'I'm losing my Sight?' Hinata put both of her hands over her upper arms, as if cradling herself inward. "No..."
This couldn't be happening to her. She was the Priestess of Souls. She needed her advanced vision to function.
Warashi rabidly stuttered. "Okay, okay, don't panic!" He paced the sidewalk next to the temple. "Let's see if I can get contact with someone higher up and ask about this... I know!" There was a dawning expression on his face, as if he remembered whom to call and then his head dropped to his chin in disappointment. "Oh, yeah... My superiors severed all contact with me so that the Priestess' team would be more discreet, even among spirits. Maybe a run-in with a local kami might help..." He caught the disbelieving looks coming from Naruto and Sasuke. "I said don't panic!" the ghost exclaimed.
"The one who's panicking is you!" Naruto said.
Sasuke held out a palm, the blue-and-silver talisman resting on top. "Could this have anything to do with it?"
Warashi looked at the omamori. He turned away. His hands tugged on his bushy hair, as if he were doing heavy mental work. He squatted down into a hoodlum position, mumbling gibberish to himself.
The three waited.
After a long pause, the ghost stood up, and turned back to them. "It's probably a curse."
There was a silence.
"Be more specific," Sasuke said, pulling his wool scarf closer around his throat.
Zashiki Warashi looked at him. "Well... a curse is a curse."
Naruto sighed. "As in, what is it according to spirits." He pulled up something around his collar. A thin, green crystal on a string appeared. "How about this?" he challenged. "Is there a curse on it?"
Hinata and Sasuke stared at him. What was so special about a quartz necklace? It seemed as though Naruto were skeptical about Warashi's abilities.
The specter groaned. "You can't just hand me something and expect me to see it as cursed," Warashi said. "There are many types of curses. Some manifest themselves through physical deformities, like an illness. Others are detectable only by spiritually sensitive people, or by the aid of special rituals or items. A few items, you can only guess if they're cursed based on a string of histories." The boy took a curious glance at the green necklace, shrugged, and then floated over to Hinata. "But what's important is figuring out what's happening to Hinata-neechan's vision!"
'I don't get it,' Naruto thought to himself. 'If the whole omamori is glowing, wouldn't that mean the whole village is cursed? That would be pretty large, and Kyuubi would have said something by now...'
Sasuke noticed a few people glancing at them curiously from a distance. Those who took care of the temple were especially concerned. Everybody else was leaving and going off to sleep. "I'll take the long way home, and probe around with my eyes and hearing," Sasuke said, quickly assigning a game plan. "Hyuuga, stay with the dunce"
"Hey," Naruto growled.
" as an escort," Sasuke continued, stuffing away the interruption. "Practice your bloodline limit in the night at home, on and off. If your normal Byakugan is effected as well... don't use it."
Warashi put up two arms, crossing them in an 'X'. "No!" he said. "You
three all have to get some rest! Try looking around on the way home, but
I'll search the town while you sleep."
Hinata brushed her hair quietly, kneeling before a dresser-mirror. Her hand opened a small lacquer case red in color, and covered with the finest carvings of drifting clouds. It was the only memento she had left of her deceased mother.
The girl pulled the hairpins out of her midnight-blue hair. She wrapped the accessories with leftover scraps of sewing cloth, and placed them carefully into the jewelry box. Her pearl eyes glanced up to the mirror. Warashi's paling form stood in its reflection.
No matter how many times Hinata looked at him, his legs were enveloped in a hazy mist. The color of his clothes was mellowed down to a watery pastel. Her current condition was better than the white-and-black (or was it white-and-blue?) that Naruto and Sasuke possessed for seeing ghosts but what if her eyes were growing worse?
Maybe she was not active enough in her duties as the Priestess, and the spirits decided to slowly remove her advanced vision. That wasn't so bad, individually speaking: her normal Byakugan had not been affected yet by this odd disorder, so her abilities as a kunoichi (and a Hyuuga at that) were not challenged. In fact, there was the possibility that losing her advanced vision would improve her work as a ninja; she already had been tardy on two occasions because of supernatural forces appearing in the vicinity.
Yet it was still bad. They could be surrounded, and she might lose her ability to see Zashiki Warashi.
"Hinata-neechan," Warashi said quietly behind her, "do you feel okay?"
Hinata nodded. "I'm fine. Just a little tired." She got up in her pajamas, and walked over to her futon.
"I'll go fly a circle around the village," Warashi said, floating upward. "Good night! I'll get back to you as soon as I sense something sleep, okay?"
"I will, Warashi-chan," Hinata returned. "Good night." She watched the ghost's form disappear through the ceiling. She lay down, and snuggled into the covers. 'What a manner in which to start the new year...'
The Priestess sunk into the thick futon. She shivered. It was difficult to fall asleep with this new predicament. Finally, she imagined that Naruto held her in a warm embrace. The comfort and ease of mind made her warm up, and pacified her into a deep slumber.
The shouji-door slid halfway open. Hanabi walked in, already dressed in her sleeping robes. A round wooden box with several scrolls rested in her hand.
"Onee-sama?" Hanabi whispered.
Hinata slept peacefully, undisturbed. Hanabi set the scrolls onto the
tatami-mat, and crawled into her own futon.
Sasuke rotated his arms, stretching his muscles and warming up. A breath of mist escaped his mouth and poured into the cold air. The ninja had been unable to sleep. He could toss and turn on the bed, but not fall asleep. Sasuke had had a four-hour nap prior to the midnight bell ringing, which was immediately followed by a possible new threat. How could he sleep now? Warashi assured them that he'd investigate, the ghost that he was, but Sasuke had a bad feeling about the whole thing.
So far, no monsters. Warashi seemed to be correct in his theory that it was a curse. Sasuke trailed a few fingers on the left side of his neck. He could feel the three scars, however miniscule they were. The avenger was, oddly enough, feeling some concern for the village. How could an entire town be marked?
He shook his head. Whether or not his sleep schedule had gone to the dogs, or that the village was cursed in some odd manner, Sasuke was determined to at least have something of his life which showed Order. Morning training.
And if he could slip in watching the Hatsuhi no De the rising sun of New Year's Day while training, then so much the better. It had been a while since he received visual beauty (no, his own face in the mirror did not count). And on this holiday morning, the other ANBU-hopefuls had their training off. Well, Uchiha Sasuke never rested for anything.
Damn the know-it-all captain. (He still had not sent an explanation of how Naruto and Sasuke could have cheated on the written assignment.) Damn the holidays.
The teenager sneezed. Sasuke looked around, wondering if anybody else had witnessed that.
Sasuke threw a punch, hoping that it would ease the threatening sniffle in his head. He performed a series of kicks and thrusts, now and then making his limbs blur through the air. At one moment, he kicked off the ground and threw ten shuriken at different angles all the white targets in the trees around him were hit.
Sasuke touched down on his feet, sweat dampening the cloth of his hitai-ate. He pulled out a kunai from his holster, and spun it on his finger, using the metal ring on its end. Sasuke somehow felt more comfortable with shuriken. He liked their shape and form, and the task of weaving them together with wire in complex, geometric designs. One could also work wires through the kunai, but it was not as enjoyable. Sasuke only thought of kunai as defensive weapons if the enemy came very, very close to him with a blade of his own.
Like whoever was watching him from behind. Right now.
Sasuke turned around. A mess of what looked like snow appeared before him. Sasuke figured out that it was an illusion of daisy petals.
A kunoichi with sleek, blonde hair stood before him. She was dressed in purple clothing and white bandages. A pair of aquamarine earrings sparkled around her ears. She walked up to Sasuke, raising her right hand.
Sasuke caught her wrist before she slapped him.
"What do you want, woman?" Sasuke hissed at Yamanaka Ino. He actually had begun to view her as somewhat sensible nowadays... but of course appearances deceived.
"I just wanted to inform you," Ino said sweetly, before her face took on a menacing snarl, "that you are an asshole, Uchiha Sasuke."
"That's no reason to walk up and attempt to strike me," Sasuke answered curtly.
He flung her arm away. Ino shrieked. Sasuke noticed a light bruise on her wrist. He hadn't realized that his grip was so fierce. The ninja felt almost inclined to ask for forgiveness. Almost. She had tried to hit him first.
"Are you done insulting me?" he asked.
"I am not through with you yet!" Ino lectured. "I've been holding this in for years, and I can't take another second of it!" Pausing, she breathed like an intemperate wild boar. "Simply put, you are a brainless, coldhearted bastard!" she burst out. "You had an intelligent, innocent girl who was hopelessly in love with you, and you just... just threw her away like dirt! AGAIN!"
Sasuke looked at Ino as if she were crazy. He sneered at her tight clothing and bandages. "You don't seem very intelligent and innocent to me."
Ino swelled like a bullfrog. "Not me, I mean my best friend!" she exclaimed. "I thought Sakura was out of her mind, babysitting a traitor like you during your probation, while at the same time taking up intensive lessons with the Hokage... No wonder she was genin for so long; she never got a chance to study normal shinobi matters, let alone SLEEP!" She inhaled and exhaled slowly, cooling down from her rant slightly. "And here you are now," she continued, "just training day in, day out, not even asking the Hokage to go search for Sakura, even when a woman with pink hair was recently sighted in the northern country"
Sasuke grabbed Ino by the shoulders. Normally, he would never touch other people, but this was something important. "Is that true?" he hissed. He swore that he'd shake her if she were bluffing.
"Do you think I'd be lying if I were SCREAMING?" she screamed in his face. Ino felt her back hit the ground the next second Sasuke had let go of her, and was now striding towards the village. "You bastard!" she exclaimed, getting up from the ground. "You can't just drop a girl!"
Sasuke, meanwhile, was trying to think things over. The possibility of finding Sakura was there. It was slim, but it existed. This new information enforced it. And who cared about what the guardian of the river said? Even spirits were fallible; if they experienced life as individuals, then they could not possibly have a completely objective point of view...
A sleek sound interrupted Sasuke's thoughts. He turned around. Long, sharp needles flew towards him.
Sasuke's hands clapped together in front of his face. Senbon needles. He took a second glance at the pissed-off Ino. Thin lines of chakra danced around her body like a web.
The raven-haired ninja began to think that all normality might have dropped out from the situation.
A hazy image of a gigantic boar surrounded Ino. The kunoichi seemed to be the core of the ghost-like animal, which grew with furious aura.
Sasuke jumped away. 'What the hell...?'
He then saw Ino collapse but not the boar. The whispery form enveloped the kunoichi as soon as her eyes displayed exhaustion. Ino floated within the clear-blue miasma, her pupils dilated. The boar's image began to grow lifelike, more real. Its lining of chakra turned into shaggy, red-and-brown fur. Cloudy whiskers morphed into solid bronze tusks, and purple foam dribbled from its jaws.
Sasuke slowly backed away. A monster boar had just jumped out of Ino. "A youkai?"
"Not yet," a voice from the animal warbled. "Once I drain this girl's soul completely, I will be solid enough to shred you to pieces." It scratched its hooves on the frosty ground, and aimed towards Sasuke. "Her frustration of you is very strong," the half-grown monster gurgled. "Not only does this Ino despise you for spurning Sakura, she also has a pent-up grudge that you took her best friend away. Sakura idolized her in their childhood, you see... And you killed that innocent girl."
A smirk. "An exaggeration," Sasuke dismissed. He slowly reached towards his pouch of ninja-tools. He decided to drive on the conversation, no matter how annoying it was. Sasuke needed time, and the perfect moment. Besides, the monster was only taking Ino's skewed opinions and twisting them to intimidate him. It was a good thing the boar or Ino, whichever had informed Sasuke of the reports. Whether it was a lie or not, it gave Sasuke a new boost of confidence. "Sakura may still be alive. Her body was not actually found."
"I'm not talking about her physical presence." The boar's voice seemed to have a double layer, with Ino's cry in the background. "You killed her spirit."
Sasuke went rigid in the jaws. The boar charged.
Sasuke kicked himself out of his freeze. This was ridiculous, he decided. He threw a set of shuriken towards the monster. He saw that the weapons hit on target and were Sasuke not mistaken, he could see them slow down as they traveled into the boar.
'It's still transparent,' Sasuke realized. The boar moved as a clear, gummy shape. The shuriken and Ino were stuck in the middle, like bits of fruit in gelatin.
Sasuke briskly moved aside, evading the stampeding animal. There was the rip of fabric and a searing pain.
The dodge was close. One of the bronze tusks had made a large tear Sasuke's sleeve. The wound was just a nick but if Sasuke had not been quicker, his arm could have been torn off. The transparent boar stomped in a circle, facing Sasuke again. Intakes of breath were visible around its nostrils.
Cold sweat appeared on the ninja's brow. Wasn't it Hinata's job to take care of stuff like this?
Sasuke clenched his fists. No, he decided. He had to learn how to fight these things on his own, especially when youkai attacks were increasing and Hinata's Sight was in possible jeopardy.
Sasuke's black irises spun into a dark crimson. 'Sharingan!'
From what Sasuke gathered of the monster's image, its chakra was half the density of a regular person's chakra. The youkai itself was huge, so stacking all of that thin aura together definitely made brute force but it was still incomplete.
Sasuke's red eyes glanced at the center. Around Ino's nose and mouth was a mold of air, which in turn was connected to two streams of bubbles leading to the demon's forehead. It was probably a roughly thrown-together breathing system, so that the monster could finish absorbing the chakra and whatever strong emotions Ino held but at the speed the air-bubbles were traveling, the girl could not possibly survive long.
Sasuke could risk no more than two minutes. Ino could receive brain damage if he took longer than that. And if Sakura came back to find her childhood friend as a human vegetable well, the consequences would be dire.
Sasuke quickly calculated his possibilities. Fire-jutsu... no. Even if he burned away the youkai from the outside, he couldn't quench the blaze fast enough to keep Ino unharmed. The water-jutsu he memorized were few and were rather dreadful.
There was the Chidori, which was also very risky. The boar was moving too quickly. No matter how much Sasuke could shrink the pure-chakra attack, there was a good chance that the youkai would berserk so that Ino was hit in the process.
The boar snarled. Purple miasma dripped from its jaws, and then hissed as it touched the ground. The shuriken held still in its form, although they were harder and harder to see due. The animal's color was condensing. It was turning more solid.
Sasuke's red eyes narrowed. The shuriken. The bronze tusks.
The ninja instilled chakra into his legs, and disappeared.
The youkai looked around. It was now turning red in the face.
"Over here." Sasuke's form stood calmly in front of a tree.
The boar ran, and drove itself against the shinobi with fiery rage. The ninja broke apart, the simple Bunshin it was. The boar skidded, but then jolted to a halt. It drew its head back only to discover that it couldn't. Its bronze tusks were nailed inside the wood of the tree. The animal was stuck.
The real Sasuke stepped out from behind a different tree. He spun a kunai around his finger, smirking. "As I thought," he muttered, "no matter how terrifying it looks, it's just a dumb animal in the end."
A large vein emerged from the beast's forehead. Its hooves dug into the ground. There were several roaring snaps.
The boar-youkai uprooted the tree within its bronze tusks.
Sasuke nicked his thumb over the kunai he held. Damn it, what was with him and his tongue? It seemed like he could say nothing but the negative.
The boar tossed off the offending plant. The tree crashed down with a booming noise. The youkai then charged towards Sasuke.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" A twenty-foot long anaconda burst from Sasuke's crossed hands, and flew towards the rampaging boar. "Circle it, don't squeeze!" the ninja commanded.
The thick reptile whizzed around the youkai it resisted the urge to strangle it like any other prey, just holding tight. The boar let off an annoyed grunt, and struggled against its captor.
Sasuke pulled out a kunai. His aim had to be perfect for this one. He instilled the weapon with chakra, and then threw it towards the boar.
The kunai streamed through the transparent beast. It went through the center hole of a floating shuriken, and emerged out from the other side. Sasuke appeared there, and grabbed the slimy weapon from the hide. He pulled, only moving far enough so that the boar wouldn't lash him in case the anaconda lost a grip.
Sasuke ignored the stinging sensation around his hands from the 'blood' of the monster. If Ino was inside the boar, looking perfectly fine in appearance, then the slime sticking around his hand was just temporary pain. Probably.
Sasuke wiped off the slime from the kunai. He made it glow blue with chakra, and threw it into the boar again. Sasuke disappeared, and reappeared on the other side to catch the same kunai
The monster grunted. " What do you think you're doing?" the boar asked. " 'Pain' is a foreign concept to me."
The boar sank his jaws into the anaconda in crushing force, making the snake's eyes and jaws open wide.
The youkai bit into a snakeskin.
The anaconda encircled Sasuke, almost in a desperate manner. It had escaped, performing the Kawarimi no Jutsu with its own skin. "He's too strong," it hissed in the ears of its master. The reptile noticed a slimy bundle of wires in Sasuke's hands. "What's that for?"
Sasuke gave a fierce tug on the strings. "This."
The boar let off a rumbling cry. Ino was burst out of its right side, and was dragged to the ground in a slimy mess, held by the wires that Sasuke held at the other ends.
Sasuke ran to the unconscious girl, not wishing to drag her by wires carrying her was faster. He pulled her up over his shoulders, and backed away from the squealing boar.
'Pain a foreign concept to him? Feh.' Sasuke let down Ino behind a tree. He then stepped towards the writhing demon. "I don't particularly like that girl, but she's a friend of a friend." Sasuke clapped his hands through several In. Blue sparks began to form in his left hand. "You have some nerve, using her."
"You strike me with that," the monster gurgled, an insane look in its beady eyes, "and that woman there dies. She's connected with me, after all."
The raven-haired shinobi paused. He glanced at the unconscious Ino from the corner of his eye. "A lie," he called over the screeching Chidori. Sasuke then grinned a frightening sight, if any of his acquaintances could have seen it. "Besides, if even if were true, it's not like I would care."
The ninja charged towards the lame animal, and threw the Chidori in.
There was first a sickening blast. The miasma rushed out, and then turned into a weak, melting hole. To Sasuke's relief, he did not even feel a burn from the substance. It was only very messy. As the boar let off an ear-splitting roar, Sasuke briefly noticed that his Chidori was not a homogenous color: there were a few jagged lines of gray thrashing within the bright, light-blue sparks. The dark gray was difficult to discern, but there it was. Sasuke felt an odd, cold pleasure at its sight.
Sasuke yanked out his glowing hand from the boar's heart, or what existed there of it. He jumped away, just before the youkai exploded. The remaining pool of miasma on the ground hissed out of sight.
After ten seconds of silence, the shinobi threw a kunai on to the site of death, just to make sure the stuff was truly finished. The weapon stuck on the burnt ground. It held like a statue. Sasuke sighed in relief.
Sasuke walked over to Ino. "Hey." He gently shook the kunoichi on one shoulder. "Ino." No reaction. He walked back to the kunai to retrieve it.
Just as Sasuke was about to pull it out, his ear received a deafening shot.
"WHAT IS THIS GUNK ON MY CLOTHES?" Ino shrieked. There was clear gel all over her not just over her clothing, but on her skin, and through her hair as well. Was it glue? Or even worse... 'Is this... is this...'
Sasuke put a hand on his forehead. Could anybody say migraine from noise?
To Ino's relief, the material was quickly evaporating away. "Good; it's not what I thought it was," she said briskly. Probably some sort of genjutsu, she thought.
"What did you think it was?" Sasuke asked.
Ino froze. She slowly looked up. "Um..." The blond fidgeted, a confused
look on her face. "Sasuke-kun, how did I get here?"
Zashiki Warashi buoyed himself in the air above Konoha. He hung upside down, studying the people. He couldn't see any trace of a curse... which was pretty bad, because then it would reveal itself in many damaging ways.
The ghost wafted down to one of the apartment complexes. He rubbed his forehead with his index fingers. 'Naruto-niichan's apartment number...I forgot.' He shrugged. 'I'll just mosey through all of them until I find his.'
And so the ghost-child sank into the roof. He strode through the walls, taking his own private tour through each apartment, completely disregarding whoever and whatever he saw in them because Naruto wasn't there.
Finally, he stepped into Naruto's apartment. Specifically, the bathroom's shower. With it running. And Naruto in it.
This was not what a normal person called the ideal wake-up call.
"DAAAAH!" Naruto stumbled out of the shower, half-covered in soapy water. He quickly took the towel hanging on the rack, and wrapped it around his waist. "Warashi!"
"What's that around your bellybutton?" Warashi asked. The water showered right through his image with no hindrance.
"What do you think you're doing?" Naruto asked furiously. "I want my privacy!"
"Come on, it's not like I haven't seen anything these past several centuries," the ghost said. Warashi pointed to the wall he had just passed through. "You should have seen the two in room 301. They were snogging in the water like"
"Don't say it!" Naruto warned. He pointed at the door leading to the very narrow hallway. "Let me finish, alone."
Warashi stomped through the closed door. "What a grouch!"
After Naruto finished his shower and was adequately dressed, he walked into the kitchen. He put a skillet on the stove, and poured a dab of oil on from a nearby bottle. The blond took out an egg from the refrigerator.
Warashi seated himself on the counter. "You cook, Naruto-niichan?"
"Hell yeah," the blond said, cracking the egg into a bowl. He poured some milk in, and whipped the mixture with a pair of chopsticks. "I can make breakfast, at least. I'm so-so in lunch and dinner stuff." He poured the egg mixture on the skillet, allowing it to cook a while before scrambling it.
Warashi stared at the stovetop. "It's been so long since I've eaten anything..."
Naruto looked at Warashi. "Oh. Sorry..." He hadn't realized the simple act of preparing food would make the kid feel bad.
"Oh, don't worry about it!" Warashi said, waving his hands in front of him. "Eat. You actually need it, unlike me. That kind of thing is reserved for the living." He grinned. "That means I'm not hooked."
"That's a bright way to look at it," Naruto said, searching for the salt and pepper. 'I don't think I'd be able to cope as a ghost for very long,' he thought. 'Watching other people eat ramen without having some myself...'
"By the way, you didn't answer my question."
Naruto looked up. "Huh?"
"That swirl around your bellybutton," Warashi said. "What is it?"
Naruto stirred the eggs with the chopsticks. Well, the kid was Hinata's guardian ghost. Warashi would find out sooner or later. "Promise me you won't tell Hinata."
Warashi acted appalled. "You're keeping secrets from your girlfriend?"
"Shh!" Naruto hushed. He then realized that it didn't matter how loud Warashi spoke. He then lowered his own tone of speaking. "Look, I want to tell her on my own. It's kind of serious, all right?"
"You have a disease that's transmitted by coupling?" Warashi asked in awe. He saw Naruto's chopsticks break against the skillet. "...Okay, you don't," the ghost concluded. "But still, remember that when you do it with Hina"
"I have the Kyuubi sealed inside my naval!" Naruto hissed before Warashi could continue to skip off on the wrong path.
Warashi's swinging legs stopped.
"You're the vessel?" the ghost asked, after a moment's silence. "Of the Nine-tails?"
Naruto realized that the eggs were starting to burn. He pulled the skillet off the stove, and began scraping the food onto the toasted bread. "You think I'd joke about something like that?" Naruto asked furiously.
To Naruto's amusement, a gleam suddenly lit up the face of the ghost as if a positive, eternal truth had been revealed to him.
"That is so COOL!" Warashi exclaimed. "So this is why you have an freaky sense of smell and hearing at random times!"
Naruto looked back down on his breakfast. He gulped. "It's not... that cool," Naruto muttered, although a small glow of pride threatened to swell inside him. "Some of the older villagers hate me. The energy burns out my chakra arteries if I use it too long. The damn animal listens and sees what I do, and throws insults..."
"But still, that is awesome!" Warashi insisted. "The villagers should be praising you for being able to hold it in the first place! And you aren't all dark and insane, like that Ichibi-vessel in the Wind Country..."
"Gaara's a friend of mine," Naruto said. "And he is sane now." He took a bite from his eggs-on-toast. 'Well, at least I hope he is. They made him Kazekage, after all.'
"Wait a second..." Warashi put a hand over his mouth. "Niichan, you might be able to do demon-sealing!"
Naruto felt a strange vibe through his body. "Demon-sealing?" he repeated.
The roar of a monster fox cascaded through his mind. Naruto clutched his ears. 'Noisy little dead BRAT!' the Kyuubi roared. 'Saying unnecessary things!'
Warashi looked at the ninja, who was now resting his head on the refrigerator as if seasick. "He heard that, didn't he?" the ghost asked. Naruto answered with a nod. "Shouldn't he know that if he's completely freed from that kind of prison, both you and he would die?" Warashi pointed out.
'He does not have to remind me.'
Naruto sighed. For the first time ever, he had heard the Kyuubi's scary voice as almost... depressed. "What would be the point for sealing?" Naruto asked.
"Just to provide a backup, if a seal or in your case, a double-seal fails or is attacked," the child with bushy hair answered. "And there are jutsu that disable energies other than youki. It's pretty handy if you want to become Hokage."
"Like the Yondaime..." Naruto ignored the canine snarl in the back of his brain. Well, he had mentioned to Sasuke that they should look up on sealing, since Hinata might not be able to purify all demons. "My library card is limited, though. And even the scrolls Sasuke borrowed don't give any real jutsu."
"Greedy, aren't they?" Warashi asked.
"No," the blond shinobi answered. "Just paranoid." He took a mouthful of cold milk.
Warashi stood up on the tabletop. He flashed a brilliant smile to Naruto. "Don't worry, Naruto-niichan! I'll get you a jutsu in no time even if I have to smuggle it!"
He disappeared with a pop.
Naruto emptied his glass. Sometimes he wondered if that ghost was leeching off his optimism. The blond walked over to the sink, and put the cup down.
'Demon-sealing, huh...' Naruto had been about to give up on that prospect because of lack of information, but Warashi appeared to know what he was talking about. Naruto poured hot water into the skillet to help loosen the burnt egg. He switched back to the sink to take care of the dishes his dish-rack hardly ever piled up, mostly because Naruto possessed very few cooking and eating utensils.
Just when he began to scrub the skillet, Naruto heard a pop.
Warashi appeared in the sink, his feet in the soapy water.
"Can't you find a normal place to appear?" Naruto asked.
"Naruto-niichan," Warashi said nervously, "I can't get into the Hyuuga
residence."
Hinata drew herself up from the futon. She glanced at the clock, and realized that she had overslept. Well, it was a holiday. She rubbed her eyes to get the sleep-gunk out.
The teenager noticed the cylindrical wooden box on the floor. She guessed it to be Hanabi's property, so she didn't touch it.
Hinata breathed in the cold air. She looked at her omamori, which she kept on a loose string under her pajamas at night. It was still faintly glowing in all places. Warashi had promised to come to her immediately if something happened.
The girl noticed that there was some sort of heaviness in the air. It was different from the winter chill that always managed to penetrate their large mansion. Hinata pulled a winter-overcoat on top of her pajamas.
She stepped out of her room. A dark, empty hall greeted her. Hinata expected at least another person of the clan to be walking the hallways at this time in the morning.
Hinata stepped next to a window. Her omamori warmed up against the skin of her chest.
Hinata quickly turned her head at the paper-and-wood window next to her. There was something there. Swallowing, she flicked her hands quietly into the In. 'Byakugan!'
There was no monster outside. Hell, there was no definite form. Only a white fog enveloped the whole mansion. Hinata gave another boost of chakra to her eyes, willing her visions to see past the mist.
A harsh pain traveled through her head.
Hinata kept herself from crying out loud. Screaming was not allowed in the Hyuuga mansion; panic was the last thing to do, especially during a possible attack. Besides, she did not want to show her weakness to her relatives.
Hinata touched her face, and felt the skin under her eyes. It was smooth.
Hinata swallowed. Her normal Byakugan didn't seem to go any more that ten meters. Moreover, it turned off without her order.
The Priestess slid down against the wall, and sat on the ground. Something was very wrong. Even though she had a pretty good sleep, there was not enough chakra in her to activate her bloodline limit. Or perhaps it was gone altogether. It was as if she were in a whole different world. The house was completely quiet. None of her relatives seemed to be awake.
Hinata noticed her shadow, dancing on the dark wooden floor. She looked up to the opposite direction.
A small form was on the other end of the hallway, holding a candle. "Onee-sama?"
"Hanabi..."
Hanabi hastened towards Hinata. "The power seems to be out."
Hinata saw a looming figure behind her little sister. "Hanabi, watch
out!"
Notes:
"Ino", or just "I" - an archaic term for 'boar', especially when referring to the sign of the Chinese Zodiac. (It has to be the meaning of Ino's name, because she wore a badge with its kanji on it while watching Shikamaru fight in the Chuunin Exams.) This is why Sakura called Ino "Ino-buta" or 'Ino-pig'. Now the more commonly-used word for 'boar' is "Inoshishi".
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