Updated: 5/31/2012
Teamwork, the Answer is Teamwork!
Chapter 4: Chakra, Trees, and Herbs, oh my!
"Wake up!" screamed a loud voice that jolted Hinata awake. She opened her eyes to see cerulean orbs staring back at her. A light pink blush painted her face, as noticed how close they were to each other. "Yay!" Naruto cheered, jumping up and away from his female teammate. "You're awake! Kakashi-sensei wants us to start training in a forest nearby," the blonde's smile widened at the thought, "Yet another chance to show the world of my skills and that I'm better than that Sasuke-teme!"
"Che," scoffed the raven-haired ninja that was leaning on a wall adjacent to Hinata's futon. "You know that I am better than you."
She was confused, what were they doing in her room? Didn't they have their own…well, technically, Naruto and Sasuke had to share a room while Hinata and Kakashi had their own rooms. Anyway…
"Yeah RIGHT!" Naruto turned around to face Sasuke as they glared at each other. Hinata could feel the air around them grow uncomfortable as lightning was seen, flashing from one shinobi's eyes to the others. Hinata giggled softly at the "action" that was unfolding before her eyes as she retrieved a fresh change of clothes from her pack and headed, unnoticed by her teammates, to the nearest bathroom.
When Hinata emerged afterwards, in a new change of cargo pants, a loose white shirt with ¾ sleeves, and her signature bulky jacket. She found her teammates waiting outside of the lavatory, waiting for her. But before Hinata could say or do anything, the rivals each grabbed one of her arms and dragged her to a discreet location in the forest nearby Tazuna's abode.
When Team 7 reached the designated location, they found Kakashi sitting on a nearby rock, reading, and his crutches leaning on the other side of the rock. "Yo!" Kakashi exclaimed cheerfully when he noticed the trio standing before him. He lazily pointed random trees before him. "Your task today is to master chakra control. You will climb the trees by applying chakra to your feet. You will also use a kunai to mark how far you get. You will not be able to go home until you practice and perfect this technique. I will only be here for a couple of hours, do your best to impress me."
Naruto jumped up, ecstatic. He had his kunai in hand as he ran towards a tree on the other side of the clearing, building up acceleration. As soon as his foot came in contact with the bark of the tree, he was repelled backwards. He let out a cry of pain as he landed head first into soil, a few meters away from the tree. Two heads looked at the large imprint the blonde had left on the tree. Apparently, there was a limit to the amount off chakra one could apply to their feet.
Sasuke thought to himself for a while before charging at a tree a few meters away from his rival's. He started up the tree about ten steps before he could feel his hold slipping. He marked the tree before falling and landing softly on the ground. He heard soft footsteps coming from behind him and turned around. He saw Hinata there, slowly climbing the tree. Fifteen steps slowly became twenty, then thirty, before the pale-eyed kunoichi's footing slipped and she hastily marked the tree before her body started descending and nearing the ground.
Sasuke moved fast, and soon afterwards he had found that he had caught the Hyuuga in his arms and a pale red swept across both their fast, of course, Hinata's blush was darker than Sasuke's.
Hinata was the first to recollect her thoughts and speak. "T-Thanks Uchiha-san." She stammered, still a bit disoriented from what had just happened. Sasuke set the pale-eyed kounoichi down on the ground before continuing to train.
Sasuke sat on the ground, completely worn out. He gazed upon the tree that he had been penting his frustration on. Up and down the side of the trunk were long slashes that went higher every time. His gazed wandered over to his blonde teammate's tree, the marks were getting higher, almost on par with his own. He struggled to get up, unwilling to lose to the dobe. When he stood up, his gaze had left the blonde's tree and was looking at Hinata's. The marks were widely space, getting higher every time, the last one, being at the top, where her kunai was abandoned and left embedded into the trunk.
At first, it was an unspoken competition between all three of them, or so Naruto and Sasuke thought. But then the boys noticed how Hinata was improving at a much greater rate then they were and immediately, the competition only contained two competitors, the lone Uchiha and the annoying blonde.
The Hyuuga was nearby, somewhere, though she wasn't training. Sasuke scowled, she decided that pick medicinal herbs were more worth her time than training, pathetic. Sasuke diverted his attention towards the task on hand…
That was until he heard Naruto whispering to Hinata. Sasuke stared at the interaction between the two, but said nothing. Finally, the blonde walked away from their female teammate, after yelling 'thanks,' and started climbing the tree again. However, this time, Naruto's height doubled in length before he stopped. The Uchiha stood staring with his eye's wide. What had just happened?
Sasuke hesitantly walked towards his teammate, knowing that what his is about to do is going to be a BIG, HUGE blow to his manly pride…
"What… did… you… ask… Hinata, exactly?" He asked slowly. Naruto looked at him puzzled, before bursting out into a fit of laughter.
"What's so funny…?" asked the Uchiha. The blonde continued laughing, wheezing, even.
"You don't get it? It's so easy!" Sasuke emitted a low growl from his throat and hit his teammate upside the head.
"Baka," he hissed. "You, yourself, were not doing very well just a few minutes before. Che, whatever, I'll go ask Hinata or figure it out for myself." Sasuke stalked away from Naruto, in search of said Hyuuga. He found her in a patch of tall green plants, selecting a few and putting them into a small cloth bag.
"Hinata," he started, getting the Hyuuga's attention. With her full attention on him, Sasuke found the air suffocating. It was hard to breathe and think. There was a long pause, a long pregnant pause, a long pregnant unsettling pause, a—you get my point. There was a long pause, period.
"U-Uchiha-san, was there something you wanted?" Hinata asked the unmoving boy, wanting to get back to collecting herbs. Sasuke was looking at her, she knew that much; that meant he wanted something. But the damn boy just wouldn't talk! "If you d-don't mind, I'd let to get b-back to what I was doing before. She grabbed the jar of medicinal cream that was next to her feet, and stood up, dusting her clothes off and was planning to walk to a different site to collect herbs. Because the Uchiha's presence was a bit annoying on her part.
Sasuke didn't know what caused his to do so, but his hand shot out to garb her arm before he could do anything to stop himself. The sudden jerk of Hinata's body caused her grip on the jar in her hand loosen. The jar fell to the ground, landing on a rock with an ear-splitting crack. Hinata turned around to see Sasuke again, before kneeling down to collect the broken pieces of glass, thank Kami-sama, that Hyuuga female hadn't filled the jar with anything of any sort yet. An un-Hinata-like scowl appeared on her face. Why was he so persistent in her being here to talk to him, if he wasn't talking? He had just cost her a perfectly good jar!
"U-Um," Sasuke started again, trying to find the right words, ignoring the fact that he had just broken one of Hinata's jars. He saw her wince as her hand came in contact with a sharp edge of a piece of glass. Moving fast, Sasuke wrapped his hand around hers, applying pressure to prevent anymore blood loss while using his other hand to collect the rest of the pieces of broken glass.
When the current situation dawned on them , they both blushed and Hinata bandaged her hand while the Uchiha waited for her to finish.
"Uh… thanks," she said, smiling up at him. He felt his face heat up as he asked her the question that he had originally came to ask her about.
"W-What is the t-trick to… uh… mastering t-that… tree climbing exercise?" Hinata responded casually, Sasuke nodded once in a while.
"Oh," he said once she had finished talking, "No wonder." Hinata stood up, followed by Sasuke.
"N-Now if you don't mind, I would like to get back to collecting herbs," with that, Hinata walked away, a slight blush on her face, that went unnoticed by Sasuke, as she looked at her bandaged hand.
End of Chapter 4
A/N: Blah, nothing much to change here; really short chapter.
The next chapter will be a big pain, but then it's only about 2 chapters till new material, yesh.
Vexitoire