Feral Dreams

Sobbing permeated the room as Hinata gently stroked the hair of the little girl curled against her chest. She had told the two of them the entire story, from start to finish, leaving only certain... more personal things untold. The results had been as she had expected, Tsunade had left with only telling her to meet her at her office in the early afternoon and to bring the girl with her, and Sair had cried when she was told about her mother.

After she had finished recounting her mission and Tsunade had left, she opted to stay in the exam room for a while to tend to the distressed Sair. Twenty minutes had passed in the relative silence, and Hinata was fairly confident it could continue that way for hours, unfortunately, she really wanted to go home. Deciding to be somewhat selfish, she stood up, keeping Sair safely tucked against her chest, and left the hospital room intent on nothing more than returning to the compound and going to bed.

She received several curious looks as she navigated the streets with a crying child in arm, but her kind reputation doused any possible mutterings of mistreatment. People mumbled various foolish stories about what Hinata may be doing, but she simply ignored them and continued her trek home.

Once the busy streets of Konoha were behind her and she finally stood before the wooden gates of the Hyuga compound, she continued on, only to be greeted with an unpleasant surprise. The guards at the gate to the Hyuga compound were unusually silent as they simply nodded to Hinata and gestured for her to pass, and unfortunately, this usually meant that she was expected somewhere.

She walked past the gate into the main compound and headed towards the main house complex at a quick pace. She knew she had to see her father, but she really didn't want to deal with any kind of clan politics today, even though it was just getting around dusk, she was tired and just wanted to sleep.

Silently she tip-toed into the main house, holding her shoes with her free hand and soundlessly glided through the many hallways towards her room. Thankfully, Sair had fallen asleep so her presence would not be given away by the sounds of her crying.

She encountered no one as she hastily moved from hallway to hallway, adamant on avoiding contact with anyone until she was within the safety of her own room. Five more hallways. four more hallways, three more hallways, need to wait for the maids to pass, two more hallways.

"Daughter, why did you not come to the library where you were expected."

"Shit." She swore in her head, two hallways down from her room and of course she passes her father while stepping through an intersection. She turned to her left to face her father who was standing in the shadows a few meters back, "I wasn't informed that I was expected anywhere?" At least it was a half truth, unfortunately it was something of an unspoken rule that she needed to report to her father after any of her missions.

Hiashi arched an eyebrow at his daughter who was protectively holding an arm over an odd shaped, over-large bulge beneath her jacket, "Don't play more a fool than already you are. You are always to report to me after your missions."

The sounds of grinding teeth could be heard quite loud from the young Hyuga as she locked eyes with her father. The painful pressure on her jaw mingling with the irritation she was feeling made her wish once again that she hadn't run into her father today.

"I'm sorry father, I guess I wasn't aware of being a fool." She spoke somewhat more spitefully than intended, but decided that continuing with her tone would be the best course of action, "As I recall, I always report to you once I am ready, and if I am tired or injured I am given until afternoon the following day. That being said, I am tired... I will speak to you at noon tomorrow father, good night." She turned her back on her father and walked off towards her room.

Hiashi stared at the point where his daughter had been moments ago, a stunned silence violating his normally stoic demeanor. Thoughts on how to deal with this interesting development permeated his mind for several minutes until, with a firm nod to himself, he turned around and walked off in the direction of the dojo.

After arriving at the building, the sounds of a single person practicing katas from behind the closed doors could be heard. With one last mental confirmation of his request, he slid open the door and stepped in, "Neji, I need to ask you something."


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After stepping into her room and closing the door behind her, Hinata was caught between several difficult decisions, all of which sounded wonderful: She could go straight to sleep, she could take a shower, or she could flip out that she told off her father. Sleep was winning but the other two options still hadn't been ruled out.

Choosing to leave the decision undecided for the moment, she walked up to the side of her bed and withdrew the sleeping form of Sair from beneath her coat, laying her down beneath the covers. Immediately and without waking up, she rolled around, bundling the covers around herself in a cocoon of blankets.

Shaking her head at the girl's cute antics, Hinata turned away from the bed and opened up the doors of her armoire. With an exhausted sigh, she removed her heavy black coat and hung it beside the white coat she always wore, feeling a distinct loss of safety after having removed her protective layer. Feeling thoroughly disgusting, she stripped off all of her excess ninja gear and disheveled clothing, tossing all but her weapon pouches into the clothes hamper she kept beside the washroom. Now feeling slightly less grungy, she rummaged through her drawers and pulled out some loose white pants and a white cotton tank top of which she donned quickly. Before returning to her bed, she examined herself in the large mirror that hung off the armoire's inside door and muttered several things under her breath in response to what she saw.

She had very little self confidence in her appearance on the best of days, now she was combining her normal thoughts with the appearance of substantial amounts of dried blood and grime, as well as discolored bruises that could be seen poking out from different areas beneath her shirt. Her hand pressed against the glass as she stared pitifully at the sorry state of her appearance in the mirror's reflection.

A minute passed with her looking on and the more she stared at the reflection, the more she noted it looked odd. Her first though was that maybe she had fallen asleep, but that wouldn't make sense since she knew she had been standing.

Inch by inch, her face crept closer to the mirror in an attempt to figure out what it was that was drawing her attention. With her nose practically pressed up against the glass, she finally noticed what it was, there was a large smudge of dirt beneath her hand that when seen in the reflection made her index finger look distinctly fat and swollen. She laughed at her own paranoia, pulling her hand away and leaving a dribbling trail of blood down the mirror.

A moment passed in confusion as she glanced between her own unmarred hand and the trail of blood cascading down from the hand still pressed against the other side of the mirror. Dawning fear snapped her eyes wide as she looked back only to see her own distorted reflection set in a malicious grin, eyes having turned a milky black and hand still pressed forward, bleeding through the glass.

Unprepared and panicking, she screamed and struck out at the mirror, putting her fist through the glass and cracking the hard wood behind it. The shattered glass cascaded over her fist and forearm to the ground, leaving great tears across Hinata's unmarred flesh. Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes as she breathed heavily, realizing a little to late that whatever it was had not been real. Real blood poured from the many cuts across her arm and hand as well as from the shards of glass embedded in her knuckles. Blood splattered along the hard wood floor, mingling with the brutal shards of the mirror, forming a rather savage looking collage.

"Hinata?" Sair's fearful voice came from beneath the covers.

She tried to think of something comforting to say, but came up blank, "I saw something I didn't want to see." She sighed, not wanting to scare Sair, she turned back to the broken mirror, "Go back to sleep okay? I'll be there in a minute, I just need to clean this up." She stepped around the shards and moved off into the bathroom without looking back at the cowering little girl.

Cold water poured over her many cuts as Hinata carefully picked the larger shards of glass out of her skin and dropped them into the garbage can beside her. She grumbled to herself as one by one the painful shards were removed, "Great, I'm not even asleep yet and I'm already having nightmares." She winced as she pulled out a large fragment that had wedged into her knuckle, "What am I going to see next, ghostly apparitions outside my windows?" Her mutterings and grumbling continued but even she stopped paying attention to what she was saying as she tended to her hand.

Even though Hinata spoke quietly as she conversed with herself over the sound of running water, her voice trailed into the main room where Sair listened with fearful, but rapt attention.

A few minutes later, Hinata returned from the washroom with a substantial amount of bandages wrapped around her right hand and a towel in her left. She walked over to the pile of glass and using the towel she had in hand, brushed all the mirror fragments beneath the armoire where they could be taken care of tomorrow. Content with the quick cleanup job, she dropped the towel on the ground and crawled into bed, happy to get away from everything for at least the next few hours.

Unfortunately, she didn't receive much time to enjoy herself after closing her eyes, since almost immediately, she felt someone poking her shoulder incessantly. She cracked open an eye to see Sair's arm sticking out from a mass of blankets, swirled around the girl from head to toe.

Unable to be angry at the strangely adorable display, she laughed to herself, "Trying to become a butterfly are we?"

"No... ummm, Hinata?" her voice sounded worried, as though she wanted to ask something but was afraid of the answer.

She opened her eyes completely and sat up, "What's wrong?" Hinata was incredibly tired, but she asked in as concerned a voice as she could muster.

"Can...can Sair still..." Her voice trailed off as she spoke.

"I can't hear you with all your padding," Hinata unwound one of the blankets from Sair's head so that some of her black hair poked out and one eye could be seen, "Try that again."

Sair stalled for a second, still uncertain about her question, but gave up and asked again, "Can Sair still call you mommy?"

The question surprised Hinata, she had dreamed of one day having children of her own, and inevitably being called such things, but she wasn't certain that she deserved to be called that by Sair. They had only met a few hours ago and even though Hinata had agreed to be her caretaker, wasn't this a little to fast.

She appraised the young girl whose eyes had a worried but hopeful intensity to them, her body trembled in anticipation of Hinata's response. The situation was still a little too odd for Hinata, so she picked her words carefully and hoped for the best, "Call me whatever you want."

"Okay... ummm, one more thing mommy." Her voice came out happy but still sounded somewhat distressed.

"And that would be?" She responded in an amused tone, still uncertain herself if she'd enjoy being called mommy or not.

"Can you unstuck Sair?" She wiggled around ineffectively as if to drive her point home.

The tension evaporated as Hinata unwrapped Sair, playfully poking the little girl once she was able to move on her own. With a newly released Sair, Hinata gathered the multiple blankets that she had been wearing and stretched them out over the two of them.

As soon as the blankets were down, Hinata felt two small arms wrap around her waist and a head nuzzle into her stomach. While far from comfortable, Hinata just didn't care anymore, so she laid a protective hand over the girls head, and drifted off to sleep.

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The beams of the breaking dawn stirred Hinata from her dreams, forcing her to rise and face another day that she really didn't want to. She carefully extracted herself from Sair's grip and made her way around the bed to her bathroom.

"A shower would be nice." She thought to herself as she turned on the water, hoping to wash away the tiredness and grime accumulated over the last few days. She adjusted the temperature for a bit until it was to her liking, then stripped down, leaving her clothing in a pile and stepped into the hot shower.

Time evaporated as the hot spray from the shower head soaked into her skin, covering every inch of her body in its scalding embrace and dripping rivulets down all the contours of her body while threatening to rob her of thought. Her eyes closed as the water flowed over her like a second skin, beckoning her to never leave its embrace. Slowly she guided her hands up her body, from the length of her legs, to the curves of her hips, to the swell of her breast. The water drowned all her sorrows and at least for the time being, made her relax.

Over the sound of crashing water, she heard movement in the main room, "I'm in here Sair." She spoke in a normal voice, but could tell she had been heard when the movements shifted and headed towards the bathroom.

Sair stepped into the bathroom with a blanket draped around her shoulders, her yukata having become tangled and partially untied over the night, "Mommy?" Her eyes remained half closed as it was obvious that she was not completely awake yet.

Hinata smirked at the small girl as she stepped out from the warm confines of the heated water and into the slightly chilled air. Feeling the cold air over her wet skin, she loosed an involuntary shiver as she bent down to face the set of crimson eyes. "Now why don't we get you cleaned up as well Sair." She said as she removed the blanket and disrobed the girl.

Either Sair didn't understand what was happening or she simply didn't care until it was to late. She hadn't reacted or objected when being stripped, but as soon as she was put in the direct line of water, she was like a cat trying to escape the rain. Hinata found a certain degree of enjoyment in washing the squirming child. Despite putting up a good fight, in the end Hinata managed to get an arm around Sair's stomach and forcefully scrubbed her down with her free hand.

Sair pouted as she sat on the bed, swathed in towels after her shower. Hinata payed no mind to the girl and went about drying herself off and putting on some clean clothes. Once she was comfortably dressed in her form fitting black mesh shirt and pants, she opened her armoire and reached for the white jacket she always wore. The back of her hand grazed past the black fabric of the other jacket resting beside the one she had reached for, causing her to pause. After hesitating a moment, she reached over and grabbed Naruto's jacket and pulled it around her shoulders. She hugged the jacket to herself, feeling both comfort and safety envelope her as she pulled her arms through the sleeves.

"The nice man will want his jacket back when he gets back." Sair spoke innocently, not realizing that her words felt like knives to the older kunoichi.

She took a deep breath to calm herself before speaking, "No he won't, it was a gift." She turned around and ruffled Sair's damp hair, "But on the subject of clothing, we're going to need to get you some. My sister should have some older clothes that are around your size."

Sair's eyes widened in surprise, "Mommy didn't tell Sair she had a sister."

"I really don't think I had a lot of time to tell you anything about my life. In fact, other than some of my friends and my name, I don't think I got a chance to tell you anything." Her lips tweaked into a smirk as the look of surprise intensified on Sair's face. "We'll have more time for that over the next few weeks, for now, more important things... like clothes." She emphasized her point by poking Sair playfully in the stomach.

A light knock came at the door, "Hinata-sama, are you awake yet?" She could make out Neji's voice coming from the other side.

Hinata ruffled Sair's hair some more and leaned down to eye level with her, "Can you wait here for a few minutes, I need to talk with him." She nodded in response, allowing Hinata to turn around and head towards the door.

She slid the door to the side revealing her cousins tall form, his long black hair could be seen trailing down around his knees clashing against the pristine white of his loose clothing. She held up her hand to silence him a moment, as she stepped out into the hallway beside him and slid the door shut behind her.

"Hiashi-sama is waiting for you Hinata-sama." Neji bowed to her respectfully as he delivered his message.

Hinata rolled her eyes, drawing a disapproving look from her older cousin, "I told him yesterday that I would see him at noon, therefore I will see him at noon. My father should know by now that when I make a schedule I keep to it." Her voice echoed down the hallway as she spoke with significantly more intensity than was needed, "Tell me Neji, what did he ask you to find out from me?" It was blatantly obvious to her, even though she could never read if Neji was lying, it just made sense that her father was not pleased with her attitude and would try to investigate the reason.

Thinking that he had failed in concealing his inquiry, Neji looked away, "I don't know what you're talking about."

She blinked several times, watching the strange and uncommon display from her cousin. It took a moment for her to realize that he thought he had screwed up, at which point she just shook her head in a bemused manner, "I angered my father yesterday Neji, it's obvious he would want to know why I acted as I did. So what did he ask you to find out?"

Accepting her explanation, Neji looked up to face her again, "He wanted to know what happened on your mission that would cause such a radical change in your demeanor."

Hinata looked deeply into his cold and calculating pale eyes, thinking how she should answer his query, "He'll hear everything in a few hours, he can wait that long. But Neji nii-san," Hinata had raised her hand towards him but stopped and hesitantly withdrew her arm.

Hinata's seemingly bi-polar reactions were deeply confusing the young Jounin as he tried to understand her variable reactions.

"Neji, could you attend the meeting as well?"

Her frightened words continued to confuse him, "What's wrong Hinata-sama?" He asked, his concern evident.

Snapping out of her momentary weakness, she shook her head to clear her mind before responding to him, "Nothing, nothing is wrong, I simply do not wish to tell the story twice. So please, inform my father I will be there at noon and that I requested for you to attend."

Neji gave her an appraising look, her countenance had returned to normal and she seemed little different that her standard self, "Very well Hinata-sama, I will notify your father immediately."

He turned to leave when her hand grasped his shoulder and turned him back around, inquisitively he looked back to her, "Neji nii-san, I have a small favor to ask."

He arched an eyebrow at her, "That being?"

"Can you please find Hanabi and send her here? I need her help with something."

Neji didn't question the sudden friendly relationship that Hinata seemed to portray between her and Hanabi, he simply nodded to her in confirmation, and wandered off down the hall.

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Hanabi disliked being woken up early on her days off, but Neji had been quite adamant on dragging her out of bed and pushing her towards her sister's room. Stumbling through the hallways, half asleep, she stopped herself in front of a mirror on a side table to take in her morning appearance.

Her short, lithe frame was wrapped gracelessly in simple yukata that she had thrown on and her long, silken black hair was disheveled and messy. It irritated her to no end that her normal cold, elegant grace was lost in the grogginess of mornings.

Not wanting to watch herself anymore, she turned back the direction she was heading and trudged off towards Hinata's room.

Several wrong turns later, she found herself in front of her desired location. Without bothering to knock, she slid the door open, hollering, "Nee-chan, what the hell did you want? It's my day off today!"

Having expected her sister to have some courtesy when entering another persons room, Hinata stared up in surprise as she sat on the floor with her back against the bed. Sair whom had been redressed in her yukata, sat in Hinata's lap, gazing curiously at the person intruding into her mother's room, "Mommy, is she your sister?"

The simple question brought Hinata back to reality, "Yup, she may be a little ragged at the moment but that would be my sister Hanabi... I guess that would make her your aunt."

Sair's eyes flared in excitement at the implication of a new member of her family, "Really?" Sair ungracefully flopped out of Hinata's lap and scurried over to the youngest Hyuga, who since making her entrance, had been rendered unable to speak. She stood in front of Hanabi staring up with wide eyes, her head coming up to around Hanabi's collar bone, "Hi aunty Hana, Sair is Sair." Taking Hanabi's continued dumbfounded silence as acceptance, she stepped forward and hugged Hanabi around her waist.

Stretching loudly, Hinata stood and approached her sister, an entertained smirk on her face, "Hanabi, meet Sair."

A normal human brain can process thousands of different actions simultaneously, however at this moment, Hyuga Hanabi's current mental capacities rested at two. The first being breathing, the second being the stalled process of her attempting to understand what was going on in front of her.

A loud cracking sound by her ear ripped her from her stupor as she saw Hinata face to face with her, snapping her fingers. Finally noticing recognition in her sister's eyes, Hinata stood up straight, grinning amusedly at her sisters stunned expression. "Just to tell you, she's not going to let go of you until you greet her."

Though still confused, Hanabi understood the warning, so she uncertainly placed her hand gently on top of the girl's head in hopes that it would free her. The desired effect was had as Sair smiled and stepped back from Hanabi.

Turning back to her older sister, Hanabi tried to think of appropriate questions to ask, but in the end all that came out was, "You have a kid?"

Embarrassed by the bluntness of her question, Hinata turned beat red and sheepishly looked to the ground, "Sort of, but not in the way that your thinking."

Her curiosity peaked with the partial answer, "So then in what way do you have a daughter?" Hinata was definitely acting strange, so she decided to conduct a little test, "Don't tell me you and Naruto have been having fun without us finding out?"

Hinata's eye twitched, but she remained calm and didn't step up to her sister's bait. She leaned down close to Sair's ear and whispered lightly to her, "Sair, can you go get me the extra bandage I left on the floor in the bathroom?"

The little girl hopped on the spot to face Hinata, "Okay mommy." at which point she quickly walked off into the bathroom. Hanabi waited as Hinata watched the retreating form of the girl as she turned the corner into the washroom.

There was a loud ringing in Hanabi's ears and It took her a moment, but after shaking her head clear she found herself sprawled across the floor beside the wall, with no recollection of what had just transpired. A warm metallic tasting liquid swirled in her mouth and dribbled from the corner of her lips. She winced as she sat up, feeling the prominent sting in her right cheek radiate through the rest of her face. Hinata stood defiantly in the middle of the room, her arm stretched out across her chest, quivering from the bone jarring impact. Her eyes were intense as she glared down at her sister, "Insult me if you will, but watch what you say about Naruto."

Not having ever been exposed to the intensity of Hinata's wrath, Hanabi simply stared on, dumbfounded.

Feeling her point was made, Hinata stepped over to her sister and offered her hand. Hanabi's confusion ebbed away slowly, and after a few seconds, she reached up, accepting her sister's offer.

After having gotten Hanabi to her feet, Hinata pulled a folded handkerchief out of her pocket and handed it to her sister, "Here, use this, I suppose I hit you harder than I thought. It's just a bit of blood but wipe it off so Sair doesn't see."

Not wanting to comment on Hinata's altered demeanor, she took the handkerchief without a word. Hanabi dabbed at her lip, removing the offending liquid from sight and desperately peered around her sister to the washroom wanting to change the subject from before lest she suffer her sister's odd mood swings again, "Why is she taking so long?"

The comment had the desired effect as Hinata forced a guilty smile, "Because I sent her for something that wasn't there."

"Ah..." Hanabi went silent, wondering how she should go about asking the obvious question that was bothering her. "Sister?"

"Hmm?" Hinata responded with a sound of curiosity.

Deciding to take the blunt approach, Hanabi went straight to the point, "What happened to you?"

Her eyes turned downwards and Hanabi could see something flicker across them, but after a moment it was gone, "A lot, can we leave it at that?"

Not used to seeing her sister in this state, she decided it was best to drop the subject for the moment. Whatever it was that happened, it had given her sister a backbone and despite having been slapped, it made her somewhat proud that her sister was able to stand up for herself. She smiled lightly, her loose hair falling across her face, "So sister, what did you want from me anyway?"

Realizing things had gone completely off from the original intention she had of calling her sister, she shook her head to clear her thoughts and turned back to the girl before her, "I need to borrow some of your old clothes for Sair."

Hanabi quirked her head quizzically, "My clothes, why mine?"

She smirked tauntingly before responding, "Because you're short sister."

Hanabi did not like it when people brought her height into measure, she narrowed her eyes menacingly at Hinata, "What does that have to do with anything!"

"Because I'm five foot six, and you're four foot six, and she's even shorter than you! If I gave her my old clothes, she'd be wearing a dress three sizes too large from an old shirt."

Hanabi glared up, wanting to bite back with her own rebuttal, but the unfortunate part is that it was true. Height combined with her sisters prominent bust would pretty much guarantee that her clothes would never fit the little girl. "Fine." She said in a huff, unable to deny the practicality of the matter. "Tell me one thing though, why am I an aunt now?" Her own irritation was lost in her curiosity as she asked her older sister.

Hinata smiled contentedly, happy that at least something was working out, "Naruto asked me to take care of her... because he couldn't." her voice cracked as she mentioned his name, but she managed to stave off the tears that were threatening the edges of her eyes.

Catching the idea that questioning this further would be a bad idea, Hanabi changed the focus of her attention in the direction of the bathroom, "Hey Sair, come here, we're going to go see if I can find you something to wear." She called out to the door.

A small face poked around the corner, "But Sair hasn't found the bandages for mommy."

The edge of Hinata's lip curled into an amused smirk as she turned to face the girl, "It's okay, I found them out here. Anyway, you need some clothes since that yukata wont last forever."

"Okay mommy." Sair walked back over to Hanabi and looked up with the same curiosity she had displayed previously.

Turning to Hanabi, Hinata had a pleading look on her face, "After you find stuff for her to wear, can you watch her until lunch? I need to speak with father and I think it would be appropriate to explain the situation before she makes a mistake and accidentally calls him G-R-A-N-D-P-A." Hanabi laughed in understanding as Hinata spelt out her last word so that the young girl would not get any ideas.

"Sure thing." Hanabi looked down into Sair's deep crimson eyes, surprising her since it was the first time she had noticed them. However living in a house filled with white eyed individuals who could see through walls tended to make very few things having to do with eyes surprise you anymore. "Hey Sair, Hin... err... mommy needs to do some things this morning, so you're going to be staying with me for a while, okay?"

Sair turned around to Hinata, seemingly uncertain. Hinata simply nodded to the little girl and the reaction was immediate, her face brightened and she turned back to Hanabi, "Sair want, Sair want!"

Exasperated, Hanabi looked back to her sister, "You owe me for this." The statement left no room for argument, so Hinata simply nodded in acceptance. Hopefully she'd be able to think of some way to repay her sister for her help.

Within five minutes, Hanabi had Sair outside the door, ready to go. While sliding the door closed behind her, Hanabi stopped it a moment and turned back, "Good luck sister." then slid the door closed the remainder of the way.

The remainder of the morning blurred together, leaving Hinata no more than a hazy memory of what she was doing until she was standing in front of the door to her fathers study. The heavy, carved oak doors loomed over her, daring her to enter the room beyond their protection.

With a heavy sigh, she soundlessly pushed the doors open and stepped into the oppressive atmosphere of her father's study. The flickering lamp light danced across the thousands of books shelved along the walls, granting an eerie tang to the air. Her father sat behind a low table in the center of the room, reading a small book with a cup of tea in hand. Neji sat on a separate side of the table, seemingly lost in thoughts since he did not look up when she entered the room.

She cleared her throat to announce her presence causing both men to look up at her as she stood in the doorway, "Father." She bowed her head to her father to which he nodded in response, then gestured for her to sit. She took a seat opposite her father and waited, uncertain as to how she should start things.

Hiashi's eyes scanned her face thoroughly, appraising and identifying her current emotions and tension. He found it surprising that she seemed completely unafraid of him, rather she only seemed confused and worried. "This will be an interesting afternoon I think." he thought to himself as he closed the book and placed it lightly upon the table. "Daughter," Hinata stiffened, looking to her father uncertainly. "You are inside, remove that foolish jacket and explain the events of your mission."

Having almost forgotten that she was wearing Naruto's coat, she stood up then slipped it off her shoulders, and folded it lightly, sitting back down with it in her lap, "My apologies father, it is a keepsake."

Hiashi nodded, apparently starting to understand some of the situation, "That is acceptable daughter, now, your report."

Hinata took a deep breath, readying herself to relive her mission one more time from the beginning. And so she began her story for the second time.


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Sorry it took so long to update, the chapter was almost finished early last week but my muse ran away somewhere to a tropical island and it took a long time to get it back.

I hope you all enjoy my story thus far, and don't worry, it shouldn't be much longer before they begin the rescue attempt. I will try to introduce it in the next chapter, but if I can't get it in, then it will be in the one after.

Thanks to eternalshiva for writing The Hokage's Secret Closet which is a great story that gave me back my muse.

Please Read and Review :)

The_Keeper