“We leave in exactly one month and there are holes we need to fill before we go,” Sora said, scooping up another bite of chocolate chip pancakes.

“Holes?” Naruto asked with his mouth full.

“In your education,” Sora said mouth also full. “There are a few parts we simply haven’t gotten to yet that we should probably cover.”

“Like what?” Hinata asked.

“Like teaching you how to summon. It’s a handy still to have, but with all the work you’ve been doing on genjutsu, I just haven’t gotten around to it.”

“I’m going to learn how to summon?” Hinata asked. “Summon what?”

“Ah now you see herein lies the issue. You have a choice, whereas normally you would just summon what your line would. However, Yasu and I have rather confusing lineages anyway, so you can just choose without too much hassle.”

“But if you summon in lines, why didn’t Kakashi-sensei learn how to summon frogs?”

“Because deep down, your father knew that Kakashi-no-baka was an idiot and not to be trusted with such things.”

“So then what do I have to decide?”

“Well, if I teach you to summon, you’ll learn to summon the falcons. If Yasu teaches you, you’ll get to summon what she does.”

“Which is?”

Sora grinned. “Why don’t you tell them Yasu?”

Yasu glared at her. “I don’t know why you think this is so funny. Half the time they’re more useful then those damn birds, which are so stubborn you have to fight to get them to do anything.”

“True, but compared to yours...”

“What do you summon, Yasu?” Hinata asked.

Yasu sighed. “Squirrels.”

There was silence for a moment. Then Naruto burst out laughing.

“HA HA HA HA! You summon SQUIRRELS! HAHAHAHA. That’s the so stupid!

He stopped as he caught Yasu’s icy glare, which froze his blood in his veins. “Might I remind you that you summon frogs? That seems to me to be far less useful than a squirrel. Unless you use enough chakra to get one of the big ones, all they can do is hop. Squirrels happen to make excellent scouts.”

Sora chuckled. “True true, but I’ll stick with something with talons.”

“Even if you have to beg them to do anything?”

“I don’t have to beg. It just takes are certain amount of...finesse to deal with them. And that’s only for certain ones. Now, Hinata-chan, you just have to choose which one you want to summon.”

“Falcons or squirrels?” she asked.

Yasu nodded. “And believe me; you want to go for the squirrels. They’re very nice and helpful. Not like those argumentative creatures Sora has.”

“Helpful, is a relative term. Falcons are battle able where squirrels can’t to shit. Plus they carry messages.”

“Squirrels can carry messages too. Plus you never use the falcons in battle because you have to argue with them before they’ll do anything.”

Sora glanced at Hinata and realized the girl was torn. She decided to go in for the kill. “You know, Nanashi was the one who brought me into the falcon contract and taught me how to summon. It would be neat to see the falcons and the frogs fighting side by side together again.”

And that decided it. “I’m sorry Yasu, but I’m going to have to go with falcon.”

Yasu elbowed Sora in the ribs. “That was a low blow.”

“Whatever works. Come on, lets go get that scroll.”



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hinata pricked her finger and then carefully wrote out her name in blood, before leaving her fingerprints at the bottom of the scroll.

“Good,” Sora said, rolling the giant thing up. “Now, all we need is to summon a falcon big enough to take this monstrosity back to the house. Seals are Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey and Ram. Finally slam your hand down and presto, Kuchiyose no jutsu. Remember, unless you give them somewhere to perch they’re going to take right off.”

Hinata nodded and did as instructed.

What she got was something very small and very fluffy. The little bird looked at her and squawked.

Sora and Naruto were silent, trying to think of what in the world they could say.

“Don’t worry, Hina-chan, it took me a month to stop summoning tadpoles.”

“Yeah, Hinata, you just need to practice. You have more then enough-“She stopped as Hinata looked up, eyes shinning.

“Its so CUTE!” she breathed, before bending down to carefully scratch the chest feathers of the little bird, who closed his eyes in bliss. “Hellooo little guy. Aren’t you the cutest thing in the world!? Oh, I’m sorry,” she said as the falcon rose it’s beak in indignation. “You’re really very majestic. Would you like anything?”

The bird looked up at her and let out a squawk that sounded remotely like the word ‘meat.’

“Sure, sure. Let’s go into the house and see was Yasu has.”

And with that she very carefully picked the fledgling up and carried it into the house, crooning all the way. Naruto and Sora just stood there and watched stunned.

Naruto looked at Sora. “That was weird.”

“Yeah I know. Pampering a fledgling isn’t exactly what I envisioned when I had her start summoning.” Sora shrugged. “Well, she’s got a month to figure it out.”



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But a month came and went and Hinata, though now a beloved favorite among the fledgling, was not able to summon a full grown falcon.

And then, all too soon, it was time for them to leave. Bags were packed, maps rolled up and they started to make the final arrangements to leave.

Hinata looked down at the calendar. Eighteen months: they were exactly halfway through the mission. Her life had been turned completely upside down in those months. She was still basically the same person, essentially the same girl who had lived her whole life within Leaf, sleeping every night in the same room, waking up and doing the same duties every morning before her day began.

Every day feeling the same insecurities.

She sighed and picked up a small photo album she had gotten for the trip. She couldn’t bring framed pictures, they would be too heavy, so instead she had bought this in the village and put in a few pictures she couldn’t live without. One of her and her mother serving tea when she was three, one of her and Hanabi on her tenth birthday, and one of her and her old gennin team. Time changed everything: her mother was dead, Hanabi would be the one turning ten now and her teammates were no longer hers.

She flipped to the newer pictures, ones that had been taken on the mission. The three of them sitting on the kitchen counter at midnight, Sora grabbing Naruto in a headlock and one very special one of her and Naruto all dressed up for New Years. She ran her fingers over their smiling faces. They were standing right next to each other and you would almost be able to believe that they were a couple.

But that was never to be. She had accepted that it was just a daydream and hopefully one that she would eventually grow out of. It probably didn’t matter how he felt about her anyway. While the freedom and peace she had found in this mission were wonderful, it didn’t change the fact that her father would probably try to arrange a strategic marriage for her once she returned. Naruto was right; she was going to have to fight them to accept that she and Naruto were partners. She was going to have to fight them on the use of the seal and her rights as heir. At this point, Naruto would be the only person she would ever fight to marry.

She was worried he knew that he had figured out that she loved him and it was making things awkward. All of a sudden a few months back he had started acting very strange around her. Their conversations had become more strained then they had been since the very beginning. She wanted to talk to him about it, but couldn’t bring herself to.

She sighed and closed the book, placing it into her pack. Looking in, she realized that she had accidentally grabbed both of the first aid kits, one of which was meant for Naruto’s pack.

We’ll she would have to get it to him then, wouldn’t she.

Grabbing the kit, she went to look for him.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Naruto sat on the floor of the loft, reading the book Nanashi had written. According to Sora, his parents’ ongoing arguments about how a country was properly run were a mainstay of their conversation. If that was a case, reading the book was almost like listening into one of their conversations.

Most of the text was, of course, written by his mother. There were long and passionate passages about the consequences of war on a fighter and his family and the use of trade as a method of strengthening ties between countries. His mother’s ideas were truly radical: she had advocated for ending the mandatory gennin level training everyone received in favor of an education that leaned more towards academics and the end of what she considered to be a war based society.

And then, written neatly in the margins were very short, but poignant remarks on why her theories were off. Almost always defending the position of Leaf, the remarks could only belong to his father.

Piecing this together with the photos and the stories, he could almost come up with a picture of what they must have been like. There was one picture of them sitting on a blue couch up at the house in the mountains. It was obviously taken by Sora as it was slightly crooked, but it somehow it made the picture cuter. His mother was sitting with her back against the armrest, legs stretched out along its length and into his father’s lap. She had the book Naruto was reading in her lap just in front of a very pregnant stomach. She was making some sort of large gesture, sending the sleeves of her kimono flying.

His father was calmly sitting with his wife’s legs in his lap, resting his head on his arm which was propped up on the back of the couch. He was smiling slightly, as if he was enjoying watching his wife rant and was simply going to wait until she got good and going before throwing a wench in her works. When he read the book her could almost hear them talking.

“Asking an entire village to train in the ninja arts is sending the wrong psychological message. It implies that there is no other was to resolve conflicts other than force and therefore the state of war within the village communities, both internally and inter-village, is an ever present state. Therefore, mandatory military training within the villages should be removed to favor a form of education or training that is more compatible with other potential fields of work.”

“However, ninja training unites the village, keeps us strong and makes every individual feel as if they have the power to control their own destiny. Plus, conflict is an ever present part of our lives. Remember, villages were carved out of war to give us some peace, but that doesn’t mean we can wish away the war.”

“What are you reading?”

Naruto was startled out of his daydream, as he looked up to find Hinata standing by the ladder. “It’s a book my mother wrote, or at least started to write. She didn’t get to finish it.”

She moved to sit on the floor across from him. “About politics?”

Naruto nodded. “She thought so much about how to make the villages work. She wanted people to stop being fighters all the time and start having other lives too. It’s strange though; I can tell where my father wrote in because he disagreed with her. At times I almost feel as though I can hear them in my head, debating back and forth.” He’d have to remember to show her the pictures sometimes; he had only brought a few with him, most of them were still up at the house.

She smiled and brought he knees up to her chest. “Did they debate a lot?”

“According to Nee-chan, they did it all the time. It was one of the things that bound them together.”

“Arguing bound them together?”

He shrugged. “I’ll have to ask Kakashi-sensei about it when we get back.”

A heavy silence weighed down on the room. “I wonder why he didn’t tell me,” Naruto whispered.

Hinata reached out and put her hand over his. “I’m sure he had a good reason. You’ll just have to wait until we get back to find out.” She smiled. “Onee-chan has certainly passed judgment though.”

Naruto managed a half smile. “I get the feeling that she never really liked ‘Kakashi-no-baka’ that much.”

“Really? I got the opposite impression.”

“What do you mean?”

Hinata giggled slightly. “I think she might have liked him a little too much.”

Naruto’s eyes went wide. “You mean she had a crush on him? No way!”

She leaned back and rested her head against the window frame. “Handsome thirteen year old preparing to test for ANBU membership, the only male even remotely her age that she gets to see on a regular basis, and the protégé of her teacher’s husband? It sounds like the perfect opportunity for crush.”

“Really?” Naruto asked incredulously. “THAT’S the perfect opportunity for a crush?”

“Well, it just seems like in those circumstances she might have been interested. She was ten after all.”

There was another long silence. Naruto felt a tightening within his chest.

“You haven’t seen a boy close to your age in months, other than me,” Naruto said.

Oh no, this was not the direction that she had expected or wanted the conversation to go. Hinata looked up at him, questioningly.

“I just wondered what the chances were that you would develop a crush on me.”

She swallowed hard and carefully worded her answer, trying hard to keep the emotion out of her voice. “Don’t worry, Naruto-kun. I won’t develop a crush on you just because we’re out here alone.” She had already had a crush on him back in the Leaf where there were dozens of other boys her age.

His heart fell. He should have known that she wasn’t going to like him back. He would never be able to get a break like that.

But then he started thinking about his parents and their debates. His heart lightened again. Maybe there was still a chance. Maybe he could convince her. He jumped to his feet and started to pace back and forth in front of her.

“Hina-chan, we’re going to do a lot of cool things, right?”

She watched him walk back and forth. “I’m not sure what you-”

“I mean we’re going to go back to Leaf and kick everyone’s ass, right? And we’ll make chuunin and then jounin. And then I’ll become Hokage and you’ll become the head of your clan, and we’ll change things. We’ll change the Hyuuga, and then we’ll change the village. We’ll make Leaf the best place in the whole world. Everyone will acknowledge us and the strength of the Leaf. It’ll be great, right?”

She smiled. His dream was starting to change slightly. No, change was the wrong word. Mature was better. “Hai, Naruto-kun.”

“And we’ll do it together right?”

Her smile widened. “Hai.”

He walked over to her and leaned down. “What if I told you that I had thought of a way to make it even cooler?”

“Even cooler?”

“Yeah, yeah! See, I was thinking about my parents and how they were going to do the same thing together. Well they weren’t planning on changing the Hyuuga specifically, but in general they were planning on doing things very similar to what we’re doing.”

Her heart clenched. “Your parents?”

“Yeah, yeah! And then I started thinking that you and I were a lot like my parents, at least in some way. Obviously there are some differences. But still, I was thinking about us and I was thinking about how cool you were and I started thinking that maybe, we should be even more like them.”

Her hands were clutched tightly in her lap. “Na...Naruto-kun, what are you saying?”

“Well, I was thinking that maybe you should be my girlfriend.”

“I should be your girlfriend?”

He held his hands out in front of him, worried that he had misspoken and said the wrong thing. “No, wait that’s not what I meant! I was wondering if... you would be my girlfriend....”

Her eyes were wide and her voice trembled. “You think we’re a lot like your parents and therefore you want to know if I’ll be your girlfriend?”

“Well, that... and.... I think I might be... in love with you.” He reached back to scratch the back of his head. “I probably should have started with that, shouldn’t I?”

She started crying. She couldn’t help herself, it was just too much. It was a daydream that she thought never would come true.

Naruto had started to panic. Oh gods, she was crying. “Hina-chan, don’t cry. I’m sorry I... I di...”

She launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his middle and sending him back a pace. “Don’t be sorry. Please, don’t be sorry.”

He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her more tightly to him. “Why are you crying?”

“Because I’m happy.”

He brightened. “Does that mean that you’re willing to try it? Being my girlfriend, I mean.”

She nodded. “Yeah.”

“So then, you think you might love me too?”

He could feel her shake her head against his chest. “I don’t think. I know I love you.”

“Ehhh? Really? Wait, have you thought about this before?”

She half laughed. “You could say that.” She pulled back to look at his face, and then reached up with one hand to cup it. “Naruto, I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t.”

His eyes widened. “You mean, back in Leaf?”

She nodded.

“When no one would acknowledge me, you...” He let his voice trail off.

She nodded again. “It never occurred to me that my acknowledgement would mean anything to you.”

He crushed her to him again, pressing her face down into his shoulder, holding her tightly. His eyes started to water. “It means more from you than anyone else.”

She burst into fresh tears again, sobbing into his shirt. He turned his head to bury his face in her hair. This was it, this was right. The rain poured outside and tears were flowing inside, but he had never been so warm.

“Hina-chan?”

She hiccupped. “Hai?”

“I don’t want you to think that I’m a pervert or anything, but...would you hit me if I tried to kiss you?” he asked, rushing out the last part of the question.

Her heart stopped and she sucked in her breath. It wasn’t how she had imagined he would ask her but...she gave him a shaky smile and shook her head, cheeks bright red.

The realization suddenly struck Naruto that he had absolutely no idea how someone was actually supposed to kiss a girl. Oh, he had seen people in the village do it and heard some very strange rumors about using one’s tongue, but he had never actually had the process explained to him.

But he wasn’t about to back down now; he would just have to improvise.

Slowly, he bent his head, turning it to one side and placed his lips against hers.

They were very, very soft. There was no movement, except for the fact that that they were both shaking ever so slightly. They just stood there, eyes screwed tightly shut, feeling each others lips against theirs. It was amazingly simple, just to rest there, wrapped up in each other.

He pulled back, his lips tugging hers slightly as he left. Her eyes opened to look up at him. Her face was expressionless, almost stunned for a few seconds. Then a smile started to spread across her face and she giggled, turning her head to bury her face in his shoulder, cheeks red. He laughed softly too, moving one hand up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, trying to see her better. He nuzzled his nose into her cheek, coaxing her to turn her head. When she did, he pressed his lips to hers once again, this time daring to move his lips across hers. They stayed just like that, trying to get a feel for this new action, these new sensations.

Finally, they pulled back, her head returning to his shoulder. He placed his forehead against hers. “I love you, Hina-chan,” he whispered.

She blushed again, and smiled. “I love you too, Naruto-kun.”



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sora and Yasu knew what just happened the instant they walked into the kitchen. Naruto and Hinata were both blushing and practically glowing: there could be absolutely no doubt as to what had been going on.

Sora smirked. “You two got together,” she said, and it was a statement.

Naruto swallowed. He hadn’t thought about how Sora was going to react to him and Hinata getting together. “Yeah, so?”

Sora grinned, but there was an edge to it. “Sit down,” she said, gesturing at the table across from her.

They both nervously moved to sit down across from her. Sora folded up the newspaper she was reading and set it down on the table. She cleared her throat.

“Ground rules for dating. Actually there aren’t that many of them. I expect you to be reasonably discrete and non-disgusting about it, but I trust that Hinata has good enough taste to keep a certain level of decorum. However, there is one issue I want to impress upon you.”

She leaned in over the table. “If either of you leave my custody as anything but virgins, Tsunade and Hiashi will hunt me down. And that would be a pain in the ass. Therefore, you will both leave my custody as virgins and by virgins I mean virgins by anyone’s descriptions. There will be no acts that are considered sex by some people and not by others. There will be nothing borderline, with the possibility of swinging either way. All underwear will stay on and in place at all times when you two are together, clear?”

Hinata had never been so red in her life. No one in her household had talked this...blatantly about such topics before. It had always been referred to as ‘keeping herself pure.’ She hadn’t even started thinking about doing anything like that with Naruto.

Naruto was on his feet yelling at Sora. “Wha...What do you think I am, some sort of pervert like Kakashi-sensei and Ero-sennin? I would never do anything like that to Hina-chan!”

Sora quirked an eyebrow. “You might find that your opinion on that changes as you get older. However, for now...” She squealed and jumped across the table to grab both of them around the neck and pulled them to her. “Finally! Man I was getting tired of waiting for you two to figure it out. You made it just in time to: I really didn’t want to be dealing with this on the road.” She jumped off the table and headed over to the fridge. “This calls for a celebration. We should make cake or something.”

“Oi, what to you mean you’ve been waiting?” Naruto asked.

Sora smirked at him. “Naruto you were the only person dense enough to not realize that she was interested. I realized it before we even got to the house.”

“You’ve known since before we got here?”

Sora shook her head. “Not this house, my house.”

“NANI? You mean that...” he looked at Hinata and then back at Sora. “You knew from day one.”

“Of course I have. And you have been painfully slow to realize it, let me tell you. You have got to be the densest boy in the world. Oo, chocolate!” Sora hauled out a box of cocoa powder from the cabinet. “Hey, Yasu do you have in chocolate chips? We could make a Death by Chocolate Cake.”

“Check in the next cabinet over. Naruto, how long ago did you figure out that you liked Hinata?”

Naruto sat miserably in the kitchen chair. He couldn’t believe them. “A few months ago.”

Yasu turned back to Sora. “HA! I told you so. And you doubted a married woman’s instincts.”

Sora rolled her eyes. “Hmph. Lucky guess.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sora hefted her sack onto her back, tightening the straps. “Well, we’re off.”

Miki pouted. “Don’t want you to go.”

Sora chuckled softly and bent to pick up the little girl. “Don’t be sad, Miki-chan. We’ll be back before you know it.”

“Weally?”

“Promise,” she said. “There is only so much of the west I can stand.”

“There is only so much of anything you can stand,” Yasu laughed, taking her daughter. She reached out to hug her old friend with her free arm. “I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too.”

Naruto stood in front of Nori, Yasu and Miki, trying to figure out what to say. He had never had to thank anyone for so much before. Something in him knew that this was the end of something, although he couldn’t pin down exactly what it was. But something was telling him that once he left, things weren’t going to align themselves quite this was again.

“You guys kick ass.”

The pair laughed and Nori moved to hit him on the shoulder. “You’re not bad yourself.”

Yasu bent to kiss him on the cheek. “Remember you can come back anytime. People like us don’t use blood to define family.”

He blushed and rubbed his cheek, embarrassed. He’d gone so long without a family that he wasn’t quite sure how to act with one.

“Well, kids, there’s nothing for us to do here but stand around and get sadder. We might as well get going.” Sora turned and started walking down the path.

Slowly, Naruto and Hinata turned away from the house, waving a final goodbye to the family that stood at the base of the stairs. Forcing their feet forward, they started to walk away. It was strange how quickly a place felt like home; it was almost harder to leave the farm than it had been to leave Hidden Leaf.

About halfway through the fields, Hinata stopped and looked back. She had the same feeling as Naruto. Those things weren’t going to be the same again. But her feeling was colored with apprehension, as if something bad was going to happen if they left.

Doubts filled her head. Was this what they were waiting for? Were they just waiting for them to leave the shelter of their hidden life in order to swoop down and take Naruto? She bit her lower lip. Maybe this was a bad idea.

“Hina-chan?”

She turned to see Naruto standing a few yards behind her. He smiled and held out his hand. “Come on, Nee-chan’s getting ahead.”

She hesitated a second, then smiled and walked to slip her hand into his.

No matter what happened, they were going to put up a fight.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They climbed strait up into the mountains. Past Sora’s house, and snow peaked caps, moving slowly towards the west. Sora wanted to keep to the mountains until they got closer to the south.

It felt surreal to travel this way. Day after day they trudged through the mountains, moving down the mountain range. The landscape was beautiful but unchanging, each mountain bearing a strong resemblance to the one that had come before it.

For Hinata, it seemed like an entirely different state of being. Her legs were sore and she was exhausted from climbing all day, everyday. But strangest of all, her hand was almost always tucked inside Naruto’s. Sometimes she would become convinced that the pressure on her hand was just her imagination, but then she would look up and there he was, walking next to her.

Sora was obviously used to traveling alone and often didn’t feel like talking. So she would walk ahead of them and they would follow behind, hand in hand, talking quietly. The declaration of their mutual affection hadn’t really changed things anything as much as added another dimension. They found themselves going back over a lot of things now that everything was out in the open, his kyubi, their families, their feelings for each other, they found that things had a slightly different light to them.

“I have this strange memory change thing going on,” Naruto said.

“What do you mean?” Hinata asked.

“Well,” he said, stepping up onto a bolder and helping her up behind him. “I know that I didn’t think much about how you looked back in Leaf, but whenever I go through memories where you’re there, I get distracted by how pretty you look.” He grinned. “Weird huh?”

Hinata stared up at him, not quite sure what to make of that. She was about to ask him to clarify what he meant when they heard Sora whoop for joy.

“Alright, no camping tonight! Oh I can’t wait to get somewhere warm to sleep.”

“What do you mean?” Naruto asked.

Sora just grinned and pointed to a spot beyond herself. The pair moved forward and looked out along the mountains. It took them a second to find what she was pointing to, but when they did their breaths caught in their throats.

It was a building. A huge sprawling building that flowed along the side of one of the mountains. It looked slightly similar to Sora’s house, except it was painted a vibrant red and white with accents of green and yellow. It was partially shrouded in mist, but you could still see the vivid colors shining through, as if the whole building was glowing.

“What is that?” Hinata breathed.

“It’s Daruma Abbey.”

“An abbey?” Naruto questioned.

“Yeah, you know like monks and nuns? This is where some of them live. Those who want to live away from society for one reason or another. In any case, they’ll let travelers stay in the Abbey for the night provided they promise not to break the peace, so we can sleep in actual beds tonight.”

“They’ll let anyone in?” Hinata was amazed. It seemed like a huge security threat to her. How could the monks expect people to keep their promise.

“They’re committed to bringing as many people peace and relief from suffering as possible. Fortunately for us, that’s not as aggressive here as at it is in other orders. They’re of the opinion that they have an almost infinite number of reincarnation to order to get everyone to reach nirvana and that by trying to press people too harshly you end up causing more harm than good. So they take an almost passive approach towards conversion.”

“Are we going to stay here long?”

Sora shook her head. “Just for the night. I personally would like to get out of these damn mountains and into somewhere with some tropical weather.” She sighed. “Ooo yeah, a beach and a bikini sound just about perfect right now. But for right now, we’ll have to make do with monks. Come on you two,” Sora said and started heading towards the abbey.

Naruto and Hinata followed behind her, tripping along the narrow path that lead down to the abbey. It took them almost two more hours to negotiate the rough terrain, but finally they reached the large wooden gates. Reaching up, Sora took the large brass knocker in both hands and banged it against the gate with a grunt.

A few minutes later, the door was opened by a women that Naruto and Hinata had to assume was a nun. She wore baggy gray pants and a matching long tunic. She was also veiled with solid black material wrapped around her head to fasten under her chin and a long silvery sheer material over that, coving her face.

Sora stepped forward and bowed to the women. “Rinpoche, my name is Sora and this is my brother Uzumaki Naruto and my apprentice Hyuung Hinata. We seek a night of rest at your abbey and pledge not to harm it or those who stay within its walls.”

Suddenly the women giggled. “Sora we have heard of you and you are welcome here.” She stepped aside to let them into the courtyard. “It has been years since you visited us, little sister, though the Abbot talks about it still. I’m sure the story of how you came to loose Yasu and take on these two will prove to be interesting.”

They were swept off into a changing room where they were able to remove their coats and change into dry house slippers. Hinata sighed in bliss at the feeling of the heated floors on her feet and Naruto chuckled at the look on her face. Then they were once again lead to another room where the abbess was supposedly waiting.

Walking down the hallway, Naruto leaned over to whisper a question to Sora. “Why is everyone wearing veils?”

“It’s part of their vow,” she whispered back. “It’s against vanity. All members, both monks and nuns, are required to veil themselves so that they will never think of the way they look because doing so is a completely selfish act. Lives must be dedicated to the whole world.”

“Then why are they living away from the world?”

“Because they have ties in the world they must cut. There are a surprisingly large number of clan heirs and ex-convicts here.”

Naruto was about to question her, when the door in front of them swung open. There, sitting on the floor was a monk, indistinguishable from all the others. “Ah, Sora. It gives me great joy to see you again.”

Sora smiled, unable to see the face, but able to recognize the voice. “And I am happy to see you as well, Rinpoche.”

“But you will not stay more than a night?”

She shook her head. “No, Rinpoche.”

“There are those who think that you live here permanently. They come looking for the dGra Klesha, thinking that they have become nuns here away from the world.”

“Then people don’t understand me very well. Yasu might survive in an abbey as long as she could keep researching, but I would never make it. The name dGra Klesha was something we were given, not something that we chose. Neither of us were ever religious.”

“And yet you come here.”

“Because it’s hella cold outside. Even in summer, these mountains are freezing.”

“Indeed. Well, you shall have to come have tea with me. Then you can explain where you have been for the last five years and how you come to have such interesting traveling companions.” He turned to Naruto and put a hand on his shoulder. “It is not everyday I meet someone with a demon inside them and I have yet to come up with a plausible explanation as to how it would occur. I look forward to talking to you. Would you mind telling me you story?”

“Umm, sure, whatever makes you happy.”

There was a slight sound of laughter. “You cannot make the sky blue,” he said.

“Huh?”

“I am already living in the light of happiness all the time; therefore you cannot make me happy. You can make me happier, but never just happy.”

“You’re happy all the time?”

“My life is dedicated to others. What is there that could make me happier?”



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I liked them, but they were kinda weird,” Naruto said as they left the abby.

“That’s exactly what I say,” Sora agreed.

Hinata just shrugged. She hadn’t thought they were all that strange: living like that held a certain appeal to her, although she didn’t think she could live a life without children. But the quiet, restful nature of the abbey had appealed to her.

“You liked it, didn’t you?” Naruto asked curiously.

She nodded. “It reminded me of what home felt like before my mother died. It was quiet, but it wasn’t cold.”

Naruto got a very worried expression on his face. “You like it quiet?”

She smiled slightly. “I like it warm. And you,” she said, reaching up on her tip toes to kiss his cheek. “Are the warmest person I know.”

He blushed and ducked his head, squeezing her hand.

Sora rolled her eyes. “Dear lord, when did you two get so sappy?”

They finally emerged from the mountains over a week and a half from when they started. Sitting at the foot of the last mountain was a decent sized town where they planned to stay the night.

Before heading for the hotel, they headed for a restaurant for a lunch. They sat on the second story balcony of a place specializing in some sort of strange food that involved cracking open these puffy pastry thingies and then filling them full of stuff before you ate them. Sora was obviously a pro, but Hinata and Naruto were having a hard time not having the whole thing crack on them. More food was ending up on the table then in their mouths.

“Mmmmm, I had forgotten how much I missed the food,” Sora said, closing her eyes in bliss. Naruto and Hinata looked like themselves, but Sora had transformed herself into a stereotypical western woman of about 40 so as not to attract attention.

Naruto frowned as the pastry crumbled in his hands, spilling all over his plate. The little bit he got in his mouth burned his tongue “Ahhhh! This is the most impossible to eat stuff in the world!” he yelled, pointing at his plate.

“Hey, miss,” a deep voice said in the western tongue.

Sora looked up to see a huge bare-chested man standing next to the table. “Yes?”

“The kid’s annoying. Teach him to eat properly and tell him to shut up.”

Sora’s eyes flashed. “He’s not from around here. Cut him some slack.”

The man leaned down and thrust his face into hers. “I don’t give a damn where the hell he’s from. Get the idiot under control.” The man walked off.

Naruto was about to get up and start yelling at him, when both Sora and Hinata’s hands came down on his shoulders.

“Did you hear what he said?” he asked them, switching back into eastern.

“Course I did. We’ll get him, just not in a way that will get us in trouble.” Sora grinned. “Your mother actually taught me how to do this. High time I passed it onto you.”

Hinata looked back and forth between the two of them, frantically trying to diffuse the situation. “You guys he didn’t actually do anything that bad.”

“And we won’t do anything too bad to him. Now watch this. We’re going to force him to transform.” Sora started making seals underneath the table. “Projected transformation no jutsu,” she said quietly, starting at the man. After a second she relaxed and giggled.

Naurto and Hinata looked around behind him to see the man, still looking like himself, but now dressed in a rather lovely pink floral saree. All the men who were standing with him at the bar were laughing hysterically.

Sora gave them a self satisfied smile. “See if I was really mean, I would change his voice and maybe put some sort of hypnotism technique on him to make him act like a girl. But that would be a waste; genjutsu really takes too much out of me to really justify it.” She went back to eating.

“Cool, I want to try.”

“Well you’ll have to wait until someone else insults us. Or is mean to an innocent bystander: Nanashi used to do it to men who were harassing girls.” She laughed. “You come across your prankster genes legitimately.”

Hinata stared down at her plate. She had just about given up on trying to get any of the strange food into her mouth. She wanted chopsticks.

“Ya’ll done?” Sora asked, wiping her mouth with a napkin.

“As done as we’re going to be,” Naruto grumbled.

“Cool, then lets go get a room and plan out what we’re going to do for the next few days,” Sora said, getting up to leave.

The pair followed her out, unaware of the fact that there were two pairs of eyes following them out the door.

They found a hotel and settled in before hauling out the maps and starting to discuss plans for the next few days. However one person had a far more immediate problem he wanted to deal with. Naruto’s primary concern was going out and finding something edible, preferably something that involved ramen noodles. His secondary concern was doing it with Hinata and without Sora.

Unfortunately for him, Sora wasn’t having any of it.

“I can’t let the two of you go wondering around the village unescorted! What is someone tried to take you?” Sora and Naruto stood practically nose to nose, yelling at each other. Naruto was trying to get Sora to let him and Hinata explore the city some without her. He really wanted some time with her without Sora around. There were some things you just couldn’t try with your big sister around.

“We’re really well trained now! Even if something does happen, we can hold them off long enough for you to get there. Not that we wouldn’t be able to kick their asses by ourselves. The battle probably be over when you arrived.”

“Because you’d be snatched off by Itachi and spirited away to some secret hideout where I can rescue your ass!”

“You said they don’t know where we are!”

“I said I’m pretty sure they don’t know where we are. Actually knowing is a whole different kettle of fish!”

Naruto stared at her. “Kettle of what?”

Sora took a deep breath, ready to start yelling again.

“Onee-chan?” Both Naruto and Sora were startled by the sound of Hinata’s voice. They turned and looked at her. “Naruto and I wouldn’t go far from the hotel. We just want a chance to look around a bit. We could stay close enough that you would be able to tell if something was going on. Plus, anyone would have trouble taking us out of a crowd.”

Sora sighed. “Fine, fine, you have exactly two hours. If the two of you aren’t back here in two hours, I am going to come looking for you and it’s not going to be pretty.”

The pair wasted no time gathering up their stuff and running out the door. “Be careful!” Sora yelled after them, as they ran down the stairs of the hotel and out into the street.

They stopped right outside of the door, staring at amazement at the sight around them. Where Leaf’s architecture all seemed to go together in a somewhat organized, if eclectic, method, things here seemed to be out of control. People crowded the streets, shoppers and venders and people who just seemed to be mulling around. They yelled, calling out about how good their wares were or how they needed to get through with the cart. The buildings rose tall over the crowded streets, tan stucco walls reflecting the beating light of the sun.

Naruto smiled and grabbed Hinata’s hand. “Come on, lets go see if we can find any ramen.”

They weren’t able to find any ramen, but they were able to find a number of pots full of bubbling sauces. After the first and only one they tried ended up practically burning the roof of their mouth off, they settled on some sort of grilled meat on a stick. Walking along, they stopped and looked at the vendors and shops, selling clothing and talismans, weapons and food.

Hinata stopped at one of the windows and peared in through the glass.

“What?” Naruto asked, looking into the window next to her. His heart stopped when he saw that it was a salon.

She fingered the end of her long ponytail. “I was just thinking that I should get my hair cut again. In this heat, having long hair is going to be tough,” she said, munching on her satay.

He opened his mouth to tell her not to, when he remembered how Sora acted everytime someone commented on her hair. She always yelled something along the lines of “It’s my hair, I like it and that’s what counts” although generally with curse words liberally inserted before, after and during.

Would all women react to having their hair choices critiqued like that? Sakura had cut off all of her hair while he was knocked out and then simply said it was time for a change. When he pestered her about it, she yelled at him. Then again, she always yelled at him.

Oh, no. He wasn’t going to risk talking to Hinata about her hair. He could be sneaky about it, he knew he could.

He tried to think of ways to talk her out of it without actually telling her what to do. “But... all the women here have long hair,” he said, waving his satay stick around.

“Yes, but they put it up in a bun to keep it off the back of their neck.” She sighed. “We’ll I’ll wait until tomorrow and see if Sora will take me. No point in wasting our time getting my hair cut.” She smiled and started to move on down the street.

Naruto stared after her for a few seconds before running to catch up. He had to think of a way to keep her from cutting her hair!

Walking further down the street, they ducked into something that claimed to be an antique shop. The air inside was dark and musky, most of the furniture covered with dust. Urns sat on top of carved tables and sets of singing bowls lined the shelves. And in the back was a long glass case filled with jewelry.

Hinata leaned over the case, studying the contents. “Those are pretty,” she said, pointing.

Naruto scrunched up his nose and peered through the glass. They were sticks made out of some sort of wood with white glass balls on the top with some sort of flower drawn on them. From underneath the balls there were little ropes of slightly curved disks of glass “Why would anyone need such short, fancy chopsticks?”

Hinata laughed softly. “They’re not chopsticks, they’re hair sticks. You use them to put your hair up.”

The phrase ‘put your hair up’ caught Naruto’s attention. He bent down to study them closer. Looking at them from below, he caught site of the price tag. They weren’t cheep but he should be able to swing it. After all, he was still getting his gennin pay from Tsuande via Sora and he wasn’t really buying anything. There was only so much ramen even he could eat. “You use these things to put your hair up? How?”

She started to explain, going through the motions. “Well you pull the hair up into a bun, and then catch some of the hair in the bun with the stick and then you sort of flip it over and catch more of the hair on the...” She trailed off at the lost look on Naruto’s face. “Its sort of hard to explain.”

“Oye! Mister! Come open the case for us!” he yelled at the shopkeeper in loud if slightly jumbled western.

The man looked up from reading his newspaper, then slid off the stool and rambled over to the case.

“Whatcha wanna look at?” he said in an irritated tone, convinced that he wasn’t going to get a sale out of the teenagers. At least that what Naruto thought he said: his accent was a little hard to understand.

Naruto jabbed his finger at the front of the case. “Those hair thingies.”

The man took a key from his pocket and unlocked the back of the case before reaching in a grabbing the two sticks. “They’re vintage glass, from just a few years after that particular factory was destroyed in a gang war. The base is magnolia wood which is apparently what inspired the etching on the main ball and petal shaped beads.”

Neither of them got any of that, but it didn’t really matter. Naruto took them out of his hand and gave them to Hinata. “Go on, try them.”

“But I...”

“I wanna see how these things work. Go ahead.”

Hinata sighed, tugging the band that held her hair in a tail at the base of her neck. Then gathering all her hair up into her hands, she started to twist it into a large bun. She held it in place with one hand as she slid the sticks into her hair. The white glass sparkled like little stars against the blackness of her hair.

Naruto nodded. They looked good and her hair was now up. No reason to get it cut if it was up. Oh yeah, he was the man. He had it all figured out. He turned to the shopkeeper.

“You’re asking too much for them. There’s no way I’m going to pay that much for hair thingies.”

“Wait, what?” Hinata asked, whirling around.

The shopkeeper’s eyes narrow, sensing that he might have underestimated the boy. Or rather, underestimated the boy’s purchasing power. “Nonsense. Those are easily worth 150.”

“One hundred and fifty?” Hinata gasped, shocked.

“Ha! More like twenty five!”

“Perhaps one hundred twenty five, but no lower. They’re antiques.”

“You said they were vintage. Fourty.”

“Young man they mean essentially the same thing. One hundred.”

“Fifty.”

“Seventy five.”

“Done,” Naruto said, hauling out a large fat frog. He removed the money and put it on the counter before reaching up to take the price tag off the end of one of Hinata’s hair sticks. “Come on, Hina-chan we only have forty five minutes left.”

“But, but” she sputtered.

Firmly putting his hands on her shoulders, Naruto started to steer her out of the shop. “Come on, I think I saw a tea shop across the street. We can try that chai stuff Sora has been talking about.”

Still protesting, Hinata allowed Naruto to push her out of the shop and into the street.

Hinata sat across from Naruto in the booth of the teashop. “I can’t believe you bought these,” she said, reaching up to once again finger the ornaments in her hair. She knew that most girls would be swooning at this point. Not only had her boyfriend bought her a present, it had been jewelry and relatively expensive at that. But she didn’t want him to think that she expected this, that she thought that this was an important part of being his girlfriend.

“But you were complaining about how hot it was,” he said, he mouth full of some salty concoction of crackery things on the table.

She had said that yes, but she wasn’t playing games. She hadn’t been trying to drop hints that she wanted a present or insinuate anything. “But that meant that it was hot, not that I wanted you buy me hair things.”

She had been protesting since the moment they left the store. Man, had he done something wrong without realizing it? “You like them, don’t you?”

“They’re gorgeous, but-“

“So what’s the problem? Your hair is off the back of your neck and they look pretty.” He was desperate. He really couldn’t see what he had done that was making her question him. She liked, he bought. It wasn’t as if he had a whole lot of other things that he needed the money for.

“They were just so expensive!”

And if they kept her from chopping her hair off, they were worth every cent. “I didn’t mind. What did I do wrong?” He asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t understand what I did that was wrong! You say you like them, I wanted to get them for you, so I bought them.” He was pleading with her, trying to figure out where in this process he had gone wrong. Maybe she realized that he was trying to keep her from cutting her hair and was upset about that. “Just tell me what I did!”

Hinata sighed. “I just don’t want you to think that I expect this sort of thing. I mean...just because I’m your girlfriend now, doesn’t mean you have to buy me things.”

“But I want to.”

She laughed. The whole thing was just so atypical of other couples. “I know...a lot of girls would drop hints that they wanted something expensive and romantic and then expect their boyfriends to go out and get it for them. But they don’t actually tell them they want it, and they get mad if they don’t get it. I don’t want to play those kinds of games.”

Naruto found this very confusing. “Huh? We never have before. Why would that change?”

“Well, now that we’re going out, I just worry that...I don’t want to start doing stupid couple things just because we’re going out. I want to do couple things, just not the stupid ones.” Gods that had sounded nonsensical.

“And the hinting that you want something expensive and then me going out and getting it one of those things?”

“Yes. As is feeling like you have to buy me things.”

“But that’s not what happened, with the hair thingies.”

“I know...I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t.”

“So then, it wasn’t that I bought you the hair thingies, it was what you thought my reason’s where for buying you the hair thingies?”

She stared at him for a second and then shook her head. “I sound like a complete idiot don’t I?”

He waved his hands frantically in front of himself. “No, no, I just don’t get what you’re saying. But don’t worry about it; just tell me if I do it again, okay?”

She laughed softly to herself. It hadn’t even occurred to him that she was playing games. It hadn’t occurred to him to buy them for her because that was what a ‘good boyfriend’ was supposed to do. He just knew she liked them and wanted to get them for her.

Sometimes she forgot just how straight forward things with him tended to be.

“Naruto –kun?” she said softly.

“Hai?”

She smiled at him and reached up to brush the end of them with her fingertips. “I love them. Thank you.”

He grinned and held his hand out to her on the tabletop. She placed her hand in his and felt him squeeze it. “Your welcome.”

Sora sighed as she sat at the hotel bar, nursing a chocolate martini. When had she become such a pushover?

Ah, well, the damage was already done. They were young and in love and thought they were invincible.

The chance that Itachi had figured out where they were was small. After all, she was good at slipping under the radar; it was one of the things that had made the dGra Klesha so powerful. Nope, no one, not even Obaa-chan knew where they were.

“Hello, Sora,” a voice said behind her.

Maybe she had spoken to soon.