A Life in the Sun

Chapter 5: Solecism

Hinata meets up with Kakashi under the canopies of Konoha's westernmost training ground. She sees him long before he sees her, of course, but Hinata makes sure to school her expression long before she reaches their meeting point anyway. He looks relaxed, spine curved into a slouch, and Hinata knows his body language is a lie. Kakashi is one of the most professional shinobi Konoha has ever produced. Since the death of his first teammate, he has never allowed another teammate to die under his command.

She's nervous and the feeling curdles something in her belly. There is a frustration behind the nervousness, too. She wishes she was confident enough not to feel it. Though perhaps that would be foolish. She should take care to step lightly among the masters of their profession.

"Hatake-san," she greets when she is close enough to speak without raising her voice. Her steps are even and her face a placid mask, and yet when Kakashi turns his one visible eye on her she feels as though he can see the nervous clench of her innards straight through her body.

"So formal, Hinata-chan," Kakashi says, a teasing lilt to his lazy voice. Hinata wonders if he's trying to upset her by calling her with such a diminutive honorific. But she has one advantage here: she knows Kakashi. At least enough to recognize his danger and his mind games.

So she smiles. "Kakashi-senpai, then."

Kakashi's invisible eye curls into a happy little crescent and he waves her closer. "You've been making waves."

"So did you when you were my age."

"Comparing yourself to me? I'm flattered."

"I'm not much like you, I hope." Hinata gathers her words carefully before she adds, "It seems like it would hurt to burn as brightly as you do."

Kakashi straightens a little, looming over her seemingly without trying. Hinata wants to clasp her hands together to keep them from trembling, because even though there isn't a shred of killing intent in his aura, Kakashi has such a presence to him that he feels like a threat regardless. She keeps her thoughts from showing on her face and smiles blandly when he says, in a murmur, "Careful now, little Hyuga."

"I meant no offense." That, at least, is true. She isn't sure where the low-key antagonism is for; he can't possibly know her well enough to truly dislike her. Perhaps it's another test. Or perhaps it's because he knows her father has pulled the strings for this mission and he dislikes having to obey.

They move out of the village and Kakashi sets such a brutal pace that Hinata has to reinforce her calf muscles with chakra just to keep the muscles from tearing. Kakashi glances back at her at regular intervals and it takes Hinata longer than it should to realize that Kakashi wants to see if she'll ask him to slow down, or even stop for a short break.

It galls her to show weakness, but she has a distinct feeling that the jounin would think worse of her for not admitting her own shortcomings. She can't be just another 'prideful Hyuga' for this particular gamble of hers to work. He has to like her at least a little.

"Um, Hatake-san," she calls quietly. Kakashi turns his head without slowing down. Hinata takes a deep breath, swings up to a branch beside him and stops. "I need a break."

Kakashi stops a few branches ahead of her, his head tilted sideways as he observes her. She doesn't bother hiding the deep inhales that heaves her shoulders up and down. She flops down less gracefully than she normally would, wiping sweat from her bangs.

"You kept up fairly well." Kakashi vaults himself to her branch, looking as fresh as he had at the start of their journey.

Hinata frowns faintly. "I slowed you down. I… apologize."

Kakashi looks at her for a long moment and then hunkers down beside her. He puts a gloved hand on her head and ruffles her hair teasingly. Hinata almost jumps at the touch.

Kakashi snorts. "Baby geniuses are all the same, it seems."

"We're not much for casual touching in the Hyuga clan." It's the best explanation Hinata has, though she's not sure what to make of the jounin's sudden insouciance and apparent good mood.

"No, I didn't imagine you were." Kakashi sighs through his mask, rolling his shoulders like a cat before jumping to the ground. After the briefest moment of hesitation, Hinata follows him down.

He gives her one of those dreadful ration bars and she watches him surreptitiously as she eats. 'What do I make of this man?' she wonders to herself. She asks him how long he's been a jounin, though she already knows the answer, and that's the start of a less stilted conversation.

When the break is over, Kakashi sets a slightly less unforgiving pace. Hinata doesn't know how long she has until Naori sets things in motion and that makes her stomach clench unpleasantly. Kakashi is shrewd and so aware of the world that she isn't sure she will be able to pull the wool over his eyes. Not even when he's working entirely without information and she sits on all the cards. Her father once said that Kakashi might be the best shinobi Konoha has ever produced and Hinata doesn't like her odds against the best.

But he has something lacking that she wants to fix. Hopefully, her plan will patch up the one hole in his armor. 'And hopefully he doesn't realize what is actually going on.'

That night, as they set up camp for the night, Hinata tries talking to Kakashi again. He looks amused by her attempt at small talk, but not bothered or suspicious. Maybe he can see a little of himself in her, in her completely genuine awkwardness. This isn't like forging bonds with Academy students. Making a jounin like her requires a lot more than sharing candy and doling out little compliments. She doesn't know enough about Kakashi to be certain that this is doable.

"I heard you like go?" Kakashi says, apropos nothing. Hinata tries to reorient herself in the conversation, before deciding to go along wherever Kakashi leads her.

"I do. My father taught me," she says easily. "I play with Shikamaru sometimes. Though it's been a while now…" she says and makes herself sound just a little wistful. She can't emote for sympathy the way she would with her age mates. 'Careful, now, careful,' she thinks to herself. 'If I mess up even once, he'll notice.'

"Hmm," says Kakashi. "My father taught me as well."

'Is he sharing information about himself?' She doubts it. 'It's most likely some kind of test. Maybe. Or else I'm being paranoid.' She can't risk underestimating him. But she can't risk second-guessing herself either.

The small talk flows and at some point in the middle of it, as Kakashi idly tells a story about his chunin exam, Hinata realizes that she's enjoying this. Not the plotting, not trying to manipulate the Copy-nin. She enjoys talking to him. It probably shows and that can't hurt right now. Especially because… she's starting to think that this wasn't the brightest idea she's ever had. Her throat clenches with anxiety.

An arrow spears a tree beside Hinata's head.

Kakashi's arm is outstretched, having knocked it out of its trajectory. Hinata hopes she looks sufficiently surprised by the hostile interruption. There is a rustle in the trees above, shadows moving in the leaves, and she activates Byakugan to peer up at their opponents. Mist shinobi. 'How in the world did Naori manage that?' Hinata thinks in a rush, and then she has to dodge.

Three Mist jounin are keeping Kakashi busy, though Hinata knows he is keeping track of her. One jounin lands on top of her, a big hand wrapping around her throat. She pushes the tenketsu above his heart and he collapses in a heap on top of her. She can't go down that easily. That would be suspicious.

Kakashi has dispatched the Mist jounin, well-exerted but clearly unharmed, when two others shunshin into the camp. One slams Hinata into a tree and the other breathes some kind of poison mist in Kakashi's direction. Hinata coughs, shoves a knee into the groin of her opponent – only to realize that this Mist-nin is a woman. She dodges away and – yes, here's her chance now. Kakashi has his hands full with one of the shinobi, and with her Byakugan she can see Naori in the canopy, coming closer -

"Kakashi-senpai!" she breathes and pushes him aside. An arrow goes through her stomach and she tumbles into a tree. Kakashi snarls. Hinata's ears are ringing, but she hears the chirping of chidori anyway. Naori casts her Genjutsu, her Sharingan spinning fast and red.

"The baby kunoichi won't make it," Naori sing-songs, illusion weaving through her voice. "That arrow was poisoned. You're not very good at the whole 'team' thing Konoha values so highly, are you?" Kakashi puts a glowing hand through her chest, but she melts into water. Her laughter fades into the distance and Kakashi doesn't pursue.

Instead he hunkers down next to Hinata, tilting her face towards himself. "Hinata-chan?"

"Really… slowing you down…" Hinata mumbles. Her face feels stiff and cold. She desperately hopes that she wasn't wrong to put her fate in the bastard Uchiha. That she isn't actually dying. It feels like she is. Her fingertips are cold, her body unresponsive. A tear slips out of her eye, to her own mortification. Kakashi glances at her, running diagnostic jutsu and poking around the edges of the wound. He looks furious.

"You handled yourself well," he says roughly. "I should have kept track of you better."

She's hurting him, she realizes. That's how it has to be, of course, that's what this gamble hinges on. But. 'They're not go pieces, the people of Konoha,' she thinks, squeezing her eyes shut. 'I forget that sometimes, don't I?'

But if she doesn't go through with this, then she will have wasted the one favor Naori owed her. Favors from ANBU Root members don't come cheap, so if she fails… There'll be no point to any of this. The Mist shinobi will have died for nothing. So she prods the tenketsu over her heart until her pulse begins to slow. Any activated Byakugan would see what she was up to with the briefest glance. But only the Byakugan can see tenketsu.

Kakashi searches for her pulse and she sees his mouth tighten behind his mask when he finds it to be weak and thready. Hinata tries for a little smile, though she feels like she's scum, like she's close to becoming the sort of person her old self would have despised utterly. "It's okay," she mouths and Kakashi's eyes narrow. His Sharingan spins slowly and what little she can see of his face is drawn tight with anger or frustration.

She swallows. "My eyes… I'm unsealed. Take them and then… go." It's becoming difficult to talk, her breath escaping her in shallow puffs. "Hurry… get out of here. Enemy reinforcements are probably… on their way." Those were the words. Uchiha Obito's last words. 'Let it be enough,' Hinata thinks. 'Please.' It's what they'd worked out. Naori, Obito's bastard cousin with the subtle auditory Genjutsu.

'Let this be enough to trigger it.'

Mist shinobi to wear him out. Naori's Sharingan-powered Genjutsu. Hinata's "last" words and actions echoing Obito's. A knowledge of Kakashi's soft spots.

Kakashi twitches. There is a ripple in his shoulders, passing quickly, and then his Sharingan spins into a pinwheel and Hinata is so relieved she could cry. So relieved she does cry, and cold as ice down to her bones. 'It worked. Thank the spirits, it worked.'

Kakashi touches his eye with a faint, confused grimace. Then the Genjutsu breaks; his Mangekyo eye drips red onto his cheek. Kakashi stills for a long moment and Hinata can almost see the gears turning. Finally he looks over at Hinata, one eyebrow lifting what little she can see of his face into a tight, inquisitive expression. His hands withdraw from her.

"So that's what this little theater performance was all about?"

Black dread fills Hinata. Kakashi's lips draw into a facsimile of a smile, lazy and insincere. He reaches out to her, and between one heartbeat and the next, everything goes black.

A/N: To those of you who wondered: this story isn't dead and here's the proof. I'm so sorry it's taken TWO AND A HALF YEARS?! …uh, time has moved a little quicker than I anticipated, obviously. The next chapter should be up reasonably soon.

So Hinata overestimated herself, or underestimated Kakashi. Though what exactly Kakashi has figured out and what conclusions he has drawn is still up in the air. Tell me your thoughts!