A/N: This chapter I coming out much later than I originally planned, but I have been working a lot of overtime lately, which lead to exhaustion and ultimately to me catching the flu bug going around. This chapter sat finished on my computer for over a week as I just could not muster the energy to upload.
That being said, it was a lot of fun writing this chapter. After taking a week off to rest and coming back to reread before posting I can honestly say that I do have a smile on my face as I am preparing to upload this onto the website.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
It is late afternoon in the Hyuga family training grounds where the sounds of conflict are just coming to an end. Two shinobi, dirty and covered in sweat from their recent sparing match, smile at each other as they try to catch their breath. It has been nearly two weeks since the beginning of the new year and the two of them have increased their time on the practice field together. They have even done a couple of night sessions during the recent new moon, where Hinata's byakugan gave her an advantage over Naruto while he practiced his skills without the aid of Kurama or sage mode.
"Wow Hinata, you really have improved lately, I am totally impressed at your progress. You've been sneaking back here and training more while I am working at the Hokage Tower haven't you, tenshi?" When she shyly looks away he knows the answer to his question. "I hope that you haven't been pushing yourself too hard." He walks over and grabs a couple of towels and throws her one before wiping the sweat and dirt from his face.
Fearing that he might catch her lying, Hinata covers her face with her towel and takes her time drying off the sweat and removing some of the grime from their recent practice. "No, I am not pushing myself too hard while you are away. I am just practicing a little on what we were doing before you had to leave and go work with the Hokage." She sits down on a fallen tree and stretches her arms out widely to try and work out some of the new aches in her muscles.
Naruto gives her a knowing smirk. "Good, I would not want you to get hurt or anything." He reaches her some water out of his pack as he sits down beside her and the two of them take a long drink. "When you are rested I have another idea for speeding up your affinity training and hopefully taking it to the next level even quicker."
She gives him a curious look. "Now what do you have in mind that could make my training even more intense?"
Naruto gives her a mischievous smile. "Don't worry, I will take it easy on you the first day, but I bet both of us will be amazed at your progress if it works as I hope."
After a little more rest Hinata stands up and stretches. As she looks over at Naruto, he suddenly averts his gaze, his face a bright shade of pink. 'Was he staring at my body while I was stretching?' Her arms absently cross over her chest as she walks, red faced, to the center of the clearing and turns to face Naruto. "Okay, I am ready to try out this new training regimen of yours, Naruto-kun."
Naruto, relived that he was not caught staring at Hinata's profile as she stretched her body, uses a scroll and summons a large ceramic bowl full of water and has Hinata kneel in front of the bowl. He walks around behind her, kneels down, and reaches around her body putting his hands outside of hers on the sides of the bowl.
"N-N-Naruto-kun?" is all she can manage to say as she tries to resist her body's desire to melt into the comforting warmth of his strong frame.
As he feels her body become tense and then begin to loosen up Naruto realizes he might should have thought this through better, or at least warned her, before trying this out. He leans his head closer to her ear and speaks gently. "Hey, stay with me Hinata. You can take a nap later." Naruto can feel the heat coming from her nearby flesh and can't help but smile. 'I wish now I had done this with a clone, just so I could see the cute blush on her face.'
Naruto's gentle voice lends her the strength to push the emotions threatening to overwhelm her deep inside, so that she can give what Naruto is trying to do her full attention. 'I will think about how wonderful it feels to have his arms wrapped around me like this later.' She gives him a small nod, which causes him to slightly lose his own focus as he feels her soft skin lightly brush his own.
His voice sounds a little strained as he finally tells Hinata his plan. "Do you remember when I shared some of Kurama's chakra with you during the war?"
Hinata, not trusting her voice to come out in a nervous squeak because the feeling of his warm breath on her neck is making her whole body tingle, just nods in agreement. The memory of the kiss he gave her on the neck is never far from her thoughts these days.
Naruto takes a moment to get his thoughts organized so that he can explain what he wants to try. "Good, I am going to do something similar this time, except I am going to include some of my own chakra as well as Kurama's. The pendant you gave me at the New Year's festival gave me an idea. When you put some of your chakra into the pendant some of it spilled over into my body, it almost felt like you were trying to push some of it inside of my body."
Hinata laughs along uneasily when she hears Naruto chuckle at his own statement, and is relieved that he cannot see the shocked look in her eyes. The thought that it had worked and some of her chakra had been absorbed by him sends a thrill through her entire body, as she absently draws nervous circles on the sides of the ceramic bowl.
When he hears her laugh nervously in response, Naruto realizes that he wasn't imagining that she was giving him some of her chakra too. He begins to wonder if she was trying to give him and extra gift, or was she just trying to see how he would react. Naruto decides that he will have to ask her later, when they are not in the middle of training and they can talk, possibly over dinner one night, but right now they need to focus on what they are doing. "Anyways, I have gotten used to absorbing other chakras and mixing it with mine over the years, so I thought what if I was to mix portions of our two chakras and boost that with some of Kurama's. You could then not only watch me perform some of the stuff I have learned, but feel it too as I use our combined chakras. I have been working on this in my head for a few days now and in it should work since we are both familiar with each other's chakra."
"I will take the mixed chakras, and then infuse some of it into the water, before I start manipulating its shape. What you can already do now with small amounts of water is amazing. I don't think I will ever be that precise with my own water manipulation." Naruto does not need to see her face to sense the flush of pride going through Hinata at hearing his praise. "Like before, I want you to use your byakugan to watch how I start, but I want you to use your other senses to feel the chakra flowing from me and through you as I manipulate the water in the bowl. As we have done before, once I get things going I am going to turn the control slowly over to you Hinata, so that you can use the rest of the combined chakra to manipulate the water." He gives her hands a light squeeze. "I think once you can sense how it feels to manipulate larger amounts of water that you will completely master your water affinity in no time."
"I-I-I will do my best Naruto-kun." Hinata begins pushes chakra into her palms, like she does when using her Gentle Fist attack. As she injects a portion of her chakra into his hands he absorbs the energy, mixes it with an equal amount of his own chakra, before he gives back half of the now perfectly combined energy back for her to absorb.
As their chakra's synchronize both of them are stunned for a moment at the sensation. The effect of their merged chakras circulating back-and-forth between their bodies, to maintain a balance, has an unforeseen result. Not only has their two chakra's merged, but something even deeper has become connected.
As they kneel there together, his chest pressed against her back, they are unable to focus on anything else other than the rhythmic beat of their now synchronized heartbeat. Instinctively, he lowers his head till they are cheek to check and his arms pull her in closer, as their hands drop from the now forgotten bowl. They both close their eyes, and let their now heightened other senses seize control.
She feels the comforting warmth of his body seep into hers as he wraps his arms around her tightly. Naruto can almost feel each muscle move as her body quivers in response to his touch. His sense of smell takes in the fragrant scent of Hinata's floral perfume and the pheromones in her perspiration, as she smells the musky scent that she can only describe as purely Naruto. The sound of the harmonized thumping of their now racing hearts sounds like taiko drums being played inside their head.
That only left their sense of taste unsatisfied. Hinata leans back and turns her head to the side as his presses forward to find what both the mouthes are now craving. Just as they feel the soft brush of the others lips upon their own, and their tongues begin to gently dance together, a single sound breaks through their spell, like a paper bomb. The sound of a deeply masculine voice clearing its throat.
The magical moment broken, the two shinobi turn to see Hinata's father, Hyuga Hiashi, standing there with his hands hidden in the sleeves of his robes. He raises an eyebrow in a curious gesture as his eyes meet those of his daughter and Naruto. Their synchronized bodies both have the same thought. 'Oh Kami, how long has he been standing there watching?'
Hinata, due to growing up in the prestigious Hyuga clan is the first to recover. She steps up out of Naruto's embrace and gives the conditioned response to her father's sudden appearance. "Good afternoon otou-sama, you honor us with your presence." She bows deeply, hoping to hide the guilty blush painted across her face. She elbows Naruto, who is still frozen in place by the sudden appearance of Hinata's father.
"Uh? Yeah, good afternoon Hyuga-sama, what brings you to the training grounds today?" Naruto bows and closes his eyes, realizing that his question sounds very rude. 'Idiot, he was curious what his daughter is doing out here with you every day, and now after what he just saw he is going to think that all we have been doing is kissing.'
Kurama decides that the moment is just too perfect to pass up and adds. 'OH, I BET HE IS THINKING THAT THE TWO OF YOU ARE DOING MORE THAN KISSING BY THE DEMONSTRATION HE JUST SAW.'
'Will you please be quiet Kurama? You are not helping.' Naruto keeps his head down just a little longer, unsure if the blush he feels on his face would not be taken as guilt for something more than they had done.
Allowing himself a brief smirk, while the two young shinobi are studying their feet, Hiashi walks closer. "I thought I would come by and see how the two of you are doing with Hinata's water affinity training?" He accentuates the word 'training' and is rewarded with both youngsters looking up with nervous stares.
"I have been noticing lately that my daughter, who before she started this training would pick at the food on her plate at mealtime. Now lately she has been, what is the appropriate phrase, devouring every morsel and asking for another serving." He watches with masked amusement as his daughter looks at him in total horror that her father would say something so embarrassing in front of Naruto.
Hinata looks over at Naruto to see him glancing over at her with a smirk on his face and she drops her head in shame, almost to the point of tears. 'He makes me sound like a hungry pig. We have been practicing so hard lately that I have needed to keep my energy levels up or Naruto-kun might start taking it easy if I get tired too quickly.'
What surprises Hiashi is that Naruto nudges Hinata and something almost seems to pass between them, she then raises her blushing face to look at her father instead of back to the ground. 'I wonder what that was all about? Is this why she has been more vocal lately, in not only the clan gatherings, but the council meetings as well?' He decides to push a little more and see what will happen next. "Hinata seems exhausted, and nearly depleted of her chakra, during her evening duties for the clan. Each morning though she is the first to leave the breakfast table and head for the practice field till it is nearly time for you to arrive, Uzumkai-san."
"I promised Naruto-kun that I would work as hard as I could to quickly master my affinity, and I do not go back on my word. I apologize if this has interfered with my other duties and I promise to work harder to balance them all." Hinata bows deeply, but her gaze returns to her father afterwards, not in defiance but with a look of determination.
Hiashi raises his eyebrows in amusement. "I did not say that your duties were suffering. I was just curious about what was going on over here to exhaust my daughter so thoroughly, and still have her eager to return again the next day." Hiashi shifts his gaze towards Naruto to see if his insinuation that something more than training may be occurring between the two young shinobi, is missed or not.
Naruto, seemingly oblivious to Hiashi's innuendo, smiles and rubs the back of his head. "I guess it is my fault. I have a lot more endurance than most people, and with Kurama my chakra reserves are much higher, so I forget sometimes that not everyone is as lucky as I am in that area." He looks over at Hinata. "I'm sorry if I have been pushing you too hard, Hinata."
Before she can say anything he looks back to Hiashi. "I was thinking that my new training idea may help in some ways with the physical and chakra demands, but it may be more mentally tasking." He turns back to Hinata and takes her hand. "You have to promise me that if the new training causes you any problems you will let me know that I am being too rough, and I will find a way to be more gentle, Hinata."
She looks down at their clasped hands and then into his bright blue eyes. "I promise to tell you if it is too much, but don't stop till I ask you to, okay?" Hinata blushes and tries to look anywhere but at her father, or Naruto, as she realizes how her last statement could be taken in an inappropriate manner, especially in front of her father.
Seeing Hinata suddenly becoming extremely awkward, Naruto finally stops and thinks about what they have been talking about. Actually, more about what they were saying and how it could be taken wrong, especially by a father who just caught his daughter wrapped up in a boy's arms, kissing in a not so innocent way. He turns his head to try and explain what he was actually meaning, but seeing the expectant look on Hiashi's face makes him so uncomfortable that he just bows his head in defeat rather than let his mouth get them into any more trouble.
The double meaning of the statement and his daughter's blush was not missed by Hiashi, who being a skilled diplomat can tell when someone was trying to cover up a lie, or is just innocently using the wrong phrase. He decides to show some mercy on the two young shinobi and change the subject, for the moment. "What I would really like to see is a demonstration of how far you have progressed, Hinata. I'll leave your private training techniques stay just that, private." Hiashi enjoys seeing the discomfort his little jest causes his daughter and Naruto. 'It's like catching koi in a bowl with these two. Ahh, to be young and innocent. I really don't miss those days.'
Naruto, happy to get away from making a fool of himself in front of Hinata's father, walks a little distance away and bows to Hinata. "Okay let's show your father just how far you have come in such a short time with the precise control of your water affinity, Hinata."
Hinata nods to Naruto and activates her byakugan. She then pulls the stopper off of a small bottle on her hip before making a few hand signs. Four marble size orbs of water float out of the bottle and begin to dance around Hinata, each in their own orbit, crisscrossing around her like electrons surrounding an atom.
Hiashi activates his byakugan to take a closer look at the jutsu that Hinata has just performed, and so that he can observe their upcoming match more closely. With his kekkai genkai he can see how Hinata is releasing tiny amounts of chakra from the points around her body to keep the spheres of water orbiting perfectly, in an almost hypnotic pattern.
Naruto, seeing Hiashi looking intently at Hinata, smirks and nods his head to her to let Hinata know that she is being watched. He smiles when instead of shrinking away she proudly turns to her father and shows off by increasing the speed of the sphere's movements around her body with a tiny burst of chakra. Naruto summons shadow clones and the dozen Narutos fan out into a semi-circle. "Right!" They all say in unison as three charge towards Hinata, another set of three throw kunai and the other six pair up and start forming rasengans.
Hinata's body goes into a spin and easily deflects the kunai. As she comes out of her spin she gestures towards the Narutos in the back making rasengans. Three of the orbs of water circling around her leave their orbit and fly through the air, each striking one of the Narutos in each rasengan pair, destroying the shadow clone and disrupting their rasengan formation.
The charging shadow clones have now reached her and two of them spread out to attack on her flanks. Before they can connect with their fist, the last remaining orb flattens out into a disk and spins around, slicing through the midsection of the two flanking shadow clones and destroying them easily. As it continues in its arc the disk returns to its spherical shape and resumes its orbit around Hinata.
Not far away, Hiashi cannot help but slightly nod in approval as he notes that if those had been real people, instead of shadow clones, the attackers might have been eviscerated by that maneuver.
The third shadow clone comes in sliding along the ground and kicks upwards towards Hinata's midsection. She pushes her chakra infused hands downwards, intercepting the kick and uses its power to propel herself safely away from her attacker. Hinata flips in midair and lands gracefully before resuming her fighting stance with a confident smirk. "You fooled me once with that attack Naruto-kun, but not again. I thought you were supposed to be the unpredictable ninja?"
Six remaining Narutos return her smile and all of them point in different directions. As she scans the area with her byakugan she sees that while she was busy in hand-to-hand combat the rest of them had been marking the area with tagged kunai for his Flying Thundergod technique. 'Wait, there should be seven Narutos.' Her eyes narrow for a moment before the last orb goes flying straight up, taking out a shadow clone leaping out of an overhead tree limb yelling, "Rasengan." Hinata shakes her head slightly as the remaining six Narutos all shrug their shoulders simultaneously.
In a flash, all six of the remaining Narutos disappear and Hinata takes a moment to scan the area. Before she can pinpoint all of their locations, three of them rush out from behind nearby trees. Just as she is about to block their attacks they all disappear again. 'That's not like him to not follow through with an attack. He is up to something, but what is he trying to surprise me with this time?'
She scans the area again for Naruto and his remaining shadow clones. Nobody else would be able to sense the very subtle difference between the original and the shadow clones he makes, but most people haven't spent nearly their entire lives watching Naruto as she has done. Even without her byakugan, Hinata can sometimes pick out the original in a small crowd of his shadow clones. She finally sees that the attackers were really a distraction while he and two other clones are hiding behind trees making a hand sign. 'Oh no, he is going to use Sage Mode.' Hinata quickly asses the chakra gathering Narutos before deciding on her next move.
She concentrates and makes a few hand signs to quickly create four more orbs of water. As they begin their orbit Hinata sees the three distraction shadow clones are up in a nearby trees, this time with kunai drawn, as if to try and draw her attention away from the original and towards themselves. She goes into a graceful spin to build up some momentum for the orbs before sending all four at the hiding Narutos.
He is almost done drawing in enough natural energy to go into sage mode when he hears a loud crack and the shadow clone to his left lets out a gasp and then vanishes in a puff of smoke. Naruto then hears another loud crack as the one to his right is taken out just as quickly. His eyes go wide in realization of what has happened to his shadow clones just in time to see the bark near his head explode as an orb of chakra infused water punches a hole through the tree. He stops concentrating and leaps out of the way just before another orb erupts through the tree where his head had just been. He comes out of his roll smiling, vanishes and then appears very close to Hinata along with his remaining shadow clones.
Instead of backing away, Hinata charges Naruto and his shadow clones. She blocks a few punches and then takes out a shadow clone before she is kicked in the back of the knee and crumbles to the ground. Hinata rolls onto her back to see the three remaining Narutos stab down at her with their kunai.
Naruto, aiming for non-vital locations, stabs downward towards Hinata who vanishes in a puff of smoke and a log is now where she was a moment before. "Nice substitution jutsu, Hinata." He looks over to his remaining shadow clones. "Let's spread out and finish this little demonstration." They leap away in different directions in pursuit of their prey.
Hinata, hiding up in the protective canopy of a tree, is breathing hard now and her chakra is nearly exhausted after hours of training and the two previous sparing matches, which adds the advantage of making her harder to detect at the moment. She pulls out a kunai with a paper bomb attached and scans for Naruto's shadow clones. She is hoping to distract the shadow clones with the explosion so that she can take them out quickly and even the odds.
The real Naruto is behind her a few trees back and the two remaining clones are off to one side of her hiding place, leaping from limb to limb while scanning the area. Hinata steps out of hiding and throws the kunai placing it just ahead of the where the shadow clones should be in a few seconds. Suddenly the real Naruto appears right above where the kunai has just stuck. "Oh no, the bomb will go off any second." She leaps towards Naruto screaming. "Run! There is a paper bomb!"
The bomb goes off and she is forced to close her eyes from the bright flash. Hinata then feels the heat and concussion of the blast wash over her, knocking her from the air and the next things she feels is herself falling uncontrollable towards the ground. She stretches out her arms to try and grasp a tree limb in hopes of stopping her fall, but the only ones she can reach are too thin and break in her desperate grasp. Something heavy slams into her and she can feel strong arms wrapping around her protectively. Hinata buries herself in his embrace and waits for their sudden painful collision with the ground.
The stop is sudden, but instead of feeling bone breaking pain Hinata feels like she is caught in a giant swing. She slowly opens her eyes and sees Naruto glowing bright yellow in his Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, holding her protectively. The swinging motion is from their bodies being held inches above the ground by several chakra hands gripping the surrounding tree limbs.
Naruto looks down at her in concern, afraid that she might have been harmed in the blast. "Are you okay, Hinata-tenshi?" She just nods and buries her head in the crook of his neck to enjoy the feeling of his protective embrace, just a little longer.
As he lowers them to the ground, and loosens his embrace a little, she can see that she too is wrapped in Kurama's chakra cloak. "Thank you, thank you both for protecting me." She is rewarded with one of his bright smiles and she swears she hears a deep chuckle from inside and around her at the same time. Hinata is about to ask a question when she notices Naruto look up. She turns to see her father enter the clearing where she is still being held in Naruto's protective embrace.
"What did you think Hyuga-sama? Hinata has come a long way in just a short time." Naruto's face is lit up with a proud smile as he opens his arms to allow Hinata to stand and face her father. They bow to the Hyuga clan leader together before Naruto continues talking. "With your clan's ability to precisely release chakra from the points around your body we came up with a modification to the Water Release: Gunshot jutsu. Instead of forming the orbs and releasing them immediately, Hinata can create them and keep them ready to use in an instant. By being able to prepare ahead of time she can save precious moments during combat." Naruto and Hinata smile at each other when Hiashi nods his head ever so slightly in acknowledgement.
Hiashi looks at Naruto, his face an emotionless mask. "Why did you hold back in the match? Do you have so little faith in my heir's abilities, or do you think so little of the entire Hyuga clan? You say that the two of you are out here every day working to improve my daughter's skills. Yet when I see a demonstration of her progress I find that you are not applying yourself fully to the task. I was expecting more from the man I saw go face-to-face with Obito and Madara Uchiha without any reservations. I know for a fact that you no longer need a shadow clone's assistance to form your rasengan, yet you fell back to this old way for the demonstration. Was this to make it easier for Hinata so that her skill would seem more advanced to me, Uzumaki-san?"
Naruto opens his mouth to protest, but Hiashi turns his passionless gaze upon Hinata, who is struggling to keep her head up and her gaze steady upon her father. "Don't think that I missed seeing you hold back as well. Twice you could have used your water attack to strike directly at Naruto and eliminate him as a threat quickly." He gives his daughter a measuring look. "Do not think that it escaped my notice that you seem to somehow be able to discern the original from his shadow clones. When you took out the three making rasengans you attacked only the shadow clones. Also, when he was hiding behind the tree you could have hit him in the first attack, instead you wasted time with warning shots. I am going to assume that one you missed was the original, yes?" Seeing Hinata glance away guiltily is all the answer Hiashi needs. "After seeing your performance during the war I had better expectations of what I would see here today."
Naruto looks over at Hinata with an impressed smile on his face. "You can really tell me from my shadow clones? That's totally amazing Hinata! Not even Kaguya could tell me from my clones, heck sometimes I get confused." He rubs the back of his head and chuckles a little.
Hinata touches her fingers together nervously trying to find a way to explain how she can sometimes tell the difference, without admitting that it is probably due to the fact that she has been stalking Naruto for years. "Well sometimes, you see… ahh." Her face turns a bright crimson as the words fail to form correctly in her mind. 'How can I explain that when I look at a group of his shadow clones my heart feels different when I am looking at the real Naruto? The heart just knows when nothing else makes sense.'
Hiashi holds up his hand to stop his daughter from trying to explain something that as a father he might prefer not to know the answer. "This information is something that might be best to not share with anyone. The very fact that you can sometimes tell the difference, even if it is only Uzumaki-san's shadow clones, could be used against either, or even both of you, so let's keep this knowledge well hidden."
His gaze now falls on both of them. "The next time I come to see my daughter's progress I expect to see a real match between two people respecting each other as equals. If I see another display of genin practice bouts instead of a match between war hardened shinobi, then I will feel it necessary to oversee your future training sessions personally."
As they bow their heads to hide their shock at hearing his threat, Hiashi walks over to a nearby tree, holds up a single palm, and activates his byakugan. "Since I came here to see a demonstration of affinity usage, allow me to show you the secret technique passed down only through the leaders of the Hyuga clan for generations. To my knowledge you Hinata will be the first leader of the Hyuga clan to not have a natural affinity for electricity, like you, your mother had the rare water affinity trait. This does not mean that you cannot learn this secret technique of our branch, it just means that you will have to train a little harder." His hand becomes sheathed in chakra and little bolts of electricity start dancing across his fingertips.
They watch as Hiashi touches the tree and observes as the energy dissipates but leaves no mark upon the tree's surface. Naruto just stares at the spot and shrugs his shoulders. "I don't get it, nothing happened, the tree is fine."
Hiashi smiles and looks at his daughter. "Hinata, why don't you take a look inside?"
Hinata does as she is told and activates her byakugan and after studying the tree for a few seconds she lets out a gasp of surprise. "The very heart of the tree is…"
"Burned, yes it is Hinata." He holds up his hand again. "The technique you have just witnessed has only been seen by a few people outside the clan and most of those are not alive to tell what they witnessed, or felt. The Gentle Fist attack allows us to inject our chakra into a target, directly damaging the chakra network and the surrounding internal organs. It is but a simple thing to change some of my chakra into lightning and inject it along with my chakra into a target. This attack is a killing strike, an assassin's tool, which destroys the chakra points in the area touched and will stop the heart, or destroy the brain, if it is hit directly. That is why some have called this technique, the heartbreaker. You would do well to remember this when you are training with the daughter of the Hyuga clan leader." Hiashi makes no attempt to hide his 'gentle' threat about what he caught them doing earlier. Hiashi walks away, back towards the main part of the Hyuga compound, but turns back to regard the two shinobi one more time. "Uzumaki-san, you are leaving tomorrow to go on another mission with my youngest daughter's team. Why don't you stay and have dinner with us tonight, once the two of you are done with your training, of course." He walks away, not waiting for Naruto's reply.
They watch as Hiashi walks away with his slow measured pace that hides how deadly quick he can move when the need for violence is required. Once they are both sure it is safe, they wait a few moments more before turning to look at each other nervously. "Hinata, was your father serious about the name of that attack or was he making that up to scare me a little?" Naruto scratches the back of his head nervously, not because he is scared that he could not handle anything Hiashi could dish out. Instead, he was sure that seeing him and her father at odds with each other would make Hinata upset, and he would rather Kakashi use the 'thousand years of death' attack on him again than do something that would make Hinata unhappy.
Hinata studies her fingers as they nervously touch together. "Father has never been one to lie for any reason." She glances up at Naruto, a shy smile forming on her lips. "He is one to use subtle hints rather than come right out and confront someone on a delicate issue."
"Is that why he seemed so hard to please when it comes to training?" Naruto decides to avoid any more talk on the topic of 'You are here to teach my daughter about water affinity, not biology,' for the moment at least.
Hinata giggles as she places her hand on his arm. "What do you mean hard to please, that was him being pleased. If he had been truly unhappy with what he had seen he would have just glared at us in disappointment and walked away. Hanabi-chan was the one to point this out after otou-sama had me join them again in training after the war. I had not realized when I was younger that when he was threatening me with more training that he was saying he saw something worth his time. Unfortunately, I did not understand back then, and I became discouraged and gave up until…"
She reaches out and takes hold of Naruto's hand. "Until the chunin exams really, where your cheering gave me the confidence to be more than what others perceived, and from then on I took my own path. It wasn't until after Hanabi pointed out the truth that I realized my father's silence was such a more powerful display of disappointment than his words." Hinata thinks back to when she was younger and could not recognize the difference before her father had pushed her away and told Kurenai-sensei that she could do with Hinata as she pleased, and that he was done trying to train his oldest daughter anymore. Which is a painful memory that still haunts Hinata, even now after she and her father have reconciled, somewhat.
Naruto, confused that people just can't say what they mean, and do it, but instead they have to hide behind words and double meanings, just shakes his head. "Okay Hinata, if you say so. Why can't he just say that you have made good progress, and for us to keep up the hard work? That is not too hard to say."
Hinata just smiles sweetly at his confusion and squeezes his hand. "Because we Hyuga have a tough time expressing what is in our hearts, sometimes." She gives his hand another gentle squeeze to try and emphasize her words. "We have a little time left before dinner is served, so why don't we try this new training method again before we leave."
"That's right we didn't get very far before your father showed up." He activates his Nine-Tails Chakra Mode and takes Hinata's hand. "Okay, but let's try something a little less intense this time. I didn't expect how powerful our synchronization was going to feel."
Hinata nods quietly in agreement. She is still feeling a little shaken by the experience of more than just their chakra's becoming synchronized, and wants a little time to think about what happened and the intense connection she felt with Naruto. A connection that she is having trouble finding a word to adequately describe.
Naruto actually looks relieved when she agrees to try something a little less strenuous, as if he too was still feeling some aftereffects. "I am going to infuse only some of Kurama's chakra into you, and then I want you to use the shadow clone technique I taught you to make three clones. I use the multiple shadow clone technique all of the time to accelerate my training, but I am able to do that because of the large amount of chakra I possess. So, if I were to loan you some of Kurama's chakra, then you should be able to accelerate your training too, but let's start off with just a few shadow clones this first time and let you get used to the experience before trying larger numbers."
The infusion of Kurama's powerful chakra, even though this is not the first time she has felt that intense surge of power, momentarily takes Hinata's breath away. 'I cannot imagine what it must feel like to go full power if this is just a small portion of what Naruto can access.' She takes a moment to allow the euphoria of power to wash over her and let her senses become accustomed to their new heightened state. She creates three shadow clones and notices that Naruto has created three shadow clones as well.
The real Naruto looks over at his clones and says, "Okay guys you know the plan." Each of the Naruto shadow clones leads a Hinata shadow clone a little distance away, before the real Naruto looks over at Hinata and grins. "Alright, here is the plan. Each shadow clone pair is going to be working on something slightly different." Naruto smiles as Hinata nods in agreement to his plan. "We will start slow and only use a few, this time, to make sure that it isn't too much of an overload when the shadow clones are dismissed. If you show some progress without any ill effects we can try using more the next time."
Naruto points over to the other pairs of clones. "One is going to be working on better control of water, another will be focusing on summoning more orbs and the third will be working on the infusion of chakra into larger volumes of water. As for you, I want you to try and form a single orb of water about the size of my head."
"Wow, that big? I thought one of my clones was already doing large volume training." Hinata covers her mouth and giggles at the shocked looked on his face. 'I didn't mean it to sound that way, but the look on his face is just too precious for me to apologize.'
Naruto looks at her dumbfounded. "Did Hyuga Hinata just make a joke at my expense?"
The feeling of all that chakra running through her body is making her giddy, almost drunk with power, and she gives in to that little voice that tells her to throw away caution and have fun for a change. 'Go on do it, you know he's not expecting it, and Kurenai-sensei said keeping a boy on his toes is the best way to keep his attention.' Hinata reaches up and brushes her fingers through his hair. "No, I was not making a joke, I was just making an observation about the size of your noggin." She jumps away giggling just as a shocked Naruto tries to reach up and grab her hand.
His eyes narrow mischievously. "You realize that insulting your sensei cannot go unpunished. Now what is a suitable punishment for a crime of this magnitude?" Naruto scratches his chin as he grins evilly at Hinata.
"Ooooo, you must be truly upset, if you are using such big words." Hinata starts backing away giggling uncontrollably as Naruto's mouth drops open in amazement. 'Oh Kami, I can't believe I just said that out loud.'
That must have been what he was waiting for because Naruto's eyes go wide with excitement. "That's it, as the future Hokage of the Leaf Village, I declare that your sentence is capital punishment. Death… by… TICKLE!" An extra pair of long golden arms, made of chakra, sprout from his back and the fingers begin to wiggle menacingly.
Hinata lets out a squeal and runs away into the forest with Naruto in hot pursuit. The Hinata clones watch the original run away and then look over to the grinning Naruto clones before shaking their heads and returning to their practice.
The three disappointed Naruto clones look at each other for a moment before one says to the others, "Man, why is he always the one who gets to have fun?"