The Difference: Ch 1

Firsts.

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Naruto Uzamaki: Shy boy, Age: 5, Identifiable traits: Love of Ramen, blonde hair, blue eyes, generally quiet.

Hinata Michiko: Obnoxious troubled girl, Age 5, Identifiable traits: Purplish-blue hair, silverish eyes with no pupils, three 'whisker' marks on each chin, never gives up, ever.

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Naruto Uzamaki was sitting in the bushes, watching his fellow classmate, Hinata Michiko, practicing fighting a wooden dummy.

This was about the fifth time he had watched her work, but he never gathered the courage to say hi to her. Naruto was a shy boy, many adults made fun of him, since his father was Minato, who almost became fourth Hokage, but lost to Hiashi Hyuuga. He was usually picked on by other kids for being shy, so he usually didn't say much.

Hinata kept hitting the dummy, but she was obviously being strained, Naruto could see the sweat on her face from his hiding place in the bush.

'Why does she try so hard?' Naruto thought to himself. 'Everyone pushes her around, and picks on her so much, but she tries hard anyway.'

Hinata hit the dummy again, and fell to her knees in exhaustion. She was breathing heavily, but she tried to get back up. When she was back on her feet, she moved as though she were going to strike the dummy again, but turned around and threw a rock, which hit Naruto in his head.

Before Naruto could get back up from the ground after being hit by that rock, Hinata grabbed his arm, and used it to pin him down, while holding another rock in her hand.

"Please don't kill me!" Naruto yelled.

"Why are you spying on me." Hinata asked him, her rock poised to strike.

"I just wanted to watch you train, that's all, I promise, just please don't kill me!" Naruto pleaded.

"Uhh... you do get it's just a rock, right?" Hinata said.

"Yeah, but they way you hit that dummy, I bet you could kill me easy."

"Why are you watching me train." Hinata asked him.

"It's just that... you never give up, even though people tell you you're going to lose, or fail, you still try really hard. I give up all the time, people tell me I'm never going to win, but I see you and... you just seem so strong." He said.

"You're Naruto, right?"

"Yeah."

"That shy kid who never says anything."

"Uh-huh"

Hinata put her rock down, but still kept little Naruto pinned.

"How do I know you're not trying to get people to come hear so they can start beating me up?" Hinata asked him.

"I mean it, I just wanted to watch you practice!" Naruto said.

"If you mean it... then be my new practice dummy, or I'll kill you with my rock." Hinata threatened him.

"Okay, okay... wait, practice dummy, doesn't that mean I can't fight back?" Naruto said.

"Yes now get up." Hinata got of of Naruto, and went back to her training spot. Naruto soon joined her, and stood arms at his side, embracing for any pain he might get.

'I still don't trust him. I always wanted to see what happens if I hit one of those points.' Hinata thought.

As Naruto looked at Hinata, he noticed her eyes suddenly got bigger, and veins around her eyes popped out.

"Whoa! What happened to your eyes?!" Naruto said in awe.

"Yeah, yeah, make fun of me all you want." Hinata said.

"That's awesome!"

"Huh?" Hinata said in utter confusion.

"I've never see someone do that, you think you can teach me how to do that?" Naruto said.

'I guess he's... different from everyone else.' Hinata thought.

"After we're done practicing. Now hold still."

Hinata jabbed Naruto in a spot on his right shoulder. It hurt Naruto initially, but he soon noticed that he couldn't move his arm anymore.

"Hey, I can't move my arm! How the heck did you do that?" Naruto said as though it was the coolest thing in the world.

"I didn't know I could do that." Hinata said to herself.

"Do you think you can undo it?" Naruto asked her.

"I can try." With Hinata looked at the same point she had hit, which looked different than if had before. She jabbed it again, and soon, Naruto was able to move his arm again.

"That was cool! How did you do that?!" Naruto asked.

"That's enough training for today. Come back tomorrow, I might tell you." Hinata said.

"All right, you got, believe it!" Naruto said giving the biggest grin she had ever seen.

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The next day at the same spot, Hinata managed to disable both of Naruto's arms, and then his legs, before she put him back to normal, so she could do it again. She did this maybe 80 times. And Naruto was allowed to fight back, even though that did little-to-nothing to help.

"Alright, I think that's enough but kicking's for today." Hinata said.

"Great, I felt like I was gonna die. I brought lunch, you want some?" Naruto asked, producing a lunch-box.

"Is it alright?" Hinata asked, unused to genarosity.

"Yeah, I offered, didn't I?"

The two sat together and ate the lunch.

"Naruto this food is excellent, where'd you get it?" Hinata asked

"My mom made it, you wouldn't think she's a good cook, but boy is she!" He said with pride. "By the way Hinata, I wanted to ask you about how you did that thing with your eye's, and hit my legs and junk, how'd you do that?"

"Oh, well with my eyes, I've always been like that, I just have to focus for a while, and I can look through walls--"

"YOU CAN LOOK THROUGH WALLS!!?" Naruto yelled in awe of her abilities.

"DON"T YELL IN MY EAR LIKE THAT YOU DUMMY!" Hinata yelled back.

"Sorry."

"And yes, I can look through walls, but everything turns black-and white when I do, except people, animals, and plants, when I look at them, it's like someone drew blue lines all over their bodies."

"Blue lines? What are those?" Hinata asked.

"I'm not sure, but there are a lot of dots on them, and when I hit those dots, you weren't able to move. I call the ability my 'Eagle eye'." Hinata said.

"Hinata, your like the coolest person I've ever met. Do you think we can be friends?"

"Friends?" Hinata said.

"Yeah, I probably wouldn't be a really good friend, you'd be the only one I have, and I mess up a lot, but still, I'd like it very much if you said yes." Naruto said.

Hinata looked him in his eyes. He had such a hopeful, innocent look in his eyes. It made Hinata believe that things could actually get better for her.

"Sure Naruto, I'd love to be your friend."

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Two weeks later

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"Hinata!" Hinata turned to see Naruto running towards her holding something in his hand. "Hinata, guess what I've got!" Naruto said excitedly.

"It looks like a frog." Hinata said.

"Ahh, but guess what's in the frog."

"Just give me a second." She said as she tried to activate her eagle eye.

"Nuh-uh-ah, you have to guess, no cheating."

"All right, I give up, what's in the frog?"

"Money!" Naruto told her. "My mom paid me for my chores, and now I'm going to spend it."

"Well, what are you going to spend it on?" She asked him.

"Lunch with you." He said.

"But I haven't got any money."

"Who said you had to pay, my treat."

"O-okay then." Hinata said, still unused to charity. "Where are we gonna go?"

"Only to the best food stand on the entire earth! Ichiraku's Ramen! Come on!" With that he started running to the food stand, he was so eager.

"Hey slow down! I can't eat if I don't know where it is!"

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"Come on Hinata!" Naruto said running backwards "I thought you were- oof!" Naruto was cut off when he hit the food stand, and fell on the ground.

"That's what you get for not waiting for me." Hinata told him when she caught up.

"You two should be careful, it's not a good idea to waste your youth bumping into things, and almost spilling meals." Someone in a green jumpsuit who was sitting on the table.

"Especially when it's my meal, you two understand?" He said facing the duo. The man had THE biggest eyebrows, in recorded history. When they saw this, the two couldn't help but break into hysterical laughter. "Hey what are you two laughing about, this is serious business."

"Its- its- its those- those huge eyebrows of yours mister!" Naruto said.

"They look-they look like their a pair of caterpillars!" Hinata said.

"I'll have you know, where I come from, large eyebrows are a symbol of status." He said, obviously annoyed by the two.

"There's no way we can take you seriously with those eyebrow's mister!" Hinata told him.

"That's it I'm leaving." With that, the the man with the big eyebrows left the stand, his meal still unfinished.

"Great, you drove off a customer, you better be worth it- oh" The woman attending the stand, a 15-16 year old girl, looked over the counter to see Naruto. "Hello Naruto, good to see you, what'll it be?"

Naruto got up from the ground and took a seat, and motioned Hinata to do the same.

"Nice to see you too, I brought a friend with me, let me introduce Hinata." Naruto said.

"I'm sorry, we didn't mean to drive off a customer." Hinata said.

"Ah it's okay." The girl responded. "Naruto's like three customers by himself."

"I'll have the usual, Hinata what do you want?" Naruto asked.

"I'll have what you have okay?"

"Okay, let me count out the money, 1,2,3, alright here you go." He said handing the waiter the money.

"Wait a minute." She said. "You're paying for her?"

"Yeah. Why not?" Naruto said.

"Never thought I'd see the day..." The waiter said, going to the kitchen to cook the food.

"What was that about?" Hinata asked him. Naruto just shrugged.

"All right, two big bowls of ramen, here you go." The waiter said as she handed them their food.

"Bon apetite!" Naruto said, as he started digging into his food. Hinata started slower, up to this point she had never had any ramen, but found it tasted great.

"Hmm, this is really good Naruto, thank you for-"

"More please!" Naruto said.

"Huh?" Hinata peered over and saw that Naruto's bowl was already empty. "How the heck can someone eat that fast!"

"Ramen is one of my few strong points." Naruto said proudly.

"Here you go Naurto," The waitress said. "More Ramen." Naruto paid her, and downed the bowl in seconds.

"There is no way a person can do that." Hinata muttered.

"It's a talent." Naruto told her.

"It's being greedy." Hinata told him.

"It's not as easy as it looks you know." He told her.

"Anyone can act like a pig." She remarked.

"Fine, the let's race, see who finishes their bowl first."

"You're on!"

"An eating contest?" The chef from behind the counter remarked. "Against Naruto? I gotta see this."

"Well on the count of three then?" The waitress said. "Okay, one... two... three!"

The two dived into their bowls, and Hinata fiercely ate hers in an effort to beat Naruto. However when Hinata finished from her bowl, she turned and saw Naurto already had three empty bowls by his side.

"You are not Human." Hinata said.

"Don't feel so bad, I'll get you another bowl, here--" Naruto reached into his frog wallet, but discovered it was completely empty. "Oh come on, I'm out already?!" He said in dismay.

"That's what you get for being a pig." Hinata told him.

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4 months later

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"Hinata Michiko. I presume you know why you are here, correct?" The third Hokage, the old and wise leader of the village, asked Hinata.

"Now, I don't now why I'm here, these people are only wasting my time, and I have places to be, so could you tell them to let me leave?" Hinata said.

"She's here because she was in a fight Lord Hokage." Iruka-sensei said. "You don't have to involve yourself with this, I'm assure you this will be dealt with."

"Ah, but a leader must make sure he is in touch with his people." The Hokage said. "Now, what happened during the fight?"

"Well, Hinata fought with three boys, each of them bigger than her, and now they have been sent to the hospital, partially paralyzed, and with broken bones." Iruka told him.

"I see. Hinata, could you please tell me why you were fighting?" The Hokage asked.

"They were making fun of Naruto. He wouldn't stand up for himself, so I did." She told him.

"Really, was that bad enough to send them to the hospital?" The Hokage asked.

"Hey! They were making fun of him because he was being my friend! He gets picked on all the time, and I'm the only one who stands up for him! Maybe if he wasn't the only one who tried treating me like a person, I'd wouldn't have hit those guys as hard as they did. It's all their fault."

"Hinata, while a applaud your spirit and fighting abilities, you can't attack people like that, it's a wrong thing to do. You can leave here, I'll discuss with your teachers about how this will be handled. Now Iruka, I've been meaning to talk to you about--"

Hinata bolted out of their the moment she could. She knew they didn't care about her. That's why she had to make sure she was strong enough to make them care. Hinata exited the school building, and saw Naruto sitting on the swing set hanging from the tree.

"Hey Hinata, did you get in trouble?" He asked.

"No, they decided that beating up three guys wasn't that big of a deal, and let me on my way." She said sarcastically, sitting down next to him on the swing.

"Oh, I'm-"

"Sorry, I know, don't be. It wasn't your fault." Hinata told him.

"But you fought them because they were picking on me." Naruto said.

"Hey, I'd take on the Nine-tailed fox if it meant having to help you. I don't get you Naruto, first your shy, then I can't get you to shut up, and now your getting back to being shy again."

"Well I feel like I'm started being a nuisance to you Hinata." He said. "You got into even more trouble, trying to keep those guys from picking on me, I'm just starting to think that it would be best if I stop bothering you."

"Naruto, I wouldn't care if you destroyed the village by accident, your still the only one decent enough to be nice to me, and I'm the only one you've got. We need each other. Besides, your the one who introduced me to the wonders of Ramen. You know what, let's pool together, and we can have a bowl of Ramen. We can celebrate the fact I haven't been punished yet."

"Really? Do really, truly mean it?" Naruto asked, looking as though he would be on the verge of tears.

"Yes! I really mean it! Man, for a guy, your kinda a wuss." Hinata said.

"Yeah but... for a girl, you aren't very ladylike." He told her.

"That just means we complement eachother."

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Okay, if you didn't get it by now, Naruto's dad died in the nine-tailed fox attack, but his mom lived, also, Hinata's dad was named Hokage instead on Naruto's dad. I chose to change Hinata's last name, because obviously the Hyuuga wouldn't want to be affiliated with 'the demon'. I got the name from Hinata's mom from another story, faith of the heart, which would be better if it updated.

The Byukagun is referred to as the Eagle Eye, since Hinata wouldn't know what it's name really is.