Summoner-nin
Part Three: Team Kage
Chapter Four
"What the hell did you do?"
"Anko-sensei?" Hinata thought blearily.
"I promoted her."
"Ojiisan?" How come she couldn't see them?
"Obviously that wasn't all you did!" Anko spat, hair all sharp and spiked like a territorial cat.
Groaning, Hinata rubbed her eyes and watched as the room came slowly into focus, a blur of colour and light like stained glass being repositioned into familiar figures. She realized that she was lying on her side, slightly startled to see Tsume run up to her side to check her forehead temperature and laying a placating hand on Hinata's shoulder to stop her from sitting up. She did feel a little dizzy, but unharmed nevertheless.
"What h-happened?" she asked quietly, her throat a tad dry.
"You were surprised, sweetie," Tsume consoled, brushing Hinata's hair from her face in a lulling fashion. "But that's alright now. We now know," at this, the Inkzuka matriarch sent a rather sharp look at ojiisan, "not to surprise you like that again."
The Hokage blubbered for a moment before saying, rather defensively, "It was good news."
"Indeed," Shibi agreed with a brief nod.
Hinata frowned while Tsume and Shibi had another silent glaring contest. (She was beginning to think it was the norm between her senseis now.) Tsume had said that she had fainted, and ojiisan that he had given her good news? Hinata shook her head, trying to sit up, but Tsume wouldn't let her. She was trying to remember what that "good news" was.
Finally, after noticing that Hinata was well enough to get up and looked rather determined to too, Shikaku came up beside her and subverted Tsume's authority over the child rather smoothly to help Hinata sit up from the lone couch in the Hokage's Office.
"Th-Thank you, sensei," Hinata whispered, her throat still too parched to brave a higher volume.
"Water," Shikaku said, placing a glass of said liquid near her lips.
She drank slowly, wanting to be greedy, but unable to when Kuromaru was looking up at her with such concern in his eyes. She would rather drink slowly and revive than drink fast and possibly choke. She didn't want to alarm the dog any farther.
"Thank you," she said again, her throat feeling a lot better.
By then, her senseis and the Hokage had convened around her in various stages of relief and worry. It would have been suffocating if not for the fact that she hadn't felt so loved in a long time. As such, she smiled up at them in reassurance. Again she had made a fuss of things; she fainted much too frequently in Konoha for her liking or even for her well-being.
"Do you remember what happened, Hinata?" Shikaku asked.
"Like, for example," Anko started to rant, "a certain old man wearing a demon mask and jumping out at you from around the corner?"
Ojiisan gasped, aghast. "I did notdo that!"
"Oh? Are you sure?" Anko sneered, crossing her arms. "I know how devious you can be, Ho-ka-ge-sama."
The Hokage's mouth opened, and then closed, and then opened, and then closed again - speechless. One could not be the Hokage and not be devious, after all.
Hinata found it sort of funny, but Shikaku was waiting patiently beside her for an answer.
"Ano..." she trailed, her face scrunching up in an attempt to remember what had happened.
"Perhaps this will help you," Shibi surmised, silently placing something metal in her hands.
She blinked and looked down to her palms to see a brand new, unmarred, untouched Konoha forehead protector shining ever-so-innocently up at her. For a moment, she just stared, not understanding, and then all at once she balked at the series of images flashed before her eyes like the pages from a picture book. And just as fast, her heart rate accelerated and euphoria, along with disbelief, rose from within her. Surely, it couldn't have been... Surely, he didn't mean to... But looking up at ojiisan's grin told her everything.
"I-I'm..." she stuttered, almost afraid to speak for fear that it may be a dream. "I-I'm...?"
"A genin," Tsume confirmed with a soft, and definitely proud, smile. "Congratulations, Hinata-chan."
She was going to faint, she could feel the falling sensation beginning to happen, but Kuromaru gave a loud bark, shocking her back at once.
"I'm a... genin?" she hushed incredulously, eyes wide and curious.
Even Shikaku had to smirk, ever sneaky, ever pleased. "Yes, Hinata." He placed an affectionate hand on her head and gave her a pat for a job well done. It had been a most rigorous, if not well-deserved, journey. "And I do believe that the Hokage wishes to give you certain... instructions, if you are feeling well?"
Her spine straightened at once, a little too eager, a little too excited, and she nodded vigorously with an anticipatory, "Y-Yes!"
Ojiisan sighed in relief at seeing her better now (and not having two very anal women glaring at him anymore) and smiled. "Alright, then. Shall we all sit first?"
Hinata repositioned herself on the couch to sit properly (with her feet at the ground) and freed up a space for Tsume; Kuromaru ever vigilant sitting between Hinata and Tsume's feet. From the window, Anko had her arms crossed, eyes still in slits to watch the Hokage with suspicion. Shibi was by the door; only Shikaku took a chair across from the Hokage at his desk.
Pulling the Hokage's Hat over his eyes, ojiisan waited a moment to collect his thoughts before beginning with a sigh. "Alright, then. Hinata," she perked attentively. It still smelled like cinnamon buns, she noted with a rueful smile. "You are a Konoha ninja now - officially." She nodded. His expression grew grim and he looked at her seriously. "But no one is to know."
She nodded. She understood. It was to be another secret. She was too young to be a ninja, and if everyone was to know, then there would be suspicions about her abilities and even... her heritage of being the summoner-nin. She also knew that fame too early in the career, as rare as a child-ninja was, was not good for any ninja. The pressure, the questions, the intriguewould be too distracting. Hinata knew, first hand, what a prodigy or genius would need to endure in the hands of manipulative elders. She knew of her cousin.
She knew of the murderer.
She was not him.
"Yes, Hokage-sama," she answered. Will of fire, gentle fists, eyes of iron. She would prevail.
Ojiisan nodded, satisfied with a small and approving smile. She had grown; they could tell. "You will continue to live at home, continue to attend the Academy and continue to live your life as you have so far." She nodded. "I will inform your father that you will be training with me during the weekends... but in truth, you will be on missions."
Hinata couldn't help but let the gasp escape. Missions? So fast? And even more alarming: alone? Tsume took her by the hand and gave her comforting squeeze. Alone was not something anyone wanted her to go through, not when she was still so young and inexperienced. It was too dangerous.
"Understand?" the Hokage asked, pressing for an answer.
Recovering from her bout of hesitation, Hinata was quick to nod, although unable to speak quite yet.
"Good." Then the Hokage turned to the others, catching their eyes one at a time. "You, her senseis still, will be her new teammates." The four jounins looked to each other warily, wondering what, exactly, their leader had in mind. "A five-cell team, you have proved your efficiency and capabilities in your previous mission, a much-needed asset for what you will devote yourselves to for the next few years."
Hinata leaned forward, thinking she had heard wrong. Ojiisan had mentioned years, as in years. It could be a series of missions, or even one mission. Despite her misgivings of the sudden change of events and the weight of responsibility, something nothing short of excitement chorused through Hinata's veins. She had thought she wouldn't be going on another adventure for a long time, but now ojiisan was mentioning an adventure or adventures that could last for years?
She was both scared and eager, more eager than scared at this point.
The jounins were not as eager, thinking something was amiss.
Shikaku narrowed his eyes. "What, exactly, Hokage-sama, do you wish for us to do?"
"Simple," the Hokage said, twining his fingers together and leaning forward. "I want you to spend as much time as possible obtaining various Summoning Scrolls."
The simultaneous relief in the room was not lost on Hinata as her four senseis relaxed and breathed a sigh of respite. They must have thought it was going to more dangerous than obtaining scrolls, perhaps reconnaissance along an enemy's border or even... she didn't want to think about it... assassinations. Of course, Hinata hadn't been too worried. She was not ready for any of that, after all, and the Hokage was not going send an inexperienced team on an A-class mission. It would just be wrong.
She looked to Kuromaru and gave him a smile. The jounins were much too stressed.
"No one is to know, of course," ojiisan said, brightening up with a grin, knowing that he had made Anko nervous earlier. At least they were now even. "You will be placed on various other teams throughout the year and participate on other missions so that this team's identity will not be jeopardized."
"And 'this team' is called what?" Anko sneered, disliking the trick the Hokage had played on her nerves.
Hokage smirked, rather proudly too. "This team will answer to me and me alone. No one is to know of Team Kage."
Anko raised a brow, unimpressed. "Kinda clichéd, don't 'cha think?"
Ojiisan's left brow twitched and he opened his mouth to retort-
"I like it," Hinata declared, not knowing how innocent she made herself to appear.
They stared at her and she beamed at them.
"I like Team Kage!" she repeated again, eyes twinkling.
No one could deny a face like that; the Hokage extra chipper at having won the argument without even trying. Hinata Hyuga must be a secret weapon of some kind to down four specialized jounin and the Hokage.
Kuromaru licked her hands in agreement.
Team Kage it was.
xxx
She was a ninja now.
A real ninja.
With a forehead protector and uniform and everything.
"Wow..." she thought, dizzy with happiness.
She didn't think she could ever be as happy as now.
Tora, from his corner of the room, could only stare at her from the floor, brow raised and eyes narrowed suspiciously. She looked like an idiot, from his perspective, whirling around and around like that in front of her mirror, placing the damn Konoha forehead protector around her head, around her arm, around her waist, around her leg...
"What do you think, Tora?" she asked for the umpteenth time.
She usually grated on his nerves, but that night it was doubly so.
Happiness was rather irritating, he believed.
Hinata tried not to fidget as she showed Tora how she had wound the forehead protector around her neck this time. She wanted his approval, wanted to look nice, wanted him to be involved. All ninjas-in-training strove to be full-fledged ninjas, and for her to achieve it at such a young age... She just wanted to be acknowledged, but didn't want to show that she desired for it to be so.
She refused to be immodest.
It was not Hyuga.
It was not Hinata.
After a good thirty seconds of the Tiger's silence and stare, she finally broke down and pressed her fingers together shyly, uneasily. She knew Tora didn't care. She was not his summoner, not his anybody, but she wished for it. She believed, perhaps a bit naively, that they were friends... if not, then surely beginning to befriends.
She turned her gaze to the notebooks on her desk, the ones belonging to Shino, Kiba and Shikamaru, and squeaked. Tora's ears flickered at the irritating sound. She couldn't believe that, still, she hadn't finished copying the others' notes! How shameful!
No longer able to wait for Tora's answer to her new placement of her Konoha forehead protector, Hinata rushed to her desk and scrambled to finish up with the notes. She knew that the boys had told her not to hurry, but at some time they would need their books to copy down more notes. They must have been taking notes of foolscap for the past two days! The horror! The disorganization!
As she fumbled with her pen and flipping through her own half-filled notebooks, Hinata didn't notice Tora standing up from his corner and making towards her in a curious manner. Although he disapproved her eagerness for praise, for acknowledgment, the need and want to be loved... he did approve of...
Her.
He approved of her, however begrudgingly.
The small Tiger cub, white in the night, sauntered to the side of her desk. She was so concentrated on her work that she nearly jumped when he brushed his cold, wet nose against her thigh.
"Eep," she squeaked, the pen falling from her grasp.
He rolled his eyes; his ears twitching at the irritating sound from her mouth.
"It looks good," he said, a tad stingy.
Hinata blinked owlishly while he gracefully and noiselessly crept back to his corner. She didn't fully digest his words until he was dozing off again, and by then a blush painted her cheeks and she hurriedly moved the forehead protector around her neck to cover the shy smile on her lips.
She approved of him too.
She had approved of him the moment she had first laid eyes on him.
The Konoha forehead protector was to stay at her neck.
Easier to hide her blush with, she figured.
xxx
the point