Naruto 1. Prologue: The Unmaking

**A Life in the Sun**

_Prologue: The Unmaking_

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><p>Hinata died in the third year of the Fourth Shinobi War, but it took two more years for her to actually stop breathing. By that time, Konoha was slowly pulling itself together as its inhabitants rebuilt what had been destroyed in the fighting. And by that time, Uchiha Sasuke had become a real contestant for Hokage, with enough support to rival Naruto.<p>

He'd helped them win the war, had stood with Madara's blood staining his arms up to his elbows and declared himself the final Uchiha. Then gone on to help with the reconstruction, rekindling his friendship with Naruto and Sakura-san and settling himself comfortably into the rhythm of the village. And Hinata's admiration for her childhood's precious hero, her "Naruto-kun" faded into nothingess.

Because Naruto could forgive Sasuke the pain he'd caused him, both physical and mental, could forgive the last Uchiha's attempted assassination of Sakura-san and his returning to their village only with the intent to destroy it. Could forgive his madness and cruelty, say that the Uchiha had been confused, that he'd been twisted by Orochimaru and then by Madara. That the Cursed Seal of Heaven had forced him deeper into darkness than he'd meant to go. Pile one excuse on top of the other.

Hinata had never understood Naruto's bond to his teammates. The mean and spiteful fangirl Sakura. The cold and cruel Sasuke. Perhaps there had been warmth between the three of them, out of sight. Perhaps their bond had blossomed in shadow. And Sakura-san, at least, had grown beyond her petty childhood self, unfurled like the flower she was named after into someone worthy of respect. Sasuke had only descended into the darkness of his childhood until nothing else remained. There was weakness in allowing yourself to be consumed in such a way, Hinata had thought.

That hadn't mattered. Hinata cared little for Sakura, and if Naruto wanted to forgive his supposed best friend's decision to kill her, forgive the path of destruction he'd forged... it wasn't up to her to judge. Not her "Naruto-kun", who was always righteous and strong and just. And they were at war, in need of every strong fighter available, never mind if they had eyes as cold as a fish's.

And then in the third year of the war, Uchiha Sasuke had taken his sword and driven it cleanly into Kiba's back to get to Zetsu. And Naruto had forgiven that too. Called it a mistake. She'd seen the curse marks spread to cover the Uchiha's body, of course. But she'd also seen him let it do so. And for the first time in her life, Hinata had stood in judgment of her precious Naruto-kun - and found him wanting.

-.-.-.-

It had taken her two years to find a seal that would allow her to change it all. Two years, and a coldness that settled deep into her chest and that only her surviving teammate and sensei could penetrate. In hindsight, it'd been obvious that Kiba had been more than just a friend to her. That the reason she'd stopped watching Naruto so intently, stopped fainting and stuttering in his presence, was because her feelings had changed. And she hadn't realized that in time. Because Naruto had been more than just a crush: he'd been an ideal. And ideals, she'd realized, were a difficult intoxication to give up.

Had Hinata been someone else, she might have drank herself into a stupor at the understanding of what she'd allowed to go to waste. She didn't do that, though. Instead she knocked on Shino's door, and then knocked him into bed. Because he was Kiba's brother, even more than Hana-san had been their teammate's sister. Shino hadn't asked anything of her, not before and not after. He hadn't called her cruel for using him that way, though Hinata was sure he'd known the only warmth in her was spared for the one person she couldn't reach.

He deserved better. She never went to his bed again, and he never brought up their one encounter.

The day her preparations were complete, Hinata moved quietly into the great forest that surrounded their village. The leaves were turquoise and silver under the moonlight, and as she knelt in the circle of seals, Hinata was glad that she could leave in beauty.

With that thought still lingering, her breathing and heart stuttered to a halt.

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><p><strong>AN:** I started writing this several months ago, and since I won't update any of my other stories until I've finished moving in February, I hoped this could tide you over. (A few AU/non-canon compliant details are present, I know.)

Hinata was always one of my least favorite characters in canon, in part because of her blind devotion to Naruto. Here I am attempting to write her as the kind of character I think the Fourth War and her crush's continuing obsession with the canon insane!criminal!Sasuke should have turned her into.

Do tell me your thoughts. What do you think of this Hinata? Of how she sees Naruto?


	2. The Spiderweb

**A Life in the Sun**

_Chapter 1: The Spiderweb_

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><p>This time, Hinata is born when the leaves are just turning golden. Much too early, she comes out shaded in blots of blue and purple, and spends her first weeks in an incubator with a slim tube in her nose.<p>

It's not until twelve weeks later that she can clearly take in her parents' features. Her mother's face is pale and tired, with dark rings under her eyes. She is still beautiful, at least to Hinata. It's remarkable how much of her mother's appearance she has forgotten. The brown mole on her left cheek, the lift of her slender eyebrows and the plumpness of her mouth- she'd forgotten all of it, left with only the impression of her mother's warm smile and kind hands.

Her father's face is less lined, less stern and he holds her like she means something. She can feel his chakra hovering by her side when she wakes in the night, even more often than her mother's. It is a surprise, and Hinata isn't sure if it's a welcome one. She has plans, and they don't include honoring her father and the clan. They don't include loving Hyuga Hiashi, who she remembers as an impassive statue, a haughty taunt frozen to stone in disappointment. It is a stranger's hands that hold her so gently to his broad chest.

She is assigned a caretaker the moment they return from the hospital, and after those twelve weeks where her eyes clear, Hinata recognizes her as well. Hyuga Reiko, a quiet Branch member in her late twenties who she'd lost touch with some years after her mother's death. Reiko had been reassigned, and Hinata later found out that she'd been killed in the invasion that interrupted her first chunin exam. She'd mourned the woman's in a distant way, occupied as she was with her team and their missions.

Reiko is the first person to see Hinata activate her Byakugan, when she is seven months old. The caretaker drops the bottle of formula she's holding and her own pale eyes grow wide and startled. Hinata has to let the power flushing through the veins supplying their clan's special vision go after a few short moments, shocked to feel how lacking her body is in chakra. But her activating their family's special sight plants the seed, at least. The seed of the Hyuga heir's genius.

This time, she's going to blaze through the ranks, and mostly not for any kind of selfish motive. Mostly not to prop up her pride, to make sure she never has to see herself as_ less _ever again. Mostly.

She catches Reiko speaking with her father when Hiashi returns from a meeting later that night. "Are you sure it was a full activation?" She hears his stiff silk _hakama_ rustle as he sits down. "You are aware that chakra-flares around the eyes are not uncommon for Hyuga children at this age."

"Yes, Hiashi-sama, I'm aware of that," Reiko says patiently, and Hinata wishes the door to her room was open so she could observe their expressions. She has a plan, yes, but plans had to change according to outside actions and reactions. She curls a tiny fist in front of her face and tries to will herself to remain awake for the duration of the conversation. "It was a full activation, without a doubt. Both eyes had two fully developed dynamic veins supporting the sight."

There is a thick, thoughtful silence and Hinata slowly evens out her breathing into a semblance of natural sleep when she hears the quiet rattle of the door to her nursery. Behind closed eyelids she feels her father's chakra like the flame of a candle in the darkness. He leans over her, and maybe it's only because she's spent a life under his severe regard, but she can feel the weight of his gaze on her even without looking.

-.-.-.-

Hiashi watches her and Hinata waits patiently for another month to pass before she one day, as he's picking her up, gurgles out a word: "Father!" He's too much in control of himself to drop her, but there is a ripple in his arms and he stares down at her with pure shock scrawled over his aristocratic features. _She_ made him look at her like that, with astonishment turning into incredulous pride. She put that expression on his face.

He sets her to lessons the day after, and Hinata reabsorbs the basics of writing and speaking and masters hand to eye coordination. The clan has taken notice of her, word spreading from her various teachers and morphing until Hiashi is not the only one watching her like she's glowing.

When Hinata turns two, she's heard her father be offered the first sons of various prominent, wealthy merchant families with ties to their clan as her consort and knows that the civilian clans won't be the only ones interested in her. She'd expected this development, even if this didn't happen the last time until Hanabi entered adolescence and proved to be fairly competent in her role as the heir.

She plays _go_ with her father, and watches his pale eyes sharpen as she challenges his strategies with moves far beyond what most of her peers can do. Hinata knows just how to toe the line between impressive and suspicious, and only plays like she knows Shikamaru-san could at this age.

She doesn't see her mother very often, as her days are devoured by one lesson after another, and that shouldn't be as much of a relief as it is. Her mother doesn't have the all-seeing eyes, but her gaze penetrates in a way her father's doesn't. It's like a vivisection. The irrational thought that her mother will one day stand up and declare her to be an imposter keeps her away even when she's not caught in the daily spiderweb of learning.

"Hinata," her father says one day, "It's time you entered the Academy." She has just turned four, and it's much too early. Hinata smiles like a flower with a poisonous center, and doesn't give any indication that she knows it's because her father wants to show her off. Rumors of her intelligence have spread far enough that the ninja clans have taken notice of it as more than just civilian gossip. There are tales about how she could rival another genius, born a few years earlier to the Hyuga's rival clan.

Hinata has no plans whatsoever to be caught up in Itachi's life. She knows what he will do and why, and approves. She will not interfere. Also, the temptation of his serpent little brother being so close by… Keeping herself from acting would be near irresistible, and she can't afford a slip-up like that. She has to be strong enough to stop him, later.

So Hinata enters the Academy, and burns as brightly there as she did in the compound. The teachers praise her like she's a diamond in a basket of pebbles, and as she takes care not to offend anyone, everyone wants to be her friend. She makes a lot of good, useful acquaintances. Especially with the clan heirs, though she makes sure to never be the one making the first overture.

She'll need their regard in the future, but not only theirs- she is not so foolish as to assume that connections in the civilian world are unimportant. They too are on the village council, and they have their own kind of power. She surprised that so few of the other clan heirs seem to realize that. The daughter of the Otono clan has the ear of the daimyo's youngest son, and the daughter of the Tachibana clan has traveled to every port in Fire Country with her wealthy merchant's family. The son of the leader of the old Uzuki samurai family has highly placed cousins in Iron Country's ruling body.

Hinata weaves her webs, and her pale eyes watch the threads soar and spread outwards. Like ripples on the water, or new branches on a tree.

"Hinata-chan," calls six-year-old Ino, high voice childish but uncharacteristically respectful. "Wanna come to my place and play?"

Hinata smiles, thinks, _the Yamanaka has always been involved with the T&I_. Thinks, _there is no greater source of information that that department_. She knows they'd never let anything slip, but that doesn't mean she'll never have use of such a connection.

She goes with Ino to her house and is formal but childishly warm to her parents. Ino's mother is a civilian _ikebana_ artist named Keiko with scarred hands and a deep voice. When Ino wanders off to the bathroom, Hinata spends a few minutes speaking quietly with her about flower arrangements.

"Hinata-chan, do you want to see the garden?" says Ino when she returns, and they all trot off into the Yamanakas luxurious backyard. The scent from the flowers that cover everything in the garden is overwhelming, and Hinata consciously keeps herself from tucking her nose into her collar. She follows Ino around the yard, and the blond girl makes her a bouquet with such enthusiasm that Hinata's appreciative smile is entirely unfeigned.

When a Branch house servant comes to retrieve her late in the afternoon, Hinata thinks that the Yamanakas are surprisingly warm to be an interrogator's family. She also carefully folds the thought of Inoichi's deep water gaze into the back of her mind, to remind herself that even though she's lived twenty-six years and possesses knowledge of future events, there are people here with more knowledge and experience than she. People who see deeper and whose reach stretches farther.

The days and weeks and months pass and she plays often with civilian children and learns civilian secrets; plays occasionally with shinobi children and learn less than she wants but enough, and slowly the world around her expands and twists into the beginnings of an information network. She plays go with Shikamaru and asks about the deer; she eats lunch with Chouji and asks about food pills; she skips rope with Ju-chan of the Tachibana clan and talks merchant routes. All discreetly, and always with an hourglass in the back of her mind, the sand draining towards the bottom of the two cups as her time at the Academy draws to an end. Hinata is seven, and all her peers are several classes below her.

She passes by stands on the Konoha market and people wave to her not because she's the Hyuga heir, but because she's played with their children or the children of someone they know. People not only watch her like she's radiant, they watch her with honest smiles in their eyes. It's wonderful - it's novel - it's smothering.

The day she gains her headband is the day her father begins to speak to her like an adult. Triumph is a living thing inside her every time Hiashi looks at her and _sees_ her. Her mother watches with disapproving eyes, and Hinata doesn't care because Hanabi's birth didn't end Hisoka's life this time. Her mother loves her helplessly and wishes she could have been a child for longer, but she has Hanabi to dote on and Hinata hopes that is enough.

"You're like a little adult, Hina-chan," says Hisoka one day, stroking her hair. Her eyes are melancholy and the fingers that card through Hinata's hair are hesitant. Hinata smiles up at her, showing off the gap where her one of her front teeth used to be. Hisoka laughs. "Did it finally fall out, then?" she asks and Hinata nods.

It's a lie. Her first C-rank went the way of all C-ranks: south. A medic healed her cheekbone and jaw fracture, and had to pull the tooth out as an infection had begun to take root in her gums.

"Let's put it under your pillow for the toothfairy to find," Hisoka says, even though she knows it's too late to have Hinata believe in such a fairytale creature.

"I lost it," _somewhere far away from Leaf._ Hisoka's gaze grows sad and strangely heavy, and she presses a kiss to the crown of Hinata's head before going to find Hanabi. Hinata looks out at where they play in the yard, listens to her sister's shrieking happy laughter and rubs her thumb in the hole where her tooth used to be.

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><p><strong>AN:** And here is the first chapter. Present tense as her new life begins, because I think it works for this story. What do you think of Hinata and her plans? Of her relationship with Hiashi and Hisoka?

This was originally meant to be a one-shot, but once I started writing it wouldn't stop growing. I'm aiming for a ~10-shot or so, if there's enough interest in the story. The chapters will be shorter than what I usually write, just to give you heads up.

(Thanks goes to **Against-The-Current** for her thoughts and help!)


	3. Tangled

**A Life in the Sun**

_Chapter 2: Tangled_

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><p>Hinata looked at the present day miniature Naruto, at his bright grin in the face of disapproval and his perseverance in the face of his own incompetence. At the way he would brush himself off, stand chin-up when people sneered or laughed at him. And she thought that falling into old patterns wouldn't be too difficult, if she let herself. She could mold him into the ideal she'd once seen in him. There was enough time left in the Academy for her to start making friendly overtures and reinvent him.<p>

Hinata had considered it carefully, turned the thought over in her head. But no, she finally concluded, she's not quite that callous yet. And there is also her distinct lack of a need for an ideal, this time around. She has her strength, and she has Kiba.

So Naruto never becomes more than an acquaintance, though Hinata can't quite help herself from subtly pushing him and Sakura together. Sakura only has Ino and Naruto has nobody, and perhaps if she and Naruto grow loyal to each other, the pink-haired would-be medic will never fall for a man who would slash her throat. Perhaps Naruto will never give his loyalty away so completely that he'll be blinded to flaws that by all means should be deal-breakers in a friendship.

Hinata will never let herself fall into her past ways, she swears as she turns away from him, never admire someone her age like they're innately more than her. And she is too cautious to spend too much time with the same people, day in and day out. She can't risk them noticing her as more than a bright star. She plays _go_ with Shikamaru, looking straight into his considering eyes and countering his strategies with apparent ease. Shino had had dozen meticulous _kifus_ of their games transcribed, and so Hinata knows the Nara heir's playing style intimately. He is much more intelligent than she, but Hinata has force-fed herself knowledge since her rebirth and that gives her a durable advantage. For how long, she doesn't know, and feels the urgency beat like a ticking clock in her chest every time she manages to stay just one step ahead.

"You're interesting, Hinata," says Shikamaru one day, and there's something about the tone of his voice that makes Hinata wonder if he suspects something isn't right about her. Her mask is strong enough that she doesn't even bat an eye at the off-hand comment, but the words stay with her.

The feeling that certain people will be able to see through her like she's glass is both persistent and acute, and thus it's neither here nor there that she avoids both Kiba and Shino for the duration of her time at the Academy. It feels like a betrayal, but Hinata is woven too deeply in the web she's spun to go out of her way to acknowledge them when it will serve no purpose. She's going to protect those two, watch them grow into fine men and be their friend and more someday, but not right now. It's too early. (She's a _coward_. Some things don't change.)

Hinata left the Academy behind with acquaintances in every class, her unwitting informants, and having cultivated friendships between people who might never have looked at each other twice without her discreet nudging. She's pushed the children of clans loyal or in some way indebted to the Hyugas together with children of clans that she remembers opposed them in the past. All while making sure her friendship with all are stronger than their newfound ties to each other.

She visits the Academy as often as she can, sends letter after letter when she can't, and prunes and culls her spiderweb as its strands solidify. At least a handful of those strands are well and truly loyal to her, Hinata knows. She's going to turn them into gems, in time.

Hinata is almost nine when the team she's with is nominated for the chunin exam. Their teacher sends them off with an awkward smile. The woman has only been with them for a few months after their first jounin-sensei, a young Uchiha named Shisui, vanished overnight. Hinata feels a little sorry for her, because the two boys on her team have taken Shisui's disappearance hard and resisted his replacement's training at every turn. This with a grouchy passive-aggressiveness that required ungodly patience on their new jounin's part. Hinata imagines she isn't too unhappy about seeing them off.

A crow with one bright left eye watches Hinata and her much older teammates walk into the forest and Hinata, who sees more with this life's Byakugan than she ever did the last time, looks up at it. She knows the situation within the Uchiha clan is very soon to burst and plans to do nothing about it. She's taken care not to become friendly with any of their members, so that she won't feel like stopping Itachi when he comes roaring through his clan's compound. She's seen the ANBU captain pick up his brother from the Academy looking like he's in need of sick leave or perhaps a year's worth of sleep, and she's watched dispassionately as Sasuke's gone with him. It hadn't taken much out of her not to befriend that particular classmate, though she made sure to make her evasion look accidental. (Something she hadn't quite managed with her avoidance of Kiba, eager as he was to make new friends.)

Hinata is glad that the current chunin exam is not a complete copy of the one that Orochimaru interrupted so long ago. The forest is a lot more dangerous than it was back then, with poisonous rivers and exploding tags set in the ground, but at least she won't have to do show-off matches with the other chunin hopefuls.

It's a relief because she is distracted, which is both dangerous and rare in this life. This Hinata, the person she is today, is fully aware of where she's going and why and her focus is usually the edge of a very sharp kunai. But her reason for traveling back came by just before her team entered the forest, eyes shining with admiration and stumbling over his words as he wished her good luck. Hinata had smiled at him and thanked him and, incredibly, watched him blush. At her.

Hinata had tried to see the real Kiba, the future Kiba, _her_ Kiba, in that little boy and failed miserably.

Back when they were teammates, she'd admired his brashness and incredible loyalty. It had been the kind of loyalty that led him to expect the same level of faithfulness from others that he showed them, and to despise traitors. Hinata had approved of that way of thinking, when she finally let go of her bright-haired ideal. And she'd thought well of Kiba's abilities and his friendship, had found it easy to be kind and sweet to him. She'd fallen in love with him, in the end. He'd died, in the end. And she'd gone back for him, in the end.

…Hadn't she?

But then, why, as she watched him run off to his sister when he'd said his well-wishes, didn't her disappointment at the profound feeling of _unfamiliarity_ as he stood before her hurt more? She didn't particularly want anything to do with that boy, felt the same level of ease with him as she did around the other Academy children, if tempered by their shared history. But he wasn't difficult to look at. His bright child's eyes didn't cause ghosts of another time to ripple in front of her eyes. And that was not how it should be, was it?

In the Academy she'd avoided him like he was fire and she was dry wood, unable to keep herself from noticing him but making sure she was never close enough that he would latch onto her. She'd never looked at him like she just did. She'd never seen the absence of what made him her Kiba, not until this moment.

Hinata comes out of the forest with a single deep wound across her cheek and the realization that Kiba is probably exactly as he'd been at this age during her first life, and that she is the one who has changed. She isn't the person who saw herself reflected in Kiba's eyes and wide, fanged smile anymore. The present-day Hinata is the true heir of the Hyuga clan, one of the brightest shining stars of this generation. She's strong and intelligent, and she's a spider in the middle of a very large web. Being in love with Kiba doesn't fit in that web. She hasn't made room for it.

It shouldn't shake her so much, but perhaps because she'd assumed that he was the reason she'd grown strong in the first place - that he was her beacon as she threw herself into the murky waters of the past - it feels shallow to dismiss what she'd felt by acknowledging the lack of that feeling in the present. It would mean that she'd started over with false purpose, and after a new lifetime with the goal so clearly in sight, that's not an easy thing to accept. She should have realized, when she felt no need to befriend her teammate's child self with the justification that she was too busy setting the stage to ensure his future survival, that she'd gone back for more than just Kiba.

Perhaps he hadn't even been her primary reason for starting over. Perhaps… Hiashi's pride in her. The top spot in her Academy class and her mother alive. Her new strength. The exhilarating feeling of being the spider instead of the fruit fly. Being a person worthy of notice, impossible to dismiss. Thoughts of her worthlessness have never crossed her father's mind, this time around. (Hinata is sure of this, because she's looked at him closely after every mistake she's ever made in training. Expecting a veneer of icy disappointment to slip over his face as he turns away... the thought that he might look at her like that, _again_, put her heart in her throat every single time.)

Hinata breathes out slowly, and wonders if she isn't a lot more selfish than she's ever realized. Who had Kiba been to her, really? She'd been in love with him, she doesn't doubt that, but what had she intended when she came back here? Had she meant to seduce him? She, who would always be at least two times his age?

"Hinata-chan, you're really awesome!" he'd said, gap-toothed and lisping because of it. "Maybe we can play ninja and samurai sometime?" He had mud on his knees, snot under his nose and he wanted to play a child's game with her. Kiba was endearing and very young, and Hinata was not.

She could confess her true origins to him before she ever attempted anything more than friendship, but- Hinata thought of the man she'd loved post-mortem and of the way he'd never really learned to keep his mouth shut. Rather like Naruto in that respect. Then, reluctantly, she thought deeper of the fact that if she confessed the secret of her life, someone would know she hadn't always been _outstanding_. That she'd once been of no use to anyone, an unwanted and discarded child. The prospect was not appealing, and that this additional motive for keeping herself secret was entirely self-serving was even less so.

Was she even that same person who'd once fallen for her outspoken teammate? Hinata reminds herself that the core of her is still there, if sharpened and colder. Her father's approval is still a much wanted commodity. The idea of her own worthlessness still terrifies her. Her wish to grow stronger is more present than ever. Her ideals... _Oh._

Hinata wonders if in addition to her selfishness, she's not also more mentally weak than she'd assumed. Naruto had been an ideal, something to strive towards. And Kiba, he'd been a symbol. Of Sasuke's betrayal and her own failure and weakness, and the end of her feelings for Naruto. Her wish to be more than that, to take what she wanted and stand up for it. All of it, wrapped up in the idea of one person and what she could be with him.

In hindsight it was so obvious she could scream.

In the back of her mind, before her rebirth, Hinata had decided that her protection of Kiba would lead to a relationship somewhere down the line. Somehow. In retrospect, the idea of that perfect relationship had been something to strive towards, like with Naruto. Lacking strength of her own, she could cocoon herself in the strength of another and that would solve everything else.

Like the end goal of her life was to lay herself at Kiba's feet and love him. Just. Like. With. Naruto.

Hinata prods the slash in her cheek with a nail, and tampers down on the self-hatred that bubbles in her stomach as blood waterfalls down the side of her face. It won't do her any good. She's recognized this flaw now, and she'll carve it out just like she's done with every other useless part of herself.

(Every other _warm_ part of herself. Where is the Hinata that liked taking care of people?)

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><p><strong>AN:** And here's chapter 2. I've read every single one of your reviews several times- Thank you.

What do you think of Hinata's realization in this chapter? I'm very curious.


	4. Obstacle course

**A Life in the Sun**

_Chapter 3: Obstacle course_

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><p>A Branch medic heals the slice in her cheek and congratulates her on her promotion with a small, uncertain smile. Hinata makes sure to nod and thank him as he leaves her room. She does what little she can to minimize the Branch house's resentment towards her, because she's going to need their support when she takes over as Head of the Hyuga, She'll fulfill the promise Naruto made to Neji. Under her rule, no Hyuga will be a slave.<p>

Her father is in a meeting with the Hyuga Elders, so Hinata has some time to herself before he comes to offer his own carefully-restrained congratulations, which she knows he will. She seats herself in the windowsill of her room's largest window, and as she looks out at the well-manicured lawn outside, her thoughts return to Kiba. She's a chunin already, so she will never belong to genin team eight. There will be no bonding moments under Kurenai's watchful eyes for her. Kiba will never be her teammate. They're not going to share that connection.

And that's more alright with Hinata than it should be. He's a memory now, a warm one, like feeling the sun on her skin in spring. Today, he's just an eight-year-old boy. He will not grow into the man he was, because people are shaped by their experiences and their relationships with others. The present Kiba's life will not run along the same path as his previous one did, and he will not relate to her the way he once did. Because she is not the same.

It takes Hinata several minutes to process the fact that this hadn't occurred to her before now. She'd enjoyed the liar's games she played, her excellence and her father's approval, and none of it had had any noble motives attached. Some eventual future with Kiba hadn't had anything to do with her enjoyment of this life.

Her father opens the door a few minutes later, and Hinata tucks these thoughts away. She'll ponder them later, or she'll leave them alone.

"Hinata."

She nods respectfully, standing up to greet him. "Father." There is something pleased about his lips that is almost a smile and it makes Hinata want to grin like a wolf. She doesn't, of course. She looks into his eyes like it's something she's always been able to do and stands with her back straight and her hands loose. Perfect posture, perfect confidence.

Because she's so focused on her father's presence, it takes her second to notice that he's not alone. Her mother is behind him, smiling her gentle smile with eyes as sad as they are proud.

Hinata watches as her parents seat themselves on the polished wooden floor and copies them smoothly, like she knows what they intend with this. She rarely sees Hiashi and Hisoka together these days.

"Congratulations on your new rank are in order," Hiashi says and Hinata dips her head silently. "You have far exceeded my expectations for what you would be capable of at this age. You are a true daughter of this clan."

Hinata thanks him, making sure not to sound too humble as she does. She _is_ a true daughter of the Hyuga clan, an asset to its reputation. That thought lingers in her mind, that she is heavy enough of a bargaining chip to begin overtly influencing things, even as she listens to Hiashi. Her father spends a few minutes speaking of the clan's standing in the village and her own role in the clan, but uses words so vague that she cannot grasp their meaning. He's angling for something in particular with his talk, she recognizes that.

It takes her until he's winding down his speech to figure out what that something is. "... and so, while you are the heir, the line of succession will one day lie on your shoulders." He places a sheaf of papers in front of her, and Hinata feels the tips of her fingers go cold. She's turning nine in a few months, and hadn't expected this turn of events for several more years. But because she'd known it would come at some point, she manages to keep her face relaxed. Nodding a little, as Hiashi shows her potential suitors and her mother looks on with eyes that aren't completely approving, Hinata realizes just how much of a name she's made for herself. The images of several heirs of the deeply influential civilian clans look up at her from the papers, but so does Shikamaru's picture, as well as Shino's. The relatively young head of the second largest Akimichi branch is there. The heirs to a handful of powerful but smaller and less known shinobi clans are there too.

And Hinata knows that these are people her father wants her to consider, which means that the selection was much larger originally. More people than the ones presented to her, maybe even a lot more, wanted to court her. She'd made herself that wanted, that useful-seeming. To that many people.

"I'll consider it, Father." It's a rush in her blood, a swell in her chest. (Look at how much she matters.)

"You needn't rush at all, Hinata-chan," says her mother, turning to look steadily into Hiashi's eyes when he frowns a little at her interjection. This was something they'd discussed, then. Something her mother hadn't quite agreed with. Hisoka's gaze returns to Hinata.

"An engagement, _should you desire it_, would not come into effect until you are fourteen at the earliest." Her slim fingers rest on Hiashi's wrist and Hinata knows it's a restraint. Her father has so much sway and power to his name and position that Hinata on occasion forgets that the reason they were married was because Hisoka herself had been respected enough to be considered, and later selected, for the position of the Head's wife.

"How long would the engagement last?" Hinata asks, because she has too many plans to be caught up in some drawn-out romance. She'll stall the engagement until she is in need of a spouse to further her goals for the clan and for herself, and by the time she chooses someone, she'll know everything she needs to play out the engagement in a suitable way.

Hisoka smiles faintly. "Three years is the most common time frame, though it's been known to shorten or lengthen as the couple's relationship requires, or at their request."

"And how long do I have until I have to choose a suitor?" Hinata's thoughts spin, crossing out names and considering others. A spouse she can control? A spouse who agrees with her goals? Someone respectable, someone desperate? Someone easy to eliminate, should it become necessary? Someone below her in stature would only ever be her consort; someone equal to her, a fellow clan heir, would have weight of his own to throw around.

"Until the year you turn fourteen." Her mother looks at her in that penetrative, understanding way of hers. Something in Hinata relaxes, knowing that she has several years to spin this into something fortunate. She doubts her father agrees with her waiting that long, but as he doesn't protest, he and Hisoka must have come to an agreement.

"I'll take some time to consider it." She reaches for the documents, bowing to her parents in a smooth move as she does.

"Take as much time as you need," her mother says, rising to her feet. Hiashi remains seated, and they exchange a look before Hisoka glides out the door. Hinata hears her sister greet her mother joyously, and keeps her small smile to herself. Those two are so close in this life, and it has made Hanabi much less cold than Hinata remembers her being.

"Hinata," Hiashi says, calling her wandering attention to him immediately. "There is one other issue we must discuss."

Hinata straightens and lets her face grow serious. "Yes, Father?"

Hiashi frowns for a moment, thoughtful. "Traditionally, the heir of a clan is not officially acknowledged and announced until they reach the rank of jounin." He stops there, and Hinata tries to put that one sentence into context.

She hazards a guess. "...You wish for me to make jounin as quickly as possible?" It's unusually uncompromising even for her father. She's only just made chunin.

Hiashi smile's that tight, formal smile that is the only such expression he seems to know. "No. You have done very well to become a chunin at your age." He slides his right hand into his left sleeve and pulls out a small black scroll. The way he places it on the table tells Hinata that there's something both distasteful and desirable about that scroll. "This is for you."

Hinata opens it, taking care not to rip the thin paper, and flicks her eye across the first line of text. 'ON MEMBERSHIP IN ANSATSU SENJUTSU TOKUSHU BUTAI' it reads in large, block-like kanji. Hinata reads that line again, and then rolls up the paper. Hiashi is looking at her steadily, and Hinata meets his pale eyes as decisively as she can. She's about to make an implicit demand.

"No."

Hiashi nods, places the scroll back in his sleeve, and that is apparently that. Is he disappointed? Hinata can't tell, and she doesn't want to look to deeply into his expression for fear she'll find something there that will make her abandon her carefully laid-out plans, just to please him. She doesn't want to live like that.

"All ANBU have jounin-level clearance and pay," Hiashi says after a moment. "Even if they are below that rank when unmasked, as ANBU operatives, they are effectively considered jounin in everything but perhaps raw skill. It would permit for your early acknowledgement as the heir."

"You could order me," says Hinata neutrally. Itachi joined ANBU at a very young age, and that came with a high level of prestige. She is even younger, and so the prestige would double in her case. As would the general concern that she's being driven too hard. That certain clans look upon their members as less than well-maintained weapons and more like pages in their own history books. That line of criticism is not unfounded.

"And you would obey." Hiashi tilts his head, his long hair falling over his right shoulder. He looks thoughtful. "If I thought the potential favorable consequences outweighed the danger to your person, I would have considered doing just that."

Did he just admit to caring about her for her own sake? Hinata isn't sure that's what he means, and she doesn't want to hope. She nods instead, like it's a purely a logical decision on his part. For all she knows, that's exactly what it is.

"I am considering apprenticing you to a jounin master," he continues, then raises a brow in a way that means he would like to hear her thoughts on that idea. It's the only way he ever inquires about her opinion.

"That could work," says Hinata noncommittally, flipping through the mental roster of jounin she's known personally or by reputation in both her lives. Some would be in the way of her plans, some would further them. And she doesn't have quite enough information to say for sure which jounin would do what.

Hiashi nods, beginning to rise. She bows to him just before he turns to leave, and over his shoulder Hiashi adds dispassionately, "I want you to consider Hatake Kakashi for that role." Then he steps out of the room, leaving a Branch servant to close the door behind him.

Hinata is glad her father doesn't look back at her, because she doubts she's quick enough to hide her expression at that name. Hatake Kakashi. The genius. Team 7's teacher. _Naruto's_ teacher. That would change the course of a lot of things, Hinata thinks, resisting the urge to bite her lip. If Hiashi is telling her to consider that particular jounin, that means he already has some idea about how to go about acquiring Kakashi for it. Maybe he's even set something up to test the waters.

This is bad, for several reasons. The timeline, because it needs to stay relatively intact if she's to predict coming events. The fact that Kakashi is reputed to be a true genius in every sense of the word, unlike her. The knowledge that she, as his apprentice, would be tied to him for years to come, probably at the expense of her carrying out some of the more complex plans she has been developing.

A voice in the back of her mind adds: _And if I had a list of the people most likely to see through me, his name would be at the top._

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><p><strong>AN:** It's been a little while since I uploaded something for this story, so here you go! Feel free to offer your thoughts on this chapter, they're always appreciated.


	5. Old Friends

**A Life in the Sun**

_Chapter 4: Old Friends_

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><p>The day she meets Kakashi coincides with the fall of the Uchiha. Hinata hadn't quite forgotten what Itachi was about to do, but as she'd cared so little and been so busy, she hadn't been able to keep track of the date. And now, as ANBU gather in a spiral perimeter around the Uchiha compound, she can't remember if this was the original date of Itachi's betrayal of his family.<p>

Had she ever known the exact date?

Hinata looks up where she stands hand in hand with Hanabi under the orange-red sky of a summer evening, and catches sight of a head of grey hair on a rooftop. He's directing other shinobi and they follow him like he's their temporary Hokage. Hinata has learned to recognize the body language of respect, and she sees it directed his way.

He jumps down, lands lightly on the road ahead of them. "You should head back home."

It's not an order, and his visible eye is lazy, but there is something sharp in there that makes Hinata nod and turn. She gives a brief thought to Sasuke, looks down at Hanabi and wonders if she truly cares so little. Sasuke will turn into an avenger, a madman and a monster. This is how it starts. She could have stopped it, but actively chose not to.

Is that because she doesn't care? Or because she cares so much about being allowed to exact her revenge on the man who ruined both the symbols of idealism and goodness she'd taken into her heart?

Maybe she too is nothing but an avenger. Hinata smiles wanly down at Hanabi, meets her worried mother at the door, and decides that regardless of her reasons, whatever happens could never be worse than what was.

"Something bad happened, didn't it?" says Hanabi, looking from Hiashi to Hisoka with a worried little frown. They're in the kitchen, the lamp overhead giving everything a warm, inviting glow. Hanabi has a small bowl of berries in front of her, her favorite, but eats them with much less enthusiasm than she usually does.

"Don't worry about it, sweetie." Hisoka's voice is warm and slow like melting sugar. "It's nothing that will affect you."

"Oh." Hanabi brightens a little, and truly she is a child in thought and expression. At this early age the last time around, she'd been like a thorny rose. So smart and cynical. Pretty to look at but too sharp to touch. "Can Hinata come and play with me in my room?"

"No," says Hiashi, stern-faced and looking oddly harried. Hinata watches him from the corner of her eye, tries to read his thoughts in the lines of his face. "She has something to attend to."

Hanabi is shooed out and Hisoka shoots her husband an ugly frown, striding out of the kitchen after her youngest daughter like an angry, slighted queen.

"What is it, father? What has happened?" asks Hinata like she doesn't already know. Sasuke, all alone. Vulnerable. Depressed. Ripe for the taking, really, if one was the sort of person to think in such ways.

"The Uchiha clan has perished." Hiashi sits down opposite her, and Hinata takes a second too long to fake the appropriate expression of surprise. Hiashi raises a brow in her direction, sits back and waits for her to speak.

"I had a feeling something was wrong with the Uchiha. Everyone has known that for a while now, haven't they?" It's not an accusation, not exactly, but it is a slight suggestion of negligence. _You all knew, and you did nothing. It's on your heads too._

Hiashi breathes out, slowly, eyes on her. "You've noticed as much. I should not be surprised." He pauses for a moment, and Hinata pours him a cup of tea while she waits for him to gather his thoughts.

"Before this end to the clan of Uchiha, the matriarch Mikoto-san came to see me."

Hinata has no problem with adopting a surprised look this time. She had not known that. "Why, Father?"

"An offer of alliance."

This is unprecedented. Hinata isn't just surprised, she is so shocked she feels as though the world is tilting underneath her. The feud between the Uchiha and the Hyuga is legendary, even outside of Konoha. That the matriarch, the wife of the clan head, would offer an alliance...

"Why?"

She sees something shift in her father's eyes, a quick slippery movement in his gaze, and she is on her guard immediately. This is not the first time her father has lied to her, straight to her face, and it will not be the last. But oddly enough, that makes some things easier. It makes a certain distance, a certain disregard for some of the Hyuga regulations, come to her with less resistance.

"I imagine she wants a strong wife for her second-born. He is not on his brother's level."

The Uchiha would never give Sasuke to someone they thought capable of controlling and directing him. Hinata doesn't say as much. She shares a small smile with her father, and wonders behind her armored expression exactly what kind of game this is. It's clear her father wants the Sharingan- as any other clan would. He'd go to great lengths to ensure that no other clan gains those eyes, she's sure. But would he force the issue?

"Uchiha-san wished for Sasuke-san to marry into our clan?" The barest hint of disbelief is woven into the question. He'd never believe she'd accept such an extraordinary claim immediately.

"I doubt that. But I believe she wished for an end to the animosity between us, at least." Hiashi tilts his head thoughtfully. Hinata doesn't know if his expression is sincere or an affectation for her benefit and she remains wary. "I believe Mikoto-san may have wanted protection for her son. That she was aware of the trouble brewing in her clan. That she knew where it was heading."

It doesn't sound like a lie, but that doesn't mean it's the truth. Truth and lies come in varying shades and hues. Hinata nods, not in agreement, but in acknowledgment. "I will consider it, although I'm not sure what the council would say to the last Uchiha being given to the Hyuga." It would reek of favoritism, and the Hyuga with their wonderful, wonderful eyes are already doted upon as it is.

Hiashi shrugs elegantly. "The council can be persuaded, I'm sure."

Bribes and veiled threats, Hinata thinks but doesn't say out loud. She hasn't been dismissed yet, and so she waits in silence for her father to continue. For once, his attention is not so eagerly welcomed. Hinata has other things she could be doing. Planning. Weaving her web of information.

"Have you considered the matter of your teacher?" Hiashi says finally into the silence.

Hinata shifts, nodding. Kakashi has a Sharingan, she has thought in the back of her mind, and Uchiha Madara is out there. So is Uchiha Obito. And they are both insane, and they are both brilliant, and they are both coming for the village one day. With their eyes swirling Mangekyo-red and Rinnegan-lilac, a birthright so powerful Byakugan could not compare. Hinata has thought all this, all throughout her rebirth, but she never considered Kakashi an option until Hiashi made him one.

"I have, Father." Hinata pauses for a moment, wondering if she is overestimating her reach, if she's seeing opportunities where she ought to see obstacles. "I'm not sure if he'd be the right choice. He has ties to the Uchiha clan and does not appear to respect our clan very much." She doesn't care if he respects the clan or not, of course, but it makes Hiashi's nostrils flare and she needs for him to agree with her and limit his own belief in Kakashi's suitability.

"He is a strong shinobi with a good reputation. Associating with him would further your carrier as a shinobi."

"He is an excellent shinobi with a Sharingan eye and a very large debt to an old friend." Hiashi looks briefly surprised at her knowledge, but then does what he usually does when she lets some knowledge she shouldn't have slip: he acknowledges her with a nod.

"You could associate for the duration of a mission," her father continues, and it is just what Hinata has hoped for. She hides a pleased smile and pretends to consider it carefully before agreeing. She can judge his worth to her plans in this way- at least so she hopes.

She is dismissed, and decides to take a walk through the village. She has friends in every corner of Konoha, and there are a few she would like to see right now.

There is an alley she likes to visit, down in the Whores' Quarter. A man there she goes to see sometimes when she feels like she may be out of her depth. Hinata walks through the streets with a gentle smile on her face, greeting people as she goes and sharing a word with one or two before she moves along. The people here see and hear things that many others don't, and some of them are good friends to have.

Kakashi is dangerous, and very intelligent. But Hinata has ruined men in higher political positions than he. She can't be allowed to doubt herself to the point where she hesitates to claim something that is within her reach. That way lays weakness.

The Whores' Quarter is in one of the poorest districts in Konoha, nothing like the Escorts' Corner in the Aspen district down by the river. In that corner, clean and beautiful men and women of the high-class bordellos lean off the balconies and beckon customers up to their rooms. Compared to the filth in the Whores' Quarters, it's like a different realm. A dream realm.

But Hinata is a realist and prefers the waking world. She passes by a dozen prostitutes, all squirming at her and showing themselves off without regard for her very young age. Most are missing teeth. Some have strange, dark spots on their skin. All look sickly in one way or other.

Hinata stalks past them, nodding to a few acquaintances among them, but never stopping. It takes her a while to find him. He looks almost the same as all the others. In a corner, a beggar is slumped, a paper cup in front of his stretched legs. He has no tongue and no eyes, and Hinata is the cause of that.

Once upon a time, in another place, another world, this man had been a delegate from Kumo. Sent to Konoha to negotiate some treaty or other, if Hinata recalls correctly. In that other world, he had attempted to do something he shouldn't have and ended up dead at her father's feet because of it. In that other world, he had left permanent emotional scars in a little girl.

In this world, certain tendons in his legs and arms have been severed. And his tenketsu are a mess, like someone has set off explosives in every one of them. He looks tragic, truly.

Hinata isn't here to gloat. Looking at him, sickly and blind and far from home, brings her little pleasure. At least it doesn't, these days. She is here to remember how far she is able to go, how good she is at playing these games, even with the well-connected and powerful. How daring she can be, even in the face of greatness and great changes. (Hizashi and Neji live in a small house on the edges of the Hyuga compound. Hinata doesn't see them often, but they've smiled at her the few times their paths have crossed.)

She's irrevocably changed the timeline before, and she's done so without hesitation. What does it matter if she steals away her idiot first crush's teacher? It's not like Kakashi has done a particularly good job keeping his team psychopath-less. There shouldn't be anything stopping her here. (Why does she still feel, sometimes, like Naruto is important to the world? Like a special light shines on him?)

"Hello, stranger," she says and puts a few coins in his cup. He thanks her wordlessly and slumps back. It might be kinder to kill him at this point, but Hinata walks away. That thought always comes to her when she visits, and she's yet to go through with it. Maybe it's sadism. Or maybe remembrance. She feverishly hopes it's the latter.

Hinata climbs the stairs to one of the houses and greets the man in the doorway. He has an elbow crease full of needle-holes but a genuine smile, and was a shinobi once upon a time. That's true for many people in this neighborhood. _Addiction is your enemy's best friend_, they teach in the Academy. It's that common, though not all sink to this level.

In one room, a completely naked man is playing cards with a woman dressed only in a gauzy shawl. "Long time no see," says Hinata and closes the door behind her.

"Hinata-chan!" says the man with a wide smile. His teeth are clean, and his skin glows with health. He looks out of place in this run-down room, like a flower in the middle of a desert. "Come to have a taste, finally?" he says, smirking at her.

"You ask me that every time and the answer will always be 'no'," Hinata says dryly. She hasn't entered puberty yet, and sex is several years away for her. And even if she were older, she doesn't trust that this man doesn't have an STD or two to share. Or perhaps a nip of poison, slid gently into her neck via a hidden syringe. "I need advice," she says instead.

"Boring," says the woman and looks up with red spinning eyes. This was how she knew of the deep unrest and friction within the Uchiha clan: a bastard child in Konoha. Only an Uchiha without loyalty to the clan would let that happen. It is the final, worst kind of betrayal for a clan with dojutsu. It is the selling of their core, for lack of a better term. "You're always so serious, Hinata. And your eyes are too old for your face."

Naoko rolls her shoulders and dips back into bed, sprawling indolently over the covers. Hinata doesn't like her much, because something about Naoko makes Hinata believe that the woman sees something in her that shouldn't be there. The occasional comment about how mature Hinata seems makes her stomach twist.

"So what do you need?" the man asks, putting his card in a neat pile in front of himself.

Taking a moment to consider how to phrase what she's about to ask in a favorable way, Hinata tells him.

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><p><strong>AN:** It's been a while, but here you (finally) go. Thank you for your patience, and your reviews!

What do you think of the kind of person Hinata is becoming? And about the character interactions here? And about Mikoto's supposed offer of alliance? I'm ever-curious, you know.

Thanks to** Against-The-Current** for her help!


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