DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto. I own this story.

SURPRISE

/sə(r)ˈprīz/

an unexpected or astonishing event, fact, or thing.

4 YEARS AGO

It came as no surprise to anyone, when the Chūnin exams came along, that Nara Shikaru—now Nara Obito, officially—passed with flying colors. He had come a long way in the past year of his life, changing from a loner who pretended to not care about anyone to a true, well-rounded shinobi that the examiners were proud to give a flak vest to. Obito was one of only two to pass the exam that year, along with a boy from the Hidden Cloud by the name of Taka. Obito and Taka had been, in fact, pitted against each other in the finals, a match where Obito had managed to come out victorious without accidentally losing it, much to Naruto and Hanabi's relief.

"So now we're on the same level," said Shizuka with a grin after Obito's induction ceremony to the rank of Chūnin. Obito rolled his eyes, embarrassed by the attention he was receiving from his teammates. He'd taken off his usual sweatshirt to wear the vest, leaving only his mesh shirt underneath and his hitai-ate around his upper arm, much like his older cousin. He'd changed much in the months passed, mostly because he'd finally cut his hair from the length it was at. It was a shorter ponytail now, but it seemed to grow in volume. Naruto had no doubts that if he'd released the hair from the bonds of the rubber band, his hair would be a lot like Sasuke's.

"I guess so," he mumbled, taking a bite of the barbequed mackerel with a deep blush plaguing his cheeks. Shizuka snickered, taking a bite of his own food. He'd changed slightly, as well—his hair was growing longer, down to his shoulders, and his bangs were falling across his eyes. It reminded Naruto of Gekkō Hayate's, except he didn't look any bit as sickly as Hayate. His dark brown eyes glittered with a life that just hadn't been there before, probably because of the katana he had received from his brother, and the closure he got; as well as a new-found kinship with Genma.

"Don't get too flustered, Obi-kun," said Hanabi, laughing and taking some more mackerel. "No one's even begun to make fun of you yet." Hanabi's pale lilac eyes glittered with mischief, enjoying the pre-cursor to the rather harsh teasing that the eleven-year-old had up her sleeve. She pushed her overlong hair behind her ear. Physically, Hanabi had to be the one to develop the most, mostly because she had hit puberty, and he just couldn't ignore the tell-tale signs of development beginning of it. She also had gained a small amount of height, as well as chakra control. Her Byakugan was getting finer, sharper; more like Neji's than Hinata. She was also taking more lessons from Sasuke, the topic of which Naruto didn't know, but whatever it was making her gain scar tissue and lean muscle.

In short, they were growing up right before his eyes. He suddenly felt unjustifiably old, even though he was just sixteen years old still. He wondered if this was the way that Kakashi felt when they—himself, Sasuke, and Sakura—had all gone off and found different teachers and then come back. He felt like it was moving incredibly quickly. In another few months, Shizuka would be leaving Konoha for Suna. At the same moment, he would be leaving with Obito. Hanabi would obviously continue on training with Sasuke in whatever weird form they were doing. It was going too fast, his tenure as their sensei.

He raised his cup of soda. "Hey, can we tease him after he gets his toast?" he asked, his eyes bright with amusement.

Obito blushed deeper. "Gee thanks," he said sarcastically, crossing his arms over his chest. Hanabi giggled and raised her own cup, followed by Shizuka.

"Good job, you crazy-ass bastard!" the three of them said in unison, laughing throughout their sentence and dragging the attention of people surrounding them. Obito laughed nervously, chugging back the seltzer water he'd ordered. Naruto reached over and rubbed the top of his head, making his bangs that had so often been in his forehead before. Now, he pushed them out of the way of his eyes, clearing his forehead and narrowing his brown eyes at his teacher. Naruto heard a group of girls a couple of tables over immediately begin to gossip about 'that sexy boy over there, with the orange guy' and 'how lucky that white-eyed chick is to be next to him'.

That Uchiha charm is beginning to take affect, Naruto thought with a chuckle, taking a sip of the sweet soda that Obito refused to have. He was glad that Hanabi managed to get her claws into the boy before the charm began to affect anyone. She was still rather clueless with the amount he adored her, even though she now knew he had feelings for her.

"We didn't make fun of Shizuka when he became a Chūnin," said Obito, glaring at his friend.

"True. But, then again, his becoming a Chūnin was supposed to be temporary, but they kind of sprung his new status on him while he was still in the hospital," said Hanabi with a grin. "We didn't have time to make fun of him, and now it's too late for that."

Shizuka stuck out his tongue at his friend, and Obito gave him the finger. Naruto chuckled at his two students, greatly amused by the both of them. Hanabi giggled, a light blush taking her cheeks. She pushed her hair behind her ear again, her lilac eyes flicking over to the girls across from them, who were gossiping obscenely. Naruto was slightly surprised that he was noticing things that the other two team members weren't noticing, such as the fact that Hanabi was currently trying to seem more girly, like those girls who were gossiping and giggling about Obito. Puberty was definitely hitting her hard, wasn't it?

He would miss watching all three of them growing up. But he would enjoy this moment, as he began to start the heavy teasing that all shinobi received upon becoming Chūnin by the fellow shinobi, only to be interrupted by an all-too-familiar voice. "So you're the one who passed, Obito?!"

Hanabi rubbed her forehead. "God, Konohamaru, don't you know timing?" she asked the taller boy, who blushed and rubbed the back of his neck. Naruto smirked, taking another sip of his soda. Well, now this was interesting. He flicked Shizuka a glance, raising a brow. Shizuka shrugged, taking a sip of his green tea. Damn, were we all like this when we were their ages? Naruto wondered, thinking back to his group. Sure, they had their share of drama, but was it really so—immense?

"Sorry, but I didn't know. I was just surprised, Hanabi," said Konohamaru, blushing and playing with the end of his scarf. Moegi stood behind him, watching him with soft black eyes. In the back of his mind, Naruto wondered if Kakashi had ever found this amusing, watching these kid's love triangles. It definitely appeared that Shizuka found it amusing; snickering at the ties.

"Konohamaru, we have to meet Udon," said Moegi, pulling on the end of Konohamaru's scarf. He looked back at her and nodded, biting his lip.

"Naruto, we still have to fight sometime!" said Konohamaru, pointing at his longtime older rival. Naruto rolled his eyes at him and nodded, smirking to himself. If it would get the kid off of his back… Moegi's temple pulsed and she pulled harder on the dark blue scarf, forcing the twelve-year-old to move. "B-Bye!" he managed to choke out.

Moegi and Hanabi made eye contact for a second. "Hi, Hanabi," said Moegi in a monotonous voice.

"Hi, Moegi," Hanabi responded with the same tone. Obito said nothing, simply glaring at Konohamaru. Naruto and Shizuka were both on the brink of dying of laughter, too amused by the situation to even think straight. After all, who didn't find a spontaneous love triangle to be amusing, especially one that seemed to be this big?

His breath was hot, hotter than Sasuke had ever experienced before in his entire life. As his lips brushed over his skin, tasting, stroking, feeling; Sasuke couldn't help but feel more and more amazing. This was a wondrous sensation, he decided, and he truly didn't want this to end. He grabbed onto what he could find, not picky. Any part of him was a good thing to touch, really. When Sasuke's fingers made contact with the bared skin of his upper arm, he decided to bite down lightly on Sasuke's collarbone, making him moan and shiver.

"A-Ah…" Sasuke murmured hotly, running his hands into his lover's dark brown hair. He smirked and lapped at the slightly bloody wound he'd left upon his Uchiha. "AH!" he moaned as the man began to play with his manhood. "S-Stop! Please!" Sasuke was not known for begging, not usually; but with this kind of moment, begging was the only thing he could really think of doing. He was being driven mad with pleasure, and his highly pleasured mind couldn't think of anything but to beg for an end.

The man smirked and licked the shell of Sasuke's ear. "Babe, do you really want me to stop?" No, Sasuke thought, but with the amount of pleasure he was getting forming words was not currently coming naturally to him, nor was coherent thought. Only he could think of was two words: 'no' and a four-letter name that he couldn't help but repeating like a religious mantra as the man got lower and lower down his body.

"Kiba."

Sasuke snapped into consciousness, sitting bolt upright, breathing heavy. He'd passed out while resting after a long morning of rigorous training without meaning to. He groaned and cradled his head. His thoughts of Kiba were only increasing in quantity since he'd come back to Konoha the first time around, even more so since the seal on Madara was fully fixed. He really wanted to stop all these thoughts of him, but it was just getting worse and worse.

And now I have a hard-on in the middle of the training area, Sasuke thought with a groan, rubbing the tent in his pants. Great. Just fucking fantastic. He really wanted to hate Kiba for doing these crazy things to his body, but he just couldn't. He filled his mind with the most unattractive thing he could think of—Orochimaru and Kabuto in hot pink and neon green bikinis, respectively. He managed to quell it quickly, quicker than usual. He stood up, dusting off the back of his pants and picking up his bag filled with kunai and slinging it over his shoulder.

His saving Kiba was not something he ever planned on doing. He'd never really noticed Kiba before that moment, really. Well, actually, that wasn't completely true. He'd known about Kiba—he was some vulgar slacker in his class who aspired to be the Hokage along with Naruto—but he really hadn't cared. But when he'd saw Kiba defending Konoha to the best of his ability against someone like Suigetsu, who with that sword was stronger than someone like Kiba, who wasn't weak—Sasuke found his heart beating faster. The heart Kiba had; that will that he had to defend Konoha; it was something too amazing for words. The fury that Kiba had was something so amazingly attractive to the young Uchiha that he felt an incredible amount of attraction towards the Inuzuka male…

"Sasuke."

The Uchiha in question blinked in surprise. He wasn't an easy person to catch off guard—figures that the person he was so infatuated with would be the one to do it. Shino, Kiba and Akamaru stood before him, obviously coming in for a training session. Shino nodded at him respectfully, whereas Kiba simply stared at him. "What?" asked Sasuke, doing his best to make it look like he was perfectly normal.

"No. Um. Sorry, wasn't expecting you here," said Kiba, rubbing the back of his neck. Sasuke blinked. Since when had Kiba sounded so civil to him? Usually, his voice was filled with the utmost venom and hate. He knew that Kiba did not like him. "Uh… we're just gonna go train. Nothing's wrong at the site, is there?"

"No," responded Sasuke, trying to keep his emotions under check. "I might've left a few shuriken in the wooden post, but I think that's it." Kiba nodded, and Sasuke knew that the moment was terse and awkward. Shino must've told him to pretend to be polite to me or something, Sasuke decided, not noticing the raised brow the Aburame was giving his best friend. "I have to go. I have to meet someone," said Sasuke, also not noticing the slight rise of Kiba's eyebrows. All he could think was that he was such an awkward, antisocial moron. He wanted to kick his own ass for being unable to have a conversation with Kiba. He nodded at the two of them, and then walked briskly past them so he could go get alcohol and drown the moment.

Shino watched the Uchiha go, and then turned his attention back to Kiba. "What was that?" he asked his friend the moment Kiba was out of earshot.

"What?" asked Kiba, biting his lip and looking away from Shino, blushing.

"That. That was… sociable. You're never sociable towards Sasuke—especially not Sasuke. I have to tell you to be sociable towards Sasuke. So, I repeat, Kiba—what was that?" Akamaru barked in agreement, looking up at his master. Kiba gritted his teeth and walked forwards, not wanting to answer Shino's question. He was afraid of answering that question.

For some reason, Kiba found something curious about Sasuke. He wasn't sure what, but it'd formed when Sasuke came into the camp, carrying Hinata and insisting immediate medical care for her, threatening the lives of whoever didn't reply with medical relief. That fury that Kiba had seen was actually amazing. He'd assumed that the Uchiha had no emotions before that point, but when he saw that… he'd felt a rush of emotion that actually scared him a little. But what scared him more was a flash of something that felt like a dream—Sasuke standing over him, blood splatters on his face, anger evident on his face. Don't you dare die, Sasuke had said, If you die, I'll go mad. I never want you to die. I want you to live, dammit, live, Kiba!

Kiba was scared of these new feelings. Terrified, actually. He wanted to hate Sasuke, but he couldn't, not now, it was scaring him. It wasn't like it was unusual for an Inuzuka male to be with men—Inuzuka clansmen were known for their bisexuality—but Kiba hadn't wanted to be with Sasuke. Sasuke betrayed Konoha. Kiba valued loyalty over all, especially to Konohagakure. Kiba just couldn't see himself being with someone who didn't have the same attachment. It went against who he was, as an Inuzuka.

He, an Inuzuka, couldn't love Sasuke, a traitor, could he?

There were moments in Kakashi's life where he felt affirmed; where he felt like his purpose was there, alive and well. They were rare moments, few and far between; but they did exist. Of course, due to Kakashi's problems with properly showing emotion due to the damage done to him by his father's suicide in his early years, no one would really be able to tell when these moments occurred except for those who were truly close to him, which really was a handful of people. He didn't like to let many people in, but once you were in—you were in. There wasn't another way to describe it. He wouldn't tell you when you were in his center, either, you had to know it. It made him truly mysterious in his workings, when you had to wonder if you were close to him.

Hinata was almost sure she was close, but not completely sure. Kakashi admitted being close with her mother, but Hinata was not one who believed in association because of the people she knew. She knew that with Kakashi, she'd have to develop her own standing, and she'd have to wait patiently for it to become apparent on whether or not she was in his circle. She had, at the moment, no idea how it would present itself, or even if it would present itself, but she hoped to whatever deity existed that it would someday. Due to Sakura's betrayal, she needed hard evidence from everyone close to her about whether or not they cared about her enough, and Kakashi basically treated her pretty much the same as everyone else, which was the problem—she got the same treatment as everyone else, whether close or a simple coworker.

She needed bona fide trust.

Trust was not having her wait outside an orphanage, sitting on top of the largest scroll she'd ever seen before in her life and keeping vigil. She didn't even know the mission objective—all she knew was that she had to keep watch while Kakashi went inside. It tore her up on the inside that Kakashi woke her up at four o'clock in the morning for a spur-of-the-moment mission that he wouldn't even give her the details for. Weren't they a team? Master and student, shinobi and kunoichi… friends?

She frowned behind her porcelain mask, crossing her arms over her chest. She could've been at home, spending time with Kankurō before he had to head back to Sunagakure with Gaara. She was engaged, after all; and as an engaged woman all she wanted to do was spend time with her future husband. But no. No, she had to spend time two kilometers off from a small village on the borders of the Land of Fire, close to the Land of Rivers keeping watch for shinobi.

"See anyone?" Hinata turned towards an older woman, close to Kakashi's age. She was beautiful, probably the prettiest woman Hinata had ever seen in her life, besides for her mother and for Kurenai. She offered her a cup of steaming tea. After a small amount of deliberation, she jumped down from the top of the scroll, nodding appreciatively as she took the tea, making the woman smile. "Did you see anyone, ANBU-sama?" Hinata shook her head and turned away from the woman, hiding her face from her as she sipped at the tea and then pulled back down her mask. The woman smiled. "Dog trained you, didn't he?" Hinata gave no reply, even though she wanted to. She had no way of knowing if the woman was a friendly or not. The woman sighed. "Dog jumped over the fence and whispered in the ear of the field," she said. Hinata flinched and looked at her, raising an eyebrow behind her owl mask.

"Did the field tell the ants?" Hinata finally said.

"Negative. The field told Owls in the night." She smiled, and Hinata sighed in relief. "Dog wants to confirm the whispers with Owl."

Hinata nodded and picked up the scroll, swinging it and carrying it underneath her elbow, fixing the strap of the scroll that hung across her back; a summoning scroll for the puppet Kankurō had made her. "You speak the black speak. Owl will speak to Dog," she said, gesturing for the woman to lead the way.

When Hinata had learned the older ANBU code, she hadn't expected it to be half as much use as it really had. What she found was that Kakashi used it to transfer information to her when he didn't want Shikamaru and Neji hearing it, and usually it was very beneficial information. This code had gone out of use about two years before her birth due to its over-simplicity, a simplicity that was actually hard to understand if one wasn't trained to listen to it properly. When the woman said 'Dog jumped over the fence and whispered in the ear of the field,' it'd basically meant that Kakashi was, in fact, an ally to this woman, whose name more than likely contained 'Nohara'. When Hinata asked if the field told the ants, she'd asked if she told anyone else besides herself and therefore put some at risk. However, the woman said that the only person she'd told was Hinata, the Owl, in private and in the shadows.

'Dog wants to confirm the whispers with Owl,' meant that she was going to take her to see Kakashi so he could make her know for sure that this woman—Nohara—was to be trusted. 'You speak the black speak', basically, meant that her terminology with the code was correct for the style that Kakashi had taught her, black meaning 'off the books and in the shadows' due to the fact that the code form wasn't official any longer in Konoha. 'Owl will speak to Dog'—straightforward. She'd speak to Kakashi and she'd clear the info she was just given.

Kakashi sat at the kitchen island, his dog's mask covering up his regular mask. "The fields whispered to the Owls the black speak of the Dogs," Hinata said, not wasting any time. "She claims not to speak to the ants. The Owls wants to ask the Dogs if the fields should be allowed to whisper in the night to them."

"The fields can speak to the Owls over the fences," Kakashi said, forming quick seals before he removed his mask. "I've placed a genjutsu. No one will hear or see us. You can take off your mask, she's trusty." Hinata breathed a sigh of relief as she took off her own mask, pushing her bangs off of her face. "Rin, this is my apprentice, Hyūga Hinata. Hinata, this is my ex-teammate, Nohara Rin."

Hinata blinked, surprised—she knew that name. Nohara Rin was supposed to be dead. However, she was here, right in front of her. Hinata smiled at the woman, holding back her surprise as well as she could. "Hello."

"Hello to you, too," said Rin with a blush, "Kakashi's told me a lot about you, Hinata-chama, but I never thought I'd actually meet you. This is amazing!" She giggled. "Kakashi doesn't really bring the people he tells me about to meet me. I've yet to meet Naruto or Sasuke…" Hinata smiled. This woman was actually very sweet—it was kind of hard to believe that she and Kakashi were friends.

"To be completely honest, Nohara-sama… I thought you were dead."

Rin faked being aghast. "Kakashi! You told her I was dead?!"

Kakashi couldn't help but chuckle. "Ah, no. That's not what I said to her. I just told her I lost two of my teammates during the war."

Rin rolled her eyes. "Kakashi. You're such a chronic liar."

"I don't lie to you," he countered with what seemed to be a smile underneath his mask.

"No, you don't. Obviously—she's every bit as sweet as you described her to be, as well as pretty!" Rin turned her attention back to Hinata, pulling at the long indigo locks gently. "I have never seen hair this color. And I've never touched hair so soft—! I'm so jealous of you. I bet you deep condition, don't you?"

"Honestly? I really don't do much," admitted Hinata with a shy blush.

"OOH! And you're embarrassed… you're so cute!" She clapped her hands happily and then stopped herself, her own blush exceeding Hinata's. "Sorry. This is the first time in years I've had contact with anyone from Konoha besides for Kakashi. I don't mean to weird you out."

"You're not—it's fine," assured Hinata immediately, "I'm a naturally shy person. It doesn't take a lot to make me feel embarrassed, to be honest."

"She's not lying. You should see her face when her boyfriend talks about her. I never realized that the human skin can actually look like a candied apple before I met her." Hinata blushed again and looked down to her feet. Kakashi and his teasing was getting to her.

"Oh, stop picking on her, for Chrissakes, Kashi-kun! You're nothing but appraisal when she's not here," Rin chastised, slapping Kakashi's wrist with a furious blush on her cheeks. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. Kashi-kun? Hinata thought, resisting the urge to giggle at the nickname. This woman seemed to have Kakashi wrapped around her little finger, and she was damned proud of it. She exuded nothing of shame.

Kakashi rolled his dark grey eye and looked over at Hinata. "Can I get the scroll, Nata-chama?" he asked, referring to his own pet name for the teenaged girl. Hinata nodded, handing it to him without argument. Rin suddenly became very serious, her blush disappearing with the drop of a hat.

"We're summoning him?" she asked.

"Yes. It was too much of a danger to move him from Konoha to here. The trip was too long, and we had no idea if we'd run into someone." Gently nudging Hinata out of the way, he laid the large scroll out on the kitchen floor, opening it wide to the big seal in its possession. "We had our weapons specialists draw up the seal. It's secure, with minimal chakra excess given off. It's also rigged so that we're protected from what comes out."

"A basic summoning scroll wouldn't have worked?" asked Rin, biting her bottom lip.

"Not for prisoners." Hinata raised an eyebrow—prisoner? Why were they giving a prisoner to this woman? Kakashi looked over at Hinata, his grey eye soft. "Hinata." She blinked and focused on him instead of the scroll. "Hinata, I haven't told you anything about what's going on, and I'm sorry. But I need you to keep an open mind, and I promise I'll explain what's going on to you on the return trip. Please, Hinata." Hinata raised her other eyebrow—she never thought she'd see the day where Kakashi was begging her.

"No, tell her now," interrupted Rin with a hard, authoritative edge in her voice. "I'm not risking him in case she gets mad at you. Not at all. You tell her everything right now."

"Rin…"

"Hatake." Rin's voice became cold. "You tell her right now or I'll go to Konoha myself to get him. If you can tell me the truth, then, dammit; you can tell her the truth. We're not going to do this until she knows and accepts it. Do you hear me?"

Kakashi sighed, obviously brow-beaten. He turned to his partner, biting his bottom lip. "Hinata…" he said slowly, and then sighed, "Please don't hate me for hiding this from you. Please understand."

So, these chapter used to be hella long. They used to be about 8,000-11,000 words each. And then I figured, I already did that with 'Of Strength', and I wanted this to nowhere near as quick as it was seemingly becoming. Before I made the decision to split up my chapters, with the amount I'd written so far, the fic was already past 120 pages, but there was only five chapters. Currently, there's roughly 170 unedited pages, and more than fifteen chapters. But I'm still working :)

A review would be really nice. I'm just saying, it would make me feel like I am doing good, because I truly am unsure if this story is coming out good so far. Like I keep saying, this is my first sequel, so I'm more insecure about this than I am about anything else.

Um, there was a specific song that came to mind when writing "Surprise", and it's a song called "Dirty Little Secret" by the All-American Rejects. All these chapters tend to have songs that I think about when writing them, even if the main song responsible for this fic is an A Day to Remember song. If you've ever heard "Dirty Little Secret", hopefully, the connection can be seen.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Next one should be coming out soon!