Because I Love You - Chasing After You

by The Flare Blade

Hiruzen knew that Tazuna's request was much more dangerous and important than it first appeared to be. He needed experienced ninja for the mission, but his hands were tied because of politics... until he sees a loophole. Using an educational project as cover, he will send two teams to Wave! A Naruto retelling with Hinata as a main character but with canon teams. (Ch1-5 revised!)

6. Chapter 6 - Bonds, part 2

So, here it is! The conclusion to the Prologue arc!

First of all, my apologies for yet another delay... my beta was caught in the middle of a storm and couldn't get home to finish his work in time and send it to me. And then it turned out that there were a LOT of things to fix in this chapter, so the revision process was much longer for both of us. I could've posted it yesterday, yes, but it would be without a full proofread done. Not a good idea.

That's pretty much it, though I did waste 30 mins watching the last Smash Bros direct and shaking my head at the whole thing. Can't believe Robin, Lucina and Corrin all got in and Chrom is still just a final smash... IMO they should've added Itsuki+Chrom (Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE aka SMTxFE) to advertise a game that NEEDED that kind of thing. Fates will sell wonderfully on its own—heck, it already did in japan...

Reopened salty old wounds aside, there's an action sequence towards the end. It's nowhere as big as Chapter 4's were (this one is just a spar) and is hardly the focus of the chapter... Nonetheless, I hope that you will enjoy it (and the rest of the chapter, of course).

...That's all I wanted to say for now. Oh, actually, maybe you should look up the info on my profile if you haven't already. But read this chapter first, since you are already here.

---

The Prologue

Chapter 6: Bonds, part 2 (Current Version: 2.0)

---

"Ugh, I can still smell the stink of booze," Kiba whined, waving his hand in front of his nose in an attempt to alleviate his suffering.

The children had split up from the adults only a few minutes beforehand, at the entrance of the Hokage's tower, because Tazuna's hotel was in the opposite direction of where Training Ground 3 was located. Currently, the two genin squads were walking through the busy streets Konoha, with Team 7 leading the way. All three of Kakashi's students were silent, their attention split between the walk and overhearing Team 8's conversation.

"You know, talking about smells reminds me of something," Kiba turned to a nervous-looking Hinata, who was between himself and Shino. "What happened back there when we left you alone with Kakashi?"

Hinata gulped, dreading the direction this conversation was sure to take. "W-well... I... Kakashi-sensei wanted to talk about that attack that I landed on him. And... and when I t-tried to get up, my foot starting hurting, so he brought me to the infirmary."

The girl was fully aware that she was not following Kakashi's suggestion; she should've also mentioned his lecture about trust and that she definitely needed to apologize to her team... but knowing what she had to do and actually having the courage to do it were very, very different things. Talking about one's own failures was generally not very easy for the average person, but Hinata took failing others much harder than most thanks to her upbringing. She could only hope that Kiba would drop the subject, but she knew better than to actually expect it.

"And... what happened in the infirmary? Did the nurse find out why you fainted? Y-you're not sick, right?" Kiba asked, not even giving the girl enough time to answer. While Shino realized that Hinata was hiding something and that she had purposefully mentioned the infirmary to change the subject, the Inuzuka took the bait immediately, worried about his teammate's well-being.

"N-not... not exactly," Hinata frowned, uneasy. "I... apparently I f-fainted because of chakra exhaustion. When the nurse went to heal me, he said... that the tenketsu of the feet and the surrounding area were b-burned from releasing too much chakra at once, even though I... I don't really think that I used that much chakra. He healed me, but I won't be able to t-train with you guys for around 3 hours or so. The nurse said that the damage was on my chakra pathway system, so I shouldn't use chakra for the time being."

Hinata once again was weirded out by the diagnosis. Though she considered that a miscalculation was possible, the Byakugan allowed her know that she hadn't been using that much chakra. The nurse became unsure about her condition when she had explained that, but all of her other symptoms matched chakra exhaustion.

Normally, when people are just "out of chakra", it merely means that they don't have enough to use it in techniques, even low-cost ones like a weak Gentle Fist strike or a Clone Jutsu. However, all humans require a certain amount of chakra to survive, and if their reserves end up with less than what the body needs then the body shuts down to conserve the physical and spiritual energies necessary to produce chakra. Having the brain work with less chakra than usual easily explains the headache, but the damage to Hinata's legs had no certain cause yet.

"Well, I guess that using that move again is out of question then, huh? How does that attack even work anyways? I never heard of a Hyuuga using Gentle Fist with the legs." Kiba had been very surprised by the blue flash that he saw coming from Hinata's feet right before Kakashi dragged her underground. It seemed illogical, but when the jonin surfaced, it was clear that he couldn't move his hands and that the Gentle Fist had been used. 'Or maybe Gentle Step would be a better name,' Kiba mused.

"As much as I am also curious, I believe that there is a more important question to be asked," Shino interrupted, drawing the attention of his two teammates to himself. "What was the reasoning behind choosing to use such an attack to counter Kakashi's doton technique, Hinata?"

"Isn't it obvious?" the Inuzuka snorted. "She was trying to give us an opening to get the bells, duh!" Kiba thought that Shino's question was pointless, but the way Hinata paled and immediately looked away made him rethink that conclusion.

"I am not questioning that, which was obvious enough that even you were able to figure out." It took two seconds for the Inuzuka to realize that he was being insulted, but Shino continued before Kiba could say anything else. "But that strategy would leave Hinata unable to help us unless you went back to dig her out, as Akamaru had been unconscious at that point. That would either leave me to fight Kakashi by myself or directly result in him fleeing and us having to pursue him again. I believe that we had agreed to get the bells together."

"I... I fainted right a-afterwards, s-so I don't re—"

"You just said that you didn't use enough chakra to pass out when you tried that attack," Shino cut her off, not even allowing the girl to finish telling her hastily-made lie.

"And from the way you looked at me when you turned around, I know that you had a plan." Kiba continued, now regarding the girl with suspicion.

Hinata stared at her feet, not having enough courage to look at her teammates. 'Should I tell them?'

But Shino essentially made the decision for her. "The plan was for all of us to get the bells, but you went against that, willingly. Were you still not trying to get the bells so that Kiba and I wouldn't be sent back to the academy?"

The girl's lavender eyes widened.

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Kiba looked back and forth between his teammates, not knowing from where that question had come from. Despite Hinata's silent plea for him to don't say anything, Shino told Kiba about his conversation with Hinata when they met up in the woods (though he at least did not say anything about how she was crying before that, much to the girl's relief).

"Hinata, are you crazy?! Your clan would practically kill you if you went back to the academy!" While Kiba wasn't aware of how exactly the Hyuuga Clan would deal with such a situation, he knew that they wouldn't take it well and he was sure that Hinata had the most to lose out of the three of them. "And wait a sec, I thought that you and Shino had figured out that we needed to grab the bells together to pass. You were even the one to tell me that!"

An awkward, tense silence formed between the members of Team 8.

Hinata knew that she had been caught and that she owned her teammates an explanation, but she was struggling to find the right words to say, never mind gathering the courage to actually speak up. Meanwhile, Shino and Kiba wanted answers, but they saw that the girl was fidgeting in a way that suggested that she was trying to think of something to say, so they gave her some space. The trio of eavesdroppers that were just ahead of them didn't know what to make of everything they were hearing.

Eventually, Hinata started to speak. "I... I was r-really scared of... of what w-would've happened to you two if you d-didn't pass and... and since I'm the most useless of our team, I t-thought that if one of us had to fail, it should've been me. Kakashi-sensei didn't confirm that w-we were right about how to pass the test, s-so..."

"So you assumed the worst and acted on your own to ensure that I and Kiba would pass." Shino completed, his flat tone still managing to convey his disappointment. "I believe that I told you before that our team does not function properly without you or any of its members." The boy also was hurt that Hinata hadn't believed in him, but he chose not to mention that. She looked troubled enough as it was.

"Yeah, Shino's right!" Kiba agreed, looking at the girl expectantly. "C'mon Hinata, we wouldn't be Team 8 without you!" Even Akamaru barked in agreement, looking down worriedly at the young Hyuuga from his position atop his owner's head.

"I... sorry. I-I hope that you can forgive me..."

"I forgive you, but don't repeat this kind of performance again," Shino stated bluntly, unaware of the glare that Kiba was sending his way.

Seeing that the Aburame didn't make Hinata feel much better, the Inuzuka quickly tried to make up for his friend's lackluster social skills. "Hey, don't worry too much about it. Everything worked out in the end, didn't it?" Kiba then gently ruffled her hair, knowing that a hug would not have the comforting effect he wanted thanks to Hinata being somewhat adverse to physical contact. A small giggle told him that he, at least, succeeded in raising her spirits a little. "But be more careful next time, got it?"

The Inuzuka smiled, raising an eyebrow when he saw that Hinata actually tried to fix her hair afterwards. Hinata wasn't known for caring that much about her appearance, and her hair hadn't been in a perfect state to begin with (much like her coat). Kiba did know that he had never seen Hinata trying to look prettier after training, so it weirded him out.

A hint of amusement was added to his smile once he realized that a certain blond's presence might have been the cause of that unusual behavior. 'This girl never changes. Though I guess that I shouldn't mention to her that what she is doing is kinda useless with her clothes as dirty as they are...'

Hinata mumbled an affirmative to Kiba's earlier question, happy that her teammates weren't angry with her, but it was drowned out by Shino's voice. "You do not have much credibility to be berating someone for their carelessness. Fighting Kakashi on your own was your least intelligent decision yet, which is truly saying something."

"Hey, Akamaru was with me!" The Inuzuka growled, followed by a bark from the aforementioned dog.

"That's beside the point and—"

"Shino-kun, d-don't provoke Kiba-kun like that," Hinata pleaded, making the boys back away from each other. Hinata had a slight frown of worry, but it went away as a shy smile appeared instead. "B-besides, Shino-kun, have you forgotten about our last D-rank mission?"

"Ah, indeed. That was far more idiotic."

Kiba groaned. "Even you, Hinata?! I thought we agreed to never talk about that again," he huffed. "In the end, you are really my only ally, right Akamaru?"

The dog merely jumped from Kiba's head to the ground and walked beside Hinata, turning his back on his master. The girl in question merely giggled at Kiba's incredulous expression. "He still hasn't forgiven you."

"I already apologized to him! Traitor..." The Inuzuka growled, crossing his arms. "Stupid Nara clan and their stupid-looking deer..."

"I thought they were cute..." Hinata mumbled.

Kiba snorted. "You weren't the one who got chased by them."

"Indeed, Hinata wasn't stupid enough to have tried to—"

"Argh, just shut it already, Shino! You know that I only did what I did because you..."

As Hinata then tried to diffuse the ongoing conflict between her teammates, the members of Team 7 quietly reflected on what Kurenai had said to them and how her own team seemed to prove her right.

Sakura saw first-hand how supporting her teammates could be important. She wasn't familiar with Shino, and as such didn't know that his actions weren't as insensible as they seemed, but Kiba had shown her a clear example of how she could help her teammates with their issues. Despite calling her crazy, Kiba did try to help Hinata overcome her problem a little and managed to make the girl smile in the end. Perhaps, Sakura thought, one day she might be supporting Naruto and Sasuke like that.

Sasuke, on the other hand, was thinking about how Shino said that Team 8 wouldn't be working as well without any of its members. Once you compared what each of them was able to do, it was easy to realize that having only two of them instead of all three would indeed cripple the team, both in combat and when tracking. They were at their strongest when they were together. The Aburame also showed to Sasuke that his teammates could be annoying, but they just might be worth the trouble... one day. But much had to change before that happened, and that included himself.

Naruto's thoughts were along the lines of those of his teammates, but with a completely different focus.

The blond wondered if his teammates could one day be there for him if his life's problems ever became too big for him to handle by himself. He had barely ever interacted with Hinata, preferring to avoid the Hyuuga since she always looked away from him whenever he even glanced at her, but he did know that the blue-haired girl was always isolated from the rest of the class. If Naruto had to guess, Shino and Kiba were likely the only friends that the girl had—possibly the first ones. Naruto knew that in her position, he too wouldn't want to let go of friends as valuable as those two were.

But would Sakura and Sasuke prove to be such friends to him one day? And, more importantly... even if they started to treat him better, would they stick around if they found out the truth about the Kyuubi? Or would they become exactly as those villagers that kept glaring and whispering insults about him, even today?

Naruto learned to ignore them, but he could still see a few scowls directed at him as they walked through Konoha. And now that he knew the reason why, now that he knew that it wasn't his fault... they were starting to bother him again.

What Naruto didn't know was that the other five kids also had noticed how the villagers were reacting in an unusual way. Only Hinata knew who the target of those nasty looks was, but none of them had an idea of why the villagers were behaving like that in the first place. Thankfully, they wouldn't have to endure those glares for too long, as Training Ground 3 wasn't located very far from where they were.

The group reached the training ground's gates soon after Shino and Kiba started arguing, and all six of the genin were looking forward to eating something and resting for a few minutes.

---

The preparations for lunch were rather uneventful, if one ignored how Kakashi and Kurenai scared everyone with their sudden body flickers not too soon after the kids found a good, shaded area to have lunch on. The trees provided a good cover from the harsh sunlight of the midday sun, allowing everyone to eat their food without worrying about sunburns or intense heat.

After everyone sat down on the grass and started to eat, the two jonin quickly started to discuss how the results of their training sessions with their respective genin teams.

Kakashi and Sakura were currently talking about possible specialties that the girl could choose to devote herself to, but the jonin found it strange that she hadn't made her choice already. "From what Kurenai told me, you have enough talent to be her successor one day, so why not stick with that?"

"I can't," Sakura answered, shaking her head to reinforce her point. "I need something that will help me fight against a Sharingan-wielder." She knew that Itachi had been just an illusion... but when the time to face the real deal came, she needed to be able to help Sasuke (and maybe Naruto) fight him. 'I won't be useless like that. Not again, ever.'

Sasuke, who had been quietly overhearing the conversation, also had been curious about why Sakura didn't seem to want become a genjutsu specialist. His first guess was that the girl didn't want to interact with Kurenai anymore, but while that was part of the answer, it wasn't the full story.

'I have never seen Sakura looking so... determined,' Sasuke noted, seeing a fire burning within Sakura's emerald eyes. 'She is truly serious about this. Perhaps I really was wrong about her.'

Kakashi couldn't help but smile after hearing her answer. "Alright, let's continue to consider our options, then."

Meanwhile, Kiba and Shino believed that Kurenai's smile was because of their performance during Kakashi's test, as well as how they managed to do well against the jonin during their fight against him. The boys weren't wrong, but Kurenai was also smiling out of relief from overhearing the other team's conversation. 'It might not have been the best choice,' she noted, 'but it looks like it wasn't the wrong choice.'

The woman then focused back on her own team, congratulating the three for their good teamwork. As she did so, however, Kurenai noticed that Hinata was not paying much attention to her. Sure, the girl nodded or mumbled a yes at the right times (depending on whether or not she had food in her mouth), but her lavender eyes were intently focused on another person: Naruto.

Said blond was viciously wolfing down his boxed lunch, wearing a happy grin on his face as he did so. 'This food's amazing...! This is easily the second-best thing I have eaten. Despite the veggies...' Naruto thought, gleefully devouring a piece of pork as he did so. Of course, the food that held the top spot in Naruto's list of favorites was obviously ramen. But not just any ramen, but it was Ichiraku's ramen.

Naruto didn't know if he would ever be able to find food better than Teuchi's ramen. The ramen was not only of the highest quality... but Naruto was also emotionally attached to the dish. Outside of earning his headband from Iruka after defeating Mizuki, all of Naruto's most precious memories could be traced back to that simple restaurant and a hot bowl of ramen. Perhaps one day he'd be able to forge better memories centered around another person's food, even if it's still ramen...

'Ha, as if,' Naruto thought bitterly, his grin faltering slightly. 'I don't have a mom or dad, so it's not like this will ever happen. Not with the whole village hating me because of this stupid fox...'

Naruto decided to listen to his stomach rather than the voices inside his head and went back to enjoy his food while it lasted.

His mood swing was well hidden by his smile and the loud, pleased noises the blond made as he ate. But as the saying goes, the eyes are the window to the soul. And a certain someone had been carefully trying to look through that window, unsure if her crush had truly liked the food or was just eating it because he was that hungry.

Hinata was actually really confident when it came to cooking, but this was Naruto who was eating her food! Ironically, the one person that gave her confidence to not give up and keep trying to improve was also the one making her so anxious and insecure at the current moment.

The blue-haired girl stopped eating altogether when she caught a glimpse of darkness on Naruto's eyes. 'Is... is there something wrong with my food?'

Normally the girl would have immediately assumed the worst despite knowing that her food was good... but that look that Naruto had made her question herself. It was something she had only seen in Naruto's eyes a few times before, mostly when he spent hours training by himself and became frustrated with the lack of results, or a few times when she caught him staring at happy families that passed him by in the streets.

The last time she had seen his eyes without their usual happy sparkle was in the day when Naruto failed the academy's graduation exam. He hadn't even bothered to hide his pain behind a smile and just sat on the swing, depressed. To think that her cooking would bring about that side of Naruto... it was possible, but Hinata concluded that it was very questionable.

"You know, your food will get cold if you just stare at him all day long. You should just talk to him!"

A startled Hinata squealed from the sudden interruption, making her immediately turn around to see who had caught her.

"S-Sakura-san...?! N-no! I-I wasn't... er... I mean...!" Seeing that Sakura was just giggling at her, Hinata realized that trying to hide her true intentions from the pinkette was useless and merely covered her reddening face with her hands, muffling an embarrassed groan while at it.

While Naruto had failed to notice the heiress thanks to her delicious cooking and the dark thoughts occupying his mind, Hinata's subtle and not-so-subtle stares didn't escape the notice of the other two females of the group, in particular because the girl simply stopped eating at one point.

Finally realizing why Hinata had been disappointed at the team setups, Kurenai decided to discreetly help out her student by asking Kakashi about where he thought Shino and Kiba could improve, which made Sakura free to converse with other people. Not missing the hint, Sakura got up and went to sit near Hinata, intent on starting a conversation with the girl who was more interested in watching Naruto eat rather than having lunch herself.

"I wouldn't have thought you were the kind of girl that would believe in the classic "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach," but I must admit that it was a good idea," Sakura spoke hushedly, though the teasing tone was still there to contrast with her innocent smile. "That was a pretty sneaky way of catching his attention, you know?" Sakura then giggled some more at how Hinata's naturally pale face was matching the crimson color of her cheongsam.

"B-but... but I-I didn't do anything special...!" Hinata denied and started to twirl her pointer fingers, looking away as her nervous habit surfaced thanks to her embarrassment. It's not like Sakura was fully wrong, but that hadn't been the mindset the Hyuuga had when she decided to cook earlier that morning. 'Not that it isn't a good idea...'

In response, Sakura frowned and waggled her pointer finger at the girl. "Hey, don't even try to lie to me; Naruto's bento had almost twice as much pork than mine. Or yours for that matter," she pointed at Hinata's half-eaten bento. "Are you going to tell me that it was just a coincidence?"

The shy girl's face burned brighter, which confirmed Sakura's theory. But before Hinata could even try to deny the accusation, someone else started talking to her.

"Hey, um... Hinata, right? Are you going to eat that? Your food's been like that for a while..."

The girls turned to see Naruto pointing at Hinata's bento with his chopsticks, staring at it with a hungry gaze.

Hinata briefly made eye-contact and, much to her relief, she could find none of that darkness that she saw earlier... but the fact that he was actually paying attention to her made Hinata even more nervous than usual, especially once she registered what Naruto had actually said. 'Oh no! Does that mean that he was looking at me!? Did he catch me sta—'

"Come on, say something...! You can do it!" Sakura discreetly whispered, trying to encourage her fellow kunoichi in a low voice so that Naruto wouldn't be able to overhear her.

Hinata hesitated for about three seconds as she considered what her answer was going to be. Though her pounding heart didn't help her focus, she managed to offer her own boxed lunch to her crush, mumbling something that sounded like "Please take it!" as her barely audible answer. The girl's head hanged low, a necessity if she wanted to avoid gazing at Narutos blue eyes and crumbling under the pressure.

"Uh, alright then!" The Uzumaki quickly grabbed the box, correctly assuming that whatever Hinata had just stuttered meant it was all right to do so. Naruto also noticed that the girl's bento had much less pork than the one that he had just eaten, but he thought nothing of it outside of regretting having less food to override the taste of the evil greenies (which weren't as insuferable as usual, to boot).

'Um... not as tasty as the one that I ate, but still really good.'

Upon seeing that Naruto got a second helping, Akamaru couldn't help but let out an envious whine, which didn't go unnoticed by his owner. "What? Ah, c'mon, don't tell me you wanted that too?"

Akamaru's wagging tail was as good as an yes, making Kiba scowl at his partner. "Didn't you learn anything from eating that sandwich that fell from the sky right in front of us? Don't try to eat other people's leftovers!" Kiba scolded the dog freely now that Kurenai was engaged in a discussion with Kakashi.

His comment, though, immediately caught Naruto's attention. "Hey... a sandwich... fell from the sky? ...Right in front of you...? Like, around 8 a.m?" the blond asked in-between bites, looking at his former classmate.

The Inuzuka nodded, before swallowing one of the last contents of his own bento. "Yup. That made Akamaru jump to get it, but a cat stole it at the last second. Then this stupid mutt chased after it and I had to follow him! Not wanting to sound like Shikamaru, but it was definitively troublesome..." he growled, before his brain fully processed Naruto's questions. "Hey, how do even you know when this happened? I never said when the sandwich fell!"

Naruto paled as he dropped the rice his chopsticks held, now realizing he had said too much. Again. "I... guessed it?" Kiba's eyes narrowed. "That... might've been my sandwich? Oops?"

"What."

Naruto gulped, and not just because of the food he was trying to swallow. "I kinda slipped on a rooftop while rushing to meet my team and Kurenai-sensei, and I dropped it. Sorry." The Uzumaki blurted out quickly and tried to turn away to go back to his food as casually as possible, but it was too late already.

Kiba angrily pointed at him. "Damn, you idiot! It was all your fault! I want payback, gimme that bento!"

"No way!" Naruto dodged Kiba's lunge. "This is too delicious for me to give it up that easily!" he screamed, moving the bento out of the Inuzuka's reach and almost dropping the whole thing on the grass in doing so.

While the wild boys were about to brawl, Sakura could only sigh at the scene that played before her eyes, with an exasperated expression on her face. "Boys will be boys, I suppose." She shook her head before once again turning to the blue-haired girl that was sitting beside her. "But hey, Hinata, did you hear that? He liked your food!"

The shy girl gave a small but radiant smile and giggled once she registered that Naruto actually liked her cooking. "I'm so glad that he did...!"

Sakura then poked the girl's ribs, making her squeal. "So you admit you were trying to win him over with food! I knew it!" While she mercilessly teased the heiress, she couldn't help but think about the girl's reactions towards the energetic blond. 'She looked that happy just because he liked her food? How cute! I bet that idiot would've given up on me if she actually talked to him instead of just staring like a weirdo. Though... it's not like she was doing a good job at not being obvious. How can he be so oblivious?!'

Deciding that she had enough of teasing Hinata for the moment, and just in case the girl had gotten the wrong idea from their interactions, she changed tactics. "Hey, if you need any help in making that knucklehead notice you, count on me! I'd be glad to help him get over his silly crush on me... well, as long as you don't try to use Sasuke-kun to mak

e him jealous; then our partnership is over!" Sakura joked.

Even though she would really mean those words if it came to that (and would seriously consider going out with Naruto purely out of spite, if he still had interest), Sakura knew that Hinata's problem was mostly a lack of courage and confidence. Asking Naruto out would be easier for the shy girl than asking out Sasuke, considering the latter's personality and romantic track record, Sakura believed.

"Ah! D-don't worry, I... am not interested in Sasuke-kun," Hinata assured her.

'And there's this, too,' Sakura frowned. 'What the hell is wrong with this girl...? I mean, Naruto's not that bad of a guy, but... come on, him over Sasuke-kun?! That's... just plain ridiculous!'

"But, thank you Sakura-san," Hinata bowed slightly, confused by the other girl's displeased reaction. "Um... if I can help you in the same way too, p-please don't hesitate to ask!"

Sakura bobbed her head and smiled in response. She had a feeling that despite Hinata's lack of confidence, the one girl that never pursued Sasuke Uchiha might be able to get some info on him for her, which would be useful in getting the brooding boy to open up to her... and to Naruto too, she supposed.

The pinkette also wondered why she never tried to speak with Hinata before, now realizing that she probably would've been a good friend during her days at the academy. Of course, the answer to that question was that Sakura had been too busy running around after Sasuke to even notice the shy bluenette, which made her a hypocrite considering that she was internally insulting Naruto over the same mistake in her mind seconds ago.

The Hyuuga, on the other hand, thought that her newest friend wasn't that bad of a person, having previously held a very negative view of the pinkette thanks to her behavior towards Sasuke and especially Naruto.

Hinata was also glad that she seemed to support her crush and was apparently willing to help her with it. Considering that Sakura was Naruto's teammate, it was clear that she would be the best person to help her to get noticed by him. 'And making Naruto-kun stop having a crush on her would definitely be a good thing. Sakura-san has good ideas,' Hinata decided, not immediately realizing that Sakura wanted to play matchmaker instead of just helping her to be friends with Naruto, which is what Hinata currently wanted. Or rather, what she thought was realistically feasible.

"Yeah, I'd appreciate it." Sakura smiled at her new friend, but her expression turned serious right afterwards. "You know, after what Kurenai-sensei showed us today I'm trying a new strategy with Sasuke-kun, but if it blows I will probably really need your help. Right now I'll try to focus on becoming a better kunoichi and a better friend to him and Naruto, but... if that doesn't work then I dunno what else I could do," she confessed, uncertain.

"W-we'll figure it out! I'm sure w-we can think of... something!" Hinata faltered for a second because she quickly realized she had no idea of how to help her new friend, at least not at the moment.

"But that doesn't matter just yet," Sakura said, noticing her friend's worry. "For now, I'll focus on becoming stronger. Sasuke-kun respects strength," Sakura stated, letting a teasing grin spread through her face. "And luckily for you, Naruto works in the same way! You've made an impression on him after what you did to Kakashi-sensei, you know? And if I know that knucklehead, I'd guess that he wants to see how strong you are with his own two eyes. Oh, and then there is this food that you made! He even wanted seconds! Isn't that great?"

Hinata started playing with her fingers again, feeling a bit overwhelmed by Sakura's excitement, but she couldn't hide the small smile that was blossoming on her flushed face. 'I guess that he really knows that I exist, now.' On the back of her mind she realized how pathetic she was sounding, but for once, her happiness was strong enough to override those disheartening feelings.

"You need to teach me how to cook like that, by the way. Your food was delicious! My cooking, though, is an absolute disaster," Sakura commented, looking somewhat depressed.

Hinata's eyes widened and so did her smile. Now this was something she was sure she could help with. "Oh, I'd be glad to teach you!" We could try to cook during the mission! What do you want to work on first? I know many recipes that we could practice and—"

"H-hey, slow down a bit!" Sakura said, making a mental note that cooking was a good way of making Hinata crawl out of her shell. "Let's save that for later, ok? I don't want to risk causing a fire on our client's house, even if he's disgusting. Anyways, like I said, my focus right now needs to be on my career so that I can help Naruto and Sasuke-kun during fights. But one of these days I'll take you up on your offer, ok?"

"Sure!" Hinata nodded enthusiastically, before reverting to her usual timid self soon afterwards. "Um, if you don't mind me asking... w-what made you decide to... uh..."

"Be more serious about this whole "ninja" thing?" Sakura suggested, amused by the girl's mood swing. "Well, let's just say that your teacher's training was very... enlightening. I don't agree with her methods, but I'm not forgetting her lesson anytime soon. Anyways, what about your training?" Sakura changed the subject with a strained smile. "What did you do to Kakashi-sensei that landed you and him both in the hospital? I heard you and your team talking but I didn't really get "

And so the girls kept chatting for a while longer, until eventually Kakashi and Kurenai got up to put an end to their lunch break. "Alright kids, listen up," Kakashi called, interrupting the girls, but failing to make Naruto and Kiba stop their bickering.

Sakura groaned, shaking her head at their childish display. "Ugh, I can't believe they are still at it..."

Hinata didn't answer, too busy trying to find out if Naruto had managed to eat the food she gave him or not.

"We gave you some free time, but now it's been a while and we have some training to do!" Kurenai raised her voice, but the boys kind of ignored her and kept arguing, much to the kunoichi's exasperation.

"It doesn't matter! It's your fault for being so clumsy! What kind of ninja even trips on a rooftop anyways!?"

"Argh... whatever! I say the blame's on you. It was YOUR dog that ate my sandwich, so YOU should be giving me your lunch!"

"The only food I have for you is a delicious knuckle sandwich! If you want it that badly, open your mouth! I'll feed it to you!"

Sasuke decided that he had heard too much. "Stop barking so loudly, Inuzuka. You look like a dog begging for leftovers."

Said boy glared at him, leaving Naruto be for a moment. "Dog, eh? Really original insult there," Kiba spat with disgust. "Like I haven't heard that one at the academy before, Uchiha."

Sasuke shrugged. "Considering that your scores were almost as low as Naruto's, you can't blame me for assuming that you are bad of hearing."

'Gee... it's not hot anymore,' Naruto whined to himself, finishing what Hinata had once started now that Kiba was distracted. 'Well, at least it still tastes good.'

"Bad of hearing!? How dare you!? I'm an Inuzuka, dammit!" Kiba exclaimed, his pride wounded.

"And what is that supposed to explain?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "The only thing this tells me is that you are good at picking up bones."

Kiba growled, openly barring his teeth at the Uchiha. "I don't know how you do it, Naruto. Having to put up with this prick's attitude every day must be a nightmare."

"Good thing that Naruto is a bigger idiot than you," Sasuke scoffed before Naruto could answer, "because that's the only reason that you didn't end up being the dead last, and thus, my teammate. Putting up with your fleas everyday would've been a nightmare."

"Oi, Kiba! Why don't we show this jerk who is the real idiot here, huh?!" Naruto got up, finally finished with his food. The boy's tone would indicate that he was mad, but one look at his grin and you'd see that he was mostly just excited. And you'd see some food crumbles, too.

"Heh, now you're talking!" Kiba grinned, cracking his knuckles. "Let's go teach this asshole a lesson! Right, Akamaru!?" The puppy barked in response, jumping in front of his master in preparation for the incoming fight.

Sasuke glanced at the empty container that previously held Hinata's lunch and smirked, sharing a knowing look with Naruto. Getting up, the Uchiha made a "come here" gesture with his left hand. "Three against one is hardly fair, but since Shino is still eating I guess I could go easy on you to even the odds."

"Well, I was talking about one-on-one fights, but this works for me," Kakashi piped in. "Feel free to use jutsu and ninja tools. If things get out of hand then I'll intervene," he spoke, bringing out his a volume of Icha Icha Paradise from his pocket as he did so.

"Besides," Kurenai added, briefly shooting a glare at Kakashi, "I know medical ninjutsu, so don't worry about holding back. But smoke balls are banned, Kiba. Save those for the mission, alright?"

"You heard that, Inuzuka? No toys."

"I don't need toys to make a mess out of you!" Kiba skipped the "getting up" part altogether and just lunged at Sasuke from his position on the floor, effectively starting the fight. Thankfully, Sasuke managed to avoid him and had the decency to run away from where they were having lunch.

"Bring it on then!" The Uchiha taunted as he dashed towards the area with the wooden posts. "I'll teach you why three times zero is zero."

"I'll make you eat those words! Akamaru, Naruto, let's go!" Another bark and cry of "Shadow Clone Jutsu" were heard following Kiba's words, and thus, the fight officially started. While Kurenai walked away to talk with the remaining three students, Kakashi remained to watch the fight.

The silver-haired man had already noticed how Sakura was trying to change herself, but he was glad to see that both of the other members of Team 7 were also trying to get alongside each other better, in their own ways.

Neither Naruto nor Sasuke had much of an idea of how to interact with each other in a friendly manner, but while they still threw insults around, Sasuke wasn't as dismissive as before and Naruto seemed to be making an effort to not act so confrontational. And of course, the trash talking that issued before the fight began also was significant. Kakashi didn't know if it was Sasuke's only reason to do so, but still he saw the Uchiha discreetly signaling to Naruto for him to eat while he provoked Kiba. It was a small start, but a start nonetheless.

As for the only female of Team 7... she, for once, wasn't thinking about her precious Sasuke-kun. Instead, Sakura's thoughts were turned toward the other two boys. "They were at each other's throats just seconds ago and now they are teaming up to fight? Psh. Men are all the same..."

"I beg to differ," Shino objected from behind the girls, catching them off-guard and earning a startled scream from both.

The Aburame frowned from the realization that, despite sitting less than a meter away from the pair, they weren't aware of him. "While I do enjoy a good challenge, I would rather not participate in those heated arguments they seem so fond of; I also do not make alliances so carelessly." Hinata wondered if he wasn't talking just about Naruto and Kiba when he said that. Could that have been a warning?

"W-where did you even come from?!" Sakura stuttered loudly, still not having recovered from the scare.

Giving a stealthy sigh that wasn't noticed by anyone, much like himself, the boy reluctantly answered Sakura. "...I was right here before you even sat down, Sakura-san. I assumed that you were at least aware of my presence prior to starting your conversation with my teammate, considering that you were looking straight at me when you were walking towards Hinata, but clearly, I was mistaken."

Sakura looked away, embarrassed by her oversight. Hinata, however, managed to maintain eye contact despite being feeling bad for forgetting about her teammate. "S-so... you heard e-everything...?"

"I did. It was very interesting, if I do say so myself." Human behavior when feelings of a romantic nature were involved never ceased to amaze Shino. It made people act so illogically, that he couldn't help but try to make some sense of their actions.

While Sakura tried to "politely convince" Shino to not share what he heard with anyone else, Hinata merely turned away to look at the scuffle between the other boys, not having the guts to face Shino at the moment, and conveniently took the opportunity to see how Naruto and Kiba were faring against Sasuke. The Uchiha was, after all, the strongest genin of their year and a dangerous foe even if he was outnumbered... But from what she could see, Kiba was actually doing more damage to his team than Sasuke, since he kept hitting Naruto's clones with his Passing Fang while the Uchiha merely avoided them both with ease.

'I wonder how long it will take before this becomes a free-for-all...' she wondered idly as the blond started to quarrel with his partner mid-fight while Sasuke kept insulting his foes as he threw some shuriken at Akamaru and the few clones that were still focusing on him.

"Well, since Kakashi's watching the fight..." Kurenai started with a calm facade that hid her nervousness, "Sakura, how about we work more on the two genjutsu that I taught you?"

"...I thought you said that I had already mastered them." Sakura retorted, dryly. The prospect of learning from Kurenai didn't excite her as it once had.

"You can perform the illusion perfectly, yes, but you still require hand signs to do so. It will be much harder for your opponents to know that they are caught in a genjutsu if they don't see you preparing it, so there is still room for improvement. You can't always count on an ambush, after all."

"...Fine. Let's get this over with." Sakura crossed her arms and walked towards another part of the clearing, quite a distance away from the ongoing fight and near the memorial stone.

Hinata and Shino watched the conversation with unease, unsure of what could've been the cause of the girl's resentful tone of voice. Sakura generally didn't try to control herself when she was feeling angry, and to see her purposefully holding back to not lash out at Kurenai was unsettling.

Kurenai, for her part, was happy that the girl at least was still willing to learn from her. She knew that Sakura wouldn't be forgiving her anytime soon, so what happened was one of her best-case scenarios, actually.

The woman then addressed one of her actual students. "Shino, I believe that for now it would be best to wait with Kakashi until your turn to fight comes up." The quiet Aburame nodded and silently followed after Kakashi, leaving Kurenai alone with Hinata.

"Um... Kurenai-sensei? What about me?"

The jonin crouched down to the same level as the last genin of her team. "The nurse said you should rest, right? Kakashi told me about it. You have been taking it easy because of lunch, but your leg needs more time to fully heal on its own. You don't want to be in a less-than-perfect condition before going into a mission."

"But what about my training?" Hinata insisted, not exactly liking the idea of lagging behind her fellow genin, be it from a bad leg or lack of training.

"Don't worry, we will be here for a while," Kurenai assured. "You will fight like everyone else, just later. For now, do as the nurse recommended." Kurenai then walked away to where Sakura currently was. With Shino and Kakashi busy watching the fight between the other boys, Hinata now found herself alone.

Refusing to be completely useless, she dutifully cleaned the mess everyone made during lunch and placed everything they used back inside her bag, noting with a smile that Naruto had eaten all of her food while Sasuke distracted Kiba. 'I'm glad that he enjoyed it... maybe I can cook for him again sometime during the mission?'

Using her hand to cover a yawn, the heiress walked around the closest trees on the edge of the clearing where they were training on, searching for a good place to lay down. It didn't take her more than two minutes to find a tree that looked comfortable enough, one that happened to be facing the training ground's lake. "I guess a nap won't hurt..." Hinata reasoned with herself, placing her bag on the grass near her chosen spot.

Hinata hadn't said anything to her sensei or the nurse, but she had been feeling rather tired ever since her body (or most it) recovered from the chakra exhaustion, so perhaps it was a good thing that she'd be able to rest a little before training seriously like the others.

The girl sat near the tree's base, facing away from the brawl that was issuing nearby, in a position not unlike the one she had found herself in when she regained consciousness after fainting. Despite the loud noises that the younger males (sans Shino) were making in their dubiously friendly spar, Hinata found herself asleep only a few seconds after she closed her eyes.

---

Time passed... and after almost two hours, Hinata awakened from her slumber.

Unlike the other times this happened today, she woke up feeling energized and her mind was working clearly from the get-go—and thankfully there was also no headache. Experimentally, she lightly pressed one of her feet against the ground, and then repeated the process with as much strength as she could muster.

'Hmm... good! No pain at all,' she noted, getting up and walking a few steps to further confirm her theory.

After dusting herself, noting with disgust that her coat was still far too brown for her liking, Hinata approached the lake in order to wash her face. As she did so, the Hyuuga heard voices that she recognized as belonging to the three boys that were previously fighting each other when she had gone to sleep. They were a bit far from her, but still loud enough to be heard once she began to pay attention.

"...believe I lost because you farted. Heh, I guess old Tazuna wasn't lying 'bout your soiled diapers, eh? Hahaha!"

"Argh, shut up Kiba! Or do you want me to beat the crap out of you again!?"

Hinata smiled and walked away from the lake's edge towards where she had been sleeping, her face and hands still dripping with water.

"You would lose. Badly. The mutt isn't very smart but even he won't fall for the same trick twice."

"Yeah, he's right!" Sasuke's smirk went unnoticed by the Inuzuka. "There's no way I'm falling for your henge again. Though Akamaru still hasn't forgiven me for punching him..."

Opening her bag, Hinata took out a small violet towel and dried her face and hands with it. With that done, she carefully placed it back into the bag, closed it, and went to join the boys, who were now much closer to the wooded edge of the training ground's clearing than its center, where they were originally fighting.

Looking at the same trees that the boys were staring at, she managed to see Sakura in the middle of a fight against Shino. Before she could start paying attention to the duel, Hinata' attention was caught by Kakashi when he entered the conversation the boys were having.

"It won't work again but it's good that it happened. You see Kiba? I told you before to not mix up your senses like that. Naruto doesn't do genjutsu, so scents wouldn't have lied to you on that fight." The man's jovial tone and facial expression hinted that he was smiling behind his mask, probably because he was content with his student's win over Kurenai's. Though Hinata considered that maybe he just liked seeing Kiba squirm. 'Kiba-kun's not having a lucky day...'

"Bah... I get it, okay? I'll work on it." The Inuzuka then cringed and pointed towards the fight that was happening in front of them. "Ouch, that must have hurt. Shino doesn't hold back even when fighting girls."

Seeing that everybody else had stopped talking to focus on the spar, Hinata also turned to watch it; but sadly, she only caught the very end of it. Namely, she saw Sakura being knocked down by a powerful jab aimed at her belly. The girl failed to get up immediately, allowing the Aburame to draw a kunai and point it at her.

Kurenai, seeing that the fight was over, called the match. "Alright, Shino wins this one. Good job, both of you."

The Aburame withdrew his kunai and offered his hand to his fallen opponent. Sakura happily accepted it, and even though on the back of her mind she was a bit squicked out by the idea of touching the bug-user's skin, her actions didn't betray her thoughts.

"I apologize for punching so strongly," Shino said in a monotone that completely failed to convey his intention, "but your defense was very good and I had to make use of the opportunity to end the fight." Helping the pinkette get up, he continued talking. "You made excellent use of the basic Clone Jutsu and the terrain. Finding the real you amidst the woods was harder than I had initially presumed."

He considered telling her that he intentionally avoided sensing the bug he had left with her when they were still inside the Hokage's tower, but some instinct told him that the conversation would end very badly if he said that.

"Thanks!" Sakura clutched the wounded area but still kept a light smile while she continued to talk. "And don't feel bad about hitting me, I can take a hit."

Then she turned to Kurenai and sighed. "You knew his bugs would let him easily detect my genjutsu, didn't you?" Sakura was becoming rather weary of the woman's insistence on intentionally putting people in crappy situations to teach them a lesson or two instead of just talking.

Kurenai nodded, smiling with a mix of amusement and guilt at the two genin. "The Aburame are somewhat of a hard counter to genjutsu users, aren't they? Sometimes you just get unlucky like that in the battlefield, but don't feel bad! You adapted to the situation quite well with the academy basics alone, which is impressive when you consider that you had no other techniques to fall back on." Kurenai then turned to face the three boys who were quietly watching the last moments of the match, only barely missing Hinata in the process. "So, which one of you wants to go next?"

Kiba was the first one to speak. "Eh, I'll pass... me and Akamaru are still tired and low on chakra, sorry sensei."

Sasuke smirked. "Heh, couldn't handle the heat, Inuzuka?"

"Shut up, Uchiha! You took quite a few hits from our Fang over Fang and missed your Great Fireball twice before hitting me, so it's not like you are in any shape to fight either. And the other time we fought, you lost!" Hinata did notice that Kiba's clothes were slightly singed.

The dark-haired boy scowled. "I wasn't expecting Naruto to just spam clones and run away. And three-on-one was hardly fair."

"Running away is not my style," Naruto piped in. "But it's not like I had a choice with Kiba going after my clones in the middle of the fight," the Uzumaki shrugged, before smiling mischievously at Sasuke. "Heh, 'sides, didn't you say something about three times zero being zero? Guess you must be worse than zero then!"

The Uchiha turned to glare at his rival, who was currently laughing and high-fiving Kiba. "You are lucky I'm low on chakra, or else I'd give you the beating of your life."

Naruto snorted dismissively. "Yeah, right. Anyways, since nobody else is up to it, I'll go." He then got up and made his way towards Shino, cracking his knuckles and grinning.

"So... you!" the blond pointed towards his newest target.

"Shino. Shino Aburame," he interjected with a frown.

"Yeah, yeah. You," Naruto shrugged, waving his hand dismissively much to the Aburame's further annoyance. "I guess it's you and me now, huh?" Naruto cracked his knuckles, looking forward to challenging the bug user. Naruto thought that his shadow clones would be able to deal with the kikaichu rather easily, but he also knew the Aburame was, surprisingly for one of his clan, no slouch at taijutsu... which was by far the biggest weak spot in the blond's skillset. It would've made for an interesting fight, he thought.

However, Shino surprised him by declining, despite also being interested. "As much as I'd enjoy sparring with you, I'm afraid that I no longer have enough stamina for this fight. I wouldn't be able to keep fighting for long, especially not against someone as endlessly energetic as yourself."

"Oh man... what now?" The boy slumped, clearly disappointed. "Sakura-chan?"

The girl smirked at him, but not because of him. "No way. I could still fight but... a certain someone who hasn't fought anyone yet," she pointed at Hinata, surprising all of unaware genin that hadn't spotted the girl yet (and Hinata herself), "should be in better shape to give you a good beatdown!" The pinkette winked at the Hyuuga and motioned for her to come over.

Hinata didn't have a chance to say anything because Naruto reacted faster. "You're up already? Awesome! I've been looking forward to fighting you this whole day!" he said, punching his open left hand and giving the girl an excited grin that effectively stopped her on her tracks.

"M-me?!" Hinata's shock was evident, but it wore off quickly when she remembered what Sakura told her at lunch:

"You've made an impression on him after what you did to Kakashi-sensei, you know? And if I know that knucklehead, I'd guess that he wants to see how strong you are with his own two eyes."

"Yeah! And when I beat you, you are going to give me the jutsu you used to defeat Kakashi-sensei!"

Between being somewhat overwhelmed by the blond's excitement and not knowing how to address the multiple misunderstandings he managed to fit in a single sentence, Hinata went silent.

Sakura then tried to support the blunette further from behind Naruto, giving her an encouraging smile and mouthing the words "Go for it!"

On the other hand, Naruto's own smile faltered from seeing that Hinata hadn't properly answered him, or moved. The only thing that differentiated Hinata from a statue was that a statue's face didn't go from white to red without a coat of paint. "Unless... you are still feeling sick? I don't mind leaving this for anoth—"

"N-N-NO!" The girl then blushed harder at her somewhat desperate outburst. "I'm not—I mean... uh..."

'What a weirdo.' Naruto kept staring quizzically at her, which only made Hinata feel even more foolish.

'What am I doing?! Stupid! Focus, Hinata!' The blunette then took a deep breath to calm down and walked towards the center of the clearing, stopping in front of Naruto but a fair distance away from him. She then activated her bloodline limit, the Byakugan, and moved into the basic stance of the Gentle Fist.

"I will fight you, Naruto-kun," the girl declared, staring at her crush with all the determination she could muster, though her voice wasn't any louder than normal.

Her features made her look serious and determined, but inside she was squealing like a schoolgirl. 'Yes! I did it! I talked to him without stuttering! ...Maybe we can keep training together in other days until I can... No! No, no, not now! Bad Hinata! Concentrate on the fight..." She took another deep breath, repressing the urge to shake her head.

'I know I'm horrible with the Jyuuken, but I must defeat him here... I can't look weak in front of Naruto-kun.' Memories of her father suddenly flashed through her mind, but she did her best to ignore them.

Naruto grim returned, and to Hinata's credit, her face didn't go past a bright shade of pink upon seeing it. "Heh, now that's what I'm talking about! You ready, Hinata?!"

The girl nodded, and Kurenai walked over, stopping almost between the two. "I guess Hinata has rested enough for this, so I will allow you two to fight." She then gave her student an encouraging smile and jumped away, signaling the beginning of the fight.

Naruto's first instinct was to gather chakra for some shadow clones. Kakashi had warned him before about using jutsu too openly, but he knew there was little choice here. If Hinata was using the Gentle Fist, he couldn't approach her safely... but he wasn't good enough with projectiles to win just with that, so his only option was to overwhelm her before she could do the same to him.

Considering her meek personality, Naruto assumed she'd be more of a defensive fighter and would've waited for him to approach her, but Hinata defied his expectations by immediately rushing towards him.

Hinata was fast, but she wasn't quick enough to deny him the opportunity to complete his jutsu. This made the blond feel more confident, because if he could win against Kiba (who had been fast enough to not allow him to create any clones until the very end of the fight), then he could definitely beat the Hyuuga. Naruto didn't have time to create as many clones as he wanted to, but he was okay with just nine clones for the time being.

Hinata had initially thought that she would be able to counter Naruto's clones with her Byakugan, but much to her surprise, she found out that not even her dojutsu could tell them apart. 'All of them look the same and even have the exact same amount of chakra... I can't lose track of the real one!' Hinata decided, drawing a bunch of shuriken from the pouch strapped to her leg and throwing them all at once.

Instead of carefully aiming at a specific target, Hinata chose to cover a wider area in hopes of hitting more than one target at once. This tactic would generally be bad during a fight, but it gave Hinata a chance at defeating the clones while still carefully following the movements of the original.

Her actions prompted the Narutos to jump away in hopes of not being hit. Luckily for the blonds, Hinata's inaccurate attack missed most of them, but three kage bunshin still happened to jump right into the path of a shuriken—a mistake that cost them their lives. The remaining members of the Naruto Squad then charged to meet the Hyuuga head-on, hoping to overcome her superior taijutsu with sheer numbers before she could dispel too many of them.

What Naruto didn't know was that he had been right before: Hinata was indeed a defensive fighter. Though "excelled" might be too strong of a word, the girl was more inclined to dodging and countering with quick strikes instead of pursuing and pressuring foes to control the pace of the match as her martial art of choice suggested. Naruto was the exact opposite, being a more offensive fighter whose fighting style revolved around rushing at the enemy and delivering powerful, telegraphed punches and kicks.

Thanks to the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, Naruto had the option of launching multiple attacks at once and from different directions which mitigated the lack of speed of his attacks, but against an opponent such as Hinata, that strategy didn't work out as well as it usually did. The girl avoided every single one of Naruto's strikes, making use of her agility and the 360 degrees vision granted by the Byakugan to come out of the scuffle unscathed.

'I'm doing well!' Hinata thought happily, her confidence boosted after striking two more clones and reducing Naruto's army to half of its original numbers. Then the girl's eyes widened once she realized the position she now found herself in. 'They... they surrounded me! This isn't so good anymore, is it?'

While Hinata had managed to dodge Naruto's attacks, she had to concentrate on them to do so, which meant that clones that weren't trying to harm her weren't given too much attention during the brief confrontation. Rather than trying to attack again, some of the clones decided to put some distance between themselves and the Hyuuga, and the girl obliviously put herself in a position where the remaining five Narutos could trap her. Her problems didn't stop there, though.

'I don't know which Naruto is the real one anymore... all of them still have the same amount of chakra, but... now they have more? Why is this...?'

But before Hinata was able to realize that destroying a clone sent most of its chakra back to the user and remaining clones in equal amounts, Naruto made his move. Drawing a few kunai and shuriken, he and his clones used Hinata's own strategy against her and threw the sharp projectiles at the cornered girl.

Hinata reacted as fast as she could, blazing through a few hand seals and managing to avoid the projectiles, leaving them to strike a wooden log that she had exchanged herself with thanks to the Substitution Jutsu. This also had the bonus of forcing some clones to dodge the few shuriken that actually missed the log and almost killed them; dying from friendly fire would be pretty pathetic, after all.

"Damn, kawarimi?!"

"Where is she?!"

"Augh, I hate this jutsu!"

"Quick, protect me!" one of the Narutos exclaimed, and idea forming in his mind. His fellow Uzumaki quickly caught on to what he was planning and organized a loose diamond formation around him, effectively acting as a shield and as a pseudo-Byakugan that was able to scan the area around him.

"...She isn't here, boss!" One of the clones said, after briefly looking around realizing the bluenette wasn't near any of him, with the other clones finding the same results soon afterwards.

Before they could decide on another plan, the Naruto that was facing the woods where Shino and Sakura were previously fighting caught a glimpse of a cream-colored blur approaching them from above, but he was too late to warn his companions.

Landing right inside of the formation and behind the Naruto who was on the center, Hinata aimed a decisive palm thrust at the boy's back. Her attack had no chakra, since she obviously wasn't trying to kill him, but Hinata knew Kurenai would call the match if she landed a good hit on Naruto's torso, since that would be killing blow if it had chakra.

However, it was Hinata's turn to be surprised, because the Naruto that she attacked blew up in a cloud of smoke. 'They were protecting a clone? But why?! Unless...!'

Realizing she had been tricked and regretting not going with her initial idea of stomping the central Naruto, the Hyuuga quickly struck the 3 Narutos that she could hit from her current position, but sadly for her, they were all clones too.

Thanks to her dojutsu, she was able to notice the remaining Naruto—undoubtedly the real one—coming at her, his arm wound back in preparation for a strong punch. Hinata was still in the middle of her third palm thrust when she detected him, which left her in a bad position to dodge the incoming attack. Still, she attempted to pivot away from his attack, and while her maneuver managed to save her from bearing the brunt of the punch, it still struck her lower right ribs with a decent amount of power.

Running on a burst of adrenaline that came from trying to salvage her failed ambush, Hinata still managed to try for a counterattack before the pain really registered. Quickly, she struck the muscles of the upper part of his forearm with two fingers before the damage he dealt to her ribs made itself known to her.

Naruto quickly disengaged once he felt the burning sting of Hinata's chakra-enhanced attack, jumping away before she could go for more hits. Luckily, Hinata's desperate strike managed to miss the pressure points of the shoulder and the elbow, so while that part of his body was left numb, he still had full control of the limb.

Hinata, too, had jumped backwards after hitting him. "The way you used your c-clones was v-very clever..." she complimented him, cradling her wounded rib as she spoke. 'This will definitely leave a bruise.'

Naruto smirked, though having observed him for a long time, she could see it was a strained smirk, likely from the pain of her chakra running through his arm. "Heh, thanks. By the way, from where did you come from? I had clones all around me and I only saw you at the last second!"

"Um, from the t-trees... I used a chakra-jump," she panted.

The two stared at each other for a few seconds, and Hinata used the opportunity to catch her breath. They had started only a while but and she was starting to feel winded. 'I am more agile than him and my blows are stronger thanks to the Gentle Fist, but... this isn't enough! At this rate, he will just outlast me. I need to find an opening!'

The thought of losing to Naruto terrified her. Deep down, she knew that the results of this fight would matter very little in the long run, but a big part of her subconsciously feared that Naruto would turn his back on her if she failed, much like her clan did. Perhaps if she knew advanced Gentle Fist techniques such as the Hakkeshou Kaiten she would feel more confident in herself since more options would be available, but sadly for her, she had nothing more than the basics to rely on. That is, until her poor stamina decided the match's outcome for her.

Naruto also had used his time to regroup. He wasn't tired like his opponent, but he needed a new plan and fast. 'Damn, that hurt...! I'm not good enough at taijutsu to deal with a Hyuuga, even with clones. I will need to take her by surprise but... how?! The Byakugan can see through anything I could try against someone else!'

As it was, the fight was quickly becoming frustrating for Naruto. Maybe if he had better control of his chakra he would've been able to create enough clones to overwhelm the girl without losing too much time to concentrate chakra, but right now that wasn't a possibility. He wouldn't be able to run from her long enough to do his kinjutsu, either.

Seeing no other option, Naruto grabbed a kunai from his pouch and charged at Hinata, prompting her to assume the Gentle Fist stance once again. 'I have to increase my range if I don't want to be hit like that again!' It wasn't the best plan ever, since he'd be fighting her at close-quarters, but letting Hinata attack first would just make things worse because his defenses weren't good, so he had to take the initiative.

Naruto swung at her chest once he was close enough, but Hinata leaned backwards slightly, narrowly avoiding the attack. Seeing the opening left by his wide swing, she entered his range in order to finish the fight, but the Byakugan allowed Hinata to see that Naruto was trying to salvage his failed attack with a backhand. In response to that, she used her fingers to attack his right shoulder instead of taking a free shot at his torso.

'Shit!'

Thanks to Hinata's Jyuuken strike hitting the worst possible area, Naruto's entire right arm became too damaged to be reliable, which resulted in his kunai falling to the ground. Naruto then desperately jumped away from her to try to avoid more pain, but Hinata gave chase and struck his chest just as he landed, adding to his backward momentum and sending the blond to the ground, leaving him sprawled on the grass.

But on the grass he did not remain, getting up almost immediately after falling. "I'm not done yet!"

"Yes you are," Kurenai corrected from somewhere behind him, surprising the boy. "Hinata didn't use any chakra on that last hit, but it would've severely harmed you if she had, so the victory goes to her."

Seeing that Hinata had deactivated her Byakugan, Naruto let out a frustrated sigh, unsatisfied with the match's results. Feeling like he could've gone for a rematch and that his performance wasn't as good as it should've been, he then crouched to grab the kunai that he had dropped to the ground, using his non-dominant hand to do so since his right arm wasn't cooperating with him. 'And now I lost the chance to learn a new jutsu, too. Awesome...'

Meanwhile, Hinata watched him uneasily. While she was happy and relieved that she ended up being victorious, seeing her crush's sulking damped her mood and even made her feel a little guilty.

"Uh... a-are you alright?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah! Don't worry about my shoulder; Kurenai-sensei can heal me," he assured the worried-looking Hyuuga with a wide smile, shrugging off the wound as if it didn't even hurt. The idea that Hinata might've been concerned with his emotional well-being or that she could see through his fake smile never crossed his mind.

"S-Sorry," she apologized to Naruto as he got up from the ground, but refused to meet his eyes when he sent an inquisitive look at her.

"What...? Why are you saying sorry? You won fair and square, and didn't even have that much trouble during the fight, so..." Naruto trailed off, confused by the direction the conversation was going.

"Ah, t-thank you..." Normally Hinata's face wouldn't have remained in its usual pale shade, but the realization that Naruto was feeling a bit down because of his inability to keep up with her kept the blush away.

Assuming that she had nothing more to say, Naruto turned to join the others, since he'd have to wait a while for his next turn, but he quickly turned around when he heard Hinata talking again.

"I... I hope w-we can fight again someday... and y-you did well, too." She then bowed slightly, showing respect to her defeated opponent, earning a surprised wide-eyed stare from him as a result.

Once the shock of being acknowledged—despite losing—wore off, another smile formed on his face. "Just you wait, next time I will definitely beat you!" he promised to his newest rival, feeling an odd sense of deja vu.

The sight of Naruto smiling at her was enough to make her heart speed up and her face turn red, like usual, but the nervousness of being the center of his attention wasn't enough to stop her from returning the smile this time.

She knew that acknowledging him would've made him feel a little better, but enough bring out one of Naruto's rare genuine smiles? Hinata never thought that she of all people would manage to do that, but it did, and it made her feel butterflies in her stomach and gave her enough courage to look straight into Naruto's eyes.

But the moment was short-lived, as Hinata snapped out of her trance when someone placed a hand on her shoulder. Turning her head, Hinata discovered that it was Sakura.

"Let others have their turn before trying for a rematch, Naruto." The pink-haired girl then smiled at Hinata and offered a few shuriken to her. "Here, those are yours, and stay right there. Naruto! I got yours too," Sakura shouted, running after the blond and giving him what appeared to be the shuriken that Hinata had evaded earlier.

"Thanks, Sakura-chan! You're the best!"

"Right, right... you did well out there, but go get that shoulder healed!" she ordered sternly, and being a good boy that did not like to be punched, Naruto obeyed immediately.

Sakura then turned around. "Now, let's see if I can't avenge my teammate, huh?"

The pinkette's wink told Hinata that the pinkette approved of her performance, but the girl's expression became serious soon afterwards, their fight starting not much longer after that

Sakura's taijutsu was much harder to deal with than Naruto's, even when considering his shadow clones, but Hinata's Byakugan made Sakura unable to make use of bunshin and illusions, which eventually resulted in her defeat since Sakura's main strategies were useless. Hinata did have quite a bit of fun, though.

Hinata's next challenger was none other than Sasuke Uchiha, who had been looking forward to fighting the one person that had given trouble to his entire team so far, Kakashi included. Hinata wasn't feeling confident about fighting the class genius, but Kiba and Naruto managed to encourage her to give her all, despite her doubts. As such, she managed to put a decent fight thanks to getting a good hit to his arm early on and because Sasuke was clearly unfamiliar with the Gentle Fist, but the boy started taking her seriously after that mistake and Hinata found herself unable to keep up with the Uchiha's overwhelming taijutsu once he adapted to her style, even if he had trouble using his left arm during the fight.

The rest of the day wasn't very different, with the genin fighting between themselves and sometimes in teams or pairs, receiving compliments and critics from the two jonin. Hinata's favorite fight was the last one, when Shino finally decided to accept Naruto's earlier challenge. The two managed to bring the fight to the woods, and while her fellow genin were unable to watch the fight from there, Hinata's Byakugan wasn't hindered by a few trees.

Naruto proved to be much more difficult to catch than Sakura, especially when shadow clones kept entering the fray, and to add to the Aburame's list of troubles, the blond had far too much chakra to be bothered by the kikaichu trying to drain him dry. However, their tracking abilities allowed Shino to outmaneuver Naruto's clones and ambush the real one, winning the fight after a lot of hard work. Hinata had been a bit sad that Naruto had lost, but the duel had been exciting enough to make up for that—an opinion that she noted guiltily that her crush seemed to share.

After that Sasuke decided to fight the Aburame, but Kakashi banned his Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu in order to ensure that Shino's bug colony wouldn't take huge losses right before the mission. But Shino, too prideful to fight Sasuke with a handicap, refused the fight.

Seeing that the sun was almost down already, Kurenai and Kakashi decided to stop training for the day right there and let the genin go back to their homes, though not before giving a few general warnings about the next day's mission (like showing up on time and checking their equipment) before disappearing with body flickers.

After saying goodbye to her teammates, Hinata went back into the wooded edge of the training ground to grab her bag, which had been forgotten for the past few hours. On her way back, though, she saw the three members of Team 7 near the three wooden posts and overheard an interesting conversation.

"Boys, wait!" Sakura called her teammates, who were already leaving the area.

"Eh? Sakura-chan?" Unlike Naruto, Sasuke said nothing, but he also stopped to give Sakura his attention.

"Um, about what Kurenai-sensei said to us... we need to talk about it." Sakura was clearly feeling awkward, but she knew that this conversation needed to happen. Team 8 had taught her that talking could be good for the team, even if the people involved really didn't want to do it.

"What else is there to say? I think she said everything that needed to be said already." Sasuke retorted.

"But we haven't. And I think we can't just leave this alone like that." Taking a deep breath, Sakura proceeded, looking down at first. "Look, I... I know that I haven't been the best teammate ever. I'm not treating you two like you deserve, and I don't have any special jutsu or abilities to really make a difference, but I want you two to know that from today forward, I won't be useless again!"

The intensity on her voice caught both of her teammates (and their eavesdropper) off-guard, but Sakura didn't wait for them to recover. "I don't know how to make an army of clones or how to shoot fireballs, but I promise that I will find a way to really help you guys during battles! And... and I will try to be a better friend to you two, too."

"You're selling yourself short," Sasuke stated, much to Sakura's utter shock. Quite frankly, he still doubted her ability to keep up with him or Naruto, but insulting her now would probably be detrimental to her growth, so he didn't share what he truly thought about her. Naruto had no such problems, however. That, and...

"Yeah, Sasuke's right. You're really smart, you know? We would've still been chasing that cat if you weren't there to help us come with a plan. Stupid cat..." Naruto was pleasantly surprised when that managed to get a laugh out of Sakura.

"Heh, probably. It was a good idea to use Naruto's clones to corner the cat in the forest." Sasuke smirked, but got serious when he saw Sakura recovering from her laughter. "But I haven't been doing my part either. I... I am sorry for forgetting that we are just amateurs."

The Uchiha looked away from his teammates after seeing their confused expressions, almost spotting Hinata from her hiding spot behind a tree in the process. "I thought that you two would just hold me back, but... I saw you two just as the weak genin that you are now rather than the strong ninja that you could become in the future. And... I forgot that being the best genin of our year still means that I'm just a genin... and nothing more than that," he finished, his last words barely more than a whisper.

Instead of looking proud and arrogant like he usually does, Sasuke looked ashamed and... haunted. Though Hinata was clueless about what he had said or what was making him feel so depressed, his teammates had an idea of what was passing through his head.

Sakura had seen Sasuke at his worst, begging his brother for answers while holding on to what little strength he had to keep living. Naruto managed to miss that thanks to being tossed into the lake (even though he did the math on his own later), but Sakura saw it happen. And she decided that she absolutely hated seeing the grief reflected on the boy's onyx eyes.

But just when she was about to try to comfort him, Naruto spoke up. "Yeah... you are right. We are only genin, but one day, I know that we will be strong enough to fight him."

"What...?" Sasuke looked up. "You mean my brother?"

Naruto nodded, looking more serious than Sasuke could've ever remembered seeing. "It... It will take a while for..." he took a deep breath, "for me to catch up to you, but I will be there with you when you finally get the chance to avenge your clan!"

The blond then extended his fist towards Sasuke. "That's my promise to you, and I never go back on my word."

"I..." Sasuke stared at Naruto's hand, too shocked by the blond's declaration to do anything else.

"I promise too!" Sakura piped in. "I can't let you guys have all of the fun, can I?"

Naruto looked like he had something else to say in response to that, but the words died on his mouth when he felt something touching his hand: Sasuke's fist.

"Thank you."

Sasuke didn't say anything else, both because he couldn't form the words, and because he felt that no other words were needed. His small, but sincere, smile was all that Sakura and Naruto really needed to understand how he felt.

And maybe... maybe it was really time to let other people into his life, Sasuke wondered. Maybe this time they wouldn't go away on the blink of an eye, leaving him with nothing but hatred to keep him from killing himself.

Sakura then gripped their hands with her own, blushing a bit at the thought that she was holding Sasuke's hand but managing to keep her inner fangirl in check for the time being. "You know... I still dislike Kurenai-sensei for what she did, but I am glad that it happened. But from now on, we will need to work hard to be the best team ever!"

Sakura's wide smile soon was matched by Naruto's. "Heh, of course we will be the best! Can't be the best Hokage ever if my team isn't of the same quality, right?"

Smiling warmly at the scene that she had just witnessed, Hinata quietly left Training Ground 3, happy that Team 7 was becoming more united than before. She went unnoticed by all but a certain Hiruzen Sarutobi, who was also watching the scene via his crystal ball.

Similarly to the Hyuuga heiress, Hiruzen was also smiling. As he watched the interaction between Kakashi's genin, he could feel in his heart that they would be returning to Konoha safe and sound. "I shouldn't have worried so much," he chided himself, remembering the Will of Fire. "This next generation... they surely will bring about a bright future for Konoha."

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A/N:

Hey! That took a while...

I hope that you guys enjoyed this prologue arc despite the slow beginning, but as you can see, I had my reasons for doing things like that. Now, Team 7 is starting anew, and both Naruto and Sasuke are starting to see the girls that have a crush on them in a new light, too. How these events will impact the plot of "Naruto" is what we will be dealing with from now on.

The only big thing left to address is Naruto keeping the Kyuubi hidden from his team. This will be briefly touched on the next chapter, but there will be more about it only by the end of the Wave arc.

As for Naruhina... I will be developing their bond throughout the next few arcs. Like I said in the first chapter, this will not be a fast process. I am aiming for a realistic progression, and right now, Hinata has a strong crush on Naruto and wants to form a bond with the person that inspired her so much. Naruto just sees Hinata as an weird, awkward but seemingly kind person and nothing much more than that. They still need time and "events" to see more sides of each other and develop their budding friendship and stronger feelings, and the beginning of these developments will be in the Wave arc.

Talking about that... my Wave arc will take slightly longer than the normal one, because I have more characters in the arc and I will be making use of a few training days that canon skipped over to develop the friendships between the main pairing, Team 7 and the little alliance that the girls formed. This doesn't mean that the other genin will be ignored, though.

But the people from the Land of Waves itself might not receive as much focus. Inari's character arc in particular, especially since his backstory will not get a whole chapter for itself like how it got an entire episode in the anime. I'm sure people don't care that much about them, at any rate, but I also won't completely ignore them. The arc loses its impact when people ignore Inata and such, which is something various fanfic authors fail to grasp.

In terms of action scenes, expect some at the beginning and end of the arc. The middle of the arc will be a bit bigger and with no fight scenes, like I said, but I think you guys will still enjoy it (if you have enjoyed the fic thus far, that is).

One thing people might be worried is about training sections. In the future, I will only give them some focus if there is character development or relevant new techniques/principles to be introduced. Otherwise, they will only be mentioned if they are REALLY necessary, from a plot or writing perspective.

Lastly, I have to talk about my update schedule. Bi-weekly updates were a great idea when I thought that the 10 chapters that I had completed were good enough to be posted and when I thought that this past semester would've been easy (talking about college).

I was wrong in both accounts. My chapters were absurdly bad at first, and I not only had to rewrite them, but I almost doubled the word count for most of them in doing so. This meant that I didn't get anything done past what I already had before posting, and I had less time to write thanks to college. My intention was to keep writing the new stuff, so by now I should've had up to chapter 17 or so ready.

I will also be forced to get a job soon, so I will have even less time to devote on my fic. I could handle tri-weekly updates, but I still want to have chapters done ahead of time and more time to devote to other hobbies... so I will now be updating the fic on a monthly basis for the time being. This also gives me some time to completely ignore the fic by the time my tests start popping up, which indirectly gives me more time to work on this by the end of the semester. I think I will be able to return to bi-weekly updates (or tri-weekly) at some point in this year, but... not anytime soon. Perhaps only when I finish college, which will be at the end of 2017.

I deeply apologize for breaking my promise about starting the Wave arc in this month, but I'd rather leave you guys angry because of a small delay rather than because of crappy quality. I hope that you guys understand, and once again I apologize.

Now then... I believe this is all that I had to say. Thanks for reading everything so far! I hope that you guys will still be here when I post Chapter 7. This will happen on January 10th. I'd love to get more reviews/favorites/follows, but knowing that people will still be reading and enjoying this is enough for me.

And, of course, then this site suddenly stops tracking views because of a glitch. AWESOME. I hope the views will be "returned" eventually...

Anyways, see you all next year! I hope this update suffices as a small early Christmas present...

*Also, credits to Serious Sam for suggesting something to me in a review, something that I'm still kicking myself over for not implementing in this chapter from the get-go.

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Changelog:

1.0 to 1.0.1 (03/19/2016)

Modified Hiruzen's part a bit based on a conversation with Yasha-HebiHime and added a period that had been missing.

1.0.1 to 2.0 (07/14/2016)

The usual 2.0 changes you would have been familiar with by now if you bothered reading these notes. Nothing big, but a chapter-wide clean up.