A.N.:This is my first story. Any reviews are welcome that are ACTUAL REVIEWS, not any of the "I don't like that pairing" crap or whatever else about my story that has nothing to do with the quality of my writing. Now that I'm done with my rant, on with the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or anything else I might put in this story that is owned by some big company somewhere in the world (probably Japan or U.S.) that I wish I was the CEO of…

Chapter 1: Thrown away like Garbage

Hinata's Pov

"You're going to train with Naruto and his Sensei while they are on their travels."

This was the voice of my father, Hiashi Hyuuga, Head of the Hyuuga Clan, as he just basically screwed my life up. I know what you're thinking. "What's wrong with going to train with your crush?" Right? Yes, he's cute, with his blond hair and his muscles and his big blue eyes… But that's not the point. The point is that my father has just thrown me to the sharks.

He pretty much just disowned me without making it official, yet. But that's him, discreet, yet sinister, because he will end up stabbing you right under your nose and you won't notice until you're already losing consciousness, and then you're like "Oh, crap…" but it's already too late. I've just been stabbed. But I can't look angry about it, because so far I'm still the heir to the clan, and I have to show my Hyuuga manners while staring in the face of a demon. The demon who abused me since the time I was little. The demon who forced my mother away… But that's another story, for another time.

"Of course, Otou-san. I will train with them"

"I want to see you stronger than I've ever seen you. You have 2 years to train with them, and then you will return to be tested. If you pass, you will be able to continue your role as heir to the clan and to lead it someday. However, if you fail, not only will you be disowned as my heir and my daughter, you will also become a member of the branch family, and I will place the caged bird seal on you myself."

See what I mean? DEMON! He deserves to… Never mind. I don't want to think TOO badly of him. What starts in my brain might eventually come out of my mouth, if I ever get brave enough to do so. Brave like Naruto. This trip is going to be fine, I'm sure, but the mixed feelings I have are killing me. I don't want to be sent off on some random trip, at all, but going with Naruto-kun makes it a little more bearable.

"But w-what about Hokage-s-sama, w-w-won't she be angry?"

There I go again with that stupid stutter. It doesn't happen very often, but people I get very nervous around tend to bring it out, namely Naruto-kun and my father (sometimes Neji-nii-san, if he's mad at me). But while Naruto-kun seems to think it endearing, my father doesn't, and normally gets angry.

"Yes, yes, now will you stop that accursed stuttering!? You sound like a blabbering buffoon. You sound like you're possessed. You sound like…"

This is where I tune out, because I really don't care about what he has to say most of the time anymore. I wait for him to finish talking and for him to dismiss me, and then I head out to the orchard in our estate.

It's the prettiest place in Konoha, in my opinion, and definitely the best smelling. You wouldn't believe the smell that people acquire throughout the day. It's disgusting when there's no running water in their houses. I don't know how I could live without it in civilization. In the woods, yes, but those are special circumstances. I love the Hyuuga Estate, if maybe not the people that live in it, necessarily. The orchard is filled with all kinds of fruit, from apples to cherries and oranges and lemons.

Here was where I had all my dreams come true, and my worst nightmare. I love it and I hate it. Yes, it's my favorite spot, but it's also the most dreaded place in the whole estate. I guess if I wanted to sort out mixed feeling about the trip, I guess I should start with the mixed feelings about this place. I was just about to get ready to meditate when I suddenly heard a voice.

"Come on, Hinata! We gotta go!"

I hear the voice of Naruto-kun, coming from the front of the estate. I can't believe it! Are we leaving already? I should've paid more attention to father's words. Then I would've known… But then I realized. Father. He wanted me to be caught off guard so he waited to tell me about the arrangement until the day of. He knew I would be pissed, and he was right. But I knew that he was testing for my ability to cope, and I answered with a mere "C-c-coming!" Damn that stuttering, again! Why does that keep happening? I know I started it to give people the impression I was weak, but then it became a habit, and a very difficult one to break.

Anyway, I headed over to my room and quickly packed everything that I thought would be necessary for the trip, along with some other things that weren't. I packed many sets of my usual attire, along with some dressy clothes and makeup, and some things that I didn't want anyone from my family to see, such as my complex diagrams of many parts of the human body, including the heart, and few of the kimonos that I went and bought without anybody's permission. I knew they were going to search my room, so I took extra care of hiding anything that was important but couldn't come along with me.

When I went outside there was Naruto-Kun and Jiraiya (soon to be Jiraiya-sensei) waiting for me. As soon as I was in sight, Naruto-kun asked, "Why did you take so long? Were you packing just now?" "That's impossible, because we've known for weeks that she was going to come," said Jaraiya-sensei. I knew it. Everyone had weeks to prepare for something that I only had a few minutes to prepare for. But that's father. He always keeps me on my toes. Or rather, I'm trying to stay on my toes while he's trying to hang me .I usually succeed, but just barely. This time I'm pretty much hung.

"L-let's go."



We began to head out of the village. I'm positive they didn't ask me if I wanted to say goodbye or not because they assumed that I had already done those things, or that I didn't need to. It didn't matter. I wasn't going to ask them anyway. I would just stutter again, being by Naruto-kun, who makes me stutter more than anyone else. At the gate to the village, two chunin waved their goodbyes, and that was it. We were gone. Now that we were out of the village, I realized what had actually happened. I'm on a crazy adventure with my crush and his perverted sensei. I'm going to have to be careful where I put my clothes, especially since this man doesn't seem to know when to quit.

The first thing that was said after our departure for 2 years was Naruto-kun saying, "Can I go to the bathroom?" It figures. Naruto-kun is really cute, and determined, but hey, everyone has flaws, especially me. That's what I'm even here for. To work on my flaws, that is. I need to show more strength now than ever, and maybe even learn something in the process.

Naruto's Pov

I normally think of Hinata as just this shy girl who blushes a lot (though I've heard it's just in front of me but I don't think so) and stutters when she talks, but if we're going to be training together then I hope that we will get to know each other better. All I know so far is that Hinata seems to be thinking about something pretty hard. Scratch that, she's thinking really hard because she doesn't even notice that Ero-sennin is staring at her. In fact, she hasn't noticed the whole trip so far. I'm pretty sure that she was thinking about it, though, because her face kinda scrunched up the way people's do when they're thinking of something nasty. I feel bad for her, and I wanna have some fun, so I tell Ero-sennin off.

"Oi, Ero-sennin! I think you should show some respect to the lady we have with us."

This time she noticed. I saw her turn to look at me, then at the pervert, and she, well, blushed would be too mild a word for it. It was more like her face suddenly exploded. She had really wide eyes, and then she looked at me again and blushed even harder, if that's possible. She didn't say anything, but I'm sure that she's eternally grateful for my good deed.

She doesn't say all that much, now that I think about it. She barely ever says anything. Even when we were in the Academy, she barely talked, although when she did, whatever she said was always right. Even when they did pop quizzes, half the class would get an answer wrong, and then they would turn to Hinata, and poof! She knew the right answer, every time. I guess she's smarter than she looks, with her shyness and all. She's such a mystery, but then again, all girls are, so it's not that surprising, but it looks like she's hiding something. It doesn't really matter anyway. I'm gonna figure it out sooner or later.

Jiraiya's looking at her again, but this time, he's not looking at her all pervy-like. He's looking at her with more of a question in his face, but I wonder why. Yeah, girls are hard to figure out but Hinata should be easy for someone like Ero-sennin, doing his "research" all the time

We stopped to eat after traveling for about 3 hours, and Hinata volunteered to go fishing, letting me talk to the pervert by myself.



"Hinata's a real nice girl, real sweet and stuff. You wouldn't do "research" on her, would you?" I whispered into his ear.

"Of course not, Naruto."

"Then why were you looking at her again?"

"I'm just wondering what caused such a change in her. She used to be so different, or so I heard several years ago."

"What! Hinata was different? But that's impossible! We started in the academy when we were both 8 years old, and she's always been the same!"

"I don't think so. Maybe you just don't remember. I mean, you were pretty young. You don't remember that much now, how could you remember something clearly if it happened 5 years ago?"

I stopped to think about that. Maybe he's right. I mean, it was a long time ago. Maybe I'm not remembering it right.

Jaraiya's Pov

Good thing I got Naruto off my case. Whew! I know that I got rather distracted earlier, but now to get back to business. Tsunade (oh, Tsunade…) told me something very interesting about the girl who I'm now supposed to train. Even though she's from the Hyuuga clan (pretty obvious, don't you think?) she's supposedly the most shy and introverted person who is a genin right now. That sounds pretty much like crap to me, seeing as I was at her "coming out as the heir of the clan" party, and she was pretty confident there. Maybe something happened to her or something like that? I don't know, but I plan to find out.

Flashback:
"Jiraiya, I know you've been requested to train the Hyuuga girl, Hinata."

"Yes, I have, but is there something wrong?"

"Most certainly. That girl's different, Jiraiya. She seems to be stumbling around everything and anything like she isn't capable of handling anything."

"I was under the impression that that was the reason I was requested to train her, Hokage-sama."

"It is, but I want you to keep an eye on her. You were there, right? At the Hyuuga's "Reveal the heir" party?"

"Yes, I was. Does the heir have something to do with Hinata?"



"The heir is Hinata."

"What?!"

"Exactly! She's completely different. She used to be a very confident member of the Hyuuga clan, and now she's this bumbling idiot. I need you to see what caused this dramatic change. And for heaven's sake, Jiraiya, don't let this be an excuse for "research" or I will smash your head into the ground!"

(Gulp) "Of course not, Hokage-sama, of course not.

End Flashback

I don't want my head smashed into the ground, but I would allow it to happen if Tsunade confessed her undying love for me. Either way, this mission is actually classified as an A mission, because no one knows what happened to her and finding out could be dangerous. That, and also the fact that I'm the one who's doing the mission, and all of my missions are classified as A or S, no matter how hard the missions really are (I have to keep the reputation of being an amazing Ninja, you know).

I'm actually really curious as to see what is up with her. It didn't even cross my mind that Hinata was the heir. I remember the demeanor of that three-year-old, and I would not think that that girl is now in front of me, stuttering and pretty much just being shy. I'm definitely gonna have to see for this one.

End Chapter 1

Okay Guys, The first Chapter is done! I don't know how fast I'll be updating, so check every once in a while (Definitely not every day, every few weeks or so is good.) My chapters are going to be long, because of all the different opinions of the different characters. Jaraiya will pretty much always have the shortest section (because the story isn't really about him, anyway), but I think his section gives the most insight and foreshadowing knowledge (Hint, hint). Well, see you next time! (Review!!)

-The Bear Hugger
(Teddy bears, not real bears, you sadists!)