It had been a nice night, the atmosphere in the compound was generally pretty lighthearted. Haruka and Hinata were currently sitting alone in one of the compounds gardens. The two girls were side by side with their fingers interlaced. Haruka was leaning against Hinata, her head resting on the taller girls shoulder. After what seems like hours of silence Haruka speaks, her voice soft, almost a whisper.
"You saved me, you know that Hina-chan? And I'm not talking about my seventh birthday." Hinata turns her head to look at the other girl. She's a bit confused, if anything Haruka saved her. She protected her from bullies and being kidnapped, and she helped her learn to be confident.
"How so Haru-chan?"
"If I hadn't met you I'd still be alone, maybe even still being abused by the Matron. Hina-chan you taught me it was okay to love myself." Haruka said now looking right at Hinata with a warm smile.
"It's funny Haru-chan, you taught me the same thing." Haruka starts to respond but Hinata leans in and captures the smaller girls lips in a kiss. Haruka flinches in surprise, but quickly leans in as well, enjoying Hinata's soft lips against her own. She feels something poke against her lips she parts them without thinking about it, it slips in. Haruka breaks the kiss in surprise. Gasping for breath with her face red.
"W-Was that your tongue?" Hina-chan had never kissed her with tongue before. Haruka hadn't been expecting it.
"Yeah, is that a problem? Did you not like it?" Her tone is one of concern, she wouldn't have done it if she thought Haru-chan would dislike it.
"N-No it's not that I disliked it, I was just surprised. That's all."
"Then… Would you like to try it again?" Hinata asks wanting more but not wanting to push her girlfriend out of her comfort zone. After a moment Haru-chan nods her head and Hinata kisses her once more.
Haruka feels Hina-chan's tongue poking her lips again, this time she intentionally parts her lips for the taller girl. Hina-chan's tongue slips into her mouth again. The white eyed girls tongue pokes against her own exploring Haruka's mouth.
It had only seemed like moments but when they break apart they're both panting as though they ran a marathon. A string of saliva connects them. Haruka is the first to speak, breathlessly. "Wow." They had enjoyed kissing each other before but never had they kissed like that. They barely had words to describe how amazing it was.
"Yeah." Hinata was just as lost for words as Haru-chan. After a few moments pass Hinata speaks again. "What were you going to say?"
"What?"
"What were you going to say earlier, before I kissed you."
"Oh yeah, I was going to tell you I have a present for you. For saving me, for graduation, and just because I love you." That was enough to evoke a blush from Hina-chan. Haruka hands her a small wrapped box she had hidden on her. Hina-chan looks down at it and then back up at her. "Go ahead, open it."
The white eyed girl does so only to see it's actually two small sealing scrolls. She looks up at Haruka and uses chakra to open the one on the right. As she does Haruka speaks up. "Those are for saving me and graduating, I thought it fitting." It's a pair of fingerless gloves with metal plates, and arm guards, also made of metal. "The metal is chakra metal if you're curious." Hinata gasps at hearing that and activates her Byakugan. Chakra metal looks different then normal metal, sort of as if it's more empty, to the Byakugan. Indeed it does look different.
"Haru-chan, these must have cost you a fortune." She knows the other girl only gets a small stipend from the village.
Haruka blushed and said, "I've actually been saving up for them for three years now." Seeing Hina-chan's glare she said quickly, "No, I wasn't skipping any meals to buy them don't worry." The white eyed girl stops glaring at that. "The other gift I made for you personally after we started dating."
Hinata turns her attention to the other scroll, and once more applies chakra to it. With a small poof of smoke, a small red and lavender heart pops out, Hinata realizes it's made of wood and Haruka painted it. "I know it's not as impressive, but I tried really hard to make sure it was shaped like a heart." Hinata thinks the other girl did a pretty good job, she can't see any carving marks at all… Wait, something is strange with this, this wood has chakra in it.
"Haruka how did you make this?"
Haruka was starting to worry the other girl didn't like it and vocalized that concern. "Do you not like it? I'm sorry Hina-chan I'll try bett—"
"No! Haru-chan I love it, I just got distracted by it that's all. This is amazing and don't you doubt that for a moment." Haruka smiles and nods her head. Then after a moment she answers the previous question.
"Oh! I took a regular block of wood, held it to my chest, and thought really hard about you, and that energy nature seems to have. It took a while but it worked."
"What energy?"
"Can you not see it with the Byakugan? 'Cause I can feel it when I sit really still. It's how I found you when the Kumo nin was trying to kidnap you. I just sat really still and thought really hard about you and nature." Hinata had no idea what energy it was, but that does explain two things she had been wondering, well kind of. It's probably the reason why Haru-chan's eyes changed back then. Hinata looks at the wooden heart again and realizes that energy is the chakra she saw in it. But why can she see it in this thing and not anywhere else? Staring at the heart she realizes some of Haru-chan's chakra is also in it. Maybe that's how?
Before Hinata can continue to ponder the situation with the heart she notices something odd with her Byakugan. Is that Mizuki with a scroll on his back? It has green stripes on either end along with thinner green stripes slightly further from the ends. Where had she seen that before? Maybe Haru-chan knew. "Hey Haru-chan do you know of any large scrolls in the village?"
"There's the one the Hokage keeps in his office."
"What does it look like?
"Besides being a large scroll? It also has some green stripes, I think."
While they were talking Mizuki had gotten out of the range of her Byakugan but she knows the rough direction he was heading. "I think I just saw Mizuki running off with it."
"Should we go after him?" Haruka didn't really care, if the Hokage can't protect something in his own office she doesn't think it's very important. But she is a ninja of Konoha now and she's pretty sure she's supposed to stop him.
"Do you want to?"
"Not particularly, well not for the scroll, if he really did steal it we get an excuse to beat him up." Suffice to say Haruka didn't easily forgive those who mocked her relationship with Hina-chan.
"Then lets go." Haruka wasn't the only one who didn't easily forgive mocking them for being gay. She also didn't forgive people who mocked Haru-chan for being Haru-chan, or people who mocked the smaller girl in general. Mizuki had once outright told Hinata that 'she could do better.' As her sensei, she was never allowed to harm him outside of instructor spars, which are pretty rare. Hinata decides to put on her new gifts figuring she might get to try them out sooner than expected.
The two girls quickly set out in the direction their instructor went but they weren't able bring him back into range of Hinata's Byakugan. She tells the other girl to stop. Haru-chan did so but asked in confusion. "Why are we stopping, I know you're not tired." It's true, the girls had trained together enough that they knew the others stamina well. Hinata stifles a blush at that thought.
"You said you were able to find me by sitting still and thinking hard on me and nature right?"
"Yeah."
"What if you tried focusing on Mizuki and nature?" The idea had merit but Haruka whined none the less.
"But I don't wanna think about Mizuki."
"Please Haru-chan, think about it this way, if this works we'll find out a little more about your powers." That's what the two called the strange abilities Haruka occasionally exhibited.
"Alright, but only because you're asking." With that Haru-chan sits in the lotus position and seemingly starts meditating. Hinata is watching her carefully to look for changes. They come quickly. Two of Haru-chan's bangs float upwards forming something that looks like ears. The girl also seems to suddenly be wearing red eyeliner. Haru-chan's eyes snap open to reveal they too have changed. Normally they are a deep gold with normal sclera, now they're entirely red, both the sclera and iris, with the pupils a darker shade of red. Haru-chan stands and speaks. "Alright I've found him."
The two girls take off with Haruka in the lead. She had nearly outpaced Hina-chan a few times and had to actively slow herself down so the other girl can keep up. They arrive in the forest on the west edge of the village. The two girls rocket into the clearing just in time to see Mizuki throw a huge Fuuma shuriken at Iruka-sensei.
No words need to be spoken between the two girls as Haruka rushes towards Mizuki while Hinata intercepts the weapon, blocking with her new arm-guards. The two men look in shock as the two newly minted genin burst into the clearing. Iruka can't really see the changes to Haruka clearly but Mizuki can. He steps back in fear as he sees the piercing red eyes of the girl locked on his own. Haruka continues rushing towards him and while he manages to put up a block he wasn't at all prepared for the strength of the girl, it's like she got way stronger in just a few hours! He's kicked back into a tree. "Tag in." is that Hinata's voice? He can't really tell with how disoriented he is. He tries to move and winces. He looks up and sees the demon girl moving out of the way. Just on time too as she dodges a Jyuken strike from behind that instead connects with his own shoulder. It immediately goes numb and he cries out in pain.
They move to knock him out but he manages to stop them with two sentences. "Wait! If you knock me out then you'll never learn why everyone in this village hates you Haruka!" The two girls look at each other and from behind they hear Iruka-sensei call out.
"No! You can't, it's forbidden!"
The two girls ignored him and Hinata said, "We're listening."
Mizuki turns towards Hinata and said, "I wonder if you'll still like her after this." He lets out a weak chuckle. "12 years ago on October 10th a powerful demon attacked the village."
"We already know that, everyone already knows that." Haruka said kind of bored, she had stopped being curious about why she's hated a long time ago, but Hina-chan really wanted to know.
"Yes and the Yondaime defeated it. But he never killed the beast, oh no, instead he sealed it inside of a new born child. You are that child Haruka! You are the demon!"
"But you just said it's sealed inside me."
"Yes but it took possession of you from within the seal! Don't you get it you're a monster!" Why was she not shocked and heartbroken? Maybe the Hyuuga heiress is. Turning to her he finds she's deep in thought about something, good it looks like she is distracted, he quickly whips out a kunai and throws it at her. That fails though as Haruka had been watching him like a hawk and she caught the kunai long before it ever reached Hinata (which in reality was mere milliseconds). "Dammit why are you okay with this! Did you already know you're a monster?!"
"No not really, I just don't see how it matters, even if I am a monster I still act human. And I still love like a human, and hate like a human. And I do everything in between, so if I'm a monster I don't do a very good job of being monstrous."
While the other two were having a conversation Iruka was sitting there in a weird mix of shock and pride, for the same reason. The girls seem to be taking this well and that's a great trait for ninja, to be able to adapt. He also realized he should probably capture Mizuki now before he tries anything else. Iruka silently moves around the trio and then before anyone can blink he knocks the traitor out. Haruka looks at him in surprise but he just shrugs and she accepts it at that. She hadn't noticed that her eyes had turned gold again, of course she never really noticed that they turned red, by the time he saw her face.
Hinata for her part had been considering how much sense it made. Not the Haru-chan being a demon bit, that was nonsense, but her having the demon sealed inside her makes a lot of sense. It would explain the second chakra source of terrifying power. It would also explain what the power was that she used to kill the cloud nin. Though it leaves some mysteries, like what is the energy she feels all around them? Or why does she seem to take on rabbit like traits? From what she had seen from the few pictures taken of the beast it looked nothing like a rabbit. Why did Haru-chan feel strange compulsions towards certain things, like leaving her forehead uncovered, or Genjutsu? These are all questions she can't yet answer. She's snapped out of her thoughts as Haru-chan shakes her.
"Hey Hina-chan we have to go report to the Hokage about what happened tonight." It looked like Haru-chan wanted to ask her something, and was slightly pensive about it, but as Hinata laces her fingers through Haru-chan's the look disappears. Hinata realized at that moment what Haru-chan had wanted to ask and she gives her hand a soft squeeze. Haru-chan smiled at her and squeezed back in response.
Looking down at her arm-guards she sees a faint scratch in them and frowns. "Sorry Haru-chan looks like I already scratched them." The two girls were walking with Iruka-sensei towards the Hokage tower while he carried the traitor.
"That's okay, it just means they're doing their job and protecting you." They fall into a comfortable silence for a while before Iruka breaks it.
"So how did you two know to look for Mizuki? The order was only given to chunin and jonin."
"I happened to see him pass by the compound while I had my Byakugan active."
"Yeah Hina-chan thought there was something fishy with the scroll so we followed him."
"It's a good thing you did, he had me on the ropes and I probably would have been hit by that shuriken if you hadn't blocked it." Iruka was stronger than Mizuki by a wide margin. The average chunin instructor is required to be almost tokubetsu jonin in strength if not more so, Iruka was between tokubetsu jonin and full jonin in strength. He just rejected promotions because he wanted to teach, to make sure the next generation could protect themselves. Teaching assistants aren't under such strict limitations and can be anywhere from newly minted chunin to long time veterans, Mizuki was barely stronger than the former. But Mizuki had been his friend for years and he had let his attachment to the man stop him from fighting at full strength. The trio fell into silence again after Iruka finished speaking and made their way to the Hokage tower.
They arrived not long after, Mizuki was quickly collected by the Anbu stationed at the tower to be taken to T&I, while the three of them were escorted up to the Hokage's office. The old man greets them kindly, sort of like a nice grandfather, and asks them to explain what happened. Iruka goes first explaining how he was alerted about Mizuki's theft like the other chunin and went looking in the forest the two had played in when they were younger. He had found him and the two engaged in combat only to stop when the two girls arrived.
The girls took that as their cue to explain things from their perspective, how they had seen Mizuki by coincidence and followed after him in the direction they saw him heading. Hinata had taken the lead and when she left out the nature bit Haruka took that to mean she should too, so she did. From there the three of them explained what happened in the clearing and how Mizuki had spilled the secret concerning Haruka.
The aged kage speaks while stroking his beard. His tone sharper than it was earlier. "I see, and how do you feel about learning of this Haruka-chan?"
"It's Haruka, and I don't really care, if I was a demon I think I'd be the first person to know it and the people who care for me don't seem to care either way." She squeezes Hina-chan's hand. The white eyed girl squeezes back.
"I see and how do you feel about the villagers? For treating you so poorly?"
"I don't care about them." Well that's the sacrifice he made. He sacrificed her health and potential love for the villagers by letting them abuse her without repercussions. She wasn't wearing her forehead protector, that might be a bad sign.
"And how do you feel about the village, and me?" He had to know if she is going to become a loose cannon.
"I swore to protect it when I became a ninja, and I swore to obey you at the same time."
"So why are you not wearing your forehead protector then?"
"Oh I just wanted to sew the plate into my sash." Hiruzen doesn't make any visual or audible signs of it but he can feel the relief flood through him. Good despite all that has happened the girl is still loyal to the village.
"And what of you Hinata, what do you think about all this?"
"I had been suspicious of something like this ever since that night." She said putting emphasis on the word 'that'.
Hiruzen nods knowing she had seen Haruka's transformation closer than anyone else. And given that she just graduated as Rookie of the Year from Konoha's most competitive academy she was likely smart enough to have to figure out Haruka had some kind of relation to the demon.
"Alright then, Iruka be sure to turn in a written report by tomorrow afternoon, if there is nothing else you have to say or ask then you're dismissed. I'll see you tomorrow Iruka." After a few moments he takes a kinder tone, and tries to talk like he would to his grandson. "Oh and Haruka-chan, congratulations on graduating."
"It's Haruka but thanks anyways." With that the two girls walk out hand in hand.