Homeroom sped by very quickly after that talk, and first period was up. For my first period, I had weapons training. On the way, Tenten was jumping off the walls. Though I knew Naruto was not the most popular kid in school, I could see other freshman watching him. I tried not to pay attention. The right to get mad was not mine to reserve. Still, envy for these girls who could so easily show there emotions grew inside me.
"Hey, Hinata, are you a good shot?" Tenten had stopped jumping around long enough to ask me that simple question.
"I am better than ordinary civilians, but I am not a specialist. I think I would make a good doctor though. I have helped people and animals before, so perhaps I would be a medical ninja." When my speech on what my talents included had finished, we arrived at the front door of the weaponry room.
Inside of the weaponry room was bleachers, and posts on the far side with targets painted onto them. The room was full of chattering freshman, and a teacher. The only people from our group in the area were Naruto, Tenten, and I. Naruto basically made up for the noise that the others usually made. After the school bell rung to tell us to start class, Iruka took his place.
"Students, welcome to Konoha Ninja Academy. I hope you all do well, and that no one dies. This is the weaponry class. I assume you all took the prep class over the summer and are ready to begin working with the tools." Everyone in the class nodded, and a few said yes.
"Good. Now, line up." People scrambled to get into line. Iruka pulled over a cart with boxes on them. Tenten, Naruto, and I were in the front of the line. He handed every single person in the room a box. When I opened mine, I was shocked. Inside each box was a set of kunai and shuriken.
"Each student in this class is getting a set of tools. Take care of them as these are yours. We do not replace them and you will have to use your own money to buy new ones. Each person in line can step forward and begin their training." We all sprinted to the lanes with the post on the ends. While most people began to through the weapons right off the bat, I counted them and put them in my pack. Tenten tossed her box to me.
"I don't need them. Those are student models, and don't fly well enough for me. You can have them." She proceeded to pull out one of her scrolls and used her own wooden weapons. Her weapons did just as well as the metal ones did. I noticed that Naruto was looking at the box in my hands with envy. A giggle escaped me. I counted the weapons in the new box as well. Pushing aside half, the other half went into my pouch. The left-over ones went back into the box. Naruto was watching me the whole time. Finally, I stood up and handed the box to Naruto, smiling. He looked at me with shock. He looked as if he had never been given anything in the past. Remembering what he said about his past, I figured he never received anything from anyone.
He dug out all of the weapons out of his bag, and put the ones that I had given him at the bottom. His smile was really sincere, and it made me laugh. Once my composure was regained, my attentions were brought back to the target. Tenten's target was in splinters, and mine had not been touched. After a few minutes, my target was diminished. My aim was not nearly as good as Tenten's, but Iruka gave me the second best score.
Naruto had thrown all of his kunai's and not one of them had hit their target. There was nothing else to do, so helping him was my choice. He threw wildly and he was rather tired so all he had to do was relax. It still made me wonder why his aim was so bad. I knew Naruto could not have been that bad of a shot. My observations came to fruit rather quickly. When he threw anything, he would wince at the last second, throwing everything off.
Iruka was standing in the corner helping a kid. I approached him.
"Excuse me, sensei. May I take Naruto to the nurse; he appears to have a shoulder injury." I bowed to show respect and avoiding eye contact came naturally. Iruka poked my shoulder. My eyes shifted up.
"Hinata: no need to be so formal. Yes, you can take Naruto to the nurse." I blushed at the comment on my formality, but I walked away. Naruto was still trying to throw his weapons. Tenten was watching him and she looked amused.
"T-tenten, can you please collect Naruto's weapons. I need to take him to the nurse." I have no idea what Tenten heard in my voice, but she complied with no complaint. Naruto continued to throw ninja tools. The next time he reached for his bag, I grabbed his hand. He turned to look at me.
"Let's go Naruto." He seemed spell struck, and I dragged him along with me. When we arrived at the nurse's office, we waited for five minutes. The principle came in and told us that the nurse was running a little late but she would be in soon. Naruto smiled basically trying to grin and bear it. His breathing was becoming pained and shallow but he tried not to look in pain.
Worry began to consume me. Soon, I couldn't take it anymore, as I had been raised to think everything was my fault. By the time taking action was in my mind, Naruto's resolve was failing and his knuckles were getting white from gripping a rail so tightly. I walked over to the faucet, and grabbed a few paper towels.
"Naruto-kun, do you mind taking off your track-suit jacket? Whatever wound that is under there will get infected by your own sweat if you don't." He nodded and winced as he carefully removed the jacket. The dampened paper towels were dripping in my hand, but my eyes could not come off of the injury on Naruto's shoulder.
There was a huge gash running across his shoulder muscle. It was bleeding a little, and his undershirt was bloody on the edge close to his shoulder. My brain finally registered that it needed to be cleaned. When I placed the damp towels on Naruto's shoulder, he shuddered from the cold and he yelped a little from the stinging pain I was sure he felt. It made no sense how pain-free he had seemed when he was hugging everyone and smiling. It brought tears to my eyes thinking of the pain such a happy person and my friend was going through.
"Naruto-kun, what happened to your shoulder?" Naruto looked at me and his usually bright cerulean eyes dulled.
"Some of the villagers attacked me. I don't even know why." He noticed the tears in my eyes. "It's okay Hina-chan. I forgave them. I am sure they didn't mean to be so cruel. It's just a way to take out the frustration and sadness they suffered as most of their parents were killed by the Kyuubi." His eyes opened wide. "Hina-chan you didn't hear that." He started to panic and move but the pain in his arm kept him sitting.
"What's a Kyuubi?" Naruto got an ultra frightened look in his eyes and he looked around franticly.
"Hinata, be careful." The blue in his eyes suddenly dissipated and they turned a fiery tint of red. It was a flame and hatred red. A growl erupted from his throat. Naruto got up from the cot and his wound healed. He approached me slowly but I knew something was wrong. Naruto was changed and I was sincerely scared for my life. My feet kept backing up and Naruto followed. Backing up against a table, I felt something pierce the back of my leg. Whatever pierced my leg went through my knee and my leg gave way under me. I fell clutching my leg. Naruto still had the angry hated look on his face and right when it looked like he was going to attack me he reeled back. His eyes phased between the brightest blue and red. Finally, Naruto collapsed on the floor. The pain in my leg kept me from standing so I crawled over to him instead.
"Naruto-kun, are you okay?" He looked at me and smiled weakly.
"I'm okay Hina-chan, just a little tired." The pain in my leg increased and I turned to examine it. The back of my knee had a long senbon sticking out of it. I tugged at the needle and pulled. It came out with a pop. My knee relaxed, but it stung badly. I grabbed a close by bandage and wrapped up my knee. Standing up, my hand extended to Naruto. He took it and tried to get up. It was difficult, but he finally reached the bed and sat down. His eyes were really sad when he looked at my rolled up training pants. The senbon had pierced right through the material, and the bandages were wrapped around my knee tightly. I tried to put as little weight on it as possible.
"I am so sorry, Hina-chan. I didn't want to hurt you." He looked so sad. I wanted to limp over and give him a hug, but all of the courage that I had when I was tending to his injury had left me.
"It's o-okay N-naruto-kun. I know that w-wasn't y-you attacking me. W-was that the K- kyuubi?" Naruto nodded. I tried a smile. It wasn't too hard.
"It's o-okay. I'm just glad you're alright." Right then the nurse came in. She looked at Naruto and then at me.
"Who's hurt worse?" Naruto pointed at me and I pointed at Naruto. The nurse just sighed. "Boy, you're injury is bleeding more. She pointed to a stool and told me to sit on that. When I got up, I realized that my leg didn't bend almost as if the leg had a broken hinge. I tried not to alert the nurse but Naruto was watching me.
The nurse finished relatively quickly with Naruto's injury and moved on to me. She grabbed my leg roughly and the pain made me yelp. Naruto stood up quickly and left.
A/N: I am terribly sorry that this took so long for me to write. You can send me reviews telling me about any other couples you want to appear in this story, Thank You!
