"This was an attack," Yugito said.
Her tone was hateful. She nearly growled the words. An angry Jinchuriki was a scary thing, and while Yugito ordinarily wouldn't be an exception, Naruto couldn't take her seriously. Not in that position.
She had sprung away from him and the bed, gluing herself to the wall by her palms and the bottoms of her feet. Her head was the closest part of her to the ground, and she hadn't taken time to pull any clothes on, so she was completely in the nude. A little bit of Naruto's 'accident' was spilling and trailing along her stomach, dripping off her chest. Yugito didn't appear to notice.
"You mean to ruin me," Yugito said. "An assassination attempt in roundabout fashion. The moment my belly swells, I'm as good as dead. The Two-tails will erupt and kill me. Who hired you?"
Naruto held his hands up for peace. "Nobody—"
"You picked him!" Hinata snapped.
She was frowning, looking as visibly annoyed as Naruto had ever seen her.
"Do you think we sat inside an inn, waited for you to march in, and knew you would take us upstairs?"
"My habits are well known," Yugito said, sounding less sure.
"You're being ridiculous," Hinata said, crossing her arms, bolstering her breasts higher in the process. "It was an accident. This wasn't something we expected either."
"I…" Yugito dropped off the wall, turning her whole body in the few feet between her perch and the floor; she landed crouched on her feet. "I need a drink."
Hinata spread her legs, clearing her throat.
"First," she said stubbornly, facing her pussy toward Yugito. It glistened slightly, as she hadn't had the chance to get off properly after Naruto and Yugito's abrupt ending.
Yugito studied Hinata. Then she laughed.
"You're crazy!" she said, an extra note of respect entering her voice.
O-O-O
Thirty minutes later, the three of them sat at the bar taking much-needed drinks. Yugito was pounding a never ending chain of shots. Naruto had a sake glass he was nursing, while Hinata held a cup of milder wine with both hands, daintily sipping from it. As Yugito knocked back yet another shot, Naruto's peripheral vision caught sight of a blue hair stuck to the corner of her lips. He hid his smile.
A scraping sound on the other side of him heralded company at the bar. There were still a few civilians scattered through the inn drinking, most spaced around the corners, but the hour was late and the rush had died down during a break in the rain. Yugito and Hinata were sitting to Naruto's left, Hinata the closer of the two. Now, on his right, one of the men from Yugito's squad settled in.
He waved the bartender away when the man came close, serious black eyes looking out from under a snowy white fringe.
"I don't drink." His voice was deep and smooth.
Yugito snorted, taking another shot. "Boring bastard."
His eyes drifted to her. "Alcohol is the reason you're poor."
"It's not my fault I have to drink ten times as much just to feel it. Six more!" Yugito ordered.
Sensing a cash cow, the bartender fulfilled the order so fast that Naruto wondered if he was a retired ninja. But that was unlikely. Kumo wasn't known for letting its shinobi leave.
Yugito's squadmate turned to Naruto.
"I'm sorry about her. She's a pain," he said. "I go by Darui."
"I'm Naruto," Naruto said, smiling.
Darui inclined his head, just slightly. "It's as I thought, then."
Yugito scowled. "You knew he was a Jinchuriki?"
"You didn't?" Darui asked.
"...I just thought he was cute." Yugito guzzled another shot.
"Perhaps less time spent drinking, and more time reading your Bingo Book would do you good."
"Fucking bastard," Yugito grunted.
Naruto had known Darui was a ninja. He'd suspected he was pretty strong, based on the scarred earth outside of town. Now, any last doubts drained away. Ordinary shinobi, even rank and file Jounin, didn't sass a Jinchruki, and they definitely wouldn't be cracking jokes sitting next to two of them.
"What were you guys here for?" Naruto asked, suddenly curious.
"We're traveling through," Darui said. "Stopped to crush a band of rogues, but that was a detour. Now they're gone."
Yugito grinned. "Nothing but ashes," she said.
"We're headed for Takigakure," Darui explained. "Got a mission that needs some doin'. Question is, where are you two headed for?"
It was subtle, but Naruto noticed Yugito's attention shift to the side, listening carefully to his answer.
"We're just on our way through, same as you guys," Naruto said. "We had a sweet job in the Land of Snow, and this is the fastest way back to the rest of the continent, y'know?"
"Sure is, sure is," Darui said. There was a slight pause. "I can't say it's too common for Jinchuriki to go wandering around Lightning Country. Even our own."
"Don't remind me how often they keep me locked up," Yugito grunted.
"It's the kind of thing that attracts attention," Darui said. "Makes people get ideas. Makes them want to try something. Especially when you're traveling with… a Hyuga?"
Hinata glanced at him, refusing to confirm it, but her pupils weren't the kind of thing that could be easily hidden.
"It's real rare to see one of them go rogue," Darui said. "There's a whole lot of people who'd be interested in makin' your acquaintance. They'll do anything to get those eyes."
A quiet crack of glass pulled Darui's eyes down. The cup in Naruto's hands had cracks running through it, with more spreading.
Smiling, Naruto said, "They can try to take it."
"You can understand why that's a problem too," Darui said. "When you fight, Jinchuriki have a habit of making things around them into things that used to be around them, if you're catching my drift."
"We make explosions." Yugito smiled, her voice turning excited. "Or burn things down."
Pounding alcohol like a woman possessed was slowly — but surely — getting her drunk. Naruto looked between her and Darui, located on either side of him and Hinata. The last member of their squad was at a table on the other side of the room, close to the door.
"I'm a surprisingly restrained kind of guy," Naruto said.
He lifted his hand, showing the glass he had spread cracks in— it was still in one piece. He'd made his point without breaking it, applying just enough power with his fingers.
"Maybe," Darui said.
"Do you have something you wanna say?"
"Go with us," Darui said. "Perhaps it's not the exact direction you were planning. But I've known nukenin in my time. One destination is often as good as another."
Naruto sighed, setting the glass down on the wood of the bar. Hinata was silent, letting him make the decision. The only input he got came from Kyu.
"We could eviscerate him," she suggested. "Matatabi has never been my match. The man should bleed just as well. I wonder if his innards will be a different color, same as his skin?"
"We'll go with ya," Naruto said.
Darui smiled. "Nice. Company is fun."
It hadn't been an offer in the first place. If Naruto refused, it would've led to a fight. Probably not here and now. Yugito was competent, and Darui seemed experienced to the bone. They wouldn't take him on and risk losing. They would've trailed him and Hinata, sending word for reinforcements, and ambushed them in the wilderness, possibly with the Raikage himself.
This was better. Easier. And it would be nice to get to know another Jinchuriki better.
Her personality, he meant. Naruto already knew Yugito's body in plenty of detail.
In his head, Kyu was sulking.
"Let their kage come," she grumbled. "We'd eviscerate him along with the rest, and study his guts the same way!"
She was really caught up on those innards.
O-O-O
They left the following day, traveling light. It wasn't the exact path he'd planned to take, instead following a chain of trails so thin they almost looked to have been made by goats. A few times, Naruto had to grab Hinata's arm as she swayed next to the sheer drops they were passing. Yugito, Darui, and the third member of their squad — who was called Omoi — traveled with sure steps and relaxed postures. The views were excellent, if you could distract yourself from the prospect of plummeting into the valley you were admiring.
Luckily, the rains spared them. They camped on plateaus between the cliff-straddling trails, out under the open stars with tents to sleep inside of.
Sitting on the dusty ground, the others having gone to sleep already, Naruto pulled his gaze off the stars and directed it at the kunoichi taking first watch.
Yugito did not look back at him.
"So, what's the kitty cat like?" Naruto asked.
"Go to sleep," Yugito said.
Naruto didn't leave, waited a handful of seconds, and tried a new approach. "How's it like being a Jinchuriki in Kumo?"
"Don't bother me."
"...Do you cough hairballs?"
"I'll slash your face off."
Naruto shrugged. "It'd grow back."
Yugito's glare was so severe that he chose to dart back, sliding into the travel tent he shared with Hinata, retreating for the time being.
Two nights later, Yugito was taking first watch again, and Naruto sat down beside her.
"The Two-Tails doesn't like getting wet," he said. "It must be rough, getting by in Lightning Country like that."
He hadn't phrased it as a question, and Yugito saw fit to ignore him. Tonight, Darui was still awake, polishing a gleaming katana on the other side of a l0w-burning fire.
"Do you like her?" Naruto asked.
Yugito leveled him with a disbelieving look, so irritated that she forgot she was supposed to be blowing him off.
"Are you asking if I like the demon that was shoved in my gut?"
Naruto nodded. "Yeah."
"I do not," Yugito said, through gritted teeth.
"That's a shame," Naruto said. "I mean, Kyu told me she was a bitch, but Kyu also hates, like, everyone. Except me. And I think she likes Darui."
He watched the man lift his head, confusion blossoming across his mellow features.
Naruto wasn't lying. He just neglected to mention that it was what was on the inside of his body that had Kyu so fascinated.
"You talk to it," Yugito said, her eyes wide.
"Oh, yeah." Naruto chuckled. "She's pretty chatty!"
Yugito stared at him a bit longer, then turned her head toward the stars. "You're as crazy as B."
She looped her arms around her knees and refused to look back down or speak again, no matter what Naruto asked or tried.
O-O-O
Their route eventually, mercifully, led them down.
There'd been down before, but you could always see what you'd have to climb next looming in your path. Now, the slope led to what were clearly foothills, decorated with pine forests instead of cracked dirt and rough shrubs.
It had taken four days to get to this point. Without Hinata and Naruto, the Kumo squad could've done it in three. They ran along the cliffs with the effortlessness of Konoha-nin traversing treetops.
It had been decided along the way that Naruto and Hinata would follow them all the way to Takigakure. It was one of the few villages Naruto hadn't visited before, and he'd heard promising things about its beauty. Darui didn't object, the man's chill personality having grown on Naruto. Omoi had said nothing, while Yugito muttered something vaguely untoward.
She still put up with it, probably because she liked Hinata. The Hyuuga had grown miles more assertive after their time in Yuki no Kuni, her stutter evaporating the way the snow would once Koyuki's machine worked its magic. As a woman who wasn't shy about taking what she wanted when she wanted it, Yugito thought highly of Hinata's burgeoning ability to do the same.
The group followed a curved path, avoiding Earth Country and traveling through the Land of Iron instead. Considering the Tsuchikage wanted Naruto's head personally, he didn't complain about stretching the trip out by a few days.
They were setting camp in a glade of scraggly oaks when Yugito spoke to Naruto first.
That was rare. He'd been on her last nerve ever since the accident when they met.
"What does it say?" Yugito asked.
"It?" Naruto asked.
She looked at him like he was stupid. "The tailed beast."
"Does she think me a weapon, or a rock?" Kyu asked. "Tell her if she speaks casually of me again, we'll consume her fingers. That is what I say."
"All kinds of things," Naruto said. "Sometimes she tells me what I should do, or she warns me when she thinks I'm making a mistake, or we talk about normal things. The weather. The future. Where the next meal'll come from."
It was just himself and Yugito setting up camp. Omoi had gone ahead to scout the area now that they were out of Lightning Country, just in case there were groups with ill-intent in the vicinity. Woe be the bandits who picked a fight with this group. Darui had gone to train, and Hinata did the same. Yugito stomped to drive the last stake of her tent into the ground and turned to Naruto.
"Why do you let her babble?" Yugito asked.
"Why would I want her to stop?"
Yugito was silent. Eventually, she brushed her fingers over a seal etched onto her belt. A puff of smoke and she was holding a full bottle of sake.
Instead of offering to share, she drank long and hard from it, downing enough to make a non-Jinchuriki sick.
She then marched to one of the oak trees and thumped down, leaning her back against it.
"Kumo's other Jinchuriki talks to it like you do," she said. "He holds the Gyuki, the Eight-Tails. He tells anyone who'll listen that they're friends. Bullshit."
Yugito drank from her bottle. She was hammering it as fast as possible, trying to outpace her metabolism, just like she had in the bar.
Naruto wandered closer and, like the kid from Fire Country that he was, chose to hop up and sit on one of the tree's branches, dangling his feet.
"Why can't they be friends?"
"We didn't choose this shit." Yugito waved her hand, the bottle sloshing in her grip. "Not us, and not these damn bundles of chakra. They'd eat through our stomachs in a heartbeat if it let them get free. If I could pawn this beast off on some orphan too stupid to know what they were signing up for, I'd do it just as fast. We're stuck with each other, hated by everyone else the whole time!"
Yugito drank again, a bit of alcohol spilling past the corner of her mouth. She immediately caught what she could and licked the hand clean, desperate to not waste a drop.
"B doesn't get it. He's the Raikage's partner. No one tells him to fuck off to his face," Yugito said. "Do they see him as a person? Fuck no. But he's a good little monster— the Raikaige's pet. I've had a monster in the stomach since I was six. No matter how many missions I do, how many promotions I get, how many times B tells me I'm just misunderstood, it doesn't change a thing about how they look at me."
Naruto kicked his legs while Yugito drank more, getting to the bottom of the bottle and tossing it away. Her fingers went toward the seal at her hip, before realizing it was empty now. They formed a fist and she hissed a curse.
"Shouldn't the two of you at least get along?" Naruto asked.
Yugito looked up at him. For now, probably for only a few minutes, her cheeks were flushed from rice wine. "Me and B?"
"No. You and the Two-Tails." Naruto grinned down at her. "Monsters should stick together. And that's what you said, isn't it? That you're both monsters!"
"It's her fault in the first place," Yugito grunted.
"S'not," Naruto said, his voice firm. "You're just blaming her cause that's easier. She's not the one that's giving you those looks. It's idiots in the street. And trust me, I know the type."
"Your solution was to run away." Yugito wasn't asking a question.
"Yep! Honestly, it's been pretty fun. I totally recommend it," Naruto said.
"I… no." He watched Yugito's face. He saw her consider it, pause, then the fear blossomed across her face. Fear of the unknown? Possibly.
"It wouldn't work," Yugito said. "I'd die." She laughed bitterly. "I've lived through too much crap to curl up and roll over now."
"Then stay." Naruto shrugged. "You could try to prove 'em all wrong. Save the village or something flashy. Or, treat 'em like they don't matter."
"I don't lose sleep over those fools," Yugito said.
"But you drink." When Yugito glared, Naruto carried on. "Anyway, I'm just saying it's easier if you find some middle ground. Jinchuriki are half-human, half-bijuu, that's how I've always seen it. And nobody can be happy if they're always fighting against themselves."
Yugito was silent. After more than three minutes, she let out a long dragging exhale.
"Maybe," she said, offering no explanation as to which part she was responding to.
Naruto chose to believe she meant all of it.
O-O-O
Hinata stood alone with eyelids drawn down, the veins surrounding her eyes bulging. Iron Country had similar terrain to Earth Country, full of dry ground and outcroppings of dusty rock. Her vision extended, sight uninhibited by her closed eyes, and stretched across the landscape, picking out a specific scene.
She was watching a man. Darui was training alone, running through hand signs. Hinata watched as his chakra network lit up, followed by a beam of lightning that shone like a star to her sight. She could hear it, distantly, and even catch a faint whiff— ozone.
Long ago, Hinata had been given a chakra affinity test by Kurenai. The paper had wrinkled, then burned to ash. Fire and lightning. Two elements was a valuable tool for most shinobi, but unfortunately, she was a Hyuuga. A branch member might get away with learning what the clan considered 'tricks'. Never her. Wielding elements would have been seen as scorning the Gentle Fist, a move that would surely have seen her ostracized even faster than she had been.
That was back when she followed her family's foolish pride.
Traveling with Naruto, it hadn't taken long for her to notice that despite being one of the strongest shinobi she had ever met, he was never arrogant. She didn't count the boasts he would make sometimes— she had seen true arrogance, the way the Hyuuga rejected anything new or different, clinging to tradition like a raft keeping them afloat.
Naruto sought new things as a pastime. He was always joking and laughing, even when it was at his own expense. He had dispensed with pride to make the world a better place.
She would do the same. Whatever it took, she would become useful to him.
Hinata's eyes snapped open. She took a deep breath. Her fingers were dexterous enough to speed through seals unfamiliar to them, especially when she'd watched this chain for days.
The Byakugan could not copy the way that the Sharingan could. What it could do was let her watch.
She memorized every seal Darui used when training his attacks. She watched the way chakra moved through his body each time he launched his techniques. And she waited, watched, learned, memorized, practiced—
Absorbed.
The name came naturally to her, having read Darui's lips a dozen times over. "Raiton: Beast Horn!"
There was the crack, the scent of ozone — flooding her nose this time — and finally came the boom.
The technique traveled thirty feet before fizzling out. A far cry from Darui's, which could travel the better part of a mile, but Hinata was just beginning. She would master it. Even if her fingers charred. Even if she spent a day deafened. Even if the brilliant burst of chakra made her head ache. She would not stop.
She began the chain of seals again. Ox. Ram. Ox. Bird.
"A better first attempt than I expected."
Darui was there. No longer training, he had approached while she was distracted. Hinata let her Byakugan fade, her expression guarded.
"You're afraid of me," Darui said.
"Wary," Hinata said. "I do not trust your village."
Darui didn't attempt to defend Kumo's honor. "You agreed to travel with us, even beyond our border."
"No matter what orders you receive, you can't do anything to me," Hinata said. "Naruto is here."
While traveling, it had been revealed that Darui was the Raikage's right hand man. With age, experience, and growth, he was considered a candidate to take on the mantle next.
But Hinata had watched him carefully for more than a week. She knew the truth. Even with Yugito and Omoi, they would lose. It was that simple.
"It's a useful technique," Darui finally said. He inclined his head toward the charred line in the earth where Hinata's jutsu passed. "You picked a good one to study. Especially with your eyes."
Hinata shifted.
"You can't make full use of it," Darui admitted. He held his palm out, creating sparks above it, but they were black in color, like fragments of a shadow. "My Lightning Release is different."
He turned, unleashing the jutsu right in front of Hinata. "Raiton: Beast Horn!"
The lance of electricity that struck out of him was black in color, like the sparks he had demonstrated. It arced through the air, traveling and traveling…
Hundreds of meters away, the last portion of the beam struck a rock, shattering a hole in the middle.
"Still," Darui said, "it can be useful the normal way. You could hit a target half that far, with a bit more practice. You're talented."
Hinata almost jumped, the word managing to startle her.
"...That was a joke," she said.
"Hm? Nah," Darui said. "I don't make many jokes. They take too much effort, ya feel? I figure your eyes probably helped, but that first attempt just now was as good a Jounin's. Maybe better, since you're not from Kumo. You should have it down pretty soon."
He sniffed the air, smelling something from the direction of camp, and ambled that way, his hands in his pockets.
"Food," he explained. "It's good to eat after training."
Hinata hadn't moved. Darui was content to leave without her, knowing that she knew the way back even better than he did.
"Why did you show me?"
Darui stopped, looking over his shoulder at Hinata. She stood with her head high, cocked about an inch to the side, her Byakugan trained on him, searching for tells that would give away if he lied.
"Why did you show me that black lightning? You could have kept it a secret."
Revealing techniques like that to someone that could easily become an enemy was unwise. Darui had been nothing but calm and collected thus far. He shouldn't have made a mistake like that.
The answer he gave wasn't a lie. Hinata's Byakugan told her that much. But it also didn't help her understand anything any better.
"Dunno," Darui said, shrugging.
He followed his nose toward the stew boiling at their camp.
Eventually, Hinata did the same.