บท 142: Breaking the Bubble

Hinata kept up with the news of the Kirigakure war, which took everyone in Konoha by surprise and led to much discussion. Even the new Hokage, Kakashi Hatake, seemed as surprised as everyone else.

Either that, or he was still recovering from the surprise of being named the Fifth Hokage.

Hinata was present as her father and other clans voted to choose a successor for the position, a historic occasion to learn the extent of the Hyuga clan's power, as her father put it.

Kakashi was so surprised by the result that he dropped his favorite book from his hands.

And the look of betrayal he directed at that old man named Jiraiya... it was priceless.

She seriously doubted that an adult who flaunts this kind of reading carelessly to the younger ones and purposely arrives late for all kinds of meetings has the right mentality to lead the village.

Not to mention, her father explained the burden the Sharingan she possessed imposed on her body. Honestly, it would be better if he just exchanged it for a normal eye and regained his ability to fight at Kage level.

He would still have the supposed thousand techniques he copied and memorized, right?

But it's not like she could deny the results, and she definitely preferred Kakashi as Hokage to someone as questionable as the Toad Sannin.

To think that when she was little, she believed he was on equal footing with the incredible medical kunoichi Tsunade...

She was so embarrassed to remember it.

Enel told her about the role she should have taken years ago as Naruto's godfather, and seeing him behave as if taking him on a two-year training trip would compensate for everything that child suffered physically and mentally, made her want to break his "character" and give him some Soft Fist punches to paralyze certain motor functions below the waist.

Maybe she couldn't do it with her level of strength, but that didn't stop her from taking some measures that Enel told her about while he was recovering and almost made her smile when she remembered them.

Taking advantage of the meeting with everyone present, when it was the turn of the Hyuga clan to suggest possible improvements for the village, she waited for her father to finish speaking before requesting the establishment of isolating barriers for bathhouses.

At first, they didn't take her very seriously because of her age and also because it was a considerable amount of work for extra comfort.

They already had fences for that; why would they do something so complicated?

That's when her performance entered, recounting how she had felt observed during the past weeks while going to these establishments, with crocodile tears, timid stammering, and blushing.

As the explanation unfolded, Jiraiya's face turned paler and paler while the veins on the foreheads of several women present (especially the matriarch of the Inuzuka clan, whose contact had been more frequent since her return) gave him a dead-eyed look.

Jiraiya's reputation for obtaining "materials" for his works was known and tolerated to some extent due to his track record, old support, and status. But, as Enel expected, spying on someone younger caused the bubble to burst, and everyone paid MUCH attention to her words.

"Do you think only adults attend bathhouses?" Enel asked him then, raising an eyebrow, making something in his mind click.

It's something people seem to selectively forget when it comes to Jiraiya, and when they can no longer, it hits them like a punch to the stomach.

It didn't help that Anbu and the people who had taken over the police work from the Uchiha corroborated the repeated altercations that were "accidentally" discovered around those dates.

The Tenseigan (as little as she could use it yet) turned out to be very helpful in identifying when that pervert was near the bathhouses and causing a bit of disturbance with his new abilities (discreetly), making it easy to expose him regardless of whether he used any technique to hide the next time.

It's not like she really bathed there while Jiraiya was present; they had a whole complex for cleaning with privacy just for them in the Hyuga clan compound.

The few times members of the clan went to public baths were more for socializing with friends than anything else.

The meeting not only proceeded to access establishments with barriers for more privacy, but the Fifth Hokage had to act blind and deaf while Jiraiya ran out of the Hokage's office window, chased by no fewer than fifteen VERY furious kunoichis who refused to stop to give him the opportunity to explain.

The funny part was that her father led the kunoichis eagerly in the pursuit, with total indignation and fury at the thought of his daughter being "exposed," a total disrespect to the Hyuga clan that he intended to correct with his own hands... after the kunoichis had their turn.

Hinata, being the trigger and "victim," calmly left the Hokage building to return to the Hyuga clan compound, while inwardly feeling happy about this little payback.

She didn't believe it was enough to prevent Jiraiya from continuing his antics; after all, he had quite solid knowledge of fuinjutsu that he could use to create some temporary breaches in the barriers.

But that wasn't the point from the beginning, but to burst the bubble that everyone saw and make a big mark on Jiraiya's reputation.

Would the Fifth Hokage still allow the young and impressionable Nine-Tails jinchuriki to be taken away after this?

Well, it wasn't her concern.

While most of Konoha was focused on the Kirigakure war, she had been subtly moving to gain support from branch family members to eliminate the Caged Bird Seal in the clan.

A task that taught her to use all that political knowledge her father had forced her to learn from a young age, along with the discretion someone of her "position" needed to have.

But Anko-sensei knew many useful tricks.

It wasn't easy, and during the first month, she almost made a big mistake that would have undermined the plan, her plans. Some people know how to hide their radical thoughts too well, and it was necessary to send them on a C-rank mission to never hear from them again.

Although at least her snakes were happy about the additional food...

But her biggest time and effort investment was her younger sister, Hanabi.

She had to undo a whole life of brainwashing about fate and ancient traditions, using logic and "innocent" soft words to make her little sister have an epiphany and start thinking for herself instead of doing what others considered right.

She didn't even need to find time alone; her father made sure they trained together often, and the breaks, when Hanabi was more tired and off guard, were just perfect moments.

Risking a pun, she had to admit that Tsume, the matriarch of the Inuzuka clan, was a real tough nut to crack to include her in everything. That Enel saved her son already made the woman at least willing to listen without exposing her, but that didn't diminish the surprise she had to face her true self.

Hinata also didn't know at what level she could go, so she tried to keep things simple but vague, drawing a tentative fuzzy line each time to see where the limit was.

Mixing caution with confidence, tell the truth without telling it all.

And to her immense relief, just as the news of the end of the Kirigakure war arrived, Tsume found her with a smile.