A strange new life

4.11

I snapped awake and ready to battle. My hands went to my waist pouch, looking for my kunai. The chair tumbled behind me, crashed with a loud bang. On the bed in front of me, Naruto stirred, rolled to the side, mumbled something I couldn’t understand, drooled on the mattress, kept sleeping.

I took deep breaths through the nose, exhaled slowly. I had the worst nightmare ever. Even if I couldn’t recall it now. Something about snakes and swords and stuff. I shuddered at the thought. I took more deep breaths. It felt like Orochimaru was hidden in the shadows, waiting for me to lower my guard.

“Hinata-chan.” Kakashi-sensei’s voice sounded from behind me. I was glad I didn’t normally talk, or I would have yelled high and embarrassing. Even so, I still jumped, and turned toward the voice. Lazy Kakashi looked even more tired than usual. His jounin uniform still had marks of battle, and his eyes were even more dead than normal. He looked at the fallen chair, the bed and the sleeping Naruto. “Trouble sleeping?”

I shook my head. Wiped away a bit of drool with the back of my hand. Cleaned the crust from my eyes. Cool guy Kakashi waited until I composed myself. What a chad. When I was done, I popped my board. “Something at my apartment last night. Didn’t know where else to go.”

Bless the man, his first question wasn’t about what happened. “Are you hurt?”

I felt all fuzzy and warm at the question, even if a nagging voice in the back of my mind whispered this was manipulation 101. I looked at my wounds, noticed most had already scabbed over and now looked weeks old. I shook my head. Wrote more. “A snake, which transformed into a sword. It scared me. I left the apartment and came here.”

Kakashi-sensei nodded, looked me over. “I’ll check it out. Wait until I come back.”

I nodded. Wasn’t planning on going anywhere near anything belonging to Orochimaru. No sir, thank you sir. Kakashi left after that. I wasn’t sure what to do now. Naruto was still asleep, and I didn’t want to wake him. I stepped outside, looked about. Sasuke’s door was closed. Didn’t seem worth checking it again. The embarrassing comments from his mother last time still caused my cheeks to burn when I remembered it. I meandered about, asked a passing nurse where I could find Sakura-chan’s room.

My steps took me there. I stood in front of the door, hesitated just for a moment, knocked.

An older female voice answered. “Come in.” 

I opened the door a smidgen, peeked inside. Sakura’s mom sat by the side of the bed. Sakura was still sleeping or unconscious, didn’t know which. The woman smiled at me, waved me inside. I sat down by the bed. Looked at Haruno Mebuki.

“She’s going to be okay.” The woman said, sounded like she was trying to convince herself. “She’s sedated, but not in any danger.” Mebuki looked away, said in a tired voice. “Not anymore.”

I placed a hand on the woman’s shoulder. Gave her a nod when she looked at me. She smiled. We didn’t talk after that, just sat in silence, watching over the sleeping Sakura.

Kakashi didn’t return until a few hours later. He found me in the hospital cafeteria grabbing something to eat. He sat at the same table as me. “There was nothing at your house when I got there.”

I nodded, that made sense. If the sword, snake – whatever – could move, I didn’t think it would stay there for no reason. I shoveled food down my gullet while my threads wrote the question. “What do we do?” 

“Did it attack you?” Sensei asked. I shook my head. He nodded. “Keep your vigilance, get away from it if you see it again. Find me, or any other jounin, report it again.”

Kakashi didn’t tell me the sword belonged to Orochimaru. Was he afraid that me knowing that would change how I felt about it? I didn’t know. The sword coming to me was troublesome, even more so if people started thinking – even more – that I had some sort of relationship with Orochimaru. Thank god the fucker was dead. I just needed to make sure he stayed dead.

In the afternoon of the second day, I was called to make my report. Even with the village mourning and adjusting after the attack, ninjas still did ninja things. I walked inside the tower, greeted Secretary-chan. Her shoulders were tense, black lines under her red tinged eyes. Did someone close to her die in the attack? We never really talked about her family, or anything personal aside from my concoctions and food experiments. I thought of the young woman as a friend, my first real connection in this world, but I knew nothing about her.

Secretary-chan's voice sounded tired. “Hinata-chan.”

I walked up to her desk, then around it. Opened my arms, inviting her for a hug. There was a moment of hesitation, then I saw her composure break. She fell into my arms, held me tight. Face pressed against my neck, not enough to muffle the pained sobs. We’re breaking several of the shinobi’s rules, but I really didn’t care at this point. I wasn’t an emotionless machine, never have been. I didn’t mind corrupting Secretary-chan. Without words, the only thing I could do was hold the woman while she sobbed her woes away.

Someone else entered the tower. A shinobi I didn’t know. He stopped, disapproving eyes on us. He opened his mouth. I glared at him, the kind of I’ll-kill-you-if-you-say-something glare. The man took the hint, closed his mouth, shook his head, walked away.

Gently, I stroke Secretary-chan’s back. My horrible human-being side couldn’t help but notice that even looking distraught, tired, and crying, the woman still smelled nice. Jasmin and something fruity. The pragmatic side noted that she’d made a horrible infiltration kunoichi with such a distinct scent.

The moment with Secretary-chan didn’t last long. It couldn’t, really. I was here to make a report. But it gave me ideas. Maybe I could invite her to hang out? Something other than our brief encounters at the tower. I’ve been thinking of trying new concoctions. My new creation was an attempt at crème brûlée. I even learned a d-rank fire release jutsu to burn the cream just before serving it: the presentation was as important as the taste, after all. I wanted Ino to be the first one to taste it, but well, it was for a good cause.

I gave the older girl a peck on the cheeks. She gave me a small smile back.

“Go on up,” she said after wiping away the tears. “They’re waiting for you.”

I looked at the stairs leading up, then at Secretary-chan again. I gave her another hug, then left my two last seals for the woman. One with a thermos and tea, another with sweets. I hoped it would make her day just a bit better. Then I fled up the stairs.

It was strange to see the tower in such disarray. In all the times I came here before, there was always this sense of calm urgency. Like every ninja had an important task they needed to attend to. Now, most just looked tired, and beaten up. A lot of the ninjas still wore battle scarred vests. It seems none of them had slept after the attack. I knocked at the indicated door, entered when called.

A chunin looked up from behind a mountain of papers. “Name?”

I popped my board, wrote: “Hinata.”

Chunin-san took a notebook from his mountain of paper, flipped a few pages. Looked back at me, then at the notebook again. “You’re late.” He said, but continued without giving me a chance to say anything in response. “Just wait there a moment, someone will come to take your report.”

I nodded at that. Looked about. There was nowhere to sit. I leaned against the wall. I don’t think this guy deserved my good impression’s pastries kit, he didn’t leave a good impression. Not that I had one to give, even if I wanted. My supplies were utterly depleted. Minutes passed with the only sound being the man’s writing. About ten minutes later, the door opened.

In entered a shinobi I knew. Long ash blond hair, with a spiky top ending in a ponytail. A sharp jaw, light green eyes, same as Ino’s. Protector wore over his forehead. Standard flak jacket over a black outfit, with a long black overcoat on top of it all.

I bowed to the man. He nodded back.

“I’ll take it from here.” Ino’s dad said to the chunin, who nodded in response. “Follow me, Hinata-chan.” Inoichi said to me, then instead of leading me up or to another room, we took the stairs down. And down we went until I was certain we were underground. Shit.

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