Underlined speech is thought.

Italicized speech signifies emphasis put on words or a change in tone. You should be able to figure it out from the choice of words and the character.

CAPITALIZED SPEECH IS YELLING.

These are … interruptions in …speech caused … by things …like laughing,…crying, thought,.. and…others.

Words-with-dashes-between-them-consistently-signify-when-a-character-is-talking-too-fast-to-understand.

Bold words are author notes.

(Previously on "The Ultimate Shinobi." The next stage of training began with Hinata walking on water. They spared for a few short moments. Arashi then gave Hinata a showing of some of the techniques that he plans to teach her. She looks at these techniques to awe. After a weird kiss on the top of her head, he explained to her about Sei and Dou type fighters. In the next morning, Hinata asked Arashi where she learned these techniques. He said that it was from a group of masters at a dojo called Ryōzanpaku. He also told her about each of the masters that reside there. As he told her about the strongest person there, Arashi felt great anxiety at the idea of fighting the man.)

"Practical Training."

The month was nearing its end when Hinata started being able to stand on the water till the end of the day. When Hinata jumped onto the water, Arashi joined her with a couple of leaves. "Hinata-chan, in your village, there is a training method where you have to stick a leaf to your head with your own chakra. We will be doing this a bit differently. I want you to keep a leaf on each of your fingers."

Arashi placed a leaf on each of her index fingers. As he expected, she used the near perfect amount of chakra to do this. He saw no point in commenting on this. "W-why am I d-doing this A-Arashi-shishō? I-Isn't there a-a better w-way to b-build my ch-chakra?"

"There is Hinata-chan, but you aren't ready to use those methods yet. I am having you do this because it not only uses up more of your chakra, but it also gives you practice on something a bit more practical. I won't tell you what that is, but trust me. You will be surprised at the improvement. Now I am going to give you another leaf." Arashi quickly left her before returning with another leaf. He placed this leaf on her right middle finger. "Don't let any of them fall off unless I tell you to."

"H-Hai."

As time passed, Hinata was beginning to fell uncomfortable from the way that Arashi continuously stared at her. He caused her to drop the leaves when he suddenly spoke.
"Hinata-chan." He grabbed the leaves. "When you feel a leaf on a finger, use your chakra to attach it there. When I name a finger, I want you to release the leaf that is on that finger." He placed a leaf on each pinky and another on the right thumb.

"I wonder why he is having me do this."

"Right pinky." She jumped in surprise before releasing the chosen leaf. He placed the leaf on her left middle finger. "Left pinky." It was placed on her right ring finger. "Left middle." It was placed on her left ring finger. "Right thumb." It was moved to the other thumb.

This continued all the way through the day. Arashi saw fit to add another leaf to the game. The day ended with Hinata just as tired as usual. "Today was a lot more interesting. I wonder how it is practical though. All I did was stick leaves to my fingers. How will that help me in battle?"

"Hinata-chan, you made sixty-nine mistakes today. Hopefully you will get better at this with time. Regardless, sixty-nine is a very good score for what I'm having you do this for. You will be surprised at what you can do when this part of your training is complete." Hinata nodded. The day ended with them eating another dinner and with going to bed.

In the next day, the training continued but with seven leaves. He rapidly told her which ones to release from her fingers. To throw her off, he sometimes told her to release multiple leaves before replacing them; but not at the same time. Over time, Hinata began to improve with the strange leaf training. Every time she dropped a leaf she wasn't told to, concentrated chakra to a finger needlessly, or failed to attach a leaf to her finger, Arashi pointed it out by saying 'mistake.' The time between each time he says 'mistake' continued to increase. "Hinata, we will do this two or three more days; depending on your progress. We may even need a fourth day. After that, things will get a bit less boring."

The day passed by in a fairly boring manner, regardless of the constant activity. Arashi set up camp for them and made dinner as he usually did. The next day came around and they jumped onto the large bowl of water. This time, Arashi placed a leaf on each of Hinata's fingers and a leaf in the palm of each hand. When those two leaves were in place, the difficulty of the exercise ramped up considerably for Hinata. Only her training with the jutsu she made herself kept her from dropping a bunch of the other leaves. "That was close."

"As I expected, using chakra to keep a leaf on the palm of the hand draws away from the chakra that goes to her fingertips. I am sure she is getting as bored with this as I am, but I need to have her do this for what I have planed for her. Hinata, we will be doing this time around a bit differently. Instead of me telling you which finger to release a leaf from, I will simply touch a finger that I want you to release a leaf from. If I touch your hand, I want you to release the leaf on that palm. Replacing leaves will be the same as before."

Hinata nodded. "Doing it that way, he can go even faster." Hinata relaxed and waited for Arashi to make a move for a long time. The instant she blinked, Hinata felt Arashi touching her right middle, right pinky, left thumb, and left hand all at once. In her surprise, she dropped all the leaves that weren't on the palms of her hands.

"That is a pretty big mistake. If you react that way to every surprise, let's just say that it won't turn out well for you."

After being with the man for nearly a month, Hinata was getting a fairly good idea of how Arashi thinks. She scowled at him in slight annoyance. "You waited for me to blink on purpose."

"Well, well, you are learning. On top of that, I may be able to knock that stuttering out of you sooner than I thought. All I have to do is keep pissing you off."

Hinata's eyes nearly twitched. "I don't know whether to be thankful or angry at him."

"Let's return to training." Arashi picked the leaves out of the water and put them back on Hinata's fingers. In the course of this day, Hinata made more mistakes than before. The greatest amount of leaves she could drop off without a mistake was five. Trying for six always had a mistake. Arashi still made sure that he told her that she did better than expected and to keep it up. This was doing wonders for her confidence. The next day went by exactly the same as the one before.

On the third day of the twelve leaf training, Arashi destroyed the large bowl, causing its contents to spill out. Both Arashi and Hinata jumped out of the way. Arashi appeared further down the road and began the usual earth style jutsu. This time, a solid platform with wheels appeared. "We will continue with this. I will not be requiring you to focus chakra at your feet anymore for a while. Until lunch, this day will be spent on the usual leaf training. After that, you may learn what the leaf training was all about."

Hinata let lose a sigh of relief now knowing that the boring leaf training was nearly over with. She jumped onto the platform and Arashi joined her after making a clone to push it. They then went through the routine of placing leaves on her fingers and palms. Thanks to not having to maintain a steady stream of chakra to her feet, Hinata was able to do much better this time around. As he said, the training continued until lunch. After she finished eating, Hinata looked at Arashi with slight curiosity. "W-what are we doing now?"

"There was only one stutter with your sentence. You are getting better at speech Hinata-chan." She blushed at the compliment. "As for your question, I want you to activate you Byakugan for a few seconds."

Hinata nodded. "That is the first time he has asked me to do that." She formed the hand seals. "Byakugan."

Hinata leaned back a bit when Arashi moved right in front of her face. This only made him close the distance further. "Hinata, do you know that you aren't feeding chakra into your Byakugan correctly. Your chakra control is near perfect in everything except in using your doujutsu."

Hinata's activated eyes widened. "W-why is th-that?"

"It is actually quite simple Hinata-chan. It is all about where you are focusing the chakra in your eyes. Your chakra is focused more on the center of your eyes. You should actually focus it on the sides of your eyes; the further from the center, the better. Take note that the section you should focus you chakra at is inside your eye sockets."

Hinata was dumbfounded by the overly simple explanation. She decided to do what Arashi asked her to do. When she had her chakra focused in the new location, her view on the world literally changed. She could see the chakra points on Arashi as if the were spotlights. Details were much crisper and cleaner. She could even see around eighty meters out instead of the usual fifty meters. To top that all off, her blind spot was even a little bit smaller. After marveling at her new insight, Hinata looked at Arashi inquisitively. "W-why hasn't my c-clan figured this o-out?"

"I have a theory on that. When first told to activate their Byakugan, a young Hyuga is told only to focus chakra in their eyes. It is up to this Hyuga to decide exactly where that chakra is focused. I think that the reason that some in your clan are more talented than others because of where their chakra first goes. Essentially, talent is decided merely by a fluke."

Hinata's expression became completely dumfounded. "Fl-fl-fl-fl-fl-fl-fl-fl-fl-fl." Arashi slapped her on the back. She gave him a small glare. "Arashi-shishō, y-you haven't answered m-my question."

"Your right, I haven't. My main theory is that as a Hyuga uses their Byakugan more in battle, their control over the chakra in their eyes slips a little. This would normally be bad, but this drop in control would actually cause the chakra to move further from the center; if only a little. After the fight, the chakra is focused on a spot between the previous position and the newer position. This is a very slow and unnoticeable process. This is why no one of your clan is aware of it."

Hinata couldn't believe her ears. She could believe her eyes though. The results speak for themselves. "After all this time and the answer was so simple. I had no talent because of a fluke. It wasn't me. It was never me. It was just a little bad luck. Now after a few mere minutes, my Byakugan is probably stronger than Neji-nii-san's." Hinata could not keep a fairly large smile from gracing her face.

Arashi looked at her expression with his own smile. "I am guessing that I just made her day." Arashi placed a hand on Hinata's shoulder. "I could let you marvel at your new eyesight through the whole day, but I have other things planed for today. I would like you to deactivate you Byakugan right now." Hinata did as she was told. "For the next stage of your training, I will be using a very simple genjutsu. You are not to dispel it. You will instead use your own invented jutsu to deflect the illusionary projectiles that the genjutsu will make you see."

"H-how do you know a-about my jutsu?"

"Oh, that is a simple answer. I have seen you practice it many times in the middle of the night at that waterfall. It is the main reason that I chose you as my student."

A deep blush covered Hinata's face. "That means that Arashi-shishō has seen me naked." She was frozen in place, oblivious to the world. Arashi put his hand in front of her face and began snapping his fingers. This returned her from her semi-conscious state. She wrapped her arms in front of her chest and dropped to the stone slab. She positioned herself to hide as much of her body from Arashi as possible. "Don't look at me."

Arashi's eyes twitched in annoyance before a small smile graced his lips. "Her stuttering is nearly gone. Now I have something else to get rid of. That will be fun. Calm down Hinata-chan. It is not like I plan on doing anything with you. Also, it was too dark to see any real detail. Stand up so we can get back to your training." Hinata stood up, but she still hand her arms in front of her chest. Arashi let lose a sigh before moving to the edge of the slab. He then raced through some hand seals. "Ninja art, Tempest of Attacks." The reason for the name will be revealed later.

The next thing Hinata knew, she was being circled by hundreds of kunai. She activated her Byakugan for a better look. "This is a genjutsu. Even with my stronger Byakugan, each kunai looks like a real one."

"Hinata; you will not need your Byakugan for now. All of the kunai that will be sent at you will come from your normal visual range. Be rest assured; if any of these kunai hit you, it will disappear and you won't feel a thing. I created this jutsu specifically for the purpose of training you. They will start coming at you when you are ready."

Even though she couldn't see Arashi, she nodded at his words. Her arms left her chest and were positioned for the jutsu. "Protective Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms." As soon as she finished saying that, kunai began flying at her. She focused chakra in the palms of her hands and began to create the chakra blades. The first kunai quickly faded out of existence when it hit her solid chakra. The false kunai continued to fly at her with increasing speeds. After two minutes, she was being pushed to max speed. After she held this speed for about ten seconds, two faux kunai came from opposite ends of her vision. She had just enough time to create some chakra in front of them. Unfortunately, there was another that came in just outside of the reach of her right hand.

This kunai did hit her before disappearing like the rest. The sudden loss of confidence allowed three more to hit her before they stopped coming. She then heard Arashi's voice from behind the wall of kunai. "Do not fret over that mistake Hinata-chan. I purposefully had those three kunai attack you in a way so you wouldn't be able to block all of them using your jutsu the way you are. However, if you used your jutsu a bit differently, you can block that third kunai. You will understand the last few days when you accomplish what I want you to do."

"Now what is Arashi-shishō planning?" She did not have time to continue her thoughts as the faux kunai started flying at her again. She quickly got used to the fast pace that was set up. Like last time, two kunai came at her sides with another coming just out of her reach. Like last time, the kunai reached her. "What do I have to do?" The three kunai attack came at her again. She forced a little extra speed out of her arm; but doing so took away the concentration she needed to form a chakra blade in time. The kunai instead hit her bare hand. The next time, the third kunai was even further out of her reach. "I guess that I am not supposed to try harder. Think Hinata; it wouldn't make sense for Arashi-shishō to give me a task I can't do. What do I have to do different and what does it have to do with the last few days?" Her eyes widened when the realization hit her like a ton of bricks. "Why didn't I think of that?"

Because it was his genjutsu, Arashi could see inside the wall of kunai. He quickly took note of Hinata's quick change in expression. "It looks like she has figured it out. Time to give her a full test."

Hinata was now undaunted when she saw the pattern of kunai flying at her from both sides. "Four kunai shouldn't be much harder than three." She spread her hands wide and stretched them at her sides. She then swung her hands in front of the kunai's paths. The first pair of kunai was stopped by a blade of chakra that came out of her pinkies. Another pair of blades came out of her index fingers to stop the other pair of faux kunai. "This was your purpose Arashi-shishō."

"Very good Hinata-chan. Now I want you to get used to using your jutsu that way. Don't use the same finger each time. Get use to variety and maintain as much of your chakra control as possible. Try to last as long as possible."

Hinata's arms gracefully swept through the air as her fingers left behind blades of chakra to hold off the kunai. She did use the palms of her hands from time to time as well. Thanks to learning a new way to use her jutsu, Hinata was having a great deal of fun with the training. She hardly even noticed that her chakra started to run out over an hour later. "I lasted a lot longer than the four minutes I used to last, even if I was using chakra at a slower pace this time around. I really do have a lot more chakra."

"I think that it is time for the finally Hinata-chan. Let's see how you handle this."

Hinata saw all but a small number of the kunai disappear. She could clearly see the world outside that small area once again. The kunai stopped after being evenly distributed at her sides. Hinata then noticed that there were ten total. The kunai lowered before shooting at her midsection. Hinata brought her hands down before sweeping them back up at the last moment. The ten kunai were stopped by ten separate blades from her fingers. Her eyes widened when she heard them clang and saw them land on the ground. "Th-those were r-real."

"They were Hinata-chan. We are going to have to work a bit more on that jutsu. It may be best for you to learn how to avoid destroying every weapon that is sent at you. Those kunai are useless now. First we will work on reducing the power or increasing it. We will work on the size of each chakra blade after that. Each one is half a meter long, even though what you are blocking only hits a centimeter of your chakra."

"I g-guess that we are w-working on this tomorrow."

"Actually, no. We will be working on this the day after tomorrow. We are going into a village tomorrow morning and taking the day off. While you were training, I saw a road sign showing that there is a village straight ahead."

"I see." Hinata watched as Arashi jumped off of the platform and walked into the forest. She followed suit.

In the next day, Hinata slept much more than usual due to the fact that Arashi did not give her any chakra restoring supplements in the previous night. She walked out of her tent still groggy. She looked around to notice that everything but her tent was sealed up. There was also a breakfast prepared on a log. She walked over to it and ate. "I wonder where Arashi-shishō is." She finished the breakfast with her question unanswered.

A few moments later, Hinata heard a rustling of leaves to her right. She looked in time to see Arashi come into view. Her eyes widened and she blushed considerably at him. All Arashi was wearing was his pants. He was naked from the waist up. When he is wearing his shirt and windbreaker, he looks small and non-threatening like most shinobi. With those clothes of, Hinata saw the most intimidating sight she has ever seen in her short life. The muscles seemed too large for his skin. It looked as if simply flexing those muscles could rip Arashi apart from the inside out. She saw that he was sweaty, meaning that he was just training. "Good morning Hinata-chan."

Hinata was trapped in her thoughts as Arashi dressed and sealed her tent up. "H-how?"

Arashi chuckled. "If you are talking about the muscles, these are nothing. You should see what Akisame looks like with his clothes off. The guy looks like he will explode at any given moment."

Hinata performed a sweat-drop. "You look like you are going to explode." She blinked a bit when she heard Arashi sneeze. "Amazing, Akisame-san can really tell when Arashi-shishō is talking about him."

Hinata suddenly sneezed as well, at which Arashi laughed at. "I am guessing that Akisame found out that I have a disciple from how I am talking about him this often."

Hinata's jaw dropped. "Is that man even human."

"Let's go Hinata-chan." Arashi headed to the road and down it. Hinata followed him as usual. The village they found themselves in was just like any other with nothing special about it. He led her to a simple hotel. He walked to the desk and smiled at the woman there, who blushed in response. "Hello there, may we rent out a room for tonight. I would prefer that it has two beds."

"O-of course; that will be 1550." Arashi pulled out a wallet that obviously had a lot more money in it than was necessary. The woman took notice of this. "Ano, can't you afford somewhere better than this?"

"Hai, I can; but I chose to come here for two reasons. One, I am very frugal with my money. Two, I was attracted here by your pretty face." The woman blushed horribly at the rather blunt comment. Arashi placed the money on the desk and turned to Hinata. "Hinata-chan, can you take care of the rest. There was something that caught my eye that I have to check on. I'll come back and just ask this beauty what the room number is."

Hinata nodded as Arashi walked away. She walked up to the desk and waited for the woman to find the keys for the room. The woman placed the keys on the desk and gave Hinata a curious glance. "Can you tell me his name?"

"H-hai, i-it is Arashi Ayama."

She smiled and blushed. "That is a nice name. Here are your keys." The woman handed the keys to Hinata. She noticed that the key also had the room number on it. The woman watched as Hinata went to find the room. "She must be his daughter. That girl looks like she is raised well."

Hinata walked up the stairs to the level three where her room should be. As she walked through the halls, one of the doors opened up. The man that came out looked overly serious when he looked at her. Hinata's eyes widened when she got a good look at him. He spoke in a deep voice. "Well, well, if it isn't a Hyuga of the main branch."

The thing about him that scared her the most was the headband with the image of two clouds on it. "A Kumo shinobi."

Well, that is a cliffhanger. I think I am getting better at them. I love these random ideas that just seem to fit in my story. PS: If things keep progressing as they are now, I may start missing updates within the year. Lets hope that doesn't happen.

Next chapter: Surprising Events.