Disclaimer: I don't even own a car let alone any of the rights to Naruto.
A/N: Thank you for the encouraging words, I didn't know that people would like it so much. Congrats to NeoHummel, who figured out the first stanza within a few hours, when I wasn't even halfway through writing this chapter. Nobody was able to figure out the whole thing, so I'm not sure if I'm going to end up writing the omake. As I promised, the solution to the first stanza is in here. FYI, Kiba will use the word Daken in this chapter, which is Japanese for mongrel or cur. If you don't know what those mean, then there is no hope left for you. Here it is, Chapter 2.
Chapter 2: He Hadn't the Faintest Idea
The next day, after completing the morning mission, and training most of the afternoon, Naruto was heading full speed towards the south-east edge of the village. 'I'm just glad that Kakashi let us away early, I might just be able to get there in time to see where the light leads.', he thought as he was jumping from rooftop to rooftop. He stopped, though, when he saw a commotion in an alley that he had just jumped over. He turned around, crouched, and brought his eyes over the edge, sending chakra to his ears to enhance his hearing, a technique that Kakashi had taught him just a few hours a go. They twitched when he started to pick up what was being said.
Down below, three muggers were surrounding someone, holding knives. He couldn't tell who the person was, but could see that it was a young girl. "Okay girlie, hand over that expensive looking jacket of yours, and all of your money too.", one said, waving his knife around, acting as if he knew how to really use it. Above, Naruto saw her take off the jacket, and recognized the insignia on the arm. 'Hinata!', he quietly made a dozen shadow clones, telling them to spread out. He turned his attention back to the alley below.
The boss had just finished counting the money, and was now looking over Hinata, checking for any jewelry. When he didn't find any, his thoughts changed, noticing her already developing body, "Say, why don't you take the rest off, and we'll have a little fun.", Hinata, seeing him moving closer, backed up and brought her hands up, shaking her head and starting to cry. The other two just stood there, chuckling and licking there lips.
"Hey, ya perverts, shouldn't you at least buy her dinner first?", the thieves all turned to see a silhouette standing at the end of the alleyway, the setting sun behind him. They regretted that action though, as they had unwittingly looked straight into the sun, the light momentarily blinding them. They weren't given any time to react though, as they all heard the sound of several thuds around them. Before they knew it, they were all out cold, laying in heaps on the ground.
The real Naruto walked over to them, dispelling his shadow clones. After lightly kicking them a few times to make sure he hadn't killed them, he turned to see Hinata huddled and shaking against the wall, her eyes screwed shut and her arms wrapped around her in fear.
Hinata was trapped in her own thoughts. As soon as she understood what they were planning to do to her, she stopped hearing anything, she didn't even see the newcomer. She lay there, waiting for the pain. Instead of the rough touch that she was expecting, she felt arms gently wrap around her. Startled, she opened her eyes to see a shock of blonde hair. She couldn't tell who it was through her tears, but saw their mouth moving, but still not hearing a word.
Naruto had bent down and looked at her, she had clearly not noticed him yet. "Hinata, are you okay? They didn't hurt you, did they.", she didn't respond, not even showing if she had heard. Seeing the pain she was in, he was reminded of all the times he had felt a similar pain. All of those times he had just been hoping that somebody, anybody, even just one person would stick up for him, pick him up, tell him it would all be alright and hug him. Knowing this he got closer, wrapping his arms around her, trying to comfort her. Seeing that he had finally gotten a reaction from her, he asked a again, "Hinata, are you all right?"
Hinata, realizing why she couldn't see, brought her hands up and wiped away the tears. Naruto seeing that the crying had stopped, smiled at her, trying to calm her down. She saw his smiling face inches from hers, felt blood rush to her cheeks, and all went dark.
Naruto, seeing that she had fainted, started worrying, but calmed down when he saw that the beginnings of a smile were on her face. Leaning her gently against the wall, he went back over to the thieves and picked up her jacket, putting it over her like a blanket. He searched their pockets, taking out any valuables, weapons, and any forms of identification. He tied them up and made 3 clones. He gave them the I.D. cards and a note explaining what had happened, no names involved. The clones each picked up one of the three men and went off to drop them at the ANBU HQ with the note.
Gathering up all of the money, he put it into the finer made money pouch he had found, assuming that it was Hinata's. He stored the weapons away in his pouches and went back over to Hinata, placing the wallet in one of the pockets on her coat. He then picked her up bridal style and walked out of the alley, making sure not to wake her. As he was walking, he suddenly remembered what he had been doing before he had saved her. He quickly looked up to the stone faces to see that they were completely shrouded in shadow. Sighing, he continued to his apartment, smiling down at Hinata whenever she shifted.
Reaching his apartment, he lay her on the ground, leaning against the wall while he unlocked the door. He would have preferred to have taken her to the Hyuga estate, but had realized that people would probably misunderstand when they saw him holding her, thinking that he had been her assailant. It didn't help either that he had no idea where the Hyuga estate actually was. Once the door was unlocked and open, he picked her back up and went inside, gently laying her down on his couch before going back and shutting and locking the door. He walked back over to her, adjusting a strand of hair that had fallen out of place when she had stirred.
He stood there for a few minutes, studying her features, never having gotten a good look at her before. In truth, he had always found Hinata to be quite cute. Not as pretty as Sakura, but then again, he had never really gotten a good look at her face. She was always blushing and turning away from his gaze, seeming to fear eye contact, and always wore that bulky jacket, preventing anybody from seeing her physique. She really was beautiful, now that he got a good look at her. He was brought out of his thoughts when he heard his stomach growl. Readjusting her coat so it would act like a blanket, he moved towards the kitchen area, he got out and prepared two cups of Insta-Ramen, one for him, and one for Hinata, just in case she was hungry when she woke up. After finishing his meal, he took out the scroll that held the riddle, trying to come up with the answers. He soon dozed, and fell asleep, head on the table.
Hinata stirred, waking up and stretching. She had been having a horrible nightmare, she had dreamt that she was being attacked by strangers, but had been saved at the last minute by a mysterious Knight in Shining Armor. Once she looked around her, she realized that she was not in her bed, but was laying down on the couch in a strange apartment. Naruto, woken up from the sound of her moving around, raised his head groggily and looked at her. As soon as she saw Naruto, she remembered everything that had happened. She got up, tears forming in her eyes, and ran to Naruto, hugging and startling him. Once she grabbed him, he was completely awake. He heard the sounds of her sobbing and felt a wetness start to form on his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her and patted her back. "It's alright, it's over now, you're safe."
After a few minutes, the tears had stopped flowing, but she was still shaking. Hugging him, she could smell him. Oddly, he smelled slightly of pines and citrus, and she chuckled because he always wore orange, and smelled like one too. She gripped his jacket tighter and pulled herself closer to him, breathing in his scent, drawing comfort from it, and let out a raspy sigh, her throat still slightly raw from crying. Naruto took these the wrong way. He felt the shake from her chuckle and thought she was scared, felt her pull closer and thought she needed something to hold onto, and heard her breath, and mistook it for her trying to recover from her sobs. She suddenly remembered who she had been hugging, and realized that she wasn't wearing her coat. She jumped away with an *eep*, blood rushing back to her face, twiddling her fingers again. Naruto looked at her, confused, "Hinata, is there something wrong, are you hurt somewhere and I accidentally touched it?", He saw her nervously shake her head, never making eye contact with him. "Then tell me, why are you acting like this?"
"I-It's because, um-I-uh-", she just kept glancing at her coat, wishing that she was wearing it right now.
"Don't tell me you hate me too.", she suddenly looked over at him too see him hanging his head, tears falling down onto his lap, "Why, why does everybody hate me? Does this hate run so deep, that even one of my classmates, one who I had just saved, hate me, just for existing?", stunned she looked at him, confused. She flinched when he slammed his fist into the table. She then saw him grab the part of his shirt that was covering his belly. "It's not my fault, it's all because of this damned thing inside me. Why did I have to be the one.", he raised his head and looked out of the small window, staring at the face of the Yondaime.
"I-I don't hate you, N-Naruto-kun.", he looked back at her to see her looking at him, confusion on her face. "W-Why would I e-ever hate you, Naruto-kun?", she walked over to him, sitting down in a chair next to him, her shyness forgotten.
"You don't hate me? Then I'm begging you, tell me, why do you always avoid getting near me, acting afraid and jumping away whenever I even brush against you?", he grabbed her shoulders, looking at her pleadingly.
Her face redder then ever, "Well, I-I, um, i-it's because I, w-well, um,", she started out. When she saw the pained look in his eyes, seeing that he thought that she had just been lying before, she brought up her courage, "It's because I love you!", she said, a little louder than she meant to, and she brought her hands to her mouth, covering it, regretting what she had just said, 'What if he rejects me? We barely know each other.'
"You what?", he asked, thinking that he hadn't heard her correctly.
"I s-said, th-that I l-l-love you.", she whispered, barely audible, and on the verge of passing out.
Naruto just sat there, rethinking all the times they had interacted in any way, realizing that what she had said was true. All of the sudden, he moved towards her, hugging her, "Thank you, Hinata-chan.", he leaned in and gave her a peck on the forehead, but that was all it took for her to go over the edge, passing out.
Naruto, seeing her head fall onto his chest, looked at her in surprise. He smiled, though, when he realized why she had passed out. He moved her back to the couch, making sure that she had a pillow under her head, and that her coat would keep her warm. He went back to the table, and was just about to pick up the scroll when he saw the uneaten cup of ramen. Chuckling to himself, he rolled up the scroll and stored it away underneath a loose floorboard. After cleaning up, he decide that he would go over the jutsu that Kakashi had taught him, trying to enhance his senses, until she woke up.
This time, Hinata had dreamt that the Knight had taken her back to his castle, where he sung sonnets to her, and did things to her that made her blush, even in her sleep, causing her to faint in her dream. Of course, instead of fainting in her dream, she actually woke up, again startled by her surroundings until she remembered where she was.
Naruto, who had been enhancing his hearing at the time, heard her yawn and the sound of her clothes moving as if they were an earthquake. He quickly stopped the flow of chakra, but not quickly enough to stop his ears from ringing. He looked over at Hinata, spinning his pinkie in his ear. "Oh you're awake. How was your nap?", he chuckled when she jumped and looked at him with a slight blush. "You can stay here until morning if you want.", he said, yawning, getting up and heading to his bedroom.
"Um, Naruto-kun?"
"Hm?", he let out, clearly tired.
"Um, c-can I sleep in y-your bed t-tonight?", she let out, "Not to impose, or anything.", she quickly added, not wanting to seem rude.
"Oh, sure, *yawn*, I'm fine with taking the couch." He had started walking back towards the couch.
"I, uh, I actually meant, w-would you mind i-if we sh-shared the b-bed?", she said, more nervously than before.
Naruto, was a little surprised. He was processing any reasons she may have had for asking for this. She had just confessed that she loved him, but the image brought by that thought made him blush. He shook his head slightly, 'No, Hinata's far too nervous to want to do that right now. She passed out when I pecked her on the forehead.' Then his thoughts returned to the reason she was here in the first place. He nodded slightly, 'Yeah, she must be nervous, and still shaken up and scared. Seeing as how she obviously trusts me, she will feel safer if she sleeps close to me, where I can protect her.'
"Naruto-kun, are you alright?", Hinata asked, worried he may have been offended by her request. 'He must have taken it the wrong way. Now he thinks I'm a slut!', were her thoughts, tears threatening to return.
Naruto saw her tears and panicked, raising his hands and waving them in front of him, "Yeah I'm okay, just stop crying. You're prettier when you smile, so be happy."
The unexpected compliment caused an intense blush to spread across Hinata's face, "S-so, you don't think I'm being to f-forward?", She asked.
"No, it's fine. I understand why you need to be close to somebody right now."
"So, I can sleep in your bed?", Hinata asked, hopefully.
"Sure, just, *yawn*, just let me change into my PJ's first."
There was a sudden growling sound in the room, causing Hinata to jump with an *eep*, and look around, searching for whatever had made the sound. They heard it again, but this time she looked down at herself, realizing that it was her stomach, earning a chuckle from Naruto, and causing Hinata to blush and start the twiddling again. Naruto walked back over to the table and picked up the now-cold ramen and a set of chopsticks, "Here, I made this for you earlier, but it's kinda cold now.", he said, handing it to her, "Just come in whenever you've eaten enough.", he said before walking into his room.
She waited until he was gone before scarfing it down with a ferocity that people had only ever seen with Naruto. It wasn't really that she loved ramen, but more that she hadn't eaten anything at all that day. She had decided to go on a diet after hearing that some of the other girls were doing it, thinking that the reason Naruto had never really noticed her before because she was a little bigger than the the other girls. After all, he had always seemed to chase after Sakura, who was the smallest in the class. After finishing it in about thirty seconds, she put it in the trash can, when she suddenly burped loud enough for Naruto to hear, who had started to chuckle, causing her to blush.
She found the bathroom and took off her mesh shirt, leaving on nothing but her undershirt and bra. She left her pants alone, certain Naruto would berate her for being to forward if she didn't wear them to bed. Blushing, she headed into Naruto's room, where Naruto was already asleep. She crawled in next to Naruto, making sure not to disturb him, or touch him for that matter. Just as she was fading off, Naruto turned and wrapped his arms around her, "Mmmm, looks delicious.", he mumbled, clearly still asleep, he suddenly licked Hinata's cheek. Hinata, realizing what had just happened, promptly passed out for the third time that night, this time with a smile on her face.
When she woke up, the sun was just starting it's climb into the sky. She lay in the bed for a bit, letting her memories from yesterday come back to her. There were three good reasons why she was not freaking out right now, being in somebody else's bed, in somebody else's residence. Number one, she was fully clothed. Number two, Naruto's subtle scent was all over his bed. Number three, this hadn't been the first time she had seen the inside of Naruto's room. She hadn't snuck in, she wasn't a fangirl, no, she had instead used her Byakugan to spy on Naruto when he was home sometimes, once even seeing him... She shook the thoughts from her head. She could feel her body reacting to that image and his smell around her.
She sat up and stretched, yawning. Seeing that Naruto wasn't with her, she assumed that he had left to go talk to her parents before they started to worry. She got up and groggily shuffled out of his bedroom and over to the bathroom. She opened the door to the steam filled room, walked over to the toilet, and sat down. She finished, and was about to stand up, when a white noise, that had been there when she woke up, disappeared. She raised her head and looked at the curtain just in time to see Naruto pulling it back.
Naruto had woken up early, seeing Hinata in bed with him. He had started to freak out, but then he remembered what had happened last night, and calmed down. He had gotten out of bed, careful not to wake her up, and headed to the bathroom to start his morning routine. Now he was walking out of the shower, searching for his towel. When he saw Hinata sitting on the toilet, her lower half exposed, he froze. Multiple things happened. Hinata screamed out of instinct, sending her hands down to cover herself up. Blood gushed out of Naruto's nose, causing him to stagger backwards and slip. He grabbed onto the curtain, which just tore off the rings and fell on top of him, barely covering him up. Hinata, after seeing this, looked over at him to see that he was out cold, and blood was still trickling out of his nose and his leg was twitching, "N-Naruto-kun?"
A few minutes later had the two of them sitting awkwardly at his table, Naruto with tissues up his nose, and Hinata heavily blushing, eating cereal. "Um, Hinata-chan, don't you think that your parents will be worried that you never came home last night?", said Naruto, who had started to lean his chair back slightly.
Hinata jumped up, "Oh Kami, he's probably sent out the rest of the clan searching for me!", she yelled, startling Naruto, causing him to lose balance and fall backwards, hitting his head on floor, "Oh, N-Naruto-kun, a-are you alright?", she looked at him, concerned to see that he was out cold again.
After they had finished breakfast, they started walking to the Hyuga compound. Hinata was staring at Naruto, blushing and twiddling. Naruto, now with a patch bandage on his head where he had hit it, had a pained expression on his face, occasionally casting a glare at Hinata, causing her to look to her feet until he looked away again. They continued like this, not saying a word, Hinata wondering if her father would understand why she hadn't come home, and Naruto wondering how severe his concussion was.
They were almost to the compound, when suddenly, a group of four ninja, all with the distinctive white eyes of the Hyuga, landed in front of them. "Hinata-sama, where have you been? Has this boy harmed you in any way?", the lead Hyuga inquired, glancing towards Naruto.
"W-Well, um, y-you s-see-", Hinata didn't know where to begin.
"Hinata-chan has been with me. She had been attacked by some muggers.", Naruto said, stepping between Hinata and the others when he saw how nervous she was. "Thankfully I was passing by, and stopped them before they could hurt her. She passed out from the shock of the event, so I brought her back to my place until she woke up.", he glared unflinchingly at each of them until they turned away from those hard eyes, those eyes that had seen so much suffering, daring them to question his motives.
The lead Hyuga looked past Naruto to Hinata, "Is this true, Lady Hinata?", he asked. When she nodded, he turned back to Naruto, quickly looking away when he tried to meet his gaze, "Why didn't you take her to the Hospital or the Hyuga compound?"
"I didn't take her to the hospital because, as I said earlier, she wasn't hurt, she had only passed out.", he sighed, "I didn't take her to her home because I have absolutely no idea where it is.", he said, rubbing the back of his head.
"But, you could have asked somebody where it was, why didn't you do that?", asked another of the four, thinking he had gotten him.
"You and I both know that as soon as they saw me holding Hinata, they probably would have formed a mob and attacked me, thinking that I had been the one to attack her.", he turned his gaze to the younger Hyuga, who, despite already being a chunin, hid from his gaze behind the leader.
"None the less, we need to take Hinata back to the Hyuga compound to talk with Hiashi-sama. You should come too, so you can explain your side of the story to him.", trying to grab Hinata, he was stopped when his arm was suddenly grabbed by a slightly clawed hand. Activating his Byakugan, he looked over at the person who had interfered, "Let go of me, Inuzuka brat."
Naruto and Hinata turned, startled, to see an angry Kiba holding the Hyuga's arm, his features starting to turn feral, Akamaru barking at them from on top of his head. "Leave her alone, Daken!", he growled, jutsu enhanced fangs growing.
"I said let go, unless you want to lose that hand!", he was drawing a ninja-to, when suddenly Shino and Kurenai dropped down from a nearby roof.
"Kiba, that's enough! Let go of him, now!", Kurenai glared at him, her red eyes almost seeming to glow. Kiba, still defiant, only stopped when he heard Akamaru whimper. Reluctantly, he let go of the jonin's arm, leaving some claw marks behind, from where he was gripping so tight. "I'm sorry, Hyuga-san, it won't happen again.", Kurenai said, turning to the lead Hyuga and bowing slightly, while he just nodded, deactivating his Byakugan, rubbing his wrist and mumbling about Inuzuka mutts.
A short conversation later had Naruto informed of what had been happening, "So Team 8 was searching for Hinata as well when you guys heard she was missing?", they all nodded, "And when you were searching, Kiba suddenly ran off, because he had caught her scent?"
"That is a good summary.", Shino droned.
"Hm, I'm just surprised that you didn't find her scent at the alley and tracked it back to my place.", Naruto kept walking, hands in his pockets.
"We were planning on checking the path between the Hyuga compound and our training grounds, but Kiba got too excited when he heard that she was missing and we just ran after him, unable to calm him down.", Kurenai sighed, "If we had gone there in the first place, instead of following any faint trace of her scent, which is no doubt covering the village, we wouldn't have been searching all night.", she glared at Kiba, causing him to hang his head, and Akamaru to whimper.
They arrived at the compound to see Hiashi standing out front, waiting for news. As soon as he saw Hinata, a look of relief crossed his face before he checked himself and returned to his stern facade. "Hinata, I trust you aren't hurt."
"N-no father, I'm f-fine.", Hinata let out, before suddenly running over to him, hugging him and sobbing. Hiashi looked at the others, eyebrow raised. His gaze lingered on Naruto, who was the only one who didn't share his look of confusion, but instead just looked sad.
Picking up Hinata like he had when she was smaller, with her head on his shoulder and her almost sitting on his arm, he motioned for them to all to come in. They first went to Hanabi's room, where he knew she would be waiting for news with their mother, Hisakata. As soon as they entered, Hanabi got up and ran over to Hinata, who had been put down already. Hiashi, after closing the door, took them to his office. As soon as they were all settled, he dismissed the other Hyuga. Once he was sure nobody else was listening in, "Naruto-san, you seem to be the one who knows what has happened, explain."
After a short explanation of the events that had led up to this, excluding Hinata's confession, them sleeping in the same bed, and the shower incident, they all sat there for a few minutes. They were all snapped out of there daze when Hiashi spoke, "Where are these criminals now? I do hope you didn't just let them free to continue to prey on innocents.", he said raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, Naruto, I wanna give these guys a piece of my mind.", Kiba growled out, looking ready to burst out of the room looking for them.
"Don't worry, I had some shadow clones drop them off at the ANBU HQ. They should be in holding cells right now.", Naruto said, gesturing for them to calm down. "I'm sorry, but I think it's about time for me to go. My team is probably wondering where I am.", with that, he ran off, not letting anybody respond. With that, they all left. On the other side of the main branch house, Hinata had told her sister and mother the same thing, leaving nothing out, except for when Naruto had licked her.
It was past noon when he got to the assignment hall. He arrived just in time to see the rest of his team leaving. "Hey guys, sorry about not showing up this morn-"
"Shut it baka, we had to do the mission without you, so don't expect to get paid!", Sakura fumed, glaring at Naruto.
"Fine, like a care about that pocket change. I was late because-", he had started, but was interrupted again.
"We don't care about how you found this new great ramen, Naruto.", she said waving him away.
"No, that's not why.", she was surprised by the seriousness in his voice. Seeing that he had there attention, he continued. He told them the same version of the story he had told the others, again leaving out the more embarrassing parts. "I'm telling you this, because I wanted you guys try not bringing anything up that could make her upset. Her emotional state is very fragile right now."
Kakashi, seeing that he was finished, "Hmm, I'm proud of you Naruto, you did good. Alright then, seeing as how everything turned out alright in the end, lets get to some training, shall we?", he started off towards the training grounds.
"What is it Kakashi-sensei, is it a new jutsu? Come on tell us.", Naruto asked, running to catch up.
"Just wait, I'll tell you when we arrive."
A few minutes later they were there, "Okay, we're here, now tell us what this awesome new jutsu is.", Naruto was jumping up and down in excitement, no sign of his earlier somber mood.
"Alright, alright, I'll tell you, just settle down.", Naruto stopped jumping, but couldn't stop shaking, "I'm going to teach you about... Fuinjutsu!"
"Eh, what's that, never heard of it.", Naruto asked.
"Fuinjutsu is the art of seals, dobe.", Sasuke said, a smirk on his face.
"That's right Sasuke. Here.", he held out some ink and paper, a brush, and an example explosive tag. "I want you all to try and copy the symbols on the explosive tags onto these other sheets of paper."
"What, are we artists now, that sounds boring.", Naruto said, looking at his materials as if he was just handed a raw carrot.
"Well, if you don't want to do this, I heard that Tora got loose again, you could go after her, by yourself.", Kakashi said, knowing how much he detested the cat.
Naruto started to sweat, "No no, I'm fine, I think I'll just find some place where I can draw in peace.", he backed up, turned around and quickly went over to the nearby stream. He was about to start, when he realized he didn't have a surface to write on. "Hey, Kakashi-sensei, how are we supposed to draw without a table to use?"
"Ninja must adapt to there situation. You may run out of tags in the field and have to make more.", he eye smiled at Naruto, "Be creative, I'm sure you can figure something out."
Sure enough, a few minutes later, Naruto was sitting at a desk and chair made from two clones using a henge, while Sasuke had used his headband, and Sakura had taken out a clipboard seemingly out of nowhere. A few minutes later, both Sakura and Sasuke turned in there first attempt. "Sasuke, yours is nowhere close, but that's expected of a first attempt. Sakura, as expected, yours is close, but it's not quite right.", he looked over to see Naruto still working on his and sighed. Halfway through there second attempts, Naruto yelled, "Done!", and stood up.
He handed over the whole stack of papers that he had been given. "Hey Naruto, you weren't supposed to do all of them at once, you were supposed to practice with them over time.", Sakura sighed.
Kakashi, expecting them all to mostly be mindless doodle, was flabbergasted, "H-How did you even do this, I've never seen anything like this before.", his eye wide, he motioned the other two to come over. When they arrived, they were just as surprised as Kakashi. "Every single one is dead on, I see absolutely no mistakes."
"He must have cheated, he probably made a bunch of clones henge into the sheets of paper.", Sakura, not willing to believe that Naruto was better at it than her.
"Ha, there are over a hundred tags there, the dobe isn't able to make that many clones. He probably just put all of the papers under a henge.", Sasuke didn't want to believe it either.
Kakashi, knowing just how much chakra Naruto had, said, "Oh, he can make more than that many clones and barely break a sweat, the question isn't whether he could or not, but rather, whether he did.", he looked at Naruto, questioningly, "Well?"
"Oh, so you don't believe me?, give me some more paper and I'll show you.", he grabbed one from Sasuke's stack and walked back over to his desk with the others in tow. They watched in amazement as they saw him, in a matter of seconds, recreate the seal perfectly onto the slip of paper. "There, ya see, all real.", he walked over to a tree and leaned back against it, hand behind his head and a grin on his face. "So, what's next?"
"I-I don't even know, I only planned on teaching you how to draw them today, and arm them tomorrow. That's pretty much as far as my knowledge goes concerning Fuinjutsu. I suppose I could teach you how to arm them.", Kakashi was completely beside himself.
"Yeah, how do you do that, tell me.", he was jumping up and down like he had been before.
"Sakura, Sasuke, go back to drawing, I don't want you figuring out how, and then trying to use a malfunctioning tag and blow yourself up.", clearly disappointed, they went back over to their writing materials. "Okay Naruto, how you do it, is you put a small amount of chakra into the paper, concentrating on the ink."
Naruto grabbed a tag and pushed some chakra into it. Afterwards, he felt a little weaker, but just assuming that it was normal, turned to look at Kakashi questioningly. "Okay, just attach it to your kunai, and throw it, make it explode when it hits that tree over there.", he pointed to a tree on the other side of the stream, about two meters from the shoreline.
Naruto did just that, but when he tried to make it explode, the explosion was so big that it left a crater and caused the water that had been passing by on the edge of the stream to instantly vaporize. The crater quickly filled up with water, forming a little pond on the side of the stream. The rest of the team just stared at him, wondering what in Kami's name had just happened. "Heh, guess I put a little too much chakra into it, hehe", Naruto was standing there, rubbing the back of his head. Suddenly, a branch with a blackened and smoking end fell from the sky and hit Kakashi in the head. "Kakashi-sensei, are you alright?", his question was answered when Kakashi fell over, knocked out.
Without saying a word, they all decided that training was over that day. Naruto made a clone and had it take Kakashi to the hospital. They all headed off, Naruto heading to the southeast. 'Heh, hopefully I won't have anymore distractions', sure enough, he got to his destination without incident, he jumped on top of a nearby apartment complex and sat staring at the Hokage Monument, waiting for the light beam to appear. He didn't have to wait long though. After only a few minutes, he saw it, and followed the path it took, seeing that it was headed down to the ground, going behind some buildings that were blocking his view. It disappeared before he could move to get a closer look though, and resigned himself to return tomorrow.
As luck would have it, he didn't get the chance. That hit to the head that Kakashi had suffered turned out to be more serious than they had thought. He was kept in the hospital, and team 7 was forced to do missions all day. They didn't finish until long after sunset. "This is your fault Naruto, why did you have to give Kakashi-sensei a concussion?", she glared at Naruto, who didn't seem tired at all. "Man, my muscles are sore and I'm all sweaty. I could really go for a dip in the hot springs. Care to join me Sasuke-kun? It's mixed bathing day.", she said, trying to sound seductive.
"No thanks, I, uh, think I'm gonna go, uh, dust my room.", Sasuke turned off down an alley and walked away quickly, looking over his shoulder occasionally with an odd expression on his face.
Sakura was hanging her head, mumbling, "He'd rather clean his house, than bathe with me?", meanwhile, Naruto was off to the side, snickering.
"I'll take you up on that offer Sakura-chan. Eh, Sakura-chan?", Sakura, not even hearing him, just started walking away, mumbling to herself.
Kakashi was let out the next day. They had gone to the training grounds early, considering yesterday filled their mission quota for the week. When they arrived at the training grounds, they saw what looked like a very pale bald man standing up, looking at the memorial stone. But as they got closer, they realized that they were bandages covering the person's head, not the person's skin. Sakura was the first to speak up, "Um, sir, we have training here, we need you to leave.
They all tried to suppress their laughter, however, when he turned around. Kakashi had his head almost completely wrapped up in bandages, the only thing showing was his right eye. "It's not funny. I think the nurses just used putting the bandages on my face as an excuse to take off my mask.", he hung his head sulking. Naruto burst out laughing, unable to suppress it when he thought of something.
"Hey, Kakashi-sensei, I think I may know something that will cheer you up.", he said, trying to suppress his laughter.
"Oh, and what would that be?", Kakashi asked, looking up at him.
"OK, here it is. Oiroke no Jutsu!", they saw a big puff of smoke, it cleared quickly, for them all to see a young naked woman.
She blew a kiss at Kakashi, "Hey there Sensei, why don't you teach me some new tricks.", she said in a honey voice, bending down and running her hand up and down his arm. Suddenly, a red splotch appeared on the bandages on Kakashi's face, quickly growing. He fell backwards, unconscious. At the same time though, something none of them had expected happened. Sasuke shot off into the air, propelled by the force of his nosebleed. He landed a few feet away, knocked out and twitching.
Naruto transformed back, rolling on the ground laughing. "Oh man, I expected it from Sensei, but Sasuke too? He's a closet pervert!"
"Naruto-baka, I'm going to kill you!", Sakura yelled, running towards him.
"You're gonna have to catch me first!", he took off running, laughing the entire time.
About a half hour later had the three males of team 7 all sitting down, leaning against the wooden posts, all recovering from nosebleeds, though Naruto's was for a different reason than the others'. Sakura was sitting down a few feet away, practicing her seals, occasionally looking over at them and sighing, 'Why did I have to get stuck with a bunch of perverts?'. "Hey, Kakashi-sensei?", Naruto had leaned over when Sakura wasn't looking, "Watch this. Oiroke no Jutsu: Otokonoko Kaisaku!" Sakura got up with a sigh, cracking her knuckles, preparing to beat him down, when the smoke cleared.
"Hey there Sakura-chan, why don't you and I go somewhere more... private.", There stood, in the clearing smoke, an older looking Sasuke, wearing nothing but shorts, running his hands through his hair. Sakura pulled a Hinata. Her face turned redder than a tomato, a trickle of blood coming from her nose, before she passed out with a smile on her face. Kakashi had burst out laughing from the start, while Sasuke sat there gaping, eye twitching.
"If you had really wanted to cheer me up Naruto, you should have done that from the start.", Kakashi said, trying to stifle his laughter as a smiling Naruto reappeared.
In another half hour, they were all sitting down looking at each other, Naruto's face covered in bruises from after Sakura had woken up. "Okay, we never speak of this, agreed?", Sakura said, looking at each of them.
"Agreed.", they all said in unison, hanging there heads.
That evening, after training, Naruto had gone back to look for where the light pointed to. He got there just in time to see that it was pointing to somewhere along the wall. He searched the wall up and down, unable to find anything irregular. He decided that he would try again tomorrow.
Tomorrow afternoon, once Sakura and Sasuke had started practicing their seal making skills, Kakashi pulled Naruto to the side. "Listen Naruto, I've never seen anyone with as much natural talent with seals as you have. That's why I think that you should go to the library and pick up a few scrolls and books on sealing. There aren't very many experts of Fuinjutsu left in Konoha, and all of them are busy right now. If you have questions though, I'll try to answer them."
"Th-the Library? I-I've never b-been in there before.", Kakashi saw him gesture to get closer, so he did. Naruto then leaned down and whispered, "The Librarian lady scares me."
Kakashi brought his head back, eye wide. He burst out laughing, unable to control himself. After getting odd looks from Sasuke and Sakura, and a glare from Naruto, he calmed down. "I'm okay, I'm okay. Just had to let that out. I'll go to the library and pick out some stuff for you."
"Thank you Kakashi-sensei, I'll make sure to learn all I can, I promise.", he was jumping up and down now, thinking he would have a one of a kind skill in the village, just like Sasuke would eventually when he learns how to use the Sharingan.
"Alright, settle down.", he said, smiling under his mask. 'It's like trying to teach a hyperactive monkey.', "I'm going to go pick them up, I want you to practice arming the tags. Be back in a few.", he jumped away.
He came back about an hour later to find a stack of at least 6 tree trunks on the other side of the stream, and some clones moving another onto it, "Ehhh, what's going on?", he stood there confused until the real Naruto ran up to him, taking the reading materials.
"I was knocking down so many trees that it seemed like a waste to just leave them there.", he made some more clones, "Since you're back, I'm gonna have my clones take them to the lumber mill on the other side of town.", Naruto immediately headed of for home, hoping that his clones wouldn't screw things up. That was, apparently too much too hope for.
A few minutes later had a stream of Narutos walking through the streets of Konoha, all carrying the fallen logs, all getting stared at in confusion. they soon got lost. Some of the clones that were supposed to clear a path started fighting, "I thought you knew how to get there!"
"If you didn't know, then why would I know, we know the same stuff, idiot!"
"Ha, you just called yourself an idiot!"
"Why you!", they got into a brawl in the middle of the street.
Unwittingly, one of the Naruto's carrying a log let go to try and break it up, but this caused the other Narutos to drop the log from the sudden imbalance. The worst part was that they were at the top of a hill. It started rolling down, gaining momentum. Most people had been paying attention to what was going on and gotten out of the way before there was any danger. One person though, at the bottom of the hill was oblivious, seemingly staring at a food poster. The Narutos that had been fighting all stopped and started running to catch it. They saw the one person wasn't paying attention. "Hey Fatso, get out of the way, log coming through!"
"I'M NOT FAT, I'M PLEASANTLY PLUMP!", an angry Choji had turned around and grabbed the log just as it was about to hit him. With superhuman strength, he picked it up, and threw it at the group of Narutos, most of whom dispelled. "Oh, hey Naruto...s? I didn't see you there.", was the Akimichi's response when he noticed the group of clones. These series of events caused the real Naruto, who was back at his apartment, to cringe and sigh, as the memories of the clones came back to him. He made a few more clones to replace the ones that were dispelled.
After a few hours going over the various books that he was given, most of which just explained the different uses of seals, he headed back over to the edge of town to search along the wall. When the time came and the light shone down from the stone face, he was prepared. He had made a bunch of clones to stand along the wall waiting for the beam to appear. As soon as it did, Naruto ran over to see that there were some thick, dark red lines on the wall. They seemed to form some kind of seal that he didn't know about.
'What kind of seal is that? It's so complex.', Naruto just stood there, staring at it. It was almost invisible against the red wall, only being slightly darker, so it wouldn't be hard to miss it while walking by it. He was brought out of his thoughts when the light beam started to fade. Thinking quickly, he had a shadow clone henge into a piece of paper, and another into a pencil. He put it against the wall and traced the image with blinding speed. He traced what would have taken most more than ten minutes to complete in only 3 seconds. He stood there, staring at the image he was holding, trying to figure out what it was. 'What could this seal be for? It's completely different than any of the other seals I've seen.'
He snapped himself out of his daze and ran home, but not before marking the place on the wall with a kunai stuck into the ground. He locked the door behind him and went to his small desk, getting out the books and scrolls. Suddenly realizing that what he was holding wasn't a permanent copy, he took out a real piece of paper, a brush and some ink. He started copying it down, this time slower, making sure he didn't leave anything out. After he was done, he dispelled the clones. He suddenly knew what it felt like to be written on, and be written with, causing him to shudder.
He finished getting out the material about seals, and started comparing images to what he had just copied down. After a few more hours, he still hadn't found a match. He had just opened a new scroll when his eyes started to droop.
He woke up a few hours later to the sound of a fist hitting his door. "Naruto-baka, open up!", Naruto's head snapped up when he heard the voice. He shuffled over to the door, yawning.
"What do you want this early in the morning? I was asleep.", Naruto said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"It's not early Naruto, it's almost noon. You were late and missed out on the mission... again.", she stood there, hands on her hips. She saw the bags under his eyes, "How long were you up last night?"
"Oh, I don't know, a few hours.", he said, barely stifling a yawn, "I was going over the stuff that Kakashi gave me."
"Whatever, we need you at the training grounds.", she waited for Naruto to walk past her, pinching her nose when he passed. "Eww, Naruto, you stink, when was the last time you took a shower?"
Naruto sniffed his arm and scrunched up his face. "A few days ago. My shower curtain broke and I haven't found a store that has one that will let me in. I didn't want to ruin the already crappy floor in there."
"Whatever, you can wash yourself in the stream when we get there, just go get a change of clothes and some soap, I'll go ahead.", she backed away from him, trying to escape the stink.
A few minutes later he got to the training grounds, all of the others making sure to keep their distance. "So, Kakashi-sensei, what are you going to teach us today?", Naruto said, still trying to wake up.
"Oh um, not much, just some taijutsu training. You and Sakura are lacking in that department.", he had been told by Sakura that he reeked, but he was only just now smelling it. Scrunching up his nose, "Maybe you should go get washed first, we'll start without you."
With a grunt as his response, he walked over to the stream and starting to take off his clothes. "Not here, Baka! Go downstream, we don't wanna watch you bathe.", Sakura yelled, hitting Naruto in the head with a pebble she had just thrown.
After bathing, he came back to see Sasuke and Sakura both going at Kakashi with only taijutsu, not landing a single hit. Kakashi had his book out, seemingly not taking his eye away from it, though blocking and dodging every attack. Naruto, seeing this, jumped into the fray. He charged Kakashi from behind, right after he had blocked an attack from Sasuke. Just as he was about to hit him, Kakashi threw his book into the air, and, dodging to the side, grabbed Naruto's arm. He threw Naruto at a charging Sakura, hitting her full on. They landed in a heap, "I didn't say you could join yet, Naruto.", Kakashi said, composing himself before catching his falling book, returning to his reading.
The next few days went like that. They would do missions in the mornings, then train in the afternoon. They would occasionally switch to something new, seeing if any of them were proficient in anything. Kakashi learned that Sakura was good at chakra control, but lacking in Taijutsu. Sasuke was good in Taijutsu and average in other areas. Naruto, however, wasn't very good at any of it. The only thing other than Fuinjutsu that he was decent at was Taijutsu, which he was somewhere between the other two at in skill level. And of course shadow clones, can't forget the shadow clones.
At the end of the week, he decided to give them a day off. Naruto had been waiting for just a day. He had been so busy, he hadn't been able to check on Hinata. After the missions and training, he would always go through the seals for about an hour before going to bed. He wasn't trying to learn them, he was just trying to match any of the designs to the one that he had found. After changing, he went to the Hyuga estate and knocked on the door. He had to wait about 2 minutes before somebody finally opened the door, "Oh, hey, I'd like to talk to Hinata-chan, is she here?", he tried to look past him into the house, but the person deliberately blocked his view.
He looked up to see pale eyes glaring at him, "Sorry, but you can't talk to her right now.", he said flatly, hoping that would settle things.
Clearly it didn't, "Why not, is she hurt?", he asked, trying to look around him again, but again being blocked.
"I don't have to tell you that. Now leave before I have to remove you by force, brat.", he started to activate his Byakugan, when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked back to see Hiashi glaring at him. "Hiashi-sama, excuse me, but I was just about to remove this pest from the grounds."
"Now why would you try to make him leave? He is always welcome here for how he has helped Hinata.", Hiashi said, gripping his shoulder tighter.
"But, Hiashi-sama, he is the-", the servant started, but stopped when Hiashi activated his Byakugan. "Yes Hiashi-sama, as you wish.", he stood to the side to let Naruto in, bowing.
Naruto walked in, ignoring the glare he was receiving from behind him. "Hiashi-sama, is Hinata-chan alright? I haven't seen her all week.", Naruto asked, turning his attention back to Hiashi.
"She is fine, but she hasn't left the estate since she came back. She's shaken up, but is still training and getting visits from her team.", Hiashi said, trying to calm him down.
"Oh, that's good. I just wanted to check if she was okay. I'll be going now.", Naruto started to turn, but was pulled back by Hiashi.
"Nonsense, I know how lonely your apartment is. We were just about to start dinner, why don't you join us?", he said. Not waiting for an answer he almost dragged Naruto into the dining room, which was easily twice as big as Naruto's entire apartment. Everyone turned there heads when they entered, Hinata gasping and blushing, Hanabi looking slightly confused, and Hisakata, just smiled. "Everyone, we have an unexpected guest.", gesturing to a free seat next to Hinata, he had Naruto sit down. Hanabi sat across from Naruto, with Hisakata on her left. Hiashi sat at the end of the table.
Hiashi clapped his hands and a dozen servants came out, all carrying platters of food. They set them down on the table in front of the people who were sitting. They left, and then re-entered, all carrying dishes and chopsticks, which were handed to each person individually. After a short prayer, they all got food from the various platters and started eating. Everybody that is, except for Naruto. Hiashi noticed this, "Naruto, why aren't you eating, is something the matter?", Hiashi inquired. Naruto didn't seem to hear him, so he walked over and placed his hand on his shoulder.
Naruto, who had been deep in thought, jumped when he felt the hand on his shoulder, looked up into Hiashi's eyes, "N-No, it's just that I was hoping to, well, watch the sunset.", he said, deciding that what he said was partially true.
"Well, I'm sorry about that, but you can watch it tomorrow, can't you?", he walked back over to his seat and sat down. He gestured to the food, "Now on the other hand, it's not every day that someone outside the clan has the chance to eat dinner with the Hyuga, so eat up.", he said with a small smile, returning to his own food. Naruto shrugged and grabbed some food, piling it onto his plate.
After three plates, Naruto was full. He looked around him seeing that Hinata hadn't even eaten half of her first plate. "Are you sure that you are alright Hinata-chan? You've barely eaten anything.", he looked at her with concern on his face.
She jumped when he spoke, causing her to drop her chopsticks. She blushed and looked away, twiddling her index fingers again, "Well, I-I heard from the o-other girls that they were going on a d-diet, so I decided t-to as well. They w-were doing it for Sasuke, b-but I, w-well...", she glanced over to him, blushing even more.
Naruto, remembering her confession, nodded in understanding, and said," Well, Hinata-chan, not all guys like girls to be all skin and bones. Besides, it's just not healthy.", he had picked up her plate and replaced the food that had already been eaten. "You need to eat right if you want to become a strong kunoichi. You do want to be strong, don't you?", he handed her back the plate, smiling at her. He had turned so that the others didn't see and winked at her, making sure there hands touched slightly as he was handing her the plate. Hinata's eyes went as wide saucers when she saw him wink. All the sudden, she started scarfing down the food, only taking breaks to breath. "Whoa, slow down there, you'll choke.", Naruto said, trying to suppress his laughter. The others, however, didn't even try, they just burst out laughing, causing Hinata to blush and slow down when she noticed.
After they had all finished eating, they sat and talked for a little while. In the middle of the conversation, Naruto had a thought. "Hiashi-sama, I have a question.", Naruto said after waiting for the conversation to end. Seeing Hiashi gesture for him to continue, he brought out his copy of the seal, "I'm not sure how much you know about seals, but, have you ever seen this kind of seal before?", he handed the paper to Hiashi, who examined it.
Hiashi handed it back to him, shaking his head, "It's not familiar, but I'm not really the one to ask. If Jiraiya-sensei were here, he could probably figure it out.", he said, "But sadly, nobody in the village has seen Jiraiya-sensei for a few years.", Hiashi suddenly stood up. "I think that it is about time for us to go to bed. Hinata, show our guest out.", he walked away, holding the hands of Hanabi and Hisakata. Naruto decided right then that he would find the Yondaime's vault on his own, as a test of his abilities, and depending on what he found, he would keep whatever was inside as his own.
Naruto and Hinata were walking through the estate towards the door, Naruto with his hands behind his head, Hinata just blushing. "Hinata-chan, why do you wear your hair short?", Naruto asked, putting his hands in his pockets and looking at her, never breaking stride.
Hinata, however, stopped and looked down, "W-Well, Naruto-kun, i-it's because all of the o-other girls wear it long, because Sasuke l-likes long hair. I didn't want p-people to think that I l-liked him.", she said, silently cursing her stuttering. She continued walking, catching up to Naruto who had stopped to wait for her.
"Oh, that.", Naruto said. He started snickering, his signature grin on his face, "I was the one that started that rumor. Sasuke mumbled one day that he hated long hair and how it always got in the way. Also, I like long hair, and thought it'd be nice if all of the girls, had long hair, especially you Hinata.", this caused Hinata to blush even more. They reached the door, "Well, goodnight Hinata-chan.", Naruto ran out the door before Hinata could respond. Hinata had wanted to say one more thing, and was about to call to him, but decided to wait, 'I can wait a little while. At least he's acknowledging me, and that's enough for now.', she thought to herself. She turned and smiled, walking back to her room.
A/N: All of the fainting, it just doesn't stop. I didn't plan on it when I was writing, but about halfway through, I realized how many times I was having it happen, I decided to change the name of the chapter to fit it. The third chapter probably won't be posted until next Friday. I apologize in advance for the wait, but I've been writing almost nonstop for the past week and I need to take a little break.
I also apologize for the lack of action in the story so far, but I promise, there will be more action in the next chapter. I know this because next chapter, The Land of Waves mission starts.
In case anybody is wondering why Kiba was acting so aggressively, it's because he sees Hinata as part of his pack and is therefore protective of her, among other reasons that will be revealed at a later date. One last thing, the jutsu that Naruto used is my best guess as to how you say "Sexy Jutsu: Boy Version", If I'm wrong, someone tell me and I'll adjust it.
