Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Timeline: April
Chapter Twelve
Hinata, Kiba, and Shino quietly work on the garden, another weeding mission.
Kurenai watched them from the side with her arms crossed, the client stood next to her on her right.
"How can you take care of your own garden?" Kiba mutters, glancing at Hinata who easily took the weeds out at faster pace than Kiba and Shino were.
Hinata smiles with a small shrug, "My mom taught me how, she started my garden for me and planted my favorite flowers, I did the same for Hanabi as well."
"Your gonna do that for your kids to?" Kiba teases, Hinata blushes lightly and looks away.
"Kiba, stop teasing Hinata. Why? Because she is currently holding a kunai and can hurt you," Shino states, coming to Hinata's defense.
Kiba pouts, "It was just a joke!" He looks around for Akamaru, the dog was sleeping on the porch of the house, Kiba sweat drops, "So much for you coming to my defense Akamaru."
The dog doesn't respond, continuing to sleep.
"It's ok Shino-Kun, Kiba-Kun is right, if I ever do have children I'll pass on the tradition, but now is not the time to be thinking about these things," Hinata states, "We are Genin, and we need to focus on our training and missions!"
Kiba and Shino agree, and soon the garden was finished and Team Eight headed towards the mission desk once more.
On their way they see Team Seven exit the room, the Genin looked excited, Naruto beams when he spots them and rushes over, "Hinata-Chan! Kiba! Shino!" The blond yells.
"Hello Naruto-Kun," Hinata greets happily, "Hello Kakashi-San, Sakura-San, and Sasuke-San."
Kakashi nods lazily as he reads his book, Sakura smiles and waves back while Sasuke completely ignores her.
"Guess what?!" Naruto shouts, "We just got assigned a C-Rank escort mission to the Land of Waves!" Naruto announces, full of energy.
Hinata smiles brightly, "That's amazing Naruto-Kun!"
"We're gonna have a much better time than you did on your C-Rank mission!" Naruto states crossing his arms.
Kiba rolls his eyes, "Whatever Naruto, at least we're an actual team."
Hinata gives him the 'mom look' as the Inuzuka described it, and Kiba apologizes.
"It's fine," Kakashi says, "We know that already."
Kurenai sighs, "Let's get a new mission now, we shouldn't hold up Team Seven any longer."
Hinata quickly hugs Naruto before waving goodbye, Team Eight continuing down the hall.
"I see your back from another mission," Iruka says, "Team Eight finishes missions faster than we can keep up."
The Genin smile at their former Sensei as Hiruzen chuckles, he picks another D-Rank out and the smiles transform into horror, "N-No way," Kiba stutters.
"We have to find Tora?!" The Inuzuka shouts.
"Our time had to come one day," Shino says.
"Team Seven had just returned him and the Feudal Lord's wife left, but she returned in a panic just a moment ago screaming about how Tora escaped," Iruka explains.
Hinata activates her Byakugan, "I've found him! Let's go!" She runs out of the room with Kiba and Shino following behind. Kurenai shakes her head with a small smile before leaving and going after them.
Tora comes to a stop in the middle of a clearing, hidden in the trees and shrubbery, Team Eight waited for the perfect moment to capture their prey.
"Now," Kurenai whispers into her mic, they had them on since the mission they completed before weeding out the garden required them.
Shino, Kiba, and Hinata jumped from their places and landed in front of Tora, the cat hissed and crouched lowly, claws extending.
Before the cat could pounce, Akamaru attacked, jumping from Kiba's head and tackling the feline to the ground.
Kiba picked up Akamaru and Hinata swiped Tora up, the cat clawed, hissed, and fought for freedom, but no matter how much he squirmed Hinata kept an iron grip on him.
While Kurenai waited for a new mission, Kiba and Shino helped Hinata apply her salve to the claw marks from the cat.
Tora was currently being squeezed to death by his owner, and while Hinata didn't say it out loud, she mentally agreed with Kiba's earlier statement when they returned the cat, 'He deserves it.'
Line Break
Team Eight sat inside a small cafe, Kurenai decided to buy them all lunch today, rather than train until they were ragged.
The Genin ordered their food and ate in a relatively peaceful silence, the voices of the other customers filling in the quiet.
Kurenai smiles at her team, 'They've come so far...in two weeks will mark their sixth month as a team and I couldn't be more proud,' she thinks.
Hinata glances over at Kurenai, who sat beside her, Kiba and Shino were seated across from the two in the small booth.
"Kurenai-Sensei?" The red eyed woman looks over at Hinata.
"What is it Hinata?" Kurenai asks.
"Can you teach me some Genjutsu?" Hinata asks, "Just basic techniques."
Kurenai nods, "Sure," she looks to her male students, Kiba and Shino shrug, "I guess we can get in some training after lunch then..if you don't mind."
Hinata seems happy to train more, Kiba and Shino seemed reluctant, "How about I add Genjutsu training tomorrow as well, we can train after lunch only if you want to..so if your not up for it you can go home," Kurenai suggests, looking at the two Genin across from her. They nodded in response to her suggestion.
Hinata smiles to herself, 'I really do train a lot, I guess Kiba and Shino just want to head home and rest after lunch today, I don't blame them.'
Kurenai and Hinata head out to the training ground, after they all finished their food they stayed for about twenty more minutes, as Kurenai went over some ideas for team training.
When they arrived the two stand in silence for a moment.
"Hinata, did you ever cast any Genjutsu when you were in the academy?" Kurenai asks.
"No, we only learned how to dispel it really, and some theory behind it," Hinata says, "Since you specialize in Genjutsu I thought to ask you to teach me when I had the opportunity."
Kurenai smiles, "I'm glad you did ask me, I was hoping one of you three would finally take interest. I've taught you a few on how to take advantage of the surroundings and hide yourselves. With the time it would take them to break the illusion you'd have already taken them down."
Hinata nods, "Those techniques are very useful, but I was wondering about techniques that could manipulate the plants, making my opponent think they were under attack or a Genjutsu where it appears your being attacked by a large amount of clones."
Kurenai smirks, "You've come to the right woman, I have a few techniques that you can learn."
Line Break
Hinata makes her way to Team Gai's Training Ground, Kurenai had given them the day off, and it wouldn't be the first time Hinata joined one of Team Gai's Training sessions.
"YOSH! THE YOUTHFUL HINATA HAS DECIDED TO JOIN US AGAIN!" Gai bellows when he notices Hinata. It was early in the morning, about six, some days Team Gai had a later start and this was one of those days.
Tenten smiles in relief when she notices the other female, "Hinata-Chan!" The brunette makes her way over to the younger Genin and hugs her tightly, "You have no idea how happy I am to see you again," Tenten whispers.
"Yosh! Good morning the ever youthful Hinata!" Lee greets, the mini me gave Hinata a thumbs up in his 'good guy stance' as Naruto described it.
"Good morning Lee-Kun, Tenten-Chan, Gai-San, and Neji-Nii-San," Hinata says cheerfully in response.
Neji sighs, "I don't understand how you can be so cheerful in the morning, especially when you join us in training."
"Alright everyone!" Gai yells, "For our warm up it will be ten laps around Konoha! A hundred each of our usual stretches. And then the real training begins!"
Tenten and Hinata run at the same pace, as Lee and Neji race on ahead, "Gai-Sensei usually gives us a lighter load on Saturdays, considering the other teams are usually taking today off," the brunette explains.
Hinata nods in understanding, "Wanna see if we can beat Lee and Neji?" Hinata asks.
Tenten is about to say no when Hinata picks up speed, going for the win, Tenten sighs and shakes her head, 'I'll never understand how Hinata-Chan enjoys our training sessions.'
They get a small break between the run and warm ups, another small break, and then onto the days challenge.
"Neji and Tenten will be each other's sparring partners today. Lee and Hinata will also be sparring partners. Today's focus is on Taijutsu," Gai announces, "Begin!"
Hinata stays in her Gentle Fist stance, her legs were spread farther apart, while one hand was by her hip and the other in front of her. Compared to Neji's Gentle Fist stance, her's looked similar but was way looser, allowing her more flexibility and room to maneuver.
Hinata activates her Byakugan, having learned how to without using hand signs long ago. Activating her bloodline was as easy as breathing for her now.
Lee shifted into his stance, having waited for her to be ready first, before in a blur of a green he was sending a kick down at her, Hinata rolled to the side and got to her feet, rushing at Lee head on.
Lee sends a punch at her but with quick reflexes that came from training from such a young age, Hinata was able to dodge to the left, grab his arm and block a few chakra points in his arm with her other hand.
The two jump back from each other, Lee rushes forward once more, and right before he attacked Hinata slammed a chakra filled palm onto his chest and knocked him back, Lee was able to keep himself up, though he visibly winced, a hand on his side where Hinata struck.
"Good job Hinata-Chan! The ability to find and hit an opening in such a short amount of time shows you've come far, and that you see more than just the chakra points on your opponent with your Byakugan," Gai shouts from the sidelines.
Gai's voice distracts the Hyuuga and in a second Lee pins her to the ground, his fist an inch away from her face, and wins the spar.
Hinata pouts and Lee stands up holding his hand to her, "Thanks Lee," the two get back into their stances and begin again.
Line Break
Sometime during the third week of April Team Seven finally return from their C-Rank mission.
Hinata, Kiba, and Shino were taking a break when Kurenai notices a bird flying around in the sky, she notices the seal and realizes that its summoning all the Jounin and Chunin, 'I hadn't realizrd its already time,' Kurenai thinks, glancing at her students who watched her curiously, "I'll be back," is all she says before leaving the training ground.
"All the Jounin and Chunin," Hinata says, watching the circling bird, "What do you think it means?" she asks, looking at Shino.
The Aburame adjusts his glasses before speaking, "I think its about the Chunin Exams. Why? Because they are held twice a year, we graduated almost six months ago now, and the first Exam of the year is udually held in June," Shino answers.
"The Chunin Exams? Do you think we'll be able to enter?" Kiba asks.
"I don't think so," Hinata replies, "We are Rookie's compared to all the Genin who will be participating this year, especially if Gai-San decides to enter Neji-Nii-San's team."
"It would be really funny if the Rookie Nine are participating this year...just for irony since it hasn't happened in years, and the fact we are all very green compared to the other participants," Kiba says.
Its quiet as they ponder Kiba's words...it's a very outlandish idea that Team Eight would participate this year, but then again...anything could happen.
The next morning when Team Eight arrived at the training ground and Kurenai handed them the forms.
The three Genin were in shock and disbelief, "B-But we've been on a team for only six months!" Kiba says in astonishment.
Kurenai smiles, "I know, and I trust you all will be able to do your best," she says, "The Chunin Exams will be your toughest obstacle yet. And I know you'll overcome it."
"Thank you Kurenai-Sensei," Hinata says with a smile.
"In one week you'll meet in room 314 at 3 o'clock, the test is optional, so you don't have to come," Kurenai says, "I'll see you then, you have this week off to think about your decision and to rest, if you decide to take the Chunin Exams you will need all the rest you can get."
To be continued...
AN: The Chunin Exams are here! I hope you enjoy this chapter!
To LB Cat: I'm glad you love it! Thank you for reviewing and I hope you enjoy this chapter!
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To Splaaash-attack: They are too cute lol. Thank you for reviewing! I hope you enjoy this chapter!
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