79 Arc 4: Perfect Timing

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Mr Kishimoto Does.



Arc 4: Perfect Timing

The later hours of the afternoon was greeted by a very cold weather. As the sun began to set to make way for the night, A certain Hyuga found himself at the compound gardens, all alone with only his hot cup of ea beside him. Apparently, He had taken up the little time to take a rest before proceeding to the kitchen help his cousin prepare for dinner.

The past few days were quite eventful or should he say busy for him. He didn't expected that activities would go on number of transitions. There were times that he would found himself occupied with team related doings, of course he wouldn't go for the details regarding those hellish trainings, he would simply call it as the Might Guy special trainings, where you could lose most of your body weight in a single day.

He took a glance of his wrist watch to check the time." Looks like I still have 25 minutes." He thought to himself, once again taking another sip of his tea.

He considered this time as a means to clear his head from any unnecessary distractions or an overload of thoughts. Every time, stress would clinged up to him, this was his solution to it. It's not that kind of an old school way but it really works if one should try it.

Though, the difference this time is the unusual feeling of concern. He had no idea on what had caused him to be worried like this. The whole day, he was on training and spending time with Himawari and Hanabi, and there was not even any sign of trouble. It felt like that certain day was really meant for them reconnect again, yet here he was in a very bothered state.

Eventually, his thoughts focused more on his niece, nowadays, whenever there was a feeling of worry, the first person he would thought of is her. He didn't even know why. It was impossible for any thing that could be considered a threat would attack her or maybe it was just his own imagination trying to messed up his mind again.

Neji sighed, rubbing his forehead gently, before picking up his cup of tea, which was now warm and took a good drink. The warm essence of the tea immediately had an effect as he felt relaxed once more.

He then loosened up his muscles and gazed at the nearby sunset. Determined to empty his mind by just making himself stare at the sky. Fortunate for him, it work perfectly fine and he stayed in that position for about several minutes.

He felt like he was in a trance staring at the beautiful sky with the silence around him. It was perfect and moments later, a small aurora borealis began to form along with the stars.

"It's beautiful!" A mesmerized Neji commented in his mind.

For him, it was definitely the first time he had seen one, or maybe that was just his mind telling him. He didn't even know if he had seen such a phenomenon many times before. He just can't remember, though seeing one made him feel like a little kid again for some reason.

It was just so majestic for him. Then he began to wonder, was there really an Aurora Borealis appearing at the village?

"Hey..."

In that middle of the silence, a familiar voice rang on his ears. It didn't startled him that much but was enough for him to break from his trance as he turned around to face his little cousin, who seemed exhausted for the first time, judging by the weary eyes.

"Oh Hanabi." Neji muttered her name." Sorry, I didn't noticed you." He apologized, before adding" How's everything in the kitchen so far?" He followed a question.

His cousin gave a little sigh thereafter as she proceeded to sit down on the wooden floor beside him." I literally forgot on how hard it is to prepare the ingredients in the kitchen." She commented, loosening herself up and yawning. The stained apron was proof of what she had been doing there along with the other household servants.

Neji gave a little smile, truthfully his cousin grew up to be an independent young lady, not the usual spoiled rich kids, along the neighborhood, she could cook, do her own laundry, and even secretly earn her own money through whatever legal means she could grabbed, such as the time she went part time to work at a Dango shop for a full two months, she earned a lot of money and used that money to either for her own savings and also for her own materialistic interests such as buying the latest album of a boyband group she adored.

He wouldn't really reveal the full details about that but he was just proud that she had grown up to be the confident and brash person that she is. Basically, she was a working student.

"You know Neji, all that training is making me forget what I used to do, I kind of forgot those recipes in my head." Hanabi laughed at the fact that she had to re-learned those procedures of cooking those dishes. It's not one of those regular recipes but a special one created by her own mother.

"Oh you mean Auntie's recipes." Neji clarified, recalling memory of the beautiful young woman years ago, whom really had a big impact on his life.

"Yup! Mom's recipes alright." Hanabi confirmed, smiling as she remembered." Technically, not her own but the recipe was passed down from generations, from my great-great grandmother to my mom and now, to me and big sis." She explained, referring to the long tradition.

Neji raised both eyebrows in amusement." Fascinating, I really never heard of that before, but no wonder why Auntie's dishes are delicious, and it's because of that secret recipe to begin with." He said, discovering this new revelation or just basically realizing what he hadn't realized in years.

This is also caused his cousin to chuckle, the fact that it took him 10 plus years to finally found out the truth. Neji had no choice but to laugh along at his own naiveness and rarely did he often get shocked by revelations.

As there was laughter, also comes the more sad parts of the story and both expected this would eventually come.

"When mom passed away, me and big sis both promised to her that we'll keep the love in the family alive and what a good way to start with the recipes but..." Hanabi trailed off, slowly being overwhelmed by the emotions.

"I-I mean... I just don't know what went wrong to be honest." She tried to explain.

During those first months without their mother, the determination was still high. Especially, for Hanabi who was very eager to worked hard and get the family back up in the emotional side of things. Though Hinata on the other hand, was the most affected of their mother's passing. She just went off the road, Losing pretty much the confidence and courage to face reality.

"I never felt so alone for the first time in my life, I-I mean we were still living together but, the way how we treated each other after that..." Hanabi trailed off, trying to bring out her sentences properly in the midst of these emotions.

"As if we were strangers."

Neji kept quiet but continued to listen, he too had some guilt inside of him or should he say that he became part of it, the tough and emotionless side of the clan. Because of that, he almost killed his cousin during the exams years ago.

"I really missed those times..."Hanabi then said wiping off the tears afterwards." But, what I can do? It happened already." She gave a little shrug, and soon smiled." Though, I'm hoping this time that things would turn out well."

She finished and finally had let the rest of her recent thoughts. She was also expecting a reply from her cousin, to which she never got. As she turned to the brown haired teen, who was oddly quiet as of the moment.

"Uhmm, Neji are you really okay? is something bothering you?" Hanabi asked, slowly getting concern about her older cousin.

The older Hyuga stayed silent, he tried to fight this so called "Distractions", but he was still greatly bothered. He had the urged to tell his younger cousin about this, and so he did.

As for Hanabi, who had been awaiting for several minutes now, finally had gotten a reply from him.

"Yes, I'm alright. It's just that... Himawari." He couldn't even build up the parts of his story so he proceeded to just mentioned his niece's name. He hoped his cousin would understand on what he was trying to say.

Hanabi gave a puzzled look." Hima? What about her?" She asked, once she heard her niece's name from her very concerned and bothered cousin, it then came to her that something had happened.

"Look! I know what you're thinking but believed me, I'm not being Paranoid here or whatsoever." Neji explained, clarifying that he wasn't going on a panic attack." It's just that Himawari might not be-"

"Safe...?"

He was cut by the younger Hyuga, which surprised him." How did you know I was going to say that?" The teen asked, raising an eyebrow.

Hanabi gave rolled her eyes in return. " Well of course, judging by the way you act, it's pretty obvious, you're worried." She explained, before expressing her own concern." And you're right, I have that same feeling too." She added.

There was silence in the area, as the two began to think the possibility of leaving home for awhile in order to check up on the Uzumaki girl. It was Neji, who had the idea first and he wanted to ask Hanabi to come along with him, despite her having the current job of preparing the kitchen.

Hanabi on the other hand, really wanted to tag along with her cousin, but she had to finish the kitchen chores first before she could join him. The problem was that her cousin wanted leave immediately, and had suggested to at least use a shadow clone as a replacement but that was not the case for her.

"I'm telling you Hanabi, that's the best thing I could suggest." Neji explained, as he tried to reason with her." We can't waste time here." He added.

"I know that, but that's not the case Neji, Dad was the one that instructed me to take charge until my big sis arrives." Hanabi explained her side." I mean, I can't just leave right away, and besides Auntie Natsu would literally sense it even if I used a shadow clone. " She added.

Neji sighed and rubbed his forehead." So what do we do?" He simply asked, running out options.

A brief moment of silence had passed as Hanabi tried to think of a way to sort this out. "Well, we could-"

As she was about to continue her sentence, the door to the living room suddenly opened and there was familiar voice that called out and which also interrupted her.

"I'm Home!"

(MEANWHILE)

The main door opened and a certain dark blue haired teen entered the living room. Hinata had finally arrived back from her small journey at the department store. Carrying a couple of small paper bags with attached handles on them, she was greeted by the quiet atmosphere of the place.

"Hmm, that's strange?" She thought to herself, surveying the area around her in search for any one. If she could recall, she had informed Natsu and her little sister that she would be going to the department store in order to buy a few goodies, while they continue preparing the ingredients for her to start the cooking when she arrives back.

That time has come and confusion enveloped her mind, as she pondered their whereabouts, though at the same time, a new presence entered the scene.

"Oh, Hinata-sama, You're finally back!" The familiar voice of Natsu, one of maids and guardian of Hanabi finally emerged from the kitchen and from the looks of it, she was a bit weary.



"Natsu-nee!" Hinata called out to her name by the time she turned around to face her." I'm really sorry for arriving late." She began to apologized." The department store was a little bit to crowded thus I had to wait in line." She explained, giving a nervous smile." I hope I'm not too late." She repeated her previous line.

Natsu Hyuga, as usual kept her smile ongoing, she wasn't accustomed yet in seeing the Hyuga heiress with this kind of personality. In fact, she was one of the few witnesses to realize the change in the young lady. Usually, she acted as one of the moral supports or basically a person to cheer her up when disappointment or depression strikes and as per what Hanabi told her to do her best. Though, nowadays her role was reduced to figuring on what the heck has happened.

"Her stuttering is really gone..." She thought to herself as it still mesmerizes her to this day. She continued to observed while the other kept calling out to her.

"Uhmm, Natsu-nee are you alright? " The last sentence finally broke her trance.

"Oh, I'm really sorry Hinata-sama, I wasn't paying attention." She immediately apologized." But no, you've just arrived in time." She then added a smile to replace her previous expression.

Hinata sighed in relief." Oh thank you so much!" She said, before proceeding to the main topic." So have you guys finished preparing the ingredients?" She then asked, placing down the two paper bags on the living room table.

"Anyways, I bought some goodies, so here's one for you! " The Hyuga Heiress smiled, drawing out a small box of branded tea, which was personal favorite of the maid.

Natsu's eyes widened in sparkles and accepted the teen's offer right away." Oh! Thank you so much Hinata-san, Oops I mean-"

"It's alright, you can just call me Hinata-san." The teen smiled.

Natsu was definitely surprised, she remained speechless for several moments, before gathering herself together." Hinata-san." She finished what was once her original intended line for her sentence.

At the same time, both Neji and Hanabi emerged from the corridor. Apparently, both were in a state of a rush and they looked as if they were unprepared to meet the dark blue haired teen, who was just as surprised as the two.

"Oh! Hanabi and Neji-nii!" Hinata called the two right away." You're just in time!" She said, going through some of the things inside the paper bag in search for the little gifts to which she had bought awhile ago at the store.

In less than seconds, she was already in front of the two giving them the said little gifts with a very confident and genuine smile.

"Since you like meditating, I guess this one could help you Nii-san!" Hinata said, handing a small box which was was wrapped to hide its true the content of it.

Neji stared at his cousin in surprised before observing the box itself. How did she know that? 

The Hyuga Heiress then turned her attention towards her little sister and smiled." As for you Hanabi-chan, I think this might help you out on your trainings!" She said, giving her a very small box, which was also wrapped.

Both Neji and Hanabi stood there frozen in bewilderment and surprise. They began to wonder the contents of these gifts and further asked on why the teen had decided to give gifts at this time of the hour.

As Neji was about to speak, his cousin had beaten him to it once again.

"Well, I guess the only people, who haven't receive their gifts is Dad and Himawari." Hinata scratched her chin as she wondered about their whereabouts. As far as she knew, her father was on his way home for dinner while the other one, which was a friend of his cousin and little sister has yet to arrived.

At the same time, silence overtook the whole situation, mostly coming from Neji and Hanabi, who were just trying to process what is happening.

(INTERVIEW)

"We were in the middle of trying to sneak out of the compound to check on Hima and then suddenly here we are in a state of shock, because of my big sister giving us gifts for some reason."

-Hanabi

"I don't know but whenever I'm in front of my cousin, everything seems to go in an awkward route. Same goes for Hanabi here, we just really wanted to smack ourselves right at that moment yet we just can't. "

-Neji

Furthermore, as things were already awkward. the door opened once again and came in the one and only Hiashi Hyuga.

This time around everybody had turned their attention to the man, who was the overall head of the clan. the very traditional, loose fitting robes with a long-sleeved, brown haori, was the indication that he was finally here and in the presence of everyone in the room.

Everybody, except for Hinata stood straight for their hearts quickly stopped for a milisecond as they all could feel the strict aura of the man. Everyone knew how this was gonna turn out. They were just awaiting on what he was going to say.

Hiashi stood there staring at his nephew and two daughters along with the maid. He suddenly felt this awkwardness surrounding the atmosphere, especially for Neji and Hanabi, who he had realize the fact that they were keeping their emotionless expressions in check.

"Oh what I have done..." He sighed to himself, with an intention to speak for the first time.

Just then, his eldest daughter finally broke the silence, he quickly saw the rare confident loving smile.

"Dad! You're finally back!"

Hinata called her father's name as she immediately went towards the man and gave him warm and welcoming hug. Much to the shock Neji and Hanabi felt, this was indeed the first time they have seen the teen with this much joy approach and give him that certain hug. Something that they haven't seen for a long time.

"H-Hinata will you gave it a rest?" Hiashi cringed, unable to handle the strength of his daughter's hug, to which he was still getting used to nowadays.

Seriously, what has gotten into her? She's been like this for quite sometime now.

"Oops sorry dad." The Hyuga Heiress apologized, letting go of the man." I guess I'm just too excited." She slightly giggled with a nervous smile.

Hiashi sighed in response." It's alright..." He then cleared his throat." Well, has dinner already been prepared?" He asked, getting straight to the main point.

Everybody was silent, in truth, they were still in the midst of preparing the ingredients, let alone had waited for Hinata to arrive back. The rest, especially Hanabi and Neji didn't knew what to say, though Natsu had informed that she'll be heading to the kitchen right away and continue the job.

"Well, We were just about to continue and finally cook the first dish, but instead we took a short break for awhile to recharge." Hanabi finally spoke, getting the attention of her cousin and the rest.

Hiashi nodded in understanding." I understand Hanabi, It's better to wind off for awhile... Tell me did you and Neji head off to the gardens to unwind?" He then asked.

"Yes sir, I took the time off to drink some hot tea and She joined me several minutes later" Neji replied for the first time.

"Ahh I see." The man nodded in understanding." Well, you chose the right decision." He commented before placing down his small bag on the couch.

Afterwards, he then gave a small smile, which surprised both of them.

"Since we all be eating dinner together later, Why not I joined the rest of you and lets get those dishes cook as we preferred?" He kindly asked, which really give everyone the surprised reactions.

This was definitely the first time in years the head of the Hyuga clan himself had ask to join them and do some normal kitchen activities, no one really expected this though as for the man himself, he just wanted to catch up and bond with his family. He too didn't know what really encouraged him to do this, though his instincts took over and he darted his eyes towards a lone photo of his smiling wife, which was inside a frame and displayed on a certain spot on the wall.

"Of course dad! We'll be happy too!" Hinata smiled, before turning to her cousin and little sister, giving them the encouragement and motivation.

As for the two, they really had no choice right now. They were already cornered and It would be just disrespectful for them to leave the house, leaving every responsibility to the rest. Much to the dismay of one Neji and Hanabi Hyuga, which they had to accept the fact that they won't be knowing if their niece was really safe begin with.

It was just perfect timing...

(MEANWHILE)

The agony and anguish of one man could be still heard amongst the quiet surroundings of the park. It sounded like he was being tortured by someone yet despite being the only person present at that spot.

The blue skinned Akatsuki member struggled for the rest of the time holding his head in pain, fighting this so called "Mental Torture." He was clueless regarding what was causing this.

For sure, Itachi wasn't the one responsible. Even though, he had that exact same ability of torturing someone's mind. It was quite childish for him to execute this techniques for the sake of pranks. He wouldn't do that would he?

He spend his time there leaning on the tree and folding himself like a lost little boy. By then, he wanted to beat this by just naturally trying to clear his mind or basically meditate himself out of it. Something Itachi would remind him often.

Although Unbeknownst to him, two certain individuals had been actually watching and observing him for quite awhile now. Two cloaked figures stood near the man, who was still in the midst of an inner crisis. As they removed the hoods of their white cloaks to reveal to two young men. One had long , bright red hair styled into slicked-back spikes. His eyes are a bright emerald color, and he a very mysterious calm and stoic expression, which was quite unreadable to any person.

The other one had spiky light brown goldish hair. His hair style deals as the front concentrates the spikes on the right side of his head as if windswept, and the back is smoother and more feathered. Unlike the other, his current display of expression, showed a little more concern yet he kept a serious facade.

"And that's how you mess with someone's mind my friend." The man with the long spiky red hair explained, he had the" This is how you do it" attitude at the moment, besides the smirk and all.

"If you wanna manipulate or control someone naturally, you have to bring their inner most desires or basically what really makes them scared to be exact hehe." The older young man said, giving his companion a grin.

"You do understand on what I'm trying to tell you here Souta..." The man said, giving him a semi-serious look.

The young man's thoughts were put to an end, he then looked up to the person, who was his temporary mentor for the time being. "Yeah, I understand Keiji." He replied back." It's not like I won't use it randomly on people." He explained.

"Though, is the person am I assigned to monitor? " He followed up a question, trying to clarify on what exactly this mission is all about.

The red haired man now known as "Keiji" sighed, before clearing his throat." Well, not really." He replied, before pointing at the blue skinned man." In fact, he's just a lost cause." He explained.

"What do you mean a lost cause?"

"Basically, He was ruled out because he really didn't have any role or whatsoever other than be a best friend to that Uchiha guy." Keiji explained, giving a yawn thereafter." No one in the organization really cares about him unless he does something that would against the plan."

"Oh I see." Souta nodded in understanding. Mentally taking note of the important things." Although for Shion, I think she might get that position." He commented, referring to the other member, who was along with them but was currently on a task to monitor the Uchiha.

The red haired young man gave a little chuckle." She really might make it, and for a rookie, she is the hardest worker I've seen so far." He said turning his eyes towards him before adding." Don't worry, You'll catch up."

Sensing the encouragement, Souta gave a small smile." Thanks." He replied.

Being a first timer in the organization was quite tough. He had seen the most of the main guys around, the ones who had been members for a very long time. They all had that mysterious and intimidating facade, something that he won't be getting used to for the time being.

Though, Keiji here was much more different. When he first joined, the man had been immediately signed by the higher ups to mentor and watch over him. Same did too for the other rookie girl.

"Speaking of Shion, what's taking her so long?" The red haired man wondered as she was supposed to arrived here at this time of the hour. It was odd, since she's been on time whenever there was an activity.

"You don't think something must've happen to that Itachi person, she's currently monitoring?" Souta had proposed his own theory, which just adds more mystery the situation.

In slight frustration, Keiji scratched the back of his head, something of his own mannerisms." You've got to be kidding me." He commented, sensing that things were not as it seemed to be.

(MEANWHILE)

Closing the door as she finally got inside the office, Himawari was greeted by the darkness as everything was just pitch black. She groaned in slight annoyance, having to deal with this kind of small problem once again.

Her instincts began to kick in and tell her to find the switch on the wall beside the door. She placed her hand on the cold wall, tapping through different spots in order to find that bulky surface, and it didn't took long enough for her to find it and soon press the switch, which finally turned on the light, revealing a small waiting area, and the other door to the right was actual office of the doctor.

Overall, the area was quite a nice and neat place, with her mind focused on taking a seat at the long sofa-like bench, she proceeded towards the first spot, which was located beside the door and window. As tiredness began to overwhelm her, she immediately hurried and sat down on the bench, she also had let herself rest on the hard concrete white wall, while placing the scroll beside her.

The Uzumaki girl took a deep breath and fully relaxed herself. It had been quite a journey today of spending time with the people she knew and learning new things from the older woman. She had to admit all those things really gave her a long overdue headache.

She remained there for quite sometime, staring at the blank space in the midst of a silence, she was trying to get herself to take a little nap, as she thought it would take little while for Miyuki to catch up. Though, she also wondered, what was taking her so long?

She mentioned that she was waiting for someone.

In that moment, she decided to tilt her head to the nearby window to see on what has transpired, her sleepy eyes would soon shut down once she finally gets to see the situation, though it wasn't the one she was expecting.

As soon as she faced the window, a thunderous explosion took place in the form of a dark aura-like shockwave which smash through shattering the glasses, Luckily, the Uzumaki girl was able to evade it in time, moving towards the floor immediately. Little shards of glass scattered all around.

Himawari, who had ducked and now covering her head, recovered as confusion and alertness took over her. She slowly stood up in a crouch position and peak through the now glass free window.

She widened her eyes in shock to see that a commotion or rather a fight was currently transpiring outside. There was this kind of energy barrier which covered a large chunk of the area surrounding the building, Himawari knew that something has gone wrong and she immediately thought of Miyuki.

Moments later, she could hear her voice exclaiming followed by sounds of slashing and little explosions. By the time, she looked throughout, the scene in front of her played out like flashing fire crackers, and it was tough to keep track of the two large orbs moving around inside the barrier.

This gave her the only choice of activating her Byakugan in hopes seeing everything from the detail. Once she has activated it, she saw two distinguishable figures, one was that of Miyuki's and the other one belonged to an unfamiliar newcomer.

(INTERVIEW)

"I didn't know what was really happening in front of me, It was just so sudden and I almost got my face destroyed with those little glass shards. So I needed to do something and figure this out quick."

-Himawari

(MEANWHILE)

"Oh, Why does this have to happen right now?"

Miyuki had asked herself that question many times already, the fact that she had been hoping to not get involved into trouble, yet due to some certain circumstances, she found herself in the middle of a getting assaulted by a white cloaked individual.

The menacing large blade on individual's hand, was an indication that this was not a joke. The cloaked figure slowly approached the black haired woman and for the first time, it spoke.

"Where have you taken him?" A female voice was then heard coming from the mysterious newcomer, demanding to know his whereabouts.

Miyuki raised both eyebrows in surprised." Oh, are you referring to the fox or the other guy?" She asked in a very casual manner, which was really intentional." I can't really answer you if-"

"Don't play games with me little girl! You better tell me where you kept that scroll containing Itachi Uchiha or else-" She was then cut from her sentence.

"Or else what little missy? Did your parents ever taught you to respect your elders?" Miyuki fired back, releasing some of her snarky side, which had been laying dormant since.

"You know, I suggest you remove that hood of yours, so that I can talk to you properly." She added another comment." Seriously, It's not really that intimidating." By the time she finished her sentence, the cloaked figure made a charging dash towards her in great speed.

Apparently, the newcomer had enough of the little girl's battering and decided to take the matter into her own hands and show force in order for the girl to comply with her demands or at least that's what she'd thought.

When she finally neared her target, she secretly let out a smirk and proceeded to make her move by attempting to slash her via her blade, though suddenly the little girl took a little side step at the same speed as hers.

From Miyuki's perspective, her world around her slowed down, she knew that this newcomer wasn't any ordinary human or being. From the start, she could already identify the source and it wasn't chakra or any physical energy, which is commonly found in this world.

She gave a little smile while stepping out from her current spot, thus evading the enemy and her blade. Afterwards, she immediately reached towards the back of the enemy's hood and simply removed it revealing a glimpse of her face for the first time.

"There we go! It's not that bad after all." Miyuki said afterwards, much to the newcomer's shock.

As the hood finally came off revealing that of a beautiful young lady's face. She had short black hair that reached until her neck, fair skin, dark blue eyes, and a quite pissed off expression as she landed on the ground.

She gritted her teeth in annoyance, eventually charging towards her again. Though this time, she elevated her attempts and began incorporating combos just to hit her, yet the little girl managed to evade them all in a very smooth way.

"Not just a little girl I supposed." The Newcomer thought, eventually deciding to test this so called little girl's ability to the higher level, immediately she began summoned small orbs of blueish white spirit energy by lifting her hand slightly towards the air. One by one, those orbs began to materialize began to fire at the little girl.

Miyuki, having anticipated this was forced to tapped into her agility and speed as the orbs began to follow her at the command of the newcomer. Fortunately, she already made up a counter plan as she snapped her fingers, thus forming a huge barrier surrounding the battleground and the result, the orbs of energy smashing to the barriers producing little explosions, though one orb was able to hit the window of her clinic.

"Damn! I should've created the barrier sooner. "She thought herself." And I hope Himawari had went to the second floor." She added, referring to her room.

At the same time, the newcomer began to charge and appeared in front of her with an attempt to slash her on the head.

"You know, you haven't told me your name yet dear" Miyuki smirked, quickly ducking and thus summoning a small blade made out of powerful spirit energy, to which in turn she used to block the newcomers fiery weapon.

The new girl was quite surprised." As I suspect, she's no ordinary human." She thought to herself before giving her devious smile." My name is Shion little girl, and if you don't cooperate with me, then I'm afraid you just made the biggest mistake of your life!" She said and threaten the little girl.

Those words had no effect on her, in fact Miyuki could only reply with a little amused smile, yet though inside, she still couldn't believed this was happening right now. She really didn't want to use her true form on some unknown amateur, yet considering the possibilities, she might have to.

(INTERVIEW)

"Besides the fact not knowing on how would this turn out eventually, I'm a bit grateful that the neighbors are not being disturbed by this little ruckus at the moment. Just a relief for me to say that the barriers are sound-proof."

-Miyuki

(MEANWHILE)

In the midst of the ongoing fight between the two, Himawari was able to sneak out of the door undetected. The little explosions had caused a huge cloud of smoke to which gave her a hard time to see the whole situation, so she kept her Byakugan activated in order to see through.

She could finally see Miyuki battling against a newcomer, which was revealed to be a black haired young girl in her mid teens. What surprised her the most was that she was the one who seemed to be trying hard to beat her.

The sounds of explosions mostly died down, and limited to only inside the barrier, though the scene was back to close combat once again. The pace was much more faster than Himawari could imagine, though there was this one thought that kept bothering her.

"Oh what am I supposed to do now?" She asked herself, trying to find a different way to help her friend.

By the looks of it, the fight didn't seem to bother Miyuki at all and it was obvious that she was holding back, though there could be this one tiny possibility of something unexpected happening at a later time and so the Uzumaki girl had finally gotten her own idea as that strange feeling never betrayed her.

(MEANWHILE)

The small battle continued on as the new girl's expectations were now completely defied.

From the start, the cloaked girl Shion had the only intention of threatening the little girl by just showing her force in order for her to comply. What was a little girl supposed to do? It was pretty much obvious she would be scared or will literally cry at the site of a possible death, yet this certain girl was tough, different and even chose to treat her motive as a joke. This did not went well from her own perspective.

As a newly inducted member of the organization, she often implemented the little illusions of draconian tactics to bring her enemies down mentally, and if the target was more tougher than usual, then she would go to more extreme measures.

For this kind of case, she just discovered the fact that she was dealing with no ordinary human being and it just gave her the reason to bring out the best of her abilities, though seriously she couldn't have figure this out earlier.

Raising her own hand once more, she summoned a clone of herself, materializing behind her enemy, with the intent of ending this fight earlier.

As for Miyuki, she immediately noticed the clone attacking from behind." I see, trying to cheat all your way through a tag team huh?" She thought herself, quickly evading the clone's blade by disappearing from her current position and appearing on top the clone. As she then proceeded to make her move by doing a finger gun gesture, with her index finger point directly at the clone.

"Hopefully, this will go through that clone and hit her as well" She thought to herself, bending her thumb as a small beam of light was summoned through index finger directly to her target at a considerable speed.

It also caused reactions from Himawari as well, the girl wondering the kind of move that the older woman had now taken.

The beam of light went through the clone and was immediately destroyed and had finally was finally reaching the actual target. Yet at the same time, the girl was able react in time using her large blade to block the attack.

The beam of light bounced back from the body of the blade thus hitting the barrier and destroying it in the process.

The fight briefly stopped, Miyuki landed on the grounded safely. She was caught by surprised that the girl or at least her weapon managed to withstand her Spirit gun attack. Although, it was a type of move enough to break any weapon and even disable an individual immediately. Also using that technique, slightly drained most of her energy, which was a bit of a problem for her as it may take time for her to recharged back. Also, it was just a basic technique for incapacitating an enemy.

Yes, not everything is perfect about her or maybe she just wasn't used to combat situations like this anymore.

As for Shion, the girl secretly gave a sigh of relief. She knew she was toast if that kind of attack would hit her, yet she was thankful for her weapon, withstanding that level of power. Seriously, where did the organization acquired this type of weapon?

Soon enough, she regathered herself to engaged her enemy again, and this time it seemed that she was gaining the advantage." Looks like she's drained from that earlier attack." She thought and commented with a confident smile, preparing herself and giving one more charge towards her.

Realizing that the fight was still coming to her, Miyuki could only shook her head along with a little chuckle. She had to admit this girl got some guts and had no signed of giving up.

"Looks like I got no choice." She muttered to herself, proceeding to tapped more into her inner power. Although, in that very moment as the enemy's blade was about to reach her once more, a certain dark blue haired teen suddenly appeared right in front of her to block the enemy's attack.

"What the...!? " Miyuki widened her eyes in surprised.

Same did go for the black haired teen, who was caught off guard as she found herself facing two furious Byakugan eyes staring right through her whole existence.

"Don't ever attack someone who's defenseless." Himawari, armed with only her kunai, was able to go up front and blocked the enemy's attack in just a matter of seconds.

The girl before her was speechless and felt dumbfounded, and as a result, it gave more time for the Uzumaki girl, to perform another attack by using her palm to aim on the kunai, which was blocking the huge blade, afterwards she then gave it a strong push thus unleashing a powerful burst of energy, which push through her hand, creating a powerful shockwave which sent the girl flying away towards a nearby tree and crashing into it.

A brief moment of quietness took charged after that, before being broken by little girl.

"Himawari, what the heck were you thinking!?" Miyuki was a bit furious to see younger girl suddenly joining in the conflict." That girl is not what you thought of! " She explained." She's not an ordinary human!"

Himawari could only scratched her head in nervousness as a reaction to the other girl's words, yet she kept her seriousness in check." I'm really sorry Miyuki-san, I just don't like defenseless people being attack." She apologized immediately thereafter and while keeping her guard on, she also wondered and wanted wanted to ask a question regarding the certain technique that the little girl performed earlier.

Since there was not enough time for a long discussion, Miyuki had to quickly cut the conversation, as the enemy was back on the fight once more as she suddenly appeared right in for the Uzumaki girl again." Be ready Himawari, She's back on her feet again! "She warned.

Himawari simply nodded, fully trusting her own confidence as it was now her turn to engaged the enemy, no matter how strong she is.

Shion, who had quickly recovered from the attack had decided to take things more personal, this time tapping more into her own abilities, summoning another blade from her left hand, both weapons slightly morphing into a more lighter and thinner appearance with a strange yellow light now enveloping the two blades.

Himawari just confidently smiled, knowing the fact that this would possibly cause her own life, if she ever would commit stupid mistakes, wouldn't really hinder her from what she was fighting for. Besides, her big brother and his overprotectiveness wasn't here to prevent her from engaging into a small deathmatch.

She would just call it the need for her to exercise her overall abilities as a Shinobi. In addition, this was all to simply protect her friend from the enemy. As she gathered herself once more, large amounts of dark blue chakra began to envelope her hands, morphing into a head of a lion, by then, she let out three words that summed up her entire strong fighting spirit.

"Locked on girl!"

(INTERVIEW)

"As much as I wanted to stop her from getting herself involved in this situation, I just accepted the fact there was no turning back and completely devoted myself to assist her whatever means possible!

I hope you could sense my sarcasm there, this is not going to be easy as you people think !"

-Miyuki

" I won't really call it a small deathmatch, it's just an "Exercise" like what Boru-nii would often say hehe, but seriously kids don't do reckless things and I mean it."

-Himawari

(MEANWHILE)



"Dammit!"

Neji secretly exclaimed to himself swearing for the first time inside the kitchen though not everybody exactly heard what he said. Apparently, he had sustained a small cut on certain spot on one of his fingers, while cutting the onions. The wound wasn't really that severe yet it was enough to get his little cousin's attention.

"Is everything alright Neji?" A concerned Hanabi asked." If you want to head to the compound clinic, I'll take over your chores for the meantime." She smiled and said, buying the time for her big cousin to treat his wound.

Neji gave a sigh in response." Don't worry Hanabi, it's just a small cut, I'll just probably get the first aid kit." He replied, assuring the younger Hyuga to not worry about him as he then briefly left his position to get the box of first aid kit at the other end of the kitchen.

Hanabi simply nodded in understanding, though her concern never went away for her cousin, he was still bothered the fact that he wasn't able to get the chance to head over to their niece's place. She too was worried for the girl also. What could have happened to her?

The younger Hyuga then focused her attention the nearby wall clock beside the kitchen window as her thoughts concentrated on her niece.

"I hope you're alright Hima. "

(CHAPTER END)

AN: Thank you very much for reading the chapter!