Chapter 45: Clan Heiress Arc: Five

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. And Huzzah! It's a chapter on Saturday. No chapter on Sunday though. I will not have time.

The week after the New Year, I walk down through the city to Sensei's house with Itachi and Toku. It is the first time that Itachi hears about Koma-senpai.

"Then your Niisan was blinded?" Their shoulders brush as we walk. Toku's in the center today, because he needs to feel the protection that we can provide.

"He did it himself." Toku murmurs and swings an arm over both of our shoulders so that we're a three man line. "The clan forced him into it."

Itachi looks troubled. "What sort of family is that?" I suppose that Uchihas are also a very close knit family group. It would fit with their deep brotherly love.

"Not a family." Toku mutters. "I can conclude that they aren't my family." He sighs. "I should have realized the truth when Hizashi-sama was sacrificed to save his older brother's skin, but I didn't want to think about it." You were only eleven. Why would you have become disillusioned then? The truth is that Hyuga Hizashi had sacrificed himself to save his elder brother...according to what Hyuga Hiashi had told a grieving Neji. I didn't know that I believed that information anymore, as I had seen no humanity from Hyuga Hiashi.

"We're your family." I say at last. We will be your brothers and sisters. You will never walk alone.

"Yes." Itachi says with quiet determination. "An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us." He's thinking about Tobi the masked man again as he says this. I know he is, because Itachi doesn't just forget about things like that. No one did. "You're my brother."

And I have never expected Itachi, however kind, to love us as much as his own blood brother, perhaps he didn't, but he is willing to call Toku brother as well.

"At least I know that I have the best friends." Toku says as we pass the garden gate. "We aren't an official team anymore, but we'll always be Team Ensui."

"Muta-kun as well." Itachi responds. "He is a part of our team." Itachi's barely spent any time with Muta, who is still so busy in Tracking, and he's probably say this more for Toku's benefit than himself, but Itachi and Muta are accepting of each other at the very least. Would that his kind heart never change and grow cold.

I nod. "Mu-kun is a part of Team Ensui."

As soon as we cross the threshold, Kiho-baachan pounces on Toku, and by extension, the rest of us. "My beloved little dress up doll." She sobs into his hair. "I am so sorry." And it fits just as much with Kiho-baachan's personality as the sun is hot and flowers need water. "If you ever need anything, you know where to find me."

"Kiho-baachan." Toku pats her back. "Koma-niisan will be alright. He's just the same as always." Just permanently blind. He pulls back and frowns. "I didn't know that I was a mannequin."

She laughs, but it's Sensei who responds. "The Vicious Hag loves dress up, Toku-kun." And he's there, leaning comfortingly against the door just like how he used to be before he'd done something to his soul. "I think you have to accept that apprentice to the best infiltration specialist down in Intel means that you're just a doll for her to dress up."

"Sensei!" The three of us race forwards towards him. He looks better, or maybe he's gotten better at acting.

Kiho-baachan sighs dramatically and presses the back of her hand to her forehead in mock despair. "Why must my children love me less than my adored Waste of Space?"

Sensei snorts. "Perhaps because I am their sensei, and you are merely their sensei's wife?" Kiho-baachan practically growls and advances on him with a smile so thin and sharp it could probably slip between his ribs, no problem. Sensei simply smirks back at her though, as if he knew something we didn't.

"No one's merely anything, Sensei!" I take one of his hands, and Itachi takes the other, and we pull him from his leaning position on the wall straight into a group hug.

"Have we ever mentioned how thankful we are that you're our sensei?" Itachi murmurs. "We can never repay you." I can never repay you, Sensei, for everything that you gave up for me.

Sensei laughs. "Even though I made sure two of you got manure in your hair?" Sensei hadn't forced us to run another kunai search through a manure field again, and Itachi's never had to suffer the sad sad fate, but I suppose it's because I learned Doton Jutsu and Sensei knew we wouldn't ever provide such a funny spectacle as digging through the manure with our bare hands ever again.

Toku groans. "Sensei, I love you, but I haven't forgiven you for that." And we all laugh.

"Toku, the manure is part of your hair by now." I tug a stray lock of it that had flown out of his low tail with a cheeky smile, and Kiho-baachan shoos us all into the kitchen for breakfast.

After breakfast I head down to the north gate for watch duty, with a scroll on chakra control techniques under my arm. Gate guarding, for lack of a better word, is boring. It is on the same level of mind numbingly dull as watching a dead volcano. Nevertheless, on the off chance that anyone would actually sneak an invasion through the gates of Konoha, gate guarding is a thing.

It's just a very boring thing that involves a lot of sitting around and doing absolutely nothing. Thus, I collect a second person to make it more bearable, and bring a chakra control scroll with me so that the time doesn't devolve into bickering and hating each other's guts.

Although I'm not sure if Nara Kasuga is capable of hating my guts. "Taicho."

I turn to look at him. "Yes?"

"How was your New Year?" His eyes widen, he promptly turns back to watching the road, and his mouth keeps on running. "I mean, if you don't want to tell me anything about it that's-" He'd been speaking so fast that there's barely a pause between words.

"Enough, Kasuga." I stare at him in mild bemusement. Were you always like this? "My New Year's Eve was celebrated with my ascension to Clan Heiress." And then I turn back to my attempts to get the kunai that I'd balanced on my index finger to start spinning. The first one is simple, but the more I add the harder it gets, and I've yet to be able to manage spinning even two kunai on different hands. I could manage three on one hand though, just not the split focus.

Quite frankly, I have roughly average chakra control, and while I hadn't suffered major setbacks learning tree walking or water walking, learning to split a chakra nature to each hand involves a good deal of control that I do not yet posses. Not for the first time, I marvel at how Tou-san's control had been good enough to test and refine the experiments that he'd conducted in his notes before the age of twenty five.

Why couldn't I have inherited that from you?

"Oh, that's-" It seems as though Kasuga has finally found a way to express himself, after staring in my direction for about a minute or so. "That's wonderful news, Taicho." He pauses to consider it. "Taicho? Taicho-hime? Hana-hime? Hime? Hana-Taicho-hime?" And now he's trying to figure out names for me. More titles. I don't need those.

"Just Hana." I groan, and set the kunai down before it dropped and stabbed one of us in the foot.

"I couldn't possibly do anything of that nature, Taicho!" Kasuga looks horrified at the very thought. "Taicho should always be referred to with respect. How could I possibly refer to you by your given name?"

"Other people do it all the time." But that would not be justification for him, I know from experience. Is this what devotion is? Surely it is not. I mutter under my breath. "How was your New Year?"

"I spent New Year's Eve with Ito-kun's family." He replies promptly, and seems to momentarily forget that I've been made a clan heiress, and he'd been considering a new name.

"How was it?" I stare out into the scenery, and wonder why Nara Kasuga didn't spend his new year with his clan. Have they been ostracizing him? Does he not want to be there?

"His Kaa-san is still sick." Kasuga sighs. "At this rate, she might not live to see her daughters grow up."

"Does Konoha General not accept them?" Is it something untreatable? Have they already gone? Can they not find a cure for her illness? I live in a world where the medics could fix broken legs in the matter of half an hour, and while there are some injuries that are fatal, illness is generally not one of them.

"Where would they get that kind of money, Taicho?" Kasuga turns to look at me with tired eyes. I have all the money I could possible want. I have the respect of the clan. "She's a civilian. Her son works in the Genin Corps. And his job is the only one that brings in money. They're poor, Taicho, like plenty of other people in this world."

And I am reminded that there is a whole world out there that I haven't seen. There are lives that I cannot relate to, even inside Konoha. Really, in the large scheme of things, I am fortunate to have been born Inuzuka Hana, daughter of Inuzuka Kaito and Inuzuka Tsume, to Konoha. I have been handed liquid luck in the form of my blood ever since I took my first breath.

The thought is sobering. "Isn't there a way to help?"

Kasuga slouches against the desk that we are manning. "They won't take charity, but Chisa-chan," and at my confused look he clarifies "Ito's littlest sister, wants to meet you."

"Meet me?" I don't even know who she is. "What for?"

"She thinks of you as a role model, you know." He flicks a piece of hair out of his face. "You are one of the prodigies after all, Taicho."

I am? I stare down at my hands. I suppose I am

It is a morning of revelations.

By mid morning, Kasuga has gone to sleep leaning against the desk. It is just that boring. I am blinking furiously as well, in attempt to stay awake. In retrospect, that's why everything started happening right then.

A team bursts through the treeline and heads towards the gate. "We need to get to the hospital right now." A tracking team. And Muta is among them, his arm slung over someone else's shoulder. He is clearly unconscious.

And I'm not technically supposed to let them through without checking to make sure of who they are, but there's no help for that. This is Muta. If he's injured I have to let him towards the hospital as quickly as possible. I step aside. "Konoha General is in center city, do you need a new person to help with the injured?" I turn towards what seems to be the team leader, a man that I haven't seen before.

He still has a senbon in his mouth when he responds. "You're not supposed to leave the gate."

"I won't argue with you if you don't need the help." I wave the rest of his team through, and the one carrying Muta disappears into the city. I do not care whether or not you're tired Shinobi-san. I care if Mu-kun's fine.

"What happened to Mu-kun?" I gesture towards the direction that his team had gone. "He didn't look so badly injured."

"Poisoned." Poisoned? Was he poisoned or were his kikaichu poisoned? The man's examining me again, strangely enough. "Haven't I seen you somewhere?"

"We live in the same city, Shinobi-san." I remark rather sarcastically. "The statistical possibility of having met on a street corner is rather high." I frown at him. "Also, keeping a senbon in your mouth is a good way to get injured."

He doesn't look entirely pleased by my announcement. "Yeah, yeah." He turns to step through the gate.

"Name?" I block the way, and finally ask for his name to put the mission log. "You're the team leader aren't you?"

"Shiranui Genma." He heads through the gate muttering all the while. "Strange little brats who don't follow standard protocol."

"He needs to learn some manners, Taicho." Kasuga murmurs, his hands in the rat seal. "I could have had him slit his throat right then."

I'm not so certain. "He seemed stronger than that, Kasuga."

Kasuga smirks. "Even the strong have their weak points, Taicho. It only takes a shadow to find them." And I am again reminded that Kasuga worked a little differently than me. He sees darkness a little easier. But he had still tried to help Ito-kun's family. He's not bad at heart. He's just a pessimist.

My thoughts turn back to Muta. Poisoned. Be safe, Mu-kun.

I visit Muta in the hospital after my shift at gate guarding ends. Toku and Itachi are already there. I'm late aren't I?

There doesn't seem to be much wrong with Muta though, he's sitting up in bed with a rather bemused expression as the three of them joke and laugh by the time that I arrive.

"Mu-kun?" I take him by the shoulders and check to make sure that they've fixed whatever that was causing his unconsciousness. "Are you alright?"

He smiles, and brushes my loose hair away from my face. "I'm perfectly well, Hana-chan." He sighs. "There was just an airborne poison that my kikaichu were affected by on the last mission." He gestures around the room. "The mission was a success. I just happened to be the only one to end up here since I'm the least experienced of the squad."

"I see." Not every mission has to do with missing nin or ends in tears. I have to remember that.

"Actually." Muta remarks as he glances around the room as if expecting someone to be hiding behind the curtains or the hospital beds. "I'm a little confused as to why Shishou isn't here to see me." Ah yes. Mu-kun's mysterious Shishou. I still have no idea who he or she is.

"Were they waiting for you to get back?" Toku asks, and leans forward. "When are we going to meet this Shishou of yours anyway?"

Muta pokes his cheek. "That's why Shishou isn't here yet. He hates visiting hospitals when other people can see him." That sounds like Kakashi, but I feel like Kakashi would have said something if he became the teacher of one of my genin teammates.

That and Kakashi hates teaching everything. He hates students in general.

Can't be Kakashi.

"You know me so well, brat." And that is a voice that I've heard before.

I whirl around. "You." Him. The senbon chewing shinobi that I'd been arguing with down by the north gate.

"You." He responds, just as surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"Shishou." Muta protests weakly. "What's going on?"

Shiranui Genma leans casually against a wall, and ignores Muta's query. "How do you even know my student anyway?"

"I'm his genin teammate." I frown at him. Surely Mu-kun is not reticent enough for you to not know who his genin teammates are.

"I thought those where his genin teammates." Shiranui-san gestures towards Toku and Itachi. "They were the ones who showed up first."

"I was on duty." I snap. You were the one to remind me of that Shiranui-san.

At the same moment, Itachi walks forward to stare at Shiranui-san. "We're all a part of Team Ensui." There's an edge of irritation in his voice that I can appreciate. I think you've been very rude so far.

Toku's veins bulge. "Don't be mean to my sister, Shinobi-san."

"Shishou." Muta pushes himself to his feet. "I already told you that I have three genin teammates." And he might not have fought and nearly died with Itachi by his side, but by the love he holds for the rest of his genin team, Itachi is his teammate.

"A close team, huh." Shiranui-san crosses his arms over his chest and stares at the four of us. "You'll end up hurt one of these days." The senbon in his mouth flicks back and forth as he talks, but there's something dark and sad in his eyes as he stares at us. "Death comes for free."

And then he disappears out the door.

"Well." Toku comments. "Someone's got a pessimistic Shishou." He jabs Muta in the stomach with his elbow to make sure that Muta falls back onto the bed. "I get why you never introduced us now."

I visit an official meeting of clan heads with Kaa-san a few weeks after the previous events. As a Clan Heiress it is technically my right to attend, but most heirs and heiresses don't ever visit because it is boring.

"Are you sure you want to go?" Kaa-san sighs. "It's full of old idiots who argue over tax rates, mission settlements, and clan laws." That does not sound like an ideal evening.

Most laws in Konoha...well, let's just say that things are fairly lax. Given that it is a hidden village this is rather normal. Shinobi lie, fight, cheat, and steal all the time, and largely unless there are deaths or an overly large amount of ruckus nothing ever came of the shinobi-related problems, especially shinobi-civilian relations.

Shinobi answer only to the Hokage if they are clanless, and to their clan head before the Hokage if they were part of a clan.

The clans only nominally answer to the Hokage. Case in point: the Hyuga. The Hokage has no right to interfere with their inner workings unless it is detrimental to the village as a whole, thus, the Caged Bird Seal isn't outlawed.

"I would like to go." If I am to inherit the clan one day, and if I want to make sure that this world is better than when I found it, if I relied on my new title to help me to protect any of my pack, then I would have to know how to maneuver within Konoha's political circle.

That includes the meeting of clan heads, and the civilian council. "I think it will be an interesting learning experience."

Kaa-san shrugs. "If you think so." Her eyes are distant again. "Kai-baka's smarter than me about a lot of these things." She heads towards the door. "He did always look before he leapt and I never did." It's at times like these when I am again reminded of how Kaa-san and Tou-san fit together like pieces of a puzzle, and how early Tou-san was taken from the world. He was only twenty five when he died.

Although I suppose that must have been close to shinobi middle age for war time.

I follow Kaa-san out the door.

"And now we move to the rampant poverty in the ninth civilian district." Fugaku-san stands up to speak. I've never heard Fugaku-san speak so much at one time before. "There's been a lot of problems with people's lives in district." He must care about the topic a lot. He's never this loquacious about anything else. These people and their lives matter to him. Even so, Fugaku-san is hardly a good speaker. He's really rather bad. It must be because he never practices giving speeches.

"This is a meeting about shinobi and the shinobi forces, Uchiha-san." Danzo steeples his hands over the sheets of paper before him. "We can worry about the civilians in another meeting."

"When will we ever talk about them?" Fugaku-san slams a hand on the desk before him. "I have been asking for aid for the ninth district for years now! It has never materialized!" It is very dear to his heart then, for him to have persisted for so long.

"It is the job of the Civilian Council to deal with issues regarding civilians, Fugaku." The Hokage puffs on his pipe. "If we overstep, they will protest and we cannot have unrest within the village."

"The Civilian Council is corrupt." Fugaku-san is breathing hard now. "They will not help the people that live within the ninth district." He loves the people of Konoha. He loves the people, not the buildings, not the reputation, not the honor. He cares about the people.

"Fugaku." The Hokage seems more amused than anything else. "You have to go through the proper channels for these sorts of things. We're in the middle of a discussion to renegotiate mission rates with the Daimyo of Wind Country. It is not the time or the place to speak about the ninth district."

Fugaku-san sits down, but I see his hands clench under the table, and they are trembling. A little boy chastised for being too forward with his elders. Always, always, taught to have more patience. Was that what you were, Fugaku-san? Do you feel like that still at times like these?

"Why can we not talk about the ninth district?" I ask. I cannot bear to see Fugaku-san's disappointment. He had always been strong and unbreakable. I knew that in another life he'd died by the hand of his son, but in this life I had not seen anything to break him. This scene before me is just another way that he is human. A man who loves so deeply, so easily smacked down. "And what's wrong with the ninth district anyway?"

All eyes in the room swivel towards me. "The ninth district." Elder Homura coughs into his hand. "Is the red light district, Inuzuka-chan."

"There's not a single good person there." Elder Utatane sighs. "I do not know why we don't simply do away with the district altogether."

But surely they are people. Surely the people who lived there are people too. I will have to visit. I want to know what they are like. But I know nothing about the ninth district, and since no one else picks up the thread of conversation, not even Kaa-san who I am sure, at three hours into a four hour meeting, is so bored as to be nearly in tears or half asleep, the topic drops.

And then the conversation moves away again. Down the table, Fugaku-san's head is bowed, and his shoulders tremble. I do not think that anyone else notices the fine line a single tear carves down his face. I am not sure that I am mercenary enough to continue coming to these meetings. Can I watch this happen again and again?

"Why are we going to eat dango again?" I ask, as Itachi drags me down the street. It's been two weeks since my first Clan Head and Hokage's Council meeting, and Sensei has finally let Itachi have a day off. Of course, the first thing that he thinks of to do is to drag me out to eat dango with him.

He turns to look at me with laughter in his eyes. "What else would we eat?" He asks this as if the answer is as simple as the sky is blue, new leaves are green, and we are Team Ensui.

"Mochi, perhaps?" I ask. "It is after all, nice to have variety."

He shakes his head. "I will make an exception for pocky, nothing more."

I poke his cheek. "It is a surprise that we can't roll you down the street, Ita-kun." He flushes a little at my teasing, but I'm not done. "Who knew that the Uchiha Heir has such a sweet tooth? We'll have to cart you down to Mufu-an by the time you're thirty just because you'll be too fat to walk, and the Uchiha Clan Head can't waddle in public."

"I will not be fat, Hana." He protests, a faint blush painting his cheeks. Sadly, Itachi does not ever really blush fire engine red, sadly. He merely becomes pink, and tries valiantly to hide the fact from others. It is still funny enough to watch. "I have my pride."

"Sure you do." I sing as I skip down the street. "You have so much pride that this is the fourth time you're eating dango this week." It is only Tuesday, and I am certain that this is the first time he's given into the call that dango emits towards his soul, but it is too much fun to tease him.

"Hana!" He follows, resigned. At least we're still going in the same direction as the dango.

A.N. And we have a selection of Hana's life in pieces. There are a lot of moving parts in this chapter, and not too many humorous moments. That, and Hana has totally forgotten who Shiranui Genma is and what his importance to the main story is. She's suffering from living inside the world for too long.

And Uchiha Fugaku becomes even more human. I don't think it's that much of a stretch that he would care about the community that he's the head of police for. In the anime he places a great deal of emphasis on a bloodless coup, and I honestly feel a lot of the problem was Danzo's mistrust and the clan pressuring him because the clan was understandably angry. In my head, I see the language of flowers speaking Uchiha Traditionalist as someone who would care a great deal about the problem areas inside his community.

And the feedback I got for the last chapter was tremendous. Thank you so much you guys.

Polling question, do you guys like it when I respond to reviews at the ends of chapters, or would you prefer that I respond by PM? (It's been getting clunkier in recent chapters.)

Thank you to SalvatoreChick, Yuki Suou, Guest One (I've always liked the full version better than the shortened version of the saying because it means so much more.), LittleMissSugarLess (I'm so glad. I do want the Kakashi Hana interactions to be fun, but also serious at times.), Sazaleli, Svedka0926, LadyScatty (I feel like Toku's fought and bled and nearly died with Hana for such a long time now, that he understands why she did it, and as such he has a hard time blaming her. Sure, he does feel upset about it, but he understands and at his core, Toku's an accepting person.), ArturoLJ50 (In answer to your question, Hana has not thought about Kiba's relationship with anyone yet. I think she'll trust him to make his own decisions, because that's an Inuzuka thing, but she'll also make sure that the other person is worthy of Kiba's trust in subtle ways.), XTakaX27 (I'm glad that you like the headcanons about the Inuzuka, and yeah, Kakashi and Hana's relationship won't ever be entirely smooth, they're both very similar and very different, but it is one that's rewarding for both of them in different ways.), rickrossed, Sam, Sis (The Katon:Kill It with Fire Jutsu will forever be a thing.), Killing Curse Eyes (Team Ensui is very close, that's true.), libraryrockerr (Yeah, Danzo gets no hugs.), yulionde (The ship is unplanned. It depends on what the characters say, and there won't be relationship drama for the sake of drama. There's so much drama everywhere already.), Guest Two (Well it looks like the ship has sailed for someone :P.), May525, and MarchionessBlueViolet (I'm glad you like it!) for reviewing!

And everyone who favorited and followed!

~Tavina