**Chapter 4 – Smoke and Mirrors**
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### **Academy Courtyard – Morning**
Sunlight filtered through the charred branches of the training grounds as Naruto lounged atop a scorched post, golden chains coiled around his arms like molten serpents. Below, Hanabi moved through her Gentle Fist katas with clinical precision, each strike leaving delicate frost patterns spiderwebbing across the dummy's surface.
**Shino** adjusted his glasses, Aburame beetles humming faintly under his collar. "Hyuga Hanabi's taijutsu exhibits anomalous ice residue. A 73% deviation from standard Hyuga chakra signatures."
**Kiba** snorted, Akamaru barking in agreement. "Big deal. My aunt's cousin married a Yuki clansman. Ice Release's just… *fancy* Hyuga stuff."
Iruka crouched to inspect the frostbitten dummy, fingertips brushing crystalline patterns that crackled under his touch. "Hyuga-san, your chakra control is… *innovative*."
Hanabi bowed, the picture of demure perfection. "A minor mutation, sensei. My uncle Hizashi's journals document similar anomalies during winter training."
From his perch, Naruto snorted loud enough to startle a flock of sparrows. *'Mutation. Sure. Let's call a tsunami a puddle.'* His chains twitched as Hanabi's Byakugan flickered toward him—a silent challenge in her milky gaze.
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### **Hokage's Office**
Hiruzen's pipe smoke curled around ANBU footage playing on a water mirror: Naruto torched the library's forbidden scrolls with theatrical flair while Hanabi practiced calligraphy nearby, her brushstrokes freezing ink mid-air into jagged ice fractals.
**Hiruzen** (stroking his beard): "The Hyuga girl's abilities concern the council."
**Kakashi** flipped a page of *Icha Icha*, one eye crinkling. "Ice Release. Rare, but documented. Her great-uncle married into the Yuki clan, remember? Lovely wedding—sake froze in the cups."
Shadows pooled as Danzo materialized, cane tapping like a metronome of suspicion. "Convenient lineage. Yet she orbits the jinchūriki like a vulture circling carrion."
Kakashi's visible eye curved into a smile. "Or a 7-year-old with a crush. Kids are weird."
Hiruzen's gaze lingered on a scorched scroll delivered by snake-summon—Orochimaru's spidery script demanding:
***"The Phoenix's fire intrigues me. Send the boy for… playtime. —O"***
The Third Hokage's jaw tightened imperceptibly.
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### **Hyuga Gardens**
Moonlight dappled the koi pond as Hanabi's fingertips grazed its surface. Ice blossomed outward in fractal mandalas, each geometric pattern more intricate than the last. Naruto watched from a cherry blossom tree, chains idly melting falling petals into ember-ash.
**Hanabi** (without turning): "You're staring again."
**Naruto** lobbed a flaming acorn at her head. "Just wondering when you'll admit your ice isn't *normal*."
She froze the projectile mid-air, shattering it into snowflakes that caught fire as they fell. "And your fire is?"
"Abnormally *fabulous*." Naruto dropped beside her, chains hissing where they met frost. "Difference is, I own it."
A branch snapped. Hanabi's ice dissolved into mist as Elder Hyuga Hyōga emerged from the shadows, face carved from ancestral disapproval.
**Hyōga**: "Hanabi-sama. Your father requires your presence."
**Hanabi** (bowing sweetly): "Of course, honored elder."
As she departed, Naruto's chains lashed out, incinerating the frost patterns. *'Keep your mask, Snowflake. I'll keep your secrets.'*
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Konoha's streets pulsed with festival chaos—lanterns bobbing like fireflies, the air thick with yakitori smoke and laughter. Naruto "accidentally" ignited Danzo's prized bonsai garden, golden phoenix flames reducing centuries-old pines to charcoal silhouettes.
**Danzo** (gripping his cane until the wood creaked): "Why is the Hyuga girl *here*?"
**ROOT Agent Beta** (hesitant): "She… feeds him dango, Lord Danzo. They're *children*."
Near the shattered remains of a goldfish scooping stall, Hanabi flicked an ice chip at Naruto's forehead. "Your fireworks lack subtlety."
He grinned, detonating a phoenix-shaped firework over the Hokage Monument. "Subtlety's for people who aren't *fun*."
Kakashi leaned against a torii gate, noting ANBU shifting positions—**three now tailed Hanabi**, their chakra signatures muffled by hasty concealment seals.
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### **somewhere in the land of rice patties or whatever it's called.**
Green-hued lab lights glinted off surgical tools as Orochimaru dissected a charred ROOT agent, the man's still-smoking lungs suspended in preservation fluid.
**Kabuto** adjusted his glasses, scalpel hovering over frostbitten tissue samples. "The Hyuga girl's ice neutralizes nerve endings before necrosis. If we cross-reference—"
**Orochimaru** hissed, crushing the specimen jar. "Irrelevant! The Phoenix's flames *transcend* mortal biology." A screen flickered with Naruto's file: **"Subject: Uzumaki. Priority: Divine Ignition. Containment Protocol: Alpha-Nine."**
Kabuto's gaze lingered on Hanabi's blurred image in the background of surveillance photos. "But sir, the ice could stabilize—"
"*Focus*, Kabuto." Orochimaru's tongue slithered over blackened fingertips. "I'll peel the god from that boy's bones myself."
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### **Hyuga Compound**
Hanabi knelt in the ancestral hall, trembling hands hidden in silk sleeves as frost crept up her wrists. Hiashi's Byakugan bore into her, the Caged Bird Seal on his palm faintly luminous. A subtle warning—a threat.
Hanabi being the younger sibling has the fate of a caged bird hanging over her head. If the elders ever find out of her harboring any thoughts they consider rebellious then not even her father would be able to protect her.
**Hiashi**: "The elders demand distance from the jinchūriki. Your… *association* risks clan standing."
**Hanabi** (forehead touching tatami): "I study his techniques to strengthen the Hyuga, Father. Nothing more."
Having a dojutsu is like having a lie detector on hand. Even a normal person would be able to see through her lie.
Outside, Naruto leaned against the compound wall, chains melting snow into steaming puddles.
**Kurama** (snarling in his mindscape): *"Liar. You're curious."*
**Naruto** (smirking): "And you're *nosy*."
As ANBU shadows flitted across rooftops—half watching Naruto, half surveilling Hanabi—he lit a cherry bomb filched from Deidara's rejected festival supplies.
**Naruto** (bellowing): "FIRE DRILL! EVERYONE PANIC!"
The explosive arced through a paper window, detonating in the elders' tea ceremony. Chaos erupted—screaming retainers, overturned braziers, and one unfortunate elder's beard catching fire.
Hanabi's suppressed laughter hung crystalline in the air, her fleeting smirk reflected in a shard of melting ice.
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End**