Chapter 8:

Naruto stared at her, surprised that he'd have run into her at Ichiraku Ramen. "What are you doing here?"

Her face turned a deeper shade of red and she stammered her response until the owner stepped in.

"She spent the day here to learn how to make ramen."

"Heh? But I saw you not too long ago, chasing down Kiba."

"Kiba-kun?" She asked, confused; her face losing its flushed color.

"She's been here for most of the day." The owner repeated.

He scratched his head, dumbfounded as always. "Sure looked like her…"

"Hey, Hinata-san, are you going out with Kiba?"

Immediately, the red was back. "N-n-no, h-he's just a f-friend."

"Really? You're not interested in someone else, are you?"

That question was more than the girl could take; she immediately took off, running down the streets for home.

"Nani? Why'd she get so upset?" He wondered, "Course, she's always been shy and I guess most people would be embarrassed by a question like that…"


"Hokage-sama, there have been reports of a strange, unauthorized shinobi in Konoha. What are your orders?"

Tsunade looked up at the ANBU standing in her office. Hastily pulling a document from her face and wiping away the drool, she tried to gain some measure of composure. "Have Kakashi look into it. Handle this visitor in whatever way Kakashi judges appropriate."

"Understood!" The ANBU replied, disappearing in a flicker.


Hinata sat in her room, her heart still racing from her encounter with Naruto. He had actually asked her if she was interested in someone. "Has he actually noticed me?"

"You're quite despondent, Hinata-sama." A familiar voice said from behind her. "A troublesome meeting with Naruto perhaps?"

She turned her head towards the sound and bolted to her feet. Before her 'stood' Aiyoru; though his appearance was hazy.

"Don't fear; I'm only a messenger in this form. It's a combination of bunshin along with a mist technique. There is a slight difference from standard bunshin, but in short, I have no tangible form like this."

"Why are you here?"

"The first phase is almost complete. All I need to do is finish planting the seeds in Naruto's mind then wait for them to grow. After that, phase two can begin. Until then, keep practicing; you may also want to work up some confidence so you'll be able to manage speaking to Naruto after this plan is complete."


The following morning, Naruto met with Aiyoru for practice looking mighty smug.

"I asked a couple of people and neither of them said Hinata'-chan' likes me. You were wrong."

"Chan? I've never called her Hinata-chan. That's your term of endearment, not mine."

"Endear… hey! I told you before-"

"Why is it that you brought this up, anyways? I only wanted to train you. But since you brought it up yourself, I may as well humor you. You always deny that you have any feelings towards her, then why did you get so upset when Neji defeated her during the chuunin exams?"

"If you know about that, then you should know how he beat her. He tried to kill her and break her spirit. She was bad off enough without someone trying to break her down ever further."

"I see, so it was done out of compassion. You do care."

"No! You're not listening!"

"I understand perfectly. You have strong morals; you believe a victory is all that someone needs in a fight. It's wrong to win and humiliate the opponent. Am I correct?"

Naruto nodded.

"You also have very protective instincts. Those who are weaker than yourself or those that can't protect themselves, you want to keep them safe."

"That's right."

"Hinata-sama, though not weak, she breaks down in a fight. That, in addition to your morals and how she was defeated, you jumped in to avenge her."

"Yep."

"Isn't it true that any honorable man would protect his precious person?"

"That's right... wait, where are you going with this?"

"If Sasuke, or better yet, Shino, had suffered such a shocking defeat, would you have gotten as enraged as you had with Hinata? Would you have taken an oath by their blood? You don't need to answer that one, just think about it."

He nodded. "Shit… he's right about that last part…"

"We won't have any training today, as I have more or less completed the new technique. I'll demonstrate it, and then I'll discuss why you're doing so poorly against me in the sparring."

"Just what I want to hear, 'I'm better than you, and here's why'."

Walking a few meters away from Naruto, Aiyoru began gathering chakra. Naruto watched him for nearly a minute before something happened.

At first, it was only a quick flicker of blue running along the ground, leaving a small grove. After a few more seconds, the flickers became constant, and by two minutes, he appeared as if he were inside a rasengan.

"Well, what do you think?"

Naruto stared at him, slack-jawed, before shouting: "That's it? All you did was rip-off Neji's technique and make it worse!"

"Give me a break!" Aiyoru shouted back. "I learned the rasengan, came up with a variation, and got it working in three days. If I had time to properly master the technique, I could do it a lot faster. Besides, the only similarity is how the two look. Notice that I'm not spinning like Neji does. Also, try throwing a stone."

Grinning, Naruto grabbed the largest rock he could find and throw, and sent it towards Aiyoru. It hit the rasengan barrier and instantly disappeared.

"That's the other difference. Unlike Neji's, which repels attacks, this one destroys them. If this could be activated precisely enough, an opponent would be killed in their first melee attack."

"Sugoi!" Naruto shouted. "When will I learn it?"

"Patience. For now, I'm going to tell you why it is you've been doing so poorly against me in our sparring."

"Yeah, yeah. You're stronger than me, I get it."

"Wrong." Aiyoru said, much to his surprise. "Although that is true, it's not enough for the difference in our training. As you know, the kage bunshin divides all remaining chakra among the bodies."

"So? You make more than me… you've got that much chakra?"

"It also takes chakra to create them. As Ebisu has told you, you waste a lot of chakra because of your inefficiency; that's why you're not strong enough to learn the new technique. I, like medic ninjas, have perfect control, so nothing goes to waste. With Kyuubi-"

"Kitsune-baka."

"With Kitsune-baka, you've got a greater chakra supply than I have, but when you use kage bunshin, you're losing most of it from performing the technique. Therefore, I am given the upper hand."

"So if I improve my chakra control, I'd beat you?"

"Well… no, your fighting strategy is still terrible."

"What's wrong with attacking head on?"

Aiyoru sighed.


For the next couple weeks, Naruto trained hard; trying desperately to defeat Aiyoru and to get strong enough to use the new technique.

He kept expecting his tutor to banter about Hinata, but was surprised each day as he made no mention of her. This subtle difference in his behaviour, and the last conversation they did have on that topic, left Naruto thinking about it even more.

In the mean time, Kiba kept running from Kumi, Hinata improved her cooking, Temari continued to rent Aiyoru (despite the protests of her brothers), and Sasuke kept trying to meet up with Naruto. Tsunade, had begun getting impatient.

"You still haven't found Kakahsi?"

"Gomen, Hokage-sama, but he's nowhere to be found." The ANBU replied.

"You've checked his usual hangouts?"

"Yes, we checked every bookstore and all rooftops. It would also seem that Ebisu is nowhere to be found. I tried asking Iruka but he went off about a spray bottle… or something. Then he tried to do… um, something to my leg. He's been sedated and placed in the hospital; it's advised that you take care of his condition personally."

"Alright, but you'd better find Kakashi. If you can't find him by the end of the day, get one of the other jounin to take care of it."


That night, Hinata was visited by the mist bunshin once more.

"The seeds have sprouted. I can hear him through the walls of his apartment, muttering about it. It is now time for phase two to begin. Are you prepared?"

She nodded. "I think so, what do I have to do?"

He took a step towards her and let out a throaty laugh. After a second step without a reply left her feeling more than a little nervous; she took a step away.

Aiyoru continued to approach her and placed a hand over her mouth. "Mist: it lacks any significant physical form, but should the vapors be compressed, it then becomes the more dense water, which, when used as a bunshin, does have a form."

Still laughing, he restrained her movements and headed for the window.


Since I've noticed it's hard to tell when there's been a change of scene, I've added the line to show when it happens.

Man, I really need to pay more attention, I just noticed the site. For anyone interested, I'm going to (eventually) post an original story or two over there.

Sorry for not having updated for so long, my laptop's hard drive got erased, then broke, then my video card died, and all the while, the 'm' key wasn't working right. Still hasn't been fixed, but now I have an alternative.

Now for reviews:

theif-uchia: It'll be NaruHina, I can't resist using that pairing (Avid NaruHina fan), but I can also say that Sasuke's going to do his best to to turn things towards yaoi. I'll give this away now (since it's still not saying much), but Itachi will see the 'new' Sasuke.

Alixen: Thank you for the information and constructive critisicm (which is what I'veactually been hoping to receive since I started this fic).I tried to explain a bit why Aiyoru can beat Naruto in a fight (of kage bunshins). Aiyoru's 'omniscience' is intended as a bit of a joke, like how Sakura and Ino knew about the late night 'mouth-washing' and Sasuke knew about Jiraiya. I'm glad you're getting some laughs from the story. This may come as a bit of a shock, but Iruka is actually one of the characters I respect the most. His odd behaviour is just done for laughs and I sometimes think that (behind the scenes) he really wants some more attention. I hope you'll continue to enjoy this fic.