::Yes, not much happened in the last chapter (or so some think) but if you look at it with an eye to the story as a whole I couldn't bring about these changes any faster without losing quality or believability. It's hard to hold back and keep Naruto from pummeling everyone who ever teased him. ^_^ Also, expect some time to pass between chapters (plotwise). I'll usually mention how much time in the story somewhere, but not always. Triple thank-you to my reviewers!::
Naruto landed on his backside once again and bit back a yelp. Hiashi would just hit him harder if he cried out. He got to his feet and settled into a defensive pose again. Hiashi shook his head. "We're done for today. When you leave, send Hanabi in." Naruto leapt to the door and ran down the hall. He skidded to a stop outside the door to the room he thought of as the "Girls'" practice room and went in. "Han—" He ducked as a shuriken whistled passed and embedded itself in the wall behind him. Hinata was the only one in the room and she looked ready to pass out.
"Oh! I'm so sorry, Naruto-kun!" she said, running over. Naruto ran a hand through his spiky hair to make sure it was all still there and grinned.
"Don't worry about it, Hinata-chan. I probably should've knocked or something." Then he looked around again. "Where's Hanabi-chan? Hiashi-sama wants her in the practice room."
Hinata pulled a couple of shuriken and kunai out of a target next to the door. "She headed over a few minutes ago. These days it seems she can tell exactly how long Father will keep you…" Naruto gave Hinata a close look. She sounded rather sad about her sister's ability to read their father.
"Hinata, are you jealous?" he asked.
She stared at him a moment, then shook her head. "No, at least I don't think so. I just wish I could be as strong as her…Then Father might be proud of me, too."
Naruto blinked. Hinata had never seemed that unhappy to him. Quiet, yes, but never as pained as she looked right now. He knew how hard it was to grow up with people ignoring you or hating you, without the love of a parent, but what about having a parent's love and not their respect? Everyone in Konoha knew Hiashi favored Neji and Hanabi to Hinata, but she was so mild mannered no one had noticed how she felt about it. Feeling rather awkward about it, Naruto walked up and stopped in front of Hinata just a few inches away. They were about the same height, but she only saw the dark blue of his pants and his shoes as her vision blurred.
Hinata gasped as Naruto wrapped his arms around her and squeezed. He waited, anticipating a shocked response and a rejection. Then his eyes bugged out of his head as he stared at the opposite wall. Hinata's arms had come up to gently hold him back. She rested her head on his shoulder and sniffed. "Naruto…kun…" He rubbed a hand up and down her back as he'd seen mothers on the street do with upset children. She sniffed and took a deep breath and he could feel the tension leaving her.
It was the best feeling in the world. Naruto loved hugs, he'd only ever gotten a few. Hinata was surprised she had been able to calm down while being hugged by her long-time crush. Her body felt warm, and it wasn't an embarrassed warmth, just…comfort. She sighed in contentment, happy to stay just like this. Alas there was an outside world, and the couple became aware of it in their own time.
Naruto took a step back and Hinata let go as well. She brushed away the streaks left near her eyes and Naruto asked quietly, "Do you want to trade off? I'll teach you some more advanced ninjutsu if you help me with your—er—Hiashi-sama's training." He'd stumbled there, almost saying 'your father' which could have been okay, except Hiashi was now his father too.
Hinata gave Naruto her best, small smile. "Sure. How about we go outside..?" He nodded and waited. Hinata felt a little strange leading the way, but the moment her feet hit that familiar path she was off. I get to spend time alone with Naruto-kun! I got to hug Naruto-kun! She was so preoccupied, that she didn't hear the fighting sounds coming up ahead. Naruto did hear, and he took an extra jump forward to catch Hinata's wrist. She turned and saw Naruto hold a finger to his leaps and pointed ahead. She listened. There were people training at her favorite spot!
"Is that where we're headed?" Naruto asked quietly. Hinata nodded, feeling sad. Now they'd have to find somewhere else. Naruto jumped right on by. She reached out to catch him, but missed. Nervous, she followed. What is he going to do? When Naruto stopped on a tree branch off to the side of the entrance of the grounds, Hinata landed beside him. He was peeking in to see who was there.
Neji.
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Neji glared at the ground in frustration. The theory made sense, but he still couldn't do it. The byakugan was supposedly the tree the sharingan got its seed from, and the sharingan wasn't only a passive ability. He knew there was something else to the byakugan, some lost jutsu or knowledge that could make him stronger… There was a shifting in the trees that had nothing to do with wind. Neji brought out a few shuriken and threw them.
His cousin, Hinata, and his—adopted—cousin Naruto jumped to the ground to avoid the sharp stars. Neji scowled. "What do you want?" he asked. Why did they have to bother me? Hiashi shouldn't know what I'm trying to do… Of course he's probably still jealous for that move during the chuunin exam.
Hinata looked at the ground, her hair hanging forward much as Neji thought wet seaweed looked like. He waited for her to answer, but then Naruto said clearly, "We came out here to train, but heard someone else around so we decided to see who."
If the baka was anything, it was honest and blunt. Neji took it as truth, and silently thanked kami that there were at leas two members of the main house who were honest with him. He still didn't trust Hiashi, even after the exam when he read the scroll from his father. He trusted Hanabi even less. Neji waited for them to leave. Naruto didn't look ready to be going anywhere. "Would you leave already?" Neji said.
Naruto blinked. "Hey! You had your turn on the grounds, now it's mine and Hinata's." He grinned. "Unless you plan on training with us."
Neji could think of a number of things he'd rather do than train with Naruto and Hinata. He was about to say so when something occurred to him. Perhaps he could unlock the byakugan's more active powers if he tried to do it fighting other people? He let his hands rest by his sides and said, "Very well, come at me."
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Hinata could barely believe it. Neji was agreeing to train with them! Her and Naruto. While Neji had stopped hating her and had a degree of respect for Naruto's strength, this was unexpected. She performed some hand seals, activating the byakugan. Neji did the same. Naruto just scratched his head. "Uh, I can't use the gentle fist yet…"
Neji snorted. "You can't learn it, you don't have the blood." Hinata felt a twinge of anger at that comment, but it went away quickly. It flew off into a hidden somewhere where all of her ill-meaning thoughts and feelings fled the moment they were born. Then Neji shifted his feet and she settled into the familiar defense position.
"No, no!" Naruto said. Neji and Hinata stopped and looked at the blond nin. Naruto was looking at Hinata. "Don't try to protect first! Attack!" Hinata blinked. It's best to take up a defensive position, isn't it? Even Neji-nii-san… Yet she never attacked first. Maybe she should try to start the fight for once. Neji waited as she shifted her feet and arms. There! She thought, and she lunged in. Neji avoided the strike to the inside and tried to strike her in the chest. Hinata's eyes went wide. He's attacking with his full chakra! She panicked a bit and fowled her footing. She tripped backwards and fell, missing Neji's attack, but also bruising her rear. "Hinata!" Naruto said.
The next moment he was standing over her holding a hand out. His eyes asked the question. "I'm fine…Naruto-kun," she said quietly, blushing from the stupid mistake she'd just made more than from getting to hold Naruto's hand. Slowly she was beginning to get accustomed to his presence. Neji looked like a disappointed school master.
"What's the point? You're not even a chuunin yet," he said. Naruto opened his mouth to object, but Hinata pulled his sleeve and he looked at her hung head.
"He's right, Naruto-kun. I haven't even managed to pass the chuunin exam."
Naruto couldn't believe that. "He was willing to try earlier. Oy! Neji!" He jogged over to catch up. Neji turned and looked at Naruto as if he were a whining stray come to beg food.
"What?"
Naruto grinned. "What do you say to meeting here tomorrow at the same time? Give us twenty-four hours and we'll give you a work-out to remember." Neji looked intrigued.
"Twenty-four hours, then." Hinata watched Neji walk away and shivered.
As Naruto came back she asked, "Why do you want him to come back? Nothing is going to change in twenty-four hours."
Naruto peered at her in an unnerving way. "That's all the time you need to master a new technique, and I'm going to help you." Hinata blinked.
"A-a new technique?"
"Yeah… Just listen closely…"
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The next day Naruto stumbled out of the main practice room feeling rather bruised. He knew it would fade away soon, but it still irked him how he couldn't seem to understand the so-called 'basics' of Hyuuga taijutsu. Hiashi seemed to think Naruto only needed to master the style to a point, using punches instead of chakra. So far Naruto thought it was closer to dancing than fighting—except when Hiashi hit him. Hopefully Hinata has been resting up, she was dead tired after yesterday. And Hiashi-sama wasn't too happy about our late arrival at dinner either. Naruto picked up the path to the out door training ground, his mind elsewhere as his feet followed the path from yesterday.
He found the area empty when he arrived. "Hinata-chan?"
"Here." Naruto jumped and looked behind him. Hinata had been right at his elbow, and a pink blush glowed on her cheeks. Naruto sighed.
"Well, at least you got the invisibility genjutsu down." I can't believe I didn't sense her right behind me!
"Well what do we have here?" said a familiar voice. Naruto turned to look at the gap in the trees and stared.
"Pervert-senin! What the heck are you doing here?" Naruto said. Jiraiya waved from his spot under the trees.
Hinata stared. She knew this man from Naruto's stories. Jiraiya, one of the three legendary nins of the Hidden Leaf. What is he doing here? Is he going to take Naruto away?!
Jiraiya eyed Hinata with interest. "Nice choice, Boyo, she looks like a sweet girl." Hinata blushed and Naruto looked ready to ring the man's throat.
"She's not my girlfriend, she's my sister!!" Naruto yelled. Jiraiya blinked, and Hinata flinched.
Sister… Hinata didn't want him to think of her as a sibling, that wasn't the kind of love she sought. She wanted him to think of growing up with her instead of growing up and going away. It was possible that Naruto did love her as a woman, how could he tell when he had never known a sister's love? It wasn't like she'd ever told him how she felt, and had asked him about his feelings.
Jiraiya looked at the sun and sighed. "Listen kid, there's something I need to teach you before we lose the time. I spoke to the Hokage and Hiashi, and they agreed that I could take you off the active roster for a month of training."
Naruto perked. "Hey! Could Hinata train with us? She's on her own most of the time."
Hinata's breath caught. A month with Naruto learning from one of the three? She dared to hope.
"Father is more interested in training Hanabi than me, she's continued to improve…" Hinata offered. Jiraiya looked at the her, really looked at her, and considered.
"It might be worth it. You two pack up—keep it light. I'll go have a quick word with your father."
An hour later, Jiraiya, Naruto, and Hinata left the gates of the village.
….Meanwhile…
Neji pounded a fist into the ground. How dare that girl leave now! He thought he might be on to something as far as extending the usefulness of the byakugan was concerned, and he needed another member of the Hyuuga family to try it. Hinata was the only one who would let him. Damn it! Naruto, where did you take her?!
::And that's it for now. I've reached chapter 184 in the manga at this point, but another chapter for this fic will probably take as long as this one -_- I'm sorry. I have a week of classes left and finals, so I don't have the mental resources to write more just yet. Again, sorry for the wait and lack of action!::
