Trouble With a Capital T
By: Gmusick
Chapter 2: Contestants, Start Your Scheming
Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, boy I wish I did, but I don't.
"Today is the day."
Tenten didn't give herself a lot of pep speeches, but today she was more excited than she could recall being for a long time. Not only was her team on a short break after a torrid amount of missions, but she would hopefully get a positive answer from the person she'd held an almost smoldering affection for.
It would send a numerous amount of people into epileptic convulsions if they found out she was not talking about Hyyuga Neji.
Though she would admit she cared for her friend, that childish crush she fostered in her youth petered out over time. They were just too different to overcome a lot of the differences between them. Neji, despite the dramatic change, was still the same person somewhat, just slightly less angsty and Tenten, as much as she worked toward her dream of becoming a kunoichi of much repute, she liked having fun.
Neji was anything but fun. In fact, the Hyuuga genius could have the personality of a stone statue sometimes.
A personality like that was not conducive to a fun-loving relationship. How the hell Ino managed to coral him into a relationship she would never know. The girl could get her stone-faced teammate to do almost anything.
That was where her interest in Naruto originally stemmed from.
She remembered hearing about some of his exploits. The Hokage painting, egging the one of the villager's home, setting off a stink bomb in the academy, these were only some of the stories she overheard, but they piqued her interest. So she went and gathered as much information as she could about this Naruto character and when they met face-to-face, she was sadly disappointed.
Short, loud, rude, he was everything a young girl hated in a prospective boyfriend. And like so many others, she relegated him to the back of her mind, forgetting he even existed.
But oh did he fix that little problem.
If she had to pinpoint the exact moment the amount of interest she displayed in him changed it would be the chuunin exams.
She learned three things during that time. One, Neji was an asshole of the extreme amount. Two, Sasuke for all his hotness, was just as crazy and mentally deranged as her teammate. And three, Naruto as loud and coarse as he was, seemed to radiate a confidence that everyone surrounding him unconsciously soaked up.
It was on display during the written test, when he shouted out how they couldn't stop him no matter what they did. It was on display when Neji cruelly beat on his cousin Hinata, with Naruto defending Hinata, vowing payback for treating her so harshly. And then there was the match in the finals, the one she knew Naruto was going to lose no matter how much time he had to train. After all, Neji was a genius of the highest caliber. Some people even making the point that he was stronger than Sasuke.
But going against the perception everyone had of him was a natural character trait of Naruto's, he defied the natural assumption. Not only had he beaten Neji after her teammate unleashed his ultimate attack, he did it without making Neji feel any less of himself. Naruto said maybe two or three sentences, then pranced around the arena in one of the most ridiculous dances she had ever seen.
That moment, it was as if a metaphorical hammer slammed into the back of her head, and she looked at him in a new light. Just like that. Funny, people constantly ragged on him about being dead last in his class and so forth. If this was the supposed dead last, then maybe the word genius needed to be redefined.
And even after that moment, she continued witnessing him bring change to their village. The one thing she wanted to thank him for, he had no clue she knew about. How he managed to bring her idol Tsunade back to Konoha, Tenten didn't know, but she felt indebted to him.
So for days after the battle with the Sand and Sound, Tenten poked, prodded, and thoroughly examined this new attraction she had for the blue-eyed blonde. She'd been pining away for Neji for so long, being attracted to someone new so suddenly seemed like a foreign concept to her.
But she did work through it, and the thought of trying to establish a relationship with Naruto didn't seem anywhere near as harrowing a task as it was trying to get Neji.
And what did she do when this great epiphany hit her?
Natta.
First that asshole Sasuke left, then came that damnable mission, then everyone was injured or nearly dying, both of her teammates hurt again, without her lifting a finger. And in the middle of that chaos Naruto managed to slip away to train with Jiraiya-sama for three years. If not for Shizune-san, who was fast becoming one of her best friends, she wouldn't have known that much
So for three years she lived, trained, and waited. In his absence she didn't forget him, on the contrary, his absence was felt by everyone. They may not have said it, but his energy was missing, leaving a void everyone could feel. It was then she promised herself that the next time she saw him she wouldn't hesitate. There wouldn't be any of the nervous babbling or wide-eyed girlish giggling. She'd ask him to go out and wouldn't take no for an answer. And just to be sure, she had Shizune-san keep her up to date on anything related to him. Of course she never learned much, Tsunade-sama was extremely tight-lipped about anything concerning Naruto, Shizune told her, but as long as she knew when he returned, that was enough.
And return he did, a lot earlier than she was told he would, but he came back. And she was one the first people he saw… after Tsunade-sama, Shizune-san, Iruka-san, the nice people at Ichiraku, Sakura…. Oh hell, forget it.
The point was she was able to corner him, release everything she had kept built up in her chest, and watch him stand there in a stupor. When it became apparent he wouldn't be moving for quite some time, she left to let think over it during the day, promising to check up with him the next day to find her answer.
Now here she was, freshening up if you will just a bit. Being raised solely by her father, her mother running off to marry some rich bastard in one of the big cities, she didn't have a lot of feminine advice handed to her. It was part of the reason she focused so much on being a ninja instead of worrying over frivolous things like so many other girls.
Life wasn't without its own twists and ironic turns however. Though she would never admit it, even under weapon point and being tortured by listening to Gai-sensei sing his favorite karaoke classics, maybe she should have sat down and joined in those mundane girl-to-girl conversations.
"No use in thinking about that now," she murmured to herself. "What's done is done."
It wasn't like she wasn't attractive. She had been propositioned numerous times since 'filling out.' Putting her hands under the slight weight of her breast, Tenten gave a slight squeeze. "Nice weight, slight bit of sag, but I heard some guys like that… in other words perfect."
Turning down suitors left and right, she never lost sight of her ultimate goal, and now that it was in sight, she felt the battle was already over. Naruto didn't stand a chance.
Smoothing down the front of her blouse, she gave one last glance to the mirror, fixing the smallest imperfections.
"Okay girl, time to get this show on the road, You can do it. And if he turns you down, simply tell Neji and Lee Naruto turned you down, breaking your heart into a million itty, bitty pieces."
The magnitude of the brawl should hopefully be enough to lift her spirits.
Hyuuga Hinata sat across from her father, silently sipping the cooling tea in her hand, soaking in the serenity of the moment. With the increase in her clan responsibilities, it was rare she got to enjoy moments like this. Allowing the cool breeze to blow onto the patio, listening to the birds, the trees, nature itself sing its beautiful song. And to add to the pleasant moment was her father. The man she spent so many years being afraid of. Emotionally traumatized from his words and actions, her earlier years were spent crying in her room, hiding herself from everything she considered hurtful in the world.
When Naruto left, she thought that with the one thing that she cherished in her life, it couldn't get any worse. Not only had he not recognized her, but he wanted to get away from Konoha bad enough to spend three years in the wilds.
It may sound crazy to outside ears, but in her mind that one fact kept itself firmly rooted for weeks on end. It was there when she woke, trained, ate, slept, it existed in every activity she did, mental and physical.
Funny thing is, when you are at your lowest, often times it inspired the most profound of changes.
One morning, while training in one of the mansions various training grounds, her father came out and gave her an unexpected inspection. His words had been anything but shining and congratulatory. But during his scathing rebuke, Hinata could feel herself getting angry.
Not the one and done kind where a person throws a fit and then eventually goes back to normal. This was rage. The kind that festered for years, multiplying upon itself, growing into something dark and smoldering. And for the first time in her life, Hinata didn't try to wrap it up and toss it into the dark recesses of her mind. Instead she grasped it, freed it from the shackles she had put upon it. And it had one target, the source of so much of her heartache and pain. So many of her nightmares stemmed from the man sneering at her, and it was time to make him pay.
The fight only lasted a few short minutes. The element of surprise she held was short-lived. No matter how angry, how furious she was, her father was still one of the strongest ninjas in Konoha, and she was horribly inexperienced.
After spending two weeks in the hospital, a few of those days being spent unconscious, she was released and it seemed like she walked into a different world.
Everyone seemed to acknowledge her, though in different ways. Her teammates, even Kurenai-sensei, seemed proud that she finally stood up for herself, even if it was something as radical as going against the Hyuuga head. Her cousin Neji, would stare at her in mute fascination, shaking his head at random intervals, failing to picture the timid Hinata as an enraged attacker. And so on the picture went. The younger generation pictured her as some kind of rebel, a girl who had enough of being pushed around, someone who finally decided to fight back.
The older generation of elders were not so enthralled with her performance. Many of them, Hyuuga heads primarily, wanted her denounced from the clan. Such as breach of protocol would not be tolerated they said. If she was allowed to get away with such an attempt others would do the same. Though surprised at the changed perception of her in the mostly shinobi ranks, the most startling was her father.
Since the death of her mother, the man had never uttered a single kind word to her. Their exchanges were always his glares and sharp recriminations, followed by her meekly shrinking away with a nod.
But when she returned home, he cornered her in her room. And with the look he was giving her she wondered if her attacking him was the final straw. The one thing he was looking for to cast her out of the clan and wipe his hands of her.
He did the last thing she would have ever expected him to do.
Hyuuga Hiashi, head of the Hyuuga clan, her father, apologized.
For what seemed like hours, he simply stood at the foot of her bed, and talked to her. It was the changing point in their relationship.
He wasn't all that different to any outsiders, but to his two daughters, as well as Neji to a degree, he was the father Hinata spent countless nights praying he would become.
"You seem… peaceful this morning daughter."
Hinata pulled herself from her mental recount of the past, gifting her father with a beautiful smile. "Yes, it is a beautiful day today."
"Are you sure this has nothing to do with the Uzumaki child that has returned?" Hiashi asked behind a sip of morning tea.
Personally, Hiashi had no problem with his daughter pursuing the boy. For one, he didn't allow himself to function off of base emotions like so many lower class citizens. As long as the child was able to keep the beast contained and continue to do so till his grave, then the two of them would not have any problems.
The thought of marrying the kind of power Naruto held into his family never crossed his mind once… seriously.
Failing to hide the red blush on her cheeks, Hinata valiantly tried to derail the train of thought her father was heading on. "No, I am simply glad we have a chance to talk this morning. You have been so busy lately. Is something troubling you?"
"Ah. Konoha is entering interesting times. Everyone will have to remain vigilant in the coming trials."
"Is everything alright?" Hinata asked.
"Nothing you should trouble yourself over. You should also note that trying to distract me from the subject will not work."
Releasing a sigh, resigned to the fact that her father would not be dropping the subject, Hinata answered the initial question. "Naruto-kun is back, but I still cannot approach him without making a fool of myself." For just a moment, Hinata's visage was pained, something Hiashi caught easily. "I want to tell him how I feel, but… when I'm around him the words get caught and the only thing I can do is stutter and stare."
"Hmm."
Hinata seemed to sink further into herself, one of the few old habits she was still struggling to get rid of. "Maybe I'm not meant to be with him. After three years of trying to make myself stronger so I could be someone he could rely on; sadly, I'm still weak when it comes to talking to the most important thing."
"Very well then," Hiashi answered, his voice grave. "If that is how you feel then I can't help you anymore than I have."
"Otousan?"
"If you think the battle is already lost, then it is. A disheartened shinobi is always the first to die on the battlefield. That's why only the strongest of us survive. To waver means death."
Hinata broke in before his rant went into overdrive. It was something she learned he had the ability to do with frightening regularity. "Umm… Otousan, how does this relate to Naruto?"
Coughing into his hand, Hiashi gave Hinata his most steely gaze. "You must treat this as a battle Hinata. Otherwise you will end up defeated or dead, lost to the eyes of the very thing you seek. You must not waver from your ultimate goal."
"…?"
Hinata was completely lost now. She had no idea what he was talking about.
Leaning down until their faces were only inches apart, Hiashi knew his daughters reticence would need to be squashed out like so many weak shinobi. If his words of encouragement failed to do the job, then this tidbit of information would surely spur her into action like a true Hyuuga.
"I have received word from several very reliable sources that Uzumaki has several suitors claiming his hand."
Of course Hiashi didn't tell Hinata that when he said several, he only meant two. Neji, who Hiashi overheard talking to Ino regarding his female teammate's crush on Naruto, Tonton, Benten, or whatever her name was. And the desk clerk in the Hokage tower. The young woman was one of the greatest gossip hounds in Konoha. When Naruto came out grumbling aloud, she managed to piece together his garbled sentences and took her lunch break to immediately report to him.
"The details are scarce, and knowing the source maybe fabricated, but you cannot let this indecision mar your chances. If the rumors are true, your window of opportunity is shrinking daughter."
Hinata looked shocked, and a little scared. 'Someone else is after Naruto-kun? When did that happen? He's barely been back a week. And someone else is trying to steal him away. Where were they when he was alone, when he needed a shoulder to cry on, or someone to talk to?'
Miraculously, Hinata, in her mental rant, completely forgot about her inability to muster up a conversation with Naruto during those times as well.
The more she thought about, the angrier Hinata was getting. True, she was a rather timid young lady by nature, taking after her departed mother in that regard, but she was fast learning the advantages to throwing the occasional temper tantrum.
Hiashi sat back and watched his daughter's transformation. She would never reach the heights of Neji talent wise, but when she got angry, so drastic was the change that there were very few people that would not cower from the young woman in fear. If Hiashi had his way, and he did, it would be a requirement of any Hyuuga heir.
"Otousan, where is he now?"
Hiashi's smile wasn't pretty; in fact, it was nothing more than a miniscule upturn of his lips. The Hyuuga's facial muscles were allowed to atrophy from so many years of not using them, but he did it anyway. "He should be making his way from the Hokage tower as we speak."
Hinata stood, gave a deep, respectful bow to her father, and marched from the room, her back straight and head held high. Her countenance almost screamed 'touch me and die.'
Watching her leave the room, Hyuuga Hiashi almost felt tears come to his eyes. "Just like her mother," he whispered to the morning air.
Sakura was not having a pleasant morning and for the life of her she couldn't figure out why. Tsunade-sama let her off today, something that was so far-fetched Sakura had a miserable time sleeping.
Why?
Because practical experience said that anytime she got something for free, it never really was. Especially from her sensei. She did a good job on something, congratulations were in order, but following that would be an even tougher task to complete. It was absolutely maddening, and Sakura wondered if the woman had some sort of sadistic streak in her. The entire time Naruto was gone, the sannin had been in a less than charitable mood. For that alone Sakura was glad her teammate returned home.
'Liar,' her consciousness, AKA Inner Sakura, said to her. 'You're happy because you walked in on Naruto training in the forest without his shirt on the other day.'
"…"
Sakura chose to remain silent, but Inner Sakura would not be swayed.
'Did you see the way his shoulder muscles bunched up, or those magnificent looking abs. Or what about when he was drinking water from the stream. He looked so heavenly.'
The memory brought such glee to Inner Sakura she did a small pirouette. Giggling like a mad schoolgirl.
Yes, Sakura did see all that, and her monthly supply of drool ran out in record time. When she caught herself ogling Naruto of all people, Sakura thought it was high time to leave, maybe as a safety precaution she could get a checkup to make sure there wasn't anything seriously wrong with her mentally.
'I mean come on, Naruto,' she thought. He was the antithesis of everything she wanted in a man. Loud, foul-mouthed, a horrible dresser, he had no respect for any authority figures. She could keep going all day about everything that was wrong with him.
'He's also kind, loving, will do anything for anyone he considers a friend, puts himself in extreme danger to keep his promises. I can go on forever about the things that make him special,' Inner Sakura sarcastically answered in return.
At that, Sakura couldn't mount up a proper rebuttal. All of it was true. But still. Naruto. He was far behind anything she considered boyfriend material.
'Who said we were talking about making him our boyfriend?'
That's when Sakura made the decision to stop talking to herself. It was quickly becoming apparent that her inner woman was making a play at something she didn't want any part of.
Naruto?
Please.
The day she went after him as anything other than a friend, was when pigs would fly. Therefore signaling the end of all life as she knew it.
Besides, she had much more important matters to attend to. Being the Hokage's personal student wasn't exactly a walk in the park. Worrying about a relationship with anybody would only complicate matters.
Plus, her parents would be gone all day and the fridge was empty. Maybe a run to the market would take her mind away from the weird course it set on this morning. Just thinking about him…
Naruto?
Ha!
As Sakura wrote a short list of supplies, Inner Sakura shook her head. She could be dense a lot of times, namely dealing with Sasuke. It didn't take a genius to see the boy hadn't wanted anything to do with her romantically. Enough condescending putdowns and wordy slaps to the psyche should have made even Sakura understand when she was not wanted.
But that came with maturity. As a young girl, only her determination allowed Sakura not to succumb to depression. Sasuke, believe it or not, really had been the most important thing to her, and his not taking her away from Konoha was the best thing he could have done.
Now, years later, a beauty in her own right, Inner Sakura knew that being with Naruto was the best thing that could happen to herself. Not only would he protect her, but without a shadow of a doubt, she knew he would treat her like she deserved to be.
For weeks, she'd been eroding Sakura's defenses. Sending naughty dreams about Naruto and herself in hundreds of compromising situations, having talks about what it would be like to date someone who wouldn't make her chase them for once, and so many other tactics. The one problem was that the more she worked at Sakura's defenses, the more she herself wanted him, and now it seemed she didn't know where her want, and the outer Sakura's began.
The scene from the forest was just the icing on the cake. It made her vow that before the day was over she would be experiencing the wonderful lips of Uzumkai Naruto.
Walking out the door, Sakura had no idea why there was a blush on her cheeks.
Naruto tried to focus on the bowl in front of him. The marvelous masterpiece created by the gods of Ichiraku smelled heavenly. It was easy to say it would taste just as good. But to fully appreciate the work they put into it, it would require all of his attention. At the moment, that was a hard thing to gather.
On both sides of him were two girls, no make that women, each one eating their meals in different but just as efficient ways. During his travels, Naruto found out he could almost pinpoint a person's personality by the way they ate food. Naturally ramen was the best thing in the world, so it was easier for him to read people when they were eating the blessed noodles.
Take for instance, Temari. He noticed that she was what he dubbed a roller. Temari would take her chopsticks, grab hold of a nice amount of noodles, and roll them around until the noodles were wrapped into a nice ball, then eat them. It was an uncommon technique, one that very few people bothered to do in their rush to hurry up and finish eating. It also was a great example of his earlier thought. Her eating habit matched her personality perfectly.
He remembered the Chuunin exam, the second time he got to see her fight up close. Shikamaru, as lazy as unresponsive as he could be, was a known genius. But, the entire fight she held up mentally on her end, taking her time to think up strategies and plan counterattacks, giving pineapple head a good run for his money. That she lost was of little importance. It left an undeniable impression on him. Now she was a jounin, a very powerful one from what the old hag figured. Her pleas to not piss Temari off kind of nailed the point home.
Haku, now she was a strainer. She made sure there was not a single drop of juice capable of staining an inch of her clothing before eating. It was tedious and extremely boring, almost taking a full ten seconds to take one mouthful. Naruto would never be able to pull such a move off; he just didn't have the patience. Something Haku seemed to have in spades.
He hadn't gotten the full story yet, but for her to pull such a coup meant she was a planner. Someone that could wait weeks to make sure the right conditions were met before she enabled a plan. That was a strainer through and through.
Was there anything ramen couldn't help him solve? Naruto didn't think so.
"So Naruto-kun, what are you going to do now that you're back?" Haku asked.
His first goal was to get Sasuke back, without a doubt. Everything he had done for the past three years was to accomplish that one goal. But with this present situation hanging over his head he didn't know what to do. They came all the way here to see him, and if he just left to go and run around the country looking for his lost teammate he didn't think Haku or Temari would appreciate it. Add to that Gaara and Haku's father and things could get really ugly.
Unfortunately Naruto was going to get a crash course in what ugly really meant.
Naruto opened his mouth to answer when his danger sense started kicking in. What is this danger sense? Simply an involuntary internal defense that helped him peg incoming trouble aimed his way. It was a necessary skill he picked up. Traveling with Jiraiya and dealing with his blowups with the female populace meant life and death struggles with various female mobs.
"Naruto-kun, who are your friends?"
Turning around, Naruto found Tenten giving both girls cursory glances, especially Temari. She hadn't forgotten about the humiliation she had to take during the chuunin exams.
"Uh…"
At his non-answer, her eyes narrowed into slits, a fair bit of fire sparking in them. "You don't seem to ready to answer my question, Naruto-kun."
"About that… Uh…"
Temari, seeing where this would eventually end up going decided to cut to the chase. "We're his fiancée's."
There was a collective gasp of shock from everyone in sound range, the loudest coming from someone behind Tenten. Slowly Hinata stepped into the small cove, dazedly looking at the three people seated on the stools.
"Is that true Naruto-kun? Are you getting married?" Hinata asked, looking to be on the verge of tears.
Uncomfortable with the amount of attention focused on him, Naruto reluctantly answered. "Not really. They're here so I can get to know them better, at least that's what Tsunade-obaasan said. Something about not making me rush into a bad decision. I can say no."
Ever the conspirator, Haku watched the hope flair in the eyes of both young ladies and didn't like it one bit. Call her whatever you want but she was not going to lose the one male she wanted to a bunch of little girls.
Scooting over to grab his arm, Haku snuggled into his side, crushing his arm against her breasts, making Naruto turn red as a tomato. "We just have to make sure you don't. I don't mind becoming an Uzumaki."
If she could gauge it, Haku swore the temperature almost shot up several notches. Turning her charming smile to the silently seething girls, Haku reveled in the destruction. Glancing to her side she could see Temari quickly realizing the same thing. That these females were going to be trouble.
Hinata remembered her father's earlier words and cooled down. She would not let that hussy get to her. "Naruto-kun, may I talk to you in private?" Hinata asked.
Temari narrowed her eyes, heading off the all too apparent attempt to remove them from the variable. "I don't think he can. He was told to help us look for housing."
Tenten frowned, her face taking on a scary resemblance to Neji at his most frightening. "I don't think she asked you. Naruto-kun can speak for himself."
"Listen here chuunin, you need to mind your elders," Temari almost snarled.
"Why you …"
Hinata turned to Naruto, zoning out the mounting argument to her right, and tried to grab his hand, but was stopped by Haku's impossibly quick reaction. "I don't think taking him at this moment will be the best course of action."
"Is that a threat?" Hinata asked, her voice deceptively calm.
"Wow Ayame-chan. This new recipe is great. Your ramen is almost better than your old mans."
And just like that, the tension that had clogged the air, the violence that was only a few seconds away from commencing shattered when all four girls turned to look at the grinning Naruto and blushing, but slightly frightened Ayame.
Just now noticing the eerie quiet, Naruto turned and looked around. "What?"
Naruto may rip into the perverted Jiraiya a lot of the time, and for good reason, but when the four females surrounding him suddenly started grinding their teeth, battle aura's glowing in various frightening colors, he had no choice but to rely on one of his sensei's age old tactics.
Make someone else the scapegoat and get the hell out.
Women hated perverts, it was hard wired in their DNA. That's why Kakashi provided the perfect cover for him to get out this situation. "Look, there's goes Kakashi reading that perverted book again. Oh my God, there are kids in sight."
Everyone looked at the silver haired shinobi who was, to his impeding detriment, actually walking past a group of children with his all too familiar orange book in hand. Feeling the heating gazes, he looked up to see a group of angry females glaring daggers at him.
"Oh boy."
They were taking measured steps toward Kakashi, the malice in their eyes easy to see, and the promise of pain all too apparent. Naruto, in a stealthy move, dropped his payment and a sizeable tip for Ayame, gave, a small wave, a beat a hasty retreat.
'Serves the pervert right. I told him those books were going to get him killed,' Naruto thought as he raced toward safer grounds.
AN: Thanks go to JohnnyG for looking over this. It seems my subconscious is intent on making me write poorly enough that he uses entire days to fix my writing problems.
A little longer than last time and with time constraints it took a lot longer than expected but here it is. Got to give a big thank you to the reviewers. I was more than a little surprised to see the amount of responses.
Some people are wondering about Hiashi. Actually, JohnnyG came up with the idea of him supporting Hinata for once. When he gave me the idea, I simply ran with it. It may seem a bit unbelievable, but if his own kid, Hinata of all people, attacked him in a blind fit of rage, then either two things might happen. He'll either take a long look at himself and change, or he'll continue to be the prick he is and go on his merry way. I chose the former apparently. As for Hinata herself, you can only be a kickstand for so long in your life before you take extreme measures to remedy the problem. Strangely, I can see her pulling a Tonya Harding under the worst conditions.
As you can see from the ramen scene, there is going to be an inordinate amount of violence. So pasting an extreme AU disclaimer in front is kinda late, but be forewarned.
