The sky was losing its color, now turning a dull grey-blue with hints of orange and pink where one could only asume the sun had been just moments ago. The houses that decorated the area were all a fair size, made for a family of about three; two parents and a child. Their appearance, however, was very similar; you know the drill, white picket fences, trimed green lawn with a flower bed in front, and pink floral cutains stood in almost every kitchen window.

"Well isn't this quaint," the sarcastic comment was said by a tall man in his late twenties, early thirties, with a scar streaching verticaly across his left eye. Ibiki, with his charcaol trench coat and ninja headband, was a stark contrast in comparison to the softer more casual clothes of the civilians usually seen there. He looked like he'd rather be used as target practice than standing in front of that house; but judging by the small blue-haired girl pulling on his hand he didn't have much of a choice in the matter.

After stepping through the robins egg blue door, that was curtosy of the hokage no doubt, Ibiki took a good look around the rest of his 'new home'. Hizuren, for all his twisted humor, had picked the perfect house for them. It had two stories with a living room, kitchen, sound proof basment that would make a perfect training center, two bedrooms and two bathrooms, not too big, not too small. That combined with the sickeningly colorful pastels everwhere made it the ideal place for kids, and really wierd adults but lets not get into specifics on that. But back to those colors; it was as if someone had put them there to purposfully iratate Ibiki. If they had been, let me be the one to say that it was definetly working.

Hinata, however, was in awe at everything around her; the colors were new and exciteing, the furniature was softer more inviting than anything she had ever seen before, even the food she found in the kitchen was so strange and unlike the traditional, formal things she had eaten back...home. At least that is what she supposed it was, but the Hokage had said that she was living with Ibiki-san for now, so did that mean that this was her home now? If it was Hinata really didn't think that she would mind,...no that was stupid. She was supposed to want to be back with her father, right? With the rest of her family, that was where she belogned. But,...what if she liked it here?

Hinata shook her head back and forth, as if that would stop the thoughts from coming through. While she did this Ibiki watched her, years of torturing people had made it easy to know what they were thinking. He sighed, it seemed that nothing going through this kid's mind was particularly positive. It looked like someone had just asked her to make a life or death decision. Maybe they had, who knew and unless he wanted to get a Yakamana he wasn't going to ever know exactly what was going on in her head; no matter how hard he tried. One more sigh and he started walking.

"Hinata, I think you should go see your room here. For the time being at least, this will be your home, understood?" His voice was firm, solid, not exactly comforting, but his words were what Hinata really needed to hear.

She tenetivly nodded her head, and followed him. He did not solve her problem, but he did remind her that she did not need to worry about that sort of thing right now, nor would she need to for some time.

Her mood was restored to its former glory as she stepped into her new room, it really did seem as if everything was new today. The room was wonderful, pale blue walls accentuated the scenes and picture painted everywhere. Flowers, jungles, animals, castles you name it and Hinata could find it there. The two windows in her room let in more natural light than every room in the Hyuuga compound combined, her bed was almost as great as her pictures. It was a twin bed, but it looked so puffy that it made Hinata want to run and jump on it, something she had never done before in her life.

"So, would you like to have dinner now or later? It's gettin' a little late," It was only 7:30 but how was he supposed to know when kids went to bed. Maybe he should ask the Hokage that one...

"U-u-umm m-maybe n-now, w-w-would b-be o-okay w-with y-y-you?" That stuttering would have to be the first thing that went, that along with her persistant need to fidget.

Ibiki nodded his head once before turning around and starting his walk to the kitchen leaving Hinata to scamper from her place by the bed to rush after the older man's long strides. The kitchen was pretty, a light caramel shade coated the walls with honey colored wood floors and dark brown cabinets. Ibiki started to go through cuboards looking for good sandwich and a few minutes later Ibiki was eating his dinner; till he turned around-only to find Hinata standing in the same spot she was when she first came in.

Ibiki swallowing his bite of sandwich said, "I thought you were going to eat, aren't you hungry?" He was answered with a nod. "Then make yourself a sandwich, it's fine, this is your house too now," This was getting just a tad bit akward.

"I-I u-umm, w-w-well, u-umm I-I d-don't k-know h-how t-to," Hinata was blushing with what he supposed was embaresment. She didn't know how? Didn't four year olds make their own food, or maybe they still had food cooked for them. He didn't really know the answer so he just added it to his mental list of questions to ask the Hokage about children.

"Oh, do you- would you like to...learn how?" Ibiki asked

This was wierd, he didn't know if he liked this at all. Normaly Ibiki was the same everyday, relativly silent, slightly sadistic and if the guys at work saw him now they would think he was going crazy. He was helping Hinata make her third sandwich because, apperently, sandwiches and all other finger foods were not 'proper' food in the Hyuuga house hold. Hinata had certainly been makeing up for lost time.

He didn't know what he expected to be doing when he told the Hokage that he would help this girl, but makeing and teaching her how to make sandwiches wouldn't have been one of his first guesses.

"U-umm I-I-Ibiki-san I-I'm d-done n-now. T-thank y-y-you v-v-very m-m-much f-for m-makeing m-me t-t-those s-s-sandwiches I-I l-liked t-them a-alot."

"That's fine Hinata, it's a little late are you tired?" Ibiki was getting a little tired himself, who would have thought that makeing food for a kid could be such hard work? Or maybe it was more mental exaustion from todays escapades. Whatever it was he needed to hit the hay.

"Y-yes I-I a-am I-I w-w-would l-like t-to g-g-go t-to b-bed," Ibiki streached in preperation to get up from the chair he had plopped himself in, only to see Hinata still looking at him; just like with the sandwiches.

"You said you were tired, why aren't you going to your room?" This was too wired. First the sandwich thing now this? What on Earth could be keeping her from going to bed?

"I-I w-was j-just w-w-waiting f-for y-y-you t-to d-dismiss m-m-me, t-that i-is w-what o-oto-s-sama d-d-did w-w-when I-I w-wanted t-to g-go t-to b-b-bed," Hianta said. Sometimes she had to respectfuly wait for up to twenty minutes for her father to dismiss her.

Ibiki sighed, "Hinata I think we should go over the new rules okay? Anything you did at the Hyuuga or anything your father did is probably not going to happen here. The only rules I have are to listen when I give directions and don't leave the house without me; other than that you can do whatever you want. This is not the Hyuuga house hold, you don't have to be so...proper and polite. No one here is going to call you on it if you don't."

Not proper and polite? Was that even possible? Hinata really and truely did not know. All her life it had been rules, regulations and more rules. One mistake resulted in a weeks worth of gruleing traing sessions; was it really possible that this man who barely knew her was going to let her do whatever she wanted? Her, the failure of the Hyuuga, was going to be set free of all rules? It seemed impossible, it could not be real. Ibiki seemed so nice, but Hinata knew that she would have to watch Ibiki-san carefuly from now on; to make sure that he didn't go reporting her every mistake to her father.

Ibiki watched Hinata go off to her bed and only when she was out of the room did he slump in his chair. Who knew that this was going to be such hard work? They hadn't even started training yet and already he was having problems. Ibiki sincerly hoped that this would get easier, but sadly the adventures of Hinata and Ibiki had only just began.

It had been officially four days since Ibiki and Hinata had moved into the new house, with very little improvment concerning Hinata. It seemed that after their first conversation that night she had gone out of her way to be as prim, proper and polite as she possibly could. Ibiki had no idea what was going on but he had to set the record straight because if he didn't no amount of time he spent with hinata was going to do any good at all.

It was around 12:30 in the afternoon and Hinata had once again finished cutting her sandwich into dainty, ladylike bites. She really did have disgustingly good manners.

"Hinata," Ibiki said. Her head snapped up in his direction, though they had been there a total of four days the conversation between them was fairly pitiful. "Do you remember our conversation when we first got here? I told you that you didn't have to act so polite but I'm changing that. From this point till I say different you are not allowed to be so proper and crap like that. There is no one here that you need to impress so I want you to stop acting like it," Maybe that was a little harsh but he was not going to sit here and wait for her to snap herself out of this. They only had so much time and Ibiki needed all the time he could get to both cure and train Hinata.

"W-what!",Hinata exclaimed. Was he crazy? Not allowed to be proper? Was he off his rocker? "B-but, w-w-what i-if o-oto-s-sama f-finds o-out?", Hinata could imagine hunderads of scenerioes, most of which involved her immeadiate disownment, none of which were pleasant.

Ibiki sighed,"Hinata I believe I have already told you once that no one here is going to critize you for being improper, and I for one am certainly not going to run to your dad like some kind of sissy." Ibiki would have like to add that he didn't even like the man, but it may be just little to soon to tell her exactly what kind of man her father actually was.

Was this really happening, was she escaping all of the rules? More importantly was she ready to? It didn't look like it mattered considering that as a rule she was not allowed to obey any rules, quite a strange concept. "I-ibiki-san d-do y-y-you p-p-promise?" She held out her pinki to the older man.

He just kind of stared at her, before taking her much smaller pinki in his, sealing the deal in Hinata's mind. She broke into a smile, not an overly large one, but cosiderably bigger than the ones she usually gave everyone. It was small, but it was the first amount of progress he'd seen since they got here and all Ibiki did was make a pinki swear. Maybe this would be easier than he thought.

"Now that that's over time for a reminder, sandwiches," he picked up one of her pieces," are finger food.", he popped the piece into he mouth causing Hinata to giggle. Progress, not matter how small, was still progress.

Now that Ibiki's biggest road block-so far-was gone he was free to continue treating Hinata. The only problem was figuring out how to start. He had a lot to fix and even more ways to do it and he didn't know where he could start. Some people went straight for the biggest problem, while others started in the sub sections of the bigger problem working their way up till the problem was gone. Ibiki had never tried something like this before and he didn't have time to go through trial and error finding a way that he liked best so he would just have to chose one and roll with it. Don't forget that he also had to train her, she was his appretice after all.

He had to do a lot with this girl so it was best to just start from the bottom and work his way up. The first step would be her stuttering, he was doing this first for two reasons; one it was a result of all three of her disorders and therefore a pretty important contributor when concerning her embaressment problem. His second reason was just because it annoyed him thatmuch.

The easiest most accepted way of doing this was by constant proper speech. In Hinata's case Ibiki was going to use a slightly different, but hopefuly equally effective treatment. Books. Ibiki may not have looked it, but he loved to read books; of any kind really. If he could get Hinata to sit with him and aloud from a book the constant speaking may push her stutter away. It was the same concept as the conversation thing, but with an added bonus. He would go out and buy useful books like ones on nin-jutsu and tai-jutsu and weapons and such. This way Hinata would be learning as well as fixing her speach impeadiment. Well, that was the plan anyway.

"Hinata, I think it's time we started training," Ibiki said as they were eating breakfast.

Hinata's eyes grew large and she very nearly dropped her dango. No! No no no they couldn't train. Everything would fall apart, the small conversations and neutral, sometimes amused and almost kind looks; they would all disappear. If Ibiki spent even one hour training her he would see how weak she really was, then he would leave her. He would leave, just like her oto-sama, and find someone much much better than she was, someone who was worth his time, someone her oto-sama wouldn't be ashamed of.

"B-bu-but I-I d-d-don't w-w-want t-t-to t-t-train y-y-yet, I-I d-d-don't t-t-think i-i-it's a-a g-good i-idea," it was a futile attempt to stop the training session, a futile attempt at stoping the thing Hinata dreaded most.

"You'll be fine Hinata, and besides, it's my choice when we train and I think that we should train now," that was that then. Everything Hinata had just gotten used to was going to be shattered, it would all change and Ibiki would act just like her oto-sama; distant, ashamed, disgusted. Hinata had known, deep down, that this would never really last, she had prepared herself to leave or for Ibiki to suddenly change his mind about her. Here was the thing though,...she honestly didn't expect it to hurt so much. With a resigned sigh and the look of a man on death row Hinata got up and followed Ibiki to wherever he was leading her.

When Ibiki stopped Hinata curiously lifted her head up, wondering where the training woul be taking place, only to find that she was standing in the living room. Well this wasn't right, how were they supposed to fight insidde the living room? She turned to Ibiki who had, for some stange reason, sat on the biege love-seat.

"Okay Hinata, lets start our training," Ibiki said reaching behind him. Hinata imeadiatly reacted, sliding her feet into a slightly too wide juken stance, waiting for any sign of an attack when-Ibiki laughed at her. Was her stance really that bad? She slowly slid back into a neutral stance staring questioningly at the man in the chair.

"W-w-w-why a-a-a-are y-y-y-you l-l-l-laughing a-a-at m-m-me?" Hinata'a stuttering worsened at the idea that she had, once again, greatly embaressed herself.

"It- it's nothing Hinata; it's just that, we're not traing like that," what? "We are going to train useing these," Ibiki said while holding up a few books he had pulled from the case behind him.

"B-but b-books a-aren't t-training," Hinata said genuily puzzled. Her oto-sama always trained her the same way, by fighting her. He always said that this was the best way, and the only way, to learn how to be a ninja. Being that he had said this to her only three months ago, it was still very fresh in her mind,"M-my o-oto-sama s-said t-t-that t-the o-o-only w-way t-t-to t-t-train i-is b-by f-f-fighting."

Ibiki frowned. Was this guy serious? Screwing up a girl by age four is hard in and of itself; but simultainiusly preparing her to screw up as a ninja? Who knew one man could do damage as a father. There really should be restrictions on who can and can't become a parent. "Hinata I think I've already touched on this, but right now I am going to make it as clear as humanly possible, alright?" Hinata nodded,"Your father was wrong. On many things, but all you need to know is that pretty much everything your father told you is wrong,"

Wrong? Her oto-sama was...wrong? Was that even possible, for her oto-sama to be wrong? If, by chance, he was wrong, about everything, than...Hinata's whole life could change. Maybe it was possible that she wasn't a complete failure, was there a chance of that? Maybe and maybe not, but all you need to know is that Hinata was thouroghly confused. Telling her that her oto-sama was wrong is like telling someone that a rock was poofy. It was impossible, it defyed all logic so therefore it could not possibly be true. Hinata's entire thought process was based on everything her father had told her over the years; albit only two out of the four years she had lived with him, she had actualy been able to comprehend what he was saying.

'Your father was wrong.' Those four words had so much power over her. That one sentence had the power to change her life... ...if only she would believe it herself.

"T-t-that i-isn't p-p-possible. M-my o-oto-sama i-is a-always r-right. H-he s-said s-s-so," Hinata had no intention of changing her views on the subject anytime soon; but thankfuly everything does not always go as planned.

"But Hinata your oto was wrong about never being wrong, that means that I'm right." 'No it didn't' thought Hinata stubbornly.

This just might have been the first time Hinata had never given in on somthing. Usualy she bended this way and that to please everyone and their brother, but this time she was acting like well...a child. The thought brought a small, pretty much non-existant smile to Ibiki's face, this was big progress. It may not be the most helpful progress at the moment, but still, it was a good sign. Well, it was a good sign as long as he could get her to believe him. Otherwise any progress she makes will not matter if she still believes her father's twisted words of so called wisdom.

Ibiki sighed before begining again," Hinata, you have to know that everyone is wrong at some point or another, your father just happens to be wrong more times than he is right. He was wrong when he told you that the only way you could train was by fighting. Do you know how I know this? Because the Hokage told me that studying proves just as efficient in young children and it helps sharpen your mind. Are you going to tell me that your jii-san was wrong?" He had her there and she knew it. When it came down to it, no matter how much of a fuss Hinata wanted to raise, if the contest was between her oto-sama and her jii-san she would pick her jii-san. The thought felt something like betrayal towards her oto-sama but she could not bring herself to say that her jii-san was wrong, she just couldn't.

But...if her oto-sama was wrong about this than that means that he was wrong when he said he was always right and if that was true, than how many other things was he wrong about?

Everything her oto-sama had ever said to her, she took straight to heart; whether she knew it or not.

When she was 2 and a half she started stuttering a little when she spoke. Her oto-sama got upset with her and told her she was so useless she could scarcely complete a sentance without stuttering. During the next few months this became true.

When she was three she showed bad manners at the dinner table, her oto-sama had said that she should have been ashamed of herself for disrespecting her clan. That was when she started to blush in embaressment at everything she did.

A few months later her oto-sama saw her trying to be nice to a branch member, he used the curse seal on the man she was talking to. In the weeks that fallowed Hinata flinched and fidgeted at almost every movment, worried another curse seal was going to be activated.

Everything had only gotten worse in the years that followed.

Hinata did the only thing that she could think of at the time. She cried. She sniffled and wiped at her eyes until she sat down beside Ibiki.

While Hinata was doing this it was Ibiki's turn to be confused. How the hell was he supposed to know what to do now? He wasn't good with this part of the job. He would be sent in, make the suspect wimper a little, scare them, sometimes make them cry. After he did that there was always some other person who would come in and calm them down. It was usually some woman who would occasionaly give him a dirty look and go on rubbing the suspects back and whispering stuff that Ibiki never stayed around to listen to. A small part of that thought clicked with Ibiki and he, very akwardly, started to rub the small girls back; waiting for her to stop crying.

'I-is Ibiki..comforting me?' Hinata thought. The Hyuuga clan was not especially well known for it's lovely family life, comfort was something that one found almost no where. But here was a man who she scarcely knew, and he was trying to make her feel better. If anyone in her clan had seen her crying they would have scoffed or smirked or something like that.

"T-thank y-you Ibiki-san," Hinata said smileing

Ibiki sighed very glad that whole escapade was over,"Hinata, it's Ibiki-sensei now. I am teaching you remember?" He smiled as she blushed a very bright red and nodded to him.

"O-o-okay t-then Ibiki-sensei. C-c-can w-w-we s-s-start t-t-training n-now?" Ibiki nodded his head at her, his non-exsistant smile now just big enough for Hinata to see it.

"Of course," Ibiki said handing her one of the smaller books," this book is on chakra control. I want you to start reading, aloud, till I telll you to stop."

"Y-yes Ibiki-sensei,"

It turned out that Hinata was not an awful reader as many would have thought. By the end of chapter one she only stuttered when she did not know a word.

It was progress, maybe a little smaller than Ibiki would have liked but it was still progress. It would take a very long time to get Hinata well again and Ibiki wasn't about to make it worse by rushing her.