Oh! My first FanFic! I'm so exited! Squeeee!

*SLAP*

Focus, damn it! Drama, angst, romance, humour, triumph – tell it! Iku ze, Mina!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and its affiliated products, but under my native country's copyright law I have full right to any invention of my own added onto the Naruto setting, including story elements, storylines and original characters. Not that I'd pursue this copyright in case of infringement... It's fanfiction, you know? Not the end of the world, just sayin'.

Chapter 1: An Inkling of Power

"Kakashi" Tsunade spoke as she leant over her desk, peering thoughtfully at him through narrowed eyes. "Do you realise the implications of this?"

"Yeah" he absently rubbed the top of his head while thinking it over "I think I kinda do". It was the evening after he had commenced Uzumaki Naruto's elemental release training, and he stood before the Hokage in her office as the sunset coloured the sky a burning red on the far horizon outside the panoramic window behind her. The results yielded by that day's training had been... astounding, to say the very least, and unexpected.

Then again, he had no idea of what to expect of the number one most surprising Shinobi in Konoha by now. But as his teacher, and the sole remaining desciple of the boy's father, he felt like he had no longer any right to underestimate Naruto.

"You realise what this means for Konoha?" Tsunade pressed, her often so fair, pale and youthfully smooth brow furrowed as she pondered what was to come of this new development. "We haven't had a... not since the Uchiha were vanquished, and their abilities with their Kekkei Genkai were tied to the Sharingan. In that way they were finite, aprenhensible, and we knew their strength and weaknesses. But a true Kekkei Genkai-"

"Provided we outsmart or defeat Akatsuki, Hokage-sama" Kakashi spoke softly, slowly, but his voice was twisted into an uncharacteristic severity "this will make us the most powerful of the hidden villages. Not one but two – two! - Ninjutsu-type Kekkei Genkai under our control. Iwa and Kumo won't stand for this. Along with the clan Hiden Jutsu and the Byakugan this would make us too powerful. There will be a war".

Both of them knew what that meant. An imbalance of power between the Shinobi villages, even the slightest leaning of the scales one way or the other, could have disastrous effects. If one hidden village was recognized as stronger than the others then that village would get more custom and requests from throughout the nations, and so would grow wealthy and more powerful. A wealthy village could drive research projects, cloning and breeding programs, increase their fighting force and establish Jutsu initiatives and scholarships, training it's own Shinobi to become even stronger, the result of which would mean more capital gained from the outside world as that village was requested and favoured above all others.

A self-perpetuation cycle of profit and ascension, each propelling the other. A cycle that would be very hard to stop.

If it was known in the other nations that one of the strongest Ninjutsu-type Shinobi ever born in Konoha was in possession of a Ninjutsu-type Kekkei Genkai then the current careful balance of nominal peace would be thrown out of check. The other villages, threatened by the success of Konoha, would band together, strike more desperately, intending to rob Konoha of that advantage if only to preserve their own way of life.

Such aggression had been the preludes to the former three Shinobi World Wars, and rising tension always brought about conflict. It was the way of the world they lived in.

"How did this happen?" Tsunade pressed yet again, leaning back into her seat and throwing up her feet onto the surface of her desk. At any other time Kakashi would have desperately wanted to leer at her massive mammaries, her brobdinagian bosom, her celestial cleavage with pale and perfect flesh and skin that jiggled slightly as she moved, but now he had serious matters on him mind, not perverted thoughts.

"I think his... tenant" the Senju princess frowned at the mention of that horrid beast "has affected his body on a molecular level. The way the seal trapping it works... it's chakra has seeped into his body since birth. It's poisonous, acidic, but his body has built up a tolerance to it and remade it into his own chakra. It has changed him on a physical level too – his senses are enhanced, his cheeks are whiskered, and his rapid regeneration".

"Are you saying that the... that thing" she almost snarled "as gone so far as affect the nature of his chakra?"

"In a sense, Hokage-sama. If you don't mind me speculating..." she waved him on. "I think he, like Sensei, had an affinity for Fuuton and Wind-based Ninjutsu. And just like Sensei and his mother he was particularly strong in Suiton too – after all, it was his mother's affinity. But because of the chakra of the... the beast leaking, his own chakra has been super-charged, expanded. Thus his second nature affinity, Suiton, has become just as strong as his primary. And so Wind and Water has gone together in him to create" he paused and bit his lower lip beneath the mask "Ice".

"Fuuton, Suiton" Tsunade held up one hand and then the other before pressing her palms against each other in a unifying gesture. "Hyooton, Ice Release. His father's name is sort of... apropos for this, ne? Namikaze; Wave and Wind".

"I don't know anything about that" Kakashi said simply, a shrug accompanying his words. "I've never looked into Naruto's family tree, on account of it being classified as a state secret, and Sensei... Minato-sensei never discussed his family. I got the impression it was a... touchy subject".

"So ka" Tsuande furrowed her brow further and put a thumb to her chin. "Yamato is sterile" she said suddenly, and Kakashi flinched.

"S-so Tenzo-kohai can't have kids?" he asked. "Many people can't. What of it?"

"In itself it's not unusual. Between six and three percent of the world's population are infertile by his age anyway" she said in a matter-of-fact tone like she was lecturing to aspiring medic-nin. "But Yamato is the result of an experiment. His chakra is a damn near clone of my grandfather's, though much, much weaker. Still his abilities are some of, if not the most, useful and requested in Konoha. His abilities have opened doors to us we never would have taken otherwise. And his Kekkei Genkai, though powerful in its own, is at a fraction of its true potential. He can't carry it on, so the sole remaining person in the world with Shodaime's Mokuton potential in their blood" she pointed a finger to herself "would be me".

"So if you had children, Hokage-sama-" he was interrupted by a loud snort from the Sannin. As he looked to her a slight smile spread across her cheeks. "What is it?"

"Statistics don't lie, Kakashi-kun" she said in a strangely soft and somehow... wistful tone. "Three to six percent of all women between the ages of fifteen to forty-four are infertile. All women, and it's a number's game. Eventually" she was smiling softly, as if she had gotten used to the idea, but Kakashi knew she was bleeding inside. "Eventually the numbers will come up, and there's nothing anyone can do about it".

"I'm sorry" he said quietly, eyes turned towards the floor in shame.

"Don't be" she admonished with a wave. "I found out when I was twelve and never got my period. I'm almost sixty now, and I've gotten pretty used to the idea". She shook her head and waved them on, bringing them back onto topic. "If the changes have been made to Naruto on a physical level, perhaps it's so thorough as to be cellular. Thus it's likely to be present in his chromosomes, and thus likely to be inherited onto his children. Yamato, as a clone, has only a decade or two left in him at the most. The natural degradation of cloned genetic material and all that" she waved when Kakashi frowned, not understanding. "When that happens Naruto, as a user of the Hyooton, will be the only Shinobi in Konoha with a Ninjutsu-type Kekkei Genkai. We mustn't make Shodaime's mistake and allow it to peter out of existence. He must have heirs to his Kekkei Genkai".

"What" Kakashi didn't like his commander-in-cheif's tone. "What are you saying, Hokage-sama?" He didn't like her tone one bit. And as she spoke his face paled beneath his mask, his thoughts a silent prayer for absolution.

Forgive me, sensei, for what I am planning to do to your son

Naruto sat frowning as he trained in training ground 4. Darkness had fallen long ago, and Kakashi-sensei and Yamato-taicho and gone into town to... report or document or something, he hadn't really been paying attention. He didn't really understand anyway, and he had no inclination of gaining that understanding. All he wanted, all he focused on, was to get stronger so he could complete Yondaime's technique and apply the power of the elements to the Rasengan.

If he did that he could defend himself against Akatsuki.

If he did that he could protect Konoha properly.

If he did then maybe he could bring Sasuke back.

But try as he might at splitting leaves with nothing but his chakra he could not get anywhere. As neither Kakashi or Yamato-taicho were present as he sat in the shadow of a tree on the edge of the great meadow that was Training Ground 4 he restricted himself to only four clones and five leaves, a fraction of the hundreds he had created earlier while doing this exercise. Kakashi had told him to while he himself went to speak with the Hokage.

Naruto growled in frustration as he opened his hands and looked down upon the small oaken leaf lying cradled in his palm. Not so much as a damn indention or mark in it. Maybe it was because his chakra was strange.

Kakashi hadn't said so when he saw the paper in Naruto's hands shatter, but Naruto knew something was up when it did. The paper was only supposed to either wrinkle with Raiton, crumble with Doton, burn up with Katon, get soggy with Suiton or split in twain with Fuuton. But when Naruto had chanelled his chakra into it none of those things had happened. It had grown stiff as he held it between his fingers, stiff and cold with blossoms of frost spreading over the surface of the paper. Suddenly, just as it had stiffened and grown so cold as to numb his fingers, it had shattered like dropped glass, breaking into near-transparent shards that melted as soon as they touched the ground after they fell from his hands.

It was obvious. His chakra was abnormal, fucked up.

"Kind of like our childhood, ne?" one clone said from the other side of the tree, his thoughtpaterns and speech inflections identical to Naruto's own and thus he was thinking the exact same thing.

"Suppose so" another clone spoke from beside Naruto.

"Yupp" said a third from beside the first clone. "Fucked up. As if we didn't have enough shit to deal with already".

Naruto sighed hard and lowered his hands, the leaf still in them, to his lap as he let his head fall back against the rough bark of the tree. In public, around others, he would smile and bluster, keep his swagger and play the earnest and eager fool who felt naught but joy, was naught but sound and fury. But when alone with no one but his clones and faced with certain failure the battle against his bitterness was one he often lost.

Was he sick? He was just getting off a cold so that might have been why his chakra was behaving oddly. Or maybe someone, probably Orochimaru-pedo or Sasuke-teme, had placed a seal over the one on his stomach and distorted his energy flow when he wasn't looking. Or maybe he... He pressed his eyes shut as hard as he could against the angst coiling in his gut. Maybe he was just a failure at that too. Just like at Genjutsu. Just like how he had tried and sworn to bring Sasuke back the first time. How he had failed to keep his best friend from becoming a traitor.

He hated angsting. He hated how depressed he got when his thoughts ran away from him like that. He had to focus on the task in front of him... otherwise he would lose to despair.

So he raised his hands again and set about continuing the exercise along with the four other Narutos sitting with their backs against that tree. And so they sat until Sunrise when Kakashi found him, dark rings around his eyes, his tan skin paled from exhaustion and a disgusted sneer upon his lips. Kakashi regarded the boy from a distance at first, wondering how he was supposed to break the news onto the boy, And still... he had maintained five clones throughout the entire night without any visible effort whatsoever.

By now he had no right to be surprised when that boy did the impossible. He seemed to do it all the time.

"Yo, ohayou" Kakashi waved at the lad as he appraoched him, and Naruto looked up with a tired smile that bleied his frustration while the dawn painted the sky gold and the clouds upon the eastern horizon pink like cotton candy.

"Ohayou, Kakashi-sensei" the kid said, his smile fading slowly as he opened his hands and showed what was inside to his teacher. "Sorry" he muttered in a manner most downcast and unlike him "I failed".

"Naruto" the Hatake genius looked upon that oaken leaf, discoloured and stiff and rimmed with frost from the immense cold generated by the young man's chakra. "You didn't fail".

"Of course I did!" Naruto snapped at him. "Nothing happened that was supposed to happen-attebayo! The paper didn't split or nothing like it should have, and the leaf just freezes instead of getting cut!"

"Naruto" Kakashi spoke softly, cutting his triade short as he crouched down on the ground, taking the frozen leaf out of the boy's hands. "Not all failures are just failures, you know? Sometime not succeeding at something is the best way to learn, and by not doing what's expected" he held up the leaf so that the dawning sunlight glinted of the particles of frost along its edge. "By making mistakes we can stumble over something more tremendous than we could have ever thought possible".

"Sensei, I don't understand" the boy frowned and looked away. "I'm no good with... books and words and lessons like that. I learn by doing things, by fighting, by doing other stuff. This experimenting... I'm not sure if I'll be any good at it".

"Let me explain the elemental weaknesses and strengths, Naruto" Kakashi began as he moved to sit beside the boy, picking up a stick with which to draw in the soft earth with. "Think of them like this" he drew them up in order as if the tips of an invisible five-pointed star., and then made lines connecting them until they became the corners of a pentacle. "Each element; Water, Fire, Wind, Lightning and Earth; are organised like this. And Ninjutsu using the elemental transformations have weaknesses and strengths that corresponds to their natures. Earth is weak against lightning, as thunder scorches the ground and shoots electricity through it, but strong against water which it can dyke away or lead to other places. Water is thus weak against earth, but strong against fire as water quenches flame and puts it out. Fire is strong against wind, as wind bolsters fire. Wind is strong against lightning, as it's a natural isolator. And lightning is strong against...?" he drifted off and arched a lonesome eyebrow at Naruto.

"Earth" Naruto nodded, understanding the simple circle. "So which elemental transformation affinity do I have?"

"That will take some explaining" Naruto sighed predictably, but Kakashi pushed on regardless. "Everyone can, if they train hard enough, make their chakra transform into any four of these five, but most often for Jounin-level Shinobi they have marginal capability of three or two. I can't do Fuuton – wind-based chakra – to save my life, since my affinity is Raiton, lightning".

"So you can't use the element your affinity is weak towards?" Naruto asked, and Kakashi looked at him, surprised at the lad having gotten the lesson behind his words and the implications thereoff. Perhaps he was a natural Ninjutsu type?

"Quite correct, in most cases anyway. But that's not all. See, you've noticed other kinds of Ninjutsu, haven't you? Tenzo-kohai-"

"Yamato-taicho" the blonde corrected.

"-uses Mokuton" the Sharingan master went on unperturbed. "And many other shinobi uses other types of jutsu – the Nara have their Shadow... thing, the Akimichi have their fat... thing, the Aburame have their... bugs and stuff. They can do that because their chakra has unique properties, causing it to act in a certain way. This is called a Kekkei Genkai-"

"Like Sasuke's Sharingan?" Naruto interrupted. "And yours?"

Sasuke again. It was always Sasuke, wasn't it? "Sure, but think of it like this: If you aren't born with a very specific kind of affinity you cannot use these special techniques. They are an expression of your special chakra, and you will have an easier time using them. Some don't have to be trained, using their Kekkei Genkai-granted abilities instinctively, while others" he gave Naruto a long look under which the young man couldn't hope but to squirm. "Others have their Kekkei Genkai hidden from the world until you have them start their elemental affinity training".

"So what's my elemental affinity, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto wondered eagerly, starting to get bored, wanting to get back to training and beating Akatsuki and Sasuke. "Come on!"

"Your chakra is strongly Yang-charged" the jinchuuriki quirked his ears at that, wondering what the hell that meant. "And it is also, like Tenzo-kohai's chakra, a combination of two elements – which is really, really rare, you should know".

"Which ones?"He was doubly eager now, finally receiving some definite answers.

"Fuuton and Suiton" Kakashi said with some great finality in his words. "You're the first to be born with a Ninjutsu-type Kekkei Genkai in Konoha since Shodaime Hokage, Senju Hashirama. And with your immense chakra you can most likely transcend even his achievements".

"Be better than Shodiame?" Naruto uttered in a most strangled way, like he was choking on the grandiose nature of that notion. "Are you taking the piss?"

"You've fought someone who had little chakra, almost no training in his Kekkei Genkai, and still nearly managed to kill you and Sasuke" Kakashi spoke a little rougher than usual at the memory. "One with the same Kekkei Genkai as you".

"Haku" Naruto sank back into his deep pondering about that smiling, devoted, ultimately tragically destined transvestite, and the deep impression that the boy had left on him. "Hyooton?"

"Yes, Hyooton; the elemental transformation of Ice" Kakashi stated with a nod. "Think back on what I said before about weaknesses. Sasuke has the double affinity, Kekkei Genkai, for Katon and Raiton. What are these weak against?"

"Katon is weak against Suiton" Naruto nodded as he finally understood "and Fuuton beats Raiton. I'm" the thought occurred to him at last, leaving him dourly saddened. "I'm the one best suited to defeating him, aren't I?" Kakashi nodded slowly in turn.

"And with the combining of two nature transformations their weaknesses vanish" Kakashi went on for the last part of his little teaching lecture, his throat going dry. "Fire cannot melt ice on its own. And Thunder cannot break it. With this power, with your power" his eye looked deep into Naruto's, trying to impress on him the importance of what was being said "you can go further than anyone ever have before you".

What did you say to that? How did you react to find yourself suddenly talented more than anyone else around you?

Naruto looked at that leaf in his teacher's hand and took up another that had drifted onto the summer grass. He took it in his fist and closed his eyes while his clones watched on in silence, and with a breif and low huff he focused his chakra into the space above the palm of his hand. He didn't try to cut it, he didn't try to bend it or burn it or move it or make it wet; he was simply applying as much chakra as he could.

Kakashi focused his gaze on the boy as Naruto opened his eyes and unclenched his fist. He found that leaf frozen so completely that the water particles in it had crystallised before they had separated from the longer webs of chlorophyll and cellulite molecules in it. He held it up, a transparent leaf now made of deeply green ice.

"So ka" Naruto said before he crushed that leaf in his hand, his thoughts bending towards battle.

Sasuke, watch me!

"Come on!" Hyuuga Neji cried as he took the low and looping fighting stance of the Juuken. "Fight me! Show me all you have, Hinata-sama!"

"Hai!" Hinata replied with a curt bow before she took the same mirrored stance, both their teams and their former Jounin-sensei in attendance and sitting observing them along the walls of the dojo at the Hyuuga compound. Gai and Lee were staring with starry-eyed and rapt attention, the elder looking like he wanted to take notes oh so desperately. Meanwhile his last student, Ten-Ten, was sitting between the slouching Kiba and the stiff Shino, a dull expression on her face as she slowly twirled a kunai around her index finger. Further down that line sat Hanabi and Hiashi, both Hyuuga, both fighters, both wishing to see how Hinata had improved over the years.

All that and much, much more was what Hinata saw the moment she activated her Byakugan. When she was little and had first started using it the sensory overload that accompanied the activation of her clan Doujutsu was nothing short of disorienting and somewhat painful, resulting in skull-splitting migraines and nausea. But over the years, especially the last three, she had gotten used to it, and here she was, facing off against the genius of her clan just like she had three years ago, and by the look in his eye he was not going to hold back.

Good. She didn't want him to hold back, because neither was she going to.

"Hajime!" Hiashi decreed in a loud voice, so loud that Kurenai-sensei was startled out of her deep thoughts. Hinata had noticed that her teacher was more silent as of late, more inclined towards deep thoughts and long bouts of brooding, especially if she saw Asuma-sensei of the Ino-Shika-Cho combo team that was team Ten. Naturally Hinata knew what was wrong with her teacher – her eyes saw everything beneath heaven, after all – but she kept that to herself. Kurenai no doubt wanted to deal with her impromptu pregnancy on her own.

Distracted as she was by thoughts of her teacher Hinata allowed Neji the advantage of the first move, an advantage upon which he seized immediately. He struck immediately towards her head as he leapt at her, two fingers extended, and in the last possible second, her breath caught in her throat, Hinata veered to the side and deflected the blow. She frowned at herself.

Focus, her inner voice said. Focus, or get nearly killed again.

She danced aside as Neji struck again, lashing out with his other hand, but she caught the movement before it was complete and ducked beneath it, her fingers brushing over Neji's upper triceps. His entire arm jerked and the genius leapt back, narrowing his eyes at his cousin. Or was it half-sister? Their fathers had been fraternal twins, feeding off the same ammoniac as foetuses, and so they were sprung from at least half of the same genetic template. "Ippon" he noted against his uncle, who nodded, before he looked back to Hinata. "Shall we continue?"

"Certainly, Neji-niisan" she bowed slightly again and made ready once more. "Come at me" a smile curled her lips as she spoke informally, perhaps for the first time in her life "bro".

As the two clashed again in a flurry of blows and kicks Hiashi coughed sternly. Certainly she was slipping into bad habits ever since that boy had returned to the village. Of course, since Naruto had saved the village against Subaku no Gaara, fetched the Godaime to the village and went training with the Sannin-super-perv known as Jiraiya, most people saw him now as a bit of a hero instead as of a menace. But most people were not Hiashi. Most people did not have to endure what he did.

Always, always – damn always! - his eldest daughter had gone on and on about that boy, blushing whenever he was mentioned at supper with the rest of the Main Branch of the Hyuuga clan, and whenever they inquired about her academy days she would always say something to the effect of "You wouldn't believe what Naruto-kun did!" or "did you know what Naruto-kun said to Iruka-sensei?". Every.

Damn.

Time.

Hiashi had gotten sick of it all eventually. Frankly it was simply a matter of overexposure to the boy's reputation, as he had no opinions one way or the other about him being a Jinchuuriki. It had gotten a little better for the first year after Naruto left Konoha, if only because Hinata began talking about training and studying instead of that boy all the time. But then...

Then she had gone into puberty.

Oh boy.

Outwardly she was collected, calm, shy and silent, prone to stutter whenever she was insecure or nervous, but inwardly she had plenty of repressed energy and hidden depths. She took up playing instruments, trying such things as the Shamisen and the Koto at his behest. If she was going to make some noise around the home he was going to make damn sure it was traditional noise that matched the Hyuuga aesthetic along with her traditional training in calligraphy, poetry, song and dance.

That lasted for about a month before she went instead to an outlet that matched her internal energy much better: the electric guitar. What had followed had been hell to Hiashi's tender ears as the girls spent weeks playing increasingly less excruciating versions of "Smoke on the Water", "Holy Diver" and "Iron Man" all throughout the night. Reluctantly, very much so, he eventually had to admit she was getting pretty good.

He stopped admitting that when she took a fondness to a band from Tetsu no Kuni known as Metallica. Even his wife Hikari, so gentle and tender and now prone to going about her days with plugs in her ears, could now recite at least fifteen of the band's songs by heart, and her insistence that the girl be allowed to explore her own artistic direction was wearing a bit thin even to her.

And the fact that Hiashi found himself tapping his foot along to the riffs at times only vexed him further.

And then there were the pictures and the posters and the miscellaneous items that suddenly cluttered about his daughter's previously so fastidiously tidy room. She had a pile of diaries with black and lavender covers piled onto her writing desk, hearts drawn onto them in pink, into which she would write songs, dreams, thoughts and reflections and, he really hoped, neglected to note down state secrets. She was a Shinobi, not some lovestruck tart! She had taken to photography, a skill aided much by her Byakugan-granted occular precision, lining one wall of her room with pictures of her friends and family and places she wanted to visit or thought beautiful.

But worst of all...

Worst of all were the damn posters.

She would cover the ceiling above her bed and dot the walls around her room with posters depicting - he believed the term youngsters in this day and age used was gyraou – tanned and blonde men with bright eyes, bereft of shirt or trousers or both, preening before the camera at various often exotic location. Pictures that were, quite frankly, mildly pornographic in what they showed. Pictures that made his wife blush and his younger, more sensible daughter, turn her head with interest. When he asked her to take them down she replied politely but firmly in her low and tender voice that she wouldn't, because it was her room and she decorated it as she pleased. And he couldn't very well deny her that too. She wasn't the heir to the clan any more, and so she didn't have to act according to their standards and expectations any longer.

What was the proverb now again? Angels fall first? It's always the quiet ones? Whichever was the most applicable one. Hinata had fallen from grace in the eyes of the clan elders, and while fallen she wallowed in her freedom.

No, he had never hated Naruto for being the Jinchuuriki. He did, however, completely loath the boy by virtue of what he had done to his daughter. But at the same time...

He watched Hinata fight and saw the change in her. Ever since he had returned to Konoha she had played the guitar less than usual, stopped fawning over the hunky poster boys altogether, and devoted seemingly her every free and waking hour to training and sparring. Neji, who had often supervised or helped in her training, had called to this public spar. Though only their teams and Hinata's immediate Hyuuga family was watching, except for her mother who could not stand the sight of blood or her child getting injured, this was her time to shine. Neji wanted to show the clan what she could do.

And what she was doing was winning.

She had a hair on Neji in skill – just a hair – but that she, who had been considered so weak, and Neji, who had been for the longest time considered invincible, were almost equal was a feat of great prowess on its own. The fact that she was scorring more hits than him was, however, impossible. And yet Hiashi saw it before him, how she bobbed and weaved and flowed around the Juuken strikes her cousin delivered like a true master, graceful as the wind, as subtle yet forceful as the sea itself as her strikes landed with great force and precision yet hardly seemed to touch him. Again and again she matched him and gave more than he, Hanabi staring in awe while Hiashi was merely staring.

"Hakke: Kuushoo!" Neji roared as he unleashed one of his most powerful techniques, a Juuken strike so powerful as to send a pillar of air blasting from his palm most explosively.

"Hakke: Kuushoo!" Hinata matched his force perfectly, cancelling it out and sending it spiralling against a far wall, blowing out the wood-framed paper wall panes and crashing against someone's bathroom. Loud cries echoed throughout the house as servants and clansmen both went into a panic, and somewhere a cat howled as a beam landed upon its tail.

"Yosh!" Lee cried in ecstatic enthusiasm, barely containing himself, while the others stared terrified or shocked at the carnage the two Hyuuga had caused. The youths themselves stood panting, staring each other down with severe eyes, drained and exhausted.

"It's time for the final blow" Hanabi noted silently, and Hiashi nodded. They had seen enough Juuken duels to know the ebb and flow of them by heart.

Neji readied his signature technique, the Hakke: Hasengeki, the Mountain Crusher, a Kuushoo, vacuum palm strike, delivered at close range that could cripple nearly any fore. He just needed to get close enough to-

Hinata's new technique was even more devstating, and it took a lot less time to execute. "Juuho" she cried as she dashed forwards, her chakra manifesting as indigo flames around her hand in the form of a roaring lion, jaws agape in primal rage "Shiken!"

A small explosion rocked the room and temporarily blinding everyone attending. And Neji, at the epicentre of the explosion that struck his stomach, lanced out through the rear doors of the dojo, out into the garden. He landed unconscious in a koi pond, fish swimming up into his nose, face down in the pool and made completely drenched.

Hiashi blinked. He realised that he very much liked the Uzumaki boy for driving his eldest daughter towards excellence.

Hanabi stared at her sister like she was the earthly manifestation of Buddha.

The others gaped.

"Neji-kun!" Ten-Ten cried and leapt to her feat, running after her teammate in a panic, hoping that he didn't drown in the koi fish pond.

"Most youthful, Hinata-sama!" Gai proclaimed proudly and gave her the sitting version of his Nice Guy Pose (patent pending). "What do you say, Lee?"

"I love you, Hinata-san!" Lee proclaimed boisterously and jumped onto his feet, startling the now terrified daughter of the Hyuuga into a mouse-like squeak as she suddenly shot very close to her. "You must train with me! I shall absorb all your youthful vigour through-"

"Knock it off, monster-brow!" Kiba socked him atop the head, shutting him up with nary a bump on the noggin. "Great work, Hinata!" he said emphatically her way.

"Indeed" Shino said levelly. "Quite skilled". Coming from Shino that might as well have been a solemn vow from him to name his first born after her, for he rarely, if ever, praised.

"Great work, Hinata" Kurenai smiled warmly at her and laid a hand upon her shoulder. "How about we go to dinner tonight? Yakiniku, with" she knew Hinata had quite the sweat-tooth "zenzai for desert?" She perked up like a ground hog and smiled as radiantly as a sun at the mention of the sweat red bean pudding she liked so much.

"Yosh!" Kiba proclaimed while Akamaru barked in agreement from the Hyuuga kennels, terrifying the household pets of the clan. Kiba never turned down meat, especially Yakinku, and even preferred it raw to the disgust of most people.

"Most agreeable" Shino nodded. He, as the Super-ego to Hinata's Ego and Kiba's Id, never seemed to care one way or the other about food as long as his bugs got a share. Sustenance he saw as something necessary, and found little pleasure in eating.

"Hinata, wait-" Hiashi asked of her, to which Kurenai turned to look at him.

"What? I'm taking my student out on the town, and since she's only the second favourite daughter" both Hiashi and Hanabi flinched as if struck while Hinata grimaced uncertainly "I think she does what she pleases. Isn't that right, Hinata-chan?"

"S-sure, Kurenai-sensei" Hinata nodded and accompanied the rest of her team out of the dojo, leaving her family ashamed and team Gai desperately and/or joyously fawning over the downed Neji. "I" she said as they went towards the great doors of the Hyuuga compound "I p-probably shouldn't have-"

"Neji-teme only got himself to blame" Kiba gruffed. He was a simple boy, seeing the world in black and white much like certain blonde Shinobi who's name could be mentioned. There was Pack, and there was Not-Pack, and Neji most certainly was of the latter category, and had been ever since he damn near killed Hinata in the events of their first Chunin exam. It's said that the Inuzuka never forget the smell of one that has wronged them. "And so do they! Punting you down the hierarchy like that... It's bull-"

"Kiba, language" Kurenai reminded softly as they exited the doors of the main compound, Kiba summoning Akamaru to his side with a whistle. Distant crashes, terrified shouts and the thundering of paws belonging to a four hundred pound beast of a dog subsequently echoed throughout the compound. "Very well done, my dear" she smiled at the girl that was something of a daughter to her. "I think that in the entire village... only Gai can beat you in Taijutsu now".

"Yeah" Kiba grinned and winked at Hinata "wait until you show that technique to a certain someone!"

"Someone?" Hinata wondered in her customarily low voice, that special kind of blush creeping into her cheeks. Was he talking about-

"The blonde one" Kurenai supplied with a further grin.

"The troublesome one" Shino added in a most Shikamaruesque way.

"The one that always smells like foxes and ramen" Kiba finished, his grin going lecherous. "Now, what's Kiba's forty-second rule of seduction?"

"Always h-have a c-c-condom ready?" Hinata stammered out, blushing beat-red. Ever since Kiba and Shino had found out about her infatuation for the blonde knuckle head the two had taken great strides to push them together by making her work up the courage to confess to him. Shino had given some advice about the mating habits of bugs, and after he made everyone vomit up the contents of their stomachs Kurenai had forbidden him from ever helping again. Kiba, on the other hand, was more enthusiastic but never the less weird, if only in another way.

"No, that's rule number two" he shook his head as Akamaru bounded to their side, panting happily with his tongue lolling out of his mouth, most of a door-frame handing off his shoulders along with screws and plaster from where he had dragged it out. "Rule forty-two: strength is sexy. He'll be incredibly turned on once he finds out you can kick his ass".

"Where are you getting this from?" Kurenai furrowed her brow at her wolfen student as they exited the gates of the compound and made their way towards Konoha proper. As they went the discussion went on around Hinata, she herself not paying it much heed despite it being nominally about her.

She had started thinking about a new technique of her own, something she could do to advance the Juuken arts, when she heard about Naruto-kun being promised elemental transformation training by Kakashi-sensei. He was the force driving her, the goal to which she worked, her inspiration in her music and her training and her Nindo. He was the sun, joy and hope and determination, an endless font of strength to her. She loved him, and above all else, more than anything else in the world, she wanted him to notice her.

The best way for her to do that was to become strong. The thing she wanted most was for him to see her.

Naruto, she prayed internally. Watch me!

Of course, like most of the village, she had no idea of Naruto's newfound power, or how it was going to shape the events to come.

Suffice to say that life was going to become very different.

...And scene!

A/N: I tried to establish the three main character motivations in this chapter, exemplified by their final thoughts. In a way they all want the same thing – live up to their own notions of another. Kakashi wants to be worthy of his long lost sensei, Naruto wants to become strong enough to make everything the way it was before, and Hinata wants to draw the eye of her beloved to herself.

However, it must be said that Kakashi's silent invocation is the opposite of Hinata's and Naruto's, and I hoped that I brought that across. The others ask the target of their obsession to look upon them as they excel, while Kakashi begs his deceased master to avert his eyes from him in his shame. But in the end they're three people, just trying to make the best of what they have in their life. What could go wrong?

Let me just indulge a slight spoiler: a lot, as it turns out.

This story will take the basic premise of Naruto and tart it up in goth make-up to make it seem a bit more... mature. With that I do of course mean the expected sex and drugs and gunfights (and cigarettes!). However, there will be other additions in a more mature implication of the word "mature", as in philosophy, the implications of justice, ponderous musing as to the meaning of existence and other stuff like that. All of this will, of course, be served up with a hearty amount of charm, comedy and verbal ticks.

A slightly overly ambitious project for my first fic, you say? Dear reader, it's only under pressure that we grow.

And a final note: Hinata being a musician always made sense to me. She's introverted, shy, no doubt sexually and socially repressed from her traditional upbringing, and as she entered puberty all that pent up energy had to go somewhere, right? Also, I've always wanted her to be a little stronger than she was depicted in Canon material, as I've sort of have a thing for writing skilled and powerful female character. Think of her as taking many of Sakura's moments in the story when Sakura gets other character development.

Also, Hinata having a thing for Metallica... I did at her age too, and consider that my slight personal indulgence.

Please read and review, and DFTBA :-D!