Chapter 3

AN: Hi guys, sorry it's been three weeks. I really feel like I've let you all down, (even though I didn't commit to an update schedule). I hope that this chapter makes up for it. I really don't have a legit excuse, other than every time I was feeling like writing, I'd tell stop because I never thought I'd get it good enough. But that's what you guys are there for, right? To tell me whether or not I suck…. Well, enough apologising, onto the story.

The small clone walked into the large hotel. As she walked, she couldn't help but notice all the paintings on the walls. The peculiar thing about them was that she remembered seeing all of them before, yet she'd never entered the hotel before. She blinked, then promptly decided that the boss would probably have a better chance of figuring it out.

She continued on her path to the reception, but then blinked again when she realised that she already knew where she was going. She shook her head at the surprisingly convenient but nonetheless unsettling knowledge and veered off into the hallway. She walked all the way to the end, enjoying the feeling of soft carpet under her.

She stopped at the door. She took in a deep breath. 'It probably won't be long until I'm gone.' She thought sadly. She released the breath loudly and made a show of looking around and checking for anything suspicious.

No such luck.

'Um, I mean, all clear…. Yeah. That's what I meant. He-he.' Her shoulders drooped as she pushed down the door handle and walked through the doorway. Her sombre mood didn't last long though as she stood in shock at the frenzied panic in the room. The bossy female with the weird glasses was sitting in one of the chairs on the other side of the room pinching the bridge of her nose and generally looking like she was trying to count down from infinity to calm herself down.

That wasn't the cause for her shock though. No, that honour went to the hundreds of tiny little clones of the boss strewn about the room in various areas. There were all about a foot tall and they seemed to all be trying to get to the bottom of some mystery. Unsurprisingly, no progress was being made due to the sheer number of clones trying to get a word in. They were all sat in small groups, "discussing" among themselves.

The two guard clones Seemed to have decided on ignoring them outright. They continued with their game of 'go fish', using hand signs to communicate instead of trying to talk over the ruckus. The small girl decided that trying to get the boss' attention would be a foolish idea. She instead moved over to the only other female clone in the room. She opened her mouth and was about to speak, when the clone held up a single finger.

She took a deep, calming breath and started to sign to her. "Let me guess, you and your partner got some info on the festival and on your way back here, he met his end somehow." She said, finally opening her eyes to take in the smaller clone's reaction.

"Um, yeah. I...kinda, um…. may have…. sort of….allegedly punched him in the jaw." Her hands were working on auto-pilot, as she was genuinely shocked by the other clone's knowledge of her short life. "Wait. Were you watching us?" She questioned a little sharply, not happy about the implied mistrust.

"No," 'Idiot.' She replied, "I simply took all the facts and came to the only logical conclusion. All the memories we have are sent back into the network of clones when we're dispelled." She took in the surprised widening of the smaller clones eyes as acquiescence and nodded to herself. "I'm glad I have confirmation." She stood and turned to the two guard clones behind her.

She held out her hand and they wordlessly handed over their shuriken and kunai holsters. The smaller clone briefly grappled with the fear that she'd be dispelled, but calmed when the bossy clone gestured for her to move out of the way. She wasn't altogether fond of how utterly dismissive the gesture had been, but at least the pointy objects wouldn't be coming at her. She slipped her hands into the clone's pouches and palmed some shurikens.

She turned to the still oblivious room of panicked clones and swung her arms in a wide sweeping arc. The shurikens dispelled all the clones closest to her, and continued on their path, poofing away any clone unlucky enough to be in their shadow. The loud, panicked voices that had filled the room pretty much disappeared as almost all the culprits were dispelled.

"Hey!" Came the indignant shout from the original, "What the hell? You could've hit me!"

The perpetrator huffed in annoyance but couldn't keep her mouth from twitching into a smile at his red face. She made a few more sweeping motions and the room was clear of 'mini-clones.' "Small groups work best. Spamming a million idiots only worsens the problem."

The jinchuuriki pouted at the response. "Oh yeah? So did you find out where those memories came from?" He challenged.

"Yes." She gestured to the little girl standing awkwardly to the side. "She was getting info with her 'brother' and when she got frustrated with him she punched him out of existence." Her eyes narrowed with this statement and she was pleased to see him sweat a little at the implication. "Judging by all the info we have, when a clone dispels all their memories are fed back into the network. It explains all the foreign memories."

"Oh. Okay." Naruto felt relieved that she seemed to have figured it out. He decided that maybe it would be best to allow her to lead a bit while he adjusted. She seemed to really have a handle on the situation and to know what she was talking about. He tilted his head to the side though when he felt that he didn't want to keep referring to her as 'she'. "Well, I really want all of you guys to stick around, so I'm gonna make some names for ya." He whipped out his finger and pointed at the little girl still standing off to the side, "You'll be Tiny," His hand swung over to the other female, who looked a little resentful of his choosing their names, "Red, and for the 'ANBU' we'll just go with the colours of your mask's whiskers." The guard clones nodded absently, morphing their whiskers to the colours they wanted. The black haired clone raised an eyebrow at the name. "Right. Moving on, what's our next step?"

Red's eyes narrowed at the way he avoided the implied question but she decided to go along with it. "Now we need to get a few jobs." She saw the way the golden haired boy's face fell at her words so she elaborated. "We all experienced that memory. We've all come to the conclusion that we don't really have to have all our lives planned right now, but we can still plan for the short months ahead of us. We can do various jobs to get a feel for them and find out what exactly we want to do. It'll also give us the opportunity to learn a whole bunch of different things."

Naruto nodded a little reluctantly at her words. He saw the importance in what she'd said, but the idea of spending all day doing office work wasn't exactly appealing to him.

"Alright. Tiny, go see if you can find a school and get some more information about how things work around here."

"Wait, weren't we planning on leaving the Land of Fire as soon as possible?" Naruto asked. He knew that this new ability of the kage bunshin would be a massive help in avoiding those pursuing him, but he didn't really feel confident enough to risk it.

"Well, they've just had a big festival here so a couple of new faces popping up shouldn't raise any alarms. Also, Danzo's probably expecting us to try and run. I doubt he'd expect us to stay in one place, let alone a large town so close to Konoha." Red saw him nod in understanding, and she started to make her way for the door. "Come on, we'll go find a nice clearing and make some clones there. They'll go get the jobs, and we'll stay and train."

Naruto perked up at this, scrambling to his feet and following her to the door. Only remembering to reapply his henge when he was almost by the door. He was looking forward to whatever training he'd be able to do on his own. He was sure that between him, Red and all the clones he could make, they'd come up with something interesting.

In a barbeque shop a few miles away, one Sarutobi Asuma pulled a cigarette out of his pocket. He held it out to the red hot coals on the table in front of him and put it to his lips when it lit up. He drew in a slow breath, basking in the familiar sensation. He'd been covertly watching the trio of clan heirs that he'd requested and wasn't too happy that his 'team' had just left him alone, but at least now he could smoke freely. Hey, you had to appreciate the little things.

He had been really surprised when a similar group of clan heirs led by a small Hyuuga girl came up to their table and asked them to go with her somewhere. The fact that the small girl had seemed resolute and in charge had apparently thrown his entire team for a loop. He wondered why they were so surprised. All the stuck up Hyuuga were like that, weren't they? He shrugged internally and glanced at the empty plates at the abandoned table, chuckling a little at the memory of the Akimichi cleaning them all out just before they left.

He knew why they were leaving, of course. He had heard about the way the village's jinchuriki had gotten himself banished. He felt a little bit sorry for the kid but rules were rules. He popped another piece of meat on the grill as he absently wondered how things would change in the village.

A pale eyed Hyuuga girl stood in the clearing in one of the academy training grounds across from her entire graduating class. Out of their whole graduating class, only two boys who'd been with them throughout the years weren't anywhere to be seen. Her little heart was almost thrumming its way right out of her chest but thoughts of one of the absent students strengthened her.

"Th-thank you all for meeting me here." She inwardly cursed the slight stutter in her voice from how nervous she was feeling. "I'm sure you're all wondering why you're here." She paused for a moment to let them settle themselves and actually pay attention. "I-I just have a few things I think you should know." She put a hand to her chest. "You will likely hear them from others soon enough but I wanted you to hear it at least once from an unbiased person."

Most of her former classmates nodded acceptingly, if a little cautiously, but one Nara boy narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"So, as most of you know, yesterday Naruto-kun failed the graduation exam.-" The dark haired girl was cut off by the sounds of laughter coming from the group.

"Yeah, The deadlast couldn't pass a test he'd been failing for years, what a surprise." Most of the group laughed even more uproariously at that, but the Hyuuga was unamused. Her face first registered shock, and then anger at the blatant disrespect. She catalogued all the faces, wholly unconscious of her activated byakugan.

Shikamaru sighed at the former students' predictable response. Their laughter was cutting into the shy Hyuuga's speech and that was in turn cutting into his cloud watching time. Did these people have no consideration? Didn't they know that it was team assignment day on monday and the only time they'd have free for the next few weeks was right now? Kami-sama, people could be so thoughtless sometimes. And thinking of thoughtlessness, Hinata-san could've thought a little harder about what she wanted to say.-

The dark haired boy was broken out of his thoughts when he saw the look on her face. It wasn't quite murderous per say, but it was a pretty damn scary face compared to how the girl usually looked. He didn't need three guesses to know what would happen if he let her explode at everyone else. "What a drag." He muttered to himself, then projected loudly, but still a little disinterestedly to the rest of the graduates. "Alright, enough, guys! Let her speak."

The class calmed down shortly after that but the Hyuuga heiress wasn't of the same persuasion. "Thank you, Nara-san, but that won't be necessary." She intoned stiffly, not taking her still engorged eyes off the group. Hinata was only barely able to keep herself from blurting out everything about what had happened last night, along with a torrent of vitriol, at her fellow graduates so she decided to abandon her plan. "I'm sorry for wasting your time." She intoned just as woodenly before dashing away towards the exit.

The laughter had died down at the sight of the Hyuuga princesses anger and the cold steel in her voice and the pre-teens stood there awkwardly and a little frightened and ashamed. They were all well aware of just how much the Hyuuga girl held back in spars because of her fear of hurting them, and pushing her far enough that she'd actually contemplate it was no small feat. The kids knew how much she admired the dead last, you'd have to be as dumb as the idiot boy himself not to, but they hadn't really thought much of having a laugh at his expense. It was what he was there for, right? Well, in any case, most of them felt bad for offending and angering the poor girl so much, especially since it had almost driven her to violence. They'd all been taught how debilitating a proper jyuuken strike could be and the girl wouldn't have stopped herself from using it anymore. Most of the group resolved to apologise to her at some point.

Hinata made her way at a brisk walk through the streets of Konoha. Her face was drawn into the neutral mask she hated having on but 'a Hyuuga could never show weakness'. Her father would not be pleased if he heard she was broadcasting her emotional weaknesses for the whole village to see. She wasn't keen to have to deal a displeased Hiashi anytime soon so she kept her anger firmly locked within herself.

Her thoughts of the botched opportunity swirled chaotically in her head as she made her way to the place she called home. She needed to hit something. Alas, clan rules dictated that Hyuugas simply did not 'hit things' and she'd have to settle for something respectable, like meditating by the koi pond or working in the flower garden. She'd very much prefer to hit something right now, maybe even a lot of 'somethings' but being but one twelve year old girl, she'd have to settle for the gardening. Thinking about the whole mess, she'd just wanted to explain Naruto's situation to them so they'd know the truth before it was twisted into a pretzel by whoever would tell it to them next, but she didn't have the patience to deal with their ignorance any longer. Having the knowledge of the entire burden that that Naruto-kun had to bear for them, and then seeing the way they repaid him had made it impossible for her not to get angry.

She hadn't stayed because she didn't trust herself not to expose her knowledge of any secure village secrets. She'd wanted so bad to tear into them and defend the boy who'd inspired so much confidence in her, but she didn't want to lose her life for it. They'd go to their parents for confirmation and it wouldn't be long before the source of their knowledge was discovered. Even the might of the Hyuuga clan couldn't protect her if she spilled an S-rank secret.

She still had her own dream and a promise to keep. It didn't matter that the promise was to herself, she'd sworn that she'd bring the blonde boy home and she wasn't about to go back on her word. As she glanced around at the villagers around her though, she couldn't really claim to have all that much faith in her plan anymore. At first, she'd been confident that all she'd have to do was clear his name and then let him know it was okay to come back again, but she wasn't so sure she'd want him to come back. Thinking about how he'd lived before she was pretty sure that she didn't want him to return. Not to this.

She wasn't even sure if he'd want to come back anymore. After being cast aside by the very same village, she knew that he had enough self worth to refuse and decide to stay wherever it was he found himself. The pale eyed girl found herself a little bit saddened by this thought and the fact that coupled with him being treated the way she just knew any other people would treat him, it would be all but impossible to get him to come back.

The blonde was determined, cheerful, confident and most importantly, he just made you want to be a better person whenever you were around him. His fierce determination was just too intense not to be contagious. There was no way he'd be treated anywhere near the same anywhere else. He'd be loved wherever he went. Her eyes clouded over with this thought and her anger disappeared at the notion of never seeing the blonde again. The thought almost made her sick to her stomach.

She was disgusted with herself. She'd spent ages admiring the boy from afar but she'd never shown even an ounce of the admiration she felt for him. The way he always carried on and tried his damn hardest had given her confidence whenever she'd needed it and how did she pay him back? By completely failing to give him even a moment of the acknowledgement he so desperately desired. It was clear that he was just as void of that as she was of confidence and it made her feel terrible about the way she'd pretty much leached what she needed from him and didn't give an inch in return.

But it wasn't just the fact that she could. It was the fact that she wanted to. Her feelings for the blonde ran deep within her and she would be all for providing all the lo-acknowledgement and understanding that the blonde could ever need, but she had just been too scared to take the plunge and express her feelings. She shook her head and made a decision.

'Never again.' Never again would she deny her heart it's needs because her head was too scared of what everyone else would think. She nodded to herself slightly and rounded the last corner and seeing the tall gated wall come into view. She strode purposefully up to it, not noticing the widened eyes of the guards flanking it.

The gate was pulled open for her without a word and she walked into the large compound, turning immediately to go to the large garden her mother had loved to work in. Most of her anger was gone, but she still wanted to be among the greenery that contained so many memories of good times with her mother.

As she arrived in the garden though, she stopped short at the entrance at the sight of one of the elderly members of the clan sitting in the bench by the koi pond. He glanced up at her and beckoned wordlessly for her to approach. The fact that he was a branch member and didn't have the slightest right to request even that from her didn't even register to her. The girl walked closer to him and stood just shy of his place on the bench. "Hai, Kôten-san?"

He smiled warmly and addressed her. "Ah, Hinata-kun. Go and fetch me glass of water, please, I'm quite thirsty."

The young clan heir smiled a little sadly at the elderly man. He was always mixing her up with one of his granddaughters. She flared her chakra in an ingrained pattern and less than a second later, a branch member was by her side. She looked at the girl who was about her height and smiled once more. "Momo-san, please may you fetch your grandfather some water." The girl nodded wordlessly and dashed off to fulfil the request.

As Hinata was about to walk away, the old man frowned and grabbed her wrist making her stop in her tracks. She turned back around and looked at him questioningly. "Why did you send for her when I asked you to do it?"

The small girl's smile became a little tight at his words. "I am a member of the main branch. It would displease my father if I was seen catering to the needs of a cadet branch member."

The old man snorted derisively. "Displeased? Do you honestly think he'd care when he's going to brand you in a few months anyway?" He spoke as if it was common knowledge.

Hinata stiffened and yanked her wrist out of the hold he still had it in. "I wasn't made aware of any such plans." She responded.

He raised the bandana on his forehead, baring a multitude of green marks among the furrows. "Hiashi-sama has been putting it off for years now but the clan needs a true heir. At the last gathering of the clan council he agreed that you'd get the seal in a week or two when you inevitably disappoint your sensei, or at the very latest, in a few months when you fail to be promoted to chuunin." He looked at her in honest confusion. "You truly were not informed?"

She shook her head mutely, not bothering to argue about her skill to pass the chuunin exam. She knew that since Neji's sensei had deemed his team unprepared last year then there was no hope at all for her to pass.

"Well, no matter, it will be better for you to get used to it now than to have to adjust all at once, hmm?" He intoned as he turned away from her in a clear dismissal.

She stepped away from him slowly and started to numbly make her way to her room. She wasn't surprised by the news, she'd always thought that she'd be wearing the seal sooner or later since it would probably be the only way to keep Hanabi-chan's forehead clean, but she'd never anticipated that it'd be so…...soon. It felt….real. There was so much she wanted to do that she wouldn't have the freedom to as a cadet member. She shook her head and decided to at least get some reassurance. She'd let her sister know and then ask her to take over her dream of seeing the Hyuuga family united. At least that way it wouldn't end with her sealing.

The blue haired girl turned on her heel and headed toward her sisters room, feet making no sound as she moved on the polished wood. Rounding a corner, she saw the familiar door and strode up it. She announced herself politely and it slid open to reveal her small sister. It was a weekend, so usually Hanabi would be training with their father, but the team assignments were being finalised today and all the parents had to be present for a briefing and to know which team their child was to be placed on.

"Hanabi-chan, may I come in?" She asked, not wanting to discuss such things out in the open.

"Actually, Onee-sama, I was about to go and train." A quick downward glance told the older Hyuuga that the younger was indeed geared up to do some exercise.

"Oh, okay." The older girl was a little nervous from the intense stare of the younger, but proceeded nonetheless. "Um, I was just wondering, um, what are you planning to do when… when you become the head of the clan." She finished shakily.

Hanabi's pale eyes narrowed a bit. "That senile old man told you, didn't he?" She said, not really needing an answer.

The older girl's eyes widened in shock at the unfamiliar tone. "Who?" She asked, mostly just to fill the silence.

"Who else could I be talking about. Of course it's Kôten-san." The younger girl spoke as if it was common knowledge. "Otou-sama and I have been working for weeks to get him off of the clan council."

The older Hyuuga blinked once at that having had no knowledge of that information. It sounded an awful lot like Hanabi-chan was already sitting in on the clan council meetings. "So you've been allowed to listen in on the council meetings?"

The younger sibling's brow scrunched up in honest confusion. "I've had that privilege for about a year now." She stated noticing the way her sister's eyes widened at that. "The only new thing is that recently Otou-sama lets me chair most of the routine ones." She saw her older sister nod a little numbly at the new information and decided to get on with the conversation. "So you wanted to know what I planned to do with the clan once I take up my position as head and whether I'll support your dream of uniting both houses or not." She intoned, having known as much.

The bluenette nodded once more at a loss of words at just how thoroughly she'd been beaten without even being aware of it.

"Well, Onee-san, I can't promise that I'll destroy the system as it is, but I'll be honest, Otou-sama has been teaching me all about affairs between other clans and I'm certain the way we handle our own members isn't the best." The small girl nodded to herself slightly. "All I can say that it'll definitely be changed, and only for the better."

Hinata looked in her sister's pale orbs and could see a multitude of emotions within them, the most prominent one being honesty. She nodded her acquiescence and excused herself, making her way out of the corridors and to the gates of the compound still reeling from the shock. It felt like the earth had just been violently yanked away from beneath her feet and she really needed to get somewhere.

One Hyuuga Hanabi kept her face expressionless as she slid the thin door to her room closed once more. With the aid of a few handsigns she had the chakra pathways to her eyes bulging and turned her head to look at the old man still sitting in the garden, but now having been joined by his granddaughter Momo. His own bloodline was active as he watched her intently and she gave him an acknowledging nod, receiving a firm nod back.

She watched as he deactivated his byakugan and went back to teaching his grandchild about the various types of fish kept in ponds. The clan heiress sighed a little to herself, not much more than the slight drooping of her shoulders as she exhaled. That had been harder than she'd thought, but thankfully not harder than the alternative.

The small seven year old felt somewhat bad about what she'd effectively done to her sister, but she found that she couldn't really beat herself up about it since it was for the best. Hinata could handle being branded and cast into the place of a cadet member. Hanabi knew she couldn't. Having to face Otou-sama when he looked at her the way he did Hinata…. It would break her, let alone being discarded like that. She couldn't do it.

She'd never admit it to anyone, but the news Kôten had brought to her about how her older sister had used copying scrolls to get her hands on some really curious material had scared her. She couldn't have Hinata feeling like she could just take her position away from her. She was her older sister and it was the job of older siblings to protect younger ones.

Hanabi knew that argument was about as strong as the paper door to her room, but she couldn't help it. Hinata was just…...weak. She didn't have any need for anything that really mattered, like pride, or self worth, or power. Sure, She wouldn't have a great time being pretty much a slave to the main family, but Hanabi would handle it even worse. All in all, the small brown haired girl had no regrets about figuratively throwing her sister under the bus. All she'd done was to make her believe she'd already lost and only at the cost of one personal favour to Kôten's granddaughter. That was well worth it in her book.

Yamanaka Ino rummaged through the various drawers of her desk looking hard for a book she'd tossed to the side ages ago. She'd been totally frozen on the spot when she'd been hit by the killing intent of the Hyuuga wallflower of all people. It was scary enough that they'd managed to push the shy girl so far but even more so that she couldn't even move a muscle while it happened.

Her dad had taken pains to make sure she was able to accurately judge a person's strength and mindset based on the intent they're putting out and being subjected to the raw killing intent of the small girl had been terrifying. Just like any Hyuuga, she was pretty much flawless with her control, even when she wasn't, so it only hit her for the instant her eyes locked with the other girl's.

It had been enough.

That short instant had shown her just how wide the chasm between them really was skill wise. It drove home the fact that for Ino, who was becoming a real kunoichi in two days time, was woefully unprepared. If that'd been a real battle in the field, she'd either be long dead or on her way to being so thoroughly violated that…...she couldn't even imagine it.

That scared the living daylights out of her. She lifted a small book out of the drawer triumphantly and wasted no time in cracking it open. The first few pages spoke of the basics of the Ino-Shika-Chou formation that their dads had come up with when they'd all been placed on the same team. She already knew they'd made that very same request for her so she wanted to make sure she'd be the most prepared for the coming team assignments. There wasn't any more time for games.

A pale eyed Hyuuga scowled as he took to the trees alongside his teammates. Once again, he was on the way back to Konoha from a C-rank mission during this time of year. His heckles had been raised by the fact that last year Gai had insisted they'd have plenty of time despite his protests, and they'd ended up missing the chuunin exams.

Because of the classless desires of the uncouth masses and their need to hold that ridiculous tournament twice a year, there was always a spike in bandit activity around these times. During the next event most jounin would be deployed to keep the unwashed bandits in check, but this close to the chuunin exams, while everyone was focused on the various preparations, most skilled ninja stayed in the village since spies tend to find that opening a bit too tempting. This meant that since his team was already in the field, they had been called to take care of all the numerous bandit camps that started to crop up around the area. And seeing as he wasn't currently within the village walls, he'd probably be stuck doing that again this year.

Knowing that the exams were being held in Konoha made him a little hopeful that he'd be able to make it back in time to participate, but it was looking more and more likely that it was his fate to remain a genin another year. He briefly entertained the thoughts of whether Gai had done this on purpose but dismissed that notion quickly. Last year, the man had been just as upset about them missing their chances to 'Show off how brightly the Flames of Youth burned within them' and he'd spent close to two days doing one of those asinine punishments of his.

He shook off those thoughts and returned to the reason for his sour mood. This mission. Apparently, they had done such a good job the last time around that they had been personally requested. All plans of keeping within the confines of the village walls until after the exams were shattered at that point since the village had a reputation to maintain. They would never blow off a client, and a returning one at that, for something as mundane as a spa appointment and this was treated very much the same. The team worked like a well oiled machine and was easily capable of any C-rank mission, meaning there was no real need for any of them to become chuunin.

Sure it would be convenient for the village if they were to take up positions of leadership and ease the workload all around, but it wasn't an immediate necessity by any stretch of the imagination. Thus, the satisfaction of the customer came first.

The dark haired boy didn't really care about any of that though. He was mostly bothered by the fact that a prodigy like him and a failure like Hinata were classed the same and seen as equal ninja in the eyes of the village. He couldn't stomach that for much longer and he didn't even know what he would do if by some quirk of fate she got promoted before him.

His eyes widened a miniscule amount when he realised that she probably would. Hiashi had all the might of the entire Hyuuga clan behind him and it wouldn't be very difficult at all for him to get her a flak vest. He seethed silently at the main branch once again abusing their power when he remembered that Hiashi cared about just as much for Hinata as Neji himself did. His rage disappeared at the thought that the most aid their pathetic excuse for a clan heir would probably receive would be the threat of being branded if her failure was too shameful.

He calmed himself down a little and made a note to improve his hold on his emotions. He'd started seeing conspiracies where there were none and he was losing control of himself over totally implausible fears. Of course Hiashi didn't have anything planned for the exams. The only people who would be in it this year were his resident disappointment and possibly his nephew if he managed to make it in time. The older man probably had no more interest in it than where he would be seated and how much he'd be betting. Under the table, of course.

As the brown haired boy spotted an incoming speck that looked suspiciously like a messenger hawk, he inwardly sighed at the whims of fate.

"Red?" an orange garbed boy called out a little tiredly.

"You know you can't call me that, right?" Came the response from the woman sitting a little ways off with a book in her hands. She folded one of the pages in on itself and closed the book softly, looking up to face him.

"What?" The boy questioned, still trying to keep the correct posture as he limbered himself up. She'd said that all things mental they'd leave to the many groups of clones they had scattered around and they'd just focus on the physical. That meant strength, endurance, chakra capacity, flexibility and all the rest of the boring crap that he couldn't get from his clones. The one good thing was it left his mind free to think, but he didn't feel that it was anywhere near worth the sheer, mind numbing boredom of it all.

She spoke calmly as if she'd expected the answer. "Red is a colour. At some point you're going to have so many of those faceless ANBU that one of them will need to be it." She looked to the side. "Also it's a terrible name."

He flopped onto the ground at the criticism and then exhaled into the dirt. He knew better than to challenge her at this point. She just seemed to think a lot of things through way better than he did. He pouted sulkily as he raised his chin to rest on the ground to ask his next question. "What would you rather be called then?"

"Ameyuri." She responded instantly. He blinked at that and she elaborated, waving the small book in his direction. "She's a master swordsman from Kiri." It clicked for him that the tiny book was one of those bingo books he would've been able to buy if….He shook his head and moved on.

"Why her?" He questioned, not understanding his clones desire to take after some kunoichi from that village.

"She's a legendary kunoichi for her skill with a blade and her devastating control of lightning. She's not known for mercy or kindness or compassion." The female clone's voice was tinged with a familiar hint of hero worship as she spoke. "She's unapologetic about what she is and who she's always wanted to be. Nobody treats her as anything less than how she wants to be treated. No one...no one treats her different because she's a female." Her head gave a nod that she seemed wholly unaware of. "I want to be like that."

He looked off to the side a little, honestly confused by the passion she had for this woman. "Okay, Ameyuri-chan." He decided it'd probably just be best to go with it. Wouldn't want her getting trigger happy with the shuriken again. "But…." He couldn't stop himself from questioning her when his sense of self preservation was overridden by curiosity. "But why?" She tilted her head to the side not understanding how he could possibly still not get it. "Um, no. I mean, why are you so…..different." He mentally patted himself on the back at the choice of words. It was pretty unlikely to get his head smashed in. He started to pick himself up off of the ground when his body began protesting the uncomfortable position.

She nodded to herself, having thought about it herself. "You mean why my personality is so different from yours." She intoned, and received a nod in response. "I'm not a hundred percent sure what the cause might be, but I have a theory." The golden haired boy nodded again despite himself. Her eyes softened at the innocent curiosity on his face. "You haven't had the most fun childhood." His head dipped a little at the reminder. "I remember how you spent so many hours alone, dreaming and wishing you could be someone else….. anyone else." He looked back at the face and she could see the pain he was trying so hard to hide from her. "I believe we are those people. I think our consciousnesses are the various collections of all those hours of daydreaming and fantasizing."

He nodded once. It seemed like a solid enough theory. He did remember fantasizing long ago about being one of the women that all the men couldn't take their eyes off of. He'd spent days just imagining himself into her life and thinking about how everyone would react. He'd basked in the love and adoration from his hallucinations and he'd felt his heart clench painfully every time he lost focus and the illusion faded. Returning to the life of the much hated Uzumaki Naruto had never been a pleasant experience.

The feeling of two small arms wrapping themselves around his waist broke him out of his thoughts and he looked down to see Tiny with her face buried into his stomach. "Tiny." He started, having not expected to see the girl back so soon. He stopped when he realised that she probably wasn't too fond of that name either. "Do you also want a different name?"

She nodded against him a little sadly. She hadn't wanted to tell him she didn't like the name in case it made him mad, or even worse, sad. But since he was asking…..

He exhaled loudly and asked. "What name would you like then?"

Her choosing to speak in a small voice and her position pressing her face against him made her words little more than a mumble.

"Come on." He stepped out of her hold and dropped down to one knee, becoming level with the small girl. "You gotta speak clearly if you want me to hear you." She had a blush on her cheeks and was looking at him with a little bit of nervousness in her eyes, not that the oblivious boy could tell. "Whad'ya wanna be called?"

"Um…..M-Maki-chan." She mumbled a little reluctantly and then rushed to blurt out, "B-but you can call me Imouto." she finished loudly.

His eyebrows rose at that and he questioned her, mostly out of curiosity. "You want me to be your nii-san?" She hesitated for a second and then nodded firmly, eyes shining with hope. The boy nodded and got to his feet, ruffling her hair affectionately. "You got it, Imouto-chan."

The girl smiled brightly under his hand and nodded happily. It wasn't really what she wanted, but she knew he wasn't really ready for that yet. It wouldn't be long until he was so she could wait.

Ameyuri smirked at the way Maki pretty much had the orange academy dropout wrapped around her little finger. It wasn't hard to tell what the little girl was working towards and it amused her to no end to think about how the blonde would react when he found out. Speaking of finding out, she'd almost forgotten just what she'd sent the little girl to do in the face of all these distractions. "Maki-chan." She called.

The small girl turned to the older woman, suddenly being conscious of the fact that she'd been watching the exchange. The look on her face told her that she saw straight through her act and they'd be having words about it later.

"What did you manage to find out from the schools?"

The girl blinked, having almost forgotten about why she'd come here in the first place. "Oh. Well, there are three schools here. I, um, I kinda enrolled in one already." A raised eyebrow from the older female had her elaborating quickly. "Well, the teacher pretty much just assumed that that's exactly what I was there to do and he made a file for me." Ameyuri didn't miss the way the small girl's eyes darted to the side when she'd said the last part. "He pretty much created my backstory for me and he said that lots of people come for the festival and then decide to permanently move here, only to move away a couple of months down the line." Her small shoulders rose and fell in a nonchalant shrug. "I just thought it'd be best for me to go to school since we're gonna be staying here for a while."

Ameyuri nodded in acceptance, already thinking up several backstories for the other clones that would soon be enrolling in the two other schools. "What else did you learn?"

The little girl gave a small frown at the sad truth she'd learnt. "Well, since there was just a festival here, loads of people left with a whole bunch of money and other stuff." Ameyuri's face blanched at the implications but predictably, Naruto's stayed intently curious about her story. "Apparently it always attracts a bunch of bandits and it's really not safe to be anywhere near here right now." She finished sadly knowing what would happen to anyone unlucky enough to get caught by them.

Naruto's eyes darkened at the information but he didn't speak out. He knew now that he didn't have the best handle on the situation so he looked to the one person who did. She had her eyes closed softly, glasses grasped between two fingers as she muttered quietly to herself. After a few minutes went by she opened her eyes and looked at Naruto, giving him a slight nod to acknowledge his improvement. "Make a thousand clones. Women and children mostly, but include a few men here and there." She watched on silently as he went to fulfil her request, flooding the clearing with orange and yellow. He looked a little worn by the effort and took a seat on the grass.

She stood from her position and did a rough headcount, nodding when she noted that he'd made about the right amount. As they started to Henge though, she had to spend a couple of minutes making sure he made them believable and not all the same. In the end they had a massive group of large families, each with many children and a single patriarch. It was almost a certain thing that the bandits wouldn't be able to resist them.

"Alright!" Ameyuri yelled, speaking to the group at large. "Time to go out and get yourselves captured by some bandits!" The groups didn't seem all to shocked by the order, but the women and children huddled together 'fearfully' for dramatic effect. It made the dark haired woman pause and almost made her reconsider the plan…..until she remembered they were clones. "Don't kill them when you meet them, let them take you to their base. From there you'll be able to free other survivors and wipe them out!" She saw a multitude of nods in the sea of ordinary looking families. "One thing to note, if there's any mention of an upcoming slave trade, don't annihilate the camp until you know the location! Understood?!"

The loud reply came as a chorus of many voices. "Yes sir!"

"Move out!" The thundering of a thousand pairs of feet wasn't the sound that followed. What could actually be heard was near silence as a thousand ninja trained civilians swiftly darted out of the clearing and towards the main roads. Ameyuri smiled a little at that and turned to the mostly recovered boy in the clearing. "Resting time's over." She intoned cooly, taking a little pleasure at the way he sprung to his feet almost instantly. "Back to work."

Hanabi looked up from her calligraphy at the sound of someone announcing themselves at her door. She could tell by the voice that it was her silver haired servant turned informant, but she couldn't for the life of her figure out why. 'Does he want me to fulfil the favour already?' She wondered, but felt it was pretty unlikely given that she'd be the head of the clan soon enough and, by then, the favour will be worth many orders of magnitude more.

She rose from her cushion and padded over to the door, byakugan briefly flaring to life to look perform a quick scan. Deeming it safe, she slid the thin paper door off to the side and gestured for him to enter. It wasn't ideal for him to be seen in his room, but they had nothing to discuss that should be overheard.

Closing the door after him, she turned and returned to her seat, gesturing for him to take the one across from her. Once he was settled, she nodded for him to speak. "Hanabi-sama, I would like to take you up on that favour you owe me."

The small girl nodded, face not expressing any of the surprise she felt at the statement. "What is your request?"

The old man stroked his chin and nodded to her, a pleased smile playing on his lips. "Well done, Hanabi-sama. Very well done indeed." He gained a smirk. "So Hiashi-sama has been teaching you well indeed." He nodded to himself in affirmation. "That was a very well executed response, you barely acknowledged your debt and you make it as if you are the one with power by making whatever I say a request. You are a much better choice for a clan head than that sister of yours. You should be proud."

The pale eyed girl nodded her acknowledgement of the praise, face remaining stony and unmoved. The aged Hyuuga smiled once more at this and nodded again at the fact that she hadn't even given an inch. His flattery hadn't caused her to give any ground and still held all the power in the situation. 'Very good indeed.'

"What I want is simple. I want what's best for the Hyuuga. I want our name to be uplifted and not dragged through the mud as some people are wont to do." She nodded her head, having an idea of who he was referring to as his face soured. "Your sister, Hinata-kun, is a constant blemish on the pride of the Hyuuga, and I fear branding her wouldn't be the best course of action for the clan."

"Elaborate." She intoned, not even raising an eyebrow to show the question on her face.

"You want to bring change to the Hyuuga family." He intoned instead, waiting for her to nod before continuing. "Having her support you from her place as an older sibling while unbranded would make it significantly easier to gain the favour of the cadet branch." His shoulders rose and fell in a controlled shrug. "They adore her." Experienced as he was, he could somewhat see through her mask and could tell that she was unconvinced, so he continued. "Also, civilians have also been weary to trade with us partially due to the so called barbaric use of the curse seal. The cadet branches'...animosity towards the main branch could easily be pacified by their love of the heir if the seals are to be removed."

Hanabi nodded once in understanding. Her biggest hangup about Hinata's goal was the bloodbath that was sure to break out when the cadet branch members were suddenly free of the constant threat of death hanging over them. "What is your suggestion." She intoned, making sure to maintain her control of the conversation.

The old man smiled proudly once more. "I am worried that your sister will not be up to the task. Things that've happened recently have greatly affected the girl and I fear that she may lack the strength to overcome them, let alone be the familiar pillar the cadet branch needs." He resisted the urge to shift slightly under her scrutiny. "I propose a…..contingency, of sorts. A ….trade, if you will." He looked straight into her unflinching pupiless eyes, seeing the comprehension in the large orbs. "Your thirteen year old girl, for mine."

She closed her eyes for a few seconds, the sound of their breathing being the only thing in the room. A few seconds went by as she thought over the proposition, mulling over the seemingly flawless plan. "You want Momo-san to take Hinata's place as my older sister and act as the pillar for the cadet branch." She finally said, opening her eyes and seeing him nod once. "When?"

"As soon as possible. Team assignments are on monday, and if she comes home acting slightly strange it wouldn't be seen as anything out of the ordinary. Also, it would be best to get her out when she hasn't yet made any impressions on her team or her sensei." He replied. "You'd have to train Momo-chan in everything ninja and Hinata related over the course of the weekend."

The clan heiress was displeased by that. She knew that the swap would have to happen as soon as possible to avoid suspicion, but she hadn't known that she'd have to start from scratch in the girl's training. "Momo-san has no ninja training at all?"

The old man nodded sadly. "My daughter and her husband have no desire for such things and I have no training, myself. My daughter is trained as a shinobi, actually she was guarding the clan library when Hinata-kun decided to get that information, but she doesn't want the same for Momo-chan." He looked a little pained. "Her mother died in service of the main branch."

The little girl nodded once having expected as much. "And the seal?"

"Oh, don't worry about that. Kõ can remove it, and apply one to Hinata." 'For once his overprotectiveness is actually good for something.' The boy had studied seals like a man possessed when he noticed that his charge was in love with the jinchuuriki with the hope that if they ever dated, she'd be able to suppress him if anything went wrong. The dark haired man was a mother hen if ever there was one.

Hanabi nodded, having expected him to have someone already in mind. It was unheard of to approach someone with an incomplete plan, after all. "I see." She said, gesturing to the door. "Send Momo-san in as soon as possible. There is much to be done." The old man smiled once more at the way she'd avoided acknowledging both his allocation of work to her and the fact that she'd be doing some grunt work. 'Oh yes, in a few years she'll make a fine clan head.'

AN: Well, It's been a lot longer than three weeks. My bad.

Anyway, please let me know what I can do to the summary to make the story more interesting.

Also, I'm sorry if it's starting to read like 'The Hyuuga Chronicles' or something like that, but there just aren't many other people who've been affected yet. They're the only ones really doing anything different from canon. Well, there's Danzou and Hiruzen, but that's for the next one.

Anyway, I'd really like to get your opinion on this chapter, and it'd be awesome if you could take a look at my other stories and tell me what you think of them as well.

Later.