Chapter 36 - Effort
Hinata worked her way across the village heading towards training ground seven. When she arrived she wasn't surprised to see Naruto and Sasuke hard at work. It was still the early afternoon, and they were currently still working on their physical conditioning for the day. What did surprise her though, was that Sakura was nowhere to be seen.
As she approached the team, Kakashi was the first to notice her. He walked over to her, nodding in greeting. "You know.. You're not supposed to visit other training grounds without permission right?"
"Oh?" Looked up at him, smiling slightly in amusement. "Are you going to tell on me? Or will you just try to kidnap me again?"
"Mahh.. You can't keep bringing that up. It was a mission, you know that." Kakashi rubbed the back of his head.
"Oh riiight, a mission." Hinata nodded as if in understanding. "Saying it like that really does justify giving an eight-year-old girl nightmares for a month. I still can't run by that orchard without using my byakugan."
Hinata in fact had never had a nightmare in her life, and she most certainly wasn't bothered by his kidnapping attempt. Kakashi didn't need to know that however.
"Mahh.." Kakashi just sighed. "What do you want? We're busy."
"I can see that." Hinata looked pointedly at the Icha Icha book in Kakashi's hand. "It still surprises me how many people are comfortable reading smut in the middle of the day, not caring who sees them."
Kakashi put the book in his pocket. "There's nothing wrong with enjoying good literature."
"Oh? Is it really that good? Then you can lend me one of them, I'll judge it for myself." Hinata smiled up at him innocently.
"Not a chance." Kakashi said flatly. "Besides, a girl your age shouldn't even know what's in the books." He narrowed his eyes at her.
"Don't look at me like that. It's my job to know things." Hinata said, a smile never leaving her face.
Kakashi snorted. "Are you here to see those two?" He asked, changing the subject.
"Yup. I wanted to see how far they've come in their training. But speaking of training, why don't I see Sakura here?" Hinata asked him curiously.
"Sakura is currently training with.. Well she found herself a new shishou. That's all I'm allowed to say. The information is classified." Kakashi said flatly.
"Ah, Tsunade took her as an apprentice then?" Hinata nodded. It was a bit earlier than she expected, but still within her expectations. She figured there was a chance that Tsunade would end up training her after meeting team seven. It was one of the reasons she told Tsunade to go meet Naruto after all.
"Why do you think that?" Kakashi asked in surprise. As far as he knew, no one but Tsunade, Jiraiya, Shizune, and team seven knew that Sakura was training with the sannin. Not even the council was aware of this, so she couldn't have found out from her father.
"I told you, it's my job to know things." Hinata said, chuckling. "Besides, I'm the one that told her to come meet team seven right?"
Kakashi raised his eyebrows. Now that she mentioned it, he did remember Tsunade saying something along those lines. But connecting her visit to taking Sakura as an apprentice? Did she just make a guess?
"Don't mention it to anyone. We're keeping Tsunade's presence in the village as low-key as possible until after the chūnin exams." Kakashi said, tacitly confirming her suspicions that Tsunade was Sakura's shishou.
"Alright, I won't say anything."
"Good. If you want to join in on training, that's fine, but don't be surprised if they don't want to show you all their tricks. They'll probably want to keep some stuff hidden from you. You'll be competing in the exams after all."
"I figured as much. Even Shino is keeping things from me. I'm not worried though." Hinata shrugged. "Makes no difference to me, I'll kick their asses either way."
"That confident?" Kakashi asked, raising his eyebrow. "Be careful you don't get your feet swept out from under you. They've gotten a lot stronger since you've last seen them."
"We'll see." Hinata laughed, walking towards the boys who were currently doing pushups.
Sasuke was in the middle of pushing himself up, when he suddenly felt a weight on his back. "Who..?" He turned his head to see Hinata sitting cross legged on his back.
"Yo." She said, smiling down at him. "Don't pause for my sake. I know I don't weigh that much. Come on, keep going!"
"Hinata-chan!" Naruto said cheerfully. "You're back then? How was the mission."
"Crazy. I'll fill you in later though. I just dropped by to say hi and make sure you two weren't slacking off." Hinata grinned at him.
"Ugh." Sasuke just went back to his pushups, just letting Hinata do what she wanted. He was used to it after so many years.
"So, learn anything interesting since we last sparred?" Hinata asked the both of them.
"Yeah! I've been learning the r-" Naruto started saying something before Sasuke interrupted him.
"Don't fall for it idiot. She's trying to scout the competition."
"You really think you're my competition?" Hinata teased.
"Hey!" Naruto shouted in indignation.
"Oh relax, it was a joke." Hinata rubbed Sasuke's hair. "And you shouldn't be serious all the time, Sasuke. If you're going to be like that, I'll just leave."
"Good. Then we can start training seriously." Sasuke grunted out, still doing his pushups.
"That hurts!" Hinata let out a mock gasp. "But fine, I'll let you boys get back to it. Good luck, sparky." Hinata teased, rubbing Sasuke's hair again.
"Sparky..?" Sasuke asked, turning his head around to look at Hinata. She was nowhere to be found though, the weight having left his back.
Naruto just shook his head. "She used shunshin to leave. Did you really have to drive her away like that?"
"Whatever. Come on, let's spar. I want to make sure I can wipe that smug grin off her face in the finals." Sasuke stood up and started walking towards the spot they always used for sparring.
"Fine, fine." Naruto said, following him over. "She'll be surprised though! No way she expects us both to have learned an A-rank ninjutsu!"
"I wonder about that.." Sasuke muttered. 'Sparky..? Does she know about chidori?'
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"Well that was a wash.." Hinata mumbled to herself, wandering aimlessly through the village. She had been hoping to get a bit more out of the two of them. "They seem to be taking this exam pretty seriously. I might need to up my game."
As Hinata walked through the town, she heard someone call out to her. "Hinata-chan!"
Hinata turned around to see Ino and Shikamaru walking in her direction. "Oh, hey guys! You don't have training today?" Hinata waved, walking over to them.
"We have the day off. We're leaving for a mission tomorrow." Shikamaru said casually.
"Ah, well good luck! How are you guys doing in your preparations for the exams?" Hinata looked them over. Ino looked leaner, and Shikamaru had put on a bit of muscle.
"You! How dare you ask that!" Ino shouted angrily. "Our suffering is your fault!" Ino lunged at Hinata, grabbing her hand and pressing it to her stomach, over top of the bandages she was wrapped with.
"W-what are y-you… Holy shit!?" Hinata blinked at Ino, pressing her hand to her stomach a little harder. "Do you have abs!?"
Ino looked distraught. "We've done almost nothing but physical conditioning since graduation!"
"How is that my fault!?" Hinata asked, feeling wronged and slightly envious. 'I can't believe she has abs already! I've been working out way longer than her, and I still don't have any abs! Curse genetics!'
"Apparently our parents were worried we were falling behind all of you, so they asked Kurenai-sensei to push us as hard as possible. What a drag…" Shikamaru sighed.
"That wouldn't have happened if you weren't such a training freak!" Ino shouted again.
Hinata pulled her hand away. "At least it seems to be paying off for you guys..." Hinata grumbled, poking her own squishy stomach. Hinata wasn't fat by any means, but you'd hardly tell she worked out as much as she did just by looking at her.
"I don't want to hear it! I don't want to be covered in muscles!" Ino whined.
Shikamaru had a wry smile on his face. He and Chōji found it amusing that Ino was putting on muscle faster than either of them. Genetics were truly wonderful and strange.
"Isn't getting stronger a good thing?" Hinata looked at her incredulously. 'What's her problem?'
"Not like this!" Ino yelled. "Come on Shikamaru!" Ino grabbed his hand and started stomping away. "I won't forget this Hinata!" She shouted as she stormed away.
"Hahh.. See you later, Hinata-chan.." Shikamaru sighed out.
"Good bye..?" Hinata watched them disappear into the crowd, before walking off herself. She still didn't know what to do with her time off. 'I still don't have any hobbies.. Maybe I should try to find something fun to do?'
She walked around, eventually passing a store that made her pause her steps. 'A bookstore?' She thought, thinking about doing something ridiculous.
Hinata glanced around, before moving into a side alley nearby. She formed a hand seal quickly, and created a henge, transforming into Hayate. She knew his appearance like the back of her hand by now. Smiling slyly to herself, she walked back out of the alley and headed into the bookstore. The bell rang as she opened the door, and she headed straight into the adult section.
It didn't take her long to find what she was looking for. On one of the shelves she found the Icha Icha series, taking a copy off the shelf, she thumbed through it. 'Heh.. I really want to see the look on shishou's face when he sees me casually pull out the book to start reading. I bet it's gonna be hilarious. Icha Icha paradise should be the first in the series, right..?'
She walked over to the checkout counter. Maintaining an emotionless face, she put the book on the counter and silently handed over the money. She still hadn't mastered changing her voice with a henge. It was one of the rare jutsu that was able to change ranks as the user continued to master it, allowing for more options the stronger one was and how much chakra they were willing to put into it.
"Thank you for your business! We hope to see you again!" The clerk said with a smile. He maintained his professionalism and didn't mention anything about what book Hinata was buying.
'He's probably dealt with people buying all sorts of books. From what I saw with a quick glance, the Icha Icha series wasn't even close to being the dirtiest book they sell here.' Hinata thought, amused.
She nodded to him and walked out of the store, and ran back into the alley. Dispelling her henge, she put the book into her pouch with a victorious smile. "Alright Jiraiya, I'll see just how good of an author you are!" She giggled.
Deciding to head home a bit early, she started making her way back to the Hyūga compound. She should be the first one back as Hanabi should still be out training at this time of day. Even though her father had been too busy to personally oversee her training, he still made sure Hanabi was sticking to a strict training regimen overseen by several of the clan elders. Just as Hinata expected, Hanabi was a prodigy just as good as Hinata and Neji. The elders were extremely excited about the new generation of talents the Hyūga had and lamented Neji's fate.
Rushing home, it didn't take her long to get there. As she expected, no one was there, so she went to her room and pulled out her new book, lying on her bed and getting comfortable. She started by reading the synopsis. "Hmm, a tale of burgeoning love huh?" She flipped the book over to the first chapter and began to read.
It didn't take long, only about two hours of reading before Hinata slammed the book shut, blushing. "I'm going to wait a while before continuing this story. Jiraiya I truly underestimated you!" Hinata said, getting out of bed and hiding the book on the top shelf of her closet in the far corner.
"I can't believe they're reading that around children in public!" Hinata exclaimed, walking out of her room. "I seriously need to have a talk with Kakashi and shishou about that."
She headed to the kitchen to start preparing dinner. It wouldn't be long before Hanabi would be getting home, and Hinata decided to surprise her with her cooking. Hanabi was always the one in charge of their meals. 'I think I'll make a spicy curry for dinner tonight..' Hinata decided, getting ingredients out.
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Fū was gathered in a training ground at Takigakure with two other genin, Shibuki, and a Jōnin. One was a boy a few years older than her, with spiky black hair and black eyes. He was wearing a blue jacket over a grey shirt, and had a 'bad boy' demeanor, acting as if nothing interested him. The other genin was a girl about a year older than Fū with long blue hair, wearing a teal skirt over mesh shorts, and a white sleeveless blouse over a mesh shirt.
Shibuki stood in front of them smiling a bit. "You three are going to be a team for the upcoming chūnin exams in Konoha. I know you haven't worked together before, but you have a little over a month to get to know each other. Kegon here is going to be your team leader for the time being to oversee your training."
Kegon had curly brown hair and narrow black eyes. He wore a grey jacket over top of a tight black shirt that was cutoff right above his abs. He looked at the genins sternly and seemed to have a no-nonsense attitude. Fū was already acquainted with him, as he had often been assigned to her protection detail on the few occasions she had been allowed to leave the village.
The first thing Fū noticed was that upon hearing they were going to be a team, both of the other genin looked at her and frowned. 'Seriously, this is getting tiring. How the fuck is it my fault that I'm the jinchūriki? They probably don't even know, they're just judging me based on all of the adults hating me!' Fū groaned to herself. She was already missing Hinata and it hadn't even been a week yet.
"Let's start with introductions." Shibuki said cheerfully, seemingly not noticing the awkwardness of the genins. "Fū why don't you go first?"
Fū sighed internally to herself before she spoke. She gave them a short introduction, describing her interests and hobbies. Normally she'd be excited to get to know new people and possibly make friends, but she just couldn't work up the interest.
As she finished the other two took their terms, equally uninterested. Apparently the boy's name was Hōki, and the girl was Moriko. They also gave generic info about themselves, and Fū barely paid attention.
'Whatever. At least this is a temporary team..' She thought to herself. Hinata and her team had really changed her outlook on the type of people she wanted to befriend. She just wasn't interested anymore in trying to impress or change the attitude of people that judged her before even bothering to get to know her.
Shibuki smiled a bit awkwardly after the introductions. Even he could see the team dynamic left a lot to be desired at this point. "Well, I know you three may be strangers now, but try to get along. You'll be one of the teams representing Takigakure after all. I expect a great showing from you three! You're all some of the most talented genin we have!"
Shibuki looked over at Kegon. "I'll leave it to you then, Kegon. Train them well."
"Very well." Kegon nodded respectfully to Shibuki. "Alright you three. I don't care about any personal issues you may have with each other, I expect you to set them aside while you're working together. We're going to start our training focusing on suiton ninjutsu, however I want to get a clear idea on each of your strengths and weaknesses. We'll run through each of the jutsus you know, and I'll decide what to teach you from there."
He spoke in a monotone voice, and Fū sighed again. The journey to Konoha couldn't come quickly enough.
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Hanabi limped home from her daily training. The elders never went easy on her and she truly sympathized with her older sister. Unlike Hinata however, Hanabi had decided to focus solely on learning and mastering the Hyūga's gentle fist style, putting all her effort into it.
As she opened the front door she was surprised and delighted by the smell of food radiating around the house. "I'm home!" She called out, changing into her slippers and walking to the kitchen. "You're home early, and you decided to cook? What's the occasion?" She asked, looking at her older sister who was standing in front of the stove wearing an apron.
"I just had a day off and decided you could use a break!" Hinata turned around, smiling at her. "How did training go?"
"Ugh, don't mention training to me. If I have to get yelled at by one more elder I'm going to set fire to the dojo." Hanabi grumbled. "I'm going to take a bath. Thanks for cooking oneesan."
"No problem! Hurry up then, dinner's almost ready."
"'Kay." Hanabi said, walking stiffly towards the bathroom.
When Hanabi returned, there was already food prepared and set out on the table for her. Hinata looked over her little sister and pondered over something for a while before speaking.
"Hey, I know earlier I said we'd be having a discussion tonight, but I changed my mind." Hinata stated, thinking about the book she had read earlier. She decided Hanabi was just too young to learn about those sorts of things. "We're going to wait a few years. When you're a bit older we'll have the talk." She said mysteriously.
"What? Why?" Hanabi looked up at her in confusion.
"Because I said so. You're too young right now." Hinata looked at her sternly. "If you have any complaints, feel free to ask otousan, though I have a feeling he'll agree with me."
"But dad said you shou-" Hanabi was cut off mid complaint by Hinata.
"You can blame the Hokage. He convinced me earlier to wait before speaking with you." Hinata said simply, ending the conversation.
That just made Hanabi even more confused. 'She talked to the Hokage? Is it really that much of a secret..?' Honestly it made her even more interested in what the hell they were keeping from her, but she decided not to ask anymore. Her sister looked serious and started to speak again, changing the topic.
"You're going to be starting in the academy this fall right? Are you excited?" Hinata asked, smiling at her.
"Of course I am!" Hanabi just went with the change of topic and replied honestly. "I'll finally be one step closer to becoming a true kunoichi like you and okaasan!"
Hinata launched into a conversation about what to expect and started giving her advice on how to balance the different subjects she'd be learning there. She went over the general courses and explained that if she wanted the best training in taijutsu, she should kick the ass of whatever poor students she was put up against on the first day. Iruka would probably decide to spar with her instead, and she'd learn a lot more fighting against him rather than a bunch of brats.
The two of them talked for a while, just enjoying each other's company. It had been a long time since they were able to speak like this. Hinata had been so busy since becoming a genin, and Hanabi really hadn't noticed how much she missed her older sister until they started talking again.
Eventually they decided to call it quits for the night, cleaning up the dishes and making sure to leave a plate of food for their father, who still wasn't home yet. He'd been working late every night, trying to balance his clan responsibilities as well as his work on the council. Hinata really didn't know how the man managed without driving himself into exhaustion.
Hinata tucked her sister into bed, before retiring to her own room. She'd be starting her training again in the morning, and she wanted to be well-rested. She was going to give it her all so that she could back up her words and crush Naruto and Sasuke in the exams. 'They won't know what hit 'em.' She thought to herself, smiling and snuggling into her bed. It wasn't long until she drifted asleep.
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The next morning, Hinata quickly grabbed breakfast and took off for training ground eight. She was the first to arrive and started her morning exercises. She was halfway done with her laps when Kiba showed up. Hinata looked over at him and noticed he looked a bit gloomy. Knowing that wasn't like him, she ran over to talk to him.
"What's up Kiba? Everything okay?" She said, still jogging in place as she talked to him.
Kiba just sighed, sitting down in the grass. He looked up at her with envy on his face. "I got checked out at the hospital yesterday. They said that my wound was healing fine, but they forbade me from any physical exercise aside from stretches and a light jog for a week!"
Hinata was a bit surprised at that. "You were able to run all the way home from Takigakure though. We traveled a bit slowly, but you were still able to keep up."
"I know. I explained that to them, but they just got annoyed at Hayate-sensei. They said it was irresponsible of him to make me travel in my condition. Apparently that missing-nin bastard did more damage to me than we thought. It was only thanks to your ointment that I was able to survive, let alone heal as quickly as I did. Seriously what's in that shit?"
"It's a clan secret, I couldn't tell you even if I knew how to make it. The elders and medic-nin guard the recipe religiously. Unless you're directly trained in medicine by them to serve the clan as a medic-nin, there's no way they'll teach someone how to concoct it." Hinata shrugged. She had always been curious about it as well, but even her father didn't know the recipe.
"Well the stuff works wonders. When the medic-nin at the hospital asked me what treatment I got at Takigakure, they were astounded by the lack of medical skills the village had. You should have seen the look on their faces when they found out Takigakure referred to it as a 'clinic' and not a hospital." Kiba laughed.
Hinata chuckled a bit. "Well Konoha does have the best medical treatment out of any country as far as I know. It makes sense that a small village like Takigakure can't compare to us."
Hayate arrived in the middle of their conversation, greeting the two of them. "Alright then, Kiba, you're restricted to light training only. I want you to focus this time on tōton jutsu. Don't make that face, I want you to have it mastered by the end of the week. You'll be able to focus on training what interests you when you're healed."
"Fine." Kiba said bitterly, standing up and starting to craft hand seals.
"Hinata, finish up your exercises. I'll be teaching you kage bunshin no jutsu today. Once you've mastered it, you'll be able to double or even triple your training efficiency." Hayate explained, much to Hinata's excitement. She had been waiting to learn this jutsu for a long time. She'd never be as proficient at it as Naruto, but she was sure she could manage making two or three clones.
"Where's Shino? It's not like him to be this late." Hinata asked, still jogging in place.
"He's going to be spending the next few weeks training at his clan, so he won't be joining us for a while." Hayate said simply. It wasn't that unusual for clan members to break away from their teams for periods of time to train when they weren't actively running missions.
"Hmm. That's fine then." Hinata nodded. "Alright, let me finish up and we can get started!" She said excitedly, turning away and running back to finish her laps before switching to her other exercises.
Kiba just watched her run, stuck forming hand seals and turning himself into a blurry form. He grumbled miserably to Akamaru, who looked at him in understanding. Akamaru gave him a whine and looked back at Hinata, wagging his tail a bit.
"Fine, go run." Kiba sighed. Akamaru let out an excited bark and raced off after Hinata, joining her. "Sometimes I wonder who his partner is." Kiba mumbled to himself, shaking his head in exasperation.
"Stop whining and get back to work." Hayate said, looking over at him. "It's only for a week, you'll be back in fighting condition soon enough."
He'd be pushing them hard the next few weeks, and didn't have any sympathy for them. The exams would arrive before they knew it, and Hayate was determined to make sure they were ready for them.