Seina, invisible, approached the vicinity of the Ne headquarters. She remembered the map she had seen from the Hokage and knew it was right in front of her, despite not being able to distinguish a building or an entrance. She had to admit that Danzo, much as she disliked him, was no ordinary ninja. She summoned her creatures from the top of a branch, hidden a few meters away among the leaves with her bracelet and spells.
The process was the same as always. Send her summons, spy from afar, sketch a mental map (or on paper, in this case), use the hiraishin to bring in her clones or herself, as needed, and then return with the hiraishin. She hadn't realized it, but she had developed a unique infiltration modus operandi without intending to. Perhaps that was why Tsunade-sama had sent her to the Land of Ice with Tenzou. Sorry, Yamato. For her, traps posed no threat because she could bypass them using the blind spots of the places she infiltrated.
The downside to all this was the time she lost studying the base beforehand. It could take hours until she was sure it was safe to enter. It would have been much faster to go through the front door and deal with whatever she encountered. It would also have been infinitely more dangerous. Since she was in no hurry and didn't want to risk her neck, she took her time.
She started drawing a small map on a sheet. It was her first sketch and wasn't to scale. It simply helped her get directions and an idea of how many spaces there were, what they were, and where they were located. The first thing she saw was a long underground tunnel that branched out like a labyrinth. Fortunately, despite the twists and turns meant to confuse potential intruders, only one tunnel led somewhere, and there were no secret rooms along the way. About six branches were dead ends filled with traps, while the real path led to a large triangular vestibule with very high gray concrete walls, the ceiling at ground level of the village being made of glass. She noticed that the glass ceiling was under a genjutsu, as well as numerous fuinjutsu barriers.
This same vestibule had a central bridge surrounded on both sides by a deep pit that delved into the ground, like the rest of the underground base. It must have taken months to build it all in complete secrecy. She observed two huge columns from which beams protruded, along with gigantic pipes whose contents she couldn't discern. On the other side of the vestibule was an entrance, the size of a double door, leading to Danzo's real base.
Curiously, she hadn't encountered a single ninja so far. When she entered through a tiny gap in the door, using her summoned insects, she once again saw darkness. It was clear that criminals loved secret bases inside caves. It took her almost 20 minutes to find the first door. It turned out to be a storage room for supplies, but nothing important. She saw new uniforms hanging on racks, white masks piled on a shelf, weapons, backpacks, etc. The next discovery was another storage room, but for cleaning and maintenance products.
She saw kitchens in the right wing of the complex next to a surprisingly small canteen. At most, it could be used by about ten people. Clearly, it wasn't meant for all the Ne ninjas to eat there. At least, not all of them. She spent several hours inspecting the right wing. It was empty. Just like the entire headquarters seemed to be. She checked the time with a spell, realizing it would soon be lunchtime, and waited patiently.
Meanwhile, she continued investigating the complex. From what she could see, it extended under the western mountain of Konoha. The same mountain where her father's face was carved. No wonder they had so much space. The lighting, however, left much to be desired. She only had time to reach the first door in the left wing when she started hearing signs of life. She halted all her creatures, even though they were under protection spells, and spied.
She didn't recognize anyone because they all wore the same uniform with white masks on their faces. Some were adults while others were clearly children. No one spoke. They didn't even look at each other. They acted like robots. Seina felt a chill sensing the eerie environment these people lived in day after day. She watched as they walked to the kitchen, forming a single file line without anyone prompting them. A window opened and hands handed out a metal tray with food. The first in line took it without a word and left. The second did the same, then the third, the fourth... She curiously wondered where they went to eat until she saw someone heading towards the left hallway.
One of them opened the door, and she saw for a few brief seconds what seemed to be a 5 square meter room. There was a raised bunk bed nailed high on one wall, under which was a small desk with a couple of drawers, and a wooden chair that looked extremely uncomfortable. On the opposite wall, a fairly tall dresser with four drawers. The door closed, and she saw nothing more. She then knew, with some sadness, that each person went to eat alone in their claustrophobic, windowless room, illuminated by oil lamps or candles.
Suddenly, she remembered Yamato. He had been a member of Ne by force. Why hadn't he told the Hokage about the living conditions of Ne ninjas? Although, on second thought, Kakashi-sensei had told her that Danzo had personally recruited him. Was he only talking about his recruitment? Or maybe, was there something more? As far as she knew, there was no map of Danzo's base. They hadn't even known where it was, despite her own teacher being recruited into Ne. Could Danzo have another base? She made a note to ask him later.
She had already spent nearly five hours spying on Danzo's base and hadn't even reached halfway. She waited a while until everyone received their food and the kitchen window closed with a padlock before moving again. She had counted about 38 people with trays. She didn't know how many more might be in the kitchen, as she had only seen one person serving food behind the opaque window, but she doubted that 38 people represented the total, real number of Danzo's forces.
Hours later, she discovered in the left wing a huge room with closed cubicles for showering and for doing their business. Clearly, there were no distinctions of sex. Everything was the same. Gray floor, gray walls, torches, gray doors... The only different thing was the white sink. There weren't even mirrors. But then, why would there be a mirror if no one took off their mask in public? Even the row of showers and toilets were isolated from each other to ensure total privacy and prevent them from uncovering themselves in front of each other.
The longer she spent inside spying on them, the more depressed she felt. The fact that everything was gray sapped her energy. She wondered if it was really done on purpose, if it was set up this way to keep Danzo's minions in constant depression. The sound of several weapons clashing in the right wing caught her attention. It was a huge training room. She watched two strangers fighting with their katanas. They were alone and seemed completely focused on the fight.
She left them alone, seeing it was nothing important, and continued deeper into the left wing. Except for the shared bathroom, all the rooms were identical to each other. She counted 100 rooms in total and four shared bathrooms for every 20 rooms, besides the first one she had seen. She took out a bento box, noticing the sun high in the sky, and ate while continuing her mission. She entered several rooms, observing people eating or sleeping, or staring blankly at the ceiling. She didn't know any of them. Most of them seemed like ordinary people. They didn't have any distinctive clan features or anything like that, so she gave up. She had more important things to spy on.
The right wing turned out to be another disappointment. There were only service-related areas like the laundry, the kitchen, the pantry, the freezer, the fridges, a garbage area, a huge incinerator, and a relaxation room with sofas and a table. She only saw a couple of hooded people moving back and forth doing household chores. They incinerated some bloodstained rags, cleaned the kitchen, stored food leftovers, collected the trash in a cart, ran several washing machines and dryers… Everything was so automated that she wondered how long Danzo had been operating to reach this level of efficiency. Had he dismantled Ne when her father ordered it, or had he just made it look like he did?
She closed the diary and gradually unsummoned her creatures, far from the Ne anbu. She had spent the entire day in the tree. She deserved a break. She teleported home, using her magic to avoid drawing attention. She had her chakra under control, but she wasn't going to take any chances with such a good hiding spot right in front of Danzo's base. As soon as she knew they were in the training room, likely training. She left a couple of clones cooking while she headed to her study to start transcribing onto a scroll the rough sketch she had made of part of the base. There was still much to discover.
"Nee-chan?" Naruto called out a while later.
"I'm here, Naru."
She left her things on the desk. She saw Naruto and Sasuke drinking juices, their foreheads beaded with sweat.
"How was the training?"
"Good. We're getting a lot better at kenjutsu," Sasuke informed her. "And you?"
"Why don't you go shower and then we can talk?"
They left her alone to set the table while they went to shower. A few minutes later, Kakashi-sensei appeared at the door. Unlike her brother and Sasuke, he didn't have a single hair out of place.
"How was your day?"
"Slow," she sighed. She handed him the napkins. "Here. When do you think you'll be able to leave the village?"
"I imagine soon, if Danzo sends someone on a mission. Have you been able to find out anything?"
"Are you talking about Danzo?" Sasuke asked, coming down the last steps accompanied by Naruto after a record-breaking shower.
"Yes. The base is much larger than expected. It extends under the mountain like a labyrinth. So far, I've only managed to infiltrate the entrance and two of the three wings of the headquarters. I think the biggest part is yet to be seen. There are at least 100 rooms down there, although today I only counted about 40 people."
"Mmm..."
They talked a bit more about Danzo before moving on to the next topic. Then they all went to bed. She would have liked to stay up a bit longer lounging around, but she had many things to do the next day.
She woke up early to go to the hospital. It was Thursday, and on Thursdays and Fridays, she worked at the hospital all morning. Tsunade-sama had given her an office in the ninja ward, where she handled the most serious cases. Fortunately, she didn't have any patients with supposed incurable diseases or amputated arms, so she dedicated herself to organizing and filing paperwork after making her rounds to heal the most critical patients.
Just as she was about to return to her office, a team of ninjas came in carrying an injured comrade. She saw a couple of iryo-nin running towards them, their hands glowing green from the medical jutsu. Since there was plenty of medical staff available, she turned to continue on her way. They knew where to find her if they needed her. She didn't get more than two steps before they called her name.
"Seina-san! We need help!"
She turned instantly, quickly following the stretcher with the convalescent patient being taken to the operating room. While changing clothes and disinfecting her arms, they explained what her diagnostic wand, now distributed throughout the hospital, had found.
"He has a perforated liver, lacerations on his torso, is suffering from electrocution and… his eyes have been ripped out. He's a Hyuga from the branch family," they whispered the last part.
"I see..."
What a problem. A ninja whose primary tool is his eyes, without eyes. She entered the operating room, seeing them healing the liver injury and the resulting haemorrhage. One person was working on his bruised bare chest while another seemed to be channelling the lightning nature chakra likely still in his body. Seina healed the wounds on his wrists, marks from restraints, while observing the semi-naked man before her.
"Can anything be done about his eyes?" asked a voice beside her. It was another iryo-nin, with a worried look.
"Maybe. Let me try something."
She approached his head, moving aside the iryo-nin who was stopping the bleeding, and analysed him with her magic. In theory, the only injuries her magic couldn't heal were those caused by dark magic. Obviously, this wasn't the case, so in theory, she could regenerate his eyes. The problem was she wasn't sure if she could do it or if it required special care since they were Hyuga eyes.
"Bring me one Hyuga with the seal and one without. Quickly."
One of the nurses ran out of the operating room while she temporarily stopped the haemorrhage. She didn't want to close the wounds until she knew whether she could make new eyes for him or not. It didn't take ten minutes before Neji entered accompanied by Hinata. Both looked even paler than usual as they stared at their relative on the operating table.
"They're here, Seina-sama," the nurse called out. She felt a tic in her eyebrow at the honorific from the nurses.
"What have they done to him?" Neji exclaimed in horror while Hinata covered her mouth with her hands.
"I need to examine your eyes to see if I can regenerate his."
"...Of course. Whatever you need," Neji said, surprised by her words.
"Hinata."
Her friend swallowed and stood beside her. Seina scanned her with her magic and chakra, realizing it was similar to Kakashi-sensei's sharingan. It connected differently to the brain. Then, she did the same with Neji. As soon as she got the results, she realized she couldn't perform the operation without removing the seal. She wondered if she could use the Finite Incantatem as she did with the seals on the jar where Sasuke was kidnapped. It wasn't an extremely complex seal, so she had a hunch she could do it without consequences for the patient. Then she thought about the consequences of removing the seal… She was between a rock and a hard place.
"What's going on?" asked Hinata with concern.
"I have to remove the seal before I can regenerate his eyes..."
"...So... you can't do anything for him, can you?" asked Neji, devastated.
"On the contrary. That's the problem."
Neji and Hinata, and someone else behind her, gasped when they heard her. They quickly understood what she was saying.
"Y-you can remove the seal?" whispered Hinata, shocked.
"I think so. I'm not an expert in fuinjutsu, but I think I can. If I do it, I might cause a political problem in your clan. You know that, right?"
"For a Hyuga, their eyes are their most precious asset," said Hinata, her tone more firm but still soft. "Do it, please. I'll take the consequences. I won't let anything happen to you."
"I'd like to see them try," Seina chuckled. "I'm more worried about you two."
"Why?"
"Because if I can remove the seal, something that hadn't occurred to me to try until now, it means I can remove Neji's seal too. I won't let him leave here with a slave seal on his forehead if I can remove it."
Neji choked upon hearing her. Hinata touched his shoulder gently, as if unsure if she'd be rejected, but her cousin seemed distracted, blinking rapidly with bright eyes as he realized he might leave the hospital free. Seeing that she had the approval of the Hyuga clan's heiress, Seina turned to her patient. She touched his forehead with a magic-charged finger.
"Finite incantatem," she intoned internally.
She felt her magic trace the seal that oppressed the optic nerves and part of the brain, unravelling the fuinjutsu as she had envisioned. She heard another gasp when the green seal vanished from Tetsu's forehead. She placed her hands over the empty sockets and began using her magic, combined with her new medical knowledge, to reconstruct organs for the first time in her life. She had seen healers do it in her past life. She never thought she'd need to know such a spell, so lacking the knowledge, she simply improvised.
At first, she had to think about where to start until she realized she could use the tissues as a starting point. She imagined that's how they dealt with amputated limbs during magical disappearances. She began creating the eyes from the optic nerves, based on what she had learned from Hinata's and Neji's eyes. When she realized it was working, she smiled. It was a tedious, slow process that required a lot of magic to compensate for not using a proper spell. She felt someone wipe the sweat from her forehead as she kept her eyes closed, concentrating on her task.
Hours later, she felt the eyes were back in place. When she opened her eyes, blinking at the bright light, she saw the rest of the injuries had been healed while she worked. Yet, no one had left her side, likely interested to see if it would work. When she removed her hands and revealed her patient's new eyes, they leaned in with astonished faces to examine him.
"I'm going to sit for a while," she groaned, feeling her body tense. "What time is it?"
"16:00," informed one of the iryo-nin in a military tone.
She sighed, realizing she had skipped lunch. She should have gone home two hours ago.
"You can go rest," said a colleague. "We'll finish here."
"Alright. See you tomorrow."
She left without a second thought. Hinata and Neji were waiting for her at the door, whom she had forgotten. She remembered her promise to Neji and knew she wouldn't leave the hospital as quickly as she had imagined.
"Seina! How's Tetsu?" asked Hinata, worried.
"He's fine. He has his eyes back," she whispered. "Come to my office."
They followed her to her office, filled with various protections. She closed the door behind them.
"Does he have the byakugan?" asked Neji as soon as they entered.
"His eyes are healthy and his brain connection is the same as yours, so I don't see why he wouldn't be able to activate the dojutsu."
Hinata and Neji looked surprised and relieved to hear this. Seina indicated to Neji to sit in one of the visitor chairs piled in a corner.
"Take off the headband, Neji."
"Are you really going to do it?" he asked, looking at her intently with an indescribable expression in his eyes.
"Yes. I told you before. You can keep wearing the headband if you want, but I won't let you leave here with that seal if you were forced to wear it. Do you want me to remove the seal?"
"Neji-ni-san, please let her remove it."
"Are you sure, Hinata-sama?"
"Yes."
"Then, please, remove it."
It took her two minutes to clear his forehead. Neji, looking at himself in a mirror, couldn't believe it. He stood up slowly, as if in shock, and hugged her tightly. Seina let him vent, holding him close and stroking his hair. Why were the children and adults of this world so deprived of affection and support? At that moment, her stomach growled, surprising everyone. Seina started to laugh silently. Neji stepped back, smiling with slightly red eyes.
"Sorry. You must have been without food for hours."
"It's alright. Part of the job. Are you okay, Hina?" she asked, seeing Hinata still crying.
"Yes. We should let you rest and eat."
Neji nodded. He put the headband back on with trembling hands. Minutes later, they left the hospital. For a moment, she wished to apparate home, but she knew she needed to talk to the Hokage. She headed to the tower, crossing her fingers for luck, and almost cried when she realized they were still in the office. Her secretary, a covert ninja, let her in immediately.
"Come in, come in..." said Tsunade-sama, waving a hand. "Is something wrong?"
"I'm afraid so," she sighed. "Today at the hospital, we treated a group of ninjas who had just returned from a mission. One of them was a Hyuga from the secondary branch who had his eyes gouged out. I managed to regenerate them."
"What!?" exclaimed Tsunade-sama, blinking.
"Yes, well, that's not why I'm here. To do it, I had to remove the seal. I also removed Neji's seal."
"…Ugh," groaned Tsunade-sama, undoubtedly imagining the repercussions. "Thank you for telling me as soon as possible."
"Neji is still wearing the ninja headband, so I imagine they won't notice for a while, if the iryo-nin keep quiet and Tetsu Hyuga doesn't do anything to make them try to activate his seal."
"I'll speak to them personally."
"Moreover, Hinata was there. She gave me explicit permission, in front of witnesses, to remove it."
"Well. That makes me a little more at ease," confessed the Hokage. "She may only be 12 years old, but she's still the heiress of the main branch."
"Maybe we can keep this under wraps until Hinata succeeds her father or gains more support from the secondary branch. She wants to abolish the seal, so sooner or later, the Hyuga will stop using it."
"That's if they don't replace Hinata with her younger sister, but I like your proposal. I'll need to think more deeply about this with Shizune and Shikaku."
Seina couldn't contain a laugh at hearing the jonin commander's name. She could imagine the look on his face when he found out about this. Tsunade-sama snorted a laugh upon hearing her, probably knowing what she was thinking, and shooed her out of the office, shaking her head. After that, she went straight home. When she arrived, she found Kakashi-sensei in the garden doing one-arm push-ups, using just one finger to go up and down.
"Where have you been? If not for Naruto and Sasuke, I would have thought you'd been kidnapped."
"At the hospital. A last-minute operation. I'm going to eat something, I'm starving."
"I can hear your stomach growling from here," he said, smiling, glancing at her.
"And you? What are you doing?"
"I was bored. Besides, I told you I would increase my training," he joked.
"I didn't think you meant this."
She entered the house, still laughing, and saw that a plate had been prepared for her. She heated it in a second with a spell and went back out to the porch. While eating, she watched her teacher do exercises, realizing it was the first time she'd seen him train his body alone.
"Where are the others?"
"No idea. I think they went shopping," he replied, lifting some ninja weights that looked very heavy. "I don't know how you managed to stay in the village for almost two months without going out."
"Unlike you, I wasn't at home twiddling my thumbs waiting for my mission to start."
Kakashi-sensei let out a laugh, lifting the bar. Seina watched him while eating her apple. With a mischievous streak, she suppressed a smile, ready to tease her teacher a bit.
"It's a shame you haven't taken off your shirt. It would've brightened my day a bit more," she said casually, biting her apple.
The jonin choked, blushing. The weights wobbled for a second before he regained his composure. Seina felt her shoulders shake with laughter.
"Seina!"
"What?" she asked with innocent eyes that fooled no one.
Kakashi-sensei looked at her, trying to hide a smile while shaking his head. Then he let the weights fall to the floor with a thud. Before she could blink twice, he unbuttoned his jacket, taking it off quickly along with his mask. Next, he grasped the shirt with both hands, putting it on slowly enough for her to see his muscles contract with just his posture. She felt her jaw drop as she realized she'd been had.
"Are you satisfied?" he asked with a totally troll-like smile, looking at her stunned face.
"Didn't you say you were lifting weights?" she raised an eyebrow, crossing her legs over her ankles.
The jonin didn't say anything more. He picked up the weights again and exercised while she ate her fruit and watched him intently. Now that she'd been invited to do so, why not?
"I think I'll have to stop wearing this shirt," he started, suppressing a laugh. "I train better like this."
"Are you challenging me, Kakashi-sensei?" she asked in a lower tone, stretching out her name.
"Not at all."
"Not really? Because I can make this situation much... harder."
She observed how he swallowed again. His eyes met hers. She looked at him with heavy eyelids, tilting her head in his direction and staring at him silently. She saw him swallow again. She leaned back onto his seat slowly, opening up her posture and placing an arm behind her head while looking at him in silence as he continued exercising. She decided in that moment that she had to change her strategy. She wasn't entirely satisfied with her platonic situation, and Kakashi-sensei, whether he knew it or not, was giving her permission to seduce him. She would enjoy driving him crazy.
"You're dangerous," the jonin finally acknowledged, putting the weights down and sitting on the grass. "Too early for you to be so..."
"What?" she whispered, crossing one leg over the other a hundredth of a second slower than usual. Act that was carefully observed by her teacher.
"So tempting," he said almost painfully.
"Oh? Are you saying you like danger?"
"Yes, yes If I can do something with that," he smiled almost painfully.
They remained silent for a few minutes, staring at each other, until Kakashi-sensei got up from the floor and picked up his clothes. He approached her still half-naked and put his hands on either side of her head. He leaned over her slowly until his lips brushed against her ear. She observed the bare torso in front of her. All she had to do was lean forward a few centimetres to touch him with her body, but she didn't.
"If you were a few years older... we'd continue this in my bed," he whispered.
All the hair on her body stood on end as she heard her sensual words directly in her ear along with the brush of his skin against it. She felt a wave of heat sweep through her body. Her nipples became erect as her breathing quickened. She grabbed his hair before he could leave and win this round. She kissed his collarbone and slowly moved up, taking her time as she massaged his head, using the tip of her tongue with her mouth half-open to trace his neck, her lips and nose brushing against the skin of his neck.
The satisfaction of hearing his stifled gasp in her ear was indescribable. She arrived at his ear.
"For now, you can use your shower while I use my bathtub," she murmured, speaking as sexily as possible.
She let him go, giving him a light kiss just below his ear. She got up and disappeared into her room using magic. She fell to the floor, her legs trembling with excitement. Luckily, the spells didn't allow anyone to hear what was happening in her room so Kakashi-sensei didn't hear her breathe heavily as she recovered from exertion.
"Are you going to fuck him one of these days?" Kurama asked disinterestedly. "That's one of the few things I don't miss."
"I didn't know you were a voyeur," she said incredulously.
"To be honest, it's not like I want to see you, but I must admit that this is the first time I don't feel completely disgusted thinking about you and sex. Before, I would have preferred to kill my other jinchurikis. Now... I'm more indifferent. Besides, I'm unable to ignore what happens around you, or have you forgotten?"
"Not at all. As for fucking him, for now, you'll have to go to sleep if you don't want to see what I'm going to do," she smiled, somewhat incredulous to be discussing her sexual desires with Kurama.
She washed herself while filling up the enormous bathtub quickly enough. That thursday she masturbated for the first time in this new life. She noticed, as if he were under her skin, Kurama stopping paying attention to her. It was strange to think that she wasn't entirely alone. She never would be. She could distance herself from Sasuke and Naruto, but not from Kurama because he literally lived inside her body. They weren't sharing minds at the moment, but he knew what she was doing. As she said, it was weird. What excited her the most was knowing that, surely, Kakashi-sensei was using his shower to masturbate at the same time as she was, knowing that she was masturbating too.
She knew because she had clearly seen the bulge in his pants. She had noticed the way his hair stood up like hers, the erect nipples, the muscles contracting in response to her stimulation, his breathing against her ear, his almost imperceptible tremor when her tongue touched his body... She moaned, finishing with her fingers as she recalled his gaze and words. The confession that he was thinking about claiming her right at that very moment.
She stayed in the bathtub for a while, staring at the ceiling. She went underwater for a few minutes to clear her mind. She felt the cold air on her breasts and part of her torso while she stayed submerged. After a few minutes, she came up for air again. She reluctantly said goodbye to her bath and got dressed. Contrary to what one might have thought, she didn't feel a bit of shame for having masturbated, for what had happened in the garden, for Kurama knowing, or for her master knowing she had masturbated off thinking of him. Being a teenager again had its perks...