Chapter Three

The Puppet Master

Konohamaru was skipping a day of school at the Academy again. Because the Konohamaru Corps weren't present he had intended to pull something on Konoha one-handed. At first he had intended to paint up Tsunade's face on the mountain like Naruto had done endlessly to Sarutobi's portrait, but he lost the idea when he started stalking the master prankster himself. Despite his training, the two-bit ninja's skills of observation had declined rapidly whilst Konohamaru's ability to hide had increased several times over. For once he was capable of trailing Naruto undetected.

Naruto's day was striking similar to Naruto's old days. When Konohamaru had caught him in the first place, Naruto was eating cup ramen for breakfast as he walked towards the training fields using a pair of cheap disposable chopsticks. He had unwittingly passed by Konohamaru without so much as a nod of the head and even though the genin's ability to sneak about was greatly hindered by his excitement at first, Naruto remained oblivious.

Once Naruto had finished his cup ramen he had proceeded to Teuchi's ramen shop, but remembered halfway there that he didn't have any money. Frustrated, he had attempted to beg for money from Sakura who began to ream him out about some earlier meal she had paid for. He eventually gave up and returned to his new apartment complex, strutting outside five minutes after he had entered with another serving of cup noodles.

Once Naruto had finished his second helping of ramen he spent about a half-an-hour sneaking into bookstores and subsequently getting kicked out for browsing the adult magazines section a little too extensively. Konohamaru decided he would have to put more effort into making perverted ninjutsu if he were to keep up with the top dog. After Naruto finally gave up on the bookstores he wandered off in search of a specific person.

Konohamaru tried exceptionally hard to hide when Naruto met up with his sensei Kakashi, but the jounin spotted him repeatedly throughout his sneaking. Thankfully, Kakashi said nothing to Naruto but seemed confused as to why a genin was stalking about the blonde-haired boy. The entire time Naruto was near Kakashi he complained incessantly that Kakashi teach him a new technique. He frequently mentioned a technique called "chidori" and seemed to be most determined to learn it above all others. Eventually the jounin told Naruto he had important business to attend and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Naruto threw a small fit, then grumbled and listlessly stood in the middle of the street for a while.

Eventually Naruto was on his way to Tsunade's office. Konohamaru listened through the doorway as Naruto begged for an important A-rank mission, only to be told that the only missions she could offer his group as a three-man cell were all C-rank or lower. Naruto threw a small fit in protest and Konohamaru had to hide to avoid being spotted as Shizune "escorted" him out of the office. He managed a few unwelcome hand-signs to Shizune before storming off. Konohamaru could hear Tsunade swearing loudly before he ran off in search of Naruto and in fear of the Godaime.

He spotted Naruto from the top of the Hokage's residence, the blonde-haired boy heading down the main road out of Konoha, likely to put in some hours training. Konohamaru rushed after Naruto with his newfound ability to summon chakra to his aid, then slowed his pace when he was near Naruto. Konohamaru noticed something strange after trailing Naruto from behind for a short while. Someone else was following the young man. She was very good at hiding from the individuals she could spot, Konohamaru noticed, but because she wasn't aware of him she didn't seem to take his presence into account.

Konohamaru decided to use her focus on Naruto to his advantage and began specifically stalking her from as far back as he could reliably manage. The entire time the long-haired ninja stalked Naruto, right until they got to the gate guards at city limits. They were too trained for even jounin to sneak by. Thus, both she and Konohamaru had to come out of hiding once Naruto had long passed the same point and smile and wave at the gate guards like everyone else. When she had walked a fair ways away from the city limits she glanced back.

Konohamaru had done it just in time. He quietly waited in the bushes to see what she would do. She didn't try to track him, however. It seemed as if she knew where he was going automatically and without skipping a beat jumped off into the trees. Konohamaru wasn't quite used to travelling that way, though. He couldn't do it stealthily, at least. He crossed the road and went in the direction she had gone, albeit quietly.

It didn't take long to catch up to her and Naruto. She was quietly watching him whilst she hid behind a tree. Naruto stood in the centre of the field and began stretching, preparing for training. Konohamaru had to treat the case sensitively. The only background noise was the running river nearby, and the sun was out in full glory so illumination was high enough he couldn't rely on shadows. Worse yet, the rains had caused patches of mud to form beneath the canopy and stepping in one of them would spell sure detection. It was a task truly worthy of the leader of the Konohamaru Corps.

He made his way towards her slowly, aiming to stay just outside of her field of vision. He occasionally had to make haste to hide behind bushes when Naruto would turn to face their direction. To make matters worse for him the kunoichi would also put her back to the tree, causing her to gaze down into the section of the woods he was in. Yet against all odds the genin made it within three yards of the strange girl. She was so fixated on Naruto she didn't even notice him, yet he was certain he had seen her before. She was one of the Rookie Nine, he was certain of it. Especially with those violet eyes, she had to be Hyuugan.

He didn't know what to do. She wasn't making a move on Naruto after five minutes; she simply kept blushing and staring at him. It took a while for Konohamaru's analytical skills to put the two piece of the puzzle together and he nearly gasped at his epiphany. "It can't be," Konohamaru whispered to himself, pulling out a kunai. He only had to move in three more yards to sneak up behind the chuunin, but those three yards would be the hardest. It'd mean placing bets that Naruto didn't turn around, but 

Naruto was choosing training that made it necessary for his field of vision to change frequently. It would take too long for Naruto to choose something that would put the genin in a better position to sneak up.

Konohamaru waited for the kunoichi to stick her head out to peer at Naruto one last time before closing the distance. Two yards left to go and Naruto had yet to do anything that would jeopardize the situation, thus Konohamaru channelled chakra into his feet and covered it with a small amount of sound. Naturally, the female chuunin noticed it, but it was too late. Konohamaru raised the kunai knife up towards her throat, intending to stop so that he could capture her.

Even though he had only made sound for a split second, the young woman had turned around and pulled a shuriken. She threw it at his own with enough force to disarm him, and then seemed ready to strike him with an open palm before she realized that he wasn't a real threat. Konohamaru ran into her body clumsily, not used to the body flicker technique, and then fell onto his back with an audible thud. Naruto, somehow, remained oblivious.

Fear filled his veins as he looked up at the veins sprouting from the face of the kunoichi. The eyes now had lightly defined pupils, and the pupils were frightening to behold. They burrowed through him and caught sight of his every moment. They seemed to read his body language with a fluidity no other ninja could achieve. Konohamaru had never seen a doujutsu before and now that he had seen one aimed at him as though he were a foe he wasn't pleased at the thought of seeing one again. He was about to shout and run until her face returned to normal along with her eyes.

When she smiled it was warm and friendly and it reminded Konohamaru of the first instructor he had at the Academy. She was clearly curious as to the reason for his intrusion, but offered him a hand nonetheless. Konohamaru stared at it for a long time, then grasped it and felt himself lifted to his feet. The kunoichi put her index finger to her lips to ask for silence, but Kunohamaru intentionally asked at the top of his voice, "So why are you stalking the boss around!?"

Naruto finally stopped training and looked about, shouting, "Hello? Konohamaru, is that you? What's up!?" Konohamaru tried to reply, but the kunoichi spun him around and restrained him, covering his mouth. He tried to bite her hand, but she was carefully enough to avoid his teeth. He tried making muffled cries, but they barely made it over the sound of the river's flow and simply caused the woman to cover his mouth tighter.

Konohamaru eventually accepted he had no choice. He had to use the jutsu he had been reserving for a certain other lady named Sakura. By focusing on his chakra and becoming calm he suddenly realized that the kunoichi was shaking at the legs. He ignored the fact and tried to think of an appropriate form with which to use the jutsu. The answer was obvious. He knew very little about her except for that one, important fact, so it suited the situation perfectly.

"Transform!" he said to himself.

If there was a single jutsu in which Konohamaru could be said to be supremely keen in, it was the transformation jutsu. He had used it countless times since Naruto had gotten him fascinated in its 

workings back in his days under Ebisu and Konohamaru now found it effortless. A chuunin couldn't do it better, yet for this particular instance of the jutsu Konohamaru was exceptionally pleased with himself.

When the kunoichi realized she was no longer holding Konohamaru, she jolted to attention, no longer watching Naruto search the foliage surrounding the training field in hopes of finding the boy she held. When she realized who she was holding she suddenly let go and raised her arms in front of her defensively, putting her hands over her mouth, but still squealing loudly enough that Konohamaru could hear her muffled cry.

There stood Naruto, sheepishly grinning at the kunoichi and winking. Konohamaru had recreated Naruto as perfectly as he could, yet his recreation lacked certain aspects that were generally attributed to Naruto, namely the orange jumpsuit he constantly wore. Konohamaru had no desire to imagine Naruto naked, so he had made up most of the lower regions as he had channelled the chakra, but despite the haphazard recreation it seemed to have had the desired effect. The young woman, upon looking slightly downward, slapped one of the hands that had been covering her mouth over her eyes and turned an even brighter shade of red than she had been the entire time.

"Hey there, baby," the imposter Naruto said, winking repeatedly. "How about a good time?"

Hinata fell over sideways, incapacitated by the shock. Not wanting Naruto catching him in such charming attire, Konohamaru changed back to his normal form and ran from the scene of the crime using the treetops. His retreat was sloppy, but he was getting accustom to jumping from branch to branch. Sure, Konohamaru had thought of telling Naruto about his secret lover then and there, but as a genin Konohamaru was certainly more imaginative than that.


Shikamaru groaned as he looked at the clipboard. Tsunade was hardly surprised with his reaction. Soon he would begin complaining, and the thought of it annoyed her greatly. She clenched a fist under her desk and awaited the inevitable moaning that would pour from the mouth of the ninja. He was certainly a wonderful chuunin, but he was from the generation after the wars. It made him arrogant and moody, just like the rest of the younger ninja. Shikamaru shoved his free hand into his pocket, grumbling in a tired fashion, "You mean we need to do even more diplomacy here? I thought we were done once I got the ambassadors out of here. This is such a drag. When I signed up for this, you said all I had to do was keep an eye on the exams, not this."

"You realize that, at this point, you've complained about every aspect of this job since I gave it to you?" Tsunade hissed, "There are other ninja out fighting and dying. You have a job pushing paper and talking to people. If it's too much to handle I'll replace it with someone who can do it without babysitting."

Shikamaru scoffed, looking at the clipboard again. He took his hand out of his pocket and rubbed an eye, then yawned loudly. Shizune's expression grew nervous as Tsunade impatiently awaited a response from Shikamaru to say something. When the young man responded he did so with a lack of 

devotion, "Fair enough. I'll keep talking to people for now. Though, if you're going to have me going on a diplomatic mission to the Sand, I'd like at least an escort team. I'll have to pass through at least one nation to get to there, after all."

Tsunade nodded, searching about the various files she had in front of her. If the Hokage had intended to send Shikamaru with his normal team, no teamwork would be needed, so the chuunin automatically raised a brow, immediately questioning her actions, "I was more meaning that I'd like to be sent along with Ino and Chouji and possibly Asuma, if he's available. I can understand if Asuma's on a mission, but it's easiest for me to work with my normal posse." Tsunade didn't respond to him and Shikamaru eventually scoffed, shoving his hand back into its pocket. Shizune nervously scratched the back of her head and, standing behind Tsunade, tried to give him hand gestures to tell him to tone down his complaints.

"Normally I would wholeheartedly agree with you, Shikamaru, but that's not the case today. Would you like some well-suited chuunin, or would you like some genin to train on the way?" the Hokage asked rhetorically. "Even though your chances of being intercepted are high, this isn't a horribly dangerous mission. Even if you are attacked during your trip, it will be on familiar terrain with allies nearby.

"These are the ninja I have available, Shikamaru." the Hokage added nonchalantly, throwing a document folder at the chuunin.

"What a drag," Shikamaru complained, opening the folder and then raising a brow. "Why's Kurenai's named crossed off?"

"She's on leave," Tsunade said, leaning back in her chair.

"Wait a second," Shikamaru cut in. "Kurenai's on leave? What for?"

Tsunade looked back at Shizune, searching for advice on what to tell him. Shizune shrugged in a clueless fashion. Shikamaru was suddenly paying a fair deal of attention, concerned that it somehow affected his sensei. Tsunade came to a decision and let out a hefty sigh before calmly explaining, "Normally I'd tell you off, but since it does seem to have some personal meaning for you... it seems Kurenai is –"


Hinata's eyes opened slowly but surely. The light of the sun was at first blinding and her head hurt badly, yet her face was wet. Moments later someone splashed her with more water and she made a surprised yelp, quickly getting up to sit with her legs sprawled out. She wiped the moisture off of her face with the sleeve of her jacket and groaned in pain. The throbbing behind her eyes had begun and she knew from the familiar mixture of nausea and the intense headache that she had hit her head badly on the way down. Looking down at her sleeve she was surprised to see traces of red, but she wasn't cut. She quickly realized her nose was bleeding, but it hadn't hit anything as far as she could tell. She was 

quite certain the shock had given her a nosebleed and suddenly felt a wave of humiliation overtake her internal state.

She eventually had the idea to look up at who had revived her, but she knew instantly as her eyes drifted up the orange pant leg that it was the last person she wanted to see at the moment. Naruto grinned down at her and prodded her forehead as he squatted down, "You sure do pass out a lot, Hinata. Have you tried talking to Grannie Tsunade about it? It could be a medical condition. Whoa, hey, wai-!"

Hinata promptly passed out again, causing a weary Naruto to begin splashing the water from the nearby river on her face. It didn't take long for her to reawaken, though she managed to remain conscious despite Naruto's presence. He coughed indignantly, waited a few moments, then genuinely asked, "Hinata, I hate to bother you too much, but are you okay? I mean, you're passing out an awful lot. Maybe I should take you to the hospital?"

Hinata did not offer an answer at first, staring into the ground between herself and Naruto. She had not genuinely intended to approach Naruto to begin taking baby steps towards her goal, she felt she wasn't ready. Yet she knew it was the best time as the confidence from the dream was still lifting her from her otherwise completely reserved nature around him. It simply didn't help Hinata to know that Naruto thought she had some sort of medical condition she fainted so frequently.

The first bit of Hinata's attempt to speak was a mush of syllables that had no definable form. The second attempt was barely better, and Naruto began squinting at her and turning his head to the side in an attempt to decipher her distorted speech. The third time was the charm and she managed to stutter, "I'm okay, N-N-Naruto."

Naruto fell backwards onto his bottom and sat with his legs crossed, leaning forward with his elbows placed against his thighs. He scratched his cheek, still squinting, and persisted, "Are you sure? I mean, you fainted just after you woke up last time."

"I... I'm fine, N-Naruto. I just got... c-cau-caught off-guard. Th-th-that's a-all," she said, wincing at the memory of seeing a nude Naruto. She blushed violently, but she already had her head so low that most of her hair was covering her face.

"By what? I heard you fall over, but that's about all," he said.

Hinata had to find a suitable excuse to provide him and struggled at first, "I... well... the-... well... I had come to talk to Kurenai-sensei an-and... uhm... we-well... I... uhm... well... I tripped, then I hit my head p-pretty hard, I th-think."

"Oh, I see. That makes sense. I guess," Naruto responded, crossing his arms. "Well, if you're going to go see your sensei, you should get going."

"Y-y-yeah, th-thanks for h-helping m-m-me, N-Naruto," she said, hastily getting to her feet.

"Oh, and Hinata, is your face okay?" the blonde-haired youth asked.

Of all the questions Naruto could have asked at the time, it was the single question that Hinata dreaded the most. It was not a rude question; rather, Naruto asked the question out of genuine concern, or it certainly seemed that way. Yet it was a terribly embarrassing situation for any teenage girl to be put in, and Hinata wanted no part in it. Yet squealing and running off was just as embarrassing to her as answering the question. Thus she was left in limbo, frozen.

Naruto prodded Hinata's forehead again and she made no attempt to resist, still stunned, as he forced her to look up to him. He grimaced and let her hide her face again, which she did immediately, putting her hands over her face. Thinking of something meaningful to say, Naruto grasped at various statements before settling on, "Yeah, that's pretty bad."

At first there was a stunned silence from both parties. Hinata had recovered from the shock, yet she had decided it was most appropriate to continue hiding her face. Something compelled her not to run, yet everything else in her being told her to panic. She maintained an unsteady balance by silently hiding her face and thinking of what she could do to improve her situation. She finally decided to say something, anything, but before she could speak Naruto had gotten up and walked off.

At first she thought he had gotten bored of her and decided to go back to training, or perhaps that he had decided it was not worth his time to tend to someone who couldn't even muster a reply to his questions. Yet before she knew it Naruto had returned and he tapped her on the shoulder gently. She broke through her embarrassment long enough to look up. He already knew, so what did it matter if he could see her reddened face? After all, he already knew she had taken the dive straight into the bowl in the ramen in the first place; the only thing the burns could serve to do is remind him of it all.

Taking to opportunity, Naruto pushed a cylindrical container into her hands, which were still hovering near her face. Through an instinctual reaction she grasped the container in a confused fashion. Hinata watched him walk to the backpack he had likely recovered the container from in the first place. Naruto turned around and gave her a nod, saying, "That helped me a lot whenever I remembered to apply it, so maybe it can help with the burns, right? Anyway, I'm going to keep training. Good luck, if you're getting a mission with Kurenai-sensei!"

Hinata took the cue and jumped to her feet. She saw Naruto wave as she ran off and leapt into the treetops, and, despite freezing for a moment, returned the gesture. Proceeding towards where she was supposed to meet Kurenai, Hinata looked at the container he had given her. It was covered in childish doodles, the creations of some sort of bored mind, obviously Naruto's. She couldn't help but endorse her most curious thought, and opened the container. She stopped on the next branch she landed on and sniffed at the contents. She remembered the container and the cream, and she was certain where she had seen it last.

Was it really the same container that she had given him just after his preliminary fight against Kiba?


"Pregnant!?" Kiba shouted, putting a hand over his face and groaning loudly. "Why now!? Now we're not going to get any important missions. I know we fail them all anyway, but we're still not going to get them! You've abandoned us! You know, my parents sat me down and told me the importance of using some decent damn pro-"

Kiba was silenced abruptly as Kurenai gave him an unforgiving stare. Shino took the opportunity to cut into the conversation, fixing his sunglasses nonchalantly and clearing his throat, "So am I to understand that we'll be reassigned jounin?"

"Not necessarily immediately," Kurenai responded. "Tsunade's in charge of this, not me. In fact, she refused to give me the details because she wants me to avoid any unnecessary stress. So my hands are tied, you'll have to ask her yourself."

"I see. Then congratulations to you and Asuma," Shino replied.

Kiba gave in and offered similar sentiments to his sensei, albeit in a slightly more begrudging fashion. Akamaru offered a series of barks to signify his agreement, though a question quickly arose amongst all three of them. Kurenai, assuming she was the only one out of the loop on the issue, questioned the two chuunin tiredly, "So, where is Hinata, anyway?"