Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Word of Honor

Chapter 36: Filling in the Blanks

"I think you killed him."

"I did not. I just told him what he needed to hear. It's not my fault he's not ready to hear it."

"E-excuse me? N-Naruto-kun is waking up."

Naruto stirred from his place on the floor, finally coming around. As he moved his head, he felt a throbbing sensation, causing him to moan in pain. He'd forgotten that he'd fallen onto very hard stone a moment before, and now had the mindscape equivalent of a concussion. He'd likely just have a headache later, but for here it was much more painful.

Slowly sitting up, he felt a gentle hand tentatively helping him rise to a seated position. Opening his eyes to see who it was, he was startled to see Hinata kneeling next to him, helping to keep him steady as he got himself situated. Taking a moment to slowly shift forwards, he managed a pained smile. "Thanks Hinata-chan."

Hinata turned bright red, glancing away as she tried to quietly express her willingness to help. Before she could though, Naruto's grandfather stepped forward. "Okay kid, you can make kissy face with your fiance later. I need to explain what Kushina forgot to tell you now, and I want your full and undivided attention."

Naruto's face flared red, enough so to match Hinata's momentarily. He opened his mouth to quickly deny any sort of close affiliation with Hinata, but was reminded that Hinata was still next to him when she squeaked at the sudden movement Kushina's father had made. Acting purely on instinct, he found himself on his feet and between Hinata and Kushina's father in a blur of motion in a defensive stance to protect Hinata. Feeling the slight strain on his muscles, it slowly dawned on him that he'd used the Sokusensokketsu no Jutsu without hand seals.

Kushina's father raised an eyebrow. "Huh, so she did at least remember to teach you the base technique. That's good to see." Turning to Kushina, he continued to frown in disappointment. "At least you remembered something I taught you."

"Otou-san!" Kushina yelled, not like how she was continually being reprimanded by her father in front of her son.

"Ow…what hit me?"

Everyone turned to the new sound, Naruto in confusion, as Han'ishiki slowly sat up. Naruto shook his head – an action he immediately regretted – as he tried to grasp what had happened. "Why is Han'ishiki on the floor?"

Kushina sighed. "When you fainted, Han'ishiki tried to get my otou-san to explain what was going on so he could leave. My otou-san is like you in a lot of ways and…he knocked Han'ishiki into the floor."

"Oh." Naruto muttered.

"Yeah well, it could've been a lot worse." Han'ishiki muttered. Turning to Naruto he groaned in annoyance. "Could've been more comfortable too. Seriously? You gave him a pillow?"

"Pillow?" Naruto asked, looking where he'd been laid. To his surprise, there was a pillow of a fashion where his head had been. Or rather, there was a thick jacket that had been folded and placed under his head that looked rather familiar. Glancing back to Hinata, he found himself blinking owlishly in shock. "Whoa."

Hinata, without her jacket, wore a mesh shirt with a loose black shirt over it. The jacket, having been oversized, had kept from the world the curves that would make any other woman jealous in Naruto's opinion. As she fidgeted under Naruto's gaze, Naruto noted how the darker colors seemed to bring out just how light her eyes were, making them sharper, more pronounced, and more stunning. Forgetting how to breath, his mouth continually opened and closed for a solid minute before he finally managed to tear his eyes away; admittedly, sporting a cherry red blush as he did so.

"Well, now that you're done making gooey eyes at your wife, we can start."

"I wasn't making gooey eyes!" Naruto shouted, his mind not bothering to reject the intimate relationship he apparently had with her. After all, he was a man. Men didn't make gooey eyes, girls did.

"Whatever." Kushina's father muttered, pulling out a large blackboard from hammer space and pulling out a piece of chalk. As he began writing, he began speaking in rhythm with the scratching of the chalk. "Now, my name is, Uzumaki Kamina. I will be your remedial teacher for this evening."

Naruto grimaced at the 'remedial' phrase. He'd had a few of those back in the academy –due to lack of attendance – and they'd never been all that fun. Mostly banging erasers together and helping clean up.

"That's detention baka." Han'ishiki muttered, pulling up a pair of chairs to sit on. To his, and the other adults amusement, Naruto quickly offered the chair to Hinata, who graciously accepted it.

"Now, let's start with the base basics." Kamina pointed to Han'ishiki. "This guy is a representation of your subconsciousness. He is everything you are, and knows everything you've ever forgotten about knowing."

"I already know that." Naruto said with a whining edge to his voice.

Kamina pulled out a ruler and slapped it against the blackboard. "I know that! That's so basic, everyone must know it." Pointing the ruler in Naruto's face, he went on. "But did you also know that he knows everything Kushina knows?"

Naruto's eyes widened, glancing from Kushina to Han'ishiki. "Really? That's…pretty cool."

"Yeah, cool." Kushina whispered, rubbing her arm nervously as she remembered how Han'ishiki had helped keep the truth about her from him. She personally didn't enjoy the fact that Han'ishiki knew what she knew; it made her life too difficult.

"You see? You don't know everything you think you know." Kamina scolded. "Now, if you'll let me do my job, we'll be able to get through some of this stuff faster."

Naruto bowed his head. "I'm sorry."

"Good! Now, observe this chart." Kamina said, slapping the blackboard with the ruler. As he did so, a wave of lines began edging across the chart until they settled to form a divide on the board. On either side of the divide, there were words and odd sketches that didn't make much sense. What did make perfect sense to Naruto though, was that at the top of either side there was a heading; 'boy' on the left, and 'girl' on the right. "You will remain silent unless you're asking an intelligent question." Seeing Naruto nod Kamina smirked. "Good.

"Now, the first thing you were…hopefully told was the two different ways your bloodline activates. The chains and the promises. Now, what you might not have been told, is that there is a grey area between the two." He tapped the line, 'expanding' the line to create a overly dramatic representation of his 'grey area'. "Now, this grey area is very special. When a Uzumaki woman becomes one with her husband, she is given a small amount of power from her promises. Contrariwise, men don't appear to show any of the girl's ability to create chains."

"Question!" Naruto said, raising his hand in the air.

Heaving a small sigh, he crossed his arms as he turned to face Naruto. "Yes Naruto?"

"What does, uh, contrar-contrariwizz, mean?"

"Contrariwise." Kamina reproached quickly. "And it means the same thing as 'on the other hand', or 'as opposed too', without taking as much time to say."

Naruto scratched his head. "But, wouldn't it make more sense to just say, 'on the other hand'?"

Before Kamina could say anything, someone else beat him to it. "It makes conversations move faster to get to important things faster Naruto-kun."

Naruto turned to Hinata with an expression of elation. "Really?" Getting a hesitant nod, Naruto pounded his fist into his hand like a gavel, nodding to himself. "That makes sense! Otherwise, people'd get bored with a boring intro. Thanks Hinata-chan!"

Kamina raised an eyebrow in amusement, noting how Hinata shrunk in on her when Naruto complemented her. "Yes well, moving on. Men don't appear to do the same –"

"Question!"

Slowly turning to Naruto again, Kamina hissed out his response. "Yes?"

Naruto paused, noting the tone even though he was oblivious to the reason behind it. "What does 'become one' mean?" Noting everyone going silent, Naruto looked around in confusion. "Was it something I said?"

Kamina looked Naruto over, thinking over how best to answer this question. Taking note of a fact he apparently hadn't noticed before, he groaned. "How old are you Naruto?"

"I'm twelve, almost thirteen." Naruto replied quickly.

Kamina nodded to himself. "Alright then, I don't have to explain this for another two years."

"What?" Naruto shouted indignantly.

Kamina scowled, brandishing his ruler threateningly. "Because that kind of information isn't useful to you right now. For log's sake, you're twelve!"

"I'm almost thirteen." Naruto muttered.

"Doesn't matter. Until you're fifteen, you don't need to know what that particular phrase means." Kamina kept his scowl for a second, before switching to a more mischievous grin. "Besides, it's not like you'd understand what I'd be really saying until about then anyways. There's no point in corrupting you until you understand what I'm saying."

"What?" Kushina said, snapping to attention as her maternal instincts kicked into overdrive for the first time since she'd shown up in Naruto's mindscape.

"What?" Kamina asked in feinted innocence.

Kushina's eyes seemed to shoot fire out as she slowly spoke. "Did you say you were waiting to corrupt my sochi (son)?"

Kamina rolled his eyes, having been under far worse glares viva her mother. "Educate. I said educate." Narrowing his eyes, he scoffed loudly. "Where in the world did you get corrupt from? Do you really think so little of me?"

Kushina withered rapidly under her fathers gaze, realizing she might have spoken out of turn. "I'm sorry otou-san, I didn't mean it like that."

"It's okay Kushina-chan, I forgive you." 'Now I just gotta make sure she's not around when I teach him. No way she'd let me live it down if she found out I was corrupting him.'

"But I still don't get it!" Naruto whined.

"Naruto, listen to your oji-san." Kushina said in a berating fashion. In truth, she was learning just as much as Naruto was at the moment. Regrettably, she wouldn't be able to put any of it into practice; at least she'd be able to help Naruto's future posterity should they do something similar to what Naruto did.

Naruto huffed indignantly. He could tell that there was something they were keeping from him, but was regrettably uninformed. Seeing that no one was going to help him understand his question for now, he waited for Kamina to continue.

Seeing that Naruto wasn't going to interrupt for a moment, he moved on. "Now I did some research into why that was, and I discovered that it deals with how our bloodline subconsciously molds our chakra. Now pay attention, because this is important. What our bloodline is actually doing, is causing the tenketsu points to bounce chakra between each other rapidly. What this means is our chakra creates a loop, or ring if that helps you to visualize it better, that allows our chakra to increase in speed and density from overlapping."

Naruto tilted his head to the side, slowly taking in what he was saying. "So, is that how the chakra chains are made?"

Kamina grinned, "Good, you're getting it." Motioning to the blackboard, he gave it a sharp tap. The words that had previously been on the board shifted, remolding to an image of a person with tenketsu point marked all across the body with 'chakra' moving between each tenketsu point. "Once you get down tot eh chakra itself though, it gets more interesting."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, noticing that the yin-yang symbol was in the center of the person's chest. "Hey, I remember that. Kushina explained that stuff to me already."

"I'm sure she did." Kamina said as he tapped the blackboard again, causing the image to zoom in to the tenketsu points. "We're going to ignore that little symbol, and get down to the meat of the bloodline. This is where stuff gets tricky."

Moving between two of the tenketsu points, he continued in his exposition. "You already know about the difference between guys and girls use of our bloodline, so I'll skip straight to explaining the important information you don't know. Like what happens when you break your promises."

"I can break my promises?" Naruto asked with a wide eyed expression. "I thought I couldn't break my promises."

Despite the foreknowledge she'd received in her youth, Kushina seemed equally confused. "He can break his promises? Since when could he do that?"

"Since always?" Kamina replied, giving Kushina a 'are you kidding me' look. "I explained this too you a long time ago, remember?"

"…refresh my memory?"

Kamina grimaced, tapping the blackboard. "When you make a promise, you stimulate the tenketsu points in your entire throat region, which in turn stimulates the chakra going to your brain. This in turn makes your nervous system shoot faster then it would under normal circumstances, which makes your chakra do the same."

Naruto watched in amazement as the image responded to Kamina's words; showing the chakra in the throat becoming highlighted brighter then the rest of 'his' chakra, and then how it sped up throughout the body. After a moment though, his amazement was cut through as Han'ishiki spoke up. "This is all really nice, but what does that have to do with breaking promises?"

"I'm getting to that." Kamina tapped the blackboard again, getting a second person 'drawn' next to the first. The first person had his throat highlighted, indicating that he was representing an Uzumaki. "Now, here's where things get tricky. While most Uzumaki try to prevent their kids from breaking promises by telling them they couldn't if they wanted too, it's a lie. They can break their promises, if they either need too. What they should focus on though, is the consequences of breaking your promises."

The images on the blackboard began moving, the Uzumaki making motions as if to say something to the second image. When the second image 'replied', the Uzumaki made a nodding motion, his throat becoming highlighted to accentuate him making a promise. As they moved about though, the Uzumaki slowly began to back away; more then likely breaking whatever his promise was. When the second image had moved completely off the blackboard, the Uzumaki paused, his throat no longer highlighted. However, there was something else that made everyone tense up.

"What the hell?"

"Wh-what happened?" Hinata asked, trying to understand what she was seeing.

"Where did his chakra go?" Naruto asked, his voice betraying the large amount of shock he was currently feeling.

"Exactly." Kamina said, dragging his ruler across the image. "As you can see, there are certain consequences to your actions. If you break a promise, your chakra system shuts down."

Hinata gasped. "But, doing that would kill a person!"

Naruto and Kushina blinked, not quite sure when Hinata had become so vocal. Kamina, having never known the silent Hinata, just smiled. "Okay, so maybe a said that wrong. What it actually does is it forces our chakra to remain within our bodies, making any and all jutsu nullified until we fix the problem. Until then though, taijutsu would be that Uzumaki's only option."

Naruto slowly sank into a seated position, his mouth opening and closing rapidly as he tried to figure out what to say. For any shinobi, being unable to use jutsu's was close to a death sentence if a person who didn't know how to fight without them. He himself relied on using his shadow clones as shields and for other miscellaneous purposes. If he lost them, he had no idea how to adjust his fighting style to make up for the lack of their presence.

"I see you all understand how bad this is." Kamina cheerily said, drawing Naruto from his particularly deep funk.

"Could I use jutsu ever again?" Naruto asked.

"Of course, but it's all a matter of time." Kamina tapped the blackboard, making the chalk write out three words; vocal, contact, and blood. "For vocal promises, you'd be considered lucky if you were able to mold your chakra after three months."

"Three months!" Naruto and Kushina shouted.

"Seriously? Three months before you can use chakra again?" Han'ishiki muttered, shaking his head exasperatedly. "That totally sucks."

Kamina nodded. "It gets better. For contact promises, you'd be lucky if you were able to use jutsu after a year." Hearing no one complain about the time it would take to use chakra again, he continued. "For blood oaths…I don't know." Seeing the confused look, he explained further. "No one knows. No one's broken a blood oath and lived long enough to tell us when they start feeling their chakra again."

Hinata looked from Kushina to Naruto, noting their expression. Kushina looked shocked by the information, but was relatively calm notwithstanding. Naruto on the other hand, was completely blank. The shock of the information setting in seemed to be taking a moment for Naruto.

Han'ishiki was quite a bit faster on the uptake though, and found himself twitching as he realized what that potentially meant for them. "Man, that would totally suck if baka here accidentally broke a promise in the middle of a fight. Going from using a powerful technique to having to fight with his fists would absolutely suck."

"Good thing there's a way to reopen your tenketsu points."

Naruto's head snapped up, his eyes looking like they were about to pop out of their sockets. "What? How do I do it?"

Kamina grinned. "That's the best part. All you have to do forcibly reopen your tenketsu by expelling all your chakra at once."

"…that's it?" Kushina asked. After all that build up, it seemed too easy a solution. "All he has to do is expel his chakra?"

Kamina chuckled at her response. "Have you ever tried to expel chakra from every tenketsu point, at the same time?" Seeing her shake her head, he smirked. "Didn't think so. It's much harder then it looks, and is impossible to simply learn on the fly."

Han'ishiki raised his hand. "Hey, just a thought here, but what someone else forcing their chakra into a person? Would that work?"

"What do you think this is, breaking a genjutsu?" Kamina paused, quickly amending his statement. "Well, that is actually one way to break a genjutsu, but that's completely beside the point right now. It requires so much chakra, I wouldn't suggest breaking any of your promises until you've got at least jonin level chakra reserves."

Naruto shifted nervously from his seated position. "I already have large chakra reserves."

Kamina blinked, absorbing what Naruto had said. Then, he started laughing loudly. It got to the point he had to grip his knees to keep himself upright from the lack of breath. "Oh man, that's so funny kid. You, having chakra reserves that big. There's no way you could possibly have that much charka." Pausing for a second, his laughter grew slightly as he tried getting his words out. "Unless…unless you're-you're a midget."

"Naruto-kun has large chakra reserves. I've seen them."

Kamina's laughter slowly died down. "Really now? And, just exactly how did you manage that?"

"I'm a Hyuuga. My Byakugan allows me to see people's chakra systems, and how much chakra they have. When I was fighting my cousin, I remember seeing Naruto's chakra. He had almost as much chakra as his sensei who stood next to him." Hinata answered, her voice not stuttering once despite her obvious nervousness.

Naruto stared at Hinata in awe, his respect for her greatly increasing as he realized she was helping to defend him. When she glanced at him though, he averted his gaze. He felt an unusual warmth in his cheeks, unknowingly blushing.

Kamina leaned forwards, squinting his eyes to better look at Hinata; a feat in and of itself since she was trying her best to avoid eye contact. When he finally managed to get eye contact for long enough to see her eyes, he scoffed. "Well I'll be, Naruto's married to one of the Hyuuga clan. Main branch member too." Turning to Naruto, he shook his head slowly. "I'd congratulate you on the score, but she'll be nothing but trouble once her clan gets involved."

"Speaking of which, when did Naruto even make a marriage contract?" Kushina asked.

"Didn't I already answer that?" Kamina asked, looking between Kushina and Han'ishiki blankly. Seeing them shake their heads, he shrugged. "Alright, better explain that real quick."

"If we keep bouncing around like this, I'm not sure I'll remember all this." Naruto muttered. He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder, and found a smile come to his face when he found Hinata trying to comfort him. When she saw he'd noticed her, she squeaked and pulled her hand back, causing an empty feeling that he couldn't quite explain.

"I won't forget, just let me explain this real fast." Kamina replied. "The way you make a marriage contract is actually rather simple. You make a blood oath, but instead of simply swearing it on your own blood, you swear it on a combination of your blood, and your spouse's blood. Literally combined together mind you. And there has to be a group around as witnesses of course, especially since one can't just make a promise like that without people seeing your conviction."

"But, but I don't remember making a promise with both our blood." Naruto muttered.

Everyone remained silent, trying to understand for themselves how Naruto might've made that promise. Kushina, Han'ishiki, and Naruto all knew when he made the promise; the point where their both their blood had been combined.

"Wait…" Han'ishiki muttered. Replaying what had happened in his mind, he went over what had happened when he'd made the promise, and what had happened before it. It didn't take long to find what he was looking for. "Oh crap, I know what happened. When Naruto fought Kiba he got his hand kind of mangled, and he didn't heal as fast as he normally does. So when Naruto picked up Hinata's blood, he must've accidently gotten some of his own blood by accident."

Kushina and Naruto looked at each other. Kushina shrugged, not remembering what had happened to Naruto during his fight. Naruto on the other hand, didn't remember his fight against Kiba all that well. Luckily for him, he had a reference right behind him.

Turning around, he looked at the tapestry of his fight with Kiba. While he felt like he was being an idiot he continued to stare at it, remembering the picture that he'd seen when he'd first woken up in his mindscape.

Within a moment, the tapestry began to move, replaying the fight through his eyes. Mentally urging it onwards, he grimaced as he watched how Kiba and himself had clashed. Shortly after his victory, he saw it. All across his right had, which he distinctly remembered using to make his promise, were a plethora of cuts.

"Huh, that explains a lot." Naruto muttered, scratching the back of his head abashedly.

Kamina stared at the tapestry, huffing at the fact Naruto was – once again – ignoring him. He still had an important question to ask. "Okay now that we've answered your question, can someone explain to me why Naruto here has so much chakra? I mean, if he were some kind of genius, I'd get it; but he doesn't strike me as the 'genius' sort."

Han'ishiki shrugged, not seeing a problem with telling Kamina the truth. "He's got the Kyuubi sealed in his gut."

"W-what?"

Han'ishiki turned his gaze to Hinata, his eyes wide as he realized that Hinata hadn't known that Naruto was the Kyuubi jinchuuriki previously. "…oops."

Hinata stared at Naruto, her eyes filled with confusion and fear. "N-Naruto-kun. What does he mean?"

Naruto groaned, not sure of how to answer that question. He'd actually hoped that he could keep that particular secret from everyone for as long as possible. He wasn't a considerably bright man, but even he understood that there were things one needed to be discreet about. "Uh, well…" Sighing in resignation, he tried to put it as delicately as possible. "It uh, it means exactly what Han'ishiki said." Then again, delicately might be putting ones hopes up too high considering Naruto.

Luckily, Kamina appeared to be just as confused as Hinata. "Whoa, time out here. Naruto has the Kyuubi sealed in him? What happened to Mito-sama?" Holding up a hand, he held off their explanation. "Wait, I remember now. New question; what happened to you Kushina?"

"Uh…I died." Kushina said, getting an incredulous look from Kamina. "It's true. I don't remember what happened, but at some point after Naruto was born, the Kyuubi was removed from me, and put into Naruto."

"…well that was rather redundant. I already knew that information; what I need is to know how. Come on Kushina, there has to be more you remember." Kamina pleaded. Placing his hands on either shoulder, he gave her a light shake. "Anything at all, any information you might remember might be able to give us a way to point in the right direction."

Kushina shook her head. "I've been 'awake' for the last couple of months. No matter how I've tried to remember, I keep coming short. The very last thing I remember is the pain of giving birth to Naruto. Not only that, but at the time I was surrounded by some of the best healers in Konoha so I find it a bit difficult to think that I died during childbirth. It just…doesn't add up to me. I'm sorry."

Kamina nodded slowly, sighing in regret that he couldn't give advice or help beyond what he already was. "It's alright. *sigh* Alright then Naruto, we have one last prob…" Seeing Naruto staring off into space, Kamina grunted in frustration. "Oi, what's wrong?"

"Kaa-san…kaa-san had the Kyuubi before I did?" Naruto asked.

Kamina, Kushina, and Han'ishiki all winced when they heard Naruto say that. Two of them had forgotten to mention that to him, while Kamina realized he'd accidentally revealed something Naruto didn't know already. He'd already passed out once; him passing out a second time would make things more frustrating seeing as it would take more time to explain everything else.

Before they could say anything else, Hinata placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "M-maybe we should wait until we hear the rest of their explanation first."

Naruto's eyes glazed over as he nodded, his mind likely on the verge of overloading. The only currently keeping him from fainting again was sheer willpower, curiosity, and Hinata's presence.

Kushina groaned, taking a seat for herself. Somehow, trying to keep information from or with her father around was impossible as he'd start a seemingly random topic, and they'd end up spilling private secrets like they were discussing weather. He was so psychoanalytic, he missed the obvious things that anyone and everyone else noticed from miles away.

Like how he was still trying to finish his explanation. "Anyways, moving on now. Naruto having the Kyuubi in him means he's got another problem now. Like I said before, releasing oneself from a promise requires them to force all his tenketsu points open. The problem is, the Kyuubi's chakra is going to leak out of his seal at different power levels each time the chakra is sucked in and will likely screw up any and every attempt to open all his tenketsu points at the same time. In short, Naruto is a rarity amongst the Uzumaki clan; he absolutely must keep his promises, unless he wants to be cut off from using jutsu for however long it takes."

Apparently this was not a good thing to say, as Naruto slowly fell onto his back with a loud thud. Han'ishiki sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Great, he fainted again."

"No, I'm just thinking." Naruto muttered from his now prone position. Staring up at the befuddled Hinata, he sighed. "Is having a bloodline supposed to be this hard?"

Figuring the question was directed at her, Hinata spoke up. "W-what do you mean?"

Naruto twiddled his thumbs for a second, thinking of what he wanted to get off his chest. "Well, when my kaa-san told me I had a bloodline, I was so happy about it. I thought I had something that would make me more awesome then Sasuke, and that would help me become Hokage faster. But now…now everything's got so much harder.

"Every time I think I understand how my bloodline works, I pull off something new or get hints to something that sounds awesome, but really isn't. I get super awesome stuff if I just keep my promises, and then find out if I don't follow through with them I won't be able to use chakra." Thrashing his fists in the air, he scowled. "And to top it all off, I don't get the ability to get out of it early, because the Kyuubi just so happened to be sealed in my gut. What else could go wrong?"

"Ano, the Ichiraku stand could be destroyed?" Hinata suggested.

Naruto shot to his feet like he'd caught fire, his face turning red in rage like he'd never been in before. "Who would dare touch my beloved ramen stand? Point me to them so that I might tear them apart with my bare hands! Don't worry ramen, I'll avenge you!"

"Oh look, Hinata fixed the baka."

Naruto snapped his head around, growling at Han'ishiki. "You know you'd do exactly the same thing if that actually happened."

"…maybe, but then again, I'm not the one with control over the body."

Hinata giggled, a melodic noise that seemed to fill the whole chamber with the music it made. Naruto felt his heart skip a beat, his eyes blinking rapidly as he stared at Hinata in wonder. Noticing his attention, Hinata covered her mouth shyly, trying to stifle her laughter. It was in vain, as Naruto's expression didn't change and made him look so silly, she couldn't help but continue to giggle.

Naruto leaned close to Han'ishiki, whispering in his ear. "Have you ever heard anything like that before?"

"Nope."

"…I kinda like it."

"Me too Naruto…me too."

Entranced by her laughter, Naruto was given a sudden epiphany. He knew so little about Hinata, and had told her pretty much everything about himself from start to finish. But now she could talk back, and give him information that could be useful later. "Hey Hinata, is there any kind of food you'd react like that for?"

Hinata forced her giggles down, thinking about the question for a moment. "Ano, maybe cinnamon rolls?"

Naruto tilted his head to the side curiously. "We have cinnamon rolls in Konoha?"

Hinata nodded. "There's a bakery a few block from the Hokage's Tower that sells the best cinnamon rolls."

Off to the side, Kushina and Kamina watched as Naruto 'subtly' took notes about what Hinata liked and didn't like. Kamina grinned widely, chuckling to himself. "Well isn't he something?"

"He's something alright." Kushina said, a sad smile on her own face. She'd had no idea about more then half the things her father had told Naruto, and the other half she did, she'd only remembered because she'd been reminded. "Do you think he'd have turned out okay if he hadn't had activated his bloodline and met me?"

Kamina nodded. "I think so. He's got a good head on his shoulders, just like you've always had. I've never seen a shinobi with a moral compass that was so set in its ways. I know I would've been proud to call him my grandson."

"…thank you otou-san."

"Anytime Kushina-chan, anytime."

AN: Painful explanation is painful. But needed. Especially since I wanted to give you all a good reason as to why breaking a promise would be a bad thing.

So, recap; Naruto's bloodline gives him awesome mind and body boosts, but can take away his ability to use jutsu. Promises are serious business. Also, I thought about giving Naruto a chance to get out, but then remembered what I put in the summary, and why I put it there (hint, this chapter was a part of my plan [...I didn't mean to sound like Aizen right then, but I'm going to go with it]). Plus, it helps give you a sneak peak at the times for broken promise 'reboot' as it were. Remember those numbers, they will come in handy. Why? ...you likely won't see until I get back, but I'll see if I can possibly make it.

Kamina was a pain to write for. His personality was so dang difficult to pin down until the very end, he seemed all over the place. Thankfully, I just so happen to know what kind of a personality I had wanted for him, and was able to get a grip on him and maneuver him back to where I wanted him to go.

Also, Naruto will now have a few tricks to hit Hinata with once she wakes up. Then again, there are going to be several (appologies: this segment of Author's Notes was removed, due to excessive amount of future plot references. You may continue reading now) and it's gonna get messy before it's done.

Next time on Word of Honor; Team 7 Reunites. After so many chapters apart, the gang returns for a chapter to show off some growth, as well as some extra developments.