"Good morning…" Hinata greeted the occupants of the room with a small yawn. Immediately after entering the room, she noticed that Naruto was the only one who wasn't there.
Is he still out training? Hinata wondered as she took a seat at the table. Tsunami walked over to her with a plate of food, placing it down in front of her on the table.
"Thank you very much." Hinata gave Tsunami a small bow with her head.
"Naruto is still training his ass off like a madman, huh?" Tazuna spoke as he took a bite into his food,
"I-I'm starting to get worried about it. I-If he pushes himself too hard, he could die by using too much Chakra." Hinata said glumly as she looked down at the food, the sudden prospect of Naruto dying completely devouring her appetite.
"There shouldn't be anything to worry about. Even if he doesn't look like one, Naruto is a decent ninja." Kakashi assured Hinata to ease her worries.
Too bad Sasuke doesn't help with shit.
"I don't know about that. That dumbass might actually be dead."
Hinata immediately stood up out of her chair at that statement, "Please excuse me." she had said as she began to walk towards the entrance of the house.
"Where are you going?" Tazuna asked the Hyuga, who froze in her tracks as she gave an answer.
"I-I'm going out to train…"
It was a half-lie. Yes, she was going to train, there wasn't a reason on why she shouldn't train. Hinata was disappointed in how she performed in the first fight against Zabuza.
One the demon started to put more effort into his movements, Hinata couldn't even react to his movements let alone see them well. Whenever he moved, all she saw were blurs, even with her Byakugan.
Then, there was when she was pinned to the ground, with Zabuza's foot emplaned on her stomach, constantly crushing and twisting on it as all she could do was cry out in pain, desperately hoping for one of her teammates to save her.
She couldn't have that anymore! She couldn't disappoint her father or her teammates.
Or Naruto.
He had to come to her rescue. Next time, she wants to be the one coming to Naruto's rescue.
Now despite this desire to train, Hinata also went out to make sure that Naruto was okay. Even though her crush was quite stubborn and strong, even he had limits when it came to fatigue. She had to make sure he wasn't dead.
When she had gotten into the forest where she had thought Naruto would be training, she saw a young woman...or was it a man, wearing a pink sleeveless kimono, walking away from what Hinata saw was Naruto, who had his arms crossed, muttering something to himself.
As she crossed paths with the man she took a glance at him, seeing a basket of fresh herbs. She decided to just shrug it off as she continued to walk towards Naruto.
"This world is full of many mysteries…" Hinata could Naruto mutter, he had his eyes closed, so he didn't even that Hinata was there.
Ok, Hinata, you can do this, just say one word, that's all! Hinata inwardly slapped herself double time to make sure she was ready.
"U-Uhh…"
No Hinata, why did you start with 'uhh'! Hinata panicked as sweat began to drop down her face, a blush plastering her features.
Naruto's ears picked up the sound Hinata made as he opened his eyes to see her playing with her fingers, glancing away from him.
"Hinata? What are you doing here?"
"EEEP! N-N-Naruto-kun I-I justwantedtoletyouknowthatbreakfastisreadu!" Hinata jumped in her place as she stammered out the words at the speed of light.
Naruto paused to take in what Hinata said, but all that came out of it was a blank look from the blonde.
"You're speaking way too fast, ya know."
"Y-You shouldn't push yourself so hard…" Hinata warned her friend in a barely audible whisper, fortunately for her, Naruto picked up her words.
"No way! I have to undergo all of this training! If I can't get stronger, then how will I become Hokage AND proof to Inari that heroes exist?!" Naruto asked Hinata.
It was a rhetoric question, so Hinata didn't say anything in response.
"So, what are you doing here? Did you come just to tell me whatever you had said?" Naruto questioned the short-haired Hyuga.
"W-Well…" Hinata began to play with her fingers again as she crossed her legs together, "I-I came here to m-make sure you were...alright, and I w-wanted to train also."
"Hinata, I just wanted to ask you. Why do you want to get stronger?" Naruto asked the girl, who let out a 'Huh?' in response. "Everyone has their reason to get stronger! Like me, I want to become Hokage, ya know! But I don't know your reasons."
"U-Umm...well…" Hinata flinched as she began to feel multiple drops of sweat fall onto the skin of her feet. "I-I want to prove myself...to my father and my clan...I want to stop being a burden...and...I-I want to prove myself to someone, someone I admire."
"Someone you admire?" Naruto repeated as he got up close into Hinata's facing, causing the girl to whimper as her face grew beet red, "Who? Who?"
Who?! She could NOT, absolutely NOT tell him that he was the person that she admired! What if he begins to dislike her because of it?! The possibilities are endless!
"I-I am not-I don't want to reveal who…" Hinata murmured as Naruto let out a sigh of disappointment, hoping to learn something about Hinata.
Naruto simply couldn't understand the Hyuga.
She acts...nervous and shy around everyone, but it is always the worst with HIM! Why HIM?! Is it because she hated him?! No, if she hated him, she would be more open about it and she wouldn't be as scared as a mouse!
So why did she act like this around him?
"Ahh never mind." Suddenly a light bulb when off in Naruto's head, "Hey! I got an idea! How about we spar each other?!"
"S-S-S-Spar each other?!" Hinata repeated with multiple stutters, suddenly feeling like she was in a dream that was too good to be true.
Naruto nodded his ear with a grin, "We'll both get stronger out of it! Come on, it'll be fun!" Naruto stepped off his foot and leaped backwards, forming a hand sign, declaring "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" forming about 5 other Naruto's as the six of them all charged Hinata, much to her dismay as she quickly stepped back into a Gentle Fist stance, getting ready to fight back.
Later
*Clap* *Clap*
*Smack* *Smack*
The sounds of battle echoed throughout the air of the morning as two Genin could be seen duking it out.
Hinata couldn't believe that she was doing well against Naruto, the one who she could barely talk to! For some reason, she was feeling a burst of adrenaline that was pushing her to fight Naruto, despite her tendency to act shy around him.
She broke herself out of trance with a help of surprise as she ducked another yet another attempt of a hook to the side of her face.
As Hinata continued to spar with Naruto and his bunshins, she noticed her movements getting just a little bit better along with her reaction times.
Naruto's taijutsu seems to have improved as well, along with Naruto's bunshins.
Originally, Naruto would practically charge the enemy head on without a care in the world. And his bunshins, much worse. His clones had acted like they didn't have a brain, they just ran around the battlefield swinging at the opponent randomly.
But now, they had moments of coordination. Although not as much as the original, the clones had actually managed to get a couple of hits in on Hinata.
To her surprise, Hinata was actually having a lot of fun training with Naruto like this. Obviously, since they were only training, they refrained from using shuriken and kunai and Hinata didn't try to shut off Naruto's tenketsu nor damage his internal organs.
The tenketsu part was because...Hinata actually couldn't see the tenketsu yet, her Byakugan had developed far enough, as the former heriess had barely activated the dojutsu outside of training and even when she was training the sessions were short and she was almost never watched by another unless they wanted to insult her, especially after her younger sister took over the mantle of heiress. The organ part was that could actually immobilize Naruto for the entire day or even kill him, both things Hinata didn't want.
And she did not want to hurt Naruto in the slightest.
Hinata could feel the fatigue coming to her, Naruto was also fatigued, if not more than Hinata.
It amazed her how Naruto could stress body doing the tree exercise and exhausting so much Chakra and he could still summon a ton of clones and perform well in a sparring match.
But his movements were starting to get sluggish, which meant that the fatigue was finally hitting Naruto like a truck.
Naruto aimed a punch at Hinata's face, but it was very slow, Hinata easily sidestepped it and gave Naruto a palm to the chest, forcing a little Chakra in to her strike to blow Naruto backwards.
"OW!" Naruto yelped as his body hit the floor, unable to get up again as he looked up at the sky panting and wheezing. Maybe training vigorously overnight was not such a good idea.
"Well well, what do we have here? Two Genin hard at work," The calm, lazy voice of Kakashi Hatake droned as Hinata turned to see him and Sasuke walking towards them. "Hinata, you never ate breakfast, you should head back, you too, Naruto."
Hinata shook her head, "I'm not hungry right now, I'll be fine."
Sasuke turned to look at Naruto, who was lying down laughing to himself.
"Hn, dumbass."
Naruto's ears picked up the insult as a tick mark formed on Naruto's head. With new found energy due to Sasuke merely insulting him, Naruto sat up straight and glared at Sasuke.
"You've got something to say, teme?!"
"Hard of hearing, dumbass?"
"ALRIGHT, THAT'S IT!" Naruto jumped up fully, getting close to Sasuke's face, "ME! YOU!" Naruto pointed to the two trees behind him, "THOSE TWO TREES, RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!"
"You're too close, dobe!" Sasuke put his hand on Naruto's face pushing it away forcefully, causing the blonde to fall to the ground on his back before curving his lips into a smirk, "If you really want to lose so badly, I guess I'll teach you a lesson."
Hinata and Kakashi only watched as Naruto and Sasuke continued to bicker and insult each other, eventually starting to run their respective tree, attempting to reach the very tippy top of the tree before the other person can.
Hinata sighed with a small smile on her face. There they went again…
Competing against each other like brothers.
Later That Day-Tazuna's House
Hinata, Kakashi, Tazuna, Tsunami, and Inari turned their head towards the door at the sound of wood creaking and followed by the door shutting behind the people who entered.
The two people who had entered had evidence of a tough workout. Dirt and grime covered their faces and clothes, both barely managing to walk, hunting their backs over as they could barely walk up straight.
In fact, one of them needed the other to hold them up for support.
"Naruto-kun...Sasuke-kun…" Hinata identified the two.
"And why do you two look so dirty?" Tazuna asked the boys.
"We both climbed to the very top." Naruto answered with a grin, Kakashi nodding his head out of approval.
"Ok." Earlier, while watching them train, Kakashi had already seen Naruto and Sasuke go past the required mark to climb. However, the two of them kept pushing themselves for the extra practice, so he challenged them to climb to the very top. "Naruto, Sasuke, you two can guard Tazuna-san as well next time."
Sasuke closed his eyes and let out a small smile while Naruto lifted his fist up in the air forcibly, followed by him and Sasuke leaning backwards and dropping to the ground on their bottoms.
"You stupid idiot!" Sasuke insulted as the others except Inari began to laugh, with Kakashi and Hinata being the quietest.
"The bridge is almost complete." Tazuna informed the group after managing to sit Naruto and Sasuke down at the table. "It's all thanks to you."
"But don't push yourselves too hard." Tsunami warned the Genin, Naruto and Sasuke in particular due to their...outside activities.
"I wanted to ask this for a while now, but...why did you decide to continue on with the mission even when you found out I lied about the mission details?" Tazuna asked Kakashi directly.
"Not doing the right thing when knowing it is right is the coward's way out. Under a strong and valiant commander, there is no such thing as cowardice and weak soldiers." Kakashi quoted, much to the confusion of Tazuna and Tsunami. Seeing and picking up the confused faces, Kakashi clarified, "They're the teachings of the previous Hokage."
Silence followed that statement for about a minute. Unknown to everyone, as no one was paying attention to him, Inari was glaring at Naruto's leaning figure, eyes closed and his arms on the table with a care in the world…
How disgusting!
His arms began to tremble as he began to clench his fists and grit his teeth so hard and for so long that he didn't know he was doing it. His vision began to blur as he felt drops of water in his eyes.
"Why…"
"Huh? Why what?" Naruto raised his head out of interest as he looked at Inari, only to see multiple tears streaming down his voice as he stood up and slammed his hands on the table with force, an angry look on his face.
"Why do you keep pushing yourself to the point of ending up like that? All this training is just a worthless waste of time! Gato has an entire army, they'll beat you down and kill you!" Inari bellowed at the top of his lungs, ignoring the looks of awe the others were giving him, "Why can't you see it?! The strong always win and the weak always lose!"
Everyone could hear Inari's voice beginning to break, his tone starting to crack as he gave into his emotional depression.
Naruto shrugged it off as he closed his eyes and replied, "Speak for yourself! With me here, something like that won't happen with me around."
"Shut up!" Inari bawled his eyes out, closing his eyes tightly as he remembered Kaiza getting executed in front of his eyes, "It makes me sick, how you go through life just laughing everything off without a care in the world! You don't know anything about this country, you're just being nosy! You don't know one bit about how it feels like to suffer and to be treated like a worm!"
Naruto's body movement stiffened as he dipped his head further down towards the darkness of his arms. Hinata let out a quiet gasp as she knew that Inari was starting to push Naruto's buttons, she glanced at Sasuke to see him giving Inari a look of anger and disgust.
A statement like that to Naruto was an insult to Sasuke as well, as someone who lost everything on one single night due to the person he used to look up to.
"Just look at you, crying and whining as if you're some sorry little helpless victim!" Naruto growled as he sent a feral gaze of daggers straight into Inari's eyes, causing him to freeze up on the spot, "For all I care...a spineless crybaby like you can just keep on crying!"
Inari immediately looked at Naruto out of shock before breaking down in the spot, not being able to handle how vicious Naruto was being towards him.
Tsunami quickly ran over to Inari in an attempt to comfort him, only for her son to shove her arm away and run out of the house
Naruto pushed himself out of the chair, standing up and shoving his hands into his pockets, scowling and closing his eyes as he left the dinner table and stormed off to where he was sleeping in Tazuna's house.
"Naruto-kun…" Hinata whispered as she watched the boy leave, Hinata stood up out of her chair, preparing to go after Inari, but Kakashi had already left in a flash.
So, she decided to follow Naruto.
Outside Tazuna's House
The cold air of the ocean lashed out at Inari's skin. The cold was unbearable at the moment, but Inari didn't care.
He didn't understand why Naruto had acted like an asshole and got mad. From Inari's point of view, he was just saying the truth.
He didn't know what it meant to suffer, so what gave him out of all people the right to act as if he has it worse?!
He heard footsteps on the hard wooden floor, someone came after him, probably his mother.
To his surprise, it wasn't Tsunami, or even Tazuna, it was Kakashi, no doubt here to scold him for lashing out at Naruto.
"May I join you?"
Secretly, that statement was not a question.
"Just save it, I know you're here to tell me to take back what I said, well I'm not! I was only telling you the truth!" Inari exclaimed loudly, hoping that with putting force into his voice that Kakashi would just leave.
Kakashi didn't answer as Inari heard the sound of footsteps coming closer to him. Inari glanced at the man as he took a seat next to him.
What could he say that could justify Naruto getting pissed for him telling the truth just now?
"Naruto can be a little...harsh, sometimes...but he doesn't hate you.' Kakashi started as he paused, letting the tension in the air settle.
"Tazuna-san told us what happened to your father…"
Inari narrowed his eyes out of anger, Naruto knew?! He knew, and he had the audacity to say what he said?!
"Naruto also grew up without a father for all of his life. In fact, he didn't even know what the love of having a parent felt like." Kakashi stated, implying that Naruto grew up without both of his parents or a parent like figure. "And he didn't have a single friend back in village, and the villagers themselves resented him."
Inari's ears perked up out of interest. So...Naruto was all alone? Is that was Kakashi was saying?
"He was all alone? But what about you, the girl and the other guy?" Inari asked.
"I didn't make much contact with Naruto when he was younger. Naruto had met Sasuke and Hinata in the Academy. Due to...reasons that I can't state, Sasuke had become antisocial, and he deemed the others in his class as weak and bit worth his time."
Kakashi paused to let that sink in.
"On the other hand, Hinata was one of the few who actually wanted to take to Naruto. However, problems with her clan caused Hinata to be damaged socially and emotionally. No matter how much she wanted to, she could never bring herself to confront Naruto."
Inari was surprised at this, as when he overheard some of the team's conversations, they seemed like good friends.
"Despite all of this, I never saw Naruto ever grow timid, give up, or cry. He's desperate to make people acknowledge him, that's...his dream. And he would put his life on the life to fulfill that dream. I think that Naruto just got tired of crying, and decided to do something about it."
Inari looked out at the ocean as he took all of this information. He was wrong about Naruto.
He did suffer.
"That's why he knows the true meaning of being strong, like your father. Naruto is probably the one who can understand your pain the best."
Granted, Sasuke was more similar to Inari than Naruto, as like Inari, Sasuke lost something, whereas Naruto had nothing to begin with.
However, Sasuke devoted his life to revenge. Hinata could also understand Inari's pain a bit, but not nearly as much as Naruto.
"Those things that Naruto said to you earlier, while they seem harsh and outright cruel…"
Another long pause as Kakashi looked at Inari, giving him an eye smile.
"I'm sure he's told himself the same thing thousands of times."
Meanwhile-Inside Tazuna's House
Damn kid! Who does he think he is, saying stuff like that when he doesn't know anything?! Naruto thought to himself as he stormed into his room.
Suddenly, he felt his legs go numb as he dropped to the ground, letting out a quiet cry of pain as he fell to his knees.
Suddenly, Naruto heard rapid footsteps coming down the hallway, coming towards the room.
He turned his head to see Hinata running in.
"Are you okay? What happened?!" Hinata asked frantically out of concern, surprisingly, without a stutter.
She's...concerned…
"I'm fine, just tired, that's all." Naruto assured her with a fox like grin.
Normally, Hinata's heart would flutter when ever he gave her a similar look, but not this time. She could easily tell that Naruto was faking his face.
"You...You don't have to take a smile...all the time...not with me." Hinata mumbled quietly.
"Huh? Faking? What do you mean? This face is genuine, ya know!" Naruto pointed to his grinning face with both fingers.
"Naruto-kun...you don't have to hide it, I know you're upset." Hinata said.
"Hinata, I'm fine. Don't worry about it! I'll get over it soon, besides, Inari didn't know."
"Naruto-kun... I'm sorry." Hinata immediately apologized taking a deep bow as she tried her best not to cry.
Oh no, now she was crying.
"Don't cry! What's wrong, why are you sorry?" Naruto asked the girl calmly, taken aback from the girl's sudden outburst.
"I-I…" Hinata sobbed as she mustered up the courage to tell him, "I know how you have always been alone, I've wanted to befriend you for a long time now! But...I was too shy to do it, and because of that, you've had to go through life without a friend…the incident with Inari-kun made me remember...ever since we became a team, I kept trying to out it at the back of my head, but everyday I think about that!"
A mix of emotions flooded through Naruto. One was a hint of anger that Hinata knew he was suffering and didn't bother to help him. Another one was confusion...and then there was...relief?
"It's alright." Naruto accepted the apology, trying to shove off the emotions he was feelinge, much to the Hyuga's surprise. "Hey, what's important now is that we're friends now, right?"
The words traveled through one of Hinata's ear and they never left the other, they were stuck in a loop of being relayed through Hinata's head.
"We're friends now, right?"
"We're friends now, right?"
"We're friends now, right?"
She blushed as she closed her eyes with a smile.
"Y-Yes!"
Friends...
Was that all they would ever be?
The Next Day
"W-What is all of this?!" Tazuna exclaimed out of shock as he witnessed the multiple bodies of the workers on the ground.
The group had woken and up and went off to the bridge without Naruto, who, to their knowledge, was still asleep.
"It can't be…" Kakashi murmured to himself as he turned to one of his students, "Hinata!"
Hinata nodded, knowing what to do as she formed multiple hand signs, bringing her hands up to her face as she uttered one word, "Byakugan!"
Veins bulged around her eyes as she began to scan the area around the bridge, eventually looking down into the ground, using the Byakugan to see through it.
She gasped out of fear as she cried out, "I see 7 Chakra signatures close by, 5 are lurking other the bridge! 6 if them are the same person while the other one is different!"
Mizu Bunshins (Water Clones), and the other person should be that so called hunter-nin! Kakashi thought to himself
"You two, get ready! Protect Tazuna-san!" Kakashi commanded, prompting Hinata and Sasuke to take a defensive stance around Tazuna, morning a triangle with him in the middle.
A sudden thick mist rolled into the area, the same Jutsu from last time.
And they waited, for Zabuza to strike.
Eventually, after quite a bit of waiting, they heard the voice that they definitely did not want to hear at the moment.
Zabuza…
"Sorry for the wait...Kakashi."
Finished!
So, the next 1 or 2 chapters will be spent on the fight on the bridge. Since that fight lasts a good couple of episodes, I am of course going to skip some parts and maybe I'll change the battles a little bit.
And now, both with and without careful thinking, I decided that I am going to show Team 8/Team Kurenai for like 2-3 chapters before the Chunin Exams.
Anyways that is all for now, hope you enjoyed the chapter, take care, goodbye!