Naruto and its characters © Masashi Kishimoto.

Hope you enjoy it; comment... thanks for all your corrections... hehe... my english needs work o///o

Chapter 3: The apprentice.

At 8:00 a.m. Hinata knocked the door of the main office.

"Ohayo gosaimazu Hokague-sama"

"Ohayo Hinata, come in." She and Naruto would make a good couple Tsunade thought, without really realizing the implications of her thoughts. Hinata had always had something that made her feel warm… and soft, and now... she had taken her secretly and perhaps even unconsciously, as the inheritor of her technique.

"Hinata, as of today you will begin to train medical jutsu me." Said the blond woman, in a definitive tone.

"Tsu .. Hokage-sama?" asked the young girl seriously confused.

"You will come in every morning to train, and during the evening you can continue with your usual workout routine."

"... But Hokage-sama, my father would never ..."

"Let me worry about him Hinata, you concentrate on making your best and become the med-ninja genius you´re meant to be."

"Nin... ja genius?" Ninja genius ... is she serious?

"Doubt about oneself its like having no feet and try to run, you will be as good as you want it to be" the Hokage spoke harshly.

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" she answered curiously cheering up, smiling, with her moon eyes humid, with hyaline clouds around them.

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The first lesson recalled the basics: networks chakra, the flows, the points of convergence and divergence, there was no need to deepen it, Hinata was an expert in those areas, after all her kekegeinkan (technical inherited) and juuken (style soft fist) were designed to take advantage of network chakra. The Hokage saw her pleased.

"Lesson number two: human anatomy and physiology. This lesson will take a couple of weeks, I'll give you some books. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. When we finish, we´ll start with the basic practical training." Tsunade spoke to her looking for something underneath of a dozen papers over her desk, messy as always.

"Hai Tsunade-sensei."

The woman gave her a note book and something to write with, and began the lesson with some material she had prepared.

"Well then…. let us begin. The human body is a sum of wonders and harmony, any attack on its flow will have impact in one way or another on the whole body, and yet it has the ability to adapt to any new situation by regulating its ways, or flows, to create an alternating current around the obstacle. Chakra channels are not as flexible, but instead are more easily manipulated by the trained hand. Everything on the body is controlled by the brain, in a direct and intermittent way, as the movement of muscles or the sense of touch; or in an indirectly and constant way as the beating of the heart and bowel movements." The teacher showed her a couple of images she had, trying to make it as simple as possible "The brain works on the basis of actions potentials, meaning electric shocks. Neurons spread all over like fingers into all elements of the body down the spinal cord, fingers called axons. Brain waves and this kind of electrical discharge may be perceived by your Byakugan with a little training."

Hinata nodded, recalled having read something like this a while ago, among the many readings where she sailed through the night.

"The heart, located between the 2nd and 5th rib, throbs governed by a bulbar center, wich means that any damage to the rear of the skull can lead the subject to a cardiac arrest and respiratory depression. The myocardium contraction is spontaneous, also in electricity form that is converted to mechanical energy. The normal heart rate is between 80-90/min. The lungs, in the rib cage, are responsible for ventilation. The diaphragm (the main muscle of breathing) goes up and down on eachs ventilation, and so the lungs providing oxygen to the blood that passes trought it to the left heart´s cavity, thereby bringing oxygenated blood to all tissues. The normal respiratory rate is between 16-20/min. An attack between the ribs can punctured the lung and fill with air the space between the pleuras (layers covering the organ), making it a difficult ventilation, and reducing the infusion of tissues. A tissue lacking of oxygen, dies. The kidney is a game of ions, in and out of the nephron´s tubules (functional unit of the kidney), in short, its function is to regulate the amount of water that leaves the body and retain the essential ions in the hidroelectrolit balance. In addition to that is the home of the glands that release adrenaline, which is essential in battle. A direct damage to the kidneys would mean sudden and mantein deterioration in the whole organism. The regeneration of renal cells is one of the best techniques that a med-ninja can achieve. The liver, pancreas, stomach and intestines are important but there´re a few ways to manipulate them with chakra, the damage will be treated with surgery and medicine."

Once covered the general concepts, she gave her gave the introduction to the lengthy explanation of brain physiology, the central nervous system, peripheral, sympathetic, parasympathetic... Hinata opened her eyes wide with emotion… unbelievable ...

"Hinata, we´re done for today. We will continue tomorrow with the heart. Keep reading"

"Hai Tsunade-sensei."

Naruto said "Hello" smiling… "Hi there Tsunade no Baa-chan, Hinata."

"Naruto" the Hokage said with indifference "today I have no time to settle our affairs. Come back tomorrow. "

"Uhhh? ... aa ... hai" I have never been good with lies, its good to have a pretext.

"By the way, Hinata" Tsunade spoke with a casual tone but a decisive one "as of today, your team will be composed by Kiba, Shino and Naruto". The kunoichi drowned a shout, What? Naruto-kun...my, my fellow team?". The idea made her blushed, left her mute, ashame, slightly dizzy and immensely happy. The young ninjas headed towards the door, in a mutual agreement walking side by side.

Naruto expected to be easier, but for some reason, asking Hinata out was different from Sasuke, Sakura, or Shikamaru. He took a deep breath and said, trying to be natural

"Oi, Hinata, you´re hungry?"

"Hu… Hungry? Naruto kun?"

"Hai, Ichiraku's is pretty close, would you like a bowl of ramen? Its one me!" he affirmed smiling whit one fist over his head and winked.

Thinking verbal economics was the best solution for her stammering she simply nodded blushing in agreement, repeting to herself the usual mantra without stuttering… without fainting... no stutter… no faint…

"Excellent!"

Our princess was fantasized whit taking his hand while male ninja was looking for something in his pockets… Damn, damn! I forget the list! Now what?? Concentrate... Remember what you were going to ask her. Ohhh… man… I wasn´t at all awake, there was something about... Naruto was wrinkling his lips and eyebrows, sulking to himself. They came to the post of ramen before they could articulate one word. Ohhh ... Ero-Senin once told me that women always want to talk about their likes and their feelings, and meanwhile you pretend to listen to them, you wouldn´t have to say word.

They sat and ordered. And then Naruto broke the silence

"Hinata ammm... what do you like?"

"Me…Li..like?" Hinata asked, feeling the heat quickly run up to her cheeks reaching the boiling point. "Why... why you ask, N..Naruto-kun?"

" Mmmm ... I have know you for many years, but don´t know a thing about you. I thought that maybe…"

" ... Hai, I… I.. get it Naruto-kun."

Naruto was trying to rememeber the girl before, at the academy, the chunin reviews, and so far couldn´t find a Hinata without flushing cheeks.

"So what do you like?"

She leaned her magnificent head, covering her face with a blue waterfall flowing like spring over her shoulders. She felt her heartbeat accelerated, the sudden change in temperature, the explosion in her belly and again those strange sensations… a nonexistent wind running on her skin, a tingling on her plants, she felt…

"Hinata" he interrupted her.

"Hai ... hmmm ... I … I… like to s… see the moon" without stuttering… without fainting... no stutter… no faint…

"The moon?" She is odd

"Hai…"Hinata nodded and clenched her fist over her lap.

"... Mmmm" Naruto crossed his arms, closed his eyes, and nodded "mee too. What else do you like?"

"Ramen" she replied, proudly because of the absence of weir pauses.

"Ohhhh! Me too! We have so much in common Hinata!"

The girl smiled and laughed to herself He can be so wonderfully naïve.

Come on come on!!...he was upset with himself for forgetting his list and repet the same question over and over again. Finally "And what else you like, Hinata?" he whispered with defeat, dropping his eyes.

Naruto-kun is trying so hard to talk to me, I can not let my shyness end up hurting him. " I ... I like t.. to read" She said starring her eyes on the bowl of ramen.

"Read?" Finally ... something I can work whit " so what do you like to read?"

"Well... evr... everything. I like al..almost every ki.. kind of book." no stutter… no faint…

"Even ichi-ichi?" Naruto shout astonished.

" No! n.. no.. I do not know. . I've n… never re… read one of tho... those" the young kunoichi whispered while the flush in her cheeks were deepened. The shy girl felt comfortable on book-land. Her love for reading went back to her earliest childhood, from when she was taught at the academy. It was a different place each time, a parallel world where nobody disbelieved in her or demanded her anything. She was free. And though she hasn´t been counting, she remembered fondly each book, each poem, she even wrote some... but that was something that nobody, besides her cousin, knew.

The next hour, stuttering occasionally, Hinata attempted to introduced the blond blue eyes ninja in subjects such as science, philosophy, even medicine; she had the slight suspicion, better said, the hope, he was smarter that people thought, but noticing a big question mark over his head she decided to try something princess guessed he would enjoy stories involving a protagonist overcoming adversity, and though nobody belived in them, they would finally come out triumphant. She talked about Miyamoto Musashi, Ulysses, David and Goliath, Montecristo... small abstracts. Naruto's eyes shone as she have only seen once, when he just arrived to the village with his new protector, the symbol of him been recognized as a ninja. They were so immersed in conversation that her 1st dish and his 6th went cooled on the bar, she still stutter a bit, and the hard-headed ninja asked the meaning of certain words, but in general, they enjoyed the afternoon.

"Ohh... Hinata, you´re as smart as Sakura-chan."

A sad smile on her lips were draw after all this years, he still likes Sakura "Na ... Naruto-kun, I must go now"

" Hai. I´ll walk you home."

"No… that´s not n… necessary. Arigato" she turned around…

"Wait! ammm could you lend me a book? I ... I ... I'd like to read something recommend by the expert." Oh yeah, Hinata´s intellegence must be contagius, that was a quick solution.

"Oh ... sure…" she said smiling a bit.

"Fine, then I´ll walk you home and wait you outside. From now on, I will come home whit you every evening; you never know when I will finish reading whatever you borrow me."

So they did.

They returned walking slowly, silently. A silence that little by little ceased to be uncomfortable. He thought that after all, and despite all appearances, they had things in common. And she was worried about having spoken too much while choosing the best book mentally. Shee knew it should be as simple as possible… she sighed quietly…I think the best option it's a fairy tale…