The Argent-Eyed Heiress (Naruto/Exalted)

[x] Speed

-----

The training yard was silent.

On the surface it was a wintery sort of silence: cold, heartless, yet not purposefully cruel. But like a river during the thaw you could feel something there, just out of sight, with jagged, snapping teeth. Hinata licked her lips. Something had… something had happened, she was sure of it.

The training yard was silent - and into that silence Hinata stepped forward.

It wasn't how she normally moved where her feet would trace soft lines on the ground, each motion caught somewhere between - as the family manual and elders would have it - 'the glide of a swan and the bloom of a lotus flower'.

No, she put her foot down and pushed. Not even as a human pushed, but as a hog might push, trotters digging into the ground to heave it forward at frighteningly unexpected speeds. The weight of it sent rippling shockwaves through the ground, imperceptible to the naked eye but not to hers, and chakra echoed quietly through her legs, cycling wildly through her coils, but she was already in motion, leaving nothing more behind than a fine, quickly dying whirlwind of dust.

She re-appeared in mid-air in front of her father, a tightly wound ball that spun forwards in a kick that she had once seen Uchiha use. Her father caught and deflected it, but she was prepared for that, flipping away to land lightly on the ground, her hands curled in the most aggressive jyuken stance she knew. She could see the frowns begin across the faces of the observers: her motions were not standard, were not sufficiently elegant, but then her concentration sharpened to the point that lay before her and all the other details ceased to matter.

Her father gestured at her to approach. She did so, blurring forwards one more.

She went low, then high, then started mixing it up. She struck and struck again, not the wild swings of desperation that had resigned herself to using during these training sessions, but the elated exhilaration of using the right motion at the right time. There was nothing swanlike or elegant about her, but she was… she was nonetheless good at this. A bird of prey, a boar, even an insect. Where once she doubted each step she took, they now acted like old friends. Sure, she was not defeating her father, but neither was she shaming him. At some point, without her consciously doing so, her bones became lighter: the hollow things that birds might use.

Faster… she needed to be faster.

Silver light spilled out of her and she was.

But Father was faster still, his face carefully impassive as he parried each of her techniques. It was not always the case that the head of the Main Branch was the strongest of the Hyuuga, but it was so with her father. He blinked at her - a momentary shutter in his expression, gone so quickly that Hinata was left only with the certainty that it had happened, but it had happened. He'd been surprised. At what?

Then she realized she was smiling.

It was enough of a jolt to make her next motion clumsy and, the following parry had enough sting to it, she shot backwards, breathing hard, dirt and dust kicked up as she landed on all fours like Kiba might, dirt digging into her fingernails before she flipped herself back up onto her feet.

She'd been… enjoying herself?

Father folded his arms into his sleeves.

"...better," he said simply.

None of the observing Hyuuga did anything, but Hinata was aware of a certain glowering dissatisfaction hanging in the air.

Father's eyes flashed - not literally, but the assembled ring of Hyuuga caught it nonetheless. There were murmurs of thanks and the usual platitudes before they departed, with perhaps a hair more grumble than usual, reminding Hinata of nothing so much as chastised students leaving a classroom.

They were all ninja, but moved as slowly as civilians as they left.

Last went Taiki who nodded briefly to Hinata before vanishing away.

"Father…" Hinata began. She didn't know how to finish the thought.

Others might have murmured a 'yes?' or said her name or even grunted in curiosity. Father didn't, he merely looked evenly at her. It was, for her, a terrifying sort of silence.

"Father…" she asked, her words like a stick checking for pitfalls, "did something happen?"

Silence. Then, without the faintest trace of emotion, he said: "A member of the Branch House is dead."

Hinata blinked, several times. Blood thundered in her ears and her brain raced her heart. Her eyes widened. When she'd taken Hanabi to the skies, Father had oddly been missing, and normally nothing would take him out of the compound on business at such an hour unless… but if that was the case-

She breathed and found it surprisingly difficult.

"Who?"

"Baiko. Sei's son."

Hinata had a vague recollection of an older boy who'd given her some akumaki and laughed at her resulting expression when she'd bitten into the bitter confection, and an even vaguer recollection of someone, in the common area, unaccountably excited and-

"He joined the Anbu…" she said slowly. "He was - he was very nice."

Her father shot her a look that could have sliced steel and easily did the same to her words. "I asked him, unofficially, to monitor your opponent. He did so. He was found dead two nights ago, alongside another shinobi of the leaf - your proctor for the second exam, in fact."

Hinata felt her heart, which was already as low as it could go, go out to her sensei. "…Anko's dead?"

"Your other proctor. Hayate Gekko."

The coughing man. "…oh."

And then Father did something - spoke without moving his lips. She hadn't known he could do that. "At least one of Baiko's eyes appear to have been taken before he died."

At first, she didn't understand.

Then Hinata felt the blood in her veins freeze solid. It was every Hyuuga's nightmare come to life. Being alive as people cut out your eyes and left you to die in the dirt. The Uchiha had their own massacre - but it had left alive only one child and the perpetrator had been one of theirs. The Hyuuga had had theirs as well, many generations ago, but it had been strangers that had done it. The wounds of that event had yet to heal and left the scars that lasted to this day.

She understood now why a bodyguard as experienced as Uncle Taiki had been assigned to her.

The ice in her veins gave way to fire. The resulting hiss made her hair stand up, as if buffeted by a wind, flickering with silver light.

Because this was Konoha. This, the center of their power, the stronghold of their might, how could- how could this happen. How could the Hokage, how could Father let this-

Father was watching her carefully without seeming to.

"I… I should have been told," she said letting her clenched hands relax.

He nodded. He spoke once more with his lips. "Perhaps. But the position as heir… I was not certain you wanted it. Nor that you had the strength to hold it."

"And now?" Hinata whispered.

"The strength is yours. The will…" he looked away. "The details of Baiko's death, well, many did not wish for me to inform you. The branch house still does not know. The council of elders does not wish this to get out. But this is the second time a member of the Branch House has made the ultimate sacrifice for my sake during a time of peace. I would believe it… wiser if they knew the truth of it."

He was trying to be kind, Hinata knew, couching it as a sacrifice on his behalf when ultimately, even if she hadn't known about it, it had been for her sake. She looked down at her feet. She could remember Neji's cold, hard words as they had fought and the colder, harder words in the hospital room.

And she understood the brutal logic of it, of not letting the Branch House know why one of theirs had died. It would be easy. Baiko had died alongside another shinobi of the leaf. Easy enough to spin it as an action against Konoha, and not a sacrifice of the Branch House on behalf of the Main. It might even be true.

But they'd taken his eyes.

Was this, ultimately, why Neji had thought the Main House had killed his father?

But, and though she knew the thought was unworthy of her, traitorous in its cowardice, she still thought it anyway: no one would know.

But should Father tell the Branch House… if another member of her family should have died for her…

"They will h-hate me," she said in a small voice.

"Probably," he said. "They will hate me more - but it is easy to attack weakness instead of strength. Just as the Branch House protects the Main House, the Main House must protect the Branch House. That was the agreement. But as Head, you must protect the Hyuuga from themselves." He looked at her in a way she had never quite seen before. There was a quality in his eyes usually absent. Open curiosity. "Can you shoulder that burden?"

For a moment, just a moment, Hinata wished to run. To say no. To let Hanabi just have it and be done with it.

But Baiko was dead and his eyes had been taken. He had been kind to her. So many, had been kind to her when it was for her sake they carved that abominable seal into their brows.

"Yes," whispered Hinata.

"There will be a memorial service when his mother returns from her work in the field. It may be two weeks, or two months - it is not the sort of mission that can be pulled out of on a whim. Make your decision before then. I will support it, whatever it may be."

He strode carefully back to the center of the ring.

And, as if that entire conversation had not taken place, he said:

"You have improved, as expected. But what you are doing to your bones makes them brittle, and until you learn to suppress the flare of natural chakra, your motions, however quick, are too obvious. Try it again, with your bones correctly proportioned this time."

He settled back into a neutral stance.

Hinata let her bones fill once more, sped forward and pounced.

-----

It was only much later, when relaxing in the hot springs - not the public use ones, she'd die of mortification first what with it being Naruto's training area and frequented by Jiraiya, known pervert - that Hinata realized that her father had begun re-teaching her the basics.

He was drilling her in jyuken, but in such a way that it would fit with a newfound focus on speed.

--

[x] He was leaving openings, little things, that she wouldn't be able to reach with her hands, but might with her feet. (Silver Carnival Omnidexterity (Earth))

[x] He was staying away, forcing her to double down on her speed focus, teaching her the value of obeying her unthinking reflexes, but it was a question posed that her silver chakra wanted to answer differently. (Sudden Snap-Shadow (Earth))

[x] He countered each blow perfectly, letting not a single movement escape his eyes, training her to move with the smallest possible motion, but her silver chakra was endlessly malleable and it sought to escape his gaze. (Lightning Hand Presdigitation (Earth))


--

It would have made her feel elated if not for the fact that he had also given her a challenge, a true challenge, far beyond that of a simple chuunin exam. If she wanted to be the leader of the clan that would bring the clan together, to see Mother's vision come true, she needed to do more than want it. She needed to act.

The first step was power. She had it. Or, at least, enough to be acknowledged by her father if not the other elders.

Her father had told her that 'the Main House protected the Branch House.'

She had yet to see that happen.

She stood, water pouring away. There was a solution staring at her right in the face. Go see-

"Honored Sister?"

Hinata yelped and fell back into the water and rose, spluttering. Hanabi was staring at her strangely, not moving to get into the water.

"Are you… wearing a seashell?"

Hinata looked down.

She was indeed wearing a seashell.

"...y-yes?"

"Huh. Well, there's a blond idiot at the gate who's asking for you. The guys on duty told him to go away, but he's apparently stupidly persistent, should I tell him to-"

Hanabi took a step backwards at the vehemence of her sister's reaction.

"Tell him I'll be right there!"

-----

Five minutes later Hinata had managed to towel herself off, get rid of the giant seashell, shrug on some clothes and even force her hair into some semblance of order, and then appeared at the front door. She was certain she'd scandalized some of her family members who were under the happy delusion that her best qualities were her ability to walk quietly and disappear into the wallpaper.

"Hi Naruto!" she said brightly, so flush on nerves that she wasn't stuttering.

He smiled and waved.

"Your house is really big," he told her, impressed. He held one apologetic hand up in the traditional gesture that looked like half a prayer. "I think… I might have vandalized one of the fences once, my bad. I didn't think that people lived here."

Her mind was still whirring away at a very different problem so her reaction was automatic.

"I - I liked it!"

And then her ears caught up with her mouth and present Hinata was staring at past Hinata in dismay and quite a bit of contempt, but present Hinata melted a bit as Naruto's eyes got really big and he puffed his chest out.

"Yeah, that was some pretty great work! Maybe we can do it together some time, hey?"

".……………s-s-sure?" Hinata said weakly.

Oh yes, this was a good idea. Vandalizing the compound. Father would have an aneurysm. The collective Main House would have an aneurysm. She might become Clan Head by default so long as no one came back as a vengeful ghost to denounce her.

Fortunately, Naruto was not quite as stupid as people thought he was, and added, regretfully: "But I prolly shouldn't. I'm training to become the next Hokage - Hokages can't vandalize things."

Hinata carefully did not point out the Hokage's mountain, nor the Forest of Death, nor the fact that once you were the Hokage it stopped being vandalism and became part of the Village's patrimony. Naruto might get a kick out of it, but he might also decide to start pranking people again on general principle and Hinata honestly was not sure she wouldn't join him if he invited her to.

No, that was a lie. She wouldn't.

Right?

Something in her shrugged its shoulders and reminded her of the time she burst through the wall of her own room, 'kidnapped' her sister for a flight, turned into a flying pig in front of the Hokage… and that was just a week worth of incidents.

Oh dear.

"I-it is not in keeping with a Hokage's image," she finally said, aiming for scrupulous honesty.

"Yeah!" Naruto said, making her conscience twinge painfully. "Exactly! Anyway, Jiraiya-sensei told me to get you and Uncle Baldy-"

Naruto had the feeble excuse that he had the situational awareness of a dead fish: Hinata did not. She was on a hunter-tracker team and really should have noticed that her sister was indulging in a bad eavesdropping habit. She popped out from behind a wall like an excited rabbit.

"You know Lord Jiraiya?!"

-----

Lord Jiaraiya rubbed his temples.

"This is turning into a damn Academy classroom," he said, waving around what appeared to be an essay of some sort, ink still fresh. Hinata caught a familiar name and raised her metaphorical eyebrows - Jiraiya seemed to be quite focused on helping that girl with too many love troubles. "I am not supposed to be kid friendly. In fact, you might say that I'm kid unfriendly."

Hanabi's eyes were shining. His words had gone in one ear and then immediately out the other. "Teach me how to fight, Lord Jiraiya!"

Jiraiya ignored her and glared at Uncle Taiki.

Uncle Taiki shrugged and said, somewhat solemnly: "If you wish to keep your presence a secret, send a more discreet messenger next time."

Jiraiya groaned. "Ugh. Naruto." He snapped his finger. "Smaller princess. Go try to beat the dumb blond's face in. Naruto, continue trying to summon. It'll be good live combat training for you."

Naruto knit his brow. "But she's only-"

Hanabi, who Hinata knew from painful experience was probably better at taijutsu than he was, took the opportunity to kick Naruto. To be fair, she didn't use any jyuken. To be unfair, she kicked him in a sensitive area.

"Ugggggh!" said Naruto, clutching his unmentionables and sinking to the ground.

This was a mistake because Hanabi immediately tried to kick his teeth in. But Naruto, showing the tenacity and stamina he was so famed for, jerked out of the way, hopping out onto the hot springs water, standing on the surface with enviable control and a little wincing and rearranging of his clothes.

"You - you - your sister's so nice!" he cried, pointing at Hanabi like it was some sort of dire insult.

"Yeah," said Hanabi with cheerful bloodthirstiness, "I'm the mean one. How do you walk on water?"

"Well you-" Naruto began.

She shrugged and flipped her hair. "Don't tell me. If an idiot like you can figure it out, I can too."

Naruto sputtered and gnashed his teeth. "You - you devil-child!"

"Yes. Yes I am," Hanabi said proudly then jumped into the water - whereupon she sank like a stone.

She emerged a second later, paddling at the water, disgruntled.

Naruto, very maturely, pointed and laughed at the kid five years younger than him.

Hinata looked up at Jiraiya.

"You figure out my little gift yet?" he asked.

She shook her head apologetically. "I-I-"

"Mmm, well, either it'll come or it won't," he said philosophically. "Here, let's-"

"PleasetellmeaboutBaiko," she said, all in a rush. She flushed at her temerity, but stared at him in the eye.

It was the solution she had figured out in the hot springs in the clan compound. Ask for help. Yesterday, Uncle Taiki and Jiraiya had had a whispered conversation on the downlow. She hadn't tried to listen in, but with what Father had told her this morning, there could only be so many items of interest for either of them.

And if anyone could help, Lord Jiraiya could.

Jiraiya went very still and shot a look at Uncle Taiki then back down at Hinata.

"Princess…" he said slowly, "are you sure?"

She looked up at him, almost defiantly. "Y-yes!"

"And," his eyes pierced hers, jovial veneer of perverse buffoonery falling away, reminding her that this was a sannin, arguably as strong as the Hokage if not stronger, his chakra looming like a fiery mountain, his eyes unblessed by any bloodline but no less weak for it. "What will you do with this knowledge?"

She was silent, feeling a weight settle around her shoulders.

"Because, and pardon my language, Princess, you are just a genin. Worse comes to worse, you will know, but you won't be able to act on this knowledge."

Hinata looked away from his burning gaze. "It was my fault Baiko died."

"Debatable, and a terrible reason. Try again."

----

[x] "I - I - I don't know!" Her eyes shot towards where Naruto and Hanabi were playing, "But I have to - I have to protect my Clan! I have to protect Konoha!"

[x] She carefully did not look at Uncle Taiki. "As the f-future leader of the Hyuuga, I need to be aware of what's happening in Konoha and to Konoha."

[x] She looked down at her feet. "…I - I don't n-need to know. But I will speak at Baiko's funeral and talk to his m-mother."

-----

"...huh," said Jiraiya. His suffocating intensity dwindled until it was nothing more than an ember and Hinata found herself taking a ragged breath. "Let me talk to your uncle for a moment and see what he thinks, mkay?"

Hinata waited anxiously as the two of them went off.

She took out Jiraiya's gift and twiddled it in her hands, like she might twiddle her thumbs together. It was indeed, still a stone kunai. Before she could do more than try injecting a wisp of her chakra into it, her attention was captured by the fact that Hanabi had somehow gotten Naruto in a headlock and was currently dunking his head beneath water and before she could cry out for her to stop, there was a boomf, and smoke that filled a quarter of the hot springs, and a frog twice the size of Nemugi was blinking in confusion, Hanabi and Naruto still on its back, wrestling wildly next to, of all things, a giant spatula.

Hinata jammed the thing back into her pocket and ran towards them, feet slapping against stone and then water as she wildly began waving her hands.

Unattended, her little gift began to transform, from stone trinket to… well, it was still a stone trinket. But it seemed strangely more solid and yet somehow less: the stone took on a slightly two toned-complexion and had any eyes been paying attention to it, probably would have watered to see it before it settled down.

In the resulting confusion - which included an evacuation of all the civilians from the Hot Springs - Jiraiya never did get back to her, having abruptly vanished.

Hinata resolved never to bring Hanabi back to the Hot Springs and lectured her at great length on the importance of propriety, honorable conduct and graceful elegance all the way home, only for Uncle Taiki to put in, almost regretfully: "Lord Jiraiya has requested her presence in future training sessions."

Hanabi had her nose in the air so high she could probably cloud-walk.

-----

The next day, Hinata woke to the sight of her arms as normal arms and her legs as normal legs. This was unusual enough that she had to nod to herself in satisfaction before she stretched and yawned.

She got all the way through breakfast this time before something interrupted.

Rather, someones.

"What's going on?" she asked Uncle Taiki who had unobtrusively taken up an attendant's position behind her. Throughout the Hyuuga compound, people were walking or running, moving in a stream, heading to the front gate or the armory.

"The birds in the Forest of Death have all taken flight," he said grimly.

Hinata narrowed her eyes. She'd… seen something along those lines, when flying with Hanabi. The list of things that could make all the birds of the Forest of Death want to run away was rather short.

"Only the birds?" she asked.

"From what's been reported, yes."

"Chakra orchids," she whispered.

Uncle Taiki nodded, looking slightly surprised at her knowledge. "It is probable."

Hinata shuddered. Chakra Orchids were a reoccurring infestation of parasitic plants that the Forest of Death seemed to spit out at random intervals. The last had happened nearly twenty years ago - before she'd been born. While the plants themselves were a valuable ingredient and carefully cultivated by certain gardeners deep within buildings that no genin would be invited into, she had read about them. Like certain varieties of fungus that did the same to ants, it could take control of animals and would use them to spread more of themselves.

They were incapable of parasitizing birds. No one was sure why, but it always resulted in either the death or flight of all the local avian wildlife. Detecting chakra orchids in the Forest of Death was considered a village-wide emergency. With the chuunin exams and the presence of other villages, it was probable that all the off-duty ninja that could deal with the problem were being mobilized. That included the Hyuuga who could see farther than most and identify the source of the infection.

Or one that could… turn into a bird.

Hinata's chopsticks clattered onto the table.

"I-"

-----

[x] -can help."

PATH: Combat. Naruto and Shino will join you in a mission to help deal with the Chakra Orchid infestation in the Forest of Death. Advances the 'Hinata as Heroine' Storyline.

[x] -should inform Lord Jiraiya."

PATH: Investigations. Jiraiya believes the Chakra Orchids are a distraction and will take on all the help he can get while the Village itself is undermanned. Advances the 'Hinata as Heiress' Storyline.

[x] …nevermind."

PATH: Research. Hinata will look into her little gift. Something else will happen during this time. Advances the 'Hinata as Horror' Storyline.

-----

What's up with this paths stuff

Alright, after some thinking (and not a whole lot of it) I've decided to rejigger this quest. I'm doing away with a lot of the complicated dice-rolling and jutsu/charm picking in favor of three story roles.

Heroine. Heiress. Horror.

'Hinata as Heroine' involves - much like it sounds - more heroic action. There's a threat: you fight it. There's a party and you get roaring drunk (okay, maybe you kind of are there and um, well, er, that's enough, right?). Storylines involving Hinata as Heroine will be more focused on friendship, combat and the Village as a whole. In general, they favor charms and jutsu relating to combat, but this is not a hard and fast rule. The Rookie Generation tend to be the principal actors during these storylines.

'Hinata as Heiress' plots will be more political in nature. The spy thriller to the heroine's action movie. The plots will be slightly more cerebral (this is still a shounen so probably not that cerebral), and for Hinata, less fun. However, such plots do advance Hinata's motivation in a more tangible way then the Heroine plots will. In general, the Heiress plots favor jutsus and charms that are more related to social combat. Again, not a hard and fast rule. The Hyuuga Clan and elders are the main characters during these storylines.

'Hinata as Horror' is purely for the alliteration, it does not mean that Hinata will become some sort of Shoggoth. Hinata as Horror plots involve Hinata exploring, pushing and transgressing boundaries. Seeking out forbidden knowledge, exploring the unmappable, seeking out the unseekable. In general, the Horror plots will favor charms and jutsus that are either more mystical in nature, or outside of Luna's remit in some way. These storylines tend to focus on Hinata herself and outsiders in some way.

Finally, there will be no more dice rolling, just general eyeballing and me writing what I feel fits.