Dutiful Eyes

By Stormlock

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Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. (Insert a witty joke here if you like.)

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AN/To my reviewers: This is where the real story starts, just before the genin teams form. I was originally planning to wait for a few more reviews before writing this but I really do enjoy writing this so I couldn't resist going ahead. Thanks to those who did review already though. I mostly wanted to know if I was doing anything major wrong so I would know before I was 5 chapters into the story already, but the reviews all seem pretty positive so I'm not too worried. I'm going to stop doing the honorifics on everyone's names (except for -sama, since that denotes a rather important level of respect) because they set off my spell checker and make it rather annoying trying to spell check when every single name inside dialogue is checked.

As far as why Hinata is so mature for a 3 year old in the prologue, her speech is mature because that is how everyone talks at all of the ceremonies and such she gets dragged along to. I figure she probably spends ten times as much time listening to people talk as a normal child her age would, so she should be able to speak quite well. As for her actions; I chalk it up to her desperate situation with her father being dead. I figure that she would have to either take action or fall into an angsty depression, so I chose the former. Obviously, this is going to have a major impact on her and Neji's character, since that's kind of the entire point of the fic. But I writing the fic would be better for explaining that, so I'll wrap this up. The last thing I wanted to mention was the possibility of pairings. I don't have any planned yet, but if I did do one it would probably be Hinata and Naruto. I've really only got this planned up until about the chunin exams, after that I don't have any concrete plans for the story, so I'm not sure where the time line will go. Anyways, on with the show. Enjoy!

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Naruto had woken up that morning more excited than he'd ever been in his entire life. He was finally going to be a genin! Although he'd barely gotten any sleep at all after his talk with Iruka and receiving the precious metal accessory that meant he was officially a ninja from now on, he'd had more energy than most people would know what to do with. Of course, Naruto used it to cartwheel and handspring his way to the academy, after which he began to feel the effects of his expired breakfast. He walked into the classroom a little more subdued.

He looked around at his classmates who were graduating with him. Well, almost all of them were graduating. Hyuuga Neji had apparently graduated last year, but had refused to be placed in a team without his cousin. Hinata probably could have been graduated early as well if she insisted, but it would have made the team numbers odd. She had also been spending a lot of time learning about her duties that year and during the beginning of this one, so she didn't have any burning desire to become a genin and cram her schedule full to bursting.

Sasuke, on the other hand, had jumped at the chance to skip ahead a year and take Neji's place, and after showing off in a display that nearly made his drooling fans have seizures at his coolness, had been placed in a team with Rock Lee and Tenten. Which of course nearly made half of his drooling fans have seizures over the fact that they'd barely ever see him again.

Naruto looked at Neji a bit more carefully, trying to think of what he knew about him. I can't believe someone would really pass up their chance to graduate for a whole year just to be on someone's team. What a weirdo. Naruto actually liked Hinata quite a bit as well, but there was no way he'd pass up his graduation to get teamed with her. Come to think of it, although Neji hadn't needed to be at the academy for the last year since he'd already passed it's final exam, Naruto saw him around fairly often. In particular, he always seemed to walk Hinata to and from school.

Naruto didn't actually know a whole lot about Hinata. He liked her because she didn't treat him like trash like the rest of his class, and because she had guts. If their was one thing Naruto could respect, it was the guts to stand up and protect people. He had regularly gotten into scraps with some of the less popular trainees when he was younger. He'd find them bullying some poor untrained kid, lording their training over them and generally terrorizing the poor soul. Naruto would jump in and pick a fight so the kid could get away. Not that any parent would believe that of course. Any fight 'that kid' got into was clearly a malicious act of rage, and everyone was clearly just lucky he was such a weakling.

One time Naruto had bitten off more than he could chew though, and was rapidly losing ground to a gang of 4 kids, too engaged in keeping upright to try escaping. Hinata had shown up out of nowhere and started yelling and glaring at them, which caused the lot of them to scatter like roaches under bright light. Naruto was surprised again when, instead of glaring at him next, she had told him it was nice to see someone else who would stick up for people in trouble. Naruto didn't really know what to say to that, so he had just kind of nodded and ran off. It stuck in his mind though, that Hinata had been willing to pick a fight with 4 people at once if she had to, if she thought they were wrong. Not many trainees had the guts to do something like that.

Naruto's gaze skipped past the two of them finally and looked around a bit more. Sakura and Ino were there, and had become a bit less annoying without Sasuke's presence. They still seemed mostly like complete airheads though. Shino was another weirdo who mostly kept to himself, but that meant he never really bothered Naruto so he didn't mind him either. Kiba was obnoxious and loud. Naruto couldn't tell if he really had guts or was just a blowhard, but either way he was always mouthing off at Naruto so he didn't like him much either. Shikamaru and Chouji were both pretty laid back, so he wouldn't really care either way if he were stuck with them.

Iruka interrupted his thoughts by asking for everyone's attention as he came in. Naruto perked up when he began announcing the teams.

"...Hyuuga Hinata, Hyuuga Neji, and Uzumaki Naruto will form team 7. Team 8 will be Aburame Shino, Haruno Sakura, and ..."

Not bad at all. I didn't get stuck with anyone who hated me. I think... Naruto glanced over at his two brand new teammates, who were whispering to each other. Mostly it seemed to be Hinata talking, and Neji seemed to be calming down. He had looked pretty anxious when Naruto had first looked over after their team had been announced. Iruka interrupted his thoughts again with important bit of information. They had a break until later that afternoon when they'd meet their new sensei. Most of the teams sort of scattered and left, a few heading out together and chatting. Naruto noticed Hinata and Neji were coming over to greet him so he got up.

"Hello Naruto. Looks like you'll be working with Neji and me. I hope we can work well together."

"I hope so too. I'm glad I ended up with you two. I was worried I might have gotten stuck with someone annoying like Ino or Kiba. I don't really know Neji but I at least know you aren't a jerk Hinata."

Hinata looked a little surprised by such an open response; most people that talked to her were all too aware of her status to speak to her like just another person. Neji, on the other hand looked like he'd just been bitten by a mosquito for the tenth time that day. He stepped forward a bit and began his "Respect Hinata-sama or else!" speech.

"Naruto, I don't think you realize how important Hinata-sama is, she's-"

Hinata pulled him back just behind her where he'd been standing before while cutting off his familiar lines. She didn't mind when she did it to someone who was being genuinely disrespectful, but Naruto didn't really know who she was, and didn't really need to anyways. Besides, she didn't want to start off on the wrong foot with her new ally.

"He doesn't need to know about that stuff Neji. As far as I'm concerned, from now on we're all simply teammates. He doesn't need to treat me any differently than you do." Neji looked a little ashamed at having taken too much offense at Naruto's familiar manner, but wasn't about to apologize. "Me and Neji were going to get something to eat, would you like to come with us?"

At that cue, Naruto's stomach promptly reminded him of how upset it was with what he'd dumped into it that morning.

"Uhhhh, I'm not hungry Hinata, I gotta go though. I'll see you guys later okay?" With that Naruto took off towards the nearest bathroom before either of them could reply.

"You sure he's a decent guy Hinata? No offense, but I've never heard anything good about him and he seems like a complete idiot."

Hinata fidgeted a bit as she always did in the rare times she was uncertain of herself. She didn't really have any good reasons why she trusted Naruto aside from that time she'd found him drawing those thugs off some poor kid in an alley. Still, she felt he'd gotten a much worse reputation than he deserved.

"He's just got a lot of bad rumours going against him I think. You remember some of the things people have said about me don't you? I think it's the same with him. I don't know why, but people seems to enjoy making up nasty stories about him. The worst I've ever seen him do is pull some pranks, which are actually pretty impressive on occasion, albeit entirely inappropriate for a professional of any sort. But I don't think he'd do anything to that would upset us on purpose."

Neji could easily remember some of the nastier rumours he'd heard floating around about Hinata. He hadn't even told her the worst of them. He pretty much always heard them from some third party outside the family who had heard them from someone else who heard them from someone in the family, so he almost never got to track down anyone worth exacting revenge on for spreading the lies. For whatever reason, there were a lot of people who seemed to hate her guts within the family, to such an extent that after talking to Hizashi about it, Neji and his father had persuaded her to learn how to perform and control the family seal from the Hokage for her own protection. She had made a fuss about it but she couldn't think of a good enough reason to refuse. Fortunately she hadn't had to brand anyone herself, and wouldn't need to for at least another 3 or 4 years, since the oldest child under the age of 4 in the household was barely a year old. Hinata secretly hoped she'd find some sort of excuse not to by then, the whole thing was creepy to her.

"I suppose you might be right. I haven't really seen him at all personally, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on your behalf at least. Anyways, lets go eat like you said. You want sushi again?"

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After the break the three of them met back up in the class room to wait for the new jounin instructor only to be disappointed.

Naruto was particularly annoyed. "How can a jounin get away with being this late? Do you think maybe he forgot about us?"

Hinata tried to reassure him, although similar thoughts had gone through her mind. "He's probably just busy with some sort of important work. Anyways, I bet it's just a fluke that he's this late. Everyone has unlucky days sometimes right?"

Neji didn't really believe that, but kept quiet anyways. He'd reserve judgement for when the tardy sensei showed up. Neji was very good at reading people's facial movements and body language, so he figured he could probably tell if the guy made up some sort of excuse. No point in speculating about something he'd know for sure soon enough. Hinata and Naruto were amusing themselves by making up stories about what might have delayed him so much, which became more insane as time went on. Just as Neji's eyes were beginning to bulge at the absurdity of the stories, Kakashi walked in.

"Ah, excuse me for being late, but a kite was flying too close to some power lines so I had to get it down for the kid safely, and it was really windy so it took a long time. . ."

Hinata and Naruto couldn't help but burst out laughing. That was one of the stories they had come up with while waiting for him. Neji might have choked to death if he had been eating at the time. He couldn't read his expression very well behind that mask, but that story was so lame anyone could tell it was a lie.

Kakashi did his best to try and be cool in front of the three genin who now seemed to take him about as seriously as a four year old's imaginary friend. "Anyways, lets head outside and we can get to know each other a bit better."

Kakashi led one annoyed and two giggling genin outside to some benches at the edge of a training area and motioned for everyone to sit down.

"Well for starters, how about the three of you share a bit about yourselves. You know, likes and dislikes, dreams, hobbies, that stuff."

This time Naruto looked annoyed. "What about you? All we know about you is that you make up lame excuses after being really late. You should go first."

Wow, what a mouthy kid. Where did he learn to talk to his sensei like that? "Well, My name is Hatake Kakashi. I don't really feel like warning you guys about the things I dislike, and you're too young to know about the things I do like. I have dreams when I'm asleep and have hobbies in my spare time. Now you guys go, starting with Naruto then going to the right."

All three genin were rather nonplused about that rather uninformative description, but Naruto decided to drop it and go ahead and talk about himself.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen, especially the stuff at the restaurant Iruka takes me to, but cup ramen is good too. I dislike cold ramen though. That's annoying." Naruto noticed the three of them giving him an odd look, and Hinata reminded him of something else. "Oh, and I hate jerks that pick easy fights just to look strong. For hobbies... well I pull a lot of pranks usually. And my dream, my dream is to surpass the Hokage and be recognized by everyone in the village!"

Neji was rather surprised at that. He's really going to try for something like that? He's dead last though, probably doesn't stand a chance. Must not be very bright.

Hinata felt her faith in him reinforced after hearing him speak. He really is quite brave isn't he, to honestly try for so grand a dream from his position? How can anyone not respect a will like that?

Kakashi didn't have any particular expectations about Naruto so he wasn't exactly surprised at his dream, but thought he was interesting nonetheless, if a bit ramen obsessed. "Alright, Hinata's turn."

"I'm Hyuuga Hinata, heir to the Hyuuga clan. I also dislike cowards who prey on the weak for selfish reasons. I like people who are honest and strong willed. My dream is to become a strong leader of my clan like my father was, and to protect Konoha with that strength. My hobbies are meditation and reading."

Neji picked up with his own introduction without being asked. "My name is Hyuuga Neji, and I'm Hinata's cousin and bodyguard. I like people who are intelligent and reliable. I dislike people who don't fulfill their duties or abandon their responsibilities. My dream is . . . well I suppose I don't really have one myself. I want to see Hinata fulfill her dream. My hobbies include mediation and sparring."

Naruto was somewhat confused, not knowing anything about the Hyuuga clan. What does it mean that she was the heir? Is she rich or something? I already kind of knew she didn't like the same kind of people as me. And who was her father? Maybe I'll ask her later. Neji just seems stiff. And they have lame hobbies. Sparring is kinda fun I guess, but mediating and reading? Sparring with Neji might be interesting, but he might be too much of a tight-ass to spar with someone like me.

Kakashi wasn't sure what to make of these two. He agreed with much of what the girl said and respected her outlook, but she was rather cold and detached when she had said it, so he felt like he was missing something there. Neji on the other hand spoke like he was some sort of stiff rules bound type, but seemed to have a strong attachment to his cousin. Well, I guess I'll find out what they're all really like during the test.

Kakashi explained that there would be a second test to see if they actually became Genin or not, and handed them the printouts, reminding them not to eat anything for breakfast before wandering off. Naruto had kind of freaked out at the news but Hinata assured him that they had probably the strongest team this year so they'd surely pass. Naruto's stomach had finally settled so he ran home and started wolfing down ramen so he wouldn't be as hungry tomorrow morning, and Hinata had things to take care of at home so she and Neji headed back as well. All three of them went to bed with the same thought on their minds. That bastard better not be that late again tomorrow.