Hanako had a problem.

Over the course of her years as Hanako Hatake, very rarely had she felt the need to interfere with canon. Naruto was an exception she'd made gladly, and convincing Kakashi to take Sasuke under his reluctant wing—and, eventually, into their home—had been a no brainer. Children were children were children. There was no way she could just stand aside and watch as children suffered needlessly. It was easy to dismiss her unease when she saw Sasuke's smile or heard Naruto refer to her as his friend. There was no power in this world—or her old one—that could shame her for her interference there.

However...

The Chunin Exams were an entirely different animal.

If she took them, would anything change? There were a bunch of other teams that hadn't made it in canon, so maybe hers could be one? Ugh, but to fail in the first two rounds was a little...But, if she made it to the preliminaries, would she throw everything off? Would someone from canon lose their spot? Was the random selection truly random?

And Gaara! Sabaku no Gaara—Gaara of the Sand? Which would he use?—was in the same box as Naruto and Sasuke in her mind. Part of her current mission was to escort him and his team back to the village, and she fully intended to treat him with the kindness and respect due to any thinking, feeling being.

No matter how scary he might end up being.

She sighed.

"Eh, Hatake-chan? Are you alright?"

Hanako plastered a smile on her face and turned to Watanabe Yua, their noble client. "Sorry, Watanabe-san. I was lost in my thoughts."

A conspiratorial glint entered the older girl's brown eyes. "Thinking about your boyfriend?"

Not this again. Even Momiji looked exasperated from her place in the noblewoman's lap, ears hanging low on her head. The carriage hit a bump, almost sending the little dog to the floor.

"Neji-san is not my boyfriend, Watanabe-san," she said for the umpteenth time. "We are just friends."

"Mhm, sure you are."

Sigh.

"You shinobi sure are lucky," the teenager whined, running her fingers through Momiji's fur. "It must be nice to be able to choose for yourself."

Hanako took in the girl's forlorn expression. She was travelling to the Land of Wind for what was likely an arranged marriage. Although Hanako was technically nobility herself, that particular hardship was one she knew she would never have to face—Kakashi was too kind and the Hatake too inconsequential.

Still, that didn't mean Hanako was completely free to make her own choices. She'd long ago resolved to serve the Hatake as best she could. She was the heir, after all, so the clan's well being was her responsibility. Maybe it was because she was 'foreign'—the simplest way to put it—but she just couldn't bring herself to act selfishly. She knew without being told how the Hatake had suffered, and she had made it her goal to right those wrongs.

She chose her words carefully. "You are nobility. As such, you have been afforded certain freedoms and defaulted certain others. It's the price you must pay for your authority."

Watanabe huffed. "I know that. It's why I agreed to this in the first place. My people are counting on this alliance going through, so I must make sure it does. It's just," she looked out the carriage window. "Once I do this, they won't be my people anymore, will they?"

Ah.

"I think I understand," Hanako said gently. "You are allowed to be afraid, Watanabe-san, and you're allowed to mourn your loss of agency. You're going to live somewhere strange, in the company of strangers. Have you ever met your fiancé? Do you know what kind of man he is?"

Watanabe nodded with a small smile. "We have been exchanging letters for some time, now. It was the only way I could bring myself to marry like this."

That was smart and Hanako told her so. The older girl waved away her praise.

"I am not so naïve to believe his letters are a true reflection of his character, but his words have been kind. He was married once before, you know, so I think he's had some practice dealing with a new bride."

Hanako smiled. "Well, that's good. At least he'll know what he's doing."

The noblewoman flushed and looked away, biting her lip to stop a smile from blooming on her face.

"What about you?" She asked, no doubt eager shift their focus from her. "If Hyuuga-kun isn't your type, then is there someone who is?"

Hanako sobered instantly. No, there wasn't. There couldn't be. Even were she free to love who she wished, her options were all...children. Blegh. The very idea was sickening.

She wasn't Orochimaru, you know.

Again, she found herself picking her words with care. "My clan is not very powerful, and we have been in disgrace these last three generations, but we are still one of the founding clans of Konoha. All of the land on which the village was built once belonged to the Hatake. Much of the forest around it still belongs to us. As such, we can stand tall beside the Hyuuga and Nara as one of the wealthiest clans in the Land of Fire. You can imagine my difficulty in finding a suitable partner."

Watanabe nodded sympathetically. "That must be hard. I imagine there are a lot of families after your wealth, but who balk at your reputation."

"I am also a female heir," Hanako lamented, actually a little glad to talk about this with someone who could understand, even if just peripherally. "Any man I marry will be joining my family, not the other way around. My only real options are clanless civilians or second sons, and, even then, there are few who would be willing to accept a woman as head of the family."

Well, she could think of one exception who fit all those criteria, but she refused to even consider him. Mentally, she was the same age as his mother, if not older. Gross.

Watanabe placed a hand on Hanako's shoulder. "I'm sure you'll find someone. Shinobi seem more open to women in power."

They were. The patriarchy was still strong, though. Curses.

The carriage lurched forward, sending both girls tumbling forward as one end sank suddenly lower than the other. The horse whinnied wildly, and many voices split the air.

"Oujou-sama! Oujou-sama, are you alright?"

Momiji yipped pitiably as the older girl pushed herself up. "What happened?"

The carriage door opened, revealing a young man with a concerned expression. "The axle has broken, oujou-sama," he said as he offered her a hand. "I am sorry for the fright."

Watanabe took his hand gladly and began to complain loudly, all traces of her previous maturity gone. It was almost like looking at a completely different person, and Hanako wondered briefly why she'd put on such an act before she remembered.

It was Watanabe Yua who'd asked for personal protection from an internal threat. The teenager was well aware of her situation, and the whiny brat façade was probably her way of fending it off.

Or drawing it out.

Hmm.

Hanako stepped out of the crippled carriage without assistance, Momiji running to follow in the noblewoman's footsteps, as ordered. Although Hanako was small and unassuming, Momiji was even more so, and civilians had a tendency to overlook non-human threats.

Fools.

"Are you alright, young Hanako?"

She looked up at Might Guy. His thick brows were furrowed in concern, his normal smile replaced by a frown. There was a calculating glint in his eyes, and she knew there was another layer to his question.

"I'm fine, Uncle Guy, don't worry." I have it under control.

He nodded. "Yosh! We shall set up camp here and continue in the morning, once the carriage has been repaired. Lee-kun! Neji-kun! Let us begin!"

"Hai, Guy-sensei!"

"Hn."

Hanako took a moment to wipe nonexistent dirt from her pants, watching the civilian entourage scramble. Watanabe herself was standing to one side, idly fanning herself with one hand while holding Momiji in the other. The man who'd helped her from the carriage was loitering nearby, his gaze trained on his mistress.

Huh.

Hanako took her time walking over to her client, watching as the man approached her.

"—a walk? This may be our last chance to enjoy a nice day in the woods."

Oho.

"Are we going for a walk?" She asked, raising her voice by a quarter octave and exaggerating her movements. "That sounds fun! What do you think, Watanabe-san?"

The man looked annoyed for a split second, then smiled at her. "Ah, shinobi-san. Are you alright?"

Oh, now you ask.

Hanako nodded emphatically, throwing out a thumbs up to make Guy proud. "Yep! Nothing to worry about!"

He relaxed marginally. "That's good to hear. Thank you for keeping our oujou-sama company."

Hanako smiled widely beneath her mask. "Oh, it's no problem! It's not everyday I get to escort a princess, you know. I'm almost sad I don't get to go the whole way with you." She cocked her head in a display of confusion. "I wonder what the Sand ninja will be like? I heard their puppets are super scary."

The smile on his face froze. "A-ah, really?"

Hanako nodded enthusiastically, her curls bouncing. "Oh, yeah! Some of them can even turn people into puppets with their chakra strings! Isn't that crazy?"

The man's face paled as he laughed nervously. "Yeah, crazy."

Watanabe, on the other hand, looked skeptical. "Really? How do you know?"

"Well, my clan's had a blood feud with the Kazekage's family for three generations, now. It's in my best interest to know these things." Hanako didn't have to fake a snort of disdain. "I don't really get why, though. The people involved are all dead, now."

That Chiyo could really hold a grudge.

"Should you be here, then?" The man asked, a new fire in his eyes. "What if the Sand ninja take offence to your presence and harm our oujou-sama?"

Mah, that was a bit of a stretch.

Outwardly, she shrugged. "I didn't choose to come, nii-chan. The Hokage's the one who assigns the missions. The rest of us follow his orders."

He looked like he would argue, but Watanabe placed a hand on his arm, looking up at him with imploring brown eyes.

"Ne, Keichi-kun, I wanna go for a walk. Hatake-chan, I can go for a walk, right? Keichi-kun will be with me."

Hanako scrunched up her face, hesitating. "Well, I guess so. Just take Momiji with you, ok? And be back before dark!"

The noblewoman nodded with an enthusiasm as fake as Hanako's, looping her arm through Keichi's with an exaggerating smile.

If she was reading this right, then it seemed her mission would be coming to a close, soon. Keichi's body language was certainly suspicious, but that could be written off as any number of things. The suggestion of a walk, however, could not. Hopefully, everything could be resolved before they reached the border. If not, she would have to notify the Sand ninja of the circumstances, and they would not be as forgiving as she planned on being.

As the two civilians disappeared past the tree line, Hanako leapt up into the branches. That was one of the coolest parts of being a ninja. She was starting to suspect that the humans in this world were just way stronger than the ones in her old one. No amount of training would have enabled her old body to jump several yards into the air like she just had. It was really weird, and she still wasn't used to it.

She wasn't used to being so short, either. Sure, she was still young and might have a few growth spurts left in her, but, at eleven years old, her old body had towered over all of her peers. It wasn't until her sophomore year of high school that the boys outgrew her, and even then it wasn't by much. Bethany had been tall and willowy, almost waifish. Hanako was short and on the stockier side, putting on muscle much easier than Bethany ever had.

It was weird, thinking of herself as two people, but it was hard to conceptualize her situation, otherwise. Transmigration was a pretty common trope among Chinese light novels, and even some anime, so Hanako was at least familiar with the idea. There was just one problem. Try as she might, she couldn't pin down what had caused her sudden 'rebirth'. In most novels, transmigration was caused by the main character's untimely death—usually a murder or suicide—and anime almost invariably had something like a magic well or an alien spaceship acting as a trigger.

As far as Hanako could tell, Bethany had just fallen asleep.

It was most vexing.

Below her, Watanabe and Keichi came to a stop. Hanako kept herself downwind of them, lowering her mask to take advantage of a sensitive nose—another freaky ability apparently caused by her contract with the dogs, along with inconveniently sharp teeth. As far as she could tell, they were the only people out there, but she knew there were shinobi out there who could mask their scents. If only she were a sensor, but alas. She could barely manage her own chakra as it was.

"Yua-sama," Keichi was saying. "Won't you please reconsider? We're still in the Land of Fire, we can—."

Watanabe cut hi off, her tone harsh and laden with exasperation. "Enough, Keichi-kun. We've been over this. Without this marriage, our domain will crumble under the tax burden. You know the land can no longer support us."

This was clearly not what Keichi wanted to hear. He stepped into Watanabe's space, his expression dark. "You promised," he said fervently. "You promised we could be together."

Watanabe took a step back, her voice soft and placating. "Keichi-kun, we were children! You know I would give anything to keep that promise, but this isn't just about us. People will starve without the trade routes my marriage will secure. You know that."

Ah. So, the threat was a jilted lover.

She could have just said so.

Hanako pulled chakra in her palms, calling forth her yawara from within her seal with as little glowing as she could manage—glowing was not stealthy. The wooden, dumbbell like weapons were small and unassuming, but their weight was a comfort in her hands. She tensed in anticipation as Keichi continued advancing on Watanabe. She couldn't see his face from her perch in the tree, but she could hear his voice.

"Please," he pleaded. "We can still run. The shinobi will take the blame. No one will get hurt."

Watanabe shook her head. "No! You don't understand the situation! That could start a war, Keichi-kun!"

He reached out, grabbing her wrist. "I don't care! Once upon a time, neither did you! What changed? Did you fall for that old lord?"

"Keichi-kun, stop it!"

He didn't, yanking Watanabe forward. Momiji leapt from the noblewoman's grasp, clearly surprising both civilians as she lunged for Keichi's face.

That as her cue.

Hanako jumped down from her perch, landing with a roll to maintain her momentum and situating herself in front of Watanabe.

"Stand down," she ordered Keichi sternly, raising her hands in front of her face like a boxer, yawara gripped in her fists.

Momiji stood between Keichi and the path back to camp, hackles raised and teeth bared. The civilian man looked from Hanako to her dog, bewildered expression quickly melting into amusement.

"What? Stay out of this kid, it doesn't concern you." He stepped forward confidently.

She sank into a defensive stance. "If you continue, I will have no choice but to consider you a danger to my client and deal with you accordingly. Please reconsider."

Keichi scoffed, looking over Hanako's head to Watanabe. "Yua-sama, tell this kid what's going on. I'm not a threat to you."

Watanabe was silent, placing herself more squarely behind Hanako. Keichi's face twisted in a way it hadn't before then, anger and betrayal warping his features. He hadn't seemed all that threatening, and Hanako had actually begun to wonder why Watanabe had considered him a threat. His current expression swept those doubts away. Clearly, Watanabe knew this man well enough to know he might try something and knew herself well enough to know she wouldn't be strong enough to resist. Civilian nobles preferred their women weak and delicate, after all, and Watanabe was the very model of a perfect noble princess-type.

Keichi grit his teeth so hard Hanako could hear it. "Get out of my way," he shouted as he lunged forward.

Hanako stepped up to meet him, dodging his wildly flailing fists with ease. Swiftly, she hooked a foot behind his heel and brought him down on one knee. In a single, fluid movement, she brought the rounded end of her yawara against his temple, using the combined force of her strike and his downward momentum to render him unconscious. He collapsed like a Skyrim ragdoll, crumpling under his own weight. Watanabe rushed to his side with a soft cry.

"Don't worry," Hanako assured her, absorbing her weapons back into her seal. "I just knocked him out."

"Oh, thank the gods," Watanabe whispered, wiping tears from her eyes with a shuddering breath. "I wanted to believe he wouldn't do this. I wanted to think I was wrong."

Hanako placed a comforting hand on the older girl's shoulder. "I know. I'm sorry it came to this."

"So am I." The teenager took a moment to school her expression before gracefully getting to her feet. "What will you do now, Hatake-chan?"

Hanako gestured to Momiji, the little dog trotting up and jumping onto Keichi's chest. "Momiji will reverse summon him back to Konoha. The Hokage will then hand him over to your father for punishment, as you requested."

Watanabe's shoulders slumped in relief. "That's good. I don't know what I'd do if I had to look at him after this."

Understandable.

"Well, Momiji, the rest is up to you. Tell the old man I said hi."

The dog sniffed haughtily. "Tell him yourself." Then she poofed out of existence, taking Keichi with her.

Watanabe stood stock still, her eyes wide and mouth agape. "The dog can talk?"