People talking: "Speaking"
People thinking: 'Thinking'
Chapter 9: Mending Connections
-Third Person POV-
Hinata and Neji faced off against each other while in the stance for the Gentle Fist.
"Hinata-sama, I will be taking this match seriously. I advise you to do the same." Neji said.
"I will be taking this match seriously as well, Neji-niisan." Hinata said.
On the surface it appeared that she had no problem doing so, but on the inside she was feeling hesitant to follow through with it due to how unfair this match up was for Neji. Due to her expertise in Nen Neji had no way of hurting her with the Gentle Fist. Ren, one of the most basic techniques of Nen, negates attacks from the Gentle Fist.
The tiny amount of Chakra that a non-Nen user of Gentle Fist would produce in one of their strikes wouldn't be able to get past the defense that Ren provides. Even if Neji were to switch to focusing on attacking with force instead of trying to damage her internally he wouldn't be strong enough to get past her defense when using Ren.He wouldn't even be able to scratch her if she were to use Ken which would increase her defense by nearly ten times that of Ren.
Neji is a prodigy in the Gentle Fist and is more skilled in using it than Hinata is. However, the gap between them isn't big enough for Neji to completely out maneuver her combat. Especially with Ren increasing her speed and power which closes the small gap between them even further, making the skill advantage that Neji has over her nearly useless. Hinata knew all too well the advantage she had over him.
When the match began both dashed towards each other with their Byakugan activated and parried the other's attempt at striking one of their tenketsu. Back and forth they each would go in for a strike only for it to be deflected. Neji was able to make openings for him to land a hit on Hinata, but he was never fast enough to capitalize on it.
Hinata focused more aura around her hand and deflected one of Neji's strikes with enough force to leave him wide open for her to attack. Neji tried to intercept her attack, but he was unable to stop her from landing a hit on one of his tenketsu. Hinata went in for another strike only for Neji to deflect it and jump back to give himself time to think, but Hinata was right on him again not even a second later. The fight continued with it appearing normal to most of the people in the room. However, unlike everyone else, her team and Asahi realized something was very off with the way Hinata was fighting.
'Why is Neji still able to fight after taking a hit from Hinata?' A similar thought was shared between the four.
With Hinata being an Emitter and having extensive knowledge on Nen, she has a high amount of control over her Chakra that no other Hyūga could hope to match. This allowed her to create a technique that closes multiple tenketsu with one strike by injecting her Chakra into a person's Chakra Network and moving her Chakra around to close other tenketsu. While before it required her to strike a tenketsu for her to inject her Chakra into someone's Chakra Network, she has improved it to the point that she only needs to land a hit. It is with this fact in mind that the rest of team 7 and Asahi didn't understand why the match wasn't over already.
As the match went on more and more of Neji's tenketsu were being closed off. The rate that they were being closed by increased with each successful strike. Neji's movements were slowing down with each successful strike. Seeing no other way of winning he decided to bring out his ace in hole; the Eight Trigrams: Palm Rotation. He released Chakra from all of his tenketsu that were still open and was about to spin when suddenly a spinning blue dome smashed into him.
"H-how?" Hanabi said while staring in disbelief.
Hinata had just used Palm Rotation without moving a single muscle. She had increased the amount of aura around her body and made it rotate around her at high speeds with the use of Emission. While Neji was still airborne from the attack, Hinata closed the gap between them and closed off enough of his tenketsu to the point he was unable to get back up after falling to the floor. He weakly started pushing himself up only to fall back down from his arms not having enough strength to do so in his condition.
"Hyūga Neji is unable to continue fighting. The match goes to Hyūga Hinata." Hayate said.
"Neji...lost?" Lee said finding it hard to believe what he was seeing.
"So this truly was my fate all along." Neji said quietly.
Though Neji said that only to himself, Hinata was able to hear him. She had a pained look on her face after hearing that from him, and the reason for that stems from how the Hyūga clan is structured.
The duty of the branch house is to serve and protect the main house; their superiors from the viewpoint of the clan as a whole. The only factor that determines what house a member is placed in is their heritage. The members of the branch house at the age of three are branded with the Hyūga clan's curse mark alternatively known as the Caged Bird Seal. The purpose of the seal is to protect the secrets of the Byakugan and for the main house to have control over the branch house.
In Neji's eyes the seal is a reminder that his fated purpose in life is to serve the main house because they are his superiors. A similar view is shared among all of the members of the branch house, but Neji took it in a more literal sense. It wasn't until he started to get acknowledged for his immense talent in the Gentle Fist that he thought that he might be able to 'change his fate'.
He would train vigorously with the goal of becoming better in the Gentle Fist than anyone in the main house. To prove that even a member of the branch house can surpass the members of the main house. Even going as far as to learn techniques that are only taught to the members of the main house by just observing them from afar. It was this determination to go against what people saw him as that encouraged Hinata in the beginning to pursue the path of shinobi when her family didn't believe she was cut out for it. This is also the reason why she couldn't bring herself to fight at her best in this match.
She could have finished this match in just a few seconds. She didn't need to deflect his attacks, and could've taken him out the first time she hit him. However, if she had done that, Neji's resolve would've been broken even more than it is now from this match. A member from the main house, a member that people didn't have faith in no less, beat him with a level of Gentle Fist that clearly surpasses his own. Using the Palm Rotation without even moving was enough to show that the gap between them was immeasurable.
It had crossed Hinata's mind to not use Nen at all to enhance her use of the Gentle Fist during the fight, but Neji could easily find out later that she was going easy on him so she decided against it. She could at least use Chakra drain as an excuse to why she didn't take him out with the first hit.
Hinata unblocked Neji's tenketsu allowing to get his strength back, but he was completely despondent from the loss. He tried to remain stoic; however, his half lidded eyes that had lost the life they had before gave him away.
"Thank you Hinata-sama." Neji said as he got up started to walk away.
"That was a good fight Neji-niisan." She tried to cheer him up.
"Yeah." He said half-heartedly.
Without the death of his father occuring this time around to fill him with rage aimed towards the main house, Neji doesn't have nowhere near the will he would've had in him to keep trying to break away from the fate he was given from birth. He walked off contemplating if he should just fall in line like the rest of the branch house.
Neji and Hinata arrive back on the balcony. While Neji was being consoled by his team, Hinata was congratulated by hers. What was shared by the both of them was the bitter feelings due to the result of the match.
Lee was called down next to go against Gaara with the match going the same as before. Unfortunately Asahi was unable to stop Gaara from breaking Lee's arm and leg. If he had stepped in to stop Gaara he would have been disqualified for interfering in a match. Asahi could only hope that his healing ability would be able to heal Lee's injuries later.
Right after Lee's match was the match between Hanabi and Temari. Before the match started Hanabi was in the Gentle Fist stance while Temari had her hand on her fan ready to unleash it the instant the match started.
'Can't let this girl get close to me. All it would take is for her to hit me in a vital area for her to do some serious damage. It would be for the best that I keep my distance from her and attack from a range.' Temari thought.
'No doubt she is going to try and keep her distance from me. Based on that war fan on her back she's probably a Wind Release user. I can't let this fight drag on too long with her having the range advantage.' Hanabi thought.
Right as the match started before Hanabi could run forward she was knocked back by Temari swinging her fan and releasing a blast of air at her. Hanabi quickly recovered and dodged out of the way of the next attack. The fight continued with Temari sending quick attacks while Hanabi was forced to continuously dodge them. This left no time for Hanabi to make any significant distance towards Temari. Temari was unable to use any of her big attacks because Hanabi would just use Palm Rotation to protect herself. However, the defensive technique wouldn't allow her to move forward while doing it so she would just lose ground if she were to constantly use it. The fight was turning into a battle of attrition with Temari having the clear advantage.
The battle had gone on for some time now and both were starting to get tired. Temari was the one better off between the two. With Hanabi now tired, Temari planned on using one of her stronger attacks to finish her off. The wound up for her swing was noticeably slower than her previous ones giving Hanabi the opportunity she was waiting for.
'Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm'
Hanabi delivered a high speed palm thrust towards Temari that launched a compressed ball of air. It collided with Temari knocking her down and her fan away from her. However, Hanabi had not mastered the jutsu yet so she was knocked back as well from launching to attack. They both got up and while Temari was frantically running towards her fan Hanabi was running towards Temari. Right as Temari grabbed her fan Hanabi was right behind her going in for a strike. While swinging her fan behind her Hanabi struck one of Temari's kidneys causing severe internal damage. The pain from the attack was agonizing for her, but Temari pushed through the pain and continued the swing.
Hanabi was going in for another strike when Temari's fan slammed into her body and left arm. The attack broke her arm, fractured a few of her ribs, and sent her flying back. While Hanabi was still airborne Temari sent the most powerful wind attack she could muster at her. The attack caused numerous cuts on her. Hanabi landed on the ground and shortly afterwards fainted due to the blood loss. Temari was leaning on her fan to keep herself up.
The match was called and Temari was declared the winner. She started coughing up blood and fell to the ground as well. Medics carried them both off to get treated for their injuries. Hinata, Asahi, Neji, and Guy were saddened by Hanabi's loss and hoped that none of her injuries would cause any permanent complications.
The final match of the preliminaries was between the two people with a major affinity for insects; Fū and Shino. While they shared the same affinity their personalities were like night and day. Shino waited with his hands inside the pockets of his jacket. His expression was unperceivable due to most of his face being covered by his jacket and sunglasses. Fū on the other hand had her hands up in a fighting stance with a determined smile.
"Alright! You better give me everything you got because I'm not going to go easy on you." Fū said.
"You don't appear to be taking this seriously." Shino said dryly.
"Hey I am taking this seriously. I just don't feel the need to be all stone faced before getting into a fight."
When the match started Fū went on the attack first and sent a punch towards Shino which he blocked in turn. Fū was physically the strongest of the two, so Shino took mostly defensive maneuvers during their taijutsu exchange. Though she had the advantage Fū started to run out of energy faster than she normally would. She stopped attacking Shino when a cloud of insects came out of his jacket and surrounded his arms.
'What the!? He was hiding that many insects inside his jacket?' Fū thought.
"These are my kikaichū, they are a specialty of my clan. They are a rare species of parasitic beetle that consume the Chakra of prey. I'm sure you've noticed by now that you're running out of Chakra faster than usually. When I was blocking your attacks I placed a few of them on your body."
Fū heard a strange sound behind her and quickly turned her head to see what it was. A swarm of kikaichū were able to sneak up behind her without her noticing.
"You're already surrounded. Just a few of them were already able to take a decent amount of your Chakra. An amount this size would drain you dry in mere seconds. Your best option is to forfeit the match. If you try anything else they will all come for you at once."
Fū's smile lessened a bit, but just one look at her eyes made it obvious she had no intentions of giving up.
'I'm sorry Shibuki, but I'm going to use it. It will only be for an instant.' Fū though as she prepared for her next move.
She quickly made two hands as the swarm headed towards her. She opened her mouth releasing a fine powder into the air that caused a bright light to blind everyone in the room. Shino and his insects were unperturbed by this.
'You should've just given up. This light won't impede me even a little.' Shion's thoughts were cut off when he suddenly felt the kikaichū he had placed on Fū die, while the rest ran away from her.
'What did she-!?'
Faster than Shino could track Fū closed the gap between them and punched him with a force far exceeding what she was using before. He was sent crashing into a wall with the force being enough to knock him out. When everyone's vision cleared they saw Shino face down on the ground and Fū completely unharmed.
"What!? Shino had her surrounded just a second ago!" Kiba said.
The swarm of kikaichū went back inside Shino, but he still remained on the floor unconscious. Hayate checked to make sure that he was out for the count.
'Clever move Fū.' Asahi thought to himself. 'That light wasn't for Shino, it was for everyone else in the room so that they wouldn't see you using Chōmei's chakra.'
While everyone was unable to see, Fū tapped into her Bijū's Chakra. The corrosive nature of the Chakra killed the insects that were absorbing her Chakra and scared away the rest that were coming for her. The boost from the Chakra also allowed her to take out Shino in a single blow.
"Aburame Shino has been knocked out. The match goes to Fū" Hayate said.
-First Person POV-
With all of the matches over we drew pieces of paper to determine our placement in the tournament.
1- Kiba vs Ino
2- Naruto vs winner of first match
3- Dosu vs Gaara
4- Hinata vs winner of second match
5- Temari vs Shikamaru
6- Fū vs Sasuke
7- Asahi vs winner of third match
Thanks to some use of Save State, Viewing Plane, and air manipulation, I was able to rig the tournament match positions to give me enough time to take out the enemy forces while the tournament is going on. Now all I need to do during this month is to make sure Hayate doesn't die, Kabuto doesn't kill Sasuke, and to find a way to talk to Hiruzen without drawing suspension.
Currently everyone is walking down the passageway that is underneath the forest. It was made to provide a safe passage to and from the tower and outside the forest. I was walking with Anko and Team 7 as they were talking about training arrangements.
"So Kakashi-sensei, are you still going to train all us even though we're all in the same tournament? " Naruto asked.
"I can just ask my father to help me with training during this month, so you don't have to worry about me." Hinata said.
"And I can keep training you for the tournament, Naruto." I offered.
"No way! If we end up going against each other in the tournament you'll know all my moves. I won't be able to beat you that way." He protested.
"I figured you might say that so I got someone else that agreed to teach you." Kakashi interjected. "I'll be training Sasuke to improve his sharingan."
"Alright! I'm going to train my butt off this month. You won't even recognize me when I'm done" Naruto said.
'If this teacher is who I think it is I wouldn't have your hopes up Naruto. You'll probably run into Jiraiya so you should be fine.'
"Speaking of training, what are you planning on doing for this month?" Anko asked me.
"My training is usually pretty rigorous so I'm not going to be doing anything new for this month."
"Great, so that means you'll have some time to do some rebuilding." She said while smirking at me.
"Rebuilding what?"
"You didn't think you wouldn't have to repair that entrance you destroyed did you?"
"But that-"
"Nope, no excuses." She cut me off. "Your orders are to repair the entrance by the end of this month. You're lucky you don't have to repair that miles long trench you made as well."
"Fine, I'll fix the entrance. Hopefully that doesn't take too long. It seems like everyone has their training arrangements handled, so I'll be taking my leave. There's something that I have to go handle."
I Flash Stepped to the end of the passage and headed towards the T&I department.
-Break-
I make it inside the T&I building and head towards the man at the front desk.
"What are you here for?" He asked me.
"My name is Emiya Asahi. I'm here to pick up a girl named Karin."
"Your ID."
I handed over my ID. Once he was done checking it I was told to wait as he got up and went into the room behind the front desk. He came back out with another guy following behind him. He pointed his thumb towards the guy behind him.
"Follow him. He will take you to the girl. After that you'll both be taken to see the Hokage."
I nodded and followed him to the holding area. He unlocked one of the doors and we went inside. Karin was sitting alone on a metal chair with a table in front of her. When she looked over at us and saw me, her face lit up. She got out of her chair and immediately Tackle Hugged me.
"Asahi you came back!"
I patted her on the head.
"I told you I would come get you as soon as I could. However, we're not done yet. We still need to go see the Hokage before we can finish up for today."
She nodded and let go of me. We followed our escort to the Hokage building. After waiting for Hiruzen to get through one of his meetings we were brought inside.
"Hokage-sama, I've brought the girl from Kusa." Our escort said.
"Thank you. You can leave them with me." Hiruzen said.
He left the room while closing the door behind him, leaving us alone with Hiruzen. His usual grandfather-like demeanor vanished and was replaced with the presence of a Kage.
"What is your reason for wanting to leave Kusagakure?"
Karin was visibly a little shaken up by being in his presence at the start, but was able quickly calm herself.
"Kusa only treated me like an outcast. When me and my mother first arrived in Kusa they said that she would be required to heal the injured of the village if she wanted us to be able to stay. We have an ability special to Uzumaki that allows us to heal people from letting them bite us. The weaknesses however is that it drains a lot of our chakra to do so.
Originally it was just my mother's job to heal. However, one day a major battle for the village took place that caused a mass number of injured who were in need of healing. She didn't have enough chakra to heal them all, but they didn't care. They drained all of her chakra, killing her.
Immediately after her death they said her responsibility fell on to me and I was forced to let them bite me. I wanted to leave, but I was only a child and had no place to go. I didn't want to die like my mother, so I decided to become a shinobi. I thought that if they saw a use for me other than healing I would be safe, but I was wrong."
Her hands clenched tightly into fists on her side.
"They only taught me the bare minimum. Whenever there was a lesson on something other than history it would be on a day that I was tasked on healing duty. No teacher would help me, so I had to find the information myself. I barely even passed the test to become a Genin. I thought I finally proved myself to them, but I just became a healer for my team on top of being a healer for the village. I'm sure they just wanted me to do nothing but healing because they even threatened to remove me from the shinobi roaster if I didn't pass the Chunin Exam.
They never saw me as anything other than an object they can use to heal. The only reason I'm not dead is because they probably wanted me to have kids first. When my 'teammates' died I thought my life was done for, but that's when Asahi came. He saved my life and showed me that other Uzumaki are alive and happy here. I don't see Kusa as my home and it never will be, but I can see Konoha becoming my home." She finished while looking straight at Hiruzen completely unwavering.
"You're from another village, so you will have to go through tests and surveillance to determine that you're not a spy. Are you still willing to go through with this?" Hiruzen asked her.
"Yes." Karin said.
"Then you will report to T&I twice a week at random with only a day's notice in advance and you will be monitored for three months. You can not leave the village until that is done. We don't have anywhere for you to stay by yourself, but Uzumaki Kushina has agreed to house you. Asahi can escort you there."
"Thank you Hokage-sama." Karin said while bowing.
"I hope you'll be able to see Konoha as your home, Karin." He said reverting back to his grandfatherly persona.
"I'm sure I will." She said with a smile.
"You're both dismissed."
We said our goodbyes and left for the house. Once we were there we headed inside.
"I'm home, and I brought someone with me." I announced as I walked in.
I saw Naruto in the living room getting ready to leave out.
"Hey Asahi-nii. Man what happened to make you all sociable all of the sudden? First Fū and now another person you meet all on your own. Maybe there's hope for your social life after all."
"Naruto you do know I'm completely capable of talking to other people, right? The only reason I don't talk to people often is because I'm busy most of the time."
"Yeah keep telling yourself that. Now who is this you have with you?"
"This is Uzumaki Karin. She is going to be living here with us."
"You're Karin!? Mom and I are so excited that you're here! We thought we would never see another Uzumaki. Sorry I can't stay and chat. I have to go start my training, but I will be back tonight. It's going to be great having you here!" Naruto brought her in for a hug.
"T-thank you for having me." She stuttered due to the sudden hug.
Naruto headed out to go meet who I assumed to be Ebisu.
"Yeah Naruto doesn't hold back in anything he does, but you'll get used to it. Kushina should be in the backyard."
We entered the backyard where Kushina was relaxing on a lawn chair.
"Oba-san I'm home and I brought someone you'll want to meet."
After turning to see who was with me she ran up and wrapped Karin in a hug so fast that if I didn't know better I would've assumed she used Chakra.
"It's so great to have you here Karin-chan! You're ok, right? They weren't too rough on you?" Kushina fired off.
"I'm fine Kushina-san. They didn't do anything bad to me. I just want to say thank you for letting me stay here."
"Oh It's no problem! You must be tired after such a long day. Would you like me to show you to your room?" Kushina asked.
"Yes, thank you."
"Well then follow me."
While we were following Kushina to the room I took note of how she was much happier than she usually was. It's not all that surprising that she's this happy about finding another Uzumaki. For most of her life Konoha didn't feel like home for her. When she first arrived here as a child she wasn't an outcast by any means, but she didn't feel anywhere near as welcomed here as she did in Uzushio.
It wasn't until Minato saved her from being kidnapped and meeting my mother some time after that she had people other than Mito who she could build a connection with. Having Karin here is gaining back another connection to Uzushio for her. She's always wanted to feel like how she felt back in her home village.
It's the reason why she's always so eager to teach me and Naruto about fūinjutsu. Naruto wasn't even interested in learning it, but she didn't let him quit until he could make explosive tags and storage seals. I doubt she would have taught me everything she did if that wasn't the case. You wouldn't teach someone as young as I was back then something on the level of gravity seals normally; much less how to create new seals.
I fear what she would do to me If she were to ever find out that I use gravity seals on myself constantly.
"So how did you guys find each other?" Kushina asked.
"During the second test of the exam. I thought she might be an Uzumaki, so I went to go find her."
"I was hiding from this ginormous bear before Asahi came and saved me. I probably would have died to that bear if he didn't come when he did." Karin added.
"Well I'm glad that didn't happen. Wouldn't want to lose you in some overly dangerous forest." Kushina said.
We reached Karin's room and inside there was a queen sized bed, a closet, a drawer dresser with mirror on top, a desk with a chair, a lamp, and a window with a view of the backyard.
"This is your room. Naruto's, Asahi's, and my room are further down the hall. There is a sign to show who's room it is. There's a bathroom down the hall as well."
"Thank you. Is it ok if I rest for a bit?" Karin asked.
"Of course. I'll wake you up when dinner is ready." Kushina said.
"Thank you."
Karin headed inside her room and closed the door behind her.
"So how has the Chunin Exams been for you so far?" Kushina asked me.
"It's been ok. Not much of a challenge really."
"Hey don't get overconfident. Other people could be holding back a lot of what they can do you know." She chided.
I pointed at my head signifying that I knew this based on the visions of the future. Kushina is the only person that knows about my future knowledge, so I made a gesture to signal when I'm using knowledge from it.
"Is that why you waited to take the Chunin Exams until now?"
"Among other reasons." I said while pointing at Karin's room.
"Well remember to not rely on it too much. It's not always correct."
'Sometime I wish that was the case more often.' I thought to myself.
"Yeah I know. Hanabi got injured during the exams and is in the hospital. I'm going to head out to go visit her. I should be back by dinner."
"Did you guys finally make up?"
"No, but this has gone on for long enough. I really should have tried to fix this earlier but I've been putting it off until now."
"Well I hope it works out. Tell her I said hi. Don't forget to add Karin to the house occupants so that the seals won't think she is an intruder."
"Will do."
A few years ago me and Kushina set up seals around the house to prevent intruders from coming in and to stop sound from being heard from the outside. If someone tries to get inside this house without us letting them in they will be trapped immediately.
Before heading out I went into the kitchen to make a banana smoothie. I created a barrier and placed a peeled banana, half of a peeled orange, ⅓ cup of yogurt, and ¼ cup of milk inside of it. I used some air manipulation to blend them all together inside the barrier and made it colder. Once it was smooth I poured it into a travel cup and placed it into a food bag. I remembered that she liked this so I hoped that this would help smooth the conversation over.
I left the house and made my way towards the hospital.
-Break-
Once I made it to the hospital I went inside towards the front desk. One of the nurses that was sitting at the desk was Tanaka Kaori. A slender woman with brown hair which she wore combed back with a single strand hanging in between her brown eyes. She wore a white nurse gown along with a white hat.
"Hello Tanaka-san."
"Emiya-kun I'm surprised to see you here today. You know there's no classes today right?"
"I know, I'm actually here to visit some of the patients here today. Are Hyūga Hanabi and Rock Lee allowed visitors today?"
"Wait here please."
She got up and went off to go check. After a few minutes she came back.
"They are allowed visitors; however, Hyūga Hanabi already has her family visiting her right now and Rock Lee's visiting hours end earlier at 5:00PM."
"Ok, is it alright if I wait outside for them to finish?"
"No that won't be a problem."
After getting the locations of their rooms I headed for Hanabi's room first and sat on a chair outside of the room. I kept the smoothie cold as I waited an hour for Hinata, Hiashi, and Neji to finish up. A gloomy expression was shared between all of them as they came out of the room.
'Hanabi's loss hit them harder than I thought it would.'
Hinata noticed me waiting outside.
"Asahi? What are you doing here?" She asked me.
"I just wanted to come by and check on Hanabi. I know that she probably doesn't want to see me right now, but I at least wanted to stop by to see how she's doing. Also I brought a banana smoothie to help cheer her up. She still likes them, right?" I asked a bit sheepishly.
The gloomy look on her face lessened as her lips curled up into a slight smile.
"Yes she still likes them. I think Onee-san would appreciate seeing you."
"I hope so." I said while rubbing the back of my head nervously.
I went through my greetings with Hiashi and Neji, then they all headed off. I walked to the door to Hanabi's room and knocked on it.
"Yes?" I heard Hanabi say behind the door.
"Hey Hanabi it's me, Asahi. I know you might not want to see me, but I wanted to check up on you to see if you're doing ok. I also brought a banana smoothie with me."
"...you can come in."
I opened the door and saw Hanabi sitting in the hospital bed in a hospital gown with bandages around most of her body. She also had her left arm in a cast. I brought a chair next to her bed and sat down.
"Kushina-san says hi."
"Oh, tell her I said hello as well."
There was an awkward silence between us for a couple of seconds before I decided to speak up.
"I know it's been a while since we've last talked, but before you say anything I want to apologize for not trying to get past this argument sooner. If I could change what I did in the past I still would have trained Hinata, but I wouldn't have let this argument go on as long as it did.
I got so absorbed into training that I didn't notice how long this has been going on for and when I did finally notice I didn't have a real clue on how to fix it. I thought once I finished training Hinata everything would go back to normal, but I was clearly wrong about that.
I'm not really good at understanding how friendships should work. I tend to think with logic without considering emotions most of the time. At the time you just wanted to make sure that she was safe and happy, so it makes sense for you to be angry at me for training her to go into a profession that's full of danger and would require her to go against her overly empathic nature at times.
All I was thinking about at the time was that she wanted to be a shinobi for good reasons, so I decided to train her. I didn't want her to end up becoming a shinobi and not be prepared for what she was going to have to do during the job. Can't really trust the academy to do that. Its purpose is to produce Genin that are willing to do the job; they don't exactly have to be all that capable at the job.
I didn't give you evidence that my training would work for her so you had a decent reason to be skeptical about it working. I should've tried to explain my action earlier and I'm sorry for not doing so. Can we go back to being able to talk to each other?" I tried to be as sincere as possible.
"You're not the only one who let this go on for too long." She said while looking down.
"Huh?"
"I was actually fine with you training her after a couple of months. At first I had too much pride to apologize for snapping at you and I just waited for you to do it. However, after a while I was afraid you were angry with me. I knew that if you were you wouldn't be obvious about so I couldn't tell. I was afraid of confirming that it was true.
You're one of the few people who will talk to me normally. When people usually talk to me it's like they're walking on eggshells. I'm just the Hyūga clan heiress to most so they try to be overly nice even when they're not genuine about it. At first I was irritated by you doing it, but it started to feel refreshing to talk casually with someone for once.
I tried making other friends, but I defaulted to acting like how Otou-sama said I should. Kids would say it was awkward talking to me and would avoid me. Once I found that out I thought that was the reason you stopped talking to me. I wanted people to feel that way around me so I decided to try and be more casual.
The only examples I had until I had my team were You, Hinata, Naruto-san, and Kushina-san. Following Naruto-san and Kushina-san were out of the question because I don't have the energy to act like them. I'm also not naturally nice enough to act like Hinata. That only left me the option of following your example."
"Following my example in the personality department isn't a good idea. A personality like mine either irritates people or keeps them distant. Only in rare situations do people want to stick around someone like me."
"Yeah I found that out when I tried. Most people would think I was looking down on them when I talked."
"Yeah that's most people's first reaction."
"I thought that we would be placed on the same team due to the top ranked boy and girl usually being placed together. That way I could have had an easier chance to talk things out, but when that didn't happen the only option I had left was coming up to talk to you directly. With both of us being busy with missions and training there were very few opportunities to do so. Though I have to admit that even when there were opportunities I would get cold feet."
"Well we both made mistakes about how to handle this so don't beat yourself up about it. Let's just be happy that this is now behind us, agreed?"
"Agreed" She said with a relieved smile.
"So how are your injuries? Do you know how long you have to stay here?"
Immediately when I asked that question her smile went away.
"They said that I would have to say here for around a week for them to heal what they can."
"'Heal what they can'?"
"My left arm took a lot of damage. Due to it being broken and receiving too many deep cuts they won't be able to fully heal the nerve damage in my left arm. I've..lost a large amount of control over my left hand."
Based on the loss of functionality of her left arm I assumed parts of her brachial plexus and peripheral nerves have been severely damaged. With the amount of cuts she received from Temari's last attack it was possible that it there's too much damage for surgery to fix. The worst part is that this would cripple her use of the Gentle FIst forever. There was no way I was letting this happen.
"Hanabi, I'm going to tell you a secret that might help heal your injuries. I need you to promise me that you will not tell anyone about how I healed you." The look on my face showed that I was being serious about this.
She was surprised at my sudden change in behavior but she quickly nodded her head.
"I promise I won't tell anyone."
I set up a Save State around us.
"I can heal people by letting them bite me."
"...eh?" She understandably looked at me with confusion.
"I found out that I could do this a few days ago. I appear to be able to give other people a weaker version of my own regeneration by letting them absorb my Chakra by biting me."
"Hold on, you can regenerate? Since when could you regenerate?"
"Since I was little. It's the reason why I don't suffer any negative repercussions for training in excess. I can easily heal broken bones and nerve damage in seconds, but the biting method gives a weaker version of that to the other person. I have only used it once so I don't know if it just takes longer for it to heal or there are injuries that I can't heal for other people that I can for myself."
"You're not joking about this, are you?" She asked me.
"Hanabi, I wouldn't joke around in a situation like this."
"Alright, I believe you. So all I need to do is bite you for this to work?"
"Yes, and while you are doing that I'll be making sure that your peripheral nerves and brachial plexus heal properly."
Hanabi had a raised eyebrow while listening to my explanation.
"I'm surprised you know about this kind of stuff. I didn't think you would be interested in medical knowledge."
"I've been taking some classes on human biology. Specifically physiology and anatomy. It's to help with a project I'm working on."
I took off my jacket and brought my forearm close enough to her face so that she wouldn't have to strain herself to bite me. She started blushing profusely.
"Do I have to bite you for this to work?"
"This is the only way I know of that works. You're just biting me, it's not a big deal."
She closed her eyes then bit my arm.
"You need to bite down harder or else it won't work" I told her.
Once she bit down harder her eyes shot open after the healing process started to take effect. I made a clone to focus on her arm. It used a technique that replicated a medical ninjutsu that allows someone to manipulate positions inside the body as small as the cellular level. I had the clone make sure that her nerves would be connected properly.
It took over ten more minutes than it would for me to heal and around 10% of my physical energy reserves, but I was able to completely heal her injuries. She stared at her left arm in shock as she moved it around.
"It...really worked. I-I can feel my hand, and my arm is fully healed. Actually everything feels like it's been healed!"
"Well I'm glad it worked out. I still don't know the limits of this ability, but I at least know that I can heal injuries of this level now." I said as I put my jacket back on.
Hanabi had a pensive look on her face.
"I don't understand why you would want this to stay a secret. If other people knew this it would put your clan among the top."
"For two reasons. One, this isn't my secret alone. Two, it's a genetic trait that doesn't require training to have access to. If I were to have kids I wouldn't want them to have a target on their back from birth due to their kekkei genkai."
"Yeah, but almost every clan has to deal with people targeting their members for what they can do, especially ones with a kekkei genkai. You're going to be targeted regardless if people know your kekkei genkai can heal as well. And what do you mean if you have kids?"
"I don't know the future. I might die before I'm able to have kids."
'Well I don't know my current future that is.' I thought to myself.
"Like that is going to happen anytime soon." She said rolling her eyes. "The only thing that would likely get you killed at this point is you training yourself to death and someone would stop you before you did that."
She grabbed the smoothie from the bag and started to drink it.
"Wow this is actually really good."
"Thanks I made it myself."
"You know how to make smoothies?" There was an excited glint in her eyes as she asked me.
"There's a lot of different foods that I can make. Had to learn how to make my own food so that I could keep up with my appetite."
"Oh yeah I do remember you eating a lot, but why do you say you had to learn how to?"
"I train intensely everyday I can so I use up a lot of energy. Nowadays I usually have to consume around 500,000 calories a day to sustain myself."
She started coughing on the smoothie.
"500,000!? That's enough to feed a few dozen families! What are you doing to use up that much energy!? How are you even getting that much food!?"
"Once every two to three weeks I leave the village for a few hours and bring back a few dozen deer and bluefin tuna. I buy vegetables and fruits when I'm out as well because I don't have enough space for a farm yet. The real problem is eating it all. It takes around an hour for me to finish eating each sitting. I'm looking for a way to cut down on the time it takes."
She stared at me with astonishment.
"If your food intake is genetic I fear we will have a food crisis on our hands."
"It's fine, I'll figure out an alternative soon enough." I waved her off.
I stood up from my chair.
"I would like to catch up more but there's somewhere else I have to go before the day is over. When your doctor asks how you were healed just tell them I used a clan hiden technique to heal you. The staff here know who I am so they will be fine with me healing you while you were here."
"Wait, before you go can I ask you something?"
"Sure what is it?"
She began to fidget with her hands.
"Could you try healing Lee?" She pleaded. "I know you want to keep your healing ability a secret but there's no way of healing his injuries. The only way that can possibly heal him is if you do it. I promise he would be able to keep it a secret as well."
"I was actually heading out to do that."
"You were?"
"He's a fellow konoha shinobi with an immense amount of drive and even with a handicap he is willing to work a lot harder than most to catch up and surpass his peers. Also with him being a fellow training junkie and all there's no way I wouldn't try to help him."
She let out a sigh of relief.
"Thank you. Lee has put his all into becoming a shinobi. Not being able to pursue his goal would have crushed him."
"Don't thank me just yet. I still don't know if I will be able to heal him, but I'll do my best to make it happen."
"But you're still going to try and that's all I'm asking for."
"Then it's no problem, Firecracker-chan." I said while smirking at the last part.
I then had to catch a pillow being thrown at me from an irritated Hanabi.
"You're still going to call me that!? I'm not a little kid anymore!"
"You're right you have gotten older so I should probably retire that name." I said as I scratched my chin jokingly.
I snapped my fingers.
"I know, Popper-chan!"
"That's basically the same thing!" She complained.
"Ah, but there is a difference. Poppers are quieter and less showy than firecrackers. It shows that you're more mature but you still have a ways to go before reaching the level of a firework."
"Just go heal Lee already!"
I floated the pillow back to her.
"Alright I'll see you around, Popper-chan~" I said as I left the room.
I heard her groan as I walked away from the room.
-Break-
I stood outside of Lee's room and knocked on the door.
"Yes?" I heard Guy say from behind the door.
"Hello. My name is Emiya Asahi. I wanted to check up on Lee."
"Come on in."
I opened the door and saw Guy sitting next to Lee resting in bed.
"Thank you for coming to see Lee but I have to ask, how do you know Lee?" Guy asked me.
"We were in the same class in the Academy. We didn't talk much so he probably doesn't remember me, but I was impressed by how far he was willing to push himself. It's one of the reasons why I've come here to help. I have a way to heal Lee that might be able to completely heal his injuries."
Guy stood up from his chair with a shocked expression.
"Do you really have a way that can heal Lee!? Please if you can I'll be in your debt!"
"There's no need for that. Hanabi also asked me to heal Lee as well so I'm also doing this on a friend's request. I just came from healing her injuries. Hopefully I will be able to do the same for Lee."
"That's fantastic news! What do you need to do to heal Lee?"
"You're not going to check and see if I really healed Hanabi?" I said surprised at him being so trusting.
"I trust that you are telling the truth. I've heard about you from rival Kakashi and you wouldn't lie about something like this from what I've heard."
"Well that's nice to hear that Kakashi-sensei is saying good things about me. Now before I explain how I'm going to heal Lee I'm going to need him to be awake for this."
Guy gently shook Lee.
"Lee, wake up! We have some great news!"
Lee started to slowly wake up. He still seemed to be half asleep due to whatever pain medication he was on.
"What is it Guy-sensei?"
"We might have a way to completely heal your injuries!"
Lee's eyes shot wide open after hearing that.
"You do!?"
"Yes, we're about to discuss how right now." I said.
He turned to look at me.
"Asahi-san? What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to try and heal your injuries."
I put a Save State around us.
"But before I get started on that I need you two to promise me you won't tell anyone how I healed you. You can tell Hanabi though because I've already healed her with this method."
"I swear I won't tell a soul." Guy said.
"I swear I won't as well." Lee said following Guy's lead.
"I have a Kekkei Genkai that allows me to regenerate from injuries. It's to the point that I'm able to regenerate new bones in just a few seconds. I'm able to give others a weaker form of it by letting them bite me."
"By letting them...bite you?" Guy asked.
"Yes, it allows them to consume a special part of my Chakra that is the cause for my own regeneration. Like I said before it's a weaker version of my own so I don't know if it will fully heal you. I would be able to regenerate from your level of injuries so there's definitely a chance it will work. I'm ready to start the healing process right now if you are."
"After hearing that there's no way I can just wait until later to do this!" Lee said with his fist clenched.
"Alright then I'm going to need you to lay down flat on the bed. I need to see what I'm working with here."
After Lee laid down I checked his body to see what exactly were his injuries and after inspecting him I fully realized why only Tsunade would be able to do the surgery that would heal him. His left arm and leg could be healed without Tsunade normally by our experts eventually, his spine however is another story.
There were multiple bone fragments lodged dangerously close to his spinal cord. A single mistake in the surgery would at least paralyze him but more than likely he would have died from it.
With how many fragments that would have to be removed there was no way someone wouldn't make a mistake. Even though my Chakra control most likely surpasses Tsunade's I wouldn't be able to perform the surgery because I have no knowledge on how to do the surgery. Luckily I didn't have to do the surgery to heal this.
I made three clones as I took my jacket off. I placed my forearm in front of Lee's face.
"I need you to bite down on my arm. Don't worry about hurting me."
He nodded and bit my arm with enough force for the ability to activate. While I was supplying the Chakra to regenerate his wounds, the clones were each assigned to a separate major injury. One on the arm, one on the leg, and one on his spine. The one spine on had the hardest job because it had to get rid of the bone fragments near the spinal cord.
Normally if my bones were broken my body would just destroy the bones that are no longer needed but that wasn't happening here. The clone covered his eyes with his forehead protector to increase his sensing capabilities. Using precise control over air it would crush the bone fragments the size of a milliliter. It would navigate the fragments through the body then out of Lee's mouth.
It took around an hour and 50% of my physical reserves but I was able to remove all of the bone fragments and heal all of his injuries.
"Alright the operation is complete. Try moving around."
Lee stopped biting me and hesitantly moved his previously injured limbs. Soon he stood up from the bed and walked around the room. His leg and arm were still in a cast but it was obvious by the way he was moving that he was healed. He stared at his hands with a smile as tears ran down his face.
"I'm healed. It really worked!" Lee said with joy.
"Ohhh Lee!" Guy said as tears of joy weld up in his eyes.
"Guy-sensei!" Lee said as he walked towards Guy.
"Stop!" I said to prevent them from doing their usual bear hug. "Before you do any more physical activity I want a doctor to look over you. Your injuries have been healed but I don't know if you moving without care right after will cause any complications. I'd rather someone with more experience clear you ok to move."
Lee and Guy nodded as Lee laid back down on the bed.
"Asahi-san I can't thank you enough for doing this for me. I swear I will repay you for this." Lee said wholeheartedly.
"There's no need for you to repay me. I just wanted to help out." I reassured him.
"No you don't understand. If you didn't heal me, my life as a shinobi would have been over. I don't know what I would've done if I couldn't continue being a shinobi. This is too important for me to just say thank you."
"You're really adamant about this." I said as I rubbed the back of my head. "If you really want to pay me back then I have two favors to ask of you."
"You name it and I will do my best to complete it."
"I would like it to be able to spar with you sometimes."
Both Guy and Lee looked at me with a confused expression.
"Are you sure? I'm glad you would want to spar with me, but based on your fight during the Chūnin Exams you're in a different league from me. I don't think that would really be a benefit for you."
"It actually would. I know this is not going to make sense but I'm barely a novice when it comes to taijutsu."
"You would consider yourself barely a novice?" Guy asked.
"Yes because in reality I'm just a ninjutsu expert and sensor that developed a jutsu that allows me to control my body with my mind."
I floated my jacket next to me and animated it to make it look like an invisible person was wearing it while throwing punches.
"I move my body like how I'm moving this jacket. This allows me to make all of my movements precise and in combination with my sensory capabilities I'm able to react faster than most shinobi. I developed this because during my time in the Academy I was unable to spar with anyone there.
My speed, strength, and endurance is undoubtedly up to par for me to be good at it but I had practically no fighting experience when I left the Academy. I was able to get by because I would just outspeed and outpower opponents. I knew I couldn't do that forever so I developed a jutsu to give me better control over my technique.
However, there's a new technique that I'm working on that would require me to know how to actually use taijutsu. Being able to spar with you would improve my taijutsu."
"Alright if that's what you want I will gladly do it, and the second one?" Lee asked.
"When you fight from now on I want you to fully consider all of the benefits and negatives towards continuing the fight because sometimes it is in your best interest to give up."
"Why do you say that?" Lee asked.
"I don't know if you know this or not but the damage done to your arm and leg was healable. It would have taken a year or two to do so but it wouldn't have ended your career forever. The real cause for that was the damage done to your spine.
The attacks you took from Gaara after missing the Front Lotus damaged your spine. If you had forfeited the match the damage that was done would've been healable, but when you started to attack Gaara again with more of the Eight Gates opened you doomed yourself.
Even if you had beaten Gaara with your last attack your injuries would still be unhealable by normal means due to your movements during the attack lodging bone fragments from your spine near your spinal cord. The surgery that could have healed your spine could only be done by Tsunade of the Sannin and there would have been a 50% chance you would have died from the surgery if you had gone through with it."
I saw both of their faces become pale at the thought of that happening.
"I'm not saying to be a coward and run away from anything that's possibly lethal to you but at the end of the day the Chūnin Exams is just a test that can be taken again. There's no reason to risk your life or permanently losing something important to you for something like this."
"I will keep that in mind for now on. Thank you, I didn't think about the damage that the Gates could do to me at the time. I should've considered that more since the Gates themselves already damage my body to use."
"This is my fault as well Lee." Guy interjected. "I shouldn't have allowed you to push yourself that far. I was so blinded by your desire to win that I didn't see the damage you were doing to yourself to do so. My negligence could have ended your chances of completing your goal forever. I promise you that I won't let something like this happen again."
"I promise that I'll be better at looking out for myself too Guy-sensei." Lee said.
"Then this is something we'll work on together Lee." Guy said with Lee nodding in affirmation.
"I'm glad that you'll be more cautious for now. Now when your doctor asks how you are healed just say that I did it using a clan hiden technique. The staff here know who I am so they will be fine with me healing you while you are here."
"Alright and we promise again that we won't tell another soul about how you healed Lee." Guy said right before there was a knock on the door.
I took down the Save State that was around us so that the person outside would hear us.
"Yes?" Guy said to the person at the door.
"Guy-sensei it's me Hanabi."
"Oh Hanabi come right on in!" Guy said cheerily.
Hanabi came into the room wearing a plain white shirt and pants that the hospital provides to patients when they leave if their own clothes are too damaged to wear.
"They're releasing you already?" I asked.
"Yes, soon after you left one of the doctors came to check up on me. They were very surprised to see that I was suddenly fully healed but after checking over me again they said that I was well enough to leave. How are you doing Lee?" Hanabi asked.
"I'm doing great! Asahi-san was able to heal my injuries completely as well."
"That's great to hear Lee. Asahi thank you again for doing this."
"No problem Hanabi."
Right as I said that there's another knock on the door.
"Yes?" Guy said.
One of the nurses came into the room.
"Visiting hours will be ending soon. Please begin to wrap up."
She left the room closing the door behind her.
"Well you heard her so I guess we should be getting on our way now. You take care of yourself Lee. I'll be looking forward to our spars later."
"Me too and you do the same Asahi-san."
Me and Hanabi said the rest of our goodbyes and left the hospital. After checking with my En field to make sure that Hayate was still alive and not tracking Kabuto I decided to walk with Hanabi back to the Hyūga compound.
"Why were you and Lee talking about spars early?" Hanabi asked me while we were walking.
"Lee said that he wanted to pay me back for healing him so I asked if he would be willing to spar with me to help develop a technique I'm working on."
"Of course you would want to be paid back with more training. You sure haven't changed much."
"And what's wrong with that? I like training so it's worth it to me." I said only for her to let out a sigh.
"You know you can't just train all day every day right? You're going to have to take clan business seriously soon."
"Why do you say that?"
"You're going to have a lot of people wanting to meet you when the word gets out about your healing abilities. People won't know how you did it but they will know you did it and that's enough incentive to seek you out. You will also have people looking for you because of Hinata's display of the Gentle Fist.
I don't know what you taught her but whatever it is you did allowed her to do something that the Hyūga clan thought was nearly impossible to do with the Gentle Fist."
"I just taught her some tips on Chakra control. She was the one that came up with that move." I said trying to downplay my involvement.
"Well those 'tips' are very valuable. It's another favor that my clan owes you. Hinata won't be telling anyone what you taught her but her being a part of the clan with that knowledge is still a huge benefit for us. On top of that you healed my injuries to the point that my left arm is completely usable. Something that professional medical-nin thought to be impossible."
'Tsunade probably would have been able to heal her arm so I wouldn't say impossible.'
"I didn't do all of that so you would be indebted to me. I did that because I wanted to, nothing more."
"I know that but my clan and especially Otou-sama are going to feel very obligated to repay you for that. We don't like debts we owe going unpaid. You haven't even been paid back for saving me when I was kidnapped so Otou-sama is going to be more persistent in asking you what you want."
"But there's very few things I want so there's not a lot I can ask for. Most of the things I do want can only be acquired by me as well. I don't even want to be paid back for doing those things. As for the people who will be looking for me I can be very evasive when I want to be, and it's not like they know where I live."
"Hey take this seriously." She chided me. "You're currently the head of your clan so you have to keep your public image positive. You can't do that when you keep dodging social interaction whenever you don't want to talk. You have to think about the future members of your clan."
"Yeah I know it's not like I'm going to run away from them whenever they see me. I'm just going to make it very hard to find me in the first place. If they do see me I will talk to them."
"Will you?" Hanabi said with a flat stare clearly unconvinced.
"Definitely~" I made it clear I was lying.
I didn't care if they saw me. I was planning to run away from anything having to do with running my clan officially as long as I could. I had no desire to deal with clan politics.
"You've improved on your casual social skills, but your political social skills are still non-existent."
"I guess I'll just have to miss out on the fun that is clan politics." I said with a smile and a shrug.
"Fine, but when this comes back to bite you just remember that I tried to help you." She said with arms crossed.
We continued our walk and stopped near the entrance of the compound.
"I'll walk the rest from here since I assume you don't want to talk to Otou-sama about being indebted to you right now." Hanabi offered.
"I appreciate that. Also have some time sensitive things I need to get to today anyway. See you around Hanabi."
"You too Asahi."
As Hanabi walked off I set my sights for Hayate and Kabuto. The plan was to make sure that Hayate doesn't find out about the invasion and get himself killed.
-Break-
I've made a few miscalculations. I assumed that Kabuto would still try to attack Sasuke and get caught in the act by the village labeling him a traitor but that didn't happen this time around. Either Kabuto doesn't view Sasuke as a threat without the Curse Mark or Orochimaru broke Sasori's mind manipulation on Kabuto early making him completely loyal to him.
Without Kabuto attacking Sasuke he's still seen as loyal to the village. Which means no one was sent to follow him. I have a clone following him right now because it was getting late and I needed to get to dinner so that Kushina wouldn't ask where I've been all night.
I'm currently eating dinner with Naruto, Kushina, and Karin. Naruto was talking about his meeting with Jiraiya. Since I wasn't making dinner tonight we were of course eating ramen. It's nights like these that remind me why I cook dinner most of the time here. The ramen is good and all but Kushina will make it every night if I don't cook. I will never be able to understand how Naruto and Kushina can eat it every single day and still love it.
It's not like she's even bad at making anything else she just always wants to make it. Hopefully with Karin here I won't be outnumbered by the people with a ramen addiction in this house.
"So boys, how was the Chūnin Exams for you?" Kushina asked us.
"It was fine." I answered.
"You don't have to try and be all cool about it Asahi-nii. There were a bunch of things that happened during the exam. You're not even going to mention your crazy fight with that snake guy?"
"Snake guy? Kushina asked.
"Yeah I think I remember Asahi-nii saying his name was Orochimaru."
I was drinking my glass of water while looking away from everyone else as I felt Kushina's eyes boring into the side of my head. Due to me spending most of my time planning I forgot to tell Naruto to not tell Kushina about his and my fight with Orochimaru.
"Asahi...explain." She said with her eyes narrow in a tone that left no room for argument.
"Orochimaru snuck into the exam and went after Naruto's team. I fought him while Naruto's team ran to alert everyone that he was there."
"What reason did you even have to fight him!? You can fly! You could have just picked up Naruto's team and flown away! He's one of the Sannin, what were you thinking!?" She said furiously.
"If I had just ran away with them then he would have gotten away without anyone knowing where he was. I had to at least hold him there until more forces came in." I said trying to give a valid excuse.
Kushina didn't know about the invasion so I couldn't tell about the real reason as to why I decided to fight him. I had to give her this fake excuse because she is way too angry right now for me to not give her something.
"Kaa-chan there's no need to worry Asahi-nii had that snake guy in the bag. I don't even know why he only decided to hold him off. The instant his hair turned white for some reason his Chakra levels skyrocketed and he sent him flying out of the forest in one attack." Naruto said to try and help me out.
"Wait, how did you see that when you weren't near the battle?" I asked him.
"I didn't see it but Hinata did. She just described what happened to me and Sasuke."
'Great, I forgot that Hinata was watching the fight as well. Ok I would have preferred it remained a secret, especially from Kushina, but maybe she doesn't think I used natural energy to do that. Sure my appearance changed, my Chakra increased dramatically, she knows that I don't have an actual Kekkei Genkai, and Minato probably told her about Sage Mode but doesn't mean she will put it together that-' My thoughts were cut off as I heard glass cracking.
I looked over at Kushina and saw her tightly gripping a glass cup to the point that it started to crack with an eerily calm look on her face. She had unconsciously used Chakra around her hand.
"Asahi, why did your hair turn white?" She said while still crushing the glass in her hand.
I raised my hands in front of me in a pleading manner.
"I know what you might be thinking, but I just want you to know that I knew what I was doing and I did it as safely as possible."
"Were you using natural energy?" She asked calmly.
"Yes." I said reluctantly.
"Did you receive training from one of the sage creatures on how to use it?" Her tone gained more of a dangerous edge to it.
While Naruto and Karin were now realizing how pissed she was I had a nervous smile on my face.
"...no-"
"THEN WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DID IT AS SAFELY AS POSSIBLE!?" She snapped. "ARE YOU INSANE YOU COULD HAVE TURNED TO STONE!?"
"I know that's why I took my time!" I said hurriedly. "I trained myself for three years before I actually used Sage Mode. I wasn't in that much danger."
"YOU WOULD BE IN LESS DANGER IF YOU HAD PROPER HELP! WE KNOW JIRAIYA!"
"I figured I could handle it myself with the knowledge I-"
"MORE LIKE YOU KNEW I WOULD STOP YOU FROM TRYING IF I KNEW! YOU SHOULDN'T EVEN BE TRYING TO LEARN IT IN THE FIRST PLACE, YOU'RE JUST KID! WE ARE GOING TO SEE JIRAIYA TOMORROW TO MAKE SURE YOU'RE AT LEAST NOT NEARLY KILLING YOURSELF WHENEVER YOU USE IT! DON'T THINK FOR A SECOND THAT YOU'RE NOT IN TROUBLE FOR PULLING SOMETHING LIKE THIS! WE WILL BE CONTINUING THIS CONVERSATION LATER!"
Kushina finally released the glass before she completely broke it. She slowed down her breathing for a couple of seconds to calm herself down.
"Did anything else happen?" Her change in mood was incredibly sudden and a lot calmer than she was before.
Naruto and Karin were too scared to answer her.
"Let's just finish dinner and not talk about this troublesome exam." I was not looking forward to having to continue this conversation.