Fifty Shades of Gennin

"Put it back."

"Er, Hey there Hinata, " Naruto said. "You sure are forward today."

"Put it back!"

"Okay, okay." Naruto held his hands up between them. "I'm listening. So you might want to, you know, take a teeny step back?"

For the first time, Hinata became cognizant of their surroundings. Across the upscale restaurant meals had been paused, patrons watching them incredulously. Hinata looked at Naruto, squished up against the wall. She looked down at herself, right in his face with both hands pinned on either side of his head.

"Excuse me, miss?" A waiter approached, wringing his hands. "I'm afraid lovers' quarrels are not permitted on the dining floor. If you would please take this outside…"

Hinata dropped her arms to her sides as her cheeks turned red.

"We're not lovers," she said.

"Even if that may be the case now, you're making the other patrons uncomfortable."

"It won't happen again," Hinata said quietly.

The waiter backed away, still eyeing them suspiciously. She held her wrist and offered the other patrons a series of apologetic bows.

"Is everyone in Konoha this interesting?" asked a familiar voice.

It came from the table Hinata had dragged Naruto away from. When she arrived at this restaurant for their second meeting, she had lost control the moment she spotted him, her stress making her snap. She thought that was entirely fair.

For almost two days she dwelt in the Hyuuga compound like a ghost. She avoided her sister and father at every opportunity. Her imagination invented scenarios the entire time, feeding her treacherous thoughts of the thousand ways her lack of seal could be exposed…. along with the thousand punishments she was sure to be subjected to should the truth emerge.

To undo the cursed seal was to break tradition. It was to elevate the branch house onto the level of the main. Worst of all in the pale eyes of the Hyuuga, it would remind everyone just how artificial the barriers between them were. They were all family, with the same eyes and skills and blood. But the branch house was huge, and the main house numbered only two these days. If someone found a way to break their seal, the main house would stop at nothing to make an example of them. Their very lives might depend on it.

So Hinata walked carefully, and she answered any questions quickly, and generally hoped that no one would look her way. Usually, that would be a safe bet. But for some reason, these days it felt like everyone needed her for something.

"And now she is staring off into space. Fascinating."

Hinata blinked as her attention returned to the restaurant. Naruto slipped past her, dropping back into the seat she yanked him out of. Opposite him, a man and woman slightly older than them sat staring at her.

The man had dark skin and shockingly white hair, despite looking thirty at the oldest. A plate of food in front of him was untouched. He had a scabbard on his back, although it was empty. He stared intently at Hinata, boring into her with his serious gaze, but he wasn't the one who spoke.

That was the woman next to him. A very recognizable, very buxom blond. Samui, straight out of Naruto's book, regarded her.

"Can I help you?" Samui asked Hinata.

Her companion elbowed her.

"Don't be rude to her," he said. "I read about something like this once. The foreign village made a crazy scene on purpose, and if the ambassadors made fun of it, they'd cut their heads off. Just wham! Straight off our shoulders. You don't want that, do you?"

Samui rolled her eyes. "Eat your food Omoi."

"Not yet," said the man. "I'm eighty-three percent sure it's poisoned."

"Then go hungry," Samui said. "But do it quietly."

Hinata stared at the scene. There were four seats, but only three people were eating. Two, she supposed, if you discounted Omoi. The last seat was empty, and Naruto patted it, looking expectantly at Hinata.

So she took the seat. It wasn't like she could do anything more embarrassing than the stunt she pulled when she walked in.

Which did not mean she was done grilling Naruto just yet. Only that it would have to wait a bit, until a better opportunity arose…

Like a lack of bystanders for the next time she pinned him to a wall.

Naruto leaned close to her, shielding his mouth with his hand.

"They're foreign delegates," he whispered. "Hope you don't mind. I had to meet 'em today, figured I would bring you along. The boring stuff is part of my life too after all."

Omoi pointed. "Samui? They're plotting."

Samui reached across, scooping a large spoon-full of curry and shoving it in Omoi's mouth.

"See? Perfectly non-poisoned. So go ahead and use your mouth for something other than speaking for a while."

Omoi chewed slowly and swallowed.

"I have fifteen minutes to live," he said forlornly.

But, apparently deciding the damage was done already, he took the spoon and began to eat. Maybe the poison was tasty.

"Is this one qualified to hear our discussion?" Samui asked, eyes pointedly looking at Hinata.

"I invited her, so yes." Naruto shrugged. "It's not like this is anything top secret. Didn't Dad call this 'friendship talks'?"

"The Hokage," Hinata and Samui corrected him in unison. They looked at each other for a moment, although Hinata looked away quickly.

"Hokage Schmokage," Naruto said, making Hinata gape. "The point is, we're just supposed to be getting to know each other. If promising young Shinobi are friends, maybe the alliance will last longer. That's the idea, ain't it?"

Omoi swallowed another bite. "Alliances never last. That's the number one rule of being a ninja."

"Doesn't hurt to try from time to time though," Naruto said.

"Especially now," Samui agreed.

The waiter wandered by — a different one than the man that confronted Hinata, mercifully — and she quietly ordered a water. The mood at the table was stiff, each of them thinking the same things.

It had been only a few years since change swept the shinobi nations. For the first time ever, all five villages collaborated. It was Minato Namikaze who proposed it, and once the details of the Akatsuki, the mysterious enemy, were revealed, cooperation was accepted across the board. The missing-nin organization wielded an absurd amount of power between their command of Ame, their long list of S class runaways, and a leader with power which most thought was a myth.

But they were soon reminded that there was a reason the five villages ruled. Through sheer numbers, Ame was crushed. The Akatsuki's members were defeated by the villages' elites. And when the leader brought his six bodies to bear, wielding awful power on par with a village itself, Minato was the one to put him down.

Some thought that would be the start of peace. After joining hands once, surely the world's powers would learn to coexist.

That quickly proved as much of a dream as ever.

"Have you heard about Kiri?" Samui asked.

"You guys hear anything about that place?" Naruto said.

"Not much," the girl allowed. "But I heard their rebellion was put down. Perhaps they'll reemerge soon."

"They took the worst of it from the Akatsuki," Naruto said. "Their Mizukage was controlled for years. It'll take them ages to get powerful again."

"That's what makes them dangerous," Hinata said.

She didn't often participate in these kinds of conversations. But if there was one thing she understood, it was the mind of the weak… and how far they could go to change their status.

"I bet the whole thing was faked," Omoi said. "They just want us to think that they're weak. I'm sure they've trained up a new generation of swordsmen already. When we don't expect it, they'll attack. Like Suna."

Hinata winced. Even Naruto's face darkened. That was a sore spot in Konoha. Their waterless neighbors were meant to be their closest allies. But maybe Omoi wasn't wrong about alliances, because Suna wasted no time in attacking when they perceived Konoha's guard was down.

They timed it to when Minato was away at the Kage Summit. But either they underestimated Konoha or they overestimated themselves. They were beaten back quickly, retreating into their harsh native terrain where Konoha wouldn't follow. Since then, contact had been minimal between their villages, limited to brief border skirmishes.

"Bad times," Naruto said, remembering the same thing as Hinata.

The fighting had been short but brutal. Worst of all, Suna saw no reason to leave civilian towns in their path. For the shinobi that had been mobilized — meaning all of them, even the likes of her and Naruto — images of massacred towns were still fresh in their minds. And everywhere the carnage appeared, red sand surrounded the bodies.

"I apologize," Samui said. "We shouldn't bring up your worst enemies."

Hinata and Naruto looked at each other.

"Iwa," they said in unison.

"Sorry?"

"Iwa hate us the most," Naruto explained. "They'd sacrifice everyone in the village to bury my dad… y'know, because he killed half of them himself."

The table went silent. As far as reasons to hate someone went, that was a pretty good one.

"We truly are the only allies you have left," Samui observed.

It was right then, embarrassingly late, that Hinata processed just where these shinobi were from.

Omoi's skin should've been a giveaway. These were Kumo shinobi, soldiers for that village. They were the delegation Neji had gone out of his way to warn her of.

The revelation should really have concerned her more than it did.

"That's why we're doing this, ain't it?" Naruto said. "Kumo and Konoha: too distant to step on each other's toes, so they might as well shake and play nice. I think the younger generation has gotten along pretty good for a while."

Samui actually smirked. "Indeed we have, haven't we?"

The talk moved on from geopolitics a moment later, but it never quite became friendly. Too much thought went into each word, making certain they didn't let anything important slip by accident. Except Naruto. He just talked, but his tendency to ramble about things that didn't matter kept him from spilling village secrets.

After a while, Naruto decided to show Omoi (who despite his insistence he'd been poisoned, was still perfectly fine an hour after eating his curry) the great view off the restaurant's upper floor. Hinata remained behind to take a moment to relax. She didn't count on Samui staying too.

"You are the Hyuuga heir, aren't you?" the girl asked when the boys had left.

"Former heir," Hinata said.

"It must be difficult to meet with us. That was bad business, years ago. If only our delegate had been a bit more careful…"

"Indeed," Hinata said.

Only when Samui stopped, staring at her, did she realize that was probably supposed to have been threatening.

It was old news for those in Konoha. Kumo wanted the Byakugan. They tried to take it. Hinata was the weakest link, an unsealed child easy enough to abduct, except that her father caught Kumo's elite in the act and struck him down.

That act cost her uncle his life. It was the most frightened she'd ever been, before or since. And when Samui said the delegate should've been more careful, well, there were two ways to take it. More careful not to anger the Hyuuga and be killed in cold blood, which was how Kumo framed the plot. Or, he should've been more careful following his mission, enough not to be caught, in which case Hinata would've been dragged to The Cloud before she was old enough to channel chakra.

If Omoi were the one to say it, Hinata would likely have gone stiff in her chair. But every time she looked at Samui, all she saw was the mewling wreck that had been humbled by Naruto's cock.

"Samui." Hinata leaned across the table, wrapping her fingers around the girl's hands. And Samui was so surprised that she didn't pull away. "I know it can be difficult, but you need to be honest about your own capabilities."

"Excuse me?"

"Everyone thinks they can handle anything, before they try. I know you're like that too. But not just anyone can take on the big ones."

Samui stiffened. Her eyes flared, yet at the same time she seemed uncertain. She felt she'd lost control of this conversation.

"I'm an accomplished Jounin!" she said. "My skills are extremely potent!"

"Yet as soon as they're put to the test, they will crumble again." Hinata rubbed the girl's knuckle, a slight fervor entering her voice. "I'm trying to tell you, out of the goodness of my heart, that the way you're going, you'll end up broken on a floor somewhere. Don't try to take control… if you want to save yourself."

Samui shot back. She pulled her hands away and bolted up, knocking her chair back. Hinata smiled placidly.

That was a load off her shoulders that she hadn't realized was there before. It had been bothering her tremendously since watching Samui's sex tape. The Kumo shinobi tried to take the lead with Naruto of all people, only to crumble at her first taste of his cock.

She needed to adjust her expectations. Hinata had warned her… if she didn't change her ways now, that was on her.

Samui was breathing hard. "You… So brazenly—!"

"What's up?" Naruto asked.

He and Omoi appeared, looking curiously at the girls. Omoi glanced at the scene one time and placed his head in his hands.

"You started an international incident, didn't you?" he moaned, his voice muffled. "The ANBU are already on their way. They're going to strip us for weapons, then they're going to break our fingers, and then they'll peel off our skin. We'll be sent back to Kumo inside out. Everything's over."

"Of course not." Her partner's complete lack of composure helped Samui recollect herself. "Apologies. This has been a wonderful meal, but we really must be off. Us delegates have very busy schedules!"

"Busy because the Hokage's going to crush my head like a watermelon, and afterwards he's going to—"

"Come on."

Samui grabbed the dark-skinned boy by the hand, dragging him from the restaurant. Naruto watched them go while scratching his head.

"What in the world did you tell her to get that reaction?" he asked.

"Advice," Hinata said.

"What kind?"

"One she didn't like hearing. But I'm sure she'll be better off for it in the long run."

He gave Hinata a strange look. After a moment he managed a smile, but it lacked his usual unquenchable energy.

"Whatever you did, it worked out for you," he said, starting for the door himself. "You got what you wanted."

"What did I want?" Hinata asked, hurriedly standing up.

Naruto stopped.

"To talk to me, right?" he said. "Alone. Without witnesses. About what may or may not be there."

It was no coincidence that his eyes locked onto Hinata's forehead as he spoke.

She nodded meekly.

"Come on," he said. "I know a spot."

O-O-O

Rooftops in Konoha were almost as busy as the roads. The same way civilians walked through their daily lives, ninjas sprinted and leaped. It was more common to spot some Chuunin or other hopping between buildings than it was to see an empty skyline.

But Naruto took Hinata on a strange route, one which led them near the academy, onto a squat orange building not on any of the major routes. There was a rusted overhang held up by some feeble wood posts and an old flowerpot, filled only with a few dead leaves and forgotten dirt.

"Not as pretty as the Hokage Monument, but nobody'll find us up here," Naruto declared. He plopped down on the dusty floor, ignoring the puff of grit that spouted up. "Now tell me. What do you want back?"

Hinata sat herself. Unlike the blond, she picked the roof's low balcony, balancing on the much cleaner surface.

"My seal," she said. "Put it back."

"It can't be put back."

"Then give me a new one."

"I can't do that."

"Like Kami you can't! You—"

Can make seals that record videos and project holograms, she almost said. But she wasn't supposed to know about that.

"You're the village's best seals expert. You could destroy it. What do you mean you can't replace it?"

Naruto peered at her.

"Let me ask this instead," he said. "Why do you want that seal back?"

"It was my life," Hinata said.

"Even though it could've killed you?"

So he did know what the function was. And oh, sure, that wasn't the primary function… but it was the one that saw the most use.

"Not having it will kill me faster," she said. "When they discover I don't have it, I'll be killed."

"No way!" Naruto said. "That's your clan!"

"And the Hyuuga are nothing if not decisive."

"That's wrong!"

Hinata shrugged.

"I'm not arguing it is right. Just telling you what will happen."

Naruto snarled. Hinata jolted at the noise, nearly toppling back off the ledge she was perched on. For a moment his lips peeled back over his canines, like a predator baring its fangs.

Yet Hinata never got the feeling it was her the gesture was directed toward.

As quick as it came it disappeared. His expression smoothed, and his blue eyes lost their fire.

"I was telling the truth when I said I couldn't make that seal," he said.

Hinata's heart sank. Her head drooped.

"But…"

Her head shot back up. Naruto rose, offering her an awkward smile.

"I understand this was maybe kind of my fault. I, uh, act too quickly a lot. My parents always tell me that. Not that my mom has a leg to stand on…" He blinked. "Sorry. Lost my train of thought. The point is, I might have screwed up, so I have an offer. I'll personally teach you to use seals."

"How do you expect me to surpass you in a month?" Hinata asked incredulously.

"You don't have to surpass me," Naruto promised. "It isn't that I can't make the seal because I don't understand it. That thing I broke wasn't that complicated. The problem is, it's keyed into Hyuuga chakra. Someone from your clan has to put it on, otherwise it won't work right. So I'll teach you seals. I'll show you how to make it. And if by the end of this month you still want the seal, you can have it back."

Hinata was so relieved that it took her a moment to catch the last part.

"What do you mean, 'if I still want it?'"

"That thing is a blight," Naruto said bluntly. "I understand that you're scared of what your family will do if you don't have it. But even though you're not thrilled about it… you're supposed to marry me. Once that happens, they can't touch you, seal or no seal. I won't let them."

"I didn't ask for your protection," Hinata said coldly.

He shrugged.

"Not yet. But there's still time."

She shut her eyes. Her breathing became measured. In her head she counted the days, calculating how long she'd have to live with two eyes over her shoulder at all times for fear of discovery.

A month of that sounded arduously long. And yet…

It at least offered a light at the end of the tunnel.

She opened her eyes.

"I agree," she said.

Naruto was already beaming.

"JUST LIKE THAT A NEW DISCIPLE ENTERS NARUTO NAMIKAZE'S GREAT CHURCH OF SEALS, MOTHERFUCKERS!"

Hinata pressed her hands to her ears. "Too loud!"

Little did she know, that was about to become the motto of her life.