Chapter 3: Let the training begin!
Naruto looked at his clock that read 12:03. Ugh. He couldn't sleep, and he hated it because he felt tired from lying around so much. Though he coped with it, he'd have to. Besides he got out of the hospital today, and that's when Hinata and him could start their training. Hinata, it was weird, the more he worked with her, and went on missions with her, the less he thought of her as weird, and the more he looked at her with a higher perspective. She had come such a long way, and he couldn't deny it… he was deeply impressed by her. He grinned at the thought of her. And now: she was going with him to get Sasuke back, there was no way they'd fail this time, he just knew it! He looked back up at the clock. 12:17, time was crawling and he hated the wait. He wanted to hurry up and leave, start training with Hinata and prepare for Sasuke's retrieval.
Naruto opened his eyes and quickly looked at the clock. 10:28, he didn't take a second look before jumping out of bed and gathering clothes to get dressed.
"Damn! I'm late!" he yelled as he hurriedly got dressed, throwing his Johnny on the bed and ran down the hall to the counter. He checked out quickly, then broke into a sprint towards the training ground where he was supposed to meet Hinata almost two hours ago.
She sat up against one of the logs waiting for the blond haired boy the she adored so much. She looked at her watch and noticed how late he was. She sighed, getting discouraged that he would come, yet at the same time kept faith that he would keep his word. It was Naruto after all. She sighed again only to see a cloud of dust approaching, containing Naruto running as fast as he could to get to Hinata's resting spot! She stood up; smiling at the sight of the knucklehead that was running, and yelling sorry for being late. Approaching her resting post, he placed an arm across the log, resting his head on his forearm to catch his breath. "I'm here. Sorry for being late, Hinata." He said between gasps of breaths. After being able to breathe again, he sat down next to her, resting the back of his head on the log and looking over at her, waiting for her response.
"That's ok Naruto-kun! At least we can still do training" she replied, smiling, and blushing at the same time. It wasn't like she could find it in her to be mad at him.
Naruto grinned and nodded, standing up, taking the hint that she was ready and walked a few yards from their resting spot. As he stopped walking, he turned, holding up the fist that he had when he swore on her blood to avenge her in his fight against Neji. Still grinning he double-checked if she was ready, and was glad to hear that she was. Hinata stood taking a couple steps toward Naruto and activated her Byakugan, taking the Hyuuga pose. Naruto held his hands to his side and stared her down, stating that he wanted as little holdbacks as possible. This was the first step to their training: figure out each other's weaknesses and strengths. They both agreed to the terms and started their sparring.
He started by formed his famous hand seal as he called out his jutsu,. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" he called, creating clones and charging for Hinata. She quickly reacted as chakra formed around her hand, dispelling the clones one by one with her gentle fist style. Though she quickly disposed of a number of clones, four had surrounded her all performing the same hand seals [Hebi-Tora-Saru-Usu-buta-Uma-Tora] "Katon! Goukakyuu no jutsu!" the clones called out as they released their blasts of fire at the Hyuuga girl that stood in the middle.
She brought two fingers up in front of her face as the eight trigrams appeared. Following the eight trigrams, the flames that came in range slowed to a crawl, barely approaching her at all now. "Hakke! Rokujuu Yonsho!" Hinata called out as she started using her eight division's absolute defense. In angelic grace, Hinata began almost dancing in place, bending and wielding her chakra perfectly to smother the flames. Once the flames were gone, she knelt, her palms on the ground then jetted off of the ground, Her dance now being performed in mid-air, attacking the shadow clones. All Naruto could do now is stare in awe. He had seen this jutsu before, but never had she used it like this, and never had he been so awe-struck.
Almost instantly all the clones had been dispelled. She glanced around, Making sure that all the body's had vanished, not one remaining. This could mean one thing, not a single one was Naruto. She jumped into a back flip as she felt the ground beneath her tremor. As she landed, Naruto, who had just come up through the ground, peered over her, slightly impressed that she saw his Doton coming. He grinned while wiping the sweat of his face and preparing for another go. He unzipped his jacket, revealing a plain black shirt underneath it, which was also noticeably soaked. Katon and Doton had no affect on her, so there wasn't much option left. If he wanted to prove himself of working with her, he'd have to resort to strongest jutsu. He held his hand out as chakra started forming and spiraling in his palm. He decreased the pressure in the sphere and grinned at Hinata.
"You ready for my Rasengan, Hinata?"
She quickly took a stance and replied "come, Naruto!" Activating her Byakugan.
'This chakra, he has such control over it. But there are gaps in the sphere; it's almost as if he's trying to maintain a low pressure. Naruto, you're holding back.' she let out a sigh as she gathered chakra in her palm. Naruto charged at her, Rasengan at his side. Hinata waited for him to get in range, suddenly sidestepping towards the outside of the hand holding his Rasengan and tapping the tenketsu, breaking his control over it. As the Rasengan broke, she instantly twisted herself, repositioning herself right up against his chest and elbowing him full force to the chin, sending him airborne. Before Naruto had landed Hinata appeared next to him, letting him fall and holding her palm right above his chest, smiling as she had forced him into submission
Naruto eyes widened as he looked at her "Hinata… that was amazing,"
Hinata instantly turned red and looked down at him, breaking her perfectly composed stature. "U-um… thank you, Naruto-kun".
After a few moments of lying on the ground, Naruto pulled himself up and he let our an exhausted sigh, still amazed at Hinata's Taijutsu, and grinned "well I think I've had enough for today. Anymore and my ass would end up kicked harder than it already is!" he stated with his usual laugh
"But Naruto-kun, you held back on that jutsu, why?"
Naruto walked over to a tree as he turned to her. "Because, As full powered Rasengan would be over kill if you didn't counter me like that. Watch, I'll show you what I mean." He formed a Rasengan and lowered its pressure, slamming it against the tree. As he hit the tree, the tree bark shattered and splintered, forming a spiral crease from where he hit, spreading throughout the base of the tree. Hinata looked at the tree examining the result, thinking that it looked rather painful, and was glad she dodged it. Naruto spoke again "that's what I would have used on you. This is Rasengan at its full power." Naruto now formed a second Rasengan, keeping the rotation and pressure sturdy. Hinata activated her Byakugan, instantly noticing the difference in the jutsu. Naruto held the Rasengan to the tree, and gently started pushing the sphere into the tree, which drilled around it, removing a chunk in the tree twice as large as the sphere itself. He turned to see Hinata's eyes widened in amazement of the power, and gave a grin, satisfied that he had actually amazed her for once. "That's why I couldn't use it's full power on you." He slightly teased.
After he was done with his demonstration, he looked at the setting sun, walking over to the shoreline of the pond that the sun sat over, and took a seat. Hinata, sitting beside him, noticed how close they were sitting and smiled to herself. Finally, a time with Naruto where she could just have a memorable moment that she had wanted for so long. Then tomorrow it was back to training.
"Hey Hinata, you want me to walk you home? It's getting kind of late, and I kind of owe you for being late." Naruto suddenly asked, breaking the silence that had overcome them in the preceding moments.
"Yeah, that'd be nice, thank you Naruto-kun" she quietly replied, seeing him standing now.
Naruto offered his hand to help her up. Blushing deeply, she gazed up at him and almost forgot that he was offering her his hand. When she snapped back into reality, she slowly took his offer and pulled herself up off the ground. The two started walking toward the village, silence shrouding them again. Finally, though, this wasn't an awkward silence. It was a calm and relaxed silence between two companions who had just got down with a long day's training. During their walk, Naruto ran through his mind for ways of beating Hinata and impressing her further, ideas for tomorrow's training, and for once, just strategizing. 'She's grown up so much since the first Chuunin exams…' he thought to himself.
Hinata's crimson shades that burned her cheeks only deepened from being so close to Naruto. How did it come to this? The boy she loved for so long was finally walking her home. She thought she'd never see the day, and almost didn't want it to end; though, like all good things, it was about to. She gave a small smile to her self 'who knows, maybe tomorrow he'll offer it again' she thought to herself as they approached her family's house.
They stood in front of her door; Hinata, looking up at Naruto, thanked him as he gave his departing words. He gave her one last grin and turned to go home, Hinata entering her house.
'Hinata, you've become really amazing. I can't wait to train with you tomorrow, I know I can learn a lot from you.' With those thoughts, Naruto left for his home, back to where there was no one but himself. Depressing as he found it, he didn't care anymore, he was more eager for the morning, and home was where he could go to make the wait seem so much shorter. Home contained a bed, and that invited sleep.
"I'm home!" Hinata surprisingly called to her family, taking off her shoes and walking into the living room to see Neji and Hiashi drinking tea.
"Oh Hinata, welcome home." Her father welcomed
"Thank you, father," She replied quietly
"How was training Hinata-sama?" Neji asked
"It went really well! Though we only did sparring today, I actually won! Now tomorrow we're starting on combo attacks, getting to know each other more so we have no flaws as a team, and soon, we'll be ready to go after Sasuke and bring him back!" Hinata replied excitedly, "Naruto-kun wasn't able to touch me," She finished with a wide grin.
Hiashi and Neji smiled. Her father set down her cup and stood up, walking over to Hinata and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "I'm proud to call you my daughter. However, it's getting late, you'd be smart to go to bed, it sounds like you have a busy day tomorrow."
Hinata stood there in awe to her father's words and simply nodded, giving her goodnights and going up to her room. 'He's…proud to call me his daughter…I can't believe it…' she smiled to herself, wiping her eye of the tears that had silently formed. For the first time, Hiashi accepted Hinata, and was proud of her. This truly was the greatest day she could remember.
(A/N: Now I can work on chapter four ^.^ That shouldn't take too long, I'll have it up in a day or two. Read and Review!)
