Chapter Text
Hitomi knew this was going to be hard.
Not just getting them on active duty so they could look for more of the seals that sent them there, but having to live with her dead father and being somewhere where she could run into her dead mother. The joys of time traveling. Being placed in situations no one should ever be placed in to, because someone decided to create some godforsaken seal that sent them to a time that wasn’t their own. And she was determined to fix that.
Somehow, trying to get on active duty wasn’t looking like it was going to be the harder of the two difficult things she had to deal with in all of this nonsense. Granted, Neji wasn’t currently there, had left later on the same day she’d left the hospital for a mission, so he wasn’t actually around right now, but it was still difficult knowing he was coming back. Difficult knowing she’d have to see him eventually when he returned. And the whole half a day she’d had to live with him was just stressful because just having him around was painful.
The guy was her father and he didn’t even know it.
She was heading out towards the Hokage’s office when she was stopped by Hiashi. She looked up at him, more concerned than she probably should be. Her Byakugan was no secret, it was likely that he just wanted to see what her knowledge of it really was. But she learned from him and Hinata, surely he would figure out he was involved in her training. Things would fall apart quickly if he found out the truth.
“Hiashi-Sama.” She gave a small respectful bow. No need to start off on the wrong foot, she couldn’t be certain of what he wanted until he told her.
“I need to test the abilities of your Byakugan.”
“Why?”
“To test your usefulness.”
“My usefulness isn’t your concern, it’s the Hokage’s. And I’m actually about to go see her. I figure my having the Byakugan is the reason I’m here in the first place, but I don’t belong to you, so I don’t have any reason to prove anything to you. If you’ll excuse me.” She turned and left, not giving him another look. It wasn’t that she disliked her ‘grandfather’, it was just that… This one was only interested in her eyes. The one she knew was different. The one she knew was a doting grandfather, despite not seeing his grandkids all that often.
But there was a reason her Aunt Hinata pretty much never returned to her childhood home.
And something told her this version of her grandfather was that reason.
She walked through the village alone, but with a purpose. Boruto and Sarada were training on one of the grounds, she told them she could do this alone. She would do this alone. She would get them on active duty, she would get them on a hunt for more seals. She would get them home no matter what it took.
And she wanted to do it alone to avoid the looks she was getting from the two youngsters.
Every time she saw Sarada and Boruto they gave her a pity look, a look she already knew way too well. She knew they felt bad that she got stuck at the Hyuga compound but she knew there was nothing they could really do about it. It was just an unfortunate circumstance. She hated the look before when adults were giving it to her, but now her friends were giving it too, and somehow that made it worse.
She was able to get away with her outfit from home. Her eyes were the only giveaway, as she didn’t have any clan symbols on her back or anything like that. It was essentially a mix of what her Aunt Sakura wore and what her mom wore. The top was styled like Aunt Sakura’s dress from her genin days, but the colors were inverted to match her moms style. She paired it with black pants and black ninja sandals, and her forehead protecter had black fabric as well. Her hair was often in pigtail braids, opting not to go for her mom’s twin bun style.
Sure there was always the possibility that someone could connect her to her mom or her Aunt Sakura, but she didn't think it would happen, honestly. It was likely enough of a blend with her own choice of style that no one would pick up on the similarities. Not without already suspecting something, which wasn’t likely to happen. Sarada and Boruto on the other hand… There were some serious similarities, with their father’s especially, that could out them if they weren’t careful. Not to mention Sarada was going to have to make sure no one saw her use her Sharingan.
And now that she thought about it Boruto was going to have to be cautious as well, since Sasuke had been working with Boruto on his Rasengan. As of right now only Naruto and Jiraiya (was he dead yet? Probably.) knew that jutsu. At least as far as she was aware. And that would raise some questions when you consider it with Boruto’s looks. Thankfully he’d ditched the spiky hair, but the whiskers were a tough one to explain away.
Hitomi enjoyed having time to herself. She wouldn’t classify herself as a loner, but walking on her own to the Hokage office was nice. Along with avoiding the looks, she’d asked Sarada to draw what she remembered of the seal that had sent them here so they could have an idea of what they were looking for when she got the chance. Thankfully, the girl had activated her Sharingan during the spar that got them here so that would likely help in getting the recreation as accurate as possible.
Before she could reach the office, she heard a large crashing noise. She turned instinctively, activating her Byakugan as she did so. It only took her about thirty seconds to figure out what was going on, and she nearly had a panic attack when she did. Because this… She should have known this was coming when she realized the village was still intact.
The Village was under attack.
Using her air palm, she blew back debris to keep it from hitting some civilians before helping them get to a safer place. Even though her knowledge of the Village’s safe spaces was from 16 years in the future, they still had the same ‘bunker’. The place where civilians hid during attacks on the Village. She remembered learning it hadn’t been changed since what was basically the beginning of time for their home. She aimed them in the direction of the place and told them there were likely to be Genin nearby guiding everyone inside.
She may not be an active Shinobi in this time but her battle instincts were kicking in.
She turned, trying to figure out what to do. If he remembered correctly pretty much every battle was going to end alright. Well… Rather not great but not terrible. While on one hand people died, on the other she was pretty sure there were some important things in these battles. At least there probably were, things didn’t really go to shit until the war and even then she only felt like they went to shit because the war was the reason she didn’t have a father in her time. She didn’t want to change anything too much. So she opted to help guide civilians and children to safety.
Which lasted all of about three minutes.
Her Byakugan was showing her white a bit of what was going on, but she couldn’t help but zone in on Kakashi-jiisan. He was definitely looking worse for the wear and it looked like the group wasn’t doing much better. They all looked somewhat ragged, and it was the closest battle to her current location. In only a few leaps she was close enough to the action to not need her Byakugan’s help. Just in time to see Chocho’s father running away from an attack and Kakashi-jiisan looking like he was about to pass out.
“Hey, freak!” The attacker turned towards the sudden noise. She wasn’t sure what caused her to draw all the attention to herself, but she had a sinking feeling she was going to regret the decision.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Sarada and Boruto were training. Sarada had finished drawing what she could remember of the original seal that landed them in this mess, and was now training with her teammate. Better to stay ready for anything while Hitomi tried to make it so they could leave the Village. She'd only been out of the hospital for about three days but really she was working harder than they felt she should right now.
They were taking care of her while she was taking care of them.
“Ne, Sarada-chan.” The two were practicing hits on each other, just form without power, when Boruto started talking.
“Yeah?” Sarada grabbed at his wrist as it attempted to make contact with her upper arm and gripped it for a minute as she spoke. She wasn’t expecting the kind of talk that this sounded like it was going to be. But she let go as he started talking again.
“Did you notice how… Nice the Village looks?” She paused, she hadn’t considered the ‘look’ of the village when they’d gotten here. Had been more focused on exact dates in an attempt to figure out how long they had until the war.
“The Village always looks nice.”
“Not always. Remember what the books said? When the war started, the Leaf Village was still recovering from a home field attack. Someone, some group or whatever, got in and trashed the place, and it was only just being rebuilt when the war was declared.” Thinking back… He was right. She did remember this lesson, had brought it up with her mom. Had gotten some have told story involving lots of medical ninjutsu and saving Boruto’s mom. When she stated to try an find out what her dad had been doing the conversation had been shut down and that was the end of that. Her eyes narrowed slightly.
“What are you saying, Boruto?”
“I’m saying… I think we have more to worry about than just the war.”
“You think we’re going to witness another attack?”
“Or… Be in one…” That stopped her, and Boruto’s foot made contact with the side of her head. She fell to the ground as she lost her balance and put a hand to her head. Boruto didn’t even have to ask if she was okay, he could tell she was. At least… When it came to the physical injury. He held out a hand to help her up as she spoke.
“Well this just gets better and better, doesn’t it.”
“Of course it does.”
And that was when the sound of buildings being destroyed could be heard, and they knew their theory was correct.