Fifty Shades of Gennin

"All that I'm saying is, I think you might be jumping to conclusions."

Hinata blinked and yawned. Her fingers fumbled with the zipper of the dress she was putting on, slipping twice before managing to pull it up.

If her father were around to witness that particular display from a Hyuuga, not even Hinata knew what he would've done. Branded her with a second seal, probably, just out of principle.

"I know that you don't like him. But have the two of you ever actually had a proper conversation? With your clan's record, I think it could've been worse. At least he's your age and— are you listening?

Hinata nodded sleepily as she checked herself in her full-body mirror. "Mhm."

Kurenai Yuhi crossed her arms. Hinata's Jounin Sensei had long since become something much greater than that in the girl's life. Before they were Gennin and teacher, the red-eyed woman was her tutor and glorified babysitter. When Hinata lost the favor of the main house, the woman stepped into the role of parent, too. It wasn't like she had much competition. Hinata's biological mother passed away when she was small, and her father somehow managed to be the more distant of the two.

"You stayed out too late last night!" Kurenai scolded. "You knew how important today was going to be. What will you do if this dinner is ruined because you can't keep your eyes open?"

"Maybe the marriage will collapse?" Hinata asked hopefully.

Kurenai raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

"And what would your father do after that?"

"He'd be very disappointed in me," Hinata said, before muttering, "Nothing new there."

"He'd be enraged," Kurenai corrected her. "In the Hyuuga sense of the word. Which means he'd get cold, and mean, and probably activate your seal before he could think better of it."

Hinata winced. She quickly smoothed the wrinkles in her dress— an elegant piece the same color as her eyes. She pulled on a simple dark jacket over the top of it, leaving the jacket unzipped, and hurriedly turned to Kurenai.

"How does it look?" she asked.

"Amazing. As always." The woman reached out, thumping Hinata's forehead protector twice with her finger. "Now you just have to wake up and you'll do great."

"Talking about the seal did a pretty good job of that already," Hinata said quietly.

Kurenai stopped. She dropped her hand slowly.

"Sorry."

"It's alright," Hinata said. "I should be used to it by now."

Which didn't change the fact that she wasn't.

Pushing past the awkward moment, Kurenai quickly helped Hinata gather the few things she might need into a leather purse before setting out for the edge of the compound. Kurenai came too, walking Hinata to the gates.

"I just think you're being too harsh on him," Kurenai said as they skirted the edge of one of the Hyuuga's intricate zen gardens.

"Do we have to talk about this again?" Hinata asked.

"You didn't actually answer me before."

"Because I don't agree with you," Hinata said. "He's arrogant, brash, irritating—" A servant walked past going the opposite direction, and she caught her rising volume just in time. "I may not be the best judge of people, but I don't need to be to understand him."

"Just… Give him a chance, would you?" Kurenai asked.

"I can do that," Hinata said. "I don't have a choice after all, do I?"

Kurenai frowned, but she didn't disagree. The main gate came into view not far ahead of them.

"How is Mirai?" Hinata asked, redirecting the conversation.

"Good!" Kurenai smiled. "It hasn't always been easy… you know, without Asuma. But I feel like things have been going really well recently. Did you know she starts at the academy next year?"

A genuine smile worked onto Hinata's lips. "Already?"

"Exactly! How does it all happen so fast?"

They reached the gate and stepped through. Hinata would have loved for that to be the send-off for what she was about to undertake. It would've set a good tone for what was sure to be a bad night.

Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be. Someone was waiting on the road.

Hinata brought her knuckles together and bowed her head. "Good evening, Sister."

The girl standing there was beautiful like a willow tree. Her orange robes and long brown hair swayed in the negibible wind. She stood with a straight back, her delicate hands hanging loosely at her sides, without a single readable emotion leaking into her pale pupilless eyes. Hanabi Hyuuga really was the ultimate heiress to their clan.

It was like looking into a mirror of everything Hinata wasn't.

"The dinner?" Hanabi asked, eyes sliding coolly over Hinata's dress.

"Yes. It's tonight."

"I'm aware." Hanabi crossed her arms. "This is crucial for the Hyuuga. There can't be any mistakes, even from you."

"The clan is always my greatest worry," Hinata told her truthfully.

There was a moment of silence as Hinata maintained her half-bow and Hanabi stood there, watching her. Finally, the heiress swept past.

"Good. Keep it that way."

Even after the gates shut behind her, Kurenai stared in the direction Hanabi had left.

"She didn't used to be this bad," said the woman.

"She wasn't this bad when I saw her last week." Hinata shrugged. "I don't pry. If anyone would know the pressures someone in her position is under…"

Kurenai sighed. "She wanted it."

"Exactly. So I'm fine leaving it all to her." Hinata glanced away, noting how low the sun was getting, and cursed internally. "I'm going to be late!"

Kurenai pushed her playfully.

"Go get him!" the woman said, waving goodbye.

Hinata hurried down the dusty path.

"I'd rather not," she muttered.

Unfortunately, as always, it just wasn't up to her.

O-o-O

Diiing-Dong!

Hinata heard steps on the other side of the door — which was bright orange, for some reason — and a moment later found herself facing a full set of smiling teeth.

"Hi!" greeted the woman that opened the door. "You must be Hinata!"

She was very pretty with a full head of fiery red hair. There was a ladle in her left hand, and she wore a long green apron over her clothes. Hinata recognized the woman right away, but she couldn't shake a sense of surprise at the outfit.

Kushina Uzumaki, one of the last of her distinctive clan and the Hokage's wife, had been among the village's most powerful ninja at one time. Even now, years after a problem with her chakra system forced her into early retirement, her name was still well known within the right circles.

That wasn't what surprised Hinata. She just hadn't been expecting the Hokage's wife to be handling the cooking herself. Didn't they have servants for that?

"I am," Hinata greeted her. "It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Namikaze."

"Just Kushina, please," said the woman. She stepped sideways, inviting Hinata in. "Come on! Minato's already at the table."

Nothing about the Hokage's home was what Hinata expected— location at the village's outer edges, its size (only marginally larger than the average family home), the humble decor, everything. She hadn't seen even a single zen garden!

"You're so pretty!" Kushina suddenly exclaimed as she led Hinata through the home. 

Hinata tore her eyes away from a family photo framed on the wall, one with a small Naruto Namikaze holding bunny ears behind the heads of his 'unaware' parents. "Thank you?"

Kushina nodded enthusiastically. "I love dresses like that! C'mon, it's just through here!"

She walked through a door at the end of the hallway, a bewildered Hinata trailing after her.

This was supposed to be a formal dinner, was it not? They were hammering out the details of a betrothal agreement. Kami, it was even the first time both parties were formally meeting each other!

So why was Kushina being so relaxed, energetic, and natural? 

At least the Hokage would be—

Hinata walked into the dining room and froze. Minato Namikaze, the Yellow Flash, Iwa's Devil and the illustrious fourth Hokage, waved at Hinata while poking the cheek of his son, who was currently laying face down in a plate of rice.

"Motherfucker!" Kushina cursed. "Minato, I told you to get him up!"

Minato held his hands up to show his innocence, looking at his wife for all the world like a citizen cornered by an Uchiha police squad.

"I tried!" whined — yes, Hinata couldn't believe it either, but whined — the Fourth Hokage. "You know how he is, though. You and Iruka are the only ones that can wake him up. Besides, he has seals in his lap."

As Minato talked, Kushina had marched up behind her son and raised her fist to bring it down on the back of his neck, but at the word "seals" she turned pale and froze.

"What kind?" she asked.

"The super dangerous kind," Minato said seriously. He made two fists and then brought them apart while stretching his fingers, mimicking a blast. "Big explosions. Apparently."

Kushina got down on her knees, and a moment later her husband did the same. They knelt on either side of their son, leaning in to peer at something in his lap. The entire time Hinata stood at the threshold wondering what exactly was happening in front of her.

Had they all agreed to put on a chaotic act like this? Was it a negotiation ploy to convince her they were insane, so the Hyuuga would ask for less compensation in the deal?

"I don't recognize these ones on my side," Minato admitted.

"Those are storage seals," Kushina said, glancing over. "They've just been mixed with… something else."

"That's why I said I didn't know," Minato said. "If a storage seal is mixed with something else, that's not a storage seal anymore."

"What are you doing?" Hinata finally asked.

Kushina didn't look away as she said, "Disarming the possible bomb my idiot son has come to the dinner table with. If it is a bomb, that is. And, y'know, if it can be disarmed."

Hinata jolted. On reflex she activated her Byakugan, granting her a view of the whole room, including what was underneath the table.

She naturally focused on something in Naruto's lap. A sheaf of circular paper about the size of a dinner plate glowed with the brightness of a fluorescent bulb under her advanced sight. A labyrinthine network of chakra-imbued ink crisscrossed its surface. To Hinata it looked like nothing more than scribble, but she still took an unconscious step back.

She'd seen the seals Tenten used to fire her weapons around, a tool considered advanced by most Shinobi. Whatever that was Naruto had fallen asleep fiddling with, it was at least four times more complicated.

Still, Hinata had something she couldn't help but ask.

"Aren't the two of you some of the highest Fuinjutsu masters in the village?"

The Hokage's trademark technique was a seal that no ninja had been able to replicate since, while his wife was the last of a clan specifically famed for sealing ability.

This time, both Minato and Kushina looked at her, putting a pause on their muttered deliberations.

"Some of? Yeah, definitely," Kushina said. "There's only one person better than us."

"Unfortunately, he's asleep with his face in a plate of rice," Minato said.

"He's… better that you?" Hinata asked, disbelief flooded her voice.

"At seals he is." Kushina shook her head. "You have no idea how obsessed this idiot is. I'm not sure he's learned a ninjutsu since the academy taught him the Basic 3."

"Our son has always had a pretty one-track mind," Minato explained. "He gets it from—" he caught the glare his wife was sending his way and coughed. "I mean, we don't know where he got it from, but it's how he's always been. Combine that with a pretty good personal reason to want to understand seals, and he committed the last fifteen years to doing just that. He was a genius with them from the start, too. It was just in his blood."

"I've got it!" Kushina suddenly yelled.

She shoved a hand into her apron and pulled out a brush and a container of ink. That those things were on hand so easily made Hinata wonder just how many times this had happened in the past.

"I found the anti-tampering mechanism!" she said, dipping the brush and carefully beginning to apply specific strokes. "If I add this… and this… Then we can get this thing away and smack him— I mean, wake him up safely!"

She completed her work with a flourish, placing her hands on her hips and raising her chin proudly. Naruto mumbled something in his sleep. Everything seemed fine…

Except to Hinata, whose Byakuga was still active.

"Look out!"

Her warning was shouted too late. The chakra in the seal array rapidly climbed to blinding levels after Kushina's addition. At the last second Hinata hurled herself to the floor.

BOOM!

By the time Hinata slowly staggered back to her feet, the room looked very different.

The nice wooden table had been singed black with smoldering patches around the edges. Plates of rice, noodles, dumplings and more that Kushina had filled the space with were nothing more than charred husks. Naruto himself was sitting up, blinking sooty eyelids as he stared uncomprehendingly at his surroundings.

"Failsafe?" Minato asked.

"Failsafe," Kushina growled miserably.

"What happened?" Naruto asked. He yawned, revealing pearly teeth that couldn't have been a bigger contrast to his darkened skin.

Kushina smacked the back of his head. "Idiot! Look what you did?"

Naruto looked around them, taking in the ruined dining room. They paused briefly on Hinata, the only one to escape the blast unscathed, before returning to his mom.

"I told you it was dangerous work, didn't I?"

"Then you went to sleep working on it!"

As Naruto covered his head, attempting to fend off a barrage of further smacks, Minato rose to his feet with a resigned smile.

"What was that array supposed to do?" he asked.

Naruto blinked, peering at him from under the onslaught. "It was a storage seal!"

Minato blinked. "That explodes?"

"Exactly!" Naruto beamed. "Everything's better if it can explode!"

"Even my dinner, huh?" Kushina got a good one under his loosening guard. She rested her hands on her hips. "You ruined a special occasion!"

Naruto rubbed his face. "Technically, I didn't do—"

Whatever expression his mother wore made him think better of what he was about to say.

"Sorry," he said, hanging his head.

"Better." Kushina crossed her arms— apparently doing her best to strike every frustrated posture known to man one after another. She looked at the table, arrayed with ruined food, and let out a long sigh stuffed with irritation.

There was a moment of silence, broken only when Minato said, "Ichiraku's?"

Naruto and Kushina traded looks. "Need you ask?" they said at the same time, looking back at the Hokage.

"Naruto's treat," Kushina added a moment later.

"Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine," Naruto said, holding the word far longer than was cute as he pushed his chair back and stood. As soon as he moved it, the chair's legs cracked and collapsed into a pile of burnt wood. Naruto looked at it and blinked, before turning back to the family. "I just need to get my wallet—"

"I can get it," Hinata said.

They all stopped and looked at her. She felt the blush starting right away. Offering hadn't been a conscious decision— it didn't even make any sense to send her.

Errands were just too ingrained in her by now, so much so that she offered on reflex.

"You don't have to," Minato said.

"It's no trouble," Hinata said, deciding that doubling down was the marginally less embarrassing option now. "Besides, someone will have to clean up here."

Some of those smoldering sections were threatening to light the table into a real fire.

"Good point." Kushina tapped her foot rhythmically on the floor. "Get moving, kid."

With a whimper, Naruto pulled more seals of all things out of his pockets. He channeled chakra into them and started vacuuming up flames and dust into the paper strips.

Minato approached Hinata.

"His room is the last door on the left, just up the stairs," he said quietly. "I could do it if you want, you know. You're our guest here."

"It's fine!" Hinata said, backpedaling out of the room. "Really, it's quite fine."

Even a mediocre ninja like her knew better than to let the Hokage run an errand in her place. Any embarrassment was better than that.

She quickly found the stairs and climbed them, noting the decor. This family had an affinity for photographs. The walls were decorated with everything from an official scene of Minato shaking hands with the Kazekage to a photo of Naruto pulling a goofy face in his sleep. There were so many that Hinata almost felt like a Yamanaka sifting through someone's memories. There was only a single uniting theme: every piece of art was personal. At least one of the Hokage's family stood or sat or ran in every photograph.

She quickly found the correct door, even discovering it cracked open, and pushed her way inside.

Naruto Namikaze's room was just as bright as she would've expected. The walls were orange — who did that? — while three separate desks were piled high with precarious stacks of papers, many of which had already fallen and splattered across the floor. Hinata gave them a wide berth and reactivated her Byakugan, just in case, the display earlier still fresh in her mind. 

Sure enough, every single one of those papers had their own seals. Most seemed harmless, or were packed with so little chakra that whatever effects they held couldn't have hurt a mouse, but Hinata still treaded carefully.

Naruto's toad-themed wallet rested on the corner of his bed. Hinata navigated quickly to it and lifted the leather object. When no chain reactions were set off, she allowed herself a brief sigh. 

She was halfway back out of the room when she noticed it.

At first it caught her eye because it was a book. That may not sound shocking, but this was Naruto Namikaze they were talking about. That boy did not read. Some might have said Hinata was leaning into a biased assumption right there, but the evidence was on her side: this was the only book anywhere in the room.

And it wasn't even really a book.

The 'book' was sitting on one of the desks, balancing precariously atop a mound of paper so high that it was a miracle it hadn't fallen yet. Hinata's Byakugan let her look straight through the cover, sifting through pages from halfway across the room.

Unintelligible chains of seals were worked into the paper of every page until about three-quarters of the way through the book, when the pages turned blank. There was only one thing Hinata understood. At the top of every page, written in regular kanji but imbued with its own share of chakra, were names.

Many appeared multiple times. Some showed up on ten or more pages. Hinata shifted through it, recognizing more than she expected. From classmates met during her time in the academy, to older ninja she worked with on missions. Each name was female, but she wasn't sure all of them were ninja.

Just as Hinata was about to shrug it off and return, something caught her attention and froze her in her tracks.

There, at the top of one page around the middle, was a specific name: Kurenai Yuhi.

Even though she knew better, Hinata approached the book. It was right there. She could see the page it needed to be turned to. One second was all it would take, even with whatever that invention was supposed to be.

It wasn't smart, but she had to know. Was whatever this was the reason her adoptive mother had been so adamant that she should reserve judgment on the Namikaze?

Hinata jogged over and flipped the book open. She stood there, staring down at what seemed to be a wall of inert scribbles. Nothing else happened.

Then the door slammed shut behind her. She spun in time to hear it click, locking her in—

The floor glowed.