Disclaimer: Hey this is getting boring. You guys already know that I don't own Naruto…
I hope you enjoyed last chapter, here we go with a little fluff and a lot of Jiraiya the Kabuki dancer…. ha
Chapter 23 – Here come the toads…
"Ok kid I will train you but be here at ten in the morning at the waterfalls. Be ready to put your life on the line to do this training. Am I clear?" Jiraiya stated to Naruto.
"Ok I will be there you better not be late, I know Kakashi would do that, but I am trusting you and if you are lying to me I will ask Hiashi to give you a Juken enema." Naruto replied with a large smile.
"Sure kid I will be there, and I can get some research done while you train." Jiraiya replied.
Naruto headed back to the Hyuga compound, and found his way blocked by an elder. "You demon will not enter here, I forbid it. Guards attack him if he comes any closer."
The guards both smiled and then winked at Naruto. Naruto got a scared look on his face as he started to back up. The elder walked towards Naruto. "Run demon, the village will be the end of you. I will make sure that they know your secret and destroy you."
Naruto stopped cold with that statement. "You mean you will go against the will of the head of your clan and break the Hokage's law?"
"Yes whatever it takes to remove the stain of the Kyubi from our village." The old woman was laughing at the apparent distress that Naruto was in.
Naruto then smirked. "Ok I am sure Ibiki would like to have you as a guest in his fun house." Two ANBU agents appeared next to the elder, and the guards smiled and bowed to Naruto.
"We apologize for our showing you aggression Naruto-sama. Will you please forgive us as we were trying to help you with dealing with the elder so that we could have her removed?" One of the guards stated while still in a deep bow.
"No problem guys I am sure Ibiki will like his new friend. Keep up the good work, I could use some help on some of my pranks from you guys. You guys make good straight men." Naruto responded, bringing a smile to both the guards.
Naruto headed to Hiashi's study. He kneeled before the door and knocked. "Come." He heard from inside. He opened the door and entered the room closing the door behind him and kneeling on a pad waiting to be acknowledged. Hiashi looked up at Naruto. "Yes, how can I help you Naruto-san?"
Naruto bowed. "I am sorry Hiashi-sama." Hiashi raised an eyebrow at the start of an apology. "I have sent one of the elders to Ibiki."
Hiashi could not cover his surprise. "How and why did you do this?"
"One of the elders ambushed me at the gates and tried to force the guards on duty to attack me and prevent my entry to the compound." He raised his hand to let Hiashi know that he had more to say. "The guards both approached me in an apparently menacing fashion, but I knew they were not serious as they both winked at me. The elder then proceeded to divulge the Hokage's secret at that point and was taken by ANBU agents. The guards apologized for the deception but wanted to see how far the elder would go to keep me from the compound. I wish for the guards not to be punished for showing aggression to an honored guest." He then bowed his head to the floor.
"Naruto-san, the guards will not be punished. I am glad you were able to deal with an errant elder so effectively. Thank you for coming and informing me immediately. I will see that the guards will be rewarded." Hiashi bowed and nodded giving Naruto permission to leave.
Naruto rose and left the room. He headed to his room and then after getting some clothes he headed to the bath house. As he walked he saw Neji but made an actual attempt to avoid him and walked a longer way around past the women's bath house.
He saw many of the ladies and bowed to them as he passed. They would giggle and bow as they continued along their way. Just before he reached the men's bath house he found Neji in his way. Not wanting trouble he walked to the left of Neji but Neji shifted right to block him. He shifted right and again Neji moved to block him. Naruto shrugged. "Neji we cannot fight until the match. Look I am pissed at you so move out of my way. I have made every effort to avoid you but you are also making every effort to make a confrontation. Why?" Naruto asked.
Neji looked at Naruto with only disgust in his eyes. "Why the main branch would allow a failure and a reject such as yourself to soil the halls of the Hyuga compound it beyond me. You are nothing, no below nothing."
Naruto sighed. "Then why waste your time with someone who is lower than nothing in your eyes?"
"You have tarnished my reputation with my teammates. For that you will pay." Neji responded.
"So you are mad because I told the truth to your teammates about you trying to kill your cousin, whom is my best friend? How is that right Neji? How?" Naruto demanded.
"I will not have to be mad if you are dead. And even if she is your supposed friend why would you care if she died in a contest during the chunin exams?"
"She is one of the most precious people in the world to me and to lose her would destroy my world. You the supposed genius cannot even see that? You are gifted with blindness as well as an arrogant attitude that the world revolves around you and you alone!" Naruto now yelled at Neji.
"I don't know what chip is on your shoulder but I swear I will knock it off your shoulder in our fight. Now let me pass as I am an honored guest of the head of the Hyuga family. If you have a problem with me than take it up with Hiashi." Naruto stated as he pushed past Neji.
Naruto saw Shinbo around the corner waiting for him. "So oniisan, how are things with Neji-teme?" This caused Naruto to start to laugh. "So are we taking a bath or not? Could you help me with this as I am not familiar with how a bath house works? I understand the shower we had, but this is totally different."
Naruto and Shinbo entered the bath rinsed scrubbed then rinsed again. They then soaked in the bath and talked about the confrontation with Neji, his feeling towards Hinata, and his new training with Jiraiya. "Well oniisan, you did the right thing with Neji. As far as what to do with Hinata, I would talk to her about what the Kyubi suggested. There may be something special there that we do not know about. Good luck with the training, and let me know how it goes."
Dinner was quiet as Hiashi, Hanabi, Yugito, Shinbo and Naruto all ate quietly at the table. Naruto ate quickly but with some manners and headed to Hinata's room. He knocked but heard no reply, knocked again and no reply. He left a note under the door that he would try again tomorrow to talk to her. With that he went to bed.
He woke up the next morning, and headed to his morning training with Gai, and Lee. He found out that Lee had a shattered left leg but was able to use a crutch to move around. So Naruto was only able to spar with Gai before he headed back home for breakfast. He found that Hinata was sleeping now but would like to see him around noon for lunch so that they could talk. He ate breakfast and wished Shinbo, Yugito, and Hanabi well as they went off to the academy.
He met with Ebisu and told him that he needed to be training with Jiraiya at ten so he was excused from morning training but would have to report back to him on his progress. He arrived at the waterfalls right on time and saw many pretty women in bikinis playing near the waterfall he then went behind the bushes and saw Jiraiya. "Figured I would find you hiding in the bushes while peeking on the bathers."
"Shut up kid, I am doing research. So you ready to do some real training?" Jiraiya asked.
"Yes of course. But are we going to first finish the chakra control training? The walking on water walking exercise." Naruto asked.
Jiraiya nodded. "Ok go ahead I will watch."
Naruto walked up to the side stream and at first sunk to his ankles. He then was able to stand on top of the water. About an hour later he could effectively stand on the water and not sink even with huge distractions like Jiraiya ogling the women at the waterfalls. "Ok kid go get some lunch then head back here, I am going to train you how to do a summoning jutsu."
Naruto headed home and ate lunch then knocked on Hinata's door. She quietly answered for him to come in. He entered and saw that she was still hooked up to machines but seemed more comfortable in her own bed. "Hello Naruto-kun. I am sorry I missed you last night. There was something I wanted to discuss with you if that is alright."
Naruto nodded and pulled the chair from her desk to beside the bed. "Ok Hinata-chan, you can go first as there is something I also want to discuss with you."
Hinata was not sure where to start. "I met someone while I was in the hospital." Naruto looked confused. She carefully lifted her night shirt to reveal her stomach. This cause Naruto to go three shades of red, thinking she was going to do something like either say she was pregnant or take of the nightshirt all together. Until he saw her wince in pain and then the seal appeared. He nodded that he understood what she was talking about. "She said we need to use their chakra while holding hands. We cannot do it now as I am still healing and she is very tired. She has finally woken up but is very tired. What did you wish to discuss?"
"He told me the same thing, but also told me that he owed me a favor. I am not sure why." Naruto replied.
"I think I know why. Would you like to know what I think?" Naruto nodded. "You hold the Kyubi, I hold his mate. Your saving me saved his mate. What are we going to do about this?"
Naruto was starting to get red faced again, and started to scratch his head. "Well there is not much we can do right now. We are stuck for several reasons. One you are not fit enough to do what they want us to do. Two your father has forbidden me to ask you about dating…"
Hinata interrupted with a red face. "You asked my father if we could date. And did he forbid us to date?" Hinata looked almost ready to cry.
"Well sort of. He said I could not ask you to date until you were thirteen. He also told me before we could I would have to talk to him about what your answer was." Naruto answered.
"You actually want to become my boyfriend?" Hinata asked.
Naruto was starting to get a little embarrassed. "W… well Hinata-chan. I am not sure of what my feelings are towards you." Tears started to run from Hinata's eyes. "What I am trying to say is that I felt like the world was about to end when Neji was hurting you like he was. And when I saw that he intended to kill you I thought 'I could not face the world without you'."
Hinata continued to cry but instead of sadness it was joy. She understood that he loved her but did not understand it himself and did not know how to express this emotion. His not having a family after at all after Hanabi was born and all the villagers trying to kill or just hurt him caused him not to be able to express his feeling, or at times recognize them.
She reached up and hugged him with all her might not wanting to let go, she bore through the pain. He started to cry and returned the hug but was careful not to squeeze too hard. All he could say before his throat could not speak anymore was "Hinata." He started to weep uncontrollably. The door slid open both of them heard it but ignored it.
"I must warn you that this appears to be something that is inappropriate." Hiashi said behind them. "Also Naruto don't you have to go train with the Sanin Jiraiya? He is waiting at the front gate for you with some sort of contract and says he will leave in ten minutes if you do not show up that the front gate by then."
Hinata released him a little, and Naruto complied as both were crying and looking into each other's eyes. "Go Naruto-kun. I will wait for you. We have more time to talk about upon your return." Naruto just nodded and slowly extracted himself from her grasp. He left watching her eyes as he left.
Hiashi smiled. "He is going to be a very good man when he grows up. I am hoping you can train him well. That will be your job when you are feeling better." With that Hiashi left.
Naruto sniffled and wiped his tears away as he approached Jiraiya. Jiraiya saw the look on his face and smiled warmly to the boy. 'Ah too be young and in love.' "Ok Naruto, I need you to follow me and we will need you to access all the chakra you can muster." Naruto just looked at him and then followed him back to the area near the waterfall. He unrolled the scroll. "This is a summoning contract with the summoning toads of the mountain. By signing this you are given the right to summon them. You must fist sign it in blood and then you must follow the hand signs that I show you. Like so." He works through the hand signs. "Summoning jutsu." A large toad appears in front of Jiraiya. Now you try it.
Naruto works through the hand signs slowly. "Summoning jutsu." And a tadpole appears.
"Ok you will need more chakra than that to summon a toad. Go ahead and use as much chakra as you can." Jiraiya explains.
'Ok fox I need chakra' Naruto goes through the hand signs and places his hand on the ground and a rush of chakra blows out of his hand. And he is suddenly on a toad more than fifty feet tall with a scar on his left eye, wearing a robe and a huge dagger.
"Jiraiya why have you summoned me?" The toad asks in a booming voice.
'Crap why did he summon him? Gamabunta is trouble no matter how you slice it.' Jiraiya thought. "I didn't summon you. He did." Jiraiya replied as he pointed at Naruto who was standing on Gamabunta's head.
"Don't mess with me Jiraiya! This little snot could not summon a fly if he wanted too." Gamabunta replied.
"I used the Kyubi chakra to summon you." Naruto explained.
"I see, and now I see the contract. Naruto Uzumaki eh… Well you now can summon the Toads. Do not summon me unless you have dire need. Do I make myself clear?" Gamabunta commanded. Naruto nodded his understanding. With that Gamabunta disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"Ok Naruto we will try to limit what you just did to between Gamabunta and the tadpole. The more refined you get with the amount of chakra the more accurate you can summon certain toads for certain jobs. Do you remember how much chakra you used to summon the tadpole?" Naruto nodded. "Ok use ten times that to summon a regular toad."
The rest of the afternoon was taken up by Naruto summoning toads of various sizes and names. He of course did not summon Gamabunta again.