I do not own Naruto or any of the characters within.
Chapter 3 Year 2 Another friend and killing intent.
Sitting in a middle of a meadow next to Hikaru was Naruto. "'Why can't I use the mind-scape to learn ninjutsu?". His red headed friend explains "It is your mind-scape, same as you made this meadow, the forest and even the house for me any ninjutsu would work simply because you want it to regardless of the fact if you actually did it right or not. There are some things we can train in here like your bookwork. And how to deal with things like killing intent." Naruto just looks at her asking "..Emm what's killing intent?" Kyuubi just smiles at Naruto, moment later he feels terrified out of his mind as if he is standing in front of a monster, certain he is going to die and then she starts talking with a sweet sounding voice "This is intent or desire to kill projected out through chakra presence or simply force of will most of the time as combination of the two. For most people it's as if they are standing in front of a predator with them being the prey. Many simply freeze from terror. Now stop shivering in the corner over there and get back here! I'm not even using large amounts of killing intent." Naruto slowly picks himself back up and slowly makes his way back to the middle of the clearing. Sitting back down next to Hikaru he asks. "Will there be people with killing intent that horrible out there?" Hikaru just looks at him for a few seconds and starts laughing. "That was barley anything, I expect you to be able to produce killing intent more potent before you are done with your academy. Now back to topic on hand." What proceeded then was a session of just how terrified can a small kid get within his own mind without passing out.
Amongst the things decided for the second academy year was that Naruto should start holding back in class to be in middle performance wise due to all the help over the break and the constant extra training he would soon be outstripping the other students in performance. But due to the general hate and distrust against him being the best in class would most definitely work to fan the hate higher.
After a class a few weeks into the school year Naruto was sitting in an empty clearing near his apartment building trying to do the meditation exercises in order to use his chakra more freely. And much to Hikaru`s amusement he kept ending up in his mind-scape rather than in a trance helping him feel his chakra. "I can't seem to get it right I´m supposed to feel like warmth in my middle while concentrating on my chakra. But whenever I do, I just end up in the cage" thinks Naruto "Naruto let me manipulate your chakra for a bit. Just relax and focus on what your feeling, try to separate out which one is my youki and which is your chakra." Naruto continues focusing feeling a great swell of power flowing through him. If anyone outside was observing they would see a visible bluish haze covering him, pushing the nearby loose grass and leaves away with a small breeze.
Few more weeks on we find our hero again in the same clearing, this time with a leaf in hand regularly complaining. "The leaf keeps flying away whenever I focus chakra on it or just burns into a crisp." Suddenly he hears the voice of his best friend again "It is supposed to be difficult especially with me messing with your control on purpose." "Eh why would you do that it's hard enough as it is!" complains Naruto. "It will help you gain far better control in the long term. And with you having the biggest chakra pools ever in any human you will need it." getting an instant response from the blond kid "I know, you have told me many times, bigger pool means harder to control. But I´m using as little as I can and it still keeps going wrong" Getting annoyed response from the demon "Stop complaining and get back practicing. Or we can do some more killing intent practice in your mind combined with taijutsu practice." Getting an instant terrified look from Naruto who quickly gets back to practicing.
One thing Naruto did notice between all his practice and reading Hikaru had him do was that for some reason Hinata, the girl with weird eyes who seemed to be as lonely in class as he was, had started following him after class. "Why does she keep following me?" Thought Naruto on yet another day after the lessons were over. "Maybe she is lonely and just wants a friend. You should try talking to her" "But why does she just not say that then?" "Remember how lonely you were before I started talking to you." Naruto decided then and there that he would try to get Hinata to be his friend. At the same time in his mind a certain demon was thinking "Hinata is probably the best at taijutsu in the class after we get past her issues, spars with her would work wonderfully at improving Naruto`s hand to hand. This would be so much easier if I actually knew any of the styles. All I know is the academy style Naruto has been taught in school. And some instinctual moves that come naturally to me. I do not intend let him get us killed. I so wish I could just flood his body with youki to make sure he does not get threatened. But even with his constantly increasing resistance to damaging effects from youki to humans an amount big enough to allow him to crush any enemies would kill him as surely as his enemies. At least with the seal relaxing slowly I can manipulate the youki in his body when needed. I should have paid more attention to the humans in the past."
Next day during lunch break. Naruto walks up to Hinata who just goes red in face on seeing him coming straight to her. "You seem like a very nice person. Do you want to be my friend instead of trying to follow me around after class?" asks Naruto suddenly hearing something that sounds like a sigh followed by "What have I told you about tact!" Hinata just looks at him for a moment then faints. Naruto panics "I didn't do anything to her! Is she ill?" After helping Hinata into a sitting position under the tree he waits till she wakes up which is luckily only a few minutes later. A really quiet response from Hinata. "Yes, I'd l-love to." Who then proceeds to make a good impression of a tomato.
Few weeks later Naruto had dragged Hinata with him to help in the planning of pranks he could not resist doing to people who treated him badly. One evening after class when Naruto was heading for the clearing he used for practice he asked Hinata "Why do you only use academy style when you attack in the spars. I can see from your moves when avoiding hits that you don't use any academy moves then." Hinata still quietly, responds. "My clan taijutsu style is the gentle fist fighting style it relies on using chakra to cause internal injuries and closing tenketsu. It would take most people a full day or two to recover from that completely." "Naruto ask her to close one tenketsu of yours to try, I want to see the exact effect it has and if I can re-open them" Naruto then asks his new friend "Would you mind demonstrating it please." Hinata just looks scared at that. "But I don't w-want to hurt you." "I promise I won't be angry" responds Naruto. Hinata focuses chakra into her eyes making the blood-vessels near her eyes bulge and quickly closes one of the tenketsu`s in Naruto`s hand. Then is shocked a moment later when the same tenketsu flares red and is back open. Naruto shakes his hand a few times stating "That hurt. You were right." at that Hinata starts looking really sad but Naruto just continues on "That is sooo cool! I wish I could do that! We really must spar that could be so good practice!" Hinata just looks shocked at that for a moment before breaking into a smile. "A smile looks a lot better than your normal scared look!" at that Hinata just stares at him for a moment then faints. "Again! Why does she keep doing that!" complains Naruto.
After some convincing and pleading Hinata agrees to spar with Naruto few times a week. After some advice from Hikaru and Naruto explaining that she is hurting him by holding back in spars that the practice could mean the difference of life and death later in career as shinobi. And Hikaru`s advice for Hinata to try and imagine him as a moving target dummy during spars. He proceeded to get his ass handed to himself during spar after spar. With Hikaru refusing to re-open his tenketsu during the spars only after it. Naruto remembers her explanation of why "You will get reckless if you're constantly near invulnerable to her attacks. Also learning to deal with the pain from her attacks and how to avoid risky hits that cripple you is good for you."
During all the practice, spars and constant reading mixed in with pranking people Naruto made good progress learning to be relatively quiet and serious in class while pranking most teachers in the school except this year's new teacher. Iruka was the only teacher in academy that actually answered his questions. Allowing him to bypass the usual asking Hinata to ask the teacher. Hinata`s performance also went up due to the extra confidence and constant prodding from Naruto. Also being able to beat him in a spar almost all the time did wonders!
At the Hyūga household. Hinata had yet another spar with Hanabi, her younger sister. Under the watchful and harsh eyes of their father. This spar went noticeable different despite starting exactly as always with Hanabi attacking and Hinata defending. Hanabi attacked over and over with Hinata avoiding hits or blocking them with chakra loaded hits. Then to the complete shock of her, Hinata rapidly shifted from defense to offense moving in and with a quick strike managed to close tenketsu`s in her left hand. Leaving her to try and defend with only one hand while Hinata completely out of character continued to attack. After a while Hanabi collapsed with most of her major tenketsu needed for fighting with the gentle fist style closed. Watching how Hinata turned to their father bowing as tradition required. Waiting for the usual criticism. After a few moments of silence. To both of them they got surprised, instead of criticism he got a question for Hinata. "What changed to allow you to actually attack? Rather than continue to only defend like a weakling?" Hinata responded. "Advice from a friend to try and imagine an enemy being a target dummy rather than a person." Hiashi just looked at his daughter for a moment and responded. "So there is hope after all. Both of you, dismissed."
Rest of the evening while rereading today's lessons for the theory classes of academy she kept thinking. "This is the first time that I won a spar against Hanabi and father did not scold me or call me weak even once tonight. And all that thanks to Naruto."
Half way into this year's lessons came their first actual ninjutsu that they had to learn. Henge which required a small amount of chakra and the bunshin a clone technique creating an illusory copy of the user. Over the months following Naruto kept trying, both failing getting either to work. He even asked Hinata for help whose help with her byakugan discovered that Naruto was using huge amounts more chakra than either technique required. So Naruto kept doing more and more chakra training exercises. Despite that neither seemed to work. And he was getting closer and closer to the deadline exams of the year. And being able to perform at least one of them was minimum required to continue. Not wanting to drop out he kept practicing. On the sideline Hikaru kept trying to find ways to help as getting Naruto`s options for becoming stronger crippled would not do. After all of that she eventually figured out a way to do a variation of a henge.
"Naruto come into the seal" Naruto listening to his friend and part time teacher entered the seal finding I´m in the same familiar clearing with the now constantly improving house and forest. "Why did you call me in here you know the exam is tomorrow I need to make this work or I´ll be dropped out. "Instead of whining to me rather listen. I think you might be able to make a combination of your henge technique and the way I can shift my form. The youki in you should make that possible. Do the same hand-signs but try to use an even mix of youki and chakra. Inherent nature of my power should do half the work for you." Naruto exited the seal instantly trying to do it. After some practice he finally managed to get youki to flow with chakra into the technique.
Hinata kept watching as Naruto tried and tried never giving up. Suddenly he just stopped his practice and sat down closing his eyes. Few moments later he stood up and started practicing again while looking a lot less worried. She activated her eyes watching to see how close Naruto was to getting the mix of spiritual and physical chakra along with the amount right. And to her shock Naruto pulled not just his chakra but also the weird red chakra flowing through him. Moment later byakugan active she watched as his chakra pathways along with everything else shifted. She was starting at the copy of herself. She looked harder, yep a copy of herself. "Naruto that should not be possible henge is supposed to be an illusion yet even with byakugan I see myself when looking at you." Naruto looking sheepish scratched the back of his head the gesture looking out of place on Hinata`s body, while answering. "I thought it's so hard to use just a tiny bit what if I just use a lot more." Hinata just walked up to her copy and poked Naruto. "Hey why are you poking me!" came from Naruto. "It's not a copy even with my byakugan all I see is me.
"It's a full physical change that won't release unless you release it. For all intents and purposes my youki shifted your whole body into her likeness as close as it could." Naruto kept practicing the jutsu for rest of the evening finally finding himself not dreading the exam.
Exam day after the written test was the jutsu part of the test Naruto demonstrated his use of henge honestly stating he just can't seem to get bunshin to work. Iruka was happy as one of the students he was most worried about had managed to figure out how to make henge work. Never realizing that Naruto was not creating a simple illusion.
Taijutsu test consisted of a spar versus the teacher. Naruto passed even getting a comment from Iruka. "You improved massively in taijutsu this year despite not managing to hit me it was very hard to get a hit on you." Naruto just thought on the fact that having to block or getting hit by Hinata hurts way too much in order not to learn to dodge. Especially with her starting to make more and more use out of being flexible in their spars dancing around his hits and getting hits regularly.
A few more people ended up dropped out and moved to a full civilian school due to being unable to manage the either the chakra for either of the jutsu`s or simply being unable to manipulate their own life-force at all.
