A/N: Long time no update, huh?
"I see you got my message." The Third Hokage said aloud to his apparently empty office. "Though I do wonder what took you so long to the tower."
"Things to do, people to see." A man with long spiky white hair replied, stepping out into the open.
"People to see indeed." The older man said with a chuckle. "According to my sources you spent the majority of the day by the women's bath houses."
"If you want the next installment of my world famous Icha Icha series to be released any time soon I need time to do the research." The other man replied matter-of-factly. He was more than used to people scolding him and his perverted ways, and it had even less effect when he was scolded by a fellow pervert. It also didn't help that the man was not only was he well aware that he was probably the biggest pervert in the world, but that he was proud of that fact as well.
The older man just sighed. "Your breach on women's privacy wasn't the only thing I heard about you; I had thought that you had sworn never to take another student Jiraiya."
Jiraiya barely held back his flinch at the painful memories that remark brought up. "Yes, well you also told me that my godson had died with his mother."
"You know why I had to mislead you and the rest of the world," the Sandaime said with remorse. "His father had too many enemies and the times where too turbulent for Naruto's true heritage to be revealed. We had enough trouble dealing with our depleted forces and destroyed parts of the village to worry about the extra protection needed for Naruto and the village as a whole if word got out of the Yellow Flash having a son." Sarutobi explained.
"But they named me godfather!" Jiraiya yelled. "I promised to take care of him, and instead I thought he died leaving him to fend for himself for 12 years. You could have at least told meabout Naruto; no one else had to know."
"Jiraiya," the older man spoke softly, voice saturated with understanding. "If I had given Naruto to you to raise, everyone would have realised right away whose son it was. And I know how much you like to wander; being stuck in Konoha raising a baby would have made you go stir crazy. And it would have been far too dangerous for you to take Naruto with you. Besides, we both know that you weren't ready to raise Naruto; you were still grieving the death of your student whom you loved like a son. You would have done Naruto no favors to raise him in an environment filled with regret and expectations based on his father."
Silence prevailed for a while, Jiraiya being unable to refute his old sensei's statement.
"But that's all in the past." Sarutobi commented. "Tell me what news you have for me from your travels."
"Nothing much has been happening around the world, except that Akatsuki is starting to act up," Jiraiya replied. "But I already told you that in my last report. Besides, it should be you telling me what's new; I doubt that you called me back to the village without a good reason."
The Sandaime gave a small puff on his pipe before responding to the unasked question. "Orochimaru is up to something. He already made a move during the second part of the chunnin exam, giving Uchiha Sasuke the curse mark, and we have three confirmed spies, thanks to Naruto."
"What?!" Jiraiya yelled. "What happened? What do you mean thanks to Naruto?"
The older man chuckled lightly before explaining. "Naruto got into an argument with another genin both at the start of the chunnin exam and at the end of the second test. Due to the nature of the arguments and the fact that this particular genin had a rather odd track record, Ibiki decided to question him. Unfortunately what we had thought was at first a somewhat innocent mid-chunnin level spy was in fact jounin level and deeply involved with Orochimaru, therefore Kabuto was able to give us the slip before we could fully interrogate him and find out Orochimaru's plans. His teammates, while also traitors, weren't nearly as skilled or as knowledgeable and weren't able to fill us in even though we still have them in custody."
"Hmmmmmmm....." Jiraiya hummed in thought. Knowing his old teammate, his plan could be anything from stealing a scroll to a full-out war; but whatever the plan, Orochimaru never did anything half-assed without taking all possibilities into account. Which meant that there were probably more spies and quite possibly Orochimaru himself running around doing who knows what in the village. But on the other hand, Orochimaru was never really the patient type which could prove to be an advantage. "So does the brat even know that he ousted a traitor?"
"No; he just thought that Kabuto had a poor attitude for a Konoha ninja." Sarutobi replied, amusement colouring his voice. "I don't want Orochimaru's actions in the second test or Kabuto's loyalties known to anyone below chunnin rank; there's no need to make it obvious that something is wrong and that we're expecting Orochimaru to act at any moment."
"If you say so," Jiraiya conceded. Though he knew his old sensei had a point; they may have a better chance at catching the snake-summoner earlier if they are careful not to scare the traitor and his minions into a higher sense of caution. And knowing the way Orochimaru liked to make a large production of everything, anything he has planned will probably take place during the third part of the chunnin exam where there's sure to be a large crowd full of innocent civilians and he can make a dramatic entrance. "Well, I better get back to the brat; I had promised to meet him for some training about ten minutes ago and the kid is probably in the middle of a tantrum as we speak. See you later old man!"
Sarutobi wasn't given time to refute the comment about being old as the toad hermit jumped out the window and ran jumping from rooftop to rooftop. Argue as he might about not wanting to take another pupil and the horror that is Uzumaki Naruto, the Sandaime for one hadn't seen his old student act so lively in years.
To Edgar Polgins, Editor in Chief of the Daily Prophet;
On the December 12th edition of your newspaper, an article titled "Care of Magical Creatures a Real Life and Death Course Thanks to Dangerous Magical Creature Teacher" written by your top reporter Rita Skeeter was published. In it Miss Skeeter tells how Rubeus Hagrid, the Hogwart's Care of Magical Creatures professor was seen setting dangerous beasts on the students and reveling in his half-giant ancestry of seeking pain and destruction on innocents. The fact that you not only allowed this piece to be published in your paper, but you proudly displayed such an article on your front page shows that not only to you and your staff know nothing about proper journalism, but that your tripe of a newspaper is so worthless as to not even be useful as toilet-paper.
Let me point out a few facts as a real witness to the events the article in question speaks about.
One: In your published article you made it sound as if Hagrid himself had enraged the beast and then set it loose on the students; which was most definitely not the case. Hagrid taught all the students, including one Draco Malfoy, the do's and don'ts of dealing with hyppogriffs. The fact that Mr. Malfoy chose not to heed that lesson and do the most important don't – insult a hippogriff to its face – is his own fault and he was lucky that it happened where Hagrid was capable of selflessly stepping between himself and the enraged creature, thus saving Mr. Malfoy's life from his own stupidity.
Two: You speak of Hagrid's ancestry as if it's a given fact and you speak continuously of his supposed violent side and need to see blood spilt. I may only be a third year but anyone who has spoken to Professor Hagrid for more than three minutes would know that he is no more violent than a rampaging moth; that's to say not at all. I'm sure all the signatures at the bottom of this letter of those who agree with me and this letter should be more than enough to prove my point. And if it's not, well I'm sure that you are getting plenty of more mail from former Hogwart's students on your despicable article slandering Hagrid's character.
Three: You often pointed out the fact that Hagrid had been expelled for releasing a dangerous magical creature in the school in his youth and the fact that he isn't qualified to teach due to his lack of Hogwart's degree. Had you or your reporter done the most minimal amount or research possible, you'd have known that Hagrid had already been proven innocent of the crime that had caused him to be expelled and is currently working after hours with the other professors to earn his Hogwarts diploma. And despite his lack of degree, Hagrid is still the leading expert in magical creatures; people from around the world (including aurors and dragon keepers) often ask Hagrid for advice or favors with magical creatures they come by. Just because it isn't written on a fancy piece of paper doesn't mean he isn't more than experienced and qualified enough for his job.
I must ask if the whole wizarding world is this unreliable and biased based on the fact that it seems as if no one has ever thought to question Miss Skeeter's articles and methods. How did someone who bases their articles on half-truths and wild speculation ever become hired as a reporter to the wizarding world's most read newspaper, let alone be their top reporter? Suddenly I find the fact that a mad wizard single-handedly brought the wizarding world to its knees based on a prejudice only 20% of the population share far more understandable if this is how the general public deals with such overt slander and bias – they just spare a moment of anger and doubt before nodding their heads and accepting whatever they are told.
I demand that you not only retract that article, but you publish a public apology to Hagrid and others you have slandered and lied about for the sake of making a few extra galleons. I also demand that you start taking your job seriously and only publish stories with reliable sources and information; you are supposed to find and relay truth to the public not cheap stories without an ounce of reality within them.
Thinking of Returning to the Muggle World for Good,
Harry Potter.
After reading it one last time, Harry magically made a duplicate to keep for his own records before sending off the letter with a school owl. Harry knew that his demands stated in the letter wouldn't be met; if the editor had cared at all about the accuracy of the articles published in his paper he would have fired Skeeter long before now. No, this letter would probably just increase the vendetta the Daily Prophet had against him ever since he had slighted their top reporter. But that was fine by Harry; he was keeping a copy of every article slandering him and the letters and responses to the staff of the Daily Prophet – perhaps one day soon they would serve their purpose. Until then, he would just have to be patient.
Naruto opened his eyes sluggishly, still groggy from just waking up.
"Ugh..." the blond groaned, wiping the sleep from his eyes. He was sore all over and he couldn't seem to remember how he got like that.
"Finally awake are you?" A familiar voice drawled lazily.
"Shikamaru!" Naruto exclaimed seeing his friend sitting at his bedside playing solitaire with a giant fruit basket beside him. "What are you doing here? And what am I doing here?" Naruto asked as he finally noticed the crisp white surrounding and sanitary smells of the hospital.
"I heard that a giant frog dropped you off at the doors." Shikamaru replied. "You're here since you were suffering from chakra exhaustion. I don't know what you're doing to get ready for your fight, but it must be something big; I didn't even know it was possible for you to run out energy judging by the way you're always bouncing off the walls."
Blue eyes widened as Naruto remembered what had cause him to be in this condition; finally summoning the toad boss and stubbornly clinging to his back for hours on end in order to gain the summons respect and cooperation due to a bet they made. But the brief flash of pride at staying on the mighty toad's back for so long as to win the bet followed by the sense of gratitude for Jiraiya for teaching him how to summon and walk on water after Kakashi left him disappeared when he remembered just what the pervert had done to ensure Naruto summoned the large toad.
"That jerk!" Naruto yelled, jumping out of bed in righteous anger. "He pushed me off a cliff! I could have died!"
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow – if being thrown off a cliff was how Naruto was training for the last stage of the chunnin exams, well he was sure becoming a chunnin wasn't worth it. The lazy boy did make a mental note however to treat Asuma-sensei to a free meal at his favourite restaurant or something for being a far more agreeable and sane teacher than whoever Naruto was stuck with.
"So training is going well for you then?" Shikamaru asked, interrupting Naruto's angry rant of what he was going to do to his teacher once he got his hands on him.
"Yeah, I guess." Naruto replied thinking back to what he had learned so far. It wasn't much; Ero-sennin was more concerned with peeping on woman than training him. But it wasn't all that bad; at the very least Naruto was thankful for Jiraiya agreeing to train him at all and for negating whatever that freaky snake guy had done to him in the second part of the exam that screwed with his chakra control. If only the old pervert would be more serious in training him; why did he always get the senseis that believed in leaving their students to their own devices?! Naruto couldn't even go to his usual early morning training sessions with Gai-sensei since his first opponent would be one of Gai's students and Naruto thought it would be mean to make Gai choose between them. This meant that Konoha's number one surprising ninja was training solo more now than ever. Thankfully he still got tips and spells from Harry who put a lot of his side projects on hold in order to find useful spells Naruto could use.
"That's good." Shikamaru replied.
"So why are you here?" Naruto asked his lazy friend curiously.
"Chouji got a bit carried away in training. He'll only be here for a few hours at most, but I thought I'd visit while I'm waiting anyway."
"You're training with Chouji and your team? But it's an individual fight and you're the only one competing in the third part of the exams from your team anyway."
"So?" the lazy genius countered. "Just because they aren't competing doesn't mean that Ino or Chouji shouldn't train. They still have to keep their skills sharp and keep improving if they want to become chunnin in the future."
Naruto nodded at the sound logic and idly wondered what Sakura was doing to train since their sensei was with Sasuke. Maybe Kakashi had set up a tutor for her like he had for him (granted that Kakashi's intended tutor hadn't quite worked out, and that Naruto had wanted to train with Kakashi himself, but at least he found another tutor for the blond, right?).
"Well, I feel tons better now so I think I'm going to back to training." Naruto stated matter-of-factly. He wasn't one to sit still for long and obviously he was no longer suffering from chakra exhaustion.
"You just can't leave Naruto," Shikamaru sighed, wondering how he could have been friends with such an energetic and troublesome guy. "You have to wait for a medic-nin to do a final check-up to see if you have even recovered enough chakra to train with."
"But Shikamaruuuuu!" Naruto whined, face contorting into a miserable pout. "Who knows how long it'll take a medic-nin to come check on me! And I'm so boored!"
The lazy genius barely resisted groaning out loud. Naruto may be a loyal caring person who would do anything and everything for a friend in need, but it was times like this that Shikamaru had to wonder if it was worth it. The problem was that Naruto had a very short attention span and an infinite amount of energy. Thus the blond always had to be occupied – always. Because whenever Naruto got bored, he would make/find something to do, which inevitably led to more trouble than the pony-tailed ninja thought possible. Knowing from previous experience that it was better to suggest an activity before the blue-eyed preteen got another of his crazy and random ideas that he just had to try in his head, Shikamaru desperately tried to think of a way to entertain Naruto with minimal property damage.
"We can visit your friend Lee." Shikamaru said. Seeing that he now had Naruto's attention Shikamaru gave an inward sigh of relief. "He's still recovering from what that Sand ninja did to him. Come on, I'll show you to his room."
It didn't take long for the duo to find their fellow genin's room – especially since Naruto all but dragged Shikamaru in his excitement to both visit his friend and leave his boring bed. But all of Naruto's happiness seemed to drain from him as he finally entered his friend's hospital room.
It seemed wrong for the always eager and energetic Lee to be so pale and still. He was obviously on some heavy medication, keeping him asleep and unaware of his injuries and pain as the medic-nins tried to reform the bloody and crushed limbs into a properly working arm and leg once again.
Neither Shikamaru nor Naruto knew how long they spent just looking at their fellow genin's injured form, but the sombre silence was broken when a malevolent presence entered. Both boys turned around, shocked to find the same creepy Sand ninja who had crushed Lee's right arm and leg mere feet from the injured boy.
"G-Gaara..." Naruto murmured, stunned at the other's sudden appearance. But the red-head ignored the other two and focused his attentions on the bed-ridden Lee. Shikamaru and Naruto were both too stunned to do anything but stare wide-eyed at the other boy, until they noticed the sand swirling ominously.
"Hey!" Naruto yelled, taking a step forward. "What do you think you're doing?!"
The red-head continued to ignore the other two as his sand started to surround the injured genin, but with a few quick hand-seals from Shikamaru, Gaara was trapped before he could do anything.
"Release me." Gaara commanded monotonously as he was forced to copy the shadow user's movements and backed away from the bed. "I will kill you if you get in my way."
Both Naruto and Shikamaru suppressed a shudder at the way Gaara spoke – as if he was emotionally detached and wouldn't so much as blink before killing them.
"Not until you explain just what the hell you were doing!" Naruto yelled, angry at the other for daring to hurt Lee again and while he was defenceless as well.
"I was going to kill him."
Again that statement was delivered in the same apathetic matter-of-fact tone.
"What, crippling him in the exam wasn't good enough for you?" Shikamaru asked, fighting to keep his anger about the inhuman cruelty the Sand genin was displaying out of his voice. "You needed to come back and finish the job?! Do you have a personal grudge against him or something?"
"No," Gaara replied.
"But, why do you want to kill him then?!" Naruto asked, flabbergasted by the Sand ninja. "And what kind of person tries to kill an unconscious, injured kid in his own hospital bed?! You've got to be sick in the head or something! Well, if you want to hurt bushy-brows you'll have to go through us first!"
"Shut up Naruto!" Shikamaru hissed, struggling to keep Gaara bound in his shadow possession jutsu. Naruto's confrontational manner was only making the red-head angrier and more eager to break from the lazy-nin's technique. "You saw him; he fights like he's a demon or something. Don't provoke him!"
"Well, he might fight like a demon," Naruto retorted, not bothering to keep his voice down like Shikamaru, allowing Gaara to hear. "But I've got a real one inside of me. He doesn't scare me!"
"A demon, huh?" the red-head asked, now focussing all his attention on Naruto. "I know all about real demons..."
Harry calmly walked up the marble steps of Gringotts Bank, checking his watch once more to ensure he was early for his appointment with his accountant. The street was pretty empty, most people still on holiday or at least staying inside away from the cold. Harry however was taking advantage of this time to spend his first Christmas break away from Hogwarts to organise some of his affairs and get the wheels in motion for a few of his half-thought out ideas.
It didn't take long for Harry to be ushered into his accountant's (a goblin named Orjot) office and for the two occupants to settle down to business.
"You asked to meet about goblin made weapons, correct?" Orjot spoke as he shuffled around some of his papers, taking out the letter Harry had sent earlier that week.
"Yes; I heard that goblin craftsmanship can't be beat, and with dark wizards trying to kill me all the time I thought it would be best to have a dependable weapon or two with me at all times." Harry replied. After realising why Gryffindor's sword was the only thing able to cut the basilisk scales, Harry had been thinking about this plan of action. He had considered just packing up Gryffindor's sword, but decided against it since it would feel too much like he was stealing (it was an ancient object rich with history and he couldn't in good conscience keep it with him knowing that he might bring it to Naruto's world never to be returned) and neither he nor Naruto knew how to use it properly (swordsmanship became as much of an obscure practice in the wizarding world as in the muggle one and in Naruto's world the swords they used were quite different). In the end Harry and Naruto had decided on a weapon each that they thought would be useful in the future, even if they weren't adept at it currently.
Orjot leaned back in contemplation. "That is true no doubt; however there is no point in requesting a goblin made item if you cannot wield it properly. Also, the cost is very high; we don't like too many of our creations to be out of our hands, especially if they are in the hands of wizards. Too many times in the past we would have given wizards the items they commissioned and yet they never returned it back to us!"
"Return...?" Harry asked. "Do you mean I can only rent and not buy goblin-made items?"
"Of course not," Orjot replied. "As the purchaser, you buy whatever you had commissioned. But once you have no use for them they are to be returned to us; they aren't to be heirlooms or gifts for others."
"I see." Harry said. While he was disappointed that he couldn't give anything he bought in a will or something, he could see the practicality of the exchange; not only do the goblins regain their items, forcing other wizards to re-pay and re-commission for the same object that might have been given to them but this way the goblins have more control over who gets to benefit from their metal-melding talents.
"So, just what did you want made?" Orjot asked.
Harry brandished a slip of parchment with some writing at the goblin. Orjot took the paper and read over the request.
"Just buying one goblin made item is expensive, and you have requested four. I don't even know what you plan to do with the last two items." Orjot commented with a frown. "You don't have enough funds in your accounts for these; maybe for only one item but definitely not all four."
Harry stared at the goblin in contemplative silence for a moment. "Well, could I pay for it later? I assume that they'll take a while to make anyway, so couldn't I pay the rest of the costs when I pick the items up?"
"I'm afraid not." Orjot countered. "Gringotts is a business where time is money. We goblins don't have time to make your order if you don't have the money to pay for it."
Harry sat back thoughtfully. While he knew that money didn't grow on trees or that his inheritance would last forever, he had thought that it would have been more than enough for his all of his ideas and plans. Granted, he still had the considerable amount of gold he had stored in one of his shrunken trunks he carried around at all times, but Harry wanted that for emergency money to be used only after the whole strained-inter-realm-bond thing with Naruto was resolved.
Harry's eyes finally gleamed with an idea. Sure it was a bit (or a lot) of a gamble, but sometimes the risks were worth the outcomes.
"How about a deal." Harry proposed. "You have the items I requested made and take all the gold in my vault as down payment. When I get the rest of the money to pay for the items you can sell them to me. But if I don't have the money by the time I graduate from Hogwarts you can keep all the items and the down payment."
"No deal." Orjot replied. "It will only take about three months to make the items, and to have your order sitting around taking up space for over 4 years is preposterous. Three months. I will give you the three months it takes to make your items for you to get the rest of the money."
"Three months?!" Harry exclaimed. "I know my down payment is less than half of the grand total, but it's no small amount! I'm already risking the rest of my inheritance on getting the money I need in 4 years; how you expect anyone, let alone a thirteen year-old who'll be stuck at Hogwarts, to get that amount of money in three months is beyond me. Give me 2 years instead."
"One year." Orjot responded. "Final offer. That way you'll even get a whole summer to scrounge up the money needed."
While the deal wasn't ideal, Harry knew that the goblin was serious about the 'final offer' part. And if Harry's gamble did pay off, he'd hopefully get the money needed with time to spare.
"Deal."
"Thanks for seeing me Madam Bones." Harry said sincerely as he sat down at the Ministry of Magic's Head of Law Enforcement's office.
"No problem Mr. Potter." A middle-aged woman giving off a no-nonsense and a strict but fair vibe replied. "My niece told me about the letter you sent to the Daily Prophet a few weeks ago; I can't help but agree with your thoughts. I'm not surprised you came to see me considering what the Daily Prophet is publishing these days. I'm no stranger to their slander, but my faith in the Daily Prophet has plummeted even further with their recent actions. It's one thing to go after an established government or a full-grown adult, but to attack a twelve year old child with such hurtful lies is purely despicable!"
Harry let out a small smile, glad that she was on his side. "Can you tell me what legal actions I can take against the Daily Prophet and Skeeter in particular?" Harry asked.
The monocle wearing woman sighed. "Unfortunately there isn't a lot you can do; the Daily Prophet and the ministry have a not-so-secret under the table deal where the ministry has a say as to what can and can't be released to the public in exchange for protection against those they lie about when they are unable to publish truth. In this case you are guilty until proven innocent, so unless you have undeniable truth that the Prophet is working against you, your case will be dismissed faster than you can say "unfair"."
Harry nodded to show his understanding; that information wasn't really surprising, especially since everything he knew about the ministry (most notably the scandals) he had learnt from students with relatives who worked for the ministry rather than the newspaper. And if it was easy to stop the slander than the Daily Prophet wouldn't do it to such a degree.
"I think I'd like to make a formal complaint with the intention to sue anyway." Harry declared.
"Very well; I'll get the paper work needed and help you fill it out but the only thing that'll come from it will be a letter in two weeks or so saying that your case was found to be faulty and was dismissed." Bones replied.
"I know, but I don't want to just sit back and do nothing." Harry answered. And besides, a paper trail couldn't hurt.
After about half an hour Harry decided to break the comfortable silence while Madam Bones worked on the paper work for Harry's lawsuit.
"Madam Bones, I wanted to know more about Sirius. I mean, he was officially pardoned and Fudge made a huge speech about how I would get the compensation money for being wrongly imprisoned in Azkaban for a decade but I never got it. I didn't really care before; my inheritance is more than enough for me to live on until I graduate but since I'm here anyway I thought I'd ask."
"Just because you're here huh?" Bones said with a knowing smile. "More like just because they are in with the Daily Prophet and it will give you another angle on your lawsuit."
Harry grinned unrepentantly, knowing better than to deny the accusation.
"I can't say I can blame you though," Bones commented. "And it will be hard for them to throw that accusation out of court; the minister did promise you money quite publicly. The only problem I have with your plan is where the ministry will find the money to pay you; Fudge depends a lot on Lucius Malfoy's 'advice' even concerning the ministry budget. You won't believe how much they've cut back from my department saying that with You-Know-Who gone there isn't as much need for aurors. Hah! More like they want more gold to line their own pockets and what better way than to cut back from people who would stop them from doing it!"
It was obvious that Bones had been holding back on her anger and bitterness for the ministry and the way it was run for quite some time. But that would only work in Harry's favor right now and what was at first a hastily thought out idea began to form into a calculating plan.
"Madam Bones, let me be honest with you. I plan to sue the Daily Prophet and probably the ministry – several times if need be – and shake things up a bit. However I think that if I'm successful I can make your, and other honest ministry workers like Mr. Weasley, lives easier. Would evidence of the Ministry/Daily Prophet conspiring be enough to get Fudge sacked? And if so, would you be able to ensure someone competent took his place? Would you be able to help me in this?"
The older woman peered over at the young boy in thought; she had worked too long in law enforcement to not know that Harry Potter was far more mature and knowledgeable than others his age and that the boy in question had some sort of plan up his sleeve. If it were anyone else she wouldn't have listened; they would have either had too many connections and untold parties who their loyalties and interests were tied too or they had too few and thus their ideas would never take off. Harry was in the unique position to have no ties/loyalties due to his young age and yet still have the ear of the world due to his Boy-Who-Lived status. With a smile that spoke of impeding revenge and justice Amelia Bones decided to take a chance.
"Well, the first thing you'll need-"
Naruto shuffled his feet, uncharacteristically depressed and downtrodden. He had woken up today (the all-important day of the third competition of the chunnin exam) full of enthusiasm and vigour, ready to show the world just what Uzumaki Naruto was made of – but then it had all disappeared the more the blond overheard villagers and visiting dignitaries alike speak of his upcoming match against Hyuuga Neji as if it were a done deal and like he had no hope of winning. And even if he beat Neji, there would be Gaara to contend with – another demon container like him, though one who had an even worse life and was extremely unbalanced.
Usually such talk wouldn't bother him – he was more than used to ignoring slander and being the underdog – but the combination of nerves, the knowledge of how public this fight would be and the fact that Naruto didn't really know anyone who would be solely in his corner watching (Harry was in another dimension, the Sandaime wouldn't be able to show favoritism, Kiba and Chouji were more likely to cheer for their own teammate (Shino and Shikamaru respectively), Iruka and Konohamaru were in school, who knew where the hell Jiraiya was, and even Kakashi and Sakura would cheer for Sasuke over him), meant that Naruto was no longer so eager to make his way to the duelling arena.
The blond leisurely made his way to team 7's usual training ground, hoping to bump into Sasuke or Kakashi for some incentive or something, but it was empty. Well, almost empty.
"Oh, hey Hinata." Naruto greeted the shy girl half-heartedly.
"N-Naruto-kun." Hinata greeted back with a small nod and blush. "Aren't you supposed to be at the arena soon?"
"Yeah," Naruto replied. "But I still have some time left. What are you doing out here? Aren't you going to watch the tournament?"
"O-of course," Hinata responded. "Kiba-kun is already saving me a seat so we can cheer Shino on together."
There was a small pause as Naruto become lost in his melancholy thoughts and Hinata scrounged up her courage. "A-are you alright Naruto?" the shy girl asked. "You seem kind of sad..."
"Huh?" Naruto asked, torn from his thoughts. "Oh, yeah I'm alright. Just kind of nervous I suppose..." the blond finished with an awkward chuckle. "I mean, Neji was the top rookie last year and has had a whole extra year to improve his skills, training under bushy-brows' sensei no less! I had to take the genin exam three times, and even then...I guess everyone is right, I'm nothing but a failure."
Hinata found herself worried; while she had spied a few of Naruto's sombre and self-conscious moments, she had never seen him openly display doubt in front of others before. There was no way she could let him leave without trying to bring back his usual fighting spirit, so gathering all her bravery and determination she spoke.
"I-I know you'll be great Naruto-kun!"
Hinata's whole face flushed a deep red when she noticed that she had her crush's undivided attention, but she continued regardless.
"And even if you're a failure, you're the best type; a proud failure! Because no matter what people say or do, or how often you fall you always get back up and try again! I-I always thought I was weak and would always be weak until you showed me what true strength was – true strength and true courage is the determination to pick yourself up again after you mess up, to keep going no matter what. You inspire me and I know that you can beat Neji if you really try!"
Naruto listened in shocked, but pleased, silence. He had hardly ever spoken to Hinata before; while the girl was extremely nice they were complete opposites – she was proper, polite, and quiet while Naruto was messy, blunt, and rambunctious. Obviously Hinata was pretty cool, for a quiet and weird girl at least.
"Thanks Hinata, I feel loads better now!" Naruto exclaimed, truly feeling his usual spirit and determination return. Suddenly he realised that he had to be at the arena soon and with a loud swear word the blond ran off. He only got a few meters before he paused and turned back to Hinata.
"You should hurry up too, especially if you don't want to miss me kicking the crap out of your cousin!"
As Naruto finally disappeared in the distance, Hinata slumped against the training post, smiling so widely that her face hurt and trying hard not to faint.