"I just don't get what this is supposed to say, Hinata." Naruto plopped to the ground and lay there among the mess of scrolls and books. "I was never good at precise chakra control. Or book learning."
Hinata closed her notes and looked down at the restless shinobi she was assigned to help. Over the years Naruto had grown taller, his body strong, but lean, not overly muscular like some shinobi. At the moment he wore only a black shirt and his orange pants, slightly too short for his legs, but as he lay there it only gave him a look of comfort and contentment.
As for Hinata, she had grown into a woman's figure. She wasn't overly beautiful as one might say of Ino or Sakura, but she preferred it that way. She had never been meant to stand out, and so her plain outfit had never changed except to accommodate her full female figure.
As she talked to Naruto, Hinata was just glad she had gained enough self-confidence over the years to let her act normal. Her crush wasn't the same as it was when she was thirteen. Now, she cared for Naruto with a quiet admiration. It wasn't the flustered, girlish puppy love that would leave her tongue tied when he approached.
"I understand it's difficult, Naruto-kun. That's why Hokage-sama asked me to teach you, since I'm a Hyuuga and understand the inner coils system better than most. I'm not sure how helpful I'm being, though." She picked up one of the open scrolls in front of her and examined it in hopes of thinking of a new way to explain the information.
Naruto sat up and scratched at the back of his head. "It's not you, Hinata. This stuff just doesn't make sense to me. I don't see why I need to learn any healing stuff, either. I heal a lot faster than most people."
"But what if you're on a mission without a med-nin and one of your team is hurt. You may not be able to fix everything, but knowledge of basic medical techniques might save his life. Besides, it's good to have skills in everything for when you become Hokage."
"I guess so," he conceded. "The Hokage should be able to take care of anything. But I just don't get this. I'm used to using a lot of chakra in my attacks; this little detailed way just doesn't suit me."
"It's hard to learn this from books and scrolls," Hinata agreed. "Usually it's done by practice."
"Then let's try that!" Naruto interrupted enthusiastically as he reached over to his jacket, which was hanging on the chair next to Hinata, and grabbed a kunai.
"No!" Hinata cried, reaching for Naruto's hand but getting the kunai blade sliced along her palm when he turned to her outburst. She cringed slightly at the stinging and quickly pressed her hands together to try and quell the bleeding.
"Hinata! I'm sorry! I was going to cut myself. I heal really quick, it wouldn't have mattered. I didn't mean to get you."
Hinata merely smiled up to him as he leaned over to try and see her hand. "It's all right. My own fault for reaching out for it. The cut isn't that deep, either." She pulled away her uninjured hand to show the wound. "See, almost stopped bleeding already."
"I'm really sorry, Hinata."
Hinata's gentle gaze traced the lines of guilt tensing Naruto's handsome face. "I said it's all right. And now we have an example for you to work on. We don't have to waste this."
"But, I'm not good at this. I wouldn't have cared if I screwed up on myself. You would've been able to fix that."
"And I can fix any mistakes you make on my hand just as easily." Hinata knelt on the floor next to Naruto and wiped the blood away on her pants. "Now, since you don't know how to stop blood flow and heal at the same time, you'll need to stop blood flow first. Do you remember how to do that?"
Naruto looked at her hand intently. "Um, something about chakra . . . below the skin?"
"Close enough," Hinata said, offering an encouraging smile to Naruto. "You put a thin layer of chakra just beneath the cut, not only so it stops the bleeding, but also to prepare the skin for healing. Go on, try it."
Naruto eyed her outstretched hand hesitantly but soon took it gently into his own. A fair crimson color washed over Hinata's cheeks, and she silently thanked whoever was watching over her that Naruto was looking at her hand, not her face. The chakra was faint at first, but soon enough Naruto's chakra enveloped her hand and overwhelmed it.
"Too much!" Hinata squeaked as her free hand hurried to muffle her laughter. "You don't need that much." Her shoulders shook in her attempt to not simply rip her hand away and scratch it. "It tickles, Naruto-kun."
Dropping his chakra level, Naruto grinned apologetically. "Sorry, Hinata. Just habit, I guess."
"It's all right, Naruto-kun." She took a deep breath and composed herself as best she could. "But look, it worked. The cut isn't bleeding anymore." It itched to no end, but no bleeding.
Naruto's expression brightened as he looked at the wound, now shimmering slightly from visible chakra. "Hey, it isn't! What do I do now?" An eager, almost innocent, desire filled his eyes, the kind that showed how much he wanted to know. The kind that made Hinata admire him so much.
She let her fingers trace the edge of the cut as she explained, "Use chakra to activate the cells of the skin. It merely speeds up regeneration. What would take days or weeks can be done in seconds or minutes."
"But how do I know how much chakra to use?" he asked.
"You feel out the chakra of the person you're healing. If they're badly injured you'll use more chakra so that you don't waste any of theirs. But for a simple cut like this you don't need much at all." Hinata rested her fingers over his and let their chakras merge as it entered the wound. "Do you feel how my chakra is moving against yours?"
"Yeah. I can feel it pushing against mine."
"Don't fight against it. Healing isn't like fighting where two chakras have to face off. Work with my chakra. Follow its natural pathways. If you let it lead you, you will be able to feel how much chakra to use in healing. The wound is what will feel unnatural. Fight the wound, not me."
Slowly, Hinata felt the alien pressure fading and his chakra began feeling out the pathways in her palm. It was odd how different his chakra felt from her own. Even as Naruto worked to meld their chakras Hinata could feel the power behind it, as if it was taking all his concentration to not simply release it all at once. She dared a glimpse at his face and found how determined and focused he had become. In truth, she would have been happy to stay there and study the strength so subtly showing in his face.
The tingling, itchy sensation that accompanied cell activity ripped the young med-nin out of her reverie and back to the task at hand. The cut on her palm had begun to close thanks to Naruto's efforts and in a matter of minutes only a faint line remained as evidence of the wound. Once Naruto was gone Hinata would get rid of even that. She wouldn't diminish his accomplishment at the moment, though.
She smiled to him and gentleness quieted her voice. "See, you could do it."
"Of course! The Hokage is the greatest shinobi in the village, so there isn't anything I can't learn." Naruto laughed excitedly, never noticing the pure admiration in Hinata's gaze.
But just watching him was enough for her, and she grabbed a notebook from the table as he celebrated. She tried to read the notes and drawings but soon became hyper aware of how close Naruto had come behind her.
"Hinata, what's all that?" he asked, pointing over her shoulder to a hand drawing of the inner coils system in her notebook.
She let out a nervous laugh before answering. "That's what the inner coils system looks like. To a Hyuuga, that is."
Naruto settled down behind her, leaning against her back so as to see the drawing better. "That's what you see, with Byakugan?"
"More or less. I'm not the best artist, so it's rather crude."
"So you drew this?" Naruto grabbed the notebook from her and held it up level with their faces, his arms resting lightly on her shoulders as he read.
A quick nod was all Hinata could manage to reply.
"That's pretty amazing. The chakra system, I mean. Not that your drawings are bad," he quickly amended. He turned the page and silently studied her notes. "You're really detailed. I don't understand half of what this says."
"Not many outside the Hyuuga clan can. Some things you just have to see to understand. I started drawing it so that I could try and explain a few things to Sakura-chan when we used to work together. It helped me more than her, I think, so I kept doing it. I don't get as distracted with drawings."
"Distracted?"
Hinata bowed her head in slight embarrassment. "The chakra system can be very beautiful. When I'm just studying it, sometimes I forget what I'm doing and just end up watching the chakra move."
She felt his legs against her own as she was pulled to rest against him. He closed the book and held his hand out before she could wonder what he was doing. "What does my chakra look like?"
"Uh, Naruto-kun, what do you mean?" Hinata knew the bewilderment had to be plain to see on her face.
"What's my chakra look like? I'm curious."
It took her a moment to process everything that was happening, since even if it was nothing, this was the first time she'd been so close to him. She nervously took his hand in hers, barely managing to keep them from shaking, and activated Byakugan. The swift-moving blue color flowing through his hand calmed her slightly. There was something completely natural about it, and it made even their falsely intimate embrace seem comfortable.
"It looks blue to me. I can see the coils system in your hand, the chakra flowing easily through it." With more habit than bravery, Hinata began following the pathways with her fingertips. "Since you just used chakra it's moving faster than normal, especially here," she traced up his fingers as she spoke, "where you were releasing it. To my eyes, your entire hand is glowing with chakra."
She didn't even consciously realize that she had spread her palm over Naruto's until his fingers slipped between her own and held her hand. "Hinata."
The softness in his voice shocked her more than anything. A quiet sound that almost felt unnatural for the normally rambunctious shinobi. Almost.
"See," Hinata whispered, her hands trembling in his grasp. "I can get so distracted."
Even though her body refused to turn to look at him, Byakugan let her see the indecision on his face. Without that she never could have brought up the courage to wrap her fingers over his hand as he tried to pull away.
"Maybe, just a moment more." She released Byakugan and pulled their joined hands to her chest. "Just a moment more."
He didn't answer her, but he held on and she could feel his body resting against her. For Hinata, that was enough.