Chapter Twelve: TRAINING

Hinata sat on a small stump with her knees drawn to her chest, blinking sleepily in the face of the afternoon sun high above. She suppressed the yawn she felt expanding in her chest, forcing herself to focus on the boy before her. The teen was moving through katas religiously, form immaculate, body flowing through each pose. Naruto was surprisingly flexible in a way not often seen among male shinobi who usually preferred jutsu or rigid fighting styles. But the Uzumaki boy seemed to just move. His was not the easy movement of water, but more like wind. He was soft and gentle, then abruptly strong and fast, especially in his retreats. Salt rolled off his forehead, darkening his yellow hair to a muted gold. It was even longer now, shaggy.

"Haah... How was that, Hinata?" he asked, finishing his routine. The ex-Hyuuga blinked, idly rubbing at her exposed Caged seal.

"I-It looks really good, Uzumaki-kun. I couldn't f-find any flaws," she replied.

The boy grinned, taking several steps into her space and bending down until they were at eye-level. "Really good, huh?" he husked. "Thanks, Hinata."

The red erupted, burning her cheeks. "Q-Quit." He laughed under his breath, moving away to his pack of kunai.

Uzumaki-kun, Hinata had realized, was a prankster and had a mean teasing streak. Since day one of their training together (it was day 20), he'd found any way he could to embarrass her, twisting her words, getting in her space... he'd even pulled her hair a couple times, just for the thrill of it.

An idea occurred to her as she watched him throw his ninja knives, and it was so new to her that it jolted her to her feet. "Ne, Uzumaki-kun..." she started.

Naruto paused, watching her approach. Her stride was improving day by day. If he hadn't watched her collaspe himself, he would've never known that she had been in critical condition not a month ago. Her eyes seemed to burn with some type of fervor, her steps eager and careless, dark, wavy hair shining. He raised his eyebrows in askance.

"I-I think I have something that will help you beat Neji."

"Hah?"

She tucked some her hair behind one ear, sinking to her knees and plopping, quite gracefully, onto the moss below. Naruto followed her lead, perplexed. "T-The Hyuuga excel in close combat."

Naruto nodded, not quite understanding why she was repeating herself.

"In close combat, Uzumaki-kun," she said, staring directly into his eyes. She seemed to search them before she shook her head a little and stood up, tugging at the hem of his shirt to usher him up, too.

"You are trying to fight me and I am a Hyuuga. I engage you—" here, Hinata stepped closer toward Naruto. She was close enough that Naruto could smell the heady mixture of ink and benzoin resin, sweet and enticing, filling his brain with cotton. "and I do it in close quarters because that's how I fight. Every hit I land is deadly. What do you do, Uzumaki-kun?"

She was blinking at him with those large, lavender eyes. His mouth was dry as he hoarsely said, "Er... step back."

Hinata brightened, eyes sparking. "Hai! And then what?"

He blinked, blonde brow furrowing. "I attack."

"From where?"

"Where I am."

"Where's that?"

"...Away from you?"

Hinata almost bounced up and down, seeming to vibrate with anticipation. "How far?"

"How far?" Naruto repeated blankly. His mind churned. Far...

His face slackened at the revelation. "Distance."

"Uzumaki-kun, if you can find a way to not engage Nii-san until it suits you, I'm sure you'll beat him."

Naruto was already nodding, thinking of all the time he'd wasted with the close-range training. "I'll think about it, -ttebayo. Thank you, Hinata!"

Hinata smiled, plopping onto the forest floor once more. She watched with an indulgent smile as the Uzumaki boy continued his training session, covering a yawn with a delicate yawn. She could feel the fatigue creeping in on her, as it always did about this time. It was as if her bones grew heavier during this time, as if a thousand weights were dragging her down all of a sudden. Between nights spent in Konoha's library and going through physical therapy, she was exhausted. Her mind spun at maximum speed, but her body couldn't take it. Was this the way Shikamaru-kun felt?

"Hinata," Naruto called, moving toward her. Her head lolled back as she blinked heavy eyes at him.

"Yes, Uzumaki-kun?"

Naruto sighed, observing her for a moment before he scooped her up, situating her in his arms before starting to walk. Hinata didn't even register the change in scenery until Naruto had walked quite a ways from the forest training spot. She stirred, asking briefly where they were going and Naruto replied that he would treat them to lunch, after which Hinata promptly fell asleep, curling up into an impossibly small ball.

As Naruto entered the hustle of Konoha's streets, eyes seemed to slide over him like beads of oil along wet skin. They did not see him there, carrying a girl a little less than his size (he'd hit a tiny growth spurt in recent days), shuffling his feet in the graveled open road. He was very much invisible... a yellow-haired specter. Naruto was used to it now, moving through the crowds with an easy, effortless silence. His steps continued until he took a sharp left turn, absentmindedly leaping over the heads of a civilian couple in his way. He landed, crouched, adjusting his cargo before straightening up. He deposited Hinata in a cushy seat in a small corner of the quiet Ichiraku, padding away to order himself a bowl of miso ramen and snatch a box of cinnamon buns from a market booth outside the small shop.

He returned, the scent of sugared notes of vanilla and cardamom burrowed deep in his pores. With a small "Itadkimasu," he slurped up his cooling soup with an almost silent reverence for the meal. Each windmill of his chopsticks delivered more noodles to his open mouth, and his teeth chewed them with a kind of masculine delicateness. It was almost religious the way he raised the bowl to his lips and downed the remaining broth.

And it was at this time Hinata began to move, pale hands reaching sleepily toward the source of the miraculous cinnamon scent, prying the box open, selecting a promising-looking bun, all without seeming to open her eyes. It was only when her hand had moved to the bun to her waiting teeth did she crack open one pale eye, chewing, cow-like. Sugar. Warmth. Spice.

Naruto snickered at her waking ritual. Hinata retaliated with a lethargic, baleful glare.

This was common for them now: a meal after a hard or eventful training session, after hours of tree-walking and kata practice and jutsu scrolls, after praticing with chakra strings and countless fuin written in the dark, rich Konoha soil. These meals were anchors, reminders of their mortality-they needed to eat, they wouldn't survive without food, no water no rest no chakra.

It was a strange entity, this chakra. A strange, subjective mixture of physical and spiritual energy, invisible yet present, and evolving. It varied in feel and had this wonderful pulse. Hinata heard it sometimes, deep within her studies of archaic fuinjutsu. In those times, the sound was loud and strong, a count before the dull dub-lub of her heart, a pressure in the middle of her scalp, a tang that pooled in her mouth. The sound, the pulse, the breath of chakra had begun to lie just behind her eyes and along her spine, like selective armor. It was as if, through that pulse, the language of chakra had become clearer to her, as if it whispered its secrets to her, communicating with her through odd and obscure seals she wrote down like a madwoman.

Learn me, it seemed to say, listen. Listen.

A delicious feeling would wash over her each time. It was with shivers she promised the pulse that she would, and the pulse would quiet to a faint tap.

But she never forgot about it. Never.

"...right?"

The world faded back in at once. She was in Ichiraku with Uzumaki-kun. She was eating. He was speaking to her.

"N-Nani?"

"The Byakugan doesn't see through shadow clones, does it?"

Hinata chewed thoughtfully on her third cinnamon bun. "No, it doesn't. Shadow clones have fully-manifested chakra coils."

Naruto nodded, leaning back in his seat and putting his hands behind his head. "How much chakra does it take to activate the Byakugan?"

This time Hinata answered, "As much as it takes to create a henge."

"And to maintain it?"

"A little more than it takes to create a henge." Activating the Byakugan was one thing; to focus it on detecting tenketsu required more strain on the eyes and more chakra. There were definite levels to Byakugan vision: to see through barriers, to register chakra color and nature, and to find tenketsu all sat on various planes of Byakugan use, ordered by the amount of chakra expended to accomplish them.

Naruto gave a contemplative grunt, rubbing his chin as he slouched in his seat.

"Explain that to me."

Hinata did. "So a Byakugan user might have enough chakra to activate the Byakugan, but not enough to see the tenketsu."

"U-Un."

Naruto let this marinate for a moment before suddenly leaning forward. "But how do I know when they shift vision levels, Hinata?"

Hinata just stared at him, brain spinning through all the times she had sparred with Hanabi and other main branch children, trying to pin down what happened when they stopped seeing the tenketsu.

"Well, they stop aiming for your tenketsu," she finally said. Naruto waved that answer away, dissatisfied. That tell would only help another Byakugan user who could determine when another user was aiming for them and when they weren't.

"Is there anything else you can think of that can help me?" he asked, a little desperate, eyes searching hers.

Hinata met his eyes for a moment before she shut her eyes and really thought hard.

Her friend needed her insight; she would give it her best. As she scrabbled for common threads in her memories, that pulse whispered again, and it was if it gave her the answer, illuminating her memories all at once:

"They blink."

"Hah? Hinata, I blink, you blink, we all blink-"

Hinata shook her head furiously. "Uzumaki-kun, there's a difference between-" and here, she shuttered her eyes quickly "-and-"

She made a deliberate slow blink, keeping her eyes closed for a half-second before opening them just as slowly. Comprehension dawned on Naruto's face, and a smile erupted on his face as he leaned back again in his seat, his torso taut with excitement.

There was a surreal quality to the yellow-haired, blue-eyed boy dressed in grey. An unnatural stillness to his slight frame.

Hinata watched him, head tilted in confusion. She would never, even years later, explain what came over the two of them, or where the stillness came from... or how it appeared in the young man before her. Then, a feeling of inhaling water after being submerged in water overcame her as Naruto barked out a small, eager chuckle. And Hinata was suddenly, helplessly comforted. The match would go well.

They said their farewells shortly after, going their separate ways. As Naruto walked past a small bathhouse, he heard a rather perverted giggle and found himself scolding an old man with long, white hair and an ancient exhaustion resting in his palms.

Hours later, Naruto fell into his small bed.

Today was a good day.