A/N: Sorry for the longer wait on this chapter. I had some IRL stuff to attend to for the holidays. Hope you enjoy the chapter either way.
Time for chapter 13
Enjoy!
Hinata flopped onto her bed and sighed. It had been an excessively long day of drilling, and she was utterly exhausted. Every part of her body hurt, from her knees to the joints in her fingers. The Hyuga girl was used to such soreness by this point, as her training regimen had always been brutal, as was expectable for the future leader of the clan. As she caught her breath, she rolled over onto her stomach and rested her chin on her hands.
'I'm making progress. This pain is worth it.' she thought to herself as she stretched her back and rolled over onto her side. The group sessions with Team Seven were tame when compared to her clan-specific training, and much more enjoyable. It had been three days since the arrangement had been made, and all three of the days had been marked by the same pattern. Hinata would wake up at six in the morning, make her way to the training grounds, lightly bicker with Naruto about either etiquette or taijutsu, complete her drills, and then leave. From there, she would return home and spend the rest of the day training with Hiashi.
'I wish my sessions didn't run so late. I never have time to...watch' she thought to herself, somewhat embarrassed by her own train of thought. Her mind then returned to the place it had routinely journeyed to over the past 72 hours.
'I wonder if he heard me? I don't think he did, but it would be quite...embarrassing if it were the case' she wondered. The occurrence her brain was referring to was the conversation she and the blonde had partaken in outside of his apartment three days prior. During said conversation, Hinata had, albeit once the encounter was more or less finished, attached an affectionate honorific to the end of his name.
'As frustrating as it may be prove to be in the long run, Naruto-kun's density comes in handy every once in awhile' she thought humorously. The Hyuga heiress then smiled as she allowed her mind to focus on one detail of their conversation in particular.
'He likes my cooking, apparently. Perhaps I should make something else some time' she thought to herself. As she was imagining these things, the door to her room opened, revealing her sister, Hanabi.
"Somebody looks tired" she said as she stepped into the room. Hinata nodded and sighed, cracking her neck several times.
"I am. Drilling was absolutely hellish today. Understandably so, but a painful experience nonetheless" she said. Hanabi chuckled and sat down on the bed next to her sister. She then poked Hinata on the cheek.
"Warm faced, are we? What's on your mind, elder sister?" she asked with a wry grin. Hinata tensed slightly, but calmed immediately.
"Nothing like what you're thinking. As I said, training was difficult, and I'm still warm from it" she said, her tone holding a subtle underbelly of defensiveness. Her sister giggled and tilted her head to one side.
"Would this happen to have something to do with why you arrived home so late several days ago?" she asked with a grin. The Hyuga heiress shook her head rapidly, her face now red. Hanabi laughed out loud at her usually astute sister's girlish reaction.
"It does have something to do with that. Oh, how scandalous, Ne-san" she teased humorously. Hinata sighed and buried her face in one of her pillows.
"Leave me be, Hanabi. I don't want to talk about this right now" she said tiredly. Hanabi patted her on the back and laid down next to her.
"You could at least tell me his name" she said. The Hyuga heiress rolled over onto her back and glanced at her sister.
"Naruto Uzumaki" she said quietly. Hanabi raised an eyebrow at the response and frowned.
"I mean no offense to you, but that seems like quite a poor choice. I've seen him here with you several times, but I never suspected that you were-" she began. Before she could finish, she was silenced by a glare from Hinata.
"I would prefer if you didn't pass judgement on him without having fought alongside him first. I understand your concern, I too considered him to be a wretch, but he has proven me wrong. He is...quite admirable" she said. Her sister studied her for a moment before speaking.
"You sound awfully conflicted despite the compliments you're giving him. Why is that?" she asked curiously. The Hyuga heiress drew her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on them.
"I don't know how I feel about him at all. On the one hand, I do find him to be quite irritating, but on another, he has proven himself to be reliable, good-natured, and shockingly intelligent. Every once in awhile, he can even be...sweet" she said quietly. Hanabi furrowed her eyebrows.
"It sounds to me like your feelings are quite straightforward. You desire him. Even the people you greatly appreciate are going to get on your nerves from time to time. Just accept the fact that you wish to lock him in a dark room and-" she said. Hinata managed to slap a hand over her sister's mouth before she could finish the sentence, but the message was still clear.
"No, nothing like that. I would never do something so...unbecoming. As for my feelings being straightforward, you're right in that they should be, but they aren't. I treated him like an insect for the vast majority of our mission during the land of waves, and yet he still gave up his life for me. Even after all of that happened, I still treated him poorly, to the extent that I left him to be beaten in the street when I could have helped him" she said, her voice weakening a bit at the final sentence. Hanabi gave her a sympathetic look and patted her on the back.
"It sounds to me like you feel unworthy of him. Like you don't deserve to be treated kindly by him after your indiscretions against him. I must say, I feel quite the same about a boy I've been interacting with. It's a difficult feeling to get over" she said. Hinata nodded and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, a small smile slowly spreading across her lips.
"He's been shockingly forgiving. He even claimed to enjoy the riceball I made" she said, a trace of happiness returning to her voice. Her sister's eyes widened.
"Wait, that's why you were cooking at four in the morning the other day? I just thought you were hungry. That is just adorable" she said with a grin. The Hyuga heiress sighed as Hanabi giggled.
"You mentioned a boy that you felt guilty about treating poorly. It sounds to me like you and I are in similar positions. What's his name?" she asked curiously. The young Hyuga ceased her laughter and reddened a bit.
"That's neither here nor there, Ne-san. Konohamaru-kun is none of your-" she said, only realizing her mistake once the sentence was eighty percent complete. It was Hinata's turn to laugh, which she did.
"Oh, little sister. You have such a loose tongue. Don't worry, I'll keep this quiet for you" she assured Hanabi as she laughed. The young Hyuga sighed in relief.
"At least I have the free time to fix my mistakes. Good luck, Hinata-nesan. I hope this all works for you" she said before hopping off the bed and exiting the room to prepare herself to sleep. Once she was gone, Hinata smiled and tucked herself under her covers.
'I think I'll make dango tomorrow morning. Let's see if we have the same taste in food'
Shikamaru rubbed his eyes as he sipped on his water. He glanced to his left at Naruto, who was consuming noodles at an absolutely breakneck pace. There were at least seven bowls piled on the counter of Ichiraku's ramen stand, and the pile was only going to grow at the rate the blonde was eating.
"I get that Kakashi-sensei worked you hard today, but is it really necessary to eat a literal ton of ramen? You're going to puke" the shadow user asked tiredly. Naruto nodded and continued to eat. After roughly thirty seconds of ravenous eating, the Jinchuuriki spoke.
"He made me run up one hundred trees three times each. On top of that, he made me spar him a few times, so I'm a little beat up too. Today sucked. I've earned this" he said as he ate more noodles. Shikamaru sighed.
"That sounds rough. All I did today was practice using shadow possession and do some basic taijutsu drills. I still had to deal with my mom, though, so I'd still trade with you if I could" he said. Naruto finished his bowl and stacked on top of his other seven, bringing the total to eight.
"I'll bet neither one of us is being worked as hard as Hinata. When you come from a family that famous, they've got to have some insane standards for you to meet" he said. The lazy genin nodded and rested his chin on his hand.
"She's probably doing what we should be doing and getting sleep. She, like you said, probably needs it even more than we do" he said. Naruto ordered another three bowls of noodles and yawned.
"You know, she's actually a lot nicer than she comes off. Well, maybe 'nice' isn't the right word. More like thoughtful. She forced me to go to dinner with her a few days ago, and it turns out she was trying to make sure I didn't get beat up on the way home" he said. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.
"That's...really pretty sweet. If only she was like that day in and day out" he said. The Jinchuuriki rubbed his eyes and nodded in agreement.
"I know right? I've been trying to give her pointers on how to be nice, so maybe that'll help in the long run" he said with a shrug. The shadow user finally folded and ordered his own bowl of chicken-flavored ramen.
"She doesn't seem like the type to take advice from someone her own age. Especially a teammate" he commented. Naruto sighed and twirled his chopsticks.
"Yeah, she's not super coachable. I think she's trying, though, which I appreciate. She has a bad habit of staring at people, so I'm trying to get her to do that less" he explained. Shikamaru chuckled.
"You do realize that she only stares at you right? It isn't really a problem if it's purely isolated to one person, which it is" he replied. Naruto's eyes widened.
"Wait, really? That's even weirder, honestly. I should talk to her about that" he said. The shadow user shook his head and grinned.
"No, leave it be. I think you'll like where this all leads if you do" he said wryly. The Jinchuuriki, at the height of his metaphorical density, gave his teammate a look of confusion.
"What's that supposed to mean? It stresses me out when she tries to burn a hole in my skull with her eyes" he asked. Shikamaru snickered.
'At least she isn't looking any lower. She could literally undress you with her eyes' he thought to himself humorously. At the thought, the lazy genin burst out laughing, earning a glare from his oblivious teammate.
"What's so funny, lazyass?" he asked dangerously. The shadow user shook his head and tamed his laughter to a low chuckle.
"Nothing important. Still, don't point out that she stares at you only. Trust me, it'll mean good things for you" he said. Naruto remained silent for a moment, clearly racking his brain to decipher the reasoning behind his teammate's advice. Eventually he gave up and nodded.
"Fine, I'll keep my mouth shut" he conceded. The boys continued to discuss various topics until the clock struck midnight, prompting them to go their separate ways for the night.
Luckily, despite the lack of a silent, pale-eyed girl watching over him from the shadows, Naruto walked through the door of his apartment unscathed.
Kakashi took a deep breath as he jogged around the perimeter of Konoha. It was roughly two in the morning, and the jonin had been completely unable to sleep, prompting him to go for a nighttime run to settle his mysteriously jittery nerves.
'Naruto is a fascinating person to work with. He's clearly talented in a variety of areas, and much smarter than you would think he is. What I can't put my finger on is why he struggles so much with genjutsu. He has the chakra for it, and his control isn't that bad' he thought to himself as he passed the Hokage monument. His thoughts then wandered to upcoming exams.
'Matchup wise, I think all three of them should be fine. The only three people that are overly threatening to them are Sasuke, Neji Hyuga, and Rock Lee. Even then, Naruto might be something of a nightmare for Sasuke at this point with the amount of clones he can create, and his taijutsu is getting much better. Hinata likely loses to Neji, though. Then again, all three of them lose to Neji as they are now' he contemplated.
Kakashi continued to dissect and analyze the individual matchups one by one, poking holes in the tactics and strategies of the opposing genin.
'Lee is problematic for Shikamaru due to the speed difference, but if he can survive for long enough, I would trust him to figure something out. Hinata might carve Lee up early, but once again, the speed would be an issue. Naruto and Lee is fascinating, but Naruto would need a way to badly hurt him to win' he thought with a frown. Suddenly, an idea manifested in his mind. He stopped running and held out his left hand.
"Rasengan" he said quietly. After a moment of silence, a swirling ball of blue chakra formed in the palm of his hand, a humming sound accompanying it. The jonin smiled underneath his still-present mask.
'I was planning on teaching Hinata Chidori at some point, because I'm pretty sure I know what her chakra nature is, but this one could be a perfect fit for Naruto. Yes, I think this'll work' he thought. He allowed the sphere to fizzle out and continued running.
'Naruto is going to love this'
A/N: Before any of you complain, Kakashi DOES know the Rasengan. He derived the Chidori from it when attempting to apply Lightning Style to it. Hope you enjoyed! Tell me what you thought of the chapter :)
See you next chapter! Read and Review!