A/N: I'd just like to say a quick general thank you to those who reviewed my last chapter. My update schedule is questionable right now, but I think this is only going to have a few more chapters anyway. Though I may stretch it out with a prologue. I'm not sure at this point.
Also, I hope the use of flashbacks isn't bothersome. It's how I'll be telling the story. The flashbacks are the story for the most part, with the present time addressing what happened. I kinda like it that way.
Now, let the story commence!
"I-I… I j-just…" Hinata began staring at her hands, which were fidgeting rapidly. She shifted her position and started to tremble slightly. Her eyes kept darting around, looking for something to focus on. She couldn't do it; she was on the verge of a mental breakdown just sitting next to Naruto. She was lost in her world; a world filled with fear. Fear of pain, fear of loss, fear of rejection. She couldn't find a way out.
"Are you alright?"
Naruto's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. Still trembling, she looked at Naruto, his blue eyes full of concern. Looking at them, Hinata's trembling gradually ceased as her fearful mind was calmed, and she nodded.
"You don't have to tell me yet if you don't want to."
Hinata felt life in her again. "U-um… hai. Thank you, N-Naruto-kun." She leaned against the back of the bench and let out a sigh. She looked at Naruto and sat up when she saw him shaking his head.
"Please don't go back to the old you," he said as he turned to face her.
Hinata recoiled slightly at his words. "What?"
"Don't go back to the old you. This last year you've changed so much for the better. I don't like it when you get that fear in your eye; it looks like you're staring Death in the face or something." Naruto made sure to keep eye contact with the woman next to him. "You showed me the true Hinata last year, didn't you? Where'd she go just then?"
Hinata lowered her head and stared at her hands in her lap. She remembered all right. It was as fresh in her mind as if it had happened last night.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Come on, Hinata, get up!" the blonde shinobi shouted.
Hinata rolled from her back onto her stomach before pushing herself back up in the center of the clearing. The two were out in one of the many forested practice areas around the village and had spent the better part of the day working with each other on their respective specialties before taking some time to spar with each other. Things had started to go downhill for Hinata from there. She was covered in scratches and was bruised from the many times she had been hit by Naruto and was quickly losing confidence in her ability to keep up. Straightening up, she looked him in the eyes. "H-hai, Naruto-kun."
"Don't stutter in front of me. I'm you're opponent. I should be fearing your every word, your every intent, your every action. You can't give the appearance of weakness in front of an enemy, unless you're trying to trick them. And you aren't trying to trick me."
Hinata nodded. "Hai."
Naruto gave the slightest of grins and adjusted his chuunin vest. "Good. Now come at me again with everything you've got!"
Hinata took off. She struck out violently with her Jyuuken, which Naruto forced to the side before counter-attacking with a kick to her side. She did a graceful side flip over the attacking leg and came down with a low sweep kick. No good, as Naruto pushed off of his planted foot and turned it into a side kick. Hinata was sent flying backwards and landed sprawled out on her back again.
"Hinata, that wasn't your best. Not even close. Don't let me go easy on you. I want everything you've got."
The Hyuuga heir squeezed her eyes shut in a grimace as she climbed back to her feet. Taking a moment to catch her breath and regain her balance, she settled back into her stance. It wasn't the same as what her father had taught her; Naruto suggested she alter it a bit to suit her body type more. The dark-haired kunoichi was keeping her center of gravity higher to better facilitate her mobility and flexibility. She had to admit that the changes were effective, but she still didn't feel she could keep up with the blonde man standing across the clearing from her.
It was a good thing that Naruto was the determined type of guy. Otherwise he would have been seriously bothered by Hinata's constant self-degradation. He had been trying everything he could think of to pull her self-confidence up and get her to fight her best. He quickly stopped trying to go easier on her and let her deal more hits; it had taken the woman almost no time to figure out he was letting her win and had done more harm than good. He tried complimenting her every strength and success, which helped a little, but she had shot down every positive word with a negative response of her own. Now he was trying to push her verbally, constantly demanding her to give her every effort.
Activating her Byakugan, Hinata rushed at Naruto full speed and pulled a flip-twist over his head as he attempted to counter her advance with a high arching kick. She landed facing his back and launched a Jyuuken strike aimed between his shoulder blades. Naruto kept his body moving with the momentum from his kick and twisted out of the way of the kunoichi's strike. He made to grab her extended arm, but she ducked low and spun into a sweep kick aimed for the blonde's ankles. Naruto avoided it by back-flipping into a handspring and landing a few yards away, only to be met with a pair of some of the scariest eyes he had seen. Pure white, pupil-less eyes with veins bulging out on either side provide an almost unrivaled intimidation factor, especially from close range like this.
The blonde shinobi narrowly avoided a full palm strike to the gut by pushing off into another back-flip and landing on the trunk of a tree, adhering to it with his chakra. During this motion, he flew through several handseals, and after landing on the tree, he released a chakra-infused ball of air from his lungs straight at Hinata. The Hyuuga chuunin didn't react in time and got blasted hard towards the ground. She bounced and rolled backwards along the ground before coming to a hard, slamming stop on the ground on the other side of the clearing, flat on her back.
Naruto leapt off his perch on the tree and walked back towards the center of the clearing. "That was better, Hinata, but I know you can do more."
"I'm sorry, Naruto-kun."
"For what?"
"I'm s-sorry for wasting your time."
Naruto shook his head. "Hinata, don't start this now."
"I-I'm not good enough; I'm h-holding you back." The young woman's eyes were pressed shut, and she was trying with all her might to block out the sick feeling in her stomach. She really was a failure; there was no way a girl like her could keep up with him
"You are good enough or else I wouldn't be sparring with you," Naruto argued back. He was getting a little more than frustrated with the way she kept beating herself up.
"You s-should just find someone else to…to train with. I don't even p-put up enough of a challenge t-to be worth the time."
"That's not true."
"Y-Yes it is. I-I'm sorry for m-making you work with s-someone so m-much weaker than…than you."
"Hinata, stop acting like this." Naruto was fighting hard not to explode at this point.
"I can't do anything for you. I'm not capable of…"
"DAMN IT, HINATA, WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU!?"
Hinata's eyes jolted wide open. Her world collapsed around her and she felt her heart tear into pieces. Her stomach twisted up and her vision clouded with tears. She couldn't take it anymore. Even Naruto thought she couldn't do anything. The one person in the world whose opinion mattered most to her thought she was a failure. Her entire being felt like it had been shattered. Feeling all this pain at once, Hinata rolled to the side, pulled her legs up, and curled into a ball. She felt every sob tearing at her insides as her eyes released their water into the ground. She was completely worthless.
Naruto stood staring in shock at Hinata's huddled form. Why was she like this? "Hinata, why do you keep lying to yourself like that?"
Hinata's sobs gently quieted. "What?"
"If you keep telling yourself that you're a failure, then that's what you'll be. You constantly tear yourself down for the silliest of things. Why?"
The dark haired girl's only response was to sniffle.
"Hinata, you're not incompetent, you're not incapable, and you're not weak. Stop telling yourself that you are."
The Hyuuga woman didn't move. "What m-makes you so sure t-that I'm not?" the girl asked, almost accusingly.
"What do you mean?"
Hinata had her face buried in her hands. "What makes you so sure that I'm not weak? How do you know I'm not a failure? I've never done anything great or even anything good. I'm not even worth speaking to!"
"Hinata, that's a lie. Don't tell me that you're a failure. Don't tell me that you haven't done anything great. And don't ever tell me that you're not worth speaking to." Naruto paused before heaving a sigh and stared at the sky. "You've done more for me as an individual than almost anyone else in the village. You believed in me back when I fought Neji, when few others thought I'd survive. You're words pushed me to do everything I could to beat him. You did what no one else could; you pushed me to do the impossible. Was that worthless?"
The girl didn't move.
Naruto shook his head. "Where'd the real Hinata go?"
The Hyuuga heir pulled her face out of her hands and turned her head to look at him with wide eyes. "What?"
"Where did the real Hinata go? The one that never stayed down, despite two critical blows to the heart. The one that had eyes that almost burned a hole through Neji. The one that wouldn't take back her words, because that was her nindo. Where did she go?"
Hinata turned her head to face the ground again, clutching the collar of her hoodie. She sniffled again.
Naruto continued, "Where is the girl with eyes that burned with a white fire? Eyes that practically screamed that the only way for one to win was to make sure that the other never got back up. Eyes that raged with a fury that could only be described as unstoppable. You showed Neji those eyes. I want you to show them to me. I want to see the Hinata that can change destiny with her will, the one that not even fate can stop. I want to meet that woman. Where is she?"
Hinata squeezed her eyes shut. Neither one spoke or moved, letting the seconds tick away. Then Hinata rolled to her stomach and pushed herself up. She stood there for a moment, panting and looking at the ground. Bringing her hand up to her face, she flicked the last of her tears away with her thumb. Then she straightened and looked dead on at Naruto, byakugan burning full force. Energy was radiating from her as she took her adapted Hyuuga stance.
Naruto grinned smugly in anticipation as he took his stance. "There she is," he whispered.
Hinata powered forward with a chakra-enhanced lunge. Naruto didn't have time to think before he was distracted by the seemingly thousand of blows assaulting him.
Four hours later Hinata fell onto her back in the middle of the clearing. Her muscles wouldn't move anymore. She used every ounce of her strength in that match. That four hour long match. Even though she was on the ground, she smiled, because she heard the thud nearby that told her she wasn't the only one completely exhausted.
Naruto had never been so dead tired. No one had ever managed to make him this exhausted. He was always the only one who could make himself collapse from exhaustion, giant frogs notwithstanding. Yet here he was, the stamina king, flat out on his back in the clearing, unable to get up. He hadn't lost, but that wasn't why he was smiling.
Both of their jackets lay off to the side, having been taken off in the first place because each had used the other's garment as a hand-hold. Neither was willing to give up an advantage, so they got rid of them. Not that they were cold anyway; each was drenched in sweat.
If anyone had been present to watch the match, they would have been entranced by the raw power given off by the pair. Grace and power were colliding head on with each other in a death match so incredible that it would have rooted any spectators to the spot. They would have walked away amazed, not quite daring to believe that what they had just witnessed was real. But the participants in the beautifully deadly fight didn't if anyone was there to see it. They were too exhausted and elated to care.
Naruto turned his head to face the woman flopped on the ground next to him and said between gasps of air, "That…was awesome."
Hinata turned to face him for a second and smiled.
Naruto looked back up at the sky before saying, "We need… to train like that again."
Hinata nodded before succumbing to exhaustion and falling asleep, the smile still evident on her face.
Naruto glanced back over to the woman near him. Seeing her smile, he grinned before falling asleep himself. They slept through the entire night and most of the morning.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Hinata let a small smile show as she slipped out of her reverie. She turned her head to him and said, "Some things are still hard to talk about, no matter how strong you are."
Naruto nodded, understanding her double meaning. She knew about his secret; he had told her a short time after that first four hour sparring match. He decided it was best to let her off the hook for now. They could come back to it later.
The spiky haired shinobi turned his attention towards the moon. It was usually something that he looked at for comfort, often losing himself in its soothing light. Yet now he kept seeing something else in the moon. Something that was also bright and pale, except with just a hint of lavender….
Naruto shook off the recent vision. It was something that had continuously plagued him for several months; he felt like he had been seeing them for an eternity. Every time he saw the moon, the bottom of his ramen bowl after he'd slurped it dry, or just anything remotely round and white, he kept seeing them. It had gotten so bad that he kept envisioning them every time he shut his eyes.
White orbs that would have seemed dead to most had actually contained a hidden depth that he was quickly losing himself in. He didn't feel like he could go anywhere but deeper until he found every secret they held. It made him sick to his stomach thinking about it though; he knew he was letting himself get in too deep. His mind told him to back away, to let go of his feelings and give up on them because he had no chance. He couldn't though; his will to move forward overpowered his will to pull back.
Naruto peeled his gaze from the moon to halt the string of uncomfortable thoughts. He didn't need a pained expression to make the situation any more awkward than it was at the moment. Unfortunately, fate isn't always kind; sometimes it has a sick sense of humor. As Naruto turned away from the moon, his eyes met with the same ones he had been daydreaming of. The blond was fully unprepared for the sight of them and halfway leapt out of his skin. This in turn caused the young lady next to him to jump and blush frantically. They both turned their heads away from each other, one slightly red, and the other glowing enough to put the nearby garden lights to shame.
The subsequent awkward silence continued for a few moments before the pair finally calmed down and turned their heads to stare at their own feet, Naruto abashedly scratching the back of his head while Hinata allowed herself to return to her usual pale complexion.
Naruto, master of timing that he was, suddenly started quietly laughing to himself. The situation itself was almost too funny for him, and it had reminded him of a past event that never failed to make the man laugh. The memory had a different effect for the kunoichi next to him.
"Hey, Hinata. Do you remember the first time you tried to help me improve my chakra control?"
The pale-eyed woman looked at him for a moment, confused as to what event he was asking about. Suddenly her eyes shot open and her face regained it's now common redness. Why did he have to ask about that memory?
"Y-yes, I… do remember." That was an understatement. Every moment of it had been burned into her brain; it wasn't everyday something like that happened.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Not so much, Naruto-kun."
Naruto eased up on the amount of chakra he was controlling in his hand. He was trying to create a small circular wind in his palm, doing his best to make it as gentle as possible. He was kneeling on the grass in a small clearing in the woods. This particular training area was nice because it was rarely used, but it also had a small river running beside it, which made it convenient for staying long periods. And with water also being a good training aid, Naruto chose to come to this spot frequently.
Hinata was kneeling beside of him, carefully watching Naruto's progress. He needed to improve his control, and the shinobi was more than happy to have Hinata help him. It wasn't often he had someone there to help him improve; most of his friends were too busy. It didn't bother him too much, though; they helped when they could. And since Naruto usually spent every day training himself to complete exhaustion, he didn't expect anyone to try to keep up with him.
But even with the Hyuuga girl's help, he was having a lot of trouble keeping the whirl of air in his hand from becoming a swirling vortex of powerful gusts. Most people found it easy to use low amounts of chakra, but Naruto was a bit of a unique case. It was even harder using an element that he was naturally attuned to, and he was pretty sure that Hinata knew that. Every time he started getting frustrated she would offer a bit of advice or some words of encouragement. And whenever she did, he would feel his aggravation wash away from him.
Hinata, for her part, was doing an exceptional job helping Naruto keep his chakra under control. She was staying remarkably focused on her task of assisting Naruto, often using her Byakugan to provide even more intuitive advice. Despite all of this, it was still somewhat slow progress and the two ninja had been working for several hours.
Finally, Naruto managed to maintain a gentle spin of air above his palm for a few minutes without it lashing out violently. Releasing his chakra, the blond chuunin leaned forward and rested his hands on his knees.
"You know, it's almost sad that I can create no less than a thousand copies of myself, yet I can barely manage a light breeze in my palm," Naruto said, releasing an exasperated sigh.
Hinata shook her head. "You just have to work backwards. Most shinobi spend their whole lives trying to reach your chakra capacity; you just need to spend some time building control."
Naruto just leaned back on his hands and looked at the sky. "Yeah, I guess that's true."
"You're certainly improving, though. You haven't seriously lost control of your chakra like you did those first few tries."
Naruto chuckled a bit at the thought of his first efforts. "Yeah, it definitely wasn't fun getting knocked several feet backwards every time I tried to make a gust of wind."
Hinata smiled as she caught his change in attitude. "But you eventually got it right. And this was just one day. I'm sure it will get much more natural as you practice."
Naruto sat up and let his face break into his characteristic grin. "Yep, it's a lot easier with you helping me. You'll have to come out here with me more often."
The dark-haired girl's face flushed at the thought of spending more time alone with Naruto. She had planned to say more, but her train of thought was instantly derailed at the sight of Naruto's smile. Curse his infernal cuteness.
Naruto stood up, dusted the dirt off of his legs, and stretched a bit. "Well, since I finally got it after all this time, why don't we do some pursuit training to loosen up?"
Hinata looked up at him with a confused expression. "Pursuit training?"
"Yep." Naruto looked down at the kunoichi and smiled. He tapped her leg with his foot and said, "You're it."
And he was gone.
Hinata's shocked face brightened as she broke into giggles. "All right, Naruto, if that's how it's going to be…" she muttered before taking off after the blond.
It was a few minutes before Hinata caught sight of her target with her Byakugan. He had led her on one hell of a chase so far, and Hinata was sure that all of the times he had been chased as a kid because of his pranks, which he still hadn't outgrown, had seriously paid off. But she wasn't deterred, and she managed to significantly close the distance before Naruto noticed her. He looked over his shoulder and let out a yelp before increasing his speed.
Hinata was silently cursing his stamina as she pushed herself to keep up. He sure knew how to lose himself in the terrain. The kunoichi knew she wouldn't have been able to follow him if not for her Byakugan, but she still had to struggle through brush, vines, and general foliage as she gradually gained ground. Tearing ahead at full speed, Hinata finally managed to catch up to him, only to watch him puff into smoke as soon as she touched him.
"He led me through all that for a bunshin? Oh he is DEFINITELY going to get it now."
The real Naruto smirked when he recovered the memories of his banished clone. "Heh, so she did fall for it."
"Fall for what, Naruto-kun?!" a voice shouted behind him.
Naruto almost tripped on the branch that he was leaping to when he heard her voice behind him. He turned to look, and sure enough, there she was, leaping after him. Naruto's shocked face bent into another smirk. "I knew I shouldn't have taught you Kage Bunshin."
Hinata smiled while she continued to gain ground. "It's hard to run from four pairs of Byakugan eyes," she said.
"So are you a clone, too? Or are you the real thing?"
"Oh I'm the real one. I knew you'd go this way. I just sent the others to make you think otherwise."
"Oh really? And how did you know I would go this direction?" Naruto asked, pushing more chakra into his legs and ducking through more foliage.
"This is the direction of Ichiraku's," she replied, gracefully flowing through the brush after Naruto.
The blond Hokage-to-be laughed at this. "I'm not really that predictable, am I? I'll lose rank at this rate!"
Hinata laughed as well, but she decided that this chase needed to end; she didn't want to be exhausted when it was her turn, after all. She created a beam of chakra in her right hand as if performing her Shugo Hakke technique, but she used it to cut off the branch that Naruto was about to land on.
Naruto wasn't exactly prepared for that, and he quickly tried to prepare for his impact on the ground. Hinata, however, just noticed that they were headed for the same branch that she had just cut. She had an uncomfortable feeling that she wasn't going to like the upcoming events.
Naruto landed hard on the ground and his momentum forced him to roll forward before ending up on his back. Hinata managed to avoid most of the damage that would have been inflicted by the ground, but her inertia also forced her to roll forward before landing hard on her stomach.
Right on top of Naruto.
Hinata had managed to stop herself with her hands when she landed, and Naruto instinctively grabbed her waist to prevent her from slamming full force into him. The result was Hinata staring straight into Naruto's eyes, their faces barely more than an inch apart. And despite Naruto trying to slow her fall, Hinata's entire weight was on the full length of Naruto's body.
Hinata didn't know what to do. She wanted to get off of him and apologize profusely for the accident. And she might have, if there wasn't a deeper part of her that knew that there was nowhere else she'd rather be. She could feel his warmth as she lay there, and his slow, deep breathing added a continuous and changing pressure that caused chills to run down her spine. She could smell him, too. It was a subtle mix of ramen and pine trees, which she found to be surprisingly wonderful, and it aided in shutting down her mental processes further.
And to make it all worse, she was inches away from the most amazing pair of cerulean-blue eyes. Hinata felt like she was being pulled towards them, her willpower gone in an instant. Her arms felt like they were weakening, and she was gradually becoming more incapable of supporting herself. But she wasn't thinking about that; all she wanted was to move just a little bit closer to the powerful eyes before her…
Naruto was confused. While that was not an uncommon state of mind for the shinobi to be in, this was a whole different thing entirely. For starters, he had never been this close to a girl. Oh, he had been around his fair share of women, having traveled with Jiraiya, and had even transformed into a girl for the occasional prank. But this? This was different.
Her entire body was pressed against him. And he was slowly starting to notice every detailed and sculpted curve that her body had. Her hair had fallen around her head, and it had settled lightly on his face. The subtle feeling of it sent a rush through his entire body as his breathing started to pick up. He almost thought he felt her shiver, which caused his hands to unconsciously clench her waist.
Then he noticed it; it had started when her hair fell on his face, but he finally registered her scent. Flowers. Lots of different flowers. His favorite flowers, in fact: lavender, jasmine, orchid, lilac, and many more. He was drinking it in, and he was getting fully intoxicated by it. His chest grew tighter still, and his breathing became more rapid. And if he hadn't noticed her eyes before, he did now. He had always heard that Hyuuga eyes were white. But her eyes…weren't. They were a delicate shade of lavender, actually. A very beautiful tint that destroyed any urges to blink.
Her eyes were starting to send a feeling through him that was akin to fear. He knew what it was like to be terrified of eyes, and this wasn't the same. But he was still somewhat scared. Naruto didn't want to move or look away, and he was afraid of what that meant. A piece of him was lost to her eyes, trapped in their endless depths, a part he knew would never return. This fear reached its peak when he felt the pressure from her body increase as her arms gradually gave way. He couldn't take anymore of this.
"Umm… I…uh…guess I'm it now."
Hinata practically flew off of him and she stood there, blushing hard enough to almost set the nearby plants on fire. And Naruto was almost as red as she was. Hinata just bowed her head, rapidly fidgeting with her hands. She nodded vigorously before taking off, hoping to hide her embarrassment for at least a short while.
Naruto just lay there. His breathing started to normalize and the redness left his face. Once he was sure his body was working normally, he sat up. He thought of what just happened, and all of his previous emotions surged back through him. He couldn't suppress a slight groan at the memory. "Crap. I think I really like her…"
He stood up and brushed the dirt off of his back before taking off after the woman.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Hinata couldn't help but blush furiously at the memory of it. She could still recall everything: sight, smell, and touch. And it drove her crazy.
Naruto still couldn't help but laugh at the awkwardness of the whole ordeal. But underneath his laughter he relived every feeling that it had stirred up inside him. He really did think the whole situation was funny to look back on, but he was mostly wondering how he had managed to get in so deep.
Hinata turned to look at him and questioned, "Why did you ask about that, Naruto-kun?"
Naruto just shrugged. "I don't know. I just remembered it and I wondered if you remembered it, too."
Hinata didn't look away from him, but her hands started to fidget frantically. He remembered it? Why did he…? Oh crap, that had to be ridiculously awkward. Was he bothered by it? Was he still annoyed that she hadn't moved away fast enough?
This train of thought ended when she saw Naruto smiling at her. She smiled a bit in response, but she caught something in his expression that seemed like he wanted something. Or wanted to know something. It was making her a little uncomfortable.
"Hey, Hinata-chan, I wanted to ask you about something."
Hinata's eyes widened at the honorific and the way he looked as he said that. Oh crap. This had better not be what she was thinking it was.
A/N: Well, there it is. Two chapters down. Probably only a couple more to go, depending on inspiration. I hope you all liked it. I feel a bit mixed about this one. Oh well, it's over and done, and I feel pretty good.
Reviews and advice are greatly appreciated, the latter being extremely helpful. Thanks to all those who read this chapter. You guys rock.
