Back with the next chapter. Sorry to say that this probably won't be as good as the last one, but still I think it turned out alright. Let me know what you think.
Chapter 8)
Hinata's condition was getting better. She was becoming more comfortable with the fact that Naruto couldn't always be by her side and as a result the boy no longer needed to stay in the hospital overnight with her. Although she would start feeling unnecessarily worried if she didn't see or hear from him for a while. The longest she could stand being without him was overnight so Naruto had to come by and see her first thing in the morning at the hospital and would usually stay until she fell asleep that night. It required a little more effort on Naruto's part, but on the bright side, he was allowed to go out and train again, as long as Hinata went with him.
The two were currently at the training grounds that Hinata's team usually used. They were training along with Shino, Kiba and Kurenai. Hinata was taking it easy, just doing basic charka control exercises with Kurenai while the boys did their usual routines. By the time it was mid-afternoon Kurenai had Naruto and Hinata call it quits for the day. Tsunade had made it clear that while Hinata was getting better, she still needed to rest and not strain herself. So Naruto and Hinata left the others behind, making their way back to the hospital. When they got back they returned to Hinata's room and passed the time together. Soon enough it almost time for dinner and Naruto left the room for a moment to order some ramen from Ichiraku's.
While he waited for his food to arrive outside the hospital, Naruto saw Ino and Choji heading in his direction. Normally it wouldn't be a big deal to see the two spending time together since they're on the same team. But right now it seemed as though the two were rather close. Ino had her arms wrapped around Choji's, the boy holding a bag of garlic-barbeque chips and using his free hand to scarf them down. If Naruto didn't know any better he would have thought that they were boyfriend and girlfriend. The two approached him, clearly heading for the hospital. Choji popped another chip into his mouth and waved.
"Hey Naruto."
"Hey Choji, hey Ino! What's up with you two?" Naruto smirked, "Are you out on a date together?"
Choji blushed and was about to answer, but Ino beat him to it, almost blurting it out as though she was offended by Naruto's question.
"Of course we're on a date! What makes you think we wouldn't be?! Just because we're teammates doesn't mean we can't go out. Right?"
She giggled nervously, clutching Choji's arm in an almost vice-like grip. Naruto looked at the other blonde with a raised eye brow and then turned to Choji.
"Is this something she's doing to try and get Tenten to leave her alone?"
Choji nodded, "Pretty much. She came over to my house and asked me to go out on a fake date with her. Apparently Tenten's been stalking her all day or something like that."
Naruto looked behind them. A distance away he saw someone peeking around the corner at them. Even though she was so far away, it was definitely Tenten. Ino glared at Naruto, yelling at him in a harsh whisper.
"Don't look you idiot! I don't want her to know that I'm on to her!"
Choji shoved another handful of chips into his mouth. "I think she already knows Ino. Why else would she be following us?"
"Is it really that obvious?" Both Choji and Naruto nodded, making Ino hang her head. "This isn't fair. Why won't she just leave me alone? No matter what I say to her, she won't back off." The blonde girl raised her head back up and glared at Choji. "This is your fault! If you could just be more convincing she'd have believed we are on a date and she wouldn't be following us!"
"Hey, don't blame me. You're the one acting all paranoid. Besides, I didn't have to say yes. I could have said no to you like Shikamaru did. Then what would you do?"
Ino's glare faded and was replaced by a look of worry. "You aren't going to ditch me are you? Please don't! Then she'll definitely come over her and start bugging me!"
"Relax, I'm not gonna do that. I promised I'd do this for you so I won't back out partway through."
Ino thanked the chubby boy, relieved that he was going to continue helping her. They went inside the hospital so Ino could visit Hinata while Naruto waited outside for his ramen to arrive. It was delivered not too long afterwards and he went back inside. Thankfully the hospital didn't mind him having outside food. He returned to Hinata's room and sat down next to her. While he had been waiting her dinner had been brought in and she was currently poking at the bland hospital food with the plastic utensils that they provided.
Naruto took out his ramen, having a nice large bowl of it. Hinata eyed the boy's meal, finding it much more appealing than the food in front of her. She pushed her tray aside and turning to face him.
"Um, Naruto-kun? Would it be alright if I had some of your ramen?"
"Huh? Sure Hinata-chan. Here we can split it. I got extra barbecued pork and everything!"
He set the bowl down so they could both eat from it. But then he realized that there was only one pair of chopsticks. It looked like they would have to share them. He blushed at the thought of it, but didn't make any complaint or even point it out. While he started to eat the ramen, Choji was staring at Hinata's hospital food.
"Hey, are you going to eat that Hinata?"
"No, you can have it if you want."
"Alright!" Choji discarded his now empty bag of chips and helped himself to the tray of food. He scarfed it all down in a matter of seconds, not even stopping to breathe. Ino gawked at how quickly the boy had inhaled the food, completely disgusted by is lack of manners. She was about to yell at him, but was interrupted when Tenten walked into the room. The brunette hugged her from behind, kissing her on the cheek and making her blush.
"Hey, Ino-chan. Did you miss me?"
Ino was still for a moment, almost seemingly enjoying the attention. Then she remembered just who it was giving her said attention and pushed the brunette away.
"Get off! We've been over this! I don't like you that way! Why are you still stalking me!?"
"Hey, I only stalk you when I don't have anything better to do like training or missions."
Ino blushed and gawked at the other girl in awe. The others seemed just as surprised to hear Tenten admit to being a stalker. The brunette giggled, apparently the only one to find this funny.
"Just kidding. I actually came here to visit Hinata. But I'm glad you're here too Ino-chan." She blushed and looked down at her feet, "I was hoping that maybe we could go out and have dinner together. I'm sorry I've been following you all day, but I was sorta…afraid to ask you. I know that you aren't comfortable around me, but I want to put an end to that. So, what do you say? We can go anywhere you want, my treat."
Ino smirked, "Sorry, but I've already got a date." She held Choji's arm in hers and giggled, "Choji-kun asked me out and I couldn't turn him down."
Choji scratched his head in confusion, "But Ino, weren't you the one who asked me out?"
Ino stepped on his foot and glared at him, telling him to shut up. Tenten stared at the two, finding the idea of them dating to be hard to believe. In fact, she didn't believe it. She crossed her arms and raised her eyebrow, her gaze locked on the blonde girl.
"So you two are a couple now? Well then I hope you don't mind proving it. How about you two share a kiss?"
Both Choji and Ino blushed. Ino had hoped that Tenten wouldn't ask something like that. However she had expected it to happen and thought of what to say just in case.
"Well, we'd love to but we really aren't far enough in our relationship to be comfortable kissing in public."
"Oh really?" Tenten looked over at Choji, "Is this true Choji?"
"Not really. I don't mind kissing Ino in front of other people. It's not a big deal."
Ino clenched her teeth and spoke to him in a harsh whisper. "You aren't helping!"
Tenten smirked, "Good, then you two can just give each other a quick kiss. Do that and I'll stop bugging you Ino-chan. At least until you're single again."
Ino was caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, all she had to do was give Choji a single, quick kiss on the lips and Tenten would leave her alone. But on the other hand, wouldn't that mean she'd have to keep pretending to be Choji's girlfriend just so she could keep Tenten fooled? She looked at her teammate, thinking it over. Sure she liked him and he was nice. But he wasn't really her type. She just couldn't picture being together with him. However, it would still be better than running away from Tenten every time she saw her.
Making up her mind, Ino decided to go through with the kiss. She faced Choji and puckered her lips. Choji leaned in to kiss her and she could already smell his breath. It wasn't to kissing fresh thanks to the hospital food he had just eaten and that bag of garlic potato chips he had eaten on the way over wasn't helping either. Before their lips could press together, she pushed him away saying she couldn't do it.
Tenten smirked "Naughty girl Ino-chan. You're definitely going out with me for lying like that." She grabbed Ino by the wrist, "Let's go."
Ino didn't really resist. She complied with the other girl's request but said that they she was only going out with her to dinner 'as a friend'. The two boys watched Ino and Tenten leave, a little surprised at how quickly the blonde girl had given in to Tenten.
"Hey Choji, is it me or did Ino look like she wanted to go out with Tenten?"
"I don't know. She was doing nothing but trying to avoid her earlier. Maybe she's tired of trying to resist her."
"Or maybe she really likes Tenten and is just afraid to show it. Either way, wanna follow them and see?"
Choji nodded and the two went to leave. Hinata came along, not wanting to be left alone. Thankfully she was able to go out since she had been getting better. Tsunade still wanted her to get exercise and it wasn't too late in the afternoon so she could head out for a little while. But no more than an hour.
The three followed Ino and Tenten on their 'date'. The two went out to the barbecue place that Asuma always took his team to. They spied through a window at their table, watching the two girls. It wasn't anything worth noting really. Tenten was talking to Ino, who only spoke back when she was answering a question. Overall, it wasn't as interesting as the boys had imagined it would be. And Hinata wasn't enjoying it at all. In fact she almost seemed jealous that Naruto was paying more attention to the blonde and brunette girls. While the boys were looking through the window, she was sitting next to Naruto, pouting with her cheeks puffed out a little. It took a while for Naruto to notice this, which only seemed to make Hinata pout more.
"Is something wrong Hinata?"
Hinata shook her head, but Naruto knew that she wasn't too happy about something. He sat next to her, starting to worry.
"Are you sure? You look like something's bugging you."
"I'm fine."
Naruto shrugged and went back to watching the two girls in the restaurant. After a moment of silence, Hinata stood up and looked down at him.
"I… I want a date too!"
Naruto looked up at her in confusion, "Date? You mean with me?" Hinata nodded, Naruto blushing. "Well I guess we can do that. But it's getting kinda late. I know! How about I take you on a date when you're all better and can leave the hospital? Grandma says you only need to stay a couple more days anyway. How does that sound?"
Hinata thought it over and then smiled, "Okay."
"Alright, so we'll go out then. I promise!"
Choji, who was more enrapt in what was going on in the restaurant, turned to look at them. "They're done; I think we better get going too."
The three stood and went to leave, but were surprised to see both Ino and Tenten standing behind them, looking annoyed. Especially Tenten, who had caught on to them spying on their date.
"Have fun watching us you guys? Hope we were able to keep you entertained."
Naruto and Choji chuckled nervously, the blonde boy scratching his head. "We can explain."
"You don't have to. It's obvious what's going on. You followed us after we left and spied on us while we were eating. You have a lot of nerve, especially you Hinata. I would have never expected this from you."
Hinata looked down at her feet and fidgeted with her fingers, "I only wanted to spend time with Naruto-kun. I didn't want to watch you and Ino so I just sat next to him."
Tenten sighed, "Still, you shouldn't have done it. I'll let it slide this time you guys, but don't let me catch you doing it again. I have a hard enough time getting Ino-chan to be comfortable around me; I don't need anyone else making her feel uneasy. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to walk Ino-chan home."
The girl's left, heading off in their own direction. Choji went home as well, leaving Naruto to walk Hinata back to the hospital. He stayed with her until visiting hours were over and then went back to his apartment to get some sleep.
The following morning, Naruto was woken up by a knock at his door. He groggily got out of bed and answered it, finding that his visitor was none other than Twisted. Naruto gave the older man a tired glare and tried to hold back a yawn.
"What do you want?"
"I got the most ridiculous mission assigned to me this morning and it involves you."
Naruto was suddenly wide awake and very excited, "Really? What's the mission!? Is it something really cool and important?!"
Twisted scoffed, "Hardly. I've been assigned to train you today."
The smile fell from Naruto's face. "You're kidding right? I have to be trained by you?"
"Hey I don't like it any more than you do. But the Hokage insisted on it, she even told me what jutsu to teach you."
Naruto seemed excited again, "Is it that cool thing you do when you sink into the shadows?!"
"No you idiot, that's a kekkei genkai. You can't do it unless you're from my clan. The jutsu I have to teach you took me seven months to develop and knowing you, it's going to take me three times as long to teach it. So we had better get started. Get ready and let's go."
"Fine, but we need to see Hinata-chan first."
"Whatever. Just get dressed so we can get this over with."
Naruto got dressed and the two went to the hospital. Hinata wanted to go with them, but since she had to train with her team that day, she couldn't. Naruto walked her to her team's training ground before he and Twisted went to the one that his team used. Twisted had Naruto sit down as he explained the jutsu.
"It's called the 'Opposing Polarity Jutsu.'"
"That's a dumb name."
"Shut up and pay attention! The concept is simple. You focus your chakra into each hand and then change the nature of the charka in each hand to that they each have an opposing magnetic field."
Naruto tilted his head in confusion, "Huh?"
Twisted pinched the bridge of his nose, "This is going to take forever, you'll never figure it out."
-----X-----
That night, Hinata found that Twisted was back in the same hospital room as her. Apparently there had been a little incident during the training with Naruto. Twisted had received a nasty injury, one that required him to lay on his stomach on the hospital bed. Naruto was in the room, rather pleased with himself. Tsunade was also there and just as amused. Twisted however was not. He glared at Naruto, the only thing keeping him from attacking the boy was his current injured state.
"Three hours. He learned in three hours what took me seven months to develop. And to add insult to injury he even added his own personal touch to it. I'm going to freaking kill you when I'm able to walk again!"
Tsunade held back a laugh. "Oh calm down already. You're the one who told him to try using the jutsu on you. So you only have yourself to blame."
"Shut up! I never would have thought he'd use my jutsu in combination with the rasengan! And to think he even used the '1000 years of death' to place the opposing magnetic chakra in me! Do you have any idea how much it hurts to have a rasengan fly up your ass!?"
Naruto burst out laughing. He had been the one to cause it, so he had a very good image in his head of the look on Twisted's face when the rasengan had hit him. Tsunade joined in, as did Hinata. When the laughter died down, Tsunade looked down at Twisted.
"Quit complaining. You'll be out first thing in the morning. Just count yourself lucky that the rasengan wasn't able to maintain its form, otherwise you might be crippled right now."
Twisted glared up at the woman, "Lucky!? You call this lucky!? If that's the case then I am never training that kid again! I don't care what you say or do to me, I mean it!"
Naruto started laughing again and Tsunade made him say goodnight to Hinata and leave. She gave Twisted a sedative to shut him up and then left the room as well. With Twisted out cold, Hinata was able to get to sleep easily. Tomorrow would be her last day in the hospital and then she could go on the promised date with Naruto.
TBC
Alright, so next chapter is going to be completely Ino and Tenten. It's going to be a major event for the two so it may take me a while to write it. I want it to be good, so please be patient. Until then I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
