Author's Notes – This prologue is a response to a challenge from a certain ffnet member, hope you enjoy it. You know who you are ;-p (if you don't enjoy it, well, bite me. Or tell me how to improve, I'm always open to criticism.)

Story Start

Profound tiredness hung in the air of the great arena, almost stifling in its abundance. Bruised and battered teams stood around the upper-level balcony, watching intently, or not so intently, as the case may be. Some ninja were milling around, taking the opportunity to do a bit of recon disguised as visits to the facilities. Others were more open in their glances, confident in their strength. Everybody was battered and dirty to some degree, with only two exceptions. Well, three if you count the jounins and the test proctors. One of the exceptions was standing like a statue, death in his eyes, his arms folded as he watched the fight. From the gourd slung on his back, a light dusting of sand drifted to the floor, swirling around in the invisible currents of air on that side of the arena.

Kurenai turned her gaze towards the other exception, who was currently meandering along the balcony, her steps apparently random. Short raven hair and a hooded zip-up jacket hid the Leaf Village forehead-protector that was fastened loosely around her neck. The girl narrowly avoided walking right into a Hidden Rock ninja, somehow turning aside at the last minute as she continued her journey. The nin gave her a bored glance that belied his surprise.

Somehow, Hinata had come to an agreement with whatever lurked in the forest of death. That had to be the answer, because while the girl's Jyuuken taijutsu was passable, she had no other notable skills, other than... that. Kurenai shuddered inwardly, as the girl's face turned just for a moment, allowing her to see the faint tracery of distended blood-vessels that indicated her byakugan was active.

Of course it's active. It's always active. Lately it had almost become a kind of game, but no matter where she saw the Hyuga heiress, no matter what she was doing, her byakugan was always active. It surprised her that she couldn't remember precisely in the past months when Hinata had begun leaving it always on. No, tell the truth, Kurenai. At a deep level, beyond what she would show to anyone else including Asuma, it frightened her. Truth was important in her art. Always tell the truth, if only to yourself. It was her ninja way, a necessary part of her specialty, genjutsu.

Maybe it's a kind of chakra exercise. She had no idea of the exact chakra requirements of the byakugan. As close-knit as the Hyuga clan was, they let nothing slip out, especially concerning their precious blood-line limit. Still, she had not seen any other Hyuga make such use of the ability. She knew, knew, that Hinata had only average chakra potential. So then how?

I don't know, she finally admitted to herself. I don't really know how much chakra potential she has. I don't know why, how, or even when she started using the ability so constantly. I don't know anything. The fear curled around at the back of her mind, like a snake, as she watched the enigmatic Hyuga heiress continue to walk along, her face blank, as if she wasn't seeing anything. Or as if she's seeing everything. Which of course she was, even if she was not consciously focusing on everything. Kurenai turned away suddenly, unable to escape the overwhelming feeling that she had been caught peeping.

"Alright! Now I'm gonna unveil my new Secret Technique!" One could hear the capitalization of the last two words as Naruto formed his hands into a seal. His exhilarated grin seemed out of place, especially since it looked as if he was about to collapse. His bright orange jump-suit was so dirty the boy could have actually blended pretty decently into a pile of dead foliage. Kurenai let her attention be drawn by the fight, immersing herself in the present so as to force the niggling fear back out of her conscious mind.

Looks can be deceiving. Kiba had beaten the boy down pretty badly, but he would not stay down, and that was the problem. It was Kiba's problem, anyway. A defeat will help him grow, and perhaps overcome his brashness. And defeat him Naruto would, even if she didn't know how. Something about him set off alarms in her mind. He had a plan. She could see it in his eyes, how they shined when he spoke of his upcoming technique. So unlike a ninja. Boldly proclaiming his intent to his enemy, as if the match were nothing more than a joust, with everything in the open. He was so sure of himself, so confident that there was nothing his opponent could do, as if the world was dancing to his tune, unknowingly a part of the most elaborate genjutsu ever devised.

She shook her head, clearing it of the strange tendrils that had been slowly creeping up. It's just a match, and he's just being Naruto.

Kiba apparently thought the same, for he made a few seals and activated his quadruped beast ninpo, leaping suddenly behind Naruto into his blind zone. What he didn't expect was the biological weapon that Naruto unleashed rather loudly.

"-gyaaaaah!" Kiba fell to the floor, writhing around in agony as the remaining seven of the Rookie Nine gaped, astonished at what had just happened.

"Dammit, that was an accident!" Naruto snapped at the recalcitrant crowd "Now for the technique...!"

Kurenai shook her head in amusement as the boy kage-bunshined and finished his opponent off. She glanced over and happened to stare right into the eyes of Hinata. The girl was still thirty feet away, but she had apparently finished her circuit of the stadium, returning to where she had begun. Her blank white eyes slid off Kurenai's as she continued walking, aimlessly. Not aimlessly, her mind argued. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, driving off the strange feeling. It was one of the problems of being a genjutsu specialist, that she tended to see a little too far underneath the underneath, sometimes blowing the smallest things out of proportion. But not in this case.

She released the breath she had unconsciously been holding, looking over at the scoreboard as Hayate declared Naruto the winner amidst a bunch of coughing. The only thing to do whenever she went off on one of her Hinata-related tangents was to look around, put her mind on something else, but not intentionally. Otherwise her unease would grow, as if it knew what she was doing. As if it knew she was trying to get rid of it. The scoreboard display changed, as the two contestants for the next match were shown.

Hyuga, Hinata. Hyuga, Neji.

Her heart constricted a bit. It was times like this that she seriously considered the possibility that the Hokage really was controlling the results of the drawing, as opposed to it being all random. Some of the pairings were just a little too perfect, as if designed to help certain people advance, and teach others a needed lesson.

"Hinata-" she turned, and lost her breath when she found the girl a yard away and closing, arms slowly rising, out to her sides and a little to the front, palms faced forward. Almost as if she were going for a hug, but not quite. She's snapped, Kurenai thought, reaching out to put her arms around the Hyuga heiress. This matching isn't good for her, but at least I can comfort her- her train of thought derailed abruptly when Hinata's arms changed direction and she took her instructor's hand, putting her other arm around the woman's shoulder, as if they both were about to take part in a close romantic slow dance.

She's snapped, Kurenai repeated numbly to herself, trying to keep herself from showing any outward sign of her distress. And then, She timed this. Somehow. She was right there when Naruto's match ended. How...? Her thoughts fell into chaos when Hinata turned her head to the side, laying it on the woman's shoulder as she allowed Kurenai to lead her in a dance, to music that apparently only she could hear.

Twenty degrees counter-clockwise, nine hundred and forty three feet away from Hinata's position was a rather up-scale bar. The mood in the bar was slow, languid. Couples danced, middle-aged upstanding citizens of Konaha sat at bar stools drinking. Everything here was high-class. With her byakugan, Hinata was there, dancing with her Naruto-sama. He led a bit tentatively at first, but he got better within a few seconds, as if picking up on her subtle rhythm. Just like Naruto-sama, always adjusting to new conditions, ready for anything. Planning. Intricate plans.

She saw through the front he had put up for the rest of Konoha, leading them on into thinking he was a loud brash idiot. For so long he had led them all on. Soon, he would unleash, whatever it was he had prepared. She could see, all that he had done when he knew no one else was looking. No one else but her. She saw all that he had done the past five years, and how it was all slowly coming to a head. Like a giant clock, intricate with it's gears and springs, everything was being prepared for, something, in as little as three days from now, or as many as seven.

As he had loudly proclaimed his intention to unveil a secret technique, back in the arena, for a moment she thought she had miscalculated, and that he was going to do it all right there, whatever he had planned for the past five years. She had inwardly tensed, as she walked along, preparing to jump into the arena. It there was no more time, extreme measures had to be taken. But it had not been so, and she had continued her walk-a-bout. Which had led to now, her arms around the orange-clad genin, as she danced with him.

"Why will you not tell me your plans?" she asked, almost idly. Naruto-sama never fell for anything indirect. She knew this, as well as she knew the back of Neji's hand. Always be direct, but never forceful. Like you want to know what you are asking, but at the same time couldn't care less.

"What plans?" His raspy voice spoke in her ear as they turned across the dance floor.

A point for you, she admitted. He had changed the rules yet again, and she would have to spend a few precious hours figuring them out. When she stayed silent, he spoke again, his voice deceptively casual.

"Did you watch my fight with Kiba?" His normal rasp sounded different, as if it were someone else clothing themselves in Naruto-sama's voice.

Undoubtedly one of his many tests, she decided. He was always testing her, seeing if she was worthy. "Of course I watched," she responded, matching his tone. "I'm always watching." She could be truthful now, she felt that. This was one of those times, one of those moments when they were together, and yet not. During these times she had to be truthful, that was the way the game was played. When she met him next, though, she would have to be circumspect as always, not even mentioning this brief moment when they were close.

Naruto led her slowly, inevitably, towards a doorway of light etched into the wall of the tavern. He turned her around, his hands and attitude more encouraging than he usually was with her.

"Your match is next," he spoke softly into her ear. "Do your best." He pushed her gently through the door of light.

Kurenai watched from the doorway as her pupil slowly walked away from her and into the arena towards Neji.

"Do your best," she whispered again, more to herself than to Hinata.

Neji Hyuga watched as the main-house Hyuga heiress approached, and he sneered. No matter her weirdness, no matter how much Hanabi was freaked out by her, she was weak. He knew that without a doubt, having sparred with her countless times. Countless times he had put her down in front of her father, ostensibly acting as her teacher, her sensei, in the Jyuuken, the Hyuga martial art.

"I don't care how crazy you are, or what stories Hanabi tells, you can't win this." He spoke slowly and carefully, the contempt he felt for her showing clearly. He was Branch House, and she was Main. Fate was at work in them both. He was forever her servant, her protector, but at this moment, he was her opponent. The same Fate that made him her slave, assured him victory. He was Fated to win this match, and nothing could change that. Hinata advanced, giving no indication she had even heard him speak. "You should give up now, Hinata, before you get hurt. You-" His words died as their auras touched.

He sank back slightly, unconsciously, into the sixty-four trigram stance. There would be no half-measures from him in this fight. He would methodically take her apart, teaching her the lesson she had not learned in all his sparring matches with her. He would show her Fate, that while she was Master, and he was slave, he was also ninja, and she was not.

As their personal spaces melded, and his byakugan activated, feelings leached their way into his mind. It was the blessing, and the curse, of the Hyuga ability, to easily read an opponent's emotion. He blanked himself, completely opening his mind, freeing his body to react, to move in response to whatever threat came against him. He knew instinctively that it was almost over, because Hinata had never been able to make the conceptual connection about Jyuuken that he had made. She always lost, unable to free herself as he had freed himself.

His almost-all-seeing eyes widened as she did something completely unexpected. She lifted her right hand to her left shoulder, looked down at the ground languidly, and shrugged her left shoulder, oozing out of her jacket. Against his will he swallowed once, bracing himself against the liquid sexuality coming from the girl before him.

She walked up to him, and the closer she got, the more he opened himself, preparing to move, in any direction, at any time, at the first hint of aggression. She slid up, raised a hand and reached between his frozen Jyuuken stance, placing her hand just below his right shoulder. He felt nothing, no killer intent, no aggression. Her other hand came up to his left bicep, touching him. Her left hand moved to another point, her movements beginning to quicken. By the time she touched his fifth chakra point, and he still felt no aggression or chakra pulse, he began to wonder.

Her hands blurred into motion, and still he felt no pulse of chakra in any of her strikes. That's not true, he thought suddenly. There was just a bare hint of energy, like a spiderweb, wherever she touched. Too little. There's not enough energy there to penetrate or disrupt my chakra coils. What is she doing? Regardless, it was time for her lesson. He moved to block, and began a strike of his own. A spike of aggression caused him change his strike into a block.

At her thirty fifth 'strike' it hit him all at once, leaving him nearly breathless. No. She couldn't. Not even she would be so... Twenty four strikes blurred by in two and a half seconds, draining him of his energy, leaving him panting on the ground, looking up at her as she froze, her palm stopping two inches from his forehead, the last strike incomplete. He longed to bring his head forward and force her to finish the combination, but his paralysis was complete, save for his voice and his involuntary functions. His heart pounded painfully, insistently. Desperately.

"Why...?" he gasped out. She was not even looking down at him, her unfocused eyes seeming to stare out across the arena into nothingness. She brought down her middle finger, and flicked his forehead. He collapsed onto the floor, his muscles quivering uncontrollably as she wandered off, humming vacantly to herself. He tried one more time to muster the strength to talk.

"How could you..." he swallowed, his voice gaining strength. "How could you bring the secret Hyuga bedroom techniques out into the open like that?? It's forbidden..." When she did not answer, the frustrated branch-house Hyuga gasped out in sudden frustration. "At least give me the last strike...!" He knew that if she did not, he would be tense for days, unable to train, unable to sleep. He watched her walk, aimlessly, and not aimlessly. She meandered across the arena to where her sensei stood open-mouthed, shocked by the unexpected reversal. She ignored him, disdained him as he had done to her for so long.

Then she spoke.

"The last strike is reserved for another, cousin Neji."

Hinata walked, one foot in front of the other, considering. The technique she had used would have only worked on two people, Neji, with whom she had trained for so long, and on one other, the one she imprinted herself to, when she became a wife. She fled from the thought, in case Naruto-sama was there, looking at her, knowing her thoughts. If he caught her pondering the unponderable, it would disappear, as surely as a birthday wish spoken aloud. Her all-seeing byakugan, still active of course, quickly found out Naruto-sama where he stood with his team. Her ears faintly picked up on the argument taking place, but even if she could not hear the specific words, with her ability she could lip-read.

"Hey dobe, get me some popcorn." She could imagine the Uchiha's slithering voice.

"Get it yourself, you teme!" Naruto's hands were clasped behind his head, scorn evident in his features as he glared at his teammate, acting as if he had not even seen her put-down of her branch-house inferior. Same as always. So sly, Naruto-sama. Of course he was forgetting about her eidetic memory. She replayed the battle in her mind, this time focusing on the position of Team Seven, looking for any change in expression. He was arguing with the Uchiha, same as he was doing now. Not doing now. She suddenly returned to the present, feeling Naruto's eyes on her. She banished her thoughts suddenly, careful to retain only admiration for the boy who suddenly seemed to have noticed that she had won.

"Woohoo! Way to go Hinata!" He punched both fists in the air, screaming like a maniac. Putting on the usual I'm-an-idiot act. Now she would never know for sure if he had actually watched her fight, and was just acting out now, or if he was testing her yet again, looking for any slip in her devotion for him. She cleared her thoughts, coincidentally in the exact way Neji had assumed she could not, and she became a blank slate, reflecting what she hoped Naruto-sama wanted to see. For some reason she felt that the roles were reversed in this particular fight, that she was in the position Neji had been in, and Naruto was where she had been. In this game he was far more astute than she. She could only hope that he saw that, and allowed for it in his calculation.

Kurenai stood, rooted to her spot by the swiftness of Hinata's win. She watched numbly as the girl walked by Neji's collapsed form, made a hand-sign almost idly, and disappeared in a poof of swirling smoke. Floating to the ground out of the smoke-swirl was a single black rose.

Kawarimi. The jounin's mouth twitched. I still want to know where she keeps the black roses she uses for that.