Destiny of the Demon

By: naruhinafan2010

Hello, my loyal readers! I'm really excited about how this fanfic is coming out and I wish my fingers could type faster so I could dish out the chapters quicker! Oh well, I guess we can't win them all... Anyway, Destiny of the Demon: Ch. 4 is UP, and I had fun writing it! ENJOY!! By the way, if any of you who are reading this are authors yourselves, listening to Nickelback while you write helps somehow, don't ask me why, but I think it helps me keep the story running at the same pace. I apolegize for the longer wait for this chapter and I hope I did justice to your expectations!

I do not own Naruto or any of its affiliates. I did not create Naruto or any other characters: that was the work of my personal idol, Masashi Kishimoto (without him, I would be lost! ) I only own the plot of this story and any original characters you may discover. Copyright infringement was not intended on my part. Enjoy, fans!!

PS: In the beginning, we are in Naruto's POV, just in case you were confused.

CHAPTER 4

After I'd gotten Hinata calmed down, we walked back to my new house where we caught Jiraiya and Kiba in some very interesting situations. We found Kiba in the kitchen, grinning from ear to ear as he held a pair of scissors in his left hand. Hinata began to question what he was smiling about but stopped as we noticed as one what made him so jovial.

Kiba had cut his hair. It now stopped around the bottom of his ears in the back, though he'd kept it long in the front, sort of like how Hinata's hair used to look. Using scissors hadn't allowed a very neat cut, but it looked better than it would have if a barber had done the job. It looked scrappy, but it mirrored Kiba's personality: hard and rough-looking, though unable to hurt a fly. I myself had been quite shocked at the new look, and I'd naturally laughed my orange ass off, earning a slight giggle from Hinata and a phone book in the face from Kiba. Both he and I had been ready to settle our differences there and then, but in that way that she just can Hinata managed to calm both of us down enough to where we weren't at each other's necks anymore. Afterwards the three of us went looking for Ero- Senin, and we found him up on the second floor in the master bedroom, sure enough looking at porno magazines. This time I was oblivious to the effects of Hinata's calming presence: I ended up tossing my old sensei out the window, along with any and all of those damn magazines I could find.

It wasn't until after those two enjoyable events that the three of us remembered about the upcoming exam, and how we were supposed to be training. So, after making sure Jiraiya had really left my house, I locked the courtyard door and we began training. Well, sort of. First we had to figure out exactly how we were going to train, and this is where we begin...

"So, what have you two learned while I was gone?" Naruto asked, pacing around before his teammates. Hinata was sitting on her knees, scratching a relaxed Akamaru behind the ears, and Kiba was leaning against the grey wall, staring blankly at the sky.

"Well, I've been d-developing a n-new skill w-with my Byakugan ," Hinata murmured, cheeks reddening as she saw Kiba look down at her from the corner of her eye.

"Hey, Hinata, you didn't tell me that!"

"I... It was s-supposed to b-be a sur-surprise," She replied, smiling slightly.

"Really?" Naruto sat on his haunches before her, causing her to redden even more. "What can you do?"

"Well..." She looked up at Naruto and grinned sheepishly, making his heart skip a beat. "I-I'm not sure." To his look of confusion, she looked down at Akamaru again. "It seems as if, when I l-look at a p-person with the B-Byakugan activated, I might b-be able to an-anticipate their n-next move when they b-build up their ch-chakra." She reddened even more as that old feeling of being a failure returned. "B-but I have no one t-to t-teach me, and I d-don't know h-how t-to develop it any f-farther on my own..."

To her surprise, Naruto jumped up and whooped. "Wow, that's so cool, Hinata-chan! If we find a sensei, then they can help you and our team will kick some major ass!"

Kiba grinned. "Hell yeah! The only thing we have to do is find someone who knows the Byakugan in and out and would be willing to tutor Hinata. Obviously, we can't ask Hinata's dad, so... maybe Neji?"

"Nah, that asshole wouldn't teach Hinata-chan," Naruto replied, crossing his arms.

"Yeah.. I wouldn't want him teaching Hinata anything anyway."

"Kiba-kun... You k-know Neji-niisan apolegized." Hinata said this in a soft tone of voice, almost softer than her normal voice.

"He did?" Naruto asked, surprised that big, bad, and proud Neji would actually apolegize to someone, especially Hinata.

"It doesn't matter, Hinata! You oughta make him apolegize over and over again for what he did! I mean, he could've killed you! That was his intent!" Thinking back to that match, all Kiba could do was shudder. All that blood coming out of small Hinata's mouth... He'd had nightmares for over a month.

So had Naruto.

Shaking her head, Hinata replied, "Well, he apolegized, and y-you can't forget h-he has t-tutored me before. D-don't you r-remember wh-when he taught me the D-Divine Spin?"

Kiba shook his head in disgust before continuing. "Well, it doesn't matter anyway. If you've been developing this skill all on your own, then I doubt Neji would know anything about it. So, who is going to tutor you? Hmm..."

The three were lost in thought for a while before an unfamiliar voice broke them from their seperate reveries. "I think I can help you with that."

As one, the startled team looked up to the grey stone wall. There, behind Kiba, sat a woman. She looked no older than them and could even pass for a Genin herself: she wore a deep green T-shirt, and over it she had on a black vest. She wore black capris with steel knee pads sewn into them and the usual ninja gloves and sandals. Though she looked about sixteen, two things stood out about this girl: her white hair and strange, silver eyes. Her hair, reaching to around her elbows, was bleached with nothing but age, and many years of knowledge hid behind those oddly glimmering eyes. She also wore her headband in an odd fashion: it hung around her neck, like Hinata's, but it was turned inside-out so the metal plate sewn onto it faced inward, hidden. On closer inspection it was obvious: she was a lot older than she looked.

All this Kiba and Hinata noticed without much difficulty, but Naruto's mind was preoccupied with other matters. "Hey, lady!" He yelled, pointing a finger at her. "What are you doing on my wall?"

"I'm spying, prying into other people's business just because I can," She replied, tilting her head sideways. "So, you three needed a sensei, am I right?" When Hinata nodded nervously, the girl pushed away from the wall and landed gracefully before the three. Standing upright, she looked each of them up and down with those eyes. Pointing a finger at them one by one, she said, "You're a Inuzuka, you're a Hyuga, and you.." Her eyes misted for a moment as her gaze fell on the blonde. "You're the Uzumaki, aren't you?"

Grinning that fox-like grin, Naruto crossed his arms and exclaimed, "The one and only! Believe it!"

The woman shook her head, an inside voice muttering, Uzumakis and big egos, they seem to go hand in hand...

Having moved over beside the now standing and alert Akamaru, Kiba gave the woman a suspicious stare. "Who are you? How do you know who we are?"

The woman held up her hands. "Hang on, hang on, one question at a time! The name's Hotaru, and don't ask for a last name 'cause I don't claim one. As for how I know who you are... Let's just say if you allow me to be your sensei, I'll tell you."

The three blinked, surprised. Naruto was the first one to talk. "Nani? You want to be our sensei? But you're no older than us! How could you teach us anything?"

Hotaru grinned mischeviously at them then, and winked. "Just watch me."

Hinata took a long pull from her water bottle, closing her eyes as the cold water relieved her burning throat. Sighing, she lowered the bottle and gazed over at her teammates. The woman, Hotaru, had proven to know many interesting techniques, skills that no ordinary Genin could even grasp themselves, let alone teach others about. She was now drilling Kiba and Naruto on how to focus chakra in their hands so they could stick to walls and trees, an "indespensable skill for ninjas and spies alike." Hinata had gotten it quicker than the others, because of her experience with holding chakra in her hands when using the Jyuken style. Though she was more used to releasing her chakra in small bursts while striking instead of actually focusing it in her hands, she'd grasped the new concept rather quickly and was allowed to rest while the other two continued to try. Kiba was getting the biggest part of it, and Naruto wasn't too far behind him. Hinata noticed with a blush how much better the blonde's chakra control had gotten, and silently thanked the Toad Senin for helping Naruto get just a little bit closer to his lifelong dream.

Hotaru sighed, sweat dripping off her own forehead. Wiping her brow with her sleeve, she cursed the nearly endless hot days she'd grown out of since she'd been away. Though she remembered that Konoha had always been sort of steamy, she'd never realized it could get this hot around here. Guess that's where spending sixteen years in the snow will get you, she thought, shaking her head. Sighing again, she said, "Ok, ok, boys, lets stop here for today."

Kiba sighed, sinking onto the ground from where he was practicing on the wall. With a cry of exhaustion, Naruto fell flat on his back about four feet, having walked in a handstand up a tree. "Oh... crap..." He breathed, slowly folding his arms and putting them behind his head.

"I'll agree to that one," Kiba replied, chuckling softly, eyes closed.

Hinata was surprised. If Naruto was worn out, then that meant Kiba would have to be practically dead with exhaustion. Her eyes narrowed in worry as she wondered if they were going to be alright.

Hotaru sighed again and smiled weakly at the three of them. "Well, we've made progress!" They had gotten through her first round of exercises without too much difficulty: hitting targets with shuriken, climbing trees, stuff like that. Her second round seemed to go by even quicker as they deflected shuriken with kunai and used the substitiution jutsu like they'd been practicing it their entire lives. Chuckling a little, she thought, They probably have. I've forgotten just how hard Konoha trains their shinobi. Now the three were halfway through the third and final round of her initial training program, and now the difficulty was catching up with them. Focusing their chakra had been a problem for all of them, though she commended the Hyuga girl for grasping it as quickly as she did, though she probably had a slight advantage due to her training with using the Jyuken style her entire life. Hotaru chuckled: this was going to be an interesting bunch to train.

Suddenly Naruto appeared before her, and she was taken aback by his speed. "Hotaru-sensei? How'd you know who we were before?" She noted with some surprise how, even as dead tired as she knew he was, he was still able to move like that.

She shrugged, a glint in her eye. "Simple. I've been spying on you three. Have been for some time now."

His eyes had been shut as he'd asked her the question, but now they opened wide. "Nani?... Whatever, no you haven't! Really, how'd you do it?"

She grinned devilishly and said, "Well, I guess you're just going to have to keep guessing if you don't believe me!"

"NANI?? But you said you'd tell us!" The blonde whined, and Hotaru's smile widened.

"I did tell you, but since you suspect I'm lyin', you're just going to have to keep tryin'!"

Grumbling, Naruto marched off and plopped down beside Hinata, who blushed and handed him a water bottle.

As she watched Naruto toss the exhausted Kiba yet another water bottle, Hotaru wondered how good a team they would actually make. Oh, they seemed like good friends, but something about how Naruto and Kiba acted towards each other sort of bothered her. Kiba seemed to want to be protective over the girl, while Naruto seemed to almost physically ache for her attention. Plus, Hinata made Kiba a little jealous by blushing every time Naruto talked to her, or laughed at one of her jokes, or even smiled at her. Then it all clicked. The shy one was in love with the idiot. The idiot had no clue, but subconsciously he was beginning to get interested. The scruffy one was like an older brother to the shy one, and it irked him when the idiot tried for all the attention, subconsciously trying to draw the shy one away from the scruffy one because he thought the other boy liked the girl.

Sighing, Hotaru walked over to the group, wondering how she was going to work this ever classic love triangle out. She figured that maybe it would work itself out, but she didn't believe that fate worked in anyone's favor. If it would have worked in her favor, she'd still have her husband, and her son...

She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. Now wasn't the time to be thinking about that. She approached the three and threw on a smile. "Well, I'm gonna head home. Tomorrow, instead of coming back here, I'll meet you guys in the forest. Be there by sunrise, and find a suitable place where you think you might be able to fight without too much difficulty. I'll be there not too long after you three arrive, and don't worry-- I'll find you."

As the woman turned to go, Hinata was struck by a thought. "Ano, Hotaru-sensei!"

Hotaru turned around and looked expectantly at the shy girl as she walked up to her. "Yes, Hinata-san?"

"Ano, I-I've been working on a-a new u-use for my B-Byakugan, a-and, ano, I w-was just wondering... d-do you have any ex-experience w-with the H-Hyuga bloodlimit?"

Expecting a flat 'no', Hinata was surprised to see the woman nod. "Yes. In fact, I used to know a Hyuga. She was very kind to me, and we were best friends-- until she was taken by a horrible sickness, or so I was told. Aiko Hyuga, not one by blood, I must imply, but she still knew all the secrets. Did you know her?"

Hinata's eyes widened even as they misted with tears. "That... A-Ai-Aiko was th-the name o-of m-my mother."

Hotaru was breathless as the shock hit her: of course it was her mother, she looks exactly like her, what were you thinking, Hotaru, you IDIOT!!! "Oh, Hinata, I'm so, so sorry- gomenasai, gomen-"

"-No, no, it's alright, I..." The girl wiped her eyes with her sweater before any of the tears met her pale cheeks. "I-I was j-just surprised, th-that's all... M-mother never t-talked about y-you b-before..."

Not wanting the girl to finish the sentence, Hotaru shook her head. "No, she wouldn't." When Hinata looked up at her expectantly, she smiled wryly. "Your father and I-- we didn't exactly get along. Suffice it to say my name was forbidden to be spoken in or around the Hyuga estate."

"Hinata? Are you crying?" Suddenly Kiba and Naruto appeared at Hinata's sides, Naruto on her left glaring at Hotaru, Kiba staring worriedly at the girl.

Cerulean stare icy as he looked at her, Naruto growled, "What did you do to her?"

Watching Naruto try to defend the girl and Kiba dote on her, Hotaru smiled. Man, this girl's got it good. "Eh, I gotta get home. Hinata, tomorrow when I put these two dopes back up in the trees, we can talk some more, okay? See you all!" With that, the girl dissapeared in a puff of smoke, letting Naruto glare into thin air.

Oooo, new sensei! Wonder what's gonna happen? AHHH I just can't wait to get the later chapters out, I just know they're gonna be good! By the way, if any readers have any info on Hinata's ma, I'd love to hear about her. I wasn't sure whether she'd been given a name on the anime, so I used something that seemed to fit: Aiko-- loved one, precious one. That sounds to me like a name Hinata's mother should have, right? Right?

Sorry for the Neji-bashing earlier. He is one of my favorite characters, but honestly, I don't expect either Naruto or Kiba to like him too much after the Chuunin exams. I mean, can you blame them? Don't worry, though: it'll get better as the story progresses.

Anyway, feed me reviews! I am just plain giddy over the sixteen I've gotten so far, and I could never get tired of hearing what my readers think! So, REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW!! (Before I ever began fanfic-ing, I noticed a lot of people do things like that, and I just wanted to try!

Chapter 5 Preview: Is Naruto actually beginning to like Hinata? How does Hotaru know Hinata's mother? FIND OUT NEXT TIME!!