Chapter 35: Catching up

I entered a room, and bowed before saying, "I'm leaving. Thanks for everything."

Haruko smiled and said, "Make sure to come visit again."

I smiled back and said, "Yeah, I promise I'll come visit when I'm free."

I walked out of the building when I heard the old lady's voice, "So you're leaving."

I paused before saying, "Yeah."

I turned around and caught a mask as she said, "It's expensive and crafted by a family friend, so try not to break it. You can keep it since I know you're going to miss me."

I chuckled and said, "Miss you? In your dreams." before putting the mask on and walking away.

I continued running for a few days before stopping. I smiled, thinking, "It's been a while since I was back home."

I walked into the Hyuga compound, hiding from people as I thought, "They really need to up their security."

I entered a room where my dad was sitting in the middle. Before I could say anything, he asked, "Who are you and what do you want?"

Taking a step towards him, I asked, "What, you can't see through my mask? With your famous Byakugan?"

"It seems your mask is stopping me from seeing past it."

I placed my hand on my mask before removing it.

Dad looked surprised, then angry, as he said, "How dare you impersonate my dead daughter!"

I looked at him, remembering he hadn't seen me in about three years and my hair was white now, which didn't help my case.

Dad charged towards me. Just as he was about to hit me in the stomach, he stopped and mumbled, "This chakra."

He fell to the ground, tears falling down his face, as he said, "You're alive. It's not possible. I saw your body. You were dead…"

I knelt in front of him and smiled, saying, "Well, I'm here in the flesh."

Dad suddenly hugged me. After he finally let go and stopped crying, he asked me what happened to my hair.

I chuckled before saying, "It came with the eyes."

Dad looked confused before I activated my eyes. He looked shocked as I just grinned.

He paused before asking, "Where have you been?"

"Well, after someone tried to kill me and Hanabi, I decided to leave the village so I wouldn't put anyone I cared about in danger. I met a weird old woman who trained me for about a year. Then I met Orochimaru, who released a seal placed on me, and that's when my hair changed colour and I got these cool eyes. I met another woman who's a scientist. I have to admit she's a little crazy, but thanks to her I was able to learn to control my eyes, which took about another year and a half. I actually came to ask you something."

Dad gave me a confused look before I said, "Why am I considered the next heir even though I'm not actually your daughter?"

Dad looked shocked before saying, "I knew you would figure it out since you don't look like me or your mother. Fifteen years ago, your mother gave birth to twins, Hinata and her twin sister. But her twin died soon after birth. Your mother wasn't the same after that. She never smiled and never left her room. Then one day, she finally went out for a walk. When she came back, she was holding you in her arms. It was the first time I saw her smile since that day. She begged me to adopt you, so I did. No one other than the elders knew Hinata's twin had died, so we told the clan you were her older twin sister and were ill, and that's why we had made Hinata the heir. So, you weren't made part of the side branch since you were still considered the next heir, and neither was Hinata since she was your replacement in case anything happened to you. Eventually, everyone just guessed you had gotten better. Do you remember when I saw you covered in blood that day Hinata was almost kidnapped?"

I nodded as Dad continued, "I told you to tell them you had awakened your Byakugan so no one would suspect a thing. I never figured out how you beat him. We told the elders you awakened the Byakugan, and that's how you killed him. I wanted to take the blame for what happened, but Hizashi sacrificed his life for mine. After losing him, your mother gave birth to Hanabi two years later and passed away half a year after that from an illness. Before she died, she made me promise to always treat you like my daughter, to be kind to you even if we weren't related by blood. If you wanted to become the heir, I was to make sure you did, but if you didn't want to, I was to let you do what you wanted. To take care of the three of you."

I looked at him, thinking, "That's why he let me skip training and mess around. But is that what he considers taking care of us? Beating us up every day?"

I smiled before saying, "Thanks for telling me, Dad. But were Hinata and Hanabi?"

Dad paused before saying, "Hinata's on a mission and Hanabi is also busy."

I sighed before saying, "It can't be helped. I guess I'll visit them later when they're free. So I'll just go visit Naruto and Sasuke."

Dad didn't say anything as I gave him a confused look before asking, "What's wrong?"

"Sasuke… Sasuke is a rogue ninja now. So, he isn't in the village."

I jumped up, saying, "No, it can't be true. Why would Sasuke betray the village?!"

Dad didn't answer as I put my mask back on and said, "It was nice seeing you again and catching up. Thanks for telling me what happened. But I have to go."

Before Dad could stop me, I disappeared.

I was far from the village and had been walking without a goal for a while, thinking, "Why would Sasuke leave the village? And where is he now?"

I suddenly turned around and threw a kunai,

The person easily blocked the kunai before asking, "It's you, isn't it, Hinoka?"

I smiled and said, "It's been a while, Itachi."