Hey everyone, I'm baack. Sorry for the massive delays, I had my exams then my laptop decided to die on me but I'm happy to report my exams are over and I've comendeered my brothers laptop on a slightly more permanent basis so I should be getting right back on track ^^. Hope you enjoy.
Hinata smiled softly as she dispelled her clones and walked back up the class dropping back into her seat with a small pleased grin on her face "I did it." she muttered pleased.
Naruto gave her a broad grin and wrapped an arm around her "Of course you did." he offered "It told you, you are awesome!" he paused for a moment his grin growing slightly "Not as awesome as me, but still awesome." he leant over and kissed her gently on the cheek "I knew you'd do it" he continued his voice soft and sincere, the voice of what Hinata was rapidly realising was the real Naruto, the one hidden behind the false smiles and loud exclamations.
Hinata flushed red and smiled softly at Naruto "T.. thank you." Naruto didn't reply verbally but just gave Hinata a small gentle smile.
Soon enough it was Naruto's turn to display his ninjutsu, Sasuke shooting him a challenging smirk as the blonde ninja to-be walked to the front of the class, challenging Naruto to beat his own display of ten near-perfect clones. Iruka nodded a smiled at Naruto "Alright then, let's see your henge." he paused for a fraction of a second before adding hurriedly "And no funny business!"
Naruto let a small pout cross his face "Awwww." he whined softly before shrugging and flashing through the hand seals with a practiced ease "Henge!" he announced firmly as a thing shroud of smoke concealed his form for a few moments. As the smoke faded it revealed the figure of the Sandaime Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, who gave a very Naruto-like foxy grin "Yo."
Iruka and Mizuki exchanged a glance, if it wasn't for the fact they new it was a henge and the way he was acting they could have sworn they were looking at their Hokage. "Very good, Naruto." Mizuki said with a nod, Iruka giving a silent nod of agreement and noting down in the file that Naruto's henge was exemplary.
"So what now?" Naruto enquired eagerly letting the henge fade away now it had served its purpose
"Show us the kawarimi." Iruka instructed with a soft smile.
Naruto nodded and scanned the class for something he could swap with, making a point of ignoring the log that had been placed in the corner of the room for just that purpose. A scheming grin slowly formed as he flicked through the , brief, series of hand signs and focused his chakra. In a small puff of chakra he swapped himself with his seat grinning, Hinata gave a soft "Eep!" of surprise as Naruto suddenly appeared next to her.
Although her surprised squeak was cut off as Naruto stole a kiss from Hinata with a broad grin and an exclamation of "Surprise!" before swapping back with his seat and returning to the front of the classroom a silly grin on his face and leaving a bright red Hinata in his wake.
Iruka sighed and shook his head although he did smile softly "Alright , your kawarimi is good." he conceded before a soft frown settled on his features, now came Naruto's worse technique, he prayed the young boy would be able to pass where he had failed so many times before throughout the year. "Now, finally, will you show us your clones, I need you to form at least three convincing clones." he leant forward resting his head on his meshed fingers.
In the back of the classroom Hinata also frowned softly in worry for her blonde boyfriend, she knew, perhaps better than anyone else, exactly how much practice Naruto had put into his clones throughout the year without success "Naruto-kun." she mumbled quietly, perhaps if she wished hard enough Naruto would be able to pull off another miracle like his arm, her frown deepened slightly into a frown of genuine annoyance and anger as the memory of that particular night flashed through her mind, what had Naruto-kun done to deserve that kind of treatment from the villagers and why exactly did he seem to consider such actions normal!
Naruto smiled broadly "No problem!" he declared loudly, thanks to Kyuubi-chan he had finally found out exactly why his clones had never worked properly, he simply had too much chakra and overloaded the technique, the outer shell of chakra that stabilised the clone just couldn't contain the vast amount of chakra he placed in each clone. Unfortunately Kyuubi had also informed Naruto that he would need high Jōnin or possibly even kage level control in order to pull that technique off and since he couldn't really improve control without simultaneously increasing is available reserves it was unlikely he would ever be able to perform the clone technique. However Naruto had never been one to take no for an answer and had found another solution to his problem. He had remembered Iruka telling the class what hand signs were for and that had got him thinking, if he just ignored hand signs entirely then he would greatly increase the chakra cost of each clone he made and that would allow him to perform the technique without needing years worth of chakra control training. "Clone jutsu!" he announced firmly smirking as twenty clones burst into existence around him, Hhe grimaced slightly as he saw four of his clones looked sickly and bloated, obviously he still needed more practice, but was pleased that he had at least gotten the number of clones he was aiming for, his first attempt had resulted in the formation of around five hundred clones instead of the ten he had been going for, "How's that?" he grinned at his teachers, smirking slightly as he felt Sasuke-teme's jealous glare burn against the back of his head.
A look of annoyance flashed across Mizuki's face for a moment but was quickly quashed by the experienced shinobi and replaced with an impressed smile "Sixteen working clones." he said
Iruka nodded dumbly regaining his composure "Uhhh yes, and no hand signs, very impressive." he added making a note on his paper "You definitely pass this section of the test." Naruto beamed at his favourite teacher, dispelling his clones, before making his way back to his seat and smiling at Hinata, who smiled back softly happy that Naruto had been able to perform the clone jutsu so well.
Once the rest of the class had gone through the test, Iruka picked up his mark book and quickly scanned it to ensure every student had at least some marks in each section "Alright does anyone have any other jutsu they wish to show us outside?" he questioned. Almost immediately Sasuke's hand shot up and the boy shot a challenging glare at Naruto just daring the blonde boy to try and beat him at this part of the exam, in addition Kiba's hand went up, the young Inuzuka eager to show off his newly learnt fang over fang technique.
Iruka and Mizuki nodded "Anyone else?" Mizuki asked scanning the class and when no other student was forthcoming he nodded and took the mark book from Iruka
"Alright we'll go out into the target ranges and you can display your jutsu, the rest of you have a hour to relax before we announce the rest before we announce the results." Iruka spoke up pushing himself out of the seat and grinning "If anyone wants they can come and watch Sasuke and Kiba perform their jutsu." he gave a little sigh and shook his head as that set off a small cascade of girlish muttering about going to watch their sasuke-kun. "Alright class dismissed, see you in one hour." he said "Sasuke, Kiba, follow me. Oh. And Mizuki, there is some aspirin in the nurse's office if your headache is getting to you." the verbal air quotes around the word headache were obvious and Iruka smirked softly as he heard Mizuki's annoyed growl in reply.
The class had congregated outside their classroom after the hour break they had been given and Iruka started calling people in and they either came out with headbands or didn't, so far it seemed that only a third of the class was passing and with each person who failed to get his, or her, headband the rest of the class got more and more nervous.
Hinata took a shaky breath as June stepped into the classroom to get her results and, if she passed, her headband. She would be going in next and she just couldn't stop the thoughts of failure bouncing through her head, what would she do if she didn't pass, what would her father do! What would Naruto do if she betrayed his trust so! Naruto took her hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze to catch her attention "You'll do fine." he spoke softly when Hinata looked up at him, he gave her his best smile, "Trust me, there's no way you can fail."
"But..." Hinata began to protest, she was really happy Naruto had such faith in her but she really didn't feel she could live up to his expectations.
Naruto let go of her hand and placed his hands on her shoulders his own fierce gaze meeting her timid, uncertain, one "How many times do I have to say this, you're not a failure!" he insisted "And when I find whoever it is who put that stupid idea idea in your head I'm gonna kick their ass." he growled quietly, speaking more to himself than Hinata "I know you will pass this test, and even if, by some..." he paused searching for a good phrase his forehead scrunching in that adorable, in Hinata's opinion, way it always did whenever Naruto was thinking hard "Freak chance," he continued finally making up his mind "fail this exam I will still love you and I won't think any less of you."
"P.. p..promise?" Hinata asked gently acutely aware of just how many classmates where now eavesdropping on their, supposedly private, conversation.
"Hyuuga, Hinata, your turn." Iruka interrupted before Naruto could respond, a disappointed June trying, with little success, to use Iruka as a distraction to slip away before her friends saw she hadn't received a headband.
Naruto held onto Hinata's hand for a second as she tried to follow Iruka into the classroom and leant in planting a small kiss on her cheek "I promise." he agreed with another smile as he released her hand and let her enter the classroom.
Naruto leant against the wall opposite the door to wait for what would surely be the longest minute or two of his life, he had every confidence that Hinata would pass but he still couldn't quiet that little voice in the back of his head saying; what if. 'She'll do fine.' Kyuubi reassured him gently 'You know she will.'
Naruto gave the barest of nods, it was still hard for him to converse with Kyuubi without betraying that fact with his body language, 'I know, but..' he trailed off unable to find some realistic reason for Hinata to fail but still unable to shake his worry.
"Hey Naruto..." there was a pause whilst the speaker searched for the correct suffix "kun." A familiar voice broke through his conversation jolting his attention back to the real world, he reopened his eyes and glanced to his left sure enough seeing Ino standing next to him with a friendly smile on her face.
"Oh, hey Ino." Naruto replied happily, slightly unnerved by her sudden friendliness even if he didn't show it.
Ino grinned at Naruto's friendly greeting, he hadn't told her off for calling him Naruto-kun, maybe she did have a good shot at him after all. She had been debating asking him out for a little while anyway, quite a lot of her friends had suddenly decided to try and woo the blonde boy which had caught her attention; if there was going to be a competition for his heart she was determined to win it. She didn't know exactly why the other's had so completely changed their views on Naruto and had been determined to find out, doubly so when her friend had refused to tell her their reasons, and after seeing his speech to, and treatment of, Hinata today Ino was certain she had seen the reason her friends had fallen for Naruto, and was determined to get Naruto for herself. After all she was definitely much prettier than the shy Hyuuga heir and she deserved to have such a caring boyfriend. "You can call me Ino-chan, if you want."
Naruto's grin increased a little "Alright, Ino-chan" he replied,. Inside his head Kyuubi was smirking, Ino had just, unintentionally, played right into her plan by giving Naruto an easy choice for his second, human, mate. Now all she needed to do was work out a way of leaving the seal and everything would be ready to fall into place.
Ino beamed "Hey Naruto are you doing anything tonight?" she asked coyly leaning forward, just a little, to give Naruto a better view of her chest.
Naruto smiled softly and nodded, his understanding of women had improved in leaps and bounds since he starting seeing Kyuubi and Hinata but Naruto was still largely oblivious to any other girl's attempts to come onto him, mainly because he still didn't really think any girl would ever be seriously attracted to him, "Yeah." he replied "I'm gonna be celebrating with Hinata-chan." he glanced at the classroom door, she should be out any time with or without... no definitely with her headband. 'And then I'll come in and celebrate with you Kyuubi-chan.' he added wishing, for the umpteenth time that Kyuubi wasn't stuck in his head and that he was strong enough to do as he promised and find a way to release her from her undeserved prison.
Kyuubi smiled softly 'Mmm, I look forward to our.. celebration.' she purred seductively
Ino's grinned faded for an instant before returning to full force, she noted the slight flush in Naruto's cheek and paused, were he and Hinata...? No, no, Hinata was too shy for that, although she did wonder just how far the pair had gone and how long they had been together. The rumour had them pegged as being a item at least two months but she wasn't certain. "Oh right, well how about tomorrow?"
Naruto nodded "Yeah, I'm not doing much tomorrow, why?"
Ino smiled broadly, she would win Naruto yet, "Well I was sort of wondering if you wanted to get some lunch or something with me?" she asked a faint blush on her cheeks, she wasn't really used to asking boys on dates she was usually to one who was asked.
Naruto's answer was delayed as the classroom door opened and Hinata stepped out, he spun around to face her seeing the soft smile on her face and the headband clutched in her hand, his face split into a broad grin as he dashed over sweeping Hinata off her feet, the shy girl giving a quiet shriek of surprise, and spinning her round laughing "I knew you would pass Hinata-chan!" he set the, now madly blushing, girl back down on her feet gently prying the headband from her hand and tying it onto her head "I told you you would do well." he said softly, wrapping his arms around her and holding her close, his voice low and sincere "You should believe in yourself more." he kissed the steel of her forehead protector.
Hinata could feel the heat of the blush in her cheeks as she met Naruto's eyes , those gorgeous blue orbs that sparkled with life and love, "T..t..thank you." she mumbled softly burying her head in his shoulder oblivious to the gaggle of people watching them with interest, jealousy or some combination of the two
Naruto gave a small chuckle and bent a little lower planting another kiss on Hinata, on her cheek this time, "You really don't need to keep thanking me." he murmured
Ino frowned softly as she watched the young couple interact, damn it she wanted a boy to treat her like that! A small scheming grin slipped onto her face, and she would get what she wanted, she always did. "Naruto-kun?" she spoke up
Naruto tore his gaze from Hinata to see what Ino wanted "Yes?" Hinata glared as best she was able at Ino when she heard her call Naruto Naruto-kun, although admittedly her glare wasn't particularly intimidating even enhanced by the slightly off putting, in Ino's opinion, sight of her Byakugan.
Ino had to admit she felt a little guilty about breaking up such a good couple, they were practically made for each other and Hinata had been chasing him for such a long time it was kind of nice to finally see her get what she deserved from Naruto, still she didn't rise to the top of the class's social ladder by letting things like that stop her "You never answered me, would you like to go to lunch tomorrow?"
Hinata's face darkened slightly and worry lit her eyes, this was it, she knew Naruto was too good for her and now... and now.. he was going to leave her, tears sprung into her eyes and she lowered her head not wanting Naruto, or Ino, to see just how hard his impending break up was hitting her. Naruto's face flashed with confusion for a moment, in his excitement for Hinata he had completely forgotten about Ino's offer. He gave a slightly nervous chuckle removing on hand from Hinata to rub the back of his head absently "Oh right hehe." he chuckled turning to Hinata "Hey, Hinata-chan Ino-chan wants to get some lunch with me tomorrow, you want to come?"