"Neji, eat this." I say firmly, giving him a soldier pill. He eyes me curiously, but at my serious expression, he eats it silently. A few short minutes later, and white feathers are falling from the sky. Thanks to Kurenai, Neji and I can feel the genjutsu, even if I already knew what it was. We both instantly channel our chakra and release it. I look at Shino, but he already dispelled the jutsu as well thanks to his bugs. The Sand siblings aren't a threat right now, so I run to the roof along the side of the wall, Neji following.
"What's going on?" Neji asks me, looking around.
"We're under attack. Keep an eye out for enemies." I inform him. Before he can question it, an explosion goes off at the Kage's box, and we turn and see the Kazekage holding the Hokage at knife point. I don't hesitate to draw my bow. I aim it quickly at the fake Kage, and right as I see the Sound Four surrounding them, I launch off my arrow with the most speed I can. I smirk as it hit its target. It may not have been a kill shot, all his vitals were blocked, but a large hole through one's shoulder ought to slow even Orochimaru down.
"Did you just shoot the Kazekage?!" Neji asks me in disbelief.
"No, I just shot the man holding the Hokage at knife point." I counter, and the attack begins. Sound and Sand ninja start to appear from everywhere. We both turn and hear another explosion, seeing giant summoning snakes entering the village over by the Hokage tower.
"Neji, I can help with those snakes. Stay here and help fight, you're more needed here." I say, and he nods in agreement. That's one of the best things about Neji, absolute faith in me, just as I have in him. I know he will be fine with me gone, and he knows my ranged attacks are better suited against those monsters, so we have no time wasted on debate.
I head a little closer to the snakes, getting to a roof top that's away from the immediate fighting. I load up another arrow, infuse it, then send it flying through one of the heads open mouth. It screeches in pain but doesn't go down while I load up the next one. I aim at the eye of the middle snake this time, since the throat hit didn't take the other down. I loose my arrow, and it sinks in just as one of the other shinobi gets the other eye with exploding kunai. The middle snake goes down hard. I aim at the third head, and land that arrow into its eye as a giant toad summoning appears. Jiraiya has made his appearance, and he is taking on the first snake I shot. I look around for a moment, taking in the chaos of other smaller snake summoning's and enemy ninja. I make my way over to the Hokage tower, activating my eyes to see that it's almost empty. Only a few people are inside. I give myself two minutes to go in and find anything useful and get out.
I search the halls and head for the records rooms. I already know which rooms they are, but I can't go into two of them due to seals. A third one is open though, and I quickly scan for traps. Finding none that I can't avoid, I rifle through the contents. Jackpot, these are old records for meetings. I search through by year until I find the one from the massacre. I find the meeting notes, and scan them briefly. This will work, at least to plant a seed of doubt. I take out a blank scroll and imitate the outward appearance of the record, then put it away in the drawer, stealing the actual records. I have 30 second left, and move to the next room over. I spot the large scroll that Naruto steals of forbidden jutsu's, but it's heavily sealed up. I must be in a clan jutsu room or something, because I see technique scrolls on the table. Not forbidden ones, just basics. I go to the cabinet and search, and find the Flying Thunder God one. I don't have time to make a convincing copy, so I just steal it and hope no one wants to learn it besides me. I tuck it away without even checking its contents, then run back out to the battle.
I take on several Sound shinobi who must have had a similar plan to my raiding, because a large wave of about a dozen sound ninja came towards the tower as I exit. I take out my fans and use my micro blades attack on them, slicing them all down. I'm getting beyond exhausted at this point from so many large attacks. I take a moment to breath, and am caught off guard by a couple of Sand ninja. They got in a few good hits on me, knocking me down before backup came.
"Did you take down all of these guys yourself?" I hear someone ask me as they helped me sit up. I look up and see Ibiki looking down at me.
"Yeah, but not enough. Too tired after the exams and the snakes to get those others." I pant out tiredly as he helps me stand.
"Don't rest now." He warns me as more come towards us. I put away my fans, they use too much chakra that I don't have, and take out kunai. Ibiki smirks at me for a moment before facing the incoming enemies.
I join his group to fight for a while, until finally the battling dies down. I turn and look around, seeing a lot of destruction everywhere.
"I'm going now, I need to check on my brother. Thank you for the help, Ibiki." I say urgently as I leave. I run as fast as my tired, injured body can in order to make it back to Neji. I get to the stadium, looking around to find him. I spot Guy Sensei and Kakashi, and go to them first.
"Sensei." I say as I appear, "The battling in the village has died down, most if not all enemies are defeated." I report to him. "Where is my brother and Lee?" I ask desperately.
"I am right here, Ami!" Lee calls out from the stands. He's struggling to stand with his crutches. "I saw Neji leading the evacuation to the south exit."
I nod to him and set off to meet up with Neji. I find him there, injured but still relatively alright. We were both drained from our fights, but at least we had a soldier pill before the attack.
"Ami, there you are!" He calls out to be concerned. "I saw the snakes go down, but you didn't return."
"Got sidetracked, saw Sound ninja attempting to raid the Hokage tower. I took out the first wave, but got caught off guard when I was exhausted. Got saved by some other shinobi though, stayed with them for the second wave. How was it here?" I ask him tiredly.
"We had a lot of Jonin here, and ANBU, so it was mostly evacuating citizens. I helped take out a few though. Got hit by some rubble catching it." He shrugged in response and I sigh, knowing he's fine.
"Where's the Hokage?" I ask him, wondering if my arrow helped him at all.
"I haven't seen him since you shot the Kazekage." He replies, then follows me as I make my way back to where he was. We find him surrounded by his ANBU. He is dead, so I guess it didn't help him at all.
"Damnit." I mutter out quietly. One of the ANBU turns to me and walks over to me.
"You were the one to shoot the arrow, Ami Hyuga." He states to me and I nod sadly, "It helped. It slowed down Orochimaru's timing on an attack, and gave Lord Third the time he needed. But unfortunately, Orochimaru fought dirty and used resurrections. There was nothing anyone could do, but at least you got a shot in. I thank you for your reactions and speed."
"Orochimaru?" Neji and I ask together. I knew, but I have a part to play.
"Yes, he was impersonating the Kazekage." He informed us.
"So I didn't shoot the Kazekage then. That's good, I was really worried about repercussions. I just reacted." I chuckle nervously. That parts true, I was and still am worried for the blow back from shooting Orochimaru a second time. We bow and leave them to the Hokage and we rejoin our Sensei, who is helping Lee get out of the arena. We help him home, then head to our own as well. We patch each other up as best we can, neither of us so injured we need to go to the hospital. I take a bath and bid Neji good night, and go to examine the scrolls I stole.
The first scroll, the meeting minutes, has a lot of info in it, even if most of it is irrelevant. However, I do find the mention here from Lord Third. He had approved Shisui to use a special genjutsu technique to avoid the coup. It mentions how Danzo voted against it. When I read further, I almost shouted out in glee. Here is a passage stating that Itachi requested one person to be spared from the assassination. The document is heavily redacted, but I can still make out the details enough, and I know Sasuke will be able to as well. I copy the important details into a separate scroll for safe keeping, and then store both scrolls separately in my house, one in my room under a floor board, the other stored in the ceiling in our fathers room, just in case.
The next scroll I examine is for the Flying Thunder God transportation jutsu. There is not much detail in this at all. I look more at it, and realize this isn't the fourth Hokage's jutsu, this is Lord Second's incomplete version, it's really just his notes on it. I contemplate it for a long time. My father's words from his letter come to me. 'Shape your own destiny in this world, do not be guided by what is set. Always remember, nothing is set in stone.' and 'Forge your own destinies, Ami and Neji. Your fate is something you create with your own hands.' I can work with this. I can work with this incomplete jutsu and complete it myself.
The next day I go to visit Sasuke in the hospital, where he is yet again. "We really need to stop meeting like this." I smirk at him as I walk in. He's alone at the moment in his room.
"One day I'll visit you in the hospital. I'll gloat then." He says dryly to me. We trade stories about what we did during the siege, him telling me about Gaara, and how pissed he is that Naruto was the one who stopped him. I tell him about how Naruto beat Neji as well. I've grown curious about how I would do against him. As over confident as I am about my skills, he is unpredictable. I still think I would win though, just beat him fast and don't let him give a speech.
"When you're not broken anymore, let's train together again. It's been too long. Plus, you owe me for missing my match. I took that personally." I sarcastically scold him.
"Kakashi's fault." He grumbles. I could see he wanted to do his stupid sound thing but resisted it.
"How was training in lightning style?" I ask him, and he goes into some details about it. When I take his mind off the fight with Gaara, he seems like his usual self, but he is definitely darker when he contemplates his 'failure'. I tell him about how strong I got training with Guy Sensei in a year, and even about my training with Asuma. I'm trying to show him that there are good teachers in Konoha.
Before I leave the hospital, I pop in and visit Naruto as well. "Uh, hey, how are you?" I ask him as I awkwardly walk in. "I was visiting a friend, do I mind if I come in?"
"Huh?" Naruto looks confused for a moment, "Yeah, sure I'd like that." He says in a somber tone.
"Sasuke was telling me about the fight with Gaara you had, how are you holding up?" I ask genuinely, taking the seat by his bed.
"Sasuke told you?" He says in shock. "How do you get that guy to talk? That must be your super power." He jokes half-heartedly and I chuckle.
"Let me guess, his answer to everything you ask is 'hn'?" I imitate him as I do it and Naruto brightens up a little.
"Yeah, it's so annoying!" He says, "How do you get him to stop doing that? He actually answers your questions, I've seen it!"
I giggle sweetly and tilt my head, "I throw a knife at him every time he does it." I say proudly. "He only recently started being able to catch them. Though I have slowed them down." I say the last part more as an aside to myself.
Naruto looks at me like I'm crazy, "You can't just throw knives at friends!! Who taught you that!?"
"Hmm..." I contemplate, "Well, Sasuke was my first friend, so I guess he taught me. Or at least, he lets me. It's hard to... make friends, I guess. I've never really had any before. I don't always feel like I fit in, but Sasuke accepted me as I was. I never had to change my behavior for him to accept me. The only other person who did that is Neji. Later, Kiba and Shikamaru were the same, but Sasuke will always be my first friend, and I think I'm his first friend too. We both just made up how to be friends on each other. It works for us, but don't worry I won't throw knives at you, most likely, if you ever wanted to be friends." I finish with a smile. I notice his melancholy expression.
"Is this because of your branch family again? Were you not allowed to have friends?" He asks me sullenly.
"More a lack of opportunities, and I guess our guarded personalities. Neji and I are orphans technically, so our branch family elders raised us after our father died, but they aren't close to us. There were other kids at the compound growing up, but none of them would ever approach the 'angry, genius twins'. We were often alone, isolated, but we were fine like that, we had each other." I say with a soft sad smile, "But I felt... Like I needed a little more one day, so I ventured out of the compound. I found Sasuke training. It was right after his..." I trail off, not knowing if Naruto knows about Itachi and the massacre yet, "He was sad and alone too, so we decided to be alone together. My brother never liked joining me on my walks around the village, he wasn't as social, but he came occasionally. Kiba and I would explore the forest and have fun adventures, that's where we met. Shikamaru and I would watch clouds and play shogi. I grew from each friend I made until I got on a team, and met Lee and Guy Sensei, and my small world expanded even more. I don't... really know why I'm telling you all this. I guess you just looked a little sad when I came in." I say to him awkwardly at the end, noticing he never asked for all that. I normally don't talk this much to others.
"I think you told me because that's what friends do with each other." He says, and I look at his face and he's grinning at me. I smirk back in response.
"I'll try and limit my knives then." We both chuckle at that.
Jiraiya enters the room soon after that while Naruto is telling me a bit about his past as well.
"Pervy Sage, hi!" Naruto greets the old man with a cheery smile. I stand and turn to greet him, and he stares at me too.
"Hey, I know you. You were with the bow. You took down that giant snake almost entirely on your own. That was impressive. Almost as impressive as..." He starts out genuinely and then starts to eye my body. My tolerance snaps instantly and I throw a knife into his shoulder, fast. At point blank range, he didn't have time to react.
"Pervy Sage, seems an appropriate name. It's a good thing you're in the hospital already." I turn to Naruto, who is freaking out and looking back and forth between us. "Naruto, I enjoyed getting to know you. I'll leave you to your guest." I bow politely to him as I walk out, leaving the bleeding Sannin in the room who is pulling the blade out. I hold my hand up over my shoulder for him to toss is back to me, which he does as I walk down the hall. That was kind of a cool way to meet him.
"I keep stabbing the Sannin's." I say out loud to myself as I walk.
"That's not the safest hobby to have." I hear from behind me. I freeze, not noticing Kakashi standing there in the hall. I usually don't get snuck up on, but then again I'm in the hospital so my guard isn't exactly up.
"Yeah, probably not the safest. I'll have to see if I can make it three for three someday." I joke half-heartedly. I don't like the intense look he's giving me.
"Maa, I'm guessing you just met Jiraiya then?" He asks casually, walking towards me.
"Met him, yes. Stabbed the perv, yes. He's with Naruto if you need him." I tell him just as casually.
"I heard you did good work during the siege. I saw you shoot Orochimaru. Your reaction time was impeccable." He says lightly, but I sense the edge to his tone. He's suspicious of me.
"I had the shot, I took it. I was just worried it was actually the Kazekage and I would be in trouble." I chuckle awkwardly. "I'm kind of surprised none of the ANBU didn't react faster. There were a bunch of them around for some reason."
"You were also at the Hokage tower too. Pretty impressive to get there so fast." He says skeptically. I turn fully to face him, putting a hand on my hip arrogantly.
"I am a part of Team Guy. Do you think he would have anyone slow on his team? In fact, you've seen my fights before, why even speculate on how I got there?" I tilt my head challengingly. If Kakashi is going to accuse me of something, he better get it done and out of the way.
"Merely praising your skills. You are far past the level of genin." His tone turns genuine, "And it's not just because of being one of the famous Hyuga twins. You are even stronger than your brother. You work hard, I've heard about you from multiple Jonin Sensei's. Each of them has positive things to say about you. Just you, as an individual. You should be proud you are making a solo name for yourself."
"Ah," I chuckle, finally seeing his point, "You think I want solo recognition, to stand out from my brother?" I ask with a smirk, "That's where you're wrong, Kakashi Sensei. I am proud to be a Genius Hyuga Twin. My brother is my mirror and my best friend. We balance each other's skills perfectly. Where I have speed, he has strength. Where I have range, he has precision. We're a perfect set." I say proudly. He nods to me then, and walks away to go see whoever he came to see and I head home.
~ Kakashi POV ~
Ami Hyuga. Her skills outrank her fellow genin by a large margin, even her twin. She doesn't seem to see it either. She's fiercely protective over her brother, which is understandable giving their upbringing but there's something about her. Something that doesn't sit right. Sometimes, the way she speaks, it's as if she knows something we don't. Her intentions don't seem bad though. I'll keep an eye on her.