The days following her promotion settled into a strange and quiet rhythm, a new reality that Hinata wore like the stiff, unfamiliar fabric of her Chuunin vest. The leather and green cloth were a tangible symbol of her ascent, a weight on her shoulders that felt both grounding and constricting. It was an honor, a proclamation of her strength to the entire village, yet it was also a problem. A very immediate, physical problem. The standard-issue vest was not designed for a her body. It strained across the powerful breadth of her back and, most alarmingly, it was a battle of wills to fasten the clasps over her full, high bust. The thick fabric pulled taut, creating a landscape of impressive, straining sight that made her feel both powerful and intensely self-conscious.
A rather pathetic attempt to contain perfection, Venom hummed in the back of her mind, a low thrum of smug satisfaction. They should have used a more elastic material. It would be more efficient.
Hinata suppressed a blush, her fingers fiddling with a clasp as she walked. That internal voice, once a terrifying intrusion, was now as familiar as her own heartbeat. But her own thoughts… they were the true source of her current unease. The memory of her last walk home with Naruto was a brand on her mind, less a thought and more a physical sensation. The sudden, overwhelming urge to claim him, to pull him close and mark him as hers in a way that went far beyond a simple hug, had shaken her to her core. Venom's casual admission that the desire was entirely her own had shattered a comfortable delusion.
Her musings were interrupted by Kiba's exuberant howl. "Alright, Team Eight! Lookin' sharp, Hinata! Ready for our first Chuunin-led mission?"
He bounced on the balls of his feet at the mission assignment post, Akamaru yipping in agreement from his perch atop Kiba's head. Shino stood beside them, a silent, inscrutable pillar in his high-collared coat. Kurenai approached, a proud, knowing smile gracing her lips as her eyes took in Hinata's new vest.
"I was just about to tell them," Kurenai said, her gaze lingering on Hinata. "Since our team now has a Chuunin, we're being assigned more significant duties. No more D-ranks for us."
Kiba let out a whoop of genuine joy. "YES! Finally! No more weeding, no more babysitting, no more chasing that demon cat from hell! I knew you'd be good for us, Hinata!"
Hinata offered a small, shy smile, the compliment warming her despite her inner turmoil. Kurenai handed her the mission scroll. "It's a C-rank, but a lengthy one. An escort mission for a trade caravan heading to the far town. It's a peaceful route, but the distance requires a full team. We'll be on the road for a week."
The mission itself was a study in tranquility. The path was well-trodden, the merchants amiable, and the scenery a pleasant, rolling expanse of green hills and lush forests. For Kiba, it was an exercise in agonizing boredom. For Venom, it was a personal hell of mundanity.
Are we absolutely certain a rabid squirrel won't attack? the symbiote muttered on the third day, a palpable sigh in Hinata's consciousness. I would settle for a particularly aggressive badger at this point. This… serenity… it is unnerving.
Hinata, however, found a quiet joy in it. Her enhanced senses, no longer on high alert for S-rank threats, could luxuriate in the details of the world. She could hear the rustle of a leaf from a hundred meters away, smell the coming rain on the wind hours before it arrived, and feel the rhythmic thrum of the earth beneath her feet. She was a silent, vigilant guardian, her Byakugan a constant, sweeping searchlight that found nothing but peace. The merchants, initially wary of the tall, quiet, and powerfully built kunoichi, came to see her as a calming presence, a silent promise of absolute safety.
Their return to Konoha was as uneventful as their departure. After a brief report to the mission desk, Kurenai pulled Hinata aside.
"One last thing, Hinata," she said, leading her to a small office. She placed a stack of blank forms on the desk. "Your mission report."
Hinata blinked. "But… we already reported, sensei."
"The team reported," Kurenai corrected gently, her voice taking on the tone of a true mentor. "As a Chuunin, you are now expected to file your own supplementary reports. You'll detail tactical assessments, threat analysis, route efficiency, and personnel performance. Someday, you'll be the one leading these missions, and the Hokage will be reading your reports to make decisions. This is as much a part of being a Chuunin."
Hinata's eyes widened in understanding. This was the other side of power: responsibility. She sat, took the pen, and focused. The bureaucratic language was foreign, but the concepts were not. Venom, surprisingly, proved to be an exceptional administrative assistant.
Trivialities, it sniffed, but then began to dictate with cold, logical precision. Terrain assessment: optimal for ambush between coordinates 44.7 and 45.2. Recommend increased patrol frequency. Caravan security: inadequate. Their guards are soft and poorly trained. Note their logistical inefficiency. The true report is simple: we went, we saw, nothing was worthy of being eaten or destroyed. Mission complete.
Hinata translated Venom's blunt assessments into the proper, formal language of a shinobi report. She filled out the forms with a speed and clarity that made Kurenai's eyebrows rise in impressed surprise. When she was finished, she stood, bowed to her sensei, and stepped out into the crisp evening air of Konoha.
The village was alive, a bustling symphony of sound and light as people headed home or sought out dinner. Her own hunger was a low, rumbling beast, easily ignored for now. Her thoughts, as they so often did when she was adrift, turned to Naruto. She wondered what he had been assigned, what new, chaotic adventure he had stumbled into since his own promotion. Perhaps he was out there, fighting bandits, or training with a manic intensity that shook the very trees.
Lost in her thoughts, her feet carried her along a familiar path, the scent of pork broth and roasting nori growing stronger. And then she saw him.
It was so jarringly out of character that for a moment, her brain refused to process the image. Naruto was sitting at an outside table at Ichiraku Ramen, a steaming bowl pushed to the side. But he wasn't eating. He was hunched over a chaotic stack of papers, a pen gripped tightly in his hand. His brow was furrowed in a look of such intense, frustrated concentration that it seemed entirely alien on his usually expressive face. He stared down at the documents, then back up at the sky, then back down, looking for all the world like a student struggling with an impossible mathematics problem.
A small, tentative smile touched Hinata's lips. She approached the table, her steps silent on the bustling street. "Naruto-kun?"
He jumped as if struck by lightning, the pen flying from his fingers and clattering onto the pavement. His head whipped around, his blue eyes wide with surprise before they softened into a brilliant, familiar grin that instantly warmed the cool evening air.
"Hinata! Whoa, you scared me! I was, uh, in the zone, ya know?" he said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. He gestured enthusiastically at the empty seat opposite him. "Hey, you just got back, right? Sit, sit! I'll get you a bowl! My treat!"
Hinata felt a warmth spread through her chest that had nothing to do with the nearby steam from the ramen stall. She gracefully took the seat, the worn wooden bench feeling solid and real beneath her. "Thank you, Naruto-kun. But what are you doing? I thought you'd be… well, eating."
Naruto let out a dramatic groan, slumping back in his seat and gesturing at the offending stack of papers with a look of pure disgust. "Ugh, this stupid stuff. It's a mission report. Kakashi-sensei says now that I'm a Chuunin, I have to do 'em after every mission." He suddenly straightened his posture, lazily held up a peace sign, and let his visible eye crinkle into a perfect imitation of their perpetually late sensei. His voice dropped into a slow, infuriatingly calm drawl. "'Maa, Naruto… it's not just about hitting things. A true leader understands logistics, analysis, and the vital importance of clear, concise communication. This paperwork… will forge you into a fine commander someday. Probably.'"
Hinata couldn't help it. A soft, melodious giggle escaped her lips. Naruto dropped the persona, a triumphant smirk on his face. "See? It's torture!"
"Perhaps the mission was at least… exciting?" she offered, her voice still laced with amusement.
The smirk vanished, replaced by a groan of cosmic suffering. "Exciting? It was the dumbest C-rank in the history of dumb missions! We—that's me, Sakura, and Sasuke, had to be couriers. For a 'critically important, high-value asset for a noble client.'" He used air quotes with extreme prejudice. "Kakashi-sensei poofed off the second we were out of the village gates, saying something about needing to 'oversee our development from a distance.' We get ambushed by a couple of moron bandits, I knock 'em out in like, ten seconds, and we finally get to the client's mansion."
He leaned forward, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper, his eyes burning with the memory of the injustice. "And the 'critically important asset'? It was a little golden toy. A toy, Hinata! And the 'noble client'? He was five years old!"
The image was too much. The mental picture of Naruto, a hero of the invasion, a Chuunin of the Leaf, risking his life to deliver a toy to a toddler, broke through her composure. A sound she rarely made, a full, genuine, and resonant laugh, bubbled up and filled the air around them. It was a rich, beautiful sound, a perfect harmony of her own spirit and Venom's deep resonance, and it made Naruto's frustrated scowl melt away, replaced by a soft, slightly stunned smile.
"Yeah, well, it's not that funny," he grumbled, though his eyes were sparkling. Her laugh had clearly chased away the last of his irritation. "So, what about you? Your mission was probably way cooler, right? Fought any giant snakes or S-rank weirdos?"
"No," she admitted, her own smile feeling easy and natural. "It was… quiet. An escort mission. There were no incidents."
A grievous oversight on the universe's part, Venom grumbled internally. We went an entire week without a decent fight, and he gets to dispatch substandard thugs for a metal trinket? This is not fair!
"Do you… need any help with your report?" Hinata offered, gesturing to the papers.
Naruto's expression softened. "Nah, I got it. It's just a pain. Iruka-sensei already walked me through how to do 'em right. Said it was important to learn myself." He shoved the papers into a messy pile. "Forget this stuff. Let's eat!"
He ordered them both extra-large bowls of miso chashu ramen. As they ate, a comfortable silence settled between them, broken only by the happy sounds of slurping noodles.
"So," Hinata began, her curiosity getting the better of her. "How are your teammates? Sakura-san? Sasuke-san?"
Naruto's face lit up instantly at the mention of their pink-haired teammate. "Oh, Sakura-chan's been awesome! She's getting really good, ya know? She said she's thinking of officially asking Baa-chan to train her as a full-time medic-nin. I think she'd be great at it."
He spoke with such genuine pride for his friend that it made Hinata's heart ache in a good way. But when he started to speak about his other teammate, the light in his eyes dimmed, replaced by a familiar flicker of pain and frustration.
"Sasuke, though…" Naruto's voice grew quiet, his chopsticks idly stirring the broth in his bowl. "He's… different. He's training all the time, won't talk to me or Sakura-chan. He just gets this look in his eyes now. Cold. Like he's not even there…"
Naruto's mood sank like a stone in a deep, cold well. The cheerful clatter of the ramen stand seemed to fade into a dull hum. "It's… not good, Hinata. After that dumb frog-toy mission, we had to escort another noble. This time, it was a little girl, even younger than Konohamaru. She'd seen Sasuke and had this massive crush on him, so she demanded he be on her escort team."
He picked up a slice of narutomaki from his bowl and stared at it, his voice losing its usual boisterous energy. "It was supposed to be easy. But on the way back, we got jumped. A team of missing-nin, pretty tough. Me and Sakura-chan were holding them back, protecting the girl. Sasuke took on their leader."
He fell silent for a moment, the memory clearly a heavy one. "I don't know what the guy said to him. Something that made Sasuke… snap. He just… forgot everything else. Ignored the other ninja, ignored the mission, ignored us. He just went after the leader, leaving us exposed. By the time me and Sakura handled the others and got to him…" Naruto swallowed hard. "The leader was already dead. But Sasuke… he was still hitting him. Just… over and over. This horrible, wet sound…"
The vibrant colors of the street seemed to dull in Hinata's vision. She could picture it perfectly: the fury, the mindless violence, the Uchiha crest splattered with a crimson that wasn't his own.
"The little girl… she started screaming," Naruto continued, his voice barely a whisper. "She was so scared of him. Of Sasuke. Me and Sakura had to stand in front of her, to shield her from… from our own teammate. We finished the mission in silence. I tried to talk to him about it later, back at the village. I yelled, I asked him what the hell was wrong with him. He just… looked right through me. Didn't say a word. Just turned and walked away."
The story ended, and a heavy, uneasy silence descended upon their small table. The cheerful hustle of Konoha felt a million miles away. All Hinata could hear was the quiet bubbling of the ramen broth and the troubled beating of her own heart.
The whelp is fracturing, Venom observed from the quiet depths of her mind. His tone lacked its usual smugness, replaced by a cold, clinical analysis. The serpent's poison runs deep. An uncontrolled rage is a flaw in any weapon, a fatal vulnerability. He is becoming a danger to the pack. There was a pause, and then, a different note, one of grudging respect. And yet… the orange one worries. He sees a packmate faltering and his instinct is to mend, not to discard. A worthy instinct. The sign of a true leader.
Hinata had never faced a problem like this. Her own team was a study in contrasts, but they were a cohesive unit. Kiba's impulsiveness was tempered by Shino's logic, her own quiet strength anchored them both. They were a team. Sasuke was actively trying to break away from his.
"I… I don't know what to say, Naruto-kun," she began softly, her voice a low, resonant anchor in the sudden quiet. "We have never… had such a problem in our team." She looked at him, her silver-lilac eyes filled with a sincere empathy that was more valuable than any tactical advice. "But he is your friend. Your teammate. You and Sakura-san… you must talk to him. Together. He cannot ignore you both."
A spark of Naruto's usual fire returned at her words. He looked up from his now-cold ramen, a flicker of defiance in his eyes. He slammed his fist lightly on the table, a familiar gesture of renewed resolve. "You're right! You're totally right!" His voice regained its strength, a conscious effort to push away the darkness. "He's a stubborn, gloomy idiot, but he's our stubborn, gloomy idiot! He's not going anywhere! Me and Sakura-chan, we'll knock some sense into him, believe it! It'll be our most important mission yet!"
The confidence, even if it was a bit forced, was infectious. Hinata felt a relieved smile return to her face. The storm hadn't passed, but for now, Naruto had found his anchor again.
The dark cloud over Naruto lifted as if blown away by a strong wind, his infectious energy returning in a sudden, brilliant burst. He grinned, a wide, fox-like expression of pure excitement.
"Man, forget all that gloomy stuff! Check this out! I learned a new thing a couple days ago!"
With a flourish, he plucked a standard kunai from his hip pouch. He held it up, and for a moment, nothing happened. Then, he focused, and Hinata felt a subtle shift in the air. A low hum filled the space around them as Naruto channeled his chakra into the steel. A shimmering, almost invisible aura enveloped the blade, distorting the light and extending its length by a good six inches. It looked sharper, deadlier, like a sliver of solidified air. A slight, sharp breeze, and focused intent, washed over Hinata's face.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Blade!" Naruto announced, his voice brimming with pride. "It makes the blade way sharper and longer! I can even throw it, and it'll slice through a tree like it's butter! Pretty cool, right?"
"It is… incredible, Naruto-kun," Hinata breathed, her Byakugan instinctively tracing the tight, spiraling flow of wind chakra coiling around the kunai. It was a simple but lethally effective application. "Kakashi-sensei taught you this?"
Naruto's proud expression morphed into a conspiratorial smirk. "Nah, Kakashi-sensei's been busy. I got this from… Closet Pervert-sensei!"
The nickname hung in the air for a moment. Hinata's head tilted, a flicker of amused confusion in her silver eyes. "Closet… Pervert… sensei?" she repeated slowly, the words feeling strange and hilarious on her tongue.
"Yeah! You know, Ebisu! The elite tutor with the glasses who's always following Konohamaru around!"
A soft giggle escaped her lips, the sound making Naruto's smirk widen. "But… how did you convince an elite jonin like Ebisu-sensei to teach you?" she asked, genuinely curious.
Naruto leaned back, puffing out his chest with an air of immense, smug satisfaction. "Easy," he declared. "I paid him."
Hinata blinked. "You… paid him?" The concept was so foreign, so transactional. In the Hyuuga clan, jutsu were passed down through rigorous, often brutal, training, a matter of duty and inheritance, not commerce.
"Yep!" Naruto said, tapping the side of his nose. "Turns out our casino winnings are good for more than just ramen and new ninja wire. Iruka-sensei said he saw Ebisu losing a ton of money on gambling, so I just went up and made him an offer!"
"But… he is Konohamaru-kun's personal instructor," Hinata reasoned, her mind struggling to connect the dots. "Surely, that is a position of high standing. He should earn a great deal of money."
"He does!" Naruto confirmed, but his expression turned thoughtful again, the boisterous pride giving way to a surprising shrewdness she was seeing more and more often. "But after talking to him, I started noticing it everywhere. A lot of shinobi, even the famous ones with good jobs, are kinda broke. They have… bad habits. Some drink too much, some are addicted to gambling, others spend every last ryo on collecting fancy, custom-made kunai they'll never even use."
He leaned forward, his voice low and excited, his eyes gleaming with a newfound, mischievous light. "They're all strong, and they all know tons of cool jutsu. And they're all desperate for cash. You can just… buy jutsus from them, Hinata." A wicked, scheming grin spread across his face, the kind that promised trouble and adventure in equal measure. "You know, Hinata… you've got a ton of that casino money left too, right? Think of what you could learn."
The suggestion landed in Hinata's mind. The world seemed to tilt on its axis. Buying… a jutsu? Like buying a dango skewer or a new pair of sandals? The idea was utterly, profoundly alien. She had grown up a clan heiress, a vessel for her family's sacred bloodline. Jutsu were her birthright, something to be earned through sweat and blood within the sterile, unforgiving walls of the Hyuuga dojo. They weren't a commodity to be purchased in a back alley from a jonin with a gambling problem.
An astute observation, Venom hummed, his voice a purr of pure, predatory pragmatism. The orange one displays a surprising aptitude for exploiting systemic weaknesses. Acquiring assets through economic leverage is a valid and highly efficient growth strategy. We should compile a list of potential acquisitions immediately. That one jounin with the green spandex… he seemed desperate. And quite fit. His techniques might be worth a pittance.
Hinata stared at her own mission pouch, which suddenly felt heavier. It held potential. A marketplace of power she had never known existed. The idea was absurd. It was improper. It was… a very, very troublesome thought.
The gears in Hinata's mind, usually so smooth and orderly, ground against this new, chaotic concept. Her world, governed by tradition, duty, and the immutable laws of her clan, had just had a marketplace erected in its center.
"So," she began, her voice a low and vibrating, with a thoughtful murmur, each word carefully considered. "If this is true… then theoretically… I could simply walk up to Guy-sensei and… offer him money for his techniques?"
An excellent primary target, Venom purred approvingly in her thoughts. His physique indicates a regimen of extreme physical conditioning. The acquisition of his training data would be most… beneficial.
Naruto burst out laughing, a loud, genuine bark of a laugh that made the steam from his bowl dance. "Pfft! Super Bushy Brows-sensei? No way! I already tried!"
Venom's internal purr ended in a disappointed huff.
"Out of all the jonin in the village," Naruto explained, leaning forward with the air of a seasoned investigator sharing a critical discovery, "Super Bushy Brows-sensei is the one person who's got his money stuff completely figured out. Iruka-sensei told me. He's got savings, investments, something about 'diversified portfolios' and 'long-term growth strategies'… or whatever, it's insane!" He shook his head in disbelief. "Apparently, he sees it as another challenge against Kakashi-sensei. He's not just trying to beat him in sparring matches, he's trying to beat him at having a better retirement plan! Can you believe that?!"
Hinata couldn't. The image of the boisterous, green-clad jonin meticulously balancing a budget was even more surreal than buying jutsu. Their rivalry extended to… financial literacy?
Naruto sobered slightly, bringing a dose of reality to his scheme. "Of course, it's not like you can just buy an S-rank jutsu or a secret clan technique. No one's gonna sell their biggest secrets, no matter how much you offer. But for other stuff? A cool wind jutsu, a tricky earth style wall, some advanced taijutsu moves? If they're broke enough, they'll teach you anything for the right price."
He finished his explanation with that same mischievous, foxy grin, a glint in his eye that spoke of secret plans and opportunities seized. And as Hinata looked at him, the loud, goofy boy gave way to the clever, cunning person he truly was. He viewed the world as a system with rules to be bent, seeing a game where others only saw a battlefield.
It started as a low hum deep in her core, the same thrum of possessive heat she'd felt that night on the street. It was a primal, predatory warmth that coiled in her gut, a stark contrast to the innocent blush that usually graced her cheeks. This Naruto, the clever fox hiding behind the beaming sun, was a different kind of attractive. The simple feeling of admiration had ignited into a deep, instinctual urge to close the distance, press her advantage, and claim this fascinating boy as her own. The feeling was so strong it was almost a physical taste in her mouth, like dark chocolate and lightning.
She felt her own posture shift, her body unconsciously leaning forward. Her breathing hitched.
No.
She caught herself. Her hands, resting on her knees beneath the table, clenched into tight fists. She drew in a slow, deep, deliberate breath, holding it for a beat before letting it out in a silent, controlled stream. She forced her eyes away from his face, focusing instead on the hypnotic swirl of oil in her ramen broth. An anchor. She needed an anchor.
The host's attempts at self-regulation are… quaint, Venom noted with detached amusement. Resisting one's own nature is a fascinating, if futile, exercise. Do let me know how that works out for you.
The moment passed. The intense heat in her core subsided back into a manageable, simmering warmth.
After another few minutes of comfortable chatter and another shared bowl of ramen, this one on Hinata's coin, they stood to leave. The air between them was light again, the heavy topics of Sasuke and secret economies replaced by the simple satisfaction of a full belly and a friendly conversation.
"Well, I gotta go report back to Baa-chan," Naruto said, stretching with a satisfying groan. "Probably got another dumb C-rank waiting for me."
"I must return to my family's compound as well," Hinata replied, her voice back to its serene, resonant calm. "Thank you for the meal, Naruto-kun."
He just grinned. "Anytime, Hinata! See ya around!"
With a final wave, he turned and jogged off into the bustling Konoha night, leaving Hinata standing in the warm glow of the ramen stand's lanterns. She watched him go, the weight of the mission pouch on her hip now feeling very different. The purse had become a key.
The day after her enlightening and strangely motivating conversation with Naruto, a formal summons arrived. It bore the seal of the Hokage.
Hinata stood before the great desk in the Hokage's office, the morning sun streaming through the large window behind Tsunade, casting the new leader in an imposing silhouette. The legendary mountains of paperwork were already beginning to fill the desk space. Shizune stood dutifully by her side, organizing scrolls.
"Hyuuga Hinata, reporting as ordered, Hokage-sama," Hinata said, her voice a calm, resonant chord in the quiet office.
Tsunade looked up, her sharp brown eyes assessing Hinata with a newfound understanding. "Good. I have a mission for you." She slid a scroll across the desk. "A solo C-Rank."
Hinata took the scroll, her fingers brushing the smooth paper.
"There's a small farming collective a day's march east of here," Tsunade explained, leaning back in her chair, the leather groaning in protest. "For the past few weeks, they've been harassed by some kind of… creature. It's destroying their property, tearing up their fields. They're simple folk, no shinobi of their own. Your mission is to make contact, identify the threat, and if you are able, eliminate it. It's a simple monster hunt, a good first solo command for a new Chuunin."
Hinata bowed her head in acceptance. "I understand, Hokage-sama. I will depart immediately." She paused, a single question bubbling to the surface before she could suppress it. "If I may ask… has Naruto-kun been assigned a mission as well?"
A wry, knowing smirk played on Tsunade's lips. "Worried about your boyfriend?" she teased, causing a hot blush to bloom across Hinata's cheeks. "He's fine. Better than fine. He, Sakura, and Sasuke left at dawn. A mission to the Land of Tea. And before you ask, Kakashi isn't with them. With his new rank, Naruto is acting as team leader."
Hinata's heart gave a proud flutter. Naruto, leading a team. It felt right. She straightened, her resolve hardening. "Thank you, Hokage-sama."
After informing her father and a relieved Hanabi of her relatively safe-sounding mission, Hinata was on the move. She became a blur of green and lavender, a silent predator flowing through the canopy of the forest, the trees a rushing kaleidoscope around her. The world felt crisp and clear.
The orange one is being tested, Venom commented, a dispassionate hum in her mind. He will either prove a capable pack leader or a liability. An efficient, if risky, method of data acquisition. We approve.
As the sun began to dip towards the horizon, the thick forest gave way to rolling fields. She arrived at the outskirts of the village, and the tranquil image was immediately shattered. A small barn lay in a heap of splintered wood, its foundation cracked as if struck by a giant's fist. Further on, a field of young vegetables was carved with deep, ugly trenches, the earth torn and furrowed in a way that was brutally unnatural. Her Byakugan flared to life. The faint, residual chakra clinging to the ravaged soil confirmed her suspicion. This was a jutsu, mindless beast can't do that.
The damage signature is inconsistent with a simple animal, Venom observed, his senses tasting the churned earth. This was methodical. Territorial.
Hinata walked into the village proper, her soft-soled sandals making no sound on the packed-earth path. The effect was instantaneous. A farmer sharpening a hoe froze mid-stroke. A woman hanging laundry stopped, her hands hovering in the air. The chatter of playing children died away into a sudden, eerie silence. Every eye in the small hamlet turned to her.
She felt their collective gaze, a wave of shock and awe. She was used to being stared at now, but here, among these simple, shorter folk, the effect was magnified. To them, she must have looked like a warrior goddess descended from the heavens. Her sheer height, the powerful set of her shoulders, the way the green Chuunin vest strained to contain her formidable physique—it all painted a picture of impossible, intimidating power.
A whisper, carried on the wind and caught by her enhanced hearing, reached her. "So… so tall…"
An old man, his back bent with age but his eyes sharp and clear, separated himself from the crowd. He leaned heavily on a gnarled wooden staff, his face a roadmap of wrinkles earned from a lifetime under the sun. He slowly, deliberately, approached her, his gaze sweeping over her from the Konoha swirl on her vest to the calm, silver-lilac pools of her eyes. He stopped a few feet away, bowing his head as deeply as his old bones would allow.
"Konoha-sama…" he rasped, his voice filled with a desperate, trembling hope. "You have come. Oh, thank the heavens, you have come."
Hinata returned the old man's bow with a slight, respectful inclination of her own head. Her voice, when she spoke, was a low, resonant chord of calm and power that seemed to vibrate in the very air between them, causing the village elder to flinch almost imperceptibly.
"I am Chuunin Hyuuga Hinata, of Konohagakure," she introduced herself, the doubled harmony of her own spirit and Venom's essence a stark contrast to the quiet desperation in the man's eyes. "I am here to resolve your… creature problem."
A wave of palpable relief washed over the elder and the silent, watching villagers behind him. "Hyuuga-sama," he said, his voice cracking with emotion. He turned, gesturing with his staff towards the path leading deeper into the hamlet. "Please, allow me to show you. Words cannot do justice to the terror this… thing… has inflicted upon us."
As Hinata followed, she was acutely aware of the villagers' stares. They weren't hostile, but they were intense, a mixture of awe and profound, unnerving curiosity. Whispers followed in her wake, easily plucked from the air by her enhanced hearing.
"Look at the size of her… she's as tall as my ox…"
"…her shoulders… are those real? She could carry a cart by herself…"
"Her voice… did you hear her voice? It's like two people talking at once…"
A younger Hinata would have wilted under such scrutiny, her shoulders hunching, her gaze falling to the dirt. But this Hinata, felt something else entirely. She felt her spine straighten, the unfamiliar weight of the Chuunin vest settling comfortably.
They assess the chassis, Venom purred, a low thrum of supreme satisfaction in the back of her mind. They recognize its superiority. Their fear is a sign of respect. It is… appropriate. We approve.
The elder led her first to the ruined barn. "It struck two nights ago. Just… came out of the darkness and smashed it to pieces. We were lucky the livestock weren't inside." He then pointed a trembling finger towards the ravaged fields. "It does this every few days. It doesn't seem to eat the crops. It just… destroys them. And our warehouses… it has broken into two of them, scattering our winter stores to the wind."
"Describe the monster," Hinata commanded softly, her silver-lilac eyes scanning the deep gouges in the earth. The destruction was chaotic, but there was a pattern to it. A brutal, territorial anger.
The old man shuddered, the memory clearly a painful one. "We… we have not seen it clearly, Hyuuga-sama. When it comes, we run. We hide. We only know what we glimpse from our windows." He struggled for words. "It is… immense. The size of a small house, perhaps larger. Its shape is a black shadow against the moonlight, a moving mountain of darkness. And the noise… a sound like a landslide, a furious squealing that shakes the very foundations of our homes."
A house-sized, black, noisy creature. The description was frustratingly vague. "You are certain it is a single entity?"
"Yes, Hyuuga-sama," the elder confirmed. "One great, terrible shadow."
"And its attacks?" Hinata asked, turning her piercing gaze back to the elder. "Is there a pattern? A specific time?"
He shook his head, a look of weary helplessness on his face. "None that we can decipher. Sometimes it comes in the dead of night, under the new moon. Once, it came in the middle of the day, a terror under the bright sun. We live in constant fear. The men are afraid to work the fields, the children are afraid to play outside. We are prisoners in our own homes."
Hinata's gaze swept over the small, terrified village. This was not a mission of glory or grand strategy. It was a simple act of protection, a shield for the helpless. Her purpose settled into a sharp, clear focus.
"I will remain here," she declared, her voice leaving no room for doubt. "I will monitor the village perimeter until this monster reveals itself. I will be your shield."
Tears of gratitude welled in the old man's eyes. He bowed again, his forehead nearly touching his knees. "Thank you, Hyuuga-sama. Thank you. We… we have prepared a guest room for you. It is humble, but clean. Please, honor us with your presence."
For the rest of the day, Hinata became a silent, pacing guardian. She walked a wide, slow circle around the village perimeter, a constant, moving sentinel. Her Byakugan was a near-permanent fixture, the veins around her eyes a stark, pulsating network as she scanned the surrounding forests, hills, and fields. The villagers, at first, watched her with wide-eyed awe. They saw the strange, beautiful kunoichi with the powerful build and the even more powerful eyes, a living wall between them and the darkness. By late afternoon, her constant, reassuring presence had become a part of the landscape. The quiet fear that had gripped the hamlet began to loosen, replaced by a fragile, budding hope. The sound of children's laughter tentatively returned to the streets.
The sun was a great, bleeding orange wound on the horizon when she felt it.
It was a vibration. A low, rhythmic tremor that traveled through the soles of her feet, a deep, heavy beat like the footfalls of a giant.
Thump… thump… thump…
Her head snapped towards the east, towards the deepest, darkest part of the forest. Her Byakugan flared to its maximum intensity, her vision punching through the intervening miles of trees and undergrowth. There. A colossal chakra signature, primitive and chaotic, was moving towards them. It was huge, a raging, uncontrolled bonfire of raw energy.
As it broke through the tree line, her eyes finally gave form to the approaching terror.
It was the size of a small house, just as the elder had said. It was a seething mass of bristling, matted black hide, caked with mud and dried blood. Two massive tusks, curved and yellowed like ancient trees, jutted from a furious, porcine snout. Its eyes, small and buried in rolls of thick, leathery flesh, burned with a feral, red light. It was a boar. A gigantic, horrifyingly mutated female boar, a kaiju in the flesh, and it was thundering directly towards the village's largest remaining food warehouse.
"Incoming!" The word was a cannon-shot, a doubled-voiced command that echoed through the small village, snapping every villager to terrified attention. "Take shelter! Now!"
Without waiting for their response, she moved, a blur of lavender and green, a silent missile of purpose aimed directly at the heart of the approaching storm.
The open field between the forest and the village became an arena. On one side, a moving mountain of rage and mutated flesh, a force of nature given monstrous form. On the other, a lone kunoichi, a sliver of lavender and green who stood as still and serene as the eye of a hurricane. The villagers, huddled in doorways and peeking from behind shutters, held their collective breath, their world shrunk to this impossible, terrifying standoff.
The boar's tiny, hate-filled eyes fixed on the impossibly small obstacle in its path. It let out a deafening, furious squeal, a sound that was part landslide, part thunderclap, and charged. The ground shook with each colossal footfall. It was a living avalanche, an unstoppable wave of muscle and fury meant to pulverize, to trample, to erase.
Hinata didn't retreat. She waited.
The target's momentum is its greatest weapon, and its greatest weakness, Venom noted with the cool detachment. Exploit it.
At the last possible second, as the shadow of the beast fell over her and the stench of its foul breath washed over her in a hot wave, she moved. She flowed around the attack with liquid grace. A flicker of movement, a blur of motion, and she was no longer in its path. The boar thundered past, its sheer momentum carrying it another fifty meters before it could plow its great feet into the earth and turn.
As it passed, Hinata struck. Her movement was a liquid dance of lethal precision. She pivoted on her heel, her body coiling and uncoiling like a steel spring. Her palm, glowing with the pale, silver-blue light of the Gentle Fist, slammed into the boar's thick, bristled flank. The sound was a dull, wet THUD, a sickening impact that should have been absorbed by the sheer mass of the creature. But this was no ordinary strike. It was a focused detonation of kinetic energy and chakra, amplified by the living weapon that was woven into her very cells. The boar let out a grunt of pained surprise as a ripple of force traveled through its body, its massive leg stumbling.
Before it could fully recover, she was on its other side, a second, identical strike landing behind its shoulder. Again, the concussive force staggered it. She was a ghost, a gnat, a persistent, infuriating pain it could not catch.
Enraged, the boar abandoned its attempts to trample her. It stood its ground, its great head lowering, its tusks aimed directly at her like the siege weapons of a forgotten age. It pawed the ground, churning the soil into a muddy ruin, its snorts coming in great, furious bursts. Then, it charged again, but this time, it was a focused, singular battering ram of pure power aimed at obliterating her from existence.
This time, Hinata met the charge.
Her stance widened, her feet sinking slightly into the soft earth. She held one hand forward, palm open. The symbiote flowed, a network of black, glistening veins crawling over her arm, reinforcing it, turning it into something more than flesh and bone. The silver-blue glow of her chakra intensified until it was a brilliant, blinding white.
A foolish tactic, Venom commented calmly. Unless, of course, our force is superior. Which it is. Proceed.
Her fist met the monster's charging skull.
A deafening BOOM of displaced air and raw power erupted from the point of contact. The ground beneath Hinata's feet cracked and splintered. For a heart-stopping moment, force met force, an irresistible object against an immovable one. And then, Hinata's power won. A visible shockwave of pure, white chakra and symbiotic force blasted outwards. The sound of cracking bone echoed like thunder across the field. The gigantic boar, all several tons of it, was lifted from its feet and thrown backwards, tumbling end over end through the air like a macabre, hairy boulder. It landed with a cataclysmic crash a hundred meters away, shaking the very earth and leaving a shallow crater where it fell.
It rose, shakier now, its massive head bleeding from a spiderweb of cracks in its thick skull. The rage in its eyes had been joined by something new: confusion, and a flicker of genuine fear. It had never met a prey that fought back like this. It had never been met with a force greater than its own.
Its primitive mind, driven by instinct and pain, turned to its other weapon. Hinata's Byakugan flared, and she saw it clearly. The chaotic, untamed chakra within the beast began to churn, to gather, flowing from its core and down into its powerful legs, connecting it to the very earth it stood upon.
Without a sound, without a hand seal, the ground itself became its weapon. The soil in front of the beast swelled and then erupted, a wave of thick, grasping mud surging towards her. Hinata leaped backwards, her movements light and impossibly swift. As she landed, the earth beneath her new position exploded upwards, a jagged spear of granite thrusting for her heart. She twisted in mid-air, a whisper of movement, and the stone pillar missed by inches. A dozen more followed, the field transforming into a deadly, rising forest of rock and earth, a prison of the very ground she stood on.
"Raiton," she whispered to herself, the name of the element a promise of what was to come. The air around her crackled, thick with the scent of ozone and impending violence. The fight of brute force switched to the battle of elements. And lightning, as she well knew, shattered earth.
She landed atop one of the freshly formed pillars. She gathered her chakra, molding it, infusing it with the raw, crackling power of a thunderstorm.
"Hakke: Raikōsen!" (Eight Trigrams: Lightning Drill!)
A spear of pure, concentrated lightning, a brilliant, coruscating blue-white, erupted from her outstretched palm. It was a sustained beam of destructive energy. She swept it across the field, and the stone pillars her opponent had created shattered like glass, exploding into clouds of dust and gravel. The beam struck the boar's shoulder, and the beast screamed, a high, unholy sound of pure agony as its nervous system was overloaded, its massive body seizing and spasming uncontrollably.
It retaliated blindly, stomping a hoof and sending another, larger wave of earth and rock hurtling towards her. It was clumsy, a desperate, brute-force attack. Hinata simply flowed over it, landing gracefully on the torn earth, her body already coiling for the final strike. The boar, blinded by pain and rage, lowered its head for one last, suicidal charge.
This was the end. She and Venom knew it in the same silent, shared instant.
She met its final charge. As she ran, the soft flesh of her hands rippled and reformed. The symbiote flowed, hardening, sharpening, extending. In the space of a single heartbeat, her hands and forearms were gone, replaced by two long, wicked scythes of glistening, obsidian-black chitin. They were beautiful, terrible things, a perfect fusion of organic form and lethal function. And then, she channeled her chakra. Blue-white lightning danced and sparked along their razor edges, the crackle of a captured storm.
She aimed for the heart.
She ducked under its desperate, swiping tusks in a movement that defied physics, her symbiote-enhanced body moving with a speed that was simply inhuman. She brought her new blades up in a devastating, crossing slash.
There was a wet, tearing sound, a sickening SHHRIIIIICK as the lightning-wreathed symbiotic blades sank home, carving through thick hide, dense muscle, and solid bone with contemptuous ease. The blades met in the center of the boar's massive chest, severing arteries as thick as a man's arm, cleaving through ribs like dry twigs, and puncturing its great, struggling heart.
The boar's furious momentum carried it past her. It took three more stumbling, dying steps before its legs gave out. It crashed to the earth with a final, shuddering exhalation, the sound of a mountain finally crumbling to dust.
The silence that followed was more profound than the noise of the battle. Hinata stood, her back to the fallen beast, her twin blades still humming with residual lightning. The black chitin receded, flowing back into her skin, her hands returning to their normal, pale form, looking deceptively delicate in the fading light.
She turned slowly, her breath coming in calm, even clouds in the cool air. Her Byakugan flared once more, a final, clinical assessment. The life-force of the great beast was extinguished. Her eyes traced the damage her blades had wrought, saw the catastrophic internal hemorrhaging, the ruptured heart, the shattered spine, the nervous system utterly and irrevocably silenced. The threat was neutralized. The monster was dead.
The silence that descended upon the field was absolute, broken only by the soft whisper of the evening wind through the grass. Hinata stood over the colossal corpse, her breath coming in slow, even streams, the adrenaline of the fight already fading into a deep, resonant calm. The mission was complete. The threat was neutralized. A simple, clean success. She should have felt a sense of professional satisfaction, a quiet pride in a job well done.
Instead, she felt a profound sense of… waste.
She looked at the mountain of cooling flesh before her. The sheer biomass was staggering. Sinew and muscle, organs and fat—a massive repository of raw, biological energy, now inert and useless, destined to rot under the sun. It was inefficient. It was illogical. It was, from a purely pragmatic standpoint, an unforgivable squandering of resources.
Deep within her, a low, contented purr resonated, a vibration of pure, instinctual agreement that was no longer separate from her own thoughts. It was the hum of a well-oiled engine seeing a tanker full of premium fuel. They didn't need to speak. They didn't need to debate. The predator and its host, the weapon and its wielder, were in perfect, hungry accord.
A worthy harvest, the thought echoed, a shared conclusion. It would be a shame to let it spoil.
The villagers, huddled in the perceived safety of their homes, watched with wide, terrified eyes as the lone kunoichi turned from her kill. The battle had been a thing of nightmares and legends, a whirlwind of lightning and monstrous strength that their minds were still struggling to comprehend. But what came next shattered their understanding of reality completely.
They watched as she bent down, her form impossibly small against the great, dark hillock of the dead beast. They saw her tense, the muscles in her powerful legs and back bunching under the green fabric of her vest. And then, with a low grunt of effort that seemed to carry for miles in the sudden quiet, she lifted it.
The gigantic, house-sized boar, a burden that should have crushed a dozen strong men, was hoisted onto her shoulders. She rose to her full, towering height, a goddess of the harvest carrying her impossible prize, the setting sun silhouetting her in a halo of crimson and gold. The villagers fell back, their awe curdling into a fresh, primal fear. The monster that had terrorized them was dead, but the one who had killed it… her strength was a thing far more terrifying, far more absolute.
She walked back to the village, each step a steady, powerful beat, her sandals barely sinking into the earth under the impossible weight. She reached the central clearing and, with a controlled grace that belied the monumental effort, she shrugged.
A thunderous THUMP echoed through the hamlet as the carcass hit the ground, shaking the nearby buildings and sending a cloud of dust into the air.
For a moment, there was only stunned silence. Then, the old village elder, his face a mask of disbelief and utter reverence, hobbled forward. He fell to his knees.
"Hyuuga-sama…" he whispered, his voice trembling. "You… you are…"
His reverence broke the spell. A hesitant cheer went up from one corner of the crowd, then another, until the entire village erupted in a cacophony of joyous, relieved shouts. Their fear of her strength was eclipsed by their gratitude for her protection. They swarmed forward, their initial caution forgotten, their faces alight with a mixture of hero-worship and sheer shock.
Hinata simply nodded, acknowledging their thanks. Then, her attention returned to the carcass. She didn't wait for permission or offer explanation. A kunai would be useless. Instead, a sliver of black, symbiotic matter flowed from her fingertip, hardening into a wicked, razor-sharp scalpel of glistening chitin. With a series of swift, efficient movements, she began to butcher the great beast, her motions precise and practiced, as if she were dissecting a frog in the academy rather than carving a monster.
The practical, earthy nature of the villagers took over. They saw a mountain of fresh meat and a reason to celebrate their survival. They understood. Men rushed forward with their own carving knives and axes, following her lead. Women brought out large wooden tubs and buckets of salt. The grim task of butchery transformed into a communal, almost festive, effort.
As the meat was portioned out, Hinata found the largest, flattest stones and arranged them into a makeshift grill.
"Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu," (Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique) she murmured.
She exhaled a series of small, controlled jets of white-hot flame, each one landing perfectly beneath a stone, turning her makeshift grill into a roaring, efficient cooking surface. The smell of searing pork soon filled the air, a rich, savory aroma that promised a feast.
Night fell, but the village was brighter than it had been in weeks, illuminated by the roaring fires and the sheer joy of its people. The feast was a wild, raucous affair. Music was played, sake was shared, and for the first time in a long time, the villagers felt safe.
And at the center of it all sat Hinata.
She ate with a serene, focused efficiency that was, in its own way, as terrifying as her fighting prowess. While others filled their plates once or twice, she simply… continued. Plate after plate of succulent, roasted boar meat disappeared. The villagers' chatter slowly died down as they began to watch her, their own celebrations pausing to bear witness to the spectacle. An entire haunch, larger than a full-grown man, was consumed. Then another. She out-ate entire families, her appetite a bottomless abyss.
Internally, she could feel the process, the glorious, efficient engine of her body kicking into overdrive. The massive influx of protein and fat was a fuel for a biological forge.
Good, Venom purred, a low thrum of pure ecstasy. Energy is being diverted to reinforce sinew, increase muscle density, and optimize neural pathways. This meal will be good for upgrades.
By the time the moon was high in the sky, the feast was over. Most of the boar was gone. And most of it resided within Hinata. She finally sat back, a soft, contented sigh escaping her lips, a feeling of deep, fundamental satisfaction settling into her very core.
The next morning, all that remained of the great beast was a colossal, picked-clean skeleton, a bizarre and stark monument in the center of the village. The people, their faces filled with good-natured cheer and a healthy dose of renewed awe for their savior, saw her off at the edge of the woods.
"Thank you, Hyuuga-sama," the elder said, bowing low. "You have not just saved our village. You have given us a legend. You will never be forgotten here."
Hinata simply gave a small, dignified nod, then turned and melted into the forest, her path set for home. She was stronger. She was heavier. And she had a very interesting mission report to file. The thought of explaining to the new Hokage that she had single-handedly consumed the village's monster problem brought a rare, private smile to her lips.