What is love?

Chapter 3

The next day Neji met him at the training grounds and Naruto was excited because he had been looking forward to sparring with someone...hell he would have taken on the old man at the ramen shop if he had to wait to long!

"So you are honestly telling me that you didn't know?" The look on Neji's face made Naruto feel like a complete moron.

"Honestly Neji, I had no idea Hinata felt that way about me. I mean, she was nice to me in the past like when she gave me the healing paste, or when she told me that I was the strongest person she knows." Naruto frowned as he tossed his frog/money pouch on top of a towel quickly followed by his watch and keys.

"Now that I think about it, she was one of the only people who was always on my side. But I thought it was because she was a fellow ninja trying to help me out…I didn't think she felt that way about me."

Neji dropped his own towel and a few items that were in his pocket and nodded. Inside he was a astonished. He really had no idea! Unbelievable! I knew Naruto was simple minded…but this is beyond anything I could have thought possible! At first Neji thought to ask him if he was even interested in girls, but shook that thought away. Better to continue feeling him out.

"She has been pinning for you since you left. I am sure that when she hears that you have returned to town she will rush out to find you, but pretend it was not a big deal, or that she just bumped into you by accident."

Neji bent at the waist and touched his forehead to his knees before straightening and doing it again. "It surprised me that she held her emotion for you for so long. But as far as I can tell…she has had strong feelings for you for at least the last four years or longer Naruto."

Naruto cracked his back, then he bent his head to either side to crack his neck before going through a series of stretches designed to loosen tendons and joints alike. "I don't get it Neji…I believe you when you tell me she has liked me, but you and I were never friends, especially during our exams. Why are you telling me this?"

Neji stopped in mid stretch then shrugged and did a complete split before standing and doing a back flip. Once he landed, he dropped into a cat stance and shook his head from left to right before standing straight again.

"As I told you before, I had ample time to re-evaluate all the things that I had done in the past and realized my place in the clan. True, Hinata is next in line to be head of the Hyugga clan, but as her cousin I have three main duties that I now hold to my heart and will accomplish.

One: To protect the future leader of the clan at all costs. Two: To ensure her happiness. Three: To secure the future growth of the clan. I believe you and Hinata would be very happy together, and the two of you together would provide the other two of my mission. I am only telling you this so that I can give the two of you a chance to see if a relationship is possible." Neji smirked slightly.

Among other things. He thought to himself.

Naruto thought furiously for a few seconds before looking at Neji and nodding. Even without the fox telling him he understood the logic. Neji knew that Naruto would be devoted to her and would gladly lay his life down to protect her if they were in love, hell even if they weren't in love, he would not let anything hurt her. "But Neji…I like Hinata but I don't know if I could love her. I don't know anything about her!"

"As if you have many other prospects pup? You could do much worse then this Hinata as I see things."

Naruto growled internally at the fox. "You shut up! I can't just fall in love with someone because that is what they want! I don't even know…I don't know the first thing about having a girlfriend!"

He almost said love…in truth, he didn't know what love was. A child forced to grow up alone, shunned and hated by everyone…love was as foreign to Naruto as anything he could think of. So now with his life advancing, certain needs had developed in him, and he didn't know how to satisfy them. Truth be told if he didn't find love he wondered if it would be so bad, he had done without it this long…Fana of course disagreed wholeheartedly.

"And that is why you have nothing and no one in your life. Didn't you say you wanted a girlfriend? Someone to kiss, and hold, and talk to? You are being presented one practically without any work. What would it hurt you to investigate this further?"

Naruto considered the words then hmphed. It was true that he was missing something in his life…but what if Hinata decided she didn't like him after she spent some time with him? He didn't want to lose the only person who helped him, stood up for him…then the words clicked. The only person to ever LIKE him.

Unfortunately, before the epiphany reached all corners of his mind, Neji's hand on his shoulder broke his chain of thought, and the revelation was pulled back into the dark corners it had broken away from. "Look, I propose that you date her a few times…go out with her and actually devote some time to her and see how you feel? I do not think you will be disappointed if you do and I do guarantee you will see that I am telling the truth."

Naruto nodded as he tried to regain the lost thought, but when it seemed completely out of reach he shrugged and grinned at Neji. "Alright, you've convinced me…but on one condition."

Neji laughed lightly as he checked his gear. "Name it."

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck and grinned. "Well…I'd like to think that this is a new start for us. Do you think we could hang out more often also…spar together…that kind of stuff?"

Neji blinked for a second then laughed, a rather pleasant sound to Naruto's surprise. His old laugh was cold, humorless, and he rarely smiled. This WAS a new Neji.

"Of course. I had assumed we would do that anyway but this will make it official."

Naruto held out his hand and Neji took it immediately with a firm grip and a smile.

"Now…shall we begin?"

Naruto grinned as he crossed the training field then turned around and nodded. "No destructive jutsus, no leaving the training ground."

Neji nodded as he took his place across from Naruto. "We spar until one surrenders or cannot continue."

Naruto took a modified dragon stance and summoned his chakra. "Agreed."

Neji took a deep breath and assumed the gentle fist stance. "Byakugan!"

Neji made a quick feint to Naruto's right side and threw a shuriken at him before coming on a straight line towards him.

Naruto dodged as the shuriken flew past him and threw one in return as he quickly formed a seal, "Shadow clone Jutsu!"

Twenty shadow clones appeared around Naruto and they all drew kunai and launched at the same time at Neji.

Neji stopped in place and put up a quick defensive stance before shouting out, "Rotation!" and his chakra left his body to form a defensive barrier around him. The throwing knives bounced and flew away from Neji in different directions as Naruto's shadow clones charged him.

Neji's rotation slowed but did not completely stop and Naruto stopped moving and stared in fascination as Neji appeared to be dancing in slow motion.

The first shadow clone hit the sphere of Neji's rotation and appeared to be hit over and over again before finally bursting into smoke. This was something new! All of the shadow clones that Naruto sent at Neji, in a matter of seconds were gone, none of them remained.

Suddenly the sphere was gone and Neji stood beaming with pride. "Do you like it? It is a new adaptation to the gentle fist/rotation skill. I call it the Shadow Dance. I can keep the protection of the rotation in effect and still use my gentle fist to attack with it. I developed it in the last three years and I must say it is very effective."

Naruto nodded in appreciation. "Whoa…that is cool Neji! I never expected to see anything like that!"

Neji bowed slightly. "Thank you. It is very effective, although it requires an immense amount of Chakra to maintain. I only plan to use it in a desperate situation. I started working on it a few months after we went after Sasuke. I realized I needed to expand my arsenal a bit and while I can strike through the rotation, I cannot do it nearly enough times as I can now with the shadow dance."

Naruto grinned as he assumed a modified tiger stance, both hands open and flexed like claws, while the lead leg was bent slightly at the knee and the other leg was slightly behind in case he had to kick off and charge.

"Well then let me return the favor by showing you one of my new tricks. I'm sure you noticed my shadow clones are more powerful, but that's not all!" Naruto's right hand began to glow and a ball of chakra formed there roughly the size of a cantaloupe.

Neji frowned as he watched. "Rasengan? It is bigger then I remember, But you knew that before you left."

"Now pup…show him what I taught you!"

"Rasengan no jutsu!" Naruto thrust his hand forward and the ball of energy left his hand and rushed towards Neji as he dodged to the left but to his shock the ball followed him!

Neji ran towards a tree then ran up the side and back flipped away at the last second as the rasengan slammed into it carving away big chucks of it until it collapsed under its own weight.

Neji landed and looked back at the tree and then at Naruto. "That was truly impressive! How did you do that? I thought the rasengan had to stay in contact with the user or it would dissipate."

Naruto smiled but then went with the rehearsed story that the fox had told him. "As I traveled and trained with Jiraiya I learned different kinds of jutsu and started wondering what kinds would work well with others. We met different masters, and they taught me lots of different things, and in time I started to experiment on my own. The rasengan is basically a ball of chakra. So I learned how to use more chakra to tether it to me and control its movement somewhat."

Neji blinked then his eyes got wide. "I see! So you are using the puppet master jutsu to maintain control of the rasengan!"

Naruto grinned as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Exactly! It took me a long time and a lot of practice, but I was finally able to do it without knocking myself out from the amount of chakra it cost. In time, the pervy sage taught me how to control my chakra better so that it cost me less and less to do it."

The story wasn't actually a lie…he was taught how to do it, and it did involve a bit of the puppet master jutsu, but the fox was the instructor, and not even Jiraiya knew that or that he could do it!

Neji grinned and punched Naruto in the shoulder lightly. "Naruto you are full of surprises!"

Naruto laughed but resumed his stance again. "Wait...it gets better!"

Naruto summoned the rasengan again in his right hand then his face scrunched up in concentration. "This...is...the...difficult part!"

Naruto's left hand began to glow and the rasengan appeared there as well, although smaller and not nearly as bright.

Neji grinned as he walked over to Naruto. "Two? That must take a tremendous amount of energy to maintain!"

Naruto nodded as he stood a little straighter, beads of sweat forming on his forehead and rolling down his cheeks. "It does...and I haven't gotten the hang of making it a full size yet...but it is good in case I need it…but here is the impressive part…it will even impress Jiraiya…when I…show him…"

Naruto brought his right hand to his right side near his hip, but turned over his left hand and brought the two rasengan together to form one a little bigger then a watermelon. As sweat began to pour off of him. His arms visibly trembled as he stood in place for a second then swiftly he thrust his hands forward towards a training post and the rasengan sped towards the post with a loud whoosing/ whistling noise until it made contact.

The energy began to do what the rasengan always did…but when it tore through the first few layers of wood, Naruto ripped his two hands away from each other, and the rasengan seemed to explode tearing huge chunks of wood out of the post and hurling it everywhere!

After the initial shock wore off, Neji could see the training dummy had been completely obliterated, chunks of wood were scattered everywhere, and a crater roughly ten feet in diameter had been dug out around it. The only thing that survived was the very base of the post, and that was now woefully smaller then it used to be.

"Incredible! How did you do that?"

Naruto smirked as he stood a little straighter. "Well the rasengan is chakra flowing in every different direction at once…I thought that if you could bring two together, you would have double the damage. Unfortunately when I first tried this I found out the hard way that the rasengan was two unstable, and if you bring two together…boom."

Neji winced as he considered then frowned. "But you just did it…didn't you?"

Neji looked at the post then at Naruto, thinking he might be under the influence of some new genjutsu. Naruto shook his head and laughed. "Well you see, the rasengan is too unstable…I didn't actually bring them together…I flattened the two against each other. Using more chakra I created a barrier that held the two apart, and allowed me to compress them together somewhat. When the dual rasengan reached their target, I just released the barrier between them so they could mingle…The rest is history. Neat huh?"

"To say the least! Naruto that was an awesome display…I would have never thought to see something like that!" Neji grinned as he shook his head then walked over and grabbed his towel and wiped his hands and neck. Impressive. And he only used his chakra…

Neji was still grinning as he dropped his towel and dove at Naruto, but the jinchuriki side stepped quickly then dropped low and attempted to sweep Neji's feet. The Hyuga genius did a quick hop up and no hand back flip away from him. Naruto not to be out done did a quick tuck and roll and landed next to Neji who blocked his left hand heel strike, and drove forward to close Naruto's chakra point on his right shoulder, but was shocked to find Naruto's hand wrapped around his finger, stopping him less than an inch from contact!

Naruto grinned like a fool as they both crouched there, so Neji threw a kick at Naruto's right leg, but Naruto dodged it by throwing the same leg backward, but then quickly tried to kick Neji's leg, and Neji in return pulled his away. With the stalemate in place, Neji threw his left hand forward in the form of a one hand eagle strike that caught Naruto's right shoulder, but Naruto had come forward and gave Neji a vicious head butt to his forehead, and both fell back in pain before jumping to their feet to face each other again.

Neither said a word but both had a respect of the others abilities. Naruto was about to pull out one of his Easter eggs, (New trick) but Neji dropped his stance and walked over to his belongings again.

"I'm sorry Naruto, but I must surrender. That was enjoyable and I look forward to us doing that more often. Unfortunately I forgot that I am supposed to meet Tenten at one pm...she probably wants to hurt me some more."

Naruto felt disappointed but nodded as he painted on a smile. "Yeah that was definitely fun." Although I was hoping for more of a workout. He thought to himself. Oh well…I guess I can go to the house and try out the pool. At least I was able to meet up with Neji. He seems to have mellowed a lot. I like him better like this.

Neji did not look up as Naruto approached and wiped himself off as well.

Well what a surprise. Naruto has gotten much stronger as well as matured. Perhaps my decision to tell him about Hinata is not such a bad one after all. Hinata still loves him, now all that is needed is for Naruto to love her too. Now…how do I get them together…

"Hey Neji, I bought a house today…the furniture should be there by now. Why don't you come over later and see it. I've got a pool and it is pretty big!"

Neji smiled as he thought to himself. Perfect!

"Alright, what time should I be there?"

Naruto thought for a moment then grinned. "I guess around six or seven is good. I haven't had any company other then Jaraiya in a long time. It'll be good to talk to someone else for once!"

Naruto and Neji exchanged a few more pleasantries, and directions to his new place before going off in separate directions.

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Later at his house, Naruto set out a bowl of snacks and made sure sodas were cooling inside the refrigerator before looking around and smiling. "Cool. Entertaining a guest in my house!" Naruto clenched his fists and jumped in the air with a shout! "Alright!!"

In his old apartment he didn't have the space to do anything like this, and he always had to worry about neighbors or his roommate. Now, all of that was a thing of the past! He looked around and grinned his famous grin as he took in the brand new furniture. Decorations were sparse…but he preferred it that way…at least until he found some things that suitably fit his personality.

A knock at the door made him jump and he grinned as he took two steps then slid across the floor and grasped the handle and opened it.

His jaw was the loudest thing that hit the floor.

On the other side was not a strong young man, but a small and shapely young woman with pale skin and lavender eyes.

Her look of surprise seemed more profound then Naruto's as her eyes got big and seemed to swell up with tears. "N...Naruto-kun…is that you?"

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Next Episode: I'm glad that you're back.