Nine Kinds of Hell
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Please, do not sue me. Thanks.
Okay, folks, I've been saying for quite some time that I'll post this monstrosity, and I'm finally going to do it. If you see any glaring, gaping plotholes, please let me know. This was actually my first attempt at fanfiction, my second being sickness. However, sickness got posted first, being the first one to be completed. I still haven't finished this one, but if I don't start posting it now, I never will. So, without further ado, I give you:
Nine Kinds of Hell - Chapter 1
The first thing that Hinata noticed as she sat down at the Ichiraku ramen stand was that the butterflies in her stomach weren't going away. The second thing she noticed was that Naruto wasn't there, meaning that she had either missed him or beaten him. Finally, she noticed that the girl behind the counter was staring at her. A blush found its way to her face.
A slightly amused look crossed the waitress's features, and she turned to the back. "Oh, father? Put a few extra pots of ramen on the stove. It looks like Naruto-kun is going to be stopping by here soon." Hinata winced. Was it really that easy to tell why she was here? Her father would kill her if word got back to him.
"Would you like anything while you wait, Hyuuga-sama?"
"Umm… One miso ramen please." was the whispered response.
A few moments passed as the ramen was cooked, and placed in front of her. She paid her compliments, and neatly broke her chopsticks, before starting to eat. She didn't get very far before a blonde and orange nexus of chaos swept into the restaurant.
"Hey old man! I need four deluxe ramen to go!" Again, Hinata winced. The butterflies seemed to have called for reinforcements in the form of a large wrecking crew, who were wreaking havoc on her stomach. She started to turn her face away, when blue eyes locked on her. A small smile replaced his usual fox-smirk as he looked at her.
"Hinata! I didn't see you there! Oi, Ayame-chan, make one of those ramen to stay. No, better yet, make me an extra deluxe ramen." With that, Naruto sat down beside her, turning his stool so they sat face to face. Hinata noticed out of the corner of her eye, that the waitress had a slight blush on her face as she took his order, and for a brief instant, an irrational surge of jealousy flared up. "Calm down, Hinata, she's almost twice his age!"
Silence reigned as his food was being prepared. Hinata desperately tried to think of some way to start a conversation with Naruto, but was discarding ideas almost as rapidly as she came up with them. It stayed that way until Ayame brought Naruto his ramen, and he began to eat.
"So, Hinata, how's the training going? I'm expecting to see you in this year's jounin exam. Why you haven't taken it yet is beyond me. I think you'd make a great jounin!" He rattled off excitedly, a few noodles hanging from his lips. Hinata felt a small smile grace her lips. He said the nicest things, even if she couldn't quite bring herself to believe them.
"My fa-father says I'm not good enough yet, Naruto-kun. He won't let me take the exam until I can beat Hanabi at least once. He says that I need to work on my fighting skills a little more." said Hinata, which was mostly true. Actually, the words he tended to use when describing her skills were "abysmal" or "appalling". After the last fight with her sister, he also accused her of lacking in killer intent. He had then gone on to describe, in detail, exactly how she should have crushed her little sister's heart inside her chest.
"But you're eighteen! Aren't you legally allowed to take it without a guardian's permission now? Besides, you're already above most ANBU I know, let alone jounin. Why not take the exam, and show him what you can really do?" Naruto pouted a little, his disbelief evident. Hinata fought down the urge to kiss him.
"I'm sorry, Naruto-kun, but if I go against my father's wishes, he may have me removed from the clan permanently. I don't want to lose what family I have left."
"Hmm… Then maybe I get Sakura-chan to help you train! If she teaches you, I'm sure you can show your father! After all, she was trained by a sannin!"
Naruto looked quite pleased with his solution, but Hinata couldn't help but feel a little bit hurt. "Naruto-kun… You were trained by a sannin too. Why wouldn't you offer to help me?" Still, Hinata was never one to turn down help, especially help coming from blonde ninja with blue eyes. She managed a quick nod as the wrecking crew decided to reassert its presence.
"Thank you Naruto-kun."
Naruto smiled, and then gestured at his empty bowl. "Well, I'm done here, and I don't want the rest of the ramen to get cold. I'll have Sakura come by later to talk to you about some kind of training. Is later tonight okay?"
Hinata managed a nod before he grabbed his order and began to run off. A simple wave over his shoulder was his only farewell. Hinata finished her ramen, paid the bill, and walked out the door. She never saw the white eyes of another Hyuuga gazing intently at her retreating figure.
Later that night, Sakura came to the door of the Hyuuga clan manor, with two bags full of scrolls. "Damn that Naruto! Asking me to work on my night off!" came the enraged voice of Inner Sakura. Sakura ignored it, as she had long ago learned to do. It wasn't that she had a problem with helping Hinata, she told herself, it's just that Naruto had sprung this on her at the last minute, and she really wanted to see if some of the things she had heard from Tsunade would work on Sasuke…
"Ah, Haruno-san, do come in. We've been expecting you."
Sakura nodded to the guard at the gates. She vaguely recognized him from one of the other times she had been sent by Tsunade to deal with the Hyuuga. She was led to the training dojo, and ushered inside. Hinata sat in the middle of the room, meditating. Sakura began to shuffle through the first bag of scrolls she was carrying. "Let's see, what should I start her out with. Chakra control, why did I even bring this? She's a Hyuuga, she probably has better control than I do. Medical jutsu, nope, too advanced to just hand her, I'll wait until later tonight. Ooh. How to increase nerve sensitivity through applied jutsu. I wonder if Sasuke-kun would be willing to help me test that one. Hmm… What are Hinata's weaknesses?"
Sakura thought for a few moments. Hinata wasn't actually known for having any real weaknesses. She didn't have many ninjutsu or genjutsu, true, but few Hyuuga did. She had excellent chakra control, rivaling that of most medic nin. Her taijutsu style was considered to be unparalleled, and although Hinata wasn't considered a master of the style, Sakura still believed that Hinata was a more effective martial artist than she could hope to be. Sakura felt a little lost. "Why in God's name hasn't this girl been promoted yet?"
Sakura already knew the answer to that little question, however. Hinata didn't have problems with her skills, but with her attitude. She was kind, and generally didn't want to hurt people, so when she fought, she always held back, even if it was just a little bit. She probably didn't even realize that she was doing it. When you combined that with her lack of self confidence, you had someone who, although technically skilled, would be unlikely to win a fight. "So I have to increase her self confidence? Naruto, this is more your field. Why ask me to train Hinata?"
Sakura looked through the scrolls again, trying to find something that might help build Hinata's confidence. She had read several scrolls on psychology, but she didn't have the time to apply anything like that, especially if she needed to be trained before the next jounin exam. If only Hinata didn't think she was weak! "Wait, weak?" Sakura grinned evilly.
"That's perfect!" she muttered to herself. A small surprised jerk from the person in front of her informed Sakura that Hinata was aware of her presence. Sakura cracked her knuckles. "Okay Hinata! Let's get started! First, let's get you warmed up. Give me 20 laps around the dojo."
As Hinata hastened to comply, Inner Sakura was busy congratulating Outer Sakura. Her plan was simple: if she taught Hinata a technique that would make her physically strong, she could use that connection to make her mentally stronger as well. Sakura knew that she might get into trouble for teaching Hinata her strength ability, but since Hinata's style was Jyuuken, or 'gentle fist', she would almost certainly never use it in actual combat. It would serve to create the image in Hinata's mind that she wasn't a weak little girl, but a strong young woman. Sakura had the makings of a plan on how to do just that. By the time Hinata had finished her laps, Sakura knew exactly what she was going to do.
"Okay, Hinata! Now, here's what we're going to do. See those training dummies over there? I want you to walk over and punch one as hard as you can. I'm going to be teaching you a few things about fighting, so I'm going to have you go over it a few times. Then we'll work on some chakra exercises, and I'll show you some medical jutsu." Sakura intentionally left out the strength jutsu exercises, as she didn't want Hinata to think that she was 'cheating' at getting stronger.
Sakura watched as Hinata threw her first punch. It was actually fairly impressive, as far as punches went. Excellent form, good follow through, the right twist to the hips, even her feet were properly positioned to maximize force. Sakura nodded thoughtfully.
"Hey, that's pretty good. I think I know a way to make it a little more forceful, though." Sakura positioned herself behind Hinata, and held on to her arm, as she moved it through the punch. While she was doing that, she sent a barely detectable line of molded chakra into Hinata's arm. It was a simple technique, one used to teach children how to access their chakra. Sakura hoped that Hinata would subconsciously associate that specific chakra flow with throwing a punch.
"Punch again."
After Hinata's next attempt, Sakura repeated the process, again under the pretext of 'improving Hinata's form', while she watched carefully. Hinata did seem to be improving in the strength of her blows.
"Punch again." Was that a crack in the dummy? Another 'correction'.
"Punch again." Okay, that crack had spread. Another 'correction'
"Punch again." The dummy tore in two as the girl hit it again.
Sakura couldn't be sure if it was just because the dummy was damaged from the other punches. It had been rather old. Then Sakura caught sight of Hinata's face. The expression of shock and disbelief was so comical that Sakura had to choke down her laughter. Sakura wondered if she had ever had a similar expression on her face when she had unexpectedly succeeded at something. "Hmm… I should reinforce the 'strong' image. I don't want her to start thinking that she screwed up." "That was amazing Hinata! You're a really quick study!" Sakura cheered. And, in truth, Sakura was impressed. When Tsunade had taught her how to augment her strength, it had taken her a full day of effort to see any effect at all. Hinata seemed to have some limited results in five punches. Perhaps she should recommend this training style the next time she saw Tsunade.
As she was musing to herself, the door to the dojo slid open, and Hiashi walked in. He looked around the room, and then at Sakura. Sakura bristled at the cold expression on his face.
"What are you doing here?" Sakura demanded. She mentally groaned as soon as the words came out of her mouth. Maybe Naruto was having too much of an effect on her actions these days. She sounded like she was accusing the head of the Hyuuga clan of intruding in his own house! Hinata had just torn a wooden training dummy in half! Considering how loud it had been, it wouldn't be surprising if he was concerned for his daughter. What on earth was she thinking?! Sakura was so busy berating herself that she almost missed it when Hiashi began to speak.
"I heard a disturbance, and was concerned that someone might be foolish enough to attempt to abduct my useless daughter again. It would be detrimental to the clan if her eyes were to be removed and studied. Additionally, should they deduce how worthless she would be and leave her body behind, the irritation and expense of having to care for one such as her would inconvenience our family. Based on these things, I was obligated to investigate. Might I ask what you are doing here, Haruno-san? Surely Tsunade didn't send you to assassinate my training dummies?"
Sakura was shocked. Was this was the warmth and tenderness that Hinata's family showed her? Didn't he notice that Hinata was the one standing in front of the ruined dummy with splinters of wood in her hand? Useless? Worthless? No wonder Hinata had such self confidence issues! Sakura was surprised that she wasn't a gibbering wreck in an asylum somewhere! "Who the hell does he think he is, talking to his daughter like that?" Surprisingly, that comment hadn't come from Inner Sakura, who had for once been shocked into silence.
"I am here to help Hinata train, Hiashi-sama." stated Sakura coldly, "She's really quite amazing. Her strength rivals mine and Tsunade's, and her taijutsu skills are excellent. As for 'assassinating your training dummies', as you so quaintly put it, it wasn't me who shattered that dummy, it was Hinata." Inner Sakura looked out at Hiashi, screaming things best left unprinted. Hiashi looked completely unfazed.
"Indeed. Tell me, why would you be teaching my daughter such a useless ability? The Jyuuken style has no need for such abject displays of strength, something I was certain that even Hinata understood. It appears that I was sorely overestimating her intelligence. Still, perhaps you can teach her how to be a good little servant once she gets branded with the branch family seal. That, at least, should not be beyond her abilities."
Hiashi walked away before Sakura could think rationally enough to voice a coherent reply. "Please do not destroy any more of my dummies. Unlike some things, they serve an important function for the Hyuuga clan." he said, and then he slid the door shut.
Sakura sputtered impotently for a few moments, before turning to Hinata. The girl seemed almost unaffected by the event, as if this was an expected occurrence. To her horror, Sakura realized that that could very easily be the case. Sakura was unable to come up with anything that could express her disbelief at what had just transpired, so she said the first thing that came to her mind.
"So, how about we get started on those medical jutsu?"
Hinata bade Sakura goodnight, and went straight to bed, as she had no desire to see her father after the incident in the dojo. It had felt oddly nice to destroy that one dummy. She hadn't felt like such a failure, even if it wasn't applicable to her normal style of fighting. Then he had come in and again crushed her hopes that she wasn't completely useless.
Sakura-san had taught her some interesting medical jutsu though, and had even left a full bag of the scrolls behind for her to study. Hinata still had some energy left over from the physical portion of her training session, and pulled one out. It was a treatise on self healing, specifically on regenerating wounds inflicted in battle. Strangely enough, the scroll seemed to be more about theories than actual jutsu. It made several references to someone named 'Kabuto', who Hinata seemed to remember Naruto mentioning. Perhaps they were friends. Then another name caught her eye: Uzumaki Naruto.
If Naruto had been involved in creating this scroll, even indirectly, then she wanted to know everything within it. She walked over to her desk, and pulled out some paper, intent on copying the scroll. Sakura would eventually want it back, and Hinata might miss out on a small part of Naruto's life. This way she could read about him again, if she so desired.
Hinata began to read in earnest. The parts on Kabuto documented his regeneration techniques, and how even a full strength rasengan had failed to put him down. Naruto's section was far more complete however. It documented chakra flows, moldings, and even a theoretical set of hand seals to replicate his abilities. However, it was made quite clear in the scroll that whatever regenerative qualities Naruto had were not a technique. In fact, the scroll made it sound like a bloodline.
Hinata entertained that idea for a few moments, before discarding it. She had been trained in the various types of bloodlines since she was a child, and there had never been mention of anything like this. She sighed, and began to read again.
The next part of the scroll made her feel faint. It was a listing of the wounds that Naruto was known to have survived. Unlike Kabuto's short list of 'rasengan to the mid torso area', Naruto's list took up a fair amount of space. Scrapes, bruises, lacerations, muscle tears, broken bones, sucking chest wounds, fatal heart trauma. The list went on and on. There was even an entry for having his tenketsu sealed! All recovered in a day or less. The only problem seemed to be the amount of chakra it would take, which was truly monstrous. However, the longer she read the more ideas for techniques that could be used against the Byakuugan swirled in her mind.
Hinata read late into the night, studying this fascinating new facet of Naruto's life. As she finished copying each scroll, she hid her copy under the floorboards in her room. She didn't want her father to find out she had scrolls with information on Naruto. She would be in so much trouble, especially if he found about her interest in Naruto! Eventually, Hinata fell asleep, dreaming of love, acceptance, and the one she wanted both from.
Any other father would have reacted differently to the paper that was lying on his desk. Any other father would have been happy to read that they might not have to curse their daughter to a lifetime of servitude. Any other father would have been more than pleased at the knowledge that his daughter still had a chance of being accepted by her family. Hyuuga Hiashi was not any other father however. The paper was a letter from the council of the Hyuuga elders. They had apparently overruled His decision to have His eldest daughter banished from the main house and become a branch family member. She was to receive one more chance to redeem herself in a fight with her little sister, Hanabi.
Hyuuga Hiashi was disappointed in the council. He could not understand why they refused to bow to His wishes. Only He knew what was best for His clan, but they continued to question His decisions. He knew that His eldest daughter would only shame Him with her fighting skills, which were so outclassed by Hanabi. His eldest daughter was weak, and there was no point in trying to change that. She would forever be a stain on His pride, both as a Hyuuga, and a father. Surely such a failure could not be His progeny. Perhaps His wife had been unfaithful? Hiashi Hyuuga quickly discarded that idea, as He had many times in the past. His wife had been a branch house member, completely terrified of His ability to end her life at any moment. She never would have had the courage to seek a paramour. In retrospect, it was probably her weakness that was passed down to His eldest daughter. He had been right, all those years ago, to activate her cursed seal and put her down. She had failed to bear Him a son for the second time, and He had no use for a pet who would not give Him what He desired.
Hyuuga Hiashi looked at the paper again, before placing it in the embers of the fireplace. He saw no need to inform His eldest daughter of the upcoming battle. If His eldest daughter was unable to defeat Hanabi as she was, she certainly had no place in His clan. And He was certain that she would fail, for Hyuuga Hiashi made no mistakes.
Hinata awoke to the sound of knocking at her door. She blearily glanced at the clock on her wall, only to bolt upright in shock. It was already noon! She always got up at seven, at the latest! Her father would kill her! She quickly scrambled up, and timidly opened the door, preparing herself to face her enraged father. Instead, she saw pink hair, as Sakura pushed her way into her room, again carrying a bag of medical scrolls. For once, an embarrassed flush was on Sakura's face, and not Hinata's.
"I'm sorry to just barge in here like this, but I kind of messed up last night. I left the wrong bag of scrolls behind. These are the scrolls that you're supposed to be studying." said Sakura, as she flung the bag of scrolls at Hinata. Hinata reflexively caught them, as Sakura scooped up the scrolls that Hinata had copied the night before. To Hinata's trained eye it looked like Sakura was forcing herself to remain relaxed.
"So, did you understand anything in those scrolls?" asked Sakura. The slightly worried tone of Sakura's voice screamed warnings to Hinata. There was something in the scrolls about Naruto that she wasn't supposed to see; something that Sakura didn't want her to see, and Sakura was trying to figure out if she had read them. Hinata felt another flare of irrational jealousy, one that was far more powerful than the one she had felt towards Ayame. "Sakura already gets to see Naruto every time they go on missions together. I just want to keep a small part of him for myself, and she wants to take that away from me! I won't let her!"
"No, after training yesterday, I was quite exhausted. I'm afraid I came right up to bed, and didn't even have time to read them." The lie slipped easily from Hinata's lips. "I was planning to read them this afternoon. Why? Was there anything important in those scrolls?" She put a little bit of clueless innocence in her voice, much as she had seen Naruto do when he was younger. Fortunately, it seemed to work, as Sakura relaxed imperceptibly.
"Oh, not too much. Just some jutsu that are too basic to teach someone like you. They're used for training the chakra control needed to become a medic-nin, and I had them left over from when I was getting started. Of course, as a Hyuuga, you've already mastered chakra control beyond what would be expected in those scrolls." Sakura rambled. Despite the lie that was behind it, Hinata blushed at the praise. "I didn't want you to think that I thought so little of your skills." Sakura stretched, working out a kink in the back of her neck. "Hey, since I'm here already, and I have some time off, how about we go over some of these medical jutsu? I'm sure that we can have you trained in no time!"
Hinata smiled. "Thank you Sakura-san. I'd like that."
"Great! Then let's get going! There's this training ground that Team Seven used to use. It's perfect for training undisturbed, and after what your father said yesterday, I'm not inclined to train you here. C'mon!" said Sakura, as she grabbed Hinata's hand. Hinata gave one last glance to where the scrolls were hidden as she was being dragged off, and then obediently followed Sakura. She had a long day ahead of her.
Hinata was lying on her back completely exhausted, staring at the stars. The training that Sakura had just put her through had been particularly brutal. The six hours of medical jutsu training had been draining, and when Sakura had packed away her training scrolls, Hinata had thought that they were done for the day. Instead, Sakura had pulled out her fighting gloves, and sank into a fighting stance. "Who would have thought that Sakura had the endurance to fight for four straight hours?"
Hinata groaned in pain as she stood up, her muscles protesting every movement. She had trained for this long before, but the focus had always been on technique, not endurance, or strength. Her only breaks had come when Sakura had halted their battle to correct Hinata's form. It seemed that she had a slight flaw in her movements that Sakura was obsessing about. Hinata still couldn't figure out what it was, but the changes it made in her combat form were staggering. After Sakura was done walking her through her form again, her punches came much swifter, and stronger. She was sure that it was some basic rule for form that she had forgotten, as whenever she was walked through a move by Sakura, she had the oddest feeling of déjà vu.
Hinata began to slowly walk home, still thinking about her training. Another thing that was nagging at her mind was why she was training her in a style that was essentially worthless to her? Jyuuken wasn't a hard style of combat like tekken was, so skill and speed were the most important aspects to have. She might have understood if she had been fighting against Sakura. Hinata was no stranger to the concept of learning about how to fight against a style. But learning to fight using the style itself? It didn't make sense!
Hinata massaged her temples, as the frustration of trying to figure out her new teacher started to give her a headache. Sakura was both intelligent and well trained. There must be some reason behind her focus on teaching her tekken. She would ask Sakura about it when they next met for training. Hopefully it would all make sense then.
Arriving at the Hyuuga manor, the guards paid Hinata no heed as she walked into the grounds. She went to the servant's quarters to get a quick meal. After ten hours of training, she was famished. Piecing together something from the refrigerator, she found her thoughts drifting to her favorite topic, Naruto; specifically, the scrolls on Naruto hidden beneath a floorboard in her room. Now that she was arguably more awake then she had been earlier, she felt horrible about lying to Sakura. Hinata knew that Sakura didn't have any designs on Naruto herself. She was still too infatuated with Sasuke to pay any real attention to him.
As Hinata ate, she wondered if she should confess to Sakura that she had read the scrolls. Despite her guilt at having lied, Hinata couldn't quite convince herself to do that. If she told Sakura, word might get back to Naruto. What would he think of her then? He already thought of her as "Shy, dark, and weird". Did she really want to add liar to that list as well? Hinata concluded that as long as no one found out about her scrolls, she was safe. Why would she want to make things harder for herself than they already were? Satisfied with her reasoning, she finished her sandwich and headed to bed. Sakura would be back tomorrow, and Hinata suspected that tomorrow wouldn't be any easier than today had been.
Eight days later found Hinata ensconced in her room. She had continued her training with Sakura, and although the medical training was fairly consistent, Sakura kept increasing the pace of her physical training, pushing Hinata beyond what she thought were her limits. After seven days of bone wearying exhaustion, Sakura had declared today to be a day to recuperate, and had given her the day off. Since Naruto was out on a mission, Hinata wasn't spending her free time watching the object of her affections. She had instead settled on the next best thing, and was re-reading the scrolls that she had diligently copied. She was also trying to move as little as possible, but that had more to do with sore muscles than anything else.
As Hinata read, she found that, along with her original fascination with the scrolls as a way of becoming closer to Naruto, there was also a growing interest in the healing abilities that he was listed as displaying. If she could emulate how he had reopened his tenketsu, she would never have to fear her sister's skill at Jyuuken again! Of course, she also wouldn't be able tell anyone about how to do it, unless she wanted to cripple her own fighting style. Hinata was enjoying her training in tekken, but she did still prefer her family style.
Hinata was currently reading a scroll documenting Naruto's chakra circulatory system. "That's odd," she thought, looking at the scroll "I didn't think it was possible for chakra to flow like this. His tenketsu are all in the right places, but for this kind of movement, he'd have to have a secondary source of chakra. The only problem with that theory is that no one has a secondary source of chakra. It's impossible."
Hinata began to mentally review what she knew of chakra. The chakra circulatory system traveled through certain set paths in the body, regulated by the tenketsu. Chakra was generated in the area around the heart. Chakra was created through the fusion of two separate sources of energy, physical and spiritual. Physical energy could be increased through physical training that increased endurance, taijutsu being the prime example. Spiritual energy could be increased through learning and experience. And that was the problem right there. You'd either need two physical bodies, or two souls, to have two sources of chakra.
Now there was a thought: two physical bodies. Naruto used kage bunshin all the time, maybe he had developed a technique to create an extra chakra system? No, that wasn't possible either. Besides, a kage bunshin wasn't technically a separate physical body, but a manifestation of molded chakra. Even if that were possible, several scrolls had indicated that Naruto had had this ability since he was very young, just after his birth. So it had to be something that was done to him, not something that he had developed himself.
Hinata thought about that, for a few minutes. Tsunade had left the village long before Naruto was born, but she had left behind many of her untested theories on healing and regeneration. If someone had tested one of them out, who would be a better subject than an orphaned boy? Naruto didn't have any parents, and in the confusion created by the demon's attack, it would have been easy for an unscrupulous medic-nin to experiment on a child.
Things began to fall into place in Hinata's excited mind. If someone had altered Naruto, it would have brought back horrible memories of what Orochimaru had done all those years ago! No wonder everyone's parents had warned their children to stay away from Naruto! If anyone had even suspected that Naruto might be controlled by someone, they wouldn't have wanted their children to associate with him! He would have been shunned like a rabid dog!
Hinata frantically clawed for a scroll that she had seen something that hadn't made any sense earlier. She almost tore the scroll in half while she was opening it; her hands were shaking so badly. There it was: "The differences in Uzumaki Naruto's physical abilities are directly related to the one who was with him after his birth." Taken in that context, someone must have operated on him after he was born!
Hinata was elated. She didn't just have a chance to become stronger. She also thought she had figured out one of the things that had puzzled her about Naruto for the better part of twelve years. Hinata entertained a brief fantasy of Naruto telling her how smart she was for having discovered his secret, and then kissing her, leaving her with a slight blush. "If only that could really happen." Hinata would just have to satisfy herself with what little someone like her could get.
Hinata sighed at the melancholy thought. She wished that Naruto would display a little bit of interest in her in the way she wanted him to. She knew she really didn't have a chance with him. She was the dark, weird girl on the periphery of his life, while Sakura was the girl on whom he focused. She knew that if Sakura ever said yes to one of his advances, she would completely lose him. Fortunately, Sasuke had been open to Sakura's advances since his return from Orochimaru. As long as no one new entered the picture and confessed to Naruto, she still had a chance, however small, to capture his heart.
Hinata got to her feet, and pushed open her door. She had to prove herself as strong to Naruto. She didn't want to fail in front of him again, like she had during the chuunin exam. If she could just figure out what had been done to him, she could easily pass the Jounin exams. Perhaps she would finally have the luck to be placed on his team. Blushing, she scurried towards the largest repository of knowledge on Chakra systems in the world: The Hyuuga library.
As the weeks passed, Hinata fell into a kind of routine: Get up, train with Sakura until exhausted, rest one hour, research chakra sources. If Naruto was in town, she would skip research to try and catch a glimpse of him, but there was war brewing in water country, so his workload was large enough that she rarely got to see him. In fact, in the month that she had been training under Sakura, she had only seen him once. It had just been a glimpse of him running towards the Hokage's tower, but it had been enough for her to draw strength from.
"If I used some sort of seal, I might be able to partition my chakra into two sources" she thought, again buried within one of the Hyuuga scrolls. "But then I couldn't access them both at the same time. I'd halve my chakra for almost no results. Wait… What's this?"
The scroll had a reference to a scroll she had yet to read. Oddly, it didn't have a title, just a reference number. She quickly got up to find the scroll. It looked ancient. The scroll seemed… wrong somehow. It didn't feel like it was made of paper. "It must be leather. That would make this scroll…" Hinata did some mental calculations, and boggled at the number she came up with. Something like this belonged in a museum, not in the family library. "I might as well take a look at it."
Hinata carefully unrolled the scroll. It still felt pliable, not cracked and dry like she had expected. The words on the scroll weren't archaic either, a fact that had Hinata questioning the authenticity of her find. "This must be some joke scroll. If it were really centuries old, I doubt I'd even be able to read this. Oh well. I could use a break." Hinata stretched out, and began reading the scroll, expecting a jutsu description like Naruto's "sexy no jutsu". What she read almost took her breath away.
"Chakra is formed by two separate sources of energy, both physical and spiritual. To fully understand the nature of these energy sources, we must first determine how they might be duplicated, or transferred. Since duplication is considered impossible, it is the purpose of this text to show how to seal an additional chakra source into a person. I believe I have developed a forty seal technique that will allow one to create this desired result."
This was it! This was what she had spent all of her time searching for! Hinata grabbed her brush, and began to copy the scroll into her notes. She didn't want to miss any of the information within, and something this old would never be allowed out of the building. There were even hand-seals listed! "It can't be this easy, can it?"
Much to Hinata's displeasure, she was right. As she read further into the scroll, the characters were noticeably more faded and illegible. She could easily make out the first seals, but as the jutsu description went on, she had a harder and harder time deciphering the instructions. "Leather really shouldn't be written on. It doesn't hold ink very well. Oh no…"
Hinata stared at the final instructions for performing the jutsu. There was a large burn where the last two hand seals should have been. Hinata carefully closed the scroll. She wasn't willing to take her frustration at being stymied out on the scroll. It wasn't its fault for being old. A happier thought occurred to her. There were only two seals that she didn't have in her jutsu. If she could just figure out what the last two could be, she would have something that only belonged to her and Naruto. Something that bound just the two of them together. All she had to do was figure out two seals. Two simple seals.
Hinata gathered up her notes, and dashed out of the library. She knew just the person to ask for help. Sakura was out of the question, since the line of research that she was working on was too similar to the scrolls she "hadn't" read. She couldn't ask Naruto, because he might tell Sakura. Most of her original team was out on a mission. That left one jounin that she felt she could trust with this.
Hinata burst out of the main house, and ran across the compound, where Neji made his home. She rapped her knuckles against the door, barely able to keep herself from running inside in her excitement. The door slid open, and instead of Neji's normally stoic face, Hinata found herself looking into the smiling face of Hyuuga Tenten.
"Hinata! It's so good to see you! What are you doing here?" she said, a note of pleasant surprise in her voice.
"Hello Tenten-san. I was wondering if Neji-ni-san was in." Hinata asked, her eyes large and hopeful. Tenten smiled and opened the door wider, allowing Hinata entrance to her home.
"Not right now, Hinata. He had something to do, but I'm expecting him home any minute now. Would you like to come in and talk while we wait?" Hinata nodded, and walked in through the doorway. Neji's quarters within the branch family house were fairly spacious. The décor left a little to be desired, though. The walls practically dripped with weapons of all types, from simple kunai to one particularly wicked looking kusari-gama. Obviously Tenten had a hand in the layout of her house, but Hinata thought that it was a little excessive; she felt more like she was in an armory than a home. Tenten led the way through the front rooms to a surprisingly normal dining room that overlooked a small internal courtyard. Tenten sat down at the table, and gestured for Hinata to do the same.
"So, Hinata, how've you been? It's been ages since I've seen you. When was the last time we talked, anyway?"
Hinata mentally slapped herself. She hadn't been by to visit her cousin's wife since they had been married, almost a year ago. When she hadn't been busy training, she had been too preoccupied with her own problems to walk across the Hyuuga compound and just visit. She didn't even know if Tenten was still an active ninja or not!
"I'm fine, Tenten-san. I've been keeping busy with training. If I ever want to take the jounin exam, I have to be in top form."
"Yeah, I remember the jounin exam. They put me on a team with Naruto and Sasuke." Tenten paused, chuckling. "I've never seen two people who got along so poorly. They sent us out on a mock assassination mission, and I thought that they were going to kill each other long before we got within range of the target."
"Ano… Tenten-san? Wasn't-"
"Just Tenten, Hinata. We're family now."
"S-sorry. Tenten. Wasn't Sasuke already a jounin by the time that you took the exam?"
"Yeah, he was, right up until Hokage-sama busted him back to chuunin." Tenten smirked, "Apparently, his teamwork was so poor that she took his rank away until he could prove that he could at least function with other people. If you ask me, though, he never should have passed that exam. Naruto, of all people, was the one who kept trying to hold us together as a team, despite his constant bickering with Sasuke. Sasuke, on the other hand, kept trying to go off and do things his own way, without even telling us what he had planned. We would have failed the mission, if Naruto hadn't pulled through for us."
Hinata nodded to herself. That sounded like Naruto.
"Honestly, I don't know why Sakura was always harping on about Sasuke. After I spent five minutes with the two of them, Naruto looked far more appealing than Sasuke did."
"What?! I'm the only one who's supposed to see Naruto like… No, no, she's married; she wouldn't go after him like that… Would she?"
"Speaking of Naruto, how are things going with him? Has he finally noticed what's been staring him right in the face for all of these years?"
"N-N-N-Naruto-kun?" she squeaked. "I… We… He…"
"I'll take that as a 'no', then. Cheer up, Hinata. No one else in the village has noticed him in that way yet, all you have to do is swoop in and take him!"
The conversation stalled for a moment, as both of them attempted to wrap their minds around an image of Hinata as the classical predatory female. Neither of them succeeded.
"Okay, maybe not swoop in, but you should at least try to tell him how you feel. I doubt Neji would have made the first move, and he wasn't remotely as clueless about relationships as Naruto. I'm sure that Naruto would jump at the chance to be with a pretty young woman like you." Tenten gave Hinata an almost lecherous grin. "Of course, given his enthusiastic nature, there may end up being more jumping than just at chances.
Hinata blushed furiously at Tenten's insinuation, as she desperately cast about for something besides her love life that she could talk about.
"How are Neji's missions going?" she blurted. "Stupid Hinata! That won't dissuade her for long!"
"He's been getting by. He's been complaining that no one is competent enough to replace me, but he hasn't failed any yet." She chuckled again, a slightly wistful look in her eyes. "Not that I've been able to do a mission since Fuki was born." Hinata's eyes widened in surprise. "Born? What?"
"I swear she's much harder to deal with than any mission I've ever-"
Tenten was interrupted by a loud, shrill wailing. "Speak of the devil. Hang on Hinata, I'll be right back."
Hinata hunched over, feeling like an idiot. "How could I have missed something that important?!" Hinata thought, as Tenten ran out of the room. Her father was right, she really wasn't worthy of leading a clan, especially if she couldn't even keep track of new additions to her own family. How old was the baby? Hinata didn't even know when her birthday was.
The crying soon stopped, and Hinata got up to leave. She didn't deserve Neji's help. She hadn't even known about his daughter's birth. She was a horrible person. She…
"Hinata-sama? What are you doing here?"
Hinata whirled around to see Neji, standing in the doorway. "He's sweaty," Hinata observed, "he must have been running to get home to his wife and child." Hinata winced at that thought. "I can't let him know that I didn't know about his daughter. What kind of person would he think I am? I'll just ask him and leave. I'll try to make it up to him later."
"Ano… I was just hoping that you would help me with this jutsu I was found. It's incomplete, and I remember you talking about how you could determine how a jutsu would work if you had a partial listing of hand seals."
Neji nodded, as he glanced around. "Yes, it's part of the training I underwent after I achieved jounin." Neji looked impatiently at Hinata. "Could we get to the point, Hinata-sama? I'm really quite busy."
Hinata held up her notes on the scroll she had been working with. "C-could you help me determine the last two seals of this jutsu? The scroll I was working with was damaged."
"I can loan you the text that details how hand seals relate to one another. I still have it in the living room."
Hinata nodded her acceptance, and Neji got up and quickly walked out of the room, just as Tenten walked back in. Tenten smiled at her husband, before sitting down in the chair again.
"Sorry that took so long, but she's really been restless lately."
"T-That's okay, Tenten. I understand." Hinata put on a weak smile to hide the guilt she was still feeling.
Neji walked back in with the text in hand, which he promptly handed over to Hinata. "Here. What you're most likely looking for starts in chapter three." Neji made a show of looking out the window. "You should get home quickly, though. I think that Hiashi was about to start to eat, and you know what he's like when you don't make an appearance."
Hinata bowed to Neji. "Thank you Neji-ni-san. I'll return this book as soon as I'm done with it."
Neji just smirked, as he gestured for Hinata to leave, which she hastened to do.
Hinata ran down the path back to the main house, where she quickly stored the book in her room, before rushing down to dinner. Hanabi and Hiashi were already seated by the time she walked in the room. Twin looks of indifference were directed her way, as her family noted her arrival. "Hanabi is so much like father, she even has his expressions."
"Daughter, I see you've finally decided to join us. Whatever took you so long?" asked Hiashi, his voice emotionless.
"S-Sorry, I was just visiting with Neji, Tenten and Fuki… I… I didn't keep track of the time."
A look of confusion spread across Hanabi's face, and she opened her mouth to speak, only to be silenced by a sharp glance from her father.
"Fuki, is it?" Hiashi mused, "Tell me, how is Fuki doing?"
"Ah, that must be it. Knowing how his niece is doing is more important to him than yelling at me."
"S-She's fine. I didn't get a chance to go up and see her, but Tenten makes it sound like she's an energetic baby. I'd believe it, too. You can't even tell that she was p-pregnant."
Hiashi nodded, and began to eat. Taking that as their cue, Hinata and Hanabi also ate, and the rest of the meal passed in silence. As Hinata got up to leave, Hiashi turned to her.
"For being late, you will run twenty laps around Konoha before you go to bed. If you cannot be trained to be on time, perhaps at least your legs can be."
Hinata bowed her acquiescence, and left. She had laps to run.
The next day Hinata emerged from bed, feeling completely exhausted. She figured that she had about an hour to read her book before she had to meet Sakura for training. She skimmed through the chapter, looking for any information that might help her.
"Let's see here. Nezumi… Uma… Ryu…" she muttered, "Hebi… Ondori… Saru… Hebi… Hmmm." Hinata compared the seals to the book she had in front of her. "Since nezumi is the 32nd seal, the last seal is tora… It's a targeted jutsu, so 38 and 29 should be inu and tora, but then I'd have tora twice in a row, so that doesn't work…" Hinata consulted the book again. "Oh! Here it is. If tora is required twice, the second tora seal is changed to Ryu!"
Hinata quickly penned in the change, and sat back to look at the completed jutsu in front of her, a rare feeling of accomplishment filtering through her exhaustion. She had done it! She would be able to take the jounin exam! A glance at the clock told her something else about herself. She was going to be late if she didn't leave. Hinata scrambled to collect her things, before sluggishly running to the training grounds.
In her fatigue, Hinata's mind focused not on her surroundings, but instead on images of Naruto praising her as she ran towards the training grounds. Instead of him viewing her as dark or weird, he'd see her as someone who was like him, someone he could view as an equal, maybe even someone he could…
A sharp pain at the base of her skull interrupted her fantasy, and her world faded to black.
"Pick her up, Kisame." said Itachi, staring at the limp form in front of them. "I'll leave the message for Naruto, since I know the way. You get her back to the holding point."
To Be Continued.
Fuki – several meanings, one of which is freedom. I know naming conventions have a basis on how many strokes are in the characters, as I recall, multiples of four are bad. Anyone know how many strokes are in Fuki's name?