While Kotetsu was spreading stories.
"Hinata-sama," Neji said coolly, standing outside the door to the inn-room she had rented for herself. "Your father would like to speak to you."
"Oh, yes," Hinata said nervously. "I have been trying to..."
She stopped when the tall form of her father stepped forward onto the landing behind Neji and she swallowed, suddenly wishing she had decided to go with Naruto's suggestion of collaborating on a larger house. She could also decide to try and speak to Naruto now, but she really didn't want to...burden him with her issues.
Not to mention that when he'd suggested it, she'd just about fainted and it had been so long since she'd fallen that far.
"Hinata, you have stayed in this common hovel for travelers since you returned," Hiashi noted with a clearly disapproving voice. "You have been avoiding your duty to report to me. I would like to know why."
Hinata felt herself shivering as she looked from Neji to Hiashi.
"I...was hoping not to burden you with my presence, Father," she said quietly.
"And why would my eldest daughter be a burden to me?" he asked curiously.
His eyes moved slightly toward the sword that sat on the desk nearby.
"Is that the foreign weapon you have returned with?" he asked. "Does this mean that you have abandoned your Jyuken?"
"No," Hinata said quietly. "But...my advancement has been...unorthodox. None of my teachers the past two years could teach me the true Jyuken. I have had to self-teach some things. It also..."
"Yes?" Hiashi asked.
"The pure form would be...useless against some of my opponents in the battles I have fought in the past two years," she admitted weakly as both her cousin and her father narrowed their eyes dangerously.
"Are you calling our family art, useless?" Neji demanded. "Is this how you cover up your failure, but consider the failed skill useless?"
Hinata flinched and wrung her hands.
"No, that's not it," Hinata said nervously.
"Do you consider yourself one of those against whom the pure form is useless?" Hiashi asked.
He got no answer from the shaking Hinata as she looked away from where he stood.
"I understand that your jonin-instructed plans to gauge your team's combat ability tomorrow," Hiashi noted. "We shall be present to assess your skills at that time."
"As you say, father," Hinata said nervously.
Hiashi glared down at her before turning down the hall of the inn and walking away.
"Your hour away has made reckless, Hinata-sama," Neji warned before he, too, turned to leave.
[Nein furcht, mein Meister], the gladius said mechanically.
"You're right, Kleinhoffen," Hinata said. "I should not fear. But I do.."
"I'm kinda worried about Hinata," Naruto said, apparently to the air.
[Always], the small jeweled hammer around his neck noted simply.
Naruto frowned and looked down toward the device on his neck.
"I mean, she didn't want to go back to her family," Naruto said. "And she didn't want to share a place. I mean, I know she can take care of herself, but there's something going on."
[Yes]
"If you 'Hn' at me, I'll paint you pink," Naruto warned. "Weren't you designed off my own memories or something?"
[True.]
Naruto growled and looked back down at the device.
"So why are you so cold and aloof then?" Naruto asked.
[Nostalgia].
Naruto was almost sure that that was a question despite the lack of a tone indicating a question.
"What do you think of Ino?" Naruto asked.
[Loud].
Ino reached back behind her shoulder, trying to scratch at the slight itch she'd developed. A first thought when it had started was that she hadn't finished changing yet, but this was a different kind of itch than that had been.
"All right," Inoichi said. "So we've proven that at least their common conversational ability is highly efficient chakra wise."
"I couldn't even really feel a drain," Ino agreed. "But..."
"It's 'noisy', just like they said about their 'magic'," Inoichi agreed. "So the question is how to make it a bit less easier to intercept without making it to tiring."
"I think Kurenai-sensei is having us display our combat skills tomorrow," she reminded him.
"Some preliminaries then, Inoichi said.
See other episodes by Thrythlind
(Posted Fri, 20 May 2011 12:44)
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