A strange new life [Naruto fanfiction]

"Fuin☆Rangers, assemble!" I called out as soon as I entered training field three. To my horror, dutiful Red looked away and didn't stop her training. Yellow just rolled her eyes and punched the dummy harder. White pretended she didn't hear me.

My shoulders slumped. I got no respect. Damn it.

"We have a mission, guys," I said, voice barely more than a whisper.

That got them interested and moving. "A mission?" "What is it, Hinata-chan?" "More bandits?"

I soldiered on. This was nothing. I took a pose, arms at my rips, legs spread apart. I could even see the wind rustling a cape I didn't have. "We have a pet to rescue."

Angry muttering and curses were my answer. Tenten even turned around, going back to her training.

"Really, guys?" I shook my head. "C-rank, Land of Rivers." Tenten stopped, looked at me. "It's also a cover-up mission," I dangled the bait.

Ino walked closer, slapped my arm. "Stop teasing."

I gave her a toothy grin. Things with Ino were complicated. I was still maybe avoiding her parents. Ino was still very touchy and clingy, but we hadn't kissed or talked feelings. Mostly, we just trained, and when time allowed, hung out, went on maybe dates.

It still was the best thing ever.

"Find a pet, then find a legendary kunoichi," I said.

"Which pet?" Karin asked.

"Kunoichi?" Tenten, now close as well, poked me on the shoulder.

I looked at White, who wore a pink qipao shirt. "The Slug Princess, Tsunade."

Tenten's eyes widened. I turned to the others. "Pack things, this mission might take a while. Meet me at the gates in two hours." I got nods. "Fuin☆Rangers, move out!" I called. Posing again.

No one paid me any heed.

The pain.

In the months that followed the whole council debacle, things settled somewhat. I trained and hung out with the girls, visited friends when I could, ate dinner at the strange bar Kakashi had introduced me to.

Some of the merchants weren't happy with me, but there was nothing I could do other than apologize. I had promised them better deals on selling my seals, only to be forbidden from delivering. Some merchants, mostly those who knew me when I started the academy, just shrugged, maybe ribbed me a bit, but went on as usual.

It was the bigger stores that complained louder. To those, I always told them to complain to the council.

Tenten still gave me the cold shoulder, unless it was time to eat. At those times, she took my offerings and then gave me the cold shoulder.

Karin took to being a Konoha shinobi like a fish in the water. She looked at ease now, had friends of her own. I think she snogged Sakura once, if the amount of giggling I had to endure one night was anything to go by. It was surreal. I kinda envied her, just a bit.

I ate more dinners at Uchiha's. Thankfully, no one ever pressed me for an answer regarding the marriage proposal. Sasuke was still brooding, maybe more now that Naruto wasn't around to keep him company. He was often away from the village with his team, and in the brief times we met, conversation was always awkward.

More on my part than his. Did he really have a crush on me? It made no sense why he would have, or even agree with this marriage thing.

Among the people learning mystic palm, it was no surprise that Sakura had the easiest time out of our bunch. She'd mastered the jutsu already and was basically Shizune's apprentice by this point. There had been no official announcement, but she'd started taking private lessons. So, yeah, apprentice.

I fulfilled my obligation with the badgers, helping them get human supplies, and aside from summoning Kumoko a few times, had no real interaction with them. Kumoko had mellowed out once she realized I wasn't asking her to do anything and was just dumping honey on her maw. It was cute how grumpy she was.

My promise of trying to unsour her didn't go as expected, even if it went better than I could have hoped for. I wanted to try again, but I think we needed time, mostly. I'd learned a few things that put her whole situation into perspective.

Aside from Mom never visiting, and the Hyuga behaving like I didn't exist, it was almost like life was normal again; the shinobi normal. I trained, baked sweets, completed missions, people mostly ignored me.

I finished packing things, strapped the big scroll roll to my back. Most of my supplies went into the big roll, now that I could teleport and not leave things behind. There was no reason not to take stuff when I left.

Other preparations included smaller scrolls with explosives and other ready-to-use seals, such as the ones I had gifted Karin and Ino with. Those I strapped to my belt and thigh, for ready access in battle.

It shouldn't be a surprise that, under the guise of 'training,' I bugged Tenten to practice with me using her personal weapon hurricane style. I think she knew what I was about, but she never called me on it. Maybe it was because I taught her a lot of things? I didn't skimp on the things I knew for my team. Or perhaps because I roped her into learning an A-grade jutsu for free.

On the other side of the room, Karin was also packing stuff. After a few months, she could also use the common storage seals. She had taken to, like me, to store everything and bring it everywhere. I had taught her my encrypted version, extracting a promise she wouldn't teach that to anyone.

I looked around the apartment for anything else I needed to pack, but there was nothing, really. I walked out of the bedroom and into the living room, my eyes falling again on the couch where Mom sat when she visited. There was this ugly feeling in my gut that something horrible had happened because of what she'd done. There were no rumors, gossip, or anything to give it credibility, aside from a lack of Mom.

I had days where that feeling was worse than usual, like whatever happened had been my fault. On one of those bad days, I considered storming the Hyuga compound and demanding to see her. I even had plans ready: surround the whole compound with a barrier. Make everyone an unwilling participant in the negotiations, or saying like the truth it was, hostages to my demands.

With one last look at the room, I stepped outside and dashed toward the gates. Not even an hour had passed, but I wasn't Kakashi, and didn't want to arrive late and leave the team hanging. 

Gotta lead by example, right?

I didn't want to admit it, but this, in a way, marked the start of the end of my peaceful life as a shinobi. One way or another, I'd have no more excuses to delay my plans to go after Akatsuki.

There was no way in hell I would let things follow Fate-kun designs.