Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

------

Rai no Kuni, the land of Lighting, was a treacherous place. The majority of the country was divided by a steep mountain range, on one side the ocean, on the other a lake that was large enough to be considered one. Between water and rock what little land wasn’t sand or stone and was habitable was made farmland. The more north in the country one traveled the colder it got making the climate and living conditions that much harsher.

‘The harsher the climate, the harsher the people’ it was always said.

Kumogakure no Sato was no different than the country it resided in. buildings built high up in the spire-like mountains, where one wrong move, a single slip, and a person would fall for days until they finally hit the valley floor and died. At least that’s what was said. The thin atmosphere, constant cloud cover, and rocky barren environment made for a hard living, but the inhabitants of Kumo were ninja, and ninja either lived or died by this environment. Those that lived became great shinobi, those that died were forgotten.

The Raikage sat on his throne-like chair in deep thought. He had been Kage for little over a year and he had pushed for his military power to amass and stockpile anything and everything that could be used as a weapon. Kumo was a major power in the world as one of the top five villages, and he wanted it to stay that way. It may have been smaller than the other ‘big 5’ villages, but he knew the quality of his ninja was well above the cut of the others, at least he damn well hoped they were. But even if quality wasn’t enough, the Raikage had sent covert missions to steal jutsu scrolls from other villages, and the occasional bloodline if they could find it. He wanted his village strong and he wanted it to continue that way.

The only downside was his ‘plans’ weren’t amounting to very much. The jutsu hunt was fairing 50/50 at best, for every one they gained, they lost another. This wasn’t that bad, at least they were getting something he supposed. What was really on his mind was the ‘bloodline’ hunt. His ninja had managed to snag a few here and there, but none were really all that impressive, and with the civil war in Kiri and the literal ‘bloodline hunt’ it wasn’t like his people could walk around easily without stirring something up… and the remaining ‘Big 5’ were being just as stingy. The last Raikage had caused a war with Konoha over less than stealing a clan’s blood or techniques, and that had finally ended, but that didn’t mean Suna or Tsuchi weren’t inches away from starting something with either village in their ‘weakened’ state. The Raikage scoffed at the idea. –Kumo isn’t weak, not as long as I’m the Raikage it sure as hell ain’t-

His colossal fists gripped the arms of his ‘throne’ as he continued thinking. As he figured this whole mess was turning out to be a huge hassle. –There’s only been one big score throughout this whole mess- A large grin spread on his face as he rubbed his blonde goatee in thought. A few months into his regime his ninja came across a remote village on some no-name island that had been completely destroyed. The place looked like it had burned to the ground but the few villagers that survived said that ‘zombies’ had attacked them, so of course the Raikage had his ninja investigate. What they found was a blonde girl of about 15years old, and lo and behold she had the Nibi no Nekomata sealed inside her. How the Bijuu got sealed, or the Jinchuuriki ending up in the middle of nowhere was beyond him, but hey, waste not, want not. His ANBU went and retrieved her with little effort, and Nii Yugito became the property of Kumogakure.

That was one success among a myriad of failures or plain disappointment. Now he was here, waiting on another ‘prospect’. Should his man fail he would feign ignorance and claim the bastard was working solo to try and ‘impress him’, should he succeed… well, waste not, want not. The Raikage still planned to play ignorant either way, he knew from experience going into another war with Konoha over this would be futile, and unlike his predecessor he wasn’t foolish enough to spout his triumphs, no, this Raikage knew when to keep his damn mouth shut, and contrary to what others may think of him he knew damn well how to play politics to his favor, one way or another.

The doors to his ‘office’ creaked open. There was only one person he was expecting at this time of night, and he had better have what he wanted. His black eyes narrowed on the one eyed jounin that walked in through the door, carrying an obviously unconscious young girl under one arm. –Idiot- was all the Raikage could think as the man walked toward him, setting the girl down and bowing before his leader.

“Raikage-sama, I return successful in my mission,” he raised his bandaged head with a smirk on his face, his one revealed eye showing the triumph he felt. The Raikage could barely stand the guy at this point.

“So this is a Hyuuga?” he looked down at the little girl with his black eyes, he noticed this dumbass had tied both her legs and arms up as well as placed a gag on her and a bandanna around her eyes so, he assumed, she wouldn’t ‘see’ anything. Again the idea of this man’s lacking brain cells came to the Raikage’s mind. His coal eyes shifted back to the jounin kneeling at his feet, “Why is there a bandanna over her eyes?”

The man stiffened, “So she wouldn’t see where I was going or who I was, lord Raikage,” the man was practically shaking in his boots over a simple question, he really was an idiot.

“Tell me,” the Raikage stood up from his seat, “Why would an unconscious child be able to ‘see’ anything?”

“W-well, that is sir…”

He took a step forward, “Why would you even bother blindfolding a Hyuuga?” his coal colored eyes steeled on the man as he stepped forward. His heavy steps in-avertedly awoke the previously unconscious young girl, the Raikage could feel a small spike in her chakra and he was almost positive she just activated her eyes. He grinned in the back of his mind. –Perhaps this wasn’t a total waste- he noticed she tensed but otherwise stayed still, perhaps planning to play unconscious, or was just too afraid at the moment to move, whichever the case didn’t matter to him, she seemed to have the right instincts and that would work fine in his opinion. But first, back to business.

The large hulking form of the Raikage towered over the quivering jounin and captive young Hyuuga; the man grabbed the jounin by his flak-jacket and raised him so he was eye-to-eye with him, which happened to be a good two feet off the ground. The Raikage growled, “When I asked you to bring me a Hyuuga, I said a ‘Hyuuga’, as in one that actually knew some of their arts, not some small girl that can barely walk, let alone who knows if she even has their eyes!!”

“S-sir… I-I a-asur-”

He clinched a large fist around the man’s neck, “I don’t accept excuses,” in one swift motion the Raikage dropped the struggling jounin, only to impact his chest with his fist and send him through a wall, the impact was strong enough the Raikage was confident the bastard would never get up again, but just to be certain, “Killer-Bee!”

“Yo’ my brotha’,” a seemingly miniature version of the Raikage appeared, well shorter version anyway, the only difference between the two that anyone could tell was the minor height difference and that Killer-Bee wore small dark shades and had a tattoo that looked like bull horns on his left cheek. Otherwise, it was pretty obvious the two were related. He grinned widely, “You summoned me, the one and only Killer-Bee!!”

“Bee, shut up,” the Raikage said shaking his fist off, he glanced at his younger brother, “Get rid of ‘that’,” he waved his hand at the crumpled form of the dying jounin, “Preferably somewhere where it can be ‘found’,” his brother’s grin widened slightly.

“Your wish is my command, lord of my land!!” he saluted his brother and disappeared in a puff of smoke, along with the body of the jounin.

“Hmp,” The Raikage looked at the wall he’d busted in, formed three seals and watched it reform with ease. –No one will know what happened here- his coal eyes turned to the tiny form now quivering on his floor. She hadn’t moved, either from fear or deeming it useless he wasn’t sure, he crossed his arms and just stared at her small form. –What to do now? Hopefully Bee will deposit that body somewhere Konoha will find and they’ll think he died enroute from someone else, perhaps ‘another’ buyer for the young Hyuuga, thus taking all heat off of me and Kumo…- he stepped closer to the little girl and watched as she froze up, this didn’t faze him as he continued until he was right in front of her. He grabbed a fistful of the back of her kimono and brought the kid up to his level, as soon as he saw her wrapped up face he frowned.

-That fucking idiot…- her forehead was clean, this could only mean one thing, that trash he just took care of kidnapped the Hyuuga main family’s heir. –I tell him to bring back a Hyuuga alive, he brings me their fucking heir…- he growled and clinched his fists, “If he somehow survives I’m going to kill him again…” the girl in his hand took a sharp intake of breath, she was definitely conscious. He looked directly into her bandage wrapped eyes, his narrowing, “You can see me can’t you?”

She seemed to freeze again, hesitating for a long while before ever so slightly tilting her head.

The Raikage grinned only the slightest, “You’re a Hyuuga right?”

She nodded vigorously and started making noises like she was trying to say something.

The Raikage narrowed his eyes and tilted his head a bit, “You say you’re a Hyuuga?” she nodded again, “I don’t see a Hyuuga here, I just see some blind kid,” she shook her head vigorously ‘no’ and he only smirked. He immediately dropped her, at least five feet, and she landed rather hard on the floor, “What’s the matter, if you’re a Hyuuga you should be able to get out of that,” he watched as she began to struggle harder against her bonds. The Raikage had to admit she was showing a lot of spunk for such a young kid. –She can’t be more than 3 years old, yet she seems to understand this situation better than some Genin- he stepped closer to her, kneeling down, “You want me to untie you?”

She seemed to freeze up a moment before ‘looking’ away, as if thinking, before vigorously shaking her head ‘no’.

“Heh,” the Raikage grinned showing off elongated canines, “You got some spunk kid,” he picked her up again and brought her face-to-face with him again, “Even if you don’t stand a chance of getting free from this,” he raised his hand up and tugged on the bandana around her eyes, pulling it down so that he came eye-to-eye with the young Hyuuga Heiress, her adolescent Byakuugan active and showing fiercely. –They even look fierce as children with this thing active- while the pulsing blood vessels around her eyes made her look frightening the veteran Kumo-nin could see clearly how afraid she was. Here she was, tiny and small even for her age, being faced with a Kage, and despite the obvious fear was still trying to look brave. He grinned again, “I guess you aren’t a Hyuuga after all…”

Her eyes went wide with fear at his statement, he could see it in her eyes she was afraid of what was going to happen to her, and he had the feeling she had some horrible ideas, even if she wasn’t old enough to completely understand them.

He sighed and in once swift motion all of her bindings shredded, this seemed to surprise her more than his statement. He set her down gently, letting her stand on her own two feet. She didn’t move, she was frightened, nervous, and probably scared half to death, but she was still standing in front of him of her own accord and didn’t move a muscle. –Have to say that’s more than some well-trained ninja, even from here…- he put his hands on his belt and just stared down at the little slip of a girl in front of him, “What’s your name?”

She gulped and lowered her head, he was sure she said something but it was too low for him to catch it.

“Louder!!” he yelled and she jumped at least a foot in the air.

“H-Hy-yuu-ga H-Hin-na-ta!!”She screamed as loud as she dared, he could tell she was used to being quiet; well he’d just have to change that.

“No its not,” her head turned up to his face with fear and shock written all over it. He crossed his arms as he looked down at her sternly, “your name is Tenkyuu Yorihi!”

She vigorously shook her head ‘no’, “N-no… i-its-”

 The Raikage stomped his foot down, spooking the girl, “No, whatever you think you were is no more…” he gave her a stern look with his arms crossed, “This ‘Hyuuga Hinata’ you speak of doesn’t exist,” he said firmly looking directly into her eyes, he saw the fear, he saw a sadness as tears pricked the edges of the tiny girl’s eyes, but at the same time he saw a spark. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he would find out eventually, “Now tell me, what is your name?”

She shrunk again, bowing her head and mumbled, “H-Hyuuga H-Hi-”

The Raikage stomped his foot again, “Is that how you address your Kage?!” he reached out and lifted her head up so her pale eyes met his black ones, “keep your head up,” he tapped her shoulders down, “keep your shoulders back,” he crossed his arms again and appraised her, his small blonde brows knitting, “and stand up straight!” she did immediately. He let a small grin pass his lips, “Better, now remember this,” he looked down at her sternly, not coldly or cruelly like she had expected, just stern as he placed his hands back on his hips giving her full view of the gold belt her wore, “Always present yourself at your best! Never back down from someone, even if they are your Kage,” he leaned down towards her looking her still form over, “don’t show your fear, stand proud, and speak loud!” he struck a pose flexing his muscles and shouting to the havens, “I am the Yondaime Raikage!! GOUZEN JINRAI!!” and he ended with a loud laugh.

A small sound found its way to his ears as he stopped laughing. He looked down and found it to be the tiny girl at his feet, laughing as well. He let an honest grin grace his lips as he looked down at her waiting for her to finish. When she finally did she seemed to notice he was watching her and turned the most interesting shade of red, his smile turned into a smirk, “Now, little one, tell your Raikage what your name is?”

She froze a moment and hesitated. He watched her as her mind seemed to try and make a decision. He waited patiently, hoping to hear the correct answer. –The sooner I can get her to drop her old self, the safer Kumo will be…- he looked down at her with concerned eyes, -come on child, the sooner you accept this, the less cruelty you will have to face here…-

She fidgeted, then started questionably in a low voice, “I-I am… I am Hyu-” she started but heard the Raikage clear his throat. She looked up at him with confused eyes; she honestly didn’t know what to do. Her mother had always called her ‘Hina-chan’ before she disappeared, and her father barely said her name anymore. She was torn, confused, she had heard from others in the compound that outsiders like this were bad, that she should never go near them. That they would try to hurt her no matter what. She looked up at the Raikage, he was huge, he easily could tower over her father, but there was something in his eyes that said he wasn’t trying to be mean or hurt her. Her mother always said she had good eyes for people and that she should trust them. Perhaps… perhaps she isn’t who the people at the compound always told her, this man said she was someone else, and he had taken her away from the man that took her. He had been spending this time with her, talking to her, looking at her, not with a cold stare or bowing and never looking her in the eye like she got at the compound. Maybe, he was right.

The little girl with the pale eyes stilled, her mind made up, she nodded her head lightly and looked up at the large man called ‘The Raikage’. He was simply looking at her, expecting her to say something. She stood up straight, put her shoulders back, and held her head up high as she looked him straight in the eye and yelled with all her tiny little might, “I AM TENKYUU YORIHI!!”

And the Raikage smiled the biggest, largest and most infectious smile she had ever seen in her young life.

----

Tenkyuu = Rain from a cloudless sky, Yori = From, Hi = Fire, = Cloudless Rain from Fire

Gouzen = Roaring, Jinrai = Thunderclap, = Roaring Thunderclap

Chapter Text

The Raikage sat at his desk, filling out the minimum paperwork that required his attention and passing the rest over to his assistants. He tented his hands and leaned on them deep in thought. It had been three days since his newest ‘acquisition’ for the village and the child was adapting rather well, all things considered. She stayed in her room mostly, only speaking to him when he entered and overall just ignoring anyone else; he had to smirk at that. –Kid’s going to develop an attitude at this rate… perfect-

He leaned back in his chair, propping his metal boots on the desk as he stroked his blonde goatee in thought. –What to do, what to do…- he had received information from certain ‘lookouts’ of his that Konoha had found the body of that idiot Gashira, and while it deterred the ‘official’ company it didn’t stop certain other parties from coming over the border and search his county. This made him pissed. –At the latest that means they will be at my doorstep in another week, at the worst tomorrow…- The Raikage wasn’t particularly annoyed by the entire turn of events, he already knew how to turn the heat off of him and exactly what to say, he was the Raikage, he had to be prepared for these kinds of things. –Now what to do about the little one…-

“Kemui!!” he shouted as he kicked his feet off the desk and stood up with an earth-shattering stomp, he was rather lucky the floor held.

“Yes, lord Raikage,” a white-haired jounin appeared kneeling in front of his desk. Kemui, age 24, a jounin who specialized in stealth and assassinations, one would think that with her specialization she would be in ANBU, well she would, if she was in any other village. Kemui’s ‘specialization’ didn’t come from the ‘typical’ manner of stealth and assassination that ANBU was known for, no; she was rather unique with her ‘technique’. Where normally ANBU would wait for nightfall and strike when the assignment least expected, she didn’t, she usually attacked in daylight, when they most expected, and had never once been caught. It was rumored she could kill a Kage at their orientation and no one would be the wiser until the body fell from the balcony into the cheering crowd, that’s how good she was. She raised her grey eyes to her lord, waiting for his request.

The Raikage grinned at the woman before him as he walked around his desk heading for the door, “Let’s go, I wish to see her,” the woman nodded as the Raikage passed her, silently raising from the floor and following him to his destination.

-----

‘Hinata’ woke up early again to see a cloudy sky and view she didn’t recognize, dreaming about her life back at the compound. The tiny girl shook her head vigorously. –I’m not ‘Hinata’ anymore, she doesn’t exist!- she had woken up every day since that night reminding herself of that, and every day it seemed to get easier.

She looked around the room; it was HUGE with a tall ceiling and a wall of windows that revealed the view of the deep canyon and spire-like mountains Kumogakure was known for. The first day she had spent simply looking out that window being amazed at such a sight, trailing with her pale eyes the intricate patterns of wires and the spiraling structures that made the city hidden in the clouds. The Raikage had come in and seeing her looking out the window started pointing out the sights and places of Kumogakure. He had spoken in a loud voice that bolstered excitement in the little girl, and he grinned and laughed, and she couldn’t help but join him. Kumogakure was truly an amazing sight, something she never expected to see back at the compound.

The compound, that’s what she had been calling it since her mother disappeared. It used to be home, it used to be bright and happy, but not anymore. She couldn’t remember how long it had been, maybe a month, which was a long time to her, since she had seen her mother. –Okaa-Sama- The second day she had spent in the monstrously large bed thinking about her mother. She had cried, not because she was no longer at the compound, not because she wouldn’t see her father or uncle or ‘older brother’ again, but because it was finally hitting her she would never see her mother again. Her mother whom she had cherished, loved, and laughed with, a mother she knew she’d never see again even if she did go back there. The Raikage had come in while she was crying on that second day, she had expected him to yell at her to stop crying, to drag her out to training, and pick at a myriad of other things about her like her father had done. He didn’t, the huge monster of a man had simply sat down on the bed and let her latch on to him and cry her little eyes out. He didn’t say a word and patted her head and let her be till she cried herself to sleep.

Her eyes scanned the rest of the room; she spotted a full length mirror that sat in the corner. She had spent yesterday just staring into that mirror. She had woken up and wondered the room, finding the mirror and looking at it, she saw ‘Hyuuga Hinata’ and that infuriated her. –I’m not her anymore- she had thought, and even started telling the mirror that. She had sat down in defiance of the mirror that seemed to disagree with her, so she spent the day just glaring at it until she saw Tenkyuu Yorihi. The Raikage had come in, and looking around, spotted her glaring at the mirror and started laughing. She remembered he’d come up behind her and asked, “What are you doing?”

Her eyes had only narrowed at the mirror, never turning her gaze from it, “I don’t like her…” she had said.

He had crouched down behind her, looking over her in the mirror, “Oh? What don’t you like about her?”

“She’s her, not me!” she had crossed her arms and glared harder at the mirror.

“Oh?” he seemed to grin, that’s all she remembered seeing before something was placed over her eyes and in a panic she had activated her eyes. What she saw in the mirror wasn’t her but someone else, someone who had a dark blue bandana over their eyes. The next moment the Raikage had placed his hand on her head and messed up her hair, and the person in the mirror was someone completely different. She had gasped, and the Raikage had grinned wide showing his fang like teeth, “There, is that better?!”

She had immediately nodded, and he grinned all the wider, “Good, so from now on, Yorihi-chan, I want you to wear that, and I want you to use your eyes for as long as you can to see, but,” he had stood up behind her and the young girl turned from the mirror to look at her Kage, “Outside of this room, I don’t want you to ever take it off, even if you can’t see, understand?” she nodded her head vigorously, he gave a prankster’s grin, “And even if you can see, I want you to pretend to not be able to, okay? Remember, Yorihi is blind!”

For some strange reason she didn’t know why, she had grinned wider, the same way her Kage did. Little Yorihi had decided that if her Raikage asked it, then she would do it. If he wanted her to pretend she couldn’t see then she would, if he wanted her to try and use her eyes as long as she could she would, and even longer if she could push it. She would try, try and be what she had to, to be ‘Yorihi’ and not ‘Hinata’.

-My bandana!!- The memory had reminded her to find it and put it on. She had decided after the Raikage had left that even if he had asked that she only wear it outside this room, she had decided to wear it inside it as well, after all, she didn’t like passing that mirror and seeing ‘Hinata’ again.

The little girl jumped up on the large bed, shaking her hair out to mess it up like the Raikage had done, then started searching around for the dark blue band the Raikage had given her. She looked around and around and didn’t see it. She started panicking and the starting to be familiar sensation around her eyes happened and suddenly she could see all around her for about 20 feet. She checked the side table, no. The lamp, no. Under the bed, no. Behind the bed, no. By the dresser, no. This was getting frustrating, and she knew she didn’t have that long until her eyes ‘turned off’, so she hopped off the bed and started running from one end of the room to the next looking for the bandana.

She didn’t even hear the door open.

-----

The Raikage hadn’t known exactly what to expect from the little ‘Hyuuga’ this morning, every day prior he’d come to see her she seemed to be in some new odd mood. The first day she was excited and wondering about the view, the next day she spent crying over something she had yet to tell him, and yesterday she had been glaring at a mirror. Today, he walked into her room, with Kemui at his back, and saw a little blur of dark blue zipping from one end of the room to the next, effectively tearing the place apart for no apparent reason. He didn’t know whether to sigh or laugh. –Guess I should stop trying to expect something when it comes to her…-

“YORIHI!!” His loud commanding voice had an immediate effect, the little blur stopped, and he got to bear witness to a miniature Hyuuga panting in a panicked manor with her Byakuugan active.  He stroked his beard at the sight. –She seems to be using that quite a bit… perhaps whenever she feels panicked it simply activates- he nodded his head at the idea, he had seen other Hyuuga and while some could activate their bloodline at will others needed a long string of seals to turn it on. This little one in front of him seemed to keep turning it on when she was overall freaking out; he would have to test her to see if she could do it otherwise. His black eyes stared down sternly at her as she seemed to catch her breath, the veins around her small pale eyes disappearing, “Yorihi-chan, what are you doing?”

“I-I… ah… u-uh,” her breathing seemed to hitched and she turned bright red, then as if by reflex she got down on the floor bowing extremely low, before yelling out, “I’M SORRY RAIKAGE-SAMA!!”

One of his small blonde brows peaked, “Oh?” he looked around the room, everything seemed to be turned inside out. –Why should I care if she wreaks her room, she’s the one that’s going to have to clean it up?- he thought while stroking his goatee, he glanced back down at the tiny girl, “Is there something you have to be sorry about, Yorihi-chan?”

“I-I…” he stomped his foot and she immediately jumped up from the floor. She looked up at the Raikage, he was standing sternly with his arms crossed over his chest; his black eyes were staring at her expectantly, waiting for her reply in the ‘proper’ manor. She nodded her head, stood up straight, and looked the Raikage in the eye, “I can’t find the bandana you gave me, Raikage-sama!”

He immediately started laughing and she had no idea what to think.

“Is that so?” he gave her a fanged grin; she was starting to realize that meant he knew something she didn’t. He reached his hand towards her and she immediately closed her eyes and tensed up, expecting some kind of physical punishment, after a while all she felt was something tugging around her neck. She opened her pale eyes and looked down to see the Raikage’s large fist tugging on a dark blue bandana that was wrapped around her neck. She turned red. The Raikage could only laugh at her expression, “Looks like you had it this whole time,” he pulled his hand back, noticing her flinch a bit. He didn’t like that kind of reaction. –She must have gotten punished a lot back with the Hyuuga, I can’t think of any other reason for such a reaction from a child- He put his hands on his belt and waited the few seconds it took for her to look back at him, “Remember Yorihi, sometimes what we are looking for is hiding in the most obvious place,” He grinned widely, “right out in the open!” He laughed openly at that.

Yorihi seemed to perk up at the sound, and she too started laughing with the Raikage.

Kemui had been standing to the side, watching the entire exchange. Her cloudy eyes watching very closely, she could already tell this little girl was a Hyuuga, and she wasn’t about to ask the Raikage how he got her, but she did notice the girl had already taken a liking to the big lug they called their village leader. She internally sighed. –I can already tell why I’m here- She looked over at the two of them, noticing they were finally calming down. She noticed the little girl grab the bandana that had fallen around her neck and brought it up to try and cover her eyes, and when that failed the Raikage had reached out, untied it, and rewrapped it, tighter this time so it wouldn’t fall. The little girl didn’t complain a bit, and seemed to just adjust it slightly so her ears weren’t covered. Kemui nodded to herself. –Yes, all too obvious…-

“Kemui,” The Raikage stood up and looked at the white haired woman.

She nodded, “Yes lord Raikage.”

Yorihi hadn’t even noticed someone else in the room before, she had thought it was like all the other times and the Raikage was alone, apparently not this time. Her immediate reaction was to try and see her, but with the bandana on she couldn’t see a thing. She tried activating her eyes, they didn’t. Confused, she tried again. –Why won’t they work?- she tried again, but still nothing. She clinched her fists in frustration, trying again.

“Keep doing that and you will only hurt yourself,” Yorihi froze hearing the woman’s voice so close to her. In the next moment she felt a tug on the bandana and it was raised to her forehead. The first thing the little girl saw was cloudy grey eyes. Then as the woman leaned back she got a clearer view of the older woman’s face. Her features were sharp but not prominent like the Raikage’s, and her skin was pale almost white, whereas the Raikage’s was a dark tan almost brown. This woman standing in front of her had white hair that came down slightly to cover her forehead at an angle and she had four small braids, two on each side that framed her face, while the rest was left hanging in a rough bob. The little girl looked lower and noticed she was wearing a sleeveless black kimono top with a slanted tan grayish triangle vest-thing over it. The woman’s arms were bare aside from the forearm guards and black fingerless gloves with a plate on the back. Yorihi noticed she wore shin guards that matched the forearm guards, just under fishnet, black biker shorts and a grey skirt that matched the vest. Yorihi had to admit, she’d never seen anyone like her before; then again she’d never seen anyone like the monstrous Raikage either.

“Finished yet?” Her voice was low, not exactly soft, but not really harsh either. Yorihi blushed and looked back into the woman’s gray eyes, she gave a slight smile, “That is a good habit, one should always take in everything they can about someone they just met, that information could save your life,” she held out a gloved hand to the tiny girl, “It is nice to meet you, you may call me Kemui.”

Yorihi was confused, she was getting praised for something she’d normally be told was wrong? She looked at the woman’s offered hand, then to the Raikage, he gave her a curt nod, and she looked back at the woman, “My name is Tenkyuu Yorihi, it is a pleasure to meet you, Kemui-sama” she bowed out of respect.

The woman called ‘Kemui’, seemed to give a slight laugh, and when Yorihi looked up the edge of her mouth had come up in a slight smirk, “There is no need for that,” she said in a chiding voice, reaching out her hand. Yorihi’s first reaction was to brace herself and close her eyes, but like earlier what she expected didn’t happen, she felt a tug on her hand and opened her eyes to see the white-haired woman holding her tiny hand in her own and shook it two times firmly before letting go, “That is how you give a proper greeting when someone offers you their hand, understand Yorihi-chan?” the girl immediately nodded and Kemui gave the barest of smiles, “Very good.”

Kemui stood up and turned towards the Raikage and Yorihi noticed she had three long but very thin braids that came from the back of her head all the way down to the back of her thighs. The woman’s cloudy grey eyes narrowed to show she was serious to the large man, “Lord Raikage, what is it you wish of me with regards to your… ward?”

The Raikage grinned showing off his fanglike canines, “I’m sure you can already tell that, Kemui,” he looked down to the little girl as Kemui moved aside without a word, “Yorihi-chan, listen well,” the girl seemed to straighten up at his call, her eyes saying she was going to take everything to heart. He couldn’t be any more proud, “I want you to respect Kemui and treat her as you would me, because from now on,” his grin widened at the little girl, “She’s going to be your teacher…”

-----

Kemui = Smokey

Chapter Text

“Alright, report,” The Raikage sat in his throne-like chair, feeling the need to look more ominous then usual today. To put it simply he was ignoring his paperwork, having his assistant handle it and leaving whatever needed his signature on his desk. So he was taking this moment of freedom to check up on his two most promising prospects. Currently he had two jounin standing before him, one his shorter and almost clone-like brother, Killer-Bee, and the other his quiet private assassin, Kemui. He looked between the two of them with his black eyes waiting for one of them to start first.

The two looked at each other, cloudy grey eyes to tiny black shades. Killer-Bee shrugged and Kemui narrowed her eyes at him before stepping forward.

“Progress is going as planned, Lord Raikage…” She kneeled before him, her braids dangling freely around her as she awaited his instructions.

“Elaborate Kemui,” he said calmly stroking his blonde beard.

The white-haired woman nodded and stood up, facing the Raikage directly, “It has only been a few days, but Yorihi seems to be adapting rather well,” he nodded for her to continue, “She hasn’t been able to use her bloodline since I started working with her, it seems you were right in your assumption that she can’t activate it a will just yet, although I have to say it probably won’t be long before I can start teaching her how to do it with seals.”

The Raikage raised a tiny blonde brow looking at the woman directly, “Explain?”

She nodded, “It seems that as a member of her former clan she already has a natural affinity for chakra, why they hadn’t already started teaching her what it is or how to recognize it is beyond me,” The Raikage could already tell Kemui was gaining an extreme dislike for the Hyuuga clan. For as long as he or anyone had known the quiet white woman she was known to be efficient, she absolutely hated potential being wasted and preferred to cover things as they came. She seem to personify the ‘get it done now so you don’t have to worry about it later’ philosophy.

The Raikage closed his eyes in thought, considering this. –That is very strange, for a clan that is known to see everything, why wouldn’t they already be working something so basic into one of their own?- He opened his coal colored eyes and stared directly at Kemui, “Is there something else you want to tell me, Kemui?”

Her eyes seemed to harden a moment before she nodded, “Yes, Lord Raikage,” she looked down a moment, organizing her thoughts, “while ignoring their lack of training in one area, I can tell you now by having Yorihi with us we have a better understanding into why her former clan is so feared…”

The Raikage’s brow peaked; even Killer-Bee glanced the woman’s way in interest.

She continued before either said a word, “It seems that despite her young age, she was already being taught the basics of her clan’s style, and while far from perfect, she demonstrated to me the one kata she could remember.”

“Damn, seriously? No wonder she looked so miserably,” Killer-Bee said at Kemui’s side. The white-haired woman merely nodded to him in response.

The Raikage tented his hands and closed his eyes in thought. –So this little one truly was a find… hmm… if what Kemui says is true, then that means she must have been worked on her clan’s style since the moment she could walk… if they are all taught in such a manner, it truly is no wonder they are considered one of the most feared clans in the world…- “Kemui,” he said sternly to the woman, he opened his eyes and stared into her grey ones very seriously, “Is there any way she will be able to perfect that style and be able to back engineer it for us?” his eyes narrowed when the woman immediately shook her head ‘no’.

“Lord Raikage, while I know it would be effective for us to learn the secrets behind that formidable style,” she glanced down a moment, “There is no way for her to ever fully perfect it,” she raised her eyes and looked into the Raikage’s black ones just as serious as he was a moment ago, “I can tell even now, she has absolutely no talent for the style…”

“WHAT!!” Kemui and the Raikage both glanced at Killer-Bee for his exaggerated outburst, “Brotha’ what kinda use is a Hyuuga that can use Jyuuken? It’s like a fish that can’t swim?!”

“That’s a slant rhyme…” Kemui said flatly, gaining a glare from Killer-Bee.

“Bee, shut up,” the Raikage said in his loud voice before looking back at Kemui, “So even under your tutelage the style would be a failure?”

Kemui shook her head in the negative, “Forgive me Lord Raikage, I seem to have misled you,” she closed her eyes in thought, “Yorihi could very well become a master of the style, same as any of her former clansmen, the problem comes from the fact that she simply isn’t designed for that style…”

“Sista’ explain, I’m not getting what you sayin’?” Killer-Bee added hand gestures to this rhyme.

“That’s a visual rhyme…” she replied just as flatly as she had before.

Killer-Bee was about to open his mouth to say something in his rappa’s defense but a swift glare from his brother had him shutting his mouth. The Raikage gave Kemui another look for her to continue.

The white-haired woman nodded, “she’s small for her age, very light, and very delicate, I can tell right now she will grow up lilt, and she has a natural flexibility that quite frankly their style does not exploit,” she brought her hand to her chin in a musing fashion, “It would simply be a waste to train her in that style right now, I’m sure I could find another style that would use her natural abilities better, and later on I could teach her to incorporate chakra strikes,” she looked at the Raikage seriously, “It won’t be Jyuuken, no, in fact I wouldn’t even compare it to that blocky style, I’m sure I can have it so that by the time she’s our age she will have a completely unique style far greater than anything they could come up with…”

The Raikage grinned widely showing his fanglike canines. –Yes, this prospect is looking quite nicely- he stroked his blonde beard a moment, before looking at Kemui again, “and her ‘other’ training, how is that coming along?”

The woman sighed, “You can’t expect results after a few days Lord Raikage,” the large man on his throne seemed to pout and the edge of her lips raised in a slight smirk at that, “Although, learning to be blind is a lot easier than most things, she’s gotten to the point where she’s not tripping over her own feet… at least.”

The Raikage tented his hands as he sunk into his throne-chair, “Would she be able to convince someone she is, in fact, blind?”

There was a slight shift in Kemui’s cloudy eyes and the Raikage had the feeling had she been anyone else she would be flat out rolling her eyes at him, “As long as she has that bandana on, she’s as good as blind,” she replied curtly.

“Wonderful!” he grinned widely, “Is there anything else you’d like to mention, Kemui?”

The woman thought for a minute before saying, “She has very good eyes…” Kemui received a ‘no duh’ look from the brothers, she shook her head, “What I mean is she’s naturally very observant, anything she sees and takes interest in she remembers,” she looked to the Raikage seriously again, “She may have a photographic memory, if she does I’m going to try and get her able to use her ‘eyes’ at will and hopefully constantly,” her eyes narrowed slightly, “It would be a very good thing to have someone that constantly has eyes all around them and remembers every detail.”

“Wonderful,” The Raikage said, “Kemui I trust you to continue as you please, just make sure you turn our little Yorihi-chan into something spectacular for our village.”

The white-haired woman kneeled, “Of course, Lord Raikage.”

The large blonde and darkly tanned Kage turned his gaze from the rather white woman to his smaller doppelganger, “Bee, report!!”

“Yes, mah brotha’, whom I love like no otha’!!” The man with the tiny black shades saluted his older brother, “I’ve been working on Yugito-chan tryin’ to get her to work with that cat, but don’t worry I got a plan that’ll get them workin’ stat!!”

The Raikage face-palmed.

“Internal rhyme…” Kemui said with a flat voice before shrugging, “At least it was actual rhyme this time…”

“And you callin’ me on internal rhyme, colleague of mine,” Killer-Bee made an exaggerated gesture and shaking his hand ‘no’ to the monotone woman. Before Kemui could call him on using ‘internal rhyme’ again both jumped as the Raikage slammed his fist down on his ‘throne’, surprising both of them that it didn’t break, like most things he slammed.

“NO RHYMING!!” The Raikage slammed his fist on the armrest again, and again impressing the two present jounin that it didn’t break, both simultaneously wondering if they could get whoever made that chair to make the rest of the furniture for the Raikage’s office. The large oni-looking man pointed at his younger brother, “One more rhyme and I’m taking your seven swords and lopping off tails at me leisure, understand?!”

Killer-Bee’s hands went straight back to his swords, and the Hachibi in the back of his mind was squirming, it hated losing tails more than anything, especially if it was from his container’s stupidity, “Hai, my brother…”

The Raikage sat back in his chair, a pleasant smile in the back of his mind for scaring his Jinchuuriki brother like that. –Nothing funnier than scaring the pants off my little brother…-

“Question,” Bee raised his hand, his brother nodded in a bored fashion, “Does that threat include ‘unintentional’ rhymes?”

Kemui just shook her head.

The Raikage just rubbed his eyes in annoyance, “Bee, give me your report on the Nibi now or it won’t matter about you rhyming anymore…”

“Tough crowd,” Killer-Bee mumbled to himself and coughed into his hand, “Ahem… Well as for Nii Yugito, I’ve managed to get her able to at least ‘talk’ with the Nibi,” The Raikage raised a brow, as did Kemui, although hers was for Bee actually talking ‘sense’ for once, while the Raikage was more interested in the Jinchuuriki’s progress. Killer-Bee was an anomaly, especially among Jinchuuriki, where other countries had problems with their ‘containers’ Bee had the remarkable ability since the day he was born to just simply ‘get along’ with the demon sealed inside him. Then again the Ushi-oni, simply referred to as ‘Hachibi’, was a strange one in itself, it apparently lacked any motivation to go against its container’s will and so long as it didn’t lose a tail it was happy as a clam. The pair was bizarre to begin with, one an annoying rappa-wanabe and the other a bored ages old demon that preferred sleeping… and shell-fish, and it was perhaps this oddity that allowed them to ‘get along’ so well compared to ‘other’ Jinchuuriki. The Raikage was hoping his estranged brother could somehow work his ‘charms’ on the Nibi, although for the past several months it had been proving difficult.

“How has she developed mentally?” the Raikage asked, placing both hands on his throne’s armrests waiting for his brother’s response. It didn’t look good.

“Well…” Killer-Bee lowered his shoulders, “Considering how she came in we’re lucky she wasn’t more ‘damaged’,” he scratched the back of his head, his head edged to the side motioning he was looking at Kemui, “I’m surprised you haven’t asked what we’re talking about yet?”

The white woman shrugged her shoulders the slightest bit, “If I’m to know, then I am to know,” she nodded towards him so she could see his black shades with her own grey eyes, “Tell me, you didn’t ask questions about my ‘ward’, why should I ask about yours?” Killer-Bee raised his hands showing his palms with an embarrassed grin on his face. Kemui faced forward, “Although, now you have my curiosity piqued,” she raised her hand to her chin in a musing fashion, “How is she, physically and psychologically?” she could hear the man slump.

“Maaaan, you just had to ask didn’t you?” he stood up straight hearing a grunt from his brother, obviously wanting the question answered. Bee stuck out his lip pouting, “You both suck,” he glanced at Kemui, looking for any sign of a smirk, but finding none he turned back to his brother, “Physically speaking, she’s fine, hell better than fine, the girl is in perfect physical condition, not a scratch on her, no broken bones, nuthin’,” he looked directly into his brother’s black eyes, “But you expect that from another Jinchuuriki, our demons may not be pleasant, but they like us alive, and the Nibi is no different…”

“And psychologically?” the quiet voice came from his left, seems Kemui really wanted to know, his brother merely nodded.

“Psychologically,” Bee scratched his head before sighing deeply, “Girl’s a wreak,” he looked at his brother with a serious face, “it’s been over half a year and I’ve only managed to get her talking to the Nibi, and let me tell you that cat’s got a serious attitude problem.”

The Raikage took a moment to think before sighing, “Is she salvageable as a ninja?”

“Oh hell yea!!” Killer-Bee practically shouted, surprising the two present with his previous somber tone. His grin slipped slightly when he noticed the way they both were looking at him, “What?” the Raikage’s black eyes narrowed on his brother while Kemui’s hand went to the knife strapped to her back. He held his hands up, “Wait, wait, lemme explain!!”  when he noticed Kemui’s hand removed from the blade he felt safe to continue, “Okay, true she a bit screwed up in the head right now, but that doesn’t mean she’s a lost cause, since I’ve gotten her to ‘talk’ with that damn cat she’s started opening up, seems she and it are linked in more ways than just being jailor and jailee,” he snickered a moment at his own bad grammar, then noticed the white-haired woman’s grey eyes on him, “Right, so I’m guessing that cat isn’t as bad as it thinks it is, in fact I think if I can work with her about what happened back at that island then that puss will help out as well, and then it’s just smooth sailing to recovery!” He grinned wide showing his confidence in his plan.

“What do you think Lord Raikage?” Kemui glanced at her village leader; he had his fingers tented and was deep in thought. Kemui had half a mind to take the Nibi into her own charge, she was an assassin after all, it was all about psychology there, and while she had known Killer-Bee and Gouzen Jinrai a long time, she didn’t really get the feeling they were all into the ‘psychology’ thing. Although, she would keep her silence unless the Raikage said otherwise, he was after all the leader of the village, what he said was law.

“Bee,” The Raikage’s voice rumbled as he looked up, “Do whatever you can to make her combat ready, there’s no reason to have such a potential powerhouse sitting on the sidelines,” Killer-Bee moved to protest but the Raikage silenced him with a raise of his hand, “I want her ready within the year, and if you cannot…” he looked down, lowering his voice, “I honestly don’t want to even think about that right now, understand?”

Killer-Bee gave a nodded and saluted to his brother, “By your command Raikage-sama, I’ll get to work immediately,” and in the next moment he poof!ed out of the room, leaving its two remaining occupants to themselves.

“He really needs to learn to stop leaving so abruptly,” grey eyes scanned the space Killer-Bee had occupied only a moment ago before moving her gaze to the Raikage who seemed to be thinking, “is there anything else you need, Lord Raikage?”

“Hmm…” he stroked his blonde beard not really looking at Kemui, “Will she be ready in time?” he seemed to say this more to himself then really to the room’s sole other occupant.

Kemui tilted her head slightly, “Lord Raikage, are you concerned about the Nibi?”

“Ha!” his loud laugh after such an overwhelming silence was startling to the white-haired woman, but that didn’t stop the Raikage from grinning, “Yugito I’m not worried about, she has Bee to watch over her,” He stood up and walked briskly past Kemui to look out the floor to ceiling windows. The white-haired woman just stared at her Kage’s back, confusion obvious on her face if still played down. The Raikage placed his hands behind his back as he looked out at his village, “Its Yorihi I’m concerned about…” his voice was much more placid then Kemui ever expected to hear from someone as boisterous as him.

“Is there something I can do to alleviate this ‘concern’, Lord Raikage?” she kneeled silently behind him, awaiting his command.

“Hmp, no,” he said in a low voice still looking out at the village hidden in the clouds.

“Then may I ask, Lord Raikage,” she raised her head to stare at his back, “What is it about Yorihi that concerns you?”

“It’s not her specifically I’m worried about,” he turned to the white-haired woman, all serious, all business, “It’s that clan that concerns me…” Kemui’s cloudy grey eyes widened only a fraction and the Raikage knew she understood what he meant, “Yes Kemui, it’s the worst case scenario,” he turned back to the view of his village, his black eyes taking everything in, “The Hyuuga are coming here in three days…” he could feel the assassin behind him tense, her killer intent spiking only for a moment, he couldn’t help but grin on the inside, “Have her ready to be ‘Yorihi’ by then,” he turned around with a large fanged grin to his kneeling assassin, “I want them to say ‘hello’ to my adopted daughter.”

There was the slightest of smirks that formed on Kemui’s lips before she bowed her head to her leader, “By your command, Lord Raikage,” she raised her head, showing a playful spark in her grey eyes the Raikage hadn’t seen in a long time, “In three days, all that will exist is Tenkyuu Yorihi, and no other,” in the next moment the white woman was gone, leaving the Raikage to himself.

He stared out at his village, stroking his blonde goatee in thought while a smirk played at his lips. –Yes, I have no doubt, in three days’ time when those white-eyed bastards show up at my doorstep, all they will find is my blind daughter…- The large man let out a boisterous laugh that filled the Raikage’s tower.

-----

Killer-Bee = Kiraa-Bii

Chapter Text

“What is your name?”

“Tenkyuu Yorihi…”

“How old are you?”

“Umm…” the little girl tapped three of her fingers with her thumb, “This many…”

“When’s your birthday?”

“A long time ago…” she tilted her head to the side as if confused.

A barely perceptible smirk developed on the white haired woman’s face, “Alright, who’s your father?”

“RAIKAGE-OTOU-SAMA!!” the little girl raised her hands in excitement and had a large grin that put the Raikage to shame.

Kemui turned and paced to the other side, leaving the growing smirk unnoticeable to the little girl sitting on the floor near her, “Alright, how long has Lord Raikage been your father?”

The little girl on the floor with the bandana around her eyes shrugged, “Otou-sama has always been my father?” she finished with her head tilted to the side again, showing her confusion at the question.

Kemui stopped pacing and looked at the little girl on the floor, the smirk only slightly obvious on her face, “Hmm, I think you have this down, Yorihi-hime…”

The little girl on the floor tilted her head again, ‘looking’ at where she thought her white-haired teacher was, “Ano… Kemui-sama, why have you been calling me ‘Hime’?”

A white brow rose slightly, “Why do you ask Yorihi-hime?”

The dark haired girl lowered her head, pouting obviously, “I don’t like it…”

Kemui’s brow rose higher, “Why don’t you like it?” she refrained from saying the little girl’s name, in case her honorific would upset her.

Kemui could see the little girl’s dark brows furrow over the dark blue bandana, then she slammed her tiny fists on her knees, reminiscent of the Raikage the white-haired woman couldn’t help but notice, “I just don’t like it! Kemui-sama shouldn’t be forced to call me that!!” the pout was obvious on her face and Kemui couldn’t help but smirk at her acting like a child her age.

The white-haired woman kneeled down in front of the little girl, looking at her seriously even though she knew she couldn’t see her, “Yorihi-hime,” the girl’s pout deepened, the older woman reached out a hand and tilted the girl’s head towards her, while her other hand tugged her bandana up so the girl could see how serious she was, “You are my lord’s daughter, whether legitimate, adopted, or even just temporary,” she could see the slight amount of fear that entered the little girl’s pale eyes at the thought of the Raikage only being her father temporarily, “and as his child I am honor bound to call you by the title you deserve.”

The little girl frowned and looked away from her teacher, “I don’t like it. Kemui-sama shouldn’t be forced to call me something she doesn’t want to.”

Kemui moved her face to look at hers again, “Who said anyone is forcing me?” Kemui gave a smirk that surprised the little girl, “it is my honor to give respect where it is deserved, now remember Yorihi-hime,” she held up one finger on her free hand making sure she had the little girl’s attention, “Never turn away respect that is sincere, accept it thankfully, and never squander it,” she held up a second finger, “Now, while it is nice to be humble, you must also learn to take what is given to you, especially the respect that is given with sincerity, like what I am doing, to turn it away, especially for no reason, is a very deep insult,” the woman’s cloudy eyes became very serious as she told the younger girl this, “Do you understand?”

Yorihi’s eyes widened and she shook her head vigorously, “I-I never meant to insult Kemui-sama,” she put her hands together in a pleading manner and tried bowing her head as much as she could, “I mean it, I would never try to hurt Kemui-sama in such a manner!”

The white-haired woman raised a brow, and tilted the girl’s face to see hers, “You haven’t hurt me, Yorihi-hime,” she could see that the little girl was on the verge of tears at the mere thought of hurting her teacher. –It seems she has become quite attached to us despite such a short time being here, how strange…- her eyes soften just the slightest bit at the child’s sincerity, “You didn’t know what I just told you correct?” the girl immediately nodded, “Then you are not at fault, this is why I’m telling you this now, so you know,” the older woman gave the slightest smirk before tapping the little girl on the forehead, “But next time I won’t be so nice, so you better remember what I told you.”

“Hai!!” Yorihi watched her teacher stand up and started rubbing forehead, “ano…” she looked down when she noticed her teacher’s cloudy eyes on her, “Why did you do that?”

The woman’s white-brow rose, “do what?” the little girl simply looking up at her and pointed to her forehead. Kemui couldn’t help the smile the gesture brought, “Just a sign of affectionate teasing.”

“I don’t get it?” the girl scrunched up her face, showing her obvious disapproval.

Kemui simply reached out and mussed the girl’s hair, “don’t worry, you will some day?” she gave the girl one last slight smile before turning towards the door, “Come on, it’s time to go.”

Yorihi trailed her teacher’s form, her eyes catching on her teacher’s three long-thin braids and just wondering what she meant by it all. –Kemui-sama is strange… a lot different from Raikage-sama… he’s strange too…- the little girl couldn’t help but smile brightly as she lowered the bandana over her eyes and ran to her teacher at the door. –But… I think that’s what I like about them…-

Kemui opened the door from the little girl’s room, glad to have taken this extra time to make sure all preparations were correct. –For a small child she seems to understand things quickly, or simply accepts things as they are… It’s a good thing she managed to get everything down so quickly… now Lord Raikage’s plan should go off without a hitch- She was pulled from her thoughts when she felt a tug on her left hand, it seemed little Yorihi had grasped the older woman’s hand in her tiny one. Kemui found the sensation of holding the little girl’s hand strange. –I think…- she looked down at the little girl. -Had it been anyone else we wouldn’t be able to acquire these kinds of results…- she held the tiny girl’s hand tighter. –Perhaps…-

The two simply walked down the hall in silence, hand in hand, towards their destination.

-----

“Raikage-sama, perhaps we shouldn’t be making the Konoha representatives wait so long?” The Raikage’s assistant asked the hulking man as he sat on his ‘throne’ resting his head on one arm.

The Raikage glanced at the man out of the corner of his black eyes. His name was Joshu; he was about 23, technically a jounin since he wore the standard issue outfit. He had a face that could get lost in a crowd in the land of lightning, dark skin, dark muffed hair, his only real defining features were the dark shades he wore and the crescent scar that hugged his left cheekbone. He wasn’t a particularly noticeable guy, often blending in with the wall, but he was good at getting paperwork done, which was the main reason the Raikage kept him around. But he did have this irritating knack for stating an opinion that the Raikage didn’t like listening to, even if it was technically right.

“They’re the ones that showed up uninvited, the least they could do is give me respect and wait,” The Raikage just relaxed in his chair. In the back of his mind he knew Joshu was right, ‘detaining’ the group of Hyuuga that showed up a day early, claiming to be representing Konoha on further ‘peace-talks’, which was absolute bullshit, was technically a ‘bad move’ in the eyes of his constituents. Luckily he managed to pull that he simply ‘wasn’t ready to receive them’ since they came early and were overall disrespecting him. Truthfully he wanted to give Kemui enough time to make sure ‘Yorihi’ was ready, and simply rub into those obnoxious pompous white-eyed bastard’s faces who’s the boss in that land of Lightning.

There was a tap from the door behind his throne, a door that leads to the private suites belonging to the Raikage. A grin made it to his face and he waved his hand to have Joshu check it out. The dark skin man nodded and silently checked the door, he reappeared a moment later at the Raikage’s side, “Kemui has brought Yorihi-sama, she says they are ready.”

The Raikage grinned showing his fangs, “Very good, send the bastards in…”

There was a sigh from his left, “Do you want the ‘usual’ entourage as well, Raikage-sama?”

The Raikage glanced at his shades wearing assistant a moment before waving his hand lazily, “Sure, why not,” he gave a fanged grin, “I don’t see a problem with showing excessive force…” the man saluted and silently disappeared from the Raikage’s receiving room. The large man stroked his goatee in thought a moment, wondering how to best play his cards for scaring the hell out of one of the world’s most infamous clans. –Well there’s always the direct approach- The Raikage made a slight gesture with his right hand and heard the door behind his right opened and he heard the footsteps come in.

“Is it really wise to show all your cards immediately, Lord Raikage?” he glanced at the white-haired woman and grinned.

“The Best way to intimidate someone is with a show of confidence,” he replied showing his fangs to the woman, she merely closed her eyes and gave the barest of sighs. His black eyes looked down and saw the slightly fidgeting form of his ‘adopted daughter’, “Yorihi-chan, have you and Kemui been getting along?”

The girl gave an infectious smile, “Hai, Otou-sama,” there was absolutely no hesitation in the words she spoke, making the Raikage very proud. –Seems she really did get it down quickly- he glanced at the white woman, “Kemui?”

The woman’s grey eyes glanced at him a moment, “She seemed rather eager,” she looked at the tiny blindfolded girl still holding her hand, “It wasn’t simply my doing, Lord Raikage.”

He nodded acknowledging her words.

“Ano…” both Kemui and the Raikage turned to the tiny girl as she spoke, “Otou-sama…” she fidgeted, and this wasn’t exactly the hardest thing to ask she just didn’t know how The Raikage would respond. –They have been nicer then everyone at the compound…- Kemui gave the small girl a push towards the Raikage as a means of telling her to continue. Yorihi nodded her head and started in a more confident voice, “Otou-sama, can sit on your lap?”

The Raikage immediately started laughing, boisterous and loud. Yorihi fidgeted thinking she’d done something wrong by asking. Her first response was to run behind Kemui and hide, but since she couldn’t see, she wasn’t sure which way her white-haired teacher was. She started to feel panicked before she felt a tug on the back of her tiny kimono, the sensation confused her for a second before she was picked up off the ground and placed on something firm, it wasn’t really soft, nor was it really hard, just really firm. Then she felt a large hand on her head and heard the Raikage ask her in a rather jovial voice, “Is that better Yorihi-chan?”

She blinked behind her bandana, nor really expecting her new father to agree with her request. Then it sunk in that she was sitting in her new father’s lap. A large grin spread on her face that the Raikage was pleased to see, “Hai, Otou-sama!!”

The large man gave a throaty laugh, “Is there anything else my little Yorihi-chan?”  The little girl shook her head ‘no’, he laughed again and patted her head, “If there is anything just ask, alright?”

“Hai, Otou-sama,” the ‘blind’ girl nodded affirmatively. Yorihi couldn’t honestly think of anything else she’d want, this was honestly the first time she had sat in her father’s lap, and she was simply excited enough about it to be perfectly content.

“Now ain’t you the most adorable thing there is!!” Before Yorihi knew what was going on she felt large hands grab her from under her arms and pick her up into the air, away from her comfortable space, “Why it’s me, Killer-Bee, the man bigger then show biz!!”

Kemui just sighed, not even in the mood to address Bee’s butchery of language.

Yorihi recognized the voice; he was there that night, when the Raikage took her away from the man that kidnapped her. The memory brought an unfathomable panic to the small girl coupled with being picked up and twirled around in the air by a total stranger. Her mind went blank, and without thinking her eyes activated, the familiar sensation of fuzz around her eyes came and in the next moment she could see the man that was holding her; a smaller version of her adopted father with black marks on his left cheek.

“Bee, put her down,” The Raikage could tell she was about five seconds away from screaming, and that wouldn’t be a good thing. He had felt her chakra instinctively go to her eyes, and he was sure Kemui felt it too seeing as her hand had moved to her knife strapped to her back. –If she starts screaming I’m sure Bee’s going to lose something he’ll sorely miss- Now while the thought of the obviously smaller woman chopping his brother into tiny pieces was indeed funny, it would not look good for his ‘guests’ to see such a display. When Killer-Bee had yet to put the girl down the Raikage frowned at him, “Bee, put your niece down now before I let Kemui start cutting…”

Killer-Bee glanced at the white-haired woman standing at his brother’s right, her grey eyes were boring into him and he had the feeling of being a rabbit staring down a hungry timber wolf, “Ooh, scary…” he set the girl down immediately and saw Kemui hold out her hand and the little girl running to grab it, and partially hid behind the scary woman. Bee put his hands up in a defensive manner, “Hey, hey, no harm, no harm, you know I’d never hurt my precious niece baby!!”

Kemui seemed to glance down at Yorihi a moment, gave Bee another glare, then finally removed her hand from her knife, “You need to learn to not act in such a way, we have guests coming,” she glanced back at the little girl behind her, “And we don’t need her panicking, understand?”

Bee gave an embarrassed grin, “Eheh… Sorry about that Yori-chan,” he walked up to Kemui and crouched down to Yorihi’s level, trying to appear as harmless as he could, “Come on, you ain’t mad at your uncle, are ya?” he leaned in close to the girl and ‘whispered’, rather loudly, to her, “C’mon help me out Yori-chan, I don’t want sista’ here bein’ mad at me ‘kay?” he pointed up to Kemui with his thumb.

Yorihi couldn’t help it, this weird man that looked like the Raikage sounded funny, so she grinned at him and shook her teacher’s hand, “Kemui-sama, Oji-sama says he’s sorry, please don’t be mad at him.”

Kemui’s grey eyes just stared at the two, one grinning like the idiot he was, and the little girl asking for her to forgive him with a smile. She gave the barest of sighs before giving a curt nod, “Hai, as you wish Yorihi-hime.”

“ALRIGHT!!” Killer-Bee jumped up with a huge grin, “Bee is off the hook!!” He leaned down to the little girl, “All thanks to my little home-girl Yori-chan,” this elicited a giggle from the tiny girl, and Kemui just almost rolled her eyes at his antics.

“Bee, are you finished?” The Raikage growled at his brother.

Killer-Bee looked over to see his brother glaring at him; he stood up straight putting his hands up, “Eheh… Sorry, bro!” The tattooed man poofed from the Raikage’s right and reappeared at his left, standing just in front of a shorter blonde girl a few years his junior.

The Raikage just shook his head at his brother’s antics before looking to his left and assessing the two Jinchuuriki. Killer-Bee was standing confidently, about as normal as he got, but the Blonde girl next to him kept fidgeting every few minutes, so far she had been quiet, simply watching the exchange. His black eyes rolled over to his brother, “Bee, why is Yugito here?”

He gave an idiot’s grin, “Oh, well you see… my girl here…” he looked back at Yugito, “uhh…” he held up his hand with one finger like he was making a point, “hmm…” he shifted to a musing pose, thinking over his answer.

“Raikage-sama,” The girl seemed to speak for herself, “I requested to be here with Senpai…” her black eyes shifted to the ground, “I want to prove I can be of assistance.”

“Hmm…” The Raikage sat back in his chair, stroking his blonde goatee in thought a moment before looking back at the teenage girl, “Can you keep yourself under control?” his black eyes were serious and he needed her to understand that if she made one slipup here it could mean a severe punishment later.

Yugito clinched her fists, and brought her own black eyes to meet the Raikage’s, “I will, Raikage-sama,” She said it with enough conviction the Raikage was willing to let her be.

“Very well,” The Raikage took a moment to assess his situation. –I have two Jinchuuriki, an assassin and my kidnapped adopted daughter at my side…- he grinned showing his fanglike canines. –I don’t think I could be any more prepared…-

------

Joshu = Assistant

Chapter Text

“It’s about time!”

Joshu silently sighed to himself, this was the one part about his job he didn’t like, sure paperwork wasn’t really that interesting, but he’d take a pile of it over dealing with bitchy dignitaries any day.  He didn’t bother looking back at the Hyuuga walking behind him, “I beg pardon Hyuuga-sama, but the Raikage likes protocol being kept, and you did arrive earlier than expected, we were simply unprepared to receive you,” at least with all this dealing with angsty dignitaries Joshu had learned rather well, out of necessity, to ‘talk the talk’. –Now we just need Raikage-sama to ‘walk the walk’- He adjusted his black shades, absolute confidence that his village leader knew what he was doing.

At least, he hoped.

“This is uncommonly rude, having us wait so you could ‘prepare’, a proper leader would always be prepared for guests,” Joshu couldn’t help but roll his eyes under his shades, yea this guy would really know what it’s like running a village, yea sure, whatever. He could feel the Hyuuga’s white eyes bore into the back of his head and had he been a lesser man, and not spent his days with the Raikage breathing down his neck to get his paperwork done, he’d probably be turning around and apologizing; thankfully he wasn’t that kind of person. He heard a grunt behind him, “One would think you Kumo-nin have something you’re trying to hide from us…”

Joshu’s eyes went to glaring in front of him. He already didn’t like this part of his job, and right now he was really starting to hate this pompous jerk. He knew exactly what the man was eluding too, and he knew his Kage was right in saying their ‘diplomatery business’ was absolute bullshit; they just wanted to snoop around for Yorihi. –If this guy so much as looks at that kid wrong, I’m stabbing him in the eyes, fuck our village standing…-

“Here we are Hyuuga-sama,” it didn’t matter if the dark-skinned man wanted to bite his tongue at the cordial way he addressed the Hyuuga entourage, he knew his place, and that was to at least ‘appear’ nice to people like this, “Here is the Raikage’s receiving room, he should already be waiting for you,” his hand reached out and grabbed the handle of the door, turning it and opening the door wide enough for them to enter. The three Hyuuga before him seemed to grunt before heading to the door, not one of them looking his way as he adjusted his black shades.

With his middle finger.

-----

The Hyuuga lord was the first to walk through the door, it entered into a medium sized room, one end having a floor to ceiling high windows, seemingly taking up that entire wall, the other end was where he found the Raikage, sitting on a raised chair like a throne, and he was not alone. Standing to the large Kage’s left was a tall man that looked similar to the Kage with dark-skin and blonde hair, a seemingly common combination in the land of lighting. The noticeable difference between this man and the Kage was the tiny black shades he wore and the tattoo on his left cheek that resembled bullhorns. This rang a bell in the Hyuuga’s mind, but he couldn’t exactly remember what it was. The man appeared to be a Jounin, and probably a dangerous one with the ungodly amount of swords he wore on his back. They would have to watch him.

Behind the blonde jounin and slightly to his left was a shorter teenage blonde girl, she had black eyes and no real discernable features, she didn’t even wear a hitae-ate of Kumo, nor any indicators that she was a Jounin, let alone Chuunin. The Hyuuga lord glanced to that man behind him and to his right, signaling him to watch that girl especially. There had to be some reason the Raikage had her here, and that could only mean she was powerful.

To the Raikage’s right was an even more unknown woman. She had a sharp face and white hair done with two braids on each side of her face framing it; the rest was short and seemingly cut roughly. The triangular vest on her chest suggested she was a Jounin, but she gave no presence that supported that idea. The only noticeable weapon the woman had was a knife strapped horizontally to the small of her back. She had no kunai or shuriken holsters he could identify; in fact that knife seemed to be her only visible weapon. –But we are ninja, for all I know she has a myriad of hidden weapons… even if her outfit seems to suggest she’s a defensive type…- The Hyuuga was about to nod to his other bodyguard but then his eyes caught on something.

Her grey eyes.

He got the feeling from her eyes that she had ‘let’ him observe her, before showing her true nature. The simple look in her eyes wasn’t of someone who focuses on defense; it wasn’t even a look he’d seen in veteran ninja, it was the look of a hunter stalking their prey. With that simple glance the woman became a wolf, and he became her prey.

He wouldn’t stand for that, he was a Hyuuga Damnit, and there were no hunters better than them, not with their eyes. Without even thinking he activated his Byakuugan, if this woman wanted a stare down, he’d prove you don’t win that way against a Hyuuga.

So why was it as soon as his enhanced vision came on she smirked at him.

“Hyuuga-san, I don’t appreciate such actions in my presence,” The thundering voice of the Raikage came to the Hyuuga’s ears and he had to curse himself for forgetting such a basic rule, no techniques, bloodlines, or otherwise in the presence of a Kage. –That damn woman lured me into a trap…-

He immediately turned his eyes off, “Forgive me Raikage-dono,” he didn’t noticed the Raikage’s black eyes narrow on him, “It will not happen again, I meant no disrespect,” he bowed, only enough to be polite, he was Hyuuga after all.

The Raikage tented his hands, black eyes still on the form of the Hyuuga before him, “Tell me, Hyuuga-san, what do you preside over?” his voice stern and overall serious, he wanted the question answered quickly and truthfully.

The Hyuuga lord rose to look into the man’s black eyes, he truly was serious. –If I’m caught lying here, it’s all over- he looked at the Raikage’s entourage. –Those two on his left I doubt could tell… but that woman on his right… I have to be careful- He cleared his throat ready to answer.

Only to be cut off by that woman, “Lord Raikage, I believe the head of the Hyuuga house is only in charge of that,” Her grey eyes sparked as they met the Hyuuga’s white ones, “He is only in charge of his clan…”

The Hyuuga’s eyes narrowed on the woman only the slightest bit, barely enough for anyone to notice unless they were actually looking, the slight smirk on her face seemed to suggest she was.

“That’s right,” The Raikage leaned on one hand, the other lazily stroking his blonde goatee, “And what is my station?” the Oni-looking man gave a wide grin, giving the present Hyuuga a good look at his fanglike canines.

“YOU’RE THE RAIKAGE OTOU-SAMA!!” the shout of a little girl reverberated throughout the mostly empty room.

The reactions from the occupants were very different. Killer-Bee just laughed out loud, as did Yugito in a much more played down manner, even the Raikage laughed boisterously at the little girl’s shout, he wasn’t exactly expecting it, but it did make him proud. –She really is progressing better than we anticipated…-

Kemui sighed, “Yorihi-hime, you should know better than to shout in front of your father’s guests,” despite her chiding words the woman did have a telltale ever-so-small smile on her lips.

Yorihi just tilted her head in the direction of her teacher’s voice, her words were telling her what she did was wrong, but her voice… -Kemui-sama doesn’t sound mad at all… maybe she really isn’t?- The little girl with the bandana on simply nodded to her teacher, “I’m sorry Kemui-sama, I’ll be quieter from now on,” she ended with a smile that she hoped was directed to her teacher. Her eyes had deactivated when her uncle cheered her up, so she was back to being blind and not one-hundred-percent sure where she was ‘looking’.

The Hyuuga froze.

The three of them knew that voice anywhere, especially the middle Hyuuga. That was the voice of his niece. –Hinata-sama- it took all of his willpower to not shout her name at that very moment. He and his colleges had come on this mission hoping to prove his brother wrong… but now… now the truth was standing in front of him.

The lead Hyuuga angled his white-eyes down, and there, standing halfway behind that white woman was the heiress of his clan, it just had to be. The girl was about the right size –Well… maybe an inch taller…- about the right weight –Okay, so maybe she has bit more meat on her…- the hair color was right, but it stuck out at the ends –Yea but that’s just hair-style, that can easily change- and she was in a dark blue kimono reminiscent of the land of lightning. The only part that he couldn’t confirm were her eyes. –That bandana, it has to be hiding her Byakuugan eyes… it has to be…- The lead Hyuuga made the slightest shift towards the girl.

“Is there something wrong, Hyuuga-sama?” his white-eyes shifted to the voice’s user, it was that white-haired woman again, her grey eyes piercing into him, almost daring him to take another step.

The Hyuuga swallowed hard, “No,” he righted himself, correcting his stance and looking away from the little girl, “There is nothing wrong…”

“Should we continue,” The Raikage’s booming voice echoed in the hall as his black eyes narrowed on the Hyuuga, “Or do you want us to get straight to the point, Hyuuga-san,” he purposely stressed the honorific. –This Hyuuga better learn his place, or he may lose something here…-

The Hyuuga gave a curt nod, “Of course, Raikage-dono,” that was strike three. In an instant the Hyuuga ‘lord’ went from facing the Raikage to having his face a foot from the ground, a blade held closely at his neck. After the second it took for his mind to register what was going on he raised his head to look at the Raikage, “What is the meaning of this?!”

Without thinking his eyes activated his bloodline, he was able to see what had happened, or at least the aftermath. His bodyguards were each being held in a hold, one by that blonde girl, who seemed to have grown fangs and claws, holding them dangerously close to his college on his right’s throat. His other bodyguard was held down at blade point by that ‘assistant’ that had led them here. He managed to look at the man that held him a foot from the ground, it was that tattooed doppelganger of the Raikage, he too grinning and showing fangs not noticed before.

And it was that man that answered the Hyuuga, “Yo’ Hyuuga man, you’ve got to learn to give respect where it is do,” He raised the Hyuuga’s head to his level, giving the white-eyed ‘lord’ a clear look at the Kage of Kumo, “Now, I dun’t know how it goes back in your town, but here, he is the king, and no ‘clan leader’ is his equal, ya feel me?”

The Hyuuga could only grit his teeth before nodding his understanding. He had insulted a Kage, and hadn’t even known it; the arrogance of his brother had almost gotten him killed in this foreign land. –Hiashi speaks to the Hokage as if they are equals because he allows it, but here…- his white eyes trailed to the large man on his throne, noting the extreme difference in countenance. –As this man said, ‘he is the king’… Hiashi you bastard- The Hyuuga deactivated his eyes, thankful in the mercy that one act didn’t get him killed.

“Cool,” The Hyuuga found he was then bodily dragged up to his feet by the same man that had held him a blade-point only a moment prior, that fanged grin still plastered on the man’s face. “No hard feelin’s, right?” he needlessly dusted the man off.

“Kemui-sama,” his white eyes traveled to the little blindfolded girl as she spoke. He watched as she gestured to the white-haired woman to come down to her level which she did and the little girl spoke into the woman’s ear, outside his normal range of sight. –Damnit, what are you telling them Hinata-sama…- his white eyes glanced from one Kumo-nin to the next, their unusual level of calm about this whole situation put him on edge. –Something isn’t right here…-

The white-haired woman nodded to the little girl before standing up and giving the Raikage a look, then he too nodded. The next thing he knew that tattooed man had gripped his shoulder tightly and was infusing chakra into him. –No, no, no, no!!-

Killer-Bee grinned at the man’s obvious panic; “Kai!” there was a poof!! and Hyuuga Hizashi was visible for all to see, in full combat gear. Bee only grinned wider, “Well, well, lookie what we gat h’re!!” Bee reached out and tugged the Hyuuga’s forehead protector down, making the caged-bird seal visible for everyone to see.

“Damn you,” Hizashi growled between his teeth, knowing better than to move under this man’s gaze. He had the feeling if he so much as twitched wrong he’d be dead before he knew it.

“Do you Hyuuga’s honestly take me for an idiot?” The voice was low and stern, coming from the Raikage’s throne. Hizashi was wary to look at the man but felt compelled to do so anyway. The Raikage sat calmly with his arms on the rests, “Your ploy was so obvious even a blind child noticed it. That seems like pretty poor planning on your part…”

Hizashi’s eyes widened a fraction, looking towards the small girl now standing firmly next to the white-haired woman. –Blind?- The captive Hyuuga was tempted to activate his bloodline and confirm the Kage’s claim himself, but a shove from the larger man holding him said otherwise. –Damnit…-

“You seem confused, Hyuuga-san,” Hizashi’s white eyes looked to the Raikage again, still just as furious and defiant. The Raikage grinned, he liked those eyes, they looked a lot better than the façade he was trying for a moment ago. The large man glanced to the little girl standing next to Kemui, “This is my daughter,” his eyes shifted to the captive Hyuuga, “And yes, she is blind…” he gave a wide fanged grin when the Hyuuga’s eyes seemed to widen in some kind of fear.

The large man stood up from his throne, taking a moment to intimidate the Hyuuga with his sheer size, “She had asked her teacher a simple question, ‘Why does that man feel strange?’, now you may not think that would point you out so easily, but let me explain,” he took a step forward, “My daughter may not be able to see, but even at this young age she’s aware of chakra, and whenever it surrounds someone she recognizes it as a ‘strange feeling’,” His hands were behind his back as he took another casual step, “My ‘assistant’ merely informed me of her inquiry, and my brother,” he waved a hand to the man holding Hizashi, “Was curious as well as why a Hyuuga would be using such an ‘obvious’ Genjutsu,” The large man stopped in front of Hizashi, his towering might had struck fear in far greater men, but he saw just that simple defiance in the branch member’s white-eyes. –This man really does have good eyes…- he grinned.

The next moment Hizashi found himself a good two feet off the ground, courtesy of the Raikage’s large hand at his throat. The man glared at him with black eyes, “But see, the thing that had tipped me off was simple, ‘Why would the Hyuuga send their clan-leader here? Let alone with only two escorts?” he brought the Hyuuga closer to his face, letting out the bare minimum of killing intent focused solely on this one man, “now tell me, Hyuuga-san, does that make any sense?”

The Hyuuga simply clinched his jaw; there was fear in the man’s white-eyes but not enough to overwhelm him. The Raikage threw him at his colleges, the remaining two branch members catching Hizashi swiftly before he broke anything.

The Raikage scanned over the three with his black eyes, “Three ninja, highly trained, heavily armed, why with that set up I’d think you were on a deep-strike suicide mission.” He put his hands behind his back, watching the Hyuuga lazily as if they were insignificant. Killer-Bee was at his side, while Yugito and Joshu were on the other side of the grounded Hyuuga, they were surrounded; surrender was their only option for survival.

“Tell me,” he stroked his blonde goatee, “Were you told by your lord to assassinate me?” his black eyes glanced at them, seeing no reaction, “Or did you have a different mission, perhaps to ‘acquire’ something within Kumo,” he looked them over for good measure, the two ‘bodyguards’ were openly glaring at him, but it was the man in the middle he truly wanted a response from, “Did you come here to ‘reclaim’ my daughter?”

Hizashi’s eyes narrowed only the slightest, and that was all the response the Raikage was looking for.

He turned his back on the trio of Hyuuga and his own personal ‘guards’, “Send these Hyuuga back to their rooms, I want them to depart tomorrow morning,” He walked over to Kemui, grinning at her, before leaning down and picking up ‘his daughter’. The girl seemed genuinely happy for the attention, and a small part of him was pleased with that reaction, before setting her comfortably in his arms and turning back to the Hyuuga, “If your clan-leader has anything to say to me, he can come himself,” he gave a fanged grin, “With a larger ‘force’ if that makes him feel comfortable,” He turned away from them laughing and exiting the room through the door behind his ‘throne’.

Kemui hung back a moment, she looked over the Hyuuga still on the floor, her grey eyes narrowing on the center one with his seal exposed, “Until next time, Hyuuga-sama,” she tilted her head the slightest bit before following her lord through the door.

Hizashi watched them leave; he clinched his fist tightly while his comrades tried to pull him up. –Damnit… they beat us… they beat us thoroughly…- The image of the small girl grinning widely in that large man’s arms came to his mind as he and his fellow Hyuuga were escorted out of the receiving room. The assistant was in front of them leading, while the other two were behind them as guards. He felt like a prisoner, worse, he felt like a complete failure. –We’ve lost you haven’t we- The girl’s smile came to him again, -Hinata-sama…-

-----

Hizashi =sunlight

Chapter Text

“You know you are playing a dangerous game, Lord Raikage,” The white-haired woman commented as soon as the Raikage closed the door to Yorihi’s room. In her mind things could have gone much better at the ‘meeting’, they could have assuaged the Hyuuga’s worries and played indifferent. –Instead he all but tells them where their heiress is, dangles her in front of them, and even challenges them to come get her…- Internally she sighed, she wasn’t one who liked to needlessly complicate a situation.

“Have a little faith Kemui,” The man simply stated as he walked past her, knowing full well that as soon as he was a step in front of her she would shadow him like the good assassin she was. The Raikage openly grinned, she was one of the few people he would show his back to so freely, and with that came a certain level of trust. He knew that this trust was based around the standing that she wouldn’t stab him in the back, and he would let her speak her opinion, as much as she deemed it necessary.

“It is still foolish, Lord Raikage,” she made the slightest glance back to the door they left, knowing they left the girl all but unguarded, before looking back at his towering form in front of her, “You realize you are simply painting a target on her…”

His grin widened, “Of course,” he placed his hands behind his back and walked in a leisurely pace, “I have played my hand flawlessly, Kemui, and revealed their hand,” his voice lowered dangerously, “now it is their turn to choose their options carefully, and whatever they decide will determine the outcome here.”

“Of course Lord Raikage,” the white-haired woman simply nodded her head in respect. She had only one thought on her mind as they continued to walk away from their charge. –What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger… learn to be strong from this Yorihi…-

-----

“We have to do this, we have no choice!”

“Are you insane, you saw what they are capable of in there!”

“That’s why we can’t get caught!”

“They knew, of course they will catch us!”

The harsh whispers were arguing back and forth in front of Hizashi while he remained silent. He wasn’t really hearing what his comrades, Shin and Ihan, were saying. All his mind was focused on was the look of that girl with the Raikage.

“Hizashi!!” one man growled at him, it was Ihan. He was a man, like his name, that received a lot of punishment. His hair was trimmed short with a long wrapped pony tail that went down from the center of the back of his head. The wrappings around his head were black, as he had no hitae-ate to use to cover their family’s mark of shame. His most notable features were the two slanted scars that went down his right eye, it gave everyone the impression he had gotten on the wrong side of a cat in his life. This man was currently glaring at Hizashi, waiting for some kind of response.

“What do you want Ihan?” The defacto leader was in no mood to listen to them argue, let alone do anything besides pack and leave this place as soon as humanly possible.

“Hizashi-san,” said man’s white eyes traveled to the left of his vision, finding the feminine features of Shin. Like many Hyuuga, Shin had his hair long, although his means of hiding his left eye with his bangs made some wonder if he thought he was a Yamanaka. Compared to Ihan, Shin was flawless, as he bore no marks on his features and wore a bandana type Hitae-ate that covered the top of his head and forehead, the symbol of the leaf proudly displayed in the front. His one visible eye looked at Hizashi pleadingly, “Sir, what should we do?” he glanced at his ‘comrade’, “Ihan wishes we continue the mission, I strongly advise against it-”

“What choice do we have, if we come back empty-handed we’re as good as dead anyway!!” Ihan yelled as loud as he dared at the man next to him.

Hizashi sighed deeply, Ihan was right, “Pack your things,” he raised his eyes to look at the two, he felt disgusted that he had to kill the hope in Shin’s eyes, but he felt no love-loss by the bitter glare Ihan gave his leader, “We have no choice…”

The twin of the clan head lowered his head, barely able to continue his words, “We continue the mission…”

He heard Shin gasp but not protest, he heard Ihan grin and quickly grab his things, but Hizashi wasn’t truly paying attention to these things, as only one thought stuck in his mind. –I’m sorry Hinata-sama…-

-----

Yorihi sat in her room thinking. The little girl had been praised by her adopted father and given an approving look from her teacher. This confused her. She could think of nothing of note she did that amounted to such actions, in fact she didn’t really understand what had happened at all.

“She had asked her teacher a simple question, ‘Why does that man feel strange?”

That is what her father had said, but that wasn’t the truth. –I didn’t ask Kemui-sama anything, I just told her that man didn’t sound like my… ‘Her’ Father…- This reminder of her former clan also brought stress and confusion to the little girl. Since being here, with the Raikage and Kemui-sama, she had been ‘Tenkyuu Yorihi’. ‘Yorihi’ was praised, treated with affection by her ‘family’, she was allowed to laugh, to smile, to be loud, in fact she was encouraged to do such.

-So why did they have to bring ‘Hinata’ back…- The little girl looked up into the mirror she was sitting in front of, seeing ‘Hinata’ again. As soon as her father and teacher had left, Yorihi had lowered the bandana from her eyes, and stood in front of the mirror. At first, she didn’t know who she was looking at, the girl in the mirror was standing tall, straight, almost proud, she wore clothing that would never be considered ‘up to standard’ for the Hyuuga, her hair wasn’t combed meticulously straight and allowed to hang free as she shook it out. For all intents and purposes this girl was ‘Yorihi’.

But it was her ‘eyes’ that gave her away. Those pale-lavender orbs were the eyes of a Hyuuga, the eyes of ‘Hinata’, and Yorihi didn’t like it.

So the little girl had sat down in front of the mirror, glaring at it defiantly, trying with all her might to prove to this piece of furniture she wasn’t ‘Hinata’ and that she was ‘Yorihi’. –There is no ‘Hinata’ anymore you stupid mirror, stop showing her to me!!- The girl stood up, angry, her hand clinching into a fist as her reason gave way to her emotions, she didn’t even feel the slight ‘fuzz’ as her Byakuugan activated. Without thought she closed her eyes and struck out to punch the imposter in the face and have it out of her sight for good.

“Hina-chan stop!!”

The girl opened her eyes in disbelief, her fist a mere centimeter from the glass. –Okaa-sama?!- Her eyes widened at the thought of hearing her mother.

“Hina-chan listen to me, alright?”

“O-Okaa-sama…” It took the small girl a moment to realize she wasn’t actually ‘hearing’ her mother; it was just a memory of a time similar to this. She closed her eyes again and remembered.

She was younger then she was now, and understood even less, her Father had been showing her katas and been trying to get her to remember them. She didn’t understand, she just wanted to spend time with her mother in the garden, so her Father had been very disappointed with her. –The look in his eyes…- it was something ‘Hinata’ didn’t like, something she cowered under and didn’t understand. She had gone to her room afterwards and stood in front of a mirror just like she was now, trying to find what it was her father didn’t like about her.

And like now, her mother had been the one to stop her from striking the mirror.

“Hina-chan what do you see when you look in this mirror?”

The tiny girl had pouted, “Someone Otou-sama doesn’t like…”

Her mother had laughed at that, “Now why would you say that?”

The tiny girl had shook her head, “Okaa-sama I don’t understand!!”

Her mother had come over and enveloped the tiny girl in an affectionate hug, “Want me to tell you want I see when I look in the mirror?” the tiny girl had nodded and her mother looked into the mirror along with her daughter, a light smile on her face, “I see a young woman who has the potential to be whatever she wants to be,” she pointed at the little girl in the mirror, “And see, she has a wonderful daughter who has that same potential to be whoever it is she chooses to be,” she smiled down at her daughter, “and I’m sure she won’t let anyone tell her otherwise, not even her grumpy old dad,” she had laughed after that, with a smile that was so light and infectious it still brought joy to Hinata to this day.

Yorihi opened her eyes and looked in the mirror, she may not have been much older than ‘Hinata’ was at that time, but what she saw now was what she had been waiting to see. She saw in the mirror a girl who was a fighter, who stood tall no matter what anyone said, and her eyes…

Yorihi glared back into those Byakuugan eyes that glared back at her, they were fierce, they were commanding; they were something she could be proud of. Those weren’t the soft eyes of ‘Hinata’; those were the eyes of ‘Yorihi’. –I will Okaa-sama, I will be someone I want to be- She tugged at the bandana around her throat and brought it back up over her eyes, even if it didn’t obscure her vision one bit. She tied it tight, confirming who she was. –I will be Yorihi-

-----

“Alright, this is the door… I think?”

“What the hell do you mean ‘you think?’ is it or isn’t it?”

“I think it is… there are some seals messing up my eyes,” Shin deactivated his Byakuugan as he stared at the door in front of them. He was almost positive this was the door, he could sense a small chakra signature inside but he couldn’t get a direct read on it.

“So just open the damn door!!” Ihan yelled at his colleague, this mission was already pissing him off. After taking care of the guards outside their room, they hadn’t met much resistance, maybe two, three other guards, tops. Either Kumo was really laxed in their security, or something else was up, he just wanted to grab the heiress and get the hell out. –And with Hizashi keep spacing out this isn’t helping…-

Since leaving their quarters Hizashi hadn’t said a word, he had struck down their guards like they were rookie genin and did it simply and effortlessly. The man was a juggernaut on the battlefield, it was one of the reasons the branch members thought it was a shame he was stuck in the dirt with them. The man had the makings of a great leader, but with that seal on his head he was stuck being another pawn.

–And he hasn’t said a damn word; creepy bastard- was all Ihan thought before yelling at Shin to hurry his ass up with the door.

“Shut up Ihan, for all we know, as soon as this door opens all of Kumo wil-” Shin didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence as the door was forcefully kicked down by a chakra enhanced foot, courtesy of Hizashi.

“Are you two done wasting time,” his tone was low, and for a second the two thought Hiashi-sama was with them. No scratch that, someone far more intimidating then Hiashi was with them. The two simply nodded before all three activated their eyes and stepped into the room, “Let’s finish this…”

Hizashi was first in the room, his eyes taking the entire scene in at once. A normal room, no straps, no drugs, no operating tables, no chains, no torture devices of any kind. His lids narrowed over his active eyes finding the scene completely confusing.

“She’s here!” Shin called to his spellbound colleague.

Hizashi turned to the other two, his Byakuugan still active, and the fierce look of his eyes came upon Shin leaning over a small girl in a dark blue kimono with a bandana over her eyes backed up against a mirror. –Hinata-sama- he took a step forward freezing when the girl finally spoke.

“Who are you?! How dare you break into my room!!” the girl spoke with such vehemence Hizashi was stunned. –That’s Hinata-sama? How…-

“Huh?” both Ihan and Shin looked at each other then down at the little girl.

“Hinata-sama, we are your clansmen,” he reached out experimentally, “we’ve come to rescue you-”

The girl immediately slapped away his hand; her visible brows were furrowed in fury, “Who are you talking about? I have no ‘clansmen’!”

“Tch,” Ihan looked pissed, “Quit dicking around girl, you’re a Hyuuga, we’re Hyuuga, and we’re here to bring you home.”

Hizashi had never in his life known someone could glare without their eyes, but the look that came across the girl’s face said she was doing solely that. And if that didn’t surprise the white-eyed man enough, the absolution in her voice as she spoke certainly did.

“I am home.”

“Tch,” Ihan stood up a moment and looked Hizashi in the eye, “I’m through screwing around with some whiney brat,” and before either Hizashi or Shin could move Ihan struck the tiny girl in her stomach effectively knocking the wind out of her. He stood up, dusted his hands off and walked towards Hizashi, “there problem solved, let’s get out of here…”

“IHAN!!” Shin yelled back at the man after quickly grabbing the teetering girl, “Tch, damn bastard,” he looked down at the barely conscious girl, “He didn’t have to go that far,” Shin quickly picked her up and headed for the door as well, leaving Hizashi as the remaining occupant.

The man clinched his teeth and gripped his fists in fury. –That bastard…- at the moment even he wasn’t sure who he was more furious at, his brother, the Raikage or Ihan for striking his biological niece. His fists started shaking, “damn them…” his Byakuugan pulsed as he headed for the door, “Damn them all!!” without thinking the man sent his fist through the nearest wall, leaving a whole four feet in diameter. He quickly moved to catch up to his ‘teammates’.

He didn’t even notice the whole patch itself together, or the white-haired woman holding a one-handed seal as she stood staring at the wall fixing itself, a quiet fury in her grey eyes that probably matched his own.

-----

“Shit!! I think we’re lost!” Ihan growled as he looked down the repeating halls that seemed to all look the same.

“Damnit, Ihan, keep your eyes on!” Shin looked around at the hall, finding it strangely familiar as well, “For all we know this is simply a Genjutsu…” he tried shifting the girl in his arms, she was conscious now and she was being anything but corporative. His eyes looked down at the girl sincerely, “Please Hinata-sama, don’t make this harder than it already is…”

“I am not ‘Hinata’,” she glared through her bandana at the man holding her, “Stop calling me that!”

“Tch, damn brat,” the scarred Hyuuga turned around and reached his arm out towards the girl, tugging her bandana down and shoving it rather roughly in her mouth, he was too pissed at the moment to even notice the telltale signs of their active bloodline around the girl’s eyes.

Hizashi did and he froze just staring at the girl. –She’s never been able to activate the Byakuugan… even Neji can’t…- he stared at the girl as her Byakuugan enhanced glare intensified on her captors, while the other two seemed oblivious and simply were bickering amongst themselves. –What have they done to you?-

The next instant Hizashi felt his knees kicked out from behind him. He heard a gurgling sound and that of some liquid spraying on the ground. The next he heard two distinct thuds in front of him, and when his eyes finally registered what was happening all he could see was the silver of a blade right in front of his eyes.

He gulped. His white-eyes raised from the imminent blade at his family’s precious bloodline, up the dark form, to the face of a wolf in human skin, the woman’s grey eyes glaring the coldest of rage into his own.

A single thought didn’t even enter his mind, but there was only one thing that came out of his mouth, “is she safe?”

The woman’s grey eyes narrowed in the slightest, but she gave the man on his knees the barest of respect by nodding her answer.

His eyes seemed to soften the slightest at that, before he looked down at the blade still directly in front of his eyes, “How did you manage to kill them so easily?” he honestly wasn’t expecting an answer, in fact the man was sure he was already on borrowed time and resigned himself to the knowledge that this moment maybe his last.

The woman’s eyes didn’t change, but she did answer the dead man, “You are ninja,” her grip tightened on the blade held at his face, “I am nothing but an assassin…”

Hizashi’s eyes reflexively lowered, a small spark of an understanding came to him from the woman’s words and especially the look in her eyes. –We kill when necessary- His white eyes returned to hers. –Her only purpose is to kill… of course we had no chance- “Why am I not dead yet?”

“Those who dare to touch my lord’s daughter will be dead before they even realize it,” the woman placed her free hand on Hizashi’s head tilting it back before lowering the blade to his throat, “You didn’t, so I will give you the respect of knowing your death…” she was one swift motion away from ending Hyuuga Hizashi’s life, the muscles in her arm tensed, ready to complete the motion that would kill this man. In the moment before she pulled her grey eyes met his white-ones, she didn’t see fear, she didn’t see a coward begging, she saw a man that was prepared for his death, a man that accepted this as his fate and was welcoming to the cold embrace of the Shinigami. The cold depths of her eyes warmed only the slightest, giving him the respect he deserved, “Goodbye, Hyuuga-sama…” and pulled…

“KEMUI-SAMA STOP!!”

An inch…

That was as close to death as Hizashi was, he could feel a small trickle of blood starting from where the blade pierced his neck, but the wound wasn’t fatal, just a scratch. Now, if it had been another inch, then his jugular would have been pierced and they wouldn’t have been able to stop the bleeding in time. His white eyes looked up at the woman that was so easily prepared to take his life to see her upper body turned back behind her. The woman’s right hand was still holding his head back, allowing for the minor wound to bleed more freely, his eyes shifted as he tried to look past this assassin. What he saw was something he honestly never thought to see in his entire life.

It was a small girl, no more than a foot or two, with dark hair, a dark blue kimono, and a dark blue bandana slung around her neck. What surprised him, and to a lesser extent scared him, were her eyes. They were the Byakuugan, it was active, and he swore he’d never seen such an expression on a small child in his life. There was a raw fury there, coupled with the blood on half of her face, he knew that in the years to come she would be a truly frightening person to behold on the battlefield.

“Yorihi-hime?” the white-haired woman asked innocently, as if completely unfazed by the whole situation, or that she was a moment ago about to kill him.

“Kemui-sama, please, I beg you don’t,” the small girl clinched her fists, Hizashi could tell she was uncomfortable with the situation, and probably didn’t know or even understand the words to fully express what she wanted, but the look in her eyes seemed to say it all just fine.

“Yorihi-hime, he is a trespasser, he tried to kidnap you,” the white-haired woman placed the blade back at the captive Hyuuga’s throat, her grey eyes piercing into his white-ones again, telling him she was only a command away from finishing him.

“I know that…” the little girl grit her teeth, she really didn’t understand the situation as much as she would have liked, but she knew one thing, she wanted to stay here, she wanted to be ‘Yorihi’, but the part of her that was still ‘Hinata’ didn’t want her former uncle to disappear like her mother did. –Nii-san still needs him… they shouldn’t just take him away over something like this…- she clinched her fists and steeled her active eyes on her teacher, “He needs to go back…”

The white-haired woman seemed to pause a moment. Hizashi was almost sure she would ignore the girl’s plea and just kill him on the spot like she had threatened, so he was surprised when the blade at his throat was removed, if only slightly.

“I agree with Yorihi-chan,” there was a large poof! and the corridor the three were in had two more Kumo-nin, one being Killer-bee on one end of the hall, and the other being the Raikage standing next to his adopted daughter. Hizashi could see the man move out of the corner of his eye, leaning down to place a hand on the little girl’s shoulder before straightening up and facing his private assassin, “Kemui, I need one of them alive to deliver this message to the Hokage…”

The white-haired woman stepped to the side, moving Hizashi’s head so he was staring face to face with Raikage. The man cleared his throat, “I want you tell your Hokage that I, The Yondaime Raikage of Kumogakure no Sato, of Rai no Kuni, Gouzen Jinrai, have no problems with obtaining an alliance with your village, or at worst a mutual neutral position, I’m honestly in no mood for another war,” The large dark-skin man seemed to stroke his goatee in thought a moment before turning fierce eyes on the Hyuuga kneeling before him, “But know this, if I so much as see a pair of white eyes in my boarders, I will pluck them out and send the rest back to your village, do you understand?”

Hizashi grit his teeth a moment, knowing he had no way out of this situation but to comply with them, “Of course, Raikage-sama,” he felt the woman tug on his hair, “I will relay your message to the Hokage in its entirety…”

“See that you do,” the man reached down and picked up his adopted daughter and prepared to leave before pausing as if an idea struck up, “Oh yes, Kemui,” he turned to the white woman with cold black eyes, “deal with this man, then remove this trash from my tower…”

The white woman nodded, “Of course, Lord Raikage,” before turning back to the man held captive at her feet.

“O-Otou-sama?” He looked into the pale eyes of his adopted daughter; he saw a deep fear and concern in her eyes for the man kneeling at his assassin’s feet. The girl seemed to be pleading him with her eyes, “You won’t make him disappear will you?”

The Raikage looked into the girl’s eyes, she was sincere, she didn’t want the man dead. –But it doesn’t seem she wants to leave either…- he looked back at the man Kemui had captive at her feet, his assassin awaiting his command. –Perhaps this is a small remnant…- he looked into her eyes again, -I don’t think even I am willing to kill it just yet…- “Yorihi,” he got the girl’s attention immediately with his stern voice, he made a slight nod to Kemui, who returned it, “Remember this, as a leader it is a good thing to be merciful and not kill an enemy…”

Kemui grabbed the Hyuuga’s head tightly and brought him straight up on his knees as much as possible, before placing the blade in her left hand to his face leveled with his eyes. The tip of the blade sat on his left temple.

“But never…” the Raikage continued, and Hizashi’s eyes widened as he could feel the muscles in the woman’s arm tense, “Never leave them with the capacity to fight you ever again…”

Yorihi’s eyes widened as she watched her Teacher pull the blade across her former uncle’s eyes. The red line bled from one side of his face to the other, the Hyuuga screamed only once before being let go by the assassin and falling to the floor in a heap. She may not have known the words, or the means to express what she just saw, but a feeling in her stomach told her that what was just done to ‘Hinata’s’ uncle was something far worse than disappearing.

Because for a Hyuuga to not have their eyes was the same as living without the capacity to breathe…

You were simply better off dead…

-----

Shin = Sincerity

Ihan = Transgression

Chapter Text

“Kemui, I trust you to handle the rest,” The Raikage glanced at the woman standing over the wounded Hyuuga, she made no move or sound but he knew she had heard him, and that was all the confirmation he needed. His black eyes turned to his brother on the other side of the hall from the white-haired woman, “Bee, get back to your post, we’re finished here.”

The tattooed man saluted, “Yes, my brother, by your command,” he gave a nod to Kemui, whom didn’t respond to him, took one last look at the Hyuuga crumpled on the floor and then disappeared from sight.

The Raikage spared the White-haired woman one last glance before turning and walking away; he had more important matters to attend to. –I know she won’t kill him… but even I can’t help but wonder what is going through that assassin’s mind as she looks down at a man she’s not allowed to kill…-

He shook the thought from his mind and looked down at the still form of the tiny girl in his arms; she had certainly gone through a lot tonight. –As if a second kidnapping wasn’t bad enough, this time she got to see them killed, and that man whom I’m assuming was closely related to her, overall tortured and disfigured by a woman she’s only known to be kind to her…- the girl was quiet, perhaps in some form of shock about what had just happened, the Raikage could only hope this didn’t permanently damage her, he would hate to have to turn this girl over to the Kumo research department because she was no longer valuable as a potential ninja. –So much would be wasted…- he sighed lightly to himself as he silently walked down the hall towards her room, quietly wondering what was going through the young girl’s mind.

-----

“Kill”

That was the word her new father had used to describe what her teacher had done to those Hyuuga that tried to take her away from Kumo.

“Kill”

That was the word that described what happened when people ‘disappeared’, it was what happened to her mother, and what her teacher had nearly done to her uncle.

“Kill”

What was that word? Why did it have such an effect on her? Why did it make her shiver just thinking about it? Why did it hurt just thinking about? Why was it her gut was telling her that even if it was a bad thing, what she just saw her teacher do to Hizashi-Oji felt so much worse?

Why couldn’t she get the image of her uncle crumpling over in pain, of the red line that went across his face out of her mind?

Why did it give her such a deep-rooted fear of the people she called ‘family’ here?

-What if they do that to me?-

She didn’t even know where the thought came from; it was so quick, so natural she couldn’t dismiss it immediately. The image of her uncle came back, and the fear bore deeper.

-They wouldn’t, they wouldn’t… they wouldn’t!!-

“If I so much as see a pair of white eyes in my boarders, I will pluck them out and send the rest back to your village”

That is what her father said, that is what the Raikage had said.

“…White eyes…”

The fear bore deeper.

-Kemui-sama and Otou-sama wouldn’t do such a thing to me…-

The image of herself in the mirror came to her mind. The girl with the white eyes staring back at her. ‘Hinata’ looking back at her with those white eyes.

-What’s to stop them…-

The image of the rough Hyuuga who had struck her cut open and lying on the floor unmoving as the red seeped out of him onto the floor below him. The image of the softer Hyuuga that had held her with his neck cut open and the red seeping out of the wound and flowing down him, some of it landing on her face as he fell to the ground with her still in her arms. The image of Kemui holding her former uncle’s head back with that blade to his throat, the first of the cut starting and the red dripping down from the wound.

Kemui sliding the blade across her uncle’s eyes.

-----

The girl screamed.

The Raikage had to stop his movements as the girl in his arms suddenly let out an unfathomable scream before she swiftly grabbed the bandana around her neck and shoved it over her eyes and held it there with her hands as she continued to whimper.

The large man known as Gouzen Jinrai, the Raikage of Kumo had never been a man that felt fear. He had never been a man that was so overcome by emotion that he went into a form of shock. He had never been a man that cared deeply enough for a comrade as to let their wound or passing stop him from his goals of gaining power.

So why was it when this tiny girl in his arms screamed it shook him to his very core?

“N-no… n-no t-th-ey w-wo-n’t… th-e-ey w-won’t…” the tiny girl in the Raikage’s arms started babbling to herself, she began shaking in the large man’s arms while rocking and curling up into a tight ball.

Whatever defenses the Raikage had crumbled before the sight of this frightened child. –Yorihi…- He moved his arms to untangle the child from herself, he felt her freeze and simply let him move her. Her fear bore into his heart and he brought her prone from close to his, delicately embracing the small child that could practically be covered with his hands, “Shh… Yorihi-chan…”

It was the first time Yorihi had ever heard such a soft tone in the voice of the man she now called father. Her covered head raised to the sound of his voice, the dark blue bandana wrapped protectively around her eyes was already soaked with tears of a frightened child. She just stared into the blackness, somehow knowing that was the direction her father’s face was, her mind freezing for only a moment.

The Raikage didn’t know how to handle this situation. He had never truly planned to actually ‘care’ about this child, just to use her as a tool for the village, to make Kumo strong. He had wanted to study her, convert her, learn everything there was to know about the infamous Hyuuga he could learn from this small child, even to the point of making her into a perfect weapon against them if possible. But now here he was with a dilemma, this was a child, and while she had been showing an amazing capacity to adapt to what they wanted they had no real reason to treat her like a normal child. But there was something in him that was telling him to, to treat her as the child he had been saying she was, to treat her as the daughter he would probably never have, to hold her, to care for her, to be a father to her unlike the man that bore her. –Yorihi…-

The Raikage patted the back of the scared child’s head and started walking again, holding her protectively to him and allowing her to cry directly into his shoulder. He didn’t know exactly what to say, he didn’t want to lie to her, and he didn’t want to simply cast her aside, to tell her to deal with her problems, to shut up and stop being a baby like he would to anyone else. –No, I can’t do that… not to her…- he looked at the whimpering child that had his robe gripped tightly into her tiny fists as she let all of her fears and sorrows out. –She is my daughter after all…-

A slight smirk came to the side of the large man’s mouth. –That’s right… My daughter…-

“Yorihi, tell your father what is troubling you…” there was something satisfying about the way she started to calm down after he asked her that.

“Y-yo-ou w-wo-n’t-t…” she stuttered out in a quiet and cracking voice as her tears continued, the tiny girl buried her face into the large man’s robes as she seemed to find her voice and almost scream even though it was muffled by the robe, “You won’t do that to me?!” her little fist balled up and slammed his broad chest, “You won’t do to me what Kemui-sama did to Oji?!”

The dark man’s eyes widened just a fraction; he had honestly never considered the thought. –Why would she think…- then his mind replayed everything he had said and everything that had happened and he found his reason. –I wasn’t even thinking about her when I said that…- his large hands cupped around the tiny girl, he needed to comfort her, just as much as he needed to comfort himself, “Yorihi-chan…” he heard her hiccup and he patted her head again, “you are my daughter,” he felt the little girl still a moment, and for a moment he didn’t know how to interpret this response. He continued, “I would never allow anything to harm my own daughter…” he glanced down at her tiny form balled up in his robe, “I would never do anything like that to you…”

And for some reason he felt he wasn’t telling her a lie.

“O-Otou-s-sama…” the little girl shifted, and started wiping her eyes, he could tell she was still crying, and was still very scared, but at least she was talking and moving now, which had to be something positive. When she looked up at him he could see the red in her eyes from the tears since she had pushed her bandana up while wiping her eyes. The Raikage was actually impressed by the look in her eyes, he could already tell she’d grow from this, and she’d be a fighter, a small, growing, part of him smiled at this.

“W-wh-hy?” he wasn’t going to call her on the stutter; this seemed like an appropriate time for it anyway, and Yorihi seemed to be trying to correct herself anyway, “W-why did Kemui-sama do that?” her reddened white eyes looked up at her father, questions and fears obvious in them.

The Raikage looked forward, his mind going over the whole situation. How could he tell her exactly what was going on? She seemed to be one that accepted what was given her, and he had a feeling Kemui contributed to that in some way. A part of him knew he had to assuage her fears, or at least help limit them, especially of Kemui, he had a feeling the white-haired woman wouldn’t react well if the tiny girl shunned or feared her. –Then again… that woman always was hard to tell…-

His black eyes fell back to the small child, “Kemui…,” he released a small sigh, “she is an assassin, Yorihi, and while I know you won’t understand now, you will at some point,” His black eyes stared at the small child seriously, making sure her eyes were on him and accepting his words, “What she does, she does because I tell her to do so,” the small child’s eyes widened a moment in fear, but the Raikage’s voice didn’t change, he simply continued in the low calm tone he had been using, “She is someone that will never betray the trust I put in her, and she is someone you should never fear as well, despite her actions,” the large man watched as the warring emotions played over the child’s face, silently pleased when she simply lowered her head and gave the barest of nods.

“Hai, Otou-sama,” the child said softly, he could tell she was still unsure but overall would accept what he said. –She is only a child after all…-

The Raikage smiled at the tiny girl he called daughter a moment, pleased with what progress had been made this night. He nodded to himself, then surprised her greatly as he picked her up from her prone form in his arms, eliciting a small ‘Eep!’ from the tiny child, and put her behind his head so she was sitting on his shoulders startling his neck. The child immediately grabbed on for dear life afraid to fall off the large man. He grinned showing his fangs, “Hold on tight Yorihi-chan, daddy’s gonna be going pretty fast,” and the large man raced down the hall.

He was followed closely by the laughter of a small child…

-----

Kemui stared down at the man bleeding at her feet. Her mind was blank, not necessarily cold or unfeeling, just uncomfortably blank. She watched the man with her cold grey eyes as he pulled himself into a small ball around his knees, hiding his face behind a wall of dark hair falling all around him. She stared at him and simply had no idea what to think.

Did she hate him? No, that was obvious, she never felt particularly one way or another when she killed, it was simply what she did, a job, her purpose, why should she care about lingering feelings to people she’s never met or seen before her blade slits them in twain.

Did she pity him? Again, no. what reason would she have to pity him? He lost his eyes, so, he tried to kidnap her lord’s daughter, he seemed to have gotten off far better than his other comrades considering.

So what was this lingering feeling, like an itch in the back of her mind that she had when she looked at his bleeding form on the floor before her. –That’s simple- In reality it probably was that simple, she didn’t hate or pity this man, he just irritated her because he was still alive when he obviously should be dead. But by the grace and wishes of her Lord he was not, and therefore she could not kill him here, especially since he had some task to perform for her Lord.

The white woman sighed deeply, partly in irritation, partly in resignation. –He will not die here- She took a step forward, his quivering body set still by the motion. A white brow rose as she watched him, curious about what he would do now.

The Hyuuga mumbled something under his breath, so small and so light she didn’t catch it from her distance. Kemui stepped closer to the man, curious about what it was he was muttering to himself, or perhaps it was to her, but with his low voice she couldn’t really tell. She crouched down to the man, at his level, not minding the small pool of blood at her feet in the least, reaching out a pale hand and raising his hair so she could see his hitae-ate from his curled position. That was when she heard his voice clearly.

“Kill me,” the feeble man’s cry reached her, “Kill me!” he had both hands covering his damaged eyes, either not registering or caring that the woman who did this to him was right in front of him, holding his hair back no less. He surprised her when the wounded Hyuuga raised his head and bore a bloodstained face and bleeding eyes at her, “Kill me, Damnit!!” he reached out with bloodied hands and grasped at her uncovered arms, shaking them with all the effort he could muster as he stared his wounded eyes at the woman’s grey ones, “JUST KILL ME!!”

“I can’t,” Kemui replied to him quietly, feeling as his hands lost all power and slumped to the floor supporting his broken form. The white-haired woman’s head tilted to the side, watching him weep, or try to, in front of her, curious about his reaction. –This is the man I’m not allowed to kill?-

The woman reached her hand out and raised his head so she could see his eyes again, positive that even if he wanted to he couldn’t see her right now. Her grey eyes took great care in observing the damage done by her blade, a large horizontal slash from temple to temple, through his eyes and over his nose. She knew it would scar ‘interestingly’, probably end up looking worse than it really was, but that wasn’t her real concern. What she wanted to see was his eyes, they were wide despite the pain they must be in, and the sclera and iris was cut neatly in both eyes, all the way down to the cornea, she could tell by the discolored fluid leaking out of the orbs that clearly wasn’t blood, “If you get this checked quickly, there is a chance you might be able to see again,” she tilted her head to the side, “Although with the amount of vitreous and aqueous fluid leaking from your inner eye and outer area under the sclera that may already be too late.”

The Hyuuga’s eyes widened from her words, “Wha-at?”

Her white brows nit, “Although, I don’t think you will ever be able to use your bloodline again, the special iris your clan bloodline develops that completely covers the lens has been opened, probably damaging the cells in your inner eyes that allows for the Byakuugan’s special sight,” she let go of his head, content with her observations before standing up and simply looking down on the man at her feet, “Plus given that your clan bloodline stretches that special iris, I’m sure if you did attempt it after those eyes of yours have fully healed it would probably rip open the scars and only damage them further, perhaps making you completely blind then.”

She watched him be still on the ground not even moving at her revelation. The idea that something this simple had completely broken the man she had grown a small respect for disturbed her, and she felt it an insult to her pride. “Get up,” she spoke low enough to be almost a growl, and when all he did was look her way with his useless eyes she really did growl, “Get. Up.” She didn’t bother leaving him down on the ground this time, reaching out with her left hand she grasped the front of his flak jacket and dragged the wounded man to his feet, bringing his broken eyes within an inch of hers as she glared into them, “Stop this, right now.”

Hizashi’s hand reached and grabbed the one that held him, squeezing the arm-guard with all the force he could muster, “Why should I?” his dark brows furrowed and his broken eyes glared at her, “I’m a Hyuuga, and you’ve destroyed my eyes, I have no reason to be anymore,” his gaze lowered, “I’m just useless trash now…”

“Then stop being a Hyuuga,” her words felt like some creature biting the broken man, her hand fisted his jacket tighter, and Hizashi could almost swear he felt her grey eyes burrowing into him as she continued, “If you are just trash to them, then stop being one, so what if you can’t see? That doesn’t make you any less a man, it doesn’t make you any less a warrior,” she pulled him closer, close enough he could feel the vibration of her hard voice, smell the anger on her breath, “You are alive, be grateful, and don’t be so quick to throw that life away,” her brows nit tighter, “Especially when it was my lady’s choice you live,” She shoved him away from her in controlled anger.

Kemui watched as the broken Hyuuga stumbled a moment in his blindness. Her grey eyes carefully watching as he seemed to absorb her words, finding something in them that caused him to pause, find his balance in the darkness and stand tall and straight again. A small portion of her pride smiled at this, “Stand tall, Hyuuga-”

“Hizashi,” the blind man said quickly to the woman before him, “I’m no longer a Hyuuga if I cannot see,” he raised his broken gaze to meet her face, trusting his hearing that she was there, “Just call me Hizashi.”

The side of the woman’s mouth rose the slightest bit, not that anyone was there to see it, “Very well,” she nodded to him lightly, respecting his choice, before continuing her words with a slight alteration, “Stand tall, Hizashi-san, live and be proud,” a small smirk made it to her features that the former-Hyuuga could hear clearly, “You are the only person in this world I’m under orders not to kill.”

“Heh,” a small half-smirk came to the man’s face, “I suppose that is an accomplishment,” his broken eyes feel on her, “you’ve both killed me and set me free…”

Kemui frowned slightly at his words, “I’m not allowed to kill you,” she repeated mechanically, “How is it I’ve already ‘killed’ you?”

Hizashi shook his head, finally closing his broken white eyes from the pain, “When members of the Hyuuga branch family die, our eyes are destroyed,” he raised his head in her direction, he didn’t expect the woman before him to have any look of surprise on her face at this information, and for that he would have been right, “You’ve destroyed my eyes, assassin-”

“Kemui,” was her quiet halt to his words before he continued.

The man before her simply nodded, “Kemui,” a small smile coming to his features, “I like it,” he faced her again, “Kemui, you have destroyed my eyes, to a branch Hyuuga, that’s as good as killing us,” he smiled, “Heh, so in a sense you’ve also freed me from this seal on my forehead as well,” the white woman gave him a questioning look but he obviously couldn’t see it. Instead the man started quietly laughing to himself, “I guess I really can’t be a Hyuuga anymore,” a sad smile came over his lips, “now that my ‘branding’ means nothing…”

Both lapsed into a silence a moment, Hizashi wondering over his own blasphemous words, and Kemui considering them.

The blind Hyuuga was simply in his own thoughts, going so far and so fast he couldn’t hold onto any of them. He knew that as soon as he went back to the clan he would be considered dead to them. Why would the main branch need a servant that couldn’t serve? One who couldn’t see? Couldn’t fight? His worried thoughts went to his son. –What would become of Neji now?- it was something he could only wonder. His son had already shown promise in learning Jyuuken, already seeming eager to fight for and with the clan. What would happen now? Now that his father was all but useless to them.

He flinched when a cold hand suddenly made its way to his features, “Calm down,” came the soft, almost silent voice of the woman standing before him. He felt her tilt his head in a way he was sure allowed her to see his face clearer, she seemed to take an unusual care in moving his long locks out of the way of his wounds, pulling them back and tucking them into his hitae-ate. He felt something cold and almost wet touching his face, wiping away the drying blood and ocular fluids. The care this woman took with an enemy confounded him.

He could only speak his thoughts truthfully, “What are you doing?” He felt her shake his face slightly in another way, he almost wondered if she was giving him an indignant look, like he even needed to ask.

“If left in your condition,” she started curtly, the blind man could definitively hear indignation, if only slightly, in her voice, “your wounds could get infected and you could die,” she seemed to rub particularly hard into one of the open cuts causing him to flinch slightly, “Hold still,” she commanded, her grip tightening on his jaw and keeping his face still as a stone, “if you don’t, I could end up making the wound worse, and you will have no chance of ever recovering.”

Hizashi’s brows moved, since it was really the only thing he could do, “that doesn’t explain-” she jabbed at his wounds, he felt it was probably on purpose, “Ow!”

“I’ll answer your questions later,” Kemui said coldly, “Just let me finish cleaning these wounds,” so the former-Hyuuga shut his mouth. The white-haired woman was pleased with this response, glad to be able to finish her task in relative peace.

When the stroking stopped, and the woman removed her hands from his face, Hizashi deemed it time to ask again, “Why are you doing this?”

“Kneel,” she spoke in a voice that left no room for questions. The man did so, apparently feeling no need to even hesitate at her command. Kemui raised a brow at this, but pushed it quickly out of her thoughts. She moved quickly behind the kneeling man, placing two felt-like pieces of white cloth on both eyes, “Hold those for a moment,” he quickly complied. She snapped open one of her smaller pockets and pulled out a roll of gauze, and taping one end under one hand holding a pad and began wrapping the white ribbon around his head. It was only during this process that she decided to speak, “My Lord wishes you to be alive, remove your hands,” he did so, and she managed to tighten the wrapping of the gauze slightly, “If I were to let you leave in your condition, it would be my responsibility if you died before you completed your mission,” she finished wrapping, tying a knot she was sure would hold before inspecting her work with a critical eye, “That should be enough for you to get home, I suggest you have your eyes looked at as soon as possible if you wish to keep them,” She watched him a moment, still and silent with his hands lying in his lap. Her head tilted at the unusual atmosphere that seemed to envelop him, “You can get up now.”

“Thank you,” the man said lowly as he made his way to his feet, his head glancing in the quiet woman’s direction, “You seem to understand medicine quite a bit.” It was simply a statement coming from the man.

Kemui found nothing wrong with it either, “Knowing how to put a body together makes it that much easier when taking it apart,” her grey eyes trailed away from the blind man in front of her to the two bodies on the floor several feet in front of him, “Do you want to take them with you?”

The man in front of her seemed to tilt his head a moment in confusion, and Kemui wondered if he was actually blinking under the gauze, “Hmm?” he took a moment to think before her meaning came to him, “Shin! Ihan!” he whipped around so fast the white woman had to reach her hand out to him to stop him from falling, being blind seemed to have killed his normal balance, “Ah-Sorry,” he said into her arms as she propped him onto his feet.

“You are unused to moving around blind,” she sighed deeply, “That is rather careless of your clan to not teach something so basic,” Hizashi could hear the obvious disapproval in the woman’s voice.

“Thank you,” he said politely as she removed her arms from him, confident he wouldn’t fall over again. Hizashi took a moment to catch his bearings before turning in the direction he hoped the woman was, “Are you saying you won’t keep their bodies?”

She tapped him on the side other than the one he was looking, a slight smirk coming to her face at the look that came over his features, “They have the seal don’t they?” Hizashi nodded, “Then we don’t need them,” Her grey eyes fell over the bodies in front of them, “You said it yourself, when a branch member dies that seal destroys their eyes,” she looked at him again even though he couldn’t see her, “what use do we have of such useless bodies?”

“Hmp,” Hizashi gave a humorless laugh, “And here I thought you’d say you didn’t need them because you already had the Byakuugan in your possession,” the blind Hyuuga didn’t need his eyes to feel the almost murderous look the woman was giving with her grey eyes, her killing intent was enough to tell him, “I saw her,” he turned his wrapped face in her direction, “You don’t have to lie to me anymore,” her killing intent lowered but didn’t completely disappear, Hizashi figured that was enough of an improvement. He moved one hand into his pouch, removing two small scrolls and offering them to the woman next to him, “Besides, who’d believe a blind man anyway…”

Kemui looked at him carefully, then to the offered scrolls, “And these are?”

“Sealing scrolls,” the former-Hyuuga said calmly, “Please place them in these, so I may take their bodies and bury them with the rest of our clan.”

Some of the fierceness left Kemui’s eyes, but no one was there to see it, “Of course,” she quickly took the scrolls from the blind man and walked over to the first body, unrolling the scroll and placing it on the ground next to the body. She took care to move the body of the effeminate one onto the scroll, channeling enough chakra to activate the seals and with a loud poof! the body of Shin was gone; all that was left of him was the blood on the carpet. She moved silently to the second body, placing down the scroll, and all but kicking the scarred man’s body onto the paper, and a poof! later and Ihan was sealed. She stood quickly, silently making her way to the still Hyuuga and placing one scroll into his right hand, “The scarred one,” and the other into his left, “The gentle one.”

Hizashi clinched his hands tightly around the scrolls in his hands, his body wracked with the urge to cry and lament their passing, but he held enough of his self-control to push the feelings aside, “Thank you, Kemui-san.”

The woman merely nodded, “Come, I think it is time you made it back to see your Hokage,” she placed a gentle hand on his back and guided him down the hall, content to walk with the man in silence.

-----

Hizashi had no idea how long it had been since he had started walking with the quiet woman guiding him with a hand on his back, but he had felt the shift from the wooden floors to those of stone and figured they were getting close to the exit of the building. His mind had been in an uproar, he wasn’t sure what to think or expect from the woman. He honestly thought that at any moment she would pull out a blade and stab him in the back, but then his mind would bring him back to her words, her orders.

“You are the only person in this world I’m under orders not to kill.”

-I suppose she wouldn’t go back on her word then- a small smile formed on his lips, as he felt the woman guide him through the large doors that exited the Raikage’s tower. As soon as he set foot outside the tower he felt the rising sun on his face, remembering the tower doors faced to the east, and in the high mountains like this it was easy for the sun to find its way to anything that lived here, including trespassers like himself. –And we Hyuuga thought we were gifted by the sun- He started laughing to himself at the thought.

“Hizashi-san?” the woman’s quiet voice came next to him.

The blind man could only smile, “Just a thought,” he could almost feel her questioning gaze, and for some reason he felt like answering, “I was wondering, if after I delivered my message to the Hokage, if I could grab my son and return here,” he smiled at her, “If only to feel the sunrise again.”

Kemui smiled lightly at his odd words, and what they were suggesting, “I think you would get in trouble, Hizashi-san, if you did that,” she looked at him seriously, even if he couldn’t see it, “And I don’t think it would be very good for your son if he showed up here after my Lord’s decree.”

“Ahh,” the blind man let out a light sigh, “Then I guess I would have to leave him in my brother’s care,” he ‘glanced’ at her again, finding it oddly comfortable to talk to the woman who nearly killed him, “I don’t suppose you would mind having two ‘blind’ former Hyuuga?”

The white haired woman openly smirked at this, sensing the light humor under the man’s almost serious tone, “I have no idea what you are talking about, Hyuuga-sama,” he frowned at the change in name, and she found the look rather funny.

“Kemui-sama!” two men, Kumo Jounin ran up to her, looking from the man with the bandages wrapped around his eyes and the woman they knew as their superior, “is this the man we are to escort?” one of them asked.

The white woman nodded gently, “Make sure he reaches Konohagakure no Sato quickly, safely, and most of all,” he gave the men in front of her a deathly look before patting the man next to her on the back, “Alive.”

The blind Hyuuga stumbled forward towards the men who were to escort him. He understood her not-so-subtle message, he was to live, no matter what had transpired between them, he was a man who was destined to live, and this woman was going to make sure that happened, one way or another. He smiled to himself, -I think I can agree with you now, assassin who cannot kill me- he turned and gave the woman an understanding nod, “Farewell, Kemui-sama.”

And he meant it, he owed the woman too much, the least he could do was give her the respect she deserved.

-----

The white-haired woman moved quickly and silently down the halls, ignoring the gaining light of the rising sun, making her way to her destination as quickly as she possibly could. When she came upon the door the assassin put her ear to it, listening carefully inside the room. The only thing she heard was the rhythmic breathing of its sole occupant.  A small smile came to the woman’s face as she silently slide the door open, stepping in and closing it just a mutely.

The woman’s grey eyes scanned the room, finding little out of place, and landing finally on her true destination. There, lying under the covers of the large bed was the tiny form of a dark haired girl, curled in a ball and hugging a pillow. A gentle smile came to the woman’s face as she made her way to the side of the bed. Without thinking Kemui reached out a hand and tucked a stray hair out of the child’s face. –This is foolish- her mind told her, knowing that such attachment to this child would only end badly for her, and probably for the small girl as well. She made to move her hand away from the girl.

The instant her hand left the small girl’s vicinity her tiny hand unfurled from the pillow it was clinched around and reached out to grab the assassin’s wayward hand. The white haired woman was startled by the strange action and tried to gently remove her hand from the child’s viselike grip.

“Don’t leave,” came the child’s delicately soft voice, and the assassin stopped herself, allowing the child to gain a stronger hold on her hand. Yorihi opened her small pearl-like eyes and looked at her Teacher pleadingly before saying again in a small and shaky voice, “D-don’t l-leave m-me.”

The cold woman from the North’s cloudy grey eyes softened under the child’s gaze. She could tell from the redness in her eyes that Yorihi had been crying hard, but Kemui had a feeling it wasn’t her place to ask. She sighed lightly, sitting down on the bed, and freeing her captive hand so she could run it through the tiny girl’s hair in a comforting gesture, “Don’t worry,” it was perhaps the softest Yorihi had ever heard her Teacher’s voice.

Kemui smiled and tapped the little girl on the forehead, “I’m not going anywhere.”

Yorihi smiled with renewed tears in her eyes, grabbing her Teacher’s hand again, curling into it and falling quickly to sleep, content with the knowledge that when she woke up, Kemui would still be there sitting beside her.

-----

Kyoushu = Assassin

Chapter Text

“So there I was, right, there was these five Jounin and I…”

Kurenai tried really hard to just ignore the Chuunin next to her. His name was Yohodo Futodoki; he was 21, so only 3 years her elder, but the guy acted like some green genin on their first ‘outside’ mission, despite the fact it was just guard-duty. It was part of the reason the red eyed woman hated guard-duty, because no matter who she got settled with, they always talked, talked, and kept on talking, about nothing!! This was especially true whenever she got stuck with the scruffy bastard next to her. –Does this guy even know the meaning of the word ‘shave’?-

“… And then!! It was just like, BAM!! The idiot falls over from such a simple tactic…”

“Kami,” Kurenai muttered under her breath, positive the bulky idiot next to her wouldn’t even notice, “Can I get a bit of help here?” her red eyes gazed up at the partially-cloudy sky, “I’ll do anything, honest,” She all but pleaded to the sky, praying something would just shut the man next to her up.

The breeze blew past her, and a black and yellow blur ran past her, and she heard a sudden BAM of metal hitting flesh, and a distinct Thud from her left. The red eyed young woman turned her head to see Futodoki slumped, unconscious, against the back wall of the guard house, blood coming out of his nose from it apparently being broken.

“You rang?!” came a cheerful voice on the other side of the booth counter. The young woman’s red eyes turned to the voice, finding a man about her age wearing a black sleeveless top under a burnt yellow flak-jacket, with flat shaggy platinum blonde hair that reached over the sides of his hitae-ate and barely making it past his ears. He had a cheeky and obvious grin on his fair face, with dark brows with piercings on the ends over his closed eyes. She looked over the rest of him finding torn black pants, standard black ninja sandals, two packs strapped to both legs and a sword at his waist. Oh, and one of his bare arms extended into a fist where she remembered her ‘comrade’s’ face to be.

One oddly dark brow rose, “Hmm?” he leaned on the counter getting uncomfortably close to Kurenai’s face, her red eyes catching that his hitae-ate bore Kumo’s insignia. He tilted his head to the side, still not bothering to open his eyes, “Hey, come on beautiful, you’re not going to hang me out to dry?”

“What?” Kurenai’s red eyes narrowed dangerously, the young konoichi’s mind seemed to click that this man was hitting on her, rather obviously, and the red eyed woman didn’t like guys who just thought of her as eye candy the moment they set sights on her.

The young man pouted, “Aww, come on,” he set his bare hands in a ‘begging’ pose, “I’m Kami’s messenger, here to save you from talkative bastards!!” she almost wondered if he’d start crying with the way he was sounding.

“Wha-Oh!” the young konoichi turned to her ‘comrade’ that was still incapacitated on the floor next to her. She openly sighed. –That’s just not funny- she turned back to the man, trying to appear as grateful yet uninterested as possible, no easy feat, but Kurenai had mastered this look over years of turning hopeful guys down, “I’m sorry, welcome to Konohagakure no Sato, what would your business be?” and a small tilt and smile added just for effect.

“Whaaaaat?!” the platinum blonde young man gave an exaggerated gasp before slumping and muttering in a completely defeated voice, “Kami has left its messenger in such shame!!”

Kurenai watched the obviously depressed man. –Hmm, never got that kind of reaction before- she was almost feeling sorry for the guy. That is until some taller dark figure came up behind him and kicked him to the ground, which honestly wasn’t that hard considering the platinum-blonde’s slumped posture.

“Jimei,” the gruff voice of a taller, dark skinned man from behind the prone Kumo-nin, “Get up,” he made a glance to Kurenai and she noticed this man had eyes as red as her own, which surprised her slightly since she hadn’t seen anyone but herself in Konoha with such eyes. She looked him over, noticing the identical burnt yellow flak-Jacket and black under clothing, although his shirt had sleeves, only rolled up to about half his bicep. His hair was a shady color of red, short and spiked up on top with the sides shaved off. His features were very different then the fair skinned man still crumpled on the floor, but she noticed he too was from Kumo, with his hitae-ate hanging around his neck like a scarf. –Kumo must be a very diverse place- she noted he also had a sword, on the opposite hip as the man on the ground, along with two knives sheathed on his shoulders and the standard issue weapons pouch on his right leg. –Swordsmanship is probably a must for them… I haven’t seen a single Kumo-nin without one-

“I see you are a competent shinobi,” the man’s gruff voice brought Kurenai’s red eyes to meet his, realizing he was probably sizing her up just the same as she was.

Her crimson eyes hardened, “I’ll ask you what I did your friend,” she glanced to the pale man noticing he finally got to his feet, “Welcome to Konoha,” her eyes narrowed even more, “What is your business?”

The dark skinned man made no outward move, never taking his own blood-colored eyes off of hers as he simply stated, “We are here as escorts,” he glanced to a man standing behind him she had yet to notice.

She gasped when she got a good look at the taller dark haired man, recognizing him from stance alone, “Hizashi-san!” when her crimson eyes found the white wrapped around his head, she immediately disappeared from her post and was standing in front of one of the few ‘decent’ Hyuuga she had ever known and swallowed hard when she realized the bandages weren’t just wrapping his head, but were covering his eyes. –Oh my god…- she absentmindedly grabbed his upper arms, turning the blind man towards her, his eyebrows showing his surprise, “Hizashi-san, what happened to you?”

“Ahh,” a small smile came to his features as he recognized the voice as one of the up-and-coming female Chuunin, “Yuuhi-san, it is a pleasure to meet you again,” his voice was light but the fact that he wasn’t looking at her directly disturbed the red-eyed woman.

Her eyes narrowed as she turned back to the two Kumo-nin, simply standing there like nothing was wrong, “What did you do to him?” her voice was threatening and just above a growl, she meant business, and wanted answers pronto.

“Awe, come on babe,” the platinum-blonde haired jounin scratched the back of his head almost embarrassed. He received a glare from the woman that sent shivers up and down his spine, he threw his hands out in a defensive manner, “Hey, hey, hey, don’t hurt the messenger!” he glanced at his fellow Kumo-nin, “We’re just here to make sure the guy didn’t die on the way back, right Seichi?”

The taller man made a sound caught between a growl and a sigh, “Shut up, Jimei,” his crimson eyes finding their duplicate in the woman’s eyes, “We are to make sure he delivers a message to the Hokage,” he raised his hand when the woman made to protest, “Those are our orders.” The dark skinned man looked at her seriously when she seemed to just consider the situation, “I promise you, we had nothing to do with what happened to Hyuuga-san there, as my ‘colleague’,” he elbowed the man next to him subtly, “Said, we’re just the messengers, nothing more.”

Kurenai thought about his words for a moment. She had no idea whether to believe them or not, but Hizashi seemed to not have been harmed by the two men standing in front of her. –Unless they’re lying about not having anything to do with his eyes- she looked at the wounded man behind her, he seemed to be standing fine, just not looking in the right direction of the conversation. She debated with herself what she could do in this situation, she could take them to the Hokage, but then the gate would be unmanned, or she could stay, give them directions since Hizashi was in no way capable of leading them, and never know what happened to the man. –Damnit! If only Futodoki wasn’t unconscious!-

“Ugh, what just hit me?” all eyes turned to the burly man and Kurenai had to push down the devious grin that wanted to spread across her face.

“Futodoki!” she shouted at the coming-to-consciousness man as he started standing up.

“Oh god, what the hell happened to my nose?!” he shouted as he started staring at the red on his hands from poking his injuries.

“Shut up and listen for five seconds,” the smaller woman slammed her hands on the counter, the burly man’s dark eyes went to her, wide with shock, “Stay here and watch the gate,” she glanced behind her at the trio standing idly, “I have some ‘guests’ to escort to the Hokage,” she immediately turned and began walking over to the group.

“But!! My nose!!” the man waved at the konoichi’s retreating back.

“Get it checked out when your shift ends,” she waved lazily behind her as she hurried past the Kumo-nin, “Let’s go, I’ll take you to the Hokage,” her crimson eyes glanced back, noticing the paler Kumo-nin grabbed Hizashi around the arm and start following her, with the taller dark-skinned one taking up the rear.

“Come on Hizashi-san, time to meet your boss,” the platinum-blonde said a tad too cheerily, grinning at the blind man, “Now watch your step, don’t want you to trip and make ya worse off then you already are!”

Hizashi sighed with a slight smirk, “Keep saying things like that Jimei-san, and it just might happen,” the blind Hyuuga openly laughed when he got an expected exaggerated reaction from the shorter man.

“Whaaaa?!” Jimei started looking around frantically, “No rocks, no rocks, no rocks, pebble!”

A low growl came from the back, “Jimei, shut up,” he said flatly, almost glaring at the platinum-blonde with his crimson eyes.

Kurenai could only glance back, completely taken off-guard by how the Kumo-nin were acting with their ‘charge’. –Hizashi is acting far too ‘calm’ about this situation- she watched the two foreign ninja bicker another moment and noticed the bandaged Hyuuga had a comfortable smile on his lips. Her brows furrowed as she looked forward. –What happened?-

-----

Knock! Knock!

A sound came to the old Hokage’s door. The elderly man looked up from the bane of his existence, the dreaded paperwork, and looked at the wooden door across from his desk. Aside from his usual chuunin guards he could feel four others, shinobi obviously from their chakra levels, one chuunin, two jounin, and one high level jounin. –Hmm, I wonder what they want?- two of the four were familiar to him, even if his aged mind couldn’t place them exactly, he knew they were at least Konoha ninja, the other two he could only assume to be foreigners. –Hmm, must be ambassadors being escorted by a guard…- he knew that was standard procedure, but it made him wonder about the fourth chakra signature. –Oh well enough keeping them waiting…-

The old man cleared his throat before speaking loud enough for his visitors to hear through the door, “Come in…” the door handle turned expectedly, but what followed into the room after it he had honestly never saw coming.

The first to enter was a young woman he recognized as Yuuhi Kurenai, a chuunin of his village whom had achieved her rank some time ago, and was well into becoming a true ‘Mistress of Genjutsu’ if what he remembered about her specialization was correct. The wizened Hokage was not necessarily surprised to see her, often during her time on watch at the gate she took it upon herself to escort any dignitaries or visitors that wished to speak with him personally, and the smart old monkey knew damn well she did it just to get away from whomever she was stationed with, if only for a few minutes. The thought of what happened the last time the young woman was stuck on a full watch with someone like Yohodo-san without so much as someone to help cross the street left a smile in the back of the old man’s mind. –Never let a Genjutsu master get bored… or pissed… or both… hehe-

The third quickly wiped the thought from his mind, seeing as it wasn’t helping any and the look on the young Yuuhi’s face said she was meaning some ‘serious business’. –I wonder what that’s for?- then his dark eyes fell upon the gentlemen behind her.

Not far behind her entered a short platinum blonde haired young man, the Third could only assume he was close to the Yuuhi’s age by looking at him, but it was his experience nothing was ever as it seemed, and the young man gave off an unusual feel with his seemingly closed eyes and wide grin. Sarutobi took little note that the man had a Kumo hitae-ate on, he knew he was a foreigner, the only thing that really mattered was his business, not necessarily where he was from, that would come in time. He noticed the strange pale man reach his arm out and seemed to be guiding another person into the room. It was when this man entered the room that Sarutobi truly understood Kurenai’s serious state.

“Hyuuga Hizashi,” while the old man said the man entering’s name as a statement, The Professor’s mind was working at a hundred miles a minute, taking in every detail of a man he recognized simply on stature alone. Sarutobi used a minor jutsu to sense out the man’s state, he seemed fine, overall, especially considering he was being lead into his home leader’s office like a prisoner of war by a potentially hostile rival country’s own ninja.

And then there was the matter of the bandages around his eyes.

The old monkey’s eyes narrowed the tiniest of amounts as he took great care to examine the extent of the damage with what little he could see. An ill feeling entered Hiruzen’s stomach. –If I had to guess, I would say his eyes are utterly useless now…- he looked the injured man in the ‘eyes’ as much as he could. –Such a pity-

“Konnichiwa Hokage-sama,” the injured man’s voice was soft and seemingly subdued, something else that did not leave the aging Hokage’s notice. Hizashi, in fact Hyuuga in general, were prideful people, fools almost, if they weren’t so smart and knew they could exploit things like their clan’s fame, fortune and bloodline. So to Sarutobi, hearing such a distinctly ‘humble’ tone coming from a man whom, in the past, had the gall to look upon him as a threat simply for speaking to his brother in raised tones was… for the lack of a better word, strange. –What happened to his Hyuuga pride?- was all the Third could think, as he noticed the final member of this train made his way into the room.

The last man to enter, another Kumo-nin Sarutobi took care to note now, was a tall man, much taller than his seemingly ‘blind’ counterpart, with dark skin and sandy-red hair. If his stature, physique, and unusually stoic demeanor didn’t pique the wizened Hokage’s interest, his crimson eyes certainly did. It was without thought that the Hokage’s eyes went directly from the Kumo-nin’s eyes to that of his own up-and-coming Genjutsu Mistress. Kurenai must have noticed the odd look, seeming to blush in what the old man could only assume was both frustration and embarrassment.

The stoic foreigner coughed to dissuade the unusual air his entrance brought to the room; apparently even he was not without some sense of ‘subtlety’.

“Hokage-sama,” the man’s voice was as rough as he looked, arms crossed neatly over his chest, his hands discretely positioned away from any of his weapons, a seemingly unnecessary movement in the Hokage’s opinion. –But then again… Kumo Ninja seem to have strange habits like that…- the old Hokage watched him a moment, taking in the man’s entire stature. –It’s almost like he’s trying to show himself as being as little confrontational as he possibly can be? How… strange?-

The sand red haired man kept his head tilted down as he spoke, “My name is Seichi, my colleague is Jimei…”

“Maaaa!!” Jimei started pulling his hair out at the mention of his name, “Ne, Seichi you jerk, you’re not supposed to give ‘em our names and all that!” a stern look from the dark man’s crimson eyes had the platinum blonde silencing quickly. “Maaan, what’s wrong with you…” well, as quiet as he got.

The red haired man continued as he addressed the Hokage again, “I understand how our position must look right now, Hokage-sama, but believe me when I say Kumo means no hostilities,” his blood colored eyes glanced back to the blind man standing next to his comrade, a look the Hokage did not miss. The old man was convinced that was meant to be sentimental but had no means to prove it.

“Don’t mean any hostilities?!” Kurenai had to bite her tongue to keep her volume at a controllable level, “You come to our village dragging the maimed body of one of our ninja and claim no hostilities!” if Sarutobi were to trust his eyes he was sure he was going senile, there was no way the young Yuuhi’s eyes were that bright red fifteen seconds ago.

Then again, if he thought that made him senile, the near glowing variation of the young Kumo-nin’s red eyes must have meant he was past schizophrenia at this point. –Alzheimer’s that’s got to be it…- he took a moment to watch the two red-eyes seem to size each other up, the hostility between them reaching neigh thick-as-steel levels.

The old man sighed picking up his pipe, “Kids these days…”

“Ya, ya, I agree with you old man…” the old man glanced to his left seeing the short platinum blonde now standing almost lazily next to him. The ‘youth’ stretched before turning his seemingly closed eyes and perpetual smile onto the old man, “Ne, which do you think would win? Ne, ne?” he grinned back at the two giving a stare down, “I’d say Jimei-san, but then again…” he pondered with his hand on his chin, “That girl’s got a lot of spunk…” he grabbed his head and started messing up his hair, “Damn!! I can’t decide!!”

The old man blinked a moment at the odd comments coming from the strangely obvious Kumo-nin, a strange curiosity in how the young man could be so ‘calm’ about a possible fight breaking out between his comrade and another village’s Chuunin, in the presence of their Kage no less, and find amusement in it. Perhaps he was senile, perhaps he was a goof, or maybe he was just an extremely honest person that didn’t know the meaning of the phrase ‘internal voice’, either way Sarutobi was convinced he should leave only some of his attention on the strange platinum blonde while turning the rest of it to the two blood-eyes about to start a war in front of him. –Always diplomacy first I suppose…-

“Seichi-san, Yuuhi-san, stop this at once…” the deep commanding voice of Hizashi broke the odd tension in the room, the two red-eyes stopped glaring at each other long enough to face the blind man, along with the Hokage and the platinum blonde. The Third’s interest piqued at Hizashi’s interference, he hadn’t expected the injured ‘victim’ here to halt the impending fight, let alone speak the foreigner’s name with such… ease.

The old man’s faded brow peaked as he looked at the scene over tented fingers, “Hizashi,” his voice came out soft but with enough command to gain the attentions of everyone present, “Speak on this matter,” the old monkey’s voice sounded calm but his eyes told of the seriousness of the situation, to any other person this would have been a wasted gesture, but Hiruzen knew the Hyuuga well, and even a blind one would understand it was time to do as he was told.

The corner of Hizashi’s mouth twitched a moment, almost to form a frown, but halted as years of experience set his stoic features into a set of stone, “Hai, Hokage-sama,” his head lowered a moment, and Sarutobi wondered if it was in a form of shame, but Hyuuga were always hard to read so even now, with a blind one, he couldn’t tell. The wounded man’s voice came lightly, but not nearly as flat as the Hokage had expected, “Please, if you will, I wish to relay this to the Hokage alone…” the sincerity in his voice was something that surprised both the Konoha-nin present, but the Kumo-nin merely nodded out of respect.

Jimei jumped over the Hokage’s desk, his bare hands crossed behind his head as he sauntered over to the door, “Ne, ne Hizashi-san,” his closed eyes glanced at the taller blind man as he passed him, “Just do as you were told, don’t want you getting more banged up then ya already are, ne?” a peak on the edge of the once-Hyuuga’s lips signified his response of gratitude, and the obvious short platinum blonde left the room with no other word.

“Hmp,” a grunt came from Seichi, his blood colored eyes traveling to the blind man a moment before drifting past the two other, glancing at Kurenai a moment then pausing on the Hokage, “Believe whatever he says, Hokage-sama,” the large dark-skinned man bowed openly, and humbly to the lord of Konoha before backing out of the room and turning quickly to the door. He spared one last look at his charge, convinced he may never see the blind man again depending on what he said. He left no parting words for Hizashi, and for some reason the other side of the Hyuuga’s mouth twitched upwards for the subtle gesture of reverence. The red head quickly left the room, leaving only Konoha shinobi.

“Kurenai,” the blind Hyuuga’s voice was even softer than before, as he spoke gently to the caring young woman, “I request you leave as well,” he could feel the young woman’s eyes widen slightly at his words, and ignored the disgruntled sound that came from her, cutting her off before she could even protest, “what I am about to say, has no meaning to you,” he raised his bandaged face to the woman, almost as if he were to stare her down straight in the eyes, his voice was solid and commanding as he stated his order, “Leave now…”

The ‘look’ Hizashi gave Kurenai meant only one thing, ‘This is for your own good’, and she knew that sating her curiosity, and perhaps a means to vengeance for what transpired to a comrade, was not worth it here. He was not going to allow her to hear what was to be said, and it was none of her business for her own good. –It’s just like back then all over again…- The young Yuuhi hung her head a moment, remembering the times she had been turned away from the same man as a child during training, for ‘her own good’, that look in his white eyes thoroughly imprinted in her mind, and even now superimposing itself over the gauze bandages as if they weren’t even there. As if his eyes were there, as if he was okay, as if everything was going to be alright. –But it’s not, is it?-

“Wakarikiru…” the normally vibrant young woman spoke softly with her crimson eyes closed, her lamentation and resignation all rolled into that one word as she turned quickly and left the room.

The wizened Hokage raised a brow at the scene before him, curious how a man once revered for his eyes could command so easily without them, as if it didn’t even matter. –I wonder… Kami-sama, was the wrong son born first?- the old man pulled out his pipe, lighting it quickly and taking a long puff before releasing the smoke through his nose. His old black eyes caught on the stoic man before him, alone, wounded, and yet somehow still managing to stand as tall as possible as if even with the weight of the world on his shoulders it would be nothing but a speck of dust to him. –I truly wonder…-

“Now, Hizashi-kun,” the old man’s gravelly voice filtered into the empty room, “What is it you have to tell me…”

The blind Hyuuga’s head tilted a moment, the seriousness of the words he was about to speak weighed heavy in the room. A moment more as he raised his bandaged head, “Hokage-sama… no,” he shook his head, moving his long tresses before facing the old man again, “Hiruzen-sama,” the seriousness and sincerity in his voice as he spoke the Third’s name did not go unnoticed by the old man, he placed his pipe on the desk.

“What I am about to tell you, must never leave this room…”

-----

The incense of the room burned thickly, clouding the darkened room. A sole lantern stood in the corner lit at this untimely hour, and the room’s sole occupant not moving a muscle despite the churning waves of chaos running through his mind.

How long had it been?

Nearly a month since his brother’s departure with his band of two, sent out on a mission to either prove him wrong or come back with his daughter safely in hand.

Only a few days prior had a body of a Kumo dignitary been found inside the fire boarders, the Hunter team claiming the man killed by other foreigners, and whatever he had with him stolen, runaway, or simply gone.

Nearly a week longer since his daughter had gone missing.

-And how long has it been since she left me here… all alone…-

Hyuuga Hiashi was a man of few words, but even he had moments of clarity where even he recognized a flaw in his infinitesimal persona of perfection. The flaws and cracks of cruelty and harshness from him since his wife’s death had not completely escaped his omnipotent gaze, and the rash actions they bred tore at him worse. He was slowly losing his mind, quietly, coldly, almost cautiously. He almost began to wonder, if his daughter had not been taken from him, what would have become of her with his continued decline?

Would he hurt her? Destroy her? Mold her? Define her? Make her into a perfect weapon for the clan or completely ruin her in his demands for perfection from the impossible? He had spent many nights here, in the family shrine, surrounded by the spirits of relatives past, debating only within himself over the loss of everyone worth anything to him in his life.

His pale eyes slowly cracked open to only look upon the fading frame of his deceased wife, “What do I do now?”

“Forget about her…”

He had not been expecting an answer, and especially not one from…

“And me as well…” the Hyuuga lord activated his bloodline, only the slightest enough to see the man sitting on the step behind him facing away, but enough that it wasn’t measureable or visible. He saw Hizashi; his brother whom he was almost positive was either dead or held captive by Kumo. Another moment, and he saw that the wraps, usually used to cover his brother’s branding had been moved down to instead cover his eyes, his shame bared freely for the whole world to see. The jaded man smirked lightly, “After all, what’s the use of the dead walking among the living?”

It was in that one small phrase that realization hit the leader of the Hyuuga. His white eyes widened the smallest fraction, completely invisible in the night sky and no witnesses there to see it. His brother was blind, to the Hyuuga, he was dead.

But what did that mean of his daughter….

“Hinata-!!” his voice almost cracked at the nearly unspoken word, its syllables unfamiliar to the cords in his throat.

“Dead to the clan…” his words were spoken softly, sincerely, and with little remorse as the blind man rose from his seat. He turned his bandaged eyes upwards, feeling the light of the moon on his pale skin, this new range of sensation was something he would have to get used to, a small smile creeping on his features at the thought, that maybe little… -Yorihi… I think that’s what they called her…- would be having to learn this skill just like him, would have to find her own way in this oddly dark world out of necessity, while he had to because he had no choice. –I wonder how you will grow in that life… apart from the one fated for you here…- his head tilted back towards his once-brother, sensing all manners of turmoil in the normally stoic man –Then again, with my sight, I was often just too blind to see anything past his walls…- a certain level of sympathy entered the blind man’s thoughts –Perhaps… this has been here all along, and no one has bothered to look at the obvious…- he started to wonder what would become of his brother after this night, and what the future held for his once-clan.

The dark haired man turned back to the moon, sincerity in his voice, “Take care of my wife and son, treat them as your own… as I will not be able to anymore…” he started down the steps.

“Why…” the voice was so still and silent Hizashi was almost afraid he’d misheard until it was spoken again, “Why… brother… why are you leaving like this!?” the tone in his brother’s voice, something the blind man had never once in his life heard before addressed to him was strange, enough to cause him pause. He stood a few steps down; back to the man he once called brother, hearing the man speak to him as if they were equals for the first time in his life, “What happened to you in Kumo? What happened to my daughter and my brother!?”

“They died…” Hizashi spoke softly, before a light smile crept onto his lips as he thought of his young niece, the boisterous Raikage, and the assassin that could not kill him, “And were reborn, given a new life…” his sightless eyes raised to the full moon, his face feeling its light on his pale skin and delving into the new sensation, “One free from the chains of the sun…”

He began taking steps down again, trekking along at an easy pace for a blind man, a thought coming to his mind, one he couldn’t help but speak out, “Perhaps… I’ll journey as a beggar… writing poetry…” a light smile came to his damaged features, “That sounds interesting…” he raised a hand into the air; sure his brother would not be turned to look at him but surely see it, “Je ne, Hiashi-kun…”

For the first time in a long time, under that shining moon and clouds of incense, before the tombs of his fallen family, Hyuuga Hiashi wept. In a single night he had lost it all, his daughter, his brother, and whatever shred of himself, his pride, his vanity, and everything the clan had bore into him since birth was completely gone.

All that was left was a man, and a need to rebuild.

-----

Wakarikiru = to understand completely

Yohodo = Very, Futodoki = Rude, = Very Rude

Jimei = Obvious

Seichi = Subtle

Chapter Text

The sun crept over the high horizon of the mountains of the land of Rai, spreading its golden rays on the shimmering moisture of the damp high peaks forming an ominous fog that spread and cast a shadow on the buildings of the high-rise village, giving it the ominous title it had always been known by.

Grey eyes scanned this scene passively. Having known the same scene every day for the past some odd years, its meaning only one thing to the white haired woman of the north; she was alive, by the grace of some higher being she had survived the night to live another day. For whatever purpose, she never quite knew, this concept actually terrified her, because in the daylight, it meant another day one could get caught, another day one could be harmed, and another day where life simply took its own reigns of one’s life and did with it as it willed and not her. Now the darkness, Kemui often speculated on, was a matter of one’s own preferences, it was you who chose to walk in between the lines of dark with a torch, or it was you who decided to pass over the light and allow yourself to be consumed by the darkness, to adapt to it, accept it, and walk with it in an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and comfort, knowing that you would never quite know what it was that would eventually ensnare you and devour you. It was perfectly fine to assume it was just the darkness itself, and you could die content with that, nameless and alone.

The light provided too much information at times…

A slow exhale was sign enough that the strange white woman was sighing at the ever occurring thought. The light was here again, it was only a matter of time until she continued her ‘work’.

-It has been several days…- she slowly contemplated the events not long ago, wondering when her escort team would make their way back to inform her of the ‘progress’ being made. Then she could get back to her new job, perfectly content with the idea that whatever the two told her, she would have an assignment soon enough. –Either way…-

There was barely a squeak of a floorboard as her ear twitched at the familiar sound of almost nothingness. –They are improving…- her placid features turned back to find two forms kneeling only a few feet from her. She turned fully from the ceiling to floor widow that showed the coming of the sun and looked upon her subordinates with solid grey eyes, seriousness and inquiry in them, her request made only in that form.

“The mission was a success, Kemui-sama,” the voice was terse, low and far more subtle then the boisterous voice the typically obvious man used back in Konoha, for it was only here, in the secluded presence of his commander did Jimei let his true features show.

“Show me,” was her soft as steel command.

Without a word or seal, the platinum blonde raised his head, his typically closed eyes raised to meet his commander’s and slowly, ever so slowly he cracked open his left eye.

Seichi’s hand immediately went for one of the knives on his shoulder, his blood crimson eyes focused on his ‘colleague’. He took a position kneeling between the two, just off to the side enough to not be caught between their gaze, one dark hand braced on the ground, his other crossed over his chest and hand firmly, and obviously, on the handle of the opposite knife. In the lingering darkness of the room it seemed almost as if the large man’s blood colored eyes were glowing with the intensity he was giving his far shorter counterpart. If anyone else entered the room, they would probably assume the short oddly colored browed man had committed some kind of offense by merely opening his eye.

And in some ways, he had.

Jimei had waited long enough to let Seichi take his position, preparing for his own death every time he dared open his eyes at the hands of the man that followed him like his own shadow. “Heh,” a disturbing grin came to the deceptively older man as he cracked open his other eye, then opening both to half their fullest and gazed up at the only woman he truly feared.

Shigaigan, the Corpse Eye, as it was loosely bastardized to, was a dying bloodline from the eastern side of Earth. Its abilities and uses served it well, back when the village hidden in the Rocks was somewhat more bloodthirsty and depraved, of course that was before they had their asses handed to them by the ‘pussy tree huggers’, as Jimei enjoyed calling Konoha-nin in his mind, of course that was something of 20 plus odd years ago. Times had changed, and so had he, and while the second great ninja war had jaded him beyond repair, and the third had cost him what little was left of his sanity, the fact that he could comfortably walk into his once most hated enemy’s encampment and not destroy the place was something of a miracle. And maybe flirting with a few of the new, up-and-coming young Konoichi was something of a perk of his good genetics, giving him the appearance of someone far younger then he was. Sure, 35 wasn’t exactly ‘old’ but it wasn’t really ‘young’ now was it?

The platinum blonde sighed deeply, he need to control his thoughts or else his mind would wonder, and the young brute that played his shadow would perform his dutied task: kill him should his eyes ever cause him to go out of control. But his eyes, -Yes, back to that- was all he could wonder.

The Corpse Eye was something of a jewel, a cracked and broken one, but a beautiful one nonetheless. Well, at least if you liked a dark sense of humor. As the name suggests, it deals with the dead, as one of the few, if only one, remaining of the now nameless clan containing this bloodline, Jimei, the obvious, boisterous, perverted Lech and overall ‘idiot’ apparent, was capable of connecting his own sight to that of the dead. In prior generations this ability went so far as to allow a form of necromancy, but sadly those tiny ‘details’ about the eyes were lost to history and a conveniently placed fire. Now, they could only ‘see’ in a sense through the eyes of dead eyes, and to those with a weak mind or a receptive one, allowed for the control or transfer of information in the mind, which was one of the reasons it was mistakenly considered a form of Genjutsu.

As of right now, Jimei was using the latter use, since he was not foolish enough to even attempt to take over the mind of the young woman in front of him. He had tried that once, and only once, and swore to never attempt it again, and his loyalty to the woman that could literally scare him to death with simply a look into her mind. ‘Mental Defenses’ simply did not begin to cover what he saw there, so now he only dared to enter that place when she ordered it, it was a convenient way to pass information directly, and she was even kind enough to partition of a little ‘section’ he deemed a ‘waiting room in her mind’ for his own dwindling sanity.

‘Sanity’, what a funny word to be even considered by the man. Aside from the obvious implications to breaking privacy of individuals and messing with their freewill, the Shigaigan had a nasty habit of having all those who inherited it go completely and irrevocably mad. Back in Iwa, after the second great war, the possession of the eye was considered a plague, which was probably why the aforementioned ‘fire’ had occurred, in Kumo, due to arduous amounts of research, and various ‘bodies’ later, it was determined that the degradation of the eyes the ability triggered caused a form of apoptosis on the brain, stemming from the ocular nerves and literally ‘eating’ its way to the occipital lobe to the parietal, and further onto all the upper brain, which contained the actual ‘thinking’ part of the brain, and by the time there was only the hippocampus left the ‘patient’ was nothing more than a drooling, rabid beast that had to be put down. One of the tiny drawbacks.

“That is enough,” that woman’s soft as steel voice rang into the platinum blonde’s ears. He gave a curt nod before closing his deformed eyes, clouded over white pupils with purplish-red almost black corneas, obvious signs of eyes that had died long ago.

“Seichi,” the bulky red-head’s name an obvious command coming from the white woman’s mouth. The dark-tanned behemoth only gave a curt nod, before removing his hand from his shoulder perched knife, and slipping his other into a back pocket and removing a syringe. Jimei covered his eyes with his hand as panicked deep breaths began to escape his mouth and sweat formed on his brow. In a moment quicker then light, Seichi was standing over pale older man and had the syringe rather violently rammed into the back of his neck, right where the spine and brainstem connected. There was a moment where the smaller man stiffened, then slumped to the floor panting.

“I want you to sever the connection, we have no more need to watch him,” Cloudy grey eyes stared at his prone form with no feeling, before the white-haired woman simply stepped around them deftly and left the room without another word.

“H-hai,” Jimei’s voice came out in steady uneven breaths, “Kemui-sama…”

Seichi stared at his prostrate comrade; to any outsider he would be looking at him uncaringly with his crimson eyes. But in his own mind, Seichi admired Jimei, even if he spoke down to him like he was dirt. After all, he had yet to meet anyone else who could pull themselves back together so fluidly from absolute madness simply because one woman commanded it of him. It was with that respect that the sandy red-head was content with the fact that, one day, he would be the one to end this man’s life. –It’s only a matter of time…-

“Come on,” his gravelly voice sounded as he grabbed one of the frail pale man’s arms and slung it over his shoulder, “let’s get you something to eat…”

“Ne?” came the annoyingly higher pitch of Jimei’s more ‘obvious’ side, “Wats wit all the carin’ all’a sudden?”

“Shut up Jimei,” was his silent retort as he dragged the man he was meant to kill out of their commander’s room.

-----

Jimei = Obvious

Seichi = Subtle