weight seals on Rock Lee's after all.

That was followed by Rock Lee's taijutsu onslaught, the Lotus, the Gates. And the realization that even with that, it wasn't enough. Rock Lee's arm and leg got crushed by sand. Gai-sensei finally interfered with the fight to save his pupil.

It was touching, the fight had been awesome. I was sure I would also copy a few of Rock Lee's attacks just because they were that cool. Not long after, the whole arena went silent at the medic-nin declaration regarding Rock Lee's health. I didn't react like the others to the notice that he might not ever be able to fight again. I knew Tsunade could heal him. And I made a promise that if fate disagreed on that one point, I'd hunt down Tsunade myself. Couldn't let the third coolest shinobi in Konoha down.

I did feel bad for copying Rock Lee, basing my own improvement on traits that defined Rock Lee in the original story, but just a bit. Rock Lee was cool.

Last match was Choji versus the last Ame shinobi. The match didn't last long. Choji turned into a big ball, and ran all over the place. Amen-nin had no counter to that. It didn't take long until Choji managed to crash against a wall with said shinobi between him and the wall. After being declared the winner, Choji was the one most surprised for actually winning his fight.

After all the cheering and celebration, eight of us stood in front of the old man again.

Hayate took the stage once more. "Congratulations to those of you who won and are qualified to participate in the third phase of the exam. Although one of you isn't here." Hayate nodded, then turned to the Third Hokage. "Lord Hokage, they are all yours."

Like always, Hiruzen took the chance to wax philosophy and politics at a bunch of children that had no maturity to understand half of the concepts he went on about. He couldn't even make his speech interesting, his droning cadence the worst offender to all the impatient around. The details, however, were the same. One month break to give the important people time to arrive. During this time we could train, prepare, gather information and do all those important ninja stuff.

We finished by drawing lots for the tournament phase of the competition. I firmly believe the results were a set up. With how people from the same team were arranged to fight each other, be it in the first, or second round. I would fight the first match of the tournament. My opponent was Naruto. Sasuke would fight Gaara, Kankuro against Shino. Temari was an off seed and would fight the winner of Shikamaru versus Choji.

There were more questions asked, and explanations given. But nothing that stood out to me. In the end, we were show horses, and the Hokage urged us to put on a good show. I got it, old man. Formalities done, I grouped up with Naruto. He seemed a little sad to have to fight me in the first battle.

I gave him a one arm hug. Since when did I become so touchy-feely? "Win or lose doesn't matter," I croaked, despite the pain and tearing in my throat. I was starting to like this new voice. If I managed to lower the pitch just a bit, it would be sexy-husky instead of creepy-croaky. "We give our best, fight until we are satisfied."

That cheered him up right away. "You bet!" Naruto hollered. "I'm gonna give it my all!" Naruto went to annoy someone else after his declaration. Probably Kiba, or Sakura. I wasn't sure.

"Hinata-chan." Sensei flickered by my side, watching with me Naruto running off. "Shall we go?"

I nodded. I followed sensei inside the tower, away from the commotion. We passed doors, climbed stairs, turned corridors. Not sure exactly where we were going, but at some point, Kakashi-sensei just opened one of the many doors. There was no marking or anything. I didn't see what criteria he used to choose this one in particular.

The room we entered was a simple looking waiting room thing. There were cabinets near the walls, a few shelves, two sofas facing each other and a low table in the middle. The room had no windows.

Kakashi closed the door, slapped a seal on the walls. Gestured me to sit down. Commanded after I did. "Genin 12612, Hinata. After action report."

I squirmed, couldn't really help it. The man was doing it on purpose, there was no other explanation. Giddy-fangirl-chan took over. I let her, it was a lost cause.

I saluted. My threads wrote in my stead. "During the second phase of the chunin examination, team seven encountered an abnormal situation." I tried my best to stay serious and not behave as excited as I felt. "We were chased by a strong shinobi, hidden under the guise of a Kusagakure shinobi." I described Orochimaru's disguised appearance. "I tried to take out the enemy by using explosions, which was unsuccessful, and proved to be the wrong choice. The blast was stronger than anticipated, it affected us more than the enemy and separated our group."

Kakashi-sensei nodded. The man even had a notepad to take notes. Definitively on purpose.

"Enemy never fought us seriously. Summoned giant snakes to toy with us. Once we started getting a real edge against a giant snake, the enemy acted. Disable Naruto by applying an unknown seal to Naruto's stomach." Kakashi sensei blinked. The reaction was so small that if I wasn't paying attention I would have missed it. Nice, he didn't know everything. "Sasuke managed to burn the enemy's face. It was a mask of some sorts. After that, the man introduced himself as Orochimaru. Made a recruitment pitch to Sasuke, applied a seal to Sasuke by biting his neck. Took away my ability to move with a look." I took a deep breath. "Under the disguise, the one eye revealed was white on white. Byakugan white."

I saw Kakashi freeze, just for a moment. Huh, he also didn't know that.

"Orochimaru tried to recruit me as well. Told me the village was keeping me in the dark. That the Third couldn't help with the seals, only he could. After that, Orochimaru put me in some sort of genjutsu to 'prove I'm worthy', his own words." Had I forgotten anything? No, the other bits Kakashi could infer by himself, I was pretty sure. Now the part that freaked me out.

"I was insensate for an unknown period of time. I have only vague impressions of fighting a battle while under pain, agony, and a timer to solve the fuinjutsu before it killed me. When I came back, we had been relocated by team ten. Sasuke was acting strange and fighting an Amegakure team by himself. He was stronger than before the fight by a huge margin. Tattoo marks covered most of his left arm and face."

I stopped. Did I really want to write this next part? I knew Orochimaru was a lying fucker, and no way I had any intention to deflect to Otogakure to be his pet experiment and possible body replacement. In the end, it was a moot concern. I don't think the events would be secret for long, not with team ten and team Gai reports.

"Is that all?" Sensei asked. I shook my head.

"The genjutsu led me to discover seals inside my body. I cracked the one on my throat that prevented me from speaking. I managed to suspend the one in my bones that is trying to kill me. Ino recounted the story of how team ten found us. According to her, the forest itself reacted like it was a part of me. I also noticed I heal fast. I injured my shoulder during the fight with Orochimaru. I didn't even remember the injury when I woke up."

Kakashi took fake notes, nodded for me to continue.

"During the exam, a Konoha's shinobi by the name of Kabuto has tried to ingratiate himself to our team at every possible opportunity." I would have never thought about this if I didn't know Kabuto was a traitor. "Said shinobi claimed to have participated in the exam seven times. He had a comprehensive collection of information from all participant ninjas, Konoha's or otherwise. During an altercation at the first exam with the Otogakure team, Kabuto behaved like he received a glancing blow from the Oto-nin, but he has more chakra than most jounin, Kakashi-sensei included. I didn't have the opportunity to learn more about it."

Kakashi had an intent look on his face. Time to finish this.

"Sunagakure shinobi Gaara of the Desert has amounts of chakra comparable to Naruto." I didn't think Gaara being the host of the one tail was a secret, or maybe it was. I'd drop that one on Kakashi and let him deal with the fallout.

Kakashi-sensei nodded. "Thank you for your report."

I knew it was a mistake, but couldn't help it. I blurted out. "Is it true?" A trickle of blood fell from my lips. I really needed to stop speaking.

Sensei put away his notebook, the one he'd been pretending to write his report on just to feed fan-girl-chan. He understood the question, even without context. "As you surmised, there are a number of seals inside your body: Bones, eyes, heart, throat."

What? Heart? Eyes? Shit, shit, shit. My attention snapped back to sensei.

"Some among the council argued it was too risky to leave you alone, that you are an Orochimaru sleeper agent." Ah, well, that explained things, didn't it? "Your dreams about being Orochimaru didn't help either." Oof, shoot myself on the foot there. "The Third believes you are just an innocent girl caught in an unfortunate incident. He's the reason no one ever bothered you."

That just did it, didn't it? For all my annoyance with the old man, I never doubted he was a nice old grandpa. Too soft to be Konoha's leader, but the best grandpa out there. Now I had to prevent his death. No two ways about it.

I wrote to sensei, using my own hands. "And what do you think?"

Kakashi fixed his eyes on me, answered immediately. His eyes turned into a crescent. "I know you love Konoha and would never do anything against it." The smile faded from his face. "But that option might be forcefully taken away from you."

Bless the man, he didn't put me down. I might have tackle-hugged him and opened the floodgates. You can't blame me. It felt good to know Kakashi didn't think I was evil.

 

[okashihime]

Kakashi-sensei let me have my emotional breakdown without comment. I just broke a lot of shinobi rules, but who cared? I didn't, really. Not long after, we left the room. Kakashi-sensei waved me goodbye, flickered away. He probably had to report stuff, and I had lots on my mind. With the second phase of the chunin exam done, it was time to prepare for crushcrushcrush. Don't judge me, celeb crush Hayley haunted me enough already.

I was in a bit of a pinch. Kakashi would help Sasuke, I was sure of that, even if I wasn't sure to what extent, now that most of Sasuke's family was still alive. Naruto would end up with Jiraiya. Who could I ask to train me? One particular shinobi came to mind. It would help with my dreams of Black Flash. I guess it costs nothing to ask.

I meandered my way through the tower in search of my target. I had an idea where I would find the man. His three students had been beaten pretty badly, and given the man's exuberance, I was sure he would be with them. I didn't actually know where the infirmary was in the tower, but a small bit of questioning later – because I also had a teammate there – landed me with directions to follow, only they weren't here in the tower, but taken back to Konoha's hospital. That made sense, not sure why I thought they would still be here.

Leaving the forest was a strange affair. There was a transport system set up that let people come and go, only it wasn't used for the contestants. It didn't take long until I was back in Konoha proper. Since I was going to visit people at the hospital, I needed to prepare stuff. Fresh fruits and flowers and all that jazz.

At the hospital reception desk, I confirmed the rooms my targets were in. First I went to visit Sasuke. I knocked on the door.

"Come in."

I didn't recognize the voice, or the two chakra bundles aside from Sasuke's inside. I steeled myself, walked inside. Sasuke was out cold, but didn't seem to be in any danger. I guess whatever Kakashi-sensei did to contain the cursed seal took a lot out of Sasuke. Sat by his bed, was a beautiful fair-skinned woman with long, straight black hair and bangs hanging on either side of her face to roughly frame her cheeks and black eyes. She wore a simple dark purple blouse with a red-plum skirt, and looked nothing more than a mother and housewife, but I wasn't fooled.

By the bed's side was another person. I won't lie here. My heart raced and I had to suppress my trembling. He was a tall man of fair complexion. Had black eyes, under which were long, pronounced tear-troughs. Jet-black hair pulled back in a low ponytail and center-parted bangs that extended to his chin, framed his face. He wore the traditional Uchiha attire. Dark Blue with the symbol on the back. Itachi nodded at me. Black eyes following my every movement.

How much did he know? Was he still part of ANBU? After his father died, Itachi became the clan leader, but that was the last I heard about him.

I bowed to both. Popped out my board. "Hello. I'm Hinata, Sasuke's teammate."

The reaction wasn't what I expected. The woman chuckled, Itachi just shook his head, smiling.

"Hello Hinata-san, I'm Uchiha Itachi, and this is my mother Mikoto."

Mikoto nodded, still smiling. I handed her the fruit basket.

Mikoto took it with grace. "Thank you Hinata-chan for the fruits, and thank you for looking after Sasuke. He speaks often about you."

I tilted my head, not sure what was happening. They were talking like they knew me.

Itachi actually rolled his eyes, a fond smile on his face. "Itachi-nii, Itachi-nii," he said, in a clear imitation of a child's voice. "Hinata scored higher than me on tactics again! Can you help me read the war scrolls?"

Mikoto chuckled but also added her piece. "Okaachan!" she said, and while her voice was still her own, it was clear she was paraphrasing a kid, given her inflection and way of speaking. "Can we study the village story again? I need to score higher than Hinata in this next exam!"

I blushed. I felt my neck, face and ears burn. Oh god, why? Woodenly, I wrote on my board. "I didn't know."

Mikoto nodded, looked back at the sleeping Sasuke. "He can be a handful, and I'm not surprised he doesn't show it, but I think he likes you."

The world ground to a halt. No, she didn't say that. No way. I just couldn't deal with this right now. I bowed again. It was the hardest thing I've ever done. Wrote some parting words, fled as soon as I could, to chuckles from both shinobi inside the room.

What the hell. What was that? I refused to believe it. No way. I paced, lost in my head. After a while, I managed to push that out of my mind. No, those two were just messing with me. Delete, delete, delete all those memories. Better that way.

There was nothing much to do after I calmed down and managed to somewhat sort my thoughts. I wasn't here to be dragged in drama over the playboy. No, I refused.

I went to Rock Lee's room after. Which was near Neji's room. Yeah, that would be embarrassing. I knocked. Waited for a moment until the gentle 'come in' sounded from inside, the voice was one I didn't recognize. I opened the door, stepped in.

Tenten had recovered enough to be walking about. Bandaged and a bit banged up, but already better. Rock Lee was out cold. Gai sensei was there as well, like I thought he would. Tenten glared at me, then looked away.

I bowed. "Hello," I wrote.

"What do you want?" Tenten demanded. Glare at full force.

I didn't have any reason to lie. Even if I didn't tell the whole truth. I handed the flowers I bought to Tenten, she was tense, but took it. I placed one of the fresh fruit baskets by the bed. Finally I handed the last one to Gai. The look he gave me told me it had been a good idea not to visit Neji.

"I wanted to see how Rock Lee was." I admitted.

"What is it to you?" Tenten demanded. "You don't even know him!"

I stopped. That was fair. I knew of Rock Lee, not the boy himself. I gushed about him being third coolest, but I never actually talked to him. I nodded. "You're right." I admitted. "I'm sorry." I wrote soon after. I turned and left under Tenten's glare. I still hadn't done what I came here to do. I sat down in the corridor and settled in to wait. I didn't mind giving them time if needed.

It didn't take long. Gai sensei left the room a few minutes after. I got up, the man motioned me to follow.

He led me up a flight of stairs to an open terrace or roof. It was a pretty view of the village, with a premium vista of the Hokage mountain. By one of the corners, I saw two familiar shapes. It was some sort of water tank. But try as I might, I couldn't recall why they seemed familiar.

Gai was the first to break the silence. "You were looking for me." It wasn't a question.

I knew exuberance was the name of the game. I didn't hold back. I raised my hand. Raised my board as high as my arms would let me. "Gai-sensei, please help me train for the third phase of the chunin exam!"

Gai stare was cold, unmoved. "You humiliate my student, beat him to an inch of death, and now you want me to train you?"

I didn't hold back nor did I back down. I also wasn't against throwing some truths around. With more time to think, Neji was up to no good when trying to fight me. I remembered his glare. In my mind, it somehow overlapped with Orochimaru's. I suppressed a shudder. "Yes sensei!" I wrote. "He would have done worse to me had I not been stronger! I had to make sure he understood I was not to be messed with!"

Gai stared at me for a long while. I expected him to pose and yell and be the boisterous self I knew from the story. The man in front of me didn't look like that. "Why not Kakashi?"

"Kakashi will have his hands full with Sasuke and Naruto, and what I want and need is speed and taijutsu. There's no one better to train with than you in that regard."

For a moment, I considered if it had been wise to seek out the man. I was acutely aware now that I didn't know him. I was just going by half remembered stories from my past life. Acting like I knew everything.

"No." Gai-sensei said finally. His tone left no room to argue.

It was again, another slap to the face. Once more, I took my knowledge from the show and other stories as gospel. In my mind, Gai was supposed to be boisterous: to pose, to yell his youth mantra, gladly take me under his wing. Almost all the things I remember from the second coolest ninja was that he always wanted to make people train more, train harder.

I bowed. Wrote after. "Thank you for hearing me out sensei!" I turned, left the Gai to his contemplations. I didn't look back. My dreams of Black Flash took a hit, but it meant I'd just need to do it myself. I had one month to train and prepare before the invasion. I didn't think it was enough, but I would try my best. It was time to change the world once again.

 

[okashihime]

I didn't wait until the next day to start my training and preparations. I hadn't missed the between-the-lines talk about the council of elders being against me. I was pretty sure Danzo had wanted me for his house of horrors and that I was alive and safe and unmolested because the Third had gone soft. It also explained an old question I had - who tried to kidnap me for the second time? And who else other than the damn traitor Shimura fucking Danzo?

First thing I did was, surprise surprise, create a training schedule. Mornings were divided into two exercise periods: Physical and taijutsu. Afternoon another two different training focuses: Control and jutsu. Evening reserved for fuinjutsu research: I had to break the time-space code, I couldn't see any other way of interfering with that roof fight without it. Not to mention the seals inside my body.

Done with that, I slapped myself because I was being dumb, I forgot about the clone cheat. The schedule stayed, but instead of dividing days into periods, each clone would take one task to perform. I expanded on my training program, adding more sessions and more comprehensive exercises to shore up other points I gimped because I thought I would have only a few hours per day.

When I finished, I wanted to cry just a bit. I just condemned myself to grueling physical boot camp training hell while my clones worked on the fun stuff. But such was life.

I started immediately. My weight seals needed to be finished. I couldn't create a new one every time I needed to up the intensity. It would take too much of my already limited time, and limit my training. I had an idea about what I missed with the whole design. With the new revelation of the will component, it wasn't even difficult, even if it took hours, and three failed attempts.

The new seals… didn't look great. The increased complexity demanded more space. I didn't have time to refine the logic behind how it should work, because of that, I had to increase the surface area. It wasn't bad, It just looked like leather bracers and a collar, moreso with all the squiggly lines that looked like decoration and stuff.

I guess the time had finally arrived. I was twelve, I already lived alone, I already dressed in all black: Goth phase was upon me.

I wasn't entirely satisfied with the result, but redesigning to improve the presentation was pushed to after I wasn't crushed for time. I put the collar and bracelets on, adjusted the weights, then went to sleep. Tomorrow I might add black lipstick and mascara as well, just to cement the goth looks.

---

The first days of a new training routine were always the worst. Morning started with running around. Normally running wasn't difficult, but I had raised the weight of the seals. I could barely drag myself. Every step was torture, even keeping my body upright took effort. I saw old grandmas moving faster than me. But I could move, even if I had to pump my body full of chakra from time to time to keep up with the whole routine.

Finished with the morning warm up, it was physical exercise for explosive strength, speed and reflexes. I didn't want to bulk up, even if I didn't think I would. No ninja ever did unless they wanted it. Was there some sort of subconscious low-key chakra body manipulation to all of this? An interesting thing to consider. Not now, but later.

The day dragged on.

Done with muscle conditioning, I sat to meditate on my taijutsu. Not those cultivation nerd time kind of meditations, even if I used the down period to circulate my chakra. What I really did was compare all of the fights I saw during the second phase of the exam, including Rock Lee's fight, and place myself in their shoes. How would I react? Would my reaction work? Could I win with my style alone? What did I need to change? Then, after that, it was acclimatization to the new standards I decided.

I even did some shadowboxing. I wasn't sure if it really worked, but who was I to doubt the wisdom of generations?

Afternoon was technical skills. I went back to the basics. I don't know where I heard it, but there was a saying that if you want to master something, go back to the basics or something like that. Or a building can't stand on a bad foundation. I don't know. Anyway, I went back to the basics of Konoha's martial style and Hyuga gentle fist. If I perfected and mastered the basics, everything else would also get better, right?

Evenings I did more muscle conditioning and endurance training, with a spot at the end of the day for relaxation. Which meant a hot bath and chakra circulation. The hot water soothing my whole aching body felt divine, even more with the chakra. I can see how someone could get addicted to this kind of routine. The only bad part was when I unpopped my clones at the end of the night. The combined exertion and information dump from the clones was enough to take me out the first night. I learned from that mistake. After that first night, I waited until I was already in bed and ready to sleep to unpop the clones. Win-win?

My new routine didn't leave much time for myself. No visiting Secretary-chan, no gossiping with Sakura, no eating sweets with pretty Ino. I could endure it, it was only one month.

But as the old adage said, plans and enemies. Even if it wasn't an enemy that derailed my plans, but Kakashi-sensei. It was the third day of my new routine. I just finished my taijutsu meditation and shambled up, feet and arms dragging with the weight of the seals. I had taken my stance when I noticed the approaching chakra.

One was familiar. After so many months, I could point out Kakashi-sensei's chakra among a crowd if necessary. The other one was unfamiliar. It even had a unique texture. Like the smell or taste of wood, no idea why.

I turned around, let my arms fall. Too heavy to keep them up if I wasn't using them. Sweat coated my whole body, and I was haggard, tired and grumpy. Kakashi-sensei walked into the training field with another ninja I had never seen before. Just a few centimeters shorter than sensei, but the man was leaner. He wore a helmet-like forehead protector that covered his cheeks, and the under-suit went up to the middle of his chin. The man's irises were huge and totally black. I couldn't even see where the iris ended and the pupil started.

"My, you're training hard." Kakashi gave me one of his eye crescent smiles. "And adopted a new fashion sense." I just grunted. It was just the third day of training, but I was tired beyond compare. I didn't have the energy to be annoyed or fangirl over stuff.

"I've been busy helping Sasuke train." Kakashi started. I just looked on. "So I made sure to find an excellent teacher for you." Kakashi gestured to the shinobi by his side. "This is Yamato."

Yamato gave me a small wave.

Oh, I recognized the man now. One of Orochimaru's surviving experiments. I should have recognized those eyes. I grunted again. Nodded. "Hello," managed to croak out.

The three of us exchanged stares. I had no idea what to do. This was awkward.

"I'll leave you to it." Kakashi-sensei promptly deflected, fled the social interaction. Still cool. I just didn't have the energy to fan-girl over it.

I looked at Yamato who didn't seem to know what to do as well. I shrugged. Wouldn't stop my training just because of a slight deviation to the plans. I bowed, and wrote with much difficulty. "Hello Yamato-sensei, Jutsu-chan will be here in a moment, please wait just a bit." Things explained, I turned back, assumed my stance, went back to my training. Crushcrushcrush was less than a month away, and time and training waited for no one.

 

[okashihime]

Yamato had just arrived from his three week mission outside the village, when his old friend Kakashi ambushed him. The village had assigned him another mission already. He followed Kakashi to their usual haunt, nodding at the waitress on their way in. Like usual, Kakashi requested a private room, but it wasn't needed. The bar was empty at this time of the day.

Kakashi handed over a stack of papers. "Here."

Yamato took the mission information first. Still sealed. He opened it and read the report in full.

His hands didn't tremble, Yamato was too trained for that, but his grip crumpled the borders of the parchment. Another survivor of Orochimaru's experiments, another one with mokuton.

Of course he had heard of Hinata's kidnapping years before, what Shinobi hadn't when the Hyuga threatened civil war when it happened? He also heard about the subsequent finding of the girl. Which was quickly suppressed by the communications department. Yamato only learned now about the full details: Orochimaru kidnapped the heir of the Hyuga, experimented on the girl, stole her eyes, left a number of unknown seals behind. Hiashi tried to kill the girl and the Lord Third intervened.

The mission report didn't explain why Hiashi tried to kill his own daughter.

It was a lot to take in. An S-rank mission issued by Lord Hokage and the council of Elders, dated from a week ago. Yamato glanced at the other stacks of paper piled on the table, it was a series of reports about the girl.

Orochimaru made contact with Hinata, the Uchiha heir and the jinchuriki. He read the girl's own report about the encounter. Read the report from team Gai and team ten. Read the ANBU battle site investigation report. The details matched. There were no glaring inconsistencies in the tale. Even the sensor specialists used to listen to the chakra reverberation in the area didn't find anything different from what was reported.

He picked the next parchment, it was a previously sealed report.

Hinata was the informant that leaked the information that led to Danzo's arrest order. She claimed she dreamt about being Orochimaru. In after action reports and intel added to the whole case after the raid there was one small note added by Aobe: information extracted from Danzo's lair contradicted the current theory. There was no sign of any friction between Danzo and Orochimaru. Danzo even cooperated with Orochimaru on human experiments. It had been dismissed as not important. If Orochimaru wanted to betray Danzo, he wouldn't alert the paranoid old bastard before the back-stab.

The next papers gave Yamato pause. It was a series of older reports from when the girl was found, about the seals in her body. In the period of time she was unconscious after being found, a number of tests and check ups were performed at the Lord Hokage's request. The medical staff at the time reported that without knowing the procedure used by Orochimaru, the only recourse they had to remove the seals was to cut the girl open again, which she was estimated to have a 30% chance of survival. Danzo insisted they needed to know what Orochimaru had done. Lord Third refused to risk the girl's life further.

The rest of the report was speculation of what the seals did based on information gathered by the notes left behind in the laboratory. It didn't paint a good picture, and also explained why the council wanted the girl under surveillance. Yamato felt a pang of sympathy for Hinata.

Yamato put the intelligence reports down and picked up the academy reports and Kakashi's reports as her jounin commander.

There was nothing out of the ordinary about her academy days other than the strange physical results, and the note from one of her teachers that the girl was hiding her strength. Kakashi's notes were a whole other scenario.

Kakashi classified the girl's pure body strength between high chunin and low jounin, with a note that she was stronger, faster, and had no control over her body when going all out. The girl was diligent, trained harder than anyone he knew, aside from maybe Maito Gai. Her mental scores were superb, even if the girl had obvious mental blockers and a lack of creativity. She still thought like a civilian, instead of a shinobi. She was good at hand-seals, her taijutsu was medium to low, there was no information about genjutsu. The girl never used it or was never taught them. The last note gave Yamato pause.

Kakashi classified the girl's chakra control as better than his own. He couldn't do half the things the girl did with casual ease. Kakashi speculated that the girl's control matched Tsunade of the Sannin. And how Kakashi purposefully led the girl to believe her control was just "acceptable".

There were others. Psychoanalysis report after the A-rank mission. Hinata showed no hesitation to kill. Didn't display any obvious tell she enjoyed the killing. The indoctrination at the academy seemed to have borne outstanding results: mission first, not afraid of risking herself to protect the client, frustrated she couldn't do more, drive to improve, no cruel behavior or lashing out in anger even in the academy years and a moderate amount of isolation and bullying. Prone to emotional manipulation of those around her and use of sweets and pastries to help with that manipulation. The analysis went on and on. None of it bad, even if strange for a girl her age.

A smile forced itself on Yamato's face at the last line of Kakashi's report: Dreams of becoming Konoha's Black Flash, after the Yondaime Hokage. The report ended with a evaluation score for the girl at academy graduation:

Shinobi	Ninjutsu	Taijutsu	Genjutsu	Intelligence	Strength	Speed	Stamina	Hand seals	Total
012612	1.5	1.5	1	3	3.5	4	3	2.5	20

Those were high numbers for a newly promoted genin. The evaluation of course didn't reflect the whole truth, Yamato knew of shinobi with lower scores that could wipe the floor with others ranked much stronger than them. Kakashi's evaluation of the girl's strength now made more sense.

Yamato accepted the mission, of course he did. Even if he didn't have a personal investment in meeting the girl, given their similar circumstances, it had been a direct mission from the Hokage. Yamato would have only refused if it was something he thought he couldn't do well.

The mission was twofold: The council wanted the girl under strict surveillance. Any suspicious behavior was to be reported immediately. If the girl showed any signs of turning against Konoha, she was to be apprehended, killed if that wasn't possible. Yamato could see Danzo's remaining influence on the elders. Even gone, that man caused problems.

The second part was the one issued by the Hokage himself: Yamato was to teach Hinata mokuton. If time allowed, teach her how to seal the jinchuriki chakra, and any other jutsu Yamato deemed necessary. It was clear the man didn't think the girl an enemy agent, and wanted to foster her growth, the council of elders be damned.

"Where is the girl now?" Yamato asked after reading all the reports.

"Finished already?" Kakashi asked. Yamato nodded. "She requested Gai to help her train for the third phase of the exam."

That was surprising, why Gai of all people? Why not Kakashi? "Not you?"

Kakashi sighed. There was a bit of melancholy in his gesture. "Hinata is too smart for her own good. She correctly deduced that I would be busy with Sasuke."

"Is she with Gai then?"

"No, Gai refused." Kakashi scratched his cheeks, sighed, this time in relief? "He knew about your mission, and I don't think he was happy with the girl."

"Why?"

"You didn't check the news about the exam?" Kakashi asked and Yamato just shook his head. "Hyuga higher ups might have set Neji to kill or cripple her. He sought her out in the Forest of Death, Hinata drove them off using mokuton." Yamato nodded, he remembered that part of the report, there was nothing regarding Neji's motives however. "Like every other arrogant bastard, Hiashi pressed the Hokage to set up Neji to fight her in the second phase preliminaries."

Nothing out of the ordinary until now. Clan politics was just that, clan politics. It was Lord Hokage's duty to mediate those.

"It was a disaster." Kakashi started. "Hinata never gave Neji a chance to fight back. Her speed combined with the ability to use jutsu without hand seals were advantages enough. Even with his Byakugan Neji couldn't keep up. She would have killed him had we not interfered. To make matters even worse, Hinata never actually fought Neji. She had transformed herself into a Kunai, and her shadow clone did all the battling for her. Gai wasn't happy with the girl after that. The injury was one thing, the blatant humiliation another."

Nothing in her psychoanalysis hinted at this sort of behavior. Yamato tilted his head. "Why did she do that?"

Kakashi shrugged. "All I have are guesses." Yamato just waved on the 'guess away' gesture. "Orichimaru put the girl under some sort of pain inducing genjutsu, after he spooked all of them with killing intent alone. Neji displayed killing intent before his battle with Hinata. I don't know what the clan told him, but Neji clearly sees her as an enemy. Hinata admitted to Gai she had to, quoting her words, make sure Neji understood she was not to be messed with."

"Shall we meet her then?" Yamato asked. Kakashi nodded and led them away, toward one of the many training grounds.

They found Hinata practicing the basics of taijutsu. She was a mess. Looked like someone put to the grinder and without sleep for weeks. Dressed in black, large strange bracelets on her legs, arms and neck. Black lipstick and paint around her eyes. Was this something young people did nowadays?

After Kakashi's lame introduction and subsequent retreat came the written message that made no sense.

"Hello Yamato-sensei, Jutsu-chan will be here in a moment, please wait just a bit." After Yamato read it, Hinata turned around and went back to training.

Yamato wanted to ask questions, but decided it was best to just wait. And sure enough another Hinata walked into the training field. Still dressed in black, but without the black paint and lipstick and no collar or bracelets. The new Hinata looked at Yamato and the other one training. Jogged toward the training girl. Crouched. They had a brief, silent conversation.

"Hi, Yamato-sensei." The new one spoke. Was this one a clone or the real girl? "Hinata-chan, the original, is busy with physical training. I'm Jutsu-chan, shadow clone. Please take care of me!" The girl's voice was raspy, like those voices of people with throat injury.

Yamato just nodded. Somehow he felt old. Really old.

---

Spoiler: AN

Just to set expectations. Those numbers, as Yamato pointed out, don't represent how strong a shinobi is, nor I'm using it as a way to show growth for the MC. I just thought (And CakeEight did the same) logical some intelligence agency would have a way to quantify things about their operators, and decided to put that one, in the same style as the stats for the characters in the databooks.


One example of this is The Third Hokage (34) and Kakashi (33). It's a one point difference, but I don't see, at least at the start of the story, Kakashi having any chance against the third Hokage, of course this is all my own opinion. Don't take it too serious.

Btw, CakeEight is an awesome cookie that proofreads this story for me. xD

 

[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.

 

[World_Illusion]

This is so good!

 

[okashihime]

This is so good!

Click to shrink...

Thank you for reading. <3

 

[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]

Oof. There are still 20 more to post, but I think I'm done for the day. Haha.
I'll post more tomorrow.

 

[Kenji Kage]

Why but I want to read more .....

Also wonderful chapters I want our Sinata to be as op as feasible please

 

[Kuriboh1233]

This is definitely one of the better Naruto fics to come off of Scribblehub from an author whose English isn't their first language. Not only is it like 100 times more readable, the plot is a lot more compelling.

Is it only one of her eyes that has a snakelike pupil or both?

 

[okashihime]

This is definitely one of the better Naruto fics to come off of Scribblehub from an author whose English isn't their first language. Not only is it like 100 times more readable, the plot is a lot more compelling.

Is it only one of her eyes that has a snakelike pupil or both?

Click to shrink...

Thank you for reading. <3
It's just one eye that has snake pupil.

 

[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?